Of Nine More Deceits in the Same Kind

Therefore to proceed forward with these deceits; the sixth deceit is, a pretense that we will do such and such things (evil and ungodly) only for trial's sake, that by our own experience we may the better learn the vanity of sin. For example, some will go purposely to see mass, to the end, as they say, that they seeing the foolishness, and filthiness thereof might learn to loathe it the more. The like pretense is used for seeing of plays, that by seeing many filthy sins (which the Apostles would not have once so much as to be named) represented and acted on the stage, we shall learn to hate those vices the more. But God has appointed better schoolmistresses of the hatred of sin, than the practice of sin. Why should we leave the means appointed by God to work this hatred of sin, and devise other means of our own? Is this the best way to learn continency, to exercise and trade ourselves in uncleanness? Was there ever any that learned sobriety by haunting taverns and ale houses? Temperance out of the school of Epicurism? Chastity in the brothels? I deny not but God who draws light out of darkness can heal the wound of the viper with the flesh of the viper, and can make sin, contrary to its own nature, to work our good, driving out one poison with another. What then? Because the learned physician can heal us with poisons, shall we therefore be tampering with them ourselves? So instead of health we may quickly meet with death. No, Solomon himself was deceived in this point; as his Ecclesiastes shows. And his experience may teach us, how dangerous it is to try the heat of the fire by putting in our finger. He gave himself to a pleasurable delicious life only for trial's sake, to make proof of it, what was in it, that if he could not find happy tranquility of mind, he might leave it so much the more willingly. But alas how miserably was he hampered in the snares thereof? How was he by this means drawn on to that fearful apostasy in his old age? Shall not his experience make us wise? Shall any man now think he can safely bear that burden, which has already broken Samson's back?

The seventh deceit is, when we ground our liberty which we take of sinning, upon those good, either graces we have, or actions we do; persuading ourselves that a little dram of some goodness in us will weigh down many talents of wickedness. For as we can cover in our brethren many virtues under some one infirmity: so contrarily in ourselves (so cunning and crafty are our hearts) many, not slighter infirmities only, but even grosser deformities also under some one, poor, petty, (perhaps) show of virtue, rather than virtue itself. Thus the civil man thinks his profaneness and carelessness in religion is sufficiently covered under his uprightness, and just dealing in the things of this life. The glossing hypocrite thinks his zeal in outward profession may bear him out in his uncharitable, unrighteous, and unreasonable dealing with men. As if Herod should have thought his hearing of John a sufficient privilege to him for his incest. Thus nobly do our hearts deceive us, making us believe that a great heap of chaff can lie hid under a little handful of corn, that a little dim candle light can chase away the foggy palpable darkness of Egypt. Whereas the contrary is the truth, that our little good is rather obscured and eclipsed with our many and great evils. As in the parable of the sower, the thorny ground is said to bring forth no fruit (Luke 8:14), and yet before, verse 7, it was said that the thorns sprung up with the seed, so that the seed did not perish in the ground, but sprouted forth, and yielded some fruit; and yet because, as Mark says, the thorns grew up, or ascended, as Matthew speaks, namely above the fruit, therefore the fruit of this ground is no fruit, it lies buried under the thorns, it is overtopped, and choked by them. Lo now, the fruit does not cover the thorns, but the thorns the fruit. It is not said there were no thorns, because of some hopeful beginnings of fruit, but contrarily, no fruit because of the thorns thriving, and increasing. Were it not absurd to reason thus, what though there be many poisonous herbs in the pot? Yet there are some good ones, and so the porridge may be good. Or rather, if among many good herbs, there were but one poisonous in the pot, a man might say truly, Death is in the pot, indeed that there were no good herb in it; because the poison of the one has taken away all the goodness of the other. So in truth where there is but any one sin nourished and fostered, all our other graces are not only blemished, but abolished, they are no graces. But most of all is this deceit dangerous in the true children of God, when they shall the rather presume in some things to sin, because they are the children of God, members of Christ, and so cannot be severed from him, and because they are beautified with so many excellent graces, which they think will easily obtain pardon for some small defects. Thus were the servants in the primitive Church deceived, when upon occasion of their calling, they shook off the yoke, and because they were God's sons, would no longer be men's slaves. And thus would the Devil have deceived Christ, when he would have had him presume upon his privilege of being the Son of God, and thereupon have cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple (Matthew 4:6). This deceit is so much the more lamentable, in that these considerations ought rather to be bridles to restrain us from sinning, and spurs to prick us on to further grace, and obedience. For the more honor God has given us, the greater care should we have to maintain it, according to that of Paul: walk worthy of that high calling. Should such a man as I, says Nehemiah, go into the temple to live? Again, have you some graces, some good things in you? O then disgrace them not with sin, but make them as graceful as you can, by adding to them what is lacking, that so there may be a sweet proportion, and comely convenience in the spiritual body of grace. For as it were an absurd speech to say, I have all other parts of my body seemly, and comely, legs, hands, eyes, lips, cheeks; therefore it matters not for my deformed and misshapen nose; no body can see this blemish among so many ornaments; indeed they will see it, and mark it so much the rather, and the deformity of your nose is made more conspicuous by the conformity of your other members: so also alike absurd is it to persuade ourselves, that because of some ornaments in our souls, the many monstrous enormities thereof will be winked at. Is any woman so foolish as to think because her face is very fair, and beautiful, therefore she may speck and spot it here and there with mire and dirt? Or because her clothes shine and glisten, therefore she may stain them? Whereas the fairer the face, and the garment, the greater is the disgrace of the spot, and stain. So also would any man be so senseless, as to think thus, because I have a good suit, good stockings, cloak and band, therefore I may well enough put on an old dusty, worn, and torn hat. No; this will disgrace all the rest of his furniture; and it would be nothing so great a sore in the eyes of the beholders, if his doublet and hose were tattered, his shoes musty, his stockings broken, and so on.

The eighth deceit is, when we presume the rather to sin, because we think to make amends for it afterward, by some good deeds, as prayer, confession, alms, etc. The covetous man sees a prey, some rich booty, whereby he may benefit himself much, in the injury and oppression of his neighbor. Indeed but his conscience tells him, oppression is sin, how then may he do it? His deceitful heart suggests, that if afterward he be a little more bountiful in giving of alms, he shall make an abundant recompense for his sin, and so bids him stick no longer at the matter. In this one particular Augustine both propounds, and discovers this deceit very notably. The extortioner, says he, says thus to me, I am not like the rich man in the gospel, I feast the poor, I send sustenance to the prisoners, I clothe the naked, I entertain the strangers. To whom he answers: You think you give — do not take away, and you have given. He rejoices to whom you have given: but he weeps from whom you have taken away. Which of these two do you think God will hear? You say to him to whom you have given, be thankful for that you have received: but on the other side the other man says, I mourn for that you have taken away. God says to you, fool, I told you to give, but not of other folks' goods. Know, you fool, who of your spoils and rapines gives alms, that when you despoil a Christian and rob him, you rob Christ himself. And if they shall be sent to hell that did not clothe Christ (that is a Christian) when naked, what place shall they have in hell that made him naked when he was clothed? Here perhaps you will say, you strip a Pagan, and clothe a Christian. Even here will Christ answer you: oh, spare to harm me. For when you who are a Christian do thus oppress a Pagan, you keep him from becoming a Christian. If you have then of your own, give; if not: better for you to gratify none, than to impose on any. So far Augustine, excellently showing the grossness of this deceit, that we may rob Peter, if afterward we will pay Paul with it. This kind of deceit seems to have carried Saul to that his disobedience, in retaining the fattest of the Amalekites' flocks. He thought perhaps the stain thereof would easily be washed out with the blood of his sacrifice, whereof he speaks so much afterward to Samuel. The people took it to offer to the Lord your God in Gilgal (1 Samuel 15:15, 21). And so the whorish woman thinks the like water will purge away all the filthiness of her lusts. I have peace-offerings (says she, encouraging herself, and her youth in their sins) at home, and I have paid my vows (Proverbs 7:14). This seems also to have been the deceit of the Pharisees, as some read that (Luke 11:41): you give alms, namely of goods gotten by rapine and pillage, and then all will be clean, the blot of your injustice you think is sufficiently washed away. A horrible thing, to think that God will thus be corrupted, and made to wink at our sin. No: he that offers to the Lord of the goods of the poor, is as he that sacrifices the son before the Father (Ecclesiastes 34).

But here is a double deceit: 1. that we can satisfy for our sins by any of our works; 2. that therefore we may boldly sin. For first, say that you could satisfy God for the wrong which your sin does to him, may you therefore lawfully offer wrong and violence to him? Would you think your neighbor might lawfully steal from you, if after he would make some restitution? Or break your head, if after he would give you a plaster? But then it is not so, that any works of obedience can satisfy for your former disobedience. If you were bound to a man in two several bonds for two several debts, and having forfeited one, should afterward pay the other, would you be so foolish as to think, that by paying this latter, you had sufficiently discharged the former? If a servant, having loitered all one week, should painfully labor all the next, would his master yet endure him pleading the last week's diligence, as a sufficient recompense of the former's negligence? No. For it was his duty to labor both weeks. So the obedience you perform to God, is a debt due to him: you cannot pay one debt with another. If a merchant, having gone long in the merchant's books, should at length pay for that he took last, had he therefore satisfied for all that was taken before? And yet this is the foolish deceit not of the Papists alone, but of many of ourselves also (for naturally there is much of the popish leaven in us) to think that if after we have sinned, we be for a while a little more careful, than ordinary, of prayer, confession, reading, hearing, and such like exercises, then all is well again. But Solomon tells us, that the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord. And therefore the exercises of godliness performed by such as wallow in sin without repentance cannot pacify his wrath.

The ninth deceit is when we persuade ourselves to the committing of some sin, upon pretense, either of the consequence of some great good, which otherwise cannot be had; or the prevention of some greater evil, which otherwise cannot be avoided. Hence that deceitful rule, of two evils choose the least. Lot was caught in this snare, when he would have redeemed the greater sin of the Sodomites against his guests, with the less against his daughters, when he would have prevented Sodomy by permission of adultery. So Herod having sworn to gratify the request of that dancing minion, for the avoiding of the sands, rushes upon the rock, preventing perjury, as he thought, by murder. But the truth is, a man is never so encompassed between two evils, but he may find an outgoing without a third. Now as concerning the hope of some good that may ensue, here Lot's daughters were caught, as well as their father in the former. For when they fell into that foul abomination of incest, in all likelihood this was that which prevailed with them, a hope they had that by this means, in their father's posterity, the Church of God (otherwise in their opinion near an end) should be upheld, and preserved. And was not here a goodly color, to commend incest to them, the preservation of the Church from ruin? But had not Abraham as good a color for to have spared Isaac contrary to God's commandment? Even the same that they had, the preservation, and salvation of all the elect, which he might fear would have been buried in Isaac's ashes, of whom he knew the Messiah must come. And indeed if Abraham had not had a sound heart indeed, here had been fit place for this deceit. The lepers were thus deceived, when, contrary to Christ's commandment, they divulged the miracle of their healing. Their reason was to declare Christ's glory, and their own thankfulness. But they should have learned, that as when God commands things otherwise forbidden, then they are no sins; as in Abraham's case: so when he forbids things otherwise commanded, then they are no parts of obedience, whatever plausible persuasions we may frame to ourselves. Saul also was thus deceived when for the better overthrowing of the Philistines, he forbade the people to eat anything till the evening. So Rebecca, when for gaining the blessing she taught her son how to lie. Austin makes mention of some that justified the reading of the immodest, and lascivious writings of the heathen poets to young boys, by the good that comes of it, namely the refining of the tongue, the polishing of the speech. That which is good is precious indeed, and according to Solomon's rule, we are to buy it, but yet not to our disadvantage; with the loss only of worse things, not of better things than that we buy. We must not buy eloquence, and good words so dearly; as with the loss of good conscience: we must not redeem our little finger, with the loss of our eyes. For, as excellently Austin, Good words are not more easily learned by those filthy writings: but filthiness is more confidently practiced by reason of those words. Whatever good it is we may think to come to by sinning, it is nothing to that hurt we do to our own souls in sinning. It were madness to lose a thousand pounds, to gain a hundred: much more to lose it for nothing, missing of that hoped for hundred. So is it here in this deceit. In not sinning: when we are tempted there is an unspeakable good: now when we sin upon hope of some great good, first we lose the good of abstaining from sin, of keeping our souls pure from that defilement. This we knowingly lose. Now that great good, we think to win by this loss, is in comparison with this, but as a dram to a talent. This were bad enough, one would think: yet here is not all. For besides the loss we purposely put ourselves to, we lose also that we hoped to gain by this loss, both the talent, and the dram too. As Saul when by his wicked execration, and cruel prohibition of food to the people thought to have furthered the victory against the Philistines, indeed he hindered it, as Jonathan observed. For if the people had not been out of heart for want of food, they might far more valiantly have pursued their adversaries. And so it fares with us, as with the dog in the fable, that letting fall the flesh that was in his mouth, to catch at the shadow thereof, lost both that he had, and that he thought to have had, both substance, and shadow too. For indeed that good, which we procure by sinning, is rather a shadow of good, than any true good. When we do evil that good may come thereof, though the thing itself be good, yet to us it is not good. Our sin in procuring it, has altered the nature of it. If this were well thought of by some, they would not so deceive themselves, as they do, in using base shifts, and indirect, and dishonest courses, for the enriching of their estate, upon pretense of doing good to the Church, to which they say they shall thus be enabled. I tell such, that the good which thus they do to the Church, in them is no good, but turned into sin. For as in Job it is said that we may not lie for God, so neither may we oppress, defraud, or do any other evil either for God, or the Church of God. He knows how to provide for his Church without you. He will not be honored, with the price of a dog, and a whore. He needs not your virtues, much less your sins, either for his own glory, or his Church's. Never fear, that either of these will fall down, though they seem never so much to shake, unless you (as once Uzzah his hand to save the ark) put under the prop of your sin. But against this deceit for ever remember that golden rule of the Apostle, We may not do evil, (no not the least) that good (though the greatest) may come thereof.

The tenth deceit is, when we therefore presume to go on in our sins, because our meaning is, if we may believe our hearts, to continue also in the practice of godliness, as it were parting stakes between God, and the Devil. If our hearts should persuade us so to enthrall ourselves to sin, as wholly to renounce God's service, and shake off his yoke, this would not so easily be granted. But now when they bear us in hand, that still we shall continue God's servants, notwithstanding our service performed to sin, we quickly apprehend this, and think this will be fine, if we can both please God, and our own naughty hearts too. This was Solomon's deceit in his first declination, when he began overmuch to hearken to the enchantments of pleasures; that for all his pleasures, he would still continue his former exercise of piety. But when once he had gone thus far, to admit of such companions with God, in the service of his heart, they could not long endure God's partnership, nor yet God theirs, and so Solomon at length gave over the service of God, and served idols. Never then let us think that we can join together things so unsociable, godliness, and wickedness. It is a hard matter to exercise two several trades: much more two such contrary trades, as these two. Never let us be so gross, as to think we can reconcile things altogether irreconcilable, God, and Satan; you cannot serve two contrary masters, God, and Mammon, God, and Bacchus, God, and Venus. The mammonist flatters himself in his worldliness, because he purposes still to continue his zeal and forwardness in religion. But this is impossible. For how can such a worthy princess as grace, endure such rogues for her bedfellows, to lodge with her in our hearts, as are covetousness, voluptuousness, etc. No; grace must have all, or none. If any sin have but a part, it must have all. Lo then notable craft. If you will let such, and such guests in to have some room, they will not be any unquiet neighbors. Grace shall enjoy her room still. But when once they are got in, grace is so annoyed that she is forced to depart presently. And so all falls to their share.

The eleventh deceit is, when we flesh and confirm ourselves in our sins, because of some human laws which may seem to favor them. Though yet, indeed, they only tolerate them, and not allow them. Thus the common usurer deceives himself, why the law allows ten in the hundred? Yes, but the law only stints, and limits it to ten in the hundred, and so far gives way to it, for the preventing of a greater mischief. And this will not be enough to excuse the usurer in the court of conscience. Thus the Jews deceived themselves in the matter of their polygamy, in having many wives and in their divorces for every trifle. They thought Moses' law had allowed them in these sins. Whereas our Savior shows, Moses only gave a toleration, because of the hardness of their hearts. So in the matter of maintenance for the ministry, many, though rich and able, yet refuse to give anything, because they have not those things, the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose. Yet the law of God is plain, let him that is taught make him that teaches him, partaker of all his goods. And again in the cities which the other tribes must give the Levites, God would have this proportion to be kept; such tribes, as had more cities in their inheritance, should part with more: such as had less, with fewer. By the equity of which proportion, those that are richer, are bound to give more to the ministry, than the poorer. And yet, if this color of human law will serve the turn, they may give less. For the poorer may have tithes payable by the law, when the richer have none. But God's law requires that, according to our ability, whether our estate be in matters tithable, or not, that matters not with God, we should maintain the ministry.

The twelfth deceit is, when therefore we flatter ourselves in our sin, and think we may well enough do it, as long as we keep a moderation in sinning, and do not lash out so far as do others. Thus many think they need not stick to ride upon the Sabbath, though for trifling, trivial causes, so they stay an hour by the way to hear a sermon, and do not wholly spend it in traveling, as some do. Thus many bear themselves out in their hard and unjust dealing with the poor, because they use not all that cruelty they might, and that others do; because they only clip off the wool, and not the living flesh: it may be they take but half the forfeiture of a bond, it may be they restore half of the worth of the pledge, when it is forfeited. So thieves think if they leave some money in the traveler's purse, and let him escape with his life, which was in their hands, they are so far from being to be accused for their stealing, that rather they are to be commended for their mercy, and moderation in stealing. Thus David though he followed his lust in lying with Bathsheba, yet he would not lie with her, but being purified, according to the law. And lying with her so, his deceitful heart made him think he might the more safely do it. But this deceit is not hard to be discovered. Does David indeed make conscience of ceremonial, and yet none of moral purity? Does the thief make conscience of leaving one twelvepence in the traveler's purse, and none of taking many hundreds out of it? So in the remitting of half the forfeiture, I ask of you, whether the same reason that makes you give one half, should not press you to give the other also, you having no more right before God to keep the one part than the other?

The thirteenth deceit is, in wresting the Scripture to make it serve our turn. And if once our deceitful hearts can find the least color for our sins there, then run we away with it, and take liberty to sin boldly. It shall not be amiss to see this in some particulars.

1. For liberty in sinning, profane ones allege that of Solomon, Be not just overmuch. So a man may be too forward, and precise. And again, Be not wicked overmuch. So then a man may be wicked moderately.

The former words are not to be understood of true righteousness, as though there could be too much there, but of a devised righteousness of our own, without the word of God. Such as is that of the Papists in whipping themselves. Therefore Solomon adds in the same place, Neither be too wise, Make not yourself wiser than God, in prescribing to yourself a stricter righteousness, than his word imposes upon you. What then? Is this to cry down the practice of true piety, and mortification commanded in the word? As for the latter words, of not being too wicked, they do not give us leave to be wicked in any sort, though never so little, no more than the Apostle, saying, Let not sin reign, does thereby give liberty to us, that sin may be tolerated, so it reign not; or than he does, when he says, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, thereby give liberty to be angry till the sun set. But as there the meaning is, that if it be so that we cannot wholly be free from rash anger (which were to be wished) yet we should not nourish it, but labor with all speed to quench it: so also here, that if it be so we cannot altogether be free from the taint of wickedness, yet that we should keep ourselves from lashing out into the excess thereof, as the common sort do, no further are the words to be stretched. (Romans 6:12)

2. For continuing impenitently in their sins they allege that of Solomon, The just man falls seven times a day, and rises again. Which is to be understood of his falling into affliction, and not into sin. So likewise they urge that of Ezekiel, At whatever time a sinner repents, etc. But they forget that of Saint Augustine, He who gives pardon to the repenter, does not always give repentance to the sinner. (Proverbs 24:16)

3. For mixed dancing of men and women that of Solomon, There is a time to dance. Answer: Solomon speaks not of such things as we ought to do, or may do, by the commandment, or permission of God: but of such things, as fall out, and come to pass by the providence and decree of God. There is an appointed time, namely in God's eternal decree, for every thing, namely that falls out, every, either cross, or pleasing accident; for otherwise there is no such time, wherein we are bound to throw away that we have, so as we are to keep and get it. (Ecclesiastes 3:4, expounded)

4. For usury, that in the parable, Why did you not put it forth to the exchangers, that I might have my own advantage. Answer: Grant that this be spoken in allusion to the practice of common and cruel usurers, yet the Scripture does no more allow of the common trade of usury by borrowing a similitude of them, than of injustice, in the parable of the thievish steward, or of theft, in saying, Christ shall come as a thief in the night, or of the heathens' Olympic games, in comparing the practice of Christianity to those races, or of dancing in that parabolical speech, We have piped, and you have not danced, or of charms and incantations, in likening the wicked to the deaf adder, which hears not the voice of the enchanter. (Matthew 25:27; Luke 16:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 9:24; Matthew 11:17)

5. For fornication, that it is indifferent, the words of the council, Acts 15, joining fornication, and consorting it with things indifferent, namely blood, and things strangled.

The reason of that conjunction was the general account, that those times made of fornication, not the council's own opinion.

6. For defiling, at the least the outward man with idolatry, Naaman's petition, God be merciful to me when I come into the house of Rimmon, with the Prophet's answer, Go in peace. Answer: The words in the original, as some learned have observed, may be read thus, God be merciful to me, for I have gone into the house of Rimmon, so that Naaman, now purposing wholly to cleave to the true God, craves pardon, for that which he had done, no leave, for that he was to do. The word is used in the same manner in the inscription of two Psalms together; in the 51st Psalm, A Psalm of David after the Prophet Nathan came to him. For he did not make the Psalm, till after he had been with him. So in the 52nd Psalm, A Psalm of David, after that Doeg came, and showed Saul, etc. And in Psalm 54, After the Ziphites came. (2 Kings 5:18, interpreted)

7. For a lawless liberty to deal with our own things as we please, that in the parable, May I not do with my own as I please. Answer: It is God's speech, and his peculiar privilege, not yours, who have nothing simply your own. (Matthew 20:15)

8. For temporizing and framing of ourselves to all companies, that of the Apostle, To the Jews, I became as a Jew, etc. The Apostle became as a Jew to the Jews, and as a Gentile to the Gentiles, not in conforming himself to any of their impieties: for he never sacrificed to the Gentile Gods, to make himself as one without the Law, to them that were without the Law; but, first, in the use of things indifferent, second, in a merciful compassion toward them, tenderly yearning in his bowels over their souls, not in a crafty counterfeiting of their fashions. He becomes as a sick man to the sick, not one that feigns himself to be sick of the same disease, but one that ministers to him, and, with a bemoaning mind, thinks what he would be glad others should do to him being sick, and does the same to his brother. Various such like wresting of Scripture might be instanced in. But these are enough to give us a taste of the deceitfulness of our hearts in this kind. (1 Corinthians 9:20, opened)

The last deceit is, the inventing of evasions, how to elude such arguments, whether from the Scripture, or from sound reason, as make against our sin. To show this in some particulars. (14th Deceit, Eluding the Scriptures against us)

1. When we pluck and pinch the long hair of ruffians with that pregnant text, It is a shame for a man to wear long hair. Nature itself teaches it; answer is made, that it is only to be understood of such hair, that is as long as women's. But as it is said of the Pharisees, that their phylacteries were broad, but their expositions of the Law narrow, so it may be said of these men, their hair is long, but their exposition of this Scripture is very short; while they restrain the word, which signifies to nourish the hair at large, only to such a kind of nourishing, as women use that let it grow down to their feet. Homer using the Apostle's word, calls the Greeks nourishers of their hair; who yet I hope did not wear their hair so long as women, that they were obliged to bind it up. Thus in stead of clipping their hair, they clip the Scripture. (1 Corinthians 11:14)

2. The like shift is that which is used to decline the stroke of (Deuteronomy 22) against stage-plays, where the man that puts on woman's apparel is said to be an abomination to the Lord. A fearful thunderbolt. But behold a thicket, which some of Adam's sons have found to hide themselves from this thundering voice of the Lord; and that is a corrupting gloss, which interprets it of such only, that wear women's apparel ordinarily, and daily, so as women use to do. Indeed, but the word is to put on, and it cannot be denied, but players put it on, when they act women's parts. And the same word is used of David's putting on Saul's armor, who yet put it off again presently.

3. And lastly, not to exceed in multitude of examples, when the negligence of pastors is checked with that express commandment, feed the flock, that is, says the deceitful heart, either by yourself, or by another. And yet Christ bids Peter if he loves him, and as he loves him, to feed his sheep. Look then how you are to love Christ, so you are to feed his sheep. If you think it enough to love Christ by a deputy, then may you also safely think it enough to feed his sheep by a deputy.

It might be shown in many other things besides, how full of subtle and sophistical wit our hearts are in coining of distinctions, and devising shifts to restrain hatreds as they call them, that is the commandments that make against them. But the question is, whether these distinctions will pass for current, or no, before God. In these cases it is best to take that which is surest, and freest from danger. No danger at all of sin can there be in never putting on of woman's apparel, in wearing our hair in the ordinary shortness, in feeding the flock in our own persons. But the other matters are doubtful, and questionable. Take heed therefore, lest, on your deathbed, you make this doubt, O what if that were not the meaning of that place, feed the flock, that is, either by yourself, or by your substitute? How if Christ meant only feeding by ourselves in our own persons? How then? Who sees not, that when death comes, then all our quirks of wit, whereby we soothed ourselves in our sins, vanish away as smoke? Venture not then to lean upon such broken staves, which will surely fail you in your greatest need.