if the devil made flies, the devil made worms, and not God, for they are living creatures as well as flies: true, said he, the devil made worms; but said the other, if the devil made worms, then he made birds, beasts, and man; he granted all: Thus,' saith St. Austin,' by denying God in the fly, he came to deny God in man, and to deny the whole creation.'*

By all this we see, that the yielding to less sins, draws the soul to the committing of greater.

Ah! how many in these days are fallen, first to have low thoughts of scripture and ordinances, and then to slight them, and then to make a nose of wax of them, and then to cast them off, and at last, to advance and lift up themselves, and Christ dishonouring, and soul-damning opinions, above scripture and ordinances. Sin gains upon man's soul by insensible degrees. Eccl. x. 15. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talking is mischievous madness.' When a man hath begun to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make an end; usually the soul goes on from evil to evil, from folly to folly, till it be ripe for eternal misery.

Rem. 3. Against this third device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin, is, solemnly to

* An Italian having found his enemy at advantage, promised if he would deny his faith he would save his life; he to save his life, denied his faith, which having done, he stabbed him, rejoicing that by this, he had at one time, taken revenge both on body and soul.

consider, that it is sad to stand with God for a trifle: Dives would not give a crumb,' Luke xvi. 21. therefore he should not receive a drop; it is the greatest folly in the world to adventure going to hell for a small matter. I tasted but a little honey,' said Jonathan, and I must die,' 1 Sam. xiv. 43. It is a most unkind and unfaithful thing to part with God for a little; little sins carry with them but little temptations to sin, and then a man shews most viciousness and unkindness, when he sins by a little temptation. It is devilish to sin without a temptation, it is little less than devilish to sin on a little occasion;* the less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin; Saul's sin in not staying for Samuel, was not so much in the matter, but it was much in the evil of it, for though Samuel had not come at all, yet Saul should not have offered sacrifice, but this cost him his life and kingdom.

It is the greatest unkindness that can be shewed to a friend, to hazard wounding and grieving of his soul upon a slight occasion: So it is the greatest unkindness that we can shew to God, Christ, and the Spirit, to put God upon complaining, Christ upon bleeding, and the Spirit

It was a vexation to king Lysimachus, that his stay. ing to drink one small draught of water lost him his kingdom and so it will eternally vex some souls at last, that for some one little sin (compared with great transgressions) they have lost God, heaven, and their souls for

ever.

:

upon grieving, by yielding to little sins; therefore, when Satan says it is but a little one, answer, that oftentimes there is the greatest unkindness shewed to God's glorious majesty, in committing the least folly, and therefore thou wilt not displease thy best and greatest friend, by yielding to his least enemy.

Rem. 4. Against this device of Satan, seriously consider, that there is great danger, yea, many times most danger in the smallest sins. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,' 1 Cor. v. 6. If the serpent wind in his head, he will draw in his whole body after. Little sins often steal into the soul, and breed, and work secretly* and undiscernibly in the soul, till they come to be so strong, as to trample upon and destroy it: there is oftentimes greatest danger to our bodies in the least diseases, because we are apt to make light of them, and to neglect the timely use of means to remove them, till they grow so strong, that they prove mortal to us: so there is often most danger in the least sins, we are apt to take no notice of them, and to neglect those heavenly helps whereby they should be weakened and destroyed, till they are

Cæsar was stabbed with bodkins,-Pope Adrian was choaked with a gnat,—A scorpion is little, yet able to sting a lion to death,-A mouse is but little, yet killeth an elephant, if he get up into his trunk,-The leopard being great, is poisoned with a head of garlick.-The smallest errors prove many times the most dangerous.

grown to that strength, that we are ready to cry out, the medicine is too weak for the disease; I would pray, and I would hear, but I am afraid that sin is grown up by degrees to such a head, that I shall never be able to prevail over it; but as I have begun to fall, so I shall utterly fall before it, and at last perish in it, unless the power and free grace of Christ appear for me gloriously, beyond my present apprehen sion and expectation. The viper is killed by the little young ones that are nourished and cherished in her belly: so are many men eternally killed and betrayed by the little sins (as they call them) that are nourished in their own bosoms.

A little hole in a ship sinks it; a small breach in a sea-bank carries away all before it; a little stab in the heart kills a man; and a little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn him.*

Rem. 5. Against this device of Satan, solemnly consider, that other saints have chosen to suffer the worst of torments, rather than they would commit the least sin; i. e. such as are so in the world's account; as you may see in Daniel and his companions, who would rather choose to burn, and be cast to the lions, than bow to the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When this Peccadillo, (in the world's account) and a

One little miscarriage doth, in the eyes of the world, overshadow all a Christian's graces, as one cloud doth sometimes overshadow the whole body of the sun.

hot fiery furnace stood in competition, and they must either fall into sin, or be cast into the fiery furnace, such was their tenderness of the honour and glory of God, and their hatred and indignation against sin, that they would rather burn than sin.

I have read of that noble servant of God, Marcus Arethusius, minister of a church in the time of Constantine, who, in Constantine's time, had been the cause of overthrowing an idol's temple;, afterwards, when Julian came to be emperor, he insisted the people of that place should build it up again; they were ready to do it, but he refused; whereupon, those that were his own people, to whom he preached, took him, and stripped him of all his clothes, and abused his naked body, and exposed it to children, to lance it with their pen-knives, and then caused him to be put in a basket, and anointed him with honey, and set him in the sun to be stung with wasps; and all this cruelty they shewed, because he would not do any thing towards building up this idol temple; nay, they came to this, that if he would do but the least towards it, if he would give but a half-penny to it, they would save him: but he refused all, though the giving of a half-penny might have saved his life; and in so doing, he only lived up to that principle that most Christians talk of, and all profess, but which few come up to, viz. 'That we must choose rather to suffer the worst of torments that