5. The tickling pleasure of sin: 'who had pleasure in unrighteousness' (2 Thes 2.12)
(without labor and diligence); would we not rather have what is more excellent? Sloth is the cancer of the soul: "Slothfulness tosses into a deep sleep" (Pro 19.15).
It was a witty fiction of the poets that when Mercury put Argus to sleep and closed his eyes with an enchanted flute, he then killed him.
It is no fiction that when Satan has lulled men to sleep in sloth by his witcheries, he then destroys them. Some report that while the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open, the Indian rat gets into its belly and eats up its entrails. So too while men sleep in false security, they are devoured.
5. The tickling pleasure of sin: 'who had pleasure in unrighteousness' (2 Thes 2.12) Sin is a sugared draft mixed with poison. The sinner thinks there is danger in sin, but there is also delight – and the danger does not terrify him as much as the delight bewitches him. Plato calls love of sin a great devil. Delighting in sin hardens the heart. In true repentance, there must be grieving for sin; but how can one grieve for what he loves? The one who delights in sin can hardly pray against it. His heart is so urged by sin that he is afraid to leave it too soon. Samson doted on Delilah's beauty, but her lap proved to be his grave. When a man rolls iniquity like a sugared lump under his tongue, 67 it infatuates him, and it will be his death in the end. Delight in sin is a silken halter.
68 Will it not be bitter in the end? (2Sam 2.26) 6. An opinion that repentance will take away our joy
But that is a mistake. It does not crucify our joy but clarifies it, and removes it from the attractive dregs of sin. What is all earthly joy? It is but hilaris insania (a pleasant insanity). Falsa inter gaudia noctem egerimus (Virgil).
69 Worldly mirth is like a feigned laugh: sorrow follows at its heels. Like the magician's rod, it is instantly turned into a serpent. But divine repentance, like Samson's lion, has honeycomb in it.
70 God's kingdom consists as much in joy as in righteousness (Rom 14.17). None are so truly cheerful as penitent ones. Est quaedam flere voluptas (Ovid).
The oil of joy is poured chiefly into a broken heart: "the oil of joy for mourning" (Isa 61.3). In the fields near Palermo grow a great many