Chap. 48 The Fifth Corollary. It is worse to be given up to one sin, than to be actually possessed b
and come in, this is it; and when no other way would do it, this many times has done it.
And therefore those people that live in such a condition, that want this Ordinance of Excommunication in the right way, want an especial means to keep off sin, both to keep them from sin before they are fallen, and of delivering of them from sin when they have fallen into it. But to be given over to the power of sin, is a greater evil than to be delivered to Satan.
CHAP. XLVIII.
The Fifth Corollary. It is worse to be given up to one sin, than to be actually possessed by the Devil.
Fifthly, Shall I say further (and this will make it plainly appear what abundance of evil there is in sin, more than in affliction): for though we have spoken much of it, yet all this only draws the point higher and higher, and drives the nail deeper and deeper, that this Truth of God might settle upon your spirits; and therefore a Fifth is this, which follows from this reference sin has to the Devil) That it is worse to be given up to any one sin, than to be actually possessed by the Devil, than for the Devil to come and actually possess us as those poor creatures were in the Gospel; and this is worse than to be given up to Satan.
There is a spiritual possession of Satan, as in Judas, and that is a spiritual possession of their hearts to rule them: but there is a temporal possession spoken of in the Gospel, and that is of their bodies, that the Devil possessed them, and caused them to rage and foam at the mouth, and rend and tear: and the men we read of in
the Gospel that lived among the graves and dead people, and cut themselves with knives and stones; this was a grievous thing to see men thus possessed Many men have extraordinary fits of the Convulsion; and the like, and men think they be possessed; we ordinarily mistake, and it is but a mere fit of the Convulsion; but if we did know they were really possessed, we should be terrified.
Oh such a friend, such a neighbor lived wickedly before, and now the Devil has possessed him; we thought it a Disease till now, we thought it the Convulsion, but now we see it is from the Devils possession of them.
Would you not endure any affliction in the world rather than God should say of you, the next oath you swear, when you open your mouths to swear, the Devil shall come in and take possession of your bodies; or the next evil language you speak, the Devil shall come in and possess you; this were a fearful thing, and you would take heed of this.
But this I am to make good, That when you go on in sin, in any one sin, it is a greater evil than if never so many Devils possessed you, if there should be Legions; as he said to Christ when he asked his name, he said, Legion, because we be many. It is not so great an evil if God should give up your bodies to be possessed by Legions of Devils.
You will say, surely that is a great evil, but not so great as to be under the power of one sin.
How will that appear you will say?
Thus: possession makes you not hateful to God, and guilty before God, and loathsome to God; nor is it that which God hates, but it is an object of pity; Christ pitied them when he saw them thus: but sin makes a man odious and hateful to God. I remember an excellent
Observation Gregory has on the Book of Job, (said he) What is the reason when God gave up Job to the Devil, and bid him do what he
would, but spare his life? (said he) What is the reason the Devil did not possess him when he was given up to his hands, for so the words are, He is in thy Hands, only spare his life? So that it appears, he was in his power to possess him, but yet he did not; and what is the reason? this is the Answer that Ancient gives, the reason is this,
Because if he had possessed him, then though Job had fretted, and frowned, and torn himself, it had not been his sin, his impatience, so as it was when he was not possessed.
Now because the Devil envied Job, the Devil would bring that upon Job which he knew to be the greatest evil as much as he could; for so all envy does. One that en¦vies another, labors to bring the greatest evil on him that he can.
So certainly the Devil envied Job, and therefore he labored to bring the greatest evil on him that he could.
Now it seems possession was not the greatest evil; but the Devil would go so to work, as if he could possibly he would get Job to be impatient, and make Job curse God, and sin against God. If Job should have cursed God in word by possession of the Devil, the Devil cursed God in him, it had not been Jobs sin so much as if he had got him to curse God otherwise.
Now the Devil would have him so curse God, as to be a sin to him; and therefore the Devil would not possess him because that was the lesser evil: So that to be given up to sin is a greater evil than to be possessed.
Therefore all you that have friends and children, which you see wicked and licentious, and you see some cause to fear they be given up to the power of sin for the present, it should cause Fathers and Mothers to come to Christ, as earnestly as ever those poor creatures did, that had Children possessed with the Devil, in the Gospel; poor women had children possessed, and so men; Fathers that had
Children possessed with the Devil, that did rent and tear him in the