Part I, Device 1: Presenting the Bait, Hiding the Hook

Now the second thing I am to show you is his several devices — and here I will first show you the several devices he has to draw the soul into sin. I will take up twelve of these, which deserve our most serious consideration.

His first device to draw the soul into sin is this:

Device 1. To present the bait and hide the hook — to present the golden cup and hide the poison; to present the sweetness, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow to the soul from yielding to sin, while hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of it. By this device he took our first parents: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4–5). Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! There is the bait — the sweetness, the pleasure, the profit. But oh, he hides the hook: the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!

There is an opening of the mind's eyes to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the body's eyes to shame and confusion. He promises them the first but intends the second, and so cheats them — handing them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he still deals with thousands today. Satan easily puts these deceptions over on us with his golden baits, and then leads us into, and leaves us in, a fool's paradise. He promises the soul honor, pleasure, and profit, but pays it with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss imaginable. By a golden bait he labored to catch Christ himself (Matthew 4:8–9), showing him the beauty and splendor of a bewitching world — which would doubtless have won many a worldly heart. But here the devil's fire fell on wet tinder and would not catch: these tempting objects had no power over Christ's affections, nor did they dazzle his eyes. Yet many have died eternally from the wound of the eye, and fallen forever to this vile temptress the world, who, displaying her fair show of profit and pleasure, has wounded souls and cast them down into utter ruin. By the glitter of her pomp and privilege she has slain millions — as a certain serpent is said to charm fleeing travelers with its beautiful colors, so that they have no strength left to escape before it has stung them to death. Adversity has slain her thousands, but prosperity her ten thousands.

Now, the remedies against this device of the devil are these.

Remedy 1. First, keep at the greatest possible distance from sin, and from toying with the golden bait Satan holds out to catch you. For this you have: "Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9). When we meet with something extremely evil and repugnant to us, nature abhors it and withdraws from it as far as it can. The Greek word rendered "abhor" there is a very forceful one; it means to hate something as one hates hell itself, to hate it with horror.

Anselm used to say that if he had to choose between seeing the shame of sin on one hand and the pains of hell on the other, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin than go into heaven with sin — so great was his hatred and detestation of it. It is our wisest and safest course to stand at the farthest possible distance from sin: not to go near the harlot's house, but to flee every appearance of evil (Proverbs 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:22). The best way to avoid falling into the pit is to stay as far from it as possible; whoever is bold enough to dance on the brink of the pit may learn by bitter experience that it is only just for God to let him fall in. Joseph kept his distance from sin and from playing with Satan's golden bait, and he stood firm. David drew near and played with the bait, and fell — swallowing bait and hook together. David came near the snare and was caught in it, to the breaking of his bones, the wounding of his conscience, and the loss of the sense of his God.

Sin is a plague — indeed, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world — and yet how few tremble at it, how few keep their distance from it! "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1 Corinthians 5:6). As soon as one sin had seized Adam's heart, all sin entered his soul and spread through it. How Adam's one sin has spread over all mankind! "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Ah, how a father's sin infects the child, a husband's the wife, a master's the servant! The sin in one man's heart is able to infect a whole world — it is of such a spreading, infectious nature.

The story of the Italian who first made his enemy deny God and then stabbed him — murdering body and soul at once — shows the sheer malignity of sin. Oh, that what has been said on this point might persuade you to keep your distance from sin!

The second remedy is this.

Remedy 2. Consider that sin is only a bitter sweet. The seeming sweetness in sin will quickly vanish, and lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror will take its place: "Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth, yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him" (Job 20:12–14). Forbidden profits and pleasures please vain men most, who count madness mirth. Many long to meddle with sin's murdering morsels, which do not nourish but tear and consume the soul that receives them. Many eat on earth what they must digest in hell. Sin's murdering morsels will deceive those who devour them. Adam's apple was a bitter sweet; Esau's stew was a bitter sweet; the Israelites' quail was a bitter sweet; Jonathan's honey was a bitter sweet; Adonijah's feast was a bitter sweet. After the meal comes the reckoning. Men must not think they can dance and dine with the devil, and then sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven — that they can feed on the poison of asps and not be slain by the viper's tongue.

When an asp stings a man, it first tickles him so that he laughs, until the poison little by little reaches the heart, and then it pains him far more than it ever delighted him. So it is with sin: it may please a little at first, but it will pain the soul terribly at last. Indeed, if there were the least real delight left in sin, there could be no perfect hell — where men will be most perfectly tormented by their sin.

The third remedy against this device of Satan is this.

Remedy 3. Solemnly consider that sin will usher in the greatest and saddest losses a soul can suffer. It will bring the loss of that divine favor which is better than life, the loss of that joy unspeakable and full of glory, the loss of that peace which passes understanding, the loss of those divine influences by which the soul has been refreshed, quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladdened, and the loss of many desirable outward mercies the soul might otherwise have enjoyed.

It was a sound and fitting reply from an English captain, after the loss of Calais, when a proud Frenchman scornfully asked, "When will you take Calais back?" He answered, "When your sins outweigh ours." Ah, England! My constant prayer for you is that you would not sin away your mercies into the hands of those who cannot call mercy by its right name, and who would rejoice in nothing more than seeing your sorrow and misery — seeing stripped bare the very nation that has been clothed with so much mercy and glory.

The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is this.

Remedy 4. Seriously consider that sin is of a very deceitful, bewitching nature. Sin comes from the greatest deceiver — it is a child of his own begetting, the very ground of all deceit in the world, and exceedingly deceitful in its own nature. "But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13). It will kiss the soul and put on a fair face for the soul, and yet betray the soul forever. Like Delilah, it will smile on us in order to betray us into the devil's hands, just as she betrayed Samson into the hands of the Philistines. Sin gives Satan power over us, and grounds to accuse us and lay claim to us as those who wear his badge. It is of such a bewitching nature that it enchants the soul once enthroned there, so that the soul cannot leave it, even though it will perish eternally by it. Sin so bewitches the soul that it makes the soul call evil good and good evil, bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light. A soul thus bewitched by sin will stand its ground to the death, at swords' point with God; let God strike and wound and cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not, fears nothing, but holds on in its course of wickedness — as you may see in Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas. Tell the bewitched soul that sin is a viper that will certainly kill if it is not killed first, that sin often kills secretly, unnoticed, eternally — yet the bewitched soul cannot, and will not, cease from sin.

When the physicians told Theotimus that unless he gave up drunkenness and uncleanness he would lose his eyesight, his heart was so bewitched by his sins that he answered, "Then farewell, sweet light" — he would rather lose his eyes than leave his sin. So a man bewitched by sin would rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, forever take heed of playing or nibbling at Satan's golden baits.

The second device of Satan to draw the soul into sin is this: