Part I, Device 2: Painting Sin in Virtue's Colors

Device 2. By painting sin with virtue's colors. Satan knows that if he presented sin in its own true nature and dress, the soul would flee from it rather than yield to it. So he presents it to us not in its own colors, but painted and gilded over with the name and appearance of virtue, so that we may be more easily overcome by it, and take more pleasure in committing it. Pride he presents to the soul under the name of neatness and cleanliness; covetousness (which the apostle condemns as idolatry) as mere good management; drunkenness as good fellowship; recklessness under the name of generosity; and lust as simply a trick of youth.

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

Remedy 1. First, consider that sin is never one bit less filthy, vile, and abominable for being colored and painted with virtue's colors. A poisonous pill is no less poisonous for being gilded with gold; a wolf is no less a wolf for wearing a sheep's skin; the devil is no less the devil for sometimes appearing as an angel of light. So neither is sin any less filthy and abominable for being painted over with virtue's colors.

The second remedy against this device of Satan is this.

Remedy 2. The more sin is dressed up under the color of virtue, the more dangerous it is to the souls of men. We see this plainly in our own day, in the many souls turned out of the holy way — where they once had sweet and glorious communion with God — into paths of the highest vanity and folly, by Satan's clever coloring of sin, painting vice under the name and color of virtue. This is so well known that it hardly needs naming. The most dangerous vermin is too often found beneath the fairest, sweetest flowers; the fairest glove is often drawn onto the foulest hand; the richest robes are often worn by the filthiest bodies. So it is with the fairest, sweetest names attached to the greatest and most horrible vices and errors in the world. Ah, that we did not have so many sad proofs of this among us.

The third remedy against this device of Satan is this.

Remedy 3. Look on sin with the eye you will see it with in a few hours' time. Ah, souls — when you lie on your deathbed, and stand before the judgment seat, sin will be unmasked, its dress and robes stripped away, and it will appear more vile, filthy, and terrible than hell itself. What once seemed sweetest will then seem most bitter; what seemed most beautiful will seem most ugly; what seemed most delightful will then seem most dreadful to the soul. Ah, the shame, the pain, the bitterness, the horror, the hell that the sight of sin — with its dress stripped off — will raise in poor souls! Sin will surely prove evil and bitter to the soul once its robes are taken off. A man may carry a stone in him and feel no pain from it yet. Conscience will work at last, even if for the present one feels no accusation. Laban showed his true colors only at parting. Sin will be bitterness in the end, when it appears to the soul in its own filthy nature. The devil deals with men as the panther deals with beasts — he hides his ugly head until his sweet scent has drawn them within his reach. Until we have sinned, Satan is a flatterer; once we have sinned, he is a tyrant. O souls, the day is coming when the devil will strip off the paint and ornament he has put on sin, and present that monster in so monstrous a shape to your souls that it will trouble your thoughts, change your countenance, loosen the joints of your body, and knock your knees together, and so terrify your hearts that you will be ready, like Ahithophel and Judas, to hang your bodies on earth and your souls in hell — unless the Lord shows you more mercy than he showed them. Oh, therefore, look on sin now as you must look on it for all eternity, and as God, conscience, and Satan will present it to you on that day!

The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is this.

Remedy 4. Seriously consider that even those very sins Satan paints and renames cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the heart-blood of the Lord Jesus. That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father into a region of sorrow and death; that God should be made manifest in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he who was clothed with glory should be wrapped in rags of flesh; that he who filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger; that the power of God should flee before weak men, the God of Israel fleeing into Egypt; that the God of the law should be made subject to the law, the God of circumcision circumcised, the God who made the heavens laboring at Joseph's humble trade; that he who binds devils in chains should himself be tempted; that he to whom the world and its fullness belong should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength should grow weary, the Judge of all flesh be condemned, the God of life put to death; that he who is one with his Father should cry out in anguish, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46); that he who held the keys of hell and death at his belt should lie imprisoned in another man's tomb, having nowhere to lay his head in life, nor his body after death; that the head before which angels cast down their crowns should be crowned with thorns, and eyes purer than the sun put out by the darkness of death; that ears which hear nothing but the hallelujahs of saints and angels should hear the blasphemies of the crowd; that a face fairer than the sons of men should be spat upon by brutish men; that a mouth and tongue that spoke as no man ever spoke should be accused of blasphemy; that hands which freely swayed the scepter of heaven should be nailed to a cross; that feet "like unto fine brass" should be nailed to a cross for man's sins; every sense assaulted — his touch, with spear and nails; his smell, with the stench of Golgotha, the place of skulls; his taste, with vinegar and gall; his hearing, with reproaches, and the sight of his mother and disciples grieving over him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken — and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and dresses up in fine colors! Oh, how should this consideration stir the soul against sin, and drive the soul to flee from it, and to use every holy means by which sin may be subdued and destroyed!

After Julius Caesar was murdered, Antony brought out his coat, bloody and torn, and laid it before the people, saying, "Look — here is the emperor's coat, bloody and torn like this." At once the people rose up in an uproar, crying out to kill the murderers, and seizing the tables and stools that were at hand, they set them on fire and ran to the houses of Caesar's killers and burned them down. So when we consider that sin has slain our Lord Jesus, how much more should it provoke our hearts to be avenged on sin, which has murdered the Lord of glory, and done mischief that all the devils in hell together could never have done!

It was good counsel that one gave: "Never let the thought of a crucified Christ go out of your mind." Let this be your meat and drink; let it be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your desire, your reading and your meditation, your life, death, and resurrection.

The third device that Satan has to draw the soul into sin is: