256 digainflfpiritual wicivelneffe. and thou not able to call them back? thou mayeft cry out as Lamech, I have fl4ine a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. Nay, when thou art afleep in thy grave, he whom thou feducedit may have drawn in others,and thy name may be quoted to commend theopinion and prglice to others, by which (as it is laid, though in another fenfe, 'Abel being dead, yet Jpeaki) thou mayeft, though dead, finne in thole that are alive, generation af- ter generation. A little (park kindled by the errour of one, hat h colt the pains ofmany ages-to quench it, and when thought to be out, bath broke forth again. Thirdly, They arenot barely wicked, but malicioufly wicked, The Devil! bath his name o 5ToinpOc, to denote his fpightfull nature, his defire to vex and mifchiefothers. When he drawes fouls to finne, it is not becaufe he taftes any fweetneffe, or findes any profit therein ; he bath too much light to have any joy or peace in fin: he knows hisdoome, and trembles at the thought of it, and yet his fpightful nature makes him vehemently defire,and unceffantly endeavour the damnation of fouls, As you shall fee a mad dogge run after a flock of(beep, kill one, then another,and when dead, not able to eate of their flefh, but kills to kills fo Satan is carried out with a bound lefre rage againft man, efpecial- ly the Saints, he would not, if he could, leave one of Chrifts flock alive; fuck is the height of his malice againft Godwhom he hates with a perfeet hatred, and becaufe he cannot reach him with a direct blow therefore he {hikes him at fecond hand through his Saints; that wicked armwhich reacheth not to God, is extended againft thefe excellent on the earth, well knowing the life of God is in amanner bound up in theirs, God cannot outlive his honour, and his honour fpeeds as his mercy is ex- alted or deprefred ; this being the attribute God meanes to honour in their falvation fo highly, and therefore maligned a- bove the reit by Satan. And this is the worft that can be faid of thefe wicked fpirits that they malicioufly fpite God , and in God theglory ofhis mercy. vi-e r Firft, this may help us to conceive more fully what the de- fPerate wickedneffe of mans nature is which is fo bard to be known, becaufe it can never be teen at once, it being a foun- rain whole irnmenfity confifis not in the ftreame of Rana( finne (that is vifible, and may kern little) but in the fpring thati un-
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