64 THE BIt U!SED REED forgiven, and not these blasphemous thoughts, which have the devil for their father? Christ himself was therefore molested in this kind, that he might succour all poor souls in the like case. 4. Some think, when they begin once to be troubled with the smoke of corruption, more than they were before, that they are worse than they were. It is true, that corruptions appear now more than before; but they are less. For (1) sin the n1ore it is seen, the more it is hated, and thereupon is the less. Motes are in a room before the sun shines, but they then only appear. (2) Contraries, the nearer they are one to another, the sharper is the conflict betwixt them. Now of all enemies, the spirit and the flesh are nearest one to another, being both in the soul of a regenerate man, and in all faculties of the soul, and in every action that springeth from those faculties. And therefore it is no wonder that the ·soul (the seat of this battle) thus divided in itself, be as smoking flax. (3.) The more grace, the more spiritual life; and the more spiritual life, the more antipathy to the contrary; whence none ar e so ~sensible of eorrup~
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=