Friday, July 11, 2008



"When an asp stings a man, it doth at first tickle him, and make him laugh till the poison by little and little gets to his heart, and then it pains him more than before it delighted him. It is so with sin, it may tickle the soul at first, but it will pain it at last with a witness.

I have read of a gallant addicted to uncleanness, who at last meeting with a beautiful dame, and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her, he found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly been naught with, which had been acted by the devil all night, and left dead again in the morning; so that the gallant's pleasure ended in no small terror. And thus it is doubtless with all sinful pleasures."

Rather vivid illustration wouldn't you say?

Thomas Brooks - Photo by Wojciech Grzanka, "Call me now."

3 comments:

Mel said...

Yes, very powerful illustration. Oh, God, may we all hate sin as much as You do! And may our children's minds be renewed from the very first to be able to smell sin from a long way off, recognize it's deception and danger, and avoid it and all of its accompanying consequences.

And yet, we also need to be careful that we don't reject God's good and healthy gifts - which He intended for our use and pleasure - simply because someone other than He has labeled it as sin.

I believe that only by the Spirit can we discern the balance between the two.

Thank you for posting this. May it open eyes.

Unknown said...

eek gads...thats graphic.

FCB said...

One of the reasons I like the Puritan writings is because of their graphic illustrations. I'm so desensitized that I begin to yawn if there is no color. Now, having delt with the horror of drugs and all the collateral damage they cause, this illustration falls far short of describing the misery sin causes.