The dead saint speaking to saints and sinners living in several treatisesThe dead saint speaking to saints and sinners living in severall treatises

A Meipso me libera, Domine, saith Augustine, Good Lord deliver me from my self. You had better be given up to the lusts of men, to the malice and cruelties of blood-thirsty men; better to be given up to the utmost rage and malice of our bloody Cavaliers and Irish Rebels, than to be delivered up to Your selves, to the lusts of your own hearts. Nay, you had better to be Given up to Satan, than to be Given up to your selves, your sins.

The Incestuous person was Delivered up to Satan, as you read, 1 Cor. 5.5. And was restored again, and the better for it. But we never read of any, who were Delivered up to themselves, who ever returned: never any, who were Given up to the lusts of their own heart, that ever recovered. Better then To be delivered up to Satan than to sin; inasmuch, as All Penal Evils fall short of Sinful Evils.

It is Judicial, in respect of God, who may punish one sin with another, and curse sin with hardness of heart. But this is a sinful evil in respect of us; we bring the writing and the wax, and God puts to the seal, and then we are shut up for ever.