PART 3 - Directions Tending to Entrench and Fortify the Christian Against the Assaults of Satan, as a Troub­ler and Accuser

2. Satan perplexeth the tender consciences of doubting Christians, with obscure scriptures,whose sense lies too deep for their weak and distempered judgements readily to find out, and with these he hampers poor souls exceedingly.  Indeed as melancholy men delight in melancholy walks, so doubting souls most frequent such places of Scripture in their musing thoughts, as increase their doubts.  How many have I known that have looked so long on those difficult places, Heb. 6:6; 10:26, which pass the understanding, as a swift stream the eye, so that the sense is not perceived without great observation, till their heads have turned round, and they at last, not able to untie the difficulties, have fallen down in despairing thoughts and words of their own condition, crying out, O they have sinned against knowledge of the truth, and therefore no mercy remains for them.  [Now] if they have refreshed their under­standings by looking off these places, whose engraving is too curious to be long pored on by a weak eye, they might have found that in other scriptures plainly expressed, which would have enabled them, as through a glass, more safely to have viewed these. Therefore, Christian, keep the plains; thou mayest be sure it is thine enemy that gives thee such stones to break thy teeth, when thy condition calls rather for bread and wine—such scriptures, I mean, as are most apt to nourish thy faith, and cheer thy drooping spirit.  When thou meetest such plain scriptures which speak to thy case, go over where it is fordable, and do not venture beyond thy depth.  Art thou afraid because thou hast sinned since the knowledge of truth, and [that] therefore no sacrifice remains for thee?  See David and Peter's case, how it patterns thine, and [is] left upon record that their recovery may be a key in thine hand to open such places as these.  Mayest thou not safely conclude from these, [that] this is not their meaning, that none can be saved the sin after knowledge?  Indeed in both these places, it is neither meant of the falls of such as ever had true grace, nor of a falling away in some particular acts of sin, but of a total universal falling away from the faith, the doctrine as well as seeming practice of it.  Now if the root of the matter were ever in thee, other scriptures will first comfort thee against those particular apostasies into which thou hast re­lapsed, by sweet promises inviting such to return, and [giving] precedents of saints, who have had peace spoken to them after such folly, and also they will satisfy thee against the other, by giving full security to thy faith, that thy little grace shall not die, being immortal, though not in its proper essence, because but a creature, yet by covenant, as it is a child of promise.
3. Dark providences.  From these Satan disputes against God's love to, and grace in, a soul. First, he got a commission to plunder Job of his temporal estate, and bereave him of his children, and then labours to make him question his spiritual estate and sonship.  His wife would have him entertain hard thoughts of God, saying, ‘Curse God and die;’ and his friends as hard thoughts of himself, as if he were an hypocrite; and both upon the same mistake, as if such an afflicted condition and a gracious state were incon­sistent.  Now, Christian, keep the plains, and neither from this, charge God foolishly for thine enemy, nor thyself as his.  Read the saddest providence with the comment of the Word, and thou canst not make such a harsh interpretation.  As God can make a straight line with a crooked stick, be righteous when he useth wicked instruments; so also gracious when he dispen­seth harsh providences.  Joseph kept his love, when he spake roughly to his brethren.  I do not wonder that the wicked think they have God's blessing, be­cause they are in the warm sun.  Alas! they are strangers to God's counsels, void of his Spirit, and sensual, judging of God and his providence, by the report their present feeling makes of them like little children, who think every one loves them that gives them plums.  But it is strange that a saint should be at a loss for his afflicted state, when he hath a key to decipher God's character.  Christian, hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word, how to read the shorthand of his providence?  Dost not thou know that the saint's afflictions stand for blessings?  Every son whom he loves he corrects; and prosperity in a wicked state, must it not be read a curse?  Doth not God damn such to be rich, honourable, victorious in this world, as well as to be tormented in another world?  God gives them more of these than they seem to desire sometimes, and all to bind them faster up in a deep sleep of security, as Jael served Sisera: he shall have milk though he asked but water, that she might nail him surer to the ground—milk having a property, as some write, to incline to sleep, Jud. 5:25.
4. Answer Fourth.  Be careful to keep thy old re­ceipts which thou hast had from God for the pardon of thy sins.  There are some gaudy days, and jubilee-like festivals, when God comes forth clothed with the robes of his mercy, and holds forth the sceptre of his grace more familiarly to his children than ordinary, bearing witness to their faith, sincerity, &c., and then the firmament is clear, not a cloud to be seen to darken the Christian's comfort.  Love and joy are the soul's repast and pastime, while this feast lasts.  Now when God withdraws, and this cheer is taken off, Satan's work is how he may deface and wear off the remembrance of this testimony, which the soul so triumphs in for its spiritual standing, that he may not have it as an evidence when he shall bring about the suit again, and put the soul to produce his writings for his spiritual state, or renounce his claim.  It be­hoves thee therefore to lay them safely; such a testimony may serve to nonsuit thy accuser many years hence; one affirmative from God's mouth for thy pardoned state, carries more weight, though of old date, than a thousand negatives from Satan's. David's songs of old spring in with a light to his soul in his midnight sorrows.