PART 4 - Directions Tending to Entrench and Fortify the Christian Against the Assaults of Satan, as a Troub­ler and Accuser

   

       

 Question.  But what counsel would you give me, saith the distressed soul, who cannot fasten on my former comforts, nor dare to vouch those evidences which once I thought true?  I find indeed there have been some treaties of old between God and my soul; some hopes I have had, but these are now so defaced and interlined with backslidings, repentances, and falls again, that now I question all my evidences, whether true or counterfeit; what should one in this case do?

             Answer First.  Renew thy repentance, as if thou hadst never repented.  Put forth fresh acts of faith, as if thou hadst never believed.  This seriously done, will stop Satan's mouth with an unexpected answer. Let him object against thy former actions as hypocritical; what can he say against thy present repenting and believing? which, if true, sets thee beyond his shot.  It will be harder for Satan to disprove the present workings of God's gracious Spirit, whilst the impression thereof are fresh, than to pick a hole in thy old deeds and evidences.  Acts are transient, and as wicked men look at sins committed many years since as little or none, by reason of that breadth of time which interposeth; so the Christian upon the same account stands at great disadvantage, to take the true aspect of those acts of grace, which so long ago passed between God and him, though sometimes even these are of great use.  As God can make a sinner possess the sins of his youth, as if they were newly acted, to his terror in his old age, so God can present the comforts and evidences which of old the saint received, with those very thoughts he had then of them, as if they were fresh and new.

             Answer Second.  And therefore, if yet he haunts thee with the fears of thy spiritual estate, ply thee to the throne of grace, and beg a new copy of thy old evidence, which thou hast lost.  The original is in the pardon office in heaven, whereof Christ is master, [and] if thou beest a saint, thy name is upon record in that court.  Make thy moan to God, hear what news from heaven, rather than listen to the tales which are brought by thine enemy from hell.  Did such reason less with Satan, and pray over their fears more to God, they might sooner be resolved.  Can you expect truth from a liar, and comfort from an enemy?  Did he ever prophesy well of believers?  Was not Job the devil's hypocrite, whom God vouched for a non-such in holiness, and proved him so at last?  If he knew thou wert a saint, would he tell thee so?  If an hypocrite, he would be as loath thou shouldst know it. Turn thy back therefore on him, and go to thy God; fear not, but sooner or later he will give his hand to thy certificate.  But look thou dost not rashly pass a censure on thyself, because a satisfactory answer is not presently sent at thy desire; the messenger may stay long, and bring good news at last.

             Answer Third.  Shun battle with thine enemy while [until] thou art in a fitter posture, and that thou mayest draw into thy trenches, and make an honourable retreat into those fastnesses and strengths which Christ hath provided for his sick and wounded soldiers.  Now there are two places of advantage into which deserted souls may retire—the name of God, and the absolute promises of the gos­pel.  These I may call the fair havens, which are then chiefly of use, when the storm is so great that the ship cannot live at sea.  O, saith Satan, dost thou hope to see God?  None but the pure in heart shall be blessed with that vision.  Thinkest thou to have comfort?  That is the portion of the mourners in spirit.  Now, soul, though thou canst not say in the hurry of temptation [that] thou art the pure and the mourner in spirit, yet then say thou believest God is able to work these in thee; yea, hath promised such a mercy to poor sinners; it is his covenant [that] he will give a new heart, a clean heart, a soft heart; and here I wait, knowing, as there was nothing in the creature to move the great God to make such promises, so there can be nothing in the creature to hinder the Almighty his performance of them, where and when he pleaseth.  This act of faith, accompanied with a longing desire after that grace thou canst not yet find, and an attendance on the means, though it will not fully satisfy all thy doubts, may be, yet will keep thy head above water, that thou despairest not; and such a shore thou needest in this case, or the house falls.     

  

Answer Fourth.  If yet Satan dogs thee, call in help, and keep not the devil's counsel.  The very strength of some temptations lies in the concealing of them, and the very revealing of them to some faithful friend, like the opening and pricking of some impost­hume, gives the soul present ease.  Satan knows this too well; and therefore, as some thieves, when they come to rob a house, either gag them in it, or hold a pistol to their breast, frightening them with death, if they cry or speak; thus Satan, that he may more freely rifle the soul of its peace and comfort, overawes it so, that it dares not disclose his temptation.  O, saith Satan, if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee, they will cast thee off; others will hoot at thee.  Thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in.  Thou losest, Christian, a double help by keeping the devil's secret —the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren.  And what an invaluable loss is this!

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.  

            

PART 2 - Directions Tending to Entrench and Fortify the Christian Against the Assaults of Satan, as a Troub­ler and Accuser

  

Answer Third.  Be sure, Christian, thou keep­est the plains.  Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits, where thou canst neither well fight nor fly.  Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in, when they cried, They are entangled, they are entangled.  There are three kinds of straits wherein he labours to entrap the Christian —nice questions, obscure scriptures, and dark providences.    

1. He labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions, on purpose to retard the work, and clog him in his notion, that meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course, which he cannot easily resolve, thereby he may be made either to give over, or go on heavily.  Therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young converts with ‘doubtful disputations,’ Rom. 14:1. Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul, How it knows its election.  And where he finds one not so fully resolved, as to dare to own the same, he frames his argument against such a one’s closing with Christ and the promise, as if it were presumption to assume that, which is the only portion of the elect, before we know ourselves of that number.  Now, Christian, keep the plains and thou art safe.  It is plain, we are not to make election a ground for our faith, but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our election.  Election indeed is first in order of divine acting, God chooseth before we believe; yet faith is first in our acting.  We must believe before we can know we are elected, yea, by believing we know it. The husbandman knows it is spring by the sprouting of the grass, though he hath no astrology to know the position of the heavens.  Thou mayest know thou art elect, as surely by a work of grace in thee, as if thou hadst stood by God's elbow when he writ thy name in the book of life.  It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been king, till Sam­uel anointed him, but then none at all.  When thou believest first, and closest with Christ, then is the Spirit of God sent to anoint thee to the kingdom of heaven; this is that holy oil which is poured upon none but heirs of glory; and it is no presumption to read what God's gracious purpose was towards thee of old, when prints those his thoughts, and makes them legible in thy effectual calling.  Here thou dost not go up to heaven, and pry into God's secrets, but heaven comes down to thee, and reveals them.  Again, he will ask the Christian what was the time of his conversion.  Art thou a Christian, will he say, and dost thou not know when thou commencedst?  Now keep the plains, and content thyself with this, that thou seest the streams of grace, though the time of thy conversion be like the head of Nylus, not to be found.  God oft betimes, before gross sins have de­flowered the soul, and steals into the creature's bosom without much noise.  In such a case Satan doth but abuse thee when he sends thee in this errand; you may know the sun is up, though you did not observe when it rose.  Again, what will become of thee, saith Satan, if God should bring thee into such an affliction or trial, when thou must burn or turn, or when all thy outward estate shall be rent from thee, no meal in the barrel, no money in the purse?  Darest thou have so good an opinion of thyself, as to think that thy faith will hold out in such an hour of temptation?  If thou hast but half an eye, Christian, thou mayest see what Satan drives at.  This is an ensnaring question; by the fear of future troubles he labours to bring thee into a neglect of thy duty, and indispose thee also for such a state whenever it falls.  If a man hath much business to do on the morrow, it is his wisdom to discharge his mind thereof, when composing to sleep, lest the thoughts thereof break his rest, and make him the more unfit in the morning.  The less rest the soul hath in God and his promise concerning future events, the less strength it will find to bear them when the pinch comes.  When therefore thou art molested with such fears, pacify thy heart with these three plain conclusions.    

 (1.) Every event is the product of God's providence; not a sparrow, much less a saint, falls to the ground by poverty, sickness, persecution, &c., but the hand of God is in it.           

(2.) God hath put in caution he ‘will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’ Heb. 13:5.  He that enables thee in one condition, will in another.  God learns his servants their whole trade.  Grace is a universal prin­ciple.  At the first moment of thy spiritual life, suffering grace was infused as well as praying grace.         

  (3.) God is wise to conceal the succours he intends in the several changes of thy life, that so he may draw thy heart into an entire dependence on his faithful promise.  Thus to try the metal of Abraham’s faith, he let him go on, till his hand was stretched forth, and then he comes to the rescue.  Christ sends his disciples to sea, but stays behind himself, on a design to try their faith, and show his love.  Comfort thyself therefore with this, though thou seest not thy God in the way, yet thou shalt find him in the end.