From the book The Christian Incomplete Armor by
the Puritan William Gurnall Satan's Wiles to Accuse
and Trouble the Saint A main design in
which Satan appears such a subtle enemy is
a troubler and an accuser for sin, molesting
the saint's peace and disquieting the saint's spirit.
As the Holy Spirit's work is not only
to be a sanctifier, but also a comforter,
whose fruits are righteousness and peace, so the
evil spirit Satan is both a seducer unto
sin and an accuser for sin, a tempter
and a troubler, and indeed in the same
order.
As the Holy Ghost is first a sanctifier
and then a comforter, so Satan is first
a tempter then a troubler.
Joseph's mischief first tries to draw him to
gratify her lust, but that string breaking, she
has another to trounce him and charge him,
and for a plea she has his coat
to cover her malice.
Nor is it hard for Satan to pick
some hole in the saint's coat when he
walks most circumspectly.
The proper seat of sin is a will
of comfort, the conscience.
Satan has not absolute knowledge of or power
over these, they being locked up from any
other hand but God, and therefore what he
does, either in defiling temptations or disquieting, is
by Wiles more than by open force.
And he is not inferior in troubling to
himself in tempting.
Satan has as a serpent a way by
himself.
Other beasts have their motion direct, right on.
But the serpent goes askew, as we say,
winding and writhing his body, so that when
you see a serpent creeping along, you can
hardly discern which way it tends.
Thus Satan in his vexing temptations hath many
intricate policies.
Turning this way and that way, the better
to conceal his design from the saint, which
will appear in these following methods.
First, he vexes the Christian by laying his
brats at the saint's door, and charging him
with that which is his own creature.
And here he has such a notable art,
that many dear saints of God are woefully
hampered and dejected, as if they were the
vilest blasphemers and various atheists in the world,
whereas indeed the cop is of his own
putting into the sack.
But so slyly is it conveyed into the
saint's bosom, that the Christian, though amazed and
frightened at the sight of them, yet being
jealous of his own heart, and unacquainted with
Satan's tricks of this kind, cannot conceive how
such motions should come there, if not bred
in and vomited out by his own naughty
heart.
So he bears the blame of the sin
himself, because he cannot find the right father.
Mourning is one that is forlorn and cast
off by God, or else, saith he, I
should never have such vermin of hell creeping
in my bosom.
And here Satan has the end he proposes,
for he is not so silly as to
hope he should have welcome with such a
horrid crew of blasphemous and atheistical thoughts in
that soul, where he has been denied when
he came in an enticing way.
No, but his design is by way of
revenge, because the soul will not prostitute itself
to his lust, otherwise, therefore, to haunt it
and scare it with those imps of blasphemy.
So he served Luther, to whom he appeared,
and when repulsed by him, went away and
left a noisome stench behind him in the
room.
Thus, when the Christian has worsted Satan in
his more pleasing temptations, being maddened, he belches
forth the stench of blasphemous motions to annoy
and affright him, that from them the Christian
may draw some sad conclusion or other.
And, indeed, the Christian's sins lie commonly more
in the conclusion which he draws from them,
as that he is not a child of
God, than in the motions themselves.
All the counsel, therefore, I shall give thee
in this case, is to do with these
motions as you use to serve those vagrants
and rogues that come about the country, whom
though you cannot keep them from passing through
your towns, yet you look they settle not
there, but whip them and send them to
their own home.
Thus give these motions the law in mourning
for them, resisting of them, and they shall
not be your charge.
Yea, it is like you shall seldom be
troubled with such guests.
But if once you come to entertain them
and be Satan's nurse to them, then the
law of God will cast them upon you.
Second While Another while of Satan as a
troubler is in aggravating the saint's sins, against
which he hath a notable declamatory faculty, not
that he hates a sin, but the saint.
Now in this his chief subtlety is so
to lay his charge that it may seem
to be the act of the Holy Spirit.
He knows an arrow out of God's quiver
wounds deep, and therefore when he accuses he
comes in God's name.
Suppose a child were conscious to himself of
displeasing his father, and one that owes him
a spite to trouble him, should counterfeit a
letter from his father, and cunningly convey it
into the son's hand, who receives it as
from his father.
Therein he charges him with many heavy crimes,
disowns him, and threatens he shall never come
in his sight, or have any portion from
him.
And the poor son, conscious to himself of
many undutiful carriages, and not knowing the plot,
takes on heavily, and can neither eat nor
sleep for grief.
Here is a real trouble begot from a
false and imaginary ground.
Thus Satan observes how the squares go between
God and his children.
Such a saint he sees tardy in this
duty, faulty in that service.
He knows the Christian is conscious of this,
and that the Spirit of God will always
show his distaste for these.
Both which reasons prompt Satan to draw a
charge at length, raking up all the bloody
aggravations he can think of, and give it
into the saint to sent from God.
Thus he taught Job's friends to pick up
those infirmities which dropped from him in his
distress, and shoot them back in his face,
as if indeed they had been sent from
God, to declare him a hypocrite, and denounce
his wrath for the same.
But how shall we know the false accusation
of Satan from the rebukes of God and
his Spirit?
1.
If they cross any former act or work
of the Spirit in your soul, they are
Satan's, not the Holy Spirit's.
Now you shall observe Satan's scope in accusing
the Christian in aggravating a sin as to
unsaint him, and persuade him that he is
but a hypocrite.
O sayest Satan, Now you have shown what
you are.
See what a foul spot is on your
coat.
This is not the spot of a child.
Whoever that was a saint committed such a
sin after such a sort.
All your comforts and confidence which you have
bragged of were false, I warrant you.
Thus, you see, Satan at one blow dashes
all in pieces.
The whole fabric of grace which God has
been rearing up many years in the soul
must now at one puff of his malicious
mouth be blown down.
And all the sweet comforts with which the
Holy Spirit has filled up God's love must
be defaced with this one blot which Satan
draws over the fair copy of the saint's
evidence.
Well, so, for your comfort, no.
If ever the Spirit of God has begun
a sanctifying or comforting work, causing you to
hope in his mercy, he never is, will,
or can be the messenger to bring contrary
news to your soul.
His language is not yea and nay, but
yea and amen forever.
Indeed, when the saint plays a wanton, he
can chide, yea, will frown, and tell the
soul roundly of his sin as he did
David by Nathan.
Thou art the man, this thou hast done.
He paints out his sin with such bloody
colors as made David's heart melt, as it
were, into so many drops of water.
But that shall not serve his turn.
He tells him what a rod is steeping
for him that shall smart to purpose.
One of his own house, no other than
his darling son, shall rise up against him.
This happens in order that he may the
more fully conceive how ill God took the
sin of him, a child, a saint, when
he shall know what it is to have
his beloved child traitorously invade his crown, and
unnaturally hunt for his precious life.
Yet not a word all this while is
heard from Nathan teaching David to unsaint himself,
and call in question the work of God
in his soul.
No, he had no such commission from God.
He was sent to make him mourn for
his sin, not from his sin to question
his state, which God had so oft put
out of doubt.
2.
When they asperse the riches of God's grace,
and so charge the Christian that withal they
reflect upon the good name of God, they
are not of the Holy Spirit, but from
Satan.
When you find your sins so represented and
aggravated to you as exceeding either the mercy
of God's nature or the grace of his
covenant, this comes from that foul liar.
The Holy Spirit is Christ's spokesman to commend
him to souls and to woo sinners to
embrace the grace of the gospel.
And can such words drop from his sacred
lips as should break the match and sink
Christ's esteem in the thoughts of the creature?
You may know where this was mined.
When you hear one commend another for a
wise or good man, and at last come
in with a butt that dashes all, you
will easily think he is no friend to
the man, but some sly enemy, that by
seeming to commend desires to disgrace some more.
Thus, when you find God represented to you
as merciful and gracious, but not to such
a great sinner as you, to have power
and strength, but not able to save you,
you may say, Alphonse, Satan, your speech betrays
you.
THIRD WHILE Another while of Satan lies in
cavilling into Christians' duties and performances, by which
he puts them to much toil and trouble.
He is at church as soon as you
are, Christian, for your heart.
Yea, he stands under your closet window and
hears what you say to God in secret,
all the while studying how he may commence
a suit against you from your duty.
He is like those that come to sermons
to carp and catch at what the preacher
says, that they may make him an offender
for some word or other misplaced, or like
a cunning opponent in the schools, while his
adversary is busy in reading his position, he
is studying to confute it.
And truly Satan has such an art at
this, that he is able to take our
duties in pieces, and so disfigure them that
they shall appear formal, though never so zealous,
hypocritical, though enriched with much sincerity.
When you have done your duty, Christian, then
stands at this office to rabble out your
work.
There he will say, You played the hypocrite,
zealous, but serving yourself.
Here wandering, there nodding, a little further puffed
up with pride.
And what wages can you hope for at
God's hands, now that you have spoiled his
work and cut it all out into chips?
Thus he makes many poor souls lead a
weary life, nothing they do but he has
a fling at, that they know not whether
it be best to pray or not, to
hear or not.
And when they have prayed and heard, whether
it be to any purpose or not, thus
their souls hang in doubt, and their days
pass in sorrow, while their enemy stands in
a corner and laughs at the cheat he
has put upon them, as one who by
putting a counterfeit spider into the dish, makes
those that sit at table either out of
conceit with the meat, that they dare not
eat, or afraid of themselves if they have
eaten, lest they should be poisoned with their
meat.
Question But you will say, what will you
have us to do in this case, to
withstand the cavils of Satan in reference to
our duties?
Answer No.
1 Let us make thee more accurate in
all you do.
It is the very end God aims at,
in suffering Satan thus to watch you, that
you his children might be more circumspect, because
you have one who overlooks you, that will
be sure to tell tales of you to
God, and accuse you to your own self.
Does it not behoove thee to write your
copy fair, when such a critic reads and
scans it over?
Does it not concern you to know your
heart well, to turn over the Scriptures diligently,
that you may know the state of your
soul, controversy in all the cases of conscience,
in which when you have such a subtle
opponent to reply to?
Answer No.
2 Let it make thee more humble.
If Satan can charge you with so much
in your best duties, oh, what then can
God do?
God suffers sometimes the infirmities of his people
to be known by the wicked, who are
ready to check and frump them for them,
for the end of humbling his people.
How much more low should these accusations of
Satan, which are in a great part too
true, lay us before God?
Answer No.
3 Observe the fallacy of Satan's argument, which
discovered will help thee to answer his cavil.
The fallacy is double.
First, he will persuade you that your duty
and yourself are hypocritical, proud and formal, because
something of these sins are to be found
in your duty.
Now, Christian, learn to distinguish between pride in
a duty and a proud duty, hypocrisy in
a person and an hypocrite, wine in a
man and a man in wine.
The best of saints have the stirrings of
such corruptions in them and in their services.
These birds will light on an Abraham's sacrifice,
but comfort yourself with this, that if you
find a party within your bosom pleading for
God and entering its protest against these, you
and your services are evangelically perfect.
God beholds these as the weaknesses of your
sickly state here below and pities you as
you would do your lame child.
How odious is he to us that mocks
one for natural defects, a blear eye or
a stammering tongue!
Such are these in your new nature.
Observable is that in Christ's prayer against Satan,
Zechariah 3, 2, the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee.
Is not this a bran plucked out of
the fire?
As if Christ had said, Lord, will you
suffer this envious spirit to twitch your poor
child with and charge him for those infirmities
that cleave to his perfect state?
He is but new plucked out of the
fire.
No wonder there are some sparks unquenched, some
corruptions unmortified, some disorders unreformed in his place
in Cali.
And what Christ did for Joshua, he does
incessantly for all his saints, for apologizing for
their infirmities with his Father.
2.
His other fallacy is in arguing from the
sin that is in our duty to the
nonacceptance of them.
Will God, saith he, thinkest thou take such
broken growths of thy hand?
Is he not a holy God?
Now hear, Christian, learn to distinguish and answer
Satan.
There is a double acceptance.
There is an acceptance of a thing by
way of payment of a debt.
But then there is an acceptance of a
thing offered as a token of love and
testimony of gratitude.
He that will not accept of broken money
or half the sum for payment of a
debt, the same man, if his friend sins
him so but a bit sixpence, in token
of his love, will take it kindly.
It is true, Christian, the debt you owe
to God must be paid in good and
lawful money.
But for your comfort, hear, Christ is your
paymaster.
Send Satan to him.
Bid him bring his charge against Christ, who
is ready at God's right hand to clear
his accounts and show his discharge for the
whole debt.
But now your performances and obedience come under
another notion as tokens of your love and
thankfulness to God, and such as a gracious
disposition to your heavenly Father that he accepts
your might.
Love refuses nothing that loves sins.
It is not the weight or worth of
the gift, but the desire of a man
is his kindness.
Proverbs 19.22 Fourth While A fourth while
of Satan, as the troubler, is to draw
the saint into depths of despair under a
specious pretense of not being humbled enough for
sin.
This we find singled out by the apostle
for one of the devil's fetches.
We are not ignorant, saith he, of his
devices.
2 Corinthians 2.11 His Sophistical Reasonings Satan
sets much by this light.
No weapon is oftener in his hand.
Where is the Christian that has not met
him at this door?
Here Satan finds the Christian easy to be
wrought on, the humors being stirred to his
hand, while the Christian of his own accord
complains of the hardness of his heart, and
is very prone to believe any who comply
with his musing thoughts.
Yea, thinks everyone flatters him that would persuade
him otherwise.
It is easier to dye that soul in
two black, which is of a sad color
already, than to make such a one take
delight some tincture of joy and comfort.
Question But how shall I answer the subtle
enemy when he thus perplexes my spirit with
not being humbled enough for sin?
Answer I answer as to the former labored
to spy the fallacy of his argument, and
his mouth is soon stopped.
Argument 1 Satan argues thus, There ought to
be a proportion between sin and sorrow, but
there is no proportion between your sins and
your sorrow, therefore you are not humbled enough.
What a plausible argument is here at first
blush.
For the major, that there ought to be
a proportion between sin and sorrow, this Satan
will show you scripture for.
Manasseh was a great sinner, and an ordinary
sorrow will not serve his turn.
He humbled himself greatly before the Lord.
2 Chronicles 33 12 Now says Satan, Were
your sin in the balance with your sorrow?
Are you as great a mourner as you
have been a sinner?
So many years have you waged war against
the Almighty, making havoc of his laws, loading
his patience till it groaned again, raking in
the sides of Christ with your bloody dagger,
while you did grieve his spirit and rejected
his grace.
And do you think a little remorse, like
a rolling cloud letting fall a few drops
of sorrow, will now be accepted?
No, you must deepen sorrow, as you have
soaked in sin.
Now to show you the fallacy, we must
distinguish of a twofold proportion of sorrow.
First, an exact proportion of sorrow to the
inherent nature and demerit of sin.
And number two, there is a proportion to
the law and rule of the gospel.
Now the first is not a thing feasible,
because the injury done in the least sin
is infinite, because done to an infinite God.
And if it could be feasible, yet according
to the tenor of the first covenant, it
would not be acceptable, because it had no
clause to give any hope for an after
game by repentance.
But the other, which is a gospel sorrow,
is indeed repentance unto life, both given by
the spirit of the gospel and to be
tried by the rule of the gospel.
This is given for your relief.
As you see sometimes in the highway, where
the waters are too deep for travelers, you
have a footbridge or cause, by which they
may escape the flood and safely pass on,
so that none but such as have not
eyes or are drunk will venture to go
through the waters, when they may avoid the
danger.
You are a dead man, if you think,
to answer your sin with proportionable sorrow.
You will soon be above your depth and
quackle thyself with thine own tears, but never
get over the least sin you commit.
Go not on, therefore, as you love your
life, but turn aside to this gospel path,
and you will escape this danger.
O you tempted souls, when Satan says you
are not humbled enough, see where you may
be relieved.
I am a Roman, says Paul.
I appeal to Caesar.
I am a Christian.
Say, I appeal to Christ's law.
And what is the law of the gospel
concerning this?
Heart sorrow is gospel sorrow.
They were pricked in their heart, Acts 2
.37. And Peter, like an honest surgeon, will
not keep these bleeding patients longer in pain
with their wounds open, but presently collapse on
the healing plaster of the gospel.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now a prick to the heart is more
than a wound to the conscience.
The heart is the seat of life.
Sin wounded there lies dying.
To do anything from the heart makes it
acceptable, Ephesians 6.6 and 2 Corinthians 5
.11. Now poor soul, had you sat thus
long in the devil's docks, if you had
understood this aright?
Does your heart clear or condemn you when
in secret you are bemoaning your sin before
God?
If your heart be false, I cannot help
you, no, not the gospel itself.
But if sincere, you have boldness with God,
1 John 3.21. Argument number two.
A second argument Satan uses is this.
He whose sorrow falls short of theirs, that
never truly repented, he is not humbled enough.
But soul, your sorrow falls short of some
that never truly repented.
Well, the first proposition is true, but how
will Satan prove his minor?
Thus Ahab, he took on for his sin,
and went in sackcloth.
Judas, he made bitter complaint.
O says Satan, did you not know such
an one that lay under terror of conscience,
walking in a sad, mournful condition so many
months, and everyone took him for the greatest
convert in the country?
And yet he at last fell foul, he
improved an apostate.
But you never did feel such smart, past
so many weary nights, and days, and morning,
and bitter lamentation as he has done.
And therefore you fall short of one that
fell short of repentance.
And truly this is a sad stumbling block
to a soul in an hour of temptation,
like a ship sunk in the mouth of
the harbor, which is more dangerous to others
than if it had perished in the open
sea.
There is less scandal by the sins of
the wicked, who sink, as it were, in
the broad sea of profaneness, than in those
who are convinced of sin, troubled in conscience,
and miscarry so near to the harbor, within
sight, as it were, of saving grace.
Tempted souls can hardly get over these without
dashing.
Am I better than such an one that
proved not, at last?
Now to help thee a little to find
out the fallacy of this argument, we must
distinguish between the tears that accompany sorrow, and
the intrinsical nature of this grace.
The first, which are accessory, may be separated
from the other, is a region of the
sea, which is caused by the wind, from
the sea when the wind is down.
From this distinction take two conclusions.
Number one, one may fall short of an
hypocrite in the tears that sometimes accompany sorrow,
and yet have the truth of this grace,
which the other with all his tears lacks.
Christians run into many mistakes by judging rather
according to that which is accessory than that
which is essential to the nature of duties
and graces.
Sometimes you hear one pray with a moving
expression, while you can hardly get out a
few broken words in duty, and you are
ready to accuse yourself and to admire him
as if the guilt of the key made
it open the door the better.
You see another abound with joy, which you
lack, and are ready to conclude his grace
more and yours less.
Whereas you may have more real grace, only
you lack a light to show you where
it lies.
Take heed of judging by accessories.
Perhaps you have not heard so much of
the rattling of the chains of hell, nor
in your conscience the outcries of the damned
to make your flesh tremble.
But have you not seen that in a
bleeding Christ which has made your heart melt
and mourn, ye loathe and hate your lust
more than the devil himself?
Truly, Christian, it is strange to hear a
patient complain of his physician when he finds
his physic work effectually to the evacuating of
his distempered humors and the restoring his health,
merely because he was not so sick as
some others with the working of it.
So you have reason to bless God that
the convictions of the Spirit wrought so kindly
on you to effect that in you without
those tears which have cost others so dear.
2.
This is so we can argument that contrarywise,
the more the tears are, the less sorrow
is for sin while they remain.
They are indeed preparatory, sometimes to sorrow.
They go before this grace as austere John
before meet Jesus.
But as John went down when Christ went
up, his increase was John's decrease.
So as truly godly sorrow goes up, these
tears go down.
As the wind gathers the clouds, but those
clouds seldom melt into a set rain until
the wind falls that gathered them.
So these tears raise the clouds of our
sins and our consciences.
But when these sins melt into godly sorrow,
this lays a storm presently.
Indeed, as the loud winds blow away the
rain, so these tears do keep off the
soul from this gospel sorrow.
While the creature is making an outcry, it
is damned, it is damned.
It has taken up so much with the
fear of hell that sin, as sin, which
is a proper object of godly sorrow, is
little looked on or mourned for.
4.
A murderer condemned to die is so possessed
with the fear of death and thought of
the gallows that there lies a slain body.
It may be before him unlamented by him.
But when his pardon is brought, then he
can bestow his tears freely on his murdered
friend.
They shall look on him whom they have
pierced and mourn.
Faith is the eye.
This eye beholding its sin, piercing Christ, and
Christ pardoning its sin affects the heart.
The heart affected sighs.
These inward clouds melt and run from the
eye of faith and tears.
And all this is done when there is
no tempest of terror upon the spirit, but
a sweet serenity of love and peace And
therefore, Christian, see how Satan abuses you when
he would persuade you you are not humbled
enough because your sorrow is not attended with
these legal tears.
Brief application of Satan's subtlety is a troubler
and accuser for sin.
Use first.
Is Satan so subtle to trouble the saints'
peace?
This proves him to be the children of
Satan who show the same art and subtlety
in vexing the spirits of the saints as
doth their infernal father.
Not to speak of bloody persecutors who are
the devil's slaughter slaves to butcher the saints,
but of those who more slightly trouble and
molest the saints' peace.
Number one.
Such as rake up the saints' old sins
which God has forgiven and forgotten merely to
grieve their spirits and be spattered their names.
These show their devilish malice and deed who
can take such pains to travel many years
back that they may find a handful of
dirt to throw on the saints' face.
The Shemite twitted David, Come out, thou bloody
man!
1 Samuel 16.7 When you that fear
God meet with such reproaches, answer them as
Beza did to Papas, who for want of
other matter charged him for some wanton poems
penned by him in his youth.
These men, says he, grudge me the pardoning
mercy of God.
Number two.
Such as watch for the saints' halting and
catch at every infirmity to make them odious
and themselves merry.
It is a dreadful curse such bring upon
themselves though they little think of it.
No less than Amalek's, the remembrance of whose
name God threatened to blot from under heaven.
Deuteronomy 25.19 Why, what had Amalek done
to deserve this?
They smote the hindermost, those that were feeble
and could not march with the rest.
And was it so great a cruelty to
do this?
Much more to smite with the edge of
a mocking tongue the feeble in grace.
Number three.
Such who fathered their sins upon the saints.
Thus Ahab calls a prophet the troubler of
Israel when it was himself in his father's
house.
What a grief was it, thank you, to
Moses' spirit for the Israelites to lay the
blood of those that died in the wilderness
at his door.
Whereas God knows he was their constant bell
when at any time God's hand is up
to destroy them.
And this was the charge which the best
of God's servants in this crooked generation of
ours lies under.
We may thank them, says the profane, for
all our late miseries in the nation.
We were well enough till they would reform
us.
Oh, for shame!
Blame not the good physic that was administered
but the corrupt body of the nation that
could not bear it.
Number four.
Such as will themselves sin merrily to trouble
the saint spirit.
Thus Rabshakeh blasphemed and when desired to speak
in another language he goes on the more
to grieve them.
Sometimes he shall have a profane wretch knowing
one to be conscientious and cannot brook to
hear the name of God taken in vain
or the ways of God flouted.
Will on purpose fall upon such discourse as
shall great his chaste ears and trouble his
gracious spirit.
Such a one strikes father and child at
one blow.
He thinks if not enough to dishonor God
except the saint stands by to see and
hear the wrong done to his heavenly father.
You second.
This may afford manner of admiration and thankfulness
to any of you O ye saints who
are not at this day under Satan's hatches.
Is he so subtle to disquiet and have
you any peace in your conscience?
To whom are you beholden for that serenity
that is on your spirit?
To none but your God under whose wing
you sit so warm and safe.
Is there not combustible matter enough in your
conscience for his sparks to kindle?
Perhaps you have not committed such bloody sins
as others.
Then is not the reason of your peace
for the least as big enough to damn
much more to trouble you?
You have not grossly fallen, it may be,
since conversion.
That is rare if you be of longstanding,
yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might
walk in your conscience.
You have had many testimonies of God's favor,
have you not?
Who more than David?
Psalm 77.
Yet he was at a loss sometimes learning
to spell his evidences as if he could
never have read them.
The sense of God's love comes and goes
with the present taste.
He that is in the dark while there
sees not the more for former light.
O bless God for that light which shines
in at your window.
Satan is plotting to undermine your comfort every
day.
This thief sees your pleasant fruits as they
hang and his teeth water at him.
But the wall is too high for him
to climb.
Your God keeps his serpent out of your
paradise.
It is not the grace of God in
you but the favor of God as a
shield about you that defends you from the
wicked one.
Use third.
Let Satan's subtlety to molest your peace make
you, O Christian, more wise and wary.
You have not a fool to deal with
but one that has wit enough to spill
your comfort and spoil your joy if not
narrowly watched.
This is a dainty bit he gates for.
It is not harder to keep the flies
out of your cupboards in summer from tainting
your provision than Satan out of your consciences.
Many a sweet meal hath he robbed the
saints of and sent them supperless to bed.
Take heed, therefore, that he roams not yours
away also.
Directions tending to entrench and fortify the Christian
against the assaults of Satan as a troubler
and an accuser.
Question.
How shall I stand in a defensive posture,
may the Christian say, against these wiles of
Satan as a troubler?
Answer first.
If you wouldst be guarded from him as
a troubler, take heed of him as a
seducer.
The half of Satan's hatchet with which he
lies chopping at the root of the Christian's
comfort is commonly made of the Christian's wood.
First he tempts to sin and then for
it.
Satan is but a creature and cannot work
without tools.
He can indeed make much of a little
but not anything of nothing, as we see
in his assaulting of Christ, where he troubled
himself to little purpose because he came and
found nothing in him.
John 14, 30 Though the devil throws a
stone, yet it is the mud in us
which roils our comforts.
It was in vain for the Philistines to
fall on Samson till his lock was cut.
Take heed, therefore, of yielding to his enticing
motions.
These are the stumbling blocks at which he
hopes you will break your shins and bruise
your conscience, which, once done, let him alone
to spin out the cure.
Indeed, a saint's flesh heals not so easily
as others.
Drink not of the devil's waffle.
There is poison in the cup.
His wine is a mocker.
Look not on it as it sparkles in
the temptation.
What you drink down with sweetness you will
be sure to bring up again as gall
and worm would.
Above all sins take heed of presumptuous ones.
You are not out of the danger of
such.
Sad stories we have of saints' falls and
what follows in.
Psalm 19, 13 Take him, jailer, says God.
Deliver such an one unto Satan.
And if a saint be the prisoner and
the devil the keeper, you may guess how
he shall be used.
Oh, how he will tear and wring your
conscience!
Though that dreadful ordinance is not used as
it should be in the church, yet God's
court sits, and if he excommunicate a soul
from his presence, he falls presently into Satan's
clutches.
If through his subtlety you have been overtaken,
take heed you are yet not in the
devil's quarters.
Shake the viper off your hand, ply you
to your surgeon.
Green wounds cure best.
If you neglect, and the winged get to
it, your conscience will soon fester.
Ahab, we read, was wounded in battle and
was loath to yield to it.
It is said he was held up in
his chariot, but he died for it.
1 Kings 22, 35 When a soul has
received a wound, committed a sin, Satan labors
to bolster him up with flattering hopes, holds
him up, as it were, in his chariot
against God.
What?
Yield for this?
Afraid for a little scratch and lose the
spoil of your future pleasure for this?
Oh, take heed of listening to such counsel.
The sooner you yield, the fairer quarter you
will have.
Every step in this way gets you further
from your peace.
A rent garment is cashed by every nail,
and the rent made whiter.
Renew, therefore, your repentance speedily, whereby this breach
may be made up and worse prevented, which
else will befall you?
Answer 2 Study the grand gospel truth of
a soul's justification before God.
Acquaint yourself with this in all its causes,
the moving cause, the free mercy of God,
being justified freely by His grace, the meritorious,
which is the blood of Christ, in the
instrumental faith, with all the sweet privileges that
flow from it.
Romans 3, 24 An effectual door once opened
to let the soul into this truth would
not only spoil the pope's market, as Gardner
said, but the devil's also.
When Satan comes to disquiet the Christian's peace
for lack of a right understanding here, he
is soon worsted by his enemy.
It is a silly rabbit which might escape
the dogs in some covert or bureau that
is at hand, but trusting to her heels
as by the print of her own feet
and scent, which she leaves behind, followed, till
at last weary and spent she falls into
the mouth of them.
In all that a Christian does, there is
a print of sinful infirmity, an ascent by
which Satan is unable to trace and pursue
him over hedge and ditch, this grace and
that duty, till the soul not able to
stand before the accusation of Satan is ready
to fall down in despair at his feet.
Whereas here is a hiding place where the
enemy dares not come, the clefts of the
rock, the hole of the stairs which this
truth leads to.
When Satan charges you for a sinner, perhaps
you interpose your repentance and reformation, but soon
are beaten out of those works when you
are shown the sinful mixtures that are in
them.
Whereas this truth would choke all his bullets
that you believe on him who has said,
Not unto him that worketh, but unto him
that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is imputed for righteousness.
Romans 4 verse 5 Get therefore into this
tower of the gospel covenant, and roll this
truth, as she that stoned on the head
of Abimelech, on the head of Satan.
Answer third Be sure, Christian, you keep the
plains.
Take heed that Satan quaffed thee not up
in some straits where you can neither well
fight nor fly.
Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had
had the Israelites in when they cried, They
are entangled, they are entangled.
There are three kinds of straits wherein he
labors to entrap the Christian.
Nice questions, obscure scriptures, and dark providences.
Number one He labors 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 a Christian
course which he cannot easily resolve, by this
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.
Romans 14 verse 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 an one's
closing with Christ in 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 in thou art
safe.
It is plain we are not to make
election a ground for our faith, but our
faith in calling a medium or argument to
prove our election.
Election indeed is first in order of divine
acting.
God chooses 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 has no
astrology to know the position of the heavens.
You may know you are elect, as surely
by a work of grace in you, as
if you had stood by God's elbow when
he wrote your 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 you believe first and close with Christ,
then is the Spirit of God sent to
anoint you 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 toward you of old,
when he prints those his thoughts and makes
them legible in your effectual calling.
Here you do not go up to heaven
and pry into God's secrets, but heaven comes
down to you and reveals them.
Again he will ask the Christian what was
the time of his conversion.
Are you a Christian, will he say, and
do you not know when you commenced?
Now keep the plains and content yourself with
this, that you see the streams of grace,
though the time of your conversion be like
the head of Nihilus not to be found.
God oft comes but times before gross sins
have deflowered the soul and steals into the
creature's bosom without much noise.
In such a case, Satan does but abuse
you when he sends you on this errand.
You may know the sun is up, though
you did not observe when it rose.
Again, what will become of you, says Satan,
if God should bring you into such an
affliction or trial, when you must burn or
turn, or when all your outward estate shall
be rent from you?
No meal in your barrel, no money in
the purse.
Dare you have so good an opinion of
yourself as to think that your faith will
hold out in such an hour of temptation?
If you have but half an eye, Christian,
you may see what Satan is driving at.
This is an ensnaring question.
By the fear of future troubles he labors
to bring you into a neglect of your
present duty, and indispose you also for such
estate whenever it falls.
If a man has 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 has in God,
and his promise concerning future events, the less
strength it will find to bear them when
the pinch comes.
When you, therefore, are molested with such fears,
pacify your heart with the three plain conclusions.
1.
Every event is a product of God's providence.
Not a sparrow, much less a saint, falls
to the ground by poverty, sickness, persecution, and
so on, but the hand of God is
in it.
2.
God is put in caution.
He will never leave you, nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13.5 He that enables you in
one condition will in another.
God loans his servants their whole trade.
Grace is a universal principle.
At the first moment of your spiritual life,
suffering grace was infused as well as praying
grace.
3.
God is wise to conceal the suckers he
intends in the several changes of your life,
that so he may draw your 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 comes to his
rescue.
Christ sends his disciples to see, but stays
behind himself on a design to try their
faith and show his love.
Comfort yourself, therefore, with this, though you don't
see God in the way, yet ye shall
find him in the end.
2.
Satan perplexes the tender consciences of doubting Christians
with obscure scriptures, whose sense lies too deep
for their weakened, distempered judgments 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 in those difficult places, Hebrews 6,
4 to 6, Hebrews 10, 26, which pass
the understanding as a swift stream be I,
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 would have refreshed their understandings
by looking off these places, whose engraving is
too curious to be long poured on by
a weak eye, they might have found that
in other Scriptures plainly expressed, which would have
enabled them as through a mirror more safely
to have viewed these.
Therefore, Christian, keep the plains.
You may be sure it is your enemy
that gives you such stones to break your
teeth, when your condition calls rather for bread
and wine.
Such Scriptures, I mean, as are most apt
to nourish your faith and cure your drooping
spirit.
When you meet such plain Scriptures, which speak
to your case, go over where it is
fordable, and do not venture beyond your depth.
Are you afraid because you have sinned since
the knowledge of the truth, and that therefore
no sacrifice remains for you?
See David and Peter's case, how it patterns
yours, and is left upon record that their
recovery may be a key in your hand
to open such places as these.
May you not safely conclude from these that
this is not their meaning, that none can
be saved at sin after knowledge?
Indeed, in both those 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 of it as well as seeming
practice of it.
Now, if the root of the manner were
ever in you, other Scriptures will first comfort
you against those particular apostasies into which you
have relapsed, by sweet promises inviting such to
return, and giving precedence of saints who have
had peace spoken to them after such folly,
and also they will satisfy you against the
other, by giving full security to your faith,
that your 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.
Number 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 labors to make him question his spiritual
estate and sonship.
His wife would have him entertain hard thoughts
of God, say, and curse God, and die,
and his friends his 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 your enemy, nor
yourself as his.
Read the saddest providence with the comment of
the word, and you cannot make such a
harsh interpretation.
As God can make a straight line with
a crooked stick, be righteous when he uses
wicked instruments, so also gracious when he dispenses
harsh providences.
Joseph kept his love when he spake roughly
to his brethren.
I do not wonder that the wicked think
that they have God's blessing, because they are
in the warm sun.
Alas, as they are strangers to God's counsels,
void of his spirit and sensual judging of
God and of his providence, by the report
their present feeling makes of them like little
children who think everyone loves them that gives
them plums.
But it is strange that a saint should
be at a loss for his afflicted state
when he has a key to decipher God's
character.
Christian, has not God secretly instructed you by
a spirit from the word how to read
the shorthand of his providence?
Do you not 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?
Does not God damn such to be rich,
honorable, 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 jail serves to Sarah.
He shall have milk, though he ask but
water, that she might nail him the sure
to the ground.
Milk having a property is some right to
incline to sleep.
Judges 5 25.
Answer 4.
Be careful to keep your old receipts which
you have had from God for the pardon
of your sins.
There are some gaudy days and jubilee-like
festivals, when God comes forth closed with the
robes of his mercy and holds forth the
scepter of his grace more familiarly to his
children than ordinary, bearing witness to their faith,
sincerity and so on, and then the firmament
is clear, not a cloud to be seen
to darken the Christian's comfort.
Love and joy are the souls 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
his 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 behooves you, therefore, to lay them up
safely.
Such a testimony may serve to non-suit
your accuser many years hence.
One affirmative from God's mouth for your pardon
state carries more weight, though of old date,
than a thousand negative from Satan's.
David's songs of old spring in with a
light to a soul in his midnight sorrows.
Question.
But what counsel would you give me, says
a distressed soul, who cannot fasten on my
former comforts, nor dare to vouch for 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 your repentance as if you have never
repented.
Put forth fresh acts of faith as if
you had never believed.
This seriously done will stop Satan's mouth with
an unexpected answer.
Let him object against your former actions as
hypocritical.
What can he say against your present repenting
and believing?
Which of truth sets you beyond his shot?
It will be harder for Satan to disprove
the present workings of God's gracious spirit, while
the impressions of it are fresh, than to
pick a hole in your 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 interposes, 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 tear 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 you with
the fears of your spiritual estate, ply you
to the throne of grace, and beg a
new copy of your old evidence, which you
have lost.
The original is in the pardon office in
heaven, whereof Christ is master, and if you
be a saint, your name is upon record
in that court.
Make your moan to God, hear that news
from heaven, rather than listen to the tales
which are brought by your 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 nonsuch in holiness, and proved
him so at last?
If he knew you were a saint, would
he tell you so?
If a hypocrite, he would be as loath
you should know it.
Turn your back, therefore, on him, and go
to your God.
Fear not, but sooner or later he will
give his hand again to your certificate.
But look, you do not rashly pass a
censure on yourself, because a satisfactory answer is
not presently sent at your desire.
The messenger may stay long, and bring good
news at last.
Answer third.
Shun battle with your enemy, while, until you
are in a fitter posture, that you may
draw into your trenches, and make an honorable
retreat into those fastnesses and strength which Christ
has 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 says Satan, do you hope to see
God?
None but the pure in heart shall be
blessed with that vision.
Do you think to have comfort?
That is a portion of the mourners in
spirit.
Now, soul, though you cannot say in the
hurry of temptation that you are the pure
in heart and the mourner in spirit, yet
then say you believe God is able to
work these in you.
Yea, has 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 pleases.
This act of faith, accompanied with a longing
desire after that grace, you cannot yet find,
and an attendance on the means, though it
will not fully satisfy all your doubts, may
be, yet, will keep your head above water,
that you despair not, in such a shore
you need in this case, or the house
falls.
Answer forth.
If yet Satan dogs you, call in help.
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 an impostume, gives the
soul present ease.
Satan knows this too well, and therefore if
some thieves, when they come to rob an
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 says Satan, if your brethren or friends
know such a thing by you, they will
cast you off.
Others will hoot at you.
Thus many a poor soul has been kept
long in his pangs by biting them in.
You lose, Christian, a double help by keeping
the devil's secret, the counsel and prayers of
your fellow brethren.
And what an invaluable loss is this.
That was a reading from the Christian in
Complete Armor by William Gurnall.