love him by making love to it, could, after all this, frame any plot of real iinkindness against it. No ; this thought, though Satan may force it in a man- ner upon the Christian, and violently press for its entertainment under the advantage of some frowning providence, yet it can never lind welcome so far as to be credited in the sonl where love to God hath anything to do. And surely there is no fear that the soul will be persuaded wickedly to throw out blasphemies against God, who so abominates the least suspicion of God in its most secret thoughts.
The second design Satan hath in these blasphemous temptations is the Christian's trouble and vexation. Though he doth not find the Christian so kind as to take these guests in and give them lodgings, yet he knows it will not a little disturb and break his rest to have them continually knocking at his door ; yea, when he cannot pollute the Christian by obtaining his consent to them, then he hopes to create him no little disquiet by accusing him for what he will not commit ; and so of a defiler he is forced to turn slanderer, reviler, and false accuser. Thus the whore sometimes accuseth the honest man, merely to be revenged on him, because he will not yield to satisfy her lust. Joseph woidd not lie with his mistress, and she invented a horrible lie on him. The devil is the blasphemer; but the poor Christian, because he will not join with him in the fact, shall have the name and bear the blame of it. As the Jews compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry Christ's cross, so Satan would compel the tempted Christian to carry the guilt of his sin for him ; and many times he doth with such sleight of hand shift it from himself to the Christian's back, that he, poor creatiu'e, perceives not the juggler's art of conveying it unto him, but goes complaining only of the baseness of his own heart : and, as it sometimes falls out that an lionest man, in whose house stolen goods are found, suffers because he cannot find the thief who left them, so the Christian suff'ers many sad terrors from the mere presence of these horrid thoughts in his bosom, because he is not able to say whose they are,— whetlier shot in by Satan, or the steaming forth of his own wicked heart. The luimble Christian. is prone to fear the worst of himself, even where he is not conscious of being guilty ; like the patriarchs, who, when the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, took the blame to themselves, though they were innocent in the fact ; and such is the confusion sometimes in the Christian's thoughts, that he is ready to charge himself with those brats that should be laid at Satan's door. Now, here I shall show you how faith defeateth this second design of the devil in these blasphemous motions ; and this it doth in two ways: first, by helping the Christian to discern Satan's injections from the motions of his own heart ; secondlj', by succouring him, though they rise from his own heart.
First, Faith teaches the Christian to distinguish those fire-balls of temptations, which are thrown in at his window by Satan, from those sparks of corruption which fly from his own heartli, and take fire at his own sinful heart. And, certainly, those blasphemous thoughts, of which many graciovis souls make such sad complaint, will be found very often of the former sort, as may appear if we consider the time when they first stir and are most busy, the manner how they come, and lastly, the effect they have on the Christian's heart. First, The time when they begin to stir, and the soul to be haunted with them ; and that is ordinarily when the work of conversion hath newly passed, or is passing, upon him ; when the creature falls off from his own sinful course to embrace Christ, and declares for him against sin and Satan. This is the time when these blas- phemous suggestions begin to make their appearance. There is a strong proba- bility that they do not breed there, but are sent from Satan by way of revenge for the soul's revolt from him ; the devil dealing by the Christian in this not much unlike to witches, who, to express their spite against those that cross them, sometimes cause them to swarm with vermin, to make them loathsome to themselves ; and, as one who never found such vermin crawling about him before, might well wonder to see himself so suddenly covered with them, and would rather impute it to the witch's malice than to the corruption of his own body, so in this case, it is very improbable to think that' the creature should in this juncture of time, above all, fall so fold with God liy sinning against him to such a height as this. Is it likely that he can, while he is in tears for the sins of his past life, commit a greater than any of them which he mourns for? or.
ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 495