Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell much upon the necessity and excellency of that resting-p)lace that God hath provided for you. Above all other resting-places him- self is your resting-place ; his free mercy and love is your resting-place ; the pure, glorious, matchless, and spotless righteousness of Christ is your resting-place. Ah ! it is sad to think, that most men have for- gotten their resting-place, as the Lord complains: 'My people have been as lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, and have turned them away to the mountains : they are gone from mountain to hill, and forgotten their resting-place/ J er. 1. 6. So poor souls that see not the excellency of that resting-place that God hath appointed for their souls to lie down in, they wander from mountain to hill, from one duty to another, and here they will rest and there they will rest ; but souls that see the excellency of that resting-place that God hath provided for them, they will say, Farewell prayer, farewell hearing, farewell fasting, &c, I will rest no more in you, but now I will rest
1 Omne bonum in summo bono, all good ia in the cbiefcst good. Nee Christus, nee caelum patitur hyperbolem.
2 Cor. II 11.] against satan's devices. 91
only in the bosom of Christ, the love of Christ, the righteousness of Christ.
III. The third thing to be shewed is,
The several devices that Satan hath to keep souls in a sad, doubt- ing, questioning, and uncomfortable condition.
Though he can never rob a believer of his crown, yet such is his malice and envy, that he will leave no stone unturned, no means un- attempted, to rob them of their comfort and peace, to make their life a burden and a hell unto them, to cause them to spend their days in sorrow and mourning, in sighing and complaining, in doubting and questioning. Surely we have no interest in Christ ; our graces are not true, our hopes are the hopes of hypocrites ; our confidence is our presumption, our enjoyments are our delusions, &C1
I shall shew you this in some particulars, &c.
Device 1. The first device that Satan hath to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition, and so making their life a hell, is, By causing them to be still poring and musing upon sin, to mind their sins more than their Saviour; yea, so to mind their sins as to forget, yea, to neglect their Saviour; that, as the Psalmist speaks, ■ The Lord is not in all their thoughts,' Ps. x. 4. Their eyes are so fixed upon their disease, that they cannot see the remedy, though it be near ; and they do so muse upon their debts, that they have neither mind nor heart to think of their Surety, &c.2
Now the remedies against this device are these.
Remedy (1). The first remedy is for weak believers to consider, That though Jesus Christ hath not freed them from the presence of sin, yet he hath freed them from the damnatory power of sin. It is most true that sin and grace were never born together, neither shall sin and grace die together ; yet while a believer breathes in this world, they must live together, they must keep house together. Christ in this life will not free any believer from the presence of any one sin, though he doth free every believer from the damning power of every sin. ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,' Rom. viii. 1. The law cannot condemn a believer, for Christ hath fulfilled it for him ; divine justice cannot condemn him, for that Christ hath satis- fied ; his sins cannot condemn him, for they in the blood of Christ are pardoned ; and his own conscience, upon righteous grounds, cannot condemn him, because Christ, that is greater than his conscience, hath acquitted him.3 Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, to
1 Blessed Bradford, in one of his epistles, saith thus, ' 0 Lord, sometime methinks I feel it so with me, as if there were no difference between my heart and the wicked. I have a blind mind as they, a stout, stubborn, rebellious hard heart as they,' and so he goes on, &c [A frequent plaint by this holy man. See his ' Writings,' consisting mainly of ' Letters,' by Townsend (Parker Society), 1853. — G.]
2 A Christian should wear Christ in his bosom as a flower of delight, for he is a wbole paradise of delight. He that mind3 not Christ more than his sin, can never be thankful aud fruitful as he should.
8 Peccata enim non nocent, si non placent, my sins hurt me not, if they like me not. Sin is like that wild fig-tree, or ivy in the wall ; cut off stump, body, bouph, and branches, yet some strings or other will sprout out again, till the wall be plucked down.
92 PRFX'IOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
consider, That /hovgh Jesus Christ hath not freed you from the mo- letit i-)i() a ml resin;/ /xnrer if sin, yet he hath freed you from the reign and tluiiii nioit if sin. Thou sayest that sin doth so molest and vex thee, that thou canst not think of God, nor go to God, nor speak with God.1 Oh ! but remember it is one thing for sin to molest and vex thee, and another thing tor sin to reign and have dominion over thee. ' For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace,' Rom. vi. 14-. Sin may rebel, but it shall never reign in a saint. It fareth with sin in the regenerate as with those beasts that Daniel speaks of, 'that had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time,' Dan. vii. 12.
Now sin reigns in the soul when the soul willingly and readily obeys it, and subjects to its commands, as subjects do actively obey and embrace the commands of their prince. The commands of a king are readily embraced and obeyed by his subjects, but the commands of a tyrant are embraced and obeyed unwillingly. All the service that is done to a tyrant is out of violence, and not out of obedience. A free and willing subjection to the commands of sin speaks out the soul to be under the reign and dominion of sin ; but from this plague, this hell, Christ frees all believers.2 Sin cannot say of a believer as the centurion said of his servants, ' I bid one Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to another, Do this, and he doth it,' Mat. viii. 9. No ! the heart of a saint riseth against the commands of sin ; and when sin would carry his soul to the devil, he hales his sin before the Lord, and cries out for justice. Lord ! saith the believing soul, sin plays the tyrant, the devil in me ; it would have me to do that which makes against thy holiness as well as against my happi- ness ; against thy honour and glory, as my comfort and peace ; there- fore do me justice, thou righteous Judge of heaven and earth, and let this tyrant sin die for it, &c.