In such a season as this is, upon both the accounts mentioned, those who are spiritually minded will much exercise their thoughts about the being and existence of God. They will say within them- selves, “ Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God who judgeth in the earth.” Hence will follow such appre- hensions of the immensity of his nature, of his eternal power and infinite wisdom, of his absolute sovereignty, as will hold their souls firm and steadfast in the highest storms of temptation that may befall them.
Yet are there two things that the weaker sort of believers may be exercised with, in their thoughts of the divine being and existence, which may occasion them some trouble :—
(1.) Satan, knowing the weakness of our minds in the immediate contemplation of things infinite and incomprehensible, will sometimes take advantage to insinuate blasphemous imaginations in opposition unto what we would fix upon and relieve ourselves withal. He will take that very time, trusting unto our weakness and his own methods of subtlety, to suggest his temptations unto atheism by ensnaring inquiries, when we go about to refresh our souls with thoughts of the divine being and excellencies. “But is there a God indeed? how do you know that there is a God? and may it not be otherwise?” will be his language unto our minds; for from his first temptation, by way of an ensnaring question, “ Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
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370 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART I.
eat of every tree of the garden?” he proceeds still much in the same method. So he did with our Saviour himself, “If thou be the Son of God.” “Is there a God? how if there should be none?” In such a case the rule is given us by the apostle: “ Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,’ Eph. vi. 16. Tod sovmpod, “of the wicked one;” that is, the devil. And two ways will faith act itself on this occasion :—
[1.] By a speedy rejection of such diabolical suggestions with de- testation. So did our Saviour in a case not unlike it: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Wherefore, if any such thoughts are suggested or seem to arise in your minds, know assuredly that they are no less immediately from the devil than if he personally stood before you and visibly appeared unto you. If he did so, there is none of you but would arm yourselves with an utter defiance of what he should offer unto you. It is no less necessary on this occasion, when you may feel him, though you may see him not. Suffer not his fiery darts to abide one moment with you; entertain no parley or dispute about them; reject them with indignation; and strengthen your rejection of them with some pertinent testimony of Scripture, as our Saviour did. If aman have a grenado or fire-ball cast into his clothes by his enemy, he doth not consider whether it will burn or no, but im- mediately shakes it off from him. Deal no otherwise with these fiery darts, lest by their abode with you they inflame your imagina- tion unto greater disturbance. “
[2.] In case they depart not utterly upon this endeavour for their exclusion and casting out, return immediately without farther dis-. pute unto your own experience. When the devil hath asked you the question, if you answer him you will be ensnared; but if thereon you ask yourselves the question, and apply yourselves unto your own experience for an answer unto it, you will frustrate all his designs.
There are arguments to be taken, as was said, from the light of nature, and reason in its proper exercise, sufficient to defeat all ob- jections of that kind; but these are not our proper weapons in case of our own temptation, which alone is now under consideration. It requires longer and more sedate reasoning than such a state will admit of; nor is it a sanctified medium for our relief.
It is what is suited unto suggestions on the occasion of our medi- tations that we inquire after. In them we are not to argue on such principles, but to take the shield of faith to quench these fiery darts, And if, on such occasions, Satan can divert us into long disputes about the being of God, he hath his end, by carrying us off from the meditation on him which we did design; and after a while he will
CHAP. Ix. | NATURE OF MEDITATION ON GOD. 371
prevail to make it a common road and trade, that no sooner shall we begin to think of God but immediately we must dispute about his being. Therefore the way in this case, for him who is really a believer, is, to retreat immediately unto his own experience; which will pour shame and contempt on the suggestions of Satan. There is no be- liever, who hath knowledge and time to exercise the wisdom of faith in the consideration of himself and of God’s dealings with him, but hath a witness in himself of his eternal power and Godhead, as also of all those other perfections of his nature which he is pleased to manifest and glorify by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, on this suggestion of Satan that there is no God, he will be able to say, “He might better tell me that I do not live nor breathe, that I am not fed by my meat nor warmed by my clothes, that I know not myself nor any thing else; for I have spiritual sense and experience of the con- trary:” like him of old, who, when a cunning sophister would prove unto him by syllogisms that there was no such a thing as mo- tion, gave no answer unto his arguments, but rose up and walked! “ How often,” will he say, “have I had experience of the power and presence of God in prayer, as though I had not only heard of him by the hearing of the ear, but also seen him by the seeing of the eye! How often hath he put forth his power and grace in me by his Spirit and his word, with an uncontrollable evidence of his being, good- ness, love, and grace! How often hath he refreshed my conscience with the sense of the pardon of sin, speaking that peace unto my soul which all the world could not communicate unto me! In how many afflictions, dangers, troubles, hath he been a present help and relief! What sensible emanations of life and power from him have -I obtained in meditation on his grace and glory!”’ As he who had been blind answered the Pharisees unto their ensnaring and captious questions, “ Be it what it will, ‘one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see:’” so, “ Whatever,” saith such a soul, “ be in this temptation of Satan, one thing I know full well, that whereas I was dead, I am alive, whereas I was blind, now I see, and that by _ the effect of divine power.”