_Tempt._ I. The most ordinary temptation against the comfort of believers, (for I have already spoken of those that are against their safety,) is to doubt of their own sincerity, and consequently of their part in Christ. Saith the tempter, All that thou hast done, hath been but in hypocrisy; thou wast never a true believer, nor ever didst truly repent of sin, nor truly love God; and therefore thou are unjustified, and shalt speedily be condemned.
Against this temptation a believer hath two remedies. The first is, to confute the tempter by those evidences which will prove that he hath been sincere (such as I have often mentioned before); and by repelling these reasonings, by which the tempter would prove him to have been a hypocrite. As when it is objected, Thou hast repented and been humbled but slightly and by the halves; _Answ._ Yet was it sincerely; and weak grace is not no grace. _Object._ Thou hast been a lover of the world, and a neglecter of thy soul, and cold in all that thou didst for thy salvation. _Answ._ Yet did I set more by heaven than earth; and I first sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as esteeming it above all the riches of the world. _Object._ Thou hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of religion. _Answ._ I had no sin but what in the habitual, ordinary temper of my soul, I hated more than I loved it, and had rather have been delivered from it, than have kept it, and none but what I unfeignedly repented of. _Object._ Thou didst not truly believe the promises of God, and the life to come; or else thou wouldst never have doubted as thou hast done, nor sought such a kingdom with such weak desires. _Answ._ Though my faith was weak, it overcame the world: I so far believed the promise of another life, as that I preferred it before this life, and was resolved rather to forsake all the world, than to part with my hopes of that promised blessedness: and that faith is sincere (how weak soever) that can do this. _Object._ But thou hast done thy works to be seen of men, and been troubled when men have not approved thee, nor honoured thee; and what was this but mere hypocrisy? _Answ._ Though I had some hypocrisy, yet was I not a hypocrite, because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree: though I too much regarded the esteem of men, yet I did more regard the esteem of God. Thus if a christian discern his evidences, the false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted.
2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course, which is, at present, to believe, and repent, and so confute Satan that saith you are not penitent believers.[131] But then you must truly understand what believing and repenting are; or else you may think that you do not believe and repent when you do. Believing in Christ, is a believing that he is the Saviour of the world, and a consent of will that he be your Saviour, to justify you by his blood, and sanctify you by his Spirit. To repent, is to be so sorry that you have sinned, that if it were to do again, you would not do it (as to gross sin and a state of sin); and the smallest infirmities, your will is so far set against, that you desire to be delivered from them. Believing to justification, is not the believing that you are already justified, and your sins forgiven you; and repenting consisteth not in such degrees of sorrow as some expect; but in the change of the mind and will, from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness. When you know this, then answer the tempter thus: If I should suffer thee to deprive me of the comfort of all my former uprightness, yet shalt thou not so deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity, and of my hopes; I am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone. Past actions are now known but by remembering them; and they are seldom judged of, as indeed they then were, but according to the temper and apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them; and I am now so changed and weakened myself, that I cannot tell whether I truly remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that is past or not. Nor doth it most concern me now, to know what I have been, but to know what I am. Christ will not judge according to what I was, but according to what he findeth me; never did he refuse a penitent, believing soul, because he repented and believed late; I do now unfeignedly repent of all my sins, and am heartily willing to be both pardoned, and cleansed, and sanctified by Christ, and here I give up myself to him as my Saviour, and to this covenant I will stand; and this is true repenting and believing. Thus a poor christian in the time of sickness, may ofttimes much easier clear up to himself, that he repenteth now, than that he repented formerly; and it is his surest way.