their help against temptations that may come upon them hereafter.
For as Satan follows such now, with charges and applications of
guilt, so he may follow them with interrogatories and appeals:
for he can tell how by appeals, as well as by charging of sin,
to sink and drown the sinner whose soul he has leave to engage.
Suppose therefore that some distressed man or woman, should after
this way be engaged, and Satan should with his interrogatories,
and appeals be busy with them to drive them to desperation; the
text last mentioned, to say nothing of the subject of our discourse,
yields plenty of help for the relief of such an one. Says Satan,
dost thou not know that thou hast horribly sinned? yes, says the
soul, I do. Says Satan, dost thou not know, that thou art one of
the vilest in all the pack of professors? yes, says the soul, I
do. Says Satan, doth not thy conscience tell thee that thou art
and hast been more base than any of thy fellows can imagine thee
to be? Yes, says the soul; my conscience tells me so. Well, saith
Satan, now will I come upon thee with my appeals. Art thou not a
graceless wretch? Yes. Hast thou an heart to be sorry for this
wickedness? No, not as I should. And albeit, saith Satan, thou prayest
sometimes, yet is not thy heart possessed with a belief that God
will not regard thee? yes, says the sinner. Why then despair, and
go hang thyself, saith the devil. And now we are at the end of
the thing designed and driven at by Satan. But what shall I now
do, saith the sinner; I answer, take up the words of the text
against him, Christ loves with a love that passeth knowledge, and
answereth him farther, saying Satan, though I cannot think that
God loves me; though I cannot think that God will save me; yet I
will not yield to thee: for God can do more than I think he can.
And whereas thou appealest unto me, if whether when I pray, my
heart is not possessed with unbelief that God will not regard me;