Part 8 SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SOULS FROM HOLY DUTIES
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DEVICE 8. By working them to rest in their performances; to rest in prayer, and to rest in hearing, reading, and the communion of saints.
And when Satan has drawn the soul to rest upon the service done, then he will help the soul to reason thus: Why, you had better never pray, as to pray and rest in prayer; you had better never hear, as to hear and rest in hearing; you had better never be in the communion of saints, as to rest in the communion of saints. And by this device he stops many souls in their heavenly race, and takes off poor souls from those services that should be their joy and crown (Is. 58:1-2, Zech. 7:4-6, Matt. 6:2, Rom. 1:7).
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell much upon the imperfections and weaknesses which attend your choicest services. Oh the spots, the blots, the blemishes that are to be seen on the face of our best duties! When you have done all you can, you have need to close up all with this, 'Oh enter not into judgment with your servant, O Lord' (Psalm 143:2), for the weaknesses that cleave to my best services. We may all say with the church, 'All our righteousnesses are as a menstruous cloth' (Is. 64:6). If God should be strict to mark what is done amiss in our best actions, we are undone! Oh the water that is mingled with our wine; the dross that cleaves unto our gold! Pride and high confidence is most apt to creep in upon 'duties well done'.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider The impotence and inability of any of your best services, divinely to comfort, refresh, and bear your souls up from fainting, and sinking in the days of trouble, when darkness is round about you, when God shall say to you, as he did once to the Israelites, 'Go and cry unto the gods that you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your tribulation' (Judges 10:14). So, when God shall say in the day of your troubles, Go to your prayers, to your hearing, and to your fasting, and see if they can help you, if they can support you, if they can deliver you.
If God in that day does but withhold the influence of his grace, your former services will be but poor cordials to comfort you; and then you must and will cry out, Oh, 'none but Christ, none but Christ!' Oh my prayers are not Christ, my hearing is not Christ, my fasting is not Christ. Oh! one smile of Christ, one glimpse of Christ, one good word from Christ, one nod of love from Christ in the day of trouble and darkness—will more revive and refresh the soul than all your former services, in which your souls rested, as if they were the bosom of Christ, which should be the only center of our souls. Christ is the crown of crowns, the glory of glories, and the heaven of heavens.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That good things rested upon will as certainly undo us, and everlastingly destroy us—as the foulest enormities which can be committed by us. Those souls that after they have done all, do not look up so high as Christ—and rest, and center alone in Christ, laying down their services at the footstool of Christ—must lie down in sorrow; their bread is prepared for them in hell. 'But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon lie down in great torment' (Is. 50:11). Is it good to dwell with everlasting burnings, with a devouring fire? Why then, rest in your duties still? See that you center only in the bosom of Christ.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell much upon the necessity and excellency of that resting-place which God has provided for you. Above all other resting-places—he himself 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 forgotten 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' (Jer. 50:6). So poor souls who do not see the excellency of that resting-place that God has 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 those who see the excellency of that resting-place that God has provided for them, they will say, 'Farewell prayer, farewell hearing, farewell fasting. I will rest no more in you—but now I will rest only in the bosom of Christ, the love of Christ, the righteousness of Christ!'
Back to Part 7 SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SOULS FROM HOLY DUTIES
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