This is a voice of the narrated Puritan and this is a class on Christian experience and assurance of salvation. Today I want to look at the Puritans and what they say about the Christian warfare and the Christian soldier. Archibald Alexander, in Thoughts on Religious Experiences, a Christian is a soldier and must expect to encounter enemies and to engage in many a severe conflict. The enemies of the Christians have been commonly divided into three classes, the world, the flesh, and the devil. But though these may be conceived of and spoken of separately, they resist a Christian soldier by their combined powers. The devil is the agent, the world furnishes a bait or the object of temptation, and the flesh, or our own corrupt nature, is the subject on which the temptation operates. Sometimes, indeed, Satan injects his fiery darts and kindled in hell to frighten the timid soul and drive it to despair. But in this he often overshoots his mark and drives a poor trembling soul nearer to his captain, whose broad shield affords ample protection. We are not to suppose that we are not often led astray by the enticements of sin within us without the aid of Satan. We need not be afraid of charging too much evil upon this arch-adversary. He is ever on the alert, and is exceedingly deceptive in his approaches. Long experience has doubtless greatly increased his power and subtlety, unless he should be more restrained than he was formerly. Some people make a mock of Satan's temptations as though they were the dreams of superstitious souls. It wasn't so with Paul and Peter and John, or Luther and Calvin and Zwingli. Not so any who understand the nature of the spiritual warfare. It is the degreed injury of many professors that they are not constantly on the watch against the wiles of the devil. If you wish to know where he will be likely to meet you, I would say in your own bedroom, in the church. on your bed, and in your daily company with others. A single thought which suddenly starts up in your mind will show that the enemy is near, and is suggesting such thoughts as without his agency never can be accounted for. William Gurnall says in The Christian and Complete Armor, quote, it is not enough to have grace, but this grace must be kept in exercise. The Christian's armor is made to be worn, no laying down or putting off our armor until we have done our warfare and finish our course. Our armor and our garment of flesh go off the stage together. then indeed will be no need of watch and ward, shield or helmet. Those military duties and field graces, as I may call faith, hope, and the rest, shall be honorably discharged. In heaven we shall appear not in armor, but in robes of glory. But here, these are to be worn night and day. We must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ. Another Puritan by the name of John Downham, has a book called The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World, and Flesh. And as far as I know, a friend of mine is putting that into Kindle format, which will be really nice because it hasn't been reprinted in any kind of a more readable format since the early 1600s. The other is William Gouge, A Whole Armor of God, or A Christian Spiritual Furniture to Keep Them Safe from All the Assaults of Satan. That was last published in 1619. June 26. Julian died near Moronga, age 31, during a battle against a Sassanid army. While pursuing the retreating enemy with few men and not wearing armor, he received a wound from a spear that reportedly pierced the lower lobe of his liver and his intestines. The wound was not immediately deadly. It is reported that his dying words were, Vesisti Galilea, Ioan Galilean. supposedly expressing his recognition that, with his death, Christianity would become the Empire State religion. William Bernal, the Christian of Complete Armor, 1665. Isaac Ambrose, a Christian warrior wrestling with sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh, 1661. War with Devils, Ministration of Angels, 1661. Thomas Brooke's Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, 1652 The Story of Deborah Hoosh, 1658 William Gernal writes, Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs. that let them not see the bottom where they are going. If Earth presents an object, it occasions some thoughts. These set on fire the affections, and they fume up into the brain and cloud the understanding. Which being thus disabled, Satan now dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it even now has defied. Many who at this day lie in open profaneness never thought they should have rolled so far from their profession. But Satan beguiled them, poor souls with their modest beginnings. O Christian, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions. He that is a beggar and a modest one without doors will command a house if he is let in. Yield at first, and you give away your strength to resist him in the rest. When the hymn is worn, the whole garment will ravel out if it be not mended by timely repentance. Study us, Wiles, and acquaint yourself with Satan's policy. Paul takes it for granted that every saint does in some measure understand them. We are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11. He is but an ill fencer that knows and observes nothing of his enemy's play. Many particular stratagems I've laid down already, which may help a little, and for your direction in the study of this, an inquiry into Satan's wiles, take the threefold counsel number one. Take God into your counsel. Heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can tell you what plots or hatchets are against you. Consider Satan as he is God's creature, so God cannot but know him. He that makes the wash knows every pen in it. He formed this crooked serpent, though not the crookedness of this serpent. And know Satan's way of tempting is as wonderful as the way of a serpent on a rock. Yet God traces him. Yea, he knows all of his thoughts together. Hell itself is naked before him, and this destroyer has no covering. Again, consider him as God's prisoner, who holds them fast in chains. And so the Lord who is his keeper must needs know where his prisoner goes, who cannot stir without his permission. Lastly, consider him as his messenger, for so he is. Thomas Brooks, in a book called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, and a topic, Satan's Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin. DEVICE NUMBER ONE. TO PRESENT THE BAIT AND HIDE THE HOOK. Satan's first device to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait and hide the hook, to present the golden cup and hide the poison. To present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and to hide from the soul the wrath and mithry that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this device he deceived our first parents, and the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. Genesis 3 verses 4 and 5 Your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods. Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh, but he hides the hook, the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow. Here is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy. And here is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promises them the former, but intends the latter, and so Satan cheats them, giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise as he deals by thousands nowadays. Painting sin with virtues colors. Satan knows us. He would present sin in its own nature and dress. A soul would rather fly from it than yield to it. And therefore he presents it to us, not in its own proper colors, but painted and gilded over with the name and show of virtue that we made the more easily be overcome by it and take to more pleasure and committing of it. pride. He presents to the soul under the name and notion of neatness and cleanliness, and covetousness, which the apostle condemns for idolatry, to be but good business, and drunkenness, to be good fellowship with your friends, and riotousness, under the name and notion of liberality. and sexual wantonness is a trick of youth. Remedy number one. Considered a sin is never a wit to last filthy, vile, and abominable by its being colored and painted with virtuous colors. A poisonous pill is never a wit to last poisonous because it is gilded over with gold. Nor a wolf is never a wit to last a wolf because he is put on a sheepskin. Nor is a devil. Never a wit, alas, a devil, because he appears sometimes like an angel of light. So neither is sin anywhit the less filthy and abominable by its being painted over with virtuous colors. The Puritan Isaac Ambrose 1604-1664 In an address to Christian warriors, soldiers of Christ, be aware that you are highly advanced in God's creation, that you occupy an important station, that you have an arduous work allotted to you, and that you have neither time nor talent to throw away. For you were enlisted under the banner of Christ. You have entered the armies of the Most High. You have taken the oath of allegiance to the King of Zion, and bound yourself up by an oath to fight the good fight of faith against sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh. But formidable enemies are these. You have to encounter all the powers of hell, and their name is Legion. Fight them ye now must, for ye have put on the armor and taken the field to fight all the enemies of God and man. When ye survey the enemy's camp and see their strength, number, stratagems, and inveterate malice, enter then me to feel your own weakness and nothingness, ye tremble and say, How shall I go against these mighty hosts? Yet, I must conquer them all or die an eternal death. O soldiers of Christ, banish all your guilty fears. There is, after all, far more for you than against you. You are on the Lord's side and He fights for you. He is your refuge and strength, your sun and your shield. He is with you in the field to teach your hands to war and to cover your head in the day of battle. He has promised you the victory. If God is for you, who is he that can overcome you and put you to death when you're hidden in the Lord's pavilion and surrounded with the wall of salvation? While in the heat of the battle, be filled with the hope of victory and feel assured that you shall finally obtain a complete and glorious conquest over all that comes against you. For is not the captain of your salvation engaged to subduce Satan and all his armies under your feet? Trust him and take courage then. You cannot meet with disappointment, for faithful is he that promised, who also will do it, for Thessalonians 5 verse 24. Another Puritan's book is called Demonologia Sacra, or a treatise of Satan's temptations in three parts. Richard Gilpin lived from 1625 to 1700. He says, quote, The next rink of troubles by which a devil endeavors to molest us I call affrightments. It is usual for those that speak of temptations to distinguish them thus. Some are, they say, enticements, but others are affrightments. But to any extend these affrightments further, I intend, comprehending under them all those temptations of sadness and terror of which I am next to speak, But by affrightment some mean only those perplexities of spirit into which Satan casts men, by overreacting to their fears or astonishing their minds by injecting unusual and horrid thoughts against their consents. Some there are that have thought those temptations of which the Apostle complains in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 7. There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, whereof this kind, that is, horrid injections into the mind frequently repeated. His men deal their blows in fighting. Gerson, speaking of these, tells us they sometimes come from the sole suggestion of Satan troubling the fancy in saying, Deny God. Curse God. And then adds, Such were the thorn in the flesh given to the apostles. But whether this is the trouble of the apostle or some other thing, for several things are conjectured, and nothing can be positively proved. We are sure from the sad experience of many that such troubles he does often give, which I shall first explain in the general, and then give a particular of these frightful injections. To explain the nature and burden of this kind of trouble, I shall present you with a few observations about them. 1. These astonishing thoughts are purely injections, such as Satan casts into the mind, and not what the mind of itself produces. As one expresses it, they are more darting than reflecting. Not but that our natural corruption could of itself beget blasphemous or atheistical thoughts. But when they have their rise from ourselves solely, they do not so startle us. Having some share at least of our consent going along with them, they appear not so strange. But in this case, in hand, Satan is the agent and men are the sufferers. Your understanding, since souls be envisaged all the while to repel them with the utmost of their reluctances. And to those that do thus strive against them, making resistance with all their strength, with tears and prayers, they are only their afflictions, but not their sins." The following quote is from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. But now, in this valley of humiliation, poor Christian was hard put to it. For he'd gone but a little way before he espied a foul fin coming over the field to meet him. His name is Apollyon. And did Christian begin to be afraid and to cast in his mind whether to go back or to stand his ground? But he considered again that he had no armor for his back, and therefore thought to turn the back to him might give the greater advantage with ease to pierce him with his darts. What was Christian's resolution at the approach of Apollyon? Quote, Therefore he resolved to venture and stand his ground. For he thought, Had I no more in mine eyes than the saving of my life, it would be the best way to stand. So it went on, and Apollyon met him." And the Lord said to Simon, Simon, behold Satan's desire to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. Luke 22, verses 31 and 32. Hugh Martin. Writing on this head, the believing soul finds itself acted upon by forces more powerful and various than it once could have conceived. The trial, the fiery trial, which tries his faith, plows deep into the inmost spirit, wakens up anxieties and fears of the most painful description. induces many times a laboring and a weariness such as were never expected to return after rest had been once found in Jesus. Back to Pilgrim's Progress. Then Napoleon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am an enemy to this prince. I hate his person and his laws and his people. I come out on purpose to withstand you. Christian said, Apollyon, beware of what you do, for I am in the king's highway, the way of holiness. Therefore take heed to yourself. Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the waves that I am void of fear in this matter. Prepare yourself to die, for I swear by my infernal den that you shall go no further. Here will I spill your soul. And with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast. But Christian had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that. Then did Christian draw, for he saw it was time to bestir him, and Apollyon, his fast mate, had him throwing darts as thick as hail, that which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, in his hand, and in his foot. This made Christian give a little back. Apollyon therefore followed his work of Maine, and Christian again took courage and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent. For you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker." Archibald Alexander wrote, A friend of the writer was for months so harassed by these fiery darts of the wicked one that I never saw any human being in a more pitiable condition of extreme suffering. And although there was no intermission during his waking hours, there were seasons when these blasphemous suggestions were injected with peculiar and terrifying violence, knowing this person to be discreet as well as pious. I requested by letter some account of this dreadful state of its mind, if there was a freedom to make to communication. In answer, I received recently a letter from which the following is an extract. Quote, I feel a singular reluctance to speak of my religious experience. I have felt that my case was a very remarkable one. I have thought at times that no one could recount a similar experience. It has appeared to me so uncommon that I have refrained from disclosing the peculiar exercises of my mind to the most intimate friend. I don't know that I ever opened to you my case with the exception of that distressing point to which you refer, and even then I think I wasn't very particular. That was a season far more distressing than any I had ever experienced. I well remember my afflictions and my misery. My deliverance from it was an unspeakable mercy. I have no doubt that the state of my health had some connection with the mental sufferings I then endured. My constitution, which had always been feeble, had given to my disposition a proneness to melancholy. and in my bereaved and desolate state I was peculiarly susceptible of gloomy impressions. My nervous system was deeply affected. Sleep at one time forsook my pillow for successive nights. It was under these circumstances that I sunk into the darkness and distress which you witnessed. In all this, there was nothing very remarkable. I think very many can record a similar experience. But it was not the fact that in a feeble state of health I was dark and comfortless in spirit that has so much tried me. But the peculiarity of my case seemed to consist in the nature of my spiritual conflicts. You may perhaps recollect that I stated to you that my chief distress arose from blasphemous suggestions, unnatural, monstrous, and horrid, which seemed to fill my mind and hurry away my thoughts with a force as irresistible as a whirlwind. I strove against them. I prayed against them. But it was all in vain. The more I strove, the more they prevailed. The very effort to banish them appeared to detain them. My soul all this while was wrapped in midnight darkness and tossed like the ocean in a storm. It seemed to me as if I was delivered over to the powers of darkness, and that, to aggravate my wretchedness, some strange and awfully impious association would be suggested by almost every object that met my eye. He asked me to describe my deliverance. It was gradual, a return of domestic comforts, a restoration of health, and an occupation of the mind with spiritual duty were the means which God was pleased to bless to the removal of this distress and experience. For twelve or thirteen years I've had no return of this state of mind, except to a partial extent. Yet I have at times been greatly harassed with these fiery darts of the wicked one, which I can truly say are my sorest affliction." To battle with Apollyon. Pilgrim's Progress. Commentary by Thomas Scott. An Apollyon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am an enemy to this prince. Thus far, Christian's contest with Apollyon is intelligible and instructive to every experienced believer. But what follows is more difficult. But if we duly reflect upon the Lord's permission to Satan, in respect of Job, with the efforts and effects that follows, and if we compare it with the tempter's desire of sifting Peter and the other apostles as suite, we shall not be greatly at a loss about our author's meaning. His enemy is sometimes gratified with such an arrangement of outward dispensations as most favors his assaults. so that the believer's path seems to be wholly obstructed. The Lord himself appears to have forsaken him, or even a fight against him, and his appointments are deemed contrary to his promises. This gives Satan an opportunity of suggesting hard thoughts of God in his ways. doubts about the truth of the scriptures, and desponding fears of a fatal event to a self-denying course of religion. Many such fiery darts may be repelled or quenched by the shield of faith, but there are seasons, some of us well know, when they are poured in so incessantly, and receive such plausibility from facts. And when they so interrupt a man while praying, reading, or meditating that he is tempted to intermit religious duties to avoid their horrid concomitants. The evils of the heart which seemed before to be subdued are at these times so excited by means of the imagination that they apparently prevail more than ever, rendering every service an abomination as well as a burden. so that to hassle, alarmed, baffled, defiled, self-detested, and thinking that God and his servants united in abhorring him is ready to give up all hope." But the question may be asked, how does Satan tempt? Is he a serpent? Or why is the image of a serpent used? In Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair, Alexander White wrote, The only way to the Celestial City ran through Vanity Fair. By no possibility could these advancing Christians escape the temptations and the dangers of the fatal fair. He that will go to the Celestial City and yet not go through Vanity Fair must needs go out of the world. And so it is with the temptations and trials of the next ten days. We cannot get past them. They are laid down right across our way. And to many men now in this house, the next ten days will be a time of simply terrible temptation. If I'd been quite sure that all my people saw that and felt that. I would not have introduced here tonight what some of them, judging too hastily, will certainly call this so secular and unseemly a subject. But I am so afraid that many not untrue and in other things most earnest men amongst us do not yet know sufficiently the weakness and the evil of their own hearts. that I wish much if they will allow me to put them on their guards." "'Tis hard," said Contrite, who was a householder and had a vote in a town of vanity. "'Tis hard keeping our hearts and our spirits in any good order when we are in a cumbered condition." And you may be sure that we are full of hurry at fair time. He lives in such a place as this is, and it has to do with such as we have to do with as need of an item to caution him to take heed every hour of the day." Archibald Alexander wrote, I sometimes feel thankful for the terrible conflicts which I endure, for there is nothing which so constantly drives me to a throne of grace. Nothing that strips me so entirely of self-dependence and creates within me such longings after holiness. I am much inclined to think that Satan is far less dangerous when he comes as a roaring lion. 1 Peter 5 verse 8 and frightens a soul with his horrid blasphemies. Then when he transforms himself into an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14, and seduces our affections gradually and secretly away from God, and attaches them sinfully to the world. Just as the 40th year I have possessed William Gurnall's book The Christian in Complete Armor, It was one of the first hardback books I bought when I was attending Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, and they had an excellent bookstore. William Gurnall's Christian to Complete Armor has this section in it that I've narrated before, and it was very helpful to me. It is called Satan's wiles to accuse and vex the saint. Another wile of Satan lies in cavilling it to Christian's duties and performances by which he puts him to much toil and trouble. He is at your church, as soon as you can be. Consider, Christian, it's for your heart. He stands under your closet window and hears what you say to God in secret. all the while studying how he may commence a suit against you from your duty. He is like those who come to sermons to carp and catch at what the preacher says, that they may make him an offender for some word or other misplaced, or like a cunning opponent in the schools, while his adversary is busy in reading his position. He is studying to confute it, and truly Satan has such an art as this. that he is able to take our duties in pieces and so disfigure them, that they shall appear like formal duties, though never so zealous. or hypocritical, though enriched with much sincerity. Thus it makes many poor souls lead a weary life. Nothing they do but he has a fling at, that they know not whether it be best to pray or not, to hear or not, and when they have prayed and heard, whether it be any to purpose or not. Thus their souls hang in doubt, and their days pass in sorrow, while their enemy stands in a corner and laughs at the cheat he has put upon them. as one who, by putting a counterfeit spider into the dish, makes those that sit at the table either out of conceit with their meat that they dare not eat, or afraid of themselves if they have eaten, lest they should be poisoned with their food. Now, Christian, learn to distinguish between pride in a duty and a proud duty, hypocrisy in a person and a hypocrite. Wine in a man, and a man in wine. The best of saints have the stories of such corruptions in them and in their services. These birds will light on an Abraham's sacrifice, but comfort yourself with this. that if you find a party within your bosom pleading for God, and entering its protest against you, you and your services are evangelically perfect. God beholds these as the weaknesses of your sickly state here below, and pities you, as you would do your lame child. How odious is he to us that mocks one for natural defects, a bleary eye, or a stammering tongue, such as these in your new nature. Observable is that in Christ's prayer against Satan. And the Lord said to Satan in Zechariah 3 verse 2, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! Is not this a bran plucked out of the fire? As if Christ had said, Lord, will you suffer this envious spirit to twit your poor child with, and charge him for those infirmities that cleave to his perfect state? He is but a brand, newly plucked out of the fire. No wonder there are some sparks unquenched, some corruptions unmortified, some disorders unreformed and displacing calling. And what Christ did for Joshua, He does incessantly for all of its saints for apologizing for their infirmities with His Father." Thomas Goodwin, in a book called A Child of Light Walking in Darkness, What Part Satan Has in These Temptations? And now the Spirit of God, having proceeded thus far Himself in causing such darkness and tears of conscience in them that fear Him, Satan in their own hearts, to which he may and does often further also leave them, may take occasion from these dispensations of the Holy Ghost, which are all holy, righteous, and true, to draw forth false and fearful conclusions against themselves and their states, and start amazing doubts and fears of their utter lack of grace, and lying under the curse and threatenings of eternal wrath at the present, yea, and further of eternal rejection for the future, and that God will never be merciful, and so lay them lower and cast them into a further darkness and bondage than the Holy Spirit was cause of or intended, misinterpreting and perverting all these as righteous proceedings, as interpreting that withdrawn as light and presence and hiding himself to be a casting them off, thus he meant. Psalm 88 verse 14. So likewise, Miscontrolling that temporary wrath, chastising and wounding their spirits for the present, to be no other than the impressions in earnest of God's eternal vengeance, and arguing from their being under wrath themselves to being children of wrath. and misapplying the application of all the threatenings of eternal damnation made by the Spirit, but in relation and under a condition of such and such courses for the future, to be absolute against their persons and to speak their present state. So, how does Satan work upon those three principles in us? First, he works on our carnal reason. Second, on guilt of conscience. And third, on the passions and corrupt affections. on carnal reason. By his daily studying and considering men he knows how best to soothe and make use of those reasonings both to persons and seasons. It is the sole business of those evil spirits to study men, for to sin they go up and down the earth, and he has common places of men in their civil frames and temper of spirit, as well as of their temptations. He knows all the several ranks and classes of men in the state of grace and according to the ranks with what sort of temptations to encounter them. For men's temptations are various and manifold. 1 Peter 1 verse 6. Even as the gifts and operations of the Spirit are. 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4 and 5. Satan, having beaten out this controversy with all sorts, knows how to lay the dispute, how to order and marshal and apply objections and wield his blows with most success and advantage. Number two. He works on the guilt of the conscience. We may take notice of a difference between the Holy Ghost dealing with a believer when at any time he comes with the word, and searches and tries his heart, and discovers corruptions to us to wit, such as searching as David prayed for, examine me Lord and try my heart, and so on. Psalm 26 verse 2, Psalm 139 verse 23. Satan convincing and reproving us, and that sometimes with some sharpness for our buy-ins, hypocrisies, and so on. When also he bores the ear and shows wherein we have exceeded. It's Elihu who speaks. Job 36 verses 9 and 10 and between these other siftings and winnowings of Satan. As Christ's phrase is in Luke 22, 31, the difference is that the Holy Spirit deals sweetly herein, but as a father that rebukes and convinces his child of his small sins, but without putting any such sting in the conclusion, that therefore we are hypocrites, nor to any such meaning or purpose thence inferred, that therefore sin reigns in us, and so on. But in these is Satan, that is the issue he mainly drives all to, and it has made the foot, the burden of all those his accusations. And is his scope an argument to run through the whole of that his charge against us? And number three, and we are quoting The Child of Light Walking in Darkness that Thomas Goodwin wrote in 1636 when he was just 36. This book has been published in Kindle format and is available through monergism.com. Satan works upon the passions and corrupt affections and respect to these terrors as he is called a serpent, as was said, for his slights and cunning reasonings and wiles. So likewise he is called a lion of all beasts, the strongest, Isaiah 38, verse 13, a roaring lion, of all the terriblest and most terrible in his roaring, whose roaring is therefore often in scripture put to express the working of dreadfulness and horror. The lion roars, who will not tremble, Ammon 3, verse 8. And as some have observed, Anasama seems to intimate it. Psalm 104.21 By his roaring he strikes such horror and amazement into all other beasts, as they stand still as exanimated, and so he seizes and preys upon them as he pleases. And in this respect also is working on the passions, it is that those darts before mentioned are principally called fiery, namely for that pain and anguish and inflammation and combustion they cause through the distempering the affections, those fears which our own hearts engendered within us were but a smoke. but these darts of his put fire into them, and cause them to flame and blaze. The allusion is to the poison darts with the scythians of old, and other nations now using war dipped in the blood and gall of asps and vipers. Satan works not these terrors by immediate impressions upon the conscience, which in that respect is subject to God's stroke alone, as to his knowledge alone. But yet, although Satan cannot immediately wound a conscience and make impressions of God's wrath upon it, for as no creature can shed abroad God's love and cause a creature to taste the sweetness of it, so nor the bitterness of its wrath, but God is his own reporter of both, yet When the Holy Ghost has lashed and whipped the conscience and made it tender once and fetched off the skin, Satan then may fret it more and more, and be still rubbing upon the sore by his horrid suggestions and false fears cast in. And he can, by renewing the experimental remembrance of those lashes which a soul has had from the spirit, amaze a soul with fears of an infinitely sore vengeance yet to come, and flash representations of hell-fire in their consciences from those real glimpses they have already felt, in such a manner as to wilder the soul into vast and unthought-of horrors. And then he can bring home all the threatenings that are thundered forth in the word against hypocrites and unregenerate men, and discharge them all with much violence and noise upon a poor, doubting soul. He can and does present and show as prisoners those terrible chains and racks and other instruments of death, as the psalmist calls them, which God has prepared against sinners. and is stored up in that great armory of his word, which he has in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, 2 Corinthians 10, 6, with the rattling of which chains Satan can make a noise in the conscience of a poor sinner to affright him, which he is more unable to do out of experience of such tears in himself." Thomas Scott, his comments on the Valley of the Shadow of Death, in Pilgrim's Progress, One thing I would not let slip, I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he did not know his own voice. The case here intended is not uncommon among conscientious persons under urgent temptations. Imaginations are suddenly excited in their minds with which their previous thoughts had no connection. Even as if words were spoken to them, these often imply hard censors of God, His service or decrees, which they abhor as direct blasphemy, or harasses them with other hateful ideas. Yet instead of considering that such suggestions distress them in exact proportion as they are opposite to the prevailing disposition of their hearts, and that their dread and hatred of them are evidences of love to God, they consider them as unpardonably criminal, inconsistent with the state of grace and a mark of final reprobation. Whereas, had such things coincided with the state of their minds, they would have been defiling but not distressing. Instead of rejecting them at once with decided abhorrence, they would have given them entertainment and employed their minds about them as much as they dared." Thank you for tuning in. An introduction in this class we have had to the Puritans and their comments on the Christian warfare and the Christian soldier. Since the voice of the narrated Puritan podcast