Parable of the Sower: A Sermon by C.H. Spurgeon Part 2

Luke 8:4-15

I. First of all, I address myself to those hearts which are like the WAY-SIDE—"Some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it." Many of you do not go to the place of worship desiring a blessing. You do not intend to worship God, or to be affected by anything that you hear. You are like the highway, which was never intended to be a cornfield. If a single grain of truth should fall into your heart and grow it would be as great a wonder as for corn to grow up in the street. If the seed shall be dexterously scattered, some of it will fall upon you, and rest for a while upon your thoughts. 'Tis true you will not understand it; but, nevertheless, if it be placed before you in an interesting style, you will talk about it till some more congenial entertainment shall attract you. Even this slender benefit is brief, for in a little season you will forget all that you have heard. Would to God we could hope that our words would tarry with you, but we cannot hope it, for the soil of your heart is so hard beaten by continual traffic, that there is no hope of the seed finding a living root-hold. Satan is constantly passing over your heart with his company of blasphemies, lusts, lies, and vanities. The chariots of pride roll along it, and the feet of greedy mammon tread it till it is hard as adamant. Alas! For the good seed, it finds not a moment's respite; crowds pass and repass; in fact, your soul is an exchange, across which continually hurry the busy feet of those who make merchandise of the souls of men. You are buying and selling, but you little think that you are selling the truth, and that you are buying your soul's destruction. You have no time, you say, to think of religion. No, the road of your heart is such a crowded thoroughfare, that there is no room for the wheat to spring up. If it did begin to germinate, some rough foot would crush the green blade ere it could come to perfection. The seed has occasionally lain long enough to begin to sprout, but just then a new place of amusement has been opened, and you have entered there, and as with an iron heel, the germ of life that was in the seed was crushed out. Corn could not grow in Cornhill or Cheapside, however excellent the seed might be: your heart is just like those crowded thoroughfares; for so many cares and sins throng it, and so many proud, vain, evil, rebellious thoughts against God pass through it, that the seed of truth cannot grow.
We have looked at this hard road-side, let us now describe what becomes of the good word, when it falls upon such a heart. It would have grown if it had fallen on right soil, but it has dropped into the wrong place, and it remains as dry as when it fell from the sower's hand. The word of the gospel lies upon the surface of such a heart, but never enters it. Like the snow, which sometimes falls upon our streets, drops upon the wet pavement, melts, and is gone at once, so is it with this man. The word has not time to quicken in his soul: it lies there an instant, but it never strikes root, or takes the slightest effect.
Why do men come to hear if the word never enters their hearts? That has often puzzled us. Some hearers would not be absent on the Sunday on any account; they are delighted to come up with us to worship, but yet the tear never trickles down their cheek, their soul never mounts up to heaven on the wings of praise, nor do they truly join in our confessions of sin. They do not think of the wrath to come, nor of the future state of their souls. Their heart is as iron; the minister might as well speak to a heap of stones as preach to them. What brings these senseless sinners here? Surely we are as hopeful of converting lions and leopards as these untamed, insensible hearts. Oh feeling! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason! Do these people come to our assemblies because it is respectable to attend a place of worship? Or is it that their coming helps to make them comfortable in their sins? If they stopped away conscience would prick them; but they come hither that they may flatter themselves with the notion that they are religious. Oh! My hearers, your case is one that might make an angel weep! How sad to have the sun of the gospel shining on your faces, and yet to have blind eyes that never see the light. The music of heaven is lost upon you, for you have no ears to hear. You can catch the turn of a phrase, you can appreciate the poetry of an illustration, but the hidden meaning, the divine life you do not perceive. You sit at the marriage-feast, but you eat not of the dainties; the bells of heaven ring with joy over ransomed spirits, but you live unransomed, without God, and without Christ. Though we plead with you, and pray for you, and weep over you, you still remain as hardened, as careless, and as thoughtless as ever you were. May God have mercy on you, and break up your hard hearts, that his word may abide in you.
We have not, however, completed the picture. The passage tells us that the fowls of the air devoured the seed. Is there here a way-side hearer? Perhaps he did not mean to hear this sermon, and when he has heard it he will be asked by one of the wicked to come into company. He will go with the tempter, and the good seed will be devoured by the fowls of the air. Plenty of evil ones are ready to take away the gospel from the heart. The devil himself, that prince of the air, is eager at any time to snatch away a good thought. And then the devil is not alone—he has legions of helpers. He can set a man's wife, children, friends, enemies, customers, or creditors, to eat up the good seed, and they will do it effectually. Oh, sorrow upon sorrow, that heavenly seed should become devil's meat; that God's corn should feed foul birds!
O my hearers, if you have heard the gospel from your youth, what waggon-loads of sermons have been wasted on you! In your younger days, you heard old Dr. So-and-so, and the dear old man was wont to pray for his hearers till his eyes were red with tears! Do you recollect those many Sundays when you said to yourself, "Let me go to my chamber and fall on my knees and pray"? But you did not: the fowls of the air ate up the seed, and you went on to sin as you had sinned before. Since then, by some strange impulse, you are very rarely absent from God's house; but now the seed of the gospel falls into your soul as if it dropped upon an iron floor, and nothing comes of it. The law may be thundered at you; you do not sneer at it, but it never affects you. Jesus Christ may be lifted up; his dear wounds may be exhibited; his streaming blood may flow before your very eyes, and you may be bidden with all earnestness to look to him and live; but it is as if one should sow the sea-shore. What shall I do for you? Shall I stand here and rain tears upon this hard highway? Alas! My tears will not break it up; it is trodden too hard for that. Shall I bring the gospel plough? Alas! The ploughshare will not enter ground so solid. What shall we do? O God, thou knowest how to melt the hardest heart with the precious blood of Jesus. Do it now, we beseech thee, and thus magnify thy grace, by causing the good seed to live, and to produce a heavenly harvest.

The Parable of the Sower: A Sermon by C.H. Spurgeon Part 1

"And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls f the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasure of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."-Luke 8:4-15

IN OUR country, when a sower goes forth to his work, he generally enters into an enclosed field, and scatters the seed from his basket along every ridge and furrow; but in the East, the corn-growing country, hard by a small town, is usually an open area. It is divided into different properties, but there are no visible divisions, except the ancient landmarks, or perhaps ridges of stones. Through these open lands there are footpaths, the most frequented being called the highways. You must not imagine these highways to be like our macadamized roads; they are merely paths, trodden tolerably hard. Here and there you notice bye-ways, along which travellers who wish to avoid the public road may journey with a little more safety when the main road is infested with robbers: hasty travellers also strike out short cuts for themselves, and so open fresh tracks for others. When the sower goes forth to sow he finds a plot of round scratched over with the primitive Eastern plough; he aims at scattering his seed there most plentifully; but a path runs through the centre of his field, and unless he is willing to leave a broad headland, he must throw a handful upon it. Yonder, a rock crops out in the midst of the ploughed land, and the seed falls on its shallow soil. Here is a corner full of the roots of nettles and thistles, and he flings a little here; the corn and the nettles come up together, and the thorns being the stronger soon choke the seed, so that it brings forth no fruit unto perfection. The recollection that the Bible was written in the East, and that its metaphors and allusions must be explained to us by Eastern travellers, will often help us to understand a passage far better than if we think of English customs.
The preacher of the gospel is like the sower. He does not make his seed; it is given him by his divine Master. No man could create the smallest grain that ever grew upon the earth, much less the celestial seed of eternal life. The minister goes to his Master in secret, and asks him to teach him his gospel, and thus he fills his basket with the good seed of the kingdom. He then goes forth in his Master's name and scatters precious truth. If he knew where the best soil was to be found, perhaps he might limit himself to that which had been prepared by the plough of conviction; but not knowing men's hearts, it is his business to preach the gospel to every creature—to throw a handful on the hardened heart, and another on the mind which is overgrown with the cares and pleasures of the world. He has to leave the seed in the care of the Lord who gave it to him, for he is not responsible for the harvest, he is only accountable for the care and industry with which he does his work. If no single ear should ever make glad the reaper, the sower will be rewarded by His Master if he had planted the right seed with careful hand. If it were not for this fact with what despairing agony should we utter the cry of Esaias, "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
Our duty is not measured by the character of our hearers, but by the command of our God. We are bound to preach the gospel, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. It is ours to sow beside all waters. Let men's hearts be what they may the minister must preach the gospel to them; he must sow the seed on the rock as well as in the furrow, on the highway as well as in the ploughed field.
I shall now address myself to the four classes of hearers mentioned in our Lord's parable. We have, first of all, those who are represented by the way-side, those who are "hearers only"; then those represented by the stony-ground; these are transiently impressed, but the word produces no lasting fruit; then, those among thorns, on whom a good impression is produced, but the cares of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of the world choke the seed; and lastly, that small class—God be pleased to multiply it exceedingly—that small class of good-ground hearers, in whom the Word brings forth abundant fruit.

So Great a Cloud of Witnesses...2nd Installment: Walter Mill

This is an excerpt taken from "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" by John Foxe.

"The last martyr to die in Scotland was 82-year-old Walter Mill [or Milne] in 1558. In his youth, Mill had been a papist and for some time parish priest in the Church of Lunan in Angus. At some point in his life, he went to Germany and there heard the true Gospel. When he returned to Scotland, he set aside all things about the Roman Catholic church, began to teach Reformation doctrine and, though quite old, got married. Soon the bishops of Scotland began to suspect him of heresy. Realizing that he was about to be taken into custody and charged, Mill left his church and hid himself in the country for quite some time. Later the queen allowed him to return to is parish and preach. Nevertheless, not long after he was apprehended by two priests and taken to St. Andrews castle in Edinburgh.
At first Mill was threatened with torture and burning, but when this did not convince him to recant his Reformation beliefs and teachings, he was offered a monk's position and lifetime security in the Abbey of Dunfermline if he would deny the things he had taught, and agree that they were heresy. But he continued to maintain the truth of the Gospel despite their threats and enticing promises.
He was then taken to St. Andrews church and put into the pulpit to be accused before the bishops. Because of his age and his treatment in prison, Mill was unable to climb the pulpit stairs without help, and the bishops thought he would be too weak to speak loud enough for them to hear him. But when he spoke, his voice rang out with such courage and boldness that the Christians who were present rejoiced while his adversaries were confused and ashamed. Mill knelt in the pulpit and prayed so long that Andrew Oliphant, who had been a priest since the time of Cardinal Beaton, said to him, "Sir Walter Mill, get up and respond to the charges; you're holding my lords here too long." After he finished praying, Walter said, "You call me 'Sir Walter', call me 'Walter,' and not 'Sir Walter' . I have been one of the Pope's knights far too long. Now say what you have to say."
The examination proceeded in its expected direction, and at the end Andrew Oliphant asked Mill if he would recant his erroneous opinions. He answered, "I would rather forfeit ten thousand lives than give up a particle of the heavenly principles I received from the sufferings of my blessed Redeemer." Oliphant then pronounced sentence upon him and he was conducted back to prison for execution the next day.
When he was taken to the place of execution, Walter Mill expressed his religious sentiments so strongly and with such keenness of mind for his age and weak condition, that it astonished even his enemies. After prayer, he said to all, "Dear friends, the reason why I am to suffer this day is not because I have committed any crimes, although I consider myself a most miserable sinner before God, but it is for the defense of the faith of Jesus Christ as set forth in the Old and New Testament for us. It is that faith for which godly martyrs have offered themselves gladly before, being assured of eternal happiness. So this day I praise God that He has called me to be among those servants, and seal up His truth with my life, which I received from Him and willingly offer it back to Him for His glory.
"Therefore, if you wish to escape the second death, do not be seduced by the lies of priests, monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the rest of the sect of Antichrist. Depend only upon Jesus Christ and His mercy, so that you will be delivered from condemnation and receive eternal life." While he spoke there was great crying and mourning among the people, for they were stirred by his courage and boldness, his steadfastness and faith, and his words inflamed their hearts.

Walter Mill was them lifted up on the stake, and the faggots were lit. As the flames burned him, he cried out, "Lord, have mercy on me! Pray, people, while there is yet time!" And then he left this world to be with his Lord for whom he died. 
When the Reformation came fully upon Scotland in 1560, and the Scottish Parliament established Presbyterianism as the national faith, many costly images from papist churches were burned on the site of Walter Mill's martyrdom."


"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."-Hebrews 12:1-2

A Brief Study of "Advice to Young Converts" by Jonathan Edwards: Part 3

This is the third post in a series inspired by the short book, "Advice to a Young Convert" by Jonathan Edwards. May God be glorified in it, and may his people, the church, grow and be edified by it, and most of all, may God's Holy Spirit convict men's hearts of their sin and grant them repentance and faith in His blessed Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is a letter written during the Great Awakening by Jonathan Edwards to a young woman named Deborah Hathaway, and was later published as a small book called: "Advice to Young Converts".

"3. When you hear sermons, hear them for yourself, even though what is spoken in them may be more especially directed to the unconverted or to those that in other respects are in different circumstances from yourself. Let the chief intent of your mind be to consider what ways you can apply the things that you are hearing in the sermon. You should ask, What improvement should I make, based on these things, for my own soul's good?"

The first thing this brings to mind is 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." So often when reading our Bible or hearing a sermon we just sit there. "All scripture" means everything in the Bible is profitable, so if you're pastor is teaching and reading from the Scriptures, then we should pay attention. Asking ourselves, as Mr. Edwards says, "What improvement should I make, based on these things, for my own soul's good?". The reason for 2 Timothy 3:16 is given in verse 17, "That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

If we are Christians, sitting through a sermon means nothing if we don't apply it to our own lives. Perfection, being "thoroughly furnished unto all good works". If we aren't applying the truth of God's Word directly to our own lives, then we aren't ready to do "good works". 

There's an old saying that says, "You can't lead where you won't go, and you can't teach what you don't know." So, there is no testimony or witness for a Christian who isn't reading the Word of God and listening to Biblical teaching and preaching intentionally and thoughtfully.

How often I have sat in a pew and looked at the pastor, perhaps with my Bible open in my lap, and have been thinking of everything, but what is being taught. We may be able to keep our outward appearances acceptable before others, but God sees our hearts. He knows when we are sincere and when we are not.

"But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."-1 Samuel 16:7
God's Word is so powerful. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."-Hebrews 4:12

We are told in Romans 1:16 that the "gospel of Christ" is the very "power of God unto salvation".

"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"-Romans 10:14
"So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."-Romans 10:17
There is nothing more important for anyone than to listen to and study the Word of God. If we have time to watch tv or youtube or go online, then we have time to read the Bible. If we can listen to our favorite tv show or radio or podcast, then we can listen to a man called by God to preach and teach His Word. It's sad that we so often give greater respect to a movie or tv show than we do the very Word of God. Let us pray for repentance and forgiveness in this area, and ask that God would grant us the mercy to give His Word the honor it deserves from now on.

A Look at "The Reason Sinner's Live" by Charles H. Spurgeon

"Read the Ten Commandments, pause at each one, and confess that you have either broken it in either thought or word or deed. Remember that by a glance, we may commit adultery; by a thought, we may be guilty of murder; by a desire, we may steal. Sin is any want of conformity to perfect holiness, and that want of conformity is justly chargeable upon every one of us. Yet the Lord does not, under the gospel dispensation, deal with us according to the Law. He does not now sit on the throne of judgement, but He looks down upon us from the throne of grace. Not the iron rod, but the silver scepter is held over us. The long-suffering of God rules the age, and Jesus the Mediator is the gracious Lord--lieutenant of the dispensation. Instead of destroying offending man from off the face of the earth, the Lord comes near to us in loving condescension, and pleads with us by His Spirit, saying, "You have sinned, but my Son has died. In Him, I am prepared to deal with you in a way of pure mercy and unmingled grace."

O sinner, the fact that you are alive proves that God is not dealing with you according to strict justice, but in patient forbearance; every moment you live is another instance of omnipotent long-suffering. It is the sacrifice of Christ that arrests the axe of justice, which else must execute you. The barren tree is spared because the great Dresser of the vinyard, who bled on Calvary, intercedes and cries, "Let it alone this year also." O my hearer, it is through the shedding of the blood and the mediatorial reign of the Lord Jesus that you are at this moment on praying ground and pleading terms with God! Apart from the blood of atonement, you would now be past hope, shut up forever in the place of doom. But see how the great Father bears with you! He stands prepared to hear your prayer, to accept your confession of sin, to honor your faith, and to save you from your sin through the sacrifice of His dear Son."

"And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."-Exodus 20:1-17

1. Compare to the standard of the Ten Commandments, would you be judged innocent or guilty before God? Should He send you to Heaven or Hell?
2. Why does God not punish our wickedness immediately?
3. Why did Christ die?
4. How can we be saved?

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 7

This is the seventh and final part of an essay written by G. A. Hemming, taken from the collection of essays called "The Puritan Papers". This essay is from volume 1 in that series. Enjoy.  :  )

(c) The work of the Holy Spirit.
The Puritans taught that at times God Himself brings about this experience of desertion. They quoted and expounded Isaiah 50:10-11 in this connection and taught that "it is no new thing for the children and heirs of light sometimes to walk in darkness and for a time not to have any glimpse or gleam of light." At such a time the Christian may express himself in the words of Psalm 88, but he is also to stay himself upon God and await the gracious return of the Lord's known presence.

(d) Its purpose.
The purposes which God may have in mind in permitting these experiences may be summarised as follows:

a) To show God's power.
We need to be reminded that however long we have walked with God yet we are still kept only by His grace.
b) To cause a man to long for heaven.
In a time of desertion the Christian's desire for the unbroken fellowship of heaven itself may well be strengthened and increased.
If the desertion be such that the Christian falls into sin, its purpose may be
c) Chastisement.
The child of God is brought to deeper penitence and greater loathing of sin.
d) To reveal the Christian to himself.
He begins to see what a sinner he really is, and the depths to which he can sink.
e) To prevent worse sin.
The Christian may be so humbled by his fall into lesser sin that he avoids a greater sin into which he would otherwise have fallen.
If the desertion be such that the Christian loses the sense of God's favour, its purpose may be
f) To let him taste the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
The Lord drank the cup when His Father forsook Him. "And that cup hath gone round among God's people ever since."
g) To cause him to feel the loss of the damned, and hence give him a real compassion for souls.
h) To prove to the Christian the reality of his love to God.
In some cases a man may feel himself utterly lost---and at that point cry out from his heart, "If it please the Lord to damn me, let me be damned---only let the Lord do that which pleases Him."
This is agony at the time, but afterwards the Christian realises that such prayer, putting God's good pleasure before his own eternal salvation, could come only from a renewed heart. And here is comfort and assurance indeed.
These gleanings from the Puritans are offered in all humility in the hope that we ourselves may better understand the varied experiences which are ours as God's children and Satan's enemies and that as we are called to be under-shepherds in Christ's flock, so we may be able to comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God, to whose blessed name be glory. Amen.

Works:
Bolton: Directions for Right Comforting
Baxter: Right method for a Settled Peace of Conscience
T. Goodwin: A Child of Light walking in Darkness
Symonds: A Deserted Soul's Cause and Cure
Perkins: Works, vol. I
Owen: Exposition of Psalm 130
Sibbes: The Bruised Reed, and the Saint's Conflict.
Greenham: Grave Counsels
Gurnall: Christian in Complete Armour
Matthew Henry: Commentaries

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 6

This is the sixth part of an essay written by G. A. Hemming, taken from the collection of essays called "The Puritan Papers". This essay is from volume 1 in that series. Enjoy.  :  )

(b) Direct attack of Satan.

The Puritans recognised the power and ubiquity of the forces of darkness. They recognised that Satan did indeed walk to and fro throughout the earth, that he was present at the most sacred moments, as when Joshua, the High Priest, stood before the Lord and yet had an adversary to resist him. Once again the basic doctrine of the Puritans affects their understanding of all other themes. They understood the full implications of the Fall and the depravity of human nature which has resulted therefrom. Satan, they said, has different modes of attack upon the child of God. First, they said, he can attack our reason. "On which," says Sibbes, "he worketh effectively because of his great ability to forge and invent false reasonings and arguments to overthrow our faith! Who, when young, outwitted our first parents when their reason was not depraved, but now he is grown 'that old serpent' and we are become 'children apt to be tossed too and fro.' Satan hath had time enough to improve his knowledge in! A student he is of five thousand years' standing that hath lost no time, but, as he is said to accuse day and night, so he is able to study both day and night: and he hath made it his chief, if not his whole, study to enable himself to tempt and plead against us. It is his trade. Therefore, as men are called lawyers or divines from their callings so he, the Tempter and the Accuser, from his employment. And by this, his long experience and observation he hath his set and composed machinations, his method of temptations which are studied and artificially moulded and ordered. Even such systems and methods as tutors and professors of arts and sciences have and do read over again and again to their auditors. The Apostle calls them darts, and he hath a whole shop and armoury of them ready made and forged, which are called the depths of Satan. Which depths, if in any point, are most to be found in this: for he is more especially versed in this great question and dispute---'whether a man be a child of God or no,' more than in any other. All other controversies he has had to deal with, but in particular ages as occasionally they were started, but this hath been the standing controversy of all ages since God hath had any children of earth. With every one of whom more or less he hath at one time or another had solemn disputes about it so as he knows all the advantages, windings, and turnings in this debate; all the objections and answers and discussions in it. Not only this, but he knows the several frames and temper of spirit of men as well as of their temptations. He knows all the several ranks and classes of men in the state of grace and according to their ranks with what sort of temptations  to encounter them, for even as the gifts and operations of the Spirit are many and varied so also are men's temptations. Further, he is able undiscernably to communicate all his false reasonings, tho' never so spiritual, which he doth forge invent and that in such a manner as to deceive us by them and to make them take with us."

Another mode of attack is an assault upon our conscience. Wonderful indeed is the Puritan understanding of this subtle and all important point. Any child of God who is spiritually alert understands only too well his own repeated failures. Because of these failures, there is a right sense of shame. The child of God has but to see in the word any sin delineated to realise its lurking presence in his own heart. This induces a sense of shame and Satan is quick to seize upon this and to use it for his own ends. There is a profound difference between the presence of sinful tendencies in a Christian's heart and the predominance and power of those tendencies. Should those tendencies result in sinful action---should they gain an uppermost place in the Christian's heart and thinking, then the Holy Spirit Himself will be quick to convict and induce a right sense of shame; but Satan will come to a Christian when those evil tendencies are still only lurking, subdued, in his mind, and Satan will accuse the Christian because of them and produce within him a sense of guilt which God does not want him to have. In this way he loses the sense of God's favour and presence and Satan's purpose is achieved. Here again we should notice the masterly way in which the Puritans were able to distinguish between the true convicting work of the Spirit and the spurious convicting of Satan. they saw that the more truly humble a man is , the more sensitive he is concerning the corruptions of his own heart, the more able Satan is to attack him along this line. And the Puritans knew when to administer comfort in all such cases.

Thus Satan is a most powerful foe, ever seeking to darken the soul of the child of God; and the child of God is helpless against him in his own strength. "None can take Satan off from a man but God. He must rebuke him: none else can. A poor soul fights with Satan in this darkness like unto a man that is assaulted by one that carries a dark lantern, who can see the assaulted and how to buffet him and follows him wherever he goes; whereas the poor man cannot see him or who it is that strikes him nor be aware how to ward the blow. Therefore the Apostle when buffeted by Satan knew not what to do but only to have recourse to God by prayer, for he could no more avoid or run away from these suggestions than from himself, nor could all the saints on earth any other way have freed him. None till God should cause him to depart."