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."

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 5

This is the fifth 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. It's Causes

The Puritans realised that this withdrawing of the realised presence of God could arise from a number of different causes which may, for our convenience, be grouped under three subheadings.

(a) Sin unrealised or unconfessed.

It is at this point that the Puritans show two things, first their own view of the seriousness and extent of sin and second their understanding of the strange and tortuous workings of the human mind. The Puritan pastor was not merely content that his people should reject sin in a general sense, he was always ready to particularise, and he found, as men have always found, that there is vast difference between a general acceptance of a principle and an acceptance of the detailed application of that principle. The Puritan pastors therefore made a point of detailing the ways in which their people might be falling into sin and did not hesitate to approach them and point out their failings. Not that they found this an easy task, nor did they find a ready acceptance of their reproofs or probings. Baxter comments ruefully that however gently and graciously a pastor admonishes or reproves an individual member of his flock, yet frequently his reproof is met with resentment rather than with amendment of life. Furthermore, the Puritan approach to this matter was never negative only; they recognised the seriousness of sins of omission as well as sins of commisssion, and they were quick to point out that failure to perform duty and failure to obey, in detail, the commandments of God was just as much sin as the more obvious forms. Here then was one of the most common causes of the loss of God's favour and gracious presence---unrealised sin.

The Puritans recognised further that sin mights be realised yet not confessed. Says Guernall, "Thou mayest, though a child of God, be under fresh guilt and defilement as yet unrepented of. Now in this case---God can shut His door upon His own child. As a saint, thou hast a right to all the promises of the covenant: but as a saint under guilt or the defilement of any sin that thou hast not yet repented of, thou art not fit to enjoy what thou hast a right to as a saint. God doth not disinherit thee indeed, but He sequesters the promise from thee, and the rents of it shall not be paid to thee till thou renewest thy repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus for the pardon of it. Thy God will choose a fitter time than this to signify His love to thee."

For this reason they laid much stress on the keeping of short accounts with God; let a man, they said, make his peace with God at the close of each day. Let him search his heart and conscience in the light of God's word, and let him be quick not only to recognise, but to confess and mourn for his sin. They saw, as few of us today have seen, all that was implied both antecently and subsequently by the prayer "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation."

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 4

This is the fourth 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. Its Seriousness
The Puritan recognised that few worse things could befall a child of God than to lose the sense of God's gracious presence. Thus, says one, "And when it's thus with you, that you have declined in your acquaintance with God, and in your apprehension of the sinfulness of sin, the beauty of holiness, the excellency of Christ, the preciousness of the Covenant, you have cause to sit down and weep, for you have not so much of God in you as you have had." Or again, "This unbelief and atheism is a rock which the Saints, the most part of them, do strike upon at one time or another, but it's a dreadful evil." They recognised that God does not merely withhold His light from His own children when they are turning away from Him and trifling with sin. When a child of God is truly walking in God's ways, and when his witness is wholly pleasing unto God, yet still God may withhold His light from His child: and that, they felt, was a most serious and dreadful thing to experience. One of the Puritans gives this most moving illustration: "Robert Glover, martyr at Coventry, being condemned by his Bishop and now at point to be delivered out of this world, it so happened that two or three days before his death, his heart being lumpish and desolate of all spiritual consolation, felt in himself no aptness or willingness to lay down his life, but rather a heaviness and dullness of spirit. Whereupon he feared in himself that the Lord had withdrawn His wonted favour from him. He confided to his friend Austin, who counselled patience and assured him that the Lord would indeed return in all His brightness. Glover continued, therefore, in meekness and patience, and on the day of his death, as he was going to the place of martyrdom, he was so replenished with the Holy Ghost that he cried out, clapping his hands to Austin and saying with these words, 'Austin, His is come, His is come,' and that with such joy and alacrity as one seeming to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty of life than one passing out of the world by any pains of death."
To illustrate God's withdrawing of Himself in sin the Puritans turn to such examples as Noah's drunkenness, David's adultery, and Peter's denial of His Lord; incidentally, on the last incident Sibbes has a pungent comment; he refers to Peter as a bruised reed, and he add, "Peter was bruised when he wept bitterly. This reed, till he met with this bruise, had more wind in him than pith."
All this springs out of the basic Puritan theme of the complete sovereignty of God; no man, even though he be regenerate, can keep himself from sin, and if God for any reason withholds His supporting grace, then that man immediately falls.

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 3

This is the third 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.  :  )

Let us now assume that the Puritan pastor is satisfied that the man who has approached him in distress is neither unregenerate nor melancholic. He now considered

3. The Genuine Spiritual Distress of the Genuine Child of God

This is the main theme of our present study, and we examine it under four headings:

A. Its Reality

It is impossible to read any of the Puritans, better or lesser known, without coming across some reference to this subject. A few quotations will illustrate: thus "Among all the works of God's eternal counsel there is none more wonderful than His Desertion: which is nothing else but an action of God forsaking His creature---that is, by taking away the grace and operation of His Spirit from His creature." Or again "The blessings that God bestoweth on His own elect children are of two sorts, positive and privative. Positive are real graces wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. Privative are such means whereby God preserves men from falling into sin, as crosses and desertions: and these in number exceed the first as long as men live in the world." Or again "the man Christ is the blessed channel betwixt the fountain and the cistern through which grace, life, peace, strength, glory come by a gracious and glorious convoy; every vessel shall have its fullness to all eternity; sometimes indeed the streams come fuller, and sometimes slower; sometimes Christ stayeth the current that we may thirst, that after thirsting, we may drink again with redoubled pleasure." Or, yet again, "This is the main of a godly man's unhappiness---that he neither has a full nor a fixed state of comfortable communion with God in the world. After sweet meetings come sad partings." These quotations are given because it is so necessary to insist on this point. Nowadays the Christian is taught often that he should look forward to a life of unbroken victory, joy, and happiness, as not merely desirable, not only attainable, but actually obligatory for him in this life; not so the Puritans. They recognised that quite the reverse is the Christian's portion, and quoted such verses as Isaiah 49:14, "And Zion said, 'the Lord has forsaken me and my God has forgotten me.'" in support of their views: and lest it should be argued that Zion merely feels forsaken but is not actually so, they quote such verses as Isaiah 54:7, where God Himself is the speaker and says, "For a small moment have I forsaken Thee." i.e., God confirms that we do not merely feel deserted: we are deserted.

Yet, the Puritans, "though God deserts His people really yet He does not desert them totally." "The Lord will forsake His People for His great name's sake," 1 Samuel 12:22; and the Puritans interpolated the word "totally" or "finally" between "not" and "forsake." Thus, they argued, desertions are not the interruptions of God's love, they are rather the acts of God's love. God's love of benevolence or intention remains ever unchanged, but God's love of benificence or execution does change. It is these considerations which give rise to the complaints of the saints, either that God does not carry on the spiritual life as He was wont, or that He gives not that peace, joy, comfort, assurance as he was wont; or that He brings them into ourward straits and does not deliver them. The Christian finds that the tenure of grace and peace is not the same.

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 2

This is the second 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.  :  )

2. He Considered the Possibility That the Man's Distress Might Be Due to Non-spiritual Causes
The Puritans recognised that a man might be deeply distressed through what we should call psychological troubles, but which they termed "Melancholy." They recognised that it was no good seeking to apply spiritual remedies to psychological maladies. Thus says Baxter, "Expect not that rational spiritual remedies should suffice for this cure, for you may as well expect that a good sermon or comfortable words  should cure the falling sickness, or palsy, or a broken head, as to be a sufficient cure to your melancholy fears: for this is as real a bodily disease as the other." It is at this point that the Puritans display that shrewdness and robust common sense which are ever needed as a complement to spiritual understanding. They are prepared to give good advice as far as good advice is worth while in such cases. Thus they would counsel a man to watch his prayers. They recognised that some men needed to spend most of their prayer time in praise and thanksgiving and recollections of God's mercies, and that a minimum of time should be spent in confession and expressions of penitence. They recognised too that some Christians should not be over-encouraged to spend much time in solitary prayer and meditations. Rather, they should seek the company of cheerful Christians, for, said they, "There is no mirth like the mirth of believers." They should pray in the company of cheerful saints, and they should converse with men of strongest faith that have this heavenly mirth and can speak experimentally of the joy of the Holy Ghost. These things, said the Puritans, would be great help in lifting a man out of melancholy and depression and establishing him on the pathway of normal and peaceful Christian experience. They recognised that while every man must examine himself, yet there are those who need to observe restraint even in this excellent practice. "Spend more time in doing your duty than in trying your estate" is the Puritan advice to the unduly introspective Christian.
Here again much more could be said, but this must suffice for our present purpose.

The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 1

This is 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.  :  )

In this paper we are concerned with the principles which the Puritans followed in their dealings with those who came to them complaining that all was not well with them spiritually. The Puritans realised that the child of God does not walk in a state of unbroken joy: there come times when clouds intervene and the Christian loses the sense of God's favour. The Puritan pastor encouraged his people to come to him and disclose the state of their hearts so that counsel and advice could be given. In this way he built up an amazing stock of knowledge not only of God's dealings with His children but also of the Christian's experience of those dealings.
The complaint of the church member who came to his pastor might be more, or less, serious. He might complain simply that he has an indefinable sense that all is not well with him spiritually; he might have lost all his joy; he might have fallen back into some obvious sin which he thought he had put behind him for ever---as when Peter cursed and swore; he might have lost his assurance of salvation; he might even have found assurance of damnation! He might be finding in his heart doubtings of the gospel, of the goodness of God, of the very existence of God. Troubled that such terrible things should enter and temporarily, at any rate, possess his mind, he turns to his pastor in distress of soul.
In such a case the Puritan pastor worked along well defined lines.

1. He Considered the Possibility That the Man Coming to Him Is Not Truly Converted
To this end he looked for two things. First, a true and deep sense of sin. The Puritans seldom concerned themselves with the moment, real or imagined, of a man's turning to God; they were much more concerned with a man's present state. This does not mean, of course, that they were indifferent to the question of conversion, it means rather that they realised clearly that a true conversion will be shown by its fruit, and they looked for that fruit as evidence that a work of grace had taken place then, they said, one great overriding result would follow, that is, the man would have a deep and continually deepening sense of sin. And they resolutely refused to offer any comfort unless they were convinced that a real sense of sin was present. Thus "the conscience is not to be healed if it be not wounded. Thou preachest and pressest the law, comminations, the judgement to come, and that with much earnestness and importunity. He which hears, if he be not terrified, if he be not troubled, is not to be conforted. Another hears, is stirred, is stung, takes on extremely; cure his contritions, because he is cast down and confounded in himself." Or again, says Perkins, "First of all a man must have knowledge of four things, of the law of God, of sin against the law, of the guilt of sin, and of the judgement of God against sin, which is eternal wrath." Or again "never any of God's children," says Greenham, "were comforted thoroughly, but they were first humbled for their sins."
These quotations give a brief indication of the Puritans' attitude to this all-important question, and they resolutely declined to apply any comfort to a troubled soul until they were first sure that the soul had indeed been troubled as it should be troubled by a sense of sin.
The second thing for which they looked was a genuine love toward God. This will be evidenced by a genuine desire to please God, out of love, not fear. Baxter puts it in this way: "Are you heartily willing to take God for your portions and had you rather live with Him in Glory in His favour and fullest love, with a soul perfectly cleansed from all sin, and never more to offend Him, rejoicing with His Saints in His everlasting praises, that to enjoy the delights of the flesh on earth in a way of sin and without the favour of God? Are you heartily willing to take Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, that is to be your only Saviour and Lord, and to give you pardon by His blood shed and to sanctify you by His Work and Spirit and to govern you by His laws? Note that to be willing to be ruled by His laws in general and utterly unwilling when it comes to particulars is no true willingness and subjection. You must know that His laws reach both to heart and outward actions, that they command a Holy, Spiritual, Heavenly life, that they command things so cross and unpleasing to the flesh that the flesh will be ever murmuring and striving against obedience; particularly, they command things quite cross to the inclinations of the flesh as to forgive wrongs, to love enemies, to forbear malice and revenge, to restrain and mortify lust and passion, to abhor and mortify pride and to be low in our own eyes, and humble and meek in spirit. These are the laws of Christ which you must know before you can determine whether you are indeed unfeignedly willing to obey them."
Perkins sees fives characteristics of saving faith. The man that has it, he says, will know what it is "to feel his extreme need of Christ and His merits: to hunger and thrist after Him as after meat and drink: to be nothing in himself: to be able to say that he liveth not, but Christ liveth in him by faith: to loathe his own sins with a vehement hatred, and to prize and value Christ and the least drop of His blood above a thousand worlds."
Much more could be said under this heading but it is not the main purpose of this paper to deal with this branch of the subject. Suffice it to say that the Puritans were very thorough in their probing of a man's state, and they realised the great seriousness of allowing any man to rest in a false sense of security when in point of fact he is not truly a child of God. Bolton refers to those who too readily administer the comfort of the gospel as "dawbing ministers, a generation of vilest men, excellent idiots in the mystery of Christ, and merciful cut-throats of many miserable, deluded souls, to whom they promise life and peace; when there is no peace towards, but terrible things at hand, tumblings of garments in blood, noise of damned souls and tormenting in hell for ever."
Let us now assume that the pastor is satisfied that the distressed soul who has turned to him for help is truly regenerate. How next did he proceed?