It is certain, that sometimes they proceed from ourselves: Thus our Saviour says, Out of the heart proceed blasphemies that defile a man, Matt. xv. 19. and we have reason to charge ourselves therewith, when they arise from, or are accompanied with other presumptuous sins; or when we do not strive against, but rather give way to them, and other suggestions of Satan, which tends to God’s dishonour, grieves the Holy Spirit, and defiles our own consciences.
But, on the other hand, we may humbly hope and trust, that they are rather to be charged on Satan than ourselves, when they are the result of some bodily distemper, as in those that are under the prevailing power of melancholy, in whom it may be observed, that when by the use of natural means, the distemper is abated, and the constitution mended, these blasphemous suggestions cease. Moreover, when our souls tremble at the temptation, and oppose it with the utmost abhorrence, as our Saviour did, when the Devil tempted him to fall down and worship him; to whom he immediately replies, Get thee hence, Satan, chap. iv. 9, 10. Again, when we confess, and can appeal to the heart-searching God, that we are so far from having any inclination to comply with the suggestion, that nothing is more grievous to us, than to be assaulted with it: and especially when we take occasion from hence, to exercise that reverential fear of the divine Majesty, that is opposite thereunto.
(2.) As Satan gives disturbance by blasphemous suggestions, so he uses endeavours to drive persons to despair. We observed, under a foregoing head, that so long as he can persuade any one to take up with a false peace, and fancy himself secure though going on in a course of rebellion against God, he gives him but little uneasiness, endeavouring rather to increase his stupidity, than awaken his fears. Before this, he attempted to bring ruin upon him, by suggesting those temptations that led to presumption, and pretended to him, that all things were well, when the ground was sinking under him, and his hope built on a sandy foundation: But, when the frame of his spirit is somewhat altered, and he is brought to a sense of his miserable condition; so that none of those stupifying medicines that have been used, will heal the wound; then Satan endeavours to persuade him, that his condition is hopeless, or that there is no help for him in God. This temptation believers, as well as the unregenerate, are sometimes liable to; of which, we have many instances in scripture, besides those that are matter of daily experience. But it may be observed, that there is this difference between the one and the other, in that we scarce ever read of a believer’s despair; but we have, at the same time, something added, which either argues his faith in God, or, that there was a mixture of hope, which was like a beam of light shining in darkness: Thus the Psalmist, in Psal. lxxxviii. expresses himself like one in the depths of despair; yet it may be observed, that he addresses himself to God, in ver. 1. as the Lord God of his salvation. And when the church is represented in Lam. iii. 18. as saying, My hope is perished from the Lord; it is considered afterwards as encouraging itself in him, as in ver. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him; and, in ver. 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever. But when unbelievers are tempted to despair, it is attended with an obstinate resolution to go on in a course of sin, and a total withdrawing themselves from the ordinances, or instituted means of grace. Thus when Cain complains that his punishment was greater than he could bear; it is said concerning him, that he went out from the presence of the Lord, Gen. iv. 13, 16. In this case despair, especially if it does not proceed from a bodily distemper, as it sometimes does, is a sad mark of a person’s being under the dominion of Satan, who was before a tempter, but now proves a tormentor to him.
Here we may take occasion to consider how Satan proceeds against men in tempting them to despair.
1st. He takes the fittest opportunity, when we are most like to be overcome by his temptation; he observes our constitution when most addicted to melancholy, and therefore more easily led to despair: He also takes notice of some circumstances of providence that we are brought under, which are more than ordinarily afflictive, and tend to deject and render us more receptive of this temptation, in which he endeavours to add weight to our burden, and depress our spirits under it: He also lays hold on those times, more especially when we are under divine desertion; and, as the consequence hereof, our faith is weak, and very much indisposed to seek help from God. Moreover, he often takes occasion, from some great fall and miscarriage which we have been guilty of, whereby we have grieved the Holy Spirit, and wounded our own consciences, to aggravate our crime, so far that from hence we may conclude our state to be altogether hopeless.
2dly, He endeavours to stop all the springs of comfort, that might fortify us against, or afford us any relief under this temptation; and accordingly he turns our thoughts from the promises of the covenant of grace, and persuades the soul to conclude that they are not made to himself; therefore he ought not to apply them to himself for his comfort; and to determine peremptorily against himself, that he is not elected to salvation; not from any marks of reprobation that he finds in himself, but by entering into God’s secret counsels, and pretending to search the records of heaven, which he has no warrant to look into, (in which respect despair contains in it a mixture of sinful presumption,) and, at the same time, he has a secret aversion to converse with those who are able to speak a word in season to him; and if any endeavours are used to convince him that the mercy of God is infinite, his thoughts are not as our thoughts, and that the merit of Christ extends itself to the chief of sinners, it is all to no purpose, for his general reply, to this and all other arguments of the like nature, is that this belongs not to him, or his iniquities have excluded him from the divine favour.
3dly, Satan endeavours to hinder a soul at this time, from waiting on God in ordinances. As for the Lord’s supper, he not only dissuades him from attending on it, but endeavours to insinuate, that, in partaking of it in times past, he has eat and drunk his own damnation, giving a perverse sense of that scripture, 1 Cor. xi. 29. which, as appears from the context, is not to be applied to weak believers, but to such as engage in this ordinance, in a profane and irreverent manner, as though it were not a divine institution, and without any desire of obtaining spiritual mercies from God therein; and the word which we render damnation, ought to be rendered judgment, denoting that they expose themselves to temporal, as well as spiritual judgments in this world for this wickedness; not that they are from hence to conclude, that their eternal damnation will unavoidably ensue hereupon: And therefore the design of this scripture, is to lead to repentance, and not to despair. As for the word preached, he concludes, that every thing which is delivered therein, contains an indictment against him, and there he cannot endure to hear it: And, as for prayer, Satan discourages him from it, by pretending that he is not in a right frame for the performance of this duty, and by giving a false sense of such scriptures as these, in Prov. xxviii. 9. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination; and, in chap. xxi. 27. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination; the meaning of which is, not that the duty itself is sinful because performed by sinners, or that God hates them the more for praying, but that he hates the hypocrisy, formality, and other sins committed by them, when engaged in this duty; so that they should rather strive and pray against this unbecoming frame of spirit, than lay aside the duty itself, as they are tempted to do.
4thly, Satan also makes use of false reasoning, by which he endeavours to answer this end; as,
[1.] He puts them upon concluding, that because they have no grace, therefore they never shall have it; which method of reasoning, if it were just, must be applied to all unregenerate sinners; and then we must conclude, that the whole work of conversion in this world, is at an end; which, blessed be God, it is not.
[2.] He farther argues, that because they have lived a great while in a course of sin, and their hearts are very much hardened thereby; therefore they cannot be broken, or their wound is incurable, and there are no healing medicines; which is to set limits to the almighty power and grace of God.