black art, and hellish skill

William Gurnall,

Satan shows his subtlety in choosing the most proper and advantageous seasons for tempting.‘To every thing there is a season,’ Solomon saith, Ecc. 3:1, that is, a nick of time, which taken, gives facility and speedy despatch to a business; and therefore the same wise man gives this reason why man miscarries so frequently, and is disappointed in his enterprises, ‘because he knows not his time,’ Ecc. 9:12.  He comes when the bird is flown.  A hundred soldiers at one time may turn a battle, save an army, when thousands will not do [it] at another.  Satan knows when to make his approaches, when (if at any time) he is most likely to be entertained.  As Christ hath the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season of counsel and comfort, to a doubting dropping soul, so Satan knows his black art, and hellish skill, in speaking words of seduction and temptation in season; and a word in season is a words on its wheels.

No sooner is this child of grace, the new crea­ture, born, but this dragon pours a flood of temptation after it.  He learned the Egyptians but some of his own craft, when he taught them that bloody and cruel baptism, which they exercised upon the Israel­itish babes, in throwing them into the river as soon as they were born.  The first cry of the new creature gives all the legions of hell an alarm.  They are as much troubled at it as Herod and Jerusalem were when Christ was born; and now they sit in council to take away the life of this new-born king.  The apostles met with opposition and persecution in their latter days when endued with larger portions of the Spirit, but with temptations from Satan in their former, when young converts; as you may observe in the sev­eral passages recorded of them.  Satan knew grace within was but weak, and the supplies promised at the Spirit’s coming not landed.  And when is an enemy more like to carry the town than in such a low condition?  And therefore he tries them all.

Indeed the advantages are so many, that we may wonder how the young convert escapes with his life; knowledge [being] weak, and [he] so soon let him into an error, especially in divided times, when many ways are held forth one saying, Here is Christ, another There is Christ.  And the Christian [is] ready to think every one means honestly that comes with good words, as a little child that hath lost his way to his father’s house, is prone to follow any that offer their conduct [or] experience of what he knows little.  And if Adam, whose knowledge [was] so perfect, yet was soon cheated—being assaulted before he was well warm in his new possessions—how much more advantage hath Satan of the new convert!  In him he finds every grace in a great indisposition to make resistance, both from its own weakness, and the strength of contrary corruption, which commonly in such is unmortified. [This] makes it act with more difficulty and mixture, as in a fire newly kindled, where the smoke is more than the flame, or like beer newly tunned which runs thick.  So that though there appear more strength of affection in such, that it works over into greater abundance of duty than in others, yet [it is] with more dregs of carnal passions, which Satan knows, and therefore chooseth to stir what he sees troubled already. [edited for the blog, The Christian in Complete Armour]

The Anvil of Their Hearts

Gurnall is so convicting!

This man knew the Lord and knew his own sinfulness well. In the quote that follows he writes about exercising the grace we have been given by God instead of chasing the lusts of our heart.

This falls heavy on their heads, who are so far from exercising grace, that they walk in the exercise of their lusts. Their hearts are like a glass house, the fire is never out, the shop-windows never shut, they are always at work, hammering some wicked project or other upon the anvil of their hearts. There are some who give full scope to their lusts; when their wicked hearts will, they shall have; they cocker [or indulge] their lusts as some their children, [and] deny them nothing; as it is recorded of David to Adonijah, [they] do not so much as say to their souls, Why doest thou so? why art thou so proud, so covetous, profane? They spend their days in making provision for these guests; as at some inns, the house never cools, but as one guest goes out another comes in—as one lust is served, another is calling for attendance; as some exercise grace more than others, so there are greater traders in sin, that set more at work than others, and return more wrath in a day than others in a month.

Happy are such, in comparison of these, who are chained up by God’s restraint upon their outward man or inward, that they cannot drive on so furiously as those who, by health of body, power and greatness in place, riches and treasures in their coffers, numbness and dedolency [or absence of] in their consciences, are hurried on to fill up the measure of their sins. We read of the Assyrian, that he ‘enlarged his heart as hell,’ stretching out his desires as men do their bags that are thracked [burden] full with money to hold more, Hab. 2:5. Thus the adulterer, as if his body were not quick enough to execute the commands of his lust, stirs it up by sending forth his amorous glances, which come home laden with adultery, blows up his fire with unchaste sonnets and belly-cheer, proper fuel for the devil’s kitchen; and the malicious man, who that he may lose no time from his lust, is a tearing his neighbour in pieces as he lies on his bed, [and] cannot sleep unless some such bloody sacrifice be offered to his ravening lust.

O how may this shame the saints! How oft is your zeal so hot that you cannot sleep till your hearts have been in heaven, as you are on your beds, and there pacified with the sight of your dear Saviour, and some embraces of love from him!

The Christian in Complete Armour

Paper Armour

Freely substitute Paptist with freewill works based religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc and the quote still applies.

William Gurnall,

Look into his armour, and hardly a piece will be found armour of God.  They fight in the pope’s armour.  His authority is the shop wherein their weapons are forged.  It were a kind of penance to your patience, to repeat all the several pieces of armour with which they load silly souls —too heavy indeed for the broadest shoulders among them to bear—yea, more than the wiser sort of them mean to use.  Their masses, matins, vigils, pilgrimages, Lent-fasts, whippings, vows of chastity, poverty, with a world of such trash!—where is a word of God for these?  Who hath required these things at their hands?  A thousand woes will one day fall upon those impostors, who have stripped the people of their true armour of God, and put these reeds and bulrushes in their hands.  This may justify us in the sight of God and men for our departure from them who will force us to venture the life of our souls in such paper-armour, when God hath provided better.

“Morality may damn as well as vice. A vessel may be sunk with gold as well as with dung.” Thomas Watson

 

“A soul purely naked…”

Two portions from recent readings:

John Gill on true internal worship, “…the subject I am upon I consider it as an assemblage of graces, as containing the whole of grace in the heart, the exercise of which is necessary to serve and worship God with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28), and without this there can be no internal worship of God. This is no other than the inward devotion of the mind, a fervency of spirit in serving the Lord; it is a holy disposition of the soul towards God. This is qeosebeia, the true worship of God (1 Tim. 2:10), the ground and foundation of it, without which there can be none. This is “life and godliness”, or vital powerful godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), and “the things pertaining” to it are faith, hope, love, and every other grace, of which it consists, and in the exercise of which it lies, and in this is all internal religion and worship.”

On true and experimental religion, “Now as inward powerful godliness is, as has been seen, a disposition of the soul Godward, from whom all grace comes and to whom it tends, and as it is an assemblage of every grace, in the exercise of which all internal worship and experimental religion lies, I therefore begin with it, and shall in the following chapters consider the branches of it in which it opens; as the knowledge of God, repentance towards God, fear of him, faith and trust in him, the hope of things from him, love to him, joy in him, humility, self-denial, patience, submission, and resignation to the will of God, thankfulness for every mercy, with every other grace necessary to the worship of God, and which belongs to experimental religion and godliness.” (Practical Theology)

William Gurnall on carnal Christians who place their trust in themselves, their prayers, their religion, “When Satan tempts to sin, if he hath not presently a peaceable entrance, yet the resistance commonly made is carnal; the strength carnal they rest on, their own, not God’s; the motive’s carnal, as the fear of man more than of God; [as to which] one saith, ‘How shall I do this and sin against God?’ Many in their hearts say, How shall I do this and anger man, displease my master, provoke my parents, and lose the good opinion of my minister?  Herod feared John, and did many things.  Had he feared God, he would have laboured to have done everything. The like may be said of all other motives, which have their spring in the creature, not in God; they are armour which will not out-stand shot.”

And further, “A soul purely naked, nothing like the wedding garment on, he is speechless.  The drunkard hath nothing to say for himself, when you ask him why he lives so swinishly; you may come up to him, and get within him, and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him, which will shoot into him.  But come to deal with one who prays and hears, one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God; here is a man in glittering armour, he hath his weapon in his hand, with which he will keep the preacher, and the word he chargeth him with, at arm’s length.  Who can say I am not a saint?  What duty do I neglect?  Here is a breastwork he lies under, which makes him not so fair a mark either to the observation or reproof of another; his chief defect being within, where man’s eye comes not.  Again, it is harder to work on him, because he hath been tampered with already, and miscarried in the essay.  How comes such a one to be acquainted with such duties—to make such a profession?  Was it ever thus?  No, the word hath been at work upon him, his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickedness, into a form of profession, but, taking in short of Christ, for want of a thorough change, it is harder to remove him than the other.” (The Christian in Complete Armour)

(edited to add a note I found on Wiki: “The writing style is akin to that of the King James Bible, so in 1988 [Banner of Truth Trust] did a revised and abridged version in contemporary English.” The edition published by Hendrickson is the one I’d recommend.)

Scripture-Bullets

One of the best purchases I’ve ever made was this book: “The Christian in Complete Armour.” I pick away at it, a paragraph here and there and slowly, ever so slowly I’m working my way through. A few times a week I seek the words of this wise saint for instruction and will continue to do so. I’ve been reading Gill’s “Practical Theology” during my lunch hours and it seems to wind in and out with my portions of Complete Armour, each man’s work complementing the other. Earlier in the week, before bed, I found the following:

Gurnall, “Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak; what can you do or suffer more for God than an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly armour?  I will tell you what the world saith, and if you be Christians, clear yourselves, and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glittering armour.  They say, These professors indeed have God more in their talk than we; but when they come down into their shops, re­lations and worldly employment, then the best of them all is but like one of us.  They can throw the tables of God’s commandments out of their hands as well as we; [can] come from a sermon, and be as covetous and gripping, as peevish and passionate, as the worst.  They show as little love to Christ as others, when it is matter of cost, as to relieve a poor saint or maintain the gospel; you may get more from a stranger, an enemy, than from a professing brother. O Christians, either vindicate the name of Christ, whose ensign you seem to march after, or throw away your seeming armour, by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you.  If you will not, Christ himself will cashier you, and that with shame enough ere long.  Never call that the armour of God which defends thee not against the power of Satan.

Take, therefore, the several pieces of your armour and try them, as the soldier before he fights will set his helmet or head-piece as a mark, at which he lets fly a brace of bullets, and as he finds them so will wear them or leave them.  But be sure thou shootest scripture-bullets.  Thou boastest of a breastplate of righteousness.  Ask thy soul, Didst thou ever in thy life perform a duty to please God, and not to accommodate thyself?  Thou hast prayed often against thy sin, a great noise of the pieces have been heard coming from thee by others, as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption, but canst thou indeed show one sin thou hast slain by all thy praying?  Joseph was alive, though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob; and so may thy sin be, for all thy mortified look in duty, and outcry thou makest against them.  If thou wouldst thus try every piece, thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satan’s false ware.”

Fencing Buddies

William Gurnall,

“The state of unregeneracy is a state friendship with sin and Satan.

If it be enmity against God, as it is, then friendship with Satan.  Now it will be hard to make that soul fight in earnest against his friend.  Is Satan divided?  Will the devil within fight against the devil without?—Satan in the heart shut out Satan at the door?  Sometimes indeed there ap­pears a scuffle between Satan and a carnal heart, but it is a mere cheat, like the fighting of two fencers on a stage.  You would think at first they were in earnest, but observing how wary they are, [and] where they hit one another, you may soon know they do not mean to kill; and that which puts all out of doubt, when the prize is done you shall see them making merry to­gether with what they have got of their spectators, which was all they fought for.

When a carnal heart makes the greatest bustle against sin by complaining of it, or praying against it, follow him but off the stage of duty, where he hath gained the reputation of a saint—the prize he fights for—and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a corner as ever.” [source]

Search Thy Heart

It behoves thee to search thy heart so, because all depends on it—even all thou art worth in another world.  It is thy making or marring for ever: 

‘Do good, O Lord….to them that are upright in their hearts; as for such as turn aside to crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity,’ Ps. 125:4,5.

That the end the hypocrite is sure to come to.  He would indeed then fain pass for a saint, and crowd in among the godly, but God ‘shall lead them forth with workers of iniquity’—company that better befits him.  It is sincerity that shall carry it in that day.  ‘I will come,’ saith Paul, ‘to you shortly,…and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power; for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.  What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love?’ I Cor. 4:19.

Oh friends! not Paul, but Christ, will shortly come unto us, and he will know, not the speech and soothing language of such as are puffed up with an empty name of profession, but will know the power, gauge the heart, and see what is in it.  Now, will ye that he come with a rod, or in love, to judge you—as hypocrites, or to give you the euge of a faithful servant?  Doth he not spend his time ill, that takes pains in his trade, and lays out all his stock upon such a commodity which, when he opens his stall, will be seized for false ware, and he clapped up for abusing the country?

All that ever the hypocrite did, will in the great day of Christ be found counterfeit, and be sure to be laid by the heels in hell for going about to cheat God and man.  Every man’s works shall then be manifest, that day shall declare it.  Even the sincere Christian where he hath tampered with hypocrisy shall lose that of his work; but the hypocrite, with his work, his soul also. [source]

Many Pretend to It

William Gurnall, “Communion with God is so desirable, that many pretend to it, who know not what it means; like some that brag of their acquaintance with such a great man, who, may be, never saw his face, nor have been admitted into his company.  The Spirit of God gives the lie to that man who saith he hath any ac­quaintance with God, while he keeps his acquaintance with any unrighteousness: ‘If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,’ I John 1:6.  The apostle is willing to pass for a loud liar himself, if he walks in darkness, and pretends to have fellowship with God.  How can they ‘walk together’ that are not ‘agreed?’  Communion is founded on union, and union upon likeness.  And how like are God and the devil, holiness and unrighteousness, one to the other?

There is a vast difference between conversing with ordinances, and having communion with God.  A man may have great acquaintance with ordinances, and be a great stranger to God at the same time.  Every one that goes to court, and hangs about the palace, doth not speak with the prince. And what sorry things are ordinances without this com­munion with God?  Ordinances are as it were the ex­change, where holy souls trade with God by his Spirit for heavenly treasures, from which they come filled and enriched with grace and comfort.

Now, what does the unholy wretch? truly like some idle persons that come and walk among merchants on the ex­change, but have no business there, or commerce whereby they get any advantage.  An unholy heart hath no dealings with God; he takes no notice of God.  May be, to be sure, God takes no such notice of him, as to communicate himself graciously to him. Nay, suppose a person habitually holy, but under the power of some temptation for the present, whereby he defiles himself; he is in this case unfit to have any friendly communion with God.

‘A righteous man falling down before the wicked is,’ saith Solomon, ‘as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring,’ Prov. 25:26; much more is he so when he falls down before the wicked one, and yields to his temptation—now his spirit is roil [i.e. turbid] and muddied.  And if we will not use the water of a spring, though in itself pure and wholesome, when it is troubled, or drink of that vessel that runs thick, but stay while [i.e. until] it be settled and comes clear; can we wonder if God refuseth to taste of those duties which a godly person performs, before the stream be cleared by the renewing of his repentance for his sin?” [source]