A30167:765
Light for them that sit in darkness, or, A discourse of Jesus Christ, and…
Light for them that sit in darkness, or, A discourse of Jesus Christ, and that he undertook to accomplish by himself the eternal redemption of sinners also, that the Lord Jesus addressed himself to this work, with undeniable demonstrations that he performed the same : objections to the contrary answered / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for Francis Smith, 1675
LIGHT for them that sit in DARKNESS. › The Use of the Doctrine. › Application 4: The fourth use.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
By the first of these the Heart is made continually to tremble. Hence his Temptations are compared to the roaring of a Lyon, 1 Pet. 5. 8. For as the Lyon by roaring killeth the Heart of his Prey, so doth Satan, kill the Spirit of these that hearken to him: For when he tempteth, especially by way of accusation, he doth to us, as Rabshakeh did to the Jews: He speaks to us in our own Language. He speaks our Sin at every word, our guilty Conscience knows it, he speaks our Death at every word, our doubting Conscience feels it.
Secondly, Besides this, there doth now arise ⟨p. 176⟩even in the Heart such defiling, and soul infectious thoughts, that putteth the Tempted to their wits end: for now it seems to the Soul that the very flood-Gates of the Flesh are opened, and that to sin there is no stop at all; now the Air seems to be covered with darkness, and the Man is as if he was changed into the nature of a Devil: Now if ignorance and unbelief prevail, he concludeth that he is reprobate, made to be taken and destroyed.
Thirdly, Now also he feeleth in him a readiness to fall in with every temptation; a readiness, I say, continually present, Rom. 7. 21. This throws all down, now despair begins to swallow it up; now it can neither pray, nor read, nor hear, nor meditate on God, but Fire and Smoke continually bursteth forth of the Heart against him; now sin and great confusion puts forth it self in all: yea, the more the Sinner desireth to do a duty sincerely, the further off it always finds it self: For by how much the Soul struggleth under these distresses, by so much the more doth Satan put forth himself to resist, still infusing more poison, that if possible it might never struggle more (for strugglings are also us poison to Satan.) The Fly in the Spider's Webb, is an emblem of the Soul in such a condition; the Fly is entangled in the Webb, at this the Spider shows himself; if the Fly stir again, down comes the Spider to her, and claps a Foot upon her, if