Why then, despair,
and go hang thyself, saith the devil. And now we are at the end of
the thing designed and driven at by Satan. And what shall I now do,
saith the sinner? I answer, take up the words of the text against
him: Christ loves with a love that "passeth knowledge." And answer
him further, saying, Satan, though I cannot think that God loves me,
though I cannot think that God will save me, yet I will not yield to
thee; for God can do more than I think he can. And whereas thou
appealedst unto me, if whether, when I pray, my heart is not
possessed with the belief that God will not regard me, that shall
not sink me neither; for God can "do abundantly above what I ask or
think." Thus this text helpeth where obstructions are put in against
our believing, and thereby casting ourselves upon the love of God in
Christ for salvation.
And yet this is not all; for the text is yet more full: "He is able
to do abundantly more, yea, exceeding abundantly more, or above all
that we ask or think." It is a text made up of words picked and
packed together by the wisdom of God; picked and packed together on
purpose for the succor and relief of the tempted; that they may,
when in the midst of their distresses, cast themselves upon, the
Lord their God.
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