home again empty,' Ruth i. 21. And happy for them that they are come to their stomachs in this life, before this food be tai^en off the table, never more to be set on. He that taught Christians to pray for their daily bread, did suppose they had need of it ; and surely he did not mean only or chiefly corporeal bread, who in the same chapter bids them 'seek first the kingdom of God,' Matt. vi. 33. Well, Christian, prize thou the word, feed on the word, wliether it be dished up in a sermon at the public, or in a conference vt'ith some Christian friend in private, or in a more secret duty of reading and meditation by tliy solitary self. Let none of these be disused, or carnally used by thee ; and, with God's blessing, thou shalt reap the benefit of it in thy faith. When thy stomach fails to the word, thy faith must needs begin to fail on the word. O that Christians who are so much in complaints of their weak faith, Avould but turn their complaints into inquiries why it is so weak and declining ! Is it not because faith hath missed its wonted meals from the word ? Thou haply hast formerly broke through many straits to keep thy acquaintance with God in his word, and wert well paid for that time which thou didst borrow of thy other occasions for this end, by that sweet temper then thou foundest thy heart in to trust God and rely upon him in all conditions ; but now, since thou hast dis- continued thy acquaintance with God in those his ordinances, thou perceivest a sad change : where thou couldst have trusted God, now thou art suspicious of him ; those promises that were able in a mutiny and hubbub of thy unruly passions to have hushed and quieted all in thy soul at their appearing in thy thoughts, have now, alas! but little authority over thy murmuring, unbelieving heart, to keep it in any tolerable order. If it be thus with thee, poor soul, thy ease is sad, and I cannot give thee better counsel for thy soul than that which physicians give men in a consumption, for their bodies. They ask them where tbey were born and bred up ; and to that their native air tlxey send tliem as the best means to recover them. Thus, soid, let me ask thee, if thou ever hadst faith, where was it born and bred up ; was it not in the sweet air of ordinances, hearing, meditating, conferring of the word, and praying over the word? Go, poor creature, and get thee as fast as thou canst into thy native air, where thou didst draw thy first Christian breath, and where thy faith did so thrive and grow for a time. No means more hopeful to set thy feeble faith on its legs again than this.
Secondly, Wouldst thou preserve thy faith, look to thy conscience. A good con- science is the bottom faith sails in ; if the conscience be wrecked, how can it be thought that faith should be safe? If faith be the jewel, a good conscience is the cabinet in which it is kept ; and if the cabinet be broken, the jewel must needs be in danger of losing. Now you know what sins waste the conscience ; sins either deliberately committed, or impenitently continued in. O take heed of deliberate sin ; like a stone thrown into a clear stream, it will so disturb thy soul, and muddy it, that thou, who even now couldst see thy interest in the promise, wilt now be at a loss, and not know what to think of thyself They are like a fire on the top of the house, it will be no easy matter to quench it. But if thou hast been so imhappy as to fall into such a slough, take heed of lying in it by impenitence : the sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallowsin it ; and therefore how hard wilt thou find it, thinkest thou, to act thy faith on the promise when thou art, by thy filthy garments and besmeared countenance, so unlike one of God's holy ones! It is dangerous to drink poison, but far more to let it lie in the body long. Thou canst not act thy faith, though a believer, on the promise, so as to apjily the pardon it presents to thy soul, till thou hast renewed thy repentance.
Thirdly, Exercise thy faith, if thou meanest to preserve thy faith. We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise. As we say of some stirring men, they are never well but at work ; confine them to their bed or chair, and you kill them : so here, hinder faith from working, and you are enemies to the very life and being of it. Why do we act faith so little in prayer, but because we are no more "frequent in it ? Let the child seldom see its father or mother, and when he comes in their presence, he will not make much after them. Why are we no more able to live on a pi-omise when at a plunge? surely, because we live no more with the promise. The more we converse with the promise, the more confidence we shall put in it. We do not trust strangers as we do oin-
ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 465