In a word, tliou hast faith, and yet drivest a trade of sin in the very face of it. O, God forbid that any should be under so great a dehision, to carry such a lie in their hand, and think it a saving faith ! Will this faith ever carry thee to heaven, which is not able to bring tliee out of liell? for there thou livest while under the power of thy lust. ' Will you steal, niurdei-, and connnit adultery, and swear falsely, and come and stand before me ?' Jer. vii. 9, 10. If this be faith, well fare the honest heathens who escaped these gi-oss pollutions of the world, which jou, like beasts, with your faith, lie wallowing in. I had rather be a sober heathen than a drunken Christian, a chaste heathen than an unclean believer. O, venture not the life of your souls with such a paper shield ; come to Him for a faith who is the faith-maker ; he will help thee to a faith that shall quench the very fire of hell itself, though kindled in thy bosom, and divide the waves of thy lust, in which now thou art drowned, (as once he did the sea for Israel,) thatthoushaltgoon di'yland to heaven, and thy lust not be able to knock off the wheels of thy chariot. But if thou attemptest tliis with thy false faith, the Egyptians' end will be thine. ' By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians essaying to do, were drowned,' Heb. xi. 29. Though true faith gets safely througli the depths of temptation, yet false faith will drown by the way. But perhaps thou canst tell us better news than this, and give us better evidence for the truth of thy faith. Let us therefore hear what singular thing hath been done by thee since thou hast become abeliever. The time Avas, thou wei-t as weak as water; every blast of temptation blew thee down; thou wert carried as a dead fish with the stream ; but canst thou say since thou hast been acquainted with Christ, thou art endued with a power to repel those tempt- ations which before held thy heart in perfect obedience to their commands ? Canst thou now be content to bring thy lusts, which once were of great price, with thee, as those believers did their conjuring books, Acts xix. 19, and throw them into the fire of God's love in Christ to thy soul, there to consume them ? Possibly thou hast not them at present under thy foot in a full conquest, yet have they begun to fall in thy thoughts, and is thy countenance changed towards them to what it was? Be of good comfort, this is enough to pi'ove thy faith of the royal race. ' When Christ cometh,' said the convinced Jews, ' will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?' John vii. 31. And when Christ comes by faith into the heart, will he do greater works than these thy faith hath done ?
CHAPTER XVI.
AN OBJECTION AGAINST BELIEVING ANSWERED; AND SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO USE THIS SHIELD TO QUENCH ENTICING TEMPTATIONS.
Tins helps to answer that objection, by which many poor souls are discouraged from believing, and closing with the promise. O, says the tempted soul, you bid me believe : alas ! how dare I, wiien I cannot get the victory over such a lust, and am overcome by such a temptation? What have such as I to do with a promise ? See here this Goliath prostrated : thou art not to believe because thou art victorious, but that thou mayest be victorious. The reason Vv'hy thou art so worsted by thy enemy is for want of faith : ' If ye will not believe, ye surely shall not be established,' Isa. vii. 9. Wouldst thou be cured before thou goest to the physician ? That sounds harsh to thy own reason, and is as if thou shouldst say, tliou wilt not go to the physician till thou hast no need of him. No, go and touch Christ by faitli, that virtue may flow from him to thy soul. Thou must not think to eat tlie fruit before thou plantest the tree. Victory over cor- ruption is a sweet fruit, but found growing only upon faith's branches. Satan does by thee as Saul did by the Israelites, wlio weakened their hands in battle by keeping them fasting. Up and eat. Christian, a full meal on the promise, if thou wouldst find thy eyes enlightened and thy hands strengthened for the combat with thy lusts. It is one part of the doctrine of devils, which we read of, 1 Tim. iv. 3, ' to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with tlianksgiving.' But the grand doctrine of the devil, which above all he would promote, is to keep poor, treinl)ling souls from feeding by faith on the Lord Jesus, as if Christ were some forbidden fruit ; whereas God hath appointed him above all others, that he slioiild be received with thanksgiving of all humble sinners. And, therefore, in tlie name of God, I invite you to his feast.
485 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.