O, let not your souls (who see your need of Christ, and are pinched at your very heart for want of hini) be lean from day to day through your unbelief; but come, eat, and your souls shall live. Never was child more welcome to his father's table than tliou art to Christ's, and that feast which stands on the gospel-board.
Make use of faith, O ye saints, as for other ends and purposes, so particularly for this, of quenching this kind of fiery darts. It is not the having a shield, but the holding and wielding it, that defends the Christian. Let not Satan take thee with thy faith out of thy hand, as David did Saul in the cave, with his spear sticking in the ground, which should have been in his hand.
Quest. But how would you have me use my shield of faith for my defence against these fiery darts of Satan's enticing temptations ? Ans. By f^iith engage God to come in to thy succour against them. Now there are three engaging acts of faith, which will bind God (as we may so say with reverence) to help thee, because he binds himself to help such.
The first is the praj'erful act of faith. Open thy case to God in prayer, and call in help from heaven; as the governor of a besieged castle would send a secret messenger to his general or prince, to let him know his state and straits. The apostle James, chap. iv. 2, saith, ' Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.' Our victory must di-op from heaven, if we have any ; but it stays till prayer comes for it. Though God had a purpose to deliver Israel out of Egypt, yet there was no news of his coming till the groans of his people rang in his ears. This gave heaven the alarm ; their cry came up unto God, and he heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant, Exod. ii. 24. Now, the more to prevail upon God in this act of faith, fortify thy pi-ayer with those strong reasons which saints have used in like cases. First, Engage God from his promise, when thou prayest against any sin ; shew God his own hand in such promises as these: 'Sin shall not have dominion over you,' Rom. vi. 14. ' He will subdue our miquities,' Micah vii. 19. Prayer is nothing but tlie promise reversed, or God's word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again. Know, Christian, thou hast law on thy side, — ■ bills and bonds must be paid. David prays against the sins of a wanton eye and a dead heart : ' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way,' Psa. cxix. 37; and see how he urgeth his argument in the next words, — ' Establish thy word unto thy servant,' ver. 38. A good man is as good as his word, and will not a good God? But where finds David such a word for help against these sins ? Surely in the covenant, it is in the Magna Charta. The first promise held forth thus much, — ' The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' Secondly, Plead with God from relation. Art thou one whom God hath taken into his family.' O what an argument hast thou here ! *I am thine; Lord save me,' saith David. Who will look after the child, if the father will not ? Is it to thy honour, O God, that any child of thine should be a slave to sin? ' Be merciful imto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name ; order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,' Psa. cxix. 132. Thirdly, Engage God, from his Son's bloody death, to help thee against thy lusts, which were his nuu'dei'ers. What died Clu-ist for, but to ' redeem us from all iniquity, and pvn-ify unto himself a peculiar people ?' Tit. ii. 14. And shall not Christ be reimbursed of what he laid out ? Shall he not have the price of his blood, and piu-chase of his death? In a word, what is Christ praying for in heaven, but what was in his mouth when praying on earth, that his ' Father would sanctify them, and keep them from the evil of the world?' Thou comest in good time to beg that of God which thou findcst Christ hath asked for thee.
A second way to engage God is by faith's expecting act : when thou hast been with God, expect good fi-om God. ' I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up,' Psa. V. 3. For want of this many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray ? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God ; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take his name in vain ? O, Chi istian ! stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise, and you cannot miss of the ruin of your lusts.
Quest. O but, saith the poor soul, shall not I presume, to expect, when I have prayed against my corruptions, that God will bestow so great a mercy onine as
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