other, if linked by an especial affinity to the Ibrnior. In vain do we charge the gun, if we intend not to let it oiF. Meditation filleth the heart with heavenly matter, hut prayer gives the discharge, and poiu-s it forth upon God, whereby he is overcome to give the Christian his desired succour. 'J'he promise is the bond, wherein (Jod makes himself a debtor to the creature. Now, though it is some comfort to a poor man that hath no money at present to buy bread, when he I'eads his bills and bonds, to see that he hath a great sum owing him ; yet this will not supply his present wants : no, it is the putting his bond in suit nuist do this. By meditating on the promise, thou comest to see there is support in, and deliverance out of, affliction engaged for ; but none will come, till you eonmience yoin- suit, and by the prayer of faith call in the debt. ' Your heart shall live that seek the Lord,' Psa. Ixix. 32. ' They looked unto him, and were lightened,' Psa. xxxiv. 5. (lod expects to Ijear from you, before you can expect to hear from him. If you restrain prayer, it is no wonder the mercy promised is retained. Meditation is like the lawyer's studying the case in order to his pleading at the bar : when, therefore, thou hast viewed the promise, and affected thy heart with the riches of it, then ply thee to the throne of grace, and spread it before the Lord. Thus David, Psa. cxix. 46, ' Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.'
Section V. — When thou hast sued the promise, exert thy faith on the power and truth of God for the performance of it, against sense and reason, which rise up to discourage thee ; for, as thy faith is feeble or strong on these, so wilt thou draw little or nnich sweetness from the promises. The saint's safety lies in the strength and faithfulness of God, who is the promiser ; but the present comfort and repose of an afflicted soul is fetched in by faith relying on God as such. Hence it is, though all believers are out of danger, in the saddest con- dition, yet too many, alas ! of them, are under fears and dejections of spirit, because their faith acts weakly on a mighty God, and suspiciously on a faithfid God : ' Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith !' Matt. viii. 26. You see the leak at which the water came in to sink their spirits ; they had ' little faith.' It is not what God is in himself, but what our apprehensions at jiresent are of God, that pacifies and comforts a soul in great straits. If a man fear the house will fall on his head in a storm, though it be as immovable as a rock, yet that will not ease his mind till he thinks it so. Were a man under the protection of never so faithful a friend, yet so long as his head is full of fears and jealousies to the contrary, that he will at last leave and cast him off, this man must needs have an uncomfortable life, though without cause. You see, then, of what im- portance it is to keep up the vigour of thy faith on the power and truth of the promises ; and if thou meanest to do this, banish sense and reason from being thy counsellors. How came Abraham not to stagger in his faith, though the promise was so strange ? Because ' he considered not his own body,' Rom. iv. 19. And what nuide Zacharias reel? He made sense his counsellor, and thought he was too old for such news to be true. This is the bane of faith, and consequently of comfort in affliction. We are too prone to carry our faitli, like Thomas, at our fingers' ends, and to trust God no farther than om- hand of sense can reach. It is not fiir that sense can reach, and but little farther that reason's purblind eye can see ; God is oft on his way to perform a promise, and bring joyful news to his afflicted servants, when sense and reason cf)nclude their case desperate. These three, sense, reason, and faith, are distinct, aiul must not be confounded. Some things we know by sense, which we do not under- stand the reason of, as the sympathy of the loadstone with iron, why it draws the baser metal, and not gold : and the mariner's needle esj)ousing the north point rather than any otlier. Some things we apprehend by reason, that are not discerned by sense ; as the magnitude of the sun's body to exceed the cir- cumference of the earth, which, the eye being judge, may be almost covered with one's hat. And other things clear to faitli, that j)ose both sense and rea- son. Paul knew by faith in that dismal sea-storm, where all hope of being saved was taken away, (that is, sense and reason being judges,) not q, man should lose his life, Acts xxvii. 25, ' Be of good cheer, for I believe that it shall be even as it was told me.' Wlien the angel smote Peter on the side, and bade him * arise quickly, and follow me,' he did not allow sense and reason to reply and cavil at the impossibility of the thing; how can I walk that am in fetters"?
520 ^^^ ^^^ SWORD OF THE Sl'IIUT.