sins, but believing in Christ.^ It is sad to consider how few professors in these days have attained the right way of mortifying of sin. They usually go out against their sins in the strength of their own purposes, prayers, and resolutions, &c., and scarce look so high as a crucified Christ ; they mind not the exercise of their faith upon Christ ; and therefore it is a righteous thing -with Christ that after all they should be canied captive by their sins. Nothing eats out sin like the actings of grace ; nothing weakens and wastes the strength of sin like the exer- cise of graca Oh ! did men believe more in Christ, sin would die more ; did they believe the threatenings more, sin would die more ; did they believe the promises more, sin would die more ; did they believe reio-ninp- with Christ more, sin would die more : ' He that hath this hope purifies himself, even as Christ is pure,' 1 John iii. 3.
Again, Suppose that the soul be followed with black, dismal, fiery temptations, there is nothing now in all the world that can divinely strenothen and fence the soul against these temptations but the exercise of o-race, the improvement of grace. It is true you are to hear, read, pray, meditate, &c. ; but all these without the exercise of grace in them, will never make you victorious over Satan's temptations. Nothing puts Satan to it like the exercise of grace.^
It is said of Satan, that he should say to a holy man who was much in the exercise of grace, Tii me semper vincis, thou dost always over- come me : Eph. vi. 16. ' Above all, take the shield of faith, whereby ye may be able to quench the fiery darts of the devil' Whatsoever piece of armour you neglect, be sure that you neglect not the shield of faith. The Greek word that is here rendered a shield, ^yfso's a ^usa, comes from another word that signifies a door or a gate, to note that as a door or a trate doth secure our bodies, so will the shield of faith secure our souls ao-ainst the fiery darts of the devil : ' Above all, take the shield of faith, whereby ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil.' The apostle alludes to the custom of the Scythians, who used to dip the heads of their arrow^s or darts in the gall of asps and vipers, the venomous heat of which, like a fire in their flesh, killed the wounded with tor- ments, the likest hell of any other. But the soldiers then had generally shields of raw neats' leather, as several writers testify,' and when the fiery darts lighted upon them, they were presently quenched. So these fiery darts of Satan, when they light upon the shield of faith, they are presently quenched ; and there is no other way to do it. Till the Lord draw out a man's faith to act upon the promises and upon Christ, these fiery darts will not be quenched.
Ao-ain, Suppose that the world, the smiling w^orld or the frowning world, the tempting world or the persecuting world, should lie as a heavy stone or burden upon your hearts, as it doth upon the hearts of thou- sandsin these days — witness their attempting anything to get thefavours, honours and riches of this world ! Ah ! how many have turned their
' A touch of faith ciireth the woman, as well as a full hold. It is tho exercise of the traces of the Spirit by which we mortify tlie deeds of the flesh, Rom. viii. 13. It is not our strong resolutions or ])urposes tliat will be able to overmaster these enemies. A foul sore will run till it be indeed healed, thou2;h we say it shall not.
2 Luther said. I am without set upon by all the world, and within by the devil and all his angels ; and yet, by the exercise of grace, he became victorious over them all, &c.
* Polybius and Vigetius, &c.
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backs upon God, and Christ, and truth, &c., to gain the world ! How will you get off this burden ? No way in the world like to the exercise and actings of grace. Many men hear much, and yet remain worldly ; and pray like angels, and yet live as if there were no heaven nor hell. They will talk much of heaven, and yet those that are spiritual and wise do smell their breath to stink strong of earth ; and all the arts, and parts, and gifts in the world can never cure tliem of this soul-killing disease ; but the exercise of grace, till faith break forth in its glorious actings. A man may hear and pray many years, and yet be as carnal, base, and worldly as ever. There is no way under heaven to remove this stone, this burden, but the exercise of faith and love, &c. : Cant, viii. 6, 7 ; 1 John iv. 5, ' For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?''
Not that the habit of faith overcometh the world, but faith in the exercise of it conquers the world, and that it does these three ways.
(1.) First, Faith in the exercise of it presents the ivorld to the soul under all those notions that the Scripture holds forth the world unto us by.
The Scripture holds forth the world as an impotent thing, -as a mixed thing, as a mutable thing, as a momentary thing.^ Now faith comes and sets this home with power upon the soul, and this takes the soul off from the world.
(2.) Secondly, Faith dothit bif causing the sold to converse with more glorious, soul-satisfying, soid-delighting, and soid-contenting objects.
2 Cor. iv. 16-18, ' Though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.' How comes this to pass ? ' Wliile we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen ; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal,''' Now when faith is busied and exercised about soul- ennobling, soul-greatening, soul-raising, and soul-cheering objects, a Christian tramples the world under his feet ; and now heavy afflictions are light, and long afflictions short, and bitter afflictions sweet, unto him, &c. Now, stand by world ! welcome Christ ! &c.
So in Heb. xi. It was the exercise of faith and hope upon noble and glorious objects that carried them above the world, above the smiling world, and above the frowning world, above the tempting world, and above the persecuting world, as you may see by comparing several verses of that chapter together : ver. 9, 10, ' By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise : for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' Ver. 24-26, 'And by faith, Moses, when he was come to 3^ears, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer
' Faith is a better engineer than Doedahis, and yet he made wings with which he made an escape over the high walls within which he was imprisoned. This world is the soul's prison, yet faith is such an engineer that it can make wings for the soul to fly out, &c.