2 True faith puts forth itself into vital operations. Ferdinand of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus, and therefore he furnished him with ships, and got the West Indies by his faith in the undertaking. But Henry the 7th of England believed him not, and therefore trusted him not with shipping, and so lost all the purchase of that faith : which purchase may yet be recovered, if the Lord shall please to own and crown the just and noble design of General Fen, &c. ^ Mori posse, vinci non posse. — Cyprian.
186 THE UNSEAECHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
a rock, &c. It is reported of some of the Koman and Grecian captains, that they proved always victorious, and were never beaten by any. Such is the nature of faith ; it renders a soul victorious in all engage- ments. In all engagements faith brings a man bravely off, and enables him to keep his ground, and tiiumph.^ Ps. Ix. 6-10, ' God hath spoken in his holiness ; I will rejoice : I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine ; Ephraim also is the strength of my head ; Judah is my lawgiver ; Moab is my wash-pot ; over Edom will I cast out my shoe : Philistia, triumph thou because of me,' &c. It is not great resolutions, nor big words, nor high looks, but faith, that will make a man stand fast in shaking times. No hand can put the garland upon a Christian, but the hand of faith, &c. Faith alters the tenses, it puts the future into the present ; Gilead is mine, &c.
(7.) And then, seventhly, above all labour to be rich in faith, because Saian u'ill labour might a.nd main to weaken your faith.
Oh ! the great design of Satan is not so much to weaken you in ex- ternals, as it is to weaken you in internals. Satan can be contented that men should have their heads full of notions, and their mouths full of religion, and their bags full of gold, and their chests full of silver, and their shops full of wares, so their souls be either void of faith, or but poor and low in faith. Satan's greatest plot is to weaken the faith of Christians. Luke xxii. 31, 32, ' And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, be- hold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not/ Satan hath an aching tooth at thy faith ; his design is upon that ; he will labour might and main to weaken that, to frustrate that, and therefore ' I have prayed that th}^ faith fail not.' Satan knows that nihil retinct qui jidem perdidit.
(8.) And then, eighthly, consider this, of all graces, faith contributes most to the bringing down of mercies and blessings upon yourselves and friends ; and therefore you should above all labour to be rich in this particular grace of faith.
Faith contributes to the bringing down of blessings upon ourselves. In Dan. vi. 23, ' Daniel was delivered,' saith the text, * because he be- lieved in his God.' It was his faith, and not his prayers ; it was bis faith, and not his tears ; it was his faith, and not his sighs that stopt the lion's mouths, and wrought deliverance for him. So in Ps. xxvii. 13, ' I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' So in 2 Chrou. xx. 20, ' Believe in the Lord your God, so .shall ye be establislied ; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper,' and so they did. That is a very famous scripture to this pur- pose, 2 Chron. xiii. 15-17, ' Then the men of Judah gave a shout : and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam, and all Israel, before Abijah and Judah. And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. And Abijah and his people slew with a great slaughter : so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.' Here was a great slaughter ; no wars, no slaughters comparable to those the Scripture speaks of,
' As may be fully seen ia the Bouk of Martyrs, and in Ueb. xi. [Foxe and Clarke, a» before — <i.]
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 187
And the reason is rendered, verse 18, 'Because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers.' Were men more rich in faith, they would be more rich in other blessings, &c. And as faith is the only way to bring down a blessing upon ourselves, so faith is the only way to bring down blessings upon our friends and relations. Though another man cannot be saved by my faith, yet he may be blessed with many blessings, upon the account of my faith. In Mat. xv. 22—29, it was the Canaan- itish woman's faith that brought a blessing of healing upon her daughter. And so in Mat. viii. 6-14-, the centurion's faith healed his servant that was sick of a palsy, ' and from that very hour he was healed.' The servant got well by his master's faith. And so likewise in Mark ix., the faith of the lather prevailed for the dispossessing of his son. ' If thou canst believe,' saith Christ, ' all things are possible.' And the poor man said with tears, 'Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.' And presently Christ charged the foul spirit to come out of him, &c. A believing husband, a believing wife, a believing child, or a believing servant, may bring down, by the actings of faith, many a blessing upon their relations. Faith hath a happy hand, and never but speeds in one kind or another. It hath what it would, either in money or money's worth.
Apollonius, saith Sozomen, never asked anything of God, either for himself or his friends, but he had it. And one pointing to Luther said, ' There is a man can have anything of God that he will ask.' Faith hath a kind of omnipotency in it, it is able to do all things, &c.
And as faith brings down blessings upon our own heads and the heads of our friends, so it often brings down wrath upon our enemies. There is nothing contributes so much to our enemies' ruin as faith doth. I am
confident it hath neither been armies, nor navies, nor parliaments, that have had the chief hand in bringing down the proud and stout enemies of Christ and Zion, in this and other nations, but the faith of his de- spised people. One enemy may stand before the face of another, but what enemy can stand before the face and power of faith ? That is a remarkable scripture, Heb. xi. 33, ' Who through faith subdued king- doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens.' Other means were used, but that which did the work, and struck all dead, was faith. Faith engages God in every en- counter, and who can stand before a consuming fire?^