3. The great cure is in the text about the exercise of faith on God and Christ : ' Ye believe in God, believe also in me.' Sense is the cause of trouble, faith of comfort. Christ, who is the true physician of souls, knoweth what cure is proper to the disease. Mountebanks would prescribe another cure, spare the flesh or feed men with carnal hopes. No; ' ye believe in God, believe also in me.' Though God should not prevent the evil feared, or remove the affliction, yet if we can believe, we are well enough. Faith represents more grounds of comfort than sense can of trouble, whilst it carrieth off the heart from things seen to things unseen, from things present to things future, from the creature to God, who can give better things than the world can give or take from us. Here are two objects of faith — God and Christ : 1 Cor. viii. 6, ' To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him/ One supreme God, from whom we derive all our graces,, and to whom we direct all our services ; and one mediator, by whom, as a golden pipe, all our mercies are conveyed to us, and by whom also we have access to God for all that we stand in need of.
4. Let us labour to keep our consciences pure, if we would not have our hearts troubled. Sin will bring on trouble, both inward and out- ward ; for it is the cause of sufferings, and it maketh them more griev- ous ; as we shall always walk in pain till the thorn be pulled out of our foot. Eighteousness bringeth peace, and the oil of grace maketh way for the oil of gladness. The apostle bringeth this out of Mel- chisedeck's name and title, Heb. vii. 2, ' First being by interpreta- tion king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is.
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king of peace.' Elsewhere the scripture doth attest it: Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God ; ' and 2 Cor. i. 12, ' Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our con- versation in the world.' David interposeth a caution, Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints ; but let them not turn again to folly.'
5. There are certain ordinances appointed to fortify us against soul-trouble. The word : Ps. cxix. 50, ' This is my comfort in mine affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.' There are the fixed grounds of that hope and comfort which will support and enliven us in the greatest pressures. God's covenant and promised mercies are portion enough, what distresses soever he sendeth. So prayer, if it be ingenuous thankful prayer : Phil. iv. 6, ' Be careful for nothing ; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let j'^our requests be made known unto God.' The Lord's supper, it is our viaticum, non morieiitium, not when we come to die. Papists think so, and therefore thrust the sacrament into the mouths of those that die ; if this be neglected, they almost despair of their salvation ; but it is viaticum viventium of those that live. Death is not a journey, but the end of a journey, a passage in a moment, a cessation from our journey in this world, which needeth no viaticum ; a going out of the world, like the putting out of a lamp in a moment, as the lamp needeth no more oil when it is to be extinguished. We need this for our journey in the world, not our departure out of the world : Acts viii. 39, 'He went on his way rejoicing.' As it is our antidote against the corruption that is in the world through lust,°so it is our cordial against the troubles of the world, to give us more joy of faith, more sense of God's love. It is the feast provided for the refreshing of the weary, and cherisliino: of the mournful soul.
SEEMON IL
Let not your heart he troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. —
John xiv. 1.
DocT. 2. One great means of easing our hearts from trouble is believing in God and Christ.
To evidence this, I shall consider —
1. The act.
2. The object, which is double — (1.) One part taken for granted, ' Ye believe in God ; ' (2.) The other part of the object they were now invited and recommended unto, ' Believe also in me.'
1. For the act. Faith in the general hath a comforting property, and a power to allay trouble. As here the disciples, being in trouble,
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are exhorted by Christ to Lelieve, that is, to renew tlieir faith. David felt a bkistering in his spirit, and how doth he allay the storm ? Ps, xlii. 5, ' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God.' There is no such ready way to still unquiet thoughts as to set faith on work, and to cast anchor within the veil, hoping for and expecting relief from God. So the primitive christians, when they were under great heaviness in divers trials, liow did they get any comfort to keep themselves alive ? 1 Peter i. 8, ' In whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glor}^' A lively exercise of faith will bring in much joy to the soul in hard times and under sore trials, and not only keep it alive, as Hab. ii. 4, ' The just shall live by faith,' or make a believer not barely to subsist, but he fareth high, and liveth at a wonderful rate of comfort, such as is for nature and kind, though not degree, somewhat like the joy of the blessed. Look into the book of God, and you shall find that all our fears and troubles are for want of faith. As for instance, Peter, when he walked to Christ upon the waters, his feet never sunk till his faith failed : Mat. xiv. 31, ' 0 thou of little faith ! wherefore didst thou doubt ? ' The wind was boisterous, but there was Christ at hand. He looketh at the wind too much, and at Christ too little, and therefore was full of fears, and began to sink. So the disciples were afraid to perish, though Christ himself were in the ship : Mat. viii. 26, ' Why are ye fearful, 0 ye of little faith ? ' It is, Mark iv. 40, ' How is it that ye have no faith ? ' A little faith is as no faith in great trials. Well, then, there is no way to ease our hearts of trouble but by exercising faith. To make this more ■expressly to appear to you, I shall consider again what is trouble, the nature of it, and what are the causes of it, and then you will discern that faith is the proper remedy.