So, if we be forced to sufier the loss of any thing that is good in the world, or be cast into any ill condition, what saith St Paul ? ' The troubles and afliictions of the world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed,' Rom. viii. 18. Let us set that glory before us, and that will prevail against all that the world can threaten, or take from us. What is all to it '? Nothing. Therefore, ' by faith we stand,' we keep our own standing, and withstand all oppositions whatsoever.
Quest. Oh ! but what if there come more subtle temptations, and the Lord himself seems to be our enemy : that we have sin, and God is angry ; and we see he follows us with afflictions that are evidences of his anger ; how shall we stand now, and keep ourselves from despair ?
Ans. This is a fiery dart of Satan, when a man hath sinned, and con- science is awakened, to make him sink in despair. 0, but faith will make the soul to stand in these great temptations against those fieiy darts ; faith puts a shield into the hand of the soul, to beat back all those fiery darts. For faith will present Christ to God. Indeed I have been a sinner, but thou hast ordained a Saviour, and he is of thine own appointing, of thine OAvn anointing, a Saviom* of thine own giving, and thou hast made a promise, that ' whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' John iii. 36. I cast myself upon thy mercy in him. Hereupon faith comes to withstand all such fiery temptations whatsoever, nay, against God himself: Lord, thou canst not deny thine own Saviour, thou seemest to be an enemy, and though I be a sinner, and have deserved to be cast into hell, yet I come to thee in the name of thy Son, that is at thy right hand, and pleads for me by virtue of his blood shed for me ; I come in his name, thou canst not refuse thy own Son. For all temptations, when a man hath faith in him, it will send Satan to Christ to answer for him. Go to Chi'ist, he is my husband, he hath paid my debts, he hath satisfied for my sins. So that whatsoever the temptation be, make it as subtle as you will, there is a skill in faith to stand against it, and to beat back all the fiery darts of Satan.
Therefore, to end all, we see here what an excellent estate a Christian is in above all others, that he hath a better standing than others have ; not only a better standing in religion than the papists have, but in the profession of religion, he hath a better standing than common professors. Why ? He stands by faith, by sound faith. He stands not upon opinion, or because he hath been bred so ; he stands not upon his wit, because he sees reason for it ; he stands upon faith, and faith stands upon divine authority. He stands partly upon his own experience, that seconds faith.
Those then that care not for religion, what standing have they ? Those that stand only in pleasures and profits, and in the favour of great men,
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what standing' liavo they ? They staml, as the psahnist saith, • in slippery places,' Ps. Ixxiii. 18. There is no man, but if he have not faith he stands slippery ; though he be never so great, if he be a monarch, alas ! what is it to stand a while ? All those things arc but uncertain. Though they yield present content, they are but uncertain contentments. The wise man saith, they are but 'vanity,' Eccles. i. 2. They are like 'the reed of Egypt,' 2 Kings xviii. 21, tliat will not u]jhold. They will not sustain the soul in the time of trouble. There is ncjthiug that a man can stand upon, and fasten his soul upon, if he be not religious, that will hold scarce the fit of an ague, that will hold in the pangs of death, even in the entrance of it, that will hold in terrors of conscience.
How little a trouble will blow away all those that stand on so weak a foundation as an earthly thing is ! For they have but an imaginary good to speak of, and that imagination is driven out by the sense of the contrary. Let contrary troubles come, and all their fools' paradise, and their happiness they had before, is at an end; it goes no deeper than imagination.
All the things in this world stablish not the heart. Those that do not stand by faith in the favour of God in Christ, let their standing be what it will, it will soon be overturned by any temptation ; they can stand out against nothing.
Therefore let us labour, above all things in the world, to have that faith strengthened by which we stand ; and let us often be encouraged to strengthen our faith by all means, that we may stand the better upon it ; and try our faith, before we trust it. It is that that we must trust to, and stand to in life and death.