Oltj. Ihit YOU will say, IMany divines speak excellent well for points of religion, and hold them, and yet their lives discover they have no faith. And therefore there may be a spirit without faith.
Avs. Beloved, max'k what I said before. They may speak of religious things in a human manner, and sec spiritual things with a common light, but they cannot see spiritual things in their proper light without the Spirit of God. And they cannot speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner without the Spirit of God. We must first believe, and then speak. There- fore our labour" should be in the ground-work, to get faith in the heart. And when faith is gotten into the heart, it will quickly overpower all fears and doubts and despairings, and all rebellion. It is a victorious and conquering grace. If we can get that, it will subdue the heart unto itself. And it will make us speak boldly, and speak of holy things, and to purpose ; to speak to God and of God in divine things, and of God in oppositions. So we must speak likewise for the good of others, by way of edification. And we must speak to our own hearts in times of temptation, speak to Satan by his solicitations. When Satan and our hearts shall speak to us, and judge us to be thus and thus, Thou art thus, and thus God saith by his Spirit, for saith faith, thus he hath told me, ' I am thy salvation,' he saith in Scripture, Ps. xxxv. 3. ' If I believe, I shall not perish, but have ever- lasting life,' John iii, 15. And he saith in particular to me by his Spirit, ' Thy sins are foi'given thee,' Mat. ix. 2. Therefore care not what our doubtful hearts, or Satan joined with them, sailh. God saith thus, and the spirit of faith saith thus ; ' and as I believe, so I speak.' So that if there be a spirit of faith, we shall speak to our own hearts, ' Why art thou so disquiet, 0 my soul ; and why art thou troubled in me ? trust in God,' Ps. xlii. 5. Faith will quail f all the rising doubts of our own hearts and temptations of Satan. Satan saith thus and thus, but what saith God ? what saith the spirit of faith in me ? That saith thus. Alas ! when our hearts shall rise against us, and Satan shall join with our accusing consciences and have not a spirit of faith to speak against our hearts, and against our hearts accusing us, guilt is a clamorous thing. Oh, the conscience and Satan makes great ado. When he getteth guilt he is an excellent rhetorician and orator, to set colours on things. If we have not something to still our clamorous consciences, and to quiet the accusation of conscience, what will become of us ? And therefore labour so to believe that we may speak, not only to God, but for God and profitably to us ; but in defence of ourselves, against our own unbelieving hearts and Satan's temptations.
What is the reason that poor souls yield themselves to despair, and so to a desperate conclusion of themselves oftentimes ? Oh they labour not for the Spirit of God to believe first in their own hearts, and to have a word to answer Satan's temptations. And therefore, of all things, labour for the spirit of faith, that we may believe, and believing, may be able to *• Qu. ' at all ' ?— Ed. " f That is, quell— G
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2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 14. 459
speak, to speak every way, to express ourselves for God, for ourselves, for the truth.
The next verse is, ' Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up with Jesus, and present us with hiui.'
Here is farther grounds of comfort, that God will raise us up by Christ, and present us with him. Paul comforted himself with this, that God should raise him by Christ, and present him with the believing Corinthians. Now this iiath a double meaning : first, that God should raise him out of troubles, which are a kind of deaths, as in the beginning of the chapter he calls the troubles he was in ' a great death ;' and then, that God would raise him at length out of the grave, and present him and them at the day of judgment, as his crown before the Lord.
This was his comfort. Now, for aught I sec, the apostle may mean both subordinately one to another ; for God doth raise us out of trouble by Jesus, and present us one to another in this world for our comfort, and at length raise us out of the dust, and present us altogether, to be for ever together with the Lord. His comfort then is, that God will raise us up, and then he will present us with you. This is set down by the effect. ' God will do it ; God that raised up Jesus will do it.' And the cause why God will do it is, because he hath raised up Jesus. First, God that hath raised up Jesus will by Jesus raise up us, and present us with you. So that here is the comfort and the ground of it. The comfort is double. God will raise us up, and then God will present us with you. The ground of it is this, w^hy he will do it, because he hath raised up Christ. God is the author of it, and he that hath raised up Christ w^ill raise up you. There is such a connection and blessed union between Christ and us, that the same power that raised up Jesus out of the grave will raise us up likewise.