But you will say, " We are where we were. When God speaks it, we must receive it, that is true; but how shall we know ivhen he speaks r'
(L) I woidd we could all practically come up to this, to receive peace when we are convinced that God speaks it, and that it is our duty to receive it. But, —
(2.) There is, if I may so say, a secret instinct in faith, whereby it knows the voice of Christ when he speaks indeed ; as the babe leaped in the womb when the blessed Virgin came to Elisabeth, faith leaps in the heart when Christ indeed draws nigh to it. " My sheep,"
I Ps. li. 1.
78 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
says Clirist, " know my voice/' John x. 4; — "They know my voice; they are used to the sound of it;" and they know when his lips are opened to them and are full of grace. The spouse was in a sad condi- tion, Cant. V. 2, — asleep in security; but yet a.s soon as Clirist speaks, she cries, " It is the voice of my beloved that speaks ! " She knew his voice, and was so acquainted with communion with hun, that instantly she discovers him ; and so will you also. If you exercise yourselves to acquaintance and communion with him, you will easily discern between liis voice and the voice of a stranger. And take this xpi-yjpiov with you : When he doth speak, he speaks as never man spake ; he speaks with power, and one way or other will make your " hearts burn within you," as he did to the disciples, Luke xxiv. He doth it by " putting in his hand at the hole of the door," Cant. v. 4, — his Spirit into your hearts to seize on you.
He that hath his senses exercised to discern good or evil, being- increased in judgment and experience by a constant observation of the ways of Christ's intercourse, the manner of the operations of the Spirit, and the effects it usually produceth, is the best judge for him- self in this case.
Secondly, If the word of the Lord doth good to your souls, he speaks it ; if it humble, if it cleanse, and be useful to those ends for which promises are given, — namely, to endear, to cleanse, to melt and bind to obedience, to self-emptiness, etc. But this is not my business; nor shall I farther divert in the pursuit of this direction. Without the observation of it, sin will have great advantages towards the hardening of the heart.
CHAPTER XIV.
The general use of the foregoing directions — The great direction for the accom- plishment of the work aimed at : Act faith on Christ — The several ways whereby this may be done — Consideration of tlie fulness in Christ for relief proposed — Great expectations from Christ — Grounds of these ex])Pctations : his mercifulness, his faithfulness — Event of such expectations ; on the part of Christ ; on the part of believers — Faith peculiarly to be acted on the death of Christ, Rom. vi. 3-G — The work of the Spirit in this whole business.
Now, the considerations Avhich I have hitherto insisted on are rather of things preparatory to the work aimed at than such as will effect it. It is the hcai't's due preparation for the work itself, with- out which it will not be accomplished, that hitherto I have aimed at.
NECESSITY OF FAITH ON CHRIST. 79
Directions for the work itself are very few ; I mean that are pecu- liar to it. And they are these that follow: —
1. Set faith at work on Christ for the hilling of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror ; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet.
But thou wilt say, " How shall faith act itself on Christ for this end and purpose?" I say, Sundry ways: —
(1.) By faith fill thy soul with a due consideration of that provi- sion which is laid up in Jesus Christ for this end and purpose, that all thy lusts, this very lust v/herewith thou art entangled, may be mortified. By faith ponder on this, that though thovi art no way able in or by thyself to get the conquest over thy distemper, though thou art even weary of contending, and art utterly ready to faint, yet that there is enough in Jesus Christ to yield thee relief, Phil. iv. 13. It staid the prodigal, when he was ^ ready to faint, that yet there was bread enough in his father's house ; though he was at a distance from it, yet it relieved him, and staid him, that there it was. In thy greatest distress and anguish, consider that fulness of grace, those riches, those ^treasures of strength, might, and help, that are laid up in him for our support, John i. 16, Col. i. 19. Let them come into and abide in thy mind. Consider that he is " exalted and made a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel," Acts v. 81 ; and if to give repentance, to give mortification, without which the other is not, nor can be. Christ tells us that Ave obtain purging grace by abiding in him, John xv. 3. To act faith upon the fulness that is in Christ for our sujiply is an eminent way of abiding in Christ, for both our insition and abode is by faith, Rom. xi. 19, 20. Let, then, thy soul by faith be exercised with such thoughts and appre- hensions as these : " I am a poor, weak creature ; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and is at the very door of ruining my soul ; and what to do I know not. My soul is become as parched ground, and an habitation of dra,gons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have been as a thing of nought. Many persuasions have I had that I had got the victory and should be delivered, but I am deceived; so that I plainly see, that without some eminent succour and assistance, I am lost, and shall be prevailed on to an utter relinquishment of God, But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Behold, Hhe Lord Christ, that hath all fulness of grace in his heart, all fulness of power in his hand, he is able to slay all these his ene- u^ies. There is sufficient pro^nsion in him for my relief and assist- ' Imke XY. 17. 2 isa. xl. 28-31. 3 Jolm i. 16; Mcatt. xxviii. 18.