80 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
ance. He can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror.^ ' Why sayest thou, O my soul, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is Aveai'y? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strengtli. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon the LoRD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint,' Isa. xl. 27-3L He can make the ' dry, pai'ched ground of my soul to become a pool, and my thirsty, barren heart as springs of water;' yea, he can make this ' habitation of dragons,' this heart, so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations, to be a place for 'grass' and fruit to himself," Isa. xxxv. 7. So God staid Paul, under his temptation, with the consideration of the sufficiency of his grace : " My grace is sufficient for thee," 2 Cor. xii. 9. Though he were not immediately so far made partaker of it as to be freed from his temptation, yet the sufficiency of it in God, for that end and purpose, was enough to stay his spirit. I say, then, by faith, be much in the consideration of that supply and the fulness of it that is in Jesus Christ, and how he can at any time give thee strength and deliverance. Now, if hereby thou dost not find success to a conquest, yet thou wilt be staid in the chariot, that thou shalt not fly out of the field until the battle be ended ; thou wilt be kept from an utter despondency and a lying down under tliy unbelief, or a turning aside to false means and remedies, that in the issue Avill not relieve thee. The efficacy of this consideration will be found only in the practice.
(2.) Raise up thy heart by faith to an expectation of relief from Christ. Kelief in this case from Christ is like the prophet's vision, Hab. ii. 3, " It is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, yet wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tariy." Though it may seem somewhat long to thee, Avhilst thou art luider thy trouble and perplexity, yet it shall surely come in the aj^pointed time of the Lord Jesus ; which is the best sea- son. If, then, thou canst raise up thy heart to a settled expectation of relief from Jesus Christ, — if thine eyes are towards him " as the eyes of a servant to the hand of his master,'"^ when he expects to receive somewhat from him, — thy soul shall be satisfied, he will assuredly de- liver thee ; he will slay the lust, and thy latter end shall be peace. Only look for it at his hand ; expect when and how he will do it. ^" If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." .
' Rom. viii. 37. ^ Ps, cxxiii. 2. ' Isa. vii. 9.
NECESSITY OF FAITH ON CHRIST. 81
But wilt tliou say, " What ground have 1 to build such an expecta- tion ujDon, so that I may expect not to be deceived?"
As thou hast necessity to put thee on this course, thou must be relieved and saved this way or none. To^ whom wilt thou go? So there are in the Lord Jesus innumerable things to encourage and engage thee to this expectation.
For the necessity of it, I have in part discovered it before, when I manifested that this is the work of faith and of believers only. " Without me,"' says Christ, " ye can do nothing," John xv. 5 ; speaking with especial relation to the purging of the heart from sin, verse 2. Mortification of any sin must be by a supply of grace. Of ourselves we cannot do it. Now, " it hath pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 19 ; that " of his fulness we might receive grace for grace," John i. 16. He is the head from whence the new man must have influences of life and strength, or it Avill decay every d&j. IP we are "strengthened with might in the inner man," it is by " Christ's dwelling in our hearts by faith," Eph. iii. 16, 17. That this work is not to be done without the Spirit I have also showed before. Whence, then, do we expect the Spirit? from whom do we look for him? who hath promised him to us, having procured him for us? Ought not all our expectations to this purpose to be on Christ alone? Let this, then, be fixed upon thy lieart, that if thou hast not relief from him thou shalt never have any. All ways, endeavours, contendings, that are not animated by this expectation of relief from Christ and him only are to no piu'pose, will do thee no good; yea, if they are any thing but supportments of thy heart in this expectation, or means appointed by himself for the receiving help from him, they are in vain.