Sacramental Meditations, Meditation 7
THE SEVENTH MEDITATION UPON
Mark. 9. 24.
And straight-way the Father of the Child cried and said, with tears, Lord I Believe, help my Unbelief.
THE occasion of these words is to be gather'd from the Context, and briefly it was this; A tender Father brings a possessed Child to Christ to be cured, with a Sipotes, a doubting question, If thou canst do any thing, have compassion upon us, and help us. Words imparting much natural affection and tender love to his Child. Have Compassion [upon us] and [help us] If the Child be sick, the Parent is not well. What touches the Child is felt by his Father.
And as they import his natural affection to his Child, so also, his own spiritual disease, or the weakness of his Faith. His Child was possest with a dumb Devil, and himself with unbelieving doubts and suspitions of Christs ability to cure his Child: The Child had a sick body, and the Father an infirm soul. Satan afflicted one by a possession, and the other by temptation, ver. 22.
Christ returns his doubting language upon himself, ver. 23. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. q. d. Dost thou doubt of my ability to heal thy Child? question rather thy own ability to believe for his cure: If he be not heal'd, the cause will not be in my inability, but in thine own infidelity: Which he speaks not to insinuate that Faith was in his own power, but to convince him of his weakness, and drive him to God for assistance, which effect it obtain'd; for immediately, he cry'd out and said with tears, Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
O how good is it for men to be brought into the straights of affliction sometimes? Had not this man fallen into this distress, it's not like that he had (at least not so soon) arrived either to the sense of his grace, or the weakness of it.
In the words we may note these three parts.
First: A profession of his Faith, Lord I believe.
Secondly: A sense of the weakness 2.of his Faith, Help thou my unbelief.
Thirdly: The affection with which 3.both were uttered, He cried out, and said with tears. If these tears proceeded from the sense and feeling of divine power inabling him to believe, as some think, than they were tears of joy, and would inform us of this great truth.
That the least and lowest measure of true Faith is matter of joy, unspeakable to Doct. 1.the possessor of it.
If they proceeded from the sense of the weakness of his faith, then they give us this note.
That the remainders of unbelief in the people of God, do cost them many tears, they Doct. 2.are the burdens and sorrows of gracious souls.
1. Doct.
That the least and lowest measure of Faith, is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it.
The Apostle in the 2 Pet. 1. 1. calls it precious Faith, and it well deserves that Epithet; for the least and lowest degree of saving Faith is of invaluable excellency, as will appear in these particulars.
First: The least degree of saving 1.faith truly unites the soul to Jesus Christ, and makes it as really a branch or member of him, as Moses, Abraham, or Paul were.
All saving Faith receives Christ, Joh. 1. 12. Indeed the strong Believer receives him with a stronger and stedier hand than the weak one doth, who staggers, doubts, and trembles, but yet receives him, and consequently is as much interessed in the blessed priviledges flowing from Union, as the greatest Believer in the world. Such are Christs complacency in our persons and duties, his sympathy with us in our troubles and affections, and our interest in his person and purchase. And is not this matter of exceeding joy? Is it not enough to melt, yea, overwhelm the heart of a poor Sinner to discover and feel that in his own heart, which entitles him to such mercies.
Secondly: From the least degree of saving faith we may infer'as plenary a 2.remission of sin, as from tht strongest. The weakest Believer is as compleatly pardoned as the strongest, Act. 10. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things. All that believe without difference of sizes, strength, or degrees, the least as well as the greatest, the Believer of a day old, as well as the Fathers and Worthies of greatest name and longest standing.
Loe then the least measure of faith intitles thee as really to the greatest blessing, as the highest acts of faith can do. 'Tis true, the stronger the acting of faith is, the clearer the evidence usually is, but interest in the priviledge is the same in both. If then thou canst discern but the weakest act, and smallest measure of faith in thy soul, hast thou not reason with him in the Text, to cry out and say with tears, Lord I belive. Canst thou receive and read this Pardon, the pardon of such and so many sins, and not wet it with thy tears: O it's matter of joy unspeakable.
Thirdly: The least degree of saving faith infers thy Election of God; and if that be not matter of melting and transporting consideration, nothing is? O, it's matter of more joy, that our names are written in the Book of Life, than that the Devils are subject to us, Luk. 10. 20. From hence it may be inferr'd, that we are chosen of God, Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.
Fourthly: The least measure of 4.saving faith is a mercy greater than most men ever partake of.
'Tis true, God is rich and bountiful in the gifts of Providence to others, they have the good things of this life, many of them more than their hearts can wish, Psal. 73. 7. He enricheth many of them also with endowments of the mind, natural and moral knowledge and wisdom, yea, and adorns them with Homilitical Vertues, that render them very desirable and lovely in their converses with men; but there are but few, to whom he gives saving faith, Isa. 53. 1. Believers are but a small remnant among men.
Fifthly and lastly: He that hath any, the least degree of saving faith, hath that which shall never be taken away from him, all other excellencies go away at death, Job 4. 21. But this is a spring that never fails, it springs up into everlasting life, Joh. 4. 14. A man may out-live his Friends and Familiars, his Estate and Health, his Gifts and Natural parts, but not his Faith, how great matter of joy and comfort is wrapt up in the least degree of Faith.
1. Use of tryal.
It concerns us then to examine our selves whether our Faith be true, be it more or less, stronger or weaker, and till we discern its truth, it will yield us but little comfort.
I confess weak Believers are under great disadvantages to comfort, small and weak things being usually very inevident and undiscernable; but yet in this example before us, we find weak faith was made evident, though much unbelief was mixed with it. Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief. In which words, many very useful signs of true, though weak faith, did appear, and they are very relieving to weak Believers to consider them. O that we might find the like in us.
First: His Faith gave him a tender melting heart. He cry'd out, and said with tears. Doth your faith melt your hearts, either in the sense of your own vileness, or of the riches of free grace to such vile Creatures?
Secondly: His Faith gave him a deep sense of his remaining unbelief, and burdened his heart with it, Help my unbelief: And sure so will yours, if it be but as a grain of Mustard-seed in you.
Thirdly: His weak Faith carried him to Christ in servent prayers and cries for his help to subdue unbelief in him, and so will yours if your Faith be right. Oh how often do the People of God go to the Throne of Grace upon that Errand! Help Lord, my heart is dead, vain, and very unbelieving; there's no dealing with it in my own strength: Father, help me.
Fourthly: His Faith made him hunger and thirst after greater measures of it. Help my unbelief, (i. e.) Lord cure it, that I may believe with more strong and steddy acts os Faith; that I may not question thy power any more, or say, If thou canst do any thing. Why thus will it be with you, if you be true Believers, Luk. 17. 5. Lord (said the Disciples) increase our Faith.
Fifthly: There was a conflict in his soul betwixt Faith and Infidelity, Grace and Corruption, and this very sensible to him, faith inclining him one way, and unbelief carrying him another; and hence he speaks like a man greatly distressed betwixt the workings of contrary principles in his own soul, and so you will also find it in your selves, Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
2. Use of Consolation.
Well then, bless the Lord for the least degree of saving Faith, and be not 2. Use.so discouraged at its imperfections as to over-look and slight the smalest working of faith in your souls. This poor man was deeply sensible of his unbelief, and yet at the same instant truly thankful for a small measure of Faith, and so should you. For
First: The least measure of saving Faith is more than all Creatures power could produce: 'Tis the faith of the operation of God, Col. 2. 12. 'tis the work of God that ye believe, Joh. 6. 29. Yea, 'tis the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, Eph. 1. 19, 20. No Ministers of Christ, how excellent soever their gifts are, no duties or ordinances; no labour or diligence of your own, without this mighty power of God, can ever bring you to Faith.
Secondly: 'Tis just matter of wonder and astonishment that ever one spark of faith was kindled in such an heart as thine is; an heart which had no predisposition or inclination in the least to believe; yea, it was not rasa tabula, like clean paper, vo…d of any impression of faith, but fill'd with contrary impressions to it; so that it's marvelous that ever your hearts received the stamp or impression of faith on them.
It was wonderful that fire should fall from Heaven, and burn upon the Altar, when Elijah had laid the wood in order upon it, but much more when he poured so much water upon it, as not only wet all the wood, but fill'd the Trenches, 1 King. 18. 33. Just so was the case of thy soul Reader, when God came to kindle faith there. Thy heart was dark and ignorant, neither acquainted with God or thy own condition; yea, thy heart was a proud heart, full of self-righteousness and self-conceitedness, Rev. 3. 17. Rom. 10. 3. a heart that would rather venture Eternal Damnation, than deny Self, and submit to Christ; and yet the light of the Lord must shine into this darkness, and the pride and stiffness of thy heart must be broken and brought to yield, or there is no believing.
Beside: How many and mighty Enemies did oppose the work of Faith in thy soul? Among which Satan, and thy own carnal reasonings were the principal, 2 Cor. 10. 4. By them what strong holds and sortifications were raised to secure thee from the strokes of conviction, and made way for Faith. Let but the state of thine own heart as it was by nature, be considered; and thou wilt say, it is the wonderful work of God that ever thou wast brought in any degree to believe.
Thirdly: Though thy Faith be weak, yet it is growing, if it be saving faith. The largest Tree was once but a Kernel or Acorn: The most famous Believer at first but a weak and doubting one. Be not discouraged therefore, God will fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness in you, and the work of faith with power. It were certainly much better for you to be blessing God for a little faith, praying for the increase of faith, and diligently attending those means by which it may be improved and made flourishing in your souls, than by a sinful, ungrateful and prejudicial despondency, at once to dishonour God, and thus wrong your selves.
2. Doct.
That the remains of unbelief in gracious hearts do cost them many tears and sorrows.2. Doct.
There are many things that afflict and grieve the People of God from without, but all their outward troubles are nothing to these troubles that come from within.
There are many inward troubles that make them groan, but none more than this, the unbelief they find in their own hearts. This sin justly costs them more trouble than other sins; because it is the root from which other sins do spring; a root of bitterness, bearing wormwood and gall to the imbittering of their souls. For,
First: The remains of unbelief in the Saints greatly dishonour God; and what is a great dishonour to God, cannot but be a great grief and burden to them. For look as faith gives God special honour above all other graces, so unbelief in a special manner, both wrongs and grieves him above all other sins. Unbelief in dominion makes God a liar, 1 Joh. 5. 10. and even the reliques thereof in Believers, doth shake their assent to his truths and promises, and nourishes a vile suspicion of them in the heart; and how do those base jealousies reflect upon his honour? Certainly it cannot but be a grief to gracious hearts to see God dishonoured by others, Psal. 119. 36. and a much greater to dishonour him our selves, hinc illae lacrimae. Upon this ground we may justly cry out and say with tears, Lord help our unbelief.
Secondly: The remains of unbelief in the Saints, doth not only dishonour God, but defaces and spoils their best duties, in which they at any time approach unto God. Is the face of God clouded from us in prayer, hearing, or receiving. Examine the cause and reason, and you will find that cloud rais'd from your own unbelieving hearts. Are your affections cold, flat, and dead in duty? dig but to the root, and you will find this sin to lie there. If the word do not work upon you as you desire and pray it might, 'tis because it is not mingled with faith, Heb. 4. 2. No Duties, no Ordinances, no Promises can give down their sweet influences upon your souls, because of this sin. Now Communion with the Lord in duties, is the life of our life: These things are dearer to the Saints than their eyes. Justly therefore do they bewail and mourn over that sin, which obstructs and intercepts their sweetest enjoyments in this world.
Thirdly: The remains of unbelief gives advantage and success to Satans temptations upon us. Doth he at any time affright and scare us from our dudy, or draw and intice us to the commission of sin, or darken and cloud our condition, and fill us with inward fears and horror, without cause; all this he doth by the mediation of our own unbelief. The Apostle in Eph. 6. 16. calls Faith the souls Shield against temptation: And 1 Joh. 5. 4. 'tis call'd the Victory by which we overcome, (i. e.) the Sword or Weapon by which we Atchieve our Victories: And if so, then unbelief disarms us both of Sword and Shield, and leaves us naked of defence in the day of Battel, a prey to the next temptation that befalls us.
Fourthly: The remains of unbelief hinder the thriving of all graces; it's a worm at their root; a plant of such a malignant quality, that nothing which is spiritual can thrive under the droppings and shaddow of it. It's said Heb. 4. 2. that the Gospel was Preached to the Israelites, but it did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. No Ordinances nor Duties, be they never so excellent, will make that soul to thrive, where unbelief prevails: You Pray, you Hear, you Fast, you Meditate, and yet you do not thrive, your spiritual food doth no good: You come from Ordinances as dead, careless, and vain-as-you went to them; and why is it thus, but because of remaining unbelief?
Use 1.
Let all the People of God bewail and tenderly mourn over the remainders Use. 1.of insidelity in your own hearts. There, there is the root of the disease; and surely Reader, thy heart is not free of such symptoms of it, as appear in other mens hearts. For do but consider,
First: What is our Impatiency to 1. Sympt.wait for mercy, and despondency of spirit, if deliverance come not quickly in the outward or inward straights of soul or body, but a plain symptom of unbelief in our hearts. He that believes will not make hast, Isa. 28. 16. He that can believe, can also wait Gods time, Psal. 27. 14.
Secondly: And what doth our readiness to use sinful mediums to prevent, 2. Sympt.or extricate our selves out of trouble but a great deal of Infidelity lurking still in our hearts; might but Faith be heard to speak, it would say in thy heart, let me rather die ten deaths than commit one sin. It's sweeter and easier to die in any integrity, than to live with a defiled or wounded Conscience. 'Tis nothing but our unbelief that makes us so ready to put forth our hands to iniquity, when the rod of the Wicked rests long upon us, or any eminent danger threatens us, Psal. 125. 3.
Thirdly: Doth not the unbelief of 3. Sympt.your hearts shew it self in your deeper thoughtfulness and great auxieties about earthly things, Matth. 6. 30. We pretend we have trusted God with our souls to all Eternity, and yet cannot trust him for our daily bread. We bring the evils of to morrow upon to day; and all because we cannot believe more.
O Reader, how much better were it to hear such questions as these from thee; how shall I get an heart suitable to the mercies I do enjoy? How shall I duely improve them for God? What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness? This would better become thee, than to afflict thy self with what shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be cloathed?
Fourthly: What doth the slavish fear of death speak, but remains of unbelief still in our hearts? Are there not many faintings, tremblings, despondencies of mind under the thoughts of death? O, if faith were high, thy spirit could not be so low, 2 Cor. 5. 1, 2, 3. The more bondage of fear, the more infidelity.
Fifthly: To conclude what is the 5. Sympt.voice of all those distractions of thy heart in religious duties, but want of faith, weakness in faith, and the actual prevalence of unbelief? You come to God in prayer, and there a thousand Vanities beset you; your heart is carried away, it roves, it wanders to the ends of the earth: Conscience smites for this, and saith, Thou dost but mock God, thy soul will smart for this; thou feelest neither strength nor sweetness arising out of such duties. You enquire for remedies, and fill the ears of Friends with your complaints, and it may be see not the root of all this to be in your own unbelief: But there it is, and till that be cured, it will not be better with you.
Use 2.
Yet let not poor Christians so mourn Use 2.as those that have no hope or ground of comfort, even in this case: For,
First: Though there be remains of unbelief in you, yet you have infinite cause to bless God that they are but remains. You once were in unbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. (i. e.) under the full power and dominion of it. Had God cut you off in that state, you mast certainly have perished. This is the disease, but that was the death of your souls.
Secondly: Though unbelief be in you, yet it is not in you per modum quietis; by way of rest, as it is in all unbelievers, but by way of daily conflict, and as a burden too heavy to be borne. Now though the sin be sad, yet the sorrow for it is sweet; and your conflicts with it brings you under a very comfortable sign of grace, Rom. 7. 21.
Thirdly: This is a disease under which all Christians do labour more or less. There is not a heart so holy in all the world, but is in some degree tainted and infected with this disease. And this hath been evident, not only in all Christians of all sizes, but in all the acts of their faith. Jobs faith triumphed in cap. 13. 15. yet had its eclipse and fainting fit, in cap. 19. 20. Abraham was a most renowned Believer, a great pattern and example of faith; oh, how high a pitch did his faith mount to, in Gen. 22. 3. and yet there was a time when it fainted, and failed him as at Gerar. Gen. 20. 2, 9, 10, 11. David in Psal. 27. 1. 23. was not like David in 1 Sam. 27. 1. The faith of Peter shone out like the Sun in a glorious confession, Matth. 16. 16. and yet was not only beclouded, but seemed to be gone down and quite set in Matth. 26. 69. though it afterwards recovered it self.
Forthly: 'Tis not this or that degree of unbelief that damnes a man, but the power and dominion of it that damnes him. Indeed your comfort much depends upon the strength of your faith, but your salvation depends upon the truth of it. Most Christians come to Heaven with a weak and doubting faith, but few with their sails fill'd with a direct and fresh wind of assurance.
Fifthly: There is enough in Christ to help thy unbelief. Lord, said this poor man, help my unbelief. He is an excellent Physitian, and knows how to relieve and cure thee: Go to him and groan out thy complaint, tell him thy heart is pained and troubled with this disease; thou shalt find him a faithful, skilful and merciful Saviour.
Sixthly: It's but a little while before this, with all other diseases bred by it in thy soul, shall be perfectly healed; Sanctification is a cure begun, Glorification is the cure performed and compleated: The former hath destroy'd the dominion, the latter will destroy the existence of it in thy soul: When you come to Heaven, and never till then will you find your selves well, and at ease in every part.
And thus much of the second point.
There are some general observations arising from both parts of my Text, considered together, viz. The thankful acknowledgment of his faith, and the sorrowful sense of his unbelief. It shall suffice for a conclusion to this Meditation only to note them, and they are these,
First: That the deepest sense of sin must not exclude an humble and thankful acknowledgment of the grace of God in his People. 'Tis the fault of most to hide their sins, and the fault of some to hide their graces.
Secondly: Acceptance of our persons and duties is a pure act of grace. There's no duty performed in a perfect act of faith; all is mixt with unbelief in some degree, the Honey and the Comb are mixt together, Cant. 2. 8. No duty as it comes from us is pure.
Thirdly: Justly may we suspect that faith for a false faith, which boasts of its own strength, but never mourns in the sense of unbelief. Where there are no conflicts with sin, there can be no sound evidence of sincerity.
Fourthly: Believers must not wonder to find strange vicissitudes and alterations in the state of their souls. Sometimes a clear, and sometimes a cloudy day. Sometimes they have their Songs in the night, and sometimes their bitter Lamentations. If you ask why is it thus, the answer is, there are twins within you, contrary principles strugling in your souls, and it is no wonder at all to find peace and trouble▪ hope and fear, light and darkness, taking their turns, and sharing your time betwixt them.