The Great Duty of Self-Resignation to the Divine Will, Section 2 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the great power and efficacy of Faith in God; Faith in his Power and Goodness.
V. FIfthly, The next Direstion I shall give in order to subduin gour Wills to the Will of God, is that of our Saviour, Have Faith in God, Mark xi. 22. Have faith in his Power and Goodness; this will adde life to our prayers, this will animate and strengthen all our endeavours.
Take heed of doubting whether the Lord's hand be not shortned, that it cannot save; whether his ear be not heavy, that it cannot hear; or his bowels shut up, that he is not ready to help.
Take heed of questioning, whether thine own Will and selfish desires be not stronger than can be subdued, of entertaining suspicious thoughts, that after all thy endeavours to win the Spiritual Canaan, there will be no arriving at that Land of Rest, but that at last thou shalt die in the Wilderness; that there is none or but little hope of overcoming foreign, the Giant-like mind, (as the expression is in Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 4.) and those sons of Anak that thou findest vigorous and strong in thee. For by this thine unbelief or weakness of faith thou greatly dishonourest either the Power or Goodness of God, who is able, and as willing as able to save the Soul that trusteth in him. And by this means will the Chariot-wheels of thy Soul be taken off, thou wilt extreamly discourage and infeeble thy self, and blunt the edge of those weapons wherewith thou art to encounter thy Spiritual Enemies.
If thy Soul be upright in thee, if thou art sincere and hearty in imploring the aids of God's Grace and the assistances of his Spirit, and hast faith to be healed, and delivered from the Lusts that fight against thee, thou shalt undoubtedly see the salvation of the Lord. He will teach thine hands to war, and thy fingers to fight; he will gird thee with strength, and thou shalt be more than conquerour through Christ that loveth thee.
Though thou hast no might against that great company that cometh against thee, against flesh and bloud, principalities and powers, yet if thou waitest on the Lord, and art of good courage, he will strengthen thine heart, he will strengthen thee with strength in thy soul, and through him thou shalt do valiantly, and tread down thine enemies. He that is in thee will be greater than they that are in the world, viz. the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
Take heed therefore of all such reasonings, suggestions and principles as tend to beget a despondency and fainting of Spirit, but lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. To the Soul that believes all things are possible. Let Faith say unto any mountain of difficulty, be thou removed, and it shall be done. Who art thou, O great mountain? before this blessed Grace, and in the exercise of it, thou shalt become a plain. Thy Self-will and Lusts are therefore strong, because thy Faith is weak, and thou in that regard makest but a faint resistance. But if thou wert strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, if thou didst resist, stedfast in faith, thou shouldest see thine Adversaries flye before thee. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, I John 5. 4. Above all take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, Eph. vi. 16.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O Faith, who can recount the mighty acts and great atchievements of those holy Souls who have strongly confided in the gracious power of God and Christ Jesus for the subduing of sin, as well as in God's mercy and Christ's merits for the pardon of it. These through this Faith (that I may borrow those expressions in the Eleventh to the Hebrews) have subdued Kingdoms, even the Kingdoms of divers lusts and pleasures, and the Kingdoms of the Prince of this world to which they were once subject: Through Faith they have wrought righteousness, even the righteousness of God, far excelling that outward slight and partial righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisee: Through Faith they have stopped the mouths of Lions, the impetuous and ravening solicitations and greedy desires of their selfish will: Through Faith they have quenched the violence of fire, (or the Lusts of Passion, Malice and Uncleanness, which burned like fire within them) out of weakness were made strong, and turned to flight the armies of the Aliens.
Now there are many exceeding great and precious promises scattered through the Scriptures which are of soveraign force and virtue for the encouragement of our Faith and Hope in God, for the strengthening of us against his and our enemies; But there is abundantly enough in that one passage, Luke xi. 13. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your Children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him. What could our Saviour have spoken more plainly and fully for our encouragement to a dependance on God for Grace and Spiritual strength, and to a quiet unsolicitous expectation of assistance from him?
This promise concerned not onelyonly those Disciples that heard Christ preach then from the Mount, but all his Disciples and Followers, all that shall believe on his Name to the end of the world. It is said —to them that ask him, without any limitation either to a certain age or people, language or nation; and therefore we may be as much comforted from these words, as if we had been in the number of those in whose hearing our Saviour preached that best of Sermons, wherein they were uttered: For, as there is the same need of the Holy Spirit for us as there was for them who were then present with our Saviour, so there is now, and ever will be, the same benignity and philanthropy in God, the same good will, compassion, and love to men, that there was then and in former ages. He is without variableness or shadow of turning, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
But this word of promise is so rich and precious, that it deserves a more particular Consideration.
If ye that are evil] Earthly Parents are too commonly envious and niggardly, close, hard and cruel to others, being all for themselves, and not caring for the good of others.
—Know how to give good gifts unto your Children] As backward as they are to give to others, they cannot find in their hearts when their Children ask to withhold from them, they will be free, open-handed, and bountiful to them: And such is the tenderness of their affection to their Children; that they will not give them any thing that they know to be evil and hurtful to them; they will not give them Stones for Bread, a Serpent for a Fish, or a Scorpion for an Egg.
How much more shall your heavenly Father] He who being good cannot but do good; He who is the Father of Mercies, the God of Love and Goodness, and Love it self; He who best knows what is good, and is best able to bestow whatsoever is so; He who is as willing to do us good as he is able, and as able as willing, (as no earthly Parent is) He in whom is nothing of envy towards others, and hath in himself all fullness, is Infinite, Almighty, and All-sufficient.
—Give the holy Spirit to them that ask him; so saith one Evangelist, and give good things, saith another. The greatest good that Omnipotence it self and infinite Goodness can do for us, is the giving the holy Spirit, and with him spiritual light to know, and spiritual strength to do his Will, and to subdue our own Wills, and whatsoever is contrary to him in us. To be indued with the holy Spirit doth import an accession both of light and strength, knowledge and power.
So that our Saviour argues from the less to the greater, from the drop of goodness and benignity in Creatures, and those sinful Creatures too, to that Fountain-fulness which is in God. What good soever children may expect from their Parents, that, and infinitely more, may God's Children expect from him. And it is impossible to conceive that the infinitely good God will be more wanting to his Childrens Souls, than are evil men to their Childrens Bodies.
All that foreign, those affections and tendernesses which God hath implanted in all Parents for the good of their Offspring, are but a little drop to that ocean of Love and Mercy that is in himself; are but a dark and short representation of those unconceivable riches of Goodness, and bowels of Compassion which are in him. Nullus Pater tam Pater, No Father is so fatherly, so much a Father as God is, said Tertullian. He is foreign (as Clemens Alexandrinus stiles him out of Orpheus) the tendernesses of both a Father and Mother are in God. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb, yea, they may forget, (it is possible, but very prodigious) yet will not I forget, saith God, Isaiah xlix. 15.
God doth not take empty titles to himself, but fills up the utmost of whatsoever relation he is set forth by in the Holy Scriptures. Whatsoever the wisest, most careful and loving Parents are to theirs, God is such, and incomparably more, to his Children.
If the affections of ten thousand Parents were in one Father or Mother, how secure would the Child be of their tender care, (who indeed is secure without such a supposal) but all these in one person are far short of God's affection, who is the Spring and Original of all the Fatherly tenderness which is dissused in the hearts of so many millions of Fathers, as are in the world.
Let me adde this, That the promise of the Spirit is the great promise of the Gospel, the great priviledge of the Evangelical Dispensation or New Covenant. Greater aids and supplies of Grace, for the subduing our corruptions, we are encouraged to hope for under the Gospel. The Apostle saith, Titus iii. 6. that the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly (foreign, in a rich and plentiful manner) through Iesus Christ our Saviour.
If therefore we be not stronger, if we are not better, it is because we resist, or at least neglect, the Holy Spirit. It is because we have not faith in God, not because he is unwilling to help and assist us: For what saith St. Iames, chap. iv. 5, 6. The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, such but giveth more grace: He gives grace in such a measure as to overpower that spirit that lusteth in us. So that, for that foreign, abundance of wickedness, (as the expression is Iames 1. 21.) there is foreign, an abundance of grace, (as the phrase is Rom. 5. 17.) which the regenerate and believing Soul receiveth by Jesus Christ. For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell, that of his fulness all might receive even grace for grace. Col. 1. 19. Rom. v. 21.And this grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Iesus Christ our Lord.
Thus you see what abundant encouragement we have to have faith in God for the supplies of his Grace and Spirit, and what reason we have to take heed of unbelief, if ever we would master our sinful affections; and bring our wills into compliance with the Will of God.
And there is a double unbelief we are to beware of, as very hurtful to our Souls.
First, An Unbelief in relation to the mercy of God for the pardon of Sin.
Secondly, An Unbelief in relation to the power and goodness of God for the subduing of Sin.
Now it is much to be lamented that whereas the former sort of unbelief is much taken notice of and condemned in Sermons and Books, the latter is but little mentioned. But if the evil of this were no less clearly and powerfully represented than the evil of the other, and men were as effectually warned to beware of this as of that Unbelief, it would, through the blessing of God, be an excellent means to make more sincere, strong and healthy Christians: Whereas alas! the spirits and lives of the generality of Professors do now too plainly declare that they had rather have sin pardoned than subdued, that they had rather sin should not be imputed to them than destroyed in them.
But the compleat Faith is this in opposition to that twofold Unbelief.
First, To believe that Christ came to make expiation for sin, so that it shall be pardoned to those that do truly repent. That is, to those that being sensible of their sins, and are affected with a godly sorrow for them, and an holy hatred and abhorrence of them, desire and purpose above all things to walk before God in newness of life. Which conditions of pardon and non-imputation of sin are by too many either not at all, or but slightly insisted on, while they press the duty of recumbence, and relying on Christs merits for Justification and Salvation.
Secondly, To believe that as Christ came to make atonement for sin, so he was manifested also for this purpose, that he might destroy the works of the Devil: 1 Joh. iii. 8.And to procure grace for us, whereby sin may have no more dominion over us. But this part of faith, I say, is little urged in comparison of the other, whereas it is of as great concernment to our eternal happiness to have Faith in the Power of Christ, as to have Faith in his Bloud. Nay, (as appears from what hath been said) to have sin mortified, and to be enabled to will after the Will of God, is far more than to be meerly pardoned for willing otherwise than God doth will.
Now their defect in this latter part of Faith, is a great cause of Christians continuing so low and weak, lazy and faint, in a sickly and even bed-rid condition, and of their fancying that they honour and please God by complaining of their impotence and infirmities; whereas the true way to please and honour him is, confiding in his omnipotent grace, to get up and be doing.
But I fear I may also adde another reason why most of those that will confess their sins, and pray for grace and strength against them, are still as impotent, as if there were no grace or assistance promised; namely, their not being heartily desirous of grace, as well as their want of faith in the promises of it: Their unwillingness, whatsoever they pretend, to have some lust or other mortified, and to be throughly purified: Their secret fear of the searching and purging work of the Spirit, and of that light and grace that would disquiet them, and not let them alone in some sins to which they are fondly and tenderly devoted. It was one of St. Austin's Confessions:Ego adolescens petieram à te Castitatem, & dixeram, Da mihi Castitatem, sed noli modo: timebam enim nè me citò exaudires, & citò sanares, mallebam explore quam extingui. Confess. l. 8. cap. 7. I, when I was a young man, begged of thee that thou wouldest indue me with the grace of Chastity, and said, Give me Chastity, but not yet; for I feared lest thou shouldest presently hear me, and immediately heal me, and I had rather satisfie lust than have it extinguished.
If this be thy case, (whosoever thou art that readest these lines) if this be the state and temper of thy Soul, then in thy complaining of weakness, and that the sons of Zervia are too hard for thee, and in thy praying for the assistance of God's grace against them, thou dost no better than add sin to sin, the sin of false dealing with God, and wicked hypocrisie to that of Unbelief; thy heart is not right with God, and thou lyest unto him with thy tongue.
But to conclude this: Let us take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of Unbelief, and so we fall short of the Spiritual Canaan, and entring into the rest of God, as it befell the unbelieving Israelites, who perished in the Wilderness, and none of all that came out of Egypt entred into Canaan but Caleb and Ioshuah, men of another Spirit, and that followed God fully; who were full of Faith, and encouraged the people to believe and prosper.
And it is observable that Caleb asked for the mountainous Countrey where the Anakims dwelt,Joshuah xiv. 12. and the Cities were great and fenced, by the news of which the evil Spies dismayed Israel; but Caleb gave proof of the strength of his Faith, in freely chusing to expose himself to the hard and seemingly impossible service of gaining this Countrey, and was rewarded with success answerable to so great a faith: for we read that he drave out the three sons of Anak, Chap. xv. 14.notwithstanding that it was commonly said, Who can stand before the sons Anak? He made it manifest that Faith could stand before them and overcome them.
And if we have Calebs Faith in the power and goodness of God in fighting with the Spiritual Anakims, we may be most undoubtedly assured of Calebs success.
Let the Spiritual Israel therefore encourage themselves in the Lord their God, and they may be certain that it shall be unto them according to their faith; his grace shall be sufficient for them; and when the enemy shall come in like a floud, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against them.