Here thou for- The times they rage more than ever. gettest the Lord is thy strength. make use of him, and therefore thou failest. woman with the bloody issue grew worse and worse, till she went to Christ; so wilt thou. Why is it given thee to know Christ in the spirit, but that thou shouldst go to him daily, and plead his promiseLord, thou hast declared that sin shall not have dominion over thy people; I believe this word of thine cannot be broken; and therefore, helpless in myself, I rely upon thy faithfulness to save me from the dominion of such and such a sîn (as then tempts thee). Put forth thy power, O Lord Christ, and get thyself glory in subduing my flesh, with its affections and lusts. And then trust him to make his word good, and wait the event. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than sin, any sin thus left with Christ to be subdued, shall reign over thee. If thou sayest, I think I seek for victory over sin in no other way, and yet I do not attain it so completely as I desire-depend upon it thou art under some mistake; for Christ is almighty to fulfil every promise in its largest sense and fullest meaning; and there never was a believer who could justly charge him with the breach of his word. Perhaps thou dost believe, that power to subdue sin comes from Christ, and thou are expecting it from him; but hast thou not some legal dependence, some notion of thy own working together with him? Search and see. Dost thou commit ALL to the Lord, who is to do ALL and in ALL? Is the whole battle left to him! wisdom, and courage, and armour, and strength, and patience, and viétory, are all from the Lord. If thou art not doing this simply, thou art not living by faith upon Christ, but thou art fighting in thine own strength, and depending upon some inherent stock of grace, or knowledge, or experience. While these proud, selfish motives put thee upon asking his help, he will not give it thee, because thou dost not wholly depend upon him for it. Or perhaps Christ doth not appear on thy side, because thou art proposing some wrong end. Thou art working and striving against sin to establish a righteousness of thine own, which is to be some part of thine acceptance before God; and thou hast been trying in thine own strength to get thy corruptions quite subdued, but they were too strong for thee, and therefore now thou art glad to make use of Christ's help. And if he would do the work for thee, then thou wouldst have confidence in the flesh; and this, thy fancied holiness, would be the ground of thy rejoicing before God. Is it not so? if it be, thou wilt never succeed upon this plan. Christ will not give his glory to another, nor put the crown of his gospel grace upon the head of thy legal dependence. Or perhaps thou art expecting from Christ what he has not promised, such a victory over thy corruptions, that they shall not fight again for some time, or that they shall be quite dead and buried. And so they shall be, in the Lord's appointed time. But now he calls upon thee to fight against them; he provides thee armour for that purpose, even the whole armour of God; and he requires thee to resist unto blood, striving against sin, promising thee daily victory. This is thy present state of warfare. To this thou art now called, and there is no discharge in this war. O beware then, as thou lovest thy soul, of a false peace! Thou wilt be sadly deluded, if thou ever supposest that thy fighting is over, before thy course be finished. The good fight of faith must continue till death: for till then, corruption being in thee, thou must oppose it, relying upon God for promised victory over it. He is able to save thee from the very being of it now, as well as in heaven; but it is not his mind and will. Here he will have thee to live by faith, which is every moment to keep thee dependent upon Christ, or thou wilt fall. This is to exalt his grace, and to subdue thy selfish legal spirit, to humble thy pride, to put thee upon prayer and watchfulness, to make sin more hateful, and heaven more desirable, and to secure the glory of every victory to him, whose strength is perfected in thy weakness. These are some of his gracious purposes in keeping thee continually dependent upon his strength; and if he has made thee willing to fight and conquer to the praise of the glory of his grace, then thou wilt experience that blessed promise" Sin shall not have dominion over thee." And it will not be long before sin shall not have a being in thee. Reader, if thou hast fallen into these, or any other mistakes concerning the subduing of thy corruptions, mind what is written, and what is promised. Having first received, through faith in the blood of Christ, the pardon of thy sin, then, as one of his good soldiers, thou art to fight against it all thy life; he, being on thy side, promises to subdue sin for thee. Without him thou canst do nothing in this warfare; and therefore thy faith, resting on his pro mise, is to wait the fulfilling of it. He has given thee his word, that he will use his almighty power for this purpose. To that word must thou look, believing that Christ will bring thee victory continually, if thy faith fail not-greater, as thy faith increases complete, when the good fight of faith shall be ended, and thou shalt rest from thy labours. All this he stands engaged to do, and his power is able to fulfil his engagements, and thy faith will bring the happy experience of his power. When corruptions rise, temptations are strong, enemies numerous, dangers on every side, that is the time to glorify Christ, by making use of his promised strength. Then put thy trust in the Captain of thy salvation, and fear not. Look unto Jesus, and look at nothing but him. The battle is his. He will fight for thee, and thou shalt hold thy peace. all, to do all, and to finish all Leave him to direct relating to it; and then, as he can get all the glory, thou shalt see what O that thy faith did a salvation he will bring thee. but reach to the extent of his promises !-how successful would be thy spiritual warfare—such victories over thine enemies, corruptions so subdued, the world so crucified, Satan so defeated, as thou canst now scarce believe. The Lord increase thy faith! Look up to him for it; because, as thy faith increases, let the battle grow hotter and hotter, thou wilt find thyself safer, and more reason to give thanks to God, through Jesus Christ thy Lord. For want of attending to the important truths already considered, and of bringing them into constant use and exercise, young believers are liable to fall into another great mistake, which keeps their faith weak, and stops its growth; namely, a hearkening to sense, and trusting to its reports, which is the fifth general head I purpose to consider. V. They are seeking to be established, and they think, that they should have no doubt of their being true believers, if they had but the testimony of sense, and comfortable feelings to assure them of it. And being used to judge in this way in other matters, (for it is our strongest evidence in natural things,) they are disposed to expect the same in spiritual; and they are the rather disposed to it, because sensible comforts are promised in Scripture; which being very desirable and pleasing to nature, they art apt to covet them too much, and from not regarding what the Scripture says about them, they are apt to seek them in a wrong way, and for a wrong end. Sense judges from what it sees, and draws its inferences from what it feels; so that its report to the conscience, either of a believer's state, or of his growth in it, is not from unchangeable things, which would settle the conscience in peace, but from changeable things, which leave room for continual doubting. Sense also looks at the fruits of faith, more than at the object of it; and if the believer has been misled, and taught to confound these two together, he will be at great uncertainty in judging of his state; for, instead of making the word of God, he will make his comforts the ground of his faith, and as these are, more or less, so will his faith be. When he has comfortable feelings, then he will think himself a believer, and when he has none, then he will think himself an unbeliever; changing his judgment of himself, as his feelings do, like the wind, and varying, as his comforts do, like |