7. It is that, above all other sins, that weakness our prayers, our faith, our love, our diligence, our hope, and expectations: it even taketh the heart away from God in duty.
8. Lastly, This sin, as I have said even now, appeared in the soul with so many sweet pretenses to safety and security, that it is, as it were, counsel sent from heaven; bidding the soul be wise, wary, considerate, well-advised, and to take heed of too rash a venture upon believing. Be sure, first, that God loves you; take hold of no promise until you are forced by God unto it; neither be you sure of your salvation; doubt it still, though the testimony of the Lord has been often confirmed in you. Live not by faith, but by sense; and when you can neither see nor feel, then fear and mistrust, then doubt and question all. This is the devilish counsel of unbelief, which is so covered over with specious pretenses, that the wisest Christian can hardly shake off these reasonings.
[Qualities of unbelief as opposed to faith.]—But to be brief. Let me here give thee, Christian reader, a more particular description of the qualities of unbelief, by opposing faith unto it, in these twenty-five particulars:—
1. Faith believeth the Word of God; but unbelief questioned the certainty of the same (Psa 106:24).
2. Faith believeth the Word because it is true; but unbelief doubted thereof because it is true (1 Tim 4:3; John 8:45).
3. Faith sees more in a promise of God to help, than in all other things to hinder; but unbelief, notwithstanding God’s promise, saith, How can these things be? (Rom 4:19-21; 2 Kings 7:2; John 3:11,12).
4. Faith will make thee see love in the heart of Christ, when with his mouth he giveth reproofs; but unbelief will imagine wrath in his heart, when with his mouth and Word he saith he loves us (Matt 15:22,28; Num 13; 2 Chron 14:3).
5. Faith will help the soul to wait, though God defers to give; but unbelief will take huff and throw up all if God makes any tarrying (Psa 25:5; Isa 8:17; 2 Kings 6:33; Psa 106:13,14).
6. Faith will give comfort in the midst of fears; but unbelief causes fears amid comfort (2 Chron 20:20,21; Matt 8:26; Luke 24:26,27).
7. Faith will suck sweetness out of God’s rod; but unbelief can find no comfort in his greatest mercies (Psa 23:4; Num 21).
8. Faith maketh great burdens light; but unbelief maketh light ones intolerably heavy (2 Cor 4:1; 14-18; Mal 1:12,13).
9. Faith helps us when we are down; but unbelief throws us down when we are up (Micah 7:8-10; Heb 4:11).
10. Faith bringeth us near to God when we are far from him; but unbelief puts us far from God when we are near to him (Heb 10:22; 3:12,13).
11. Where faith reigns, it declared men to be the friends of God; but where unbelief reigns, it declared them to be his enemies (John 3:23; Heb 3:18; Rev 21:8).
12. Faith put a man under grace; but unbelief hold him under wrath (Rom 3:24-26; 14:6; Eph 2:8; John 3:36; 1 John 5:10; Heb 3:17; Mark 16:16).
13. Faith purifies the heart; but unbelief keep it polluted and impure (Acts 15:9; Titus 1:15,16).
14. By faith, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us; but by unbelief, we are shut up under the law to perish (Rom 4:23,24; 11:32; Gal 3:23).
15. Faith maketh our work acceptable to God through Christ; but whatsoever is of unbelief is sin. For without faith it is impossible to please him (Heb 11:4; Rom 14:23; Heb 6:6).
16. Faith giveth us peace and comfort in our souls; but unbelief worketh trouble and tossing, like the restless waves of the sea (Rom 5:1; James 1:6).
17. Faith maketh us to see preciousness in Christ; but unbelief sees no form, beauty, or comeliness in him (1 Peter 2:7; Isa 53:2,3).
18. By faith we have our life in Christ’s fullness; but by unbelief we starve and pine away (Gal 2:20).
19. Faith gives us the victory over the law, sin, death, the devil, and all evils; but unbelief lays us obnoxious to them all (1 John 5:4,5; Luke 12:46).
20. Faith will show us more excellency in things not seen, than in them that are; but unbelief sees more in things that are seen, than in things that will be hereafter;. (2 Cor 4:18; Heb 11:24-27; 1 Cor 15:32).
21. Faith makes the ways of God pleasant and admirable; but unbelief makes them heavy and hard (Gal 5:6; 1 Cor 12:10,11; John 6:60; Psa 2:3).
22. By faith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possessed the land of promise; but because of unbelief, neither Aaron, nor Moses, nor Miriam could get thither (Heb 11:9; 3:19).
23. By faith the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea; but by unbelief the generality of them perished in the wilderness (Heb 11:29; Jude 5).
24. By faith Gideon did more with three hundred men, and a few empty pitchers, than all the twelve tribes could do, because they believed not God (Judge 7:16-22; Num 14:11,14).
25. By faith Peter walked on the water; but by unbelief he began to sink (Matt 14:28-30).
Thus might many more be added, which, for brevity’s sake, I omit; beseeching every one that thinketh he hath a soul to save, or be damned, to take heed of unbelief; lest, seeing there is a promise left us of entering into his rest, any of us by unbelief should indeed come short of it.
