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           Answer (3.)  Thou hast encouragement for this expecting act of faith from what God already hath en­abled thee to do.  Thou canst, if a believer indeed, through mercy say, that sin is not in that strength within thy soul as it was before thy acquaintance with Christ, his word  and ways.  Though thou art not what thou wouldst be,  yet also thou art not what thou hast been.  There was a time when sin played rex—king, in thy heart without control.  thou didst go to sin as a ship to sea before wind and tide.  Thou didst dilate and spread thy affections to receive the gale of temp­tation.  But now the tide is turned, and runs against those motions, though weakly—being but new flood; yet thou findest a secret wrestling with them, and God seasonably succouring thee, so that Satan hath not all his will on thee.  Well, here is a sweet beginning, and let me tell thee, this promiseth thee a readiness in God to perfect the victory; yea, God would have thy faith improve this into a confidence for a total deliv­erance.  ‘Moses,’ when he slew the Egyptian, ‘sup­posed his brethren would have understood,’ by that little hint and essay, ‘how that God by his hand would deliver them,’ Acts 7:25.  Oh it is a bad improvement of the succours God gives us, to argue from them to unbelief: ‘He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, can he give bread also?’  He broke my heart, saith the poor creature, when it was a rock, a flint, and brought me home when I was walking in the pride of my heart against him; but, can he give bread to nourish my weak grace?  I am out of Egypt; but can he master those giants in iron chariots that stand betwixt me and Canaan?  He helped me in such a temptation; but what shall I do the next bout?  Oh, do not grieve a good God with these heart‑aching questions.  You have ‘the former rain,’ why should you question ‘the latter?’  Benjamin was a good pawn to make old Jacob willing to go himself to Egypt.  The grace which God hath already enriched thee with is a sure pledge that more is coming to it.

           Direction 3.  The expecting act of faith must produce another—an endeavouring act, to set the soul on work in the confidence of that succour it ex­pects from God.  When Jehoshaphat had prayed and stablished his faith on the good word of promise, then he takes the field and marches out under his vic­torious banner against his enemies, II Chr. 20.  Go, Christian, do as he did, and speed as he sped.  What David gave in council to his son Solomon, that give I to thee, ‘Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee,’ I Chr. 22:16.  That faith which sets thee on work for God against thy sins as his enemies, will undoubtedly set god on work for thee against them as thine.  The lepers in the gospel were cured, not sitting still but walking.  ‘And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed,’ Luke 17:14.  They met their cure in an act of obedience to Christ’s command. The promiseth saith, ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you;’ the command bids, ‘Mortify your members which are on earth.’  Go thou and make a valiant attempt against thy lusts, upon this word of com­mand, and in doing thy duty thou shalt find the per­formance of the promise.  The reason of so many fruitless among Christians concerning the power of their corruptions lies in one of these two miscarriages —either they endeavour without acting faith on the promise (and such indeed go at their own peril, like those bold men, Num. 14:40, who presumptuously went up the hill to fight the Canaanites, though Moses told them the Lord was not among them, thus slighting the conduct of Moses their leader, as if they needed not his help to the victory; a clear resemblance of those who go in their own strength to resist their cor­ruptions and so fall before them)—or else they pre­tend to believe, but it is ostiâ fide—an easy faith; their faith doth not set them on a vigorous endeavour. They use faith as an eye but not as a hand; they look for victory to drop from heaven upon their heads, but do not fight to obtain it.  This is a mere fiction, a fanciful faith.  He that believes God for the event, believes him for the means also.  If the patient dare trust the physician for the cure, he dare also follow his prescription in order to it.  And therefore, Chris­tian, sit not still, and say thy sin shall fall, but put thyself in array against it.  God, who hath promised thee victory calls thee to thy arms and means to use thy own hands in the battle if ever thou gettest it. ‘Get thee up,’ said the Lord to Joshua, ‘wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face,’ Joshua 7:10.  God liked the prayer and moan he made very well; but there was something else for him to do besides praying and weeping, before the Amorites could be overcome.  And so there is for thee, Christian, with thy faith to do, besides praying and expecting thy lusts down, and that is searching narrowly into thy heart, whether there be not some neglect on thy part, as an Achan, for which thou art so worsted by sin, and fleest before the face of every temptation.

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           Direction 2.  A second way to engage God is by faith’s expecting act; when thou hast been with God expect good from God.  ‘I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up,’ Ps. 5:3.  For want of this many a prayer is lost.  If you do not believe, why do you pray? and if you believe, why do you not expect?  By praying, you seem to depend on God; by not expect­ing, you again renounce your confidence and ravel out your prayer.  What is this but to take his name in vain, and to play bo‑peep with God? as if one that knocks at your door should, before you came to open it to him, go away and not stay to be spoken with.  Oh Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the prom­ise, and you cannot miss of the ruin of your lusts.

           Question.  O, but, saith the poor soul, shall not I presume to expect when I have prayed against my corruptions that God will bestow on me so great a mercy as this is?

           Answer (1.)  Dost thou know what it is to presume?  He presumes that takes a thing before it is granted.  He were a presumptuous man indeed that should take your meat off your table who never was invited.  But I hope your guest is not over-bold that ventures to eat of what you set before him.  For one to break into your house, upon whom you shut the door, were presumptuous; but to come out of a storm into your house when you are so kind as to call him in, is no presumption, but good manners.  And, if God opens not the door of his promise to be a sanc­tuary to poor humbled sinners fleeing from the rage of their lust, truly then I know none of this side heaven that can expect welcome.  God hath promised to be a king, a lawgiver, to his people.  Now it is no presumption in subjects to come under their princes’ shadow and expect protection from them, Isa. 33:21, 22. God there promiseth he ‘will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby.’ ‘For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.’  God speaks to his people as a prince or a state would to their sub­jects.  He will secure them in their traffic and mer­chandise from all pirates and pickroons; they shall have a free trade.  Now, soul, thou art molested with many pirate lusts that infest thee and obstruct thy commerce with heaven—yea, thou hast complained to thy God what loss thou hast suffered by them; is it now presumption to expect relief from him, that he will rescue thee from them, that thou mayest serve him without fear who is thy liege‑lord?

           Answer (2.)  You have the saints for your prece­dents, who, when they have been in combat with their corruptions, yea, been foiled by them, have even then acted their faith on God, and expected the ruin of those enemies which for the present have overrun them.  Iniquities prevail against me, Ps. 65:3—he means his own sins and others' wrath.  But see his faith.  At the same time they prevailed over him he beholds God destroying of them, as appears in the very next words, ‘As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.’  See here, poor Christian, who thinkest thou shalt never get above deck.  Holy David has a faith not only for himself, but also [for] all be­lievers—of whose number I suppose thee one—‘as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away!’  And mark the ground he hath for his confidence, taken from God's choosing act, ‘Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts,’ ver. 4.  As if he had said, ‘Surely he will not let them be under the power of sin or want of his gracious succour whom he sets so nigh himself.’  This is Christ’s own argument against Satan in the behalf of his people.  ‘The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jeru­salem rebuke thee,’ Zech. 3:2.

Directions How to Use The Shield of Faith to Quench Enticing Temptations. 1/3

           Question.  But how would you have me use my shield of faith for my defence against these fiery darts of Satan’s enticing temptations?

           Answer.  By faith engage God to come in to thy succour against them.  Now, there are three engaging acts of faith which will bind God—as we may so say with reverence—to help thee, because he binds him­self to help such.

           Direction 1.  The first is the prayerful act of faith.  Open thy case to God in prayer, and call in help from heaven—as the governor of a besieged castle would send a secret messenger to his general or prince to let him know his state and straits.  The apostle James saith, ‘Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not,’ chap. 4:2.  Our victory must drop from heaven if we have any.  But it stays till prayer comes for it.  Though God had a purpose to deliver Israel out of Egypt, yet no news of his coming till the groans of his people rang in his ears.  This gave heav­en the alarm, ‘Their cry has come up to God,... and God heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant,’ Ex. 2:24.  Now the more to prevail upon God in this act of faith, fortify thy prayer with those strong REASONS which saints have used in like cases.  As,

           (1.) Engage God from his promise when thou prayest against any sin.  Show God his own hand in such promises as these, ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you,’ Rom. 6:14.  ‘He will subdue our iniquities,’ Micah 7:19.  Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God’s word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.  Know, Christian, thou hast law on thy side; bills and bonds must be paid, Ps. 119:37.  David is there praying against the sins of a wanton eye and a dead heart, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.’  And see how he urgeth his argument in the next words—‘Stablish thy word unto thy servant.’  A good man is as good as his word, and will not a good God? But where finds David such a word for help against these sins? surely in the covenant; it is the Magna Charta.  The first promise held forth thus much, ‘The seed of the woman shall break the serpent’s head.’

           (2.) Plead with God from relation when thou art against any sin.  Art thou one God hath taken into his family?  Hast thou chosen God for thy God?  Oh what an argument hast thou here!  ‘I am thine, Lord, save me,’ saith David.  Who will look after the child if the father will not?  Is it for thy honour, O God, that any child of thine should be a slave to sin?  ‘Be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.’  ‘Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,’ Ps. 119:132.

           (3.) Engage God from his Son’s bloody death to help thee against thy lusts that were his murderers. What died Christ for but to ‘redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,’ Titus 2:14.  And shall not Christ be reimbursed of what he laid out?  Shall he not have the price of his blood and purchase of his death?  In a word, what is Christ praying for in heaven, but what was in his mouth when praying on earth?  That his Father would ‘sanc­tify them, and keep them from the evil of the world.’ Thou comest in a good time to beg that of God which thou findest Christ hath asked for thee.