The Christian Strength in The Armour of God -- Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God

The application of this point will fall in under the next, which is

[Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God, as engaged for our help.]

             Doctrine Second.  That it is the saint's duty, and should be their care, not only to believe God Almighty, but also strongly to believe that this almighty power of God is theirs, that is, [is] engaged for their defence and help, so as to make use of it in all straits and temptations.  First,I shall prove that the almighty power of God is engaged for the Christian's defence, with the grounds of it.  Second, [I shall prove] why the Christian should strongly act his faith on this.

             First.  I shall prove that the almighty power of God is engaged for the Christian's defence, with the grounds of it.  God brought Israel out of Egypt with an high hand, but did he set them down on the other side of the Red Sea, to find and force their way to Canaan, by their own policy or power?  When he had opened the gate of their iron house of bondage, and brought them into the open fields, did he vanish as the angel from Peter, when out of prison?  No, ‘The Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went,’ Deut. 1:31.  This doth lively set forth the saint's march to heaven; God brings a soul out of spiritual Egypt by his converting grace, that is, the ‘day of his power,’ wherein he makes the soul willing to come out of Satan's clut­ches.  Now when the saint is upon his march, all the country riseth upon him.  How shall this creature pass the pikes, and get safely by all his enemies' borders?  God himself enfolds him in the arm of his everlasting strength.  ‘We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ I Peter 1:5.  The power of God is that shoulder on which Christ carries his sheep home, rejoicing all the way he goes, Luke 15:5.  These everlasting arms of his strength are those eagles' wings, upon which the saints are both tenderly and securely conveyed to glory, Ex. 19:4.  There is a five-fold tie or engagement that lies upon God's power to be the saints' life-guard.

             First Tie.  The near relation he hath to his saints.  They are his own dear children; every one takes care of his own—the silly hen, how doth she bustle and bestir herself to gather her brood under her wing when the kite appears? no care like that which nature teacheth.  How much more will God, who is the Father of such dispositions in his creature, stir up his whole strength to defend his children?  ‘He said, They are my people, so he became their Saviour,’ Isa. 63:8.  As if God had said, Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my own people are thus misused before my face?  I cannot bear it.  The mother as she sits in her house hears one shriek, and knowing the voice, cries out, ‘O it is my child.’  Away she throws all, and runs to him.  Thus God takes the alarm of his children's cry: ‘I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, saith the Lord;’ his cry pierced his ear, and his ear affected his bowels, and his bowels called up his power to the rescue of him.

The Christian Strength in The Armour of God...Continued

A Sweet and Powerful Encouragement to the War

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord,

and in the power of his might.’  — Eph. 6:10

[Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God.]

Reason Second.  The second reason may be taken from the absolute necessity of this act of faith above others, to support the Christian in the hour of temptation.  All the Christian's strength and comfort is fetched without doors, and he hath none to send of his errand but faith; this goes to heaven and knocks God up, as he in the parable his neighbour at midnight for bread: therefore, when faith fails, and the soul hath none to go to market for supplies, there must needs be a poor house kept in the meantime. Now faith is never quite laid up till the soul denies, or at least questions, the power of God.  Indeed, when the Christian disputes the will of God, whispering within its own bosom, will he pardon? will he save? this may make faith go haltingly to the throne of grace, but not knock the soul off from seeking the face of God.  Even then faith on the power of God will bear it company thither: 'If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;’ if thou wilt, thou canst pardon, thou canst purge.  But when the soul concludes he cannot pardon, cannot save, this shoots faith to the heart, so that the soul falls at the foot of Satan, not able more to resist; now it grows more listless to duty, indifferent whether it pray or not, as one that sees the well dry breaks or throws away his pitcher.

             Reason Third.  Because God is very tender of this flower of his crown, this part of his name: indeed we cannot spell it right and leave out this letter, for that is God's name, whereby he is known by all his creatures.  Now man may be called wise, merciful, mighty: God only, all-wise, all-merciful, almighty; so that when we leave out this syllable all, we nickname God, and call him by his creature's name, which he will not answer to.  Now the tenderness that God shows to this prerogative of his appears in three particulars.

1. In the strict command he lays on his people to give him the glory of his power.  ‘Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid,’ but ‘sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,’ Isa. 8:12, 13; that is, in this sad posture of your affairs, when your enemies associate, and you seem a lost people to the eye of reason, not able to contest with [those] united powers which beset you on every side, I charge you, sanctify me in giving me the glory of my almighty power.  Believe that your God is able of himself, without any other, to defend you, and destroy them.
2. In his severity to his dearest children, when they stagger in their faith, and come not off roundly, without reasoning and disputing the case, to rely on his almighty power.  Zacharias did but ask the angel, ‘whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years?’ yet for bewraying therein his unbelief, had a sign indeed given him, but such a one as did not only strengthen his faith, but severely punish his unbelief, for he was struck dumb upon the place.  God loves his children should be­lieve his word, not dispute his power; so true is that of Luther: 'God loves the obedient, not the cavil­ling. That which gave accent to Abraham's faith was that he was 'fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform,’ Rom. 4:21.
3. In the way God takes of giving his choicest mercies and greatest salvations to his people, wherein he lays the scene of his providence, so that when he hath done it may be said, Almighty power was here.  And therefore, God commonly puts down those means and second causes, which if they stood about his work would blind and hinder the full prospect thereof in effecting the same.  ‘We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead,’ II Cor. 1:9.  Christ stayed while [until] Lazarus was dead, that he might draw the eyes of their faith more singly to look on his power, by raising his dead friend, rather than curing him being sick, which would not have carried so full a conviction of almightiness with it.  Yea, he suffers a contrary power many times to arise, in that very juncture of time, when he intends the mercy to his people, that he may rear up more magnificent pillar of remembrance to his own power, in the ruin of that which contests with him.  Had God brought Israel out of the Egypt in the time of those kings which knew Joseph, most likely they might have had a friendly departure and an easy deliverance, but God reserves this for the reign of that proud Pharaoh, who shall cruelly oppress them, and venture his kingdom, but will satisfy his lust upon them.  And why must this be the time, but that God would bring them forth with a stretched-out arm?  The magnifying of his power was God's great design. 'In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth,’ Ex. 9:16.
4. In the prevalency which an argument that is pressed from his almighty power hath with God.  It was the last string Moses had to his bow, when he begged the life of Israel: ‘The nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able,’ &c., Num. 14:15, 16.  And ‘Let the power of my Lord be great,’ ver. 17; and with this he hath their pardon thrown him.

Acting Our Faith on The Almighty power of God

[Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God.]

             Doctrine First.  It should be the Christian's great care in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the almighty power of God.  When God holds forth himself as an object of the soul's trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking, commonly this attribute of his almighty power is presented in the promise, as the surest holdfast for faith to lay hold on.  As a father in rugged way gives his child his arm to lay hold by, so doth God usually reach forth his almighty power for his saints to ex­ercise their faith on, [as He did for] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose faith God tried above most of his saints before or since, for not one of those great things which were promised to them did they live to see performed in their days.  And how doth God make known himself to them for their support, but by displaying this attribute?  'I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty,’  Ex. 6:3.  This was all they had to keep house with all their days: with which they lived comfortably, and died triumphantly, bequeathing the promise to their children, not doubting, because God Almighty had promised, of the performance. 

Thus, Isa. 26, where great mercies are promised to Judah, and a song penned beforehand to be sung on that gaudy day of their salvation; yet because there was a sharp winter of captivity to come between the promise and the spring-time of the promise, therefore, to keep their faith alive in this space, the prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty.  ‘Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,’ ver. 4.  So when his saints are going to the furnace of persecution, what now doth he direct their faith to carry to prison, to stake, with them but this almighty power?  ‘Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator,’ I Pet. 4:19.  Creator is a name of almighty power; we shall now give some reasons of the point.

             Reason First. Because it is no easy work to make use of this truth, how plain and clear soever it now appears, in great plunges of temptation, that God is almighty.  To vindicate this name of God from those evil reports which Satan and carnal reason raise against it, requires a strong faith indeed.  I confess this principle is a piece of natural divinity.  That light which finds out a Deity will evince, if followed close, this God to be almighty; yet in a carnal heart, it is like a rusty sword, hardly drawn out of the scabbard, and so of little or no use.  Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience, that they seldom get a fair hearing in the sinner's bosom, till God gives them a jail-delivery, and brings them out of their house of bondage, where they are shut up in unrighteousness with a high hand of his convincing Spirit.  Then, and not till then, the soul will believe [that] God is holy, merciful, almighty; nay, some of God's peculiar people, and not the meanest for grace amongst them, have had their faith for a time set in this slough, [and] much ado to get over these difficulties and improbabilities which sense and reason have objected, so as to rely on the almighty power of God, with a notwithstanding.  Moses himself [was] a star of the first magnitude for grace, yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles till he wades out the temptation: ‘The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.  

Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?’ Num. 11:21, 22.  This holy man had lost the sight for a time of the almighty power of God, and now he projecting how this should be done; as if he had said in plain terms, How can this be accom­plished?  For so God interprets his rea­soning: ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short?’ ver. 23. So Mary, 'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,’ John 11:32.  And her sister Martha, 'Lord, by this time he stinketh,’ ver. 39.  Both [were] gracious women, yet both betrayed the weakness of their faith on the almighty power of Christ; one limiting him to place—‘f thou hadst been here,’ he had not died; as if Christ could not have saved his life absent as well as present—sent his health to him as well as brought it with him;—the other to time —‘now he stinketh;’ as if Christ had brought his physic too late, and the grave would not deliver up its prisoner at Christ's command.  And thou hast such a high opinion of thyself, Christian, that thy faith needs not thy utmost care and endeavour for further establishment on the almighty power of God, when thou seest such as these dash their foot against this kind of temptation?

The Christian's Strength-An Amplification Of The Direction, and In The Power of God's Might

The Christian's Strength-An Amplification Of The Direction, and In The Power of God's Might

           

  In this branch we have an encouraging amplification annexed to the exhortation, in these words 'and in the power of his might,’ where a twofold inquiry is requisite for the explication of the phrase.  First, What these words import, 'the pow­er of his might.’  Second, What it is to 'be strong in the power of his might.’

             First.  What these words import, 'the power of his might.’  It is an Hebraism, and imports nothing but his mighty power, like that phrase, 'to the praise of the glory of his grace,’ Eph.1:6 that is, to the praise of his glorious grace.  And his mighty power imports no less than his almighty power; sometimes the Lord is styled ‘strong and mighty,’ Ps. 24:8, sometimes 'most mighty,’ sometimes ‘almighty,’ no less is meant in all than God's infinite almighty power.

             Second.  What it is to ‘be strong in the power of his might.’  To be strong in the power of the Lord's might, implies two acts of faith.  First, a settled firm persuasion that the Lord is almighty on power.  ‘Be strong in the power of his might,’ that is, be strongly rooted in your faith, concerning this one foundation truth, that God is almighty.  Second, It implies a further act of faith, not only to believe that God is almighty, but also that this almighty power of God is engaged for its defence; so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntedly, leaning on the arm of God Almighty, as it were his own strength.  For that is the apostle's drift, as to beat us off from leaning on our own strength, so to encourage the Christian to make use of God's almighty power, as freely as if it were his own, whenever assaulted by Satan in any kind.  

As a man set upon by a thief stirs up all the force and strength he hath in his whole body to defend himself and offend his adversary; so the apostle bids the Christian 'be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,’ that is, Soul, away to thy God, whose mighty power is all intended and devoted by God himself for thy succor and defence.  Go strengthen and entrench thyself in it by a steadfast faith, as that which shall be laid out to the utmost for thy good.  From whence these two notes [or doctrines], I conceive, will draw out the fatness of the words.  Doctrine First, That it should be the Christian's great care and endeavour in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the almighty power of God.  Doctrine Second, The Christian's duty and care is not only to believe that God is al­mighty, but strongly by faith to rest on this almighty power of God, as engaged for his help and succour in all his trials and temptations.

Use or Application - Making Use of, and Applying The Strength You Have In The Lord!

Use or Application

             Use First.  Is it the Christian's strength in the Lord, not in himself?  Surely then the Christless person must needs be a poor impotent creature, void of all strength and ability of doing anything of itself towards its own salvation.  If the ship launched, rigged, and with her sails spread cannot stir, till the wind come fair and fill them, much less the timber that lies in the carpenter's yard hew and frame itself into a ship.  If the living tree cannot grow except the root communicate its sap, much less can a dead rot­ten stake in the hedge, which hath no root, live of its own accord.  In a word, if a Christian, that hath his spiritual life of grace, cannot exercise this life without strength from above, then surely one void of this new life, dead in sins and trespasses, can never be able to beget this in himself, or concur to the production of it.  The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency.  'When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,’  Rom. 5:6.  And as Christ found the lump of mankind covered with the ruins of their lapsed estate (no more able to raise themselves from under the weight of God's wrath which lay upon them, than one buried under the rubbish of a fallen house is to free himself of that weight without help), so the Spirit finds sinners in as helpless a condition, as unable to repent, or believe on Christ for salvation, as they were of themselves to purchase it.  Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride, who cry up the power of nature, as if man with his own brick and slime of natural abilities were able to rear up such a building, whose top may reach heaven itself.  'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that sheweth mercy,’ Rom. 9:16.  God himself hath scattered such Babel-builders in the imagination of their hearts, who raiseth this spiritual temple in the souls of men, 'not by might, nor by a power,’ of their own, 'but by his Spirit,’ that so 'grace, grace,’ might be proclaimed be­fore it forever.  And therefore, if any yet in their natural estate would become wise to salvation, let them first become fools in their own eyes, and renounce their carnal wisdom, which perceives the things of God, and beg wisdom of God, who giveth and upbraideth not.  If any man would have strength to believe, let them become weak, and die to their own, for, 'by strength shall no man prevail,’ I Sam. 2:9.

             Use Second.  Doth the Christian's strength lie in God, not in himself?  This may forever keep the Christian humble, when most engaged in duty, most assisted in his Christian course.  Remember, Christian, when thou hast thy best suit on, who made it, who paid for it.  Thy grace, thy comfort is neither the work of thy own hands, nor the price of thy own desert; be not, for shame, proud of another's cost.  That assistance will not long stay which becomes a nurse to thy pride; thou art not lord of that assistance thou hast.  Thy Father is wise, who when he alloweth thee most for thy spiritual maintenance, even then keeps the law in his own hands, and can soon curb thee, if thou growest wanton with his grace.  Walk humbly therefore before thy God, and husband well that strength thou hast, remembering that it is borrowed strength.  Who will waste what he begs? or who will give that beggar that spends idly his alms? when thou hast most, thou canst not be long from thy God's door.  And how canst thou look him on the face for more, who hast embezzled what thou hast received?

The Saint and His Interactions With His God

 Reason Third.  A third demonstration may be taken from the grand design which God propounds to himself in the saint's salvation; yea, in the transaction of it from first to last.  And that is twofold.  1. God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his dear love and mercy to them.  2. He would so express his mercy and love to them, as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible.  Now how becoming this is to both, that saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven, will soon appear.

1. Design.  God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his dear love and mercy to them.  This way of communicating strength to saints, gives a double accent to God's love and mercy.

             (1.) It distills a sweetness into all the believer hath or doth, when he finds any comfort in his bosom, any enlargement of heart in duty, any support under temptations, to consider whence came all these, what friend sends them in.  They came not from my own cistern, or any creature's.  O it is my God that hath been here, and left his sweet perfume of comfort behind him in my bosom! my God that hath unaware to me filled my sails with the gales of his Spirit, and brought me off the flats of my own deadness, where I lay aground.  O, it is his sweet Spirit that held my head, stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation, or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief.  How can this choose but to endear God to a gracious soul?  His succors coming so immediately from heaven, which would be lost, if the Christian had any strength to help himself (though this stock of strength came at first from God).  Which, think you, speaks more love and condescent: for a prince to give a pension to a favorite, on which he may live by his own care, or for this prince to take the chief care upon himself, and come from day to day to this man's house, and look into his cupboard, and see what provision he hath, what expense he is at, and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time? 

 Possibly some proud spirit that likes to be his own man, or loves his means better than his prince, would prefer the former, but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his prince would be ravished with the latter.  Thus God doth with his saints.  The great God comes and looks into their cupboard, and sees how they are laid in, and sends in accordingly as he finds them.  ‘Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things,’ and you shall have them.  He knows you need strength to pray, [to] hear, [to] suffer for him, and, ‘in the very hour it will be given.’
             (2.) This way of God's dealing with his saints adds to the fulness and stability of their strength. Were the stock in our own hands, we should soon prove broken merchants.  God knows we are but leak­ing vessels,  when fullest we could not hold it long; and therefore to make all sure, he sets us under the streaming forth of his strength, and a leaking vessel under a cock gets what it loseth.  Thus we have our leakage supplied continually.  This is the provision God made for Israel in the wilderness: He clave the rock, and the rock followed them.  They had not only a draught at present, but it ran in a stream after them, so that you hear no more of their complaints for water.  This rock was Christ.  Every believer hath Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial.  One flower with the root is worth many in a posie, which though sweet yet doth not grow, but wither as we wear them in our bosoms.  God's strength as the root keeps our grace lively, without which, though as orient as Adam's was, it would die.

2. Design.  The second design that God hath in his saints' happiness is, that he may so express his mercy and love to them as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein, Eph. 1:4, 12, which is fully attained in this way of empowering saints, by a strength not of their own, but of their God his sending, as they are put to expense.  Had God given his saints a stock of grace to have set up with and left them to the improvement of it, he had been magnified indeed, because it was more than God did owe the creature; but he had not been omnified as now, when not only the Christian's first strength to close with Christ is from God, but he is beholden still to God for the exercise of that strength, in every ac­tion of his Christian course.  As a child that travels in his father's company, all is paid for, but his father carries the purse, not himself, so the Christian's shot is discharged in every condition; but he cannot say this I did, or that I suffered, but God wrought all in me and for me.  The very comb of pride is cut here; no room [is left] for any self-exalting thoughts.  The Christian cannot say, that I am a saint is mercy; but being a saint, that my faith is strong, this is the child of my own care and watchfulness.  Alas, poor Christian! who kept thine eye waking, and stirred up thy care?  Was not this the offspring of God as well as thy faith at first?  No saint shall say of heaven when he comes there, ‘This is heaven, which I have built by the power of my might.’  No, ‘Jerusalem above is a city whose builder and maker is God.’  Every grace, yea, degree of grace, is a stone in that building, the topstone whereof is laid in glory, where saints shall more plainly see, how God was not only Founder to begin, but Benefactor also to finish the same.  The glory of the work shall not be crumbled and piece-mealed out, some to God and some to the creature, but all entirely paid in to God, and he acknowledged all in all.

Why The Saint's Strength Is Laid Up In God

'That the Christian's strength is in the Lord.’  Now we shall give some demonstrations [or reasons].

[Why the saint's strength is laid up in God.]

            

 Reason First.  The first reason may be taken from the nature of the saints and their grace.  Both are creatures, they and their grace also.  Now  it is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker,’ both for being and operation.  Can you con­ceive and accident to be out of its subject, whiteness out of the wall, or some other subject?  It is impos­sible that the creature should be, or act without strength from God.  This to be, act in and of himself, is so incommunicable a property of the Deity, that he cannot impart it to his creature.  God is, and there is none besides him.  When God made the world, it is said indeed he ended his work, that is, of creation: he made no new species and kinds of creatures more; but to this day he hath not ended his work of providence: 'My Father worketh hitherto,’ saith Christ, John 5:17, that is, in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act, that therefore he is said to hold our souls in life.  Works of art, which man makes, when finished, may stand some time without the workman's help, as the house, when the carpenter that made it is dead; but God's works, both of nature and grace, are never off his hand, and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature, so the Son, to whom is committed the work of redemption, he tells us, worketh also.  Neither ended he his work when he rose again, any otherwise than his Father did in the work of creation.  God made an end of making, so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy, grace, and glory for believers, by once dying; and as God rested at the end of creation, so he, when he had wrought eternal redemption, and 'by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,’ Heb. 1:3.  But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us, and by his Spirit in us for God, whereby he upholds his saints, their graces, and comforts his life, without which they would run to ruin.  Thus we see as grace is a creature, the Christian depends on God for his strength.  But further,

             

Reason Second. The Christian's grace is not only a creature, but a weak creature, conflicting with enemies stronger than itself, and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from heaven.  The weakest goes to the wall, if no succour comes in.  Grace in this life is but weak, like a king in the cradle, which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly to the disturbance of this young king's reign in the soul, yea, he would soon make an end of the war in the ruin of the believer's grace, did not Heaven take the Christian into protection.  It is true indeed, grace, wherever it is, hath a principle in itself that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve itself according to its strength, but being overpowered must perish, except assisted by God, as fire in green wood, which deads and damps the part kindled, will in time go out, except blown up, or more fire put to that little; so will grace in the heart.  God brings his grace into the heart by conquest. 

Now, as in a conquered city, though some yield and become true subjects to the conqueror, yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke; and therefore it requires the same power to keep, as was to win it at first.  The Christian hath an unregenerate part, that is discounted at this new change in the heart, and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christ's sceptre, as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them.  What, this fellow, a stranger, control us!  And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian, so that if God should not continually reinforce this new planted colony in the heart, the very natives (I mean corruptions) that are left, would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lur­king, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath; it would be as bread to these devourers.

Again, Consider The Christians Addressing Himself To Any Duty Of God's Worship, Still His Strength Is In The Lord

Again Consider The Christians Addressing Himself To Any Duty Of God's Worship Still His Strength Is In The Lord.

             [1. Prayer.]  Would he pray?  Where will he find materials for his prayer?  Alas, he 'knows not what he should pray for as we ought,’ Rom. 8:26.  Let him alone, and he will soon pray himself into some temptations or other, and cry for that which [it] were cruelty in God to give; and therefore God puts words in our mouths: 'Take with you words and say,’ Hosea 14:2.  Well, now he hath words put into his mouth.  Alas, they will freeze in his very lips, if he hath not some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap.  And where shall this fire be had?  Not a spark to found on his own hearth, except it be some strange fire of natural desires, which will not serve.  Whence then must the fire come to thaw the iciness of the heart, but from heaven?  The Spirit, he must stretch himself upon the soul, as the prophet on the child, and then the soul will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in its affections.  The Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan.  He helps us to these sighs and groans which turn the sails of prayer.  He dissolves the heart and then it [i.e. prayer] bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly rhetoric, out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with tears.  Yet further, now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer, what will he get by all this?  Suppose he be weak in grace, is he able to pray himself strong, or corruption weak?  No, this is not to be found in prayer, as an act of the creature; this drops from heaven also: 'In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul,’ Ps. 138:3.  David received it in duty, but had it not from his duty, but from his God.  He did not pray himself strong, but God strengthened him in his prayer.

             [2. Hearing the Word.]  Well, cast your eyes once more upon the Christian, as engaging in another ordinance of hearing the word preached.  The soul's strength to hear the Word is from God.  He opens the heart to attend, Acts 16:14, yea, he opens the un­derstanding of the saint to receive the Word, so as to conceive what it means.  It is like Samson's riddle, which we cannot unfold without his heifer.  He opens the womb of the soul to conceive by it, as the understanding to conceive of it, that the barren soul becomes a 'joyful mother of children.’  David sat for half a year under the public lectures of the law, and the womb of his heart shut up, till Nathan comes, and God with him, and now is the time of life.  He conceives presently, yea, and brings forth the same day, falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins, which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet 51^st Psalm.  Why should this one word work more than all the former, but that now God struck in with his word, which he did not before?  He is therefore said to 'teach his people to profit,’ Isa. 48:17.  He sits in heaven that teacheth hearts.  When God's Spirit, who is the headmaster, shall call a soul from his usher to himself, and say, —Soul, you have not gone the way to receive by hearing the word.  Thus and thus conceive of such a truth, improve such a promise —presently the eyes of his understanding open, and his heart burns within him while he speaks to him.  Thus you see the truth of this point, 'That the Christian's strength is in the Lord.’  Now we shall give some demonstrations [or reasons].

A Cautionary Direction, Be Strong In The Lord

A cautionary direction, 'be strong in the Lord.’

             In this we have a cautionary direction.  Having exhorted the saints at Ephesus, and in them all believers, to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare, lest this should be mistaken, and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battle, the apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength, even to the Lord: 'be strong in the Lord.’  From whence we observe.

[The saint's strength lies in the Lord.]

             Doctrine.  That the Christian's strength lies in the Lord, not in himself.  The strength of the general in other hosts lies in his troops.  He flies, as a great commander once said to his soldiers, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost; but in the army of saints, the strength of every saint, yea, of the whole host of saints, lies in the Lord of hosts.  God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arm.  It is one of God's names, 'the Strength of Israel,’ I Sam. 15:29.  He was the strength of David's heart; without him this valiant worthy (that could, when held up in his arms, defy him that defied a whole army) behaves himself strangely for fear, at a word or two that dropped from the Philistine's mouth.  He was the strength of his hands, 'He taught his fingers to fight,’ and so is the strength of all his saints in their war against sin and Satan.  Some propound a question, whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part?  But if the question were, whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring, that is resolved,  'Without me ye can do nothing,’ John 15:5.  Thinking strength of God, 'Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God,’ II Cor. 3:5.  We apostles, we saints that have habitual grace, yet this lies like water at the bottom of a well, which will not ascend with all our pumping till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it comes.  To will is more than to think, to exert our will into action more than both. 

 These are of God: 'For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,’ Php. 2:13.  He makes the heart new, and having made it fit for heavenly motion, setting every wheel, as it were, in its right place, then he winds it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheel: 'to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not,’ Rom. 7:18.  God is at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top also, the Author and Finisher, yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round, in his ascent to any holy action.  Well, now the Christian is set on work, how long will he keep close to it?  Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand that empowered him at first.  He hath soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course, there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment, which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their free-will offering declared the same, yet even then he prays, that God would 'keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and prepare their heart unto him,’ I Chron. 29:18.

He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearls newly strung on hearts might not slip off.  The Christian, when fullest of divine communications, is but a glass without a foot, he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand.  Therefore, Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Father's care of them in his absence.  'Father, keep them,’ John 17:11; as if he had said, they must not be left alone, they are poor shiftless children, that can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of thy eye or arms but one moment; and therefore, 'Father, keep them.’

Christian Courage and Resolution —How Obtained

[Christian courage and resolution—how obtained.]

             Now, Christian, if thou meanest thus courageously to bear up against all opposition, in the march to heaven, as thou shouldst do well to raise thy spirit with such generous and soul-ennobling thoughts, so in an especial manner look thy principles be well fixed, or else thy heart will be unstable, and an unstable heart is weak as water, it cannot excel in courage.  Two things are required to fix our principles.

             First.  An established judgement in this truth of God.  He that knows not well what or whom he fights for [may] soon be persuaded to change his side, or at least stand neuter.  Such may be found that go for professors, that can hardly give an account what they hope for, or whom they hope in; yet Christians they must be thought, though they run before they know their errand; or if or if they have some principles they go upon, they are so unsettled that every wind blows them down, like loose tiles from the house top.  Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of waves.  'The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits,’ Dan. 11:32.  The angel told Daniel who were the men that would stand to their tackling, and bear up for God in that hour, both of temptation and persecution, which should be brought upon them by Antiochus; [that] not all the Jews, but some of them, should be corrupted basely by flatteries, others scared by threats out of their profession; only a few of fixed principles, who knew their God whom they served, and were grounded in their religion, these should be strong, and do exploits: that is, to flatteries they should be incorruptible, and to power and force unconquerable.

             Second.  A sincere aim at the right end of our profession.  Let a man be never so knowing in the things of Christ, if his aim is not right in his profession, that man's principles will hang loose; he will not venture much or far for Christ, no more, no further than he can save his own stake.  A hypocrite may show some mettle at hand, some courage for a spurt in conquering some difficulties; but he will show himself a jade at length.  He that hath a false end in his profession, will soon come to an end of his pro­fession when he is pinched on that toe where his corn is—I mean, called to deny that [which] his naughty heart aimed at all this while.  Now his heart fails him, he can go no farther.  O take heed of this squint eye to our profit, pleasure, honour, or anything beneath Christ and heaven; for they will take away your heart, as the prophet saith of wine and women, that is, our love, and if our love be taken away, there will be little courage left for Christ.  How courageous was Jehu at first, and he tells the world it is zeal for God!  But why doth his heart fail him then, before half his work is done? 

 His heart was never right set; that very thing that stirred up his zeal at first, at last quenched and cowed it, and that was ambition.  His desire of a kingdom made him zealous against Ahab's house, to cut off them who might in time jostle him besides the throne: which done, and he quietly settled, he dare not go through stitch with God's work, lest he should lose what he got by provoking the people with a thorough reformation.  Like some soldiers [who] when once they meet with a rich booty at the sacking of some town, are spoiled for fighting ever after.