Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren, that are in the world....1 Pet. v. 9. I HAD no sooner wrote this text, but was constrained to say, blessed be God for his holy scriptures. My poor mind has been often perplexed and distressed with sore attacks of satan; hence have been ready to call in question my state; have been almost brought to conclude, that if I was a member of Christ and a child of God, surely he would not suffer the enemy to his glory and my peace thus to tempt, buffet, and distress my soul: am persuaded this is not my case only: all the brethren of Christ are subject to the same perplexity, from the same cause. Satan gains an advantage over us, for want of knowing and considering what the apostle here lays down: it is a fixed truth; all the brethren of the Lord Jesus are subject to the same trials and afflictions from satan, one as well as another: therefore we should not be surprised nor staggered by them. Instead of thinking it strange, or asking, why does the Lord suffer it so to be? Peter tells us how to act: satan will attack you all through this life: it is a warfare; therefore be on your guard; RESIST HIM; give back not an inch; give way not a moment; indulge not the least sin; resist his first motion of temptation; oppose his every artful device; stand against his every subtle wile, STEDFAST, undismayed at them, undaunted by them, however horrible and devilish: the more they are so, the more easily known from whom they come. IN THE FAITH, honor your Lord's heavenly truths; oppose them to satan's hellish lies; bring your Lord's precious promises against satan's vile suggestions; stand stedfast to, thus it is written; thus I believe; thus I will honor my Lord's word. Never, never let go that faithful saying, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save SINNERS." Glory in this; hold up this as your shield against all the fiery darts of the devil: with all his infernal injections he can make no worse of you than a SINNER; this you own; yea, and that you deserve hell and damnation too for your sins: but in the faith of Jesus you are a saved, justified, pardoned sinner: there is no condemnation against you, an adopted Son of God. Stand fast in this faith; abide stedfast by this truth; glory in your Lord for it; give him the glory of it; in the confidence of it" resist the devil, and he will flee from you."....James iv. 8. Brethren, it is our common lot, With satan to engage; Stand in the strength of Christ thy Think what a pow'rful Lord we've got, Stedfast in faith, he'll help afford: Christ's victory is thine. His name shall be called Counsellor....Isa. ix. 6. us. LITIGIOUS spirits are fond of law. Paul absolutely forbids the brethren of Christ going to law one with another....1 Cor. vi. Among other reasons, this is the greatest; they are concerned in a suit which will last their whole lives, and which requires all their time and attention. Though their cause has been tried again and again; though they have gained cause after cause; yet their adversary continues as litigious as ever: he is continually accusing them and preferring fresh bills of indictment against them: he sets the world upon us; he stirs up the flesh in us; he brings heinous charges against us; he is the accuser of the brethren before God and to our own consciences night and day....Rev. xii. 10. Have you heard nothing from satan your adversary and accuser this day? If you have be not dejected: let him accuse, say, and do his worst; it is our unspeakable comfort, we have a wonderful counsellor; he pleads our cause before the throne of justice above; he pleads within us in the court of conscience: he counsels and advises us by his word and Spirit; his true and righteous pleadings for us shall prevail over all satan's accusations against Would you wish your cause in better hands? Never attempt to take it out of his: continually consult him: leave all to him: for, consider, 1st. Jesus in the eternal council voluntarily, unsought and unasked, stood forth and engaged to be our counsellor; like a generous counsellor in a court, seeing the poverty of an arraigned prisoner; freely, without money or price, undertakes to plead his cause. O wonderful love! O kind compassion! 2d. He is a WONDERFUL counsellor for though law and justice condemn, yet he obtains an acquittal in court for all his clients, Most wonderful in his plea. Not our innocence, sincerity, goodness, &c. no; he owns our guilt and vileness; he pleads his own work for us; the blood he shed for our sins; his obedience unto the law for our justification; and his sufferings for our salvation. JUSTICE says I am satisfied, I forgive them. TRUTH records the sentence. MERCY declares, I will savé them. 3d. O wonderful counsellor! It is sinners, none but sinners thou pleadest for: for this my soul loves thee: God be merciful to me a sinner! This is ever my plea. I take it up. Lord shew me from law and justice that thou art just, whilst thou justifies the un godly. Desperate as my case is, may I ever flee to thee, and ever consult thee; "Thou hast the words of eternal life."....John vi. 68. Jesus is our God and Saviour, Trust him, he will not deceive us, Men ought always to pray and not to faint....Luke xviii. 1. THEN there can be no room for despair; for prayer exports wants and imports blessings: but our dear Lord knows there is in us all at times a backwardness to prayer; this he would remove it arises from fainting, this he would prevent; therefore he opposes praying to fainting, for fainting prevents praying. Have you not found it so? When weary and faint in your mind, when your spirits are oppressed, your frame low and languid, you have thought this is not a time for prayer: yea, but it is: pray ALWAYS. Now sigh out the burden of your heart and the sorrows of your spirit :"now, though in broken accents, breathe your complaints into your Father's ear: now cry to him who loveth you and careth for you with the love and care of the most tender and affectionate father. What makes us faint? Do troubles and afflictions? Here is a reviving cordial: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."....Psalm 1. 15. Does a body of sin and death? Here is a supporting promise: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, shall be saved."....Rom. x. 13. Do we faint because we have called and prayed again and again to the Lord against any besetting sin, prevailing temptation, rebellious lust, or evil temper, and yet the Lord has not given victory over it? Still, says the Lord, pray ALWAYS: persevere; be importunate; faint not; remember that blessed word, "my time is not yet come: but your time is always ready."....John vii. 6. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation."....Matt. xxvi. 41. Note the difference between being tempted and entering into temptation. We are assured in due time, we shall reap, if we faint not....Gal. vi. 9. Do we find the spirit willing, but the flesh weak? and because of our coldness, deadness, and langour in prayer, do we faint? You cannot pray to please yourself: you think your prayers are irksome to God; and therefore do you faint and are ready to give over praying? Look at David; he begins to pray in a very heartless, hopeless way. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever, &c. See how he concludes; he breaks out in full vigour of soul; "I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me."....Psalm xiii. 6. Above all, look to Jesus, who ever lives to pray for you: look for his Spirit to help your infirmities....Rom. viii. 26. [you faint Pray'r is the work of strongest saints, Always pray....soul, why should {ness; Know I'm thy strength and righteous- Now abideth faith, hope and charity....1 Cor. xiii. 13. Leave the vain notions WHERE do these graces abide? In regenerate hearts. What is faith? A precious grace: the gift of God to miserable sinners. Lord give us the comfort of it to-night. Say some, faith is an assurance that my sins are pardoned; that Christ loved ME and gave himself for ME: indeed it is not. No one has faith without this assurance; if they have it not they are in a state of wrath, say some: this is false. This notion has blown up many with vain fancy, while it has distressed sincere souls without reason. Many who contend for this assurance of faith, believe a lie with it; for they say, those whom Christ hath so loved as to die for, and whose sins are now forgiven, may at last perish: such an assurance is not worth a straw this is not the faith of God's elect; for it gives the lie to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith it contradicts his double oath, "VERILY VERILY, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life."....John vi. 47. of such; look into the word of God for the true nature of faith: it is neither more nor less than a belief of God's word; giving credit to God for what he speaks therein; "believing on his Son Jesus Christ according to his commandment.".... 1 John iii. 23. Dost thou believe thus in thine heart? Then faith abides there. Consider, there is faith, and "the furtherance and joy of faith."....Phil. i. 25. If you have faith, though but as a grain of mustard-seed, you will SEE Christ is precious to you a miserable sinner; you will RECEIVE him as the most inestimable gift of God, to save you a lost sinner; you will Go to him, as the one object of your hope, and the chief desire of your soul; you will RELY on his death, as the only atonement for your sins, and trust in his righteousness alone to justify you; you will LAY HOLD on him, as the only refuge for your guilty soul; you will LIVE UPON HIM, that you may find joy and peace in him, and grow up into him in all things; you will GLORY of, and in him alone, saying, “God forbid I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus."....Gal. vi. 14. Hence you will grow out of conceit with yourself, dead to sin, dead to your own righteousness, and dead to the world. This, this is the faith of the operation of God, which lives and abides in new-born souls: "In thus believing, we may be fully assured, God will fill us with all joy and peace.". Rom. xv. 13. Father, I bless thee for the gift Let precious faith în Christ abide,, M Now abideth hope....1 Cor. xiii. 13. GOSPEL faith and christian hope are twin graces in the heart; they are inseparable. Faith exists not without hope: hope has not being without faith. Such as a man's faith is, such is his hope: they both flow from God's word, as light and heat from the sun. Take away a word spoken, and faith has no being. Without a promise made, hope has no existence. Faith receives and takes pos session of Christ, as set forth in the word. Hope expects all pro mised blessings, comforts and joys in him, with him, and from him, according to the word; "the word of God liveth and abideth for ever.".... Pet. i. 23. Jesus who is the essential word, "is our hope.". ....1 Tim. i. 1. He is the cause of our hope, the object of our hope, and the life of our hope. Therefore our hope abideth: yea, though all in nature fails, all in sense forsakes us, and all as to outward appearances are against us; though satan raises storms and tempests; though corruptions rage and foam, and lift up their boisterous waves; though like Paul we are in the great deep, and see neither sun, moon, nor stars for a season, yet hope abideth: for Jesus the object of hope lives. The grace of hope cannot perish: it is an anchor to the soul it keeps it sure and steady: why? Because it is not cast within us, but without us: what a foolish mariner would he be, who should think his vessel would ride safe and steady against wind and tide because he had an anchor on board? Just as foolish are those professors who cast the anchor of hope within themselves, on their own graces, inherent righteousness as it is called, &c. Why,, as the sea phrase is, the anchor will come home; it will not hold the vessel; there is no ground for it to fasten in: but the christian's hope, "entereth into that within the vail."....Heb. vi. 19. Into heaven itself; it fixes and fastens upon Jesus, who has entered into heaven FOR us, As by faith we receive the atonement of Christ for our sins, and trust in his righteousness for our justification, so hope looks for and expects the heart-reviving, soul-sanctifying, comforts of this from the Holy Spirit in time, and all the glory and blessedness which Jesus hath by his life and death obtained for us in an endless eternity, Faith has to do with things invisible to sense., God's truth is the foundation of faith; faith keeps hope in lively exercise, "looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."....Tit. ii. 13. Thy word, O God, begot my faith, Thy word is truth, thy promise sure, |