true faith and fear of God, and so walk directly in the way to bliss, then he endeavours to obstruct, or at least disturb them in their course, he works upon the humours of their bodies, whereby to affect their minds; he raiseth mists before their eyes, that they may not look upon things in their proper colours; he corrupts their fancies, so as to make all things seem black and melancholy to them; he interrupts and distracts them in their duties; he suggests sometimes unclean, sometimes profane, sometimes blasphemous, and atheistical thoughts into their minds, and all to make their lives useless and unserviceable to God, or at least uneasy and uncomfortable to themselves, as many here present, I believe, have found by their woeful experience, by which means you are always full of fears and doubts about your spiritual estate, and are so mightily troubled and discomposed in your minds, that you expect every day to be overcome by this your potent and malicious adversary, and to be carried" captive by him at his will."

[2 Tim. 2. 26.]

32.

But let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Jesus Christ, who is infinitely more above the Devil in knowledge and power, than you are below him; do but believe and trust on Him; and the "gates of [Matt. 16. 18.] Hell shall never prevail against you;" but whatsoever [1 Cor. 10. 13.] temptations fall upon you, He will make a way for your escape. This we learn from His own mouth, where He saith to St. Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath de- Luke 22.31, sired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." From whence we may observe, that the Devil could do St. Peter no hurt, unless his faith failed, that our Lord had taken care that his faith should not fail, and by consequence, that the Devil should no way hurt him, as he afterwards found by experience: and therefore the same Apostle directs all Christians to take the same course whensoever they are tempted, for having acquainted them that the Devil goes about "seeking whom Pet. 5. 9. he may devour," he adds, "whom resist steadfast in the faith." Implying, that so long as they continued steadfast in the faith of Christ, all the power of Hell could never prevail against them, and that is the reason why St. Paul

SERM. calls it the "shield of faith," because by it we are able to Eph. 6. 16. quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

9.

XLII.

Now that faith which is thus prevalent against the Devil, is not only a belief that the Gospel is true in general, but a firm trust and confidence in our Blessed Saviour to save and defend us from our "ghostly enemies," which He will certainly do, if we thus believe in Him and apply ourselves to Him, to do it for us, as we see in that remarkable instance of St. Paul, who when he was buffeted by a messenger of 2 Cor. 12. 8, Satan, "For this thing," saith he, "I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me; and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made. perfect in weakness." Where we may observe, how ready our Lord was to assist him: and that He did it most effectually, appears from the following words, where the Apostle saith, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He was so far from sinking under the sense of his infirmities, that he gloried in them, as being the occasion of his receiving more power from Christ, than he could ever have had from himself in his best estate.

And none of you but may find the same by your own experience, if you will but take the same course; whensoever you are assaulted with any sort of temptations whatsoever, be not disheartened at them, let not your hearts be troubled, but believe in Christ, act your trust and confidence on Him, and He will soon either make the tempter to flee from you, or else put such power into you, whereby you shall be able not only to withstand his temptations, but receive extraordinary benefit and comfort from them, so as to turn them into matter of glory and triumph. But by reason of the infirmity of your nature, the relics of sin within you, and the manifold temptations you meet with in the world, you find by sad experience, that notwithstanding the assistance you receive from God's grace and Holy Spirit, yet you cannot exactly observe every punctilio of the Moral Law, nor so much as do any one good work so perfectly as that law requires but do what you can, there is so much imperfection, so many defects in the best work you do, that it cannot in itself be termed good, nor by consequence acceptable unto God,

as not corresponding in every point with His commands. And this is that which troubles you more than all the rest, that when you have done what you can, you still come short of what you ought to do: and God may justly be displeased with you, for the best as well as for the worst actions of your whole life.

It is very true; yet howsoever, "let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Jesus Christ," who hath taken care of this, as well as of any thing else that concerns your Salvation by Him; for He having performed not only perfect, but Divine obedience to the whole law in our nature, God is pleased to overlook the defects of our obedience, and for His sake to accept of it, if it be but sincere, as well as if it was absolutely perfect. This we learn, as from the whole design and tenor of the Gospel, so particularly from that remarkable passage of St. Peter, where speaking to all Christians, he saith, "Ye also, as 1 Pet. 2. 5. lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." From whence it is plain, that although our sacrifices or good works be lame and imperfect, yet if they be but spiritual and sincere, they are acceptable to God, not in themselves, but by Jesus Christ; by which means God "makes us perfect in every good work, to do His will, Heb. 13.21. working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ." And therefore whether you pray or praise God, or hear His Holy Word, or receive His blessed Sacrament, or give an alms to the poor, or whatsoever you do in obedience to God's commands, do but sincerely endeavour to do it as well as you can, and trust on Christ for God's acceptance of it, and then you may be confident that He will accept of it, and be as well pleased with it, as if it was every way as perfect as it ought to be; which is certainly a matter of as great joy to a sincere Christian as any one thing besides in the whole Gospel.

Now from these things thus put together, ye may easily see both the certainty and universality of the means which our Saviour here prescribes for the keeping our hearts from being troubled, which therefore we ought to use upon all occasions: but lest any of you should neglect or not use it

XLII.

SERM. aright, give me leave to apply it to you all. You have all, I dare say, your troubles of one sort or other; now of what kind soever they are, apprehend our blessed Saviour as present with you, as He really is, and that you hear Him repeating these words to you, as He really doth by the mouth of His unworthy servant, saying, "Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Do ye meet with many crosses and disappointments in the world? Are your bodies sick or weak? Your fortunes low? And your hopes of ever mending them, little or none at all? Are your children undutiful, your relations unkind, and your enemies powerful and malicious? "Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me, and I will so order it, that all these things shall work together for your good."

Are you apprehensive of any public calamities that may befall the Church or kingdom in which you live, or of any private adversity that may happen to yourselves or families? Are you in danger of losing your estates, your liberty, your life, or that which is dearer to you, your good name and reputation in the world? "Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me," and I will take care as of My Church in general, so of every true member of it, that none of them who trust on Me may be confounded. Are ye sensible of the greatness of your sins, the weakness of your graces, the strength of the Devil's temptations, or the imperfection of your own duties and good works? It is well ye are so howsoever, "Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me: in My Father's house are many mansions. If it was not, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go, I will come [Rev. 22. again and receive you to Myself," &c. Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Amen.

[John 14. 1-3.]

20.]

66

SERMON XLIII.

FAITH THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE AND JOY.

1 PET. i. 8.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

THERE is nothing that we know more certainly in this world, than that we know nothing certainly of the other, but what we are taught by God Himself; for that not being the object of our senses, we can receive no information from them about it; and as for our reason, we all experience the truth of what we read in the Book of Wisdom, "That we Wisd. 9. 16. hardly guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labour find the things that are before us or at hand." But then, as it there follows, "The things that are in Heaven, who hath searched out?" None certainly but they who looked for them in the Holy Scriptures, where God Himself hath revealed them to us, and thereby hath given us a more certain knowledge of them than we can have of any thing else; for all our other knowledge comes either by our senses, or reason, or by the testimony of other men; all which ways are fallible, we find them to be so by our own experience, but so is not the Word of God; what He saith we are sure is true, as being spoken by Him who cannot lie; and this seems to be the great reason why He Himself was graciously pleased to acquaint us with all things belonging to our everlasting peace, that we might not be left at such uncertainties about them as we are about other things, but might have all the assurance that could be given us of them, and accordingly