In the next place I shall prescribe, A Zealous and Incessant Sollicitation at the Throne of Grace, for Power to subdue this stubborn Vice. This Second Advice St. James seems to suggest to (James 4. 7, 8) us in these words, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you; and he immediately adds these, Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you. And truly men presume too much, when they imagine those treacherous natural Forces of their own, are able to redeem that Spiritual Liberty they were unable to defend; and then they lose their best advantages, when their omissions of applying themselves to their Maker, makes them neglect Supplies infallibly victorious, which wait but the imploring, to advance to their rescue. Cease not then with Moses to lift up your hands to Heaven, till you1 have thereby discomfited and destroy’d these spiritual Amalekites, your Vices: And believe it, Prayer (to use a Term of Physick) is a Specifick Remedy against this Disease, and deserves that among all the Weapons proper for this Warfare, you should say that of it, that David said of huge Goliah’s Sword, There is none like (1 Sam. 21. 9) that, give it me.
For Prayer perform’d with those due Rites its Object requires in it, gives us such awful sentiments of God’s Holy Name, that our Conscience will not in a short while after permit us to dispense with the usurping it in vain. And thus this sacred Duty does not only procure, but in a manner give us what we pray for: As when some squeamish and disrelish’d person takes a long walk to the Physician’s Lodging to beg some remedy for his Inappetence, his very walking thither does in some measure give him that good Stomach he hopes to regain by the Medicines he shall get there.
But if in your first attempts this Sin meet with a success more answerable to your fears than your desires, be not discourag’d at it, but make of this delay the use it is intended for, a Rise of greater eagerness and importunity in the pursuit of your addresses. Nor think it strange, that God should make you wait a while for the grant of your requests, that have been so tediously refractory to the Motions of his Spirit, that summon’d your obedience to his commands. But lose not Patience, for the wish’d supply will infallibly arrive at last, and all your expectation will but serve to endear it when receiv’d; for God will not be wanting with his Power to assist what is undertaken only for his Glory.
Nor is it less our duty to trust in his Promises, than to obey his Commands; and we may confidently expect from his Faithfulness to the one, what he will enable our endeavours to perform the other. The great Apostle tells us, that the same God will give us to will, that worketh in us to do: (Phil. 2. 13) And therefore you may be confident, that (as he elsewhere speaks) he which hath begun a good work in you, (Phil. 1. 6) will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And on this score our Saviour, who entails happiness only to the godly, does yet pronounce them blessed, that hunger and thirst (Mat. 5. 6) after righteousness, promising that they shall be satisfied. Thus he that graciously accepts the will for the deed, counts good desires but Infant Holiness, as things that differ from more perfect Graces, not in their Nature, but their (Age and) Growth.
In the mean time, let this Consideration comfort you, That those sins displease God least, that displease the Doer most: And that in this our Combats against sins are differenc’d from our Battels amongst men; that in the former the Victory depends not so much on our Success as our Resistance; since none are there held vanquish’d, but submitters. And for your further comfort, you may take each Victory Grace wins of your Corruptions, not only for a Preparative to new ones, but an Earnest of more. For the Conquests of Saving Grace in the Soul are not like those the Sea makes upon the Strand, when it makes Acquisitions by the Flow, but to lose them again within few hours by the Ebb: But the Expeditions of the Spirit against Vices, are like those of the Crown’d Rider of the White Horse in the Revelation, of whom it is said, (Rev. 6. 2) That he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
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Footnotes
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Exod. 13. 11, &c. ↩