Faith

faith, if it be in exercise, will put every soul in whom it is upon an especial attendance unto those duties God calls him unto in such a season. This accomplishes and completes our living by faith under such a trial as this is. If faith be in us, and in exercise, it will put us upon all these duties that God requires of us in such a season:— 1st. It will put us upon self-examination, how far we ourselves are engaged in these decays, and have contracted the guilt of them. 2dly. It will put us upon great mourning, by reason of God’s withdrawing himself from us. 3dly. It will put us upon watchfulness over ourselves, and over one another, that we be not overtaken by the means and causes of these decays. 4thly. It will put us upon zeal for God and the honour of the gospel, that it may not suffer by reason of our miscarriages. In one word, faith will do something; but for our parts, we do little or nothing. Faith will do something, I say, wherever it is, when it is stirred up to exercise; but as to these special duties, in reference to these decays that all professors are fallen under,—O how little is it we do in any kind whatever! Would we might advise with one another what to do under these decays,—to further one another in recovering ourselves from them! This, then, is what we are called to, and is required of us,—namely, faith in the faithfulness of Christ, who hath built his church upon the rock, [so] that, be things never so bad, it shall not be prevailed against;—faith in the fulness of the Spirit, and his promise to send him to renew the face of the church; faith in apprehending the truth of God, who hath foretold these things; and faith putting us upon those especial duties that God requires at our hands in such a season.