The Believer's Principles Concerning Faith and Sense

The Believer’s Principles concerning Faith and Sense.

1. Of Faith and Sense natural.

2. Of Faith and Sense spiritual.

3. The Harmony and Discord between Faith and Sense.

4. The Valour and Victories of Faith.
.0. The Heights and Depths of Sense.

6’. Faith and Frames compared; or, Faith building upon Sense discovered.

SECT. I.

Faith and Sense natural, compared and distinguished*

“^VaiEN Abram’s body, Sarah’s womb,

Were ripe for nolhing but the tomb,
Exceeding old, and wholly dead,
Unlike to bear the promised seed:

Faith said, M I shall an Isaac see j”

4i No, no,” said Sense, “it cannot be -,”

Blind Reason to augment the strife,

Adds, “How can death engender life?”

My heart is like a rotten tomb,
More dead than ever Sarah’* womb;
O! can the promised seed of grace
Spring forth from such a barren place?

Sense gazing but on flinty rocks,
My hope and expectation chokes:
But could I skill’d in Abram’s art,
O’erlook my dead and barren heart;
And build my hope on nothing less
Than divine powV and faithfulness;
Soon would 1 iind him raise up sons.
To Abram, out of rocks and stones.

Faith acts as busy boatmen do,
Who backward look and forward row;
It looks intent on things unseen,
Thinks objects visible too mean.

Sense thinks it madness thus to steer, And only trusts its eye and ear; Into faith’s boar dare thrust its oar, And put it further from the shore.

Faith does alone the promise eye;
Sense won’t believe m;, ss -ee;
Nor can it trust the diviqeguide,
Unless it have both wind and tide.

Faith thinks the promise sure and good; Sense doth depend on likelihood:

i ev’u in storms believes the seers: Sense rails all men, ev’n prophets, liars. Faith us. s mean-, but rests on none:

9C fails when out.uar d means are gone; Tru! on probability s,

Than all the divine prom -

It rests upon the rusty beam
Of outward things that hopeful seem;
Let these its supports sink or cease,
No promise then can yield it peace.

True faith that’s of a divine brood,
Consults not with base flesh and blood:
But carnal sense which ever err
With carnal reason still confers.

What! my disciples won’t believe
That I am risen from the grave?
Why will they pore on dust and death,
And overlook my quick’ning breath?

Why do they slight the word I spake?
And rather sorry counsel take
With death, and with a pow’rful grave,
If they their -captive can relieve?

Sense does inquire if tombs of clay
Can send their guests alive away;
But faith will hear Jehovah’s word,
Of life and death the sov’reign Lord.

Should I give ear to rotten dust,
Or to the tombs confine my trust;
No resurrection can I see,
For dust that flies into mine eye.

What! Thomas, can’t thou trust so much To me as to thy sight and touch? Won’t thou believe till Sense be guide, And thrust its hand into my side?

Where is thy faith, if it depends
On nothing but thy finger-ends?
Butbless’d are they the truth who seat
By faith, yet neither see nor feel.

SECT, II.

Faith and Sense spiritual, compared and distinguished. Where also the Dijj’trenee between the Assurance of Faith and the Assurance of Sense,

The certainty of faith and sense

Wide differ in experience:

Faith builds upon, — Thus saith the Lord;

Sense views his work and not his word.

God’s word without is faith’s resort.

His work within doth sense support.

By faith we trust him without * pawns, * pledges

By sense wre handle with our hands.

By faith the word of truth’s receiv’d,
By sense we know we have believ’d.
Faith’s certain by fiducial acts,
Sense by its evidential facts.

Faith credits the divine report,
Sense to his breathings makes resort r
That on his word of grace will hing,
This on his Spirit witnessing.

By faith I take the Lord for mine,
By sense I feel his love divine:
By that I touch his garment’s hem,
By this find virtue thence to stream.

By faith I have mine all on band,
By sense I have some stock in hand:
By that some vision is begun,
By this I some fruition win.

My faith can fend * ev’n in exile, * fee&i

St nse cannot live without a smile.
By faith I to his promise fly,
By sense I in his bosom lie.

Faith builds upon the truth of God,
That lies within the promise broad;

884 fJOSPEL SONNETS.

But sense upon the truth pfrace
His hand within my heart did place.

Thus Christ’s the object faith will eye,, And faith’s the object sense may see: Faith keeps the truth of God in view. AVhile sense the truth of faith may shew.

Hence faith’s assurance firm can stand,
When sense’s in the deep may strand;
And faith’s persuasion full prevail,
When comfortable sense may fail.

I am assur’d when faith’s in act,
Though sense and feeling both I lack;
And thus mysterious is my lot,
I’m oft assur’d when I am not;

Oft piere’d with racking doubts and fears:
Yet faith these brambles never bears:
But unbelief that cuts my breath,
And stops the language of my faith..

Clamours of unbelieving fears,
So frequently disturbs mine ears,
I cannot hear what faith would say,
Till once the noisy clamours stay.

And then will fresh experience find,
When faith gets leave to speak its mind,
The native language whereof is,
My Lord is mine, and I am his.

Sad doubtings compass me about,
Yet faith itself could never doubt;
For, as the sacred volume saith,
Much doubtings argues little faith.
The doubts and fears that work my grief,
Flow not from faith, but unbelief;
For faith, whene’er it acteth, cures
The plague of doubts, and me assures.
But when mine eve of faith’s asleep,
I dream of drowning in the deep:

*HE BELIEVERS PRINCIPLES. 2S*

But as befals the sleeping eye,
Though sight remain it cannot see;

The seeing faculty abides,
Though sleep from active seeing hides;
So faith’s assuring pow’rs endure
Ev’n when it ceases to assure.

There still persuasion in my faith, Ev’n when I’m fitl’d with fears of wrath; The trusting habit still remains, Though slumbers hold the act in chains.

The assuring faculty it keeps,
Ev’n when its eye in darkness sleeps,
Wrapt up in doubts; but when it wakes,
It rouses up assuring acts.

SECT. III.

The Harmony and Discord between Faith and Sense; how theyhefpi and how they mar each ot/oer.

Though gallant Faith can keep the field When cowardly Sense will fly or yield; Yet while I view their usual path, Sense often stands and falls with Faith.

Faith ushers in sweet peace and Joy, Which further heartens Faith’s employ: Faith like the head, and Sense the heart, Do mutual vigour fresh impart. When lively Faith and Feeling sweet, Like dearest darlings, kindly meet, They straight each other help and hug in loving friendship close and snug. Faith gives to Sense both life and breath, And S 5J°y and strength to Faith;

M O now,” says Faith, “how fond do I
“In S< os< ls glowing bosom lie 1”

Their mutual kindness then is such,
That oft they doting too too much,

By faith my melting soul repents,
When pierced Christ appears;

My heart in grateful praises vents,
Mine eyes in joyful tears.

By faith I can the mountains vast

Of sin and guilt remove;
And them into the ocean cast,

The sea of blood and love.

By faith I see Jehovah high

Upon a throne of grace;
I see him lay his vengeance by,

And smile in Jesus’ face.

By faith I hope to see the Sun,
The light of grace that lent:

His everlasting circles run,
In glory’s firmament.

By faith I’m more than conqueror,

Ev’n though I nothing can;
Because 1 set Jehovah’s povv’r

Before me in the. van.

By faith I counterplot my foes,

Nor need their ambush fear:
Because my life-guard also goes

Behind me in the rear.

By faith I walk, I run, I fly,

By faith I sulfer thrall;
By faith I’m fit to live and die,

By faith lean do all.

sect. v.

The Heights and Depths of Sense.

When Heav’n me grants, at certain time*,

Amidst a pow’rful gale,
Sweet liberty to moan my crimes

And wand’ rings to bevvaiU

Then do I dream my sinful brood,

Drown’d in the ocean main
Of chrystal tears and crimson blood,

Will never live again.

I get my foes beneath my feet,

I bruise the serpent’s head;
I hope the vict’ry is complete,

And all my lusts are dead*

How gladly do I think and say,

When thus it is with me,
Sin to my sense is clean away,

And so shall ever be?

But, ah! alas! th’ ensuing hour

My lusts arise and swell,
They rage and reinforce their pow’r,

With new recruits from hell.

Though I resolv’d and swore, through grace.

In very solemn terms,
I never should my lusts embrace.

Nor yield unto their charms;

Yet such deceitful friends they are,

While I no danger dream,
I’m snar’d before 1 am aware,

And hurry’d down the stream.

Into the gulpb of sin anon,

Tm plunged head and ears;
Grace to my sense is wholly gone,

And I am chain’d in fears;

Till straight, my Lord, with sweet surprisef

Returns to loose my bands,
With kind compassion in his eyes,

And pardon in his hands.

Yet thus my life is nothing else
But heav’n and hell by turns;

My soul that now in Goshen dwells.
Anon in Egypt mourns.

SECT. VI.

Faith and Frames compared: or, Faith building upon Sense discovered.

Faith has for its foundation broad

A stable rock on which I sand,
“The truth and faithfulness of God,

All other grounds are sinking sand.

My frames and feel in s ebb and flow;

And when my faith depends on them,
It fleets and staggers to and fro,

And dies amidst the dying frame.

That faith is surely most uus,:ay’d,

Its stagg’ring can’t be counted strange,

That builds its hope of lasting aid
On things that ev’ry moment change.

But could my faith lay all its load

On Jesus’ everlasting name,
Upon the righteousness of God,

And divine truth that’s still the same.:

Could I believe what God has spoke,

Rely on his unchanging love,
And cease to grasp at fleeting smoke,

No changes would my mountain move.

But when, how soon the frame ’s away,

And comfortable clings fail;
So soon my faith falls in decay*

And unbelieving doubts prevail:

ffllE believer’s principles, 291

This proves the charge of latent vice, And plain my faith’s defects may show;

I buiit nje house on thawing ice,

That tumbles with the melting snow.

When divine smiles in sight appear,

Ami I enjoy the heav’niy gale:
When wind and tide and all is fair,

I dream my faith shall never fail;

My he rt will false conclusions draw,
That strong my mountain shall remain;

That in my faith there is no flaw,
1*11 never never doubt again.

I think the only rest I take,

Is God’s unfading word and name;

And fancy not my faith so weak,
As e’er to trust a fading frame.

But, ah! by sudden turns I see

My lying heart’s fallacious guilt,
And that my faith, not firm in me,

On sinking sand was partly built:

For, lo: when warming beams are gone,

And shadows fall; alas, ’tis odd,
I cannot wait the rising Sun,

I cannot trust a hiding God.

So much my faith’s affiance seems

Its life from fadingjoys to bring,
That when I loose the d ing streams,

1 cannot trust the living spring.

When drops of comfort quickly dry’d,

And sensible enjoyments fail;
When cheering apples are deny’d,

Then doubts instead of faith prevail.

R 3

But why, though fruit be snatch’d from mef Should I distrust the glorious Root;

And still affront the standing tree,
By trusting more to falling fruit?

The smallest trials may evince
My faith unfit to stand the shock,

That more depends on fleeting sense,
Than on the fix’d eternal Rock.

The safest ark when floods arise,
Is stable truth that changes not;

How weak’s my faith, that more relies
On feeble sense’s floating boat?

For when the fleeting frame is gone, I straight my state in question call;

I droop and sink in deeps anon,
As if my frame were all in all.

3?ut though I miss the pleasing gale,

And heav’n withdraw the charming glance;

Unless J i rovah’s oath can fail,
My faith may keep its countenance.

The frame of nature shall decay,

Time-changes break her rusty chains;

Yea, heav’n and earth shall pass away; But faith’s foundation linn remains.

HeavVs promises so fix’d !y stand,

Ingrav’d with an immortal pen,

In great Immanuei’s mighty hand,

All hell’s attempts to raze are vain.

•*-

Did Faitlp with none but Truth advise, ul v quid ijipve no more, Than stable hils wjiep tempest rise,

Or solid rocks when billows roar-But when my faith the counsel hears

Of present sense and reason blind,
My wav’ring spirit then appears

A featbet toss’d with ev’ry wind.

Lame legs of faith unequal, crook:

Thus mine, alas! unevenly stand,
Else I would trust my stable Rock,

Xot fading frames and feeble sand.

I would, when dying comforts fly,
As much as when they present were,

Upon my living joy rely.

Help, Lord, for here I daily err.