What methods should a Christian use in the battle of spiritual warfare to defy the enemy and vanquish him? Bring your lusts under the rule of your reason. Will you let your silly lists abuse you and become a traitor to your soul? Will you allow your passions to rise in arms and grow unruly? Let your reason arise and take its place as master. What a silly thing is man in a passion. Nothing is more ridiculous or contemptible. If your lust overcomes reason, bid your conscience do its work, and look to Scripture for support. If the love of God's commands will not restrain you, let the terrors and thunders of his threats persuade you. Draw the curtain of your heart open, and show it God's majesty and ask if it realizes that he is looking on. Tell your heat again and again that God will not be mocked. Seek to draw the stream of your lusts in a different direction. If it is vain-glory in the applause of men, think how ridiculous it would be for a criminal to please himself in the esteem of his fellow prisoners and forget how guilty he is before the judge. If these manes do not help, fall instantly to prayer. Throw yourself at his feet. Tell him you will not rise until he has given you a token for good. Perhaps sometimes you might add fasting with your prayer. When you have done this, rise up and buckle up the shield of faith. Clothe your soul with a heroic confidence in the power and faithfulness of your God, and in the name and majesty of the Lord of hosts to make battle with your lusts. God never fails the eyes of them that look up to him. His people will never be ashamed to hope in him. His name is a strong tower. Cast your care upon him and expect the same pity that Jabesh-Gilead found from Soul: 'Tomorrow by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance" (1 Sam. 11:9).
John Gibbon, Puritan Sermons 1659-1689, 1:101-107, Voices from the Past, Richard Rushing, ed., Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, pg. 84.
What a very powerful and convicting quote. Thank you for sharing it.
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