Forty Sermons, Sermon 16
SERMON XVI. OF THE EVIDENCE of Faith.
2 Tim. 1. 12.
I know whom I have believed.
THE words do need no other explication than the reading the whole verse: it runs thus, For which cause (for the Gospel's sake) I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Let those that suffer for ill doing be abashed and troubled at it, I am neither asham'd of the Gospel, nor the least discourag'd by my sufferings, how great and ignominious soever for its sake, and for doing my duty in relation and obedience to it; for I trust and depend on one that will secure me, and will bless and crown my labors. That he wills and intends it I am sure, for he hath promis'd, and in what he hath promis'd I know he is faithful, and he is also able above all that I can ask or think; and consequently whatever in pursuance of his promise is entrusted to him, must be safe in his hands I am sure, for I know whom I have believed. So that the words direct us how to quiet and secure our selves in what estate soever affairs, whether publick or our own, are; namely in a close dependance upon God: and in the handling them I have but these three things to speak to.
1. Who this I is, I know; and in what respect qualified for such secure dependance.
2. What those cases are, wherein dependance do's admit such confident assurance, as is here express'd by the word know, I know.
3. Who this is on whom the person that is qualified thus does so depend, and upon what account, especially in relation to him, hath the man that does depend upon him such assurance that he can profess, I know whom I believe: to all which I shall make plain answers, and shall onelyonly give you God's word for them.
1. Who this I here is, I know? and in what respect, and how qualified? This I here is St Paul, whom I do not mean to speak of in that narrow notion as an Apostle, but as one in such circumstances as do make him fit to represent the state of any one that is qualified to commit all his concerns into God's hands with a perfect resignation and with full assurance. Now as to this, first it is certain every person is not qualified for such dependance, cannot trust on God, rely upon his promise, as not having any right that it should be fulfilled to him. No not where the promise being general, for example, made to the whole present body of a Nation, by consequence concerns most of the individual persons of that Nation, even there it may not be sure to them: and of this we have a pregnant instance Num. 14. 30. Doubtless ye shall not come into the Land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, and ye shall know my breach of promise, v. 34. And that very justly, they first having broke with him: for there being some, at least tacit, condition still implied in all such promises as well as threatnings, therefore as to one and the other God sets this down as a general rule in his proceedings, and not onelyonly with particular persons but with Nations, Jer. 18. 7, 8, 9, 10. as at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation, or concerning a Kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it, if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them: so whenever I shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them, that is will not do it. And accordingly the Prophet Daniel, tho it be said c. 9. 2. He understood by books the number of years, that God would after seventy years restore Jerusalem, yet saith Theodoret foreign, he did not stand still and expect the fulfilling of God's promise of it, but v. 3. sets his face to the Lord God to seek by praiers and supplications, with fasting, and sackloth, and ashes, as knowing foreign, tho he had promis'd it a thousand times, if we render our selves unworthy of it, foreign we put a bar against God's performance, do not suffer him to make it good: and in those solemn supplications and addresses to Almighty God thus he bespeaks him v. 4. O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; whereupon St Jerom saith, non ergo quod pollicetur Deus statim futurum est, sed in eos sua promissa implet, qui custodiunt mandata illius; what God does promise any, is not therefore sure to be fulfilled; those are they whom he performs with, who keep his Commandments. With the rest that do not but transgress, the Prophet Zachary in an emblem shews God's way of dealing c. 11. 10. And I took my staff, even beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people: and we see the real practice with that Nation for their wickednesses Neh. 9. from the 30th verse. Now this being thus in general declar'd that all men cannot trust God, we are therefore as to this particular person, this I here to find out how he was qualified for this dependance.
It is certain first that St Paul had bin a great Sinner, a Blasphemer, Persecutor and injurious person: 'tis true he says 1 Tim. 1. 13. he was so ignorantly, out of unbelief, he knew not nor believ'd that he did ill in doing what he did; yea more, he said that he liv'd in all good Conscience before God all that time also, had don nothing which he was not perswaded in his conscience that he ought to do. But altho this good conscience might prepare him for a readier and more sound conversion, than profane, presumtuous, habitual Sinners are dispos'd for; (for the will of such a one is true to God and right already, and you have but to remove the ignorance of his Understanding, a little better information must reform him, and will turn his persecuting and whatever other factious or injurious heats into true zeal, holy devout warmths, as it did in him,) yet while he was mistaken, that his good but erring conscience could not possibly excuse, much less could it sanctify his actions; 'twas injury, 'twas blasphemy and persecution, tho 'twas conscience, guilts these of a bloudy and deep scarlet, and this very conscientious man found cause to call himself the chief of Sinners v. 15.
Howbeit secondly he tells us v. 16. for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting; that in me the worst of men might have example and encouragement to depend upon him for eternal mercies, if they will but come in to him, he was pleas'd to shew me mercy, call me in the very flagrancy and execution of my crimes.
Whereupon, as he says thirdly, he not onelyonly was not disobedient to the Heavenly Calling, but (as if by owning himself chief of Sinners he had set himself a standard for his service, put upon himself an obligation to be chief of all Christ's Votaries) he became more laborious in his duty than all others; and particularly so sincere, faithful, resolute and constant, as nothing could remove him, neither opposition stop him, nor temtation divert him. Now it is this faithfulness, this being honest-hearted to Almighty God; 'tis the firmness of this purpose to go thro with duty in a constant tenor of obedience in whatever circumstance we are plac'd, whatever happens not to be allur'd nor frighted, neither biass'd nor forc'd out of it, with the consciencious pursuance of this resolution that particularly qualifies for this secure dependance upon God for success, it does dispose a man for perfect resignation of himself and full assurance. It was St Pauls case here, for this I suffer, saith he, (and indeed he liv'd almost in constant martyrdom) yet all this does not in the least discourage me, but by God's gracious assistance I will do my duty, come what can come. Now discerning himself thus resolv'd and thus assisted, he concludes that he hath ground enough for trust, for he that is thus faithful to him may trust on him; then he says, I know whom I have believed.
And that we may not think this is an instance solitary, in the third of Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar told the three Children, If ye worship not the Image I have set up, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter; if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King: but if not, (i. e. but if he would not) be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy Gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. The being conscious to themselves that they were thus resolv'd in earnest not to offend against the Lord, but to obey how dear soever their obedience cost them, and so casting themselves on him to do what he would with them, gave them confidence, made them know and say he would deliver them; and so he did. It is according to the measures of discerning the integrity and faithfulness of our own hearts that we assure our hearts before him, as St John expresseth 1 Epist. 3. 19. and then tells us, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things, v. 20. If we find not that sincerity within, if any thing be false there, if our conscience accuse us, our own hearts condemn us, 'tis most certain God will do so too, because he knows all those things of us that we can know of our selves. But if we truly cannot charge that insincerity upon our selves, we need not fear that God will charge us with the things we are not guilty of. No surely, as he there goes on, Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God, v. 21. And this is the confidence that we have towards him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him, c. 5. 14, 15. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, c. 3. 22. Thus by assuring their own hearts to God they know this, have this confidence towards him, i. e. have the trust and the dependance in the Text, which in what cases it admits this strong assurance, that is here exprest by the word know, is my next inquiry.
I know. Now by the last words it should seem as if in every case, in every thing that he can want or does desire, the person that is qualified so, had a ground to trust with full assurance. We know, saith St John, that whatsoever we ask we receive of him; and accordingly in all the Spiritual needs of the Thessalonians both in particular and as the Church, St Paul, when he had blest them and praied for them thus: The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. 5. 23. adds in the 24th …erse, Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. And here in this Epistle of himself he says, The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his Heavenly Kingdom, 2 Tim. 4. 18. Nor did good men want this confidence as to the things of this life; for in times of publick consternation, in the want of all things Habbakuk does thus assure himself c. 3. 16, 17, 18. When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quiver'd at the voice, rottenness entred into my bones, when he cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troops; but in that state he adds, Altho the Fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the Vines, the labor of the Olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The exstasy of trust, the rapture is too elegant and gay, too high and full of transport to admit of any descant. Holy Job went yet a little farther, Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in him, c. 13. 15. In a word at once, in whatsoever God hath promis'd, there the Faithful Christian hath a right to trust. I will not be so rude as to suppose my Auditors so unacquainted with the rich and precious Promises, those Christian Treasures, which God's Book is the Repository of, that I should need to mind them of them; and indeed to do it were to read a very great part of that Book. 'Tis sure in every case of every, whether publick or particular, real just concern, whether in temporal, spiritual, or eternal things, in some indeed more absolutely than in others, but in all these there are promises; and promises were made to be believ'd, and every faithful Christian that trusts to them, does know whom he hath believ'd.
But yet it cannot be denied, since God hath threatned Ezek. 14. 13, 14, &c. When a Land sinneth against him by transgressing grievously, then he will stretch out his hand against it; and if he say, sword, go thro the Land, and pour out fury upon it in bloud, and break the staff of bread thereof; he swears, tho Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should but deliver their own souls: then if we chance to see wickedness overspread a Nation, vice and profaness grown so universal and habitual, that 'tis almost natural; when impunity hath made it safe and upon that account familiar, and then familiar practice made it necessary, yea and great examples made it honorable, and by this all virtue is made mean and contemtible, and insolently domineer'd over or derided petulantly; when a people looks so like the thing God threaten'd so: 'tis hard to apply the promises of safety to it, or with confidence rely upon God for its preservation. And yet there is the resolution of a case so like this in the Prophet Micah c. 7. as is able to revive a dying hope, and give it vigor and security: Wo is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings of the Vintage, there is no cluster to eat: the good man is perished out of the Land, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for bloud, they hunt every every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands, the Prince asketh, and the Judg asketh for a reward, and the great man uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. The best of them is as a briar, the most upright sharper than a thorn-hedg: and then he adds, the day of visitation cometh, now shall be their perplexity; but he recollects himself and says, Therefore I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine Enimy, when I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. So that when we cannot hope well of the Commonwealth, yet we may hope in God still. And I pray you tell me whether way looks quieter and safer, hath more comfortable expectations, to confederate, make factions, lay plots, dark, somtimes illegal, and unjust contrivances, and sow the seeds of trouble and dissention, and think with these to carry all their own away, not enduring to submit to Providence, or be contented with God's dispensations, but will help him, as if he had need of such arts or instruments, and could not govern except his commands were broke: when 'tis certain such contrivances, if they do not thwart his counsels, (which if they comport not with, he laughs at and defeats,) yet they do his commands; and then he will punish them, however he may let them give a while some trouble. And then whether is this better, or to do our duty faithfully and trust God? when we are assur'd, ifaMatt. 10. 29. one sparrow, two of which are worth yet but one farthing, fall not to the ground without our Heavenly Father, a Church and State shall not fall without him. But yet 'tis certain Governments are somtimes broken or else fall in pieces, and while the fury of the sword does ravage all, the innocent as well as guilty suffer the same miseries, and the same carnage does devour the righteous with the wicked; yea Religion hath bin swept away too by the inundation, and whole Churches have bin quite un-Christian'd; and no doubt there was all reason in the world for this. Yet tho I will not take upon me to mark out the lines by which God moves either in his ways of mercy or of judgment, nor to give the reasons of them; yet when plenty hath brought in all sorts of luxury and dissoluteness, and (as it must needs) that corrupts all, loosens all the bonds by which Societies and Government consist, the very bonds of common right and justice, those that either mens propriety or their security and lives depend on, and besots men so, as that they take no other rule or measure of their interests than as things serve the ends and satisfactions of luxurious appetites; and if Religion also, while 'tis trampled on, despised and scofft down by such sensual persons that have no Religion, and so not having countenance, being injur'd, and cut short by others, does decay; or else, if willing to comply and save it self, it grow it self debaucht in some measure, learn by formalities to serve worldly purposes; yea possibly learns to adopt principles and consecrate some practices which are enimies to the very nature of Religion, wound, destroy Christianity, and dishonor the God of it: if every thing does thus seem to provoke and call for present ruin, and God stir himself up, as he did in thebJer. 5. 9. Prophet, Shall I not visit for these things, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this; yet in such a Nation if there be enough remaining of those that can stand in the gap and maintain the breach against him, as once Moses alone did, he will turn away his indignation, so as not to stir up his whole wrath; and, altho he leave them not altogether unpunisht, he will not destroy them utterly. Now he knows what the numbers are of faithful Christians, such as wrestle day and night with him and do not let him rest. If the hairs of our heads be all numbred, sure the knees are, that cleave to the ground in humble adorations and petitions to him. Yea and so they are; for when Elijah brought his charge in against Israel, whose condition lookt so desperate, that he thought there was no servant of God but himself, I, even I onelyonly am left, 1 Kings 19. 10. God tells him v. 18. he had seven thousand knees in it that had never bowed to Baal: and when those three Noah, Daniel, and Job are not able, seven thousand men yet may prevail. Indeed if once Religion grow so low, be so defiled that 'tis not worth preserving with all those corruptions that get into it, when not onelyonly the Professors of it are deprav'd, but its very constitution in its vitals, in the doctrines both of faith and manners vitiated; and it is hard to shew where God did ever overthrow a Church and a Religion wholly, where it was not so; and then it was not he that did destroy it, it destroy'd it self. If also in a state Judgment be turned into Wormwood, and you find oppression for Justice, and for Righteousness behold a crying; in a word, if a Church and State sink by such proportions as Sodom and the rest of the Cities of the Plain, when in all Pentapolis there was not ten Righteous, for whose sake five great Cities might be spar'd: in fine, when once they have wrought out the measure of God's mercies, and their iniquity is full, it is no wonder if the measure of their Judgment be full too, and it self irreversible and utter. But yet tho in all these Judgments, whether partial or final, Innocent and Righteous persons suffer with the wicked, All things come alike to all, there is one event to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not, as is the good so is the sinner, and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath, Ecclesiastes 9. 2. So as that it should seem the sincere Christian can no more depend than others, or if he do his trust will fail him; yet to omit the reasons of this dispensation of God's Providenc which are many very just ones, that alone sufficeth good men in the midst of all such Judgments to depend upon, which St Paul writes on the very account of such distresses and necessities Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; even those afflictions working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. They are God's words, and so trusting and depending on them we know whom we have believed, namely God, the person, and my last part, wherein I am to enquire on what accounts especially he that does depend upon him in these cases hath assurance, such as that he can profess, I know whom I have believed.
Now there is scarce that Attribute in God which is not a firm ground for resignation of our selves to, and of reliance on him. But to pass all those, which are every where in God's Book to be met with, and are urg'd with all advantage, and to name two other onelyonly. First 'tis certain that we may with the most comfortable hope and greatest confidence rely on him, who, when we have most need, is readiest to relieve. As we read in the Scripture of an accepted time, of the day of Salvation, to let us know that it is not to be catcht in every season, as if whensoever we shall have a mind to be delivered and ask for it, God must hearken and command deliverances; no sure there are proper set times, and we must be unwearied in waiting for it: so also ordinarily that the time of greatest need is God's opportunity, and the day of extremity the day of Salvation, is obvious. All other times he tries us and does exercise our virtues, but when we are past all other help, then he relieves us. Therefore David is most peremtory with the Lord on that account Psalm 102. 13, 14. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion; for it is time that thou have mercy upon her, yea the time is come. And why? thy servants think upon her stones, and it pitieth them to see her in the dust: and Psalm 9. 9. The Lord also will be a refuge foreign, LXXII. in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione, in the true opportunity, that is, when trouble comes. And we shall find a reason for this way of working in his Praier Psalm 109. 26, 27. O save me according to thy mercy, that they may know that this is thy hand, and that thou, Lord, hast don it. When we are in such distress as is past man's aid, then if deliverance come we cannot chuse but know the hand: when we are in darkness and dimness of anguish, and if we look unto the earth behold nothing but darkness as of the shadow of death, then if any light arise we know it is the day-spring from on high that visits us.
And if besides this reason and those Texts we but consult the Annals of God's actings, we shall find it always thus: and not to mention those that refer to particular persons, of which Joseph's single story is a manifold instance, which also gave birth to those great events which shall make up a demonstration that this is the way of God's procedure. In Egypt when the design was laid so, that the People of Israel could not have lasted longer than one Age, (for posterity was forbidden, and the Nation was to be murder'd by a prohibition of being born,) and when they could not to avoid this persecution get out thence, except the sea would at once make a passage for them, and a wall and rampart to secure that passage; and if it also should do so, it would but land them in a wilderness, and they but fled from water to perish for want of it, and escapt being drown'd to die with thirst; a place too where unless the desert can bring forth the bread of Heaven, unless Flesh and Manna can grow there where nothing grew, they have but chang'd their fate, and brought themselves into a more unavoidable and speedy ruin: when this state of exigence was come, then God comes in by weak means, a stammering tongue and little rod works all deliverance.
And again afterwards in the captivity of that Nation, a state which Jeremy the Prophet when he had bewailed in sorrowful eloquence, in lamentations that live still, yetcJer. 9. 1. wish'd his head had bin a fountain of tears to weep for it; when in seventy years the people was so mixt, incorporated with their Conquerors, as must needs be very hard to separate and tear them asunder; and as for their Temple it was ruin'd and despoil'd of all its holy furniture, which was not onelyonly rob'd but desecrated and profan'd, so as not to be likely nor scarce fit to be returned, the vessels of the Sanctuary being made the utensils of their Idol-feasts and their own riots, and those holy bowls made up their drunkeness as well as sacriledge: yet when these conquering Robbers were enjoying their spoils and crimes, as if wine in those holy bowls did stupity men past all sense, they and the great Babylon are taken ere they knew it, and the Jews return strait follow'd.
Again, when Cestius Gallus had sate down before Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Nation being oblig'd by their Religion was all in that City, and the Christians of the Land were there too, after several assaults, and when he might have taken it, he on a sudden rais'd the siege foreign, saith Josephus, without any reason, no body knows why, but onelyonly as God put it in his heart to do so to give way for the Christians to obey that voice, which the same dDe Bello l. 6. c. 31.Josephus saith was heard in the Temple at the Feast of Pentecost, foreign, let us go hence, and upon it all the Christians went to Pella, not one staid, but every one escapt that ruin which Titus sitting down before that City, brought upon that People, (the great Enimies of his Church) to a final utter desolation.
Once more, when after the nine Persecutions, which like so many torrents of fire had swept away the Christians in flame, Dioclesians like a tenth wave came as if it meant to swallow not the relicks onelyonly of Christ's Church, but also all the memory of the other cruelties; when in one small Province in a month he put to death one hundred and fourty four thousand Christians; banish'd seven hundred thousand more, and proportionably so in other places thro the Roman world with such success, that he took confidence to write on his triumphal Arches, Deleto nomine Christiano, as he had blotted out the very name of Christians, then at the last gasp of his Church it pleas'd the Lord to raise up Constantine, and strait the whole face of the world was Christian, and Dioclesian himself liv'd to see it. I might have instanced in our own so fresh deliverance, but that it would not look like an incouragement, it may be, to rely and cast our selves again upon him, if so soon we call upon our selves the same needs by the same wretchless methods; and there are some, they say, that apprehend so. And God knows the ruin of the Reformation and our Church hath from its first beginning bin still working by her restless indefatigable Enimies, and hath often bin preserv'd onelyonly on the account I am now speaking, that when things are past all humane help, then is God's set time for relief. I know the Churches Adversaries brag of multitudes, and they come up on every side close to her; yea and which is worse, we seem to labor to make God himself our Enimy, or at least provoke him to desert that Chutch and Reformation we pollute so, put out the Worship we unhallow and profane so by ill lives, make those that will have nothing of Religion but some forms it may be loose them too, and let them die for want of substance, and the shew go out, not leave so much as the hypocrisy of piety. Indeed a flood of Atheism and contemt of all Religion and virtue looks like a just dereliction of them who would not let God be in their thoughts, nor Religion or Morality in their actions. Nay may it not look like a kindness to remove the Gospel which proves onelyonly the savor of death unto death, put out that light which men are but resolv'd to sin against? Or can there be a greater mercy than to refuse all the means of mercy to such men as onelyonly make them work out condemnation to them?eDan. 9. 8, 9. O Lord, to us indeed belongs confusion of face, but notwithstanding to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, tho we have rebelled against him; and as he knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of Judgment to be punish'd, he knows too how many thousand knees do bow to him in secret, reckons all those tears that are pour'd out in Religion's and the Churches cause; and how wicked soever the Professors of Religion, the Church Members may be, if the constitution of Religion and the Church themselves yet be not vitiated or defective, there is hope still. And truly whereas many blame the Reformation that it did not keep more hold upon the Consciences of the Community, did not retain some power, which altho not of Divine Institution, but things warily and by degrees brought in as seeming to work towards piety, and most certainly in humane ways of judging serving to procure more veneration and outward security of the Church and Religion; to work out which the other consequential worldly interests we see the very scheme of some Professions, not their discipline onelyonly but their faith too is contriv'd: I think on the other side, if our Reformation instead of doing thus, as it consulted not at first with carnal Politicks, but Christ's institutions as the Scripture and other primitive Records conveied them, and design'd no more to themselves than those bare naked Spiritual doctrines, rights and powers which Christ gave them, left to Cesar whatsoever was Cesar's, knowing God had promis'd Kings should be their Nursing-fathers; and to be so, is part of their Office: trusting therefore God and Governments with their protection, and defence of Church and Religion. So also if thro all succeeding times, whether of flourish or depression and calamity, Religion it self, whatever its Professors are, have retain'd always the same simplicity of principles, be it self untainted, not new model'd to serve ends or interests, then whenever men shall begin to clip it, I do not say in maintenance, seizing what their Father's sacriledge had left them, but I mean because ours did not so as other Churches, grasp some usurpt power to secure their own, shall therefore cut her Spiritual powers short, so that they cannot serve the ends of piety; because they know her Children will not, cannot by their principles resist, i. e. if they endeavor to destroy them for this reason, that they make men the best Subjects and of the most Christian Principles; that is, persecute their Christianity it self, and martyr that; I must profess that it will look like God's set appointed time to arise and to have mercy upon Sion; when it is expos'd a naked Orphan, left to his protection onelyonly, then he cannot pass it by; but when he sees it in its bloud thus, he will say unto it, live: and tho he plague her wicked and ungracious Sons, and possibly take away many of the good ones from the evil to come, yet the Religion will not die. Let them believe it hopeless who desire a pretence to leave it, who do what they can to stab their Mother, and make it a reason to forsake her then, because she is so desperately wounded; and let them declare it, who design to betray men out of it. But whether is wiser to believe these, or the God from whom we have these promises, and these experiences, and the other grounds of trust? Sure we know better whom we have believed, especially since the very trust to him is an engagement to him not to fail us: that's my last ground.
'Tis it self a means prescrib'd us by himself, Isaiah 50. 10. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord, that walketh in darkness & hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, & stay upon his God. There is nothing in the world that more engages any man that is not profligately false, than trusting to him; and for God, there is no other piece of piety or virtue gives such honor to him & his Attributes, as sincere dependance on him do's. It does acknowledge his Omniscience, that he knows our needs, & be they never so perplext & intricate, knows how to help them; his Omnipresence, that he is at hand on all occasions; his Omnipotence, how he is able above all our possibility of want; his Mercy, Goodness, & Benignity, in that he condescended to be willing to relieve us; his Faithfulness, & Truth, and Justice, in observing his good promises and never failing them, and his Immutability in all these and his other Attributes of loving kindness. Now truly as our miseries requir'd all these, so our trust to him gives him the glory of all these; and therefore 'tis no wonder if some men made this reliance or dependance, trust or faith our whole condition of the Covenant. But tho 'tis true the Covenant does require some disposition in us that we also may be trusted, for those that are not faithful to him, cannot have faith in him; for us he knows our needs, he knows our hearts too, and if they be false he sees it, and the trust is broken on both sides: such hearts cannot trust him, for it is impossible that one can trust upon another, if he know that other does discern that he is false to him▪ for he knows that he is not in condition to be dealt with by the rules of trust. Yet the sincere and honest-hearted person may cast all his care there, Faith does his work, and he knows well whom he hath believed.
The sum is this, however grievous Sinner one hath bin, if he return, and with intire submission to God's will become faithful to him, and assure his own heart towards him, he may commit himself and all his Spiritual and Eternal interests with all assurance absolutely into his hands, and his temporal so far as they shall be succesful in all cases, except those wherein God sees it necessary for his more advantage to determin otherwise. All his concerns too for Religion he may put into the same safe hands with all assurance; for God will never destroy his own Religion, if it do not change first, vitiate and put out it self. And in whatever Judgments God at any time shall bring upon the publick, he may perfectly ass…re himself, that whatsoever happens, shall be for good to him; for how sad soever the necessity be, he knows both it and how to remedy it, and is able and hath said he will, he is true and just and faithful in his promises, it is his very Nature that he cannot change or fail him; and how desperate soever his condition seem here, that state is God's opportunity, and that time his set time, and depending on him is yet a further engagement to him.
Yet in all this I have said very little, all these grounds for trust & reliance the old Covenant afforded. Thus far the Jew knew whom he had believ'd; but sure the Christian knows more comfortably, hath more cause to trust on God as on the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly we may rely upon that Father, that he will deny us nothing, who denied ns not his son. 'Tis St Pauls argument Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. We may resign our selves into his hands that lov'd us at these rates, and cannot but be confident as the Apostle was v. 38, 39. that neither death nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which he hath to us in and thro Christ our Lord and Savior▪ or shall hinder him from preserving and delivering us in and from the hopes and fears, the terrors and allurements of them all, the temtations that either fear of death or hope of life, or malice of the Devil and his Angels, or of Principalities or powers, whether earthly Potentates or infernal, or distresses present or to come, or heights of honor or depths of disgrace may assault us with. How can these hinder, when sin could not hinder? Or what possibly can separate, when God chose to be divided as it were from his own Son, rather than any thing should separate him from the love of man? And then what may we not expect from this, the Eternal Son of God, who became one of us, that so he himself suffering by being temted might be able to succour them that are temted? Heb. 2. 18. Able to succour? Sure he could have don it ere he took upon him weak flesh, being God Almighty; he was not less able, when he was Omnipotent: yet being, when he was made man himself, afflicted, having the experience of our infirmities, in all points temted like as we are, he is enabled to be much more sensibly compassionate and toucht with the feeling of our weak condition, which himself felt: so the ability which he hath gain'd, is the Omnipotency of kindness. One would have thought indeed it had bin large enough before, when to shew mercy to us seem'd more dear to him and more considerable than to enjoy Divinity, when he emtied himself of this, that he might be qualified for the other. How infinitely willing then was he to be compassionate to us, when he takes flesh to learn to be compassionate? How desirous was he to succour us, who lays down Heaven and glory above, and life here below, that he might be able to succour us? To whom can we betake our selves for mercy with such confidence, as him who made himself like one of us, that he might be a merciful High-Priest to expiate and make reconciliation? We that are the sheep of his pasture, what hands can we possibly resign our Souls into with such assurance, as to those of this Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls, this good Shepherd who not onelyonly seeks the lost sheep that is run away, but who also lays down his life for his sheep? 10. 15. And what may not his poor Church depend upon him for, who purchased to himself his Church with his own bloud? What design can he have to fail us possibly, who would be crucified for us? In a word, if one that for us men and for our Salvation would come down from Heaven, be incarnate and made man, a man of sorrows and afflictions, and would suffer want shame and reproches, agonies, a Cross, a bitter passion and a cruel death for us; and who is sat down on the right hand of Majesty and Power, hath all power in Heaven and Earth, the keys of Death and Hell; in whom all the promises of God are yea and Amen, faithful and true, faithful to immutability, Jesus Christ yesterday, to day, and the same for ever: if, I say, he that is all this, can be trusted, we know whom we have believed.
And now I have no more to do but onelyonly ask, whether we are assur'd of any other whom on more or safer grounds we have or may believe? I will upbraid none with that Irony which Eliphas insults on Job with c. 5. 1. Call now, see if there be any that will answer thee, and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thee? There are that do with all the evidence imaginable of a strong confidence and chearful hopes to speed in doing so, pour out their needs, their whole Souls to a fancied, or it may be true Saint, whom they have adopted as the object of their invocation, which it seems they cannot do so feelingly, with such a close and intimate dependance, with such comfortable expectations upon Christ himself. Now I would onelyonly put the question of f St Paul to such a one, was that Saint crucified for thee, that he should be more concerned for, and more sensible of thy condition, and that thou shouldest have a greater confidence of his good will, than of his that did and suffer'd all that for thee, that he might be merciful and faithful, toucht with thy necessities, that I mention not the rest of those qualifications that do make one fit to be relied upon? 'Tis to be fear'd such persons do not know well whom they have believ'd. But I pass them. There are that trust their being here to Policy and Prudence, to their own contrivances, that is, trust to themselves, and give credit onelyonly to what interest or their ambition suggests, and accordingly design ends, and devise means, weave plots, spread their nets abroad with cords, and lay snares, and do all this with that confidence of success, as if they did believe they were fulfilling Prophecies, and mov'd by the directions of Heaven; for many times they seem to do this in the fear of God, and in subserviency to Religion: but whatever fair pretences some of them may have to wash or color their intentions, God, you may be sure, hath no hand there in those designs, where his Commandments are broken. Where you discern either as to particulars, treachery, or fraud, or falseness, undermining and supplanting to serve interests, or pride, or malice, or revenge; or as to publick, interverting justice and the due course of Laws, or mutiny, sedition, raising discontents, and making breaches, 'tis not he on whom they have believ'd. And did they but consider what they see perpetually, how false interests are, and how unstable high place; how this tumbles men down headlong, those change daily; and altho men thrive so that they wash their steps with butter, they are only so much more in slippery places, where God also leaves them, somtimes overturns them suddenly. Or did they consider who the great Patrons of interest and ambition are, Mammon the fomenter and encourager of almost all the mischiefs upon Earth, and Lucifer that was discontent in Heaven, had ambition to be greater there too, mutinied and stirred sedition up against God, and got by it to be chief of Devils onelyonly, Prince of Hell. Did these designers but reflect on these things, they would know then whom they have believ'd, a deceitful world, a false glistering light that mocks them, and a treacherous malicious Devil that hath bin a Liar and a Murderer from the beginning.
I might ask the sensual person, whether he that hearkens to the cravings of the one or other of his inclinations, and is so perswaded, overcome by their insinuations, that whenever any of his appetites is high, he thinks there is no joy that is like the satisfaction of that appetite, and is mad till he have it; yet hath found himself betraied, fool'd, cheated every time he serv'd it, but still courts and embraces the false treacherous mischief, and will not be disenchanted, whether he considers whom he hath believ'd, whether he knows that he lets his horse ride him, and is guided, animated by, and believes the beast.
Once more, whether he knows whom he hath believ'd, that ownes being an Infidel, any one of those that with great seeming gravity, or wit and railery declares dissatisfaction at the proof of those things, which the world for many hundred years continued so convinc'd of, that they chose to die rather than say that they did not believe them: when as for them, good Souls, they think they can believe nothing but upon demonstration; yet if a man consider but the men themselves, the method and the means of their conviction into that their unbelief, he would find that themselves are always vicious, and that they examin little but converse much, and keep company with them that in the heat and confidence of drink and vice swear 'tis impossible those things can be, and rally them that give heed to or profess them; and then themselves give easy credit to this and their own inclinations, that would have them all impossible; for it is their concern, they are eternally unhappy if they be not: so that we know whom they have believ'd, their debaucht company and their evil inclinations; and these stupid Infidels are the most credulous, we see, on the least grounds of any in the world. It is not my emploiment at this time to make comparison betwixt the one and others grounds, the several motives of belief and infidelity; 'tis plain, Christ Judg'd the arguments and grounds of faith were so sufficient, that he positively gives his charge thus,fMark 16. 15, 16. Go and preach the Gospel to the whole world, he that believeth is sav'd, and he that believeth not is damn'd. And if his threats are as inviolable as his promises, 'twill be but ill knowing him, whom we would not believe; the conviction will be very fatal, when their unbelief will become vision. And this gives me yet occasion to ask, what temtation Sinners can have not to believe, to be willing to come in to Christ and be sav'd? They cannot chuse but see all others whom they have believ'd, betraied them and will fail them: all their satisfactions must go out, their expectations die and perish, and why will ye not take up here then, why will ye die for ever? Is your case, think you, desperate, and have you gon too far to be receiv'd if you should turn? Why our Saint here, the person of the Text declares, he was the chief of Sinners that obtain'd mercy for encouragement to all that would believe and turn: and if you did but know whom he believ'd, you must know one that went to meet the Prodigal in his return, when he was yet far off; that sought the lost sheep while he straied and ran away still, till he found him, and when he was gon so far that he could not return, he carried him. And will you neither be invited into life, nor carried into it? Why will ye die? Can ye not help it? Have your inclinations and customs, think you, so prevail'd upon you, that to leave them looks impossible? Then 'tis plain you know not whom you have believ'd. Is any thing impossible for him, that is Almighty, whose grace is sufficient? Or can he command too hard things, who enables to perform what he commands, who, asgPhil. 2. 13. St Paul saith, worketh in us both to will and to do, if we will suffer him? He never praied and tried in earnest, watched, endeavor'd, and comported with God's workings, that complains thus. You cannot but believe indeed they are too hard while you hearken to the cravings of your lusts, your customs and your inclinations; but why will you believe them still? Why will you die? Is it not in fine worth while to strive against it, but e'en go on with the stream, abandon all consideration of concern for that life? Indeed if that which God thought worth the concern of all his Attributes, the contrivance of his Wisdom, the assistances of his Almightiness, the invitations of his Promises, the engagement of his Justice, Truth and Faithfulness; worth all the issues of his Goodness Mercy and Benignity, worth the Incarnation, Death and Passion of his Son, worth Christ's Bloud to purchase, worth the giving him all Power in Heaven and Earth, exalting him to his own right hand a Prince and Savior to give us repentance and remission, that we might be capable of that life, and then to bestow it on us: if this be not worth the while to strive for, not in opposition to Hell eternal, then indeed we know not whom we have believ'd. Consider how it is this issue that such put it to, a most fatal issue, but the sure one of all those that will give credit to the suggestions of their flesh▪ and this world; Lord Christ, we believe thee, help our unbelief.