The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed in the Everlasting Covenant, Religious treatise · Part 2 · Chapter 15 · Section 3
SECT. III.
3. Uſe. DOth God himſelf undertake to cauſe his people to walk in his Statutes and to do them? then here is comfort, and ſeaſonable refreſhing for all the people of God: Behold your work, and behold your God, and behold your ſtrength. O what a God do you ſerve! who commands your obedience, and commands alſo his own ſtrength to enable you for that obedience▪ Uſe of Comfort.this I command you to do, and this I will cauſe you to do; here is my precept, and there is my promiſe; here is work, and there is ſtrength. Beloved, ſtand ſtill a little and conſider of the promiſe of God here made unto you.
Firſt, It is a promiſe of that whereof every one of you do ſtand in need; and What Promiſes God makes.you do ſtand in need of that promiſed ſtrength every day, and every houre; our bodies do not ſtand more in need of daily food, than our ſouls do of daily ſtrength from God, to do the works which he requires of us.
Secondly, It is a promiſe which extends unto every one of you who are the people of God; to the ſtrong, and to the weak: ſome promiſes do only reſpect the ſtrong Chriſtians, and ſome of them do reſpect only the weak Chriſtians; and ſome promiſes do reſpect us only for ſome particular times, and for ſome particular conditions; but this promiſe reſpects every Chriſtian, and every Chriſtian in every time, and in every condition, and for every work which he is to do. Our whole life is a time of obedience; and although our conditions do alter, yet ſtill the works of obedience do continue and remaine; and in all thoſe conditions, and for all our ſervices in thoſe conditions, doth this promiſe of help and ſtrength remaine for every Chriſtian.
Thirdly, Becauſe it is Gods promiſe, therefore God himſelf ſtands engaged unto you, and endebted unto you: you are endebted unto God for obedience, and God is endebted unto you for ſtrength and help: Promittendo ſe fecit debitorem.
Now foure things are obſervable in every promiſe of God.Four things obſervable in every Promiſe of God.
1. The good of the promiſe is ſutable, and anſwerable to our need.
2. The performance of that promiſed good belongeth to God. Mica. 7. 20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, &c.
3. He is able to accompliſh it, for he is a natural alſufficiency, an infinite goodneſs, a treaſury full of grace and power; nothing is too hard for him.
4. He will perform it, for he is faithful who hath promiſed, and will not alter the word that is come out of his lips, neither will he ſuffer his faithfulnes to faile: The heavens ſhall wax old as a garment, and the earth ſhall be changed, but his word remaines for ever: His counſel ſhall ſtand, and his truth for evermore: he cannot lye nor deny himſelf.
Fourthly, This promiſe is a bond of preſent payment: all the promiſes cannot be ſued at one time, nor at all times; but this promiſe of cauſing us to walk in his Statutes may be ſued every day, and is to ſome performed every day. The time or need is unqueſtionable the very fit time for payment, (for God to make good his promiſe;) but every day is our time of need, every time that we are to perform ſervice unto God, is God bound to perform his promiſe of help and ſtrength unto us, becauſe then we do need his preſence and aſſiſtance. Now this is a wonderful comfort unto all the people of God, whoſe hearts are made willing to ſerve him; you have a God to go unto, and you may freely and boldly go unto him, and he hath engaged himſelf by ſpecial promiſe unto you to be your help, and he is able and faithful, and will not miſs his day nor faile to help you in your time of need.
Fifthly, Nay let me adde one word more ſo your comfort; though the ſtrength which God imparts unto you to do him ſervice, be not ſo high and full as you do deſire, nevertheleſs
1. It is enough to enable you to ſerve him with uprightneſs, although perhaps with much weakneſs.
2. It is enough to enable you to walk humbly with your God, though not ſo ſtrongly.
3. Whatſoever ſervice you do perform by the ſtrength of God, (according to that proportion which you have received,) God will graciouſly accept of it in Chriſt: if it be the work of his hands, it ſhall receive acceptance at his Throne.
Object. But here it is objected; If God will cauſe his people (by giving them How come Gods people ſometimes to want his ſtrength.his ſtrength) to walk in his Statutes and to do them; whence is it that his people mamy times faile of this ſtrength and power to enable them ſo to do?
Sol. The reaſon is not that God is not ready to make good his promiſe unto them, but becauſe they are not ready to make uſe of him to be their ſtrength; it doth ariſe,
Firſt, Somtimes from the carleſneſs of their ſpirits, as Eſa. 64. 7. There is no man that calleth upon thy name, that ſtirreth up himſelf to take hold of thee: And Eſa. 43. 22. But thou haſt not called upon me O Jacob! but thou haſt been weary of me O Iſrael! And James 4. 2. Ye have not, becauſe ye ask not. Beloved, the Lord doth promiſe to give us his ſtrength, yet he will be enquired of by us to do it for us. And how muſt he be enquired of by us? even with our whole heart, not faintly, nor careleſly, but fervently, and ſeriouſly. Jer. 29. 13. Ye ſhall ſeek me, and finde me, when ye ſhall ſearch for me with all your heart. Did any of you in the ſenſe of your own weakneſs and inſufficiency ſeek the Lord with your heart, and with all your ſoul, but you found him to look down upon you with health and ſtrength?
Secondly, Somtimes from the unbelief of their hearts: He that comes to God, muſt believe that God is; and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently ſeek him, Heb. 11. 6. But here we have often failed. James 1. 5. If any of you lack wiſdome, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally, &c. Ver. 6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Ver. 7. Elſe let not this man think that he ſhall obtaine any thing of the Lord. Why this is our way; either we ſeek not to the Lord, or we do not ſeek to him in faith: we are uſually ſo far from believing, that we are plainly unbelieving, God will not hear, God will not anſwer, God will not perform his promiſe unto us.
Thirdly, Somtimes from impatience of heart: they will not wait upon the Lord, but will limit him, and leave him, and fling away without their anſwer, and their help. Where now lies the fault? in Gods promiſe? no, but in your own unbeliefe and impatience.
Fourthly, Sometimes from preſumption of heart: they will be venturing upon the occaſions and wayes of ſins, for which God juſtly leaves them, as he did Sampſon.
Object. But why doth God give out ſo little a meaſure of ſtrength at a time? Why God doth not give out all ſtrength at once.why not enough at once to ſerve them all their lives, for all their duties?
Sol If you will have reaſons and accounts given unto you for Gods dealings in this kind; then thus;
1. He is no neceſſary agent which works ad extremum, to its utmoſt, but a voluntary agent, working after the counſel of his own will: as a parent helps his child as he ſees occaſion.
2. He is a wiſe God, as well as a faithful God, and therefore he imparts help and ſtrength unto his people in ſuch a way, and by ſuch proportion as doth moſt exalt his glory and reſpect their good.
Indeed God is able at once to fill us with ſtrength, but he will not do ſo, but chuſeth rather to give it out gradually, and ſucceſſively, becauſe
1. Thus we are kept in a continual dependance upon, and in a continual exerciſe Why God gives out ſtrength by degrees.of our faith.
2. Thus he makes way for continual prayer and ſupplications.
3 Thus he gives us freſh experiences, and daily proofs or teſtimonies of his fidelity in promiſing, which do endear our hearts the more unto him, and quicken our hearts to perpetual thankſgiving.
4. Thus he keeps us in a more humble frame, and ſenſe of our own inſufficiency and feat of our ſins, &c.
Object. Whence is it that the people of God do finde ſuch a various manifeſtation of the ſtrength of God in them, as to their holy performances? ſomtimes a marvellous enlargment, and at another time a meet preſence of power, no more then will well erve the work in hand: ſomtimes carried out with a full gale, and at other times almost becalmed; ſcarcely able to do any thing?
Sol. This is a real caſe, and a very profitable Queſtion, unto which I return this anſwer.
Firſt, It doth ſomtimes ariſe from the diſtempers of melancholy, which doth dead and oppreſs their ſpirits, and renders them (for the time) as uſeleſs veſſels, binding up not only the power of reaſon, but alſo the power of grace: yet when this winter is off, the ſpring of grace appears in ſtrength again.
Secondly, It doth ſomtimes ariſe from their own folly, in weakning their own help and ſtrength; either
1. From ſpiritual pride, after ſpiritual enlargments, which God ever puniſheth with ſome meaſure of declining.
2. From ſpiritual neglects of ſtrengthening ordinances, or ſtirring up our ſelves to take hold of the ſtrength of God: Simile. if the child ſucks not as it was wont, it will be weaker.
3. From worldly engagements in multitude of cares and buſineſſes, which either wholly takes us off from communion with God, or makes us but formal in it.
Thirdly, It doth ſomtimes ariſe from the different actings of our faith: ſomtimes we do believe more ſtrongly and perfectly; and ſomtimes we do believe more weakly and unſtedfaſtly, and therefore we are able to do much, and ſomtimes we are able to do little. Our proportion of obedience, is anſwerable to the proportion of our believing: much faith brings in much ſtrength, and li… tle faith brings in little ſtrength:
As the larger veſſels bring up the more water, and the narrower veſſells but a little, &c.
If you believe, you ſhall ſee the glory and the power of God; and as you believe, ſo do you partake and receive of that power.
Fourthly, It doth ſomtimes ariſe from the preſence of ſoul-conflicts: we are ſomtimes in ſta…u libertatis, in an eſtate of liberty, exempted from the actual temptations of Satan, and from violent rebellions and hurryings of our own corruptions; and now our ſhip gos on more ſwiftly, and we can ſerve the Lord with gladneſs: but ſomtimes we are in ſtatu perturbationis; wind and tide are againſt us; enemies without, and enemies within; and now (at leaſt to our own apprehenſions,) our ſhip moves but heavily, and we ſerve the Lord in tears.
Fifthly, It doth ſomtimes ariſe from divine wiſdome, that we do not alwayes finde the like meaſure of aſſiſtance: by this God doth learne his people
1. That their ſtrength is not in themſelves, but only in their God.
2. That what they are, they are by his grace, and act in a proportion to his grace given and received.
3. That they ſhould not deſpaire at the greateſt ſervices; for God can then enlarge them; nor yet preſume and make nothing of the leaſt duties; for God can withdraw himſelf, and then they can do nothing.
FINIS.