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Post by Admin on Dec 23, 2023 0:05:06 GMT -5
Assurance to All the Heirs of Promise Sermons on Hebrews 6:18 by Thomas Manton
SERMON I
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.—HEB. 6:18.
To give you the occasion of these words, we must look back into the
context. The apostle proveth the firmness of the promises, and yet
the great need of faith and patience ere they be accomplished. He
proveth both by the instance of Abraham, who was long exercised in
waiting, and had God's promise ratified with the most solemn
assurance that can be conceived under heaven, with an oath, which is
held sacred and inviolable among all nations. But here some might
object, that if Abraham had such a special assurance from God, what
is that to us? To this the apostle replies, that though God's oath were
given to Abraham, yet it concerns all the heirs of promise, every
believer hath the same ground of certainty that Abraham had; so it is
asserted, ver. 17, 'Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed
it by an oath.' There is an emphasis in the phrase, 'more abundantly.'
God's oath was not given out of necessity, but out of condescension.
Not out of necessity, as if his word was not valid and authentic
without an oath, but he would give his oath that, over and above and
by all solemn ways of assurance, the Lord would provide for our
certainty and assurance, that we might have strong consolation upon
solid grounds, 'That by two immutable things,' &c.
In the words we have the purport and the aim of God's oath, which is
to give believers more solemn assurance. Take notice of three things
—
1. The ground of this assurance, 'That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie.'
2. The fruit of this assurance, 'That we might have strong consolation.'
3. The persons to whom God hath given this assurance, we 'who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us.' Suitable to the three parts there are three main points—
[1.] God's word and oath are the immutable grounds of a believer's certainty and confidence.
2.] That the fruit of this confidence and certainty is strong consolation.
[3.] That the persons to whom God hath deposited his oath, and by it
administereth so strong a comfort and consolation, are those who fly
for refuge to take hold of the hope that is set before them.
Doct. 1. That God's word and God's oath are the immutable grounds
of a believer's confidence and certainty; for these are the two
immutable things spoken of. I shall speak of each distinctly.
First, God's single word is an immutable ground; having this, you
have enough. And so it will appear if you consider the power and the
certainty of it.
1. The power of God's word. His word is nothing else but the
declaration of his powerful will; the force of it was discovered in
creating the world. God created all things by his word: Ps. 33:9, 'He
spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.' This whole
fabric of heaven and earth, which we now behold with wonder, was
made with a word. And mark, God's creating word and word of
promise do not differ, they are both the word of God; and there is as
much force and power in this word 'I will take away the heart of
stone,' as there was in this word, 'Let there be light.' There is as much
power in this sentence, 'I will make your vile bodies to be like to
Christ's glorious body,' as there was in that word, 'Let there be a
firmament.' God's word was powerful enough to make a world when
it was nothing before. All the works of God subsist by the force of his
word: Heb. 1:3, 'Upholding all things by the word of his power.' It is
but for God to say, Let it continue, let it be, and either are
accordingly. One word is enough to undo the world, and one word is
enough to uphold and preserve it. God's word is the declaration of
his almighty and powerful will; whatever he did in the world, he did
it by his word. Therefore if you have this immutable ground, if God
hath deposited and plighted his word, you have enough to establish
strong consolation, for it is powerful to all purposes and intents
whatsoever.
2. Consider the certainty of it. When the word is gone out of God's
mouth, it shall not be recalled. The Lord prizeth his faithfulness
above all things. The scripture must be fulfilled whatever
inconveniences come of it. Mark the whole course of providence, and
you will find that God is very tender of his word; he valueth it above
all his works: Luke 21:33, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away.' God is not so tender of heaven and earth
but that he will break it all to pieces rather than not make good his
word; though it be a curious frame and fabric, in which he hath
displayed much of his glory, yet that shall be dissolved. Heaven and
earth do only continue till all that is prophesied of in the word be
fulfilled. We shall enjoy the comfort of his word in heaven, when all
these things are melted away with a fervent heat. Nay, which is more,
God valueth his word above the human life of Christ his own Son. If
God passed his word for it, his Son, who was the delight of his soul,
equal to him in glory, must come from heaven, take a body, and
suffer a cruel death: 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is
written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God,' Ps. 40:7. God had
passed his word to the church that it should be so; therefore, rather
than he would go back from his word, he sent Christ to die for a
sinful world. There was no promise of more difficulty for God to
grant nor for us to believe, than this of the incarnation and death of
Christ; yet rather than go back from his word Christ must come and
die an accursed and shameful death.
Secondly, The main thing is, what ground of consolation we have in
God's oath. And there I shall—(1.) Show the reasons why God gives
us his oath over and above his word; (2.) The several advantages
which we have by his oath in believing.
1. For the reasons why God should give this oath. An oath you know
is given in matters doubtful. Philo saith, An oath is given for the
manifestation of a matter which is secret and doubtful, and which
cannot otherwise be determined. To swear in things apparent and
matters clear is to take the name of God in vain. All matters which
are clear are otherwise decided; matters of opinion, by argument;
matters of fact, by testimony; matters of promise, by the single word
of the party that promises, if he be a person of honour and credit; but
always an oath supposes some doubt and controversy that cannot
otherwise be determined. And so much the apostle intimates when
he says, Heb. 6:16, 'It is the end of all strife' or controversy. Well,
then, God's promises being of such absolute certainty, why doth the
Lord deposit his oath with the creature, since his single and bare
word is enough.
I answer—The matter itself needs it not, but only in regard of us. We
look upon the promises with doubtful thoughts; there is a
controversy between God and us; we have hard thoughts of God, as if
he would not be so good as his word; therefore his oath is given, not
to show the doubtfulness of the thing that is sworn, but the greatness
of our unbelief. Austin saith, Est exprobatio quædam infidelitatis
nostræ—God hereby upbraids us with our unbelief, when he gives us
an oath for the confirmation of any matter. Briefly, God's oath is
given us for two reasons—to show us the certainty, and to show us
the excellency of our privileges in Christ.
Reason 1. To show us the certainty of our privileges in Christ. The
world makes it a controversy and doubtful matter whether Christ
came to die for sinners, yea or nay? whether God will save those that
take sanctuary at Christ? God saith, Ay, and we say, No; and how
shall the matter be decided? Observe it, and you will find that there
are two things which we are apt to suspect in God—his good affection
in making the promise, and his truth in keeping the promise. We
suspect his good affection, especially when we are in pangs and
gripes of conscience; and we suspect his truth in straits and
difficulties, whenever in the course of God's providence we are cast
into such a condition that we think he hath forgotten his promise.
Now the Lord might be highly offended with us for those wicked
thoughts we entertain of his majesty, but in a gracious condescension
he is pleased to put an end to the controversy by an oath. As if the
Lord had said, Do you doubt of this? Will you put me to my oath?
Here I am ready to take it; and that the matter may no longer remain
in suspense, I swear by my life, by my holiness, by whatever you
count sacred and excellent in me, that whoever among you, whatever
he be, that is touched with a sense of his sin and misery by nature, if
he will run to Christ for refuge, take sanctuary in Christ, if he doth
belong to my unchangeable purposes of grace, I will surely without
miscarrying bring him to a sure and eternal possession of glory; and
for the present I will be a father to him, and guide him and keep him
as the apple of mine eye; I will be his present help, his guardian, his
counsellor, during the whole time of his abode in the world, where he
is only liable to dangers. This was the matter in controversy, and this
is the substance of God's oath. And I shall show you how apt we are
to distrust God in all this. We suspect, as I said, either his good
affection in making the promise, or his truth in keeping the promise,
so that we need this solemn way of assurance. Therefore—
First, I shall speak to this, that we distrust his good affection, and
will not believe God upon his single word. What should be the reason
that nature is so abhorrent from this certainty and assurance, which
so much concerneth our own peace and comfort? Take six reasons—
1. Partly because guilt is full of suspicion. We hate those whom we
have wronged. Proprium est humani ingenii odisse quos Iæserit.
First we hurt a person, then we hate him; so out of fear of revenge we
suspect all that he doth, all acts of kindness, all tenders and offers of
reconciliation which come from him. Let me exemplify it in men.
Thus David speaks of his enemies: Ps. 120:7, 'I am for peace, but
when I speak, they are for war.' David was the wronged party, and
Doeg and Saul's courtiers had slandered him, and done him wrong.
David was willing to forget all this injury, and he comes with an offer
of peace, but all treaties of peace are in vain. This you will find to be
the fashion of the world, when they have wronged a person, never to
trust him any more, lest they should give him opportunity of revenge.
Thus do we deal with God; conscience knows we have wronged him,
slighted his love, and put affronts upon his grace, and therefore,
though he makes the first offer, we believe it not. Revengeful man
cannot think God will be so gracious and merciful, therefore we
cannot believe those ample purposes of reconciliation. It breaks the
back of patience to think of forgiving seven times: 'Must I forgive
seven times?' saith Peter. And therefore how can we believe the Lord
will pardon so many thousand affronts we put upon him day by day?
Thus we wrong God and sin away our faith, and therefore are not
capable of so rich a comfort.
2. Partly because the way of salvation is so rare and wonderful, that a
man can find no faith for it. The gospel is a mystery, so called by the
apostle, 1 Tim. 3:16, 'Great is the mystery of godliness.' Nature
affords no help here. Theology is natural, but not christology. Nature
believes there is a God, but not that there is a Christ. The sun and
moon preach up a God, their sound is gone out into all lands, and
proclaim everywhere that there is one infinite and eternal power;
and conscience preacheth up a judge. But all these natural preachers
are dumb and silent concerning Christ, not a word concerning a
saviour and mediator. It could not enter into the thought of an angel
to pitch upon such a remedy if God had not revealed it to them by the
church: Eph. 3:10, 'To the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the
manifold wisdom of God.' The angels did conceive of this great
mystery by observing God's dispensations to the church. Well, then,
the way of salvation being so rare and wonderful, we should never
acquiesce and rest satisfied with bare declarations, but we need
God's oath that the controversy may be determined. When an angel
came to bring tidings of it to the Virgin Mary, though she were a holy
woman, and had such an extraordinary way of assurance, yet you
find her unbelief outstarts her obedience and submission to the will
of God: 'How shall this be?' Luke 1:34. The incarnation of God, the
conception of a virgin, the death of life itself, all these things are
riddles and golden dreams to reason; and without a higher assurance
than a bare word, we should not be easily satisfied.
3. Partly because the blessings and privileges we have in Christ are so
great, and the persons which enjoy them so unworthy, as being
nothing and deserving nothing, that they exceed all thought and
belief: 1 Cor. 2:9, 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for
them that love him.' Mark, all the ways by which we can gain any
knowledge of a thing, they come short; sense, fancy, reason, eye, ear,
heart, of man cannot conceive and cannot tell what to make of these
excellent privileges we have in Christ; they cannot furnish him with
fit notions and apprehensions of such excellent glory as is revealed to
us in him. To illustrate it by the creatures: If a man had been by
when God made the world, as the angels were, if he had seen God
laying the foundations of all things, he would have wondered what
God was about to do, for what rare creature the Lord was about to
frame this stupendous and wonderful fabric, arched with heaven,
floored with earth, interlaced with waters, decked with fruits and
plants, stored with creatures, and glazed, if I may so speak, with
stars; who would ever have thought that all this furniture and
provision was for man, a handful of dust, a poor worm not six feet
long, that he might be lord of all things, vice-king and deputy under
God? Now, if a man would wonder at the honour and glory God put
upon man at his creation, much more at the privileges of our
redemption by Christ; they are matters to be wondered at indeed: 2
Thes. 1:10, 'Christ shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all
them that believe.' This place chiefly concerns the angels, when God
puts such clarity and splendour upon the body that they shall wonder
what Christ is about to do with such a contemptible creature as man,
that newly came out of the grave of rottenness and dust. This text I
am upon speaks of 'a hope set before us.' If this were but a little
opened, as our ear hath received a little thereof, if we should tell you
what preparation Christ hath made to bring the saints to glory, with
what a glorious train of angels he will come from heaven, what
mansions he hath prepared for us in his Father's house, and all this
for those that have nothing and deserve nothing, unless it be
extremity of misery; if a man should tell you Christ would come in
such a state, and entertain the saints with such dearness of affection,
and receive sinners into his bosom, that he would make them his
fellow-judges, liken their bodies to his own glorious body for
brightness and splendour, that such pieces of worms, and clods of
earth shall be many times brighter than the sun, I tell you this would
require a strong faith to believe it, and we had need of all the
averment and assurance that can be given us under heaven. If an
angel admires at the saints, certainly inferior creatures will suspect
it. Alas! what a valuable price can we bring and pay to God for all this
glory! We that judge all things by the laws of reason and
commutative justice, for we give nothing but upon valuable
consideration, what valuable price can we bring to God? What
consideration can we give him for so great a glory, and how shall we
think ever to be partakers of an estate so disproportionable to our
merit and condition? Therefore, because our privileges in Christ are
so great and wonderful, we need not only God's word, but also his
oath.
4. Partly because we ourselves are so false and fickle in all our
contracts with one another, especially in our dealings with God, that
we need to be bound with promise upon promise, and oath upon
oath, and all little enough to restrain and hold us within the bounds
of duty. Man is changeable, and breaks vows and covenants and
promises, and snaps them asunder as a thread and tow is burnt
asunder with fire, and will not be held with any obligation. It is a
Greek proverb, Children play with nuts, and men with oaths. It is too
often so. Perjury, though it be monstrous and barbarous, and
dissolves the bonds of human societies and confederacies, yet it is no
rare thing in the world, especially in the latter times. They are said
among other sins to be infamous for covenant-breaking: 2 Tim. 3:3,
'Truce-breakers,' &c. Thus we deal with one another. But if we should
be more faithful to men for the safety of our interest, yet how often
do we break with God, and compass him about with lies: 2 Sam.
23:5, 'He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all
things, and sure.' We are false and fickle when God is sure. To-day
we promise, to-morrow we fail. What vow did we ever make to God
and kept it? Now we are apt to judge of God's promises by our own.
It is usual with man to transform God into his own likeness, and to
muse of him as we use ourselves. The heathens did it grossly, and by
a sensible picture; the apostle chargeth it upon them: Rom. 1:23,
'They changed the glory of God into an image made like to
corruptible man.' They shaped God into the picture of man, and still
according to the particular genius and fancy of each nation. The
Spartans, being a warlike people, painted their gods in armour,
suiting most with their disposition; the Ethiopians painted their gods
black and their devils white, because they were a black people. But
now we do it all spiritually: Ps. 50:23, 'Thou thoughtest I was
altogether such an one as thyself.' We judge of God by ourselves, and
draw a monstrous misshapen picture of him in our minds, as if he
were revengeful, fierce, fallacious, fickle, and changeable as we are.
Therefore, to meet with this sin doth the Lord so often disclaim the
dispositions of a man, that we should not fancy him according to the
lineaments of a man: Hosea 11:9, 'I will not execute the fierceness of
mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and
not man.' As if he had said, Do not measure me according to your
model; I am not revengeful as you are, and changeable as you are;
this is not my fashion. So Isa. 55:8, 9, 'For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' You see the distance
between earth and heaven is so wondrous great that the earth cannot
reach it with its mountains, cedars, turrets, smoke, and vapours; it is
so great that a star of the heavens, as big as the earth, seems to be but
a spangle: so infinitely more are the workings of my thoughts, and
my heart different from your thoughts and your heart. More
particularly and suitable to the present case: Num. 23:19, 'God is not
a man that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he should
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken it, and
shall he not make it good?' Man is as unstable as water; his point
varieth according to the different posture of the times and situation
of his own interest and advantage; but it is not so with me, saith the
Lord. Men say and do not, but God's Yea is always yea, and his No is
always no. This was the speech of Balaam, who was called a false
prophet, not from the matter of his prophecy, but only from his aims.
But if you will have it from a more authentic hand, you have it out of
the mouth of Samuel: 1 Sam. 15:29, 'The strength of Israel will not
lie, nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent.' Mark the
reason, for he is not a man. To be a man and to be changeable is all
one. Certainly the frequent inculcation of such passages in scripture
showeth that we are apt to measure infiniteness by our own scantling
and size. And therefore, this being man's natural thought, God in a
condescension, and by way of check, is pleased to give the creature
this assurance, we have his word and his oath; so that if we would
but afford him the favour we use to show to an honest man, we have
no ground of diffidence and distrust.
5. Another cause of this unbelief is enmity to the gospel. There is a
natural contrariety in our hearts both to the privileges and duties of
the gospel, and because we hate it, we do not easily believe it. The
pride of man's heart sets him against the privileges of the gospel, and
carnal liberty against the obedience of it. Man is a proud creature,
and would be self-sufficient; he is loath to be beholden to God, as a
proud man loves a russet coat of his own better than a silken
garment that is borrowed of another. Thus the apostle complains of
the Jews: Rom. 10:3, 'They being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish a righteousness of their own, have not
submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.' There needs
some submission and bearing down of the pride of man, all is
borrowed; here Christ is all, and doth all, he hath merited for all, and
suffered for all. Now this suits not with the pride of man's heart, who
would be sufficient to himself, and establish a personal merit in
himself. And then especially is this pride bewrayed when a man hath
anything to trust to and rest in, as civil righteousness or a formal
profession; it is a hard matter then to bring men to submit to the
righteousness of God, to come hungry and thirsty for Christ's
righteousness. There is no pride so deadly and mischievous, and
opposite to the gospel, as the pride of self-conceit and self
sufficiency; yet this is natural to us; therefore God doth not only say,
but swear, that we shall never enter into his rest unless we take this
course, and run to this hope that is before us. And as pride opposeth
the privileges of the gospel, so carnal liberty opposeth the obedience
of the gospel. Men are loath to stoop and submit to God's terms.
Christ is to be Lord as well as Saviour. Now the world will not hear of
laws and restraints. You know the nations were all for casting away
the bonds and cords: Ps. 2:3, 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and
cast away their cords from us.' In the latter ages of the world, it is
foretold in the prophecies of scripture, that the church is in danger of
turning to libertinism: we cast away yoke after yoke, till we have left
Christ nothing but an empty title. How busy are men now to find out
a north-east-passage, a nearer cut to heaven; and therefore the Lord
swears, and ratifies the whole tenor of the gospel by an oath, to meet
with our enmity and natural contrariety, which makes us so apt to
misbelieve.
6. Another cause why those that are touched with a sense of sin
suspect God's good affection is a jealousy of assurance, or a secret
fear of presuming. All the doubts and scruples of a troubled
conscience come to this issue, and may all be referred to this head, a
fear of presuming. Many will plead the number of their sins, and how
many affronts they have put upon the grace of God. Some will plead
the greatness and the aggravations of their sins, relapses into sin,
sins against light, against the advantages of grace; but they all end in
this one thing, a fear of being too bold with the comforts of the
gospel, and that comfort doth not belong to persons in their case.
This is the cable-rope which keeps them from floating out amain
upon the ocean of God's mercy, as if the Lord delighted in their grief
rather than in their assurance and satisfaction. Usually thus it is with
disturbed consciences. Trouble that is once swallowed is hardly got
up again; and men think sadness is more pleasing to God than
comfort, and that doubts suit with a christian frame rather than
confidence, and so they hug a distemper instead of a duty. Therefore
the Lord is fain to swear that certain it is. Nay, it is not for nothing
that this makes the heart of Christ so joyful, that we live upon the
provision he hath made for us: John 15:11, 'These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be full.' This is the very aim of God's oath; he would show, as I
shall further clear by and by, that our assurance is more pleasing to
him than our doubting; that he is better pleased with our comfort,
nay, though it rise up to strong comfort, than with our sorrow. Thus
you see that diffidence and incredulity is deeply rooted in our nature;
yea, believers themselves are liable to many doubts, out of the relics
of atheism and unbelief that yet remain in them.
Secondly, I am to show that we are apt to suspect his truth in keeping
his promise. When straits and difficulties come, and things go cross
to our expectation, we had need of more than God's single word.
There is not one of an hundred that lives by faith, and can bottom his
comfort on a single promise, and can rejoice in the Lord his God
when outward supports fail. We are led altogether by sense, and
therefore in cross providences we look upon promises as words of
course, and are apt to say, Where are his promises, and the
soundings of his bowels? and where is the ready help which God hath
promised in the time of trouble? And therefore, as a prop to the soul,
he hath backed his promise with an oath. Mark it, christians, it is
very usual, even with God's dearest children, to unravel their hopes,
and to question all upon a cross providence; as David: Ps. 116:11, 'I
said in my haste, All men are liars.' Why doth David retract that
charge, and impute it to his haste? The apostle saith, Rom. 3:4, 'Let
God be true, and every man a liar.' We are changeable creatures, our
beings are a lie; today we are, and to-morrow we are not; and so our
promises are a lie; we say, and do not; and therefore why doth David
impute it to his haste, as if he had spoken something that were
untrue? Certainly, there was some blame in the expression, for he
acknowledgeth it was spoken in haste. The speech hath respect to
those messages and assurances which were brought to him from the
mouth of God by Samuel, Nathan, and other prophets. They
comforted him with God's promises, and now he was thunderstruck,
blasted with some sore affliction, far enough from the case of a man
that had many assurances from heaven; now 'all men are liars,'
prophets and all. Once more, Ps. 31:22, 'I said in my haste, I am cut
off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of
my supplications, when I cried unto thee.' God hath cast off all care
of David; he doth not look after a poor banished man, which
wandereth up and down in the wilderness, a poor flea that is chased
and hunted to and fro. Such pets and passions of distrust, such
irregular and unbelieving thoughts usually have we upon any cross
providence, when sense contradicts the promise. Always we find
sense and distrust making lies of God; therefore a single promise will
not serve the turn, but we need an oath. Surely if God hath sworn, we
may wait upon him. Doubts, now God hath passed his oath, do but
accuse him of perjury. And therefore you shall see the oath of God
hath always been the refuge of the saints even in the worst of times,
when they seemed most of all to lour upon their hopes and
expectations, Hab. 3:9. The affairs of the church were at that time
desperate; but saith the prophet, 'Thy bow was made quite naked,
according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah.' God for
his covenant and oath's sake revived the affairs of the church when
they were at a desperate pass. It is there expressed in: the plural
number, oaths, because they were often renewed with the church;
and they are called 'the oaths of the tribes,' because this was the
church's treasure, because of the oath God made with the tribes, for
it is not meant of the oaths the church made with God. Look, as the
covenant of Abraham is God's covenant made with Abraham, and the
mercies of David were God's mercies bestowed upon David, so the
oaths of the tribes are not taken actively for the oaths which the
tribes deposited with God, but passively for the oath God deposited
with the tribes, that is, the church. God took this bow out of the case,
and bestows the arrows of his vengeance upon the adversaries of the
church. That this exposition is true, it appeareth in what follows,
'Even thy word. Selah.' There is his word, and that confirmed by an
oath, the two immutable things; these relieve the sinking state of the
church. It goes ill with the church a long time, that we might have
experience what God can do. Look what Florus said of the state of
Rome, Romani prœlio sæpe victi, bello nunquam—The Romans were
often overcome in battle, but never in war. So of the church; they go
by the worst in some particular cases, and in some particular times,
that we might try God, and God may try us: but we are safe; God will
remember the oaths of the tribes; the oath of God will relieve the
most desperate case. It is rude blasphemy to say God will not make
good his oath. Thus you see why God would deposit his oath.
Reason 2. God sweareth, as for the confirmation of his grace in
Christ, and to show the certainty of our privileges in Christ, so for the
commendation and excellency of them. An oath is not lawful but in
weighty matters; it must be taken in judgment, as well as in
righteousness and truth, Jer. 4:2. In judgment, that is, considerately,
upon weighty occasions. It is a profaning the name of God, and of
such a solemn ordinance and part of worship, to make an oath to
lacquey upon trifles, and upon every small matter; it must be in
matters of weighty concernment. There is a severe penalty and
sanction annexed to the taking of God's name in vain, either rashly
or falsely: 'The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain.' So whatever is established by God's oath must needs be
great and excellent. Certainly God would not swear but in weighty
matters; therefore one of his aims was that we might the more regard
our privileges in Christ. The apostle proveth the excellency of Christ's
priesthood by the oath wherewith it was ratified: Heb. 7:20, 21, 'And
inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest; for those
priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that
said unto him, The Lord sware, and will not repent,' &c. He alludes to
Ps. 110:4, where God is brought in, saying to Christ, 'The Lord hath
sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedeck.' Such administrations as are confirmed with an
oath have upon them a seal and mark of special excellency. The Lord
foresaw that as we were apt to disbelieve the gospel, so also to
despise it; and therefore, to shame us for our neglect as well as our
unbelief, to awaken our attention and quicken our speed and earnest
pursuit, the Lord swears; his word should be regarded, much more
his oath. When we are busy about the world; and neglect the great
salvation, we put a scorn upon God, as if the things he hath
confirmed by oath were not worth the looking after. When we prefer
worldly comforts as more certain, oh! what an injury is this to the
oath of God! We read of the sure mercies of David, but you are all for
lying vanities. We are naturally for the comforts that are before us,
and look upon it as a riddle to grow rich in promises and to live by
faith. Are uncertain riches more to be trusted, and a better refuge
and sanctuary for your souls than God's oath? It is a sign you slight
his confirmation and commendation, and so count him false and
foolish in all the things he proposeth to you. God forbid, say you, that
we should be guilty of such a blasphemy. You do it not in word, but
this is the necessary interpretation of your actions. If a man should
offer you a good bargain upon very easy terms, that would bring you
a thousand pounds profit, and should confirm it by oath, though you
did not tell him that he did deceive you with words, yet if you go
away never heeding it, but should run after smaller matters which
you purchase with great hazard, would not this argue you counted
him but false and foolish; or the thing not worth the taking and
looking after? So when God hath pawned his oath, that his grace and
immutable counsel for salvation belonged to you if you would but
take sanctuary in Christ, do you not count him false and foolish in
the proposal when you run after carnal satisfactions, which are
purchased with the loss of your souls?
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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2023 17:36:45 GMT -5
SERMON II
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, &c.—HEB. 6:18.
II. THE advantages we have by God's oath. What greater assurance
can we have?
1. Consider the sacredness of an oath in general. You know among all
nations an oath is accounted a sacred and most solemn way of
engagement among the sons of men. The apostle saith it is πέρας
ἀντιλογίας the end of strife: Heb. 6:16, 'An oath for confirmation is to
men an end of all strife.' When men solemnly call God to witness,
though the matter were never so doubtful and controverted before,
when they take an oath we have no more to say, but believe every
honest man upon his oath. The heathens have spoken much of an
oath. One saith, this is the final assurance; we are bound up, and
contented when men swear. Another that it is the highest faith that
men can expect. We owe so much to humanity. All nations by the
light of nature have found out this remedy and way to end
differences. So among the Jews; if there were a strife between
Israelite and Israelite, Exod. 22:11, 'Then shall an oath of the Lord be
between them both, and he shall accept thereof.' There was no more
stir to be about the matter. Perjured persons are the scorn of men,
and they have forfeited the privilege of humanity. Well, then, if the
oath of man be so sacred and valuable, how much more is the oath of
God! It is impossible for God to lie. He can do all things which argue
power, but nothing which argueth impotency and weakness, for this
were to deny himself.
2. This oath is so sacred, because the name of God is invoked in it. It
is the name of God that giveth credit to all other oaths. When men
swear, saith the apostle, 'They swear by a greater,' Heb. 6:16, by a
higher power. Men by sin have lost their credit, and therefore they
pawn the credit of God. Every oath is an appeal to God as witness
and judge. For want of other sufficient proof we appeal to God as a
witness; so we acknowledge his omnisciency, that he is the searcher
of the heart and reins. And indeed herein an oath differeth from a
vow; in a vow we deal with God as a party, but in an oath we appeal
to God as a witness. Nay, and in case of forswearing, we appeal to
him as a judge, and challenge and imprecate his vengeance, wherein
we acknowledge his justice and power to avenge the wrong that is
done to his name. For mark, if a man violate his oath, and forswear
himself, the wrong is directly done to God; his truth is falsified, his
witness is abused, his name is blasphemed; therefore there is an
implicit appeal to him for vengeance, if not expressed. Sometimes
the execration and imprecation is expressed in an oath; as 1 Kings
2:23, 'Then King Solomon sware by the Lord, saying, God do so to
me, and more also, &c. So Ruth 1:17, 'The Lord do so to me, and
more also, if aught but death part thee and me.' Sometimes it is
suppressed, as Ps. 95:11, 'Unto whom I sware in my wrath, If they
enter into my rest.' If! What then? Then count me not a God. The
imprecation is suppressed; because the expression is dreadful, it is
not mentioned. Furious gallants belch out curses against themselves,
whereas usually the imprecatory part in scripture is not expressed,
but left to be conceived in silence. However, every oath ends in an
imprecation and curse, and it is understood, if it be not mentioned
and expressed in all oaths. And this is that which makes the oath to
be the more binding, for in charity it is not to be supposed that a man
will draw God's curse upon himself wittingly and willingly. Now it is
the name of God which makes all other oaths to be valid and binding;
we swear by a higher, because our own credit is lost. Now when the
Lord swears by himself, shall not he be believed, when he could
swear by no higher?
3. This advantage faith hath by God's oath, it is a pledge of his love
and good-will, that he would condescend so far to give us his oath for
our assurance and satisfaction. Man's oath is necessary in weighty
matters, because we are vain and foolish, and deceive and are
deceived, and our vanity makes our speech to be less believed; but
God's oath is not necessary, but only to show his love and
condescension; he would satisfy us in the highest manner that
possibly he could. Man takes it ill if he be forced to his oath. Oh! how
far then doth the great God stoop to give us this satisfaction! Over
and above his word he hath deposited his oath. What could God say
more? He is willing to do what he can, not only for our safety, but for
our assurance. Take this observation, the Lord not only hath given us
an assuring oath, but an inviting oath in Ezek. 33:11, 'As I live, saith
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from his way and live.' And all showeth his readiness to
do good to his creatures.
4. God's oath is an argument that he delighteth in our comfort and
assurance. Some look upon doubting as a kind of humility, but it is
quite contrary to the aim of God's oath. With what care doth he
provide not only for our salvation but security! He would deliver us
not only from hurt, but from fear. Certainly a fluctuating spirit
always, like the waves of the sea, tossed to and fro, displeaseth the
Lord exceedingly. His premise is confirmed by an oath, that the
comfort might be more strong, and remain with us both in life and
death, and that he might take away all doubt and scruple. Certainly it
is not a thing acceptable with God always to be uncertain and in
terms of suspense. Nothing can be more directly contrary to his
purpose than a course of doubting; therefore it is not presumption to
rise to assurance, as carnal men think, and godly men fear.
5. Consider the special nature of God's oath. In every oath God is
invoked as a witness and as a judge. As God is called upon as a
witness, so there is an appeal; and as he is called upon as a judge, so
there is an execration. With reverence and wonder think of it. In
God's oath there is, as it were, an appeal to our thoughts of him. God
appeals to the reverence and confidence we put in his holiness,
excellency, and power; nay, and there is somewhat that answers the
imprecation and execration, and all his excellency is laid at pawn,
and exposed, as it were, to forfeiture, if he doth not make good his
word.
To clear it by instances. Sometimes the Lord swears 'by himself,' Jer.
51:14; sometimes 'by his holiness,' Amos 4:2; and in other places 'by
his excellency,' Amos 6:8; and by his life, 'As I live, saith the Lord.'
Now in all these there is something answers the appeal; as if the Lord
should say to the creature, What do you think of me? Can you think
that I will deceive you? As you esteem of me a living, holy, excellent,
glorious God, so surely will I perform all my promises. Then there is
something answers to the execration or appeal to God as a judge,
there is his honour laid at stake upon such an issue; never count me a
living, glorious, excellent God more. God draws an imprecation (let
me speak it with reverence) upon himself, if I do not accomplish this
for you. All the glory of his godhead is laid at pawn and pledge with
the creature.
Application.
Use 1. Information.
1. We see the greatness of the condescension of God. Herein God
considereth rather what is fit for our infirmity than his own glorious
excellences. Such is the sovereign majesty of God, that it is enough
for him to declare his mind to his creatures, to command what he
would have done, and to forbid what he dislikes; but he addeth a
promise, and would indent with us in the solemn way of a covenant,
as if we were altogether free before the contract. Now, as if his word
were not enough (though it be enough; he can as well deny his nature
as his truth; he can do all things, but he cannot lie) he addeth his
oath. We take it ill to be forced to our oath. That God should engage
himself at all is much, for he is debtor to no man. We account it a
wrong to a friend to require a bond of him for the assuring of a free
gift. God is willing to do anything, not only for our safety, but
assurance, that the comfort might be more strong, and remain with
us in life and death. It is not acceptable to God that we should always
fluctuate, and be upon terms of uncertainty, therefore he was pleased
to yield thus far.
2. What reason we have to bind ourselves to God. There was no need
on God's part why God should bind himself to us, but great need on
our part why we should bind ourselves to God. We start aside like a
deceitful bow, and therefore we should solemnly bind ourselves to
God: Ps. 119:106, 'I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep
thy righteous judgments.' We need the strongest cords; we have
sometimes motions to good, but they die presently, and come to
nothing Well, then, out of necessity, as well as out of gratitude, let
our engagement in the covenant answer to the Lord's. Only take heed
of resting in it, and take heed of breaking it. Take heed of resting in
it; remember Peter's confident promise would not bear him out; a
rash and presumptuous confidence is soon disappointed What
feathers are we, for all our vows and oaths, when the blast of a
temptation is let loose upon us! Take heed of breaking it; remember
Ananias, Acts 5. God hath a double right; an oath bindeth us more
than a bare promise. Better never have sworn than not perform our
vows.
3. You see the great wrong you do to God in giving so little credit to
his promises. You make God a liar: 1 John 5:10, 'He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar.' But John 3:33, 'He that hath received
his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.' It is a great
dishonour to God not to receive God's testimony; you put the lie
upon him, and so make him to be no God. You would not do so to
your equals. A lie is the greatest reproach; it rendereth a man unfit
for society and commerce. It is a fearful thing to make the God of
truth a father of lies. When God hath given his word, and oath, and
seals, all this while shall he not be believed? God never gave us cause
to distrust him, he never failed in one promise; all that have had to
do with him have found him a faithful God. Nebuchadnezzar doth
him this honour and right after he had tasted of the whip, and was
again restored to the use of reason: Dan. 4:37, 'Now I
Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all
whose works are truth;' not only justice, but truth, not only as I
deserved, but as he foretold. It is a shame that you have made no
observations upon providence, that you may give it under hand and
seal that God is true and faithful. God expecteth such a testimony
from his people; all that have long had to do with him have found
him a true God both in a way of justice and mercy, that he ever stood
to his word. God cannot lie: Titus 1:2, 'In hope of eternal life, which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.' God can do
all things that argue power and perfection of nature, but he cannot
lie, for that argueth weakness and impotency: 2 Tim. 2:13, 'If we
believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself;' he
should then cease to be God. He is truth itself, the primitive and
supreme truth, the original author of all truth. If he should not be
true, who should be so?
But is any so impudent as to put the lie upon God? I answer—Yes: 1
John 5:10, 'He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.' We accuse him
not only of a lie, but of perjury—
[1.] By our carelessness, and the little regard we have to those great
and precious promises that he has given us. Great things are offered,
and you look upon them as notions and fancies. It was otherwise
with the patriarchs of old: Heb. 11:13, 'All these died in faith, not,
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them.' We cast off the
tenders of grace, as matters of which we never made any great
account. We grasp after the world, and let heaven go; when we mind
it not, we believe it not. A man toileth hard all day for a small piece of
silver; do we seek heaven with a like earnestness? How many
adventures do merchants run, when the gain is uncertain! But we are
not uncertain of our reward: 1 Cor. 15:58, 'Forasmuch as ye know
that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.' Did we more
steadfastly believe this, we should not be so cold in duties, and so
bold in sinning.
[2.] By our despondencies in all cross providences. We have a sure
word, and why are we up and down, and so full of distractions and
unquietness of soul? James 1:8, 'A double-minded man is unstable in
all his ways,' unsettled in all his thoughts, uneven in all his ways,
raised up and cast down with contrary hopes and fears, off and on, as
worldly things ebb and flow. We shall never want discouragements if
we live upon sense, but if we could live upon the promises, we should
not be at such a loss. The fruit of faith in the promises is strong
consolation, too strong to be overcome by sin, death, or hell. A
believer is content with the promises, though all the world say, No: 2
Cor. 1:20, 'For all the promises of God in him are, Yea, and in him,
Amen.' Yea to our hopes, Amen to our desires. Whatever changes
happen, the promises are the same; upon desire of such a thing,
Amen, saith the promise; upon hope of such a thing, Yea, saith the
promise. In difficult cases you ask of the creatures, they say, No, but
the promise saith, Yea.
[3.] When we will venture nothing on the promises. Christ told the
young man of treasure in heaven, and he went away sad; he doth not
like such a bargain: Luke 18:22, 23, 'Sell all that thou hast, and
distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
come follow me. And when he had heard this, he was very sorrowful,
for he was very rich.' Thus God dealeth with us: Prov. 19:17, 'He that
hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath
given will he pay him again;' Eccles. 11:1, 'Cast thy bread upon the
waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.' But the words and
engagements of men, that deceive and are deceived, are esteemed
above them. We would trust a man of sufficiency upon his bond with
hundreds and thousands, if we have his hand and seal to show for it,
but we refuse God's assurance. Who is careful to provide bags that
wax not old, and to draw over his estate into the other world? Luke
12:33, 'Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags that
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief
approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.' What adventures do you
make upon God's bond or bill? Do you account no estate so sure as
that which is adventured in Christ's hands? Can we believe the
promises, and part with nothing for them, with neither our lusts nor
our interests?
[4.] When temporal things work far more than eternal things, visible
things than invisible. If we had such promises from men, we would
be more cheerful. If a beggar did hear of a great inheritance fallen to
him, he would often think of it, rejoice in it, long to go see it. We have
a promise of eternal life, who thinks of it, or puts in for a share of it?
We are contented with any slight assurance in matters of such
weight. Men love great earnest and great assurance in temporal
affairs, but any slight hope serves the turn in spiritual affairs. Why do
we so little rejoice in it? If the reversion of an earthly estate be passed
over to us, how are we contented with such a conveyance! but God
hath made over pardon and grace, and we are not satisfied.
[5.] Our confidence bewrayeth it. The pretended strength of our faith
about Christ and hopes of glory showeth the weakness of it, and that
it is but a slight overly apprehension. Most men will pretend to be
able to trust God for pardon of sin and heaven, and yet cannot trust
God for daily bread; they find it difficult to believe in temporals, and
yet very easy in spirituals and eternals. What should be the reason?
Heaven and things to come are greater mercies, the way of bringing
them about more difficult; if conscience were opened, and the heart
serious, they are more hardly obtained; there are more natural
prejudices against our coming to Christ, and coming to heaven. The
whole earth is full of his goodness. God feedeth all his creatures, even
the young ravens that cry; there is not a worm but he provides for it;
but he pardoneth but a few, blesseth but a few with spiritual
blessings, saveth but a few. But here is the reason: bodily wants are
more pressing, and faith is presently put in exercise. Men are
careless of their souls, and content themselves with some loose hopes
of ease and eternal welfare. Certainly he that dareth not venture his
estate in Christ's hands, he dareth not venture his soul there. They
say they find no difficulty in believing in Christ for pardon of sin and
eternal life, and yet cannot trust God for such maintenance and
support as he giveth the young ravens: John 11:24, 'Martha saith
unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the
last day.' As if it were an easier matter to raise him up after so many
years than after four days. But the reason is, faith is not put to a
present trial, and men are careless of things to come, and do not
mind the danger and hazard of eternity. Certainly he that dareth not
in the use of means trust God for this life, doth not trust him for
everlasting life. Eternal things are counted a fancy, but worldly
things are desired in good earnest.
Use 2. To press us to improve these two immutable grounds, that we
may grow up into a greater certainty. His saying is as immutable as
his swearing; God's word is valuable enough of itself, but only
because we count an oath more sacred. God hath added it over and
above. Men are slight in speech, but serious in an oath. Well, then,
since you have a double holdfast on God, make use of it in prayer and
in meditation; in prayer, when you speak to God; in meditation,
when you discourse with yourselves.
1. In prayer, you may urge God with his promise and oath. We put
ourselves in remembrance by pleading with God, therefore God
alloweth the humble challenges of faith. 'Put me in remembrance,'
saith God, Isa. 43:26; or rather, put yourselves in remembrance. By
pleading with God we wrestle with him, that we may catch a heat
ourselves. Tell the Lord what an holdfast you have upon him; show
him his handwriting. As Austin said of his mother, she showed him
his handwriting; or as Tamar brought out to Judah the bracelets and
staff and ring, and said, Whose are these? So you may plead, Ah!
Lord, are not these thine own promises, and is not this thy oath? The
children of God have done both; they put him in mind of his word:
Ps. 119:49, 'Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou
hast caused me to hope.' As if he had said, Lord, thou hast invited my
hope; I should never have had the boldness to have expected so great
a mercy and privilege in Christ if thy promise was not passed. God
forgetteth not, and yet he loveth that the saints should put him in
remembrance; he would have you to revive these grounds of trust
and confidence. Then they put him in mind of his oath: Ps. 89:49,
'Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, which thou swearest
unto David in thy truth? It is a great advantage in believing thus to
put in a modest challenge to God.
2. Improve God's word and oath in meditation when you discourse
with yourselves. And here I shall show—
(1.) How we may improve God's oath in meditation;
(2.) When, and in what seasons.
[1.] How? Thus: God, that cannot lie, hath passed his sword, he who
is truth itself, the supreme truth, the original of all truth. Then say,
Hath he given me his word and oath? and why am I still upon terms
of suspense? The word of an honest man is wont to be enough, and
an oath is the end of strife if there be a controversy. God hath passed
his oath, and why doth the controversy still remain between me and
God? How is it with me? Is the controversy ended and taken up? Am
I satisfied with God's oath? Do I live as one to whom God hath given
such a highway of assurance? The world lives by guess and devout
aims, and hath good meanings and conjectures. Ay! but christians
should not rest in a may-be, or content themselves with a possible
salvation, with lazy conjectures or loose hopes. Art thou still upon
uncertainty, upon terms of hesitancy and suspense? See how St
James describes them, chap. 1:8, 'A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways;' and it is our character, we are double-minded,
divided between hopes and fears, full of anxious thoughts; and as
chaff is driven in the air, or waves tossed in the sea to and fro with
various and uncertain motion, so are we carried up and down. Dost
thou live up to the assurance that God hath given thee, and to the
preparation and provision he hath made for thy certainty and
confidence?
Briefly, that you may know what a sin it is to be upon uncertainty,
consider the dishonour you do to God, and the damage you do to
yourselves.
(1.) The dishonour you do to God. Unbelief accuseth God not only of
a lie, but of perjury; you accuse him of a lie with respect to his word,
and of perjury with respect to his oath and solemn engagement: 1
John 5:10, 'He that believeth not God hath made him a liar'. But God
forbid, will you say. Why then are you so doubtful, notwithstanding
so many offers of grace and mercy? why so full of trouble and
jealousy when difficulties do arise? Oh! base barbarous ingratitude!
you take a stranger's oath, but you deny God the honour that you
vouchsafe to any that bears the face of a man. If a man pass his oath,
his brother shall accept of it, Exod. 22:11, and will you not do thus to
the great God that cannot lie?
(2.) The damage you do to yourselves; you frustrate the oath of God,
and weaken your own comfort. Wherefore did God give us his oath?
What! that we might rest in a possible salvation, and walk with him,
as dancers do upon ropes, every moment to be in fear of falling? Did
God lay so great a foundation for so weak a building? Who would
build a hovel on such a foundation as would serve to bear a palace?
God's oath is a foundation for the highest confidence, and do you
think God gave it only that you might rest in conjectural hopes and
uncertainties? Nay, you run the hazard of a dreadful curse. God hath
sworn in judgment as well as in mercy: Ps. 95:11, 'Unto whom I
sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.' Do you
think this rest only concerned Canaan? No, but it reacheth the
unbelievers of all ages. Oh! it is terrible when God swears against us.
The greater his condes ension in the gospel, the greater is his wrath
when it is refused and neglected. It is very sad when God is provoked
to swear to the damnation of any creature. Who are the persons that
may stand in dread of this oath? Why, they that believe not: Heb.
3:18, 'To whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not.' It is the sin of unbelief after many tenders
and offers of mercy, which provokes God to this indignation. Here is
oath against oath, the one to drive us, the other to draw us, and pull
in the heart to God. If you continue in this course, you shall have
neither part nor portion in Christ, nor in the land of promise. It is
better to be satisfied with God's oath in mercy, than to run the
hazard of his oath in judgment. Therefore speak to conscience, Do I
come up to this certainty and confidence? Is the controversy ended
between God and me? Are all suspicions laid aside?
Object. But you will say, I do not doubt of the truth of the gospel, but
of my own interest. I doubt that I am not the person to whom God
hath sworn. The truth of God is sure, but my interest is not clear.
Sol. In answer to this, consider—
(1st.) It doth but seem so that all doubts are about our own interest,
but it is not so indeed. If once you were heartily persuaded of God's
good affection in Christ, doubts and scruples about our own estate
would soon vanish. Look, as the fire, when it is well kindled, bursts
out of its own accord into a flame, so if faith were once well laid in
the soul, if men could rest upon these two immutable things,
consolation would not be so far from them; if there were a firm
assent to the doctrine of the gospel, there would not be so many buts;
if you did firmly believe his mercy in Christ, it would soon end in a
steadfast confidence. This appeareth from the nature of the thing. All
uncertainty ariseth either from a neglect of the great salvation, or
else from trouble of conscience. Now carnal men neglect it, because
they are not persuaded of the worth and excellency of it; and men
under horrors of conscience distrust it; they are such sinners they
dare not apply it, and are so full of doubts and scruples because they
are not persuaded of the truth of the gospel. See how the apostle
proposeth the gospel: 1 Tim. 1:15, 'This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief.' If negligent and carnal men would
but look upon it as 'worthy of all acceptation,' and troubled
conscience look upon it as 'a faithful saying,' there would be more
regular actings and effects found in their hearts and lives; the
negligent would give more diligence, and the contrite would rise up
into a greater hope and confidence. If men did believe the worth of
salvation, they would not run after lying vanities. If they did believe
the truth of salvation for sinners there would not be so many
scruples and fears. It is notable that the scriptures very seldom do
press assurance of the subject, but assurance of the object in very
many places, to believe the doctrine itself, for there is the greatest
difficulty; and in the word of God we have no precedent of any that
were troubled about their own interest. If an earthly king should
proclaim a general pardon, and an act of grace to all persons in
rebellion, only on terms of submission and laying down their
hostility and returning to their duty and allegiance, the doubt would
not be of their own interest, but of the truth of his intention to show
them such grace and mercy. So it is with God; he hath proclaimed
terms of grace in the gospel, provided we will lay down the weapons
of our defiance, and return to the duty of our allegiance. Now that
which we suspect is the heart of God and the gospel in the general,
whether there be mercy for such kind of sinners as we are.
(2d.) Because we cannot persuade men to a certainty against their
consciences, what should hinder but that now you should establish
your interest, and that you now make your plea and claim according
to God's word and oath, for joy must arise from a sense of it. Your
complaining is not the way to ease your conscience, but obedience. It
is an advantage to find ourselves in an ill condition, not a
discouragement. As the woman in the gospel made an argument of
that, that she was a dog: Mat. 15:27, 'Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of
the crumbs that fall from their master's table.' As when the man
slayer saw the avenger of blood at his heels, this made him mend his
pace, and fly for refuge, so when we see we are under the wrath of
God, this should make us more earnest to look after Christ, and
salvation in and by him. The cities of refuge under the law stood
open for every comer, and there was free admission till their cause
was heard; so Christ is the sanctuary of a pursued soul, and
whosoever comes shall be received: John 6:37, 'Him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out.' God excludeth none but those that
exclude themselves. No sin is excepted but the sin against the Holy
Ghost. Therefore make your claim till your cause be heard. The great
affront we put upon God's oath is not so much doubting of our
condition, but not running to Christ for refuge. If we still stand
complaining of our lost estate, and do not attempt the work of faith,
we put an affront upon God's oath. If the Lord had bid thee do some
great thing (I allude to the speech of Naaman's servants), wouldst
thou not have done it to be freed from death and hell? How much
rather when he saith unto thee, Only come; fly as for thy life, and see
if I will cast thee out? Take up a resolution to try God, and see if he
will not be as good as his word and oath. Say, Lord, thou hast given
two immutable grounds of hope; here I come, I will wait to see what
thou wilt do for me in Christ.
(3.) I answer—Do but see whether thy interest in Christ be not
established or no? Here is the lowest qualification of an heir of
promise, and yet the highest and most solemn way of assurance.
Here are two immutable grounds, and yet what is the description?
We who have fled for refuge, 'to lay hold upon the hope set before
us.' Here is a driving work that belongs to the law, implied in these
words, 'We fly for refuge;' then a drawing work, which belongs to the
gospel, in these words, 'To lay hold on the hope set before us.' The
law begins and works preparatively, as Moses brought the children of
Israel to the borders, then Joshua led them into the land of Canaan.
The law shows us our bondage, and makes us fly for refuge, but then
the gospel pulls in the heart to God. There is a necessity of the
preparing work of the law, that we might be driven out of ourselves;
sin else would not be bitter, nor Christ sweet, our motions and
addresses to mercy would not be serious; every one hath this, some
in one degree, some in another; though all be not anxious, yet all are
solicitous: Oh! what shall I do? Now, canst thou speak of this driving
work of the law? Thou canst not say but thou art a poor lost sinner,
one willing to fly and take sanctuary in Christ, and to wait upon him
in obedience till thy great hopes be accomplished. This is the lowest
trial; what canst thou deny in it? Art thou not a poor chased pursued
soul, else what mean these fears and scruples? and what hath the
Lord required of thee, but to run to Christ for refuge? Many
christians have not assurance, but though they dare not say, Christ is
theirs, yet here they will wait, and not let go their holdfast for all the
world. God hath promised to be gracious to every one that takes hold
of his covenant, Isa. 56:6, when the soul will not let go the grace of
God in Christ, though it hath many discouragements; but, in the face
of all doubts and scruples, will anchor and hold fast, whatever comes
of it. I am a lost and undone creature; it is Christ that must save me,
and here I will stick and hold. This is the qualification, why should
we be afraid to be comforted upon God's terms? If you are resolved
to wait upon God in and through Christ, you are the heirs of promise,
God hath plighted his oath to you, if there be such a disposition in
you, being startled and awakened with the sense of your sinful
condition, to take hold, and not let it go, then what mean those fears
and scruples? Do not you desire to take sanctuary in Christ, and wait
upon him with strong resolution not to be discouraged? When
therefore God hath put it upon such low conditions, why should we
stand off?
Object. All the fear is, these terms are too easy and cheap to give a
solid comfort, and many miscarry by sudden and delusive hopes, and
this makes christians stand at a distance from their own comfort.
Ans. When a man hath God's warrant to show for his confidence,
why should he doubt? If men were once serious in the business of
salvation, there is no fear of delusion. You will find comfort cannot
be counterfeited, as the life of a creature cannot be painted. Carnal
men, that feed themselves with delusive hopes, who make an account
they shall go to heaven, are not serious, and mind not what they do,
as appears by their contradictions, for they blow hot and cold. They
think that he is in a dangerous condition that doubts of his salvation,
and yet they say it is presumption for a man to say he is assured of
his salvation. The one saying suiteth with their carelessness, and the
other with their own private feeling. They have no deliberate and
advised confidence, only a rash presumption. And because of their
miscarrying, we have no reason to weaken our own hopes; because a
man that is in a dream thinketh that he is awaked when he is not,
shall not a man that is really awake know himself to be so? Shall we
suspect all our interest in Christ and the terms of the gospel as too
free and easy? Let me tell you, by experience you will find, when you
are serious and deliberate, it is not so easy a matter to have rest for
your souls. Certainty and solid assurance is not so soon had. Guilty
nature is subject to bondage, and presagious more of evil than of
good, more prone to fear than hope, and to mourn than to rejoice;
therefore go on with your business, wait upon God, and take his way
without jealousy and doubting. Thus I have showed how you should
meditate on these two immutable things.
[2.] When must you meditate on God's word and oath? Ans. Very
often. The less you apply God's promise and oath, the weaker will
your consolation be in Christ; and the oftener, the stronger; for by
these two immutable things we have strong consolation. Christians
lose much of their peace and comfort, because they do not exercise
themselves in thinking of the condescension and satisfaction which
God hath given them in this kind, that he should lay all his holiness,
his life, his excellency at pledge with poor creatures. I am confident if
you did but think of these unchangeable grounds and advantages of
faith mentioned before, your comfort would not be upon such loose
terms. But there are some solemn times when it must be done.
(1.) Whenever you are conversant about the seals of the covenant,
and go to the Lord's table. Why should I doubt, when I have God's
promise and oath? The sacraments are visibilia juramenta, visible
oaths; here God reneweth his oath to us, and we to God. It is an oath
of allegiance to Christ, to walk in all his ways; and it is God's oath of
assurance to us, that he will perform the promises of the covenant.
As under the law, the blood of the covenant was to be sprinkled half
upon the altar and half upon the people, Exod. 24:6–8, God takes an
engagement upon himself, and reneweth his oath to be good and
gracious to us in Christ; and we take an obligation upon ourselves to
walk before him in all obedience. There is a mutual stipulation,
therefore there is a special time to meditate of the sureness on God's
part; God that cannot lie, hath said and sworn it.
(2.) In times of outward trouble, when you are in danger of fainting
and making revolt from God, meditate of the unchangeableness of
his word and oath: 'Unless thy law had been my delight, I should
then have perished in mine affliction,' Ps. 119:92. God's word and
oath were given on purpose to revive a fainting soul. This is the
design of the text; the apostle is dissuading from apostasy, and
pressing to keep our hopes to the end: ver. 11, 'We desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope
unto the end.' Why? We are not upon conjectures and probabilities;
and though outward encouragements fail, yet God's promise and
oath is a sure ground of comfort in the midst of all difficulties and
hardships. This reviveth the soul; we have a glorious inheritance in
reversion, and we have God's word and oath to show for it, as much
as the patriarchs had to show for Christ. It is notable that when the
patriarchs were exercised with any new trouble, then God renewed
his oath, implying this is a sure holdfast we have upon God. When
outward encouragements in the service of God are like to fail, then
think of the two immutable grounds of comfort.
(3.) In pangs of conscience, when guilt lies heavy and burdensome
upon the soul, God's word and oath is a proper meditation. The Lord
hath sworn that if I will, out of a sense of this misery that is upon me,
take sanctuary in Christ, I shall have strong consolation. And we
have not only an assuring, but an inviting oath, to help us in such a
case: Ezek. 33:11, 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked.' Count me not a living God if I delight in
your scruples and in your death.
(4.) In fears of death. We must die by faith, as well as live by faith;
and then comfort ourselves with the promise and oath of God, called
here two unchangeable things. We need all the props of faith that can
be used. When all things are about to change, then think, God
changeth not, though I am changing apace. As one comforted himself
with that passage: Isa. 54:10, 'For the mountains shall depart, and
the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee,
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord
that hath mercy on thee.' Sight is almost gone, and speech doth even
fail, but God's loving-kindness will never be gone. You are changing,
but you may look upon death itself as an act of faithfulness, and sent
in mercy to break the shell, that you may have the kernel; to dissolve
the union between body and soul, that the soul may flit away to God
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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2023 17:44:48 GMT -5
SERMON III
We may have strong consolation, &c.—HEB. 6:18.
DOCT. 2. That the fruit of this certainty and assurance which we
have by God's word and oath is strong consolation.
To make way for the discussion of this point, and to open the words
which the apostle here useth, I shall—
1. Inquire what is meant by strong consolation.
2. How this strong consolation ariseth from the certainty and assurance we have by God's word and oath.
3. How it is dispensed on God's part, and how far it is required on ours.
I. What is meant by strong consolation, ἰσχυραν παράκλησιν. There
are two terms, consolation, and strong consolation.
First, Consolation. There are three words by which the fruits and
effects of certainty and assurance is expressed, which imply so many
degrees of it. There is peace, comfort, and joy. Peace, in the scripture
dialect, notes rest from accusations of conscience. Comfort notes a
temperate and habitual confidence. Then joy notes an actual feeling,
or an high tide of comfort, or a lively elevation of the saints.
1. Peace. That we have as a fruit of justification: Rom. 5:1, 'Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God.' There are no actual
doubts, though we cannot say we have absolute assurance. This is the
lowest degree of assurance, and it is a fruit of the Holy Ghost; as
many of the children of God have encouragement to wait upon God,
though they cannot for all the world say they have an absolute
interest in Christ.
2. Then there is consolation and comfort, which notes an habitual
persuasion of God's love; there is an habitual confidence, a serenity
and cheerfulness of mind. Though there be not high tides of comfort,
there is support, though not ravishment. It is called 'everlasting
consolation,' 2 Thes. 2:16, 17, 'Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God even our Father, who hath loved us, and given us
everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.' There is a
settled comfort, and he prayeth for the continuance and increase of
it. When the heart is lightened or eased in duties or troubles, it is
bewrayed by a constant cheerfulness and alacrity in God's service,
and support in troubles.
3. Then there is joy, or an high and sensible comfort: Rom. 15:13,
'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that
ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.' This
abides not always; it is a festival dispensation, wherewith God
entertains the soul in the day of his royalty and magnificence, he
useth it but now and then. We have this high joy, either after the
pangs of the new birth, when deep sorrows were occasioned by the
spirit of bondage. When David's bones were broken, then 'make me
to hear joy and gladness,' Ps. 51:8. Then we have the highest comfort:
John 16:21, 'A woman when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because
her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of a child, she
remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into
the world.' Then our apprehensions of Christ are most fresh.
Comfort, being a strange thing, is most welcome. Trouble makes way
for more comfort; for as our trouble is most vehement, so is our
comfort enlarged. Or upon the solemn exercise of grace, when we are
carried on in high assistance, in meditation, prayer, receiving the
supper, and the word is revived upon the conscience; or else in times
of suffering and self-denial, for God will always be even with a
believer: 2 Cor. 1:5, 'For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so
our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.' A man is no loser by
Christ, but according to the ebb of outward comforts so is the tide
and overflow of inward comforts; and when we have experience of
Christ's sufferings, we also have experience of Christ's comforts, that
at the same time God may have an experience of our faithfulness,
and we of his. So that comfort is a middle degree of assurance
between peace and joy; a temperate confidence and support, though
we do not feel ravishment and actual sweetness; as a child doubteth
not of his father's affection, though he doth not actually smile upon
him.
Secondly, The next term is 'strong consolation.' Why is it so called?
1. It is called so either in opposition to worldly comforts, which are
weak, vanishing, and washy. The consolations of the world seem to
be strong till they come to be tried. Carnal joy makes a great noise,
but is soon gone: 'As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the
laughter of the fool,' Eccles. 7:6. None seem to lead such merry lives
as carnal men; but when it comes to the trial, when their joy is put to
it by sickness, trouble, pangs of conscience, or death, it is soon spent.
Take away the creature and it is gone; it dependeth upon somewhat
without them. Or if the creature continueth, it availeth not; before it
cometh to trial, wicked men tremble at the very thoughts of eternity.
Outward things cannot ease the conscience; if they could satisfy the
heart, they cannot buy a pardon: Jer. 17:11, 'As the partridge sitteth
on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by
right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be
a fool;' Prov. 11:4, 'Riches profit not in the day of wrath.' Carnal
mirth is a merry madness, as a bird in the fowler's snare: Prov. 9:17,
18, 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant;
but he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in
the depths of hell;' a stolen fit of mirth when conscience is asleep.
Carnal mirth entangleth us; the more dreggy delights oppress reason,
wound conscience, and so make way for sorrow.
2. Or else it is called 'strong consolation' in comparison with itself,
with respect to less or more imperfect degrees of comfort. There is a
latitude in comfort, some have more, and some less; some have only
weak glimmerings and drops, others have strong consolation, 'joy
unspeakable, and full of glory,' 1 Peter 1:8. Now a christian should
aim at the highest degree; the stronger your consolation, the better is
Christ pleased with it: John 15:11, 'These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy might be full.'
This makes the heart of Christ glad, when our comforts are more able
to swallow up our sorrow, and revive the soul in the midst of trouble.
In some this confidence is accompanied with more sensible doubts,
staggerings, and weaknesses, though comfort gets the upper hand; in
others it is more strong, clear, and lively, and they act in the ways of
God with greater encouragement.
3. It may likewise be called strong in regard of its effects.
[1.] It marreth carnal joy, it puts the soul quite out of taste with other
things. Men used acorns till they found out the use of bread. We
content ourselves with husks till we taste of the fatted calf in our
father's house. The soul must have some oblectation, love cannot lie
idle; we are taken with garlic and onions till we taste manna. When
once we have tasted of the love of God, other things will not be so
sweet: Cant. 1:4, 'We will be glad, and rejoice in thee; we will
remember thy love more than wine.'
[2.] It is stronger than the evil which it opposeth; it swalloweth up all
our sorrows, whatever they be. Look, as we say of wine, or of any
spirits, it is very strong, when a few drops can change a great deal of
water into its own nature, so, because it overcometh the greatest
evils, terrors of conscience, worldly miseries, and the greatest
anguish and distress which may befall us, therefore it is called strong
comfort. A mighty joy, a sense of God's love in Christ, swalloweth up
all our sorrow whatever. The wrath of God is a dreadful thing; we can
hardly think of it without amazement. The fear of hell, death, and
judgment to come, these are wont to raise a great storm in the
conscience, but spiritual joy can only allay it. As a wounded
conscience can say, There is no sorrow like unto my sorrow; so a
peaceable conscience can say, There is no joy like unto my joy: Phil.
4:7, 'The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds, through Jesus Christ.' The strength of this joy
is seen by experience rather than expression. In outward troubles,
they can 'take pleasure in infirmities,' 2 Cor. 12:10; 'Glory in
tribulation,' Rom. 5:3. The more the devil seeks to trouble the saints,
they have the more joy, and are 'more than conquerors,' Rom. 8:37,
and all by the power of this joy; as the more we seek to wrest a staff
out of a man's hands, he holds it the faster. Tribulations, anguish,
distress, fears, torments, difficulties, they are all overpowered by this
joy.
II. How this strong consolation ariseth from assurance and certainty.
To establish joy and comfort, two things are necessary—excellency
and propriety. The thing in which I rejoice, it must be good, and it
must be mine. Suitably here in the text, there is an assurance of
excellent privileges; and then there is a qualification annexed, that
we may understand our own interest. God by his oath assures us of
excellent privileges in Christ, and that is a ground of strong
consolation. Then he requireth a duty of us, that we fly for refuge to
take hold of the hope set before us.
1. For the excellency of our privileges. You know, that which will
minister solid comfort to the soul, it had need be excellent. A small
matter, though never so sure, will not occasion a strong consolation;
the joy is according to the object. Now, whether a christian look
backward or forward, there is matter of rejoicing to the heirs of
promise. Backward, there is the immutability of his counsel; forward,
there is a hope set before us. From one eternity to another may a
believer walk, and still find cause of rejoicing in God. If he looks
backward, there God reveals to him the unchangeable purposes of
grace before the world was; if he looks forward, there is an eternal
possession of glory, when the world shall be no more. It is sweet to
know what is past and what is to come; there is naturally a curiosity
in us which would be satisfied. We know what God was doing before
the world was, and what he will do when the world shall be no more.
We may know, for our comfort, God was treating and dealing with
Christ about our salvation, putting it into an unchangeable course;
and he hath for ever provided for the comfort and welfare of our
souls, that we may enjoy him, love him, and delight in him for
evermore. Man, out of a natural curiosity, hath a great delight both
in history and prophecy, to read what is past, and to foreknow what
is to come, especially what concerns his own destiny. Now God in
condescension tells us, under the assurance of an oath, what he has
done for us, what thoughts of love he had towards us from eternity,
what he will do, and how happy our estate shall be for ever. God doth
not only satisfy the curiosity of our nature, that desireth knowledge,
but the bent of it, that poiseth us to our own happiness. It is sweet to
read our names written in the book of God's everlasting decree: Luke
10:20, 'Rejoice because your names are written in heaven;' that God
hath set us down as heirs of all that grace and mercy he hath
dispensed in his covenant. It is sweet and pleasant to reflect upon his
ancient purposes of grace; and by the eye of faith to read our names
written and recorded in the rolls of heaven; when you hear any offer
in the gospel, to say, This was God's purpose and eternal counsel to
bestow this upon me before all worlds; he thought of me then. And
then there is an hope set before us; thy lot is fallen to thee in a fair
ground. Oh! what joy is this to believers, that their souls are fully
provided for for ever and ever, and they shall have what infinite
mercy can bestow, and what infinite merit hath purchased!
2. Another cause of strong comfort is interest and propriety. Besides
the excellency of the privilege, there must be the clearness of our
interest. The object of joy is not only good in common, but our good,
τα αὐτῶν πᾶσιν ἥδεα. That which is a man's own is sweet to him. It
doth not enrich a man to hear there are pearls and diamonds in the
world, and mines of gold in the Indies, unless he had them in his own
possession; so it doth not fill us with comfort and joy to hear there
are unchangeable purposes of grace, and that there was an eternal
treaty between God and Christ about the salvation of sinners, and
that there is a possible salvation, but when we understand this is
made over to us. When God led Abraham through the land of
promise to view the breadth and the length of it, and see the
goodness of it, he saith, 'All this will I give thee,' Gen. 13:15. So here
we speak of rich comforts, but happy is the man that can apply them.
We speak of abundance of comfort, but it is to those that have an
interest in it, not to those that live in their sins. Here is a description
of the parties, which must be regarded if we would establish this
comfort. When once we take sanctuary in Christ, and run to him as
our city of refuge, then God saith, All this will I give thee; this hope is
thy own, and you are those to whom belong these unchangeable
purposes of grace; otherwise it is but a joy in fancy and conceit. It is
said of David, 1 Sam. 30:6, 'But David encouraged himself in the
Lord his God.' He comforted himself not only in God, but in the Lord
his God. That God is ours, this is a ground of comfort. As the father
said, Tolle meum, tolle Deum—Take away mine, and take away God;
so the church, Hab. 3:17, 18, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour 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 stall; yet I will rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.'
III. How it is dispensed on God's part, and how far it is required on
ours; because every heir of promise cannot speak of these lively
comforts, those sweet and strong consolations of the Spirit.
First, On God's part. There is a great deal of difference between
christians in respect of God's dispensations.
1. Consider, Christ, though he loved all his disciples, yet he did not
use them all alike familiarly; some were more intimate with him, and
were more in his bosom. In his transfiguration he takes with him
Peter, James, and John, Mat. 17:1; and when his agonies came upon
him in the garden, he took the same disciples with him, Mat. 26:37.
Though they were all dear to Christ, yet these were chosen out above
others to be witnesses of his agonies and transfiguration. So though
all the elect are dear to Christ, yet there are ἐκλέκτων εκλεκτότεροι,
the elect of the elect, some chosen out above others, with whom God
will be more intimate and familiar. All the saints, with respect to the
substance of the covenant, are alike beloved. Those poor christians
who were scattered throughout Pontus, Asia, Galatia, Cappadocia,
and Bithynia had ἰσότιμον πιστιν, 'like precious faith' with Peter the
apostle, 2 Peter 1:1. A jewel in the hand of a man and of a child is of
the same value, though a man holds it more firm and faster; so faith
being conversant about the same object, the righteousness of Christ,
as to acceptance with God, is alike precious; though because some
have a greater faith, and hold the jewel faster, God may more
manifest himself to them, and be more intimate and familiar with
them. We are all saved by the same mercy, redeemed by the same
merit, and called to the same grace and glory for the substance of it;
yet in degrees of grace and dispensations of comfort there is a vast
difference. Some are feasted with loves, while others are exercised
with sorrows, trained up in a way of duty without comfort, their
apprehensions being more sad and doubtful, and their comforts
more dark and litigious; for comfort is not absolutely necessary to
salvation, though we should all aim at it. The highest degree of
comfort pleaseth Christ best; when our joy is full, then Christ's heart
is most delighted: John 15:11, 'These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full;'
though we may go to heaven without it. Look, as many carnal men go
to hell, and die. away without any actual sense of wrath to come, so I
am persuaded it is possible that some christians may neither in life
nor death have any feeling of comfort and joy. Certainly we find
some have it not all their lives till sickness and the hour of death, and
they are even in the borders and suburbs of heaven; their pulses of
desire and love beat vehemently after Christ; when they are in the
end and close of their lives, then their hearts are filled most with
peace and joy, as natural motion is swiftest the nearer the thing
moved draws to its centre. Again, others have comfort, and may lose
it again; these spiritual suavities are liable to change, and such
dispensations may be removed. The 5th of Canticles begins with a
feast, and ends with a story of desertion. There are many ups and
downs in a christian's comfort; and after great enlargements, when a
soul hath been feasted with the loves of Christ, there may be a sad
suspension, and our gourd, which seemed to cast a comfortable
shadow upon the soul, may be devoured and eaten up by the worm of
conscience. If our joy were always full, we should look for no other
heaven. Thus there is a great deal of difference in regard of God's
dispensation, without any breach of faithfulness; he doth not break
his oath in not ministering to us this strong consolation, for God hath
not absolutely promised degrees of comfort.
2. Though God deals here with great difference, yet it is usual with
the Lord to give most comfort to three sorts of persons—
[1.] To the poor in spirit. Look, as parents use their weak children
with most indulgence and fondness, so poor weak christians, that are
sensible of their weakness, wants, and sins, have that comfort which
is denied to persons it may be of greater spiritual ability. Comfort is
promised to mourners, and blessedness to the poor in spirit: Mat.
5:3, 4, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' Their
interest many times is most sensibly cleared up, and they feel the
greatest elevation of joy and comfort. It is God's wonted method to
revive the spirit of contrite ones, and to bind up broken bones: Isa.
57:15, 'For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' God loves to
comfort poor, humble, afflicted believers, whereas others, that are
full of themselves and of their own abilities, are carried on in a more
dark and low way. A broken vessel is fitter to hold the oil of gladness
than a full one, I mean such who are empty and broken, and
possessed with a sense of their own wants. Thus our Lord saith, Mat.
11:5, 'The poor have the gospel preached to them.' We translate it too
feebly; in the original it is εὐαγγελίζονται, the poor are evangelised;
it is such a form of speech as notes a deep reception, they are all to be
gospelled. The poor, not in purse or estate, but poor broken-hearted
sinners, they are drenched in gospel-comfort, and most filled with
the good news and glad tidings of salvation, and a sense of God's love
in Christ.
[2.] Though God is at liberty, yet usually he fills those which are
exercised with hard and long conflicts with their corruptions.
Comfort is Christ's entertainment for those that return from victory
over their lusts: Rev. 2:17, 'To him that overcometh,' that is, the
enemies of his salvation; he that hath been long wrestling with the
powers of darkness, and the inconveniences of the world, and
corruptions of his own heart, and can persevere notwithstanding
assaults and temptations, 'to him I will give to eat of the hidden
manna;' that is, feast him with inward and spiritual refreshments,
figured by manna; 'and I will give him a white stone,' which some say
was a token of election; a white stone they gave in their suffrages for
choice of a magistrate, to manifest they had chosen him; or else
white stones were given to wrestlers as a token of victory; or, as
among the Romans, a black stone with a hole in it was a sign of
condemnation, a white stone of absolution; or in lots, a white stone
was a token of good luck and happiness, a black stone of misfortune.
Take it either way, Christ will give it to him that overcometh; they
shall have the comfort of pardon, and free justification with God, and
till then a man is not fit for comfort.
[3.] Those that are called forth to great employments and trials are
seldom without comfort, and this strong consolation, that they may
behave themselves worthy of their trial. Look, as men victual a castle
when it is in danger to be besieged, so God layeth in comfort
aforehand when we are like to be assaulted. This we have in the
example of our Lord himself. Just before Christ was tempted, he had
a solemn testimony from heaven: Mat. 4:1, 'Then was Jesus led up of
the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.' Every
circumstance of scripture is notable, and when the Spirit of God
notes the time, it is to be regarded: Then; it looks back to the words
before, chap. 3:17, 'Lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And after this solemn
assurance, 'Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,
to be tempted by the devil.' Certainly somewhat there is in that, that
the same apostles must see the beaming out of the divine glory of
Christ, and afterwards see his agony, as Peter, James, and John, first
his glory in the transfiguration, and then his agony in the garden; to
show that when once we have had experience of the glory of Christ,
when he hath given us any signification of his love, any foresight of
heaven, and of our interest in the comforts of the covenant, then
most commonly we are called out to suffer agonies and bitter
conflicts. God's conduct is gentle and faithful, he drives on as the
little ones are able to bear; he doth not lead into great temptation
until he hath given the advantage of great comforts; first he stores
the hearts, and lays in sweet consolation, then calls out to trial.
Secondly, On our part. It is not absolutely required that we should
enjoy it, but only to seek after it; and if we want it, to submit to God's
pleasure. Comfort is seldom withheld when it is long sought and
highly prized. I cannot say he is no child of God that hath not a
feeling of this strong consolation, but he is none that doth not seek
after it, and that hath low and cheap thoughts of the consolations of
God Job 15:11, 'Are the consolations of God small with thee?' We are
absolutely bound to communion with God in point of holiness, and
to seek after communion with God in point of happiness; but
rewards differ from duties, and they must be left to God's pleasure.
There is a difference between comfort and grace; comfort is a mere
dispensation, and is to be referred to the pleasure of God; but we
cannot be without grace, without sin; the one belongeth to
communion with God in point of holiness, and the other to
communion with God in point of happiness; and God hath the
dispensing of our happiness: the one concerned our being, the other
our well-being; grace makes us living, comfort makes us lively
christians. On God's part, if he doth not give us sensible consolation,
he is only bound to give us sustentation and support; and there is no
breach of duty on our part to want comfort, provided it be not
despised, and we do not neglect to seek after it. To want grace or any
degree of it, though it be God's gift, is a sin, because the creature is
under a moral obligation; but to want comfort is no sin, because that
is a thing given, not required. Grace is given and required. Comfort is
required that we should seek after it, but for its attainment we must
leave that to God's pleasure, and tarry till the master of the feast bids
us sit up higher, and till then we must be content with our measure
and degree. And this is God's course, he gives less comfort, that we
may look after more grace; and in the decay of comfort a christian
many times doth receive a greater increase of grace; as you know a
summer's sun that is clouded yields a great deal more refreshment
and comfort than a winter's sun that shineth. It is an advantage to be
kept humble, and therefore we must submit to God's will, and be
contented with 'unutterable groans,' though we have not the
'unspeakable joys' of the Spirit, 1 Peter 1:8, Rom. 8:26, we must be
satisfied with a lower dispensation.
Use 1. Information in these branches.
1. That comfort is allowed to the saints. I observe it, because we are
nothing and deserve nothing unless it be misery, torment, bondage,
and so out of guilt we entertain comfort with jealousies and fears.
Dolorous impressions are most natural to a guilty conscience; we
suspect comfort, and in deep distresses we refuse it: Jer. 31:15, 'A
voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel
weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children,
because they were not;' and Ps. 77:2, 'My soul refused to be
comforted.' This was his infirmity. God hath made you a good
allowance, take heed of refusing comfort upon God's terms. God
alloweth it; it is made a part of our work: Phil. 4:4, 'Rejoice in the
Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice.' We serve a good master.
Christ hath purchased it, and the Spirit worketh it, for he is the
comforter: Rom. 14:17, 'The kingdom of heaven is not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Nay,
it is not only God's allowance, but his great aim; the solemn
assurance that is given by his covenant is that you may grow up in
believing to a strong consolation, and be able to laugh at fears and
sorrows.
[1.] You may pray for it when you want it: Ps. 90:14, 'O satisfy us
early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.'
[2.] Nay, when you have lost it by your default, it is not boldness to
ask grace and comfort again when you have wasted conscience and
weakened your hopes; as David, Ps. 51:12, 'Restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation.' When your candle is put out, you may get it lighted
again.
[3.] You may wait for comfort, and still continue your attendance
upon God: Ps. 85:8, 'I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he
will speak peace to his people and to his saints.'
[4] You may entertain it when it comes. Comfort is a fruit of the
Spirit as well as grace; he which is the God of grace is also the God of
consolation; and the same Spirit which works grace witnesseth for
our comfort; and it is as great a crime to smother his witness as to
resist his work. Whatever we think, God would have us not only to be
holy, but to be cheerful. Would you make the heart of Christ glad?
See John 15:11, 'These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.' Christ rejoiceth
most in his heritage, when they live up to the provision and
preparation he hath made for them in the gospel. The devil envieth
our comfort, he knows how useful it is in the christian life, to make
us thankful for mercies, cheerful in his service, to wean us from
carnal delights, and make us willing to do and suffer for God; he
seeks to weaken our confidence, as knowing the joy of the Lord is our
strength; he would either keep us from grace, or from a sense of it;
and make us either wicked or sad, and keep us from a comfortable
feeling and apprehension of grace.
2. If strong consolation be a fruit of certainty upon God's oath, then
it informs us that it is a false comfort and peace, which is not the
fruit of certainty and confidence in Christ, which ariseth either from
a neglect of duty or carnal pleasure; and all that wicked men have
comes from one of these grounds. It is good to look to the fountain
and spring of our joy and comfort, that we may be able to say with
the psalmist, 'Thy comforts delight my soul,' Ps. 94:19. We should
look to the ground and reason of our peace and security. Why am I
thus quiet? Is it because God is reconciled to me in Christ; because of
assurance from him, under his oath, upon my taking sanctuary in
Christ? The devil lulls men asleep by other means. Carnal men's
comfort ariseth from carelessness and negligence in the spiritual life;
they do not trouble the devil, nor he them: 'When a strong man
armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace,' Luke 11:21. The devil
lets us alone when we let him alone, when we do not exasperate lusts,
nor trouble his kingdom in our heart. Look, as the sea is very calm
when wind and tide go together, so when our corruptions and Satan's
temptations run the same way, all is calm and quiet. As a man feels
not the sickness that grows upon him till the humours are stirred by
exercise, so when there is a spirit of slumber and security, and men
are neglectful and careless in the spiritual life, and let Satan alone to
possess the heart, they sleep, but their damnation slumbers not.
Then for carnal pleasure, this will not give them leave to think of
their condition; their whole life is nothing but a knitting of pleasure
to pleasure, and a diversion from one contentment to another; so
they put far off from themselves the thoughts of their own eternal
condition. The outward man is gratified, and the inward man hath no
time; they fill the soul with work, that it may not fall upon itself, as a
mill grinds not itself as long as it hath something to work upon; as
the prophet observes of those that drink wine in bowls, 'and put far
away the evil day,' Amos 6:3. They melt away their days in pleasure,
and charm and lull their souls into a deep sleep with the potion of
outward delights, lest conscience should awake and talk with them.
Therefore look to the ground of your comfort and security, whence it
cometh: Ps. 94:19, 'Thy comforts delight my soul.' Every now and
then we should be making experiments, and try the strength of it.
Can you venture your everlasting estate upon the present
confidence? Would I be thus found of God? 1 John 2:28, 'Little
children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have
confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.' In
afflictions and sickness men are wont to be serious. Is your faith
found to praise and honour?
3. It informs us that the state of a believer is far better than the state
of those that flow in worldly delights. A man of a great estate, and
that abounds in all the comforts of this life, may seem to live a merry
life. Oh! but a believer hath strong consolation, such as, when it is
put to the trial, will bear him out in life and death. Wicked men may
rejoice, as a bird sings in the fowler's snare; they may take comfort
in. their portion for a while, but in their latter end they will be fools.
Alas! your comforts cannot ease you of the colic or headache, nor
give you a good night's sleep. Small comfort, that can neither satisfy
the heart in any distress, nor ease the conscience. Solomon saith,
Prov. 11:4, 'Riches profit not in a day of wrath.' Take it for man's or
God's wrath. In man's wrath, riches many times prove our burden;
and none lie so obnoxious to public displeasure as rich men; the
comfort is soon lost, it lieth without us. An estate cannot be carried
about you; though it be in jewels, it is liable to hazard. The rich Jews
were carried captive when the poor were left to till the land. So in the
day of man's wrath, it falls most upon worldly great men, they have
poor comforts which will not bear them out; but we read of those
which 'took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in
themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance,' Heb. 10:34. Though with Joseph they lose their coat, yet
they keep a good conscience, and this makes amends for all their
outward losses. But I take the place rather for God's wrath; there is
the trial in trouble of conscience, and in the pangs of death.
Christians, as sure as the Lord liveth, there will a time come when
the strength of your comforts will be tried. Here you sit a brooding
upon wealth, as a partridge upon rotten eggs; and what then? 'At his
latter end he shall be a fool,' Jer. 17:11. Why at his latter end? Then
he shall be so in the conviction of his own conscience, his own heart
will call him fool. O fool! O madman that I was, in lavishing out my
time, strength and care upon that which will yield me no comfort! Mr
Fox tells us of a rich cardinal, who, when about to die, cried out, And
must I die that am so rich? will not death be bribed? will money do
nothing now? This will be your case and condition when you come to
die, if you get not an interest in this strong consolation. As that
pagan emperor warbled out to his soul, O animula blandula vagula,
quo nunc abibis? &c.—Oh! where is this soul of mine going? You that
now shine in bravery, that eat of the fattest, and drink of the
sweetest, when your day is gone what will become of you? You must
die and go from all this. Nothing then but peace of conscience and
spiritual comfort will serve the turn. Oh! for one drachm of this
comfort then when death is nigh and God is angry. Men keep a great
deal of bustle now to get honour, and break through all restraints of
honesty and conscience to work themselves into worldly greatness.
Oh! but when they come to die, how will this be upon their heart?
What would they give then for peace of conscience, and this strong
consolation which God vouchsafeth to the heirs of promise? But then
no price will be given to God. That look as a husband when he
surpriseth his wife in her adulterous embraces, 'He will not spare in
the day of vengeance; he will not regard any ransom; neither will he
rest content, though thou givest many gifts,' Prov. 6:34, 35. So when
God hath surprised you in the midst of your whoredoms, when you
have diverted your respects from, and been disloyal to him, it is the
day of his vengeance, and he will take no ransom. What will a man
give in exchange for his soul? There will be such a dying hour, which
thou must expect, it is hard by. Christians, have you comforts strong
enough to encounter the terrors and horrors of death? Within a little
while you will be put to trial.
4. It informs us that christians put a disparagement upon their
comforts when they are dejected with every fear and trouble. This is
much beneath God's oath, the merit of Christ, and the joy of the Holy
Ghost, and all the provision the three persons have made. As for
instance—
[1.] When your comforts are so weak that you faint in every affliction:
Prov. 24:10, 'If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is
small.' Thou hast small comfort if it will not bear thee out in outward
trouble. God and Christ and the Spirit, they are as it were trying their
skill (I would speak it with reverence) to raise up a confidence in
believers that shall be affliction-proof; now if you are presently gone
when put to trial, you disparage this strong consolation, and
frustrate all the provision they make for you. Many a heathen would
do better upon moral principles, and behave themselves with a
greater generosity and bravery of spirit. You know that question, Job
15:11, 'Are the consolations of God small with thee?' The meaning is,
is all the provision of comfort and grace and joy in the Spirit too
slender to bear you up in this affliction? What do you expect,
christians? Would you have better provision than God hath made?
Dost thou expect greater promises, surer mercies, and a more able
Christ to bear up thy heart? Are not all the consolations of God able
to raise you up? Thus when you are overcome in every trial.
[2.] When you are full of doubts, bondage, and servile fears, you
disparage God's consolation. As for instance, when you cannot think
of the judgment without horror: Acts 24:25, 'As he reasoned of
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled;'
or of death without bondage: Heb. 2:15, 'Through fear of death they
were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' Christians, now and then
we should be making experiments, and trying the strength of our
comforts, and say thus, Can I venture my everlasting estate upon this
confidence? Would I be thus found if Christ were coming to
judgment? 1 John 4:17, 'Herein is love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the day of judgment.' Take it for God's
apprehensions of his love to us, or our apprehensions of our love to
God; we should still be providing for that day, and citing ourselves
before Christ's tribunal, that we might see of what strength our
consolation is
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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2023 18:31:16 GMT -5
SERMON IV
We might have a strong consolation, &c.—HEB. 6:18.
USE 2. To press you to look after this strong consolation. Oh! be not
contented until you have the fruit of God's oath, that you may be able
to live up to the provision and preparation he hath made for your
comfort in the covenant. It is a condescension that God will give us
his oath, and this is the fruit of it, that we might have strong
consolation, to see our names in God's book, and our heaven in
Christ's possession.
I shall press you with arguments both of duty and profit.
First, For arguments of duty.
1. It is for God's honour that his people should walk comfortably.
Two things there are which God glories most in—the holiness and the
comfort of his people: in their holiness, as he is a God of grace; in
their comfort, as he is a God of consolation. It is said in scripture,
'There is none holy as the Lord.' God would have the world know that
there is none can sanctify but he alone. Moral principles may change
the life, but he only can change the heart. And then it is said there is
none like him in pardon: Micah 7:18, 'Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity?' God would have the world know that there
is no comfort so strong and sweet as that which he conveyeth. In
your lives God will be glorified in holiness; in your deaths God will be
glorified in your comfort: Jer. 6:16, 'Where is the good way, and walk
therein, and you shall find rest for your souls.' Is there any such
comfort to be had as my people have, as they have found in the way
they have beaten, the beaten path of faith, repentance, and
godliness?
2. As it is for God's glory, so for our profit. We look upon comfort
with jealousy, knowing we have deserved none: we are guilty
creatures, therefore are loath to entertain it even upon God's terms.
Joy is the strength of the soul: Neh. 8:10, 'The joy of the Lord is your
strength,' and that in all duties. Satan knoweth that while the
conscience is kept raw, the soul is unfit for action. A christian never
acts so strongly, so regularly, as when he is filled with God's love.
Again, there are some special duties which cannot be performed
without comfort, as rejoicing in God: Phil. 4:4, 'Rejoice in the Lord
always; and again I say, Rejoice. You cannot have comfortable
thoughts of God, your meditation of God will not be sweet, until you
have apprehensions of his grace. And you cannot long for the
presence of Christ. It is 'the Spirit in the bride, that saith, Come,' Rev.
22:17. God will not be sweet, nor the day of judgment looked upon
with hope and longing. And so for thankfulness for mercies;
thanksgiving is the vent of comfort and joy.
3. Though it costs you pains, it will make amends at length. All
excellent things are encompassed with difficulty. Comforts would not
be rightly prized, nor rightly managed, if they did not cost us pains
and diligence. The heir that comes to his estate without labour
spends it riotously many times, whereas those that know the getting
of an estate are careful in spending it; so when we come lightly by
comfort, we are apt to abuse it. It must cost pains, for it is the nature
of man to slight things that are easily obtained.
4. Consider, comforts were to be suspected if they cost you nothing.
Foolish presumption is like a night dream, soon gone, like a
mushroom that grows up in a night, or like Jonah's gourd: 'Behold,
thou hast not laboured, neither madest it to grow,' saith God, Jonah
4:10. So an idle conceit without labour, that you receive you know
not how, comes to nothing. False comfort casts a false shadow upon
the soul for a while, to shelter it from the wrath of God, but the worm
of conscience will soon devour it. But a settled solid comfort, though
it costs much pains, yet it will stick by you, and satisfy you for all the
expense of labour and travail of soul to which it puts you.
Secondly, Take notice of the benefit that this comfort will bring you,
how it will sweeten all things, sweeten God, Christ, providence,
ordinances, mercies, afflictions, nay, death itself.
1. It will make God sweet to you. Ps. 104:34, David saith, 'My
meditations of him shall be sweet.' Oh! how sweet is this, when we
can think of God without horror and trembling, his mercy will be
sweeter to you, because it is yours; this is your portion. His justice
will not be your terror, but support; your comforts are bottomed
upon God's justice as well as his mercy, 1 John 1:9. The apostle doth
not say, he is faithful and gracious, but 'faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' You have a
holdfast upon God by the merit of Christ, and so you may expect a
crown from a righteous judge. Nay, his very wrath will increase your
comfort. Why? Because this you have escaped. Look, as a sense of
danger heighteneth the deliverance, so for reflections upon God's
wrath, if it be opened to you in a sermon, or to your own thoughts,
how may you rejoice that you are delivered from it. No man can look
upon the sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped a danger
of shipwreck; so will you with comfort look upon all the bitterness,
and dregs, and sourness of God's wrath, this you have escaped; as the
Israelites, when they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore, sang a
song of praise. Nay, this will make the magnificence of his creating
power sweet; when you walk in the fields, and view the structure of
the heavens, you will say, Heaven is my Father's palace, and mine in
Christ: 'All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,'
1 Cor. 3:22, 23.
2. This will make Christ sweet, whenever he is represented in the
word, and crucified before your eyes, and you can say as Thomas,
'My Lord, and my God,' John 20:28. A possible salvation is nothing
so sweet as that which assurance gives. Conjecture gives but a taste,
as those hypocrites had but a 'taste of the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come,' Heb. 6:5; but this is nothing to an
actual interest. When you can say, 'My God,' how doth it fill the soul
with ravishment and sweetness!
3. This will make all his providences sweet, the dreadful acts of his
justice, and terrible things of righteousness which God discovereth to
the sons of men. Look, as a son is much delighted in a history
wherein are recorded his own father's valiant acts, so will you take
pleasure in meditating upon the providences of God; they are the
mighty acts of your God and Father.
4. This will make ordinances sweet; as prayer, it brings the soul
sweetly into God's presence. It is a far greater advantage to cry, 'Our
Father,' than to cry, 'Lord, Lord.' Observe it when you will, duties are
a burden, either when we have a false peace or none. When we have a
false peace, for then we are loath to disturb our carnal quiet; it
breeds a quarrel between vile affections and natural conscience. Oh!
when we have no peace, fears are revived and come upon us anew; as
guilt ariseth at the presence of the judge or an offended party. Oh!
but when we can say, God is our reconciled God, what a comfort is
this! It is sweet to draw nigh in the assurance of faith: Heb. 10:22,
'Let us draw nigh in full assurance of faith.' This will make the word
sweet; the word relishes not unless we have some interest in the
comforts of it. Things which do not concern us affect us not. Though
a man come with never so much comfortable promises, they taste not
sweet until we have a propriety in them. A taste presupposeth hope.
Oh! but how sweet will it be when we shall come to the word as to the
reading of our own charter, as the indenture which is drawn between
God and us, by which all privileges are made over to us, and can
apply the promises, and say, This was God's unchangeable purpose
given me in Christ. And this makes the supper of the Lord sweet, for
then you can come as one of God's friends and invited guests: 'Eat, O
friends, drink; yea, drink abundantly, O beloved,' Cant. 5:1. Others
hope well, but you are sure of welcome and entertainment.
5. This makes all particular providences of God to yourselves sweet,
when they are dipped in love, for 'all things shall work together for
good to you,' Rom. 8:28. Though a single dispensation may seem to
go cross to your desires and hopes, yet there is no curse in it; as a
crooked stick in a faggot makes the whole more compacted: Cant.
4:16, 'Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south.' Mark, north and
south wind, two contrary blasts from different corners; however it
be, it doeth good to the church. Whencesoever the blast comes, be it
a gentle breath that comes this way, or a cold nipping wind that
comes another way, it makes the spices to flow out. Oh! how sweet
are mercies, when they are wrapped up in the bowels of Christ, and
sent to us as a token from heaven, and we can see love in all our
enjoyments! If God gives you deliverance, you may say, as Hezekiah,
Isa. 38:17, 'Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption.' You are loved into mercy. Whatsoever you enjoy, it is not
as a creature, but as an heir. What a comfort then will a christian
take in a morsel of bread, when he can see God's special love in it,
more than worldly men can take in their greatest possessions! Look,
as a mean remembrance from a friend is better than a royal gift from
an enemy, so this makes thy meat and bread sweet, when sent from
thy Father in heaven, when thou hast it as an heir of promise.
6. This will make afflictions sweet; their very property is altered; they
are not now vindictive dispensations, but such as belong to the
covenant of grace, and so they will not do us harm: 'In faithfulness
thou hast afflicted me,' Ps. 119:75. When you can make this
reflection, The Lord seeth I want this, else I should not be exercised
with such providences. At least there is a supply of inward comfort,
and then a heavy burden is nothing to a sound back. If God strikes,
sin is pardoned, and the sting of affliction is taken away.
7. It will sweeten death itself; thou knowest whither thou art going.
Death is a sad stroke to wicked men, which sends the body to the
grave, and the soul to hell; it must needs be a king of terrors to them.
But death to those that have this strong consolation is as Haman was
to Mordecai; from a mischief, it is made a means to do us honour.
Christ hath delivered us both from the hurt and fear of death: Heb.
2:14, 15, 'That through death he might destroy him that had the
power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' So that we may
entertain it with delight, as Jacob looked upon the chariots that were
sent for him with rejoicing. This is a messenger to carry me to Christ;
and who would refuse to be happy? Phil. 1:23, 'I desire to depart, and
to be with Christ.' They know death is but a loosing from the body,
that they may be joined to Christ, and they had rather lose a
thousand bodies than fellowship with Christ; their souls are sent
away in peace to the place of bliss.
8. This makes the day of judgment sweet. Look, as the betrothed
virgin longs for the day of espousals and when the bridegroom will
come, or as a woman longs for the return of her husband that is gone
a long voyage, so the soul that is betrothed to Christ longs for the
return of the bridegroom, that he may carry it into his Father's
house.
9. It will make the thoughts of heaven sweet. When a christian walks
abroad, and points up to heaven, he may say, There is the place of my
bliss and everlasting abode. One would think this were enough to
ravish the heart of any man, and make him do anything, even run to
the ends of the earth, to gain this strong consolation.
But we are backward and slow; therefore here is the great question,
What shall we do to get and keep this great comfort?
I shall give you a few directions. Many rest in notions; when they see
the way, they are discouraged, and go no farther. But will you engage,
before the Lord, to observe these things, if you find them according
to scripture?
First then, how to get these strong consolations.
1. Lay a good foundation by meditating upon the mercy and truth of
God in the gospel. Our first comfort ariseth from meditation, or the
serious act of faith on the mercy and truth of God; as settled
assurance ariseth from a sight of evidence. God usually gives us at
first conversion a taste of his goodness and sweetness, which
differeth from assurance: 1 Peter 2:2, 3, 'As new-born babes desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye
have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' Usually at first, when the soul
is taken up with deep thoughts of God's love and mercy in Christ,
God lets in some comfort and sweetness into the soul, which, though
it be not assurance, and a solemn testimony of our interest in Christ,
yet it is a refreshment which the soul receiveth, while it admires the
riches and the bounty and the certainty of God's grace. However this
is a taste, a beginning, that maketh us look after a more assured
sense of God's grace. Briefly, there must be believing thoughts of
God's mercy and truth. I call this meditation, because all the direct
acts of faith are performed and carried on by the help of the
thoughts. Faith engageth us in solemn musing, and deep thoughts
fasten things upon the spirit. As eggs are hatched by a constant
incubation, so when the soul museth, comfort ariseth. The two things
you should often propound are mercy and truth, because they are the
Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars which support the covenant of grace;
for it was made in mercy, and kept in truth. Therefore it is said,
Micah 7:20, 'Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and mercy to
Abraham.' The covenant was made first with Abraham, therefore it
was mercy to him; but it was made good to Jacob, therefore it was
truth to him. In the 89th Psalm, they are seven times coupled; the
one is the fountain, the other the pipe and conveyance; it springs
from mercy, and is conveyed and dispensed in truth. Therefore the
psalmist saith, Ps. 25:10, 'All the paths of the Lord are mercy and
truth to them that keep his covenant and his testimonies.' It is free
that it may be sure, and sure that it may be free. These are the two
attributes God doth glorify in the covenant of grace, and in all his
dispensations of grace.
[1.] Meditate of the mercy and love of God. In the covenant of works,
God would glorify his justice, but his great aim in the covenant of
grace is to glorify his mercy: Eph. 1:6, 'To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath accepted us in the Beloved.' God would
make grace glorious. Justice seeks a fit object, mercy only a fit
occasion. The question of justice is to whom is it due? but the
question of mercy is who wants it, who needs it? Well, then, though
Satan and our own hearts may make many objections, there is
enough indeed to overwhelm us, to damn us when we look to
ourselves. But what will God glorify? Grace, grace. This is the banner
he hath spread over the church, in defiance of all the powers of
darkness: 'He hath brought me to the banqueting-house, and his
banner over me was love,' Cant. 2:4. You must refresh your souls
with a sense of God's mercy; every day get a sprinkling of Christ's
blood upon your heart. Now in the establishing assurance, this is
necessary; for the Spirit sealeth as a Spirit of promise, upon terms of
mercy and grace: Eph. 1:13, 'Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise.' The Spirit stirreth up faith in the promise, and then giveth
in the sense and comfort of it. And therefore if you first look for
evidence, and see what grace is wrought in you, you pervert the order
of the gospel; the right method is to begin with direct acts, and then
to go on to reflex acts; first refresh the soul with God's free grace and
mercy.
[2.] Then for God's truth, look upon what sure terms grace is
conveyed to you. In the text you have God's word and oath. God
would over and above satisfy you. If you will not trust him upon his
word, yet give him the credit you would give to an ordinary man's
oath. You have promises of grace written in the scriptures; put him
in remembrance, spread your matter before the Lord, and show him
his tokens: Lord, whose are these? Then you have covenant and
seals, which are as indentures between God and you. A covenant is a
solemn transaction between man and man; now God hath made a
covenant, and sealed it in the sacrament. Then you have not only
outward seals, but inward assurances, earnest, and first-fruits; as if
the Lord could never be bound fast enough to the creature, that is so
loose and uncertain. God hath given us his word, oath, covenant,
seals, and earnest, which you should meditate upon if you would
increase delight.
2. Get assurance and holiness, which is an evidence of your title and
interest. As Ahab was angry with the prophet Micaiah: 1 Kings 22:8,
'I hate him, because he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but
evil;' so sinners hate us because we speak not peace, and do not
assure them of comfort. But alas! in vain do we press men to
comfort, for till there be holiness there can be no peace or positive
certainty: 1 John 2:3, 'Hereby do we know that we know him, if we
keep his commandments.' This is the evidence we must avouch in the
court of conscience. Though comfort be founded upon Christ's merit,
yet it will be found only in Christ's way. Mark the distinctness of
phrase, Mat. 11:28, 29, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.' Certainly it is Christ must give
us rest; but when will he give it? ver. 29, 'Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find
rest for your souls;' when we abide in the discipline of his Spirit. God
first poureth in the oil of grace, and then the oil of gladness. There is
an inseparable connection between comfort and grace, as between
fire and heat; if no fire, no heat; and if no grace, it is in vain to expect
comfort. The dispensation of the Spirit of Christ cannot be severed
from the application of his merit. Christ is first king of righteousness,
then king of peace, Heb. 7:2. First he disposeth and puts the soul into
a holy righteous frame, and then settleth peace and quiet in the
conscience. Alas! for others, God will not trust them with it, and they
cannot receive it. God will not trust them with peace and comfort.
God trieth carnal men with the comforts of the world, which they
abuse to the neglect of God, and therefore he will not bestow upon
them the comforts of his Spirit: 'If therefore ye have not been faithful
in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true
riches?' Luke 16:11. When a leaky vessel is tried with water, and will
not hold it, you will not put any precious liquor into it; so if you are
carnal, and abuse worldly comforts, corn, wine, and oil, to riot and
excess, do you think God will trust you with the strong consolations
and ravishments of his Spirit? Then you cannot receive it. A man
may as well think to apply a needle to his finger and not be pricked,
as to commit sin and not find trouble in his conscience. Comfort
cannot be felt there where sin reigns; and besides, a carnal heart can
have no spiritual discerning. Therefore the foundation must be laid
in grace and holiness, that is the evidence.
3. Labour after a sense of grace. Grace and a sense of grace differ, for
the spiritual acts of the soul are not so liable to feeling as the acts of
the body. When I awake, I know I am so; but internal sense differeth
from outward. A man may be in a state of grace, yet not always know
it; as John 14:4, 5, 'Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and
how can we know the way?' A direct contradiction. Sciebant isti, sed
se scire nesciebant, saith Austin—The apostles knew the way, but did
not know they knew it. We need an interpreter to show us our
righteousness. Grace is so weak, and there is such a mixture of sin,
and men so seldom come to an audit, that conscience is extremely
puzzled to know whether there be grace or no. Our uncertainty in
this kind may be reduced to these two heads—want of observance,
and want of judgment, inadvertency and injudiciousness. We do not
take notice of the acts of grace through non-observance, and because
of the mixture of weakness, conscience cannot judge of the
regulation of our actions. We neglect observation, and therefore are
to seek of consolation. You know there are two questions go upon
this debate—whether I have done such a thing or no? then whether I
have done it as I ought to do it? It concerns first the being of the
action, and then the regularity of it, congruousness of it with the rule.
Therefore, if we would get a sense of grace, we must be watchful to
observe what is done, and judicious to see whether it carry
proportion with the rule. Now, 'by use our senses will be exercised to
discern both good and evil,' Heb. 5:14. To get a sense of grace, the
soul must be heedful and cautious. By long and much acquaintance
with God and the work of holiness we may be able to make a
judgment upon our own actions.
How shall we keep the soul in a constant observation, that we may be
more at home, and constantly take notice of the state of the heart?
Here these rules will be of use.
1. As doubts arise get them satisfied. These are hints from God, that
you should study your hearts more. Smothering of doubts is
dangerous; it breeds atheism and hypocrisy; therefore, when they
arise, never dismiss them without an answer and clear satisfaction;
do not suspend it out of self-love and carnal fear. As when we see the
smoke a-coming, we keep blowing to get it into a flame, so when the
Spirit begins to set the heart on fire, keep blowing. Doubts arise, but
bring them to a head. God offereth many a fair occasion to men to
study their own heart, how it is with them; if they neglect it, all runs
to confusion and uncertainty. Well, having your hearts at an
advantage, get the case cleared one way or other.
2. As sins are committed get them pardoned: 1 John 2:1, 'If any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.'
Run to your advocate; never leave until you have gotten a copy of
your discharge, and God gives you assurance of your pardon by his
Spirit in the court of your consciences. This will put you upon often
recourse to Christ, which is the sure way to get comfort; but
negligence in the spiritual life, and swallowing sins without remorse,
breeds security. Look, as a fountain, when it is muddied, never leaves
till it work itself clear again, so when you have fallen foul, and
conscience smites, never leave until God hath given you the pardon
of that sin: Jer. 8:4, 'Shall they fall, and not arise?' Take heed of lying
still or of negligence. If you be a constant observer of corruptions,
and cease not until by Christ's death you get a pardon, all things will
not be so dark, doubtful, and litigious.
3. Revise acts of faith as soon as they are exerted and put forth.
When faith is renewed by the word, in prayer, or in meditation,
examine it. Lusts and graces are best discovered whilst they are
stirring. A man surprised in an act of sin is most sensible of it: 'A
thief is ashamed when he is found,' Jer. 2:26. So to surprise the soul
in an act of grace, as when sweet thoughts and hopes of God's grace
and mercy are stirred up, say, Is not this faith? Carnal principles,
that otherwise lie hid, are best discovered in their operation; as when
a man is praying or preaching out of vainglory, if his heart return
upon him, and take him tardy, his shame is more increased.
4. Get experiences confirmed as soon as they are exhibited. A
christian that walks in darkness and is uncertain of his state had
need be watchful, and wait upon God in the word and in prayer, and
observe providences for some glimpses of his love. Look, as
Benhadad's servants, 1 Kings 20:33, watched for the word brother, so
should you watch what tokens of love and favour will pass out, and
what experiences and quickenings you have. In the word: Ps. 119:93,
'I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened
me.' When you find fresh excitations of grace come in upon the soul,
oh! I shall never forget such a duty; there God met me and quickened
me. Oh! improve it. So in the supper: Cant. 1:3, 'Because of the
savour of thy good ointment, thy name is an ointment poured forth,
therefore the virgins love thee.' When at any time you have been
conversing with God, and the Lord hath stirred up holy joy, oh!
remember it. So for comfort in affliction: Rom. 5:3, 4, 'We glory in
tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and
patience experience, and experience hope.' When you have had any
experience of God in trouble, improve it to a settled hope. Should I
not believe in him, and wait upon him for comfort, that hath been so
gracious to me? When experiences and feelings pass away without
any observation, we lose a great deal of comfort.
5. Give not over strong desires of grace until they be answered and
satisfied. Many times there is something which awakens the heart to
grow earnest in prayer. Observe what answers God gives: Ps. 27:4,
'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.' When
holy and strong desires are stirred up in the heart, we must not suffer
them to go away, but they must be pursued resolutely, and
recommended to God until he give an answer.
6. When at any time you are convinced of the power of sin, leave not
until you get it mortified. There are some sins which have most
power over us, as suiting with our complexions and course of life,
and they most of all urge the soul with frequent temptations. Now a
christian is to observe the weakness and decay of this sin; as David,
Ps. 18:23, 'I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from
mine iniquity.' Whatever the sin be, be it pride, sensuality, or
worldliness, any carnal practice, or fleshly gratification, which you
are convinced of by many smitings of conscience. A man cannot be
such a stranger to his heart but he must needs find what this sin is.
Now, you will never have peace till this be mortified. Spiritual peace
is disturbed, God provoked by it, and a guilty conscience is
clamorous, and full of objections; you must narrowly observe the
decay of this sin.
7. Observe how daily temptations are checked. There is no day but
the devil will be casting in some bait or other, either to please
appetite, provoke anger, stir up pride, or worldly desires of greatness
and reputation, and rising in the world, or fears of men. Now unless
a man be a constant observer of his temptations and conflicts, all will
be out of order, and in confusion with him; a man will be a great
stranger at home, and not observe what his heart is. This much for
the first question, how to get it.
Secondly, How to keep it. As it is gotten with much diligence, so it
must be kept with much care.
1. There must be constant watchfulness against sin, and avoiding it;
suppose it be passion, wrath, evil-speaking, envious and vain
thoughts, all these grieve and disturb the Spirit in his sealing work:
Eph. 4:30, 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption.' Men usually sin away their comfort and
peace, and the grieved Spirit will refuse to give witness. Evidences
are not kept clear, but are blotted and blurred, that you cannot read
them. Especially watch against such sins as most waste the
conscience and disturb all in the soul.
2. There must likewise be a constant increase, and an exercise of
grace. I press both.
[1.] A constant increase of grace. Small things are hardly discerned.
Many stars in the firmament are so small that they cannot be seen;
so a great many graces in the soul, when small, conscience can take
no notice of them. They need have good eyes that read a very small
print. Every grace by degrees is set forth in a fairer letter and a new
edition; as the waters of the sanctuary grew deeper and deeper, Ezek.
47:3–5; 2 Peter 1:5–10. Give diligence to add to and increase every
grace. He musters up several graces, and then infers the exhortation,
ver. 10, 'Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and
election sure.' So that by increasing of grace still we increase our
assurance. Christians rest in complaints, but do not increase and
grow in grace. It is impossible for a man to have fire in his bosom
and not feel it; so it is impossible, if men did grow and thrive every
day, but they would be sensible of it.
[2.] Exercise grace more. By a constant exercise of grace it is drawn
forth into the view of conscience. Grace is never so apparent as when
it is in action. As the sap is hidden though the fruits are seen, so
habits of grace lie out of sight, but operations discover what is in the
soul, the fruits appear. Therefore if christians be lazy and without
fruit, they will be without comfort. St James saith, chap. 2:23, 'Faith
is made perfect by works.' Understand not in a popish sense, as if
works did contribute a worth and value to faith. No; but as the
strength of God's power is discovered with more advantage by the
weakness of man: 2 Cor. 12:10, 'When I am weak then am I strong.'
So faith by works is sensibly discovered with more advantage to the
soul. So that if a man would come to the knowledge of grace, he must
be constant in the operations of grace.
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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2023 18:42:11 GMT -5
SERMON V
Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
—HEB. 6:18.
THE third thing I would take notice of in this test is the description
of those who may take comfort in God's word and oath, 'Who have
fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' The point is
this—
Doct. 3. The true heirs of promise, with whom God hath pawned his
word and oath to do them good eternally, are such as have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them.
In the description there are two parts, 'flying for refuge,' and 'taking
hold of the hope set before them.' The one relates to their
justification, or their first acceptation with God in Christ, 'Flying for
refuge;' the other relates to their carriage after justification, 'To take
hold of the hope set before them.' To open both these—
I. For the first branch, 'Flying for refuge.' It is an allusion to the cities
of refuge spoken of under the law. God provided six cities of refuge
for them to fly to that were guilty of casual homicide, that, killing a
man by chance, they might avoid the fury of the avenger of blood.
These cities of refuge were a type of Christ. In the opening of which, I
shall show two things—(1.) That Christ is a believer's city of refuge;
(2.) That believers must run into him.
1. That Christ is a believer's city of refuge, or the alone sanctuary for
distressed souls. These cities are spoken of Num. 35:11–14, Josh. 20,
and Deut. 19. Now the comparison or resemblance between Christ
and these cities is very obvious. Look, as God appointed cities of
refuge to fly to, so Christ is of God's appointing to be a sanctuary for
distressed souls. These cities were built upon hills and mountains,
that they which fled to them might ever keep them in sight; so Jesus
Christ is set forth: Rom. 3:25, 'Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation for our sins.' And the apostles which did hold forth
Christ are compared to 'a city upon a hill,' Mat. 5:14. Christ is lifted
up in the preaching of the gospel, to be seen of all. There was a
causeway, with stones set up to guide them, a direct path, that the
manslayer might fly thither: Deut. 19:3, 'Thou shalt prepare thee a
way, and divide the coasts of thy land into three parts, that the slayer
may flee thither.' The cities were so established that they might have
a short and direct way to them, and that their escape might be more
easy; so the way to Christ is clear and open, that we may not miss of
him who is alone the support of our souls; and God hath appointed
some that were as stones to signify to us that this is the way: Zech.
9:12, 'Turn ye to the strongholds, ye prisoners of hope;' by the
ministry of man he hallooeth, as it were, after us: Isa. 30:21, 'Thine
ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in
it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.'
Again, they were ordered so that in half a day one might recover one
or other of them from any part of the land or corner of the land; so
God is made near to us in Jesus Christ: Rom. 10:6–8, 'Say not in
thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ
down from above), or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to
bring up Christ again from the dead); but what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of
faith which we preach.' Our refuge doth not stand at a distance; the
gospel hath brought him near to us. In the gospel God doth so plainly
and fully show the way of salvation, that we need not seek further;
Christ is at hand to do us good. Once more, these cities of refuge
were all cities belonging to the Levites, partly that the tribe of Levi
might be the more esteemed and loved of all Israel, but chiefly that
they might not be lurking holes of wicked and flagitious persons, but
a school as well as a sanctuary, where persons that lived there in exile
might be instructed in the law of God; so whoever comes to Christ for
refuge must come also for instruction, to be taught and instructed in
all the ways of God: Micah 4:2, 'Come and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he
will teach us of his ways.'
Other things are spoken of these cities of refuge, but I now come to
the persons that had slain a man by chance, and were not guilty of
malice prepense; they fled thither as for life, for fear of the avenger of
blood; so do we even 'fly from wrath to come,' Mat. 3:7, as if the
wrath of God were at our heels. And whoever ran to the city of refuge
was to be received; the gates were always open, for Jew or foreigner;
the sojourner was capable of the privilege as well as the natives:
Num. 35:15, 'These six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of
Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that
every one that killeth any person unawares may flee thither.' So John
6:37, 'He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' The arms of
the Lord's mercy stand open to receive us. And when they were once
received, they were safe, and might enjoy their privilege without
molestation, unless they went out of the limits and bounds of the
city, then it was death: Num. 35:26, 27, 'But if the slayer shall at any
time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he
was fled; and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of
the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he
shall not be guilty of blood.' So when wrath makes inquisition for
sinners, they are never safe but so long as they are 'found in Christ,'
Phil. 3:9. Christ must not be made use of only at first, but for ever.
And here they were to remain until the death of the high priest, Josh.
20:6, who was herein a type of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who by his precious death wrought out a perfect
reconciliation between God and us, and procured the full pardon of
all our sins, and a perfect liberty from the pursuit of God's wrath:
John 8:36, 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed.' I mention these things because it is very comfortable to
compare the law and the gospel. Look, as though you know a man
well, yet you delight to view his picture, so though Christ be more
clearly represented in the New Testament as a sanctuary for souls,
yet it is good to look upon his picture, and the shadows of Christ
under the law.
2. It is the property of believers to fly to Christ for refuge. This flying
may be explained with analogy to the two terms of every motion,
which are terminus a quo and ad quem, from what we fly, and to
what; and so we have the perfect method and course which the Spirit
observeth in bringing home souls to God. In this flying to Christ as a
city of refuge there is a driving and a drawing work; the first belongs
to the law, the second to the gospel. The law driveth us out of
ourselves, and the gospel draweth us, and bringeth us home to God;
first there is a preparative work of the law, which causeth flight and
fear, and is as the avenger of blood at our heels to make us run as for
life: but the gospel hath the greatest stroke in the conversion of a
sinner; it is the gospel that pulls in the heart of a man to God. In
coming to Christ we are moved not only with fear but hope; a flight
argueth fear, and there is an hope set before us; there is a fear of
deserved wrath, and a hope of undeserved mercy. First the law
worketh fear in us, as a good preparation to make way for the gospel,
but then the hope set before us in the offers of the gospel perfecteth
the work; as Moses brought them to the borders, but Joshua led
them into the land of Canaan. Let us speak a little distinctly of these
points.
[1.] Let us speak of the terminus a quo, the term from which we
come, or the driving work; it is comprised in these two things—a
sense of sin, and a sense of the wrath of God pursuing for sin.
(1.) There must be a sense of sin. A man is satisfied with his
condition until he seeth his own vileness in the glass of the law: Rom.
7:9, 'I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died.' He had as great hopes as most men
have. Persons have a strong conceit of themselves, and a large
opinion of their own righteousness, until the law of God comes upon
their hearts in full evidence and power, and shakes their confidence;
then what wretched creatures do we appear to ourselves upon such
conviction! I thought that I was thus and thus towards God, but I see
that I am wholly carnal, and the law is spiritual; I had thought that I
had a better heart towards God, but alas! I was wholly overgrown
with lusts. This is like the awaking out of a dream; a poor hungry
man dreams that he is satisfied, but awaking, his soul hath nothing;
so a sinner says, I thought my estate was good; but now I am
convinced of the unsoundness of my heart, oh! how poor and
miserable and wretched am I in all spiritual respects? First or last we
are thus humble: Rev. 3:17, 'Thou sayest I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' Sottish
wretches think they had ever a good heart towards God: Mat. 19:20,
'All these things have I kept from my youth up;' and they go on with a
pleasing dream, and so are not so much as prepared for Christ. The
children of God are kept constantly humble, they think none can
have a worse heart than they: 1 Tim. 1:15, 'Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.'
(2.) There must be a sense of the wrath of God pursuing us for sin;
both are necessary. Some are sensible of sin, but not of wrath; as the
carnal and dissolute, who cannot but know themselves wicked
wretched creatures, but do not consider of wrath to come: Amos 6:3,
'Ye put far away the evil day.' Hell is at a distance, and judgment is to
come: they put off trouble when they cannot put it away; they sleep,
but their damnation sleepeth not; they adjourn their work, and leave
their souls at a desperate pass. Things afar off, though they be
marvellous great, seem little; a star that is bigger than all the earth is
as a spark or spangle. Their consciences are not sensible of wrath,
though their hearts be full of sin. Wrath is not upon them, nor the
avenger of blood at their heels; they delay and dream of a devout old
age. But now God maketh them sensible of wrath to whom he
meaneth grace, though I confess in a different degree. They are
solicitous, if not anxious; one time or other they are brought to this.
What shall I do? Some more violently, others more gently; some are
wounded at the very heart, others are pricked and a little stung at the
heart: Acts 2:37, 'Now when they heard this, they were pricked in
their heart,' as with an empoisoned dagger. No certain rules can be
given; sometimes they that have good education have least terrors, as
being restrained from grosser sins. Trees long unpruned have the
more cuts when they come to be lopped. Some have more terrors,
because they have withstood more means. Some that are called to
greater services have most terrors; he that hath received much wrong
by a bad neighbour can speak worse of him than he that hath
received less injuries. Those that are not called to such eminent
services, God spareth them. Work serveth instead of sorrows. Some
have drunk most deeply of the dregs of sin, they serve only for
monuments of the power of God's anger. Sometimes men or women
of the most excellent and acute understanding are most troubled, as
having the clearest apprehension of the heinousness of sin and
terribleness of wrath. At other times it cometh from ignorance, as
fears are in the dark, and weak spirits are apt to be terrified. There
can be no certain rules, only this in general, all feel some smart. Sin
would not be bitter, and Christ would not be sweet, did not we taste
it sometimes. The hart would not pant for the water-brooks if it were
not chased, Ps. 42:1. Every one cometh to Christ with their load. A
man that was never lost in himself will never be found in Christ.
[2.] Let us come to the terminus ad quem, from what we come to
what; they run to Christ as their city of refuge.
(1.) It implies earnestness, as in a case of life and death. A dilatory
trifling spirit shows we are not touched at heart. A man scorched
with the wrath of God will not linger but fly; delays are a sign of
unwillingness. To say, Non vacat, I am not at leisure, rightly
interpreted, is non placet, it doth not please me. When men are not
at leisure for the things of their peace, it is a sign they have no mind
to go to Christ, and are not earnest in this matter. Excuses are but a
real denial, as they that have no mind to pay their debts, they put off
their creditors and troublesome suitors until another time, only to be
rid of them. When men have a true sense of their case, they can trifle
no longer. In a matter of life and death delays are dangerous. God is
for present obedience: Heb. 3:7, 'To-day if ye will hear his voice.' And
so a soul that is affected with its condition cannot dally with God any
longer: Gal. 1:16, 'Immediately I consulted not with flesh and blood.'
When Christ called Andrew and Peter, they 'straightway left their
nets, and followed him,' Mat. 4:20; and Zaccheus 'made haste and
came down, and received him joyfully,' Luke 19:6. When men have
but a slight conviction, they think of a more convenient season, when
such a business or such a temptation is over; but alas! modo et modo
non habet modum, a sinner's morrow will never come.
(2.) Running to the city of refuge implieth avoiding all byways. A soul
that is rightly affected cannot be satisfied with any other thing;
another place would not secure the man, nothing but the city of
refuge. Worldly things to a wounded conscience are as unsavoury as
the white of an egg. Surely the wound is not deep enough when it can
be healed with other plasters, and that thirst is not urgent which we
can quench at the next ditch; I mean, when the comforts of the
creature can satisfy the soul, our thirst was not very deep. Many have
a trouble upon them, but they quench it in mirth and carnal
company, and by little and little wear out all feelings of conscience. A
man that ran to a city of refuge would not turn aside, but went a
straight way thither; another town could not secure him; so all things
else are but dung and dross in comparison of being found in Christ,
Phil. 3:8, 9. There are two things which are apt to keep us from
Christ when we begin to be touched with any sight of sin or God's
wrath pursuing us—either the delights of the world, or some formal
duties. When a man begins to be in want with the prodigal, he first
feeds upon husks with the swine, takes up with worldly delights,
which serve to benumb and stupify the conscience. Or, if that will not
do, then some outward formal duty. That trouble never went very
deep that can be cured with anything on this side Christ.
(3.) This running implies an unwearied diligence. The man was
running still till he was gotten into the city of refuge, for it was for his
life; so we are unwearied until we meet with Christ, Cant. 3:2. The
spouse sought her beloved throughout the whole city, from one
ordinance to another, Where is Christ? They run here and there to
the word and to prayer, to see if God will let in any glimpse of love.
They do not presently give out, though they find not what they look
for, but are borne up by encouragements of the word. Many that
have trouble upon them are anxious, and make a kind of essay
whether God will give them Christ or no, and, if not presently
answered, throw up all; but they which run to Christ in good earnest
wrestle with many a discouragement and delay; it is for the lost
sheep of the house of Israel; it is children's bread, and not to be given
to dogs, but they are resolved to hold fast and take no denial.
(4.) When they are got into their city of refuge, they stay there;
having once taken hold of Christ, they will not quit their holdfast for
all the world. Many times the children of God have that which
divines call a negative adherence, that is, they do not stick to other
things; though they dare not apply Christ to their souls, though they
have but a twilight, and make but a blind adventure, they dare not
say Christ is theirs, yet they will not let go that kind of loose hope for
all the world. Much more when it comes to some positive adherence,
though not a full assurance, that is, when they are resolved to cast
their souls on Christ, to see what God will do with them; as Joab
when he took hold of the horns of the altar, he said, If I die, I'll die
here, 1 Kings 2:30. So, whatever discouragements they meet with,
their hearts hold Christ fast, and will not let him go.
II. For the second branch, 'To lay hold upon the hope that is set
before us,' and you must repeat the word flying or running again.
Here is another metaphor implied. The apostle having spoken of
flying, alludeth not only to the city of refuge, but to that speed and
haste men make in a race to take hold of the prize; for he speaks of
laying hold of a hope set before them (the word κρατῆσαι signifies to
seize upon it), and ver. 20, of a 'forerunner' that is entered before us.
. What is this hope? Hope is put for the thing hoped for, heaven
with all the glory thereof; for it is a hope 'that lies within the veil,'
ver. 19, or a hope 'laid up for us in heaven,' Col. 1:5. Mark the double
end of him that cometh unto Christ, refuge and salvation; for in
Christ there is not only deliverance from pursuing wrath, but eternal
life to be found; first we fly from deserved wrath, then we take hold
of undeserved glory. This is more easy of the two: Rom. 5:10, 11, 'For
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son; much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.' The greatest
brunt is at first, because of the great fear upon us to fly from wrath;
then we encourage ourselves to take hold of eternal life. In the
temporal refuges they had security, but not possessions, there was no
heritage there; but here we are not only secured against the avenger
of blood, but we are called to great and glorious hopes. Our privileges
in Christ are not only privative, but positive: Cant. 2:3, 'I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste.' Christ is not only a shady tree, to afford a cool and wholesome
shade to shelter us from the scorchings of the sun, but a fruitful tree;
we are not only sheltered from wrath, but called to eat of the apples
of paradise. In the covenant of grace God doth not only enter into a
league with us, that he will not hurt us, but he openeth all his
treasure to us. So Ps. 84:11, 'The Lord God is a sun and a shield.' We
are not only pardoned, but restored to favours and friendship. It is
much to us to be delivered from the terrors of hell, but more to be
made heirs of eternal life. The prodigal only looked for a pardon,
Luke 15:19, 'Make me as one of thy hired servants,' and the father
bringeth forth the robe, the ring, and the fatted calf. Oh! that we, that
have deserved to be in the bottom of hell, should find a place in the
heart and bosom of God! Let us enlarge our expectations according
to the extent of Christ's mercy. Here is pardon and glory; heaven is
more credible than pardon: Rom. 5:10, 'Much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life.' It is harder to get a guilty sinner
pardoned than a pardoned sinner glorified. And let us answer the
divine mercy, to be not only negative, but positive in our obedience.
Many please themselves in an abstinence from gross sins, but do not
care to maintain communion with God: Ps. 1:1, 2, 'Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat
of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law
doth he meditate day and night.' They are not scorners, wicked
enemies and drunkards, but there is no savour of religion upon their
hearts. Do they delight in the law of the Lord? Do they meditate on it,
and make it their study? To leave sin is but the first degree, there
must be something more.
2. Why is this hope said to be set before us?
I answer—
[1.] To note the divine institution of this reward; it is not devised by
ourselves, but appointed by God. The hypocrite's hope is compared
to the spider's web, Job 8:14, which is a poor slender thing, woven
out of her own bowels, and it is gone by the first turn of a besom; so
is the hypocrite's hope a fancy, a slender imagination, or a rash and
unadvised confidence, which comes to nothing.
[2.] It is proposed and set before us for our encouragement. As it is
said of Christ, Heb. 12:2, 'For the joy that was set before him, he
endured the cross, and despised the shame;' that is, for the joy that
was propounded to him. Well, then, it is a real hope, and a hope
offered to us, and laid before us.
[3.] What is it to run to take hold of the hope set before us?
Sometimes it implieth a challenging it as ours; as 1 Tim. 6:19, 'That
they may lay hold on eternal life.' Here it signifies holding fast, never
to let this hope go. It implieth diligence of pursuit, perseverance to
the end, and all this upon christian encouragement.
(1.) Diligence in pursuit of eternal life in the heirs of promise. It is
expressed by working out our salvation, making it our business: Phil.
2:12, 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.' Most men
make a jest of it, or a thing of course; but it must be made the main
work, the great pursuit and thing in chase, as the obtaining the prize
in a race, and not only a business, but that which is first and chief:
Mat. 6:33, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness
thereof.' And a business that must be earnestly prosecuted and well
followed, and that notwithstanding discouragements: Mat. 11:12,
'The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force;' when men press through, and will not be kept out. There must
be earnestness in the matter, and this not only for a fit, and for a
little while until they have made some progress, but there must be a
getting ground daily: 'I press toward the mark, for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' Phil. 3:14, getting nearer, and
nearer, making for heaven apace, to be established in the hopes of
eternal life. When we will not be put off with anything else, but have
heaven or nothing, this is to seek heaven in good earnest.
(2.) This flying to take hold of the hope set before us importeth
perseverance in well-doing, notwithstanding the difficulties in the
way to heaven. The Israelites' way to Canaan lay through a howling
wilderness; so we have many inconveniences and discouragements in
our way to heaven, but we are borne up with this hope, that the
promise will make amends for all, and so we go on in our course till
we come to our journey's end. And the apostle, speaking how Christ,
as judge of the world, will distribute eternal rewards, describeth
those that shall inherit eternal life: Rom. 2:7, 'Those that by patient
continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and
immortality.' It is not a description of our first address to Christ and
taking comfort in his merit; no, that consists in a broken-hearted
acknowledgment of our sins, and a desire to be found in Christ,
depending upon his merits and righteousness to free us from the
wrath of God. But the apostle is not describing our coming to Christ,
but our coming to heaven, and the manner how justified persons
look for their eternal reward; by patient continuance in well-doing
they seek for glory; honour, and immortality. Though we are
justified, and have the right of sons, yet we shall not have the
possession of the inheritance until we are exercised in well-doing;
therefore we must wait God's leisure, and persevere in obedience.
And—
(3.) All this upon christian encouragements, for the hope that is
before them. A man may know much of his spirit by what bears him
up, and what is the comfort and solace of his soul: Titus 2:13,
'Looking for the blessed hope;' when a man is borne up by invisible
comforts, and upon the hopes of an invisible inheritance kept for him
in heaven. A wicked man's hope lies within the compass of the world,
therefore it may perish and die before he dies: Prov. 11:7, 'When the
wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust
men perisheth;' or at least it ends at death: Prov. 14:32, 'The wicked
is driven away in his wickedness.' He would fain stay longer in the
world, but he is arrested by death, in the name of the great God of
heaven, and driven into the other world, there to be responsible to
God; 'but the righteous hath hope in his death;' then his hope
beginneth.
Application.
Use 1. Comfort to those that can apply it, even to those who are thus
qualified, that are driven and drawn to Christ, and then go on
cheerfully with the work of obedience, waiting for their inheritance
in heaven. Now, that you may take in this comfort, examine
yourselves.
1. Have you ever felt any law work? Were you ever driven to Christ?
Were you ever startled and roused out of your sins, and made
sensible of the displeasure of God, and forced to sit alone and
complain over a naughty heart? Have you Paul's experience: Rom.
7:24, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?' Have you been awakened? Eph. 5:14, 'Wherefore he
says, Awake, thou that sleepest.'
2. Have you been drawn to Christ by the cords of the gospel? Have
you been brought to him as a sanctuary for your distressed souls, as
the man shut up himself in the city of refuge? 2 Tim. 1:12, 'I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep
that which I have committed to him against that day.' Here is my
anchor and safety.
3. Are you begotten to a lively hope? Do you often look within the
veil, and groan and long for your everlasting hopes? Do you send
spies beforehand into the land of promise, a few thoughts thither?
What hearty groans are there, and sighs for that happy state! Rom.
8:23, 'And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' Doth it quicken
you and make you mend your pace, whatever difficulties you meet
with? Rom. 5:2, 'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.'
Use 2. Conviction. It showeth the hardness of their hearts who have
neither felt the law work nor the gospel work, but remain like the
smith's anvil, softened neither with hammer nor with oil; neither
driven by the threatenings of the law, nor drawn with the glad tidings
of salvation; neither John nor Jesus worketh on them. Of such Christ
speaketh, Mat. 11:17, 'We have piped unto you, and you have not
danced; we have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented.' A
rude and stupid people, not affected with any kind of music. In times
of rejoicing the Jews had their lighter notes fitted for mirth, in times
of lamentation, they had their minstrels and mourning women, that
had venales lachrymas, beating their breasts, and crying, Alas, my
brother! and, Ah, Lord! and, Ah, his glory! Jer. 9:17, 'Consider ye,
and call for the mourning women.' Notable movers of passions they
were. It was a thing so common among them, that the boys would
imitate them in the streets. To these Christ likeneth a stupid people,
that are moved with no kind of doctrine, neither with judgment nor
sweet offers of grace. Alas! they are far from the strong comfort here
spoken of.
Use 3. To persuade you to this temper. Three sorts of people usually
we speak to—
(1.) The carnal secure;
(2.) Those that are affected with their condition;
(3.) Those that esteem Christ, and embrace him, that own him as ready and willing to save sinners.
1. For the carnally secure, that never made their peace with God,
never fled for refuge, nor took sanctuary at the grace of Christ. Our
work is to make them sensible of the avenger of blood that is at their
heels. O poor wretches! will you sleep when your damnation sleeps
not? Within a little while what will become of you? In the ordinary
course of nature, you have but a few years to pass over in this world,
but for aught you know, the wrath of God, which makes inquisition
for sinners, may seize upon you a great deal sooner; you may not live
out half your days, that is, so long as in an ordinary providence you
might expect: Ps. 68:21, 'God shall wound the head of his enemies
and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses.'
God may take you by the hairy scalp while you are in your youthful
freshness, before baldness and old age cometh on, and infirmities
seize upon you. That which is measured by time will soon come
about. Every day you are a step nearer to eternity. Oh! what will
become of you? When you are at odds with God, death waylayeth you
in every place; it may take you sleeping, eating, drinking. Ah, poor
man! what refuge hast thou? what buckler to catch the blow of God's
angry indignation, and ward off the strokes of his vengeance? Oh! fly,
sinners, for refuge; the Lord knows how soon destruction may seize
upon you, while you are yet in health and strength; there is no other
means but Christ. Surely this driving work would prosper more if
men were not wanting to themselves to improve the conviction of the
word. When God shows you your natural face, and begins to startle
and awaken you, oh! let not conviction die! No iron so hard as that
which hath been often quenched and often heated; so no heart so
hard as when it hath worn out many convictions. Make use of
remorses of conscience and your own trembling fears, lest you are
given up to a spirit of slumber.
2. To those that are affected with their condition, to seek for
salvation in Christ alone. You which are troubled about your eternal
state, own Christ as a city of refuge, his arms are always open to
receive poor trembling sinners, that fly thither from the wrath of
God. You do but go about while you seek elsewhere: Jer. 31:22, 'How
long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord
hath created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall compass a
man;' that is, when God hath sent forth Christ born of a woman, why
will you weary yourselves to go about? This city of refuge stands open
for all comers; own Christ as the only remedy. One who was long
exercised with troubles of conscience, and at length came to some
establishment, gave this advice: I will never look for that in the law
which is only to be found in the gospel; and I will never look for that
in myself which is only to be found in Christ; and I will never look for
that on earth which is only to be found in heaven. These three things
are the causes why men are kept in trouble. You will get nothing but
weariness and discomfort by running about, and looking to duties
and legal qualifications; and therefore, while you are affected with
your condition, own Christ.
3. To those which are fled to Christ, and own him as the only
sanctuary for poor souls. Press onward to take hold of eternal life.
Now you have fled from deserved wrath, run to take hold of
undeserved glory. You are past the worst, the rest is more easy. The
apostle, Rom. 5:11, 12, puts a 'much more' upon this; 'Much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life;' as if that were a more
easy thing. Now the worst brunt is over; 'And not only so, but we also
joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now
received the atonement.' When you are reconciled to God, you may
look to be entertained as friends; being adopted in Christ, you may
look for a child's portion. If God would pardon your sins, and take
you with all your faults, quicken yourselves to be more diligent in the
pursuit of eternal life, and put to your best strength. You will have
many ups and downs in the world, but bear it with patience; heaven
will pay for all.
But here is a doubt—May we look to the rewards? I answer—Yes, else
there were no room for hope, for hope is nothing else but a longing
expectation of blessedness to come. Sure those think themselves
wiser than God that deny us the use of the Spirit's motives; why else
doth God set these things before us? It requireth some faith to aim at
things not seen. The world is drowned in sense and present
satisfaction; it is a great help to us to look upward. Christ made use
of it: Heb. 12:2, 'For the joy that was set before him, he endured the
cross and despised the shame.' As man, he was supported with
human encouragements. Our flesh is weak, and our task is difficult,
and therefore we need all helps. But yet we are not so to covet the
reward as to sever it from duty and neglect our work
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