was sure to meet with trouble enough, then God gave him a woi'd of promise, as you may observe, to fence his soul, before he taught him to make coats to clothe his body, Gen. iii. 15, compared with ver. 21. The Lord knew how indispensably necessary a word of promise was to keep him from being made a prey the second time to the devil, and from being swallowed up with the dismal sight of those miseries and sorrows in which he had thrown himself and posterity ; therefore he would not suffer him to lie open to the shock of their assaults one day, but presently puts the sword of a promise into his hand, that with it he might defend and comfort his sorrowful heart in the midst of all his troubles. It was the speech of a holy man, after God had made that sweet place. Matt. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, ye that are weaiy and heavy laden,' &c., the messenger ) to open his dungeon of soul-trouble, and bring him into the light of inward joy, that he had better be withotit meat, drink, light, air, earth, life, and all, than without this one comfortable scripture. If one single promise, like an ear , of corn rubbed in the hand of faith, and applied by the Spirit of Christ, can afford such a fidl, satisfying meal of joy to a hunger-bitten, pining soul, O, what price can we set on the whole field of Scripture, which stands so thick with promises / Love is witty, and sets the head at work to devise names for the person we love dearly, such names as may at once express how highly we prize them, and also more endear them to us, by carrying on them the super-
/ scription of that sweetness which we conceive to be in them. Thus many holy persons have commended the promises to us with their appreciating names : — The saints' legacies ; the breasts of God, full of milk of grace and comfort ; the saint's plank to swim upon to heaven. Indeed, we might rob the world of all her jewels, and justly hang them on the ear of the promise, and apply all the excellences she boasts of unto the promises. There are more riches and j treasure to be had in one promise than all the gold and silver of the Indies is worth, — ' Exceeding great and precious promises,' 2 Pet. i. 4 : by them a poor believer may lay claim to heaven and earth at once ; for godliness hath the promise of this life and the other also. But that for which in this place I would commend their excellency is the admirable service they do, and the efficient succour they afford a poor soul in the day of his greatest distress. They are
V. the granary of spiritual provision, whereby our Joseph, our Lord Jesus, nourisheth and preserveth alive his brethren in a time of famine. They are a hive of sweetness, where the believing soul in the winter of affliction (when nothing is to be gathered abroad from the creature) both lies warmly and lives plentifully on the stock of comfort thei'e laid up. They are, in a word, the fair
/ havens and safe road into which the tempted soul puts his weather-beaten ship,
i where it lies secure till the heavens clear, and the storms are over, which the world, sin, and Satan raise upon him : yea, when death itself approacheth, and the devil hath but one chance more for the game, one skirmish more to get or lose the victory for ever, then faith on the promise can-ies the Christian's soul out of the garrison of his body (where he hath endured so hard a siege) with l colours flying, and joy triumphing to heaven, leaving only his flesh behind in \ the hands of death, and that with an assured hope of having it redeemed out of its power at the day of resurrection and restitution of all things.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHURCH OF ROME CHARGED OF HIGH PRESUMPTION AND GREAT CRUELTY IN DISARMING THE PEOPLE OF THIS SWORD OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Is the word the sword of the Spirit whereby the Christian vanquishes his enemies ? Then we may justly charge the Church of Rome with cruelty to the souls of men in disarming them of that weapon with which alone they can defend themselves against their enemies that seek their eternal ruin. It is true they have some fig-leaves with which they would fain hide their shameful practice, making the world believe they do it in mercy to the people, lest they shovild cut and wound themselves with this weapon. We see, say they, how many errors and heresies the world swarms with by the mistakes of the vulgar ; yea, Peter himself they dare bring as a witness on their side, who saith that there ' are some things hard to be understood' in Paul's epistles, ' which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do the other scriptures, unto their
AND THE SWOIID OF THE SPIIUT. 585