» Dan. iii. 28-30, Dan. vi. 25-27.
' Isa. xlviii. 11 ; Gen. xxxi.x. 20; Dan. vi. 10; Zpch. iv. 7.
^ If ijf Kx) v/*ns, cLKoufckuru. . . . Vide Beza and Calvin.
Rom. VIII. 32-34).] heaven on earth. 359
may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' * The God of hope,' saith the apostle, ' shall fill you with all joy and peace'in believ- ing.' That is, whilst you are in the exercise and actings of faith, the God of hope shall fill you with that joy that is 'unspeakable and full of glory,' and with that * peace that passes understanding.'^
Faith is the key that unlocks paradise, and lets in a flood of joy into the soul. Faith is an appropriating grace, it appropriates all to itself; it looks upon God, and says with the psalmist, ' This God is my God for ever and ever,' Ps. Ixiii. 1, and xlviii. 14. It looks upon Christ and says, ' My beloved is mine, and his desires are towards me,' Cant. vii. 10. It looks upon the precious promises and says. These ' precious pro- mises' are mine, 2 Peter i. 4. It looks upon heaven and says, ' Hence- forth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness/ 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; and this fills the soul with joy and peace. Faith hath an influence upon other graces, it is like a silver thread that runs through a chain of pearl, it puts strength and vivacity into all other virtues. It made Abraham to rejoice, and it made Noah sit still and quiet in the midst of a deluge ; tantum possuinits, quantum credimus.
Faith is the first pin that moveth the soul ; it is the spring in the watch that sets all the golden wheels of love, joy, comfort, and peace a-going. Faith is a root-grace, from whence springs all the sweet flowers of joy and peace. Faith is like the bee, it will suck sweetness out of every flower ; it will extract light out of darkness, comforts out of distresses, mercies out of miseries, wine out of water, honey out of the rock, and meat out of the eater. Judges xiv. 14. 1 Peter i. 8, ' Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.' Upon the exercise of faith, their hearts are filled with joy, with unspeakable joy, with glorious joy. Faith sees in Chi-ist plenitudo abundantice and plenitudo redundantice, a fulness of abundance and a fulness of redund- ancy; and this fills the heart with glorious joy.
Ah, Christians ! believing, believing is the ready way, the safest way, the sweetest way, the shortest way, the only way to a well grounded assurance, and to that unspeakable joy and peace that flows from it, as the effect from the cause, the fruit from the root, the stream from the fountain. There is such assurance, and such joy that springs from the fresh and frequent actings of faith, that cannot be expressed, that cannot be painted. No man can paint the sweetness of the honeycomb, the sweetness of a cluster of Canaan, the sweetness of paradise, the fragrancy of the rose of Sharon. As the being of things cannot be painted, and as the sweetness of things cannot be painted, no more can that assur- ance and joy that flows from believing be painted or expressed; it is too great and too glorious for weak man to paint or set forth.^
When Abraham believed in hope against hope, Rom. iv. 1 8, and when in the face of all dangers and difficulties, he put forth such noble and glorious acts of faith, as to conclude that ' the Lord would provide him- self a lamb for a burnt-offering,' Gen. xxii. 8, and that ' in the mount ^ trXti^uirat, shall fill you, from xXn^iu, that signifies to be filled with joy and peace, as the sails of a ship are filled with wind.
? There is in Christ not only plenitudo vasts, but plenitudo fontis, the fulness of a vessel, but the fulness of a fountain ; and this makes the heart of a saint leap, when he sees it by an eye of faith.
360 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
he would be seen/ Gen. xxii. 14; God is so taken with the actings of his faith and the effects of it, tliat he swears by himself, that * in bless- ing he would bless him;' that is, I will certainly bless him, and will bless his blessing to him ; 'and in multiplying, he would multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore,' Gen. xxii. 17. Now the angel of the Lord, viz., the Lord Jesus, as his own words shew, verses 12, 15, 16, calls unto Abraham, out of heaven, not once but twice ; and now he shews his admirable love in countermanding of Abraham, and in providing a ram, even to a miracle, for a burnt offering.^
And thus you see that believing times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to reveal his love, and make known his favour to his people, and to look from heaven upon them, and to speak again and again in love and sweetness to them.
V. Fifthly, Hearing and receiving times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to cause his face to shine upon his people* When they are a-hearing the word of life and a-breaking the bread of life, then God comes in upon them, and declares to them that love that is better than life : Acts x. 44, ' While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.' As Peter was speaking, the Holy Ghost, that is, the graces of the Holy Ghost, viz., the joy, the comfort, the love, the peace, &c., of the Holy Ghost, fell upon them. So in Gal. iii. 2, ' This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith V
By the Spirit here, Calvin and Bullinger and other expositors, do understand the joy, the peace, the assurance that is wrought in the heart by the hearing of faith, that is, by the doctrine of the gospel ; for in these words of the apostle, hearing is put for the thing heard, and faith for the doctrine of the gospel, because the gospel is the ordinary means of working faith, 'Faith comes by hearing,' saith the apostle, Rom. x. 17. So 1 Thes. i. 5, 6, ' For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.'*
In these words you have a divine power attending Paul's ministry, a power convincing, enlightening, humbling, raising, delighting, reforming, renewing, and transforming of them that heard him. Also you have the sweet and blessed testimony of the Spirit attending his ministry, and assuring those of their effectual calling and election, upon whom the word came in power, and raising up their spirits to joy in the midst of sorrow. Ah ! you precious sons and daughters of Zion, that have sat waiting and trembling at Wisdom's door, tell me, tell me, hath not God
* Dominus provtdebit, the Lord will provide, was Maximilian's pious motto, and should be every saint's motto in straits and troubles.