Doct. 4. God will therefore make them good, and his people may expect and beg deliverance to that end.
Doct. 1. It is our duty to trust God upon his word. The act of trust is spoken of with respect to a twofold object — the word and God ; the one more properly noteth the warrant of faith, the other the object. Both are mentioned together, John xvii. 20, 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.' In other places sometimes one is mentioned, sometimes the other ; trusting in God and trusting in the word of God ; but whenever the one is mentioned the other is included. To trust in God without his word is a foolish and groundless presumption, and the word without God is but a dead letter. It is not the conveyances merely that a man liveth upon, but the lands conveyed by them.
First, AVhat is this trusting in God ?
Ans. An exercise of faith, whereby, looking upon God in Christ
^ Qu. ' spoken great things of the promise ' ? — Ed.
VeR. 42. J SERMONS uroN rSALM cxix. 449
through the promises, we depend upon him for whatsoever we stand in need of, and so are encouraged to go on cheerfully in the ways wherein he hath appointed us to walk. It is a fruit of faith, and supposeth it planted in the heart, for an act cannot be without a habit. I suppose a man to have this grace before I require the exercise of it. And it looketh upon God in Christ as the fountain of blessings, for otherwise God, to the fallen creature, is not an object of trust, but horror ; as ' the devils believe and tremble,' James ii. 19 ; and that may be the reason why the sons of men are said to ' put their trust under the shadow of his wings : ' Ps. xxxvi. 7, ' How excellent is thy loving- kindness, 0 God ! Therefore the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings ; ' and Ps. Ivii. 1, * My soul trusteth in thee, yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.' In which there is supposed to be an allusion not only to the feathers of a . lien spread over the chickens, but the out-stretched wings of the cherubim over the mercy-seat, which was a type of Christ, who is therefore called iXaanjpLov, a propi- tiation, as also the mercy-seat, Heb. v. 8, with Rom. iii. 24, ' Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' The mercy-seat, or God offering himself to be reconciled in Christ, is an open sanctuary for distressed souls to fly unto. This doth draw our hearts to him through the promises. These are the holdfast which we have upon God, the sacred bands which he has taken upon himself, the rule and warrant of faith which shows how far God is to be trusted. Our necessities lead us to the promises, and the promises to Christ, and Christ to God, as the fountain of grace ; and therefore we put these bonds in suit ; we turn them into prayers ; and then we have free leave to challenge him upon his word : Ps. cxix. 99, ' Remember thy word unto thy servant, wherein thou hast caused me to hope.' Therefore, to bear up our hearts, God hath not only promised us, in the general, that he will ' never fail us nor forsake us/ Heb, xiii. 5, * And all things shall work together for good,' Rom, viii, 28 ; that he will be with us in fire and water, Isa. xliii. 2, and that he will be ' a sun and a shield, and give us grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold,' Ps. Ixxxiv, 11 ; but also, in particular, hath multiplied and suited his promises to all our necessities, that when we come to the throne of grace we may have a promise ready. A general intimation is not so clear a ground of hope as a particular and express promise : the more of these we have, the more explicit are our thoughts about God's protection, and the more are our hearts fortified and borne up in praying to him and waiting upon him. Chirographa tua injiciebai tibi, Domine — whose are these ? Lay up his words in thy heart. Job xxii. 22. The more of these the more arguments in prayer. We depend upon him for all that we stand in need of. Herein is the nature of trust seen, in dependence and reliance upon God, that he will supply our wants in a way most conducible to his glory and our good. Now, this depending on God must be done at all times, especially in a time of straits and difficulties. At all times : Ps. Ixii. 8, ' Trust in the Lord at all times.' It is an act never out of season, but especially in a time of fears, misery, and distress : Ps. Ivi. 3, ' At
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