1 Because of the advantage it hath in the promises ; for consider what the promises are in three things.
[1.] They are the eruption and overflowings of God's love. God's heart is so big with love to his people, that it cannot stay till the accomplishment of things ; but his love breaks out and overflows in the promise before the mercy be brought about: Isa. xlii. 9, 'Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare ; before they spring forth I tell you of them.' God's purposes are a sealed foun- tain ; his promises are a Ibuntain broken open. As when a river swells
294 * SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XLVl.
SO high that the channel will not contain it, it breaks out and overflows j so the love of God is so great that the pui-poses of God, and the foun- tain of eternal grace towards a l)eliever, swell and break out into actual promises, that we may know wliat he hath provided for us before they be accomplished. God might have done us good, and given us no pro- mise of it ; but love concealed would not be so much for our comfort. Now faith that hath such a testimony of God's love counts itself bound to be contented ; fo]' as God counts our purposes to be obedience, so should we count God's promises to be performance. When there is a purpose in the heart to do anything for God, God counts it as actually done. Abraham purposed to sacrifice his son, and it is said, Abraham offered Isaac, Heb. xi. 17. And God takes notice of David's purpose : 1 Kings viii. 18,' ' And the Lord said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart.' Now as our purposes are the first issues of our love to God, so God's promises are the first issues of bis love to us.
[2.] They are the rule and warrant of faith. The promises show how far God is to be trusted, becau.se they show how far he is engaged. So far as the Lord hath promised, so far lie hath niade himself a debtor, and so hath given the creature a holdfast upon him, something for faith to lay hold upon. God's purposes are unchangeable, there- fore the apostle speaks of the ' immutability of his counsel,' Heb. vi. 17 : and his promises are his purposes declared, therefore here faith hatli something to work upon, it can boldly challenge God upon his word. The word that is gone out of his mouth he will make good, as he hath said : Ps. Ixxxix. 34, ' My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.' The promises are a means whereby God tries our faith. God will try of what credit he is with men, whether we will depend upon his word or no, and besides they are a security put into our hands. We have now something to urge to God, and may challenge him by his promise : Ps. cxix. 49, ' Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.' They are as so many bonds wherein God is bound to us, and God loves to have his bonds put in suit. A usurer thinks himself rich, though it may be he hath little money in the house, because he hath bonds and good security ; he that hath a thousand pounds in bonds and good security is in better case than he that hath only a hundred pounds in ready money. A christian though he hath little in his purse, »yet he hath much in bonds ; he is rich in promises, by which he hath a holdfast upon God, and therefore he is contented to wait.
[3.] They are a pawn of the thing jiromised, and must be held till performance come. Gods truth and holiness lie at stake, and the Lord will set them free and recover his pawn again. God, when he leaves his promise in his people's hands, he leaves his glory, his truth, his holiness, and his justice there, and they are to remain as pledges with the creature till God sets them free again by performing his promise. This is the meaning of that solemn expression so often used — ' As I live, saitli the Lord.' He plights his essence ; count me not a living God if I do not fulfil my word. So the saints plead with God, that he would free his attributes left in pawn by fulfilling his promises : Ps. cxv. 1. * Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPOX HEBREWS XI. 295
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.' As if they should say, Lord, •we do not plead for ourselves, for our own profit, but for thy attributes ; for thy mercy and truth. When mercies come according to the promise, God doth not only deliver us, but he delivereth his mercy and truth from calumny and reproach. Now upon all these advantages faith is as good as fruition ; it is the ' substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1 ; it maketh absent things pre- sent ; it sets up a stage in the heart, and sees God acting over his counsels, and looks upon things to come as already accomplished or now a-doing. It doth not require the existence and presence of the thing we believe, but only the promise of it. Thus the patriarchs had Christ, and saw Christ, and embraced Christ — viz., in the figure and in the promise ; therefore it is said, Heb. xiii. 8, ' Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' As our faith looketh backward, so did their faith look forward ; and they are said to eat and to drink Christ : 1 Cor, x. 3, 4, ' And they did all Gat the same spiritual meat : and did all drink the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.' They had the promise, and so a believer hath heaven in the promise : John viii. 36, ' He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; ' Titus iii. 5, ' According to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regen- eration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' As soon as we are regenerated we are saved. They have the love of God in the promise, they have an holdfast upon God by his promise, and they have the promise as a pawn till the performance, and they keep it by them ; and this is as good as fi'uition to a believing soul.