[2.] For the profit of others. Your faith professed doth as it were seal the truth of God to them : Isa. xliii. 10, ' Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.' God's people, that have from time to time such plen- tiful proofs of divine power and providence, are able to give sufficient testimony for him; and others are confirmed in the faith and belief of
388 A SERMON ON JOHN III. 33.
that to which we attest when we are diligent in holiness, patient and joyful under the cross, full of hope and comfort in great straits. We put to our seal to the promises, and commend our faith to others. God was angry with Moses and Aaron, Num. xx. 12, ' Because ye believed me not. to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel ; therefore ye shall not bring the people into the land which I have promised them.' We are not only to believe God ourselves, but to sanctify him in the eyes of others. We set hands to a thing that we would pro- mote and get to pass in the world. We must believe so that others may be moved by the generousness of our faith to embrace the truth. When the Thessalonians had received the word in much assurance, and much afHiction, and much joy in the Holy Ghost, the apostle telleth them, 1 Thes. i. 5-7, they were ensamples to all that believed in Achaia and Macedonia. Thus we propagate our faith, and commend the truth of God to others. But alas ! many are not only infidels themselves, but propagate their infidelity : Titus i. 16, ' In their works they deny him,' live down the faith they pretend unto. Our lives should be a confirmation of the gospel, but are indeed a confutation of it ; we should confirm the weak, and we offend the strong. Well, then, the meaning is, he is firmly persuaded in his own heart, and doth openly profess and live accordingly, and gains others to do likewise.
(2.) The matter confirmed, that God is true ; not that God is mer- ciful, or that God is just, holy, and wise, but that God is true.
[1.] God's truth is a great prop of faith. That which upheld Sarah, when she had a promise of conceiving a child, after she was past age, was the faithfulness of God, Heb. xi. 11. So you put to your seal that God is true, he is truth itself. God can do anything, but cannot lie. The heathen acknowledged it to be the property of the gods to speak the truth and do good.
[2.] The honour of his veracity is more pleasing to God than any other thing : Ps. cxxxviii. 2, ' Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.' He hath ever stood upon that, in being punctual in keep- ing covenant and fulfilling his promises. This is most conspicuous above all that is famed or spoken or believed of God ; nothing so dear to God as his truth. Men cannot endure to have the lie put upon them ; they take themselves to be honoured when their word is believed. And will God disappoint them that deny themselves, and build upon his promises ? It cannot be.
[3.] This setting to his seal that God is true, it supposeth some pre- cedent obligation which he hath taken upon himself, and God's word is engaged and laid at pledge. Now —
(1.) God is engaged by promise to Christ in the covenant of redemp- tion, that he will justify, sanctify, glorify all those that believe in Christ, Isa. liii. 10, 11. Now the poor soul that receiveth his testi- mony giveth it under hand and seal that God is as good as his word, that he hath performed the conditions of the eternal covenant ; as when men are bound to pay great sums, they require an acquittance that they have discharged their obligation. God is obliged to Jesus Christ to bestow eternal life upon all those that come to him in his name. Now every poor soul that is encouraged to wait for this benefit giveth >t under his hand that God is true.
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(2.) God was engaged to the old church to send Christ to raise up a great prophet from among his brethren, like unto Moses, whom they should hear, Deut. xviii. 13. He was to be a lawgiver as Moses was, but of a far more perfect law ; such an one whom the Lord had known face to face, as he did Moses, but of a far more divine nature ; one ap- proved to the world by miracles, signs, and wonders, as Moses was, but miracles evidencing a divine power. Now they that receive Christ's testimony do acknowledge that God hath discharged his faith which was plighted to the old church in the promises and prefigurations of the law. You say, Yea, Lord, it is as thou hast promised. There- fore, Kom. XV. 8, Christ is said to be ' the minister of circumcision, for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers ; ' so Luke i. 70-73, ' As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began ; that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham.'