6. They are not cast off till they do even wrest themselves out of the arms of mercy. Cain excommunicated himself: Gen. iv, 16, 'And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.' The face of the Lord, in one sense it is everywhere ; but it is meant of the church, where God is worshipped. Ishmael, for scoffing and malignity against the power of godliness, Gen. xxi. 9. He mocked Isaac, which the apostle maketh to be persecution, Gal. iv. 29. Esau, for profaneness or despising the birthright, that he may set his lusts a-work, Heb. xii. 15, 16 ; preferring the satisfaction of sensual lusts before the great privileges in Christ. The Jews were 'broken off for unbelief,' Rom. xi. 20. God bore with them after they had crucified Christ all along ; as the branches of the covenant grow wild, God may be cutting them off. When God doth cast off a people, that is dreadful, Rom. xi. He speaketh to the Romans as a body and a church. God may break off a church as well as a person by scattering judgments, prevalency of error, and profaneness ; the discouragements of his children ; they withdrawing, all is broken to pieces. This is the spiritual judgment now upon us, and we are not sensible of it.
Secondly, The reasons.
1. That he may show the riches of his grace, which reacheth not only to the persons, but to the families of those that love him and serve him. God is resolved to act in the covenant according to the highest laws of friendship ; as David : 2 Sam. ix. 1, ' Is there yet any left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathans sake ? ' So will God be a friend to us and our children after us. Yea, this love runneth down to thousands of generations, Rom. xi. 28. They are beloved for their father's sake. For so many years to love their seed, this is a friendship not to be paralleled, 2 Sam i. 19. It is mercy that our persons, that the fruit of our souls should be accepted, spotted and speckled as it is ; that the evil should not outweigh the little goodness that is in them ; but the fruit of our bodies is much more, especially if you consider the natural leprosy and filthiness that
A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE SONS OF THE CLERGY. 469
is ia them. But grace, like a miglity river, will be pent within no banks, but overflowetli all that a man hath, all his relations.
2. Out of an indulgence to natural affection. God hath a son of his own, and he knoweth how he loveth him, and is acquainted with the heart of a father, and he hath planted an atlection in parents to their children. Love, like a river, is descensive. Many are more sensible of a misery and cui-se in their seed than in themselves. Surely next to our eternal happiness their welfare is the most welcome blessing ■which we can receive ; therefore, in an indulgence to good parents, G-od will bless them' in their children. The charter runneth for them and their seed. Children are a part of them, the parent continued, as before, Ps. xxxvii. 24. We abide and live in them when we are dead and gone.
Thirdly, How can we reconcile the promise with experience, since the children of the servants of the Lord are reduced to great extre- mities, and are as naught and bad as others ?
I answer, The blessing is invisible for a great measure, and we want faith to interpret this privilege, as well as any other mentioned in the covenant. Sometimes their outward portion may be small, but however, they are a holy seed unto God. We see the providence of God by pieces ; for the present they may be in their natural condition, and the blessing doth not as yet break out in effects of grace, as it doth afterwards. We must leave the Lord to his own seasons. Some- times for a while God may skip over the next branch in the line, and a wicked and ungracious man may interrupt the blessing for a while, but it runneth on again to a thousand generations. Jotham had Ahaz, but Ahaz had Hezekiah ; the grandfather wicked, the son wicked, but the grandchild godly again ; so that still there is a respect to the family. It is the usual practice of the Lord's grace, and is here put into the form of a promise, and must, as all temporal promises, be referred to God's pleasure, wheu to exempt the godly fi-om poverty and their seed. Mostly the blessing is conspicuous enough in the course of God's dispensations, and examples to the contrary are very rare. David was a man of good years and narrow observation, a great student in the providence of God ; yet saith he, Ps. xxxvii. 25, * I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread.' He could find none of their issue in his time reduced to a state of beggary.
Fourthly, To whom the promise will be most eminently fulfilled. There are some qualifications mentioned. All God's servants have their blessings, but these especially ; as, namely —