excellent in me, that whoever among you, whatever he be, that is touched with a sense of his sin and misery by nature, if he will rim to Christ for refuge, take sanctuary in Christ, if he doth belong to my unchangeable purposes of grace, I will surely without miscarrying bring him to a sure and eternal possession of glory ; and for the pre- sent I will be a father to him, and guide him and keep him as the apple of mine eye ; I will be his present help, his guardian, his counsellor, during the whole time of his abode in the world, where he is only liable to dangers. This was the matter in controversy; and this is the substance of God's oath. And I shall show you how apt we are to distrust God in all this. We suspect, as I said, either his good affection in making the promise, or his truth in keeping the j^romise, so that we need this solemn way of assurance. Therefore — F'hst, I shall speak to this, that we distrust his good affection, and will not believe God upon his single word. What should be the reason that nature is so abhorrent from this certainty and assurance, which so much concerneth our own peace and comfort ? Take six reasons —
1. Partly because guilt is full of suspicion. We hate those whom we have Avronged. Fro])rmm est humani ingenii odisse quos la'serit. First we hurt a person, then we hate him ; so out of fear of revenge we suspect all that he doth, all acts of kindness, all tenders and offers of reconciliation which come from him. Let me exemplify it in men. Thus David speaks of his enemies : Ps. cxx. 7, ' I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.' David was the wronged party, and Doeg and Saul's courtiers had slandered him, and done him wrong. David was willing to forget all this injury, and he comes with an offer of peace, but all treaties of peace are in vain. This you will find to be the fashion of the world, when they have wronged a person, never to trust him any more, lest they should give him opportunity of revenge. Thus do wo deal with God ; conscience knows we have wronged him, slighted his love, and put affronts upon his grace, and therefore, though he makes the first offer, we l^elieve it not. Revengeful man cannot think God will be so gracious and merciful, therefore we cannot believe those ample purposes of reconciliation. It breaks the back of patience to think of forgiving seven times : ' Must I forgive seven times ? ' saith Peter. And therefore how can we believe the Lord will pardon so many thousand affronts we put upon him day by day ? Thus we wrong God and sin away our faith, and therefore are not capable of so rich a comfort.
2. Partly because the way of salvation is so rare and wonderful, that a man can find no faith for it. The gospel is a mystery, so called by the apostle, 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Great is the mystery of godliness.' Nature affords no help here. Theology is natural, but not christology. Nature believes there is a God, but not that there is a Christ. The sun and moon preach up a God, their sound is gone out into all lands, and pro- claim everywhere that there is one infinite and eternal power ; and conscience preacheth up a judge. But all these natural preachers are dumb and silent concerning Christ, not a word concerning a saviour and mediator. It could not enter into the thought of an angel to pitch upon such a remedy if God had not revealed it to them by the church : Eph. iii. 10, ' To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom
SERMONS UPON HEBREWS Vt. 18. 297
of God.' The angels did conceive of this great mystery by observing God's dispensations to the church. WeH, then, the way of salvation being so rare and wonderful, we should never acquiesce and rest satisfied with bare declarations, but we need God's oath that the con- troversy may be determined. When an angel came to bring tidings of it to the Virgin Mary, though slie were a holy woman, and had such an extraordinary way of assurance, yet you find her unbelief outstarts her obedience and submission to the will of God : ' How shall this be ? ' Luke i. 34. The incarnation of God, the conception of a virgin, the death of life itself, all these things are riddles and golden dreams to reason ; and without a higher assurance than a bare word, we should not be easily satisfied.
3. Partly because the blessings and privileges we have in Christ are so great, and the persons which enjoy them so unworthy, as being nothing and deserving nothing, that they exceed all thought and belief :
1 Cor. ii. 9, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.' Mark, all the ways by which we can gain any knowledge of a thing, they come short ; sense, fancy, reason, eye, ear, heart, of man cannot conceive and cannot tell what to make of these excellent privileges we have in Christ ; they cannot furnish him with fit notions and apprehensions of such excellent glory as is revealed to us in him. To illusti-ate it by the creatures : If a man had been by when God made the world, as the angels were, if he had seen God laying the founda- tions of all things, he would have wondered what God was about to do, for what rare creatm'e the Lord was about to frame this stupendous and wonderful fabric, arched with heaven, floored with earth, interlaced with waters, decked with fruits and plants, stored with creatures, and glazed, if I may so speak, with stars ; who would ever have thought that all this furniture and provision was for man, a handful of dust, a poor worm not six feet long, that he might be lord of all things, vice-king and deputy under God ? Now, if a man would wonder at the honour and glory God put upon man at his creation, much more at the privileges of our redemption by Christ ; they are matters to be wondered at indeed;