(8.) If the thing be not done for us which we need and desire when we trust upon the power of God, it is because it is not best for us. He that trusts upon the power of God cannot miscarry. A cross is best, and a low estate is best, and troubles are best. It is not for want of power and love that we are afflicted of God ; he will deliver us and support us, and turn it to the best : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, * For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Ps. xxxiv. 9, ' The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing,' If we want anything we would have, certainly it is not good for us.
(9.) The less power we have in ourselves, the more experience we have of God's power : Isa, xl. 29, ' He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.' So Deut. xxxii. 36, ' The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.' When human help begins to fail and is spent, then God's power is seen. The lean cheeks, and the faint voice, and the pale colour of a hunger-starved beggar moves more than all the cant- ing entreaties of a sturdy one. V/hen we are sufficiently humbled in the sense of our own unworthiness, and can entirely cast ourselves upon God, out of a confidence of his power, help will not be far off, for he really pities those that are indeed miserable, and have a sense of it, and sets his power on work for their relief.
(10.) We can never expect to be free from biting cares and per- plexities about the various occurrences of this life until we can entirely cast ourselves upon God's all-sufficiency and power. Oh ! but when you are once got upon the rock, then you will not be tossed with the uncertain waves : Isa. xxvi. 3, 4, ' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee : trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' In tlie ebbings and flowings of the creature a man is safe and fixed, for he hath that which answers all things. A man that hath no lands, yet if he hath money, the wise man tells us, that answereth all things,
VeR. 27.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. • 93
and he may do well enough ; so if a man hath nothinor in the creature, yet if he hath the power of God, that answereth all things; he can rejoice in God when creatures fail, Heb. iii. 17, 18 : 'As having nothing, yet possessing all things,' 2 Cor. vi. 10. The Almighty God carrieth the purse ; we have all things in God, and he will supply us as he seeth it to be best with respect to his own glory and their eternal condition ; and therefore, if you would be freed from all these floating uncertainties, and those tempestuous agitations of spirit by wliich you are tossed to and fro, you will never come to this till you encourage ^ yourselves in the sense of God's power and all-sufficiency.
SEEMONS UPON 2 THESSALOMANS I. 3,
SERMON I.
We are hound to thanh God alioays for you, hretJiren, as it is meet, because that your faith groioeih exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toiuards each other ahoundeth. — 2 Thes. i. 3.
The first part of this epistle is gratulatory, for the Thessalonians' perseverance ami increase in grace ; in which — (1.) The apostle giveth thanks to God ; (2.) He telleth of the fame thereof in the churches, ver. 4, that he might the better encourage and exhort them to con- tinue. By both he intimateth his love and spiritual affection to them. In his thanksgiving to God we may take notice of —
1. The affectionate manner.
2. The matter of this thanksgiving, the increase of their faith and charily.
For the manner, it is done emphatically, * We are bound to thank God always for yon, as it is meet.' There are three emphatical words : 'Always;' this work of God among them was much upon his heart, and still give him new matter of praising God in their behalf. Then there is the obligation from justice and equity, signified in those words, 6(f)eiXofi€v, ' We are bound,' and Ka6(o<i d^iov iarcv, 'As it is meet ;' there the expression is stronger. He doth not only tell them that he did it, but that he ought to do it, ' We are bound, and it is meet.' The first expression respects the mercy of God, so there was a debt of duty lying upon him ; there was justice in the case. The second respects their estate, ' It was meet ; ' becoming the condition into which grace had brought them, and so there was equity in the case. Some refer this last clause to the performance of the duty, that ho gave thanks as was meet ; that is, in that manner which so great a benefit deserveth, not slightly and perfunctorily, but with great rejoic- ing. But rather it refers to the apostle's judgment of their estate : 'As it is meet,' hearing what I do, for me to judge of you ; for a paiallel expression doth thus explain it, Phil. i. 7, ' Even as it is meet for me to think thus of )'0u all.' He conceived himself bound to judge :&f them all to be such as had owned the Lord with a sincere faith, aiid his people with a sincere love, and were likely to continue