2. That he will spare us as to afflictions and judgments.
[1.] Sometimes God may spare others for their sakes, as he offereth to spare Sodom if there were fifty righteous persons found in it : Gen. xviii. 26, * If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare all the place for their sakes.' Afterwards the number was brought down to ten, ver. 32. So God gave to Paul the lives of all that sailed with him in the ship, Acts xxvii. 24, though in that imminent danger, for his sake.
[2.] When he cometh to reckon with the nation, or the community in which they live, he many times spared them, and they are not swept away in the common judgment : Isa iii. 10, ' Say ye to the righteous. It shall be well with him.' God will put a difference between them and others ; not always, but when he pleaseth. God may protect them in calamitous times. The Lord knows how to do it, how to make dis- tinctions : 2 Peter ii. 9, ' The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.'
[3.] If they are involved in the common judgment (as two dry sticks may set a green on fire), they may see some moderation and glimpses of favour : Hab. iii. 2, 'That in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy.' Either it is sanctified, or they are supported under it, or the evil is mitigated.
[4.] If the worst fall out, yet they are spared, because they are not cast into hell. If they are not exempted from temporal judgments, yet they are delivered from wrath to come ; and that should satisfy chris- tians : Heb. x. 39, ' We believe to the saving of the soul ; ' 1 Peter i. 9, ^Eeceiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Though the body and its interests be endamaged, yet the soul is saved, which is our great hope.
Use 3. Is to instruct us in our duty with respect to this choice privilege.
1. Let us be affected with the love of God, that he will spare us as a man spareth his own son. If God should deal with us according to the merit of our sins, and be strict upon us, what would become of the best of us. Surely God seeth all our failings : Heb. iv. 12, * All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do ; ' and doth disallow them, and is displeased with them : 2 Sam. xi. 27, * But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.' If you deny
SERMON UPON MALACHI IIL 17. 347
the first, yon deny his being ; if you deny the second, yon debase his holiness and righteousness. And his law condemneth them as worthy of punishment : Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that contiuueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.* Whence then cometh our safety ? From the new covenant founded in Christ's blood, by which the sentence of condemnation is vacated : Kom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.' This sentence is repealed by a new act of God's great mercy and favour in the new covenant.
2. Let us believe the certainty of it on the grounds before mentioned, viz., the merciful nature of God. The design of the gospel is to repre- sent him amiable to man: 1 John iv. 8, 'God is love.' The satisfaction of Christ : 1 John iv. 10, * God sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.' His gracious covenant : Ps. xxv. 10, ' All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant.' His fatherly goodness : Jer. iii. 4, ' Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth ? '
3. Keep your qualification clear. Besides the ransom, our uprightness must be interpreted : Job xxxiii. 23, 24, ' If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his upright- ness then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.' If we do not continue to fear God, or abate our reverence towards him, we lose our comfort. There- fore, if you would stand right in God's favour, our love and fear must be increased towards this good God ; and if he will stand upon the exactness of his law, we must not stand upon our own interests and the gratifications of the flesh. We should not spare anv beloved lust or interest, so we may please and glorify God.
SERMON UPON 2 TIMOTHY H. 19.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,- The Lord knoweth them that are his ; and, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. — 2 Tim. ii. 19.
These words are brought in to prevent tlie scandal which the godly might take at the falling away of two such men as Hymeneus and Philetus, who in probability were men of note in the church ; for there is not such notice taken of ordinary and mean persons. Their error was, they acknowledged only a metaphorical resurrection, and so weak- ened the comfort of the faithful. The scandal which they gave was- threefold — scandalum seductionis contristationis offensionis.