3. The holy obstinacy and resolution of faith. Kesolve to die hold- ing the horns of the altar. You would not be put off from God ; as the blind man, the more he was rebuked, cried much the more, Mark X. 48 ; or as the woman of Canaan turned discouragements into argu- ments, Mat. XV. 27. Faith is deaf to all discouragements : Job xiii. 15, ' Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him.' No rebukes of pro- vidence shall beat us away from the throne of grace.
4. The submission and resignation of faith in all temporal things. Especially your great work : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Make sure of heaven, and for other things be at a point of indifierency ; let God order that as he will.
5. The prudence of faith. Settle your mind against present necessities; and for future contingencies, leave them to God's providence : Mat. vi. 34, ' Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Children, if^they have to allay present hunger, do not cark how to bring the year about, but leave that to their parents ; so we should not anticipate future cares, but compose ourselves to bear our present burden as well as we can. Leave futurities to our heavenly Father. Munna fell daily ; where it was kept till the morning, it putrified : 'Give us this day our daily bread.'
462 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXXXI, [SeR. V.
6. The obedience of faith. Mind duty, and let God take care of success. Let God alone with the issues of things : 1 Chron. xix. 13, ' Let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight.' Other- wise we take his work out of his hands. A christian should more take care what he shall do than what shall become of him : ' Be careful for nothing,' Phil. iv. 6 ; 1 Peter v. 7, ' Casting all your cave upon him, for he careth for you.' God is more solicitous for you than you can be for yourselves.
SERMOiNS UPON EZEKIEL XVIIL 23.
SEKMON I.
Have I any pleasitre at all that the loicked should die? saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his loays, and live? — EzEK. xviii, 23.
There is nothing so necessary to draw us to repentance as good thoughts of God. In the first temptation the devil sought to weaken the reputa- tion and credit of God's goodness in the hearts of our first parents, as if he were harsh, severe, and envious in restraining them from the tree of knowledge, and the fruit that was so fair to see too, Gen. iii. He layeth his first battery against the persuasion of God's goodness and kindness to man ; if he could once bring them to doubt of that, other things would succeed the more easily. So still he laboureth to raise jealousies in our hearts against God. David was fain to hold to this principle when the prosperity of the wicked was a temptation to him ; yet 'God is good to Israel/ Ps. Ixxiii. 1, That was the truth which the temptation did oppose, that God is good to his people. With car- nal men he prevaileth the more easily. The blind pagan world had this for a maxim, to Baifioviov ^Oovepov, the gods were envious, and took no pleasure in the felicity of man, and therefore looked for some notable cross after some eminent triumph or applause for any worthy under- taking. In the bosom of the church this conceit possesseth many men's hearts, that God is harsh and severe, and delighteth more in our ruin than salvation, and therefore they cast off all care of their soul's welfare. Oh, what a monstrous picture do men draw of God in their thoughts, as if he were a tyrant, or an inexorable judge, that gave no leave for repentance, or left any hope of pardon to the guilty ! Thus in the prophet's days there were some that thought they must die and be miserable, and none could help it. They had a proverb, that * The fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge.' They must smart for their fathers' sins, whether they repented, yea or no. Therefore God standeth upon his justification and vindication from so foul a surmise. Here you have a part of his purgation ; ' Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God?' The words aie propounded by way of interrogation ; in which form of speech there is more evidence, efficacy, life, and convincing force ; q d.,Yo know it is evident that I have no such desire, no such pleasure. It daieth not enter into your thoughts that I should take pleasure in
4G4 SERMONS UPON EZEKIEL XVIII. 23. [SeR. I.
the bare destruction of the creature. This pleasure of God is ex- pressed—
1. Negatively, what he delights not in, ' Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? '
2. Positively, what he doth delight in, ' That he should turn from his ways, and live.' God had ratlier his conversion. In both are im- plied two great truths ; as, omiiis quccstio supponit imtim et inquirit aliud ; namely, the connection between sin and death, repentance and life, wicked and die, return and live. God doth not obscurely null or disown his judgment and execution according to that law, or give you any hopes that his law shall not be executed, but telleth you what he taketh pleasure in ; rather in the conversion than in the destruction of the creature. The first question implietli a strong negation, that he doth not delight in the mere slaughter of the wicked. The latter ques- tion is a strong affirmation ; only remember in both parts that these things are spoken by way of comparison. Kepentance is more accept- able to God, as an holy God, than sin and wickedness ; their conversion than their disobedience. And as God is a merciful God, and loveth all the creatures which he hath made, so their life is more pleasing than their death ; a thing more acceptable in itself to such a being as God is.