Who will trust his enemy, especially he that hath made his enemy by his ill course of life ? A man that goes on in an e\i\ com'se, he cannot, he doth not trust in God.
6. He that trusts in God's promise ivHl trust in his threateninrj. Where there is an evangelical faith, there is a legal faith alway. He that believes that God will save him if he trust in Christ, he believes that if he do not be- lieve in Chi-ist he will damn him, if he live in his natural course without repentance.
There is a legal faith of the cm'se, as well as an evangelical of the pro- mise. They are both together. If thou do not believe God's cm-se in wicked courses, thou wilt never believe him for the other. Therefore, I will add this to make up the evidences of trust in God. True trust looks to
* Qu. 'thee?'— Ed.
148 COMMENTARY ON
GoiVs truth, and promise, .and word in one part of it as well as another. Thou trusts God for thy salvation and the promises of that ; hut thou must trust him for the direction of thy life too. Faith doth not single out some objects ; I will h(;lieve this, and not that. Faith is carried to all the ob- jects, it believes all (Jod's truths. Therefore, if I believe not the threaten- ings and directions, to be ruU'd by tlu.'m, I believe not the promises. In what measure thou believest the promise of mercy to save thy soul, in that measure thou believest the directions of God's word to guide thy soul. He that receives Christ as a Priest to save him, he must receive him as a Kiug to rule him.
All the directions, and all the threatenings, and all the promises must bo received and believed.
A man hath no more fiiith and trust in God than he hath care to follow God's direction ; for faith is carried to all divine truths. All come from the same God. Thousands go to hell, and think. Oh, God is a merciful God, and I will trust in him ! But how is thy life ? Is it earned by God's directions '? Thou art a rebel. Thou livest in sins against conscience. Thou wilt trust in God in one part of his word, and not in another. Thou must not be a chooser.
7. Again, the last that I will name at this time, if thou trust God for one thing, iDulotihtedh/ tlioii will trust him. for all. If thou trust him with thy soul, certainly thou wilt tnist him with thy children. Some men hope to be saved by Christ. Oh, he will be merciful to their souls ; and yet even to their death they use corrupt courses to get an estate and to make their children rich ; and except they have so much, they will not trust in God. If they have nothing to leave them, they think not that there is a God in heaven who is a better Father than they. Put case thou hast nothing, hast thou not God's blessing ? Canst thou trust thy soul with God, and canst thou not trust him with thy family ? Is he not the God of thy seed ? Hath he not made the promise to thy posterity as well as to thyself? If thou trust him for one thing, thou wilt trust him for aU. Wilt thou trust him for heaven, and wilt thou not trust him for provision for daily bread ? Wilt thou not trust him for this or that, but thou must use nnla-n-ful means ? He that trusts God, he trusts him for all truths and for all things needful, with his family, with his body, with his soul, with all. And so much for the trials, whether we trust in God or no.
Let us not deceive ourselves. It is a point of infinite consequence, as much as the salvation of our souls. What brings men to hell in the church ? False confidence. They trust to false things, or they think they trust in God, when indeed they do not.
The fault of a ship is seen in a tempest, and the fault of a house is seen when winter comes. Thy trust, that is thy house that thou goest to and restest in, the fault of that will be seen when thou comest to extremity. In the hour of death, then thou hast not a God to go to, then thy conscience upbraids thee ; thou hast lived by thy shifts* in carnal confidence and re- bellion against God, and how canst thou then willingly trust God, whom thou hast made thine enemy all thy lifetime ?
To go, then, to some helps. If upon search we find that we do not so trust in God as we should, let us lament our unbelieving hearts, complain to God of it, desire God, whatsoever he doth, that he would honour us so much as that we may honour him by trusting in him ; for it is his gbry and our salvation.
* That is, ' expedients.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 149
But because I will not go out of the text, the best way is that wbich follows, to know God as he is.