1 54 COMMENTAKY ON
fore lia is never much cast down. He knows that all shall drive him nearer to God, to trust in God. As St Paul saith here, ' Wo received the sentence of death, that we might not trust in ourselves, hut in God that raiseth the dead.'
One means to settle our trust the l)ettcr in God reconciled to us, in the covenant of grace through Christ, his heloved, and our heloved, is the blessed sacrament. And therefore come to it as to a seal sanctified by God for that very purpose, to strengthen our trust in God. How many ways doth God condescend to strengthen our trust? because it is such an honour to him. For by trusting in him we give him the honour of all his attributes, we make him a God, we set him in his throne, which we do not when we trust not in him. How many ways doth he condescend to strengthen our trust !
(1.) We have hh pynnmc, 'If we believe in him, we shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' John iii. 15.
(2.) We have a seal of that promise, the sacrament ; and is not a broad seal a great confirmation ? If a man have a grant from the king, if he have his broad seal, it is a great confirmation. Though the other were good, yet the seal is stronger. So we have God's promise, and in regard of our weakness there is a seal added to it.
(3.) If that be not enough we have more, we have his oath. He hath pawned his life. ' As I live, saith the Lord,' &c., Ezek. xviii. 32. He hath pawned his being. As he is God, he will forgive us if we repent. We have his promise, seal, and oath. Whatsoever among men may strengthen trust and faith, God condescends unto to strengthen our faith, because he would not have us perish in unbelief.
(4.) Besides that, he hath given us earnest. A man's trust Is strengthened when he hath earnest. Every true Christian hath a blessed earnest, that is, the Comforter. He hath the Spirit in him, the first fruits. Where God gives an earnest, he will make good the bargain at the last. Where he gives the first fniits, he will add the harvest. God never repents of his earnest. Where ' he hath begun a good work, he will finish it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. An earnest is not taken away, but the rest is added.
(5.) And the same Spirit that is an earnest is also a paivn and ]iledge. We will trust any runagate, if we have a pawn sufficient. Now God hath given us this pa\\'n of his Spirit. Christ hath given us his Spirit, and hath taken our flesh to heaven. Our flesh is there, and his Spirit is in our hearts, besides many evidences that we have in this life as pawns.
Indeed, in extremity sometimes we' must trust God without a pawn, upon his bare word. ' Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him,' saith Job, chap. xiii. 15 ; but God ordinarily gives us many pawns of his love.
The sacrament is not only a seal of the promise, but likewise it hath an- other relation to strengthen our faith. It is a seizon (.t), as a piece of earth that is given to assure possession of the whole. As a man saith. Take, here is a piece of earth, here is my land ; here are the keys of my house ; so in the promises sealed by the sacrament, here is life, here is favour, here is forgiveness of sins, here is life everlasting. What can we have more to strengthen our faith ? God hath condescended every way to strengthen us, if we will come in, and honour him so much as to trust him v/ith our souls, and our salvation. Therefore let us come to the sacrament with undoubted confidence. God will keep his credit. He will not deceive his credit. ' He will never forsake those that trust in him.' Ps. ix. 10. But to answer an objection.
2 CORINTHIANS CIIAP. I, VER. 9. 155
Obj. Oil ! all tlieso are confirmations indeed, if I did believe and trust in God, but my heart is full of unbelief. Indeed all these ai'u made to some that believe akeady in some measure. They have this seal, and oath, and earnest, and pawns, and first fruits, and all, if they believe ; but I cannot bring my heart to trust in God.
Alls. What hinders thee ?
I am a wretched creature, a sinful creature.
Dost thou mean to be so still ? It is no matter what thou hast been, but what thou wilt be. The greater the sickness, the more is the honour of the physician in curing it ; the greater thy sins, the moi'e honour to God in forgiving such sins. Retort the temptation thus upon Satan. God works by contraries, and whom he will make righteous he will make them to see their sins ; and before he will raise us up he will make us rotten in our graves ; before he will make us glorious he will make us miserable. I know that God by this intends that I should despair in myself. God in- tends that I should despair indeed, but it is that I should despair in my- self, as the text saith here, that ' we should not trust in ourselves,' when we have a sight of the vileness of our sins ; ' but in God that raiseth the dead,' that raiseth the dead soul, the despairing soul, that it should trust in him. Therefore retort the temptation upon Satan, because I see my sins, and despair in myself, therefore I tnist in God, ' He that is in darkness and sees no hght, let him trust in the Lord his God,' Isa. 1. 10.