Who delivereth us from our inbred corruptions ? Should wc not run every day into the sins that we see others commit ? Who cuts short our lusts, and suppresseth them, that we are not swearers, that wc arc not licentious persons, that we are not godless persons ? Are we not hcwu out of the same rock '? Who keeps us from sin ? Is it any inbred goodness ? Are we not all alike tainted with original sin, children of wrath '? Who puts a dift'erence between us and others ? It is God that hath dehvered us, and that doth deliver us.
It is his mercy that we do not commit sin, it is his preventing deliver- ance ; and when we have committed sin, it is his mercy to pardon it. There is his preserving deliverance from despair after the committing of sin.
All are beholden to God for deliverance. Those that have committed «in, that he delivers them from the wrath to come, from the damnation that they deserve ; and those that have the grace not to commit sin, they are beholden to him, that he delivers them from that which their corrup- tions else would carry them to, if he should take his government from their hearts.
We have an inward guard as well as an outward, an invisible guard, ' We are kept by the Spirit of God through faith to salvation,' 1 Pet. i. 5. We have a guard that keeps us from despair, from sinking. God delivereth us from ourselves by this inward guard. There is not the vilest atheist that lives, but let God open his conscience, and let loose himself upon himself, to see what he deserves, to see what he is ready to sink into, if he see not God's mercy to deliver him, if he see not an intercessor, a mediator to come between God and him, what would become of him? Therefore saith St Paul in Philip, iv. 7, ' The peace of God which passeth all understand- ing shall "guard " your hearts and minds ; ' for so the word is in the original, ' shall guard your hearts and minds.' -
We have not only a guard outward, but we have a peace m us, the Spirit of God, the strengthening power of God, the sight of the love of God. God delivers us, as from all others, so from ourselves. Judas had no enemies. God let him loose to himself. What became of him ? Ahithophel had no enemy. God let him loose to himself too ; and then we see what a des- perate conclusion he came to.
So, whosoever thou art that comtemnest religion, that makest anything
of greater moment and respect than that, if thou hadst not an enemy in the
world, but all were thy friends, as Judas had all to be his friends. The
Pharisees were his friends. He had money of them. But God opened
*■ See note k, vol. i. p. 334. — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, \T<:R. 10. 167
his conscience, and he could not endure the sight of it. It spake bitter things to him, when God opened an inward hell in his conscience. So God doth deliver us outwardly and inwardly, and the inward is double ; partly from despair, partly from the rage of corruptions, as I said before. Is it not God that tics up our corruptions '? There is such a world of sin in the heart of a man, as often ho finds the experience of it, when he meets with a fit temptation to his disposition, that God's children complain of themselves that the sins of their hearts have deceived them. So God delivers men from the rage of lusts. He ties up their corruptions, and delivers them from them. And when we fiiU, and are ready to despair for them, he delivers us from despair. He doth deliver, he is perpetually dehvering. It implies that we alway stand in need of deliverance.
Therefore, we should alway look up to God. He is the breath of our nostrils; ' In him we live, and move, and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28. In him we stand, and in him we are delivered in the midst of all our enemies. It should stir up our hearts thankfully to depend upon God. He that hath delivered us, he doth deliver us. If he should not continue his dehvcrance, we should be continually in extreme danger.
' Who hath delivered us, and doth deliver us,' <{:c. A Christian is never in so great perplexity but God is delivering of him, even in trouble. So the church saith, Lam. iii. 22, ' It is God's mercy that we are not all con- sumed.'
The church was in a pitiful estate then. One would have thought they were as low as almost they might be. Yet, notwithstanding, the Spirit of God in those blessed men that lived in those times, they saw that they might have been worse than they were ; and they saw that there was some danger from which the}' were delivered, ' It is thy mercy that we are not all consumed.' God delivered them from extremity.
Nay, in troubles God doth deliver so as there may be a distinction, for the most part, between his and others. ' When I gather my jev/els, it shall be known who serves me, and who serves me not,' Mai. iii. 17. God con- tinually delivers, more especially at some times.