In the time of ease and prosperity, it is easy to think, God is merciful, and Christ died ; but in the time of temptation, all is little enough to shore and prop up the faith of a drooping Christian. Therefore God, out of heavenly wisdom, and love to us, hath appointed these ordinances for the strengthening of our faith. And all is to no purpose, unless our faith be strong in the promises, as St Paul takes an oath, to build them on the promises he taught them. And so all is little enough, oath, and promises, and seal, &c. Therefore we should with all reverence attend upon God's ordinances for the strengthening of our faith. But to come to the words themselves.
' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' Take the words out of the form of an oath, and the proposition is, that
Doct. God is true and faithful.
In this link of the sentence, ' God is true' — First, it is true that God is. He is truly God. His nature is true ; his properties true. Likewise God is true and faithful, not only in his nature and properties, but in his free decrees, in the things that freely come from him. It was free for him to make promises of salvation or no, as it was free for him to make a world or no, and whether he would redeem mankind or no ; but when he had promised, except he should deny himself and his truth, he must send Christ. So in all the fi-ee promises of forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting by Christ, if we believe in him, we say they are certainly true, because God that is true hath promised. God is true in his nature, and true in his free promises, and threatenings ; he is true in his works, true in his word, every
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 301
way true. He is true in his nature, all is true within him, and without him. If anything could change him from within, he were not himself, he were not God. And from without there is nothing can change him ; for there is nothing stronger than God. God is true in all his purposes, true in his free and voluntary decrees. It was free for him to decree, but having de- creed, there is a necessity of perfonning. It is of the necessity of his nature as he is God. He is true in his free decrees. They are not free in regard of the event, but in regard of the original, as I said. He might have made a world at the first or no, and have redeemed mankind or no ; but having made these decrees, of necessity as he is God he must be true in his free decrees.
There is a subordination of truths, whereof one is the cause of all the rest. Now all depends upon this grand truth, God is. It is the first truth that ever was of all truths in the world, in heaven and earth, that there is a God, that there is such a thing, such an excellency as God, the Author of all things in nature, the Author of all things in grace and glory. I shall not need to prove this fundamental truth, this truth of truths, that God is. It infers all other truths. For grant this, that God is, and a man must needs grant that that follows upon it, that God is as a God should be, that is, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, almighty, all-sufficient, and all the blessed attributes, that he is the Author of all good in the creature. That must needs follow. God is the first truth ; and then God is so and so, as becomes a God. And then this must follow in the next place, that he is a God immutable and unchangeable. He must be so in all the manifestations that come from him, in his free decrees, and in the outward manifestations by promises, and threatenings, and whatsoever ; and therefore God is true, immutably and unchangeably true, or else he were not God. He cannot be otherwise, and be God. A man may say of a man, he is a liar, and yet he may be a man. A man may be a man, and a good man, and yet be inconstant and changeable, because he is a creatm-e. But to say a God, and not to be true, is to say a God, and not a God. Of the necessity of his nature he must be true. It is not of the necessity of the nature of man to be true. He may be a man, and be a har (' Every man is a liar,' Ps. cxvi. 11), because it is not of the essence of man to be trae. But God is true out of the necessity of nature. He cannot be God if he be not true, because God cannot deny himself. Man is changeable, because he is a creature, as Damascene's speech is (III), ' All things created are mutable, and man as a creature is changeable.' A man therefore may be alterable, and false, and be a man ; but God cannot be so, and be God.
Obj. It will be objected, that God hath threatened oft, and hath not per- formed ; as we see in the Nine\ites, and Hezekiah in his sickness, and so in many others.