2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 367
in heaven at one time distinctly should hear many thousands that put up their petitions at once ? Can a man that is but a capable creature, though glorified, as Peter or Mary, &c., distinctly consider a thousand petitions that are made ? They cannot. How then can they think that a certain truth, the invocation of saints '?
The main ground of all their religion is ' yea and nay.' The pillar of it, what is that ? The infallible judgment of the pope. But how can they tell when he speaks ex cathedra / For nine or ten exceptions and tricks they have, when he speaks, to be built on, and when not. How can poor souls Imow when he speaks so, that the people may infallibly build on his judg- ment ? Because many times he is an illiterate man, that knows nothing in divine things wherein he is to judge. So the very foundation of popery is yea and nay ; that is, a most uncertain thing.
And then the ground of that, that he is the successor of Peter, there is no place of Scripture for it, neither dare they bring any. It is but a tra- dition. It is somewhat uncertain whether ever Peter were at Rome (pj^p). That he was bishop there, is more uncertain. But that the pope should be his successor, is most uncertain and impossible of all.
So indeed the religion of popery is a rack to conscience, especially to conscience that is awaked, and knows what religion means at all. "Why is it a rack to them ? There is no certainty in it, in the main tenets of it.
It is not only contrary to God's ' yea,' but it is ' yea and nay,' uncertain in itself. Now, here the apostle, he frees his preaching from this imputa- tion, ' our word to you was not yea and nay ; ' and he calls God to record, ' God is true,' and as he is true, ' my word to you was not yea and nay,' but was certainly ' yea.' Thus you see what use we are to make of it for confutation and conviction of our own judgments.
Quest. It may be moved by some perhaps. How doth it appear, how shall we know, by what argument, that it is yea, and not yea and nay ? I answer,
A)is. 1. The testimony of St Paul here is, that it is so ; and his appeal to God, with an asseveration, ' as God is true.'
2. But our own experience doth tell us that the word of God is certain and true, if we belong to God ; for we stand convict in judgment by many arguments, which I will not now repeat.
Quest. But how shall any man certainly know * it is yea ? [that] the word is the undoubted word of God, unchangeable wheresoever it is ? In a word, you may knowf it is so.
Avs. 1. He thinks it is so, if he yield obedience to it, as to such a word, absolute obedience to God's truth without questioning. When once a thing is clear to be agreeable to God's truth, [and] he yields obedience to it, then it is ' yea.' If it be a duty, he must do it ; if it be a threatening, he must avoid it by repentance ; if it be a promise, he must believe it. This is absolute obedience.
2. Likewise reverence in hearing it, as Cornelius did. Acts x. 33. To hear it as the word of God. ' To tremble at the word of God,' as it is Isa. lx\d. 2. To tremble at it as men do at thunder. The thunder is said to be ' the voice of God.' * The voice of God shakes the cedars of Lebanon,' Ps. xxix. 8. So it is with the voice of God's word. ' Shall the lion roar, and the beasts of the forest not tremble?' Isa. vii. 2. Shall
* This seems to be a misprint for ' shew ;' at least the answers direct in regard to shewing rather than knowing. — G.
t If this should not also read ' shew,' then the meaning is, == he knows it is so who yields obedience. — G,
363 COMMENTARY ON
God threaten for sins that wc arc obnoxious to, and shall we not tremble at his threatcnings ? Thoroibro howsoever we hear it as if it were yea and nay, yet it is yea ; therefore let us not think to go on in sin, and escape, and do well enough. No ! it will not be so. He that thinks it is the word of God, he trembles at his word, and hath answerable affections to all the parts of God's word. If God direct, he follows ; if God threaten, he trembles ; if ho promise, he believes ; if he command, he obeys. He hath a ])liable disposition to every passage of divine truth, or else we do not believe it.
What shall we say then of those that come not so far as the heathen man did ? We know Felix, ' when he heard of justice, and temperance, and judgment to come, he trembled,' Acts xxiv. 25. When he heard of things that he was loath to hear, that he should be called to a reckoning for the course of his life, he trembled and quaked. If we hear these things, and live in a course perhaps worse than he, and do not tremble, where is our faith that the word of God is yea, that it is undoubtedly true ?