Let us therefore examine ourselves what power and efficacy the word hath. It is a word that changeth and altei'eth the whole man. It trans- forms the whole man. It is a word of life. If we find it hath so altered and changed us, we can from experience say it is ' yea.'
And likewise from particular promises. If we observe God's promises made good to us, if we find peace of conscience upon the confession of our sins, we can say God's word is ' yea.' If upon committing of sin we find God punishing and correcting us, we can say God's word is yea ; and it is a bitter thing to offend God.
I find carefulness is the best course to please God. He finds me out in my sins, and it is a bitter thing to offend God. This is the best way to say in truth, without hypocrisy, that God's word is ' not yea and nay, but yea.'
Thus we see this truth, that God is true, and what follows thence. His word is true as himself, and not inconstant, yea and nay. Besides all this that I have said, let us make this use of it, not to think God's word to he too f/ood to be true, but yield obedience to it ; yield the obedience of faith to it in the jyroinises. Here is a foundation for faith. The foundation of faith is without us. The evidences of faith are Vi'ithin us, by love, by purging our hearts, and stirring us up to pray, &c. But the foundation is out of ourselves. Here is a foundation and pillar for faith to lean on. God is true, and his word is true, and not yea and nay. It is eternally true. Therefore apply all the promises in the Old and New Testament to thyself. It was not yea to Abraham, and not to thee. God's promises of forgive- ness of sins were not yea to David, and not to thee. They were not yea to Manasseh, and not to thee. But God's truth is yea, eternally yea. ' Wliat- soeverwas written heretofore, was written for our comfort,' Rom. xv. 4 ; and we are now the Davids, and the Manassehs, and the Abrahams of God ; we are now the beloved of God. For every one in their age are as they were in theirs ; and as the promises of God were yea to them, and saved their souls, because they trusted on them, so certainly every promise of God is a shield for those that will have recourse to it. ' The name of God is a strong tower,' Prov. xviii. 10 ; and his word is his name whereby he will be known in his promises. Have recourse to it on all occasions, rely on the word, wrestle with him when his dealings seem contrary, though his dealings with us seem to be yea and nay. We have been God's children, he hath assured us that we were in the state of grace ; but now he deals
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 3G9
with us as if we were not his children, he afflicts us, he suffers Satan to be let loose on us to tempt us. Here flesh and blood is ready to say. Cer- tainly I am not God's child, can I be '? thus and thus followed as I am. No, no ! God's ' gifts are without repentance,' Rom. xi. 29. Hadst thou ever grace ? God hath said it, who is truth itself, that his ' gifts are with- out repentance.' Build on it therefore. If thou hadst ever any grace, where he hath begun he will make an end. ' Where he hath begun a good work, he will perfect it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6.
Therefore wrestle with God in all temptations. When things seem con- trary, yet allege God's nature to him ; and his word, for both are true ; and one is true, because the other is true.
He is true in his nature and true in his word, and free in his decree, whatsoever his actions seem to be. Yet, Lord, thou canst not deny thyself, thou art imchpaigeable, thou art truth itself. And thy word that hath pro- mised regard and respect to humble sinners that repent and come to thee, it is unchangeably true as thyself. Therefore, Lord, ' I will not leave thee, though thou kill me,' as Job saith, xiii. 15. Here is a ground of wrestling as Job did. Allege the nature of God and the word of God against his dealing. Let his dealing be what it will, his nature is true, and his word is true. Therefore his promises are true, which is a branch of his word, that if we repent, and confess our sins, he will be merciful to us.
Therefore let us not forsake our own mercy. This will uphold us, as in all temptations, so in divine temptations, when God seems to forsake us : so Christ himself, our blessed head, did. We cannot have a better pattern. When God left him on the cross, and left him to his human nature, to wrestle with the devil's temptations, and the pains of his body, and the sense of his wrath ; ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' Mark xv. 34 ; yet he upheld himself that God was his God still ; and so likewise in the former example of Job. I say it is a special comfort, that God's word is not ' yea and nay.' As I said, it is not doubtful as the oracles of the Gentiles, the oracles of the devil ; but God's word is certain. Whatsoever it was to any saint of God heretofore, it is to every believing, to every humble afflicted soul now, and shall be to the end of the world. So much for that.