Hereupon likewise, if it be the constant nature of truth alway to be believed ; hereupon it comes to cross another thing, their dispensation. No man can dispense with God's law ; truth is truth indispensable. Laws divine and natural are indispensable, because they are alike in all things. Reason is reason in Turkey as well as here. The light of nature is the light of nature in any country as well as here. Principles of nature vary not as languages do : they are inbred things.
If the principles of nature be invariable and indispensable, much more divine principles, saith the heathen. Filthiness is filthiness, whether thou think it to be so or no. Opinion is not the rule of things, but the nature of the thing itself.
Therefore whatsoever is against nature none can dispense with. * God cannot deny himself ! ' 2 Tim. ii, 13. What was naught in one age is naught in another, and is for ever naught. Whatsoever is divine or natural is indispensable. No monarch in the world can dispense with the law of natm*e, or the divine law, the word of God ; for the opinion of any man in the world is not the rule of his course, but the undoubted light of God, whether the light of nature or the light of divine truth.
I speak this the rather to cross base parasites, that when God calls them to stand for true causes, what do they make their rule ? Not God's con- stant ' I'm,' but they bend and bow to opinion, as if the opinion of any man in the world were the rule of their faith and obedience. This is to
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 38l
make men, and no men. Is not tlie written word of God the word of God? Is not the law the law ? (Politic laws I speak not of.) Shall a man yield to men's opinion, especially if the word do not warrant it ? Shall he yield to any man Hving that is inconstant by his disposition ? There is truth which is certain, that a man must maintain to the death. He is not only a martyr that maintains religion. John Baptist was a martyr that stood out in a matter that was not against heresy, but for the standing out against Herod. He did not yield, as many thousands would have done in such a case. ' Thou must not have thy brother Philip's wife ; ' it is un- lawful, Mark vi. 18.
Men ought to sutler for the truths of nature, and not deny truth what- soever, because it is a divine sparkle from God. If it be any truth what- soever, it must be stood in, because it is constant ; and it is the best thing in the world next to divine and saving truth.
Use. If this be so, that the gospel and divine truth be '3;ea,' and that the chm-ch at all times hath been built on that, and that whosoever is saved is saved by that yea, let us labour to have a faith answerable to our truth. We say, and distinguish well. There is a certainty of the thing, and a certainty of the mind apprehending the thing. It is certain the sun is bigger than the earth ; but you shall never persuade a simple country- man that it is so. There is a certainty of the object, but not of the subject. He will never believe it, because it is against sense. But now there must be both in a Christian. The apostle's doctrine, the truth he doth believe, the truth in the Scripture is ' Yea,' that is, it is certain and. true, and not * yea and nay,' it is not flexible. It is not as the heathen oracles were, that is, doubtful and wavering. Let our assent be answerable to the truth ; let us build soundly on a sound foundation.
As a ship that is to rest in the midst of the waves, there is a double certaint}'- necessary, that the anchor-hold be good in itself, and that it be fastened upon somewhat that is firm. If it be a weak anchor, or if it be fastened upon ground that will not hold, the ship is tossed about with waves, and so split upon some rock or other. So our souls require a double cer- tainty. We must have an anchor of faith as well as an object of faith ; we must have an anchor of hope as well as an object. For the object we may cast anchor there. It is divine truth which will hold. There is no doubt of that. It is yea. But then our anchor must be firm, our faith and affi- ance. Let us labour to build soundly and strongly upon it. It should be our endeavom* continually to stablish our faith, to stablish our hope, that we may know on what terms we live, and on what tenns to die.
Do but consider the diflerence between an understanding, strong Chris- tian and another. A Christian that is judicious and understanding, ask him in what estate he is. Why, comfortable ! What is the ground of his faith ? Why, thus : I live in no known sin, I confess my sins to God, my doctrine is ' yea,' and I labom* to bring my life to my doctrine.