2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 403
Aye, but when we have done, there are so many imperfections cleave to that we do, that they discourage us. Why, look, the promise is ' yea and amen ' for acceptance, ' a cup of cold water is accepted,' Mat. x. 42. Offer that thou doest in the mediation of Christ, God will pardon that which is faulty, and accept that which is good. So we have promises of accept- ance in Christ, ' God will pardon, and spare us as a father spares his child,' Ps. ciii. 13. Doth not a father accept the endeavour of his poor child, and pardon his weakness, when he cannot do as he would ? God looks on us as a father on his children. Therefore let us not fear this. We have a promise of acceptance of what we do, though it be weak, and maimed, and lame obedience. If we cannot do as much as others, yet bring ' two tur- tles,' Lev. V. 7. They that could not bring an ox, a great sacrifice, a less was accepted, two pigeons. If thou canst not do as much as others, a little sacrifice shall be accepted.
Oh ! that we had faith ! we might run through all the passages of our life, justification, sanctification, perseverance for the time to come ; the duties of our calling, the issue of our labours, whatever you can imagine. There is no passage of our life but our souls would be supported, if we could think that these promises are ' yea and amen ' in Jesus Christ. There is no estate that we ai-e in but there are promises made to it. We want no good, but we have a promise of supply ; we are under no ill, but we have a promise, either for the removal of it, or for the sanctifying of it, which is better.
We may enlarge it likewise to posterity. If the promises in Chi'ist be ' yea and amen,' that is, true to us, and to them that succeed us ; for as I said, Christ ' is yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' He was yester- day to our ancestors, to-day to ourselves, to-morrow to our posterity. Therefore saith Peter to the believing Jews, Acts ii. 39, * The promise is made to you, and to your children;' your children are in the covenant, and God is the ' God of thee and of thy seed;' for the ' promises in Christ are yea and amen,' they are constant to us, and to om' children, to the end of the world.
It is a comfort to parents that can leave their children no inheritance : they leave them God in covenant, and he is a good portion. ' I will be thy God,' Jer. vii. 23 ; for the grand promise is the promise of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God hath promised to be a Father, and the Father gives his Son, and the Father and Son give the Holy Ghost. Well then ! God is the God of us and of om- children ; he is the Father of us and of our children ; Christ is the Christ of us and them ; the Holy Ghost is the Spirit that sanctifies us and them. Is not this a comfort to those that can leave their children nothing else, that they leave them God in covenant ?
And this is a comfort for children, if they have good parents, that they may say when they pray, ' 0 God of my fixther Abraham,' Gen. xxiv. 12. And as David, Ps. cxvi. IG, * I am thy servant, and the son of thy hand- maid ;' I am thy servant myself, and the son of one that was thy servant. Is not this a comfort to a Christian to say, I am thy servant, and the son of thy servant, therefore there is a double bond why thou shouldest respect me ? I cast myself on thee, and I am the son of a believing father, of a believing mother. Oh ! it is a blessed thing to be in covenant with God, that those that can leave their children little else, can leave them a place in the covenant by their own goodness and faith.
Wicked parents are cruel. They damn their own souls, and they are cruel to posterity. Jeroboam hurt his posterity more than all the world
404 COMMENTARY ON
besides. For his sin God cursed his posterity. ' They walk in tlie ways of Jeroboam,' 1 Kin<^s xv. HI. God many times will not punish men themselves, but their ])osterity. Wicked kings, God spares them them- selves sometimes, but he punisheth their posterity. Jeroboam was spared for his own life, but his posterity was punished. When wicked men die, others api)lau(l their wisdom. They die thus and thus, &c., and their ])08terity applaud their wisdom. God therefore curseth their posterity, walking in their ways. Jeroboam's children, I say, had cause to curse their father. They had a prejudice in his example. Tliey thought him a veiy wise man, that by setting up the calves he could make such a rent, but it turned to their destruction. I say, parents are cruel to posterity ; for God revengeth their sins on their posterity. Let this be a strong motive to men to believe in Christ, that they may leave a good posterity, a posterity in covenant with God.