2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 521
word of God, it builds, and pitcheth, and bottoms itself upon divine truth, divine authority, divine revelation, which we call the first truth, the first verity.
And not only so, but faith, that it may stand the better, hath, together with the word of God, the seals ; for God hath added sacraments as seals to the word, that helps the word. To us at least, God's word is true enough of itself in regard of him ; but he condescends to us, and therefore that faith may stand the better, that we may build upon his word, there are his sacraments. There are seals together with his word, and his oath too.
Again, that his word may be the better foundation for faith, it is con- ceived under the manner of a covenant, the evangelical part of it, the cove- nant of grace, wherein God in Christ promiseth to forgive our sins, to accept us to life everlasting, if we believe in Christ. It is a gracious cove- nant. God condescends to make a covenant that faith may stand ; shall not I believe him that hath made a covenant, and bound himself by cove- nant that he will do so ? Nay, in the covenant of gx'ace, faith lays hold upon this, that he will fulfil and perform both conditions himself, both his part and our part. For the same truths that are a covenant, are a ' testa- ment' too in the gospel. A testament bequeaths things without a cove- nant, and therein it difiers from a covenant. A testament is, I bequeath, and give this. Now, whatsoever Chi'ist in the covenant requires, because that in the gospel he makes good, the covenant, is* a testament, ' If we believe and repent,' John iii. 36. Now he hath promised to give repentance and belief in the covenant of grace to all that attend upon the means, and expect the performance of the covenant from him.
For we can no more perform the conditions of the covenant of gi'ace of ourselves than the covenant of the law. Nature cannot do it, because it must be done by the Spirit altogether. Now here is a foundation for faith to stand on. God so far condescends, as he gives his word, and his seal, and his oath with his word, to convey that word by way of a cove- nant, and to make that covenant a testament and will to us, that he will do this : and to seal that will with his own blood : for ' a testament is of no force till the testator be dead,' Heb. ix. 17. His own blood hath sealed the testaments. You see here what ground there is for faith to stand upon.
Then, again, the sweet relation that God hath taken upon him in Christ. He is our Father. Faith builds not on naked God, divested of his sweet relations (for then he is a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29) ; but upon God a Father in Christ. What a sweet thing it is to consider God a Father ! In Christ the nature of God is fatherly to us, and our nature is sweet to him. We are sons in Christ. His nature is sweet to us, and ours to him. He will surely perform his relations. For in Christ he is a Father, not in creation only, but in the covenant of grace. Faith relies upon the word of God, upon the covenant, and testament, and upon God himself, altered and changed in the covenant of grace to be a sweet Father.
But what is a further ground of this ? The nature of God himself who is a Father : for if God himself were not clothed with properties that might satisfy faith, and satisfy the soul fully, though he were a Father, it were not a sufficient ground for faith. But now who hath taken the rela- tion of a father upon him ? God, who is infinitely good, infinitely merci- ful above all our sins. It must be infinite mercy. Faith would not have footing else. For the soul will so upbraid in the sense of sin, that if God ® Misprinted ' as.' — G.
522 COMMENTARY ON
wore iKjt a Father, and a Father infinite in mercy, nothing but infinite mercy will satisfy the soul when couKcieuce is awaked, and infinite power to subdue all enemies, and infinite wisdom to go beyond the reach and subtlety of all the devils in hell. God is such a Father, as in his nature is of infinite mercy, and wisdom, and power. Here is a foundation for faith to lay hold upon indeed, to have a Father, and such a Father that is Jehovah. There we must rest in his essence ; he is ' Jehovah, I am ;' he is eternal and inmiutable, an eternal being of himself, and he gives being to all ; and all things have their dependence upon him. The devils in hell, and wicked men, he can quell them all, and subtract their being, and turn them to their first nothing from whence they came.
You see if we resolve all to ' Jehovah, I am,' to the eternity of God ; and then to his nature, clothed with power, and wisdom, and mercy ; and then to his relation of a Father : and then how he condescends to convey himself sweetly by way of covenant and testament, I beseech you, is not here a foundation for faith to build upon in the word of God, when God hath thus opened himself to us '? You see what this standing is, and how by faith we stand, and what faith stands on, and may well stand on. To come to some observations, then, •