Therefore I beseech you, labom' to have arguments from the experience of the power of the word in j'our souls, and arguments from the Spirit of God to your spirits that it is the word of God. I will stand to divine truth, I find such a majesty, such a humbling, pacifying, satisfying power in it to all my perplexities and doubts, that it cannot but be the word of God, it stays my soul in all oppositions, in all temptations, and corruptions : it gives a stay and foundation to my soul, that no truth in. the world else can do. Y/hen the soul is brought to such a frame, such a soul will not fall into gross sins while it is in such a frame, much less will it despair for sin ; and if there be altering of religion a thousand times, it stands as a rock * That is, ' lying over, superficial.' — G.
528 COMMKNTAHY ON 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24.
uumovcaMc, because it knows from inwiird grounds, from the word of God itself, sealed by the Spirit to my spirit, that it is the word of God. Such u soul will hold out, and only such a soul.
Wc! should labour tlu^refore by all means to have our faith strengthened ; and amongst other means, by the use; of the sacrament, wiiereby God sweetly conveys himself to us, by way of a bancpiet strengthening our faith in Christ. Ho presents Christ to us as the food of our souls to refresh us, even as the bread and wine doth. Our blessed Saviour is wiser than we. He knows what we stand in need of, that we have need to strengthen our faith. For we have need to strengthen that that must be our strength, which is faith. And what is the ordinance of God to strengthen faith, is it not the sacra- ment ? The proper use of the sacrament is to strengthen faith ; which the sacrament doth, being a visible sermon to us ; for here we see in the out- ward things Christ's body broken, and his blood shed. It is a lively repre- sentation, a visible cruciiying of Christ, a breaking of his body, and pouring out of his blood. And withal here is an ofler of Christ to us in the elements, sealing of what it represents to our souls, if we come prepared.
God feeds us not with empty signs, but together with the outward things themselves, he gives the spiritual to the soul that is a worthy receiver.
Therefore come with a humble stooping to God's wisdom in appointing these ordinances to this end, to strengthen faith. And come with a desire to have faith strengthened. That will uphold us against all temptations to sin, or to despair for sin.
Oh, beloved ! if we knew what good our faith must do us ere long, we would labour to have it strengthened by all means. \Vliat will become of us in the hour of death, and in great temptations ? We shall be as chaff driven with the wind. If we have no consistence, and stability in divine truth, if our souls be not built on that, if we have not faith whereby our souls may be rooted in Christ, we shall be but a prey for Satan. Therefore considering that faith is of such wondrous consequence, it is the root of all other graces whatsoever ; as the apostle saith here, ' By faith ye stand.' He doth not say, by patience, or by hope, or the like. They are drawn from faith. Strengthen that, and strengthen all other that are infused from it.
As a tree, we cast not water on the branches, but on the root. All the branches are cherished by the root. So strengthen faith. We strengthen love, and hope, and all, if we strengthen faith, and assurance of God's love in Christ. Thus I have at length gone over this fruitful portion of Scripture.
Trin-uni Deo gloria !
NOTES. 529
NOTES.
(a) P. 9. — ' As a proud critic said, " I would they had never been men that spake our tilings before wo were, that wo might have had all the ci-edit of it." ' This seems to be a kind of paraphrase of tlie saying, ' Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixe- runt,' which, if I err not, belongs to the younger Soaliger.
(b) P. 9. — ' And so in the Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 28, he quotes a saying out of an atheist.' It may be well to give here the original . . . ws '/m! rivig ruv Tidd' v^aag rroirirm i}^r\-A.aciv Tou ya.^ xai yho: ss/msv- Tivoc oi/v ucras^o^rsj 7-oD Qiov. . . . The quotation has been traced to two of the Greek poets, viz.,
(1) Aratus. Phenomena, 5. To5 ydo xal yivog S'^/mbv = For we are also his off- spring.
(2) Cleanthes. Hymn to Jupiter. 'E;c Cou yag yhog sff/xsv == For we are thy offspring.
Cf. ' The New Testament Quotations collated with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, in the original Hebrew, and the Version of the LXX ; and with other writings, Apocryphal, Talraudic, and Classical, cited or alleged so to be. By Henry Gough. 8vo. 1855.' The whole of this masterly and standard work is valuable ; but the division headed ' Quotations from Greek Poets,' with the relative ' Notes,' is of the last interest.