202 THE church's complaint and confidence.
* Let us seek the Lord while he may be found,' Isa. Iv. G. Hold him before he go ; let him not depart. Attend upon the means ; never miss good means of seeking his face till we have got a sweet answer from heaven that he is our God.
Now follows the supplication.
• But now, 0 Lord, thou art our Father,' &c.
Here is a prayer which is a kind of holding God by the relation of a Father, This is one way of stirring up our souls, to consider the relation of a father. It stirs up bowels when a child is beaten by his father, ' 0 stay, father, spare.' It works upon the bowels. There is a world of rhe- toric in this one word ' Father.' Why, Lord, thou art my Father. Shall I be destroyed ? Let us lay hold on God by this relation that he puts upon himself; and he will not lay it aside, though we be unworthy to be sons. He doth not say, Thou art our Father, and we are thy sons ; because he thought they were unworthy, as the prodigal saith, * I am unworthy to bo called thy son,' Luke xv. 19 ; but instead of saying wo are thy sons, ho saith, ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.' Yet he is a Father conti- nually ; and though in Christ you cannot call him Father, v'et you may by creation and initiation, being brought up in the church. Go to him with the encouragements you have, and cast yourselves upon him.^ There is a bond for you by creation ; and there is his command. He bids you call him Father. He is a Father by creation. Look not upon this or that sin, but go to him and call him Father, as you may call him. Say, Thou art my Father, thou hast given me a being in the chm-ch. Wrestle with him as you may, though as sound Christians you cannot call him Father. Be weary of your courses. Are you willing to come under God's hands, to be sons ? You are sons by creation alread}'. Offer thyself to be of his family for the time to come, and God will give a sweet report to thy soul. Stand not out at the stave's end. ' Thou art our Father, Lord.' If you have a purpose to live in sin, the devil is your father, and not God. ' You are of your father the devil,' John viii. 44 ; but if we be willing to submit, we may say, ' Doubtless thou art our Father,' Isa. Ixiii. IG.
' We are the clay, thou art the potter.'
Here is a resignation of themselves to God in this term, * thou art the potter, we are the clay.' Indeed, we are but earthen vessels, the best of us, in regard of the bodily life we have ; and we are at the liberty of God to dispose of as he pleascth. So, before he comes to put forth this prayer to God, he useth this resignation of themselves into the hand of God : we are as clay in thy hands, Lord, ' dispose of us as thou wilt.' Let us remember this when we come to pray to God. Use all means of abasement that can be. Lay aside all terms other than abasing terms. ' We are the clay,' Isa. Ixiv. 8 ; and as Job saith, ' I abhor myself in dust and ashes,' Job xlii. 6. So the saints have done in all times. * I am not worthy to bo called thy son,' Luke xv. 19 ; and ' I am less than the least of thy mercies,' Gen. xxxii. 10. Let us lay aside proud and lofty terms, and * cast down our crowns' at the foot of Christ, as the saints in Rev. iv. 10, cast down all our excellencies. Let us have no thought of outward excellencies — of beauty, or strength, or riches, or high dignity. When we come to God, we must come with low thoughts to the high God. Can the creature be too low in his presence ?
And then come with resignation. ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.' Do with us as thou wilt. If thou dash us in pieces as a potter's vessel, thou mayest do it. That is the way to escape. That is well committed,
THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 203
that is committed into God's hand. Some men shift by their wits, and will not trust God with their health and strength. They ' be double-minded,' as St James saith, i. 8. They will have two strings to their bow ; if law- ful means will not serve, unlawful shall. No. But we ' must commit our- selves to God as to a faithful creator,' 1 Pet. iv. 19 ; and then see what he will do. Then it stands with his honour. ' He will look to the lowly.' ' I am the clay, thou art the potter.' Here I am ; do as thou wilt. As David saith, it is a blessed estate thus to resign ourselves into God's hands. If the devil and reprobates could be brought to this, they should never come there where they are in terrors of conscience. Let us labour to practise this dut}^ : Lord, I commit to thy hands my body and soul. I cast myself into thy bosom ; do with me as thou wilt. Some that have stood out at the stave's end with temptations many years, have gotten comfort by this resignation. ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.' Thou mayest mould and break us as thou wilt. The way now to escape the plague is not alto- gether to use tricks of wit and policy (though lawful means must be used), but labour to get into Christ, and resign ourselves into God's hands abso- lutely, and say thus, ' We are the clay,' &c. Lord, thou mayest dash us if thou wilt, as thou doest many hundreds weekly. Thou mayest dash us in that fashion if thou wilt. Only we may have a desire that God would make our lives and health precious to him, that we may serve him as if we were now in heaven, and that we may have grace to make good use of all. But if God have determined and decreed to take us away, let us resign our- selves into his hands. It is no matter though the body be ' sown in dis- honour, they shall be raised in honour,' 1 Cor. xv. 43. * We are the clay, he is the potter,' let him do what he will with our carcases and bodies, so he be merciful to our souls. These vessels of clay, when they are turned to earth, they shall be renewed of better stuft', like the glorious body of Christ. Then our souls and bodies shall be glorious by him that took a piece of flesh and clay for us. Oh the humility of Christ ! We wonder that the soul should animate a piece of clay, so excellent a thing as the soul is ; much more may we wonder that the Son of God should take a piece of flesh and clay upon him ; to take our nature of base earth, to make us eternally glorious as himself. Let it comfort us, though God dash our clay as a potter. Yet Christ, that took our clay to the unity of his person, our nature being engrafted into him, he will make our bodies eternal and everlasting as his own glorious body. Let us resign ourselves into God's hands, as the church here, ' Thou art the potter, and we are the clay,' and then we shall never miscarry.