[2.] His condescension to entreat us that it may be so, — that he may exercise pity, pardon, goodness, kindness, mercy towards us. He is so fall, that he is, as it were, pained until he can get us to himself, that he may communicate of his love unto us. " We pray you," says the apostle, " in Christ's stead, as if God by us did beseech you." What to do ? what is he so earnest about ? what would God have of us ? Some great thing, some difficult service assuredly. " No," says he, " but, ' be reconciled to God,' " 2 Cor. v. 20. Says God, " O ye sons of men, ' why will ye die V I beseech you, be friends with me ; let us agree; — accept of the atonement. I have love for you; take mercy, take pardon ; do not destroy your own souls." " This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the re- freshing," Isa. xxviii. 12. Remember how the Scripture abounds with exhortations and entreaties to this purpose.
[3.] In condescension to our weakness, he hath added his oath to this puipose. Will we not yet believe him ? will we not yet venture upon him ? Are we afraid that if we put ourselves upon him, into his hand, he will kill us, we shall die ? He gives us this last possible relief against such misgiving thoughts. " Swear unto me that I shall not die, is the utmost that any one requires, when, with the greatest ground of mistrust, he gives up himself to him that is mightier than he. " Now, ' as I live, saith the Lord/ I would not the death of a sinner," Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Methinks this should put an end to all strife. We have his promise and oath, Heb. vi. 18, and what would we have more? He is of an infinite loving and tender nature; he entreats us to come to him, and swears we shall not suffer by our so doing. Innumerable other instances of the like kind might be given, to evidence the actings of God towards us to be suitable to his name and nature, before insisted on.
Now the end aimed at, as you know, in these considerations, is, by them to encourage our hearts in the belief of the promises. It is God with whom therein we have to do. The things we receive by our believing are excellent, desirable, what alone we want, and which will do us good to eternity. The difficulties of believing arise from our unworthiness, and the terror of him with whom we have to do.
42 THE STRENGTH OF FAITH.
To disentangle our souls from under the power of such fears and con- siderations, this, in the first place, is proposed, — the tender, gracious, loving nature of Him with whom herein we have to do. Fill your hearts, then, with such thoughts of God as these ; exercise your minds with such apprehensions of him. The psalmist tells you what will be the issue of it, Ps. ix. 10, " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee ;" — establishment in believing will ensue. If we know the name of God, as by himself revealed, — know the love and kindness wrapped up therein, — we cannot but trust him. Let us be always thinking of God, with a clear persuasion that so it is; that he is gra- cious, loving, ready to receive us, delighting, rejoicing to embrace us, to do us good, to give us mercy and glory, — whatever he hath promised in Christ; and it will exceedingly tend to the establishment of our hearts.
But now, concerning the things that have been spoken, great caution is to be used. It is not a general notion of the nature of God that I have been insisting on ; but the goodness and love of God to his in Christ Jesus. Wherefore, farther, to clear this whole business, and that a sure foundation may be laid of this great thing, I desire to add the following observations: —
1st. I acknowledge that all that can be said, by all or any of the sons of men, concerning the goodness, loveliness, kindness of God in his own blessed nature, is inconceivably, infinitely below what it is in itself. What a little portion is it that we all know of his goodness! Though we have all his works and his whole word to teach us, yet, as we have no affections large enough to entertain it, so no faculty to receive or apprehend it. Admiration — which is the soul's " non- plus," its doing it knows not what, the winding of it up until it stands still, ready to break — is all that we can arrive unto in the considera- tion hereof. His excellencies and perfections in this kind are suffi- cient, superabundant, for the engagement of the love and obedience of all rational creatures; and when they can go no farther, they may, with the psalmist, call in all then fellow- creatures to the work. Nor can any man exercise himself in a more noble contemplation than that of the beauty and loveliness of God. " How great is his good- ness! how great is his beauty!" They who have nothing but horrid, harsh apprehensions of the nature of God, — that he is insupportably severe and wrathful, — know him not. To have thoughts of him as cruel and sanguinary; to make use of his greatness and infinite ex- cellencies only to frighten, terrify, and destroy the work of his hands, who is good, and doth good, — who made all things good, in beauty and order, and who loves all the things he hath made, — who hath filled all that we see or can think on with the fruits of his goodness, — is unreasonable, unjust, and wicked. Consider God and his works to-