II. I come now to the grounds of it, — whence it is that faith doth this. And that is upon a twofold account: — 1. Because it knows how to distinguish between the nature of the covenant and the external administration of it. 2. Because it is natural to faith so to do; and that upon a double account, as we shall see presently : —
1. Faith doth this, because it is able to distinguish between the covenant itself, which is firm, stable, invariable; and the administra- tion of the covenant, which is various and changeable, — I mean the outward administration of it. And this God teaches us, Ps. Ixxxix. 30-34, " If his children" — the children of Jesus Christ — " forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes,
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and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving- kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." The covenant of God shall stand firm and unalterable, then, when the rod and the stripes of men are upon our backs. In the midst of all God's visiting for iniquity, whether by internal rebukes or outward chastisements, yet faith sees the covenant stable; and so makes unto God upon that account. David, when he conies to die, gives it as the sum of all his observation, that the cove- nant was immutable, but the outward administration various, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, " Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure." " However God doth deal with my house, whatever misery is brought upon us, yet the covenant itself is everlasting; ' ordered in all things, and sure.' " Whatever misery and distress may fall upon a believing soul (and I pray God help me to believe it, as well as to say it), — whatever darkness or temptation he may be exercised withal upon the account of sin — whatever pressure, in afflictions, persecutions, dangers, may be- fall him — they all belong unto God's covenant dispensation in dealing with him. For God being his God in covenant, he acts according to the covenant in all things. Hence saith Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 1 b', " 0 Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." What are these things? Why, saith he, " I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones ; from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it ; I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul." One would think the next words would be, " By these things men die." No ; but, " By these things believers live, and in all these things is the life of my soul : " because they are all administered from the invariable covenant for the good of the souls of them who are exercised with them. Now, as God is pleased to declare himself, so is the soul to think of God in these dispensations of the covenant. Doth God hide his face, and leave the soul to darkness ? — in darkness it must be. Job xxxiv. 29, " When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble ? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him?" Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only, — be it against one person, or the whole church of God, — if he hides his face, and causeth darkness, none can behold him. When God chastens us, we cannot but look upon him as angry ; when he gives us up into the hands of men, hard masters, we cannot but look upon it as a token of his displeasure. When God doth thus in his outward dispensation of the covenant, so that all things are dark, and show nothing but displeasure ; and we
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are to look upon him as a God that hideth himself, and is displeased with us, and exercising anger towards us ;— in such a clay what shall the soul then do? Why, under all these outward tokens of God's displeasure, faith will, though but weak and faint, work through unto God himself, as invariable in his covenant; and there have a reserve in him beyond them all. Ps. xcvii. 2, " Clouds and darkness are round about him; but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." " I confess I have clouds and darkness round about me ; but if I could but break through these clouds and darkness, that are the consequents of God's hiding his face, and come to his throne, there is righteousness and judgment, — that righteousness and judg- ment wherein he hath betrothed me unto himself in covenant," Hos. ii. 1.9. " Could I get through this darkness of mind, this pressure upon my spirit, this sense of guilt, and come unto his throne ; there I should find him faithful and stable in his promises, and unalterable in his love." Now, suppose a person to have all these things upon him at once, — that God hath left him to a great sense of sin (for our troubles about sin are not according to the greatness of our sin, but to the sense God will let in upon us; and they are not to be reckoned the greatest sinners who are most troubled for their sin), and his troubles are very great; and at the same time the Lord, in his providential dispensation, is pleased to exercise him in sharp afflictions ; and if at the same time his interest and concernment in the people of God is likewise in darkness and distress, that there is no relief in that neither, — to such a one there are clouds and darkness round about God. What then will faith do, in such a case ? Why, true faith will secretly work through all to the throne of God, where there is righteousness, and judgment, and acceptance with him. So it is said, Isa. viii. 17, "I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him." The face of God is his love in Christ, and the shining of his countenance in the promises of the covenant ; for the way whereby God communicates his love unto our hearts, is by his promises. Now, when the soul is sensible of no communication of love, nor promise of it, then God is said to hide his face. What will faith do in such a case? — betake itself unto any thing else for relief? No ; saith he, " I will wait upon God, that hideth his face." As a traveller, when the sky is filled with clouds and darkness, tem- pests and storms, that are ready to break upon him everywhere, yet remembers that these are but interpositions, and the sun is where it was; and if he can but shelter himself till the storm be over, the sun will shine out again, and its beams refresh him : so is it with the soul in this case; it remembers God is still where he was. " Though there are clouds within, and distresses without, — sorrow, and anguish, and fears round about us, and the enemy enters into the very soul; yet