VER. 15-19.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 175
3. God will do this for the work that he hath for some of his in all ages and seasons to do in the world. And this is great and various. He will have some always to conflict with his adversaries and overcome them, and therein give testimony to the power of his grace and truth. Could sin and Satan drive all true grace, faith, and obedience out of the world, they would complete their victory; but so long as they have any to conflict withal, against whom they cannot prevail, themselves are conquered. The victory is on the other side, and Satan is sensible that he is under the curse. Wherever true faith is, there is a victory, 1 John v. 4. By this doth God make his remnant as a “brazen wall,” that his enemies shall fight against in vain, Jer. xv. 20. Be they, therefore, never so few, they shall do the work of God, in conquering Satan and the world through the “blood of the Lamb.”
4. God will always have a testimony given to his goodness, grace, and mercy. As in the ways of his providence he never “ left him- self without witness,” Acts xiv. 17, no more will he in the ways of his grace. Some he will have to give testimony to his goodness, in the calling, pardoning, and sanctifying of sinners; which who shall do if there be none on earth made partakers of that grace? They are proper witnesses who testify what they know and have experience of.
And lastly, God will always have a revenue of especial glory out of the world in and by his worship. And this also must necessarily cease and fail, should not God preserve to himself a remnant of them that truly fear him.
And if this be the way of God’s dealing, we may see what be- comes sometimes of that which the Papists make a note of the church,—namely, number and visibility. He that would choose his party by tale would scarce have joined himself with Caleb and Joshua, against the consent of about six hundred thousand men, who cried out to stone them because they were not of their mind. God’s way, indeed; is always to preserve some; but sometimes his way is to reserve but a few,—as we have seen in sundry instances before mentioned.
Again, It is evident from whence it is that the church of God hath passed through so many trials, hazards, and dangers, and yet hath not to this day at any time utterly been prevailed against. It escaped of old when Cain slew Abel; when “all flesh had corrupted its ways,” and God brought the flood upon ungodly men, it escaped then in the family of Noah; as it did afterwards in that of Abra- ham; so it did in the wilderness by the fidelity of Moses, Caleb, and Joshua. Since the establishment of the Christian church, it is known what dreadful opposition it hath been exercised withal. Once the world groaned, admiring to see itself surprised into Arian- ism; afterwards all “wondered after the beast,” and none were
176 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [cHap. U1
suffered to live that received not his mark,—a high renunciation of the authority of Jesus Christ. Yet from the jaws of all these hazards, these deaths, hath the church been preserved, and triumphed against all oppositions. God hath undertaken its preservation, and he will make it good to the uttermost. He hath given the Lord Christ power and authority to secure his own interest and concerns in the earth. And he sends the Spirit to convert and sanctify his elect, and will so do until the consummation of all things. A thread of infinite wisdom, care, and faithfulness, hath run along in this matter from the beginning hitherto, and it shall not be cut off or broken. And this may also give us satisfaction and security for the future as to that remnant of Jacob which lies in the midst, in the bowels of many nations,—it shall be preserved. He spake proudly who encouraged the pilot in a storm with “Czesaris fortunam vehis,’— “ Fear not, thou carriest the fortune of Czsar;” which, though not then, yet soon after failed him. Believers are engaged in a bottom that hath Christ in it, and his interest, and the faithfulness of God, to secure its safe arrival in the harbour of eternal rest and peace. There is at this day a dreadful appearance of an opposition to the city of God. Paganism, Mohammedanism, Popery, Atheism, with sundry gross heresies, are in combination, as it were, against it. The contribution also of strength and craft which they have from the lusts and worldly interests of men is incredible. But yet we see that in the midst of all these storms and fears the Lord is pleased to preserve a remnant to himself, neither themselves nor their adversaries knowing how; and upon the grounds mentioned he will assuredly continue to do so to the end.
Obs. III. God lays a few, a very few ofttimes, of his secret ones in the balance against the greatest multitude of rebels and trans- gressors.
They that provoked God were about six hundred thousand men, and upon the matter two only opposed them. But, in the language of the Holy Ghost, all that great multitude were but “some,’— some, not “all;” the principal part was preserved in those who were obedient. They were his portion, his inheritance, his jewels, dear to him as the apple of his eye, and deservedly preferred unto the greatest heap of chaff and rubbish,