not prescribe and limit any in their choise but leave them to the free use of such Scriptures and promises as themselves by experience have found to be full of life and sweetnesse yet it will not be amisse to recommend the use of some few eminent promises of divers kinds out of the full store-house of the Word which may serve as so many meet cordials to revive the spirit of drooping Christians amidst the several kindes of necessities that may afflict them Are any burthened with the guilt of sinne so as that their soule draweth nigh unto the pit of despaire What more joyful tidings can ever their eares heare then a proclamation of free mercy made by the Lord himselfe unto beleeving and repenting sinners What more glorious and blessed sight can their eyes ever behold then the Name of God written in sundry of his choice attributes as in so many golden letters for them to read The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sinne Exod. 34. 6 7. He is the Lord who only hath jus vitae necis the absolute power of life and death in his hands but he is the Lord God merciful who far more willingly scattereth his pardons in forgiving then executeth his justice in condemning like the Bee that gathers honey with delight but stings not once unless she be much provoked He is gracious not incited to mercy by deserts in the object but moved by goodnesse in himself his love springs not from delight in our beauty but from pitty to our deformity He is long-suffering bearing with patience renued and often repeated injuries which he might by power revenge upon him who is the doer He is abundant in goodnesse grace overfloweth more in him then sinne can do in any Sin in the creature is but a vicious quality but goodnesse in him is his nature He is abundant in truth as he is good in making the promises so is he true in performing them when men deale unfaithfully with him he breaks not his Covenant with them He keeps mercy for thousands former ages have not exhausted the treasures of his mercy so as that succeeding generations can finde none there are still fresh reserves of mercy and that not for a few but for thousands He forgives iniquity transgression and sinne not pence but talents are forgiven by him not sinnes of the least sise are onely pardoned but sinnes of the greatest dimensions And as this promise in which the Name of God is so richly described doth fully answer the hesitancies doubts and perplexities of such who fear their iniquities for number to be so many for aggravation to be so great as that sometimes they question Can God pardon sometimes Will he ever shew mercy to such a wretched Prodigal So likewise may that blessed promise made unto beleevers Hos 14. 5 6 7. exceedingly support such who mourne under their want of holinesse and complaine of the weaknesse of their grace fearing that the little which they have attained unto goes rather backwards then forwards God himself having promised that he will be as a dew unto them which shall make them to put forth in all kindes of growth They shall grow as the lilly and cast forth their roots as Lebanon their branches shall spread and their beauty shall be as the Olive-tree they shall revive as the corne and grow as the vine What more comprehensive summary can there be either of Gods goodnesse or of a beleevers desires then there is in this one promise wherin he hath promised to make them grow in beauty like the lilly in stability like the Cedar in usefulnesse like the Olive whose fruit serves both for light and nourishment in spreading like the vine and in their encrease like the corne God himselfe being both the planter and waterer of all their graces To them who are full of fears through the approach of dangers which they have no hope to avoid or power to overcome How full of encouragement and comfort is that promise of protection and safety When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Isa 43. 2. Water and fire are two evils in which none can be with their nearest friends without perishing with them Who can save a Jonah when cast into a boisterous sea but God And who can walk in the fiery furnace with the three children and not be consumed but the Son of God In the prison one friend may be with another in banishment he may accompany him in the battel he may stand by him and assist him but in the swelling waters and in the devouring flames none can be a reliefe to any but God and he hath promised to beleevers to be with them in the midst of both these that so in the greatest extremities which can befall them they may fully rest assured that nothing can separate God from them but that he will either give them deliverance from troubles or support them under troubles Martyres non â—ripuit sed nunquid descruit saith Austin He did not take the Martyrs out of the flames but did he forsake them in the flames Lastly to them the meannesse of whose condition may seeme to expose them above others to hunger cold nakednesse evils that make life it self far more bitter then death how full of divine sweetnesse is that blessed promise of provision The young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing Psal 34. 10. The Septuagint renders it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great wealthy men of the earth who like beasts of prey live upon spoile and rapine who think that in the hardest times that can come they shall be eaten up last they shall be bitten with hunger and perish by famine when they who fear the Lord shall be in want of nothing The widows little barrel of meale in the famine yielded a better supply then Ahab his storehouse and granary her cruse had oile in it when his Olive-yards had none Oh! how securely and contentedly then may a beleever who acts his faith in such promises lay himself down in the bosome of the Almighty in the worst of all his extremities not much unlike the infant that sleeps in the armes of his tender mother with the breast in his mouth from which as soon as ever it wakes it draws a fresh supply that satisfies its hunger and prevents its unquietnesse SECT 3. Rule 8. Consider of the examples to whom promises have been fulfilled The eighth direction is in the making use of any promise to parallel our condition with such examples which may be unto us as so many clear instances of the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God in his giving unto others the same or
worth do vie with each other everlasting life is as sweet as long heaven is as glorious in its beauty as vast in its dimensions the crown of righteousnesse that is laid up is as rich as weighty There is no one promise of the Gospel but is of that extent for its latitude and of that value for its preciousnesse that he deserves to be eternally poore who having that for his subsistence looks upon any man who hath an interest in none greater or richer then himself though the gravel of the river were turned into pearles and every showre of raine from the clouds into a showre of silver and gold for to supply his wants The fourth particular is The high and noble end of the donation of the promises That by them we might be partakers of the divine nature c. Painters when they picture Angels do not intend similitude but beauty Nor doth the Apostle in this expression aime at any essential change and conversion of our substance into the nature of God and Christ but only at the elevation and dignifying of our nature by Christ Our neer union with him doth restore us to an higher similitude and likenesse of God then ever we attained in our primitive perfection but it doth not introduce any reall transmutation either of our bodies or souls into the divine nature For if that stupendious union of the two natures in one person the Lord Christ doth not effect an essential change in either but that both natures do conserve and retaine their distinct properties without mixture or confusion much lesse can the Union between Christ and beleevers which is not a personal Union but an Union of persons made by the Spirit and by faith cause any such alteration as that our nature losing its own subsistence should wholly passe into the divine and be swallowed up in the Abysse of it as a drop when it falls into the wide Ocean Pithily doth Cyprian expresse this truth when he affirmes Nostra ipsius conjunctio nec miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confoedérat voluntates Our and Christs conjunction doth neither mingle persons nor unite substances but doth conjoyne our affections and bring into a league of amity our wills Suitable to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 17. They that are joyned to the Lord are made one spirit CHAP. II. In which is declared what a promise is IT is not designed by me as the subject of my present task to undertake a distinct and full prosecution of all these foure particulars in the text every one of which like gold in the beating would easily diffuse and spread themselves into a large compasse but occasionally to glance at them as they conduce to the illustration of that head and branch which I shall single and cull out from the rest as the present subject upon which I shall pitch and fix my thoughts and that is the matchlesse worth and goodnesse of the promises of the Gospel A truth it is of much weight and sweetnesse to every beleever but yet as it lies contracted in a proposition discovers not so much of it as when drawn forth into a full explication like to colours that are lesse beautiful and pleasing while they lie on the palate of the painter then when placed and spread on the picture by the pencil of the artificer I shall therefore in the unfolding of it endeavour these five things First to shew what a promise is Secondly in what respects they are great and precious Thirdly give rules about the due application of them Fourthly resolve some usefull Queries and cases concerning them Fifthly close and shut up all with some practicall inferences and genuine applications such as flow from the doctrine of the promises The honey which drops from the combe is of all the best and sweetest First what a promise is It is a declaration of Gods will wherein he signifies what particular good things he will freely bestow and the evils that he will remove This description like the box of spiknard in the Gospel may be more usefull when it is broken then whole I shall therefore take it into pieces and give an account of it in the several parcels First a promise is a declaration of Gods will it being a kinde of middle thing between his purpose and performance his intendment of good and the execution of it upon those whom he loveth And as wicked Jezabel 1 King 19. 2. could not satisfie her hatred of Elijah the Prophet in intending evil unto him and effecting it upon him in time as she could but withal she lets fall an heavy threatning against him strengthened with a bitter imprecation upon her self as an obliging tie to put in execution the designed evil So let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time So much lesse can the love of God satisfie it self in a gracious decree and purpose of good towards his elect shut up in his own breast and the actual performance of it in the fulnesse of time unlesse withal he discover it unto them before-hand both as a ground of present comfort in the knowledge thereof and of hope and expectation in the certain enjoyment of the good things promised hereafter God also confirming the word of his truth by an oath not for any necessity or weaknesse in its selfe but out of superabundant love unto the heires of promise That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie they might have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. Secondly it is a declaration concerning good And thereby a promise is differenced from the threatnings of God which in divers respects have a neere affinity with his promises For they as things of a middle nature do intervene between the decree of his wrath and the execution of it they are let fall in the Word as so many discoveries of Gods anger against sinne and set as powerful stops to check and bound the lusts of sinners who are apt to dash themselves against the rock of divine displeasure they are sealed with the same oath of God with which the promises are ratified that so they might be as full of dread to sinners in the expectation of the fulfilling of them as the promises are of comfort to Beleevers Thirdly it is concerning good things freely bestowed And thereby it is distinguished from the commands which are also significations of Gods will concerning good but it is of the good of duty enjoyned to be done not of the good of mercy to be received The precepts of God and the promises of God they alwayes go together in the Word as the veines and the arteries do in the body wherever there goes a veine that carries blood there also accompanies it an artery that carries spirits so wherever there is a precept in the Word that enjoynes duty there also is an
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Gen. 49. 23 24 Therefore when believers do at any time finde the dispensations of God to them in his providences to cross rather then to favor the fulfilling of such promises as he hath made to them in his Word and which they in their prayers do earnestly seek and expect yet are they not to cast away their confidence or to take up any such sad conclusions as that God hath forgotten his promise and that he beares no respect to them or their sacrifices because God doth not limit the accomplishment of his promises to the serenity and successe of his providences but doth many times use such dispensations which seeme rather to frustrate and make void his purpose then to establsh and effect it Jonah is set on shore by a whale when the mariners arive at their Port by the ship The blinde man in the Gospel John 9 6. Christ cures by clay and spittle and not by balsams And as they that go to sea do not obtain a firme and unmoved state of body by the steddiness of the vessel in a calme but by the accustoming and inuring of themselves to the rollings and tossings of it in several weathers So neither do beleevers gain a settled peace of minde by the calme equality of Gods providences towards them but by acquaintance with vicissitudes and adverse revolutions in the midst of which they still finde the promise to be as an anchor sure and firme and therefore are not perplexed or amazed at all other changes that befall them SECT 2. Cau. 4. Take heed of curiosity in selecting promises The fourth cautionary direction to beleevers is To take heed of a sinful and affected curiosity so as to esteeme onely those promises most precious which do stand in the Scripture like fruit ungathered and untouched by the hand of common Christians and are like flowers as they imagine not at all smelt and blown upon by any but themselves As there is a vaine affectation in some Ministers to decline and wave those Scriptures that have in them the greatest pregnancy to confirm their doctrines and to set their wits on work and the texts many times upon the rack to force them to speak to their purpose that so their notions and conceptions may be looked upon by their auditors as neither vulgar nor common So is there a lust of fancy in many Christians of pleasing and delighting themselves in the picking and selecting out such promises as have not come under the observation of others or have been least used by them in the constant daily recourse which they have had unto them Now this vanity and curiosity which thus prevailes in many Christians doth not only spring from pride which often begets an affectation of singularity but it ariseth also from a false conceit and opinion taken up by them that such promises are more sweet when ruminated upon and more full when sucked on being like unto breasts that have had little or none of their milk drawn and taken from them First they conceive them to be more sweet and to affect the soul with a greater of delight But there is a twofold sweetnesse and delight the one ariseth from the goodnesse of the object the other from the newnesse of the object The newnesse of the object is that with which fancy is chiefly delighted and by which it worketh upon the will to close with it as a convenient and suitable good But the understanding propounds the goodnes truth of the object to the will and thereby draws and wins iâ—â—o a liking and full embracing of it Now that which should endeare the promise unto beleevers is not any suggestion from fancy that none but themselves have either observed or used this or that particular promise upon that ground to hug it in their bosoms as Scholars do those notions and books which none are possessed of but themselves But the high estimation which they have of them should wholly arise from that transcendent goodnesse and truth which is in the promises and makes them deservedly to be of all desired and accepted Thus Paul commends the Gospel 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners They conceive though fondly them to be more full as well as more sweet But this is one of the peculiar excellencies of the promises that the emanations of comfort which flow from them are not in the least impaired or diminished by the common and daily use of them no more then light is wasted in the Sunne by the multitudes of generations that have enjoyed the use and benefit of it Still it hath as much light in the body of it as it had in its first creation And so the promises which Abraham Isaac and all the faithful descended from them have successively used and lived upon do still retaine the same vigour and abound with as great plenty of support and comfort unto present beleevers as ever they did unto them As the Bee doth with an innocent theft as Parisiensis calls it suck honey from the flowers without the least prejudice to their beautiful colours which delight the eye or to the fragrant sent which affects the smell of him that gathers them So do beleevers draw from the promises a grateful satiety both of delight and comfort without the least diminution either of their fulnesse or sweetnesse He that is last in the application of the same promise may finde it as rich in its plenty as effectuall in its vigor as he that came first unto it Wells saith Basil are the better and more pure the oftner they be drawne and so the promises which are the wells of salvation do receive an improvement by the frequent and common use of them The end of this Caution is no way to forbid any Christians valuing or esteem of one particular promise above others which God by the powerfull workings of his Spirit hath in a speciall manner made use of for the quieting of their soules in the time of their greatest perplexity and the filling of them with all joy peace in believing as if thereby they did derogate ought from the just worth of other promises For it being Gods manner not to seale and manifest his love unto believers by one and the same promise but to make use of this promise to one and of a differing promise to another who both lie under the same distress It is their duty to have in a peculiar remembrance that promise and Scripture above others by which God was pleased first to speak peace to their soules But the aime of the Caution is to keep believers from putting any disrespect upon the precious promises by their esteeming of them to be so much the lesse worth by how much the more common and ordinary they have been in their use Did Manna nourish the Israelites the lesse because
carry should refuse to do the one that they might thereby be enabled to do the other What is it else that God and Christ do require of men to the receiving of the promises but only that they would disburden themselves of earthly incumbrances which hinder the reception of spiritual mercies that so with hearts emptied of worldly affections and cares they may be qualified for the fulnesse of heavenly riches When Joseph invited his father and brethren to come down into Egypt he bids them not to regard their stuffe for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours Gen. 45. 20. So the true heavenly Joseph when he invited men to come unto him he bids them not to set their hearts on things on the earth because all the riches of his Kingdome are before them and by his promises made over to them How inexcuseable then must their neglect be who do not with answerable hearts and desires embrace such precious offers SECT 5. A fifth aggravation is taken from the command of God and Christ We are not onely invited to take hold of the promises but we are commanded to believe the excellency of them This saith the Apostle is his commandment that we should beleeve on the Name of his Sonne Jesus Christ Joh. 3. 23. That is we ought so to beleeve his promises his sayings as to count them worthy of all acceptation As we assent unto them for their truth so are we to embrace them for their preciousnesse and worth Our faith must work by love it must put forth it self in the strength of all affection by our esteeming and prizing of them above the most desirable things of the world Thus David did when he said Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycings of my heart Psalm 119. 111. Gods promises he made as his lands as his goods as his all They were more dear to him then all his temporal things whatsoever When therefore they are not thus honoured both in the hearts and in the lives of beleevers the great Commandment of the Gospel is violated the disobedience of which will be recompenced with more heavy and sore judgements then the breaches of the Law CHAP. XVIII Foure differences between the promises of God and Satan THe second Application from this truth That the promises of the Gospel are precious shall be to acquaint us with the wide differences that are between the promises of God and the promises of the Devil who is the great deceiver of the whole world Rev. 12. 9. Sinne which Satan by all his arts endeavoureth to make men guilty of that so they may be as miserable as himself is in it self so full of deformity and uglinesse as that if it were but seen in its true shape there could not be a more effectual argument to keep men from the commission of it then it s own monstrosity There are three things say the School that cannot be defined Dei formositas materiae primae informitas peccati deformitas The Amiablenesse and beauty of God the informity of the first matter and the deformity of sin Now to hide and cover this misshapen monster Satan useth not a few devices Sometimes he makes it to appear in the habit and likenesse of a vertue and thus he tempts men to covetousnesse under the notion of frugality to riot and prodigality under the colour of liberality Sometimes he varnisheth it with the specious shews of profit and gaine and promiseth large rewards to them that will but comply with his suggestions and counsels And this is one of the most subtil artifices that he useth to withdraw a man from any good to entice and winne him to any sin Thus he tempted Balaam to venture upon the cursing of Gods people by the promise of honour and preferment Micha's Levite with a small augmentation of his stipend promised unto him he tempted both to theft and idolatry Judas upon the promise of thirty pieces of silver which the instruments of the devil make unto him he tempts to sell the life and blood of his blessed Master yea by a franke and large promise of all the kingdomes of the world he tempts our Lord and Saviour to the highest act of idolatry that is imaginable to fall down and worship him not despairing by the greatnesse of the offer to hide the foulnesse of the sinne though it be with scorne and indignation rejected by Christ Mat. 4. 10. Because therefore that the most of men are ready to be deceived by the speciousnesse of the devils promises and to give more heed to what he speaks then to the good Word of God I shall in four particulars set forth the difference between the promises of God and the promises of Satan The first is the difference between the persons that make them Promises are like bonds which depend altogether upon the sufficiency of the surety If a beggar seal to an instrument for the payment of ten thousand pounds who esteems it to be any better then a blank But if a man of estate and ability do bind himself to pay such a sum it is looked upon as so much real estate and men dovalue themselves by such bills and bonds as well as by what is in their own possession God who hath made rich promises to beleevers is able to performe what he hath spoken He is rich in mercy Eph. 2. 4. Abundant in goodnesse and truth Exod. 34. 6. He is the God of truth Psalm 31. 5. The Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1. 3. But the devil is a Beggar an outcast one that hath nothing in possession nothing in disposition He is a lyar and the father of it John 8. 44. A deceiver Revel 12. 9. A murtherer from the beginning who killed not one but all in one Joh. 8. 44. How then can his promises be a foundation of support to any that have no other word to build upon but his He hath never kept his promise and God hath never broke his promise There hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 Kings 56. A second difference is in the matter of the promises Let us weigh the promises of the one and of the other in the balance of truth and we shall finde that the promises of God are gold and the promises of the devil are Alchimy such which though they glitter much have no worth or excellency in them Or that they are as Aristotle calls the Rainbowe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an appearance only and not like the cloud which he stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a true and real substance God's are substantial realities and his vanishing and fleeting shadows windy and swollen bladders which but a little prickt do quickly fall and grow lank Stobaeus out of Herodotus tels a story of one Archetimus who had deposited moneys in the hand of Cydias his friend who afterwards requiring them again of
on the Word and promises of God For as faith is truly the life and guide of the soul so the Word is the ground life and guide of our faith Now the Arguments that I shall set down are briefly three First The life of faith is that life which above all others God would have Believers to live And this appears by the distance that God hath put between his promises and his performances making their whole life to be rather a life of hopes then of enjoyments and the good things that he gives to relate more to the future then to the present time God was graciously pleased to open a door of hope to fallen man in that first Gospel-promise which he himself proclaimed Gen. 3. 15. that the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head But how many generations passed away before the fulnesse of time came in which he sent forth his Sonne made of a woman He hath promised to Believers that they shall tread down the wicked and that they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet Mal. 4. 3. But yet he hath made their warfare to be as long as their life He hath promised a glorious resurrection of their bodies out of the grave And yet for how many thousand years have his Saints lain dissolved in their dust as if they did seeme to be altogether forgotten by him Now to what end hath God set such long periods of time between the making and the accomplishing of his promises but only that he would have the heirs of them to live by faith yea and to die in faith by resting on the truth of his Word for the fulfilling of every mercy which he hath undertaken for in his promises And indeed this glory which Believers give to God in the exercise of their faith upon his Word is farre greater and more noble then all that glory which the whole universe of creatures do yeeld unto him They give him the glory of his goodnesse in their being and in the comforts of it derived unto them by him But who gives him the glory of his faithfulnesse in his promises but a Believer Who is it that rejoyceth in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. but a Believer Who glories in tribulations but a Believer Who is it that lets not his confidence die when his life expires but a Believer My flesh and my heart faileth saith David but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 26. Secondly The life of faith is of all estates the most contented and of all lives the fullest of real sweetnesse and delight First It is the most contented life True contentment is the inseparable companion of true faith 1 Tim. 6. 6. A Believer is the onely person that is instructed in this sacred mystery Phil. 4. 13. The things that others want he desires not Riches which others covet with the straining of their consciences he throws away as snares Pleasures which others drink down with a thirst unsatisfied he out of choise sparingly sips of or else refuseth so much as to taste Honours that others value themselves by he looks upon as fancies and not realities As Plato told the Musicians that a Philosopher could dine and eate his meat without them So a Believer can live happily without the having of any of these things And the ground of all this is because by faith he lives above them and enjoyes more high and noble delights in the very expectation and hope of that blessednesse which God hath promised then any other can have from the fruition of an earthly Paradise or of the whole world it self if turned and changed into an Eden Secondly Of all lives the life of faith is the sweetest The delicacies that faith feeds upon doth not arise from any stagnant and impure pits or cisterns but from the fountain and well of life It sucks the breasts of consolation Isay 66. 11. It lives upon the free favour of God which is better then life it self Psal 63. 3. It hath Christ himself for nutriment whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. All which are food the world knows not of it never understood their preciousnesse or tasted their sweetnesse There is a greater difference between the repasts of faith and the refreshments of the world then there is between the Physick of the Galenists Paracelsians the one giving it in the drug and the other as they boast in the quintessence and spirits extracted from that flegme and earthymatter that deads allaies their efficacy All the comforts of faith have in them a native purity and spiritualnesse and need not the help of Artists to refine them Such they are as that Angels themselves have neither better nor higher to live upon How injurious then are Believers to their own happinesse while they neglect the living by faith and gaze rather upon these dainties with their eyes then feed upon them with their mouths How greatly do they live below themselves while they take up with the things of this world and put not forth this divine grace of faith which can fetch every good thing out of heaven What dishonour do they cast on the precious promises while like the lustful Israelites they slight this Manna of the Gospel as dry food O therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any excellency in the promises be perswaded you that are the beloved ones of God to live the life of faith and to exercise it in an improvement of the promises the use of which makes you more rich and blessed then the having of them Thirdly to move Believers to act faith upon the promises I shall adde this Argument that their labour and expectation will not be in vaine Faith in the promise is like the bowe of Jonathan and the sword of Saul which never returned empty 2 Sam. 1. 22. It alwayes findes what it seeks and enjoyes what it desires He that beleeveth shall never be confounded 1 Pet. 2. 6. that is he shall not be disappointed or broken in his purposes or hopes If the promise be not good security to rest and build upon What is What bond can be so firme as his Word who cannot lie Tit. 1. 9. What pledge can be more certain then the earnest of the Spirit by which the inheritance of Believers is sealed unto them Ephes 1. 14. If these foundations fail then we may well say with the Prophet What can the righteous do But sooner shall the rocks be broken into bits and thrown as pibbles and cockle-shels upon the shoar by the violence of the waves sooner shall the mountains that God hath set fast by his strength Psal 65. 6. be over-turned by the breath of tempestuous windes then the promises which are founded upon the immutable power of God and the never-failing goodnesse of Christ be in the least iota made void
and of no effect For besides the infallibility of Gods Word which may abundantly confirme unto Believers the truth of the promises the goodnesse also and mercy of Christ are as another sacred anchor for their faith and confidence to rest upon if in relation to the promises it be seriously thought on in two particulars First That the promises are the real purchase of the precious blood of Christ and must therefore be certainly made good or else he must be a loser in all his sufferings If he like Jonathan 1 Sam. 18. 4. should strip himself not only of his robes but of his life that he might expresse his love to distressed and undone persons with whom God is angry and displeased and yet they receive no advantage or fruit by it would not all these condescensions of goodnesse and mercy be in vain If he should drink of that brook and torrent of curses that was in the way between salvation and sinners and yet the passage to the heavenly Canaan be no more open then it was before should not Christ be a greater loser then sinners themselves They it is true lose their soules each of which are of more value then so many worlds but Christ must lose the revenue of his glory which is farre more precious then the souls of all the men in the world How would sinne exult and triumph if it should ever be able to say there was a pardon covenanted for to be given such a person but I have hindred the execution of it How would Satan reproach the death of Christ if he could be able to say that he hath destroyed one soul for whom Christ died Yea how should Paul or any other believer be able to throw forth their gantlet and to challenge all the enemies of salvation to do their worst Rom. 8. 31. if any of them could make a separation between the love of Christ and them How quickly would tribulation persecution famine nakednesse say we will make you miserable How soone would perils and the sword reply we will conquer you How confidently would principalities and powers say we will pluck you out of Christs hand But for ever blessed be his Name there are none among the whole host of enemies that dare revile the confidence of a beleever or say as that uncircumcised Philistine to David 1 Sam. 17. 44. I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the aire or to the beasts of the field There are none that dare presume to say that they can make void the least mercy which the promise doth hold forth to be the gift of Christs love and the purchase of his blood Let therefore beleevers lift up the hands which hang down and put forth the strength of faith in renewed acts of confidence upon the promises being fully perswaded in themselves of this truth that they can no more be disappointed of their hopes then Christ can be disappointed of his purchase Secondly That the promises are the matter of the most prevailing intercession of Christ who now sits on the right hand of God in glory When he was on earth he purchased by the price of his blood all that masse of treasure and riches both of grace and glory that are inventoried in the promises and by his last Will and Testament on the crosse bequeathed them to beleevers But all this which was transacted here below was onely as Divines usually terme it medium impetrationis the meanes of procurement or obtaining it for beleevers the medium applicationis the meanes of applying all this unto them are as his resurrection and intercession his resurrection that declares his conquest over death his intercession that shews his favour and acceptance with God And they are both as necessary to make his satisfaction of force unto beleevers as the image or stamp of the Prince is to make the coin currant though it neither adde weight or value to the substance He saith the Apostle being made perfect became the Author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Now the intercession of Christ is set forth in Scripture with all the advantages that may be that thereby beleevers may be secured of their interest and title to the things which he hath purchased We have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Sonne of God let us therefore hold fast our profession Heb. 4. 14. First He is a great high Priest greater then all that were before him both in power and favour with God Secondly He is passed into the heavens a Sanctuary which no other Priest could ever enter into or sit down in all their sacrifices being imperfect and therefore to be daily renewed by them Thirdly He is Jesus the Sonne of God more near in alliance unto him then Angels or men and therefore most sure to prevaile for the obtaining of whatever he asks or requires of him When he therefore who is the only Favorite of heaven is the Believers Advocate and doth continually solicit God to fulfil his Covenant made with him and his peoples prayers made unto him What ground can therebe for jealousies and distrust in a Believers heart What rational impediment can there be imagined to hinder or weaken the confidence of faith which the intercession of Christ doth not fully remove and take away Are your prayers tainted with the corruption and infirmities of the flesh he perfumes them with the sweet odours of his intercession Rev. 8. 3. Are your sins multiplyed and renewed daily So are the intercessions of Christ It is his only work in heaven to intercede for sinners Heb. 7. 25. Are your persons vile and such which you fear God will not accept Christ who is your high Priest is holy harmlesse and separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. He hath in his person a fulnesse of all perfections which may assure every Believer that the promises which he pleads that the requests which he makes to God in Christs Name shall not be like arrowes shot at the Sunne which never reach it or come near to it but that they shall pierce the heavens and be of such power and prevalency with God as that what they seek he will grant and the promises which they plead in faith he will performe and make good in truth Wherefore let me again commend unto Believers the great duty of exercising faith on he promises of Christ which cannot but fill the heart with strong and inseperable consolations when by the eye of faith they are looked upon as those great things which are both the purchase of his most precious blood and the matter of his most powerful intercession And now as Mariners who when they come nigh the port roll up their sails which were before spread they being not useful in the harbour that were before most necessary on the sea So must I being arrived at that point which was the utmost boundary of my thoughts and intentions draw towards a conclusion and winde up this