Page images
PDF
EPUB

greatest confidence, come best speed at this throne: Matth. xv. 28. "Then Jefus answered and faid unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Little faith is a narrow veffel, which brings in little from the fountain; but great faith brings in much. Whatever the Lord's people may think of their doubtings of the promises, the word of God never speaks a good word of the believer's doubts: Matth. xiv. 31. "O thou of little faith, wherefore didft thou doubt ?" Doubts are not pleafing to God, for they fhew the weakness of faith, and always in less or more contain some reflections on the blood of Chrift, the truth and gracious nature of God. Auguftus admitted the common people with their petitions so pleasantly, that it is reported he reproved a certain perfon, telling him that he prefented his petition to him, as if he had been giving a halfpenny to an elephant. Humility may well confift with the confidence and full affurance of faith.

Now, to conclude all this, ye who have taken God in Chrift as your God, learn this holy art of living by faith, claiming your intereft and improving it for all your neceflities. Alas! firs, for what end have we taken God in Chrift for our God, if we do not live upon him? John, vi. 57. " As the living Father hath fent me, and I live by the Fa ther; fo he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." Why have we profeffed to enter into the houfe of God, by embracing the covenant, if we do not improve it for all we need? Improve, then, the claimed intereft for all; and particularly,

1. For a reft to your confciences. Here David found a rest to his, when death and guilt together ftared him in the face: 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. " Although,"

though," fays he, " my houfe be not fo with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure: for this is all my falvation, and all my defire, although he make it not to grow." If God be thy God, the righteousness of God is thine to cover thee, the righteousness of Chrift, God-man. Thou art within that vail where the fiery law is clofed up in the ark, and cannot reach thee. Confeffing, mourning, repenting, are bleffed and holy exercifes, well becoming the child of God, and the more faith, the more of these, and the deeper will they be; but they, after all, are wholly infufficient for a reft to the confcience.-Improve the claimed intereft,

2. For a reft to your hearts: Pfal. cxvi. 7. “Return to thy reft, O my foul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." Have you come to God through Chrift? then reft thy heart in enjoyment of him. Is the world fmiling on thee? beware, reft not on it, thou wilt foon find thy rest broken, thou wilt never reft foundly in the embraces of a smiling world, for the bed is fhorter than thou canst ftretch thyfelf upon. Is the world frowning? Are the cifterns dried up? thy created pillars taken away? Yet defpond not, faint not, while God remains, Hab. iii. 17. 18. You who have taken God for all, you have a poor bargain of it, if you have not as much as can make you live without those things which may be taken from you. Look to your stock in heaven, look to the glorious promises; he who overcometh fhall inherit all things.

Laftly, Improve it for sanctification, to be holy, as God is holy, to get ftrength for duty, and against corruption. Draw in your furniture for a holy life, from the fulness of him that filleth all

in all. Believe, that you may be holy. Take, by faith, the promise with you, when you ufe the means of holiness. They know little of the property of faith, who use it only for the pardon of fin; it is the inftrument of fanctification, as well as of juftification: Acts, xv. 9. " Purifying their hearts by faith." If a luft is to be fubdued, or a temptation refifted, &c. faith muft run thy errand to heaven. Believe the promise of fanctification with application to thyfelf, believe it with full affurance that it shall be made out to thee; and in that confidence use the means appointed of God for thy fanctification, and fo thou fhalt fucceed.If any of you have fet about gathering evidences for heaven, and have got them, these things may help you to keep them, and to increase them. Amen.

VOL. II.

Cc

THE

THE SAINTS GOD'S SERVANTS AND HIS

PROPERTY *.

SERMON XXXVII.

ACTS, xxvii. 23. For there ftood by me this night the angel of the Lord, whose I am, and whom I serve.

TH

HERE are two questions, which may be pertinently proposed to every one of you after this communion; and he who can fatisfyingly anfwer them, as Paul here does, and every child of God may do, it will be a pass which will carry him fafely and comfortably through the world, by fea or by land, at home or abroad, among friends or enemies, and even at length into heaven.-The first question is,

Whose are you? Man, woman, to whom do you belong? Are you Chrift's, or Satan's? Are you ftill your own, or are you the Lord's? Are you a child of God's family, or of the devil's? What countryman are you? Are you from above, and do you belong to the Lord of the better country?

or

* Delivered June 15. 1715, the Sabbath after the d penfation of the Sacrament.

or are you from below, and do you belong to the god of this world? What fay you to this queition, Whofe are you?-The fecond queftion is,

What is your bufinefs? Certainly you have fome business or other, you are either well or ill employed. What is your occupation? What course of life do you follow? What is the great defign upon which you are fet? Are you ferving the devil, yourselves, your lufts? or are you ferving God? What fay you to this question, What is your bufinefs?

[ocr errors]

Paul, in the text, and in á few words, anfwers thefe two queftions. He told those whom he addreffed, that he was God's, and that God's fervice was his bufinefs; that his Lord and Mafter had sent him a very comfortable meffage in the dark hour which was now come upon them.-He was now in a fhip, with many others, failing for Rome; but a ftorm rifes, continues many days, and all hope of being faved was taken away. Paul, notwithstanding, is easy and chearful; he brings good news to them, that there fhould not one life be loft in the cause. And, in the text, he fhews them on what ground he went, namely, that of divine revelation, by the miniftry of an angel.--You may here observe, that God's word of promise is fuffeient security and encouragement in the darkest hour. The ftorm ftill continued, and was to continue, they were to make a narrow efcape, the fhip was to be loft; but amidst all this, the word of promise kept up his heart; and he had good reafon for maintaining his confidence.

God is unchangeably true to his word. He cannot alter it, it fhall not fail: Numb. xxiii, 19. "God is not a man that he fhould lie; neither the son of man, that he fhould repent: Hath he faid, and fhall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and fhall

Cc 2

« PreviousContinue »