Full text of "The complete works of Richard Sibbes, D.D."

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^LOGICAL Sj g;$^ 

BX 9339 .S52 186''^'^' v. '3 
Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635 
The complete works of 
Richard Sibbes, D.D 



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Princeton Tlieological Seminary Library 



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NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. 

PURITAN PERIOD. 



ixi\i ^^rnral "^xdwcit 



By JOHN C. MILLEE, D.D., 

LINCOtS COLLEGE ; HONORABT CANON OF WORCESTER; KECToa OF ST MAKTIS'S.DIKMINGHAM. 



THE 



WOEKS OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D. 

VOL. III. 



COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. 



W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational 
Union, Edinburgh. 

.JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh. 

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University 
Edinburgh. 

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church 
Edinburgh. 

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church 
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh. 

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- 
terian Church, Edinburgh, 

General ffiUttor. 
REV. THOMAS SMITH. M.A., Edinbuegh. 



THE COMPLETE WORKS 



RICHARD SIBBES, D.D. 



MASTEE OF CATHERINE HALL, CAMBRIDGE ; PREACHER OF GRAY S INN, 

LONDON. 



BY THE REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART, 

(cor. MEMB. SOC. ANTIQ. op SCOTLAND) 



KINROSS. 





VOL. III. 
CONTAINING A COMMENTARY 

ON THE FIRST CHAPTER 

OF THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL. 

LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN: W. ROBERTSON. 



M.DCCC.LXII. 



EDINBLrKGH : 

PRIMTKD l;i' JOHK GUtIG AND SON. 

OLD I'HTSIC aAiiDE.;-^. 



EXPOSITION OF 2D CORINTHIANS CHAPTER I. 



in. 



EXPOSITION OF SECOND CORINTHIANS CHAPTER I. 

NOTE. 

The ' Exposition ' of 2i Corinthians chapter 1., was published in a handsome folio, 
under the editorial supervision of Dr Manton. The original title-page is given be- 
low.* Prefixed to the volume is a very fine portrait of Sibbes, after the same 
original evidently with that earlier engraved for ' Bowels Opened,' and other works, 
in quarto and smaller size, but in the style of Hollar. The admirers of Puritan litera- 
ture will find it no less interesting than rewarding, to compare the present ' Exposi- 
tion ' of Sibbes with that of a man of kindred intellect and character, viz., Anthony 
Burgesse, ' Pastor of Sutton-Coldfield, in Warwickshire.' His ' sermons' on the same 
portion of Holy Scripture bear the following title, ' An Expository Comment, Doc- 
trinal, Controversal '[sic], and Practical, upon the whole First Chapter of the Second 
Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians ' (London, folio, 1G61). Our copy has the rare 
autograph of the excellent Bishop Beveridge, cm the title-page, with a note of its 
price, 'pret 12. s.' G. 

• Original title : — 

A Learned 
COMMENTARY ^ 

OR 

EXPOSITION 

UPON 

The first Chapter of the Second Epistle of S. Paul 
to the CORINTHIANS. 

BEING 

The Substance of many Sermons formerly 

Preached at Grayes-Inne, London, 

By that Eeverend and Judicious Divine, 

RICHARD SIBBS, D.D. 

Sometimes Master of Catherine-Hall, in Cambridge, and Preacher 

to that Honourable Society. 

Published for the Publick Good and Benefit of the Church 

of CHRIST. 
By The. Manton, B. D. and Preacher of the Gospel at Stoake- 
Newington, near London. 

• ■ Vivit post funera virtus. 

Psalm 112. 6. 

The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 

2 Pet. 1. 15. 

Moreover, I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease, to have these 

things always in remembrance. 

LONDON, 

Printed by F. L. for N. B. and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst, at his Shop 

at the sign of the three Crowns over against the Great Conduit, at 

the Lower end of Cheapside. 1655. 



/^PHIITC. 







TO THE EEADEE. 



Good Reader, — There is no end of books, and yet we seem to need more 
every day. There was such a darkness brought in by the fall, as will not 
thoroughly be dispelled till we come to heaven ; where the sun shineth with- 
out either cloud or night. For the present, all should contribute theii- help 
according to the rate and measure of their abilities. Some can only hold 
up a candle, others a torch ; but all are useful. The press is an excellent 
means to scatter knowledge, were it not so often abused. AU complain 
there is enough written, and think that now there should be a stop. In- 
deed, it were well if in this scribbling age there were some restraint. Use- 
less pamphlets are grown almost as great a mischief as the erroneous and 
profane. Yet 'tis not good to shut the door upon industry and diligence. 
There is yet room left to discover more, above all that hath been said, of 
the wisdom of God and the riches of his grace in the gospel ; yea, more of 
the stratagems of Satan and the deceitfulness of man's heart. Means need 
to be increased every day to weaken sin and strengthen trust, and quicken 
us to holiness. Fundamentals are the same in all ages, but the constant 
necessities if the church and private Christians, will continually enforce a 
further exphcation. As the arts and slights of besieging and battering in- 
crease, so doth skill in fortification. If we have no other benefit by the 
multitude of books that are written, we shall have this benefit : an oppor- 
tunity to observe the various workings of the same Spirit about the same 
truths, and indeed the speculation is neither idle nor unfruitful. 

There is a diversity of gifts as there is of tempers, and of tempers as 
there is of faces, that in all this variety, God may be the more glorified. 
The penmen of Scripture, that aU wrote by the same Spirit, and by an in- 
faUible conduct, do not write in the same style. In the Old Testament, 
there is a plain difference between the lofty, courtly style of Isaiah, and the 
priestly, grave style of Jeremiah. In Amos there are some marks of his 
caUing* in his prophecy. In the New Testament, you will find John 
sublime and seraphical, and Paul rational and argumentative. 'Tis easy 
to track both by their pecuHar phrases, native elegances, and distinct man- 
ner of expression. This variety and * manifold grace,' 1 Pet. iv. lO,-]- still 

* That is, a ' herdsman.' — G. 

t Ubi Vulgat. Dispensatio multiformis gratire. The more acciirate rendering from 
the Vulgate is, ' Unusquisque, sicut accepit gratiam, in alterutrum illam adminis- 
trantes, sicut boni dispensatores multiformis gratise Dei.' — Ed. Paris, 2 vols. 12mo. 
1851.— G. 



4 TO THE READER. 

continueth. The stones that lie in the building of God's house are not all 
of a sort. There are sapphires, carbuncles, and agates, all which have 
their peculiar use and lustre, Isa. liv. 12.* Some are doctrinal, and good 
for information, to clear up the truth and vindicate it from the sophisms of 
■wretched men ; others have a great force and skill in application. Some 
are more evangelical, their souls are melted out in sweetness ; others are 
sons of thunder, more rousing and stirring, gifted for a rougher strain, 
which also hath its use in the art of winning souls to God. 'Twas observed 
of the three ministers of Geneva, that none thundered more loudly than 
Farel, none piped more sweetly than Virct, none taught more learnedly 
and solidly than Calvin.f So variously doth the Lord dispense his gifts, 
to shew the liberty of the spirit, and for the greater beauty and order of 
the chui'ch ; for difierence with proportion causeth beauty ; and to prevent 
schism, eveiy member having his distinct excellency. So that what is 
wanting in one, may be supplied by another ; and all have something to 
commend them to the church, that they may be not despised ; as in several 
countries they have several commodities to maintain traffic between them 
all. We are apt to abuse the diversity of gifts to divisions and partiaUties, 
whereas God hath given them to maintain a communion.;^ In the church's 
vestment there is variety, but no rent. Varietas sit, scissura non sit. 

All this is the rather mentioned, because of that excellent and peculiar 
gift which the worthy and reverend author had in unfolding and applying 
the great myst«iries of the gospel in a sweet and melhfluous way ; and there- 
fore was by his hearers usually termed The Siveet Dropper, sweet and hea- 
venly distillations usually dropping from him with such a native elegance 
as is not easily to be imitated. I would not set the gifts of God on quar- 
relling, but of all ministries, that which is most evangelical seemeth most 
useful. ' The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,' Rev. xix. 10. 
' Tis spoken by the angel to dissuade the apostle fi-om worshipping him. 
You that preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead, 
have a like dignity with us angels that foretell things to come, your mes- 
sage is ' the spirit of prophecy ; ' as if he had said. This is the great and 
fundamental truth wherein runneth the life, and the heart-blood of religion. 

The same spirit is breathing in these discourses that are now put into 
thy hand, wherein thou wilt find much of the comforts of the gospel, of the 
seahng of the Spiiit, and the constant courses of God's love to his people, 
fruitfully and faithfully improved for thy edification. 

* Varia gemmarum genera propter varia dona quae sunt in Ecclesia. — Sanctpus]. 

t Gallica mirata est Calvinum Ecclesia nuper ; quo nemo docuit doctius. Est 
quoque te nuper mirata Farelle tonantem ; quo nemo tonuit fortius. Et miratur 
adliuc fundentem mella Viretum ; quo nemo fatur dulcius. Scilicet aut tribus his 
eervabere testibus olim, aut interibis Gallia. — Beza. (Poemata et Epigrammata, p. 
90, 32mo, Ludg. Bat., 1G14).— G. 

t Tunc bene multiformis Dei gratia dispensatur, quaudo acceptura donum etiam 
ejus qui hoc non habet, creditur, quando propter eum cui impcnditur sibi datum 
putatur. — Gregor. Moral., lib. xxviii., c. 6. 



TO THE READER, 5 

Let it not stumble thee that the work is posthume* and cometh out so 
long after the author's death. It were to be wished that those who excel 
in public gifts would, during Ufe, publish their own labours, to prevent 
spurious obtrusions upon the world, and to give them their last hand and 
pohshment, as the apostle Peter was careful to ' write before his decease,' 
2 Pet. i. 12-14. But usually the church's treasure is most increased by 
legacies. As Elijah let faU his mantle when he was taken up into heaven, 
so God's eminent servants, when their persons could no longer remain 
in the world, have left behind them some worthy pieces as a monument of 
their graces and zeal for the pubhc welfare. Whether it be out of a mo- 
dest sense of their own endeavours, as being loath upon choice, or of their 
own accord to venture abroad into the world, or whether it be that bein" 
occupied and taken up with other labours, or whether it be in a conformity 
to Christ, who would not leave his Spirit till his departure, or whether it 
be out of an hope that their works would find a more kindly reception after 
their death, the living being more hable to emy and reproach (but when 
the author is in heaven the work is more esteemed upon earth), whether 
for this or that cause, usually it is, that not only the life, but the death of 
God's servants hath been profitable to his church, by that means many use- 
ful treatises being freed from the privacy and obscureness to which, by 
modesty of the author, they were formerly confined. 

Which, as it hath commonly fallen out, so especially in the works of this 
reverend author, all which (some few only excepted!) saw the hght after the 
author's death, which also hath been the lot of this useful comment ; only 
it hath this advantage above the rest, that it was perused by the author 
during hfe, and corrected by his own hand, and hath the plain signature 
and marks of his own spirit, which will easily appear to those that have 
been any way conversant with his former works. This being signified (for 
farther commendation it needeth none), I ' commend thee to God, and to 
the word of his grace,' which is able to build thee up, and to give thee an 
inheritance among the sanctified, remaining 

Thy servant in the Lord's work, 

Thomas Manton.J 

• That is, ' posthumous.' — G. 

t ' Some few only excepted,* viz., those which form vol. I. of tliis collective edition 
of his works. — G. 

I It were supererogatory to annotate a name so illustrious in the roll of Puritans 
as is that of Thomas Manton. His memoir will appear as an introduction to hia 
works in the present series, by one admirably qualified for doing it justice. But it 
may be here noticed that he was born at Lawrence-Lydiard fnow Lydeard, St Law- 
rencej, Somersetshire, in 1620, and died on October 18. 1677. Consult ' Life,' by 
Harris, prefixed to Sermons on 119th Psalm, and ' Nonconformists' Memorial,' i., 
pp. 175-179, 426-431. He was one of the ' ejected' of 1662.— G. 



A COMMENTARY 



UPON 



THE FIEST CHAPTER OE THE SECOND EPTSTLE OF 
ST PAUL TO THE COEINTHIANS. 



Paul, an aposUe of Jesr. Ckrist ,y t^e^Ul of G^ -^J^SX^'S 
unto the church of God which rsat ^«'f ^'^ ^f^ f /^X^^nd /rom t;^. 
all Achaia : Grace be to you, and peace, from God oiu t atlier, a j 
Lord Jesus Christ.— 2 CoK. I. 1, 2. 

Thk preface to this epistle is the -^ -J.^^^^^^^^^ 

apostle had written a sharp epistle to the ^^^"^^4^7^^;^^ |^. repistle, took 

their tolerating of the incestuous V^^^^on^ J^^^'^^^^^^^^ 

effect, though not so much as he desn-ed, y^^^^^P^^^^f/Xwise reformed 

that they excommunicated the mcestuous peison, and likew se 

divers al'uses. Yet notvvithstanding, it hemg a proud,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

where there was confluence of many naUon^^,^^^^^^^^^^^ 

^nXToglSSttH^^^^^^^^ 

sevU duties as we «^f .^^/^^^^ /^S'thll the ministerial labour is 
The general scope f,^^^''^^^^^ 'X fruit of the first Epistle to the 
' not in vain in the Lord, 1 Coi. xv. o». ^^".tip tnnlv effect Therefore 
Cormthians is seen in this second ; t^^^^^/J^^pi^^^^^^^^^^^ 
we should not be discouraged, neither ^^^^^^f^s a ev^ man should 

vindicate our credit, when the tnitli may ""^ . ^ to dear 

apostle stands here upon his reputation, ^^^^^'^'l^ Sl'C^.. life, for 
himself from all imputations But ^^P^^f^y^^^/^^ '^'^^.,},^ ^ould not 
that is the best apology. But because ^^^^J^J^f^^^^^, ^'^'Li this epistle, 
speak loud enough, therefore he makes an excellent apology m 



8 COMMENTARY ON 

' Paid, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy our 
brother.'' This chapter is apolorjetical, especially after the preface. He 
stands in defence of himself against the imputations : first, that he was a 
man neglected of God — he was so persecuted, and oppressed with so many 
afflictions. And the second is the imputation of inconstancy — that he came 
not to them when he had made a promise to come. This chapter is espe- 
cially in defence of these two. 

In an excellent heavenly ^vasdom, he turns ofi" the imputation of afflic- 
tions, and inverts the imputation the clean contrary way. And he begins 
with thanksgiving, ' Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who hath comforted us in all 
our tribulations : ' as if God had done him a great favour in them, as we 
shall see when we come to those words. 

For the preface, it is common with all his epistles, therefore we make it 
not a principal part of the chapter. Yet because these prefaces have the seeds 
of the gospel in them, the seeds of heavenly comfort and doctrine, I will 
speak something of it. Here is an inscription, and a salutation. 

In the inscription, there are the parties from whom this epistle was writ- 
ten, ' Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the wiU of God, and Timothy our 
brother.' And the persons to whom : * To the church of God at Corinth, 
and all the saints in Achaia.' 

The salutation : ' Grace and Peace ;' in the form of a blessing, * Grace 
and peace.' 

From whom : ' From God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.' 

* Paul an apostle,' do. In this inscription he sets down his office, * an 
apostle,' and ' an apostle of Jesus Christ.' How apostles difier from other 
ministers, it is an ordinary point. St Paul was called to be an apostle by 
Christ himself, 1 Cor ix. 1. ' Am I not an apostle ? have I not seen Christ ?' 
It was the privilege of the apostles to see Christ. They were taught imme- 
diately by Christ, and they had a general commission to teach all, and they 
bad extraordinary gifts. All these were in St Paul eminently. And this 
was his prerogative, that he was chosen by Christ in heaven, in glory. 
The other were chosen by Christ when he was in abasement, in a state of 
humiliation. ' Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ.' 

' By the ivill of God.' By the appointment of God, by the designment* 
of Christ ; for every man in his particular calling is placed in it ' by the will 
of God. St Paul saith, he was an apostle * by the will of God, not by the 
will of man.' This is the same word as is iu the beginning of the Epistle 
to the Philippians.f 

In a word, it teacheth us this first observation. That we should think our- 
selves in our standings and callings to be there by the will of God. 

And therefore should serve him by whose will we are placed in that 
standing. Let every man consider, who placed me here ? God. If a hair 
cannot fall from my head without his providence, Mat. x. 30, much less can 
the disposing of my calling, which is a greater matter ; therefore I will 
seek his glorj^, and frame myself and courses answerable to the wiU of him 
by whose will I am in this place. 

Men have not their callings only to get riches, and to get preferment. 
Those are base ends of their own to serve themselves. God placeth us in 
our particular callings, not to serve ourselves, but to serve him; and he 

* That is, ' designation.' — G. t This is a slip for Ephesians.— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 1. 9 

will cast in those riches, honour, preferment, dignity, and esteem, so much 
as is fit for us in the serving of him in our places. 

The other party* in the inscription, from whom the epistle is, is, 

' Timothy our brother.' He sends his Epistle from Timothy as well as 
from himself. This he doth to win the more acceptance among the Co- 
rinthians, by the consent of so blessed a man as Timothy was, who was an 
evangelist. Unity by consent is stronger. And there is a natural weak- 
ness in men to regard the consent and authority of others, more than the 
things themselves. And indeed, if God himself in heavenly love and mercy 
condescend to help our weakness, much more should all that are ' led by 
the Spirit of God,' Gal. v. 18. We are subject to call in question the 
truths of God. Therefore he helps us with sacraments, and with other 
means and allurements ; and although that be truth that he saith, yet be- 
cause he would undermine our distrustful dispositions by aU means, he useth 
those courses. So St Paul, that they might respect what he wi'ote the 
more, as from a joint spirit, he writes, ' Paul, and Timothy our brother.' 

It was an argument of much modesty and humility in this blessed apostle, 
that he would not of himself seem, as it were, to monopoUze their respect, 
as if aU should look to him, but he joins Timothy with him ; so great an 
apostle joins an inferior. 

There is a spirit of singularity in many ; they will seem to do aU them- 
selves, and cany all themselves before them ; and they will not speak the 
truths that others have spoken before them without some disdain. As a 
proud critic said, ' I would they had never been men that spake our things 
before we were, that we might have had all the credit of it' [a). Oh, no ! 
Those that are led with the Spirit of God, they are content in modesty and 
humility to have others joined with them ; and they know it is available! for 
others likewise ; they wiU respect the truth the more. 

And thus far we yield to the papists when we speak of this, whether the 
church can give authority to the word of God or no. In regard of us, the 
church hath some power, in regard of our weakness ; but what is that 
power ? It is an inducing power, an alluring power, a propounding power, 
to propound the mysteries of salvation. But the inward work, the con- 
vincing power, is from the evidence of the Spirit of God, and from the Scrip- 
ture itself. All that the church doth is to move, to induce, and to propound 
this, quoad nos. It hath some power in the hearts of men. 

The church thus far gives authority to the Scriptures in the hearts of 
men, though it be an improper phrase to say it gives authority ; for, as the 
men said to the woman of Samaria, ' Now we believe it ourselves, not be- 
cause thou toldest us,' &c., John iv. 42. The church allures us to respect 
the Scriptui'es ; but then there is an inward power, an inward majesty in 
the Scriptures, and that bears down all before it. 

Again, here is a ground why St Paul alleged human authority sometimes 
in his epistles, and in his dealing with men ; because he was to deal with 
men, that would be rhamed the more with them. Anything that may 
strengthen the truth in regard of the weakness of those with whom we have 
to deal, may be used in a heavenly poUcy. ' One of your own prophets,' 
saith St Paul, towards the end, i. 12. And so in the Acts of the Apostles, 
xvii. 28, he quotes a saying out of an atheist (b). 

* This use of ' party ' = person, which is not uncommon in Sibhes and his con- 
temporaries, shews that it is not the modern vulgarism (so-called) which precisians 
would make it. — G. t That is, ' advantageous.' — G. 



10 



COMMENTARY ON 



' Tiviothij our brother.' 'Brother:' he means not only by grace but by 
calling. As we know in the law and other professions, those of the same 
profession are called before brethren ; so Timothy was St Paul's brother, 
not only by grace, but by calling ; and two bonds bind stronger. Here is 
a treble bond, nature, grace, calling. They were men, they were fellow 
Christians, and they were teachers of the gospel. Therefore he saith, 
' Timothy our brother.' Timothy was an evangehyt, yet notwithstanding it 
was a greater honour to him to be a brother to St Paul than to be an evan- 
gehst. An hypocrite may be an evangehst ; but a true brother of St Paul 
none but a true Christian can be. All Christians ai-e brethren. It is a 
word that levels all ; for it takes do^\-n the mountains, and fills up the 
valleys. The greatest men in the world, the mountains, if they be Chris- 
tians, they are brethren to the lowest. And it fills up the valleys. The 
lowest, if they be Christians, are brethren to the highest ; howsoever in 
worldly respects, they cease in death ; as personal differences, and dif- 
ferences in calhng, they all cease in death. All are brethren ; therefore he 
useth it for great respect. St Paul was a great apostle ; Timothy an in- 
ferior man, yet both brethren, * Timothy our brother.' 

' To the church of God at Corinth.' We have seen the persons from 
whom, ' Paul and Timothy.' Now here are the persons to whom, ' to the 
church of God at Corinth.' Corinth was a very wicked city, as, where there 
is a great confluence of many people, there is a contagion of many sins of 
the people ; and yet notwithstanding in this Corinth there was a church. 
For as Christ saith, ' No man can come to me, except my Father draw him,' 
John vi. 44 ; so where the Father will draw, who can draw back ? Even 
in Corinth God hath his church. He raiseth up a generation of men, a 
church, which is a company of creatm-es differing as much from the com- 
mon, as men do from beasts. And yet such is the power and efiicacy of 
the blessed gospel of salvation, having the Spirit of God accompanying it, 
that even in Corinth, a wretched city, this word and this Spirit raised up a 
company of men, called here by the name of a church, and saints. And 
such power indeed hath the word of God with the Spirit, not only in wicked 
places, but in our wicked hearts too. 

Let a man have a world of wickedness in him, and let him come and pre- 
sent himself meekly and constantly to the means of salvation, and God in 
time by his Spirit will raise a new frame of grace in his heart, he will make 
a new creation. As at the first he created all out of nothing, order out of 
confusion ; so out of the heart, which is nothing but a chaos of confusion, 
of blindness, and darkness, and terror (there is a world of confusion in the 
heart of man) ; God by his creating word (for his word of the gospel is 
creating, as well as his word was at the first in the creation of the world ; 
it hath a creating power) he raiseth an excellent frame in the heart of a 
man, he scatters his natural blindness, he sets in order his natural confusion, 
that a man becomes a new creature, and an heir of a new world. 

Let no people despau', nor no person; for God hath his chm'ch in ' Co- 
rinth.' 

But what is become of this chm-ch now ? Why, alas ! it is under the 
slavery of the Turks, it is under miserable captivity at this day. At the 
first, Corinth was overthrown by Numeus,=!= a Roman captain, for the abusing 
the Roman ambassadors ; it was ruinated for the unfit carnage to the 
ambassadors, who would not suffer themselves to be contemned, nor the 
* Qu. 'Mummius?'— Ed. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 1. 11 

majesty of the Roman empire. But Augustus Cassar afterwards repaired 
it (c). And now for neglecting of God's ambassadors, the preachers of the 
gospel, it is under another miseiy, but spiiitual ; it is under the bondage, I 
say, of that tp'ant. 

What is become of Rome, that glorious city ? It is now ' the habitation 
of devils, a cage of unclean birds,' Rev. xviii. 2. "WTiat is become of those 
glorious churches which St John wrote those epistles to in his Revelation ? 
and which St Paul wrote unto ? Alas, they are gone ! the gospel is now 
come into the western parts. And shall we think all shall be safe with us, 
as the Jews did, ciying, ' The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord ? ' 
Jer. vii. 4, No, no ! unless we respect Christ's blessed gospel of salvation, 
except we bring forth fruits worthy of it, except we maintain and defend it, 
and think it our honour and our crown, and be zealous for it. If we suffer 
the insolent enemies of it to grow as vipers in the very bosom of the church, 
what is like to become of us ? If there were no foreign enemies to invade 
us, we would let slip the glorious gospel of salvation. God will not suffer 
this indignity to this blessed jewel, his truth ; he will not suffer the doctrine 
of the gospel to be so disrespected. You see the fearful example of the 
church of Corinth. Let those whom it may concern, that have any advan- 
tage and authority, let them put in for God's cause, put in for the gospel, 
labour to propagate and to derive* this blessed truth we enjoy to posterity, 
by suppressing as much as they may the underminers of it. It is an 
acceptable service. ' To the church of God at Corinth.' 

' And all the saints in Achuia.' Corinth was the city, Achaia the country 
wherein Corinth was. There were then saints, holy men in all Achaia. And 
St Paul writes to ' all saints,' to weak saints, to strong saints, to rich saints, 
to poor saints ; because every saint hath somewhat that is lovely and respec- 
tive! in them, somewhat to be respected. The least grace deserves respect 
from the greatest apostle. And all have one head, all have one hope of 
glory, all are redeemed with the same ' precious blood of Christ,' 1 Pet. 
i. 19 (and so I might run on). The many privileges agi'ee to all. There- 
fore, all should have place in our respect. * To all saints,' that the least 
should not think themselves undervalued. "Weakness is most of all subject 
to complaining if it be disrespected. Therefore, in heavenly wisdom and 
prudence, the apostle puts in ' all saints,' in all Achaia whatsoever. Be- 
sides the mother city, the metropolis of that country, which was Corinth, 
there were saints scattered. God in heavenly wisdom scatters his saints. 
As seed, when it is scattered in the ground, it doth more good than when 
it is on heaps in the barn ; so God scatters his saints as jewels, as the lights 
of the world. Here he will have one to shine and there another. Here he 
will have one fruitful to condemn the wicked world where they are, and by 
their good example, and their heavenly and fruitful conversation, to draw 
out of the wicked estate of nature those with whom they are. Therefore he 
will have them scattered here and there, not only at Corinth, but ' saints in 
all Achaia,' besides scattered in other places. 

But we must know, by the way, that these saints had reference to some 
particular church : for though it be sufficient to make a Christian to have 
union with Christ (there is the main, the head) ; yet notwithstanding,^ he 
must be a branch, he must be a member of some particular congregation. 
Therefore we have it in Acts ii. 47 : ' God added to the church such as 
should be saved.' Those that are added to salvation must be added to the 
* That is, 'transmit,'— G. t That is, ' respect-worthy.'— G. 



12 



COMMENTARY ON 



church ; a man must be a member of some particular church. So, though 
these were scattered, they were members of some church. God's children 
are as stones in some building ; and there is an influence of grace comes 
from Chi-ist, the Head, to every particular member, as it is in the body. 
God quickens not straggling members, that have no reference to any parti- 
cular church. That I note by the way. ' To the church of God at Corinth, 
and all the saints in Achaia.' 

'Saints.' Quest. The apostle calls them saints. All believers are called 
saints. Are they so ? Are all in the visible church saintst ? Yes, say 
some, and therefore they say that our church is not a true visible church ; 
because many of them are not saints, say some that went out from among us. 

uins. I answer, alt are, or should be saints. St Paul wrote here to those 
that were sacramental* saints, and such as by outward covenant and pro- 
fession were saints ; not that they were all of them inwardly so ; but all 
should be so done. He calls them so, to put them in mind of their duty. 
To clear this point a little. 

1. Sometimes the church of God in the Scripture hath its narae from the 
commixtion of good and bad in it. So it is called a field where there is a 
mixtm-e of good and bad seed, Mat. xiii. 19, 20 ; so it is called a house wherein 
there are vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour, 2 Tim. ii. 20 ; because 
there is such a mixture in the visible church. 

2. Sometimes the chm-ch hath the name from the better part, and so it 
is the spouse of Christ, the love of Christ, ' a pecuUar people,' ' an holy 
nation,' 1 Pet. ii. 9, and * saints,' as it is here. Not that all are so, but it 
hath the denomination from the better part ; aU should be so, and the best 
are so, and it is suflicient that the denomination of a company be from the 
better part. As we say of gold ore : though there be much earth mixed with 
it, yet in regard of the better part we call it gold, we give it that name ; so, 
in regard that the best are saints, and that all should be so, therefore he 
calls them all saints. 

Quest. Should all in the visible church be saints by profession, and by 
sacrament ? Should all that are baptized, and receive the communion, enter 
into a profession of sanctity ? What say you then to a profane, atheistical 
generation, that, forsooth, make a show of holiness, and therefore we must 
look for none of them ? 

Ans. I say all profane persons are gross hypocrites. Why ? for are you 
members of the church or no ? Yes, will every one say ; will you make 
me an infidel ? will you make me a pagan ? Well, take your own word 
then. WTiat is it to be a member of the church but to be a saint ? Must 
thou be a saint ? Doth not thy profession, as thou art a member, bind thee 
to be a saint ? In baptism, was not thy promise to ' renounce the devil, 
the world, and the flesh ? ' In renewing thy covenant in the communion, 
dost not thou purpose to cleave to God in all things ? Thou that takest 
liberty, therefore, in the church of God, under the profession of religion, to 
live as a libertine, thou art a gross hypocrite, and this aggravates thy sin, 
and makes it worse than a pagan's. Thou which art in the bosom of the 
church, in the kingdom of saints, as it is in Dan. vii. 18, ' the people of the 
saints of the Most High,' the people of God in the church wherein thou art 
a professed member ; and yet dost thou take liberty grossly to offend God ? 

Quest. What doth make a saint ? 

Ans. In a word, to the constitution of a true saint, there is 
* That is, ' professed.' ' avowed ' — Q 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 1. 13 

A separation, dedication, qualification , conversation. 

1. There is a separation preseutly. When a man is a saint, he is separate 
from the confused company of the world, from the kingdom of Satan. 
Therefore those that have all companies alike, that carry themselves in- 
differently in all companies, as men that profess a kind of ci\ility, that are 
taken up with the complement* of the times, men that learn the language 
of the times, that are for all sorts, they know not what belongs to the high 
profession of Christianity. 

There is a due to all, I confess ; there is a benevolence and a beneficence 
to all ; but there is a kind of complacency, a sweet familiarity, and amity 
which should be reserved to a few, only to those in whom we see the evi- 
dences and signs of grace. If there be not a separation in respect of grace, 
there is no hoUness at all ; a saint must be separated. Not locally, but in 
regard of amity, in regard of intimate friendship. As we see it is in out- 
ward things, in some of our houses. There is a court where all come, poor 
and rich ; and there is the house where those of nearer acquaintance come ; 
and then there is the innermost room, the closet, where only ourselves and 
those which are nearest to us come. So it is in the passages of the soul. 
There are some remote courtesies that come from us, as men, to all, be 
they what they will ; there are other respects to others that are nearer, that 
we admit nearer, that are of better quality ; and there are other that are 
nearest of all, that we admit even into the closet of our hearts : and those 
are they with whom we hope to have communion for ever in heaven, the 
blessed people of God, termed here ' saints.' It is an evidence of our 
translation from a cursed estate to a better when we love such. ' Hereby 
we know,' saith St John, * that we are translated from death to life, because 
we love the brethren,' 1 John iii. 14. There must be a separation. 

2. And withal there must be a dedication of ourselves to tfie service of God. 
A Christian, when he knows himself by the word of truth and by the work 
of the Spirit, to be God's child, he dedicates himself to better services than 
before. He thinks himself too good, he thinks too highh' of himself to be 
a base blasphemer, or swearer, to be a filthy person. He considers himself 
as 'the temple of the Holy Ghost,' 1 Cor. iii. 16, and he useth himself to 
better purposes, to better studies, to do good. 

3. And then with dedication, there is an imvard qualification to inablef 
him with light never to forget the image of God. Herein this saiutship 
stands, especially in this inward qualification, whereby we resemble Christ 
the King of saints. All our sanctificatiou comes from him. As Aaron's 
ointment went down from his head to his beard, and so to his skirts, Ps. 
cxxxiii. 2, so all our sauctification is from Christ. Eveiy saint is quahfied 
from the Spirit of Christ. ' Of his fulness,' John i. 16, we receive this in- 
ward qualification, that we have another judgment of things than this world 
hath ; what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what 
is comfortable and what tends to discomfort. He hath another conceit of 
things. He hath another light than he had before, and than other carnal 
men have. He hath a heavenly light. He hath another language. He 
gives himself to prayer and to thanksgiving. He is given to savoury dis- 
course. He hath other courses in his particular calling and in his genei^al 
calling than other refuse; company have, or than himself had before his 
calling. This is from his qualification. 

4. And this qualification and conversation go together. He hath a new 

* That is, ' compliment ' = line manners. — G. f Tliat is, ' enable ' = endow. — G. 
t That is, ' worthless.' — G. 



14 COMMENTARY ON 

conversation. He carries Limself even like to him that ' hath called him 
out of darkness into marvellous light,' 1 Pet, ii. 9. So a true saint, as 
every professor of religion ought to be, he is dedicate to God, and he is 
qualified in some degree, as Christ was, by his Holy Spirit. He is a new 
creature. * He that is in Christ is a new creature,' 2 Cor. v. 17, and he 
shews this by his conversation, or else he is no saint. 

Quest. How shall we know a saint from a mere civil-:-' man ? (as there be 
many that live and die in that estate, which is to be pitied ; and one main 
end of our calling is not only to reduce profane men to a better fashion of 
life, but to shew civil men their danger.) 

Ans. A mere civil man looks to the second table. He is smooth in his 
carriage and conversation with men, but negligent in his service to God. 
A civil man he looks to his outward carriage, but he makes no conscience 
of secret sins. He is not ' holy in all manner of conversation,' as St Peter 
saith, 1 Pet. i. 15. ' Be ye holy in all manner of conversation,' in private, 
in public, in your retired carriage. • He makes no conscience of his 
thoughts, of his speeches, of all. 

You may know an hypocrite so, that carries himself smoothly and ac- 
ceptably in the eye of the world ; but he makes no conscience of his 
thoughts, he makes no conscience of his affections, of his desires, of his 
lusts, and such things. He makes no conscience of lesser oaths, nor per- 
haps of rotten discourses. No ; they are all for this, that they may pass 
in the world, that they may carry themselves wdth acceptance. As for 
what belongs to the ' new creature,' to saints, they care not ; for they have 
vain conceits of these, and judge them as hypocrites. Because such a one 
knows himself should be an hypocrite, if he should do otherwise than he 
doth, therefore he thinks that others that are above his pitch are hypocrites, 
and they make a show of that that is not in them ; because if he should 
make show of that, his heart would tell him that he were an hypocrite. 

A true saint differs from an hypocrite in many respects ; but in this one 
mainly, that a true saint of God is altered in the inward frame and qualifi- 
cation of his soul. He is a ' new creature.' Therefore there is a spring 
of better thoughts, of better desires, of better aims in him than in other 
men. And he labours more after the inward frame of his heart than after 
his outward carriage. What he is ashamed to do, he is ashamed to think, 
he is ashamed to lust after. What he desires to do, he desires to love in 
his heart. He labours that all may be true in the inward man ; because 
grace, as well as nature, begins from the heart, from the inward parts. 

An hypocrite never cares for that. All his care is for the outward parts. 
He is sale-work. So his carriage be acceptable to others, all his care is 
taken. He lives to the view. Therefore he looks not to the substance and 
the truth, but to the shadow and appearance. 

Now I come to the salutation itself. 



VEESE 2. 

'Grace be mito you,'' &c. 'Grace' doth enter into the whole conver- 
sation of a Christian, and doth sweeten his very salutations. Which 
I observe, because many men confine their religion to places, to actions, 
and to times. There is a relish of holiness in everything that comes from 
a Christian ; in his salutations and courtesies. St Paul salutes them, 
* That is, ' moral.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 2. 15 

* Grace and peace from God,' &c. And the use of holy salutations are to 
shew [and] win love. 

To shew love and respect. Therefore he salutes them ; and by shewing 
love, to gain love ; for there is a loadstone in love. And thirdly, the use 
of salutations is by them to convey some good. For these salutations are 
not mere wishes, but prayers, nay, blessings. God's people are a blessed 
people, and they are full of blessing. They carry a blessmg in their very 
speeches. 

Quest. What is a hlessing ? 

Ans. A hlessing is a prayer, with the apj)lication of the thing prayed for. It 
is somewhat more than a prayer, ' Grace be with you, and peace.' It is 
not only a mere wish, I desire it ; nay, my desire of it is with an applying 
of it. ' Grace shall be with you, and peace,' and the more because I 
heartily wish it to you. It is no light matter to have the benediction and 
salutation of a holy man, especially those that are superiors; for the 
superiors bless the inferiors. There is a grace goes even with the very 
salutations, with the common prayers of a holy man. It is a comfortable 
sign when God doth enlarge the heart of a holy man to wish well to a man. 

And surely the very consideration of that should move us to let them 
have such encouragement from our carriage and demeanour, that they may 
have hearts to think of us to the throne of grace, to give us a good wish, to 
give us a good desire. For every gracious desire, every prayer, hath 'its 
effect when it comes from a favourite of God, especially frorn such a man 
as St Paul was ; from a minister, a holy man in a calling, a man of God. 
They have their efficacy with them. They are not empty words, ' grace 
and peace.' 

The popes think it a great favour when they bestow their apostoHcal 
benediction and blessing. Their blessing is not much worth. Their curse 
is better than their blessing. But surely the blessing of a man rightly 
called, those that are true ministers of Christ, they are clothed with power 
and efficacy from God. ' Grace be with you, and peace ;' it is no idle com- 
pliment. 

And here you see likewise what should be the manner of the salutation 
of Christians. As they ought to salute, to shew love, and to gain love, so 
aU their salutations should be holy. There is a taking the name of God in 
vain in salutations ofttimes, ' God save you,' &c., and it must be done with 
a kind of scorn ; and if there be any demonstration of religion, it becomes 
them not, that which should become them most. What should become a 
saint, but to carry himself saint-Hke ? And yet men must do it with a 
kmd of scorn, with a kind of graceless grace. That which in the religious 
use of it is a comfortable and sweet thing, and is alway with a comfortable 
and gracious effect in God's childi-en ; either it hath effect, and is made 
grace to them to whom it is spoken, or returns to them that speak it. As 
Chi-ist saith to his disciples, ' When you come into a house, pronounce 
peace to them ; and if the house be not worthy, your peace shall return to 
you,' Mat. x. 13. So the salutations of a good man, if they be not effec- 
tual to the parties, if they be unworthy, rebeUious creatures, they return 
again to himself ; they have effect one way or other. Let it not be done, 
therefore, with a taking the name of God in vain in a scornful manner, but 
with gravity and reverence, as becometh a holy action. There is some limita- 
tion and exception of this. Salutations, in some cases, may be omitted. 

1. As in serious business, 'salute no man by the way,' as Christ saith 
to his apostles, Luke x. 4. A neglect sometimes is good manners, when 



16 COMMENTARY ON 

respect is swallowed up in a greater duty. As it was good manners for 
David to dance and to carry himself, as it were, unseemly before the ark, 
2 Sam. vi. 14 ; because he was to neglect respect to meaner persons, to for- 
get the respect he was to shew to men. Being altogether taken up with 
higher matters, it was a kind of decency and comeliness. And overmuch 
scrupulousness and niceness in lesser things, when men are called to greater, 
is but unmannerly manners. In these cases, these lesser must give way 
and place to the greater. * Salute no man by the way.' Despatch the 
business you are about ; that is, if it may be a hindrance in the way, salute 
not. This is in respect of time. 

2. And as for time, so for persons. A notorious, incorrigible heretic, 
salute not. To salute such a one would be, as it were, a connivance or an 
indulgence to him. 'Salute him not' (tZ). The denying of a salutation 
many times hath the force of a censure. The party neglected may think 
there is somewhat in him for which he is neglected in that manner. In 
these cases, salutations may be omitted sometimes. But I go unto the 
particulars. 

' 6rrace be unto yoti and peace.' These are the good things wished. "We 
see the apostle, a blessed man, that had been ' in the third heaven ' rapt 
up, 2 Cor. xii. 2, that had been taught of Christ what things were most 
excellent, and had himself seen ' excellent things which he could not utter,' 
2 Cor. xii. 4, when he comes to wishes, we see out of heavenly wisdom and 
experience he draws them to two heads, all good things to 'grace and peace.' 
If there had been better things to be wished, he would have wished them, 
but grace and peace are the principal things. 

Quest. What is meant by grace here ? 

Ans. Grace, in this place, is the free favour and love of God from his oum 
bowels ; not for any desert, or worth, or strength of love of ours. It is his 
own free grace and love, which is shed by the Holy Ghost, and springs only 
from his own goodness and loving nature, and not from us at all. This is 
grace. It must be distinguished from the fruits of it ; as the apostle doth 
distinguish them, ' grace, and the gifts of grace,' Rom. v. 15. There is 
favour and the gifts of favour, which is grace inherent in us. Here espe- 
cially is meant the fountain and spring of all the favour of God, with the 
manifestation of it, with the increase of it, with the continuance of it. He 
wisheth these things, the favour of God, with the manifestation of it to 
their souls ; that God would be gracious to them, so that he would shew 
his grace ; that he would discover it, and shine upon them ; and to that 
end that he would give them his Holy Spirit, to shed ' his love into their 
hearts,' Rom. v. 5. This shining of God into the heart, this shedding of 
the love of God into the heart, is the grace here meant ; God's fiivour, with 
the manifestation of it to the soul, and with the continuance of it, and the 
increase of it still. ' Grace unto you.' As if he should have said, I wish 
you the favour of God, and the report of it to your souls ; that as he loves 
you through his Christ, so he would witness as much by his Holy Spirit to 
your souls. And I wish you likewise the continuance of it, and the in- 
crease of it, and the fruits of it likewise (for that must not be excluded), 
all particular graces, which are likewise called graces. They have the name 
of favours, because they come from favour ; and favour is the chief thing in 
them. What is the chief thing in joy, in faith, in love ? They are graces. 
They cannot be considered as qualifications, as earthly things in us. They 
proceed from the gi'aee and love of God, and have their especial value from 



1! COHINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. '2,. 17 

thence. So I wish you the manifestation, the continuance and increase of 
favour, with all the fruits of God's favour, especially such as concern a 
better life. The word is easily understood after the common sense. Grace 
is the loving and free respect of a superior to an inferior ; the respect of a 
magistrate to such as are under him. Such a one is in grace with the 
prince, we say. We mean not any inherent thing, but fi-ee grace. So in 
religion it is not any inherent, habitual thing, gi-ace ; but it is free favour, 
and whatsoever issues from free favour. This must be the rather observed, 
this phrase, against the papists. We say we are justified by gi-ace, and so 
do they. What do they mean by being justified by grace ? That is, by in- 
herent grace. We say, No ; we are justified by grace ; that is, by the free 
favour of God in Jesus Christ. So is the acception * of the word. 
But, to come to the point, that which I will now note is this, that 
Doct.^A Christian, though he be in the state of grace and favour with God, 
yet still he needs the continuance of it. 

He stands in need of the continuance of God. St Paul here prays for 
grace and peace, to those that were in the state of grace already. Why ? 
The reason of it is, that we run into new breaches every day, of ourselves. 
As long as there is a spring of corruption in us, a cursed issue of connip- 
tion, so long there will be some actions, and speeches, and thoughts, that 
will issue, that would of themselves break our peace with God, or at least 
hinder the sweet sense of it. Therefore, we have continual occasion to 
renew our desires of the sense and feeling of the favour of God, and to renew 
our pardon every day, to take out a pardon of course, as we have now the 
liberty to do. So oft as we confess our sins, * he is merciful to forgive us,' 
1 John i. 9. And to win his favour, we have need every day still of grace. 
I list not to join in conflict here with the papists concerning their opinion. 

1 will but touch it by the way, to shew the danger of it. They will not 
have all of mere grace. But Christians are under grace while they are in 
this world, as St Paul saith, all is grace, grace still : nay, at the day of 
judgment, ' The Lord shew mercy to the house of Onesiphorus at that day,' 

2 Tim. i. 16, at the day of judgment. Grace and mercy must be our plea, 
till we come to heaven. They stand upon grace to enable f us to the 
work ; and then by the work we may merit our own salvation, and so they 
will not have it of grace, of gift; but as a stipend, a thing of merit, 
directly contrary to St Paul, Rom. vi. 23, Eternal life is ^d^iofia. The 
word comes of %af' 5, of gift. ' The gift of God, a free gift through 
Jesus Christ our Lord.' So from the first gi-ace, to eternal life, which is 
the complement of all, all is grace. 

As for the New Testament, it is the covenant of grace. The whole car- 
riage of our salvation is called the covenant of grace ; because, God of grace 
doth enter into covenant with us. He sent Christ of gi-ace, who is the 
foundation of the covenant. The fulfilling of it, on our part, is of grace. 
He gives us faith. ' Faith is the gift of God,' Eph. ii. 8. ' He puts his 
fear in our hearts that we should not depart from him,' Jeremiah xxxii. 40. 
And when he enters into covenant with us, it is of grace and love. It was 
of grace that he sent Christ to be the foundation of the covenant ; that in the 
satisfying of his justice he might be gi-acious to us, without disparagement 
to his justice. Of grace he fulfils the condition on our part. We are no more 
able to beUeve than we are to fulfil the law ; but he enables us by his word 
and Spirit, attending upon the means of salvation, to fulfil the covenant. 
And when we have done all, he gives us of grace, eternal life ; all is of grace. 
* That is, ' acceptation.' — G. t That is, ' qualify.' — G. 

VOL. III. A. B 

f 



18 COIIMKNTARY ON 

There is nothing in the gosj^el but grace. Therefore in the Ephesians, i. 6, 
it is stood upon by the apostle, ' To the praise of the glory of his rich 
grace.' From election to glorification, all is to the glory of his grace. 

We ought to conceive of God as a gracious Father, withholding his anger, 
which we deserve to be poured upon us ; by the intercession of Christ, 
withholding that anger, and the fruits of it. And, notwithstanding we are 
in grace, if we neglect to seek to God the Father, if we neglect to seek to 
Christ, who makes intercession for us, then, though we be in the first grace 
still, we are not cast away yet ; we are filil sub ira, sons under wrath ; we 
ai'e- under anger, though not under hatred. 

Therefore, eveiy day we should labour to maintain the grace of God 
with the assm'ance of it. It is a great matter to carry ourselves so, as we 
may be under the sense and feeling of the grace of God. It is not suflB- 
cient to be in the grace of God, but to have the report of it to our own 
hearts, have it to shine upon us. 

Quest. How should we carry ourselves so, that we may be in [a] state of 
grace ? that is, in such a state as we may find the sweet evidence and com- 
fortable feeling continually, that we are God's children. 

Ans. First of all, there must be a loerpetual, daily 2)ractice of abasing our- 
selves, of making ourselves j^oor ; that is, every day to see the vanity of all 
things in the world out of us ; to see the weakness of grace in us ; to 
see the return of our corruptions that foil us every day ; that so we may see 
, in what need we stand of the favour of God : considering that all comforts 
without are vanity, and that all the graces in us are stained with cor- 
ruption ; considering, besides the stains of our graces, that there is a conti- 
nual issue of corruption. These things will make our spirits poor, and 
make us hunger and thirst after the sense and feeling of free pardon every 
day. This will enforce us to renew our patent, to renew our portion in the 
covenant of grace, to have daily pardon. This should be our daily practice, 
to enter deeper and deeper into ourselves. 

This is to ' live by faith,' Gal. ii. 20. As God is continually ready to 
shew us favour in Christ, not only at the fii'st in acquitting us from our sins, 
but continually doth shew us favour upon all occasions, and is justifying 
and pardoning, and speaking peace continually to us ; so there must be an 
action answerable in us, that is depending upon God by faith, living by 
faith. This we do by seeing in what need we stand of grace. ' God resists 
the proud, but gives grace to the humble,' James iv. 6. 

2. Then, again, that we may walk in the grace of God, and in the sense 
of it, let us every da}' labour to have our souls more and more enriched with 
the endomncnts and graces of GocVs Spirit, that we may be objects of God's 
delight. Let us labour to be aflected to things as he is afiected. Two can- 
not ' walk together except they be agreed,' Amos iii. 3. Let us hate that 
which God hates, and delight in that which God delights in, that we may 
have a kind of complacency, and be in love with the blessed work of the 
Spirit of God more and more. Let us labour to delight in them that grow 
in grace, as the nearer any one comes to our likeness, the more we grow 
in famiharity with them. Labour also to preserve a clear soul, that God 
may shine upon us. God delights not in strangeness to us. His desire 
is that we may walk in the sense and assurance of his grace and favour. 

Quest. How shall we know that we are in a state of grace with God ? 

Ans. I answer, that we do not deceive ourselves ; 

1. We must look to the ivork of God's grace. God's grace is a fruitful grace. 
His favour is fruitful. It is not a barren favour ; it is not a winter sun. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER, 2. 19 

The sun in the winter, it carries a goodly countenance, but it heats not 
to any pm-pose ; it doth not quicken. But God's grace, it carries life and 
heat where it comes. Therefore, if we be in a state of grace and favour 
with God, we may discern it. 

But in times of desertion, though a person be in grace and favour with 
God, yet many times he thinks he is not so. 

It is true. Then, we must not always go to our feeling at such times, 
and the enlargement of our hearts by the Spirit of comfort, but go to the 
work of grace. For, 

2. Where grace and favour is, there are the graces of the Spirit. As it is 
not a bare favour in regard of comfort, so it is not a barren favour in regard 
of graces ; for eveiy heart that is in favour with God hath some graces of 
the Spirit. God enriches the soul where he shews favour. His love- 
tokens are some graces. Therefore, if the witness and comfort of the 
Spirit cease in case of desertion, let us go to the work of the Spirit, and 
by that we may know if we be in grace with God. For God's people are 
a ' peculiar people :' and God's children have always some peculiar 
grace. Some ornaments, some jewels the spouse of Christ hath, which 
others have not. 

Therefore, examine thy heart, what work of God there is, and what de- 
sire thou hast after better things, what inward hatred against that which 
is ill, what strength thou hast against it. Go to some mark of regenera- 
tion, of the ' new creature,' and these will evidence that we are in a state 
of grace with God, because these are pecuhar favours. And though we 
feel not the comfort, yet there is a work, and that work will comfort us 
more than the comfort itself will do. 

3. And this is one thing whereby we may know w^e are in favour with 
God, when we can comfort ourselves, and can go to the throne of grace 
through Christ. When ice can go boldly to God it is a sign of favour. 
When we can call upon him, when we can go in any desertion to prayer, 
when in any affliction we can have enlarged hearts, it is a sign of favour 
with God. A mere hypocrite, or a man that hath not this peculiar grace, 
he trusts to outward things ; and when they are gone, when he is in trouble, 
he hath not the heart to go to God. His heart is shut up, he sinks 
down, because he relied upon common matters. He did not rely upon 
the favour of God and the best fruit of it, which are graces, but upon 
common favours. Therefore, he sinks in despair. 

But a sound Christian, take him at the worst, he can sigh to God, he 
can go to him, and open his soul to him. ' By Christ we have an en- 
trance to the Father,' Eph. ii. 18 ; ' We have boldness through faith,' 
Eph. iii. 12. Every Christian hath this in the worst extremity, he hath 
a spirit of prayer. Though he cannot enlarge himself, yet he can sigh 
and groan to God, and God will hear the sighs of his own Spirit ; they 
are loud in his ears. David, at the worst, he prays to God ; Saul, at the 
Y/orst, he goes to the witch, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, seq., and from thence to his 
sword's point, 1 Sam. xxxi. 4. But usually, the usual temper and disposition 
of a man in the state of gi'ace is joy ; for, as one saith, grace is the begettel 
of joy ; for they both have one root in the Greek language. There is the 
same root for favour and for joy (e). So favour is usually and ordinarily 
with a sweet enlargement of heart. AVe may thank ourselves else, that do 
not walk so warily and so jealously as we should. 

The reward that God gives his children that are careful is a spirit of 
joy. ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, and joy in tribula- 



20 COMMENTARY ON 

tion,' Rom. v. 1. For, even as it is in human matters, the favour and 
countenance of the king, it is as a shower of rain after a drought, it 
comforts his subjects. There is a wondrous joy in the favour and gi'ace 
of great persons ahvay ; and as the favourable aspect of the heavens upon ' 
inferior bodies promiseth good things,* and men promise themselves from 
that fa^our and good, so the favour and grace of God enlarge the soul 
with joy and comfort. And there is that measure of joy in those that are 
in the free favour of God, that they will honour God freely, to cast them- 
selves upon his mercy. 

And it is with a disesteem of all things in the world besides. It is 
such a joy as works in the soul a base esteem of all things else. St 
Paul esteemed all dross, ' in comparison of the knowledge of Christ,* 
Phih'p. iii. 8, and the favour of God in Christ. So in Ps. iv., David saith 
of some, ' There be many that will saj, Who will shew us any good ? ' 
ver. 6. Any good ! It is no matter. But saith the Holy Spirit in David, 
' Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon me,' ver. 6. He goes to 
prayer. He saith not, ' Who will shew us any good ? ' It is no matter 
what, or how we come by it, any earthly good worldly men desire. No ; 
saith he, ' Lord, shew us the light of thy countenance.' He desires that 
above all things, so he saith, ' The lovingkindness of the Lord is better 
than life itself,' Ps. Ixiii. 3. Life is a sweet thing, the sweetest thing in 
the world ; but the grace and favour of God is better than that. For in 
this, when all comforts fail, the children of God have assurance, that 
' neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any- 
thing, can separate us from the love of God in Christ,' Rom. viii. 38, 
which shews itself better than life itself. When life fails, this favour shall 
never fail. Nothing shall be able to separ-ate us from the favour of God in 
Christ. It is an everlasting favour, and therefore everlasting because it is 
free. If it were originally in us, it would fail when we fail ; but it is an 
everlasting favour because it is free. God hath founded the cause of love 
to us in himself. So much for that, * Grace be unto you.' 

' And peace.' All that I will say of peace in this place is this, to shew, 

Obs. That true j^eace issues from grace. 

It is to be had thence. Peace, we take here for that sweet peace with 
God, and peace of conscience, and likewise peace with all things, when 
aU things are peaceable to us, when there is a sweet success in all 
business, with a security in a good estate. It is a blessed thing when we 
know that all will be well with us. This quiet and peaceable estate issues 
fi-'om grace, peace of conscience especially. I observe it the rather [be- 
cause] it hath been the en-or of the world to seek peace where it is not, 
to seek peace in sanctification, to seek it in the work of grace within a 
man, not to speak of worldly men, that seek peace in outward content- 
ments, in recreations, in friends, and the like. Alas ! it is a poor peace. 
But I speak of religious persons that are of a higher strain. They have 
sought peace, but not high enough. True peace must be selected from 
grace, the free favour in Christ. This will quiet and still the clamours of 
an accusing conscience. God reconciled in Christ will pacify the con- 
science ; nothing else will do it. For if our chief peace were fetched from 
sanctification, as many fetch it thence in error of judgment, alas! the 

* That is, according to (the now exploded, but in time of Sibbes accredited sys- 
tem of) astrology. Even Bacon and Milton believed in the influence of the stars. 
-G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 2. 21 

conscience would be dismayed, and always doubt whether it had sanctifi- 
cation enough or no. Indeed, sanctification and grace within is required 
as a qualification, to shew that we are not hypocrites, but are in the state 
and covenant of gi-ace. It is not required as a foundation of comfort, 
but as a qualification of the persons to whom comfort belongs. There- 
fore, David, and St Paul, and the rest, that knew the true power and efla- 
cacy of the gospel, they sought for peace m the grace and free favour of God. 

Let us lay it up to put it in practice in the time of dissolution, in the 
time of spiritual conflict, in the time when our consciences shall be 
awakened, and perhaps upon the rack, and Satan will be busy to trouble 
our peace, that we may shut our eyes to all things below, and see God 
shining on [us] in Christ ; that we may see the favour of God in Christ, 
by whose death and passion he is reconciled to us, and in the grace and 
free favour of God in Christ we shall see peace enough. 

It is true, likewise, besides peace of conscience, of all other peace, peace 
of success and peace of state. That all creatures and all conditions are 
peaceable to us, whence is it ? It is from grace. For God, being recon- 
ciled, he reconciles all. When God himself is ours, all is ours. When 
he is turned, all is tm-ned with him. When he becomes our Father in 
Christ, and is at peace with us, all are at peace besides. So that all 
conditions, all estates, all creatures, they work for our good. _ It is from 
hence, when God is turned, all are turned with him. He being the God 
of the creature, that sustains and upholds the creatm-e, in whom the 
creature hath his being and working, he must needs therefore turn it for 
the good of them that are in covenant with him. All that are joined in 
covenant with him, he fills them wdth peace, because they are in grace with 
him. 

This should stir up our hearts, above all things in the world, to pray 
for grace, to get grace, to empty om-selves of self-confidence, that we may 
be vessels for grace, to make grace our plea, to magnify the grace of God. 

We must never look in this world for a peace altogether absolute. That 
is reserved for heaven. Our peace here is a troubled peace. God will 
have a distinction between heaven and earth. But when our peace is in- 
terrupted, when the waters ' are come into our souls,' Ps. Ixix. 1, what 
must be our course ? When we would have peace, go to grace, go to the 
free promise of grace in Christ. ' Grace and peace.' 

' From God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: The spring of 
grace and peace are here mentioned. 

After the preface, he comes to the argument which he intends ; and 
begins with blessing. 

One part of the scope of this blessed apostle is, to avoid the scandal 
of his suflerings ; for he was a man of sorrows, if ever man was. Next 
Christ, who was a true man of sorrow, the blessed apostle was_ a man of 
miseries and sorrow. Now, weak, shallow Christians thought him to be a 
man deserted of God. They thought it was impossible for God to regard 
a man so forlorn, so despicable as this man was. What doth he ? Before 
he comes to other matters, he wipes away this imputation and clears this 
scandal. You lay my crosses, and sufferings, and disgraces in the world 
to my shame ! It is your weakness. That which you account my shame 
is a matter of praise. I am so far fi-om being disheartened or discouraged 
from what I sufi'er, that, 

* That is, ' to take away the stumblingblock.'— G. 



22 OOMMENTAKY ON 



VERSE 3. 

'Blessed he God, the Father of Christ, the Father of mercies,^ dc. 
That which to the flesh is matter of scandal and offence, that to the 
spirit and to a spiritual man is matter of glory, so contrary is the flesh 
and the spirit, and so opposite is the disposition and the current of the 
fleshly man to the spiritual man. Job was so far from cursing God for 
taking away, that he saith, ' Blessed be the name of God,' not only for 
giving, but for taking away too. Job i. 21. 

What ground there is in troubles and persecutions to bless God we shall 
see in the cui'rent and passages of the chapter. 

To come, then, to the very verse itself, where there is a blessing and 
praising of God first ; and in this praising consider 

The act, object, reasons. 

1. The act, ' Blessed be God,' which is a praising. ' 

2. The object is ' God the Father. 

3. The reasons are enwrapped in the object, ' Blessed be God the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 

(1.) Because he is the God and Father of Jesus Christ, therefore blessed 
be he. Another reason is, 

(2.) Because he is the ' Father of mercies.' Another reason is, 
(3.) From the act of this disposition of mercy in God, he is the ' God of 
all comfort,' and as he is comfortable, so he doth comfort. * Thou art 
good and doest good,' saith the psalmist, Ps. cxix. 68. Thou art a God of 
comfort, and thou dost comfort. For as he is, so he doth. He shews his 
nature in his working, * Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of comfort,' of which I shall speak 
when I come to them. 

* Blessed be God, the Father,' <&c. We see here the heart of the blessed 
apostle, being warmed with the sense and taste of the sweet mercy of God, 
stirs up his tongue to bless God ; a full heart and a full tongue. We 
have here the exuberancy, the abundance of his thankfulness breaking 
forth in his speech. His heart had first tasted of the sweet mercies and 
comforts of God before he praiseth God. The first thing that we will ob- 
serve hence is, that 

It is the disposition of God's children, after they have tasted the sweet mercy 
and comfort and love of God, to break forth into the praising of God and to 
thanksgiving. 

It is as natural for the new creature to do so as for the birds to sing in 
the spring. When tJje sun hath warmed the poor creature, it shews its 
thankfulness in singing ; and that little blood and spirits that it hath being 
warmed after winter, it is natural for those creatures so to do, and we de- 
light in them. 

It is as natural for the new creature, when it feels the Sun of righteous- 
ness warming the soul, when it tastes of the mercy of God in Christ, to shew 
forth itself in thankfulness and praise ; and it can no more be kept from it, 
than fire can keep from burning, or water from cooling. It is the nature 
of the new creature so to do. 

The reason is, every creature must do the work for which God hath 
enabled* it, to the which God hath framed it. The happiness of the 
* That is, ' qualified.' — G. 



2 COEINTniANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 28 

creature is in well-doing, in working according to its nature. The heathen 
could see that. Now all the creatures, the new creature especiaUj^ is for 
the glory of God in Christ Jesus. All the new creature, and what privileges 
it hath, and what graces it hath, all is, that God may have the glory of 
grace. Why then, it must needs work answerable to that which God hath 
created it for. Therefore it must shew forth the praise and glory of God. 
* Blessed be God,' saith the apostle, Eph. i. 3 ; and the blessed apostle 
Peter begins his epistle, ' Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who hath begotten us to an inheritance immortal and undefiled, which 
fadeth not away, reserved for us in heaven,' 1 Pet. i. 3. 

I shall not need to set down with the exposition of the word ' blessed :' 
how God blesseth us, and how we bless God. His blessing is a conferring 
of blessing ; our blessing is a declaring of his goodness. It is a thing well 
enough known. Our blessing of God is a praising of God, a setting out 
what is in him. 

Only one thing is to be cleared. What good can we do to God in bless- 
ing of him ? He is blessed, though we bless him not ; and he is praised, 
whether we praise him or no. He had glory enough before he made the 
world. He contented himself in the Trinity, the blessed Trinity in itself, 
before there were either angels, or men, or other creatures to bless him ; 
and now he can be blessed enough, though we do not bless him. 

It is true he can be so ; and he can have heaven, though thou hast it 
not, but be a damned creature ; and he will be blessed, whether thou bless 
him or no. 

1. Om' blessing of him is required as a duty, to make us more capable of 
his graces, ' To him that hath shall be given,' Mat. xiii. 12. To him that 
hath, and useth that he hath to the glory of God, shall be given more. We 
give nothing. 

The stream gives nothing to the fountain. The beam gives nothing to 
the sun, for it issues from the sun. Our very blessing of God is a blessing 
of his. 

It is from his grace that we can praise his gi-ace ; and we ran still into a 
new debt, when we have hearts enlarged to bless him. 

We ought to have our hearts more enlarged, that we can be enlarged to 
praise God. 

2. And to others it is good, for others are stirred up by it. God's good- 
ness and mercy is enlarged in regard of the manifestation of it to others, by 
our blessing of God. 

3. Yea, this good comes to our souls. Besides the increase of grace, we 
shall find an increase of joy and comfort. That is one end why God 
requires it of us. Though he himself, in his essence, be alway alike 
blessed, yet he requires that we should be thankful to him alway ; that 
we should bless and praise him even in misery and aifliction. And why, then ? 

1. Because, if we can tvork upon our hearts a disposition to see God's love, 
and to praise ayid bless him, we can never he uncomfortable. We have some 
comfort against all estates and conditions, by studjdng to praise God, by 
working of our hearts to a disposition to praise and bless God ; for then 
crosses are Kght, crosses are no crosses then. That is the reason that the 
apostles and holy men so stirred up their hearts to praise and thanksgiving, 
that they might feel their crosses the less, that they might be less sensible 
oi their discomforts. For undoubtedly, when we search for matter of 
praising God in any affliction, and when we see there is some mercy yet 
reserved, that we are not consumed, the consideration that there is alway 



24 COMMENTAKY ON 

some mercy, that we are yet unthankful for, will enlarge our hearts ; and 
God, when he hath thanks and praise from us, he gives us still more 
matter of thankfulness, and the more we thank him and praise him, the 
more we have matter of praise. 

This being a trath, that God's children, when they have tasted of his 
mercy, break forth into his praise, it being the end of his favours ; and 
nature being inclined thereto, this should stir us up to this duty. And that 
we may the better perform this holy duty, let us take notice of all God's 
favours and blessings. Knowledge stirs up the affections. Blessing of 
God springs immediately from an enlarged heart, but enlargement of heart 
is stirred up from apprehension. For as things are reported to the know- 
ledge, so the understanding reports them to the heart and affections. 
Therefore it is a duty that we ought to take notice of God's favours, and 
with taking notice of them, 

2. To mind them, to remember them, forget not all his benefits. * Praise 
the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits,' Ps. ciii. 2, insinuating 
that the cause why we praise not God is the forgetting of his benefits. 

Let us take notice of them, let us register them, let us mind them, let us 
keep diaries of his mercies and favours every day.* He renews his mercies 
and favours every day, and we ought to renew our blessing of him every 
day. We should labour to do here, as we shall do when we are in heaven, 
where we shall do nothing else but praise and bless him. We ought to be 
in heaven, while we are on the earth, as much as we may. Let us register 
his favours and mercies. 

Quest. But what favours ? 

Ans. Especially spiritual, nay, first spiritual favours, without which we 
cannot heartily give thanks for any outward thing. For the soul will cast 
with itself, till it feel itself in covenant with God in Christ, that a man is 
the child of God. 

Indeed I have many mercies and favours. God is good to me. But 
perhaps all these are but favours of the traitor in the prison, that hath the 
liberty of the tower, and all things that his heart can desire ; but then he 
looks for an execution, he looks for a writ to draw him forth to make him 
a spectacle to all. And so this trembling for fear of a future ill which 
the soul looks for, it keeps the soul from thankfulness. It cannot be 
heartily thankful for any mercy, till it can be thankful for spiritual favours. 

Therefore first let us see that our state be good, that we are in Christ, 
that we are in covenant of grace, that though we are weak Christians, yet 
we are true, [that] there is truth in grace wrought in us. And then, when 
we have tasted the best mercies, spiritual mercies ; when we see we are 
taken out of the state of nature (for then all is in love to us), when we 
have the first mercy, pardoning mercy, that our sins are forgiven in Christ, 
then the other are mercies indeed to us, not as favours to a condemned man. 

And that is the reason that a carnal man, he hath his heart shut, he can- 
not praise God, he cannot trust in God ; because he staggers in his estate, 
because he is not assured. He thinks, it may be God ' fattens me against 
the day of slaughter,' Jer. xii. 3. Therefore I know not whether I should 
)raise him for this or no. But he is deceived in that. For if he had his 
heart enlarged to bless God for that, God would shew further favour still ; 
but the heart will not yield hearty praise to God, till it be persuaded of 
God's love. For all om* love is by reflection. * We love him, because he 

* ' Diaries.' As a fine spccimon of, and connsels in regard to, this kind of diary, 
see Beadle's ' Diary of a Thaukful Christian,' 12mo, 1656. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 25 

loved us first,' 1 John iv. 19, and we praise and bless him, because he hath 
blessed us first in heavenly blessings in Christ. 

Let us take notice of his favours, let us remind them, let us register 
them, especially favours and mercies in Christ. Let us after* think how we 
were pulled out of the cursed estate of nature, by what ministry, by what 
acquaintance, by what speech, and how God hath followed that mercy with 
new acquaintance, with new comfort to our souls, with new refreshings ; 
that by his Spirit he hath repressed our corruptions, that he hath sanctified 
us, made us more humble, more careful, that he hath made us more 
jealous, more watchful. These mercies and favours will make others sweet 
unto us. 

And then learn to prize and value the mercies of God, which will not be 
unless we compare them with our own unworthiness. Lay his mercies 
together with om- own unworthiness, and it will make us break forth into 
blessing of God, when we consider what we are ourselves, as Jacob said, 
' less than the least of God's mercies,' Gen. xxxii. 10. 

We forget God's mercies every day. He strives with our unthankful- 
uess. The comparing of his mercies with our unworthiness, and our 
desei-t on the contrary, will make us to bless God for his goodness and 
patience, that he will not only be good to us, in not inflicting that which 
our sins have deserved. * Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ.' 

And, to name no more but this one, above all, beg of God his Hohj 
Spint. For this blessing of God is nothing else but a vent from the Spirit. 
For as organs and wind instruments do never sound except they be blown, 
they are dead and make no music till there be breath put into them ; so 
we are dead and dull instruments. Therefore it is said, we are ' filled with 
the Holy Ghost,' Acts ix. 17. All God's childi-en, they are filled with the 
Spirit before they can praise God. The Spirit stirs them up to praise him, 
and as it gives them matter to praise him ; for so it gives the sacrifice of 
praise itself. God gives to his children both the benefits to bless him for, 
and he gives the blessing of a heart to bless him. And we must beg both 
of God ; beg a heart able to discern spiritual favours, to taste and relish 
them, and to see our own unworthiness of them ; and beg of God his Holy 
Spirit to awaken, and quicken, and enlarge our dead and dull hearts to praise 
his name. 

Let us stir up our hearts to it, stir up the Spirit of God in us. Every 
one that hath the Spirit of God should labour to stir up the Spirit. As 
St Paul writes to Timothy, 2 Tim. i. 6, and as David stirs up himself, 
' Praise the Lord, my soul : and all that is within me, praise his holy 
name,' Ps. ciii. 1, seq., so we should raise up ourselves, and stir up our- 
selves, to this duty. 

And shame ourselves. What ! hath God freed me from so great misery ? 
And hath he advanced me to so happy an estate in this world ? Doth he 
put me in so certain a hope of glory in the world to come ? Have I a 
certain promise to be carried to salvation ? that neither * things present, 
nor things to come, shall be able to separate me from the love of God in 
Christ Jesus ' ? Horn. viii. 38. Doth he renew his mercies eveiy day upon 
me ? And can I be thus dead, can I be thus dull-hearted "? Let us shame 
ourselves. ^ And certainly if a man were to teach a child of God a ground 
of humiliation, if a child of God that is in the state of grace should ask 
how he might grow humble and be abased more and more, a man could 

* Qu. 'often?'— £d. 



26 



COMMENT.UIY ON 



give no one direction better than this, to consider how God hath been 
good continually; how he hath been patient and good, and upon what 
ground we hope that he will be so ; and to consider the disposition of our 
own drooping, di-owsy souls. If this will not abase a soul that hath tasted 
the love and mercy of God, nothing in the world will do it. There never 
was a child of God of a dull temper and disposition, but he was ashamed 
that, being under such a covenant of favour, that he should yet not have a 
heart more enlarged to bless God. 

To stir us up to this duty, for arguments to persuade us, what need we 
use «nany ? 

1 . It should be our duty in this world to be as mucJi in heaven and heavenly 
employment. ' Our conversation is in heaven,' saith the apostle, Phil. iii. 
20. How can we be in heaven more than by practising of that which the 
saints and angels, and the cherubins and seraphins, spend all their 
strength in there ? How do they spend all that blessed strength with 
cheerfulness and joy, that are in that place of joy ? How do they spend 
it but in setting forth the praise of God, the wonderful goodness of God, 
that hath brought them to that happiness ? Certainly that which we shall 
do for ever in heaven, we ought to do as much as we may do on earth. 

2. And it is, as I said before, in all afflictions and troubles the only special 
way to mitigate them, to work our hearts to thankfulness for mercies and favours 
that ice enjoy. We have cause indeed at the first to be abased and humbled ; 
but we have more cause to rejoice in working our hearts to comfort, in 
blessing of God. It will ease the cross, any cross whatsoever. I will not 
dwell further upon the point. I shall have occasion oft to digress upon 
this duty. 

The object of praise here is God, clothed with a comfortable descrip- 
tion ; not God simply, for, alas ! we have no hearts to praise God, take 
God only armed with justice, clothed with majesty. Consider God thus, 
indeed he deserves glory and praise, but the guilty soul will not praise him 
thus considered, and abstracted from mercy, and goodness, and love. There- 
fore saith he, 'Blessed be God.' God how considered ? ' Blessed be God, 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 

First, he is Father of Christ, and then Father of mercies, and God of 
comfort. God, so considered, be blessed ! 

Obs. God, as he is to be prayed unto, so he is to be praised, and only God. 

This sacrifice, this perfume, this incense, it must not be misspent upon 
any creature. We have all of his grace, and we should return all to his glory. 
That is a duty. But consider him as he is described here, first, ' the Father 
of Christ,' and then the ' Father of mercies, and God of all comfort.' And 
it is not to be omitted, that first begins with this. 

1. * Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Not the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ only as he is God, but the Father of our Lord 
Jesua Christ as ho is man. For God being the Father of whole Christ, 
being Father of the person, he is Father of the manhood, taken into unity 
with that person. So he is Father both of God and man. They cannot 
be divided in Christ. He being the Father of whole Christ, he is the 
Father of God and man. And he is first the Father of Christ, and then the 
Father of us, and the Father of mercies. For, alas ! unless he had been 
the Father of Christ, God and man, mediator, he could never have been 
the Father of such cursed creatures as we are. But because he is the 
Father of Christ, of that blessed manhood, which Christ hath taken into 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 27 

unity of person with the Godhead, therefore he is the Father of us who bv 
union are one with Christ. ' ^ 

The point then is, that, 

Doct. God, thus considered, as the Father of Jesus Christ, is to he praised 
Here is the reason of blessing and praising him, in this, that he is the 
father oi Jesus Christ, for thence he comes to be our Father. It is a 
point that we think not oft enough on, but it is the ground of all comfort- 
for we have all at the second hand. Christ hath all first, and we have all 
trom him. He is the first Son, and we are sons. He is the first beloved 
of God, and we are beloved in him. He is filled first with all grace, and 
we are filled from him : ' of his fuhiess we receive grace for grace,' John 
1. 16. He was first acquitted of our sins, as our surety, and then we are 
justified, because he was justified from our sins, being our surety He is 
ascended into heaven, we shaU ascend. He sits at the riaht hand of God 
and we sit with him in heavenly places. He judgeth,"we shall judge.* 
Whatsoever we do, Christ doth it first. We have it in Christ, and through 
Christ, and from Christ. He is the Father of Christ, and our Father 
_ Use I. Therefore we ought to bless God for Christ, that he would predes- 
tinate Christ to be our Head, to be our Saviom-; that he would take the 
human nature of Christ and make it one person with his divine nature and 
BO predestinate us, and elect, and choose us to salvation in him. Blessed 
be God, that he would be the Father of Jesus Christ ! 

Use 2. And as this should stir us up to bless God for Jesus Christ so 
likewise it shoidd direct us to comfortable meditations, to see our nature in 
Christ first, and then in ourselves. See thy nature abased in Christ, see thv 
nature glorified in Christ, see thy nature filled with all grace in Christ and 
see this, that thou art knit to that nature, thou art flesh of Christ's flesh 
and bone of his bone, and thou shalt be so as he is. In that Christ's nature 
was fii-st abased, and then glorified, this nature shall first be abased to 
death and dust, and then be glorified. Christ died, ' and rose again, ' Rom 
XIV. 9. Thou art predestinated to be conformable to Christ. For as his 
flesh was fii-st humbled and then glorious, so thine must be first humble 
and then glorious. His flesh was holy, humble, and glorious, and so must 
?"?"^ Sf • . Whatsoever we look for m ourselves, that is good, we must see 
it m Christ first. 

And when we hear in the gospel, in the articles of the creed, of Christ 

''•T. V '/ r^^'f * P'""^' °^ ^^""*^ ^^'^^g' ascending, and sitting at the 
rigut hand ot God ; let us see ourselves in him, see ourselves dyina in him 
and rising m him, and sitting at the right hand of God. For the same God 
that raised Christ natural, will raise Christ mystical. He will raise whole 
Christ ; for he is not glorified by pieces. As whole Christ natural, in his 
body and members, was raised, so shall whole Christ mystical be There- 
fore in every article of the creed bless God, bless God for abasing of Christ 
bless God for raising him up, bless God for raising us up. ' Blessed be 
God who hath raised us up to an immortal hope, by the resurrection of 
Christ, saith St Peter, 1 Peter i. 3. Bless God for the ascension of Christ 
that our head is m heaven. Let us bless God, not for personal favours only' 
but go to the sprmg. Bless God for shewing it to Christ, and to us in him' 
ihis point the apostle had learned well. Therefore he begins with praise 
'Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' If the Virgin Mary 
thought herself blessed, ' and all generations should call her blesse'd,' Luke 
1. 48, for bearing our Saviour in her womb, and so being his mother, then 
* ' Him ' is added here, an evident misprint. — G. 



28 OOMMENTAEY ON 

all generations must needs do this duty to call God blessed, because he is 
the Father of Christ. So God the Father is to be blessed as the spring of 
favours ; for he gave Christ, All generations call the Virgin Mary blessed, 
because she was the mother of Christ : but that was in a lower degree than 
God was his Father. This point ought to take up our meditations, to think 
we have aU in Christ first. To think of ourselves in Christ, it is comfort- 
able ; and Christ shall have more glory by it. God the Father and the Son 
shall have glory by it, and we shall have comfort. 

The second consideration of God is, not only as he is the Father of Christ, 
but as he is 

2. ' The Father of mercies.'' God is the Father of Christ, and our Father, 
* and the Father of mercies.' But as I said before in this method, he is 
first the Father of Christ, and then our Father, and then * the Father of mer- 
cies.' For he could never be the Father of mercies to us, except he were 
the Father of Christ. For mercy must see justice contented.- One attri- 
bute in God must not devour another. All must have satisfaction. His 
justice must have no wrong. Nor it hath not now. It is fully satisfied by 
Christ. 

Therefore God is the Father of Christ, that Christ in our nature might 
die for us, and so he might be our Father notwithstanding our sins, having 
punished our sins in our siu-ety, Christ. So being the Father of Christ, and 
our Father, he is the Father of mercies ; his justice hath no loss by it. 

If God had not found out a way, out of the bowels of his mercy, how he 
might shew good to us, by reconciling mercy and justice in the mediator 
Christ, in punishing him for our sins, to set us free, he had never been 
a Father of mercy ; if he had not been the Father of Christ first. For we 
being in such contrary terms as God and we were, he being holiness, and 
we nothing but a mass of sin and corruption ; without sufficient satisfaction 
of an infinite person there could be no reconciliation. Therefore he is the 
Father of Christ, who died for us. He took our nature upon him to satisfy 
God's justice, and then Father of us, and so Father of mercy to us. 

He may well be the Father of mercies now, being the Father of Christ, of 
our nature in Christ : for, as I said, he is the Father of Chi-ist as man, as 
well as he is God. Being the Father of our nature, being taken into the 
unity with his own Son's nature, for both make one Christ, he becomes * the 
Father of mercies.' He is a Father to him by nature, to us by grace and 
adoption. * The Father of Christ, and Father of mercies.' It is a necessary 
method, for God out of Christ is a fountain indeed, but he is a ' fountain 
sealed up.' He is a God merciful and gracioiis in his own nature, but 
there is sin that stops the fountain, that stops the current of the mercy. 
There must be therefore satisfaction to his justice and wrath, before there 
can be reconciliation, before there can any mercy flow from him. He is 
first the Father of Christ, and then the ' Father of mercies.' We have all 
from Christ. If he were not the Father of Christ, he should be the Father 
of nobody ; for immediatelyf no man is able to appear before God without 
a mediator. 

' Father of mercies.' By Father, which is a kind of hebraism (/), is meant 
be is the original, the spring of mercies, he is the ' Father of mercies.' He 
doth not say the Father of one mercy, but the * Father of mercies.' His 
mercy is one ; it is his nature, it is himself. As he is one, so mercy in 
him is one. It is one in the fountain, but many in the streams. It is one 
* That is, ' satisfied.'— G. f That is, ^ ' in Iiimself.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 29 

in him, one nature, and one mercy. But because we have not one sin, 
but many sins, we have not one misery, but many, that lies upon this frail 
nature of ours. Therefore according to the exigencies of us wretched 
creatures, according to our sins and miseries, his mercies stream out. They 
ai'e derived* and run out to all kind of sin and misery v/hatsoever. 

' The Father of mercies.' If all mercies were lost, they must be found in 
him. He is ' the Father of mercies.' They are his bowels, as it were, and 
mercy pleaseth him as a man is pleased with his own natural child, f ' The 
Father of mercies.' He doth not say the Author of mercies, but the Father 
of them. He gives them the sweetest name that can be. He doth not say 
the Father of revenge, or of judgment, though he be the Father of them too ; 
but to his children the Father of mercies. A sweet name under which none 
should despair ! 

But to shew some reasons why he is so styled. 

1. There is good reason. Being the Father of Christ, his justice being fully 
contented, sin being taken away that stopped the current of his mercies, 
he being naturally merciful, his mercies run freely, ' Father of Christ, and 
Father of mercies.' It follows well. He is the Father of mercies, because 
he is the Father of Christ ; and because his justice is satisfied in him, and 
he being naturally merciful, what hinders but that mercy may run amain, 
freely, and abundantly upon those that are in covenant with him in Chrst, 
that are members of Christ. That is one reason, because his justice is 
satisfied. 

2. And because he is naturally merciful, therefore he is the * Father oi 
mercies.' The sea doth not more naturally flow, and is moist, and the sun 
doth not more naturally shine, the fire doth not more naturally bum, heavy 
bodies do not more naturally sink to the centre, than God doth naturally 
shew pity and mercy where his justice is satisfied ; for it is his nature, it is 
himself. 

The apostle doth not name other attributes, for, alas ! other attributes 
would scare us. As, for example, if the guilty conscience consider him as 
a God of justice, it will reason thus : What is this to me ? I am a sinner, 
and he will be just in punishing. If he consider he is a God of wisdom, 
the conscience considers he is the more wise to find out my -n^indings and 
turnings from him, and my covering of my sins ; he is the more wise to 
find me out in my courses, and to shame me. He doth not say, he is a God 
of power, the father of power. The guilty conscience then would reason, 
he is the more able to crush me and to send me^to hell. 

Indeed, there is no attribute of God, but it k matter of terror, being 
secluded from mercy ; but considering God the Father of mercies, then we 
may consider sweetly and comfortably of all other attributes. He is mer- 
ciful and good to me ; therefore his wisdom, that shall serve to do me 
good, to devise good things for me ; his power shall serve to free me 
from mine enemies ; his justice to revenge my quarrel ; and so all otlier 
attributes shall be serviceable to my comfort. They may be thought 
upon sweetly, where mercy is laid claim unto before. Therefore, here he 
is called ' the Father of mercies,' and not the Father of other attributes. 

' Of mercies.' To unfold the word a little, ' mercy' is here the same with 
grace to a person in misery. Mercy is but free favour shewed to a miser- 
able person. Grace shews the freeness of it, and mercy shews the state of 

* That is, ' transmitted.'— G. 

t That is, = ' marriage-born, not in the modern sense, in Scotland, of illegiti- 
mate.' — G. 



30 COMMENTABY ON 

the person to whom it is shewn. Alway where mercy is, either there 13 
present or else possible misery. 

There was mercy shewed to angels that stood, to free them, to give them 
grace to stand. They might have fallen as the de-vils did when they were 
angels. None are the subjects of mercy, but such as either are in misery, 
or are possible to fall into miser}'. Now, when God keeps and upholds the 
creatm'e from falling into that which he is subject to fall into (he being a 
creature taken out of nothing, and therefore subject to fall to nothing with- 
out assistance), to hold him from that whereto he would fall without being 
upheld, this makes him the object of mercy, whatsoever the misery be, 
spiritual or outward. 

Thus Grod is the Father of mercy ; he upholds his children from that 
which else they would fall into continually. He is ' the Father of mercy,' 
before conversion, offering and enjoining mercy to them, that as they will 
be good to their souls, they would receive mercy. He joins his glory and 
his mercy together, that he will be glorified in shewing mercy ; and he 
presseth it upon us. What a mercy is this, that he should press mercy 
upon us for our own good ? ' Why will ye die, house of Israel,' Jer. 
xxvii. 13. And, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,' 
Mat. xi. 28. There is mercy before conversion. And there is mercy in 
prolonging his wrath, in not punishing ; and there is mercy in pardoning 
sin freely, in pardoning all sin, the punishment and the guilt, and all. And 
when we are in the state of grace, and have our sins pardoned, still it is his 
mercy to forbear the punishments due to us, in mitigating his corrections, 
and in seasonable corrections. For it is a mercy for God to correct his 
children seasonably. * Therefore we are corrected of God, that we should 
not be damned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 32. 

It is a mercy to have seasonable correction. It is a mercy to have cor- 
rection mitigated and sweetened with some comforts. It is a mercy after 
we are in the state of grace, besides this, to have the continuance of out- 
ward blessings. 

God renews his mercies every day. His mercies fail not,' Lament, iii. 
22. His mercies are renewed continually upon us. 

So he is Father of all kind of mercies; privative* mercies, in freeing 
us from ill ; and positive mercies, in bestowing good. Pardoning mercies, 
healing mercies, preserving mercijes, all mercies come from this Father of 
I will not stand to unfold them in particular ; for indeed every thing that 
comes from God to his children, it is a mercy. It is as it were dipt in 
mercy before it comes to us. It is a mercy, that is, there is a freedom in 
it, and a pity to his creature. For the creature is alway in some neces- 
sity and in some dependence. We are in a state of necessities in this 
life, in some misery or other, and that, as I said, is the object of mercy. 

Besides, we are dependent for the good we have. It is at God's mercy 
to continue or to take away any comfort that he gives us. Every thing is 
a mercy. And in every thing we take from God we ought to conceive a 
mercy in it, and to think this is a mercy from God. If we have health, it 
is a mercy ; if we have strength, it is a mercy ; if we have deliverance, it 
is a mercy. It comes in the respect and relation of a mercy, all that comes 
from God. He is not said to be the father of the thing ; but the ' Father 
of mercies.' There is a mercy contained in the thing. They come from 
the pity and love of God, and that is the sweetest. Therefore, he is said 
to be the ' Father of mercies.' 

* That is, = ' negative.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 81 

Quest. What use may we make of this, that God is tlie * Father of 
mercies ' ? 

Ans. It is a point full of sweet and comfortable uses, to those that are 
not in the state of grace, and to those that are in the state of grace. 

Use 1. To those that are not in the state of grace, they should see here a 
haven to flee to ; a city of refuge to flee unto. Do but consider, thou wretched 
soul, how God is styled a * Father of mercies ' to thee, a God of bounty. 
All is to allure thee to repentance, to allm-e thee to come in. He is not 
merciful by accident, but he is naturally merciful in himself. He hath 
bowels of mercy in himself. * Mercy pleaseth him,' Micah vii. 18. 

Therefore, despair not, thou drooping soul, whosoever thou art that are 
under the guilt of sin ! come to the Father of mercies ! cast thyself into 
this sea of his mercy ! hide thyself in these bowels ! be not an enemy to 
thine own mercy ! As Jonah saith, ' Refuse not th}^ own mercy,' Jonah 
ii. 8, that is offered. There is mercy pressed upon thee, mercy with 
threatening if thou beUeve not mercy, now thou art called to receive it. 
The wrath of God hangs over thee as a weight, or as a sword ready to fall 
upon thee. As Christ saith, ' The wrath of God hangs over us,' John 
iii. 36, if we do not receive mercy offered us. 

Allege not thy sins against mercy. Thy sins are the sins of a creature ; 
God is the ' Father of mercies.' He is infinite. Christ thy Saviour hath 
made an infinite satisfaction, and thy sins are finite, and in that respect 
there is mercy for thee if thou wilt come in, if thou apprehend and receive 
mercy. 

' One deep calls upon another deep,' Ps. xhi. 7. The depth of thy sins 
and misery draws unto it, and calls upon the depth of mercy. * The mercy 
of God is above all his works,' Ps. cxlv. 9. It is not only above all his 
works to cover them all, and under them to uphold them, but it is beyond 
them all. His mercy exceeds all other attributes to the creature. It is 
above his works, and upon his works, and under his works, and it is above 
thy works too. He is more glorious in his mercy than in any other attri- 
bute. He doth all for the glory of his mercy, both in the creation and in 
the gospel. His mercy, therefore, is above his own works, and above thy 
works if tliou come in. 

Oil is of a kingly nature. It swims above all other Hquids. So the 
mercy of God, like oil, it swims above all other attributes in him, and above 
aU sin in thee, if thou wilt receive it. 

* Father of mercies.' In a corrupt estate the special mercy is forgiving 
mercy. If it were not for forgiving mercies, all other gifts and mercies 
were to little purpose. For it were but a reserving of us to eternal judg- 
ment, but a feeding the traitor to the day of execution, a giving him the 
liberty of the prison, which is nothing unless his treason be pardoned. So 
the forgiving mercy leads to all the rest. Nov.^ these forgiving mercies, they 
are unlimited mercies, there is no bounds of them. For he being the 
Father of Christ, who is an infijiite person, and having received an infinite 
satisfaction from an infinite Person, he may well be infinitely merciful ; and 
himself is an infinite God. His mercies are like himself. The satisfaction 
whereby he may be merciful is infinite. Hereupon it is that he may par- 
don, and will pardon all sin without limitation, if they be never so great, 
never so many. 

This I observe, the rather to appease the conscience of a sinner when it 
is suppressed* with terror and fear of the greatness of his sins. Consider 
* Qu. ' oppressed? — G. 



32 COMMENTARY ON 

how God hath set down himself, and will be known and apprehended of us, 
not only as merciful, but a ' Father of mercies,' and not of one mercy, but 
of aU mercies, not only giving, but, forgiving especially, ' Which forgiveth 
all thy sins, and healeth all thy infirmities,' Ps. ciii. 3. This I observe 
against a proneness in us to despair. We are not now proner in the time 
of peace to presume, than when conscience is awakened, to despair ; we are 
prone to both alike. For here is the poison of man's corruption. Is God 
80 merciful ? Surely, I may go on in sin, and cry God mercy, and there 
is an end. God is merciful, nay, the Father of mercies. 

Now, in the time of peace, sin is nothing with us. Swearing is nothing, 
rotten discourse is nothing, going beyond others in our dealing and com- 
merce is nothing, getting an estate by fi-aud and deceit is nothing. * The 
bread of deceit is sweet,' Prov. xx. 17. Loose, licentious, libertine life, is 
nothing. And those that do not follow the same excess, and are [not] dis- 
solute, it is a strange matter with us,' they are strange people. We think 
it strange that others do not so, and if they be better than we, it is but 
hypocrisy. Men measure all by themselves. So all is nothing. Great, 
gross swearing is nothing. Men glory in it, and to make scruple of it, it 
is thus and thus. They have terms for it. And what is the bawd* for all 
this ? Oh ! God is merciful, and Christ he is wondrous mercifd : he took 
our nature that he might die for us, &c. 

It is true indeed. But when the conscience is awakened, then the con- 
science will tell thee another lesson. The conscience will set God as just, 
and Satan will help conscience with accusations and aggravations. It is 
true, it is too true. The conscience will take part with God and with his 
word. It is true thou hast done thus and thus. These are thy sins, and 
God is just. 

And especially at the hour of death, when earthly comforts fail, and there 
is nothing but sin set before a man's eyes, the comforts that are set before 
him can do him no good. Then the conscience will hardly f receive any 
comfort : especially the consciences of such as have gone on in a course of 
sin, in spite of good means. A conscience of such a man as either refuseth 
or rejects the means, because it would favour itself in sin ; or a conscience 
that being under means, having had its sins discovered to it, that conscience 
will hardly admit of any comfort. And there is none, but they find it 
another manner of matter than they think it. Sin is a blacker thing than 
they imagine. Their oaths that they trifle with, and their dissolute and 
their rotten discourse, when they should be better affected |, upon the Sab- 
bath, and such like. Therefore we ought to look to it. 

Well ! to press this point of presumption a little further, now I am in 
it, we are wondrous prone to abuse this mercy to presumption, and after 
to despair. 

I consider this beforehand, that however God's mercy be unlimited, as 
indeed it is in itself, it is so unlimited to those that repent, and to those 
that receive and embrace mercy, and mercy in one kind as well as another. 
It is so to those that repent of their sins. For God is so the ' Father 
of mercy,' as that he is the ' God of vengeance ' too, Deut. xxxii. 5. He 
is a just God too. 

The conscience will tell you this well enough, when the outward com- 
forts, that now you dally with and set as gods in the room of God, and 
drown yourselves in sensuality and idolatry with the creature, and put them 

* Sic Qu. ' bode ?' = bid, meaning bait. — G. 

t That is, ' affectioned' = disposed. — G. t That is, ' with difficulty.' — G, 



2 COi'JNTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 33 

in the place of God, — when they arc taken away, conscience will tell yor 
that God is merciftd indeed ; but he is just to such that refuse mercies. 

Therefore, though his mercy be unlimited to such as are broken-hearted 
to such as repent of their sins (for he will glorify his mercy as he may 
glorify his other attributes), he is wisely merciful. If he should be mer- 
ciful to such as go on in sin, he should not be wisely merciful. 

Who among men, if he be wise, would be merciful to a child or servant 
without acknowledgment of the fault ? 

Was not David over- merciful to Absalom ? Yes ; it was his fault. Yet, 
out of wisdom, he would not admit him into his presence till he was 
humbled for his fault and made intercession, though he doated upon him, 
2 Sam. xiv. 28. God is infinitely wise, as he is merciful. Therefore , ha 
will not be merciful to him that goes on in wickedness and sin. ''This 
cannot be too often pressed, for the most of the auditors, wheresoever v.'t! 
speak, the devil hath them in this snare, that God is merciful, &c. Ami 
doth he not know how to use it ? He is so indeed, but it is to repentant 
souls that mean to break off their course of sin. 

Otherwise, if the mercy of God work the other way, hearken to thy 
doom, ' He that blesseth himself,' saith God by Moses, and saith, ' These 
curses shall not come to me,' he that blesseth himself and saith. Oh, all 
shall be well, God is merciful, &c., ' my Avi'ath shall smoke against him,' 
Deut. xxix. 16, 20, and I will not be merciful to him that goes on in his 
sins. God will ' wound the hahy scalp of him that goes on in sin,' Ps. 
Ixviii. 21. As the apostle saith, he that abuseth the bounty and patience 
of God, that should lead him to repentance, ' he treasureth up wrath 
against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. The Scripture is never in any case 
more terrible than this way. In Isa. xxviii. 15, ' You have made a cove- 
nant with hell and death,' with God's judgments ; but hell and death hath 
not made a covenant with you. You make a covenant, and think you shall 
do well ; but God is terrible to such. His wrath shall smoke against such 
as make a covenant with his judgments, and treasure up wrath against the 
day of wrath. 

Take heed. IS the proclamation of mercy call thee not in, if thou stand out 
as a rebel and come not in, but go on still, then justice lays hold on thee, 
God's wrath shall smoke against thee, as we see in Prov. i. 26, ' I will 
laugh at your destruction,' speaking of those that would not come in • 
and as* it is in Isa. xxvii. 11, 'He that formed them and made them 
will have no mercy on them, nor shew them favour.' He will have no de- 
light in them. They are ignorant sots, and will not labour to know God 
and his will, to do and obey it. ' Ho that made them will have no de- 
light in them, and he that formed them will reject them.' It is a pitiful 
thing when God, that made them and fonned them in their mother's womb, 
whose creatures they are, shall have no delight in them ; when he that 
made them, his heart shall not pity them, Ezek. xviii. 18. He that goes 
on in a course of sin presumptuously and doth not repent, God's eye shall 
not pity him. ' He that made him will have no delight in him.' 

Therefore the apostle, because we are disposed and prone to abuse the 
goodness and longsuffering of God and the mercies of Christ, he saith, 
' Be not deceived, be not deceived' (he oft presseth this), * for neither the 
covetous nor licentious persons shall enter into heaven,' 1 Cor. vi. 10. 

Though God be merciful, if thou live in these sins, be not deceived, 

* By a strange misprint, the words ' and as,' appear in the unmeaning form of 
' Chidas,' in the folio. It is plain that ' and as' was intended Ly Sihhes. — G. 

VOL. III. 



34 COMMENTARY ON 

thou shalt never enter into heaven. God will not be merciful to the 
most of those that even now live in the bosom of the church, because 
they make mercy a baud to their sinful courses. God will harden him- 
self. He will not bless such. He hath no mercy for such. To such he 
is a God of vengeance. 

His mercy is to such as are weary of their sinful courses. As I said, 
he is merciful, but so as he is wise. 

What prince will prostitute a pardon to one that is a rebel, and yet 
thinks himself a good subject all the while ? He is no rebel ; cares he 
for a pardon ? and shall he have a pardon when he cares not for it ? 
Those that are not humbled in the sight and sense of their sins, that 
think themselves in a good estate, they are rebels, that have not sued out 
their pardon. There is no mercy to them yet. ' He that made them will 
not pity them,' because they are ignorant, hardened wretches, that live in 
blasphemy, in swearing, in corrupt courses, in hardness of heart, that live 
in sins, that their own conscience and the conscience of others about them 
know that they are sins, devouring sins, that devour all their comfort ; and 
3'et, notwithstanding, they dream of mercy. Mercy ! Hell is their por- 
tion, and not mercy, that make an idol of God. 

Thus it is with us ; we are prone to presume upon God's mercy. I 
speak this that we should not surfeit of this sweet doctrine, that God is 
the ' Father of mercies.' He is so to repentant sinners, to those that 
believe. To those mercy is sweet. We know oil is above all liquors. 
God's mercy is above all his own works and above our sins. But what is 
the vessel for this oil ? This oil of mercy, it is put in broken vessels ; it 
is kept best there. A broken heart, a humble heart, receives and keeps 
mercy. 

As for proud dispositions, as all sinners that go on in a course of sin, 
the psalmist terms them proud men ; he is a proud man that sets his own 
will against God's command. ' God resists the proud,' James iv. 6. It 
is the humble, yielding heart, that will be led and lured by God, that is a 
vessel to receive mercy. It must be a deep vessel, it must be a broken 
vessel, deep with humiliation, broken by contrition, that must receive 
mercy. And it must be a large vessel laid open, capable to receive mercy, 
and all mercy, not only pardoning mercy, but healing mercy, as I said out 
of that psalm, ' That forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thy transgres- 
sions,' Ps. ciii. 3. 

Therefore those that have not grace and mercy, to heal then' corruptions, 
to dry up that issue in some comfortable measure, they have no pardoning 
mercy ; and those that desire not their corruptions to be healed, they 
never desire heartily their corruptions to be pardoned. Those mercies go 
together. 

He is not the ' Father of mercy,' but of all mercies that belong to salva- 
tion, and he gives them every one, and he that desires the one, desires the 
other. 

Let us consider how the sweet descriptions of God, and how his pro- 
mises work upon us. If they work on us to make us presume, it is a fear- 
ful case. It is as bad a sign as may be, to be ill, because God is good, ' to 
turn the grace of God into wantonness,' Jude ver. 4. 

But as we are thus prone to presume ; so when conscience is awaked we 
are as prone to despair. Therefore if they work with us this way, ' there is 
mercy with God, therefore I will come in ;' * therefore I will cast down my 
weapons at his feet,' ' I will cease to resist him,' ' I wiU come in, and take 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. B. 35 

terms of peace with him,' ' I will yield him obedience for the time to come;' 
' therefore I will fear and love so good a God.' If it work thus, it is a 
sign of an elect soul, of a gracious disposition. And then if thou come 
in, never consider what thy sins have been; if thou come in, God will 
embrace thee in his mercy. Thy sins are all as a spark of fire that falls 
into the ocean, that is drowned presently. So are thy sins in the ocean of 
God's mercy. 

There is not more light in the sun, there is not more water in the sea, 
than there is mercy in the ' Father of mercy,' whose bowels are opened to 
thee if thou be weary of thy sinful courses, and come in, and embrace 
mercy. 

In the tabernacle, we know, there was a mercy-seat. We call it a pro- 
pitiatory. In the ark, which this mercy-seat covered, was the law. Now 
in the law there were curses against all sinners. 

The mercy-seat was a type of Chi-ist, covering the law, covering the 
curse. Though thou be guilty of the curse a thousand times, God in 
Christ is merciful. Christ is the mercy-seat. Come to God in Christ. 
There is mercy in Israel notwithstanding thy gi-eat sins. If we cast away a 
purpose of Hving in sin, and cast away our weapons, and submit ourselves 
to him, he is the Father of mercies. That is, he is merciful from himself, 
he is the spring of them, and hath them from his own bowels. They are 
free mercies, because he is the Father of them. 

For he is just by our feult, he is severe from us, he takes occasion from 
our sins ; but he is merciful from his own bowels. He is good from him- 
self. We provoke him to be severe and just. Therefore be we never so 
miserable in regard of sin, and the fruits of sin, yet he is the Father of 
mercy, of free mercy ; mercy from himself. ' Mercy pleascth him,' Micah 
vii. 18. He is dehghted in it. 

Now that which is natural comes easily, as water from the fountain 
comes without violence, and heat from the fire comes without any violence, 
because it is natm-al. A mother pities her child, because it is natm-al. 
There is a sweet instinct of nature that moves and pricks forward nature to 
that affection of love that she bears to her child. So it is with God. It is 
nature in him to be merciful to his, because they are his. Mercy is his 
nature. We are his. We being his, his nature being merciful, he will be 
merciful to all that are his, to such as repent of theii- sins, and lay hold of 
his mercy by a true fixith. 

His word shews likewise his mercy. There is not one atti'ibute set down 
more in Scripture than mercy. It is the name whereby he will be known, 
Exod. xxxiv. 6, where he describes it, and tells us his name. What is the 
name of God ? His longsuflfering, and mercy, &c. There is a long de- 
scription of God in that place. David, in Ps. iii., besides that which is in 
every prophet almost, hath the same description of God, to comfort God's 
people in his time. In Ps. Ixxxvi., ciii., cxlv., there is the same descrip- 
tion of God as there is in Moses. He is merciful and longsuflfering, &c. 
He describes himself to be so, and his promises are promises of mercy. 
At what time soever a sinner repents, and without hmitation of sins, all 
sins shall be forgiven. ' The blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin,' 
1 John i. 7. 

If there be no limitation of persons whomsoever, of sins whatsoever, 
or of time whensoever, here is a ground that we should never despair. 
* God is the Father of mercies.' 

It is excellent that the prophet hath, to prevent the thoughts of a de- 



86 COMMENTARY ON 

jected soul, ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts, and return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to 
our God, for he will abundantly pardon,' Isa. Iv. 7. 

Obj. Aye, but I have abused mercy a long time ; I have lived in sin, 
and committed great sins. Well, notwithstanding that, see how he answers 
it : * My thoughts are not your thoughts.' You are vindictive. If a man 
offend you, you are ready to aggravate the fault, and to take revenge, &c. 
' But my thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor my ways as your ways,' 
saith the Lord ; ' for as far as the heaven is above the earth, so are my 
thoughts above your thoughts, and my w^ays above yom'ways,' Ps. ciii. 11. 
We have narrow, poor thoughts of mercy, because we ourselves are given 
to revenge, and we are ready, when we think of our sins, to say, Can 
God forgive them ? can God be merciful to such ? &c. ' My thoughts 
are not as your thoughts, nor my ways as your ways.' 

It is good to consider this, and it is a sweet meditation ; for the time 
undoubtedly will come, that unless God's mercy and God's thoughts should 
be, as himself is, infinite, unless his ways should be infinitely above our 
ways, and his thoughts infinitely above ours in mercy, certainly the soul 
would receive no comfort. 

The soul of a Christian acquainted with the word of God knows that 
God's mercy is, as himself is, infinite, and his thoughts this w^ay are, as 
himself is, infiaiite. Therefore the Scripture sets down the mercies of 
God by all dimensions. There is the depth of wisdom, but when he 
comes to speak of love and mercy, as it is in Eph. iii. 18, ' Oh, the depth, 
and breadth, and height of this ! ' 

Indeed, for height, it is higher than the heavens ; for depth, it fetcheth 
the soul from the nethermost deep. We have deep misery, ' Out of the 
deep I cried to thee,' Ps. cxxx. 1 ; yet notwithstanding, his mercy is 
deeper than our misery. the depth of his mercy ! There is a depth 
of mercy deeper than any misery or rebellion of ours, though we have 
sunk deep in rebellion. And for the extent of them, as I said before, 
' his mercy is over all his works,' Ps. cxlv. 9. It extends to the utmost 
parts of the earth. The Scripture doth wonderfully enlarge his mercy be- 
yond all dimensions whatsoever. These things are to good purpose ; and 
it is a mercy to us that he sets forth himself in mercy in his word, because 
the soul, sometime or other when it is awakened, as every one that God de- 
lights in is awakened, first or last, it needs all that is, it is all little enough. 

God is merciful to those that are heavy laden, that feel the burden of their 
sins upon their souls. Such as are touched with the sense of their sins, 
God still meets them half-way. He is more ready to pardon than they are 
to ask mercy. As we see in the prodigal, when he had wasted all, when 
he was as low as a man could be, when he was come to husks, and when 
he had despised his father's admonition, yet upon resolution to return, when 
he was stung with the sense of his sins, his father meets him and entertains 
him ; he upbraids him not with his sin, Luke xv. 20, seq. 

Take sin, with all the aggravations we can, yet if we repent and resolve 
upon new courses, there is comfort, though we relapse into sin again and 
again. If we must pardon ten times seven-times, as Christ saith, Luke 
xvii. 4,* certainly there cannot be more mercy in the cistern than there is 

* "With reference to a former note (vol. I. page 231), Sibbes's phrase should have 
been printed ' seventy seven-times.' The question to our Lord was, ' till seven- 
times ? ' ' Yes,' he replied, ' till seventy seven-times,' which is = seventy times 
seven. Sibbes's quotation above is a slip. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 37 

in the fountain ; there cannot be more mercy in us than there is in the 
' Father of mercies,' as God is. 

Take sin in the aggravations, in the greatness of it, Manassch's sm, 
Peter's denying of his Master, the thief on the cross, and Paul's persecu- 
tion ! Take sin as gi'eat as you will, he is the ' Father of mercies.' If we 
consider that God is infinite in mercy, and that the Scripture reveals him 
as the ' Father of mercies,' there is no question but there is abundance, a 
world of comfort to any disti'essed soul that is ready to cast itself on God's 

mercy. t n j 

Use 2. Fo7- those that are converted, that are in the state of grace — Is God 
' the Father of mercies ?' let this stir ?*s nj) to embrace mercy, every day to 
live by mercy, to 'plead mercy ivith God in our daily breaches ; to love and fear 
God, because there is mercy with him that ' he might bo feared,' Ps.cxxx. 4. 
It is a harder matter to make a daily sweet use of this than it is taken 
for. Those that are the fittest subjects for mercy, they think themselves 
furthest off from mercy. Come to a broken soul, who is catched in the 
snare ; whose conscience is on the rack, he thmks, alas ! there is no mercy 
for me ! I have been such a sinner, God hath shewed me mercy before, and 
now I have offended him again and again. Those that are the subjects of 
mercy, that are the nearest to mercy, when their conscience is awakened, 
they think themselves fm-thest off, and we have need to press abundance of 
mercy, and all little enough to set the soul in frame. There is none of us 
all, but we shall see a necessity of pressmg this one time or other, before 
we die. David when he had sinned, he knew well enough that God was 
merciful. Oh, but it was not a slight mercy that would satisfy him, as we 
see, Ps. U., how he prcsseth upon God for mercy, and will a httle serve 
him? No! 'according to thy abundant mercy,' ver. 1. He i^resseth 
mercy, and abundance of mercy, a multitude of mercies ; and unless he had 
seen infinite mercy, abundant mercy in God, when his conscience was 
awaked with the fouhiess of his sin (there being such a cry for vengeance, 
his sin caUed and cried) ; if the blood of Christ had not cried above it, 
' Mercy, mercy,' and abundance of mercy, multitudes of compassion, the 
soul of Da^-id would not have been stilled. 

So other saints of God, when they have considered the fouhiess of sni, 
how odious it is to God, they could not be quieted and comforted, but that 
they saw mercy, and abundance of mercy. As the apostle St Peter saith, 
' Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, of his abundant 
mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, to an inheritance, immortal,' &c., 1 Pet. i. 3. 

' God is the Father of mercies.' For faith will not have sufficient footmg, 
but in infinite mercy. In the tune of despair, in the time of torment of 
conscience, in the time of desertion, it must be mercy, and ' the Father of 
mercies,' and multitudes of compassions, and bowels of love ; and all little 
enough for faith to fix on, the faith of a conscience on the rack. But when 
faithlionsiders of God set out— not as Satan sets him forth, a God of ven- 
geance, a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29,— when faith considers God pictured 
out in the gospel, it sees him the Father of Christ and our Father, and the 
Father of mercies and God of comfort, faith seeing infinite mercy m an 
infinite God ; and secirg mercy triumph against justice, and all other attri- 
butes, here faith hath some footing, and stays itself, or else the converted, 
sanctified soul, seeing the odiousness of sin, and the clamorousness of sm, such 
that it will not be satisfied, but with abundant mercy ; and God must be pre- 
sented to it as a ' Father of mercy ' and compassion, before it can have peace. 



38 COMMENTARY ON 

Therefore, if so be at any time our conscience be awakened, and tbe 
devil lays hard to us, let us think of God as he hath made himself known 
in his word, as a ' Father of mercies and God of comfort,' represent him to 
our souls, as he represents himself in his word. Times of desertion, when 
we seem to be forsaken of God, will enforce this. Times of desertion will 
come, when the soul will think God hath forgotten to be merciful, and hath 
shut up his love in displeasure. Oh, no ! he is the Father of mercy, he 
never shuts up his bowels altogether, he never stops the spring of his mercy. 
He doth to our feeling, but it is his mercy that he doth that ; it is his mercy 
that he hinders the sense of mercy. He doth that in mercy. It is to make 
us more capable of mercy afterward. 

Therefore, saith the Father, when he comes to us in his love, and the 
sense of it, it is for our good ; and when he takes the sense of his love from 
us, it is for our good. For when he takes away the sense of his love fi'om 
us, it is to enlarge our souls to be more capable of mercy after, to prize it 
more, to walk warily, and jealously, to look to our corruptions better. 
Therefore in the time of desertion think of this, when God seems to forget 
us. ' Can a mother forget her child?' Isa. xlix. 15. Suppose she should 
be so u^nnatural as to do it, which can hardly be believed, that a mother 
should forget her child, ' Yet not^\'ithstanding I mil not forget you ; ' you 
are ' written upon the palms of my hands,' ver. 16, that is, I have you 
alway in my eye. So that if there were no mercies to be found in nature, 
no bowels to be found in a mother (where usually they are most abundant), 
yet notwithstanding there is mercy to be found in ' the Father of mercies ' 
still. Therefore in such times let us make use of this. 

And another thing that we ought to learn hence is this, if God be so in 
Christ Jesus, for we must alway put that in, for he is merciful with satis- 
faction. And yet it is his mercy that he would admit of satisfaction. His 
mercy devised a way to content justice. His mercy set all on work. Mercy 
is above justice in the work of salvation. Justice hath received content- 
ment from mercy. But that by the way, to make us have higher thoughts 
of mercy, than any other attribute of God in the doctrine of the gospel, in 
that kingdom of Christ. It is a kingdom of grace and mercy, if we have 
hearts to embrace it. 

Let this encourage us to come to God, and to cast ourselves into the 
arms of this merciful Father. If we have lived in other courses before, let 
the mercy of God work upon our souls. In Rom. ii. 4, it is pressed there 
excellently. ' This mercy of God should lead us to repentance,' it should 
encourage us. What makes a thief or a traitor come in, when there is pro- 
clamation out against him ? If there be a pardon sent after him, it makes 
him come in, or else he runs out still further and further, while the hue and 
ciy pursues him. But hope of mercy and pardon will bring him in again. 
So it is that that brings us in again to God, the very hope of mercy and 
pardon. If we be never so ill, or have been never so ill, do not put off, but 
take this day now; * Now is the time,' now, * while it is called to-day,' Ps. 
xcv. 7, 8, take the present time. Here is our error, if God be ' the Father 
of mercy,' I will cry him mercy at the hour of death. Aye, thou mayest go 
to hell with mercy in thy mouth. He is merciful to those that truly repent. 
But how dost thou know that thy repentance on thy deathbed will be true ? 
It is not soiTow for sickness, and grief for death, and fear of that. But 
there must be a hatred of sin. And how shall conscience tell thee now thou 
hast repented, that it is a hating of thy sinful courses, rather than the fear 
of damnation ? that is rather from the sense of grief. Conscience will 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VKR. 3. 39 

hardly be comforted ia this, for it will upbraid. Aye, now, now j'ou would 
have mercy. 

We see by many that have recovered again, that have promised great 
matters in their sickness, that it is hypocritical repentance, for they have 
been worse after than they were before (f^). It is not a sufficient matter to 
yield thee comfort, that thou art much humbled in thy sickness, and at the 
hour of death ; for it is hard for thee to determine whether it be true repent- 
ance, or mere sorrow for sin as it brings judgment. Fear of damnation is 
not sufficient to bring a man to heaven. Thy nature must be changed 
before thou come to heaven. Thou must love righteousness because it is 
righteousness. Thou must love God because he is good. Thou must hate 
sin because it is sin. 

How canst thou tell, when thou hast been naught before affliction, whe- 
ther affliction have wrought this, that thou repentest only out of hatred of 
judgment, to shun that, or out of hatred of sin, because it is sm "? There- 
fore now a httle repentance in thy health, and in the enjoying of thy pro- 
sperity, a little hatred of ill ways now, will more comfort thee than a 
thousand times more prayer and striving wiU then. Although, if thou canst 
do it truly then, yet the gate of mercy is open, but thy heart vvdll scarce 
say it is truly done, because it is forced. 

Then, again, perhaps thou shalt not have the honour of it, thou shalt 
not have the mercy. Thou that hast refused m^rcy, and lived in a loose, 
profane course, thou that hast despised mercy all the while, God will not 
honour thee so much as to have a good word, or a sorrowful word, that 
even very grief shall not extort it from thee. But as thou hast forgotten God 
in thy life, and wouldst not own his admonitions, thou shalt forget thyself 
in death, and be taken away suddenly, or else with some violent disease 
that shall take away the use of the parts that God hath given thee, as in- 
flammation of the spu-its, or the like, that shall take away the use of sound 
reason. It is madness, and no better, to live as the most hve, to cry God 
is merciful, &c. Thou mayest go to hell for all that. Repentance must be 
from a true hatred of sin ; and that that must comfort thee, must be a dis- 
position for the present, for then it is unforced. 

Therefore all these sweet comforts are to you that come in and leave 
your wicked courses. If you have been swearers, to swear no more ; if 
you have been deceivers, to deceive no more ; if you have been licentious, 
to be so no more, but to break off the course of your sins as God shall 
enable you. Or else this one thing, think of it, that you now daub your 
conscience withal, and go on in sin with that, will be most terror to you, 
even mercy. Nothing will vex you so much as mercy afterward. Then thou 
shalt think with thyself, I have heard comfortable [tidings] of the promises, 
and of the nature of God, but I put off and despised all, I regarded my 
sinful courses more than the mercy of God in Chiist, they were sweeter 
to me than mercy. I Uved in sins, out of the abundance of profaneness 
that did me no good ; I lived in sins, out of the superfluity of profaneness 
that I had neither profit nor pleasure by, and neglected mercy. The con- 
sideration of mercy neglected, with the continuing in a wretched com-se, it 
will more aggravate the soul's torment. 

Let us be encouraged to come in. Such as intend to leave their sinful 
courses, let them remember that then they come to a Father of mercy that 
is more ready to pardon than you are to ask it, as you see in the prodigal 
son, which I instanced in before ; it is a notable, sweet story. I have a 
Father, saith he, when he had spent all, and was come to husks, Luke 



40 COMMENTARY ON 

XV. 16. Affliction is a notable means to naake us to taste and relish 
mercy. I have a Father, and there is plenty in his house ; and he 
comes and confesseth his sin. He had no sooner resolved, but his Father, 
he doth not stay for him, but he meets him, and kisseth him, Luke xv. 
20, seq. 

Let us consider of this description of Grod, the Father of mercy. It should 
move any that are in ill and lewd courses before, ' In my Father's house 
there are good things,' and in his heart there are bowels of mercy. I have 
a Father, and a Father of mercy. I will go home, and submit myself to 
him, and say to him, I have been thus and thus, but I will be so no 
more. You shall find that God, by his Spirit, will be readier to meet you 
than you are to cast yourselves at the feet of his mercy, and into the arms 
of his mercy. He will come and meet you, and kiss you. You shall find 
much comfort upon your resolution to come in, if it be a sound resolution. 

The son fears his father's displeasure ; but saith the father, ' My thoughts 
are not as your thoughts.' Oh ! I fear he will not receive me ! Yes, yes, 
he is willing to embrace you. Mercy pleaseth him ; ' and why will you 
perish, house of Israel?' Jer. xxvii. 13. 

Again, ' God is the Father of mercies ' This should stir us up to an 
imitation of this our gracious Father ; for every father begets to his own 
likeness, and all the sons of this Father are like the Father, They are 
merciful. * The kings of Israel are merciful kings,' 1 Kings xx. 31, saith 
the heathen king Benhadad ; and the God of Israel is a merciful God, and 
all that are under God are merciful. His sons are ' merciful as their hea- 
venly Father is merciful, Luke vi. 36. Therefore, if we would make it 
good to our own hearts, and the opinion and judgment of others of us, that 
we are children of this merciful Father, we must put on bowels of mercy 
om-selves as in Col. iii. 12, ' Now, therefore, as the elect of God,' as you 
will make it good that God hath elected you, ' put on the bowels of mercy.' 
Whatsoever we have from God, it comes in the respect of a mercy, and so 
it should do from God's children. Everything that comes from them to 
them that are in misery, it should be a mercy. They should not only be- 
stow the thing, but a sweet mercy with the thing. A child of God he 
pours out his bowels to his brother, as Isaiah saith, ' Pour out thy bowels,' 
&c., Isa. Ixiii. 15. There is some bowels, that is, there is an afiection in 
God's children. They give not only the thing, the relief, but mercy with 
it, that hath a sweet report to the soul. There is pity, that more comforts 
a sanctified soul than the thing itself. We must not do works of mercy 
proudly (r/). It is not the thing that God stands on, but the afiection in 
the thing. His benefits are with a fatherly pity. So should ours be with 
a pitiful respect, with a tender heart. ' The veiy mercies of the wicked 
are cruel,' Prov. xii. 10. If they be merciful, there is some pride of spirit, 
there is some taste of a hard heart, of an hypocritical spirit. Somewhat is 
not as it should be. Their mercies are not mercies. We must in our 
mercy imitate the Father of mercies. 

Alas ! it is the fault of our time. There is little mercy to those that are 
in misery. What a cruel thing is it that so many, I would I could say 
Christian souls, I cannot say so, but they are a company of men that have 
the image of God upon them, men that live miserable poor, such as, for 
aught I know, God's mercy hath purchased with the blood of his Son, and 
may belong to God's kingdom. They have the image of God upon them, yet 
they live without laws, without church, without commonwealth, irregular 
persons, that have no order taken for them, or not executed at the least, to 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I. VER. 3. 41 

repress the sturdy of them, and to relieve those that are to be relieved for 
age or impotency (r/*). 

It is a pitiful thing and a foul blemish to this commonwealth, and will 
bring some ill upon wealth, and plague it from such irregular persons. He 
will plague the commonwealth for such enormities. How do they live ? 
As beasts, and worse. They submit themselves to no orders of the church. 
They have none, and submit to none. Here is an object of mercy to those 
that it concerns. 

And likewise, mercy ought to be shewed to the souls of men, as well as 
to their miserable and wretched estates. Is popery antichristian ? What 
mercy is it to suffer poisoners ? What a mercy were it in a commonwealth 
to suffer men that are incendiaries to have liberty to do what mischief they 
would ? or men that should poison fountains, and all that should refi'esh and 
nourish men ? Were this any policy for the body ? And is it any policy 
to suffer those to poison the judgments of people with heresies to God, and 
treason to their prince ? to draw the affections of men from religion and 
the state, where is merc}^ all the while ? 

Oh ! is it a mercy to them not to restrain them ? Mercy ! Is it mercy 
to the sheep to let the wolves at liberty ? No. If you will be merciful, to 
shew mercy to the souls of these men is to use them hardly, that they may 
know their error. They may now impute the liberty they have to the ap- 
probation of their cause ; and so they are cruel, not only to others, but to 
their own souls. 

I speak this the rather, [that] it may be a seasonable speech at this time, to 
enforce good laws this way. It is a great mercy. Mercy to the soul, it is 
the greatest mercy ; and so cruelty to the soul is the greatest cruelty that 
can be. 

What should I speak of mercy to others ? Oh, that we would be merci- 
ful to our own souls ! God is merciful to our souls. He sent his Son to 
' visit us from on high,' in bowels of compassion. He sent Christ, as 
Zacharias saith, Luke i. 68, and yet we are not merciful to ourselves. How 
many sinful, wretched persons pierce their hearts through with covetous- 
ness, and other wicked courses, that are more dangerous to the soul than 
poison is to the body ! They stab their souls with cares, and lusts, and 
other such kind of courses. What a mockery is this of God, to ask him 
mercy, when wo will not be merciful to our own souls ! and to entreat 
others to pray for us, when we will not be merciful to ourselves ! Shall 
we go to God for mercy, when we will not shew mercy to ourselves ? Shall 
we desire him to spare us, when we will not spare ourselves ? It is a 
mocking of God to come and offer our devotions here, and come with an 
intent yet to live in any sin. God will not hear us, if we purpose to live 
in sin. ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear my prayer,' 
Ps. Ixvi. 18. As we ought to be merciful to the souls of others, and to 
the estates of others, so we should to our own souls. 

How can they reform evils abroad, those that are governors, when they 
do not care to reform themselves ? Can they be merciful to the souls of 
others, that are cruel to their own ? They cannot. Let mercy begin at 
home. 

This is that that the Scripture aims at. Mercy and the right use of it, 
is the way to come to salvation ; and the abuse of it is that that damns ; 
and they are damned most that abuse mercy. Oh, the sins against the 
gospel will lie upon the conscience another day. The sins against the law, 
they help, with the gospel, to see mercy ; but sins against mercy prefer 



42 COMMENTARY ON 

our sins above mercy ; and in temptations to despair, to extenuate mercy, 
hereafter it will be the veiy hell of hell, that we have sinned against mercy, 
that we have not embraced it with faith, that we have not repented to be 
capable of it. 

Use 8. But to end the point with that which is the most proper use of 
all, which is an use of comfort in all estates, to go to God in all. ' He is the 
Father of mercy.' And when all is taken from us in losses and crosses, to 
think, well, our fathers may die, and our mothers may die, and our nearest 
and dearest friends that have most bowels of pity, may die ; but we have a 
Father of mercy, that hath eternal mercy in him. His mercies are tender 
mercies, and everlasting mercies, as himself is. We are everlasting. Our 
souls are immortal. We have an everlasting Father, that is the ' Father 
of mercies.' When all are taken away, God takes not himself away. He 
is the Father of mercy still. 

Now that we may make ourselves still capable of mercy, still fit for 
mercy, let us take this daily course. 

1. Let us labour every day, to have broken and deep soids. As I said 
before, it is the broken heart that is the vessel that contains mercy, a 
deeper heart that holds all the mercy. We need, therefore, to empty our- 
selves by confession of our sins, and search our own thoughts and ways, 
and afflict our souls by repentance ; and when* we shall be fit objects for 
God the Father of mercy to shed mercy into misery. It is the loadstone 
of mercy, misery left discerned and complained of. Let us search and see 
our misery, our spiritual misery especially ; for God begins mercy to the 
soul in his children, he begins mercy there especially. General mercy he 
shews to beasts, to all creatures ; but special mercy begins at the soul. 
Now, I say, misery being the loadstone of mercy, let us lay before God by 
confession and humiliation, the sores and sins of our souls. And then 
make use of this mercy every day ; for God is not only merciful in 
pardoning mercy at the first, in forgiving our sins at the first, but every 
day he is ready to pardon new sins, as it is Lam. iii. 23, ' He renews 
his mercies every day, every morning.' God renews his mercies not only 
for body, but for soul. There is a throne of grace and mercy every day 
open to go to, and a sceptre of mercy held out every day to lay hold on, 
and a ' fountain for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in every day,' Zech. 
xiii. 1. It is never stopped up, or drawn dry. The fountain is ever open, 
the sceptre is ever held forth, and the throne is ever kept, 

God keeps not terms. Now the Com't of Chancery is open, and now it 
is shut. But he keeps court every day. Therefore Christ in the gospel 
enjoins us to go to God every day. Eveiy day we say the Lord's prayer, 

* forgive us our trespasses,' Luke xi. 4, insinuating that the court of mercy 
is kept every day to take out our pardon. Every day there is a pardon of 
course taken out, ' at what time soever a sinner repents,' &c., 1 Kings viii. 
38, seq. 

QiLest. How shall we improve this mercy every day ? 

Alls. 1. Do this ; when thou hast made a breach in thy conscience, every 
day believe this, that God is ' the Father of mercies,' and he may well be 
merciful now, because he hath been sufficiently satisfied by the death of 
Christ. ' He is the Father of Christ, and the Father of mercies.' This do 
every day. 

2. And withal consider our condition and estate is a state of dependence. 

• In him we live and move and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28. This will 

* Qu. ' then ? '—Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VKK, 3. 43 

force us to mercy, that he would hold us in the same estate we are in, and 
go on with the work of gi-ace, that he would uphold us in health, for that 
depends upon him ; that he would uphold us in peace, for that depends 
upon him : he is ' the God of peace,' 1 Cor. xiv. 33, that he would uphold 
us in comfort and strength, to do good and resist evil. We are in a 
dependent state and condition in all good of hody and soul. He upholds 
the whole world, and every particular. Let him take away his hand of 
merciful protection and sustaining fi'om us, and we sink presently. 

3. And every day consider how we are environed with any danger. 
Remember, we have compassing mercies, as we have compassing dangers, 
as it is, ' Mercy compasseth us round about,' Ps. xxxii. 10. Every day, 
indeed, we have need of mercy. That is the way to have mercy. Here is 
a fountain of mercy, ' the Father of mercy,' bowels opened. The only way 
to use it is to see what need we have of mercy, and to fly to God ; to see 
what need we have in our souls, and in regard of outward estate, and to 
see that our condition is a dependent condition. 

Use 4. And lastly, to make a uae of thankfuluess, ' Blessed be God, the 
Father of mercy,' we have the mercy of jiuhlic contintted peace, u-hen others 
have ivar, and their estates are consumed. * Blessed be God, the Father of 
mercy, we sit under our own vines, and under our own fig-trees,' Micah 
iv. 4. K we have any personal mercies, ' Blessed be God, the Father of 
mercies,' this way. If he shew mercy to our souls, and pardon our sins, 
' Blessed be God, the Father of mercies,' in this kind ; that he hath taken 
us and redeemed us out of that cursed estate, that others walk in that are 
yet in their sins. Oh ! it is a mercy, and for this we should have enlarged 
hearts. 

And withal consider the fearful estate of others, that God doth not shew 
mercy to, and this will make us thankful. As for instance, if a man would 
be thanldul, that hath a pardon, let him see another executed, that is, 
broken upon the wheel or the rack, or cut in pieces and tortured, and then 
he will think, I was in the same estate as this man is, and I am pardoned. 
Oh ! what a gracious Sovereign have I ! The consideration of the fearful 
estate out of mercy, what a fearful estate those are in that live in sins 
against conscience, that they are ready to di'op into hell when God strikes 
them with death ; if they die so, what a fearful estate they are in ! and 
that God should give me pardon and grace to enter into another course of 
life ; that though I have not much grace, yet I know it is true I am the 
child of God ; the consideration of the misery of others, in part in this 
world without repentance, and especially what they shall sufier in hell ; 
to consider the torment of the souls that are not in the state of grace, 
this will make us thankful for mercies, for pardoning and forgiving 
mercies, for protecting mercies, that God hath left thousands in the 
course of nature, going on in a wilful course of sin. This is that that 
the apostle here practiseth. ' Blessed be God, the Father of mercies.' 
The other stj'le here is, 

' The God of all comfort.'' The life of a Christian is a mystery ; as in 
many respects, so in this, that whereas the flesh in him, though he be not 
altogether flesh, thinks him to be a man disconsolate, the spirit finds matter 
of comfort and glory. From whonce the world begins discouragement and 
the flesh upbraiding, from thence the Spirit of God in holy St Paul begins 
matter of glory. They thought him a man neglected of God, because he 
was afiiicted. No ! saith he, ' blessed be the God of all comfort.' Our 



44 COMMENTARY ON 

comforts ai"o above our discomforts. As the wisdom of the flesh is enmity 
to God and his Spirit in all things, so in this, in the judgment of the 
cross ; for that which is bitterest to the flesh is sweetest to the spirit. 
St Paul therefore opposeth his comforts spiritual to his disgraces outward ; 
and because it is unfit to mention any comfort, any good from God with- 
out blessing of him, that is the spring and fountain from whence we have 
all, he takes occasion, together with the mention of comfort, to bless God, 
' the God of all comfort.' 

The verse contains a wise prevention of scandal at the cross. St Paul 
was a man of sorrows if ever any was, next to Christ himself, and that [he] 
might prevent all scandal at his crosses, and disgraceful afilicted usage, he 
doth shew his comforts under the cross, which he would not have wanted 
to have been without his cross. Therefore he begins here with praising of 
God. 

We praise God for favours, and indeed the comforts he had in his crosses 
were more than the grievance he had by them ; therefore had cause to bless 
God ; ' Blessed be God,' &c. 

' The God of all comfort.' ' The God of comfort, and the God of all 
comfort.' We must give St Paul leave to be thus large, for his heart was 
full ; and a full heart, a full expression. And he speaks not out of books, 
but from sense and feeling. Though he knew well enough that ' God was 
the Father of mercy and God of all comfort,' that way ; yet these be words 
that come from the heart, come from feeling rather than from the tongue. 
They came not from St Paul's pen only. His pen was first dipped in his 
heart and soul when he wrote this. ' God is the Father of mercy, and God 
of all comfort.' I feel him so ; he comforts me in all tribulations. 

' The God of all comfort.' To explain the word a little. Comfort is 
either the thing itself, a comfortable outward thing, a blessing of God 
wherein comfort is hid, or else it is reasons ; because a man is an under- 
standing creature, reasons from which comfort is grounded ; or it is a real 
comfort, inward and spiritual, by the assistance and strength of the Spirit 
of God, when perhaps there is no outward thing to comfort. And perhaps 
reasons and discourse are not present at that time, yet there is a presence 
of the Spirit that comforts, as we see ofttimes a man is comforted with 
the very sight of his friend, without discourse. To a man endued with 
reason, whose discomforts are spiritual, for the most part, in the soul, the 
very presence of a man that he loves puts much delight into him. What 
is God then ? ' The God of comfort.' His very presence must needs 
comfort. Comfort is taken many other ways, but these are the principal, 
to this purpose. 

1. First, comfort is the thing itself. There is comfort in every creature of 
God, and God is the God of that comfort. In hunger, meat comforts ; in 
thirst, drink comforts ; in cold, garments comfort ; in want of advice, friends 
comfort, and it is a sweet comfort. ' God is the God of all comfort ; ' of 
the comfortable things. But besides the necessary things, every sense hath 
somewhat to comfort it. The eye, besides ordinary colours, hath delightful 
colours to behold ; and so the ear, besides ordinary noise and sounds, it 
hath music to delight it ; the smell, besides ordinary savours, it hath sweet 
flowers to refresh it ; and so every part of the body, besides that which is 
ordinary, it hath somewhat to comfort it. Because God is nothing but 
comfort to his creature, if it be as it should be, he is God of these com- 
forts, ' the God of all comfort,' of the comfort of outward things, of 
friends, &c. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, Y^U, 3. 45 

2. So he is the God of the second comfort, of comfortable reasons and 
arguments. For a man, especially in inward troubles, must have grounds 
of comfort from strong reasons. God ministereth these. He is the God of 
these. For he hath given us his Scriptures, his word ; and the comforts 
that are fetched from thence are strong ones, because they are his com- 
forts. It is his word. The word of a prince comforts, though he be not 
there to speak it. Though it be a letter, or by a messenger, yet he whose 
word it is, is one that is able to make his word good. He is Lord and 
Master of his word. The word of God is comfortable, and all the reasons 
that are in it, and that are deduced from it, upon good ground and conse- 
quence, they are comfortable, because it is God's word. He is the God of 
all. And those comforts in God's word, and reasons from thence, they are 
wonderful in the variety of them. There is comfort from the liberty of a 
Christian laid out there, that he hath free access to the throne of grace ; 
comfort from the prerogatives of a Christian, that he is the child of God, 
that he is justified, that he is the heir of heaven, and such like ; comforts 
from the promises of grace, of the presence of God, of assistance by his 
presence. These things out of the word of God are wondrous plentiful. 
Indeed, the word of God is a breast of comfort, as the prophet calls it : 
' Suck comfort out of the breasts of comfort,' Isa. Ixvi. 11. 

The books of God are breasts of comfort, wells of comfort. There are 
springs of comfort. 

God's word is a paradise, as it were. In paradise, there were sweet 
streams that ran through; and in paradise stirred the voice of God, not 
only calling, ' Adam, where art thou ? ' terrifying of him, but the voice of 
God promising Adam the blessed seed. Gen. iii. 9. 

So in the word of God, there is God rousing out of sin, and there is God 
speaking peace to the soul. There is a sweet current of mercy mns from 
the paradise of God ; and there is the ' tree of life,' Kev. ii. 7, Christ him- 
self, and trees of all manner of fruit, comforts of all sorts whatsoever. 
And there is no angel there, to keep the door and gate of paradise with a 
fieiy, flaming sword. No ! this paradise is open for all. And they are 
cruel tyrants that stop this paradise, that stop this fountain, as the papists 
do. As God is the God of comfort, so he is the God of comfoi-t in that 
respect. 

But this is not enough, to make him the God of comfort. We may have 
the word of God, and all the reasons from thence, from privileges and pre- 
rogatives, and examples, and yet not be comfortable, if 

3. We have not the God of comfort, with the word of comfort, the Spirit 
of God, that must apply the comfort to the soul, and be the God of com- 
fort there. 

For there must be application, and working of comfort out of God's word 
upon the soul, by the Spirit. The Spmt must set it on strongly and sweetly, 
that the soul may be affected. 

You may have a carnal man — he for fashion or custom reads the Scrip- 
tures, and he is as dead-hearted when he hath done as when he began. 
He never looks to the Spirit of comfort. There must be the Spirit of God, 
to work, and to apply comfort to the heart, and to teach us to discourse 
and to reason from the word ; not only to shew the reasons of the word, 
but to teach us to draw reasons from the word, and to apply them to our 
particular state and condition. The Spirit teachcth this wisdom. And 
therefore it is well called the Comforter. ' I will send you the Comforter,' 
John xiv. 26. The poor disciples had many comforts from Christ, but be- 



46 COMMENTARY ON 

cause the Comforter was not come, they were not comfortable, but hea\7'. 
What was the reason ? Because ' the Comforter was not come.' When 
the Holy Ghost was come, after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, 
when he had sent the Comforter, then they were so full of comfort, that 
they rejoiced that they * were thought worthy to suffer an3iihing for Christ,' 
Acts V. 41 ; and the more they suffered, the more joyful, and comfortable, 
and glorious they are. 

You see what a comfort is. It is the things themselves, and the word, 
and reasons from it, and likewise the Spirit of God with the reasons, and 
with pi'esence. Sometimes without any reasons, with present strength, 
God doth establish the soul. Together with reasons, there is a strengthen- 
ing power of the Spirit, a vigour that goes with the Spirit of God, that joins 
with the spirit of the afflicted person. So whether it be the outward 
thing, as reasons and discourse, or the presence of the Spirit, God joining 
with our spirit, God is the God of that comfort, the ' God of all cornfort.' 

A comfort is anything that allays a malady, that either takes it away, oi 
allays and mitigates it. A comfort is anything that raiseth up the soul. 
The comforts that we have in this life, they are not such as do altogether 
take away sorrow and grief, but they mitigate them. Comfort is that which 
is above a malady. It is such a remedy as is stronger to support the soul 
from being cast down over much with the grievance, whether it be grievance 
felt, that we are in the sense of such a grievance as is feared. When the 
soul apprehends anything, to set against the ill we fear that is stronger 
than it ; when the soul hath somewhat that it can set against the present 
sense of the grievance that is stronger than it, though it do not wholly ex- 
pel it, but the discomfort remains still in some degree, it may be said well 
to be a comfort. 

The reason why I speak of this mitigation is, because in this hfe God 
never so wholly comforts his children, but there will be flesh left in them ; 
and that will murmur, and there will be some resistance against comfort. 
While there are remainders of sin, there will be ground of discomfort, by 
reason of the conflict between the flesh and spirit. 

For instance, a man hath some cross on him : what saith the flesh ? God 
is mine enemy, and I will take such and such courses. I will not endure 
this. This is the voice of the flesh, of the ' old man.' What saith the 
spirit ? Surely God is not mine enemy. He intends my good by these 
things. So while these fight, here is the ' flesh against the spirit,' Gal. 
V. 17. Yet here is comfort, because the spirit is predominant. But it is 
not fully comfort, because there is the ' old man ' in him, that withstands 
comfort in the whole measure of comfort. 

Therefore we must take this degree. We cannot have the full comfort 
till we come to heaven. There all tears shall be wiped fi'om our eyes. In 
this world we must be content to have comfort with some grief. The malady 
is not wholly purged. 

Sometimes God removes the outward grievance more fully. God helps 
many times altogether, as in sickness to health perfectly. But I speak not 
of that. Comfort is that which is opposite to misery, and it must be 
stronger, for there is no prevailing but by a stronger. When the agent is 
not above the patient, there is no prevailing. There is a conflict till one 
have got the mastery. 

' The God of all comfort.' ' All,' that is, of all comfortable things, and 
of all divine reasons. It must be most substantial comfort. The soul in 
some maladies will not be comforted by philosophical reasons. Saith the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, ^'ER. 8. 47 

heathen, ' The disease is stronger than the physic,' ^hen he considers 
Plato's comforts and the like. So we may say of the reasons of philoso- 
phical men, Romanists, and moralists. When they come to terror ol con- 
science, when they come to inward grievances, inward stmgs that are m a 
man, from a man's conscience (as all discomforts usually when they press 
hard, it is with a guilty conscience), what can aU such reasons do .-' io 
say it is the state of other men, and it is in vain to munnur,^ and I know 
not what, such reasons as Seneca and Plato and others have, it wiU scarce 
still the conscience for a fit. They are ignorant of the root. Alas ! how 
can they tell the remedy, when they know not the ground of the malady ! 

It must be God, it must be his word, his trath. The conscience must 
know it to be God's truth, and then it mil comfort. God is the God ot 
comfort, of the things, and of the reasons. They must be his reasons. 

And he also is the author of that spiritual presence ; he is with his 
children. When ' they are in the fire, he goes with them into the water, 
as it is in Isa. xliii. 2. He is with them ' m the valley of death. Vs. 
xxiii. 4. They shall find God with them to comfort them. So there is a 
kind of presence with God's comforts, and a banishing of all discomfort. 

And this comfort is as large as the maladies, as large as the ills are. He 
is a God of comfort against everj^ particular iU. If there be diverse ills, 
he hath diverse comforts ; if they be long ills, he hath long comforts ; it 
there be strong iUs, he hath strong comforts ; if there be new ills, he hath 
new comforts. Take the ills in what extent and degree you wiU, God hath 
somewhat to set against them that is stronger than they, and that is the 
blessed estate of God's children. He is the ' God of all comfort. _ 

St Chrj'sostom, an excellent preacher, yields me one observation upon 
this very place {h). It is the wisdom of a Christian to see how God de- 
scribes himself, there bemg something in God answerable to whatsoever is 
iU in the world. The Spirit of God in the Scripture sets forth God fitting 
to the particular occasions. Speaking here of the misery and the disgi-ace- 
ful usage of St Paul, being taught by the Spii'it of God, he considereth God 
as a ' Father of mercies' and a ' God of comfort.' Speaking of the ven- 
geance on his enemies, the psahnist saith, * Thou God of vengeance, shew 
thyself,' Ps. xciv. 1. In God there is help for every malady. 

Therefore the wisdom of a Christian is to single out of God what is fat- 
tin» his present occasion. In crosses and miseries, think of him as a 
' Father of mercies ;' in discomforts, think of him as a ' God of comfort ; 
in perplexities and distress, think of him as a God of wisdom ; and oppres- 
sion of others, and difficulties which we cannot wade out of, think of him as 
a God and Father Almighty, as a God of vengeance ; and so every way to 
think of God appliable to the present occasion. And though many ol us 
have no gi'eat afiliction upon us for the present, yet we should lay up store 
against the evil day ; and therefore it is good to treasure up these descrip- 
tions of God, ' the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort.' 

To explain the word a little. What doth he mean by ' God ' in this place ? 
That he is the God of comfort, that hath a further comfort m it, m the 
very title that is called the God of comfort. In that he is called the God 
of comfort, it implies two things. 

1. Fu-st, it shews that he is a Creator of it ; that he can work it out ot 
what he will, out of nothmg. • i r i,i. + 

2. And then, that he can raise it out of the contrary, as he raised light out 
■ ot darkness in the creation, and in the government of this worid he raiseth 

his children out of misery. As he raised all out of nothing, order out ot 



48 COMMENTARY ON 

confusion, so in his church he is the God of comfort. He can raise com- 
fort out of nothing ; out of nothing that is hkely to yield comfort. Put the 
case that there be neither medicine, nor meat, nor drink, nor nothing to 
comfort us in this world, as we shall have none of these things in heaven, 
he is the God of comfort that shall supply all our wants. As he shall then 
be all in all, so in this world, when it is by the manifestation of his gloiy. 
When Moses was forty days in the mountain, he wanted outward comforts ; 
but he had the God of comfort with him, and he supplied the want of meat 
and drink and all other comforts, because he is the God of all comfort. In 
him are all comforts originally and fundamentally ; and if there be none, 
he can create and make them of nothing. 

God, as a God properly, makes something of nothing. That is to be 
a God ; for nothing but God can make something of nothing. Gods upon 
earth call men their creatures, in a kind of imitation of God ; but that is 
but a phrase that puffs them up. They are but gods in a kind of sense, and 
the other are but creatures in a kind of sense ; because, perhaps they have 
nothing in them, and in that sense, deservedly creatures. But it is proper 
to God, to make somewhat of nothing ; and so he is the ' God of comfort.' 
Where there is no comfort at all, he can raise comfort, as he made the 
world of nothing by his veiy word. 

And which is more, it is the property of God as God, it is peculiar to 
God to make comfort out of that which is contrary. Therein he shews 
himself most to be a God of all. He can raise comfort out of discomfort, 
life out of death. When Christ had been three days in the grave, he raised 
him. As it is with the head of comfort, with the head of believers, so it is 
with every particular Christian. He raiseth them out of death. Those that 
sow in sorrow, they reap in joy. What cannot he do that can raise com- 
fort out of discomfort ? and discomforts oftentimes are the occasions of the 
greatest comforts. Let a Christian go back to the former course of his 
life, and he shall find that the greatest crosses that ever he sufiered will 
yield him most comfort, and who did this ? Certainly it must be God, 
that can raise all out of nothing, and that can make comfort not only out 
of comfortable creatures that are ordained for comfort ; but he can draw 
honey out of the lion's belly. ' Out of the eater came meat, and out of the 
strong came sweetness,' saith Samson in his riddle. Judges xiv. 14. When 
a honeycomb shall come out of the lion's belly, certainly this is a miracle, 
this may well be a riddle. This is the riddle of Christianity, that God who 
is the God of comfort, he raiseth comforts out of our chiefest discomforts. 
He can create it out of that which is contrary. 

Therefore Luther's speech is very good, ' All things come from God to 
his church, especially in contraries ;' as he is righteousness, but it is in sin 
felt. He is comfort, but it is in misery. He is life, but it is in death. We 
must die before we live. Indeed, he is all, but it is in nothing, in the soul 
that feels itself to be nothing. There is the foundation for God to work 
on. Therefore the God of comfort can create comfort. If none be, he 
can make comfort. If the contrary be, he can raise contraries out of con- 
traries. He is the * God of all comfort.' Every word hath emphasis and 
strength in it. 

* The God of all comfort.' Amongst divers other things that flow from 
hence, mark the order. He is the ' God and Father of Christ' first, and then 
the ' Father of mercy,' and ' the God of comfort.' 

Take him out of this order, and think not of him as a God of comfort, 
but as a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. But take the method of the text, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 49 

now he is the ' God of comfort after he is the Father of Christ.' This being 
laid as a ground, the text itself as a doctrine, what subordinate truths arise 
hence ? 

First of all, if God be ' God of all comfort,' there is this conclusion hence ; 
that, whatsoever the means of comfort be, God is the spring of it. 

Christ is the conduit next to God ; for he is close to God. God is the 
God of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is usually the stream. The streams 
of comfort come through Chiist the conduit ; from God the Father, the 
fountain, by the graces of the Spirit. But I speak of outward comforts. 
' Blessed be God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' All are comforters ! 
God the Father is the father of comfort ; the Holy Ghost is the comforter ; 
Christ Jesus likewise is the God of comfort. Whatsoever the outward 
means be, yet God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the comforters. 
Take them together. That is tlie conclusion hence. 

I observe it the rather, to cure a disposition to atheism in -men that look 
brutishly to the thing. They look to the comfort, and never look to the 
comforter, even for outward comforts. Wicked men, their bellies are filled 
with the comforts of God, but it is with things that are comfortable, that 
are abstracted from the comforter. They care not for the root, the favour 
and mercy of God, So they have the thing, they care not. 

Therefore they are not thankful to God, nor in their wants, they go not 
to the God of comfort. Why ? They think they have supply enough, 
they have friends, they have riches, that ' are their stronghold,' Ps. 
Ixxxix. 40, and if they have outward necessaries to supply and comfort them, 
that is all they care for. As for the ' God of comfort,' they trouble not 
their hands-= wath him, 

A Christian, whatsoever the comfort be, if it be outward, he knows 
that the God of comfort sends it, and that is the reason he is so thankful 
for all outward comforts. If they be the necessaries for this life, in 
meat he tastes the comfort of God, in drink he tastes the comfort of God, 
in the ornaments of this life he tastes the comfort of God. It is God 
that heats him with fire, it is God that clothes him with garments, it ia 
God that feeds him with meat, it is God that refresheth his senses in these 
comforts. 

Therefore the heathen, out of their ignorance, they made every thing a 
god that was comfortable, out of which they received comfort. They made 
a god of the fire, and of the water. These are but instruments of the God 
of comfort, but the heathen made gods of them. A Christian doth not so, 
but he sees God in them, and drivesf these streams from the fountain, God 
is seen to be the God of comfort in them all. 

Again, considering that God is ' the God of all comfort,' this should teach 
us as thankfulness to God, so jjrayer in the want of any comfort, that he 
would both give the thing, and the comfort of the thing. We may have 
the thing and the wrath of God with it. But thou that art the God of 
comfort, vouchsafe the outward comforts to us, and vouchsafe comfort with 
them. Thou that art the God of every thing, and of the comfort of the 
thing, vouchsafe both. 

Again, if God be the God of all comfort whatsoever, then here is a 
gi'ound of divers other tniths ; as, for instance, that if we look for any com- 
fort from the things, or from reasons and discourse, or from God, we should 
go to God in the use of the thing, before the use, after the use, at all times. 
Before the use, that God would suggest, either by reading, or hearing, &c., 
* Qu. ' heads.' — Q. f Qu. 'derives?' == traces. — G. 

VOL. III. D 



50 COMMENTAKY OX 

reasons of comfort. lu the use, that he would settle and seal comfort to 
our souls. Lord, I hear many sweet things. I read many comfortable 
things. These would affect a stone almost ; yet unless thou set them on 
my soul, they will never comfort me. Thou art the God of comfort. The 
materials are from thee. But except with revelation and discovery thou 
join application, all will not comfort, unless with revelation and apphcation 
thou open my soul to join with these comforts. 

3. In the third place. There must be a dlscovenj and application, and an 
openi)ig of the sold to them. As there be divers flowers that open and shut 
with the sun, so the soul, by the Spirit of God, it opens to comforts. 
Though comforts be put close to the soul, if that do not open to them, 
there is no comfort given ; for all is in the application. There is a double 
application, of the thing to the soul, and of the soul to the thing. God 
must do all. 

Quest. What is the reason that many hear sermons, and read sweet dis- 
courses, and yet when they come to suffer crosses and afliictions they are to 
see ?* 

Ans. They go to the stream, they cut the conduits from the spring, they 
go not to the well head, they see not the derivation of comfort. It is neces- 
sary for the deriving of comfort to the soul, to take the scales from the eye 
of the soul. They see not the necessity of a divine presence to apply it, 
and to lay it close to the soul, and to open the soul, to join the soul to those 
comforts. ' God is the God of all comfort.' If anything will stir up devo- 
tion much to pray to God, undoubtedly this will be eftectual, that whatso- 
ever the comfort be, whether it be outward things or reasons and discourses 
whatsoever, we may go to God that he would give it. 

Well, this being so, if God be the ' God of aU comfort,' the well of com- 
fort, the Father of comfort, and hath remedies for every malady, then you 
see here whither to go. You see a Christian in all estates hath ground of 
comfort, for he is in covenant with the God of comfort. 

Quest. You will say to me, What is the reason that Christians are no more 
comfortable, having the ' God of comfort ' for their God ? 

Ans. I answer: 1. It is partly /ro»i ignorance. We have remainders of 
ignorance, that we know not our own comfort. Satan doth veil the eye of 
the soul in the time of trouble, that we cannot see that there is a well of 
comfort. Poor Hagar, when she was almost undone for thirst, yet she had 
a fountain of water near hand ; but she saw it not, she was so overtaken 
with grief. Gen. xxi. 15, seq. Ignorance and, 2, passion hinder the sight 
of comfort. When we give way so much to the present malady, as if there 
were no God of comfort in heaven, as if there were no Scripture that hath 
breasts of comfort, that is as full as a breast that is willing to discharge 
itself of comfort. As if there were no matter of comfort, they feed upon 
grief, and delight to flatter theirselves in grief, as Rachel, ' that mourned, 
and would not be comforted,' Mat. ii. 18. So out of a kind of ignorance, 
and passion, and wilfulness they will not be comforted. 

And again, 3, ar/gravatinfj the grievance. As Bildad saith, ' Are the 
comforts of God light to thee?' Job xv. 11. These are good words, but 
my discomforts are greater, my malady is greater. So the comforts of the 
Holy Ghost, the comforts of God's Spirit, seem light to them. Ignorance, 
and passion, and dwelling too much, makes us neglect comfort. It makes 
us to see comfort to be no comfort in a manner. Mary, when Christ was 
before her eyes, they were so blubbered with tears, with fear that her Lord 

* Qu. 'seek.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, XEH. 3. 51 

was lost, that she could not see him, even when he was before her, John 
XX. 15. So grief and passion hinder the soul so much from seeing God's 
comforts, that we see them not when they are before us, when they are 
present. So men are guilty of their own discomfort. It is their own fault. 

4. Again, ofttimes forgetfulness. As the apostle saith, ' Have ye for- 
gotten the consolation that speaks?' Heb. xii. 5. Have ye forgotten that 
every son that God chastiseth not is a bastard ? Have ye forgotten ? 
Insinuating that, if they had remembered this, it would have comforted 
them. ' Have ye forgotten ? ' 

5. And then one especial cause is, that I spake of before, the looking to 
things present, forgetting the spring, the well-head of comfort, God himself; 
the looking too much to the means. Oh ! say some, if they be in distress, 
if I had such a book, if I had such a man to comfort me, certainly it would 
be otherwise with me, I should be better than I am. Put case he were 
with thee, alas ! he is not at the spring ! It is the God of comfort that 
must comfort thee, man, in all thy distresses whatsoever. Therefore if thou 
attribute not more to God than to the creature, nay, than to an angel, if 
he were to comfort thee, thou shalt find no comfort. ' I, even I, am he 
that comforts thee,' Isa. li. 12. I am he that pardons thy sins, which is 
the cause of all discomfort. That is comfort ! That is the sting of all. 
' I am he that pardons thy sins.' 

We, as criers, may speak pardon to the soul ; but God must give it. 
We may speak comfort, but God must give it. He must say to the soul, 
* I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. When men idolise any discourse in 
books, or any particular man over much (though we may value those that 
are instrumental above others, there may be a difference of gifts, but), the 
resting too much in the creature, it is an enemy to comfort ; and some 
grow to that wilfulness in that kind, that they will neglect all because they 
have not that they would have, whereas if they would look to God, meaner 
means would serve the tm-n ofttimes, if they would go to the God of 
comfort. 



YERSE 4. 

* Who comforteth us in all tribulation.' Afflictions and crosses, as they 
are irksome in suffering, so they are likewise disgraceful ; and as it 
was in the cross of Christ, there were* two things, torment and shame. 
The one he felt himself, the other he had from others ; those two. Dis- 
grace is proper to the cross. So it is in all the crosses that we suffer, 
i,her is some disgi-ace with it. Therefore St Paul, to prevent the scandal 
and disgrace of the cross, as I said before, he doth here begin with prais- 
ing God even for crosses in the midst of them. * Blessed be God, the 
Father of mercies, the God of all comfort ; who comforteth us in all tribu- 
lations,' &c. 

' Who comforteth us in all tribulation.' These words contain a making 
good of the former title, 'He is a God of comfort, and doth comfort; he 
is good, and doth good.' He fills up his name by his works. He shews 
what he is. The Scripture doth especially describe God, not in all things 
as he is in himself; but as he is, and works to his poor church. And 
they are useful terms, all of them. He is ' the Father of mercy,' be- 
cause he is so to his chui'ch. He is the ' God of comfort,' because he 
* Misprinted 'was.'— G. 



52 COMMENTARY ON 

is SO to bis people. Therefore be saith here, as be is ' the God of 
comfort ; ' so be doth comfort us in all tribulation. He doth not say, who 
keeps us out of misery. Blessed be the God of comfort, that never suffers 
us to faU into discomfort ! No ! but ' blessed be the God of comfort, that 
comforts us in all tribulation.' It is more to raise good out of evil, than 
not to suffer evil to be at all. It shews gi'eater power, it manifests greater 
goodness, to triumph over ill, when it [is] suffered to be, and so not to 
keep ill from us, but to comfort us in it. 

He doth not say for the time past, which bath comforted us, or which 
can comfort us if it please him. No ! He doth it. It is bis use.* He 
doth it alway. It springs from bis love. He never at any instant or 
moment of time forgets bis children. And he saith not, he doth comfort 
us in one or two, or a few tribulations ; but be comfortetb us in ' all tribu- 
lations,' of what kind or degree soever. 

Obj. It may be objected, to clear the sense a little, he doth not alway 
comfort : for then there could be no time of discomfort. 

A71S. I answer: He doth alway comfort in some degree ; for take a Chris- 
tian at the lowest, yet he hath so much comfort as to keep him from sinking, 
"When be is at the depth of miseiy, there is a depth of mei'cy lower than be. 
' Out of the deep have I cried unto thee, Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1 ; and this is a 
comfort that be bath in the midst of discomforts, that be hath a spirit of 
prayer ; and if not a spirit of prayer, yet a spirit of sighing and groaning 
to God, and God hears the sighs and groans of his own Spu'it in his chil- 
dren. When they cannot distinctly pray, there is a spirit to look up to 
God. ' Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee,' saith Job, Job xiii. 
15, in the midst of his miseries. So though God, more notoriously to the 
view of the world, sometime doth comfort before we come to trouble, that 
we may bear it the better, and sometime he doth comfort more apparently 
after we come out ; yet notwithstanding, in the midst of discomforts, he 
doth alway comfort so far as that we sink not into despair. There is 
somewhat to uphold the soul. For when Solomon saith, ' A wounded 
spirit, who can bear ? ' Prov. xviii. 14 ; that is, none can bear it ; it is the 
greatest grief. Then I would know, what keeps a wounded spirit from 
sinking that it doth not despair ? Is it not a spirit stronger than the 
wounded spirit? It isf not God that is greater than the wounded con- 
science ? Yes ! Then there is comfort greater than the discomfort of a 
wounded conscience, that keeps it from despair. Those that finally despair, 
they are none of God's. So that, take the words in what regard or in what 
sense you will, yet there is a sweet and comfortable sense of them, and the 
apostle might well say, he is the ' God of all comfort, that doth comfort us 
in all tribulation.' 

It is here a ground supposed, that God's children are subject to tribulation. 

We are subject here to tribulation of all kinds, for God comforts us in 
all our tribulations. We are here in a state, therefore, needing comfort, 
because we are in tribulation. 

And the second is that God doth answer our state. God doth comfort 
his children in all tribulation. 

And the ground is from himself. ' He is the God of comfort.' He doth 
but like himself, when be doth it. The God of comfort shews that be is 
BO, by comforting us in all tribulations. 

First, It is supposed that in this icorld we are in tribidations. 

Indeed, that I need not be long in. We must, at one time or other, be 
* That is, his ' wont.'— G. t Qu. ' is it? '—Ed. 



2 COKINTHlAiSS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 53 

in trilmlation, some or other. For though, in regard of outward afflictions, 
we are free from them sometimes, we have a few hoUdays, as we say ; yet 
notwithstanding, there is in the greatest enlargements of God's children in 
this world, somewhat that troubles thefr minds. For either there is some 
desertion, God withholds comfort from them in some measure, he shews 
himself a stranger, which humbles them much ; or else they have strong 
temptations of Satan, to sin by prosperity, &c., which grieves them as 
much as the outward cross ; or else their gi-ievance is, that they cannot 
serve God with that cheerftilness of spirit. Is there nothing, whoever thou 
art, that troubles thee as much as the cross in the day of affliction ? Cer- 
tainly there is somewhat or other that troubleth the soul of a Christian. 
He is never out of one grievance or other. 

The life of a Christian is as a web, that is woven of good and ill. He 
hath good days and ill days ; he hath tribulations and comforts. As St 
Austin saith very well, between these two, tribulation on om* part, and 
comfort on God's part, our life runs between these two. Our crosses and 
God's comforts, they are both mingled together. 

There is no child of God, but knows what these things mean, troubles 
either from friends or enemies, or both, domestical or personal, in body or 
mind, one way or other. That is supposed, and it were not an unproper 
argument to the text ; for when he saith ' in all tribulations,' it is laid as a 
ground that every man suffers tribulation one way or other. But I shall 
have fitter occasion after to enlarge this. 

Again we see here, that God comforts Ms children in all tribulation. 

And his comforts are answerable to their discomforts, and beyond them. 
They are stronger to master all opposites whatsoever, and all grievances. 
There could be no comfort else. Alas ! what are all discomforts, when 
God sets himself to comfort ? When he will be a God of comfort, one 
look, one glance of his fatherly countenance in Jesus Christ, will banish all 
terrors whatsoever, and make even a very dungeon to be a paradise. ' He 
comforteth us in all tribulation.' 

And this he doth, as you may perceive by the unfolding of the words, 
either by some outward thing applied to the outward want or cross, or by 
some inward reasons, that are opposite to the inward malady, or by an 
inward presence. His comforts are appliable to the tribulation, and to the 
strength, and length, and variety of it. We may know it by his course in 
this life. What misery are we subject to in this life ! but we have comfort 
fit for it ? So good is God. 

We may reason thus very well. If so be that in our pilgrimage here, in 
this life of ours, which is but the gallerj^, as it were, to heaven ; if in this 
short life, which is but a way or passage, we have, both day and night, so 
many comforts : in the very night, if we look up to heaven, we see what 
glorious things there are towards the earth here, on this side the heaven, the 
stars of the light,* &c. And if so be upon the earth there be such comforts, 
especially in the spring and summer time, if the very earth, the basest 
dregs of the world, yield such comfort and delights to all the senses, then a 
man may reason very strongly, what comforts shall we have at home ? If 
God by the creatures thus comforts us in our outward wants, what are the 
inward comforts of his Spirit here to his children ? and what are the last 
comforts of all, the comforts reserved at home, when God * shall be all in 
aU?' 1 Cor. XV. 28. 

Now there are some drops of comfort conveyed in smells, some in gar- 
* Qu. ' the light of the stars ? '—Ed. 



54 COMMENTABY ON 

ments, some in friends, some in diet ; here a drop, and there a drop. But 
when we shall have immediate communion there with the God of comfort 
himself, what comforts shall we have there ? God comforts us here, by 
providing for us, and giving us things that are comfortable. 

Or by giving reasons and grounds of comfort, which are stronger than 
the reasons and grounds of discomfort, reasons from the privileges and 
prerogative of Christians, &c. The Scripture is full of them. 

But likewise, which is the best of all, and most intended, the inward 
inspring of comfort, with the reasons and grounds, he inwardly conveys 
comforts to the soul, and strengtheneth and supports the soul. And he 
doth this not only by the application of the reasons, and the things that we 
understand, to the soul, but by opening the soul to embrace them. For 
sometime the soul may be in such a case as it may reject comfort, that 
' the consolation of the Almighty,' Job xv. 11, may seem light to it. 
Sometime there may be such a disposition of soul, that the chiefest com- 
forts in Scripture yield it no comfort. They are not embraced. The soul 
is shut to them. God provides reasons and grounds of comfort, and like- 
wise he applies these comforts by his Spirit to the soul, and he inwardly 
warms and opens the soul to embrace comfort. He opens the understand- 
ing to understand, and the will and affections to embrace, or else there will 
be no cflmfort. 

Many are like Rachel. Her children were gone, and it is said of her, 
' She would not be comforted,' Mat. ii. 18. God is the * God of comfort.' 
As he gives the matter and ground of comfort, and reasons out of his holy 
word above all discomforts ; so by his Spirit he frames and fits the heart 
to entertain these, to take the benefit of them, 

' He comforts us in all tribulation.' To comfort is to support the soul 
against the grievance past, or felt, or feared. 

There may be some remainders of grief for what is past. Grief present 
presseth most, and grief feared. Now God comforteth, whatsoever the 
grievance is, by supporting the soul against it, as I said before. 

"We are in tribulation in this life, and yet in all tribulations God doth 
comfort us. To add to that I said before of this point, let us therefore go 
to God in all the means of comfort, because he is the God of it, and he 
must comfort us. 

Therefore, when we send for divines, or read holy books, for we must 
use all means, we must not set God against his means, but join them to- 
gether : to add that caution by the way. 

We may not, therefore, necessitate the God of comfort, that because he 
comforts us, therefore we will neglect reading and prayer, and conference 
with them that God hath exercised in the school of Christ, who should 
speak comfort to the weary soul by their ofiice. 

No, no ! God and his means must he joined together. We must trust 
God, but not tempt him. To set God against his means is to tempt him ; 
that because he is the God of comfort, therefore we will use no means, no 
physician for the body or for the soul. This is absurd. He is the God of 
comfort in the means. He comforts us * in all tribulation,' by means, if 
they be to be had. 

K there be no means to be had, he is the God of comfort, he can create 
them ; and if it be so far that there be no means, but the contrary, he is a 
God that can comfort out of discomfort, and can, as I said, make the great- 
est grounds of comfort out of the greatest discomforts. But he is a God of 
the means, if they be to be had. K there be none, then let us go to him, 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 55 

and say, Thou God of comfort, if thou do not comfort, none can comfort ; 
if thou help not, none can help ; and then he will help, and help strongly. 
It is necessary to look to God, whatever the means be. It is he that com- 
forts by them. Therefore let him have the praise. If we have any friend, 
any comfort of the outward man, or any solace of the inward man, by 
seasonable speech, &c., blessed be the ' God of comfort' who hath sent this 
comforter ; who hath sent me comfort by such, and such, let him have the 
praise. Whatsoever the means be, the comfort is his. 

And that is the cause that many have no more comfort. They trust to 
the means over much, or neglect the means. 

Again, if ' God comfort in all tribulation,' let Christians be ashamed to 
be overmuch disconsolate, that have the ' God of comfort' for their God, 
' who comforteth in all tribulation.' ' Why art thou so cast down ?' Ps. 
xlii. 11. 'Is there no balm in Gilead for thee ? Jer. viii. 22. ' Is there 
not a God in Israel ?' 1 Sam. xvii. 46. It is the fault of Christians ; they pore 
too much on their troubles, they look all one way. They look to the 
grievance, and not to the comfort. 

There is a God of comfort that answers his name every way in the exer- 
cise of that attribute to his church. Therefore Christians must blame them- 
selves if they be too much cast down ; and laboui- for faith to draw near to 
this God of comfort. 

It should make them ashamed of themselves that think it even a duty, 
as it were, to walk drooping, and disconsolately, and deadly, to have flat and 
dead spirits. What ! is this beseeming a Christian that is in covenant 
with God, that is the ' God of comfort,' and that answers his title in deal- 
ing with his children, that is ready to comfort them in all tribulation ? 
What if particular comforts be taken from thee, is there not a God of com- 
fort left ? he hath not taken away himself. What if thou be restrained, and 
shut up from other comforts, can any shut up God's Spirit ? can any shut 
up God and our prayers ? 

Is not this a comfort, that we may go to God alway ? and he is with us 
in all estates and in all wants whatsoever ? So long as we are in covenant 
with the ' God of comfort,' why should we be overmuch cast down ?' ' Why 
art thou so troubled, my soul?' Ps. xlii. 11. David checks his soul 
thrice together for distrust in God. He is thy God, the God of all 
comfort. 

Qii£st. What course shall we take that we may derive to ourselves com- 
fort from this God of comfort, who comforteth us in all om* tribulations ? 

Ans. 1. Let us consider what our vmlachj and grievance is, especially let 
us look to our spiritual grievance and malady, sin : for sin is the cause of 
all other evils. Therefore it is the worst evil. And sin makes us loathed 
of God, the fountain of good. It drives us from him, when other evils 
drive us to him ; and therefore it is the worst evil in that sense too. 

2. Again, in the second place, look to the discomforts of sin, especially in 
the discomforts of conscience of those that are awakened ; and Satan useth 
that as a means to despair in every cross. 

(1.) Therefore let us search and try our souls for our sins; for our chief 
discomforts are from sin. For, alas ! what are all other comforts ? and 
what are all other discomforts ? If a man's conscience be quiet, what are 
all discomforts ? and if conscience be on the rack, what ai-e all comforts ? 
The disquiet and vexation of sin is the gi'eatest of all ; because then we 
have to deal with God. When sin is presented before us, and the judg- 
ments of God, and God as an angry judge, and conscience is awaked and 



56 COMMENTARY ON 

on the rack, ^Yllat in the world can take up the quarrel and appease con- 
science, when we and God are at difference, when the soul speaks nothing 
but discomfort ? 

In this case remember that God doth so far prevent objections in this 
kind from the accusations of conscience, that he reasons that he will com- 
fort us, from that that conscience reasons against comfort. He doth this 
in the hearts of his children to whom he means to shew mercy : as we see 
in the poor publican. ' Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,' saith he, Luke 
xviii. 13. God taught him that reasoning. Nature would have taught 
him to reason as Peter did, ' Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful man,' 
Luke V. 8, and therefore I have nothing to do with God. 

So our Saviour Christ, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy 
laden,' Mat. xi. 28. They think, of all people they ought to run from God, 
they are so laden with sin, they have nothing to do with God. ' Oh, come 
unto me,' saith Christ. Therefore, when thy conscience is awakened with 
the sense of sin, remember what is said in the gospel, ' Be of good comfort, 
he calleth thee,' Mark x. 49; be thou of good comfort, thou art one that 
Christ calls, ' Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden ;' and 
' Blessed are those that mourn,' Mat. v. 4. 

That which thou and the devil with thy conscience would move thee to 
use as an argument to run away, our Saviour Christ in the gospel useth as 
an argument to draw thee forward. He comes for such, ' to seek, and to 
save the lost sinners.' This is a faithful saying, saith St Paul, that ' Christ 
came to save sinners.' Therefore, believe not Satan. He presents God to 
the soul that is humbled, and terrified in the sight of sin, as cruel, as a ter- 
rible judge, &c. He hides the mercy of God from such. To men that are 
in a sinful course he shews nothing but mercy. Aye, but now there is 
nothing but comfort to thee that art cast down and afflicted in the sense of 
thy sins ; for all the comforts in the gospel of forgiveness of sins, and all 
the comforts from Christ's incarnation, the end of his coming in the flesh, 
the end of his death, and of all, is to save sinners. 

Look thou, therefore, to the throne of mercy and grace, when thy con- 
science shall be awakened with the sense of sin, and Satan shall use that as 
an argument to draw thee from God. Consider the Scripture useth this as 
an argument to drive me to God, to allure me to him. * Come unto me, 
all ye that are weary and heavy laden.' And ' Christ came to seek and to 
save that which was lost.' Luther, a man much exercised in spiritual con- 
flicts, he confessed this was the balm that did most refresh his soul, ' God 
hath shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all,' Rom. iii. 19. 
He shut up all under sin as prisoners, to see themselves under sin, and 
under the curse, that he might ' have mercy upon all ;' upon all those 
that are convinced with the sense and sight of their sins. He hath shut 
up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all those that belong 
to him. 

This raised up that blessed man. Therefore, let us not be much dis- 
comforted, but ' be of good comfort, Christ calls us.' 

For such as are sinners, that are given to the sins of the tongue, and of 
the life, to rotten discourse, to swearing and such like, to such as mean to 
be so, and think their case good. Oh ! God is ' the God of comfort !' To 
such, as I said before, I can speak no comfort, nor the word of God speaks 
none. They must have another word and another Scripture ; for this word 
speaks no comfort to such that are sinful and wretched, and will be so, and 
justify themselves to be so. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. -4. 57 

All the judgments in the Scripture are theirs. Hell and damnation and 
wrath, that is their portion to drink. 

We can speak no comfort to such, nor the word of God that we unfold. 
It hath not a drop of comfort for them, God will not be merciful to such 
as go on in wicked, rotten, scandalous courses, that because hell hath not 
yet taken them, they may live long, and so make a ' covenant with hell and 
death,' Isa. xxviii. 18, and bless themselves. 

Oh ! but thou hast made no covenant with God, nor he hath made none 
with thee ; and hell and death have made no covenant valh thee, though 
thou hast made one with them. But there are two words go to a covenant. 
Death and hell shall seize upon thee, notwithstanding thy covenant. 

Those that will live in sin in despite of the ministiy, in spite of afflic- 
tions, there is no comfort to such. I speak only to the broken heart, 
which are fit vessels for comfort. God is ' the God of comfort ' to such. 
What shall we say, then, to such as, after they have had some evidence 
of their good estate, that they are Christians, are fallen into sin? Is 
there any comfort for such ? 

Yes. Doth not St Paul, in 2 Cor. v. 20, desire such to be ' reconciled 
to God ? ' ' We are, as ambassadors of Christ, desiring you to be recon- 
ciled,' if you have sinned. So God hath comfort for those that have 
sinned. Christ knew that we should every day run into sins unawares. 
Therefore, he teaches us in the Lord's prayer to say every day, * Forgive 
us our debts, our trespasses,' Mat. vi. 12. There is ' balm in Gilead,' 
there is mercy in Israel, for such daily trespasses as we run into. 

Therefore, let none be discouraged, but fly presently to the ' God of 
comfort and Father of mercies.' And think not that he is weary of pardon- 
ing, as man is, for he is infinite in mercy ; and though he be the party 
offended, yet he desires peace with us. 

Caution. But yet, notwithstanding that we shall not love to run into his 
books, he doth, with giving the comfort of the pardon of sin, when we 
fall into it, add such sharp crosses, as we shall wish we had not given 
him occasion to correct us so sharply. We shall buy our comfort dear. 
We had better not have given him occasion. 

God forgave the sin of David after he had repented, though he were a 
good man before ; but David bought the pleasure of his sin dear. He 
wished a thousand times that he had never given occasion to God to 
raise good out of his evil, to turn his sin to his comfort. Yet God will 
do this, because God would never have us in a state of despair. 

2. For other grievances besides sin, the comforts that we are to apply 
are more easy, and they are infinite, if we could reckon the particular 
comforts that God comforts his children withal. 

It is good to have general comforts ready for all kind of maladies and 
grievances, and* this poor, wretched life of ours, in our absence from God, 
is subject to. 

(1.) As, for instance, that general comfort, the covenant of grace. That 
is a spring of comfort, that God is our God and Father in Christ. What 
can come from a gracious and good God in covenant with us but that 
which is good ? — nothing but what is favourably good, I mean. For the 
covenant is everlasting. When God takes once upon him to be our Father 
in covenant, he is so for ever. Bum. castigas pater, dc. While he cor- 
rects, he is a Father ; and when he smiles upon us, he is a Father. 

God in the covenant of grace takes upon him a relation that ever holds. 
* Qu. 'that?'— Ed. 



58 COMMENTARY ON 

As he is for ever the Father of Christ, so he is for ever the Father of those 
that are members of Christ ; and whatsoever comes from the Father of 
mercy, whether he correct or smile, whatsoever he doth, is in mercy. 

(2.) Again, in the midst of any grievance remember the gracious pro- 
mise of mitigation, 1 Cor. x. 13. * God will not suffer us to be tempted 
above our strength, but he will give an issue to the temptation.' He 
will give a mitigation, and either he will raise our strength to the tempta- 
tion, or he will bring the temptation and trial to our strength. He will fit 
them, and this is a comfort. 

(3.) There is comfort, likewise, in all troubles whatsoever, of the pre- 
sence of God. God will be present with us if once we be in covenant 
with him. He will be present in all trials to assist us, to strengthen us, 
to comfort us, to raise our spirits. And if God be present, he will banish 
all discomforts ; for God is light, and where light is, darkness vanisheth. 
Now God, being the Father of light, that is, of all comfort, where he is pre- 
sent he banisheth discomfort in what measure he is pleased to banish it. 
Therefore David often reasoneth from the presence of God to the de- 
fiance of all troubles, Ps. iii. 6, 'If God be with me, I will not fear ten 
thousand that are against me.' And in Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Though I walk in 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for thou art with me.' 
And ' if God be with us, who can be against us?' Rom. viii. 33, 34. * And 
when thou passest through the fire, I will be with thee,' &c., Isa. xHii. 2. 

1 will be with thee, not to keep thee out, but to uphold thee, as he did 
the martyrs. There was a fire of comfort in them above that fire that 
consumed their bodies ; and, as we see, he was with the three children. 
There was ' a fourth, like the Son of God,' Dan. iii. 25. 

So in all tribulations there is another with us, that is, the Spirit of God, 
that comforts us in all, and is present with us in all. The goldsmith, 
when he puts the wedge into the fire, he stands by till the dross be con- 
sumed. So God is with his children in the furnace of affliction. He 
brings them into affliction ; he continues with them in affliction ; and he 
brings them at last out of affliction. The presence of God is a main and 
a grand comfort in all tribulation. 

(4.) Besides, in all that befalls us whatsoever, consider the end. All is 
for a good end. ' All things work together for the best to them that love 
God,' saith St Paul, Pcom. viii. 28. Why do we endure physic ? Because 
we know the physician is wise, and he is our friend, and he doth it to carry 
away burdensome, hurtful humours. We shall be better and lighter after- 
wards. Do we do this in our common course in the things of this life ? 
Grace will much more certainly teach us to do it ; to reason. It is from 
a father, and it is for my good. Let us look whence it comes and what 
it tends to, with the promise of mitigation and of God's presence in our 
troubles. These are main comforts, if we could think of them, if the 
devil did not take them out of our memory. 

(5.) And for the fifth* ground of comfort that God doth comfort us 
withal in all tribulations, it is the promise of final deliverance and final 
comfort for ever. If none will raise our souls, that will, when we shall con- 
sider that it will not be long. 

' The short afflictions in this world bring an eternal weight of glory,' 

2 Cor. iv. 17. There will be a final deliverance. Life itself, that is, the 
subject that receives affliction, that is short. Our life is but a moment, 
2 Cor. iv. 17. Therefore, our afflictions must be short. 

* Misprinted ' first.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 59 

Life is longer than discomforts. There is but a piece of our life sub- 
ject to miseries ; and if that be but a vapom*, but a moment, and as a 
point between eternity before and eternity after, what are the miseries of 
this life ? Certainly they are but for a moment. 

Therefore, the promise of final deliverance, when all tears shall be wiped 
from our eyes, this should comfort us, if nothing else would. This is the 
way, therefore, whereby God usually comforts, by suggesting the heads and 
springs of comfort. 

And, indeed, there is a daily method of comforting, whereby we may 
comfort ourselves in all crosses, if we would use that daily method and 
order of comfort. As there is a kind of diet to keep the body in temper, 
so there is a kind of spiritual diet to keep the soul in temper, in a course 
of comfort, unless it be when God takes hberty to cast down for some 
special end, as we see in Job. 

Therefore, let us take this course ; for God, as he comforteth us, so he 
comforts us as understanding creatures, he useth our understanding to 
consider how we should comfort ourselves ; and after we are once in a 
state of comfort, if we be not wanting to ourselves, there is no great 
difficulty to keep our comfort. There are means to keep daily comfort. 
God hath provided them, and he will be present to make good all his 
comforts. Grant it, therefore, that we are in the covenant of grace, that 
God is our Father in Christ, and we take him to be our God, to be all- 
sufficient, then, to keep ourselves in a daily temper for comfort, 

[1.] Every day keep our souls tender, that we may be capable of comfort; 
keep the wound open, that we may receive balm, that there grow not a 
deadness upon the heart, considering that while we live here there is alway 
some sin in us, that must be wrought out by some course or other. Let 
us try and search our souls, what ill is in the wound ; let us keep it open 
and tender, that there may be a fitness for mercy, to receive the balm of 
comfort, which will not be if we slubber over. Certainly it is an excellent 
course every day to search our hearts and ways, and presently to apply the 
balm of comfort, the promise of pardon. Take the present, when we have 
searched the wound, to get pardon and forgiveness daily. As we sin daily, 
Christ bids us ask it daily. 

This will make us fit for comfort, by discerning the estate of our souls, 
and the remainders of corruption. That which sharpens appetite and 
makes the balm of God to be sweet indeed, is the sense of, and the keeping 
open of our wound. A daily search into our wants and weaknesses, a 
daily fresh sight of the body of sin in us, and experience how it is fruitful 
in ill thoughts, and desires, and actions, this will drive us to a necessity of 
daily comfort. 

And certainly a fresh sight of our corruptions, it is never without some 
fresh comfort. We see St Paul, Rom. \'ii., he sets himself to this work, to 
complain of his indisposition, by reason of sin in him ; and how doth he 
end that sight and search into his own estate ? He ends in a triumphing 
manner, ' Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord : There is no 
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' verse 25 ; after he had 
complained, ' Oh, miserable man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this 
body of death ? ' There can be no danger in a deep search into our ways 
and hearts, if this be laid as a ground before, that there is more supply and 
heavenly comfort in God, and the promises of God, than there can be ill in 
our souls. Then the more ill we find in ourselves, the more we are dis- 
posed to fetch grounds of comfort from God. 



60 COMMENTARY ON 

■ [2.] And together witli this searching of our souls, and asking daily 
pardon, let us for the time to come renew our covenant ivith God, that we 
may have the comfort of a good conscience to get pardon for om* sins past, 
and renew our resolutions for the time to come. 

[3.] And withal, that we may use an orderly course of comfort, let us 
every did^j feed on Christ, the food of life ; let us every day feed upon some- 
thing in Christ. Consider the death of Christ, the satisfaction he hath 
made by his death, his intercession in heaven. His blood runs afresh, that 
■we may every day feed on it. 

We may run every day into new offences against the law, to new neglect 
of duty, into new crosses ; let us feed upon Christ. He came into the 
world ' to save sinners,' 1 Tim. i. 15, to make us happy, with peace of 
conscience here, and with glory afterward. Let us feed on Christ daily. 
As the body is fed with cordials, so this feeds, and comforts, and strengthens 
the soul. 

This is to live by faith, to lead our lives by faith, to feed on Christ every 
day. 

[4.] And likewise, if we will keep our souls in a perpetual temper of 
comfort, let us every day meditate of some prerogatives of Christians, that 
may raise our souls ; let us single out some or other. As for example, that 
excellent prerogative to be the ' sons of God,' 1 John iii. 2. What love ! 
saith the apostle, that we, of rebels and traitors, in Christ should be made 
the sons of God ! That of slaves, we should be made servants ; of servants, 
sons ; of sons, heirs ; and of heirs, fellow-heirs with Christ : what preroga- 
tive is this, that God should give his Son to make us, that were rebels, 
sons, heirs, and fellow-heirs with Christ ! Gal. iv. 7. And to consider 
what follows upon this liberty, that we have from the curse of the law, to 
go to God boldly, to go to the throne of grace through Christ, oui- elder 
Brother, by prayer ; to think of eternal life as om" inheritance ; to think of 
God above as our Father. Let us think of our prerogatives of religion, 
adoption, and justification, &c. 

Upon necessity we are driven to it, if we consider the grievances of this 
world, together with our corruptions.' Our corruptions, and afflictions, 
and temptations, and desertions, one thing or other, will drive us to go out 
of ourselves for comfort, to feed on the benefits by Christ. And consider 
what he hath done. It is for us, the execution of his ofiice, and all for us ; 
what he is, what he did, what he suffered, what procured, all is for us. 
The soul delighting itself in these pi'erogatives, it will keep the soul in a 
perpetual estate of comfort. Therefore the Scripture sets forth Chiist by 
all terms that may be comfortable. He is the door to let us in. ' He is 
the way, the truth, and the life,' John xiv. 6, the water and the bread, &c. 
In sin, he is our righteousness ; in death, he is our life ; in our ignorance, 
he is our way ; in spiritual hunger and thirst, he is the bread and water of 
life : he is all in all. And if we cannot think of some prerogative of 
Christianity, then think of some promise. As I said before, think of the 
covenant of grace. There is a spring of comfort in that, that God in Christ 
is our God to death, and for ever ; and that promise I speak of, that ' All 
things shall work for the best,' Kom. viii. 28. 

Let us every day think of these things, and suggest them to our own 
Bouls, that our souls may be affected with them, and digest them, that our 
souls and they maj' be one, as it were. 

[5.] And every day stir up our hearts to he thankful. A thankful heart 
can never want comfort ; for it cannot be done without some comfort and 



2 CORIXTHIANS CHAP. I, VKE. 4. 61 

cheerfulness. And when God receives any praise and glory, he answers it 
with comfort. A thankful heart is alway comfortable. 

[6.] And let us stir up om- hearts to he fruitful in the hohj actions. The 
reward of a fruitful life is a comfortable life. Besides heaven, God alway 
in this life gives a present reward to any good action. It is rewarded with 
peace of conscience. Besides, it is a good foundation against the evil day. 
Every good action, as the apostle saith to Timothy, it ' lays up a good 
foimdation,' 1 Tim. vi. 19. The more good we do, the more we are 
assured that our faith is not hypocritical, but sound and good, and will 
hold out in the time of trial. It will be a good foundation that we have had 
evidence before, that we have a sound and fruitful faith. 

What do wicked men, careless, sinful creatures, that go on in a course 
of profaneness and blasphemy, &c.? They lay a ground of despair, a 
ground of discomfort, to be swallowed up in the evil day. Then conscience 
will be awaked at the last, and Satan will be ready to join with conscience, 
and conscience will seal all the accusations that Satan lays against them ; 
and where is the poor soul then ? As it is with them, so, on the contrary, 
the Christian soul that doth good, besides the present comfort of a good 
conscience, it lays a good foundation against the time to come ; for in the 
worst times, it can reason with itself. My faith is not fruitless, I am not an 
hypocrite. Though the fruits of it be weak, and mixed with corruptions, 
yet there is tnith in them. This wiU comfort us when nothing else will. ' 

Therefore let us every day be setting ourselves in some good way ; for 
comfort is in comfortable courses, and not in ill courses. In God's ways 
we shall have God's comforts. In those ways let us exercise the spiritual 
strength we have ; let us pray to God, and perform the exercise of religion 
with strength, shew some zeal in it ; let us shew some zeal against sin, if 
occasion be, if it be in God's work, in God's way. Let a man set him- 
self upon a good work, especially when it is in opposition ; for the honour 
of God, and the peace of his conscience. Presently there is comfort upon it. 

[7. J And that we may not be discouraged with the imperfection of our 
performances, one way of daily comfort is, to consider the condition of the 
covenant of grace between God and us. In the covenant of grace, our per- 
formances, if they be sincere, they are accepted ; and it is the perfection 
of the gospel, sincerity. Sincerity will look God in the face with comfort, 
because he is with the upright. So much truth in all our dealings, so 
much comfort. 

[8.] And with sincerity labour for growth, to grow better and better. 
God in the gospel means to bring us to perfection in heaven by little and 
little. In the law there was present perfection required ; but in the gospel 
God requires that we should come to perfection by little and little, as Christ 
by little and little satisfied for our sins, and not all at once. In the condi- 
tion of the covenant of grace, we must live and grow by grace, by little and 
little, and not all at once. The condition of the covenant of grace is not 
to him that hath strength of grace in perfection. But if we believe and 
labour to walk with God, if there be truth of grace, truth goes for perfection 
in the covenant of grace. We should labour for sound knowledge of the 
covenant of grace, that now we are freed from the rigour, as well as from 
the curse of the law ; that though we have imperfections, 3'et God will be 
our Father, and in this condition of imperfection he will be a pardoning 
Father, and looks on our obedience, though it be feeble, and weak, and 
imperfect, yet, being the obedience of children in the covenant of grace, 
and he accepts of what is his own, and pardons what is ours. 



t)2 COMMENTARY ON 

[9.j And every day labour to preserve the comfoHs of the Spirit that we 
have, not to grieve the Spirit ; for comfort comes with the Spirit of God, 
as heat accompanies the fire. As wheresoever &ce is, there is heat ; so 
wheresoever the Spirit of God is, there is comfort ; because the Spirit of 
God is God, and God is with comfort. Wheresoever comfort is, God is ; 
and wheresoever God is, there is comfort. If we would have comfort con- 
tinually every day, let us carefully watch that we give way to the Spirit of 
God, by good actions, and meditations, and exercises. 

And by no means grieve the Spirit, or resist the Spirit, for then we resist 
comfort. If we speak any thing that is ill, we lose our comfort for that 
time. Conscience will check us. We have grieved the Spirit. If we hear 
any thing with applause, and are not touched with it, we lose our comfort ; 
conscience will toll us we are dead-hearted, and not affected as we should 
be. There is a great deal of flesh and corruption that is affected with such 
rotten discourse. And so if we venture upon occasions, we shall grieve the 
Spirit, either if we speak somewhat to satisfy others that are nought,* or if 
we hear somewhat that is ill from others. Want of wisdom in this kind, 
doth make us go without comfort many times : want of wisdom to single 
out our company, or else |if we be with such, to do that that may 
please them, and gi'ieve the Spirit, and hinder our own comfort. 

[10.] These and such like directions, if we would observe, we might walk 
in a course of comfort. The God of comfort hath prescribed this in the 
book of comfort. These are the courses for God's childi-en, to walk in a 
comfortable way, till they come to heaven. More especially, if we would 
at any time take a more full measure of comfort, then take the book of God 
into your hand. Those are comforts that refresh the soul. Single out 
some special portion of Scripture, and there you shall have a world of com- 
fort, as, for example, let a man single out the Epistle to the Romans. 
If a man be in any grievance whatsoever, what a world of comfort is there, 
fitting for every malady ! There is a method how to come to comfort. 

There St Paul, in the beginning, first strips all men of confidence of any 
thing in themselves, and tells them that no man can be saved by works, 
Jews nor Gentiles, but all by the righteousness of God in Christ. ' All are 
deprived of the glory of God,' Rom. iii. 19, Jews, and Gentiles, every- 
body. And when we are brought to Christ, he tells us, in the latter end of 
the third chapter, that by Christ we have the forgiveness of all our former 
sins whatsoever. * He is the propitiation for our sins.' In the fourth 
chapter he comforts us by the example of Abraham and David, that they 
were justified without works by faith, not by works of their own, but by 
laying hold of the promises of comfort and salvation merely by Christ. And 
all that St Paul saith is ' written for us,' 1 Cor. x. 11. But in the first 
chapter especially, because all the miseries of this life come from the ' first 
Adam.' Because we are children of the ' first Adam,' death and misery 
comes from that. He opposeth the comfort in the ' second Adam,' and he 
shews that there is more comfort by the second Adam, than there is dis- 
comfort by the first. Righteousness in the second Adam ' reigns to life 
everlasting,' Rom. v. 17, and glory. Sin and misery came by the first, but 
there is the pardon of all sin by the second Adam. He doth excellently 
oppose them in the latter end of that chapter. In the beginning of the fifth 
chapter he shews there the method, and descent of joy, ' Being justified by 
faith, in Christ, we have peace with God,' Rom. v. 1. Considering that by 
the righteousness of Christ we are freed from sin, ' We have peace with 
* Qu. ' naught ? '—Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 4. 63 

God through Jesus Chi-ist our Lord,' Rom. v. 1. And ' we have boldness 
to the throne of gi'ace, and we rejoice in tiibulation : knowing that tribula- 
tion brings forth patience ; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope,' 
Rom. V. 4. He sets himself there of purpose to comfort in all tribulation, 
and he saith, in these things we rejoice, ' We rejoice in tribulation.' 

Aye, but for our sins after our conversion, after we are in the state of 
grace, what comfort is there for them ? There is excellent comfort in the 
fifth of the Romans. * If when we were enemies he gave his Son for us :' 
if he saved us by the death of Christ when we were enemies, much more, 
Christ being aUve, and in heaven, he will keep it for us ; and keep us to 
salvation now, when we are friends, seeing he died for us when we were 
enemies. Aye, but the remainders of corruption in this world trouble us. 
That troubles our comfort, the combat between the flesh and the Spirit. 
Would you see comfort for that ? You shall see it in Romans vii. 24, 25. 
' Oh, miserable man, who shall dehver me from this body of death ? Thanks 
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' So he shews there what way 
to have comfort in the combat between the flesh and the spirit, to search 
into our corruptions, to lay them open to God by confession. 

And then, in the beginning of the eighth chapter, saith he, * There is no 
condemnation to them that are in Chi'ist Jesus,' ver. 1. Though there be 
sin, yet there is no condemnation ; though there be this conflict between 
the flesh and the spirit. So he comforts them. And for the afilictions that 
follow our corruptions in this life, there is a treasure of comfort against 
them in that chapter ; for doth he not say, ' if we suffer with him, we shall 
reign with him,' ver. 17. And the same ' Spirit helps our infirmities, and 
teacheth us how to pray?' ver. 26. We can never be uncomfortable if 
we can pray ; but there is a promise of the Spirit that stirs up sighs, and 

* groans that cannot be expressed,' ver. 26, and a Christian hath alway a 
spirit of prayer, at the least of sighs and groans ; and God hears the sighs 
of his own Spirit. 

And what a gi-and comfort is that, that I named before, verse 28, * All 
things work for the best to them that love God.' And ' if God be with us, 
who can be against us.' ver. 33. And he sends us to Chi'ist. If Christ 
be dead, ' or rather risen again, who shall lay anything to our charge ?' 
Christ is * ascended to heaven, and makes intercession at the right hand of 
God,' ver. 34. Though Satan lay our sins to our charge, Christ makes 
intercession in heaven at the right hand of God. He makes continual inter- 
cession for our continual breaches with God. Who shall lay anything to 
our charge ? Aye, but all that power of hell and sin ! and all labour to 
separate us from God, to breed division between God and us. In the lat- 
ter end of that chapter he bids defiance to all, what shall ' separate us from 
the love of God in Christ ?' ver. 35. It shall separate his love from Christ 
first. God's love is found in Christ. He shall cease to love Christ if he 
cease to love us. Aye, but we may afterward fall into an uncomfortable 
case. For that he saith, ' neither things present, nor things to come, shall 
be able to separate us,' ver. 38. 

What an excellent spring of comfort is there in that reasoning, verse 82, 

• If God spared not his own Son, but gave him to death for us all, how 
shall he not with him give us all things else.' How many streams may be 
drawn from that spring ! ' If God spared not his own Son, but gave him 
to death for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things else' in this 
world necessary, grace, provision, and protection, till he have brought us 
to heaven ? If he have given Christ, he will give all. Whatsoever is writ- 



G4 COMMENTARY OX 

ten, is written for our comfort. I name-!= tliis epistle, because I would 
name one instance for all. ' All is written for our comfort,' as he saith 
after in the same epistle, xv. 4. The written word, or the word unfolded ; 
the end of preaching, is especially to comfort. The chirurgeon opens a 
wound, and the physician gives a purge, but all is to restore at the last. 
All that the chirurgeon aims at, is to close up the wound at the last. So 
all our aim is to comfort. We must cast you down, and shew you your 
misery that you are in, and shew you, that if you continue in that course, 
hell and damnation belongs to you. But this is to make you despair in 
yourselves, and to fly to the God of comfort. The law is for the gospel. 
All serve to bring the soul to comfort. 

Therefore go to the word of God, any portion, the Psalms or any special 
part of the Scripture ; and that, by the Spirit of God, will be a means to 
raise the soul. The Spirit in the Vvord, joining with the Spirit in us, will 
make a sweet close together, and comfort us in all tribulation. 

[11.] And have recourse daily to co7nmon principles. All the principles of 
religion serve for comfort, especially the articles of the creed. ' I believe in 
God the Father Almighty.' What a spring of comfort is in that ! What 
can befall from a father, but it shall turn to good, and by a Father Almighty ? 
Though he be never so strongly opposed, yet he will turn it to good. He 
is a ' Father Almighty.' And the articles of Christ, every article hath 
ground of daily comfort, of his abasement. In Christ, I see myself. He 
is my surety, ' the second Adam.' I see my sins crucified with him. This 
is the way to reap comfort when the conscience is disquieted. When I look 
upon my sins, not in my own conscience, but take it out there, and see it 
in Christ dying, and crucified, in the articles of abasement to see our sin, 
and misery, all in Christ. f For he stood there as surety, as a public per- 
son for all. What a comfort is this ! When I see how Christ was abased, 
I see my own comfort, for he was my surety. If my sins being laid on 
him, who was my surety, could not condemn him, or keep him in the grave, 
but overcame sin that was laid to his charge, surely]; I shall overcome my 
corruptions. Nothing that I have shall overcome me, because it could not 
overcome Christ my surety. His victory is mine. 

And so, if the soul be in any desolation and discomfort, all the articles 
of his ' glorification and exaltation.' His rising again acquits the soul. 
Therefore my sins are satisfied for, because my surety is out of prison. 
And his ascending into heaven shews my triumph. He led captivity cap- 
tive. And the enemies that are left are for the trial of my faith, and not 
to conquer me. For Christ hath ' led captivity captive,' Ps. Ixviii. 18, 
and is ascended into heaven. He led all in triumph, and sits at the 
right hand of God, to rule his church to the end of the world. He sits for 
me to overcome my enemies, as St Paul saith excellently, Rom. viii. 33, 
* Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's people ? It is Christ that 
died, or rather, that is risen again, who sits at the right hand of God.' 

And if we be troubled for the loss of a particular friend, there is com- 
fort in that article of the ' communion of saints.' There are those that have 
more grace, and that is for me. If my own prayers be weak, ' I believe 
the communion of saints,' and have the benefit of their prayers. Every 
one that saith ' Our Father' brings me in, if I be in the covenant of grace, 
and of the communion of saints. If I have weaknesses in myself, ' I believe 
in the Holy Ghost,' the comforter of God's elect, and my comforter. If I 

* Misprinted ' mean'. — G. f Articles I. and IV., and infra IX. — Q. 

i That is, ' assuredly.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. G5 

fear death, * I believe the resurrection of the body.' If I fear the day of 
judgment, * I believe that Chiist shall be my judge.' He shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. In all the miseries of this life, considering 
that they are but short, ' I believe the life everlasting.' So that indeed if 
we would dig to om-selves springs of comfort, let us goto the ai'ticles of our 
faith, and see how there ai'e streams of comfort from every one answerable 
to all our particular exigencies and necessities whatsoever. 

And to close up this point, remember, whatsoever means we use, what 
prerogative soever we think of, whatsoever we do, remember we go to the 
God of comfort, and desire him to bless his word in the ministry, and 
desire him to work in the communion of saints, with his Spirit to warm 
our hearts. Alway remember to carry him along in all, that we may have 
comfort from ' the God of comfort, who comforteth m all tribulations.' 

Next words are, 

' That we may able to comfort tlwn which are in any trouble.'' These 
words shew the end why God doth comfort us in all tribulation. One 
main end is, that we should he comforted in ourselves. That is the first. 
And then, that we, being comforted oui'selves, from that ability should he 
ahle to derive* comfort to others. ' We are comforted in all tribulations, 
that we should he able to comfort them, that are in any tribidation.' 

It is not St Paul's case only, and great men in religion, ministers and 
the like. It is not their lot and portion alone to be persecuted and troubled, 
but 

Obs. We are all in this life subject to disquiets and discomforts. 

Every one, ' whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suft'er per- 
secution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12. Therefore the apostle saith not only our+ tribula- 
tion ; but that ' we may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble.' 
Trouble is the portion of all God's children one with another. I do but 
touch that by the way; But that which I shall more stand upon, it is the 
end, one main end why God comforteth, especially ministers : it is, that they 
should be able to comfort others with the comforts that God hath comforted 
them withal. ' That we may be able,' kc. Now you must conceive that this 
ability, it is not ability alone without will and practice, as if he meant, God 
hath given me comfort that I might be able to comfort others if I will. 
That is not God's end only, that we may be able, but that we may exercise 
our ability, that it may be ability in exercise ; as God doth not give a rich 
man riches to that end that he may be able to relieve others if he will. 
No ! But if thou be a child of God, he gives thee ability and will too, he 
gives an inward strength. So the meaning here is, not that we may be 
able to comfort others if we will, but that we may be both able and willing 
to comfort others. 

And to comfort others not only by our example, that because we have 
been comforted of God, so they shall be comforted. It is good, but it is 
not the full extent of the apostle's meaning ; for then the dead examples 
should comfort as well as the living. And indeed that is one way of com- 
fort, to consider the examples of former times. But the apostle's meaning 
is, that I should comfort them not only by my example of God's dealing 
with me, that they should look for the like comfort. That is but one de- 
gree. His meaning is further therefore, tint we should be able to comfort 
them by sympathizing with them ; as indeed it is a sweet comfort to those 
that are in distress when others compassionate their estate. 

* That is, ' communicate.' — G t Qu., 'one?' — Ed. 

VOL. III. E 



66 COMMENTAKY ON 

And not only so, by our example and sympathy with them, but likemse 
that we may be able to comfort them by the imvard support, and strength, 
and light that we have found by the Spirit of God in ourselves. That is 
that that will enable us to comfort others, from that very support and in- 
ward strength that we have found from God ; by those graces, and that 
particular strength and comfort that we have had. When there is a sweet 
expressing of our inward comfort to them, shewing something in our com- 
fort that may raise them up, in the like troubles that we were in, then the 
comfort will not be a dead comfort, when it comes from a man experienced. 
Personated comfort, when a man takes upon him to comfort, that only 
speaks comfort, but feels not what he speaks, there is little life in it. We 
are comforted that we may comfort others, with feeling, ha^^ng been com- 
forted ourselves before, with feeUng, and comfortable apprehensions in our- 
selves. The point considerable in the first place, to make way to the rest, 
is this, that 

Doct. God's children, they have all of them interest in divine comforts. 

St Paul was comforted, that he might comfort others. Divine comforts 
belong to all. They are the portion of all God's people. The meanest 
have interest, as well [as] the greatest. There is the same spiritual physic 
for the poorest subject, and the greatest monarch. There is the same 
spiritual comfort for the meanest, and for the gi-eatest Christian in the 
world. St Paul hath the same comfort as St Paul's children in the faith. 
What is the reason that they are communicable thus to all ? that they lie 
open to all ? 

Reason 1. God is the God and Father of all light and comfort. Christ 
is the Saviour of all. All the privileges of religion belong to all equally. 
All are sons and heirs, and all are ahke redeemed, ' The brother of low 
degree, and the brother of high degree,' James i. 9. They may differ in 
the references and relations of this life, but in Christ all are alike. 

Reason 2. Besides, it is the nature of spiritual privileffes and blessings. 
They are communicable to all alike without impairing. The more one hath, 
the less another hath not. All have an equal share. Every one hath 
interest entire ; every one hath aU, without loss or hindrance to others. 
As for instance, the sun, every particular man hath all the good the sun 
can do, as well as all the world hath. It is peculiarly and entirely every 
man's own, Everyman in solidmn hath the use of it. The sun is not one 
man's more than another. As a public fountain or conduit, every man 
hath as much right in it as another. So in religion, the graces, and privi- 
leges, and favours, they lie open as the prerogatives and privileges of all 
God's children ; and that is the excellency of them. In the things of this 
life it is not so. They are not common to all alike. There is a loss in 
the division. The more one hath, the less another hath. And that is the 
reason why the things of this life breed a disposition of pride and envy. 
One envies another, because he wants that that another hath ; and one 
despiseth another, because he hath more than another hath ; but in the 
comforts of God's Spirit, and the prerogatives that are the ground of those 
comforts, all have interest alike. 

Only the difference is in the vessels they bring. If one man bring a 
large vessel, a large faith, he carries more ; and another that brings a less 
faith carries less, but it lies open to all alike. As St C^'prian saith, we 
carry as much from God as we bring vessels. But all have interest alike 
in divine comforts. 

Therefore among Christians there is little envy, because in the best 



2 OOPvINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 67 

things, which they value best, all may have alike ; and that which one 
desires, another may have as much as he. He knows he hath never the less. 

Use. The point is comfortable to all, even to the meanest, and to them 
especially, that howsoever there be a difference between others and them in 
outward things, that cease in death (for all differences shall cease ere long 
between us and others), yet the best things are common. In this life those 
things that are necessary, they are common, as the light, and the elements, 
fire, and water, &c. ; and those are necessary'* that are not common. But 
especially in spiritual things, the best things are common. Let no man be dis- 
comforted, if he be God's child. Comfort belongs to him, as well as to the 
greatest apostle. The chiefest comforts belong to him as well as to the chief- 
est Christian. Therefore, let us emy none, nor despise none in this respect. 

In the next place, we may observe here, hence, that though these comforts 
he common, yet God derives these comforts commonly by the means of men. 

This is God's order in deriving these comforts to the soul. He comforts 
one, that another may be comforted. Not that the comforts themselves 
that join with our spirits come from men, but that, together with the speech 
and presence of men whom we love and respect, and in whom we discern 
the appearance of the Spint of God to dwell, together with the speech 
of persons in whom the Spirit is strong and powerful, the Spirit of God 
ioins, and the Spirit raiseth the soul with comfort. So the Spii'it com- 
forteth, by comforting others, that they may comfort us. 

This is not only true of ministers, but it is true of Christians, as Chris- 
tians. For St Paul must be considered, in something as an apostle, in 
something as a Christian, in something as a minister of Christ. As an 
apostle, he had the care of ' all the churches,' &c., 2 Cor. xi. 28. As a 
Christian, he comforted and exhorted others. One Chi'istian ought to 
comfort another. Therefore he would have done it as a Christian, if he 
had not been an apostle. And in something he is to be considered as a 
minister of Christ, as a teacher and ambassador of Christ, a teacher of the 
gospel. He was somewhat as an apostle, somewhat as a minister, some- 
what as a Christian. Therefore it concerns us all to consider how to 
comfort one another as Christians. We are all members of the same body 
whereof Christ is the head. Therefore whatsoever comfort we feel, we 
ought to communicate. 

The celestial bodies will teach us this. Whatsoever light or influence 
the moon and the stars receive, they bestow it on these inferior bodies. 
They have their light from the sun, and they reflect it again upon the 
creatures below. In the fabric of man's body, those ofiicial parts, as we 
call them, those parts and members of the body, the heart and the liver, 
which are both members and ofiicial parts, that do office and service to 
oLher parts, they convey and derive the spirits and the blood to all other 
parts. They receive strength, partly for themselves first, and then to 
convey it to other members. The liver is fed itself with some part of the 
blood, and it conveys the rest to the veins, and so to the whole body. The 
heart is nourished itself of the purest nourishment, the spirits are increased, 
and those spirits are spread through the arteries. 

The stomach feeds itself with the meat it digests, and with the strength 
it hath. Being an official part, it serves other parts, and strengtheneth 
other parts ; and if there be a decay in it, there is a decay in all the parts 
of the body. So a Christian ought to strengthen himself, and then 
strengthen others. No man is for himself alone. And although whatso- 
* Qu., ' not necessary?' — Ed. 



68 COMMENTARY ON 

over the means be, the comfort comes from God, yet he will have comfort 
to be conveyed to us by men this way. 

Reason 1. Partly to tri/ our obedience, whether we will respect his ordi- 
nance. He will have us go to men like om-selves. Now, if we will have 
comfort, we must look to his ordinance, we must have it of others, and not 
altogether from ourselves. And that is the reason why many go all their 
lifetime with heavj'', drooping spirits. Out of pride and neglect, they scorn 
to seek it of others. They smother their grief, and bleed inwardly ; because 
they will not lay open the state of their souls to others. Although God be 
* the God of comfort,' he hath ordained this order, that he will comfort us 
by them that he hath appointed to comfort us. He comforteth others, that 
they may comfort us. Though God be the God of comfort, yet he conveys 
it, for the most part, by the means of others. I say for the most part ; for 
he ties not himself to means, though he tie us to means, when we have 
means. Occasion may be, when a man is shut from all earthly comforts, as 
in contagious diseases, and restraint, &c. A man may be shut from all 
intercourse of worldly comforts ; but even then, a Christian is never in such 
an estate, but he hath one comfort or other. Then God comforts immediately, 
and then he comforts more sweetly and strongly ; then the soul cleaves to him 
close, and saith. Now thou must comfort or none, now the honour is all thine. 

Now the nearer the soul is to the fountain of comfort, the more it is 
comforted, but the soul is never so near to God as in extremity of affliction. 
When all means fail, then the soul goes to the fountain of comfort, and 
gives all the glory to him. But I say, when there is means, God hath 
appointed to derive his comfort by means ; when we may have the benefit, 
of the communion of saints, of the word, &c. God will not comfort us 
immediately in the neglect of the means. ' He comforteth us, that we 
might comfort others.' And as he doth it to try our obedience. 

Reason 2. So partly, to knit us in love one to another. For is not this a 
great bond to knit us one to another, when we consider that our good is 
hid in another ? The good that is derived to us, it is hid in others. And 
this makes us to esteem highly of others. How sweet are the looks and 
sight of a friend ! and more sweet the words of a fi-iend, especially of an 
experienced friend, that hath been in the furnace himself. 

Thus God, to knit us one to another in love, hath ordained that the com- 
fort that he conveys, it should be conveyed by the means of others. Other 
reasons there may be given, but these are sufficient. 

Use. If this be so, then we ought from hence to learn, that ivhatsoever ive 
have we are debtors of it to others, whatsoever comfort we have, whether it 
be outward or inward comfort. 

And even as God hath disposed and dispensed his benefits and graces to 
us, so let us be good stewards of it. We shall give account of it ere long. 
Let eveiy man reason with himself, why have I this comfort that another 
wants ? I am God's steward ; God hath not given it to me to lay up, but 
to lay out. To speak a little of outward comforts. It is cursed atheism in 
many rich persons, that think they are to live here only to scrape an estate 
for them and their children ; when in the mean time their neighbours want, 
and God's children want, that are as dear to God as themselves, and perish 
for want of comfort. If they were not atheists in this point, they would 
think I am a steward, and what comfort shall I have of scraping much ? 
That will but increase my account. Such a steward were mad that would 
desire a great account. The more my account is, the more I have to an- 
swer for, and the more shall be my punishment if I quit not all well. 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 69 

Now men out of atheism, that do not believe a day of judgment, a 
time of account, they engross comforts to them and theirs, as if there were 
not a church, as if there were not an afflicted body of Christ. They think 
not that they are stewards. Whereas the time will come, when they 
shall have more comfort of that that they have bestowed, than of that that 
they shall leave behind them to their children. That which is msely dis- 
pensed for the comfort of God's people, it will comfort us, when all that 
we shall leave behind will not, nay, perhaps it will trouble us, the ill get- 
ting of it. 

And so whatsoever inward comforts we have, it is for the comfort of 
others. We are debtors of it. Whatsoever ability we have, as occasion is 
offered, if there be a necessity in those that are of the same body with our- 
selves, we ought to regard them in pity and compassion. If we should see 
a poor creature cast himself into a whirlpool, or plunge himself into some 
desperate pit, were we not accessory to his death, if we should not help 
him ! if we would not pull one out of the fire ? Oh, yes ! and is not the 
soul in as great danger ? and is not mercy to the soul the greatest mercy ? 
shall we see others ready to be swallowed up in the pit of despair, with 
heaviness of spirit ? shall we see them dejected, and not take it to heart ? 
But either we are unable to minister a word of comfort to them, or else 
unwilling : as if we were of Cain's disposition, that we would look to our- 
selves only ; ' we are none of their keepers,' Gen. iv. 9. 

It is a miserable thing to profess ourselves to be members of that body 
whereof Christ is the head, to profess the communion of saints, and yet 
to be so dead-hearted in these particular exigencies and occasions. _ It lies 
upon us as a duty, if God convey comforts to us ft'om others ; and his end in 
comforting us any way, of putting any comfort in our hands outward or in- 
ward, it is to comfort others. If we do it not, we are Hable to sin, to the 
breach of God's command, and we fi-ustrate God's end. 

But if this he upon us as a duty to comfort others, then it concerns us to 
know how to be able to do it. 

That we may be able to comfort others, let us, 

(1.) Be ready to take notice of the grievance of others; as Moses went 
to see the afflictions of his brethren, and when he saw it, laid it to heart, 

Ex. iv. 31. •• o ^ . 

It is a good way to go to ' the house of mournmg,' Eccles. vn. 2, and not 
to balk and decline our Christian brethren in adversity. God ' knows our 
souls in adversity, Ps. xxxi. 7 ; so should we do the souls of others, if they 
be knit to us in any bond of kindred, or nature, or neighbourhood, or the 
like. That bond should provoke us ; for bonds are as the veins and arte- 
ries to derive comfort. All bonds are to derive good, whether bonds of 
neighbourhood, or acquaintance, &c. A man should think with himself, I 
have this bond to do my neighbour good. It is God's providence that I 
should be acquainted with him, and do that to him that I cannot do to a 
stranger. Let us consider all bonds, and let this work upon us : let us 
consider their grievance is a bond to tie us. 

(2.) And withal let us labour to put upon its the boiceh of a father and 
mother, tender bowels, as God puts upon him bowels of compassion 
towards us. So St Paul, being an excellent comforter of others, in 1 Thess. 
ii. 7, he shews there how he carried himself as a father, or mother, or 
nurse to them. Those that will comfort others, they must put upon them 
the affections of tender creatures as may be. They must be patient, they 



70 COMMENTARY ON 

must be tenderly affected, they must have love, they must have the graces 
of communion. 

What be the graces of communion ? The graces of Christian com- 
munion to fit us in the communion of saints to do good, they ai'e a loving, 
meek, patient spirit. Love makes patient. As we see mothers and nurses, 
what can they not endm-e of their children, because they love them ? And 
they must be likewise wise and furnished. They that will comfort others 
must get wisdom and ability. They must get humility, they must abase 
themselves that they may be comfortable to others, and not stand upon 
terms. These be the graces of communion that fit us for the communion 
of saints. 

What is the reason that many are so untoward to this duty, and have no 
heart to it, that they cannot indeed do it ? 

The reason is, they consider not their bonds : they do not ' consider 
the poor and needy,' Ps. xli. 1. They have not the graces of communion, 
they want loving spirits, they want ability, they are empty, they are not 
furnished, they have not knowledge laid up in store, they want humble 
spirits. The want of these graces makes us so ban-en in this practice of 
the communion of saints. Therefore we should bewail our own barren- 
ness when we should do such duties, and cannot. And beg of God the 
spirit of love and wisdom, that we may do things wisely, that we may speak 
that which is fit. ' A word in season is as apples of gold with pictures of 
silver,' Prov. xxv. 11. And let us beg a humble spu'it, that we may be 
abased to comfort others. As Christ in love to us he abased himself, he 
became man, and when he was man, he became a servant, he abased him- 
self to wash his disciples' feet, talk with a silly woman, and such base 
offices. And if the Spirit of Christ be in us, it will abase us to offices of 
love, to support one another, to bear one another's burthens,' Gal. vi. 2. 

(3.) Again, if we would comfort others as we should, let us labour to get 
experience of comfort in ourselves. God comforteth us that we might be 
able to comfort others. He will easily kindle others that is all on fire 
himself, and that is comforted himself. He can easily comfort others 
with that comfort he feels himself. Those that have experience can do it 
best. 

As we see in physicians, if there be two physicians, whereof the one hath 
been sick of the disease that he is to cure in another ; the other perhaps is 
more excellent than he otherwise, but he hath never been sick of it ; the 
patient will sooner trust himself with the experienced physician than with 
the other ; for undoubtedly he is better seen in that than the other, though 
perhaps the other may be a greater booked* physician than he. As it is 
with the physicians of the body, so it is with the physician of the soul : 
the experienced physician is the best. What is the reason that old men, 
and wise men, are the mercifulest of all ? Because they have had expe- 
rience of many crosses and miseries. A wise man knows what crosses are ; 
he understands them best. 

The way, then, to comfort others, is to get experience of divine comforts 
ourselves. And that we may get experience of God's comforts, let us mark 
what was said before of the rules of comfort, and work upon our own hearts 
whatsoever may be comfortable to others ; that we may not be empty 
trunks to speak words without feeling. 

He that is well may speak very good things to a sick man, but the sick 
man sees that he speaks without pity and compassion. Those that have 
* Tliat is, ' book-learned.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, A'ER. 4. 71 

been sick of the same disease, -when they come to comfort, they do it with 
a great deal of meekness and mildness. Those that are fit to comfort 
others must be spiritual themselves fii'st, as the apostle saith, Gal. vi. 1. 
Saith the wise and holy apostle, ' If any man be overtaken,' as, alas ! we 
are all overtaken with some corruption or other, 'ye that are spiritual, restore 
such a one,' set him in joint, as the word is (?'), ' with the spirit of meek- 
ness, knowing that thou thyself mayest be tempted.' 

The Spirit of God is a Spirit of comfort. The more we have of the 
Spirit, the fitter we are to comfort others. We see many men will speak 
very good things, but they do but personate soiTOW, and personate comfort. 
It comes from them without feeling. As he saith. If thou didst beheve 
these things that thou speakest, wouldst thou ever say them so ? He 
that speaks good things without experience, he speaks as if he did never 
beheve them. Those that speak things with experience, that have wrought 
them upon their hearts and spirits, there is such a demonstration in the 
manner of their speaking, of a spirit of love and meekness, and compas- 
sion, that it prevails maiwellously. It is so true that our Saviom- Chi'ist 
himself, that he might have the more tender bowels of compassion towards 
us, he made it one end of his incarnation, as it is pressed again and again 
in Heb. ii. and Heb. iv. The apostle dwells upon it, ' It became him to be 
man, to take upon him our infirmities, that he might be a merciful Re- 
deemer, a merciful high priest,' Heb. ii. 17. It was one end of his incar- 
nation that he might not only save us, but that he might be a merciful 
Redeemer, that he might have experience of our infirmities. Of persecu- 
tion, he was persecuted himself; of want, he wanted himself; of tempta- 
tion, he was tempted himself ; of wrath, he felt it himself, ' My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mark xv. 34. 

Here is the comfort of a Christian soul, that Christ hath begun to him in 
ah. Therefore it became hun to be man, not only to redeem us, but to be 
a merciful high priest, a comfoz-table high priest. 

The way, then, you see, how to comfort others, is, to get our own hearts 
sensible of spiritual comfort. Two irons, if they be both hot, do close to- 
gether presently, but unless both be hot, they do not join together hand- 
somely. So that that makes us join together strongly is, if two spirits 
meet, and both be warm ; if one godly man comfort another godly man ; if 
one holy man labour to breed an impression of heat in another, there is a 
knitting of both spirits, they join strongly together. Therefore we ought 
to labour to get experience, that we may comfort others, seeing none can 
comfort so well as experimental Christians. 

Quest. Why is experience such an enabling to spiritual comfort ? 

A71S. 1. I answer, because it brings the comfort home to our own souls. 
The devil knows comfort well enough, but he feels none. Experience helps 
faith, it helps all other knowledge. Our Saviour Christ is said to learn by 
experience, for ' he learned obedience in that he sufiered,' Heb. v. 8. Ex- 
perience is such a means of the increasing of knowledge, as that it bettered 
the knowledge of Christ, that had aU knowledge in him. He had know- 
ledge by looking upon God, being the ' wisdom of God,' 1 Cor. i. 30, yet he 
leai-ned somewhat by the experience, he bettered himself by experience. 
He knew what to bear the cross was by experience. He knew what infir- 
mities were by experience. He knew what he could sufler by experience. 
So it added to his knowledge as man. And so the angels themselves are 
continual students in the mysteries of the gospel. They get experimental 
knowledge to the knowledge that they have inbred, and that knowledge that 



72 COJIMENTAKV ON 

they have by the presence of God. To that they add experimental know- 
ledge. 

So then, if it bettered the knowledge of our blessed Saviour, and increased 
it, [if J it was a new way increased by experience, and it adds to the know- 
ledge of the angels, much more to ours. 

2. Then, again, it gains a great confidence in the speaker ; for what we 
Bpeak with experience, we speak with a great deal of boldness. 

3. Again, experimental comforts, those that we have felt ourselves, and 
have felt likewise the grievance, ice speak them irith such expressions as no 
other can do, in the apprehension of the party whom we comfort, so weU 
as an experienced person. For he goes about the work tenderly and gently 
and lovingly, because he hath been in the same himself. And that is the 
reason that the apostle St Paul, in the place I named before. Gal. vi. 1, 
presseth this duty upon spiritual men, especially because themselves have 
been tempted, and may be tempted. Those that have been tempted, and 
think they may be afterward, this doth wondrously fit them for this work 
of comforting others. But to add a little in t'lis point, to shew how to 
comfort others by our own experience and skill, I spake before of an art of 
comforting ourselves. There is a skill likewise in comforting others. 
Even as we comfort ourselves, in that method we must comfort others. 
When we comfort ourselves, we must first consider our need of comfort, 
search our wounds, our maladies, have them fresh in our sight, that so wo 
may be forced to seek for comfort ; and as we ought to do this daily, so when 
we are to comfort others, 

(1.) We ought not only to comfort them, bat to search them as much as 
we can, what sin is in them, and what misery is upon them, and acquaint 
them with their own estate that they are in, as far as we can discern. We 
may judge of them partly by ourselves. For we must not prostitute com- 
forts to persons that are indisposed, till we see them fitted. God doth 
comfort, but it is the abject. Christ heals, but [it] is the wounded spirit. 
He came to seek, but it is those that are lost. He came to ease, but it 
is those that are ' heavy laden.' Therefore, that we may comfort them to 
pm'pose, we ought to shew, and discover to them, what estate they are in, 
that we may force them to comfort, if they be not enemies to comfort and 
to their own souls. 

He is an unwise physician that administers cordials before he gives pre- 
paratives to carry away the noisome humours. They will do little good. 
We ought therefore to prepare them this way, if we intend to do them good. 

(2.) And then when we see what need they stand in, bring them to Christ 
and the covenant of grace. That is the best way to comfort them, to bring 
them to see that God is their Father, when we discern some signs of grace 
in them. For this is the main stop in all comfort, that there is none but 
they shall find by experience. They are ready to say. You teach wondrous 
comforts, that there is an inheritance in heaven that God hath provided ; 
and on earth, there is an issue of all for good, and there is a presence of 
God in troubles ! This is true ; but how shall I know this belongs to me ? 
This is the cavil of flesh and blood, that turns the back to the most heavenly 
comforts that are. The main and principal thing therefore in dealing with 
others, and with our own hearts, is to let them see that there are some signs 
and evidences that they are in the covenant of grace, that they belong to 
God. Unless we see that, all the comfort we can give them is to tell them 
that they are not yet sunk into hell, and that they have space to repent. 
But as long as men Ua c in sinful courses, that they are not in a state of 



2 COSIXTHIANS CilAP. I, VEE. 4. 73 

grace, we can tell them no comfort, except they will devise a new Scripture, 
a new Bible. If they do so, they may have comfort. But this word of 
God, God herein speaks no comfort to persons that live in sin, and will do 
60. We should labour therefore to discern some evidence that they are in 
the state of grace. 

And ofttimes those are indeed most entitled to comfort that think it fur- 
thest from them. Therefore we should acquaint them with the conditions 
of the covenant of grace, that God looks to truth. Therefore if we discern 
any true, broken, humble spirit, a hungering and a thirsting after righteous- 
ness, and a desire of comfort, ' Blessed are those that hunger and thirst,' 
Mat. V. 6 ; it belongs to them, we may comfort them. If we see spiritual 
poverty, that they see their wants, and would be supplied, ' Blessed are the 
poor in spirit,' Mat. v. 3 ; ' Be of good comfort,' Christ calls such, Mat. x. 
49. If they see and feel the bm'den of their sins, we may comfort them. 
Christ calls them, ' Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden,' 
Mat. xi. 28. If we discern spiritual and heavenly desires to grow in grace 
and overcome their corruptions, if we discover and discern this in their 
practice and obedience, ' God will fulfil the desires of them that fear him,' 
Ps. cxlv. 19. And he accepts the will for the deed. 

There is a desire of happiness in nature that comforts not a man. It ia 
no sign of grace to desire to be free from hell and to be in heaven. It is a 
natural desire. Every creature wishes well to heaven. But if there be a 
desire of the means that tend to heaven, a desire of grace, these are evi- 
dences of grace. These are the pulses that we may find grace by ; when 
they see their infirmities, and groan under them, and would be better, and 
complain that they are not better, and are out of love with their own hearts. 
There is a combat in their hearts, they are not friends with themselves. 
When we see this inward conflict, and a desire to better, and to get vic- 
tories against their corruptions, though there be many corruptions and 
weaknesses, a man may safely say, they are in a state of grace, they are 
on the mending hand. For ' Christ wiU not break the bruised reed, nor 
quench the smoking flax,' Mat. xii. 20. ' And where he hath begun a 
good work, he will perfect it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. He will 
cherish these weak beginnings, therefore we may comfort them on good 
ground. 

(3.) Then, besides that, in our deaUng with them, when we have dis- 
covered, by some evidence, that they belong to the covenant, that we see, 
by some love to good things, and to God's image in his children, and by 
other evidences, then we may comfort them boldly ; and then to fetch from 
our own experience, what a comfort will it be to such ! When we can say, 
My estate was as yours is ; I found those corruptions that you groan 
under; I allowed not myself in them as you do not. When a man can 
say from his own experience, that notwithstanding these I have evident 
signs of God's Spirit that I am his, then he can comfort others by his own 
experience. 

(4.) And what a comfort is it to go to the experiments'^- of Scripture! It is 
an excellent way. As now, let a man be deserted of God, David will com- 
fort him by his experience, Ps. Ixxvii. 2, 8, 10, where he saithhe found God 
as his enemy ; and as Job saith, ' the terrors of God drank up his spirit,' 
Job vi. 4. Be of good comfort ! David would come and comfort thee if he 
were alive. If the terror of God be against thee for sin, that thy con- 
science is awakened, be of good comfort ! Christ, if he were on earth, 
* That is, ' experiences ' = examples. — G. 



74 



COMMENTAKY ON 



would shew thee by Lis own example that he endured that desertion on the 
cross : ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' Mark xv. 34. 
K thou be molested and vexed with Satan, Job will comfort thee by his 
example. His book is most of it combating and comfort. And so for all 
other grievances, go to the Scriptm-es. Whatsoever is * written, is written 
for our learning,' Pray to God, and he will hear thee as he did Ehas. 

Obj. Oh ! but Elias was an excellent man. 

Ans. The Scripture prevents* the objection: 'he was a man subject to 
infirmities,' James v. 17. If God heard him, he will hear thee. Believe 
in Christ, as Abraham did, ' the father of the faithful,' in the promised 
Messiah, and he will forgive thee all thy sins. 

Obj. Oh ! but he had a strong faith. 

Ans. What hath the Scripture to take away this objection ? In Rom. 
iv. 23, ' This was not written for Abraham only, but for those that believe 
with the faith of Abraham.' 

Obj. Aye, but I am a wretched sinner, there is little hope of me. 

Ans. Yes ! St Paul will come and comfort thee by his example and ex- 
perience : ' This is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world 
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief,' 1 Tim. i. 15. 

Obj. Aye, he came to save such sinners as St Paul was. 

Ans. Aye, saith St Paul, ' and that I might be an example to all that 
shall believe in Christ, to the end of the world,' 1 Tim. i. 16. He takes 
away that objection. And the apostle is so heavenly wise, that where he 
speaks of privileges, he enlargeth it to others. ' There is no condemnation 
to them that are in Christ Jesus,' Rom. viii. 1. 'And what shall separate 
us from the love of God?' ver. 35. But when he speaks of matter of 
abasement, that we may see that he was, in regard of his corruptions, as 
much humbled as we, then he speaks in his own person : ' wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' Rom. 
vii. 24. Therefore his comforts belong to thee. Now, as these examples 
in Scripture, and the experiences of God's children there, be apphcable to 
us, so much more the experience of God's children that are aUve. There- 
fore we should be willing to do offices of comfort in this kind. 

Those that are of ability, either men or women, they will have in their 
houses somewhat to comfort others, they will have strong waters, and cor- 
dials, and medicines ; and they account it a glory to have somewhat that 
their neighbours may be beholden to them for. And though they bestow 
it freely, yet they think and account it a sufficient recompence that they 
can be beneficial to others. People do this for things of this life, and think 
they deserve a great deal of respect for their goodness in this kind. Surely^ 
if we consider, there is a life that needs comfort more than this fading life, 
and there are miseries that pinch us more than the miseries of the body ! 
Every one should labour to have in the house of his soul somewhat, some 
strong waters of comfort, that he may be able to tell others. This refreshed 
my soul, this hath done me good ; I give you no worse than I took myself 
fii-st. This wondrously commends the comfort in the party that gives it, 
and it commends it to the party that receives it, to take benefit by the 
comforts of other men. For is it not a strengthening to our case when 
another shall say to our comfort. It was my case ? Is it not sealed by the 
evidence of two ? Surely it is a great assurance when we have another to 
tell us his experience. 

Use 1. Again, if this be God's order, that he will convey comfort to ua 
* That is, ' anticipates.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 75 

by others, then we ought to depend upon God's ordinance, we ought to ex- 
pect comfort one fi-om another, especially from the ministers, who are 
messengers of comfort. I speak it the rather, because in what degree we 
neglect any one means that God hath ordained to comfort us, though he 
be the Grod of comfort, yet in that measure we are sure to want comfort. 
And this is one principal ordinance, the ministry, and the communion of 
saints. 

Some there be that will neglect the means of salvation. They have dead 
spirits, and live and die so, for the most part. They have much ado to 
recover comfort. Those men that retire themselves, that will work all out 
of the flint themselves, they are commonly uncomfortable. God hath 
ordained one to help another, as in an arch one stone strengtheneth another. 
The ministiy especially is ordained for comfort. 

2. And likewise God hath ordained one Christian to comfort another, as 
well as the ministers. Let us therefore regard much the communion of 
saints. Let one Christian labour to comfort another, and every one labour 
to be fit to receive comfort from others, labour to have humble and wilUng 
spirits. It is so true that God doth convey comfort, even by common 
Christians as well as the ministers, that St Paul himself, Kom. i. 12 ; he 
desires to see the Romans, ' that he might receive mutual comfort from 
them.' For a minister may have more knowledge and book-learning per- 
haps than another Christian that may have better experience than he, espe- 
cially in some things ; and there is not the meanest Christian but he may 
comfort the greatest clerk in the world, and help him by his experience 
that God hath shewed to him, by declaring how God shewed him comfort 
at such a time, and upon such an occasion. The experience of God's 
people, the meanest of them may help the best Christians. Therefore he 
will have none to be neglected. 

There is never a member of Christ's body, but hath some ability to com- 
fort another ; for Christ hath no dead members. God will have it so, be- 
cause he will have one Christian to honour another, and to honour them 
from the knowledge of the use and necessity that one hath of another. If 
God should not derive comfort from one to another in some degree, and 
from the meanest to the greatest, one would despise another. But God 
will not have it so. He will have the communion of saints valued to the 
end of the world. What will one Christian regard another, what would 
weak Christians regard the strong, and what would strong Christians re- 
gard the weak, if there were not a continual supply one from another? 
Therefore God hath ordained that by the ministry, and by the communion 
of saints, we should comfort one another. 

Let us_ not think that this doth not concern us. It concerns us all. 
Therefore when we have any trouble in mind, let us regard the communion 
of saints, let us regard acquaintance. And let us know this, that God will 
hold us in heaviness till we have used all the means that he hath appointed. 
If one help not, perhaps another will ; perhaps the ministry will help, 
perhaps acquaintance will help. But if we find not comfort in one, let us 
go over all. And, would you have more ? Christ himself, did he not take 
two disciples into the garden with him when his spirit was heavy? Did 
not he know that God had ordained one to comfort another ? * Two are better 
than one,' Eccles. iv. 9. If one be alone, he shall be a-cold, but if there 
be two, they heat one another. If there be one alone, there can hardly 
be true spiritual heat. If two be together, if one fall, ' the other may 
raise him up,' Eccles. iv. 10, but if one be alone and fall, who shall raise 



76 COMMENTARY ON 

him up ? It is meant spiritually, as well as bodily aud outwardly by 
Solomon. 

We cannot have a better president* than our blessed Saviour. Solitari- 
ness in such times in spiritual desertion ' it is the hour of temptation.' 
Vfben did the devil set on Christ ? \Vhen he was alone. It was the 
fittest time to tempt him when Christ was severed. So the devil sets on 
single persons when they arc alone, and tempts them, and presseth them 
with variety of temptations. ' Woe to him that is alone,' Eccles. iv. 10, 
Christ sent his disciples by two and two, that one might comfort another, 
and one might strengthen another, Mark \i. 7. 

Now, though in particular it belong to ministers in a more eminent 
sort ; yet let every one lay it to heart, you ought to have abilities to com- 
fort others, and to receive comfort of others. And consider it is an angeli- 
cal work to comfort others. We imitate God himself, and the most excel- 
lent creatures the angels, whose office is to comfort. Even our very 
Saviour, they came to comfort him in his greatest extremity. A man is a 
god to a man when he comforts. When he discomforts, and directs, and 
withdraws, he is a devil to a man. Men are beasts to men, devils to men, 
that way. But he that is an instrument to convey comfort, he is a god to 
a man. God is the God of comfort. Thou art in the place of God to a man 
when thou comfortest him, thou shalt save thyself and others. God honours 
men with his own title when they comfort. Not only ministers, but others 
save men. Thou shalt ' gain thy brother,' by thy admonition and reproof. 
What greater honour can ye have than God's own title, to be saviours one 
of another ? It is the office, I say, of angels. They were sent to comfort 
Christ. It is their duty to pitch their tents about God's children, to sug- 
gest holy thoughts, as the devil suggests evil, and to be about us, though we 
think not of it. Nay, it is not only an angelical work, but it is the work of 
God's Spirit. The sweetest style of the Holy Ghost is to be a ' comforter.' 

What shall we think of cursed spirits that insult over others' misery, that 
give them gall to eat, and vinegar to drink, that add affliction to the afflicted ? 
What shall we say to barren spirits, that have not a word of comfort to say, 
but come in a profane and dead manner, I am sorry to see you thus, and 
I hope you will better. Barren soul, as the wilderness ! What ! a mem- 
ber of Christ, of the communion of saints, and no way furnished, no wor(?_ 
of comfort to a distressed soul ! We may know the comfort we have our- 
selves to be comfort indeed, and from the grace and favour of God, when 
we have hearts enlarged to do good to others with it. 

How do gifts and grace differ, to add that useful distinction ? And a 
man may have a great many gifts and be proud, and full of envy, and have 
a devilish poisonful spirit to draw all to himseh", and not be good, but be 
carried with self-love, and die a de^il, notwithstanding his excellent parts. 
Why ? Here are such gifts, and parts, but there is a bitter root of self- 
love to draw all to himself, to deify himself, to make an idol of himself. 
But grace with gifts works otherwise. That turns all by a spirit of love and 
humility to the good of others. 

There is no envy in a gracious heart. So fiir forth as it is gracious there 
is no pride, no scorn to do good to others. How shall we distinguish men 
of excellent parts, whether they be Christians or not Christians ? They 
have both of them wit and memory, they have both courage. Aye, but 
whether of them improve their parts and abilities most to the good of 
others ? Whether of them hath the most humble spirit, the most loving 
* That 13, 'precedent.' — G. 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 77 

Bpirit, the most discreet spirit, to be witty to do good to others upon all 
advantages. There is the Christian that hath God's grace with his gifts. 
But for the other, ' Knowledge puffeth up,' saith the apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 1, 
What edifies and builds us? ' Love edifieth,' 1 Cor. viii. 1. Knowledge 
gathers many materials, stone, and timber, &c. What builds the house, 
the body of Christ ? It is a loving and humble spirit. 

Therefore let us think that we have nothing in Christianity, by any parts 
we have, of memory or wit, or reading, &c., unless we have a humble 
spirit, that we can deny ourselves and debase ourselves to do good to others 
upon all the best advantages ; or else we have not the spirit of Christ, 
that sweet spirit of Christ that denied himself to do good to us. 

Where grace is established once, and is in the right nature, there is a 
public mind ; and it is one of the best signs of a heart that is fashioned to 
the image of Christ, who denied himself, and became all in all to us, to have 
a public mind, to have self-love killed, to think I have nothing to purpose 
as I should have, except I can make use of it to the good of others. There- 
fore let us be willing to do good in this kind. 

And as I said, let us make use of comfort from others. Think that they 
are reserved to the times and place where thou livest, that thou mightest 
make use of them. Therefore those that need comfort should not flatter 
themselves in their grief, but humbly depend upon the means that God 
hath ordained. And let every man think, what if God have hid my com- 
fort in another man ? What if he have given him ' the tongue of the learned,' 
Isa. 1. 4, to speak a word in season unto me? Let no man think to master 
his trouble and grief by himself. We are members of the body, and the 
good that God will convey to us, must be from and by others. Therefore 
it is a mutual duty. Those that have comfort ought to comfort others ; 
and those that do need comfort, ought to repair to others. It is the ordi- 
nance of God, as Job saith, for one of ' a thousand to shew a man his 
righteousness,' Job xxxiii. 23. Though a man be never so wise, yet some- 
times he knows not his own comfort. He knows not that portion of com- 
fort that belongs to him, till some others discover it to him. Physicians 
will have others to heal themselves, to judge of their diseases ; and certainly 
one reason why persons that are excellent in themselves, have passed their 
days in darkness, it hath been this, that they think to overmaster their 
heaviness and distraction of spirit with their own reason, &c., which will 
not be. God, what he will do, he will do by his own means and ordinance. 
Use 3. Let us therefore learn, hence, to see the goodness of God, that 
besides the ministry that he hath ordained, and the salvation that he keeps 
for us, and the promises that he hath given us, and the angels that attend 
us, &c., he doth even ordain others, that are men, and have bodies with 
ourselves, other fellow- Christians, to be instruments to convey comfort. 
He trains them up, that they may be able to comfort, and do good to us ; 
and he hides the good he intends to us in them, and conveys it to us by 
them. It is a special goodness of God, that evei7thing should tend to our 
good. Thus all things are for us. The sufierings of others tend to increase 
our comfort, and the comfort of others is for our comfort. There is such 
a sweet prudence in directing us to heaven, that God makes everything 
help ; not only our own troubles that we sufier ourselves, but he doth 
sweetly turn the troubles of others, and the comforts of others to our good. 
It ministereth an argument of praising and blessing of God ; and that 
we should answer him in the like, that as he hath devised all the ways that 
may be of comforting us, of turning all to our good, that that we sufi'er 



78 COMMENTARY ON 

ourselves, and that that others suffer ; so we should study by all means 
and ways to set forth his glory, and no way to grieve the Spirit of so 
gracious a God, that thus every way intends our comfort. 



VEESE 5. 

' For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolations also 
abound by Christ.' Here the blessed apostle shews the reason why his 
heart was so enlarged, as we see in ver. 3, in the midst of his troubles and 
persecutions, to bless God. There was good reason ; for as his afflictions, 
so his consolations abounded. It is a reason, likewise, of his ability to 
comfort others, the reason why he was fitted to comfort others, because 
he found comfort abound in himself in his sufferings. So they have a 
double reference to the words before. But to take the words in themselves, 

' As the sufferings of Christ abound,' dx. It is an excellent portion of 
Scripture, and that which I should have a great deal of encouragement to 
speak of, if the times and disposition of the hearers were for it ; for it is a 
text of comfort for those that suffer persecution, that suffer affliction for 
the gospel. Now, because we do not suffer, or at least we suffer not any 
great matter (except it be a reproach, or the like, which is a matter of 
nothing, but a chip of the cross, a trifle), therefore we hear these matters 
of comfort against the disgrace of the cross of Christ, with dead hearts. 
But we know not what we are reserved to ; therefore we must learn some- 
what to store up, though we have not present use of it. The several 
branches of divine truths, that may be observed from these words, are first 
this, That the sifferlngs of Christians may abound. They are many in this 
world, and they may be more still. ' For as the sufferings of Christ 
abound in us,' &c. 

Secondly, what ice ought to think of those sufferings, what judgment we are 
to have of them. ' They are the sufferings of Christ.' 

Thirdly, that being the sufferings of Christ, he tvill not destitute'^ us of 
comfort ; but we have our comfort increased in a proportion answerable to 
our troubles. * So our consolations,' &c. 

The fourth point is, by whom and in ivhom all this is. This strange 
work is by Christ. The balancing of these two so sweetly together, crosses 
and comforts, they come both from one hand, both from one spring, ' the 
sufferings of Christ,' and the comforts of Christ, and both abound. Our 
troubles are for him, and our comforts are by him. So here is sufferings 
and comfort, increase of suffering, increase of comfort, sufferings for Christ, 
and comfort by Christ. You see them balanced together, and you see 
which weighs down the balance. Comfort by Christ weighs down sufferings 
for Christ. The good is greater than the ill. It is a point of wondrous 
comfort. The ark, you know, mounted up as the waters mounted up, when 
the waters overflowed the world. So it is here in this verse. There is a 
mounting of the waters, a rising of the waters above the mountains. 
Afflictions increase, and grow higher and higher ; but be of good comfort, 
here is the ark above the waters, here is consolation above all. As our suffer- 
ings for Christ increase, so our consolations, likewise, by Chi'ist increase. 

For the first, I will be very short in it. 

Doct. The sufferings of Christ abound in us. 

* That is, ' deprive.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 5. 79 

There is nobody in this world, but fii'st or last, if they live any long time, 
they must suffer ; and as a man is in degrees of goodness, so his suiferings 
must abound. The better man, the more suiferings. Sufferings abounded 
in St Paul. It doth not abound in all. That was personal in St Paul, to 
abound in sufferings. It doth not go out of the person of St Paul, and 
such as St Paul was. All must suffer, but not in a like measure. There 
are several cups. All do not abound in sufferings, as aU do not abound in 
grace and strength. Those that are of a higher rank, their sufferings 
abound more. God doth not use an exact proportion in afflictions, but 
that which we call geometrical, a proportion apphable to the strength of 
the sufferer. Christ, as he had more strength than any, so he suffered 
more than any ; and St Paul, having an extraordinary measure of strength, 
he suffered more than all the apostles. The sufferings of Christ abounded 
in him ; but all must suffer. 

What is the reason of it ? What is the reason that troubles abound 
thus ? Surely if we look to God, the devil, the world, ourselves, we shall 
see reasons enough. 

Reason 1. If we look to God and Christ, tve are ordained to be conformable 
to Christ. We must be conformable to Christ in sufferings first, before we 
be in glory. It is God's decree, we are called to sufferings, as weU as to 
be believing. We must answer God's call. Every Christian must resolve 
to take up his cross every day, some degree of the cross or other. Reproach 
for Christ's sake is a suffering. The scorn of the world is the rebuke of 
Christ. We are called to suffering, as weU as to glory. It is part of our 
effectual calling, it is an appendix, an accessory thing to the main. We 
must take grace with suffering, and it is well we may have it so too. It is 
well that we have the state of grace here, and gloiy hereafter, with suffering. 

Reason 2. If we look to the devil, there must be sufferinr}. Satan is the 
prince of the world. He is the prince of an opposite kingdom. 

Reason 3. If we consider tchat place we live in when we are taken out oj 
the world to the blessed estate of Christians, to be members of Christ and heirs 
of heaven. The world is strange to us, and we are strangers to it. Crosses 
and afflictions are necessary for them that are travellers. We would think 
else that we were at home, and forget our country. Considering the condi- 
tion we live in, we must have sufferings. If we consider the disposition of the 
parties among whom we live, they are people of an opposite spirit. There- 
fore they malign us, because we are taken from among them ; and though 
there be no opposition shewed to them, yet it upbraids enough their cursed 
estate when they see others taken from them. That speaks loud enough 
that their course is naught, that they see others mislike it. The world, 
that is led by the spirit of Satan, maligns them that are better than them- 
selves. There is opposition between the seed of the serpent and the seed 
of the woman. So long as there are wicked men, that are instruments and 
organs of the devil, God's children m.ust be opposed. While there is a 
devil suffered to be ' the god of the world,' 2 Cor. iv. 4, and so long as he 
hath so strong a faction in the world as he hath, ' the children of dis- 
obedi himself. He takes our liberty, but he gives us 
enlargement of conscience. He takes our life, but he gives us heaven. If 
he take anything from us, for to seal his truth, and stand out in his quarrel, 
as Christ saith, he * gives an hundredfold' in this world, that is a gracious 
spirit of contentment and comfort. 

We have God himself. Hath not he more that hath the spring than he 
that hath twenty cisterns ? Those that have riches, and place, and friends, 
they have cisterns ; but he that sufiers for God, and for Christ, he hath 
Christ, he hath God, he hath the spring to go to. If all be taken from 
him, he hath God the spring to go to. If all particular beams, he hath the 
sun. It is durable, wondrous comfort to suffer for Christ's sake. 

Therefore, let it encourage us in a good course, notwithstanding all the 
opposition we meet with in the world ; let us here learn what is our duty. 
Let the malicious world judge, or say, or do what they will ; if God be on 
our side, ' who can be against us ?' Eom. viii. 33, 34. And if we suffer 
anything for Christ, he suffers with us, and in us, and he will triumph in 
us over all these sufferings at last. 

I will add no more, to set an edge upon that I have said, than this, [as J 
' they are the sufferings of Christ,' we should be many ways encouraged to 
suffer for him. For did not he suffer for us that, which if all the creatures 
in heaven and earth had suffered, they would have sunk under it, the wrath 
of God ? And what good have we by his sufferings ? Are we not freed 
from hell and damnation ? and have we not title to heaven ? Hath he 
suffered in his person so much for us, and shall not we be content to suffer 
for him, and his mystical body, that in his own body suffered so much for us ? 

Again, when we suffer in his quarrel, we suffer not only for him that 
suffered for us, but we suffer for him that sits at the right hand of God, 
that is glorious in heaven, ' the King of kings, and Lord of lords.' Our 
sufferings are sufferings for him that hath done so much for us, and for 
him that is so able now to over-rule all, to crush our enemies ; for him 
that is so able now to minister comfort by his Spirit. This is a notable 
encouragement, that they are the sufferings of Christ, that is, so glorious 
as he is, and that will reward every suffering, and every disgrace. We 
shall be paid well for every suffering. We shall lose nothing. 

And will not this encourage us likewise to sufler for Christ's sake, because 
he will be with us in all our sufferings. He will not leave us alone. It is 
his cause, and he will stand by his own cause. He will maintain his own 
quarrel. He will cause comfort to increase. Is it not an encouragement 
to defend a prince's quarrel in his own sight, when he stands by to abet us? 
It would encourage a dull mettle. When we suffer for Christ's cause, we 
have Christ to defend us. He is with us in all our sufferings to bear us up. 
He puts his shoulder under, by his Holy Spirit, to support us. 

We cannot live long in this world. We owe God a death. We owe 
nature a death. The sentence of death is passed upon us. We cannot enjoy 
the comfort of this world long. And for favour and applause of the world, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, \'EE. 5. 85 

we must leave it, and it will leave us, we know not how soon. And this 
meditation should enforce us to be willing, however it go with us, for any- 
thing here, for life, or goods, or friends, or credit and reputation, or what- 
soever, to be willing to seal the cause of Christ with that which is dearest 
to us. ' If we suffer with him, we shall be glorified with him,' Rom. viii. 17. 

The very sufferings of Christ are better than the most glorious day of 
the greatest monarch in the world that is not a Christian. It is better to 
suffer with Christ, than to joy with the world. The very abasement of St 
Paul was better than the triumph of Nero. Let Moses be judge. He 
judged it the best end of the balance, Heb. xi. 26. The very sufferings 
and reproach of Christ, and of religion, is better than the best thing in the 
world. The worst thing in Christianity, is better than the best thing out 
of Christ. The best thing out of Christ is the honour of a king, the honour 
of a prince, to be a king's son, &c. But the reproach of Christ for a good 
cause is better than the best thing in the world. I say, let Moses be judge, 
if we will not believe it om'selves till we feel it. The woi'st day of a Chris- 
tian is better than the best day of a carnal man ; for he hath the presence 
of God's Spirit to support him in some measure. 

Therefore let us not be afraid beforehand. ' Fear nothing,' saith the 
■apostle, ' that thou shalt suffer,' Acts xx^^i. 24. And with Moses, let ' us 
"not be ashamed of the rebuke of Christ,' Heb. xi. 26 ; but ' let us go out 
of the camp with Christ, bearing our reproach,' Heb. xiii. 13. And because 
we know not what God may call us to, let us entertain presently a resolu- 
tion to endure whatsoever in this world God calls us to ; to pass through 
thick and thin, to pass through all kinds of ways to the ' hope of our glorious 
calling,' Philip, iii. 14 ; if by any way, by any means,' saith St Paul, ' I 
may attain the resurrection of the dead,' Philip, iii. 11 : if by any means 
I may come to heaven, by fair death, or by violent death. He scorned 
reproach, if by any means he might be happy. 

And for others, it is a wondrous quailing to the spiiits of men that offer 
any ^vrong, if it be but a disgrace. A scoff is a persecution to a Christian 
for a good cause. When wicked men oppose a Christian in a good cause 
and course, let us learn what they do, they ' kick against the pricks,' Acts 
ix. 5. Do they know what they do ? "When they reproach Christians, it 
is the ' reproach of Christ,' Heb. xi. 26. What was Ishmael's scorning ? 
A persecution. Gal. iv. 29 Christ is scorned in his members. Will he 
endure this at their hands ? When good causes are opposed, Christ is 
opposed, and Christ is scoffed. This doth enable-^ om* suffering, being an 
abasing of itself, that Christ accounts it done to him. 

Base men of the world, they think when they scoff at goodness, and 
wrong the image of God in his children, they think they deride and despise 
a company of weak creatures, that they scoff at silly persons meaner than 
themselves. But they are deceived. They scoff Christ in them, and he 
takes it so, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' Acts Lx. 4. The foot 
is trod on the earth, and the head speaks from heaven. It is the reproach 
of Christ ; and it will be laid to thy charge at the day of judgment, that 
thou hast scoffed, and persecuted, and i-eproached Christ in his members. 
It will be a heavy indictment. Men should not regard what they conceive 
of things ; but what he that must be their judge will conceive of things ere 
long ; and he interprets it as done to his own person. It is true both of 
good and ill. Whatsoever good we do to a Christian as a Christian, to a 
disciple in the name of a disciple, Christ takes it as done to himself, 
* That is, ' strengthen us in suffering.' — G. 



86 COMMENTARY ON 

* Inasmucli as you have done it to these, you have done it to me,' Mat. 
XXV. 40. 

It should animate us to do good offices to those that are Christ's. What 
we do to them, we do to Christ. Let us be willing to refresh the bowels 
of Christ in his members, at home or abroad, as occasion serves ; to main- 
tain the quarrel of Christ as much as we can, to relieve Christ. He comes 
to us in the poor, and asks relief. He that shed his blood for us, he that 
died for us, he that hath given us all, asks a little pittance for himself; that 
we for his sake would be so good to him in his members, as to do thus and 
thus ; that for Jonathan's sake we would regard poor, lame Mephibosheth, his 
son, 2 Sam. ix. 1, seq. Christ, though he be gone, he hath some Mephi- 
bosheths, some poor, weak members ; and what offices we do them, he 
accounts done to himself. It runs on his score. He will be accountable 
for every good word we speak in his cause, for every defence, for every act 
of bounty. It is a point of large meditation to consider, that the crosses 
and afflictions of Christians, they are the sufferings of Christ. 

Do but consider the Spirit of God intended in this phrase, to dignify all 
disgraces and indignities that are put upon us in a good cause and quarrel. 
Could he have said more in few words ? He calls them not disgraces, or 
losses, or death ; but he puts such a comfortable title upon them, that 
might make us in love with suffering anything, and set us on fire to endure 
anything in a good cause. They are the ' sufferings of Christ.' 

' As the sufferings of Christ abound, so our consolations,' &c. The third 
general point is, that our consolations are 2iroportionahle to our sufferings. 
' Our consolations abound.' We suffer in this world. That is hard. Aye, 
but they are the sufferings of Christ. There is sweetness. And then an- 
other degree is, our consolations abound as our sufferings abound. Con- 
solation is, as I shewed before in the unfolding of the word, an inward 
support of the soul against trouble felt or feared ; and it must be stronger 
than the grievance, or else the action of comfort will not follow. There is 
a disproportion between the agent and the patient, in all prevailing actions, 
or else there is no prevailing. If the comfort be not above the malady, it 
is no comfort. And therefore no comforts but divine comforts will stand 
at length, because in all other comforts set^ef mediciufim morbo* the malady 
is above the remedy. They make glorious pretences, as the philosophers 
do, Plutarch and Seneca, and the rest. But they are as apothecaries' 
boxes. They have goodly titles, but there is nothing within. 

Alas ! when there is trouble in the conscience, awakened with the sight 
of sin, and the displeasure of God, what can all those precepts compose 
and frame the soul in pett^y troubles ? They have their place ; and surely 
the neglect of them many times is that that makes the cross heavier. But 
alas ! in divine troubles, in terror of conscience, it must be divine comfort. 
It must be of like nature, or else the effect of comfort will never follow ; 
and those be the comforts that he means here. As our troubles and afflic- 
tions abound, so our consolations, our divine supports, they abound. The 
point is this, that 

Doct. Our comforts are proportionable to orir sufferings. 

What did I say, proportionable ? It is above all proportion of suffering. 
As it is said, ' the afflictions of this life are not woiihy of the glory that 
shall be revealed,' Eom. viii. 18. And indeed in this life the consolations 
abound as the sufferings abound. For God keeps not aU for the life to 
come. He gives us a taste, a grape of Canaan, before we come to Canaan, 
* Qu. ' cedit medicina morbo?' —'Ea'D. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, \^E. 5. 87 

As the Israelites, they sent for grapes to taste the goodness of the land, 
and they had them brought to them by the spies, by which they might 
guess of the fruitfulness and sweetness of the land itself. So the taste and 
relish that God's children have of that fulness which is reserved in another 
world, it is answerable and proportionable to their sufferings; and in the 
proportion, the exceeding part is of comfort. There is an exceeding, if not 
for the present, yet afterwards. The ark did rise together with the water, 
and comforts rise together with matter of suffering. 

But what is the reason of the proportion ? Why the greatest comforts 
follow the greatest sufferings ? What is the gi'ound of it ? They are many. 

Reason 1. To name some: fh'st of all, this is a ground that the more 
capable the soul is of coinfort, the more comfort it receives. But great 
troubles bring a capacity and capableness of soul, fitting it to receive 
comfort. How is that ? Troubles do humble the soul, and humility is a 
grace, and the vessel of all grace, and of comfort too. A low and meek 
spirit is a deep spirit, and the lower and deeper, and the larger the spirit 
is, the more capable it is to contain heavenly comfoi't. We know the more 
empty a man is of himself, the more fit he is for comfort ; but crosses and 
affiictions empty us of ourselves, to see that there is nothing in us, that 
what we are we must be out of ourselves ; and the less we are in ourselves, 
the more we are in God. And that is the reason that St Austin saith, that 
nothing is more strong than a humble, empty spirit ; because it makes the 
creature to go out of itself to him that is strength itself, and comfort itself. 
Now, that which makes us go out of ourselves to strength, that is strong. 
But this doth crosses and affiictions. That is the main reason why the 
proportion holds. 

Reason 2. Again, another reason is this, troubles, and afflictions, and crosses 
do exercise graces ; and the more grace is exercised, the more comfort is 
derived, for comfort follows graces. The comforts of the Spirit follow the 
graces of the Spirit, as the heat follows the fire, or as the shadow follows 
the body. Now, the more gi'ace, the more comfort : the more afiliction, 
the more exercise of grace ; the more exercise of grace, the more grace it- 
self; as we see, the deeper the root the higher the tree. After the sharpest 
winter usually there is the sweetest spring, and the ft'uitfulest summer and 
autumn ; because in the sharpest winter the gi'ound is mellowed most, and 
the seed sinks the deepest ; and the gi'ound is inwardly warmed, the soil, 
the earth is prepared for it ; and thereupon, when the outward heat comes 
to draw it forth, it comes to be abundantly fi'uitful. We see it in nature, 
that that we call antiperistasis,''' the environing of one contrary with an- 
other increaseth the contrary. Whatsoever is good is increased, being en- 
vironed by the contrary ill, because they are put to the conflict. 

So it is with the soul. It is the showers of affliction that bring the sweet 
flowers of comfort after. The soul is prepared and manm-ed for them. 
The soul is exercised, and enlarged, and fitted for them every way. ' In the 
multitude of my son*ows, thy comforts refreshed my soul,' saith David, Ps. 
xciv. 19. Answerable to our discomforts, God's comforts refresh our souls. 

Reason 3. And God is so wise, tJtat before ive enter to suffer any great matter, 
he tcill give us more grace answerable to the greatness of our suffering, and after 
great suffering he will give great comfort. God is so infinitely loving and 
wise, that he will not call us to sufl'er gi-eat troubles till he give us some 
grace answerable. As a captain will not set a fi^esh-water soldier in a 

* That is, ' avTiTTiperasic, opposition or counteraction of the surrounding parts ; 
in rhetoric as explained above.' — G. 



88 COMMENTAEY ON 

sharp brunt, but some experienced man. "Whatsoever wisdom is in man, 
it is but a drop in regard of that infinite wisdom that is in God. He pro- 
portions our strength before we sufi"cr, and in sufi'ering he doth increase it ; 
and after suffering, then comfort comes following amain. Indeed, especially 
after a little while waiting, for God's time is the best time. 

Eeason 4. And we shall have most experience of the presence of Christ 
and his Holy Spirit at such times. The nearer to the spring of comfort, 
the more comfort. But in the deepest and sharpest afflictions, we are 
near to God. Therefore the more comfort. 

How is this proved ? The more we are stripped of outward comforts, 
the more near we are to God, who is stj'led the ' God that comforteth 
the abject,' Job xxix. 25 ; and the nearer to God, the nearer to comfort it- 
self. For all comfort springs from him ; and when outward means fail 
that should convey comfort to us, then he conveys it immediately by him- 
self. I confess he is present at all times ; but when the comfort is con- 
veyed by the creature, by man, it is not so sweet as when God joins with 
the soul immediately, as in great crosses he doth. Such occasion, and 
such extremity may be, that none can comfort a man but God, by his 
Spirit. When Christ comes to the soul immediately, what abundance of 
comfort is there then ! As a king that doth not send a messenger, but 
comes immediately in his own person to visit one in misery, what a grace 
is it ! So what a grace is it to a soul afflicted and deserted, to have Christ 
immediately present ! As the martyrs found, when no other creature could 
comfort them, there was a fire within above all the outward fire and tor- 
ment, which abated and allayed the torments that were without. The 
divinest comforts are kept for the harshest and the vvorst times. We shall 
have the presence of Christ in the absence of all other creatures, and he 
will minister comfort. They may keep outward comforts from us, they 
can never keep the God of comfort from us ; and so long as a Christian 
soul and God can close together, it cannot want comfort. 

Reason 5. Another reason why comforts increase, because tee praij most 
then. When we pray most, we are most happy. But in our greatest 
sufiterings we pray most, and most ardently. Therefore then we feel most 
comfort. When God and a Christian soul can talk together, and have 
communion, though he cannot speak to God with his tongue, yet he can 
sigh and groan to God. He can pour forth his spirit to God, and as long 
as we can pray we can never be miserable ; as long as the heart can ease 
itself into the bosom of God, there will alway be a return of a sweet answer. 
Of all the exercises of religion, that exercise that hath most immediate com- 
munion with God is prayer. Then we speak familiarl}' to God in his own 
language and words, and call upon him by his own promises. We allege 
those to him, and this cannot be, we cannot speak, and confer, and con- 
verse with the God of comfort without a great deal, without a world, of com- 
fort. Great crosses drive us to this, and therefore then we have great comfort. 

Use 1. What use may we make of this '? First, for ourselves, we should* 
not fear nor faint, neither faint in troubles nor fear troubles. Faint not in 
them. We shall have comfort proportionable ; and let us not fear troubles 
before they come, or any measure of them. Proportionable to the measure 
of our afflictions shall be our comfort. Let us not fear anything we shall 
Bulfer in this world in a good cause ; for as we suffer so we shall receive 
from God, We fear our fiwn good. For it is better to have the comfort 
we shall have in sufferiii ' ;i,nything for a good cause, than to be exempted 
* Mis rinted ' would.'— G. 



2 COEIXTHIAXS CH.VP. I, VER. 5. 60 

from the suffering and to want the comfort. There is no proportion. The 
choice is much better, to have comfort with gi-ievance than to want the 
comfort together with the grievance. St Paul would not have chosen im- 
munity from suffering, he would not have been exempted from the cross to 
have wanted his comfort. 

For the disproportion is wide and great. The comforts are inward and 
sweet, the crosses, for the most part, are outward. What are all the crosses 
and sufferings in this world ? Set aside an afflicted conscience, it is but 
brushing of the garment, as it were ; some outward thing in the outward 
man, but the comforts are inward and deep. 

But what if there be inward grievances too ? Then we have deeper com- 
forts than they. The cross is never so deep but the comfort is deeper. 
' Oh the depth of the wisdom and love of God ! ' Kom. xi. 23. There is 
the part and dimension of God's love, the depth of it ! There is a depth 
in crosses. ' Out of the deep have I cried to thee,' Ps. cxxx. 1. But there 
is a deeper depth of comfort, there is a hand under to fetch us up at the 
lowest. ' Thy right hand is upon me, and thy left hand is under me,' Song of 
Sol. ii. 6, saith the church to God. There is comfort lower and deeper 
than the giievauce, though it be inward, spiritual grievance. Nay, of all 
grievances (I know what I speak a little of mine own experience, and it is 
true in the experience of all ministers and Christians, that) there is none 
that have more help than they that are exercised with spiritual temptations 
of conscience. They are forced to search for deep comforts. Shallow 
comforts will not serve their turn ! And when they have them, they keep 
them, and make much of them. They have more retired and deep thoughts 
of Christ, and of comforts than other people, who as they are strangers to 
their crosses, so they are strangers to their comfort. There is no degree of 
proportion between the crosses and the comforts. The crosses are momen- 
tary, the comforts are growing. The crosses make us not a whit the worse, 
and the comforts make us better. Fear nothing therefore ; but go on in 
the ways of religion, and never be discouraged to suffer in a good cause 
for fear of men, to think, Oh this will come, and that will come. No, no ; 
if the sufferings grow, the comforts shaU grow with it, be of good comfort. 

Use 2. Again, another use may be, that ive judge aright of those that are 
disgraced in the ivorld, if their cause be good ; that we should not have dis- 
tasteful conceits of them, as indeed suffering breeds distaste naturally in 
men. They love men in a flourishing estate, and distaste them suffering ; 
but that is corruption of men. But God is the nearest to them then, 
nearer than ever he was, and their comforts increase with their crosses. 
In the conjunction between the sun and the moon, as by experience we see, 
in the space between the old and new moon, there is a time of conjunction. 
We think the moon to be lost in that time, because we see her not ; but 
the moon is more enlightened then, than ever she was in herself. But 
here is the reason, the light part of the moon is turned to the sunward, 
to heavenward, and the dark part is turned toward the earth. So a Chris- 
tian in crosses and abasement seems to be a dark creature, but he is more 
enlightened then, than ever before? Why? His light part is to Godward, 
it is not seen of the world. The world sees his crosses, luit they do not 
see his comforts. And as the moon is nearer the sun at that time than at 
other times ; so the soul hath to deal with God in afflictions. It is nearer 
to God, and his dark side is toward the world. As the v.'orld sees the 
moon's ecHpse, so the world sees our darkness, but not our inward comfort. 
Therefore we should ^!iidge aright of others in this case. 



90 COMMENTARY ON 

Use 3. Another use shall be of thankfulness to God, that besides the 
comforts of heaven (which are not to be spoken of, and which we shall not 
know till we come to feel them), besides the great comfort we have to be 
free from hell, that we have a measure of comfort here in this world, in our 
pilgrimage, and absence from heaven, such a measure of comfort, as may 
carry us with comfort along. We ought to be thankful to God, not only 
for redemption and glorification, but that God comforts us in our pilgri- 
mage, that he mingles crosses with comforts ; nay, that in this world our 
comforts are more than our crosses. 

Ohj. Some may object. Aye, but my crosses are more than my comforts ? 

Ans. Are they so ? Dost thou suffer in a good cause or no ? If thou 
dost, thy comforts are more than thy crosses, if there be not a fault in thee. 

Quest. "What shall I do therefore ? 

First, Take this direction in suffering, pull out the sting of sin, though 
we suffer in never so good a cause, for in one suffering, God aims at divers 
things. God in thy suffering aims at thy correction, as well as at the exer- 
cise of thy grace and at thy comfort. Therefore, let affliction have the 
correcting and amending part first, and then the comforting part will 
follow. Though the cause be good, yet God's children offctimes want com- 
fort till afterward. Why ? They have not renewed their repentance, and 
cleansed their souls. They have not pulled out the sting. When they have 
repented of their personal sins that lie upon them, and gone back to the sins 
of their youth, and then renewed their covenant with God, and their pur- 
poses for the time to come, then comes comfort, and not before. Therefore 
it is no disparagment to a good cause, that sometimes Christians find not 
present comfort. They have personal sins that hang on them, that are not 
repented of, which God intends to amend them of, as well as to honour 
them by suffering in his cause. 

Second. Again, if God's children complain, that iheir sufferings are above 
their strength, and above measure, and desire God to weigh their afflictions, 
they are so great, as Job saith, — it is the speech of sense and not of faith, it is 
the speech of the fit, and not of the state. There is a fit and a state. It 
is no matter what they saj' in their fit, then the flesh and sense speak, and 
not grace and faith at that time. If they judge by sense, then they judge 
so, but we know that reason corrects the errors of sense, and faith corrects 
the errors of reason. But what do they say in their constant state ? Their 
comforts are answerable to their crosses, either in suffering or afterwards, 
though not alway at the same time. So much for that. 

But this will be abused by carnal persons. We speak of abundance of 
comfort, but it is to those that have interest in it. The book of God speaks 
no comfort to persons that live in sin, and will do so. We speak comfort 
to those that are broken-hearted for their sins, that are content to endure 
the reproach of religion in despite of the world, that will bear the cross 
of Christ. For the other, as their jollity increaseth in the world, so their 
crosses and troubles shall increase. As it is said. Rev. xviii. 17, of mysti- 
cal Babylon, the Church of Rome, that hath flourished in the world a great 
while, and sat as a queen and blessed herself, ' As she glorified herself, and 
lived deliciouslj^ so much torment and sorrow give her.' So it is true of 
every wicked man that is in an evil course, and will be, and as the Scripture 
phrase is, ' blesseth himself in an evil course,' they shall be sure of the 
curse of God, and not of comfort. For in what proportion they have do- 
lighted themselves in this world in sin, in that proportion they shall have 
toi-ment of conscience, if conscience be awaked in this world ; and in that 



2 CORIXTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 5. 91 

proportion they shall have torment in the world to come. As sin is grow- 
ing, so rods are growing for them. Wicked men, saith St Paul, ' they 
grow worse and worse,' 2 Tim. iii. 13. The more they sin, the more they 
may. They sink in rebellion, and the more they sink in rebellion, the 
more they sink in the state of damnation. They fill up the measm'e of 
their sins, and treasure up the -no-ath of God against the day of wrath. 
Whosoever thou art that livest in a sinful course, and will do so in spite of 
God's ordinance, in spite of the motions of the Spirit, that hast the good 
motions of the Spirit knocking at thy soul, and yet wilt rather refuse com- 
fort than take comfort, together with direction, go on still in this thy wicked 
course, but remember, as thy comforts increase in this world, so thy torment 
is increasing. And here is the disproportion between God's children and others. 
They have their sufferings first, and their comfort afterward ; but others have 
their pleasure first, and their torment after. Theirs are for a time, but 
others for ever. Thus we see what we may comfortably observe from this, 
that comforts increase as crosses increase. 

A word of the fourth and last point. 

How comes this to pass, that as our afflictions abound, so our consolations 
abound ? 

Doct. They abound by Christ, saith the apostle, God the Father, he is 
the God of comfort ; the Holy Ghost is the comforter. But how comes 
this to pass, that we that are not the objects of comfort, but of con- 
fusion, should have God the Father to be the ' God of comfort,' and the 
Holy Ghost ' to be our comforter ?' Oh, it is that Jesus Christ, the great 
peace-maker, hath satisfied God, and procured the Holy Ghost ; for the 
Holy Ghost is procured by the satisfaction and death of Christ, and he was 
sent after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Therefore Christ is 
called ' the consolation of Israel,' Luke ii. 25, and those that waited for 
Christ waited for the consolation of Israel. All comfort is hid in Christ. 
He is the storehouse of comfort. ' We have it through him, and by him, 
and in him.' For that God is the ' Father of comfort,' it is because Christ 
is our mediator and intercessor in heaven ; that the Holy Ghost is ' the 
comforter,' it is because Christ sent him. And the comforts of the Holy 
Ghost are fetched from Christ, from the death of Christ, or the ascension 
of Christ, from some argument from Christ. Whatsoever comforteth the 
soul, the Holy Ghost doth it by fetching some argument from Christ, from 
his satisfaction, from his worth, from his intercession in heaven. Some- 
thing in Christ it is. So Christ by his Spirit doth comfort, and the rea- 
sons fetched by the Spirit are from Christ. Therefore it is by Christ. 

What is the reason that a Christian soul doth not fear God as ' a con- 
suming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, but can look upon him with comfort ? It is 
because God hath received satisfaction by Christ. What is the reason that 
a Christian soul fears not hell, but thinks of it with comfort ? Chi-ist hath 
conquered hell and Satan. What is the reason that a Christian fears not 
death ? Christ by death hath overcome death, and him that had the power 
of death, the devil. Christ is mine, saith the Christian soul. Therefore I 
do not fear it, but think of it with comfort, because a Christian is more 
than a conqueror over all these. AVhat is the reason that a Christian is 
not afraid of his corruptions and sins ? He knows that God, for Christ's 
sake, will pardon them, and that the remainder of his corruptions will work 
to his humiliation, and to his good. ' All shall work for the best to them 
that love God,' Rom. viii. 28. What is the reason that there is not any 
thing in the world but it is comfortable to a Christian ? When he thinks 



92 COJUIENTARY ON 

of God, he thiuks of him as a Father of comfort ; when he thinks of the 
Holy Ghost, he thinks of him as a Spirit of comfort ; when he thinks of 
angels, he thinks of them as his attendants ; v.hen he thinks of heaven, he 
thinks of it as of his inheritance ; he thinks of saints as a communion whereof 
he is partaker. Whence is all this ? By Christ, who hath made God our 
Father, the Holy Ghost our comforter, who hath made angels ours, saints 
ours, heaven ours, earth ours, devils ours, death ours, all ours, in issue. 

For God being turned in love to us, all is turned. Our crosses are no 
curses now, but comforts ; and the bitterest crosses jield the sweetest com- 
forts. All this is by Christ, that hath turned the course of things, and hid 
blessings in the greatest crosses that ever were. And this he did in him- 
self, before he doth it in us. For did not his gi'eatest crosses tend to his 
greatest glory ? who ever in the world was abased as our head Christ Jesus 
was ? that made him cry, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' 
Mat. XV. 34. All the creatm-es in the world would have sunk under the 
sufferings that Christ endured. What abasement to the abasement of 
Christ ? and what glory to the glory of Christ ? ' He humbled himself to 
the death of the cross ; wherefore God gave him a name above all names, 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, both of things in 
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth,' Phil. ii. 8. Now 
as it was in our head, his greatest abasement ushered in his greatest glory ; 
so it shall be in us, — our greatest crosses are before our greatest comforts. 
He is our president.* He is the exemplary cause as well as the efficient 
working cause. It is by Christ all this, that consolations abound in us. It 
was performed first in him, and shall be by him, by his Spirit to the end 
of the world. 

Use. The use that we are to make of this is, that in all our sufferings, 
before we come to heaven, ?/'<? should look to Christ. He hath turned all 
things. Let us study Christ, and fetch comfort from him. Our flesh was 
abased in him. Our flesh is glorified in him now in heaven, in his person. 
And so it must be in our own persons. Our flesh must be abased, and 
then as he is glorious in heaven, so shall we be in ourselves. That very 
Spirit that raised and advanced him at the lowest, that very Spirit (there 
being but one Spirit in the head and members) in our greatest abasement 
shall vouchsafe us the greatest advancement that we can look for, to sit at 
the right hand of God, to reign with Christ ; ' for if we suffer with him, we 
shall reign with him,' Rom. viii. 17. 

And hence you may have a reason likewise why Christians have no more 
comfort. They do not study Christ enough. They consider not Christ, 
and the nearness wherein Christ is to them, and they to Christ, that both 
make one Christ. They do not consider how Christ hath sweetened all. 
He hath turned God, and turned all to us. He hath made God our Father, 
and in him all things favourable unto us. So that now the fixe is our 
friend, the stone, and the gout, and all diseases, disgi-ace and temptation, 
all are at peace and league with us ; all is turned in the use and issue to 
good, to the help and comfort of God's children (/.•). ' All things are yours, 
and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 23. There is not the 
worst thing but it is at peace with us ; because the malignant power it 
hath, in order to damnation, is taken away. Now it doth not hurt us, but 
there is a sovereign curing power to turn it to good. 

I confess God's children are discomforted, but then they wrong their 
principles, they wrong their grounds, their religion, their Saviour. They 
* That is. ' precedent' = exemplar. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. 1, VER. 6. 93 

wrong all the comforts tliey have interest in, because they do not improve 
them when occasion serves, as Job is checked, * Hast thou forgot the con- 
solations of the Almighty ?' Job xv. 11, or why dost thou forget them ? So 
if we have consolations and forget them, and doat and pore upon our 
grievance, it is just with God to leave us comfortless ; not that we want any 
comfort, but we flatter our grievance and forget our comfort. Let us change 
our object, and when we have looked upon our grievance, and been humbled 
in the sight of our sins, let us look upon the promises, let us look upon 
Christ in glory, and see ourselves in heaven triumphing with him. 

What can terrify a soul ? not death itself, when it sees itself in Christ 
triumphing. Faith sees me as well triumphing in heaven, and sitting at 
the right hand of God, as it doth Christ, for it knows I am a member of 
Christ, and whatsoever is between me and that happiness, that is reserved 
for me in heaven, I shall triumph over it. 

Christ triumphed in his own person over death, hell, sin, the grave, the 
devil, and he will triumph in me his mystical body. What he hath done 
in himself, he will do in me. This faith will overcome the world, and the 
devil, and hell, and all that is between us and heaven. A Christian that 
sees himself sitting at the right hand of God wdth Christ, triumphing with 
him, he is discouraged at nothing ; for faith that makes things to come 
present, it sees him conquering already. 

Let us be exhorted to joy, ' Rejoice, and again I say rejoice,' Philip. 
iv. 4. We have reason to do so, if we look to our grounds. But when we 
yield to Satan, and our own flesh, we rob God of his glory and om-selves of 
comfort, but we may thank ourselves for it. 

But I come to the sixth verse, wherein the apostle enlarge th himself, by 
shewing the end of his sufierings in regard of them, by setting down both 
parts, both affliction and comfort. 



VERSE 6. 

' Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation : or whe- 
ther ive be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' It is much 
in everything, how the mind is prepared to receive what is spoken. The 
apostle, therefore, to make way for himself in their hearts, he removes scandal 
from his sufierings, and he shews that it was so far that they should take 
ofience at it, that they ought to do as he did, to bless God for it ; for as the 
sufierings of Christ abounded in him, so his comfort abounded. And because 
they should think themselves no way hurt by his sufierings and base usage 
in the world, he tells them in the verse that all was for their good. No 
man should be ofiended at his own good. They had no reason to take 
scandal at that which was for their good ; but, saith he, if you think basely 
of me for my sufierings, you think basely of your own comfort : for my 
sufierings are for your good, and my comforts are for your good. Whether 
I suffer or be comforted, it is for you. 

The cross is a distasteful thing to us, and likewise the cross in others is 
a distasteful thing, not only distasteful and bitter to us, but shameful. St 
Paul knowing this, because he would, as I said, work himself into their 
good conceit, that he might prevail with them for their good, saith he, you 
ought not to think a whit the worse of me for this, for all is for you. So 
you see the scope of the words, ' Whether we be afflicted, it is for your 
consolation,' &c. 



94 COMMENTARY ON 

But first he speaks of affliction alone, and then of comfort alone. If we 
be afflicted, it is for j'our good ; and if we be comforted, it is for your good. 
His reason is, because sometimes afflictions appear without comfort. 
Therefore he saith not, ' If we be comforted only, it is for your good ;' but 
' If we be afflicted, it is for your good.' Sometimes comfort is before our 
afflictions. That we may endure it the better, God cheers us to it. Some- 
times God sheds his Spirit in affliction, that there is abundance of comfort 
in it. But for the most part it comes after, after we have waited ; but in 
it there is always such a measure of comfort that supports us, that we sink 
not. Yet the special degree of comfort usually comes after. Therefore he 
speaks of affliction in the first place. ' If I be afflicted, it is for you,' &c. 

The point is easy, that 

Doct. The afflictions of the saints are for the good of others. 

The afflictions of God's church are God's people's, especially the afflic- 
tions of pastors and leaders of God's army. God singles out some to sufier 
for the good of others ; the good especially of consolation and salvation, for 
these two goods. 

Quest. How can this be, that the afflictions of God's people are for the 
consolation and salvation of others ? 

Ans. I answer, many ways, as we shall see afterwards more particu- 
larly : but only now to make way. 

1. Afflictions are for the good and comfort of others, because we have their 
example in suffering, to train us up how to suffer. Example is a forcible kind 
of teaching. Therefore, saith the apostle, our afflictions are for you, to 
lead and teach you the way how to suffer. Words are not enough, espe- 
cially in matter of suffering. There must be some example. Therefore 
Christ from heaven came, not only to redeem us, but to teach us, not only 
by words, but by example, how to do, and suffer willingly, and cheerfully, 
and stoutly, in obedience to God, as he did. 

2. Again, afflictions do good to others, by ministering occasion to them to 
search deeper into the cause. When they see the people of God are so used, 
they take occasion hereby to inquire what is the cause, and so take occasion 
to be instructed deeply in matters of religion ; for man's nature is inquisi- 
tive, and grace takes the hint off anything. What is the matter that such 
and such endure such things ? Hereupon, I say, they come to be better 
grounded in the cause, and little occasions ofttimes are the beginnings of 
great matters ; by reason that the spirit as well as wit is of a working nature, 
and will draw one thing from another. We see what a great tree riseth of 
a little seed ! how a little thing, upon report, worketh conversion. Naaman 
the Assyrian had a seiwant, and she told him that there was a prophet in 
Jewry that was a famous man, that did great matters, and if he would go 
to him, he should be cured of his leprosy. That little occasion being minis- 
tered, Naaman comes to the prophet, and he was cured of a double leprosy, 
both of soul and body, and went home a good man, 2 Kings v. 1, seq. So by 
way of ministering occasion of inquisition, the sufferings of others do good. 

3. And then, seeing the constant and resolute spirits of those that 
suffer, it doth them good, and comforts them : for, first, it makes them con- 
ceive well of the cause: certainly these men that sufier constantly, and 
cheerfully, it is a good cause that they suffer for, when they see the cause 
is such a resolution and courage in the sufferers. And it makes them in 
love with, and begin to think well of, the persons, when they can deny them- 
selves. Surely these men care not for the pleasures and vanities of the 
world, that can endure to suffer these. So Justin Martyr saith when he 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 6. 95 

saw Christians suffer ; he thought they were men that cared not for plea- 
sures ; for if they had, they would not suffer these things (Ij. 

4. Besides, they can gather from the presence of God's Spirit emboldening 
the sufferers, what they may hope for themselves if they should suffer. They 
may reason thus : Is God by his Spirit so full and so strong in these that 
are flesh and blood as we are ? Is he so strong in women, in young men, 
m aged naen, that neither their years, nor their sex, nor their tenderness, 
can any kmd of way hinder them from these kind of abasements and sharp 
suffermgs ?_ Surely the same Spirit of God will be as strong in me, if I 
stand out in the same cause, and carry myself as they do. And there is 
good reason, for God is the same God, the Spirit is the same Spirit, the 
cause IS the same cause. Therefore it is no false reasoning. I may, upon 
a good presumption, hope for the presence and assistance of the Spirit of 
God to enable and strengthen me as he did them ; for the same Spirit of 
God will be strong in all. 

5. And this is partly likewise in the intent of them that siffer. There is 
a double intent. It is the intent of God to single them out to suffer for the 
good of others ; and it is their intent to suffer that others may have good. 
This IS one reason why they are willing rather to suffer shame, or bodily 
punishment, than they will hmder others of the good they may take by 
their suffering._ So it is God's end, and their end. It is for your consola- 
hon, in God's mtent, and in my intent and purpose, and in the event itself. 
Thus you see how afflictions, suffered in good cause, help for the consola- 
tion and salvation even of others. The example of those that suffer flow 
mto the mmd, and insinuate into the judgment and affection, of the beholders 
many ways. 

And this the factors of antichrist know very well ; for if ever there be 
any persecution again, we shall hardly have fire and faggot, that they may 
not give example. They will come to gunpowder plots and massacres, and 
such violent courses, to sweep away all. They know if it come to matter 
of example once, the grace of God in his children, and the presence of his 
Spirit, that shall appear to others, it is of a wondrous working force. They 
are wise enough to know that. The devil teacheth them that wit, when he 
hath been put by all his other shifts. 

If it be so that the sufferings of God's children are for the good of others, 
then to make some use of it. 

Use 1. Let us not take offence at the cause of religion for suffering. We 
ought not to have an ill conceit of a cause for suffering, but rather think the 
better of it. I speak it in this regard, we have many that will honour 
the martyrs that are dead, that are recorded in the book, but if any suffer 
m the present view, before their eyes, they are disgraceful to them. This 
should not be. For, first of all, if the cause be good, the end of good men 
(by the help of the Spirit of God) is for thy good. Was it not a cruel thing 
m Saul to strike at David when he played on his harp, when he sought his 
good and easement ? 1 Sam. xviii. 10, 11. To kill a nightingale in singing, 
it is a barbarous thing. God's children, by all that they suffer, intend the 
good of others. Now, to hurt and malign them in doing good, to persecute 
them that endure ill for our good, or that labour and do anything for our 
good, it IS a barbarous, savage thing. All is for the elect. ' I suffer not* 
for the elect's sake,' saith St Paul in 2 Tim. ii. 10 ; so my sufferings are 
for you. We may know we are elected of God, if we take good by the 
Buffermgs of others ; if we take no scandal and offence, and do not add 

*Qu. 'all?'— Ed. 



96 COMMENTARY ON 

affliction to the afflictod, for all is in God's intent, and in their intent, for 
our good. 

For instance (a little to enlighten the point, because it is not usually stood 
on, and it is a notion that may help om- conceits of the excellent estate of 
God's children), reprobation, to go as high as we may, it is for their good, 
to shew mercy to them, to set by and neglect so many, and to single them 
out. The creation of the world is for their sakes. God's providence 
du'ects all for their good. For why doth ho suffer wicked men ? It is that 
they may be instruments to exercise them that are good. It is by reflection, 
or some way for the cause of the good, that the wicked are suffered to be 
upon the earth. The administration of the world, it is not for the rebels that 
are in it, it is for those that are God's children ; and he tosseth and tumbleth 
empires and monarchies. The great men of the world, they think they do 
gi'eat matters ; but, alas ! all this is for the exercise of the church, this is 
reductive to the church, by God's providence. All their attempts are for 
the little flock, for a few that are a despised company, that he means to 
save, if we had eyes to see it. 

So likewise his ordinances are to gather this church, which he hath 
chosen from all the world to himself. The ordinances of the ministry, 
and of the sacraments, the suffering of ministers, the doing and suffering 
of Christians, all is for their good, as we see in this place, ' I suffer for 
your consolation and comfort.' Heaven and earth stands for them. Tho 
pillars of heaven and earth vv^ould be taken asunder, and all would come to 
a chaos, an end would be of all, if the number of them were gathered that 
are the blessed people of God, for whom all things are. The doings and 
sufferings of God's people, we do not know indeed, that are ministers, who 
belong to God and who do not, but our intent is to do good to those that 
are God's, and the issue proves so. The rest God hath his end in it to 
harden them, and bring them to confusion, to take excuse from them ; but 
the real good of all our pains and suffering is the elect's. 

Let us examine what good we take by ordinances of God, and by 
the sufferings of the present chm-ch, and the sufferings of the former 
church. Do their examples animate, and quicken, and encourage us to 
the like courses ? It is a sign we are elected of God. There is no greater 
sign of a good estate in grace, than a gracious heart, to draw good out of 
the examples of others, and to draw good out of everything that befalls us, 
because God's end in election, and his manner of providence, is to guide all 
to their gocid. 

Use 2. Again, we learn another thing likewise, hoiv God overndes in his 
providence the projects of carnal men, of the devil and his instruments, and 
agents and factors. God overrules all things, that which in itself is ill, and 
in the intendment* of the inflicter is ill, yet God turns it to the good of 
others, and the good of them that suffer too. Satan intends no such matter, 
as it is said, Isa. x. 5. Nebuchadnezzar thinks no such thing. ' Asshur, 
the rod of my wrath,' he intends no such matter. They intend not the 
consolation of God's when they wrong the saints of God, and so exercise 
their patience and grace. No ! they intend their hurt and confusions. It 
is no matter what they intend ; but God at the first created light out of 
darkness, and in liis |)rovidence doth great matters by small means. In his 
providence ovt r his church, he doth raise contraries out of contraries ; he 
turns the wicked projects of men to contrary ends, and makes all service- 
able to his own end. 

* That is, 'intention.' — G. 



2 CORIN'THIANS CHAP. I, YER. G. 97 

In state policy, he is accounted the wisest man that can make his ene- 
mies instrumental to his own purjiose, that can make othei's serve his own 
turn, to work his own ends by others that are his opposites ; and he had 
need of a great reaching head that can do so. The great providence of 
heaven doth thus. God is the wisest politician in the world. All other 
policy is but a beam from that Sun. He can make instrumental and ser- 
viceable to him his veiy enemies. And this is the torment of Satan, that 
God overshoots him in his own bow. He overreachelh him in his own 
policy. Where he thinks to do most harm he doth most good. Li those 
afflictions whereby he thinks to quell the courage of the church, God doth 
exceeding good to them, and enlargeth the bounds of the church this way. 

It is an ordinary speech, ' The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the 
church' (m). The word of God is the seed of the church ; how then is the 
blood of the martjTS and sufferers the seed of the church '? Thus the 
word of God is the seed of the church, how ? As it is in the Bible, in the 
book ? No ! As it is published in preaching, much more as it is published 
in confession, and much more as it is published and sealed in martyrdom, 
by suffering. The word of God is so laid open, as not only spoken but 
confessed and practised in life ; and not only so, but sealed by enduring 
anything. Thus it is the seed, and works strongly. 

God overrules all inferiors. Though they have contrary motions in 
their own intent to his, yet he bi'iugs them about to his end. As we see 
the heavens have a contrary motion to the first heaven, that carries the 
rest, the primwn mobile, yet they are turned about by another motion, con- 
trary to the bent of themselves. They go one way, and are carried another.* 
As we see in the wheels of the clock, one runs one way, another another ; 
all make the clock strike, all serve the intent of the clockmaker ; so one 
runs one way, and another, another. Carnal men offer disgrace and dis- 
paragement to God's people ; their intent is to otherthrow all, to disgrace 
and to trample on the cause of religion ; but God useth contrary wheels, 
to make the clock strike. All turns in the issue to his end. Therefore 
though we say in our common speech, that the devil is the god of this v.orld, 
it is the Scriptm'e phrase, 2 Cor. iv. 4 ; and it is so in regard of the wicked 
that are under him, yet he is a god under a God. There is but one monarch 
of the world. He is a god that hath not power over swine further than he 
is suffered, Mat. viii. 30, seq. It is a point of wondrous comfort, that 
though we be thus used, yet there is an active providence, there is one 
monarch, one great king, that rules all. 

It is a ground of patience and contentment in whatsoever we sutler, not 
to look to the next instrument, but [toj look to the overruling cause, that 
vlU turn all in the issue to our good. This Joseph comforted his brethren 
with. You sent me, and of an ill mind too ; but God turned it to good. 
It was no thank to them, yet it was no matter. He comforted them in this, 
that God turned their malice to his good, and to their good too, for he was 
sent as a steward to provide for them. 

And it is one ground why to think more moderately in regard of anger, 
fierceness, against wicked men, it is gi-ound of pitying of them ; for, alas ! 
poor souls, what do they ! Though they intend it of malice, they are but 
instruments, and shall be overruled to do good contrary to their meaning, 
as St Paul saith here, ' Whether I be afSicted, it is for your consolation 
and salvation.' The worst intents and designs of the enemies of religion, 

* This frequently-recurring illustration is drawn from the Cartesian system of 
astronomy, which Newton's discoveries had not yet superseded. — G. 
VOL. III. G 



98 COMMENTARY ON 

was for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians. It is good to 
think of this beforehand. It is a ground of patience ; and not only so, 
but of comfort and joy, which is a degree above patience. God overrules 
all thus. Therefore we should quietly cast oiu'sclves wholly upon him, 
willing to do and suffer whatsoever he will have us, knowing that he will 
direct all to the good of the church, to our comfort, and his own gloi-y. 

Use 3. Again, a further use may be this, to tench its to commioiicate our 
estate to others, became it is for their rjood. Good is diffusive, saith St Paul. 
All that I do or suffer, it is for your good, to join comfort and suffering to- 
gether. ' If I be comforted,' it is for you; and if I suffer, it is for you. It 
must be bj'^ their taking notice of it, and that is not all that they ought to 
take notice, but we ought to let them take notice as much as we can, ' Come, 
children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord,' Ps. xxxiv. 11. ' Come 
and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul.' ' The righteous 
shall compass me about,' saith David, Ps. cxlii. 7. As when a man hath 
some great matter to tell, there will be a ring of people about him, desirous 
to hear what he saith ; so saith David, the righteous shall compass me 
about. When David had sweet matter of experience, to tell what God had 
done for him ; how he had been with him in his affliction, and delivered him, 
' the righteous shall compass me about,' I will declare it to others. For 
God's children make others' case their own. They comfort them as they 
would be comforted of them again. 

As they ought to do so, so we should take notice of their troubles and 
deliverances, how God sanctifies them to them. These things tend to 
edification. There is the same reason to one saint of God as to all, and 
God is the same to all in the like case. Experiments are made much of in 
other things in physic, and judged cases in law, and such like. Tried 
things in all professions are good. So tried truths should bo valued. Now 
when a man teacheth another his experiment,* it is a judged case, a tried 
truth. It is not every truth that will stay the soul in the time of a great 
temptation, but a truth proved, a tried truth. Therefore it is good for 
parents and governors, for fi-iends and for all degrees of men, to make it 
one way to spend their time fi-uitfully, to discourse with others of the blessed 
experiments which they have had of God's gracious providence, in the passages 
of their life. ' Abraham will teach his children,' Gen. xviii. 19, I will tell 
it to him therefore, saith God. It is a means for God to reveal many 
things sweetly to us, when he knows we are of a communicative, spreading 
disposition. God gains by that means. His glory is spread. Our grace 
is increased. The good of others is multiplied. — To go on. 

' It is for your consolation and salvation.'' Whether we be afflicted, or 
whether we be comforted, all is for your consolation and salvation. I will 
not trouble you here with the diverse readings of copies. Some Greek 
copies want the word salvation, but the most that the translations follow 
have both consolation and salvation. Some have consolation and salvation 
in the first, but they repeat it not in the second. ' Whether we be com- 
forted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' But because the more 
current have both, therefore we will join both, ' it is for your consolation 
and salvation' (n). 

For huper\ in the Greek it hath a double force. It signifies either to 
merit ; hupon,\ to procure and merit salvation ; and so we do not under- 

* That is, ' experience.' — Q. f That is, weg = over, above. — G. 

X Apparently a misprint. — Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 6. 99 

stand it. Or huper'^ for your good, a final cause. It includes either a meri- 
torious deserving cause, or a final cause. ' Whether I be aiSicted, it is for 
your consolation and salvation,' not by merit and desert; — so Christ's suf- 
fering was — but to help it forward in the execution of it. 

I speak this to cut the sinews of a popish point, as I meet it, which is a 
cozening point of their religion, which indeed is not a point of religion, 
but a point of Romish policy, a point of cozenage ; as most of their religion 
is but a trick for the belly. They have devices forsooth of the pope's 
treasury. He being the treasurer of the chm'ch, hath a treasury ; and what 
must that be filled with ? With the merits of saints, with the superabun- 
dance. For they can deserve and procure heaven for themselves, and 
more than obey. There is an overplus of obedience. The superabundance 
of that is laid in a treasury. And who should have the benefit of that but 
the treasury of the church and the pope ? But how shall the church come 
by this abundant satisfaction and merit ? They must buy them by par- 
dons, and they come not to have pardons for nought, but by purchasing of 
them, and hence come popish indulgences. That is nothing but a dis- 
pensing of the satisfaction and merits of the saints, which they did, say 
they, for the chm'ch, abusing such phrases as these. When they had more 
than their own obedience, they did good to others, and others had benefit 
by it. 

A shameful opinion, bred in the dark night of popery, when the Scrip- 
tures were hid, and when people did lie in ignorance ; and it was merely to 
advantage their own selves. For indeed the Scripture saith that God's 
children did suffer for the church ; but that was not for satisfaction for the 
church, but for the good of the church. Only Christ's death was satisfac- 
toiy. Christ is the only treasury of the church, and the satisfaction of 
Christ. They think they merit by their sufierings, when they suffer for 
their merits. And they think they merit not only for themselves, but for 
others too, which is a diabolical sarcasm. The devil mocks them that way ; 
he makes them ignorant of themselves. Alas ! that a silly, sinful man 
should think to do enough for himself, and more than enough, enough for 
others ! The wise virgins had but oil enough for themselves ; they had none 
for others. But these wise virgins have more than for themselves ; they 
have for others too. It is not worth the standing on, to hinder better and 
more comfortable things. The phrase runs in this sense, when it is meant 
of Christ. Christ suflered for our satisfaction, for our redemption. And 
Leo the pope, one of the best of their popes, and in his rank, a holy man 
in his time, he saith excellent well for this, sanctorum preciosa mors, do. 
The death of the saints is precious ; but the death of no saint is a propi- 
tiation for others. Their death is sanctified, but not propitiatory to others. 
Therefore singidaris singulis. All the saints, their death was for themselves. 
It is an excellent speech solus Christus, dc. (o). Every other besides 
Christ, their death was singular. It went not out of their persons to do others 
good, otherwise than by an exemplary course, as St Paul speaks here. 
But only Christ it is, in whom all died, in whom all are crucified, in whom 
all are raised, in whom all ascend, in whom all are glorified. As pubhc 
Adam, his death was for all. He was not considerable m his death, as 
one man, but as a ' second Adam,' who by his public obedience, as the first 
public person, by his disobedience infected all ; so he by his obedience and 
satisfaction, by his passive obedience, especially when he shut up his obedi- 
ence in death, aU died in him. It was as much as if all had died, as if aU 
* That is, h'Xig = for tlie realization of. — G. 



100 COMMENTARY ON 

had been crucified, and risen in him. The meaning is therefore, * Whether 
we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,' to help it forward, 
to help forward your comfort, by way of example, and not by way of satis- 
faction and merit any kind of way. 

Do but consider this one reason, and so I will end the point. There 
was no saint that ever merited heaven by his own satisfaction, therefore he 
could not do good to others by way of satisfaction. How do you prove 
that ? By that excellent speech, in Rom. viii. 18, ' The sufferings of this 
world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed.' All that they 
suffered was not worthy of the glory to be revealed ; therefore they could 
not by any satisfaction of their own merit heaven for themselves. What 
should we speak of others then, to do any good to others, I mean, by way 
of satisfaction ? But he shews this in the next words more clearly, how 
good is done to others, ' Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation 
and salvation. 

' Which is effectual in enduring the same sufferings that tve also suffer.' It is 
read in the margin, and most go that way, and the oldest interpreters too 
(ji). Some translators have a word as fit in the margin as in the text oft- 
times, and they leave it to the readers to take which they will. It is good 
and useful both ways, but the most go that way, and it is more clear. The 
meaning is this, ' Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salva- 
tion,' which salvation of yours is wrought out, ' in enduring the same suffer- 
ings that we also sufler.' If it be read ' effectual,' as it is in the text, and 
not in the margin, then it is thus, ' If we be afflicted, it is for your conso- 
lation and salvation, the assurance whereof in you is effectual, to make you 
endure the suflerings that we suffer.' 

Now here must be a thing clear. 

How salvation is wrought by affliction ? 

I answer, salvation is wrought hj Christ, by way of merit and procure- 
ment, and purchase and satisfaction to divine justice ; but salvation, in re- 
gard of the profession of it, is wrought by afflictions, that is, we come to 
have it by this way. We might consider salvation in purchase and title, 
and salvation in possession and investing into it. Salvation in title and 
purchase is wrought by the death and sufferings of Christ, who hath this 
pre-eminence, to be called and styled a Saviour ; but though it be gotten by 
him, it is not possessed but by a certain way and course. That salvation, 
the title whereof we have by Christ, it is not possessed or entered into, but 
by a course of sufiering and doing. God hath measured out so many holy 
actions for every Christian to do, and so many things for every Christian 
to suffer, so many grievances, if he be of years of discretion. God hath a 
way to save children which lean to his msdom, but this way God saveth 
men. They have a cup measured to them, they have so many afflictions 
to suffer, before they be possessed of that which Christ hath purchased. So 
it is wrought in regard of possession, in suffering the same afflictions that 
others sufler. 

There are two ways, doing good, and suffering for good, that are the 
beaten way to obtain salvation, which salvation is wrought by the satisfac- 
tion of Christ. Mark here, he saith our suflerings tend to your comfort 
and salvation. How? Because it helps you to endure the same sufiering. 
By seeing others sufier, and by enduring the like, we come to the possession 
of salvation in the end, because by seeing them suffer, we are encouraged 
to sufier. The point hence is this, that, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 6. 101 

Boct. Whatsoever good we take by the suferiitf/s of any, it is by stirring xip 
and strengthening some grace in us. 

Whatsoever good we take by any, — set Christ aside, from whom we take 
good hkewise by way of example, as well as merit ; but in a singular 
respect by way of merit, — but for others, whatsoever good we take, it is 
not direct, it is not immediate, but only by stirring up some grace, by 
strengthening some grace in us. There is no good derived from others to 
me but by confirming and strengthening some grace. So I come to have 
good by them, saith St Paul here, ' My sufierings incnease your salvation.' 
But it is because my sufferings stir you up to suffer the same afflictions. 
You learn of me by my carriage and example to suffer, and so by suffering 
that which I suffer you come to salvation. 

This is sufficient to convince that idle opinion that I spoke of before, 
that the sufferings of the saints are not conveyed by way of pardon to the 
ignorant people, that know not what saint, or pardon, or suffering, or merit 
is. But the way of comfort by the suffering of others, is by confirming and 
strengthening some grace, of patience, or comfort, &c., in them. All the 
good that is in the father cannot help the son, except he tread in his 
father's steps. If we go not in the same way as others do to heaven, in the 
same graces, all their sufferings will do us no good, but serve to condermi 
us. The point is clear ; because it serves to enlighten other points, I do 
but name it. But that which I wiU a little more stand on is, that salvation 
is wrought by suffering. 

Doct. We come to the possession of salvation by patience. 

Faith of salvation by Christ stirs us up to sufier, till we come to the pos- 
session of that that we have title to. Mark how these hang together. 
First, a Christian knows that God will save him by the merits, and satis- 
faction, and obedience of Christ, his surety. The assured persuasion of 
this salvation that he hath title to by Christ, because the possession of it 
is deferred till the next world, and there is a distance of time, and that 
time is encumbered with afflictions, hereupon comes a necessity of some 
special grace to carry us along till we be fally invested into that that we have 
title to by Christ. There must be some grace between faith and the pos- 
session of heaven. I am assm'ed of the possession of heaven in my first 
conversion ; but I am not invested into it. It is deferred. There is a dis- 
tance of time which is afflictive ; for hope deferred maketh the heart faint. 
A thing that we have right and title to, deferred, afflicts the soul, and the 
deferring of good hath the respect of ill. Good deferred puts upon it the 
consideration of ill ; for it is a grievance to want a good I have a right unto. 
Now it is not only deferred, but my Life is an exercised life, with many 
actions and sufierings. What grace must bear me up between me and 
heaven, and in the tediousness of the time prolonged ? Especially the grace 
of enduring. Therefore faith in Christ, by which I have a title to heaven, 
that stirs up hope, and hope stirs up patience, and that helps me in the 
way to heaven. It helps me to bear crosses and afflictions, and likewise to 
endure the tediousness and length of time till I come to heaven. So sal- 
vation is wrought by suffering. We come not to the possession of it but 
by suffering and enduring. ' You have need of patience,' saith the apostle, 
Heb. X. 36. 

Give me leave to clear the point a little. How doth patience enter into 
this great work of helping our salvation ? Patience in enduring affliction, 
it helps many ways. 

1. They work salvation, not by way of merit, for that were to disable the 



102 COMMENTARY ON 

title we hare by Christ, but hi/ ivatj qf evidence. It helps the evideuce of the 
title. For I have title by Christ. But how do I know that my evidence 
to that title is good ? Afflictions, and the patient suffering of them. Not 
afflictions alone, but afflictions joined with the grace of patience to endure 
them ; for else they do no good. Afflictions are evil in themselves. For 
thus it increaseth my evidence. Every heir is a son. For heaven is the 
inheritance of sons ; and every son must be corrected ; and I am corrected 
and afflicted in this life ; and God doth give me grace to endure them, and 
to see my good in them. These afflictions, therefore, mingled with patient 
enduring of them, do evidence that I am not a bastard. In Heb. xii. 8, 
the apostle proves this. Every one that hath not some affliction or other, 
' he is a bastard and not a sou.' It increaseth my evidence that I am the 
child of God, especially if I sufier for a good cause. ' If we suffer with him, 
we shall reign with him,' Rom. viii. 17. Here the evidence is increased. 
By this I know I am in the way which is strewed with crosses and afflic- 
tions. We must enter into heaven this way. I know it for the way, 
so it furthers my salvation. It gives me assurance that my evidence is 
good. 

It is the Scripture's manner to say things are done, when the knowledge 
of the thing is increased: as to say we are saved, when we know more 
assuredly that we shall be saved ; to say we are in the kingdom of heaven 
when we know we are in the state of the kingdom of heaven, as in 2 Pet. 
iii. 18. Saith he, ' grow in grace,' &c., for by this means, ' a further 
entrance shall be ministered unto you, into the kingdom of God,' 2 Pet. 
i. 11. The knowledge of a man's estate in grace is a further entrance into 
the kingdom of God, that is begun here in this life. The knowledge that 
I am an heir of heaven, is to be in heaven before my time. Thus afflic- 
tions joined with patience help salvation, because they help the evidence of 
salvation. They shew that we are sons, and not bastards. It is an evi- 
dence of our adoption. 

2. And then sufferings, joined with the grace of enduring, help forward 
salvation by way of qualification. There is a qualification and disposition of 
soul, which is necessary before we come to heaven ; ' because no unclean 
thing shall ever come to heaven,' Rev. xxi. 27. 

Now suffering, joined with patience, having a mighty and blessed work 
this way, to purge us of that soil that we cannot carry to heaven with us. 
We may not think to carry our unmortified pride and lusts, and base 
earthly affections, and our pleasures and riches ill gotten, to heaven with 
us. Oh, no ! the presence of heaven is a more pure presence than so, 
and the place will not endure such defilements. We must be cleansed 
therefore. 

Now, because afflictions endured with patience, have a blessed power to 
subdue that which by nature is powerful in us, to purge out those base 
affections, that are contrary to the glorious estate we look for ; therefore 
they help us to heaven, they help the qualification of the person, not the 
merit and desert of it. 

They help likewise the qualification, by removing that which corruption 
feeds on ; for affliction endured removes that which corruption works on, 
and strengthens itself by. Affliction is either in removing riches, or 
honours, or pleasures, somewhat that corruption feeds on ; for all corrup- 
tion is about those idols, greatness, or pleasure, or profit of the world. 
Now sufferings crossing us in our reputation, or estates, or body, one way 
or other, they withdraw the fuel that feeds our corruptions, and so help 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I. VER. 6. 108 

mortification and purgation, and so fit us for heaven. They help our 
repentance. They make the favour of God sweet, and sin bitter. It is a 
bitter thing to offend God. We feel it by the afflictions that are laid 
on us. 

3. Again, many positive graces are required before we come to heaven. 
Affliction endured helps all gi-aces whatsoever. The only time for grace to 
thrive in is the time of affliction, for affliction endured helps our zeal, our 
love. We have experience of the patience of God, and they stir up 
prayer. All graces are set on work in affliction. ' Out of the deep have I 
cried,' Ps. cxxx. 1. Prayers are cries in affliction. They are not cold dull 
things, but set on fire ; they set the spii'it on work to cry to God with ear- 
nest, frequent, and fervent prayer. 

4. Then again, afflictions endured, they rvork salvation and help xcs to 
heaven, because they whet and sharjyen our desire of heaven ; for when we find 
ill usage here below in our pilgrimage, we have a great desire to be at home 
at rest ; and that is one main end why God sends afflictions, to help sal- 
vation this way by shai^Dening our desires. For were it not for afflic- 
tions, and the enduring of them, would we ever say, ' Come, Lord Jesus, 
come quickly ' ? Rev. xxii. 20. Would we not be of Peter's mind, ' It is 
good for us to be here'? Mark ix. 5. Would we ever be weary of the 
world, before we be fired out of it and pulled out of it, as Lot out of Sodom ? 
No. They help our desire and earnestness. The creature groans, Rom. 
viii. 21, 22. ' Those that have received the first fruits of the Spirit, they 
wait for the adoption of the sons of God.' Those that have the beginnings 
of grace, they wait for the accomplishment. What makes this but afflic- 
tions and troubles of the world ? They desire a state wherein all tears shall 
be wiped from their eyes. 

So we see, these and many other ways, but these are the principal, how 
afflictions, endured as they should be, they help salvation, they work our 
salvation. Though they work not the title of it, yet they help us in the way. 

First, because they assure us that ice are the sons of God, and so have evi- 
dence that we are in a good state ; and then they remove the hindrances 
and purge us of our sins. And then they help us in all graces, they cherish 
all graces, and they sharpen and whet the edge of our desires to be out of 
this world. 

And all this must be in every Christian before he come to heaven ; for 
God never brings a man of years to heaven but he gives him cause to see 
why he would be out of this world, either by long sickness or affliction, or 
by one thing or other. He makes them see that it is better to be there 
than here ; and if it were not for crosses, who would be of that mind ? 

Therefore, have we not cause to suspect ourselves that we are in smooth 
ways and find no crosses ? God doth give respite to his children. They 
have breathing times. They are not alway under crosses. He is merciful. 
Perhaps they have not strength enough. He will not bring them to the 
lists,* to the stage, because they are not enabled, they have not strength 
enough. But they that have a continual tenor of prosperity may well sus- 
pect themselves. If one have direction to such a place, and they tell 
him there are such ways, deep waters, that except he take heed he will be 
drowned, and step into holes, and they are craggy ways ; and if he meet 
with none of these, he may well think he is not in his way. So the way to 
heaven, it is through afflictions. We must endure many afflictions, saith 
the apostle here, ' Salvation is wrought by enduring the same afflictions 
* That is, 'barriers' Cf. Richardson, sub voce—G. 



xOi C03IJIENTAEY ON 

that you see in us.' Now, if I suffer and endure nothing, if I cannot en- 
dure so much as a fiHp, a disgrace, a frown, a scorn for Christ, if the 
way be over-smooth, it is not the way to heaven certainly. The way is not 
strewed with roses. We must have om* feet ' shod with the preparation of 
the gospel,' Eph. vi. 15. They must be well shod that go among thorns ; and 
they had need to be well fenced that go the way to heaven. It is a thorny, 
rugged way. But it is no matter what the way be, so it brings us to heaven ; 
but certainly, if the way be too smooth, we ought to suspect ourselves. 

Now, because it may be objected, many will say, alas ! "VMiat do we 
suffer ? and, therefore, our case is not good. 

I answer, every Christian suffers one of these ways at one time or other, 
nay, at all times, either by sympathy with the church [or otherwise.] 

1. Put the case we have no afflictions of our own, do we not sympathise 
with the church beyond the seas ? When thou hearest ill news, if thou be 
glad to hear it, certainly thy case is bad. There is a suffering by sym- 
pathy, and that suffering is ours. 

2. Then again, there are afflictions and sufferings that arise iipon scandals, 
that men run into before our eyes, which is a great grief. ' Mine eyes gush 
out with rivers of waters, because men keep not thy law,' saith David, Ps. 
cxix. 136. Is it not a matter of suffering to a Christian soul to see that he 
would not see, and to hear blasphemies and oaths that he would not hear ? 
to have the understanding forced to understand that he would not, living 
in a world of iniquity, in the kingdom of the devil ? It is a great grievance. 
' Woe is me that I am forced to dwell in Meshech, and to have my habita- 
tion with the tents of Kedar,' Ps. cxx. 5. It is a pitiful affliction to the 
saints of God, to him that hath the life of grace in his heart, to have the 
wicked as ' goads and thorns,' as the Scripture saith the Jebusites should 
be to the Israelites, Num. xxxiii. 55 ; to have thoughts forced upon us and 
things forced upon our soiils that we would not see nor think nor hear of, 
that which shall never be in heaven. 

3. Again, every one suffers the burden of his calling, which is a great 
suffering. A man need not to whip himself, as the Scottish papists do {q), 
if he be but faithful in his calling. It is a notable means of mortification, 
God keeps a man from persecution many times because he hath burdens 
in his calling to exercise him. He hath many crosses in his calling. God 
hath joined sweat to labour, and trouble, and pains ; and there is no man 
that is faithful in his calling as he should be, but he shall find many crosses. 

4. And then, that which afflicts most of all, the affliction of all afflictions, 
the inward combat between the fle.^h and the sjririt, which God usually takes 
up in persecution and outward troubles. God's dear children in persecu- 
tion find little molestation from their corruptions, because God will not lay 
more upon them than he will give them strength to bear ; and now, when 
he singles them out to outward crosses, he subdues their corruptions, that 
they do not vex them as before. 

In the time of peace he lets loose their corruptions, sometimes anger, 
sometimes pride, sometimes one base affection, sometimes another ; and 
think you this is no grief to them ? Oh, yes ; it grieves them, and humbles 
them more than any cross would do. St Paul was grieved more at this than 
at all his sufferings. It made him cry out, ' Oh, wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' Rom. vii. 24. He doth 
not say. Oh, wretched iv.v.^^, who shall deliver me from crosses and afflic- 
tions ? Though they made him wretched in the eye of the world, 3'et he re- 
joiced in those. But his grief was, that he could not do the good that he 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 6, 1(K 

would ; and that made him cry out, ' wretched man that I am,' &c. 
It is God that ties up our corruptions, that they run not so violently on the 
soul at one time as they do at another, for he hath the command of them 
hy his Spirit. There is no Christian hut one of these ways he suffers in the 
greatest time of peace. Especially this v^-ay God exerciseth them, that he 
makes them weary of their lives by this spiritual conflict. If they know 
what the life of grace means, he makes them know what it is to be ab- 
sent from heaven. He makes them know that this life is a place of 
absence ; and all this is to help our disposition to salvation, by helping 
mortification and by helping our desire to heaven. Those that go on in a 
smooth course, that know not what this inward combat means, and are 
carried away with their* sins, they are so far from taking scandals to heart, 
that if they see evil men, they are ready to join with them, to join with blas- 
phemers and v.dcked persons ; and instead of sympathising with the chm-ch 
of God, they are ready to join with them that censure them, and so add 
affliction to the afflicted. 
But to proceed. 

* Whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' Of 
' comfort ' I spake in the former verse. Only that note that I will briefly 
commend you to is this, that 

Doct. God's children, hap how it will, they do youd. 

Cast them into what estate you will, they do good. They are good, and 
do good. If they be afflicted, they do good by that ; if they have comfort, 
they do good to others by that. No estate is amiss to God's children ; 
and that is the reason of their perfect resignation. The child of God per- 
fectly resigns himself into God's hand. Lord, if thou wilt have me suffer, 
I will suffer ; if thou wilt have me afflicted, I yield myself ; if thou wilt have 
me enjoy prosperity, I will. I know it shall be for my good, and for the 
good of others. 

There is an intercourse in the life of a Christian. He is now afflicted, 
and now comforted, not for his own sake only, but for the good of others ; 
and when he shall be afflicted, and how long, and what comfort he shall 
have, how much, he leaves it to the wisdom of God. It is a blessed estate, if 
we could think of it, to be a Christian, that we need to care for nothing but 
to serve God. We need to care for nothing, but study to keep a good con- 
science. Let God alone with all our estate ; for God will enable us to want 
and to abound in our own persons, and likewise he will sanctify our estate 
for the good of others. 

And a Christian will be willing to be tossed, and to be ' changed from 
vessel to vessel,' Jer. xlviii. 11, from state to state, for the good of others. 
If his afflictions may do good to the church, he is content that God should 
withdraw his blessings from him, and humble him with crosses. If his 
example may be good to others, he is likewise joyful ; when God gives 
him rest, and causeth an inward comfort, he knows that this is good for 
others. He hath learned in his first entrance into Christianity, self-denial, 
not to live to himself, but for the glory of God and the good of others, as 
much as he may. 

Use. We should labour therefore to content ourselves in all conditions, 
knowing that all is for the best, not only to ourselves, and God's glory, but 
for the good of others. God, when he takes things from us, and afflicts us, 
and when he comforts us, he intends the comfort of others. So we should 
reason when we endure anything, and when we are comforted, certainly 



106 COMMENTAKY ON 

God intends tlie good of others by this ; therefore I will have a special 
care in suffering, to cairy it decently and exemplarily, knowing that the 
eyes of many are upon me. I will carry myself so, that God may have 
glory, and others may have edification and comfort, knowing that I am but 
God's steward, to convey this to others, that are of the same body with 
myself. Therefore in our communion we have with others, upon any good 
occasion, we ought to express the blessed experience of the comfort of God 
upon us. This is the practice of holy men in their meeting with others, 
to shew them the comforts of God to their souls. ' Come, and I will shew 
you what God hath done for my soul,' Ps. cxlii. 7, saith the psalmist. 
All are the better for a good man. He doth good to all ; and therefore 
Solomon saith, ' When a righteous man is advanced, the city rejoiceth,' 
Prov. xi. 10. They have cause, for he hath a public mind. Nothing 
doth more characterise, and is a better stamp of a true Christian, than a 
public mind. 

A carnal man out of self-love may grieve at his own sins, and may la- 
bour to comfort himself; but a Christian thinks others shall take good by 
me. It is the mind of Christ, and it is the mind of all the members of 
Christ, when a man thinks he hath nothing, except he have it to improve 
for the good of others. 

A dead, sullen, reserved spirit, is not a Christian's spirit. If by nature 
we have such, we must labour to help it with grace ; for gi*ace is a difiusive, 
communicating thing, not only in the ministers of God, but in every Chris- 
tian. Grace will teach them to make savoury their conversation to others, 
this way, that whatsoever they are, or whatsoever they can do, or whatso- 
ever they suffer, they study to improve all to the good of others. 

And mark the extent of the loving wisdom and providence of God, how 
many things he doth at once. For in the same affliction ofttimes, he cor- 
rects some in his children, in the same affliction he tries some grace, in the 
same affliction he witnesseth to his truth in them, in the same affliction he 
doth good to others besides the good he doth to them. In the same afflic- 
tion that others inflict, he hasteneth the ruin of them that offer it; at one 
time, and in one action, he hasteneth the destruction of the one, by hastening 
the good of the other ; he ripens grace in his children, making them ex- 
emplary to others, and all in the same action, so large is the wise providence 
of God. 

It should teach us likewise to follow that providence, and to see how 
many ways anything we suffer any kind of way may extend, that if one 
way will not comfort, another may. When we suffer, and are grieved, 
let us consider withal that he that doth the wrong, he hastens his ri;in and 
judgment. As Pharaoh, when he hastened the overthrow of the children of 
Israel, he hastened his overthrow in the Red Sea. So a pit is digged for 
the wicked, when they dig a pit for the godly, Ps. vii. 15. And consider, 
to comfort thyself, thou hast some sin in thee, and God intends not only to 
witness this truth, but to correct some sin in thee, and thou must look to 
that. Thou hast some grace in thee, and he intends the trial of that. 
Look to these things. This shews strong heavenly-mindedness, when there 
is self-denial. Let us consider what God calls us to ; for God looks to 
many things in the same act. Wherefore doth God give us reason and 
discourse, but to be able to foUow him in his dealing, as far as we can 
reach to ? 

But I go on to the next verse. 



2 CORINTHIANS CUAP. I, VEK. 7. 107 

VERSE 7. 

* And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing that as you are partakers 
of the sufferiufj, so you shall be also of the consolation.' This verse is nothing 
but a strengthening of what he said before. He had told them that what- 
soever he suffered, it was for their comfort too ; and now he repeats it 
again, and sets a seal upon it, ' Our hope of you is stedfast, knowing that 
as you are partakers of the sufferings, so you shall also be of the consola- 
tion.' In these words he shews that they shall share in the good with him 
as well as in the ill ; that the Spirit of God in them should help them to 
take all the good they could, both by his sufferings and by his comfort. 
For as he by the help of the Spirit of God intended the public good, in- 
tended their good and comfort in all, whether he were afflicted or com- 
forted ; so he saith here, he was assured that as they were partakers of his 
sufferings, so they should be of his comforts likewise. 

Here is the truth, and the seal of the truth. 

The truth, that they were ' partakers of his sufferings,' and should be 
* partakers of his consolations.' 

And the seal is in the manner of affirming these truths, * Our hope of you 
is stedfast.' And in this order I will speak of them. First, 

Doct. God's children are partakers of the sufferings of others. 

The Corinthians were partakers of the sufferings of St Paul. 

God's children are partakers of the sufferings of others many ways. 

First. By way of sympathy, taking to heart the estate of the church and 
children of God abroad. It grieved the Corinthians to hear that St Paul 
was afflicted ; for even as it is in the natui'al body, so likewise in the mysti- 
cal body, there is a sympathy between the members. 

Second. Likewise they partake of the sufferings of others by way of pro- 
portion. They suffered in their kind and proportion as he suffered; though 
perhaps not in the same very individual kind. There is a portion of 
suffering in the church. Some suffer one way, and others another; but all 
partake of sufferings in some degree or other. 

3. Then again, they did partake of St Paul's sufferings in preparation 
and disposition of mind. Howsoever now they did not suffer as much as 
he, yet, saith he, I know as far as the Spirit of God is in you, you are pre- 
pared to suffer ; and what we are prepared to do, that we do. Christ saith 
we ' sell all for the gospel,' when upon serious examination of our hearts 
we find we can part with it. When we set ourselves to examination, what 
cannot I part with for Christ ? Can I part with my goods ? Can I part 
with my life ? If we can once come to resolution, it is done, as Abraham 
is said to sacrifice his son, because he resolved to do it, Heb. xi. 17 ; and 
David is said to build the temple, because he intended to do it, 1 Kings 
viii. 18. God looks upon us in our resolutions and preparations. What 
we resolve to do, that is done. So, saith he, you are partakers of my suf- 
ferings, not only by sympathy, and in proportion of suffei'ings, but you are 
prepared, he speaks charitably and lovingly, to suffer whatsoever I suffer, 
if God call you to it. 

Reason. And the ground of Christians partaking of the sufferings one of 
another, it is the communion that is between Christians. They are all mem- 
bers of one body. If the hand suffer, the head suffers. The head thinks 
itself wronged when the hand or the foot is wronged, by reason of the 
sympathy between the members, as I said ; and so it is in the mystical 
body of Christ. 



108 COMMENTARY ON 

There are these three unions which depend one upon another. 

1. The union of Christ ivith ournaturc, which is inseparable. It is an 
eternal union. He never lays that blessed mass of our liesh aside which he 
took, which is the gi'ound of all our comfort ; for God is now at one with 
us, because God hath taken our nature on him, and satisfied the wrath of 
God his Father. 

2. Next the union of Christ with our nature, is the union, of Christ mysti- 
cal. Christ and his members when they suffer, Christ suffers. Their suf- 
ferings are the sufferings of Christ. 

3. The third is the union of one memher with another, that what one 
member suffers, another doth suffer. Therefore the Corinthians were par- 
takers of Christ, because their sufferings were the sufferings of Christ ; and 
they were partakers of St Paul's sufferings, because his sufferings were their 
sufferings. 

They were partakers of Chi'ist's sufferings, because of the communion 
between the head and the members ; and they were partakers of St Paul's 
sufferings, because of the communion of one member with another. And 
surely there is not a heart that was ever touched with the Spirit of God, 
but when he hears of any calamity of the church, whether it be in the 
Palatinate (/•), in France, in the Low countries, or in any country in the 
world, if he hears that the church hath a blow, it strikes to the heart of 
any man that hath the Spirit of God in them, by a sympathetica! suffering. 
It is one good sign to know whether a man be of the mystical body or no, 
to take to heart the grievance of the church. As good Nehemiah did ; ho 
would not take comfoi't in the pleasures of a court, in the king of Babylon's 
court, when it went not well with his country. When the church was in 
distress, he took their grievance to heart. So Moses, the very joys of 
Pharaoh's court could not please him, when he considered the abasement 
of his countrymen, and he joined with them; and it is called the ' rebuke' 
of Christ. 

So it is with all the people of God. There is a communication of suffer- 
ings. ' As you are partakers of the sufferings, so you shall be also of the 
consolation.' 

Wherein two things are observable. 

First, that a necessary jnecedent condition of comfort is sufferings. 

And then the consequent of this, tliat those that suffer as they should are 
sure of comfort. These two things unfold the meaning of the Spirit of God 
here. 

Before there be comfort, there must be suffering ; for God hath estab- 
lished this order. Even as in nature, there must be ^ night before the 
day, and a winter before a summer ; so in the kingaom of Christ, in his 
ruling of the church, there is this divine policy, there must be suffering 
before comfort. God will sooner break the league and the covenant be- 
tween day and night, than this league of suffering and comfort : the one 
must be before the other. It was so in our head, Christ. He suffered, 
and then entered into his glory. So all his members must be conformable* 
to him in suffering, and then enter into their glory. 

The reasons of this are divers. 

Reason 1. First of all, this method and order is, first, suffering, and then 

comfort, becaiise God finds us in a corrupt estate; and something must be 

wrought out of us, before we can be vessels to receive comfort. Therefore 

there must be a purgation one way or other, either by repentance, or if not, 

• Misprinted, ' comfortable.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 7. 109 

by repentance, by affliction, to help repentance. There must be suflferinw 
before comfort. The soul is unfit for comfort. 

Secondly, this order commends and siveetens comfort to i(s. For fire is 
sweet after cold, and meat is sweet after hunger ; so comfort is sweet after 
suffering, God fits us to comfort by this, by purging out what is contrary 
to comfort. And he endears comfort by this. Those that have felt the 
cross, comfort is comfort indeed to them. Heaven is heaven indeed to him 
that hath had a hell in his conscience upon earth, that hath been afiiicted 
in conscience, or outwardly persecuted. It set a price and value upon 
comfort. 

Partly likewise to sharpen our desire of comfort ; for sufi'ering breeds 
sense, and sense that stirs up desire, and desire is eager. Now sufierin'^, 
it makes comforts precious, and sets us in a wondi-ous strong desire after 
them. 

And by this means, likewise, God comes to his own end, which is that 
our comforts may be eternal. Therefore we have that which is ill, in the 
first place. Woe to us, if it should be said to us, as to Dives in the gospel, 
' Son, son, thou hadst thy good here, and now thou must have thy ill,' 
Luke xvi. 25. God intends not to deal so with his children ; but they taste 
the worst wine first, and better afterward. Because ho intends eternal 
happiness to them, he observes this method, first ill, and then good, the 
best at last. 

Use 1. If this be so, then ivhij should we be offended at God's order ? Why 
should we not take it, not only gently and meekly, but joyfully, the afflic- 
tions that God sends to prepare and fit us for happiness, to sharpen our 
desire to happiness, to make it precious to us ? Certainly it is a ground, 
not only of patience and meekness, but of joy and comfort, in all the things 
we sufl'er. Will a patient be angry with his chirurgeon for searching of 
his wound ? He knows that that is the way to cure him. Will any man 
tJike ofi'ence at the goldsmith for purging his mass ? They know that is 
the way to purify it, and fetch out the dross. 

This is the method in nature. The ground must be ploughed and pre- 
pared, and then comes the harvest. Let us he content with this method, 
and rejoice in any sufiering, knowing it will have a blessed issue ; and not 
to think much at sufiering anything for a good cause in ourselves, or by 
way of sympathy or support with others, because this is the highway to a 
better estate. If we suffer with the church, or for the church, any kind of 
way, we shall be comforted with the church. It is that which sweetens 
the cross, that we are under hope of better still. Who would not endure a 
little grievance in the way, to have honour in the end ? to have ill usage in 
an inn, and to go to a kingdom ? All our discomforts and afflictions are 
but by the way here ; and crosses are necessary for travellers, and here we 
are but in a travelling estate. It should, I say, encourage us not to take 
offence at anything that God exerciseth us with in this world, nor to take 
scandal at the afflictions of the church. 

Use 2. And then it shoidd strike terror to those that ivill not endure so 
much as a scratch, a scoff, a word, a chip of the cross, that ivill endure rjothing. 
Do they know that this is God's order ? Do they avoid crosses in any 
degree ? and do they think to have comfort ? No ! God will not change 
his order for them. He hath established this order, and heaven and earth 
shall fail, rather than God's order shall not be sure. If we will have com- 
fort, we must suffer. If we will avoid sufiering, and think to go to heaven 
another way than God hath ordained, we may take our own way, but we 



1 1 COMMENTARY ON 

must give liim leave to take his way in comforting and advancing whom he 
will, and that will not ho ns, hecause we will not frame ourselves to his 
order. Wo must not look for his dignity. ' If we will not suffer with 
him, we shall not reign with him,' Rom. viii. 17. 

The next thing observable in the order is this, that 

Ihct. Those that suffer as they should are sure of covifnrt. 

There is a threefold conformity with Christ, in sufferiug, grace, glory. 

Those that are not conformable to him in suffering, they cannot be con- 
formable to him in grace ; and if they be not in grace, they shall not in 
glory. He took upon him our nature abased first; and our nature purified, 
and our nature glorious, he hath now in heaven. So our nature in us must 
keep this order. First, it must be abased, as our flesh was in him, and 
then filled with grace, by little and little, and then glorious, as our nature 
is in him. If we will not suffer our flesh to be abased and exercised with 
afflictions, and let God work his own good work as he pleaseth this way, 
we are not conformable to Chi'ist, who was first abased, and then advanced. 
What was wrought in his blessed flesh, must be wrought in his mystical 
body, in all his members, by little and little. Therefore those that are 
tender and wayward to endure anything, when God calls them to it, they 
are enemies to their own comfort. God hath set down this order, if they 
do not partake of the sufferings of the church, they shall not partake of the 
comfort. 

Oh, it is a cursed estate to be out of the condition of God's people, and 
it is a comfortable thing to have part with those that are good, yea, even if 
it be in suffering with them. It is better to have communion with God's 
people in suffering, than to have communion with the wicked in the world, 
in reigning and triumphing. 

And that is the reason that the Spirit of God in the prophet made him 
desire, ' Deal with me. Lord, as thou usest to deal with those that fear thy 
name,' Ps. cxix. 121. He knew he deals well enough with them. ' Visit 
me with the salvation of thy children,' Ps. cvi. 4. He knew that was a 
special salvation. So to have God deal with us, as he deals with his, and 
to visit us in mercy and love, as he visits his own, it is a special favour. 
It is better to bear the cross with them, that we may partake with them 
in the comfort, than to have all the comforts that the wicked have, and to 
share with them in the misery afterward. Therefore let us be content to 
share with God's people in their suffering. When we hear of any that 
suffer for a just cause, though we have no sufferings of our own, let us 
bear a part with them, and with the bond of the communion of saints, help 
what we may. 

And it is as true on the contrary, if we partake with the wicked in their 
sins, we shall partake with them in their punishment. Therefore the Scrip- 
ture saith, ' Come out of Babylon, my people, lest if you partake of her 
sins, so you partake of her punishments,' Rev. xviii. 4. Now, atheistical 
people think it nothing to enter into league, and amity, and society with 
profane people, that are professedly so, not only by weakness, but those 
that are stigmatized. But what saith the Scripture? — and the Holy Ghost 
doth not trifle with us. — ' Come out of Babylon, my people, lest you par- 
take of her plagues ; ' which is not meant so much locally to come out of 
the place, as in disposition to come out in respect of liking, and converse, 
and secret intimate communion. Lot's sons-in-law, they thought it was 
but trifling. They gibed as atheists do now, when they hear the ministers 
encourage people to make much of religion, and to set against those that 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 7. Ill 

are opposite. They tliink they are enforced to it, and it is upon mistake, 
&c., though it be as palpable as the light of the sun. They deal as Lot's 
sons-in-law, when he warned them to come out of Sodom, and he was 
pulled out. They would believe nothing till fire came do^\Ti from heaven, 
and destroyed them all. It was too late then. Therefore let us hearken 
to the counsel of the angel, let us not make this a matter of scom, a light 
matter ; but as we desire to have no part in their confusion, so avoid their 
courses. The Scripture is terrible to those that, after the breaking out of 
the light, will be such. There is not more direct Scriptures against any 
kind of men, than those that wilfully cleave to antichrist. Therefore we 
should not esteem it a hght matter, but think of it seriously indeed. 

And not only in respect of them, but all wicked society. Were it not 
pity that men should be severed from them hereafter, whose company they 
will not be severed from now ? If thou see an adulterer, a blasphemer, a 
wicked, Ucentious, atheistical person, and thou runnest into the same ex- 
cess of riot with him, thou wilt not be drawn by any persuasions, minis- 
terial or friendly, or by thine own light, which knows his course to be 
naught, to retire from his society, — dost thou not think to share with him 
afterward in his judgment ? As you are all tares, so you shall be bound 
in a bimdle, and cast into heU together. Mat. xiii. 30. As the wheat shall 
be gathered into heaven, so the tares, a cursed company, that will cleave 
together though they be damned for it. As they clave together as burs 
and tares here, so they shall be cast into hell together. That is the end of 
dissolute, unruly creatures, that nothing will sever them from those who in 
their own consciences they know their com-ses to be naught. 

* Our hope of you is stedfast.' There is a double certainty, a certainty of 
the tinxth of the thing, and a certainty of the estate of the person. The 
certainty of the truth is this, those that suffer with Christ and his church, 
shall be glorified icith Christ and his church. The certainty of the truth is 
more certain than heaven and earth. Now, besides the certainty of the 
truth, or thing, there is interposed a certainty of the persons, that as they 
were interested in the sufferings, so they should be in the comfoiis. And 
this is true as well as the former. For God's promises are not mere ideas 
wanting truths, that have no performance in the persons ; but if the thing 
be trae, it is true in the person to whom the truth belongs. Suffering 
goes before glory. Therefore if we suffer we shall be glorified. But this 
is the condition, if they suffer with Christ. Then St Paul takes it for 
certain that they shall be glorified with Christ. There is not the same 
certainty of the persons as of the truth itself. The truth is certain by a 
certainty of faith, but the certainty of the persons is the certainty of a 
charitable persuasion. I am persuaded that you will suffer with me in 
sympathy, and therefore I am persuaded in the certainty of charity that 
you shall of a certain have the comfort. 

* Our hope of you is stedfast.' St Paul, you see, hath a good conceit of 
them, that he might encourage them to sympathise and take to heart his 
crosses, and to take good by them. A good hope of others hath a double 
efficacy. 

1. It hath one efficacy in the party that hath the good hope of another. 
It stirs him up to be diligent to take all courses that may be for the good 
of another. As the speech is, Hope stirs up to work ; it stirs up en- 
deavour ; 80 it doth in the husbandman, and in every kind of trade. 
Hope quickens endeavour. A man will never sow upon the sands. He 



112 COMMENTARY ON 

loseth his cost. A man will never bestow his paiiis upon those that he 
thinks arc desperate. And what is it that dulls and deads endeavour ? I 
despair of ever doing such a man good. When those despau'ing thoughts 
enter into the soul, there is a stop of all endeavour. And surely Christians 
are much to blame that way. When they might have ground, if charity 
■were in them, at least of hope of others ; upon some hard, despairing 
conceits they cast off hope, and so neglect all endeavours of doing good to 
others. The Spirit of God is witty* in the hearts of his children to ob- 
serve all advantages of doing good. Therefore it is willing to entertain all 
offers of good in others. If they be but willing to hear reproof, if the}' be 
willing to hear comfort, and to hear good discourse, it will make a good 
construction of their errors, if it may be, except it be those that are mali- 
ciously obstinate. It will impute it to passion, or to ill company, to one 
thing or other. As far as possible it will admit of a good construction. 
Love in God's children will admit of it ; and love stirs up to hope, and 
hope stirs up to deal with them for their good. 

I know that charity is not sottish ; but yet it is willing to think the best. 
Where there is probability of good for the present, or where there is a 
tractableness, where there is a willingness to entertain communion, where 
there is any propension,f we must be of our blessed Saviour's disposition, 
* who will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed,' Mat. 
xii. 20. We must draw all, and drive none away. This is one special 
fruit and effect that hope hath in the party that doth hope toward another. 

Now, as it is good for the speaker to be well conceited ; so it is a good 
preparative in the hearer. It hath a winning power in the party hoped of. 
It is a great attractive ; for we willingly hear those that conceit good of us. 
St Paul here works upon the natural disposition in all, which is, that they 
love to be well thought of; and natural dispositions are strong. It is the 
natural disposition for every man to love where he is well thought of; and 
it is not sinful, unless it be in vainglorj', to desire to have good place in 
the esteem of others. And there a man will labour to carry himself an- 
swerable to the good conceit had in him. 

There is a conflict in the worst man. Where he is well conceited of, he 
labours to maintain it, except it be those that are mightily enthralled, as 
some wretches are, to blasphemy, and to a cursed life, that they care not. 
But else if they be well thought of, it will stir them up to maintain it. He 
is a dissolute man, he is not a man, so far as he is careless of this, he is 
brutish and senseless. St Paul, in saying ' our hope is stedfast concerning 
you,' he wins himself into their good opinion ; and so by that means he 
hoped to prevail with them for greater matters. So hope, it stirs up men 
to do good, and it makes the other willing to receive good. For it makes 
them willing to content them that hope well of them. St Paul was led 
with this heavenly wisdom, and that which made him so industrious, was 
hope of prevailing ; and that which made him prevail with others, was the 
good conceit he had of thorn. He would gather upon every one. When 
he saw Agrippa come on a little, ' Agrippa, believest thou the Scriptures ? ' 
Acts xxvi. 27. I know thou behevest. ' Almost thou persuadest me to 
be a Christian,' saith he, ver. 28 ; and so he comes in a little. It is good, 
as much as may be, to have hope of others. 

But what is his degree of hope ? ' Our hope of you ' — is stedfast. 

He had a stedfast hope, that if they were sufferers, they should be par- 
takers of the comfort. 

* That is, ' wise.' — G. t That is, ' inclination.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I. VKR. 7. 113 

The observation may be this, that 

Doct. Divine truths are such as we may build a steclfast hope on the j^er- 
formance of them. 

Divine truths, divine comforts, they are of that nature, that though we 
do not yet enjoy them, yet we may build certainly upon them. I hope sted- 
fastly, that if you be partakers of the sufierings, you shall be partakers of 
the comforts. A man cannot say so of anything else but divine truths. A 
man cannot say of any other, or of himself, I hope stedfastly to be rich, I 
hope stedfastly to be great, or I hope stedfastly to live long. The nature 
of the thing is uncertain. The state of the world is vanity ; and life itself, 
and all things here, will not admit of a certain apprehension. For the cer- 
tainty in a man's understanding, it follows the certainty of the thing, or 
else there is no adequation.* When there is an evenness in the apprehen- 
sion to the thing, then it is true ; but if we apprehend anything that is 
here, that either riches or life, or favour will be thus, or thus long, it is no 
true apprehension. We cannot build a certain hope upon an uncertain 
ground. But of divine truths, we can say, if we see the one, undoubtedly 
the other will follow ; if we see the signs oi grace in any man, that he is 
strong to endure any disgi'ace for religion, any discomfort, then we may 
say, certainly, as you partake of the afflictions of Christ, and of the afflic- 
tions and sufferings of his people, his body mystical ; so undoubtedly you 
shall be partakers of the comfort of God's people : heaven and earth shall 
fail, but this shall never fail. 

Is not this a comfort to a Christian, that when he is in the state of 
grace, he hath something that he may build on, when all things else fail ? 
In all the changes and alterations of this life, he hath somewhat unalter- 
able, — the certainty of divine comforts, the certainty of his estate in grace, 
though he be in an afflicted estate. As verily as he is afflicted, so verily 
he shall be comforted. ' If we suffer with Christ, we shall be glorified with 
him,' Rom. viii. 17. 

Upon what ground is this certainty built, that if we suffer we shall be 
glorified ? 

It is built upon our union with Christ. It is built upon the communion 
we have with the church of God. We are all of one body. And it is 
built upon his own experience. As verily as I have been afflicted, and 
have comfort, so shall you that sufi'er be comforted : what I feel, you 
shall feel. 

Because in things necessary there is the like reason from one to all ; if 
one be justified by faith, all are justified by fixith ; if one sufi'er and receive 
comfort, all that sufier shall receive comfort. Divine comforts are from 
one to all, from the head to the body, from the body to every member. If 
Christ sufiered, I shall siifter, if I be of his body ; if Christ was comforted, 
I shall be comforted. Divine truths they agree in the head and the mem- 
bers. If it be true in one, it is true in all. St Paul felt it in his own per- 
son ; and, saith he, as I have felt afflictions increase, and comforts increase, 
so it shall be with you ; you shall be partakers of the comforts now, or 
hereafter. And it is built likewise upon God's promise, which is surer 
than heaven and earth. ' If we sufier with him, we shall be glorified with 
him,' as the apostle saith, Rom. viii. 17. All these are grounds to found 
this stedfast hope on. And then the nature of God : he is a just God, a 
holy God, and when we have taken the ill, we shall find the sweet, as in 

*' That is, ' proportion.* This is a superior example of the use of the word to 
that priven by Richardson, sub voce from Fuller — G. 

VOL. III. H 



114 COMMENTARY ON 

2 Thess. i. 6. * It is just with God, to render to them that afflict you 
trouble, and to you comfort.' God hath pawned his justice upon it, and 
he will observe this order. Where he begins in trouble, he will end in 
comfort. It is just with God, and therefore I may be persuaded. 

It should be a special comfort to all that are in any sanctified cross, whe- 
ther it be for a good cause or no. If a man find that he stands out for a 
good cause, then there is more matter of joy. It is matter of triumph then. 
But if they be crosses common to nature, if a man find them sanctified, (as 
they are only to God's children, they learn humility by them, they learn 
heavenly-mindedness, they learn patience, they learn more carefulness by 
their afflictions, if it be thus sanctified), then a man may say to such a one, 
' As you partake of the sufferings, so you shall partake of the comfort,' 
though you feel it not for the present. 

Is it not a comfort for a patient to have his physician come to him, 
whom he knows to be wise, and speaks by his book, to say to him, Be of 
good comfort, you shall never die of this disease ; this that I give you will 
do you good : there was never any that took this potion but they recovered. 
Would not this revive the patient ? Now when the physicians of our souls 
shall come and tell a man, by discerning his state to be good, by discern- 
ing signs of grace in his abasement. Be of good comfort, there is good 
intended to you ; your sufferings shall end in comfort, undoubtedly ; 
we may well be persuaded of this, God will never vary his order. 
Therefore, when we are in any trouble, and find God blessing it to us, to 
abate our pride, to sharpen our desire, to exercise our graces, when we find 
it sanctified, let it comfort us, it shall turn to our further comfort. We find 
a present good that it is a pledge of a further good. It will make a bitter 
potion to go down, when the physician saith, it will do you good. How 
many distasteful things do poor creatures endure and take down to cure 
this carcase ! It were offensive to name what distasteful things they will 
take to do them good (/•*). 

Let us take this cup fi'om God's hand, let us endure the cross patiently, 
whatsoever it be. It is a bitter cup, but it is out of a Father's hand, it is 
out of a sweet hand. There may be a miscarrying in other physic, but 
God's physic shall certainly do us good. God hath said it, ' All things 
shall work for the best to those that love him,' Rom. viii. 28. He hath 
said it beforehand. We may presume, and build our persuasion upon this 
issue, that all things shall work for our good. "What a comfort is this in all 
the intercourses and changes of this life, when we know before, that what- 
soever we meet with, it hath a command from God to do us good, it is me- 
dicinable, though it seem never so ill, to do us good, to work ill out of us, 
by the blessing of God. But to proceed. 



YEESES 8, 9. 

* For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which 
came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, 
insomuch that we despaired even of life : But we had the sentence of death in 
ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.' 

Here St Paul comes to the particular explication of what he had gene- 
rally spoken before. He had generally said before, that he had both com- 
fort and affliction ; but now he specifies what afflictions they were. ' I would 
not have you ignorant of the troubles which came to us in Asia,' &c. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 8. 115 

'I woidd not have you ignorant of!' He knew it was behoveful for 
them to know : therefore, to insmuate into their respect the more, he tells 
them of it. Indeed, to know both together is very sweet and comfortable, 
to know both the afflictions of God's people and their comforts, as here, he 
tells them what ill he endured in Asia, and how God delivered him : to see 
how these are linked together ia God's people, is very comfortable. There- 
fore ' I would not have you ignorant.' 

Now, that they might not be ignorant, he sets before their eyes the par- 
ticular grievance that he suffered in Asia. And see how he doth raise him- 
self by degrees, and represent it to them most lively. 

First of all, saith he, ' We were pressed out of measure.' There is one 
degi'ee, ' we were pressed.' It is a metaphor. ' We were pressed,' as a cart is 
pressed under sheaves, as a man is pressed under a burden ; as a ship that 
is over laden is pressed deep down with too much burden. So it was 
with us, we were pressed with afflictions. Afflictions are of a depressing 
nature, they draw down the soul as comfort raiseth it up. 

' Out of measure.' There is the second degi'ee ; they were not only 
pressed, but pressed ' out of measure.' 

' Above strength.' Above my strength, above ordinary strength. And 
he riseth higher still. The waters rise higher, ' insomuch that we despaired 
of life.' We despaired of any escaping out of trouble at the present en- 
counter, nay, we did not see how we should escape for the time to come. 

Nay, it was so great, in the first place, that we passed ' the sentence of 
death upon ourselves.' It is a speech taken from malefactors that are 
condemned ; for even as they, having the sentence pronounced upon them, 
we account them dead men, they esteem themselves so, and so do others 
esteem them, the sentence being passed upon them ; so I even passed the 
sentence on myself, seeing no evasion or escape out of the troubles I was 
in, the sentence of death passed upon me. ' We had the sentence of death 
in ourselves.' It was not passed by God, nor by the world ; for they had 
not decreed to kill him, but he passed it upon himself when he saw no way 
to escape. He was deceived, though, as ofttimes God's children are, for 
he died not at that time. 

And then afterwards he sets down the end why all this was, a sweet end, 
a double end, * That we should not trust in ourselves.' What should we 
trust in then ? * But in God that raiseth the dead.' 

Fu-st to speak of his grievance, and then of the reason why God did thus 
follow him. 

' We would not have you ignorant.' He prevents all scandal by this. * I 
would not have you ignorant.' I am so far from caring, or fearing, or be- 
ing ashamed, that you should know of my affliction that I suffer, that ' I 
would not have you ignorant of it.' For know this, that when j^ou know 
my afflictions you shall know my deliverance also. St Paul was wondrous 
scnipulous at this, lest they should take any offence at his sufferings. In- 
deed it is the state of God's children ; their worst cross. Sometimes are 
censures upon them for the cross, the harsh censures of others in their 
troubles. It was the last, and the greatest of Job's troubles, that, and his 
wife together. When his house was overthrown, his children killed, his 
goods taken away, himself stricken with boils, then for his indiscreet friends 
to become ' miserable comforters,' those that should have comforted him, 
to become censurers and judges of him, as if he had been a man deserted 
and forsaken of God, as if all had been from God as a punishment for his 



116 



COMIIENTAT.Y ON 



sins, this was his greatest cross, as it was his last, when his wife in his 
bosom, she that should have comforted him most, should sohcit him to ill, 
and his friends by their rash and vile censures to make his cross heavier. 
So it is with God's childi-en in the world. They cannot endure hardness 
in the world, they cannot be used othei-wise than their cause deserves. 
But they must also undergo hard censures ; that grieves them more than 
the cross itself. It was the case of this blessed apostle. The Spirit of 
God in him therefore sets him to mention his affliction with boldness and 
confidence, yea, with comfort and joy. ' I would not have you ignorant, ' I am 
not of the mmd of carnal men, that would* have it concealed, nay, I would 
not have you ignorant, I pray understand it. He lays it open to their 
view, that they might be affected with it, as he was ; for those things that 
we are affected with, we are large in the discourse of them. He shews that 
the misery, though it were past, and were off, yet he was affected with it. 
' We were pressed out of measure above strength.' 

Obj. This seems to thwart another place of Scripture in 1 Cor. x. 13, 
' God is faithful, and will lay no more upon you than you shall be able to 
bear ; ' and yet here he saith, ' we were afflicted above strength.' How can 
these hang together ? 

I answer, God will not suffer his children to endui'e anything above 
strength, above that they are able to bear, especially in spiritual evils, but 
for sickness and persecution or such, sometimes he may lay more upon them 
than they have present strength to bear. 

But, put the case that St Paul speaks of, inward grievance, and outward 
afflictions too, as both usually accompany one another. St Paul's meaning 
is here undoubtedl}^ ' We were pressed above strength,' that is, above 
ordinary natural strength, that unless God had made a supply by a new 
supernatural strength, we had never been able to endure it. Therefore 
take it so, above ordinary natural strength ; for extraordinary crosses must 
have extraordinary strength, and crosses with grievance of spirit must have 
more than natural strength to bear them. 

Obj. Again, where it is said, ' Insomuch that we despaired of life,' as if 
he had cared much for his life, — this seemeth to cross another place, Phil, 
i. 23, 'I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ;' and here he seems 
to be very careful, in a strait, lest he should die. 

Ans. I answer, we must take St Paul in diverse considerations and re- 
spects. As St Paul hath finished his course, and done his work, so 'Hence- 
forth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,' 2 Tim. iv. 8; so he 
thinks of nothing but life and glory ; he cares not for his life. But take St 
Paul in the midst of his course, and so he had a care to his charge. Take 
St Paul as he looked to gloiy, so he desired to be dissolved ; take him as 
he was affected to edify the church, so he laboured to live by all means, 
and so he saith he despaired of life, as desiringto live to do good to the church. 

Obj. Again, it may be objected against the last, ' We received the sen- 
tence of death in ourselves.' St Paul died not now, and he had the Spirit 
of God in him, to know what he spake ; how doth this agree then that he 
had the sentence of death passed ? 

Ans. I answer, St Paul spake according to the probability of second 
causes, according to the appearance of things ; and so he might pronounce 
of himself without danger, as being no sinful error, that indeed I am a dead 
man, I see no hope of escaping. If I look to the probability of second 
causes, all my enemies are about me, I am in the lion's mouth, there is but 
* ' Not ' inserted here by a self-correcting misprint.— G. 



2 CORIKXHIANS CHAP. I, \ER. 8. 117 

a step between me and death. He doth not look here to the decree of God, 
but he looks to the disposing of present causes. So God's children are 
often deceived in themselves in that respect. It is no great error ; for it is 
true what they speak in regard of second causes, though it be not true in 
regard of God's decree. 

The objections being satisfied, we may observe some points of doctrine- 

And out of the first part of St Paul's trial, which some take it to be that in 
Acts xix., [when] at Ephesus, Demetrius the smith raised up a trouble against 
him, when they cried out, ' Great is Diana of the Ephesians.' But those 
are but conjectures. It may be it was some great sickness ; it may be some 
other affliction. The Scripture is silent in the particular what it was. To 
come then to the points themselves. In the first part, this is considerable 
in the first place, that 

God suffers his children to fall into extreme perils and dangers. 

And then secondly, that they are sensible of it. 

For the first, 

God suffers his children to fall into great extremities. This is clear here, 
we see how he riseth by degrees. ' We were pressed above measm-e, above 
strength, that we even despaired of life, we received the sentence of death 
in ourselves.' He riseth by five steps, to shew the extremity that he was 
in. This is no new thing, that God should suffer his children thus to be 
exercised. 

It is true in the head, it is true in the body, and it is true of every par- 
ticular member of the body. 

It is true of our head, Christ Jesus himself. "We see to what exigencies 
he was brought, in what danger of his life ofttimes he was, as when they 
would have cast him down from the mount, Lnke iv. 29, and when, in ap- 
prehension of his Father's wrath, he sweat ' water and blood ' in the garden, 
Luke xxii. 44 ; and on the cross cried out, ' My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ?' Mark xv. 34. None was ever so abased as he was. 
He ' humbled himself to the death of the cross,' Philip, ii. 8, nay, lower 
than the cross ; he was in captivity in the grave three days. They thought 
they had had their will on him there, they thought they might have trampled 
on Christ ; and no doubt but the devil triumphed over the grave, and 
thought he had had him where he would. But we see afterward God 
raised him again gloriously. 

Now, as the head was abased, even unto extremity ; so it is true of the whole 
body of the church from the beginning of the world. The church in Egypt was 
in extremity before Moses came ; therefore, a learned Hebrician Capne (s), 
that brought Hebrew into these western parts, was wont to say. When the 
tale of brick was doubled, then comes Moses, that is, in extremity. When 
there was no remedy, then God sent them deliverance. In what a pitiful 
case was the poor church and people of God in Esther's time. There was 
but a hair's-breadth between them and destruction. It was decreed by 
Haman, and they had gotten the king's decree too. They were, as it were, 
between the hammer and the anvil, ready to be crushed in pieces presently, 
had not God come between. And so in Babylon the church was in ex- 
tremity, insomuch as that when deliverance was told them, ' they were as 
men that dream,' Ps. cxxvi. 1, as if there had been no such matter; they 
wondered at it. And so in the times of persecution, God hath suffered his 
church to fall into extreme danger, as now at this time the church is in 
other parts. I might draw this truth along through all ages. It is true of 
the whole body of the church. It is true likewise of the particular mem- 



118 COMMENTARY ON 

bers. Take the principal members of it. You see Abraham, before God 
made good bis promise, be was brought to a dry body, and Sarah to a dead 
womb, that they despaired of all second causes. And David, though God 
promised him a kingdom, yet he was so straitened that he thought many 
times he should have died. * I said in my haste. All men are liars,' Ps. 
cxvi. 11. They tell me this and that, but there is nothing so. He was 
hunted as a ' partridge in the wilderness,' 1 Sam. xxvi. 20. 

It was time of St Paul. We see what extremity he was brought unto, as 
the psalmist saith, Ps. cxviii. 18, ' I was afflicted sore, but I was not de- 
livered to death,' even as we say, only not killed. It is and hath been so 
with all the members of the church from Abel to this day. Sometime or 
other, if they live any long time, they shall be like Moses at the Red Sea. We 
see in what a strait he and his company was there. There was the Egyp- 
tians behind them, the mountains on each side of them, the Red Sea before 
them. What escaping was here for Moses ? So it is with the poor church 
and children of God ofttimes. There are dangers behind them, and perils 
before them, and troubles on all sides. God brings them so low as death's door, 
sometimes by sickness, as there is an instance in Ps. cvii. 18, of those that go 
down to the sea in ships. ' He brings them to death's door,' saith the psalmist. 

What is the reason that, by persecution and afflictions, by one grievance 
or another, God brings his children to such a lo-\7 ebb ? 

The reasons are many. 

Beason 1. The first may be, he icill thus try ivhat mettle thetj are made of. 
Light afflictions, light crosses, will not try them thoroughly ; great ones 
will. Jonah, that slept in the ship, he falls a-praying in the whale's belly. 
He that was pettish out of trouble, and falls a-quarrelling with God him- 
self in trouble, he falls to praying when he was in the bottom of hell, as he 
saith himself. Little afflictions may stand with murmuring and repining, 
but great ones try indeed what we are. What we are in great afflictions, 
we are indeed. 

Reason 2. Again, to try the sincerity of our estate, to make us to know 
ourselves, to make us kno^vn to the world and known to ourselves, what 
good we have and what ill we have. A man knows not what a deal of 
looseness he hath in his heart, and what a deal of falseness, till we come to 
the cross and to extremity. Whereas before I thought I had had a great 
deal of patience, a great deal of faith, and a great deal of heavenly-minded- 
ness ; now I see I have not that store laid up as I thought I had. And 
sometime a man is deceived on the contrary. I thought I had had no goodness 
in me ; and yet in extremity such a one goes to prayer, he goes to the word 
of God, to the communion of saints, he delights in good things, and only in 
those. Extremity makes him discern and know himself for ill and for good, 
and makes others to Imow him too. That is another end. 

Beason 3. Again, God suffers us to fall into extremity, to set an edye trpon 
our desires and our prayers, to make us cry to him. ' Out of the deep I have 
cried unto thee, Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1. When a man is in the deep, it is 
not an ordinary prayer will serve, but he must cry. God loves to hear his 
children speak to him. He loves the voice of his children. It is the best 
music that he delights in. Therefore, he will take a course that he will be 
sure to hear from them ; and rather than they shall neglect prayer, he will 
sufier them to fall into some rousing sin, into such a state and condition, 
that they may dart up prayers, that they may force prayers out of the 
anguish of spirit, that their prayers may be violent, that will take no 
denial, that they may be strivings with God, that they may wrestle with 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 8. 119 

God, as we see in Jacob and the woman of Canaan, that they may be im- 
portunate, and never leave him, nor take any denial. 

Reason 4. Again, God suifers his children to fall into this extreme peril 
and danger, not only to try them, what good they have in them, but when 
he hath tried it to exercise it, to exercise their faith and their 2}ati£nce. St 
Paul had a great deal of grace in him, and God would be sure to have a great 
deal of trial and exercise of it ; and therefore he suffered him to fall into ex- 
treme dangers, that so all the patience and all the faith he had might be set 
on work. And so it was in Job. God had fm:'nished his champion with a 
great measure of patience, and then he singles him out to the combat ; he 
brings him into the hsts to encounter with Satan, and to triumph over Satan 
and all-the evils he suffered whatsoever. 

Reason 5. Again, it is to perfect the ivork of mortification, to let patience 
have her perfect work, and faith and prayer to have their perfect work, to 
perfect all gi-aces, and so to perfect the work of mortification. For in ex- 
treme dangers he weans us perfectly from the world as much as may be ; 
nothing will do it if these will not. St Paul came to many cities, and there 
he thought ofttimes to have great matter of entertainment ; and instead of that, 
he was whipped and misused. God vised the matter so to mortify pride 
and self-confidence in St Paul. He scoured him so from pride, that he 
should not go out of the city but he should be well scoured first by misusage. 
So, rather than God will suffer his children to go to hell, and rather than 
he will suffer them to Uve in the world here without glory to their profes- 
sion, without manifesting of grace, to mortify and subdue their base, earthly 
affections, he will scour them, to subdue their pride and to subdue their 
earthly-mindeduess. We might prevent the bitterness of the cross if we 
would. We might prevent his mortifying of us by afflictions, by the morti- 
fication of the spirit ; but because we are negligent in that work, to perfect 
the work of mortification he is forced to lay here many crosses and ex- 
treme dangers upon us. 

Reason 6. Lastly, God doth this for another end, that he might he sxire 
by this means to prepare us for greater blessings ; for in what deep measm'e 
we are humbled by any deep affliction, in that measure we are prepared for 
some blessing. Humility doth empty the soul, and crosses do breed 
humihty. The emptiness of the soul fits it for receipt. God therefore doth 
empty us by crosses, that we may be fit vessels to receive some larger mea- 
sure of grace and comfort. For, as it is said before, ' As our tribulations 
increase, so our comforts increase.' Therefore, it is a good sign that God 
intends much spiritual good to any man, when he lays some heavy load upon 
him in this world. All is to prepare for some greater comfort and some 
greater measure of grace. 

Why doth the husbandman fall upon his ground, and tear and rend it up 
with the plough, and the better the ground is, the more he labours to kill 
weeds ? Is it because he hath an ill mind to the ground ? No. He means 
to sow good seed there, and he will not plough a whit longer than may 
serve to prepare the ground. It is the Holy Ghost's comparison, Isa. 
xxviii. 24. So likewise the goldsmith, the best metal that he hath, he 
tempers it, he labours to consume the dross of it, and the longer it is in 
the fire, the more pure it comes forth. So God keeps his children under 
crosses, and doth plough them. They neglect to plough themselves, and 
he is fain to set ploughers that will do it indeed, — some ill-minded men, or 
some cross. If they would plough themselves and examine themselves, 
they might spare God the labour. But when they are negligent, God 



120 COMMENTARY ON 

takes tlie labour into his own hand, and sets others on work that will do 
it to purpose. But all is to prepare them for heavenly seed, for grace and 
comfort, that in what measure we have been depressed, as he saith here, 
* we were pressed above measure,' in that measure he means to lift us up 
by heavenly comfort. 

And, which is a clause of that, that ire might set a price upon the comforts 
vhen they come ; for when he hath so prepared us for it, and then we re- 
ceive it, then comfort is comfort indeed. Comfort in itself is all one, and 
gloiy in itself is all one, first and last ; but it is not all one to the person. 
Comfort is endeared to a person that hath been kept under and been dieted 
before. Then when it comes he sets a great value upon it, when he hath 
been without it so long. 

Our nature is so, that we value things by the want of them rather 
than by the present enjoying of them. After we have wanted it, and have 
been long time prepared for it, then when it comes it is welcome indeed. 
For these and many such like ends we must be willing to approve of God's 
holy and wise dispensation in this, in ordering matters so with his chil- 
dren, in bringing them to great dangers of body, in danger of life, some- 
times to spiritual desertions, leaving them to themselves, as if he had no 
care of them. But St Paul speaks especially here of outward crosses. You 
see the reasons of it. 

Use 1. The use of it, is first, that ice should not pass a harsh, unadvised, 
rif/id censure upon ourselres, or others, for these respects, for any great afflic- 
tion or abasement in this world. The world is ready to pass their verdict 
presently upon a man. Oh, >such a one, you see what a kind of man he 
was, you see how God follows him with crosses. So uncharitable men 
judge amiss of ' the generation of the righteous.' Whereas they should set 
the court in their own hearts, and begin to censure there, and to examine 
themselves, they go out and keep their court abroad. But I say, pass 
not a harsh censure upon others, or on thyself, no, not for extreme dan- 
gers. For God now is making way for great comfort. Let God go on his 
way, without thy censuring of him. 

Use 2. Again, this should teach us, that ice should not bnild ovennuch con- 
fidence on earthly thinfjs, on the things of this world, neither on health of 
body, or on friends, or on continuance of life. Alas ! it is God's ordinary 
course, to strip us of all in this world. We think of great reputation ; but, 
saith God, I will take that from you ; you shall learn to trust in me. You 
think you have strong and vigorous bodies, and you shall live long, and 
therefore you will venture upon such and such courses. Aye, but God suf- 
fers his children to come to extreme dangers and hazards, that they think 
the sentence of death is passed upon them. 

And since this is God's course with the body, and with the members, and 
■with our head Christ himself, shall we think to have immunity, and to 
escape, and not look to God's order ? 

The church is in great misery, and we are negligent in prayer ; we think 
there are many good people, and there is strong munition, &c., as if when 
God's people are in security, and forget him and his blessings, it were not 
his course to strip them of all, to suffer them to fall into extreme dangers. 
Have we not the church before our eyes to teach us ? Let us trust, there- 
fore, in nothing in this world. 

So much for that point. 

The second thing in the first part is this, that 

I)oct. As God's children are brought to this estate, so they are sensible of it. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 8. 121 

They are flesh and not steel, ' they have not the strength of steel,' as 
Job saith, Job vi. 12. They are men, they are not stones. They are 
Christians, they are not Stoics. Therefore St Paul, as he was in extremity, 
so he apprehended his extremity ; and with all his heart he wonld have 
escaped if he could. He looked about to all evasions how he might escape 
death. God's children are sensible of their crosses ; especially they are 
sensible of death, as he speaks here of himself, ' "We despaired even 
of life itself.' The word is very significant in the original. We were in 
such a strait that we knew not how to escape with life, so that ' we despaired 
of life' (t). We would have escaped with our Uves, but we saw no way 
to escape. To make this clear, there are three things in God's children. 

There is grace, nature, corrupt nature, nature with the tang* of cor- 
ruption. 

Grace, that looks upward, to glory and comfort. Nature looks to the 
present grievance, nature looks not to things to come, to matters revealed 
in the word, to supernatural comforts : nature looks to the present cross, 
even nature without sin. Conaipt natui'e feels, and feels with a secret 
murmuring and repining, and heaviness and dulness ; as indeed corrupt 
nature will alway have a boutf in crosses ; it will alway play its part, first 
or last. There are alway these three works in the children of God, in all 
extremities. Grace works, and that carries up, up still. * Trast in God.' 
It looks to heaven, it looks to the end and issue, that all is for good. 
Nature it fills full of sense and pain, and makes a man desu-e remedy and 
ease. Corrupt nature stirs a man up to fret, and say, what doth God 
mean to do thus ? It stirs a man ofttimes to use ill means, indirect 
courses. 

St Paul was sensible, from a right principle of nature ; and, no doubt, 
here was some tang* of corruption with it. He was sensible of the fear of 
death. Adam in innocency would have been affected, and exquisitely sen- 
sible, no doubt, if his body had been wronged ; for the more pure the com- 
plexion, | the more sensible of solution. As physicians say, when that which 
should be knit together, if anything be loosed by sickness, or by wounds, 
that should by nature not be hurt, but continue together, it breeds exqui- 
site pain, as to cut that which should not be cut, to disjoin that which 
should be together. This is in nature. 

The schoolmen say (;/), and the reason is good, that Christ's pains were the 
greatest pains, because his senses were not dulled and stupified with sen- 
suality, or indirect courses. He had a body of an excellent temper, and he 
was in the perfection of his j^ears when he died. Therefore he received such 
an impi'ession of gi'ief in his whipping, and when he was crowned with 
thorns. That was it that made him so sensible of grief, that when he 
sweat, he sweat drops of blood, and upon the cross it made him cry out, 
' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mark xv. 34. 

God's children, out of a principle of nature, are sensible of any grievance 
to this outward man of theirs, to the body, especially in death, as we see 
here St Paul. And there is most patience where there is most sense. It 
is stupidity and blockishness else. 

Queat. Why are God's children so sensible in grief, especially in death? 

Ans. Oh, there is a great cause. Indeed, in some regards, they are not 
afraid of it ; for death is an enemy to nature, it is none to gi'ace. But 
when I speak not of grace and glory, but of nature, 

* That is, = 'taint,' or 'touch." — G-. t That is, 'turn, 'part.'— G. 

X That is, =^^ ' conjunction,' or ' union.' — G. 



122 COMMENTARY ON 

Reason 1. Hath not nature great cause to tremble at death, ichen it is an 
enemij to nature, even to right nature ? It is the king of fears, as Job saith, 
Job xviii. 14. It is that tyrant that makes all the kings of the earth to 
tremble at him. When death comes, it is terrible. Why ? because it 
strips us of all the contentments of this life, of all comforts whatsoever we 
have here. Nature without sin is sensible of earthly comforts that God 
hath appointed for nature ; and when nature sees an end of them, nature 
begins to give in, and to gi'ieve. 

limson 2. Again, deatli parts the best friends we have in this world, the 
tody and the soul, two old friends ; and they cannot be parted without exqui- 
site grief. If two fifiends that take contentment in each other, common 
friends, cannot part without grief, how shall these bosom friends, these 
united friends, body and soul, part without grief ? This marriage between 
the soul and the body cannot be disunited without exquisite pain, being old 
acquaintance. 

Reason 3. Again, nature abhors death, [because] it hinders ns of all em- 
ployment. It hinders of all service of God in church and commonwealth. 
And so grace, which is beyond nature, doth a little desire the continuance 
of life. 

But nature, even out of no sinful principle, it sees that now I can serve 
God no longer, I can do God no more service, I can do good no longer 
in this world. And therefore it takes it to heart. Our Sa-vaour saith, 
' While 3"0U have light, walk : the night cometh, when no man is able to 
work,' John ix. 4, the night of sickness and death. So it breeds discom- 
fort, and is terrible that way. 

Reason A. Again, in death ^ve leave those that cast their care upon us, we 
leave ofttimes wives and children, wdthout husband or father ; those that 
had dependence upon us. And this must needs work upon nature, upon 
a right principle of nature. Indeed the excess of it is with corruption 
alway. 

Reason 5. Again, in death, there is great pain. They say, births are with 
great pangs, and so they are. Now death is a birth, the birth of immor- 
tality. No wonder then if it have great pangs. Therefore nature fears it 
even for the pangs, the concomitants that are joined with it. 

Reason 6. And then in death, nature considers the state of the body pre- 
sently after death, that that goodly body, that strength and vigour I 
enjoyed before, must now be worms'-meat. I must say ' to the worm. 
Thou art my brother, and to corruption. Thou art my mother,' and the like, 
as it is in Job, Job xvii. 14. That head, that perhaps hath ruled the com- 
monwealth, the place where I lived, it must lie level with others ; and that 
body that others were enamoured with, it must now be so forlorn, that the 
sight of it will not be endm-ed of our best friends. Natm*e considers what 
the estate will be there, that it shall turn to rottenness ere long ; that the 
goodliest persons shall be turned to dust, and lie rotting there till the day 
of the resurrection. 

Faith and grace looks higher ; but because we have nature as long as 
we are men, these and such like respects work upon nature, and make death 
grievous. 

Reason 7. But besides the glass of nature, and these things here in the 
world, look upon it i)t the law of God, in that glass ; and so natui'e trembles, 
and quarrels at death. Death! what is it ? It is the ' wages of sin,' Rom. 
vi. 23, it is the end of all comfort ; and nature cannot see any comfort after 
that. It is beyond nature. Nature teacheth us not that there will be a 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 8. 123 

resurrection of the body, nature teacheth us not that the soul goes to God. 
Here must be a great deal of grace, and a great deal of faith, to convince 
the soul of this. Nature teacheth it not. 

Now, when besides this, the law of God comes and saith, death came in 
by sin, ' and sin is the sting of death,' 1 Cor. xv, 56, death is armed with 
sin, and sin comes in with the evidences of God's anger. Here, unless 
there be faith and grace, a man is either as Nabal, a stone and a sot in 
death, or as Judas and Cain, swallowed up with despair. It is impossible 
for a man that is not a true Christian, that is not a good man, but that 
either he should be as a stone, or desperate in sickness and death, without 
grace. He must be one of them. If he be a wise man, he cannot but 
despair in the hour of death. For is it a matter to be dallied with, or to 
be carried bravely out, as your Roman spirits and atheists think ? They 
account it a glory to die bravely, in a stout manner. Is the terrible of 
terribles so to be put off? When all the comforts in this world shall end, 
and aU emplojinents cease, when there is eternity before a man ; and, after 
death, hell, and eternal damnation of body and soul, are these matters 
to be slighted ? It would make a man look about him. If a man have 
not faith and grace, he must either despair or die Uke a stone. None but 
a good Christian can carry himself well in the hour of death. Nay, a good 
Christian is sensible of death ; and tiU he see God's time is come, he labours 
to avoid it by all means, as St Paul doth here. 

Reason 8. But St Paul had another ground beyond nature to avoid death. 
He knew himself ordained for the service of the church; therefore he desired 
to escape, that he might serve God a longer time for the good of his church. 

Use 1. Are God's children sensible of death, and the danger of it, and 
out of a principle of nature and grace too ? Hoiv then should carnal, 
wretched men look about them, that have not made their accounts even with 
God ? The repoi-t of death to them should be like the handwriting upon 
the wall to Belshazzar, Dan. v. 24. It should make theii' knees beat 
together, and make their countenance pale. It should strike them with 
terror ; and, like Nabal, make their hearts to die as a stone within them. 

Use 2. But it is a use ot comfort to poor, deluded Christians. They 
think, alas ! can my estate be good ? I am afraid of death, I tremble and 
quake at the name of death, I cannot endure to hear of it, but it most of 
all affects me to see it. Therefore I fear I have no grace in me, I fear I 
have no faith in me. 

Be not discomforted, whosoever thou art, that sayest so, if thou labour 
to strengthen thy faith, and to keep a good conscience ; for thou mayest do 
thus out of a principle of nature. Natm'e trembles at death. 

A man may do two things from diverse principle, from diverse repects, 
and both without sin. For example, in festing, nature without sin desireth 
meat, or else fasting were not an afflicting of a man's body ; but grace, that 
hath another principle, and that desires to hold out without sustenance, to 
be afflicted. So here is both a desire, and not a desire, and both good in 
their kind. So a man in the time of sickness and death, he may by all 
means desire to escape it, and tremble at it out of a principle of nature ; 
but out of a higher principle he may triumph. ' death, where is thy 
sting? grave, where is thy victory?' 1 Cor. xv. 55; and 'they that 
beheve in Christ shall never die,' John xi. 26. * We are in heavenly places 
together with Christ,' Eph. i. 3. We are as sure of heaven as if we were 
there. So out of such kind of principles we may triumph over death, by 
faith and grace. 



121 



COMMENIARY ON 



So let none be discouraged. Nature goes one way, and faith and grace 
another. A man may know when it is nature, and when it is grace. When 
grace subdues nature, and subordinates it to a higher principle, a man need 
not be much troubled. 

Christ himseli' our head, he was afraid of death when he looked on death 
as death ; but when he looked upon death as a service, as a redemption, 
as a sweet sacrifice to God, so ' with a thirsting I have thirsted,' saith he, 
Luke xxii. 15. He thirsted after death in that respect. Looking to his 
human nature, to the truth of his manhood, then saith he, ' that this 
cup might pass from me,' Mat. xxvi. 39 ; but in another consideration, he 
willingly gave his soul a sacrifice for sin to God. 

The desire is as the objects are presented. Let heaven and happiness 
be presented, so death is a passage to it, so death is the end of misery, 
and the beginning of happiness, so God's childi'en ' desire to be dissolved, 
and to be with Christ,' as St Paul did, Phihp. i. 23. But look upon death 
otherwise, as it is an enemy to nature, as it is a stop of all employment in 
this world, and of all service to the church, that we can do God no longer 
service ; and so a man may desire to live still, and be afraid of death, if he 
look upon death in the glass of nature, and in the glass of the law, likewise 
that it comes in as a punishment of sin, so indeed it is temble, it is the 
king of fears. But look upon it in another glass, in the glass of the 
gospel, as it is sweetened and as it is disarmed by Christ, and so it is 
comfortable. ' Better is the day of death than the day of birth,' Eccles. 
\'ii. 1 ; for in our birth we corae into misery, in death we go from it. So 
upon diverse considerations we may be diversely affected, and have diverse 
respects to things ; for the soul of man is fi-amed so to be carried to the 
present objects, and therefore in a good man in some respects, at some 
time, death is terrible ; he trembles at it, which upon higher considerations 
and respects, he embraeeth willingly. 

Indeed, it is a sign of a wise man to value life. It is the opportunity 
and advantage to honour God. After death we are receivers, and not 
doers. Then we receive our wages. But while we are here, we should 
desire even for the glory that is reserved for us, to do all the good we can, 
because the time of life is that blessed advantage of doing good and of 
taking good. It is to be in heaven before our time to do others good, and 
to get evidence of heaven for ourselves. This is the second thing, that as 
God's children are suffered to fall into extreme dangers, so they are very 
sensible of them, especially in matter of death, which is the last enemy. 
There the devil sets upon them indeed. He knows that that is the last 
enemy, and that there he must get all or lose all ; and he labours to make 
death more terrible than it is or should be. 

The way not to fear death, and not to let nature have overmuch scope, 
is to disarm death beforehand, to pluck out the sting of it by repentance ; 
weaken it beforehand, that it may not get the better, even as we do with 
om- enemies. The way to overcome them is to weaken them, to weaken 
their forces, to starve them if we can, to intercept all their provision. 
What makes death terrible and strong ? We put stings into it, our sins, 
our sins against conscience. The time will come when conscience will 
awaken, and it will be then, if ever, to our comfort ; and then our former 
sins will stare in our faces, the sins of our youth, the sins that we have 
before neglected soundly to repent for. Therefore let us labour this way 
to make death less terrible. 

Again, that we may not fear it ovennuch, let us look upon it in the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 8, 125 

glass of the gospel, as it is now in Christ, as it is turned clean another way. 
Now, it hath sweet names. It is called a dissolution, a departure, a sleep- 
ing, a going to our Father's, and such like. God doth sweeten a bitter 
thing, that it may enter into us with less terror. So it must be our wisdom 
to sweeten the meditation of it, by evangelical considei'ations, what it is now 
by Christ. 

And withal to meditate the two terms, from whence and whither. What 
a blessed change it is if we be in Christ ! It is a change for the better, 
better company, better employment, a better place, all better. Who would 
be grieved at, and afraid of, death ? Let us recall the promise of the pre- 
sence of God. He will be with us to death, and in death. ' Blessed are 
those that die in the Lord,' Rex. xiv. 13. And especially faith in Christ 
will make us, that we shall not fear death, when we shall see him our head 
in heaven before us, ready to receive us when we come there ; and to see 
ourselves in heaven, already in him ; as verily in faith and in the promise, 
as if we were there. * We are set in heavenly places ' with Christ already. 
Let us have these and such like considerations to sweeten the thought of 
death. 

But to touch this, which is an appendix to that formerly mentioned, that 

Obs. God's children are deceived concerning their death ofttimes. 

The time of death is uncertain. St Paul thought he should have died 
when he did not ; he was deceived. There is a double error about death. 
Sometimes we think we shall not die, when indeed we are dead men. 
Sometimes we receive the sentence of death, we pass a censure upon our- 
selves, that we cannot live, when God intends our escape. So it is uncer- 
tain to us the hour of death. Sometime we are uncertain when it is cer- 
tain ; sometime we think it certain when it falls not out so. Both ways 
we are deceived, because God will have us, while we live here, to be at an 
uncertainty for the very moment of death. ' Our times are in his hand.' 
Our time of hfe is in his hand. We came into the world when he thought 
good. Our time of living here is in his hands. We live just as long as he 
will have us. Our time of death is in his hand. The prophet saith not 
only, my time is in thy hands, but ' my times,' my time of coming into the 
world, my time of hving in the world, and my time of going out of the 
world shall be when thou shalt appoint me. Therefore he will have us 
uncertain of it ourselves, till the moment of death come. St Paul was de- 
ceived, ' He received the sentence of death in himself,' but he died not at 
that time. 

So that the manner and circumstances of death are uncertain, whether it 
shall be violent or fair death, [whether] it shall be by diseases or by 
casualties, whether at home or abroad. All the circumstances of death are 
hidden from us, as well as death itself and the time of it. 

And this is out of heavenly wisdom, and love of God to us, that we 
should at all times be provided, and prepared for our dissolution and change. 
It is left at this imcertainty, that we might make our estate certain, to be 
fitted to die at all times. Let us make that use of it to provide every day. 
Oh, it were a happy thing if we could make every day, as it were, another 
life, a several life ; and pass sentence upon ourselves, a possible and pro- 
bable sentence ; it may be this day may be the last day. And let us end 
eveiy day as we would end our lives. How would we end our Uves ? We 
would end them with repentance for our sins past, with commending our 
souls into the hands of God, with resolution and purpose to please God in 
all things, with disposing all things wisely in this world. Let us end our 



l:iQ COMMENTARY ON 

days, every daj so, as mucli as possible may be ; let us set everj'thing 
right ; let us set the state of our souls in order, set all in order as much as 
may be every day. It were a blessed course if we could do so. 

And this is one part, one main branch of our corruption, wherein it 
shews itself strongly, that we live in an estate that we are ashamed to die 
in. Come to some men, and ask them, how it is with you ? have you 
repented of your sins past ? have you renewed your purposes for the time 
to come ? Yes ; we do it solemnly at the communion. But we should re- 
new our repentance, and renew our covenants every day, to please God 
that day. Do you do so now? If God should seize upon you now, are 
you in the exercise of faith ? in the exercise of repentance ? in the exercise 
of holy purposes, to please God ? are you in God's ways ? do you live as 
you would be content to die ? But Satan and our own corruption be- 
witcheth us with a vain hope of long life, we promise ourselves that, that 
God doth not promise us ; we make that certain that God doth not make 
certain. Indeed we are certain of death, but for the time, and manner, 
and circumstances we know them not. Sometimes we think we shall die 
when we do not, and sometimes we die when we think we shall not. 

Oh, will some say, if I knew when I should die, I would be a prepared 
man, I would be exact in my preparation. Wouldst thou so ? thou art 
deceived. Saul knew exactly he should die. He took it for exact when 
the witch in the shape of Samuel told him that he should die by to-morrow this 
time, and yet he died desperately upon the sword's point for all that. He 
did not prepare himself. It must be the Spirit of God that must prepare 
us for this. If we knew never so much, that we should die never so soon, 
we cannot prepare ourselves. Our preparation must be by the Spirit of 
God. Let us labour continually to be prepared for it. 

And let no man resolve to take liberty a moment, a minute of an hour 
to sin. God hath left it uncertain the day of death. What if that moment 
and minute wherein thou resolvest to sin should be the moment of thy 
death and departure hence ? for it is but a minute's work to end th}^ days. 
"What if God should end thy days in that minute ? Let no man take 
liberty and time to sin, when God gives him no liberty in sin. If God 
should strike thee, thou goest to hell quick, thou must sink from sin to 
hell. It is a pitiful case, whenas eternity depends upon our watchfulness 
in this world. But to come to the end and issue, why he was thus dealt 
with by God, carrying him through these extremities. 

* That ire niiglit not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead.' 
Here is the end specified that God intended, in suffering him to be brought 
so low, even to death's door, that there was but a step between him and 
death. The end is double, ' That we should not trust in ourselves, but in 
God that raiseth the dead.' It is set down negatively and positively. 
First, ' That we should not trust in ourselves,' and then that we should 
' trust in God.' And the method is excellent. For we can never trust in 
God till we distrust ourselves, till our hearts be taken off from all confi- 
dence in ourselves and in the creature ; and then when our hearts are taken 
off from false confidence, they must have somewhat to rely on, and that is 
God or nothing ; for else we shall fall into despair. The end of all this was, 
that ' we might not trust in ourselves, but in God that I'aiseth the dead.' 

The wisdom of heaven doth nothing without an end proportionable to 
that heavenly wisdom ; so all this sore aflliction of the blessed apostle, 
what aimed it at ? To pull down, and to build up ; to pull down self- 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 9. 127 

confidence, ' That we might not trust in ourselves ; ' and to build up con- 
fidence and affiance in God, ' but in God that raiseth the dead.' 

We being in a contrary state to grace and communion with God, this 
order is necessary, that God must use some way that we shall not trust in 
ourselves ; and then to bring us to trust in him. So these two are sub- 
ordinate ends one to another. ' We received the sentence of death, that we 
might not trust in ourselves.' 

From the dependence this may be observed, that 

Doct. The certain account of death, is a means to wean us from ourselves, 
and to make us trust in God. 

The sentence of death, the assured knowledge that we must die, the 
certain expectation and looking for death, is the way to wean us from the 
world, and to fit us for God, to prepare us for a better life. You see it 
follows of necessity, ' We received the sentence of death, that we should 
not trust in ourselves,' &c. 

The looking-for of death therefore, takes away confidence in ourselves and 
the creature. Alas ! in death, what can all the creatures help ? What 
can friends, or physic, or money help ? Then honour's, and pleasures, and 
all leave us then. 

This the rather to note a corrupt atheistical course in those that are to 
deal with sick folk, that are extreme sick, that conceal their estate from 
them, and feed them with false hopes of long life. They deserve ill of per- 
sons in extremity to put them in hope of recovery. Physicians that are 
not divines in some measure, what do they ? against their conscience, and 
against their experience, and against sense. Oh, I hope you shall do well, 
&c. Alas ! what do they ? they hurt their souls, they breed a false con- 
fidence. It is a dangerous thing to trust upon long life, when perhaps they 
are snatched suddenly away, before they have made their accounts even 
with God, before they have set their souls in that state they should do. 

Therefore the best way is to do as good Isaiah did with Hezekiah, ' set 
thy house in order, for thou must die,' 2 Kings xx. 1, that is, in the dis- 
position of second causes, thou shalt have a disease that will bring thee to 
death, and God had said so. God had a reservation, but it was more than 
Isaiah knew at that time. ' Set thy house in order, for thou must die.' 
So they should begin with God, to tell them, as we say, the worst first. 
It is a pitiful thing that death should be accounted the worst, but so it is, 
by reason of our fearfulness. Deal plainly with them, let them * receive 
the sentence of death,' that so they may be driven out of themselves and 
the creature altogether, and be driven to trust in ' God that raiseth the dead.' 
Put thy soul in order. You are no man of this world ; lest they betray 
their souls for a little self-respect perhaps, because they would not displease 
them. 

It may be in some cases discreet to yield, to make the means to work the 
better ; but where there is nothing but evident signs of death, they ought to 
deal directly with them, that they may receive the sentence of death. It 
wi'ought with St Paul this good eff'ect, ' I received the sentence of death, 
that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead.' 

It is God's just judgment upon hypocrites, and upon many carnal 
wretched persons, that are led with a false confidence all their life, that 
trust in the creature, trust in friends and riches, that will not trust in God, 
and will not be taught to number their days in their lifetime. It is just 
with God [toward those who], to their very death [are filled] with false con- 
fidence, wiien they come to death, to suffer them to perish in their false 



128 COMMEKTARY ON 

confidence, and so to sink into hell. It is just with God to suffei- them to 
have atheists about them, or weak persons that shall say, Oh, you shall 
do well enough, and then even out of a very desire to live, they are willing 
to believe all, and so they die without all show of change ; and as they 
live, so they die, and are wretched in both. The life of a wicked man 
is ill, his death worse, his estate after death worst of all ; and this is one 
way whereby God sufi'ers men to fall into the snare of the devil, when he 
suffers not those that are about them to deal faithfully. St Paul received 
the sentence of death, that it might force him not to trust in himself, but 
in God that raiseth the dead. 

The second thing that is observable hence out of this first part, which is 
the negative part, is this, that, 

Doct. GocVs children are prone to trust in themselves. 

The hearts even of God's dear children are prone in themselves, if they 
be left to their own bent and weight, to self-confidence, and will not hold 
up in faith and affiance in God further than they are lifted and kept up by 
a spirit of faith, which God puts into them. It was not in vain that God used 
this course with blessed St Paul. Here is an end set down, that he 'might 
not trust in himself.' What, was he in peril to trust in himself? Alas ! 
St Paul, though he were an holy excellent man, yet he was a man; and in 
the best man there is a double principle, a principle of nature, of corrupt 
nature, and a principle of grace ; and he works according to both principles. 
There is an inteimixture of both in all his actions, and in all his passions too, 
in his sufferings. Corruption shews itself in his best deeds, and his best 
sufferings, in eveiything. ' That we should not trust in ourselves,' that is, 
in anything in ourselves, or out of ourselves, in the creature ; it is all one. 
We see by the example of St Paul that the best are prone to trust in them- 
selves. All this hard usage of St Paul, that he received the sentence of 
death, it was that ' he should not trust in himself.' What, was there danger 
in St Paul to trust in himself ? a man that had been so exercised with 
crosses and afflictions as he had been, no man more, one would think that 
he had been scoured enough of pride, and self-confidence ! the whippings 
and misusings, the stocks, the dungeons, &c., would not all this work pride, 
and self-confidence out of the apostle '? No ! So deeply it is invested into 
our base nature, our trusting to present things, that we cannot live the life 
of faith, we cannot depend upon God, whom we cannot see but with other 
eyes than nature hath. It is so deeply rooted in our nature, that the blessed 
apostle himself must have this great help, to be taught to go out of himself, 
and to depend upon God. We see in what danger he was, in another place, 
to be lifted up with the revelations. He was fain to have a ' prick in the 
flesh, a messenger of Satan to bufiet him,' 2 Cor. xii. 7. 

Hezekiah, his heart was lifted up, as the Scripture speaks, in his treasures, 
that he shewed to the I^ng of Babylon's ambassadors, as if he were such a 
rich prince. And so holy David, in numbering the people, to shew what a 
mighty prince he was. It was his vain confidence. Therefore God put him 
to a strange cure. He punished him in that that he gloried in. He took 
away so many of his people. And so Hezekiah was punished in that he 
sinned in. He was fain to have a purge for it. His treasure was taken 
away and earned to Babylon. ' I said in my prosperity,' saith holy David, 
*I shall never be moved,' Ps. xxx. 6. The best are subject to false con- 
fidence to trust in themselves. 

One reason partly, because there is a mixture of corruption in us while 
we live here, and corruption looks to this false principle in us, that will 



2 coraxTHiANs chap. i. ver. 9. 129 

never be wrought out with all the afflictions in the world. Till death make 
an end of corruption, there will be a false trust in ourselves and in the 
creature. We cannot trust God perfectly as we should do. 

Beason 1. Again, the reason is, because the things of this life are useful 
and commodious unto us, and ive are nouzelled* up in the use of them, and 
when Satan doth amplify them in our fancy to be greater in goodness than 
they are ; and opinion sets a greater worth on them, if there were no devil. 
But he presenting these things in all the lustre he can, he helps the ima- 
gination, which he hath more to do with than with all the parts of the soul. 
And the soul looks in the glass of opinion upon these things, and thinks 
they are goodly, great matters, learning and wisdom, honour and riches. 
Looking upon them as they are amplified by the false fancy of others and 
the competition of the world wherein we live, every man is greedy and 
hasty of these things. All men have not faith for better things. There- 
fore, they are mad of these. So the competition of others and the en- 
larging our conceits upon them above their worth, these make us put greater 
confidence in them, and then we come to trust in ourselves and in them, 
and not in God. 

Reason 2. Naturally ice cannot see the nothingness of the creature, that as 
it came out of nothing, so it will turn to nothing. But because it is sen- 
sible, these good things are sensible, and present, and necessary, and use- 
ful ; and naturally we live by our senses. Therefore, we place our delight 
in them, that when they are taken away all the soul goes with them. As 
he that leans upon a crutch, or anything, when that is taken away, down 
he falls, so it is with a man by nature ; he trusts to these things, and when 
they go, his soul sinks together with the things. Even as it is with those 
that are in a stream, when they are in a running stream they are carried 
with the stream, so all these things go away, they are of a fleeting condition. 
We see them not in their passage. When they are gone, we see them past. 
We see not ourselves vanish by little and little out of this life. We see not 
the creatures present, we see not death, and other things beyond death, as 
we should by the eye of faith. So things pass, and we pass with them ; 
the stream and we run together. It must be a great measure of faith that 
must help this. We are prone to trust to sensible things naturally. We 
know what it is to live by sense ; but to live by faith it is a remote thing, 
to lead our lives by reasons drawn from things that are not seen, to live by 
promises, it is a hard thing, when things that are sensible cannot work 
upon us. When we see men die, and see the vanity of things sensible, it 
will not work upon us ; how then do we think that things that are super- 
natural, which are remotef far above sense, should work on us ? It is a 
hard thing not to trust to ourselves, we are so addicted to live by sense ; 
and there is some corruption in St Paul, in the best men, to trust to pre- 
sent things. 

Who doth not think but he shall live one day longer, and so trusts to 
life ? As the heathen man could say, ' There is not the oldest man but he 
thinks he may live a little longer, one day longer' (v). Who makes that 
use of mortality and the uncertain, fading condition of this life as he should ? 
And all because of a false trust ; as in other things, so in the continuance 
of life. We see we are prone to trust, to put base, false confidence in some- 
what or other while we live in this world. 

Reason 3. Again, our nature being prone to outivard things, and sunk deeply 
into them, it can hardly be recovered ; it cannot be sober without much ado 
* That is, 'nourished.' — G. t That is, 'removed.' — Ed. 

VOL. III. 1 



130 



COMMENTARY ON 



and brought from trusting of present things. You have some men that 
have things at will in this world. They never know what faith means. All 
their life they live by sense. Their conscience is not awaked, and outward 
afflictions seize not on them and supply of earthly things they have. What 
religion means, and what God and heaven means, they have heard of them 
perhaps, but throughly and inwardly what it means they never come to 
know in this world, without there be some alteration and changes. They 
must have some changes. ' The wicked have no changes,' saith the pro- 
phet, Ps. Iv. 19. But while they be as they are, they know not God, nor 
themselves, nor the vanity of earthly things. We speak the truth of God 
to a company ofttimes that are besotted with sensuality, and that have 
perpetual supply of earthly things. Speak to them of faith, and of things 
that are remote from sense, &c., they hear them as if they were in a dream. 
Nature is prone to trust in present things, even in the best, in St Paul him- 
self. 

Use 1. Now, our proneness to it doth justify God's dealings in many things, 
as (1.) Why doth God humhh great ones with great afflictioyis? Wliy doth he 
humble great men, great and excellent Christians, with great falls ? That 
they might not trust in themselves ; no, not in their own present graces. 
God will not bring a man to salvation now by grace in himself to give him 
title to heaven. His graces must only be to help his evidence that he is 
not an hypocrite, and to give evidence to others, that others ' may see 
his good works,' &c., Mat. v. 16. But if he come to trust in them once, to 
set them in Christ's stead, God will abase his pride by suffering him to fall, 
that he may go out of himself, to be saved by Christ, and to seek for mercy 
in Christ. 

(2.) And this is the reason why God in his providence doth great things 
by small means, ivithout means, and against means sometimes. When he 
crosses and curses great means, it is that we might not ' trust in ourselves.' 
We are prone to self-confidence ; and because God will cure it, for we must 
not carry it to heaven with us, therefore he is forced to take this kind of 
dispensation. 

Proud flesh will always devise something but that which it should do, to 
uphold itself withal. It will not be driven from all its holds ; God hath 
much ado to work it out from all its holds. If it have not wealth, it will 
have wit and policy ; or if it have not that, it will have civil life, and out- 
ward works to trust to, and to swell it with. But to come and give God 
the gloiy of salvation only by mercy, and to depend only on God, and to 
see an insufficiency in any thing we do, it can hardly be brought to pass. 
Insomuch that that article of justification by the obedience of Christ only, 
it is merely a spiritual thing, altogether transcending nature. 

No marvel if we find such opposition from the Church of Rome, and all, 
unless it be the true church ; they understand not the main article, of salva- 
tion only by mercy, because nature is so desperately prone to self-con- 
fidence. 

Use 2. Let us take heed of false confidence in the things of this life, of 
confidence in any thing but God. 

But to come to some trials. You will say, how shall we know whether 
we put over much confidence in them or no ? 

(1.) It is an easy matter to know it. We trust them too much when we 
grow proud upon any thing, when our spirits are lifted up. ' Charge rich 
men that they be not high-minded,' 1 Tim. vi. 17, insinuating that they 
are in danger to be high-minded. ' If riches increase, set not your hearts 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 131 

upon them,' saith the Psahnist, Ps. Ixii. 10. There is great danger when 
the heart is set on them, and lifted up, when men think themselves so 
much the better as they are greater. Indeed, if they weigh themselves in 
a civil balance it is so, but the corrupt natui-e of man goes further, and 
thinks a man intrinsically better, and more beloved of God for these things. 
It is a dangerous sign that we trust too much to them. 

(2.) Again, overmuch grief, if they he taken aicatj any of them, or if we be 
crossed in them. The gi'ief in wanting betrays the love in enjojdng. It is 
a sign that Job had gotten a gi-eat measui'e of self-denial, not to trust in 
himself or his riches, though he were a rich man, because when they were 
taken away, ' Blessed be God,' saith he, ' thou gavest them, and thou hast 
taken them away,' Job i. 21. He that can stand when his stay is taken 
from him, it is a sign he trusts not too much to his stay. He that is so 
weak that when his stay is taken away, down he falls, it is a sign he leans 
hard. Those that when these things are taken from them, when their 
friends are taken away, or their honours, or riches are taken away, yet they 
can support themselves out of diviner grounds, it is a sign they did not 
overmuch trust these things. Nature will work something, but overmuch 
grief betrays overmuch love always. 

Again, which is but a branch of the other, we may know that we over- 
much set by them, hy fretting to be crossed in any of these things. A 
man may know Ahithophel trusted too much to his policy and wit : when 
he was crossed he could not endm-e it. We see he made away himself for 
very shame, 2 Sam. xvii. 23. When a man is crossed in his wit and 
policy, when he is crossed in those projects he hath laid ; when he is 
crossed in his preferment, or riches, or friends, then he is all amort,* he 
frets, which is more than grieving ; when he not only gi-ieves, but with 
Ahithophel he goes to ill courses. It is a sign he trusted too much, and 
too basely to them before. 

(3.) Again, when the enjoying of these things is joined with contempt and 
base esteem of others, it is a sign that we rest too much in them. There 
is more trust put to them than they should bear. We should not, in the 
enjoying of honour, or riches, or pleasures, or any thing, think the meaner 
of others. 

(4.) Especially, seciirity shews that ice trust too much in them, when we 
bless om'selves, I shall do well. ' Soul, soul, thou hast goods laid up for many 
years,' Luke xii. 19, saith the fool, and he was but a fool for it, to promise 
certainty for uncertainty. A man cannot stand in that which cannot stand 
itself. To promise life in a dying condition, to promise any thing in this 
world, when the very natm'e of them is uncertain, ' Thou fool,' saith the 
Scripture. If his soul had been so full of faith as his barns were of corn, 
he would never have said, ' Soul, soul, take thy rest,' for these things ; 
but he would have trusted in God. It is a sign we ti'ust too much to these 
things, when we secure ourselves all will be well, and bless ourselves, as 
the Scriptm'e speaks. 

(5.) Again, it is a sign we trust too much to these things, whennpon con- 
fidence of these things ive go to ill and unwarrantable courses, and tJiink to be 
borne out by these things. As when the younger sort shall pour forth them- 
selves to vanity, and are careless of swearing and hcentiousness, that they 
care not what to do, they shall live long enough to repent, &c. This is 
a diabolical trust, that God will give them no security in. So when men 

* That is, 'spiritless,' ' ir animate.' This from Sibbes supplements excellently 
Eichardson, sub voce. — G. 



-sX 



132 COMMENTARY ON 

that have riches will venture on bad causes, and think to carry it out with 
their purse, they trust in matter of oppression, and think to bear out the 
matter with their friends, or with their place, or with their wits ; this is 
false trust. ' Thy wisdom hath caused thee to rebel,' as the prophet saith 
concerning Babylon, Isa. xlvii. 10. They thought they had reaching heads, 
and so ventured upon rebellious courses. When any of these outward 
things draw us to unwarrantable, unjustifiable courses, it is a sign we plant 
too much confidence in them : and it is a sign, if we belong to God, that he 
intends to cross us in them. The very confidence in these things hath 
drawn many to ill courses, to do that that they should not do, as good 
Josiah, Hezekiah, David, and the rest. 

Thus we see how we should examine ourselves, whether we trust too 
much in these things or no. 

Now, since we are thus prone to this false confidence, and since we may 
thus discern it ; if we discern it in ourselves, how shall we cure it ? That 
in the next doctrine : — That u-e mirjht not trust in ourselves. From whence 
observe, 

Doct. It is a danrjerous state to trust in ourselves. 

This ill disposition, to trust in ourselves, or anything out of ourselves, 
but only in God, in whom we should trust, it is dangerous. For a man 
may reason thus from the text : That which God is forced to take such des- 
perate courses for, as to bring such an excellent man as St Paul to such 
extremity, and all that he should not trust in himself, that he was not only 
prone to, but it was a dangerous estate for him. But God brings him to 
death's door, that he ' received the sentence of death, that he might not 
trust in himself,' that he might see the nothingness of all things else. 
Therefore it was a dangerous estate for him to trust in himself. 

It is ill in respect of I. God ; II. ourselves. 

I. In respect of God. To trust to ourselves, or the creature, is 

1. To idolize ourselves, or the creature. We make an idol of the thing we 
trust in. We put God out of his place, and set up that we trust in, in 
God's room ; and so provoke God to jealousy. When men shall trust 
their wits in matters of religion, as in popery they do (they serve God after 
their own inventions), what a dishonour is it to God? as if he were not wise 
enough to prescribe how he will be worshipped. ' Go after me, Satan,' 
saith Christ to Peter, Mat. xvi. 23. He calls him devil. Why ? what 
hurt was it ? He came with a good intention ? That which papists* think 
they please God most in, they are devils in ; and these things that they 
teach are ' the doctrines of devils,' 1 Tim. iv. 1. ' But the wisdom of the 
flesh is death ; it is not subject to the law of God, nor can be subject,' 
saith the apostle, Kom. viii. 7. So it is dangerous, because it is oflensive 
to God. ' There is a way that seemeth right in a man's own eyes : the 
issues whereof are the issues of death,' Prov. xiv. 12. It is idolatry in 
regard of God. 

2. And it is spiritual adultery. For what should take up our affections ? 
Should we not place our joy, our delight, which follows our trust alway ; 
for trust carries the whole soul with it : what should take up our joy and 
delight ? Should not God, and heaven, and heavenly things ? should not 
these things have place in our hearts, as they have in their own worth ? 
When we take these affections from God, and place them upon the creature, 
they are adulterous affections. Wlaen we love riches or pleasures better 
than God that gave us all, it is an adulterous, whorish love. ' Oh ye 

* Misprinted ' popery.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 133 

adulterers and adulteresses,' saith blessed St James, ' know ye not that the 
love of this world is enmity with God ? ' James iv. 4. 

3. It is likewise falsehood. For it makes the creature to be that that it 
is not, and it makes God that which he is not. We despise him, and set 
up the creature in his room. There is a false witness alway in false confi- 
dence. Indeed there are many sins in it. 

4. There is ignorance ; not knowing the creature to be so vain as it is. 
There is ignorance of God, not knowing him to be * all in all,' Col. iii. 11, 
as he is. 

5. And there is rehellion, to trust in the creature, when God will not have 
it trusted in. 

6. And there is impatimce. When these supports are taken away, then 
men grow to murmming. There is almost all sins hidden in self-confidence 
and self-sufficiency. You see the danger of it to God. 

II. Besides that, it is dangerous to ourselves. It brings ns under a curse. 
' Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arms,' Jer. xvii. 5, that trusts in 
anything but God. It brings us under a curse, as I said, because it is 
idolatry and spiritual adultery. And then again, because leaning to a false 
prop, that being taken away that shored us up before, down we fall, with 
that we leaned on. 

Now all things but God being vanity, we relying upon that which is 
vain, our trust is vain, as the thing is vain. We can hope for no better 
condition that the things we trust to. They are vain, and we are vain ; so 
there is a curse upon them. 

Therefore we hare gi'eat cause to hate that upstart religion, that hath 
been devised for their own ends, for their own profit, because it would bring 
us under a curse. They would have us to trust to om- own works in matter 
of salvation, to trust to our own satisfaction to be freed from purgatorj', &c. 
They would have us to trust to creatures, to something besides God ; to 
trust in the mediation of saints, to be our intercessors, &c. And what doth 
this false trust ? It breeds despair at length. 

What is the reason that a well-advised papist, that knows what he doth, 
cannot but despair, or else renounce popery ? Because popery cames the 
soul to false props in matter of justification. They renounce their own 
religion at the hour of death, as Bellarmine did (tc). They live by one re- 
ligion, and die by another, which would not be if their religion were good. 
For their hearts tell them that they have not done so many works that they 
may trust in them, and they have not been so well done that they may 
trust in them. It is a dangerous thing. ' Cursed is he that trusts in man,' 
or in anything in man. 

Nay, we must not trust our own graces, as they are in ourselves, not 
by way of merit ; no, not by way of strength. We must not trust our pre- 
sent graces to carry us out, without new supply to further us. It was 
Peter's fault. ' Though all men deny thee, yet will not I,' Mat. xxvi. 85. 
He trusted to his present strength ; he forgot that if he had not a new sup- 
ply from the spriug of grace, that he should miserably miscarry, and so he 
died.* All our righteousness to trust to, it is a ' broken reed,' Isa. xxxvi. 6. 
It is somewhat, if we place it in the due place, to give us evidence that we 
are true Christians ; but to trust in it by way of merit, the devil will pick 
BO many holes in that kind of title, and conscience will see so many flaws 
in it, if we bring no better title, than either the holiness in us, or the works 
from us, the devil and our own conscience will spy so many flaws and 
* That is, spiritually, and for the moment of his backsliding. — G. Qu. ' did '? ' — Ei>. 



134 COMMENTARY ON 

cracks in it at the time of death, that we shall not dare to trust in it, but 
we must run out of ourselves to Christ, or else we die in desperation. Let 
us know these things. All things 'but God, the more we know them, the 
less we trust in them. But it is clean contrary of God, the more we know 
him, the more weJ^shaU trust in him. The more we meditate, and enlarge 
our hearts in the consideration of his divine essence every way, the more 
we shall trust in him. ' They that know thy name, will trust in thee,' 
Ps. ix. 10. Let us trust in no outward thing. 

No ! not in the humanity of Christ. I add that fm'ther. We are very 
prone to trust in things sensible ; and the apostles, because Christ was 
present with them, and comfortable among them (as indeed he was sweet 
and loving, bearing with their infirmities, and encouraging them upon all 
occasions) ; they were loath to part with him. He tells them that he must 
leave them, but they should not fare the worse, he would ' send them the 
Comforter.' ' The flesh itself profits nothing,' John vi. 63, without the 
Godhead, saith he. 

Trust not in the sacraments above their place. It is a dangerous thing 
to put too much in any creature (God is extremely ofiiended at it), as not 
only our adversaries the papists, but proud persons among us, that are 
weary of the doctrine of the church, and will not submit, in their pride, to 
riper judgments. They attribute too much to the sacraments, as some 
others do too little. They attribute a presence there. They make it an 
idol. They give it such reverence as they will not do to God himself, and 
from a false conceit. Oh, there is I know not what presence. Therefore 
the Lutherans must needs in a great degi'ee be idolaters, by their consub- 
stantiation ; and the papists by their transubstantiation, by their real pre- 
sence. Coster saith, and saith truly, if Christ be not there, we are the 
greatest idolaters in the world (.r). 

But there is a more subtle kind of attributing to the sacraments, that 
alway God gives grace with the sacraments, the sacraments convey grace 
alway. As a plaster it hath a kind of power to eat out the dead flesh, and 
as phj'sic hath a power to carry away the ill humours, so the conveying of 
grace is included in the sacraments. So they tie God's grace to these 
things. 

Indeed, there is grace hy them, though not in them. God gives grace to 
the humble receiver ; but otherwise, to him that comes not with an humble, 
believing heart. They are seals to a blank. There is no validity in them. 
All the good use they have is to strengthen faith ; and if there be not some- 
thing before to be strengthened, and confirmed, and assured, they are but 
seals to a blank. It is in these things according to our faith, and accord- 
ing to our preparation ; and then God in the holy, and humble, and faith- 
ful use of them blcsseth his own ordinance, for the increase, and confirming 
of our faith, and for the increase and strengthening of all grace. 

So that there is not anything in the church, but the proud, naughty heart 
of man will take hurt by it, rather than submit to the pure, and powerful 
truth of God. It will have by-ways to have ' confidence in the flesh,' Philip, 
iii. 4, one way or other. 

And many men, rather than they will trust to sound repentance and humi- 
liation for sin, they will trust to the words of absolution without it, and 
when they are said, go to hell with a pardon about their necks. The false 
heart will trust to outward things though it be damned for it. In their 
place they are good, if they be used only as helps in their kind. We lay 
more weight upon outward things, upon the sacraments, and upon the 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 9. 135 

words of the minister than they will bear, and never care for the inward 
powerful work of gi-ace. Everything of God is excellent in their order and 
kind, but our corrupt hearts bring an ill report upon the things. 

You see then, it is a dangerous disposition to trust any too much. It is 
to idolise them, and to wrong God, to take the honour from God. It is 
to hurt ourselves, and bring ourselves under a cui'se ; and to wrong the 
things themselves, to bring an evil report upon the things. It is universally 
true. You shall never see a false, bitter heart, that will not stoop to God's 
plain truth (they will have by-ways of their own), but in some measure or 
other they arebaiTen of great matters, and given up to some sensible bitter- 
ness, to self-conceitedness, and self-confidence. They are alway punished 
in that kind with a spiritual kind of punishment. 

We must take heed therefore of trusting too much to anything but God 
himself. God is jealous of our trust. He will have us trust in nothing 
but himself in matters of salvation. No ; not in matters of common life, 
not in matters politic and civil. We must not build our trust in any creature 
so much as to think ourselves happy by them, or to think they cannot de- 
ceive us. They are creatures of nothing. Therefore they are prone to 
deceive. They are prone to turn to nothing. Therefore we must not build 
upon them overmuch, no not in civil matters. 

Indeed, if we see the image of God in any man, we may trust him: if we 
see him faithful, and loving, and good. Yet trust him as a man alway, 
that is, as such a one as may deceive, and yet he may be a man and a good 
man. So in other creatures, ia the use of physic, and wars, and arms, &c. 
In danger we may in some subordinate consideration trust to them ; but 
we must use them as means, that is, as such as God hath free liberty to use 
to good to help us, and free liberty not to use. We must use them, but 
not trust to them. ' Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but our 
trust is in the Lord,' Ps. xx. 7. And, ' Trust not in princes,' Ps. cxlvi. 3, 
as the psalmist saith. Trust not in anything. 

If we trust in anything, it must be subordinate to our trust in God. It 
must not be co-ordinate, as we say, that is, not in the same rank, much 
less above God. As worldlings trast in their wealth, they tnist in their 
friends above God ; they trast not so much in heaven and happiness there, 
they think not themselves so happy for that as they do for earthly things. 
Nay, they trust against God in confidence of their friends and of their purse. 
A carnal man makes riches ' his stronghold ; ' he trusts them above God, 
and against God. We must neither trust them with God, in a co-ordinate 
proportion with him, nor above God, much less against God. Wliat makes 
base flesh and blood de^dlish in that respect, to attempt cursed means, 
against the truth, and against good causes? 

They bear themselves out with these things ; perhaps the truth crosses 
them in their designs, and shames them, and frets them. ^^Iiat makes 
them undermine good causes, and go desperately to kick against the pricks, 
to dash themselves against wrath which is stronger than they ? They 
think to bear themselves out with their greatness, with their friends, with 
some carnal support or other. This is to trust against God, which is 
worst of all. 

And this makes that harlot of Rome so confident against the church of 
God. ' I sit as a queen,' saith Babylon, Piev. xviii. 7 ; not only outward 
Babylon, that was the type, but spiritual Babylon, ' I sit as a queen.' I 
shall be hereafter as I am now. Therefore saith God, ' Thy destruction 
shall come in one day,' Rev. xviii. 8. Thy destruction shall come unre- 



136 COMMENTiVRY ON 

coverably and suddenly, because she blest herself ha an ill course ; as now 
at this day they think all is sure. 

If we trust anything but God, we must trust them as instruments, as 
helps in their rank and place which God hath set them ; so much and no 
more. ' Let a man esteem of us as ministers of Christ,' saith St Paul, 
2 Cor. vi. 4. If they esteem of us more, it is too much ; if less, it is too 
little, just so much ; as ministers, but as ' ministers of Christ.' So there is 
a due to everything. No more ; for then you wrong God : no less ; for then 
you wrong the thing and God too. Just so much as God would have it, 
and then we shall have just the grace that God intends. 

Seeing there is such a danger, in false confidence, let us take heed of it 
by all means. 

' That xve may not trust in ourselves.^ That is, in any earthly thing in our- 
selves, or out of ourselves, wit, honour, riches, learning, or whatsoever, 
but God and his truth and promises. Let us labour to have a sanctified 
judgment in everything ; to judge of things in their nature and order and 
rank as we should do, and be not carried with opinion of things. Judge 
of them as the Creator of things judgeth of them, as God judgeth, and the 
Scripture judgeth. 

Now, of all outward things that we are prone to trust in, how doth the 
Scripture judge of them ? How doth God judge of them ? They are uncer- 
tain riches. ' Riches they have wings,' Prov. xxiii. 5. They are nothing, as 
the prophet saith. ' Wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is nothing ?' Job 
vii. 17. They are vanity ; they are of nothing, and they tend to nothing. 

When the hour of death comes, what, will all these do good ? They are 
uncertain, and weak, and ineflicacious for that for which we trust them. 
They will not make us happy. They commend us not a whit to God. He 
hates us no more if we want them. He loves us no more if we have them. 
They make us not the better in ourselves, but the worse. They make us 
more indisposed to good things. 

We say of those that are intoxicate with any kind of frenzy or lunacy, 
twice as much physic will not serve their turn as will serve another, because 
of the distemper of their brain, and the inflammation of their blood and 
spirits. Certainly it is true of those that are spmtually drunk with the 
conceit of the creature, with honour, with riches, &c. Three times, many 
times so much means, will not serve the turn, to bring them to goodness, 
as will serve meaner men. 

What is the reason the poor receive the gospel ? 

Because there is a lesser distance between them and the blessed truths 
of God than in others, though perhaps they belong to God too ; for the 
things of this life will work a little. 

We say of weak brains, that strong drink doth much weaken them ; and 
so weak stomachs, hard meat will not digest in them, it will overcome them. 
And weak brains, though strong water overcome them not, yet it will weaken 
them. So in these things, great parts and great place set a man further off 
from the gospel. A great deal of corruption cannot be overcome and digested 
without a great measure of grace. The proportion of grace it must be 
great, it must be treble to men that have great matters in this world ; it 
must be greater than to poorer men, who [are] in a less distance from 
heaven. 

Hence we may see the reasons of God's dispensation, why God doth 
seldom work by great means. I say seldom, sometimes he doth, to shew 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 137 

that they are good means. As it is said and ohserved by an ancient father, 
that seldom he saw any good come by General Councils. Why ? They 
are good in themselves, but men trust too much upon them, and therefore 
God disappoints them of that they trust to. Because the naughty nature 
of man puts too much trust in these things, therefore God will not give that 
issue that we look for, but, on the contrary, a curse. 

Why doth not God bless great preparations, many times, to war ? &c. 
Recause we put too much trust in them. Here are too many, saith God 
to Gideon, Judges vii., et alibi. Take away some, here are too many to go 
to war. What is the reason that God, where the greatest excellencies are, 
adds some imperfection to balance them ? Because they should not trust 
in themselves. 

What is the reason that in the church God chooseth men of meaner 
parts and sufficiencies, the disciples fishermen ? If they had been great 
men, men would have said place had carried it ; if they had been scholars, 
men would have said that their learning had carried it ; if they had been 
witty* men, they would have said their wit had caiTied it. It had been no 
marvel if they should win the world. But when they saw they were mean 
men, fishermen, sisters at the receipt of custom (and perhaps their par's 
were not great), then they might attribute it to the divineness of the gospyl, 
to the divineness of God's truth, and to God's blessing upon it. 

What is the reason that God suffers excellent men to fall foully some- 
times, St Peter himself, and David ? &c. Because they should not trust 
in themselves, not trust in their grace, not trust in anything, no, not in the 
best things in themselves. 

What is the reason that God goes by contraries in all the carriage of our 
salvation ? ' That we should not trust in ourselves.' In our calling he 
calls men out of nothing. ' He calls things that are not as if they were,' 
Rom iv. 17. In justification, he justifies a sinner, he that despairs of his 
own righteousness. That no man should trust in anything he hath, or de- 
spair if he want any perfection, God justifies a sinner that despairs of 
himself. In sanctification, God sanctifies a man when he sees no goodness 
in himself. Most of all, then, he is a vessel fit to receive grace. And he 
doth sanctify him sometimes by his falls. He makes him good by his slips, 
which is a strange course to make a man better by. Saith St Austin, ' I 
dare say, and stand to it, that it is profitable for some men to fall ; they 
grow more holy by their slips' (//). As Peter, he grew stronger by his infir- 
mity. This strange course God takes. Why so ? That we should not 
trust in ourselves. In our calling, in our justification from our sins, ' that 
we should not trust in ourselves,' nor despair. 

In sanctification. Nay, he takes a course that we shall grow better by 
our falls, that we may be ashamed of them, and be more cautelousf and 
humble, and more watchful for the time to come. In glorification he will 
glorify us, but it shall be when we have been rotten in our graves before ; 
we must come to nothing. So in every passage of salvation he goes by 
contraries, and all to beat down confidence in ourselves, and that we should 
not distrust him in any extremity ; for then is the time for God to work 
his work most of all. 

' That we might not trust in ourselves.' To help us further against this 
self-confidence, let us labour to know ourselves well, what we are, distinct 
from the new creature, distinct from grace and glory. Indeed, in that re- 
spect we are something in God. If we go out of ourselves and see wha i 
* That is, ' wise." — G. t TLat is, ■ cautious.' — G. 



138 



COMMENTARY ON 



■we are in Christ, we are somebody. For we are heirs of heaven, we are 
kings and rulers over all, all things are subject to us, hell, and sin, and 
death. We are somebody there. But in that wherein our nature is prone 
to put over much confidence, what are we ? What are we as we are strong, as 
we are rich, as we are noble, as we are in favour with great ones ? Alas ! 
all is nothing, because ere long it will be nothing. What will all be in the 
hour of death, when we must receive ' the sentence of death ? ' What 
will all favours do us good ? They will be gone. "What will all relations, 
that we are styled by this and that title, what good will it do ? Alas ! these 
end in death ; all earthly relations shall be laid in the dust. All the honours 
in the earth, all lichcs and contentments, aU the friends that we have, what 
can they do ? Nothing! All shall leave us there. And for us to trust in 
that which will fail ns ere long, and which being taken away, we receive a 
great foil * (for he that leans to a thing, if that be taken away, down he 
falls), what a shame will it be ? 

As the heathen man said, that gi-eat emperor, ' I have been all things, 
and nothing doth me good now,' when he was to die (z). Indeed, nothiag 
could do him good. ' Let not the rich man glory in his riches, nor the 
Avise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength,' saith 
the prophet ; ' but let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord,' Jer. ix. 22. 

Consider what the best thing is that we have of inward things, our wis- 
dom. Wisdom, if it be not spiritual, it is only a thing for the things of 
this life, and we are ofttimes deceived in it. It makes God to disappoint 
us ofttimes to make us go out of ourselves. An excellent place for this we 
have in Isa. 1. the last verse, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, and com- 
pass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your own fire,' &c. 
(it is a kind of ironia*), ' and the sparks that you have kindled ; this you 
shall have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' Walk m the light of 
your own fire, walk according to your own devices and projects ; this ye 
shall have at my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. God catcheth the wise 
in the imagination of their own hearts ; he disappoints the counsel and the 
projects of Ahithophel. God takes a glory in it, to shame the policies and 
projects of those that will be witty in a distinct way against God. The 
best policy is to serve God and to walk uprightly. 

* That we slwnld not trust in. ourselves, hut in God wJio raiseth the dead.'' 
This is the other branch, what we should trust in, in God. All this 
humbling of the blessed apostle, even to death's door, that ' he received the 
sentence of death,' it was first to subdue carnal confidence in himself. He 
was prone to think himself stronger than he was, or that he should be up- 
held, that something or other should keep him from death. That he might 
subdue this carnal confidence, and then that he might trust in God, it was 
all for these two ends, ' that we might not trust in ourselves (or in any 
means), but in God that raiseth the dead.' 

Was St Paul to learn to trust in God, that had been so long a scholar 
in Christ's school, nay, a master in Israel ? Was he to learn to trust in 
God? 

Yes ; doubtless, he was. It is a lesson that is hardly learned, and it is 
a lesson that we shall be learning all our life, to go out of ourselves and 
out of the creature, and to go further into God, to rely more and more upon 
him. It is a lesson that we can never learn as we ought. Therefore, weak 
Christians ought not to be discouraged when they find defects and weakness 
* Thcat is, ' fall.'— G. t That is, 'irony.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 139 

in their trust. Our hearts are false, and prone to trust outward things ; 
but do they groan under their corruptions ? Do they complain of them- 
selves ? Do they go out of themselves ? Their estate is good. The estate 
of a Christian, it is a growing, it is a conflicting estate. He comes not to 
full trust and confidence in God till he have gathered many experiments,* 
till God have exercised him to the proof throughly ; therefore, let them not 
be discouraged. A Christian is not alway like himself; he is in a growing 
estate. There is a weak faith and a strong faith. ' 0, ye of little faith,' 
Mat. vi. 80. The disciples had a little faith as well as Abraham, ' that 
was strong in faith. As long as we are on the complaining hand, and on 
the striving hand, and growing hand, all is hopeful. St Paul himself still 
strived against self-confidence, and still learned to trust in God more and 
more. 

But mark the order. First, God doth all this, ' that we should not trust 
in ourselves.' But that is not the thing he doth mainly aim at, but another 
thing, that we should trust in God who raiseth the dead.' Whence we may 
observe, that 

Doct. God, to make us trust in himself, is fain to cast us out of ourselves. 

His proper work is not to drive us out of ourselves, that is a work sub- 
ordinate to a higher. But the furthest and last work is, that we should ' trust 
in him,' as the prophet saith. ' God doth a strange work,' Isa. xxviii. 21. He 
doth a work strange to himself, that he may do his own work. He doth a work 
that doth not concern him so properly, that he may do his own work, as he 
is God, that is, to confii'm and settle us upon himself. But that he ma-y 
do this, he must set us out of ourselves by crosses and afflictions. That 
is not his own proper work, to afilict us, and to bring us low ; for he is the 
* Father of mercies.' But that he may do his own work, to bring us to 
him, and then do good to us, he must take this in his way, and do this 
first. To make it clear. A carpenter, he pulls down a house, he takes 
it in pieces. His art is not to pull down houses, but to build them up. But 
he doth that which doth not belong to him properly, that he may do that 
which doth belong to him ; for he will not build upon a rotten, founda- 
tion. So neither ' will God build upon a rotten foundation.' He will 
not build upon carnal confidence, upon carnal trust, upon pride, and 
covetousness ; but he will demolish that rotten foundation with afiiic- 
tions and crosses. He will use such means that we shall have small joy to 
trust in sin. He will by crosses and afflictions force us to go from our sins. 
He will demolish that rotten foundation, that he may raise up an excellent 
edifice and frame of the new creature, that shall endure to everlasting. 
The work of a physician is to cure nature, and not to weaken it. It is not 
his work to make people sick, but to make them sound. If the body be 
distempered, it must be weakened. He must carry the burden of ill and 
noisome humours before it be strengthened. To make people sound he 
must give them strong purgations, that shall afflict them and afiect them as 
much as the disease for a while. But all is to make them lighter and 
stronger after, when they are eased of the burden of noisome humours : 
and so it is in every other trade. So God shews his skill in this great 
matter in bringing us to heaven this way. He doth that work which doth not 
properly concern him, to work at last his own blessed good work. He 
afflicts us to drive us out of ourselves, that we may come at last to trust in 
him, in whom is all our happiness and good. 

The reason of it is clear. For in a succession of contraries there must 
* That is, ' experiences.' — G 



1-1,0 COMMENTARY ON 

be a removing of cue contrary before another can be brought in. If a ves- 
sel be to be filled with a contrary liquor, the first must have a vent ; it 
must be emptied of the worse, that the better may come. So it is with us. 
We are full of self-confidence, as a vessel of naughty Uquor. Out must 
that go, that better things may come in. So it is in ploughing, and in 
evervthincr else. This is taken as a principle in nature. The order gene- 
rally is this, that we should not trust in ourselves, that we might be brought 
to trust in God. He brings us low, to ' receive the sentence of death,' to 
di'ive us out of ourselves, that he may bring us to rely on him. 

Use 1. The use we should make of it, among many others, is this, that 
we fshould not take offence at God when he is about this strange u'ork, as we 
think. When he is making us sick with physic, with afflictions, and troubles, 
let us not think that he hates us. Doth the physician hate the patient 
when he makes him sick ? Perhaps he stays a good while from him till 
his physic have wrought throughly, but he doth not hate him, but gives 
it time, and sufl'ers it to have its work, that so he may recover himself. 
Doth the goldsmith hate his precious metal when he puts it into the fire, 
and sufiers the fire to work upon it ? What is lost ? Nothing but the 
dross. What is lost in the body by sickness ? The ill humours that load 
the body and distemper the actions and functions of it, that it cannot work 
as it should. There is nothing lost but that that may well be spared. So 
when God goes about his work, he afflicts thee and follows thee with losses 
and crosses. He takes away friends and credit, this outward thing and 
that. All this is to give thee a purge. He works a strange work, that he 
may work his own work, that he may bring thee to himself. 

Therefore let us be far from murmuring at this blessed work of God : let 
us rather bless God for his care this way, that he will not sufier us to perish 
with the world. God might have suffered us to rot upon our dregs, that 
we should have no changes, as the world hath not. But he hath more care 
of us than so. The husbandman will not plough in the wilderness. The 
heathy ground shall go unploughed long enough. He loves it not so well 
as to sow good seed there. So when God takes pains, and is at cost with 
any man ; when he pm-geth him, and ploughs him, and hammers him ; all 
this is to consume that which is naught, to plough up the weeds, to fit him 
for the blessed seed of grace, to fit him for comfort here and glory in an- 
other world. Why then should we murmur against God ? Let us rather 
be thankful, especially when we see the blessed issue of this, when we see 
our earthly-mindedness abated, when we see ourselves more heavenly- 
minded, when we see ourselves weaned from the world, when we see ourselves 
take more delight in communion with God. Then, blessed be God for 
crosses and afflictions, that he hath taken the pains, and would be at the 
cost with us to exercise us. It is a ground not only of patience, but of 
thankfulness, when God humbles us. Be not discontent, man ! Grudge 
not ! mm-mur not ! God doth a work that seems strange to thee, and 
which is not his own proper work, that he may do his own work, that he 
may bring thee nearer to himself. Why dost thou murmur at thy own good ? 

The patient cries out of the phj'sician that ho torments him. He hears 
him well enough, but he will not be advised by his patient. He means to 
advise him, and to rule him. He would fain have comfort. He is in pain, 
and cries for ease. But his time is not yet come. So let us wait, and not 
murmur under crosses. God is doing one work to bring to pass another. 
He brings us out of ourselves, that he may bring us nearer to himself. 

Use 2. And another use that we may make of it, let us examine ourselves. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 141 

whether our afflictions awl crosses have had this effect in vs, to bnng us to trust 
in him more. If they have, all is well. But if they make us worse, that 
we fret and murmur, and feel no good by them, it is an ill sign ; for God 
doth bring us low, that we may not trust in ourselves, but in him. Quern 
prasentia mala non corrigunt, &c. Whom the presence of ill and grievance 
amends not, they bring to eternal grievance. ' This is Aliaz,' saith the 
Scripture, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22 : a strange man, a wicked king, that not- 
withstanding God followed him with judgments, yet he grew worse and 
worse. This is Ahaz ! He might well be branded. When a man belongs 
to God, everything brings him nearer to God. When a man is brought to 
be more humble, and more careful, and more watchful every way, to be 
more zealous, more heavenly-minded ; it is a blessed sign that God then is 
working a blessed work, to force him out of himself, and to bring him nearer 
himself, to trust in him. This we cannot too much consider of. 

Use 3. It should teach us likewise this, that we juchje mt amiss of the 
generation of the righteous, ivhen ice see God much humbling them. When 
we see hini follow them with siclmess, with troubles and disgraces in the 
world, perhaps with terror of conscience, with desertions, be not dis- 
couraged. If be be thy friend, censure him not ; add not affliction to his 
afflictfon. Is not his affliction enough ? Thou needest not add to* thy un- 
just censure, f s Job said to his friends. The more we are afflicted of God, 
the more good he intends to work to us. The end is to bring us from our- 
selves to trust in him. 

It is a wicked disposition in men that know not the ways of God. They 
are ignorant of the ways that he takes with his children. When they see 
men that are Christians, that they are humbled and cast down and troubled, 
they think they are men forsaken of God, &c. Alas ! they do not know 
God's manner of dealing. He casts them down that he may raise them 
up. They ' receive the sentence of death' against themselves, that he may 
comfort them after, that he may do them good in their latter end. Let this 
therefore keep us from censuring of other men in om- thoughts for this hard 
course which God seems to take with them. 

Use 4. And let us make this use of it, when we are in any grievance, and 
God follows us still, let us mourn and lament the stubbornness of our hearts, 
that will not ijield. God intends to draw us near to him, to trust in him. 
If we would do this, the affliction would cease, except it be for trial, and 
for the exercise of grace, and for witness to the truth. When God afflicts, 
sometime for trial and for witness, there is a spirit of glory in such a case, 
that a man is never afflicted in mind. But, I say, when God follows us 
with sickness, with crosses, with loss of friends, and we are not wrought 
upon, let as censure our hard hearts, that force God to take this course. 

And 'justify God in all this,' Job i. 22, et alibi. Lord, thou knowest I 
could not be good without this, thou knowest I would not be drawn without 
this ; bring me near to thyself, that thou mayest take away this heavy hand 
from me. The intemperate man that is sick makes the physician seem 
cruel. It is because I set my affections too much on earthly things, that 
thou foUowest me with these troubles. We force God to do this. A phy- 
sician is forced to bring his patient even to skin and bone. An intemperate 
patient sometimes, that hath surfeited upon a long distemper, he must bring 
him to death's door, even almost to death, because his distemper is so set- 
tled upon him, that he cannot otherwise cure him. So it is with God, the 
physician of our souls. He must bring us wondrous low. We are so prone, 

» Qii. -to it?"— Ed. 



142 COMMENTARY ON 

SO desperate!}- addicted to present thincjs, to trust to them, and to be proud 
of them, and confident in them, that God must deal as a sharp physician. 
He must bring us so low, or else we should never be recovered of our per- 
fect health again, and all is that we might trust in God. 

Observe we from hence another point, that 

Doctrine. God in all outward things that are ill, intends the cjood of the sold. 

He takes liberty to take away health, and liberty, and friends, to take 
away comforts. But whatsoever he takes away, he intends the good of the 
soul in the first place. And all the ills that he inflicts upon us, they are to 
cure a worse ill, the ill of the soul ; to cure an unbelieving heart, a worldly, 
proud, carnal heart, which is too much addicted to earthly things. We see 
here how God dealt with St Paul. All was to build up his soul in trust 
and confidence in God, all was for the soul. 

The reason is ; other things are vanishing, the soul is the better part, 
the eternal part. If all be well with the soul, all shall be well other- 
wise at last. If it be well with the soul, the body shall do well. Though 
God take liberty to humble us with sickness, and with death itself, yet 
God will raise the body and make it glorious. A good soul will draw it 
after it at last, and move God to make the body glorious. But if the soul 
be naught, let us cherish and do what we will with the body ; both will be 
naught at last. 

This life is not a life to regard the body. We are dead in that while we 
live. 'The sentence of death' is passed. We must die. We are dying 
every day. ' The body is dead because of sin,' Rom. viii. 10. We are 
going to our grave. Every day takes away a part of our life. 

This is not a life for this body of ours. It is a respite to get assurance 
of an eternal estate in heaven. God takes our wealth, and liberty, and 
strength, &c., that he may help our souls, that he may work his own blessed 
work in our souls, that he may lay a foundation of eternal happiness in our 
souls. 

Therefore, hence we should learn to resign our bodies and estates to God. 
Lord, do with me what thou wilt ! only cure my soul, only strengthen my 
faith. I give thee liberty with all my heart to take what thou wilt, so thou 
save my soul. Give me not up to an unbelieving heart, to an hypocritical, 
false heart, to false confidence, to trust in false grounds, and to perish eter- 
nally ; for my estate and body, do what thou wilt. We should be brought 
to this. Wliy ? Because indeed the state of the soul is the true state either 
in good or ill. If all be naught with that, all will be naught at last. We 
shall try it to our cost. 

And therefore let us even rather thank God, and desire God to go on 
with his work. Lord, rather than thou shouldst give me up to a hard heart, 
to a stubborn heart, and perish and have no sound change, rather than suffer 
me to perish thus, use me as thou wilt. 

And thank him when we find any degree of goodness or faith. Lord, 
thou mightst have followed me with outward blessings, and so have given 
me up in my soul to hypocrisy, and to pride, that I should never have felt 
the power of gi'ace, that I should never have known thee, or myself 
throughly, or the vanity of outward things. But this thou hast not done, 
thou hast not given me liberty in outward things, that thou mightest do 
good to my soul, blessed be thy name. Let us not only take it well, but 
thankfully at God's hands. To proceed, 

' That we might trust in God that raiseth the dead.' 

Obs. The soul must have somewhat to trust to. The foundation must be laid; 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, WAI. 9. 143 

for the soul is a creatui'o, and a dependent creatui'e. Somewhat it must have 
to rely on ; as all weak dependent things have somewhat to depend on. The 
vine is a weak plant. It must have the elm or somewhat to rely on. It will 
sink else, it will become unfruitful and unprofitable. All things that are weak, 
are supported by somewhat that is stronger. It is an inclination and in- 
stinct in things that are weak, to look for supply from things that are stronger 
than themselves to support them ; and it is their happiness to be so. The 
creatui'es that are unreasonable* are guided by those that have reason, by 
men ; and the creatures that are reasonable are guided by superiors, by 
God, and by angels that are above them, and have the care and charge over 
them. It is the happiness of weaker things to be under the supportation 
of that which is stronger. And some support it will have, good or bad. 

The soul, if it have not God, it will have pleasures, it will have profit. 
The worst of men, that think there is little for them in heaven, by reason 
of their blasphemy, and filthy courses, they will have base pleasures to go 
to, that they will trust to, and carnal acquaintance to solace themselves 
withal. The worst of men will have some dirty thing or other, to give 
their souls to, to support themselves withal ; something the soul will have. 

God loves the soul, and hath made it for himself; and as he hath made 
it for himself, to join with himself, to solace himself in it (* My son, give 
me thy heart,' Prov. xxiii. 26) so when he takes it from outward things, 
he will not have it empty, to rely upon nothing, but he takes it to himself. 
All this is to take our hearts from ourselves, and from self-confidence, that 
we may trust in him. God is for the heart, and that is for him ; as I said, 
he calls for it, ' My son, give me thy heart,' give me thy afiection of trust, 
of joy, of dehght. All the affections, they are made for God, and for 
heaven, and heavenly things. Our afi'ections that we have, they are not 
made for riches. Our souls are not made for them. The soul is larger 
than they. They will not content the soul. The soul is a spiritual sub- 
stance, and they are outward things. The soul is large, they are scanty in 
their extent. They are uncertain, and momentary ; the soul is an eternal 
thing. It outlives those things. And thereupon the soul is not made for 
them, and they are not made for the soul. 

They are to give contentment to the outward man for a while here. The}' 
are made for our pilgrimage, to comfort us in the way to heaven ; but the 
soul is not for them. 

The soul is the chamber, and the bed, and, as it were, the cabinet for 
God himself, and Christ to rest in only. 

All outward things must be kept out of the heart. We may use them ; 
but we must keep them out of the heart. It is not for them. We must 
not joy in them, and solace ourselves, and delight in them over much, 
further than we seek God in them, and enjoy God in them. But as they 
are sensible •'■'- things, the heart is not for them. Therefore God takes the 
heart from self-confidence, and from other things. He suffers it not to 
wander ; but he takes it to himself, that we may trust in him. 

The next thing, then, that we may observe is, that when we go out of 
ourselves, we must have somewhat to rely on, which is better than all 
things else. We lose not by the change ; but when we are stripped of 
ourselves, and of all earthly things, we have God to go to. 

Doctrine. God is the object of trust. 

God is the proper object of trust of the Christian soul. He is the object 
of trust, as well as the author of it. He is the cause and worker of it by 
* Tliat is, ' without reason.' — G. t That is, ' outward.' — G. 



14-1 COMMENTARY ON 

his Spirit, am\ he is the object of it. If we trust to other thiugs, it must 
be as they are Ciod's instruments, as they ai"e God's means. But if ■we 
trust anything, cither wealth, or friends, or anything, to neglect the worship 
of God, or to please ourselves in it, to put our hands to ill courses, in 
confidence of the creature, in confidence of men, or anything else, to take 
any false cause in hand, this is to trust them above their respect. We 
must trust to them as instruments, as voluntary instruments, which God 
may use when he pleaseth, or not use when he pleaseth. When we use 
them otherwise, we forget their nature. Then we use them not as instru- 
ments, but as the chief. We forget the order. 

God is the object of trust. We must rest on him for grace and glory ; 
for the best things, and for the things of this life, as far as the}' are good. 

So far as we trust to anything else to move us to security, to rest in 
them, or to sin for them, it is a sinful trust. Other things we may trust ; 
but in the nature of vain instruments, changeable instruments, that God 
may alter and change. He that is rich to-day, may be poor to-morrow. 
He that hath a friend to-day, may have him taken away to-morrow. And 
so all outward things, they are changeable and mutable. But we may trust 
God all times alike. He is eternal. He is infinitely able, and infinitely 
■wise, to know all our grievances. We may trust him with our souls, with 
our hearts. He is faithful, and loving, and eternal, as our souls are. He 
gives eternity to the soul. Therefore at all times we may trust in him, in 
all places, everywhere. He knows our hearts, he knows our grievance 
everywhere. He hath all grounds of one that may be trusted to. He 
hath power and goodness, and mercy and wisdom. He is the object of 
trust. 

But how considered, is he the object of trust, God out of Christ, Media- 
tor ? 

Oh, no ! God in covenant with us in Christ, — he is the object of our trust, 
or else there is such a distance and contrariety between man's nature and 
God, that he is a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. Since the fall from the 
covenant of works, we cannot be saved by that ; but he hath vouchsafed to 
be ours in a better covenant in Christ, in whom ' all the promises are yea 
and amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20. This good comes from God to us by Christ. 
Christ first receives it, and he derives* it to us, as our elder Brother, and 
as om' head. All the promises are made in him, and through him. He 
receives it for us. We receive it at the second hand. God hath filled 
him first. ' And of his fulness we receive grace for grace,' John i. 16. 

' Without him we can do nothing,' John xv. 5. With him we can do 
all things. So we trust in God reconciled ; God made ours in the cove- 
nant of grace in Jesus Christ, who hath made our peace. Else God is a 
' sealed fountain.' He is a fountain of good, but a sealed fountain. Christ 
hath opened this fountain. His love is open to Christ, and derived to 
Christ, in whom our flesh is. He is ' bone of our bone, and flesh of our 
flesh,' Eph. V. 30, that we might be bone of his bone, and flesh of his 
flesh by being united with him. So now we trust in him, as God, the 
Father of Christ, reconciled. ' I believe in God the Father Almighty,' as 
it is in the creed. God thus considered is the object of trust. There are 
two ojects of trust : God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; and Christ 
Mediator. 

Use. If this be so, that God reconciled now is the object of trust, for all 
things that are good, not only for salvation, but for grace, and for all com- 
* That is, transmits.'— Q. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, ^^ER. 9. 145 

forts, to bring us to heaven, then ive see the vanitij of all other conjidence 
ichatsoever, as I touched before. 

And is it not a blessed thing that God will be trusted, that he hath made 
himself such a one as we may trust him ? Now blessed be God for Christ, 
that he having received satisfaction to his justice by him, he may be trusted, 
and desires that we should trust him ; that now in Christ he hath made 
himself a Father, that we should not fear him, nor run away from him. 
It is a gi'eat favour that God will be trusted of us, that he mil honour us 
so much. 

He accounts it an honour when we trust him, but indeed it is an honour 
to us that we have a thi'one of grace through Christ to go to ; that he hath 
devised a way that we might trust him, and not run from him ; that we may 
go to him in Christ, who sits at his right hand, who is our intercessor, who 
hath redeemed us with his precious blood. It is our happiness that he 
hath made himself a gracious and loving Father, that he calls us to him, 
and thinks himself honoured by our trusting in him. 

Again, we see here that, 

Doct. Trust in God is a main duty. 

He is the object of trust, and it is a main duty. It is a spring of duty 
out of which all comes ; for we see here all doth aim at this. Afflictions 
they come to mortify our self-confidence. Self-confidence is subdued that 
we may trust in God. Our trust must be carried to him. He is the object 
of it. And this trast in God is a main duty, which in this world we ought 
to labour for. It is that that God doth aim at, and it is that that we should 
aim at. God doth aim at it in exercising of us ; and we should aim at it 
on our part, in our hearing, in our receiving the sacrament, in everything, 
that our trust and affiance and confidence may be in God, and that we may 
grow more and more and more in it. 

Well, since God is the object of trust, and trust is such a necessary 
grace, that God doth all to bring us to trust in him, let us come to search 
ourselves, how shall we know whether we trust in God or no ? And then 
to direct us, how to come to trust in him, to give some means and helps. 

1. He trusts in God reconciled in Jesus Christ that Jiies to him in extre- 
mitij. That a man trusts unto, that when he is pinched he flies unto. 
How shall a man know that he is a covetous worldling ? If he be in ex- 
tremity, he goes to his purse, he makes a friend of that. How shall a 
man know that he trusts to the arm of flesh, that he trusts his friend too 
much ? In extremity he runs to him, presently he goes to a friend he 
hath. What we run to, that our trust is in. A Christian, he runs to his 
God ; and happy is that Christian that is in covenant, that he hath a God 
to run to in all extremities, in sickness, in death, at all times. He is happy 
that he hath a God, when all fails, to trust in. 

Wilt thou know therefore whether thou trustest in God or no ? Whither 
goest thou ? A carnal man, he goes to one earthly prop or other. If God 
answer him not presently, then he goes with Saul to the witch, to the devil 
himself perhaps. If God do not send him present help, he goes to one 
carnal help or other, to fetches * of his wit, to poUcy, to crack his con- 
science, to bear out things with impudence. He hath not learned to trust 
in God, and he runs not to him, but to some wicked course or other. 

All that go not to God in the use of good means (for we must put that 
in, we must go to God in the use of his means, in the use of good means 
only), they trust not God ; lor God will not be tempted, but trusted. We 
* That is, ' devices.' — G. 

VOL. III. K 



14G COMMENTARY ON 

must go to him by prayer, and in tbo use of lawful means, and only of 
la'n-ful means ; or else, if we trust him and do not use the means, we tempt 
him. We must serve God's providence in using the means. 

2. Therefore, secondly, he that trusts in God iisctJt, his memis. He that 
trusts God for a harvest must plough, and sow, and do all that belongs to 
the providence of God. 

So a merchant that will increase his estate, he must get a ship and other 
proAasion to do it with, for we must serve God's providence as well as trust 
God's providence. AVhen we neglect good and lawful means, and run into 
ill courses, and use ill means, we serve not God, nor trust him. Those 
that grow rich by calling ' evil good, and good evil,' Isa. v. 20, they have 
not learned to trust in God. Those that think except they leave their 
posterity great they shall not be happy, and therefore they will neglect the 
Sabbath, and neglect all, to scrape an estate ; — is this to trust in God ? 
Have they learned to trust in God, when sacrilegiously they take away the 
time dedicated for the salvation of their souls and the service of God ? Is 
this one means that God hath ordained to trust him in ? They that flatter 
and serve men's humours when they know them to be in a naughty and ill 
way, is this to trust God, when they go out of his means and way, and 
make an idol of flesh and blood to serve their own turn ? 

Alas ! we need not name these things. If men had learned what it is to 
trust in God, and depend upon him in the use of lawful means, and would 
rather be content to want in this world than to have anything with a cracked 
conscience ! 

I beseech you, let us examine our own hearts in this. There are many 
that think they trust in God when they do not. They trust their policy, 
they trust flesh and blood, and by consequence they trust the devil, if they 
trust not in God. 

3. In the next place, he that trusts in God, his mind will he quieted in 
some comfortable measure, when he hath used the means that are Imvful, and 
cast himself upon God. He will be quiet, and let God work then. When 
he hath taken pains in his calling lawfully, and desired God's blessing, if 
God send wealth, so it is ; if not, he is not much troubled. He knows 
that all shall be for the best to them that trust in God. When he cannot 
have it in the use of lawful means, he is quiet. He that trusts a physician, 
when he hath used the direction of the physician, he is quiet. He thinks 
he is a wise man, an experienced physician, and now he will not trouble 
his mind any longer. If a man vex himself, and think all will not be well, 
he doth not trust his physician. And so in other professions we trust to a 
man's counsel, if we think him wise and honest. We follow his direction, 
and then we will be quiet. 

Now, God is infinitely wise. When we have used lawful means, and 
commended the means to God ; for as he will be trusted in, so he will be 
sought unto. ' I will be sought to by the house of Israel for this,' Ezek. 
xxxvi. 37. For except we pray to him, he is not trusted. But when we 
have prayed to him, in the use of lawful means, let us be quiet, let us not 
be distracted with dividing cares about this and that, as if there were not a 
God in heaven that had care of us, that had a providence over things 
below. Certainly he hath. Do thou do thy work, and let him alone with 
his work. The care of duty belongs to thee. When thou hast done thy 
duty, rest thou quiet, or else thou honourest him not as a God, thou trustest 
him not, thou dost not make a God of him. It is a great dishonour to God. 

A man thinks himself dishonoured when he is not trusted ; when we see 



2 COEINTHIAXS CnAP. I, VEE. 9, 147 

he liath ahvay been faithful to us, and is so reputed, and yet we call his 
credit in question, and will not be quiet. We should do as children do. 
They follow their books, and let their father take care for all provision for 
meat and drink, and clothes and such things. They beat not their heads 
about it. They know they have a father that will take care for that. If we 
were true children of God, and have the disposition of heavenly children, 
we will do so. If we trouble oui'selves, and beat our heads, it is a sign 
that we fear that God is not our Father. Therefore I add that to other 
signs, a resting of ourselves quiet. When we are quiet, God will do more 
than when we vex ourselves. ' Be still, and see the salvation of the Lord,' 
saith Moses at the Red Sea, Exod. xiv. 13. So let us be still and quiet, 
and see the salvation of God. He will work wonders. 

4. Again, it is a sign that we trust in God, ivhen there are no means, yet 
notidthstanding ice ivill not despair, but hope and trust in God. When we 
see nothing in the eye of flesh and blood, no means of recovery, yet we 
trust in God. He can work his way though we see not how ; he can make 
a passage for us. AVhen God is thus honoured he works wonders. This 
is to make a God of him, when there is no means, to believe that he can 
work against means. If my life shall be for his glory and my good, he 
can recover my life though the physician say I am a dead man. If he have 
employment for me in this world, he can do it. He can work with means, 
or against means, or vrithout means. And so in desperate troubles, if God 
see it good for me, he can deliver me though there be no means. He is 
the Creator of means. Do not tie him to his own creature. If all be 
taken away, he can make new. 

5. Again, he trusts in God that labours to make God his friend continu- 
al I y ; for he whom we trust unto wo will not provoke. Certainly we will 
not provoke a man whom we mean to make our fiiend. Those that live 
in swearing, in defiled courses, in contempt of God and holy things, of the 
ordinances of God, of the day appointed to holy and religious uses, those 
that 'wax stubborn against God,' 1 Tim. v. 11, as the Scripture speaks, 
do we trust him against whom we walk stubbornly ? Will a man trust 
him that he makes his enemy by wicked courses ? Thou makest God thy 
enemy, and provokest him to his face, to try whether he will pour ven- 
geance upon this* or no. He tells thee thou shalt not be mipunished if thou 
' take his name in vain,' Exod. xx. 7 ; yet thou wilt be stubborn, and not 
make conscience of these things. Dost thou trust lijm ? No ! thou pro- 
vokest him. Thou mayest trust him ; but it must be to damn thee, to 
give thee thy reward with rebels ; thou mayest trust him for that. But for 
good things thou doest not, thou canst not trust him in wicked courses. 

Who will trust his enemy, especially he that hath made his enemy by his 
ill course of life ? A man that goes on in an evil com-se, he cannot, he 
doth not trust in God. 

6. He that trusts in God's promise ivill trust in his threatening. Where 
there is an evangelical faith, there is a legal faith alway. He that believes 
that God will save him if he trast in Christ, he believes that if he do not be- 
lieve in Christ he will damn him, if he live in his natm'al course without 
repentance. 

There is a legal faith of the curse, as well as an evangelical of the pro- 
mise. They are both together. If thou do not believe God's curse in 
wicked courses, thou wilt never believe him for the other. Therefore, I will 
add this to make up the evidences of trust in ^od. True trust looks to 
* Qu. 'tbee?'-ED, 



148 COMMENTARY ON 

God's truth, and promise, and word in one part of it as well as another. 
Thou trusts God for thy salvation and the promises of that ; but thou must 
trust him for the direction of thy life too. Faith doth not single out some 
objects ; I will believe this, and not that. Faith is carried to all the ob- 
jects, it believes all God's truths. Therefore, if I believe not the threaten- 
ings and directions, to be ruled by them, I believe not the promises. In 
what measure thou believest the promise of mercy to save thy soul, in that 
measure thou believest the directions of God's word to guide thy soul. He 
that receives Chiist as a Priest to save him, he must receive him as a King 
to rule him. 

All the directions, and all the threatenings, and all the promises must be 
received and believed. 

A man hath no more faith and trust in God than he hath care to follow 
God's direction ; for faith is carried to all divine truths. All come from 
the same God. Thousands go to hell, and think. Oh, God is a merciful 
God, and I will trust in him ! But how is thy life ? Is it carried by God's 
directions ? Thou art a rebel. Thou livest in sins against conscience. 
Thou wilt trust in God in one part of his word, and not in another. Thou 
must not be a chooser. 

7. Again, the last that I will name at this time, if thou trust God for 
one thing, undonhtedhj thou will trust him for all. If thou trust him w^th 
thy soul, certainly thou wilt trust him with thy children. Some men hope 
to be saved by Christ. Oh, he will be merciful to their souls ; and yet 
even to their death they use corrupt com-ses to get an estate and to make 
their children rich ; and except they have so much, they will not trust in 
God. If they have nothing to leave them, they think not that there is a 
God in heaven who is a better Father than they. Put case thou hast 
nothing, hast thou not God's blessing ? Canst thou trust thy soul with 
God, and canst thou not trust him with thy family ? Is he not the God of 
thy seed ? Hath he not made the promise to thy posterity as well as to 
thyself? If thou trust him for one thing, thou wilt trust him for all. 
Wilt thou trust him for heaven, and wilt thou not trust him for provision 
for daily bread ? Wilt thou not trust him for this or that, but thou must 
use unlawful means ? He that trusts God, he trusts him for all truths and 
for all things needful, with his family, with his body, with his soul, with 
all. And so much for the trials, whether we trust in God or no. 

Let us not deceive ourselves. It is a point of infinite consequence, as 
much as the salvation of our souls. What brings men to hell in the church ? 
False confidence. They trust to false things, or they think they trust in 
God, when indeed they do not. 

The fault of a ship is seen in a tempest, and the fault of a house is seen 
when winter comes. Thy trust, that is thy house that thou goest to and 
restest in, the fault of that will be seen when thou comcst to extremity. 
In the hour of death, then thou hast not a God to go to, then thy conscience 
upbraids thee ; thou hast lived by thy shifts* in carnal confidence and re- 
bellion against God, and how canst thou then willingly trust God, whom 
thou hast made thine enemy all thy lifetime ? 

To go, then, to some helps. If upon search we find that we do not so 
trust in God as we should, let us lament our unbelieving hearts, complain 
to God of it, desire God, whatsoever he doth, that he would honour us so 
much as that we may honour him by trusting in him ; for it is his glory 
and our salvation. , 

* That is, ' expedients.'- Q. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 149 

But because I will not go out of the text, the best way is that which 
follows, to know God as he is. 

How come we to trust a man ? When we know his honesty, his fidelity, 
his wisdom, and his sufficiency, then we trust him. Therefore, St Paul 
adds here that we should ' trust in God that raiseth the dead,' that is, ' in 
God Almighty.' From whence I raise this general, that 

The best way to trust in God is to know him as he is. 

We know his attributes by his principal works. We know his nature by 
his works, as here is one of the principal set down, he is God * that raiseth 
the dead.' A sound, sanctified trust in God is by knowing of him. ' They 
that know thy name will trust in thee,' Ps. ix. 10. 

There are three ways of the knowledge of God : 

His nature, promises, and icorks — 

To know what he hath engaged himself in, in all the promises that con- 
cern us ; and then to know his strength, how able he is to make good these 
promises ; and then to know his works, how his nature hath enabled him 
to make good those promises. 

1. Especially his nature; as to consider his goodness and his wisdom. 
Every attribute, indeed, doth enforce trust, for he is good freely, he is good 
to us of his own bowels. We may trust him that hath made himself a 
Father, out of his own mercy in Christ, when we were enemies. His good- 
ness and wisdom is infinite as himself, and his power and his truth. As the 
Scripture saith ofttimes, ' Faithful is God that hath promised,' Heb. xi. 11. 

St Bernard, a good man in evil times, saith he, * I consider three things 
in which I pitch my hope and trust, charitatem adoptionis, the love of God 
in making me his child ; and veritatem promissionis, the truth of God in 
performing his promise. His love is such, to make me his child ; his truth 
is such, to perform his promise. Thirdly, I consider his power, that is 
able to make good that that he hath promised ' [w). 

This threefold cable is a strong one. His love in adoption, his truth in 
performing his promise, and his power in making good all this. This three- 
fold cable will not easily be broken. Let my sottish flesh murmur against 
me as long as it will. As the flesh will murmur, who art thou, that thou 
darest trust in God ? What is thy merit, that thou hopest for such great 
glory ? No, no, saith he ; ' I know whom I have believed,' 2 Tim. i. 12, 
as St Paul saith. I answer with great confidence against my sottish, mur- 
muring flesh, ' I know whom I have trusted.' He is able, he is good, he 
is true. This that holy man had to exercise his faith. 

I name it, because it is the temper of all believing souls that are so in 
truth. The believing heart considers the nature of God, the promise of 
God, and though the murmuring, rebellious flesh say. What art thou ? 
how darest thou that art flesh and blood look to God ? Oh ! he is faithful, 
he is good and gracious in Christ. He hath made himself a father. I 
know whom I have beheved. God is all-sufficient. 

Trust and confidence doth grow in the soul, in what measure and pro- 
portion the knowledge of him whom we trust in grows, and as his strength 
grows. The more rich and strong a man grows, in whom I trust, and the 
more gracious and good he grows, and the more my knowledge of him is 
increased with it too, that I see he is so able, so true, so loving a man, a 
man so affected to me, the more he grows, and my knowledge of him, the 
more my trust is carried to him. So a Christian, the more he considers 
the infiniteness of God's love, of his wisdom and goodness, the more he is 
carried in trust, and confidence to it. 



loO COMMENTARY ON 

Not to trouble you v/itli many places, the 42d Psalm is an excellent 
psalm for trust and confidence in God. The whole psalm is to that pur- 
pose, to stir up himself to trust in God ; for that follows knowledge ; 
when upon knowledge we rouse up our hearts. ' God is my rock, and my 
salvation, and defence.' Is he so ? Then, my soul, ' trust in God.' He 
chargeth it upon his soul, ' Therefore I will trust m God.' And then he 
blames his soul. Is God so ? Why art thou so disquieted, my soul ? ' 

This is the exercise of a Christian heart, when, upon sound knowledge, 
he can charge his soul to trust in God, and check his soul, ' Why art thou 
cast down ? Still trust in God.' Why dost thou not trust in him ? Is he 
not true ? Is he not wise ? He is the ' God of my salvation.' And in 
ver. 8, ' Trust in God at all times,' in prosperity, in adversity. Why ? 
' God is my refuge.' 

There he sets forth his nature. If our troubles be never so many, there 
is somewhat in God that is answerable ; as in Ps. xxviii. 7, ' He is a rock 
and a shield.' He hath somewhat in him that is opposite to every ill. 

And withal, ' pour out thy heart to God ; ' for where there is trust there 
is prayer. ' Trust in God at all times, and pour out thy heart before him, 
for he is our refuge.' 

And so, ' trust not in oppression and robbery. If riches increase, set not 
yoiu' heart upon them ; for God hath spoken once, and twice, that power 
belongs to God,' Ps. Ixii. 11. Trust not any other thing but God. Power 
and mercy belong to him. This is a notable way to trust in God, to know 
that power and mercy belong to him. If another man love me, hath not 
God another man's heart in his hand ? ' The king's heart is in his hand,' 
Prov. xxi. 1. Therefore trust in God for the favour of men. Hath he not 
all the power? That that another man hath that affects me, it is but a 
derived power fi'om him. He hath inchned him to do good to me. All 
mercy and love, it is from God ; and he turns and disposeth it as it pleaseth 
him. As it is the Scripture phrase, the language of Canaan, the heart is 
in God's hands ; he inclined the heart of such a man. The knowledge of 
God, with prayer and stirring up ourselves to trust in God, and checking 
our souls for the contrary, it is a notable means to trust in God, 

And though we feel no present comfort fi'om God, trust him for his word, 
trust him for his promise, though he seem now to be a God hidden. As a 
child in the dark he holds his father fast by the hand. He sees not his 
father, but he knows his father's hand is strong. And though he see him 
not, yet he believes it is his father, and holds him though it be in the dark. 

Men they cast anchor in the dark, at midnight. Though they cannot 
see, yet they know that the anchor will hold fast. Cast anchor upon God 
in darkness and temptation. Hold God fast in the dark night, although 
we see nothing. We shall alway find this, that he is a God able to fulfil 
his promise, that he is a true and faithful and able God. Cast anchor in 
him therefore. Though thou feel or see nothing, be sure in all extremities 
to trust in God, 

2. Besides other things, trust in God is properly and primarily wrought 
by the jnomises. Trust in God so far as he hath discovered himself to be 
trusted. I can trust a man no farther than I have a writing or a word of 
mouth from him, or a message from him. 

Now, what have we from God to trust him for ? We have his word 
written, and that is sealed by the sacrament. The way to trust in God, 
therefore, is to know tlu promises. 

(1.) The general promises that do concern aU Christians and all conditions 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 9. 151 

and estates of men. * God will be a sun and a shield ; ' a sua for all good, 
and a shield to keep away all evil. ' And no good thing shall be wanting to 
him that lives a godly life,' Ps. Isxxiv. 11. Again, general promises for 
issue. * All things shall work for good to them that love God,' Rom, viii. 
28. And, ' He will give his Spirit to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13. It 
is a general promise to all askers whatsoever, that they shall have the 
Spirit of God, which is a promise that hath all particular graces in it. For 
the Spirit is the fountain of all grace. It is the Spirit of love, of faith, of 
hope. All are in the promise of the Spirit, and God hath promised this. 
Let us trust in God for these general things. 

(2.) And for particular promises. He hath made a promise to be * a 
husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless,' Ps. Ixviii. 5. He 
wiU ' regard the cause of the widow,' Ps. cxlvi. 9 ; and he is a God ' that 
comforteth the abject,' 2 Cor. vii. 6. He hath made promises to those 
that are afflicted, to all estates and conditions of men. Trust in God for 
these. 

But how 9 He hath made these with conditions in regard of outward 
things. Let us trust him so far forth as he hath promised, that is, he wiU 
either protect us from dangers or give us patience in dangers. He wiU 
give us aU outward things, or else contenknent, which is better. Take 
him in that latitude. Trust in him as he will be trusted to. For outward 
things, he will either give the things or give the gi'ace, which is better. He 
will either remove the grievance, or he will plant the grace, which is better. 
If he remove not the evil, he will give patience to bear it. And what do I 
lose if he give me not the good thing, if he give me contentment ? I have 
grace to supply it, which makes me a better man. 

If he give me the thing without the grace, what am I the better ? A 
carnal reprobate may have that. 

So let us trust him, as he will be trusted. For grace and spiritual 
things, all shall be for our good without fail ; but for the things of this 
life, either he will give them, or else graces. 

Let us trust God, therefore, as he will be trusted in his word and 
promises. 

Now this trusting of God (to speak a little to the present purpose, 
because St Paul was now in great affliction. When he learned to trust in 
God, he was in fear of death), let us see how we are to exercise this trust 
in great crosses, and in the hour of death. St Paul was in these two. 

The point is very large, and I wiU take it only according to the present 
scope. 

How doth a Christian exercise trust in extremity, in extreme crosses ? 
for then he must go to God ; he hath none else to go to. 

1. He is heaten frmn the creature; and, as I said before, the soul wiU 
have somewhat to go to. The poor creatures, the silly conies, they have 
the rocks to go to, as Solomon saith, Prov. xxx. 26. The soul that hath 
greater understanding, it is necessitated to trust in God in afflictions. Then 
the soul must say to God, ' Lord, if thou help not, none can,' as Jehosha- 
phat said in 2 Chron. xx. 12, ' We know not what to do, but our eyes are 
to thee.' In great afflictions we exercise trust, because we are forced. 

2. And because then we are put to this, we put the 'promises in suit, the 
promises made to us for extremity. 

(1.) He hath promised to be with us ' in the fire, and in the water,' Isa. 
xliii, 2. There is a promise of GocVs presence, and the soul improves that. 
Lord, thou hast promised to be present in great perils and dangers, as 



152 COMMENTAUY OS 

there are two of the gi'catest specified, fire and water. Thou hast promised 
thou wilt be present with us in the fire, and in the water. Now, Lord, 
make good thy promise, be thou present. And when God makes good this 
promise of presence, then the soul triumphs, as in Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Though I 
walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, because thou art 
with me, Lord.' So in Ps. xxvii. 1, he begins triumphantly, ' The Lord is 
my shield, whom shall I fear ? of whom shall I be afraid ? ' Let us exer- 
cise om' trust this way in extremity. ' God is with us, and who can be 
against us?' saith the apostle, Rom. viii. 31. Thus the Christian soul 
lives by trusting in God. In all extremity of crosses whatsoever, the soul 
is forced to God, and claims the promises of presence. 

And not only the promise of his presence, but 

(2.) The promise of support and comfort, and of mitigation. There is a 
promise in 1 Cor. x. 13, ' God is faithful, and will not sufier us to be 
tempted above our strength.' Here faith is exercised. Lord, I am in a 
gi'eat cross now, I am in affliction ; thou hast promised that thou wilt not 
suffer me to be tempted above that I am able to bear. 

Now make good this promise of thine, be present, and be present by 
way of mitigation ; either pull down the cross, and make it less, or raise 
up my strength, and make that greater. For thou hast promised that thou 
wilt not sufier us to be tempted above our strength. 

3. And then the soul lives hi/ faith of tJie issue in f/reat extremities. I am 
in great extremity, but I know all shall end well. Thus we trust in God 
in all extremity of afflictions whatsoever ; in the hour of death, when we 
receive the sentence of death, how do we then exercise trust in God ! In 
Ps. xvi. 9, ' My flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not sufier thy 
Holy One to see corruption.' Because God did not suffer Christ to see 
corruption, who is om' head, therefore my flesh likewise shall rest in hope, 
when I die. Our Head triumphed over death, and is in heaven, and I die 
in faith; I trust in God that raised him from the dead, who was my Surety. 
I know my debts are paid ; my Surety is out of prison. Christ, who took 
upon him to discharge my debts, he is out of the prison of the grave, he is 
in heaven, therefore my flesh shall rest in hope. [We could not thus 
speak] if it were not for this, that Clirist were risen. When we have the 
sentence of death, we overlook the grave, we see ourselves in heaven, as 
David saith, ' I should utterly have failed, but that I looked to see the 
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,' Ps. xxvii. 13. Then faith 
looks beyond death, and beyond the grave. It looks up, and with Stephen 
it sees Christ at the ' right hand of God,' Acts vii. 56. We see Chi'ist 
ready to receive our souls. 

Then we trust in God that raiseth the dead ; nay, we see ourselves, as 
it were, raised already. 

Use. Thus we see how ive should trust in God, in r/reat crosses, and in tlie 
sentence of death. This, in a word, should be another ground of patience, 
and not only of patience, but of contentment, in extreme crosses, in the 
hour of death, that all that God doth is for this, that we may exercise trust 
in him. And if the soul clasp to him, who is the fountain of life, the chief 
good, it cannot be miserable. But this it doth by trust. Our trust makes 
us one with him. It is that which brings us to God ; and afflictions, and 
death itself, force us to exercise faith in the promises, and drive us to him. 
So God hath overpowered all crosses, extreme crosses, even death itself, 
that he hath sanctified them to fit us to trust in him ; and who can be 
miserable that trusts in God ? 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 9. 15L 

What construction should we make of crosses and afflictions ? Surely 
this is to take away false confidence ; this is to drive me to God. Shall I 
be impatient and murmur at that which Grod hath ordained to bring me 
nearer to himself, to trust in him, to take away all false confidence in the 
creature ? 

No ! This should cut the sinews of all carnal confidence, and make us 
patient and thankful in aU crosses ; because God now is seeking our good, 
he is drawing good out of these crosses. He labours by this to bring us 
nearer to himself. Blessed is that cross, blessed is that sickness, or loss 
of friends whatsoever, that brings us nearer to God ! Why doth God take 
away our dear friends ? That we might cling nearer to him, because he will 
have us to see that he is all-sufficient. 

What doth a man lose when he trusts in God, though he lose all the 
world ? Hath he not him that made the world at the first, and can make 
another if he please ? If a man lose all, and have God, as he hath that 
trusts in him, and in his word ; for God will not deny his word and truth. 
He that trusts in God hath him, and if he have him, what if he be stripped 
of all ? He can make another world with a word of his mouth. Other 
things are but a beam to him ; what need a man care for a beam, that hath 
the sun ? 

All the afflictions of this world are to draw or to drive us to God, whether 
we will or no. As the messengers in the gospel, to force the guests to the 
banquet with violence, Luke xiv. 23 ; so afflictions they are to force us to 
God. This blessed efiect they have in all God's children. 

But those that do not belong to God, what do they in the hour of death 
and in extremity ? They are either blocks, as Nabal was, senseless creatures ; 
or raging, as Cain, Ahithophel, and Judas ; either sots, or desperate in 
extremity. Saul in extremity goes to the witch, to ill means. David 
in aU extremity he goes to prayer, he goes to his rock and shield ; to God 
who was his ' all in all.' He knew all this was done to drive him to trust 
in God. ' Why art thou disquieted, my soul ? why art thou vexed in 
me? trust in God,' Ps. xlii. 11. All this is to make thee trust in God. He 
checks and chides his own soul. A child of God doth check himself. 
When his base heart would have him sink and fall down, and go to false 
means, then he raiseth himself up, ' Trust in God, my soul.' 

But such as Saul, proud, confident hj'pocrites, when all outward things 
are taken away, they go to the witch, to the devil, to one unlawful means 
or other, and at the last to desperate conclusions, to the sword itself. 

As we desire to have evidence of a good estate in grace, that we belong 
to God, so let us desire God that we may find him drawing us so near to 
him by all crosses whatsoever, that we may see in him a supply of whatso- 
ever is taken from us ; if we lose our friends, that we may trust God the 
more. As St Paul speaks of the widow, 1 Tim. v. 10, seq., when her 
husband was alive, she trusted to him ; but now she wants her former help 
to go to, she gives herself to prayer, she goes to God, she trusts in God. 
So it should be with all. AVlien friends are taken away we should go to 
God. He will supply that which is wanting. Those that are bereft of any 
comfort, now they should go to God. What do we lose by that ? We had 
the stream before, now we have the fountain. We shall have it in a more 
excellent manner in God than we had before. 

And that makes a Christian at a point in this world. He is not much 
discouraged whatsoever he lose. If he lose all, to his life, he knows he 
shall have a better supply from God than he can lose in the world. There- 



!l<)i COMMENTARY ON 

fore bo is never much cast down. Ho knows that all shall drive him 
nearer to God, to trust in God. As St Paul saith here, ' We received the 
sentence of death, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God that 
raiseth the dead.' 

One means to settle our trust the better in God reconciled to us, in the 
covenant of gi'ace through Christ, his beloved, and our beloved, is the 
blessed sacrament. And therefore come to it as to a seal sanctified by God 
for that very pm-pose, to strengthen our tnist in God. How many ways 
doth God condescend to strengthen our trust ? because it is such an honour 
to him. For by trusting in him we give him the honour of all his attributes, 
"we make him a God, we set him in his throne, which we do not when we 
trust not in him. How many ways doth he condescend to strengthen our 
trust ! 

(1.) We have his promise, 'If we believe in him, we shall not perish, but 
have everlasting life,' John iii. 15. 

(2.) We have a seal of that promise, the sacrament ; and is not a broad 
seal a great confirmation ? If a man have a grant from the king, if he 
have his broad seal, it is a great confirmation. Though the other were 
good, yet the seal is stronger. So we have God's promise, and in regard 
of our weakness there is a seal added to it. 

(3.) If that be not enough we have more, we have his oath. He hath 
paw^ned his life. ' As I live, saith the Lord,' &c., Ezek. xviii. 32. He 
hath pawned his being. As he is God, he will forgive us if we repent. 
We have his promise, seal, and oath. Whatsoever among men may 
strengthen trust and faith, God condescends unto to strengthen our faith, 
because he would not have us perish in unbelief. 

(4.) Besides that, he hath given us earnest. A man's trust is strengthened 
when he hath earnest. Every true Christian hath a blessed earnest, that 
is, the Comforter. He hath the Spirit in him, the fii'st fruits. Where 
God gives an earnest, he will make good the bargain at the last. Where he 
gives the first fruits, he will add the harvest. God never repents of his 
earnest. Where ' he hath begun a good work, he wiU finish it to the day of 
the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. An earnest is not taken away, but the rest is added. 

(5.) And the same Spirit that is an earnest is also a pawn and plcchfe. 
We will trust any runagate, if we have a pawn sufficient. Now God hath 
given us this pawn of his Spirit. Christ hath given us his Spirit, and hath 
taken our flesh to heaven. Our flesh is there, and his Spirit is in our 
hearts, besides many evidences that we have in this life as pawns. 

Indeed, in extremity sometimes we must trust God without a pawn, 
upon his bare word. ' Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him,' saith 
Job, chap. xiii. 15 ; but God ordinarily gives us many pawns of his love. 

The sacrament is not only a seal of the promise, but likewise it hath an- 
other relation to strengthen our faith. It is a seizon (.*;), as a piece of 
earth that is given to assure possession of the whole. As a man saith, 
Take, here is a piece of earth, here is my land ; here are the keys of my 
house ; so in the promises sealed by the sacrament, here is life, here is 
favour, here is forgiveness of sins, here is life everlasting. What can we 
have more to strengthen our faith ? God hath condescended every way to 
strengthen us, if we will come in, and honour him so much as to trust him 
with our souls, and our salvation. Therefore let us come to the sacrament 
with undoubted confidence. God will keep his credit. He will not deceive 
liis credit. ' He will never forsake those that trust in him.' Ps. ix. 10. 
But to answer an objection. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YEP.. 9. lo5 

Obj. Oil ! all these are confirmations indeed, if I did believe and trust 
in God, but my heart is full of unbelief. Indeed all these are made to some 
that believe abeady in some measure. They have this seal, and oath, and 
earnest, and pawns, and first fruits, and all, if they believe ; but I cannot 
bring my heart to trust in God. 

Aus. What hinders thee ? 

I am a wretched creature, a sinful creature. 

Dost thou mean to be so still ? It is no matter what thou hast been, but 
what thou wilt be. The greater the sickness, the more is the honour of the 
physician in curing it ; the greater thy sins, the more honour to God in 
forgiving such sins. Retort the temptation thus upon Satan. God works 
by contraries, and whom ho will make righteous he will make them to see 
their sins ; and before he will raise us up he will make us rotten in our 
graves ; before he will make us glorious he will make us miserable. I 
know that God by this intends that I should despair in myself. God in- 
tends that I should despair indeed, but it is that I should despair in my- 
self, as the text saith here, that ' we should not trust in ourselves,' when 
we have a sight oi the vileness of our sins ; ' but in God that raiseth 
the dead,' that raiseth the dead soul, the despairing soul, that it should 
trust in him. Therefore retort the temptation upon Satan, because I 
see my sins, and despair in myself, therefore I trust in God, ' He that 
is in darkness and sees no light, let him trust in the Lord his God,' Isa. 
I. 10. 

Mark for thy comfort, the gospel calls men who in their own sense and 
feeling think themselves furthest off ; he that is poor, and sees his want, 
' Blessed are the poor in Spirit.' Mat. v. 3. But I have no grace. Oh that 
I had grace! 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst,' Mat. v. 6. It 
thou mourn for thj' sins, ' Blessed are they that mourn,' Mat. v. 4. Thou 
findest a heavy load of thy sins, ' Come unto me all ye, that are weary, and 
heavy laden, and I will ease you,' Mat. xi. 28. The gospel takes away all 
the objections and misdoubtings oi the unbelieving heart, God is so willing 
to come to him. Therefore stand not cavilling, interpret all to the best. 
God will have us to despair in om'selves, that we may trust in him ; and 
then we are fittest to trust in God, when we despair in ourselves ; then we 
make God all in all. He hath righteousness enough, holiness enough, 
satisfaction enough, he hath all enough for thee. 

And for men that are not yet believers, how wondrously doth God labour 
to bring such men to a good hope ! K they yield themselves and come in, 
there is an offer to every one that ' will come in and take the water of 
life,' 

There is a command. He that hath commanded, * Thou shalt not mur- 
der. Thou shalt not steal,' he lays a charge on thee that thou believe, 1 
John iii. 23, ' This is his command, that we belicA'e in the Son of God.' And 
think with thyseli, thou committest a sin against the gospel, which is worse 
than a sin against the law ; for if a man sin against the law, he may have 
help in the gospel. But it he sin against the gospel there is not another 
gospel to help him. God offers thee comfort. He canimands thee to 
trust in him. And thou rebellest, thou offendest him, if thou do not be- 
lieve. 

Is not here encouragement, if thou be not more wedded to thy sinful 
course, than to the good of thy soul ? If thou mlt still live in thy sins, 
and wilt not trust in God, then thou shalt be damned. There is no help 
for thee if thou believe not, ' the wrath of God hangs over thy head^' Johii 



I-'jG commentary on 

iii. 3G. ' Thou art condemned already,' John iii. 18, by nature. If thou 
b^Heve not, thou needest no further condemnation, but only the execution 
of God's justice 

Naturally thou art bom the child of wrath, and God threateneth thee, to 
stir thee up, and to make thee come in. He useth sweet allurements, be- 
sides the commands and threatenings, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary 
and heavy laden, and I will ease you,' Mat. xi. 28. And ' Why will ye 
perish, house of Israel,' Jer. xxvii. 13. And, ' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
how oft, &c.,' Mat. xxiii. 37 ? God complains of thee, he allm-es thee, he 
sends his ambassadors. ' We are ministers in Christ's name to beseech 
you to be reconciled,' 2 Cor. v. 20, to come in, to cast down your weapons, 
your sins, to believe in God, and trust in his mercy, and to hope for all 
good from him. What should keep thee off ? He is willing to have thee 
believe. 

Olij. ' Oh, if I were elected,' &c. 

Trouble not thyself with dark scruples of his eternal decree ! Obey the 
command, obey the threatening, and put that out of doubt. If thou yield 
to the command, if thou obey the threatening, if thou be drawn by that, 
undoubtedly thou art the child of God. Put not in these doubts and jang- 
liugs, things that are too high for thee tiU thou believe. Indeed, when thou 
beliovest, then thou mayest comfort thyself ; I believe, therefore I know I 
shall be saved. ' Whom he hath chosen, them he calls ; and whom he calls, 
he justifies,' Eom. viii. 30. I find myself freed from the sentence of con- 
demnation in my heart, therefore I know I am called, I know I am elected. 
Then with comfort thou mayest go to those disputes. But not before a man 
obeys. Put those cavils out, and obey the gospel, when salvation is oftered, 
when Satan puts these things to thee, when thou art threatened and com- 
manded. 

How shall this justify God at the day of judgment against damned 
wretches, that have lived in the bosom of the church, and yet would not 
believe. They will believe after their own fashion ; if God will save them, 
and let them live in their sinful courses. But they will rather be damned 
than they will part with them. Are they not worthy to be damned ? judge 
thyself, that rather than they will alter their course, and receive mercy with 
it, rather than they will receive Christ, whole Christ, as a king and a priest, 
to rule them as well as to satisfy for them — they will gild over their wicked 
courses, and will have none of him at all. They will rather be damned than 
take another course ; their damnation is just. 

If thou take whole Christ, and yield to his government, he useth all means 
to strengthen thy faith after thou believest, and he useth all means to allure 
thee to believe. It is a point of much consequence, and all depends upon 
it. It is the sum of the gospel to trust in God, in Christ. Therefore I 
have been a little the longer in it. Till we can bring our hearts to this we 
have nothing. 

When we have this, then when all shall be taken from us, as it will ere 
long, all the friends we have, and all our comforts ; yet our trust shaU not 
be taken from us, nor our God in whom we trust shall be taken from us. 
We shall have God left, and a heart to trust in God. That will stand us 
iu stead when all other things shall fail. ' That we might not trust in our- 
selves, but in God which raiseth the dead.' 

These words have a double force in this place. 

First, St Paul might reason thus, I am brought to death, as low as I can 
be, even to receive the sentence of death ; but I trust in God, who will '•aioa 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. Ij VEE. 9. 157 

me when I am dead. Therefore he can raise me out of sickness. Though 
there be no means, no phj^sic, he can do it himself. Or if it were perse- 
cution, he might reason, I am now persecuted ; but God will raise me out 
of the grave ; therefore he can raise me out of this trouble if it be for my 
good. It hath the force of a strong argument that way. 

And it hath another force, that is, put case the worst, ' I received the 
sentence of death,' that is, if I die, as I look for no other, yet I trust that 
God that raiseth the dead, he will raise me ; the confidence of the resurrec- 
tion makes me die comfortably. As we sleep quietly, because we hope to 
rise again ; and we put our seed into the ground, with comfort. Why ? we 
hope to receive it in a more glorious manner in the harvest. So though my 
body be sown in the earth, it shall rise a glorious body. I trust in God, 
though ' I receive the sentence of death,' yet I shall sleep in the Lord. 
As when I go to sleep, I hope to rise again ; so I trust when the re- 
suiTection shall come, that my body shall waken and arise. ' I trust in 
God that raiseth the dead.' Because he raiseth the dead, he can recover 
me if he will. If not, he will make this body a glorious body afterward. 
So every way it was a strong argument with St Paul, ' I trust in God that 
raiseth the dead.' 

The apostle draws an argument of comfort from God's power in raising 
the dead. And it is a true reason, a good argument. He that will raise 
the dead body out of the grave, he can raise out of misery, out of captivity. 
The argument is strong. Thus God comforts his people in Ezek. xxxvii., 
in that parable of the dry bones that he put life in. So the blessed apostle 
St Paul, he speaks of Abraham, ' He looked to God who quickeneth the 
dead, who calleth things that are not, as though they were,' Rom. iv. 17. 
What made Abraham to trust in God, that he would give him Isaac again ? 
he considered if God can raise Isaac from the dead, if he please he can give 
me Isaac back again ; and though Isaac were the son of promise, yet he 
trusted God's word, more than Isaac the son of his love. Why ? He 
knew that God could raise him from the dead, though he had sacrificed 
him. He trusted in God, ' who quickeneth the dead.' 

Doct. The resurrection, then, is an argument to strengthen our faith in all 
miseries ichatsoever. 

It strengthens our faith before death, and in death. I will not enter into 
the common-place of that point concerning the resurrection ; it would be 
tedious and unjust, because it is not intended here, but only it is used as a 
special argument. Therefore I will but touch that point. 

Doct. God will raise us from the dead. 

Nature is more ofiended at this, than any other thing. But St Paul 
makes it clear, that it is not against nature, that God should raise the dead, 
1 Cor. XV. 85, seq. To speak a little of it, and then to speak of the use 
the apostle made of it, and of the use that we may make of it. Saith the 
apostle in that place, speaking to witty atheists, that thought to have cavilled 
out the resurrection from the dead. Thou fool, thou speakest against nature, 
if thou think it altogether impossible. 

Look to the seed, do we not see that God every spring raiseth things 
that were dead. We see in the silk- worm, what an alteration there is from 
a fly to a worm, &c. ? We see what men can do by art. They make 
glasses, of what ? Of ashes. We see what nature can do, which is the 
ordinary providence of God. We see what it can do in the bowels of the 
earth. What is gold, and silver, and pearl ? Is it not water and earth, 
excellently digested, exquisitely concocted and digested ? That there should 



lob COMMENTARY ON 

bo such excellent things of so base a creature ! We see what art and nature 
can do. If art and nature can do so great things, why do we call in ques- 
tion the power of God ? If God have revealed his will to do so, why do we 
doubt of this great point of God's raising the dead ? 

The ancients had much ado with the pagans about this point. They 
handled it excellently, as they were excellent in those points which they 
were forced to by the adversaries, and indeed they were especially sound in 
those points. I say they were excellent and large in the handling of this : 
but I will not stand upon that. It is an article of our creed, * I believe the 
resurrection of the body.'* Indeed, he that believeth the first article of the 
creed, he will easily believe the last. He that believes in ' God the Father 
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,' he will easily beheve the resurrection 
of the body. 

But I will rather come to shew the use of it. God will raise the dead. 
Therefore, God's manner of working is, when there is no hope, in extremity, 
as I touched before. He raiseth us, but it is when we are dead. He doth 
his greatest works when there is least hope. So it is in the resurrection 
out of troubles, as in the resurrection of the body. When there is no hope 
at all, no ground in nature, but it must be his power altogether that must 
do it, then he falls to work to raise the dead. 

Use. Therefore our faith must follow his worhing. He raiseth the dead. 
He justifies a sinner. But it is when he is furthest from grace, a sinner 
despairing of all mercy. Then he hath the most need of justification. He 
raiseth the dead, but it is then when they are nothing but dust ; then it is 
time for him to work to raise the dead. He restores, but it is that which 
is lost. God never forgets his old work. This was his old manner of 
working at the first, and still every day he useth it, * he made all of nothing,' 
order out of confusion, light out of darkness. This was in the creation ; 
and the like he doth still. He never forgets his old work. This, St Paul 
being acquainted with, he fasteneth his hope and trust upon such a God as 
will raise the dead. Therefore make that use of it that the apostle doth. 
Wlaen the church is in any calamity, which is as it were a death, when it is 
as in that 37th of Ezekiel, ' dry bones,' comfort yourselves. God com- 
forted the church there, that he would raise the church out ol Babylon, as 
he raised those dead bones. The one is as easy as the other. So in the 
government of the church continually, he brings order out of confusion, light 
out 01 darkness, and life out of death, that is, out of extreme troubles. 
When men think themselves dead, when they think the church dead, past 
all hope, then he will quicken and raise it. So that he will never forget 
this course, till he have raised our dead bodies ; and then he will finish that 
manner of dispensation. This is God's manner of working. 

We must answer it with our faith, that is, in the greatest dejection that 
can be, to ' tnast in God that raiseth the dead.' Faith, if it be true, it will 
answer the ground of it. But when it is carried to God, it is carried to 
him that raiseth the dead. Therefore, though it be desperate every way, 
yet notwithstanding I hope above hope. I hope in him whose course is to 
raise the dead, who at the last will raise the dead, and stiU delights in a 
proportion to raise men from death, out of all troubles and miseries. 

Well ! this God doth, and therefore carry it along in all miseries whatso- 
ever, in soul, in body, or estate, or in the church, &c. 

God raiseth from the dead, therefore we must feel ourselves dead before 
we can be raised by his grace. What is the reason that a papist cannot be 

* Article XI.-G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAi^ I. YEil. 9, 159 

a good Christian? He opposetli his own conversion. "What is conversion? 
It is the first resurrection, the resurrection of the soul. But that which is 
raised must be dead first. They account not themselves dead, and there- 
fore oppose this resurrection. And so, when we are dead in grace or com- 
fort, let us trust in God that raiseth the dead. And so for outward condi- 
tion in this life and the estate of the church. 

The conversion of the Jews, which seems a thing so strange. When a 
man thinks how they are dispersed, and thinks of their poverty and dis- 
grace, he thinks, Is this a likely matter ? Kemember what God hath said, 
he will raise the dead. And because this is a work that seems as hard as 
the raising of the dead, therefore their calling and conversion is called a 
kind of resurrection, Rom. xi. 15. Let us hope for that. He that raiseth 
the body will raise that people, as despicable as they are, to be a glorious 
people and church. 

And so for the confusion of the ' man of sin.' The revelation of the 
gospel, when it came out of the gi-ave of darkness, out of the Egyptian 
darkness of popery, was it not a raising of the dead ? 

When Luther arose for the defence of the truth, a man might have said 
to him. What ! dost thou set thyself against the whole world ? Go to thy 
cloister, and say, ' Lord, have mercy upon us.' Dost thou hope to reform 
the world against all the world ? Alas !* he trusted in God ' that raiseth the 
dead,' that raiseth men to conversion when he pleaseth, and that raiseth 
the church when he pleaseth, even from death. He raised the church out 
of Babylon, and he will raise the Jews that now are in a dead state. Why 
should we doubt of these things, when we believe, or profess to believe the 
main, the resurrection from the dead ? 

And every day in the church God is raising the dead spiritually. The 
dead hear the voice of Christ every day. When the ministry is in power, 
when there is a blessing upon it, conveying it to the heart, then he is rais- 
ing the dead. So ' wisdom is justified of her children,' Mat. xi. 19. The 
gospel is justified to be a powerful doctrine, having the Spirit of God cloth- 
ing it, to raise people from the dead, those that are dead in sin. 

There are none that ever are spiritually raised, but those that see them- 
selves dead. And that is the reason why we are to abhor popery, because 
it teacheth us that we are not dead in ourselves, and then there can be no 
resurrection to grace ; for the resurrection is of the dead. The more we 
see a contrariety in nature to grace, the more fit objects we are for the divine 
power of God to raise. * He raiseth the dead.' 

Thus we see how to go along with this. In all troubles God will raise 
the dead, therefore he will bring me out of this trouble, if he see it good. 
Therefore in extremity let us thus reason with om-selves. Now I know 
not which way to turn me ; ' there is but a step between me and death,' 
1 Sam. XX. 3. If God have any purpose to use my service further, he 
that raiseth the dead will raise me from the grave ; ' to him belong the issues 
of death,' Ps. Ixviii. 20. He can give an evasion and escape if he will ; if 
not, if he will not deliver me, then I die in this faith, that he will raise me 
from the dead. 

This is that that upholds a Christian in extremity. This made the martyrs 
so confident. This made those three young men so resolute that w^ere cast 
into the fiery furnace. What was their comfort ? Surely this, God can 
deliver us if he will, say they. He is able to deliver us now ; but if he 

* 'Alas!' The peculiar use of this interjection by Sibbes has elsewhere been 
noted. It will be frequently met with thus used in the present volume. — G. 



IGO COMMENTARY ON 

will not do this for ns, he will raise our bodies. If he will not deliver them 
here, there will be a final deliverance at the resurrection. 

So in Heb. xi. 16, those blessed men, ' they hoped for a better resurrec- 
tion,' and this made them confident. 

This makes us confident to stand out against all the threatenings and all 
the crosses of the world, that we may hold our peace with God, notwith- 
standing all the enticements and allurements to the contrary, because we 
trust in God that raiseth the dead. 

Again, let us learn to extract contrary principles to Satan out of God's 
proceedings. What doth he reason when we are dead, either in sin or in 
misery ? WTaat hast thou to do with God ? God hath forsaken thee. 
No ! saith faith, God is a God raising the dead. The more dead I am in 
the eye of the world, and in my own sense, the nearer I am to God's help. 
I am a despairing sinner, a great sinner ; but the more, God will magnify 
his mercy, that ' where sin hath abounded, grace may abound much more,' 
Rom. V. 20. Retort home the argument, draw contrary principles to him. 
This is a divine art which faith hath. 

Oh, but then you may presume, and do what you list. 

Not so, retort the argument again upon him ; if I do so, God will bring 
me to death, he will bring me to despair ; and who is it that delights to 
have that course taken with him, to be brought so low ? So every way we 
may retort temptations from this dealing of God. K I be careless, he will 
bring me as low as hell. I shall have little joy to try conclusions with him. 

And if thou 1)C low, despair not, thou art the fitter object. God raiseth 
the dead, therefore I will not add to my sins legal. I will not add this 
evangelical sin, this destroying sin of despair and unbelief; but I will cast 
myself upon the mercy of God, and believe in him that raiseth the dead ; 
and desire him to speak to my dead soul, which is as rotten as Lazarus's 
body, which had been so long in the grave, that he would say to it, ' Come 
forth' of that cursed estate. It is but for him to speak the word, to bless 
his word, and then it will come out by faith. It is the art of faith to draw 
contrary arguments to Satan, and those that belong to God do so in all 
temptations. But those that do not, they sink lower and lower, having 
nothing to uphold their souls. They have not learned to trust in God that 
raiseth the dead. 

God is the God that raiseth the dead. Therefore let us oft think of 
this ; think what God means to do with us, that we may cany ourselves 
answerably, ' I trust in God that raiseth the dead.' Therefore let us honour 
God while we live, with that body that he will raise ; let us be fruitful in 
our place. St Paul draws this conclusion, 1 Cor. xv. 58, fi-om the resun-ec- 
tion, ' Finally, my brethi'en, be constant, unmoveable, alway abounding in 
the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' 
Especially considering that he will raise the dead bodies after a more 
glorious manner than they are now, he will make a more glorious body. 
For alway God's second works are better than his fii'st. He raiseth the 
dead, and will make our bodies like the glorious body of Christ. 

But the point of the resurrection is very large, and perhaps I shall have 
better occasion to speak of it afterward. I only apply it to the present 
purpose, how it strengthens faith in misery and in the hour of death. 

A man is strengthened in his faith when he thinks, now I am going 
* the way of all flesh,' Josh, xxiii. 14, I am to yield my soul to God, and 
death is to close up mine ej'es ; yet I have trusted in God, and do trust 
in God that will raise my body from the grave. This comforts the soul 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 10. 161 

against tlie horror of the grave, against that confusion and darkness that 
is after death. 

Faith seeth things to come as present, it sees the hody, after it hath a 
long time been in the dust, clothed with flesh, and made like the glorious 
body of Christ. Faith sees this, and so a Christian soul dies in faith, and 
sows the body as good seed in the groimd in hope of a glorious resurrection. 

And that comforts a Christian soul, in the loss of children, of wife, of 
friends, that have been dearest and nearest to me. I tnist ' in God that 
raiseth the dead,' that he will raise them again, and then we shall all be for 
ever with the Lord. It is a point of singular comfort. For the main 
articles of our faith they have a wondrous working upon us, in all the 
passages of our Uves. It is good to think often upon the pillars of our 
faith, as this is one, * that God will raise us from the dead.' 

But I go on to the next verse. 



YEESE 10. 

* Who delivered us from so great a death, who doth deliver us; in ivhom 
tve trust that he idll yet deliver us.' St Paul sets down his troubles to the 
life, that he might make himself and others more sensible of his comforts, 
and of God's grace and goodness in his deliverance. These words contain 
his deliverance out of that trouble, his particular deliverance out of a par- 
ticular trouble. And this deliverance is set down by a triple distinction of 
time. As time is either past, present, or to come ; so God, who is the de- 
liverer for all times, ' he hath delivered us ' for the time past, ' he doth de- 
liver us ' for the present, ' in whom we trust that he will deliver us ' for the 
time to come. 

Who delivered us from so great a death.' After St Paul had learned to 
trust in God, after he had taken forth that lesson, a hard lesson to leam, 
that must be learned by bringing a man to such extremity, I say, after he 
had learned ' to trust in God that raiseth the dead,' God gave him this re- 
ward of his diligence in the blessed school of afflictions. He delivered him, 
' who hath delivered us, and who doth deliver us ' continually. He will 
not take his hand from the work, and for the time to come I hope he will 
do so still. 

St Paul here calls his trouble a death. It was not a death properly. It 
is but his aggravation of the trouble that caUs it a death ; because God's 
mercy only hindered it from being a death. It was only not a death. It 
was some desperate trouble, some desperate sickness. The particular is 
not set down in the Scripture. We know what a tumult there was about 
Diana of Ephesus, Acts xix, and in 1 Cor. xv. 32, ' He fought with beasts 
at Ephesus (which is in Asia), after the manner of men.' Whether 
it were that, or some other, we know not. Whatsoever it was, he calls it a 
death. He doth not call it an afiliction, but a death ; and a great death, 
to make himself the more sensible. 

Wherefore have we souls and understandings, but to exercise them in 
setting forth our dangers, and the deliverances of God ? to consider of 
things to affect us deeply ? The apostle here to affect himself deeply, he 
sets it down here by a death. 

And ofttimes in the Psalms, the psalmist in Ps. xviii. 4, and Ps. xi. 6, 
he calls his afllictions death and hell, and so they had been indeed, except 

VOL. III. L 



1G2 COMITENTARY ON 

God had delivered him. But to come to the points that are considerable 
hence. First of all we may observe this, that 

God, till he have ivrought his own icork, he doth not deliver ; he brings men 
to a low ebb, to a very low estate, before he will deliver. 

Secondly. After God hath wrought his otcn work, then he delivers his 
children . 

Thirdly, He continues the work still, ' he doth deliver me.' 

Fourthly. That upon experience of God's former deliverance, God's children 
have founded a blessed argument for the time to come. 'He hath, and he 
will deliver me.' God is alway hke himself. He is never at a loss. What 
he hath done, he doth, and will do, reserving the Hmitations, as we shall 
see afterward. 

l)oct. 1. God doth not at the first deliver his children. 

He delivered St Paul, but it was after he had brought him to ' receive 
the sentence of death,' and after he had learned not to trust in himself, but 
' in God that raiseth the dead.' God defers his deUverance for many 
reasons. To name a few. 

Reason (1). God doth defer his deliverance when we are in dangers, 
partly, as you see here, to perfect the ivork of mortification of self-confidence, 
to subdue trust in any earthly thing. St Paul by this learned not to trust 
in himself. 

2. And then to strengthen our faith and confidence in God; when we 
are dra^vn from all creatures to learn to trust in him. 

3. And to sweeten his deliverance when it comes, to endear his favours ; for 
tLon they are sweet indeed, after God hath beat ns out of ourselves. 
Summer and spring are sweet after winter. So it is in this vicissitude and 
intercourse that God useth. Favour after affliction and crosses, is favour 
indeed. That makes heaven so sweet to God's children when they come 
there, because they go to heaven out of a great deal of misery in this 
world. 

4. And partly likewise God defers it for his own glory, that it may be 
known for his mere work ; for when we are at a loss, and the soul can 
reason thus, God must help or none can help, then God hath the glory. 
Therefore in love to his own glory he defers it so long. 

5. Again, he useth to defer long, that he might the more shame the 
enemies at length ; for if the affliction be from the insolency and pride of the 
enemies, he defers deliverance, till they be come to the highest pitch, and 
then he ariscth as ' a giant refi-eshed with wine, and smites his enemies in 
the hinder parts,' Ps. Ixxviii. 66. He is as it were refreshed on the 
sudden. And as it is his greatest glory to raise his children when they 
are at the lowest ; so it is his glory to confound the pride of the enemies 
when it is at the highest. If he should do it before, his glory would not 
shine so much in the confusion of them, and their enterprises against his 
children. One would think he should not have lot Pharaoh alone so long ; 
but he got him glory the more at the last, in confounding him in the Red 
Sea. So Haman came very far, almost to the execution of the decree he 
had gotten by his policy and malice ; and then God delivered his church 
and confounded Haman. These and the like reasons may be given to 
shew that God in heavenly and deep wisdom doth not presently deliver his 
children. 

Use. The proper use of it is, that we should learn not to be hasty and 
Bhort-spirited in God's dealing, but learn to practise that which we are often 
enjoined, to wait on God, to wait his good leisure. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. 163 

Especially considering that whicli is the second point, let that satisfy us, that 

Doct. 2. After God hath dove his imrk, he will deliver. 

Let us wait, for he will deliver at length. Perhaps his time is not yet 
that he will deliver ; but usually when all is desperate, when he may have 
all the glory, then he delivers. He delivered the three young men, but 
they were put into the fire first, and the furnace was made seven times 
hotter, that he might have the glory in consuming their enemies. So he 
delivered Hezekiah in his time, but it was when the enemy was even ready 
to seize upon the city, Isa. xxxvii. 14, seq. He promised St Paul that not 
one man should perish in the ship, but yet they sufiered shipwreck, they 
went away only with their Uves, Acts xxvii. 24, 44. God doth so deliver 
his, that he doth not sufier them to perish in the danger. 

Use. Therefore let us stay his time, and ivait. It may be it is not God's 
time yet. 

When shall we know that it is God's time to deliver, that we may wait 
with comfort ? 

(1.) God knows his own time best ; but usually it is when we are brought 
very loiv, and when our spirits are low. When we are brought very low, 
both in regard of human support, and in regard of our spirits, when we are 
humble, when om' souls ' cleave to the dust,' Ps. cxix. 25. ' Help, Lord,' 
for we are brought very low. ' Help, Lord, for vain is the help of man,' 
Ps. Ix. 11. 

When the church can plead so, it is a good plea. When we are at the 
lowest, and the malice of the enemy is at the highest, when the waters 
swell, ' Help, Lord, for the waters aa-e come into my very soul,' Ps. Ixix. 1 ; 
when we are very low, and the enemies very high, as we see in Pharaoh ; 
and so in Herod, when he was in the height of his pride, when he was in 
all his glory, God takes him there. 

Thus God delivers his, and confounds his enemies. I join them both 
together, for the one is not commonly without the other. The annoyance 
of God's children is from their enemies. Therefore when he delivers the 
one he confounds the other. When the malice of the one is at the highest, 
and the state of the other is at the lowest, and their spirits are afflicted and 
cast down with their estate, then is the time when God will deliver. 

(2.) Again, when our hearts are enlarged to j^ray, when we can pray from 
a broken heart. As you see here, he joins them together. God will deliver 
me, but it must be by your prayers. When we have hearts to pray, and 
when others have hearts to pray for us, that is the time of deliverance. 
Usually there goes before deliverance an enlarged heart to pray to God, as 
we see in Daniel, chap, ix., a little before they came out of Babylon, he had 
a large heart to pray to God. And when we can plead with God his 
promise, ' Remember, Lord, thy promise wherein thou hast caused us to 
trust,' Ps. cxix. 49 ; when we can cast ourselves upon God's mercy with 
prayer, and plead with God to remember his promise, it is a sign God 
means to deliver us. When the heart is shut and closed up, that it cannot 
speak to God, when there is some sin or other that doth stifle the spirit, 
that it cannot vent itself with that liberty to God, it is a sign that it is not 
the time yet of God's deliverance. 

God will at the length deliver. Therefore from both these, that he doth 
defer deliverance, and that he will deliver at length, let us infer this lesson 
of waiting ; let us wait therefore, and wait with comfort. Let us remember 
these principles. 

First, God hath a time, as for all things, so for our deliverance. 



164 COMMENTARY ON 

Secondly, that God's time is tlie best time. He is the best discemer of 
opportunities. 

Thirdly, remember that this shall be when he hath wi'onght his work 
upon our souls, specially when he hath made us to trust in him. As here, 
when St Paul had learned to trvist in God, then he delivered him. And 
why should we desu'e to do our bodies good, or om* estates good, till God 
hath wrought his cure on our souls ? for God intends our souls in the first 
plaice. Our souls, they are the whole man, in a manner. The welfare of 
the soul di'aws the welfare of the body, and the welfare of the estate after 
it. The body shall do well, if the soul do well. 

Therefore we should desire rather that the Lord would let the aifliction 
stay, than that it should part without the message for which God sends it. 
Every affliction is God's messenger. We should desire the Lord to let it 
staj for the answer for which he hath sent it. 

And indeed, it will never part without the answer for which God sends 
it, till it have humbled us, till it have brought us to trust in God, till we be 
such as we should be. And a Christian soul rather desires to be in the 
furnace, to be under the affliction, to be purged better yet, than to have the 
cross and affliction removed, and not to be a whit the better for it. There- 
fore, considering that there will be a time, and that God's time is the best 
time, and that this time will be when he hath fitted us, we should learn to 
wait in any cross, and not to be over hasty. 

Again, consider, though the time be long, yet he will deliver at length by 
death. Death will end all miseries. 

And consider, that how long soever we endure anything, yet what is that 
that we endure here, to that that we are freed fi'om by Christ ? We are freed 
from misery, from all misery, from the wrath of God, from damnation. 
And what is that that we can sufier here, to the glory and joy that remains 
for us in heaven ? What is all that we can suffer here, to that that Christ 
hath endm'ed for us ? What is all that we can endure here, to that that 
we have deserved ? Considering, then, what we are delivered from, what 
God hath resex'ved for us, what Christ hath endured, and what we deserve, 
it will make us wait, and wait with patience. Especially considering, as I 
said before, that God is working his good work for our good. Though we 
at the first, perhaps, for a while do not see the meaning of the affliction, 
the meaning of the cross, we cannot read it perfectly, yet in general we 
may know it is for our good. God of his infinite wisdom will not sufi'er a 
hair to fall from our heads, without his providence. ' And all shall work 
together for the best to those that love him,' Rom. viii. 28. 

It is long then, we see, ere God deliver ; and why ? and at the last he 
will deliver one way or other ; and therefore let us wait quietly. And this 
the saints of God have practised in all ages. ' Yet, my soul, keep silence 
to the Lord,' Ps. Ixii. 5. He had a shrewd conflict with himself, when he 
saw how good causes were trampled on, and he saw the insolence of wicked 
persons, how they lift up their heads, ' Yet, my soul, keep silence to the 
Lord.' So he begins, 'Yet God is good to Israel,' Ps. Ixxiii. 1, for all this. 
And God chargeth it upon his people that they should wait, ' If I tarry, 
wait thou,' Hab. ii. 2. And the blessing is promised to those that can 
wait and not murmur, as in Ps. cxlvii. 11. It is a duty that we are much 
urged to, and very hardly brought to the practice of. Therefore we are to 
hear it pressed the more, ' The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, 
in those that hope in his mercy,' Ps. cxlvii. 11, in those that trust in his 
mercy. 



I 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. 165 

The like you have in many places : ' Therefore will the Lord wait, that 
he may be gracious to you ; therefore he will be exalted, that he may have 
mercy upon you : he is a God of judgment, blessed are all that wait for 
him,' Isa. xxx. 18. So in Lam. iii. The church still waits upon God. 

How oft doth David charge himself, ' Wait, and trust in God, my soul,' 
Ps. xlii. 5. Let us learn this upon these gi'ounds, that God is long ere he 
deliver, but at last he will deliver ; and that is sufficient to force this, to wait 
stiU upon God with patience and silence. 

Well, thus we see God doth deliver, ' who deKvered us,' &c. What will 
he do for the time present ? He hath delivered, and doth deliver, and he 
will deliver. From all jointly together, you see that 

Doct. God's people in this world stand in need of deliverance alway. 

They have always troubles. When one is past, another is present. 
Deliverance supposeth dangers. 

1. There have been dangers, there are dangers, and there will be dangers. 
Our life is a warfare, a temptation. We are absent from God. We are 
alway exposed to dangers. We live in the midst of devils and of devilish- 
minded men. We have corruptions in us that expose us to sin, and sin 
draws on judgments. We are alway in danger one way or other while we 
live in this world. But our comfort is, that as there have been dangers, 
and are dangers, and will be dangers ; so there hath been deliverance, there 
is deliverance, and there will be deliverance. It is a trade that God useth. 
It is his art. ' God knoweth how to deliver his,' as St Peter saith, 2 Peter 
ii. 9. He hath alway exercised it, he is excellent at it. He hath delivered 
his church, he doth deliver his church, and he will deliver his church ; and 
so every particular member, he hath, and doth, and will deliver them. 

Wonderful is the intercourse that God useth with his people and their 
estate. Even as in nature there is a change and intercourse of day and 
night, of light and darkness, of morning and evening, of summer and 
winter, of hot and cold ; so in the life of a Christian there are changes, 
dangers, and deliverances. There is a * sowing in tears, and a reaping in 
joy,' Ps. cxxvi. 5. There is a night of affliction, and a morning of joy and 
prosperity : ' Heaviness may be in the evening, but joy cometh in the morn- 
ing,' Ps. xxx. 5. 

And thus we go on till we end our days, till we be taken to heaven, 
where there shall be no change, where ' aU tears shall be wiped from our 
eyes.' 

If we had spiritual eyes, eyes to see our danger, to see how full the 
world is of devils ! And then to consider how many dangers this weak life 
is subject to, how many casualties ! We cannot go out of doors, we can- 
not take a journey, but how many dangers are we subject to ! We are en- 
vironed with perpetual dangers. The snares of death compass us almost 
everywhere, abroad and at home, in our greatest security. 

But our comfort is, that God doth compass us with mercy, as it is, Ps. 
xxxii. 6. As dangers are round about us, so God is a ' wall of fire about 
us.' We have dangers about us, devils about us. We have a guard about 
us, we have God about us, we have angels about us, we have all his crea- 
tures about us. ' All things are yours,' saith the apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 15, &c. 

It is God that hath .delivered us, that doth deliver us. Who restrains 
the devils from having their wills of us ? They are enemies not only to 
our souls and to our salvation, but to our bodies. They are enemies to 
our health, as we see in Job. We live in the midst of lions ; ofttimes in 
the midst of enemies. Who restrains their malice ? We are preserved 



166 COMMENTARY ON 

from dangers day and night. Who shuts in the doors, who watcheth over 
us, but he that keeps Israel ? It is God that dehvereth us. Without his 
deliverance all deliverances were to little purpose. All shutting in were to 
little pm-pose, except he shut us in that shut Noah into the ark. He must 
watch over us. It is God that dclivercth us. 

But doth he deliver us only outwardly ? 

2. No ! He hath delivered, and he doth deliver, ns spiritualhj. He hath 
delivered us from the power of hell and damnation. He doth deliver us 
from many sins that we should commit ; and when we have sinned, he 
delivers us from despair. He delivers us from presuming, by touching our 
hearts with saving grief for sin. If we belong to him, one of the two ways 
he dehvers ; either from the sin or from the danger of the sin ; either from 
the committing of the sin, or from despairing for the sin, or presuming in 
a course of sin. 

Who dehvereth us from our inbred corruptions ? Should we not run 
every day into the sins that we see others commit ? Who cuts short our 
lusts, and suppresseth them, that we are not swearers, that we are not 
licentious persons, that we are not godless persons ? Are we not hewn out 
of the same rock '? Who keeps us from sin ? Is it any inbred goodness ? 
Are we not all alike tainted with original sin, children of wrath ? Who 
puts a difierence between us and others ? It is God that hath delivered 
us, and that doth deliver us. 

It is his mercy that we do not commit sin, it is his preventing deliver- 
ance ; and when we have committed sin, it is his mercy to pai'don it. 
There is his preserving deliverance from despair after the committing of sin. 

All are beholden to God for deliverance. Those that have committed 
sin, that he delivers them from the wrath, to come, from the damnation 
that they deserve ; and those that have the grace not to commit sin, they 
are beholden to him, that he delivers them from that which their coiTup- 
tions else would carry them to, if he should take his government from their 
hearts. 

We have an inward guard as well as an outward, an invisible guard, ' We 
are kept by the Spirit of God through faith to salvation,' 1 Pet. i. 5. We 
have a guard that keeps us from despair, from sinking. God dehvereth us 
from ourselves by this inward guard. There is not the vilest atheist that 
lives, but let God open his conscience, and let loose himself upon himself, 
to see what he deserves, to see what he is ready to sink into, if he see not 
God's mercy to deliver him, if he see not an intercessor, a mediator to 
come between God and him, what would become of him ? Therefore saith 
St Paul in Philip, iv. 7, ' The peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing shall "guard " your hearts and minds ; ' for so the word is in the original, 
' shall guard your hearts and minds.' * 

We have not only a guard outward, but we have a peace in us, the Spirit 
of God, the strengthening power of God, the sight of the love of God. God 
delivers us, as from all others, so from ourselves. Judas had no enemies. 
God let him loose to himself. What became of him ? Ahithophel had no 
enemy. God let him loose to himself too ; and then we see what a des- 
perate conclusion ho came to. 

So, whosoever thou art that comtemnest religion, that makest anything 

of greater moment and respect than that, if thou hadst not an enemy in the 

world, but all were thy friends, as Judas had all to be his friends. The 

Pharisees were his friends. He had money of them. But God opened 

* See note k, vol. i. p. 334.— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. 167 

his conscience, and he could not endure the sight of it. It spake bitter 
things to him, when God opened an inward hell in his conscience. So 
God doth deliver us outwardly and inwardly, and the inward is double ; 
partly from despair, partly from the rage of corruptions, as I said before. 
Is it not God that ties up our corruptions ? There is such a world of sin 
in the heart of a man, as often he finds the experience of it, when he meets 
with a fit temptation to his disposition, that God's childi-en complain of 
themselves that the sins of their hearts have deceived them. So God 
delivers men from the rage of lusts. He ties up their corruptions, and 
delivers them fi-om them. And when we fall, and are ready to despair for 
them, he deHvers us from despair. He doth deliver, he is perpetually 
dehvering. It implies that we alway stand in need of deliverance. 

Therefore, we should alway look up to God. He is the breath of our 
nostrils ; ' In him we Hve, and move, and have our being,' Acts svii. 28. 
In him we stand, and in him we are delivered in the midst of all our enemies. 
It should stir up our hearts thankfully to depend upon God. He that hath 
delivered us, he doth deliver us. If he should not continue his deUverance, 
we should be continually in extreme danger. 

* Who hath delivered us, and doth deliver tis,' Sc. A Christian is never 
in so great perplexity but God is dehvering of him, even in trouble. So 
the church saith, Lam. iii. 22, ' It is God's mercy that we are not all con- 
sumed.' 

The church was in a pitiful estate then. One would have thought they 
were as low as almost they might be. Yet, notwithstanding, the Spirit of 
God in those blessed men that hved in those times, they saw that they 
might have been worse than they were ; and they saw that there was some 
danger from which they were deUvered, ' It is thy mercy that we are not aU 
consumed.' God delivered them from extremity. 

Nay, in troubles God doth deliver so as there may be a distinction, for 
the most part, between his and others. * When I gather my jewels, it shall 
be known who serves me, and who serves me not,' Mai. iii. 17. God con- 
tinually delivers, more especially at some times. 

As we say of providence, providence is nothing but a continued act of 
creation. And it is true. The same power that created all things of 
nothing, the same power sustains all things. God upholds all things with 
his right hand. 

For even as it is with a stone which is upheld by a man's hand, let him 
withdraw his hand, and down it falls. So naturally all things, as they are 
raised out of nothuag, so they will fall to their first principles except they 
be sustained by that continual act of creation which we call providence, to 
mamtain them in the order wherein they were set at the first. So there is 
a continual act of deliverance till we be delivered out of all troubles, and set 
in a place where there shall be no more annoyance at all, either from within 
us or without us. God doth still deliver. 

Use. Oh ! let this move us to a renounce* of the eye and majesty of the 
great God, of the presence of God. Who will willingly provoke him of 
whom he stands in need to deliver him ? 

Let God withdraw his deliverance, his preventing deliverance, or his 
rescuing deliverance. For, as I said, there is a double deliverance. He 
prevents us from trouble, he delivers us that we do not fall into it ; and 

* That is, ' renunciation.' And yet this can hardly be what Sibbes intended here. 
Query, does he use it etymologically, as = to report, and by inference, recognise ? — G, 



1G8 COMMENTAKY ON 

when we are fallen into it he rescues ns. If God should not thus dehver 
us, there is no mischief that any others fall into but we should fall into the 
Lke were it not for his preventing deliverance. 

As St Austin saith well, A man that is freed from sin ought to thank God 
as well for the sins that he hath not committed as for the sins that he 
hath had forgiven ; for it is an equal mercy that a man fall not into sin as 
for his sin to be pardoned. And so for troubles too. It is God's mercy 
to prevent troubles as well as to dehver out of trouble when we are 
fallen into it. 

"Who would not reverence this great God ? What miscreant wretches 
are they that inure their tongue to swearing, to tear that majesty, that if he 
should withdraw his deliverance and protection from them, what would be- 
come of them ? 

Where there is perpetual dependence upon any man, how doth it enforce 
reverence and respect even amongst men ? It is atheism, therefore, for 
men to inm'e their tongues to speak cursed language, to inure their hearts 
to entertain profane thoughts of God, and to neglect the consideration of 
his m.'ijesty. Holy men in Scripture are said to walk with God, that is, to 
have God in then- eye in all times, in all places, as he had them in his eye 
to delight in them, to prevent troubles, and to deliver them fi'om troubles 
when they were in them. 

We should take notice of God's special providence in this kind, that God 
by deliverance often gives us our lives, and it should teach us to consecrate 
our lives to God, ' who doth deliver us.' 

^In ivhom we Jiojw,' or trust, or have affiance, * that he will yet deliver iis.* 
The holy apostle doth take in trust here the time to come. He speaks 
as if he were assured of that as of anything past ; and he doth found his 
hope for the time to come upon that which was past and present. As he 
saith in Eom. v. 4, ' Experience breeds hope,' so it doth here in the blessed 
apostle, ' He hath delivered, and he doth deliver,' and why should I not 
trust in so good a God for the time to come ? I hope he will deliver me. 
And surely so may we do. 

Doct. A Christian nun/ rehj on God for the time to come. 

Upon what ground, upon what pillars is this confidence built of the holy 
apostle ? 

1. Upon the name of God, the name of his nature, ' Jehovah,' * I am,' 
which signifies a constant being, ' I was, I am, and am to come.' 

There was danger, there is danger, and there will come danger. There 
was a God, there is a God, and there will be a God, Jehovah, I am. If 
there be a flux, a perpetual succession of ill, there is a perpetual being and 
living of the living Jehovah. So Christ is proved to be Jehovah, because 
he calls himself, liev. i. 8, ' He that was, and is, and is to come,' Jehovah, 
alway like himself. 

Now, if God be Jehovah, alway like himself, then if he have delivered, 
if he doth deliver, he will deliver. He is I AM in himself. 

2. Now, as his name is, so is his nature and properties. He is ' I AM ' 
in his love to his church. He is alway in the present tense. ' Whom he 
loves, he loves to the end,' John xiii. 1. He is unchangeable. ' I, the 
Lord your God, change not ; therefore, you are not consumed,' Mai. iii. 6. 
The reason why, notwithstanding our many provocations of him, that we 
are not consumed, it is because his love to us is unchangeable. Though 
we are up and down, ' he cannot deny himself,' 2 Tim. ii. 13 ; and there is 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I. VEK. 10, 169 

the foundation of our comfort, that though we change oft, yet he never 
changeth. There is no outward thing can change him ; for then that were 
God, and not he. There is no inward thing can change him ; for then he 
were not perfectly wise. So there is nothing either in himself or in the 
creatures that can change God. He is alway like himself. Therefore, this 
is a ground of confidence for the time to come. 

3. Likewise his covenant and j^yoviise. The covenant that he hath made 
with his children is an everlasting covenant, that he w^ill be their God to 
death, and for ever ; and the gifts and graces of God, his inward love, they 
are without repentance, and their union with Christ is an everlasting 
union. 

4. And also eiVjjerience built upon these grounds, that God is Jehovah. 
What he hath done he will do ; and his properties are answerable to his 
name ; he is unchangeable, and his promise and covenant are unchangeable. 
Therefore, experience from the time past comes to be a good argument from 
these three grounds : because he is Jehovah, ' I AM ; ' and because he is 
unchangeable, being Jehovah ; and because his covenant is everlasting, be- 
cause he is unchangeable. 

For the foundation of all comfort is the name and being of God, 
Jehovah. From his being, issue and flovv' his properties, and they are like 
him unchangeable and eternal, and from his properties comes that to be 
unchangeable that comes from him, his word, and promise, and covenant. 
Considering then that his name and being is such, that his properties are 
such, that his covenant is such, issuing from his natm-e and properties, 
experience then of trust in the love and mercy of God, is an unanswerable 
argument against all temptations. He hath loved, he doth love, and he 
will love ; he hath delivered, he doth deliver, and he will deliver, and will 
' preserve us to his heavenly kingdom,' 2 Tim. iv. 18. 

It is a good argument that God that is Jehovah, that God that is 
unchangeable, that God that is in covenant with me, that is my God, and 
T his, that God oi whom I have had experience for the time past, that he 
hath been my God. WTiy should I doubt for the time to come ? Unless I 
will call in question the very being of God, the very properties of God, 
and the truth of God in his covenant, and overturn all, I may as well trust 
him for the time to come, as for the time present ; ' He hath delivered me, 
he doth deliver me, and he will deliver me.' 

Ohj. But it may be objected, God doth not deliver alway, and therefore 
it seems not to be a current truth. How doth God deliver his children, 
when we see how they miscarry in troubles and persecutions, both the 
church in general and particular Christians, as there be many instances. 
It seems God doth not deliver his. They die martyrs. St. Paul himself 
died a bloody death. Therefore, how is this true that we may build a 
certain confidence upon it, ' he hath delivered, he doth deliver, and he will 
deliver ? ' 

Ans. I answer, we must take it in the latitude, this deliverance. 

1. God delivers them so as stands with their desires to be delivered ; for 
there may cases come wherein God's children will not be delivered, as we 
see the three young men when they were cast into the fire, they would not 
be delivered out of the fire, but they were delivered in it. And so in Heb. 
xi. 35, there is a notable example. ' Tender women receive their dead 
again raised to life, and others likewise were tortured, and would not 
accept of deliverance.' They would have none upon ill terms. So some- 
times God doth not deliver his children, no, nor they will not be delivered, 



170 



COMMENTARY ON 



because perhaps their deliverance is promised upon ill terms ; that they 
may redeem their lives if they will by denying God and religion ; an ill 
bai'gain (cc). 

2. Again, I answer that howsoever God doth not deliver his from trouble, 
yet he delivers them in trouble, as in Isaiah xliii. 2, he promiseth to be 
with them, and to deliver them in ' the fh'e, and iu the water.' 

God did not keep the martyrs out of the tire, but God was with them 
in the fii-e, and in the water, to support them by the inward fire of his 
Spu'it, that they might not be overcome of the outward fire and flame. So 
God delivers them in trouble, though not out of trouble. 

There is an open deliverance visible to the world, and a secret, inward, 
invisible deliverance. There is an open glorious deliverance, as we see in 
the deliverance of the three young men, and many other examples. And 
there is an invisible deliverance, which is only felt of them, and of God, 
Avho delivers them. He delivers them in the inward man. He delivers 
them from the ill of troubles, from sin and despair ; that they put not their 
hands to sinful courses. He supports them inwardly with comfort, and 
supports them inwardly in a course of obedience. And that spiritual, 
inward deliverance is the best, and that which God's people more value 
than deliverance out of trouble. He doth not deliver them from suffering 
ill, he delivers them from doing ill, as in that notable place, 2 Tim. iv. 17, 
18, 'I was delivered out of the mouth of the hon, and the Lord shall 
deliver me from every evd work.' He doth not say, God shall deliver me 
from death, and from suflering evil works of tyrants ; no, but he shall deliver 
me from carrying myself unseemly and unbefitting such a man as I am, 
that I may not disgrace my profession. ' He shall deliver me from every 
evil work.'' And that is that which the saints and martyrs and all good 
people desire, that God would deliver them, that they may not sink in their 
minds, that they despair not, that they carry not themselves uncomely in 
troubles, but so as is meet for the credit of the truth which they seal with 
their blood {dd). ' He hath delivered me, and he will deliver me from every 
evil work.' And what saith he afterwards ? ' He shall preserve me to his 
heavenly kingdom.' 

He doth not say, he shall presei-ve me from death. He knew he should 
die. But, ' he shall preserve me to his heavenly kingdom.' So put the 
case that God do not deliver //ohi death, yet he delivers hij death. 

There is a partial deliverance, and a total deliverance. There is a 
deliverance from this and that trouble, and there is a deliverance from all 
troubles. God delivers us most when we think he delivers least ; for we 
think how doth he deliver his children when we see them taken away by 
death, and ofttimes are massacred ? 

That is one way of delivering them. God by death takes them from all 
miseries. They are out of the reach of their enemies. Death delivers 
them from all miseries of this Ufe, both inward of sin, and outward of 
trouble. All are detennined in death. Therefore, God when he doth not 
dehver them from death, he delivers them by death, and takes them to his 
heavenly kingdom. 

God oft-times delivers his by not delivering them out of trouble ; for 
when he sees us in danger of some sin, he delivers us into trouble to deliver 
us from some corruption. Of all evils God's children desire to avoid the 
delivering up to themselves, and to their own lusts, to their own base 
earthly hearts, to a dead heart. He delivers them into trouble therefore to 
deliver them from themselves. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. ' 171 

God will deliver us for the time to come, so that we depend upon him, 
and humble ourselves, and be like ourselves. When God delivereth us at 
the first, it may be we are hke oui-selves, but perhaps afterward we grow 
prouder, and self-confident, and wiU not do that we formerly did. There- 
fore, God sometimes though he put us in hope of deliverance, yet he will 
not deliver us, because we are not prepared, we are not thoroughly humbled. 
As we see in Judges xx. There the Israelites were to set on the Benjamites. 
They go the fii'st time, and had the foil.- They go the second time, and 
are foiled. The third time they set on them with fasting and prayer, and 
then they had the victory. 

What was the reason they had it not at the first time ? They were not 
humbled enough ; they did not flee to God, with fasting and prayer. It 
may be there is some sin, some affection unmortified, of revenge and anger. 
When God hath subdued that, and brought it under, and brought us to 
fasting and prayer, then God will deliver us ; as at the third encounter they 
carried away the victory. When we have not made our peace with God, 
we may come the first and second time, and not be delivered ; but when 
we are thoroughly humbled, and brought low, then God will deliver us. 

And then, we must know that alway these outward promises have a 
reservation to God's glory, and our eternal good. ' God hath delivered 
me,' and he doth, and will deliver me, if it may stand with his glory and 
my good. And therefore the soul saith to God, with that reserved speech 
of him in the gospel. Lord, ' if thou wilt, thou canst heal me,' Mat. viii. 2. 
If thou wilt, thou canst deliver me. If it be for thy glory, and my eternal 
good, or for the church's good, thou wilt do it. And neither the church 
nor the particular members of the church, desire deliverance upon any 
other terms. But when it may be for the glory of God, and for the church's 
good ; when they may be instrumental by long life to serve God, and to 
serve the church ; and when it is for their own advantage to gather further 
assurance of their salvation, then he hath, and doth, and will dehver still. 
This is enough to build the confidence of God's children upon, for their 
deliverance for the time to come. 

God will deliver his church and children, and he will deliver them out of 
all. He will ' deliver Israel out of all his troubles,' Ps. xxv. 22. He will 
not leave a ' horn or a hoof,' as Moses said, Exod. x. 26. He will not 
leave one trouble. He will deliver us at the last out of all, and advance 
us to his heavenly kingdom. His bowels will melt over his church and 
children ; he is a father, and he hath the bowels of a mother. This may 
serve to answer all objections that will arise in our hearts, as indeed we 
are ready to cavil against divine truths and comforts ; especially in the time 
of trouble and temptation, our hearts are full of complaints and disputes ; 
therefore I thought good to answer this. 

But what is the argument of the apostle here ? Especially experience ; 
' He hath delivered, he doth deliver, and he will deliver me.' 

Doct. As God will delirei: his church for the time to come, so this is one 
main, argiiment that he will do it, experience of fonner favours and deliverances. 

This St Paul useth familiarly, ' I was delivered out of the mouth of the 
lion,' and ' the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and preserve 
me to his heavenly kingdom,' 2 Tim. iv. 17, 18 — a blessed arguing. So 
David argues, ' God delivered me from the bear and the lion, and therefore 
he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine,' 1 Sam. xvii. 37. 

So Jacob pleads, that God would deliver him fi-om Esau. He had hat) 
* That is, = ' defeat." — Gr. 



172 



COMMENTAKY ON 



experience of God's mercy till then, and therefore he trasted that God 
would deliver him from Esau. 

It is a good argument, to plead experience to move God to care for us 
for the time to come. 

It was used by the Head of the church, by the body, the church, and 
by eveiy member of the church. 

1. It was used by the Head, Ps. xxii., which is a psalm made of 
Christ, ' I was cast on thee fi'om my mother's womb, therefore be not far 
from me.' 

It was typically true of David, and it was true of the Son of David. 

2, So the church pleads with God in divers places, in Isa. li. 2, God 
calls to his people to make use of former experience. ' Look to Abraham 
your father, and to Sarah that bare you,' &c. Look to former times, ' to 
the rock whence jon were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you 
were digged.' He that was your God then, is your God now. ' Look to 
Abraham, your father,' and from thence reason till now. So in Isa. Ixiii. 7, 
' I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord, and the praise of the Lord, 
according to the great goodness of the Lord bestowed upon us.' ' In all 
their afflictions he was afflicted,' &c. He speaks of former experience: 'In 
love he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.' So in Ps. xliv. 1, 
' Our fathers have told us ' this and this. So both the Head of the chm-ch 
and the chui'ch itself, plead vsdth God from former experience, and God 
calls them to former experience : ' Remember the rock whence you where 
hewn.' And he upbraids them, because they forgat the works done to 
their fathers, in Ps. cv., and divers others. He objects to them that they 
did not make use of God's former favours, ' They forgot their Saviour, that 
had done great things in Egypt,' &c., Ps. cvi. 11, 12. They forgat his 
former favours. And in the 13th verse of that psalm, ' They soon forgat his 
works, and waited not for his counsel.' 

And so it is with every particular saint of God. They have reasoned 
from experience of God's favours, from the time past to the time to come. 
The Psalms are full of it. Among the rest, ' I remembered the daj'S of 
old, and meditated on all thy works ; I mused on the works of thy hands,' 
Ps. cxliii. 5. And in Ps. cxvi. 3, ' The sorrows of death,' (as the apostle 
saith here, ' I was delivered from so great a death,') ' the sorrows of death 
compassed me, the pains of hell took hold on me. I found sorrow and 
trouble. I cried unto the Lord : Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 
The Lord preserveth the simple : I was brought low, and he helped me.' 
What doth he build on that ? ' Return unto thy rest, my soul ; the 
Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from 
death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.' What will he do 
for the time to come ? ' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the 
living.' Thus we see how we may plead with God, as the psalmi&t doth 
excellently in Ps. Ixxi. He goes along with God there from the beginning 
of his days, in verse 5. * Thou hast been my hope. Lord, and my trust 
from my youth ; by thee I have been held from the womb ; thou tookest me 
out of my mother's bowels : my praise shall be continually of thee.' What 
doth he plead from this now, when he was old ? In verse 9, ' Cast me not 
oil" in the time of my old age ; forsake me not when my strength faileth.' 

Why ? Thou hast been my God from my youth ; thou hast held me 
from the womb : therefore cast me not off in my old age, forsake me not 
when my strength faileth. So he pleads with God, verse 17, ' Lord, thou 
hast taught me from my youth ; now when I am old and grey-headed, 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEB. 10. 173 

forsake me not, till I have shewed thy strength to this generation, and thy 
power to every one that is to come.' 

Thus we see how the Spirit of God in his children makes a blessed use 
of former experience, to reason with God for the time to come ; and it will 
afford us arguments in all kinds. We may reason from former spiritual 
favours to spiritual favours. As for instance, God hath begun a good work 
in us, therefore ' He will finish it to the day of the Lord,' Phil, i, 6. ' His 
gifts and graces are without repentance,' Eom. xi. 29. And we may reason 
from spiritual favours past to all favours to come that are of a lower nature, 
Rom, viii. 32, ' He that spared not his own Son, but gave him to death for 
us all, how shall he not with him give us all things ? ' It is a strong 
reason. He hath done the greater, therefore he may well do the less. We 
may reason from one favour to another. Thus, from temporal to temporal. 
He hath delivered me, therefore if it be for his glory and my good he 
will deliver me. We may reason from once to all of the like, Ps. xxiii. 1, 
' God is my shepherd,' &c. ' He hath been with me in the valley of death,' 
ver. 4. He hath shewed himself to be my shepherd in all my troubles. 
What doth he build on that, for the time to come ? ' Doubtless the loving- 
kindness of the Lord shall follow me all the days of my life,' ;ver, 6. 

Use 1. This should teach us then, this holj^^ practice, to laij iqy observa- 
tions of God's deaUng, and to take them as so many pawns and pledges to 
move God for the time to come to regard us. It is wondrous pleasing to 
him. It is no argument to prevail if we come to men, to say, you have 
done this for me, therefore you will ; because man hath a finite power 
which is soon drawn dry. But God is infinite. He is a spring. He can 
create new. What he hath done he can do, and more too. He is where 
he was at the first, and will be to the end of the world. He is never at a 
loss. Therefore it is a strong argument to go to God, and say, 'Lord, thou 
art my God from the womb,' thou hast delivered me from such a danger, 
and such an exigence. When I knew not what to do, thou madest open a 
way. I see by evident signs it was thy goodness, thou art alway like thy- 
self, to be the same God now. Therefore we should treasure up observa- 
tions of God's dealing with us. 

Use 2. And consider with them the promises, and see how God hath made good 
his promise by experience, and then join both together, and we may wrestle 
with God. Lord, thou hast promised thus and thus, nay, I have had the 
performance of this promise in former times. And now I stand in need 
of the performance of that promise which before I have had experience of. 

Use 3. And desire God hij his Spirit to sanctify our memories, that we may 
remember fit deliverances, and fit favours, that when the time shall come we 
may have arguments from experience. What is the reason that we sink in 
temptation ? that we are to seek when troubles come ? It is from base- 
ness of heart, that though God have manifested his care and love to us by 
thousands of experiments,* yet we are ready upon every new trouble to 
call all into question, as if he had never been a good God to us. This is 
base infidelity of heart ; and our neglecting to treasure up blessed experi- 
ments of God's former favour. 

It should be the wisdom of every Christian to be well read in the story 
of his own life, and to return back in his thoughts what God hath done for 
him, how God hath dealt with him for the time past, what he hath wrought 
in him by his Holy Spirit. Let us make use of it, both in outv/ard and in 
inward troubles, in disconsolations of spirit, and in inward desertions ; let 
* That is, ' experiences.' — G. 



174 COMMENTAKY ON 

US call to mind what good soever hatli been wi-ouglit in us, by such a 
means, by such an ordinance, by such a book, by such an occasion. 

Let us call to mind how effectually God hath WTOught in us in former 
times, and make use of this in the midst of the hour of dai-kness, when God 
seems to hide his face from us. 

I see not the sun in a cloudy day, yet notwithstanding the sun is in the 
sky still. At midnight we hope for the morning. The morning wiU un- 
doubtedly come, though it be midnight for the present. So David com- 
forted himself in Ps. Ixxvii. 11, ' I will remember the works of the Lord; 
surely I will remember thy wonders of old, I wiU meditate of all thy works, 
and talk of thy doings,' &c. See his infirmity. When he was in trouble 
of mind, his sins began to upbraid him that God had left him. * I said in 
my infirmity, God hath forgotten me, &c., and hath God forgotten to be 
gracious ? hath he shut up his tender mercies in clispleasure ? then saith 
he, this was my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand 
of the Most High,' &c. And the same he hath in many other places, as 
Ps. cxliii. 4, 5. 

It argues the great weakness of our nature, which is ready to distrust 
God upon every temptation of Satan, as if God had never dealt gi'aciously 
with us, as if God were changeable like ourselves. Let us labour to sup- 
port ourselves in the time of temptation with the former experience of 
God's gracious goodness, and his blessed work upon our souls. He that 
delivered us from the power of Satan, and keeps us fi'om him still, that we 
sink not into despair, he will keep us for the time to come, so that ' neither 
things present, nor things to come,' as the apostle saith, ' shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God in Christ,' Rom. viii. 35. And let us, 
as it were, make diaries of God's dealing to us. This is to be acquainted 
with God, as Job speaks. Job xxii. 21 ; this is to walk wdth God, to observe 
his steps to us, and ours to him. It is a thing that will wondrously 
strengthen our faith, especially in old years, in gray hairs. What a com- 
fortable thing is it when an aged man can look back to the former part of 
his life, and can reckon how God hath given him his life again and again ! 
how God hath comforted him in distress ! how God hath raised him up 
in the midst of pei-plexity, when he knew not which way to turn him, how 
God comforted him when he was disconsolate ! All these meeting together, 
in our last conflict, when all comfort will be little enough, what a comfort 
will it be ! 

And those that disfumish themselves by their negligence and carelessness 
of such blessed helps, what enemies are they to their own comfort ! 

Therefore consider God's dealing, remember it, observe it, think of it, and 
desire God's Spirit to help your minds and memories herein, that nothing 
may be lost. For, I say, all will be httle enough, the comforts of others, 
our own experience, the promises of Scripture, our hearts are so ready to sink, 
and to call in question God's truth, and Satan will ply us so in the time of 
temptation. 

Especially those that are old and grow into years, they should be rich in 
these experiments, and able even to have a story of them. We should be 
able to make a book of experiments from our childhood. God's care to 
every man in particular, it is as if there were none but he, and there is no 
man that is a Christian but he observes God's ways to him, that he can 
say, God cares for me as if he cared for none but me. Let us, therefore, 
treasure up experiments. We see one notable example in David, how he 
pleads with God, Ps. Ixxi. 3, from his fonner experience, ' Be thou my 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. 175 

habitation, wherein I may continually rest : thou hast given command to 
save me ; for thou art my rock and my fortress.' Whatsoever is comfort- 
able in the creature, God hath taken the name of it to himself, that in all 
troubles we might fly to him as the grand deUverer ; for it is he that de- 
livers, whatsoever the means be, whether it be angels or men. It is he 
that sets aU on work. Therefore he is called a ' rock' and a * fortress,' &c. 

* Thou hast given command to save me,' Ps. Ixxi. 3, that is, God hath the 
command of all creatures. He can command the fish to give up Jonah. 
He can command the devils to go out. Christ did it when he was on 
earth in the days of his flesh. Therefore much more now he is in hea- 
ven. He can command winds and storms, and devils and all troubles. 
He hath the command of all, as he saith to Elias, ' Behold, I have com- 
manded a widow to feed thee,' 1 Kings xvii. 9. ' The hearts of kings 
are in his hand, as the rivers of waters,' Prov. xxi. 1. He that com- 
mands the creatm^es can command deliverance, ' Thou hast commanded 
to save me,' for the time past. What doth he say for the time to come ? 

* Deliver me, God, from the wicked : thou art my hope and trust from 
my youth, &c. Cast me not off in mine old age ; when my strength faileth 
me, forsake me not.' It is a good argument, * Thou hast been my God 
from my mother's womb, therefore cast me not off in my old age.' 

Well ! we see here the practice of God's children in aU times. Let it be 
a pattern for our imitation, that we * do not forsake our own mercy,' as Jonah 
saith, ii. 8. 

When God hath provided mercy, and provided promises to help us with 
experience, let us not betray all through unbelief, through base despair in 
the time of trouble. If we had but only God's promise that he will be our 
God, that he will forgive our sins, were not that enough ? Is it not the 
promise of God, of Jehovah, that is truth itself? But when he hath sweet- 
ened his promise by experience, and every experience is a pledge and an 
earnest of a benefit to come, what a good God have we, that is content, not 
only to reserve the joys of heaven for us, but to give us a taste, to give us 
the assurance and earnest of the time to come, and, besides his promise, to 
give us comfortable experience, and all to support our weak faith ! 

But remember withal that this belongs only to God's children, and in a good 
cause. For wicked men to reason thus, ' He hath, and therefore he wiU,' 
it is a dangerous argument. They must not trust former experience. We 
must hope that God will continue as he hath been, upon this gi'ound, that 
we are his, or else the ground of the ruin of wicked men is presumption 
that God will bear with them as he hath done. ' The king of Sodom ' and 
his people were rescued out of trouble by Abraham and the army that he 
raised ; yet they were pitifully consumed, not long after, by fire from hea- 
ven. Pharaoh was delivered by Moses's prayer. God delivered him fi'om 
ten plagues. They made not a good use of it, and they perished after 
miserably in the Red Sea. Rabshakeh comes and tells of the former pros- 
perity of Sennacherib, ' Where are the Gods of Hamath and Arpad,' &c. 
2 lungs xviii. 34. Hath not my lord overcome all ? Aye, but it was im- 
mediately before his reign.* Herod, he prospered, and had good success in 
the beheading of James, and therefore he would set upon Peter. He 
thought to trust to his former success. He was flushed in the execution of 
James. He thought God hath given me success, and blessed me in this. 
He thought God was of his mind, as it is, Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thinkest me to 
be like thyself,' thou thinkest I hate those that thou hatest, that are my 

* Qu. ' ruin ? '—Ed. 



176 COMMENTARY ON 

dear children. Therefore Herod presumed to go on and lay hold on Peter. 
But the church falls a-prajdug, and God smites Herod with a fearful death. 
He was eaten up with lice, with worms bred in his body, Acts xii. 23. 

So I say it is no good argument to say, I have prospered in wicked courses, 
I do prosper, and therefore I shall prosper. I have gotten a great deal of 
goods hj ill means, and I have kept such ill company ; and though some 
mislike my courses, yet I hope to-morrow shall be as to-day, &c. Take heed, 
bless not thyself. ' God's wrath will smoke,' Dent. xxix. 20, against such. 
' Treasure not up -wrath unto thyself against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. 
Argue not so upon God's patience. It is an argument for God's children. 
He hath been my God, he is my God, and he will be my God. It is a 
sophism else for others, and as the prophet Amos saith, ' He that hath 
escaped the lion shall fall into the hands of the bear,' v, 19. So the 
wicked that escape one danger shall fall into another at length. It is no 
good argument for them to hope for the like of that they have had. 

Nay, rather it is the worst outward sign in this world of a man in the 
state of reprobation, of a man hated of God, to prosper and have security 
in ill courses. God blesseth him, and lets him go on in smooth courses. 
As the streams of Jordan go on smooth and still, and then enter into the 
Dead Sea ; so many men live and go on in smooth, easy courses, and we see 
at length they either end in despair, as Judas, or in deadness of heart, as 
Nabal. So that of all estates it is the most miserable when a man lives in 
a naughty course, and God interrupts him not in his course with some out- 
ward judgment. It is a reason only for the children of God to support them- 
selves with, in a good cause, wherein they walk with a good conscience. Then 
they may say truly, God, that hath been my God till now, will be my God 
to the end of my days. 

Use. Is God so constant to his children in his love, and in his fatherly 
care and providence, that whom he hath delivered, he doth deliver and will 
deliver ? Let its be constant in our service, and love hack again. Let us 
return the echo back again, and say, I have served God, I do serve God, 
and I will serve God ; because he hath loved me, he doth love me, and he 
will love me. He hath delivered me, he doth deliver me, and he will de- 
liver me. As he is constant in love to me, so will I be constant in respect, 
in reverence and obedience to him. 

Therefore we see the saints of God, as God loves them from everlasting 
to everlasting, being Jehovah, as he never alters in his nature, so not in 
his love to them ; so they never alter in their love to him. Therefore it is 
a clause in Scripture expressed by holy men, ' To whom be praise for ever,' 
Ps. cxi. 10. As they knew that he was their God for ever and for ever, 
so they purposed to be his people, and to praise him for ever and for ever. 
And because they cannot live here alway themselves, they desire that there 
may be a generation to praise him for ever and for ever, and they lay a 
plot and ground so much as they can, that God's name may be known, 
that religion may be propagated for ever. They know God is their God for 
ever. They know he is constant in love to them, and they are constant in 
their love to him, and for his glory, ' To whom bo glory for ever.' 

See here the happiness of a true Christian that is in covenant with 
God ; he can say, I have had my happiness and my portion, I have it, and 
I shall have it for ever. Take a worldling, can he say so ? He cannot. 
God will confound his insolence if he should say so. I have been rich, I 
have prospered in my course, I have attained to this and that means, T yet 
thrive, and I shall thrive, Aye, is it so ? No ! Thou bulkiest upon the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 11. 177 

sands. Howsoever God hath done, and howsoever he doth, thou canst not 
secure thyself for the time to come. Only the Christian that makes God 
his rock and his fortress, his shield and strong tower of defence, he may 
say he hath had that which is certain, he enjoys that which is immutahle 
and constant. God is his portion, his eternal portion. He hath been good, 
he is good, and he will be good to eternity. No man else, that hath a severed 
happiness out of God, can say so. 

A sound Christian, take him in all references of time, he is a happy 
man. If he look back, God hath delivered him from Satan, from hell and 
damnation, and many dangers. If he look to the present, he is compassed 
about with a guard of angels, and with the providence of God. God doth 
dehver him. He hath a guard about him that cannot be seen but with the 
eye of faith. The devil sees it well enough, as we see in Job, ' Thou hast 
hedged him about,' Job i. 10. How can I come to him ? He looked 
about to see if he could come into Job, to see if the hedge had any breach, 
but there was none. God's providence compassed him about. God hath 
and doth deliver. And if he look to the time to come he will dehver, he 
seeth that ' neither things present, nor things to come, shall be able to 
separate him from the love of God,' Rom. viii. 38. 

And this is not only true of outward dangers, but especially in spiritual. 
God hath been gracious. He hath given Christ. ' How shall he not with 
him give us all things ? ' Rom. viii. 32. A Christian is in the favour of 
God now, how shall he be - so for ever ? He hath eternity, world without 
end, to comfort himself in, that God, as long as he is God, he hath com- 
fort. As long as he hath a soul, so long Jehovah, the hving God, will be 
his God, both of his body and soul. He is the ' God of Abraham,' there- 
fore he will raise his body. He is the God ' that raiseth the dead,' and he 
will for ever glorify both body and soul in heaven. 

Look which way he will, a Christian hath cause of much comfort. Why 
should he be dismaj'ed with anything in the world ? AVhy should he not 
serve God with all the encouragement that may be, when he hath nothing 
to care for but to serve him ? As for matter of deliverance and protection, 
it belongs not to us, but to him. Let us do that that belongs to us, and 
he will do that that belongs to him, if ' we commit our souls to him as to a 
faithful Creator in well-doing; he hath delivered us, he doth deliver us, and 
he will dehver us, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom.' 



YERSE 11. 

* You also helping together hy prayer for us* In these words the holy 
apostle sets down the subordinate means that God hath sanctified to con- 
tinue deliverance to his children. ' He hath delivered, he doth deliver, and 
he will deliver us for the time to come.' Was this confidence of St Paul a 
presumption without the use of means ? He will deliver us, * you also 
helping together by prayer for us.' The chief cause doth not take away 
the subordinate, but doth estabhsh it. And though God be the great 
deliverer, and ' salvation belong to the Lord,' Ps. iii. 8, as the Scripture 
speaks, salvation and deliverance it is his work ; yet notwithstanding he 
hath, not for defect of power, but for the multiplication and manifestation 
of his goodness, ordained the subordinate means of deliverance ; and as he 
will deliver, so he will deliver in his own manner and by his own means. 
* Qu. ' not be ?'— G. 

VOL. III. M 



178 COMMENTAEY ON 

He will deliver, but yet notwithstanding you must pray : ' you also helping 
together by prayer for us.' 

The words have no difficulty in them, * you helping together,' that is, 
you together joining in prayer with me. I pray for myself, and you to- 
gether helping me by prayer, God will deliver me. 

The points considerable in these words are these : — 

First of all, that in the time of peril, or in the want of any benefit, the 
means to be delivered from the one, and to convey the other, it is j^rayer. 
God will do this, ' you praying.' 

The second is this, that God's children can pray for themselves. 

The third is, that notwithstanding, though they can pray for themselves, yet 
they require* the joint lielp of others, and they need the help of others. 

The fourth is, that our aim prayers, and the jjrayers of others joining all 
together, is a mighty 2^revailing means for the conveying of all good, and for 
the removing of any ill. God will ' deliver me, you helping by your prayers.' 

Doct. Prayer is a means to convey all good, and to deliver from all ill. 

Because God hath stablished this order, ' Call upon me in the day of 
trouble, and I will deliver thee,' Ps. 1. 15. He joins deliverance to calling 
upon him. SoinPs. xci. 15, a notable place; besides others. Indeed, the 
psalms are wondrous full in this kind. ' He shall call upon me, and I will 
answer him ; I will be wdth him in trouble, I will deliver him, and honour 
him.' Mark it, ' He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him ; ' and 
more than so, for God's benefits are complete, he doth not only deliver, but 
he honours, ' I will deliver him, and advance him,' Ps. xci. 15. God doth 
not only dehver his children by prayer, but he ' delivers them from evU 
works, and preserves them to his heavenly kingdom.' He delivers them 
and advanceth them together. He doth not do his work by halves. ' The 
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their 
cry,' Ps. xxxiv. 15. His eyes are upon them, to see their miseries and 
wants. Aye, but though his eyes be open, his ears must be open too, to 
hear their cry. If his eyes were open to see their wants, if his ears be not 
open to hear their cry, his children might be miserable still. 

Sometimes God delivers wicked men. He preserves them. But the 
preservation of a wicked man is but a reservation of him for future judg- 
ment, to feed him for the slaughter ; and that deliverance is not worth the 
speaking of. But for his children, his eyes are open on them, and his ears 
to hear their cry. As they be in misery that he sees them, so they must 
cry that he may hear them. God hath stablished this order. He will 
deliver, but prayer is the means. 

Now, the reason that he hath established this order, 

It is for his glory [and] our own good. 

Eeasonl. It is for his own glory; because prayer gives him the glory 
of all his attributes. For when we go to him, do we not give him the glory 
of his omniscience, that he Imows our hearts and knows our wants ? Do 
we not give him the glory of his omnipotence, that he can help us ? Do we 
not give him the glory of his omnipresence, that he is everywhere ? Do we 
not give him the gloiy of his truth, that he will make good his promise 
which we allege to him and press him with ? What a world of glory hath 
God by prayer. 

Reason 2. And then /or our sakes he hath established this order to con- 
vey all by prayer, to 

(1.) Shew our dependence on him. For we being in such a low distance 
* That is, = « seek.'— G. 



2 COPJNTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 11. 179 

under God, it is good that we should know from whom we have all. There- 
fore, he will have us to pray to him. He commands it. Prayer is an act 
of self-denial. It makes us to look out of ourselves higher. Prayer acknow- 
ledgeth that we have that which we have, not of ourselves, but from him. 
Prayer argueth a necessary dependence upon him to whom we pray ; for if 
"we had it at home, we would not go abroad. 

(2.) And then, again, it doth us good, because, as it gives God all the 
glory, so likewise it exerciseth all the graces in a man. There is not a grace 
but it is put into the fire, it is quickened and kindled by prayer. For it 
sets faith on work to believe the promise. It sets hope on work to expect 
the things prayed for. It sets love on work, because we pray for others 
that are members of the church. It sets obedience on work, because we 
do it with respect to God's command. Prayer sets humility on work. We 
prostrate ourselves before God, and acknowledge that there is no goodness 
or desert in us. There is not a grace in the heart but it is exercised in 
prayer. 

The devil knows it well enough, and therefore of all exercises he labours 
to hinder the exercise of prayer, for he thinks then we fetch help against 
him; and, indeed, so we do. For in one prayer God is honoured, the church 
is benefited, grace is exercised, the devil is vanquished. What a world of 
good is by prayer ? So that God hath established this order upon great 
reasons, fetched from our own comfort and good, and from his glory. 

Since God hath established this order, away with idle suggestions, partly 
carnal and partlj' devilish. God knows what we want, and God knew 
before all time what we have need of, and he may grant it if he will. Aye, 
but that God that decreed, at the same time that he decreed to convey good, 
at the same time he decreed to convey it this way by prayer. Therefore, 
let us not disjoin that which God hath joined. Christ knew that God de- 
creed all, and yet spent whole nights in prayer. And who knew God's love 
more than he ? Yet because as he was man he was a creature, because as 
he was man he received good from his Father, to shew his dependence 
he continually prayed, he sanctified ever}i,hing by prayer. And all holy 
men of God from the beginning, the more certain they were of anything by 
promise, the more eager, and earnest, and fervent they wei-e in prayer. It 
was a ground of prayer. They knew that this was God's order. Therefore, 
if they had a promise, they turned it into prayer presently. 

The means of the execution of God's decree, and the decree itself of the 
thing, they fall under the same decree. When God hath decreed to do 
anything, he hath decreed to do it by these means. So prayer comes as 
well within the decree as the thing prayed for. In Ezek. xxxvi. 37, ' I will 
do this, but I will be inquired of by the house of Judah.' I will do it, but 
they shall ask me, they shall seek to me first. So there is a notable place, 
Phil. i. 19, ' I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your 
prayers.' We must not, then, so reason as to make the chief cause to take 
away the subordinate means; but let us serve God's purpose and providence, 
let us serve God's order. He hath stablished this order and course, let 
us serve it. This is the obedience of faith, the obedience of a Christian. 

Doct. 2. The second thing is, that 

God's children are enabled to pratjfor themselves. I observe this the rather 
because the vilest men that live, when they are in trouble, as Pharaoh, Oh, 
go to Moses, let him pray for me ! He could not pray for himself. He 
was such a desperate, wretched creature, he knew that God would not re- 
gard him. Therefore he saith, Go to Moses. And so Simon Magus, who 



180 C03IMENTARY ON 

was a wretch, yet when Peter denounced a judgment against him, ' Pray 
thou that none of these things Hght upon me,' Acts viii. 24. You are ac- 
cepted of Clod ; my conscience is so full of terror and horror, and so full of 
sin, that I dare not pray. A wicked man may desire others to pray for 
him ; but, alas ! his conscience is surprised with horror for his sins, and 
his purposes are so cruel, so earthly, and so base, that he knows he cannot 
pray with acceptance for himself. God's children, as they desire the prayers 
of others, so they can pray themselves. They do not desire that others 
should do all, but that they would ' help together with their prayers.' 

Reason. Now, the reason of this, that God's children can pray for them- 
selves, and must pray for themselves, it is because they are children ; and 
as soon as ever they are new born, they are known by their voice, by cry- 
ing. A child, as soon as he is bom, he cries. A new-born child cries as 
soon as he is new born. He cries, ' Abba, Father.' He goes to his Father 
presently. In Acts ix. 11, as soon as Paul was converted, he cries, he goes 
to God by prayer. Therefore God, when he directs Ananias to him, saith 
he. Go to such a place, and there thou shalt find Paul, ' he is praying.' As 
soon as he is converted he is praying. 

God's children have the spirit of adoption, the spirit of sons. God is 
their Father, and they exercise the prerogative and privilege they have. 
They go to their Father, and cry to him. In Zech. xii. 10, j^ou have there a 
promise ' that God would pour the Spirit of supplication ' upon his children. 
They cannot pray of themselves, but God pours a Spirit of supplication 
into their hearts ; and his Spirit being poured into them, they can pour 
forth their prayers to him again. 

Use. The use of this is, not to content ourselves to turn over this duty 
of prayer to the minister and to good people, ' Oh, pray you for us.' Aye, we 
do so ; but pray for thyself. If thou wilt have another man's prayers do 
thee good, thou must help with thy own prayers, be good thyself. 

Men turn it off with shght phrases and speeches, ' You must pray for 
us,' &c. 

Alas ! what will our prayers do thee good if thou be a graceless, blas- 
phemous, carnal, brutish person ? If thy conscience tell thee by the light 
of nature (for the word of God it may be thou dost not care for) that thou 
art so, what can our prayers do thee good ? If thou mean to be so, though 
Noah, Daniel, and Job, saith God, should stand before me for this people, 
I would regard them for themselves, I would not hear them for this people, 
Ezek. xiv. 14. Let us be able and willing to help ourselves, and then we 
shall pray to some purpose. 

God loves to hear the cries of his children. The very broken cries of a 
child are more pleasing than the eloquent speech of a servant. Sometimes 
the children of God have not the Spirit of prayer as at other times ; and 
then they must do as Hezekiah did, they must ' mourn as a dove, and chatter 
as a swallow,' Isa. xxxviii. 14. And as Moses at the Red Sea, he cried, and 
the Lord heard his prayer, though he spake never a word. So in Rom. 
viii. 2G, ' The Spirit teacheth us to sigh and groan.' 

When we cannot pray, we must strive with ourselves against unbeHef, 
and deadness of heart, by all means possible. Sighs and groans are 
prayers to God, ' My groans and my sighs are not hid from thee,' saith the 
prophet David, Ps. xxxviii. 9. And so in Lam. iii. 56, the church being 
in distress, saith she, ' Thou hast heard my voice, hide not thine ear at my 
breathing.' Sometime the children of God can only sigh, and breathe, and 
groan to God ; for there is such a confusion in then- thoughts, they are so 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 11. 181 

amazed at their troubles, they are so siu'prised that they cannot utter a dis- 
tmct prayer; and then they sigh, and breathe, and groan; they help them- 
selves one way or other. If thou be a child of God, though thou be 
oppressed with grief, yet cry and gi'oan to God, strive against thy grief all 
thou canst ; and though thou canst not cry distinctly, yet mom'n as well as 
thou canst, and God knows the gi"oans of his own Spirit, and those cries 
are eloquent in his ears, they pierce heaven. But this being but supposed 
as a ground, the third observation is, as God conveys all blessings by prayer, 
and God's children have a spirit of prayer ; so God's children desire the 
prayers of others, and it is the duty of others to pray for them. ' You also 
helping by your prayer for us.' 

Doctrine 3. Christians ought to help one another hy prayer. 

The holy and blessed apostle was sm-e of God's love to him, and of his 
care of him ; yet notwithstanding he was as sure that God would use both 
the prayers of himself and others to continue this his goodness to him ; and 
therefore the greater faith, the greater care of prayer. And vv-here there is 
no care of prayer, either of our own or of others for us, there is no faith at 
all. 

There is an article of our faith, which, I think, is little believed. Though 
it be said over much, and heard often, yet it is little practised, ' I believe in 
the communion of saints.' Is there a communion of saints ? wherein doth 
this communion stand ? Among many other things, in this, that one saint 
prays for another. 

This is one branch of the communion of saints, as they communicate in 
privileges ; for they are all the sons of God, they are all heirs of heaven, 
they are all members of Christ, they are all redeemed by the blood of 
Christ ; and so all other privileges belong to all alike. As there is a 
communion in privileges, so there is a communion in duties one to an- 
other. One prays for another. There is a mutual intercourse of duty. 
And those that truly believe the communion of saints, do truly practise the 
duties belonging to that blessed society, that is, they pray for one another. 
I mean here on earth. Here we have a command, here we have a promise, 
here we have mutual necessities. I have need of them, and they have need 
of me. We have need one of another. 

In heaven there is no such necessity ; yet there may be, as divines grant, a 
general wish for the church, because the saints want their bodies, and 
because they want the accomplishment of the elect. 

Where there is want of happmess, there will be a general desire that 
God would accomplish these days of sin ; but for any particular necessities 
of ours, they cannot know them. ' Abraham hath forgotten us, and Israel 
knows us not,' Is. Ixiii. 16. There is a communion of saints, and this 
blessed communion and society trade this way in praying for one another. 
God commands that we should * pray one for another,' James v. 13, 14. 

Every Christian is a priest and a prophet. Now the priest's duty was 
to pray, and the prophet's duty was to pray. Now, as the priest carried 
the tribes on his breast, only to signify that he had them in his heart, and 
that he was a type of Chi'ist, who hath us in his heart alway in heaven, to 
make intercession for us ; so in some sense, every true Christian is a priest. 
He must carry the church and people of God in his heart. He must have 
a care of others. He must not only pray for himself, but for others, as he 
himself would have interest in the common prayer, ' Our Father,' as Christ 
teacheth us. Not that a Christian may not say, ' My Father,' when we 
have particular ground and occasion to go to God. But Christ being to 



182 COMMENTARY ON 

direct the Church of God, he teacheth us to say, ' Our Father.' There is 
therefore a regaxd to be had by every true Chi-istian of the estate of 
others. 

Ecasnn. The reason is, God's children sometimes cannot so well pray. 
Though they have ahvay a spirit of prayer, that they can gi'oan to God, yet 
in some cases they cannot so well pray for themselves, as in sickness. 
Affliction is a better time to pray in than sickness ; for affliction gathers 
and unites the spirits together. It makes a man more strong to pray to 
God. But sickness distempers the powers of the soul. It distempers the 
instrumeiits that the soul works by. It distempers the animal spirits which 
the understanding useth. They are inflamed, and distempered, and con- 
fused. Now the spirits., that are the instruments of the soul, being troubled 
with sickness, sickness is not so fit a time for a man to pray for himself. 
Though God hear the groans of his Spirit, as David saith, ' My sighs are 
not hid from thee,' Ps. xxxviii. 9 ; yet notwithstanding it is good at this 
time to send for those that can make a more distinct prayer, though, it 
may be, they be gi'eat Christians. Therefore, saith St James, ' Is any man 
afflicted ? let him pray ; is any man sick ? let him send for the elders of the 
church, and let them pray for him,' James v. 13, 14 ; not that he is not 
able to pray for himself, but let them help by joining together with him to 
God, ' And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise 
him up.' 

Naj', I add more, for the illustration of the point, it is so true that God 
regards the prayers of one for another, that he regards the prayer of weak 
ones, for grand ones. Great Christians are helped by mean ones ; yea, 
pastors are helped by the people. St Paul, a man eminent in grace and 
place, a grand Christian, and for place an apostle, yet he was helped by the 
prayers of the weak Corinthians. So that a weak Christian in grace and 
place, may help a greater Christian than himself, both in gi'ace and in 
place. Parents are helped by the praj^ers of their children. Magistrates 
by those that are under them. The rich are helped by those that are poor. 
The ministers by the prayers of the people, ' You helping by your prayers.' 
The prayers of the people prevail for the ministers ; for though there be a 
civil dilTerence which shall all end in death, yet notwithstanding in the 
communion of saints, there is no difference. * A poor man may be rich in 
faith,' as St James saith, ii. 5, and one may have as much credit in the 
court of heaven as another. As St Austin saith well, God hath made the 
rich for the poor, and the poor for the rich : the rich to relieve the poor, 
and the poor to pray for the rich ; for herein one is accepted for another. 

St Paul stands much upon the virtue and efficacy of the prayers of the 
Corinthians, for himself a gi'eat apostle. And so in Kom. xv. 80, ' I be- 
seech you for the love of Christ, and for the blessed work of the Spirit, 
strive by prayer together with us.' As ever you felt Christ do good to you, 
and as ever you felt the efficacy of the Spirit, strive with God, wrestle by 
prayer for me ; and so in evei-y epistle he begs their prayers. 

And ministers need the prayers of people to God, as well as any other, 
or rather more ; for, as God conveys much good to others by them, eo 
Satan maligns them more than other men. ' Aim not at small nor great, 
but at the Iving of Israel,' 1 Kings xxii. 31, pick out him. So the devil 
aims not at small nor great, but at the guides of God's people, at the leaders 
of his army. ' I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,' 
Zech. xiii."7. 

Therefore pray for them, that they may have abilities, that they may have 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 11. 183 

parts and gifts, and that they may have a willing mind, a large heart to use 
them, that they may have success in using them, that they may have strength 
of the outward man, that they may have protection from unreasonable men, 
' Pray for us, that we may be delivered from um-easonable and absurd men,' 
2 Thess. iii. 1, 2. ' Absurd men;' for none but absurd men will wrong 
those that God conveys so much good by, as he doth by the ministry. It 
is their lot to be vexed with such men ofttimes; and, therefore, pray for us. 

What is the reason of this, that mean Christians may help gi-eat Chris- 
tians by their prayers ? 

God will have it thus. Great Christians have not the spirit of prayer 
alike at all times. Though it be supposed they have it, yet the more help 
there is, the more hands are put to the work, the sooner it is despatched. 
As in the removing of a burden, the more join together, the sooner it is 
removed ; and so in the drawing of anj'thing, the more hands, the speedier 
despatch. 

So when we would draw blessings from heaven, the more prayers there 
be that offer violence to God, the more we draw from him. If it be a judg- 
ment that hangs over our heads, the more there be that labour to put away 
the judgment by prayer, and to remove the cloud that hangs over our heads, 
the sooner it passeth by. Many help much, as many brands make a great 
fire ; and many little rivers running into a common channel, they make the 
river swell greater ; so prayer is strong when it is carried by the spirits of 
many ; yea, those that are not, perhaps, so well experienced. 

But, as I said, sometimes men not only great in place, but great in grace, 
need the help of others. The spirit of prayer is not in a like measure in 
them. Sometime they are too secure, sometime they are too presumptuous, 
sometime too negligent and careless, in stirring up the grace of God in them, 
sometime they are prone to be lifted up too much, sometime to be cast down 
too much. 

If this be so, what a benefit is this then to have the help of others ? 
when ofttimes a man meaner in gifts may have as great a measure of the 
spirit of prayer as another. 

Prayer, it is not a work of gifts, but of grace. It is a work of a broken 
heart, of a believing heart. 

And in prayer there be divers gifts which are far more eminent in one 
than in another, yet all excellent good in then* kind. Some have the gift 
to be fluent, to be large in words, in expUcation of themselves. Some men 
have not so much in that, but they have a broken heart. Some again have 
it in zeal and earnestness of affections. So that there is something in the 
very action of prayer which helps in many. One helps with his ability, 
with his large gift of speech ; another with his humble and broken spirit ; 
another with his zeal and ardency to wrestle and strive with God to get a 
blessing. 

Moses was a man of a stammering tongue, and yet Moses was a man for 
prayer. Aaron and Hur were silent, and were fain to hold up his hands, 
but Moses must pray ; and yet Moses was no man of eloquence, and he 
pretends that for his excuse when he was to go to Pharaoh, Exod. iv. 13. 

Therefore it is a matter of the heart, a matter of grace, of humility, of 
strong faith, and not a matter of words, though that be a special gift too. 

Pieason 1. God will have it thus in his wise dispensation, because he uill 
have every man esteemed, and because he ivill have no man to be lyroud. He 
will humble his own to let them know that \h.ey stand in need of the prayers 
of the weakest. Every man in the church of God hath some gifts, that 



184 OOSIAiENTARY ON 

none should be despised ; and none have all gifts, that none should px'e- 
sume over-much and be proud. In the church of God, in the body of 
Christ, there is no idle member. In the communion of saints there is none 
unprofitable. Every one can do good in his kind. 

lu'dnun 2. God will have this, because he uill have none desphecl. It was 
a fault in St James's time, ' The brother of high degree,' James i. 9, did 
despise the brother of low degree, that is, the rich Christians despised the 
poor Christians. But saith St James, ' Hath not God chosen the poor in 
the world, rich in faith?' James ii. 5. Now faith is the ground of prayer. 
It is a fault in all times. Men have swelling conceits against the meaner 
sort, and undervalue them. God will not have it so. He will have us see 
that we stand in need of the meanest Christians ; and by this he will raise 
up the dejected spirit of weak Christians. 

What a comfort is it then, that I should be able to help the greatest man 
in the world ? That he should be beholden to me for that dutj^ ? So it 
abascth the greatest, that they stand in need of the meanest ; and it raiseth 
the meanest, that the greatest are helped by them, and it Icnits all into a 
sweet communion. For when a great Christian shall think, yonder poor 
Christian, he is gracious in the court of heaven ! Howsoever he be neglected 
in the world, he may do me good by his prayers. It ■ndll make him esteem 
and value him the more, and it will make him value his fi'iendship. He 
will not disparage him. He will not grieve the spirit of such a one, whose 
prayer may prevail with God, and draw down a blessing for him. We see 
here the Corinthians help the apostle by their prayers. 

You see the reason of it, that God will knit Christians together ; and 
humble them that think themselves great, and that he might comfort eveiy 
mean Christian. 

Use 1. Therefore let no Christian slight his otvn prayers, no, not those that 
are young ones. That great di\-ine Paulus Phagius, who was a great Hebre- 
cian in his time, and one that helped to restore the gospel in England (ee), 
it was a good speech of him, he was wont to say, ' I wish the prayers of 
younger scholars ; for their souls are not tainted with sin, and God often 
hears the poor j^oung ones (that are not tainted, and soiled with the sins of 
the world, as others are) sooner than others. A weak Christian, that hath 
not a politic head and a devilish spirit, meaner persons that are but j'oung 
ones, they have more acquaintance, many times, with God than others.' 
Despise not the prayer of any. And let none despise his own prayer. Shall 
I pray to God, will some say ? I pray ! do you pray for me. Why dost 
thou not pray for thyself ? I am unworthy. Unworthy ? Dost thou so 
basely esteem of it, when God is not only willing that thou shouldst pray for 
thyself, but requires thee to pray for others ? Hast thou so base an esteem 
of this incense ? ' Let my prayers be directed in thj sight as incense,' 
saith David, Ps. cxli. 2. God esteems this as odour, and wilt thou say, I 
am not worthy ? Abase not that which he hath vouchsafed so to honour. 
God esteems so highly of it, that he will not only hear thy prayers for thy- 
self, but for others. 

Use 2. Again, there is no pretence for any man to he idle in the profession 
of reliyion. Thou hast not riches, thou canst not give ; thou hast not place, 
thou canst not shew countenance to others ; but if thou be a child of God, 
thou hast the Spirit of prayer, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of a son in 
thee, which enables thee to pray for thyself and others. There is no Chris- 
tian but he may do this, ' You also helping together by jonr prayers for me.' 

The fourth and last observation out of these words is, that 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER, 11. 185 

Doct. 4. Prayer is a prevailing course ivith God. 

It prevails for the removing of ill, or for the preventing of ill, or for the 
obtaining of good, ' I shall be delivered,' I shall be continued in the state 
of deliverance ; but yet you must pray. Your prayers will obtain and beg 
this of God. 

Reason 1. Prayer is a prevailing course, because, as I said, it is obedience 
to God's order. He bids us call upon him, and he will hear us. Prayer 
binds him with his own promise. Lord, thou canst not deny thyself, thou 
canst not deny thy promise, thou hast promised to be near all those that 
call upon thee in truth ; and though with much weakness, yet we call upon 
thee in truth ; therefore we cannot but be persuaded of thy goodness that 
thou wilt be near us. So it is a prevailing course, because it is obedience 
to God's order. 

Reason 2. And it is a j^rerailing course, because likewise it sets God on 
work. Faith, that is in the heart, and that sets prayer on work, for prayer 
is nothing but the voice of faith, the flame of faith. The fire is in the heart 
and spii'it, but the voice, the flame, the expression of faith, is prayer. Faith 
in the heart sets prayer on work. What doth prayer ? That goes into 
heaven, it pierceth heaven, and that sets God on work ; because it brings 
him his promise, it brings him his nature. Thy nature is to be Jehovah, 
good and gracious, and merciful to thine ! thy promise is answerable to thy 
nature, and thou hast made rich and precious promises. As faith sets 
prayer on work, so prayer sets God on work ; and when God is set on work 
by prayer (as prayer must needs bind him, bringing himself to himself, 
bringing his word to him ; every man is as his word, and his word is as 
himself), God being set on work, he sets all on work. He sets heaven and 
earth on work, when he is set on work by prayer. Therefore it is a pre- 
vailing course. He sets all his attributes on work for the deliverance and 
rescue of his church from danger, and for the doing of any good. He sets 
his mercy and goodness on work, and his love, and whatsoever is in him. 

You see then why it is a prevailing course, because it is obedience to 
God, and because it sets God on work. It overcomes him which overcomes 
all. It overcomes him that is omnipotent. We see the woman of Canaan, 
she overcame Christ by the strength that she had from Christ. And Moses 
he overcame God, * Let me alone,' Exod. xxxii. 10, why dost thou press 
me ? ' Let me alone.' It oflers violence to God, it prevails with him ; and 
that which prevails with God, prevails with all things else. The prayer of 
faith hath the promise. ' The prayer of a righteous man,' in faith, ' it pre- 
vails much,' saith St James, v. 16. Consider now, if the prayer of one 
righteous man prevail much, what shall the prayer of many righteous men 
do ? As St Paul saith here, my prayers and your prayers being joined 
together must needs prevail. 

For instances, the Scripture is full of them, how God hath vouchsafed 
deUverance by the help of prayer. I will give but a few instances of former 
times, and some considerations of later time. 

For former times : in Exod. xvii., you see when Amalek set upon the 
people, Moses did more good by prayer than all the army by fighting. As 
long as Moses' hands were held up by Aaron and Hur, the people of God pre- 
vailed : a notable instance to shew the power of prayer. In 2 Chron xiv., 
Asa prayed to God, and presseth God with arguments, and the people of 
God prevail. In 2 Chron. xx., there you have good king Jehoshaphat. He 
prays to God, and he brings to God his former experience. He presseth 
God with his covenant, with his nature, and the hke arguments spoken of 



180 COMMENTARY ON 

before ; aud then he complains of their necessity, ' Lord we know not what 
to do, our eyes are towards thee,' 2 Chron. xx. 12. And God's opportunity 
is when we are at the worst, and the lowest. Then he is near to help, 
' We know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee,' saith that blessed 
king, and then he prevailed. 

So the prophet Isaiah and Hezekiah, they both join together in prayer 
to God, and God heard the prophet, and the prayer of the king. They 
spread the letter before the Lord, and prayed to God, when Rabshakeh railed 
against God, and they prevailed naightily, Isa. xxxvii. 14. 

Esther was but a woman, and a good woman she was. The church was 
in extremity in her time. She takes this course. She fasted and prayed, 
she and her people ; and we see what an excellent issue came of it, the con- 
fusion of proud Haman, and the deliverance of the church. In Acts xii., 
Herod ha\ing good success in the beheading of James, being flushed with 
the blood of James, he would needs set upon Peter too. The church, fear- 
ing the loss of so worthy a pillar, falls to praying. See the issue of it, God 
struck him presently. Woe be to the birds of prey, when God's turtle 
mourns ! When God's turtle, the church, mourns, and prays to God, woe 
be to those birds that violently prey on the poor church ! Woe be to Herod, 
and all bloody persecuting tyrants ! Woe be to all malignant despisers of 
the church, when the church begins to pray ! For though she direct not 
her prayers against them in particular, yet it is enough that she prays for 
herself, and herself cannot be delivered without the confusion of her enemies. 
You see these instances of old. 

I will name but some of later times. What hath not prayer done ? Let 
us not be discouraged. Prayer can scatter the enemies, and move God to 
command the winds, and the waters, and all against his enemies. What 
cannot prayer do, when the people of God have their hearts quickened, and 
raised to pray ? Prayer c-'i open heaven. Prayer can open the womb. 
Praj^er can open the prison, and strike off the fetters. It is a pick-lock. 
We see in Acts xvi., when St Paul was cast in prison, he prayed to God 
at midnight, and God shakes the foundations of the prison, and all flies 
open, Acts xvi. 26. So St Peter was in prison, he prays, and the angel 
delivers him. Acts v. 19. What cannot prayer do ? It is of an omni- 
potent power, because it prevails with an omnipotent and almighty God. 

Oh that we were persuaded of this ! But our hearts are so full of 
atheism naturally, that we think not of it. We think not that there is such 
efficacy in prayer ; but we cherish base conceits, God may if he will, &c., 
and put all upon him, and never serve his providence and command, who 
commands us to call upon him, and who will do things in his providence, 
but he will do them in this order. We must pray, first to acknowledge our 
dependence upon him. If we were thoroughly convinced of the prevailing 
power of prayer, what good might be done by it, as there hath been in 
former times ! Certainly we would beg of God above all things the spirit 
of supplication. And if we have the spirit of prayer, we can never be 
miserable. If a man have the spirit of prayer, whatsoever he want he 
causeth it from heaven. He can beg it by prayer. And if he want* the 
thing he can beg contentation,f he can beg patience, he can beg grace, and 
beg acquaintance with God ; and acquaintance with God it will put a glory 
upon him. 

It is such a thing as all the world cannot take from us. They cannot take 
God from us, they cannot take prayer from us. If we were convinced of 
* That is, 'be without' = denied.— G. t That is, 'contentment.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 11. 187 

this we would be much in prayer, in private prayer, in public prayer, for 
ourselves, for the church of God. 

The church of God now abroad, you see, is in combustion. If the Spirit 
of God in any measm-e and degree be in our breasts, we will sympathize 
with the state of the church. We wish them well, it may be ; but wishes 
are one thing, and prayer is another. Dost thou pray for the church ? If 
we could pray for the church, it would be better. We should do more good 
with our prayers at home than they shall do by fighting abroad ; as Moses 
did more good in the mount by prayer than they did in the valley by fight- 
ing. Undoubtedly it would be so. 

We may fear the less success, the spirits of men are so flat and so 
dead this way. The time hath been not long since that we have been 
stirred up more to pray, upon the apprehension of some fears, to pray 
with earnestness and feeling, expressing some desire in wishing their wel- 
fare ; but now a man can hardly converse with any that have so deep an 
apprehension as they have had in former times. 

Now therefore, as we desire to have interest in the good of the church, 
so let us remember to present the estate of the church to God. And let 
us present the church of God to him as his own, as his turtle, as his love. 

You know when they would move Christ, they tell him, ' Him whom thou 
lovest is sick,' Lazarus * whom thou lovest,' John xi. 3. So, Lord, her 
whom thou lovest, the chui'ch, whom thou gavest thy Son to redeem with 
his blood ; the church to whom thou hast given thy Spirit to dwell in ; the 
church wherein thou hast thy habitation amongst men ; the church that 
only glorifieth thee, and in whom thou wilt be eternally glorified in heaven, 
that church is sick, it is weak, it is in distress, it is in hazard. 

Let us make conscience of this duty, let us help the church with our 
prayers. St Paul saith, * I shall be delivered, together with the help of 
your prayers,' Philem. 22. Without doubt the church should be delivered, if 
we had the grace to help them with our prayers. And God will so glorify 
the blessed exercise of calling upon him, that we, I say, shall do more good 
at home than they shall do abroad. Let us believe this ; it is God's manner 
of dealing. 

In the book of Judges, in that story of the Benjamites, concerning the 
wrong done to the priest's concubine, the rest of the tribes of Israel, when 
they set on the Benjamites, they asked counsel of God twice, and went 
against them, and were discomfited ; but the third time they come to God, 
Judges XX. 26, ' Then all the childi'en of Israel came to the house of the 
Lord, and wept, and sat there before the Lord ; and fasted that day tiU the 
evening.' They thought because they had a good cause, they might with- 
out fasting and prayer, and without seeking to the Lord, prevail, and there- 
fore they went against them twice, and were shamefully foiled, to their great 
loss. But when at the last they came and humbled themselves before God, 
and fasted, and inquired of God the cause of that ill, after that they had a 
glorious victory. 

Christ tells his disciples that there were some kind of devils that will 
not be cast out by fasting and prayer. Mat. xvii. 21. So there are some 
kind of miseries, some kind of calamities, some kind of sins, that will not 
be overcome, and which God wiU not deliver the church fi'om, but by fast- 
ing and praj'er. 

And so for private Christians, they have some sins that are master-sins, 
personal sins. It is not a slight prayer and a wish that will mortify them. 
There must be fasting, and prayer, and humiliation ; and that way those 



i'66 COMMENTARY ON 

devils are cast out. I would we were persuaded of it, that it is such a pre- 
vaiUng thing, holy prayer, to help ourselves in sin, and to help us in misery, 
to help the church of God. 

Use. Well, since the prayers even of the meanest Christians are so pre- 
vailing, let us leam to respect them ; for, as they can pray, so their prayers 
will prevail. And take heed we grieve not the Spirit of God in any poor 
saint, that so they may pray for us with wilUngness and cheerfulness. Do 
but consider what a blessing it is to have a stock going, to have our part 
in the common stock. As there is a common stock of prayer in the church, 
every Christian can pray, and pray prevailingly. What a blessing is it to 
be a good Christian, to have a portion in the prevailing prayers of others ! 
That when a man is dead and dull, and unfit himself, this may comfort 
him, that others have the spirit of zeal, and will supply his want. It is a 
blessed thing ! Let us consider the excellency of this duty of prayer, from 
the prevalency of it, to whet us on to the exercise of it. It is a happiness 
to have a part in it. It is a blessing whereby we can do good to others. 
We can reach them that are many hundred miles off, those that be at the 
farthest end of the world. When we cannot reach them other ways, we can 
reach them by prayer. We cannot speak to them, they are far off, but we 
can speak to God for them ; and he can convey that good to them that we 
desire. What a blessed condition is this ! 

Quest. But some man may say. How shall I know that I can pray, that 
I am in a state to help the church of God, and to prevail for it by my 
prayers ? 

1. I answer, first of all, thou shalt know it if thou be as iiiUmri to help 
otherwise, if thou canst, as well as by prayer. St James speaks in his time 
of certain men that would feed the poor people of God with good words, 
James ii. 16. Now good words are good-cheap ; but they will do nothing. 
They will buy nothing, they will not clothe, nor feed. So St James tells 
them, that that is but a dead faith. 

So there are a company that will only pray for the church when they 
are able to do other vfaja, when they have countenance, and estate, and 
riches, and friends, and place, and many things that they might improve 
for the good of others, and for the good of the church. Some will be ready 
to say, I pray for the church, and I will pray. Aye, but art thou not able 
to do somewhat else ? St Paul when he wishes them to pray for him, he 
means not only prayer, but that duty implies to do aU that they pray for, 
to help their prayers, or else it is a mocking of God. If thou pray aright 
for the church, thou art willing to relieve them ; if thou pray for thy friend, 
thou art willing to help him, and succour him ; if thou pray for any, thou 
art willing to countenance them. That is one trial, which discovers many 
to be hypocrites. If their prayers were worth anything, and the times stood 
in need of them, it is likely they should not have them, because they only 
give good words, and nothing else. 

2. Again, he that is in a state of prayer, he must be such a one as must 
relinquish in his vurpose all wicked, blanphemous, scandalous, unthrifty courses 
whatsoever. He that purposeth to please God, and to have his prayer 
accepted of God, he must leave all. For as. the Psalmist saith, ' If I regard 
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.' For a man to 
come with a petition to God, with a purpose to offend him, is to come to 
practise treason in the presence-chamber ; to come into the presence of 
God, and to have a purpose to stab him with his sins. Dost thou purpose 
to live in thy filthy courses, in thy scandalous evil course of life, to be a 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 11. 189 

blasphemer, a swearer, and yet dost thou think that God will hear and re- 
gard thy prayer ? ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
my prayer,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. That is another thing that thou mayest know ii 
by, whether thou be in such an estate as that thou mayest pray successfully 
for thyself, and for others. 

3. In Prov. xxviii. 9, there is a third discovery, ' He that turns his ear 
from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abominable.' Thou mayest 
know it by this, if thou be in such an estate as that God will regard thy 
prayers for thyself or for others, that they may be prevailing prayers ; how 
standest thou affected to God's truth and word ? how art thou acquainted 
with the reading of the Scriptures, andwith hearing the blessed word of 
God unfolded and broken open by the blessed ordinance of God ? How 
doest thou attend upon God ? Wouldst thou have him who is the great 
God of heaven and earth to hear thee, and to regard thee, when thou wilt 
not hear and regard him ? Thou wouldst have him to regard thy prayers, 
and thou regardest not him speaking by the ministry of his word. Thou 
despisest his ordinance which he hath left with thee. He hath left thee the 
mysteries of his word, and thou regardest them not, but spendest thy time 
altogether either about thy calling, or about some trifling studies, and 
neglectest the main, the soul-saving truth ; will he hear thy prayer ? No, 
saith the wise man ; ' He that turns his ear from hearing the law, that man's 
prayer shall be abominable.' 

Since prayer is so prevailing a thing, so pleasing to God, so helpful to 
the church, and so helpful to ourselves, who would be in such a case that 
he cannot pray, or if he doth pray, that his prayer should be abominable, 
that God should turn his prayer into sin ? It is a miserable case that a 
man lives in, that is in league with sin, that allows himself in any wicked 
course, in rebellion to God's ordinance. Such men are in such a state that 
God doth not regard their prayers for themselves or for others. Some do 
so exalt and lift up their pride against God, that they do not regard the very 
ordinance of God. No, not while they are hearing it, but set themselves to 
be otherwise disposed at that very time. How can such expect that God 
will regard them ? This shall be sufficient to press that point. Saith Saint 
Paul, ' I shall be delivered by your prayers.' 

Obs. God ivill deliver the ministers by the i^eopJe's prayers. 

God will be good to the ministers for the prayers of the people. This 
concerns us that are ministers. Prayer is prevaihng even for us. And as 
it is our duty to give ourselves to preaching and prayer, so it is the people's 
duty to praj' for us Ukewise, and for these particulars, as I named. 

To pray for abihty, — to pray for a willing mind to discharge that ability, — 
to pray for success of that discharge. For we must be able to preach 
to the people of God, and we must be willing, and there must be success. 
It doth much discom'age God's people, and those that are ministers, when 
they find no success of their labours. Isa. xlix. 4, saith the prophet, ' I 
have laboured in vain.' Elias was much discouraged in his time, Romans 
xi. 4, 1 Kings xix. 18 ; and Isaiah and Elias were good men, yet they were 
much discouraged. They saw little fruit of their labour. Therefore let us 
help the ministers with our prayers in this respect, that God would enable 
them ; that God would enlarge their hearts with willingness. For there 
are many that are of ability, but they are so proud, and so idle, that they 
think themselves too good to preach to them, whom God and the church 
hath called them to bestow their labours on. They have ability, but thej' 
want a large heart. And those that have both ability and a large heart, 



lyO COMMENTARY ON 

they want success, they see little fruit ; hccause the people pray not for 
them ; and they perhaps are negligent in the duty themselves ; then- labours 
are not steeped in" prayers. 

Again, a fourth thing that we ought to pray for for them, is strength and 
ability of the outward man ; and all that fear God, and have felt the benefit 
of the ministiy, they do this, and God doth answer it. 

Likewise to pray /or ]jrotection and deliverance from unreasonable men, 
to pray for strength of spirit, and likewise for protection. For, as St Paul 
saith, * All men have not faith. Pray for us, that we may be delivered from 
unreasonable, absurd men : all have not faith,' 2 Thess. iii. 2. Men that 
believe not God's truth, that believe not God's word, that are full of 
atheism, full of contempt and scorn, they are ' absurd men.' Though they 
think themselves the witty* men of the world, yet they are unreasonable 
and absurd men. ' Pray for us, that we may be deUvered from unreason- 
able men.' 

Likewise from him that is the head of nicked men, the Devil. He sees 
that the ministers they are the standard-bearers, they are the captains of 
God's army. They stand not alone, and they fall not alone. Many others 
fall with them. There is no calling under heaven by which God conveys 
so much good, as by the dispensation of his ordinance in the ministry ; 
therefore we should help them by our prayers. There are no men better 
if they be good, nor none more hurtful if they be bad ; none worse. As 
Christ saith, ' They are the salt of the earth,' to season the unsavomy 
world, ' and if the salt have lost the savour, it is good for nothing but to be 
cast on the dunghill,' Luke xiv. 34, 35. Therefore pray that God would 
deliver them from the devil, who maligns them. They are the buttf of his 
malice, by his instruments. 

There are many that come to hear the word to carp, and to cavil, and to 
sit as judges to examine, but how few are there that pray for the ministers ! 
and surely, because they pray not, they profit not. If we could pray more, 
we should profit more. I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, put up 
your petitions to God, that God would teach us (that are inferior to you in 
other respects, setting aside our calling) that we may teach you, that we 
may instruct his people. As John Baptist saith, ' The friends of the bride 
learn of the bridegroom,' John iii. 29, what to speak to the spouse. So 
we leam from prayer, and from reading, we learn from Christ what to teach 
you. If you pray to God to teach us that we may teach you, you shall 
never go away without a blessing. 

And therefore, as I said, wo see how the apostle desires the Eomans to 
strive and contend with him in prayer. He useth all protestations, and 
obtestations, ' For the love of Christ and of his Spirit,' &c., Romans xv. 30. 
And, pray for us, ' that the word may have a free passage, and be glorified,' 
2 Thess. iii. 1. In every epistle still he urgeth, 'Pray for us.' The 
blessed apostle was so heavenly-minded, that he would neglect no help that 
might further him in the ministiy. So if we have Christian hearts, we will 
neglect no helps, not the help of the meanest Christian that we are ac- 
quainted with. When he that was a gi-eat apostle saith, ' Pray for us, 
strive in prayer for us,' he prays for the help of others' prayer. So the 
more gracious we are, and the nearer to God, the more we understand the 
things of God, the more careful we shall be of this Christian duty of prayer, 
for the ministers, and for ourselves, and others. Upon this ground, that 
it is God's ordinance ; and there is nothing established by God that shall 
* That is, 'wise.' -G. t That is. 'mark,'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 11, 191 

want a blessing. Therefore if we liave faith, we will pray ; the more faith 
the more prayer ; the greater faith the greater prayer. Christ had the 
greatest faith, and he prayed whole nights together. St Paul was mighty 
in faith ; he was mighty in prayer. Where there is little faith, there will 
be little prayer ; and where there is no faith, there will be no prayer. ' You 
also helping together by prayer for us.' 

Mark the heavenly art of the apostle. He doth here insinuate and en- 
wrap an exhortation by taking it for granted that they would pray for him. 
It is the most cunning way to convey an exhortation, by way of taking it 
for granted, and by way of encouragement. ' The Lord will deliver me.' 
He doth not say, therefore I pray help me by your prayers ; but the Lord 
will deliver me if you help me, and I know I shall not want your prayers. 
He takes it for granted that they would pray for him ; and granted truths 
are the strongest truths. It is the best way to encourage any man, if we 
know any good in him, to take it for granted that he will do so ; and so * I 
shall be delivered, you helping together by your prayers.' 

* That, for the gift bestowed upon ws by the means of many persons, thanks 
may he given by viany on our behalf J' After he had set down the means 
that God would convey the blessing by, which was prayer, then he shews 
the end, why God would deliver him by praj^er. For the gift of health 
and deliverance bestowed upon me, by the means of many prayers of many 
persons, 'likewise thanks shall be given by many on our behalf;' that is, 
on my behalf. Yea, as many shall be ready to thank God for my deliver- 
ance and health, as before many prayed to God for it. So that in this 
regard, God in love to his own praise and glory will deliver me by your 
prayers, because he shall gain praise, and praise of many. 

* That for the gift bestowed,' &c. And first for the words somewhat. 

* For the gift bestowed on us.' Deliverance and health is a gift, 
charisma,'^- a free gift. If health be a gift, what are greater things ? They 
are much more a free gift. If daily bread be a gift, certainly eternal life 
is much more a gift. ' The gift of God is eternal life,' Rom. vi. 23. 

Away with conceit of merit ! If we merit not daily bread, if we merit 
not outward deliverance, if we merit not health, what can we do for eternal 
life ? It is a doting conceit, a mere foohsh conceit then, to think that the 
beggar merits his alms by begging, prayer being the chief work we do. 
What doth the beggar merit by begging ? Begging, it is a disavowing of 
merit. Health, you see here, it is a gift bestowed by prayer, that * for the 
gift bestowed upon us,' &c. 

Things come to be ours either by contract or by gift. If it be by con- 
tract, then we know what we have to do. If it be by gift, the only way to 
get a thing by gift is prayer. So that which is gotten here by prayer, it is 
called a gift, not only a gift for the freeness of it, but because health, and 
deliverance out of trouble, is a great and special gift. For, as it seems, 
St Paul here was desperately sick (I rather incline to that than any other 
deliverance), ' I received the sentence of death,' &c. 

Is not health a gift ? Is it not the foundation of all the comforts of this 
life ? What would riches comfort us ? What would friends comfort us ? 
Bring all to a sick man, alas ! he hath no relish in anything, because he 
wants the ground of all earthly comforts, he wants health. Therefore you 
know the Grecians accounted that a chief blessing. If they had health, 
they were contented with any estate {(f). A poor man in a mean estate, 
• That is, ' ;;/ag/(r//,a.'— G. 



192 COMMENTABY ON 

with a little competency, is more happy than the greatest monarch in the 
world that is under sickness and pain of body. 

Health ! it is comfort itself, and it sweetens all other comforts. 

Thei'efore it is a matter that especially we should bless God for, both for 
preventing* health (God keeps us out of sickness), and likewise for deliver- 
ing us out of it, for both are like favours. And they that have a constant 
enjoyment of their health should as well praise God, as they that are de- 
livered out of sickness. It is God's goodness that they do not fall into 
sickness. There is the ground of sickness in every man. Though ho had 
no outward enemy in the world, yet God can distemper the humours ; and 
when there is a jar and disproportion in the humours, then follows a hurt- 
ing of the powers, and a hindering of the actions, &c. We should bless 
God for the continuance of health. It is a special gift. ' For the gift 
bestowed.' 

' By the means of many persons.' God bestowed health on St Paul, but 
it was by the means of many prayers of many persons. 

Quest. Would not God have bestowed health upon St Paul if he had not 
had their prayers ? 

Ans. Yes, doubtless. But yet notwithstanding when there are many 
prayers, they prevail much more. Many streams make a river run more 
strongly, and so many prayers prevail strongly. Health is such a blessing 
as may be begged by others. 

Therefore it is a good thing in sickness, and in any trouble, to beg the 
prayers of others, that they may beg health and deliverance of God for 
us. The good Corinthians here, they pray St Paul out of his trouble. 
And God so far honours his children, even the meanest, that they are a 
means to beg health and deliverance for others, even to pray them out of 
this or that trouble. 

And what a comfort and encouragement is this, that a Christian hath so 
many factors for him ! He hath all the saints in the world that say, ' Our 
Father,' praying for him. He must needs be rich that hath a world ot 
factors, that hath a stock going in every part of the world. A Christian 
hath factors all the world over. He is a member of the mystical body, and 
many prayers are made for him. It is a great comfort. 

And it is a great encouragement for us to pray for one another, consider- 
ing that God will so far honom- us. St Paul's health here, it was a gift by 
the prayers of many. 

Obj. But thou wilt object : I am a weak Christian, a sinful creature. 
What, should God regard my prayers ? Alas ! my prayers will do you 
little good. 

Solution. Yes, they will do much, not only for thyself, but for others. 
What are prayers ? Are they not incense kindled by the fire of the blessed 
Spirit of God ? Are they not in themselves good motions, stirred up by 
the Spirit ? Themselves in their nature are good, though they be imperfect 
and stained. The Spirit that stirs them up is good, the good Spirit of 
God. ' We know not how to pray,' Rom. viii. 20, but the Spirit teacheth 
us. The Mediator through whom they are oifered, who mingles his odour 
with them, Piev. viii. 3, ' He is the argol that mingleth odours with the 
prayers of the saints,' and makes them acceptable to God. The person 
likewise that offers them is good. What is he ? Is he not God's child ? 
Do not parents love to hear the voice of their children ? If, therefore, the 
person be good, though weak, and the prayer be good, and the Spirit good, 
* That is, = keeping off ill health. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 11. 193 

and the Mediator so good, then let no man be discouraged, not only to pray 
for himself, but to pray for others. God would hear the Corinthians, 
though they were stained with schism, and many other weaknesses. They 
were none of the most refined churches that St Paul wrote to, as we may 
see in the first epistle ; yet saith St Paul, my health and deliverance is a 
gift, and a gift by the prayers of many, weak and strong joining together. 

Obj. It is the subtilty of Satan, and our own hearts join with him in 
the temptation. What should I pray ? My conscience tells me this and 
that. 

Ans. Dost thou mean to be so still ? Then indeed, as it is, ' If I 
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. 
But if thou have repented thee of thy sins, and intendest to lead a new' 
Ufe for the time to come, God will hear thy prayers, not only for thyself, 
but for others. God will bestow gifts upon others, by means of thy prayers. 

To go on. 

' Thanks may be given by many persons.' God's end in delivering St 
Paul by prayer, was that he might have many thanks for many prayers, 
when they were heard once. ' That thanks may be given by many on our 
behalf,' that is, because we are delivered, and restored to health and 
strength again, to serve the church as we did before. You see here how 

Obs. Praise foUoivs prayer. 

Many prayers, and then many praises ; these follow one another. Indeed 
this is God's order ; and we see in natm'e, where there is a receiving, there 
is a giving. We see the earth, it receives fruit, it yields fruit, as Christ 
saith of the good gi'ound, sixty-fold, many-fold. You see bodies that 
receive the sun, they reflect their beams back to the sun again. 

The streams, as they come from the sea, so by an unwearied motion 
they return back again to the sea. And men do eat the fruit of their own 
flocks, they reap the fruit of their own orchards and gardens. In nature, 
whatsoever receives, it returns back again. The influence and light that 
those heavenly bodies, the stars, and the planets, &c., have from the sun, 
who is the chief light of all, they bestow it upon the inferior bodies. You 
see it in nature, much more is it in gi-ace. What we receive from God by 
gift, obtained by prayer, he must have the praise for it. Many pra3^ers, 
many praises. As soon as ever a benefit is received, presently there is an 
obligation, a natural obligation, and a religious obligation. Upon the 
receipt of a benefit, there must be some thought of returning something 
presently. 

It teacheth us what a horrible sin ingratitude is. It is the grave of all 
God's blessings. It receives all, and never returns anything back again. 
As those lepers, they never came back again to thank Christ, but only the 
tenth, a poor Samaritan, Luke xvii. 17. Men are eager to sue to God, 
restless till they have that they would have, but then they are barren and 
unfruitful, they yield nothing back again. After prayer, there must be 
praise and thanksgiving. It condemneth our backwardness and untoward- 
ness in this kind. Like little children, they are ready to beg favours, but 
when they come to thanksgiving, they look another way, as if it were irk- 
some to them. So it is with our nature. When we go about this heavenly 
duty, we give God a formal word or two, ' Thanks be to God,' &c. But 
we never work our hearts to thankfulness. ' That thanks may be given by 
many.' 

As the prayers of many are mighty with God to prevail, so likewise the 
praises of many are very grateful and acceptable to God, even as it is 

VOL. ni. N 



i 



194 COMMENTARY ON 

with instraments. The sweetness of music ariseth from many instruments, 
and from the concord of all the strings in every instrument. When every 
instrument hath many strings, and are all in tune, it makes sweet haiTuony, 
it makes sweet concord. So, when many give God thanks, and every one 
hath a good heart set in tune, when they are good Christians all, it is 
wondrous acceptable music to God, it is sweet incense ; more acceptable to 
God than any sweet savom' and odour can be to us. That is one reason 
•why God will have many to pray to him, that he may have many praises. 

God doth wondrously honour concord, especially when it is concord in 
praising of him. It is a comely thing for ' brethren to Uve in unity,' as it 
is Ps. cxxxiii. 1. If to praise God be a comely thing, and if concord be a 
comely thing, then when both meet together, it must needs be wondrous 
beautiful, and wondrous acceptable to God, when many brethren meet and 
join to praise God. Therefore it is said, in the church's new conversion, 
' They met all together as one man,' Acts ii. 46, they were of one heart and 
one soul, and they were given to prayer and to praising of God. A blessed 
estate of that beginning church ! They were all as one man, of one heart, 
of one spirit, of one soul. 

As the blessed angels and blessed spirits in heaven, they aU join together, 
as it is in Eev. xiv. 2, 3. The blessed man heard a voice in heaven as the 
voice of many waters, and of great thunder ; and he heard the voice of 
harpers, ' and they sang a new song.' There were many harps, but one 
song, one thanksgiving, one heart, one spirit in all, wondrous acceptable 
to God. 

This should make us in love with public meetings. Severed thanks- 
giving is not so acceptable a thanksgiving. God doth bestow all good upon 
us in the body, as we knit ourselves not only in thanksgiving to him, but 
in love to the church. As all things are derived from God to us in the 
body, so let our praise return to God in the body as much as we may. 

It shews what a hateful thing schism and division is in the church. 
Besides many other inconveniences, God wants glory by it. God loves to 
be praised by many joining together. As the apostle saith here, ' Thanks 
shall be given by many,' &c. Many ! not as they are many persons, but 
as they are many godly persons that are led by the Spirit of God. 

Use. Therefore, if the praise of many be so acceptable, it should first be an 
encouragement to union. In John x\ii. 21, saith om* Saviour Christ there, 
' I pray that they may be one, as we are one.' It was the sum of that 
heavenly prayer, the unity of the church to the end of the world, ' That 
they may be one, as we are one.' The Trinity should be the pattern of 
our unity. Because, I say, all good is in union, and all that comes from 
us that is accepted of God, it must be in peace and union. 

God so loves peace, and a quiet disposition inclinable to peace, that he 
neglects his own service till we have made peace one with another. Mat. 
V. 24, ' If thou have any ofi"ence with thy brother,' if thou have done him 
any wrong, or he thee, ' go and be reconciled to him, and then come and 
bring thy offering.' God will stay for his own offering ; he is content to 
stay for his own seiwice, till we be at peace one with another. Whether it 
be prayer or praise, if we be not at peace, it is not acceptable. Again, this 
should teach us to stir up others, when we praise God, and others have 
cause as well as we, ' that thanks may be given by many.' When we are in 
trouble, call upon others ; and as it is the common and commendable fashion, 
desire others to pray for us, that prayer may be made by many ; and when we 
receive any favour, any dehverance from any great danger, acquaint others 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 11. 195 

with it, that thanks may be given by many. It was the practice of David, 
in Ps. kvi. 16, ' Come ! I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my 
soul.' And in Ps. xxxiv. 4, and in Ps. cxlii. 7, ' Bring my soul out 
of trouble, that I may praise thy name,' and what shall others do ? ' Then 
the righteous shall compass me about, for thou hast dealt bountifully with 
me : ' shewing that it is the fashion of righteous men, when God hath 
dealt graciously with any of his childi-en, they compass him about, to be 
acquainted with the passages of divine providence, and God's goodness 
towards them, * The righteous shall compass me about, for thou hast dealt 
bountifully with me.' 

Holy David, in Ps. ciii. 20-22, he stirs up every creature to praise God, 
even the creatures of hail, of storms, and winds, and everything, even the 
blessed angels, as we see in the latter end of that psalm, as if thanksgiving 
were an employment fit for angels ; and indeed so it is. And, as if all his 
own praise were not enough, except all the creatures in heaven and earth 
should join with him in that blessed melody to praise God ; the angels, and 
all creatures praise God. Let us stir up one another to this exercise. 

How do the creatures praise God ? They do praise God by the tongue. 
Although they have a kind of secret praise which God hears well enough, 
for they do their duty in their place willingly and cheerfully ; but they 
praise God in our tongues. Every creature gives us occasion of praising 
God. 

' That thanks may be given by many,' &c. 

Many give thanks here for one, St Paul, for the minister. We see here 
God's end, that many should praise God, not only for themselves, but for 
others, especially for those by whom God conveys and derives good unto 
them, whether outward or spiritual good. The apostle exhorts us ' to pray 
for all men,' 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2 ; ' for kings,' yea, though they were persecuting 
kings at that time. And surely if we ought to pray to God for all mankind, 
we ought to praise God for all sorts of men, especially for governors and 
ministers, &c., because God by them bestows his gi-eatest blessings. Obey 
the magistrate. * Let every soul be subject to the higher powers ; for the 
powers that are, are ordained of God, and he is the minister of God for thy 
good,' Rom. xiii. 1. So the governors and ministers of God are for our 
good. We ought therefore, as to pray for them, that they may execute 
their office for our good, so to praise God for the good we have by them. 
You know David stirred up the people to mourn for Saul, though a tyrant. 
' He clothed you and your daughters,' saith he, ' with scarlet,' 2 Sam. i. 24. 
If they should praise God for a persecuting king, and mourn for him when 
he was gone, much more should we for those that are good. 

And so likewise for pastors, we ought to praise God for them, and all 
that have good by them will pray to God, and praise God for them. And 
undoubtedly it is a sign of a man that hath no good by them, that prays 
not for them, and that praiseth not God by them. We ought to praise 
God in that proportion, as well as to pray to God one for another. 

And this should stir us up to be good to many, that many may praise 
God, not only for themselves, but for us. If it be our duty to pray for 
those that we derive good by, and to praise God for them, then let us labour 
to be such as may communicate to others. Good is difi'usive, and good 
men are like the box in the gospel, that when it was opened, all the house 
smelled of it, John xii. 3. 

The heathen philosopher said that a just man, a good man, is a common 
good, Uke a public stream, like a public conduit, that every man hath a 



196 COMMENTABY ON 

share in. Therefore, as the wise man saith, ' When good men are exalted, 
the city rejoiceth,' Prov. xi. 10, many rejoice. Who would not, therefore, 
hihour in this respect to be good, to have a pubhc disposition, to have a 
large heart, to do all the good we can, that so we may not only have more 
prayers to God for us, but we may have more praise to God for us, 
that God may gain by it, * that thanks may be given by many on our 
behalf?' 

Let us take notice of our negligence in this kind, and be stirred up to 
this blessed duty. And, therefore, consider wherein it consists. 

1. It consists in our taking notice of the favours of God to ourselves and 
others, and in valuing the good things that we praise God for, to esteem 
them. The children of Israel, they did not bless God for the manna, they 
did not value it, ' This manna, this manna,' in scorn. Num. xi. 6. So in 
Ps. cvi. 7, ' They neglected God's pleasant things, they set light by them,' 
Hos. Adii. 12, ' He gave them the great things of his law, and they accounted 
them as slight, as strange things,' not worthy to be regarded. 

2. Praise consists in taking notice, and not only in taking notice, but in 
remembering and minding them, as in Ps. ciii. 2, ' My soul, praise the Lord, 
and forget not all his benefits.' 

3. And likewise in an estimation of them ; and likewise, 

4. In expressing this thankfulness in words, ' Awake, my glory,' Ps. 
Ivii. 8. Our tongues are our glory, especially as they are instruments to 
praise and glorify God. We camiot use our language better than to speak 
the language of Canaan in praising of God. 

5. Likewise, praise consists in doing good, which is real praise, though 
we say nothing. Moses cried to God, though he spake not a word. Evil 
works have a cry, although they say nothing. Abel's blood cried against 
Cain, Gen. iv. 10. And as evil works, so good works have a cry. Though 
a man praise not God with his tongue, his works praise God. Job saith, 
' The sides of the poor blessed him,' Job xxxi. 20. What ! could their 
sides speak ? No ; but there was a real thanksgiving to God. Their sides 
blessed God. So our good works may praise God as well as our tongues 
and hearts. The heavens and the earth, they praise God, though they say 
nothing, because they stir us up to say something. ' Let men see your 
good works,' Mat. v. 16, that they may take occasion from thence to bless 
God, saith Clu-ist. Or else your praising of God is but a mere compliment- 
ing with God ; to give him thanks with the tongue, and after to dishonour 
him with your lives, Ps. 1. 16, ' What hast thou to do to take my name 
into thy mouth, sith thou hatest to be reformed ? ' What hast thou to do 
to take my name into thy mouth, either in prayer or in praise, when thou 
hatest to be reformed ? ' High words are unseemly for a fool,' saith the 
the wise man, Eccles. v. 3, x. 14. And what higher words than praise ? 
Therefore, praise for a man that lives in a blasphemous course of life, in a 
filthy course of life, praise is too high a word for a fool. We must praise 
God in our lives, or else not at all. God will not accept of it. It consists 
in these things. 

Now some directions how to perform it for ourselves and others. 

1. If we would praise God for ourselves, or for any, then let us look about 
us, let i(s look above us and beneath lis, let us look backward, look to the present, 
look forward. Everything puts songs of praise into our mouth. Have we 
not matter enough of our own to praise God for ? Let us look about us, 
to the prosperity of others. Let us praise God for the ministry, praise God 
for the maaistracy, praise God for the government whereia we live. There 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 11. 197 

are many gi'ievances in the best government, but a Christian heart con- 
sidereth what good he hath by that government, what good he hath by that 
ordinance, and doth not only dehght to feed on the blemishes, as flies do 
upon sores. It is a sign of a naughty heart to do so. Although a man 
should not be insensible of the ills of the times (for else how should we pray 
against them ?), yet he is not so sensible as to forget the good he hath by 
them. If we would praise God, let us look to the good, and not so much 
upon the ill. 

Look up to heaven, look to the earth, to the sea. David occasions 
praise from every creature. Every creature ministers matter of praise, 
from the stars to the dust, from heaven to earth, from the cedar to the 
hyssop that grows by the wall. Is there not a beam of God's goodness in 
every creature ? Have we not use of every creature ? We must praise 
God not only for the mojesty and order that shines in them, but for the use 
of them in respect of us. 

And so let us look to the works of providence, as well as to the works of 
creation. Look to God's work in his church, his confounding of his ene- 
mies, his deliverance of his church, the churches abroad, our own church, 
our own persons, our hiends. Thus we should feed ourselves, that we may 
have matter of praising God. God gives us matter every day. He renews 
his favours upon the place wherein we live and upon us, as it is Lam. iii. 
22, ' It is his mercy that we are not all consumed.' Let us look back to 
the favours that we have enjoyed ; let us look for the present. What doth 
he do for us ? The apostle saith here, ' God doth deliver us.' Doth he 
not give deliverance, and favour, and grace, inward grace for the time to 
come ? Hath he not reserved an inheritance, immortal and undefiled, in 
the heavens for us ? Wherefore doth he bestow things present, and where- 
fore doth he reveal things laid up for us for the time to come, but that we 
should praise him, but that we should praise him for that which he means 
to do afterwards ? ' Blessed be God the Father, who hath begotten us to 
an inheritance, immortal and undefiled,' &c., saith St Peter, 1 Pet. i. 4. 
God reveals good things that are to come, that we are heirs- apparent to the 
crown of glory. This is revealed that we might praise him now, that we 
might begin the employment of heaven upon earth. Let us look upward 
and downward, let us look about us, look inward, look backward, look to 
the present, look forward. Everything ministereth matter of praise to 
God. 

Yea, our very crosses. Happy is he whom God vouchsafeth to be angry 
with, that he doth not give him over to a reprobate sense lo fill up his sins, 
but that he will correct him, to pull him from ill courses. Happy is he 
that God vouchsafeth to be angry with in evil courses. There is a bless- 
ing hid in ill, in the cross. ' hi all thiiif/s give thanks,' saith the apostle, 
Eph. V. 20. \Vhat ! in afflictions ? Aye, not for the affliction itself, but 
for the issue of it. There is an effect in afflictions to draw us from the 
world, to di-aw us to God, to make us more heavenly-minded, to make us 
see better into these earthly things, to make us in love with heavenly things. 
' In all things give thanks.' When we want matter in ourselves, let us look 
abroad, and give thanks to God for the prosperity of others. 

2. And withal, in the second place, when we look about us, let its dwell 
in the meditation of the usefulness of these things, of the f/oodiiess of God in 
them, till our hearts be warmed. It is not a slight ' God be thanked ' that 
will serve, but we must dwell upon it. Let om- hearts dwell so long on the 
favours and blessings of God till there be a blessed fire kindled in us. The 



198 COMMENTARY ON 

best bone-fire ■■• of all is to have our hearts kindled with love to God in the 
consideration of his mercy. Let us dwell so long upon it till a flame be 
kindled in us. A slight praise is neither acceptable to God nor man, 

3. And then let us consider our own unworthiness, let us dwell upon that. 
' I am less than the least of all thy favours,' saith good Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 
10. If we be less than the least, then we must be thankful for the least. 
Humility is alway thankful. A humble man thinks himself unworthy of 
anything, and therefore he is thankful for anj'thing. 

A proud man praiseth himself above the common rate. He overvalues 
and overprizeth himself, and therefore he thinks he never hath enough. 
When he hath a great deal, he thinks he hath less than he deserves, and 
therefore he is an unthankful person ; and that makes a proud man so in- 
tolerable to God. He is alway an unthankful person, a murmuring person. 
A humble man, because he undervalues himself, he thinks he hath more 
than he deserves, and he is thankful for everything. He knows he de- 
serves nothing of himself. It is the mere goodness of God whatsoever he 
hath. 

The best direction to thanksgiving is to have a humble and low heart. 
Therefore David, 1 Chron. xxix. 14, when he would exercise his heart to 
thankfulness, when the people had given liberally, saith he, ' Who am I, or 
what is this people, that we should be able to ofier wiUingly after this sort ? 
All comes of thee, and all is thine own that we give.' What am I, or what 
is this people, that we should have hearts to give liberally to the temple ? 
See how he abaseth himself. And Abraham, ' I am dust and ashes, shall 
I speak to my Lord ? ' Gen. xviii. 27. And Job, ' I abhor myself in dust 
and ashes,' xlii. 6, when he considered God's excellency and his own base- 
ness. A humble heart is alway thankful, and the way to thankfulness ia 
to consider our humility. ' What am I ? ' saith David. He had a heart 
to be thankful. ' Of thine own I give thee.' Not only the matter to be 
thankful for, but of thine own I give thee ; when I give thee thanks, thou 
givest me a thankful heart. 

As the sacrifice that Abraham oflfered was found by God, so God must 
find the sacrifice that we ofi'er, even a thankful heart. Of thine own, Lord, 
I give thee, even when I give thee thanks. 

Therefore you may make that a means to have a thankful heart, to pray 
for a thankful heart. And when we have it, bless God for it, that we may 
be more thankful. God must vouchsafe the portion of a thankful heart 
with other blessngs. He that gives matter to be thankful, must give a 
heart to be thankful. 

4. Again, to make us more thankful, do but consider the misery of our- 
selves if we wanted the hleasiniia we are thaiikfulfor, and the misery of others 
that have them not. Thou that hast health, if thou wouldst be thankful for 
it, look abroad, look into hospitals, look on thy sick friends that cannot 
come abroad. Thou that wouldst be thankful for the liberty of the gospel, 
look beyoni. the ^eas, look into the Palatiinte, and other countries, and 
certainly this will make thee thankful, if anything will. If we would be 
thankful for spiritual blessings, consider the misery of ihose that are under 
the bondage of Satan, ho'v there is but a little step between them and hell, 
that they are ready to sink into it. There is but the short thread of this 
life to be cut, and they are lor ever miserable. If we would be thankful for 
any blessing, let us consider the misery to be without it. If we would be 

* Tliat is, ' bon-fire,' =: boon-fire, or fire of joy, voluntarily kindled. Cf. Richard- 
eon, sub voce. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 11, 199 

thankful for our wits, let us consider distracted persons. What an ex- 
cellent engine to all things in this life, and the life to come, is this spark of 
reason ! If we want reason, what can we do in civil things ? What can 
we do in matters of grace ? Grace presupposeth nature. If we would be 
thankful for health, for strength, and for reason, if we would be thankful 
for common favours, consider the misery of those that want these things. 

Would we be thankful for the blessed ordinance, consider but the misery 
of those that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, how they are led 
by Satan and want the means of salvation. Those that would be thankful 
for the government we have, let them consider those that live in anarchy, 
where every man lives as he lists, where a man cannot enjoy his own. 
The consideration of these things it should quicken us to thankfulness, the 
consideration of our own misery if we should want them, and the misery of 
those that do want them. 

5. And let us keej^ a cataloffue of God's blessings. It will serve us, 
as in regard of God to bless him the more, so in regard of ourselves, to 
establish our faith the more ; for God is Jehovah, alway like himself. 
Whom he hath done good unto, he will do good to. He is constant in his 
love. * Whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xiii. 1. God shall have 
more thanks, and we shall have more comfort. 

Again, to add some encom-agements and motives to thankfulness, which 
may be a forcible means to make us thankful, do but consider. 

(1.) It is God's tribute, it is God's custom. Do but deny the king his 
custom, and what will come of it ? Deny him tribute, and you forfeit all. 
So you forfeit all for want of thankfulness. 

What is the reason that God hath taken away the gospel from countries 
abroad, and may do from us if we be not more thankful ? Because they 
were not thankful. It is all the tribute, all the impost he sets upon his 
blessings. ' I will give you this,' but you shall glorify me with thanks- 
giving. It is aU the honour he looks for. ' He that praiseth me honoureth 
me,' Ps. 1. 23. And ' now, Israel, what doth the Lord require of thee,' 
for all his favours, but ' to serve him with a cheerful and good heart ?' Deut. 
X. 12, to be thankful. 

"What is the reason that the earth denies her own to us, that sometimes 
we have unseasonable years ? We deny God his own. He stops the due 
of the creature, because we stop his due. 

When we are not thankful he is forced to make the heavens as iron, and 
the earth as brass. We force him to make the creature otherwise than it 
is, because we deny him thankfulness. 

The running of favours from heaven ceaseth when there is not a recourse 
back again of thankfuhiess to him. For unthankfulness is a drying wind. 
It dries up the fountain of God's favours. It binds God. It will not sutler 
him to be as good as his word. If ever God give us up to public judgments, 
it will be because we are not thankful to God for favoui's and deliverances, 
as that in '88, by sea,* and from the gunpowder treason by land.f Was it 
not a sick state after Queen Mary, when Queen Elizabeth received the 
crown ? The church and commonwealth were sick. Now if we be to 
praise God for our particular persons, when we have recovered our health, 
much more should we praise God, when the state, when the church is de- 
livered, as it was at the coming in of Queen Elizabeth, and afterward in '88 ; 
and of late time, and continually he doth deliver us. And if we look that 

* That is, from the Armada, 1588. See note, vol. I. p. 318.— G. 
t ' Treason.' See note e. vol. I. p. 316. — G-. 



200 COMMENTARY ON 

lie should deliver us, not only our persons, but the state wherein we live, 
let us pray to God that he would do so, and praise God for his former 
deliverance. 

(2.) Again, this is another motive, the praising of God for former deliver- 
ances, it invites him to bestow new blessinr/s. Upon what ground doth the 
husbandman bestow more seed ? Upon that which hath yielded most in 
time past. Will any man sow in the barren wilderness where it is lost ? 
No ; but where he looks to reap most, and hath done fonnerly. Where he 
sees a soil that is fruitful, he will sow it the more ; and w^here the heart is 
a barren wilderness, that it yields nothing back again, he takes that away 
that he gave before. 

You know there is a debt in giving. There must be a returning of 
thanksgiving alway ; and kindness requires kindness. There is an obliga- 
tion. And where benefits are taken, and men are thankful, that is the way 
to get more, to be thankful for that we have. For God minds his own 
glory above all things, and he will especially be bountiful to those 
from whom he sees he hath most glory. Therefore alway those that have 
been richest in grace, and in comfort, they were most in thankfulness, as 
we see in David, ' a man after God's own heart,' 1 Sam. xiii. 14, Acts xiii. 
22, and in divers others. Let this encourage us. 

First, if we be not thankful, it stops the current of benefits. 

Secondly, if we be thankful God will give us more mercies and deliver- 
ances. When we praise him in our hearts, in our lives, in our bounty to 
others, in real thankfulness, when we are ready to good works, then he is 
ready to bestow new still. 

(3.) Again, to stir us up to this duty of praising God for ourselves and 
others, consider it is the heijlnning of heaven upon earth. What a happiness 
is it, that when our persons cannot go to heaven till we die, till our bodies 
be raised, yet we can send our ambassadors, we can send our prayers and 
thanksgivings to heaven ; and God accepts them, as if we came in our own 
persons. ' Let your conversation be in heaven,' saith the apostle, Philip, 
iii. 20. How is that ? By praising God much. I pray, what is the em- 
plo}Tnent of heaven, of the angels, and blessed spirits ? They praise God 
continually for the work of creation, and for the work of redemption. That 
is their especial task in heaven. Our duty is to be much this way, in prais- 
ing God. Self-love forceth prayer ofttimes ; but to praise God comes from 
a more heavenly afi'ection. 

(4.) Again, do but consider, that no creature in the xvorld is unthankful, but 
devils only, and devilish men ; and good men, only so far as they are cor- 
rupt and hold correspondency with their corruptions. For every .creature 
praiseth God in his kind, set the devil aside, who is full of envy and pride 
and malice against God. Therefore, except we will be like the devil, let 
us be thankful. God hath made all creatures to praise him, and to serve 
us, that we may praise him ; and when they praise him, shall we blaspheme 
him ? May not the swearer think with himself, every creature blesseth God, 
even the senseless creatures, and shall I dishonoiu' God by my tongue which 
should be my glory, to glorify him ? Shall I blaspheme him, and be like 
to the devil ? Shall I be more base than the senseless creatures ? What 
glory hath God by many men that live in the church, that blaspheme God ; 
and their whole life is a witness against God, as the whole life of a Chris- 
tian, after he is in the st:.io of grace, is a witness for God, and a praising 
of him. His whole life is a thanksgiving. So the whole life of wicked and 
careless creatm-es, is a dishonour of God, it is a witness against God. There 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 11. 201 

are none but devils, devilish-minded men, but they praise God, even the 
very dumb creatures. Let us labour to have a part in that blessed music 
and harmony to praise God. If we do not praise God here, we shall never 
do it in heaven. 

But we must remember, by the way, that this thankfulness it must be 
a fruitful thanksgiving. As for us to pray to God to bless us, avA then to 
do nothing, it is a barren prayer ; so to thank God, and then to do nothing, 
it is a barren thanksgiving. Our deeds have words, our deeds have a voice 
to God. They speak, they pray. There is a kind of prayer, a kind of 
tlianks in our works. Works pray to God. They have a kind of cry to 
God, both ill works and good works. And if good works have a cry to God 
in prayer, they will have a voice in thanksgiving. This fruitful, this real 
thanks, is that which God stands upon. 

And therefore it is alway joined with a study how to improve the things 
that we thank God for to the best advantage. If we thank God for health, 
and recovery, and deliverance, we will labour to improve it to God's glory. 
If we be thankful to God for riches, for peace, we will improve that to grow 
in grace, to do good to others. There is never a thankful heart, but it 
studies to improve that which it is thankful for really, that God may have the 
glory, and it the comfort, and benefit by it ; or else it is but a lip-labour, 
but a lost labour. 

Let us shame ourselves, and condemn ourselves for our unthankfulness ; 
and that will be done by comparing our carriage to men with our carriage to 
God. If so be that a man do us a little courtesy, how are we confounded 
if we have not returned some thanks ? And yet, notwithstanding, from 
God we have all that we have, all that we are, all that we hope to have ; 
and yet how many benefits do we devour, and do not return God thanks ? 

This disproportion will shame the best Christian, that he is not so quick 
in his devotion to God to be thankful there, as he is sensible of small kind- 
nesses done by men. This is a good way to make us more thankful. 

And now when we come to the sacrament, let us bless God. The 
Eucharist is a thanksgiving. Where there are many, there should be 
thanksgiving. Where there is a communion there is many ; and thanks- 
giving should be especially of vaanj met together to thank God for Christ, 
and for the good we have by him. For if many joined together in praise 
for St Paul that was but a minister, that was but an instrument to set out 
the praise and the doctrine of Christ, much more should we be thankful to 
God for Christ himself, which is the gift of all gifts, and for which he gives 
us all other gifts. If he give us him, can he deny us anything ? If we be 
thankful for the health of our bodies, as indeed we should, if we be thank- 
ful for the peace of our humours, much more should we be thankful 
for the peace of our consciences, when our souls are set in tune, when 
God and we are friends, when the soul by the Spirit of God is set at peace, 
and is fit for the praise of God, and is fit to do good ; when it is a health- 
ful soul. 

As in the body, it is a sign it is sick when the actions are hindered ; so it 
is likewise with the soul. 

We should bless God for ability to do good, for any health in our souls, 
more than for health of body. Do but consider, if we are to thank God for 
the instruments of good, much more are we to thank him for the good things 
themselves. If we should thank God for the ministers (for now I stand upon 
that, many prayers and praises were given to God for St Paul) much more 
should we be thankful for that which we have by the ministry, that is, for 



Ii02 COMMENTARY ON 

all the blessings of God, for grace and glory, for life and salvation. It is tha 
ministry of life, * and the power of God to salvation,' Rom. i. 16. We 
should be thankful to God for peace, ' we are the messengers of peace,' 
Eph, vi. 15. We should be thankful to God for grace, and for his Holy 
Spirit ; the Spirit is given with it. We should be thankful especially for 
spiritual favours. A man cannot be thankful to God for health and hberty, 
unless first he know God to be his, that he can bless God for spiritual 
favours. ' Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath 
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Eph. i. 3. We should be 
thankful for Christ, and all the benefits we have by Christ, much more than 
for any other blessings whatsoever. 

Therefore, now seeing we are a communion, let praise be given by many.* 
We have greater matters than the health of a minister (or any particular 
person, either ourselves or others) to be thankful for. We have greater 
cause, being to bless God for the greatest gift that ever he gave, even for 
Christ. The disposition in a feast is to be joyful, and cheerful, to praise 
God. Now we are to feast with God, and with Jesus Chiist. Christ is not 
only the food, but he invites us, he is with us. What will we do for Christ 
if we will not feast with him ? What a degree of unthankfulness is it, when 
we will not so much as feast with him ? when we will not willingly receive 
him ? What will he do for Christ that will not feast with him ? How unfit 
will he be to praise God, and praise Chiist, that when Christ makes a feast 
of himself, and gives himself together with the bread and wine, representing 
the benefit of his body and blood, broken, and shed for us, and all his bene- 
fits ? If we will not feed upon himself, when he stoops so low as to give him- 
self for us, and to feed us with himself, what will we do ? How can we be 
thankful for other blessings, when we are not thankful for himself ? And 
how can we be thankful for himself, when we will not come and partake of 
him? 

Let us stir up our hearts and think now to take the communion ; as for 
matter of repentance and sorrow, it should be despatched before. It is the 
Eucharist, a matter of thanksgiving. We should raise our hearts above 
earthly things. We should consider that we are to deal with Christ, and 
these are but representations. 

When the bread is broken, think of the body of Christ ; and when the 
wine is poured out, think of the blood of Christ. And w'hen our bodies 
are cheered by these elements, think how our souls are refreshed by the 
blood of Christ by faith. If we should be thankful to God for bodily de- 
liverance, how much more should we thank him for our souls, being 
deUvered from hell by the blood of Christ, which is the grand deliverance ? 
Let us dispose our hearts to thankfulness. It is a fit disposition for a 
feast. 

And, as I said, take heed of sin. It chokes thankfulness. Therefore ex- 
amine thy purposes, how thou comest. If thou come with a purpose to 
live in sin, thou art an unfit receiver. The place we stand in is holy, the 
business is holy, we have to deal with a holy God ; and therefore if we pur- 
pose not to relinquish wicked courses, and to enter into covenant with God, 
to abstain from sin, we come not aright. * When thou comest into the 
house of God, take heed to thy feet,' saith the wise man, Eccles. v. 1. Take 
heed to thy affections ; consider with whom thou hast to deal. But if thou 
hast renewed thy repentance, and thy purposes with God for the time to 
come, come with cheerfulness, with a thankful disposition. Thankfulness 
* Margin-note here. 'It was a sacrament day.' — G. 



2 CORINTHUNS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 20c' 

is a disposition for a feast. If it be a disposition for bodily deliverance, it 
is much more for the deliverance of the soul ; and much more for Chi-ist, 
and the blessings we have by him, who is ' all in all.' * That thanks may 
be given by many on our behalf.' 



"VEESE 12. 

* For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,^ &c. St Paul in 
these words doth divers things at once. 

1. He shews a reason why many should pray for him, and give thanks 
on his behalf. You have cause, saith he, ' for our rejoicing is this, the testi- 
mony of our conscience,' &c. Therefore if many of you give thanks to 
God for me, it is your duty. My conscience bears me witness that I have 
carried myself well towards you. You have cause to pray for us, and 
to praise God for oui' deliverance, for you have received much good by 
us. God conveys much good by public persons to those that ai-e under 
them. Therefore there ought to be many prayers, and many thanks, for 
them. 

2. And again, they ought to pray and give thanks for him, because they 
should not lose their labour, they should not lose their prayers, their incense; 
because it should be for a man that was gracious with God, that had the 
testimony of his conscience that he walked in simplicity and godly sincerity, 
as he saith, ' Pray for us, for we are assured that we have a good conscience,' 
Heb. xiii. 18. So they are a reason of the former. 

3. Another thing that he aims at is, the preventing* of some imputations. 
He was accused in their thoughts at least, and by the words of some false 
teachers, that were his worst enemies, as you have no enemy, next to the 
devil, to a minister, like a minister. If a man would see the spirit of the 
devil, let him look to some of them. St Paul had many enemies, many 
false brethren, that laid false imputations upon him to disparage him in the 
thoughts of others, in the thoughts of his hearers. They accounted him 
an inconstant man, that he came not to them when he promised ; and that 
he suffered affliction, and it was like enough for some desert. They ac- 
counted him a despicable man. He suffered afflictions in the world. He 
wanted discretion to keep himself out of the cross. Nay, saith he, what- 
soever you impute to me, and lay upon me, ' our rejoicing is this, the tes- 
timony of our conscience,' &c. 

4. Again, he aims at this, to lay the blame upon those false brethren who 
deserved it. They think I am a deceiver, they think I am wily. No ! 
I do not walk so, I do not walk in fleshly wisdom as they do that seek 
themselves, and not you. So I say, St Paul aims at divers things in bring- 
ing in these words. 

We see here, first of all, that 

Doct. The more eminent a man is for place and gifts, the more he should he 
prayed for, and the more thanks should be given for him. 

You have cause, saith St Paul, to do it for me ; for our rejoicing is this, 
that ' we have walked in simplicity and sincerity, &c., and more abundantly 
to you- ward.' St Paul was a brother as he was a Christian. He was a 
father, in regard he had called them to the faith ; and he was an apostle. 
In all regards they ought to praise God for him ; because he was a father, 
because he was the father of them, ' you have not many fathers,' saith he, 
* That is, ' anticipating.' — G. 



204 COJIilENTAEY ON 

and because he was an apostle, a man eminent, by whose means God con- 
veyed a world oi good to the church. 

To make way to the main thing, observe this in general, that 

Obs. CJiristiaus are often driven to their apology. 

Especially ministers, the fathers of Christians. Holy men in the church 
are driven to their apology and defence ; because those that shine in their 
own consciences, wicked men labour to darken them in their reputation, 
that their own wickedness may be the less seen and observed. It hath 
alway been the policy of Satan, and of wicked men, that so all might seem 
alike, to lay aspersions upon those that were better men than themselves. 
St Paul is forced to make his apology, to retire to the testimony of his 
conscience. ' Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,' &c. 

Use. Therefore make this use of it, not to think it strange if we be driven 
to our apology. 

Quest. But some may say. Is not the life the best apology ? as St Peter 
saith, ' that you may stop the mouths of gainsay ers.' 

Ans. Yes, of all apologies life is the best, to oppose to all imputations ; 
but notwithstanding it is not enough. 

A man is cruel if he make not his apology and defence sometimes. 
Because his imputations * tend to the hurt of others, being public persons, 
especially ministers, who have so much authority in the hearts of people, 
as they can gain by their good life and desert. And if any imputation Ue 
upon them, they are to clear it in words. Their life will not serve the turn, 
but they must otherwise make their apology, if it be needful, for themselves, 
as St Paul doth here. It is not only lawful, but expedient sometimes, to 
speak by way of commendation of oui'selves. 

In what cases ? 

1. Not only in case of thankfulness to God, to praise God for his graces 
in us. 

2. And likewise in case of example to others, a man may speak of God's 
work in him, he may tell what God hath done for his soul, and in his soul, 
that God may have glory, and others may have benefit. 

3. But likewise in the third place, and it was St Paul's case here, a man 
jaay speak of himself, by way of apology and defence, that the truth suflfer 
not. It is a kind of betraying the cause, lor a man to be silent when he is 
so accused. Though, as I said, a good life be the best apology, and except 
there be a good life the verbal apology is to little purpose, yet the apology 
of life ofttimes in public persons is too little. In these cases we must speak 
of ourselves, and of the good things of God in us. 

Qmst. But another query f may be here. May a man glory in that which 
is in him, of the grace of God that is in him ? Our glorying should 
be in Christ, in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, and in God re- 
conciled through Christ. Can a Christian glory in anything that is in him, 
which is imperfect ? 

Ans. I answer briefly, St Paul doth not here glory in the court of justifi- 
cation, but in the court of a Christian conversation. Therein a man may 
glory in the work of grace in him, in those inward works, and the works 
that flow from them. When a man is to deal with men, he may set forth 
his life, nay, when a man is to deal with God, he may set forth his sincerity, 
not, I say, in the court of justification, but in the court of sanctification, 
and a holy Hfe. There good works are the ornament of the spouse. They 
are her jewels. But come to the court of justification, all are dung, as the 
* That is, imputations against him. — G. t Spelled ' (juere.' — G. 



2 ORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 205 

apostle saith, ' all are dung and dross,' Philip, iii. 8 ; not worthy to bo 
named. They are not able, they are not strong enough. All that comes 
from us, and all that is in us, it is not able to bear us out in glorying in the 
court of justification. 'All are stained as menstruous cloths,' Isa. xxx. 22. 

But mark, St Paul speaks of glorying before men, of a sanctified hfe. 
He glories not in his conversation and sincerity as a title, but he glories in 
it as an evidence that his title is good. That whereby he hath his title, is 
only by the righteousness of Christ. That he hath heaven, and is free 
from hell, that is the title. But what evidence have you that Christ and 
his righteousness is yours ? There must be somewhat wrought in you, 
and that is sincere walking. So he allegeth it as an evidence of his state 
in grace, that that was good. So we see in what case he gloried in his 
sincerity. 

To come to the words. 

For the words themselves, they contain the blessed temper of St Paul's 
spirit in the midst of disgraces, in the midst of imputations. The temper 
of his spirit it was joyful, glorying. 

' Our rejoicing is this.' The ground of it is, ' the testimony of our con- 
science.' 

The matter whereof conscience doth witness and testify, it is conversa- 
tion. That is the thing testified of. 

And the manner positively, ' in simplicity and godly sincerity.' * In 
simplicity.' You would think this to be a simple commendation, to com- 
mend himself for simplicity ; but it is a godly simplicity, whereby we are 
like to God, to be simple without mixture of sin and hypocrisy, without 
mixture of error and falsehood. That simplicity that is despised by carnal 
wretches that stain and defile their consciences, and call them what you 
will, so you account them not simple. They despise the term of an honest, 
simple man. 

Simplicity is not here taken for a defect of knowledge, as the word is 
commonly used, but for an excellency whereby we resemble God ; that is, 
free from all mixture of sin and ignorance. ' In simpUcity and godly sin- 
cerity.' And then negatively, ' not in fleshly wisdom.' 

And then, because this setting out of himself might seem to be ostenta- 
tion, to set down his glorying in his conscience, and in his simplicity, 
here is a qualification of it likewise. Indeed I glory in my simplicity, and 
sincerity, that is, in my conversation ; but it is by the grace of God. By 
the grace of God my conversation hath been in godly sincerity, and not in 
fleshly wisdom. For St Paul was wondrous jealous of his heart, for fear 
of pride ; not I, saith he, ' I laboured more than they all ; 0, not I, but the 
grace of God that was in me,' 1 Cor, xv. 10. He was afraid of the least 
insinuation of spiritual pride, and so he saith here ' Our rejoicing is the 
testimony of our conscience, that in simpHcity and sincerity, by the grace 
of God.' 

And then the extent of this conversation, thus in simplicity and sincerity, 
in regard of the object. It hath been thus, ' In the world, towards all men 
that I have conversed with. They can say as much, wheresoever I have 
lived ; ' And more abundantly to you- ward.' My care and conscience hath 
been to carry myself as I should, ' more abundantly to you-ward,' with 
whom I have lived longest. This is an excellent evidence of a good man, 
that he is best liked where he is best known. Now St Paul had lived long 
amongst them, and he was their father in Christ ; and therefore, saith he, 
my conversation is known, especially to you-ward. 



206 COMMENTARY ON 

Many men are best trusted where they are least known. Their public 
conversation is good and plausible, but their secret courses are vile and 
naught, as those know that are acquainted with their retired courses. But 
you, saith the apostle, with whom I have lived longest, with whom I have 
been most, you can bear witness of my conversation, that I have lived so 
and so in the world, and more abundantly to you- ward. 

' This is oui- rejoicing,' &c. We see here the temper and disposition that 
St Paul was in. He was in a glorying, in a rejoicing estate. We see then 
that 

A Christian, take him at the worst, his estate is a rejoicing estate. 

' Our rejoicing is this.' The word in the original is more than joy, for 
it is ■/.av'^risi;, a glorying. ' Our glorying ' is this, which is a joy mani- 
festing itself in the outward man, when the heart and the spirit seem as it 
were to go outward, and, as it were, to meet the thing joyed in. A 
Christian hath his joy, his glorying, and a glorying that is proper to him- 
self. It is a spiritual joy, as it follows after, ' Our rejoicing is the testimony 
of our conscience.' 

So good is God, that in the worst estate he gives his children matter of 
rejoicing in this world. He gives them a taste of heaven before they come 
there. He gives them a grape of Canaan, as Israel. They tasted of 
Canaan, what a good land it was, before they came thither. So God's 
childi'en, they have their rejoicing. St Paul swears and protests it, 1 Cor. 
XV. 31, ' By our rejoicing in Christ Jesus I die daily.' As verily as we joy 
in all our afflictions, so this is true that I say, that I die daily. 

Use. Therefore we should labour to be of such a temper, as that we may 
glory, and rejoice. A Christian hath his rejoicing, but it is a spiritual 
rejoicing, like his estate. Every creature hath his joy, as St Chrysostom 
speaks. We do all for joy. All that we do is that we may joy at length. 
It is the centre of the soul. As rest is to motion, so the desire of all is to 
joy, to rest in joy. So that heaven itself is termed by the name of joy, 
happiness itself, 'Enter into thy master's joy,' Matt. xxv. 21. Every 
creature hath his joy proper to him. Every man hath his joy. A carnal 
man hath a carnal joy, a spiritual man hath a holy joy. 

1. First, he joys in his election, which was before all worlds, that his 
name is written in heaven, as it is, Luke x. 20, ' Rejoice in this, that your 
names are written in heaven, and not that the devils are subject unto you.' 

2. And then, he joys in his justification, that he is freed from his sins, 
Rom. V. 1, 'Being justified by faith we have peace with God through 
Christ, and we rejoice in afflictions.' Being justified first. There is the 
way how this joy comes in. A Christian being justified by faith, and freed 
from the guilt of his sin, it worketh joy. 

3. And then, there is a joy of sanctification, of a good conscience, of a 
holy life led, as we see here, ' Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our 
conscience, '&c. 

4. And then, there is a joy of glory to come. * We rejoice under the hope of 
glory,' saith the apostle, Rom. v. 2. So a Christian's joy is suitable to himself. 

There is no other man that can glory, and be wise, because all men but 
a Christian, ' they glory in their shame,' Philip, iii. 19, or they glory in 
vanishing things. A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, of his glorying, 
because he glories not in his shame. Therefore the apostle here justifies 
his joy. Our rejoicing is this, I care not if all the world know my joy, it 
is the ' testimony of my conscience.' As if he should say. Let others 
rejoice in base pleasures which they will not stand to avow ; let others 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 207 

rejoice in riclies, in honours, in the favour of men ; let them rejoice in what 
they please, my joy is another kind of joy. ' I rejoice in the testimony of 
my conscience.' A Christian, as he hath a joy, so he hath a joy that he 
wiU stand to, and make it good. There is no other man but he will blush, 
and have shame in his forehead, that joys in anything that is baser than 
himself, that joys in outward things. He cannot stand to it, and say, This 
is my joy. But a Christian hath the warrant of his conscience for that 
which he joys in, and therefore he is not ashamed of it. Another man 
dares not reveal his joy. 

All the subtilty of the world, is to have the pleasures that sin will afford ; 
and yet withal they study to cover it, that it may not appear. Where is 
the joy of the ambitious ? 

His study, his thought, and his joy is to have respect, Haman-like ; and 
yet he studies to conceal this. He dares not have it known. He dares 
not avow it. ' This is my rejoicing ; ' for then all the world would laugh 
at him for a vain person. 

Again, the joy of the base-minded man, is in his pleasure, but he dares 
not avow this. He dares not say, my rejoicing is this ; for then eveiy man 
would scorn him as a beast. The rich man, he joys in his riches, but he 
dares not be known of this, for he would then be accounted a base earthly- 
minded man. Every man would scorn him. He studies to have all the 
pleasure, and all the comfort that these things will afford, and yet to cover 
them. Because he thinks, that there is a higher matter that he should joy 
in, if he were not an atheist. 

A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, and rejoicing. * I rejoice in this,* 
saith he. For, 

1. It is ivell bred. It is bred from the Spirit of God witnessing that his 
name is written in the book of life, witnessing that his sins are forgiven, 
witnessing that he lives as a Christian should do, witnessing that he hath 
the evidences of his justification, that he hath a holy hfe, the pledge 
likewise of future glory. His joy is well bred. 

2. Likewise it is pei-manent. Other men's joy and rejoicing is but as 
a flash of thorns, as the wise man calls it, as it were, a flame in thorns ; 
as the crackling of thorns, which is sooner gone. And it is an unseemly 
glorying and rejoicing, for a man to glory in that which is worse than him- 
self, and in that which is out of himself. As all other things are out of a 
man's self, and worse, and meaner than a man's self; therefore a man 
cannot rejoice in them, and be wise. It is a disparagement to the wisdom 
of a man, to glory in things that are meaner than himself, and that are out 
of himself. A holy Christian hath that in himself, and that which is more 
excellent than himself, to glory in. ' This is our rejoicing, the testimony 
of our conscience.' 

All other rejoicing it is vain glory, and vain rejoicing. Therefore in 
Jer. ix. 23, saith he, ' Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let 
not the strong man glory in his strength, let not the rich man glory in his 
riches ; ' but if a man will glory, ' let him glory that he knows the Lord to 
be his,' and that he knows himself to be the Lord's. When he knows the 
Lord to be his, and himself to be God's by faith, and a good conscience, 
then there is matter of gloiying. 

Of all kind of men, God doth hate proud boasters most of all ; for glory 
is the froth of pride, and God hates pride. He opposeth pride, and sets 
himself in battle array against it, and who can thriye that hath God for his 
enemy ? Boasting and pride in any earthly thing it is against all the com- 



208 COMMENTARY OX 

mandments almost. It is idolatry, it makes that we boast, and glory in, an 
idol ; whereas we should glory in God that gives it. 

And it is spiritual adultery, when we cleave in our affections to some 
outward thing more than to God. It is false witness. Pride is a false 
glass. It makes the things and the men themselves that enjoy them to 
seem greater than they are. The devil amplifies earthly things to a carnal 
man in a false glass, that they seem big to him ; whereas if he could see 
them in their true colours, they are false things, they are snares and hin- 
drances in the way to heaven, and such names they have. The Scripture 
gives an ill report of them, ' They are vanity and vexation of spirit,' 
Eccles. i. 14 ; because we should be discouraged fi'om setting our affections 
on these things, and from glorying in them. 

Therefore let us take heed of false glorying. If we will glory, we see 
here what we are to glory in. ' This is om* rejoicing, the testimony of our 
conscience,' &c. And this we may justify and stand by that. It is good. 
It is the ' testimony of conscience.' 

' This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience.' 

The testimony of conscience, it is a matter and ground of joy to a true 
Christian. Here we are to consider these things. 

First, to consider a little the nature of conscience. 

And then, that conscience bears witness ; that there is a testimony of con- 
science. 

And that this conscience bearing witness is a ground of comfort. 

For the first. 

Every man feels and knows what conscience means. There be many rigid 
disputes of it among the schoolmen that had leisure enough ; and of all men 
knew as little, and felt what it waa, as any sort of men, living under the 
darkness of popery and superstition, and being in thraldom to the pope, 
and to the corruptions of the times they lived in. They have much 
jangling about the description of it, whether it be the soul itself, or a faculty, 
or an act. 

In a word, conscience is all these in some sort, in divers respects. 
Therefore I will not wrangle with any particular opinion. 

1. For rchat is conscience, but the soul itseJf reflecting upon itself ? It is 
the property of the reasonable soul and the excellency of it, that it can re- 
turn upon itself. The beast cannot ; for it runs right forward. It knows 
it is carried to the object ; but it cannot return and recoil upon itself. But 
the soul of the reasonable creature, of all even from men to God himself, 
who understands in the highest degree, though he do not discourse as man 
doth, yet he knows himself, he knows and understands his own excellency. 
And wheresoever there is understanding, there is a reflect act whereby the 
soul returns upon itself, and knows what it doth. It knows what it wills, 
it knows what it affects, it knows what it speaks, it knows all in it, and 
all out of it. It is the property of the soul. Therefore the original 
word in the Old Testament that signifies the heart, it is taken for the 
conscience {gg). Conscience and heart are all one. I am persuaded in 
my soul, that is, in my conscience ; and the Spirit witnesseth to our spirit, 
that is, to our conscience. Conscience is called the spirit, the heart, the 
soul ; because it is nothing but the soul reflecting and returning upon itself. 

Therefore it is called conscience, that is, one knowing joined with an- 
other ; because conscience knows itself, and it knows what it knows. It 
knows what the heart is. It not only knows itself, but it is a knowledge 
of the heart with God. It is called conscience, because it knows with God ; 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 12. 209 

for what conscience knows, God knows, that is above conscience. It is a 
knowledge with God, and a knowledge of a man's self. 

And so it may be the soul itself endued with that excellent faculty of re- 
flecting and returning upon itself. Therefore it judgeth of its own acts, 
because it can return upon itself. 

2. Conscience likewise in some sort may be called a faculty. The com- 
mon stream runs that way, that it is a power. It is not one power, 
but conscience is in all the powers of the soul ; for it is in the understand- 
ing, and there it rules. Conscience is it by which it is ruled and guided. 
Conscience is nothing but an application of it to some particular, to some- 
thing it knows, to some rules it knows before. Conscience is in the will, 
in the affections, the joy of conscience, and the peace of conscience, and so 
it runs through the whole soul. It is not one faculty, or two, but it is 
placed in all the faculties. 

3. And some will needs have it an act, a particular act, and not a power. 
Wlien it doth exercise, conscience, it is an act. Wlien it accuseth, or ex- 
cuseth, or when it witnesseth, it is an act. At that time it is a faculty in 
act. So that we need not to wrangle whether it be this or that. Let us 
comprehend as much in om* notions as we can ; that it is the soul, the heart, 
the spirit of a man returning upon itself, and it hath something to do in all 
the powers ; and it is an act itself when it is stirred up to accuse or to 
excuse ; to punish a man with fears and terrors, or to comfort him with joy, 
and the like. 

Now conscience is a most excellent thing, it is above reason and sense ; 
for conscience is under God, and hath an eye to God alway. An atheist 
can have no conscience therefore, because he takes away the ground of con- 
science, which is an eye to God. Conscience looks to God. Itisplacedas God's 
deputy and vicegerent in man. Now it is above reason in this respect. Rea- 
son saith, you ought to do this, it is a comely thing, it is a thing acceptable 
with men amongst whom you live and converse, it becomes your condition as 
you are a man to carry yourself thus, it agrees with the rules and principles 
of nature in you. Thus saith reason, and they are good motives from reason. 
But conscience goeth higher. There is a God to whom I must answer, there is 
a judgment, therefore I do this, and therefore I do not this. It is a more 
divine, a more excellent power in man than anything else, than sense or 
reason, or whatsoever. As it is planted by God for special use, so it looks 
to God in all. 

Therefore the name for conscience in the Greek and Latin signifies a 
knowledge with another {lili) ; because it is a knowledge with God. God 
and my own heart knows this. God and my conscience, as we use to say. 

There are three things joined with conscience. 

1. It is a knowledge tcith a rule, trith a general rule. That is alway the 
foundation of conscience in a man (iij. For there is a general rule. — Who- 
soever commits murder, whosoever commits adultery, whosoever is a blas- 
phemer, a swearer, a covetous, corrupt person, ' he shall not enter into the 
kingdom of heaven,' as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. vi. 9, seq. Here is the 
general rule. Now conscience applies it, but I am such a one, therefore I 
shall not enter into heaven. So here the conscience it practiseth with a rule. 
It is a knowledge of those particulars with a general rule. And then, 

2. It is a knowledge of me, of my own heart. I know what I have done, 
I know what I do, and in what manner, whether in hypocrisy or sincerity ; I 
know what I think. And then, 

3. It is a knowledge with God ; for God knows what conscience knows. 

VOL. III. o 



210 COMMENTARY ON 

He knows what is thouglit or done. Conscience is above me, and God is 
above conscience. Conscience is above me and above all men in the 
world ; for it is immediately 'subjugated to God. Conscience knows more 
than the world, and God knows a thousand times more than conscience or 
the world. It is a knowledge with a general rule ; for where there is no 
general rule there is no conscience. To make this a little clearer. All 
have a rule. Those that have not the word, which is the best rule of all, 
yet they have the word wi-itten in their hearts ; they have a natural judi- 
catm-e in their souls, their conscience excusing, or accusing one another. 
They have a general rule. You must do no wrong, you must do that which 
is right. 

In the soul there is a treasure of rules by nature. The word doth 
add more rules, the law and the gospel. And that part of the soul that 
preserv^es rules is called intellectual, because it preserves rules. All men 
by nature have these graven in the soul. And therefore the heathen were 
exact in the rules of justice, in the principles which they had by nature, 
grafted and planted in them. 

Now because the copy of the image of God, the law of God written in 
nature, was much blurred since the fall, God gave a new copy of his law, 
which was more exact. Therefore the Jews, which had the word of God, 
should have had more conscience than the heathen, because they had a 
better general rule. And now we having the gospel too, which is a more 
evangelical rule, we should be more exact in our lives than they. 

But every man in the world hath a rule. If men ' sin without the law, 
they shall be judged without the law,' Rom. ii. 12, by the principles of 
nature. If they sin under the gospel, they shall be judged by the word 
and gospel. So that conscience, it is a knowledge with a rule, and with 
the particular actions that I have done, and a knowledge with God. 

In a word, to clear this further concerning the nature of conscience, know 
that God hath set up in man a court, and there is in man all that are in a 
court. 

1. There is a register to take notice of what we have done. Besides the 
general rule (for that is the ground and foundation of all), there is con- 
science, which is a register to set down whatsoever we have done exactly. 
The conscience keeps diaries. It sets down everything. It is not for- 
gotten, though we think it is, when conscience is once awaked. As in Jer. 
xvii. 1, ' The sins of Judah are written with a pen of iron, and with the point 
of a diamond ' upon their souls. All their wit and craft will not rase it 
out. It may be forgotten a while, by the rage of lusts, or one thing or 
other ; but there is a register that writes it down. Conscience is the 
register. 

2. And then there are witnesses. ' The testimony of conscience.' Con- 
science doth witness, this I have done, this I have not done. 

3. There is an accuser with tlie ivltness. The conscience, it accuseth, or 
excuseth. 

4. And then there is the judge. Conscience is the judge. There it doth 
judge, this is well done, this is ill done. 

6. Then there is an executioner, and conscience is that too. Upon 
accusation and judgment, there is punishment. The first punishment is 
within a man alway before he come to hell. The punishment of conscience, 
it is a prejudice* of future judgment. There is a flash of heU presently 
after an ill act. The heathen could observe, that God hath framed the 
* That is, ' pre-judgment.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 211 

heart and tlie brain so as there is a sympathy between them, that whatso- 
ever is in the understanding that is well and comfortable, the understanding 
in the brain sends it to the heart, and raiseth some comfort. If the under- 
standing apprehend dolorous things, ill matters, then the heart smites, as 
David's ' heart smote him,' 1 Sam. xxiv. 5. The heart smites with gi'ief 
for the present, and with fear for the time to come. 

In good things, it brings joy presently, and hope for the time to come, 
that follows a good excusing conscience. 

God hath set and planted in man this court of conscience, and it is God's 
hall, as it were, wherein he keeps his first judgment, wherein he keeps his 
assizes. And conscience doth all the parts. It registereth, it witnesseth, it 
accuseth, it judgeth, it executes, it doth all. 

Now you see in general, what the nature of conscience is, and why it is 
planted in us by God. 

One main end among the rest, besides his love to us to keep us from 
sin, and then by smiting us to drive us to conversion and repentance, to 
turn from our sins to God, another main end, is to be a prejudice,* to 
make way to God's eternal judgment ; for therein things are judged before. 
When God lays open the book of conscience, when it is wi-itten there by 
this register, we shall have much to do to excuse ourselves, or to plead that 
we need many witnesses ; for our conscience will accuse us. We shall be 
self-accusers, self-condemners, as the apostle saith. Conscience will take 
God's part, and God will take part with conscience. And God hath planted 
it for this main end, that he might be justified in the damnation of wicked 
men at the day of judgment. 

Now I come to the second particular, that conscience gives evidence or 
witness. ' This is the evidence or testimony of our conscience.' The 
witness of conscience it comes in this order. Upon some general rules, 
that the conscience hath laid up in the soul, out of nature, and out of the 
book of God, the conscience doth apply those generals to the particulars. 

First, in directinri. This is such a truth in general, you ought to carry 
yourself thus and thus, to do this, saith conscience.! So it directeth, and 
is a monitor before it be a witness. Well, if the monitions of conscience 
be regarded and heard, from thence comes conscience to witness, that the 
general rule that dhects in particulars hath been obeyed ; and so after it 
hath done its duty in directing, it comes to judge and to witness, this I 
have done, or this I have not done. So the witness of conscience comes in 
that manner. 

Now if you would know what manner of witness conscience is. It is, 
1. A witness that there is no exception ar/ainst. It is a witness that will 
say all the truth, and will say nothing but the truth. It is a witness that 
will not be bribed, it will not be corrupted long. For a time we may 
silence it, but it will not be so long, nor in all things. Some sins may be 
slubbered over, but there are some sins that by the general light in nature 
are so known to be naught;}: that conscience will accuse. Therefore it is a 
faithful judge and witness ; especially in great sins, it is an uncorrupt 
witness. It is a true register. It is alway writing and setting down, 
though we know not what it writes for the present, being carried away with 
vanities and lusts. Yet we shall know afterward, when the book of con- 
science shall be laid open. 

It is a witness that we cannot impeach. No man can say, I had nobody 

* That is, 'prejudgment.' — G. f Margin-note here, 'Joseph's brethren.'— G. 
X That is, ' naughty, wicked.' — G. 



212 COMMENTARY ON 

to tell me. Alas ! a man's own conscience will tell him well enough at 
the day of judgment, and say to him when he is in hell, as Reuben said to 
his brethren, when they were in Egj'pt in prison, ' Did not I tell you, hurt 
not the boy ?' Gen. xxxvii. 22, seq, meddle not with him. So conscience 
will say, Did not I witness ? did not I give you warning ? Yes, I did, 
but you regarded it not. It is a faithful witness. There is no exception 
against it. 

2. And then it is a)i imvard witness, it is a domestic witness ; a chaplain 
in ordinary, a domestical divine. It is alway telling us, and alway ready 
to put good things into us. It is an eye-witness, and an ear-witness ; for 
it is as deep in man as any sin can be. If it be but in thought, conscience 
tells me what I think ; and conscience tells me what I desire, as well as 
what I speak, and what I do. It is an inward and an eye-witness of 
everj'thing. As God sees all, and knows all, who is all eye ; so conscience 
is all eye. It sees everything, it hears everything. It is privy to our 
thoughts. 

As we cannot escape God's eye, so we cannot escape the eye of con- 
science. * Whither shall I flee from thy presence ? ' saith David. ' If I 
go to heaven, thou art there ; if I go down into hell, thou art there,' Ps. 
cxxxix. 7. So a man may say of conscience, "VVhither shall I flee from 
conscience ? If a man could flee from himself, it were somewhat. Con- 
science is such a thing as that a man cannot flee from it, nor he cannot 
bid it begone. It is as inward as his soul. Nay, the soul will leave the 
body, but conscience will not leave the soul. What it writes, it writes for 
eternity, except it be wiped out by repentance. As St Chrysostom saith, 
whatsoever is written there may be wiped out by daily repentance. 

You see, then, it is a witness, and how and what manner of witness con- 
science is. 

Use. Therefore, we should not sin in hope of concealment. What if thou con- 
ceal it from all others, canst thou conceal [it from] thy own conscience ? As 
one saith well. What good is it for thee that none knows what is done, when 
thou knowest it thyself ? What profit is it for him that hath a conscience 
that will accuse him, that he hath no man to accuse him but himself ? He 
is a thousand witnesses to himself. Conscience is not a private witness. 
It is a thousand witnesses. Therefore, never sin in hope to have it con- 
cealed. It were better that all men should know it than that thyself should 
know it. All will be one day written in thy forehead. Conscience will be 
a blab. If it cannot speak the truth now, though it be bribed in this life, 
it will have power and efficacy in the life to come. Never sin, therefore, in 
hope of concealment. Conscience is a witness. We have the witness in 
us ; and^ as Isaiah saith, ' Our sins witness against us.* It is in vain to 
look for secrecy. Conscience will discover all. 

Use. Again, considering that conscience doth witness, and will witness, 
let us labour that it may witness well, let us labour to ftiniish it with a good 
testimony. Let us carry ourselves so in all our demeanour to God and men 
that conscience may give a good testimony, a good witness. It will witness 
either for us or against us. 

1. Therefore, first of all, labour to have good rules to guide it, and then 
labour to obey those rules. Knowledge and obedience are necessary, that 
conscience may give a good witness. Now, a good vntness of conscience 
is twofold : a true and honest witness, and then a peaceable witness fol- 
lows on it ; that it may witness truth, and then that it may witness peace 
for us. 



2 OOBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 218 

That conscience may witness truly and excuse us, conscience must be 
rightly instructed ; for naturally conscience can tell us many things. The 
heathen men, philosophers, we may read it to our shame, they made con- 
science of things which Christians, that are instructed by a further rule 
than conscience, that have the book of God to rectify the inward book of 
conscience, yet they make no conscience of. How many cases did they 
make scruple of, to discover faults to the buyer in their selling, and to deal 
truly and honestly, for the second table especially ! It should make Chris- 
tians ashamed. 

But besides that rule, we have the rule of the Scriptm-es, because men 
are ready to trample upon and to rase out the writing of conscience, but the 
book of God they cannot ; therefore, that is added to help conscience. 
And God adds his Spirit to his word to convince conscience, and to make 
the witness of the word more effectual ; for although the word say thus and 
thus, yet till the Spirit convince the soul, and set it dowTi that it is thus, 
till it convince it with a heavenly light, conscience will not be fully convict. 
That conscience, therefore, may be able to witness well, let us regard the 
notions of nature, preserve them. If we do not, God will give us up to 
gross sins. Let us labour to have right principles and grounds, to cherish 
principles of nature common with the heathens, and to lay up principles 
out of the word of God, to preserve the admonitions, and directions, and 
rules of the word. 

And especially the sweet motions of God's blessed Spirit. For conscience 
alway supposeth a rule, the rule of nature, the rule of the word, and the 
suggestions of the blessed Spirit with the word. 

Therefore, to note by the way, an ignorant man can never have a good 
conscience, especially a man that affects ignorance, because he hath no rule. 
He labours to have none. It is not merely ignorance, but likewise obstinacy 
with ignorance. 

He will not know what he should, lest conscience will force him to do 
what he knows. What a sottish thing is this ! It will be the heaviest sin 
that can be laid to our charge at the day of judgment, not that we were ig- 
norant, but that we refused to know, we refused to have our conscience 
rectified and instructed. 

And those that avoid knowledge because they will not do what they know, 
they shall know one day that their wilful ignorance will be laid to their 
charge as a heavy sin. 

Labour to have right principles and grounds. What is the reason that 
commonly men have such bad consciences ? They have false principles. 
They conclude, May I not do what I list ? may I not make of my own 
what I will ? and every man for himself, and God for us all. Diabolical 
principles ! And so, commonly if a man examine men that live in wicked- 
ness, they have false principles, God sees not, God regards not, and it is 
time enough to repent. The cause that men live wickedly is false prin- 
ciples. Therefore they have so vile consciences as they have. Their hearts 
deceive them, and they deceive their hearts. They have false principles 
put into them by others. They are deceived, and they deceive their hearts. 
They force false principles upon themselves. Many study for false grounds 
to live by for their advantage. 

There are many that are atheistical, that live even under the gospel, and 
what rule have they ? The example of them by whom they hope to rise. 
They study their manners. They square their lives by them. This is all 
^•he rule they have. 



214 COMMENTARY ON 

And again, the multitude. They do as the most do, and custom, and 
other false rules. These rules will not comfort us. To say, I did it hy 
such an example, I did as others among whom I live did, or I did it be- 
cause it was the custom of the times ; these things being alleged will com- 
fort nothing. For who gave you these rules ? Doth God say anywhere in 
his word, You shall be judged by the example of others, you shall be judged 
by the custom of the times you live in ? 

No ; you shall be judged by my word. The word that Moses spake, 

* and the word that I speak, shall judge you ' at the last day, John xii. 48. 
They that have not the word shall be judged by the word wi'itten in their 
hearts. * Those that have sinned without the law ' shall be judged by that, 

* without the law of Moses,' Rom, ii. 12. 

God hath acquainted us with other rules. We must take heed of this, 
therefore, that we get good rules. Take heed that they be not false rules. 
For the want of these directions men come to have ill consciences. Where 
there is no good rule, there is a blind conscience ; where there is no appli- 
cation of the rule, there is a profane conscience ; and where there is a false 
rule, there is an en-oueous, a scrupulous, a wicked conscience. 

A papist, because he hath a false rule, he cannot have a good conscience. 
The abomination of popeiy is, that they sin against conscience ; and con- 
science, indeed, is even with them, for it overthrows the most of their prin- 
ciples. They sin against conscience many ways, I mean not against their 
own conscience, but they sin against the conscience of others. For what 
do they ? That they may rule in the consciences of men (for that is the 
end of their great prelate, the tyrant of souls), they have false rules, that 
the pope cannot err. Their rule is the authority and judgment of him that 
cannot err ; and he, for the most part, is an unlearned man in divinity, that 
never read over the Scriptures in all his life, and he must judge all contro- 
versies. Where this is gi-anted, that the pope cannot err, he sits in the 
conscience to do what he list. And he makes divine laws ; and cursed is 
he, saith the Council of Trent, that doth not equalise those traditions with 
the word of God (jj). 

From this false rule comes all, even rebellion itself. If he give dispen- 
sation from the oath of allegiance because he cannot err, therefore they 
ought to obey him, and rebel against their governors. All rebellion is from 
that rebellious rebellion that comes from false principles. ■ These men talk 
of conscience, and they come not to church for conscience sake. What con- 
science can they have when they have false rules ? To equivocate and lie, — 
sins against nature. And other rules, that give liberty against the word; that 
children may disobey their parents, and get into a cloister, &c. 

The most of popery, though there were no word of God, it is against 
nature, against conscience, which God hath planted in man as his deputy, 
his tenant. 

And as they sin against conscience, so, as I said, conscience is even with 
them. For let a man trust to his conscience, and he can never be a sound 
papist : except he leave that, and go upon base false grounds, because other 
great men do it, and because his predecessors have done it, &c. I appeal 
to their own consciences, if any man at the day of death think to be saved 
by his merits, doth not Bellarmine (after long dispute of salvation by merits) 
disclaim it ?* doth he not put away merits, for the uncertainty of his own 
righteousness ? So their own consciences do wring away the testimony of 
trusting to merits. 

* See Note ff, vol. I. p. 313.— G, 



2 CORI^THIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 215 

Again, that original sin is no great sin. It is but the cause of sin, and 
it is less than any venial sin. Oh, but when conscience is awaked to know 
what a coiTupt estate it is, it will draw from them that which it drew from 
St Paul, * wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body 
of death ?' Eom. vii. 24. Conscience, when it is awaked, wiU tell them that 
it is another manner of sin, and that it is the fountain of all sin. 

And so for justification by works. Conscience itself, if there were no 
book of God, would say it is a false point. And then they plead for igno- 
rance. They have blind consciences. Their clergy being a subtle gene- 
ration, that have abused the world a long time, because they would 
sit in the conscience where God should sit, they ' sit in the temple of God,' 
2 Thess. ii. 4, and would be respected above that which is due to them — 
they would be accounted as petty gods in the world. Therefore they keep 
the people from the knowledge of the true rule, and make what they speak 
equal with God's word. Now if the people did discern this, they would 
not be papists long ; for no man would willingly be cozened. Let us labour 
therefore for a true rule. 

2. And when we have gotten rules, fippln them ; for what are rules with- 
out application ? Eules are instrumental things ; and instruments without 
use are nothing. If a carpenter have a rule, and hang it up by him, and 
work by conceit, what is it good for ? So to get a company of rules by the 
word of God (to refine natural knowledge as much as we can), and then to 
make no use of it in our lives, it is to no purpose ; therefore when we have 
rules, let us apply them. 

In this, those that have the true rule, and apply it not, are better than 
they that refuse to have the rule, because, as hath been said, an ignorant 
man that hath not the rule, he cannot be good. But a man that hath the 
rule, and yet squares not his life by it, yet he can bring the rule to his life. 
There is a near converse between the heart and the brain. Such a man, 
he hath the rule in his memoiy, he hath it in his understanding ; and 
therefore there is a thousand times more hope of him that cares to know, 
that cares to hear the word of God, and cares for the means, than of sot- 
tish persons that care not to hear, because they would not do that they 
know, and because they would not have their sleepy, dull, and drowsy con- 
science awaked. There is no hope of such a one. It should be our care 
to have right rules, and in the application of them to make much of con- 
science, that it may apply aright in directing, and then in comfort. If we 
obey it in du'ecting, it will witness and excuse ; and upon witness and 
excuse, there wiU come a sweet paradise to the soul, of joy and peace un- 
speakable and glorious. 

The last thing I observe from these words is this, that 

Doct. The testimony and witness of conscience is a ground of comfort 
and joy. 

The reason of the joining these two, the witness of a good conscience, 
and joy, it is that which I said before in the description of conscience ; for 

1. Conscience first admonisheth, and then uitnesseth, and then it excuseth, or 
accuseth, and then it judgeth, and executeth* Now the inward execution of 
conscience is joy, if it be good ; for God hath so planted it in the heart and 
soul, that where conscience doth accuse, or excuse, there is alway execu- 
tion. There is alway joy or fear. The affections of joy or fear alway fol- 
low. If a man's conscience excuse him, that he hath done well, then con- 
science comes to be enlarged, to be a paradise to the soul, to be a jubilee, 
* In the margin ' Frou the office of conscience.' — G. 



216 COJIiIi;NTAE^ ON 

a rcfresliing, to speak peace and comfort to a man. For rewards are not 
kept altogether for the life to come. Hell is begun in an ill conscience, and 
heaven is begvm in a good conscience. An ill conscience is a hell upon 
earth, a good conscience is a heaven upon earth. Therefore the testimony 
of a good conscience breeds glorying and rejoicing. 

2. Again, conscience when it witnesseth, it coniforts, because when it wit- 
nessetJi, it witncssieth with God; and where God is, there is his Spirit, and 
where the Holy Spirit is, there is joj. For even as heat follows the fire, 
so joy and glorying accompany the Spirit of God, ' the Spirit of glory,' 
1 Pet. i. 14. Now when conscience witnesseth aright, it witnesseth with 
God ; and God is alway clothed with joy. He brings joy and glory into 
the heart. Conscience witnesseth with God that I am his. 

3. And it ivituesseth ivith vujseJf that I have led vii/ life thus, ' Our re- 
joicing is the witness of our conscience.' It is not the witness of another 
man's conscience, but my own. Other men may witness, and say I am 
thus and thus, but all is to no pm-pose, if my own conscience tell me 
I am another man than they take me to be. But when a man's own 
conscien'^e witnesseth for him, there follows rejoicing. A man cannot 
rejoice with the testimony of another man's conscience, because another 
man saith, I am a good man, &c., unless there be the testimony of my own 
conscience. 

Now it is a sweet benefit, an excusing conscience, when it witnesseth 
well. Let us see it in all the passages of life, that a good conscience in 
excusing breeds glorying and joy. 

It doth breed joy in life, in death, at the day of j}ulgment. 

1. In life, in all the passages of life, in all estates, both good and ill. 

(1.) In fjood, the testimony of conscience breeds joy, for it enjoys the 
pleasures of this life, and the comforts of it with the favour of God. Con- 
science tells the man that he hath gotten the things well that he enjoys, 
that he hath gotten the place, and advancement that he hath, well : that he 
enjoys the comforts of this life with a good conscience, and ' all things are 
pure to the pure,' Titus i. 15. If he have gotten them ill, conscience up- 
braids him alway, and therefore he cannot joy in the good estate he hath. 
If a man had all the contentments in the world, if he had not the testimony 
of a good conscience, what were all ? Wliat contentment had Adam in 
paradise, after once by sin he had fallen from the peace of conscience ? 
None at all. * A little that the righteous hath, is better than great riches 
oi the ungodly,' Prov. xvi. 8, because they have not peace of conscience. 

(2.) And so for ill estate, when conscience witnesseth well, it breeds 
rejoicing, 

[1.1 In false imputations, and slanders, and disgraces, as here, it was 
insinuated into the Corinthians by false teachei's, and those that followed 
them, that St Paul was so and so. Saith St Paul, You may say what you 
will of me, ' my rejoicing is this, the testimony of my conscience,' that I 
am not the man which they make me to be in your hearts by their false 
reports. The witness of conscience is a good and sufficient ground of re- 
joicing in this case. Therefore holy men have retired to their conscience 
in all times, as St Paul you see doth here. 

So Job, his conscience bare him out in all the false imputations of his 
comfortless friends that were ' miserable comforters,' Job xvi. 2. They 
laboured to take away his sincerity from him, the chief cause of his joy. 
' You shall not take away my sincerity,' saith he, Job xxvii. G. You would 
make me an hypocrite, and thus and thus, but my conscience tells me I am 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 217 

otherwise, therefore ' you shall not take away my innocency from me.' 
And in Job xxxi. 35, ' Behold, it is my desire, that the Almighty would 
answer me, and that my adversaries would write a book against me, I would 
take it upon my shoulder, I would take it as a crown unto me.' Here was 
the force of a good conscience in Job's troubles, that if his adversaries should 
write a book against him, yet he would bind it as a crown about him, 
xxxi. 36. And so David, in all imputations this was his joy, when they 
laid things to his charge that he had never done : he takes this for his joy, 
the comfort of his conscience. So St Paul, he retires to his conscience, 
and being raised up with the worthiness of a good conscience, he despiseth 
all imputations whatsoever. He sets conscience up as a flag of defiance to 
all false slanders and imputations that were laid against him, as we see in 
the story of the Acts, and in this place and others. Saith he in one place, 
* I pass not for man's sentence,' 1 Cor. iv. 3, I pass not for man's day. 
Man hath his day, man will have his judgment-seat, and will get upon the 
bench, and judge me that I am such and such. I care not for man's day. 
There is another judgment-seat that I look unto, and to the testimony of 
my conscience, ' My rejoicing is the witness of my conscience.' 

Holy men have cause to retire to their own consciences, when they 
would rejoice against false imputations. So holy St Austin, what saith he 
to a Donatist that wronged him in his reputation ? ' Think of Austin what 
you please, as long as my conscience accuseth me not with Grod, I wUl give 
you leave to think what you will ' (kk). 

If so be that man's conscience clears him, he cares not a whit for reports; 
because a good man looks more to conscience than to fame. Therefore if 
conscience tell him truth, though fame lie he cares not much ; for he 
squares not his life by report, but by conscience. Indeed he looks to a 
good name, but that is in the last place. 

For a good man looks first to God, who is above conscience ; and then 
he looks to conscience, which is under God ; and then, in the third place, 
he looks to report amongst men. And if God and his conscience excuse 
him, though men accuse him, and lay imputations upon him, this or that, 
he passeth little for man's judgment. So the witness of conscience, it 
comforts in all imputations whatsoever. 

r2.J Again, it comforts in sickness. Hezekiah was sick. What doth he 
retire unto ? ' Remember, Lord, how I have walked uprightly before thee,' 
Isa. xxxviii. 3. He goes to his conscience. 

In sickness, when a man can eat nothing, a good ' conscience is a con- 
tinual feast,' Prov. xv. 15. In sorrow it is a musician. A good conscience 
doth not only coimsel and advise, but it is a musician to delight. It is a 
physician to heal. It is the best cordial, the best physic. All other are 
physicians of no value, comforts of no value. If a man's conscience be 
wounded, if it be not quieted by faith in the blood of Christ ; if he have 
not the Spirit to witness the forgiveness of his sins, and to sanctify and 
enable him to lead a good life, all is to no purpose, if there be an evil con- 
science. The unsound body while it is sick, it is in a kind of hell already. 

[3.] Again, take a man in any cross ichatsoever, a good conscience doth bear 
out the cross, it bears a man up alway. Because a good conscience, being a 
witness with God, it raiseth a man above all earthly things whatsoever. 
There is no earthly discouragement that can dismay a good conscience, 
because there is a kind of divinity in conscience, put in by God, and it 
witnesseth together with God. So that in all crosses it comforts. 

So likewise in losses, in want, in want of friends, in want of comforts. 



218 COMMENTAEY ON 

in want of liberty ; what doth the witness of a good conscience in all these ? 
In want of friends, it is a friend indeed ; it is an inward friend, a near friend 
to us. Put the case that a man have never a friend in the world, yet he 
hath God and his own conscience. Where there is a good conscience, there 
is God and his Holy Spirit alway. In want of liberty, in want of outward 
comforts, he hath the comfort of a good conscience. 

A man on his death-bed, he sees he wants all outward comforts, but he 
hath a good conscience. And so in want of liberty, when a man is restrained, 
his heart is at liberty. 

A wicked man that hath a bad conscience, is imprisoned in his own 
heart. Though he have never such liberty, though he be a monarch, a 
bad conscience imprisons him at home, he is in fetters, his thoughts make 
him afraid of thunder, afraid of everything, afraid of himself ; and though 
there be nobody else to awe him, yet his conscience awes him. Where 
there is a conscience under the guilt of sin unrepented, [though] there is 
the greatest liberty in the world, there is restraint ; for conscience is the 
worst prison. Where there is a good conscience, there is an inward en- 
largement. A good man in the greatest restraint hath liberty. Paul and 
Silas, Acts xvi., in the dungeon, in the hell of the dungeon, in the worst 
place of the dungeon, in the stocks, and at the worst time of the day, of 
the natural day, I mean, at midnight, and in the worst usage, when they 
were misused, and whipped withal, they had all the discouragements that 
could be ; and yet they sang at midnight, these blessed men, Paul and 
Silas. Because their hearts were enlarged, there was a paradise in the 
very dungeon. 

As where the king is, there is his court, so it is where God is. God in 
the prison, in the noisome dungeon, by his Spirit so enlarged their hearts, 
that they sang at midnight. Whereas if conscience be ill, if it were in 
paradise, conscience would fear, as we see in Adam, Gen. iii. 8. St Paul 
in prison was better than Adam in paradise, when he had offended God. 
Adam had outward comforts enough ; but when he had sinned, his con- 
science made him afraid of him from whom he should have all comfort ; it 
made him afraid of God, and hide himself among the leaves. Alas, a poor 
shift ! We see then, conscience doth witness, and the witness of it when 
it is good doth cause the soul to glory and rejoice, not only in positive 
ills, in slanders and crosses, but in losses, in want of friends, in want of 
comforts, in want of liberty. 

And so for the time to come, in evils threatened, a good conscience is 
bold : ' It fears no ill tidings,' Ps. cxii. 8. ' My heart is fixed, my heart is 
fixed,' saith David. * Wicked men are like the trees of the forest. Wicked 
Ahaz,' his heart ' did tremble and shake as the leaves with the wind,' Isa. vii. 
2. The noise of fear is alway in their ears. An ill conscience, when it is 
mingled with ill news, when there are two fears together, it must needs be 
a great fear. 

2. And a good conscience, when it hath laid up grounds of joy in Hfe, 
in the worst estate and condition of life, then it makes use of joy in death ; 
for when all comforts are taken from a man, when his friends cannot com- 
fort him, and all earthly things leave him, then that conscience that hath 
gone along with him, that hath been a monitor, and a witness all his life- 
time, now it comes to speak good things to him, now it comforts him, now 
conscience is somebody. At the hour of death, when nothing else will be 
regarded, when nothing will comfort, then conscience doth. * The righteous 
hath hope in his death,' as the wise man saith, Prov. xiv. 32. Death is 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 219 

called the king of fears, because it makes all afraid. It is the terrible of 
terribles, saith the philosopher ; but here is a king above the king of fears. 
A good conscience is above the king of fears, death. A good conscience is 
so far from being discouraged by this king of fears, that it is joyful even in 
death ; because it knows that then it is near to the place where conscience 
shall be fuUy enlarged, where there shall be no annoyance, nor no grievance 
whatsoever. 

Death is the end of misery, and the beginning of happiness. Therefore 
a good conscience is joyful in death. 

3. And after death, at the day of judgment. There the witness of con- 
science is a wondrous cause of joy ; for there a man that hath a good con- 
science, he looks upon the Judge, his brother : he looks on him with whom 
he has made his peace in his lifetime before, and now he receives that 
which he had the beginnings of before, then he Hfts up his head with joy 
and comfort. So you see how the witness of conscience causeth glory and 
joy in all estates whatsoever, in life, in death, after death. It speaks for a 
man there. It never leaves him till it have brought him to heaven itself, 
where all things else leave a man. 

Therefore, how much should we prize and value the testimony and 
witness of a good conscience ! And what madness is it for a man to 
humour men, and displease conscience, his best fi-iend ! Of all persons 
and all things in the world, we should reverence our own conscience most 
of all. Wretched men despise the inward witness of this inward friend, 
this inward divine, this inward physician, this inward comforter, this in- 
ward counsellor. It is no better than madness that men should regard 
that everything else be good and clean, and yet notwithstanding in the 
midst of all to have foul consciences. 

Ohj. But to answer an objection, and to unloose some knots. It may be 
said, that when the hearts of people are good, yet there a good conscience 
concludes not alway for comfort. Where there is faith in Christ, and an 
honest life, conscience should conclude comfort. Here is the rule, this I 
have obeyed, therefore I should have comfort. 

Now this we see crossed ofttimes, that Christians that live exact lives are 
often troubled in conscience. How can trouble of conscience stand with joy 
upon the witness of conscience ? 

Ans. I answer, the witness of conscience, when it is a good conscience, 
it doth not alway breed joy. 

1. It is because our estate is imperfect here, and conscience doth not alway 
witness out of the goodness of it. Sometime conscience is misled, and so 
sometimes good Christians take the error of conscience for the witness of 
conscience. 

These things should be distinguished. Conscience sometime in the best 
errs, as well as gives a true witness. 

If we take the error of conscience for the witness of conscience, there 
will come trouble of conscience, and that deservedly, through our own folly. 

Now conscience doth err in good men, sometimes when they regard rules 
which they should not, or when they mistake the matter and do not argue 
aright. As for instance, when they gather thus, I have not grace in such 
a measure, and therefore I have none, I am not the child of God. 

What a rule is this ? This is the error of conscience ; and therefore it 
must needs breed perplexity of conscience. A good conscience, when it is 
right, cannot witness thus, because the word doth not say thus. Is a nullity 
and an imperfection all one ? No ; there is much difference in the whole 



220 COMMENTAKY ON 

kind. A nullity is nothing. An imperfection, though it be but a little 
degree, yet it is something. This is the error of conscience, and from 
thence comes trouble of conscience, which makes men reason ill many ways. 
As for instance, I have not so much grace as such a one hath, and therefore 
I have no grace. Now that is a false reasoning ; for every one hath his 
due measure. If thou be not so great a rich man as the richest in the 
town, yet thou mayest be rich in thy kind. 

2. Again, when conscience looks to the huviour. You are to live by faith, 
and not by the humour of melancholy. When the instrument of reason 
that should judge is distempered by melancholy, it reasons from thence 
fiilsely. Because melancholy persuades me that I am so, therefore conscience 
being led by the humour of the body, saith I am so. Who bade thee hve 
by humour ? thou must live by rule. Melancholy may tell thee sometime 
when it is in strength, that thou art made of glass, as it hath done some. 
It will deceive thee in bodily things, wherein sense can confute melancholy, 
much more will it if we yield to it in matters of the soul. It will persuade 
us that we are not the children of God, that we have not grace and good- 
ness when we have. 

3. Again, hence it is that conscience doth not conclude comfort in God's 
children, because it looks to the ill, and not to the good that is in them ; for 
there are those two things in God's children. There is good and ill. Now 
in the time of temptation they look to the ill, and think they have no good, 
because they will not see anything but ill. They fix their eyes on the re- 
mainders of their rebellious lusts, which are not fully subdued in them, and 
they look wholly on them. Whereas they should have two eyes, one to 
look on that which is good, that God may have glory and they comfort. 

Now they, fixing their eyes altogether on that which is naught, and be- 
cause they do not, or will not, see that which is good, therefore they have 
no comfort ; because they suffer conscience to be iU led that it doth not 
its duty. 

And conscience in good men, it looks sometimes to that that it should 
not in others, in regard of others. It looks to the flourishing of wicked 
men, and therefore it concludes, * Certainly I have washed my hands in 
vain,' since such men thrive and prosper in the world, Ps. xxxvii. 35, seq., 
and Ps. Ixxiii. 13. Who bade thee look to this, and to be uncomfortable 
from thence, that thy estate is not good, because it is not such an estate ? 
' So foolish, and as a beast was I before thee,' saith David, because I re- 
garded such things, Ps. Ixxiii. 22. No marvel if men be uncomfortable that 
are led away by scandals. Look to faith, go to the word, to the sanctuary. 
' I went to the sanctuary,' saith he, * and there I saw the end of these 
men,' ver. 17. So conscience must be suffered to have its work, to be led 
by a true rule. 

4. Again, conscience sometimes concludes not comfort, when there 
is ground of comfort, /rom the remainders of corruptions and infirmities; 
whereas we should be driven by our infirmities to Christ. And conscience 
sometimes in good men doth not exercise its work. It is drawn away with 
vain delights, even in the best of men. 

And conscience, of its own unworthiness, and of the greatness of the 
things it looks for, being joined together, it makes a man that he joys not when 
he hath cause. As for instance, when the soul sees that God in Christ hath 
pardoned all my sins, and hath vouchsafed his Spirit to me, and will give 
me heaven in the world to come, to such a wretch as I am ; here being a 
conflict between the conscience and sense ot its own unworthiness, and the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 221 

greatness of the good promised, the heart begins to stagger, and to doubt 
for want of sound faith. 

Indeed, if we look on our own unworthiness, and the greatness of the 
good things promised, we may wonder ; but alas !* God is infiijite in good- 
ness, he transcends our unworthiness ; and in the gospel, the glory of 
God's mercy, it triumphs over our unworthiness, and over our sins. What- 
soever our sin and unworthiness is, his goodness in the gospel triumphs 
over all. 

In innocency God should have advanced an innocent man ; but the 
gospel is more glorious. For he comes to sinnei's, to condemned persons 
by nature, and yet God triumphs over their sins and unworthiness. He 
regards not what we deserve, but what may stand with the glory of his 
mercy. Therefore we should banish those thoughts, and enjoy our own 
privilege, the promises of heaven, and happiness, and all comforts whatso- 
ever. So much for the answer of that objection. 

Now if we would joy in the witness of a good conscience, we must espe- 
cially in the time of temptation live by faith, and not by feeling, not by 
what we feel for the present. But as we see Christ in his gi'eatest horror, 
' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mark xvii. 34, he goes 
to mij God still, we must ' hve by feith and not by sense,' 2 Cor. v. 7. 

And then if we would rejoice in extremities, remember that God works by 
contraries. God will bring us to heaven, but it must be by hell. God will 
bring us to comfort, but it must be by sense of our own unworthiness. He 
will forgive our sins, but it must be by sight and sense of our sins. He 
will bring us to life, but it must be by death. He will brmg us to glory, 
but it must be by shame. God works by contraries ; therefore in con- 
traries believe contraries. When we are in a state that hath no comfort, 
yet we may joy in it if we believe in Christ. He works by contraries. 

As in the creation he made all out of nothing, order out of confusion ; so 
in the work of the new creation, in the new creature, he doth so likewise ; 
therefore be not dismayed. 

Remember this rule likewise, that in the covenant of grace God requires 
truth, and not measure. Thou art not under the law, but under the 
covenant of grace. A little fire is true fire as well as the whole element of 
fire. A drop of water is water as well as the whole ocean. So if it be 
true faith, true grief for sins, true hatred of them, true desire of the favour 
of God, and to grow better ; truth is respected in the covenant of grace, 
and not any set measm-e. 

What saith the covenant of grace ? ' He that believes and repents shall 
be saved,' Mark xvi. 16, not he that hath a strong faith, or he that hath 
perfect repentance. So St Paul saith, as we shall see after, * This is our 
rejoicing, that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation 
among you,' 2 Cor. i. 12. He doth not say, that our conversation hath 
been perfect. So if we would have joy in the testimony of conscience, we 
must not abridge ourselves of joy, because we have not a perfect measure 
of grace ; but rejoice that God hath wrought any measure of grace in such 
unclean and polluted hearts as ours are. For the least measure of grace is 
a pledge of perfection in the world to come. 

' This is our rejoicing, the testimony / our conscience^ dc. Hence we may 
gather clearly, that 

Obs. A man may know his own estate in grace. 
* See note, p. 169.— G. 



222 COMMENTARY ON 

I gather it from the place thiis, ' Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of 
our conscience, that in simplicity,' &c. 

Where there is joy, and the ground of joy, there is a knowledge of the 
estate ; but a Christian hath glorying, and a ground of glorying in himself, 
and he knows it. He hath that in him that witnesseth that estate. He 
hath the witness of conscience ; therefore he may know and be assured of 
it. If this testimony were not a true testimony, it were something. But 
all men naturally have a conscience ; and a Christian hath a sanctified 
conscience. And where that is, there is a true testimony, and true joy 
from that testimony. Therefore he may be assured of his salvation, and 
have true joy and comfort, a heaven upon earth before he come to heaven 
itself. 

If conscience testify of itself, and from witnessing give cause of joy, much 
more the Spirit of God coming into the conscience, ' The Spirit bears 
witness with our spirits.' If our spirit and conscience bear witness to us 
of our conversation in simplicity and sincerity, and from thence of our 
estate in grace, much more by the witness of two. ' By the witness of two 
or three everything shall be confirmed,' Matt, xviii. 16 ; but our spirits, 
and conscience, and the Spirit of God, which every child of God hath, 
witnesseth that we are the children of God, Rom. viii. 14, et alibi. * The 
Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God.' Therefore 
a Christian may know his estate in grace. 

The spirit of a man knows himself, and the Spirit of God knows him 
likewise, and it knows what is in the heart of God ; and when these two 
meet, the Spirit of God that knows the secrets of God, and that knows our 
secrets, and our spirit that knows our heart likewise, what should hinder 
but that we may know our own estate ? It is the nature of conscience, as 
I told you, to reflect upon itself and upon the person in whom it is, to know 
what is known by it, and to judge, and condemn, and execute itself, by 
inward fear and terror, in ill ; and in good, by comfort and joy in a man's 
self. It is the property that the soul hath above all creatures, to return and 
recoil upon itself. If .this be natural to man, much more to the spirit of a 
man. For if a man know what is in himself naturally, his own wit, and 
understanding, which is alway with him, bred up with him, much more he 
knows by his spirit the things that are adventitious, that come fi-om without 
him, that is the work of grace. 

If a man, by a reflect knowledge, know what naturally is in him, in what 
part he hath it, and how he exerciseth it ; if he know and remember what 
he hath done, and the manner of it, whether well or ill ; then he may know 
the work of the Spirit that comes from without him, that works a change 
in him. 

We say of light, that it discovers itself and all other things ; so the soul 
it is lightsome, and therefore knows itself and knows other things. 

The Spirit of God is much more lightsome. Where it is it discovers 
itself, and lighteneth the soul. It discovereth the party in whom it is. 
As the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ii. 12. * We have the Spirit, whereby 
we know the things that we receive of God.' It not only worketh in 
us, but it teacheth us what it hath wrought. Therefore a Christian knows 
that he is in the state of grace, he knows his virtues, and his disposi- 
tion ; except it be in the time of temptation, and upon those grounds 
named before. 

Therefore we should labour to know our estate, to ' examine ourselves 
whether we be in the faith or no, except we be reprobates and castaways,' 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YEB.. 12. 223 

as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. A Christian should aim at this, to 
understand his own estate in grace upon good grounds. 

Ohj. But it may be objected ; how can we know our estate in grace, our 
virtues are so imperfect, our abiUties are so weak and feeble. 

Am. I answer, the ground of judging aright of our estate, it is not 
worthiness or perfection, but sincerity. We must not look for perfection. 
For that makes the papists to teach that there may be doubting, because 
they look to false grounds ; but we must look to the ground in the covenant 
of grace, to grace itself, and not to the measure. Where there is truth and 
sincerity, there is the condition of the covenant of grace, and there is a 
ground for a man to build his estate in grace on. 

The perfect righteousness of Christ is that that gives us title to heaven ; 
but to know that we have right in that title, is the simplicity and sincerity 
in our walking, in our conversation, as the apostle saith here, ' This is our 
rejoicing,' &c. Therefore Christians, when they are set upon by tempta- 
tions of their own misdoubting hearts, and by Satan, they must not go to 
the great measure of grace that is in others, that they have not so much 
as others, and therefore they have none ; nor to the great measure of grace 
that they want themselves, but to the truth of their grace, the truth of their 
desires and endeavours, the truth of their affections. * Hereby we know 
that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren,' 
1 John iii. 14. 

Use. This should stir us up to have a good conscience, that we may rejoice. 
Why should we labour that we may rejoice ? Why ? what is our life with- 
out joy ? and what is joy without a good conscience ? 

What is our life without joy ? Without joy we can do nothing. We 
are like an instrument out of tune. An instrument out of tune it yields 
but harsh music. Without joy we are as a member out of joint. We can 
do nothing well without joy, and a good conscience, which is the ground of 
joy. A man without joy is a palsy-member that moves itself unfitly, and 
uncomely. He goes not about things as he should. A good conscience 
breeds joy and comfort. It enables a man to do all things comely in the 
sight of God, and comfortably to himself. It makes him go cheerfully 
through his business. A good * conscience is a continual feast,' Prov. xv. 
15. Without joy we cannot suffer afflictions. We cannot die well without 
it. Simeon died comfortably, because he died in peace, when he had 
embraced Christ in his heart, and in his arms. Mat. ix. 36. Without joy 
and the ground of joy we can neither do nor suffer anything. Therefore 
in Psalm li. 12, David, when he had lost the peace and comfort of a good 
conscience, he prays for the free Spirit of God. Alas ! till God had enlarged 
his heart with the sense of a good conscience in the pardon of his sins, and 
given him the power of his Spirit to lead a better hfe for the time to come, 
his spirit was not free before. He could not praise God with a large spirit. 
He wanted freedom of spirit. His conscience was bound. His lips were 
sealed up. ' Open my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise,' Ps. 
li. 15. His heart was bound, and therefore he prays to have it enlarged. 
' Restore to me thy joy and salvation,' Ps. li. 12 ; intimating that we can- 
not have a free spirit without joy, and we cannot have joy without a good 
conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ, in the pardon of our sins. 

If it be so, that we cannot do anything nor suffer anything as we should, 
that we cannot praise God, that we cannot live nor die without joy, and the 
ground of it, the testimony of a good conscience ; let us labour, then, that 
conscience may witness well unto us. 



22-4 COMMENTARY ON 

Especially considering tliat an ill conscience, it is the worst thing in the 
world. There is no friend so good as a good conscience. There is no foe 
so ill as a bad conscience. It makes us either kings or slaves. A man 
that hath a good conscience, that witnesseth well for him, it raiseth his 
heart in a princely manner above all things in the world. A man that hath 
a bad conscience, though he be a monarch, it makes him a slave. A bad 
conscience embitters all things in the world to him, though they be never 
so comfortable in themselves. What is so comfortable as the presence of 
God ? What is so comfortable as the light ? Yet a bad conscience, that 
wiU not be ruled, it hates the light, and hates the presence of God, as we 
see Adam, when he had sinned, he fled from God, Gen. iii. 8. 

A bad conscience cannot joy in the midst of joy. It is like a gouty foot 
or a gouty toe covered with a velvet shoe. Alas ! what doth it ease it ? 
What doth glorious apparel ease the diseased body ? Nothing at all. The 
ill is within. There the arrow sticks. 

And so in the comforts of the word, if the conscience be bad, we that are 
the messengers of comfort, we may apply comfort to you ; but if there be 
one within that saith thus. It is true, but I regarded not the word before, I 
regarded not the checks of conscience, conscience will speak more terror 
than we can speak peace. And after long and wilful rebellion, conscience 
will admit of no comfort for the most part. Kegard it, therefore, in time ; 
labour in time that it may witness well. An ill conscience, when it should 
be most comforted, then it is most terrible. At the hour of death we should 
have most comfort, if we had any wisdom. "When earthly comforts shall be 
taken from us, and at the day of judgment, then an ill conscience, look 
where it will, it hath matter of terror. If it look up, there is the Judge 
armed with vengeance ; if it look beneath, there is hell ready to swallow it ; 
if it look on the one side, there is the devil accusing and helping con- 
science ; if it look round aboixt, there is heaven and earth, and all on fire, 
and within there is a hell. Where shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? 
' If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and ungodly ap- 
pear,' 1 Pet. iv. 18, at that time ? 

let us labour to have a good conscience, and to exercise the reflect* 
power of conscience in this world ; that is, let us examine ourselves, ad- 
monish ourselves, judge ourselves, condemn ourselves, do all in ourselves. 
Let us keep court at home first, let us keep the assizes there, and then we 
shall have comfort at the great assizes. 

Therefore, God out of his love hath put conscience into the soul, that we 
might keep a court at home. Let conscience, therefore, do its worst now, 
let it accuse, let it judge ; and when it hath judged, let it smite us and do 
execution upon us, that, ' having judged ourselves, we may not be con- 
demned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 32. 

If we sufler not conscience to have its full work now, it will have it one 
day. A sleepy conscience will not alway sleep. If we do not sufier con- 
science to awake here, it will awaken in hell, where there is no remedy. 

Therefore, give conscience leave to speak what it will. Perhaps it 
will tell thee a tale in thine ear which thou wouldst be loath to hear, it will 
pursue thee with terrors like a bloodhound, and will not suff^er thee to rest ; 
therefore, as a bankrupt, thou art loath to look in thy books, because there 
is nothing but matter of terror. This is but a folly, for at the last conscience 
will do its duty. It will awaken either here or in hell. Therefore, we are 
to hope the best of them that have their consciences opened here. There 
* That is, ' reflex.'— G. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 12. 225 

is hope that they will make their peace with God, that * they will agree with 
their adversary while they are in the way,' Mat. v. 25. If thou suffer con- 
science to be sleepy and drowsy till it be awaked in hell, woe unto thee ! 
for then thy estate is determined of; it will be a ban-en repentance. Now 
thy repentance may be fruitful, it may force thee to make thy peace with 
God. Dost thou think it will alway be thus with thee ? Thou besottest 
thy conscience with sensuality, and sayest, ' Go thy way, and come another 
time,' as he said to St Paul, Acts xxiv. 25. I will tell thee, this peace will 
prove a tempest in the end. 

Conscience of all things in the world deserves the greatest reverence, 
more than any monarch in the world; for it is above all men, it is next unto 
God. And yet what do many men ? Regard the honour of their friends 
more than conscience, that inward friend that shall accompany them to 
heaven, that will go with them to death and to judgment, and make them 
lift up their heads with joy when other friends cannot help them, but must 
needs leave them in death. Now, for a man to follow the humours of men, 
to follow the multitude, and to stain conscience, what a foolish wretch is 
he ! Though such men think themselves never so wise, it is the greatest 
follv in the world to stain conscience to please any man, because conscience 
is i;bove all men. 

Again, those that follow their own humours, their own dispositions, and 
are carried away with their own lusts, it is a folly and madness ; for the 
time will come that that which their covetous, base lust hath carried them 
to, that shall be taken away, as honom-s, riches, pleasures, which is the 
fuel of that lust which makes them now neglect conscience ; all shall be 
taken away in sickness or in the time of despair, when conscience shall be 
awaked. Now, what folly is it to please thy own lust, which thou shouldst 
mortify and subdue, and to displease conscience, thy best friend ! And 
then when thy lust is fully satisfied, all that hath been fuel to it, that hath 
fed it, shall be taken away at the hour of death, or some special judgment, 
and conscience shall be awaked, and shall torment thee for giving liberty 
to thy base lusts and to thyself. And those eyes of thy soul that thy 
offence delighted to shut up, there shall some punishment come, either in 
this hfe or in that to come, that shall open those eyes, as Adam's eyes were 
opened after his sin. Why ? Were they not open before ? He had such 
a strong desire to the apple, he did not regard them ; but his punishment 
afterward opened those eyes, which his inordinate desire shut. So it shall 
be with every sinner. Therefore, regard no man in the world more than 
thy conscience. Regard nothing, no pleasure, no profit, more than con- 
science ; reverence it more than anything in the world. Happy is that man 
that carries with him a good conscience, that can witness that he hath said, 
nor done nothing that may vex or grieve conscience. If it be otherwise, 
whatsoever a man gains he loseth in conscience, and there is no comparison 
between those two. One crack, one flaw in conscience, will prove more 
disadvantageous than the rest will be profitable. Thou must cast up the 
rest again. ' They are sweet bits downward, but they shall be gravel in 
the belly,' Prov. xx. 17. 

We think when we have gained anything, when we have done anything, 
we shall hear no more of it, as David said to Joab, when he set him to make 
away Uriah, ' Let not this trouble thee,' 2 Sam. xi. 25. So, let not this ill 
gain, let not this ill speech or tbis ill carriage, trouble thee, thou shalt hear 
no more of this. We take order to stop and silence conscience, thinking ncA^er 
to hear more of it. Oh, but remember, conscience will have its work ; and 

VOL. III. P 



226 COMMENTARY ON I 

the longer we defer the •witness and work of conscience, the more it will 
terrify and accuse ns afterward. 

Therefore, of all men, be they never so great, they are most miserable 
that follow their wills and their lusts most ; that never have any outward 
check or inward check of conscience, but drown it with sensual pleasures. As 
Charles the IXth, who at night, when conscience hath the fittest time to work, 
a man being retired, then he would have his singing boys, after he had be- 
trayed them in that horrible massacre,* after which he never had peace 
and quiet ; and as Saul sent for David's harp when the evil spirit was upon 
him, 1 Sam. xvi. 23, so wicked men, they look for foreign helps. But it 
will not be ; for the greatest men with their foreign helps are most miserable. 

The reason is, because the more they sink in rebellion and sin against 
conscience, the more they sink in terrors. It shall be the greatest tor- 
ment to those that have had their wills most in the world. The more their 
conscience is silenced and violenced in this world, the more vocal it shall 
be at the hour of death, and the day of judgment. Therefore judge who 
are the most miserable men in the world (although they have never so 
much regard in the world besides), those that have consciences, but will 
not suffer them to work, but with sensuality within them, and by pleasing, 
flattering speech of those without them, they keep it down, and take order 
that neither conscience within, nor none other without, shall disturb them ; 
if they do, they shall be served as Ahab dealt with Micaiah, 2 Kings xxii. 
24. These men that are thus at peace in sinful courses, of all men they are 
most miserable. They enjoy their pleasure here for a little time, but their 
conscience shall torment them for ever ; and shall say to them, as Reuben 
said to his brethren, ' I told you this before, but you would not hearken to 
me, and now you shall be tormented.' 

Conscience is an evil beast. It makes a man rise against himself. There- 
fore of all men, those that be disordered in their courses, that neglect con- 
science, and neglect the means of salvation, that should awaken conscience, 
they are the most miserable. For the longer they go on, the more they sink 
in sin ; and the more they sink in sin, the more they sink in terror of con- 
science ; if not now, yet they shall hereafter. 

If we desire therefore to have joy and comfort at all times, let us labour 
to have a good conscience that may witness well. And therefore let ua 
every day keep an audit within doors, every day cast up our accounts, 
every day draw the blood of Christ over our accounts, every day beg for- 
giveness of sins, and the Spirit of Christ to lead us, that so we may keep 
account every day, that we may make our reckonings even every day, that 
we may have the less to do in the time of sickness, in the time of tempta- 
tion, and in the time of death, when we have discharged our consciences 
before by keeping session at home in our own hearts. 

This should be the daily practice of a Christian, and then he may lay 
himself down in peace. 

He that sleeps with a conscience defiled, is as he that sleeps among wild 
beasts, among adders and toads, that if his eyes were open to see them, he 
would be out of his wits. He that sleeps without a good conscience, he is 
an unadvised man. God may make his bed his grave, he may smite him 
suddenly. Therefore let us every day labour to have a good conscience, 
that so we may have matter of perpetual joy. 

A good conscience especially, is an evangelical conscience ; for a legal 

* That is, of BartLolomew. The after-dread of Charles IX. is recorded by all 
his historians and biographers. See footnote, vol. i. p. 149. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 227 

good conscience none have ; that is, such a conscience as acquits a man 
that he hath obeyed the law in all things exactty. A legal complete good 
conscience none have, except in some particular fact ; there is a good con- 
science in fact. As the heathen could excuse themselves, they were thus 
and thus, Rom. ii. 15 ; and God ministereth much joy in that. But an 
evangelical good conscience is that we must trust to ; that is, such a con- 
science that though it knows itself guilty of sin, yet it knows that Christ 
hath shed his blood for sinners ; and such a conscience as by means of 
faith is sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and is cleared from the accusa- 
tions of sin. 

There is an evangelical conscience when, by faith wrought by the Spirit 
of God, in the hearing of the gospel, we lay hold upon the obedience and 
righteousness of Chi'ist. And such is the obedience and righteousness of 
Christ, that it pacifieth the conscience, which nothing else in the world will 
do. The conscience, without a full obedience, it will alway stagger. 

And that is the reason that conscience confounds and confutes the popish 
way of salvation by works, &c. Because the conscience alway staggers, 
and fears, I have not done works enough, I have not done them well 
enough ; those that I have done they have been corrupt and mixed, and 
therefore I dare not bring them to the judgment-seat of God, to plead 
them meritorious. Therefore they do well to hold uncertainty of salva- 
tion ; because, holding merit, they must needs be uncertain of their salva- 
tion. A true Christian is certain of his salvation, because his conscience 
lays hold on the blood of Christ, because the obedience whereby he claims 
heaven is a superabundant obedience, it is the satisfaction of Christ, as the 
apostle saith in that excellent place, Heb. ix. 14, ' The blood of Christ, 
which offered himself by the eternal Spirit (that is, by the Godhead), shall 
cleanse your consciences from dead works to serve the living God.' The 
blood of Christ that offered himself, his human nature by his divine, to 
God as a sacrifice, it shall purge your consciences from dead works. The 
blood of Christ, that is, the sacrifice, the obedience of Christ, in ofi'ering 
himself, fully pacified God, and answered the punishment which we should 
have endured ; for he was our Sm-ety. ' The blood of Christ speaks better 
than the blood of Abel,' Heb. xii. 24. It speaks better than our sins. 
Our sins cry vengeance, but the blood of Clmst cries mercy. 

The blood of Christ out- cries our sins. The guilty conscience for sin 
cries. Guilty, guilty, hell, damnation, wrath, and anguish ; but the blood 
of Christ cries, I say, mercy, because it was shed by our surety in our behalf. 
His obedience is a full satisfaction to God. 

Now, the way to have a good conscience is, upon the accusations of an 
evil conscience by the law, to come to Christ our surety, and to get our 
consciences sprinkled by faith in his blood, to get a persuasion that he shed 
his blood for us, and upon that to labour to be purged by the Spirit. There 
are two purgers, the blood of Christ from the guilt of sin, and the Spirit of 
Christ from the stain of sin ; and upon that comes a complete good con- 
science, being justified by the blood of Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit 
of Christ. Therefore Christ came not by blood alone, or by water alone, 
but by water and blood ; by blood in justification, by water in sanctifica- 
tion and holiness of life. 

Quest. Why do we allege this now for the sacrament ? 

Arts. We speak of a good conscience, * which is a continual feast,' Prov. 
XV. 15. How comes a good conscience to be such a continual feast ? 

An evangeUcal conscience is a feast indeed ; because it feeds on a higher 



228 COMMENTARY ON 

feast : it feeds on Christ. He is the Passover lamb, as the apostle applies 
it, 1 Cor. V. 7. He is the ' Passover, slain for us ; ' and there is repre- 
sented in the sacrament, his body broken and his blood poured out for our 
sins. He came to feast us, and we shall feast with him. 

Hereupon, if we bring repentance for our sins past, and faith whereby we 
are incorporate into Christ, then our consciences speak peace ; and as it is 
in 1 Pet. iii. 21, the conscience makes a good demand. ' It is not baptism, 
but the demand of a good conscience.' When the conscience hath fed on 
Christ, it demands boldly, as it is Rom. viii. 33, of Satan and all enemies, 
' Who shall lay anything to our charge ? It is God that justifieth. It is 
Christ that died, or rather that is risen again.' It boldly demands of God, 
who hath given his Son. The bold demand of conscience prevails with 
God, and this comes by faith in Christ. Now, this is strengthened by the 
sacrament. Here are the visible representations and seals that we are in- 
corporate more and more into Christ ; and so feeding upon Christ once, 
our conscience is pacified and purged from all dead works, and we come to 
have a continual feast. 

Christ is first the Prince of I'ighteousness, the righteous King, and then 
* Prince of peace ; ' first he gi\es righteousness, and then he speaks peace 
to the conscience. ' The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost,' Rom. xiv. 17. 

So that all our feast and joy and comfort that we have in our consciences, 
it must be from righteousness. A double righteousness : the righteousness 
of Christ which hath satisfied and appeased the wrath of God fully ; and 
then we must have the righteousness of a good conscience sanctified by 
the Spirit of Christ. We must put tliem together alway. We can never 
have communion with Christ, and have forgiveness of sins ; but we must 
have a spirit of sanctification. ' There is mei'cy with thee, that thou mayest 
be feared,' Ps. cxxx. 4. Where there is mercy in the forgiveness of sin, 
there is a disposition to fear it ever after. Therefore if for the present you 
would have a good conscience, desire God to strengthen your faith in the 
blood of Christ poured out for you ; desire God to strengthen your faith in 
the crucified body of Chi'st broken for you ; that so feeding on Christ, who 
is your surety, who himself is yours, and all is yoiu's, you may ever have 
the feast of a good conscience, that will comfort you in false imputations, 
that will comfort you in life and in death, and at the day of judgment. 
' This is our rejoicing in all things, the testimony of our conscience ; ' first 
purged by ' the blood of Christ,' and then purged and sanctified by the 
Spirit of Christ, that we have had our ' conversation in simplicity and sin- 
cerity,' &c. 

* Our rejoicing is this, that in simplicity and sincerity.' This is the matter 
of this testimony of conscience, that is simplicity and sincerity. St Paul 
glories in his simplicity and sincerity. And mark that by the way, it is no 
vain glorying, but lawful upon such cautions as I named before. But to 
add a little, — a man in some cases may glory in the graces of God that are 
in him ; but with these cautions. 

First, if so be that he look on them as the gifts of God. 

Secondly, if he look on them as stained ivith his own defects, and so in 
that respect be humbled. 

Thirdly, if he look upon them as fruits of his justification, and as finiits 
of his assurance of his salvation, and not as causes. 

And then, if it he before men that he glories : not when he is to deal with 



I 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 229 

God. When men lay this and that imputation upon a man, he may rejoice, 
as St Paul doth here, in the testimony of his conscience, ' in simplicity and 
sincerity.' 

The matter of the testimony of conscience wherein he glories is ' simpli- 
city and godly sincerity,' or, as the words may well be read, ' in the sim- 
plicity and sincerity of God,' such as proceeds from God, and such as aims 
at and looks to God, and resembles God. For both simplicity and sincerity 
come from God. They are wrought by God ; and therein we resemble 
God. And both of them have an eye to God, a respect to God. So it is 
in the original, ' in the simplicity and sincerity of God ' [II). 

There is not much difference between simplicity and sincerity. The one 
expresseth the other. If you will have the difference, simphcity especially 
respects men, our conversation amongst men. Simplicity hath an eye to 
God in all things in religion, opposite to hypocrisy in religion. ' Simplicity,' 
that is opposed to doubleness. Where doubleness is, there is alway hypo- 
crisy, opposed to sincerity ; and where simplicity is, there is alway sin- 
cerity, truth to God. But it is not good to be very exact and punctual in 
the distinction of these things. They may one express the other very well. 

* Simplicity.' St Paul's rejoicing was, that his conscience witnessed to 
him his simplicity in his whole conversation in the world, his whole course 
of life, which the Scripture calls in other places a ' walking,' Acts ix. 81. 
St Paul means this first of himself ; and then he propounds himself an ex- 
ample to us. 

Quest. How was St Paul's conversation in simplicity ? 

Ans. Not only if we consider St Paul as a Christian, but consider him as 
an apostle, his conversation was in simplicity. It was without guile, with- 
out seeking himself, without seeking his own ; for rather than he would be 
grievous to the Corinthians, the man of God he wrought himself. Because 
he would not give any the least scandal to them, being a rich people, he 
had rather live by his own labom* than to open his * mouth. He did not 
seek himself. In a word, he did not serve himself of the gospel. He served 
Christ. He did not serve himself of Christ. 

There are many that serve themselves of the gospel, that serve themselves 
of religion. They care no more for religion than will serve their own turn. 
St Paul's conversation was in simplicity. He had no such aim. He did 
not preach of envy, or of malice, or for gain, as ho taxeth some of the 
Philippian teachers, ' Some preach Christ,' not of simplicity and sincerity, 
'but of envy,' &c., Philip, i. 18. 

Then again, as an apostle and a teacher, his conversation was in simpli- 
city ; because he mingled nothing with the word of God in teaching. His 
doctrine is pure. ' What should the chaff do with the wheat ?' Jer. xxiii. 28. 
What should the dross do with the gold ? He did not mingle his own con- 
ceits and devices with the word : for he taught the pure word of God, the 
simple word of God, simple without any mixtm'e of any by-aims. So the 
blessed apostle was simple both in his doctrine and in his intentions ; pro- 
pounding himself herein exemplary to all us, that, as we look to hold up 
our heads with comfort, and to glory in all estates whatsoever, so our con- 
sciences must bear us witness that we carry ourselves in the simplicity and 
sincerity of God. 

Now simplicity is, when there is a conformity of pretension and intention, 
whju there is nothing double, when there is not a contradiction in the spirit 
of a man, and in his words and carriage outwardly. That is simplicity, 

» Qu. 'their?'— G. 



230 COMMENTAKY ON 

when there is an exact confonnity and correspondence in a man's judgment 
and speech, in his affections and actions. When a man judgeth simply as 
the truth of the thing is, and when he affects as he judgeth, when he loves 
and hates as he judgeth, and he speaks as he affects and judgeth, and he 
doth as he speaks, then a man is a simple man. 

Simple, that is properly, that hath no mixture of the contrary. As we 
say, light is a simple thing ; it cannot endure darkness : fu*e is a simple 
body ; it cannot endure the contrary with it : so the pure majesty of God 
cannot endure the least stain whatsoever. So it is with the holy disposition 
of a Christian, "\^^len he is once a new creature, there is a simplicity in 
him. Though there be a mixture, yet he studies simplicity ; he studies to 
have nothing opposite to the Spirit of God ; he studies not to have any 
contradiction in him ; he labours that his heart may not go one way, and 
his carriage another ; that his pretensions be not one, and his intentions 
another. He bears the image of Christ. You know Christ is compared to 
a lamb, a simple creature, fruitful to men, innocent in himself. So the 
Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a dove, a simple creature, that hath 
no way to avoid danger but by flight ; a haimless creature.* 

The devil takes on him the shape of a serpent, a subtle, wild creature. 
The Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a dove. You see then what sim- 
plicity is. It is a frame of soul without mixture of the contrary, 

1. We must not take simplicity /or a defect ; when a man is simple be- 
cause he knows not how to be witty. Simplicity is sometimes taken in that 
sense for a defect of nature, when a man is easily deluded ; but here it is 
taken for a grace. A man that knows how to double with the world, how 
to run counterfeit, how to be false in all kinds ; but he will not. He 
knows the world, but he will not use the fashions of the world. So sim- 
plicity here is a strength of grace. 

2. Likewise, simplicity and plainness, it must not be taken /or rudeness 
and unnecessary opening of ourselves ; for that is simplicity in an evil sense, 
profane rudeness. 

You shall have some that will lay about them, they care not what they 
speak, they cai'e not whom they smite ; but, as Solomon's fool, they throw 
' firebrands,' Prov. xxvi. 18. They speak what they list, of whom they list, 
against whom they list. Here simplicity and plainness is no grace. This 
is no virtue. This is but an easing of their rotten, corrupt, and vile heart. 

We know there are two kinds of sepulchres, open and shut sepulchres. 
They are both naught. f But yet, notwithstanding, your hidden sepulchre 
is less offensive. That which is open stinks that none can come nigh. 
That is very offensive. An hypocrite, that is a hidden sepulchre, a ' painted 
sepulchre ' without, and nothing but bones within, he hath a naughty, 
rotten heart : yet, notwithstanding, he is not so offensive as the open 
sepulchre, which offends all that come near it. So these men that say they 
cannot dissemble, and they have a plain heart, though they will swear, and 
dissemble, and detract, and throw firebrands against any man ; is this a 
plain heart ? It is an open sepulchre, that sends a stench to all that are 
near. 

3. Again, let us take heed, that we do not for simplicity take credulity. 
' The simple man,' saith Solomon, ' will believe everything,' Prov. xiv. 15. 
This is simple credulity. A man must not beheve everything, for there is 
much danger comes by credulity. Jeremiah, and Gedaliah, and others, 

* Cf. ' Bowels Opened,' vol. II., pp. 76-79.— G. 
t That is, ' naughty ' = filthy.— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 231 

they were much harmed by credulity. It is a good fence not to be too 
hasty to believe ; for incredulity and hardness to believe is a good pre- 
servative ; and he is a wise man that will not believe everything. So you 
see there are some things that come near this simplicity, as defect, rudeness, 
and creduUty, which yet are not that simplicity that St Paul saith he 
walked in. 

And this simplicity may well be called the simplicity of God ; because 
God is simple. ' He is light, and in him there is no darkness at all,' 
1 John i. 5. There is no mixtm^e of fraud, or contrariety. He is pure, simple, 
and sincere. And as he is in his nature, so he is in his carriage to men 
every way. There is a simplicity that he doth in his word testify. And 
indeed he hath shewed that he loves us. Would we have a better evidence 
of it than his own Son ? There is no doubling in God's dealing to men. 
And therefore as it comes from God, so this simplicity it resembleth 
God. 

For alas ! if God had had by-respects, what would the creature yield him ? 
Doth he stand in need of us, or doth he need anything we have ? All coun- 
terfeiting, and insincerity, and doubling, is for hope of gain, or for fear of 
danger. Now what can God have of the creature ? What cause hath he 
in us of his dealing toward us ? In his giving, in his forgiving, in aU his 
dealing, he is simple. 

So every one that is the child of God, he hath the virtue of simplicity. 
Simplicity is such a grace as extends to all the parts of our conversation 
As the apostle saith here, ' My conversation in the world hath been in sim- 
pHcity.' 

By nature man is contrary to this simplicity, since the fall. God made 
him right and straight, and simple, but as the wise man saith, * he sought 
out many inventions,' Eccles. vii. 29. So that a man without gi'ace is 
double in his carriage. And that from self-love, from self-ends, and aims. 

And hereupon he must be double ; for there must be something that is 
good in him. For else evil is destructive of itself. If there were not some 
thing good, men could never continue, nor the place could never continue. 
And if all were good, and aU were plain, and honest, that would destroy 
the ill which men labour to nourish. Men have carnal projects to raise 
themselves, to get riches, and this must be by ill means. There is an idol 
in their hearts which they serve, which they sacrifice to. Their self-love, 
either in honour, or in riches, or in pleasure, they set up something. There- 
fore a man without grace, he studies to be strongly ill ; and because he can- 
not be ill except he be good, for then all the world would see it ; hereupon 
comes doubling. Good there must be to carry the iU he intends the more 
close ; ill there must be, or else he cannot have his aim. And hence comes 
dissimulation and simulation, the vices of these times, both opposite to 
simplicity, and such vices as proceed from want of worth and want of 
strength. 

For when men have no worth to trust to, and yet would have the profit 
of sin, and the pleasure of sin, and would have reputation, then they carry 
all dissemblingly. Where there is strength of worth, and of parts, and re- 
putation, there is less dissembUng alway. It is a vice usually of those that 
have little or no virtue in them. A man of strength carries things open 
and fair. 

This dissimulation it comes from the want of this grace of simplicity, 
both 

Before, in, [and] after the project. 



232 C03IMENTARY ON 

1. Before, as you see in Herod. He intends mischief, when he pretends 
he would be a worshipper of Christ, Mat. ii. 8. And so Absalom, he pre- 
tends he had a vow to make, when he intends murder, 2 Sam. xv. 7 ; a 
dissimulation, pretending good when there is an intention of ill before. 

2. So there is a dissimulation in the project for the present, which comes 
from this doubling ; when men carry things fairly outwardly to those with 
whom they live, and yet notwithstanding have false and treacherous hearts ; 
as Judas had all the while he conversed with Christ. He covered his ill with 
good pretexts, a care for the poor, &c. 

3. So after. "When the ill is done, what a world of doubling is there to 
cover ill, to extenuate it, and excuses, and translations ! This is the sim- 
plicity that reigns among men where there is no strength of grace. Where 
there is want of simplicity there is this dissembling. 

And with dissimulation there is simulation, that is, when we make our- 
selves sometimes worse than we are ; when we are better than we seem 
to be. Sometimes that wins on us too. Then we carry not ourselves 
simply. 

For if we were good, we would be good everywhere. But a man that 
useth simulation, if he be in evil company he fashioneth himself to the com- 
pany, he speaks that which his conscience checks him for, he carries him- 
self vainly and lightly, he holds correspondence with the company. So that 
by dissimulation and simulation, there is a fault committed against simph- 
city, which yields the testimony of a good conscience. 

It is a base fault this simulation, which we think to be a lesser fault than 
the other, which is dissimulation. For whom do we serve ? Are we not 
the sons of God ? Are we not the sons of our heavenly Father, the sons of 
the great King ? and for us to carry ourselves not to be such as we are 
in the midst of the wicked world, it is a great want of discretion. St 
Paul would discover who he was, even before the bar ; David * would 
speak of God's righteous testimonies even before princes, and not be 
ashamed,' Ps. cxix. 46. 

And this is that which Christ saith, ' He that is ashamed of me before 
men, of him will I be ashamed before my heavenly Father,' Mark viii. 38. 
Let us take heed of dissimulation and simulation, which are opposite to this 
simplicity. 

Again, this simplicity is opposite to cm*iosity, and fineness. And thus 
the apostle ! Both in his calling and conversation, St Paul conversed in 
simplicity, as a Christian, and as an apostle. 

As an apostle, he was not overcurious in words. He reproveth those 
foolish, vainglorious spirits, that were so among the Corinthians. He de- 
livered the word plainly, and plainness is best in handling the word of God ; 
for who will enamel a precious stone ? We use to enamel that that hath 
not a native excellency in itself, but that which hath an excellency from 
something without. True religion hath this with it alway, that it is simple ; 
because it hath state enough of its o^vn. 

The whore of Babylon hath need of a gilded cup, and pictures, and what 
not, to set her out ; but the true religion is in simplicity. 

Christ himself when he was born, he was laid in a cratch.* He was 
simple in his carriage, and his speeches. It was a common speech in 
ancient time, when the chalices were gold, the priests were wood. In re- 
ligion, fineness and curiosity carry suspicion of falsehood with them. 

Those that oveimuch affect fineness of speech, they are either deceived 
* That is, ' crib or manger.'— G. 



2 COKIKTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 233 

or will deceive. That which is not native, and comes not from within, it 
will deceive. Some falsehoods carry a better colour than some truths ; 
because men set their wits on work to set some colour upon falsehood alway. 

And here take notice of the duty of ministers, that they should utter 
divine truth in the native simplicity of it. St Paul as a minister, delivered 
the plain word plainly. 

And as a Christian in our common course of life, as we should take heed 
of doubling, so of too much curiosity. For too much curiosity in diet or 
apparel, it implies too much care of these things, which hinders our care 
of better things, as our Saviour Christ saith to Martha, ' Martha, thou art 
troubled about many things,' Luke x. 41. 

The soul is finite, and cannot be set about many things at once. There- 
fore, when there is overmuch curiosity in smaller things, it implies little or 
no care in the main. What is more than for decency of place, it argues 
carelessness in the main. Therefore the apostle, labouring to take off that, 
he bids women that they should not be ' decked with gold and broidered 
hair,' &c. ; but to look to the ' hidden man of the heart,' 1 Tim. ii. 9. And 
therefore Christ took off Martha from outward things, because he knew it 
could not be without the neglect of better things. Seriousness in heavenly 
things, it carries a carelessness in other things. And a Christian cannot 
choose but discover a mind that is not earthly and vain. When he is a true 
believer, he regards other things as poor petty things, that are not worthy 
estimation. 

A Christian when he hath fixed his end, to be Uke to God, to be simple 
as God is, he still draws toward his end; and therefore he moderates his 
carriage in all things. What is unnecessary he leaves out. His end is to 
be like God, and like Christ, with whom he shall live hereafter. Now the 
best things are the most simple, as the heavens, the sun, and the stars, &c. 
There is diversity, but no contrariety. There is diversity in the magnitude 
of the stars, but they are of the same nature. So in a Christian there are 
many graces, but they are not contrary one to another. So that a Christian 
hath his main care for better things ; he cares not for the world, nor the 
things thereof. And therefore he accounts them, in comparison of better 
things, as nothing ; and that is the reason that he is careless and negligent 
of those things that he did formerly regard, as having better things to take 
up his thoughts. 

We see then that simpHcity, as it is opposed to doubling, so it is opposed 
to fineness and curiosity. 

And usually where there is a fineness and curiosity, there is hypocrisy ; 
for it is not for nought when men affect anything. Affectation usually is a 
strain above nature. When a man will do that which he is not disposed 
to by natm-e, but for some forced end, it is hypocrisy. So the Corinthian 
teachers argued* the falseness of their hearts by the fineness of their teach- 
ing. They had another aini than to please God and convert souls. Usually 
affectation to the world is joined with hypocrisy towards God. 

Again, this simplicity is contrary to that corruption in popery, namely, 
equivocation. What simplicity is that, when they speak one thing, and 
mean another ? when there is a mental reservation, and such a reservation, 
that if that were set down that is reserved, it were absurd. 

Or else there may be a reservation : a man may reserve his meaning. A 
man may not speak all the truth at all times, except he be called to it, in 
judgment, &c. Otherwise truth, as all good actions, it is never good but 
* That is, ' proved.' — G. 



234 COMMENTARY ON 

■when it is seasonable ; and then it is seasonable when there is convenient fur- 
niture of circumstances, when a man is called to it. For there may be a 
reservation. A man is not bound to speak all things at all times, but to 
wait for a fit time. One word in a fit time is worth a thousand out of time. 
But mental reservation, to speak one thing, and to reserve another, it is 
absurd and inconsequent, and so is dissimulation. There is a lie, in fact. 
A man's life is a lie, that is a dissembler. Dissimulation is naught.* 

A man may sometimes make some show to do something that he intends 
not. Christ made as though he would have gone further when he did not 
mean it, Luke xxiv. 28 (^vim). But dissimulation is that which is intrinsi- 
cally naught.* 

Obj. But some man will say. Except I dissemble, I shall run into danger. 

Ans. Well ! it is not necessary for thee to live, but it is necessary for 
thee to live like an honest man, and keep a good conscience. That is 
necessary.-j- For come what will upon true dealing, we ought to deal truly, 
and not dissemble. Those that pretend a necessity, they must do it, they 
cannot live else, they cannot avoid danger else, unless they dissemble : 
saith Tertullian very well. There is no necessity of sin t© them, upon 
whom there lies no other necessity but not to sin [nu). Christians, they 
are men that have no necessity hes upon them but not to sin. It is not 
necessary they should be rich, it is not necessary they should be poor, it is 
not necessary they should have their freedom and liberty. There is no 
necessity lies upon them, but that they be good, that they do not sin. Can 
he pretend I must sin upon necessity, who hath no necessity imposed upon 
him by God, but to avoid all sin ? 

As for lying, which is against this simplicity that should be in speech, 
all kinds of lies, ofiicious | lies, or pernicious lies. Officious lies, to do a 
good turn to help ourselves or others with a He, it is a gross sin. It is 
condemned by St Austin in a whole book, which he wrote against l3dng.§ 
Therefore I pass it. I shall have occasion to speak somewhat of it after- 
ward. It is intrinsically ill every lie, because it is contrary to the hintj| of 
speech. God hath made our reason and understanding to frame speech, 
and speech to be the messenger and interpreter of reason, and of the con- 
ceit.^ Now when speech shall be a false messenger, it is contrary to the 
gift of speech. Speech should be the stream of understanding and reason. 
Now when the fountain is one, and the spring is another, there is a contra- 
diction. It is against nature, so it is intrinsically ill. It is not only 
against the will of God, but it is against the image of God, which is in 
truth. It is ill, not by inconvenience or by inconsequence, but a pernicious 
lie is inwardly ill. Jesting lies, pernicious lies, officious lies, all lies, let 
them be what they will, they come from the father of lies, the devil, and are 
hated of God, who is truth itself. 

Besides that, it is a sin opposite to society, and therefore by God's just 
judgment it is punished by society. All men hate a bar, a false dissembler, 
as an enemy to society, as a man that ofi'ends against that bond whereby 
God hath kiiit men together. 

Now, to move us the better to this simplicity, this direct course of life, 
that there may be a conformity and harmony between the outward and in- 
ward man, in the thoughts, speeches, and actions, that they may be one. 

1. Consider, first of all, that this simpHcity, it is a comely thing. Come- 

* That is, ' naughty ' = bad.— G. § That is, his ' Be Mendacio.'—Q. 

t See note I, vol. I. p. 210.— G. || That is, ' end.'— Ed. 

X That is, ' o fficial."— G. t That is, ' conception.'— G, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 12. 235 

liness and seemliness, it is a thing that is cleHghtful to the eyes of God, and 
to a man's own conscience ; and it stands in oneness and proportion. For 
you know where there is a comely proportion, there all things suit in one ; 
as in a comely body, the head and all the rest of the members are suitable. 
There is not a young green head upon an old body, or a fair face on a 
deformed body, for then there is two ; the body is one, and the complexion 
another. Beauty and comeliness is in one, when there is a correspondency, 
a proportion, a harmony in the parts. 

In Rev. xiii. 11, seq., you have a cruel beast there with the horns 
of a lamb. There is two, there is a goodly pretension and show, but there 
is a beast that is hid within. Dissimulation is double, and where there is 
singleness and doubleness, there is deformity alway. It is an ugly thing 
in the eyes of God, it is a misshapen thing, it is a monster : Jacob's voice, 
and Esau's hands : words ' as smooth as oil, and war in the heart.' Prov. v. 3, 
Ps. Iv. 21. It is a monstrous thing. Even as there be monsters in nature, 
so there be in disposition. Where there is such a gross mixture, the devil 
and an angel of light, outwardly an angel of light and inwardly a devil ; to 
hide a devil in the shape of an angel of light, there is a horrible deformity. 

It is a comely thing, therefore, when all things hold conformity and cor- 
respondence in our lives, when they are even amongst men, when we labour 
to have sanctified judgments of things, and speak what is our judgment, and 
have outward expressions answerable to the inward impressions wrought by 
the Spirit of God every way, then a man is like himself, he is one. There 
is not a heart and a heart. Adam at the first was every way hke himself, 
but after falling from God to the creature, the changeable, corruptible crea- 
ture, to have his corruptible end, he fell to this doubleness. 

2. And as St James saith, * A double-minded man is unconstant in all 
his trays.' That is another reason to move us to simplicity of disposition ; 
for where doubling is, a man is unconstant in all his ways. What doth St 
James mean by this, where he saith, ' A double-minded man is unsettled ?' 
Because a double-minded man, he looks with one eye to religion, and to 
those things that are good, and with another part of his heart to the world ; 
and hereupon he can never be settled any way. Why ? Because having 
unsettled intentions, having false aims, double aims, he will be crossed con- 
tinually. Please God he would, he would be religious. That is one inten- 
tion. But now comes the world and religion to dash one against another, 
and then he must be inconstant, because he hath not simplicity, he hath 
not a ' single eye,' as Christ saith, ' If the eye be single, then the body is 
light.' He hath not a right intention, a right judgment of things ; he 
judgeth too high of the world, and not high enough of gi-ace and goodness. 
And hereupon it comes, that when the world comes to cross his good inten- 
tions, having his mind on earthly things, because it is cross to religion, his 
mind is unsettled. 

Again, by terrors of conscience, a double-minded man, that will please 
God, and yet be a worldling, is inconstant in all his ways. If his eye 
were single, then all his body would be light ; that is, if a man had a single 
judgment to know what is right, to what in life, and in death to stick to, 
all would be single. The judgment and intentions go together. When a 
man's judgment is convinced of the goodness of spiritual things, upon judg- 
ment follows intention. When a man desires and resolves to serve God, 
and to please him in all things, then all the body and his affections are 
lightsome. His affections and his outward man goes with a single eye. 
A man that hath a false, weak judgment, and thereupon a false, weak, double 



2C6 



COMMENTARY ON 



intention, his body is dark, he hath a darksome conversation. A double- 
minded man is inconstant in all his ways. Therefore we should labour 
for this simpUcity in all our conversation. 

3. Again, we should the rather labour for this simpKcity, because it is 
part of the image of God. Therein we resemble God, in whom is no mix- 
tui'e at all of contraries : but all is alike. 

4. And as it resembles God, so it bears us out in the presence of God, 
and our own conscience ; as he saith here, ' Our rejoicing is this, the testi- 
mony of our conscience, that in simpUcity,' &c. Now God is greater 
than conscience. A man that carries himself in simplicity, and in an uni- 
foiTQ, even manner to God, and to men, that man hath comfort in his con- 
science, and comfort before God. 

And of all other sins, the time will come that none will he heavier on us 
than doubling, both with men and with God, when it will appear that we 
have not been the men that we carried ourselves to be. 

The reason is, the more will there is in a sin, and the more advisedness, 
the greater is the sin ; and the greater the sin is, the greater the terror of 
conscience ; and the greater that is, the more fear and trembling before 
God, that knows conscience better than we do. 

Now where there is doubling, where a man is not one in his outward 
and inward man, in his conversation to men, when there is a covering of 
hatred, and of ill affections with contrary pretences, there is advisement, 
there is much will and little passion to bear a man out, to excuse him ; 
but he doth it, as we say, in cool blood, and that makes dissimulation so 
gross, because it is in cool blood. The more will and advisement is in 
any sin, the gi'eater it is, so the aggravation of sin is to be considered ; 
and where temptations are strong, and the less a man is himself, so 
there is a diminution, and a less aggravation ; as when a man is carried 
with passion, with infii'mity, or the like. But usually when men double 
they plot. 

David he plotted before and after his sin. He doubled before and after 
his sin. That was laid to his charge more than all that ever he did in his 
life. He was a man * after God's own heart, except in the matter of 
Uriah,' 1 lungs xv. 5. Why ? Because in that he plotted. We see before 
what many shifts, and windings, and turnings he had to accomplish it. He 
sends Uriah to Joab, and gives him a letter to place him in the fore front, 
and useth many projects. 

And after it was committed, how did he cover it ? And when it was hid 
from men, he would have hid it from God a great while, till God pulled 
him from his hiding-place, and him* confess roundly, Ps. xxxii. 3, till he 
dealt directly with God, ' My bones were consumed, and my moisture was 
turned into the di'ought of summer.' He hid it from men, and would have 
hid it from God. Therefore, because tLere was much plotting in that sin, 
that is set down as the only blemish in all his life. He ' was a man after 
God's own heart, except in the matter of Uriah.' Many other faults are 
recorded in the Book of God of David ; but because there might be some 
excuse, they were from infirmity, or out of passion, or oversight, &c., they 
are not so charged on him. But this was with plotting. It was in cold 
blood. There was much will and advice in it ; therefore this is doted f for a 
great sin. 

And if it be in our dealing amongst men, we should consider who it is 
we deceive, who it is we go beyond in doubling, who it is that we circum- 
* Qu. ' made liim ? '—Ed. t Qu. ' noted ? '— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, ^-ER, 12. 237 

vent, and who it is that doth it. Are we not all Christians ? We are or 
should be all new creatures. And who do we do it to ? To our fellow-mem- 
bers and to our brethren. Therefore, in Eph. iv. 25,* when the apostle 
dissuades the Ephesians from this, from double dealing, and double 
carnage to men, saith he, ' You are members one of another.' Let us con- 
sider who we are and whom we deal with. 

Now there be some persons, and some courses, that are likelier and 
more prone to this doubling than others, for want of this grace of simplicity. 

Where there is strength of parts, there is ofttimes a turning of them 
against God, and against our brethren. Where grace hath not subdued 
strong imaginations, strong thoughts, and brought all under it, there is a 
turning of those parts against God, and against our brethren. And as it is 
in particular persons, so some callings are more prone to double-dealing, to 
this carriage that is not fair and commendable before God, nor com- 
fortable to the conscience. As we see now a-days it reigns ever3Tvhere, in 
every street. 

We see amongst men of trade, merchants and the like, there is not that 
direct dealing. They know one thing, and pretend another. 

So likewise in the laws there are many imputations, I would they were 
false, that men set false colours upon ill causes ; to gild a rotten post, as 
we say, to call white black and black white. There is a woe in Isaiah pro- 
nounced against such as justify hard causes, such ' as call evil good, and 
good evil,' Isa. v. 20. It is a greater sin than it is usually taken for. 

So, go to any rank of men. They have learned the art of dissimulation 
in then- course ; they have learned to sell wind, to sell words, to sell no- 
thing, to sell pretexts, to overthrow a man by way of commendations and 
flattery. Such tricks there are, which are contrary to this simplicity. To 
cover hatred with fair words, to kill with kindness, as we say, to overthrow 
a man with commendations ; to commend a man before another who is 
jealous of the virtues he commends him for ; to commend a man for valour 
before a coward ; to commend a man, and thereby to take occasion to send 
him out of the way ; to commend a man, and then to come in with an ex- 
ception, to mar all ; to cover revenge and hatred with fair carriage, there- 
by to get opportunity to revenge — such tricks there are abroad, which oft- 
times discover themselves at length. For God is just. He will discover 
all these hidden windings and turnings ; for plotting makes it more odious. 
Of all men doublers are most hateful. 

How shall we come to attain this grace, to converse in the world in 
simplicity ? 

First of all, take it for a rule, though many think it no great matter to be 
a dissembler, our nature is full of dissimulation since the fall The heart of 
man is unsearchable. There is a deep deceit in man. Take a child, and 
see what dissimulation he learns. It is one of the first things he learns, 
to dissemble, to double, to be false. We see the weakest creatures, what 
shifts, what windings and turnings they have to save themselves ? 

It is a virtue to be downright ; for therein a man must cross himself. 
It is no thanks for a man to shuffle, and to shift in the world. Nature 
teacheth this, to dissemble, to turn and wind, &c. A man need not to 
plough to have weeds. The ground itself is a mother to them, though it 
be a stepmother to good seed. So we need not teach men to dissemble. 
Every man hath it by nature. But it must be strength of grace that makes 
a man downright. Take that for a ground. 

* Misprinted ' 1 Thess. iv.' — Q. 



238 COMMENTARY ON 

There are a company of sottish men, that take it for a great commenda- 
tion to dissemble ; and rather than they will be known not to dissemble in 
business, they will puzzle clear business. When a thing is ftiir and clear, 
they will have projects beyond the moon, and so carry themselves in it as 
if they desired to be accounted cozeners and dissemblers. Alas ! poor 
souls. Nature teacheth men to be naught in this kind well enough. Ivnow 
therefore, whosoever thou art that studiest this art of dissembling and 
doubling, thy own nature is prone enough to this, and the devil is apt to 
lead thee into it. This being laid for a ground, how may we carry our- 
selves in the world in holy simplicity, that may yield comfort to our con- 
science in life and in death ? 

1. First consider, that the time will come that we shall deal xvith that that 
will not dissemble with us. Let the eunningest dissembler hold out as long 
as he can, he shall meet with sickness, or with terror of conscience, he shall 
meet with death itself, and with the judgment of God, and hell torment. 
Although now he cany himself smoothly, and dance in a net, as we say, 
and double with the world, though he make a fair show, yet ere long thou 
shalt meet with that that will deal simply with thee, that will deal plain 
enough with thee. Thou shalt be uncased, and laid open to the world ere 
long (oo). Let us consider this. 

We see a snake or serpent, it doubles, and winds, and turns when it is 
alive, till it be killed, and then it is stretched forth at length. As one said, 
seeing a snake dead, and stretched out, so, saith he, it behoved you to 
have lived. So the devil, that great serpent, that ancient ' old serpent,' 
Eev. xii. 9, he gets into the snake, into the wily wit, and makes it wind 
and tm-n, and shift and shuffle in the world. But then some great cross 
comes, or death comes, and then a man is stretched out at length to the 
view of the world, and then he confesseth all, and j^erhaps that confession 
is sincere when it is wrung out by terror of conscience, then he confesseth 
that he hath deceived the world, and deceived himself, and laboured to 
deceive God also. 

K we would have comfort in the hour of death, labour we to deal plainly 
and directly ; and of all other sins, as I said before, remember this is that 
which ^vill lie the heaviest on us, as coming nearest the sin against the Holy 
Ghost. For what is the sin against the Holy Ghost ? When men rush 
against their knowledge in malice to the truth known. Where there is 
most knowledge, and most will, there is the gi'eatest sin. Now in lying 
and dissembling, and double-dealing, a man comes near to the sin against 
the Holy Ghost ; for he knows that he doth ill, he plots the ill that he 
knows ; and when there is plotting, there is time to deliberate ; a man is 
not carried away by passion. 

Consider, the time will come when you will be uncased, when you will 
be laid open and naked ; and then at that time, of all sins, this will lie 
heavy on thee, thy dissembling in the world. Therefore every one in his 
calling, take heed of the sins of his calling, among the rest, of this one of 
double-dealing. 

2. And therefore that we may avoid it the better, labour for faith, to live 
by faith. What is the reason that men live by shifts, and by doubling in 
the world ? They have not faith to depend upon God, in good and plain 
downright courses. Men are ready to say, If I should not dissemble and 
double, and cari-y things after that manner, how should I live ? Why, 
where is thy faith ? The righteous man hves by his faith, and not by his 
shifts, not by his wits. God will provide for us. Are we not in covenant 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER, 12. 239 

with God ? Do we not profess to be God's children ? Do children use to 
shift ? No ; a child goes about to do his father's will and pleasure, and he 
knows that he will maintain him. It is against the nature of the child of 
God, as far as he knows himself to be a child of God, to use any indirect 
course, any windings and turnings in his calling. Let us depend upon 
God as a child depends on his father ; and of all ethers God will provide 
most for them that in simple honesty, in plain downright dealing, depend on 
him in doing good. 

For God accounts it a prerogative to defend and maintain them that 
cast themselves on him. He will be their wisdom that can deny their own 
wisdom, and their own shifts by nature, and in conscience labour to deal 
directly. He will be wise for them and provide for them. It is his pre- 
rogative to do so, and not to suffer his children to be deserted. A little 
faith therefore would help all this, and would make us walk in simplicity. 
If we could make God our all-sufficiency once, then we should walk up- 
rightly before God and men. 

For what makes men to double ? 

This certainly makes men to double. They think they shall be undone 
if they be direct ; for if they deal directly, they shall lose their liberty, or 
their lives, or their opportunity of gaining, &c. Well ; come what will, 
deal thou directly, and know this for a rule, thou shalt have more good 
in God's favour, if thou be a Christian, than thou canst lose in the world, 
if upon grounds of conscience thou deal directly in what estate soever 
thou art. 

If thou be a judge, if thou be a witness, deal directly, speak the truth. 
If thou be a divine, speak directly in God's cause, deal out the word of God 
as in God's presence, come what will, whatsoever thou losest in thy wealth, 
or liberty, &c., thou shalt gain in God. Is not all good in him ? What is 
all the good we have, is it not from him ? And the nearer you come to 
him, the more your happiness is increased ; the more you are stripped of 
earthly things, the more you have in God. Hath not he men's hearts in 
his hands ? When you think you shall endanger yourselves thus and thus 
by plain direct dealing without doubling, if you be called to the profession of 
the truth, &c. ; hath not he the hearts of men in his hands to make them 
favour you when he pleaseth ? In Prov. x. 9, ' He that walketh uprightly, 
walketh boldly.' He that walketh uprightly, not doubling in his courses, 
he walketh safely. God will procure his safety. God that hath ' the 
hearts of men in his hand as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1, he can turn 
them to favour such a man. 

A man's nature is inclined to favour downright- dealing men, and to hate 
the contrary. You see the three young men, when they were threatened 
with fire, come what will, ' king, we will not worship the image of gold 
which thou hast set up,' Dan. iii. 14, seq. They would be burned first. 
What lost they by it ? 

Howsoever, if we should lose, as it is not to be granted that we can lose 
anything by dkect dealing, ' For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof,' Ps. xxiv. 1, and the hearts of men are his. But suppose they do, 
yet they gain in better things, in comfort of conscience, and expectation 
and hope of better things. Faith is the ground of courage, and the ground 
of all other graces that carry a man's courage in a course of simplicity in 
this world. 

Therefore, if we would walk simply, and have our conversation in the 
world in this grace, let us labour especially for faith to depend upon God's 



210 COMMENTARY ON 

promises, to approve ourselves to him, to make him our last and chief end, 
and our communion with him, and to direct all our courses to that end. 
This is indeed to set him up a throne in om* hearts, and to make him a 
God, when rather than we will displease him or his vicegerent, his vicar in 
us, which is conscience (that he hath placed in us as a monitor and as a 
witness), we will venture the loss of the creature, of anything in the 
world, rather than we will displease that vicar which he hath set in our 
hearts. This, I say, is to make him a God ; and he will take the care and 
protection of such a man. St Paul here, in all the imputations, in all 
crosses in the world, he retires home, to himself, to his own house, to con- 
science ; and that did bear him out, that 'in simplicity he had his conver- 
sation in the world.' The next particular is, 

' In sincerity.' The apostle adds to simplicity, this ' godly sincerity.' 
And he may well join these two together, for plainness and truth go to- 
gether. A plain heart is usually a true heart. Doubleness and hypocrisy, 
which are contrary, they always go together. He that is not plain to men 
will not be sincere to God. Simplicity respects our whole course with men- 
Sincerity hath an eye to God, though, perhaps, in matters and actions 
towards men. Sincerity is alway with a respect to God ; and so it is op- 
posed to hypocrisy, a vice in religion opposite to God. 

Now this sincerity that the apostle speaks of, it is a blessed frame of the 
soul, wrought by the Spirit of God, tcherebi/ the soid is set straight and nght 
in a purpose to p)lease God in all things (and in endeavours answerable to that 
purpose), and to offend him in nothing. 

I make a plain description, because I intend practice. There may be 
some nicer descriptions. 

But, I say, it is a blessed frame of the soul, wrought b}' the sincere Spirit 
of God, whereby the soul is set straight and right to purpose, and to endea- 
vour all that is pleasing in God's sight ; and that with an intention to please 
God, with an eye to God, or else it is not sincerity. It is such a disposi- 
tion and frame of soul that doth all good, that hates all ill, with a pui-pose 
to please God in all, with an eje to God. 

And therefore it is called ' sincerity of God,' or 'godly sincerity;' and 
it is called so fitly : because God is not only the author of it, but God is 
the aim of it, and the pattern of it ; for he is the first thing that is sincere, 
that is simple and unmixed. God is the pattern of it. It makes us like 
to God, and he is the aim of it. A man that is sincere aims at God in all 
his courses : wherein he aims not at God he is not sincere. It comes from 
God, and it looks to God. For naturally we are all hypocrites. We look 
to shows. Therefore sincerity is from God. 

And it is the sincerity of God especially, because, where this sincerity is, 
it makes us aim at God in all things, it makes us have respect to him in 
all things, as the creature should have respect to the Creator, the servant 
to the master, the son to the father, the subject to the prince. The rela- 
tions we stand in to God should make us aim at him in all things. 

The observation from hence is this, 

Doct. A Christian that hopes for joy, must have his conscience witness to 
him, that his conversation is in the sincerity of God. 

As the apostle saith here, ' This is the testimony of our conscience, that 
in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation,' &c. 

Now to go on with this sincerity, and lay it open a little. Sincerity, it 
is not so much a distinct thing, as that which goes with every good thing. 
Truth and sincerity, it is not so much a diotinct virtue, and grace, as a 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 12. * 241 

truth joined to all gi'aces ; as sincere hope, sincere faith, sincere love, sin- 
cere repentance, sincere confession. It is a gi'ace annexed to every grace. 
It is the life and sonl of every grace, and all is nothing vv'ithout it. 

Therefore it behoves us to consider of it, I say, not so much a distinct 
thing from other graces, as that which makes other graces to be graces, 
without which they are nothing at all. So much sincerity, so much reality. 
So much as we have not in sincerity, we have nothing to God. It is but 
an empty show, and will be so accounted. 

In philosophy, you know, that which is true, only hath a being and con- 
sistence. All truth hath a being, all falsehood is nothing. It is a counter- 
feit thing. It is nothing to that it is pretended to be. An image is 
something, but St Paul calls it nothing, because it is not that which it 
should be, and which the idolater would have it to be. He would have it 
to be a god, but it is nothing less. All is nothing without sincerity. 
Therefore let us consider of it. And that we may the better consider of it, 
let us look upon it in every action. 

All actions are either good, ill, indifferent. 

How is sincerity discovered in good actions ? 

1. Sincerity is tried in good actions many ways. 

(1.) First of all, a man that is sincere in the doing that which is good, 
he will have a mind prepared to know all that is good; to know the good he 
stands disposed to, to know good, and to learn by all good means. There- 
fore he hath a heart prepared with diligence to be informed in the use of 
means. So far as a man is careless and negligent in coming to the means 
of knowledge, and to be put in mind of good duties, so far a man is an 
hyjjocrite and insincere. 

(2.) Again, in regard of good duties, a true, sincere Christian hath an 
universal respect to all that is good. He desires to know all, and, when any- 
thing is manifested to him, he intends to practise all. ' We are here in the 
presence of God,' saith Cornelius, 'to practise all things that shall be taught 
us by God,' Acts s. 33. 'I will have respect to all thy commandments,' 
Ps. cxix. 6, one and another. 

The ground of it is this, sincerity looks at God. Now God, he commands 
one thing as well as another ; and therefore, if a man do anything that is 
good, in conscience to God, he must do one as well as another. As St 
James saith excellently to this purpose, ' He that offends in one is guilty of 
all,' ii. 10. Because, abstaining from one sin, and doing one good for con- 
science, he will do all for conscience if he be sincere. 

Therefore it is true in divinity, — a man that repents of one sin, he repents 
of all, if he repent of any sin as it is a sin, because all sins are of one nature. 
We must not single out what pleaseth us, and leave what doth not please 
us. This is to make ourselves gods. The servant must not choose his 
work, but take that work that his master commands him ; therefore sincerity 
is tried in universal obedience. 

Partial obedience is insincere obedience. When a man saith, This sin 
I must keep still, herein ' God be merciful to me,' this stands with my 
profit, I must not leave this ; this sin I am affected to, as we see in Saul, — 
this is insincerity. It is as good as nothing to God-ward. It may keep 
a man from shame in the world, &c., but to God it is nothing. A man 
must have respect to all God's commandments. It is not done to God 
else. 

(3.) More particularly, he that is sincere, he tvill have regard of the main 
duties, and he will have regard likewise of the lesser ditties, and especiallg of 

VOL. III. ^l 



2i2 ' COMMENTARY ON 

the lesser, such as are not liable to tlie censure of men, or to the censure 
and punishment of the law ; for there a man's sincerity is most tried. In 
great duties, there are great rewards, great encouragements ; but for lesser 
duties, there are lesser encouragements. But if a man do them, he must 
do them for conscience sake. 

Therefore this is sincerity, to practise good duties though they be lesser 
duties, and though they be less esteemed in the world, and less counte- 
nanced ; to practise them though they be discountenanced by the devil, 
and by great ones ; yet to practise them, because they be good ; and to 
love good things that the world cares not for, because they be good. 

The practice of private prayer morning and evening, it is a thing we are 
not expressly bound to, but as conscience binds us. Therefore if a man 
be sincere he will make conscience of that, as well as any other duty, 
because God bids us ' pray alway,' 1 Thess. v. 17. So, to fear an oath for 
conscience sake, not to swear common or lighter oaths, — for I count him not 
worthy the name of a Christian, that is an ordinary swearer ; but — lighter 
oaths a Christian makes conscience of, because he looks to God. Now 
God looks to little sins as well as to great ; and there is no sin little indeed 
that toucheth the majesty of God. 

The practice of all duties, therefore, is a notable evidence of sincerity. 
Herod did many things, but he had a Herodias, that spoiled all. And so 
if thou obey in many things, and not in all, thou hast a Herodias, a main 
sin. Alas ! all is to no purpose ! thou art an hypocrite. 

(4.) Again, for good things, one that is sincere in respect to God, he is 
uniform in his obedience, that is, he doth all that is good, and he doth it in 
one place as well as another, and at one time as well as another. He doth 
it not by starts. 

Therefore there is constancy required in sincerity. Where sincerity is, 
there is constancy to do it in all times, in all places. Or else it is but a 
humour. It is not sincerity when a man doth it but in good moods, as we 
eay. Therefore a man that is sincere, he makes conscience of private 
duties as well as of public ; of personal duties between God and his own 
soul, as well as of the duties that the world takes notice of; in one place 
as well as another. He is holy not only in the church, but in his closet ; 
not only in his calling as he is a Christian, but when he is about his par- 
ticular business. He considers he is in the presence of God in every place, 
at all times. 

St Paul everywhere laboured to have a good conversation. When he 
was at the bar, he remembered where he was, and he laboured to convert 
others. In the prison he converted Onesimus, Philcm. 10. When he had 
his liberty, he spread the gospel everywhere. 

So in all places he was uniform like himself, which shewed that he had 
a good conscience. And therefore he doth not say, I do now and then a 
good action, but mj course of life, ' m}' conversation, is in sincerity.' So 
there must be sincerity in our walking, our whole conversation. Thus we 
see in good actions how to try our sincerity. 

(5.) A sincere man in the very performance of good duties, he is humble ; 
because he doth all things in the eye of God. He doth it in sincerity 
with humility. He doth all good with reverence, because he doth it to 
God. 

Humility, and reverence, it is a qualification of sincerity ; because what- 
soever we do, we do it in the eye of God. Therefore we are reverent w 
our very secret devotions in our closets. We carry ourselves reverently; 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 213 

because when no eye seeth us, the eye of heaven seeth us, in one place as 
well as another. A sincere christian, is a reverent, and humble Christian, 
and this reverence accompanies all his good actions. 

(6.) And when he hath done all, a sincere Christian that doth them to 
God, he is humble, and then he is thankful ; for he knows that he hath not 
done it by his own strength, but by God, and therefore God hath the 
glory. _ 

He is humble, because they are mixed with some infirmities of his.^ A 
sincere Christian is alway humble, having an eye to God. Though to the 
eye of the world he hath done excellent well, yet he knows that God seeth* 
as he seeth. He seeth some defects, God seeth more, and that humbleth 
him. As we see David, 1 Chron. xxix. 14. Saith he, ' Who am I ? or 
who is this people, that we should be able to offer willingly after this sort ? 
AU things come of thee ; of thine own I have given thee.' So he humbled 
himself in thankfulness to God. 

2. For ill actions, (1.) a true sincere Christian beforehand he intends none. 
He regards none in his heart. Ps. Ixvi. 18, ' If I regard iniquity in my hearts, 
the Lord will not hear my prayers.' His disposition is to regard none. 
He is in league with none. If he were, his heart were Mse, his conscience 
would tell him he were an hypocrite. He is subject to infirmities, but he 
doth not respect them, he doth not regard them. He intends not in his 
heart to live in them. 

(2.) Again, if he fall into any sin, he is sincerely yrieved for them. His 
heart is tender, and he sincerely confesseth them, without guile, Ps. xxxii. 
2. ' Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile,' who when he 
sees he hath sinned, he doth not guilefully cloak and extenuate his sin. 
As we see Saul, he had many evasions, and excuses for himself, 1 Samuel 
xiii. 12. A true Christian will lay open his sin with all the aggravations 
that his conscience tells him of. As David saith, what a fool, ' and what 
a beast was I,' Ps. Ixxiii. 22 ; what an unthankful creature was I to sin 
against so many benefits and favours ! He will be ashamed and con- 
founded in himself. 

(3.) And of all sins, a sincere Christian is most careful to avoid his 
■personal sins. You may know sincerity by that. He that takes not heed 
to that which he is most inclined unto, he shall be tripped in it. 

An hj^ocrite and Mse-hearted man, he doth good, but it is with a 
purpose to be favoured in some sin wherein he strengtheneth himself. He 
will do something, that God may be favourable to him in other things. 

But a true sincere Christian, though he be inclined by temper of body, 
or by his calling, or by the former custom of his unregenerate life, to some 
sin more than another, and he hath not shaken some sin wholly off, he hath 
not purged himself wholly of the dregs of it, but he finds still a propense- 
ness in his nature to it ; yet as far as he is sincere, he gets strength, 
especially against that. A false-hearted man favours himself, especially in 
those sins ; and will swell if he be found out in them. He wiU not bear a 
reproof. But a Christian that is sincere, that intends amendment, that 
intends to be better, he would reform his heai't if it be amiss, and is will- 
ing to be discovered in his most particular and personal sin's that he is 
prone to. 

We may try ourselves by this, not only by hating sin in general and at 
large, but how we stand affected, especially to those particular sins we are 
most prone to. Sincerity, as it hates all wicked ways, so it hates those sina 
* Qu. 'teeth not?'-G. 



244 COMMENTARY ON 

that are most sweet, that wo are most prone to, as -ffell as any other, nay, 
more than any other ; beeansc those especially endanger the soul. A child 
of God will abstain from all evil. He will be careful, not only that others 
abstain from sin, but he will abstain from sin himself most of all. Noisome 
things we hate them always, but wc hate them most when they are nearest 
ns. As a toad, we hate it afar off, much more when it is near. So a sin- 
cere Christian hates sin most in his own breast. 

(4.) Now because sincerity hath an eye to God, I must hate all sin as well 
as a))!/, or else I am not sincere. 

A man that hath the point of his soul to God-ward, he will hate all man- 
ner of ill, little ills as well as great ; because all sin agrees in this, — all sin is 
against God. It is contraiy to the mind of God ; and all sin is pernicious 
to the soul. All sin is against the pure word of God, and considering it is 
60, therefore I must hate all sin, if I hate any ; because God hates all, and 
all sin is contrary to the image of God ; and not onlj^ contrary to the image 
of God, but contrary to the revealed will of God, contrary to my soul's com- 
fort, contrary to communion with God, and contrary to the peace of my 
conscience. Those regards come in every sin. Every sin hinders that. 

(5.) Again, where the soul and conscience is sincere, there will be a spe- 
cial care for the time to come of the sins ive have been overtaken uithal. So 
we see how this sincerity may be tried, in abstaining from evil, as well as 
in the good we do. 

3. For actions that are of a more common nature, that in themselves are 
veitJier f/ood nor ill, hut as the doer is, and as the doer stands affected, a true 
Christian may be tried by them thus — 

(1.) For the actions of his callinrf, though they be good in their kind, yet 
they be not religious, thus he stands affected if he be sincere, — he doth them 
as God's work. Common actions are as the doer is affected. A sincere 
man considers what he doth as God's work. He is commanded to serve 
God in his callin^ as well as in the church ; an&, therefore, he will not do 
it negligently. ' For cursed is he that doth the worK ui the Lord negli- 
gently,' Jer. xlviii. 10. 

He will not do it falsely. He will not profane his calling. I will not 
prostitute my calling to serve my lust, or to serve my gain. Doth not God 
see it ? is not he the author of my calling ? is it not his work, saith con- 
science ? Yes ! and therefore he doth common actions with an eye to God, 
and so he makes them good and religious actions. For the grace of God 
is a blessed alchymist ! Wliere it toucheth, it makes good and religious. 
Though the actions be not so in their own nature, it raiseth the actions, it 
elevates them higher than themselves. 

It makes the actions of our calling, that are ordinary actions, to be holy, 
when they are done with an eye of sincerity to God. As St Paul saith, the 
very servant serves God in serving his master. 

(2.) And so for actions that we account most indifferent, as recreations 
and lihevtij to refresh onrselves. A sincere man considers of them as a liberty 
bought to him by the blood of Christ, and considers himself in the presence 
of God. And, therefore, whatsoever he doth, ' whether he eat or drink.' 
&c., 1 Cor. X. 31, he still useth his refreshings as in the presence of God, 
and doth all as in the sight of God. His conversation, that is, his whole 
course, whatsoever he doth, is sincere with an eye to God, He knows his 
corruption is such that it most watcheth him in his liberties ; for the more 
lawful a thing is, the more we are in danger to be entangled in it. 

In excess, in open ills, there is not so much danger as in things that 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. Jilo 

seem indifferent, lawful recreations, &c. Recreations, and such things, are 
lawful ; but to spend whole nights unthriftily, basely, scandalously this way, 
it is not only against religion, but against civihty. In a civil man's judg- 
ment, it is a scandal to the place and person. Therefore he that hath any 
truth of grace in him, he will look to himself, and look to God in the most 
free actions of all. You see then how we may judge of our sincerity what- 
soever we do. A sincere Christian stands thus affected in some measure, in 
some degree, in the good he doth, in the ill he abstains from. Whatsoever 
it be, he thinks he hath to deal with God. 

Use 1. Now to stir us up to this blessed state, to labour for this frame of 
soul, to be sincere, to have our conversation in sincerity, what needs be 
added more than this, that without it all is nothing. 

1. All our glorious performances are mere aho)ninations, icithout sinceritij. 
God wiU say, you did it not to me, you did it for vaingloiT, you did it for 
custom or out of education, for vain and by-respects, and not to me, and do 
you look for a reward of me ? You did it not for conscience ; for conscience 
alway looks to God. And what we do not in conscience and obedience to 
God, in our general or particular calling, it stands not on our reckoning 
with God. It is as good as if it were not done, in regard of God, and of 
the life to come. ' You have your reward,' saith 'hrist, Mat. vi. 2. It is 
no matter what your respects be here. If you carry yourselves carefully in 
your place, to have the credit of men, to gain the favour of men, you have 
your reward. Will you look for a reward from God, when what you did, 
you did it to the world ? 

What a pitiful thing is this, that a man should do many things, many 
years together, and yet do nothing that may further his day of account, 
because it was not done out of conscience of his duty ? His conversation 
was not in sincerity to God. Now, if we have not truth we have nothing 
in religion. St Paul saith, as I said before, ' Of an idol, it is nothing,' 
Why ! it is a piece of wood, or a piece of gold, the materials of it is some- 
thing, but it is nothing to that which it should be. If a man be not true in 
religion, he is nothing in that. He is a true hypocrite, but a false Chris- 
tian. He is nothing in Christianity. He is something in hypocrisy, but 
that something is nothing. 

All the shows in the world, and all the flourishes, they are nothing. 
What is the reason that excellent clerks,* men of excellent parts, die 
comfortless many times ? Why ! God is not beholden to them for all that 
they did. They sought their own praise. As the prophet Isaiah saith, 
' When you fasted, did you fast to me ?' Zech. vii. 5. When you did good 
works, did you do them to me ? may God say. There was no truth in it. 
So much simplicity, so much comfort. Sincerity is all that we can come to 
in this world. Perfection we cannot attain to. Christ is perfection lor us. 
Truth is aU that we can reach to, and without that all is nothing. There- 
fore we ought to regard it especially. 

2. Again, on the other side, this is a great encouragement to be sincere, 
to be true-hearted in all our courses and actions ; because it gives acceptance 
to whatsoever ice do ; and it is that by which God values us. God values us 
not by perfection, not by glorious shows, but by what we have in truth. 
So much truth, so much worth. A little pearl is worth a great deal of 
rubbish. 

A little sincerity, because it is God's own creature, it is ' the sincerity of 
God,' it is wrought by him, it is his stuff. There is an almighty power to 
* That si, =: ' ministers of the gospel.' — G. 



246 COMMENTARY OX 

work tiiitli in us ; for by nature wc are all false. God gives to some men 
to can-y themselves more civilly than others ; but it is nothing worth except 
God change a man by gi-ace ; because God accepts us according to sincerity. 
God values us by truth. So much truth, so much esteem of the God of 
truth. 

And where this sincerity is, God bears with many infirmities. As hi 
marriage, the husband that is discreet, that knows what belongs to mar- 
riage, if the heart of the wife be true, though she have many woman-hke 
infirmities, he passeth by them as long as the conjugal knot is kept im- 
violate. So a Christian, if his heart be true, that he looks to God in all 
things, though he have many infirmities, God passeth by them. As 
we see in Asa ; how manj' faults had he committed ? He trusted in the 
physicians, he used the prophet hardly, and many other faults, and yet it 
is said that his heart was upright all his daj's, because he had truth in him. 
It was in passion that he did this or that otherwise. So Hezckiah, although 
he had many infuinities, jet he could say that he ' had walked uprightly 
before God,' Isa. xxxviii. 3 ; and God did well esteem him for it. And 
when he speaks of those that were to come to the passover, ' Be merciful 
to those that prepare their hearts,' 2 Chron. xxx. 19, those that have true 
hearts, though they have many weaknesses. 

Now, if the heart be false, though a woman have many virtues, yet if she 
want the main, if she have a false heart to her husband, what is all the 
rest ? So the soul that is married to God, that hath, sweet communion 
with God, if the heart and soul be naught, what are all the shows in the 
world ? They are nothing. Let us take it to heart, therefore, and labour 
to approve our hearts and souls to God in all that we do, more than our 
hves and outward conversations to the world. Let them think what they 
will, so God approve of our hearts, and intentions, and purposes ; we are 
not to ' pass what the world judgeth,' as St Paul saith of himself, 1 Cor. 
iv. 3. 

3. Again, this should encourage us to labour for sincerity and truth, be- 
cause wheresoever that is, there is a (froidnfi to perfection. ' To him that 
hath shall be given,' Mat. xiii. 12. ' If we order our conversation aright,' 
as the psalmist saith, Ps. 1. 23, and labour to please God in all things, the 
more we do, the more we shall have grace to do; and the more we have, the 
more we shall have. ' To him that hath shall be given ; ' that is, he that 
truly hath, and doth not seem to have, but [he that] hath not indeed, that 
seemeth to have goodness, and hath none indeed, that which he hath shall be 
taken from him. 

A true Christian is alway on the mending hand. It is a blessed prero- 
gative. He is alway mending and bettering by God's blessing. For where 
God gives in truth, if it be but a little, if it be but a grain of mustard-seed, 
if it be true, he will cherish it till it come to be a tree. He wiU add grace 
to grace, one degree of grace to another. Where there is truth, it is alway 
honoured with growth. It is not only a sign of truth, but where truth is 
there will be an endeavour of growth. It is a prerogative. Where God be- 
stows truth, he will always add the grace of gi'owth, though not at all times 
alike. Yet if Christians sometimes do not grow, their not growing and their 
failings shame them, and makes them grow more afterward, and recover 
their former backwardness. A true Christian is alway on the mending 
hand. An hypocrite grows worse and worse alway, till he be uncased alto- 
gether, and turned into hell. These and such like considerations may stir 
us up to labour to have a conversation in simplicity and godly sincerity. 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEB. 12. 247 

Use 2. Now, how shall we come to carry ourselves in sincerity, that we 
may have comfort in all estates ? 

That we may carry ourselves in sincerity, 

1. First, M'e 7niist get a change of heart. Our nature must be changed. 
For by nature a man aims at himself in all things, and not at God. A man 
makes himself his last end. He makes something in the world, either pro- 
fits, or pleasures, &c., the term that he looks unto. Therefore, there must 
be a change of heart. A man must be a good man, or else he cannot be a 
sincere man. Such as we are, such our actions wiU be. Therefore, we 
cannot be sincere till we have our hearts changed. 

2. No man can aim at God's glory, but he that hath felt God's love in 
himself. Therefore as a particular branch of that, labour to get assurance 
of the love of God in Jesus Christ ; for how can we endeavour to please 
him unless we love him ? And how can we love him unless we be per- 
suaded that he loves us in Christ ? Therefore let us stablish our hearts 
more and more in the evidences of his love to us ; and then loiowing that 
he loves us, we shall love him, and labour to please him in all things. 
These are grounds that must be laid before we can be sincere ; to get as- 
surance of God's love to us in the pardon of our sins. ' Our conscience 
must be purged from dead works, to serve the li\dng God,' as the apostle 
saith, Heb. ix. 14 ; that is, we cannot serve God to our comfort till our 
consciences are sprinkled with the blood of Christ, which assures us of the 
pardon of our sins. Therefore saith Zacharias, ' We are redeemed, that 
we might serve him in righteousness and holiness before him all the days 
of our life,' Luke i. 75. So that unless a man be redeemed, he cannot 
serve him in righteousness and holiness ' before him ' all the days of his 
life ; that is, he cannot serve God in sincerity. 

For who will labour to please his enemy ? Therefore the papists main- 
tain hypocrisy when they say we ought not to be persuaded of the love of 
God, for then we ought to be hypocrites. For how shall we seek him with 
the loss of favour, and of credit, and of life itself, if we know not that his 
favour will stand us in stead, if we lose these things for him ? 

3. Again, that we may be sincere, let us labour to mortifg all our earthlv; 
affections to the ivorld ; for how can we be sincere when we seek for honours,, 
and pleasures, and riches, and not for better things ? Therefore we must 
know that there is more good to be had in truth, in a downright Christian 
profession, than in all worldly good whatsoever. And if we be hypocrites 
in our profession, there is more ill in that than in anything in the world. 
This wiU make us sincere, when we can be persuaded that we shall get 
better things by being sincere in rehgion than the world can give us, or 
take away from us. For why are men insincere and false-hearted ? 
Because they think not religion to be the true good. They think it is 
better to have riches than to have a good mind. These things therefore 
must be mortified ; and a man must know that the life of a Christian is in- 
comparably the best life, though it be with the loss of Hberty, yea, with the 
loss of life itself. 

Simon Magus grew to false affections in religion, because he thought to 
have profit by it. So the Pharisees, they had naughty hearts, and there- 
fore they had no good by religion. No man can profit by religion so long 
as his heart is naught, so long as there is some idol in his heart. A good 
Christian had rather have a large heart to serve God, and rather grow in 
the image of God, to be like him, than to grow in anything in the world, 
and that makes him sincere out of a good judgment ; because Christian ex- 



248 COililEKTABY ON 

cellency is the best excellency incomparably. For he knows well what all 
else will be ere long. "What ! will all do good, riches, honours, friends ? 
WTiat good will they do in the hour of death ? There is nothing but grace, 
and the expression of it in the whole conversation, that will comfort us. 
Therefore he undervalues all things in the world to sincerity and a good 
conscience. 

4. Again, that we may have our conversation in sincerity, let us labour 
in everything we do to approve ourselves to the eye of God. We see the 
Scripture everywhere shews, that this hath made God's children conscien- 
tious in all their com-ses ; even when they might have sinned not only 
secm-ely, but with advantage. What kept Joseph from committing folly 
with his mistress ? ' Shall I do this, and sin against God ? ' Gen. xxxix. 
9. And so Job in chap, xxxi., he shews what awed and kept him from 
ill-doing ; in ver. 3, ' Doth not he see my ways, and account all my steps ? ' 
This was it that kept him in awe. So the church of God, Ps. xliv., being 
in great distress, they kept themselves from idolatry, and from the conta- 
gion of the times wherein they hved. Upon what ground ? You shall see 
in verse 21, 'If we had done thus and thus, shall not God search it out ? 
for he knows the very secrets of the heart.' So a Christian being per- 
suaded of the eye of God upon him, it makes him sincere. The eye of God 
being ten thousand times brighter than the sun, he being light itself. He 
made the heart, and he knows all the turnings of the heart. The con- 
sideration of this will make us sincere in our closets, in our very thoughts ; 
for they all lie open and naked to his view. 

What is the reason that men practise secret villany, secret wickedness, 
and give themselves to speculative filthiness ? Because they are atheists. 
They forget that they are in the eye of God, who sees the plots and projects 
of their hearts, and the nets that they have laid for their brethren. There- 
fore David brings them in saying, ' Tush ! God sees us not,' Isaiah xxix. 15. 
And that is the reason they are unconscionable in their desires, in their 
hearts, in their secret thoughts. It is from a hidden atheism. For if we 
did consider that the eye of God sees us in all our intents and actions, and 
sees us in what manner we do all, and to what end ; that he sees every 
action, with the circumstances, the aims, and ends ; if the heart did well 
ponder this, it would prevent a great deal of evil. 

Conscience is the witness of our conversation,' a witness that will keep us 
fi-om offending. If there were a witness by, and that witness were a great 
person, a judge, &c., it would keep us in our good behaviour. Now when 
a man shall consider, I have a witness within me, my conscience ; and a 
witness without, which is God, who is my Judge, who can strike me dead 
in the committing of a sin, if he please : this would make men, if they were 
not atheists, to fear to sin. 

Let us labour therefore to approve our hearts to God, as well as our con- 
versations to men ; set ourselves in the presence of God, who is a discerner 
of our thoughts as well as of our actions ; and that which we should be 
ashamed to do before men, let us be afraid to think before God, That is 
another means to come to sincerity. 

5. Another direction to help us to walk sincerely is, especiaUy to look to 
the heart, look to the beginning, to the spring of all our desires, thoughts, 
affections, and actions, that is, the heart. The qualification of that is the 
quahfication of the man. If the heart be naught, the man is naught. If 
that be sincere, the man i;; sincere. Therefore look to the heart. See 
what springs out thence. If there spring out naughty thoughts and desires, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 12. 249 

suppress them in the beginning. Let us examine every thought. If we 
fird that we do but think an evil thought, execute it presently ; crush it : 
for all that is naught comes from a thought and desire at the first. There- 
fore let us look to our thoughts and desires. See if we have not false de- 
sires, and intents and thoughts answerable. 

God is a Spirit, and he looks to our very spirits : and what we are in our 
spirits, in our hearts and affections, that we are to him. Therefore, as a 
branch of this, what ill we shun, let us do it from the heart, by hating it 
first. A man may avoid an evil action from fear, or out of other respects, 
but that is not sincerity. Therefore look to thy heart, see that thou hate 
evil, and let it come from sincere looking to God. ' Ye that love the Lord, 
hate the thing that is evil,' saith David, Ps. xcvii. 10 : not only avoid it, 
but hate it ; and not only hate it, but hate it out of love to God. And 
that which is good, not only to do it, but to labour to delight and joy in it. 
For the outward action is not the thing that is regarded, but when there is 
a resolution, a desire and delight in it, then God accounts it as done. And 
so it is in evil. If we dehght in evil, it is as if it were done already. 
Therefore in doing good, look to the heart, joy in the good you do, and then 
do it ; and in evil, look to the heart, judge it to be evil, and then abstain 
from it. 

This is the reason of all the errors in our lives. Because we have bad 
hearts, we look not to God in sincerity. Judas had a naughty heart. He 
loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore he had a naughty conclusion. 
What the heart doth not, is not done in religion. Thus we see how we 
may come to have our conversation in sincerity, that we may rejoice in the 
testimony of our conscience. 

Use. Therefore now, to make an use of exhortation, we should labour for 
sincerity, and esteem highly of it, because God so esteems of it. Truth is all that 
we can allege to God. We cannot allege perfection. St Paul himself saith 
not, I have walked exactly or perfectly : no, but he saith, ' This is our re- 
joicing, that we have walked in sincerity.' So, if a man's conscience can 
excuse him of hypocrisy and doubling, though it cannot fi'ee him from im- 
perfections, God in the covenant of grace looks not so much at perfection 
as at truth. 

Obj. Here I might answer an objection of some Christians. Oh, but I 
cannot pi'ay without distraction, I cannot delight so in good things, &c. 

Ans. Though a Christian's heart cannot free him from this, yet his heart 
desires to approve itself to God in all things ; and his heart is ready to say 
to the Lord, as David said, ' Lord, try me, if there be any way of wicked- 
ness in me,' Ps. cxxxix. 23. And therefore he will attend upon all means 
to get this sincerity. He will be diligent in the word of God, for therein 
the mind of God is manifestly seen. The word of God, it is a begetting 
word, it makes us immortal, it makes us new creatures. It is truth, and 
the instrument of truth. Truth will make truth. The true sincere word 
of God, not mingled with devices, it will make what it is. The word of 
God, being his word who is Almighty, it hath an almighty transforming 
power from him. It is accompanied and clothed with his Almighty Spirit. 
Truth will cause truth. Such as it is in itself it will work in our hearts. 

In that mongrel, false religion, poperj^ they have traditions, and false 
devices of men, and so they make false Christians. Such as they are they 
make. Strain them to the quintessence, and they cannot make a tnie 
Christian. Truth makes true Christians. Therefore attend upon God's 
ordinance with all reverence, and it will make thee a sound heart. It is a 



250 



COMMENTARY ON 



transforming word. Those that desire to hear the word of God, and to 
have their consciences to be infoiined by the hearing of it, they are sincere 
Christians ; and those that labour to shut up the word of God, that it may 
not work upon the conscience, they are false-hearted. 

A heart that is sincere, it prizeth the word of God that makes us sincere. 
The word of God hath this effect, especially being unfolded in the ministry 
of it, that a man may say, as Jacob did, ' Doubtless God is in this place,' 
Gen. xxviii. 17. It is all that is ours. Nothing runs upon our reckoning 
but sincerity. For what I have not done truly, conscience saith I have 
not done to God, and therefore I can expect no comfort for it ; but what I 
have done to God, I look to have with comfort : for I know that God regards 
not perfection, but sincerity. He requh'es not so much a great faith, as a 
true faith ; not so much perfect love, as true love, and that I have in truth, 
as St Peter said, ' Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,' John xvi. 30. 

This will make us look God, who is the Judge, in the face. It gives us 
not title to heaven, for that is only by Christ ; but it is a qualification 
required of us in the gospel. Nothing is ours but what we do in truth. 

And again, consider that it will comfort us against Satan at the hour of 
death. When Satan shall tempt us to despair for our sins, as that he will 
do, we may comfort ourselves with this, that we have been sincere. We 
may send him to Christ, for that must be the way, who hath fulfilled God's 
will, and satisfied his Father's wrath. Satan will say. This is true ; 
it is the gospel, and therefore it cannot be denied ; but it is for them that 
have walked according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh ; for 
those that have obeyed God in all things. Now when our conscience shall 
join with Satan, and say, we did nothing to God, we have not obeyed 
him, how can we answer him ? we must needs yield to the tempter. But 
when we can say with Peter, ' Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,' thou 
knowest I have laboured to approve my heart to thee, and that I have 
prosecuted this desire with endeavours ; this will comfort a man in the 
time of temptation. Therefore let us labour to have our conversation in 
sincerity. 

It will afford us much comfort in this Hfe, as it did St Paul. St Paul 
here was in some grievous sickness, even to death, and he was disgraced as 
a person that regarded not his promise of coming to them. Now what doth 
he do in all this sickness and disgrace ? what doth he answer to them ? 
He comforts himself in this, ' My rejoicing is, that my conscience doth testify 
my sincerity.' He runs to God, and to his sincerity, as his stronghold. He 
approves himself to God. Something we shall have in this life first or last ; 
afllictions, or disgraces, and troubles will come. What is then the strong- 
hold of a Christian ? Then he runs to his sincerity. What would Heze- 
kiah have done when he received the ' sentence of death,' [if it had not been] 
that he had walked before God in uprightness and sincerity ? Sincerity 
then is worth more than the world. And he that will not labour for that 
which is worth more than all the world, it is a sign he is ignorant of the 
worth of it. A man at the hour of death he would lose all the world if he 
had it, for sincerity. 

Therefore let us not part with our sincerity. Let us not offend against 
sincerity and truth by falsehood in our carriage, and in our tongues, or con- 
versations any manner of way, since it will yield us so much comfort in 
temptations, and afflictions, and at the tribunal and judgment-seat of 
Christ. 

Let us not have false aims and ends, and do things in a false manner. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 251 

It is not action only that God requires, but the manner. If we regard not 
the manner, God will not regard the matter. The matter of the Pharisees' 
performances was very good for stuff, but their hearts being naught, God 
regarded it not. Let us look to the manner of doing all that we do, that 
we do them to God, that we do them in sincerity, in a holy manner. The 
Scripture requires this, receive the sacrament, but thus, ' Examine your- 
selves,' 1 Cor. xi. 28. ' Take heed how you hear,' Mark iv. 24. Let your 
conversation be in the world, but thus, ' in simplicity and godly sincerity.' 
St Paul doth not say that he rejoiced in miracles, or in the great works that 
he had done, in converting of nations, &c., which yet were matters of joy ; 
but when he comes to joy indeed, here is his joy, that his conversation had 
been in ' simplicity and godly sincerity.' 

And Christians must take heed that they reason not against sincerity 
another way, that is, to conclude they have no goodness, because they see 
a great deal of corruption and imperfections ; for imperfections may stand 
with truth. Asa, as I said, had many infirmities in his life, yet notwith- 
standing it is said, that he walked in sincerity. So Hezekiah, it is said he 
' walked before God uprightly,' j'et he had many infirmities and imperfec- 
tions. Nay, a man may well retort this upon such poor souls, that are 
witnesses with Satan against themseves, in the sight of their sins, that their 
sins being known by them, especially with hatred of them, it is a sign of 
sincerity. 

Again, others are ready to say, I am not sincere, because God follows 
me with afflictions and distresses. Reason not so, for he therefore follows 
thee with afflictions, because he would have nothing but sincerity in thee. 
He would make thee wholly sincere, and purge thee as metal is purged in 
the fire from the dross. Therefore take heed thus of sinning against sin- 
cerity. Do nothing in h}^ocrisy. And when we are once sincere, let us 
not sin against it by yielding to the devil. This comforted Job, when his 
friends alleged his corruptions. ' Well,' saith he, ' you shall not take away 
my sincerity from me,' Job xxvii. 6. He looked to the eye of God, that saw 
him, to whom he approved his heart ; and that consideration made him 
sincere, and thence he comforted himself. So let us comfort ourselves in 
our sincerity against Satan's allegations ; as a condition of the covenant of 
grace, which respects not perfection but tnith. 

To add one thing more. As there is an order of other graces ; so there 
is an order in this sincerity which we should labour for. There is this order 
to be kept. 

1. We must dig deep. We must lay a sincere foundation. What is that ? 
A deep search into our own hearts and ways by sound humiliation. We 
say of digestions, if the first be naught, all are naught ; if the fu'st concoc- 
tion in the body be naught, there can never be good assimilation, there 
can never be good blood. So if there be not a good, a sincere foundation, 
there can never be a sincere fabric. Therefore many mistake, and build 
castles in the air, comb-downes, as we say (pp). They build a frame of pro- 
fession that comes to nothing in the end ; because it is not sincere in this 
order. They were never truly humbled. They had a guileful heart, in the 
confession of their sins. They never knew what sin was throughly, and 
feelingly. ' Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile,' Ps. xxxii. 
2. The psalmist especially means and intends there, in regard of down- 
right dealing with God in the confession of sins. For he himself when he 
did not deal roundly and uprightly with God in the confession of his sins, 
with detestation, and with resolution never to commit the same again, lie 



2o'A 



COilMENTARY OX 



was in a pitiful plip;ht both of soul and body ; his moisture was turned into 
' the drought of summer,' Ps. xxxii. 4. 

2. But when without guile he laid open his soul to God, then he came 
from sincere humihation, and sincere confession, to sincere faith. Therefore, 
for the order, let us first labour to be sincere in the sight of that which is 
ill in us, in the confession of oui- sins, and then we shall be smcere, the 
better to depend upon God's mercy in Christ by faith. 

3. And from thence we shall come to sincere love. When we believe that 
God is reconciled in Christ, we shall love him. Our love is but a reflection 
of his love to us. When once we know that he loves us, we shall love him 
again. 

The spring of all duty is sincere love, coming from sincere faith ; as 
sincere faith is forced out of the sincere sight of our sins, of the ill and 
miserable estate we are in. A man will not go out of himself, so long as he 
sees any hope in himself ; and therefore sound knowledge of the evil condi- 
tion we are in, it forceth the grace of faith, which forceth a man to go out 
of himself. And then when he is persuaded of God's love in Christ, he 
loves him again. 

Love is that which animates, and quickens, and enlivens all duties. What 
are all duties, but love ? Christ reduceth all to love. It is a sweet affection 
that stirs up and quickeneth to all duties. It carries us along to all duties. 
All are love. What need I stand on sincere patience, sincere temperance, 
sincere sobriety, &c. ? If a man have sincere love to God, it will carry him 
to all duties. Remember this order. 

Especially every day, enter into your own souls, and search impartially, 
what sin there is there unconfessed, and unrepented of, and make your peace 
with God by confession. And then go to sincere dependence on God by 
faith in the promises. And then stir up your hearts to love him ; and 
from the love of him to love one another in sincerity, not in hypocrisy. 
Thus we have the maimer of the blessed apostle's carriage in the world, 
whereupon his rejoicing was founded. ' Our rejoicing is this, the testi- 
.mony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,' 

* We have had our conversation in the world.' I will speak a little of 
those words, before I come to the negative paii, ' Not in fleshly wisdom.' 

* Our conversation.' By ' conversation,' anastrophe* he means the 
several turnings of his life, in what relation soever he stood to God, to men, 
as a minister, as a Christian, as a friend, as a neighbour, at home or 
abroad, in all estates, in all places, and at aU times. His conversation was 
* in simplicity and sincerity.' 

' In the world,' that is, wheresoever he had lived. And mark how he joins 
them together. His conversation in the world amongst men, it was with 
sincerity to God. It was that that did rule his conversation in the world. 
And so it should be with us wheresoever we are, or v/hatsoever we do in 
the world, our carriage here must be directed by a higher aspect. The ship 
while it is tossed in the sea, it is ruled by the pole-star. That must guide 
it. So in our conversation in the world. The stuff of our conversation 
may be the business we have in the world, but the rule, the regiment f of all 
must be from heaven, with an eye to God. I touch that fi'om the knitting 
of these together. 

Now where he saith, that his conversation was in simplicity and sin- 

* That is, avaar^oiprj, turning about, = manner of life.- G. 
t That is, ' government.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 253 

cerity, you may see here then that all the frame, all the passages of his life 
were good. This makes good that which I touched before, which hath its 
proper place here, that 

Sincerity extends itself to all the frame of a man's life. 

He that is sincere, is sincere in all places, and at all times ; in all the 
turnings and windings and passages of his life ; or else he is not sincere at 
all. His conversation must be sincere, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever 
he doth, in prosperity or adversity, at home or abroad. 

The veriest hypocrite in the world, hath he not pangs sometimes ? Take 
an oppressor, he thinks that he should not die so, he thinks, I must be 
called to an account if I do thus. Doth not Ahab lie upon his sick-bed 
sometimes ? Is not Herod sometimes troubled in conscience ? Hath not a 
wicked man sometimes twitches of conscience which the world sees not, 
secret checks of conscience ? Oh, yes ! There is not the vilest man hving, 
but he hath his good fits, he hath pangs of goodness. But what is this to 
a conversation ? Our conversation must be in sincerity in all the turnings 
and passages of it. 

God judgeth us by the tenor of our life, and not by single particular 
acts. A good man may be ill in a particular act ; and an evil man m.ay be 
good in a particular act. But I say, God doth not judge us by a distinct 
severed passage, but by the tenor of our life. Uniformity, equability, and 
evenness of life, it is an undoubted e^adence of a good man. 

Because he is a new creature, and being a new creature, he hath a new 
nature ; and natm-e works uniformly. Ai-t works differently, and enforcedly. 
Teach a creature somewhat that is against nature, it will do something, but 
a lion will have a lion's trick, and a wolf will have a wolf's trick. Teach 
them never so much, a lion will be a lion in all places ; a wolf will be a 
wolf, and an eagle will be an eagle. Every creature will observe its own 
nature, and be like itself. 

A Christian, as far as he is good, as far as he is a Christian, is uniform. 
His conversation is good, he is like himself, in all places, in all times, upon 
all occasions, in prosperity, in adversity. The very word shews that the 
universality of a man's course must be in sincerity, wheresoever he is. 
God is everywhere, and sincerity hath an eye to God. It makes a man 
good everjTvhere ; or else it doth nothing to God. Doth not God see 
everywhere, abroad, and at home in our closets ? If we plot villany, 
there sees he it as well as abroad. Therefore if I do it anywhere, I 
regard not the eye of God. 

Again, where he saith, ' our conversation,' it implies constancy, as well 
as uniformity. He was so in all places and in all times. But that I noted 
before, therefore I pass it. * Our conversation in the icoiid.' 

That is, amongst other men, wheresoever I was, and have lived. Whence 
we see, that 

Obs. Christianity may stand ivith conversing abroad in the world. 

Men need not be mued*up in a cloister, as the foolish monks in former 
times. They thought that religion was a thing confined to solitariness ; 
whereas ofttimes it requires greater strength of grace to be alone than to 
be in company. We know the proverb, ' Woe to him that is alone,' Eccles. 
iv. 10. A good Christian converses in the world, and that in simplicity 
and sincerity. We need not, I say, cloister ourselves up to be good men, 
to be sincere Christians). We may converse in the world in sincerity if we 
have St Paul's spirit. 

* That is, ' mure(i,'= immured. — G. 



254 COMMENTARY ON 

But that which I will press more, is this, that 

Obs. True relif/ion, ichere it is in strength, doth carry a man in the world, 
and yet he is not tainted with the world. 

St Paul conversed in the world in sincerity. The world is an hypocrite, 
as he said of old. The whole world acts a part. It is an h^-pocrite, 
and a cruel opposer of sincerity and tnith. St Paul lived abroad in the 
world, amongst men that had aims of their own, and abused themselves in 
the world, and yet he walked in ' simplicity and sincerity.' He was a good 
man for all that. A man that is not of the world, hut begotten to be a 
member of a higher world, he may cany himself in the world without the 
corruptions of the world, he may carry himself so in the world that he may 
not be carried away of the world. We see St Paul did so. 

Noah was a good man in evil times, ' a good man in his generation,' Gen. 
vi. 9. Enoch, in evil times ' walked with God,' Gen. v. 22. In Acts xiii. 
22, ' David in his generation served the purpose of God ;' and his generation 
was none of the best. For you know there was Ahithophel, and Doeg, which 
were bad companions, yet in his generation he served the purpose of God. 
So every man in his time may live and converse in the world, and yet not 
be carried away with the corruptions of the times. 

"What is the reason ? 

Reason. The reason is, that a true Christian hath a spirit in him above 
the world. As St John saith, ' The Spirit that is in you is stronger than he 
that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4. The child of God hath a spirit in him, 
a new nature, that sets him in a rank above the world. Christians are au 
order of men that are above the world. They are men of another world. 
And therefore having a principle of grace that raiseth them above the base 
condition of the world, the}' can live in the world, without the blemishes and 
corruptions of the world. They are men of a higher disposition. 

Even as sickness in the body hurts not the reasonable life, so anything 
that a Christian meets with in the world, it hurts not his Christian life, which 
is his best life, because it is a life of a higher respect, of a higher nature. 
St Paul's ' conversation was in heaven,' Philip, iii. 20, it was above the 
snares here below. He was ' crucified to the world,' Gal. vi. 14. He was 
a dead man to all that was evil in the world, and to that which was good 
and indifierent in the world. For pleasures, for honours, for meat and 
drink, and such necessaries ; the counsel that he gave to others, he prac- 
tised in himself, for worldly caUings, and refreshings, and the like, 1 Cor. 
vii. 29. ' The time is short, let us use the world as though we used it not.' 
He used mdifferent things in the world, which are good or evil as they be 
used, as if he had not used them. He lived in the world, as a traveller or 
passenger. He knew he was not at home. He knew he had another home 
to go to. ' Here we have no continuing city,' Heb. xiii. 14, and therefore 
he used the world as though he used it not. As a traveller useth things 
in his way as far as they may further him ; but let his very staff trouble 
him, he throws it away. So a Christian useth indifferent things in the 
world, which are good or evil according as himself is, he useth them well ; 
because ' all things are pure to the pure,' Titus i. 15. He useth them so 
as that he doth not delight in them, because he hath better things to solace 
himself in. He doth not drown himself in these as worldlings do. 

And for the ills of the world, a Christian in a good measure is crucified 
to the world, and the world to him. And he hath his conversation in 
heaven, ' But our conversation is in heaven,' Philip, iii. 20. ]\Iany serve 
their bellies, ' whose end is damnation, but our conversation is in heaven.' 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 255 

Now his conversation being heavenly, that is the reason that he can converse 
in the world in sincerity, though the world be of another strain. 

So you see then that a Christian is of a higher nature, of a higher con- 
dition than the world ; and he is crucified to the world ; and he knows 
himself to be a passenger and a traveller in the world, and therefore he useth 
the world as though he used it not. And withal he hath his employment 
above the world. The birds that have the air, as long as they are there, 
they are not catched with snares below ; and Christians that have their con- 
versation above, they are not ensnared with the things of the world as other 
men are. We see St Paul conversed in the world in sincerity. 

I observe it the rather, because it is the common exception of weak, and 
false spirits. — We must do as the world doth, or else we cannot live. He 
that knows not how to dissemble, knows not how to live. And the times 
are naught ; so that which is naught and grounded in themselves, they lay 
all the blame of it upon the times. 

Indeed the times are naught, like themselves. As he said, There is a 
circle of human things. The times are but even as they were. Things 
come again upon the stage. The same things are acted. The persons 
indeed are changed, but the same things are acted in the world to the end 
of the world. The times were naught before, they are naught, and they 
will be so. Villany is acted upon the stage of the world continually. The 
former actors are gone, but others are instructed with the same devices, 
with the same plots. The corruption of nature shews itself in all. Only 
now we have the advantage for the acting of wickedness in the end of the 
world ; because, besides the old wickedness in former times, we have the 
new wickednesses of these times. All the streams running into one, make 
the channel greater. 

Men say, Alas ! alas ! the times are ill. Were they not so in Noah's 
time ? Were they not so in David's time ? Were they not so in St Paul's 
time ? Men pretend conformity to the world upon a kind of necessity. 
They must do as others do. 

If they were true Christians it would not be so ; for Noah was good in 
evil times. Nehemiah was good in the court of the king of Babel.* 
Joseph was good, even in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court. This can be no 
plea. For a Christian hath a spirit to raise him above the corruption of 
the times he lives in ; he hath such a spuit likewise as is above prosperity 
or adversity, which will teach him to manage both, and to govern himself 
in all occasions and occurrentsf of the world. ' I can do all things,' saith 
St Paul, ' through Chiist that strengtheneth me ! ' 

As we say, the planets have one course whereby they are carried with 
the first mover every twenty-four hours, from east to west, as the sun is, 
whereby he makes the day. But the sun hath a course of his own back 
again. And so by creeping back again he makes the year in his own com'se. 
So the moon hath one course of her own ; but yet she is carried every day 
another course by the first mover. 

So, a good Chii'istian that lives in the world, he is carried with the world 
in common things ; he companies, and trafiics, and trades, and deals with 
the world. But hath he not a motion of his own contrary to all this at the 
same time ? Yes ; though he converse in the world, yet notwithstanding 
he is thinking of heaven, he is framing his course another way than the 
world doth. He goes a contrary course, he swims against the stream of 
the world. 

* That is, 'Babylon.' — G-. t That is, 'occurrences.' — G. 



250 COMMENTARY ON 

There are some kiud of rivers, they say, that pass through the sea, and 
yet notwithstanding they retain their freshness. It seems as an emblem 
to shew the condition of a Christian. He passeth through the salt waters, 
and yet keeps his freshness, he preserves himself. Therefore, I say, it is 
no plea to say that times are naught, and company is naught, &c. A man 
is not to f^ishion himself to the times. An hj-jjocrite, chameleon-like, can 
turn himself into all colours but white ; and as the water, which we say 
hath no figure of its own, but it is figured by the vessel that it is in (if the 
vessel be round, the water is round ; if the vessel be four-cornered, the 
■water is so), it being a thin, airy, moist body. It hath no compass of its 
own, but is confined by the body it is kept in. 

So some men they have no religion, they have no consistence, no stand- 
ing, no strength or goodness of their own ; but such as their company is, 
such they are, and they think this will serve for all. I must do as others 
do ; it is the fashion of the world. If they be among svi^earers, they will 
swear ; if they be among those that are unclean, they will pollute them- 
selves. They frame themselves to all companies. They will be all, but 
that which they should be. This will not serve the turn. 

A Christian may pray for the assistance of God to keep him in the world ; 
and he may know that God will. What ground hath he ? Our Saviour 
Christ, saith he, ' Father, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 
the world, but that thou keep them in the world,' John xvii. 15. He prays 
for his apostles and disciples, that God would keep them in the world from 
the contagion of sin, and from the destruction of the world. St Paul, you 
see, lived and conversed in the world, wheresoever he was, in sincerity and 
simplicity. He was not carried away with the stream, and errors of the 
times wherein he lived. 

Nay, to add more, it doth unite the power of gi'ace together, and make 
a man the better, the worse the company or the place is where he lives. We 
know in nature, the environing of contraries increaseth the contrary ; and 
holy men have been better ofttimes in the midst of temptation, and have 
gathered their forces and strength of gi-ace together, more than when they 
have been more secure. The envy and malice of the world is quick-sighted, 
and the more they live amongst those that are observers of them, the more 
cautelous* they are of their carriage. You l^iow it is the apostle's reason, 
* Redeem the time, because the days are evil,' Eph. v. 10. Be you the 
better, because the days are evil. Witness for God in an ' evil generation,' 
in evil times. He doth not say. Do you sin, because the days are evil. 
God's people do always witness for him. 

Let me add this likewise, to give farther light, that we must not take 
occasion hence, to conform and fashion ourselves to any company, to cast 
ourselves into evil company when we need not. We must not tempt God ; 
for then it is just with God to sufi'er us to be soiled with the company. 
And by our carelessness in this kind, we offend the godly, that easily here- 
upon take us to be worse than we are. And as we grieve the Spirit of God 
in them, so in ourselves ; and we build up and strengthen wicked persons. 
And, therefore, this living in the world ' in simplicity and sincerity,' it must 
be when our calling is such, that we live in the world, that we need not any 
local separation to sever ourselves. But when in the world, we are cast on 
men without grace, by our callings, and occasions, we may presume that 
God will keep us by his Spirit. 

Let us not be weary of hearing of this point. For ere long we must all 
* That is, ' cautious.' — 6. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 257 

appear before God, and then what an honour will it be for us, that we 
have witnessed for God in this world ! that we have stood for God and 
good causes in the midst of the world, and ' shined as lights in the midst of 
a crooked generation' ! Philip, ii. 15. That we have managed the cause 
of God, and stood for religion, and held our own in the midst of papists 
and atheists, and profane persons, and witnessed for the best things in 
spite of all, when we have been called to it. We are not to thrust our- 
selves into unnecessary troubles, no, not for the best things, unless we be 
called to it ; but when we are called, and can witness for the best things, 
what an honour will it be for us ! 

And on the contrary, saith Christ, ' He that denies me, and is ashamed 
of me before men, of him will I be ashamed before my heavenly Father,' 
Mark viii. 38. What a fearful thing is this ! Let us look to God in 
simplicity and sincerity, and God will keep us that the world shall not 
hurt us. 

Ol)j. What will become of us ? will some say, this trouble we shall come 
into, and that persecution will befall us. 

Aus. It is not so. Christ was opposed when he was here upon earth ; 
but till his hour was come they could not do anything. Eveiy man hath his 
hom% every man hath his time allotted to serve God in here. God hath 
measured out his life ; and till his hour be come, that God will take him 
out of the world, God will bind up the endeavours of men. Then- plots 
shall be to no pm-pose. God will keep them, and watch over them 
that are downright. ' Because thou hast kept my word, I will keep thee,' 
Rev. iii. 8-10, saith God. Let us keep the word of God in evil times, and 
God will keep us ; let us stand for God, and he will stand for us. 

It is no plea to say, I shall run into this danger, and that danger. 
' God will be thy buckler and thy shield,' Ps. xci. 4, if thou stand for him. 
And that which brings danger is too much correspondence with the world. 
When men forsake their sincerity in the world, when men will be on both 
sides, they carry things unhappily, and unsuccessfully. A do^vnright 
"atheist will carry things with better success than a halting Christian. For 
his policy and subtlety will cany him to actions inconvenient ; but then 
comes his conscience after, when he is in the midst of them, and 
damps him that he cannot go forward nor backward. Therefore the 
only way is to resolve to live in the world in simplicity and sincerity. 
If we do so, we may carry holy businesses strongly, God will assist us 
therein. He will increase our light, and make our way plain and clear 
to us. 

But if a man be not sincere, but double, and carnal, and pretend love of 
religion, and yet take courses and do actions that are not suitable to re- 
ligion, it will not succeed well. God will curse it. He will strike him 
with amazement. He will strike his brain with errors in judgment, &c. 
There is no pretence therefore to make us live falsely, and doubly in the 
world ; but we ought to live as St Paul did, let the world be as bad as it 
will, or as it can be, ' in simplicity and sincerity.' God will shew himself 
strong for those that walk uprightly. He will be w^isdom to such. But 
if we walk doubly, and falsely, and make religion our pretence, God will 
shew himself om- enemy. 

Where be your neuter^ then ? Where be your politicians in religion, that 
will keep their religion to themselves ? St Paul conversed in the world, 
wheresoever he was, in sincerity. He made show what he w-as. He 
walked not according to carnal wisdom, as he saith afterwards. Where be 

VOL. III. K 



2j8 cosimentaky on 

jonr yuIfiJiiUdiis- then, that are of all bolicfk, and yet are of no belie'^? that 
tashion themselves to all religions ? And if they be of the true religion, 
yet it is their wisdom to conceal it. St Paul did not so. But I shall have 
occasion to touch that in the negative part afterward, ' not in fleshly wis- 
dom,' &c. 

Again, where he saith, ' My conversation hath been thus in the world,' 
he means, in this life my conversation here hath been sincere. I will give 
you a touch on that. Though it be not the main aim here, yet notwith- 
standing it may well be touched, that, 

Obs. We must, while ice live here in this iiorld, converse in simplicity and 
sincerity. 

We must not turn it off to live as we list, subtlely, politicly, and carnally, 
and then think to die well. No ; we must live ' soberly, righteously, and 
justly in this present world,' Tit. ii. 12, Do you think to begin to live well 
when you are gone hence ? No ; that is a time of reward, and not a time 
of work. This world is God's workhouse ; here you must work. This is 
God's field ; here you must labour. This is God's sea ; here we must 
sail. Here we must take pains. We must sweat at it. Here we must 
plough and sow, if ever we will reap. 

Dost thou think to carry thyself subtlely, to have thy own ends in every- 
thing here, and then when death comes, a ' Lord, have mercy upon me' 
shall serve for all ? No ; thou must converse as a Christian while thou 
livest here in this world, ' in simplicity and sincerity.' God must have 
honour here by thee. Thou must have a care of thy salvation here. Dost 
thou think to have that in another world which thou dost not care for 
here ? Dost thou think to have glory in another world, which thou didst 
not think of here ? Dost thou think to reap in another world that which 
thou didst not sow here ? Let us in this world stand for the glory of God, 
openly and boldly, and for the example of others, for the exercise of our 
own graces. A true Christian hath his conversation in ' sincerity in this 
world;' the more blame to the world then to deprave their dealing! Why? 
Because they are lights in the world, and they serve the world to good pur- 
pose, if the world would take benefit by them. They shine in the world to 
lead them the way to heaven. But the world is willing to let them go to 
heaven alone if they will. 

But if the carriage of God's children be like St Paul's, as it is true, for 
they are all of one disposition, they ' converse in simplicity and sincerity 
wheresoever they are,' wicked, slanderous, malicious, depraving persons 
are to blame, that lay to their charge hypocrisy, and this and that, when it 
is nothing so. They deserve well of the wicked unthankful world, and God 
upholds the world for their sakes. ' When the righteous are exalted, the 
city rcjoiceth,' saith Solomon, Prov. xi. 10. Because wheresoever they live, 
they live not only in simplicity and sincerity, but they live fruitfully. The 
city, the whole community, all the people are the better. They make the 
times and the places the better wherein they live, because a good man is a 
public good. The Spirit of God, when it makes a good man, it puts him 
out of himself, and gives him a public aflection. It teacheth him to deny 
himself. It teacheth him to love others. It teacheth him to employ and 
improve all that is in him, that is good, for the service of God and of men; 
to serve God in serving men in the place he lives in. Therefore malicious 
and devilish is the world to deprave such kind of men as live in the world 
in simplicity and sincerity, that serve God and the world by all the means 
* That is, 'no-faith's,'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 259 

they can. ' Our conversation hath been in simpUcity and sincerity in the 
world.' 

* But more abundantly to yoii-ivard.' Why ? Was it in hypocrisy to 
others, and in sincerity to them only ? No ; that is not the meaning. 
But thus, that wheresoever he had lived in the world, in what estate soever 
he was, he carried himself in ' simplicity and sincerity ; ' but to you I have 
made it more evident than to any other. Why ? Because he had lived 
longer with them ; and they were such as he was a Father unto in Christ. 
Therefore, saith he, I have evidenced my ' simplicity and sincerity more 
abundantly to you than to any other.' Whence we may obseiwe, that 

Obs. A sincere Christian is best where he is best known. 

It is a note of a truly good and sincere man to be best where he is best 
known, as I touched when I opened the words. It is othenvise with many. 
Their carriage abroad is very plausible ; but follow them home : what are 
they in their familes ? They are lions in their houses. What are they in 
their retired courses and carriage ? They do not answer the expectation 
that is raised of them abroad. They never pray to God, &c. Those that 
know them best will trust them least. It is not so with a Christian. My 
conversation in the world uath been good wheresoever it hath been. But 
among you, with whom I have conversed more familiarly, who have seen 
my daily carriage and course of life, among you my conversation was best 
of all. It is a note of a man that is sincere, that the more he is seen 
into, the more he shines. The godly are substantially good, and therefore 
where they are best known, they are best approved. 

For Christians they are not painted creatures, that a little discovery will 
search them to the bottom, and then shame them. They are not gilded, 
but gold ; and therefore the more you enter into them, the more metal you 
shall find still. They have a hidden treasury. The more you search them, 
the more stuif you shall have still. Their tongues are as ' fined silver,' and 
their heart is a rich treasury within them. A Christian he labours for a 
broken heart still. He labours to get new grace, and new knowledge of 
the word of God still ; and the more you converse with him, the more you 
see him, the more you shall approve and love him, if you be good as he 
is. Therefore saith the apostle, I have carried myself well to all, but 
especially to you with whom I have lived longer. 

Use. Therefore, as we would have an evidence of our sincerity, which is 
the best evidence that we can have in this world, that we may be able to 
say that we are sinc^^'e and true Christians, which is better than if a man 
could say he were a monarch, that he were the greatest man in the world, 
let us labour to carry ourselves in our courses to those that knoiv lis best, and 
in our most retired courses, like to Christians. And not to put on the 
fashion of religion, as men put on their garments : their best gannents, 
when they go abroad, and so to make good things serviceable to our 
purpose. But to be so indeed at home amongst our friends, among those 
that know us, when we are not awed, as there is a great deal of liberty 
amongst fi'iends. Wheresoever we are, let us remember we are alway in 
the eye of God ; and labour to approve ourselves most to them that know 
our com-ses most. 

God knows more than men, therefore let us chiefly labour to approve 
ourselves to him. And next to God, let us approve ourselves to conscience. 
Fear conscience more than all the monarchs in the world ; because that 
knows most, and will be most against us. 



2G0 COMMENTARY ON 

And then again, for others that know our convcrfsations, good men that 
converse with us, let us approve ourselves to them most that have the best 
and the sharpest judgments, 

A true Christian, as he loves goodness, so he loves it most that it should 
be in his own heart. He lives more to God and to conscience, than to 
fame and report. He had rather be than seem to be. And as he hates all 
ill, so he hates even secret ill. The nearer corruption is, the more he 
hates it, as a man hates toads and venomous creatures ; and the nearer 
they are, the more he hates them. The most retired carriage of a Chi'is- 
tian is most holy, and best of all. 

Again, where he saith, ' My conversation hath been in simplicity, &c., to 
you-ward,' here is a good note for preachers, that if they look to convert 
any by their doctrine, they must win them by their conversation likewise 
in simplicity and sincerity. St Paul being to gain the Philippians to 
Christ, he doth it not by words only, by arguments of logic, and by persua- 
sions only, to convince the understandiag of the truth of that which he 
taught ; but he demonstrates to them how they should live. ' Walk as you 
have me for an ensample,' Philip, iii. 17. I shew you that that which I teach 
is possible, by my practice. I shew to high and low, how I carry myself. 
* My conversation hath been in simplicity and sincerity.' Those that I 
would convert by my doctrine, I labour by my conversation to gain 
them. So I say, ministers have here a special direction how to carry 
themselves. 

And others likewise that have a gaining disposition, as indeed we should 
not stand upon terms of this.,and that, but every one labour to gain others. 
Would you work upon others, and gain them from popery, &c. ? Then 
not only shew them arguments to convince their judgments, which must 
be done, that is certain ; but likewise let them see that the things that you 
speak are possible things, things that you are persuaded of. And if you 
be not good, and press them to goodness, j'ou cannot persuade them of the 
truth of that you speak. They will think it is not possible ; for then you 
would act it yourselves. But when they see one go before them, and 
demonstrate it to their eyes, how they should carry themselves, this is 
the way to teach them to be sound Christians indeed. But I hasten to the 
negative part. 

' Not in fleshly wisdom,'' dx. Here is a secret wipe, a secret taxing of 
the false apostles and teachers. ' My conversation hath been in simplicity 
and sincerity,' whatsoever you think of me. ' Not in fleshly wisdom,' as 
theirs is. 

' Not in fleshly wisdom.' To distinguish it a little. 

1. There is a natural wisdom planted in the soul of man, even as there 
is a natural light in the eye, to see both things that are hurtful, and that 
are good, for the outward man. So in the soul of man, which is his eye, 
there is an inbred light of natural wisdom, a common light to discern of 
things and of creatures ; a natural kind of wisdom, which may be polished 
and advanced to a higher degree by experience and art. As the eye of the 
body, it sees better when it is helped with an outward, with a foreign light. 
This is natural wisdom. 

2. There is likewise a politic or civil wisdom, gotten by observation, and 
increased by observation ; and withal, it is a gift of God, though it be a 
common gift, as Ahithophel's. It was not merely carnal wisdom that was 
in him, but he had a gift of policy. So some men, though they be not 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 12. 261 

truly religious, yet God gives them a gift of politic wisdom, to be able to 
discern the difference of things, to lay states and commonwealths together, 
to be able to judge, and resolve, and to execute wisely, and politically, and 
prudently. It is an especial gift of God. This the apostle doth not aim 
at ; neither natural nor civil wisdom, though it be a gift of God, I say, 
which is increased by observation and by other means. 

3. Besides this, there is a spiritual, a heavenhj wisdom, whereby the soul 
having a right end and aim set and prefixed to it, it directs all its courses 
to that end ; whereby the soul is able to deliberate, to consult, and to 
resolve on heavenly things, and what hinders heavenly comfort ; and to 
resolve upon good duties, and to resolve against that which is ill, to resolve 
upon all advantages of doing good to the church, and of all hindrances 
of ourselves, and of the church, and of the places we live in. It is a 
heavenly kind of prudence to guide our own ways, yea, and to guide 
others too. 

4. But besides all these, there is another wisdom which is here the 
* wisdom of the Jiesh ; ' which because the flesh hath correspondency with 
Satan, it is also a devilish wisdom, for the most part. For the devil ploughs 
with our heifer. The most mischief that he hath done in the world, it is 
by the correspondency that he hath with our flesh, our enemy within. The 
flesh and Satan do join together, and work all strongly with the mis- 
chievous policy of the world : and therefore it is called likewise ' worldly 
wisdom.' 

And hereupon Christians that are mere professors, and not Christians 
soundly, some are called flesh, because they are ruled of the flesh. And 
they are called the world, because they frame themselves to the wisdom 
and to the courses of the world. And if you would anatomize them, there 
is nothing but the world in them, worldly pride and worldly ends. And 
they are called devils too, as Judas was called a devil, John vi. 70. They 
plot with Satan by carnal wisdom. They yield to Satan. They savour 
not the things of God, 

Men have their name and denomination in the Scripture, by that which 
they are ruled by. When they are ruled by the flesh, they are cafled flesh ; 
when they are ruled by the world and the evil examples thereof, they are 
called the world. And when they are ruled by Satan, so far as they 
are ruled by him, they are called Satan. * One of you is a devil,' saith 
Christ. 

* Not in fleshly wisdom.' What is meant here by ' fleshly wisdom ? ' 
If it be fleshly, why is it wisdom ? Wisdom is but one. There is but one 
wisdom. Wisdom we know, in itself, it is a knowledge of principles and 
grounds, and deductions and conclusions from principles. A wise man 
knows both the grounds and principles, and he knows what may be raised 
from thence ; and likewise a man that is truly wise, he not only knows them, 
but he knows how to act them, how to work and act his principles and 
conclusions to an end. He hath principles, and conclusions, and workings 
out of his brain ; and when he hath done all in the brain, when he hath 
framed the aim of his principles, and the manner how to act them, then be 
goes about to work ; and a wise man can work answerable to his end and 
rules. 

Now there is a carnal wisdom that initiated this ; for carnal wisdom 
hath aims, and ends, and principles, and it hath conclusions from those 
principles, and it acts to an end. A true Christian he hath his ends. His 



262 



COMMENTARY ON 



aim is supernatural : to please God in all things, to be happy in another 
world, to enjoy God, to have nearer acquaintance with him while he lives 
here. Many such subordinate ends, besides the main end, he hath. And 
some principles likewise he hath out of the word of God concerning this 
end ; and then he hath directions out of the word of God suitable to those 
principles. And then he sets on working, and all that he works is in order 
to his end, and in \drtue of the end he propounds. As a man that travels, 
every step that he goes in his journcj^ every step is in virtue and strength 
of his fu'st intention, and the end that he propounds, though he think not 
of his end in every step, and he consults and asks about the way, and all 
to that end. 

So it is with a carnal man too, he that walks after carnal wisdom. Carnal 
■ndsdom hath its end, and that is a man's self; for a carnal man himself is 
the idol, and the idolater. His end is himself, either in his honours, or in 
his pleasures, or riches, &c. Himself is the centre into which all the lines 
of his life fall. And he hath rules. Seek thyself in all things. Love 
thyself above all. And what then ? If thou love others, love them for 
thyself, as far as they may serve thy turn. Care for no man further than 
thou canst make use of him for thyself. Respect him so far, and no 
further. 

But it may be there are many that stand in the way. Then again he 
hath principles. Undermine them, ruin them, make way to thine own ends 
by the ruin of as many as thou canst. And if another man's light over- 
shine thine, that thou art nobody to him, carnal wisdom bids thee deprave 
him, slander him, backbite him. The more he seems to be vile, the less 
thy nakedness shall appear. Here is carnal wisdom. 

There is no envy in goodness, in strength and ability. They would have 
all to be so ; but baseness is joined with much envy. When it sees another 
overshadow it, it labours to eclipse him with slanders and base reports. 
This is a principle of carnal wisdom. And hence comes all that working 
and undermining, secret conveyances, and laying nets for others, as the 
prophet speaks. 

All carnal wisdom hath carnal ends, and carnal rules, and carnal courses 
answerable. It consults upon the attaining of its end. It deliberates and 
consults, and shrewdly too ; for it is whetted by Satan. And then it goes 
with the stream of the world, and therefore it is carried very strongly 
towards its end. And then it resolves strongly ; because fleshly wisdom 
usually is with the times. And then it executes. God sufiers it oft-times 
to come to execution, and to enjoy its plots and projects. And therefore 
in regard that it hath the same passages, though in a contrary kind, with 
other wisdom, it is called wisdom, though indeed it be not wisdom. And 
thereupon it hath a diminishing term here, it is ' fleshly wisdom.' 

Now this wisdom is called ' fleshly,' because it is led with reasons from 
the flesh, and it tends to the maintenance of the flesh. It comes from it, 
and it tends to it. 

I take not ' flesh ' here, for one part of a man, his body ; but for the 
unrcgenerate part, which is carried to changeable things, to the creature, 
and sets up some creature to be an idol, instead of the Creator, ' blessed 
for evermore.' 

And that from this reason, because the creature, the things below are near 
to us, and pleasant to us ; and because we are brought up in these deUghts 
of the creature that are sensible ; and therefore the flesh, the baser part, is 
ready to di-aw away the soul to the delights of it ; because the del]f;hts of 



2 COPJNXHIANS CHAP. I, YilR. 12. 263 

it are pleasant, and we are trained up in them from the beginning of our 
hfe to the end of it. Now these things below, the profits, and pleasures, 
and honoiTrs, they work first upon the senses, upon the outward man ; and 
from the senses they ascend to the fancy, and imagination, and that bemg 
carnal by nature esteems more highly of them than there is cause, and 
esteems of the contrary to these as the greatest ills. Oh ! poverty is worse 
than hell to a carnal man ! and he had rather be dead than be disgraced. 
He had rather damn his soul, than to be denied of his pleasure. Imagina- 
tion makes them such great things, and the devil helps imagmation. B.e 
hath much affinity with that part, with the imagination ; and imagination, 
when men have strong conceits of these things, that labours to draw the 
will and afi'ections to itself, to swaty that part. So that the will, the com- 
manding part of the soul, for the most part it yields to these imaginations 
of base things. It conceives of them highly, and the contrary to be vile 
and base. And hereupon the will comes to approve of these things, and 
to choose these thmgs ; yea, and the understanding part itself, that blessed 
spark of wisdom that is left in us, capable of better things, and fit for the 
image of God. Yet that, by our coiTuption, being stripped of the gi'ace it 
had in the creation, and now being under original corruption, being under 
the law of sin, it is led by a carnal will and imagination, and by sense, and 
is ruled by them. So that that which should rule all, is ruled by base, 
earthly things. 

The soul of man, while we live here, is between things better than itsell, 
and worse than itself, meaner than itself. Now by corruption it cleaves to 
things meaner than itself. It is witty to devise them. It is willing to choose 
them. It delights in them. It bathes itself in them. So that whereas it should 
rule the body, the body and the lower parts rule the soul. When it yields to 
that which is better than itself, to the sanctifymg Sphit of God, and to the word 
of God, and is clothed with the image of God, when it yields to better 
thmgs, then they raise it to a degree of excellency even above itself when it 
was at the best. For a man that is in Christ, that hath the image of Christ 
upon him, in some sort, is better than Adam was in innocency. His 
estate is more sm^e ; and the dignity he is advanced to by Christ is greater 
than he should have had if he had stood still in Adam. This is the condi- 
tion of the soul. An excellent creature, it is capable of the image and like- 
ness of Christ, and of God, capable of all grace. 

Again, if it submit itself to base creatures, it becomes even as them ; and 
therefore men are called ' the worid.' They are called ' flesh.' They are 
called after that which leads them. The very soul itself, as it were, is flesh, 
For, as the very body of a holy man in some sort is spirit ; and everything 
in him is spirit ; as it shall be at the day of judgment, as St Paul saith, 
' it shall be raised a spiritual body,' 1 Cor. xv. 44 ; because it shall be sub- 
ject to the motions of the Spirit of God in all things ; and it shall not be 
supported by bodily means. Now the very sonl is bodily and carnal. Such 
a degeneration is wrought in man since the fall. He makes his soul that 
was given to guide him in this worid, and which is made apprehensive of 
better things, of the things of another world. This soul he makes it the 
bawd to serve his base lusts and pleasures. 

' Not in fleshly wisdom.' Now wisdom is a middle word. It may be 
either spiritual or carnal, as the man is in whom it is. If a man have 
moral honesty in him, and good things in him that way, it makes him a 
good politician, a wise man, useful in his place. Though he be not a 
sound Christian, yet he may be a wise man in his place ; and God 



2o4: COJIMENTARY ON 

useth such kind of men in the ^vorld, and they have their reward here, they 
are advanced, &c. 

But if it is light in a devilish natui*e, in a crooked, oblique natui-e, then it 
is malicious, devilish wisdom. 

And, note this by the way. AU men that have flesh in them, have not 
fleshly wisdom ; for some are carried with the flesh, with the rage of fleshly 
lusts. As the swine in the gospel were carried headlong into the sea, they 
are carried by their lusts to hell, as your common swaggerers and roarers ; 
so that they may escape the danger of the laws, they care not for God nor 
man — uTcgular, wild persons. These have flesh, they are ruled by the flesh, 
but they have not so much as ' fleshly wisdom ;' for they take courses to 
overthrow themselves in the world, to overthrow their names, and their 
bodies and all. They have not so much as policy in them, their lusts so 
reign in them. Siach wretches we have ofttimes amongst us, that think 
themselves somebody, but they have not so much as carnal wisdom in them 
to cari-y themselves better than a devil. 

Now, in other men the flesh hath a wisdom that carries them not after 
this fashion ; but it whets their wits, and they are as bad in another kind. 
As, take the same man, when he is young he is carried by his brutish lusts, 
without any wisdom at all, even as the hurry of his lusts carry him, and 
transport him : when he grows old he is carried subtlely with the wisdom 
of the world. He is alway under lusts, alway under the flesh. When he 
is young he is carried with base lusts ; and when he is old he is under the 
flesh, and fleshly wisdom still. He is earned with slavish covetousness 
to the world, as formerly he was subject to base lusts in his youth. All 
this is naught. 

"VATaere these difi"er in the subject, in the person, usually the base lust 
serves the witty. Those that are carried with base lusts, they are subject, 
and enthralled, and overruled by those that are carried with the wisdom of 
the flesh. As your subtle men, your usurers, and subtle oppressors, great 
witty men, they make other men serviceable to their turn. Other men are 
slaves to them. 

But to come nearer that that I mean to stand on. 

' My conversation hath not been in fleshly wisdom.' You may see 
by the coherence, which I will not dwell on, what to judge of * fleshly 
wisdom.' 

Ohserv. Fleshly wisdom is, where tlxere is no simplicity nor sincerity: be- 
cause he opposeth them here. Where * fleshly wisdom' is, there is neither 
' simplicity' nor ' sincerity.' For take a subtle wise man, he is all outside, 
and there is no simplicity in him. He that is not wise to God, but to the 
world, he wraps himself in ceremonies in matters of religion, and studies 
the outside of things to approve himself to the world, and to attain his own 
ends ; but there is no simplicity or sincerity. He that is wise to the world 
hath no respect to God. 

Sincerity hath an eye to God ; and a sincere man, as f^ir as he is sin- 
cere, hath an eye to God, and he doth this and that because God seeth him, 
and because God is pleased with it ; but he that works according to fleshly 
wisdom, he hath aims contrary and distinct to that. Therefore the apostle 
saith, ' We walk in the sincerity of God' (as it is in the original*), ' and 
not according to fleshly wisdom.' 

So you may know from the opposition, that fleshly wisdom is where 
there is no sincerity. Whei-e there is no love to God or to men, there is 
* That is, ' iiXiKotviia Qiov.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 265 

no simplicity, all is for show ; and where there is all for show, there is 
double carriage, not in simplicity aiming at God's gloiy. There is ' fleshly 
wisdom.' That for the connection. 

But the point of doctrine proper to the place is this, that 

Doctrine. God's children have another manner of ride to live by than the 
world: the nde that a godhj ivise man goeth by, is not Jleshly wisdom. 

A man that looks for any joy, that looks to be in the blessed estate that 
St Paul here was in, he must not be ruled by fleshly Avisdom. ' Our conver- 
sation,' saith he, ' in the world hath not been in fleshly wisdom.' St Paul, 
no question but he had flesh in him, and likewise he had ' fleshly wisdom :' 
because flesh is in all parts, and it mingles itself with all graces. In the 
understanding there is light and darkness ; in the will there is rebellion 
and pliableness to God. So St Paul had the stirrings of fleshly wisdom in 
him. When he was in danger, no doubt but the flesh would stir in him, 
you may avoid it by shifts if you will. And when he was before great ones, 
you may flatter and betray the truth if you will. 

No doubt but St Paul, as he expressed himself, Rom. viii., as he had 
a conflict in himself in other regards : so there was a conflict between wis- 
dom and wisdom. The wisdom of the flesh did stir against the wisdom 
of the spirit. Aye, but it is one thing to have fleshly wisdom in us, 
and it is another thing to make it our rule. It is one thing to have 
flesh in us, and another thing to ' be in the flesh,' as the Scripture 
phrase is.* This conflict wondi'ously afilicted St Paul. No doubt but it 
was one sharp conflict. 

No question but carnal wisdom set St Paul to shift for himself many 
times ; but by the power of the Spirit he checked it and kept it under. It 
was not his rule. 

Now, the reasons of this doctrine, that the godly guide not themselves 
by fleshly wisdom, which hath worldly aims, and carnal means to bring 
those aims to pass, they are. 

Reason 1. First, because God's children tt'iZZ 7iot cherish that in them, and 
make that their ride, which is contrary to God, which is enmity to God. But 
this carnal wisdom, which prowls for the world, and looks for ease, and 
profit, and pleasure, it is ' enmity to God,' Rom. viii. 6-8. The apostle 
proves it at large. They being subject to God, children of God, being 
under him in all kind of subjection, as servants, as children, as spouses, they 
will not cherish that which is rebellion to God, which is not subject to 
God, neither can be. As we may say, a papist that is jesuited, he is 
neither a good subject, nor can be ; so the wisdom of the flesh, neither is 
it subject to God, nor can be subject. In the nature of it, it is rebellion. 
It is God's enemy ; it withstands all the articles that he hath given us to 
believe. Fleshly wisdom hath some opposition against all truth. It op- 
poseth every command that God gives us to obey. There is something in 
flesh and blood to withstand every command. It is the greatest enemy that 
God hath. 

2. And as it is an enemy to God, so it is to us. It is contrary to our 
good. It is death, ' the wisdom of the flesh,' Rom. viii. 4. Saith the apostle, 
Rom. vii. 8, ' The flesh deceived me and slew me.' There is no wise man 
will cherish that which is death, and which is God's enemy, and his own 
too. The wisdom of the flesh, as it is opposite to God's Spirit, a rebel 
and an enemy to him, so it is death to a Christian, and therefore he will 
not frame his course of hfe by it. 

« Cf . 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; Philip, i. 22.— G, 



2G6 coMMENTAny on 

It brings us to eternal death, it betraj's us to Satan. Sampson could have 
had no harm had not DeUlah betrayed him ; so the devil could not hurt us 
unless it were for fleshly wisdom. The devil is not such an enemy to a 
man as his own fleshly wisdom. 

Reason 2. Again, a Christian knows, that as it is contrary to God and 
contrary to his good, so it is base and unworthy, as ivell as dangerous. It is 
base and unworthy for a Christian, that is an heir of heaven, that is raised 
to be a child of God, to abase his wits, to prowl for the world. How base 
and unworthy is it for him to seek the things below, that is bom again ' to 
an inheritance, immortal and undefiled, that is reserved for him in heaven ?' 
1 Pet. i. 4. 

How unworthy is it for him that hath his understanding and all his in- 
ward parts and powers dedicated and consecrated to God, to make his 
understanding a bawd for the base purposes of the flesh ! The high in- 
dignity of the thing makes the child of God ashamed to be ruled by the 
flesh, to prostitute the strength of his soul to the flesh ; to make his soul, 
that should carry the image of God, to carry the image of the devil ; to make 
his wit and understanding a bawd to accomplish earthly things, which God 
hath sanctified to attain grace and comfort in this world, and to live as a 
Christian should do, that he may die with comfort, and enjoy heaven. 

Reason 3. Again, God's children will not be ruled by that which they 
should mortify and subdue. But this wisdom of the flesh is the object of 
mortification. They are redeemed from it. 

A Christian, as he is redeemed from hell and damnation, so he is re- 
deemed from himself. He is redeemed and set at liberty from the slaverj' 
of his soul to Satan, to the world, and worldly projects. He is redeemed 
from the base conversation he was in before. What hath he to do to be 
ruled by him from whom he is redeemed ? These things might be ampli- 
fied at large ; but you see the truth evident, what ground a Christian hath 
not to be niled by fleshly wisdom. 

Reason 4. But to make it a little clearer. A Christian hath no reason to 
be ruled by earthly wisdom, for the yielding to it doth all the mischief in the 
world. It is the cause of all the misery in the world, unto Christians espe- 
cially. God catcheth ' the wise in their own craftiness,' Job v. 13, though 
they be politic and wise. Especially if a Christian give way to carnal 
politic wisdom, God will universally shame him. I never knew a Christian 
thrive in politic courses. When he hath secret conveyances for the world, 
God crosseth him every way, in his reputation, in his projects, and 
purposes. 

But consider, to amplify that which I gave in a branch before, what 
reason hath a Chi-istian to be ruled by * fleshly wisdom,' when it hinders 
him from all that is good, if he yield unto it, and keeps him in imperfect 
good ? 

I speak especially now to those that are not in the state of gi'ace. What 
reason hath any one of you to be ruled by fleshly wisdom, when it keeps 
you in the state of unregeneracy ? It keeps you perhaps in some good, 
but it is imperfect good. You think you are good enough, and that all 
is sure, and God will be merciful, &c., whenas a reprobate may go be- 
yond you. 

It hinders from good actions with pretences, for fleshly wisdom will tell 
us there will be danger, you shall be reproached if you do this and that, 
you shall be accounted thus and thus, and run into obloquy. 

It hinders from doing good. * There is a lion in the way,' Prov. xxvi. 13. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 267 

It forecasts this and that danger. It keeps us in imperfect good that will 
never save us. It objects dangers. The sluggard that will not set on his 
spirit to labour, he thinks himself wondrous wise in forecasting dangers. 
Oh, I shall want myself, &c. 

It dulls and distracts us in good. He that hath a carnal protecting head, 
it eats up his soul, that when he comes to pray, or to bear, or to meddle 
with spiritual matters, the marrow and strength of his soul is eaten up with 
carnal projects, and he doth things by halves. 

Nay, carnal wisdom, as far as it is in us unmortified, it sets itself against 
good by depraving good, that we may seem to be mischievous, and ill, and 
wicked with reason. Men are loath to go to hell without reason. There 
was none that ever went to hell yet without wisdom, a great deal of wisdom. 
And how doth their wisdom bring them to hell ? As in other respects, 
which I named before, so in this ; it whets the poisonfulness of their nature 
to invent and to raise scandals, or to be willing to take scandals when they 
are offered. 

A carnal wise man, when he knows that such a degree of religion is con- 
trary to his carnal projects, he fasteneth all the disgrace on it that he can, 
that he may be the less observed. Religious he would be, but with a limi- 
tation, with a reservation and restraint, as far as may stand with his carnal 
projects and purposes ; and so much religion as goes beyond that, and dis- 
covers him to be false and halting, so much he opposeth. The wisdom of 
the flesh is bitter and sharp against all the opposers of it, and stirs the 
cursed nature of man to the opposing of that which is contrary to it. 

Take a carnal man, either in magistracy or ministry, if he be not humbled 
with pains in his calling and with the word that he teacheth, what doth he 
most hate in the world ? What doth he oppose ? Is there anything but 
saving grace ? Is there anything but that which God loves most, and which 
is best for his soul, that is the object of his spite and of his poison and 
malice ? 

To be led by this is even as if a man should be led by a pirate, by a 
thief, by an enemy. And what can become of that man, to be led ' as the 
fool to the stocks,' as Solomon saith, Prov. vii. 22. He is in the way of 
death. * There is a way that seemeth good to a man in his own eyes, but 
the issues of it are death,' saith Solomon, Prov. xiv. 12; and that is the 
way that carnal wisdom dictates to men. 

It hinders also from the reforming of ill. Policy overthrows policy, as 
we say. Policy overthrows commonwealths. Tell a man that is in place, 
You ought to reform this abuse and that abuse. He is ready to think. Oh, 
if I be not wary, others will inquire into my life too, and find me out. 

So this cursed policy, this carnal wisdom, it makes men unfruitful in 
their places, by forecasting dangers ; and so it hinders from doing good, 
and from reforming gross abominations and abuses. 

So it hinders from suffering when God calls to it. It forecasts : if you 
be religious, you must suffer, it will bring your good name in question, it 
will bring your life in question, it will hazard your estate. Whereas, in- 
deed, all the world is not worth the truth of God ; and a man loves not his 
life that will not hate it in such a case ; if it come to case of confession, and 
standing for the truth in a good quarrel. 

But here fleshly wisdom objects this and that danger ; as we see in Spira 
and others. And thus man, yielding to fleshly wisdom, he grows desperate 
at length (qq). 

There are two men in a man, as it were. There is the flesh and the 



268 



COMMENTARY OX 



spirit. The flesli saith as Job's wife said, ' Curse God and die,' or ' Bless 
God and die,' read it -whether you will (/v). There is the murmuring 
part in the cross that bids us curse God ; and as Peter said unto Christ, 
* Oh ! save yourselves, this shall not bef'al you,' Mat. xvi. 22 ; pity yourself, 
have regard of yourself.* The flesh when we are to sutler saith as Eve to 
Adam, as Job's wife to him, or as Peter to Christ, Oh spare yourself, be 
wise, be wise. And to colour the matter the more, there must be a pre- 
tence of -v^-isdom ; whenas it is the greatest folly in the world to redeem any 
earthly commodity, even life itself, with the cracking of conscience, with the 
breach of that ' petice which passeth understanding,' Philip, iv. 7, and per- 
haps with the loss of our souls. It is the greatest folly in the world ; it is 
to be penny wise and pound foolish. So we see whensoever we are about 
to suffer, carnal wisdom hinders ns. As it hindei-s us from good, and in 
good, and hinders us from reforming evil ; and in suffering when we are 
called to it. So it provokes us to evil. And that we may SAvallow down 
the evil with the gi-eater pleasure, and more deeply, it colours ill with good. 
We may thank this' politic carnal wisdom, that truth and goodness ever 
goes with a scratched face, that it goes under disgrace, that it goes in a 
contrary habit; and that hypocrisy goes in its ruff, in its colours. I say 
we may thank carnal wisdom ; for if truth were presented in its own view, 
it would stir up approbation from all. And if men could see vice and 
wickedness uncased, if they could see it in its own hue, they would all de- 
test it. Carnal wisdom sees that this is not for the advancrug of the pro- 
jects it hath, and therefore it disgraceth that which is good, and sets false 
colom'S on that which is ill. 

I say, it stirs up to ill, and it keeps us in ill. Carnal wisdom saith, You 
may do this, you may continue thus long. It deceives us with vain hopes 
of long life. 

I might enlarge the point. You see then what reason God's children 
have, not to be ruled by fleshly carnal wisdom. 

By the way, let me give tliis caution, that oftentimes that is accounted 
carnal irisdom that is not. The weaker sort, they are to blame ofttimes to 
lay imputations upon those that God hath given greater gifts to ; and they 
account that carnal wisdom that is not so, but is spiritual prudence. I 
must needs add that caution by the way. As for a man to keep his mind, 
and not to speak against evil in all places. ' The prudent man shall keep 
silent,' saith the prophet, Prov. xii. 23. The times and the place may be 
such, that the prudent man may keep silence. It is best to do so. 

And likewise to be cautelous to prevent danger so far as it may be with- 
out breach of a good conscience. St Paul, you know, when he was called 
before the Sadducees and the Pharisees, he escaped by a shift.* It was not 
a sinful shift. He said he was a Pharisee, and so he set them together, and 
they falling into contention, St Paul in the mean time escaped, Acts xxiii, 
7. Many things might be done, if we would take hoed of carnal wisdom, 
and that with a great deal of wisdom and approbation too. 

Jeroboam might have settled his kingdom, and yet he need not have set 
up the two calves in that cursed poUcy. It was foretold that he should 
have those tribes, but he would be wiser than God, and he would devise a 
way of his own, 2 Chron. xiii. 8, et alibi. 

David might have escaped from Achish the king of Gath. He need not 
have made himself a fool. Ahithophel might have provided well for 
himself under David his old master. He need not have proved a rebel. 
* See Note^, vol. II., p. 191. — G. t That is, ' expedient.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 2G9 

There is nothing; that carnal wisdom doth, but heavenly wisdom will do it 
better if men conld light on it ; and God would give them better success in 
their carnage. But there is a way for heavenly prudence, I say, and that 
must not be accounted carnal wisdom. 

It is for want of tlis that people are too credulous. Gedaliah, he trusted 
too much, he was tco era lulous to trust. Considering that men are subject 
to infirmities, and sv.bject to falseness, it is good to be doubtful, to be sus- 
picious sometimes; find it is no carnal wisdom neither. The very loadstone 
of a lie is credulity. What emboldens people to deal falsely with men ? 
They know them to be credulous and weak. They will believe anything. 

But for the most part the error is on the contrary, over-much jealousy. 
Your carnal politicians are over-jealous. Jealousy is good, suspicion is 
good, considering that we live in a false world ; but not to be over-jealous. 
We see Herod, he thought. Oh ! Christ is born ; and out of jealousy he kills 
a number of poor infants, and his own among the rest. Alas ! * Christ 
came not to take away his kingdom, but to give a heavenly kingdom. So 
the Jews they were very jealous that if Christ were not condemned, the 
Romans would come and take away their kingdom, John xi. 48 ; but that 
which wicked men fear, out of such jealousy, shall come upon them. And 
so the subtlest and most devilish men in late times, that grounded the 
persecution of the poor Protestants, upon jealousy, absurd jealousy; for 
they, by the rules of their religion, walk in sincerity. It ties them from 
plotting. And yet out of fear and jealousy, they exercised a world of cruelty 
against them. 

And if any man shall but consider and read Stephen Gardiner's letters 
(a man of a devilish jealousy), to see out of his wit he projected what hurt 
would come by suffering the gospel to remain, it will seem strange (ss). 
Alas, poor man ! the commonwealths beyond the seas and our own nation 
never prospered better than by entertaining the gospel. Yet this devilish- 
witted man, whose wit was set and sharpened by the devil, was in fear and 
jealousy of the gospel. And God usually punisheth it this way, that those 
subtle heads that are jealous of those that mean them no harm, but all the 
good that may be, usually, they are over-credulous in another kind. They 
trust those that deceive their trust, they trust those that the weakest, the 
very dregs of the people, will not trust, they trust those that are notoriously 
false. God strikes their brains and besots them, that they trust men that 
all the world know to be miderminers ; notwithstanding where they should 
trust, and cast themselves into the bosom of their true-hearted friends, there 
they are aU full of fear and jealousy. But this caution by the way. 

You see the thing proved, that godly men when they give their names 
to God, they ought to be ruled by God, and not by carnal policy or fleshly 
wisdom. You see the reasons of it. 

Use 1. The use that we will make of it shall be to stir ns up to imitation of 
the blessed apostle St Paul. I speak to them that their breeding and parts 
have raised many of them I hope from base filthy lusts ; so that the danger 
is now of ' fleshly wisdom.' The devil is more in the brain than in the 
heart, as he said of a cursed politician. Many men have the devil in their 
head. He is not altogether in the heart and afi'ections, but in the brain ; 
and there he works his engines. And politic subtle men, they are the great 
engineers of Satan ; and that which he cannot do by himself, he doth it 
by them. 

Therefore, I beseech you, let us not be instrumental to Satan, who was 
* See Note p. 159.— G. 



270 COM.MENTAEY ON 

the first author of this carnal wisdom ; for by his temptation we offended 
God, and then came all shifts upon it. You see what shifts came presently 
upon Satan's temptation. 

Man did natm\ally aifect wisdom ; to know good and evil. What wisdom 
did he get after he had ftxllen ? He had wisdom to flee from God. There 
was his wisdom, to run from God. So all the wisdom of a man that hath 
not grace, it is to shift, to run away from God, and to have helps and supports 
against God. A foolish thing it is, as if he could do it ! And then, an- 
other shift of Adam was, to cover himself with fig-leaves, a silly shift. 
And then to translate his fault upon another. So, this shifting of carnal 
wit it came presently upon the fall. Take heed, therefore, of carnal wisdom ; 
it is devUish : presently upon yielding to the temptation of the devil it 
came in. 

And that you may not make it your rule, and Uve by carnal wisdom, con- 
sider seriously what I said before, how it hinders you from all that is good ; 
how it hinders you from reforming that which is ill in your places and call- 
ings ; how it stirs up to all that is ill ; how it stirs you up to cover ill. 
It teaches you wit to do ill, and to cover ill when it is done. As we see in 
David's adultery, what a deal of wit there was to practise it. And then 
what a many windings and turnings there were to cover it. But God laid 
him open, and brought him to shame in this world, being a good man. 

And as I said, who will be ruled by his enemy ? If a man be on the 
land, and be ruled by a thief that will lead him out of his way, it is ex- 
tremity of sottishness. Or if he be on the sea, and be guided by a pirate, 
what good can come to that man that is ruled by those that seek his ruin ? 
Now if a man be ruled by carnal wisdom, he is ruled by his enemy ; and if 
all the enemies in the world should plot to do a man that mischief that his 
own head and carnal wit doth him, he would cry out of them. In Isa. 
xlvii. 10,* ' Thy wisdom hath made thee to rebel.' It is wisdom that makes 
men to rebel against God. Too much trusting to tricks and shifts of carnal 
wisdom, it makes men take contrary courses to God, and so provoke him. 
' Are we wiser than he ? are we stronger than he ?' 1 Engs xx. 23, 25. 
Doth he not daily and continually make those the buttsf of his displeasure 
and wrath, that adventure their wisdom and policy against his wisdom ? 
Yes, surely ! God delights to catch the wise in their own craftiness ; he 
delights to overturn the builders of Babel. It is but a building of Babel to 
rear anything by politic wisdom, contrary to the rules of religion, and con- 
trary to the practice of piety. To do anything against conscience and 
honesty ; to do anything against the truth by politic shifts, it is to build a 
Babel that will fall upon our own heads. It is like the foolish fire that 
leads a man out of his way.| This foolish fixe of carnal wisdom, it leads 
men to hellish strength : it makes them forsake God's light, and the light 
of his Spirit and word, and follow a false light of their own imagination 
and invention. And therefore you see what the prophet Isaiah saith of 
the people that were in those times, Isa. 1. 11, that did much plod in tricks 
of policy, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about 
with sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have 
kindled : this ye shall have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' So, 
consider this, it falls out ofttimes, that God sufiers a man to walk in the 
light of his own fire that he hath kindled, and in his own comforts. He 
wiU have comforts, and a distinct way from God's ways ; and he will 

* Misprintel ' JorPTni'ih.' — G. ;t That is, the lynisfa'uus. — G. 

t That is, ' marks.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. 1, VliR. 12. 271 

have distinct rules from God's rule. Well, well ! you liave kindled a 
fire ; walk in the light of your own fire, but be sure you shall he down 
in sorrow. 

It is the greatest judgment that God can shew in this world, to give us 
up to our own wits, to our own devices ; for we shall wind, and tui*n, and 
work our own ruin. And that is the hell of hell in hell, when the soul 
there shall think with itself, I brought myself hither. God will be exceed- 
ingly justified when men by their own wit shall damn themselves ; when 
God hath revealed to man, and taught them, this is the way, ' man, I 
have shewed thee what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee,' 
Deut. X. 12. He hath revealed it in his word, do this and do that, and he 
hath given conscience to help ; and yet out of policy to contrive thy own 
pleasures, and profits, and advantages in the world, thou hast done the 
contrary. When a man's soul shall reason thus. My own wit brought me 
hither ; I am damned by wit, I am damned by policy. A poor poHcy it is 
that brings a man to damnation ! 

Therefore we should beg of God above all things, that he would not 
deliver us up to ourselves. As St Austin hath a good speech, ' Lord, free 
me from myself, from my own devices and policy' (tt). The devil himself 
is not such an enemy, as I said, as our own carnal wit; for it is that that 
betrays us to Satan. Satan could do us no harm unless he had a friend 
within us. Therefore beg of God above all things. Lord, give me not up 
to my own brain, to my own devices (for man is a beast by his own know- 
ledge) ; but let thy wisdom and thy will be my rule. 

Use 2. Again, if so be that we ought not to make this carnal, fleshly 
wisdom the rule of our life, then let us have a ner/atlve voice ready present! ij 
for it. Whensoever we find any carnal suggestion in our hearts, say nay 
to it presently, deny it presently, have a jealousy presently. When any 
plot ariseth that is not warrantable by the word of God, and that is con- 
trary to conscience and to simplicity and sincerity, presently deny it ; con- 
sult not with flesh and blood, as St Paul saith of himself, ' I consulted not 
with flesh and blood,' Gal. i. 16. 

And when you have anjiihing to do, considering that this is not the rule 
you are to live by, or when you have anything to resist, when you have 
anything to sufler, consider what God requires ; consider what is for the 
peace of conscience ; consider what is for the good of yourselves, and for 
the good of the church ; consult with these advisers, with these intelH- 
gencers, and not with flesh and blood. Consider not what is for your profit, 
for your pleasure, for your ease ; but resolve against them. Get the truth 
of God so planted in your hearts that it may carry you through all these 
impediments, and all these suggestions whatsoever. 

Use 3. And because we cannot do this without a change, we cannot have 
a disposition contrary to carnal wisdom without a change (for except a man 
be born anew, except he be a new creature, he cannot have holy aims), 
you must labour therefore more and more to have the spirit of your mind 
renewed, and to grow in assurance of a better estate. For what makes men 
carnally to project for this world ? They are not sure of a better. They 
reason thus with themselves : It may be I may have heaven, it may be not. 
I am sure of the pleasures present, of the profits present, although, alas ! 
it be but for a short time. Whereas, if thy soul were enlightened with 
heavenly light, and thou wert convinced of the excellent estate of God's 
children in this world in the state of grace, that a Christian is incomparably 
above all men in the fii-st-fruits of heaven, in the peace of conscience, and 



'li'A COMMENTARY OX 

'joy in the Holy Ghost,' Rom. xiv. 17, which is ahove all prosperity, and 
all profit whatsoever ; and that in heaven, which is above our capacity and 
reach, every way they shall be happy. If men were convinced of this, 
certainly they would not prostitute their pates to work so worldlily. If they 
were sure of heaven, they would not so plod for the earth. 

Let us therefore labour to grow daily in the assm'ance of salvation ; beg 
of God his Spirit to have your minds enlightened. 

Use 4. And withal, to join both together, to see the ranity of all earthly 
things, tchich set carnal wisdoii on work. For, first, outward things they 
work upon the sense, upon the outward man. Profits and pleasures are out- 
ward things, and therefore the}^ work upon sense, they work upon opinion. 
In opinion they be so, as indeed worldly things are more in opinion than in 
truth. A carnal wordly man, he thinks poverty a hell, he thinks it is such 
a misery. It is not so. 

Labour to have a right judgment of the things of the earth, that set carnal 
wisdom on work, to avoid poverty, to avoid suftering for a good cause. 
The devil inflames fancy. Fancy thinks it is a great hurt to be in poverty ; 
fancy thinks it is a great good to be in honour, to be in credit, to have great 
place, that other men may be beholden to us. Alas ! get a sanctified judg- 
ment to see what these things be that set our wits on work. What are all 
these things ? ' Vanity, and vexation of spirit,' 

Let our meditations walk between these two. Often think of the excel- 
lent estate of a Christian in this world, and in the world to come ; and that 
will set heavenly wisdom on work. It will make you plot, and be politic 
for heaven. And then withal see the vanity of all other things, of pleasures, 
and honours, and profits, and whatsoever, that we may not prostitute our 
souls to them which are worse than ourselves ; that our souls may not set 
themselves on work to project and prowl for these things that are worse 
than themselves. 

Let this be your daily practice. The meditation of these two things is 
worthy to take up your cogitations every day. To consider the vanity, the 
vexation, and uncertainty that accompanies all these things, when you have 
got them ; as we see in Ahab, when he had gotten the vineyard. Besides 
the vanity of them, consider how you have gotten them, and how miserable 
will you judge yourselves presently ! How doth God meet the carnal wits 
of men in the attaining of things ! ' The wicked man shall not roast that 
which he took in hunting,' Prov. xii, 27. He hunted after preferment, he 
hunted after riches, to scrape a great deal for his posterity ; how doth God 
deal with such ? He overthrows them utterly ; and his posterity, perhaps 
they spoil all. Himself roasted not that which he took in hunting. Ahab 
got much by yielding to the carnal wisdom of Jezebel, ' Hast thou gotten, 
and also taken possession,' 1 Kings xxi. 19. What became of Ahab with 
all his plots and devices '? 

Ahithophel and others, God may give them success for a while, but after- 
ward he gives them the overthrow. Herod, he had success a while in kill- 
ing of James, and, therefore, he thought to work wisely and get Peter too ; 
God struck him with worms, Acts xii. 23. Pharaoh, in the overthrow of 
God's people, saith he, ' Let us work wisely,' Exod. i. 10. How wisely ? 
They were overthrown and drowned themselves. Their wisdom brought 
them into the midst of the sea. Consider the vanity of earthly things. 
And then consider how just it is with God to cross them either in their 
own time ; as the rich fool in the gospel, when he had riches for many 
years, ' This night shall they take away thy soul ! ' Luke xii. 20. That we 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 273 

may not walk according to the false rules of fleshly wisdom, let us oft think 
of these things. 

And to add another thing out of the text. You see here that St Paul 
rejoiced in this, that his conscience could witness that he had not walked 
in ' fleshly wisdom ; ' so if you do not walk according to the rules of fleshly 
wisdom, you shall have this benefit, your conscience shall glory in it. 

To make it clear to you, — take in your thoughts a pohtician upon his 
deathbed, that hath striven so much for riches, that hath striven to root 
himself by policy, to attain to such and such places, to obtain his pleasure 
and delights in the world ; what gloiy, what comfort hath he in this ? 
There is nothing more opposite to comfort than plotting ; for, as I said be- 
fore when I spake of simplicity, the more vv-ill there is, the more deliberation 
and plotting there is in sin, the more is the sua ; because it is done coolly, 
as we say. So of all persons usually, if their wits be their own, the greatest 
plotters die most desperately. For then their conscience tells them, that 
they have set their wits on the rack, to do this mischief and that mischief ; 
and here his comfort is cooled, his peace of conscience is broken. Wliat 
comfort can there be, when that which he sinned for, that which he broke 
the peace of his conscience for, that is gone, and he must be taken and 
hurried away from that. But the wound of conscience, the crack of con- 
science, that remains for ever ; when he shall think, that for which I sinned 
is vanished, but my terror abides for ever. 

A man therefore that walks after the rules of fleshly wisdom, he can 
never say with St Paul, ' I rejoice.' But on the contrary, let a man be able 
to witness to himself, as St Paul could ; at such a time my fleshly, subtle 
wisdom would have discouraged me from doing good ; and the wisdom of 
flesh and blood in others would have discouraged me from reforming such 
and such abuses ; but I knew it was my duty, and I did it. Here now is 
comfort. At such a time I was moved to such evil by flesh and blood in 
myself, or perhaps in others (as a man shall never want the devil in his 
friends. The devil comes to us in our nearest friends). But I had the 
grace to withstand it. I was not led by such and such rules, by my 
acquaintance, or by my own devices ; but I had grace to resist such motions. 
What a wondrous comfort is this ? 

There is nothing so sharp in conflict as this. To resist carnal wisdom, 
it is the shrewdest temptation that is from carnal wisdom ; and as the 
temptation is the strongest, so the comfort is answerable. When Jezebel 
shall be ofiered with her enticements, with her colours, with her paint ; and 
a man can dash her in pieces, and cast her out of the window, when a man 
can maintain sincerity and honesty, what a comfort is this ! The greater 
and stronger the temptation is that is resisted, the more is the comfort, 
when we come to yield our souls to God, when we come to our account. 
Therefore, be not discouraged when you are set upon by carnal wisdom, by 
strong reasons of others, or subtle reasons of your own. Is it against the 
rule ? Is it against conscience ? Is it against the word ? withstand it ! 
That which is sharpest in the conflict, will be sweetest in the comfort. 

Use 5. Again, if so be that carnal, fleshly, worldly wisdom (for it is all 
one, for the flesh is led by the world, and both conspire together, and hold 
correspondence to betray the soul, if it) be such an enemy, that it hinders 
our joy and comfort, and that if ever we will joy, we must not be led by 
coi-nal wisdom ; then we ought in our daily courses to repent, not only of 
gross sins, but to repent even of carnal devices, and carnal designs. Why ? 
It is the motion and the counsel of God's enemy, and of onr enemy. 
VOL. in. s 



274 



COMJrENTAEY ON 



Therefore, as David, Pg. xxxvii. and Ps. Ixxiii., when fleshly wisdom did 
suggest to him carnal motions of doubting of the providence of God, that 
he began to think well of the ways of the wicked, that they prospered that 
were led altogether by fleshly wisdom, he censures himself (it is the drift 
of both Psalms), ' So foohsh was I, and as a beast before thee,' Ps. Ixxiii. 
22 ; as indeed, ' Man is a beast by his own knowledge,' as Jeremiah saith, 
X. 14. For all carnal men sympathise either with boasts in base lusts, ox 
else with de^•ils in politic lusts ; either they are like devils, subtle, or like 
beasts, brutish in all their courses. 

Therefore, when any base thought, opposite to the majesty of God and 
his truth, and to the Spirit of God moving our hearts, ariseth in our hearts, 
think, this is the motion of mine enemy, of an enemy that lurks in my 
bosom, of God's enem}', of a traitor ; let us renounce it, and be abased, and 
censure ourselves for it, as holy David did, ' So foohsh was I,' &c. Crush 
all thoughts and devices of carnal wisdom in the beginning. 

We see that the godly, they ought not, nor do not lead their lives by 
fleshly wisdom ; nay, take it in the best sense, take it for the rules of 
reason, they do not lead their lives altogether by the light of nature, but 
only in those things wherein the light of nature and reason may be a judge. 
For the light of reason, the principle of reason, is given us as a candle in 
the dark night of this world, to lead us in civil and in common actions, and 
it hath its use. But yet natural reason, it becomes carnal reason in a man 
that is carnal. ' All things are impure to him that is impure, even his very 
light is darkness,' Tit. i. 15 ; Mat. vi. 23. Not that the light of nature, and 
that reason, which is a part of the image of God, is in itself evil. It is good 
in itself, but the vessel taints it. Those that have great parts of learning, 
that have great wits, and helps of learning as much as may be, what do 
they ? They trust in them, and so they stain them. Therefore, Luther 
was wont to say, ' Good works are good, but to trust in good works is 
damnable ' (^mi). So nature, and reason, and learning, they are good in 
themselves ; but trusting in them they become carnal, when a man neglects 
better rules for them. When men scorn religion, as your politicians usually 
do, then natural reason, in regard of this tainture, it becomes carnal. ' Not 
with fleshly wisdom,' or not with natural wisdom, as it is a higher rule of 
hfe. 

^Vhat then shall become of a Christian, when he hath renounced that 
which is in him by nature ? when he hath denied his wit and his will ? 
when he hath renounced a bad guide, shall he have no guide at all? Yes! 
For a man is never lawless. He is always under some guide or other. A 
man is alway under one kingdom or other. When he ceaseth to be under 
the kingdom of Satan, he comes under the kingdom of Christ; and when he 
is not led by the flesh, he is led by the Spirit. God's children, when they 
have renounced natural, carnal wisdom, they have not renounced aU wis- 
dom. They are wise still ; but they are wise by a supernatural light, they 
are wise in supernatural things. Yea, and in natural things after a super- 
natural manner. They are new creatures, advanced to a higher rank and 
order of creatures. So their wisdom is a gracious wisdom, when they are 
Christians. 

When a Christian hath renounced carnal wisdom, God leaves him 

not in the storm in the world as a ship without a stern.* He leaves him 

not as having no pole-star to guide his course by, but he gives him better 

direction. He hath the word of God, he hath the Spirit of God, he hath 

* That is, ' helm.'— G. 



2 OOEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 12. 275 

the grace of God to guide him. Therefore, after the negative here, ' Not 
in fleshly wisdom,' the holy apostle tells us how the child of God is led in 
his own person, but 

* Bij the grace of God.' It is good for inferiors alway to be under the govern- 
ment of superiors, and so God hath framed the world. For beasts, because they 
have no wisdom of their own , they are led and guided by men : and man, because 
he is, as I said before, ' a beast by his own knowledge,' and hath but a finite, 
a limited understanding, he is guided by a larger understanding, he is guided 
by God if he be good. And it is the happiness of the creature to be under 
the guidance of a better wisdom. All things in the world are guided to 
their end. Things without life are guided to their end without their privity. 
We see there is an end in everything. There is nothing in nature but it 
hath its end ; whereupon comes that saying of the philosophers, which is 
good, that the work of nature is a work of deep understanding. Not so 
much as the leaves, but they serve to shelter, and cover the fi'uit from the 
sun, and the storms, that it may thrive the better. There is nothing in 
nature but it is of great use. The work of natm-e is a work of deep under- 
standing. Now man, because he hath a principle of understanding in him- 
self, he is so guided by the wisdom of God to his end, as that he under- 
stands his own end himself. He is so led by the wisdom of God, as that 
God hath created a work of wisdom in himself, that he together with God 
is carried to his end. Now, as I said, when we are out of the regiment and 
government of the flesh, we come under the gracious government of God. 
Therefore the apostle saith here, ' Not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace 
of God.' 

The holy apostle means here especially, the particular grace opposite to 
fleshly wisdom, that is, spiritual wisdom. 

Quest. But why should the apostle here not say thus, ' Not with fleshly 
wisdom, but with spiritual wisdom ?' Why should he not say so, rather 
than thus, ' Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God ?' Why should 
he put grace instead of wisdom ? 

Ans. I answer, he doth it for heavenly ends. 

1. First, to shew that that wisdom whereby we are governed, it is not 
from ourselves, hut it is a grace. He considers wisdom, not so much as it 
is in ourselves, in the conduit ; but as it is in the spring, in the free love 
of God. It is a divine consideration, to consider all habitual graces in us, 
not as they are streams derived to us, and resting in us, but as they are knit 
to a spring which is never drawn di'y ; which besides is a free spring. 
Therefore they are graces. 

And that is the reason of the comfort of a Christian. He knows he shall 
never be destitute of necessary strength, of necessary comfort, of necessary 
direction and grace to lead him to heaven ; because those things that are 
necessary in him, he considers them as graces, not as habits, as it was the 
proud term of the philosophers to call them (re). 

We must consider them not as things in us invested in our nature, but as 
things that have their original from the free, constant, and eternal love of 
God ; as, what is so free as gi'ace ? So a Christian looks on his disposition 
wrought by grace, and on every particular grace he hath ; as love, wisdom, 
patience, he looks to all as graces, as they come from the free love of God 
that is constant ; for 'whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xiii 1. 
And his joy is more in the spring than in the stream ; it is more in the sun, 
in Christ himself, than in grace from him. Therefore the apostle, instead of 



276 COMMENTARY ON 

the abstracted distinct grace of wisdom, or any such thing, he saith, 'grace.' 
There is a savour in the very terms of Scripture, a sweet taste in the very 
language of the Holy Ghost. 

2. And then to shew that we are not only governed by wisdom, but by 
other gi'aces, to shew the connection of it with other graces ; therefore he 
saith, ' We have had our conversation, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the 
grace of God.' 

3. To shew likewise, that uhere wisdom fails in its, it is supplied by grace ; 
for the wisdom of God _/br us, is larger than the wisdom of God in us. The 
wisdom that God works in us by his Spirit, it teachcth us to avoid dangers, 
and teacheth us how to lead oiu' hves ; but we are led by a higher wisdom. 
The gi'ace of God for us, it is higher than that which is in us. 

The wisdom of God for us, it watcheth over us, it keeps us from more 
evil, and doth more for us, than that which is in us, although that be spiri- 
tual and heavenly. Therefore the apostle here, he names not distinctly 
' gi'acious wisdom,' which he mainly intends, as we see by the opposition, 
' Not by fleshly wisdom, but by gracious wisdom ;' why doth he not say so, 
but ' by grace ?' Because our Christian conversation it is not only by wis- 
dom in us, but by grace and love, partly in us and partly for us. 

For indeed there is a watchful pro\'idence, there is a waking love about 
the guiding of a Christian in his course to heaven, that keeps him in, more 
than any gi'ace that is in him. And a Christian at the hour of death, and 
at the day of judgment, will be able to say with experience, that the wis- 
dom of God for me hath been more than any wisdom he wrought in 
me : though by the wisdom in me, he enabled me to discover many dis- 
couragements, to see many wants, and to take many good courses that he 
blessed for me. 

But his wisdom for me was greater in preventing occasions above my 
strength, in offering means that I never dreamed of, in fitting occasions 
and opportunities to me. 

The wisdom of God about and toward a Christian is more than any 
wisdom that is in him. For, nlas ! having to do with the devil and with 
malicious spirits, and with the world, the stream whereof is against grace, 
it is hard for that beam of wisdom in us, that little wisdom we have, though 
it be an excellent, spiritual, divine thing. Yet notwithstanding there is a 
heavenly wisdom that watcheth for us, and gives issue and success to all 
the good we do, and turns away all evil that is above the proportion of 
grace and strength in us. Therefore, saith he, our conversation is in the 
grace and favour of God, not oidy in me, but /or me. I find experience of 
grace ; not only the grace that is in me, but of grace every way for me in 
all my courses. 

And that is the reason why v/e.iker Christians are sometimes the safer 
Christians. Another Christian that is wiser, he meets with troubles 
perhaps. 

Aye, but God knows that he hath but a little proportion in him, and there- 
fore God's wisdom is more for him without him. God doth wondrously 
for infants and weak persons. The lack in them is supplied by his heavenly 
wisdom. 

And that makes Christians confident, not to take thought what they 
shall speak, or how to carry themselves, more than is meet ; not to have 
distracted thoughts, I mean, to be discouraged in a good cause. He thinks 
I have not only a promise of gi'ace to direct and guide me, but likewise the 
wisdom of heaven for me, to discourage others, to take away occasions of 



2 CORINTHIANS CHiU>. I, VER. 12. 277 

discouragement from me, to offer me encouragements, and to lift up my 
spirit when occasion serves. 

This is the comfort of a Christian, that God is his strength. ' He hath 
wrought all our works for us,' saith the prophet, Isa. xxvi. 12. He not 
only works gracious works in us, but he works all our works for us. 

In that the apostle mentions grace, when his meaning is of the parti- 
cular grace of wisdom, as the opposition shews, the first thing that I will 
observe from it is this, that 

Obs. A Christian stands in need of wisdom. 

When he is out of the fleshly government of fleshly wisdom, he stands 
in need of another wisdom, and that is grace, the wisdom of God. 

We stand in need of wisdom ; for, alas ! what can we do in this world 
without wisdom ? what can we do without light ? For bodily inconve- 
niences we have a bodily light, an outward light to shew us what is noisome ; 
for reasonable inconveniences that our common wits apprehend, we have 
the light of reason. 

1. But there be many inconveniences, many dangers to the soul. Now 
there must be a light of wisdom answerable. We need a heavenly wisdom 
to avoid devilish inconveniences and dangers to the soul, which without 
wisdom we cannot avoid. 

2. Again, there is a necessity of wisdom that is heavenly, when we have 
renounced carnal wisdom, there is such a likeness between that ivhich is good, 
and that ivhich is evil, between truth and falsehood. ' Likeness is the mother 
of error.' * Falsehood is wondrous like truth. Evil is wondi'ous like 
good ofttimes, in show, when a sophister hath the handling and the pro- 
pounding of it. Though there be as much distance between them as be- 
tween light and darkness ; yet to the appearance of man, to his shallow 
judgment, they are wondrous like one another. Here is need of wisdom to 
discern, and distinguish between these. 

3. Again, there is wondrous need of wisdom, because there are a great 
many hindrances from the doing of that ivhich is good. It is good to have 
wisdom to see how to remove those hindrances. There are a gi'eat many 
advantages to help us to do good. There is much wisdom requisite to take 
all the helps and advantages to do that which is good ; and unless we have 
wisdom we cannot take the advantages to do good, as we should. 

4. Again, good is not good ivithout wisdom. Virtue is not virtue without 
discretion, when to speak, and when not to speak. ' A fool speaks all his 
mind at all times,' saith the wise man, Prov. xxix. 11. Now to do things 
in season, to be trees of righteousness to ' bring forth fruit in season,' Ps. 
i. 3. ' To speak a word in season it is like apples of gold with pictures of 
silver,' Prov. xxv. 11. One word in season is worth ten thousand out ot 
season. Good is such a thing, that it is never good indeed except it be 
clothed with all convenient circumstances. One inconvenience in the cir- 
cumstance mars the good things. And a world of wisdom there needs to 
see the things that are about good actions to help them, or to hinder them ; 
and if there be helps and advantages, to know how to use them, there needs 
a great deal of heavenly light. So we stand in need of wisdom. As we 
stand in need of our eyes to walk in our common ways, so much we need 
a heavenly eye in our souls, a heavenly light of wisdom. 

5. Again we see, by the policy of Satan, that that which is good, the best 
good, it is hid under evil. The best wisdom goes under the name of folly, 
and unnecessary niceness ; and the vilest courses go under policy and wis- 

* See Note y, vol. II. page 435. — G. 



278 COMMENTARY ON 

dom. Now there is need of much wisdom to discover things, and to see 
them in their right colours, when things are thus carried. In a word, such 
difierence there is of things, that there needs a great deal of discerning and 
heavenly wisdom, and a greater light than a man hath by nature, to guide 
him to heaven. I need not stand to multiply reasons ; you see a man hath 
need of a great deal of wisdom. And, which is the second branch, as he 
neods it. 

So he may have wisdom. 

He may have this heavenly wisdom. As St Paul saithhere, * I walk not 
according to fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.' The grace of wisdom 
he means, according to heavenly wisdom. As he needed it, so he had it. 
St James tells you how 3-ou may have it, * If any man lack wisdom,' to 
guide his life either in prosperity or adversity, how to abound without pride, 
and how to bear afflictions ; how to make his prosperity that it be not a 
snare to him, ' If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God,' James i. 5, 
who is the fountain of wisdom ; let him light his candle at God's light. 
Carnal wisdom lights its candle at hell-fire. A cai-nal man, rather than he 
will miss of his ends, he will go to hell, he, and his riches, and polic}'-, and 
all. It is otherwise with heavenly wisdom. We have need of wisdom, and 
wisdom we may have. 

The vessel that we must fetch it in is faith, and the vent of faith is prayer. 
Faith sends its ambassador prayer to God. ' If any man lack wisdom, let 
him go to God.' 

And surely thus Solomon did. He is an example of that. He saw he 
lacked wisdom to govern so gi-eat a people as was committed to his charge. 
God was so well pleased with his petition, that he gave him wisdom, and 
wealth, and honour too. 

Use. Make this use of it. Let us consider what relation we stand in, in 
what rank God hath set us ; let us consider what good we are advantaged 
to do by the place we are in, what helps we have to do it, and what mis- 
chiefs, and inconveniences may come ; and let every man in his place and 
standing consider what good he may do, and what evil he may avoid, and 
let us go to God for ivisdom. 

He that is a magistrate, let him do as Solomon did, desire God above all 
things to give him wisdom to rule as he should, 2 Chron. i. 10, that God 
would give him a public heart for a public place, and he will do it. And 
those that in their families would have wisdom to go in and out before them, 
let them go to God for wisdom, that they may avoid the snares that are inci- 
dent to family-government, distrustfulness, worldliness, unfaithfulness in their 
particular calling. And so for personal wisdom, to guide and manage our 
own persons, let us desire wisdom of God, to know the hidden abomina- 
tions of our own hearts, the deceits and subtleties of our own hearts, which 
is out of measure deceitful. To know our particular sins, to know what 
hurts us, and to know how to avoid it, and how to carry ourselves in our 
particular ways, to order ' our conversation aright ' every way. We see 
here St Paul led his life and conversation by that wisdom. As it was 
needful for him, so he had it ; and we must go all to the same spring for 
it : we must go to God. 

And we must know that God will not only make us ' wise to salvation,' 
2 Tim. iii. 15, that he will not only give us wisdom in things that merely 
concern heaven ; but the same love, the same care that gives us wisdom 
that way, will give us wisdom in our particular callings, to take every step 
to heaven ; the same Spirit of God doth all. He gives us gi'ace necessary 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 279 

to salvation, and he gives us grace likewise for the leading of a Christian 
life. 

Therefore it is an abominable conceit to distinguish religion from policy 
and government, as if the reasons of religion were one and the reasons of 
state were another ; and as if these were distinguished one against another. 
It is an abominable atheistical conceit ; for the same heavenly Spirit of God 
that reveals the mysteries of salvation, reveals likewise to men the mysteries 
of state. 

Christ hath the keys of heaven, of the mysteries of God ; and he hath 
the keys of all earthly policy whatsoever. He hath the greater ; hath he 
not the less ? Doth he guide us by his Spirit in heavenly mysteries ; and 
then for matters of policy, and government of states and commonwealths, 
are we to be guided by the devil, by devilish, carnal wisdom ? No ! He 
gives all wisdom in its due place, even wisdom for common things. 

Therefore consider, when men will not be ruled by God, by wisdom 
from above, in the regiment and government of their lives, how fearfully 
and shamefully they miscarry ! Partly by reason of the accidents of this 
life, and the variety of business. You know wisdom, as it governs our life 
about the things of this world, it deals with things unstable, uncertain, and 
vain. As Solomon saith, they continue not long in the same state. There- 
fore, if a man have not a better wisdom than his own, he shall be mightily 
to seek. Partly because of the imperfection of his wisdom. The things 
are imperfect ; and the wisdom, without it be guided from heaven, is much 
to seek ofttimes. 

Take the wisest man, when he leaves heavenly wisdom once. As we see 
in Solomon, he thinks to strengthen himself by combination with idolaters 
that were near to him. Did he not miscarry foully ? And hath not God 
made the wisest men that ever were in the world exemplary for gross mis- 
carriages, because they had too much confidence in their parts, and neglected 
the guidance of God in the course of their lives ? Who was more fool than 
Ahithophel ? Who was a greater fool than Saul, and than Herod ? 

The emperors had great conceits. Constantine the Great, a good 
Christian emperor, he had a conceit, if he could stabUsh a new seat at 
Byzantium (Constantinople it was called afterwards), he would seat the 
empire there ; he would rule Rome by a viceroy, by another, and he 
would be there himself and rule all the eastern parts of the world. A 
goodly conceit he had of it ; but this proved the ruin both of east and 
west. For hereupon, when he was absent from Rome, the pope of Rome 
he came up and grew by little and little. The emperors they thought they 
did a great matter to advance the pope, who was Christ's vicar, a spiritual 
man. They consulted with carnal wisdom, and he came and over-topped 
them, and ate them out, and out-grew them, as the ivy doth the tree 
that nourisheth it. The pope never left growing till he had over-topped 
them. So men, when they go to carnal wisdom, and neglect prayer, and 
neglect the counsel of God and the wisdom of God, to guide them in the 
matters of this life as well as for the life to come, they come to miscarry 
grossly. 

Therefore let us take St James his counsel. We all lack wisdom, let us 
every day beg it of God ; desire God every day that he would ' make our 
way plain before us,' Prov. xv. 19, in our particular goings in and out ; 
that he would discover to us what is best. 

Ute. And here I might take occasion to reprove sharphj the atheism of many 
that v,oald ba accounted great statesmen, that bring all religion to reasons 



280 COMMENT.VBY ON 

of state. They bring lieaveu under earth, and clean subvert and overthrow 
the order of things ; and therefore no wonder if they miscarry. They care 
not ^Yhat religion it be, so it may stand with peace. Whether it be false or 
true, if it may stand with the peace of the state, all is well. Give me 
leave to touch it but in a word. It is a most abominable conceit. Religion 
is not a thing so alterable. Religion is a commanding thing. It is to 
command all other things, and all other things serve that. And it is not a 
matter of fancy and opinion, as they think out of thulr atheism, to keep 
men in awe. It is stablished upon the same gi-ound as that there is a God : 
that upon the same ground that we say God is, upon the same ground we 
may say religion is. It teacheth us that, that God is to be observed ; and 
that Christ is equal to him as God, and inferior to him in regard of his 
humanity, &c. So that there is the same ground that there is a God, and 
that there is a religion. 

And so again, by the same reason that there is one God, by the same 
reason there is but one religion. And it is not any religion that will serve 
the turn. For that one God will be worshipped his own way. ' There is 
one God, one truth.' And that one religion must needs be that in which 
that one God discovers and reveals himself, and not that which man de- 
viseth. For will any master be served with the device of his servant ? And 
will God sufier his creature to devise a religion to serve him ? Therefore 
there is of necessity, as one God, so one religion ; and that one religion 
must be that which that God hath left in his word. 

Therefore those that are to govern states, as they will answer to that one 
God, they are to establish that religion that he hath left to the world in his 
word, and not any religion : not that which men have devised. To go a 
little further. 

In that one religion that is left by him, there must be a care had, that the 
people live by the rules of that one. For this is a rule in natui-e. Nothing 
in religion will help him that will not live according to the rules of it. 
Therefore it concerns all that are not atheists to labour to stablish one reli- 
gion, and obedience to that one. 

And every particular man, as he looks for good by his religion, is not to 
live by the rules of fleshly wisdom, but by the rules of religion. 

And here a man might deplore the misery of poor religion above all other 
things, above all other arts and trades. In other arts and trades he is ac- 
counted nobody that works not according to his trade, and that hath not, 
besides some speculative skill and rules in his head, that hath not skill to 
work. He is accounted nobody but a talker, except he doth. But in reli- 
gion men think it is enough to know. Practice it goes under base names. 
Any common conscience, any common care, and obedience to the rules wo 
must be saved by, is reproached and rejected. Religion will not do a man 
good, except he be ruled by it. Wherefore serves the rule, but to bring 
things to it ? But I will not stand on this point longer. 

There is a necessity of wisdom. And this wisdom may be had. And 
this wisdom it leads not only to salvation, but it reacheth to the state. 
And it leads every man in his calling. Well ! we may see, to touch that 
by the way, in the third place, 

Ohs. True wisdom toucheth conversation. 

« My conversation hath been by the grace of God,' that is, in wisdom. 
He puts the general for the particular. There were other graces besides ; 
but together with them there was this wisdom. So wisdom tends to con- 
versation. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 12. 281 

Mark what I said, wisdom is not in word, but in work. A man that will 
be master of his trade must work. When a man can work well, he is 
master of his trade, and not till then. Religion tends to practice. You 
know what Chi'ist saith, ' If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
them,' John xiii. 17. He entails happiness to doing, ' If you know these 
things,' he saijth not, you are happy if you know them : no ! 'If you know 
these things, happy are you if you do them.' For indeed true wisdom is 
not only speculative. This wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, when 
it is true and spiritual, it alway tends to practice ; and practice is never 
sound but when it springs from wisdom, from things known. Every article 
in the creed it tends to practice in a Christian's life, and quickens practice 
fof] every article.* So wisdom tends to conversation. 

Now, besides that main wisdom which properly concerns salvation, there 
is another wisdom which is more particular, that tends to conversation, 
which is called spmtual prudence, for particular actions. This comes from 
the Spirit of God, ' I wisdom dwell with prudence,' Prov. viii. 12. Where- 
soever there is wisdom to salvation, there is prudence to the guidance of a 
Christian's life. 

Use. But in a word, if so be that wisdom tend to conversation, and is 
joined with it, you may see that all naughty livers are nobodies in religion ; 
they are fools in religion. Wherefore serves knowledge ? wherefore serves 
light, but to walk by ? wherefore serves an instrument, but to work 
by ? wherefore serves wisdom, but to guide our lives by ? Is it to be 
matter of discourse and talk ? Therefore t^ns doth demonstrate clearly to 
any man that thinks there is any religion, or any heaven, who be the best 
Christians, even those that by the Spirit know the wisdom that God hath 
revealed in his word, and apply it in their lives and conversations to be 
ruled by it, to work to that end. Wisdom prefiseth an end alway, and 
those that work to that end, they are wise men. He is a wise man that 
works to attain his end. Now there is no man that can attain his end by 
mere knowledge. He attains his end by working, by doing. Therefore 
the wisest Christian, he sets himself to converse wisely and holily ; and he 
shews his rehgion in his particular calling, in everything. * If any man be 
religious, let him shew it in holy conversation, let him be unspotted of the 
world,' James i. 2G, 27. So much for that. 

' But by the grace of God.' To give a little further light to the words. 
Grace is either — 

1. The free favour of God in himself, issuing from his goodness, where- 
upon we have forgiveness of sins, and acceptation through Jesus Christ to 
life everlasting. This is grace resting in the breast of God, but is only 
entertained of us, and works no change in us of itself. Or else, 

2. Grace is something from that favour, from that free grace of God 
wrought in us. And that grace wrought in us is — 

(1.) First, the grace of a ichole, universal change ; for whomsoever God 
accepts graciously to life everlasting, he gives them the gifts of grace, with 
his favour ; he changeth their nature, that they may be fit to entertain 
fellowship with him. For when by grace he accepts us to favour, if he 
should not alter our natures, alas ! what a case were we in ! were we fit 
for communion with God ? No ! Therefore, that we may have communion 
with God, he alters om- dispositions, that we may be holy as he is holy. 
This change is the first change in Christianity. 

(2.) Now in this gracious change, which is a work of the gracious Spirit, 
* Qu. 'practice q[uickeas evary article?' — En. 



282 COMMENTARY ON 

derived to us by Christ, in ■whom our nature is filled with all grace, and in 
whom we receive ' gi'ace for grace,' there are f/races u-roufjlit: as — 

[1.] A hearenhi I'uiht to see a further end than ever we saw before ; a 
heavenly convincing hght to see the love of God, to see life everlasting, to 
see glorious things. 

[2.j And withal comes the grace of love to carry the whole inward man 
to the things that we see. 

[3.] Then there is the (irace of hope to expect, and patience to endure all 
till we be possessed of that which our understandings are enlightened to see. 

[4.] And faith persuades the soul where to have it, and relies on the 
promise. So particular graces are wi'ought. Therefore that is one reason 
■why the apostle names not wisdom in particular, when he saith, ' We have 
not led our conversation according to carnal, fleshly wisdom, but by gi-ace.' 
His meaning is that a Christian, when he hath heavenly wisdom, he hath 
all graces and wisdom together. There is a connection, a combination of 
graces, as I said. So he leads his life by all graces ; for all graces are 
necessary to a Christian life. Therefore instead of wisdom, he puts the 
word grace. 

(3.) Now besides these, besides the favour of God accepting us in Christ ; 
and besides the working of these graces in us, in and after our conversion, 
there is another degree of grace requisite, which is a jyarticular exciting, 
applying, strengthening grace, which is required to every good act, to act 
every good work, and resist every evil, and to enjoy good things as we 
ought to enjoy them. I say, there is a grace necessary to withstand 
temptations in all evil, besides graces habitual that are wrought in us, of 
faith, and love, and hope, &c. These, except they be actuated and enli- 
vened by the continual work of the Spirit, except they be brought to act, 
and a new strength put into them, they are not sufficient for a Christian 
life. Therefore St Paul here by grace, means not only the graces of the 
Spirit, habitual graces ; but the power of the Spirit acting, enlivening, 
quickening, and strengthening him against every evil in particular, and to 
every good work in particular. 

' But by the grace of God.' In that the apostle here, though he princi- 
pally mean wisdom, yet he means grace, the next point I will observe is 
this, that 

Doctrine. All the ivisdom that ice have it comes from grace. 

All the wisdom w^e have comes from grace, merely from grace. And 
this gi-ace is not wanting to us when we have renounced our fleshly wisdom. 
Heavenly wisdom comes altogether from grace. To make this a little 
clear. Whatsoever is spiritual it comes from Christ. Since the fall we 
have nothing but by especial grace. God being reconciled by Jesus Christ, 
he hath placed all fulness of grace in him : he hath enriched our nature in 
him with wisdom, and all graces whatsoever. ' All the treasures of wis- 
dom are in him,' Col. ii. 3, and all other graces. God the Father, and our 
Saviour Christ, they send the Spirit, they communicate the Spirit, which 
takes of Christ, and doth enlighten, and C;uicken, and guide all those that 
are members of Christ. All in particular, all inward things come from 
grace. Grace comes from the Spirit, the Spirit from Christ, and this is 
the descent of grace and wisdom. 

Thereupon they are taken indefinitely in Scripture, sometimes to * walk 
wisely,' Eph. v. 15, to walk graciously, sometimes to * walk in the Spirit,' 
Bom. viii. 1, sometimes to 'walk in Christ,' Col. ii. 6. It is all ope. 
Sometimes to be in Christ. ' Whosoever is in Christ,' &c., 2 Cor. v. 17. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 283 

And to walk in the Spirit, and by the Spirit, to pray in the Spirit, and in 
wisdom, and in faith, or to Hve by faith, or to live by grace, or in grace, 
they are all one, because they are subordinate. For Christ is the treasure 
of the church. All that is good for the church is laid up in him, ' wis- 
dom,' and whatsoever. ' Of his fulness we receive grace for grace,' 
John i. 16. Grace, answerable to the grace that is in him. He vouch- 
safes us his Spirit. 

Now the Spirit guides us not immediately, but it works a habit in us, as 
we call it, it works somewhat in us to dispose us to that which is good. 
And when that is wrought, the Spirit guides us to every particular action. 
These things that the Spirit works in us are called graces : because they 
come from out of ourselves b}' the Spirit. So wisdom is called grace, 
because it comes from the Spirit. The Spirit comes from Christ, and 
Christ hath grace, not only grace in himself, but he infuseth grace into 
us. He hath not only abundance, but redundance ; not only grace flowing 
in himself, but redundant, overflowing to all his members. This St Paul 
means, when he saith, ' We have had our conversation by the grace of 
God,' that is, by such blessed habits of wisdom, faith, love, &c., as are 
wrought by the Spirit of God ; which Spirit is given us by Jesus Christ 
our head. 

Hence we learn, that ever}'thing that is necessary to bring us to heaven, 
it is a grace, that is, it comes from without us. Adam had it within him. 
He was trusted with his riches himself. But now in Jesus Christ we have 
all of grace : we have all out of ourselves. Christ is the Sun. We have 
all our beams from him, all our light, all our life from him. He is the 
head. All our motion is from him. And this is not only true of habits, 
as we call them, that is, a constant work, or disposition wrought in God's 
children, which for the most part they carry about with them; but like- 
wise in all the particular passages of their life. They have need of gi'ace 
for every particular action. And herein the soul is like to the air. The 
air stands in need of light, and if it be not enlightened by the sun, it is 
presently dark. So a man is no wiser in particular actions than God will 
make him on the sudden. Put case he be a man of a wise spu-it for the 
most part, that he passeth for an understanding man, and is so : yet except 
he have the grace of God's Spirit, except he have wisdom to guide him in 
particular, he is no wiser than God at that time will make him to be. 
You see all motion in the body it comes from the head. Let the spirits in 
the head be obstructed never so little, and there follows an apoplexy, there 
will be no motion. So all our wisdom, all the direction that we have to 
lead our lives as becomes Christians, it comes from Christ, it comes from 
grace ; not only the disposition, but hkewise every particular action. For 
we need grace continually to assist us, to excite and stir up our powers, 
and to strengthen them against oppositions ; and if the opposition be strong, 
we have need of a stronger grace. 

There is never a good work that we do, but it is opposed from within 
us, from without us. From within us, by carnal wisdom, as I said 
before, and by carnal passions and affections. From vrithout us, by Satan, 
by the world, and by men tliat are led by the spirit of the devil. There- 
fore there is need of a strength above our own. Besides the grace that is 
in us ordinarily, there needs a new particular strength and light, to parti- 
cular actions. 

Use. Doth all come from God and from his grace ? Let us take heed 
when we have anything, of sacrilegious afiections, of attributing anything 



284 COMMENTARY ON 

to ourselves, to our own wisdom, and let us give all presently to grace. 
Mark the pliraso of St Paul here, ' Not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace 
of God.' He doth not say, by any habit in myself. He doth not say, by 
any wisdom that is in me. But he chooseth that which is in God, grace 
and favour ; because he would not rob God of any honom*. It was a proud 
term the philosophers had, as I said, sometimes they called their moral 
virtues habits (»•«•) ; and if we consider them merely as they are in the person, 
they are habits ; but indeed they are graces. The Scripture gives them 
a more heavenly term, ' grace,' those things that we guide our lives by, 
as wisdom, love, temperance, sobriety. Grace is a fitter word than habit, 
because then we consider them as they come from God freely. They are 
graces. They come from grace and favour. And when men differ one 
from another in wisdom, they difier in grace and favour. He gives more 
light, he opens the understanding of one more than another. Therefore 
St Paul was wise, and careful this way, when he speaks of that he had done 
himself, lest he should rob God. * Not I, Oh not I,' 1 Cor. xv. 10, ' but 
the grace of God that was in me ; that was all in all.' For indeed we are 
what we are, and we do what we do, by grace. Even as by ourselves we 
are men, we are what we are, and we do what we do, by our souls, by our 
reason and understanding. So it is with spiritual grace. We are what 
"we are out of ourselves by spiritual grace, and we do what we do by 
spiritual grace. And when that ceaseth, when God suspends the blessed 
motions of his Spirit to humble us, alas ! we are dark. A man is a con- 
fused creature, he is at a loss, he is in darkness for the particular managing 
of his life. He knows not what to do, he knows not what to speak, he is 
puzzled in every particular action. And therefore when he hath spoken, 
or done that which is fit, he should consider it as a grace. 

' My conversation hath been in the grace of God,' saith the apostle. 
Therefore let us sanctify God in our hearts this way. And when we stand 
in need of any direction, desire God of his grace to give us wisdom, and to 
give us the grace that we stand in need of. This is for the phrase. The 
point as I told you was this, that 

All ivisdom comes from rprtce, caul God is ready to give us his grace. 

For saith St Paul, ' My conversation' hath been in grace, which God did 
minister to me, and hath ministered to me to lead my life by. 

The reason is this — Christ hath imdcrtaken to give us grace If ice he his. 
Men under grace shall never want grace to lead a Christian life. For 
Christ hath undertaken to be our head, to be our husband, to be our guide 
in our way to heaven. As our head, he is to give us motion, to move us as 
his members. As he is our shepherd, as he saith, * I am the good 
shepherd,' John x. 11, so he is to lead us in our ways and passages, in his 
paths, to conduct us to happiness. And as he is our husband, so he is to 
be the head of his wife. To guide us, it is his office. And he works ac- 
cording to his own office. He is a king to subdue in us whatsoever is con- 
trary to his good Spirit, to subdue our rebellions, and to bring all our 
imaginations under his Spirit ; as well as to be a priest to make peace be- 
tween God and us. He is a king to rule us, and to overrule in us whatso- 
ever is ill. And he is a prophet to teach us and to guide us. He is the 
angel of the covenant, the great counsellor, that hath the spirit of counsel 
in him, Isa. ix. G, not for himself only, but for his church. 

Therefore as all things that we need come from grace, and from the 
favour of God ; so we need not doubt of the grace of God in Christ. Being 
reconciled, he is wilhng to give us grace. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 285 

This I observe, to cut ofT all cavils of flesh and blood, and to arm us 
against all discouragements. 

There are two things that greatly hinder us from a Christian course, — 
presumption and despair. 

Presumption, to set upon things, without asking grace of God, without 
depending upon his direction, by the strength of natural parts, of natural wit. 

And then despair, when a man saith. What should I go about these things ? 
I shaU never bring them to pass. No. First, consider thy standing, thy 
place and calling ; and then consider the abilities that God hath given 
thee. Consider thy parts, consider thy duty that thou art to do. And 
beg of God assistance and strength ; and if it be a thing that belong to thee, 
go on, set on all the duties that belong to thy place, in this confidence that 
thou shalt have grace. 

Go to the fountain, to Christ, for grace for the direction of thy life. He 
is the light of life, he is the way, he is ' all in all ' to bring us to heaven. 

Wherefore serves all the promises, not only of life everlasting, but even 
of grace ? but to encourage us to set on holy duties in confidence, that if 
■we have a will to be out of Satan's kingdom, and if we have a will to be 
out of ' fleshly wisdom,' God will take us into his kingdom, and into his 
government. ' He will give the Spirit to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13. 
Now the Spirit is a Spirit of direction, a Spirit of assistance, a Spirit of 
strength and comfort. It serves all turns. How many promises are 
wrapped in that promise of the Spirit ? In want of direction he shall be 
our counsellor ; in want of strength, to assist us. In perplexities, when 
we know not which way to turn us, to advise us. In extremities, when we 
are ready to sink, to comfort us. He will give us his Holy Spirit to supply 
all our defects in a fit time if we ask him ; if we find our need, and if we 
will renounce our carnal wisdom. Therefore set on those duties that God 
calls you to. 

And withal, do as St Paul doth here (he sets the negative before the 
afiirmative), renounce carnal wisdom, be not guided by that; trust per- 
fectly to the word of grace, and to the Sijirit of grace. For the word of grace 
and the Spirit of grace go together. And then you shall find that God will 
do ' abundantly above all that you are able to ask or think,' Eph. iii. 20. 
Luther when he set on the work of reformation, those that saw him at the first 
might have said, ' Get thee into thy cloister,' and say, ' Lord, have mercy 
upon thee,' for thou settest on a work impossible. But he saw the parts 
that God had given him, that he had wit to understand the abuses of the 
times, and he had given him courage. He saw by his profession he w^as 
called to be a divine. His conscience was awakened to see the abominations of 
the times, and he set on to discover these things. Did Christ leave him ? No ! 
He did not, but gave success to him to be admired* of all. When all the 
world was set against one man, yet he prevailed against them all; even be- 
cause he walked as St Paul did here, ' in sincerity and simplicity,' that is, 
he looked to the truth of the cause, and not to his own honour, or profit, or 
pleasure. He was content to be no wiser than the book of God would 
have him to be ; to be no richer or greater in the world than God would 
have him ; but committed himself to God ' in simplicity and sincerity.' How 
did God maintain him ? Wondrously, to admiration ! I instance in him to 
shew how base distrust causeth things to be no better carried than they are. 

Now to encourage you to go to the grace of God, to go to the fountain, and 
not to be held under carnal wisdom, under these pretexts, Oh ! if I do not 
* That is, ' wondered at.' — G. 



286 COMMENTARY ON 

hearken to carnal wisdom, I shall be a beggar, I shall never rise, I shall 
never do this or that in the world, I shall never escape this and that danger. 
Fie upon those base conceits. St Paul here renounceth the regiment of 
carnal wisdom. Wliat became of him ? Did he want a guide ? Grace 
took him up. 'Not by carnal wisdom, but by the grace of God.' When 
we come under the government of God, we come under the government 
of grace. And we shall want nothing either for heaven or earth that is for 
our good. 

Whatsoever we had that was good before we were gracious, that we keep 
still, and it is under a better guide. Were we learned before ? were we 
wise before ? had we authority before ? were we noble before ? We lose 
none of these when we come under Christ; but he advanceth and elevates 
these, he makes them better. If we were wise, he makes us graciously wise ; 
if we were learned, if we were noble, he makes us doubly noble. We lose 
nothing, but we are under a sweeter government, the government of grace, 
which is a mild government ; a government that tends to the advancing of 
us above ourselves, that advanceth us to be the spouse of Christ and the 
heirs of heaven. 

Those that are in Christ Jesus, and are- led by his Spirit, they are his. 
In Rom. viii. 1, seq., there is excellently set down the prerogatives that they 
have. Those that lead their conversation ' in simplicity and sincerity,' 
those that are in Christ, and in the Spirit, and in grace, there is ' no 
damnation to them.' And then again, if they suffer anything, saith he, 
' The afflictions of this world are not worthy of the glory that shall be re- 
vealed,' Eom. viii. 18. If they have any infirmities, saith he, ' the Spirit 
helps our infirmities,' ver. 26. The ' Spirit teacheth us how to pray,' ver. 
26, when we know not how to pray. If we sufler any evil, God ' turns all 
to good.' ' All things shall work together for the best to them that fear 
God,' ver. 28. For infirmities in other things we have Christ, and he makes 
intercession in heaven. ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
people ' that are in Christ, ver. 33, that are in gi'ace, that are in the Spirit, 
such as St Paul was here ? ' It is Christ that is dead, or rather that is 
risen again, and makes intercession for us,' ver. 84. And ' if he have 
given us Christ, shall he not with him give us all things else ? ' ver. 32. 
If he have given us Christ, he will give us grace to bring us to heaven. See 
the excellent estate of a Christian that is under the regiment of Christ, 
that is led by the Spirit. That chapter may serve iustead of all. 

And see the sweet combination here, how he knits these things together. 
' My rejoicing is this, that I have not had my conversation in fleshly wis- 
dom, but by the grace of God.' Here is a knitting together of divers things 
that seem to difler, as here is ' wisdom ' and ' simplicity.' I have had my 
conversation by the gi'ace of God, by wisdom, and yet in simplicity. For 
it is wisdom to be simple. When a man hath strength of parts, it is wis- 
dom to bring them parts of simplicity. 

It is wisdom to be simple concerning that which is evil ; for a man to be 
simple there is his best way. There is ' wisdom ' joined with his ' sim- 
plicity.' Then, again, besides wisdom and simplicity, here is ' our conver- 
sation ' and ' God's grace,' both joined together. St Paul by grace guided his 
conversation. So God stirs us to do all that we do. We see, but he opens 
our eyes to see ; we hear, but he opens our ears ; we believe, but he opens 
our hearts to beHeve. 

This I speak to reconcile some seeming difference. Doth God's Spirit 
do all, and we do nothing ? We do all subordinately ; we move as we are 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 287 

moved ; we see as we are enlightened ; we hear as we are made to hear ; we 
are wise as far as he makes us wise. We do, but it is he that makes us do. 

St Paul here led his conversation, but it was grace that moved him to 
lead it graciously. Well, then, he that joins simplicity and wisdom to- 
gether, the wisdom of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove ; he that 
trusts in God and grace, and yet in trusting to grace doth all that he can, and 
goes on in a Christian course, he shall rejoice. ' Our rejoicing is this, that 
we have had our conversation in simplicity, and according to the rule of 
grace, not by fleshly wisdom.' 

Consider seriously of it, what a joy will this be, that we have led our lives 
by a rule different from the world, that we have led om* lives and courses 
according to the motion of God's blessed Spii-it ! This must needs bring 
joy and rejoicing with it in what estate soever. 

The world join these together, simplicity and sincerity of life, where they 
see them, that they may slander them, that they may lay imputations upon 
them. They see they are courses opposite to theirs, and they lay loads on 
them. But what doth God ? Where there is simplicity and wisdom and a 
holy conversation, he adds his Spirit, he joins the Spirit of grace, which is 
a Spirit of joy always. As light and comfort go with the sun, so the Spirit 
of joy and comfort go alway with the Spirit of grace. St Paul here, in re- 
gard of the world, was afflicted, ' he received the sentence of death,' he was 
slandered and misused ; yet to God-ward, saith he, ' Our rejoicing is this, 
that we have led our conversation according to grace,' according to the 
motion of God's blessed Spirit, and ' not with fleshly wisdom.' 

If this be so, that the joy of God's Spirit goes with the grace of God's 
Spirit, and that those that lead their conversation by grace have a rejoicing 
above all imputations and slanders whatsoever, let this be an encourage- 
ment to us to lead a godly life. We all seek for joj. Every creature seeks 
for joy. If we would have joy within us, if we would have a spring of joy, 
let us labour to lead a conversation by this rule, by grace, by the motion 
of God's Spirit, which is ready to guide us if we commit ourselves to his 
guidance. 

* But by the grace of God.' To come then to make an use of trial, 
whether we lead our lives by this gracious wisdom or no, and not by carnal 
wisdom. And then to come to direct us how to lead our lives by the grace 
of God, which is the ground of all joy and comfort, as St Paul saith here. 

Quest. How shall a man know whether he lead his hfe by this spiritual, 
gracious wisdom, or no ? 

Ans. I answer, mark the opposition here, ' Not with fleshly wisdom, but 
by the grace of God.' He then doth lead his life by the ' grace of God,' 
that doth renounce carnal and fleshly wisdom. Carnal wisdom is a false 
rule, and it cannot stand together with grace ; they one expel another. ' A 
double-minded man,' saith St James, ' is inconstant in all his ways,' James 
i. 8, that is, he that hath two strings to his bow ; he that will he content 
to be led by the grace of God, and by the word of God, which is the 
' Word of his grace,' and yet notwithstanding he will have carnal policies, 
he will have shifts too, he is a double-minded man ; he is now under the 
government of grace, he halteth, as the prophet tells the Israelites, * Why 
do you halt?' 1 Kings xviii. 21. So he halteth between carnal and 
heavenly wisdom. He is loath to renounce carnal wisdom. No, he thinks 
if he do, he shall be a fool, he shall lose this way of getting, and that way 
of rising. 

But he that is under the Spirit of God ; that is under grace, and is 



238 COMMENTARY ON 

guided by it, he will renounce the motions and stirrings of carnal wisdom. 
When carnal wisdom, like to Eve, or like Job's wife, or like Peter, shall 
suggest. Oh, spare yourself, why will you do this ? why will you go on in 
these courses ? yd notwithstanding he is able to renounce it. 

The most of God's judgments in this world, on his children, it is for 
this halting. They have much carnal wisdom in them ; and God, to work 
it out of them, is forced to cross them sharply in their projects and courses ; 
and all to bring them to rely on grace, to rely on his government in the 
use of good means ; for we must serve God's providence in the use of good 
means. 

A man may know by God's afflicting of his children, that they deal too 
much in carnal wisdom ; for if it were not for carnal wisdom, if we would 
submit ourselves to his sweet and easy guidance, and use the lawful means 
that he hath discovered in a lawful calling ; if we would observe lawful 
courses ; alas ! we should see a clear light, and an easy passage. We need 
not to use these shifts. But because we cannot do so, we are loath to trust 
him. But we are double-minded. We will be ruled by him a little, but 
we will be politic and subtle. Therefore he sends crosses upon crosses 
upon our carnal ends and projects ; especially those that are his children, 
he wall not suffer them to prosper in ill courses. 

Sifun 1. That is one sign, those that are led by the grace of God, they ivill 
not be led hy God's enemy, and the eyiemy of their otcn souls. Now God and 
our own souls have not a worse enemy than carnal, fleshly wisdom. That 
is evident from the opposition. 

Those that deny carnal wisdom, that deny themselves, and put themselves 
upon God, it is a good evidence. And as it is a sign, so it is a cause. You 
see in holy Abraham, when he had put himself on God, and left his country, 
and his father's house, God guided him, God took him into his government. 
' I am God all-sufficient, walk before me, and be perfect,' Gen. xvii. 1. 
God means this, that by leaving all other things, and cleaving to me, thou 
shalt lose nothing, thou shalt have all in me, I will be ' all-sufficient ; ' 
therefore ' walk before me, and be perfect,' be sincere. A man shall never 
know what God will do for him till he put himself upon him, and cease to 
try him, and begin to trust him ; trust him once, honour him of his word ; 
have not a double eye, partly to carnal means, and partly to him, but have 
a single eye to his wisdom, and know that he will reward thee and keep 
promise. It is an excellent thing to deny carnal wisdom. 

How many cavils might blessed Noah have had, before he built the ark ? 
The v/orld would scorn him as an old doating man, that would go about to 
be wiser than all the world besides. But he denies all carnal reason, and 
rejects the scorns of sinful persons, and obeys God ; and we see how God 
protected him, and went on with him. And so in David, and St Paul. 

And to add a little to that I touched before, God usually strangely crosses 
carnal wisdom, because men will not deny their carnal will, and their 
carnal wit. There was never any politician in the world that ever was, but 
complained of it, if he lived any time in the world, that God went beyond 
him. Saith the heathen man Tully, ' I thought myself wise, but I never 
was so ; ' (.r.*,-) and so they may all take up the same complaint. God dashes 
the imaginations of the proud. They build a Babel, a confusion to them- 
selves and others, that are led by carnal wisdom, that will not trust to the 
grace of God. 

Let no man flatter himself, but trust in God, and not rely upon carnal 
wisdom, and such courses. Those that will bring religion to reasons of 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 12. 289 

state, and policy ; and subject the highest thing in the world to the basest 
thing, which is carnal wit, as I said before, we see what they do. The 
nature of man infinitely desireth the accomplishment of their v/ill. We see 
that where corruption may have the greatest advantage in greatness, let 
them have their will, they will overthi'ow a world to have it ; their wit is 
bent to serve theii' will. 

All witty men, that account it a heaven upon earth to have their will, 
instead of law, and conscience, and all, they set their wits on the strain to 
serve their will, and so set themselves against God. Is it not God's honour 
to set himself against them ? ' Was there ever any fierce against God and 
prospered ? ' saith Job, ix. 4. Denial of fleshly wit, and will, and wisdom, 
it is both a sign and evidence of grace ; and it is a means Ukewise why * 
God's grace will lead us. When we deny that which is strong in us, God 
will make a supply by his grace. We are no losers by it. 

Sign 2. Again, you see here in the text, where the life is led by the 
grace of God, by the Spirit of God stirring us, acting us, leading, moving, 
and strengthening of us, there a mans courses are in siinplicity and sincerity. 
The soul that is under grace will put itself simply upon God. That soul 
will be no wiser than the word of God makes it to be. It will be no hap- 
pier, no richer than God makes it. It will use no other means than what 
God allows. This is plainness, and singleness, and simplicity of heart. 

Again, it will be in sincerity. Where a man leads his life gi'aciously, 
his actions are sincere. This grace, as it comes from God, so it tends to 
God. Sincerity looks to God : it doth things as to God. So that where 
grace is, it carries a man above himself, to seek the glory of God, and life 
everlasting, to have spiritual and heavenly ends, to seek God in all things. 
The grace of God in St Paul guided him to lead his life in the simplicity 
and sincerity of God, that is, sincerity that looks to, and aims at, God in 
aU things. 

And indeed, a gracious man, and only a gracious man, can look out of 
himself to an end above himself ; only a gracious man can aim at God's 
glory, at the pleasing of God. Why ? Because only a gracious man knows 
that he hath better things in God than in the world. A worldly man 
makes himself his term,f he makes himself his last end ; because he 
knows not better out of himself than in himself. He dares not venture 
upon God's favour, to put all upon that. He knows not whether he be bis 
friend or no. He thinks he is his enemy, as he may well enough, by 
his ill courses. Only the gracious man can put himself upon God. He 
knows he is redeemed out of a miserable condition into a glorious estate ; 
and if he should be denied of all the world, yet he knows he hath more 
happiness in him than he can look for here. He knows he would be all- 
sufficient for him. He is assured of his salvation. Therefore he hath 
higher ends, he is sincere in all things. 

God when he is honoured by trusting of him, when in sincerity we make 
him our wisdom, and make his word our rule, and the happiness that he 
hath promised our chief happiness that we aim at, and rest in him ; when 
we honour him so far, then he makes a supply of all other things. But I 
spake of sincerity to the full before, only I bring it now, to shew how it is 
a note of a man that makes the grace of God his guide — he walks sincerely, 
he seeks the glory of God. 

Sign 3. Thirdly, He that walks by the grace of God, and in the grace of 
God ; by it as a rule, and in it as a principle : he that walks in it, and by 
* Qu. ' whereby ? ' — Ed. f That is, = ' termination, end.' — G. 

VOL. III. T 



290 COMMENTARY ON 

it, and through it : you shall see it bj/ the abiUty that is in him above 
nature, bj/ the things that he doth, that other men caimot do, that tcalk not ly 
grace. Therefore you have a trial of a man that converseth by grace, from 
hence. He can cross the common corruptions of the place, and of the 
time he lives in. He is not a slave, he is not enthralled to common fears, to 
common hopes, to the common joys and dehghts that the world is carried withal. 
But as grace is a thing that is mighty, and strong, and powerful of itself, it 
is a Spirit (the Spirit is like the wind, as Christ tells Nicodemus, John 
iii. 8) ; it is a mighty, powerful, strong thing : so it makes him strong, it 
enables a man's spirit to do above himself, above that which he could do, if 
he had not grace. It makes him deny himself in matter of pleasure, in 
matter of profit ; it will make him cross himself in matter of revenge, as 
David spared Saul, when he had him in his power, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. It 
will make him triumph over all estates. He can abound, and he can want, 
as St Paul saith, Philip, iv. 12. 

Other men are changeable with their condition ; they are cast down in 
adversity, they are pufled up in prosperity, they can deny themselves in 
nothing ; they are always enthralled to their base pleasures, and profits, 
and honours ; they are always swayed with some carnal end or other. 
Grace, it raiseth a man above nature. He can do that which another 
cannot do ; he can endure that which another man cannot endure. He 
can die, he can endure shame, he can resist that which another man can- 
not resist. 

Sign 4. In a word, you may know grace in a man that hath great parts 
of nature. How shall we distinguish grace from nature in him ? Thus, 
you shall have him subdue his parts unto grace, and to the rules of religion. 
If he have a strong wit, he will not make show of the strength of it, as 
though he would break through business with his wit ; but he will consult 
with conscience. You may know a man that is led by grace, especially 
where there are great parts ; he can deny not only his corruptions, but 
other things, if they stand not at that time with the will of God ; he for- 
bears ostentation of learning when he sees it is hurtful, when it is rather 
to shew himself, than to get glory to God, or to win souls. When a man 
sees that such and such courses might crush another, and advance himself ; 
yet if it touch upon conscience, he will not do [itj. Here is a conflict be- 
tween parts, and the grace of God, and goodness. Now when a man in 
this can deny himself, it is a sign that a man makes grace his guide. 

It is not so easy in weaker dispositions ; for men seem sometimes to be 
good, when it is defect of parts ; but in men of ability, it proceeds not 
from defect, or want of parts, but it is the power of grace only whereby 
they are swayed. Such a man dares not do it. He wants not ability or 
skill ; but he dares not ofiend God, he dares not seek himself, he dares 
not give scope to his wit, and to his vain mind ; he knows what spirit in 
him moves such things, and he suppresseth them presently, and yields to 
the motions of (>:>d's blessed Spirit. 

But yet in weaker men a man may know when such a one is ruled by 
gi-ace. Thus, when a man sees something in him that strengthens nature, 
as, grace takes not away nature, but betters it. When you see a man that 
otherwise is simple, yet he is wondrous skilful in resisting a temptation, 
skilful in giving advice, skilful in keeping the peace of his conscience, 
skilful in giving reproof, even above himself : a man may know that he 
hath a better schoolmaster : that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace, is 
his schoolmaster. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 291 

So that whether a man have strong or weak parts, a man may know 
whether he be led by grace or no. In the weaker, it raiseth him above 
himself; in the stronger, when the exercise of his parts of nature and 
gi-ace cannot stand together, it makes him deny himself. That he may be 
led by the one, he denies the other altogether. This is gracious wisdom. 

Sign 5. Again, a n'.an may know that he leads his life in gracious 
wisdom, or by gracious wisdom, when hefetcheth reasons for his actions, not 
from things below, hut from relii/ion, from coriscimce, from sjn ritual things. 
He doth not fetch the reason of his actions from this, that this will profit 
me, or I shall advantage myself thus and thus ; but he fetcheth the reasons 
and ground of his actions higher : this is pleasing to God, this is according 
to the peace of my conscience, this is for the good of the church, for the 
good of the state I live in, this is for the good of my Christian brethren. 
The strongest reason of a Christian is that that makes for religion, and for 
conscience. If he may gain in his own particular one way, and gain to 
the state or religion another, he considers not, what will it advantage me ? 
but, what is it for religion ? It is the chief prevailing reason, how he may 
gain to religion, and the glory of God. He will not redeem his life to 
impeach the glory of God and religion. This is a man that leads his life 
by grace. 

Sig7i 6. Again, where grace is, there graces are together. There is a 
sweet linldng of them. Therefore St Paul, instead of wisdom, names 
' grace of God,' all gi'ace. A man, therefore, may know that he is led by 
grace, when there is no solitary grace ; for where gi'ace is solitary, it is not 
at all, it is but a shadow. 

For there is not one grace, but it is of special use in the managing of a 
Christian's life and conversation ; therefore St Paul, instead of wisdom, puts 
grace here. For instance, there is a great necessity of seeing by a light 
above nature, things above nature. If a man lead a life above nature, 
there is a necessity of heavenly illumination, and conviction that there is 
a better happiness than the world affords. And then there is a need of 
love to carry the soul to that happiness that is discovered. But then there 
are a world of impediments between us and heaven and happiness, that is 
discovered to us in the gospel by Christ Jesus. There must be heavenly 
wisdom, therefore, to discover the impediments, and to remove them. And 
there are many advantages how to attain our end. We must use this and 
this means, these and these helps that God hath ordained. Here must be 
heavenly wisdom to use the advantages, and to avoid the hindrances. But 
there is a world of troubles between our end and us, between heaven that 
is discovered, and us. Therefore saith the apostle, * Ye have need of 
patience.' And patience, that is sustained by hope. Hope casts anchor in 
heaven, and assures us of happiness there ; and then patience sustains us 
in whatsoever beMls us in this world. Therefore the apostle saith not, I 
lead my life by wisdom, but by grace ; by wisdom, as it hath a connection 
with all other graces. 

Therefore a man that, out of hearing of the word, or reading, &c., hath 
it discovered, that there is a better way than he takes, and yet notwith- 
standing hath not love to carry him to it, nor wisdom to remove the impedi- 
ments, he works not towards his end ; there is no grace at all. There is 
illumination, but it is not sanctified illumination, but a mere common work 
of the Spirit ; because where true wisdom is, there is love, and patience, 
and hope, and all other graces, to carry the whole soul to that happiness 
that is discovered. 



292 COMMENTARY ON 

Therefore by this you may know a gracious wise man, he works to his 
end always. Another man hears and wishes, Oh ! it were well if I could 
attain heaven. But carnal policy and base affections hold him in a beastly 
course of life, that he works not to that end. Only he hears such things, 
and thinks God will be merciful, and Christ hath died ; and when he can- 
not enjoy the world longer, he will have good words that way. But that 
will not serve the turn. A man must lead a life in grace, that will die, and 
be saved by gi'ace. He must work, and carry the whole man with it ; and 
not only have knowledge, but faith, and love, and all. A man must work 
with it. 

Who is a wise man in outward matters ? Is he a wise man that only 
talks of state matters, out of books he hath read ? No ! but he that, 
when he comes to a business to negotiate in the world, can remove hin- 
drances, and attain his end, and overthrow the plots of his enemies, when 
it comes to particular actions. Here is a wise man, that can attain his end 
by working ; that doth work to his end, till he have attained it. So he 
proves graciously wise in religion, that works to his end ; or else he is a 
foolish man, a foolish builder. As Christ saith, ' If ye know these things, 
and do them not,' Mat. vii. 26, you are as a man that builds on the sands; 
your profession will come to nothing. 

Sign 7. Again, a man may know that he is guided by grace, that he doth 
everything by gracious wisdom, ivhen he doth provide for himself best in the 
best things, out of a sanctified judgment, when he doth judge aright of differ- 
ences ; when he considers that there is a difference between the soul and 
the body, between this life and eternal life. There is a main difference 
between the glorious eternal life in the world to come, and this fading life 
which the soul communicates to the body in this world. When a man 
judgeth the difference between true riches and these things that we are so set 
upon, that are but lent us for a little while ; when he judgeth between the 
true honour to be the child of God, and the fading honours of this world 
that shall lie down in the dust with us, and shall all depart and be gone, 
it appears then he hath a sanctified judgment ; he ' discerns of things that 
differ,' Heb. v. 14. 

And according to this, if he lead his life in gracious wisdom, he makes 
his provision. He makes his provision as his judgment leads him. His 
judgment leads him to the best things, therefore he provides for the best 
things. As Christ saith of the children of this world, ' they are wise ' in 
their courses, ' in their generation.' They provide against beggary, they 
make friends beforehand, as we see in that unjust steward, Luke xvi. 8. 
So a Christian provides for his soul, he looks to that, he * makes him 
friends of his unrighteous mammon,' xvi. 9 ; he makes him friends of his 
earthly things, that is, he doth deserve well of men that they pray for him, 
and so help him to heaven. He daily makes his account ready, he cuts off 
impediments that he meets with in the way, he troubles not himself with 
impertinences, he spends not more time than needs about worldly things ; 
he useth them as they may help his work to be better and better in grace, 
to be fitter and fitter for glory. As he discerneth differences, so he makes 
his provision answerable ; he provides for the best in the first place. Or 
else he were a foolish merchant, a foolish builder, a foolish man every way. 
The Scripture saith he is no better that cannot discern the difference, and 
pro\ide well for himself when other things fail. 

The Scripture doth well call wicked men fools. They have no judgment, 
they do not provide for themselves ; they prefer these things, say what 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 293 

they will, before better things ; they are fools in their provision. Ahitho- 
phel, he made provision, he set his house in order, and what became of him 
after ? He hanged himself. He made much provision for the world, and 
at last he knew not how to forecast and provide for his soul. The Scrip- 
ture calls the rich man in the gospel, ' a fool,' Luke xii. 20. He was wise 
enough to contrive for himself, yet he was but a rich fool. ' The fool,' as 
the wise man saith, ' knows not the way to the city,' Eccles. x. 15 ; so a 
wicked man he knows not the way to heaven, he discerns not the difference, 
he provides not, he knows not the way thither. He cannot do one thing 
that is gracious, not one action that may further his account. 

I might be very large in the point. It is profitable, because we do in- 
finitely deceive ourselves in that point, which is of more consequence than 
the whole world ; for the man is, as the rule that he is led by is. Carnal 
men are led by carnal mles ; gracious and holy men guide their lives by 
heavenly wisdom, by a gracious rule. 

Now if you find yourselves defective, for a good Christian may be defec- 
tive in this ; but if he have hearkened to carnal wisdom, if he have for- 
gotten himself, if he have troubled himself too much about the world, he 
will come to his centre again, he will come to his old way again, he will 
not be long out of it ; his way and course is by grace. Sometimes he may 
have a policy that is not good, as David had, yet his way is gracious. I say, 
if you find yourselves defective, I will shew some helps how we may guide 
ourselves, ' not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,' that is, by 
gracious wisdom, by the Spirit. 

Now the Spirit leads us not immediately, but works graces in us, and 
stirs up those graces in us. The Spirit guides a godly man, by working 
grace in him, by maldng him better, by using those graces in him. Some- 
times the Spirit of God moves a wicked man, but it makes him not better. 
He puts conceits into his head, and makes him do that which otherwise he 
would not ; but he is not bettered. The Spirit guides a good man by 
making him better, he works a gracious disposition, a gracious bent in him, 
that his judgment concurs with God's, his affections concur with the Holy 
Spirit, and make him holy and pure. There is a disposition wrought in 
a good man like to the Spirit that sanctifies him, and like to the disposition 
of Christ to whose image he is renewed. 

Now that we may guide our lives by the Spirit working in us spiritual 
and gracious wisdom, 

First of all, consider what I said before of fleshly wisdom. There are none 
but they have one of these two guides, either the flesh, and by consequent 
the devil ; for the devil dwells in our carnal reason : that is his fort, that is 
his tower, his castle. Carnal, fleshly imaginations is the devil's forge : there 
he works all his tools, all his instruments. For the devil works not so much 
immediately, as by carnal men that are led with him. 

Our wit and policy, and carnal wisdom, it is the shop, the forge of the 
devil, wherein he works all his mischief to overthrow us. It is the devil's 
workhouse, where he engines with all his tools and instruments. 

Then considering that there are but two guides, the flesh, the world, and 
Satan, which alway go together in one, or God's Spirit and grace, 1. Let 
us be willing to submit our thoughts and desires, to submit oiir jjrojects and 
our aims, and all to the Spirit of grace ; submit to the word of grace, and 
to the motions of the word ; the word of God having the Spirit of God ac- 
companying of it. The word of grace accompanied by the Spirit of grace, 
is forcible, as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. x. 4. It beats down strongholds,. 



294 COMMENTARY ON 

* strong imaf^nations.' Satan fortifies himself in strongholds, as the Scrip- 
ture calls them, iu high thoughts, working discoursive thoughts. Now 
when we come to hear the word, which tcacheth the simple, sincere truth of 
God, that teacheth us how we should be saved, and how we should guide 
our lives ; if we will be guided by grace, if we will yield to God's simple 
truth, let him erect a throne in us, let us lay down all. When we come 
to hear the word, let us think, I come to hear the wisdom of heaven itself, 
I come to hear that word that shall make me wise to salvation ; I will not 
entertain projects, I will not entertain a wisdom that is contrary to it; when 
they rise in my soul contrary to the direction of the Spirit, and of the word, 
do^^^l they shall, I will not own them. This is the wisdom of a man that 
intends to make grace his rule. 

Now a carnal hearer, a carnal reader, a common Christian, he brings his 
naughty, proud heart, he brings his high conceits to the hearing and read- 
ing of the word, he comes as a censurer, as a judge, he comes to talk of 
what was said in this passage and ia that passage, he comes not as to hear 
God speak in his ordinance, he comes not as a humble man ; he comes not 
to hear it as the ordinance of God with reverence ; and that makes him 
come and go out again as a beast. As the beasts that went out of Noah's 
ark, they went out as they came in ; so many come into the church and go 
out again as beasts. They go out worse than they came in, because they 
bring not hearts to submit themselves to God and to his word. ! a spirit 
of subjection, it is a blessed thing. 

Self-denial is some help to this. Be content in the guiding of your com- 
mon life, and in the guiding your way to salvation, to be no wiser than God's 
Spirit, and God's word will make you, to have no will nor no wisdom contrary 
to his will and wisdom. But you will live as men that have nothing of 
their own, nothing different from God, no distinct will, no contrary will 
and wit to God, but you will let God take the guidance of you himself ; 
and whom he guides must needs come to a happy end, as the psalmist saith 
excellent well, ' Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and after bring me to 
glory,' Ps. Ixxiii. 24. Those that submit themselves to be guided by God's 
counsel, he will bring them to glory. 

2. Serviceable to this is that which is pressed everywhere in the Scrip- 
ture, humility. God gives grace to the humble, that is, he gives them not 
only forgiveness of sins, and acceptation to life, but he gives them grace 
for the regiment of their lives ; ' He gives grace to the humble.' Those 
that humble their wits to God (for there is a humiliation of the wit as well 
as of the affections), that they care not for the ' depths of Satan,' Rev. ii. 2-4, 
they care not for school tricks ; they care to know nothing but ' Christ and 
him crucified,' as St Paul saith, 1 Cor. ii. 2. God's word is of power and 
majesty enough to save me, I need not bring my wit for my acceptance to 
God. It is truth that is accepted, not a strong brain to cavil. ' God gives 
grace to the humble.' Those that bring their understandings to be led and 
taught by God, he gives grace to them. 

3. Again, in the third place, if we would have our thoughts guided by 
counsel, let us have a hi//h esteem of icisdom, above all precious stones and 
pearls. Solomon prcsseth it, Prov. iv. 7, et alibi ; have a high estimation 
of wisdom, of the government of God's Spirit as the best government. And 
be out of love with carnal reason, with carnal affections and their guidance; 
account them as base things, not worthy to come into the esteem of a Christian 
heart. Those that highly prize wisdom, God will lead them by it ; those 
that sell all for the pearl shall have it, Mat. xiii. 46. There must be a 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 12. 295 

high price set on the guidance of God's Spirit, and on grace, as indeed it is 
worthy of it, and then we shall have it. 

4. Again, if we would lead our lives according to spiritual and heavenly 
wisdom, according to grace, and gracious wisdom ; let us learn, as it is, 
Job xxii. 21, to he more and mo re acquainted with God bjj])raijer; for grace comes 
not from within us. Grace is in Christ as in the root, as in the spring, as 
in the sun ; we have it but as the beam, as the stream. Therefore let us 
learn to be acquainted with God, and with Christ by prayer and meditation, 
and search into his word by reading, and by hearing him speak to us, and 
let us often speak to him. 

Let us acquaint ourselves with him by prayer, and by hearing his word, 
and then we shall have his grace to guide us. For grace is a fruit of his 
peculiar love. He gives grace to his own peculiar people. How do you 
think, shaU he have a peculiar delight in us, if we labour not to be more and 
more acquainted with him ? by often speaking to him, by often hearing of 
him, by coming into his presence, and attending as much as we can upon 
his holy ordinances, by conversing as much as we can in the holy things 
of God. Those that will be warm, they come under the beams of the sun ; 
those that would have the Spirit work effectually, they must come where 
the Spirit is effectual, where the Spirit works. Now the Spirit is effectual 
in the word preached. The Spirit fell upon Cornelius and the rest when 
they were hearing of St Peter, Acts x. 44. And the Spirit is where there is 
conversing in good company. ' Where two or three are met together, I 
will be in the midst of them,' saith Christ, Mat. xviii. 20. * If we walk 
with the wise, we shall be wiser,' Prov. ix. 9. 

It must be the heavenly wisdom of a Ckristian, if he would lead his life 
by grace, to attend upon all the means of grace. Because the Spirit of 
God is effectual by his own means, he works by his own means ; therefore 
use the means that the Spirit hath sanctified for the working of grace. I 
do wonder at a company of vain sottish creatures, that carry themselves 
according to their vain conceits, according to the whirling of their own 
brain, in toys* and baubles that come into their heads ! They care not for 
the hearing of God's blessed truth. Either they abstain altogether, or else 
they hear it carelessly, as if it were a thing that concerned them not. Oh, 
but those that will lead their lives by grace, they come to it by the Spirit, 
and the Spirit is only effectual in holy ordinances. It must be our wisdom 
therefore, to bring om-selves under some means or other, that the Spirit may 
be effectual. 

The wisest and the best men in the world are no longer gracious than 
they are wise this way. If they neglect good company, good acquaintance, 
if they neglect the hearing of the word, if they neglect prayer, they will 
grow dead, and dull, and carnal-minded ; they will be possessed with base 
thoughts. How do men differ one from another ? Not so much by any 
habitual grace that is in them, as by avoiding all that might prejudice them 
in a Christian course, and by using all means whereby the Spirit of God 
may be effectual. 

5. Again, the way to be under the grace of God's Spirit is often to medi- 
tate of the grace of God, the free love of God in Jesus Christ: for so it comes 
first. The first grace of all is God's free love in the forgiving of our sins, 
and accepting us to life everlasting ; and then he doth alter and change our 
natures more and more, he transforms us more and more. When we find 
therefore any defect of grace in our hearts, when we find coldness, and 

* That is, trifles.— G. 



2U6 



COMMENTARY ON 



deadness, and dulness, go to the first fii*e, to the fii'st Smi, to the free grace 
of God in Christ, pardoning all our sins, and accepting us to life everlasting, 
and promising us grace to load our lives in the mean time. If j-ou have 
fallen into any sin hy the temptation of Satan, or your own weakness, beg 
not first gi'ace to alter your course, to sanctify your life ; but renew every 
day your interest in the first grace, in the forgiveness of sins, and your 
acceptation to everlasting life. For till God have pardoned your sins, and 
have witnessed to your souls that you stand reconciled, he will not give the 
best fruit of reconciliation, which is grace. 

Therefore every day examine your lives, if you have oflended God, in 
what terms 3'ou stand with God, and if you stand in ill tenns, that there is 
any sin against conscience, the best way is not presently to amend that ; 
for that will not be, except the heart be warmed with God's love and favour 
in the pardon of your sins first, and in the acceptation of you in Christ, not- 
withstanding 5'om' sins ; as he justifieth us every day, not only in the first 
act oi conversion, but daily. He acquits our consciences daily from our 
sins. And therefore in the Lord's prayer Christ teacheth us every day to 
say, 'Forgive us our sins,' Mat. vi. 12. And then, after forgiveness of 
sins, to beg the particular graces for our lives that we want. I would this 
were better thought on. 

6. ChaUe)i(/e likewise the covenant of grace. We have a promise of all 
grace, and the spring of all grace. We have a promise of love. God will 
teach us to ' love one another,' John xiii. 34. We have a promise of fear. 
He hath promised that ' he will put his fear into our hearts, that we shall 
never depart fi-om him,' Jer. xxxii. 40. We have a promise of the Holy 
Spirit. Let us challenge these promises every day. So much for the direc- 
tions how to lead our lives by grace. 

' But by the grace of God.' St Paul here makes it the ground of his 
rejoicing, that he led not his life by ' fleshly wisdom, but in simplicity and 
sincerity,' and ' by the grace of God ;' and all that are led by St Paul's 
spirit live thus. 

There is a religion in the world that bears itself very big, on high terms 
of universality, succession, antiquitj^, &c., and they will have it thought to 
be a spiritual and holy religion. Well ! if a man be a carnal man that is 
led with fleshly wisdom, and not by the grace of God, that religion must 
needs be a naughty religion that hath only the support and the foundation 
of it in fleshly wisdom, which is an enemy, and opposite to the grace of 
God, and to simplicity and sincerity. 

But popery is this. Take it in the regiment and government of it, take 
it in the worship, take it in the opinions : you may draw all to one of those 
three heads. 

1. For the (jorernment of it. There is a wisdom, a wondrous wisdom, 
a fine subordination to one head, the pope, to hear all controversies ; and 
under him the cardinals, and under them the generals, and all at Rome ; 
and they have their provincials under them. Here is a wondrous fine sub- 
ordination ; but all this is by ' fleshly wisdom.' For this ' beast ' riseth 
out of the earth, and out of the sea, out of the tumult of the people, out of 
base earthly respects. Therefore it is said in the Revelation, when tho 
bishop of Rome became pope, and was at the highest, that a star fell. Rev. 
ix. 1. He fell when he rose. When he was at the highest, he was at 
the lowest. Why ? Because his rising was carnal and earthly ; or lower if 
you will, it was hellish and devilish. 

Their government is opposite to Christ's government, and being so, it 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 297 

must needs be mightily opposed by him again ; and therefore it must needs 
down, the fabric of it being opposite to the frame of Christ's government, 
though it be wondrous witty. Therefore in the Revelation, 666 is the 
* number of a man.' If you mark the frame of the Romish policy, it is 
wondrous accurate, it goes smoothly, by tens and by hundreds, 666. This 
Babylon is the number of a man ; a fine policy ! But it is but the number 
of a man. It is the device of carnal wisdom itself. Therefore it is devilish 
wisdom. Thus it is in the government of it. 

2. A7id their worship is according to the wisdom of the flesh. Some 
wisdom there is in not going to God immediately, but by saints and angels. 
What ! is it not wisdom in the prince's court, first to go to the favourite, 
and by him to the prince ? So, is it not wisdom not to go directly to God ? 
It is bold rashness to come immediately to God, but by saints and angels. 
This is the wisdom of a man, this is the wisdom of the flesh, Col. ii. 8, seq., 
this is carnal wisdom. It is opposite against the truth. 

Doth not Christ bid us come all to him ? Do angels love us better than 
he ? Is not he the great Favourite of heaven ? I will not enter into con- 
troversy, but only shew how they work by 'fleshly wisdom.' Here is 
wisdom, when we cannot raise ourselves up to God, to bring him down to 
us. As in the sacrament, they shew carnal wisdom. Oh ! it is a fine thing 
that Christ's body and om*s should be joined together ! It seems to be a fine 
point, that Christ should be hid in the bread, &c. But here is no spiritual 
wisdom. 

The union that the Scripture speaks of is by faith, ascending into hea- 
ven, laying hold on Christ there ; and going back to the cross, and seeing 
Christ crucified there, and so ' he is meat indeed, and drink indeed,' John 
vi. 55, as we see him crucified, and satisfying God's wrath for us, for our 
sins. 

And so again, is it not a pretty wisdom to draw men by pictures, and 
likenesses ? Are not men delighted with the images of their friends and 
of their parents ? And therefore is it not a good religious policy to have 
pictures of Christ, and pictures of God the father ? Here is wisdom cor- 
respondent to the dealing and afiairs of men, but all this is fleshly wis- 
dom. The Scripture speaks mightily against making of images, the word 
of God is directly against it. This is fleshly wisdom. Grace doth not rule 
here. 

So, that the souls when they go out of this world being very unclean, 
that they should be purged, that there should be some satisfaction, some 
purgatory, &c., here seems to be wisdom. But wherefore serves the blood 
of Christ then ? That is the only purgatory, that purgeth from all sins, mor- 
tal sins, venial sins, all sins. 

Again, is it not a seeming wisdom to come to heaven by our own works, 
by our own merits, that so we may set the people on to good works ? or 
else we dull their spirits and endeavours. Aye, but this is ' fleshly wisdom,' 
this is devilish wit, and so it will prove in the end ; for the Scripture goes 
only to Christ, only Christ. ' We are saved by faith,' Eph. ii. 8, only by 
Christ. I will not enter into the point, I only shew you what a seeming 
wisdom they have ; but it is not heavenly, but merely carnal. 

3. And that their religion is carnal, do but consider that all the points 
wherein they differ from iis, may he resolved either to helly -policy, or to state- 
piolicy ; either to ambitio7i, and riches, or the belly. Wherefore is their 
monarchy, all their great preferments, but to increase their ambition ? 
Wherefore are their pardons, and indulgences, but to get money basely, as 



298 



COMMENTARY ON 



some of their own writers confess ? And tbeir purgatory, &c. ? These 
things be for carnal ends. It is a religion fitted for their own ends. They 
make what they list to serve them. Religion, nature, reason, conscience, 
whatsoever is good, they make all stoop to interest their o^vn cause in. 
Their orders, that is, their spiritual good, must be their advancement. 
It is but a colour put upon carnal ends. The spiritual good is their 
own advancement. They aim at their own peculiar interest in all their 
■\illanics ; as if God stood in need of our lie, as if God's gloiy were ad- 
vanced by the devil. 

As well their government as their religion is lies. It is defended by lies, 
by equivocation, and rebellion, by withdrawing the allegiance of subjects, 
and murdering of princes. Laws, and religion, and all must stoop to their 
wisdom, under pretence of honum spirit ualc. These things are known. I 
do but touch them, to breed a deeper hatred of this religion, which is alto- 
gether fleshly and carnal. And so far as they are led by carnal wisdom, 
they are not led by the grace of God. Wherefore is their lying for advan- 
tage ? their dispensations, and horrible allowing of anything ? Is it not 
merely carnal wisdom ? 

In a word, their religion is merely policy, if it be not too good a word 
for it. It is merely carnal policy. It came not from heaven, but from the 
* bottomless pit,' Rev. ix. 2. 

Then they fell from heaven when they grew to their highest, when they 
were in their top. This I thought good to touch collaterally from the text, 
which doth characterise a true Christian indeed in his temper, that he is 
joyful when he is as he should be ; and the ground of it is from a good con- 
science, and that good conscience ariseth out of a course of life and conver- 
sation led in simplicity and sincerity to God. For religion hath majesty 
enough in itself, without far fetches and devices. And the principle from 
whence, * By the grace of God,' in the evidence of the Spirit, and not accord- 
ing to fleshly and carnal wisdom. 

In a word therefore, labour that from the evidence of the Spirit, having 
yoxar souls sanctified by the Spirit, you may reflect on yourselves, and 
look into your lives, and say truly, as St Paul doth here. My care in my 
course of life and conversation hath been in simplicity, I have cast myself 
upon God and his government, and not looked to the world ; and in sin- 
cerity I have aimed at God in all things, I have had no false and by- aims, 
I have not spared even my life by any carnal end : I have not served my- 
self either in religion, or in mj course of life, but I have laboured to sei*ve 
God in serving my brethren, and have led my life by the grace of God, and 
by the word of grace, which I laboured to know that I might follow. Let 
us be able, in some measure, in truth to say thus. And then we may say 
further with St Paul, that ' this is our rejoicing, the testimony of our con- 
science.' We shall never want joy. And then let the world judge of us as 
it will, there is such a strength and power, such a prerogative, and majesty 
in Christian comfort, when a man can, as I said, reflect thus on himself, 
that though in a weak measure, yet in truth, his conversation and course of 
life hath been, though his tidings* have been something, ' in simplicity and sin- 
cerity,' that nothing can daunt it in this world. 

It is above all discouragement, above all eclipse of good name, the testi- 
mony of conscience, which hath God's testimony with it. 

The witness of two is a strong witness. The witness of God, and con- 
science, it will so settle our souls, that neither ill reports nor any usage in 
* Qu. 'failings? '-Ed. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 299 

the world shall daunt us ; we shall have comfort in all the passages of our 
lives, be they what they will. Whereas other men that lead not their lives 
in a constant course of holy simphcity and sincerity, they are as the prophet 
saith, * like the leaves of the forest,' Isa. vii. 2, shaken with every altera- 
tion, with eveiy rumour of ill news. But a sound Chi'istian in the worst 
alteration, there may be combustions, there may be alteration of state, yet 
his ' heart is fixed,' Ps. Ivii. 7, he is not moved. 

Likewise, in the hour of death he can say with Hezekiah, * Thou knowest, 
Lord, I have led my life in simplicity,' Isa. xxxviii. 2, that I have served 
thee ' with a perfect heart,' that is, in sincerity. I have desired, and en- 
deavoured to grow better, which is all the perfection we have in this world. 
Sincerity witnessed by growth, and strength against the contrary, this will 
comfort us in all the alterations and changes in this world, which is as a 
sea full of trouble, and at the houi' of death likewise, and at the day of 
judgment. This is that only that will make us able to look Christ in the 
face. 

Truth hath a divinity in it, this simplicity and sincerity, more than any 
earthly thing. It hath that in it that is real and spu'itual. 

A man that hath the grace of God in the truth of it, there is a great deal 
of majesty in it. There is the greatest majesty in heavenly things when 
they appear most simple, because of their excellency. There is something 
of God's ui sincerity. So much as a man hath in truth, so much of God's. 
He partakes of the divine nature, as St Peter saith, 2 Peter i. 4, so much 
as he hath in truth, though it be never so little. And being a branch of 
God, it will make him look upon God in the day of judgment. "Why ? 
Because he knows he is in the covenant of grace, that he laath title to heaven 
by Christ. 

When a man's conscience can tell him that he hath led his life, not by 
carnal wisdom, but in the truth of grace, it will make him out-look Satan, 
and all the troubles of the world, and look unto Christ with comfort. Who 
would not be in such a state ? Thus we see a Christian leads his life, ' Not 
in fleshly wisdom, but by the gi-ace of God.' I will add one thing more, 
and so fijiish the verse. 

We may see hence, that the most religions men are the best statesmen. 

I know proud, carnal Machiavellian dispositions make a scorn at these 
positions. They think them to be austere and poor principles, till they come 
to death ; as that wretch said himself, when he came to die, ' That he had 
provided for all things but for death ' [yy). But while they are in their 
ruff, they think they can manage states, and do all, when, indeed, they 
bring the vengeance of God upon their own persons, and upon the state 
they live in ; for God is neither in them, nor with them. He is not in 
them ; for they want grace, they are led by carnal wisdom altogether. And 
he is not tvith them. God will not give them good success, unless it be to 
increase their judgment. He will not give good success to those projects 
that they take up contrary to his rule. 

Therefore, those that will be guided by reasons of religion, and submit 
themselves to the guidance of God's blessed Spirit, they are best for the 
state of their own souls, and best for the public estate. For doth not God 
know the mysteries of state better than any man ? Is not he a better 
politician than any Ahithophel in the world ? If they have any state policy 
that is worth the naming, is it not from him ? Is it not a beam from that 
Bun ? Yes ! why then, who is the better ? the difference of parts excepted. 
But take them alike, a gracious man, and another that is not so ; let the 



300 COMMENTARY ON 

one fetch his counsel from hell, from darkness, and the other be ruled by 
reasons of conscience and religion, there is no comparison. 

God will cross and curse their projects that are for their own ends, both 
in themselves, and in the state too. 

As for the other that are under grace, and the government of grace, God 
will be wise in them by his Spirit, and he will be wise for them. ' What- 
soever a good man doth, it shall prosper,' Ps. i. 3. It is a large promise. 
How wondrous happy and wise were the children of Israel, when they kept 
the covenant of God. ' This is your wisdom, to keep the commandments 
of God,' Deut. iv. 6 ; and their wisdom made them happy. How happy 
were they in David's time, who made the statutes of God, ' the man of his 
counsel,' Ps. Ixxiii. 24. How happy was the state in Solomon's time, till 
Solomon did warp and bend to carnal comisel to strengthen himself. How 
happy was his government till that time, but never after that. They were 
environed with enemies round about. But, alas ! who couldhurt the people 
of God, so long as they submitted themselves to the government of grace ! 
they were alway happy. 

Therefore it is an idle thing to suppose that there will be any good suc- 
cess by carnal projects ; no, the only good statesman is the religious man. 
And it was never better with the church of God, before or since the time 
of Christ, than when those were in the stern.* Do but think of this oft, 
as St Jude saith, ' God only wise,' ver. 25. We must all of us light our 
candle at that fire. 

All wisdom, even this poor spark of reason that God enlighteneth ' every 
man that comes into the world ' withal, it comes from Christ Jesus. ' In 
him are all the treasures of wisdom, God, and God-man, only wise,' Col. 
ii. 3. There is no wisdom without him, therefore let us submit ourselves 
to his government ; let us pray to him, and seek for wisdom of him in all 
things. But I go on to the next verse. 



VERSE 18. 

* For we write none other tlunrjs unto you than what you read or acknow- 
ledcfe, and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the endJ' Here St Paul 
strengthens himself by another course. First, he retires to his own heart 
and conscience, * My rejoicing is this, the testimony of my conscience,' &c. ; 
and he sets this as a bulwark against all the slanders and detractions of his 
opposers whatsoever. He sets it as a flag of defiance, the testimony of his 
own conscience. 

But to set himself the more upright in their hearts, whom he was to deal 
withal, knowing what a great advantage it was to have the good opinion of 
them, and to wipe away all imputation, he passeth from his conscience to 
their conscience. For my own conscience my rejoicing is this, that you 
cannot accuse me that I have led my life by carnal false principles, but by 
reasons of religion, and by the blessed motions of God's Spirit. Nay, I 
can go further than so. For what I say of mine own conscience, I dare 
say you can say too ; for ' I write no other things than what you read or 
acknowledge.' 

* What you read.' Some take it, ' what you know or acknowledge,' be- 
cause these are distinct things. The word anayinoskein,^ signifies to know 
or to read ; but usually, to read. We may well, therefore, take it so as 
* That is, = ' helm.' — G. f That is, from atayivuS'/.M. Cf. Eobinson, sub voce. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 13. 801 

most translate it here, * I m'ite no otlier thing,' concerning my simplicity, 
* but what you read or acknowledge.' I write of my simplicity simply. I 
speak not of my sincerity insincerely, but what I write, you read or acknow- 
ledge ; because St Paul knew he had a place in their conscience, they could 
not but acknowledge what a man he was ; for the Spirit was wondrous 
effectual by his ministry in their hearts ; and they were his epistle, as he 
saith in another place, 2 Cor. iii. 2. And, therefore, he appeals to their 
acknowledgment, to their conscience, ' We write no other thing,' &c. And 
for the time to come, ' I trust you shall acknowledge to the end.' 

So he doth appeal to their conscience for the present, and he doth take 
in trust the time to come, what their thoughts shall be of him, and what 
his estate shall be. You shall have grace to think well of me to the end, 
because you shall have ground to think well of me for my constancy. ' I 
hope you shall acknowledge to the end ; ' and you shall have wisdom, and 
experience of my goodness to acknowledge to the end. 

I will give a touch on these things, because they be useful ; and but a 
touch, because I stood somewhat on them before, and shall have fit occasion 
for them severalty after. 

Ohs. ' We ivrite no otlier things than ivhat you read.^ 

This seemeth strange. Why, how could they read other things than 
what he wrote ? Yes ! If he had written falsely, if he had not expressed 
his thoughts in his writings, then they had read one thing and he had been 
another. As a woman that is painted, there is prosopon and prosopeia ; * 
there is the visage and the true natural countenance. She is not the woman 
she appears to be, her face is one and herself is another ; but I am as I 
express myself. His meaning is, I speak of my simplicity and sincerity, 
simply and sincerely. I speak not of my virtues to go beyond you, but I 
speak sincerely ; what I speak you read. For I think not that he means 
his former epistle, but what he wrote concerning himself and the leading 
of his life. That which I speak concerning myself, that you read ; and 
what you read that I speak {zz). It pelds me this observation, which 
though I had occasion to speak of when I handled simplicity, yet I shall 
now touch it, that 

A Christian man is one man, he doth act one man^s part. 

He hath not a heart and a heart, he is not a man and a man. There is 
a harmony between his thoughts and resolutions, between his speeches and 
his actions. They all sweetly accord together. What he thinks and re- 
solves on, that he speaks ; what he speaks, that he writes ; what he writes 
and speaks, that he doth ; he is one man in all, he doth not deal doubly. 

Jt is the easiest thing in the world to be politic, to be naught, to double. 
The nature of man teacheth a man to be false, Man's heart is full of 
naughtiness. It is a hard thing for a man to be one ; and till a man be a 
gracious man, he shall be a double man. 

Therefore you must take heed of a fault, which is called the abuse of 
signs, of such signs as serve to express what a man is inwardly. Let 
your inward disposition and the signs that express it accord. The signs 
of expression that come from one man to another are speech, writing, 
countenance, and the like. 

A man should not be one thing within, and his speech another. He 
should not be one thing, and his writing another. He should not be one 
thing, and any other expression another. 

* That is, vpoawTTov, = a face, visage ; and rrposu'TriToVy a personification. — 
G. 



302 COMMENTARY ON 

This abuse of signs and expressions, when they are one way, and the 
heart another, besides the odiousness of it to God (as being contrary both 
to his nature and to his word, it is contrary to his nature ; for he is simple 
and sincere, he is one in all, ' there is no shadow of change in him,' James 
i. 17, there is no mixture. As it is contrary to his nature, so it is contrary 
to his word, that bids us not ' dissemble nor lie one to another,' Col. iii. 9), 
it makes a man most like the de^dl, who never appears in his own shape, 
but always in another. He comes in our friends as * an angel of light,' 
2 Cor. xi. 14. He never discovers himself in his own colours. Besides 
all these and such like respects, it is the overthrow, it cuts the sinews, of 
human society ; for what is the band of human society but the intercourse 
by speech, and wi'iting, and the like? Now, if there be abuse of these 
signs, that they are one thing and we another, that we do not express what 
is the true thought and impression of our hearts, all society is dissolved. 

Therefore we cannot too much hate popish principles, of not keeping 
fidelity with heretics, as they call them. It is the custom of them to deal 
so. As you know in a war of theirs with the Turks — the story is well 
known — when the cardinals had broken their promise, after they had in a 
manner gotten the victory, the Turks even cried to Christ that he would 
revenge their treachery ; and the Turks came again upon them, and over- 
came them, and gave them a mighty overthrow (aaa). Their gross principle 
of equivocation, and the hke, which stands in the abuse of expressions and 
signs ! Yea, their abuse of the blessed sign and seal, an oath, which is the 
sign ot all truth between man and man. Their abuse of the sacrament 
too ! They have abused all God's signs, and all to ill purposes, to swear 
with private reservations ; whereas the old principle of Isidore is constantly 
and everlastingly true (hbb), ' Conceive the oath as you will, it must be 
understood as he to whom it is sworn understands it, and not as he that 
swears.' Therefore undoubtedly popery must fall every day ; * and judicious 
men, though they be not gracious, they see it must fall. It should make 
us hate them deeply, because the courses they take are the overthrow of 
society. This abuse of expressions, of that excellent gift that God hath 
given, namely, the tongue, whereby what is in my heart another man 
may understand ; and also writing, whereby a man may convey his mind 
many hundred miles. Now, these excellent gifts tliat God hath given for 
society, for men to turn them against God, and against society, it must 
needs provoke the majesty of God. 

And as it is a sin against society, so it is a sin that is punished by society. 
All men must needs hate them that do so. Those that have no other argu- 
ment against popery, they have argument enough from their equivocation. 
Those that are not subtle -headed to see other things, when they look to 
the gunpowder treason and to their equivocation, there is argument enough 
for any plain, simple man to hate popeiy. 

Therefore let us be like ourselves in all that we do to God or to men. 
I had occasion to press the point when I spake of simplicity, therefore I 
will not dwell further on it. 

* 1 write no other thhu/ than ichat you rend or achioivleckfe.' He means, 
they acknowledged it in their heart and conscience. What I write of my 
conversation, that which you have heard, it is no other than that you 
read, and you acknowledge it too ; for they had felt the power of his ministry. 
Whence first of all observe, that 

Qu. ' way ? ' — Ed, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 13. 803 

Obs. Where the minister conrerseth by the grace of God, and not by carnal 
wisdom, God is not only icise in him, but for him. 

He is gracious and good for him, lie gives him success in the hearts of 
others. When a man is led by the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that 
guides him in speaking, guides his auditors in hearing, and gives a sweet 
and a strong report in their hearts of what he saith, What I write of myself 
you acknowledge, that my conversation hath been in sincerity ; and not 
only my conversation, but my doctrine ; every way you have acknowledged 
me. The same Spirit that guided me to do so, wrought in you an acknow- 
ledgment of it in your conscience. 

Therefore, if you would have the speeches of the ministers to take effect, 
you should desire God not only to guide them in what they are to say, but 
likewise with the same Spirit to work in the hearers ; and when the same 
Spirit works in both, what a glorious success is there ! As we see here, 
St Paul carried himself in his own person, and in his ministry graciously, 
in simplicity, and sincerity ; for it is meant of both. He taught simple 
doctrine without any glossing, without any far-fetched beauty from wit, or 
eloquence, or the like ; and he looked to God in his life and conversa- 
tion ; and as God guided him, so he stirred them up to pray for him : 
as the word and prayer they are alway joined together. The word had 
a report in their hearts, as it had in his own, ' What I speak, you ac- 
knowledge,' &c. 

It is not for us to deliver our minds, and there an end ; but when we 
are to speak, we ought beforehand to look up to God, and desire his Spirit 
to be effectual in us, that we may speak in the wisdom and grace of the 
Spirit ; and likewise that it may be effectual to them, that they may 
acknowledge it, that they may feel in their souls and consciences the power 
of what we speak and feel in ourselves. So you see the truth of what I 
said before, that God was not only wise in St Paul, but he was gracious and 
good for him in those that he was to deal with. 

And there is the glory of a good minister that is a humble man, and 
denies carnal wisdom : that God will delight to honour himself by using 
him as an instrument to do good to others. God usually will give report of 
what he saith to the hearts of others. 

Proud men, that speak what they speak by carnal projects, and carnal 
wisdom, and seek themselves, usually the hearts and consciences of other 
men give no report to them. For man naturally is proud, and when he 
sees that the most excellent man in the world hath by-aims, he will not 
be gone beyond by him, say what he will. If a man set up sails for him- 
self, he doth not win upon others. But he that discovers himself, that he 
seeks the glory of God, and the good of the souls that he deals with, and 
denies himself in that which otherwise he could do, that useth not the 
strength of parts which he hath, because he would discover the simple 
word, which is most majestical in simplicity, God seeing this simple and 
sincere desire, he honours and crowns the ministry of such a man with 
success in the hearts of the people. Therefore saith St Paul here, ' I write 
no other thing' concerning myself, but God hath honoured me with the 
issue of it in your hearts likewise, that you ' acknowledge' what I say. 

* You acknowledge.' Acknoivledye is a deep word. It is more than to 
* know.' It is more than a conviction of the judgment. It is when the 
heart and affections yield, when the inward Spirit upon experience yields, I 
feel and acknowledge this is true. It is more, I say, than knowledge. The 
next point then that I observe is this, that 



304 COMMENTARY ON 

Ohs. God doth (five his children that love him in simplicity and sincerity, a 
place in the conscience of men. 

He gives them place in the consciences of those that have conscience : 
for there are some that have no science,* and therefore they have no con- 
science : as popish superstitious persons, &c. But those that deal faith- 
fully, that live in the church, and see the glory of God, God gives them a 
place in the conscience of those that they live amongst and deal with. And 
they seek more to have place in their conscience, than in their fancy, than 
in their opinion, and imagination, and humour. A carnal man, so he may 
have the humour, the fancy, and imagination of his hearers delighted, he 
regards not what inwardly they may feel from him : he regards not how he 
warms their hearts, and conscience, and how they acknowledge him within; 
and therefore, perhaps, if he have a good word for the present. Oh, a glo- 
rious man, &c., it is all he cares for; but he hath no place in their con- 
science, because they feel him not working there, and he hath no aim to be 
there. A good man seeks to edify, and build up the conscience in sound 
principles, in good courses, in the faith of Christ, in holy obedience : things 
that will hold out in Hfe and death. If I were to speak to ministers, I 
would enlarge the point further. 

Use. Let us all in our conversations labour rather to approve ourselves to 
the consciences of men, that they may acknowledge us to be honest, down- 
right, faithful men, rather than to please their humours and fancies ; for, as 
Solomon saith, ' he that tells a man the truth, shall have more favour at 
the last, than he that dissembleth,' Prov. ix. 8, xxiv, 25, et alibi: for his 
conscience will witness that he hath dealt rightly, and faithfully with him, 
that he is an honest man, and goes on in the same principles still. 

Let us therefore first look to our own conscience, and then to the con- 
science of others ; and if we cannot approve ourselves to our own con- 
science, and to the conscience of others, alas ! what will become of us ? 
how shall we approve ourselves to God and to Jesus Christ at the day of 
judgment ? There is no man but a sound Christian that approves himself 
to the conscience of another man. For any other man, it is just with God 
in his judgment to find him out first or last. He may wind himself into the 
conscience for a time, as the superstitious papists do, but first or last he is 
found out to be a dissembler, and to bring false wares. 

And so for civil conversation, there is none that will have place in the 
conscience of other men, to think them and their courses good, but those 
that are sound Christians. For the most, those that are not led by the 
grace of God's Spirit, all mens' consciences condemn them. They are smit- 
ten, and censured there, and judged there. Besides, their own conscience, 
which perhaps they will not give leave to tell them somewhat in their ear 
that they would be loath to hear, this you are, this you did, and this you 
spake amiss : they will not sufier conscience to speak, but drown it in sen- 
suality, and stifle it. They take this course, they think they are well 
enough, and they would never be themselves. A carnal man will hardly 
give conscience leave to speak, till it will, whether he will or no, at the 
hour of death, and the day of judgment, when God lets it loose upon him. 
But let them take this course as long as they will, yet in the conscience 
of other men they have no place : for they live not, as St Paul saith 
here, ' in simplicity and sincerity, not by carnal wisdom, but by the grace 
of God.' 

This is the benefit that a good man hath in this life, that howsoever he 
* That Is = ' knowledge'.— G. 



2 CORIXTHUXS CHAP. I, VER. 13. 805 

have the ill words of carnal men sometimes, and their himour is against 
him : yet notwithstanding if they be in the church, and have any illnmina- 
tion, any judgment, he hath their conscience for him. Nay, I say more, 
they cannot but think reverently of a man of God, of a good Christian (I 
speak not of ministers only), they cannot but think reverently of them, and 
reverence them in their consciences, do what they can. For it is not in 
men's power to frame what conceits they will, to fi-ame what opinions they 
will of men ; but as there is a necessity of reason, as the principles we say 
are so strong, that a man cannot say they are false, do what he can, because 
the light is visible to the understanding ; as a man cannot say the sun 
shines when it is night, when it is dark, because it is a sensible falsehood ; 
so a man cannot deny the principles of any art, if they be principles ; 
because there is such a light oi truth that overpowers him, and as it were 
compels the inward man. So it is here : there is such a majesty in grace, 
and good courses of a Christian, that another man that lives a wicked Hfe 
he cannot think of him what he would. He may force himself to speak 
what he list, and force odd* opinions of him, but when he is sober himself, 
he must needs if he have any relics of conscience in him, if he be not 
altogether a sot, he must needs think well in his conscience of such a man's 
courses. This is the majesty and honour of good things, that however 
they may have the humour, and passion, and fancy of men against them, 
yet they have their conscience for them ; yea, of wicked men when they 
are themselves. 

Take the wickedest man at the hour of death, if he have himself at com- 
mand, that his spirits be not disturbed, and ask him whether he justify the 
courses of such and such men ? he "will ansv/er, Oh yes ! I would I had led 
them myself. What is that that besots them? Sensuality, and such 
courses ; for men that are not led by the grace of God, are led with outward 
things which besot the judgment for a time ; but when that dulness is past, 
when a wicked man is stripped of all, and is best able to judge, then he 
likes such courses. 

If the worst men shall in their conscience acknowledge the best per- 
sons, and the best things one day, nay, they do now, if they will suffer 
themselves to be themselves, then let us take such courses as our own 
consciences may justify, as St Paul saith here, ' This is my glorying, the 
testimony of my conscience ; ' and likewise the conscience of those I live 
with, ' I write no other thing,' but what you acknowledge in your con- 
sciences yourselves. 

' And I trust you shall acknoivJedge to the end.' This word, ' Trust,' doth 
not imply, as usually it doth in common speech, an uncertainty of a thing, 
a moral conjecture, I trust, or hope it may be so ; it may be otherwise, 
but I hope well. It is not an uncertain conceit with the fear of the con- 
trary ; but the word implies a gracious, dependent disposition upon God, 
' I trust in God,' as it is so expressed in some other places. f 

Now you acknowledge me, and ' I trust in God you shall acknowledge 
me to the end.' So here St Paul sets down what he resolved to be by the 
grace of God, and what in the issue he should be ; because holy resolutions 
are seconded with gracious assistance. 

And likewise he sets down what they should judge of him to the end ; I 
trust as you acknowledge me now, so to the end you shall have grace so to 

* Tliat is ' singular, extraordinary.' — G. 

t Cf.. Philip, ii. 24; Phik-m. 22; Heb. xiii. 18; 2 John 12— G. 
VOL. III. U 



30G COMMENTARY ON 

do, and I shall have grace so to be ; I shall be as I am, and have been , I 
have led my life ' in simplicity, and sincerity ; ' and as you have acknow- 
ledged me to be such a one, so you shall have grace still to acknowledge 
me, ' I hojie, or trust.' I will not enter into any common place, only I 
will speak that which the text puts to me. 

' I trust you shall acknowledge to the end.' Here he begins with his 
hope of their judging of him, to continue so to the end. 

Saint Paul here takes a good conceit, a good opinion of his children 
whom he had begotten to the faith in Corinth. I hope as you are, and as 
you do judge of me, so you will judge of me to the end. 

Why hath St Paul such a trust of them as of himself ? 

Beason 1. Among many reasons this is one. He knew that where God had 
begun a cjood work, he icould finish it. He saw that h.6 had begun a good 
work in them, and therefore he knew that he would go on with it. 

Beason 2. And then again, God planted in him a good hope and trust of 
them ; because hope and trust stir up endeavour to the thing hoped for. Des- 
peration doth quell all courage, and cool all endeavour. Now God, because 
he would have us constant in our carriage, and in the expressions of our 
love to other men, he stirs up in us a trust that all shall be well with 
them. 

Beason 3. Likewise St Paul sets down his hope that God had put into 
his heart of them, for his own comfort ; for it is a great comfort to a 
minister, or to a Christian, when he is to deal with such as he trusts are 
good, and will be good. It is a heaven upon earth, and therefore God doth 
plant good conceits of other men in us for this end ; partly, to stir up our 
endeavour to do all good to them, and partly to comfort us. For if the 
final estate of any man were discovered to us, that God had no delight in 
them concerning their salvation, who would do any service of love for them? 
or who would have comfort in conversing with them ? But when God stirs 
up in our hearts a good opinion of them, partly it is good for them, to stir 
up our endeavour to do all good for them ; and it is good for us, it is a 
great comfort. 

And again, it was an encouragement to them when they heard of Saint 
Paul's trust of them to the end, that they should continue as they were. 
For to have a good conceit and opinion of another man, especially the good 
conceit of a pastor, it is a great encom'agement. And the best Christians 
in the world have need of it ofttimes. Besides the judgment of themselves, 
which is sometimes shaken by Satan, that they give a false witness of their 
own estate. Oh ! it is comfortable that a man have the judgment of a man 
that looks without passion, and temptation on him ; you have been thus, 
and my trust and confidence is in God, and the promise of God, looking to 
your former course, that you will be so to the end ; he gives not a false 
witness. 

Saint Paul speaks thus to stir up his own endeavour to do good to them ; 
and to comfort them, that so great an apostle should have so good an 
opinion of them. 

Therefore let us labour, I say, to entertain as good a conceit of them 
among whom we live, as their carriage will bear. Two things usually are 
the object of our hope and trust. While men are here, before their estate 
be determined of in hell, God may have mercy on them, and deliver them 
out of the snares of Satan. That hope should stir up some endeavour to 
pray for them ; seeing their estates are not desperate, they are not yet 
sunk into hell {ccc). Or else if we see them in the state of grace, we should 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VKR. 13. 307 

express our love in the services and offices of love, because God hath 
already set his stamp on them. 

There is no man living but we may trust, and hope of him one way or 
other. Those that we see no grace in, as the apostle saith, 2 Tim. ii. 24, 
we may have ' patience towards them,' seeing if at any time God will have 
mercy on them to deliver them out of the ' snare of the devil.' 

It is not good to cast off all conceit, and all hope of any man living. 
The worst sign is, when we see men malicious, and oppose known truths, 
because it comes near the sin against the Holy Ghost ; but because we 
may err in that, it is good to take the safest way. But where we see 
evidences of grace, though in never so little a measure, let us entertain and 
cherish a good hope ; because it will cherish that which we are all bound 
to, to love one another. We are bound to love one another, and to shew 
all the offices of love. Now that which stirs up love and all the offices of 
love, is hope. Faith works by hope, as well as by love. Faith works by 
love in all duties ; and it works by hope in this duty. If we hope that God 
will have mercy on them, that will stir up our endeavour ; but we are not 
much in this error : we are rather ready to conceit over-well, than too ill of 
men. 

* I trust you shall acknowledge to the end.' Saint Paul here, besides his 
good conceit of them to the end, doth imply his o\mi resolution and pui-pose 
to hold on in good courses to the end. My trust in God's grace is, that 
you shall acknowledge to the end what I have written to you of mine own 
com'ses. As if he had said, I am Paul now, and you shall find me Paul 
hereafter ; you shall find me always an honest man like myself ; for as he 
whom I have trusted ' is yesterday, to-day,' to-morrow, ' and the same for 
ever,' so hkewise by God's grace I hope to be the same that I have been, 
I hope I shall be like myself. 

The grounds of St Paul's trust that he should be so, is partly the act 
itself, together with the endeavour, ' I trust ' I shall be so ' to the end ; ' 
because I trust in God to the end, and God is good to them that trust in 
him. How often is it repeated in the Psalms ! ' He is the God of them 
that trust in him,' Ps. xxxvii. 3 ; ' he is a sun and a shield,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; 
he is all that is good, and he keeps away all evil. All the promises are 
entailed to trusting in God. Now because I have confidence in it that God 
will do so, I stir up my endeavour to shew that it is not a presumptuous 
trust. I trust in him that will perform the conditions of the covenant which 
is made to them that honour him by trusting in him. 

St Paul knew what God had done. He knew that he that had bestowed the 
first fruits, he would make up the harvest ; he knew that he that had laid 
the first stone, he would set up the roof ; he knew that God had begun a 
good work in him by experience, and that he would finish his own work. 
That he knew by former experience. 

And then he knew the promises of God, the promises of the covenant. 
Many such grounds St Paul had to bear him up that he should continue to 
the end in a com'se of simplicity and sincerity, and in the grace of God. 

But withal St Paul did add a holy and heavenly course to come to this 
end, together with his trust. What course did St Paul take ? 

St Paul, that he might hold out constantly in holy resolutions to the end. 

First, he did judiciomhj consider icliat mic/ht hinder him, between that and 
the end of his race and course. He balanced all things that he possibly could 
suffer ; and he laid in the other balance the things that he had in hope and 
promise ; and he resolves, all that I can suffer that should shake me off 



808 COMMENTARY ON 

from my course, it is not ' worthy of the glorj' that shall be revealed,' 
Rom, viii. 18. Saith he, if you balance both, you will conclude this. 

There are many things that may shake us in our Christian course. St 
Paul thought of all Satan's snares, ' I am not ignorant of his enterprises,' 
2 Cor. ii, 11, saith he. And then for the world, that might cast trumpery 
in his way, saith he, ' I am crucified to the world, and the world is cruci- 
fied to me,' Gal. vi. 14. And for anything that might happen to him, he 
knew that the issue of all things should work for the best to them that love 
God. He includes himself, Rom. viii. 28. Saith he, we know it before- 
hand, we believe, before troubles or evils come ; come what will, the issue 
of all things is in the regiment and power of God, and as he pleaseth all 
shall work for the best to those that love God ; and therefore as I am, so I 
will be. AVhat should hinder ? if all things help me, nothing can hinder me. 

And then St Paul took this course, he looked forward still, ' I press for- 
ward to the prize of the high calling,' Philip, iii. 14. He forgat that which 
was behind, and he resolved to go forward. He had a mind to grow better 
and better alway, and this comforted him that he should hold out to the 
end. For it is the reward of a growing Christian to have a sweet sense of 
his present state of grace in God's favour, and to hold out to the end. 
Such a man is like the sun that grows* up still, till he come to high noon- 
day, as Solomon saith, Prov. iv. 18. St Paul took this course. He strove 
for perfection, he had a crown in his eye, a crown of righteousness and 
glory, and that will not suffer a man to be idle and cold that hath such a 
thing in his eye. St Paul, to whet his endeavour', not only looked forward, 
but to glory ; for as Christ looked to * the glory, and despised the shame,' 
Heb. xii. 2 ; so St Paul looked to the crown, and despised all his sufferings. 

Then besides, St Paul was conscious of his own sincerity ; for grace 
carries its own witness with itself, as he saith here, I know my conversa- 
tion. ' This is the testimony of my conscience, that in simplicity and sin- 
cerity I have walked before you.' He knew that sincerit}^ is accompanied 
with constancy and perseverance. It is a rule that alway constancy and 
perseverance are companions with simplicity and sincerity. I have begun 
in sincerity hitherto, now I am sincere, and have expressed to you the truth 
of my heart, and of my courses ; and as I am, so I mean to be ; therefore, 
having begun in sincerity, I know I shall end in perseverance and constancy. 

Truth of grace is accompanied with constancy. All other things are but 
grass, they are but shows, they will vanish ; but sincerity, the truth of 
grace, is a divine thing. ' The word of the Lord,' that is, grace wrought 
by ' the word of the Lord, that endures for ever,' 1 Pet. i. 25. Where 
there is truth of grace, though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed, there 
is perseverance to the end. St Paul knew this well, and therefore he 
builds his trust on these things, on these courses that he took. 

We should all take the like course, look to St Paul's grounds, and take 
his courses. Those be they that will hold out to the end. Judicious con- 
iSderation of all the difficulties, to put into the balance what impediments 
we shall have from the world, and what will be great to us when it is balanced 
with the glory to come ! And withal, to aim forward still, as St Paul did. 
And take another course that he took likewise, to depend upon grace con- 
tinually. He Imew there was a throne of grace open to him alway for the 
time to come, as well as for the time past, and present. He knew that 
Christ in heaven was alway full of grace ; he knew he should not want in 
any exigent when he should go to him ; he knew that God would not des- 

* Qu. 'goes?'— Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 13. 309 

titute or forsake any of his cliildren, them that he hath called to see the 
necessity of wisdom, and of courage, and comfort. Let us do therefore as 
St Paul was answered from heaven, say, ' His grace is sufficient for us,' 
2 Cor. xii. 9 ; if not to keep us from all sin, yet to keep us in comfortable 
courses, to keep us in sincerity and simplicity. The grace of God is suffi- 
cient to bi'ing us to heaven. 

Let us persuade ourselves, that if we go on in Christian courses, in that 
confidence, God will give us grace to bring us to heaven. This was St 
Paul's confidence, therefore he saith, ' I trust 3'ou shall acknowledge to the 
end,' because I know that I shall continue in simplicity and sincerity to the 
end. God will keep me, I shall have gi-ace to beg, and he will give me grace ; 
for his gifts in this kind can never be repented of. 

Let us take from St Paul this course, and this comfort : this course to 
trust in God for the time to come ; to have constant resolutions for the 
time to come, to cleave to God, and to good com'ses. 

Let us every day renew our covenants in this kind, and our resolutions 
to do nothing against conscience, to go on in Christian courses ; let it be 
om- constant course. For as God's children know they shall continue to 
the end, so it is wrought from resolution so to do ; and this resolution stirs 
them up to depend upon God by prayer, that he would ' knit their hearts 
to him, that they may fear his name,' Jer. xxxii. 40 ; that he would give 
them grace sufficient, &c., that he would establish their hearts, as David 
prays. 

This resolution, it drives them to prayer, and to all good courses, that 
God would stablish them in every good work, in every good thought and 
desire, and that he would knit their hearts nearer to him. Eesolve, 
therefore, every day, in dependence upon God, to take good courses, that 
so whensoever any judgment of God shall come, or when the hour of death 
shall light on us, it may not come as a snare, that it may take us in good 
resolutions. It is no matter how we die in outward respects, if we die in 
good resolutions. 

As we resolve, so we are ; for our resolutions are full of will. Wishes 
and resolutions : they carry the whole man with them ; and God esteems 
a man by his will. For if there be impediments that are not inipossible 
to man, resolution will break through all. God judgeth men by their resolu- 
tions : ' Teach me, Lord, thy statutes, and I will keep them even to 
the end. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous 
judgments,' Ps. cxix. 106. Eveiy day take we these promises to ourselves, 
and bind ourselves wdth them to God. 

In vows, be chary. I do not speak of them now, I speak of purposes and 
resolutions, alway take in God with them. I trust in God, depend upon 
God in good courses (that God do not punish us, and give us into deser- 
tion for our presumption), and then we may know that our state is good. 
Look to St Paul, and see the property of a good conscience. It looks 
back, it looks to the present, and to the time to come. ' Our rejoicing is 
this,' that we have had our conversation hitherto well. Is that enough for 
a good conscience ? No ! you have acknowledged me to be as I have writ- 
ten, to have a good conscience in my ministerial course, and in my conver- 
sation ; and you shall acknowledge me still. 

This is the glory of a good life, that whether a man look above him, he 
hath God to witness for him. Or whether he look to the world, to right 
judging persons, he hath them to judge for him. He dares appeal to their 
conscience. Or whether he look within him, he hath a good witness fromi 



810 COMMENTARV ON 

his own conscience. Which way soever he looks he hath comfort. ' You 
have acknowledged mc,' and you shall acknowledge : I know God wiU not 
leave me for the time to come. So that which makes up a complete 
good conscience, is the looldng to the time to come, as well as to the time 
past and present. A good conscience that is purged by the blood of Christ 
from the guilt of former sins, shall ah^ay have grace to stablish the heart 
in good resolutions. For where there is a cleansing from the guilt, where 
there is pardon of sin, there is alway given a power against sin for the time 
to come. 

We usually say in divinity, that the grace of God, and a puqDOse to 
live in any sin, cannot dwell in one heart ; and it is true, if there be not 
a purpose to obey God in all things, to ' leave every wicked way,' Isa. 
Iv, 7, if there be an inchnation to any iniquity, the heart and conscience is 
not good. A good conscience gives testimony of the time past, present, and 
to come. 

And always, as I said, remember to take God in all your resolutions, or 
else you are liable to St James his exception in a higher degree. ' Go to 
now, ye that say. We will do this, to-day and to-morrow,' James iv. 13, 
and that in strength and confidence of your own, not remembering the un- 
certainty of human events, how many things may fall out that God may 
cross it. If it be a presumptuous speech in matters of this life, how much 
more in matters of grace for the time to come, which God only hath in his 
keeping, and ' gives the will and the deed according to his good pleasure,' 
Phil. ii. 13. Therefore we should ' make an end of our salvation with fear 
and trembling,' Eph. vi. 5. 

Let us do as St Paul did, trust in God. My trust and dependence on 
God is this, that I shall do so ; because I have a constant resolution to 
be so to my life's end. 

Therefore join them both together. Every day renew our dependence 
on God, and his promises. The life of a Christian is a life dependent. 
Salvation is wrought out of us by Christ, procured by him : and our car- 
riage to salvation is wrought out of us by grace coming from Christ. He 
keeps the fountain, and he lets out the streams more or less as we humbly 
depend on him. So that both salvation is out of us, and the carriage to 
salvation is of grace ; all is out of us. How should this make us carry our- 
selves humbly, in a dependence on Christ for salvation, and the carriage of 
it ! And therefore resolve not to oifend God in anything, but to trust in 
God, and to look to his word. To trust in God and his word is all one, 
Ps. cxxx. 5. Thus we should take St Paul's com'se, to trust in God, and 
renew our purposes every day. 

And then take St Paul's comfort to yourselves, persuade yourselves, that 
* neither things present, nor things to come,' as St Paul saith, Rom. viii. 
38, nothing shall intercept your crown. For what he said here beforehand, 
that he experimentally saith of himself, 2 Tim. iv. 7, seq., a little before he 
died (which was the last epistle that ever he wrote), he saith here, they 
should acknowledge him to the end ; and there, when his end was come, 
what saith he of himself? 'I have fought a good fight, I have kept the 
faith, I have run my race ; now henceforth is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness,' &c. Before this time, I depended upon God, that he would 
carry me to my end, as he hath done ; and now I am to close up my days, 
and my sun is to set : all this I have done ; God, that was with me from 
the beginning, is with me to the end : I have done all this, and what remains 
now but a crown of righteousness ? 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 13. 311 

Therefore, I beseech you, take in trust the time to come, as well as any 
time past ; resolve well, and trust with your resolution ; live by faith ond 
obedience — -join them both together, the one to be the evidence of the 
truth of the other : then, take in trust for the time to come all the good 
that you can promise yourselves from God. You cannot honour him 
more. 

* I trust you shall acknowledge to the end.' St Paul saith of himself, 
that the grace of God should lead him to his end, and that they should 
acknowledge it. You shall not acknowledge me to the end to be rich, or 
to be in favour, &c., but this you shall acknowledge, that I shall be the like 
man. It is uncertain for anything in the world. We cannot promise our- 
selves, nor others cannot promise for us ; but you shall acknowledge this, 
that I will be as I have been to the end. ' You have acknowledged, and 
you shall acknowledge,' &c. 

Seeing acknowledging is repeated twice as an evidence of a good Chris- 
tian, to approve of the image of God in another, and to acknowledge it, 
therefore often examine your hearts what you acknowledge. Do you ac- 
knowledge that the abstaining trom evil courses, from fraud and cunning 
in your callings, that the abstaining from sensual living, from carnal 
policy, is good ? Why then, take that course, resolve upon it. Are the 
courses of God's children good ? Why will you oppose them ? St Paul 
gives an excellent rule, Rom. xiv. 22, ' We should not condemn ourselves 
in that which we allow.' Do you allow in your judgment and in your 
conscience the best courses ? as, indeed, you will do one day. Then do not 
condemn yourselves in the present for them. ' Happy is tha man that 
condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth,' saith the apostle, 
Rom. xiv. 22. 

Examine ofttimes seriously, how your judgment stands in the ways of 
God ; how it is built, whether upon human fancy, to please any man, or 
upon divine directions, the word of God. If it be so, take heed that you 
do not condemn yourselves in those courses, and those persons that you 
allow. Do you in your soul justify such persons ? Why do you not join 
with them ? Why do you not walk their ways ? Ai'e such courses good ? 
Why do you not take them ? Your justifying them in the end will be little 
to your comfort, if you condemn them all your life against your conscience ; 
for afterwards it is not so much a work of grace for you to justify good 
courses, and to acknowledge good things. In most men it is not so much 
a work of grace as it is the evidence of the thing. And when the cloud of 
sensuality, and the fume that riseth out of worldly pomp is taken away, 
then the natural conscience comes to see clearly better things, not from the 
love of them, not that it is changed and transformed with the love of them ; 
but God so discovers it to them, to make them justify his sentence of dam- 
nation the more. He discovered to them better courses than they took : 
it shall justify their damnation. 

We are deceived ofttimes in men's ends. They acknowledge good ways 
and good courses ; and on the other side some of God's good children they 
pronounce the contrary. But let none trust to that. Good courses are so 
evident and clear, that if men be not atheists, they must acknowledge them, 
especially when the impediment that hindered them before is taken away. 
You must acknowledge, therefore ' acknowledge ' now ; not in your hearts 
only, but acknowledge them in laying aside your opposition, in casting away 
your weapons, and by joining with them in good courses. Set not your 
hands against good courses and good persons ; set your tongues to speak 



812 



COMMENTAKY ON 



for their good. Take God's part ; stand on God's side. It is the best 
side. If you allow it only hereafter, it will be a baiTen allowance, it will 
be no comfort to you ; it often falls out to be so. 

beloved ! whatsoever courses else you take, they will sink and fall. 
They will sink first in j'our own souls, and none will be readier to condemn 
you than your own conscience. When God shall make you wiser, you will 
censure yourselves, What folly was it ! How was I deluded with this ill 
company and with that ! As wicked company is wondrous powerful to 
infuse ill conceits : as the spies they infused discouragement by the oration 
they made of the giants in the land, &c., they altered the mind of the whole 
people, Numb. xiii. 33. It is a dangerous thing to converse with naughty 
persons. The devil slides together into the soul with their carnal reason- 
ing, and alters the judgment for the time, that they are not so wise as con- 
science would make them, and as they might be, if they did not hearken to 
the hissing of the serpent. 

First, if you take any course but good, your own conscience is by, and will 
be the first that will find you out. For sin is a base thing, a w^ork of dark- 
ness. It must be discovered. It is a madness. It must be manifest to 
all men. Popery and all their sleights must be discovered, and the whore 
must lie naked and stink. Nothing shall be so abominable as popery and 
popish persons ere long. 

Truth will get the victory in the consciences of people ; and good courses 
will get approbation. Therefore, if you approve them not, first you shall 
be unhappy in this life, and everlastingly hereafter. This shall be the 
principal torment in hell, that you saw better courses than you lived in, 
and you would not give your judgments leave to lead you. There was 
something better, conscience told you, but you gave way to your lusts, and 
to the insinuations of wicked men, instruments of the devil, rather than 
to the motions of conscience, and of God's Spirit, that awakened con- 
science. 

This I say will more ease ■-'= your torment of hell that jou might have done 
otherwise if you had had grace. But you willingly betrayed yourselves, you 
silenced conscience, you willingly condemned yourselves in the things that 
you aclmowledged were naught, you did that which you condemned, and 
you did not practise that which your judgment did allow. 

God will have little to do at the day of judgment with most men in the 
church, to condemn them ; for, alas ! their own consciences will condemn 
them, the consciences of all will condemn them that their courses were 
naught. 

And that makes wicked men so cruel, especially if they get into place 
of authority. They know they are not allowed, they are not acknowledged 
in the consciences of those that are judicious, they know they are con- 
demned there, and the}' fret and fume, and think to force another opinion 
of themselves upon others, but it will not be ; and that makes them that 
they cannot endure the sight of them that are of a contrary judgment ; 
they think themselves condemned in the hearts of such men, and that 
makes them cruel. Especially those that have some illumination. They 
cannot abide their own conscience to take its course, they cannot abide to 
see themselves. They think themselves condemned in the judgment of 
others ; and those that think they have the prejudice! of others that their 
courses are naught, they carry an implacable hatred. It is a desperate case. 

Hast thou knowledge that they think thy courses naught, and on good 
* Qu. ' increase ? ' — Ed. t That is, = pre-judgment. — G. 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 13. 313 

ground, and dost thou hate them ? And hate to be reformed thyself ? 
Will this alway hold out ? No ! As I said before, truth is eternal ! That 
which thou acknowledgest must continue. It will be acknowledged. It 
will get the victory at the day of judgment by men and angels. Truth 
will have the victory. It is eternal. Take that course for the present, 
that thou mayest be good for the present, and hold out to the end, as we see 
the Corinthians here, ' You do acknowledge me, and you shall acknowledge 
me to the end,' and testify to the world that j'ou acknowledge the best things, 
and the best persons, that you may be one with them by love here, and in 
heaven for ever hereafter. 

' I trust you shall acknowledge to the end.' To shut up this point. 
Let me seal it up with this, make this query* to yourselves. What estate 
you are in when you come to the communion, whether it be well with you 
or no ? If not, why will you live any whit at all, in the uncertainty of our 
lives, and the shortness of them, and the danger of the wrath of God, when 
there is so little between you and eternal damnation, in a doubtful, in a 
dangerous, estate ? Are you resolved to be naught then ? N o ! If you 
be not atheists you will not say so. Do you intend to be good, and come 
and make your covenant with God ? Yes ! Why, then, resolve to be so. 

A good conscience looks not only back to sins past, to repent of them ; 
but for the time to come it resolves to please God in all things, and to hold 
out to the end. 

Some make a mockery of the holy things of God. One part of the year 
they will be holy; a rotten, foolish afl'ectiou of people that are popish. In 
Lent they will use a little austerity, oh ! they will please God wondrously ! 
but before and after they are devils incarnate. So they make that part of 
the year as a good parenthesis, in an unlearned and unwitty speech. A 
good parenthesis is unseemly in a wicked speech, and a good piece is un- 
seemly in a ragged garment ; so their lives that make a good show then (and 
there are few that do so, they are scarce among us ; men are such atheists 
that there is not outward reformation, but if there be), if they give them- 
selves leave to be civil, and to respect holy things a little time, afterward 
they return to their looseness again. Doth this patching out of a holy hfe 
please God ? No, no ! * I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will 
keep thy righteous statutes,' saith David, Ps. cxix. 106. And St Paul, ' 1 
have resolved to be so to the end ;' I will be myself still. So where grace 
is, there is a resolution against all sin for the time to come. If you enter- 
tain not this resolution, to walk ' in holiness and righteousness all the days 
of your life,' Luke i. 75, acknowledge no benefit by Christ's redemption, and 
come not near the holy things of God. 

This is the honest heart that the Scripture speaks of, that receives the 
seed deep into it ; that hates sin above all miseries and ills, and that loves 
grace above aU other good things. Therefore if any infinnity come, he can 
say it is against his resolution. I purposed not this, I plotted it not, I do 
not allow myself in it. Here is an honest heart. The word is fixed deeply 
in such a heart. It comes with an honest resolution. If you come to the 
sacrament, and purpose to live in sin, you profane the holy things of God. 
The word of God will do you no good. It will never take deep root to save 
you. So much for St Paul's resolution for the time to come, ' I tmst you 
shall acknowledge to the end.' 



Spelled ' quaere.' — G. 



314 COMMENTARY ON 



VERSE 14. 

* As also you have acknowledged us in j)art, that we are your rejoicing, even 
as ye are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.' You have acknowledged us in 
part, now since you have repented ; for when he wrote the former epistle 
to them, they had many corruptions among them in doctrine and in conversa- 
tion about the sacrament, many corrupt opinions they had ; and in ' conver- 
sation ' they endured the incestuous man among them, without casting of 
him out ; and many oi them doubted of the resurrection. Now, when 
he wrote the first epistle, it took a blessed efi'ect in their hearts ; they 
repented, and began to acknowledge St Paul, notwithstanding they were 
distasted of him by reason of the bad information of some presump- 
tuous teachers. Saith he now again, ' You have acknowledged us in part 
that now we are your rejoicing,' &c. Observe this, which I touch by way 
of coherence, 

Obs. It is a sign of a repentant man, of a man that hath repented of his sins, 
and is in a good estate, to acknowledge him that hath told him of his sitis, to 
acknowledge his pastor. 

For a false heart swells against the reproof. If the Corinthians had not 
been sound-hearted, they would never have endured St Paul's sharp epistles. 
But now he tells them their own plainly (as indeed it is a very sharp epistle 
in many passages), yet now they acknowledge him to be a good and gracious 
man, a faithful teacher. 

Use. Let it be a trial of your estate, can you endure a plain, a poiverful, an 
effectual ministry ? More particularly, can you endure a plain, efiectual 
friend, that brings that which is spoken by the minister more particularly 
home to your hearts ? It is a sign of a good heart, of a repentant heart, 
that would be better. But if not, it is a sign you have a reserved love to 
some special sin that will be your bane ; it is a sign your souls have not 
repented. As you see after in another chapter of this epistle, where he sets 
down the fruits of repentance, vii. 9, 10. And here is one sign, ' You have 
acknowledged us in part,' &c. 

In the words. 

First, there is the thing itself — * acknowledgment.* 

Secondly, the ohject-matter of it, ' that we are your rejoicing, and you are 
ours.' There is a mutual intercourse of rejoicing. 

And then the time is set down, * the day of the Lord Jesus/ the second 
coming of Christ. 

To speak a little of ' acknowledgment.' 

' Acknowledgment ' is more than knowledge ; for knowledge is a bare, 
naked apprehension, and acknowledgment is when the will and aflfections 
yield to the entertaining and the owning of the thing known. As a father 
not only knows his son, but acknowledgcth him ; a king acknowledgeth his 
subjects, and the subjects their prince. It is not only a knowledge of such 
men, but an acknowledging of them, acknowledging a relation to them. 
So you acknowledge us ; that is, in the relation we stand to you, to be 
faithful and good ministers, and good men too. 

What doth St Paul mean by saying, * You have acknowledged us ? Doth 
he mean himself ? 

No ; not altogether ; but you have acknowledged me in my faithful 
preaching of Christ to you. Wheresoever the minister is acknowledged as 
a minister, Christ is acknowledged. For what are we ? We are but the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 14. 315 

ministers of Christ, no more, nor no less. Saith St Paul, ' Let a man 
esteem of us as of the ministers of Christ,' 1 Cor. iv. 1. If they think of 
us more than ministers, that we can make and coin things of our own, 
they think too much of us ; if they think meanly and basely of us, they 
think too little of us. ' Let a man think of us as of the ministers of 
Christ,' no more, nor no less. It is enough that they acknowledge us so 
as the ministers of Chi-ist. So they are never acknowledged, but Christ is 
acknowledged by them ; for they have a relative office, they are the ministers 
of Christ. 

How shall we know then whether we acknowledge the minister or no ? 

If we acknowledge Christ first by him. 

How shall we know that we acknowledge Christ ? 

1. To achiowUdge Christ, God-man in his natures, that we have a great 
deal of love to him, that he would be horn for us ; and a great deal of re- 
verence, in that lie is God. We must not think of him but with a great deal 
of reverence, and meddle with nothing of him but with much love ; he is 
God-man, God incarnate. He acknowledgeth Christ in his priestly office, 
that doth not despair, that doth believe his full satisfaction to God ; and 
doth not mingle other things, popish satisfaction, and purgatory for venial 
sins. He acknowledgeth Christ's priestly office, that goes boldly to God 
through Christ's intercession in heaven, and boldly trusts in the satisfac- 
tion of Christ in the clamours of conscience, and the accusations of Satan. 
This is to acknowledge Christ a priest in our boldness and liberty to God, 
and confidence in our conscience of the forgiveness of sins. To acknow- 
ledge Christ as a King, is to yield subjection to his word, and to sufier him 
to rule us. To acknowledge him as a prophet, to be instructed, and guided 
by him. 

But now such as are ruled by their own lusts, and by the examples of 
others, and care not for the spiritual leading of Christ, they do not acknowledge 
him. * Let not this man reign over us,' Luke xix. 14. They shake off 
his bands, they are * sons of Behal,' Judg. xix. 22, without yoke. And 
they shall be reckoned at the day of judgment among them that know not 
Christ ; because to know him, and not to acknowledge him, is to no 
purpose. As God knoweth us well enough ; but if he know us not, and 
acknowledge us to be his, what will become of us at the day of judgment? 
' I know you not,' Mat. xxv. 12, saith he, that is, he acknowledgeth them 
not to be his. So, if our knowledge be to know Christ generally, so as 
not to give up ourselves to be ruled by him, to be directed by him, this is 
not to acknowledge him ; and to know him, and not to acknowledge him, 
vnll be no comfort for us ; as it wiU be no comfort to us for him to know 
us, and not to acknowledge us. They that acknowledge Paul, or any 
minister, they are brought to acknowledge Christ by him. 

2. And then, to give you a familiar taste of these things, they do ac- 
knowledge the minister, that acknoniedge the word to he the word of God, to 
he from him. What is that ? When they are cast into the form and mould 
of the word, and are willing to be framed, to be such as the word would 
have them, to be pliable to it ; if it threaten, to be terrified ; if it 
comfort, to be raised up ; to be fashioned every way to the word. Then 
they acknowledge the word, then they feel it to be God's word. Why ? 
For they feel it leavening the soul, making all the powers holy and comfort- 
able. As leaven changeth the whole lump, so the word of God, when we 
are cast into it, and embrace it, it frames and fashions the whole man to b© 
holy, as the word is holy. 



816 COMBIENTARY ON 

This is to acknowledge the word of God, to hear it as the word of God, 
to hear it with reverence, as we would hear something fi'om a great poten- 
tate, from a judge, from a man that hath to do with us. We know the 
word of God, and acknowledge him in the minister, when we tremble at it, 
and hear it with obedience. As Cornelius saith, ' We are all here in the 
presence of God, to hear whatsoever shall be commanded us of God,' Acts 
X. 33, ' whatsoever,' without distinction, and turning over, and declining the 
word, and shifting. When there is a willing yielding to everj'thing that is 
told us, and a meaning to obey it, this is to acknowledge the word of God, 
or else we do not. 

St Paul siiith comfortably to the Thessalonians, ' That they received the 
word of God, as the word of God,' that is, they acknowledged the word of 
God, because they heard it with such reverence, and obedience, and 
respect. 

So you may know that you acknowledge the minister, if 3'ou acknowledge 
Christ, if you acknowledge the preacher, and the word that he preacheth ; 
and you acknowledge him when you will be directed by him ; when he 
speaks in the name of Christ, to esteem highly of the * consolations of the 
Almighty,' Job xv. 11, in his mouth, to suffer the strongholds of sin to be 
beaten down by his ministry. This is to acknowledge the minister. There 
is no good taken by God's ordinance, where* it is not only known, but ac- 
knowledged. 

Christ comes to us in his ministers as well as by the poor, and it shall 
be known one day that we have rejected, not poor men like ourselves, but 
Jesus Christ. For we are joined with Christ in acceptation, or in neglect 
and contempt. \Miat we do in our ministry faithfully, we are joined with 
Christ in our acceptance. We accept Christ, when we accept and esteem 
of the minister ; or we reject Christ, when we reject, and refuse, and set 
light by the ministers of Christ. 

The hypocrisy of man's heart is not discerned almost so much in any- 
thing as in this. Let any command come from great men that have power 
of our bodies or estates to advance us, or debase us. Oh ! there is much 
astonishment, and much heed taken. Wondrous heed of penal laws and 
statutes, that we run not into the dint of them ! Now God by his minis- 
ters threatens hell, and damnation, hardness of heart, and to throw us from 
one sin to another ; we hear these things as judges, forsooth, as if they 
concerned us not. It shall one day be known that they are God's minis- 
ters, and that it is God's word, if we have grace to acknowledge them as 
speaking from God. This is to acknowledge the minister, to be directed 
by him, and to hear that that he speaks in the name of God. ' We are am- 
bassadors of God,' saith St Paul, ' and entreat you, as if Christ himself 
were on earth he would entreat you, to be reconciled to God,' 2 Cor. v. 20. 
Therefore when you refuse our entreaty, you refuse Christ that comes with 
us. Those that will not hear him here shall hear that sentence here- 
after. They must not think to be regarded of him then. But of that I 
shall speak hereafter. 

* As ye have acknowledged us in part.' You acknowledge us ministers, 
you acknowledge our doctrine, you acknowledge Christ by us. 

How do these Corinthians acknowledge St Paul in part ? 

' That we are your r>'jniciinf, even as ye are ours, in the day of the Lord 
Jesus.' ' You have acknowledged us, that we are your rejoicing.' What 
* Qu. 'but where?" — Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 14, 817 

is the meaning of that ? You have acknowledged us, that you have cause 
to rejoice much, to the day of judgment, and then you shalf rejoice to pur- 
pose, that ever I was your apostle, that ever you had grace to hearken to 
me ; that ever you had such a sincere downright apostle, that would tell 
you the truth, and gain you to Christ. 

* That we are your rejoicing.' Whence we may observe, that — 
I)oct. A faithful minister is the rejoicing of the 2')eople. 
Those people that are good, and have any grace m them, and not only 
here, but they will be so at the day of iudfrment. 
Why? 

Eeason. Because a faithful minister brings to them him that is the cause 
of all joy ; him that is Isaac, ' laughter,' Christ Jesus, at whose very birth 
there was a message of joy from heaven. 

_ For all joy and all glory is originally and fundamentally in God recon- 
ciled. That is certain. There is our joy in God reconciled. For naturally, 
before God be reconciled, our hearts are full of confusion ; they are so far 
from joy and glory, that they are full of horror. Now God is reconciled 
by Christ's satisfaction and obedience, his full satisfaction witnessed by his 
resurrection ; and thereupon comes our glorying, to be in Christ, who hath 
brought us to be at one with God, with the God of glory. ' Blessed be 
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' saith St Peter, ' that hath be- 
gotten us to a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,' &c., 
1 Pet,^ i. 3. ^ Now we have a hvely hope, we have a glorious hope, we may 
glory in it, in the resurrection of Christ ; considering that his resurrection 
is an evidence that the debt is paid, our Surety bemg out of prison, he 
being risen again. 

But all this must be opened to us, and offered to us, and applied to us, 
by the ministry. What Christ hath done, and what he will do, it must be 
opened to us, and offered to us ; to receive Christ thus graciously bringing 
us to God. And faith must be wrought in us, to join us to Christ ; ^and 
this is by the ministry. 

Now in the next place, when the ministry doth this, it doth teach ns that 
God is reconciled by the satisfaction of Christ, and teacheth the nature and 
offices of Christ, and the benefits we have by Christ. It unfolds ' the un- 
searchable riches of Christ,' Eph. iii. 8. The ministry offers Christ ; and 
God by his Spirit works grace in the ministry, to believe, and to walk 
worthy of Christ. Hereupon comes glorying in the ministry ; in the 
preaching of Christ faithfully, crucified and risen, and teaching us to walk 
worthy of Christ. 

So it is not that any man should glory in the minister for himself ; but 
in that he brings us to Christ, which Christ brings us to God, in whom is 
all our glory. So we see the ground of it, how St Paul was the rejoicing 
of the Corinthians, because he brought them to Christ. 

The office of the minister is to be wooers, to make up the marriage be- 
tween Christ and Christians' souls. Now herein is the rejoicing in a good 
minister, when we are brought to Christ ; and then see the riches of our 
husband unfolded by the ministry. Here is matter of joy, especially at 
the day of judgment. Then we shall joy indeed that ever we knew such a 
minister, that ever we knew such a holy man, that was a means to bring us 
to Christ, and to God. 

Hereupon it is that the ministers are said to be a special gift of God, 
Eph. iv. 11. ' Christ when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive,' 
and gave gifts to men.' What gifts ? « Some apostles, some prophets, 



31 S COMMENTARY ON 

some pastors, some teachers, to the end of the world, for the huilding 
of his church.' Christ when he went in triumph, after his resurrection, 
when in his ascension he went triumphantly to heaven (as the great empe- 
rors, on the day of their triumph, they scattered money, so), he scattered 
gifts ; and they were not mean gifts, money, and such trifling things ; hut 
when he went in his triumphant chariot to heaven, he had no better gifts 
to leave to the world, than to give such kind of gifts as these — he left 
ministers, apostles, to found a church ; he left pastors and teachers to the 
end of the world. These were the gifts that Christ gave when he went in 
triumph to heaven ; therefore well may they joy in the ministers as a 
special gift of God. 

So there is a notable place, Jer. iii. 14, 15. There is a promise, if they 
would turn to God, and be a gracious people, what he would do. ' I will 
give you pastors according to my own heart, and feed you ■with knowledge 
and understanding,' insinuating that it is a special blessing ; it is a blessing 
above all blessings in this world, indeed, none comparable. To live in a 
place where all solaces are, where all worldly contentments ; yet to be 
there where the sound of the gospel is not, where the best things are not, 
it is but a dead place. What is it to be fatted to destruction ? what life to 
the life of grace ? and how is the life of grace begun and strengthened, but 
by the means of salvation ? When God gives pastors according to his own 
heart, to feed his people with understanding and judgment, it is a gi-eat 
blessing, and so it is matter of rejoicing and glorying. For may not the 
soul reason thus ? — Who am I ? that when thousands sit in darkness, and 
in the shadow of death, God should send his ambassadors to me, to ofi'er 
Christ Jesus with all his riches to me ; and by his Holy Spirit eflfect it, by 
such and such a ministry working grace in me, to give me the first fruits 
of glory, the pledge of salvation, the beginning of grace here, when millions 
of other people sit in darkness ? Thus a Christian rejoiceth in God first, 
and then rejoiceth in the minister. He rejoiceth in everything that is an 
occasion to bring him to heaven. 

What is the reason God brings us to heaven by the ministry of men, and 
doth not send angels, or do all by his Spirit without help ? 

Amongst the rest, this is one, he would have one to glory in another, he 
would tie one to another. Therefore, it ties one man to another, this re- 
lation to see the need of God's ordinance, and that people might rejoice 
one in another as the gift of God. Therefore, he calls man by man, to 
knit man to man, and that they may see God's love to them in men. They 
saw Christ's love to them in St Paul. St Paul saw Christ's love to him 
in them, in their obedience. This is the reason that God useth men to 
call men. 

Therefore, those that neglect the ordinance of God, let them never think 
of glory by Christ, that glory not in the minister that brings them to Christ. 
Therefore, 2 Cor. v. 19, they are excellently joined together, ' God was in 
Christ reconciling the world to himself.' What then ? What need the 
ministiy if God be reconciled to the world in Christ ? God is merciful, and 
Christ died, and there is an end. No ; he hath put to us apostles, and 
after us to pastors and teachers, ' the word of reconciliation,' and we, ' as 
ambassadors, entreat you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God.' So 
there is no word of reconciliation effectual to any but we must have the 
efficacy of it by embassage, it must be ofiered by the ministry. 

This ministry, contemned by the world, must be the means to bring us to 
Christ. We have no benefit brought to us from God unless it be by the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 14. 319 

word of reconciliation. Neglect the word, neglect reconciliation itself. 
Therefore it is called, ' the word of the kingdom,' ' the word of grace,' ' the 
word of Kfe,' insinuating that if we neglect the word unfolded by God's 
ordinance in the church, we neglect grace, we neglect life, we neglect [the] 
kingdom, and all ; because we see they are joined together. I will not be 
long in this point in this place. 

Use. Only this, when God doth vouchsafe any abroad wheresoever, or to 
any of us, to partake of his ordinance in an effectual, holy manner, to joy in 
it. As Solomon saith, Prov. xix. 14, ' Inheritance comes by parents, 
but a good wife is the gift of God,' So a good minister, or a true 
Christian friend, is the gift of God that he bestows on men, a special gift ; 
because it is in order to eternal happiness. It is such a gift as Christ 
gave when he ascended into heaven. So much for that point, ' We are 
your rejoicing.' 

' As also ye are ours.' There is an intercourse of joy. We are your re- 
joicing, * and ye are ours,' in the day of the Lord. 

How were they St Paul's rejoicing ? 

They were St Paul's rejoicing as they were gained to God and to Christ 
by his ministry. When he looked on them, he looked on them as people 
given him by God, As God said to him of them in the ship when they 
suffered shipwreck, ' I have given thee all their hves,' Act xxvii. 23, seq. 

It was a great honour to St Paul that God should give him the lives of 
all that were in the ship, but more honour that God gave him so many 
souls. Thou shalt have the honour of saving so many souls. Therefore, 
they were his rejoicing, in the day of the Lord especially, but now they 
were his rejoicing, because by faith he apprehended that they should be his 
special rejoicing when he and they should stand together before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. For faith makes things to come present. ' Ye are 
our rejoicing, because you shall be our rejoicing then more especially. This 
is the nature of faith, to present things absent. For blessed St Paul, now 
in heaven, when at the day of judgment he shall stand before Christ with 
all the rank about him of Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, &c,, and all 
the churches he converted, — when he shall be environed with them as so 
many brought in triumph under the kingdom of Christ, and pulled from 
the bondage of Satan (as what a world of people did he bring to God, what 
triumph did he make over Satan and the corruption of men, bringing men 
into captivity to Christ !) — when all these shall be set before him, what a 
glory will this be for holy St Paul, when he shall look on all these blessed 
people as conquered and brought under Christ's government by him ! And 
so for all the apostles, St Peter and the rest ; and so for every minister, when 
he shall say, ' Here I am, and the souls that thou hast given me,' John 
xvii. 12. Thou hast honoured me so much as to be an instrument to gain 
them to Christ, to bring them to heaven, a special glory. The point of 
doctrine or truth I observe hence is this, that 

Doct. The people's proficiency in grace is the minister'' s joy. 

The people's good estate in grace is the minister's joy, and will be, espe- 
cially after the day of judgment, ' Ye are our rejoicing.' As he saith, 
PhiHp. iv. 1, ' Ye are our crown and our glory.' And so, 1 Thess. ii. 19, 
' What is our crown and rejoicing ? Is it not you ? ' 

In every epistle almost, those good and gracious people, he makes them 
his hope, and joy, and crown, and rejoicing. 

In what sense ? 

1. Because they were the objective matter of his joy. When he looked 



820 COMMENTARY ON 

on them, he looked on such as yielded him comfort. He could not pre- 
sent them to his thoughts, but he thought of them as matter of joy. Here 
be the people that God hath honoured me to do much good unto. He 
could not think of them but as the object of his rejoicing. The word is 
Cauchema* ' our rejoicing,' that God had given them to him to bring to 
heaven. 

Love descends, we know, and the workman looks upon his work with a 
kind of complacency. St Paul could not look upon those that he was used 
as a blessed instrument to do good upon, without a special kind of delight. 
They were the object matter of his joy. 

2. Then, again, they were not only the matter of his joy and rejoicing, 
presenting to his soul comfortable considerations, but also they were some 
means to increase his joy in heaven ; for ' those that convert souls shall 
shine as the stars in the firmament,' Dan. xii. 3. Those that are honoured 
of God so far as to bring souls to God, ' they shall shine as the stars in the 
firmament,' especially those that convert souls shall have a degree of honour 
above others, though the substantial glory be by Christ. It is not to be 
denied that the accidental increased glory comes by the increase of the fruit 
of the ministry ; and so Christians, those that are fruitful Christians, that 
do much good, they shall have much glory. St Paul shall have more re- 
joicing than others that did not so much good as he. ' Ye are our re- 
joicing,' because you shall be a means of my greater rejoicing. They were 
the object of his joy and the means of his joy. 

3. Then in the third place, they were his rejoicing, because they were 
the seal of his ministry, that he was a sound minister. How was it knowoi 
whether St Paul were a good minister or no ? Behold his works ! see 
how he wrought on such and such people ! how many he gained to God ! 
"When he looked on them, he looked on them as a seal of his ministry, 
that he was a good minister, and in that regard they were his rejoicing. 

4. And in some regard likewise in the fom'th place, that their gaining 
was an evidence to his soid that he was a good man. Ordinarily (though God 
convert men by ill men, as Judas no question might convert some, yet) for 
the most part God honours his servants ; and he that is heat himself, can 
kindle another. Those that are not heat with grace, they cannot speak of 
the efficacy and power of the things they feel not in their own hearts, as 
others do. Therefore no question but it comforted him in the state of Chris- 
tianity, that God honoured him to be a means to bring others in to Christ. 
So in many respects the people's goodness is the minister's joy. 

Use. If this be so, let those that are under the ministry not deny them- 
selves that comfort, or the ministers that joy to be good. There are many 
poisonful, spiteful spirits that are in love with damnation, that will cherish 
the corruptions of their naughty nature, in spite of God and all. Rather 
than they will acknowledge to be wrought on by such and such, to be their 
children, they will be as they are ; they will be broken in a thousand pieces 
before they will bend to any minister, upon such weak resolutions to yield 
to a poor ordinance of man. Here is the devilish pride and poison of man's 
corrupt nature. Can we set light by that, but that at the same time we 
must set light by our own comfort and salvation ? 

How were the Corinthians St Paul's joy ? Were they not their own jo}' 

first ? They were matter of joy to St Paul, because he saw he had gained 

them to Christ. The good was especially theirs. It reflected on him only 

by consideration. When he looked on them he was comforted ; but 

* That is, xa\jyjiixa — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 11. 321 

they were more comforted a great deal. They had more comfort in his 
rejoicing than he. His was but by reflection of then* goodness, a com- 
fort that came by consideration. They had the main comfort of their 
goodness. 

It is little comfort for any to carry themselves so, as that those that are 
over them in Christ Jesus, when they think of them, can but sigh, when 
they hear their blasphemies ; when they cannot so much as gain of them 
to leave courses that the very light of nature condemns. The filthy dis- 
coveries of a rotten heart, their vile words, and their offensive carriage, can 
this be a grief to the minister, and not for the damnation of their souls to- 
gether ? And they shall find it a heavj'^ and bitter thing to grieve the Spirit 
of God in others, as well as they wound their own conscience. Both are 
joined together. 

What a happiness is this, that the more a man is interested in the good 
of another man, the more glory, if he be a means of any good in him ! He 
shall have good, and you shall have glory. 

The best things in nature are communicative and diffusive. The sun 
gives light to the whole world. So the best man is most fruitful, and com- 
municative. He labours to gain all men by his acquaintance. He knows 
this, that he is not for himself. He is redeemed for the honour of Christ. 
And then he knows that another's good will be my glory. It will increase 
my glory, and be the object of my glory. 

On the contrary, we see a company oi wretched, despicable creatures, 
(let their outward estate be as glorious as it will ; but I speak of them as 
Christian eyes judge and esteem of them), that draw others on to the same 
course with them. If they be blasphemers themselves, they glory to make 
others so ; if they be given to sensuality, they labour to make others sottish 
as themselves ; if they be given to filthiness, they dra\y others to communion 
with themselves. Well ! will these people be much for their rejoicing in 
the day of the Lord, think you ? What will they do when they think of 
others, such as they have neglected altogether, that God gave them charge 
of? The very thought of them, instead of making them rejoice, it will make 
them astonished. I betrayed his soul, — he was my friend, — or my servant, — 
I let him live in such sins. Good neglected will torment us hereafter. But 
then ill infused, by example, and by word, I poisoned him ; suppose I have 
repented myself, but perhaps the person that I have drawn to communion 
in my sin, hath not repented ; what a torment will this consideration be ! 
Good neglected will be matter of torment, much more evil infused, poison 
infused. When we shall see at the day of judgment, instead of a company 
that we have gained to God, and been a means to further their salvation, we 
shall see a company that we have infected with our ill example, and our evil 
persuasions, this wUl be in hell an increase of torment. 

One will curse another, and say. You brought me hither. The father 
will curse the son. To get riches for you I cracked my conscience, and lost 
my soul. And the son shall curse the father. By your riches that you left 
me, I lived a base and sensual life, whereas perhaps I might have trusted 
to my good endeavours otherwise. So here shall be cursing. The friend 
shall curse his friend. You might have told me of this, you strengthened 
me in evil courses. 

As it will be our glory when we shall see such and such, as God hath used 
as instruments to do good unto ; so it will be a torment indeed to think, 
such and such I neglected and betrayed, such and such I corrupted. I 
beseech jon, therefore, take heed of it. 

VOL. HI. X 



822 COMMENTARY ON 

And would you have matter of joy in this world, that should joy you when 
nothing else vdW joy jon ? (as St Paul was in affliction oft) what comforted i 
St Paul ? First, his o\^'n conscience, that he was a good Christian, an heir ' 
of heaven, a good apostle. But when he wanted joy, what would he do ? 
when he had no liberty, but was imprisoned, when he had nothing, then he 
considered, how hath Christ dignified me to do good to others ? This hon- 
ouring of him to do this, it comforted him more than all his imprisonment, 
and abasement, and reproaches could discourage him ; the conceit that God 
did use him as an honourable instrument for his honour and sendee, to do 
good to others. 

So the testimony of our conscience, that God hath used us to do good to 
others, not only to make me to gain heaven, but to be an instrument to ' 
gain others, this will comfort us in the world, come what will. 

Use. This should stir up those that have to deal with the souls of others, 
(not only ministers, but all others), that have any committed to them, that i 
they should labour to make them good, to work upon them for the good of 
their souls, that they may have them as matter, and objects, of their joy at 
that day. If they do not, as I said, when they are presented to them as 
persons whom they have neglected and betrayed negligently for want of 
instruction, and reformation of their lives, and as persons whom they have 
infected with their ill example, which is worse, alas ! what matter of 
hori'or will they be. They will not say of them as St Paul saith here, 
' You are my joy, and my crown, and my glory,' but they will be matter oi 
horror. These be they that I have betrayed, and neglected, and infected, 
and brought to heU, to this cursed condition with myself It will be an in- 
crease of the torments of hell at that day, all those whom we have hurt any 
kind of way. 

But what shall it be then of those that have opposed goodness ? that 
have not only betrayed others by neglect, but have maligned good where 
they have seen it ? What will become of them, that are so far from mak- 
ing others good, that they have despited the image of God in others, 
and have exercised their bitterness upon Christ in his members and 
ministers ? 

To add one thing more. 

What ! these Corinthians, that had so many abuses, and such weaknesses, 
were they the matter of St Paul's joy ? 

Yes ! why, therefore people must take heed how they leave churches 
that have corruptions in them. Schism ofttimes is a greater fault than 
the fault upon which they pretend separation. The things for which they 
pretend a rent, are not so great a fault in the church, as the want of charity 
in them to do so. If St Paul would have taken occasion to leave them, 
what good occasion had he ? Alas ! how many corruptions had they in 
doctrine, and in manners too. But yet, notwithstanding, as ill as they 
were, he saw what good was in them, and looked not to the evil : he knew 
that God would perfect the good things that were in them ; and, saith he, 
notwithstanding all their infirmities, I see you were ready to reform when 
I wrote an epistle to you, therefore I doubt not but you will be ' our re- 
joicing.' 

* In the day of the Lord Jesus,' This is the time. It must be taken 
inclusively, * I am your rejoicing, and you are mine, to the day of the Lord 
Jesus, and in the day of the Lord.' So he means here. It is laid as a 
ground here, that 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YEE. li. 323 

Obs. Jesus Christ hath a day. 

It is his day by way of eminency and excellency. Jesus Christ hath 
many days, two especially ; the day of his first coming, and the day of his 
second coming. The first coming of Christ was the day of the gospel, when 
he came to work our salvation. His second coming is to accomplish our 
salvation. In his first day he came to be humbled, and to be judged, to be 
a sacrifice for us. In his second, he is to come gloriously to judge the quick 
and the dead. In the first, he came to gain a church to himself ; by his 
second he shall come to accomplish the marriage. Now is the contract ; 
there is the Sabbath. After the six days of this life the day of the Lord 
shall appear, the Sabbath day, the day of jubilee, the solemnisation of the 
marriage, the solemn triumph over all enemies. The fii'st day was to save 
our souls, especially from the thraldom of sin and Satan. The second day, 
this that we speak of here, shall be to save our bodies from the rottenness 
and corruption in which they have lain rotting in the grave tiU that day of 
Christ. As he raised his own body, so at that day he shall raise our bodies, 
and make them ' like his glorious body,' Phil. iii. 21. That is the main 
day, the day of all days, for then he will come to accomplish all. That 
day shall never have a night, it shall be day for ever. 

As the cloud that went before the Israelites to Canaan, that side toward 
the Egyptians was dark, but the other side was lightsome toward the 
Israehtes ; so this day, it shall be a dark day, it shall be both a day of 
vengeance and a day of glory. 

St Paul saith here, ' You shall be my rejoicing,' and I yours at that day. 
But those that do not believe the gospel, and obey the ministry of it, it 
shall not be a day of rejoicing to them. It shall be a glorious day when 
all other glory shall vanish. All other glory in the world shall be eclipsed, 
even as the stars are not seen when the sun appears in the firmament. All 
the glory at that day shall be the glory of Christ, and of his church. To 
omit other things that may be spoken out of other places of Scriptm-e, the 
point I will observe hence is this, that, 

Doct. The measure of a Christiaiis rejoicing in this world in anything, it is 
the consideration of what it ivill be at the great day of judgment. 

I say, the rule whereby a Christian judgeth things, and that measure 
whereby a Christian measures things, to be thus or thus in their excellency 
and worth, it is as they will be esteemed at that day of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Here St Paul saith, ' I am your rejoicing, and you are ours at the 
day of the Lord Jesus.' What ! is this a vain glorying to commend him ? 
Oh ! he is a worthy learned rabbi, a great learned apostle ; and then that 
they were such and such people ! No, no ! They had grace wrought in 
them ; and St Paul saw such evidences of grace in them, that at that day they 
should look upon Christ with boldness, because they were sincerely gained 
to the gospel. So then this must be the rule of the worth of anything, to 
esteem it as it will be then at that day ; which is a day when all our estates 
will be determined of, for eternal happiness or eternal misery. 
To explain it a little. 

We do not value things of short continuance, because they are short, as 
flowers that are fresh in the morning, and cast away at night ; but we esteem 
things that will hold out. So our rejoicing, and glory, and comfort, we 
should consider of it how it will hold out, ' Riches avail not in the day of 
wrath,' Prov. xi. 4. Things have that degree of goodness or evil in them, 
they have that degree of vanity, or seriousness, as they will stand out at that 
day. What are riches in the day of wrath, even in thia world ? What wiU 



32 i COMMENTARY ON 

rtches be then at the day of the Lord Jesus ? Therefore a Christian values i 
them not ; they are not the good of a Christian ; he esteems not the applause i 
of men. And pleasiu-es are nothing, they are momentar}', they avail not j 
when conscience is awaked. They leave a man, and not only so, but they 
leave a sting behind them. 

If all the good things in the world will stand us in no stead then, then 
what will the sins do that thou hast made so much of ? What will the sins 
do that thou hast betrayed and damned thy soul for ? Thy filthiness, and 
thy betraying of goodness, what will that do ? How wilt thou look the 
Judge in the face, whenas nothing in the world that is excellent will hold 
out and avail at that day ? 

But^what then will avail at that day when Christ shall come to judge 
both the quick and the dead ? 

Why, this ; that thou hast submitted thyself to acknowledge Christ as 
thy king, and thy priest, and thy prophet ; and by means of the ministiy 
thou hast been wrought on, and the work of the new creature is begun in 
thee, true and sincere grace that thou darest look on Christ, that thou art 
in the state of grace, this will comfort thee in the day of judgment. 

By this you may discern who take the wisest course : he that measures 
his life by a right measure and rule. Who judgeth aright of persons and 
things ? He judgeth aright of things, that values and labours to interest 
himself in those things that will comfort him in this world, and stand 
by him in the world to come ; he hath a right judgment and esteem of 
things. 

What be those things ? 

Grace, a holy, humble, gracious, believing carriage and disposition. 
When a man gives himself to Christ, and rencunceth the world, and sees 
the vanity of all things but the estate of Christianity, he hath those things 
in some little measure that shall be perfected at that day. Who take the 
wisest course ? Those that seek to please the humour of men, those that 
seek to feed their own corruptions and the corruptions of others, those that 
will have some present glory in the flesh ? Aye, but what will they have at 
the day of the Lord Jesus ? Surely, those that labour to approve them- 
selves in sincerity and truth to Christ Jesus in all things. And so that 
they may approve their hearts to him, they care not what the world judgeth 
of them, as St Paul saith, ' I pass not what ye judge of me,' 1 Cor. iv. 3. 
If there be a day of the Lord, when he shall be judge, then those are the 
wisest and the best courses that will hold out at that day. And those that 
will not, we shall be ashamed of them all. 

And that is the reason that many men of excellent parts and endowments 
are comfortless in the time of temptation. They did not think to do things 
with reference to Christ, in sincerity to please him ; for then they might 
hold up their heads at that day. 

There is a great deal of atheism in our hearts. We frame our courses 
to present contentments, by I'eason that we have little belief for the time to 
come. 

I beseech you, let us often have in our thoughts the second coming of 
Christ. The best things are behind. Our chief rejoicing is behind. Our 
rejoicing now is our hope that we shall rejoice then. The Corinthians were 
St Paul's joy now, because he knew they should be his main rejoicing then. 
If we rejoice in anything now, let it be that om- names are written in heaven, 
in the testimony of our conscience that we are God's, that our hearts are 
thought on, that we have something that Christ will acknowledge when he 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 14. S25 

sees his stamp and image on us. When he shall look on us, and see his 
own image upon our hearts, there will be matter of joy in that day. 

There will be joy in ourselves, and joy in all the blessed instruments that 
are under Christ. The ministers, they shall rejoice Hkewise in us, and all 
of us shall join in joying in Christ, all shall meet there. For their joying 
in St Paul, and he in them, it was that Christ was theirs. And ' Christ 
shall come,' as it is in 2 Thess. i. 10, ' to be glorified in his saints ; ' not 
only in himself, but in his believing members ; for his glory shall reflect 
upon them as the sun reflects upon hght bodies. All light bodiL*. are made 
hght by the sun. So the ' Sun of righteousness' shall come, and all them 
that have glory it shall be by reflection from him ; they shall be glorious in 
him. So he is both the minister's joy and the people's. They shall all 
glory in Christ, whose glory is their glory. He shall come ' to be glorious 
in his saints.' Therefore frame your courses that way to have glory then, 
to have comfort in the hour of death, and at the day of judgment. And to 
end the point, 

Let us labour to be acquainted with him now before that day. We shall 
never have comfort in the day of the Lord Jesus, except we be acquainted 
with him, and acknowledge him in the ministry now, and in the sacra- 
ments ; for none shall ever be acquainted with him there, that have not 
been acquainted with him, and known him in this world. 

How do we come to be acquainted with Christ ? 

To be present where he is present ; and he is present where two or three 
are met together in his name. He is present now in our meetings, he is 
present when we hear the word. He is present in the sacrament more 
especially ; we have his very body and blood. As verily as we take the 
outward signs, so verily Christ is present to our hearts ; at the same time 
from heaven, he reacheth us himself with all the benefits of his passion. 
When the minister reacheth the bread, he reacheth his body. As our out- 
ward man is refreshed with the elements, so our souls are refreshed with the 
spiritual presence of Christ. Now he is excellently present in heaven, he is- 
present to our senses in the sacrament, and by his Spirit in the word. 

Would you have him then at his appearing come and own you, and say 
then, ' Come, ye blessed ?' Mat. xxv. 34 ; be acquainted with him now upon 
all occasions, hear the word, receive the sacrament, and come to the sacra- 
ment as acknowledging him there. 

How is that ? 

Why, then, you acknowledge the bread and wine to be seals of him, and 
of all the blessings by him, when you come prepared, when you come to 
them as his. Or else you do not acknowledge them. You know them to 
be such and such things, but you acknowledge them not to be set apart for 
such a holy use, except you come with prepared hearts. 

Will anybody acknowledge him to go to a great person, when he goes 
deformed and in rags ? Do you know whither you go ? would some say to 
him. He considers not whither he goes, that comes to the sacrament in 
his old sins. Come acquainted therefore with Christ, to acknowledge him 
that shall be your judge at the latter day ; therefore come prepared. 

And then, because the sacrament is a means to seal to us all the benefits 
we have by Christ, and to incorporate us more nearly into Christ, he that 
comes to the sacrament as he should, must come with joy. Is it not a joyful 
thing to be united to Christ, and to have further assurance of all the good 
things by him ? Yes ! it is a matter of great joy. Therefore, when you 
have repented of your sins, come with joy. 



826 COMMENTARY OX 

And come with holiness. The things are holy, as our liturgy hath it ; 
let us give holy things to holy persons. Here is presented holy bread and 
wine, and here you are to deal with Christ. Therefore come with holy 
reverence in the whole carriage of the business. 

And come with faith and assm-ance, and then you shall acknowledge 
Christ in this ordinance, in the sacrament. You shall acknowledge that he 
deals not complimentally with you, to feed you with empty signs ; but you 
shall have himself with his signs ; you shall have the Lord himself in the 
word, and in the sacraments. With the field you shall have the treasure in 
the field, as the wise merchant had. Mat. xiii. 44. With the word you shall 
have Christ wrapped in the word. And in the sacrament you shall have 
Christ and all his benefits. Trust to it, make it your weapon against Satan, 
he will tempt you to doubt of your interest in Christ. Think with your- 
selves, Had I grace to receive Christ ? to be incorporate nearer into him ? 
•why should I doubt to renew my covenant ? And though I have fallen by 
weakness, yet I have a gracious intercessor in heaven that makes my peace 
continually. Come in faith. I{jiow that God in good earnest here offers 
Christ with all his benefits. 

And come with a purpose and resolution to be led by him. You come 
to renew your covenant. Here is the covenant, when Christ is given to 
you, and you give yourselves to Christ. Therefore, as I said, if you come 
with a purpose to live in sin, come not at all. Christ wiU not live in a 
heart where there is a pui-pose to sin. Therefore resolve to leave all sin, 
or else you cannot receive him. 

To move you to come, and to come thus, do but consider that it will be 
your joy in this world, and in the world to come, before Christ, that j'ou 
have been thus acquainted with him here on earth, acquainted with him in 
the ministry, acquainted with him in the sacrament, in private prayer, and 
meditation, in all the blessed means that he hath appointed : and then he 
will look on you as upon his old friends. 

But now he that is a rebel, that goes away, or else comes, not acknow- 
ledging with whom he hath to deal ; him that shall be his judge ere long, 
the great God of heaven and earth, that shall come in glory and majesty 
with thousands of his angels. Then he shall be 'wonderful' indeed, as 
his name is, Isa. ix. 6 ; and as the apostle saith, 2 Thess. i. 10, where he 
useth the word, ' he shall be wonderful in his saints.' Then all the world 
shall wonder at the glory of a poor Christian, when he shall put down the 
sun, and all the creatures in glory. Consider with whom you have to deal, 
him that ere long shall be wonderful in his saints. Therefore come pre- 
pared, come joyfully, come faithfully, come reverently and hohly, and you 
shall find a blessing answerable. This I thought good to touch concerning 
the occasion of the sacrament. ' Ye are our rejoicing.' 

* At the day of the Lord Jesus.' St Paul esteemed of nothing but that 
which would comfort him at that day. Therefore let us oft think of 
the day of the Lord Jesus. Why ? What will make us digest labour, 
and pains, in dealing with the souls of others, in doing good, and being 
fruitful in our places ? The consideration of that day. There is a day 
will come that will make amends for all, and that is the day of the Lord 
Jesus. 

And considering that there is such a day, let us make much of the day 
of the Lord that is now left us. What is that ? This day. ' The Lord's 
day.' It is called ' The Lord's day,' Rev. i. 10. And as I said, labour to 
be acquainted with that Lord that must be judge of quick and dead then. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 15. 327 

The Lord hath a day now wherein we may be acquainted with him ; by 
hearing his word, by yielding obedience to his truth unfolded to us ; there- 
fore let us make much of this day, if we would have comfort at that day. 
' Ye are our rejoicing in the day of the Lord.' 



VERSE 15. 

* And in this confidence I was minded to come tinto yoa before, that you 
might have a second benefit, or grace,' ' In this confidence.' In this as- 
surance, in this persuasion, * I was minded to come to you.' 

* That you might have a second benefit,' saith the last translation (ddd). 
It doth diminish the strength of the word. Therefore go from the text to 
the margin. You have ofttimes a fitter word in the margin. 

Charts* The word is pregnant in the original. It signifieth grace. If 
it signify a benefit at all, it signifies a benefit that issues from grace and 
favour. * Benefit' is a weaker word. Grace, though it be not so common, 
is a fit word, and reaches to the strength of the word in the original, to 
the meaning of the apostle. So it is better to read it so, ' That you might 
have a second grace.' 

St Paul in this verse sets down what intention he had to come to them. 

And likewise, the end of his intention. 

In the next verse he sets down, the maimer how he woidd come to them. 

Fourthly, he shews why he came not to them ; it was ' to spare them,' as 
he saith afterward. 

Here in this verse he shews what his intention was. ' My intention was 
to come to you.' ' In this confidence I was minded to come to you.' 

To what end ? ' That you might have a second benefit.' 

His intention is set down by the inward moving cause, his ' confidence. 
' In this confidence I was minded to come to you.' 

I will speak of his intention and purpose of coming ; and of the end of 
it. And in his purpose of coming, of the moving cause, his ' confidence.' 

* In this confidence.' What is that ? ' In this confidence,' because I 
am assured that you are my rejoicing, and I yours in the day of the Lord 
Jesus ; in this confidence that you will be so to me, and I to you. ' In 
this confidence.' 

St Paul had a good opinion of them. The inward moving cause of St 
Paul to come, it was a good conceit of them. 

Obs. It is good, as far as possibly we can, to cherish a good judgment, and 
conceit of others. 

Let others have as good place in our afiections as possibly may be. 

Why? 

Reason 1. If they be good, ice wrong them else even in our conceit. We do 
not only wrong men in our speeches and actions, but in our sinister judg- 
ments, in the censures of our minds. Therefore we should have as good 
conceit of men as possibly we can in that regard. 

Beason 2. And likewise, because confidence and assurance that they have 
something in them that is good, and it will be better with them after in the day 
of the Lord, this will be a means to stir us up to deserve well of them, Hope 
stirs up will. We have no mind to a thing that we have not hope of. And 
likewise hope stirs up endeavour, and hope keeps in endeavour. What 
* That is, 'x;«f'5-'— G. 



328 COMMEKTAEY ON 

makes a man so long in endeavoui-ing the good of others ? He hath some 
hope. They are good, and will be better. So it stirs up our will. The 
bent of it, it stirs. It stirs up endeavour upon will ; and it keeps us in 
endeavour when we hope for good at men's hands. 

And therefore we ought not to cast off men, especially those that are 
young, for impei'fections. The Corinthians were weak, and carnal, as you 
may see in the former epistle, yet in this confidence that they had re- 
pented of their ill usage of St Paul, he was minded to come to them. Per- 
sons that are the subjects of hope are not free from infirmities. No%4ces 
cannot have that perfection that gi'own Christians have, at the first. Con- 
sider further what is of passion, and what is of the poison of nature ; con- 
sider what is of infij-mity, and what is of malice ; consider what sins they 
have been longer accustomed to, and how hardly such sins are suddenly 
broken oti\ These considerations would mitigate something where we see 
any degree of goodness. 

Oh ! this pleaseth now some vicious disposed persons. They think this 
makes for them. 

Not at all ; what I speak is, where there is any ground to hope well of. 
St Paul had some ground, for he wrote a sharp epistle to them, and he saw 
they were amended on it. He saw they yielded, they acknowledged, that 
is, they reformed by his ministry, and by his epistle. So where we discern 
reformation, that there is a willingness of amendment, we must hope of 
such, though they be sometimes overtaken. And if they be overtaken, we 
must construe it to the best. The temptation perhaps was great, and they 
were not watchful at that time. The subtlety of the opposition and the 
malice of men was great, and their caution was not so gi'eat. Thus we may 
construe to bear with them, if upon the discovery of their fault they become 
pliable. But otherwise, if they arm themselves with malice and bitter 
poison, and resolve to be so still, there is no hope, no confidence of such. 
St Paul's confidence here was with evidence from their carriage. They 
gave him some cause to be so confident. 

Therefore it is in vain to think that we are too censorious when we tell 
you of your faults. That very conceit that you think bitterly, and arm 
yourselves with resolutions, rather to vex those that inform you than to 
amend that which is amiss, that is as ill a disposition, as ill a state as can 
be. We can hope for no good of such. Yet notwithstanding we ought S(J 
far to hope of them, as not to give them over, as St Paul saith, 2 Tim. ii. 
25, 26, ' To prove if at any time God will shew mercy to them, to deliver 
them out of the snare of the devil.' They are in the devil's snare ; yet we 
ought still to take pains with them. For we know not whether it will 
please God at that time, or at any time, to have mercy on- them, and de- 
liver them out of the snare of Satan. 

If God bear with them, w^e ought to bear with them as well as teach 
them ; but to have a good conceit of them, when we see them maliciously 
bent against those that tell them of their faults, we cannot. 

Use. If this be so, it should be an encouragement for all those that are 
under others that inform and instruct them, to give them some good occa- 
sion and ground to hope well of them. You would have us hope well of 
you. What ground do you give ? What is your company ? Shall we 
think you are good because you converse with those that are swearers ? 
with vicious and carnal company ? Would you have us bhnd ? Charity 
indeed interprets the best, but it is not blind. What shall we judge of 
you by your outward demeanour and carriage, that is ofttimes scandalous 



fi COrJNTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 15. 329 

and oflfensive ? when your speeches are filthy and corrupt, joined with 
blasphemies and oaths, daring God, as it were, whether he will suffer you 
to carry it away unrevenged and unpunished or not. Where this abomin- 
able corruption of heart discovers itself outwardly in the tongue, how can 
we entertain good conceits of you ? You think we wrong you by not con- 
ceiving thus and thus of you. What ground have we ? what hold have we 
from anything that is in you or from you so to conceit ? Resolve on this, 
there cannot be grievance offered to the minister, but you must reward ill 
to your own souls. If you be not his joy, it will be your sorrow. You 
will have the worst of it. And therefore study as much as may be to have 
the good hope and confidence of others. This will stir up willingness, and 
stir up endeavour, as it did in St Paul. The good hope he had of them by 
their repentance, and reformation, and pliableness, it stirred up his dili- 
gence. They gained by it. But I mean not to stand on that. 

' In this confidence,' that you will be my joy, and I yours, in the day of 
Lord. 

* I was minded to come unto you,'' St Paul was minded to come unto 
them. You see then that 

Obs. Personal presence hath a special power and efficacy. 

Personal presence hath more efficacy than writing. For there the holy 
things that are delivered, they are, as it were, acted to the life. Men are 
wondrously affected when they see gracious things delivered with life and 
feeling : it hath a wondrous lively working. Therefore St Paul tells the 
Romans, Rom. i. 15, that besides his learned and worthy epistle he wrote 
to them, he was desirous also to preach the gospel to them. 

But some object : reading is preaching, say they, some kind of preach- 
ing. But not that which the apostle meant ; for then St Paul's epistle was 
preaching, some kind of preaching. But I speak not to sophisters. But, 
saith St Paul, I desire to preach the word to you by vocal teaching : it 
hath a special efficacy. It is wondrous good prajang for others, and writing 
to others ; but presence, when the minister is the mouth of God with them 
and to them, their mouth to God, to pray together with them, and God's 
mouth, to speak to them, this presence is of a wondrous efficacy ; therefore 
St Paul saith, ' I purposed to come to you.' 

Use. It should stir up in our hearts an esteem of the ordinance of God of 
preaching ; or else we slight it with the prejudice of our own souls. For doth 
God appoint it for anything but for our own good ? There is a common 
objection, which (because it is raised out of this epistle, and may be an- 
swered out of this epistle) I will answer. 

Obj. Oh ! say some, a lively voice hath not alway that energy, that 
operation, that writing and reading have ; for we see St Paul's epistle was 
more terrible than his presence. It is the objection of men that content 
themselves in their own idleness, wresting off such places as this. Among 
the rest, 2 Cor. x. 10, say they, ' His bodily presence is weak, and his 
speech contemptible,' but his letters seem terrible. Therefore this is not 
alway true, that bodily presence hath more efficacy than wiiting. 

Ans. I answer briefly, — St Paul compares not here his bodily presence 
with his letters, as if his letters were more efficacious than his bodily pre- 
sence ; but he compares his mild dealing, being present, with his sharp 
dealing, being absent ; his letters, indeed, were sharper than his presence. 
But to take away such cavils, he tells them after that they shall know, if 
they reform not, that his presence shall be as sharp as his writings. Let 



330 COMMENTARY ON 

such a one think this, * such as we are in word being absent, such will we 
be when we are present.' We will be as sharp, if you reform not, in our 
presence, as we were absent. So he compares the sharpness of his letter 
with the sweetness of his presence. It is not to be taken in that sense, 
that his letters were more eflectual of themselves than his presence ; for he 
saith the contrary. You shall know that my presence shall be as sharp as 
my letter was. Therefore, it is but a cavil to think there is more efficacy 
in reading, than in preaching. 

' That you mirjlit have a second grace.^ I come now to St Paul's end. 
His intention and pui-pose was * to come.' The end of his coming was 
* to bestow a grace on them ' by his presence. In general observe here, 
that 

Ohs. Holy men are set on xmrk from holy moving causes, and holy aims. 
Holy aims are the winds that carry them to their business, and they are 
the water that drive their mill. I come with a holy confidence that you 
will be my joy ; here is my moving cause. What is my aim in coming ? 
It is this, to bestow a grace on you. Holy men have holy aims for holy 
actions ; they have holy grounds, and holy moving causes. 

When two men do the same thing, yet it is not the same thing ; perhaps 
their aims difler, their moving causes differ. St Paul comes here to do a 
good thing from a good end, from a good moving cause. * In this confi- 
dence I was minded to come,' to bestow a gi-ace on you. 

Use. Let us look in all our actions, therefore, to our moving cause, and 
to our aims. And especially ministers, their aim it should not be for the 
fleece, it should not be to gain respect, or any advantage to themselves, 
but to bestow some spiritual good thing. As the apostle saith, ' To be- 
stow some good thing upon you,' Rom. i. 11, some grace, as he calls it. 
This should be their aim, not to receive j^'ood from them, so much as to do 
them good. Ministers are fathers, they should have that tender disposi- 
tion. Parents do not think of receiving much (they look to that in the 
second place, that must be maintained) ; but, especially, they look to their 
children's good. * I come to bestow a grace on you.' How this is observed, 
I list not to speak, therefore I leave it, and come to that which concerns us 
all. ' I was minded to come to you.' 

' To bestow a grace on you.' We see then, that 
Doct. The preaching of the gospel is a special grace. 
It is a free and bountiful benefit of God. Grace implies freedom, and 
mercy, and bounty. It is a free mercy of God to have the gospel. 
Why? 

Reason. Because this is the means to work all that is savingly good in 
us. This is a means to open to us God's love in Christ, and to work in us 
a disposition answerable to his love. Therefore it must needs be a grace. 
Heaven is a grace, life is a grace, reconciliation a grace, and such like. 
Therefore the word must needs be a grace, by which all these are com- 
municated. Therefore the word hath the name of these things. It is the 
word of the kingdom of heaven. It is called the kingdom of heaven, the 
preaching of the gospel, because it puts us into the state of the kingdom 
of heaven. And the word of reconciliation, because by it we know our 
reconcihation with God. It is offered, and wrought in our hearts, and 
fai;.h to apply it by this word. ' It is the word of life,' Acts xx. 32 ; the 
life of "rafe. airl the life of erlory, all come by this word. ' I commend 
you to God, and the word of his grac3,' saith the apostle. All grace and 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 15. 331 

spiritual life is wrought in us by the word ; therefore the word preached, it 
is a special grace and favour of God, 

St Paul here calls his coming to them to strengthen and confirm them, 
* a grace.' For all means come under the same decree of God's eternal 
love with the decree itself. When God out of grace resolves and sets 
down that he wiU bring such a one to heaven, of his free love, he doth out 
of the same grace fit him with opportunities of persons and means ; he 
accommodates him with all means ; for he intends in such a way to bring 
him to heaven. 

And therefore St Austin doth well define predestination ; it is an ordain- 
ing to salvation, and a preparing of all means tending thereto (eee). There- 
fore all fall in the compass of grace, both the free favour of God, setting a 
man down to make him happy ; and likewise by sending men that have an 
outward calling, and inwardly iurnishing them with gifts, and whatsoever, — 
all is of grace. The preaching of the word is a grace. 

Use. It concerns us therefore so to esteem it. Do not many sit in dark- 
ness, and in the shadow of death ? Is it not a grace therefore that we partake 
of the means of salvation ? What is in us by nature better than in Turks 
and Pagans ? or than many other people under Satan, and under popish 
teachers, and so rot away in their ignorance ? Nothing. We differ only 
by the grace of God. Therefore let us esteem it as a grace. 

How shall we esteem it as a grace ? 

Receive it thankfully, as a largess and bounty, and free grace of God ; 
receive it as a bounty with thankful hearts. Grace begets grace, it begets 
thankfulness. So to receive it as a grace, is to receive it with thankful 
minds, to be more thankful for the means of salvation, than for any out- 
ward thing. 

How shall we come to be thankful ? 

Never, unless we find some grace wrought by the word of grace. There- 
fore to receive it as a grace, is to receive it as a free, loving gift of God, 
and to yield to it ; when by it holy motions are stirred in our hearts, not 
to suppress and quench holy motions, but to yield to them ; not to quench 
a id resist the Spirit, but to yield ourselves pliable to the word. This is to 
acknowledge it a grace, to be thankful for it, because you find your hearts 
wrought to holy obedience by it. Give it way in your souls, that it may 
be an ingraffed word ; that all the inward and outward man may be seasoned 
with it, and relish of it ; that the word may season your thoughts, and 
speeches, and desires, and season your course of life ; that what you think 
may be in the relish and strength of the word, in the strength of some 
divine truth, and the guide of your actions may be divine truth, or some 
motives from it. Then you will give thanks for what is wrought on you, 
when it is an ingrafi"ed word in your souls, and all relish of it, your speeches 
and actions, and your whole course ; when a man may know by your car- 
riage that there is something invested and ingrafied in your souls, that 
gives a blessed relish to all the expressions of the outward man. Such a 
one indeed will account the word a special grace, by a sweet experience 
wrought in his heart. I will not press that point any further. 

Again, whereas St Paul saith, he would come to bestow a second grace 
on them, we see here that — 

Doct. Those that are in the state of grace already, they need a second grace. 

Those that have initial grace to be set in a good course, they need con- 
firming and strengthening grace. St Paul had planted them before. Aye, 
but he must oome to water them. There is alway somewhat left for the 



332 COMMENTARY ON 

minister to do, till he see their souls safe in heaven. He hath alway some- 
what to do to the Christian souls under him. For he must not only get 
them out of Satan's kingdom into a good estate, but he must labour to 
build them up. He must water them, and fence them, and strengthen 
them against all discouragements. 

A man is never safe till he be in heaven. Therefore he saith, * I will 
come to you,' but I will come ' to bestow a second grace on you;' you 
have need of it, and my love is such to you, that you shall have it. To 
enforce this a little : because we set terms to our growth, and go on plod- 
ding in a course, and many years after we are no better than we were at 
the first ; and some out of a protane fulness, out of a Laodicean temper, 
they think they have enough, they are rich, when indeed they are empty, 
and miserable, and wretched, and poor ; and if temptations set upon them, 
they have nothing in them. Rev. iii. 17. 

To let you see that we stand in need of a second grace, and of a third 
grace, and of a fourth grace, that we need continual building up. 

Reason 1. First, look uitJiin, what opposition there is to saiiiir/ goodness 
within ! what rebellion of lusts ! what ignorance, and blindness, and dark- 
ness, and indisposition ! what head the flesh makes in us against the word 
of God. Let a man a little continue out of the means, and he shall see 
what growth of corruptions there will be ; a distasting of all means, that a 
man shall be ready to begin anew with them almost. Having a double 
principle in them, of grace and corruption, there needs continually strength- 
ening and stablishing grace. 

Reason 2. Consider outwardly what discouragements from the ill examjjles, 
and allurements, and seducing of others, from the disgrace that is put on good 
things ; what discouragements and scandals from without! 

Reason 3. Again, are there not ofttimes new and great temptations, that a 
man must have a new measure of grace to resist ? There is continual 
occasion of new spiritual strength to oppose new temptations, and new 
spiritual strength to endure new crosses, and to enjoy new benefits. In all 
the passages of our life, there is a necessity of more grace, of further 
supply of grace. A man with that proportion of strength which he had 
before, he cannot encounter with new temptations ; and therefore there 
must be new grace, and fresh attending upon the means while we live here. 

Reason 4. Again, unavoidable times will come, when there must be 
strength of grace : sickness will come, temptations to despair will come, 
conflicts with Satan will come. We need not say, put the case such and 
such ; but it is an unavoidable case. They will come, wherein a great 
strength of grace will be necessary. Therefore we cannot be too much 
careful in attending upon the means of salvation, to be confirmed and 
strengthened. 

Reason 5. Again, do we not need a great measm'e of strengthening grace 
continually ? Doth not the devil envy goodness and good actions ? When 
we go about to pray, when the best men are about the best actions, what 
a deal of distraction is there ! how doth Satan confound them with distrac- 
tions ! What a deal of confirming grace need we to every good work ! 
AVTien a Christian is taken out of the kingdom of Satan, he is the butt, 
the object of his malice, and the malice of those that are his instruments. 
We must pull every good work, as it were, out of the fire. We must use 
violence to nature, to temptations in every good duty, to perform them 
strongly. We need a second and a third grace, many degrees of grace. 

Reason 6. Then ag.ain, we are capable of more grace ; for our under- 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 15. 883 

standing is such that we may know more still, and our will is such that it 
affects* more still, and the more holy truths are made known to us, the 
more the will is enlarged to cleave to them ; the more we know, the 
more we may know. Our understandings are wondrous large. There 
is a great capacity in them, and our adhesion and cleaving to truths is more 
and more. The more we know, the more the wiU cleaves to it ; as it is, 
Acts xi. 23, ' They exhorted them, that with full purpose they would cleave 
fast to God.' We must cleave and adhere fast to the truth and to God ; 
every day go deeper, get nearer and closer to God, and labour to be 
established in good things. St Paul prays that they might be established 
more and more ; and David prays that he might be established in good 
thoughts, and desires, and resolutions in good purposes, to be stablished 
in everything that is good. Grace is a state that we may grow in, and our 
souls are fit to be enlarged ; for there is a great capacity in the soul. Till 
we come to heaven, it is not full. We may grow in every gi-ace stronger 
and stronger. As in the examples of holy men in Scripture, it was 
never well with them but when they were growing. There is a necessity of 
growing. 

Use 1. If this be true, let us set no pit<;h to ourselves, and abhor, abJior 
even as the temptation of the devil, the conceit of fulness and of self-sufficieney ; 
to think, I know enough, what should I know more for ? or, perhaps, I could 
read at home, as I said before. It is God's ordinance, and cursed is all 
private study when it is done in contempt of the ordinance of God. Take 
heed of such suggestions of fulness and standing at a stay. No ; we need 
a second, we need many degrees of confii-mation and strength, and all little 
enough. There was never any that repented of the careful use of the 
means. Strengthening, and proficiency, and gi'owth in this kind is a pledge 
of perfection, that God will perfect more and more that that he hath 
gi-aciously begun. I beseech you, take it to heart, that we may alway need 
a further degree of strengthening grace while we live in this world. 

The strongest Christians are most desirous of strength. Who have you 
that doth most hunger after the means of salvation ? Surely those that 
have the greatest measure of grace, because with grace the capacity of the 
soul is enlarged to receive more. The soul is so framed by God that the 
more it hath, the more it hungers after ; and * blessed are those that 
hunger, they shall be satisfied.' Who care least for the means ? De- 
bauched, shallow creatures, those that are popishly conceited, such as are 
ill bred, such as take scandal at all things in the communion of saints, at 
holy exercises, the frequenting of public and private duties, the making 
conscience of calling upon God. A Christian that Icnows what it is, he 
thinks all the means little enough, he will not omit one of them that may 
be a means of his growth and strength ; he thinks if he neglect one means, 
he decays in all. Therefore, he joins to all means, private duties, and then 
public, of hearing the word; and he hears out of season when he finds 
himself indisposed. As the ministers are to ' preach in season and out of 
season,' 2 Tim. iv. 2, so he hears in season and out of season. And there- 
fore, of all men, he that is the most careful of his growth is the great, the 
strong Christian. The better he is, the more he hungers after it. 

Use 2. Take this as a trial, if you do not desire to be strengthened in good 

things more and more, you have 710 goodness at all. I will press the point 

no further at this time, but go on. Saith St Paul, ' I was minded to come 

to you, that you might have a second benefit, a second grace,' that is, a 

* That is, = seeks.— G. 



334 COMMENT.VKY ON 

confirming, strengthening grace. We all need, then, a second grace, a 
confirming grace. Here I might make some use to ministers ; I will but 
touch it, to shew what their duty is to those that are under them. Every 
man is, as it were, a minister in his place to strengthen another, and to exhort 
one another, and to bestow gi'ace upon one another. But ministers should 
do it especially. They are hko those that repair the sea banks. The sea 
gets over ofttimes, and eats out the banks ; they must be repaired con- 
tinually, they will impair else. The minister's pains, it is like the labour 
of the husbandman. When he hath sown, he must weed ; and when he 
hath weeded, he must fence, to keep it from the birds of prey and the vio- 
lence of beasts, &c., and he must live by faith till the grain be ready. So 
the minister, after he hath planted, he must water, and weed, and fence, 
and all little enough ; he must look to the banks, and many times that 
which he getteth in one day he loseth in another ; nay, ofttimes the pitiful 
condition of a minister is this, that at the week's end he hath aU to do 
again. Another man sees an end of his work, but in this the devil and 
corruption hath undone all again. We enforce good things on people on 
the Lord's day ; but within one day, ill company and employment in 
worldly business overthrows all. The sea banks are down ; they must be 
new repaired. Therefore, there is a necessity laid on us of the ordinances 
to our lives' end, till our souls be in heaven ; there is a necessity of re- 
pairing them. We cannot be too diligent in our places. And those that 
have the oversight of others, let them make conscience of it ; it is needful. 
And mark here, in the next point, 

Doct. The language of Canaan, the language of the Spirit of God, that he 
puts the name of grace upon every benefit, especially those that concer)i. a better 
life. Grace usually we take to be nothing but a gracious frame of heart, 
the new creature, as we call it ; but indeed, in the language of the Holy 
Ghost, every free gift of God that concerns our souls any way is a grace. 
The very ministry is a grace. It is the grace and free love of God to give 
us the ministry. The very heart to embrace it, and to hear it, is a grace. 
The very heart to give alms is a grace. Saith St Paul, ' Thanks be to God 
for this unspeakable gift,' 2 Cor. ix. 15, for this unspeakable grace that you 
had a heart to give ; so that everything that is good, it is a grace, a gift of 
God. 

St Paul conceived of his coming to them as a grace. Indeed the grace 
of God moved and directed St Paul to come to them. It is grace that God 
directs the preacher to speak to the people. It is a grace that the minister 
speaks gracious things. It is a greater grace when you close with and 
entertain that which is spoken, — all is of grace. Your ready minds to do 
good, it comes oi God, it is a grace ; your acceptance of God, as well as 
eternal life, all is of free grace. 

The ground of it is this, as Austin, as I said, defines predestination well, 
it is a destinating and ordaining to a supernatural end, to everlasting salva- 
tion in the world to come, and a preparing of all means to that end.* Why, 
now as it is a grace that God pulls out some men to an eternal estate of 
salvation in heaven, to a supernatural estate, that they could never attain 
without his especial grace ; so the preparing of all means to that end, it 
falls within the compass of predestination, within the grace. 

So when we have any means prepared to bring us to that end, the ofier 
of the word, and the Spirit of God disposing us to embrace the word, this 
preparing of the means to that end, it falls within the compass of predes- 

♦ Cf. note eee. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 15. 835 

tination, we may gather our election by it. When we see the word sent in 
favour, and have gracious hearts to receive it, this is a preparation wrought 
to bring us to heaven, a man may know his election by it. All is of grace 
that falls within the decree of grace. When God decrees to bring a man to 
heaven, all that helps to the main must needs be grace. The minister is a 
grace, the word a grace, opportunities to do good a grace, the communion 
of saints a grace, all that helps a man forward is a grace. A gracious heart 
sees God in everything, it sees God's love in everything ; it considers of 
everything that befalls it as a grace. Why ? From this disposition espe- 
cially, because with the grace there is grace to make a blessed use of, and 
to improve everything. 

Use. Kthis be so, let us look upon every benefit that concerns salvatio)t, 
though it be remote, even the very direction of good speeches to us, account it a 
grace. It is the grace of God that I have this opportunity, especially the 
public ministry. St Paul calls it * a grace ; ' let us think of it as a grace. 
And as we do in clocks, we go from the hammer that strikes, to the wheels, 
and from one wheel to another, and so to the weights that make it strike : 
we go to the first weight, the first wheel that moves all, and leads all. So 
when we see good done, look not to the good done only, but go to the 
wheels, to the weights, that move it, and make it strike. What sets 
all agoing ? The grace and free love of God. When good things are 
spoken, when any good is done, go higher to the first wheel that sets all 
agoing, to the grace and free love of God. This is the language of the 
Scripture and of the Spirit of God. Thus we must speak and think, to 
the end that God may have the glory of his grace in whatsoever good is 
done or ofiered. 

When Abigail met David, and diverted him from his bloody intention to 
kill Nabal, and gave him counsel another way, ' blessed be God, and 
blessed be thou, and blessed be thy counsel,' 1 Sam. xxv. 32-34. So 
when opportunities are offered to do good, and to hinder us from evil in- 
tentions, * blessed be thou, and blessed be thy counsel.' When a benefit 
is done, if it be a benefit of this life, take it as a grace coming freely from 
God. So a poor man, his alms is a grace. ' Thanks be unto God for this 
unspeakable gift,' saith St Paul, 2 Cor. ix. 15. It is gi-ace in him that 
hath it, that God should respect him so much as to relieve him. It is 
grace in the party that gives it, that he hath a heart enlarged to do it. So 
when anything outward or spiritual is done that is good, look on it as a 
grace, put that respect on it, and that will make you holy-minded to give 
God his own. 

Our life should be a praising and blessing of God. We should begin the 
employment of heaven while we are on earth. How should we do that ? 
' In all things give thanks,' Eph. v. 20. Every good thing from God, take 
it as a gi'ace, as a largess ; not as due, not as coming by chance, but as a 
grace. And this wiU. make us improve it as a grace for the best. It will 
make us to give God the glory, and improve it to our own good, when we 
are thankful for grace, that we may have cause to account it a grace. Our 
hearts would not be so full of atheism, and our tongues so full of blasphe- 
mies, if we had learned this lesson; our lives would be a praising of God. 

And that we may not want matter to feed a thankful spirit, alway con- 
sider, what good things we have are of grace. We deserve not so much 
as a crumb of bread ; therefore we pray, ' Give us this day our daily bread,' 
Mat. vi. 11. Everything is a grace, especially the things of a better life. 

How shall I know that the minister is a grace, or a good speech from a 



33 COMMENTARY ON 

minister to bo a grace, as St Panl saitli hero, I intended you a ' second grace,' 
that is, to speak gracious things to you ? 

I shall know it, if by that gracious means, by those gracious speeches, 
God distil into me a spirit to improve them to gracious purposes. As 
indeed, God turns all to a gracious end to his children : he gives them a 
principle of gi-ace to work good out of everything ; they see grace in every- 
thing : in atiliction they see the love of God. In the worst things, grace 
will pick out somewhat, and make use of it. As God by his providence 
intends all to good, so his Spirit, by a provident eye to the word, works 
good out of everything. But those that have not grace, they are not grace 
to them, but tend to their further hardening. 

To end this point ; when you come to the communion, come to it as a 
grace. It is the grace of God that he hath ordained us to salvation. It is 
the grace of God that he hath sent his word. It is the grace of God that 
he hath sent his sacrament to seal that word, and all httle enough. He 
knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows we have need of all, 
to confirm and help us, the word and the sacraments, even to the end of 
our days. As the apostle saith, Eph. ii. 22, ' To build us up.' The means 
of grace are not only necessary for the planting, but for the building up of 
the church. And therefore come with this purpose, to have grace confirmed, 
and receive it as a grace of God with thankfulness, that God will condescend 
to our infirmity, to give us helps, to support our weak faith. It is a true 
proverb, grace begets grace. It begets thankfulness, where it is appre- 
hended as a grace. Therefore come with a thankful disposition to the 
sacrament ; embrace every ordinance of God with thankfulness. Alas ! do 
not thousands ' sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death ? ' They do ; 
and therefore those that find the benefit of God's ordinances, they are dis- 
posed by the same Spirit that works any good in them, to return thank- 
fulness to God again. 

' That you might have a second grace.' Saint Paul's purpose was to 
come to them, to bestow ' a grace,' not to take from them ; to bestow good 
and gracious speeches on them, which he knew the Spirit of God would 
make efiectual to work some good in them. 

Obs. A gracious man is a vessel of grace, and he should take all occasions 
to vent that ivhich is good. 

When St Paul saith, he intended to bestow a second grace, his meaning 
is, that he would utter things that were gracious, that the Spirit of God 
should seal to the souls of them that heard him, and make them efiectual. 

Therefore every Christian should have this disposition. St Paul did it 
as a holy man, as well as a minister. Do we think ourselves vessels of 
grace, as the Scripture calls the elect, children of God, or no ? Yes ! God 
forbid else. Now God's children, God hath appointed some to be vessels 
of gold, some of silver, as the apostle saith to Timothy, some for this use, 
and some for that : all for good use, 2 Tim. ii. 20. A vessel is to be filled 
with something, and to be used for something ; therefore set abroach* some 
good thing when you have the advantage of it, when you are called to it ; 
not unnecessarily to thrust forward yourselves. Let the desire of your 
hearts be to do good upon all occasions, A vessel of gi'ace must not be an 
empty vessel. A Christian he is a member of Christ, and he hath a part 
in the communion of saints, and he hath gifts for that end. There is no 
Christian, but he can comfort, or instruct, or dissuade from ill when it is 
moved. There is no Christian, but he is furnished as a member ought to 
* That is, ' cause to flow.' — G. 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 16. 837 

be, in some competent measure. There is no man that hath benefit by the 
communion of saints, but he hath grace to fit him for that blessed com- 
munion. He is fitted to comfort, upon occasion ; and he hath some grace, 
some knowledge to correct. He that hath not is a dead member, not fit 
for that communion. Therefore we should bestow grace where we come ; 
and not leave an ill scent behind us, to infect others with filthy speeches, 
and blasphemous oaths, to open the rottenness of our own hearts in their 
presence, and so be conscious of that which is ill in them, because we 
strengthen it by our example, and by our words. St Paul was a good man. 
' I come to bestow a second grace,' that is, to speak that which is gracious, 
that God's gracious providence shall direct to do you special good. For 
God's word is inspired by the Spirit ; and the same Spirit that breathed 
the word of God into the penmen of it, the same Spirit is with the word in 
the uttering of it. When it is done by a gracious heart, to a gracious man, 
it works graciously, it hath a blessed operation with it. 

Therefore we should upon all good occasions speak gracious things. 
Divine truths, they will have a wondrous efficacy. If men would set on it, 
and be more fruitful in this kind, they should have occasion to bless God. 
But, alas ! the life of a Christian is little known in the world. We have 
but naked, shallow conceits of the glory of heaven, and of the state of a 
Christian, and how he lives in this world ; and that makes men live such 
stained, such base lives, that will not stand with comfort in this world, or 
glory in the world to come. But a Christian should be such a one as 
frames his disposition to do good wheresoever he comes ; and he hath abi- 
lity if he be a sound Christian. How gi-aciously did God bless Abigail's 
word to David ? yet she was a mean woman. How dost thou know, but 
that by uttering gracious words in company, in season (as discretion must 
guide all our actions, all our words), how dost thou know but that thou 
mayest divert another man from sin, by a word in season ? 

I beseech you carry this disposition about you, as you desire to be thought 
vessels of grace here, and of glory hereafter, to be thought vessels of gold 
and silver, for the use of God, labour to be employed by the Spirit of God 
to good purposes, that you may leave a good savour where you come ; that 
others that are acquainted with you in the ' time of their visitation,' 1 Pet. 
ii. 12, they may bless God, that ever they were acquainted with such a 
friend. Blessed be God that I knew him. As it will be our joy at that 
day, so it will be one another's joy here ; for God blesseth the exhortations 
and comforts of friends one to another, as well as the ministerial ofttimes. 
So I come to the 16th verse, how he meant to come to them to Corinth. 
Saith he, ' I was minded to come to you.' 



VERSE 16. 

* And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia 
unto you, and of you to be brought on my way to Judea.' See what a circuit 
the blessed apostle fetched. Indeed, he was industrious after his conversion. 
He made amends for his harsh* conversion by his speedy labours. For he 
spread the gospel like lightning, through all the world almost. His course 
was like the course of the sun ; he went every where spreading the gospel. 
We see his circuit here, ' to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again 
from Macedonia to you, and by you to be brought on my way to Judea.' 
* Qu. ' hard ? ' = long delayed. — G. 

VOL. III. Y 



338 COMMENTARY ON 

There is little to be observed here. Because it is a passage to other things, 
and circumstantial, I will not dwell on it. Only this by the way : we see 
here, that 

Obs. It is a commendable custom amoufj the people of God to bring one an- 
other on their wa;/, hi/ icaij of honour and respect. 

Partly it was for his security and safety ; but especially for the honour 
of his person. And they knew that it would not be a barren courtesy ; for 
they knew that he was a man of a blessed spirit, so thankful, that he would 
deceive-:'- all the tediousness of the journey by his heavenly discourse. And 
he intended their good as well as his own. You may see, therefore, re- 
ligion establisheth courtesy. Saith the apostle to the Philippians, chap, 
iv. 8, ' Whatsoever things are of good report, whatsoever things are lovely 
(he goes over many instances), think of these things.' The same command 
of God that urgeth, and presseth love, it commands all the expressions of 
love, and all the means to kindle love. 

Now this, their carrying of him, and going on the way with him, which 
was for honour and respect of so excellent a person, that he deserved so 
well of them, it was an expression of their love, and a means to preserve it. 
I shall not need to prove it, it is taken for granted. Those compliments that 
express and maintain love, they are good, when the outward expression and 
the inward affection go together. 

I speak this by the way, to shew that religion doth not countenance 
incivility. Therefore those that aifect unnecessary sternness, and unneces- 
sary retiredness, it is not out of religion. Eeligion stabhsheth whatsoever 
is good, ' whatsoever is of good report,' whatsoever may maintain love. So 
much as a man is defective in this, he is defective in religion ; unless his 
affections and intentions at that time be deeply taken up by serious things. 
For then lesser things must give way to the greater, or else there is no 
excuse. For religion is a thing of a large extent, even duties of civihty 
and courtesy, and whatsoever may express and maintain love, is estab- 
lished by religion. We see in Gen. xviii. 16, when Abraham entertained 
the angels, he led them on their way. And so in Acts xx. 4, 36, seq., 
' The company sent them on their way.' And we see in Scripture many 
common courtesies. 

But I do but touch it by the way : because this whole verse is but a pas- 
sage to another thing. Therefore I come to the seventeenth verse. 



VERSE 17. 

* When I therefore was thus minded (to come unto you), did I me lightness ? 
or the things that I purpose, do I ptirpose according to the flesh, that with me 
there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay ?' The apostle still goes on to pre- 
vent scandal.f ' Woe to the world because of oflfences,' Mat. xviii. 7, saith 
our blessed Saviour, especially offences taken. Because our nature is so 
corrupt, that it is subject to take offence where none is given, it will pick 
quarrels enough to go to hell. Proud men that have only nature in them, 
they will not be damned without reason. Tush ! I had been good, say 
they, but for such and such. Now St Paul was a man much exercised with 
the cross. He wipes away scandal from that, as we heard in the first part 
of the chapter. He saith, ' As his crosses' for Christ abounded, so his com- 
forts in Christ abounded. He lost nothing by it. 

* That is, = ' make them be inobservant of.' — G. f That is, 'offence.' — G. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 839 

Again, they took oflfence that he promised to come to them, and did 
not ; especially some that were not well-willers to him : therefore he labours 
to satisfy that. 

And jirst, that he might the better satisfy them that he was no inconstant 
man, no unsettled man, he premiseth a description of his own disposition 
and course of life, he appeals to his own conscience, ' This is our rejoicing, 
the testimony of our conscience,' &c. 

And then he appeals to their conscience. A manifest note of a man con- 
fident, that dares appeal to his own conscience, and to the conscience of 
another. Obnoxious men are always afraid, not only of their own con- 
science, lest it should tell them that which they would be loath to hear, 
but they are afraid of the consciences of others likewise. St Paul appeals 
to their conscience, ' I write no other things than what you read and acknow- 
ledge,' &c. 

And so he comes more directly to satisfy their suspicion of him for his 
not coming to them. In this verse he labours to remove their false impu- 
tation, * When I was thus minded to come unto you, did I use lightness ? 

"Wherein you have St Paul's purgation of himself. Here is a prevention 
of an objection of suspicion, that the flesh will move in them that have 
doubtful suspicious minds. Why ! if you intended to come, why did you 
not ? Saith he, ' When I was thus minded, did I use lightness ?' First, 
Observe hence in general, that 

Obs. Men are ivondrous prone to jealousy and suspicion. 

It is the state of God's children here in this world to have suspicions 
raised of them. They are obnoxious to slanders and imputations, and they 
are forced to their apologies. Men are prone to suspicion, yea, and good 
men too : as here, they took his not coming in the worst part, by the 
wrong handle. 

That is suspicion, when there are two handles of a thing, two apprehen- 
sions of a thing, and there is a proneness in the mind to the worst part ; to 
take things in an ill sense. They might have construed it many ways bet- 
ter than thus ; but they thought the worst of him : he is light in his pro- 
mises ; he will say, and unsay again : he is oflf and on. This is in natural 
men, yea, in Christians : as far as they have old Adam in them, they are 
prone to suspicion. 

Whence is this ? 

1. Partly out of the poison and malice of man's nature in many, esteeming 
others by themselves ; for the worst natures are alway most suspicious, 
out of a privity of their own indisposition in themselves. Usually those 
that deserve worst are most jealous, because there is most cause. Con- 
science of a man's own imperfections and weakness makes him think others 
to be as he himself is. 

2. And again, there is envy in man's nature toward excellent persons espe- 
cially. The malice of man's nature cannot abide eminency in othei-s. The 
false teachers among the Coriathians they saw that Paul stood in their 
light, therefore they labour to eclipse and obscure him all they could. 
Hence it is, that men are willing to entertain wilUngly any suspicion. For 
not being wilhng out of baseness to rise to their greatness and excellency, 
they labour to bring them down by their suspicion to their baseness and 
meanness, that all may be iU alike. Therefore baseness is subject to suspi- 
cion, and the fruit of suspicion, that is, slander ; to take every thing in 
suapicion, and to utter it in words ; because they would have men of emi- 
nency brought down to their meanness ; and if they cannot do it indeed, 



340 COMMENTARY ON 

they will bring them by reports as low as they can, that they speak, and 
unspeak, and are inconstant as other men. There are many causes of 
this ; and therefore St Paul seeing the baseness of it, he stands the more 
upon it. 

Quest. How shall we arm ourselves against this suspicion, and the fruit 
of it ? How shall we carry ourselves against this disposition of men among 
whom we hve ? 

Ans. I answer briefly, first, labour for innocency, that if they will speak 
maliciously, yet they may speak falsely. Saith St Ambrose, ^Et nobis malm,' 
&c. (ffj). Our care must be that no man speak ill of us without a lie. 
Let us live so that no man may believe them ; labour for innocency there- 
fore. But that will not do. 

2. Therefore j^ftience in the next place. For innocency could not fence 
Christ himself, who was innocency clothed with our flesh. If innocenc}' 
will not prevail to make men hold their tongue from speaking their suspi- 
cious minds, then labour for patience. 

3. But that will not do neither, but men go on still ; then prayer. That 
was David's course : that God would defend our innocency, and take our 
cause into his hands, and bring forth our innocency as the light, to judge 
for us. 

4. And when nothing else will serve the turn, neither innocency nor 
patience, &c., then, just apology and defence, as we see the apostle doth 
here defend himself. For it is not for public persons to dissemble* 
slanders ; and especially for them not to sufler ill suspicions to rest in the 
hearts of those that are under them. Therefore the apostle is enforced 
through Christian prudence to his apology, to wipe away the imputation. 
* When I was thus minded, did I use lightness ? ' saith he. This I observe 
in general. 

Quest. Now, because suspicion is a doubtful thing, it is either good or 
evil, how shall we know when suspicion is naught and evil ? 

Ans. 1. First of all, ivhen it is out of misconstruction. "When it is from 
weak grounds, or doubtful grounds, then it is ill for the ground. 

2. Or it is ill likewise ivhen it ill affects, a)td sways, a)id disposeth the 
mind; if it dispose the affections to malice, to the suppression of love; if 
it discover itself to come to slander. As here in this place, they thought 
presently it was lightness in him. Here was a misconstruction, here was a 
false ground. What did this incline them to do ? From inconstancy pre- 
sently they fly to his disposition, from suspicion to slander his disposition. 
They enter into God's throne : his purposes and projects, certainly they 
were naught. Carnal, proud man will enter into God's throne, and judge 
a man's thoughts, and purposes, and intentions. Then a man may know 
his suspicion is not right when it enters too deep, when it riseth from false 
gi'ounds, from suspicious grounds, and brings men from actions, to go to 
the disposition. ' Did I use lightness ? or the things that I purpose, do I 
purpose according to the flesh ? ' that is, carnally, as they thought : this 
entered to his disposition. 

3. Then again, ivlie7i it stirs us up to speak in slander, ivlien ice speak xvith- 
out cause or ground. Then when it inclines a man from an error in one 
thing, to go to the habitual disposition in all things. As here now, because 
in one thing the apostle was inconstant, and did not come to them, they 
went to his habitual disposition in all things. Nay, you may see what he 
is, you see what we are like to have from him in other things, he doth but 

» That is, = ' conceal.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 341 

purpose things according to the flesh ; he hath his own aims, I warrant you. 
So when from one thing we presently judge that he purposeth other things 
according to the flesh, that is a bad suspicion : when a man goes from one 
thing to the habitual disposition. 

* When I was thus minded, did I use lightness ? ' The more to convince 
them of their suspicion and hard surmises, he cites them, and propounds 
as it were interrogatories to them. I pray answer me, saith he, ' When I 
was thus minded, did I use lightness,' as you imagine ? ' or the things that 
I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh ? ' &c. After he had cleared 
his purpose before, and cleared his conscience, now he comes to propound 
it to their conscience ; because he would have them to think, that if he 
were such a man as he shewed himself before, that he had a good con- 
science in all things, and a good affection to them, that they should not 
have had a misconstruction of that particular failing, that he came not to 
them when he purposed ; for particular actions must be construed accord- 
ing to a man's habitual carriage and affection. You see how I have 
laboured in all things to have a good conscience ; and for you, you acknow- 
ledge that I purposed to come to you ; therefore you should construe my 
actions according to that intention. Now, having cleared my disposition 
and intention to you, you see your error in misconstruing my not coming 
to you. So he comes to it in good season, after he had freed himself to 
them. 

' When I was thus minded, did I use lightness ? ' &c. These things he 
declines : 

1. Lightness or inconstancy. 

2. Purposing or deliberating according to the flesh. 

3. And then inconstancy in his speeches, that they should be * Yea, yea, 
Nay nay. 

The point that I observe from the first conceming lightness is, that 

Doct. Every Christian, especially ministers and public men, should labour 
by all means to avoid the just imputation of lightness and inconstancy. 

The imputation of lightness is especially to be avoided of those that are 
in place. Lightness and inconstancy ! wlaat is that ? When a man hath 
not pitched his resolutions and purposes to one thing, when a man doth not 
stand in his purposes. 

Now, a man must avoid imputations of lightness, especially persons of 
quality. 

"Vvhy? 

Reason. Not to speak all that might be said in the point, especially for 
this end, to preserve authority. Authority is that that furnisheth a man in 
place, in magistracy or ministry, wondrously to prevail, to do good. I 
take not authority here for that which the king puts on them, or the chief 
magistrate ; but authority is that high respect that the people have of the 
eminency of their parts and honesty, an impression of somewhat more than 
ordinary in them. This is that authority, a beam of excellency that God 
doth infuse, for the strengthening and fortifying of his own ordinance. 
What reason is there else that a thousand should be subject to one man, but 
that God doth put a majesty upon his own ordinance, and upon the per- 
sons in it ? And this respect to it must be maintained by a uniform, con- 
stant carriage. Now, when people shall see that they are, as in their place, 
so in their disposition, great, and serious, and weighty, and firm in their 
resolutions ; that they may build on them, and know where to have them 



842 COMMENTARY ON 

as we say, it breeds authority, and maintains authority. For then what 
they say is regarded. And how their affections stand : if it be love, it is 
much sought after; if displeasure, it is much feared. For they are men of 
a fixed disposition, it gains wondrous respect. 

Let men be never so great, if they be such as St Paul here declines from 
himself, that they use lightness, they lose their authority. Authority is 
the special help that governors have to rule, and that ministers have to 
prevail. Now, nothing weakens esteem and authority more than when 
men are tossed between the waves of contrary affections ; when men are 
such as we know not where to have them ; as we say, off and on, fast and 
loose, one while sitting, another standing : no man will build on them, or 
much regard their love or hatred. 

Now you know authority is a beam of majesty, and God hath put it upon 
magistrates above others ; and imprinted likewise the respect of it in the 
people's hearts, to maintain the world. ' The pillars of the earth will 
shake else,' as the psalmist saith, Ps. Ixxv. 3. What would become of the 
pillars of government, if it were not for authority in them that are 
above, and respect of that authority, an impression of it in them that are 
under. 

Now there are many grounds of authority, as success, when God blessewi 
them with it wonderfully to admiration, and good parts, &c. ; but one main 
ground of authority is constancy and firmness. This raiseth a high respect 
in the hearts of the people. 

I will not multiply reasons why those that are in place should avoid the 
imputation of lightness. Ministers especially should take heed of it, be- 
cause they are ministers of God's truth ; and if they take not heed of it, 
people will be ready to go from their moral civil carriage to their doctrine, 
and think there is an uncertainty in that they speak, because they do not 
regard what they say. 

But let me add this by the way, Mater erroris similituclo, Likeness is 
the mother of error. So there is somewhri like constancy in governors, 
and others, when they are nothing less, but merely refractory and obstinate; 
to maintain the reputation of constancy, they will run into the fault of 
wilfulness. Such as are subject that way, had need of strong wits to rule 
their strong wills, to guide them, or else woe be to those that have to deal 
with them. That I thought good to add, lest we mistake. 

We should all labour to avoid inconstancy and lightness in our resolu- 
tions, in our purposes, and affections. 

If we ought to avoid it, how shall we come to know it ? What is the 
ground of lightness ? The grounds are many. 

1. Sometimes froin the temjier of the body. Some are of a moveable 
temper, of a moveable, quick spirit, that they cannot out of their constitu- 
tion fix long, except they set weights upon nature. I am by disposition 
thus ; but my resolution shall be otherwise : as where grace and wisdom 
is, it will fix the temper, and fix the resolution, and the thoughts. This I 
could not do, if I should yield to my own disposition ; but this I will do, 
and I should do. There are many resolutions, as in the younger sort, and 
some out of their very temper are more fixed and resolved. 

2. But now consider it as it is in religion, lightness comes out of the 
disposition of the mind. 

(1.) Inconsideration ofttimes is the ground, when we do not see the cir- 
cumstances of a thing that we promise or purpose. You know there ia 
nothing comes to action, but it is beset with circumstances. There are 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 843 

advantages of it, and there are stops and hindrances of it : somewhat may- 
fall out. Everything that comes to action is besieged with circumstances. 
Circumstances, you know, have their name of standing about a business, 
about a thing. Now when the things that are about, the impediments, and 
the hindrances, and lets are not weighed, a rash man sees not the things, he 
considers not the things that he enters upon ; he resolves without consider- 
ing the circumstances that beset the thing ; he never considers what opposi- 
tions he may meet with, or what advantages there be which perhaps he 
neglects ; but he thinks of the thing, it is good, and suitable to his purpose ; 
he resolves, and never considers the circumstances about a thing, but runs 
on in confidence of his own wit and parts, and thinks to rule all by the 
strength of his wit, not foreseeing, not casting in his mind, to prevent 
beforehand what may fall out. It is just with God to shame such men. 
Frustration of their pm-poses, it is a just reward of their folly. Therefore 
we should take heed of inconsideration, and have our eyes in our heads, to 
set the soul to foresee what possibility there is of the business, and what 
may fall out. This is the right way, if we would avoid imputation of 
lightness. 

(2.) Again, another ground of lightness, and of that decay in authority 
and respect that comes from it, is the passion of men. Therefore they are 
light. They are carried with the hurry and wind of their passion. And 
Satan joins with passion. A passionate man is subject to Satan more than 
a man that is led by reason, or with grace. For that is a beam of God. 
Even reason itself, judgment, it is an excellent thing, and it prevents many 
temptations. 

Give not way to passion, for those are unreasonable things. As we see 
Saul in his passion, Satan, the evil spirit, mingled with his passion of anger. 
So let men be in any passion, over joy, or be over angry ; let them give the 
reins to unruly passion, and they give advantage to Satan, that we cannot 
settle our souls in any good resolution. 

(3.) Again, in the things themselves there is cause of lightness and in- 
constancy, from the nature of things ; and then it is not so great a fault to 
change. Then it is not properly inconstancy. But it is inconstancy 
when the things are mutable and variable, and we do not think of it as we 
should. 

Now the things of this life are variable and uncertain ; the event ef 
things in this life is wondrous variable. Grace and glory, they are certain 
things, and the way that God directs us to heaven, they are certain promises, 
and certain grounds ; but the things of this hfe are subject to much change. 
God takes a great deal of Uberty in altering things in this world, they fall 
out divers ways. 

(4.) But now therefore we must take heed that we take not inconstancy 
for that which is not. Every change of opinion and purpose is not hght- 
ness. It is not inconstancy for a man to change his mind and purpose, 
when it is from the things. Men are men, and the things that we deal 
with in the world are subject to variety and inconstancy ; and for a man to 
alter according to the variety of things, it argues no inconstancy, if the aim 
be good. 

As for example, a mariner, a seaman, he is not inconstant, when one 

time he strikes sail, and another time he hoisteth up sail. When he makes 

indentures,* and goes with a side wind, he goes on his way, and his aim is 

still to come to the haven. He is not inconstant, because he changeth not 

* That is = circuits. — G. 



844 COMMENTARY ON 

his star. He alway aims at the right star,, and to his compass and card 
that he sails by. He varies not from his rule. He varies from the things, 
because the winds and the seas vaiy, because he deals with vai'iable ob- 
jects. The things vary, but he doth not vary. Hi3 comes to his project, 
to the haven, and hath his direction from the North Pole, &c. 

So the husbandman, sometimes he sows, sometimes he harrows, some- 
times he reaps. Is he inconstant and varies ? No ! the matter about 
which he is varies. So in governors, sometimes they do this, and some- 
times that. They are about variable matters, yet here is no variableness 
iior lightness of disposition, because they deal with mutable, with variable 
objects. 

So God in managing his church's affairs, in his dispensation in that 
point ; you see he used one dispensation before Christ, and another since 
Christ. God changeth not, but the times are changed. In the infancy of 
the church one dispensation was requisite, and now another. Therefore it 
is not inconstancy for a man to change on good ground, or when the things 
themselves change. 

Therefore this should have made them thought well of St Paul. His 
affection was not changed to them, but the business was changed, as we 
shall see after. Other things let* him. So a good man, his honest resolu- 
tion should not change. His aim to serve God and his countiy, and to 
deserve well of mankind, this should be constant ; but the manner how, 
the circumstance of time and place, and ordering of these things, they are 
variable. They do not change, but maintain their constancy and resolution, 
in the variety of occasions that fall out ; for we cannot frame our life 
otherwise than it is, to be unvariable. When a man is guided by a certain 
principle, though the things of this life be uncertain, and he vary sometimes 
according to his principle, and aim, and end, yet it is no inconstancy. And 
it will excuse a man's conscience exceedingly, when his aim is good, and 
the rules and principles he goes by are good and honest, if things fall out 
otherwise than he aims at, though there be a change of his course, because 
his heart tells him his rules and his purposes were good. 

3. One other main cause of lightness and sinful inconstancy, it is irreli- 
gion; casting ourselves upon future things, without a dependence on 
divine providence. An atheistical independence, when we project things to 
come, and never call upon God to assist us, and never have divine reserva- 
tions as we should have, but boast, This I will do ; and sometimes nega- 
tively. This I will not do, I have time enough to do it ; as if we had future 
times at our command. St James excellently taxeth such people, James iv. 
13, 'Go to now, you that say, To-day and to-morrow we will go to such a 
city, and buy, and sell, and get gain.' 'Go to now:' see here how he 
shames them by a kind of ironical permission. ' Go to now.' You will do 
great matters ! ' whereas,' saith he, ' you know not what shall be to-morrow.' 
God that hath given us the time present to repent in, and to do good, the 
time to come he hath reserved in his own power. We know not what shall 
be to-morrow. Where he shews the ground of this atheism, and rushing 
npon business without dependence ; they forget the condition of this life, 
that it is a vapour. ' What is your life ? it is even a vapour that appeareth 
for a little while, and then vanisheth away.' Your life is inconstant. God 
is the Lord of your purposes. He is the Lord of your life, and of all oppor- 
tunities and circumstances. ' Your life is but a vapour.' Here all things 
fall under his providence and guidance. You consider not this, and there- 
* That is, ' hindered.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 845 

fore you project so for the time to come. * What is your life ? it is even a 
vapour,' &c. 

Then he comes to direct them how they should entertain resolutions for 
the time to come, * Ye ought to say. If the Lord will ;' or if we hve, we 
will do this and that. ' If the Lord will,' in whose power are our inten- 
tions, and resolutions, and affections. He guides the inward man, and all 
the things in the world, to the falUng of a hair from our head, to the falling 
of a sparrow to the ground, even the least things, Luke xii. 7. You should 
say thus. 

And he calls it * vain boasting.' What makes God confound insolent 
attempts ? as indeed he triumphs over insolent attempts of kings and cap- 
tains, or whatsoever, that set up great business in high conceits, they will 
do this and that. Saith St James, * You rejoice in your boasting,' James 
iv. 16. They boast they will do this and that. That makes God confound 
them so, because they will be gods to themselves. Man is a dependent 
creature. Everything is God's, and we are dependent. * In him we live, 
and move, and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28. 

Man being a dependent creature, yet he resolves to do this and that, as 
if he had the guidance of his own thoughts and purposes. This provokes 
God to jealousy, when he makes himself a god, and sets not God before 
him in his actions. He sets upon things without dependence, without 
prayer, or reservation, if God permit this. Because God rejoiceth to con- 
found these bold attempts, therefore they never thrive in such attempts. 

Therefore a true Christian joins modesty for the time to come. He will 
attempt nothing but what he may expect to have God's protection in. He 
that thinks God may cross him will do nothing ill that he fears God will 
cross him in ; he will be modest. The best Christians are the modestest. 
They consider the uncertainty of the things of this life, and the weakness of 
man in foreseeing things. They see a dependence of all things on the 
majesty of God, even to the least things ; that he guides things that are 
most casual ; and that ' he rules even the hearts of princes,' as Solomon 
saith, 'as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1. They are guided by him ; 
they are in his hand. Hereupon a wise Christian becomes modest for the 
time to come in his resolutions : he undertakes all with a holy dependence 
on God, if God will, and if God permit. He will undertake nothing for the 
time to come, but with warrant, that he may without tempting of God look 
for his assistance. For to go to God to bless us in ill projects, is to make 
God the patron of that which is bad, which is contrary to his nature. 
Therefore he learns to depend upon God for the time to come, and will 
entertain or enter upon no business but such as he may safely, without 
tempting of God, depend upon him for his assistance. This is the disposi- 
tion of a modest Christian. 

You see in Ps. ii. how the Psalmist there insults over those that threaten 
to do this and that. ' Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a 
vain thing, &c., against the Lord, and against his Anointed?' As if they 
would swallow up the church, and Christ the anointed : why do they do 
this and that ? God that sits in heaven, he laughs them to scorn. You 
see the grounds of lightness, so far forth as is needful. I will name no 
more. 

The way to prevent it may be in observing these grounds of constancy, 
especially this : — 

1. Stablish your thoughts with counsel for the time to come', consult, go 
not rashly and headlong about matters. It is not with our common life 



346 COMMENTARY ON 

as with those that ran in a race ; for their swiftness gets all. But in matters 
of government in commonwealth, there the most staid get all ; those that 
weigh things, and then execute upon mature deliberatioji ; that ripen things 
first, and go not rawlj-, and indeliberately about it. This every man takes 
for granted, but it is not thought on. 

2. Then again, labour to suppress prixsion in anytking that comes from us. 
Speak nothing in passion ; for one of these things will follow. If we exe- 
cute it, we are in danger for the things in passion, and inconsiderately 
spoken ; if not, we shall have the shame of being frustrate. We undergo 
the shame of lightness, that we speak that in our passion and heat that we 
retract after. One of these inconveniences will follow : either you will do 
it, and then it will be dangerous ; or you will not do it, and then you will 
be ashamed, a fit reward of rashness. 

God gives us passions to be guided and ruled, and not to rule us. They 
are good servants and only servants, that should be raised up, and stirred 
up, only when reason and judgment raiseth them, and not otherwise. But 
to go on. 

3. Another cure of this rashness is holy deperidence on God hy prayer, and 
hy faith, to commit our ways to him, our thoughts to him for the time to come. 
Leave all to him, entertain nothing wherein we cannot expect his gracious 
assistance. The best Chi-istian is the most dependent Christian. That is 
the first thing the apostle declines. 

What is the second thing ? 

' Or the thinr/s that I jmrpose, do I jnirpose according to the flesh T They 
thought he was a politician ; as this is the lot of God's children sometimes. 
If so be that God hath given them parts, either of nature or breeding, car- 
nal, devilish men that are led altogether by plots themselves, esteem them by 
themselves. ' The things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the 
flesh ?' He propounds this interrogatory to their conscience, not idly ; but 
he knew that they had a prejudice in them, by his co-rivals, false apostles. 
There he labours to wipe away that imputation likewise, that he did not 
pui-pose and consult of things according to the flesh. 

What is flesh here ? 

' Flesh' is the unregenerate part of man, whereof fleshly wisdom is the 
chief; for that guides the ' old man,' that is the eye of old Adam. Carnal 
wisdom, it is the flesh's counsellor in all things ; therefore especially he 
means that. 

But why is it called flesh ? 

For many reasons. Among many this is one, that the soul, so far as it is 
sinful, it is led with things that are fleshly, that are outward ; and thereupon 
a man is called flesh. And the soul itself is called flesh, because it cleaves 
in its aficctions and desires to earthly things ; and because the poor 
understanding now, which ruled all, and should rule all, is become an un- 
derling to the carnal will and carnal lusts. Therefore itself is called flesh 
likewise, ' The wisdom of the flesh is enmity with God.' For now it is 
swayed even which way carnal fancy, and opinion, and the flesh, lead it. 

The reason is, it is betwixt God and heavenly things, and betwixt earthly 
things. And if it were in its right original as it came out of God's hands, 
being a Spirit, it should be led by God, and by God's Spirit, and God's 
truth, by better things than itself (as every infirm thing is guided by that 
which is better than itself; as brute creatures are guided by men, and 
weaker persons by magistrates, that are, or should be, better); but now since 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 17. 347 

the fall, without grace renew a man, the understanding part of man's soul, 
instead of lighting its candle from heaven, it often lights it from hell, and is 
ruled by Satan himself, and takes advices even from things meaner than 
itself, and plots, and projects altogether for things worse than itself. It was 
not given for that end, God knows that gave it, this soul of ours, to prowl 
for earthly things ; for the ease, and honour, and profits, and pleasures of 
the world. That excellent jewel that all the world is not worth, it was not 
given for that end. No ! it was given to attain a higher end than this 
world, to attain communion with God. But now since the fall it is thus 
with it, that it is a slave. Carnal ^vit is a slave to carnal will, and that car- 
nal will is drawn by carnal aflections. Afiections draw the will, and the 
will draws the wit, and makes it plot and devise for that which it stands for ; 
for carnal lusts and afiections which whet the wit that way. Therefore the 
whole soul is called flesh, even reason itself. 

And hereupon wicked men are called ' the world.' Why the world ? Be- 
cause they are led with the things of the world, with the guise and fashion 
of the world. 

A man, in the language of the Scripture, is termed by that which he 
cleaves to ; therefore if the heart and soul cleave to the flesh, and the things 
of the flesh, it is flesh ; if it be led with the world, and the things of the 
world, it is called the world. Wicked men are the world, because the best 
thing in them is the love of worldly things, and their wit is for worldly 
things. All the inward parts of their soul are spent upon worldly things,; 
therefore they are called flesh, and the world. And sometimes ' Satan' him- 
self. A man, as far as he is carnal, is called Satan, yea, good men ; ' Go after 
me, Satan,' saith Christ to Peter, Mat. xvi. 23. 

A man as far as he yields to anything, he is named from that which he 
yields to. When fleshly things rule a man, he is called * flesh ;' when worldly 
things rule him, profits and pleasures, a man is the 'world;' when a man 
yields to Satan, he is ' Satan.' 

Use. This should make us take heed by whom we are led, under whose 
government we come. Saith St Paul, ' Do I purpose according to the flesh ?' 
That is, according to the profits, and pleasures, and honours which the flesh 
looks after. Are those my advisers, my intelligencers, my counsellors 
in the things I take in hand ? what may make for my honour, my pleasure, 
my estate, my worldly ease here ? No ! saith he, ' I purpose not according 
to the flesh.' The rule from hence is this, that, 

Ohs. A Christian man ought by all means to avoid the imputation of carnal 
policy. 

Every Christian, much more a Christian man in authority and place, a 
minister, or magistrate, ought by all means to avoid it ? St Paul here 
dechnes it, * Did I purpose things according to the flesh ?' Was I politic ? 
I had just occasion to speak largely of it in the former verse concerning 
fleshly wisdom, therefore I will speak the less of it now. We ought by all 
means to decline the imputation of it, and much more the conscience of it, 
than the report of it ; to be holily wise, and to be accounted so too. 

Reason. The reason is, it is God's enemy, and our enemy. Should a 
Christian consult and deliberate with his enemy ? to take his enemy to be 
his judge, and his friend, and counsellor ?. A man that hath his enemy to 
guide him to a place, that hath a pirate to guide him in a ship, how can he 
come to good ? He that is led by the flesh he consults with his enemy, 
when he looks what is for his profit, or his pleasure, &c. These things we 
should renounce as we promised in baptism, when we gave our names to 



348 OOMMENTAEY ON 

Clirist. If we live and deliberate ' according to the flesh, we shall die,' saith 
the apostle peremptorily. It is a dangerous enemy ; death is the issue of 
all the counsel of the flesh, Rom. viii. 2, seq. 

Again, it is a secret enemy, a domestic enemy. It is in all the powers of 
the soul. We cannot be too jealous against it. It is a perpetual enemy 
that accompanies us continually, in all our consultations, in all places ; in 
prosperity, in adversity. It hinders us from all good, it keeps us from the 
reformation of anything that is ill. 

If a magistrate be suggested by any other, or by a good motion of his 
own, do this, reform this, Oh ! I shall run myself into danger, I shall incur 
censure ! So ill is done, and is mireformed, only by consulting with the 
flesh ; and good is neglected, — I shall be accounted an hypocrite, if I do this. 
So there is flesh and blood to hinder in every good thing. The flesh will 
be foisting bad ends, or bad moving causes, and the flesh will be ready to 
keep us from reforming ill from fear of danger. And if we do ill, and be 
in ill, it will be ready to keep us in ill. Oh ! it is time enough to repent, 
&c. A thousand such policies the flesh hath to keep us in ill till we be in 
hell itself. Who would be advised, and take counsel by such an enemy ? 

Use. Therefore, let us take heed. We have it in us, hut let it live in us 
only, and not rule in us. Although it will be in us as long as we live, yet 
let us not be ruled by it ; let us not admit it to counsel, but suppress it, 
and keep it under. Especially those that are magistrates, that are called 
to public business, let them not bring private respects to public business, 
but bring public hearts to intend the good of religion, and of their country, 
before any private interest whatsoever. And not consult according to the 
flesh : If I do this, I shall displease such and such. That is no matter. 
If it were not for religion, if a man have a public mind, such as the vei-y 
heathens had, he would lay aside base respects in public business. There- 
fore, I humbly desire such to examine deeply their intentions and purposes, 
what they aim at ; whether to serve God, and the church, and their country, 
or to serve themselves ; that if so be they may be safe, they care not what 
befall their country, or religion, or whatsoever. That is it that moves God 
to indignation, to cross their intentions ; for when God sees they set earth 
above heaven, the world present before the world to come ; and the dirt of 
the world, base respects before those that are greater, that they invert the 
order of things, he crosseth them in that they aim at, because they cross 
him in neglecting their duty. Therefore, as we would have things succeed 
well, let us labour to consult, not according to the flesh, for our private 
advantage ; but for what may make most fijst for religion, and then for the 
pubUc good. 

Again, we may learn from hence, that 

Obs. A ground of liyhtness is to purpose things according to the flesh. 
To purpose according to carnal reason, and affection, it is a ground of 
lightness. For mark the reason of it, when a man is carried in his delibe- 
rations by carnal respects, this will be for my profit, this will incline such a 
man to me, by this I shall get such a place, &c., when he is led by low and 
base respects, it makes him light with God, though he be never so good 
otherwise. Because carnal respects build on outward things that are uncer- 
tain ; therefore all resolutions built on outward things, and carnal respects, 
are uncertain. He that takes fleshly wisdom for his counsellor, and adviser, 
and intelligencer, what doth he ? He is led with by-respects, with one of 
the three idols of the world, some honour, or pleasure, or base profit, now 
when the rule of deliberation is the flesh, and the flesh carries to outward 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. 1, VER. 17. 849 

things that are variable. A man is alway light and inconstant, that pro- 
pounds the deliberation of things according to the flesh. 

What is the reason that a wicked man (though he be not notoriously, 
outwardly wicked ; but a shrewd man, that is for himself, that makes him- 
self the end of all his projects), what is the reason that such a man can 
never be a sound friend ? He is never a sound friend ; he is only a friend, 
so long as it makes for himself ; so long as he gets to his own in all things. 
As the Jesuits use to say, so it is true of every natural man, they do all 
they do, and consult in an order to spiritual things ; they do this, and that, 
and overrule kings and states, and this is for the good of society, and in an 
order of spiritual things. A man that hath not grace in him above nature, 
and above respects of nature, he can never be a sound friend ; for when 
fleshly advantages come, of pleasures, and profits, and honours, when these 
rise one way or other, there he leaves the bonds of friendship ; because 
there is a nearer bond between him and the things of this life ; he is led 
with the flesh, and deliberates according to the flesh. 

And that is the reason likewise why such a man can never be a good 
Christian. He can never go through the variety of times. Why ? Because 
he consults of things according to the flesh, and as long as religion stands 
with his aims, that he may enjoy his riches, and his greatness, and the 
contentments of this life with religion, so long he is content to be religious ; 
if religion cross him in these, he hath not learned to deny himself, and 
therefore he is not constant. 

Or if times do not fall out so cross, he is not constant in his disposition ; 
and God looks on him as he is in his disposition, and so he will judge him 
at that day. Now being led with the flesh, his disposition alters, and varies. 

How shall I know whether I consult according to the flesh or no ? 

In a word, examine two things : (1.) the ground, and (2.) the aim of our 
actions, whence they rise, and what they aim at. Spring they from self- 
love ? Aim they at our self- contentment and private interest ? Then a man 
is led with the flesh. 

To use a familiar instance. In marriage, when a man looks more to 
wealth than to religion, he adviselh according to the flesh. And so for a 
minister to respect his living more than anything that might weigh with his 
conscience otherwise, if he were good ; he is led with respects according to 
the flesh. Those that leave their former good acquaintance, and choose 
such as they only hope to gain by, and forsake those acquaintance that they 
cannot gain by, though they be never so good otherwise, they are led ac- 
cording to the flesh. 

How shall we know that we do not things, and consult not of things ac- 
cording to the flesh ? 

1. Some men may know it easily ; as when men are of pregnant parts, 
when the strength of their wit leads them one way, and relu/ion leads them 
another ivay, yet in the awe of God they do not go that way that politic 
respects would carry them. They could be as errant politicians as the best, 
but they dare not. Here now is a man that is ' led by the Spirit,' when it 
is not for want of parts, but out of conscience, he doth not so miscarry by 
his enemy. Many times an honest man could be rich by ill means as well 
as another. He knows the way. It is not for want of wit, but because he 
dares not. The awe of conscience and the awe of God lead him to better 
rules and aims. So it is easily discerned in eminency of parts. 

2. And likewise in fitness of opportunities, if there be not parts, when a 
man hath all outward advantages to satisfy the flesh, to yield to it, to have 



.350 COMMENTARY ON 

liis aims, and yet he ■will not. If a man have power, and j^et doth not 
revenge himself, he consults not with flesh and blood ; for he might be re- 
venged if he would. So I say, when there is something that might sway 
us another way, and yet notwithstanding out of mere conscience, and better 
rules, we will not, it is a sign we pm-pose not, we advise not things accord- 
ing to the flesh, but according to the Spirit ; we are led with better rules 
than the world is. 

In strong suggestions, a Joseph can say, ' How shall I do this and ofiend 
against God ?' Gen. xxxix. 9. 'Doth not God see it? ' saith Job, xxxi. 4. 
So a Christian in the strength of temptations, and solicitations, and op- 
portunities to do ill, he considers, * Doth not God see ? How shall I do 
this, and oflend against God ? ' Shall I break the peace of my conscience 
for the gaining of this, and this ? Why no. Then a man is not led with 
carnal wisdom. 

3. Again, we may know this, that we are not led by the flesh, and ad- 
vised by the flesh, ivhen we are humble in all our consultations. It is a per- 
petual concomitant of carnal wisdom to be proud. Knowledge mingled 
with coiTuption puffeth up. 

Quest. But how shall we labour to overcome this, because we have the 
flesh ready by us, in all our consultations ? We have this counsellor alway 
ready at hand, as St Paul complains, Rom. vii. 19, ' that when we would 
do well, evil is present.' It is present at our elbow ; nay, it is nearer, the 
flesh is mingled in all the powers of our souls ; and with heavenly wisdom 
there is a mixture of carnal wisdom ; how shall we do that we may not be 
tainted with it ? 

I will give a direction or two. 

Ans. First of all, have a prejudice of it. Cave, time, &c., saith the holy 
man St Austin. ' Take heed of the evil man thyself (ggg) ; take heed of 
carnal reason ; be jealous of it. It is an enemy, and the issues of the ways 
it adA-iseth to are death. ' There is a way that seems good to a man in 
his own eyes, the issues whereof are death,' Prov. xiv. 12, not temporal 
only, but eternal death. It is a deadly enemy ; have a prejudice of it, and 
conceit of it to be as it is ; have a jealousy of it, and of our own selves, 
especially in things that concern ourselves. What is the reason that a man 
is an incompetent judge in his ovm. cause ? This, because there is natural 
self-love and flesh that draws all to itself. Consult not with it therefore ; 
consult with higher rules, and principles, what may make most for the 
chief end, for the glory of God, for the assurance of our comfort while we 
live here, and a better estate hereafter, that which may make most for the 
common good ; let us labour to live by right rules and principles : God will 
value us by that. 

Put the case a man by passion be led another way, what is his rule ? 
what is his aim ? His aim is not carnal. He may fall by passion, &c. 
God judgeth not by passion, but by the tenor of our life. God esteems 
us not by a single particular exorbitant act that by passion or incogitancy 
a man falls into, but by the tenor of our life. Therefore let us labour to 
have our rules and aims good, though we fail in particular, yet that our 
way may be good ; though we step awry, yet our way may be good ; that 
when judgment shall come, when death shall come, it may not find us in 
an ill way, in an ill course. Therefore let us consult with God, consult 
with his word, consult with those that are led by the Spirit of God ; labour 
to be under the government of God's blessed Spirit, to be guided by the 
Spirit of God, and by the word of God. This should be our care, to 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 351 

labour that God would guide us by bis good Spirit in those ways that may 
lead to our comfort, that of all other enemies in the world, he would not give 
us up to our own flesh to guide us, but that he would take the guidance of 
us to himself, that as he hath right to us by his covenant, so he would take 
us into his government. And desire Christ that as he is our priest to die for 
us, so likewise he would be our prophet to instruct us, to subdue all in 
us. And let divine truth be our counsellor, to bring our inner man into 
subjection, as it is, 2 Cor, x. 4, ' The weapons of our warfare are mighty,' to 
bring all into captivity, to subject all high devices and reasonings. 

How shall I do this ? I shall miss of my ends, I shall miss of my pro- 
jects. ! but religion when it comes and brings down all, it makes not 
a man to cast away reason, but brings reason under, and brings the soul 
under God. A man may keep his wisdom and understanding safe still, so 
he keep it under, and let divine truth sway and bring all in us into captivity 
to itsen. 

But, alas ! the scope of the world is contrary ! Instead of bringing the 
soul into captivity to God's truth, to be led by him, to have no thoughts, 
no aims contrary to God's will, they make God's truth a captive and pri- 
soner to their own base afiections ; as St Paul saith, Rom. i. 1 8, ' They hold 
the truth,' they withhold it as a prisoner under base aflfections. And 
whereas all should serve the main end, and intend better things, they make 
a counterfeit loving of good things to serve their carnal ends, they make 
heaven serve earth, they make God serve man, the Spirit serve the flesh : 
they invert the order of things clean, which is as contrary to nature as if 
they had wisdom to consider it, as that the heaven should be under the 
earth, and the water above the air. It overturns all in religion, when we 
sufier carnal wisdom to rule all, to imprison that light that God hath put 
into the heart and conscience, and the light of his word to base afi'ections, 
and not to bring all into captivity to the Spirit and the word. 

When we come to hear God's word, we should consider that we come 
not for recreation ; but we come to a counsellor, to that that should sway 
and direct all our ways and words, to that that is not only our comfort in 
the time of afiliction, but our counsellor. As David saith, ' it was the man 
of his counsel,' Ps. Ixxiii. 24, et alibi. So we come here to be counselled, 
to hear that which must direct us in the way to heaven. We must come 
with a purpose to be guided by that, to be taught. As Cornelius saith, 
' We are here in the presence of God, to hear what shall be said to us from 
God,' Acts X. 33. St Paul gives this direction, 1 Cor. iii. 18. If a man 
will * be wise in heavenly things, let him be a fool first.' It is a strange 
thing, * Let him be a fool,' that is, let him be content to be esteemed so, 
let him be content to lose his reputation of wisdom, ' that he may be vrise.' 
When he knows others to be fools, let him take a substantial course, that 
the vain world may think him wise. 

It is hard counsel ; for of all imputations in the world, many and the 
most had rather be accounted wicked, than be accounted fools. Account 
them the veriest fools which are unfit to speak ; think of them in the highest 
degree of ill you can. Oh ! they have wit enough for that, they have learning, 
and parts for that ; take not away their learning, and parts, account them 
not fools, account them what you will. Religion masters this base opinion. 
Saint Paul saith, ' Let a man be a fool, if he will be wise.' Let no man 
deceive himself, and think, let poor men be so, and so ; religion is the 
private man's good, and let them make conscience of such things ; but for 
us that are in place and authority, we must rule by policy, and he knows 



852 COMMENTARY ON 

not how to rule that is not a politician. Let no man deceive himself; there 
is no man, great or small, but if he will be wise for heaven, ' let him be a 
fool,' let him take com-ses that are conscionable, though he be accounted a 
fool for his pains. 

Let us be jealous of our own hearts in private and pubHc, let us take 
heed to our own hearts that the flesh come not in. Let us labour to be 
acquainted with Christ, that he may be our counsellor and our guide in all 
things. 

Specially now when we come to the communion. We now renew our 
covenant with God, and our acquaintance with Christ Jesus ; we come to 
feast with him. Do we think to have any good by him, any benefit by his 
death, except we make him our king and prophet, to rule and guide us, 
except we make him our counsellor ? Therefore let us think before- 
hand, we cannot come as we ought to receive the communion, unless we 
intend beforehand to renounce the flesh, Christ's enemy. Can you be 
welcome guests, and resolve after to be led and ruled by his enemy ? If 
you will have good by Christ's death, as a priest to reconcile you to God : 
(as this sacrament seals the benefits of his death, the breaking of the bread, 
and the pouring out of the wine,) come with a purpose to be ruled, and 
guided by this counsellor in all things. He is the great Counsellor, Isa. 
ix. 7, that is willing to advise us by his word and Spirit in all the par- 
ticular passages of our lives ; and the more we enter into acquaintance with 
him by the sacrament, and maintain it by private prayer, and by all sacred 
means, the more ready he will be to do the office of a friend, and counsellor, 
in all the passages of our lives to advise us what is best. I had occasion 
in verse 12th to speak at large of fleshly wisdom, therefore I pass it. 

* That with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay.^ This sets down 
the manner of inconstancy, the form of it, ' yea, yea,' to be on the affirma- 
tive part once ; and then ' nay, nay,' the negative ; to be of one mind, and 
peremptory in it, and then to be of another mind, and peremptory in that. 
This is the issue of carnal wisdom, and follows on it, ' The things that I 
purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be 
yea, yea, and nay, nay ? ' insinuating, that those that purpose things 
according to the flesh, they are ' yea, yea, and nay, nay.' Whence first we 
may observe, (which I touched before a little, but it issues more properly 
hence from the dependence) that 

Ohs. Carnal men are alway inconstant men. 

For a fleshly man, led with the flesh, being led with the things of the 
world, and they being inconstant, he must needs be as that which he is 
ruled by. A man cannot stand safe upon the ice, because itself is not safe. 
A man cannot stand in a thing that stands not, that hath no consistence. 
Now a carnal man he hath no prop to hold him but the things below. He 
cleaves to them, and they are inconstant, and variable, and uncertain. He 
that purposeth according to the flesh is ' yea, yea, nay, nay.' Therefore 
his love is ' yea, yea, nay, nay.' If he may have good by you, he is ' yea, 
yea,' he is for you ; but can you do him no good, he is * nay, nay,' he will 
not own you then. 

Therefore one way to be constant, is not to be ruled according to the 
flesh, which I spake of before, for they that are, are ' yea, yea, nay, nay.' 

Therefore take heed how you trust carnal men, in near intimate society, 
as in marriage. Or in near friendship, never take a man that hath his own 
aims and ends. For he will respect you no more than he can advance hia 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 358 

own ends by you. ' Trust not the wife of thy bosom,' saith the prophet, 
Deut. xiii. 6 ; if she be carnal, she will have her own ends. So a friend 
that is canial, he will have his own ends. The idol that he respects more 
than thee, or than anything in the earth, is his own fleshly wisdom, and 
his own ends. Eveiy carnal man makes himself his god. He reduceth 
all to himself. His own ends is his idol ; therefore have no intimate 
society with such. 

' That with me there should be yea, yea ; nay, nay.' Observe again in 
this place, that 

Obs. Carnal men are vehement. 

They are vehement in either part. If they be ' yea,' they are * yea, yea,' 
and yet they will be ' nay, nay,' naught at the same time. The soul of 
man will admit of contraries, and yet be still the same in the general ; * yea, 
yea,' at one time, and ' nay, nay,' at another time. And usually they that 
are vehement in business one way, are vehement another, if they be carnal. 
A carnal man is vehement one way in the pursuit of things, and he is 
vehement on the contrary if he be crossed. 

What is the reason that men that are carnal, some stand against religion 
and some for religion with like eagerness? The one is ' nay, nay,' as much 
as the other is ' yea, yea.' Both are flesh, and if those that are * yea, 
yea,' were where the other are, they would be ' nay, nay.' For instance, 
a man is religious only for carnal respects, he is ' yea, yea.' ! he will 
have the religion of the times. Why ? He could not be safe else, he 
cannot have his ends else, he was bred up in it, &c. Another, on the con- 
trary, is as much for the opposite religion. What is the reason ? He was 
bred in it, it stands for his ends. If a man be religious not for religious 
respects, he is peremptory, and contrary to him of the opposite religion ; 
and yet they are equally naught. 

A common protestant hath no better ground for his religion than a papist 
hath for his. The same reason that a papist hath, the same such a pro- 
testant hath ; he was bred in it, and the king is of that religion, and he 
shall attain his ends by it. Hath a papist other reasons ? Except a man 
be truly changed and altered, he shall be ' yea, yea,' and ' nay, nay,' some- 
time one, sometime another, peremptory in one and peremptory in another, 
and all naught. 

As, for instance, the sea, sometimes it ebbs, sometimes it flows, some- 
times it flows one way, and then flows back another way ; yet it is alway 
salt and brinish, the nature of it is not changed. So some men are 
peremptory, ' yea, yea,' they run one way amain, and then they ebb again, 
yet they alway keep their nature brinish. They are peremptoiy for good 
sometimes, and when it stands for their ends they are peremptory against it. 
Such a cause is so ; it is ' yea ' if it help their advantage, and it is not so 
if it help not that, as if truth itself in their judgment were flexible and alter- 
able. Thus a carnal man, he alters, and yet he is never good in his judg- 
ment. St Paul declines this ; he was not ' yea, yea, nay, nay/ because he 
did not pui'pose things according to the flesh. 

To come to the point itself. This declining of inconstancy, of * yea, yea,* 
' nay, nay,' it came in St Paul from hatred of inconstancy and falsehood. 
For ' yea ' and ' nay,' when a man is of one mind and another, it comes 
from one of these two grounds in a carnal man : 

Either because he is inconstant, that he is now of one mind and now of 
another ; 

Or because he is false and means to dissemble. 

VOL. III. z 



854 COMMENTARY ON 

Now, both are dispositions that are contrary to a Christian man ; he 
should neither be Hght, nor be false and untrue. 

Now, St Paul doth much more decline the imputation of falsehood and 
dissembling, that he should be ' yea,' when he meant not ' yea,' but ' nay,' 
when he had declined the imputation of lightness ; for a man may truly say 
he will, and yet change his mind after. But for a man to say he will, and 
yet mean it not, that is falsehood and dissembling, which is worse. St 
Paul intends much more to decline the suspicion of that. 

Dissemblers are ' yea, yea,' * nay nay,' not at divers times, but at the 
same time ; they make yea and nay all at once. We say contradictions 
cannot be true, for a thing to be and not to be at the same time ; but dis- 
semblers would have contradictions true. They make as if they loved when 
indeed they hate. 

God is the God of truth, the word is the word of truth, and Christ is the 
truth, and the devil is ' the father of lies,' John viii. 44. Therefore, as 
we woiild be like to God, and as we would be unlike Satan, let us labour for 
truth in all things. St Paul here labours to avoid the opinion of dissembling. 

How would he think, then, of equivocation, when there is yea and nay 
at a breath ? They are not at divers times inconstant, but yea and nay 
at once, to speak one thing and mean the contrary, to have reservations of 
the contrary. It is so odious that I will not spend time to speak of it, — 
only this. 

1. If it were allowable, as the best of their writers allow it and prac- 
tise it (however, if they do not allow it, their practice is so, but they do 
allow it), by this means the devil himself should never he a liar, there would 
be no lie at all. And it were in vain for God to make prohibitions against 
lying if there might be equivocation, for there is no lie in the world but it 
may be salved up with reservations. Therefore, that course that brings 
the devil from being a liar, that frustrates God's course, and that makes 
men that they shall not lie, whatsoever they do, it is abominable such a 
conceit, and odious to God. But to maintain equivocation, is to do all this ; 
for with absurd reservations, what in the world may not be justified ? 

2. Then, again, we are exhorted to sufier martyrdom, to stand for God's 
cause. Now, to allow equivocation is to avoid suffering. Where is the 
honour of martyrdom and suffering for God's cause, when men shall speak 
untruths and justify themselves by a lie ? It is contrary, I say, to the 
whole tenor and stream of Scripture. 

3. Then again, they may call it equivocation to mince it, hut it is a lie 
to speak one thing and reserve another. For what is a lie ? To speak 
falsehood with a purpose and intention to deceive another. Now, they 
speak false and with a pui-pose to deceive. A lie must be esteemed as it 
is esteemed by another that hears it, not him that speaks it, as it is with 
an oath. Isidore saith {lihh), ' An oath is to be esteemed as he that I 
speak to esteems it, not as I in my sense esteem it ; as God esteems it, and 
he to whom I speak.' So a lie is to be judged as he judgeth it that I 
speak to, because God forbids lying as a breach of charity to others, be- 
cause he would not have others deceived. If I salve it up in my own 
thoughts and deceive others, it is a breach of charity and a lie, because it 
is a speech of untruth which another thinks to be a truth ; it is an untruth, 
and to deceive him. But these men will have yea and nay at a breath ; 
they will say, ' Yea,' and yet have a reservation of nay, at once. St Paul 
would much more decline and abhor this, if he were alive now, when he so 
declined the imputation of inconstancy, of ' yea, yea,' and ' nay, na}',' at 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 355 

divers times. Indeed, St Paul reserved this. He promised to come to 
them if God did permit, with a divine reservation. We may say in all 
the business we are to do. This I will do, if God permit, and if God will. 
And, indeed, God hindered his journey. But I say for equivocation, the 
matter is so odious and palpable, that if it were not that nondiim satis 
odimus, &c., we hate not these men enough, I would not have spoken of it. 
Their religion is so abominable and odious, we do not yet hate it enough ; 
and, therefore, it is good on all occasioLS to uncase them, and all little 
enough. But I go on. 



VERSE 18. 

* As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.'' The apostle 
in the former verse having laboured to clear himself from the imputation 
of lightness and inconstancy, that he did not come to them as he had 
promised ; and fi'om an imputation likewise of poHcy for himself, that he 
did purpose things according to the flesh, which is the cause of inconstancy, 
' of yea, yea, and nay, nay,' he comes now to that which he more in- 
tended than those particulars. For he was content to be thought to have 
disappointed them in the matter of his journey ; but that which he aims 
at was to stablish them in this, that his doctrine was sound, ' As God is 
true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' Perhaps I promised to come, 
and did not. It is true. But my preaching was not ' yea and nay.' All 
that I taught was sound and certain. You may build yoxxv souls on it. It 
was * yea.' He labours to draw them to be persuaded of the certainty 
of his ministry, as being very unwilling that a defect in his promise about 
a business of the world should weaken their faith in the truth that he de- 
livered as a minister. 

* As God is true, our ivord to you teas not yea and nay.' He seems 
to make a difference between yea and nay in civil things and in divine. 
There is a difference when a holy man speaks of the things of this hfe 
and when he speaks of divine truths. St Paul promised to come to them ; 
he meant it honestly, and did intend it, but it was subject to alteration, 
because God stops our purposes in this hfe, yea, our good pui'poses, many 
times. Good things may have variety. One good thing may be more 
convenient than another. And the cause why he came not to them wag 
not his inconstancy, but their unfitness. It was from their corruption in 
manners and in doctrine. They were not ready. As he saith after, * he 
came not, to spare them.' They were unfit till they were humbled with 
his former epistle, and then, when they were humbled, he purposed to 
come. But now in divine truths, what things he spake to them concerning 
grace and glory, that was certain. ' Our word to you was not yea and nay.' 

Quest. A question may be moved briefly, how St Paul could be deceived 
in his journey and not in his doctrine. Being so good a man, led by the 
Spirit of God, how could he promise to come, and yet did not ? 

Ans. I answer, the difference is much between these two. St Paul had 
three persons* on him. 

He was a tnan, a Christian man, an apostle. 

As a man, he was subject to all things that men are subject unto, that is, 

* In the sense of the Latin persona, a character which one represents, or part 
which he acts. — Ed. 



856 COMMENTARY ON 

he desired in truth of heart to come and visit his friends ; he purposed a 
journey, with a reservation that God might hinder him ; and so as a man 
he might have a ' Yea,' that is, a purpose to do a thing ; and afterward a 
'Nay,' upon the uncertain event of the things of this life. So, as a man 
he purposed to come. Nay, as a holy man he purposed a journey to a 
good purpose, to stablish them ; but with a reservation, if God pennit ; 
God might stop his journey. But as an apostle, he taught other things, 
than speaking of journeys. That he spake of only as a man, and as a holy 
man, alway supposing the condition of human things, and under permis- 
sion, if God permit. But as an apostle he was not yea and nay. There he 
■was certain. As an apostle he spake divine truths, and was guided infallibly 
by the Spirit of God ; he delivered truths without all conditions and excep- 
tions. As an apostle, he did not admit of any such uncertainty. There is 
an eminency and excellency in divine truth. It is stable, and firm, and 
not subject to variety and inconstancy. So his doctrine as an apostle was 
always ' Yea.' 

For his journey, and coming to them, he promised his journey in veiitate 
projMsiti, in the truth of a good purpose of a friend ; but as he spake of 
divine truths, he spake of them in the certainty of the divine Spirit. In 
the one, he spake in the certainty of truth ; in the other, in the truth of 
affection. As a man, he spake in the truth of a good affection he bare to 
them ; but as an apostle, he spake in the certainty of divine truth. 

And you must know this, that God, as he used the apostles and excellent 
men to write his book, to write the word of God, to be his penmen, yet he 
hindered them not to be men. As he hinders not godly men to be men, 
but at once they may be saints and men ; so St Paul as a good man, de- 
sired to see them, with a reservation ; but as an apostle, he was guided by 
a certain infalhble assistance of divine truth. 

Nathan, as he was a man, gave David liberty to build the temple. He 
was overshot in it something. But then he goes to God, and consults with 
him, whether he should or no ; and then Nathan gives David another 
advice.* 

So the prophets and apostles, as men, they might be alterable without 
sin. For God will allow men to be men, and subject to mistakes. For 
nescience, not knowing the possibility of things to come, is no sin in man ; 
because it is an unavoidable infirmity- So that St Paul, as his usual 
manner is, in promising things to come, things of that nature, he promiseth 
them under reservation and permission, if God permit, if God 'v^ll ; and 
he doth not sin, though he be frustrate of his intention. 

It is not the only part of a wise man to divine what will be. St Paul had 
not providence to see whether his journey should be crossed or no ; but 
out of a Christian intention, he resolved to come, if God did not cross him; 
that was as a man, and a good man. But as an apostle, his doctrine was 
without ifs and ands, without exception, as we say, ' if God permit,' &c. 
' No,' saith he ; * as God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' 
So in the apostles, we must consider a difi'erence of divine truths that they 
delivered as apostles, from those things that they purposed as men, and as 
holy men. Those were subject to be crossed, and without sin too. For 
God will have men to be men, that is, variable creatures, and such as 
cannot promise themselves for the time to come any certain thing. 

It is God's prerogative to know things to come. We may know them 
by their causes ; we may know when there will be an eclipse a hundred 
* Cf. 2 Sam. vii. 3, with 4-11.— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 18. 357 

years hence ; but to know what weather there shall be, as we may know 
the eclipse, we cannot ; because there is nothing in the cause. I say, God 
will have men to be men. St Paul may promise holily, with a reservation 
to God, as a man, and as a holy man, and without sin too ; but as an 
apostle, in his doctrine he was not so ; but ' as God is true, our word to 
you was not yea and nay,' but constant as God himself. That shall suffice 
to satisfy that. Therefore St Paul makes the difference, I promised to 
come, but I did not ; but ' as God is true, our word to you was not yea 
and nay.' 

Our voyage to heaven, and the reference we have to a better life, stands 
not on uncertainties, as the things here in this world. St Paul's journey 
to Corinth might be frustrate ; but St Paul had another course to heaven ; 
his religious course stood not on uncertainties. Whatsoever he taught in 
a religious course, it was ' yea ; ' as he saith in the next verse, ' Christ the 
Son of God whom we preach, was not yea and nay, but yea ; ' that is, 
infallibly true, perpetually true, necessarily, eternally true. 

' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' St Paul 
labours to establish them therefore in a good conceit of his ministiy ; and 
that made him indeed so much decUne the suspicion of inconstancy in 
other things : because carnal men are prone to think a man in his calling, 
even a preacher in his doctrine, to be inconstant, if he be so in his common 
course. 

St Paul knew their corruption was such, that from a suspicion of light- 
ness in his carriage and common course, they would rise to a suspicion 
of his doctrine ; therefore he was so curious to avoid the imputation of 
lightness in his journey, because he would avoid any imputation of lightness 
in his docti-ine. That is it which he more aims at. He stands not on the 
imputation of lightness in his journey, or such matters ; but he knew the 
corruption of men is such, that if a man fail in common things, presently 
they think he is so in his calling. Full of false surmises and suspicions is 
the nature of man ; and as a man is once, they gather him to be so alway. 
Therefore he deceiving them in not coming, they might think he would do 
so at other times too. That makes the apostle labour to clear himself, but 
especially his doctrine, from all suspicion. 

' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' Here is a 
truth ; and the seal of it. 

His averring the truth is this, * Our word, our preaching,' as it is in the 
margin {Hi). ' Our word,' as it was unfolded, it was not ' yea and nay,' it 
was not uncertain. 

And the proof and seal of it, * God is true,' as it is in the original, which 
is made up in the English tongue, ' As God is true,' it is in our translation ; 
but in the original it is, ' God is true ; ' and as he is true, and constant, 
and faithful, so our word is constant and faithful ; you may build on it {jjj). 
* As God is true,' as God is to be credited and beheved, so my word to 
you is to be credited as * yea,' as a certain doctrine that is not ' yea and 
nay.' It is a kind of an oath. 

' As God is true.' The apostle here seals it with an oath. 

What is an oath ? 

An oath is a religious calling of God to witness, or to be a judge in 
doubtful things. 

It is in doubtful things a calling of God to be a witness of the truth we 
speak, and to be a revenger if we speak not true. It is to call God to wit- 
ness and to judge, to make him testis et vindex. St Paul here calls God to 



868' COilMENTAEY ON 

witness, ' God is true,' and as verily as he is true, * our word to you was 
not yea and nay.' 

You know oaths are either, as we say, assertory, to aver a thing ; or j^ro- 
missory, for the time to come to do this or that ; and they are either im- 
posed or voluntary. " Now this is an assertory oath, not a j)romissory. He 
avers and avoucheth peremptorily, that as God is true, his word to them 
was not ' yea and nay, but yea.' And it was a voluntary oath ; for nobody 
exacted it of him. But he saw there was a necessity to stablish them in 
the certainty of the doctrine he taught, to seal it with an oath, that they 
should as well doubt of the truth of God, as of his doctrine. ' As God is 
true, my word is true.' 

Jeremiah the prophet hath three conditions of an oath, * It must be in 
truth, in righteousness, and in judgment,' Jer. iv. 2. 

In truth. We must speak and swear true things. 

And in judgment ; necessary things, with discretion. 

And in righteousness. 

Now St Paul observed the conditions wondrous well here. For St Paul 
doth it in a true matter, and in judgment ; for he was forced to it. 

An oath is never good but when it is necessary ; not to seal up every 
idle discourse, as if men would make everything they say to be as true as 
an oath. Indeed, the Ufe of a man should be an oath. The life of an 
honest man is an oath, as true ; but we must not call God to question for 
every idle impertinent thing. St Paul saw it necessary to call God to wit- 
ness ; it was true and necessary. 

I will not enter into a large discourse of an oath, because afterward I 
shall have better occasion to speak of it. Only thus much at this time : St 
Paul here useth it. He thinks it to be necessaiy, to establish their minds 
the better in his ministry, and a good conceit of it that it was constant. 
' God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' 

Therefore, in such a case we may not make scruple of an oath, if it be 

In charity, j^iety, necessity. 

In charity ; in matters of controversy of civil life. 

In piety ; to establish matters of religion. 

And in matters of necessity, that cannot be determined otherwise, there is 
no scruple to be made of it. 

And where we are bid ' not to swear at all,' Mat. v. 34, that is, not in 
ordinary course ; or not to swear by creatures ; but if we do swear, it is a 
part of God's service, we must swear by him. And, indeed, it is a service 
of God, and to good purpose, when Christians swear to stablish and deter- 
mine truths that otherwise are doubtful. 

They were doubtful of St Paul's doctrine and his person. Saith he, To 
put you out of doubt of the truth I speak to you, I dare call God to wit- 
ness it is true and sound. The apostle doth so once after in this chapter. 
Therefore I reserve the further handling of an oath to verse 23d, because 
the word there is more infallible,* ' I call God to record upon my soul,' &c. 

The next thing I observe hence is this, that 

Ohs. The believing that God's ivord is God's word, and is certain, it is a 
matter of great consequence. 

It is of great consequence, for God's people that look to be saved, to be 
stablished in their opinion and judgment of divine truth, that it is certain, 
and not flexible and mutable, according to our wills, and conceits, and dis- 
positions, but is ' yea,' alway the same, as God himself, the author of it. 
* That is, ' explicit, unmistakeable.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 859 

For laying this for a ground, that I said before, that St Paul takes God to 
■witness, he would not interpose an oath, but in a matter of great conse- 
quence ; therefore, it is a matter of great consequence to be settled in this, 
that the Scriptm^e is divine truth, unalterable and unchangeable. 

An oath is never good, as I said, but when it is necessary. It must not 
only be in truth, but there must be a necessity. It must not only be taken 
in righteousness, but in judgment ; a man must do it in discretion, when 
the thing is not determinable any other way, Therefore it is a matter of 
great consequence, that men take the word of truth not to be as the oracles 
of ApoUo and of the devil, true one way, and false another (kkk). The 
devil would escape the imputation of a lie, though he be a liar ; but God's 
oracles be divine, they be ' yea.' And it is good that we think them to be 
so, to be constant, undoubted, certain, and unmovable. Therefore the 
apostle seals it with an oath. He would not seal a slight truth by an oath, 
but saith he, ' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay,' &c. 

And St Paul saw a disposition in them to suspect the truth of God, as 
indeed, we are proner to believe the lies of our own hearts, and the sugges- 
tions of Satan, and the counsel of politicians, of carnal friends, than to be- 
lieve God himself. Therefore, partly for the indisposition in us ; and partly 
for the great exigence and necessity of the thing, to believe that God's word 
is his word, that it is truth, he seals it with an oath, ' God is true.' It is 
a point of great consequence. 

Reason. The reason is, God can have no service else, and we can have 
no comfort. 

If we do not believe the word of God to be undoubtedly true, in gi-eat 
temptations and assaults, what armour of proof shall we have ? We can 
have no comfort nor grace. For sometimes subtle and strong temptations 
to evil come, if the word of God be not more undoubted to me, than the 
present profit, or pleasure, or whatsoever ; if the temptation be ready, and 
I be not built on, and settled on some grounded truth that I know to be 
true as God is true. When the temptation is strong, and our faith weak, 
where are we ? A man presently yields to base lusts and temptations. 

And so in matter of danger and despair. When a man is tempted to 
despair, if he cannot build on this, * God is true,' and his word is as true 
as himself, ' He wills not the death of a sinner,' &c., Ezek. xviii. 32, here 
a man is swallowed up. 

It is no matter how strong the foundation be, if the building on that 
foundation be weak. If a strong man stand in a slippery place, down he 
faUs ; if a man stand slippery, and have a weak standing on a strong place, 
on a strong foundation ; if he have a weak building on a strong foundation, 
he shall soon be cast off. So, the word of God is true in itself : but if we 
be not persuaded so, that it is infallibly true, that it is alway ' yea,' we shall 
be shaken with temptations. When we are tempted to sin, the temptation 
is present, we are sure of the temptation. If we be not more sure of some- 
what against the temptation, somewhat out of the word to beat back the 
darts of Satan, when we are tempted to sin, and to despair for sin, down 
we go ; and, therefore, it is a matter of infinite consequence to be persuaded 
of divine truth. 

What makes many as they are, in courses that are corrupt in their call- 
ings ? Nothing but this : they stagger, whether it be true or no that there 
shall be a judgment ; they stagger, whether it be true or no that the Scrip- 
ture saith. If they were persuaded that it were ' yea,' as true as God is in 
heaven, as true as they have souls, so their souls must be called to judg- 



860 COMMENTARY ON 

ment for that they speak and do, would they do as they do ? Therefore 
St Paul stablisheth them by an oath, * God is true, and as God is true, our 
word to you was not yea and nay.' 

Use. Therefore take in good part with thankfulness the means that God 
hath ordained to strengthen our faith and assurance of the word of God, 
and the promises of God. Therefore he hath appointed the sacrament for 
that purpose. I say there is nothing in the world so strengthened as the 
soul of a Christian, if he give himself to God's truth to be ruled by it. 
For if we will believe God, we have his promise, that * whosoever believes 
in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' 2 Pet. iii. 9; rich pro- 
mises, ' precious promises,' 2 Pet. i. 4, as the Scripture calls them. We 
have not only promises, but they are sealed with an oath. Now an oath 
is an unchangeable thing, Heb. vi. 16. We have promises and oath, that 
we might have ' strong consolation.' Whatsoever might secure man we 
have. Besides his oath we have his seal, his sacrament. It was his love 
to condescend to make any covenant with sinful creatures, that upon any 
terms he would give them life everlasting. It was a higher degree of love 
to set Christ to be the fomidation of this peace, and of this covenant, that 
now God and we may be at peace with satisfaction to divine justice, that 
he is the foundation of the peace between God and us. Now God may be 
merciful without wrong, without impeachment to his justice ; that is a higher 
degree of mercy, to enter into covenant, and to give Christ to be the foun- 
dation of all. And then it is a higher degree than that to secure us of the 
covenant, that Christ is ours, to seal the word with an oath, and with the 
sacrament which is the seal of the covenant ; what could God do more ? 

What a horrible sin therefore is unbelief, that we should tremble at, to 
call God's love and truth in question ! But yet we are prone to it ; or 
else why did Christ ordain the sacrament to strengthen and stablish our 
faith, and to confirm us, but that he knew our propenseness to unbelief? 

In the time of ease and prosperity, it is easy to think, God is merciful, 
and Christ died ; but in the time of temptation, all is little enough to shore 
and prop up the faith of a drooping Christian. Therefore God, out of 
heavenly wisdom, and love to us, hath appointed these ordinances for the 
strengthening of our faith. And all is to no purpose, unless our faith 
be strong in the promises, as St Paul takes an oath, to build them on the 
promises he taught them. And so all is little enough, oath, and promises, 
and seal, &c. Therefore we should with all reverence attend upon God's 
ordinances for the strengthening of our faith. But to come to the words 
themselves. 

' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' Take the 
words out of the form of an oath, and the proposition is, that 

Doct. God is true and faithful. 

In this link of the sentence, ' God is true' — First, it is true that God is. 
He is truly God. His nature is true ; his properties true. Likewise God 
is true and faithful, not only in his nature and properties, but in his free 
decrees, in the things that freely come from him. It was free for him to 
make promises of salvation or no, as it was free for him to make a world 
or no, and whether he would redeem mankind or no ; but when he had 
promised, except he should deny himself and his truth, he must send Christ. 
So in all the free promises of forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting by 
Christ, if we believe in him, we say they are certainly true, because God 
that is true hath promised. God is true in his nature, and true in his free 
promises, and threatenings ; he is true in his works, true in his word, every 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEB. 18. 3G1 

way true. He is true in his nature, all is true within him, and without him. 
If anything could change him from within, he were not himself, he were 
not God. And from without there is nothing can change him ; for there 
is nothing stronger than God. God is true in all his purposes, true in his 
free and voluntary decrees. It was free for him to decree, but having de- 
creed, there is a necessity of performing. It is of the necessity of his nature 
as he is God. He is true in his free decrees. They are not free in regard 
of the event, but in regard of the original, as I said. He might have made 
a world at the first or no, and have redeemed mankind or no ; but having made 
these decrees, of necessity as he is God he must be true in his free decrees. 

There is a subordination of truths, whereof one is the cause of all the 
rest. Now all depends upon this grand truth, God is. It is the first truth 
that ever was of all truths in the world, in heaven and earth, that there is 
a God, that there is such a thing, such an excellency as God, the Author 
of all things in nature, the Author of all things in grace and glory. I shall 
not need to prove this fundamental truth, this truth of truths, that God is. 
It infers all other truths. For grant this, that God is, and a man must 
needs grant that that follows upon it, that God is as a God should be, that 
is, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, almighty, all-sufficient, and all the 
blessed attributes, that he is the Author of all good in the creature. That 
must needs follow. God is the first truth ; and then God is so and so, as 
becomes a God. And then this must follow in the next place, that he is a 
God immutable and unchangeable. He must be so in all the manifestations 
that come from him, in his free decrees, and in the outward manifestations 
by promises, and threatenings, and whatsoever ; and therefore God is true, 
immutably and unchangeably true, or else he were not God. He cannot 
be otherwise, and be God. A man may say of a man, he is a liar, and yet 
he may be a man. A man may be a man, and a good man, and yet be 
inconstant and changeable, because he is a creature. But to say a God, 
and not to be true, is to say a God, and not a God. Of the necessity of his 
nature he must be true. It is not of the necessity of the nature of man to 
be true. He may be a man, and be a liar (' Every man is a liar,' Ps. cxvi. 
11), because it is not of the essence of man to be true. But God is true 
out of the necessity of nature. He cannot be God if he be not true, because 
God cannot deny himself. Man is changeable, because he is a creature, as 
Damascene's speech is {III), ' All things created are mutable, and man as 
a creature is changeable.' A man therefore may be alterable, and false, and 
be a man ; but God cannot be so, and be God. 

Obj. It win be objected, that God hath threatened oft, and hath not per- 
formed ; as we see in the Ninevites, and Hezekiah in his sickness, and so 
in many others. 

Ans. But the answer is easy. God is true in all these ; for God's pro- 
mises that come from his truth, they are either absolute or conditional. 
The absolute are those that have nothing annexed to them, but shall cer- 
tainly be. As God would have sent Christ without all conditions, Christ 
should have come without all peradventure, as we say. But now some 
promises have conditions annexed to them : if a nation repent of their sins, 
God will repent of the evil he hath threatened, as it is in Jer. xviii. 8. Now 
those threatenings that are on condition of repentance, if the condition be 
performed, the sentence is reversed. All the promises are made with ex- 
ception of the cross ; all must sufier before they come to heaven and be 
glorified. Now all the promises, with the exception of the cross, are con- 
ditional. So God is true, both in his absolute promises that are laade 



3C2 COMMENTARY ON 

^^•itllout condition, and he is true in his conditional promises ; because 
where he performs the condition, he will perform likewise that that is tied 
to the condition. He changeth his sentence sometimes, and his threatening, 
but not his decree ; for his pui'pose and decree is to forgive and reverse the 
sentence, if we repent. I say, it is a clear truth that God is true, unchange- 
ably and immutably true. 

And it is the prime truth of all truths, that God is, and God is true. As 
we say of the heavens, unless the heavens were moved, there would be no 
motion in the earth. For if the sun had not a motion in the zodiac up and 
down, where were summer and winter ? If he had not his course, where 
were night and day ? the vicissitude and intercourse of all earthly things ? 
If the heavenly motion were not, nisi moverentur, dc, if those did not move, 
we could not move, because we depend upon that. So, unless it were 
true that God were, there is a God, and God is unchangeably true, there 
would be nothing true in the world ; for all truth is therefore true, because 
it is answerable to that exemplar truth that is true in God, answerable to 
God's conceit and decree of things. 

This I observe the rather, because it is a fundamental thing. It doth 
wondrously stablish our faith in divine truths, when we know it comes from 
God that is true. If we would seek for evidences of our faith, then we 
must go within us, and see what love, and what hope, what combat be- 
tween the flesh and spirit there is ; but if we look for anything to stablish 
our faith, go out of us, consider the unchangeable truth of God, whose 
truth it is. 

God as God creating a reasonable creature, he must give him some re- 
vealed truth, he could not be worshipped else. How must we know this 
revealed truth whereby he will be worshipped by the reasonable creature 
(for no man will be served by his servant as he pleaseth) ? How shall we 
know these certain truths ? Because they come from his nature. God is 
true ; and as God is true, ' so our word to you was not yea and nay,' that 
is, it was true. Tbere is the same ground of the certainty of evangeUcal 
truth as there is of God himself to be true. 

To add a little further in the point, consider the truth of God every way, 
the faithfulness of God, as it signifies in the original, ' as God is faithful.' 
Consider what relations God hath put upon him in his divine truth, how 
he will be thought on. And then bring those relations to his nature ; for 
there we must pitch at last. What is he to us ? and how hath he revealed 
himself to us ? Thus and thus. What is he in his nature ? So and so ; 
and there we must rest. 

For instance, the Lord hath made many promises. Who is it that hath 
made them ? He that is true and unchangeably true. There the soul 
rests in the nature of God. But what relations hath he put upon him ? He 
is a God, and a Lord, and a Judge, and a Father, &c. 

Now, as he is God, he is true : therefore he will do all things that a true 
God should do. He will uphold his creature, while he will have his crea- 
ture continue ; he will give it life, and being, and motion. 

And as a Lord he will do with his own what he list, and it is not for us 
to contend with him why he will do this or that, why he makes one rich 
and another poor. He is Lord of all, and a true Lord. Therefore we 
must give authority to this true Lord. 

And then, as he is a Judge, he coiTCcts men for sin, and rewards them 
for the good they do. As a Judge, sometime he punisheth them inwardly 
in conscience, sometimes outwardly. All the good we have is from this, 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 18. S63 

that he is a faithful and true God ; therefore there we must rest. He is a 
true Jud^e. he ' rewards every man according to his works, whether they be 
good or evil,' Mat. xvi. 27. 

And so m the relation of a Father, he is a true Father, he corrects when 
time serves, he rewards and encourageth when time serves, he gives an in- 
heritance to his children, and hath pity and compassion on his children 
when time serves. He is a true Father. Other fathers do this and that 
out of passion, not out of truth and goodness ; but he doth. So when we 
consider God in his relations, consider of the attribute of his truth. 

All truth, in his word, comes from this, God is true. This truth is sealed 
by this, that our truth to you, our word to you, was not * yea and nay,' 
uncertain. God's truth is not uncertain and variable. There is no * shadow 
of change in him,' James i. 17, and his word is like himself. We say 
usually, in the word of an honest man, and that is something. In verbum 
Sacerdotis, in the word of a priest, it was accounted in former times a great 
matter. It should be so indeed. In the word of a king is a great matter. 
But when God saith in the word of a God, ' The word of the Lord hath 
spoken so,' Jer. x. 1, it is not yea and nay, it was not flexible, and doubt- 
ful, because it is the word of him that hath the command of all that he 
saith. It is his word that is Lord of heaven and earth. Now when he 
that saith a thing is the Lord of heaven and earth, he is Lord of his own 
word, therefore what he saith is not ' yea and nay,' uncertain ; for he can 
make good what he saith. There is the same ground of evangelical truth, 
as there is of God himself to be true. I will speak no more in the unfold- 
ing of the point. It is plain that God is true. 

Is this true, that God is true, that he is truth itself? Then many things 
issue from hence. It is a ground of many other truths. It was the 
ground of all the uses that St Paul makes of the word of God. It is pro- 
fitable every way. I will name some principal, to avoid multiplicity in a 
plain point. 

Use 1. God is true, and his word is true. Hereupon the tlireatenings of 
God must needs he true, even as true as God himself. If this be so, then 
unless we will make another Scripture, another word, this word is ' yea.' 
That word that threatens sin, that idolaters, and covetous, and wantons 
shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven, (' Be not deceived,' saith the 
apostle, 1 Cor. vi. 9,) that word is ' yea.' It is true. God is true. This 
must follow, therefore, that whatsoever he saith is true ; therefore his 
threatenings are true. It is a truth that hath influence into all other truths 
whatsoever. That which is prefixed here by St Paul, not only as an oath, 
* as God is true,' so his word is not yea and nay, but certain. But I say 
it hath influence into all other truths whatsoever ; threatenings, promises, 
dhections, all are therefore true, because God is true. 

Therefore those that shuflfle ofi" the threatenings, and think they shall do 
well, and bless themselves, God's vsrath shall ' smoke against them,' Deut. 
xxix. 20 ; for God must alter his nature, and his word must be altered, or 
else his judgments must stick on them death and damnation without re- 
pentance. If God should not be avenged on ordinary swearers and blas- 
phemers ; if adulterers should live in such sins, and ever come to heaven, 
they must have another God, and another word of God. This hath said, 
they shall not enter into heaven that live in these sins. If it be true as 
God is true, what horrible atheism is in the hearts of men, to think that 
God will change his nature, though they do not change their course, and 
that the word of God shall alter, though they will not alter ? What hope 



8G4 COMMENTARY ON 

can profane, blasphemous persons have, that make but a trifle of swearing, 
when God hath said they shall not go unpunished ? and those that live in 
a filthy course, when God hath said, ' Whoremongers and adulterers God 
will judge ' ? without horrible atheism how can these men hope for favour 
from God, when he hath sealed his word with this, that as he is true, and 
truth itself, his word is true, they shall never enter into heaven ? 

Use 2. So again, if this be true, that God is true, and his word there- 
upon is not yea and nay, it serves to covifort us many ways. 

When we are oppressed in the sense of sin, ' If we confess our sins, he 
is merciful to forgive our sins,' 1 John i. 9. He that is true hath said it, 
whose word is not yea and nay, but yea. Trust to it. If we doubt of 
perseverance for the time to come, he that hath ' begun a good work will 
perfect it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. He is yea, and his word is 
yea ; he is true, and his word is true. 

Use 3. Again, hence for our judgment we learn this truth, that the word 
of God hath the same ground of truth as God himself. Therefore it is 
the judge of all controversies. Of all things questionable in religion, the 
word of God is judge ; because it is not ' yea and nay, but yea,' and ' it is 
true, as God is true.' And it is judge of this controversy too, whether it 
be the word of God ? 

The question between the papists and us is, whether the epistles and the 
prophets be the word of God, or no ? whether is it or no ? 

I answer, from apostolical testimony, St Paul saith, ' As God is true,' his 
word is true, the true word of God ; and ' All Scripture is given by inspira- 
tion,' 2 Tim. iii. 16. The word of God therefore is the judge of all divine 
truths, because it is most certain, even as certain as God himself. 
What are the properties of a chief judge ? 

He must be true, without error ; authentical, without appeal, such as can 
from himself without a higher determine. He must be infallible, without 
peril of error. All these belong to God's truth. 

It is yea, it is true without error, it is alway yea. And then it is authen- 
tical. There is nothing higher but God himself, whose word it is, and it 
hath the same authority that himself hath, * As God is true,' so it is true. 
It is authentical without all appeal. We cannot go higher than God him- 
self in his word. We cannot call God or Christ from heaven. He hath 
left us his word, and therefore it is to be credited of itself. 

And it is infallibly true, without danger of error. One depends upon an- 
other, ' As God is true, so our word is true.' If God be true infallibly, this 
issues by consequence, that the Scripture is the judge, and infallibly true 
without danger of error. 

Hence we may know what to judge of that Eomish assertion. There are 
no other judges in the world can be said to be ' yea' alway. 

Councils are not alway yea : they are ' yea and nay.' What one council 
hath set down, another hath reversed. In the council of Basle, the pope 
was above the council. In another council, that is above the pope. 

So one pope's decrees thwart another. The popes are * yea and nay,' 
and not yea ; for many hundred years they laboured to cross and thwart 
one another. So councils and popes are ' yea and nay,' and not alway 
' yea.' 

Traditions of the fathers are ' yea and nay,' and not alway * yea.' They 
thwart themselves. St Austin, the best of the fathers, to whom the church 
is most chiefly beholden of all the rest, he was * yea and nay.' Doth he 
not retract ? He wrote a book of retractations of his former opinions {imnm). 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 18. 865 

Then he was * yea, and nay,' and yet a holy man. That which is the 
judge of controversies must be yea, that is, infalHbly true, authentically true, 
that there be not a higher. From all others, from fathers and councils, 
there may be appeal to Scriptm-e, but from Scripture to none ; because it 
is the voice and word of God. All things else are yea and nay, they are 
changeable, and they may be so without prejudice to the being of them. A 
council may be a good council, and inconstant in many things. Fathers 
may be holy fathers, and uncertain. It is only the prerogative of God to 
be infalhble Uke himself, unchangeable in his nature ; and his word is like 
himself. 

Use 4. Hence likewise issues this, that whatsoever agrees not ivith the ivord 
of God, which is not yea and nay, is false and naught. Therefore those 
opinions of the Church of Rome, that say they cannot err, if they be not 
yea with this yea, then they' are not yea ; for only the word of God is not 
' yea and nay, but only yea,' that is, only certain and true. All other re- 
ligions that are not divine, are yea and nay. Popery is not grounded upon 
the word of God, because it is * yea and nay,' that is, it is uncertain. See 
how they cross many ways this word of God, that is always yea, and true as 
God himself is true. 

Is it * yea,' that they saw no image of God, and therefore they must make 
and worship no image ? * Nay,' saith the Church of Rome. They have a 
nay for this yea ; they will make images and worship them, the image of 
Mary, and other saints. ' Yea,' saith the Scripture, ' drink ye all of this.' 
* Nay,' saith the Church of Rome. They have a ' nay' for this ' yea ;' only 
the priest must drink the wine, ' Let the word dwell plenteously in you,' 
is the ' yea' of Scripture. The Church of Rome hath a ' nay' for this * yea.' 
It is dangerous for the people to read the Scripture, and therefore they are 
forbidden it. We must pray with the understanding as well as with a good 
affection, 1 Cor. xiv. 15, that is, we must know how we pray. It is proved 
at large excellently. Nay, understand, or not understand, so the intention 
be good, saith Rome ; pray in Latin, or howsoever. There is their nay to 
this yea. * Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, is the * yea' of 
God's book. Therefore the souls of the clergy, and whosoever. The 
Church of Rome hath a ' nay' for this ' yea.' Therefore their doctrine is 
bad ; for only God is true, and his word is only ' not yea and nay, but 
alway yea,' infallible. Therefore that which is contrary to it must needs 
be false. If only yea be true, then that which is contrary to it must needs 
be false [nnn). 

And likewise again, if God's word be not * yea and nay,' that is, not in- 
constant, then whatsoever is inconstant, and thwarts itself in contradic- 
tions, is not God's word. Popery is full of inconstancy, fall of contradic- 
tions to itself. 

1. First, besides inconstancy, and uncertainty, it is full of contradictions ; it 
is * yea and nay.' For a body to be in many places at once, and yet a true 
body ; to be in a hundred, in a million of places at once, as they would have 
Christ's body to be in the sacrament, here is to be, and not to be ; a body 
and no body, for it hath not the properties and quantity of a body ; for a 
body can be but in one place at one time. Here is yea and nay. 

For Christ to be a perfect Redeemer, and yet notwithstanding to need the 
help of other mediators and intercessors, here is yea and nay. It is a con- 
tradiction. 

That the church of Rome is the catholic church ; if it be Roman, it is 
not catholic. The universal catholic Roman church, it is as much as the 



866 COMMENTARY ON 

' universal particular church.' It is a contradiction. One thing overturns 
another. 

The sficrifice of the mass, an unbloody sacrifice ; a sacrifice is the kill- 
ing of a thing that was alive ; a sacrifice is with blood. The ofiering of 
Christ in the bread, is an unbloody sacrifice ; a sacrifice, and not a sacrifice. 
Here is yea and nay, a contradiction. So that besides their thwarting of 
Scripture, they thwart and contradict themselves in their fundamental points, 
they are ' yea and nay.' 

2. And then tlmj are full of uncertainties, they are not undoubtedly * yea.' 
There is no papist in the world would end his days so, if he be not drunk, 
if he be advised, if he be not surprised with passion, if he do not forget 
himself. Come to a papist, and ask him, what are the main points of 
popery that you believe always yea ? Can you say when you confess your 
sins, that you confess all ? No. Can you then say then you have a perfect 
absolution, that depends upon your confession ? No ! it is an uncertain 
thing. What an absurd thing is popish religion ? It wrecks* the conscience 
of people. 

Can you say that the priest intends consecration in these words, * This is 
my body ?' No ! and if the priest's intention be not there, then Christ is 
not there, and then you are idolaters. Can you tell certainly that transub- 
stantiation depends upon his consecration ? No ! How full of uncertainties 
and contradictions is popery ! You cannot say the points of popery are always 
yea. Perhaps they are yea in life, but are they yea in death ? It is yea 
in life, that they merit salvation by works, but is it yea in death ? No ! 
Bellarmine disclaims it.-f It is safe not to trust in our own merits for dan- 
ger of vainglory, &c., but to trust only in the mercy of God in Christ. So 
their doctrine it is yea in life, to sin by, to live riotously by, but then it is 
nay in death. They reverse it if they belong to God. They disclaim their 
works, and other things, and cleave only to Christ, and there is hope of 
them that have grace truly to do so. So their doctrine is not yea, that in 
life and death they can stick to. 

To go on a little further, to lay open the grossness of their tenets,^ and 
the danger of their religion. We are better bottomed than they are, which 
make the word of God our rale and ground, that is not yea and nay, but 
yea. The canonisation of saints. The pope, he makes Garnet, a traitor, 
and Thomas of Becket, saints {ooo). How can he know that these were 
saints that he canoniseth ? He that makes a saint must know the 
hearts of men, and search the heart ; for the truth of grace is there. Now, 
it is the privilege of God to know the heart. So that popery is full of un- 
certainties and pitiful perplexities. 

Indeed, they maintain the doctrine of doubting, that we must doubt ; as 
if our nature were not sufiiciently prone to doubt, but we must get arguments 
to make us doubt ; as if it were needful to have infirmities to stablish grace 
in us. Alas ! we are too prone to doubt, and the devil is ready to make us 
stagger in the time of temptation. 

Again, the invocation of saints it is a point wondrous full of uncertain- 
ties. Can they know and say certainly that the saints hear them ? They 
cannot know that one saint, having a finite power, should hear a hundred 
petitions at once. A finite creature hath but a finite power to hear one 
thing at one time distinctly. How can they be persuaded that a finite saint 

* Qu. ' racks ? ' See page 367, line 19 from top. — G. f Cf. note w. — G. 
X Spelled ' tenent,' as in the ' Bloody Tenent \i. e., Tenet] Washed ' of John 
Cotton, 4tn 1647. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 3G7 

in heaven at one time distinctly should hear many thousands that put up 
their petitions at once ? Can a man that is but a capable creature, though 
glorified, as Peter or Mary, &c., distinctly consider a thousand petitions that 
are made ? They cannot. How then can they think that a certain truth, 
the iavocation of saints ? 

The main ground of all their religion is ' yea and nay.' The pillar of it, 
what is that ? The infalUble judgment of the pope. But how can they tell 
when he speaks ex cathedra ? For nine or ten exceptions and tricks they 
have, when he speaks, to be built on, and when not. How can poor souls 
know when he speaks so, that the people may infallibly build on his judg- 
ment ? Because many times he is an illiterate man, that knows nothing in 
divine things wherein he is to judge. So the very foundation of popery is 
yea and nay ; that is, a most uncertain thing. 

And then the ground of that, that he is the successor of Peter, there is 
no place of Scripture for it, neither dare they bring any. It is but a tra- 
dition. It is somewhat uncertain whether ever Peter were at Eome (j^pp). 
That he was bishop there, is more uncertain. But that the pope should 
be his successor, is most uncertain and impossible of all. 

So indeed the religion of popery is a rack to conscience, especially to 
conscience that is awaked, and knows what religion means at all. Why 
is it a rack to them ? There is no certainty in it, in the main tenets of it. 

It is not only contrary to God's * yea,' buf it is ' yea and nay,' uncertain 
in itself. Now, here the apostle, he frees his preaching from this imputa- 
tion, * our word to you was not yea and nay ; ' and he calls God to record, 
' God is true,' and as he is true, ' my word to you was not yea and nay,' 
but was certainly ' yea.' Thus you see what use we are to make of it for 
confutation and conviction of our own judgments. 

Quest. It may be moved by some perhaps, How doth it appear, how shall 
we know, by what argument, that it is yea, and not yea and nay ? I answer, 

Ans. 1. The testimony of St Paul here is, that it is so ; and his appeal to 
God, with an asseveration, * as God is true.' 

2. But our own experience doth tell us that the word of God is certain 
and true, if we belong to God ; for we stand convict in judgment by many 
arguments, which I will not now repeat. 

Quest. But how shall any man certainly know - it is yea ? [that] the word 
is the undoubted word of God, unchangeable wheresoever it is ? In a word, 
you may knowf it is so. 

Ans. 1. He thinks it is so, if he yield obedieijce to it, as to such a word, 
absolute obedience to God's truth without questioning. When once a 
thing is clear to be agreeable to God's truth, [and] he yields obedience to 
it, then it is ' yea.' If it be a duty, he must do it ; if it be a threatening, 
he must avoid it by repentance ; if it be a promise, he must beheve it. 
This is absolute obedience. 

2. Likewise reverence in hearing it, as Cornelius did. Acts x. 33. To 
hear it as the word of God. ' To tremble at the word of God,' as it is 
Isa. Ixvi. 2. To tremble at it as men do at thunder. The thunder is 
said to be * the voice of God.' ' The voice of God shakes the cedars of 
Lebanon,' Ps. xxix. 8. So it is with the voice of God's word. ' Shall the 
lion roar, and the beasts of the forest not tremble?' Isa. vii. 2. Shall 

* This seems to be a misprint for ' shew ;' at least the answers direct in regard 
to shewing rather than Icnowing. — G. 

t If this should not also read ' shew,' then the meaning is, = he knows it is so 
who yields obedience. G. 



8 )S COMMENTABY ON 

God threaten for sins that we are ohnoxious to, and shall we not tremble 
at his threaten iugs ? Therefore howsoever we hear it as if it were yea and 
nay, yet it is yea ; therefore let us not think to go on in sin, and escape, 
and do well enough. No ! it will not be so. He that thinks it is the 
word of God, he trembles at his word, and hath answerable affections to 
all the parts of God's word. If God direct, he follows ; if God threaten, 
he trembles ; if he promise, he believes ; if he command, he obeys. He 
hath a pliable disposition to every passage of divine truth, or else we do 
not believe it. 

What shall we say then of those that come not so far as the heathen 
man did ? We know Felix, * when he heard of justice, and temperance, 
and judgment to come, he trembled,' Acts xxiv. 25. When he heard of 
things that he was loath to hear, that he should be called to a reckoning 
for the course of his life, he trembled and quaked. If we hear these things, 
and live in a course perhaps worse than he, and do not tremble, where is 
our faith that the word of God is yea, that it is undoubtedly true ? 

Let us therefore examine ourselves what power and efficacy the word 
hath. It is a word that changeth and altereth the whole man. It trans- 
forms the whole man. It is a word of life. If we find it hath so altered 
and changed us, we can from experience say it is ' yea.' 

And likewise from particular promises. If we observe God's promises 
made good to us, if we find peace of conscience upon the confession of our 
sins, we can say God's word is * yea.' If upon committing of sin we find 
God punishing and correcting us, we can say God's word is yea ; and it is 
a bitter thing to offend God, 

I find carefulness is the best course to please God. He finds me out in 
my sins, and it is a bitter thing to offend God. This is the best way to 
say in truth, without hypocrisy, that God's word is * not yea and nay, but 
yea.' 

Thus we see this truth, that God is true, and what follows thence. His 
word is true as himself, and not inconstant, yea and nay. Besides all this 
that I have said, let us make this use of it, not to think God's word to be 
too good to be true, but yield obedience to it ; yield the obedience of faith to it 
in the j^romises. Here is a foundation for faith. The foundation of faith 
is without us. The evidences of faith are within us, by love, by purging 
our hearts, and stirring us up to pray, &c. But the foundation is out of 
ourselves. Here is a foundation and pillar for faith to lean on. God is 
true, and his word is true, and not yea and nay. It is eternally true. 
Therefore apply all the promises in the Old and New Testament to thyself. 
It was not yea to Abraham, and not to thee. God's promises of forgive- 
ness of sins were not yea to David, and not to thee. They were not yea to 
Manasseh, and not to thee. But God's truth is yea, eternally yea. * What- 
soever was written heretofore, was written for our comfort,' Rom. xv. 4 ; and 
we are now the Davids, and the Manassehs, and the Abrahams of God ; we 
are now the beloved of God. For every one in their age are as they were in 
theirs ; and as the promises of God were yea to them, and saved their 
souls, because they trusted on them, so certainly every promise of God is 
a shield for those that will have recourse to it, * The name of God is a 
strong tower,' Prov. xviii, 10 ; and his word is his name whereby he will 
be known in his promises. Have recourse to it on all occasions, rely on 
the word, wrestle with him when his dealings seem contrary, though his 
dealings with us seem to be yea and nay. We have been God's children, 
he hath assured us that we were in the state of grace ; but now he '/ieals 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 369 

with us as if we were not his children, he afflicts us, he suffers Satan to be 
let loose on us to tempt us. Here flesh and blood is ready to say. Cer- 
tainly I am not God's child, can I be ? thus and thus followed as I am. 
No, no ! God's ' gifts are without repentance,' Kom. xi. 29. Hadst thou 
ever grace ? God hath said it, who is truth itself, that his ' gifts are with- 
out repentance.' Build on it therefore. If thou hadst ever any grace, 
where he hath begun he will make an end. ' Where he hath begun a good 
work, he will perfect it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. 

Therefore wi-estle with God in all temptations. When things seem con- 
trary, yet allege God's nature to him ; and his word, for both are true ; and 
one is true, because the other is true. 

He is true in his nature and true in his word, and free in his decree, 
whatsoever his actions seem to be. Yet, Lord, thou canst not deny thyself, 
thou art unchangeable, thou art truth itself. And thy word that hath pro- 
mised regard and respect to humble sinners that repent and come to thee, 
it is unchangeably true as thyself. Therefore, Lord, ' I will not leave thee, 
though thou kill me,' as Job saith, xiii. 15. Here is a ground of wrestling 
as Job did. Allege the nature of God and the word of God against his 
dealing. Let his dealing be what it will, his nature is true, and his word 
is true. Therefore his promises are true, which is a branch of his word, 
that if we repent, and confess our sins, he will be merciful to us. 

Therefore let us not forsake our own mercy. This will uphold us, as in 
all temptations, so in divine temptations, when God seems to forsake us : 
so Christ himself, our blessed head, did. We cannot have a better pattern. 
When God left him on the cross, and left him to his human nature, to 
wrestle with the devil's temptations, and the pains of his body, and the 
sense of his wrath ; ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' 
Mark xv. 34 ; yet he upheld himself that God was his God still ; and so 
likewise in the former example of Job. I say it is a special comfort, that 
God's word is not ' yea and nay.' As I said, it is not doubtful as the 
oracles of the Gentiles, the oracles of the devil ; but God's word is certain. 
Whatsoever it was to any saint of God heretofore, it is to every believing, 
to every humble afflicted soul now, and shall be to the end of the world. 
So much for that. 



VEESE 19. 

• For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by 
me, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, ivas not yea and nay, but in him is yea.' 
In the words the apostle shews in particular what he preached among them, 
and we have in them these particulars briefly to be unfolded : 

First, That Christ Jesus, in his nature and his offices, is the chief and 
main object and subject matter of preaching. 

Secondly, That to make him profitable to us, he must be preached. 

Thirdly, That consent of divines and preachers helps faith. 

Fourthly, That Jesus Christ, being preached by the apostles, is an un- 
doubted ' yea,' that is, an undoubted ground and foundation to build on, 
in all the uncertainties of this life, in all the uncertainty of religion. Jesus 
Christ preached by St Paul and other holy men of those times, was not 
' yea and nay, but yea.' 

Doct. 1. First, Christ Jesus is the main object of preaching. 

It were impertinent here to stand on particulars, to shew you how Christ 

VOL. III. A a 



370 COMMENTARY ON 

is the Son of God ; for he is brought in here as the object of preaching. 
Only in a word, we must of necessity believe that Christ Jesus is the Sou 
of God. For how wondrously doth this stablish our faith when we believe 
in a Saviour that is God ; the Son of God, Jesus Christ by eternal genera- 
tion. In a word, here are these prerogatives of Christ's generation from all 
other sons whatsoever. Other fathers are before their sons, this Son of 
God was eternal with his Father. Other fathers have a distinct essence 
from their sons, the father is one, and the son another; they have distinct 
existences ; but here there is one common essence to the Father and the 
Son. Other fathers beget a son without them, but this Father begets his 
Son within him. It was an inward work. So it is a mystical divine gene- 
ration, which indeed is a subject of admiration rather than of explication, 
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man. This was typi- 
fied in the ark. The ark was a type of Christ. The ark had wood, and 
gold that covered that wood. Christ's human nature was the wood, and 
his divine nature that contained it, that is the gold. But I should be too 
large, and besides* the scope of the text, if I should unfold this point, I 
only touch it by the way. Christ Jesus in his natures as he is God and 
man, and in his offices as Jesus Christ, that is, anointed as king, priest, 
and prophet, and in his estates of abasement, and advancement, is the main 
subject matter of preaching. For what can we say, but it must be reduc- 
tive, and brought to Christ ? If we open men's consciences by the law, 
and tell them what a terrible estate they are in, what do we but drive them 
to the physician. What is the law, but as John Baptist was to Christ, to 
prepare the way, to level the soul, to pull down the high thoughts and ima- 
ginations, to make way and passage for Christ ? And then in Christ, when 
we preach Christ, we preach his natures, God and man, and his offices, as 
king, priest, and prophet, as he is predestinate, and sealed, and anointed 
by God the Father for that purpose, that we may have a strong Saviour, 
strong in himself, and authorised by his Father. And we preach his estates 
of abasement, as he was crucified and suffered for our sins ; and his estate 
of exaltation, as he arose and ascended into glory. These things belong to 
the preaching of Christ. 

And then the benefits we have by him, reconciliation to his Father by 
his death, and peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and such 
like wondrous benefits we have by him. 

And then our duty to him again, which is faith, and a conversation worthy ; 
to embrace all that is offered by Christ, that it be not lost for want of appre- 
hending. Christ Jesus is the subject matter of our preaching, in his 
natures, in his offices, in the benefits we have by him, in the duties we owe 
to him, in the instrument of receiving all, — faith. For in preaching, that 
faith which we require to lay hold on Christ, is wrought. 

For preaching doth not only manifest the benefits we have by Christ, but 
is a potent instrument of the Spirit of God to work this qualification, to 
make Christ profitable to us. Now all that we preach of holy duties, is 
either to humble us if we have them not, to make us fly to Christ by faith ; 
or when we believe, to make us walk answerable to our faith. So whatso- 
ever we preach is reductive to Christ ; either to prepare us, or to furnish us 
to walk worthy of Christ. Indeed, Jesus Christ is all in all in our preach- 
ing, and he should be so in your hearing. Of all things you should desire 
to hear most of Christ. The apprehension of your sinfulness should drive 
you to Christ. The hearing of duties should be to make you adorn your 
* That is, ' beside.'— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 371 

Christian religion you have taken on you. Naturally men love to hear 
flashes, witty conceits, and moral points wittily unfolded ; but all these in 
the largest extent do but civiHze men. It must be Christ unfolded, and 
God's love, and mercy, and wisdom in him reconciling mercy and justice 
together : the wondrous love of God in Christ, and his justice, and mercy; 
and the love of Christ in undertaking to work our redemption ; and the 
benefits by Christ, his offices, estates, and conditions. These things work 
faith and love. These things do us good. 

All other things, take them at the best, they do but fashion our carriage 
a little ; but that which enlivens and quickens the soul is Jesus Christ. 

Use. Therefore we should of all other things he desirous to hear of Jesus 
Christ. It is a point that the very angels are students in. For the ark, 
which I named before, it had the law, and the mercy-seat in it, the mercy- 
seat to cover the law. Now Christ hath satisfied the law, and reconciled 
his Father, he hath freed us from the curse of the law, and hath given full 
satisfaction to the law. He is the mercy-seat, by whom we have access to 
God the Father. 

Now the angels were upon the mercy-seat, interviewing one another, and 
prying down upon the mercy-seat, insinuating, that the reconciling of God's 
justice and mercy by that infinite wisdom of God in Christ ; that our sing 
should be punished in him, and yet he be merciful to us ; that he should 
punish our surety for us ; that he should join these attributes together ; that 
all the creatures in heaven and earth could not de\ase it, is a matter for 
angels to pry into. The very frame of the ark signified this. And shall 
not we be students in those mysteries, that the angels themselves desire 
every day more and more to understand ? If Christ be the main thing we 
are to stand on, let us labour more and more to understand ' Christ, and 
him crucified ; ' let us see our nature in him advanced now in heaven, to make 
us heavenly-minded ; let us see our nature in him punished ; let us see our 
sinful nature in him cleansed and purged by his death and abasement ; let 
us see our nature in him enriched. 

Let us consider him as a public person, and see our interest in his 
humiliation, and exaltation in glory ; because he is the ' second Adam.' 
These things should raise up our thoughts wondrously to think of his 
humiliation, and his exaltation, and of the love and mercy of God in him. 
And then think of what you will, nothing is discouraging ; think of death, 
of hell, of the day of judgment ; think of Satan, of the curse of the law ; 
they are terrible things. Aye, but think of the Son of God, of Christ 
anointed of God the Father to satisfy the law, to satisfy his justice, to over- 
come Satan, to crush his head, to be our Saviour as well as our Judge at 
the day of judgment ; these things will make all vanish. Things that are 
most terrible to the nature of man without the consideration of Jesus Christ 
the Son of God, all are most comfortable when we think of him. Now 
when we think of Satan, we think of one crushed and trod under foot, as 
he shall be ere long. Wlien we think of judgment, we think of a Saviour 
that shall be our Judge. When we think of God, we think of God recon- 
ciled in Christ. We have access by Christ to the throne of grace. He is 
now in heaven, and makes intercession for us. When we think of death, 
we think of a passage to life where we shall be with him, ' I desire to be 
dissolved, and to be with Christ,' Philip, i. 23. So the things that are 
most uncomfortable, yet bring the consideration of them to Christ exalted 
in heaven, having triumphed over all these in our nature, and sits at God's 
right hand. The thoughts of these things are comfortable meditations. 



872 COMMENTARY ON 

Nay, think of that which is the most terrible of all, the justice of God, 
his anger for sin, it is a matter of comfort above all other. God is just to 
punish and revenge sin ; what then ? Because he is just he will not punish 
one thing twice ; but his justice is fully satisfied, and contented in his Son 
Christ Jesus, whom he hath anointed, and predestinate, and sent himself; 
and he must needs acknowledge that satisfaction that is done by him, that 
he hath sent himself. Hereupon we come to think comfortably of God' a 
justice. 

God out of Christ is a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. There is nothing 
more terrible than God without Christ ; but now in Christ we can think of 
the most terrible thing in God with comfort. Therefore St Paul makes it 
the main scope of his preaching, and so should we of ours ; and you should 
make it your main desire in hearing, and the main subject matter of your 
meditating, something concerning Christ. Let us often think of our nature 
in him now exalted in heaven, and that we shall follow him ere long. Our 
head is gone before, and he will not suffer his body always to rot in the 
earth. Let us think of his natures, and his ofiices, and all the blessed 
prerogatives that we have by him, and all the enemies that are conquered 
by him, that in him we have God reconciled, and the devil vanquished, we 
have heaven opened, and hell shut ; we have our sins pardoned, and our 
imperfections by little and little cui'ed ; in him we have all in all. 

There are four things that the apostle speaks of, which includes all, 
1 Cor. i. 30. * Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to U3 
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' Cbrist Jesus is all 
in all. If we be ignorant, he is our ' wisdom ; ' if we want righteousness 
and holiness to stand before God, * he is our righteousness.' We stand 
righteous, being clothed with his righteousness. If we want grace, ' Of his 
fulness we receive grace for grace,' John i. 16. He is sanctification to us. 
If we be miserable, as we shall be to our sense, our bodies shall be turned 
to rottenness, ' he is our redemption,' not only of the soul, but of the body. 
He shall make our bodies 'like his glorious body,' Philip, iii. 21. As he 
makes our souls glorious, by his Spirit conforming them to his own image 
here, he means here redemption of our bodies from corruption, as well as 
of our souls from sin. ' He is all in all.' In sin, he is sanctification ; in 
death, he is life ; in ignorance, he is wisdom. There is nothing ill in us, 
but there is abundant satisfaction and remedy in Christ. I speak this the 
rather to shew what reason St Paul had to stand on this, that all his 
preaching was to bring Christ Jesus among them. I go on. 

* The Son of God, Jesus Christ, preached among you.'' 
Doct. 2. All the good we have by Christ is conveyed by the ministry. 
Despise that, and despise Christ himself. Therefore whatsoever benefits 
we have by Christ, they are attributed to preaching ; they are attributed to 
the gospel as it is preached and unfolded ; therefore it is called ' The gospel 
of the kingdom,' ' The word of reconciliation,' ' The word of life,' ' The 
word of faith.' All these are by Christ. But it is no matter, whatsoever 
we have by Christ, we must have it by Jesus Christ unfolded in the ministry 
of the word. Despise the ministry', that is contemptible to flesh and blood, 
and despise Christ himself, despise the kingdom, and life, and all ; for 
Christ preached is that we must rely on, Christ unfolded. The bread of 
life must be broken, the sacrifice must be anatomized and laid open, Christ 
Jesus the Son of God must be preached. He profits not but as he is 
preached. His riches must be unfolded, ' the unsearchable riches of Christ,' 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 373 

Eph. iii. 8. Therefore God, that hath appointed us to be saved by Christ, 
hath appointed and ordained preaching, to lay open Jesus Christ among us. 

But, to come to the third point. 

Doct. 3. Consent of ministers a help to faith. 

Why doth he bring in consent to help ? * By me, and Silvanus, and 
Timotheus.' Would not his own authority serve the turn ? 

I answer, no ; it would not sometimes. In itself it will, but in regard of 
the weakness of men, it is necessary to join the consent of others. St Paul 
was an apostle of Christ, but he knew that they were so weak, that they 
would regard his testimony the more for the joint testimony of ' Timotheus 
and Silvanus,' and the rest. 

God considers not so much what is true in itself, as how to stablish our 
faith in it. As in the sacrament, would not God give Christ and his 
benefits ? is he not true of his word ? Yes ! but he gives the sacrament 
for us. His promises are sure enough, yet he condescends to our weakness, 
to add sacrament, and oath, and all the props that may be. So the men 
of God, that are led by the Spirit of God, though their own authority were 
sufficient, yet they condescend to the weakness of others. Therefore St 
Paul allegeth with himself, ' Silvanus and Timotheus,' to strengthen them 
the better. 

Then again, consent is a lovely thing, and proceeds from love. How 
sweet a thing is it for brethi-en to dwell together in unity ; therefore we 
ought to stand much upon consent, if it may persuade us. But as Cyprian 
saith well, * it must be consent in the truth' (qqq). Consent that is not in 
the truth, is not properly concord, but conspiracy ; consent in a lie, in 
falsehood. The builders of Babel they had a consent among themselves 
when they came for a wicked purpose, as we see ofttimes in Scriptui'e. 
Consent must be in the truth, in that which is good, or else it is not consent, 
but conspiracy. By reason of our weakness, consent is useful, and that is 
the reason why in doubtful cases we may allege antiquity ; not that the 
word is not sufficient in itself, but to help our weakness, to shew that we 
do not divert from the truth, but that it is a truth warranted by others 
before. In doubtful cases this is warrantable. He brings it likewise to 
enforce obedience the more, when it was a truth brought to them by so 
many. But that is not a thing I mean to stand on, a touch is enough. 

That which I will spend a little more time in, is the next thing, that is, 
that 

Doct. 4. Evangelical doctrine noiv is most certain. 

Something I spake of it before in the former verse, but I have reserved 
something to speak of it now. The Son of God preached by St Paul, with 
the consent of these blessed men, it was not ' yea and nay,' it was not un- 
constant. Evangelical truth is not yea and nay ; and the preachers of it, 
the apostles, were not * yea and nay ' in the delivering of it. As it is true 
in itself, so it was true in the delivery of it. They were constant in it, 
they sealed it with their blood some of them. 

Quest. How shall we know the doctrine of the gospel concerning Christ 
to be yea, undoubtedly true ? 

Ans. 1. I answer, hoiv do ive know the sun shines ? I know it by its own 
light, and by a light that I have in my eye. There is an inward light 
joined with the outward light. So it is in this business, how do we know 
divine truth out of the book of God to be divine ? By the light in itself, 
by the majesty of the Scriptures, by the consent of the Old and New Testa- 
ments hij the opposition of the enemies, and the confusion of them at the 



874 COMMENTARY ON 

last that have been opposers of it, by the miraculous preservation of it, and 
the like ; but especially by the powerful work of it on the heart, by the ex- 
perience of this blessed truth. I know this to be an undoubted truth, I 
find it quelling my corruptions, changing my nature, pacifying my con- 
science, raising my heart, casting down high imaginations, turning the 
stream of nature another way ; to make me do that which I thought I 
should never have done, only because I have a strong light of divine truth 
and comfort. There is this experience of Christ, that a man finds in his 
soul. It sets him down that he can say nothing, but that it is divine truth, 
because he finds it so (rrr). 

Alls. 2. Besides this, the testimony of the Sjni'it of God, and the icork of 
the Sjniit in him. For as to see, there is an outward light required, and 
an inward light in the eye ; so to see divine truth there must be a light in 
itself, a divine sparkle in God's book, in every passage ; but yet I must 
have an eye to see too. I cannot see it except God witness to my soul, 
that these things are divine, that they are yea, that they are certainly and 
infallibly true. 

There is a great difference between us and our adversaries. I can but 
touch it, and I need but touch it. They say we must believe, and we must 
believe because of the church. I say no. The church, we believe, hath a 
kind of working here, but that is in the last place. For God himself in his 
word, he is the chief. The inward arguments from the word itself, and 
fi-om the Spirit they are the next. The church is the remotest witness, the 
remotest help of all. For the church is but to propound God's truth, to 
lay it open ; to be as it were the candlestick. Now the candlestick shines 
not, but upholds the candle while that shines. So the church is but to 
propose, to set up divine truth, that of itself being set up will enlighten well 
enough. The church is to set out the word, and to publish it by the 
ministry, which word of itself will shine. That work which the church 
hath therefore is the last, and the inferior ; for the Spirit of God, and the 
inward majesty of the word, is of more force. 

If a messenger come, and bring a relation, or bring a letter from one, 
and he tells me many things of the man ; aye, but I doubt him, because 
he may be false for aught I know ; but when I see his hand and seal, and 
his characters and style, that shews such a spirit to be in him, I know by 
his own characters certainly this comes from the hand of that man. 
Now, the messenger brings it and gives it, but I believe it, because I see 
the characters and hand and seal of such a one, that it is a truth. So 
the church propounds. It is the messenger that brings the truth of God 
to us ; but when a Christian sovl hears the truth, and sees God's seal 
upon it, there is a majesty and power that works on the soul. Now, we 
believe not for the messenger, but for the thing itself. Here is the dif- 
ference. We believe the Scripture for the seal of divinity that is in 
itself; they believe it for the. messenger, as if a doubtful messenger should 
come that is not certain, and a man should believe the things he brought 
for him, for his sake. We believe and entertain the messenger for the 
message sake, not the message for the messenger's sake. Our faith is 
better built than theirs. 

Ohj. But they say, This all comes to this at the last, God speaks by 
the church as well as by the Scriptures ; therefore, the church is to be 
believed more than the Scripture itself. 

Alls. I answer, God speaks indeed in his church by his Spirit and by 
his word ; but his speaking by his word is the cause of his speaking in 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 375 

the church. For what is the church but begotten by the seed of the word ? 
How is the church a church but by the word ? Therefore, he speaks 
first by the Scriptures. There is a majesty and a spirit in the Scrip- 
tures. And then he speaks by the church, as cleaving to the Scriptures, 
in a secondary manner. He speaks by the church mediately, because 
that goes to the word which speaks immediately. The word was written 
by men led immediately by the Spirit of God ; and the church relying 
on that, he speaks by them in the church, but primarily by his word. 
Having just occasion, I thought to touch this. 

Undoubtedly, there are none that are not led wdth partiality, but in- 
comparably they see our faith is built on a better foundation than theirs. 
They have a rotten foundation. They talk of a church, and when all comes 
to all, the church their mother is nothing, but the pope their father. What 
is their church but the pope himself? For they run from the church 
essential to the church representative. They run to councils, and when 
we force them with councils that they may err, then the pope, he is the 
church virtually. So, I say, the church their mother is nothing but the 
pope their father ; and what manner of men they have been ; histories tell 
us well enough. We see on what ground they build. 

Jesus Christ, that is, the gospel by him, is not ' yea and nay, but yea ; ' 
that is, it is certainly, and infalhbly, and eternally true. 

Qiwst. Hereupon we may answer that curious question that hath been, 
and now is, everywhere, how we may know that our church was before 
Luther's time or no,* as they idly say, how we may know that the faith 
that we profess is the ancient faith. 

Am. I answer hence, Take these grounds : 

First. There is but one faith. Men have varied, but faith hath not varied, 
as St Austin saith well. For there is but one faith, as there is one God, 
one heaven, and one happiness. There was one faith from Adam. The 
limes vary, but not the faith of the times ; the same fundamental truth 
hath been in all times. Sometimes it hath been more explicated and un- 
folded, as we have the canon enlarged now in the time of the New Testa- 
ment in many books. There is not a new faith, but a larger explication 
of the old faith. Divine truth is alway the same. It was one faith from 
the beginning of the world, from the first promise to Adam in paradise, till 
now. Abraham believed as we do now. So they were all saved by faith, 
Heb. xi. 

Even as there is one catholic church, consisting of all the members, the 
triumphant being the greater part, from the beginning of the world to the 
end of the world, so there is one faith. Take that for a ground. Indeed, 
the church varies as a man varies when he is a child and when he is a 
man. He hath one manner of clothes when he is a child, and another 
when he is a man. So the church varies in clothes. It was clothed with 
ceremonies then, which were cast ofi" in Christ ; but this is but a variation 
of garments. The church had one faith. 

Second. Hereupon comes a second, there is one catholic church, that is 
built on that one faith, one essential church, one catholic company that be- 
lieve in Christ, from the beginning of the world to the end of the world, 
which we believe in the apostles' creed. Well, then, this being so, as it is 
vmdeniable that it is so, what church is built upon that one faith that was 
' yea ' in the apostles, and was ' yea ' before then, as the apostle saith here, 
' Our preaching was yea,' certain and true, you may build on it, what 
* See note d, vol. ii. p. 248 ; and see sss. — G. . 



876 COMMENTARY ON 

church builds on that ? That church all the while hath been ; for there is 
but one faith and one truth that runs along in all ages, which is the seed 
of the church. Therefore, there must be a church in all ages that is 
a branch of the catholic church. Why ? The church must be built 
upon that one faith ; therefore, all particular churches before us, that were 
branches of the general church, were built upon that preaching of the 
apostle, which he saith was ' yea.' There is but one faith, and therefore 
all churches that are true are built upon that one faith. If we can prove 
that the apostolical doctrine agrees with our times, that ours hath con- 
sanguinity with the apostles' doctrine, then our church was before we 
were, ever since the apostles. It hath been alway yea, for there is but 
one truth. 

The church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles ; 
and Christ saith. Mat. xvi. 18, when Peter said to Christ, * Thou art the 
Son of God,' &c., saith he, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock,' that is, 
upon this confession of thine, * will I build my church.' So the con- 
fession of faith is the rock of the church. Now there is alway one rock of 
the church that is alway yea. If our church be built upon that rock, then 
it is founded upon apostolical doctrine, upon the prophets and apostles. 
It was before we were. And if there were any church, then it was ours, 
which professeth that one faith. 

If we conjure the papists, they are silent, they dare say nothing. Dare 
they say their doctrine is nearer apostolical than ours ? "They dare not say 
but ours is nearer. Wliy, then, our church is built upon the founda- 
tion of the apostles. Why so ? All the churches since have been built 
upon one foundation, because there is one faith and one church. Unity 
of faith makes the unity of the church. 

The seed of the church is the gospel, is divine truth. Now, if divine 
truth hath been alway, there hath been a church alway ; and if there hath 
been a church alway, there hath been divine truth that hath been ' yea ' 
alway. Now, it is an article of our faith in all times to believe a catholic 
church. Therefore, there is a certain truth that is always yea, to be the 
seed and foundation of that catholic church. Therefore, we must search 
out what that * yea ' was, what was the apostolical doctrine, the positive 
doctrine in those apostolical times, in the virgin-times of the church, before 
the church was con-upted. The church was not long a virgin, as the Father 
said. What was the yea of those truths ? Some there must be alway 
that held apostolical truths in all ages. Our church holds that positive 
truth that the apostles held : for directly in so many words, we defend the 
apostolical faith out of the apostles. Therefore, we say our church was 
before Luther, because our doctrine is apostolical, and the church con- 
tinually hath been apostolical, because it was built upon the apostles' 
doctrine. 

Our church hath no doctrine in the positive fundamental points of it 
contrary ; therefore our church hath continued. Put case we cannot name 
the men, as idly and ridiculously they urge, what is that to the purpose ? 
Shall we go from ignorance of particular men, to ignorance of the church ? 
We must believe that there is a catholic church ; and there must alway be 
a positive doctrine and truth, the seed of that church. 

Ohj. The papists cavil with us, and say we possess a negative religion. 
Ye cut oflf our opinions, say they, but what have you of your own ? what 
affirmatives have ye ? 

Ans. It is most certain, that all our afl&rmatives have been ever since the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 19. 377 

apostles' time ; for we and the papists differ not in affirmatives, only they 
add patcheries* of their own. Religion stands most in affirmatives, that is 
the ground first. For we believe negatives, because they agree not to 
affirmatives : we believe a lie to be a lie, because it is contrary to positive 
truth, and the truth is before a lie ; the affirmation is before the negation ; 
a thing is, before the contrary is not. This laying for a ground, affirmatives 
being truths, our positive truths that we hold have been held in the 
apostles' times, before and since, even in the Church of Rome a thousand 
years after ; and even now the affirmatives that we hold. 

Do not they believe the Scriptures to be the word of God ? Yes ! But 
they add patcheries of their own, the Apocrypha, and their own traditions, 
to be the word of God too. 

Do not they believe that Christ is Mediator ? Yes ! But he is the only 
Mediator for redemption, and not for intercession. They join others with 
him, saints and angels. 

We are saved by faith, that is the affirmative, and so say they. But they 
add of their own, that we are saved by faith and works. 

Then again, we say there are two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's 
supper ; and so say they, but they add five of their own. So I might run 
over all their opinions. Whatsoever we hold, they hold. Therefore in 
their own confessions, our affirmatives have been ever since the apostles' 
times. If they had any church, we had a church, because our foundations 
are included in their religion. All that we say, they say ; but then again 
they say many things that we do not. Therefore they account us heretics, 
because we make not that that they hold to be our yea too. 

Again, the negatives that they believe, and we do not believe, they are 
but novelties in experience, they are not of the ancient apostolical faith. 
That the apocrypha should be had in equal authority with the word of God 
in Scripture, alas ! such a conceit was not thought of for six hundred years 
after the apostles. That the people should not read the Scriptures, it was 
but since the other day. Transubstantiation, since the Council of Lateran, 
a thousand years since Christ. That the pope should be supreme, and 
depose princes, such a thing was not heard of a thousand years after Christ. 
That he should have authority to canonize saiuts, it was but since the other 
day. Equivocation, but of late time. And so their idle babbling of divine 
service in Latin, and twenty other trumperies. So the things that we deny 
that are gross and abominable in the judgment of every man that knows 
anything, they were but since the other day ; they were not yea in the 
apostles' times. Then the apostolical church being not built on them, they 
must be devised after. As, indeed, a thousand years after Christ the most 
of these were never heard of. The most of the points of popery wherein 
they differ from us, nay, not any of them, were never established by a 
council till the Council of Trent, except transubstantiation, by the Council 
of Lateran, which was a thousand years after Christ (ttt). 

The affirmatives that we hold, and they hold too, we say they are con- 
stant from the apostles' time ; they have been in all ages maintaiaed and 
affirmed. 

Our positive points that we ground out of St Paul, and out of the Scrip- 
tures : we seek the * old way,' and the ' best way,' as Jeremiah adviseth us, 
Jer. vi. 16. There was none of the popish trash in Abraham's time, in the 
patriarchs' time, in Christ's and his apostles' time, or in many hundred 
years after. They came in by little and little, for their own advantage ; a 
* That is, patches. — G. 



378 COMMENTARY ON 

mere policy to get money, and to abuse people. I say, they hold all our 
positive truths ; but their error is in addition. 

Quest. Now this question may be made, whether their additions may be 
dangerous or no ? Because it may be supposed that some among them 
will say that heresy is not in addition, but in contrariety to the faith, and 
detracting ; but when one holds more than they should, that is no heresy, 
because there is somewhat superabounds ; now we hold the truth, and more 
too. 

Ans. I say it is gross and false ; for if additions did not overthrow the 
foundation, there should never be any idolatry, nor never any heresy in 
these times. What was idolatry, especially in the church of God ? Among 
the Jews was there not the worshipping of the true God ? Yes ! but before 
an image, their additions, their false manner overthrew the true. There is 
none of them fundamental points, as we call them, though they make them 
fundamental. They make their traditions of as much authority as the word 
of God ; and their fooleries as the articles of faith. They overthrow the 
main foundation. They are such additions as are destructive, to join with 
the word of God traditions. To worship God under another species and 
kind, is to be an idolator. Though they worship the true God, if it be 
after a false manner, it is prohibited. St Paul saith, and with a commina- 
tion. Gal. i. 8, * If I or an angel from heaven teach otherwise.' Beside, 
put case it be not plainly and directly contrary, if he teach other things 
that are not necessary to be believed, ' let him be accursed.' We ought 
not to go from the Scriptures in any fundamental point of faith, under pain 
of a curse. Therefore popery is a cursed religion, in respect of their very 
additions. 

Doth not St Paul tell the Galatians they were ' fallen from Christ,' Gal. 
v. 4, if they added circumcision to Christ 9 He doth not say if they did that 
which was directly contrary to faith : no ! but in adding circumcision and 
works to Christ, they were fallen from Christ. Whole Christ, or no Christ. 
In some cases additions are heresies, and overthrow the foundation. 

Quest. If this be so, we may answer another question easily : the 
apostolical doctrine you see is only yea : whether then it be safer to be a 
papist or a protestant, considering that whatsoever we hold they do hold ? 

Am. I answer, to be a Protestant it is safer in any man's judgment ; 
because all that we say, themselves say : it hath been apostolical. We can 
prove in all ages of the church our affirmatives, we have a catalogue of 
witnesses in all ages of them that held what we say. It was founded in the 
apostles, and then came down to all ages. But what they say distinct, and 
differing from us, they have not the like testimony for : for indeed they are 
so beaten that Bellarmine hath this, ' The authority of all councils and 
fathers, and all depends upon the authority of the present church.' Bring 
to them councils and fathers ! Tush ! tush ! all authority depends upon 
the present church. What authority gives the present church, when 
twenty years after the church varies ? What certainty is there, when all 
authority of former times shall depend upon the present church ? 

In those things wherein they differ from us, and that we deny, any under- 
standing, reasonable man may see that they are novelties and corruptions. 
As for the pope to depose princes, if a man have but his naturals,* he may 
see it abominable. To pray in a ' strange tongue,' to debar the people of 
the wine, when Christ saith, ' Drink ye all of it,' 1 Cor. xi. 25, who that 
hath ordinary discretion but will think it absurd ? There is nothing that 
* That is, = the understanding he has as a man. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 19. 379 

we differ from them in, but a man that hath but his naturals will condemn. 
Therefore ours is safer a great deal by their own confession, the learnedest 
ot them, that it is enough to believe as we do. Do we not believe the 
articles of the creed ? Do we not believe the first four general councils ? 
We do. Who then will not say that these are sufficient, being understood 
and believed, to make a man that he be no heretic ? 

Qiwst. I may answer hence another question, whether a papist may be 
saved or no ? It is a cm-ious question, you will say ; but it is so ordinary 
that somewhat I must say. 

Ans. I answer, no doubt but many of them are saved. How comes that 
to pass ? They reverse their false grounds, and stick to those positive 
truths that they and we hold together ; they reject their own works, and 
help of saints, and go to Christ only ; for, as I said, popery is full of con- 
tradictions. Now a papist, when he comes to have his conscience awak- 
ened, he leaves the pope's indulgences, their five sacraments, justification 
by works, and then embraceth only Christ, and then he comes to our part. 
They live by their religion, and die by ours. So the question is, whether 
living or dying ? Luther saith. If they live and die peremptorily in aU the 
points professed in the Tridentine Council, they cannot (uuii). But no 
doubt many of them the Lord hath mercy on, to open their eyes to see the 
vanity of their works and of all their fooleries, which those that are wise 
and have their consciences enlightened turn ofi" then, and so may be saved, 
but it must be with reversing the grounds of their religion, and sticking to 
ours, which is agreeable to the word. 

Nay, to speak a little more of it, I say, we do more safely believe. We 
are more safe, and on better gi'ounds led into some less errors, than they 
do believe main truths. It may seem strange, but it is most true. 

For if so be a sound protestant maintain an error, it is because he thinks 
it is in the Scripture, that it is in the word ; if it be discovered out of the 
word of God to be an error, he leaves it. As St Cyprian and other fathers, 
blessed saints in heaven, they held some errors ; but if they saw the Scrip- 
ture held otherwise, they had prepared minds to believe otherwise. There- 
fore, holding the main fundamental truths, though they held particular 
errors, they were saved. 

The papists maintain fundamental truths with us. They believe the 
word of God, they believe in Christ, and to be saved by mercy ; but upon 
what grounds ? They believe the truth upon heretical, devilish grounds. 
As upon what grounds do they believe the articles of the faith to be so, 
and the Scriptures to be so ? Because the church saith so. Who is the 
church but the pope ? And what man is the pope ofttimes ? A man, if 
we believe their own writers, led with a devilish spirit : some of them have 
been magicians. If they believe the truth, they do it not as divine truth. 
They believe the truth for matter ; but the grounds of beheving those, 
truths are human, nay, worse, many times devilish. For you know in the 
Revelation, the beast is inspired with the spirit of the dragon, with the 
spirit of the devil, and teacheth the doctrine of devils, 1 Tim. iv. 1. Now, 
to teach that which is materially true, upon reasons that are diabolical or 
human (at the best, it is but human), as the testimony of the churcln is, 
what an unsafe thing is this ! 

Nay, I say, it is the most horrible witchery, the most horrible atomi- 
nation that ever was since the beginning of the world, this prineiple, 
that their church cannot err : that is the reason of the believing of 
all divine truths. Hereupon they come to practise mogt abominable 



880 COMMENTARY ON 

treacheries, hereupon they defend lies, hereupon they kill princes, and 
dissolve the bonds of allegiance that subjects owe to princes. And all 
human and divine things, all the light of nature and Scripture, all becomes 
a nullity. Why ? Because the church cannot err. And this they have 
from their holy father the pope. He is above all councils and all, and 
cannot err. We know if principles be false, all other things are false. An 
error in principles is a dangerous error. An en-or in the gi'ound is the 
worst thing in the world. As to maintain treason to be lawful, it is worse 
than to be a traitor ; for his judgment is convinced already ; but he that 
maintains a false principle, he is a dangerous man indeed. So, to have 
this abominable principle, that the church, that the pope cannot err, hence 
come all those dangerous practices in this commonwealth ever since the 
beginning of Queen EUzabeth's time. 

Who would have thought, but that God gave up bitter, proud, poisonful 
spirits, vain spirits that rejected the word of God, that men of parts and 
understanding should ever be so sotted to believe such a thing, that a 
wretched ignorant man should get into the chair, and he should judge 
infallibly of the truths that he never knew in his life, being of another 
profession, as some are canonists, and not divines ? But I leave that 
point. 

To touch one thing more that borders a little upon this, that divine 
truth is of an inflexible nature, whatsoever men think of it. And that 
crosseth another rule of theirs, that they will give what sense they will of 
Scriptures, and the current of the present church must judge of all former 
councils. Now doth truth vary according to men's judgments, according 
to the present church ? Must we bring the rule to the crooked timber, or 
the timber and the things to be measured to the rule ? Shall the judg- 
ment of any man be the rule of tnith ? shall it be the rule in one time, 
and not in another ? Shall present men interpret it thus, and say it is so 
now ; and others that succeed say, whatsoever it was now, thus it must be 
believed ? 

Hereupon likewise, if it be the constant nature of truth alway to be 
believed ; hereupon it comes to cross another thing, their dispensation. 
No man can dispense with God's law ; truth is truth indispensable. Laws 
divine and natural are indispensable, because they are ahke in all things. 
Reason is reason in Turkey as well as here. The light of nature is the 
light of nature in any country as well as here. Principles of nature vary 
not as languages do : they are inbred things. 

If the principles of nature be invariable and indispensable, much more 
divine principles, saith the heathen. Filthiness is filthiness, whether thou 
think it to be so or no. Opinion is not the rule of things, but the nature 
of the thing itself. 

Therefore whatsoever is against nature none can dispense with. ' God 
cannot deny himself ! ' 2 Tim. ii. 13. What was naught in one age is 
naught in another, and is for ever naught. Whatsoever is divine or 
natural is indispensable. No monarch in the world can dispense with the 
law of nature, or the divine law, the word of God ; for the opinion of any 
man in the world is not the rule of his course, but the undoubted light of 
God, whether the light of nature or the light of divine truth. 

I speak this the rather to cross base parasites, that when God calls them 
to stand for true causes, what do they make their rule ? Not God's con- 
stant ' Yea,' but they bend and bow to opinion, as if the opinion of any 
man in the world were the rule of their faith and obedience. This is to 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VEE, 19. 881 

make men, and no men. Is not the written word of God the word of God? 
Is not the law the law ? (Politic laws I speak not of.) Shall a man yield 
to men's opinion, especially if the word do not warrant it ? Shall he yield 
to any man Uving that is inconstant by his disposition ? There is truth 
which is certain, that a man must maintain to the death. He is not only 
a martyr that maintains religion, John Baptist was a martyr that stood 
out in a matter that was not against heresy, but for the standing out 
against Herod. He did not yield, as many thousands would have done in 
such a case. * Thou must not have thy brother Philip's wife ;' it is un- 
lawful, Mark vi. 18. 

Men ought to sufier for the truths of nature, and not deny truth what- 
soever, because it is a divine sparkle from God. If it be any truth what- 
soever, it must be stood in, because it is constant ; and it is the best thing 
in the world next to divine and saving truth. 

Use. If this be so, that the gospel and divine truth be *yea,' and that 
the church at all times hath been built on that, and that whosoever is 
saved is saved by that yea, let us labour to have a faith answerable to our 
truth. We say, and distinguish well. There is a certainty of the thing, 
and a certainty of the mind apprehending the thing. It is certain the sun 
is bigger than the earth ; but you shall never persuade a simple country- 
man that it is so. There is a certainty of the object, but not of the subject. 
He will never believe it, because it is against sense. But now there must 
be both in a Christian. The apostle's doctrine, the truth he doth believe, 
the truth in the Scripture is ' Yea,' that is, it is certain and true, and not 
* yea and nay,' it is not flexible. It is not as the heathen oracles were, 
that is, doubtful and wavering. Let our assent be answerable to the truth ; 
let us build soundly on a sound foundation. 

As a ship that is to rest in the midst of the waves, there is a double 
certainty necessary, that the anchor-hold be good in itself, and that it be 
fastened upon somewhat that is firm. If it be a weak anchor, or if it be 
fastened upon ground that will not hold, the ship is tossed about with waves, 
and so split upon some rock or other. So our souls require a double cer- 
tainty. We must have an anchor of faith as well as an object of faith ; we 
must have an anchor of hope as well as an object. For the object we may 
cast anchor there. It is divine truth which will hold. There is no doubt 
of that. It is yea. But then om* anchor must be firm, our faith and affi- 
ance. Let us labour to build soundly and strongly upon it. It should be 
our endeavour continually to stablish our faith, to stablish our hope, that 
we may know on what terms we hve, and on what terms to die. 

Do but consider the difi'erence between an understanding, strong Chris- 
tian and another. A Christian that is judicious and miderstanding, ask 
him in what estate he is. Why, comfortable ! What is the ground of his 
faith ? Why, thus : I live in no known sin, I confess my sins to God, my 
doctrine is * yea,' and I labour to bring my life to my doctrine. 

Ask another. What do you mean to live so loosely and carelessly ? Why 
will you stand thus ? Will you be content to die so ? Perhaps he doth not 
know sound doctrine, or if he do, it is confusedly ; he doth not build on that 
rock, on that foundation. 

Oh ! let us labour to build stronger and stronger on the truth. Our 
building strongly makes us eternal, God's truth is eternal truth, because 
it makes us eternal. Is it not a strange thing that man, that is chaff, and 
vanity, and smoke, whose life passeth as a tale that is told, that yet not- 
withstanding if he build on this yea, which is certain and infallible, the 



382 COMMENTABY ON 

doctrme of the gOi5pel, it will make him a rock, a living stone, it will make 
him eternal ? ' All flesh is grass, but the word of God endures for ever,' 
1 Pet. i. 25. 

What a comfort is this, our life being a vapour, and vanity, and growing 
to nothing, that the time will shortly come when we shall be no more, no 
more in this world ; then to have divine truth that will make us eternal ! 
Ps. xc. Moses, a good man, he saw men drop away. Saith he, ' Thou 
art our eternal habitation from generation to generation.' What is the 
meaning of that ? That is, we dweU in thee. Here in our pilgrimage to 
Canaan we drop away, but ' thou art our habitation from generation to 
generation.' So when a Christian considers his life is uncertain, all things 
are vanity that support this life, yet notwithstanding I have a ' yea ' to build 
on, the divine truth. ' The word of the Lord endures for ever,' and it will 
make me endure for ever. It is a rock itself, it makes me a rock ; it will 
make me a living stone, built on that foundation, that all the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against my faith and hope. 

What a comfort is this ! We have nothing without this ' yea.' We are 
* yea and nay,' and our happiness is * yea and nay.' We are so happy 
now, as we may be miserable to-morrow. Let us labour to build on divine 
truth, which is like itself, that in all the changes of the world we may have 
somewhat that is unalterable, that is as unchangeable as God himself. 
As St Paul here brings God himself, ' as God is true, my word to you was 
not yea and nay, but yea.' So much shall suffice for that verse. I go on 
to the 20th verse. 



VERSE 20. 

* For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen.^ This 
comes in after this manner. My preaching to you, saith he, was invariable 
and constant, because Christ himself is alway ' yea.' If Christ, the matter 
of my preaching, be always 'yea,' and I preach nothing but Christ, then 
my preaching is invariable and constant. How doth he prove the minor ? 
How doth he prove that Christ is alway ' yea ? ' 'AH the promises of God 
in him are yea, and in him amen.' Christ is invariable, and my preaching 
of him was not ' yea and nay.' Christ is not * yea and nay,' because ' all 
the promises of God in him are yea and amen.' 

' The promises of God in him are yea,' that is, they are constant ; ' and 
in him they are amen.' There is some diversity in reading the words 
iyvv). But most constantly the best expositors have it as this translation 
hath it, ' all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen.' The 
literal meaning is this, ' all the promises of God in Christ are yea,' that is, 
they are certain, they are made in him ; ' and in him they are amen,' that 
is, they are accomplished in him. In him they are made, and in him they 
are accomplished. 

I might spend a great deal of time to shew the acception * of the word 
* amen,' but it is not pertinent to my purpose. 

' Amen ' is here certain, undoubtedly certain, as it is here to make way 
to that which is to be understood. 

There are three main senses of ' amen.' It signifies that a thing is posi- 
tively so, and not no, it is so. * Yea and amen ' signify that such a thing is ; 
as, ' let your yea be yea,' Mat. v. 37, such a thing is. But now ' amen ' 
* That is, ' acceptation.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 20. 883 

is more, not only that a thing is, but it is so truly, and so unchangeably ; 
it is ' yea and amen.' The promises are ' yea,' they are made in Christ ; 
and then they are true in him, undoubtedly, eternally, unchangeably true. 

So take it in the strictest, in the strongest, sense you can ; all the pro- 
mises of God in Christ they are so true, that they are invariably, constantly, 
eternally true in him, they are made in him, and performed in him ; ' they 
are yea in him, and amen in him.' So the whole carriage of the promises 
is only in Christ. 

The truths we are to deliver out of the words are these : 

First of all we must know, that since the fall of man it hath pleased the 
divine nature, the three persons in Trinity, to stablish a covenant of grace, 
and so of salvation in Jesus Christ ; and to make him a second principle, a 
seco7id Adam, by ivhom mankind is restored to a better estate than ever ive had 
in the first Adam. God now since the fall takes another course to bring 
us back again to him. He doth not leave us as he left the angels that fell, 
in a state of perdition for ever ; but as we fell by infidelity and distrust of 
him, so now we are recovered again by promises, and by faith in them. 

There can be no intercourse between God and man but by some promise 
on his part, 
i Obs. God deals with man by promises. 

Reason 1. The reason is this, how can man dare to challenge any' 
thing of the great majesty of God without a warrant from himself? How 
can the conscience be satisfied ? The conscience looks to God. It is a 
knowledge together with God ; how can conscience rest but in that it knows 
comes from God ? Therefore for any good that I hope for from God, I must 
have a promise. 

Reason 2. For this is God's constant dispensation, while ice live in this ivorld 
we are alway under hope. We are children of hope. * We are saved by hope,' 
Rom. viii. 24 : * we rejoice in the hope of glory,' Rom. v. 2 : and hope looks 
to the promises, whereof some part is unperformed. How doth heaven and 
earth difier ? Heaven is all performance. Here is some performance to en- 
courage us, and there is alway some promise still unperformed. We are 
alway under some promise ; and therefore the manner of our apprehending 
God in this world differs from heaven. Here it is by faith and hope, there 
by vision. Vision is fit for performance. Faith and hope looks to the 
promise alway here. Therefore God rules his church by promises ; partly, 
I say, to secure the soul of man. We cannot have any thing from God but 
by the manifestation of his own good will. How can we look for any thing 
from God but by promise ? Can we look for anything from God by our 
own conceits ? That is a fool's paradise. 

Further, God will have his church ruled by promises in all ages, to exer- 
cise faith, and hope, and prayer, and dependence upon God. God will try 
of what credit he is among men, whether they will depend upon his pro- 
mise or no ; so that knowing he is true, by promise, it may be certain to 
them, they shall have performance in time. He gives men promises to see 
if they will trust him. 

Reason 3. God will have this manner of dispensation to rule his church 
by promises, to ai-m us in this ivorld against fears and discouragements; 
therefore we have alway some promise. He might have done us good, 
and have given us no promise ; but now having given us promises, he will 
try the graces that are in us, and arm us against all discouragements and 
difficulties, till the thing promised be performed. For we must know that 
a promise is a divine thing, better than any earthly performance. Let 



884 COMMENTARY ON 

God give a man never so much in the world, if he have not a promise of 
better things, all will come to nothing at the last. Therefore God supports 
the souls and spirits of his children with promises, to arm them against all 
temptations on the right hand and on the left, that would draw them 
from trusting in his promise. He will have them hve by faith, and that 
hath alway relation to the promise. 

Quest. This is a general ground then, that God now in Christ Jesus 
hath appointed this way to govern the church with promises. Now what 
is a promise ? 

Ans. A promise is nothing but a manifestation of love, an intendment of 
bestowing some good, and removing some ill. A manifestation of our 
mind in that kind is a promise of conferring of a future good, or removing 
of a future ill ; therefore it comes from love in the party promising. 

There are three degrees of loving steps, whereof a promise is the last. 
The first is inward love ; the second is real performance ; and the third is 
a manifestation of performance intended before it be ; and this, I say, is a 
degi-ee of love. For love concealed, it doth not comfort in the interim, in 
the time that is betwixt. Now God, who is love, doth not only love us, 
and will not only shew his love in time, but because he will have us rest 
sweetly in his bosom, and settle ourselves on his gracious promises, in the 
mean time, he gives us rich and precious promises. He is not only love, 
and shews it in deed, but he expresseth it in word. And we may well build 
on his word, as verily as if he had performed it in deed ; for whatsoever he 
saith is ' Yea, and Amen.' This is the nature of a promise. It is not only 
love, and the expression of love in deed, but the expression of it in word, 
when he intends to solace, and comfort, and stablish, and stay the mind of 
man till the good promised be performed. 

Therefore, even from this we see how God loves us, that not only he 
hath an inward love in his breast, and doth good to us, but he manifests it 
by word. He would have us, as I said, live by faith, and stablish ourselves 
in hope. 

Faith and hope are two graces altogether from promises. If there were 
no promise there could be no faith nor hope. What is hope ? Nothing but 
the expectation of the things that the word saith. And what is faith, but a 
building on the word of God ? Faith looks on the word that God will give 
such a thing, and hope looks upon the thing that the word promiseth : as 
the distinction is good, faith looks to the word of the thing, and hope looks 
to the thing in the word : faith looks to the word promising ; hope looks 
to the performance of the thing promised. Faith ' is the evidence of things 
not seen,' Heb. xi. 1, because it sets the things that are absent as if they 
were present ; hope is for the accomplishment of that. If there were no 
promise to hope, what needed hope ? and where were a foundation for 
faith ? Now God being willing to exercise faith and hope, feeds them 
both, and satisfies both, that we may be heavenly-wise in trusting and 
believing, and not fooUsh as men in the world. Therefore God hath given 
us promises, and sealed them with an oath, as we shall see afterward. 

Now all promises coming from love, what love can there be in God 
to us since the fall, but it must be grounded on a better foundation than 
ourselves ? If God love us, it must be in one that is first beloved : here- 
upon 

Ohs. 2. Comes the ground of the promises to he Jesus Christ, God-man. 
For all intercourse between God and us, it must be in him that is able to 
satisfy God. God will so in the covenant of grace entertain covenant and 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 885 

league with us, as that he will have his justice have full content,* he will 
be satisfied ; and therefore he that will be the foundation of intercourse be- 
tween God and us, he must be God-man, perfectly able to satisfy divine 
justice ; he must be a friend of God's and a friend to us. Hereupon the 
promises must come from God's love in Jesus Christ ; and he must first 
receive all good for us, and we must have it at the second hand from 
him. Hereupon it is said here, that ' all the promises of God in him are 
yea and amen.' 

1. It is a rule, the first in any kind is the cause of all the rest. Now 
Christ is the first beloved thing ; therefore in Col. i. 3, he is called ' the 
Son of God's love.' Christ being the only begotten Son of God, he looks 
on him first, before he looks on anything else ; and whatsoever is lovely 
he looks on it as it is in him in whom his love is first, because he being his 
only begotten Son, he is the first object of all the respect that God hath. 
Therefore, whatsoever is beloved, it is as it hath a consistence in Christ, 
Therefore Christ he must first be loved, and then we in him ; consider 
him as the Son of God. 

2. Consider him as man. He is the first beloved, being a holy man 
above all other men ; for the nature of man hath a subsistence in the 
second person in Christ. Therefore, Christ as man is beloved before all 
others, having a subsistence in his Godhead which is first beloved. He is 
the prime and most excellent creature as man. God looks first upon Christ 
as his only begotten Son, and upon Christ as man secondarily : upon the 
church in the third place as united to Christ ; and all other creatures in re- 
ference to the church. And, therefore, there was never anything in the 
world, nor shall be, that ever was or shall be loved, but in the first-beloved 
Christ Jesus. 

3. Again, Christ is first, because Christ is the mediator- between God and 
man by office. Consider what relation he hath between God and man, and 
we may easily see that God first respects him, and us for him. For Christ 
being God and man, and Mediator, therefore, between God and man, he is 
loved of both. He is a friend to both, to bring both together. He is first 
regarded as Mediator, and then we for whose cause he is Mediator. 

4. Then again, consider Christ, not as he is between God and us, hut as 
he is to us, so he is first beloved. To God, he is his first begotten ; to 
God and us a mediator. To us a head, to us a husband, to tis a brother ; 
a head from whence there is all influence of life and motion ; a husband 
from whence we have all riches. He is all in all to us in the relations he 
stands in to us. Therefore he is first in all things, as the apostle saith, 
' In all things he must have the pre-eminence,' Col. i. 18 ; and it is fit it 
should be so. 

Especially since the fall. Leave the consideration of Christ, and this may 
be a reason. Consider us since the fall, as we are in the mass of corrup- 
tion, are we fit objects for God's love ? Are we not fuel for consuming fire ? 
Is not he a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, and we stubble for his wrath ? 
Is not our nature defiled and tainted, and can it otherwise be amiable, than 
considered as knit to him that is first amiable, that is ('!i - '^ It cannot 
be. So look to Christ as the Son of God's love, whether as (vjd or as man ; 
look to his ofiice as mediator, look on him as in relation to u -^ as our hus- 
band and head ; look on us without him, you may see that God's love is 
first founded in Christ, and then in us. 

I mean in regard of execution in the passages of our salvation. For at 
* That is, 'satisfaction.' — G. 

VOL. III. B b 



886 COMMENTARY ON 

first it was a free love that gave Christ to us, and us to Christ, ♦ So God 
loved the world, that he gave his Son,' John iii. 16. That was the first 
that set all the world in execution ; but in the execution from predestina- 
tion to glorification, before all worlds he loved us in Christ to everlasting. 
From the everlasting in election, to everlasting in glory, all is in Christ in re- 
gard of execution. We subsist in him, we are sanctified in him, we are justi- 
fied in him, his righteousness is ours, we are glorified in him, we are loved 
in him ; God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in him, • God hath made 
us accepted in his beloved,' Eph. i. 5, 6 ; in him who is his beloved Son, in 
whom he is well pleased ; not only * with whom,' but ' in whom,' in him 
and all his, in him as mystical Christ, head and members. God now looks 
upon our nature as it is united to the person of his only begotten Son ; and 
thereupon our nature is lovely in the eyes of God, and enriched, and hon- 
oured, and advanced iu Christ. 

Even as a base woman by marriage with a great person is advanced ; so 
our nature being mean of itself, taking our nature when it was defiled with 
sin (though that particular mass was sanctified by the Holy Ghost), it wag 
much advanced and ennobled, by having a subsistence in the second person. 
So God looks on us in Jesus Christ, and loves us in him, and bestows all 
spiritual blessings in Christ. 

Therefore whatsoever we have, Christ must have it first for us ; whatso- 
ever is done to us, must be done first to Christ. Christ is first predestinate, 
as it is, 1 Peter i. 2. He is the predestinate Lamb of God. He was 
ordained before all worlds, to be a sacrifice for us, and to be the head of hig 
church. He was ordained before we were ordained. Christ is first beloved, 
and then we are beloved in his beloved. He is well pleased in him, and 
then in us. He is first loved, and then we. He is predestinate, and then 
we. He is the Son of God's love by nature, therefore we are sons of God's 
love by adoption and grace. What we are by adoption, he is by nature 
first of all. Therefore we are said to be elected in him, and sanctified in 
him. He fii'st of all removes all ill, and then we have it removed, because 
he hath removed it. He is first justified from our sins, he is first quitted 
and freed from our sins, when he took them upon himself, and on the tree 
satisfied the wrath of God. ' He bore our iniquities, and by his stripes we 
are healed,' Isa. liii. 5. If he had not been freed from our sins, we had for 
ever lain under them. Therefore saith St Paul, ' If Christ be not risen, you 
are yet in your sins,' 1 Cor. xv. 13, seq. We are free from our sins, because 
Christ our surety is out of the prison of the grave. He is in heaven. 

He must first rise from the dead. ' He is the first fruits of them that 
sleep ; the first begotten from the dead,' Rev. i. 5 ; 1 Cor. xv. 20. For 
though some rose before, yet it was in the virtue of Christ, who rose alto- 
gether by his own strength. Therefore he hath made a * living way' to 
heaven. ' We are born again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ 
from the dead,' 1 Peter i. 3. We have a lively hope, a hope that makes 
us lively in good works, because our surety is in heaven. Now we hope 
for an inheritance immortal and undefiled. Because he is risen, we shall 
rise. He is ascended, therefore we shall ascend. We do ascend in the 
certainty of faith now, and shall ascend indeed hereafter. 

Whatsoever we do, he doth it first ; and whatsoever we have from God, 
it is at the second hand. He hath it first, and conveys it to us ; the natural 
Son to the adopted sons. Therefore all the promises come to be made in 
him, and not directly to us alone abstracted from Christ. 

Use. It is a point we should often think of, and seriously consider of ; 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20, 387 

for it doth wondrously stablisli our hearts. Doth God love me, and doth 
he do good to me abstracted from Christ, myself alone ? No ; for then, 
alas ! I should fly from his presence ; but he looks upon me, and considera 
me as I am in his Son. Therefore in John xvii. 24, in that blessed prayer 
of Christ, saith he, ' That thou mayest love them with the same love where- 
with thou lovest me.' God loves us with the same love that he loves his 
Son with. ' That the love wherewith thou lovest me, may be in them.' 
He loves him first, and then he loves us with that love that he loves him. 
Here is the reason that God looks on us with a forbearing eye, notwith- 
standing all the matter of anger and wrath in us. He looks on us in his 
Son, as members of his Son. His love to us is founded on his love to hia 
Son. 

Hereupon back again is our boldness to God the Father, that we go to 
him in his beloved Son, and present his Son to him. Lord, look on thy 
Son that thou hast given for us, in whom we are members. We are not as 
in ourselves, but in thy beloved. For as all things descend from God to us, 
so our souls should ascend to him. All descends from God to us, in his 
Son. Why ! all our comfortable considerations of God must be in his Son 
Christ. Thereupon we have boldness to God through him, not in ourselves 
but in and through Christ. Let us bring ' Benjamin,' Gen. xlii. 36, seq., 
with us, bring Christ, and then we shall be welcome. If we come in the 
garments of our Elder Brother, then we shall get the blessing. 

But of ourselves God cannot endure to look on us ; therefore this is a 
heathenish conceit m our prayers, to presume to go to God otherwise than 
he hath clothed himself with the comfortable relation of a Father in Christ. 
If we consider him as a just God, as a God of vengeance, as a holy God, 
the more it makes to our terror, if we be not besotted. But go to him as 
he is now in his Son Christ, and go boldly. The heathens otherwise con- 
ceived wavering and doubtingly of a God ; alas ! conceiving him out of 
Christ, he was nothing but a ' consuming fire ' to them, Heb. xii. 29. 

How dares that man that knows himself, and that knows God, how dares 
he think of God ? He thinks basely of God, that can think of him, and 
not think of him as he is to him in Christ. Barest thou think of God who 
is a ' consuming fire,' and not think of him as he is pleased and pacified in 
thy nature in Christ, that hath taken thy nature to be a foundation of com- 
fort, to be a ' second Adam,' a public person for all that are in him, and 
members of him ? To see God fully appeased in him who is God-man, 
thou mayest think of him with comfort then. Never think of the promises 
of grace or comfort, or anything without Christ. 

Therefore St Paul saith, ' Now to Abraham and his seed was the promise 
made ; he saith not to seeds, as to many, but to thy seed,' Gal. iii. 16 ; as 
speaking of one, even Christ. All the promises of good to us are made to 
Chi'ist, and conveyed from Christ to us ; the promises, and likewise the 
things promised. ' He hath promised to us eternal Hfe, and this life is in 
his Son,' 1 John v. 11 ; and so grace, and whatsoever, it is in him. The 
promises and the things promised they are conveyed from God to Christ, 
and so to us. They are a deed of gift. We have them from and by Christ. 
Why are the angels attendants upon us ? The angels attend upon Jacob's 
ladder, that is, Christ. It is he that knits heaven and earth together ; so 
the angels, because they attend upon Christ first, they become our attend- 
ants. Whatsoever we are, whatsoever pri-\dleges we have, it is in Christ 
first. It belongs to us no further than we by faith are made one with Christ. 
Thus we see whatsoever we have from God, it is by promises. And these 



888 COMMENTARY ON 

promises are not abstracted from love, for they are the fruits of love ; and 
this love is seated in Christ, who hath satisfied God's justice. We have 
promises, and promises in Christ. 

Obs. 3. In the thii'd place, the apnsile saith that all the projnises of God in 
hbn are yea. They are constant and sure in him ; they shall be performed. 

All promises are either Christ himself, or by Christ, or from Christ, or 
for Christ. All promises that ever were made to God's people, they were 
either of Christ himself, when he was promised, or such as were promised 
for Christ. The promise of Christ himself is the first grand promise, that 
he should be made man, the promise in his own person. But whatsoever 
promise was made by the prophets and apostles, they were made by his 
Spirit, they were made for him, for his sake, and in him, and they were 
made to those that are in him too. For as God's love is founded in him 
to those that are in him mystically as the Son of his love, so the promises 
are made and given over to him of all good. He takes all the promises of 
good from God for us, and then they are made to us as we are in him. 

He himself is the first promise that runs along in all the Scripture ; and 
all the promises of Christ are ' yea ; ' for whatsoever was promised of Christ 
before he came, it was fulfilled when he came. For all types were ful- 
filled in him, and all prophecies, and all promises, they were all accom- 
plished in him. 

I. All types, whether 'personal or real. 

1. "F ox personal types, he was the ' second Adam.' Adam was a type of 
him. He is the true Adam. He was the true Isaac, the ground of 
laughter.* He is the true Joseph, advanced now to the kingdom, to the 
right hand of God. He is the steward of his church, to feed his church 
here, and bring her to heaven with himself afterward. He is the true 
Joshua, that brought Israel out of the wilderness to Canaan. He brings us 
from Moses, from the law, to heaven. He is the true Joshua, that brings us 
through Jordan, from death and miseries in this world to heaven. He is 
the true Solomon, the prince of peace. f So all personal types of kings and 
priests, as Aaron was a type of him, &c., they were yea in him, they were 
fulfilled in him. 

2. And all real types.X He is the true * mercy- seat' wherein God would 
be heard and prayed unto, for he covers the law, the curse of it, as the 
mercy- seat did. He is the true ' brazen serpent,' that whosoever looks on 
him with the eye of faith, * shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' 
John iii. 15. He is the true * manna,' the bread of life. That type had its 
* yea' in Christ. He is the true sacrifice, * the passover lamb,' the lamb 
of God ' that takes away the sins of the world,' John i. 29. If our hearts 
be sprinkled with his blood, the destroying angel hath nothing to do with 
us. The passover hath its ' yea' in him. Therefore that which is affirmed 
of the passover is affirmed of him, ' Not a bone of it shall be broken,' Ps, 
xxxiv. 20. That is attributed to Christ that was performed in the type. 
That is appHed to Christ that was spoken of the passover ; to signify the 
identity of the type, and the thing signified. He was the yea of that, and of 
all comfortable types that were real, and personal, all have their 'yea' in him. 

Therefore saith our Saviour Christ, the last words of his almost upon the 
cross, * All is finished,' John xix. 80, all the types real and personal. 

II. And all promises and projohecies have their ' yea ' in Christ. The first 

* That is, the name Isaac means ' laughter.' — G. 
t That is, the name Solomon means 'peace.' — G. 
X That is, 'typical things.' — Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 389 

promise, what was it but Christ? 'The seed of the woman shall break the 
serpent's head,' Gen. iii. 15. It was nothing but Christ, it was ' yea' when 
he was born; and when he died he crushed the serpent's head. ' By death 
he overcame him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,' Heb. ii. 14. 
So the promise that was renewed to Abraham, ' In thy seed shall all nations 
of the earth be blessed,' Gen. xii. 3, that is, in Christ. And so to Da-vid, 
that he should come out of his family. And that particular promise of 
Isaiah, ' that a virgin should conceive,' Isa. vii. 14. And the Baptist points 
him out, ' Behold the Lamb of God,' John i. 29. All the particular things 
that befell Christ in time, they were prophesied of before, and Christ was 
the ' yea ' of all, that is, all had their determinate truth in Christ when he 
came. This is one reason why St Paul saith, ' All the promises in Christ 
are yea.' Whatsoever was promised concerning Christ, or foretold, it was 
' yea ' in him, concerning his birth, and the place of it ; concerning his 
death, and the manner of it ; concerning his resurrection and ascension ; 
concerning his offices, all was foretold. As we see in Scripture, in the 
New Testament, it is the foot of divers verses, that ' it might be fulfilled ;' 
so this that was foretold in the Old, it was fulfilled in the New. So Christ 
is the first promise, and whatsoever was said of him is ' yea and amen.' 
Whatsoever was spoken of Christ, it was * yea' in the Old Testament and 
' amen ' in the New ; it was made to them in the Old Testament and per- 
formed in the New. 

And what is the Old and New Testament but this syllogism ? He is the 
blessed seed, that is, the Son of the Virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem, that 
shall come in the end of Daniel's weeks, that shall come when the sceptre 
shall be departed from Judah, &c. He is the true Messiah, the true Christ, saith 
the Old Testament. Here is the ' yea.' ' Amen,' saith the New Testa- 
ment to this. But Christ is the Son of the Virgin Mary, he suffered these 
things that it might be fulfilled. So all is * amen' in the New Testament. 
I say, this is the main reason that all is built on. He in whom all these 
agree is the true Messiah. But, saith the New Testament, all these are 
* amen ' in Christ. Therefore Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary, he is 
the true Messiah. We see whatsoever was prophesied concerning Christ 
himself, was ' yea.' 

III. And not only so, but all the prerogatives and good things that come by 
Christ are ' yea.' They are undoubted in Christ, and they were * yea' be- 
fore he was. He profited before he was. He was ' yea' to Adam. Be- 
cause, however he that was the seed of the woman came not till the latter 
end of the world, till four thousand years after the beginning or there- 
abouts, yet the faith of Adam and of Abraham made him present. Abraham 
' saw Christ's day, and rejoiced,' John viii. 56. There was a virtue from 
Christ to all former ages. They all had benefit by Christ, as it is proved 
at large, Heb. xi. And in Acts xv. 11, ' We hope to be saved by Christ, 
as well as they,' insinuating that they hoped to be saved by Christ as well 
as we. So he was 'yea' for comfort to all that were before him, as well 
as now. All the promises were ' yea,' even to the patriarchs and prophets. 
Even as if a man should undertake three or four years hence to pay a 
debt that is due by one that is subject to be carried to prison, and on that 
condition that this man shall be freed. I undertake at such a time to pay 
such a debt. So though the debt be paid three or four years hence, he is let 
go free that was obnoxious to go to prison for the debt, though it be to be 
paid after. So it was with Christ. He, the second person in the Trinity, un- 
dertook, being so appointed by God the Father. The blessed Trinity stab- 



890 COMMENTARY ON 

lished this, that Christ should pay the debt by death ; the debt to di\ane 
justice should be satisfied by the cursed death of the cross, that those that 
before should have gone to hell else for the debt, should be all freed that 
had any part and interest by faith in Christ, who should pay the debt after- 
wards. Christ undertook at such a time to be incarnate, and to pay it for 
us. God the Father to whom we were obnoxious, that was the creditor for 
the payment of that, four thousand years after, let them go. So Christ was 
yea to them, they had benefit bj' Christ's death. 

Hereupon the prophets spake of him as a thing present, * To us a Son 
is born, to us a child is given,' Isa. ix. 6. Faith mounts over many years, 
six hundred years before Christ in the prophet it mounted, and made the 
time of Christ's coming and his death to be present ; because they had 
benefit by him as if he had been present. Only with this diffierence, in the 
time present when Christ came in the flesh they had some comfortable en- 
largement of grace. When he came in the flesh, I say, there was a new 
world as it were, there was grace poured out in abundance. 

So you see that all the promises concerning Christ, they were performed ; 
they were ' yea and amen,' and the good things by Christ. St Paul saith 
excellently, Heb. xiii. 8, * Christ yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' 
Yesterday to the patriarchs, to-day for the present time he is 'yea,' and for 
the time to come he is ' yea,' the same alway. 

He is yea to all ages. He is yea to us as well as to those that were in 
Christ's time. Christ is then crucified to thee, when thou believest in 
Christ crucified. If we now by faith look to Christ, crucified and sent 
from his Father to take our nature on him, we have as much benefit by 
Christ as those that beheld him crucified. As they before looked for- 
wards by the eye of faith, so we look backward. We have benefits by 
Christ. He is ' yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' * All the pro- 
mises are yea in him,' that is, they are constantly ' yea' for all ages. The 
promises of Christ, as the spirits in the body, they run through all ages of 
the church. Without him there is no love, nor mercy, nor comfort from 
God. As I said before, God cannot look on our cursed nature out of 
Christ ; therefore whosoever will apprehend anything merciful in God, 
must apprehend it in Christ the promised seed. ' All the promises in him 
are yea.' 

He is called Lofjos, the word. Why is he so ? Both actively and pas- 
sively. Actively, ' the word,' because how should we ever have known the 
inind in the breast of God, hidden and sealed there, unless Christ had been 
the Logos, the word ? For a word is expressed from reason, and there is 
a word that is essential, that is reason, Logos ; and so the word coming 
from it, speech, the issue of reason. So Christ is the essential word, by 
nature and by office the word, to discover the inward will and purpose of 
God to us. All the promises of God are discovered by Christ, as the Angel 
of the covenant. And passively he is the word, Logos, of whom all the 
prophets spake, as Peter saith. Acts iii. 18, who was fore-signified by all the 
types, as I shewed. Christ he is truly all in all. 

Use. It is a comfortable way to study Christ this way ; to see him fore- 
told in the Old Testament, and to see the accomplishment in the New ; to 
parallel the Old and New Testament. It is an excellent way of studying 
the gospel. For we know men are delighted to know divers things at once. 
When a man's knowledge is enriched divers ways at once, it delights him, 
as when a man knows the history of a thing, and the truth with it ; when 
he knows a promise, and the truth ; a type, and the truth, how doth it 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 891 

delight ! When a man sees the type in the Old, and the truth in the New, 
the history there, the promise and the accomplishment here, it is a wondrous 
delightful thing. For why doth proportion delight the eye, but because it 
is an agreement of difi'erent things, a sweet harmony of difierent things ? 
Why doth music so please the ear ? Because it is a harmony of different 
things. When we see a type different from the truth performed, and a 
promise different from the performance, and yet a sweet agreement, from 
agreement a man is delighted. A man is not delighted with colours as 
colours, but as they hold proportion with the rest of the body ; he is not 
delighted with a limb as a limb, but as it holds proportion with the man ; if 
there be no proportion and comeliness, it delights not. So in this case it 
is good to consider both together. God therefore for this end and pur- 
pose would have truths conveyed in the Old Testament, by way of types, 
and prophecies, and promises, that it might delight us now to hear them, 
and to study them the more ; for, as I said, when we know many things at 
once, it is delightiul. 

That is the reason why comparisons and allusions are so delightful, be- 
cause we know the comparison, and the thing to which it is compared. 
And that is the reason why our Saviour Christ, besides types and figures, 
and promises and prophecies, is set out by whatsoever is excellent in nature 
in the Scriptures. There is nothing in nature that is excellent, but there 
is something taken from it to set forth the excellency of Christ. He is the 
'Sun of righteousness;' he is the 'water,' he is the 'way,' he is the 
' bread,' he is the ' vine,' he is the ' tree of life.' Whatsoever is excellent 
in nature, either in heaven or earth, it seiwes to set forth the excellency of 
Christ. Why ? To delight us, that we may be willing and cheerful to think 
of Christ ; that together with the consideration of the excellency of the 
creature, some sweet meditation of Christ, in whom all those excellencies 
are knit together, might be presented to the soul. When we see the sun, 
oft to think of that blessed Sun that quickens and enlivens all things, 
and scatters the mists of ignorance. When we look on a tree, to think of 
the Tree of righteousness ; on the way, to think of him the Way ; of life, of 
him that is the true Life. When we think of anything that is excellent, 
think of God's love in Scripture to set out Christ, that he would shadow him 
in all ; for he is the true Sun. All creatures must vanish ere long, and 
whatsoever is excellent in the creature ; and what will stand then ? Only 
he in whom all these excellencies are comprised in one. ' All the promises 
in him are yea and amen.' 

If this be true then, that the promise of Christ himself, who is the chief 
good promised, is in the New Testament ' amen,' all of him is ' yea and 
amen,' then comes this as a deducted truth, all other promises must needs 
be ' yea and amen.' For God, he that performed the gi'and promise in 
giving Christ in the fulness of time, will for Christ's sake perform all other 
promises. Therefore the incarnation, the life, the death, and resurrection 
of Christ our blessed Saviour, it is a pawn and pledge to us of the per- 
formance of all things to come. 

God promised to the Jews that they should come out of Babylon, he pro- 
mised that he would deliver them from the enemy ; and he usually prefixeth 
this promise, ' A virgin shall conceive and bear a son,' Isa. vii. 14 ; and ' to 
us a child is bom, and a son is given,' Isa. ix. 6 ; to signify, that therefore 
they should have deliverance, because God would give them a better thing 
than that. He would give them Christ, in whom all the promises are ' yea 
and amen ;' and because Christ should come of that people, they should not 



892 COMiIE^'TARY ON 

miscany in captivity under tlieir enemies ; for then how should Christ come 
of them ? 

Therefore because * a virgin should conceive,' and because * a Child shall 
be born, and a Son given,' therefore you shall have outward deliverance. 
All other things are ' yea and amen ' for Christ, as St Paul divinely reasons, 

* If he spared not his only begotten Son, but gave him to death for us all, 
how shall he not with him give us all things else ? ' Rom. viii. 32. All 
other promises are made in Christ and performed for him. And since the 
grand promise itself is now ' amen,' that Christ is come, it is a pledge of 
all other things that are to come. Is Christ come in the flesh according to 
the promise ? Hath he done all and sufi'ered all according to the pro- 
phecies, as it was written of him ? Then why shall we not look for the 
accomplishment of all that are to come, on the same ground ? Have we 
not a pledge ? Why shall we not look for the resurrection of the body, for 
the day of judgment, for the second coming of Christ ? Is not his first 
coming a pledge of it ? 

When God is become man, and was mortal, why should we doubt that 
man being mortal should be immortal ? Is not the greater performed 
already ? Is it not a greater matter for God to become man, and to die in 
our nature, than for we that are mortal to become immortal by Christ ? 
Why should we not expect that which is to come, since the greater is done ? 
Why should we doubt that we shall be taken up to God, since he is come 
down to man ? Therefore, since it is upon the same ground, let us look 
for the performance of all to be ' yea and amen.' 

Since the coming of Christ, many promises have been performed in the 
church, and many yet remain. Some have been performed, as the calling 
of the Gentiles, and the discovery* of antichrist foretold by St Paul, and 
the consuming of him in part. There is somewhat unfulfilled : the con- 
version of the Jews, the confusion of antichrist, the resurrection to glory 
with Christ, &c. Why should we doubt of them that are to come, having 
such a pledge of truth of God and Christ in the real performance of that 
which is past ? Let us not doubt of it ; for in Rev, xvi. 17, et alibi, when 
he speaks of the destruction of antichrist, ' It is done, it is done,' saith the 
angel. As Christ said when he was on the cross, all was finished, so it is as 
true of his adversaries, all is done ; it is as sure as if it were done already. 

Therefore the church and people of God should comfort themselves for 
the time to come, in the destruction of the implacable, malicious enemies of 
the church, that glory in the flesh, that set up an outward religion that is 
opposite to the power of Christ, that the time shall come that all shall be 
done to them, and that all other promises shall be finished. For as in the 
first coming of Christ all was finished for the working of our salvation, so 
in his second coming there will be a time when it will be said, all is finished, 
for the accomplishment of that which was done in his first coming. There- 
fore let us stablish our souls in the expectation of the blessed promises, for 

* all the promises in Christ are yea and amen,' and shall be for ever. 

All the promises are infallibly true, as God and Christ himself is true. 
Christ shall as soon fail, and God shall as soon fail, as any promise that 
we have made us in the gospel, if we apprehend it in Christ, and beheve it 
in Christ. 

Use 1. Then here you see for the direction of our judgment, what to think 
of a rotten opinion that some have that are unacquainted with divine truth, 
and the all- sufficiency of Christ, and the mercy of God in Christ, that consider 
* That is, ' manifestation,' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20- 393 

not the vileness of our nature, and the infinite majesty of God. They will 
have the Gentiles saved by the light of nature, and the Jews by the law of 
Moses, and Christians by the gospel of Christ ; as if there were some other 
means to come to heaven, and to the favour of God, than by Christ. Whereas 
now all that we have must be by promises, and all the promises we have 
are in Christ. They are all yea in him. Without him there is no inter- 
course between the majesty of God and us. Therefore * there is no name 
under heaven whereby we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus,' Acts iv. 
12 ; which not only confutes the devilish opinion and conceit that some have, 
but also the charitable error of others, that think the heathens that never 
heard of Christ shall be saved. I leave them to their Judge. We must 
go to the Scriptures. All the promises are in Christ, in him they are * yea,' 
in him they are made; in him they are ' amen,' in him they are performed. 
Out of him we have nothing, out of the promises in him we have nothing. 

Use 2. How we are to magnify God that we live in the sunshine of the 
gospel, that in Christ we have precious and rich promises ! A precious 
Saviour we have, and precious faith to lay hold on him, and precious pro- 
mises ; all precious, both promises to be believed, and our Saviour in whom 
they are apprehended. He is ' a precious stone,' 1 Pet. ii. 6 ; and the 
faith that lays hold on him is * precious,' 1 Pet. i. 7. How are we to bless 
God that we have these advantages ! that we have Christ laid open, and 
precious and rich promises, whereby we may have precious faith to lay hold 
on these precious promises ? We are much to bless God for it. 

Use 3. Again, are all the promises of God in Christ, and in him yea and 
amen ? This should direct us in our dealing icith God, not to go directly to 
Mm, but by a promise ; and when we have a promise, look to Christ in whom 
it is performed. Go to God in the blessed promises that we have for Christ's 
sake, that he would perform all. ' If we ask anything of God in Christ's 
name, we shall receive it,' 1 John v. 14, because the promises are in him. 
If we thank God for anything, it must be in Christ, for that we have in him. 

What a comfort is this, that we may go to God in Christ, and claim the 
promises boldly ; because we see out of the love he bears to Christ, he 
loves us, and hath made us promises in him, and as verily as he loves him, 
so he loves us, and will perform all his gracious promises to us ? If we 
lay fast hold on Christ, I say, he can as soon alter his love to Christ as to 
us ; for he loves us with the same love that he loves Christ with, he loves 
us in his beloved. He hath ' blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him,* 
Eph. i. 3, he hath made us sons in him that is the natural Son ; and as 
his love is unchangeable to his Son, so it is to us in Christ. 

If a prince's love to any man be founded and grounded upon the love he 
bears to his son, if he loves his son he loves such a man, because his son 
loves him. Surely he may have great comfort that it will hold ! Because 
his affection is natural and unalterable, he will alway love his son. There- 
fore he will love him whom his son loves alway. Now Christ is the Son of 
God, he loves us in his Son ; he hath given us rich promises in his Son. 
He hath given him the first promise, and all other promises of forgiveness 
of sins, and life everlasting in and through him. As long as he loves Christ, 
he will love us, and as sure as he loves Christ, he will love us. 

Nothing in the world can separate his love from his own Son, and no- 
thing in the world can separate God's love from us, because it is in his 
Son. Christ loves his mystical body as well as his natural body ; and 
God loves the mystical body of Christ as he loves his natural body. He 
hath advanced that to glory at his right hand, and will he leave his mysti- 



894 OOMMENTAKY ON 

cal body the church ? Will he not advance that ? Doth he not love whole 
Christ ? Yes ! God loves whole Christ. Our nature that he hath taken 
to him, it is the chief thing, the most lovely thing in heaven or earth, next 
to God ; and he loves all that are in him, his mystical body. For indeed 
he gave us to Christ. He hath sealed and anointed him. He is anointed 
by God the Father for us. 

Upon what an unchangeable, eternal ground is the love of God built, 
and the faith of a Christian ! How can the gates of hell prevail against 
the faith of a Christian, when it carries him to the promises, and from the 
promises to the love of God, and from thence to Christ, upon whom the 
love of God is founded ? Before the faith of a Christian can be shaken, 
the promises must be of no effect, they must be ' yea and nay,' and not 

• yea.' And if the promises be shaken, the love of God must be uncertain, 
and Christ uncertain. Heaven and earth must be overturned to overturn 
the faith of a Christian. There is nothing in the world that is so firm as 
a believing Christian, that casts himself on the promises, that are alway 

* yea ; ' and to make them ' yea,' they are founded on Christ, the Son of 
God's love. 

Well, these promises, coming from such love, may be ranked into divers 
ranks. I will touch some of them, to shew how we are to carry ourselves, 
to make comfortable use of this, that ' all the promises are yea and amen 
in Christ.' 

(1.) There are some universal promises, for the good of all mankind; as 
that God would never destroy the world again. Or (2.) promises that 
concern more j^articidarhj his church. And those are promises either of 
outward things, or of spiritual and eternal things, of grace and glory. 

Now, for the manner of promising, they admit of this distinction : all 
the promises that God hath made to us, either (1.) they are absolute, with- 
out any condition. So was Christ. God promised Christ, let the woi'ld 
be as it will, Christ did and would have come. And so the promise of his 
glorious coming, he will come, let men be as they will. There will be a 
resurrection. Some promises (2.) be conditional in the manner of pro- 
pounding, but yet absolute in the real performance of them. As, for ex- 
ample, the promises of grace and glory to God's children. The promise of 
forgiveness of sins, — God will forgive their sins if they believe, if they repent. 
They are propounded conditionally, but in the performance they are abso- 
lute, because God performs the covenant himself; he performs our part 
and his own too. For since Christ, though he propounded the promises of 
the gospel with conditions, yet he performs the condition ; he stirs us up 
to attend upon the means, and by his Spirit in the word he works faith 
and repentance, which is the condition. Faith and repentance is his gift. 

He ' writes his law in our hearts,' Jer. xxxi. 33, and teacheth us how to 
love. So, though they be conditionally propounded (for God deals with 
men as men by way of commerce, — he propounds it by way of covenant and 
condition), yet in the covenant of grace, which is truly a gracious covenant, 
he not only gives the good things, but he performs the condition, by the 
Spirit working our hearts to believe and to repent. 

Again, there are promises not only propounded conditionally, of grace 
and comfort, but of outxvard things. AH outward things are promised con- 
ditionally, as thus : God hath promised protection from contagious sick- 
nesses, from war, and troubles. General promises there are of protection 
everj'where. * God will be a hiding-place,' Ps. xci. 2, and he will deliver 
his children. There are private promises, and then positive promises, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 395 

that he will do this and that good for them ; but these are conditional, so 
far forth as in his wise providence he sees it may serve spiritual good 
things, grace and the inward man. For God takes liberty in our outward 
estate, and in our bodies to afflict them, or to do them good, as may serve 
the main. 

For do what we wiU, these bodies will turn to dust and vanity, and we 
must leave the world behind us ; but God looks to the main state in Christ, 
to the new creature. Therefore as far as outward blessings may encourage 
us, and as far as deliverances may help the main, so far he will grant them, 
or else he denies them. He takes liberty in outward things. 

Therefore that sort of promises they are conditional, with exception of 
necessary affliction. For we cannot have the blessings of this Ufe positive 
or privative, we cannot be delivered always, and have blessings, but our 
corrupt nature is such, that except we have somewhat to season them, we 
shall surfeit of them : we cannot digest them, and therefore they are all 
with the exception of the cross.* As Christ saith, he that doth anything 
for him, he shall have ' an hundredfold here,' Mat. xix. 29, but with afflic- 
tion and persecutions ; he shall be sure of that ; whatsoever else he hath, 
let him look for that. All the crosses we have in the world are to season 
the good things of this life. Many other distinctions and differences we 
might have to lay open the kinds of promises in Scriptm-e ; but this shall 
suffice to give you a taste. Now, all these are made in Chi'ist, and per- 
formed in Christ, so far forth as is for our good. 

Use. Are all the promises, of what kind soever, spiritual or outward, 
temporal and eternal — are they all made to us in Jesus Christ, and are they 
certain, yea and amen in him ? Then make this use of it, let us renew our 
former exhortation, yet into Christ by all means ; for out of him we have no- 
thing savingly good. 

Ohj. But you will say. Doth not God do many good things to them that 
are out of Christ ? Doth not the rain fall upon the ill as well as the 
good ? And doth not he ' fill the bellies of the wicked with good things ? ' 
Ps. xvii. 14. 

Ans. Yes, he doth, he doth ! But are they blessings ? No ! they are 
not. But as God saith to Moses, if you do this and this Ul, * I will curse 
you in your dough, I will curse you at home and abroad, I will curse you 
in your children,' &c., Deut. xxvii., xxviii. They are cursed in their bless- 
ings, Mai. ii. 2. There is no man that is a carnal, brutish man, but though 
he live and have revenues and pleasures, he is cursed in his blessings. For 
what ? Is he made for this life only ? No ! he is but ' fatted on to the day 
of destruction ; ' they are ' snares ' to him, Josh, xxiii. 13. How do you 
know they are snares ? Because they make him secure and careless of 
the worship of God ; they make him profane, they make him despise the 
power of religion. A man may see by his conversation they are snares. 
They are not promises in Chi'ist, for then they would come to him out of 
God's love. Therefore get into Christ, rest not in anything abstracted 
from Christ. Let us not rest in any blessing except we have it in God's 
love in Christ. 

And I may know that I have anything in this world, any deliverance 
from ill, or any positive good thing from God's love in Christ, if I have it 
with a heart wrought on to the best things, to value Christ, and to account 
all dung in comparison of him. When I esteem my being in Christ above 
all beings, above being rich, or honourable, or in favour, alas ! this I know 
* That is, the crosa ia to be always on the other side of the balance. — En. 



396 COMMENTAKY ON 

is fading ; but my being in Christ is *yea and amen,' that will stand by me 
when all these beings will fail. This is comfortable, if I can do this, and 
have other things, I have them with the love of God and Christ, Let us 
get into Christ therefore. 

For this purpose, attend upon the means of salvation, that the word may 
be effectual, by his Spirit accompanjnng his own ordinance, to open the 
excellencies of Christ to us, to make us love him, and get our affections into 
him. How ai"e we in Christ ? By Imowing him ; and then knowledge 
carries our heai'ts. For our wills cleave to that that we know to be excel- 
lent and necessary. Christ is discovered as excellent and necessary, and 
so the will cleaves to him as a good so discovered ; and the affections fol- 
low the will. When the will cleaves to Christ as excellent and necessary, 
then I love him, then I rest on him, then I have peace in him. I may 
know that I am in Christ, upon my knowledge of him and cleaving to him, 
and finding peace in my conscience. For he that is in Christ hath rest. 
Faith in Christ hath a resting, stablishing power. If I be in Christ, my 
soul rests ; for I know that all is ' yea and amen in him.' My soul rests 
in him. Whatsoever I find in the world to unsettle me ; things are amiss, 
and otherwise than I would have them ; but I rest in the love of God in 
Christ. Let us get into Christ by knowledge ; let the will follow that, and 
our affections follow that ; and then v/e shall find the rest and peace that 
will secure us that indeed we are in Christ. 

Alas ! what is a man out of Christ ? As a man in a storm, that hath no 
clothes to hide his nakedness, to cover him from the violence of the storm : 
as a man in a tempest, that is out of a house to hide him : as a stone out 
of the foundation, that is scattered here and there as neglected : as a branch 
out of the vine, out of the root, what shape is in such a branch ? It will bo 
cast into the fire afterwards. A man out of Christ, that is not clothed 
with him, that is not built on him, and settled on him, and planted in him, 
he is a man destitute. We pity such men's cases in the world ; but if we 
had spiritual eyes to look on these men, on profane civil wretches, that 
pride themselves in a little morahty, and have scarce that perhaps, and 
neglect grace, and the mystery of Christ, such a man deserves pity. There 
is but a step between him and hell, if he be out of Christ, and hve and die 
60 ; and at the day of Christ he will account him so. 

Oh! saith St Paul, Philip, iii. 8, ' I account all dung and dross in compa- 
rison of Christ, not having my own righteousness, but to be found in him,' 
having the righteousness of God in Christ. happy man in death, and at 
the day of judgment, that is found in Christ, and not in himself, not in his 
own righteousness ; though that there must be, not to give us title to 
heaven. The best thing is to be found in Christ, to have his righteousness 
and obedience. That is so excellent that St Paul accounted all ' dung and 
dross' in comparison of that, to be found in that. Get into Christ by all 
means ; for in him all the promises are * yea and amen ; ' not out of him. 

Use. If so be all the promises be * yea and amen' in Christ, then here 
again see the stability of a Christian's estate, that hath promises to uphold 
him. Compare it with a man that hath present things only, with an Esau 
that hath the things of this life, Heb. xii. 16. The men of this world, as 
the psalmist calls them, they have present things, they have perfonnance ; 
he gives them their portion here, as he saith to Dives, ' Thou hadst thy 
good,' Luke xvi. 25 ; that which thou caredst for, thou hadst it here ; and 
Lazarus had pain, and misery, and poverty here. Now the case is altered : 
ho is advanced, and thou art tormented. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 897 

A Christian, as a Christian, he hath a great many promises. Some of 
them are performed ; for God is deUvering him, and comforting him, and 
protecting him, and speaking peace to his conscience ; but the greatest part 
are yet to be performed, the perfection of grace and glory to come. He is 
a child of the promise, a son of the promise, here is his estate. Another 
man hath present payment, and that is all he cares for ; he hath some- 
thing, and he swells in the conceit of that, that he is somebody. What is 
the difference ? what hath the one but a great deal of nothing ? what saith 
Solomon, that had tried all the world ? ' All is vanity and vexation of spirit,' 
Eccles. i. 2. All is uncertain, and we are uncertain in the use of them, 
if we have no better life than the life of nature. But the promises they 
are ' yea,' they are certain, they contain undoubted certain good things, 
that will stick by us when all else will leave us. 

A Christian, take him, and strip him in your thoughts from all the good 
things in the world, he is a happier man than the greatest monarch in the 
world out of Christ. "Why ? He hath nothing but present things, with a 
great deal of addition of misery : and his greatness makes him more sen- 
sible of his misery. It makes him more tender and apprehensive than 
other men. The other he wants many comforts of this life, he wants the 
performance ; he is rich in bills and bonds. God is bound to him, he hath 
promised he ' will not forsake him,' Deut. iv. 31 ; but he will be his God 
in hfe, to death, and for everlasting. He hath title to all the promises, 
' GodHness hath the promises of this life, and of that which is to come,' 
1 Tim. iv. 8. Happy man ! he hath so much performance for the present, 
as is useful for his safe conduct to bring him to heaven ! He shall have 
daily bread : he that will give him a kingdom, will not deny him bread ; he 
that will give him a country, will give him safe conduct. And besides that 
he hath here by performance, he hath rich and precious promises, and they 
are all ' yea and amen,' they are certain. 

His life is uncertain, his estate in the world is changeable here, his life 
is as a vapour ; and the comforts of life are less than life. When life 
itself, the foundation of these comforts, is but a vapour, so uncertain, what 
are all the comforts of life ? yet a Christian hath comfort here, the promises 
are invested into him, and lodged in his heart, and made his own by faith. 
f- Faith hath a wondrous peculiarising virtue. It makes a man own that 
which is generally propounded in the gospel. Now faith making the 
promises his own, and they are certain. A Christian, take him at all un- 
certainties, he hath somewhat to build on, that is ' yea and amen,' that is 
undoubtedly constant and certain, that will stick by him when all things 
fail him. 

I speak this, to commend the estate of a believing, repentant Christian, 
to make you in love with it. In all the changes and varieties in this world, 
a Christian hath somewhat to take to. And likewise in all the dangers of 
this life, he hath a rock to go to, a hiding-place. God hath chambers of 
providence, as it is, Isa. xxvi. 20, he bids the church ' come into thy cham- 
bers.' God hath a hiding-place, and secret rooms to hide children in, 
when it is good for them, in the time of pestilence and war, in the time of 
public disturbance ; when there is a confusion of all things, ' come into thy 
chambers.' God is a resting-place and a hiding-place. He is styled so 
everywhere in the Psalms : Ps. xviii. 2, ' my rock and my shield,' as if David 
had said, I have many troubles in the world, but in God is my defence ; 
for he is my rock, my shield, and all. Whatsoever is defensive, I have it 
in him. 



803 COMMENTARY ON 

What a comfort is this in all dangers ! a Christian knows either he shall 
be safe here or in heaven ; and, therefore, he doth rest. ' He dwells in 
the secret of the Almighty,' Ps. xci. 1, that is, in the love and the protec- 
tection of God Almighty ; and as Moses saith, ' Thou art our habitation 
from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. xc. 1, that is, God is a dwelling-place 
for him that builds on his promise ; for God and his word are all one. 
' Thou art our dwelling-place,' &c. He saw they dropped away in the 
wilderness by the wrath of God, as we do now by the pestilence,* and 
Moses made that psalm. He took occasion to meditate of the frailty of 
man's life. We are as grass, as a tale that is told ; but what is our estate 
in God, in the promises ? ' Thou art ovir habitation from everlasting to 
everlasting,' Ps. xc. 2. We dwell not long in the world, sickness may come 
and sweep us away, but * thou art our habitation.' We dwell in God when 
we are dead, when we are out of the world ; we dwell in God in Christ for 
ever. Our estate in Christ is an everlasting estate. Therefore in Psalm 
cxii. 7, the Psalmist saith of the righteous man there, ' that he is not 
troubled for ill news.' He is not senseless, he is very sensible ; but yet 
notwithstanding he is not shaken from his rest, from his rock and stay for 
no ill news or tidings, why ? The Psalmist gives the reason, * his heart is 
fixed.' Upon what foundation ? Upon the promises and providence of Go5. 
God hath promised to provide for him. He is his Father ; and, therefore, 
he is not afraid of ill tidings. 

What a blessed estate then is it to be in Christ, and to have promises in 
Christ to be protected and preserved here, so as is for our good, and to 
have such a state in God, for him to be our habitation and hiding-place 
from everlasting to everlasting ! If our hearts be fixed here, let us hear of 
ill tidings, of war, of this sickness and contagion, let it be what it will, if 
our hearts be fixed, blessed men are we. But if we have nothing to take 
to when trouble comes, we are, as I said before, as a man in a storm with- 
out a hiding-place. Now every word of God, saith the Psalmist, * is a 
tried word, as silver tried in the fire,' Ps. xii. 6. The promises are tried 
promises that we may rest on them, and as we are Christians, what are we 
but men of promise ? The best is behind, and what is our comfort in this 
world ? God lets down his love to us in gracious promises ; and he gives us 
a taste of the performance. As children have somewhat of their inheritance 
in their nonage to keep them, so somewhat of heaven to comfort our souls 
we have, but the main is to come, and the performance is left till then ; 
therefore we cannot too much consider of this comfortable point. Consider 
how many promises we have in the word ; the certainty of them, that they 
are ' yea and amen ; ' and in whom they are founded, in him that is * Amen' 
himself; for Christ is 'Amen, the true and faithful witness,' Rev. iii. 14. 
These are comfortable considerations. 

Are the promises of God in Christ ' yea and amen ? Let us divide men 
who may make any use of them. All men, they are either such as are in 
Christ, or such as are not in Christ. 

Quest. All the promises being made in Christ, what comfort or what good 
can those that are not yet in Christ have by the promises ? 

Ans. I answer, till they be in Christ, none at all ; for a man out of 
Christ is out of the favour of God. God cannot look on such a man but 
as the object of his wi'ath, and as fuel for his vengeance ; and, therefore, 
there is no hope for such a man till he be in Christ. All other things in 
the world cannot comfort such a man ; for, alas ! his being in the world, 
* In the margin, 1625. See note r. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 899 

his being rich, his being in favour with such or such, what are they ? Fad • 
ing beings that fail, and himself with them. He stands on the ice. They 
slip and he slips with them. What are all beings in death, if a man have 
not a more stable being in Jesus Christ. 

Quest. What comfort is there then for such a man by the promises in 
Jesus Christ ? 

Ans. This, that while there is life, there is hope to get into Christ, and 
so to get interest in the promises ; for the promises are free, the word is 
evangelia* free promise. It is not a promise on this or that condition ; but 
a free promise out of mere love, a mercy. Then though thou be yet in the 
state of corruption in old Adam, yet the promise is free. 

Obj. But I have no worthiness in me, thou wilt say ; I have no faith, 
no grace in me at all. 

Am. But remember the promise is free, the condition is only if thou wilt 
receive Christ, which is not properly a condition of worth in thee. It is 
not propounded by way of condition of any worth, but thou must come with 
an empty hand, with a receiving hand ; as a man must let fall what he hath, 
before he can hold and take anything. A man must let go other things, 
he must let go his hold of the creature ; he must not be so proud of the 
creature, and so confident in it^ as he was ; he must see the emptiness of 
the creature, and of all things in the world ; thou must see that, if thou be 
not in Christ, thou art a wretched, damned creature. The hand of thy soul 
must be empty, and then a sight of thy unworthiness is all that is required 
before thou come to Christ, and the promises, a sight of thy unworthiness 
and a coming to grasp with Christ and the promises ; for what is faith but 
a beggar's hand, empty of all things, coming to receive a benefit ? They 
are most unworthy f that find themselves most unworthy. 

Obj. But you will say, the promise is made to the poor in spirit, and to 
those that hunger and thii'st. 

Ans. It is true, but it is by way of preventing an objection of these men 
that are cast down in the sight of their unworthiness. As if Christ had 
said, you think these men the unworthiest men in the world, that are poor, 
and hungry, and thirsty, you think you are destitute and have nothing ; but 
you are * blessed,' you have interest in Christ, and in the promises, they 
are for you. Let no man therefore be discouraged, the promises are free. 
Therefore be not rebellious, stand not out against God's command. God 
lays a command upon thee. Though thou be not in Christ, and hast no 
right to the promises, he lays a command on thee to believe. 

Quest. Thou wilt ask, what ground, or title, or right hast thou to believe, 
to claim Christ and the promises ? 

Ans. This right thou hast, thou hast the ofier of God's love in Christ. 
And thou hast not only God's ofier, but his command. God commands 
thee to do it. As St John saith, 1 John iii. 23, he hath commanded us to 
believe in his Son Christ, as well as not to commit adultery, or murder. 
And thou art guilty if thou break this command, as if thou break the other 
of murder or adultery. And men that live under the hearing of the gospel, 
they shall be damned more at the day of judgment for disobeying this com- 
mand, for not receiving of Christ, than for the other ; for the breach of all 
other commands may be forgiven if this were obeyed. Therefore there is 
an ofier of Christ, with a command to receive him, and a promise if thou 
* That is, ivayyiXia. But Sibbes appears to have quoted from memory ; for the 
word in the text is the cognate and nearly synonymous one ^nrayyikia,. — Q. 
t Qu. ' worthy ? '— G. 



400 COMMENTARY ON 

receive him all shall be well, all thy sins shall be forgiven ; is not here 
encouragement enough ? 

And then there is an invitation, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary 
and heavy laden,' Matt. xi. 28. And put case thou hast nothing, yet not- 
withstanding, * come and buy without silver,' saith the prophet, Isa. Iv. 1. 
If thou say thou hast nothing, yet all is free here, ' Come whosoever will, 
and drink of the water of life.' 

And he threatens damnation if thou wilt not, the wrath of God hangs on 
thee if thou do not come in. 

Aye, but I am a sinner. 

But where sin hath abounded, * Grace shall more abound,' Rom. v. 20. 
So if a man stand out of Christ, and come not in to him, there are many 
encouragements for him to come, and terrible denunciations of wrath if he 
come not. ' The wrath of God hangs over his head,' John iii. 36. For if 
he be not in Christ, he sinks into hell when this short life is ended. 

So there is this to encourage a man, there is God's command, and his 
sweet invitation, * Come unto me.' And add to that his beseeching, ' We 
are ambassadors in Christ's name, to beseech you to be reconciled to God,' 
2 Cor. V. 20, to come to Christ, to come out of the state of nature, and out 
of the curse of God that you are under, to come out of the uncertain condi- 
tion that the world affords. We beseech you to be reconciled to God, to 
cast away your weapons whereby you are enemies to God ; he seeks to you 
for your love. And if you have nothing, come and buy without money ; 
have you a vnll to come ? If you be besotted, and will continue in your 
estate, then be damned, and rot in your estate ; but if you will, * come and 
drink of the waters of life freely,' Rev. xxi. 6. 

Let none be discouraged : Christ and the promises are open to all. 
Therefore how will God's vengeance be justified at the day of judgment, 
when these courses have been taken, and yet men will not come in ? As 
Christ said to the Jews, * You will not believe in me, that you might have 
life,' John v. 40. Men will not. Men are in love with the profits and 
pleasures and fading things : they will not embrace the promises that are 
* yea and amen.' It is nothing but wilful rebellion that keeps men off, that 
rather than they will leave their sins, and come under the government of 
Christ, they will reject the offers of mercy ; if they cannot have Christ with 
their sins, away mercy. If they can have him to lead them to hell, to 
swear, and cozen, &c., then welcome Christ : if he will come on those terms, 
he is welcome ; but rather than they will have him upon his own terms, 
they reject him. 

So there is great reason for God to justify the damnation of vrretched 
hard-hearted persons, that rather than they will alter their course, they 
will reject mercy, and Christ, and all. If they may have half Christ, they 
will. They will have him with mercy to forgive them, but they will not 
have whole Christ as a King to govei'n them. So there is ground for those 
that are not yet in the state of grace to come to Christ. If they will receive 
him upon his own terms, to take him as a King as well as a Priest, to take 
him as a King to rule them, as well as a Priest to reconcile them to his 
Father. Nay, God, as I said, in the ministry entreats them to receive Christ, 
to cast away the weapons of their rebellion, to come under his government, 
and all shall be well with them. 

But for them that are in Christ, that have embraced and clasped him in 
some comfortable measure, what comfort is it for them that all the pro- 
mises in Christ are ' yea and amen ?' 



2 OOBINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 20. 401 

I answer, when we are once in Christ, and beheve in Christ, all the Scrip- 
ture speaks comfort to us. If we come in, and receive him as he is offered, 
upon his terms, to be our governor, our king, our priest, and prophet, then 
all the promises are ' yea and amen' to us. 

As for instance, forgiveness of sins : if we receive Christ, God will forgive 
us our sins, and be reconciled to us for Jesus Christ's sake. * We have an 
advocate with the Father, and he is the propitiation for our sins,' 1 John 
ii. 2. ' The blood of Christ shall cleanse us from all sins,' 1 John i. 7. 
These promises shall be ' yea and amen' to thee ; if thy sins trouble thee, 
they shall be done away. How many promises to this purpose have we of 
the forgiveness of sins ! 

Again, if so be thou find want of grace, all the promises in Christ are 

* yea and amen.' He hath promised his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, 
Luke xi. 13. There is a promise shall be 'yea and amen,' if thou beg it. 
He hath promised the fundamental graces. ' He will put his fear in our 
hearts, that we shall never depart from him,' Jer. xxxii. 40. ' He will 
teach us to love one another,' John xiii. 34. You are taught of God to love 
one another. He hath promised private blessings in this kind, * to circum- 
cise, and cut off the foreskin of our hearts,' Jer. iv. 4, If a naughty and 
stony heart vex thee, ' he will take away that and give thee an heart of flesh,' 
Ezek. xi. 19, a tender heart. So these promises in Christ shall be * yea and 
amen,' if we apply and believe them, to take away our corruption, and subdue 
that ; and to give and plant graces, — he hath promised to do this. Therefore 
make use of them, not only of the promises of pardon and forgiveness of sins, 
but of grace necessary. 

Art thou sensible of thy imperfections, that thou canst not go about the 
duties of religion, and of thy particular calling ? What saith Moses ? 
' Who gives a mouth ?' Exod. iv. 11. Is it not God that gives a mouth ? 
And, ' Be not afraid,' saith Christ, * you shall have speech,' Mark xiii. 11, 
and a spirit given you that all shall not be able to withstand. Be not afraid, 
God that calls us he will enable us. 

You have a promise of sufficiency of gifts. * If any man lack wisdom, let 
him ask it of God,' James i. 5. If any man lack wisdom, to manage his 
affairs, to bear crosses and afilictions, let him ask it of God ; a rich promise 
in that kind. 

And so, art thou doubtful for the time to come what shall befall thee ? 
God in Christ Jesus hath made a promise, that where he hath begun he 
will make an end, ' He that hath begun a good work will finish it to the day of 
the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. Christ is ' Alpha and Omega,' too, Rev. i. 8 ; and 

* What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ ? Neither things 
present, nor things to come, nor anything else,' Rom. viii. 35, seq. Why ? 
Because it is the love of God in Christ. God's love is founded in Christ, 
and he will love thee eternally. There is a ground of perseverance. There- 
fore be sure to take in trust the time to come, as well as the present : he 
will be thy God for the time to come, as well as for the present ; he will be 
thy God to death. Jesus Christ ' is yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow, and 
the same for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8. ' He was, and is, and is to come,' Rev. i. 
8. He was good to thee before he called thee ; he is good to thee now in 
the state of grace, and he will be for ever. Why shouldst thou stagger for 
the time to come ? Take in trust all that shall befall thee for the time to 
come, as well as for the present ; for he is ' yea and amen' himself, and 

* all his promises are yea and amen.' Christ is ' Amen,' the true witness. 

* Thus saith Amen,' Rev. i. 18, and all his promises are like himself, ' amen.' 

VOL. in. c 



402 COMMENTABY ON 

Obj. Oh but T may fall away, my grace is weak, I stagger often ! 

But are the promises founded upon thee ? No ! the promises are founded 
in Christ. Christ receives grace for thee, and he is a King for ever, and a 
Priest for ever, to make intercession for thee, and he is faithful. He is be- 
loved for ever, and as long as he is beloved, thou shalt be beloved, because 
thou art in him. God is in Christ, and thou art in Christ, how canst thou 
miscarry ? God is in Christ for ever, and thou art in Christ. Will he lose 
a limb ? Will he lose a member ? No ! the promises in him are ' yea and 
amen,' and not in thee. They are in thee ' yea and amen,' thou hast the 
benefit of them, because they are in him ' amen ' first. 

Aye, but for the troubles of this world, for afilictions, and crosses, what 
promises have we to build on for them ? 

God in Christ is ' yea and amen ' to us ; and the promises are ' yea and 
amen ' in that kind, in all things necessary for this life. * Let your conver- 
sation be without covetousness : for he hath promised he will not fail thee 
nor forsake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5. It is taken along from Joshua's time. It 
was a promise made to Jorhua, and is enlarged to all Christians. He hath 
promised, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.' Therefore * let your 
conversation be without covetousness,' insinuating the reason why men are 
covetous, because they do not trust that promise, ' I will not fail thee, nor 
forsake thee.' 

For if men in their calling, as they should do, would trust in God, with- 
out putting forth their hands to ill means, their conversation would be 
without shifting and covetousness. Therefore covetous men are faithless 
men. They believe not the promise, that God will not fail them nor forsake 
them ; for then they would not live by their wits and by their shifts, but by 
faith in this very promise, which is * yea and amen ' to all that believe it. 

' God is a sun and shield,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' and no good thing shall be 
wanting to those that lead a godly life.' Would you have more ? He is a 
sun, for all good ; he is a shield, to keep from all ill. 'I am thy buckler, 
and thy exceeding great reward,' saith God to Abraham, Gen. xv. 1. ' I 
am thy buckler,' to keep thee from all ill; 'and thy exceeding great reward,' 
to bestow all good. Having these promises, why should we stagger? They 
are ' yea and amen ' in Christ ; God is all-sufficient in Christ. 

For the issue in our labours, Oh ! what will become of it ? We take pains 
to no purpose, we rise early, and go to bed late, what will become of all in 
the issue ? What saith St Paul ? 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' Be constant, alway 
abounding in the work of the Lord : be ye abundant in the work of the 
Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' Therefore 
abound you in the work of the Lord : let the issue go to God, you have a 
rich promise, ' Knowing this, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' 
Therefore you know, when Peter had fished all night, and had caught 
nothing, when Christ bids him cast the net into the sea, saith he, * We 
have fished all night, and catched nothing,' Luke v. 5, to what purpose 
should I cast it ? yet in thy word, in thy command I will cast it. He 
obeyed, and he drew so many, that the net brake again with the fish. So, 
I say, it is thy command, Lord, that I should go on in the duties of my 
calling, that I should do that that belongs to me ; and in welldoing to com- 
mit myself to thee ' as to a faithful Creator,' 1 Peter iv. 19, and a gracious 
Redeemer, and to cast myself on thy promises, do what thou wilt : you 
shall see then, as the apostle graciously speaks, ' Your labour shall not be 
in vain in the Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. 58. * Cast your care on him ; for he cares 
for you,' 1 Peter v. 7. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 403' 

Aye, but when we have done, thei-e are so many imperfections cleave to 
that we do, that they discourage us. Why, look, the promise is ' yea 
and amen' for acceptance, ' a cup of cold water is accepted,' Mat. x. 42. 
Offer that thou doest in the mediation of Christ, God will pardon that which 
is faulty, and accept that which is good. So we have promises of accept- 
ance in Christ, ' God will pardon, and spare us as a father spares his child,' 
Ps. ciii. 13. Doth not a father accept the endeavour of his poor child, and 
pardon his weakness, when he cannot do as he would ? God looks on us 
as a father on his children. Therefore let us not fear this. We have a 
promise of acceptance of what we do, though it be weak, and maimed, and 
lame obedience. If we cannot do as much as others, yet bring ' two tur- 
tles,' Lev. V. 7. They that could not bring an ox, a great sacrifice, a less 
was accepted, two pigeons. If thou canst not do as much as others, a little 
sacrifice shall be accepted. 

Oh ! that we had faith ! we might run through all the passages of our 
life, justification, sanctification, perseverance for the time to come ; the 
duties of our calling, the issue of our labours, whatever you can imagine. 
There is no passage of our life but our souls would be supported, if we 
could thinV tlvit these promises are ' yea and amen ' in Jesus Christ. 
There is no estate that we are in but there are promises made to it. We 
want no good, but we have a promise of supply ; we are under no ill, but 
we have a promise, either for the removal of it, or for the sanctifying of it, 
which is better. 

We may enlarge it likewise to posterity. If the promises in Christ be 
* yea and amen,' that is, true to us, and to them that succeed us ; for as I 
said, Christ ' is yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' He was yester- 
day to our ancestors, to-day to ourselves, to-morrow to our posterity. 
Therefore saith Peter to the believing Jews, Acts ii. 39, ' The promise is 
made to you, and to your children ;' your children are in the covenant, 
and God is the ' God of thee and of thy seed;' for the ' promises in Christ 
are yea and amen,' they are constant to us, and to our children, to the 
end of the world. 

It is a comfort to parents that can leave their children no inheritance : 
they leave them God in covenant, and he is a good portion. ' I will be thy 
God,' Jer. vii. 23 ; for the grand promise is the promise of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost. God hath promised to be a Father, and the Father gives 
his Son, and the Father and Son give the Holy Ghost. Well then ! God 
is the God of us and of our children ; he is the Father of us and of our 
children ; Christ is the Christ of us and them ; the Holy Ghost is the 
Spirit that sanctifies us and them. Is not this a comfort to those that can 
leave their children nothing else, that they leave them God in covenant ? 

And this is a comfort for children, if they have good parents, that they 
may say when they pray, ' God of my father Abraham,' Gen. xxiv. 12. 
And as David, Ps. cxvi. 16, ' I am thy servant, and the son of thy hand- 
maid ;' I am thy servant myself, and the son of one that was thy servant. 
Is not this a comfort to a Christian to say, I am thy servant, and the son 
of thy servant, therefore there is a double bond why thou shouldest respect 
me ? I cast myself on thee, and I am the son of a believing father, of a 
believing mother. Oh ! it is a blessed thing to be in covenant with God, 
that those that can leave their children little else, can leave them a place in 
the covenant by their own goodness and faith. 

Wicked parents are cruel. They damn their own souls, and they are 
cruel to posterity. Jeroboam hurt his posterity more than all the world 



404 COMMENTARY ON 

besides. For his sin God cursed his posterity. ' They walk in the ways 
of Jeroboam,' 1 lungs xv. 34. God many times will not punish men 
themselves, but their posterity. Wicked kings, God spares them them- 
selves sometimes, but he punisheth their posterity. Jeroboam was spared 
for his own life, but his posterity was punished. When wicked men die, 
others applaud their wisdom. They die thus and thus, &c., and their 
posterity applaud their wisdom. God therefore curseth their posterity, 
walking in their ways. Jeroboam's children, I say, had cause to curse 
their father. They had a prejudice in his example. They thought him a 
very wise man, that by setting up the calves he could make such a rent, 
but it turned to their destruction. I say, parents are cruel to posterity ; 
for God revengeth their sins on their posterity. Let this be a strong 
motive to men to believe in Christ, that they may leave a good posterity, 
a posterity in covenant with God. 

Men are very atheists in this point ; for they are more careful a great 
deal to leave them rich, to leave them great, than to leave them good ; and 
so they leave them a little goods perhaps, but they leave the curse and 
vengeance of God with it. I beseech you, therefore, enlarge this comfort, 
that the promises of God concerning all good things are made in Christ, 
they are yea and amen to ourselves, and to all ours, to our posterity. 

Thus I have laboured to lay open a little to you the promises. You 
may enlarge them yourselves. Therefore take this course : 

First, consider your present estate, if you icould make use of this portion. 
It is our portion. Our best inheritance are the promises, and indeed they 
are a good child's portion. Though the world take all from us, though 
God strip us of all, if he leave us his promises, we are rich men. There- 
fore the psalmist calls them his portion, and his inheritance ; and indeed 
so they are : because they are so many bonds whereby God is bound to us ; 
they are so many obligations. 

And if a wretched exacting man think himself as rich as he hath bonds, 
though he have not a penny in his purse ; he that hath a thousand pounds 
in bonds, thinks himself richer than he that hath a hundred pounds in 
money, and he thinks he hath reason to be so, because he hath good 
security ; certainly, a Christian that hath rich faith in the rich promises, he is 
a rich man, because he hath many bonds ; and when he pleaseth he can sue 
his bonds, and God is well pleased with it. Therefore indeed there is 
little difference between a Christian in poverty and a rich Christian ; only 
the one hath more for the present, but God is the riches of the other. As 
for a worldling, he hath but a cistern when he hath most ; the other hath 
the spring, he hath God in covenant, and God's promises. 

Let us therefore consider every day the exigents* we are in, whether in 
want of grace, or want of assistance and necessaries, or want of comfort ; 
and according to that, let us consider what we are to do. Are we at our 
wits' end now ? Is there no hope for this in Israel ? Yes ! God hath 
left us rich and precious promises. Let us look to them. 

In the next place, then, from our wants look to the promises, and propor- 
tion the promises to our wants ; rank the promises. It were a good work. 
Oh, that we should have so many promises, and yet have them to seek 
when the devil besiegeth us. He layeth siege to shake our consciences, 
and we are to seek in the time of temptation. Let us remember the 
promises answerable to our necessities. 

If we be troubled with sin, call to mind the promise of forgiveness. If 
* That is, ' exigencies.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 405 

we be troubled with want, call to mind the promise of supply. If we be 
troubled with fear for the time to come, call to mind the covenant of grace, 
the marriage for everlasting. ' God, whom he loves, he loves to the end,' 
John xiii. 1. God loves us in Christ. He loves Christ for ever. There- 
fore he will love us for ever. So, as I said before, suit the promises to 
our present estate. 

And from the promises have a higher rise yet : go to him in whom they 
are made. They ai'e rich promises indeed, good promises ; but how shall 
I know they shall be performed ? In whom are they made ? In whom ? 
God loves thee in Christ. What is he ? God and man. He is God, 
and therefore able to perform them : he is man, and therefore he loves 
thee as his own flesh, and therefore he will perform them. He is ' the 
Son of God's love.' God for his sake, as Mediator, will perform them. 
Heaven and earth shall conspire for thy good, rather than thou shalt miss 
of the performance of the least promise. Therefore from thy wants go to 
the promises, and from the promises go to Christ, and consider him. He is 
anointed of God for thee. He is anointed that he might be thy Christ, 
and thy Jesus, that he might be thy Saviour, ' Immanuel, God with us,' 
Isa. vii. 14, that he might reconcile God in us, that in office he might be 
BO, that he might bring God and us together. Consider him. 

And then go to God, and coiisider ichat relation in Jesus Christ God hath 
put tqyon him. In Christ God is a Father, and what can a father deny to 
his adopted son in Christ, whom he looks on in his natural Son Christ ? 

Yea, and to settle our minds the more, let us consider the relations that 
God and Christ have put upon them, and the relations we stand in ; and the 
many promises we have in Christ, who is anointed and sealed by God the 
Father to be our Saviour, and to bestow good upon us. God is become 
our Father. What a world of promises is in that word Father '? What will 
a father deny to his son ? What if God had not left particular promises 
in Scripture, if he had left but the relation of a father, it had been promise 
enough. What can a father deny his child ? 

And then Christ, what relation hath he taken on him ? He is our 
husband. What a world of promises is there in that ? What can a loving 
husband deny his spouse, that he hath given himself for ? 

He hath taken upon him to be our head. What want of influence can 
there be from such a head, that hath taken all upon him for the body ? 
The head sees, and hears, and doth all for the body ; so Christ hears, and 
sees, and doth all for us. What a world of promises is in this relation of 
a head, if there were no particular promise ? 

Again, Christ styles himself sweetly our brother. What a world of 
promises are in these relations ! God the Father is ours, Christ is ours. 
Here is the grand promise, * I will be your God,' and will give you my 
Son. 

And then, in the third place, he hath promised his Spirit. He will 
' give his Spirit to them that beg him,' Luke xi. 13. What a world of 
promises is in that promise of the Spirit ! It is a comforting Spirit, a 
sanctifying Spirit, a quickening Spirit, a strengthening Spirit, all is in the 
Spirit. As our soul doth all that the body doth, so it is by virtue of the 
Spirit, all the grace, and all the comfort we have. God hath promised 
himself, and Christ, and the Spirit, the whole Trinity. There is the grand 
promise : I will be your God, Christ shall be your Christ, and I will give 
you my Spirit. If we had not other promises, what a world of comfort 
have we in these ! 



406 COMMENTAEY ON 

Now in what relation stand we to these ? We are children, we are 
heirs, we are ' temples of the Holy Ghost,' &c., 1 Cor. iii. 16. Put case 
our memories do not serve to call to mind particular promises, in the time 
of trouble, consider in Christ how God loves thee : he is thy God in Christ; 
how Christ loves thee : he hath taken thy nature on him to be thy hus- 
band ; he makes love to thee, and desires thee to be reconciled. And the 
Spirit is given thee by Christ ; he hath promised to give him if thou ask 
him : the Holy Spirit is the ' Spirit of promise,' Eph. i. 13. Think there- 
fore of the general, of the covenant of grace, and these relations that have 
the force of promises ; for sometimes particular promises may not come to 
our mind perhaps, and these will stablish a man against the gates of hell, 
and against all particular temptations. 

This course we ought to take, then, to feed our thoughts with the pro- 
mises. The promises are the food of faith. Let not our faith languish 
and famish for want, for want of meditations of God and Christ, what 
relations they have put upon them : and for want of meditating on particular 
pi'omises in all kinds. How well-thriving might our faith be, if we would 
oft think of these things ? 

And to make us the more to think of these things, consider that all 
other things, alas ! what are they, when we have not a promise of them in 
Christ ? They are all vain, fading things ; they will all come to nothing. 
That which we have by promise, grace, and comfort, and glory, they are 
ours for ever. God is ours for ever, Christ is ours for ever, the Spirit is 
ours for ever, the relations we are in are for ever. All other things are 
nothing, they will come to nothing ere long. This course we ought to 
take, then, that we may have comfort by the promises. 

Again, in the next place, if we look to the kinds of the promises, whether 
to the promises for this life, or the promises of grace. 

1. If they be promises of this life, take heed tve abuse not ourselves in 
them. There have been gross miscarriages even from the beginning of the 
world, and will be to the end of the world, in the false application of out- 
ward promises. "We see the Jews cried, ' The temple of the Lord, the 
temple of the Lord,' Jer. vii. 4, as if God had tied himself to that by a 
perpetual promise. ' Trust not to lying words,' saith the prophet, Jer. 
vii. 4. You think you are God's people, and that he will always keep you 
out of captivity ; challenge not temporal promises without reservation and 
subjection to God's will, as he shall see good. Babylon saith, ' I sit as a 
queen, and I shall for ever.' 

So mystical Babylon in the Revelation saith, ' I sit as a queen,' Rev. 
xviii. 7, till her judgment and destruction come in one day ; because she 
trusted to her present temporal estate. Let no man promise himself that 
that God doth not promise in his word, immunity from the cross ; for 
whatsoever promise of protection and provision we have, all is with the 
exception of the cross ; remember therefore to construe the promises aright. 

2. Then again, another rule about the promises is, that it is usual with God 
to perform tliem in a tvonderful manner, that men know not how. He doth 
perform them notwithstanding. Take that for a rule. How is that? As 
Luther was wont to say, God's carriage is by contrary means; he performs 
them wonderfully. 

He promised Abraham a child, but his body was dead in a manner first, 
and Sarah's womb. He promised Joseph to raise him up so high ; but 
alas ! the iron entered into his soul first. He promised that Christ should come, 
but all was desperate fii'st, ' The sceptre was departed from Judah,' Gen. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 407 

xlix. 10. So he hath promised, that we shall rise from the dead, but we must 
rot in our graves first. He hath promised forgiveness of sins, that he 
will be merciful to us, but he will waken our consciences to see our desperate 
estate, that we are forlorn creatures first, and unworthy of any respect from 
him. He hath promised us happiness. We that are Christians are the 
happiest creatures in the world, yet in the sense and eye of the world for 
the present we are the most forlorn creatures that are. Yet he performs 
his promise with comfort here, and at last will fully manifest his love to us. 
So at the last his promises shall be wonderfully performed. 

God doth not perform his promises according to human policy ; he will 
not do thus, because we look he should do thus and thus. He will cross 
our expectation, and yet perform his promise. St Paul looked to come to 
Rome, Rom. i. 15, but he thought not of coming to Caesar by whipping, 
and peril, and shipwreck. Moses knew he should come to see Canaan, did 
he think to have such a conflict in the wilderness ? Alas ! he thought not 
of it, God doth wondrous strangely perform his promises by contraries ; 
he crosseth our imaginations and conceits directly, and yet he is true of 
his promise. 

3. Another branch of this is, that though God's promises be 'yea and amen' 
in his time, yet he usually defers his promises for a time, and why ? Among 
many other reasons, to mortify seli-confidence, to fit us for his blessings 1 
for except he deferred them, we should not be fit for them. He defers them, 
that we may be fitted for them long before they come ; that we might 
mortify self-confidence, to see that he immediately and graciously per- 
forms his promise. And in the mean time, to exercise faith and repent- 
ance, and desire, and prayer, therefore he defers them ; but they are amen 
at last, though he defer. 

God's time is better than ours, he knows better than we. The physician 
knows his time better than the patient. Hereupon comes a duty conse- 
quently upon this dispensation of God. If he perform his promises won- 
drousl}^, and unexpectedly, and perform them in delay ; let thy duty be 
answerable to his dealing, wait, tcait upon God, tie him not to such and such 
courses. He can transcend, and go beyond thy imagination, and do more 
than thou art able to conceive, as the apostle saith. Therefore wait his 
good time, ' He that shall come will come,' Heb. x. 37, stay God's leisure, 
prevent him not, run not before him. 

And as he doth things by contraries, so when thou art in contraries look 
for contraries. When thou art in sin, and feelest it on thy conscience, be- 
lieve that he is made righteousness to thee. He hath promised it. It is ' yea 
and amen' in Christ. When thou shalt be turned to dust in the grave, be- 
lieve that he will raise thy body. This promise is ' yea and amen,' and as 
a pledge of it Christ is gone to heaven. When thou art miserable, remem- 
ber the promise, thou shalt be glorious with Christ as he is glorious. ' All 
his promises are yea and amen.' In contraries believe contraries; because 
in contraries he performs contraries ; and say as Job doth, ' Though he kill 
me, yet will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. I know thou canst not deny 
thyself, and thy ' promises are yea and amen.' 

In the worst estate that befalls us, let us learn to wrestle with God in the 
promises, and implead his promises. Why ! Lord, thou hast promised 
forgiveness of sins to them that ask it ; thou hast promised grace, and 
mercy, and favour ; remember thy promise, thou canst not deny thyself, 
thou canst not deny thy gracious promise, thy word is thyself, thou art 
Amen, and thy word is * yea and amen,' only give me grace to wait thy 



408 COMMENTAEY OK 

good leisure ; yet I will not let thee depart without a blessing, I will hold 
thee till I have received a gracious answer, as Jacob wrestled with him till 
he had the blessing, Gen. xxxii. 24, seq. Let us labour to answer the 
promise with oiur faith, and labour to bring our souls to be like his pro- 
mises. They are ' yea and amen.' Though they be not presently performed, 
let us constantly believe a constant promise, let us cleave to God, let us 
have an ' amen' for God's ' amen.' Are the promises amen? Amen let 
the soul say. Lord, * So be it,' so it shall be, I will seal thy amen in thy 
promise, with my amen in my faith. So let us have an amen for Christ's 
amen. They are all, and will be all amen in Christ in fit time ; all the 
gracious promises will be ' yea and amen ; ' let our souls echo, and say. 
Amen. For our faith must answer the promises. Faith and the promises 
be correlatives ; for the promise is not except it be applied. Let faith 
answer the promise. Let us labour to be established in the promises in 
God's word. 

Shall we have certain promises, and shall tve waver and stagger ? There- 
fore let us complain. Lord, thy promises are sure and certain as thou hast 
said, what is the reason I cannot build on them ? Oh my unfaithful heart ! 
Let us condemn our unbelieving, our lying hearts, that call the truth of God 
into question, and make that which is * yea and amen ' to be ' yea and nay.' 
We make truth a lie, and do rather believe our own lying hearts than God's 
immutable and unchangeable promises. Therefore let us see the fulness* 
of our hearts, and complain of them to God, and desire him to cure it and 
redress it, and he will do it. 

This is to give glory to God indeed. We cannot honour God more than 
to believe his promises, and build on him. This will breed love, when we 
feel the comfort of the promises. Foolish men think to honour God by 
compliments, by dead performances. Silly men consider that the principal 
honour in the world. To God, [it] is to seal his truth, that thou shouldst 
not make him a liar. Hath he promised all things in the world ? Get 
faith. That will honour him, and he will honour thy faith. 

What makes God honour faith so much ? He that believes he will bring 
him to heaven. Faith honours him. It gives him the glory of his truth, 
the glory of his goodness, of his mercy, of his truth, &c. As it honours 
him, he honours it. 

The believer shall come to heaven, when the idle fashionable Christian 
shall vanish with his conceits, that thinks to serve God with empty vain 
shadows. Honour God with the obedience of faith, man. Cast thyself 
upon him, trust in him, in life and death, and then thou givest him the 
honour that he requireth at thy hands. For as the honour of his mercy is 
the greatest honour he will have in this world, more than that in the crea- 
tion, so thou honourest him more in the gospel, to cast thyself on him for 
forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting, and for the guidance of thy daily 
course of life ; thou honourest him more than by looking on the creature, 
or by doing him any service. He is honoured more by faith in Christ than 
by any other way. Let faith go to him ; as faith honours him, so he will 
honour it, ' Let it be according to thy faith,' Mat. xv. 28. 

Let not all be lost, let us bring vessels for the precious promises, the 
vessel of a believing heart. Shall all this be lost for a vain heart that will 
not lodge up these promises ? Shall we have a rich portion, and neglect 
it ? Shall we have so many promises, and not improve them, and make 
use of them ? 

* Cf. Ezek. xvi. 49.— G. Qu. ' foulness ? '—Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 409 

Therefore I beseech you, let it be our practice continually every day, 
of all portions of Scripture make the promises most familiar to us ; for 
duties follow promises. If we believe the promises with our heart, they are 
quickening promises. We will love God, and perform other duties. ' Faith 
works by love,' Gal. v. 6. If we believe, love will come kindly off. There- 
fore he saith here, ' All the promises are yea and amen,' insinuating that 
all is included in the promises. 

Let us empty our hearts of confidence in anything, and fill them with 
the promises in Christ that are ' yea and amen.' Let us stablish our hearts 
with the promises, let us warm, and season, and refresh our hearts every 
day with these. 

In these times of infection, what do we ? Those that are careful of them- 
selves, that go abroad in dangerous places, they have* preservatives, they 
take something to preserve their spirits, and to strengthen them against the 
contagion abroad ; and it is wisdom so to do, it is folly to neglect it, and 
to tempt God, not to be careful in this kind : it is very well done. But 
what is this, if thou do not fence thy soul and thy spirit, and take a draught 
of the promises every day afresh ? Let us take out our pardon of course 
every day, of the forgiveness of sins. We sin every day, let us go for our 
pardon. * If we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, 
and he is the propitiation for our sins. And the blood of Jesus Christ shall 
purge us from all sin,' 1 John ii. 1. And he is in justifying us still every 
day, he is acquitting our souls ; and there is a pardon of course to be taken 
out every day. Let us renew and refresh our hearts with the promises of 
pardon and forgiveness of sins every day. Let us strengthen our souls 
with renewing the promises of grace for that day to walk comfortably before 
God, that he will keep us by his Spirit from sin, that he will be a shield 
and a sun to us, that he will give us wisdom to carry ourselves as we should; 
and he will give us his Holy Spirit if we beg it. 

Let us every day take these promises to be cordials in these dangerous 
times ; and then come life, come death, all shall be welcome. Why ? Be- 
cause we are in Christ, and have embraced the promises and Christ ; and all 
in Christ is ' yea and amen :' it shall go well with us. What a wondrous 
comfortable Ufe would a Christian's life be, if he could yield the obedience 
of faith answerable to the promises ! What a shame is it, that having such 
rich promises we should be so loose, so changeable, that we should be cast 
down with crosses, and lift up with prosperity ? It is because we believe 
not the promises of better things, therefore we are proud of present things, 
and cast down with present crosses, and are fast and loose. Now we have 
good things for the present, afterward the devil comes between us and the 
promises, and makes us let go our hold. Religion stands on this, which 
makes me to press it the more. If this were well taken to heart and digested, 
we should know what religion means ; if we know Christ and the promises, 
all other things will come off. All others are but formalities. They will 
never comfort without the consideration of knowing God in Christ, and the 
rich promises to us in Christ. 

Likewise, if this be so, that the promises of God in Christ are * yea and 
amen,' this teacheth us how to make use of all former examples of others, and 
of all former goodness to ourselves. Was God merciful to Abraham and to 
David? ' Our fathers trusted in thee, and were not confounded,' Ps. xxii. 4. 
Therefore he reasons, if I trust in God I shall not be confounded ; for 
the * promises are yea and amen.' They are true to one as well as another. 
And ' whatsoever was written afore, was written for our comfort*' Rom. xv. 4. 



410 COMMENTARY ON 

And this is a singular good use we may make of reading of the stories 
of the Scripture, and of holy men, that the same God he lives for ever, 
'his arm is not shortened, he that was, is, and is to come,' Isa. Ux. 1 ; and 
therefore we should read histories with application. Did God make sure 
his promises to them ? Surely he will make sure his promises to us. 
Had David forgiveness of sins upon his confession ? Surely so shall we. 
* Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,' Gal. 
iii. 6, and so it shall to us if we believe. It is alleged for that end. And 
St Paul prefixeth his example to all posterity, ' God was merciful to me, 
and not so only, but to all that believe in him,' 1 Tim. i. 16. 

This is an use that we may make likewise of the story of our own Uves, 
as well as the story of others ; for, consider the former times, why, Lord, 
thy promises heretofore have been ' yea and amen,' thou hast delivered me 
from such and sucb»dangers, thou hast been so good, and so good to me, 
thou art not changed. Let us store up experience out of the story of our 
own lives. God is ' Yea and Amen,' and ' his promises are yea and amen,' 
constant to all his children, and to their children ; and they are alike in all 
ages ' from generation to generation,' as Moses saith, Ps. xc. 1, ' Thou art 
our God from generation to generation for ever.' 

Thus we see how to make use of the promises ; for promises, we must 
know, are either directly to particular persons, or implied. A promise made 
to any directly, to any in particular, is an implied promise to me in the 
general equity in matter of grace, and glory, or the removal of some true 
misery. What was made to Joshua, is applied to all the church, Heb. xiii. 
10, seq. ; that which was directly promised to him, is an imphed promise to 
all that will make use of that example. 

Again, if so be that all the promises of God be ' yea and amen,' that is, 
certain and constant in Christ, this should comfort us u-hen men deal loosely 
with us, and fail in their promises, whereon perhaps we have builded too 
much, when men deal falsely with us. And indeed, there is nothing that 
makes an honest heart wearier of this wicked world, than the consideration 
of the falsehood of men in whom they trust. Oh ! it is a cruel thing to 
deceive him, that unless he had trusted he had never been deceived by thee. 
It is a treacherous thing, but this world is full of such treacherous dealing, 
that a man can scarce trust assurances, much less words. But there are 
things thou mayest trust, if thou have a heart concerning the best good, there 
are promises that are ' yea and amen ;' there is a God that keeps covenant. 
It is his glory to do so fi'om generation to generation. Here is the comfort 
of a Christian, when he finds falseness in the world, to retire to his God, 
and hide himself there. 

And in the uncertainty of all things below, in all changes, as this world 
is full of changes — now poor, now rich ; now in favour, now out of favour — 
why, what hath a Christian to cast himself on ? The promises of God in 
Christ, they are ' yea and amen ;' they are promises that never fail. They 
that know thy name will trust in thee, Ps. ix. 10. What is the reason ? 
It follows, ' Thou never failest those that trust in thee.' Therefore in the 
vicissitude and intercourse of all earthly things under the moon, that are 
like the moon, changeable, let us stablish our souls upon that which is un- 
changeable, and that will make us unchangeable, if we build on it, ' For the 
word of the Lord endures for ever,' Isa. xl. 6, which is alleged by Peter, 
1 Peter i. 25, ' All flesh is grass, and as the flower of the grass,' that is, it 
fades as the grass, and as the flower of the grass ; all the excellency of 
wit and learning, it is but as the flower of the grass, but ' the word of the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 411 

Lord endures for ever.' How doth the word of the Lord endure for ever ? 
St John expounds it, 1 John ii. 17. A true Christian endures for ever by 
the word of the Lord. He that believes in the word, he endures for ever, 
because his comforts endure for ever ; they are * yea and amen.' His grace 
endures for ever. God's love endures to him for ever. Therefore by build- 
ing upon that which is certain, we make ourselves certain too. When the 
word is ingraffed (it is St James his phrase), when it is ingraflfed into our 
hearts, it turns our hearts to be like itself, it is eternal itself, and it makes 
us eternal. ' He that doth the will of the Lord abides for ever, saith St 
John. ' The world passeth, and the lust thereof, but he that doth the will 
of the Lord abides for ever,' 1 John ii. 17. And ' the word of the Lord 
abides for ever,' as it is in another place, 1 Peter i. 25. The one expounds 
the other, that is, we, by believing, and doing the word of the Lord, abide 
for ever. 

To stir us up to rely constantly upon this word, the promises, and the 
grace of God brought to us by the promises. As I said before, shall we 
have certain promises of God that never lie, and shall we not build on them ? 
What is there in the world to build on, if we cannot build on this ? And 
yet the froward heart of man will beUeve anything rather than God's truth. 
The merchantman he commits his estate, his goods, to the sea. He hath 
no promise that they shall come again. It is only in the providence of 
God. He hath made no promise for it. The husbandman commits his 
seed to the ground, though he have nothing left of his seed ; and though 
he sow in tears, yet he commits all to the earth in hope of a return ; and 
yet he hath no promise for this, but God's ordinary providence, that may 
sometimes fail. 

Are we in such hope when we commit our seed to the ground, and when 
we commit our goods to the sea, to the waves, and yet have not a promise 
for this, but God's ordinary providence, which ofttimes fails, having not 
bound himself that it shall be alway so, because God will shew himself the 
God of nature, that he can command nature ? And shall we not trust him 
when we have his providence and his promise too ? when he is bound by 
his promise, when he hath made himself a debtor to us ? when the free God, 
who is most free, hath made himself a debtor by his promise, and hath 
sealed his promise by an oath and by sacraments ? 

Alas ! God hath made all things faithful to us. Therefore we trust them. 
But we trust not him that hath made other things so, and is so faithful to 
us. Therefore let us build on these promises in Jesus Christ. 

Now to direct us a little further, to train ourselves up to make use of 
the promises of God in Jesus Christ, 

1. Observe every day, hoiv God fulfils his promises in lesser matters. 
Parents train up their children by education, that they may trust them for 
their inheritance. So God trains us up to believe his providence, that he 
will provide for us, without cracking our consciences by ill means. Will 
we believe his promises for these things, and will we not believe him for 
life everlasting ? No ! certainly we cannot. Therefore let us exercise 
faith to believe the promises for provision, that * he will not fail us, nor 
forsake us,' but be with us in our callings, using lawful means for the things 
of this life. 

2. Sometimes again take another method. When faith begins to stagger 
for the things of this life, quicken it ivith the grand promises. Will God 
give me life everlasting ? and hath he given me Christ ? are his promises 
in him ' yea and amen ? ' will he give me the greater, and will he not give 



412 COMMENTARY ON 

me the less ? Sometimes by the lesser, be encouraged to hope for the 
greater ; sometimes quicken our deadness and dulness in believing the lesser, 
■with the undoubted performance of the great. Will God give me life ever- 
lasting, and will he not give me provision in my pilgrimage till I come 
there ? undoubtedly he will. ' Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's 
will to give you a kingdom,' saith Christ, Luke xii. 32. They were 
distrustful for the things of this life. Do you think, saith he, that he 
will not give you the things of this life, that keeps a kingdom for you ? 
* Fear not,' 

3. Again, when we hear any promise in the word of God, turn it into a 
prayer, put God's bond in suit, as it were. His promises are his bonds. 
Sue him on his bond. He loves to be sued on his bond ; and he loves that 
we should wrestle with him by his promises. Why, Lord, thou hast made 
this and this promise, thou canst not deny thyself, thou canst not deny 
thine own truth ; thou canst not cease to be God ; thou canst as well cease 
to be God, as deny thy promise, that is, thyself. So let us put the promises 
into suit, as David, Ps. cxix. 49, if it be his (www), ' Lord, remember thy 
promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust,' as if God had for- 
gotten his promise ; ' Lord, remember thy promise,' I put thee in mind of 
thy promise, * wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.' If I be de- 
ceived, thou hast deceived me. Thou hast made these promises, and caused 
me to trust in thee, and ' thou never failest those that trust in thee.' 

What makes a man faithful ? Trust to a man makes him faithfal. So 
when God is honoured with our trusting of him, it makes him faithful. Let 
us therefore put in suit his promises of provision and protection every day 
in the way of our calling ; and for necessary grace and comfort, that he will 
not fail us in any necessary gi-ace to bring us to heaven, considering that 
he hath filled our nature with all grace in Christ. 

4. Again, let us take this course, when we hear of rich and precious pro- 
mises that are made, labour to know them. What ? shall we have an inheri- 
tance, a portion, and not labour to know it ? Let us labour to know all 
our portion, and to know it of those that search the word of God, to be 
glad to hear anything concerning the privileges and prerogatives of a Chris- 
tian. Those that dig the mines of the Scripture, which is the office of the 
ministers, let us labour to know all our privileges. 

Let not Satan rob us of one privilege. Every promise is precious. 
They are rich promises. Yet they are no more than God thought necessary 
for us. He thought all little enough to stablish our faith. Let us not lose 
one. We cannot be without one. Let us labour to know them. 

And when we know them, work them upon our hearts by meditation, 
and shame ourselves upon it : say, is it true, are these promises so ? Is it 
true that God hath revealed these things in his word ? To whom hath he 
made them ? to angels or to beasts ? No ! to men, to sinners, to men in the 
world to comfort them. They are their provision, their inheritance, as David 
saith, Ps. cxix. 57, 103, ' Thy word is my inheritance, and my portion ; they 
are sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb.' Are they so ? Do I be- 
lieve this, or do I not believe it ? Yes ! I do. If I do, can I believe 
them, and be so uncomfortable ? Let us shame ourselves. Do I believe 
the promises of life everlasting, the promises of perseverance, the promise 
that God will hide me in danger, that he will be my habitation and my 
hiding-place ? and do I look to unlawful means ? Do I live without God 
in the world, as if there were no promise ? What a shame is this ! There 
is a weakness in my faith certainly. When a branch withers, there is a 



2 OOEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEB. 20. 413 

fault in the root. So there is a defect in the radical grace, that it draws 
not juice out of the promises as it should. There is a defect in my faith. 
Therefore I will look where the defect is, and strengthen my faith. 

Thus we should shame ourselves. Can I hear these promises, and 
be no more joyful, and be no more affected ? Can I use indirect means, 
and yet believe that God is all-sufficient to me in the covenant ? Certainly 

1 cannot. 

Therefore let us come to the trial, to some few evidences, that a man doth 
believe in the promises. 

He that believes the promises of God in Christ to be ' yea and amen,' 
doubtless he will be affected, answerable to the things promised. Saith 
David, ' Thy statutes they are the joy of my heart,' Ps. cxix. 11. 

1. The promises ivill be the joy and rejoicing of our heart. He that can 
hear of promises, and not be affected, certainly he believes them not. When 
a man thinks of his inheritancee, and of his evidences, that they are clear, 
that he shall enjoy it without suit, or trouble, it comforts him, he cannot 
think of it without comfort. Cannot a man think of a little pelf of the 
earth without comfort, when he knows he hath assurance to it ? and shall 
we think of heaven and happiness, and not rejoice ? Will not these be the 
joy of a man's heart ? Certainly they will affect him. When good things 
are apprehended by faith, will they not work upon the affections ? Certainly 
they will. 

2. Again, where the promises are believed, they will quicken us to all 
cheerful obedience. Certainly, if God will assist me with strength and com- 
fort if I go on in his ways, and in the end of all give me life everlasting, 
this will quicken me to all obedience. Therefore those that go deadly and 
dully, as if they had no encouragement here, nor promise of glory after, 
they believe not the promises. For God doth not set us on work as 
Pharaoh set the children of Israel to make brick without straw ; but when 
he bids us do anything, he promiseth us grace, and gives us his Spirit, and 
after grace he gives glory. If men did beUeve this, they would go about 
God's work without dulness and staggering. So far as we are dull, and 
stagger in the work of God, so far our faith is weak in the promises of 
God. 

8. Again, as they quicken in regard of comfort, so they purge in regard 
of holiness ; for they make men study mortification and sanctification, 

2 Cor. vi. 18, and the beginning of the viith, ' Having these promises, let 
us purge ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfect sanctifica- 
tion in the fear of God.' ' Having these promises.' So that the promises, 
as they have a quickening, so they have a purging power ; and that upon 
sound reasoning. Doth God promise that he will be my Father, and I 
shall be his son ? and doth he promise me life everlasting ? and doth that 
estate require purity ? and no unclean thing shall come there ? Certainly 
these promises being apprehended by faith, as they have a quickening power 
to corufort, so they purge with holiness. We may not think to carry our 
filthiness to heaven. Doth the swearer think to c^rry his blasphemies 
thither ? Filthy persons and liars are banished thence : there is * no unclean 
thing.' He that hath these promises purgeth himself, * and perfecteth 
holiness in the fear of God.' * He that hath this hope purifieth him- 
self, as he is pure,' 1 John iii. 3. So these promises affect, and quicken, 
and purge. 

4. And then the promises they do settle the soul, because they be * yea 
and amen :' they make the soul quiet. If a man believe an honest n an on 



414 COMMENTARY ON 

his word, he will be quiet ; if he be not quiet, he doth not believe. So 
much faith, so much quiet. ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God thi'ough Jesus Christ our Lord,' Rom. v. 1. So much faith, so much 
peace. ' In nothing be careful, but let j-our desires be known to God in 
prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving,' Philip, iv. 6 ; and when you have 
done this, ' The peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall pre- 
serve your heartsand minds in Christ Jesus,' ver. 7. So where there is prayer, 
and thanksgiving, and doing of duty, the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding, will keep the mind in Christ; and where there is not quiet 
and peace to preserve the heart and mind, there is neglect oi duty before, 
not committing ourselves to God's promises to build on them. 

5. Again, where there is a believing the promises, there is not only a 
staying of the soul in general, but when all things are gone, when all things 
are contrary. That is the nature of faith in the promises. Put the case, 
that a Christian that is of the right stamp, have nothing in the world to 
take to, only God's word and promises ; surely he knows they are ' yea 
and amen.' It is the word of God all-sufficient ; he is Jehovah ; he gives 
a being to his word, and to all things else ; therefore he hath the name 
Jehovah. Therefore thinks the soul, though I have nothing, yet I have 
him that is the substance of all things. All other things are but shadows ; 
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are the substance that give all things 
a being ; and therefore I will cast myself on God. Here now is the 
triumph of faith. When there is nothing else to trust to, nay, when all 
things else are contrary, when it is faith against faith, and ' hope against 
hope ; ' when there is such a conflict in a man, that he sees nothing but the 
contrary ; here faith will shut the eye of sense, and not look to present 
things too much. Though I see all things contrary, though I see rather 
signs of anger than otherwise, yet I will hope and beheve in God, for this 
or that. Here is the wisdom of a believing Christian that believes the 
promises — he will shut his eyes, and not look on the waves, on the troubles. 
They will carry him away, and dazzle him. But he looks to the constant 
love of God in Christ, and to the constant promises of God. His nature 
is constant, and his truth is as his nature. He cannot deny himself and 
his own word, when he hath made himself a debtor by his promise, and 
bound himself by his word. 

Therefore in contraries say as Job, * Though he kill me, yet will I trust 
in him,' Job xiii. 15. True faith when it is in strength will uphold a man 
when aU fails ; nay, it will hold a man when all is contrary. This our 
Saviour Christ, in whom * all the promises are yea and amen,' did excel- 
lently teach us by his own example. For when all was contrary, and our 
blessed Saviour felt the wrath of God, which made him sweat drops of blood, 
and made him cry out, ' My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' 
Mark XV. 34 ; yet here faith wrestled with ' My God, my God,' still, even 
under the wrath of God. He brake through the seeming wrath of God, 
into the heart of God. 

Faith hath a piercing eye. It will strive through the clouds, though 
they be never so thick, through all the clouds of temptation. Christ had 
BO piercing a faith, it brake through all. He saw a Father's heart under 
an angry semblance. So a Christian triumphs by faith in oppositions to 
faith. When all is contrary to faith, yet notwithstanding he can say * My 
God' still. This is an evidence of a strong faith in the promises. 

6. Again, an evidence of faith in the promises is faithfulness in ourselves, 
in ow promises to God ; for surely the soul that expects anything of God, 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 415 

that he should be faithful, it studies to be faithful in the covenant, Ps. xxv. 
10, ' All the ways of God are mercy, and truth.' All his dealings to his 
children are mercy and truth, ' to them that keep his covenant.' For you 
know, the promises have conditions annexed ; and where God fulfils his 
promise, he gives grace to perform the condition, to walk before him, to 
allow ourselves in no sin. For if we allow ourselves in any sin, we perform 
not the covenant on our part. Now God wiU give grace to perform the 
covenant where he will perform his own. Therefore those that are 
unfaithful in their covenant, and yet think God will be faithful to them, it 
is presumption. 

When we come to the communion, we think we do God a great deal of 
service ; but we must consider we enter into covenant with God, as well as 
he binds himself to us. He gives us Christ, and all his blessings. He 
reacheth forth Christ with all in him, if we will receive him. Aye, but we 
bind ourselves to God, to lead a new life, and to be thankful, and to shew it 
in obedience. And so in baptism ; we do not only receive in the sacraments, 
but we yield, we bind ourselves to God. And we must be careful of what 
we promise to God, as well as expect that which he promiseth to us. If 
we expect his truth, we must be faithful, and careful of performing our 
covenants to him. 

Quest. Oh, but how shall I do that ? saith the distressed soul. I have no 
grace. 

Ans. God knows that well enough ; therefore he that promiseth, he pro- 
miseth grace to perform the condition ; that is one part of the covenant, to 
give grace to fulfil the covenant. For he that saith. If we believe and 
repent, &c., he will give us hearts to repent, if we ask them ; he hath pro- 
mised to circumcise our hearts, to give us new hearts, and to give us his 
Holy Spirit if we ask him. Why, Lord, thou knowest I have no grace in 
myself to fulfil the covenant ; no, but thou must perform both parts ; thou 
givest the grace, and good thing promised, and grace to keep the covenant 
too ; therefore let none be discouraged. 

Many things are required, it is true ; but the things are promised that 
are required, if in the use of means we depend on him by prayer. For the 
promises are legacies as well as promises. "NMiat is the difierence between 
a legacy and a covenant ? A covenant is with condition, with stipulation ; 
a legacy is an absolute thing, when a man gives a thing freely without any 
condition. So, though the promises be propounded by way of covenant, 
with stipulations to and fro in the passages of them, as a covenant ; yet in 
regard of God's gracious performance, to them that depend upon him, all 
the promises are legacies. 

Therefore God's promises, and God's covenant they are called a testa- 
ment, as well as promises. They are called a will. A will, shewing what 
God will give us freely in the use of means, as well as what our duty is in 
the covenant. Therefore our estate is happy in Christ, if we depend upon 
God in the use of means. He will give us all things that are necessary that 
he hath promised ; nay, he will give grace to fulfil the covenant, if we beg 
it. 

If a man be careless and live in sins against the covenant, he cannot 
perform the covenant ; and let him not allege this, that he cannot, for 
God will give grace to them that are careful to fulfil it. Let such a man 
as neglects the performance on his part, expect no good from God while be 
is so, let him expect vengeance ; for all the threatenings of God are ' yea 
and amen,' as well as his promises, to them that live in sins against con- 



416 COMMENTARY ON 

science. Those that will not expect grace to serve him for the time to come, 
all the threatenings are ' yea and amen.' There is no comfort for such. 

I beseech you therefore consider, it is a terrible thing to Hve in a state 
•without God, and without Christ ; to have no care of the performance of 
that that we have bound ourselves to God by the sacrament, and in our 
particular vows ; for his threatenings are effectual as well as his promises. 
In Zech. i. 5, there he tells the Jews of the prophets that had threatened 
many things. The prophets are dead, saith he, that threatened your fathers ; 
but for all that, the threatenings lighted on them. * The prophets, where 
are they ?' They were but men, but when they were gone, the threatenings 
lighted'on your fathers. Jeremiah died, but the captivity that he threatened, 
it did not die ; they were carried captive seventy years. So we threaten 
the vengeance of God on obstinate sinners, that will not come in to the 
gospel ; we are not ' yea and amen ' in regard of our being, we die ; but 
our threatenings are ' yea.' If they be not reversed by repentance, the 
threatenings are ' amen,' as well as the promises. It is an evidence there- 
fore we do not beUeve, if we have not care to make good the covenant on 
our part. 

7. Again, another evidence of a child of the promises, of a man that be- 
lieves the promises, it is inward opposition of the flesh, and hatred of fleshly 
men ; for as it is, Gal. iv. 29, ' The son of the bondwoman persecuted the 
son of the freewoman.' A true, downright believer is a son of the free- 
woman, a son of promise ; and the flesh in us opposeth it, like Ishmael, 
like Job's wife, and like Sarah, that laughed when the promise was made. 
We have an Ishmael and a Sarah in us. Aye, can this promise of life ever- 
lasting when I am rotten, and this promise of forgiveness of sins, and that 
goodwill, be good to me if I crack not* my conscience ? If I take this and 
that course, shall these promises be performed ? Here is opposition. We 
cannot beHeve the promises without much opposition. 

So carnal men, ' they mock and deride the counsel of the poor,' as the 
psalmist saith, Ps. xiv. 6. The children of the promise that depend upon 
God's mercy in Christ, they are persecuted by fleshly justiciaries, and they 
that look to be saved by themselves without a promise, they will not be 
beholden to God so much. Their proud, swelling hearts rise against Chris- 
tians that honour God by trusting in his promises, and will be saved by 
promises. 

A proud popish person, his heart riseth against a holy Christian that is 
a son of the promise ; he scorns him. You intend to be saved by the 
righteousness of another. No ! we will not be so much beholden to God, 
we will satisfy for ourselves ; we will mei'it heaven ourselves. God shall 
not be beholden to us to trust in him, we will bring somewhat ourselves, 
we will buy it out. Can these men have humble hearts ? Nay, can they 
have any other than mahcious, persecuting hearts against humble, believing 
Christians, that honour God by trusting in his promises ? 

You know Isaac was ' a son of the promise.' How was he born ? Not 
according to the course of nature. Sarah's womb was dead. Christ was 
the Son of the promise. How was he born ? Not according to the course 
of nature, for his mother was a virgin. So a Christian is a son of the pro- 
mise. He is begotten where there is nothing in the course of nature likely, 
where there is breeding for sin, no works, no righteousness, then he believes 
in Christ. Isaac was a notable type of Christ and a son of promise. He 
was begotten besides the course of generation. So a Christian is not 
* Qu. ' crack ? '—Ed. 



2 CORINTHLOJS CHAP. I, VEE. 20. 417 

begotten as a proud justiciary, by works ; but he shews himself therein to 
be a true behever. He is begotten against the course of nature when he 
sees a barren heart, and sees as httle disposition in his heart to be a Chris- 
tian as was in the virgin's womb for Christ to be born. 

How was the promise made to the virgin ? She could not conceive how 
this should be since she knew not man. It was replied again, ' The Holy 
Ghost shall overshadow thee,' Luke i. 35, Her heart closed with that 
speech, and Christ was conceived then. So the barren heart of a Christian 
if it can believe, his sins shall be forgiven, and he shall have life everlast- 
ing, — if he can honour God in believing that he will keep him in life and 
death. Let the heart close with these promises, and a Christian is begotten. 
He is a son of the promise. 

As for the proud justiciary that will have something in himself to vaunt 
of, and will persecute others that are true Christians, he relies on no pro- 
mise. A Christian when he sees nothing to rely on but the promise, he 
closeth with the promise, and Christ is begotten in him at that very instant. 
To name no more evidences, you see how we may examine ourselves whe- 
ther we trust in and cast ourselves upon the promises of God or no. If we 
do, we shall find them ' yea and amen.' 

Consider it therefore, and be glad of these promises; and when you have 
them, go to God in Christ for the performance of them. Take the counsel 
of that blessed man, that in these latter times brought the glorious light 
of religion to light, Luther, I mean (to whom we are beholden for the 
doctrine of free grace more than any other divine of later times). Go to 
God in Christ in the promises. Christ is wrapped up in the promises. The 
promises are the swaddling-clothes wherein Christ is wrapped, as he saith 
(xxx). We must not think of God out of Christ. There is, saith he, God 
absolute in himself; so, he is 'a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. But there 
is God incarnate, go to God incarnate, to God making good his promises 
in Christ incarnate ; go to Christ sucking his mother's breast, lying in the 
manger, living humbly, talking with a sinful woman, inviting sinners to come 
to him, conversing with sinful creatures, altering and changing their natures, 
that never refused any that came to him. 

Go not to God absolute. He is a ' consuming fire.' Go to Christ in- 
carnate, God-man ; go to him abased, and there is sweet converse for thy 
faith ; for ' all the promises are made in him yea and amen.' 

I beseech you, therefore, be acquainted with the mystery of Christ more 
and more. We have the promises in him. And you must know besides, 
that the Father and the Holy Ghost, they have a part, a hand in Christ's 
abasement ; for Christ did all by his Father's appointment, and therefore 
it is as much as if the Father had been abased ; for Christ was anointed 
to be so. Therefore think, that God the Father allures and invites you 
when Christ doth it, because he is anointed to invite you. Think that the 
Father is as peaceable as Christ was, because Christ was so by his Father's 
appointment, by his anointing. See all the three Persons, the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost in Christ. See God incarnate making all the promises 
before, and as the ground of all that is made good to us. See the wondrous 
love of God incarnate. And then go and see Christ raising that flesh that 
he was abased in ; see him ascended into heaven, and sitting in it at the right 
hand of God. Then think of God in Christ glorious, think of Christ a 
pubHc person, and we all in him. So as Leo saith, ' Only Christ was he 
that died, in whom all died ; he was crucified, in whom all were crucified ; 
and he rose again, in whom all rise, he being a public person; other par- 

VOL. III. D d 



418 ' COMMENTARY ON 

ticular men died, and themselves died only.'* Let us look upon God in- 
carnate, and see ourselves in him, see God in Christ, see Christ a public 
person ; for therefore the second Person took the manhood, that he might 
be a public person. 

Christ took not our persons, but our nature; that our nature being knit 
to the second person, he might be a public person ; as Adam was a public 
man for all mankind. Therefore think of all the promises in Christ as God- 
man, that he was the man Christ, made man for us. This is wondrous 
comfortable, let us solace ourselves with it. 

Take away Christ, and the promises in Christ, and what is there in the 
world ? Nothing but idolatry and superstition, staggering and wavering, 
and darkness and blindness, and popery and devilishness. Who reigns in 
the world but the devil and antichrist, heathenism and paganism, and all 
filthiness ? Take away Christ, the sound knowledge of Christ incarnate, 
and the sound knowledge of the promises, the clear, settled promises in 
Christ, and what is the life of man but a horrible confusion, even a hell 
upon earth ? Where Christ is not known, what are the lives of men, the 
utmost quintessence of them, but only projecting for an estate here in this 
world, and then to sHp into hell ? To live a civil life, as morality perhaps 
may fit a man for that, and then to be cast into hell. 

Out of Christ there is no salvation, no certain comfort, no life, no light, 
nothing to be reckoned on out of Christ, and the promises in Christ. There- 
fore let us love them, and build on them, and make much of the truth we 
have, and get into Christ ; for ' all the promises in him are yea and amen.' 
God hath no commerce with us immediately but by Christ the mediator, 
through whom he looks on us, and in whom he conveys aU good to us. 

The Scripture is termed a paradise. It is Hke a paradise, wherein we 
have the streams of the water of life, and the tree of life, Jesus Christ, and 
wherein we have the promises of life ; and there is no angel to keep the 
door, or gate, or entrance of this paradise, but rather we are allured to come 
to it to refresh ourselves. There is God himself walking, there is Christ 
himself the tree of life. Therefore, we should make the Scriptures won- 
drous familiar to us, especially single out the promises, make use of them. 
Learn what it is to live by faith in the promises, for ' all the promises in 
Jesus Christ, in him are yea and in him amen.' 

* To the glory of God by ks.' The end of all this, that God will engage 
himself by promises, that he will stablish these promises so sure in Christ 
Jesus the Mediator, God and man, that he will make them ' yea and 
amen ' in him, it is for his own glory, and * to the glory of God ' by us 
ministers ; for we preach these promises to the people, and people believe 
them, and they believing give glory to God. 

Ohs. God's glory is manifested in the gospel, esjiecially ivhen it is believed 
in the promises. 

What wondrous glory hath God in the promises in Christ I 

More a great deal than in the creation. In the creation man was made 
according to God's image. Now, in the gospel we are created according to 
Jesus Christ, God-man. There God added light to light, comfort to com- 
fort. He made man good, and would have continued him good. But here 
is the glory of his mercy and goodness in Christ. Here he doth good to 
sinners. He raiseth a sinner to mercy. He doth not add light to light, 
but he brings light out of darkness. In the gospel mercy strives with 
* See the passage from Leo, in foot-note, vol. I. page 369. — G 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 419 

misery, and strives with sin, and overcomes all our ills. It is God's will in 
the gospel to do good to sinners. Mercy is added to sinful men, contrary 
against contrary, God's goodness triumphing over the misery of man. 

The righteousness that Adam had, it was the righteousness of a creature, 
of a man ; but the obedience we have in Christ, it is the obedience of God- 
man. Therefore, that being imputed to us, it is a more exquisite righteous- 
ness. It brings us to God and entitles us to heaven. It is infinitely more 
than Adam's was. God manifests greater glory than in the creation. There 
is greater love, and greater mercy, and greater goodness manifested in the 
gospel than to Adam in innocency. 

Our estate in Christ is more perfect. His estate was not * yea and amen,' 
for it was ' yea ' to-day and ' nay ' to-morrow. He stood but a while. But 
in Christ the ' promises are yea and amen.' He had no promise, we have. 
Our estate by promises in Christ is better than ever Adam's was, as we are 
in a better root than he, for he was not in Christ the Mediator. We by 
faith are imited to Christ, Mediator ; and by virtue of the promise, God, 
where he begins, he will make an end ; where he is Alpha, he will be 
Omega. What a gloi-y is this to God, that he can repair man to a better 
estate than ever he had at the first, as God's mending is ever for the better. 
The state of grace and glory is better than ever the state of nature was ; 
spiritual is better than natm-al. Therefore, it is much for the glory of the 
wisdom of God that he can in Christ reconcile justice and mercy, and shew 
more mercy than ever he did in making man out of the dust of the earth, 
and all is to the glory of God. These attributes especially are glorious in 
the promises in Christ. 

His justice is glorious in punishing sin in Christ. There sin is odious 
in the punishing of Christ, God-man; if we speak of justice, there is justice. 

If of mercy, to put it upon our surety, for God to give his Son for us, 
there is transcendent mercy and transcendent justice in the punishing of 
our sin. How could it be punished greater ? 

And then the glory of his wisdom, to bring these together, infinite mercy 
and infinite justice, in Christ. 

Infinite power, for God to become man, and, without sin, to be so far 
abased; a humble omnipotency, to descend so low that God could be 
mortal, and then to raise himself again. 

And then the glory of his truth, that whatsoever was promised to Abra- 
ham, to David, to the prophets, all was performed in Christ, all the types. 
Here is glory by Christ of mercy, justice, wisdom, truth ; for all are ' yea 
and amen ' in Christ. Therefore, he may well say all this is ' to the glory 
of God.' 

Therefore, consider how the glory of God shines in the face ot Jesus 
Christ, as the apostle saith. If you would see God, see him shining ' in 
the face of Jesus Christ,' 2 Cor. iv. 6, see his mercy shining in Christ, and 
his justice in the punishing our sin in Christ ; see his truth, his power, his 
wisdom, shining in Christ, and shining more than in the creation, or in 
anything in the world besides. 

Can you honour God more than in believing the gospel ? Can you dis- 
honour him more, than to call his truth into question, that is * yea and 
amen ?' If you believe the gospel, you ' set to your seal that God is true,' 
John iii. 33. What an honour is this, that God will be honoured by you ! 
In setting to your seal that he is true, you give him the glory of all his 
attributes. In not believing, what a dishonour do you do to God ! You 
deny his merci% his wisdom, his justice, his truth, you deny all his attri- 



420 COMMENTARY ON 

butes, * you make God a liar,' 1 John v. 10. What a horrible sin is 
unbelief ! 

Therefore fortify your faith. The devil layeth siege to our faith above 
all other things. If he can shake that, he shakes all : for holy Ufe goes 
when faith goes. Who •uill love God, or obey God, when he knows not 
whether he be his God or no ? Let faith flourish, and it will quicken life 
in the heart. Let the promises gi'ow in the heart, and the word be grafted 
in the heart, and all will flourish in a Christian's Hfe. All will come off 
clearly and freely. Obedience will be cheerful and free, when we see God 
reconciled in Christ. Then love will be full of devices. When I see God's 
love to me, what shall I do to shew love again, to shew thanks to God ? 
Where is there any that for God's sake I may do good unto ? How shall 
I maintain the truth, and resist all opposers of the truth ? Can I do too 
much for him that hath done so much for me ? Love quickens. The 
devil knows if he can shake faith he shakes all. Let us fortify faith, and 
we glorify God more than by anything else. He is glorious in the gospel, 
and how shall he be so by us, except we set our hearts to believe him ? 
Therefore let us seal God's truth by our faith, and ' set to our seals that 
God is true.' God vouchsafes to be honoured by weak sinful men believ- 
ing of him : and that faith that honours him he will be sure to honour. 

* By us.' By us ministers. How ? When the gospel is preached, God 
is carried in triumph, as it were, and his banner is set up, and the pro- 
mises displayed, and sinners called unto him ; and God is glorified by the 
discovery of these things, and faith is wrought in people to whom they are 
discovered ; and they glorify God when they believe : they bless God that 
ever they heard these tidings. So every way God is glorified. 

The ministers they open, as it were, the box of sweet ointment, that the 
savour of it may be in the church, and spread far. They lay open the 
tapestry, the rich treasure of God's mercies : they dig deep, and find out 
the treasure. Therefore these promises in Scripture being so made and 
performed in Christ, they tend to God's glory, but by us, by our ministry. 
God, to knit man and man together, will convey the good he means to con- 
vey by the despised ministry. 

The enemies, therefore, of the ministry of the gospel, what are they ? 
Here is a double prejudice against them : they are enemies of the glory of 
God, and of the comfort of God's people, for they glorify God in the 
sense of his mercy. When it is unfolded to them, God gets glory, and they 
comfort. 

What do we think then of Popish spirits, that feed the people only with 
dead and dull ceremonies ? But let them go. I go on to the next verse, 
having dwelt somewhat long on this. 



VERSE 21. 

* Now he that stablisheth us tcith you in Christ is God, who hath anointed 
us,'' &c. As the riches of a Christian consisteth in the promises of God, 
which, as we have heard, in Christ * are all yea and amen ;' so unless he be 
stablished and built upon this strength, all is nothing. What if a man 
stand on a rock, if he be not built on it ! What if the foundation be never 
so strong, if he be not stablished thereon ! It is not sufficient that the 
promises be stablished, but we must be stablished upon them. The pro- 
mises of God are indeed ' yea and amen,' might the soul say, but what is 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 21. 421 

that to me ? Therefore the apostle addeth, He that gives the promises, 
will stablish us upon the promises. 

* Now he which stablisheth us ivith you in Christ is God.' The first thing 
that I will observe, before we come to the particular handling of the words, 
shall be only this in the general, from the connection and knitting together 
of this verse with the former, viz., 

Obs. That there must be a double amen. 

1. There is an amen in the promises. They are in themselves true. 
There must be an amen likewise in us. We must say amen to them, that 
is, we must be stablished upon them. There must be an echo in a Chris- 
tian's heart unto God ; that as God saith, these and these things I pro- 
mise, and they are all amen ; so the soul by faith must echo again, these 
things are for me, I believe them. 

For, as we say in the schools to good purpose, there is a double cer- 
tainty, a double firmness ; a certainty of the object, and a certainty of the 
subject ; there is a firmness of the promises in Jesus Christ ; and there 
must be a firmness in us upon those promises. It is no matter what the 
certainty of the thing be that we are to build upon, if there be not a cer- 
tainty in the person, if there be not a building on that thing. God shall 
lose the glory of his truth, and we the comfort, unless we be certain, as well 
as the promises are certain. It is no matter what the garment be, if it be 
not put on. It is no matter, as I said before, how firm the rock be, if we 
plant not ourselves upon it ; and therefore besides the writing of God's 
word on tables, unless he write it likewise in our hearts, unless our hearts 
be stablished on that truth that in itself is certain, that it may be certain 
to us, all is to no purpose. 

You see therefore, the absolute necessity of the application of the soid unto 
those truths which are certain and sure in themselves. There must be a stab- 
lishing of us, as well as a stablishing of the promises. There is a necessity 
of the application of the promises to ourselves, that they be true to us. 
Christ is a garment. We must put him on then. He is the robes that we 
appear glorious before God in ; but we must put him on by faith. Christ 
is the food of life. He is so indeed, but then he must be digested. Meat, 
except it be appHed, except the stomach work nourishment out of it by ap- 
plication, and so digest it to all the parts, the body hath not nourishment 
from it. 

Christ is the foundation of his church, aye, but there must be application. 
We as living stones must be built on him. Let the foundation be never so 
strong, if the stones be not laid on the foundation, the stones cannot stand. 
Though Christ be the spouse of the church, and be never so rich, there 
must be application and consent ; we must strike up the bargain and match 
between Christ and us. There must be our consent to tie ourselves to him, 
to give up ourselves to him. So look to all the comfortable relations that 
our blessed Saviour hath taken upon him in the book of God, they all en- 
force application. 

The gi'ound, I say, is this, that though there be never so much certainty 
in the thing, yet if there be not a certainty in the person to found applica- 
tion upon, all is to no purpose. 

These two therefore must go together, and they are sweet relatives, pro- 
mises on God's part, and faith on our part. The promises and Christ are 
nothing without faith. For there must be a touch to draw virtue. If faith 
have never so little touch of Christ, it will draw virtue ; but there must be 



422 OOMMENTAKY ON 

a touch, there must he application.* Christ is nothing without faith, and 
faith is nothing without Christ and the promises. 

For what is the difference between faith and presumption ? Presumption 
is an empty, groundless, fruitless conceit. Faith builds on the promises 
of the word ; we can allege the promise. It is nothing for a madman to 
assume himself to be king of another country. Why ? He hath no pro- 
mise. He that made account that all the ships that came to the haven 
were his, it was but a frantic part of him, and so he was accounted. So a 
man that thinks his estate is good, and builds not himself upon the promise, 
that hath no ground for it out of God's word, it is but a presumptuous frantic 
conceit. The promises are nothing without faith, and faith is nothing with- 
out the promises. There must be application. This I thought good to 
observe first in the general. To come now more particularly to the words 
themselves. 

* He that stablisheth us with you,' &c. In the words you have, first, a 
gracious act of building, or stablishing. 

Secondly, the basis, the foundation of that stablishing or building, and 
that is Christ. 

Thirdly, the author of this stablishing — God. 

Lastly, the persons who are built and stablished on that foundation • with 
you.' ' He that stablisheth us with you in Christ is God.' 

The fii'st thing is the act * stablishing.' 

The point is this, first, that, 

Obs. Stablishing, settling grace is necessary. 

It is necessary that there be a stablishing, confirming grace. It is not 
sufiicient that we be brought out of the kingdom of Satan ; for when we are 
gotten out of his hands and strength, he pursues us with continual malice. 
Therefore there must be the same power to stablish us still in grace, that 
first brought us into the state of grace. For as providence is a continual 
creation, so stablishing grace is the continuance of the new creature ; the 
same grace that sets us in the state of the new creation in Christ, the same 
stablisheth us. Stablishing grace is necessary. It is necessary many ways. 
Man of himself is an unstable creature. Take him at the best, but a creature. 
God found no stability in the angels. Take the best of creatures, even as 
creatures they are unstable. For God will have a creature as a creature to 
be a dependent thing upon the Creator, who is a being of himself, Jehovah. 
There is no stability in any creature. Man in his best estate was an un- 
stable creature. Since, we are very unstable, ready to be carried away in 
our judgment to the wind of any false doctrine, ready to be blown over with 
every little temptation. Nay, now in the state of grace, in ourselves we are 
very unstable, ready to fly olf presently ; and therefore we have need to be 
established of God. 

Reason 1. It is necessary in regard of the indisposition of our nature to 
supernatural truths. We are an unprepared subject for them in ourselves. 
The law indeed, we have some principles of it ; but of the gospel there are 
in us no seeds at all of it ; and that is the reason there are so many heresies 
against the gospel : there are none against the law. And therefore divine 
truths being contrary to our disposition, as there must be a supernatural 
beginner, so there must be a supernatural strengthener. He that is Alpha 
must be Omega. As there must be a mighty subduing of the heart to be 
a vessel to receive these truths, an almighty power to lay the soul on this 
foundation, because of the contrariety of the truth to the natural heart of 
* Cf. Mark v. 25-34.— G. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 21. 423 

man, so there is need of no less than of a divine and supernatural stablishing. 
Our natures are very inconstant, and unsettled, and wayward. Take us 
at the best, before the fall, you see how soon we fell, being left to our- 
selves, and having no stablishing grace. Much more now since the fall is 
there a necessity of divine stablishing. When we come to know the truth, 
we are subject to fall away. Like little children, that are ready to sink, if 
they be not upheld by their parents or nurse, God must uphold and prop 
us, and shore us up : we presently sink else. Moses was but in the mount 
a while, and we see how soon the Israelites fell to idolatiy. Paul did but 
leave the Galatians a little, and they were removed presently from Christ to 
false teachers. Gal. iii. 1. The nature of man is wonderful unstable, very 
loose and unsettled. Divine truths are supernatural. We have need of 
stablishing therefore. 

2. Again, stablishing grace is necessary, in regard of those oppositions that 
are made against its after once we he in Christ. For with what malice doth 
Satan pursue a Christian, when he is once taken out of his kingdom ! And 
the world runs a clean contrary bias in the several examples thereof. How 
many scandals do there arise daily even in the very church itseK ! How 
many things are in om" natui-al disposition joining with them ! All which 
will make a man fly off, and unsettle him, if he be not stablished in grace. 

And indeed what is the difference between one Chi'istian and another 
that lives in the bosom of the church ? between a temporiser and an- 
other ? The difference is but in their radication, in their stablishing. For 
all have the general knowledge of the truth. But here is the difference, — the 
true Christian is radicated and rooted in the truth, a false Christian is not. 
And thereupon when temptations come, either from within, from conscience, 
or from without, from Satan and the world, he falls away, because he is not 
rooted ; but the other holds on, because he is estabhshed. 

3. And the best of us all have need of stablishing ; for there he degrees of 
truths, degrees of faith, in all the 2>arts of faith. There is conjecture, a cer- 
tain suspicious knowledge ; and there is opinion, which is with fear of the 
contrary; and there is knowledge; and there is faith, which is founded 
upon the authority of the speaker : and yet this faith, though it be founded 
upon the word ot God, it may receive further and further strength in all 
the parts of it. In assent, there may be a higher degree ; in affiance, there 
may be a higher degree, &c. ; and therefore the best of us all have need 
of strengthening. 

But where shall we have it ? 

Christ is the basis, the foundation, of all our stability. Now, in the cove- 
nant of grace, we are stablished in him, not in ourselves. The point is this, 
that 

Ohs. Christ is the ground of our fiimness. 

As all the promises are made to us in Christ in regard of the execution, 
so God he brings us Christ. All is conferred to us in Christ. As the pro- 
mises are made, so they are executed. God stablisheth us in Christ. He 
draws us to Christ. * None come to me, but God the Father draws,' John 
vi. 44. Therefore God doth reveal Christ to us in our conversion, and our 
stablishing is in him. Therefore our salvation is so certain, because it is 
laid upon one that is so certain in himself, Jesus Christ. 

And happy it is, that we are stablished in him that loves us so well, that 
is both a low high priest, that will pity us ; and a great high priest, equal 
with God, able to do all things to God for us, and between God and us. 
Adam, we know, had his strength in his own keeping, and being left to 



424 COMMENTAr.Y ON | 

himself, we see what became of him. The angels had their strength in 
their own keeping, and we know how soon they fell. But since the fall, 
we are founded and bottomed upon a surer foundation. Now we stand not 
by our own strength, but we are established in Jesus Christ. We are surer 
than the angels were before they fell, surer than Adam was in paradise ; for 
now we are stablishcd in Christ the Mediator, God and man. And because 
w^e could not keep our stability in ourselves, we are stablished in him that 
wrought it for us, and that possesseth it for us in heaven, and that keeps 
it for us ; and as it is laid up and kept for us, so we are kept for it. ' You 
are kept by the power of God to salvation,' 1 Pet. i. 5. And, therefore, as 
there be many differences which advance the state of grace above the state 
of nature, so this is one, that our state in grace is more stable and firm, as 
being stablished upon a bettor ground, even upon Jesus Christ the second 
Adam. God never mends, but he mends for the better ; and he never re- 
stores, but he restores for the better. The new heaven and the new earth 
shall be better than the first, so the new creature, the new Adam, is more 
glorious than the first ; and as that which we recover in Christ is more and 
better than that we lost in Adam, so the certainty and security of our estate 
in grace, is far beyond the other, this being stablished in Christ. 

But what in us is stablished in Christ ? and in Christ how considered ? 

1. First of all, our jiidr/ment, that is stablished in evangelical truths, con- 
cerning the natures and the ofilices of Christ, concerning the privileges that 
we have by him ; and this is the ground of all other stablishment. We 
cannot firmly cleave to that with our will and aflections, which we do not 
clearly apprehend with our understandings. "When we have a clear and 
judicious apprehension of things, then follows a firm afiection to them. The 
adhering and cleaving of the will and aifections, it comes from the discern- 
ing of the understanding ; and, therefore, as we say of the first concoction, if 
that be naught, all is naught ; and if that be good and sound, it makes way 
for all concoctions after ; so if things be well digested in the judgment, if 
there be a sound illumination and apprehension of divine truths, it makes 
way for a constant and firm adhesion ; therefore the first stablishing is of 
our judgments. 

2. Secondty, as our judgments, so oxir tcills are stablished in cleaving 
unto Christ, making choice of him above all things in the world ; that as 
he became man to sue unto us for our love, and to become our husband, 
so we then many him, when upon judging what an excellent person he is, 
and how fit for us, we choose him and cleave unto him constantly without 
all separation, for better, for worse, in our joy, in our love and delight. 
For, indeed, he is the only excellent object, and most fittest for our affec- 
tions to be placed on. Whatsoever other things besides, we place our 
aflections on too much, they make us worse than ourselves. Only he can 
advance us to a better state than we are in, that can raise us higher. 

3. In a word, the whole soul, judgment, will, and affections, and all the 
inward man, for so the apostle takes it in that latitude, Eph. iii. 16, is 
stablished in Christ, and this carries the outward man with it. We are 
stablished in Jesus Christ, not in ourselves. 

Now when we are stablished in Christ, whatsoever Christ hath, or is, is 
ours. It is a most excellent condition to be in Christ, and to be stablished 
in him ; for to be established in Christ, is to be in a firm estate, in an ever- 
lasting estate. Once Christ's, and for ever his. It is a glorious state, for 
he hath conquered over all enemies whatsoever, and his conquest is ours. 

Well then, we see the foundation of the chm'ch, and of every parti- 



2 COrwINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 425 

cular Christian, Christ Jesus. Whence comes the stability and firmness 
of the church, ' that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ' ? It is 
built upon the rock, upon Christ. So all the stablishing that a Christian 
hath, it is from this rock, his being built upon Jesus Christ. If we were 
built upon man, we could not stand ; if we were built upon angels, we could 
not stand ; if we were built upon anything in the world, we could not stand ; 
but being built upon Jesus Christ, who is ' all in aU ' to a soul that is 
stablished in him, there must needs be an everlasting stablishing. 

It is a fond* objection of some, and unlearned, against the principles of 
divine truth, that we may fall, as well as Adam in paradise, as well as the 
angels in heaven ; as if there were not a wide and broad difference between 
the state of grace and the state of nature. A Christian hath more strength 
than the angels in heaven, or than Adam in paradise ever had ; he hath a 
more firm consistence, because he stands by grace. ' By grace we stand,' 
as the apostle saith, Heb. xiii. 9. A Christian hath promises of persever- 
ance, Adam and the angels had none. And, therefore, to fetch a reason of 
falling away from grace, firom the proportion we have to that condition, is 
a mere sophism, not rightly discerning the disparity. It is not alike with 
the angels, and Adam, and us, for we stand by grace, out of ourselves, be- 
ing stabUshed in one another.f 

We have not only a promise of happiness, as the angels and Adam had 
happiness and a blessed estate, but they had no promise to stand and be 
confirmed. A poor weak Christian hath a promise to be stablished and 
confirmed. Therefore those proud sectaries that are between us and the 
papists, and join rather with them than us, that trouble the church so much, 
they make an idle objection concerning falling away from grace, to say, 
Did not Adam fall away ? Wliat is that to the purpose ? Was Adam under 
the same covenants as we are now in Christ ? Is there not a new promise 
made to us in Christ, better than ever Adam could attain to ? 

Besides, we are founded upon a better Adam, upon the ' second Adam,' 
God-man. We have not only a better foundation, but better promises, 
that Adam and the angels themselves wanted. And, therefore, the cove- 
nant of grace is said to be ' an everlasting covenant.' * I will marry thee 
to myself for ever,' Hosea ii. 19. 

A Christian is not to be considered abstractively, or alone ; for then, in- 
deed he is a weak creature, as weak as other men are ; but consider him in 
his rock on whom he is built ; consider him in his husband to whom he is 
united and knit ; consider him in his head, Christ ; look upon him as he is 
thus founded and stablished. Oh he is an excellent person ! 

See him in the difference betwixt him and others. Those that are not 
stablished by a firm judgment, and will, and affection, and so by faith in 
Jesus Christ, what confidence, what stabiHty have they ? Those who have 
the firmness they have in the favour of men, it is but vanity ; those that 
have the firmness they have in riches, what are they ? how soon do they 
leave it all ? those that have the firmness they have in dependence upon 
any creature, be it never so great, alas ! they are nothing, they are all 
vanity. Both we ourselves in depending, and the things we depend upon, 
are vanity. Therefore we are vanity, because we fasten upon that which is 
vanity. Things have no more firmness than that hath upon which they 
lean. Those that have but a weak prop to support them, when that falls, 
they fall together with it. Now those that are not founded upon Christ by 
knowledge and love, and united to him by faith, alas ! what standing have 
* That is, ' foolish.'— G. t Qu- ' in another ? '—Ed. 



426 



COMMENTARY ON 



they, when all things else besides God are vain ! For nothing hath a being 
but God, and a Christian so far as he leans upon God. Were not all things 
taken out of nothing ? and shall not they all turn to nothing ? must not 
this whole world be consumed with fire ? 

There must be a new world, ' a new heaven and a new earth,' 2 Pet. iii. 
13 ; but this and all the excellencies in it, as they were raised out of no- 
thing, so they shall come to nothing. God, he is, ' I am that I am,' saith 
he, Exod. iii. 14 ; and Christ he is ' yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, and the 
same for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8. A man cannot say of any creature in the 
world, that it was yesterday, and shall be to-morrow and for ever. We 
may say it of Christ, ' he is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, he was, 
and is, and is to come,' Rev. i. 8 ; and, therefore, those that are founded 
upon him, that have their happiness in him, they are firm as he is firm ; 
and those that build upon any other thing, they vanish as the thing vanish- 
eth. There is nothing in the world hath such a being, but it is subject in 
time not to be. It is only a Christian that is in Christ, who is as firm as 
Christ is ; and Christ can never be but that which he is ; for of necessity 
God must be always like himself. He is Jehovah, ' I am, I am ' at all 
times ; and Christ he is Jehovah. A Christian therefore, and none but a 
Christian, hath a firm stablishing in Christ. Without this stablishing in 
Christ, what are we ? what are wicked men ? Chaff, that the wind blows 
away! They are gi-ass, &c., things of nothing, carried away with every 
blast. But a Christian is a stone, a rock, built upon Christ Jesus. 

But to come to the person, who is it that stablisheth ? * He that stab- 
lisheth us in Christ, is God.' 

Wherein we may consider these two branches : 

God must stablish, 

God will stablish. 

Can none stablish the soul upon Christ but God ? 

No ! For God is the only maker of the marriage between Christ and the 
church. The same God that brought Adam and Eve together in paradise, 
brings the church and Christ together. And as he gives Christ to the 
church, and hath sealed and appointed him to be ' wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Cor. i. 30 (being made of God unto us 
for that purpose, as the apostle saith), so he works the consent of the church, 
a consent in heart and spirit to take and embrace Christ. Now it is God 
only that can work the heart to Christ. * None can come unto me, except 
God the Father draw him,' John vi. 44. It is God that gives Christ to be 
the husband of the church, and that brings the spouse, the church, to Christ. 

1. For first, it is God by his Spirit that discovers to the soid its hideous, 
desjjerate, and woful estate without Christ ; and by the Spirit in the ministry 
of the word, lays open the riches and excellency that is in Christ, and the firm- 
ness and stability that is to be had in him ; and so draws us with the cords 
of a man, with reasons, discovering an absolute necessity of getting into 
Christ, and of having him to be our husband, except we will lie under the 
wrath of God and be damned ; and, withal, discovering the fulness and ex- 
cellency that is in Christ. 

2. Again, it is God only that must stablish the soul, all the parts of it, 
both judyment and conscience. For, I beseech you, what can any human 
creature, what can anything under God, work upon the soul ? I mean so 
firmly as to stablish it ; and, therefore, our controversy with the papists is 
just and good. 

We say the reason and ground of our believing the word of God to be 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 427 

the word of God must not be the testimony of the church and the authority 
thereof; for, alas ! what can the judgment of man, what can the judgment 
of the church, do ? It may incUne and move the will by inducing argu- 
ments, and so cause a human consent ; but to establish the soul and con- 
science, and to assure me that the word of God, which is the ground of my 
faith, is the word of God, it must be God by his Spirit that must do it ; the 
testimony of the church will never do it. The same Spirit that inspired 
holy men to write the word of God, works in us a belief that the word of 
God is the word of God. The stablishing argument must be by the power 
of God's Spirit. God, joining with the soul and spirit of a man whom he 
intends to convert, besides that inbred light that is in the soul, causeth him 
to see a divine majesty shining forth in the Scriptures, so that there must 
be an infused establishing by the Spii'it to settle the heart in this first pi'in- 
ciple, and indeed in all other divine principles, that the Scriptures are the 
word of God. 

3. And, to go on a little further, this is a fundamental error in our prac- 
tice ; for what is the reason tee have so many apostates? What is the reason 
so many are so fi'uitless in their lives ? What is the reason that men despair 
in death, but even this, because men are not built and stablished aright ? 
God's Spirit never stablished their souls in divine truths. For, first, con- 
cerning apostasy, ask them what is the reason they are of this or that re- 
ligion, they will say they have been taught so, they have been brought up 
to it, the company with whom they have conversed have been devout men, 
and have been always led with this opinion, and they see no reason to 
thwart it. 

Is that all ? Hath not the Spirit wrought these things in thy heart ? hath 
he not given thee a taste of them ? hath he not convinced thee in thy judg- 
ment that it is so ? hast thou not found the power of the Spirit working 
upon thy soul, changing of thee, raising of thee, drawing of thee out of the 
world nearer to God ? hast thou not, I say, felt the power of the Spirit this 
way? 

No ; but thus I was catechised, and thus I have been bred, and thus I 
have heard in the ministry. And no otherwise ? Alas ! it will never hold 
out, there will be a falling away ; for when a man believes not that which 
he believes from the Spirit of God, he will be ready, when dangerous times 
come, when there is an onset made by the adversaries, to fall, and to fall 
clean away, as we see it was in the time of popery ; for whatsoever is not 
spiritual, whatsoever knowledge is not divine and from the Spirit of God, 
never holds out. Therefore, I beseech you, what is the reason that you 
have many illiterate men that set upon the truth and hold out to the end, 
and, on the contrary, many great seeming scholars, that are skilful in school- 
learning and in other authors, do not ? The reason is, the one hath the 
truth from the Spirit, discovering all the objections that the heart of man 
can make against it, and the strength that is in the truth to answer and 
silence all those objections. The other man hath only a discoursing know- 
ledge, an ability to gather one thing fi'om another, and to prove one thin» 
by another, by strength of parts. But the Spirit of God never discovered 
the sleights and the corruptions of his heart, never fastened and settled his 
heart upon the truth, he never had experience of the truth. For, indeed, 
nothing doth stablish so much as the experience of the truth on which we 
are stabUshed. 

4. Again, what is the reason of that unfruitfulness that is amongst men, 
but because truths were never settled in the soul by the Sx)irit of God ? 



423 COMMENTARY ON 

That which men know out of the word of God concerning Christ and the 
pri\'ileges b}"^ him, they were never persuaded of it in their hearts ; therefore, 
they come not to a fruitful conversation. It is impossible but that men 
should be abundantly fruitful that have spiritual apprehensions of divine 
things, of evangelical truths. Hence comes all our unthankfalness and 
undervaluing of the gospel. The gospel of itself is an unprized thing. How- 
ever we esteem of it, God values it highly. We value it not, because our 
apprehensions of it are customary and formal, gotten by breeding, and edu- 
cation, and discourse, and not by the Spirit ; we feel not the spiritual and 
heavenly comforts of those truths we think we Icnow. 

5. How comes likewise des)mir in time of temptation, and in death, but 
only because men want this stablishing b}' tlae Spirit of God ? Men go on 
in evil courses, trusting to a formal, dead, human laiowledge, gotten by 
human means, and not settled in them by the Spirit of God, that hath 
not sealed the truth in their hearts ; and hereupon, when sharp trials 
come, they despair, because they have no feeling of the truths of the 
gospel ; and so when conscience is awakened and smarts, it clamours and 
cries out upon all their formal and human knowledge. For they having 
not a spiritual sense of the mercies of God in Christ, and the persuasions 
of comfort are not so near to support the soul, as the temptations, and 
vexations, and torments are, how can they but despair ? Now who can 
still the conscience, but the Spirit of God ? Why now, if the knowledge 
that men had were spiritual and heavenly, in all accusations of conscience, 
it would set conscience down and still it. I am a sinner indeed, I am this 
and this, but I have felt the sweet mercies of God in Christ ; God hath 
said to my soul, ' I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3 ; he hath intimated to 
my spirit, by a sweet voice, ' Son, thy sins are forgiven thee,' Mark ii. 5. 
Where there is, I say, a knowledge and an apprehension of these evangeli- 
cal truths wrought by the Spuit, it sets down conscience and stills it, though 
the heart rage at the same time. There are thousands in the very bosom 
of the chui'ch that miscarry because of this, resting in a literal, outward, 
formal knowledge, gotten only by discourse, and by reading, and commerce 
with others, and never labour to have their hearts stablished in Christ by 
God's Spirit. 

You see here, then, a necessity of God's writing his truth in our bowels. 
He saith in the covenant of grace, * I will write my law in their inward 
parts,' Jer. xxxi. 33, that is, I will teach their very hearts : that knowledge 
that they have shall be spiritual. 

For, beloved, the knowledge that must save us must not only be of 
divine things, but it must be divine ; it must not only be of spiritual things, 
but it must be spiritual. The light that we have of spiritual things must 
be answerable to the things ; we must see them by their own light. We 
cannot know spiritual and heavenly things by a human light ; but as the 
things themselves are spiritual, so we must have the Spirit of God, that by 
it we may come to know spuitual things spiritually. 

Desire God therefore to vouchsafe us his Spirit, that it may teach us, 
and convince us of the truth of those things which we read and hear. God 
must do it, he must persuade and bow the heart, and will, and affections ; 
and so he will do it, and doth it to those that rely upon him. And this is 
the second branch. 

Ohs. As God must do it, so God will do it. 

What is the reason of that ? 

1. It is this : he will do it, because he is constant. Where he ' begins a 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 21. 429 

good work, he will finish it to the day of the Lord,' Philip, i. 6. He will 
do it, because in the covenant of grace he hath undertaken both parts, both 
his own and ours. He undertakes his own part, which is to give us 
eternal life, and to give us Christ ; and he undertakes our part too, which 
is to believe, and to cleave unto Christ, &c. He makes this good himself. 
He works this in the heart by the Spirit ; for therefore it is called the 
covenant of grace, because God himself is graciously pleased to do both 
parts, which must be comfortably remembered against an objection that 
flesh and blood will make. I might indeed come to God and Christ, but I 
am an unworthy, empty creature, I have no faith. 

Come and attend upon the means ; the gift of application, and confirm- 
ing, and stablishing, is part of the covenant. The covenant that God 
makes with thee, is not only to give thee life everlasting and glory, but to 
give thee grace likewise. * Faith is the gift of God.' He that stabUsheth 
us, and confirms us upon that which is certain in itself, is God. 

Lay it up against a time of temptation for a pillar and ground of your 
faith, that here God doth both. He gives us promises, and gives us Christ 
whereon the promises are founded ; and likewise establisheth us, and seals 
us, &c. He doth all. So that as none can stablish the soul, but God by 
his Spirit, so he will do it. It is an excellent reason of the apostle in Rom. 
V. 10, ' If when we were enemies, God gave us his Son to reconcile us, 
how much more now shall we be saved ! ' If we were saved by the death 
of Christ when we were enemies, much more shall we be preserved by his 
life, he now hving in heaven ! So I say, if God, when there was nothing 
in us, but we were in a clean opposite estate, did begin spiritual life in us, 
much more will he stablish that which he hath begun in us. 

And this stabUshing, as well as the beginning of grace, comes likewise 
from God ; for take grace in the whole latitude and extent of it, take all 
that can be in grace, all comes graciously from God : the offer of it, the 
beginning of it. This manner of it, that it should be strong, the strength- 
ening of grace, it comes from God. He strengtheneth us in grace, as well 
as begins it. So that grace itself, and this modus, this manner, that it is 
strong and firm, that it should hold out, all comes from God. 

A Christian needs not only converting grace, but stablishing grace. God 
that converted him must stablish him, and build him up, and confirm him. 
Peter was in the state of grace, and yet when God did not stablish him, 
you see how he fell. So David was an excellent man, but when God did 
not stablish him, you see how he fell. The weakest, with the stablishing 
grace of God, will stand : and the strongest, without the stablishing grace of 
God, will sink and fall. 

The apostle doth not say, he hath done, but he doth ' stablish' us. This 
must be considered, that the life of a Christian is a perpetual dependent 
life : not only in his conversion he lives by faith, he hath his first life ; but 
ever after he lives by faith, that is, dependence on God for assistance, and 
protection, and strength in the whole course of his life. 

The ignorance of this makes us subject to fail ; for when we trust to 
grace received, and do not seek for a new supply, we fall into Peter's case, 
* Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I,' Mat. xxvi. 35. Hereupon 
Peter fell foully. He had too much confidence in grace received. 

Therefore God is fain to humble his children, to teach them dependence ; 
and usually therefore in Scripture, where some special grace is given, he 
hath somowhat joined with it, to put them in mind that they do not stand 
by their own strength. In the same chapter where Peter makes a glorious 



430 COMMENTARY ON 

confession, ' Thou art the Son of the living God,' Mat. xvi. 16, and he was 
honoured of Christ by that confession ; yet Christ calls him Satan in the 
same chapter, ver. 23, and he forsakes his Master. A strange thing ! to 
teach us, that we stand not of ourselves. When we are strong, it is by 
God ; when we are weak, it is by ourselves. 

Jacob wrestled, and was a prevailer with God, but he was fain to halt for 
it. He was stnick with halting all the daj^s of his life : though he had the 
victory, and overcame God, taking upon him, as I said before, the person 
of an enemy to strive with him. Yet God, to put him in mind that he had 
the strength whereby he prevailed from him, and not of himself, he made 
him hmp all his days. We need perpetual dependence upon God. 

Therefore let us set upon nothing in our own strength, as Hannah saith 
comfortably, 1 Sam. ii. 9, 'No man is strong by his own strength.' God 
is all our sufficiency. Man's nature doth affect a kind of divinity ; he would 
be a god to himself: but God will teach him that he is not a God, but a 
dependent creature. He affects a divinity. Thus he will set upon things 
in confidence of his own wisdom without prayer, and thinks to work things 
with the strength of his own parts, to compass things with his own wit, to 
bring things to a good issue. no ! it will not be so. In Prov. iii. 6, 
' Acknowledge God in all thy ways,' that is, acknowledge him in thy enter- 
prises in anything ; acknowledge him in the progress, that thou needest 
stablishing grace ; acknowledge him in the issue, that thou needest his 
blessing upon all thy endeavours ; acknowledge God in all our ways. 

Therefore, what do we but make ourselves gods, when we set upon busi- 
ness, especially weighty, without invocation and dependence ? A Christian 
is wondrous weak, a man is vanity in himself; but take him as he is built 
upon the promises, and as he is in the love of God and Christ, he is a kind 
of almighty man ; then ' I can do all things in Christ that strengtheneth 
me,' Philip, iv. 13. A Christian is omnipotent if he depend upon the pro- 
mise, and commit his ways to God ; but he is impotent and weak in him- 
self. It is God that must stablish us. A man that is vanity, he makes 
him firm ; a man that is weak, he makes him strong ; a man that is un- 
settled, he settles him. The word is a finn thing, and God that builds us 
on the word is as firm ; and Christ in whom we are built is as firm. Peter 
when he built on the word he was wondrous firm, he was a rock too. A 
man that stands on a rock is firm. Now in believing the gospel, and in 
being built on the gospel, upon the prophets and apostles, upon apostolical 
truth, now we that are weak in ourselves are firm. 

The weakest creatures have the strongest shelters ; and weakness is 
turned by God to be a help ; for conscience of weakness makes us seek for 
strength out of ourselves. You know the conies, as Solomon saith, * they 
hide themselves in the rock,' Prov. xxx. 26, they flee to their burrows. The 
birds, because snares are laid for them below, they build their nests on high, 
to secure themselves that way. We see the vine, a weak plant, it hath the 
elm to prop it. Weak things must have a strong support. So man, being 
weak in himself, weak in judgment, weak in affections, he is stablished by 
God, God herein triumphing in our weakness over strength. For when we 
have strong adversaries, and we are weak, Satan is a strong enemy. God 
himself puts upon him the vizor of an enemy sometimes, as in Job's case, 
and Christ's on the cross ; when God personates an enemy, and the devil 
is a real enemy ; and the devil's instruments, heretics and seducers, are 
strong, strong in wit and parts every way, and we are weak to encounter 
with God^ to wrestle with him ; and we are weak to encounter with ' prin- 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 21. 431 

cipalities and powers,' Eph. vi. 12, and with men of stronger parts, that 
are besotted and intoxicated with Satanical temptations, and labour to draw 
all into the snare of the devil with themselves. Now when God in weakness 
shall triumph over strength, here is glory to God, in stablishing us. It is 
God that must stablish us. 

And as God must only do it, so he is ready to do it ; for in the covenant 
of grace it lies upon him. God hath promised there to confirm it ; and 
therefore the apostle, 1 Thess. v. 24, binds it with the faithfulness of God, 

* Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it.' God is content 
that our confirmation should lie upon his faithfuLaess ; and therefore when 
he accepts us into the covenant of grace, he performs our part as well as his 
own. ' God is faithful,' saith the apostle, 1 Cor, i. 9, * who hath called us 
to the fellowship of Christ,' who will confirm us to the end. He is content 
to hazard his reputation, as it were, and to be counted unfaithful else ; so 
that strengthening grace is of God. He hath bound himself by his faith- 
fulness to confirm and to stablish those that are his. 

Mark here by the way, before I come to handle the doctrine of persever- 
ance, what an invincible argument you have to prove that a man that is 
once in Christ can never faU away. 

Say they, indeed, God for his part is ready to maintain us, to do this ; 
but we for our part are subject to fall away : as if the carrying of us along 
in the course of grace to salvation did not lie upon God and Christ. God 
is faithful to confirm us to the end. We being once in the covenant of 
grace, he doth our part and his own too : how can those then that are in 
the state of grace ever finally fall away ? 

Now God doth confirm us, by working such graces in us by his Spirit, 
by which we are stablished. As for instance, ' I will put my fear into their 
hearts, that they shall never depart from me,' Jer. xxxii. 40 ; he stablisheth 
us by fear. ' Make an end of your salvation with fear and trembHng, 
for it is God that works in you both the will and the deed,' Philip ii. 12. 
He puts a spirit of jealousy into a man over his corruptions ; and a reve- 
rential filial fear, which keepeth him from presuming. 

And Ukewise he preserveth us by wisdom, as it is, Prov. ii. 10, 11. 

* When wisdom entereth into thy heart, discretion shall preserve thee, and 
understanding shall keep thee.' 

And by faith, ' you are kept,' saith the apostle, ' by the mighty power of 
God through faith to salvation.' 

And by peace of conscience, which is wrought in the heart by the Spirit. 

* The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall guard (for so the 
word signifieth) your hearts and minds,'* that is, a true believer that is 
once in Christ, he finds such joy in the Holy Ghost, such inward peace of 
conscience, as preserves and guards him from despair, from the temptations 
of Satan, from the seeming wrath of God. So that God as he stablisheth 
us, so he stablisheth us as it becometh Christians, as it becomes men, by 
sanctifying our understandings, by working grace in our hearts, the grace 
of fear, of wisdom, of faith, of peace, &c. So that a Christian now cannot 
presume, save in a holy kind of presumption, that God will finish his own 
good work. But of this, I say, I shall have fitter occasion to speak here- 
after. 

To conclude therefore — God you see must stablish, and God will stab- 
lish. It is a point of great comfort every way ; comfort from the founda- 
tion and root in whom we are stablished ; and from him that hath taken 
♦ Of. note k, vol. I. p. 334.— G. 



432 COMMENTARY ON 

upon him to stablish us, God by his Holy Spirit. If a Christian should fall, 
God mast be unstable ; or Christ the foundation must be unstable ; or the 
Holy Spirit by which we are stablished must be imstable ; but it were blas- 
phemy to think thus. 

I come now to the last thing, the subject, or the persons that are stab- 
hshed, ' us with you.' 

' He that stablisheth us with you,^ We should have honourable conceits 
of all Christians. There is an ointment runs down upon the very skirts of 
Aaron's garment, Ps. cxxxiii. 2. There is not the lowest Christian, but 
he receiveth something fi-om Chi'ist the head. Perhaps thou hast one grace 
in an eminent manner. It may be he hath another more eminent than 
thou hast. Thou mayest have more knowledge, he may have more humility ; 
thou maj'est have more strength of judgment, he may have more sense of 
his own wants. There is somewhat in every Christian that is valuable, that 
is estimable and precious, not only in the eye of God, who valued him so 
as to give his Son for him, but should be so also in the eye of stronger 
Christians. Therefore St Paul here, a strong Christian, out of the sweet- 
ness of his spirit, joins ' us with you.' He saith not, you with us, but as 
if they were as firmly set in Christ as himself, he saith, ' us with you ; ' he 
puts them together with himself; for indeed, all of us, one with another, 
weak Christians and strong Christians, fetch all that we have from one 
fountain, draw all from one spring, are led all by one Spirit. 

You have here also the character of a sound Christian ; he loves and 
values all Christians. A carnal man may value excellent Christians, that 
have excellent parts, of whom he hopes for kindness in some peculiar re- 
gard, but he loves not all the saints. Love to all Christians as they be 
Christians, because they have some anointing of the Spirit, some earnest, 
somewhat they have to be valued, is a note of a good and sound Christian. 

Another reason why he joins ' us with you,' is, to shew that the working 
of the Spirit it is not in the members severed from the body, but as they are 
in the body. The Spirit works in us, but in us with you, and in you with 
us ; that is, as all the spirits come from the head and heart to the several 
members of the body, so they must be united, they must be in the body, 
before they can have the benefit of the spirits. There must be an union 
with Christ the head and with the rest of the members before we can have 
the Spirit to strengthen us and anoint us. Those that rend themselves 
from the body, cannot hope for stablishing from the head. 

This should be a bond to tie us to the communion of saints. We have 
all that we have in the body ; we all grow in the body ; we are all stones 
in one building, whereof Christ is the foundation ; therefore as stones in an 
arch strengthen one another, so should we. Let us look for grace to be 
given in the communion of saints. It is an ill sign when any man will be 
a solitary Christian, and wall stand alone by himself. As we are knit to 
Christ by faith, so we must be knit to the communion of saints by love. 
That which we have of the Spirit is had in the communion of saints. It is 
worth observing, the better to cherish Christian loviugness. 

Thus you see the parts of this sentence in which we have the grace itself 
here spoken of, ' stablishing.' 

In u-hom ive are stahlislml — ' In Christ.' B^j xchom ? — * By God.' And 
who those are that are stablished — ' Us with you.' 

To make now some application of all. 

Use. If it be God that stablisheth us, let us make this use of it, let God 
have the glory of our stablishing. If we have it in dependence upon God 



li CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 4.33 

by prayer, let us return all hj praise and thanksgiving. All comes oi" his 
mere grace, let all return to his mere glory. ' Not unto us, but unto thy 
name give the praise,' Ps. cxv. 1. It is the song of the church on earth, 
and the song of the church triumphant in heaven, that all glory be to Clod 
in all the whole carriage of salvation. The promises are his, stablishing is 
his, that he would make a covenant, it is his ; that he will perform his covenant 
to us, it is his ; that he will enable us to perform the covenant, it is by his 
strength ; all is his. Therefore both the church here, and the church in 
heaven, our song should be. Great, and gracious, and merciful is the true 
God, that is so gracious and righteous in all his promises. 

Let us labour, I beseech you, for stablishing, especially in these times. 
Is it not a shame that we have gotten no more gi'ound now than we had 
threescore years ago ? Nay, that we rather call principles into question ? 
The pope hath been antichrist ; and traditions hath been accounted tradi- 
tions, and not equal with the word. What shall w^e now stagger in the 
foundation ? Is here our progress ? Oh, beloved, labour to be stablished 
in the present truth, that you may not be a prey for every subtle man. 

And here especially I would speak to the younger sort, that they should 
labom* for this stablishing betimes, before they be engaged in the world, and 
before other businesses possess them over-deeply ; for falsehood hath more 
correspondency, and suits better with om* corruption, specially if it be 
forced from subtle wits. It prevails much with unstable dispositions. 
Those that are uncatechiscd and ungrounded, they are soon led away ; and, 
therefore, with other studies we should study the truth, and remember that 
our best calling is to be a Christian, and our best honour to be able to stand 
for the truth we profess. 

Labour to have fundamental graces established, and then all will be stab- 
lished. If the root be strengthened, the tree stands fast ; radical graces 
must be strengthened. 

First, HuniiUtij. The foundation of religion is very low, and humility 
and abasing is in all parts of religion. Every grace hath a mixture of humi- 
lity, because our graces are from God ; they are dependencies. Now 
humility is an emptying gi-ace, and acknowledgeth, that in myself I am 
nothing. Spiritual poverty with humility acknowledgeth that I in myself 
am a dependent creature. If God w^ithhold his influence, if God withdraw 
his grace, I shall be as other men, as Samson when his hair was cut. Our 
strength is in God altogether. Let us pray that we may be humble ; ' God 
gives grace to the humble,' James iv. 6. ' When I am weak,' saith blessed 
St Paul, ' then I am strong;' that is, when I am humble, and feel, and 
acknowledge my weakness, ' then I am strong,' 2 Cor. xii. 10 ; or else a 
man is not strong when he is weak, but when he feels and acknowledgeth 
his weakness. Therefore let us labour to grow in humility and self-denial, 
and we shall grow in strength. 

2. Then again, another radical grace to be stablished is Faith. Depend 
upon God altogether; for considering our strength is out of ourselves, and 
faith being a gi-ace that goes out of ourselves, and lays hold of that that is 
out of ourselves, faith is necessary to our stablishing, ' Believe, and 5'e shall 
be stablished,' saith the prophet, 1 Pet. v. 10.* Though the promise be 
sure in itself, yet we must be established by faith. How doth God stablish 
us ? By working a spirit of faith ; therefore strengthen faith, strengthen 
all other graces. All have their issue from faith. 

8. And faith comes from sound knowledge ; knowledge therefore hath the 
* Qu. 'Isa. vii. 9?'— Ed. 

voi,. HI. E c 



434 COMMENTARY ON 

name of faith. ' This is eternal Hfe, to know thee,'' 1 John v. 20 ; strengthen 
aiid increase knowledge. Historical faith is nothing but knowledge ; when 
we know the word of God to be as it is ; and that is the ground of justi- 
fying faith and dependence. For the more I know God in covenant as he 
hath revealed himself, and the more I know the promise, and the more I 
know Christ, the more I shall depend upon him, and trust in him. ' They 
that know thy name will trust in thee,' Ps. ix, 10. 

Therefore let us labour for certainty of knowledge, that we may have 
certainty of faith. What is the reason that our faith is weak ? Because 
men care not to increase their knowledge. The more we Imow of God, the 
more we shall trust him. The more we know of a man that we have bonds 
from, that he is an able man, and just of his word, we shall trust him more, 
and the more om' security upon his promise and bond is increased. So the 
more we know of God as he hath revealed himself in his word, and his 
voluntary covenant he hath made with us, and performed in the examples 
of Scripture, the more we know him, the more we shall trust him. 

And this must be a spiritual knowledge ; not only a bare, naked reading, 
but it must be spiritual, like the truth itself. We must see and know spi- 
ritual things in their own light. To know them by their ovm light is to 
know them by the Spirit. You know the Spirit dictated the Scripture to 
the prophets and apostles, the Spirit did all : they wrote as they were acted 
by the Spirit. Now the same Spirit must inform our understanding, and 
take away the veil of ignorance and infidelity, I say, the Spirit must do it : 
we must know spiritual things in their own light. 

Therefore a carnal man can never be a good divine, though he have never 
so much knowledge. An illiterate man of another calling may be a better 
divine than a great scholar. Why ? Because the one hath only notional 
knowledge, discoursive knowledge, to gather by strength of parts one thing 
from another. Divinity is a kind of art, and as far as it is an art to prove 
one thing by another ; so a natural man may do wonders in it, and yet 
know nothing in its own spuitual light. That is the reason the devil him- 
self knows nothing. He is a spirit of darkness, because he knows nothing 
spiritually and comfortably ; therefore as there must be humility and faith 
for our stablishing, so there must be spiritual knowledge. 

It is said here, that God stablisheth us. The same God that stablisheth 
us, must give us faith whereby we are stablished, and he must give us 
knowledge. Beg of God that he would vouchsafe us his Spirit. When we 
read the Scriptures, beg of God that he would open our understanding by 
his own Spirit, that as there is light in the Scriptures, so there may be in us. 

You know an eye must have light before it can see the light. Light is 
full of discovery of things in itself. I can see nothing except there be light 
in my eye too. There must be a double light. So there must be a Spirit 
in me, as there is a Spirit in the Scripture before I can see anything. God 
must open our eyes, and give us spiiitual eye-salve, to see, and then the 
light of the Scripture, and our light together, is sufficient to found a saving 
faith, as stablishing faith, on. 

What is the reason that a Christian stands to his profession, though he 
be weak, when the greatest learned men in the world flinch in persecution ? 
The knowledge of the one is spiritual and heavenly : he hath light in him ; 
the other hath no divine, spiritual light. When light is joined with light, 
the light in the soul with the light in the Scripture, it makes men wondrous 
confident. 

1. To this end, labour to be acquainted in'th GoiVs icord. Study the Scrip- 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 435 

tures and other treatises of that kind, that you may be able to hold fast 
the truth, that it be not wrung from you upon any occasion. And in read- 
ing, it is a good course to observe the main, principal, undeniable truths, 
such dogmatical truths as are clear and evident, and to lay them up ; and 
oft make queries to ourselves, Do I understand this or no ? Yes, I do, this 
I know is true. Build on it then, and bottom the soul upon it. And so 
if it be matter of promises ; these promises are undeniable true, I will stay 
my soul upon them. And so when we meet with plain evidences in the 
Scriptures that cross our corruptions, that meet with our known sins, then 
consider of those places as jewels, and lay them up that you may have use 
of them as occasion serves. 

All things have not an equal certainty in Scripture to us ; some things 
we may have an implicit faith in ; but the main we must have a clear 
apprehension of. There are some things that concern teachers more to 
know than others, by reason of their standing in the church. It is sufficient 
that in preparation of mind we be ready to embrace further truths that shall 
be discovered ; but in fundamental truths it is not so. We must have our 
hearts stablished upon them, that as they are certain in themselves, so they 
may be certain to us. And often let us examine ourselves, would I die in 
this, and for this ? would I stand in the defence of this against any ? This 
will make us make much of so much truth as we know, and labour to grow 
in truths in that kind. 

2. And take no scandal-'^ to hear that any shrink from the jjrofession of the 
truth, and the maintainlnff of it, that are of great reputation. Was Christ 
the worse for Judas betraying of him, and for Peter's denying of him ? was 
Paul's truth the worse because he had many enemies, Elymas the sorcerer 
and others ? Is the truth the worse because there are many that have 
carnal outward dependence, that seem to shrink when they should stand 
out ? The ti-uth is not the worse. It is the same truth still. Truths are 
eternal in themselves, and in the good they bring, if they be believed. The 
word of God endures for ever. It is not variable, as man is. And there- 
fore be not discouraged, though men discountenance it ; remember whose 
truth it is, and for whose good it is given. The word of God, it is a soul- 
saving truth. 

8. And retain the truth in love. Love is an affection with which we 
should receive the truth ; or else God will give us over to uncertainties. 
They in 2 Thess. ii, 10, had the truth, ' but because they received not the 
love of the truth,' therefore God sent them ' strong delusions,' that they 
should believe a lie. Oh, how lovely is the truth ! The certainty of our 
estate in Christ ; the glorious privileges that come by him ; that the gifts 
of God are without repentance ; that God looks on us, not for foreseen faith 
or works, but such as he had decreed to work himself, — how comfortable ! 
how lovely are these truths, being the word of God, notwithstanding some 
seek to shake them ! These very truths should be retained in love. And 
indeed, the truth is not in its own place, till it be fixed in the heart and 
afiections, and in a good conscience, which St Paul makes likewise the 
vessel of the truth ; and those that care not for that, they make shipwreck 
of the truth. 

4. And what truths you know, labour to practise, and then you shall be 

stablished, ' If any man do the will of my Father,' saith our Saviour, John 

vii. 17, ' he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I 

speak of myself.' Be true to known truths ; be not false in disobeying 

* That is, ' offence,' = let it not be a stumbling-block. — G. 



4;>G COilMKNTAUy ON 

them. ' To him that hath shall he given,' Matt. xiii. 12. We have a little 
stablishing ; b}^ an uniform obedience to the truth we shall have more ; 
God will increase it. I say, let us be faithful to the truths we have, and 
not cross them in any sinful course ; let us not keep the truth prisoner to any 
base afiection ; as those in Rom. i. 21, sc/]., that had but the light of nature, 
yet because they imprisoned it, and held it iu unrighteousness, and lived 
in sins contrary to that light that God had kindled in them, though I say 
it were but the light of nature, God gave them up to sins not to be named ; 
much more will he do to us if we withhold the light of the gospel. Take 
heed therefore that we enthral not the truth to any base lust whatsoever, 
and that is a means to be stablished in the truth. 

5. And he oft in /tab/ conference ivith others. Conference, if it be rightly 
used, is a special means to stablish. That is most certain, which is certain 
after doubting and debate ; because that which is doubted of at the first, 
we come to be resolved of at the last, comparing reason with reason, 
remembering always that of St Ambrose, that there must not be striving 
for victory, but for truth (ipj;/). And then when we have tried all, we 
must keep that which is good, and not be always as the iron between two 
loadstones, haled this way and that way, always doubting and never 
resolved ; there must be a time of resolution. This the apostle observes 
to be an excellent way of stablishing, oft to confer of things doubtful. 

6. And labour to get experience of the truth in ourselves; nothing stab- 
lisheth more than experience. Our Saviour Christ, in John vi. 68, when 
many left him out of dulness, not understanding the spiritual things that he 
taught (as many whose wits will serve for matters of the world, and to make 
them great amongst men, but when they come to heavenly things they have 
no understanding, they cannot apprehend them) he asks his disciples, 
' Will you go away also? ' John vi. 67. Peter, Avho had his heart opened by 
the Spirit of God, saith he, ' Lord, whither shall we go ? thou hast the 
words of eternal life ; ' insinuating, that the experience that he had of the 
power of that truth that Christ taught, did so estabhsh him in the present 
tinith, that with a holy kind of indignation at the question, he replies, 
* Whither shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life.' I have found 
thy words to have a spiritual life in them. So when we come once to have 
an experimental knowledge of the truths we learn, then our hearts are 
stablished. Indeed, then it is an ' ingrafted word,' as St James saith, i. 21, 
then the word is true leaven, when it altereth and changeth the soul. In 
such a case there is no separating from fundamental truth, when it is one 
with ourselves, and digested into us. 

7. And j^ra?/ to God oft, as David did, Ps. Ixxxvi. 2, scq., to knit our 
hearts to fear his name. Lord, my heart is loose and ready to fall off of 
itself, Oh, Imit my heart ! It is unsettled. Oh, settle my unsettled heart ! 
settle my judgment and affections. This should be our meditation. 

8. And because it is God that stablisheth, ahrajj maintain spiritual povoi!/ 
in the soul, that is, a perpetual dependence upon God. See the insufhciency 
that is in ourselves, that we cannot stand out. What is the reason that 
God suffers great men to fall from the defence of the truth, and from the 
profession of it in their hves, as we see it in the case of Peter ? To shew, 
that w6 stand not by our own strength. Therefore we should be always in 
this temper of spiritual poverty, to know that as Samson's strength was in 
his hair, so our strength is in God. God is my strength, of myself I have 
no strength. And therefore upon every new defence of the truth, when we 
are called to it, we should lift up ejaculations, and dart up strong desires to 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 437 

God, that God would strengthen and stablish our souls, that we may not 
be traitors to the truth, but that we may stand to it ; for in his own strength 
shall no man be established. 

9. And grow every day more and more in detestation of a lukewarm temper. 
Your Ancipites, as Cyprian calls them {zzz), your doubtful flatterers of the 
times, that have their religion depending upon the state and the times, 
that are neither fish nor flesh, bats, as we say, that are neither mice nor 
birds, but of a doubtful religion, that out of carnal policy are fit to entertain 
anything ; Oh, this is a devilish temper ! Howsoever we, in our lukewarm 
disposition, value the truth, God values it highly. It was purchased by 
Christ's blood, and sealed by the blood of martyrs, and shall not we transmit 
it to our posterity, as safe and as firm, and retain it, come what will ? Let 
us gi'ow into dislike of this temper, a temper that we should as much hate 
as God hates it ; such a temper as is in popery, they are in an adiaphorisme* 
temper in religion, a lukewarm, cold temper, a temper of religion according 
to reasons of flesh and reasons of policy ; this will make us be spued out 
of God's mouth at the last. Do we think to lose religion alone ? Oh no ; 
never think to part with religion alone. It came with peace and prosperity, 
and if we keep not this deposition, this truth delivered to us, God will take 
it away, and that which we betray it for, peace and plenty. 

Use 1. Let us labour, therefoie, to he radicated in our judgment, in our 
affections, in our love, in our faith, in our whole inward man, in the truth 
revealed. To be stablished in the truth, it is our best inheritance, it is that 
will stand by us when all leaves us. 

What consistence hath a man out of the truth ? "Are you rich or 
honourable ? Death will drive you out of all your riches and honours in the 
world, and strip you of all. What stablishiiig hath any man but in Christ, 
in the truth ? Take a man that is not bottomed, that is not fastened on Christ, 
he is the changeablest creature in the world, he is vanity, he is nothing. 

Oh ! love this state, that we may say, though I be variable here, though 
I be not so rich as I was, or have not that favour of great ones that I have 
had ; or it is not with me as it hath been, but in all changes I have some- 
what that is unchangeable ; my soul is settled upon Christ, and upon the 
truth in him, which is certain. As it is a glorious being to be found in 
Christ, so it is an eternal and an everlasting being : once Christ's, and for 
ever his ; he will never lose a member. Labour we therefore to be stablished 
in Christ in all the changes and alterations in the world, and then we shall 
have something that is unchangeable to fix and stay ourselves upon, even 
in the hour of death. 

Use 2. Again, in the second place, to make an use of examination, I 
beseech you, examine yourselves whether you find this stablishiny in your hearts 
or no ? whether your hearts be thus settled or no by the Spirit of God ? 
For, beloved, it is worth the labour and pains to get this grace, and to be 
assured that you have it. Stablishing in Christ is most necessary, and we 
stand in need of a great deal of spiritual strength. Do we know what 
times may come ? If dangerous times come, if we be not stablished, what 
will become of us ? Oh ! it is a happy estate, a Christian that is stablished 
in the sound knowledge and faith of Christ ! I beseech you therefore con- 
sider of it. To give you an evidence or two whereby you may discern 
whether your hearts be settled and stablished. 

1. A man hath the grace of stablishing, and confirmation, when it is upon 
the word, when God doth stablish him upon the promises. 

* That in, ^ ' ailiaphorous,' from d^iafo^og, indifferent. — G. 



438 COMMENTAKY ON 

2, And then, again, by the effect of it. A man is stablished by tlie Spirit 
of God when his temptations are great, and his strength Httle to resist, and 
yet notwithstanding he prevails. Satan is strong. If we prevail against 
Satan's temptations, we are stablished. God is strong, too strong for us. 
If we can break through the clouds when he seems an enemy, as Job, 
' Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee,' Job xiii. 15 : here is a pre- 
vailing, a stablished faith. In great afflictions, vv-hen clouds are between us 
and God, when we have faith that will break through those clouds, and see 
God through them shining in Christ, here is a strong, a stablished faith ; 
because here is mighty temptations and oppositions. 

The strength is known by the strength of the opposition, and the weak- 
ness of the party. In the times of martyrdom, there was fire and faggot, 
and the frowns of cruel persons ; who were the persons that sufiered ? 
Children, women, old men sometimes, all weak. Children, a weak age ; 
women, a weak sex ; old men, a withered, melancholy, dry age, feai-ful of 
constitution. But when the Spirit of God was so strong in young ones, 
in weak women, in old withered men, as to enable them to endure the 
torment of fire, to enable them to endare threatenings, and whatsoever, as 
we see, Heb. xi. 35-37, here was a mighty work in weak men. A man may 
know here is stablishing grace, because, except there were somewhat above 
nature, where were a man in such a case ? Then a man may know espe- 
cially that there is stablishing grace, when he sees somewhat above natm-e 
prevailing over the temptation, and confirming the weak nature of man. 
That is the best evidence we have of God's stablishing grace. Some- 
times, them that are stronger at some times are weaker at other times ; 
but, as I said before, that is to teach them that they have their strength 
from God. 

Use 3, Again, if your hearts be soundly bottomed and founded and 
grounded on Christ, and the promises of God in him, then you ivill he freed 
at least from all victory and thraldom to base fears, and to base cares, and 
base sorrows, and base jJussions. 

A man that hath no settled being on Christ, he is tossed up and down 
with every passion : he is full of fears and cares for the world, which dis- 
tract the soul upon every occasion, full of unseasonable and needless sor- 
rows and griefs, which vex and perplex the soul continually. Oh ! how 
he fears for the time to come ! what shall become of me if such a thing 
happen ? how shall I be able to live in such a time, &c. ? If he were 
settled upon God in Christ, that he were his Father : if he were stablished 
upon the promises of God in Christ, ' I will not fail thee nor forsake thee,' 
Heb. xiii. 5. * Fear not, little flock, it is the Father's will to give you 
the kingdom,' Luke xii. 32 ; and ' Why do you fear, you of little faith ?' 
Matt. vi. 30. And, * He that provides for the birds of the air, for the 
sparrows, for the lilies of the field, for the poorest creature, will he not 
much more for you ?' Matt. vi. 25, seq. If, I say, we were thus stablished 
upon Christ, and the promises, there would be no disquietness. Those [are 
the] fears and griefs that usually perplex and enthral the minds of men ; 
but where there are these distracting cares, and vexing sorrows, and need- 
less fears, it argues a heart unsettled, though perhaps there may be some 
faith notwithstanding. 

Let us often examine ourselves in this particular : how it is with ug when 
such thoughts arise ? what if trouble should come ? what if change and 
alteration should come ? He that hath traly settled his heart will say. If 
they do come, I am fixed, I know whom I have believed ; I know I am a 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 21, 439 

member of Chi'ist, an heir of heaven, that God is reconciled to me in his 
Son ; I know God hath taken me out of the condition I was in by nature, 
and hath advanced me to a better condition than I can have in the world ; 
and when the world shall be turned upside down, I know, when all things 
fail, I shall stand. 

He that his heart can answer him thus, is finn. A good man, saith the 
psalmist, * shall not be afraid of evil tidings,' Ps. cxii. 7, Why ? His 
heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord ; and again, in ver. 8, ' His heart is 
stablished, therefore he shall not be afraid.' If our hearts be established, 
then we shall not be afraid of evil tidings, nor afraid of wars, nor of troubles, 
nor of loss of friends, nor of loss of favours, or the like. A righteous man 
is afraid of no evil. He that hath his heart stablished in Christ, and that 
hath peace of conscience wrought by the Spirit of God in the promises, 
his heart is fixed. In all alterations and changes, he hath somewhat that 
is unchangeable. Even when he ceaseth to be in this world, he hath a 
perpetual, eternal being in Christ. If he die, he goes to heaven. He 
hath his being there, where he enjoys a more near communion with Christ 
than he can have in this world. So that all is on the bettering hand to 
him that is stablished in Christ ; for it is not an act of one day to be 
stablished in Christ. God doth it more and more till death, and then 
comes a perfect consummation of this stablishing. ' We shall be for ever 
with the Lord,' saith the apostle, 1 Thess. iv. 17. A man then that is 
stablished in Christ, he is fixed, he is built on a rock ; come what can 
come, he is not afraid. 

Alas ! others that are not so, they are as wicked Ahaz, in Isa. vii, 2 : he 
was boisterous out of trouble, but in trouble he was as fearful. His heart 
shook ' as the leaves of the forest,' as the leaves of the forest when the 
wind comes. They are shaken, because they are not seemly knit to the 
tree, because they have no stability. 

All those whose hearts are not firmly settled in the knowledge of Christ, 
and the excellent prerogatives that come by him, when trouble come, they 
are as the leaves of the forest ; or, as you have it in Ps. i. 4, ■ As the chaff 
that the wind driveth to and fro ; ' because it hath no consistence, it is a 
light body, or as ' the dross,' Ps. cxix. 119. ' God shall destroy the 
wicked as dross.' See how the Scripture compares men, not only for their 
wickedness, but for their misery, that have no certain being, but on earthly 
things, though they be never so great, and, as they think, deeply rooted, 
when troubles come, they are as dross, they are as chaff that hath no 
firmness before the wind ; when the wind of judgment comes, they are as 
stubble presently wasted and brovaght to nothing. 

I beseech you therefore, without deceiving of our own hearts, let us 
enter into our own souls, and examine, for our knowledge first, and then 
for our boldness. 

What dost thou know in religion that thou wouldst die for, or die in ? 
We are stablished in no more to purpose, than we would die for. Ai'e 
those truths thou knowest so firmly wrought in thee by the Spirit of God ? 
Hast thou such experience of them, such spiritual sense and taste of the 
goodness of them, that thou wouldst be content to part with thy life, 
rather than to part with them ? Thou art stablished then by the Spirit of 
God in Christ. I do not speak of every little truth. It needs not that a 
man should die for that ; but I speak of fundamental truths. Canst thou 
prove them so out of the Scripture ? and dost thou find the testimony of 
Jesus Christ witnessing to thy heart that they are true ? Then thou art 



440 



COMilKNTAItV ON 



confirmed and stablished in these truths. I beseech you, let us often 
examine upon what grounds, and how firmly we know what we know. For, 
have we not many that, if the adversaries should come, would conform to 
popery, and join themselves to Kome, because they cannot back their 
principles with Scriptures, and because they have not a spiritual under- 
standing and apprehension of divine truths ? Now he that is stabhshed 
stands firm against temptations and against arguments ; he will not be won 
away from his faith, but remains unmoveable. 

Therefore, I say, let us often examine ourselves in this particular. I 
believe this and this against the papists and others. Aye, but how shall I 
stand out for this ? If trials should come, am 1 able to prove this from 
the Scriptures so clear as if it were written, as he saith, * with a sun- 
beam?' The temptation and assaults of the devil, by men's subtle wits 
and arguments, will shake our judgments, will hurt more, and if time 
should come, try us better than fii-e and fagot. Those spies that brought 
an evil report upon the land of Canaan, we see that though the land, when 
it was won, was fruitful enough, and the conquest of it honourable, &c., 
and therein those spies discovered their own weakness ; yet when they had 
made that shrewd oration, and brought subtle arguments to the eye of 
flesh and blood, we see, I say, how the people were discouraged, and how 
they staggered. Num. xiii. 33, seq. So a man that is not stablished, he 
may sometimes have shrewd men to deal withal, perhaps atheists, papists, 
Jesuits, and the devil joining with them to unsettle men ; and they will pre- 
vail if men be not well settled and stabhshed before. 

4. And so for the course of our life and conversation, amnnn^t men, ive 
should examine how ive are stablished in that; for we are not only to stand 
firm in cases of religion, but for causes of honesty. John Baptist was 
as good as a martyr, though the cause he died for was not religion, but a 
bold telling of Herod, w'hen he thought he took an unlawful course in keep- 
ing his brother's W'ife, Mark vi. 18. 

An honest man may die and sufier much for civil matters. Therefore 
examine yourselves in this. I have undertaken this cause, upon what 
ground ? in what confidence ? how far would I willingly go in it ? could I 
be content to lose the favour of great ones ? to die in the quarrel if need 
be ? So far as a man is stabhshed by God's Spirit, so far is he settled also 
in this. 

You have had heathen men, that would stand out firmly even to the 
death, against all disfavours, against all losses and crosses for evidence of 
civil truths, as you have it storied of Papinian, an excellent lawyer, that in 
the defence of right stood forth to the loss of his life (aaaa) ; and many 
other the like examples have been. But much more doth the Spirit of God 
stablish men. This I understand, this is good, this I will stand in, come 
what will, when I am called to it. 

Let us oft call ourselves to an account, what we believe, and upon what 
ground ; what we do, and upon what ground we imdertake it ; whether on 
grounds of conscience, or out of spleen and passion. When a man under- 
takes things on natural grounds, in great temptations, if God do not assist 
him, he will sink. Take the strongest courages that are, if they have no 
more but natui'e, though they may stand out sometimes, to the shame of 
Christians, yet in some cases they wdll shew themselves to be but mere 
natural men. 

And therefore labour for the Spirit to stablish us. It is not necessary 
that we should enjoy our wealth, nor the favour of men, nor our life itself; 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP, I, VER. 21. 441 

but it is necessary that we should keep a good conscience, it is necessary 
that we should be saved, it is necessary that we should look upon our Judge 
with confidence at the day of judgment. 

It becomes Christians who, besides the light of nature, have the Spirit to 
stablish them, to be settled in their courses, to look that the conscience 
be good, the cause good, the aim good. If such a one give over when 
the cause is clear and good, it is a sign that his heart is not stablished by 
the Spirit of God in Christ. He hath either corrupt aims, or else he is 
weak, and understands not the grounds of religion, and the vanity of this 
life as he should do. 

There are none that flinch and give over in a good quarrel, but either it 
is from hypocrisy, that he pretends to believe in Christ, and life everlast- 
ing, and yet he doth not ; or else it is from extreme and wonderful weak- 
ness, which, if he belong to God, he shall recover, as Peter did, and shall 
stand more strongly another time. 

It is but a forced, a false encouragement and stablishing, when a man 
that hath not the Spirit of God shall set light by death, though perhaps he 
die in a good quan-el, and with some comfort. For when a man shall 
linow that after death there is a judgment, and that God hath many things 
to lay to his charge, when his conscience shall tell him that he is guilty of 
a thousand deaths, if he be not in Christ, and his pardon sealed by the 
Spirit of God in the blood of Christ : is it not madness to be courageous in 
that which he cannot conquer ? It is good for a man to be courageous in 
time of conquest. It is a dastardly thing for a Christian to be cowardly, 
because he hath death and hell conquered, and everything is made service- 
able to help him to heaven. But for another man to set light by these 
things, it is mere madness. No man but a Christian can be stout and 
courageous, except it be from a false spirit ; especially in things that are 
above man's natural power, as death, it is eternal, and what man can stand 
out against the eternal wrath of God ? 

And therefore those that put on a Roman stoutness and courage, though 
they seem to have strong spirits, it is but false ; either they are besotted 
with sensuality, or else with a spirit of pride. When they look before them, 
and see eternity, and see their sins, and that they must all appear at the 
day of judgment, they cannot be strong. Let us labour therefore to have 
our hearts stablished by tlie Spirit of God; and try ourselves often, by pro- 
pounding queries, how we do things ? With what minds and upon what 
grounds ? 

5. Again, another evidence whereby we may know that we have spiritual 
strength and stability in Christ wrought in us by the Spirit of God, is this, 
ivlien it makes us desire the comimi of Christ ; when it makes us think of 
death, and of the time to come with joy and comfort ; and that for the pre- 
sent it gives us boldness to the throne of grace in extremities. He that in 
extremity can go to God in Christ, it is a sign his heart is established. 

Hypocrites in extremity fly to desperate courses, as Saul and Ahithophel 
did ; but in extremity the soul that is stablished goes to God. ' My God, 
my God,' saith Christ, Mark xv. 34 ; so Job, ' Though he kill me, yet 
will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. I say, it is an evidence of a soul stab- 
lished upon Christ by the Spirit of God, to have ' boldness to the throne 
of grace,' Eph. iii. 12, in extremity ; nay, when God seems to hide him- 
self, which is the principal extremity of all, as in divine temptations, when 
God seems to be an enemy. Then for a man to fight and wrestle with 
God, and tug with the temptation, and not to let God go, though he kill 



442 COMMENTABY ON 

him, this is a true Israel, a conqueror of God ; this is a heart foiiified by 
the Spirit. 

It is an argument of a heart established, when, besides for the present, 
for the time to come, he can cheerfully and boldly think how it will be with 
him when death shall come, that he shall go to Christ, that the match 
shall be fully made up that is begun by God between Christ and him 
(for the contract is in this world, but the nuptials are celebrated in heaven), 
and in confidence hereof can say, ' Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,' 
Rev. xxii. 20. 

A heart that is not stablished saith, Oh ! come not. ' Wherefore art 
thou come to torment us before our time ?' Mat. viii. 29, say the devils to 
Christ ; so an unstablished heart, at the hour of death, is afraid it shall be 
tormented before the time: and therefore Come not, come not, saith 
such a soul. But the soul that is stablished upon Christ, and upon the 
promises in Christ of forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting by the Spirit 
of Christ, that saith, ' Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.' 

I have been larger upon this point than I intended. These unsettled 
times moved me to speak a little more than ordinary, that we might labour 
to have our hearts stablished, that whatsoever comes, we may have some- 
what that is certain to stick to ; that our estate in Christ may be sure, 
whatsoever becomes of om* state in the world otherwise. 



VERSE 22. 

* Who hath anointed us, ami also sealed us, and given the ea^yiest of the 
Spirit in oxtr hearts.'' The apostle having formerly laid open the riches of 
a Christian, in this verse he cometh to shew his strength. His riches con- 
sisteth in the promises of God in Christ ; his strength, in being stablished 
upon those promises. Now that which he had spoken of more generally 
in the word ' stablishing,' he unfolds in three borrowed terms, ' anointing,' 

* sealing,' ' earnest,' implying therein the manner of the Spirit's establish- 
ing a Christian. * He who stablisheth us,' how is that wrought ? By the 
Spirit * anointing,' by the Spirit ' sealing,' and by ' the earnest of the 
Spirit ;' which three terms do all argue assurance. For you know, that 
in the old law, kings, priests, and prophets were anointed, that is, they 
were authorised and confirmed in their places. And for sealing, writings 
among ourselves are ' sealed ' for security. And an ' earnest ' secures con- 
tracts and bargains. So that whatsoever may serve to strengthen a Chris- 
tian's faith and assurance, is here laid down. God, to help our souls by 
our senses, fetcheth it from human afiairs, applying words borrowed from 
earthly commerce, by a heavenly anagogical* sense to spiritual things. 

First, the sure estate of a Christian is set down in the general, by ' stab- 
lishing ;' and then in particular, we are ' anointed and sealed,' and have 

* the earnest of the Spirit.' 

God, in the covenant of grace, doth our part and his own too. He gives 
faith, and strengthens faith, and seals us. He gives us promises, he doth 
stablish us upon those promises, and works our hearts to an embracing of 
them. He anoints us, and seals us, and gives us ' the earnest of the Spirit.' 
All in the covenant of grace depends upon the faithfulness of God ; and not 
upon ours, but upon ours dependently, as he is faithful in stablishing us. 
Now, because the holy apostle would have us settled in the excellency of 
* That is, ' ascending.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 443 

the state of a Christian in the covenant of grace, you see how large-hearted 
he is. He useth four words implying one and the same thing, ' stablish- 
ing,' ' anointing,' ' sealing,' and giving ' earnest ;' all of them words used 
in ratification amongst men. 

God is pleased to stoop to speak to us in our own language ; to speak of 
heavenly things after an earthly manner ; and, therefore, he sets down the 
certain estate of a Christian by boiTowed speeches. This is a gracious con- 
descending of God, stooping, as it were, lower than himself; and, indeed, 
so he always abaseth himself when he deals with man, coming down far 
below himself. 

To come to the words in particular. 

' And hath anointed us.' This word hath a double reference. The Holy 
Ghost carries our minds, first, to the relation and proportion that is between 
the graces of the Spirit of God, and the ointment with which in former 
times they were anointed in the Jewish polity. And it hath reference like- 
wise, and relation, to the persons that were anointed. The persons were 
kings, priests, and prophets. 

Now God hath anointed us in Christ. The order is this : 

First, Christ himself, as Mediator, is ' anointed with the oil of gladness 
above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7, but for his fellows. The ointment is first 
poured on the head of spiritual Aaron, and then it runs down to all the 
skirts of his garment, that is, to the meanest Christian. Even as the least 
finger and toe is actuated, and enlivened, and moved by the soul and spirits, 
that the head and the chief vital parts are ; so every Christian, though he be 
but as the toe or the foot, yet all have communicated by the Spirit, from 
Christ the head. So that the third person, the Holy Ghost, that sanctified 
the human nature of Christ, that filled and enriched it with all grace, and 
anointed Christ ; the same Spirit enricheth all his mystical members. As 
there is one Spirit in Christ, and that sacred body he took on him ; so 
there is in the mystical body but one Spirit quickening and enlivening, and 
moving the head and the members. He is a head of influence, as well as 
a head of eminence. ' Of his fulness we have all grace for grace,' John i. 
16. He is first anointed, and then we are anointed in him. 

We will first speak of it as it hath reference to anointment ; and then, 
as it hath reference to the persons anointed. 

In i\iQ first place then, why are graces here called anointing ? 

I answer, they are called ' anointing,' from reference to that composed 
ointment in Exod. xxx. 22, seq., where -yon have the composition of the 
holy oil laid down. 

But in particular, you may observe these five particulars in which the 
relation standeth. 

1. First, ointment is a liquor supereminent : it will have the highest place, 
it will have the eminency, and be above all other liquors, and in that respect 
it is a royal Hquor. So the graces of God's Spirit, they are of an eminent 
nature. Spiritual gifts are above the gifts of natui'e ; and spiritual blessings 
are above earthly things. The grace of God is a supereminent, a royal 
thing. It will be above all, even above our parts of nature. If a man have 
by nature a strong wit, grace will subdue his wit, so that he shall be only 
witty* to salvation, he shall be only strong to defend the truth, and to do 
nothing against it : he will subjugate and subordinate his parts and what- 
soever excellency he hath by nature to grace, cast all at Christ's feet, ' count 
* That is, • wise ' — G. 



44 1 



COMMENTARY OX 



all as dung, in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ,' Phihj:). 
iii. 8. And so again, grace is above corrupt nature, above all our corrup- 
tions. It will bring them under, it will subdue corruptions, temptations, 
afflictions ; any thing, what you will, that is cither natural or diabolical ; for 
grace is spiritual, and that which is spiritual is above all that is below. 
Grace is of an in^incible nature. It will bear sway by little and little. It 
is little in quantity, but it is mighty in operation. And it is above any 
outward excellency whatsoever. If a man be a king, if he have this anoint- 
ing, it makes him better than himself. He is better in that he is a Chris- 
tian, that he hath this sacred anointing, than for any other created excellency 
under heaven whatsoever, yea, though he were an angel. Grace hath its 
derivance* and influence from Christ, who is higher than all, and will be 
above all ; and so will grace. That is the first. Other liquors, the best 
of them will be beneath, but oil, it will be above all. 

2. It is compared to ointment in the second place, because that ointment 
is siveet and delightful. So was the ointment that was poured upon our 
Saviour by the woman in the gospel. Therefore the spouse in Cant. i. 8, 
speaking of Christ, ' Because,' saith she, ' of the savour of thy good oint- 
ments, thy name is an ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love 
thee.' The graces that are in Christ are so sweet, that they draw the 
virgins, the}^ draw all believers after him. So grace in a Christian, it makes 
us sweet ; it sweetens our persons and our actions. It sweetens our persons 
to God. God delights in the smell of his own graces. It makes us delectable 
for Christ and his Holy Spirit to lodge in our souls as in a garden of spices. 
It makes us sweet to the church, to the communion of saints. A gracious 
man, that hath his corruptions subdued, is wondrous sweet. His heart is as 
fine silver, everything is sweet that comes from him. When the woman poured 
the box of ointment upon Christ, the whole house was filled with the smell 
thereof, John xii. 3 ; so the whole church is filled with the savour of the 
graces of good men, that either do live in the present times, or have left 
their graces in writing to posterity. 

A wicked man is an abomination to God, and so are all his actions. He 
that is in the flesh ' cannot please God,' Rom. viii. 8. A civil man that 
hath not this anointing, all that he doth is abominable to God. ' All things 
are unclean to the unclean,' Rom. xiv. 14 : even their best actions have a 
tincture of defilement from their corruption. Without this ointment we 
are not sweet, neither to God nor to others. Therefore the Scripture 
terms men in the state of nature, swine and goats, stinking creatures ; 
and so indeed they that have not this anointing, ihsj are stinking goats, 
and shall be set at Christ's left hand, except they have grace to sweeten 
their understandings and afi'ections, and to draw them higher than nature 
can. 

Likewise grace is full of sweetness to a man's self. It sweeteneth our 
nature and our actions to ourselves. A ' good conscience' being privy to 
itself of the work of grace, ' is a continual feast,' Prov. xv. 15. The con- 
science of a Christian, once renewed by grace, enlargeth the soul, and fills it 
with sweet peace and joy in believing. 

3. Thirdly, the graces of the Spirit are called anointing, because anointing 
strengthens. Therefore, usually warriors and combatants, among the heathen, 
that were to encounter, were first anointed. So there is a spirit of strength 
in all those that are true Christians, which they have received from God, 
whereby they are able to do that that worldlings cannot do. They arc able 

* Thai is. ' rlf^vivatinii.' — fr. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 445 

to deny themselves, to overcome themselves in matters of revenge, &c., they 
are able to want and to abound, to bear crosses, to resist temptations, and, 
as the apostle saith, ' able to do all things,' Philip, iv. 13. Nothing can stand 
in the way of a gracious man, no, not the gates of hell. He that is in him, 
grace is stronger 'than he that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4. The least 
measm-e of grace, though it be but as a ' grain of mustard seed,' is stronger 
than the greatest measure of opposition, though strengthened with all the 
power of hell. 

4. In the fourth place, ointment makes the joints of the body nimble. So 
this spiritual anointing it oils the joints of the soul, as I may say, and 
makes them nimble and ready to serve God ' in newness of Spirit, and not 
in the oldness of the letter,' Rom. vii. 6. God's people are called ' a willing 
people,' Ps. ex. 3, and a cheerful people, ready to every good work. And 
there is good reason for it ; for they have an inward spiritual anointing, 
that makes them active and nimble in everything they do. That Spirit 
that sanctifieth them, that spirit telleth them what Christ hath done for them, 
that ' there is no damnation to them,' Rom. ^iii. 1, that God is reconciled 
to them, that they are freed from the greatest dangers, that all is theirs, 
and so their joy and nimbleness is from good reason, and there is a spirit 
of love in them unto God and Christ, which makes them nimble. When 
a man is without grace, he goes lumpishly and hea^aly about the service 
of God. He is drawn and forced to prayer, and to hearing, and to con- 
ference and meditation : he is dead and dull, and frozen to good works. 
But when a man hath received this sweet anointing of the Spirit, his 
heart is enlarged to all duties whatsoever, he is prepared to every good 
work. 

5. Again, oil makes cheerful. So doth grace. It makes cheerful in ad- 
versity, cheerful in death, cheerful in those things that dismay the spirits of 
other men ; so much grace, so much joy. For even as light and heat fol- 
low the fire, so the spirit of joy doth follow this spiritual anointing. Con- 
science of the interest he hath in the favour of God in Christ, and the evi- 
dences of grace stamped upon his heart, and an assurance of a better estate 
in the world to come, wonderfully enlarge the soul with spiritual joy. That 
which makes a man lumpish, and heavy, and earthly, is not the Spirit of 
God. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of joy, and it puts a gracious cheerful- 
ness in the heart of a Christian. If there be mourning, it is that it may be 
more cheerful ; for ' light is sown to the righteous,' Ps. xc\di 11, sometimes 
in mourning. ' God loves a cheerful giver,' 2 Cor. ix. 7, and a cheerful 
thanksgiver ; all must be sweetened with cheerfulness. Now this comes 
from the Spirit of God ; and he that is anointed with the Spirit, in some 
measure partakes of spiritual joy and cheerfulness. 

6. Again, ointment, you know, is of a healing nature, as balm and other 
sweet ointments have a healing power and virtue. The Scripture makes 
mention of the 'balm of Gilead,' Jer. xlvi. 11 ; so gi-ace hath a healing 
power. Repentance ! That is of a purging, spiritual joy, of a healing 
nature. There must, you know, be first a cleansing, and then a healing 
and strengthening ; so some graces are purgative and cleansing, some again 
are strengthening and healing. Repentance is a good purgation. It carries 
away the malignant and evil matter. But the cordial that strengthens the 
soul is joy. ' The joy of the Lord is your strength,' Neh. viii. 10. And 
so the grace of faith and love tend to cherish and corroborate the soul, so 
that, I say, these graces, this balm of the Spirit, hath a special sovereign 
power to heal us, to heal us both from the guilt of sin, and from the 



446 COMMENTARY ON 

dominion, and rule, and filthy stain of sin. It hath both a purging and a 
cordial virtue. 

Thus 3'ou see, that upon good grounds the graces of God's Spirit that he 
communicates to the elect, and only to them that are in Christ, they are 
called ' anointing ;' and they will have the effect of an ointment in us, if we 
receive this anointing. 

Let us therefore try ourselves by these, whether we be anointed or no. 
What cheerfulness is there ? What joy ? \Vhat strength ? What nimble- 
ness to that which is good ? What sovereignty hath grace in our hearts ? 
You have a company that profess religion, but make it serve their own turn, 
that make heaven to come under earth, that make the service of God to 
stoop to other ends. Beloved ! grace it is a superior thing, and religion 
makes all subordinate. Grace, and religion, wheresoever it is in truth, is of 
a ruling nature ; and so it is sweet, and it is sti'ong wheresoever it is. It 
is curing, and purging, and cleansing wheresoever it is. Therefore, I be- 
seech you, let us not deceive ourselves. 

I need say no more of the point ; you may enlarge it in your own medi- 
tations. I come to the persons. 

As this anointing hath reference to the ointment, so it hath relation to 
t}ie jjersons that were anointed. 

Now the persons anointed were first dedicated by anointing ; they were 
consecrated to God, and separated from the world. And as they were 
dedicated and separated, so they were dignified by this anointing. It raised 
them above the common condition. And likewise with this anointing God 
gave them qualifications suitable. 

You have three eminent persons that were anointed, and so raised above 
the common condition of other men. 

ProjjJiets, to teach the people. 

Priests, to offer sacrifice. 

Kings, to govern them. 

Now Christ is principally all these. He is the principal Prophet of his 
church, ' the Angel of the covenant,' Gen. xxxii. 24, 25-29. He is 
' Logos,' the Word, John i. 1, because as the inward word, the mind of a 
man, is known by the outward word, so Christ is called the Word, because, 
as a Prophet, he discovers his Father's mind, and makes known his Father's 
will unto us. 

And he is the great High Priest. He makes atonement between God 
and us ; he stands between his Father and us. 

And he is the great King of his church, that rescues it from all its ene- 
mies, to protect and defend it. 

But as Christ hath received this anointing primarily, and ' above his 
fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7, yet, as I said before, he hath received ii for his fellows. 
Every Christian hath his anointing from Christ's anointing : all our graces 
and all our ointment is derived from him. 'He,' saith the apostle, Rev. 
i. 5, ' hath loved us, and washed us in his blood.' He loved us fii'st, which 
is the cause of all, and then he washed us in his blood. He did not only 
shed his blood for us, but he ' washed us in his blood.' He hath applied 
his blood to our souls, and by applying that and sprinkling it upon our 
souls, ' he hath made us kings and priests to God his Father,' Ptev. i. 6. 
And indeed, the great King of heaven and earth, he is and will be attended 
upon by none but kings and priests. He hath no servants but such as are 
anointed. He is followed of none but eminent persons, such as are sepa- 
rated from the world, and dignified above all other people ; for the glory of 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 447 

hig followers tends to his honour. Therefore those whom God chooseth to 
be his attendants, he qualifies them, gives them the hearts of kings, royal 
qualifications, and the hearts of priests, and the hearts of prophets. But 
this in the general. 

To shew it therefore in particulars. 

A Christian is anointed : he is a person severed from the world, dedi- 
cated to God, and dignified above others, and that from good reason, be- 
cause God hath given him an inward qualification, which is the foundation 
of all. 

1. And first, he is a true prophet, for he hath received * the anointing' of 
the Spirit, 1 John ii. 27, whereby he is enabled to discern of things. He 
knows what is true honour, to be the child of God ; he knows what is true 
riches, grace ; he knows what is true nobility, to be ' born of God,' 1 John 
ii. 29 ; what is true pleasure, ' peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost,' 1 Thess. i. 6 ; he can discern between seeming and real things, and 
only he that hath received this ' anointing of the Spirit.' 

And again, as a prophet, he knows not only the things, but the doing of 
the things. He hath with the anointing of the Spirit ability to do that 
which he knows. The grace of God teacheth him not only the duty, that 
he should live 'justly, and soberly, and godly,' Tit. ii. 12, but teacheth him 
to do the things. For God writes his laws in his bowels, that is, in his 
affections. He can love and joy in God, and hate sin, and overcome re- 
venge, &c. The Spirit shewetli him divine things by a divine light. He 
sees heavenly things with a heavenly light ; and divine and spiritual know- 
ledge is a working knowledge, of the same nature with the things known. 
The poorest Christian in the world, having this anointing, sees good things 
with such a convincing light, and evil things with such a convincing hatred, 
that he is doing and acting ; whereas a Christian that hath not the Spirit, 
he may know heavenly things by a natural light, by a disconrsive knovv^- 
ledge. He may know what he should do, and so perhaps he may talk, but 
he cannot do ; he may talk of death, but he cannot die ; he maj'- talk and 
discourse of suffering, but when it comes, he cannot sufi'er ; he may speak 
much of patience, but he cannot act patience when occasion is. A true 
Christian hath the knowledge of doing things. 

And likewise he is able ' to speak a word in due season,' 2 Tim. iv. 2, 
to reprove, to admonish, to comfort. Every member in the communion 
of saints hath some qualification in regard of knowledge, when he is put 
to it. 

But especially he hath received this anointing as a priest and a king. 

2. As a priest, to stand before God, and to offer up prayers for himself 
and others. Every Christian is a favourite in heaven. He hath much 
credit there. He hath God's ear open at all times, and he improves it for 
the good of the church, for the good of others as well as for his own. And 
as to pray for ourselves and others, so to bless ourselves and others, that 
was one part of the priest's office, and so, as the Scripture saith, we are 
called unto blessing ; and therefore those that are given unto cursing are 
not priests. 

And again, a Christian that hath received this anointing as a priest, he 
keeps himself ' unspotted of the world,' James i. 27. You know, the priests 
were to touch no unclean thing, nor to defile themselves with any manner 
of pollution. So every Christian in some measure is enabled to abstain 
from the common pollutions of the times, to hate ' even the garment spotted 
with the flesh,' Jude 23. He is not carried with the stream of the times ; 



•1-18 COMMENTARY OX 

he will not converse amiably with those that may stain him, but as his 
calling leads him, lest he contaminate his spirit. 

And likewise a Christian hath his heart always as the ' holy of holies,' 
that so he may offer up thanks and praise to God. There is a disposition 
in him always to praise God. As the fire in the sanctuary must never go 
out, so the fire that is kindled by the Spirit of God in the heart of a Chris- 
tian, it never goes out. The Holy Ghost maintains it continually. He is 
ready to praise God upon all occasions ; ready to offer up himself unto God 
as a sacrifice. The sacrifices of a Christian are a broken heart ; and as in 
the law, the sacrifices for sin must first be killed, and then ofi'ored, so now 
in the gospel, it is the work of every Christian, to mortify, to kill, and slay 
those beasts, those corruptions that are in him contrary to God. A Chris- 
tian must not oft'er himself to God as a sinner, but he must first slay his 
corruptions. He must mortify his sins, and then offer up himself slain to 
God. 

Therefore our care must be to mortify every coiTuption, every faculty of 
the soul, and every part of the body. We must circumcise our eyes, that 
they behold not vanity ; and our ears, that they hear not, and delight not 
in unchaste things ; and our thoughts and every part, our wills and affec- 
tions, and then ofier up soul and body as a living sacrifice unto God, that 
all may be dedicated and sanctified unto him : and then it is a sweet sacri- 
fice. Then, when a Christian hath dedicated himself to God, it is an easy 
matter to give him his goods when he calls for them, then he will be ready 
to let all go, as the apostle saith of the Corinthians,* ' they first gave them- 
selves to God, and then to others,' 2 Cor. viii. 5. Other sacrifices will 
follow when we have first given ourselves to God. Therefore the first sacri- 
fice is to kill our corruptions, to ofier ourselves to God, and then we shall 
be ready to offer our estates, and to have nothing but at God's disposing. 

Lord ! of thy hand I have my body and my life, and my goods and all, 

1 give them unto thee ; if thou wilt have me to enjoy them, I do ; but if 
thou wilt have them sacrificed, I am a priest, I am willing to ofier myself 
as a burnt-sacrifice to thee even to the death, and all other things when 
thou shalt be pleased to call for them ; and, indeed, all other sacrifices of 
our goods, and thankfulness in words, they will easily come off when we 
have ofiered ourselves, as I said before. 

What is the reason that men will not part with a penny for good uses ? 
Tliey have not given themselves as sacrifices unto God ; therefore in the 
Scripture we are pressed to give ourselves unto God first ; and it useth 
arguments to that purpose ; as that ' we are not our own, but bought with 
a price,' &c., 1 Cor. vi. 20. 

And so for the kingly office. 

3. Every Christian by this anointing is made a Jcinfi, Eev. i. 6, ' He hath 
loved us, and washed us, and made us kings,' &c. 

But how are we kings ? To take away an objection that ariseth in the 
hearts of carnal men. Oh, say they, they talk that they are kings, when 
perhaps they have not a penny in their purse ; they talk they are kings, 
when in the mean time they are underlings in the world. Here are kings 
indeed, think profane, conceited persons. 

Indeed, all other things are but shadows ; these be realities. This is a king- 
dom to purpose. Thou livest by sense and by fancy, or else, if thou hadst 
the spiritual eye-salve, if thou hadst thine eyes open to see the dignity of a 
Christian, thou wouldst judge him to be the only king in the world ; and, 
* The ' Macedonians,' not Corinthians. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 449 

therefore, I do not enlarge the point to set colours upon matters, but indeed 
I rather speak under. There is no excellency that we can think of in this 
world that riseth high enough to set out the state of a Christian ; he is indeed 
a king. 

For, I beseech you, what makes a king ? Victory and conquest, that 
makes a king. Is not he a conqueror that hath that in him that conquers 
the world and all things else ? Others, that are not Christians, they are 
slaves to lusts and pleasures. A Christian is chief conqueror in the 
world, he conquers the world in his heart, and all temptations are inferior 
to him ; he sees them as things that he hath gotten the mastery of; he 
subdues the principal enemy. A Christian fears not death, he fears not 
judgment, he fears not the wi'ath of God. He knows God is reconciled 
in Christ, and so all things are reconciled with him. God being at 
peace, all things else are at peace. So he is a conqueror. He hath a 
kingdom in himself. Others have kingdoms out of themselves, and in 
themselves they are slaves. He is such a king as hath a kingdom in 
himself. He hath peace and joy, and rest from base affections and terror 
of conscience. 

Is not he a king that is lord and master of all things ? A Christian is 
master of prosperity. He conquers it, he can make it serve his turn — to be 
thankful to God, to be ready to distribute. He is master of adversity. ' I 
can want and I can be abased, I can do all things through Christ that 
strengtheneth me,' saith blessed Paul, Philip, iv. 12, 13. He is an omni- 
potent king in some sense, ' he can do all through him that strengthens 
him.' He hath conquered the king of fears — death. That that makes the 
greatest monarch in the world to shake and tremble, a Christian can think 
of with comfort. He can think of God's wrath with comfort appeased in 
Christ, staunched with his blood. He can think of the day of judgment 
with comfort, that then his Saviour shall be his judge, and that he shall stand 
at the right hand of God. He can think of afflictions with comfort ; he is 
sanctified to all things, and all things are sanctified to him, and ' all things 
shall work for his good,' Eom. viii. 28 ; ' nothing shall be able to separate 
him from God's love to him in Christ, neither things present nor things to 
come,' Eom. viii. 38. That which amazeth the Belshazzars of the world, 
and makes their knees smite one against another, as that handwriting did 
him ; that which makes others quake to think of, a revenging God, before 
whom they must appear, and answer for all their miscarriages, and their 
neglect of precious time, and abuse of their places, they can think of with 
joy and comfort. 

He hath conquered himself and his own heart : he can subdue the carnal 
part of him, and bring it under the Spirit. All others, though kings, if 
they be not Christians, are slaves to some reigning lust or other. 

He is a king likewise in regard of possession, which is a second thing 
which makes a Christian an excellent person. As he is a great conqueror, 
so he is a great possessor ; for ' all is yours,' saith the apostle, ' things pre- 
sent and things to come, life and death, afflictions and crosses, and all is 
yours,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. How ? To help him to heaven. Things present 
are his ; comforts are his, if they be present ; afflictions are his, to purge 
him and fit him for heaven ; things to come are his, heaven is his, and 
terrors to come, all serve him. Even evil things are his in advantage and 
success. Though in disposition they be not his, but have an hostile dis- 
position in them, they are all overpowered by the love of God ; and Christ, 
the king of heaven and earth, overrules all to the good of his. And so all 

VOL. III. F f 



450 COMMENTAKY ON 

good things are his, though not in civil possession, but as far as the great 
governor of all things sees fit. What a king is this ! And, therefore, the 
word is not too great, to say a Chiistian is a king. He is indeed the most 
excellent person in the world. 

And he hath likewise a kingly spirit, that is, he doth things with love 
and freedom of spirit that others do upon compulsion, for he hath the roj'al 
law of love, as the apostle saith, written in his heart, James ii. 8. What 
is that ? The royal law of love is this, when a man doth that which he 
doth from love and from a princely spirit, — when he is not compelled. That 
which others do not at all, or by force is wrung from them, he doth out of 
a princely spirit that is in him, because his spirit is enlarged and anointed 
by the Spirit of God to every good work. 

These things might be enlarged, but a taste of them is sufficient, and 
they are very useful to raise our hearts to consider that there is another 
manner of state than the world thinks of. There are spiritual and excel- 
lent kings and priests ; and this will stand by us when all other excel- 
lencies fail, ' AU flesh is grass, and as the flower of the grass,' 1 Peter 
i. 24. But this dignity, this anointing which we have by the Spirit and 
by the word of God, it endures for ever, and abides to all eternity. 

Now, not to go on in more particulars, but to make some use of this. 
Surely this is true in some degi-ee of every Christian, that he is a prophet, 
' to discern of things that difler,' Heb. v. 14 ; and he hath a supernatural, 
heavenly light answerable to the things, a spiritual light to judge of spiritual 
things. And he is a priest, to stand before God continually ; and he is a 
king, by conquest, by possession, by qualification. I say this undoubtedly 
is true of all spiritual persons, that are anointed. As it is said of Saul, 
that when he was anointed he had another spirit, 1 Sam. x. 11, so God 
never makes a Christian but he gives him the spirit of a Christian. God's 
calling is with qualification. It is not a mere titular anointing, but 
there is another spirit goes along with this anointing than there was before 
calling. Though men be trained up from their infancy in the truth, yet 
when they are anointed by the Spirit of God there will another manner of 
spirit appear in them than ever was in them before, or than that which is 
in the world. 

I beseech you therefore, — for dignity prepares and stirs up to duty ; a man 
never so can-ies himself in his place and condition, as when he thinks of 
his condition, — oft think of the excellent estate we are advanced to in Christ. 
It will put us in mind of a qualification and disposition answerable ; that as 
the apostle oft presseth it, we may 'walk worthy our calling,' Eph. iv. 1, 
that we may walk worthy of this dignity. 

When we are tempted therefore to sin, and to base courses, let us say as 
good Nehemiah when he was moved to flee, ' what, shall such a man as I 
flee ?' Neh. vi. 11. So should we say to any temptation to base courses of 
life, what ! shall such a man as I do this ? "Why ! if I be a Christian, if 
I be not only a titular Christian, — which is only sufficient to damn me, 
and not to do me good, — but if I be a real Christian, I must be a priest, 
I must keep myself unspotted of the world, and undefiled, and not 
touch any unclean thing ; I must be in a state and condition to pray to 
God, * Shall I regard iniquit}^ that God should not hear my prayer ? ' Ps. 
kvi. 18. 

If I be a Christian, I am a king ; shall I debase myself? shall I cast my 
crown in the dirt ? God hath raised me, and made me an heir of heaven, 
shall I abase myself to sins, and to base lusts, so that I cannot rule my 



■2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 22. 451 

own members, and yet profess myself to be a king ? For a Cliristian that 
is a king, that hath a guard of angels about him, that is the most excellent 
creature in the world, for him to abase himself to the world ; he that is 
bred from heaven, for him to have no higher thoughts than the things 
below, to have an earthly mind, and earthly thoughts, it is a shrewd pre- 
sumption that he is but only a titular Christian, and hath not received this 
inward and spiritual anointing. It was a speech of the martyrs in the 
primitive church, when they were asked their names, they gave this answer, 
Christiaiius sum, I am a Christian (bbhb), and that satisfied all questions. 
So when we are basely tempted to courses unbefitting our dignity, answer 
them from our baptism, I am baptized into Christ, and so am become a 
Christian, and this is unbeseeming the profession of Christianity. 

I beseech you let us remember our calling. We are called to be prophets, 
kings, and priests, and not only here, but in the world to come we shall 
be so. We must not think to be kings in heaven, except we begin it 
here. 

It is with a Christian, as it was with David. He was anointed many 
years before he was actually a king upon the throne, 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 
While Saul lived, he did not enjoy the kingdom. So we are anointed in 
this world, in part we are kings while we are here ; kings over ourselves, 
and over the world. A Christian sees all under him that is worldly, he 
treads the moon under his feet. But our anointing hath then especially its 
effect when we are in heaven, as David's anointing, it had its special effect 
when Saul w.is dead. We must now carry ourselves as those that shall be 
kings. Those that are not kings here, shall never be kings hereafter ; 
those that are not priests here, shall never walk with Christ in heaven 
in long white robes for ever. Eternal life is begun here, in all the parts 
of it. 

And therefore I beseech you, if our memories be so shallow that we 
cannot remember other bonds, let us remember our baptism, let us read 
our duty in our baptism. What are we baptized into ? Into Christ, that 
is, to take the name of Christ upon us, to be Christians ; which name 
implies these three, to be a king, priest, and prophet. What do we then 
when we sin ? We reverse our baptism in some sort. Let it be an aggra- 
vation then when we are tempted to sin ; it is treason to God, I shall leave 
my Captain, under whose banner I have vowed to fight against ' the devil, 
the world, and the flesh ; ' and to forsake my colours is the greatest 
treachery. Yea, it is sacrilege. And so God accounts it, when thou pro- 
fanest thine eyes and thine ears in seeing and hearing of vanity, as you 
do when you frequent plaj^houses and the like. I say, it is sacrilegious. 
Kings and priests were dedicated persons, and to employ dedicated things 
about any other business, than to God, is sacrilege ; it is a committing of 
folly with thy soul. Men have slight conceits of religion, and scarce a 
tincture of it. If they did deeply consider what religion is, that it seizeth 
upon the soul, that it alters and changeth it, that whosoever will have 
benefit by the promises, he must have an inward qualification, and be 
anointed with the Spirit, they would have better conceits of it than they 
have ; and hence it is therefore that men make so little conscience of giving 
liberty to their ears and eyes to hear and see vanity, and defile themselves 
in evil courses, and cleave to the occasions of sin. 

Let us oft, I beseech you, be stirred up to think of our high prerogatives, 
with high admiration. What love ! what love ! hath God shewed, ' that we 
should be called the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 1, that we should be made 



452 COilUENTARy ON 

kings and priests to God the Father. And if ever you hope to have comfoi-t 
bj' rehgion, you must find this anointing in yoiu'selves, raising you above 
other men to holy duties, to be kings, and priests, and prophets. 

' Who hath anoiutcd us, and sealed ?/.s,' dx. You see then, a Christian is 
stablished this way in Christ, because he is anointed by the Spmt of God ; 
he is dedicated and consecrated to God. Hence, before I go on to that 
which followeth, in that the apostle couple th anointing, and sealing, and 
earnest to the promises, observe this briefl}'. 

None have interest in the promises of me raj, none can find comfort by them, 
but such as find some chanrje in themselves. 

The promises of God, as I have often said, are the riches of a Christian, 
and his inheritance. Take all from him, you must needs leave him this. 
You cannot take this from him. And as an usm-er thinks he is a rich man, 
though he have not twopence in his house, but all that he hath is in bills 
and bonds ; so a Christian, though happily he have not much in actual pos- 
session, yet he is rich in that he hath God's bonds in the promises. But 
now a man cannot say that he is interested in the promises, that he can lay 
claim to them, if he be an unfruitful man, an unhallowed man, that hath 
not the sweet ointment of the Spirit, changing of him, as it is said of Saul, 
into another man ; for God wheresoever he reconciles himself, and gives 
any promise of favour and mercy, there he works a qualification. Of necessity 
it must be so, because he is reconciled to amity. Now in friendship there 
must be a correspondent similitude of disposition and sympathy. Now as long 
as we are in our natural estate, and remain unhallowed and defiled, we are 
in such terms as God and we cannot meet in amity ; and therefore where- 
soever the promises of the favour of God and reconciliation are of force, 
there must be a change. God, when he intends to shew favour to any, he 
alters and changeth them, that they may be such as he may have content, 
and complacency and delight in. 

We see then there is a necessity of examining ourselves in this point. 
If thou be anointed, examine thyself, what inward power of grace thou 
hast, what sweet work of the Spirit ; whether thou find in thee a principle 
above corruption, that makes thee rule above that which the world is 
inthralled unto. Undoubtedly as our title to heaven it is out of ourselves, 
by the promises we have of salvation and reconciliation in Christ ; so the 
evidences must be found in ourselves ; there must be anointing, and seal- 
ing, and the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore I beseech you, think seriously 
of what I have delivered of that point before. But we shall have occasion 
in the particulars after to speak more of this. I go on therefore to the 
second word, 

' Who hath sealed us.' The same God that anoints us seals us. Anoint- 
ing and sealing go both together ; both are to secm'e us our estate in Christ, 
both wrought by the Spirit of God. 

Now Christ is the first sealed, John vi. 27, ' Him hath God the Father sealed.' 
Christ is sealed to be our redeemer, that is, God hath set apart Christ from 
others, hath distinguished him, and sealed him, and set a stamp upon him 
to be the Messiah; sealed him to the great work of redemption, first by the 
gi'aces of the Spirit ; for he is full of them, having received * the Spirit 
above measure,' John iii. 34 ; and not only so, but he sealed him by 
many miracles, by the resurrection from the dead, by which he was 
declared to be the Son of God ; by the calling of the Gentiles, and by many 
other things. 

Christ being sealed, he sealed all that he did for our redemption with 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 453 

his blood ; and for the strengthening of our faith, he hath added outward 
seals, the two sacraments, to seal our faith in this blood, and in him who is 
sealed of the Father. 

But here in this place is meant another manner of sealing ; for here is 
not meant the sealing of Christ, but the sealing of us, that have com- 
munion with Christ. The same Spirit that sealed the Redeemer, seals the 
redeemed. 

What is our sealing ? 

Sealing we know hath this use. 

1. First of all, it doth imprint a likeness of him that doth seal upon the wax 
that is sealed ; as when the king's picture or image is stamped or sealed upon 
the wax, everything in the wax answers to that in the seal, face to face, eye to 
eje, hand to hand, foot to foot, body to body. So we are said to be 
sealed, when we carry in our souls the image of Jesus Christ ; for the 
Spirit sets the stamp of Jesus Christ upon every Christian, so that there is 
the likeness of Christ in all things ; understanding answers understanding, 
in proportion. As a child, you know, answers the father ; it hath limb for 
limb, foot for foot, finger for finger, but it is not in quantit}^ but in propor- 
tion and likeness ; so it is in the soul that is sealed by the Spirit, there is 
a likeness to Christ, something of every grace of Christ. There is under- 
standing of the same heavenly supernatural truths ; thei'e is a judging of 
things as Christ judgeth ; and the afiections go as Christ's do ; he loves 
that which Christ loves, and he hates that which he hates ; he joys in that 
which Christ delights in. Every afi'ection of the soul is carried that way 
that the afiections of our blessed Saviour are carried in proportion. Every- 
thing in the soul is answerable to Jesus Christ ; and there is no grace in 
Christ, but there is the like in every Christian in some small measure. 
The obedience of Christ to his Father even to the death, it is in every 
Christian. The humility whereby Christ abased himself, it is in every 
Christian. Christ works in the soul that receiveth him, a likeness to 
himself. 

And this is an undoubted character of a Christian. The soul that believes 
in Christ doth not only believe in him for his own sake, to be forgiven of 
his sins ; but together with believing, feeling the forgiveness of his sins, 
and that Christ hath so loved him, and done such things for him, he is 
ambitious to express Christ in all things ; and it stii's him up with desire to 
be like him ; for, thinks he, is there such love in Christ to me ? and is 
there such grace and mercy in God to me ? and was Christ so good as to 
do and to sufi'er such things for me ? Oh ! how shall I improve things for 
him ! Oh ! that I might be like him ! lovely in his eyes ! This, I say, 
must needs be so. These desires are undoubtedly universally in the souls of 
all those that partake of Christ. It is the nature of the thing to be so. We 
shall desire to be transformed more and more to Christ; every way to bear the 
image of the ' second Adam,' who is, as the apostle saith, from heaven, heavenly ; 
and so shall we be heavenly-minded as he was heavenly-minded on earth, 
talking and discoursing of the kingdom of heaven, and fitting people for 
the kingdom of heaven, and drawing others from this world to meditate of 
a better estate. There is a likeness to these in the soul of every believer ; 
and that is the reason that Christ's ofiices are put together in all those 
that he saves, that look, whosoever he is a priest to, to die for their sins 
— to them he is a prophet to teach them, and a king to subdue their cor- 
runtions, and to change them, and alter them, and to rule them by his 
Spirit. 



454 COMMENTARY OX 

You have carnal men in presumption, whicli leads them to destruction ; 
they sever things in Christ. They will take benefit by Christ, but they care 
not for his likeness ; they -vs-ill have him as priest, but they respect him 
not as a king. Now all that are Christ's have the stamp of the Spirit upon 
them. There are desires wrought in them by the Spirit of God to that pm'- 
pose ; and a Spirit of sanctification that makes them every v/ay like Christ 
in their proportion. 

And that is an evidence of the sealing of such a soul, because the soul 
of itself hath no such impression : for the soul of itself is a barren wilder- 
ness, a stone that is cold and incapable of impression. "When, therefore, 
the soul can command nature, being stiff, and hard, and dead, we see an 
impression of a higher nature, a man may know that undoubtedly the Spirit 
of God hath been in his soul ; for we see a loving spirit, an humble spirit, 
a gracious, a belie\ing, a broken spirit, an obedient spirit to every command- 
ment of God, the soul can yield itself wholly to the will of God in all things. 
Certainly, I say, the Spirit of God hath been here, for these things grow 
not in a natural soul. A stone, you know, is cold by nature, and if a man 
feel a stone to be hot, a man may undeniably gather, certainty, the sun 
hath shined upon this stone. Our hearts are very cold by nature ; un- 
doubtedly, when they are warmed with the love of God, that they are made 
pliable to duties, the Sun of righteousness, Christ, hath shined on this cold 
heart. God's Spirit can work on marble, can work on brass, as Jeremiah 
saith, Jer. vi. 28. It was the commendations of one of the fathers that he 
could work on brass. God can work on our souls, which are as brass, and 
make an impression of grace there ; and therefore when a man sees an im- 
pression upon such hard metal, certainly he may know that the finger of 
God's Spirit hath been there. So that the work of sanctification is an un- 
doubted seal of the Spirit of God. 

2. A second use of a seal is distinction. Seals are given for distinguish- 
ing ; for, you know, sealing is a stamp set upon some few out of many. 
So this sealing of the Spirit, it distinguisheth Christians from others, as we 
shall see more at large afterwards. 

3. Then again, a seal, it serves for appropriation,* for men seal those things 
that are their own. Merchants seal those wares that they either have or 
mean to have a right unto. Men seal their own sheep and not others, and 
stamp their own wares and not others. God here stoops so low as to make 
use of terms that are used in human matters and contracts : and by sealing 
he shews that he hath appropriated his own to himself, chosen and singled 
them out for himself to delight in. 

4. Again, sealing further serves to make thiuf/s authentical, to give autho- 
rity ami exceUency to thiur/s. Magistrates and officers go with their broad 
seal, and deliver things that they would have carried with authority sealed, 
and the seal of the prince is the authority of the prince. So that a seal is 
to make things authentical, to give validity to things answerable to the value 
and esteem of him that seals. 

These four principal uses there is of sealing. Now, God by his Spirit 
doth all these : for God by his Spirit sets the stamp and Hkeness of Christ 
upon us ; he distinguisheth us from others, from the great refuse of the 
world ; ho appropriates us to himself, and likewise he authoriseth us and 
puts an excellency upon us to secure us against all. When we have God's 
seal upon us wo stand against all accusations. * Wlio shall separate us from 
the love of God?' Rom. viii. 35. We dare defy all objections and all 
accusations of conscience whatsoever. A man that hath God's seal, he 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 455 

stands impregnable, it so authoriseth him in his conscience ; for it is given 
us for our assurance, and not for God's. God seals not because he is 
ignorant ; he ' hwivs who are his,' 2 Tim. ii. 19. 

But what ? Is the Spirit itself this seal, or the graces of the Spirit, or 
the comforts of the Spirit 7 What is this seal ? for that is the question 
now, whether the Spmt itself, or the work of the Spirit, or the comfort and 
joy of the Spirit ? 

I answer. Indeed, the Spirit of God where it is is a sufficient seal to us 
that God hath set us out for his : for whosoever hath the Spirit of Christ is 
his, and whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his ; but the 
Spirit is the author of this sealing, and the sealing that is in us is wrought 
by the Spirit, so that except you take the Spirit for that which is wrought 
by the Spirit, you have not the right comprehension of sealing : and so the 
Spirit, with that which the Spirit works, is the seal, for the Spirit is alway 
with his own seal, with his own stamp. Other seals are removed from the 
stamp, and the stamp remains, though the seal be gone ; but the Spirit of 
God dwells and keeps a perpetual residence in the heart of a Christian, 
guiding him, moving him, enlightening of him, governing him, comforting 
him, doing all offices of a seal in his heart, till he have brought him to 
heaven, for the Holy Ghost never leaves us. It is the sweetest inhabitant 
that ever lodging was given to. He doth all that is done in the soul, and 
he is perpetually with his own work in joy and comfort. Though he seems 
sometimes to be in a corner of the heart, and is not discernible, yet he 
alway dwells in us ; the Spirit is always with the stamp it sets upon the 
soul. 

What is that stamp, then ? to come to the matter more particularly, 
what is that that the Spirit seals us with, especially, — what is that work ? 

I answer. The Spirit works in this order, for the most part, and in some 
of these universally : 

1. First, the Spirit doth, together with the word, which is the instru- 
ment of the Spirit, the chariot in which it is carried, convince us of the evil 
that is in us, and of the ill estate we are in by reason thereof. It convinceth 
us that we are sinners, and of the fearful estate that we are in by sin. This 
is the first work of the Spirit on a man in the state of nature, — it convinceth 
us of the ill that is in us, and of the ill due unto us, and thereupon it abaseth 
us. Therefore, it is called ' the Spirit of bondage,' Rom. viii. 15, because 
it makes a man tremble and quake till he see his peace in Christ. 

2. When the Spirit hath done that, then it convinceth a 7nan by a better, 
by a sweeter lir/ht, discoveriny a remedy in Christ, who is sealed of God, to 
reconcile God and us. And as he enhghteneth the soul, convinceth it of 
the all-sufficiency that is in Christ, and the authority that he hath, being 
sent and sealed of God for that purpose, so he works on the affections, he 
inclines the heart to go to God in Christ, and to cast himself on him by 
faith. 

Now, when the soul is thus convinced of the evil that is in us, and of the 
good that is in Christ, and with this convincing is incHned and moved by 
the Holy Spirit, as, indeed, the Holy Spirit doth all, then upon this the 
Spirit vouchsafeth a superadded work, — as the Spuit doth still add to his 
own work, — he adds a confirming work, which is here called ' sealing.' That 
seal is not faith, for the apostle saith, * After you believed, ye were sealed,' 
Eph. i. 13. So that this sealing is not the work of faith, but it is a work 
of the Spirit upon faith, assuring the soul of its estate in grace. 

But what need confirmation when we believe ? Is not faith confirmation 



■i5G COMMENTARY ON 

enough, when a man may by a reflect act of the soul know that he is in the 
state of grace by believing ? 

It is true, as the natural conscience knows what is in a man, as the 
natural judgment can reflect, so the spiritual understanding can reflect ; 
and when he believes, he knows that he believes, without the Spirit, by the 
reflect act of the understanding, except he be in case of temptation. What 
needs sealing then ? 

This act of ours in beheving, and the knowledge of our believing, it is 
oft terribly shaken ; and God is wondrous desirous, as we see by the whole 
passage of the Scripture, that we should be secure of his love. He knows 
that he can have no glory and we can have no comfort else. And, there- 
fore, when we by faith have sealed to his tnath, he knows that we need still 
further sealing, that our faith be current and good, and to strengthen our 
faith, for aU is little enough in the time of temptation. And, therefore, the 
single witness of our soul by the reflect act, knowing that we do believe 
when we do believe, it is not strong enough in great temptations, for in 
some trials the soul is so carried and hurried that it cannot reflect upon 
itself, nor know what is in itself, without much ado ; therefore, first the 
Spirit works faith, whereby we seal God's truth, John iii. 33, ' He that 
believes hath put to his seal that God is true.' When God by his Spirit 
moves me to honour him by sealing his truth, that ' whosoever believes in 
Christ shall be saved,' John iii. 18, then God seals this, my belief, with 
an addition of his Holy Spirit. So that this sealing is a work upon 
believing ; and as faith honours God, so God honours faith with a super- 
added seal and confii-mation. 

But yet we [are] not come particularly enough to know what this seal is. 
When we honour God by sealing his truth, then the Spirit seals us ; cer- 
tainly then the Sj)irit doth it by presence, by being with us in our souls. 
What then doth the Spirit work when we believe ? How shall we know 
that there is such a spiritual sealing ? 

I answer, the Spirit in this sealing works these four things : 

First, a secret voice or witness to the soul, that we are ' the sons of 
God.' 

Secondly, a voice or speech in us again to God, causing us to have access 
to the throne of grace ' with boldness.' 

Thirdly, a work of sanctification. 

Fourthly, ' peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost,' Rom. 
xiv. 17. 

By these four ways we may know the seahng of the Spirit after we 
believe, and that our faith is a sound belief, and that we are in the state of 
grace indeed. 

1. First, I say, the Spirit speaks to its by a secret kind of vhisj^ering and 
intimation, that the soul feels better than I can express. ' Be of good com- 
fort, thy sins are forgiven thee,' saith he to the soul. Matt. ix. 2, ' I am 
thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. There is, I say, a sweet joining, a sweet kiss 
given to the soul. * I am thine, and thou art mine,' Cant. vi. 3. God by 
his Spirit speaks so much. There is a voice of God's Spirit speaking peace 
to his people upon their believing. 

2. And then. Secondly, the Spirit of adop)tion stirs iip the speech of the soid 
to God, that as he says to the soul. Because thou helievcst, now thou, art 
honoured to be my child; so the Spirit stirs up in the soul a spirit of prayer 
tn cry, ' Abba, Father.' It can go boldly to God as to a Father ; for that 
* Abba, Father,' it is a bold and familiar speech. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VKR. 22. 457 

There are two things in a prayer of a Christian that are incompatible to 
any carnal man : there is an inward kind of familiar boldness in the soul, 
whereby a Christian goes to God, as a child when he wants any thing goes 
to his father. A child considers not his own worthiness or meanness, but 
goeth to his father familiarly and boldly : so, I say, when the Spkit of 
God speaks to us from God, and tells the soul, ' I am thine,' ' I am thy 
salvation,' ' thy sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort : ' and when 
the soul again speaks to God, when it can pour forth itself wath a kind of 
familiar boldness and earnestness, especially in extremity, and in time of 
trouble, and can wait in prayer, and depend upon God, — this spiritual speech 
of God to the soul, and of the soul to God, it is a seal of the Spirit that 
indeed we are true beUevers, because we can do that that none can do but 
Christians. God speaks to our souls, he raiseth our souls, and by his Spirit 
he puts a spirit of supplication into us, and helps our infirmities ; for we 
know not what to ask, but he helps our weakness, and enables us to lay 
out the wants of our souls to God. These are evidences of the presence 
and of the seal of the Spirit. 

3. In the third place, this sealing of the Spirit after we believe, is known 
by the sanctifying work of the Spirit : for, as I told you before in the unfold- 
ing of the point, the Spirit seals our spirits by stamping the likeness of 
the Spirit of Christ on us. So that when a man finds in his soul some 
lineaments of that heavenly image of Christ Jesus, when he finds some love, 
he may know by that love that he is ' translated from death to life,' John 
V. 24 ; when he finds his spirit subdued, to be humble, to be obedient, 
when he finds his spirit to be heavenly and holy as Christ was ; when he 
finds this stamp upon the soul, surely he may reason, I have not this by 
nature ; naturally I am proud, now I can abase myself; naturally I am 
full of mahce, now I can love, I can pray heartily for mine enemies, as 
Christ did ; naturally I am lumpish and heavy, now in afllictions, I can joy 
in the Holy Ghost ; I have somewhat in me contrary to nature, sm'ely God 
hath vouchsafed his Spnit, upon my believing in Christ, to mark me, to 
seal me, to stamp me for his, I carry now the image of the second Adam, 
I know the Holy Ghost hath been in my heart, I see the stamp of Christ 
there. ' Ivnow you not that Christ is in you, except you be cast-aways ?' 
saith the apostle, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. So upon search, the Christian soul finds 
somewhat of Christ always in the soul to give a sweet evidence that he is 
sealed to the day of redemption. 

4. The fourth evidence that the Spirit of God hath been in a man's 
heart, is the joy of the Holy Ghost mid peace of conscience. Sanctification 
is the ordinary seal that is always in the soul : this is an extraordinary seal, 
peace and joy. When the soul needs encouragement, then God is gra- 
ciously pleased to superadd this, to give such spiritual ravishings which are 
as the very beginnings of heaven, so that a man may say of a Christian at 
such times that he is in heaven before his time, he is in heaven upon earth. 
But especially God doth this when he wiU have his children to suffer, or 
after suffering, after some special conflict, after we have combated with some 
special corruption, with some sinful disposition, with some strong tempta- 
tion, and have got the victory : ' To him that overcometh will I give of the 
hidden manna, and a white stone, and a new name that none can read it, 
but he that hath it,' Rev. ii. 17, that is, he shall have assurance that he is 
in the state of grace, and the sw^eet sense of the love of God, and that 
sweet heavenly manna that none else can have. Thus God dealt with Job. 
After he had exercised that champion a long time, at the last he discovered 



COMMENTARY ON 



himself in a glorious manner to him. So it is usually after some great 
cross ; or in the midst of some great cross, when God sees that we must be 
supported with some spiritual comfort, we sink else. Then there is place 
and time for spiritual comfort, when earth cannot comfoi't. Thus St Paul 
in the midst of the dungeon, when he was in the stocks, being sealed with 
the Spirit, he * sang at midnight,' Acts xvi. 24, scq. Alas ! what would 
have become of blessed Paul ? his spirit would have sunk if God had not 
stamped it with 'joy in the Holy Ghost,' Kom. xiv. 17; and so David, 
and the ' three young men' in the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the den. 
God doth then, even as parents, smile upon their children when they are 
sick and need comfort : so above all other times God reserves this hidden 
sealing of his children with a spirit of joy when they need it most, some- 
times in the midst of afflictions, sometimes as a reward when they come 
out of their afflictions ; sometimes before. So our Saviour Christ had 
James and John with him upon the mountain to strengthen them against 
the scandal of suffering after. So God when he hath a great work for his 
children to do, some suffering for them to go through, as an encouragement 
beforehand, he enlargeth their spuits with the joy of the Holy Ghost. And 
sometimes also after a holy and gracious disposition in the ordinances of 
God, God doth add an excellent portion of his Spirit, a seal extraordinary : 
for indeed, God thinks nothing enough for his children till he have brought 
them to heaven, seal upon seal, and comfort upon comfort ; and the more 
we depend upon him in the means of salvation, and the more we conflict 
with our corruptions, the more he increaseth the sweet comforts and the 
hidden manna of the Spirit. 

Thus we see how the Spirit seals ; I beseech you, therefore, let us exa- 
mine ourselves by that which hath been spoken : after we believe, God 
seals those that do believe. We honour him by believing, he honours us 
by sealing us with his Spirit. Hath God spoken to thy soul by the wit- 
ness of the Spkit, and said, ' I am thy salvation,' * thy sins are forgiven 
thee ?' doth God stir up thy spirit to call upon him, especially in extre- 
mity ? and to go with boldness and earnestness to him ? Surely this bold- 
ness and earnestness is an evidence of the seal of the Spirit ; for a man 
that hath no seal of the Spirit, he cannot go to God in extremity, Saul in 
extremity he goes to the witch ; and Ahithophel and Judas in extremity 
go to desperate conclusions, A man that hath not the Spirit of God speak- 
ing peace to his conscience, to whom God hath not given the spirit of 
adoption to cry, * Abba, Father,' in all manner of exigents, he sinks as lead 
to the bottom of the sea. So heavy is the soul that is not raised by the 
Spirit of God, he hath no consistence till he come to the centre, to hell. 
Did you ever feel the sweet joy of the Spirit after conflict with corruptions, 
and getting ground of them, and in holy duties, &c. ? It is a sign that 
God hath sealed you. 

But you will say. How can that be a seal that is not always ? A seal 
continues with the thing. God's children find not peace always. The 
joy of the Spirit comes after the work of the Spirit : how then can this bo 
a seal ? 

I answer. Yes ; for howsoever it be or not alway sensible, yet it is 
alway a seal. Though we have not always the joy of the Spirit, yet we 
have the spirit of joy. A Christian hath not the joy of the Spirit at all 
times, for that is moveable ; but he hath always the spirit of joy, which 
spirit, though it be not known by joy, yet it is known by operation and 
working. There is the work of the Spirit, where there is not always the 



2 COHINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 22. 459 

joy of the Spirit ; and therefore when that fails, go to the work of sanctiii- 
cation, and see what stamp and resemblance of Christ there is ; see if thy 
heart be humble and broken, if thou have a loving disposition in thee like 
to Christ, that thou hatest that which Christ hateth, that thou seest a 
division in thyself. I say, when the joy of the Spii'it ceaseth, go to the 
work of the Spirit, and to this work of the Spirit, viz., the voice of the 
Spirit, — canst thou cry to God with prayer and supplication ? and if thou 
canst not pray with distinct words, canst thou moum and groan to God ? 
This sighing and groaning is the voice of God's Spirit, and God knows 
the voice of his own Spirit. But for the question propounded : the soul of 
a Christian knows that when it finds not extraordinai-y comfort from God's 
Spirit, that God's love is constant. It can reason thus : though I find not 
the comfort of the Spirit, yet I have the spirit of comfort, because I had 
the Spirit in former times, and God's Spirit is unchangeable, and therefore 
though it be not with me now as in those ravishings of the Spirit, j^et the 
love of God is the same, though my feeling be not the same ; because, 
though I be off and on, and my feelings ebb and flow, yet His love is not 
so ; and hereupon the extraordinary feeling of the Spirit, which is super- 
added as an extraordinary seal, it may be a sound seal of comfort from the 
constancy of God who gave it ; and he gave it for this end, that we might 
have recourse, and retire back in our thoughts, and argue it was thus and 
thus with me. Then we remember the times of old, as David saith, Ps. 
Ixxvii. 6, and help ourselves with om- former feelings. He that alway hath 
life, is not always alike stirred. Christ may be begotten and live in us, but 
he stirs not always alike. So though the Spirit of sanctification be in us, 
and stir in us, yet his stirring is not alike so sweet ; and the stirring of 
the Spirit, though it be not alway, yet the Spirit is alway there. So the 
soul may have recourse to that which is unchangeable and constant, even 
God himself, and his love is as himself. 

But to take a Christian in his worst time, in the worst and greatest 
afflictions, how shall he know then that he is sealed of the Spirit ? When 
corruption, temptation, and affliction meet together in the soul ; when 
temptation is joined with our corruption, and afflictions yield ground to 
temptations (for Satan useth the afflictions we are in as temptations to 
shake our faith), canst thou be a child of God, and be so exercised ? Is 
this grace ? So affliction is a weapon to temptation, for Satan to help his 
fiery darts with. Now how shall a man know that God hath any part here ? 

1. He may know that he is sealed by the Spirit of God, if he have a 
spirit to thwart these, if he row against the stream, if he go contrary to all 
these ; if he find a spirit resisting Satan's temptations, and raising himself 
above afflictions, and standing against, and combating with his corruptions, 
and checking his carnal soul when it is drawing him down. * Why art 
thou discomforted, my soul?' saith David, Ps. xlii. 11; xliii. 5. He 
found corruptions, and afflictions, and Satan's temptations working with 
them, depressing his soul downwards ; hereupon, having the Spirit in him, 
saith he, ' Why art thou disquieted within me ? Trust in God.' He first 
chides his soul, * Why art thou so ? ' and then he lays a charge upon it, 
' Trust in God.' So I say, when this is in the soul in the greatest extremity, 
when I can check my soul, ' Why art thou thus ? yet trust in God ;* 
whatsoever there is in the world, yet there is hope in heaven, though there 
be little comfort upon earth ; this is a sign that I am sealed with the Spirit 
of God : and thus in the worst temptations that can come, and so in the 
worst times, a man may know that he is in the state of grace. 



460 COMMENTARY ON 

2. One use of a seal, I told you before, was to distinguish. If a man, 
therefore, find in himself a distinguishing from the errors of the times [he 
may know that he is ' sealed ']. ' Many walk,' saith the apostle, ' of whom 
I have told you oft, their end is damnation, their belly is their god, they mind 
earthly things,' Philip, iii. 18, 19. But what did St Paul in the mean time ? 
what did the Spirit work in him ? ' But our conversation is in heaven,' saith 
he. The whole world was overspread with a deluge of sin ; but what was Noah 
and his family ? God by his Spirit distinguished them ; they went a con- 
trary course to the world ; and Lot in Sodom. So a man may know that 
he is sealed, when the Spirit leads him another way, that he is not led 
with the errors of the times. 

Thus we have unfolded to you the sealing of the Spirit ; and you see 
the Spirit of God not only anoints, but seals. Now we should labour to 
have our hearts thus sealed by the Spirit. Can we desire and never be at 
quiet till our instruments be sealed, till our acquittances, till our charters be 
sealed ? and shall we be patient not to have our souls sealed ? 

Let us labour by all means to have the image and likeness of Christ 
stamped upon our souls especially. That is wondrous comfortable when 
we can find somewhat in us like to Jesus Christ. 

To encourage us to this, let us consider, that death and judgment will 
come, and God will set none at his right hand but his sheep that have his 
mark. Those that he sets his stamp and image upon, those he will set on 
the right hand in the day of judgment. 

And how comfortably in the hour of death can the soul commend itself 
to God, when it sees itself stamped and sealed by the Spirit of Christ ! 
when he can say to Christ, ' Lord Jesus, receive my soul,' Acts vii. 59, 
that thou hast redeemed by thy blood, that thou hast sealed by thy Spirit, 
and that thou hast set thine own stamp upon, acknowledge thine own like- 
ness, though it be not as it should be ; what a comfort, I say, hath the 
sealed soul at the hour of death ! And so in all other extremities, and in 
times of trouble and danger, those in whom God sees his own image and 
likeness, he will own, and to those he will always shew a distinct and 
respective love in hard times. 

What a difierence is between that soul and others in the time of afflic- 
tion, as in the time of pestilence and war. The soul that is sealed knows 
that he is marked out for God, for happiness in the world to come, whatso- 
ever befalls him in this world ; and he knows that God in all confusion of 
times knows his own seal. Those that are sealed, God hath a special care 
of, I say. Therefore in Ezek. ix. 6, they are said to be marked in their 
foreheads ; not that there was any visible mark on them, but it is a phrase 
to signify what special care God had of his people, specially in times of de- 
struction : God will as it were set them out in those times, and make special 
provision for them. Thus Josiah was taken away from the evil to come ; 
and Lot was taken out of Sodom when fii-e and brimstone was to come from 
heaven ; and Pella, a little village, was delivered when the general destruc- 
tion came upon Jerusalem (cccc). So that, I say, God hath a special 
care of his little ones in this life ; and if he take them away, yet their death 
is precious in his sight. He will not part with them but upon special con- 
sideration ; he sees if they live it will be worse for them ; he sees it is better 
for them to be gathered to himself, and to ' the souls of men made perfect 
in heaven.'* 

* Cf. with Catlin's reflections on the death of Sibbes liimsclf. Appendix to Memoir, 
A. vol i. pp. cxxxix-xli. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 4G1 

And as he hath a special care of them in regard of outward miseries and 
calamities, so in regard of spiritual contagion and infection, as Rev. vii. 3, 
seq. There God's holy ones were sealed, so many of such a tribe, &c., 
which is to signify to us, that God hath always some that he will keep and 
preserve from the universal infection and contagion of Antichrist in the worst 
times. God hath alwaj's a church in the worst times, in the obscurest age of 
the church, eight or nine hundred years after Christ, especially nine hundred 
years [after], when Egyptian darkness had overspread the world, and there 
was little learning and goodness in the world,* God had always sealed ones, 
marked ones, that he preserved from the danger of dark times ; and so he 
will always have a care of his own, that they be not led away with that soul- 
hurting error, popery ; another manner of mischief than men take it for. 
The Scripture is more punctual in setting down the danger of those, espe- 
cially in lighter times of the church, that are carried away with that sin, 
than any other sin whatsoever ; they have a contrary mark. Those that 
have the mark of the beast, it is contrary to the mark of Christ : it is far 
from being the mark and seal of the Spirit, that implicit bloody faith. Theirs 
is the bloody chm-ch, pretend what they will, and they stand out to blood 
in the defence of all their cruel, superstitious, and bloody decrees. Those 
persons, I say, that are deeply dyed in popery, that have the mark of the 
beast, they are in a clean opposite condition to those that are marked with 
the Spirit, that Christ marks for his. 

Let us not fear therefore, I say, if we have the Spirit of God stamped 
upon us, though in a little measure : if it be true, let us not fear death ; Christ 
knows his own mark even in death, and out of death. And let us not fear 
afflictions nor evil times, Christ will know his seal. He hath a book of 
remembrance for those that are his, Mai. iii. 16 ; for those that mourn for the 
sins of the times, and when he gathers his jewels, those shall be his. He 
will gather his jewels as a man in his house gathers his jewels ; he sufiers 
his luggage to burn in the fire. So God in common calamities, he suffers 
luggage, wicked men to go to Nvi-eck, but he will fi-ee his own. 

Let us labour therefore for this seal, to have our souls stamped with the 
Spirit of God, to have further and further evidence of our state in grace, 
that in the time of common calamity we may be free from danger, free fi-om 
error and destruction. 

But you will say. What shall I account of it, if there be but a little sign 
of grace ? 

Be not discouraged, when the stamp in wax is almost out, it is current in 
law. Put the case the stamp of the prince be an old coin (as sometimes 
we see it on a king Harry groatf), yet it is current money, yea, though it 
be a little cracked. So, put the case the stamp of the Spirit be, as it were, 
almost worn out, it is our shame, and ought to be our grief that it is so, yet 
there are some evidences, some pulses, some sighs and groans against cor- 
ruption : we mourn in our spirits, we do not join with corruption, we do 
not allow ourselves in sin. There is the stamp of the Spirit remaining, 
though it be overgrown with the dust of the world that we cannot see it. 

Sometimes God's children, though they have the graces of the Spirit in 
them, yet they yield so much to their corruptions, that they can read 
nothing but their corruptions. When we bid them read their evidences, they 
can see nothing but worldliness, nothing but pride and envy, &c. Thou<7h 
there be a stamp on them, yet God holds the soul from seeing it, so that 
they can see nothing but corruption. This is for their negligence. God gives 
* That is, the ' Middle or Dark Age,' so-called.— G. f That is, Henry VIII.— G. 



462 COMMENTAPvY ON 

them up to mistake their estates, because they will not stir up the graces of 
the Spirit, because they grieve the Spirit, aud quench the Spirit, ly doing 
that which is contrary to the Spirit. 

Let us therefore, that we may have the more comfort, preserve the stamp 
of the Spirit fresh, by the exercise of all grace, and communion with God, 
and by obedience, and by faith. Honour God by believing, and he will 
honour thee by stamping his Spirit on thee more and more. And let this 
be our work every day to have the stamp of the Spirit clear. Oh ! what a 
comfort it is to have this in us at all times ! If a man have nothing in him 
better than nature, if he have nothing in him in regard of grace, if he have 
not Christ's image upon his soul, though he be a king, or an emperor, yet 
he shall be stript of all ere long, and be set on the left hand of Christ, and 
be adjudged to eternal torments. 

It is the folly of the times come up of late, there is much labouring for 
statues, and for curious workmanship of that kind, and some pride them- 
selves much in it, and account it great riches to have an old statue. Alas ! 
alas ! what a poor delight is this in comparison of the joy that a Christian 
hath by the seal of the Spmt ? and what is this to the ambition of a Chris- 
tian, to see the image and representation of Christ stamped in his soul ? 
that he may be like the ' second Adam,' that he may be transformed more 
and more by looking on him, and seeing himself in him, to love him, con- 
sidering that he hath loved us so much (for we cannot see the love of 
Christ to us, but we must love him the more, and be transformed into him). 
Now this transforming ourselves into the image of Christ is the best picture 
in the world ; therefore labour for that every day more and more. 

There is besides the common broad seal of God, his privy seal, as I may 
call it. It is not sufficient that we have the one, that we have admittance 
into the church by baptism, but we must have this privy seal which Christ 
sets and stamps upon the soul of the true Christian. Alas ! for a man to 
build only on the outward seals, and outward prerogatives, (which in them- 
selves are excellent, yet) the standing upon them betrays many souls to tho 
devil in times of distress. 

It is another manner of seal than the outward seal in the sacrament that 
will satisfy and comfort the conscience in the apprehensions of wrath at the 
hour of death or otherways. It must be this pi'ivy seal, and then comes the 
use of those public, open, known seals, the broad seals ; then a man with 
comfort may think upon his baptism, and upon his receiving the communion, 
when he hath the beginnings of faith wrought in him by the Spirit of God. 
When a man finds the beginnings of faith in him, then he may make use 
of the broad seal to be a help to his faith. 

We must not be so profane as to think slightly and irreverently of God's 
ordinances. They are of great and high consequence ; for when Satan comes 
to the soul, and shakes the confidence of it, and saith. Thou art not a Chris- 
tian, and God doth not love thee ; why ! saith the soul, God hath loved me, 
and pardoned my sins ; he hath given me promises, and particularly sealed 
them in the sacrament ; here is the excellency of the sacrament, it comes, 
more home than the word, it seals the general promise of God particularly 
to myself. I am sealed in the sacrament, and withal I find the stamp of 
the Spirit in my heart ; and therefore having the inward work of the Spirit, 
and God having fortified the inward work, and strengthened my faith by 
the outward seal, I can therefore stand against any temptation whatsoever. 
They are excellent both together, but the special thing that must comfort, 
must be the hidden seal of the Spirit. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 22, 4G3 

Let us labour therefore to be sealed inwardly, and observe God's sealing- 
days, as we use to speak, which though it may be every day if we be in 
spiritual exercises, yet especially on the Lord's day ; for then his ordinance 
and his Spirit go together. 

Now as there is a sealing of our estates that we are the children of God, 
so there is of truths, and both are in the children of God ; as for instance, 
this is a truth, * Whosoever believes in Christ shall not perish, but have 
everlasting life,' John iii. 16. Now the same Spirit that stu-reth up the 
soul to believe this, seals it in the soul, even to death, and in all times of 
temptation ; and likewise there is no promise but upon the believing of it ; 
it is sealed by the Spirit upon the soul ; for those truths only abide firm in 
the soul which the Spirit of God sets on. 

What is the reason that many forget the comforts and consolations that 
they hear ? Because the Spirit sets them not on, the Spirit seals them not. 
What is the reason that illiterate men stand out in their profession to blood, 
whereas those that have a discoursive kind of learning they yield ? The 
reason is this, the knowledge of the one is sealed by the Spirit, it is set fast 
upon the soul, the Spirit brings the knowledge and the soul close together ; 
whereas the knowledge of the other is only a notional swimming knowledge ; 
it is not spiritual. 

Those therefore that will hold out in the end, and not apostatise, those 
that will stand out in the hour of death against temptation, and those that 
will hold out m the time of life against solicitations to sin, they must have 
a knowledge suitable to the things they know, that is, they must see and 
know heavenly things by a heavenly light, spiritual things by the Spirit of 
God. 

And therefore when we come to hear the ministers of God, we should 
not come with strong conceits, in the strength of our wit ; but with reverent 
dispositions, with dependence upon God for his Spirit, that he would teach 
us together with the ministers, and close with our souls, and set those truths 
we hear upon our souls ; we shall never hold out else. And it must be the 
Holy Ghost that must do this ; for that which must settle and seal comfort 
to the soul, must be greater than the soul, specially in the time of tempta- 
tion, when the terrors of the Almighty are upon us, and when the hell 
within a man is open, when God lays open our consciences, and ' writes 
bitter things against us,' Job xiii. 26, and our consciences teU us our sins 
wondrous near ; they are written as it were ' with a pen of iron, and the 
point of a diamond, upon our souls,' Jer. xvii. 1 ; now I say, those truths 
that must satisfy conscience that is thus turmoiled, must be set on by that 
which is above conscience. The Spirit of God who is above our spirits, can 
only set down our spirits, and keep them from quarrelling and contending 
against the truth, and quiet the conscience ; and this the Spirit doth when 
it sets the truth upon the soul. 

And therefore when our souls are disquieted and troubled, and we hear 
many comfortable truths, let us lift up our prayers to God, let there be 
ejaculations of spirit to God. Now Lord, by thy Holy Spirit set and seal 
this truth to my soul, that as it is true in itself, so it may be true to me 
likewise. 

This is a necessary observation for us all. Oh, we desire all of us in the 
hour of death, to find such comforts as may be standing comforts, that may 
uphold us against the gates of hell, and against the temptations of Satan, 
and terrors of conscience ; why ! nothing will do this but spiritual truths 
spiritually known ; nothing but holy truths set on by the Holy Spirit of God. 



464 COMMENTABY ON 

But what course shall we take when we want comfort ? when we want 
joy and peace ? 

In the first [Epistle] of John, v. 7, 8, there are ' three witnesses 
in heaven, and three in carthj' to secure us of our state in grace, and 
the certainty of our salvation. The three witnesses upon earth are * the 
Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one ; ' and the 
' three that bear witness in heaven,' are 'the Father, the Word, and the 
Holy Ghost ; ' and the three on earth, and these three in heaven agree in 
one (dddd). 

Now the Spirit is the feelings and the sweet motions of the Spirit. The 
water may well be that washing of the Spirit, sanctification. The blood 
is the shedding of the blood of Christ, and justification by it. When there- 
fore we find that part of the seal, that extraordinary seal that I spake of 
before, the joy of the Spirit of God, that it is not in us, what shall we do ? 
Shall we despair ? No ; go to the water. When we find not spiritual joy 
and comfort, when the witness of the Spirit is silent, go to the work of the 
Spirit in sanctification. 

Aye, but what shall we do if the waters be troubled in the soul, as sometimes 
there is such a confusion in the soul that we cannot see the image of God 
upon it in sanctification, we cannot see the stamp of God's Spirit there, 
there is such a chaos in the soul ? God can see somewhat of his own Spirit 
in that confusion, but the spirit itself cannot. 

Then go to the blood of Christ ! There is always comfort. The fountain 
that is opened for ' Judah and Jerusalem ' to wash in is never dry. Go 
therefore to the blood of Christ, that is, if we find sin upon our consciences, 
if we find not peace in our consciences, nor sanctification in our hearts, go 
to the blood of Christ, which is shed for all those that confess their sins, 
and rely on him for pardon, though we find no grace. For howsoever as 
an evidence that we are in Christ, we must find the work of the Spirit ; yet 
before we go to Christ it is sufficient that we see nothing in ourselves, no 
qualification ; for the graces of the Spirit they are not the condition of 
coming to Christ, but the promise of those that receive Christ after. 
Therefore go to Christ when thou feelest neither joy of the Spirit, nor 
sanctification of the Spirit ; go to the blood of Christ, and that will purge 
thee, and wash thee from all thy sins. 

This I only touch for a direction what to do when our souls want 
comfort, when perhaps we cannot see the seal of the Spirit in sanctification 
so clearly. 

To go on now to the next. 

* And given ws the earnest of the Sjnrit.' Here is the third word borrowed 
from human affairs, to set out the work of the Spirit in our souls. * Anoint- 
ing' we had before, and ' sealing'; now here is ' earnest.' 

The variety of the words shews that there is a great remainder of unbe- 
Hef in the soul of man, that the Spirit of God is fain to use so many words 
to express God's dealing to the soul to bring it to believe, to be assured of 
salvation. And indeed so it is, howsoever we in the time of pi'osperity, 
when all things go well with us, we are prone wondrously to presume, yet 
in the hour of death, when conscience is awakened, we are prone to nothing 
so much as to call all in question, and to believe the doubts and fears of our 
own hearts, more than the undoubted truth and promise of God. There- 
fore God takes all courses to stablish us. He gives us rich and precious 
promises, he gives us the Holy Spirit to stablish us on the promises, he 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YEB,. 22. 465 

seals us with his Spirit, and gives us ' the earnest of the Spirit,' and all to 
settle this wi-etched and unbelieving heart of ours. 

So desirous is God that we should be well conceited of him, he loves us 
better than we love ourselves. He so much prizeth our love, that he labom's 
by all means to secure us of his love to us, because except we know his love to 
us, we cannot love him again, and we cannot joy in him, &c. But that 
only in the general. 

Here is earnest, and ' the earnest of the Spirit,' that is, in plain terms, 
he gives us the Spirit with the graces and comforts of it, which doth in our 
hearts that which an earnest doth amongst men. 

But what is the Spirit an earnest of? 

It is an earnest of our inheritance in heaven, of our blessed estate there. 
We are sons now, but we are not heirs, invested into the blessed estate we 
have title to. God leaves us not off in the mean time while we are in our 
pilgrimage. He keeps not all for heaven, but he gives us somewhat to 
comfort us in oui" absence ft'om our Husband, from our Lord and King, 
Christ. He gives us the earnest of the Spirit, that is, he gives the Holy 
Ghost into our hearts, which is the earnest of that blessed, everlasting, 
glorious condition which we shall have in heaven hereafter. That is the 
meaning of the words. 

In what regard is the Spirit called an ' earnest ? ' 

1. First of all, an earnest is for security of harrfains and contracts. So 
the Holy Ghost assures the soul of salvation, being present with his graces 
and comforts ; the Holy Ghost is given for security. 

2. Secondlij, an earnest is part of the ivliole bargain. Though it be a 
very little part, yet it is a part ; and so the Spirit of God here, and the 
work of the Spirit, and the graces and joy of the Spirit, it is a part of that 
full joy and happiness that shall be revealed. The Spirit dwells not fully 
in any one. He dwelleth no further than he sanctifieth and reviveth. But 
that is an earnest for the time to come, that the Spirit shall be all ia all, 
wherein we shall have no reluctancy, nor nothing to exalt itself against the 
sure regiment* of the Spirit. 

3. Thirdly, an earnest is little in co^njmrison of the ivhole haryain. So 
the work of the Spirit, the comforts, the joy, the peace of the Spirit, it is 
little in comparison of that which shall be in heaven, in regard of the ful- 
ness of the Spirit which we shall have there. An earnest, though it be 
little in quantity, yet it is great in security and assurance. A shilling may 
secure a bargain of a thousand pounds perhaps ; so the Spirit, it is little in 
quantity it may be, but it is great in assurance. And as we value an 
earnest, not for the bigness of the piece ; for, alas ! it may be it is but 
little ; but we value and esteem it for that which it is an earnest of. So 
the work of the Spirit, thejoy and peace of the Spirit, the comforts of the Spirit, 
though they be little, yet they are gi'eat in security, and are to be prized ac- 
cording to that excellent bargain and possession, of which they are an earnest. 

4. FourtJily, an earnest is given rather for the security of the party that re- 
ceives it, than in regard of him that gives it ; so God gives ' the earnest of 
the Spirit,' grace and comfort ; this is not so much in regard of God, for 
God meaneth to give us heaven and happiness. (He hath passed his word, 
and he is master of his word, he is ' Jehovah,' that gives a being to his 
word as well as to every other thing.) But, notwithstanding, having to 
deal with doubtful, mistrustful persons, he doth it for our securit}', he re- 
gards not himself so much, but us. He works answerable to his own 

* That is, ' government.' — G. 
VOL. III. G g 



4G6 COMMENTARY ON 

greatness, strongly ; but he speaks according to our weakness ; and there- 
fore here is the tenn of ' eai-nest ' borrowed for this pm-pose. 

5. And Jasthj, an earnest is never taken away, hut it is made t(p with the 
bargain. So it is with the Spirit of God ; the graces and comforts of it are 
never wholly taken from a Christian, but accomplished in heaven. ' I will 
leave you the Comforter,' saith our Saviour Christ, ' that shall abide with 
you for ever,' John xiv. 16. 

So that in these and such like other respects, the Spirit of God by itself, 
together with the graces of it, and the comforts it bringeth, for they go both 
together, are called an ' earnest.' 

Hence then, having thus cleared the words, we may observe some par- 
ticular doctrines. As first, I observe from the first property of an earnest, 
that it secures the whole bargain, this, that 

Ohs. A Christian ought to he, and may he asstired of his estate in grace. 

Because, as I said before, an earnest is given for security, and that not 
so much for God's sake, as" for our sakes; this then must needs follow, either 
none have this earnest, or those that have it may be assured, or else God is 
fickle and plays fast and loose with his children, which is blasphemy to 
affirm. If none have this earnest, then the apostle speaks false, when he 
saith here, he ' stablisheth us, and gives us the earnest of his Spirit, and us 
with you,' both together. Ordinary Christians as well as gi'and ones, as 
well as Paul, may be assured of their salvation. And if this be so, then 
either those that have this earnest, this seal of the Spirit, they may be as- 
sured or no ; and if not, where is the fault ? Doth not God mean in good 
earnest to them when he gives them this ? Undoubtedly he doth. And 
why is it given but for assurance ? He is desirous that we should be per- 
suaded of his love in all things, and therefore God's childi-en they may and 
they ought to be assured of his love in this world. 

It is a point that we have often occasion to meet ^nth in other portions 
of Scripture. I speak it therefore here only as a ground out of this place, 
in that the Spirit of God, together with the graces and comforts, are called an 
' earnest,' I say therefore from hence, that ice may he assured of our salvation. 

I beseech you, what is the aim of the Epistles to the Romans, to the 
Ephesians, of the Epistle of St John, but a stirring of them up to whom 
they wrote to be persuaded of God's love to them, and to shew what ex- 
cellent things we have by the love of God in Christ ? And St John's 
Epistle* it is for nothing else, in respect of the substance of it, but to give 
evidences how we may know that we are the sons of God. Wherefore did 
God become man ? Wherefore was Christ himself sealed by the Father. 
Son, and Holy Ghost to his office, when he was baptised ? And wherefore 
did he die and rise again ? And wherefore doth he make intercession in 
heaven ? That we should doubt of God's love, when he hath given us that 
which is greater than salvation, that which is greater than all the world, 
his own Son ? Would we have a greater pledge of his love ? Is not all 
this, that we should not doubt of his love to us, if we cast ourselves upon 
him by faith ? Christians may, and ought, and have had assurance. 
These here had assurance, and the Scripture speaks of such as had it. 
They have had it, we may have it, because the Spirit is a seal and an earnest ; 
and we ought to have it, because God hath framed both his word and his 
sacraments, and all his dealing to man so as to persuade us of his love. 

Caution. Yet add this caution, that Christians have not at all times a like 
assurance of their salvation ; neither all Christians at all times have it not, 
* That is, the 1st Epistle.— G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER.22 . 467 

nor the best have it not at all times. For there is an infancy of grace, when 
we know not our own estate and condition ; and there is a time of tempta- 
tion after infancy, when likewise we stagger in our assurance. There be 
times likewise of desertion, when God, to make us look better to our 
footing, leaves us a little, as if he would forsake us, when indeed he leaves 
us to draw us after him, to cleave more closely to him ; for this shaking is 
to settle us deeper. So there be times and seasons wherein though we be 
assured, yet we cannot then know our own assurance. And this assurance 
difi'ereth in Christians ; for some have more, some less ; even as the con- 
stitution of the body, some are of a melancholy constitution, that helps 
Satan in his temptations, and they are subject to fearing and misdoubting : 
and so as there is a difference in regard of tempers, some are more hardly 
brought to be persuaded than others, so there is a difference likewise in 
care and diligence ; for those that use more care and diligence have more 
assurance. There is a difference likewise in growth and continuance in 
Christianity, some are fathez's, and some are babes. Answerable to the 
difference of constitution, and of care and diligence, and of age and growth 
in Christianity, so is the difference of assurance. 

Nay, it is possible that for a long time God's child may want this act of 
assurance, for there is a double act of faith. 

(1.) An act whereby the soul relies upon God as reconciled in Christ, and 
relies upon Christ as given of God, and relies upon the promise. And then ; — 

(2.) There is a rejlectact, whereby, knowing we do thus, we have assurance. 
Now, a man may perform the one act and not the other. We may do that 
deed that may found our assm'ance, if the waters of the soul were not 
troubled ; that is, we may believe and yet want assurance, because that is 
another distinct act that foUoweth upon our casting of ourselves upon God. 
And so, many of the dear children of God, sometimes they can hardly say 
that they have any assurance, but yet, notwithstanding, they can say, if 
they do not belie themselves and bear false witness against themselves, that 
they have cast themselves upon God's mercy, they have performed the fii'st 
act of faith, and this faith is not fruitless altogether. 

Now, there be many things that may hinder this other act, viz., that act 
of faith whereby I am assured of my state in gi-ace. Sometimes God, 
together with my believing, will present such things to the soul as wholly 
take it up, so that a man cannot have definitive thoughts upon that that 
God would have him think of. As when God will humble a man for his 
boldness in adventuring upon sin, he takes not away the spirit of faith, but 
God, to humble him throughly, he sets before him his anger, sets before 
him terror, even hellish terrors, that will make him in a state little different 
from a reprobate for the time, so that he is far from saying that he hath 
any assurance at that time ; yet, notwithstanding, he doth not leave off, 
he casts himself upon God's mercy still. Though God ' kill him, yet he 
wiU trust in him,' and yet he feels nothing but terror. And this, I say, 
God doth to school him, and to humble him, and to prepare him for the 
feeling of assurance after. 

These things we must observe, that we give not a false evidence of cur- 
selves, that though we have not such assurance as we have had and as 
others have, yet, I say, alway there is some ground in us, whereupon we 
may be assured that we are God's, if we could search it. Such ought to 
labour for assurance, and such will in time come to assurance. And, there- 
fore we should be far from allowing that doctrine, which is as if a man 
should light a candle before the devil, as we use to say, to help him against 



4G8 COMMENTARY ON 

our hearts by a doctrine of doubting, as if our naughty hearts were not ready 
enough of themselves to doubt. 

It is the profaneness of the world — they will not use the means that God 
hath appointed to this end ; nay, they had rather stagger, and take con- 
tentment and assurance in their own ways. If God will love me in a loose 
course, so it is ; but ' to give diligence to make my calling and election 
sm'e,' 2 Peter i. 10, I had rather believe the popish doctrine that I ought 
to doubt, and onl_y to be of a good hope ; whereas we ought constantly to 
labour to be assured of our state in grace, that God may have more honour, 
and that we may have more comfort from him again, and walk more cheer- 
fully through the troubles and temptations that are in the world. 

A carnal, proud person, he swells against this doctrine, because he feels 
no such thing, and he thinks what is above his measure is hypocrisy. He 
makes himself the measure of other Christians, and therefore he values and 
esteems others by his dark state ; for a carnal man's heart, it is like a 
dungeon. A man in a dungeon can see nothing, because he hath no light, 
but he that hath the light, he can see the dungeon. The heart of a Christian 
hath a light in it, — there is the Spirit in him, — and therefore he can see 
his own estate, and he can tell what is in him upon due search. Now, in 
a carnal man all is dark. He sees nothing, because his heart is in a 
dungeon, his eye is dark, his heart is full of darkness ; all is alike to him, 
he sees no difference between flesh and Spirit, and therefore he holds on 
in a doubting hope and confused disposition and temper of soul. But a 
Christian that labours to walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost, he is not 
content with such a confused state ; and therefore we ought to abhor that 
doctrine by all means, and to justify this doctrine, that we ought, and that 
we may, have assurance of salvation in this world.* 

The second thing which I observe, and which I join to the former, is the 
doctrine of perseverance. An earnest, you know I told you, is made up with 
the bargain, but it is never taken away, so that the point is this, that God's 
children, as they may be assured of their salvation, so 

Ohs. They may he assured that they shall hold out to the end. 

I think many of you think these two points to be so clear that it is un- 
necessary to divide them ; for if we be assured of our salvation, there must 
needs be perseverance to the end, for what kind of assurance is it to be in 
the state of grace to-day, and not to be to-morrow ? 

But if you ask some degenerated followers of Luther, that leave him in 
his sweet and comfortable doctrines, and take up some errors of his, and 
some others that would divide these, hot they are against the papists for 
denying the doctrine of assurance of salvation ; but when they come to per- 
severance, they hold that a Christian may fall away altogether. These 
things cannot stand together, for undoubtedly it is most sure and just and 
right that these truths follow one the other, assurance of salvation and per- 
severance. And, therefore, if they maintain that we ought to be assured of 
salvation, and not doubt of God's love, surely then they cannot, with the 
same spirit and the same ground, doubt that God, that hath begun a work, 
will finish it to the day of the Lord. There is no question but that the one 
follows the other, because an earnest, as it assures us of salvation, so it 
assures of perseverance. Herein an earnest differs from a pawn or pledge. 
A pledge, it is given, but it is taken away again ; but an earnest, when it is once 
given, is never taken away again, but as it is a part of the bargain, so it is 

* Cf. Richard Blacliyndun's exhaustive treatise, ' Whether a Certainty of heing 
in a State of Salvation be Attainable,' &c. 1G85.— G. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 469 

filled and made up with the bargain. So grace is a part of glory, and is 
never taken away, but made up with perfection of gloiy. 

From this we see, then, that he that is in the state of grace is unde- 
feasible, he perseveres to the end, because he hath the earnest of the Spirit. 
If God should take away his Spmt from him, he should take away his 
earnest, and if he takes away his earnest, he takes away that for which he 
gives it, assurance of salvation, and so should overthrow all. But God 
never repents of his earnest. Man ofttimes repents of his earnest, and 
wisheth he had not made such a fruitless bargain ; but God never doth, but 
where he gives the fu'st-fruits, he makes up the harvest ; where he lays 
the foundation, he makes up the building ; where he gives earnest, he 
makes up the bargain ; where he begins a good work, he finisheth it to the 
day of the Lord ; once his, for ever his. We cannot be so sure of anything 
as we may be of God's love for the time to come. We have a common 
speech amongst us, I know what I have, but what I shall have I know not. 
It is an ill speech. Thou knowest not what thou hast, for these worldly things, 
a man hath them so to-day as they may take to themselves wings and be 
gone to-morrow, for they are but vanity. I may be as rich as Job in the 
morning, and as poor as Job at night. So that a man knows not what he 
hath ; but for the time to come for gi'ace and glory he may say, Though I 
know not what I have, or how long I shall have it, I know what I shall 
have, ' I know that neither things present, nor things to come, shall be able 
to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ,' Rom. viii. 38. 

So that you see here a foundation of the sweet and comfortable doctrine 
of perseverance. Grace is the earnest of glory, and it doth but differ in 
degrees. The beginning of glory is here in grace, the consummation of it 
hereafter. We are anointed kings here, we shall be kings in heaven. We 
are sons here in this world, we shall be heirs in heaven. We shall be 
adopted there in soul and body, here we are adopted in soul. For in this 
life Christ's first coming was for the soul, his second coming is for body and 
soul. Therefore the resm*rection is called the * day of regeneration,' Mat. 
xis. 28, because then it shaU be perfected: here regeneration is only begun. 

So that in respect that the work of the Spirit, the graces of the Spirit are 
called an ' earnest,' we may know and be assm'ed of perseverance in grace, 
and that that which we have now in the beginning shall be accomplished. '^' 

! how should this set us upon desires to have the blessed work of the 
Spirit upon us, to have the Spirit to set his seal upon us, to be Christ's, 
to have this earnest, and to get more and more earnest till we have the full 
bargain accomplished in heaven. 

Thirdly, I told you that an earnest is part of the whole : they therefore 
that have not the earnest cannot look for the bargain. The observation 
hence is, that — 

Ohs. Those that look to he happy, must first look to he holy. 

This point I mean to touch very briefly. I am loath to pass it by, 
though it be not the principal thing I aim at, because it may serve for a 
kind of trial, whether a man have any right to heaven or no. 

It is the ordinary presumptuous error of common Christians, to think to 
go to heaven out of unclean courses, with ' Lord, have mercy upon us ; ' 
but miserable wretches are they that have not this ' earnest ' of the Spirit 
in them, an earnest of heaven beforehand, in grace, and peace, and joy. 
We must all read our happiness in our holiness ; and therefore it is that 

* Cf. Stafford Brown's ' Truth on both Sides; or, Can the Believer Finally Fall.' 
1848. 12mo.— G. 



470 COMMENIAKY ON 

happiness in heaven and holiness here, -which is happiness inchoate, have 
both one title, to shew that we cannot have the one without the other. We 
must enter into heaven here in this life. 

The stones, you know, they were hewed before they were brought to the 
building of the temple, they were all made and fitted beforehand ; and so 
all that shall be stones in heaven, they must be hewed, and prepared, and 
fitted here ; there must be no knocking and fitting of them there. 

So then you see these three things touched, that the Holy Spirit, to- 
gether with the gi-aces and comforts of it, are called an ' earnest,' and there- 
fore that it is a part of the whole, an assurance of the whole, and that it 
shall never be taken away. 

Now for the fourth, that an ' earnest' is little in regard of the whole ; 
(and indeed the holy apostle aims at this partly as well as at any othei 
thing else) an earnest is little, perhaps we have but a shilling to secure us 
of many pounds. So then the point is this, that — 

Obs. Howsoever we may be assured of our estate in grace, and Ukeivise thai 
ive shall hold out, yet the ground of this assurance is not from any greai 
measure of grace, hut though it he little in quantity, it may he great in assur- 
ance and security. 

As we value an earnest not for the worth that is in itself, but because 
it assures us of a great bargain ; we have an eye more to the consummation 
of the bargain, than to the quantity of the earnest : so it is here, grace 
is but an earnest ; yet notwithstanding though it be little as an earnest 
is, yet it is great in assurance of validity, answerable to the relation of that 
it hath to assure us. 

There is nothing less than a ' grain of mustard-seed,' but there is 
nothing in the world so little in proportion, in a manner, that comes at length 
to be so great, as the graces of God, and the work of the Spirit is. The 
crocodile, a huge creature, comes of an egg, and the oak, it riseth to that 
greatness from an acorn. But what are these to the wondrous work of 
the new creature, to be the ' heir of heaven,' rising from so little, despised 
beginnings, from a little light in the understanding, from a little heat in the 
afiections, from a little strength in the will, compared for the httleness 
thereof to a grain of mustard-seed ! 

Indeed, grace grows, a man knows not how. As Christ saith of the seed 
sown in the earth, it grows up first ' to a blade, and then to a stalk, and 
then to an ear, and then to be corn,' Mark iv. 28, but a man cannot tell 
how ; so it is with the work of grace and the comforts of the Spirit : when 
the Spirit together with the word works upon the soul, there is a blade, a 
little, and then a stalk, and then corn. 

First a babe in Christ, little at the first ; and as it is little, so it is much 
opposed. As we see the sun when it is weak in the rising in the morning : 
there gather a great many vapours to besiege the sun, as it were, as if they 
would put out the light of it, till it comes to fuller strength, and then it 
spends them all, and gloriously shines in heaven. So it is with the work 
of the Spirit of grace. When it first ariseth in the soul, there gather about 
it a great many doubts and discomforts ; the flesh riseth and casteth up 
all the dirt and mud it can, to trouble the blessed waters of grace, till it 
have gotten fuller and fuller strength to spend them all, as it is when a 
man comes to be a strong Christian. But yet as little as it is, seeing it is 
an * earnest,' and ' the first fruits,' as the apostle saith, which were but 
little in regard of the whole harvest, yet it is of the nature of the whole, 
and thereupon it comes to secure. A spark of fire is but little, yet it is 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 471 

lire as well as the whole element of fii-e ; and a drop of water, it is water 
as well as the whole ocean. When a man is in a dark place, — put the 
case it be in a dungeon, — if he have a little light shining in to him from a 
little crevice, that little light discovers that the day is broke, that the sun 
is risen. Put the case there be but one grape on a vine, it shews that it 
is a vine, and that the vine is not dead. So, put the case there be but the 
appearance of but a little grace in a Christian, perhaps the Spirit of God 
appears but in one grace in him at that time, yet that one grace sheweth 
that we are vines, and not thistles, or thorns, or other base plants, and it 
shews that there is life in the root. 

The Spirit of God appears not in all gi'aces at once, it appears some 
time or other in some one grace. "We see in plants, the virtue of them 
appears diversely. In winter the virtue of them lies in the root ; in the 
spring-time, in the bud and the leaf ; in the summer, in the fruit : it is 
not in all parts alike. So it is with the Spirit, as it is an ' earnest,' it 
appears not in all graces in a flourishing manner at the first. Sometimes 
it appears in the root, in humility, sometimes in faith, sometimes in love, 
sometimes in one grace, sometimes in another. Though the Spmt be in 
every grace, yet in appearance to a man's self and others, it appears but 
in one. An ' earnest' is little, especially at the first. 

Weak Christians therefore should not be discouraged. * Despise not the 
day of little things,' Zech. iv. 10. There is cause of mourning. We that 
have received the ' fii'st-fruits ' of the Spirit, we mourn because we have but 
the first-fruits, and we would have the full harvest ; but as there is cause 
of mourning because we have but the first-fruits, so there is cause of com- 
fort, because it is the first-fruits. It is an ' earnest' onty, and not the 
whole bargain, therefore we have cause of mourning that it is so imperfect, 
that it is so weak as it is ; yet there is cause of comfort, because though 
it is not the whole, yet [it] is a part, and secures us of the whole. 

And therefore Christians should labour to mingle duties, and let one 
grace qualify another ; for indeed a Christian is a mixed creature, his com- 
forts are mixed, and his mourning is mixed. With a carnal man it is all 
otherwise, if he mourn he is all a mort,* because he hath no goodness ; if 
he joy, he is mad, his mirth is madness. 

A Christian joys indeed, sometimes he hath * joy unspeakable and glorious,' 
1 Peter i. 8, because he looks to his hope, and the accomplishment of it, 
and yet he mourns, because he hath but the ' earnest,' because he hath but 
the beginnings, because he hath but the first fruits here. 

Use 2. And therefore again, as it should comfort us, if we have anything ; 
so it should exhort us to examine rather the truth, than the measure of any 
grace. We have examined the truth, it is the truth of this ' earnest,' the 
truth of grace and comfort. It is an excellent speech of our Saviour 
Christ, in Rev. iii. to the church of Philadelphia, in verse 8, ' Because thou 
hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my 
name.' There is a great promise made to the church of Philadelphia ; and 
why ? ' Because thou hast a little strength.' How is that discovered ? 
' Thou hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.' So then, if 
that little be true, God respects not that little as it is little in quantity', but 
as he means to make it ere long. He looks upon the ' earnest,' as he 
means to make up the bargain ; he looks upon the foundation, as he means 
to rear up a goodly building ; he looks upon the first-fruits, as he means 
to add the harvest ; and therefore, Eph. i. 4, and other places, ' We are 
* That is ' lieail,' = ' deeply sunkon'.— G. 



472 COMMENTAEY ON 

elected to be holy and blameless in his sight.' So Eph. v. 27, ' He purgeth 
the church, that she may be presented to him without spot.' So Christ 
looks upon his Church as he is purging and washing, till he have made it 
holy in his sight. We are elected, not to ' earnest,' not to ' first-fruits,' 
but to be ' uublameable ; ' we are elected to perfection. It is the comfort 
of Christians, that God looks upon his, not as they are imperfect here, but 
as they are in beginning, and as they are growing, and as he intends to 
bring them to perfection afterwards. For all things are present, we know, 
to him, the time to come, what we shall be ; he considers us as if we were 
in heaven already ; we are in our degree, and in our faith. So now ' we 
sit in heavenly places,' Eph. i. 3 ; therefore as he looks on us as we shall 
be, so faith answers his looking, when we are framed by the Spirit to com- 
fort ; faith looks not upon the weak ' earnest,' the poor beginnings, but as 
we shall be after in heaven, ' without spot and wrinkle,' Eph. v. 27. 

Aye, but how shall we know the truth of his ' earnest,' that it is true, 
though it be little ? To speak a word or two of that for trial. 

Where the Spirit of God is, with the relation of an ' earnest,' he is an 
• earnest' by way of grace and comfort ; for those two ways the Spirit dis- 
covers himself in us, to sanctify our natm'e, or by comfort, and peace, and 
joy, and such like. 

1. Then it doth stir up the soul to mourn that [it] is but an 'earnest,' as 
I said before, and to wait for the accomplishment, as the apostle saith in 
Rom. viii. 23, * We that have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, mourn 
in ourselves, that it is no better with us than it is ;' and withal. 

2. * We wait for the redemption of the sons of God,' the adoption of the 
sons of God, we wait for the accomplishment hereafter. It is the nature 
therefore of the Spirit of God, as it is an earnest, to stir up the spirits of 
God's children to mourn something, and likewise, 

3. To ivait 2'}ntienthj, to wait for the full accomjjlishment hereafter; and as 
a fruit of their waiting, to endui'e quietly, patiently, and comfortably that 
which is between the earnest, and the accomplishment of it. And therefore 
God gives them the gi-ace of hope and constancy, and of perseverance, till 
all be accomplished ; for there is the tediousness of time, between which is 
irksome, hope deferred, and a tediousness of deferring, and besides many 
afflictions withal. 

Now God's children that have the earnest of the Spirit, they have a spirit 
likewise to wait ; and that they may be strengthened to wait, they have, 

4. The spirit of constancy, a spirit of patience to endure trouble, and to 
persevere, and to hold out in regard of the tediousness of the time. So 
that they may not give over religious courses, though they have it not fully 
here, but go on still, and wait. And likewise those that have the earnest 
of the Spirit, that have the Spirit, as it hath this qualification upon it of an 
earnest, it stirs them up, 

5. To frame themselves, ansirer able to the full accomplishment; for 'He 
that hath this hope,' saith the apostle, ' purgeth himself,' 1 John iii. 3. 
He that finds some little beginnings of grace and comfort, the beginnings 
of heaven upon earth, he frames himself to the perfect state in heaven ; for 
it is the nature of faith and hope, wheresoever they are, to frame the dis- 
position of the person in whom those graces are planted by the Spirit, to 
the condition of that soul that believes and hopes, for it is in the nature of 
the thing it should be so. For doth not hope in any man that hopes to 
appear before some great person, make him alter his attire, and fashion 
his carriage and deportment, as may be plausible before the person whom 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 473 

ha goes to ? and doth not faith and hope of better things, where they are 
in tmth, fashion and dispose every man to be such as may be fit for heaven ? 
The title to heaven we have indeed by Chi'ist ; but the soul knows there 
must be a qualification, ' No unclean thing shall enter into heaven,' Eev. 
xxi. 27; and therefore where the ' earnest' is, there is a continual desire 
to be better, a continual relinquishing of corruption more and more, a 
perfecting of the work of mortification, and the work of grace more and 
more ; for the same Spirit that is an earnest, and gives us any beginning 
of a better life, it likewise sths us up, it fits and prepares us for that state 
that is kept for us. It is impossible it should be otherwise. In what 
strength the * earnest' is, in that strength sanctification and mortification 
are ; and therefore persons that live in sins against conscience, that defile 
their tongues, and defile their bodies, let them talk what they will, it is but 
a presumptuous conceit. It is not the voice of God's Spu'it, but of carnal 
presumption ; for wheresoever the Spirit is an ' earnest ' of heaven, it is 
always preparing and fitting the soul for that glorious and happy estate. 
And wheresoever likewise this earnest of the Spirit is, wheresoever this 
grace is begun in truth, 

6. There is a desire of accomplishment, an earnest desire of the coming 
of Christ to finish all, to finish the bargain. Eev. xxii. 17, ' The Spirit and 
the spouse say. Come ; ' that is, the spouse by direction of the Spirit, where 
the spouse is guided by the Spii'it ; and so far as the spouse is guided by 
the Spirit, she saith, ' Come, come. Lord Jesus, come quickly,' Rev. 
xxii. 20. 

Cautions. Except in two cases, (1.) Except the Christian hath ffrieved 
and icouudcd his conscience, grieved the Spirit, and then it is loath to go 
hence. (2.) Unless likewise the f^p'.rit of a Christian be careless, and icould 
settle things in better order before he yo to Christ ; for this is the fruit of pre- 
sumption, and carelessness, that it grieves the Spirit of God, and the Spirit 
being grieved, grieves them. He makes that which should be their comfort, 
their going to Christ by death, he makes it terrible ; for as we see a weak 
eye cannot endure the light, so a galled guilty conscience trembles to think 
of Christ's coming. Though the ' earnest' be there ; yet if the soul tremble, 
that the soul be wounded, stay a while, ' stay ! ' saith the psalmist, 
' before I go hence, and be no more seen.' When the wife hath been 
negligent, she would have her husband stay ; -;= but when she hath been 
diligent, then the wife is willing her husband should come ; but perhaps 
things are not settled as they should, and therefore she doth not desu'e his 
coming as at other times. 

But take a Christian in his right temper, he is willing to die ; nay, he 
is wiUing, and glad, and joj-ful to go to Christ. Then he knows the earnest 
shall be accomplished with the bargain ; then he knows what God hath 
begun, he will perfect ; then he knows, all the promises shall be performed, 
when all imperfection shall be removed, and all enemies shall be conquered, 
&c. A carnal man doth not say as the Spii'it in the spouse speaks, ' Come, 
Lord, come ; ' but stay. Lord, stay ; f and as the devil that possessed that 
person, ' What have we to do with thee ? Art thou come to torment us 
before our time ? ' Mat. viii. 29. They think of it with quaking. For 
otherwise they that have the earnest of the Spirit, have joyful thoughts of 
it, and wishes answerable to those thoughts. 

7. Again, wheresoever this earnest is in truth, the earnest of the Spirit, 
there is r/rouih ; for it is the nature of things imperfect to come to their per- 

* and t That is, ' stay away,' — G. 



474 COMMENTAKY ON 

fection, that they may encounter with whatsoever is contrary to them, and 
that they may do their functions that they are fitted by for God. 

Now God having fitted the new creature to serve him, and to go through 
all the impediments in this world, and all the crosses, where he hath begun 
this work, it will labom' to come to perfection. As in the natural body we 
are not content to live ; but when we have life, wo desire health ; and when 
we have health, we are not content with that, but we desire strength ; not 
only health, but strength to perform that we should do. So where the 
spiritual life is begun, the living soul is not content to live, to find an 
' earnest,' a little beginnings, but if he have that, he would have health, he 
would not have any spiiitual disease to lie on the soul, that might hinder it 
in the functions of it ; and together with health, it desires fuller and fully 
strength, because it hath many temptations to encounter with, many cor- 
ruptions to resist, many actions to do, many afflictions perhaps to bear, all 
which require a great deal of strength. Wheresoever gi-ace is in truth, it 
is always with a desire of growth, and answerable to that desire will be the 
use of all the means of gi'owth. Again, to name one or two more, and 
so end : 

8. Wheresoever the Spirit is as an ' earnest,' it doth as the seal doth, 
spoken of before, that as it hath a quieting power, an assuring power, it 
quiets the soul. Wheresoever it is, it is given to stay the soul, to comfort it, 
that the whole shall be performed in time ; and therefore the soul that hath 
the ' earnest of the Spirit,' so far forth as he hath this ' earnest,' it quiets 
and stays the soul. A man may know true faith from false, and true ear- 
nest from presumption by this, as we know other things ; I say, it stills 
and quiets the soul, and 

9. It ivill endure the trial. We say of alchemy* gold, it is counterfeit, it 
will not strengthen the heart. True gold hath a corroborating power to 
strengthen the heart (whether it be so or no, let the alcumists look to it) ; 
but it is true, that true ' earnest,' the beginnings of faith, though it be but 
in a little measure, it hath a quieting, a stilling, a strengthening power, to 
strengthen and corroborate the soul, for it is given for that purpose. And a 
man that hath the least grace wiU endure the search, as true gold will endure 
the touchstone, the false will not. And it is a sign that a man hath true 
grace in him, although it be with much imperfection, that desires to be 
searched in preaching : hearing searching sermons, and desiring to be searched 
in conference, and that doubts not his conscience, but would be searched 
throughly. When men fret at the searching of their sins, they will not be 
searched, and are content to go on in presumptuous courses, and think all 
is well, it is a sign there is not so much as an ' earnest.' But not to go 
further, that in the Revelation shews the truth of a little grace ; what saith 
he ? ' Thou hast a little strength.' What doth that little strength move 
the church of Philadelphia to do ? * Thou hast kept my word, and hast 
not denied my name.' 

10. Where there is a little strength, there will be a keeping of the %mrd 
in obedience, a keeping of it in conversation; where is not a regard to 
God's word, a moulding of the soul into it in obedience of it, there is not 
so much as a little strength of grace, and therefore those that live in re- 
bellious courses, have not so much as an earnest to them ; yet, ' Thou hast 
kept my word,' and withal, ' thou hast not denied my name.' 

11. Where a little strength is, there they will not deny Christ's name, 
they will hold out in the profession of the truth, and confess it if occasion 

* Spelled ' alcuin}%' and a little onward ' alcumists. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 22. 475 

serve. And therefore where any are sHght in their profession, that give in 
if they be ready to dash upon any displeasure of any one ; if they be to ven- 
ture their estates or so, then they are ashamed of Christ, and that profession 
which they took upon them ; they deny his name, at least they do not own 
it, they have not so much as a little strength, if they do not recover. Peter 
was in such a temptation, but he recovered his strength, and got more 
strength, and a firm standing upon it : the shaking of Peter was for the 
rooting of him. 

So God to shame his children, suffers them sometimes to have dastardly 
spirits, but they recover themselves, they are ashamed of it. But those 
that are common poUticians in this kind, that will not stand out in a good 
cause to maintain their truth and profession, when God thrusts his cause 
into theii" hands, specially at such times when God saith to them, 
* Who is on my side ? who ?' 2 Kings ix. 32, now is the time to appear 
then. If they have not a word for God, they will not own the quarrel and 
cause of God and religion, they have not a little strength ; for they that 
have a little strength here, keep the word and have not denied the name. 
Those therefore that can fashion themselves to all religions, to all com- 
panies, they will have a rehgion mutable and flexible to their occasions ; 
where is the earnest of the Spirit ? The Spirit, as much as he is, is strong 
and vigorous, and powerful. These men have not so much as a little 
strength, that are as water which is fashioned to the vessel it is in, like to 
the Samaritans, as Josephus* the historian of the Jews writes of them (f'eee). 
When the Jews prospered, oh ! then they would be Jews ; when the Jews 
had ill success, then they were gi-eat enemies to the Jews ; -so you have 
many that are no friends to the afllicted, to the disgi-aced truth ; but 
as long as the cause of religion is carried out with the countenance of the 
State, with the favour of great ones, so far they will own it ; but if Christ 
once comes to be abased, they will not know Christ, nor his cause. 

I beseech you, let us take notice of it. It is a sign there is no grace at 
all, where there is such an habitual disposition without shame or grief, or 
repentance ; for God's children sometimes may be overtaken with a spirit 
of dastardliness, which afflicts them sore afterwards, that they gather more 
strength. A man may know if he be God's child in such a state ; for it is 
universally true, God's children are never overtaken with a spirit of coward- 
liness and fear, but they regain it, and gi'ow more strong upon it ; as we see 
in Cranmer and others {ffj'f). God purposeth sometimes to let them see 
what they are in themselves without his support and strength ; but afterwards 
they gather new resolutions, new purposes to stick firmer to the truth than e'er 
before. I might add many other things, but I go on to that which follows. 

You see here now how we may try, if we have any true ' earnest' in us 
at all or no. 

Now I beseech you, let us labour to have this ' earnest,' if we have it 
not, to have this assurance especially. Let me desire those of the younger 
sort to labour to have the seal of this Spirit, and the ' earnest' before they 
be further and further engaged into the world, and before they be so hardened 
that they will not receive a contrary stamp to their corruptions. It is a 
wondrous advantage that gentlemen, and others that are young, before the 
world hath soiled them, and before their understandings be darkened, and 
their affections are crooked, and carried away much with the stream and 
errors of the time, they have much advantage above others, for they have 
spirits fitter for grace, fitter to receive the impression of this seal of the Spirit, 
* Spelled ' Joseph.' — G. 



476 COMMENTARY ON 

and fitter for the ' earnest.' Let us labour for this earnest betimes. What 
a comfortable thing will it be to carry along with the ' earnest' an assurance 
of a better estate from our youth to our age, and fi'om our age to our old 
age, and so to heaven with us ! What a deal of comfort do young ones 
deprive and rob themselves of, that will not be gracious betimes ! Let us 
labour to have the stamp of the Spirit set on us in our prime time, in the 
strength of our years. But I will press the point, if the time will give leave, 
afterwards. 

Now we must know, that God gives this earnest not for himself, hut for 
us, to secm-e us ; and that is one reason why it is called an earnest. 

There is besides bargaining another state and condition that ' earnest' is 
applied unto, which perhaps the apostle aims at, as marriage ; whatsoever 
was before the consummation of the marriage, was a kind of Arrah,* a kind 
of * earnest,' to assure the affection of the contracted person and persons 
that loved one another, till the consummation of the marriage. 

So Christ now contracts us on the earth, and having love to us, and taking 
our nature on him, that he might woo us in our own flesh, and in our own 
nature, taking upon him the ' earnest' of our flesh, he gives us the * earnest' 
of his Spirit ; and to assure us that he loves us, and that he means to 
make up the bargain afterwards, he sends us love tokens, graces, and com- 
fort and joy. Even as Isaac when he was to marry Rebecca, he sent by 
his servants bracelets and jewels, and such things, to securef her of his love, 
Gen. xxiv. 53. 

So Christ in heaven intending the consummaticwa of the match, he sends 
us here graces and comforts of the Spirit, and all to secure us : all is for us, 
I say, which I observe the rather, because I would raise your hearts to hate 
unbelief and distrust exceedingly, because God labours to undermine it by 
all means possible. 

Wherefore doth he use so many terms here, of ' sealing,' * anointing,' 
and ' earnest,' with words and sacraments, and all whatsoever may confirm 
you ? The Holy Ghost applies it to us. All this is that we may not doubt 
of the favour of God : and therefore when we find any goodness in us, let 
us account that to give false witness against oui'selves is a horrible sin ; it 
is to make God a liar. God stands upon his credit ; and therefore take 
heed what we say (specially if we have found the work of grace in former 
time, any * earnest'), that we have no grace. God doth this for our assu- 
rance. All his dealing of word and sacraments, of earnest and oath, and 
all that may be to assure us ; and therefore we should not cross the good- 
ness of God, so as to cherish such a disposition as is most contrary to him, 
that he labours to undermine by all means. 

And, therefore, here is the poison of popish religion, that it maintains 
doubting, and leaves men doubting. Indeed they do well to maintain it 
in their doctrine, for indeed they false-foimd a man upon satisfaction, they 
false-found him upon purgatory and merits, and the foundation they have 
of a Christian soul is uncertain ; and therefore they may well teach doubt- 
ing : it suits with the course that they take. But I say it is very corrupt, 
for God useth all means that we should not doubt ; and therefore it is idly 
objected, God for his part will, but for our part we have reason to doubt. 
Why ! he in all things stoops to us, he labours to secure us ; and there- 
fore m the covenant of grace he doth his part and ours too. 

* That is, aila(Bu)v = earnest, pledge. Tlie Scotch ' arlcs,^ or earnest-money 
seems to preserve this, and is a curious example of an unexpected etymology. — G. 
t That is -= assure, make hor certain (if. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 477 

But I hasten to that which follows, because I would end with the time. 
To touch that a little distinctly by itself, that the Spirit doth all, the 
* earnest of the Spirit :' for indeed, though Spirit be not added to stablish- 
ing, yet the Spirit stablisheth by Christ, and the Spirit anoints, and the 
Spirit ' seals to the day of redemption,' and ' the earnest of the Spirit.' 

So it is the Holy Ghost doth all. Here you have the three Persons in 
the Trinity. We have three grand enemies, ' the world, the flesh, and 
Satan.' Now here are the three Persons in the Trinity stronger than all 
our enemies. ' He which stablisheth us, is God the Father, by his Spirit :' 
upon whom ? upon Christ, ' in Christ,' and gives * us the earnest of his 
Spirit.' You have, I say, the three Persons of the Trinity here. But why 
doth the Spirit give us the earnest ? why doth the Spirit give us gi'ace and 
comfort, seal us, and doth all, and stablish us ? 

1. I answer, first of all, because now since the fall we have no principles 
of supernatural good, and therefore it must be a principle above our nature 
to work both grace and comforts in our barren hearts. 

2. Again, as there is no principle to that which is supernaturally good, 
so there is opposition to that vhich is supernaturally good ; and therefore there 
must be somewhat to ovei-power the corruptions of our nature. 

(1.) But why the Spirit, rather than the Father and the Son ? He comes 
from both ; and proceeding from both he is fit to witness the love of both. 
For the Holy Ghost is in the breast of the Father and the Son, and pro- 
ceeds from both, and he knows the secret love of the Father to us, and the 
love of Christ Jesus Mediator to us. 

Now the Spirit knowing the secrets of God, as a man's spirit, saith the 
apostle, knows his own secrets, he knows his love, and he knows 
whom he loves ! So the Spirit of God knowing the aft'ection of the Father, 
and the afiection of Jesus Christ to us, is fit to be an ' earnest,' fit to be 
a * seal.' 

Indeed all things are wrought by the Spirit in grace for application ; the 
desert* is fi-om the Son, originally from the Father ; but in regard of appli- 
cation of what is wrought by the Son, all is by the Holy Ghost. Both 
graces and comforts the Holy Ghost takes from Christ ; for if grace be 
wrought, it is with divine reasons from the love of God in Christ. If 
grace be wrought, it is from the wondrous love of God reconciled in 
Christ, wherein heaven is opened, hell is vanquished. It is by reasons 
fetched from Christ; and so ' he takes of mine,' as Christ saith, ' He shall 
take of mine, and give to you,' John xvi. 15. He takes reasons from 
Christ, — the Holy Ghost, t — whereby he makes aU. The application is alto- 
gether by the Spirit. 

(2.) And it must be by the Spirit again, because the Spirit of God, and 
no less than the Spirit, can quiet our spirits. For when the soul is distem- 
pered, it is like a distempered lock that no key can open : so when the con- 
science is troubled, what creatm'e can settle the troubled conscience ? can 
open the ambages] of a troubled conscience in such perplexity and confu- 
sion ? and therefore to settle the troubled conscience aright, it must be 
somewhat above conscience ; and that which must quiet the spirit, must be 
such a Spirit as is above our spirits. This is excellently set down in this 
epistle, in the third chapter, the work of the Holy Ghost in this kind. But 
I cannot stand upon it now at this time. I go on. 

* That is, ' merit.'— Ed. 

t That is, ' He, the Holy Gliost, takes reasons from Christ.' — G. 

t That is, ' winding-paKsages,' = subterfuge?, evasions. — G. 



478 



COMMENTARY ON 



Likewise in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the second chapter, and 
11th verse, that one place shall stand instead of all. ' What man knows 
the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him ? So the things 
of God no man knows but the Spirit.' 

Now, * We have received the spirit, not of the world, but the Spirit of 
God, to know the things that are freely given us of God.' If our spirits 
were in the heart and soul of another man, in the breast of another man, 
we should know what another man thinks. If a man had a spirit in 
another man's spirit, surely he would know all his thoughts and all his 
affections. 

Now the Holy Spirit of God is in the breast of the Father, and the Son, 
and he knows our spirits better than we know our own spirits ; he searcheth, 
he is a * searcher,' as the word is in the original {gfigg). The Spirit is a 
searcher. He searcheth our own hearts, and he searcheth the secret love 
of God to VIS, that is, the Spirit must stablish us. 

Well then, if the Spirit doth all, how shall we know then that we have 
this Spirit ? A note or two, and so go on. 

1. If we have this Spirit of God to seal us, and to be an earnest (I will 
not speak all that may be, but a little ; for indeed all comes from the 
Spirit), even as in oui' souls, how may a man know that he hath a soul ? 
by living and moving, by actions vital, &c., so we may know a man hath the 
Spirit of God by those actions that come only from the Spirit, which is to 
the soul, as the soul is in the body : for as all beauty and motion comes 
from the soul to the body, so to the soul from the Spirit, all comes of the 
Spirit, and therefore every saving grace is a sign that the Spirit is in us. 

2. In a word, the Spirit is in us in the nature of fire, as in other things, 
so in this, in transforming. Wheresoever the Spirit dwells, he transforms the 
soul, he transforms the party like himself holy and gracious. Those there- 
fore that find the Spirit transforming and changing them in the use of the 
ordinance of the word, they may know that they have the Spirit sealing 
them, and being an earnest to them. 

3. They may know likewise, that they have it wrought by the Spirit, 
for every one grace, you may know spiritual graces are ivith conflict ; for 
what is true, is with a great deal of resistance of that which is counterfeit. 

Comforts and graces that are not the earnest of the Spirit, are with little 
conflict ; but where there are true comforts and graces of the Spirit 
wrought by the Spirit, it is with much conflict with Satan and with himself; 
for there is a great deal of envy in the devil against the man that walks in 
the Spirit. Thinks he, what ! such a base creature as this is to have the 
' earnest ' of heaven, to walk here as if he were in heaven already, and to 
defy all opposite powers ! Nay, I will trouble his peace, he shall go 
mourning to heaven, if he go there. This is the reasoning of the cursed 
spirit, and hereupon he labours to shake the assurance and persuasion ; and 
the grace and comfort of a Christian, — it is with much conflict and tempta- 
tion, not only with Satan, but with his own heart. 

Our hearts misgive us, when we are guilty of some sins, as always there 
is guilt on the soul, — so much guilt, so much doubt. Till the soul be free 
from guilt, it will never but be casting of doubts ; and therefore there is 
always resistance in us, and there must be a higher power than the heart 
and soul of a man to set the heart down and quiet it ; it is always in 
conflict. 

4.* And the graces and comforts of the Spirit wrought by the Spirit, are 
* In margin, ' By supernatural obedience.' — G. 



2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 479 

always in the use of means, holy means ; and it caiTies a man ahove the 
strength of nature, it carries a man to the practice of that which he could not 
do by nature, to pardon his enemies, to pray for them, to overcome revenge, 
and to enjoy prosperity without pride, in a comfortable measure ; and it 
enables him to practise the last commandment, that he shall be content 
with his estate, and not lust after others ; and the first commandment. 
The graces of the Holy Spmt enables a man to love God, and to rejoice in 
him above all as his best portion. It makes his joy spiritual, and it makes 
him delight in all connatm-al things that are like the Spirit ; as whatsoever 
is spiritual is connatm-al to the Spiiit. 

If a man have the graces of the Spirit, he joys in spiritual company, he 
joys in the presence of God, he hates sin as being contrary to the ' earnest 
of the Spirit,' he hates terror of conscience, and the way unto it. He will 
look on good things as God looks on them, and as the Spirit looks on them, 
and everything that is spiritual he relisheth, * he favom-s the things of the 
Spirit,' Mark viii. 33. 

Now because I will not detract-'- your thoughts, there are some six or 
seven properties of the Spirit in one chapter, that you may have them all 
together in Rom. viii. I will not name all, but such as are easy. 

5. First of all, it is said in the 9th verse, that the Spirit where it is, it 
dwells as in a house. Now, wheresoever the Spirit is, he is dwelling and 
ruling ; for the Holy Ghost will not be an underling to lusts, and he repairs 
and makes up the breaches of the soul. Where the Spirit dwells, all the 
breaches are made up. Ignorance to knowledge, he begets knowledge, and 
affection, and love ; he prepares all, he prepares his own dwelling, and it 
is familiar and constant to the Spirit. A dwelling implies familiarity and 
constancy. He is not in us, as he is in wicked men that have the Spirit. 
As Austin saith, ' The Spirit of God knocks at their hearts, but he doth not 
dwell there' (hhhh). 

To go on, that is the first. The Spirit dwells in us, if we have the Spirit. 

6. And then the Spirit doth subdue the contrary ; for the Spirit, when 
it comes into a man, it pulls down all the ' strongholds,' it makes way for 
itself; and, therefore, it is said to ' mortify the deeds of the flesh,' ver. 13. 
If you mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you are led by the Spirit. 
Those, therefore, that by the help of the Spu'it, by spiritual reasons, subdue 
their corruptions, they are led by the Spirit ; those that cherish corruptions, 
or mortify them, not by spiritual reasons, but out of civil respect, to carry 
authority among men, and, therefore, they would be free from aspersions, as 
might disable their reputation, they have not the Spuit. 

7. Thirdly, as many as are led by the Spirit, are the sons of God ; the 
Spirit leads them. As the angel that went before the Israelites from Egypt 
unto Canaan ; so the Spirit of God, like the angel, goes before us, and 
leads us the way, and removes the lets.t It doth lead us, I say, sweetly, 
and not violently, as the devil leads his that are possessed with his spirit. 
So that those that have the Spirit working grace and comfort in them, 
sweetly he leads them, and yet strongly too ; for it is strongly, because it 
is against corruption and opposition from without ; but yet sweetly, preserv- 
ing the Hberty and fireedom of the soul. We by nature are like children 
or blind men ; we cannot lead ourselves, and, therefore, the Spirit leads 
us. Those therefore that have the Spirit, it leads them, they submit them- 
selves to the guidance and leading of the Spirit. That is another evidence. 

* Qu. ' distract ' ? or perhaps = divert, turn aside. — Q-. 
t That is, hindrances. Cf. note d, vol. I. p. 101. — G. 



480 . COMMENTAEY ON 

8. A fourth is this, That it is a spirit of adoption. It assures us that we 
are the sons of God ; it gives us assurance of our adoption, that we are the 
sons of God. The same Spirit that sauctifieth us, it witnesseth to us, it 
makes us holy. It witnesseth to us that we are the sons of God. 

9. And then again, the Spirit stirs up ' sighs and groans that cannot be 
expressed,' Rom. viii. 20, when we are not of ou.rselves able to prai/. This 
is an evidence of the ' earnest' of the Spirit, when we can send our sighs 
and gi'oans to God. I say, God will hear the groans, the voice of his own 
Spirit. For whence come those sighs and groans to God ? "Why ! should 
we not rather sink in despair in troubles, but because the Spirit is in us ? 
Those therefore that in extremity, having nothing to comfort them, and yet 
are able to send forth sighs and groans to God, they may certainly know 
that they have the Spirit. 

10. And, likewise, the Spirit makes us mourn and rcait for the adoption 
of the ' sons of God.' Those that mourn and wait, have the evidence of 
the Spirit ; for a worldling doth not mourn for his imperfections, for his 
corruptions : he doth not mourn that he is absent from his Saviour, neither 
doth he wait for the accomplishment of that that shall be bestowed on 
saints, because he hath his portion here. Therefore, those that can mourn 
for their corruptions, for those things which the world is not able to tax 
them for, because they cannot serve God with enlargement of the Spirit as 
they would ; and they wait also without despair, or without discouragement, 
tiU God have finished their course, they are led with a better Spirit than the 
world. 

Though I should name no mf;>re, what a many sweet evidences are here 
to manifest a soul truly acted, and guided, and led by the Spirit. But these 
shall be sufficient for this time. 

Well then, if the Spirit doth all, if the Spirit anoint and seal, and give 
* earnest ' of grace, and comfort, and all, till he bring us to heaven, being 
Christ's Vicar (for Christ hath no other vicar on earth but his Spirit) ; if 
the Spirit doth all, as indeed he doth aU for God to us, and from us to 
God (whatsoever God doth to us it is by the Spirit ; he anoints, and seals, 
and sanctifieth by the Spirit ; and whatsoever we do to God, it is by the 
Spirit, or else it is not acceptable ; we sigh and groan in the Spirit, we 
pray in the Holy Ghost, saith Jude, ver. 20, and that God doth to us im- 
mediately from the Spirit, and all that we do to God, is in the Spirit). Is 
this so, then is it an undoubted truth, oh then ! we should labour by all 
means for this Spirit of God. To give some directions in a word, and so 
to end. 

1. Labour, I say, to have the Spirit, and to gi'oan in the Spirit ; and to 
this end, because the word is the chariot of the Spu-it, in which the Spirit 
is carried, attend upon the ordinances of God, and use all kind of spiritual 
means, wherein the Spirit is usually effectual ; for the Spirit will only work 
with his own means. All those bastard inventions and devices fetched from 
the Church of Rome, human devices in God's ser\'ice, they are naught. 
God's Spirit will not be effectual with popish devices ; and, therefore, 
Rome is ' the habitation of devils,' Rev. xviii. 2. God's Spirit hath nothing 
to do there, because they have set up a worship contrary to God's worship, 
they have set up a covenant contrary to Christ's covenant, they have set 
up the covenant of works, and deny, in a manner, a covenant of gTace. 
Christ is not taught as he should be there. 

Now, wheresoever the Spirit is, it is with the clear teaching of the gospel. 
' Received you the Spirit by hearing of the law, or of faith preached ? ' 



2 CORINTUIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 481 

Gal. iii. 2. Therefore, let us attend upon the unfolding of Christ Jesus in 
the gospel ; for the Spirit is given with a clear and true unfolding of Christ ; 
and omit no spiritual means, wherein the Spirit is effectual, as meditation, 
reading, &c. 

For as a man working in a garden, though he think not of it, perhaps he 
draws a sweet scent of the flowers, there is a tincture from the air that is 
round about him. 

So the word of God being indited by the Spirit of God, we being in holy 
company, being led by the same Spirit, a man shall either by reading of 
the word, or in holy company, or conversing in good books, he shall 
draw a spiritual sweetness from the word, or from those that he hath to 
deal with. 

The spirit of a man is like water that runs from minerals. As we see 
baths have their warmth from minerals that they run through, they have 
a tincture from them to be hot in this or that degree, in this or that quality; 
so it is with the soul, when it runs through holy things, when it hath to 
deal with good books, and good company, &c., it draweth a spiritual tinc- 
ture. And, therefore, if we would have the Spirit of God to guide us, let 
us be much in those things that the Holy Ghost hath sanctified us for that 
end, at all times, when we have liberty from our callings. 

2. And withal, take heed that we grieve not the Holy Ghost any way, if 
we will have the Spirit to ' seal' us, to increase our earnest. 

How do we grieve the Holy Ghost ? 

(1.) By cJierishiug coiUrary ajf'ections, and lusts, and desires. And resist 
not the Holy Ghost ; as now when you hear the word of God, if you shut 
your resolutions, if you shut your hearts, and resolve not to give way to any 
instruction that shall be delivered, this is a resisting of the Holy Ghost. 
God now knocks at the hearts of those that are here, by his word and 
Spirit ; and therefore we should * open the everlasting doors, and let the 
King of glory come in,' Ps. xxiv. 7, 9. 

We should lay open all to the Spirit. Oh, when the Spirit, when Christ 
is so willing to give the Spirit, it cannot be any but our fault, if we be no 
more spiritual than we are ; for indeed there is nothing in a manner re- 
quired to be spiritual, but not to resist the Spirit. 

The Holy Ghost presseth upon us in the word such reasons of heavenly- 
mindedness, of despising of earthly things, of purging ourselves from the 
corruptions in the world, such reasons to be good, that indeed none are 
damned in the bosom of the church, but such as set a bar against the Spirit 
of God in their heai'ts, with a cursed resolution that they will not be better, 
that they will not part with their cursed lusts. Therefore they are damned, 
because they will be damned, thit, say the preachers by the word, and 
Spu'it, what they will, they think it better to be as they are, than to enter- 
tain such a guest as will mar and alter all that was there before. Take 
heed therefore of resisting of the Spirit, and of grieving of the Spirit by any 
thing in ourselves, or by conversing with company that will grieve him. 

He that hath the Spirit of God in him, cannot endure carnal company ; 
for what shall he hear, what shall he draw in at his senses ? but that which 
will be vexation of spirit to him. Therefore it is said of Lot, ' His righteous 
soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites,' 2 Pet. ii. 7. 
It is an undoubted sign of a man that hath no grace, not to care for his 
company that hath grace. 

(2.) Likewise yield all obedience and sidrjection to the Spirit, and to all 
the motions of the word and Spirit ; bring our hearts into subjection, lay 

VOL. III. H h 



482 COMMENTARY ON 

ourselves, as it were, before the Spirit, suffer ourselves to be moved, and 
fashioned, and framed by it ; for God gives his Holy Spirit to them that 
obey him. 

(3.) And heg the Spirit also as the principal thing. * God gives the 
Spirit,' saith Christ, ' to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13 ; and by Christ's 
manner of speaking there, he insinuates, as if he should say. What can I 
give you better than the Holy Ghost ? and yet this will I give you, if you 
ask him, that is the good thing that God gives ; for indeed, that is the seed 
of all graces, and of all comfort ; and therefore a world of promises are in- 
cluded in that promise, that he ' will give the Spirit to them that ask him.' 

Labour by these and such like means for the Spirit ; and then if jou 
have the Spirit, the ' earnest' of the Spirit, and the ' seal' of the Spirit, 
then mark what will come of such a temper of soul. That will go through 
all conditions whatsoever, come what will ; for the Spirit is above all, and 
the comforts of the Spirit are above all earthly comforts ; and the graces of 
the Spirit are able to encounter with all temptations. 

So that a man that hath the Spirit, stands impregnable. The work of 
grace cannot be quenched, because it is the effect and the work of the Spirit. 
All the powers of all the devils in hell cannot stir it. God may hide his 
comfort for a time, to humble us ; but to quench the work of the Spirit 
once wrought in the heart, all the power of all the devils in hell cannot 
quench the least spark of saving grace. It will carry us through all oppo- 
sition whatsoever. 

Let a man never baulk or decline in a good cause, for anything that he 
shall suffer; for the ' seal' and the ' earnest' of the Spirit is never more 
strong than when we have no other comfort by us but that : when we can 
draw comfort from the well-head, from the spring ; therefore we should 
labour for the earnest of the Spirit ; for it will fit us for all conditions 
whatsoever. 

What makes a man differ from himself? What makes a man differ from 
another ? Take a man that hath the * earnest ' of the Spirit, you shall have 
him defy death, the world, Satan, and all temptations. Take a man that 
is negligent in labouring to increase his earnest, you shall have him weak, 
and not like himself. 

The apostle Peter, before the Holy Ghost came upon him, the voice of 
a weak damsel astonished him ; but after, how willing was he to suffer any 
thing ! Therefore let us not labour much to strengthen ourselves with the 
things of this life, or to value ourselves by our dependence upon others. 
If thou hast grace, thou hast that that will stand by thee when all other 
things fail ; for all other things will be taken away, but the Comforter shaU 
never be taken away ; it goes along with us continually. 

1. First, it works ' earnest'' in us, and then it stamps upon us his own 
mark ; and then it leads us from grace to grace ; and in the hour of death, 
then especially it hath the work of a Comforter, to present to us the fruits of 
a good and holy life, and likewise the joys of heaven. When we are dead 
the Spirit watcheth over our bodies, because they were ' the temples of the 
Holy Ghost,' and at the day of judgment the same Spirit shall knit both 
body and soul together, and after, the same Spirit that hath done all this, 
shall be all in all to us in heaven for ever, and then our very bodies shall 
be spiritual, whereas now our souls, even the better part of them, is carnal. 
Even as the fire when it possesseth a piece of iron, it is all fire ; so our 
bodies shall be all spiritual. 

What a blessed thing is this, to have the Spirit ! What are all friends 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEK. 22. 483 

to the Holy Ghost, which will speak to God for us ! The Spirit will make 
request with sighs and groans, and God will hear the voice of his own 
Spirit. 

What prison can shut up the Spirit of God ? Above all, labour to have 
more of the Spirit of God. This will make us more or less fruitful, more 
or less glorious in our profession, more or less willing to die. Labour to 
increase this ' earnest,' that the nearer we come to heaven, the more we may 
be fitted for it. 

Consider but this reason, if you want this, alas ! we can never be thank- 
ful to God for anything, if by the Spirit we have not assurance that our 
state is the state of grace. For otherwise we might think that God gives 
us all in anger, as a carnal man, he always fears that God fats him as an ox 
to the slaughter. \Vliat a fearful case is this, that a man cannot be thank- 
ful for that he hath ! 

2. Labour for the Spirit, that ire viaij he thankful to God for everything, 
that we may see the love of God in everything, in every refreshing we take ; 
that that love of God that fits us for heaven, and that fits heaven for us, it 
gives us daily bread. The earnest of the Sphit will make us thankful for 
eveniihing. 

3. Again, labour for the ' earnest ' of the Sphit, that ice may he joyful in 
all conditions. How can a man sufier willuigl}', that knows not that he is 
sealed with the Spirit ; that knows not that God hath begun a good work 
in him ? Alas ! he is lumpish and heavy under the cross. 

What makes a man bear the cross willingly, but this assurance ? what 
makes him deny himself in temptations, and corruptions ? Oh ! saith the 
child of God, the work of the Spirit is begun in me, sealing me up to life 
everlasting, shall I grieve and quench this Spirit for this base lust ? But 
a man that hath not the Spirit, saith, I had as good take this pleasure, as 
have none at all ; for aught I know, I shall have none ; he sees no greater 
pleasure than the following of his lust. 

So that none can resist temptations, but he that hath the Spirit giving 
him earnest in a comfortable measure ; and it is a good sign when we resist 
temptations for spiritual reasons, that the Spirit works it. 

4. Again, unless we have this earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, we can 
never he content to end our days with comfort. He that hath the earnest 
of the Spirit is glad of death when it comes. There shall be then an accom- 
plishment of all the bargain. Then the marriage shall be consummate, 
then shall be the year of Jubilee, the Sabbath of rest for ever. Then is the 
triumph, and ' then all tears shall be wiped fi-om our eyes,' Rev. vii. 17. 

But now let a man stagger and doubt whether he be the child of God or 
no, that he cannot find any mark of the child of God in him, that he can- 
not read the evidences of a Christian state in his soul, they are so dim, he 
sees nothing but corruption in him, he sees no change, no resistance of 
corruption, he hath no earnest. Alas ! what a miserable case is such a 
man in when he comes to die ! Death, with the eternity of misery after 
it, who can look it in the face, without hope of life everlasting, without 
assurance of a happy change after death ? Therefore we should labour for 
the Spirit, that howsoever we grow or decay in wealth and reputation, let 
God alone with that ; but above all, beg of God that he would increase in 
us, and renew the earnest, and the stamp of the Spirit, that we may have 
somewhat in our souls, wherein we may see the evidences of a Christian 
estate. 

I might add many things to this purpose, but this is sufficient to any 



484 COMMENTARY ON 

judicious Christian, to encourage us to labour for the Spirit above all things 
in the world. All other are but grass, but fading ; but grace and glory, 
grace, and peace, and joj, nay, the very ' earnest ' of the Spirit, is better 
than all earthly things ; for the earnest of it is 'joy unspeakable, and glori- 
ous, and peace that passeth all understanding,' 1 Pet. i. 8. 

If the promise and the earnest here be so, I beseech you, what shall the 
accomplishment of the promise be ? If the promises, laid hold on by 
faith, so quicken and cheer the soul, and if the giving a taste of heaven 
lift a Christian's spirit above all earthly discouragements, what shall it be 
when the Spirit shall be all in all in us, if the earnest be so comfortable ? 
But I go on to the next verse. 



VERSE 23. 

' Moreover, I call God to record vpon my soul, that to spare you, I came 
not yet to Corinth.' In this verse the apostle labours to remove suspicion of 
levity and inconstancy. There were jealousies in the minds of the Co- 
rinthians, which were also fomented by some vain-glorious teachers amongst 
them, that laboured to undermine St Paul in the hearts of the Corinthians, 
as if he had not loved the Corinthians so well as they did. Therefore he 
is so careful to clear himself in their thoughts, from suspicion of incon- 
stancy, and want of love to them ; because suspicion grounded upon the 
lightness in his carriage, might reflect upon his doctrine. 

He knew well enough the malice of man's nature, and therefore he is 
very curious, and industrious, to make a clear passage for himself into the 
hearts of these Corinthians by all means possible, as we heard in part out 
of the 17th verse. 

* Moreover, I call God to record,' dc. St Paul is here purging himself 
still, to clear himself. 

First, he labours to clear himself from the suspicion of inconstancy, and 
want of love to them in not coming. 

Secondly, he sets down the true cause why he did not come : ' I came 
not, to spare you.' 

You were much to blame in many things, and among the rest of the 
abominations among you, you cherished the incestuous person, and many 
of you doubted of the resuiTection. I should have been very severe, if I 
had come, therefore ' I came not, to spare you,' hoping that my letter 
would work upon your spirits, so that I need not be severe to you ; there- 
fore do not suspect that for any ill mind I came not, for it was to spare 
you, that I might not be forced to be severe. 

Then the third thing is, the sealing of this speech with a serious oath, 
' I call God for record upon my soul, that I came not, to spare you.' So 
here is the wiping away of suspicion, and the setting down the true cause 
why he did not come, and the ratifying and confirming it by an oath : he 
makes his purgation here by an oath. These three things I will briefly 
touch. 

First of all, you see here he avoids* suspicion of liyhtness which the Cor- 
inthians had of him, partly by the false suggestion of proud teachers among 
them, who fomented their suspicious dispositions, because they would 
weaken St Paul's esteem among the Corinthians. They had a conceit he 
* That is 'frees himself from.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VSR. 28. 485 

was an uncertain man : he promised to come, and did not ; now here he 
declines that suspicion. 

Where, first, observe these two things briefly. 

First, that the nature of man is inclined to suspicion. 

And secondly, that it is the duty of men to avoid it as much as may be, 
and to ivipe it away, if it cannot he avoided, 

Ohs. Mans nature is prone to suspicion. 

Man's nature is pi'one to suspect ill of another, though never so good. 
Christ could not avoid it. Because he conversed sociably with other men, 
he was thought to be a ' wine-bibber,' 'a companion of sinners.' And God 
himself was suspected of Adam in innocency. The devil is so cunning, 
that he calls God himself into question, as if he had not meant so well to 
him. What will that impudent spirit do, that will bring the creature in 
suspicion of him that is goodness itself ? ' God knows that when you eat, 
your eyes shall be open, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and 
evil,' Gen. iii. 5. Do you think that he intends you any good, in forbid- 
ding you to eat, &c. ? He did not spare Christ, innocency itself, clothed 
with man's flesh ; and will he spare to bring uncharitable suspicions upon 
others ? Surely he will not. And then man's nature of itself is prone to 
suspect and think ill of another, from many grounds — 

1. Sometimes, out of experience oithe common infirmities that men meet 
with in the world ; out of the experience of the falsehood of men, they are 
many times prone to suspicion. 

2. But most commonly it is out of (guiltiness that men think ill of others, 
because others have cause to think ill of them. None are so prone to 
suspicion as those that are worst themselves, because they judge others by 
their own hearts. 

The better sort of people think of others as they are, and as they deserve 
themselves ; but others, because they are naught, they think others are so. 
Because they deserve ill, they think others have deserved an ill opinion 
of them. So many times it comes of guilt, because we are not as we 
should be. 

Then again, it ariseth from a guilty conscience in another respect. We 
think, because men have cause, though they have no wrong to themselves ; 
yet because our own hearts tell us we are ill, we suspect them. So 
from an uncharitable disposition, and guiltiness of conscience, it ofttimes 
comes. 

3. Then again, sometimes frjm the concurrence of probabilities, the suiting 
of circumstances that makes things somewhat probable, whereupon suspicion 
may be fastened. Sometimes when there is a concurrence of probabilities 
of the likelihood of things, their suspicion is prone to rise ; for suspicion is 
not a determining of a thing, it is but a slight kind of conceit. It is more 
than a fear, and less than judgment of a thing. It is more than fear ; for 
he that fears, suspects not. Suspicion is a degree to judgment. It doth 
not fully judge, for then it were not suspicion. It is more than fear ; 
suspects not, but fears. It conceives slightly that such a thing should be 
done, and yet he dares not say it is done. 

Suspicion is nothing else but an inclination of the soul to think and 
imagine ill of another ; a looking curiously under a thing, or person. As 
we use to say, envy pries into things. An envious person searcheth. So, 
a suspicious person looks under to see if he can see matter of ill to fiisten 
his ill soul upon. So it inclines the soul to think ill upon shght grounds. 
Now this ofttimes ariseth, and is fed with seeming probability. Christ 



486 COMMENTARY ON 

conversed with wicked men. Here was some colour for them to conjecture 
him so. 

We say, things have two hands, a right hand, and a left. Now suspicion 
takes hold of the left hand always. If things will admit of a double con- 
struction, suspicion alway takes hold of the worst, suspicion takes hold of 
the ill part. That is the nature of a diseased soul, to take things by the 
wrong hand. We see then it is a disposition that we are subject unto 
natm-ally ; and it is cherished by Satan, and Satan's instruments, wicked 
men. 

And why doth the devil so cherish suspicion, and a jealous disposition ? 

Oh, it hath been wondrous instrumental to Satan ! I daresay, there is 
no disposition or frame of soul that hath been the occasion of more blood- 
shed, of more injustice in the church and state from the beginning of the 
world, than a jealous disposition, especially in great ones. Therefore the 
devil labours, as to breed jealousies of God, so of God's church and children 
from the beginning. Was it not ever the disposition of ill-minded men to 
put jealousies into the hearts, especially of those that were in authority 
concerning men far better than themselves ? Was it not Haman's policy ? 
when the Jews had angered him, oh, they are a people that care not for the 
laws, &c. Perhaps they were more obedient than himself. Had it not 
been the occasion of their ruin, if God had not been more merciful ? 

Herod had a jealousy and suspicion, that Christ when he was born would 
turn him out of his kingdom ; and all Jerusalem was in an uproar, Mat. 
ii. 3. Alas ! Christ came to give a heavenly kingdom, and not to take 
away earthly ; yet this jealousy cost the lives of the poor infants. 

So in the primitive church, there were wicked men put jealousies con- 
cerning the Christians, into the heads of the emperors, when alas ! they 
reverenced the emperors, next God, above all. Yet alway there were wicked 
instruments that sought to domineer, and have their own ends under the 
emperors. They conveyed jealousies ; and thence came so much bloodshed. 
In later times in popish countries, if a man read the stories, whence came 
that bloodshed ? This was one chief cause, jealousies, and suspicions cast 
into the heads of popish princes by wicked men about them, set on work 
by Satan himself. ! they are such as will turn you out of your state ; a 
people that are rebellious, and unquiet. 

This was the policy among us in former times. We may consider of 
later times ; to see the disposition of a man, that was a great statesman in 
his time, and a man of great parts and learning, but of a very fierce and 
cruel disposition ; I mean Stephen Gardiner.* The chief hurt that was 
done in that magnanimous prince's time,f it was done by him. And how ? 
By jealousies, as appears by his letters, &c. Oh, if these things prevail, 
this and that will come ! He cast such jealousies that did affright that great 
prince. Oh, other princes will fall out with you, if you maintain not these 
things, they will break with you ! And so upon his death-bed ; this 
doctrine of justification, if the people once know it, all is gone. 

God shows, that all these jealousies are but follies ; for all that he feared 
came to pass. In good Queen Elizabeth's time, religion that he was so 
jealous of, was established : and she cared not for princes' correspondency, 
that were of otlier religions, fm'ther than might stand with reasons of state ; 
and did not she flourish, and her people in quiet all her time, notwith- 

» Cf. note ss.—G. 

t That is, Henry VIII. It is curious to find Sibtes anticipating the eulrgy of 
Froude.— G. 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, A'EE. 23. 487 

standing all former jealousies, as if religion established could not stand with 
peace ? So that the event proved what kind of jealousies these were.* 

Do we think then that a great deal of hurt is not done among particular 
persons, when in states there is such a world of hurt done by Satan, and 
his instruments ? Well ! let us take notice therefore of our disposition, 
and of the inclination oi men this way, that we may the better prevent it, 
and that will appear in the second thing, that, 

Obs. We should labour by all means to avoid suspicion, and to decline it as 
much as ice can. 

It should be the care of ministers, and others (it generally belongs to all 
Christians), to free themselves from any ill suspicion in the hearts of others 
as much as they can ; as St Paul did here the suspicion of inconstancy, and 
lightness, and want of love to them that he did not come among them. 

Suspicion is a canker that eats into the soul where it is, and it will con- 
sume and waste all love. It is the very venom of love and friendship. A 
little thing will breed it, but'will not work it out. Therefore we ought first 
of all to take great heed that we give no ground of suspicion at all ; or if 
we do, that we be careful to get it out as soon as we can ; for usually where 
it takes place, it boils till it break out into words, and then words when 
they are discovered, breed strangeness, and that breeds other inconveniences. 

And the rather we should labour to avoid it, because, quod suspectum, &c., 
that which is suspected, is made unprofitable ; for a man when he unwar- 
rantably suspects another thing, it is unprofitable to him. We take little 
good by those that we suspect are ill, or ill-affected to us, and then we do 
little good to them ; for love is much daunted by the ill conceit we have 
taken against them. A man cannot do that good that he might, when he 
is suspected. There lies a bar in the way ; ill suspicion in the other party, 
which is an obstruction between him, and the good he might do. There- 
fore even for the love of others we ought to avoid suspicion as much as may 
be, that they may receive good from us. 

As we ought not uncharitably to suspect others, that we may do good to 
them ; so we ought to avoid by all means suspicion from them, lest it be a 
bar for that good we might do towards them. Let us labour to clear our- 
selves from all suspicion of want of love, and ill carriage what we may, 
that so there may be nothing between our spirits and theirs that may hinder 
the good that might come from us to them, but that all may pass clear. 
You see how curious holy men have been in all times, to avoid suspicion as 
much as they could. 

Even God himself, — we cannot have a more glorious pattern, — what course 
hath he taken from the beginning of the world with mankind ? He hath 
condescended, and stooped to man's weakness, to clear himself of suspicion 
of unkindness to man, that man might not cherish suspicion that he doth 
not love him. For there is that poison in the cursed nature of man, that 
do God what he can, he will lay imputations upon God, to bear himself out 
in stubborn courses, as if God delighted not in him, nor regarded him. 
And as you have it in Ezek. xviii, 2 seq. I am punished for other folks' 
sins, God deals hardly with me, and brings the sins of my fathers upon me ; 
and, ' the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set 
on edge.' God knows the cankered disposition of man since the fall. Satan 
lies upon the disposition of man, and broods upon it, to make it like him- 

* Cf. Sir Philip Sidney's famous Letter to Elizabeth on her fears of isolation in 
Europe. It will be found in ' Life' of Sidney, by Bourne, and by Lloyd, both re- 
cently issued. — G. 



488 



COMMENTABY ON 



self, malicious even against God himself. God, as it were, puts himself to 
his purgation, even with no less than an oath. ' As I live, saith the Lord, 
I will not the death of a sinner,' Ezek. xviii. 23. You think I am severe 
to you ; and men they will rather impute it to God's severity, than their 
own sin. That is the pride of man's nature. 

A sinner is wondrous proud till he come to destruction itself, and the 
book of conscience be opened. Sin will have something to shelter itself 
with : sin is a proud thing. God purgeth himself by an oath. ' As I 
live, saith the Lord, I will not the death of a sinner.' If you die, you may 
thank your own sins. Though you be so bad, if you will repent, ' I will 
not the death of a sinner, but rather that he return, and live.' Yet not- 
withstanding, man to countenance himself in sin, he will fly perhaps to the 
decree of God. God perhaps doth not delight in me. Whereas the rule 
of oTir life is, ' He hath shewed thee, man, what is good,' Micah vi. 8, 
to do good, and abstain from evil, and then that question will be out oi 
question, whether thou be God's or no. But man will force upon himself, 
that God doth not regard him, that he may sin with more freedom. 

As the unfaithful servant, ' I loiew thou wert a hard master, that exactest 
that that thou hadst not given,' Mat. xxv. 24, — and therefore I hid my 
talent. The bad servant forceth upon himself hardness in his master, when 
he was not so,— that he might be idle. So men force upon themselves some- 
what in God to be hard ; God's dealings to be so and so, that they may 
take more liberty. For if God be so loving, and so gracious, as he hath 
discovered himself to be, their hearts would melt, they would never live in 
such courses, but rather put all to the venture, than to clamour upon God's 
justice. Therefore God himself purgeth himself from a disposition of un- 
kindness, and unmercifulness. ' As I live, saith the Lord, I will not the 
death of a sinner.' So his whole course is to shew that he loves us. 

And what is our Saviour Christ's whole course, but to free men from 
suspicion of want of love ? Did he ever turn any back from him, but those 
that went away of themselves ? Did he not shed tears for those that shed 
his blood, so merciful and gracious was he ? If so be that holy men of all 
times have laboured to clear themselves to others, we ought not to rage 
against the ill dispositions of men. If we were as good as God, and as 
Christ, men would have false suspicion of us. It is no innocency in the 
world that will free a man from suspicion ; the wicked, poisouful disposi- 
tion that the devil stirs up against him. Therefore rage not against it, but 
bear it with a spirit of moderation. 

And let us decline as much as we can, and free the hearts of people from 
evil suspicion ; and if we cannot avoid it, yet to bear it without discontent, 
considering it is the lot of God's children to be suspected, as we see here 
St Paul was. 

' To sjmre you, I came not to Corinth.' St Paul besides his labouring to 
remove suspicion, he sets down here the true cause of his not coming to 
them. It was not lightness and inconstancy, it was ' to spare you.' They 
had many abuses among them, and amended they must be, that was a 
conclusion. But the question is cle modo, whether by gentle means, by 
writing an epistle, and staying a while, or afterwards by coming, and telling 
them their sin to their face, and by being severe, and terrible among them? 
Now he concludes, I came not among you, for this very cause, that I might 
not be so severe, and terrible among you, as by office I should have been, 
if you had not amended before I came ; as indeed they did, for they cast 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YKR. 28. 480 

out the incestuous person, and reformed other abuses comfortably. They 
prevented St Paul's severity, with their reformation. They had not at 
the first cast out the incestuous person, and they had factions among them ; 
they had atheists among them that doubted of the resm-rection, many abuses 
were crept in among them. St Paul wi'ote a former epistle upon a desire 
to reform those, and there was a blessed reformation wrought. St Paul did 
not dehght in austerity ; therefore he deferred his coming, that he might 
have more joy and contentment than sorrow. 

' To spare you, I came not.' Before I come to the points, take this for 
a ground, 

Obs. Sin must be jiidt/ed and censured when it is committed. 

It must be undone by repentance, or by eternal punishment in hell. It 
must be censured here or hereafter. 

For it is against God's nature and God's word. ' The soul that sinneth 
shall die,' Ezek. xviii. 4. It must be repented of, of necessity, or eternally 
punished in hell. Censured it must be, one way or other, it is of such a 
contrary natm-e, so opposite to the holiness of God. That is a ground. 

Now this being laid as a ground, the question is. What is the best way 
to take away sin, whether by means gentle or severe ? By gentle means, 
it may be ; if not, then by severe. St Paul would not have spared them, 
if he had come, if they had not amended. So the points are two. 

First of all, that the best way for the redressing of sin, is by fjentle means, 
if it may be. 

Secondly, if that will not, then by severe, if men would not have men 
damned. 

' I came not, to spare you,' because I desired that gentler courses might 
prevail. So I say, the first point is this, that 

Doct. If gentler courses will jyrevail, they ought especially, and in the first 
place, to be taken. 

It should be the care both of ministers, and of all those that deal with 
others, first of all to use mild, and winning, and gaining courses. 

Now to prove this. 

Reason 1. First, they are more suitable to the nature of man; for the 
nature of man is best wrought on by rational com-ses suitable to his nature, 
suitable to his principle. Man is a reasonable creature, therefore rational 
courses will prevail with a rational man, a course of persuasion and dis- 
covery. A man that is not beast-like, tell him but the danger of his sin, 
tell him the peril of it in gentle words, and he will amend, if so be he be not 
hardened by God to destruction ; or if God do not reserve him to a more 
severe redress. Gentle courses ought first to be used, because they are 
agreeable to the natm-e of man. 

2. Again, they suit most to God's disposition ; for ' God is love,' 1 John 
iv. 8, and his course to man is love. If he take any course contrary to 
love, it is not his own work ; as he saith, to punish man it is not his own 
work, he is forced to that alway. To shew love and mercy, that is his 
work, that that comes from his own principle, from his mercy, * he is 
love.' He doth not say, he is justice, or rigour, but he is love. It agrees 
with the nature of God to deal mercifully. If he deal otherwise, it is 
forced from us. 

3. It suits ivith the tchole carriage of our salvation, these courses of love, 
and gentleness first of all ; for we are saved by a manner of love. We are 
saved by God giving his Son, and by his Son giving himself. We are 
saved bv a course of entreatv. The ministers of God are amliassadors to 



490 COMMENTARY ON 

desire us to be ' reconciled to God,' 2 Cor. v. 20. God having saved us 
by a manner of love, be will bave us taught by a manner of love, in the 
gospel especially ; because God's aim is to gain our love, and which way 
can that be, but by a way of love ? 

For the natm'e of man is such, that it will never love till it know it be 
loved first. Therefore God stoops to a way of love, because he would have 
our love ; which he would never have by other courses, because they are 
contrary to our nature. 

4. It is the practice of God. His custom is answerable : for first, he 
deals by gentle means always, and then after, if those will not prevail, he 
goes to severe means, and in severe means he takes degrees ; first less, 
and then more violent, and then violent indeed. God would never descend 
to sharper courses, if milder would serve the turn. You know he bade 
his own people, before they set in hostile manner upon any, to give them 
fair warning, to give them conditions of peace : so it is his course to offer 
conditions of peace. So he did to the old world, and so he doth to us. Before 
he corrects, he offers conditions of peace. You see how sparing Christ was, 
and how full of love, ' Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' &c., Mat. xxiii. 37. 

5. Again, they are courses that promise best success ordinarily : for the 
proud nature of man will raise itself up, and will harden itself against 
severe courses. Man naturally, as I said, will be led, and not forced. His 
nature will rise against forced violent courses, therefore for the event itself 
it is the best. 

6. Again, they are courses that are more lasting. That that is gained by 
love, is constant ; that that we prevail with men for by reason, it will hold. 
Other courses are not so faithful, they will not hold. What we gain on 
men by fear, there is shame in it, that a man should be forced to any- 
thing, and nature will break out ; but it will hold best, that is gained by 
way of love and reason. 

Use. Therefore let m imitate God in this, when we are to deal with any, 
not to take violent courses in the first place, but to deal with men as men, 
deal with them by love and reason, and not stand upon our own stomach 
and greatness, and take delight, as it were, in the commanding of others ; 
that we have a destructive power, a power that can quash, and crush men, 
and shew it to the utmost, and pride ourselves in it. If God should deal 
so with such, where were those proud creatures ? If God were not a for- 
bearing, indulgent, sparing God ? 

Therefore you may see what disposition those are of, that all are for fire, 
for violent courses, rigorous courses. That is not the way that God useth. 
It is not the way that Christ used. It is not the way that ministers do 
use that have the Spirit of God. 

You have some kind of people, that if a man be not always in matters 
of damnation, his sermon is nothing. So you have some that in their 
courses are so \dolent, that they know nothing that is moderate, (and yet 
perhaps they are good too, but) they cherish too much a violent disposi- 
tion. Now St Paul, though he were a very zealous, holy man, yet not- 
withstanding he would not put himself upon violent courses but when there 
was great necessity. He is rather a butcher than a physician, that loves to 
torment his patient. You see what course is fii'st to be taken. I need not 
be long in so clear a point ; therefore I will spend no more time in it, but 
come to the second, that is more generally useful. Because indeed men 
are so, that gentle means will hardly prevail with them, what must be done 
the 1 ■? ' not spare them.' 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 23. 491 

Doct. When (jentle means tcill not serve the turn, then we must not spare. 

St Paul came not, that he might ' spare them.' Now, if they had not 
amended, what would have St Paul have done, think you ? Would he have 
suffered them to have cherished the incestuous person among them ? that 
wicked person that had committed that which was intolerable amongst the 
heathen ? Would he have cherished proud factious men amongst them, that 
would disgrace St Paul's doctrine, to win authority to themselves ? Would 
not he have told them to their face the danger of their sin, and have made 
them ashamed ? Undoubtedly he would : he would [not] ' have spared.' So 
I say, if gentle means will not prevail, men must not be spared ; neither 
minister nor magistrate must spare ; especially in dangerous courses that 
are prejudicial to the souls of others. 

Why? 

Reason. We must spare none, that God may spare all. We that are 
ministers must spare no sin, that God may spare all. * Lift up thy 
voice like a trumpet,' saith God, * and tell Israel of their sins,' Isa. 
xviii. 58. If gentle means will not reform them, ' lift up thy voice like a 
trumpet,' Cast out Jezebel with her painted face. Though sin paint and 
colour itself, it must be cast out. Jonah must out of the ship, the ship will 
perish else. Achan must be stoned. We must tell men of their danger, 
not with hatred of their persons, but to prevent an eternal punishment. 

You know well that preventing justice is better than executing justice. 
Is not discipline better than execution ? Is it not better to hear of our 
faults roundly, when other means will not prevail, than to cherish that that 
will be for our eternal destruction ? Is not searing and cutting better than 
killing ? Is it not better that a limb be seared and cut, than that all be 
clear cut oft", and the whole body perish ? Is not the pain of chirurgery, 
or physic that makes a man sick for a while, better to be endured than 
the pains and terrors of death itself ? These preventing courses are the best 
courses : therefore we must spare none, but tell them of their danger faithfully. 

Only, liberty of speech must not be a cover for boisterousness, or a cover 
for the venting of evil humours, as sometimes it is. For flesh will never 
prevail with flesh. Flesh, and pride in the speaker, will never prevail with 
pride in the hearer ; but it must be a spiritual kind of severity, discover- 
ing the danger to them we speak to, with a spiritual holy affection, and a 
spirit of love, though with severity : for there is a severity of love and 
gentleness, it will prevail when it comes from such a spirit. But if there 
be a discovery of flesh, not only in ministers, but in those that deal with 
others, flesh will rise against flesh. A man may sometimes find fault with 
another with greater corruption than the thing he finds fault with in 
another ; he may be more to blame for his dealing than the other for his 
fault. * I came not, to spare you.' 

Use. Therefore, when ministers are plain in discovering the danger of 
the times, the danger of the persons, and places where they are to deal, 
people vmst hear them as they love their own souls. K they have any 
quarrel, let them quarrel with their master ; for what we speak is from the 
word of God. We come as his ambassadors and servants, and should be 
considered as ambassadors. Therefore, considering whose message we 
bring, they must take it in good part to be told of their sins in a good 
manner. As St Austin saith very well. Christ, saith he, speaks to the 
sea, and it was quiet : Christ said, ' Be still,' the sea heard, and the waves 
were still ; but he speaks to us in the ministry to stay our violent courses in 
sin, and we puff and swell when we are told of our faults {iiii). Is this good, 



492 COMMENTARY ON 

think you ? No. If we do so, it is a sign that God intends to seal us 
to destruction. As we know, Eli's sons, when they did not hearken to 
their father, God had appointed them to destruction. Those that will 
not hearken to ministerial reproof, it is a sign that God hath sealed them 
over to destruction. 

If we would not have either ministers or others to be severe in telling 
us, let us be severe to our own sins first. Men are like to children ; first 
they foul and defile themselves, and they cry when they are washed : so 
men soil themselves with sins, and cry when they should be purged from 
them. If we cannot endure to be told of our faults, how shall we endm-e 
to be tormented for our faults in hell ? Those that are so tender, that they 
will not endure a word contrary to their dispositions, how will they endure 
that sentence, ' Go ye cursed,' when they shall be turned into hell *? Con- 
sider what will come of it, if we live in sin. 

I beseech you therefore, sufi'er the word of exhortation at our hands. 
Our salvation lies upon it. If we discover not the danger of the sins of 
people to whom we speak, if we discern them, we shall perish for it, be- 
cause we are unfaithful in our embassage. Therefore for your own souls ; 
and likewise that we may discharge our duty as we should, patiently and 
quietly sit under exhortation and reproof, not only public, but private, if 
occasion be. 

beloved ! at the latter day it will be a matter of vexation that we were 
cherished too much in our courses. Do you not think that the damned 
spirits in hell wish, ! that we had been told ! 0, that we had been dealt 
with violently, that we had been pulled out of this flame ! There is an ex- 
cellent place in Jude's epistle, ' Have mercy upon some.' Use some gently 
that are of tractable dispositions ; and pull ' some out of the fire with fear,' 
with threatening eternal damnation, with terrible courses, that they may 
have cause to fear ; first with admonitions, and if that will not prevail, with 
suspension, with further censure ; and if that will not prevail, with excom- 
munication, cast them out of the church, as this incestuous Corinthian, ' that 
their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord,' verse 23. 

There is a threefold correction, or finding fault, that are gradual one after 
another, and they should be of vigour in the church in all times. 

1. First, afriendhj telling of a fault, between man and man, if we see any 
thing dangerously amiss. 

2. Then, xi-hen a man takes another man before companij, when he takes 
him before those that he respects, when privately he will not amend. Then 

3. Correction, if admonition of friends will not do, ' tell the church,' 
Mat. xviii. 17, rather than suft'er his soul to perish. 

These steps and degrees were observed in the best times of the church, 
and if they were observed now, many souls would be saved. This is that 
that St Jude speaks of, ' Save some, pulling them out of the fire,' that is, 
snatch them out by violent means, by excommunication, that ' their souls 
may be saved in the day of the Lord.' Those that are in hell wish that 
they had been pulled out with fear, with violent courses. ! that we had 
been told of our filthy courses, of our swearing, of our injustice, that we had 
had violence ottered us rather than to have come into this place of torment. 
! those will bless God another day for that gracious violence. And those 
that are let alone will curse all another day ; ministers, friends, and parents, 
they will curse all, that there were not more violent courses taken with 
them, to stop them in their way to hell : to deal plainly with thorn. It is 
the best mercv that can be shewed, to be faithful in this kind. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 23. 493 

Therefore while it is time, suffer the word of exhortation, and reproof ; 
the time will come else that you shall condemn yourselves that you were so 
impatient, and shall wish, ! that we had had those that would have dealt 
more violently with us ! It is cruel pity as can be in ministers, to be flat- 
terers, and to daub ; or in parents and governors of others, to dissemble 
with them in their courses, and not to tell them of it. It is the most cruel 
pity of all ; it is betraying of them to eternal torments. For sin, as I 
said, it must be judged and censured here, or hereafter ; if it be not here, 
there is more reserved for the time to come, when God will open the trea- 
sures of his wrath. We put into his treasury fast enough ; and the time 
will come of opening all the treasuries of his vengeance, when he will pour 
out the vials of his wi-ath upon sinners that are not reformed. So much for 
that point. 

' I call God for a record vpon my soul.' St Paul to purge himself from 
suspicion, seals all this with an oath. Herein he doth shew his great 
love to them, and his care over them, that he would so seriously purge 
himself to gain their love, and good opinion of him. It was an argument 
of the great esteem he had of them. He was willing they should think he 
was very desirous of their love, and of their good opinion, for whose sake 
he would swear, and clear himself by an oath. As God esteems man's 
love much, when he will condescend so far as to seal his love, and promise 
with an oath ; God would have us to think that he values, and esteems our 
respect very much, so St Paul would have them think he esteemed them 
much, that he would make such a solemn oath for their sakes. Now to speak 
of an oath a little. 

An oath, as we know, is either in judgment before a magistrate ; or in 
particular cases between private persons. And it is either assertory of a 
thing past, or promissory of a thing to come. Now this oath of St Paul's is 
an assertory oath of a thing that was past, to secure them that he did not 
come to them upon this ground, that he had a mind to spare them. It was 
no promise of anything to come, but an assertion of a thing that was past. 
An oath is either an assertion or a promise, with a calling of God to be a 
witness and a judge ; to be a witness of the truth, or a judge if he say 
false. You have the description of an oath in this text. I say, it is either 
an assertion of a thing past, or a promise of a thing to come, a sealing of 
this by calling God to witness of the thing we say, and to avenge the false- 
hood if we say false. As St Paul here, ' I call God to record,' that what I 
say is true, ' and upon my soul,' if I say false. 

Many conclusions concerning an oath might be raised out of the text. 

1. First of all, concerning the person that makes an oath, he should in- 
deed be a gracious, a holy, and a yood man. As St Paul saith, ' I call God 
to witness, whom I serve in my spirit,' Rom. i. 9. A man is scarce fit to 
swear, which is a part of God's worship, that is not good otherwise. Will 
he care for the religion of an oath, that hath no religion in him ? He whose 
oath should be taken, should be such a man as St Paul, in some degree, 
whose oath should be taken. The Turks are careful of this, — to the shame 
of Christians, — they will not take an oath of an ordinary swearer. It must 
be a man that hath somewhat in him, that shall have his oath regarded. 

2. Again, we see by whom an oath should be taken : by the name of God. 
We ought not to swear by creatures, but by God himself ; nor to swear by 
any idol, as the mass, and by Mary, and such like. It is a taking God to 
v/itness. An oath is a part of God's service, a part of divine worship, as it 



494 COMMENTARY ON 

is, Deut. xxix. 12, and other places. Now we ought to serve God only; 
therefore we ought not to use the name of any creature in an oath. He 
that we swear by must know the heart, whether we speak true or no. Now 
who knows the heart but God ? thei'efore we must swear only by the name 
of God. These things are easy, therefore I do but name them. 

3. We see here again, the two (jrand parts of an oath ; besides assertion, 
or promise of the truth, there must be a calling God to witness, and impre- 
cation. Though these be not always set down, they are implied. Some- 
times the Scripture sets down the one part ; but always the other is implied. 
There is imprecation in every oath. Sometimes imprecation implies both, 
as God do so and so. Sometimes there is a calling God to witness without 
imprecation, yet it is always implied. For whosoever swears, calls God to 
witness of the truth, and if it be not true, that God would punish him. 

These three go together in an oath. God that can discover it, he knows 
my heart whether I say true or no. And he is judge, and thereupon a 
revenger. In an oath, God is considered not only as judex, but as judex 
and vindex ; not only as a discoverer, but as a judge and revenger, if it be 
false. Therefore it is a part of divine worship, because it is with prayer ; 
and imprecation is alway implied, if it be not expressed. So we see in 
this text what an oath is, and by whom it is to be taken, and the parts of it. 

4. Again, we see here in the text, that an oath ought to be taken in serious 
matters. The rule of an oath is excellently set down by Jeremiah, iv. 2. 
I know no one place of Scripture more pregnant, and therefore I name it. 
' Thou shalt swear,' — how ? — ' The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and 
in righteousness.' 

(1.) "We must swear in truth, that is, that not only the thing be true 
that we swear ; we must look to that, but we must think it so too. The 
thing must be true, and we must apprehend it so. * We must swear in 
truth.' 

(2.) And then in judr/ment, that is, with discretion. We must under- 
stand throughly the matter whereof we swear, and what an oath is. There- 
fore persons under years ought not to take an oath, because they cannot 
swear in judgment, to know what the weight and validity of an oath is ; 
and when it is a fit time to take it. It must be taken in serious business, 
as St Paul here to clear himself to the souls of the Corinthians whom he 
laboured to edify ; when he saw their ill conceit of him hindered their 
edification, therefore he clears himself by an oath. 

(3.) Thirdly, it must be in justice, that is, we must not bind ourselves 
by an oath to anything that is ill : it is a rule a long time past. Herod 
bound himself by an oath in that kind. Mat. xiv. 9. But an oath must 
never be a bond of injustice, but it must be taken in righteousness. 

Therefore here is condemned the equivocation and reservation of the 
papists. They will swear before a magistrate, but with equivocation. This 
is not in righteousness ; for it is a rule that an oath must be taken in that 
sense as he to whom we swear takes it ; that is a constant rule among all 
divines, because it is to persuade him of the truth that we swear. It is 
for his and others' sakes ; and as he and others take it, so it must be took. 
Therefore equivocation with absurd reservations are wicked, because they 
are absurd if they be expressed. He will swear that he is not a priest : he 
means after the order of Melchizedec. It is a mocking and profaning of 
an oath, it is not to swear in justice and righteousness. But it is so foul 
and abominable a course, that it is not fit to be spoken of almost ; and 
they are ashamed of it themselves. St Paul's oath was all this. He sware 



2 COBINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 23. 495 

in truth ; he was truly persuaded of the truth of his own affections toward 
them. And then in judgment ; it was done in discretion ; for being not 
able otherwise to clear himself, having no witness in earth, he goes to 
heaven for a pm'ger, he goes to God himself for a witness ; he fetcheth 
strength from heaven. There was none on earth that knew St Paul's affec- 
tion, but the Spirit of God and his own spirit ; and he thought his own 
spirit was not sufficient. My own spirit tells me that ' I came not, to spare 
you ; ' but if you would know my mind better, ' I call God to witness,' and 
to be a revenger, if I speak false, that I came not, for this end, that I might 
spare you, to prevent the rigour and severity that I should have used to- 
ward your sin. 

An oath should be true and weighty ; but that is not enough, it must be 
in matters indeterminable. For if a thing may be determined without an 
oath, we should never use it. The end of an oath is to end controversies ; 
for if St Paul could have persuaded them of his gracious and loving heart, 
that he stood affected as he did, he would not have used an oath ; but 
having no other means to do it, he goes to heaven for a witness. 

It were but misspending of time to shew that an oath is lawful. Have 
we anabaptists among us, that call this into question ? No ! we have 
many atheists. It is dangerous atheism in the anabaptists to question 
whether they may take an oath. We have the example of St Paid, we 
have the example of God himself ; shall we think it unlawful when God 
himself swears, and the angel swears, and Christ swears, and the apostle 
swears ? 

Where it is forbidden that we should not ewear, it is meant that we 
should not swear in our ordinary talk, where we need not seal every light 
speech with the solemnity of an oath. Men will not put on their best 
apparel every day ; so men ought not to use solemn matters upon eveiy 
occasion, but only upon holy and grand occasions. 

Our Saviour Christ forbids swearing, first by the creature at all, and 
swearing in ordinary talk at all. ' "WTiatsoever is more than yea and nay,' 
in ordinaiy talk, is sin, Mat. v. 37. Therefore, considering that St Paul 
doth it in a serious matter, we ought to learn not to swear, except it be in 
great matters : when we are called before a magistrate, or when we are to 
purge ourselves from evil suspicion of our Christian friends ; as we see 
here St Paul doth to the Corinthians : he calls God to witness against his 
soul, if it were not true. 

Obj. But you will say, Men will not believe me except I swear, and there- 
fore I swear so oft. 

Ans. Then live better for shame, that men may believe thee for thine 
honest life. If thy honest life be not better than thy oath, they will not 
believe thee for swearing ; for he that swears oft swears false, and ' in 
many words there cannot want iniquity,' Prov. x. 19, much more in many 
oaths there cannot want iniquity ; and he that swears much, out of doubt 
he oft forswears- 

Obj. Oh ! it is my custom, and I cannot break a custom. 

Ans. Use that apology to a judge. Though malefactors be none of the 
modestest creatures, will any of them say, It is my custom to rob and steal ? 
Will not the judge say it is his custom to cut them off? Thou sayest it is 
thy custom. It is God's custom to damn such persons. Therefore that is 
an aggravation of thy sin- 
But here we that are ministers may take up a complaint, that when we 
have to deal with the wretched disposition of men in things concerning their 



496 COMMENTARY ON 

Bouls and a better life, do what we can, we cannot prevail with them to leave 
that that they have no profit nor no good by ; they are not put upon it by 
any fear. It is only out of superfluity of pride and malice against God, 
out of the abundance of profaneness. 

Can we think to prevail with men to deny themselves in greater matters, 
to forsake their unlawful gains, or to venture the suffering ill for a good 
cause, and to renounce pleasures that are lawful, do we think to gain upon 
men for these things, when we cannot for superfluities that they are not 
forced to by any violence, that they have no gain nor credit by, except 
it be among a company of debauched men like themselves ? Yet it is 
our case ; we deal in the world with a company of persons to leave that 
that they have no gain by, except it be the wrath of God, and yet we 
cannot prevail. 

Obj. Oh, but you will say, I live with such company that I must swear. 

Ans. What a shame is it for thee that carnal company should prevail 
more with thee than the vengeance of God, and the authority of God in the 
ministry ! What a heart hast thou that a base person like thyself should 
move thee to do that that God himself and the authority of his ordinance 
cannot move thee to forbear ! It is an argument of a base nature. How 
darest thou look God and Christ in the face another day, when for his sake 
thou wilt not leave a superfluous, profane oath ? Thou regardcst a wicked 
companion more, because thou wilt not be mocked of him; thou wilt swear 
for company, or because thou wilt please him, that he may think thee to be 
so and so, a companion fit for him ; to please him, thou wilt displease God 
and Christ, before whom thou shalt be judged ere long. If people were not 
mad and sold to destruction, they would consider these things. 

Indeed, these things are so clear, and so odious in themselves, that we 
need not press them. We should spend that little time we have to preach 
of more sublime matters than to come to dissuade men from swearing. Alas ! 
under the glorious gospel that we have lived so long, have we gained so 
little that we are forced to spend our time to dissuade men from swearing ? 
We should look to the mysteries of religion, and draw men to further per- 
fection ; but such times we are fallen into, and we must be content with 
it, and I would we could gain anything by discovering the danger of these 
things. 

An ordinary course of swearing, it argues a very vile heart wheresoever 
it is : bear it out as boisterously as they will. It argues this venom in the 
heart : Well ! I cannot oftend against the second talile, but the laws of 
the kingdom will hamper me ! I cannot steal, or murder, but somewhat 
I can do in despite of God himself, and the worst that can come, it is but 
a trifling matter. What venom is in the hearts of men, that where there 
is but the least damage, they will be restrained ; and here, because there is 
not present execution upon a sinner in this kind, they profane and abuse 
the glorious name of God ! 

1. When God's name is abused by swearing and blasphemy, usually the 
original of it, among other things, is atheivn. If we thought that God were 
so as the Scripture shews, we would not dally so much. They that lead 
others into bad courses, it is from the height and depth of atheism. Make 
the best of it, it is a great degree of irreverence to the glorious Majesty of 
God. For when God shall say, ' He that takes my name in vain, shall not 
carry it away guiltless,' Exodus xx. 7 : What will he do, think you, to him 
that swears idly, and profanely, when the vain taking of God's name in 
vain without an oath, the vain trifling with the name ol God, shall not 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 23. 497 

escape ? When men do not reverence and fear an oath, as it is, Eccles. 
ix. 2, it argues much irreverence. 

And, indeed, it is worse in the principle than in the thing itself. 
Though the words be heinous, yet the principle whence it ariseth is worse, 
that is, infidelity and atheism, and alway irreverence and want of fear of 
the glorious Majesty of God, this gi-ound makes it more odious. There- 
fore, those that are subject to it, if they would amend it, let them remove 
the ground. 

2. Sometimes, again, it is chcnsldng too much passion. So, because 
they cannot be sufficiently revenged upon their poor brethren, God must 
smart for it ; they will tear his glorious name that never did them wrcog. 
What a mad passion is this ; hath God done them any wrong ? Therefore, 
I say, let us labom- to remove the ground of it ; and labour to plant the 
contrary in our hearts, the true fear of God, that we may fear an oath. 
Let us labom' to subdue unruly passion. 

3. Again, in some others affectation is the cause. Many of the frothy 
sort, they think it a thing commendable to fill up their discourse with these 
parentheses, with oaths ; which perhaps doth them a service to knit their 
wounded discourse together. So this foohsh and sinful affectation is one 
cause. Men desire to be thought to be somebody, by swearing. They 
would have the world to think that they are valorous men, that can be so 
bold with God himself ; therefore let other men take heed how they meddle 
with them, when God smarts for it, as if he that could swear most, had 
most courage. 

4. And in many it is out of a sinful shame, because they will hold cor- 
respondence with the company, and they are afraid to be thought to be 
strict ; and that they may be thought to be free from suspicion of over- 
much conscionableness* in their ways, they will not let the world see that 
they shall not think that they are men that make any conscience of strict- 
ness, but they can be bold with the name of God : so, because they 
would have others think that they are men that do not stand upon terms 
of conscience and strictness, they will swear they are men for the world, 
they are serviceable for any purpose. Men that make conscience of any- 
thing, make conscience of all ; but a man that makes conscience of an oath, 
or any such thing, he is a stiff man, he is not serviceable, he is not for the 
turn. Now, because men would be thought of others not to be of that 
strain, to make any conscience, hereupon they break out to the profaning 
of the name of God. How shall such persons, that out of sinful weakness 
labour and apply themselves more to satisfy sinful men, than the great 
God, how dare they look God in the face ? Jesus Christ saith, ' He 
that is ashamed of me before men ;' he that is ashamed to own reli- 
gion, nay, to own justice, to own even common good behaviour, rather 
than he will offend others : he that is ashamed of me in such mean things 
as these, ' I will be ashamed of him before my Heavenly Father,' Mark 
viii. 38. 

If other reasons will not move us to leave this sin, let the love of the 
state and kingdom we live in do it. Jeremiah saith, ' for oaths the land 
shall mourn,' Jer. xxiii. 10. Indeed, there is a mulct for this, but that men 
slight it. And God, I hope, will be merciful to the state, for the censure 
of the state upon profanation, it is a very worthy act {jjjj). But if that 
be not executed, or men grow not to make more conscience, the land will 
* That is, ' conscientiousness.' — G. 

VOL. III. I i 



498 COMMENTARY ON 

mourn for it ; because where the magistrates cease to do their office, God 
will do his office. Where sin is punished, God will not punish. "Where 
the magistrate spares, God will not spare. He will punish. There- 
fore this sin where it is not censured and punished, the land shall mourn 
for it. 

If the care of the kingdom will not move them, 5^et the care of their own 
houses and families should. In Zech. v. 1, the prophet speaks of a flying 
book of judgments that should come upon the house of the swearer, and 
consume the posts of his house. And the wise man saith in Ecclesiasticus 
(though it be apocryphal), ' The plague shall not depart from the house of 
the swearer,' iii. 11.* God's vengeance accompanies even the very family 
and house of the swearer. 

And, for avoiding of this, I would there were more conscience made of 
those oaths that border upon gross oaths. I will not dispute the matter. 
Take it for granted they be no oaths, but asseverations, as to call their 
truth in question, and their confidence in matters of religon ; who will lay a 
thousand pound to pawn for a matter of sixpence ? Who, if he be discreet 
and considerate, will lay his faith and religion to pawn for every trifle in 
common talk ? Faith is the most precious thing in the world : for a man 
to lay a great matter for a twopenny or sixpenny debt, it is odious among 
men. Certainl}^ it is idle at the best among men, to lay asseverations of 
religion without ground, upon every trifle. He that will avoid danger must 
not come near it ; he must avoid all that borders upon it. I would there- 
fore more care were had, even of these. 

I will only add one thing more. Whereas he calls God ' for a record 
upon his soul,' that those that are overmuch given to rash calling upon the 
name of God, to rash swearing, let them know this, as I said, that there is 
an imprecation implied in every oath : they do as it were curse themselves. 
If the thing be not true, their damnation is scaled under a curse : they call 
God to record upon their souls against themselves. 

Let us so live that our life may be a kind of oath : the life of a Christian 
should be so. An oath is a calling God to witness, a calling God to curse 
if it be not so. A Christian should live so, as he may call God to witness 
for every action he doth ; to bring himself to an oath, under a cm'se oft- 
times, as it is in Ezra, and oft in Scripture, ' If I do not so and so,' vii. 23, 
&c. Because our nature is unstable, it startsf from holy duties, we should 
bring ourselves to duties with an oath, under a curse. 

It is an excellent thing when we can live as in God's presence ; to do all 
we do in the presence of God. God is a witness whether we call him or 
no. Therefore we should so carry ourselves, that we might call God to 
witness the sincerity of our aims, and whatsoever we do. He is a witness, 
and he will be our judge : therefore, whether we formally in the manner 
of an oath call him or no, that is not the matter, but let us know and think 
that he is, and will be so. 

I beseech you consider the sweet comfort that will arise out of it, that 
he that will live and think and aSect,l and speak in the presence of God, 
that he may call God to record of the sincerity of his intentions, of all that 
he speaks, and thinks, and doth ; how comfortably shall he live, and give 
his account to God, that hath lived as in the presence of God all his days ! 
He that hath presented to his soul, as it were, the bar of Christ in his life- 
time, that hath lived as one that could give an account and reckoning, 

* Cf. footnote, vol. II. page 351.— G. $ That is, ' choose, love.'~G. 

t That is, ' turns aside.' — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 499 

when he comes to the point that he must give up his account, how joyfully 
and comfortably will he do it ! So much for that verse. 
I come now to the last verse of the chapter. 



VERSE 24. 

' Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy ; 
for by faith ye stand.' St Paul is yet in his clearing, he is yet in his apo- 
logy. ' Not that we have dominion over your faith,' &c. I do not tell you, 
I came not yet to ' spare you,' as if I meant to domineer over your faith 
when I came. Because those words, ' I came not yet, to spare you,' might 
seem to carry some highness, some lordliness with them, as if the apostle 
would have taken much upon him ; therefore he corrects those words in 
this verse, ' Not that we have dominion over your faith,' &c. So that in 
these words he removes a suspicion of spiritual tyranny over them. Because 
he had said before, ' he came not, to spare them,' they might think. What 
would he have done if he had come ? would he have enforced us ? Oh no ! 
Indeed your reformation hath spared me a labour, and you a chiding ; but 
if I had reproved you sharply, it should have been for your good. 

Then he sets down the true cause, ' We are helpers of your joy.' If I 
had come, and told you of your faults, if I had not spared you, it should 
have been to help youi" joy ; and now I come not to you, it is to help your 
joy : my scope in all is to be a furtherer of your joy. So these words are 
a reason of the former, why he did not come to domineer over their faith, 
' For by faith ye stand.' You stand by faith, and you stand out by faith 
against all oppositions whatsoever ; therefore your faith must not lean on 
me ; I must not domineer over that you stand by ; if your faith should rely 
on me, I am but a man. Faith must rely on God. It must have a better 
pillar than myself. You must stand upon Divine strength : therefore ' you 
stand by faith ;' and if you stijnd by faith, we have no reason to have domi- 
nion over your faith. 

These words are declined by many intei'preters (/.7.7i7i-). They know not 
what the dependence is : but this is the best dependence of the words, ' We 
domineer not, or rule not over your faith ; ' because by faith you stand as 
upon a bottom ; you stand against all adverse power by faith. Therefore 
you had need to have it well founded, you had need to plant your faith 
well, by which you stand against all opposite power, and against all human 
authority. For a man may be a liar, and do good in many things. A man 
hath a deceitful natm'e, as far as he hath a corrupt jirinciple in him. He 
may deceive, and yet be a good man too ; in particular cases he may shew 
himself a changeable creature. But there must be no falsehood nor uncer- 
tainty in faith ; for it is a grace that must have truth and certainty : it 
must have immoveable and unchangeable truth to build on. Therefore we 
domineer not over your faith. God forbid we should do so ; for faith is 
the grace whereby you stand ; if you should build upon us as men, you 
could not stand alway. The point is clear, that, 

Doct. No creature can have dovdnion over the faith of another. 

The faith of a man is only subject to the Spirit of God, to God, and to 

Christ. Andby the way, St Paultaxeth* those false apostles and false teachers, 

that laboured to creep into the consciences of people, to have higher place 

in the hearts of people than they should have, that so they might rule the 

*■ That is, ' cliargeth, acaisefb.' — G. 



500 COMMENTARY ON 

people as they list. Now that should not be the scope of the minister, to 
have dominion over the faith of others ; for the ministry is a ministry, not a 
magistracy. A minister, so far as he is a pastor, he is a minister ; that is, 
he is to deliver things from God that may stablish the soul, not to domineer 
over men's faith, as if he would prescribe what men should beheve. 

Now to unfold this point, I will first shew what it is to have no dominion 
over men's faith. And then what it is to have dominion and rule over 
other men's faith, and who are guilty of this. 

1. Not to have dominion over another man's faith, it is not When a 
church doth force prescribing* to the articles of religion. That is not to 
have dominion over the faith of others, to draw people to conformity of 
the same religion in the substantials of it (as some that seek extravagant 
liberty, lay that imputation perhaps). It is used in all churches. 

2. Again, it is not to domineer over faith, to suppress that that they call 
of late in neighbour-countries, a liberty of prophesy (////), to suppress a 
liberty of preaching when men list ; that men should have an unbridled 
licence. We see in Poland,! ^^^ other countries, what abundance of 
heretics there are, where there is more liberty to preach, and to publish 
what men list. Those countries are like Africa^, where, they say, there are 
alway new monsters. Or like to Egypt ; when Nilits overflows it leaves a 
slime behind, and when the sun works upon that slime it breeds many im- 
perfect strange creatures. So those countries where there is liberty of 
religions, there are always some strange novel opinions, some monsters. 
Experience of foreign countries shews it too true ; therefore to hinder that 
extravagant liberty is not dominion over faith. 

Nay, to force men to the means of faith, it is not to domineer over faith. St 
Austin himself was once of this mind, that people were not to be forced 
(mmmm). It is true. But they may be compelled to the means, though 
they cannot be compelled to believe. Men may be compelled to the means 
by mulcts, and other courses of state. And it is a happy necessity when 
people are forced to the means, under which means, by God's blessing, 
they may be reduced to a better habit and temper of soul. 

Therefore it is cruelty to neglect this care, to leave people to theii- own 
liberty to attend upon the means, or not to attend on them. Therefore 
our State is, and may be justified well, for those violent courses to recusants. 
And many of them after, bless God they have done it, and they have 
cause. For there is a majesty in the ordinances of God. If people were 
brought under the means, God's Spirit would make the means efi'ectual. 
And there is not a greater snare of the devil, whereby he holds more in 
the Romish church in perdition, than by persuading them that it is a 
dangerous thing to come to our prayers, and to attend upon the means 
of salvation ; whenas in our liturgy there is nothing that may justly 
offend. Therefore to force to the means, it is not to domineer over faith ; 
because it is only a drawing from outward inforcement to the use of means. 

3. Again, it is not a ruling over faith, nor a base slavery, when men hear 
the word of God opened directly and clearly, when men shall persuade 
others according to their own judgment, that this is so, and when others 
shall yield. There is some faith that may be called in some degree im- 
plicit faith and obedience, that is not sinful, but good and discreet. As 
when men by their standing in the church, and by their experience and 
holiness of life, are thought to be men that speak agreeable to the ground 

* That is, 'subscribing, subscription.'— G. J Spelled ' Africk.' — G. 

t Spelled ' Polonia.'— G. 



i 

I 



'2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 21. 501 

of Scripture, though they have not a direct rule and place of Scripture for 
it, other men's conscience may follow what they' say. I have been directed 
by such men at such times, that by reason of their calling have opportunity 
to advise. 

But this frees it from base service, that it must be with reservation, till 
it appear otherwise by some place of Scripture, or till better counsel may 
be yielded. Obedience to others with reservation, and counselling with 
others, this is no domineering, because it is with reserving ourselves to a 
further discovery, and a further light. That, the moralists use to call the 
opinion of an honest man . Where the law speaks not, it is much to be esteemed ; 
especially an honest discreet Christian, when the law of God speaks not 
directly. Then he that speaks out of conscience, and some light, he may 
persuade another man, with this reservation, till further light be discovered ; 
this is no domineering over faith. 

I might take away many thmgs that might breed a suspicion, as if we 
domineered over the faith of others when we do not. 

But to come to shew you this positive truth, what this tyranny over the 
faith of others is, and where it is practised. 

1. Those tyrannise over the faith of others that do equalise men's tradi- 
tions, some canons of their own, with the word of God, and press them 
with equal violence, perhaps more ; because they are brats of their own 
brain. Those that will devise a voluntary worship of God, and so entangle 
people, and tell them. This you must do, when there is no ground for it in 
the word of God ; it is will-worship. God loves willing worship, when we 
worship him willingly ; but he loves not will-worship, when it is the 
device of our o\vn brain how we will sei-ve him. As if a servant or a slave 
must devise how his lord will be served ; what impudency is this, if we 
consider what God is ! They tyrannise over people's consciences, that 
equalise their own dotages, though they account them witty devices, and 
their own inventions with the worship of God ; that jumble all together, 
as if conscience were equally bound to any device of their own, as to God's 
word. 

2. Again, those do tyrannise over the faith of others, that think they can 
make articles in religion to bind conscience. Those that think to free them- 
selves from the danger of error, as if what they said were infallible, they 
tyrannise over others. Those that for trifles excommunicate whole churches, 
because they hold not correspondency with them in their errors, they 
tyrannise over the faith of others : those that withhold the means of know- 
ledge, that so in a dark time all their fooleries may be more admii-ed. As 
we see masks, and such like overly* things, they must have the commenda- 
tion of some light that is not so glorious as the sun to win admiration of 
men ; so those that would win admiration of their fooleries, they shut 
people, as much as they may, in darkness, that they may have their persons, 
and all other things in admiration. This is to tyrannise over faith, and to 
hinder them from that that is the means to reform them better. 

Quest. But who are guilty of all this ? . 

Am. We see what church especially is guilty of this of domineering over 
the faith of others, that is, the church of Rome. 

1. The Council of Trent equaHseth traditions with the word of God. 
They divide the word of God into the written and unwritten ; and under 
a curse they pronounce that all must be received with the same reverence. 

2. And then they have devised a will-worship of their own, and follow, 

* That is, ' over Ij'ing,' = concpaling, disguising.— G. 



502 COMMENTABY ON 

and force their will-worship with greater violence, than the worship of 
God; and they set God's stamp upon all their fooleries, to gain authority 
under the name of Christ's church, and the word of God: they carry all. 

3. Again, you know, they hold the church to be infallible. They hold 
the judgment of the pope, the ' man of sin,' to be infellible, he cannot err , 
and hereupon whatsoever he saith, it must bind conscience, because he is 
in his chair and cannot err ; whatsoever he saith is the scope of God's word, 
infallible. And this is a fundamental error, as we call it, a first lie, a lead- 
ing He. This is moving to error, this is the mover that moves all other 
errors under it. 

For whereupon is all the abominations of poperj' justified ? They are 
justified by this, though they seem ridiculous, gross, and blasphemous, 
they came from the church, and the church is virtually in the pope. An 
absurd position, that the whole church should be virtually in one man ; 
yet that is the Jesuitical opinion ; and the church cannot err : therefore it 
is good, because these tenets come from him whose judgment is infaUible. 
That is the error that leadeth to, and estabhsheth all other errors under 
it : it is the first lie. And in lies, there is a leading, one goes under another, 
they never go alone ; so this is the leading lie of all popery, that the pope 
cannot err ; by this means they domineer over the faith of others, and make 
the people even beasts indeed. 

But to see the indignity of this, that the pope cannot err, it is the greatest 
error of all, and the prevention of all amendment on their side. Do you 
think that they will ever amend their opinion, when they hold this that is 
a block in the way of all reformation, that the pope can err ? for deny that, 
and you call all the fabric of their religion in question ; and grant that, it 
stops all reformation on their side. What reformation may we hope for 
on their side that hold this position, that they cannot err ? Hence come 
all their treasons, and rebellions ; they have some dispensation from the 
pope, and he cannot err, though he prescribe rebellion and treason. 

4. Another opinion they have, that the church is the judrje of all contro- 
versies, in which the faith of men must be resolved at last ; but it is the pope 
that the Jesuits mean. Now this is indeed to domineer over the faith, to 
make a man of sin to be a judge over all points of faith, and faith to be 
resolved at last into that, into the judgment of the church. 

The church hath an inducing power, a leading power, persuading to the 
belief of the Scriptures, and to hear what God saith in his word, but after, 
there is inward intrinsical grounds in the word, that make us to know the 
word without the church. Now they would have the authority of the word 
depend upon the church, and so overrule men's consciences in that case. 
Whereas all that the church hath, is a leading, inducing, persuading to hear 
the word, under which word and ordinance we shall see such light and 
majesty in the Scriptures, that from inward grounds we shall be persuaded 
that the word of God is the word of God. Therefore the church is the fu'st 
inducer to believe the word of God, not the last object to which all is resolved. 
For they themselves cross it in their tenets when they speak discreetly. Is 
this opinion so, and so ? The church holds it. But what authority hath 
the church to maintain it ? Where is the authority of your church ? Then 
they bring some place of Scripture ; ' I will be with you to the end of the 
world,' Mat. xxviii. 20. And, 'he that heareth you, heareth me,' &c. 
Luke X. 16. I do but a little discover to you the danger of this error. They 
make the word of God to be believed, because the church saith so ; they 
make truth to be believed, because their man of sin, whom they depend 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 50S 

upon, saith so. Do we believe the Trinity, or that Christ is our Redeemer, 
because the church saith so ? Should we not believe it except the church say 
so? What if the church teach the 'doctrine of de\'ils,' 1 Tim. iv. 1, as 
they do ? They cannot shake it off. We must believe because the church 
saith so. So upon equal grounds they shall teach the doctrine of devils, and 
the doctrine of Christ, because the church saith so. 

As it was said anciently, he that believes two things, the one for the 
other, he believes not two, but one in effect ; because he believes the one 
for the other. So in effect they believe nothing but the church ; that is, 
themselves believe the truth to be divine, because they say so ; so they may 
beUeve any devilish error, because they say so ; so any treason, or rebel- 
lion must go current, because they say so, because they cannot err. You 
see how they domineer over the faith of others ; shall not Christ be Christ, 
nor God be God, nor the devil be the devil, except the church say so ? 

5. Again, in the very matters themselves, in the jwints that themselves do not 
urge, the church of Eomo domineers, and tyranniseth over the souls of people. 
For example, they hold that the intention of a minister in the sacrament 
makes it effectual. What a fear doth this breed in the souls of men, that they 
know not whether they be baptized or no, because it must be in the inten- 
tion of the minister ? 

And then in confession, they must confess all. What a tyranny is this 
to the souls of people, when perhaps there is somewhat that they have not 
confessed, and so their confession is of no worth ? 

And in satisfaction, perhaps I have not made satisfaction enough by their 
injunction laid on me, and therefore I must satisfy in hell ; what a rack is 
this to conscience ? 

So, what a rack to conscience is that opinion, that the pope cannot err ; 
when I cannot tell, perhaps, whether he be the right pope or no. If he came 
in by simony, or is not in cathedra [mvin), and many conditions they have 
to solve that point. If any of those conditions be not observed, he is not 
the man he should be ; what tyranny do they force upon people over their 
faith? Therefore they are called in the Eevelations, 'scorpions,' Rev. ix. 
8, 10 ; indeed they are spiritual scorpions, that sting the soul of God's 
people. 

The devil is the king of darkness ; and is not he the prince of darkness 
that maintains ignorance of the word of God, that all his old tenets and 
opinions may have the better sway, that he may sit in the blind and dark 
consciences of people ? It is said that he ' sits in the temple of God,' 2 
Thess. ii. 4, that is, in the church ; nay, he labours to have another temple, 
to sit in man's soul, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost. It is not suf- 
ficient for him that is the man of sin to have any other place, he must sit 
in the very souls and consciences of men. 

Satan hath a special malice to sit in the place of God. Since he was 
turned out of heaven, and cannot come thither, he will come to that place, 
if he can, upon earth where God should be ; and where will God be ? God 
will especially be in the hearts of his people, in the souls and consciences 
of his people. Conscience is God's throne. Satan being thrust out of 
heaven, labours to stablish his throne there. Now they that are Satan's 
vicars, led with his spirit, they are of the same mind. Let them be what 
kind of great ones they will, they desire to sit in God's throne, in the con- 
science ; and if a man will not tie his conscience to them, he is nobody to 
them. This is the property of antichrist in the highest degree ; as far as 
any are addicted to this, that they will not be satisfied, but the consciences 



604 COMMENTARY ON 

of men must be tied to them, they must deny all honesty, and justice, and 
law, and all to please them, and to gratify them with' particular kindness ; 
so far they are led with the spirit of antichrist, and of the devil himself, 
who labours to sit in God's throne, that is, in the hearts and consciences of 
people. And therefore, as I said, they labour to keep people in darkness 
for this very purpose, that people may let them into their consciences, and 
rule them as they please. 

As Samson, when they had put out his eyes, they led him to base ser- 
vices ; so do they with God's people, they put out their eyes, and then they 
lead them to grind in the mill, to all the base services they can. Judges 
xvi. 21. It is not to be spoken of the brutish slavery and ignorance that is 
in Spain and other countries where that devilish inquisition reigns, which 
is a great help to popish tyranny. 

What should I speak of the state of the Eomish Church ? Indeed the 
main scope of it is to subdue all to them, to subdue all kings and kingdoms 
to them. That is the grand scope of the greatest of them. Others have 
their particular scope for their bellies and base ends ; but those among 
them that have brains, that are governors, their scope is to bring all under 
their girdle ; and how shall they do this ? They cannot bring their per- 
sons, but they must bring their consciences ; for where the conscience is, 
the person will follow presently. Therefore they labour to lay a tie upon 
the conscience of prince and people, upon all, that so they may domineer 
and rule over their consciences. And for that end, they labour to nourish 
them up in blindness ; for by blindness they rule in the conscience ; and 
ruling their conscience, they may rule their persons and kingdoms. This 
is their main scope, this hath been then* plot for many hundred years. 

So that the Eomish religion indeed is nothing but a mere carnal devihsh 
policy, to bring others to be subject to them ; and to make not only kings 
and princes, but to make God, and Christ, and the Scriptures, whatsoever 
is divine or human, to make all to serve their aims. What do they with 
Christ, but under the name of Christ serve themselves ? What do they 
v/ith the church, but under the name of the church, carry their own ends ? 
What do they with the names of saints and angels, Peter, Mary, &c., but 
under a plausible pretence carry their own ends, and set up a visible great- 
ness in this world, answerable to the Cjesarian monarchy ? This is plain 
and evident to all that will see, that it is so ; and one main way to attain 
their ends is to rule over the conscience. 

And that they may help all the better forward, they have raised in the 
chm'ch a kind of faith which they call an implicit and infolded faith, that 
people must believe what the church teacheth, though they know not in 
particular what the church teacheth, and so they lead people hoodwinked 
whither they please themselves. 

To make some use of it briefly. 

Use. Let us labour to bless God that hath freed ns from, this spiritual 
tyranny. ! beloved ! it is a great tyranny when conscience is awaked, to 
be racked and tormented, and stung by scorpions ; to have conscience tor- 
mented with popish errors ; as in the point of satisfaction, the most of 
them, if their eyes be open, they die with terror. ! it is a blessed liberty 
that we are brought out of antichristian darkness, that we know we believe, 
and upon what terms we believe ; and are taught to submit our conscience 
only to the blessed truth of God ; that the soul it is the bed, as it were, 
only for Christ, and his Holy Spirit to dwell in, and to lodge in ; and that 
no man may force the conscience with any opinion of his own, further than 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 24. 505 

it is demonstrated out of the word of God. "What a sweet enlargement of 
spirit do we Uve in now ! and our unthankfulness perhaps may occasion 
God to bring us in some degree of popish darkness again. 

I beseech you, let us stand for the liberty of Christ, and the liberty of 
our consciences against the spiritual tyrant of souls. Let us maintain our 
liberty by all we can, by all laws and execution of laws ; by all that may 
uphold our spiritual liberty ; for there is no bondage to that of the soul. 
Do but a little consider the misery of the implicit faith that the popish sort 
are under, that infolded, inwi'apped faith, wherein they are bound to be- 
lieve, without searching, what the church determines. Hereupon they 
swallow in all doctrines that tend to superstition, that tend to rebellion, 
that tend to treason. They swallow up all under this implicit faith, as if 
God had set an ordinance and ministry in the church against himself; as 
if he had advanced any ministry against his own ordinance. 

When you think of popery, consider not so much particular dotages, as 
about images, and transubstantiation, and relics, &c., but consider the very 
life and soul of popery in this opinion, the leading error of all others, the 
tyranny over souls of people, and holding them in blindness and darkness. 
It is not a device of mine. Do but read the Council of Trent in some 
editions. There the late Pius Quartus that sat there daily, he made more 
articles than the 'apostles, distinct, not proved by Scripture ; he made 
articles of his own to be believed. People were tied upon the necessity of 
salvation to believe them, and to beheve them with that faith that is due 
to Scripture [oooo). 

And it is a common tenet among them, Every man is bound to be under 
the authority of the church of Rome, under peril of damnation. There is 
the grand error, that it is a matter necessary to salvation to be under their 
tyranny. 

Hereby they excommunicated all the Eastern churches, and all former 
times wherein they were not under the Eoman tyranny, for that is but of 
late, six hundred years since. They condemned St Cyprian's time, and 
other times. And they made articles of religion, and established them with 
this censure, that upon pain of damnation men must believe these things 
as well as the articles of the creed, as transubstantiation, invocation of 
saints, purgatory, and such things. They are so many articles, indeed, as 
I say, they have more articles than the twelve articles of the apostles.* 

We say, an error in the foundation, it is not mended after: and the first 
concoction, if it be naught, all after are naught ; if there be not good con- 
coction in the stomach at the first, the blood is naught, and all is naught. 
So this is a fundamental error, and a ground of all errors, that they hold 
they cannot err ; and hereupon they come to tyrannise over the consciences 
and souls of people. 

Therefore, I say, let us bless God that hath set our souls in spiritual 
liberty, that now we see God in the face of Christ, now we see the means 
of salvation. We see the bread of life broken to us, we see Christ unveiled, 
we see what to found our consciences upon. We cannot be sufficiently 
thankful for this. Thankful we may be for the peace of the kingdom that 
we have so long a time enjoyed, and for the outward prosperity we have so 
long had ; but, above all, be thankful for the peace of religion, for the peace 
of conscience, for the liberty of soul, that we enjoy. And, as I said, if 
anjiihing move God to strip us of all, it will be our unthankfulness, and our 

* The reference here and above, is to ' The Creed.' wliicli is commonly called tUo 
Apostles'. Cf. Nichols" Pearson, (8vo, 1854).— G. 



506 COMMENTARY ON 

practice witnessing our unthankfulness, by valuing no more the blessed 
estate of the gospel we enjoy. 

* Not that n-e have dominion over your faith.'' This disposition to domineer 
over the faith of others, from abominable grounds it ariseth : 

Partly from pride and tyranny, that they would set themselves in the 
temple of Christ, where he should rule in the hearts of his people. 

And partly out of idleness. They raise the credit of their own traditions, 
that they may not be forced to take the labour of instructing the people. 
Therefore, they fasten a greater virtue upon outward things than there can 
be, only to avoid the labour of instruction. 

And then it riseth partly from guilt. They are so in their lives, especially 
if they be looked inwardly into, as that they cannot endure the knowledge 
of people. They are afraid that people should know much, lest they know 
them too well, and their courses and errors. So, partly from pride, and 
partly from idleness and sloth, and partly from guilt, they domineer over 
the faith of God's people. 

' But are helpers nf your joy.' The end of the ministry is not to tyrannise 
over people's souls, to sting and vex them, but to minister comfort, to be 
helpers of their joy ; that is, to help their salvation and happiness, which 
is here termed joy, because joy is a principal part of happiness in this world 
and in the world to come. Now, the end of the ministry is to set the 
people's hearts into a gracious and blessed liberty, to bring them into the 
kingdom of grace here, and to fit them for the kingdom of glory, to help 
forward their joy. 

This is the end, both of the word and of the dispensation of the word, in 
the ordinances of salvation, in the sacraments, and all, that our joy may be 
full ; as our blessed Saviour saith, ' These things have I spoken, that your 
joy may be full,' John xv. 11. It is the end of all our communion with 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and with the ministry, and one with 
another ; as it is, 1 John i. 4, ' These things have I written that your joy 
may be full ; ' you have communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
and with us, ' that your joy may be full.' All is for spiritual joy. 

' We are helpers of your joy.' The meaning is, we are helpers of your 
faith, from whence joy comes more especially; for he doth not repeat the 
word again, ' We have not dominion over your faith, but are helpers of 
your faith ; ' but, instead of that, he names joy, as that that doth accompany 
true faith. 

The points considerable in this clause are these : 

1. That joy is the state of Christians, that either they are in, or should labour 
to be in, because the apostle names it for all happiness here. All that have 
given their names to Christ should labour to rejoice. Either they do rejoice, 
or they should labour to come to it. That is supposed as a ground. I 
will be the shorter in it. 

2. The second is, that the ministers are helpers of this blessed condition. 

3. The third is, they are hut helpers. They are helpers, and but helpers. 
They are not authors of joy, but helpers. ' We are but helpers of your joy,' 
saith the apostle. These three things I will speak of briefly out of these 
words. First, 

Doct. 1. Joy is that frame and state of soul that all that have given their 
names to Christ either are in, or should labour to be in. 

For this doctrine is fetched from the principle of nature. We do all 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 507 

with joy. All in our callings is done with joy. "What do men in their 
trades, but that they may have that that they may joy in when they have 
it ? It is an old observation of St Chiysostom, ' We do all, that we may 
joy.' Ask any man why he doth take so much pains, and be a drudge in 
his place ? It is that he may get somewhat to rejoice in in his old days. 
So, out of the principle of nature, this ought to be the scope of all, to joy. 
Now, those that are Christians, God requires it at their hand as a duty, 
' Eejoice alway, again I say, rejoice,' Philip, iv. 4. And he doth prepare 
and give them matter enough of joy, to those that are Christians. 

(1.) For whether we consider the ills they are freed from, the greatest ills 
of all. They are freed from sin and the wi-ath of God, they are freed from 
eternal damnation, they are freed from the sting of death, from the greatest 
and most terrible ills. 

(2.) Or whether we regard the state that God brings them in [toj hy believing: 
being in the favour of God, they enjoy the fruits of that favour, ' peace and 
joy in the Holy Ghost,' Rom. xiv. 17. And then for the hfe to come, they 
are under the ' hope of glory.' The state of a Christian is a state of joy 
every way, whether, I say, we regard the ill he is freed from, or the good 
he is in for the present, or the hope of eternal good for the time to come. 
A Christian, which way soever he look, hath matter of joy. God the Father 
is his, Christ is his, the Holy Ghost is his Comforter, the angels are his, 
all are his, hfe or death, things present or things to come, all are his, 1 Cor. 
iii. 22. Therefore, there is no question of this, that eveiy one that hath 
given his name to Christ is in a state of joy, if he answer his calling, or he 
should labour to be in it ; he wrongs his condition else. 

Why should they labour to be in that state ? 

Reason 1. Among many reasons, one is, that God that gives them such 
matter of joy, may have glory from them. For what should the hfe of a 
Christian be, that is freed from the greatest ill, and advanced to the 
greatest good ? His life should be a perpetual thanksgiving to God ; and 
how can a man be thankful that is not joyful ? Joy is, as it were, the oil, 
the anointing. It makes a man cheerful, it makes the countenance of his 
soul to be cheerful. 

Reason 2. It makes him active in good, when he is anointed with the oil 
of gladness. Now eveiy man should have a desire to be good, to be diH- 
gent and expedite* in all that is good. Therefore we should labour for 
this spiritual anointing, that we may be ready for every good work, ' Vessels 
of mercy prepared for eveiy good work,' Rom. ix. 23. 

Reason 3. And then for suffering, we have many things to go through in 
this world. How shall a man sutler those things that are between him and 
heaven, with joy, unless he labour to bring himself to this temper of joy ? 

Reason 4. And then for others, every man should labour to encourage 
others. We are all fellow-passengers in the way to heaven. Therefore 
even to bring on others more cheerfully, we ought to labom- to be in a state 
of joy. Those that do not rejoice, they bring an ill report upon the way 
of God, as if it were a desolate, disconsolate way. As the spies brought 
an ill report upon the land of Canaan, whereupon the people were dis- 
heartened from entering into it ; so those that labour not to brinw their 
hearts to spiritual joy, they bring an ill report on the ways of God, and 
dishearten others fi'om entering into those ways. Which way soever we 
look, we have reasons to encom-age us to joy, that God may have more 
glory, and that we may do him more service ; that we may endure afflic- 
* That is, ' active.'— G. 



508 



COMMENTARY ON 



tions better, and encourage others, and take away the reproach of religion 
from those that think it a melancholy course of life ; which indeed do not 
understand what belongs to the state of a Christian, for the state of a Chris- 
tian is a state of joy. 

And if a Christian do not joy, it is not because he is a Christian, but 
because he is not a Christian enough, because he favours the worse i^rinciple 
in him, he favours himself in some work of the flesh. 

God in the covenant of grace is all love and mercy. He would have us 
in om- pilgrimage to heaven to ' finish our course with joy,' Acts xx. 24 ; 
and he knows we can do nothing except we have some joy. It is the oil 
of the soul, as I said, to make it nimble and fit for all actions, and for all 
sufferings. It gives a lustre and grace to whatsoever we do. Not only 
God loves a cheerful performer of duties, but it wins acceptance of all 
others, and makes the worker himself wondrous ready for any action. This 
I mention only as a ground. A Christian that hath given his name to 
Christ, is either in a state of joy, or else should labour for it. 

The second, which is the main, is that — 

Doct. 2. The xmrcl of God, as it is unfolded, is that that helps this joy. 

' We are helpers of your joy,' we ministers. St Paul spake of himself 
as a mmister. The word of God is a helper of joy, especially as it is un- 
folded, considered as it is dispensed in the ministry. You know the word 
of God it is called 'the word of reconciliation,' 2 Cor. v. 18, because it doth 
unfold the covenant between God and us. It is called ' the word of the 
kingdom,' the ' word of life,' &c., which all are causes of joy; therefore 
the word breeds joy, Ps. xix. One commendation of the statutes of God 
is, that ' they comfort the heart,' Ps. xix. 8, and refresh the heart. He 
follows the commendation of the word at large, ' The statutes of God are 
perfect, converting the soul ; the testimonies of God are sure, making 
wise the simple,' Ps. xix. 7, 8, 9. And among the rest of the commenda- 
tions, as a commendation issuing from the rest, ' The statutes of God are 
right, rejoicing the heart.' The word of God is a cordial, especially to 
refresh and solace the heart. 

St Paul, Rom. xv. 4, makes it the scope of the word : ' Whatsoever 
was wi'itten aforetime, was written for our learning, that we, through 
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope,' So likewise, 
' He that prophesieth speaketh to men to edification, to exhortation, 
and to comfort,' 1 Cor. xiv. 3, 4. ' Ho that prophesieth,' that unfoldeth 
the word, ' he speaketh to men to edification, to exhortation, and to com- 
fort.' So the end of the word, and the end of prophesying, the ministry 
of the word, is to help our joy, oui' comfort, to support us against all ills 
either felt or feared, by greater arguments than the ill is. For that is to 
comfort and rejoice, to make any to joy. It is to support the soul against 
all grievance, either spiritual or outward, either felt or feared, and that from 
stronger arguments than the grievances are. If they be equally poised, it 
is no comfort ; if the comfort be inferior, it is no comfort. 

As the heathen man complained of those comforts he had, I know not 
how it is, but the physic I have to cure the grievance of my mind, it yields 
to the malice of the disease, the disease is above the cure. So it is true of 
all philosophical comforts, that are fetched out of the shop of nature, the 
physic yields to the disease ; the malady or disease exceeds the remedy, 
therefore there is no comfort. Comfort is, when the inward support is 
greater and stronger than the grievance is, whatsoever it be. 

Now such comfort must only be fetched out of the word. The Scrip- 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 509 

ture is a common treasury of all good and comfortable doctrines ; but 
especially as it is dispensed in the ministry, as it is divided by the ministers 
of God ; thereafter as they see the necessity of God's people, and the 
exigents* they are brought to, accordingly they should draw comfort out of 
this common treasury. Thereupon that that Christ saith of himself, ' Thou 
hast given me the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to the 
weary soul,' Isa. 1. 4, it is true of all the true ministers of Christ, that have 
that sjiiritual anointing, that have the same Spirit that Chiist had, ' God 
hath anointed them, that they might speak a word in season ' to poor 
distressed souls. God hath given them the tongue of the learned, for this 
very end and purpose. God hath given them a healing tongue for a 
wounded soul. Indeed, they carry physic in their tongues ; and the very 
leaves, the very words, have a medicinal force. 

When those that are true ministers speak a word in season to a 
wounded, distressed soul, the Spirit goes with the word, and it hath won- 
drous efficacy for the comfort and raising up of the soul. Experience 
shews this. 

Now to give a few instances how it is done, how the ministers do it, how 
they are ' helpers of our joy.' 

1, They do it first of all, by acquainting people with the ill estate they are 
in; for all sound comfort comes from the knowledge of our gi'ief, and 
freedom from it. They acquaint people with their estate by nature, that 
they are in the state of damnation, that they are under the ' curse' of God, 
under the 'wrath of God,' that they are in a 'spiritual bondage;' they 
labour that they, together with the spirit of bondage, may make people to 
see their state of bondage. For they must plough before they sow, and the 
law must go before the gospel. The law shews the wound, but the gospel 
heals the wound. Now they must know the wound ; the commanding part, 
all the threatening part of the word. They must know what they are, 
before they can know their comfort. Therefore John Baptist he came before 
Christ, he made way for the sweet doctrine of Christ that came with bless- 
ing in his mouth, ' Blessed are the poor in Spirit ; ' ' Blessed are they that 
hunger and thirst;' ' Blessed are those that suffer persecution,' &c,. Mat. v, 
3, 6, 10, Even as to Elias there was a strong wind came before the still voice, 
1 Kings xix. 12, so there must be somewhat to rend, and to open the heart, 
before this oil of comfort can be poured in. Now that is the first thing, 
the ministers help people to comfort, by helping them to understand them- 
selves, what they are in the state of nature. They labour to search the 
wound first, to cure the soul as much as they can of all guile of spirit, tha 
the soul may not be guileful to misunderstand itself, 

2. And when they have done this, then they breed joy, by lyropounding, 
and shewing the remedy which is in Jesus Christ ; then they open the riches 
of God's love in Christ, then open the sweet ' box of ointment' in Christ, 
they shew to man his righteousness. As you have an excellent place in 
Job, chap, xxxiii. 14, seq., of the whole force of the ministry ; it is followed 
at large what the minister doth to bring a man to joy. He begins, verse 
14, ' God speaks once and twice, but man perceives it not ; in visions and 
dreams by night, when deep sleep falls upon them ; then he opens the ears 
of man, and seals instruction,' &c. * He chastiseth him with pain upon his 
bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain ; so that his life 
abhors bread.' He speaks of a man, that is brought down by the sight of 
sin. ' His flesh is consumed away, it cannot be seen, his bones stick out,' &c. 

* That is, 'exigencies.' Cf. footnote, vol. I. p. 412. — G. 



510 COMMENTARY ON 

A strange description of a man in a disconsolate estate. His ' soul draws 
near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers.' What of all this ? 
what is the way to bring him out of this ? ' If there be a messenger with 
him, an interpreter, one of a thousand, one that hath the tongue of the 
learned, to shew a man his righteousness, then God is gracious to him, and 
delivers him from going to the pit. I have found a ransom,' &c. The 
messenger, ' one of a thousand,' the man of God, that hiatli * the tongue of 
the learned,' he hath showed him where his ransem is to be had, he hath 
shewed him his righteousness. 

Thus did St Peter, after he had brought them to ' Men and brethren, 
what shall we do to be saved?' Acts ii. 37, 38 ; then he points them out 
to Jesus Christ. Therefore the ministry is called ' the ministry of recon- 
ciliation,' 2 Cor. V. 18, and the * ministiy of peace,' Eph. ii. 17 ; they are 
called ' messengers of peace.' You know joy comes from reconciliation 
with God in Christ, joy comes from peace. Now the ministers they are 
messengers of reconciliation, and messengers of peace, and therefore mes* 
sengers of joy, ' They bring glad tidings of joy,' Luke i. 19. You see how 
ministers are helpers of joy, by shewing to man his ill, and then by shewing 
to man his good, and comfort in Jesus Christ ; they shew, that ' where sin 
hath abounded, grace abounds much more,' Rom. v. 20. They dig the 
mine, to let people see what riches, what treasm'e they have in the word of 
God, and what comfort they have there. 

3. And then in the continual course of life, they are ' helpers of joy.' 
For what do ministers, if they be faithful in their places, but advise in cases 
of conscience what ijeople sJiouhl do ? so their office is to remove all scruples, 
and hindrances, and obstacles of spiritual joy, by advising them what to 
avoid, and what to do (piypp)' 

We know that light is a state of joy. The ministry of the gospel is light. 
It sets up the light of God's truth. It shews them the way they should go 
in all the course of their life ; and thereupon it rejoiceth them. The word 
of God is a lanthorn, especially in the ministry. 

Sjnritual lihertij, and freedom, that doth make people joyful. But the 
end of the ministry is to set people more and more at liberty ; both from 
the former estate that I named, and likewise daily by office, to set them at 
liberty from corruptions, and temptations, and snares ; to bring them to an 
enlai'ged estate. 

Victory, and triumpk is a state of joy. Now the ministers of God teach 
God's people, how to fight God's battles, how to handle their weapons, how 
to answer temptations, how to conquer all, and at length how to triumph. 
Therefore in that regard they are helpers of their joy. They encourage 
them against discouragements, against infirmities and afflictions, against 
Satan's temptations, shewing them grounds of joy out of the Scriptures. 

4. Then they are ' helpers of their joy,' h^ forcing it as a dutg upon them, 
' Rejoice evermore, and again I say, rejoice,' saith St Paul, Philip, iv. 4. 
They are as guides among the rest of the travellers, that encourage them in 
the way to heaven, * Come on,' let us go cheerfully. As the apostles in all 
their epistles, they stir up to joy and cheerfulness ; so should those do that 
are guides to God's people. Travellers they need refreshments of wine, &c. 
Now thus the ministers of God help the people of God in their spiritual 
travel to heaven. If the people of God faint at any time, then as it is. 
Cant. ii. 5, they refresh them with ' apples and wine,' with the comforts of 
the Holy Ghost. They are ready to support and comfort them in all their 
spiritual falls, when they are ready to sink. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER, 24. 511 

We see by experience in all places where the ministry of the word is 
established, how comfortably people live, and die, and end their days above 
other people ' that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death,' Mat. iv. 16. 
So we see this is true, that the ministers help jo}-, because they help that 
that breeds joy, not only at the first, but continually help the joy of the 
people of God, even to death. 

5. And then in death itself, the end of the ministry is to help joy, to help 
them to heaven, to help them to a joj-ful depai'ture hence, to give them a 
good and comfortable loose * out of this world, drawing comfort out of the 
word for this purpose ; for whatsoever the minister doth, it is by drawing 
comfort out of the word, shewing them that the sting of death is taken 
away, that now death is reconciled, and become a fiiend to us in Christ ; 
that it is but a passage to heaven, that now it is the end of all misery, and 
the beginning of all happiness, ' Blessed are those that die in the Lord,' 
Rev. xiv. 13. So they assist, and help them in those last agonies. 

There is special use of the dispensation of the word in all conditions 
while we live, and at the hour of death. You see it is clear, I need not 
further enlarge the point, that the ministers by reason of the word, which 
indeed is the main thing that comforts, they are helpers of the joy of God's 
people. 

Ohj. But you will say, They help God's people to sorrow, and they vex 
and trouble them ofttimes. 

Ans. Indeed, carnal men think so, as the two witnesses in the Revela- 
tions, it is said, ' They vexed the men upon the earth,' Rev. xi. 10. So 
indeed, the faithful witnesses of God, tlaey vex the earthly-minded, base 
men ; as Ahab said of Elias, ' Thou art he that troubleth Israel,' 1 Kings 
xviii. 17. He accounted him as one that troubled Israel, when it was 
himself that troubled Israel. These ministers, thej'^ are accounted those 
that mar all the mirth in the world ; that a man that is given to pleasures 
and delights, he trembles at the sight of them, as men opposite to his de- 
lights and carnal course : he cannot brook the veiy sight of them ; so it is 
with a carnal man. 

But we may make an use hence, to judge of what spirit they are that 
judge and think so, they are not true believers ; for there is no man that 
hath given his name to Christ, and makes it good by his life that he is a 
good Christian, but he accounts the ministers ' helpers of his joy.' Those 
that do not so, are in an ill course ; and which is worse, they resolve to be 
in an ill course. 

Therefore, let us make much of the ordinances of God, as that which is 
the joy of our souls ; not only make much of the word of God, but of the 
word of God in the ministerial dispensation of it ; for ofttimes we find that 
comfort by the opening of the word of God, that our own reading and pri- 
vate endeavours could never help us to : experience shews that. We see 
when the eunuch was to be converted, it was he that read, but Philip was 
sent to open the word to him, and then ' he went away rejoicing,' Acts 
viii. 39. And so the poor jailer, when the word was opened and applied to 
him, then he rejoiced. Acts xvi. 33. Therefore, as we intend our own 
comfort, let us regard the ministry. 

Ohj. Many object that, that Naaman the Assyrian did, I can have as much 
comfort by reading. 

Ans. I would they were so well occupied. But God gives a curse to pri- 
vate means, when they are used with neglect of the public. And joy comes 
* That is, 'loosening,' = departure. Cf. note a, vol. I. p. 350. — G. 



512 COMMENTARY ON 

from God's Spirit. God will not attend our pleasure to give us joy and 
delight in what we single out, but in his own course and way. And if 
Naaman the Assyrian,* that thought the rivers of Damascus were as good as 
Jordan, and, therefore he thought it a fondf thing to wash there ; if he had 
not yielded to the counsel of his servants, he had gone a leper home as he 
came ; but he was wiser, 2 Kngs. v. So those that cavil at the ordi- 
nance of God, they may live and die lepers for aught I know, except with 
meelcness of spirit they attend upon the ordinance. 

Ohj. But you will say. Those that are true Christians and good men, 
they are ofttimes cast down by the ministry, and brought to pangs of con- 
science ; therefore, what joy can there be ? how are they ' helpers of 
their joy ? ' 

Ans. If they do so, yet it is that they might joy. St Paul did bring the 
Corinthians here to sorrow, but he brought them to sorrow that they might 
joy ; as you have it excellently set down. ' For though I made you sorry 
with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent,' 2 Cor. vii. 8. I was 
sorry that I was forced to be so bitter against you ; for I perceive that the 
same epistle made you sorry, though but for a season ; ' now I i-ejoice, 
not that you were made sorry ' (here is a sweet insinuation), but that you 
were sorry to repentance ; * for you were made sorry after a godly manner, 
that you might receive damage by us in nothing.' So the sorrow that is 
wrought by the ministry in the hearts of the people, it is a sorrow to re- 
pentance, a sorrow tending to joy. 

We say of April, that the showers of that month dispose the earth to 
flowers in the next ; so tears and grief wi'ought in the heart by the ministry, 
they breed delight in the soul ; they frame the soul to a delightful, joyful 
temper after.]; And that is part of the scope of this very text, ' we are 
helpers of your joy,' and, therefore, if I had not spared you, but had come 
in severity, all had been for joy : so whether the minister open comfort or 
direction, it is for their joy. If they see them not in a state fit, then [it is 
their office] to discover to them their sin and danger, and to tell them that 
they must be purged by repentance, before they can receive the cordial of 
joy ; but all is for joy in the end. 

A physician comes, and he gives sharp and bitter purges ; saith the 
patient, I had thought you had come to make me better, and I am sicker 
now than I was before. But he bids him be content, all this is for your 
health and strength, and for your joyfulness of spirit after ; you will be the 
better for it. So in confidence of that, he drinks down many a bitter 
potion. So it is with those that sit under the ministry of God, though it 
be sharp and severe, and cross their corruptions, yet it is medicinal physic 
for their souls, and all will end in the health of the soul, in joy afterwards. 

Obj. It will be objected again, The word of God, and the dispensation of 
it, it is for doctrine, ' to teach and to instruct,' and not especially to joy : 
that should not be the main end ; for we see in Rom. xv. 4, ' Whatsoever 
was written, was written for our learning.' So in 1 Cor. xiv. 3, he that 
speaks, speaks to ' edification and exhortation,' as well as to comfort. 

Aiis. It is true ; but all teaching, and all exhortation, and all reproof, 
they tend to comfort : even doctrine itself tends to comfort. For as it is 
with divers kinds of food, they have both a cherishing virtue in them to 
strengthen, and a healing virtue to cure. So it is with the word of God, 

* That is, ' Syrian.'— Ed. t That is, ' foolish.'— G. 

X See this comparison beautifully stated by Adams (Practical Works, vol. III. 
p. 299).— Ei). 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VKR. 21. ol3 

the doctrinal part of it hath a comforting force. And, indeed, doctrine is 
for comfort ; for what is comfort but a strengthening of the aficctions, fi-om 
some sound grounds of doctrine imprinted upon the understanding, whereof 
it is convinced before ? The understanding is convinced thoroughly, be- 
fore the soul can be comforted thoroughly. Therefore the Scripture tend- 
ing to doctrine, that being one end of it, tends likewise to comfort, because 
that is the issue of doctrine ; for what is comfort, but doctrine applied to a 
particular comfortable use ? 

As in plants and tree, what is the fruit of the tree ? nothing but the 
juice of the tree applied and digested into fruit ; so, indeed, doctrine is 
that that runs through the whole life of a Christian, and the strength of 
doctrine is in comfort. Comfort is nothing but doctrine sweetly digested 
and applied to the affections. He will never be a good comforter, that doth 
not first stablish the judgment in some grounds of doctrine, to shew whence 
the comfort flows. So that howsoever there be many thuigs in Scripture 
that are doctrinal, yet in the use of them those doctrinal points tend to joy 
and comfort. As, I said, in meat there is the same thmg, something" that 
both nourisheth and likewise refresheth, as a cordial ; so the word of God 
both nourisheth the understanding, and is as a cordial to refresh and com- 
fort ; and it is a kind of joy to the soul, to have it stablished in sound doc- 
trine : that is the ground of comfort. So that notwithstanding any thing 
that can be objected, the end of the word of God, especially in the dispen- 
sation of it, is to joy and comfort. 

Use. Which should teach people to regard the ministry in this respect, 
that it is a helper of their comfort, that they do not grieve those that help 
their comfort ; for what is the end of a minister, as a minister, but to make 
others joy ? that both God in heaven, and the angels, and ministers, and 
all may rejoice together in the conversion of a Christian.! Now, for people 
to vex those that, by virtue of their calling, labour to help forward their joy, 
is very unkind usage ; yet it was the entertainment that our blessed Lord 
and Master himself found in the world ; and St Paul himself saith, ' The 
more I love you, the less I am loved of you,' 2 Cor. xii. 15. 

And then it should move people to lay open the case of their souls to 
their spiritual physicians upon all good occasions. People do so for the 
physicians of their bodies ; they do so in doubtful cases for their estates. 
Is all so well in our souls that we need no help nor comfort ? no removing 
of objections that the soul makes, no unloosing of the knots of con- 
science ? Is all so clear ? Or are men in a kind of numbness, and deadness, 
and atheism, that they think it is no matter that they put all to a venture, 
and think all is well ? It were better for the souls of many if they had 
better acquaintance with their spiritual pastors than they have ; for their 
caUing is to help the joy of the people ; and how can they help it except 
they lay open their estates to them upon good occasion ? What do they 
herein but rob themselves of joy ? They are their own enemies. 

I pass to the third, 

Doct. 3. They are helpers of joy, and hut helpers. 

They do but utter and propound matter of joy, grounds of joy from the 
word of God ; but it is the Spirit of God that doth rejoice the heart, ' The 
fruit of the lips is peace,' Isa. Ivii. 19. It is true, but it is when the Spirit 
of God speaks peace to the soul together with the lips, ' God creates the 
fruit of the lips to be peace,' saith Isaiah. The fruit of the lips is peace, 

* Misprinted ' sometime.' — G. 

t That is, ' of a sianer converted into a Christian.' — G. 
VOL. Til. K k 



CI -4 COMMENTARY ON 

but God creates it to be so. So the ministers are comforters, but God 
saith, ' I, even I, am thy comforter,' Isa. li. 12. We speak matters of 
comfort and grounds of comfort, but God seals them to the heai-t by his 
Holy Spirit. God is the comforter himself, * He is the Father of comfort, 
and the God of all consolation,' Rom. xv. 5. And the Spirit is caUed ' the 
Comforter,' to shew unto us that however in the ordinances the materials of 
comfort be set a-broach* to God's people, yet notwithstanding that that 
speaks peace to the heart, and sets on those comforts to the soul and con- 
science, it is the Spirit of God, God himself. So there is the outward 
preaching and the spiritual preaching. He hath his chair in heaven that 
teacheth the heart, as St Austin saith (qqqq). St Paul speaks, but God 
opens the heart of Lydia ; he hath the key to open the heart, f 

Therefore, you have all attributed to the Spirit of God. In John x\i. 5, 
seq., ' I go hence, but I will send you the Comforter,' the Holy Ghost ; and 
what shall the Comforter do ? 'He shall convince the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and judgment.' Do not pretend, therefore, your own in- 
ability, that you are unable to comfort, or to cast down, or to seal unto 
people their righteousness ; do you that that is your duty, propound 
grounds of direction, and casting down, and of righteousness, and of judg- 
ment, of holy life after ; and then the Holy Ghost shall go with you ; the 
Comforter shall do this to the hearts of people ; the Holy Ghost shall con- 
vince. ' What is Paul, or what is ApoUos, but ministers ? ' ' Paul may 
plant, and Apollos may water ; ' but if God give not the increase, what is 
all ? 1 Cor. iii. 6. 

Therefore, Christ promiseth his disciples, that the Holy Ghost should 
accompany their teaching. They might have objected, Alas ! we shall 
teach the world, that they are Gentiles, that they are obstinate persons, 
hardened in superstition. Do not fear, saith he, ' I will send the Holy 
Ghost.' He shall fall upon you and furnish you. Now when the Holy 
Ghost was in them, and the Holy Ghost in their auditors too, together with 
the word inspired by the Holy Ghost : when the Spirit meets in these 
three, there are wonders wrought. When the Spirit of God is in the 
teacher, and the Spirit of God in the hearers, and the Spirit of God in 
the word : I say, when there is one Spirit in the teacher, and in the 
hearers, and in the word, there are wonders wrought of conversion and 
comfort. 

It is the Spirit that must do all. We are nothing but ministers. ' Let 
a man conceive of us as ministers and dispensers of the gospel,' 1 Cor. 
iv. 1. Ministers of comfort we are, and but ministers ; just so we are 
' helpers of your joy,' but we are but helpers. Those that account us not 
helpers of joy, know not our calling; and those that account us more, that 
we are able to comfort people by the word, they turn the preaching of the 
word to magic, to a charm. We can speak the word ; but God must speak 
to the heart at the same time. 

As it is with physical water ; there is the water, and there are many 
strong things in it. What ! doth the water cure or purge ? It is a dead 
thing, it hath no efficacious quality, but to cool, &c. Whence comes the 
efficacy ? There are some cool herbs, some strong things in it, and then 
it doth wonders. So what is the infusion of the word but water, but aqita 
vita;, water of life, the dew of heaven, rosa soJis ? Whence is it so ? As water ? 
No ; but there is a divine influence and vigour in it, that refresheth and 

* That is, ' broached ' = opened. — G. 

t ' Lydia's Heart Opened," is the title of one of SiLbes's minor writings. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, YER. 24. 515 

quickeneth the soul. It doth not do it of itself, but it hath a divine influ- 
ence of the Spirit. 

So we see, though ministers be helpers of joy, they are but helpers. 
They are but the conduits that convey that that comes from the Spirit of 
God. They are instruments of the Spirit. 

1. You see it clear then, that God onhj speaks comfort; because the 
Spirit of God only knows our spirits thoroughly. The Spirit of God can 
only comfort, because he knows all the discomforts of our hearts, he knows 
all our giiefs, all the corners of our hearts. That the minister cannot do. 
The minister may speak general comforts ; but the Spirit of God knows all 
the windings and turnings of the heart, and all the disconsolate pangs of 
the heart and soul ; every little pang and grief, the Spirit of God knows it. 
Therefore, the Spnit of God is the Comforter. He strikes the nail, and 
seals the comfort to the soul : we are but helpers. 

2. Then again, the Spirit of God must do it, because the soul must be set 
down with that that is stronger than itself. It must be so connnced and 
set down, that it must have more to say against the gi'ief or temptation, 
than can be alleged by the devil himself. The soul, before it be comforted, 
it must be quieted and stilled. Now who is above the soul, and Satan 
that tempts the soul ? Let Satan be let loose to tempt the soul, and the 
soul hath a hell in itself, if God let it alone. Who is above those un- 
speakable torments of conscience, if they be not allaj'ed by the Spirit of 
God ? "Who is above the soul, but the Spirit of God ? Will the soul allay 
itself ? No, it will never. Therefore the Spirit of God, that is stronger 
and wiser than the soul, and is the Spirit of light and strength, it must set 
down, and quiet, and calm the soul, that it hath nothing to say against the 
comfort it brings, but quiets itself, and saith, I must rest, I must see this 
is from heaven, I am quiet. This the Spirit doth. 

Use. Therefore make this use of it, that in all our endeavours to procure 
peace to our consciences, and spiritual balm to the wounds of our souls, 
let us f/o to this heavenhj Phi/sician : not depend overmuch upon tho 
ministry, or reading, or any outward task ; but in the use of all things lift 
up our hearts to God, that he would comfort us by his Spirit, that he 
would send the Comforter into our souls. 

Though the disciples had comfort upon comfort by Christ, yet till the 
Comforter came, whose office it was to do it, to seal his word to their 
souls, alas ! they were dead-hearted people ; but after the resurrection, 
when the Comforter came, and refreshed their memories, and convinced 
their understandings, then they could remember all the sweet comforts that 
our blessed Saviour had taught them before. So it is with us, — we hear 
many sweet comforts day after day out of God's book, comforts against sin, 
comforts against trouble, outward, and inward, and all ; but till the Com- 
forter come, till God send his Holy Spirit, we shall not make use of them. 
Therefore let us labour to have more communion with God before we come 
to hear the word ; and after we have heard it, let us have communion with 
God again, that he would seal whatsoever is spoken to our souls, and make 
it effectual to us. 

Therefore we must learn to give the just due to the ordinance of God, 
and not to idolize it ; to make it the means of comfort, not to make it the 
chief Comforter, but the Spirit of God by it. What is Paul or ApoUos ? 
what are we but ministers of faith ? and by consequent, ministers and 
helpers of comfort, but not the authors of comfort. 

Oh ! if I had such and such here, I should do well, I should 1^ so and so. 



olG COMMENTARY ON 

Alas ! all is to no purpose, unless tliou hast the Holy Ghost, the Spirit 
of God. That can help by weak means. Therefore we must not tie com- 
fort and joy to this or that means ; but in all means look to the ground of 
comfort, and the spring of all, the Holy Ghost. 

The reason why men do not profit more, that they are not more cheered 
and lift up with the ministry of the word (which is a word ' of reconciliation,' 
and of joy and comfort), it is because they are more careful in the use of 
means, than in going to God for his Spirit to bless the means. Now these 
must go together : a care of using the means, and a care to pray to him 
that he would give us wisdom, and strength, and blessed success in the use 
of all means. Then if we would join religiously and conscionably* these 
two together, the use of all means conscionably, and in the use of all to 
lift up our hearts to God to bless them, we should find, a wondrous success 
upon the ministry, and all other good means likewise. So much for that. 
I go on to the last clause of the chapter. 

' For hy faith ye stand,' Why doth the apostle vary the word, ' We 
have not dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy,' whereas 
the consequence, it seems, might run thus : * We do not domineer over 
your faith, but are helpers of your faith ? ' He puts joy instead of faith ; 
and afterward he brings in faith again : ' for by faith ye stand.' 

This is one main reason : because joy riseth from faith, therefore he 
names it instead of faith ; for the Holy Ghost is not curious of words, but 
when the same Spirit works both, he names that which he thinks will 
fittest suit the purpose. 

Obs. Faith breeds joy. 

How is that ? 

1. Because faith, first of all, doth shew to us the freedom from that that 
is the cause of all discomfort whatsoever, it takes awaij all that may discou- 
rage. For it takes away the fear of damnation for oar sins ; it shews our 
reconciliation in Jesus Christ. Faith shews liberty and deliverance ; and 
so discovering deliverance by a Mediator, it works joy. Is not a prisoner 
joyful when he is set at liberty ? 

2. Then likewise faith discovers to us the face of God shining to us in 
Jesus Christ : it shews not only deliverance, hit favour. It shews us the 
ground of all, the righteousness and obedience of our Saviour, whereby 
we are delivered, and brought into favour. 

Now from this comes peace : from the knowledge of our deliverance and 
acceptance with God, founded upon the obedience of God-man, a Saviour, 
there comes in peace, and peace breeds joy ; because faith discovers all 
these, the ground of reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ, and there- 
upon peace, therefore it causeth joy. 

For this is the pedigree and descent of joy, as the apostle hath it, ' The 
kingdom of God is in righteousness, and peace, and joy,' Eom. xiv. 17. 
There must be righteousness first, of a Mediator, to satisfy the wrath of 
God, and procure his favour. From righteousness comes peace, peace 
with God, peace of conscience. From peace comes joy. There is no joy 
without peace, no peace without righteousness. 

And this whole pedigree of joy, as it were, is excellently set down, 

' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ 

our Lord,' Rom. v. 1, and have access to the throne of grace, by which gi'ace 

we stand, and not only so, but rejoice. So there is justification by the 

a * That is, ' conscientiously' = with conscience. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 21. 517 

righteousness of Christ, and thereupon peace with God : and from peace, 
boldness and access to God, and thereupon joy. So we see how faith 
brings in joy, because it shews the spring of joy whence it comes, it shew.s 
peace, and peace riseth from reconcihation, and reconciHation from [the] right- 
eousness ot Christ, Mediator, whereupon we are deUvered from all that we 
may fear, and set in a state of true joy, God being our friend. When God 
is reconciled, all is reconciled, all is ours ; have we not cause of joy then ? 
Therefore the apostle saith, ' The God of peace fill you full of joy in 
believing,' Rom. xv. 13, shewing that faith is the cause of all spiritual joy. 
And the same you have in 1 Pet. i. 8, ' In whom ye rejoiced, after ye 
believed, with joy unspeakable and glorious.' In whom, after ye believed, 
that is, in Christ, ' you rejoiced with joy unspeakable and glorious.' And 
therefore you see the apostle might well substitute joy instead of faith, 
because it springs and riseth from faith in Jesus Chi'ist, the Mediator. 

Use. Hereupon we may come to make this use of trial, how we mav 
know whether our joy be good or no. Among many other evidences, this 
is one. 

1. That spiritual joy is good, if it spring from the u-ord of faith ; if it 
spring from the ordinance of God unfolded in the word, shewing us the 
ground of believing. For he that truly joys, can shew the gi-ound of his 
joy. 

Herein joy differs from presumption, from presumptuous swelling con- 
ceits. True joy, that is, not the joy of an hypocrite, it doth shew from 
whence it comes, it riseth from grounds out of divine truth. 

2. Then again, this joy doth more immediately sprinri from faith in the 
word, from assurance that God is ours, and that Christ is ours ; that God 
is at peace with us, and that we are at peace with him. It ariseth from 
peace that is wronght by faith. 

3. Then again, this joy, if it be sound, it is such a joy as St Peter saith 
is an unspeakable and glorious joy. Joy arising from the word of God, and 
from faith and peace, it is above dlHcoiorujement, because we have in the word 
of God matter of joy above all discouragements and all allurements whatso- 
ever. It is a joy above the joy of riches, or pleasures, or profits. "Why ? 
Because the word shews matter of joy above all these. The prophet David 
rejoiced in the word of God above gold and silver, ' as one that had gotten 
great spoils,' Ps. cxix. 162. You see how oft he repeats it. ' It was 
sweeter to him than the honey and the honeycomb,' Ps. xix. 10. It puts 
his soul out of taste with all other things. This joy of the Spirit, it puts 
such a relish in the soul that it makes it undei-valuo all other things what- 
soever. The price of other things falls down when a man joys in the 
Holy Ghost, because it ariseth from the grounds of faith, from peace and 
righteousness. 

And, hkewise, if it look forward, from the hope of life everlasting and 
the favour of God, the ground of all, it riseth from things that are above 
all other contentments, ' the lovingkindness of the Lord ' (that faith appre- 
hends, that is the ground of joy), ' it is above Hfe itself,' Ps. Ixiii. 3. Now, 
life is the sweetest thing upon earth ; but the lovingkindness of God is better 
than that. 

Therefore, those that lose their souls in base contentment, and joy in the 
dirty things of this life, that are not fit for the soul to fasten on, to place 
contentment in, but are only to be used as those that take a journey to 
refresh them ; but those that are swallowed up in these things, they know 
not what spiritual joy is, that ariseth from the word of God, from divine truth, 



518 COMMENTARY ON 

that ariseth from faith ; for if they did, this joy would raise them higher, 
above all earthly contentments whatsoever. 

• 4. Then again, where this joy is, this spiritual enlargement of soul, which 
is called joy, it is from true grounds, it is irith humilitij ; for the same 
word that discovers matter of joy, discovers matter of humility and grief 
in ourselves, by reason of the remainders of sin and of our own deservings. 
So true joy, it is a tempered and qualified joy. It is not joined with 
pride and swelling, because it riseth from those grounds that teach us 
what we are in ourselves. Alas ! such, that we need not be proud in 
ourselves, but if we will gloiy, ' we must glory in God,' 1 Cor. i. 31. 
Well ! it is not that that I mean principally to stand on, but only I speak 
01 it because it is placed here for faith, as it springs from faith. ' We 
are helpers of your joy.' To hasten, then, to that that follows. 

' For by faith ye stand.' This principally depends upon the first words, 
' We have not dominion over your faith,' because faith is such a grace 
as you stand by in all conditions. Nov/, what you stand by must be 
firm, it must be on a good bottom ; and what is firm must not be human, 
but divine. Therefore, we have no dominion over your faith, ' for by 
faith ye stand.' 

Standing is a military word [rrrr). ' By faith ye stand,' that is, first 
of all faith gives a standing, a certain standing, before any conflict. It 
gives a standing in Christianity, it sets the soul in a frame, in a standing. 

Nay, faith helps us ; we stand by faith, not only in a frame of Chris- 
tianity, and furnished with spiritual strength, but then we are fit to en- 
counter opposition. By faith we stand to it, and stand against all oppo- 
sition. We stand, and stand to it, by faith. 

And standing likewise implies continuance in managing Christianity, 
and opposing all enemies whatsoever. By faith we stand, and continue 
standing; we hold out in all opposition. 

Standing Ukewise, in the next place, implies a kind of safety, together 
with victory at length. ' By faith ye stand.' You stand so as you are 
not wounded to death ; you stand so as you are kept safe, especially from 
mortal wounds, and altogether safe so far as you use faith as a shield, 
till you have got perfect victory, and faith end in triumph. So faith is 
that grace whereby we stand, whereby we are in a frame of religion fit to 
stand, and whereby we, so standing, encounter oppositions, and continue 
so encountering, and preserve ourselves safe, till victory be obtained. This 
is the full expression and comprehension of the word, ' By faith ye stand.' 

Quest. Now, why is it by faith that we have this standing ? 

Ans. Because faith, it is that grace in the new covenant that makes the 
soul go out of itself. It empties the soul of all things in itself, and goes 
out to somewhat else, whereupon it stands. For in the new covenant, 
since Adam's fall, all our strength is in the ' second Adam,' our Head; 
we fetch it there.* And faith is the hand of the soul. 

Now, because faith in the new covenant is an emptying gi'ace, and 
likewise because, as it is a grace that empties the soul, so it fastens 
upon another thing, whereupon it relies ; for faith is an uniting grace as 
well as an emptying grace. Now, faith emptying and uniting, so it makes 
us stand. 

And likewise faith as it draws. It hath a drawing virtue, an attractive 
force. It is a radical grace. It is like a root ; when it knits to Christ, 
it sucks out and draws virtue from him. Every touch of faith draws 
* That is, ' thence' — Ed. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 519 

spiritual strength and virtue ; so it causeth us to stand by the attractive 
virtue it hath. 

And then it is the force of faith, Hkewise, to make things present ; for 
therein it differs from hope. Hope looks upon things as absent. Now, 
the things that hope looks on as things remote and distant in time and 
place, faith makes them present ; therefore, it is said to be ' the evidence 
of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1. Now, that that makes the soul to be 
strong and able to stand, it must be somewhat present. However the full 
possession of things be reserved, not for faith, but for vision, for compre- 
henders in heaven, where faith ends and determines, yet notwithstanding 
faith draws so much for the present. It sets things to come so far present 
with such evidence and force, as it upholds the soul and makes it stand. 
' It is the evidence of things not seen ; ' and thereupon it hath a kind of 
omnipotent power to make things that are not, to be. Heaven, and glory, 
and happiness, they are not for the present ; but faith, looking on them in 
the authority of God and the divine promises, faith makes them present by 
a kind of almighty power that it hath, laying hold on an Almighty power ; 
and hereupon it upholds the soul, it is the prop and stay of the soul, as in 
Heb. xi. i. seq., it signifies to stay up, to hold up as a pillar; even from 
this virtue it hath to make things to come present. 

You see, then, what it is to stand, and how faith is fitted for this pui"pose, 
because, as I said, it is the grace of the new covenant emptying us and 
drawing us to Christ, from whom we draw all virtue, and because it makes 
things to come as present. 

By faith we are set in a right frame and condition again, as by want of 
faith we fell. The same grace must set us right, for want of which we fell. 

How came we to fall at the first ? You know Adam hearkened to his 
wife Eve, and she hearkened to the serpent. They trusted not in God, 
they began to stagger at the promises, to stagger at the word of God. 
Satan robbed them of the word. He observes, and continues the same art 
still, to take the word from us, and to cause us to stagger and doubt 
whether it be true or no. He comes between us and our rock, the word of 
God. So Adam fell. Now we must be restored by the contrary to that 
we fell. We fell by unbelief and distrust, by calling God's truth in ques- 
tion; we must learn to stand again by the contrary grace, by faith. Thus 
you see the terms something unfolded. ' By iaith ye stand.' 

To clear it a little further. There be four degrees of assent that the soul 
hath to anything. 

1. The first is a slirjht assent, that we call opinion, that is, with some 
fear that it may be otherwise. That is a weak, a pendulous* assent. It 
is a wavering assent, it yields not a certain assent. Opinion is a weak 
thing : it may be so : aye, but it may not be so. It is with a fear of the 
contrary. 

2. The second degree of assent is that that hath a better ground, that is 
the assent to grounds of reason. A man hath reason to yield and assent to, 
and those reasons satisfy the soul, and rest the soul something f thereafter 
as the strength of them is. And that assent we call knowledge, science. | 
This is founded upon grounds of reason. 

3. There is a third kind of assent and yielding that the soul hath, that 
ive call beliecin//, which is merety upon the credit of him that speaks, though 
we know no reason why the thing should be so ; but only the person, it may 

* That ia, ' swaying.' — G. f That is, 'somewhat.' — G. 

t Of. Dan. i. 4, ami 1 Tim. vi. 20.— G. 



CliU COMMENTAKY ON 

be, is a person of credit, and wisdom, and knowledge ; and thereafter as we 
conceive well of him, thereafter we fasten our faith and assent to his autho- 
rity ; so that assent to the authorit}^ of the speaker, we call belief. 

4, The fourth degree of assent is, when we do not only assent to the 
thing because we have reason so to do, and arguments, or because we have 
some man to confirm it by authority ; but because we feel it to be so by 
experience and by taste. As a man assents that fire is hot, and that sweet 
things are so, not from reason altogether, or from the speech or rehearsing 
of another man, but because he feels it so indeed ; he assents to it fi'om 
experience. 

Now you will say. How come we then to stand by faith ? 

As faith especially relies upon the authority of God, upon God's word, 
so we stand by faith, because it assents to an authority. But God's word 
gives reasons too ; therefore faith assents to the authority of God's word 
first ; and then we see divine reason enough too, when we once believe God. 

And then experience in divine things too. After we believe there is an 
incredible sweetness in di\'ine things, there is a knowledge with a parti- 
cular taste. There is never a divine truth but it hath an evidence in it, 
when a man believes it once, that a man may say, ' I know whom I have 
believed,' 2 Tim. i. 12, from experience. Let the speakers of the things 
be what they will, let them apostatize from that that they have spoken ; 
after a man believes, he will see the things themselves have divine reason 
in them, as well as divine authority stablishing of them. 

Some divine truths are altogether upon divine authority. We see no 
other reason but that God hath said it ; but some truths are both credible 
and intelligible. Credible, because God hath said it, and there is reason 
to prove it ; as a man may prove by divine reason, that ' all shall work for 
the best,' Kom. viii. 28. Why ? The apostle saith, ' We love God, and 
God hath called us according to his purpose,' Rom. viii. 28. Therefore 
all things shall work for them that God hath called, to them that answer 
his divine call. There is both reason and comfort. So it is credible as it 
hath divine truth, and intelligible as it hath comfort. There are homo- 
geneal reasons with divine authority. God doth not only press us with 
authority, but he gives us reasons. 

Besides this, there is experience ; for the doctrine of divine providence, 
and of the corruption of nature, and the doctrine of comfort in the Media- 
tor Christ altogether, the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of the issue of 
all troubles for good, we find these by experience. However the teacher 
that teacheth them, perhaps, may have no sense of them himself, let him 
apostatize and do what he will, our faith stands upon them, partly because 
God saith so, that is the chief ; and because there is reason for them ; and 
because we find it so by experience. In many divine things, these three, 
both reason, authority, and experience, concur in faith. But to come a 
little further. 

Quest. What doth faith itself stand most on, by which we stand ? That 
^vhich we stand on must stand itself. Let us examine a little what faith 
itself stands on, by which we stand. 

Ans. I shewed you before partly : by divine authority and experience, 
which gives some light to it ; but we will follow it a little further. That 
faith by which we stand must stand itself; therefore it cannot be opinion, 
it must be faith. It must not be bare science neither, it must be science 
that hath faith ; faith must come in. Now faith looks to divine revelation 
especially, it looks to truth revealed from God. Now faith looking to the 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 521 

word of God, it builds, and pitcheth, and bottoms itself upon divine truth, 
divine authority, divine revelation, which we call the first truth, the first 
verity. 

Aiid not only so, but faith, that it may stand the better, hath, together 
with the word of God, the seals ; for God hath added sacraments as seals 
to the word, that helps the word. To us at least, God's word is true 
enough of itself in regard of him ; but he condescends to us, and therefore 
that faith may stand the better, that we may build upon his word, there are 
his sacraments. There are seals together with his word, and his oath too. 

Again, that his word may be the better foundation for faith, it is con- 
ceived under the manner of a covenant, the evangelical part of it, the cove- 
nant of grace, wherein God in Christ promiseth to forgive our sins, to 
accept us to life everlasting, if we believe in Christ. It is a gracious cove- 
nant. God condescends to make a covenant that faith may stand ; shall 
not I believe him that hath made a covenant, and bound himself by cove- 
nant that he will do so ? Nay, in the co"\e lant of grace, faith lays hold 
upon this, that he will fulfil and pei'form both conditions himself, both his 
part and our part. For the same truths that are a covenant, are a ' testa- 
ment' too in the gospel. A testament bequeaths things without a cove- 
nant, and therein it diflers from a covenant. A testament is, I bequeath, 
and give this. Now, whatsoever Christ in the covenant requires, because 
that in the gospel he makes good, the covenant, is* a testament, ' If we believe 
and repent,' John iii. 36. Now he hath promised to give repentance and 
belief in the covenant of grace to all that attend upon the means, and expect 
the performance of the covenant from him. 

For we can no more perform the conditions of the covenant of grace 
of ourselves than the covenant of the law. Nature cannot do it, because 
it must be done by the Spirit altogether. Now here is a foundation for 
faith to stand on. God so far condescends, as he gives his word, and Lis 
seal, and his oath with his word, to convey that word by way of a cove- 
nant, and to make that covenant a testament and will to us, that he 
will do this : and to seal that wilt with his own blood : for ' a testament is 
of no force till the testator be dead,' Heb. ix. 17. His own blood hath 
sealed the testaments. You see here what gi'ound there is for faith to 
stand upon. 

Then, again, the sweet relation that God hath taken upon him in Christ. 
He is our Father. Faith builds not on naked God, divested of his sweet 
relations (for then he is a * consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29) ; but upon God 
a Father in Christ. What a sweet thing it is to consider God a Father! 
In Christ the nature of God is fatherly to us, and our nature is sweet to 
him. We are sons in Christ. His nature is sweet to us, and ours to him. 
He will surely perform his relations. For in Christ he is a Father, not in 
creation only, but in the covenant of grace. Faith relies upon the word 
of God, upon the covenant, and testament, and upon God himself, altered 
and changed in the covenant of grace to be a sweet Father. 

But what is a further ground of this ? The nature of God himself who 
is a Father : for if God himself were not clothed with properties that 
might satisfy faith, and satisfy the soul fully, though he were a Father, it 
were not a sufficient ground for faith. But now who hath taken the rela- 
tion of a father upon him ? God, who is infinitely good, infinitely merci- 
ful above all our sins. It must be infinite mercy. Faith would not have 
footing else. For the soul will so upbraid in the sense of sin, that if God 
* Misprinted ' as.' — G. 



522 



COMMENTAKY ON 



were not a Father, and a Father infinite in mercy, nothing but infinite 
mercy will satisfy the soul when conscience is awaked, and infinite power 
to subdue all enemies, and infinite wisdom to go beyond the reach and 
subtlety of all the devils in hell. God is such a Father, as in his nature is 
of infinite mercy, and wisdom, and power. Here is a foundation for faith 
to lay hold upon indeed, to have a Father, and such a Father that is 
Jehovah. There we must rest in his essence ; he is ' Jehovah, I am ;' he 
is eternal and immutable, an eternal being of himself, and he gives being 
to all ; and all things have their dependence upon him. The devils in hell, 
and wicked men, he can quell them all, and subtract their being, and turn 
them to their first nothing from whence they came. 

You see if we resolve all to ' Jehovah, I am,' to the eternity of God ; 
and then to his nature, clothed with power, and wisdom, and mercy ; and 
then to his relation of a Father : and then how he condescends to convey 
himself sweetly by way of covenant and testament, I beseech you, is not 
here a foundation for faith to build upon in the word of God, when God 
hath thus opened himself to us ? You see what this standing is, and how 
by faith we stand, and what faith stands on, and may well stand on. To 
come to some observations, then, 

First of all, observe hence, that, 

Obs. The foundation of faith mmt he out of a man's self. 

That bottom that a man must lay his soul upon, must be out of himself: 
it must be divine, it must be God. For the soul rests not till it come to 
God.* And if the word were not God's word, it would not rest on that. 
God must open himself by his word. It must be divine revelation that 
the soul must stand upon, and at last resolve to pitch, and build, and rest 
there. It must not be human authority, therefore, not the authority of 
any creature that the soul must stand on ; because that that the soul stands 
on, must stand itself. Now nothing hath a firm consistence, but that which 
is divine : which I prove thus, there is no creature, but though it be true 
and good, yet it is changeably true, and may be otherwise than it is, 
and yet be a creature still, and a good creature. There is no man but he 
is changeable, and is changeable as a creature, and as a creature severed 
from the consideration of sin he is changeable. The very angels are 
changeable as they are creatures. All things created are mutable. It is 
the observation of Damascene.! 

Now that that is the foundation of faith must not only be true, but 
infallibly and unchangeably true : there must be no danger of error in that 
that faith lays itself upon. It is an old rule, falsehood cannot be under 
faith, because faith must lie upon truth, infallible and immutable truth ; 
and who is so but God ? and what revealed truth is so, but divine truth ? 
Therefore faith only relieth upon the fu'st good, and the first truth, upon 
God and his truth. 

Therefore we may see what to judge of that controversy between us and 
our adversaries, that would have our faith to be resolved into the authority 
of the church, and not of the Scriptures, and by consequent, not to the 
authority of God himself. 

The question is, Who hath the best standing, the papists or we ? We 
say we stand by faith, therefore we stand better than they. They say 
they stand by faith too, but how ? Their faith is resolved into the autho- 
rity of the church at length, and there they rest. But I say, even by the 
confession of themselves, or of any reasonable man, the word of God is 
* See Note h, vol. 1. p. 294.— G. t See note yJJ. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 2-1. 523 

more divine than the authority of the church can be. For the authority 
of the church is therefore infaUible and true, because the word of God saith 
so, that ' he will be with the church,' &c., and save his church. The ground 
is determined upon the word. 

Now the word to which they have recourse, to prove that they cannot 
err, that must be trusted before them. If they have credit fi'om the word, 
the word must be believed before them, before men ; for there is no man, 
if God speak by him, but he speaks by him so far as he understands the 
Scripture, and builds upon the Scriptures first. Therefore we must first 
found ourselves upon the Scriptures, and upon men as far as they agree to 
the Scriptures. 

If the Scriptures were not the word of God indeed, they could not be the 
foundation of faith, we could not stand upon them ; but they are the word 
of God indeed, for men wrote as ' they were inspii'ed by the Holy Ghost,' 
2 Tim. iii. 16. Now that that comes from men it is not infallibly the word 
of God ; but if they speak anything that is good, it is so far as it is agree- 
able to the first truth, the word of God. 

Indeed, the resolution of their faith is very rotten and unsound, and 
bewrays what their church is ; for they come at length in the grand point 
of all, to mere traditions. What is the present church ? The pope is the 
church virtually. How do they know that he cannot en* ? He is Peter's 
successor ! How do they know he is so ? The Scriptures saith not so. It 
is tradition. So that the foundation of their religion is mere tradition, a 
thing from hand to hand, that is questionable and uncertain. That is the 
foundation of all their religion. What a resolution of faith is this ! 

We stand upon this against the gates of hell, and against all temptations 
and trials whatsoever. We believe, and fasten our souls upon this truth. 
Why ? It is the word of God. How do we know it is the word of God ? 
Indeed the church first of all hath an inducing, leading power, persuading 
to read, and to hear the word of God, and to unfold the word by the 
ministry ; and that is all that the church doth. But when we hear this, 
there is a divine intrinsical majesty in the word itself, by which I know the 
word to be the word. How do I know light to be light '? From itself. It 
gives evidence from itself. So divine light in the Scriptures gives light of 
itself to all those for whom the Scripture was penned. For whom was the 
Scripture penned ? For God's people. To all that have gracious hearts, 
the word carries its own evidence with it. As light carries its own evidence, 
it discovers itself and all things else ; so doth the Scriptures, ' You have a 
sure word of the prophets,' 2 Pet. i. 19. 

Our Saviour Christ himself founds what he teacheth upon the word. 
Shall not we therefore ground our faith upon the word, when he that was 
the head of the church brings all to the word in his teaching ? Therefore 
we have a better resolution for our faith than they have. 

For indeed to say the truth, as we may say of their kind of prayers, when 
they pray to saints, &c., ' They worship they know not what,' John iv. 22. 
So we may say of their faith, they believe they know not what, they believe 
in a sinful man ; for the present pope is all their church, which is an 
ignorant man, many times, in the Scriptures, perhaps he never read them ; 
and he must determine controversies, and get into the chair, and judge that 
that shall judge him ere long. He must judge the Scripture that must be 
his judge, and the judge of aU mankind. I list not to be large in this 
point ; a little discovery is enough. 

I hasten to something more practical. We see then that faith hath an 



524 COilMENTARY ON 

establishing power; to stand by faith. Then hence we may see these truths, 
which I will but touch. 

1. First, that faith is certain. It is a certain thing, and makes the soul 
certain. It is not a weak apprehension. 

2. Again, in that it is said here, ' By faith ye stand,' we see here the 
perseverance of faith. 

But you will say, that faith whereby we stand is changeable, and there- 
fore we may fall. No ; St Peter makes a comment upon this place. ' We 
are kept by faith to salvation ; ' and ' receiving the end of your faith, the 
salvation of your souls,' 1 Pet. i. 5, 9. We are kept through faith to 
salvation. So God by his power keeps that faith that keeps us. There is 
a divine power that keeps faith, that faith may keep us ; so we stand by 
faith, and that faith stands to salvation, because it hath a firm bottom to 
stand on, and because it is kept by God himself. ' We are kept by the 
power of God through faith to salvation.' Mark how it runs along to 
salvation. Salvation is not only certain in itself, but that faith that lays 
hold on salvation is sure. ' By faith we stand ; ' not only for the present, 
but we continue by faith, and stand even to the death. 

3. Again, in the third place, which follows from the other, faith is a 
certain thin/j in itself, and we are assured of our continuance. We are 
assured that we shall be saved ; he that believeth may be assured that he 
shall be saved. First, faith is a certain thing in itself, la3-ing hold upon a 
strong foundation, the word of God. And it is sure to continue, it builds 
upon the rock. Therefore a man may believe, and he may know that he 
shall be saved ; he may know that he shall continue in a sure faith. There 
is a latitude, a breadth in faith ; and sometimes there is doubting, and 
sometimes faith, but yet there is always faith, more or less. There is a 
little and a great faith, but there is always faith. * By faith we stand.' 
These things need no farther enlargement. I only shew how they spring 
from this text. 

4. In a word, hence we learn, that it is by faith that we stand, and withstand 
all opposition u-hatsoever ; for faith is our victory. ' That is your victory, 
even your faith,' 1 John v. 4. By faith we overcome the world, by it we 
stand, and stand against all opposition whatsoever. 

To make it a little clear. 

The reason is, partly because faith doth present to the soul greater good 
than the ivorhl can, therefore nothing on the right hand can shake the soul 
of a believing Christian. Shall pleasures, and profits, and the honours of 
the world draw a Christian from his faith, when faith presents better 
honours, better pleasures at the right hand of God, ' pleasures for ever- 
more' ? Ps. xvi. 11. No, they cannot ; for there is nothing in the world, 
but there is better in religion, incomparably better. There is no com- 
parison of the pleasures of religion and of the world ; between the honour 
of being a child of God, and the honours that the world can give. There- 
fore there is nothing on the right hand in the world that can overcome the 
faith of a Christian, but he can stand against all, though it be a kingdom. 
* Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.' Why? Faith 
presented him greater honours in the church of God. He accounted the 
very ' reproach,' the worst thing in the church, better than the best thing 
in the world, ' the reproach of Christ better than the treasures of Egypt,' 
Heb. xi. 26. 

Let discouragements be offered to faith by Satan and the world, let 
them come with all the terrors and thrcatenings they can, faith is victorious, 



2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 24. C25 

and triumphant against them all, it stands against them all ; because it 
sets before the soul greater good than the ill that the world can inflict ; and 
sets before the soul greater ills if it apostatise than the world can inflict. 
Saith the world, If you do not thus and thus, you shall be cast into prison, 
or perhaps you shall lose your life. ! but saith the soul, if I yield to the 
temptations of Satan, and my own vile corruptions, I shall be cast into hell ; 
is not that worse ? There can nothing be presented to the soul that is terri- 
ble, but faith will present to it things more terrible ; therefore if there be 
faith in the soul, it will stand against all those terrors whatsoever. ' Fear 
not them that can kill the body, when they have done their worst ;' if you 
will needs fear, I will tell you whom you shall fear, * Fear him that can cast 
both body and soul into hell,' Mat. x. 28. 

So, if we be forced to sufler the loss of any thing that is good in the 
world, or be cast into any ill condition, what saith St Paul ? ' The troubles 
and afflictions of the world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed,' 
Rom. viii. 1,8. Let us set that glory before us, and that will prevail against 
all that the world can threaten, or take from us. What is all to it ? Nothing. 
Therefore, ' by faith we stand,' we keep our own standing, and withstand all 
oppositions whatsoever. 

Quest. Oh ! but what if there come more subtle temptations, and the 
Lord himself seems to be our enemy : that we have sin, and God is angry ; 
and we see he follows us with afflictions that are evidences of his anger ; how 
shall we stand now, and keep ourselves from despair ? 

Am. This is a fiery dart of Satan, when a man hath sinned, and con- 
science is awakened, to make him sink in despair. 0, but faith will make 
the soul to stand in these great temptations against those fiery darts ; faith 
puts a shield into the hand of the soul, to beat back all those fiery darts. 
For faith will present Christ to God. Indeed I have been a sinner, but thou 
bast ordained a Saviour, and he is of thine own appointing, of thine own 
anointing, a Saviour of thine own giving, and thou hast made a promise, 
that ' whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting 
life,' John iii. 36. I cast m3'self upon thy mercy in him. Hereupon faith 
comes to withstand all such fiery temptations whatsoever, nay, against God 
himself: Lord, thou canst not deny thme own Saviour, thou seemest to be 
an enemy, and though I be a sinner, and have deserved to be cast into hell, 
yet I come to thee in the name of thy Son, that is at thy right hand, and 
pleads for me by virtue of his blood shed for me ; I come in his name, thou 
canst not refuse thy own Son. For all temptations, when a man hath faith 
in him, it will send Satan to Christ to answer for him. Go to Christ, 
he is my husband, he hath paid my debts, he hath satisfied for my sins. 
So that whatsoever the temptation be, make it as subtle as you will, there 
is a skill in faith to stand against it, and to beat back all the fiery darts of 
Satan. 

Therefore, to end all, we see here xohat an excellent estate a Christian is 
in above all others, that he hath a better standing than others have ; not 
only a better standing in religion than the papists have, but in the profession 
of religion, he hath a better standing than common professors. Why ? He 
stands by faith, by sound faith. He stands not upon opinion, or because 
he hath been bred so ; he stands not upon his wit, because he sees reason for 
it ; he stands upon faith, and faith stands upon divine authority. He stands 
partly upon his own experience, that seconds faith. 

Those then that care not for religion, what standing have they ? Those 
that stand only in pleasures and profits, and in the favour of great men. 



526 COMMENTARY ON 

what standing have they ? They stand, as the psalmist saith, ' in slippery 
places,' Ps. Ixxiii. 18. There is no man, but if he have not faith he stands 
slippery ; though he be never so great, if he be a monarch, alas ! ^Yhat is it 
to stand a while ? All these things are but uncertain. Though they yield 
present content, they are but uncertain contentments. The wise man saith, 
they are but ' vanity,' Eccles. i. 2. They are like ' the reed of Egypt,' 
2 Kings xviii. 21, that will not uphold. They will not sustain the soul in 
the time of trouble. There is nothing that a man can stand upon, and fasten 
his soul upon, if he be not religious, that will hold scarce the lit of an ague, 
that will hold in the pangs of death, even in the entrance of it, that will 
hold in terrors of conscience. 

How little a trouble will blow away all those that stand on so v/eak a 
foundation as an earthly thing is ! For they have but an imagiuai-y good 
to speak of, and that imagination is driven out by the sense of the 
contrary. Let contrary troubles come, and all their fools' paradise, and 
their happiness they had before, is at an end ; it goes no deeper than 
imagination. 

All the things in this world stablish not the heart. Those that do not 
stand by faith in the favour of God in Christ, let their standing be what it 
will, it will soon be overturned by any temptation ; they can stand out 
against nothing. 

Therefore let us labour, above all things in the world, to have that faith 
strengthened by which we stand ; and let us often be encouraged to 
strengthen our faith by all means, that we may stand the better upon it ; 
and try our faith, before we trust it. It is that that we must trust to, and 
stand to in life and death. 

Therefore let us often think, Is my faith good ? is it well built ? Let 
us oft put this query to our souls, I believe the religion I profess, but 
upon what grounds ? I believe the truths in the word of God, but upon 
what grounds ? Have I a clear understanding of them, because they are 
divine ? Doth the Spirit of God open them, and shew a light in the 
Scripture that is divine ? Doth the Spirit of God give me a relish of the 
Scriptures above all the pleasures in the world ? Do I find God speaking to 
my heart in the word ? Do I find the Spirit of God with his ordinance ? 
Then my knowledge and mj^ faith will hold out, I can stand by that faith 
in the word that is wrought by the Spirit, and fastened upon the word with 
the Spirit. But if I believe the religion I profess only because the State 
doth so ; and if the king and State should do otherwise, I would change 
my religion ; or if it be because my parents were so, or my friends and 
patron is of that religion, whom I depend upon ; or because I see greater 
seeming reason for this than for the other ; I can hold argument for this, 
and not for the other. Alas ! this will not hold. But labom* to know the 
truth of the word of God by experience as much as we can, and by the 
Spirit of God giving evidence to our souls, from the inward grounds of 
Scripture, that it is the word. * I know whom I have trusted,' 2 Tim. i. 12. 
I know the promises are good ; I have felt them in my soul ; the Spirit 
hath reported them to my soul ; they are sweeter than all the things in the 
world. It is a sure word ; I bottom upon it ; I have found the comfort of 
it before, therefore I will build upon it. 

We can never stand, unless we can make our knowledge spii'itual. It 
is but acquisite" knowledge else. 

We fall in three things vilely, [unless] we Lil^our that our knowledge of 
* That is, ' acquisitive' == acquired. — G. 



2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 24. 527 

religion be spiritual, and fetched divinely out of the word of God, together 
with the Spirit. 

1. We fall into sin from this very ground ; for why do men fall into sin ? 
Because at that time they stand not upon the word of God, revealed by 
conscience to be the word of God. Ask them why they swear ? if they did 
believe the truth, the word saith, ' I will not hold them guiltless that take 
my name in vain,' Exod. xx. 7. But I am not convinced by the Spirit 
assuring my soul that it is the word of God. If men did believe it, would 
men bring a curse upon themselves ? 

And so whoremongers. The word of God saith, ' Whoremongers and 
adulterers God will judge,' Heb. xiii. 4. Would men, if they did believe this 
truth, live in these sins ? But they have only an opinion of these thing^, 
I hear that these things are divine, perhaps they are not so, and the know- 
ledge that we have is not divine ; faith is not mingled with the Spirit. 

2. Then again, from sin, we fall into despair for sin at last. Why ? 
Because our knowledge of divine truths is not spiritual, nor fi'om inward 
gi'ounds of Scripture felt by experience, the Spirit sealing the Scripture to 
my heart by some spiritual experience ; and thereupon men fall into despair 
for sin at length. For Satan plies them with temptations from their own 
guilty conscience. The grounds of their fears ai-e present, and the gi'ounds 
of their terrors are present to their souls ; for they are there, as it were, 
sealed, and branded in their veiy souls ; but their comforts are overly,* 
the promises are overly, the word is not rooted in their hearts by faith, it 
is not sealed there by the Spirit of God, the sanctifying Spirit never brought 
the word and their -souls together. Hereupon they fall into desperation, 
when their terrors are present, and their comforts are overly. 

If a man had never so sound a foundation, if he stand not, but float upon 
it, he may fall, and sink. If a man be never so weak, if he lie on a rock, 
the strength of the rock is his. So in our temptations, if we have a strong 
foundation, if we do not rest on it, the foundation wiU not uphold us. Now 
how can those rest on it that stagger in it '? that were never convinced by 
the Spirit that these things are so ? and that have had no spiritual experi- 
ence ? Satan draws thousands of souls to perdition, because their terrors 
are present, and their comforts are overly. They are not built upon divine 
truth by the Spirit of God. 

3. Again, for apostasy, in the times of the alteration of religion ; why 
do men alter as the State alters ? They are ready to have every month a 
new faith, if the times, and government alter. Why ? Because they were 
never convinced by the Spirit of God of divine truths. They had it from 
foreign arguments. The former state of things countenanced this way, now 
another state countenanced another opinion, therefore I will be of the 
safest. This is because the soul was never convinced of the truth. 

Therefore I beseech you, labour to have arguments from the experience 
of the power of the word in your souls, and arguments from the Spirit of 
God to your spirits that it is the word of God. I will stand to divine truth, 
I tind such a majesty, such a humbling, pacifying, satisfying power in it to 
all my perplexities and doubts, that it cannot but be the word of God, it 
stays my soul in all oppositions, in all temptations, and corruptions : it 
gives a stay and foundation to my soul, that no truth in the world else can 
do. When the soul is brought to such a frame, such a soul will not fall 
into gross sins while it is in such a frame, much less will it despair for sin ; 
and if there be altering of religion a thousand times, it stands as a rock 
* That is, ' lying over, superficial.' — G. 



528 COMMENTARY ON 2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 

unmoveable, because it knows from inward grounds, from the word of God 
itself, sealed by the Spirit to my spirit, that it is the word of God. Such 
a soul will hold out, and only such a soul. 

We should labour therefore by all means to have our faith strengthened ; 
and amongst other means, by the use of the sacrament, whereby God sweetly 
conveys himself to us, by way of a banquet strengthening our faith in Christ. 
He presents Christ to us as the food of our souls to refresh us, even as the 
bi'ead and wine doth. Our blessed Saviour is wiser than we. He knows 
what we stand in need of, that we have need to strengthen our faith. For 
we have need to strengthen that that must be our strength, which is faith. 
And what is the ordinance of God to strengthen faith, is it not the sacra- 
ment ? The proper use of the sacrament is to strengthen faith ; which the 
sacrament doth, being a visible sermon to us ; for here we see in the out- 
ward things Christ's body broken, and his blood shed. It is a lively repre- 
sentation, a visible crucifying of Christ, a breaking of his body, and pouring 
out of his blood. And withal here is an offer of Christ to us in the elements, 
sealing of what it represents to our souls, if we come prepared. 

God feeds us not with empty signs, but together with the outward things 
themselves, he gives the spiritual to the soul that is a worthy receiver. 

Therefore come with a humble stooping to God's wisdom in appointing 
these ordinances to this end, to strengthen faith. And come with a desire 
to have faith strengthened. That will uphold us against all temptations to 
sin, or to despair for sin. 

Oh, beloved ! if we knew what good our faith must do us ere long, we 
would labour to have it strengthened by all means. What will become of 
us in the hour of death, and in great temptations ? We shall be as chaff 
driven with the wind. If we have no consistence, and stability in divine 
truth, if our souls be not built on that, if we have not faith whereby our 
souls may be rooted in Christ, we shall be but a prey for Satan. Therefore 
considering that faith is of such wondi'ous consequence, it is the root of all 
other graces whatsoever ; as the apostle saith here, ' By faith ye stand.' 
He doth not say, by patience, or by hope, or the like. They are drawn 
from faith. Strengthen that, and strengthen all other that are infused 
from it. 

As a tree, we cast not water on the branches, but on the root. All the 
branches are cherished by the root. So strengthen faith. We strengthen 
love, and hope, and all, if we strengthen faith, and assurance of God's love 
in Christ. Thus I have at length gone over this fruitful portion of 
Scripture. 

Tkin-uni Deo gloria ! 



529 



NOTES. 



(a) P. 9. — ' As a proud critic said, " I would they had never been men that spake 
our things before we were, that we might have had all the credit of it." ' This 
seems to be a kind of paraphrase of the saying, ' Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixe- 
runt,' which, if I err not, belongs to the younger Scaliger. 

(b) P. 9. — ' And so in the Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 28, he quotes a saying out of 
an atheist.' It may be well to give here the original . . . ug Tta! rivsg rojv 7cdl)' vfiag 
'jToiTiTUiV ii^r]xasiv ToZ yu^ -/.a! yhoc sff/ubiv- Thog ox/v b'^dhyovng rov Qiou. . . . 
The quotation has been traced to two of the Greek poets, viz., 

(1) Aratus. Phenomena, 5. ToD yds x,ai yivog s'Tfisv = For we are also his off- 
spring. 

(2) Cleanthes. Hymn to Jupiter. 'Ex gov ydo yivog h/M^v = For we are thy 
offspring. 

Cf. ' The New Testament Quotations collated with the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament, in the original Hebrew, and the Version of the LXX ; and with other 
writings, Apocryphal, Talmudic, and Classical, cited or alleged so to be. By Henry 
Oough. 8vo. 1855.' The whole of this masterly and standard work is valuable ; 
but the division headed ' Quotations from Greek Poets,' with the relative ' Notes,' is 
of the last interest. 

(c) P. 11. — ' Corinth. . . . But Augustus Csesar afterwards repaired it.' For a 
very full and vivid description of ancient and more modern Corinth, I would refer 
readers to Conybeare and Howson's ' Life and Epistles of St Paul,' in any of its 
editions. Cf. also Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Hodge and Stanley, in their 
respective introductions to the ' Epistles.' Dr Stanley will especially reward. Dr 
Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' andHerzog, contain much excellent elucidation of 
the topography. 

(d) P. 16. — ' Salute him not.' For the significance of the Eastern ' salutation ' 
cf. Rom. xvi. 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 21, 22 ; and the present Epistle (2 Corinthians), 
xiii. 13. Also with another reference, 2 Kings iv. 29. One of the few post-aposto- 
lical traits preserved of John, represents him in the well-known anecdote as refus- 
ing to reciprocate the ' salutation' of a heretic who had met him in the public baths. 

(e) P. 19. — ' Grace is the begetter of joy ; for they both have one root in the Greek 
language. There is the same root for favour and for joy.' That is, %«^'S is grace, 
favour, and ^do/jjcc is joy, delight. 

(/) P. 28. — ' By Father, which is a kind of Hebraism,' &c. The original is 
6 warjig ruiv oi-/.ri^,auv, on which consult Dean Stanley, in loc. (2d ed. 1858). Web- 
ster and Wilkinson prefer ' Orientalism' to ' Hebraism.' Cf. in loc. (Greek Testa- 
ment, vol. ii., 1861.) 

(/*) P. 39. — 'We see by many that have recovered again, that have promised 
great matters in their sickness, that it is hypocritical repentance, for they have been 
worse after than they were before.' For startling illustrations of tliis, consult ' The 
Prison Chaplain : a Memoir of the Rev. John Clay, B.D., late Chaplain of the Preston 
Gaol, &c. &c. By his son, the Rev. W. L. Clay, M.A. Cambridge (Macmillan). 
8vo. 1861 ;' also his ' Annual Reports,' and other occasional publications. Of ' re- 
prieved ' criminals who, in the shadow of the gallows, had manifested every token of 
apparent penitence and heart-ch^wge, the number whose subsequent career gave evi- 
dence of reality is as 1 to 500, perhaps as awful a fact as recent criminal statistics 
reveal. 

{g) P. 40. — 'We must not do works of mercy proudly.' Lowell has finely put 
this : — 

' Not that which we give, but what we share. 
For the gifts ivithout the giver is hare : 
Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three, 
Himself, his hungering neighbour, and me.' 

The Vision of Sir Laurifal. 

(g*) P, 41. — ' What a cruel thing is it . . , without Church,' &c. This touching 
expression of Sibbes's feeling for the neglected ' masses,' the Aome-heathen, deserves 
a place beside the excellent AUeine's and Baxter's like-minded early setting forth 
of the claims of the foreign heathen. Consult Stanford's ' Joseph Alleine,' pp. 207- 
208. 

VOL. HI. L I 



530 NOTES. 

(A) p. 47. — ' St Chrysostom, an excellent preacher, yields me one observation upon 
this very place.' This seems to be a very vague recollection of the father's senti- 
ment in his ' Homily ' on the Epistle, under the verse. Nor have I met with any- 
thing nearer elsewhere in his writings. 

*,t* Having omitted a letter of reference to the following in its place, I add it 
here : — 

P. G6, line 4th from bottom. — ' As St Cyprian saith, ' We carry as much from God 
as we bring vessels.' The original is ' Nostrum tantum sitiat pectus et pateat. 
Quantum illuc fidei capacis afferimus, tantum gratise inundantis haurimus." — Epist. 
I. ad Donatum. 

(i) P. 71. — ' If any man be overtaken set him in joint, as the word 

is,' Gal. vi. 1. The word is xaragr/^w = to refit, mend. Cf. Liddell and Scott, 
and Robinson, sub voce. 

(j) P. 83. — ' There were three put in, and there was a fourth, which was Christ, 
the Son of God,' Cf. Daniel iii, 25. Our English version with its capitals has 
placed this among the memorabilia of Scripture, and of Christian experience. Few 
texts are oftener used to cheer the afflicted, while in the 'furnace of aiHiction.' It 
is perhaps allowable as an accommodation to do so, but the original does not seem 
to warrant our interpreting the 'fourth,'' as The Son of God = the Lord. As in 
the case of the ' den of lions,' Jehovah sent his ' angel,' in Scripture phrase ' a son 
of God,' Job. xxxviii. 7. 

{k) . 92. — ' So that now the fire is our friend, the stone,' &c. Compare Thomas 
Adam of Wintringham's very remarkable ' thanks ' to God for ' the stone,' in his 
' Private Thoughts,' than which few modern books contain so much uncommon and 
suggestive thinking. Bishop Wilson has worthily edited the priceless little volume. 

(Z) P. 95, — ' So St Justin Martyr saith when he saw Christians sutler,' &c. His 
words are worth giving (Apolog. ii. 12), ' I myself, when I took pleasure in the 
doctrines of Plato, and heard the Christians slandered, seeing them to be fearless of 
death, and of everything else that was thought dreadful, considered that it was im- 
possible that they should live in wickedness,' &c. &c. 

(m) P. 97. — ' The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.' This familiar 
apophthegm originated with TertuUian ; but runs more literally, ' Blood is the seed 
of Christians.' (Apologeticus adversus Gentes, c. 1.) The original is ' Plures effici- 
mur quoties metimur a vobis ; semen est sanguis Christianorum.' 

(n) P. 98. — ' Some Greek copies,' &c, Cf. Alford, in loc. (Greek Testament, 
vol. ii.) 

{o) P. 99. — 'It is an excellent speech, solus Christus.' For the passage, see vol. 
I. footnote, page 369. 

(o) P. 100. — ' It is read in the margin, and most go that way,' &c, Cf. Alford, 
as in note n. 

(q) P. 104. — ' A man need not to whip himself, as the Scottish papists do.' The 
reference is probably to the oz^er-zeal of the Scottish papists at the period contem- 
porary with Sibbcs, which manifested itself in a morbid observance of the extremest 
austerities of popery. 

(r) P. 108. — ' When he hears of any calamity of the church, whether it be in the 
Palatinate, in France, in the Low Countries,' &c. Sibbes, as stated in our Memoir, 
took the deepest interest in the ' foreign ' Protestants, and especially in the perse- 
cutions in the Palatinate. Cf. ' Memoir,' c. vii., and ' Sword of the Wicked, vol. I. 
pp. 115, 116. 

(?•'•■•■) P. 114. — ' It were offensive to name what distasteful things they will take 
to do them good.' In Stehelin's ' Rabbinical Literature ; or, the Traditions of the 
Jews, contained in the Talmud and other mystical writings, &c. &c. (2 vols. 8vo, 
1748) ; Dr Wotton's ' Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the Traditions and 
Usages of the Scribes and Pharisees in our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ's Time ;' 
&c. &c, (2 vols. 8vo, 1718), and scattered throughout Lightfoot's ' Talmudic,' and 
other ' Illustrations,' will be found many singular confirmations of the text of 
Sibbes in relation to Scripture ; while Timotliy Bright's ' Treatise, wherein is de- 
clared the 'Sufficience of English Medicines for cure of all Diseases' (1615). preserves, 
with all the quaint wit of his ' Melancliolie ' (the prototype of Burton's great book), 
tlie ' distasteful things' to which Sibbes's contemporaries submitted. Consult also 
the various histories of the early ' Materia Medics.' 

(s) P. 117. — ' A learned Hebrician Capne,' &c. John Reuchlin, one of the fore- 
most names of Germany, alike in relation to the Reformation and the Restoration 
of Letters, has recently received the splendid eulogium —enriched wit.V accumulateu 



NOTES. 



531 



' testimonies'— of Sir "William Hamilton. Consult his ' Discussions on Philosopliy 
and Literature,' &c. &c. (2d edition. 1853), pp. 212, seq., 216, 237, 239, seq. His 
student-visitors will remember how Sir William was wont to exhibit, as one of the 
greatest prizes of his collection, the interesting holograph letter of Reuchlin, first 
published in above ; and with what glowing appreciation he expatiated upon its 
writer. Sibbes calls him by his later name of Capne. He translated, in the fashion 
of the day. his guttural German into the more euphonious Greek, — both signifying 
the same thing, viz., ' smoke ' {Der ranch and ■/.a'rrvog), as Philip Schwartzerde be- 
came Philip Melancthon. He was born at Pforzheim, 1450 ; died, 1522. He was 
the preceptor of Melancthon ; and Luther acknowledged to him that ' he only fol- 
lowed in his steps, — only consummated his victory, with inferior strength, indeed, 
but not inferior courage, in breaking the teeth of the Behemoth.' Epist. ad. Reuchl., 
lib. ii., sig. C. iii., and in De Wette's Luther's Briefe, i. 196. 

{t) P. 121. — ' The word is very significant in the original,' &c. The expression is 
intensive, J^aTo^jjS^jfa/ = to be utterly at a loss, or absolutely without a way {^'^■o^oi) 
of escape. Cf. Dr Charles Hodge, in loc. 

(u) P. 121. — 'The schoolmen say,' &c. Query, Aquinas? He speaks of the 
' Magnitudo doloris Christi' as arising from his body being ' optime complexionatus.' 
Leigh, in his ' Bodv of Divinity,' so cites it, and gives as the reference ' Aq. Part 3. 
Quffist. 46., Art. 6.'' 

(v) P. 129. — ' As the heathen man could say,' ' There is not the oldest man but 
he thinks he may live a little longer, one day longer.' The ' heathen man' is 
Cicero, who says, ' Nemo enim est tam senex, qui se annum non putet posse vivere.' 
De Senectute, c. vii. § 24. 

(w) P. 133. — ' They renounce their own religion at the hour of death, as Bellar- 
mine did.' The authority for this statement is Bellarmine's own work on Justifica- 
tion, lib. V. c. 7. After defending the Eomish doctrine on this subject in opposition 
to the Protestant Evangelical, he makes this concession, which speaks more for liis 
piety than his consistency : ' Propter incertitudinem proprise justitiaj et periculum 
inanis gloriae, tutissimum esse in sola misericordia Dei et benignitate fiduciam suam 
reponere.' If I err not, a like confession is made in his ' Last Will.' 

(z) P. 134. — ' Ooster saith, and saith truly, if Christ be not there, we are the 
greatest idolaters in the world.' Cf. Notcjo, vol. II. p. 434. 

(y) P. 137. — ' Saith St Austin, ' I dare say, and stand to it, that it is profitable 
for some men to fall : they grow more holy by their slips.' The sentiment will be 
found in the following quotations : — 

(1.) ' Audeo dicere, superbis continentibus expedit cadero,' &c. — Be Divers. Serin. 
cccliv. cap. ix, tom v. col. 1378. Bened. ed fol. Par. 1679 sqq. 

(2.) ' Audeo dicere, superbis esse utile cadere in aliquod apertum manifestumque 
peccatum, unde sibi displiceant, qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt.' — De Civ. Dei. 
xiv. 13. 

Cf. footnote vol. I. 324, and Jeremy Taylor, ' Sermon on Lukewarmness and 
Zeal ; or Spiritual Fervour.' Edition of Works by Eden, iv. 149. 

(z) P. 138. — ' As the heathen man said, that great emperor, " I have been all 
things, and nothing doth me good now,'' when he was to die. " Omnia fui, nihil 
expedit' is ascribed to the emperor Septimus Severus on his deathbed (a. d. 211). 

{aa) P. 149. — ' St Bernard, a good man in evil times,' saith he, ' I consider three 
things in which I pitch my hope and trust, charitatem adoptionis, the love of Gud in 
making me his child ; and veriiatem projnissionis, the truth oi God in performing his 
promise,' &c. Sibbes paraphrases the following : ' Tria igitur considero, in quibus 
tota spes mea consistit, cliaritatem adoptionis, veritatem promissionis, potestatem 
redditionis.' — Sermon in., de panibus, 8. 

(bb) P. 154. — ' It is a seizon, as a piece of earth,' &c. Sir William Blackstonc 
(' Commentaries,' b. ii. c. 20.) explains this : ' This livery of seisin is no other than 
the pure feodal investiture, or delivery of corporeal possession of the land or tene- 
ment ; which was held absolutely necessary to complete the donation.' — Cf. also 
Richardson, sub voce. 

(cc) P. 170 — ' Deliverance is promised upon ill terms; that they may redeem 
their lives if they will, by denying God and religion — an ill bargain.' The ' perse- 
cutions' of the early Christians furnish many illustrations of the text. They were 
called merely to ' sprinkle a little incense on the altar' {i. e., of the gods), and a free 
pardon would ensue. The stern ' Covenanters' of Scotland, under Charles II. and 
James II., were repeatedly off'ered their 'lives,' if they would say, 'God save the 
king.' Neither earlier nor later was the ' ill bargain' acceded to. 



532 NOTES. 

{del) p. 1 70. — ' That they carry not themselves uncomely in troubles, but so as is 
meet for the credit of the truth which tliey seal with their blood.' The pleasant 
message of the proto-martyr of the Reformation, John Rogers, to Hooper — who was 
confined in another apartment — on the night before his death, is perhaps the most 
striking illustration of the text in English history. I'liere is abundant evidence of 
the ' credit' his stout-hearted bearing brought to ' the truth.' Rogers' most recent 
biographer observes : ' To the other condemned preachers still in prison, the news 
of Rogers' constancy came like a sudden burst of sunlight from a heavy cloud. If 
they wavered under the doom that threatened them, tliey did so no longer. He had 
set them an example worthy of imitation, and whither he had led the way, they 
could now more confidently follow. We find Bradford, in a letter to Cranmer, Rid- 
ley, and Latimer, written four days after Rogers' death, rejoicing that their ' dear 
brother' had ' broken the ice valiantly.' Ridley writes thus to Bradford : ' I thank 
our Lord God and Heavenly Father by Christ, that since I heard of our dear bro- 
ther Rogers' departing and stout confession of Christ and his truth, even unto the 
death, my heart, blessed be God, so rejoiced of it, that, since that time, I say, I never 
felt any lumpish heaviness in my heart, as I grant I have felt sometimes before." — 
Cf. Chester's ' Life of John Rogers,' pp. 213-14. 8vo. 1860. 

*^* P. 182. — ' As St Austin saith well, God hath made the rich for the poor, and 
the poor for the rich : the rich to relieve the poor, and the poor to pray for the rich ; 
for herein one is accepted for another.' The words are, ' Fecit Deus pauperem, ut 
probet divitem ; et fecit Deus divitem, ut probet ilium de paupere.' In Psalm 
cxxiv. Enarrat in fine. 

{ee) P. 184. — ' That great divine Paulus Phagius, who was a great Hebrecian,' &c. 
Paulus Fagius was born 1504, died 1550. The words quoted bySibbes form part of 
his " Concio valedictoria,'' which will be found both in German and Latin, in 
Melchior Adam's Lives of German Theologians, page 209. The German begins 
tlius, ' Ihr jungen bittel Gott,' &c. The I^atiu thus, ' Vos juniores orate Deum. 
Forte enim vos facilius exaudiet quani qui plus peccatorum admiserunt.' 

(ff) P. 191. — ' Therefore you know the Grecians accounted that a chief blessing.' 
Sibbes probably refers to the many praises of vyhia, and to the axiomatic summary 
of every 'blessing,' yj Vi^i to ffcD/xa xa/ 7riV -^v-^rriv vylna, (Isocrates, 234 B) which 
has passed into the Latin (mens sa7ia in corpore sano), and all other civilized lan- 
guages. Hygieia, the goddess of health, received abundant ' worship.' 

{(jg) P. 208, — ' The original word in the Old Testament that signifies the heart, 
it is taken for the conscience.' Cf. Gesenius, Thesaurus (preferable to his ' Lexicon'), 
under ^^ and its synonymes, with Liddell and Scott, and Robinson, under xoc^dia. 

T • 

and s-jMiidrjaig. 

(hh) P. 209. — ' Therefore the name for eonscience in the Greek and Latin signifies 
a knowledge with another.' That is ovvildrisii; = a knowing with one's self, con- 
sciousness ; and conscientia (con-scio) = joint knowledge. Cf. Note gg above. 

(it) P. 209. — ' It is a knowledge with a rule, with a general rule,' &c. See this 
principle brought out with power and pungency, by Professor Sewell of Oxford, in 
the following remarkable pamphlet, now unhappily ' out of print," and only to be met 
with at an extravagant price, ' The Plea of Conscience for seceding from the Catholic 
Church to the Romish Schism in England. ... A Sermon preached before the 
University of Oxford, Nov. 5. 1845. To which is added an Essay on the Process of 
Conscience. Oxford : J. H. Parker. 1845. Pp. xxvii. and 53. 

(jj) P. 214. — ' Cursed is he, saith the Council of Trent, that doth not equalize 
those traditions with the word of God.' Cf. History of the Council of Trent, by L. 
F. Bungener (1853. Crown 8vo ) ; Tradition, book ii. pp. 83, 88, 89, et alibi; also 
Memoirs of the Council of Trent, &c., &c., by Joseph Mendham, M.A. (1834 8vo) ; 
and Buckley's ' History,' (1852.) 

(kk) P. 217 — ' So holy St Austin, what saith he to a Donatist that wronged him 
in his reputation,' &c. The reference is to the following, ' Senti de Augustine quid- 
quid libet, sola me in oculis Dei conscientia non accuset.' Lib. Secund. contra Manich. 

{II) P. 229. — ' So it is in the original, " in the simplicity and sincerity of God." The 
word is d'S"XoV?3S = singleness of mind, the opposite of duplicity. Cf. Deans Alford 
and Stanley as to the readings. 

{mm) P. 234. — ' Christ made as though he would have gone further,' &c. The 
Evangelist is describing the attitude of the Lord as he appeared to the ' two disciples.'' 
He was 'going on ' (TooCeTO/s/ro). Assuredly he would have gone on liad he not been 



NOTES. 



533 



solicited to ' abide.' His ' going on,' or ' remaining,' was contingent on their request, 
. . . only a lesser operation of the great law of all our spiritual ' blessings ' being con- 
tingent upon prayer, upon our ' asking.' It seems somewhat perilous then to concede 
with Sibbes and our translators, that the Lord made a ' show to do ' what he did not 
' mean ' to do. He was ' going on,' intended to ' go further,' but was ' constrained ' 
to 'abide,' (ver. 29). This explanation is surely more satisfactory than Sibbes'a 
concession, and than that which resolves it into a ' speaking aftor the manner of 
men.' Jeremy Taylor and others, ' he pretended,' is exceedingly unguarded. 

(nn) P. 234. — ' Saith TertuUian very well. There is no necessity of sin to them, 
upon whom there lies no other necessity but not to sin.' The passage is in the 
treatise Be Corond Militis, as follows : — ' Nulla est necessitas delinquendi, quibus 
una est necessitas non delinquendi.' 

{oo) P. 238. — 'Thou shalt be uncased.' One of Thomas Adams' most wonderful 
' sermons' is entitled ' The White Devil ; or. The Hypocrite Uncased,' (i.e., Judas). 
Sec ' Practical Works' in the present series, 11. p. 221, seq. 

(pp) P. 251. — ' Comb-downes,' as we say. The Kev. Dr Bonar of Kelso kindly 
informs me that he met with the word ' comb-downe' in an old English poet as = 
sky-fort. That is, ' comb or coomb,' old English and Scotch for sky (coomb-ceiled 
= sky-roofed, i. e , arch-roofed, concave) and down = dun, i. e., fort or castie. Ac- 
cording to this, ' comb-downe' resolves itself into our ' sky-castles = castles in the 
air.' I regret that Dr Bonar has not been able to recover the reference. I venture 
to query if in ' comb-downe,' we have not the origin of our word, ' down-come ' or 
' come-down ' = great fall, as from prosperity to poverty. 

(qq) P. 267. — ' As we see in Spira,' &c. Consult Gribaldus. ' Historia Francisci 
Spirte' (1548), which, translated into English by Aglionby, as follows : 'A notable 
and maruailous epistle concerning the terrible judgment of God upon hym that for 
feare of men denyeth Christ and the kuowen veritie ; being the case of Francis 
Spera or Spira, an Italian, with a preface of Dr Caluine' (1550), has ever since 
been a popular chap-book. 

(rr) P. 268.—' Curse God,' &c. Cf. Rev A. B. Davidson's ' Job' in loc, (vol. i. 
1862). He says, ' Renounce ^"13, the usual word in these chapters. Some prefer 

taking the word here, howevei. in its usual sense. Bless (with sarcastic intonation 
and in irony), bless this God of yours (i. 21) again, and die ! &c. &c. (page 28). 

(ss) P. 269. — ' Stephen Gardiner's letters.' &c. There does not appear to be any 
collected edition of the ' Letters" of this notorious Prelate : but various were pub- 
lished singly, and others are met with in collections. Nearly all are in the library 
of the British Museum ; and also among the MSS. there. 

{tt) P. 271. — ' As St Austin hath a good speech, " Lord, free me from myself, from 
my own devices and policy.'" This is a reminiscence of an often-recurring apoph- 
thegm of the ' Confessions.' 

[iiu) P. 274. — Therefore Luther was wont to say, ' Good works are good, but to 
trust in good works is damnable.' This is a frequent saying of the Colloquia 
Mensalia, which in the great folio of Captain Henrie Bell (1652), was a special 
favourite with the Puritans. Our copy bears the autograph of the famous ' Puritan' 
worthy and statesman Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, a presentation copy to his son, 
' Ex dono T. B. meo filio.' Sibbes seems to have derived the greater number of his 
Luther quotations from the ' Colloquia Mensalia.' 

(vv) P. 275. — ' Graces, not as habits, as it was the proud term of the philosophers 
to call it.' The reference appears to be to the Greek term ^dog, a custom, but taken 
to signify a virtue — hence ethics. So also the Latin term vios. 

(low) P. 284. — ' It was a proud term as I said.' Cf. page 275, and note 

vv as above. 

(xx) P. 288. — ' Saith the heathen man Tully, " I thought myself wise, but I never 
was so." ' This must bo a vague recollection of Cicero. I have not been able to 
trace it. 

{yy) -P- '^^'^ — ' -^^ ^^^^ wretch said himself, when he came to die, " That he had 
})rovided for all things but for death." ' See note z above. 

[zz) P. 301. — 'For I think not that he means his former epistle,' &c. Modern 
scholarship agrees with Sibbes. Cf. Deans Stanley and Alford. 

(aaa) P. 302. — ' As you know in a war of theirs with the Turks, the story is well 
known,' &3. The Turk was Amurath. He made a treaty of peace for ten years with 
Ladislas, king of Hungary. Julian, the pope's legate, persuaded Ladislas to break 
tlio ppafe, ab,",olving him from his oath, Amurath was engiiged in another war, aad 



534 NOTES. 

was thus taken at a disadvantage. A battle was fought at Varna, 10th November 
1444. At first the victory inclined to the side of the Christians ; upon which 
Amurath, seeing his great danger, plucked from his bosom the treaty which had thus 
been broken, and holding it in his hands, with eyes upraised to heaven, made the 
following appeal : ' Behold, thou crucified Christ ! this is the league that thy Chris- 
tians in thy name made with me ; which they have without any cause violated. 
Now, if thou be a God as they say thou art, and as we dream, revenge the wrong 
now done unto thy name and me, and shew thy frown upon thy perjured people, 
who by their deeds deny thee their God.' An attack was immediately made, and 
the battle, which was almost lost to the Turks, was restored. The Hungarian king 
was killed, and his head placed upon a spear. Two -thirds of the Christian array 
perished ; and yet the Turks lost 20,000 men, so dreadful was the slaughter. I find 
above abstract cf Sibbes's reference, in the Life of the great Huniades of Hungary, 
who was taken prisoner in this battle, and who afterwards became regent during 
the minority of Ladislas, the successor of Ladislas IV. 

(bbb) P. 302. — ' The old princijile of Isidore is constantly and everlastingly true, 
" Conceive," ' &c. Isidore (Hispalensis) died 636. ' Quacunque arte verborum quis 
juret, Deus tameu, qui conscientise testis est, hoc accipit sicut iste cui juratur in- 
telligit.' — Libri duo Synonymorum, lib. ii. 

(ccc) P. 306. — ' That hope should stir up some endeavour to pray for them, seeing 
their estates are not desperate,' &c. Cf. note c, vol. I. page 171. In a long, very 
characteristic (unijublished) letter of John Newton, addressed to the late Professor 
Lawson of Selkirk, in our possession, the following paragraph occurs, and is a beau- 
tiful commentary upon Sibbes's counsel. He is speaking of the sudden death of 
Eobinson of Cambridge, in the house of Dr Priestly, and says : — ' I think Dr Priestly 
is out of the reach of human conviction ; but the Lord can convince him. And who 
can tell but this unexpected stroke may make some salutary impression upon his 
mind? / can set no limits to the merci/ or the power of our Lord, and therefore I 
continue to pray for him. I am persuaded he is not farther from the truth now than 
I was once.' 

(ddd) P. 327. — ' " That you might have a second benefit," saith the last transla- 
tion.' ' The last translation ' was our present or King James's version, first issued 
in 1611. We find ' benefit ' in the text, and ' grace ' in the margin, as described by 
Sibbes. 

(eee) P. 331. — ' Therefore St Austin doth well define predestination ; it is an or- 
daining to salvation, and a preparing of all means tending thereto.' The original 
is as follows :— ' PIrec est Prsedestinatio sanctorum, nihil aliud ; pra3scientia scilicet 
et prseparatio beneficiorum Dei, quibus certissime liberantur, quicumque liberantur.' 
— De Dono Perseverantia3, c. xxv. 

(fff) P. 340.—' Saith St Ambrose, " Et nobis mains," ' &c. I have failed to dis- 
cover the saying in Ambrose. Sir Philip Sidney uses it with great efi'ect (without 
naming Ambrosej, in his memorable Letter to Elizabeth, dissuading her from her 
proposed marriage. 

d/ffff) P- ^^0- — ' Cave, time, &c., saith the holy man St Austin.' One of the me- 
morabilia of the ' Confessions.' 

(hhh) P. 354 — ' Isidore saith, "An oath is to be esteemed as he,'" &c. Cf. note 
bbb. 

(Hi) P. 357. — ' " Our word, our preaching," as it is in the margin.' See note ddd. 
The word is o Xoyog, probably of purpose indefinite, so as to embrace both his per- 
sonal communications and his ' preaching.' 

(jjj) P. 357. — ' " As God is true," it is in our translation, but in the original it is, 
" God is true." ' The original is T/oTog bi 6 '^soc, on 6 Xoyog ijfMOJV, &c., which 
Dean Stanley thus puts, ' So true as it is that God is faithful, so true is it that my 
communications are not variable.' Cf. xi. 10; Eom. xiv. 11. 

(kkk) P. 359. — ' The oracles of Apollo true one way, and false another.' 

Consult Schmitz's article on ' Oracles,' in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman 
Antiquities, (2d edit. 1859, 8vo). 

The following paragraph, from Home's Introduction, gives a clear view of the 
matter : — 

..... When no means of evasion remained, the answers given by the heathen 
oracles were frequently delusive, and capable of quite contrary interpretations ; and the 
most celebrated of them concealed their meaning in such ambiguous terms that they 
required another oracle to explain them. Of this ambiguity several authentic in- 



NOTES. 535 

stances are recorded. Thus, when Croesus consulted the oracle at Delphi relative to 
his intended war against the Persians, he was told that he would destroy a great 
empire. — K^oiffog ' AXvv dia^%g /xiydXyjv ci^X^^ xaraXuffsi. This he naturally 
interpreted of his overcoming the Persians, though the oracle was so framed as to 
admit of an opposite meaning. Crcesus made war against the Persians, and was 
ruined ; and the oracle continued to maintain its credit. The answer given as to 
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, many ages after, was of yet more doubtful interpretation, 
being conceived in terms so ambiguous, that it might be either interpreted thus : — 
I sai/ that thou, son of ^acus, canst conquer the Romans. Thou shalt go, thou shall 
return, never shalt thou perish in ivar ; or thus, / say that the Romans can conquer thee, 
son of ^acus. Thou shalt go, thou shalt never return, thou shalt perish in war. 
Aio te ^acida Eomanos vincere posse : 
Ibis redibis nunquara in bello peribis. 
Pyrrhus understood the oracle in the former sense ; he waged an unsuccessful war 
with the Eomans, and was overcome ; yet still the juggling oracle saved its credit. 
Another remarkable instance of the ambiguity of the pretended prophets occurs in 
1 King3 xxii. 5, 6. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Ahab, king of Israel, having 
united their forces against the Syrians, in order to recover Ramoth-Gilead. the latter 
mi narch gathered the false prophets together, about four hundred men, and said 
anto them, "Shall I go up against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?" 
And they said, " Go up, for the Lord shall deliver [it] into the hands of the king." 
It is to be observed that the word it is not in the original, and that the reply of the 
pseudo-prophets is so artfully constructed, that it might be interpreted either for or 
against the expedition • as thus. — the Lord will deliver it (Eamoth-Gilead) into the 
king's (Ahab's) hand • or. the Lord will deliver (Israel) into the king's hand ; that is, 
into the king's hand, that is, into the hands of the King of Syria. Relying upon 
this ambiguous oracle, the monarchs of Judah and Israel engaged the Syrians, and 
were utterly discomfited. — Home's Introduction, vol. i. ch. iv. sec. 3, pp. 274-5 (10th 
ed. 1856). 

This subject is well treated by Henry Smith, in his " God's Arrow against 
Atheists." 

(Ill) P. 361. — ' Man is changeable, because he is a creature, as Damascene's speech 
is.' The speech is the following -.—Tai/ ya» ysr/irov, r^irrrov idTiv. Siv ya§ rj 
^iX^ r>j5 yivsSiCtjg a.'jo r^o'TT^g ^'^^aro, dvuy/.ri rccura TgsTra hvai. Damasc. De 
Fide Orthodoxa, cap. xxvii. 

{mmni) P. 364. — ' St Austin He wrote a book of retractations of his 

former opinions.' This father's magnanimous ' retractations ' are found in all the 
collective editions of his works. 

(n7in) P. 305. — ' If only yea be true, then that which is contrary to it must needs 
be false.' All Sibbes's hits at popery have long formed the commonplaces of the 
controversy, and are introduced into all the standard works pro and con. 

(ooo) P. 366. — ' The pope he makes Garnet, a traitor, and Thomas of Becket, 
saints.' Henry Garnet was a ' priest,' notorious as having been ' privy ' to the 
' Gunpowder Plot.' He was born 1555, and was executed May 3. 1606. His plea 
for not revealing the infamous ' Plot ' was that it had been made known to him in 
' confession,' an extenuation that intensified the national abhorrence of the whole 
system of popery. Sibbes speaks of the pope making him a ' saint.' While going to 
the block, he was told by his friends that he would be regarded as a ' martyr ;' but 
exclaimed, ' Me martyrem ! qualem martyrem ! ' Concerning Becket, it is only 
necessary to refer to ' Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury ; a Biography. By J. C. 
Robertson. 1 Vol. 8vo. 1859. (Murray.) 

(ppp) P. 367. — ' It is somewhat uncertain whether ever Peter were at Rome.' 
For a full and scholarly examination of this matter, consult ' The Question, " WasJ 
St Peter ever at Rome?" Historically Considered. By Augustus Scheler.' (1 Vol. 
12mo. 1849. Nisbet.) Scheler's conclusive treatise, which returns a negative to 
the question, is at once an expansion of the ' 1st Petrus in Rom und Bischof der 
romischen Kirche gewesen,' and a gathering together of data scattered through the 
writings of Scaliger, Salmasius, Spanheim, Bost, and Malan. 

(qqq) P. 373. — ' But as Cyprian saith well, " It must be consent in the truth." ' 
Perhaps the following may be the passage referred to : ' Quare si solus Christus au- 
(liendus est, non debemus attendere quid alius ante nos faciendum esse putaverit, 
sed quid qui ante omnes est, Christus prior fecerit. Neqiie enim hominum consue- 
tudinem seqni oportet, sed Dei veritatem.' — Ep. 63, Ad Coecilium de Sac Dom. Cah 



586 NOTES. 

(rn) P. 374. — ' It sets him down tliat he can say nothing, but that it is divine truth, 
because he finds it so.' On the force of personal ' experience ' as an ' evidence ' of 
the truth of Christianity, consult the excellent treatise of Wardlaw thereupon — 
worthy son of a worthy sire. 

{sss) P. 375. — ' How we may know that our church was before Luther's time or 
no.' Cf. Note d, vol. II. p. 248 I take this opportunity of giving the exact title- 
page of Logic's rare tractate : — ' Cum Bono Deo. Eaine from the Clouds upon a 
Choicke [sic] Angel : or, A returned Answere to that common Quajritur of our 
Adversaries, Where was your Church before Luther? Digested into several Medita- 
tions, according to the diflerence of Points, Extorted off the Author, for stilling the 
incessant and no lesse clamorous coassation of some Patmicke Frogges, against the 
lawfulnesse of our Calling. Aberdeene. Imprinted by Edward Raban, Dwelling 
upon the Market-place, at the Townes Armes, 1624, cum privilegio.' 4to. 1634, in 
Note d, vol. II. is a misimnt for 1624. A copy of this singular tractate is preserved 
in Peterborough Cathedral Library ; and I have to acknowledge the kindness of the 
Eev. Thomas Hutton, M.A., Kector of Stilton, in securing to me unrestricted access 
to its treasures, of which privilege after-volumes will sliew the benefit. 

{ttt) P. 377. — ' The most of the points of popery, wherein they differ from us, 
nay, not any of them, were never established by a council till the Council of Trent, 
except transubstautiation, by the Council of Lateran, which was a thousand years 
after Christ.' The Councils of Lateran were held in the Basilica of the Lateran, at 
Rome. Of these Councils, there were five. The ' fourth,' on church affairs gene- 
rally. — attended by 400 bishops and 1000 abbots — was held in 1215. Innocent III. 
presided. 

[uuu) P. 379. — ' Luther saith. If they [the papists] live and die peremptorily in 
all the points professed in the Tridentine Council, they cannot [be saved].' Cf. 
Note uu. 

(vvv) P, 382. — ' There is some diversity in reading the words.' Cf. Alford in loc. 

{www) P. 412. — 'As David, Ps. cxix., if it be his.' Consult S. F. Thrupp's ' In- 
troduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms' (2 vols. 8vo, 1860). He accepts 
Bishop .Jebb's suggestion of Daniel being the author of this the most splendid tribute 
to the Word of God anywhere to be found. See vol. II. pp. 244-256. 

{xxx) P. 417. — ' Take the counsel of that blessed man . . . Luther, I mean, 
. . . Go to God in Christ, in the promises.' From the ' CoUoquia Mensalia.' 
See Note uu concerning this storehouse of quotable sayings. 

{yyy) P. 436. — ' Remembering always that of St Ambrose, that there must not bo 
striving for victory, but for truth.' See note fff. 

(zzz) P. 437. — ' Your Ancipites, as Cyprian calls them, your doubtful flatterers of 
the times.' Cyprian seems to employ the vivid word in its etymological sense of 
having two heads, two natures, double = undecided, changeable. Lucan speaks of 
' ancipites animi ' (9, 46). 

{aaaa) P. 440.—' As you have it storied of Papinian, an excellent lawyer.' For 
an interesting notice of Papinian, consult Mr Long's article in Dr Smith's ' Diction- 
ary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology ;' also Dio. Cass., lib. Ixsvii., 
v/ith note from Spartianus, Caracc. c. viii. 

(bbbb) P. 451. — 'They gave this answer, Christianus sum, I am a Christian.' This 
is recorded in all the early ' Apologies,' e. g., Justin Martyr, TertuUian (Apolog. 
c ii.). 

(cccc) P. 460. — ' Pella, a little village, was delivered when the general destruction 
<.'-ame upon Jerusalem.' Pella was the place whither the Christians fled before the 
destruction of the ' Holy City.' Cf. Eusebius H. E. iii. 5 ; Epiphanius de Mens, et 
Fonder, p. 171 ; Reland, Palaestina, p. 924; also Croly's ' Salathiel.' 

{dddd) P. 464. — ' 1 John v. 7, 8.' With reference to the ' Three Witnesses ' of the 
nresent passage, it is only necessary to refer to Orme's admirable and well known 
'Memoir' of the 'Controversy' (1830, 12mo) ; and to the works of Travis, Bur- 
gess, Middleton, and Wiseman in favour of, and Porson, Marsh, and Turton against, 
the retention of the disputed clause. It is now usually enclosed in our Greek Testa- 
ments in brackets ; and perhaps it were well if it were similarly marked in our 
English Bibles. Cf. Webster and Wilkinson in loc , and Tregelles in Home, iv., 
c. xxxvi. (lOtli ed., 1856;. 

{eeee) P. 475. — ' Like to the Samaritans, as Josephus, the historian of the Jews, 
writes of them. When the Jews prospered, oh ! then they would be Jews,' &c. The 
jiassage will be found in the ' Antiquities,' Book ix., c. xiv. ^ 3, ' Wlien they [the 
Cutheans or Samaritans] ,-pf" fh'^ .lews in prosperity, thf^y pretend that they are 



NOTES. 637 

changed, and allied to them, and call them kinsmen, as though they were derived 
from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance with them ; but when they 
see them falling into a low condition, they say they are no way related to them, and 
that the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or marks of kindred from them, 
but they declare that they are sojourners that come from other countries.' Cf. also 
xi. c, viii. § 6, and xii. c. v. 5. 

(ffff) P- 475. — ' As we see in Cranmer and others.' The good Archbishop's early 
faltering, and subsequent recantation and martyr-death, are historic. 

{9999) P- 478.—' The Holy Spirit searcheth. . . . He is a " searcher," as the 
word is in the original.' Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 10 The verb is s^ivmcj, = explore ; i.e., 
accurately and thoroughly know. Hodge, and Webster and Wilkinson, in loc, will 
reward consultation. 

[hhhh) P. 479.— 'As Austin saith, "The Spirit of God knocks at their hearts 
but he doth not dwell there." ' This is a frequently-recurring saying of the ' Con- 
fessions ' and De Civitate, with varying phraseology^ as all readers otfhh father are 
aware is common with him. 

(iiii) P. 491. — 'As St Austin saith very well. Christ, saith he, speaks to the sea, 
and it is quiet,' &c. Cf. Augustine on Mark iv. 39. It is found also in Theophylact. 
Olv) P- 497.—' God, I hope, will be merciful to the state ; for the censure of the 
state upon profanation, it is a very worthy act.' There were multiplied ' proclama- 
tions ' at this period against 'prqfaneness,' as also during tlie reign of Charles II. 
The rigidness of the 'laws,' and the laxity of the practice, suggest much. 

(kkkk) P. 499. — ' These words are declined by many interpreters.' Consult Hodge, 
Dean Stanley, and Webster and Wilkinson in loc. 

{Ull) P. 500.—' It is not to domineer over faith, to suppress that that they call 
of late in neighbour countries a liberty of prophecy.'' Cf. Bishop Jeremy Taylor's 
magnificent vindication of this 'libeity ' in his ' ©EOAOriA 'EKAEKTIKH ; 
or, A Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying, with its just Limits and Temper : 
shewing the Unreasonableness of prescribing to other men's faith, and the iniquity 
of persecuting differing opinions.' (Works, ed. 1849, by Eden. V. pp. 339-G05.) 

{mmmm) P.^ 500. — ' St Austin himself was once of this mind, that people were not 
to be forced.' His words are, 'Ad fidem quidem nuUus est cogendus invitus.' 
Contra Ep. Petiliani Donatistce, lib. ii. c. Ixxxiii. 

{nnnn) P. 503.—' If ho came in by simony, or is not in cathedra: Eanke supplies 
abundant examples of tlie former, and the latter denotes that the pope is infallible 
only while he acts in his official character, e.g., propagating a bull or making a 
decision. Extra cathedram, or as a, private man, he is held by papists to be liable to 
err. 

(oooo) P. 505.—' Council of Trent and Pius IV.' Cf. note jV, and Ranke under 
Pius IV. and Trent. 

(pppp) P. 610.—' Ministers .... advise in cases of conscience.' Sibbes's con- 
temporaries, and indeed the whole of the leading theologians before and after him, 
occupied themselves with drawing up ' resolutions ' of ' cases of conscience.' It is 
only necessary to name the great ' Ductor Dubitantium ' of Jeremy Taylor, and 
the pungent ' Treatise ' of William Perkins. 

{qqqq) P. 514.—' He hath his chair in heaven that teacheth the heart, as St Austin 
saith.' The words are, ' Cathedram habet in cojlo, qui corda docet in terris.' In 
1 Epist. St Johan. Tr. iii. § 13. Cf. also his De Disciplina Christiana. 

(rrrr) P. 518. — ' Standing is a military word;' i.e., iSTr/jn, opuosed to (Diityu 
Cf. Eph. vi. 13. ' ^^ A. B. G. 



AN 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE 

DIRECTING THE READER TO THE READY FINDING OUT THE PRINCIPAI. POINTS 
AND MATTERS HANDLED IN THIS BOOK.* 



Achaia — Achaia, the country wherein Corinth 

was, 11. 
Acknowledge — Acknow!edge,or acknowledgment, 

what, 300, 314 ; to acknowledge Christ, what, 

315 ; Christ acknowledged in the minister, 315, 

316 ; how to know whether to acknowledge the 
minister, 315-317. 

Action —Three sorts of actions : good, ill, indif- 
ferent, 241. 

Adam — Our estate in Christ better than Adam's, 
or the angels, why, 419, 425. 

Affliction. — God's children subject to afflictions, 
and why, 52, 53, 65, 79, 117 ; God's people are 
sensible of afflictions, and why, 120, seq. ; good 
men lying under afflictions and crosses are sub- 
ject to rash and hard censures. 111, 112, 115, 
116 ; the afflictions of the saints are for the good 
of others, how, 94, 95 ; the good we get by 
others' afflictions, is by stirring up grace in us, 
101 ; God aims at many things in the same 
affliction, 106 ; effects of afflictions to God's 
children, and to the wicked, 153 ; affliction 
called death, 161. (See more in Persecution, 
Suffering, Tribulation.) 

Aim — Holy men work from holy aims and ends, 
330. 

All — Christ is all in all to us, 371, 372. 

Alone. — The devil set on Christ wlien he was 
alone, 76. (See Solitariness. ) 

Amen — Amen, what, and how taken. 382, 3S3 ; 
a double amen, 421; all promises m Christ yea 
and amen, 382, seq., 390, seq. 

Anointing — What kind of persons were formerly 
anointed, 442, 444, 446; the order of our anoint- 
ing in Christ, 443, 446 ; the j; races of the Spirit 
resembled to anointing, or ointment, why, 443- 
446, 

Antiquity — Antiquity of our church and religion 
proved against the papists, 375, 376, seq ; popish 
religion not ancient, 377- 

Apology. — Christians are often driven to their apo- 
logy, 204. 

Apostle. — The privilege of api above ordi- 
nary ministers, and how tliey >er from them, 

8 ; St Paul's prerogative above other apostles, 
8 ; apostles and prophets, how subject to err and 
mistake, and how not, 355, 356 

Application — Necessity of application of thepro- 
mises to ourselves, 421. 

Asse7it. — Four degrees or kinds of assent, 523. 



Assurance — A Christian ought and may be as- 
sured of his estate in grace, 466 ; all Cliristians 
have not the like assurance, nor at all times, 
466, 467 ; God's children may be assured that 
they shall persevere to the end, 468 (see Per- 
severance) ; we may be assured from a little 
measure of grace, that we are in the state of 
grace, 470. 

Authority Why St Paul alleged human autho- 
rity in his epistles, and in his dealings with 
men, 9, 10; what power or authority the church 
gives to the Scriptures, 9, 10, 523. (See Church, 
Scripture.) 



Believe How hardly man's heart is brought to 

believe, 54, 464. 

Best. — A true Christian is best, where he is best 
known, 259. 

Bless.— To bless God, what, 23; how God blesseth 
us, and how we bless God, 23; we add nothing 
to God, when we bless him, 23 ; why we ought 
to bless God, 23 : we ought to bless God for 
Christ, 27; blessing, what, 15 ; the Pope's bless, 
ing nothing worth, 15. (See Praise, Thankful- 
ness.) 

Brother. — Timothy, St Paul's brother, how, 10 ; all 
Christians, or all believers, are brethren, 10. 



Called Men in Scripture are often called by that 

which they are led and ruled by, 261, 847 

Censure. — Again.st censuring those that are under 
crosses and afflictions, 115, 141 ; men are pnme 
to censure men's callings for some particular 
actions, 357 ; sin must be censured and judged 
when it is committed, 489. 

Certainty. — A double certainty, 111,421 : how the 
prophets and apostles were certain and infal- 
lible, and how not, 355, 366. 

Christ Christ three ways taken in Scripture, 82; 

Christ is the main object of preaching, 369 ; 
Christ is all in all to us, 371, 372 ; how to think 
of Christ, 371 ; God's love to us founded in 
Christ, 385, 386 ; how to get into Christ, 396 ; 
Christ a Prophet, Priest, and King, 446 ; the 
Scripture sets forth Christ by all comfortable 
terms that may be, 60. 

Christian What is done to Christians, is done to 

Christ, 86 ; a true Christian is best where he is 



* This ' Alphabetical Table,' prepared by Dr Thomas Manton, it has been deemed proper to retain, 
and accommodate to the pagination of our reprint. It does not furnish those minuter details and 
references that belong to an Inde.x proper, such as will be given with the closing volume of this edition 
of tho Works ; but as the ' Commentary' is extensive, it will prove acceptable as an interim guide to tlio 
'treasures, new and old,' ol this Treatise. 

This 'Commentary,' it is nccessarv to observe, is not a fragment of an intended Exposition of the 
entire Epistle, but a Treatise on the ' Apology rif St Paul,' complete w.thin itself, according to the 
design of the author. Cf page 528, last line. — G. 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



539 



best known, 259 ; a sound Christian loves and 
values all Christians, 432 ; Christians are pro- 
phets, priests, and kings, how ? 447, seq. (See 
Saint) 

Church Whether the church can give authority 

to the word or Scripture, 9, 10, 523 ; God hath 
a church in mo.st wicked places, and among 
most wicked people, 10 ; every Christian ought 
to be a member of some particular church or 
congresjation, 11, 12 ; the church hath its name 
sometimes, 1, from the mixture in it, 2, from 
the better part of it, 12 ; churches not to be left 
or forsaken for some corruptions in them, 322. 

Civil — A mere civil man, who, 14. 

Comfort, Consolation. — Comfort or consolation, 
what, 44, 45, 8t) ; God the God of comfort, 
how, 44, 45 ; what this title attributed to God 
implies, 47 ; whatsoever the means of comfort 
be, God is the spring and fountain ot it, 49 ; 
God can create comfort out of nothing, 47 ; 
God can raise comfort out of contraries, 47, 48 ; 
what use to be made of this, that God is the 
God of comfort, 48, 49, seq.; reasons or grounds 
why Chiistians are uncomlortable, 50 ; God 
comforteth his people in all tnbulation, 51, 52, 
53, 54 ; objection against this answered, 52, 74 ; 
God applieth comfort answerable to all miseries 
in this life, 52. 53 ; to comfort what, 54; what 
use to be made of thi.s, that God is the God of 
all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribu- 
lation, 54, 55, seq.; how to derive comfort from 
the God of comfort, 55 ; no comfort for such 
as go on in sin, 56 : comforts for those that are 
relapsed, 57 ; general comforts should be had 
for all kind of maladies and grievances, and 
which be they, 57, 58 ; means for obtaining of 
comfort, 57, 59-64 ; to keep a daily course of 
comfort, how, 59, 60 ; Christ in Scripture is set 
forth by all terms that may be comfortable, 60 ; 
means whereby we may be enaMcd to conifort 
others, 65, 66,69, 70; all God's children have in- 
terest in divine comforts, why, 66 ; divine com- 
forts are not impaired by being communicated, 
66; God conveys comfort to men by men, 67, 68; 
we should be willing, ready, and able to comfort 
one another, 67, 68, 69, 75, 70; experience a great 
help to comfort others, why, 76, 77, 78 ; objec- 
tions of such as complain of want of comfort 
answered, 74 ; our comforts and consolations 
are proportionable to our sufferings, 86 ; great- 
est comforts fnllovr greatest sufferings, why, 86 ; 
what hinders comfort in affliction, flio ; no com- 
fort for wicked men, 90 ; comtort or consolation 
abounds by Chri.st, 91 ; why Christians are no 
more comfortable, 92; suffering a necessary 
precedent of comfort, why, 108 ; those that suffer 
as they should, are sure of comfort, 110. 

Commendation — A man may speak in commenda- 
tion ot himself, and in what cases, 204. 

Communion. — Bond of communion of saints. 432. 

Companion —Companions in sin shall be com- 
panions in suffering, 110. 

Conceit. — We should have a good conceit of others 
306, 307 ; it is good to have a good conceit o 
others, 327. (See Hope, Opinion.) 

Confiilence Certain account of, and looking for 

death, is a notable means to draw us from self- 
confiilence, 127 ; God's children prone to self- 
confidence, 128. (See Trust.) 

Conformity A three-fold conformity with Christ, 

110. 

Conscience. — Conscience, what, 208, 209, 210, seq ; 
three things joined with conscience, 209 ; God 
hath set up a court in man, wherein conscience 
i8,(l. )register,(2.) witness,(3.) accuser,(4.)judge, 
(5.) executioner, 210, 211; conscence. God's hall, 
wherein he keeps his assizes, 211 ; judgment of 
conscience a forerunner of the great and general 
jadgmont, 210,211; conscience beareth witness, 
211 ; what manner of witness conscience is, viz., 
(1.) faithful, (2) inward, 211, 212 ; how to have 
conscience witness well, 212-215, seq ; an igno- 
rant man cannot have a good conscience, 213 ; 
why men have bad consciences, 213 ; papists 
c.innot have a good conscience, why, 214; the 



witness of a good conscience the ground of joy, 
why, 215-219; a good conscience breeds joy, (1.) 
tn life, (2.) in death, (3.) at the day of judgment, 
216-219 ; a good conscience comforts in all 
estates and conditions whatsoever, 216-219; why 
a good conscience doth not always witness 
comfort, 219, 220 ; means how to joy and 
rejoice in the witness of conscience, 221 ; no- 
thing worse than a bad conscience, 223-226 ; 
labour for a good conscience, 226 ; commenda- 
tion of a good conscience, 226 ; how to have a 
good conscience, 227; God's children have place 
in the conscience of others, 304. 

Contraries —God is able to raise comfort out of 
contraries, 48 ; God carries on the work of our 
salvation by contraries, why, 137. 

Conversation Convei'sation, what, 252 ; Chris- 
tianity may stand with conversing abroad in 
the world, 253; religion makes a man converse 
abroad in the world untainted, 254; a Chris- 
tian's conversation is best where he is best 
known, 259. 

Corinth. — Corinth a very wicked city, yet even 
there God hath a church, 10 ; what is now be- 
come of the church of Corinth, 10, 11 ; Corinth 
the metropolis or mother-city of Achaia, 11. 
(see Achaia.) 



Danger God suffers his children sometimes to 

fall into extreme perils and dangers, why, 117, 
118, seq. 

Day.— C\m&t hath a day, 323 ; there be two special 
days of Christ, 323 ; the measure of a Christian's 
joy is, as it will be esteemed at the day of 
judgment, 324: we should often think of the 
day of the Lord Jesus, 325. (See judgment.) 

Death. — God's children are sometinics very sensible, 
and much afraid of death, why, 120-122, seq. ; 
how and in what respect the saints desire death, 
124 ; Christ was afinid of death, and yet thirsted 
after it, how, 124; God's children are often de- 
ceived concerning the time of their death, why, 
125; death uncertain, how, 125; the time of 
death uncertain, why, 125, 126 ; certain account 
of, and looking for death is a means to draw us 
from self-confidence, and from the world, and 
to make us trust in God, 126, 127 ; physicians 
fault in flattering tlie sick, and feeding them 
with false hopes of long life at the point of death, 
taxed, 127; affliction called death, 161. 

Deliver — God doth not deliver his children at the 
first, but suffers them to be brought to a low 
ebb, to a very sad condition, and why, 161, 162 ; 
God delivers after he hath done his work, 102; 
God's time to deliver, when, 163, 104 ; God's 
children alway stand in need of deliverance, 
165 ; God delivers both outwardly and inwardly, 
166, 170 ; Christians have deliverance from 
trouble, 167 ; a double deliverance of God, 168; 
experience of God's deliverance in time past, a 
Broundofconftder.ee to expect the like for time 
to come, 102, 108,171; objection against the doc- 
trine of God's delivering his people from trouble 
answered, 169; deliverance various or manifold, 
170, 171 ; God will deliver his people out of all 
trouble, 171. 

Dispen.%e — Ko dispensing with God's law, 380. 

Dissembling, Diisimulal ion.— Groxmiis of dissimula- 
tion, 231 ; a threefold dissimulation, (1.) before, 
(2.) in, (3.) after, the project, 231, 232 ; objection 
for dissembling answered, 234 ; man naiurally 
prone to dissemble, 231-237 ; dissembling to be 
avoided and declined, 300, 301 ; a Christian is no 
dissembler, 301. (See Simulation.) 

Dominion. — No man hath dominion over another's 
faith, 499 ; what is no domineering over the 
faith of others, 500 ; what is domineering over 
the faith of others, 500 ; who are guilty of domi- 
neering over other men's faith, 501 ; the Church 
of Rome guilty of domineering over the faith of 
others, how, and wherein, 501 ; grounds from 
whence this domineering over other men's faith 
ariseth, 505. 

Potiljle — Ponhlinga great sin, 234 ; man by nature 



540 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



Is prone to double, and the Rrounds of It, 237 ; 
some persons and callings are more prone to 
doubling tlian others, 237 ; a Christian is no 
doubler, 301. 

Earnest — What the Spirit Is an earnest of, 465 ; 
the Spirit resembled to an earnest in five par- 
ticulars, 405, 406 ; how to know whether we have 
the earnest of the Spirit, 470-472 ; how to get 
this earnest of the Spirit, 480-482 ; motives to 
labour for this earnest, 482, 483. 

End. — Holy men work for holy ends, 330. 

Equivocation. — Popish equivocation odious and 
abominable, 233, 354, 4l»4. 

Error — How prophets and apostles were sabject to 
errors and mistakes, and how not, 358. (See 
Infallible, Mistake ) 

Experience — Former experience aground to ex- 
pect like mercies for the future, 171, seq. 

Extremity — God sometimes suffers his children to 
fall into great extremities, and why, 117-119 ; 
God's people are sensible of their extremity, 120. 
(See Afflictious, Sufferings, Tribulations.) 



Grace — Grace sweetens all a Christian's con versa- 
tion, 14, 15 ; grace, what, 16 ; Christians, though 
in the state of grace, yet sti 1 1 need grace, 17, 331, 
332 ; how to have continual assurance of grace, 
18, 19 ; a man may know his own estate in 
grace, 221, 222 ; objection a'jjainst this answered, 
223; why the apostle names grace, not wisdom, 
275, 276 ; grace twofold, 281 ; grace wrought in 
us described, 281, 282 ; all our wisdom comes 
from grace, 282 ; evei-y thing necessary to bring 
us to heaven is a grace, 2S3. 334, 335 ; all the 
good we have is of grace, 283 ; God is ready to 
give us grace, 284 ; signs of being led and 
guided by grace, 288, seq. ; helps or means to 
be led and guided by grace, 293, 294, seq. ; the 
preaching of the word is a special grace, 33) ; 
every benefit and blessing is a grace, 283, 334, 
335 ; we ought to strengthen radical graces, 
viz., (1.) humility, (2.) faith, (3.) knowledge, 433, 
434 ; we may be assured trom a little measure 
of grace, that we are truly in the state of grace, 
470, .feq. ; how to know whether the little 
grace we have be true grace, 472, seq. 



Faith. — DitTorence between faith and presumption, 
422; a double act of faith, (1.) direct, (2.) reflect, 
467 ; of standing by faith (see Standing) ; to 
have dominion over the faith of others (see 
Dominion) ; the foundation of faith must be out 
of a man's self, 522 ; true faith is built upon tlie 
word or the Scriptures, not upon unwritten 
traditions, 522, 523 ; popish faith not built upon 
the Scriptures but upon traditions, 523, 524 ; 
faith sure and certain, 624 ; true faith will per- 
severe and hold out to the end, 523, 524; it is by 
faith that we stand, and withstand all opposition 
whatsoever, 524; faith a Christian's victory, by 
it he conquers all adversary powers, 524, 525 ; 
the sacrament a means to strengthen faith, 523. 

Falsehood — Falsehood to be declined, 300, 3U1. 

Father God as the Father of Christ to be praised, 

26, 27 (see Praise) ; God the Father of Christ, 
our Father, and the Father of mercies, how, 26, 
27 ; why God is called the Father of mercies, 
28 ; why not the Father of mercy, but of 
mercies, 28, 29 ; uses to be made of this title of 
God, the Father of mercies, 31-34, seq. (See 
Mercy.) 

Flesh Flesh, what, 262, 346 ; carnal wisdom, why 

called flesh, 346 ; to purpose and consult accord- 
ing to the flesh, a ground of lightness, 348 ; how 
to know whether we consult according to the 
flesh, 349 ; signs whereby to know that we are 
not led or advised by the flesh, 349, 350 ; how 
to avoid fleshly wisdom, 350, 351. (See Wisdom.) 

Generation. — Prerogatives of Christ's generation, 
370. 

Gentle. — Gentle courses first to be used, why, 489 ; 
when gentle means prevail not, severe must be 
used, 489. 

Glory, Glorying — Whether a man may glory of 
anything in himself? how he may, and how he 
may not, 204 ; cautions for glorying in grace, 
228 ; God's glory manifest in the gospel, viz., the 
glory of his, (1) Justice, (2.) mercy, (3 ) wisdom, 
(4.) power, (5.) truth ; 418, 419, 420 ; God's glory 
is displayed by the ministry, 420 ; grace and 
glory differ but in degrees, 409. 

Good. — God's children do good in every condition, 
10.'> ; what good we get by other's afflictions, 
101 ; the sufferings of saints do good to others, 
how, Uil (see Afflictions) ; God in all outward 
things that are ill, intends the good of the soul, 
142; a good man a public good, 258 ; a good 
man should take occasion to do good, 336 ; the 
good things the wicked enjoy, are not blessings, 
but curses and snares to them, 395 ; how to know 
they are so, 395,396 ; how to know that the good 
tilings we enjoy, we have them in love, 396. 

Gnrern, (7«ide— All inferior creatures are under 
the guidance and government of some superior, 



Health — Health is a gift, yea, a great blessing of 
God, 191 ; all other ble.ssings are uncomfortable 
without health, 191, 192. 

Holy — Holy men are but men, subject to mistake, 
355, 356 ; holiness and happiness differ but in 
degrees, 469 ; those that look to be happy, must 
first be holy, 469, 470. 

Hope — A double efficacy in hope, 111, 113 ; we 
may stedfastly liope for the performance of 
divine truths, 113 ; we should hope well of 
others, 306, 307, 327. (See Conceit, Opinion.) 

Hypocrite Wherein a true saint differs from an 

hypocrite, 14, seq. ; a Christian no hypocrite, 
14, 301 ; profane profc^sbors are gross hypocrites, 
12. 



Jealousy Men arc wondrous prone to jealousy 

and suspicion, 339, 485 ; whence jealousy or 
suspicion ariseth, 340, 485, 486 ; jealousy, what, 
485; mischief from jealousy, 485, 486 ; we 
should labour to avoid jealousy, why, 487. 



Inconstancy Public persons should labour to 

avoid the just imputation of inconstancy, 342 ; 
grounds or causes of inconstancy, 343, 344. 345 ; 
we must not take that for inconstancy which is 
not, 313; remedies against inconstancy, 315, 
346 ; carnal men inconstant, 352. 

Indulgences. — -Popish indulgences, what, 99 ; 
popish indulgences confuted, 99. (See Satis- 
factions.) 

Infailibility How the prophets and apo.stles were 

infallible, and how not, 355, 356. (See Error, 
Mistake.) 

Ingratitude. — Ingratitude a hon-ible bin, 193 ; a 
carnal man ungrateful, why, 24. 



Joy, Rejoice. — Christians have their joy, or a Chris- 
tian's est;".te is a joyful and a rejoicing estate, 
205, 206, 506, seq. ; a Christian's joy is spiritual, 
he rejoices in spiritual things, and what these 
are, 2U5, 206 ; wicked men daie not reveal their 
jov, but seek to hide the ground of it, 207 ; a 
(liristian is not ashamed of his joy, why, 207 ; a 
faithful minister is the joy of tlie people, why, 
317, 506. seq ; the people's proficiency in grace 
is the minister's joy, 319 ; salvation termed joy, 
.why, .506 ; the end of the ministry is to be help- 
ers of the people's joy, 506, seq. ; how ministers 
are helpers of the people's joy, 509, seq. ; objec- 
tions answered, 511, .sey. ; joy is that frame and 
state of soul that Cliristians are in, or should 
labour to be in, why, 506, seq. ; reasons or mo- 
tives why Christians should be joyful, 507, seq. ; 
ministers only helpers, not authois of joy, 506 ; 
God's Spirit alone .'speaks joy and comfort to the 
soul, why, 513, 514 ; faith breeds joy, how, 516 ; 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



>41 



signs or evidences whereby to know whetlier 
our joy be good, 517. 

Journey. — It is a commendable thing for Christians 
to bring one another on their jouniey, 338 ; our 
journey to heaven certain, 357; how St Paul 
could be deceived in his journey, and not in his 
doctrine, 355, 356. 

Judgment God's word or the holy Scripture." the 

judge of all controversies, 3G4 ; properties of a 
judge, 364 ; judgment of conscience a forerunner 
of the great and general judgment, 210, 211 ; 
the measure of a Christian's joy is as it will be 
esteemed at tlieday of judgment, 323 ; we should 
often think of the day of judgment, 324 (See 
Day.) 



King Christians are kings, how, 448, 449. 

Knowledge — God is known in his (1.) nature, (2 ) 
promises, (3 ) works, 149 ; if our knowledge be 
not spiritual, we fall into, (1.) sin, (2.) despair, 
(3.) apostasy, 526, 527. 

Legacy. — God's promises are legacies, 415 ; differ- 
ence between a legacy and a covenant, 415. 

Lightness. — Public persons should avoid the jnst 
imputation of lightness, 342 ; grounds of light- 
ness, 343, 344, 345 ; remedies against lightness, 
345, 346 ; to purpose according to the flesh, is a 
ground of lightness, 348. 

Lie — All sorts of lies are unlawful, 234 ; a lie, what, 
301 ; equivocation is a lie, 301. (See Eqaivo- 
cation.) 

Live — We may not live as we list, if we mean to 
die well, 258. 



Mercy Mercy, what, 30 ; God styled the Father 

of mercies, why, 29, 30, 31 ; why not called the 
Father of mercy, but of mercies, 3), 31 ; use to 
be made of God's mercifulness, or in that he is 
the Father of mercies, 31, seq. ; against presum- 
ing upon God's mercy, 32, 33 ; men are prone 
to presume of God's mercy, 32, 33 (see Presunip. 
tion) ; all God's attributes without mercy are 
terrible, 30 ; objections of a poor dejected soul 
against the doctrine of God's mercy, or merci- 
fulness, answered, 36 ; to whom God's mercy is 
unlimited, viz., to repentant souls, not to pre- 
sumptuous .sinners, 32 ; how to be made fit for, 
or capable of mercy, 42 ; how to improve mercy 
daily, 42, 43 ; kinds of God's mercies, 31. 

Merit Against merit, 191. 

Minister, Ministry. — Ministers must win by life as 
well as by doctrine, 260 ; minis-ters are joined 
with Christ in acceptance and neglect, 317 ; a 
faithful minister is the joy of the people, 317 ; 
the ministry is a great gift and blessing of God, 
318, 329, 330, 331 ; the people's proficiency in 
grace is the minister's joy, 319 ; all the good we 
have by Christ, is conveyed tjy the ministry, 
372 ; consent of ministers is a help to faith, 373 ; 
ministers are to be prayed for by the people. 
(See Prayer.) 

Mistake. — Holy men are subject to mistakes, 355, 
356. (See Error.) 

Name. — Men have oft their name and denomina- 
tion in Sciipture, by that which they are ruled 
by, 262, 346. 

New. — Popery Is a new religion, 377, 378. 



Oath Oath, what, 357, 493 ; an oath lawful, 494, 

495 ; kinds of oaths, 357, 493, 494, 495 ; a Chris- 
tian life is a kind of oath, 498 ; conditions of an 
oath, 357, 494, 495 ; an oath is not good unless 
necessary, 357, 493, 494, 495 ; qualifications of 
an oath, 495 ; none but good men should take 
an oath, 493 ; parts of an oath, 493 ; an oath to 
be taken only in serious matters, 494, seq. (See 
Swearing.) 

Occasion. — A good man must take all occasions to 
do good, 336. 



Oil, Ointment.— The Spirit with its graces com- 
pared to oil, or ointment, 443, 446. 

Old. — Our religion is the old religion, 375, 376, seq. ; 
popery no old, but new religion, 377, 378. 

Oneness A Christian man is one man, he doth act 

one man's part, 301 ; there is but one faith, 
one catholic church, 375. 

Opinion. — It is good to cherish a good opinion ot 
others, 306, 307, 327. (See Conceit, Hope.) 



Partate.— Those that partake in other men's sins, 
shall also partake in their sufferings, 110. 

Paul. — St Paul's prerogative above other apostles 
8 ; St Paul's modesty and humility, 9 ; St Paul 
had a good opinion and conceit of the Corin- 
thians, 3a6 ; how St Paul could be deceived in 
his journey, and not in his doctrine, 355, 356 ; 
how Timothy is called St Paul's brother, 10 ; 
St Paul's course to hold out in holy resolution 
to the end, 308. 

Peace. — True peace issues from grace, 20. 

Persecution. — They that persecute the saints, per- 
secute Christ, 85. (See Affliction, Suffering, 
Tribulation.) 

Perseverance.— Resohition to persevere, and hold 
out in a good course to the end, 307, 3 I8 ; St 
Paul's course to persevere in holy resolutions to 
the end, 3)8: God's children may be assuied 
that they shall persevere and hold out to the 
end, 468, seq. ; he that is in the state of grace, 
shall persevere in it to the end, 469 

Physician.— PhysicisLns do ill in flattering the sick, 
and feeding them with hopes of long life, wh2ii 
they are at the point of death, 127 ; we should 
open the case of our souls to our spiritual 
physiciai;s, 513. 

Policy. — A Christian should avoid the imputation 
of carnal policy, 347 ; not to subordinate religion 
to state policy, 279, 280. 

Pope, Popery. — Popery crosses the word of God. 
365, 30 1 ; the pope's treasury, what, 99 , popery 
founded upon traditions, 522, 523 ; popery a 
rotten and unsound religion, 523 ; popish reli- 
gion is full of contradictions, 3C6 ; popish reli-. 
gion is full of uncertainties, 366, 367; how and 
wherein popish and protestant religion agree, 
and differ, 376, seq ; it is safer to be a protestant 
than a pupist, 379 ; whether a papist may be 
saved, 379, 380 ; popery to be detested, because 
it teacheth men to trust to their own works 
and satisfactions, 13.3. 

Praise. — God the object of praise, how, 26 ; God 
to be praised as he is the Father of Chri.'it, •i.7; 
praise follows prayer; or, after prayer praises 
are due, 193 ; the praises of many are grateful 
and acceptable to God, 193, 194; how the un- 
reasonable creatures praise God, 195 ; we are to 
praise God for others ; foi all sorts ot men, 195 ; 
wherein praise consist.s, 196. (See mere in Bless, 
Thankfulness.) 

Prayer Prayer is a means to convey all good, 

and deliver from all ill, 178 ; God's children can 
pray for themselves, 180 ; Christians ought to 
help one another by prayer, 181 ; people ought 
to pray for ministers, 182, 183, 189, 190; what 
is to be begged of God or prayed for for mi- 
nisters, 190 ; Christians have not the Spirit 
of prayer at all times alike, 182 ; prayer is not 
a work of gifts, but of «race, 183; divers gifts 
in prayer, 183 ; prayer is a prevailing course 
with God, and why, 184, seq. ; how to know 
whether our prayers help the church, 188, 189 ; 
it is an ill condition not to be able to pray, 189, 
190 ; God will deliver the ministers by the 
people's prayers, 190 ; it is a good thing to beg 
the prayers of others in sickne.ss, 192 ; the more 
eminent men are, the more they are to be prayed 
for, 203. 

Pr«acA. —Christ is the main object of preaching, 
369. (See Ministry, Word.) 

Presence — Personal presence hath a special power 
329. 

Presumption — .\8iunst prosuming upon God's 



542 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



mercy, 32, 33. (see Mercy) ; difference between 
faith and presumption, 422. 

Pride — Pride is a sin against all the command- 
ments, 207, 208. 

Priest — Christians are priests, how, 447, 448 

Promise— GoA deals with men by pr.imises, 383 ; 
a promise, what, 384: all promises made in 
Christ, 384 ; all the promistisai e yea ana amen 
in Christ, 388, 389, seq. ; several kinds of pro- 
mises, 394 ; till a man be in Clirist he hath no 
good by the promises, 399 : what right a man 
out of Christ hath to th;; piomises, 400 ; com- 
fort from the proniises to them that are in 
Christ, 401, 402, seq. ; how to make use of the 
promises, and to have comfort by tliem, 404, 
seq. ; what to do when in trouble we cannot call 
to mind any particular promise, 409 ; we should 
make tlie promises familiar to us, 409, seq. ; 
signs or evidences of believing the oromises, 413, 
seq. ; proniises are legaci-^s as well as proniises, 
41o ; God's promises called a testament, a will, 
415 ; necessity of application of the promises to 
ourselves, 420, seq. ; none have interest in the 
promises but such as find a change in them- 
selves, 4f)2. 

Prophets — How Christians are prophets, 447; pro- 
phets and apostles, how subject to error, how 
not. 355, .356. 

Providence — Providence, what, 167. 



Pejoice.—See Joy. 

Religion — Not to subordinate religion to State 
policy, 279. 280 ; religion tends to practice, 280 ; 
popish religion is a carnal religion, 296, seq. ; 
the most religious men are the best statesmen, 
299 ; wherein our religion and the popish agree 
and differ, 376, .sag. ; popish religion unsound 
and retten, 523 ; popish religion is not founded 
upon the Scriptures, but upon tradition, 522, 
523 ; popisli religion crosseth the word of God, 
305, 366 ; popish religion is full of contrarlic- 
tions, 366; popish religion is full of uncertain- 
ties, 366, 367 ; it is safer to be of the protestant 
religion than of the popish, 379 ; whether one 
living and dying in the Romish religion may be 
saved, 379, 380. 

Repentance.— hate repentance (such as is in time 
of sickness and death) seldom true repentance, 
39, 

Reproof. — It is a sign of a gracious heart to endure 
reproof, and to esteem and affect the reprover, 
314, 491 ; a minister must not spare to reprove 
people for sin committed, 491, seq. ; a threefold 
reproof or correction, 492, 493 

Resolution —Of good resolutions, 308, seq. 

Resurrection — The resnn-ection is an argument to 
strengthen faith, 157 ; there will or shall be a 
resurrection, 157, seq ; God raisetli the dead, 
157, seq. 

i^ocfc.— What is meant by rock, Mat. xvi. 18, 376. 



Saint. — Our love and respect should be carried to 
all saints, 11 ; God scatters his saints, why, 12 ; 
all that make profession of religion should in- 
deed be saints, 12 ; professors called saints, why, 
12; four things required to make a saint, viz. 
(1.) Separation, (2.) Dedication, (3.) Qualifica- 
tion, (4.) Conversation, 13, 14 ; how to know a 
saint from a mere civil man, 14 ; true saints 
wherein different from hypocrites and formal 
professors, 14. (See Christian.) 

■Sa/oa^ion— Salvation wrought by affliction or suf- 
fering, how, and how by Christ, 100, seq. ; how 
afflictions or patience "in suffering afflictions 
helps to salvation, 101, 102, seq. ; two ways to 
obtain salvation, 100, seq.. 

Salutation.— Use of holy salutations threefold, 15 ; 
salutations should be holy, 15, 16; God's name 
when taken in vain in salutations, 15, 16 ; salu- 
tations in what cases to be omitted, 16. 

Satisfaction. — Against popish merits and satisfac- 
tions for others, 99. (See Indulgences.) 

Scripture.— Wow to know the Scriptures to be the 



word of God and truly divine, 366, 373 ; whether 
the Scriptures receive any authority from the 
church, 9, 10 ; the Scripture is to be believed 
for itself, not because of the church, 373, 374, 
375, seq. (See Word.) 

Seal. — Christ the head is first sealed, and then the 
members, viz , Cliristians, 452 ; our sealing, 
what, 453 ; ''our uses of a seal, 453, 454 ; the 
Spirit compared to ase.al, wlicrein,454, 455, seq. ; 
how the Spirit differs from otlier seals, 4.55, 456, 
seq. ; how the spirit seals us, 4r>6, 457, seq. ; four 
things the Spirit works in this sealing, 456 ; 
how to know the sealing of the Spirit, or that 
we are sealed by the Spirit, 456, 457, 458, 459 ; 
objections against the Spirit's sealing answered, 
458, seq. ; motives to labour to get the Spirit's 
sealing, or to have image of Christ stamped 
upon our souls by the Spirit, 460, seq. 

Simplicity. — Simplicity, what, and how taken, 205, 
229, 230 ; why called godly simplicity, or the 
simplicity of God, 240 ; difference between sim- 
plicity and sincerity, 229 ; St Paul's conversa- 
tion in simplicity, how, 229, 230; to what things 
simplicity is opposed. 232, seq. ; directions or 
means to get simplicity, 237, 238. 

Simulation. — Of simulation, 231 ; aggravations of 
this sin, 232, seq. (See Dissembling.) 

Sincerity Sincerity, what, 240 ; liow sincerity 

differs from simplicity, 228 ; why called godly 
sincerity, or tlie sincerity of God, 240 , a Chris- 
tian's conversation in the world should be in 
sincerity, 240, 258 ; sincerity in good actions, 
how discovered or tried, 241, 242 ; sincerity, 
how tried or discovered in ill actions, 243 ; sin- 
cerity, how tried or discovered in actions indif- 
ferent, 244 ; motives tolatiour for sincerity, 245, 
246, seq. ; means to get sincerity, 247, 248; cor- 
ruptions and imperfections may stand with sin- 
cerity, 250, seq. ; order in sincerity, how to be 
keyit, 251 ; sincerity extends itself to all the 
frame of a man's life, 252, 253 ; we must have 
our conversation in sincerity while we live in 
the world, 258. 

Sinaularity. — There is a spirit of singularity in 
many, 9. 

Slander — How to arm and fence ourselves against 
slander, 340. 

Society — The comfort and benefit of society, 76, 
253. 

Solitariness — Solitariness very dangerous, 76, 253. 
(See Alone, Society.) 

Son — Christ the Son of God, how differing from 
other sons, 370 

Soul. — God's Spirit alone speaks comfort and peace 
to the soul, 514 ; God in all things that are ill 
intends the good of the soul, 142 ; tlie soul must 
have somewhat to trust to, 142 ; people should 
do well to open the case of their souls to their 
spiritual physicians, 513. 

Spirit. — The Spirit with its graces compared to 
anointing or ointment (see Anointing, Oint- 
ment) ; the Spirit compared to an earnest (see 
Earnest) ; the Spirit compared to a seal (see Seal); 
why the work of grace isattributed to the Spirit 
rather than to the Father or the Son, 447 ; why 
the Spirit is said to seal, and to be an earnest, 
and not the Father or the Son, 477 ; means to 
attain or come by the Spirit, 480, 481, 4S2, seq ,• 
how to know that we have the Spirit, 478, 479 ; 
of our anointing by the Spirit, 442, seq. ,■ of our 
sealing by the Spirit, 452, seq.; God's Spirit 
alone seals comfort to the soul, 514. 

Stablish. — Stablishing grace necessary, why, 422 ; 
Christ is the foundation of our stability,' 423 ; 
our judgment, will, affections, &c., ai-e stablished 
in Christ, 424 ; it is only God that can stablish 
the soul— he must do it, none else can, 426, seq. ; 
as God can, so he will stablish us, 426, seq. ; God 
stablisheth us by woi'king in us stablishing 
graces, viz., (1.) fear, (2.) wisdom, (3) faith, (4.) 
peace of conscience, Ac, 431 ; means of stablish- 
ing, or whereby we may come to be stablished, 
433. 437 ; signs or evidences of our stablishing, 
437, 4.'38, seq. 

Strength,— lloyf these two may stand together, 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



543 



We are pressed out of measure above strength, 
2 Cor. i. 8 ; and, God is faithful, and -will lay no 
more upon you than you shall be able to bear, 
1 Cor. s. 13, 116, 117. 

Suffering — The sufferings of Christ abound in us, 
or God's saints are subject to many sufferings, 
why, 78 ; all Christians suffer, how, 104 ; a 
threefold suffering in the church since Christ's 
time, 80, 81 ," the sufferings of Christians are the 
sufferings of Christ, and wliy so called, 82, S3 ; 
Christ's sufferings twofold, 82 ; differences be- 
tween the sufferings of C irist and ordinary 
crosses, S3 ; motives to siiffir for Christ, 83, 84, 
85 ; how the sufferings o: saints do good, or are 
profitable to others, 101 ; God's children partake 
of the sufferings of others, how, 107 ; suffering 
must precede comfort, and why, 108, seq. ; those 
that suffer as they should are sure of comfort, 
108. (See more in Affliction, Persecution, Tri- 
bulation.) 

Suspicion — Man's nature is prone to suspicion, 
339, 485 ; grounds of suspicion, from whence it 
ariseth, 340, 485, 486 ; suspicion, what, 340, 485 ; 
how to arm ourselves against suspicion, 340 ; 
how to know when suspicion is evil, 341; sus- 
picion is more than tear, less than judgment, 
485; suspicion makes the worst construction, 
485, 486 ; why the devil cherisheth suspicion, 
486 ; mischief from suspicion, 486. 

Swearing— W hilt meant by the prohibition. Swear 
not at all, 357, 494, 495 ; to swear by none but 
God, 493 ; sweaiing lawful, 494, 495 ; ordinary 
swearing condemned, 357, 358, 494, 495, 496 ; 
objections for common and ordinary swearing 
answced, 495, seg. ; original causes for ordinary 
swearing, 496, 497 ; motives against ordinary 
swearing, 497, 498 ; means against ordinary 
swearing, 497, 49S ; ordinary swearers curse 
themselves, 497. 



Thankfulness— It is the disposition of God's people 
to be thankful for mercies received, 22 ; we are 
to be especially thankful for si)iritual favours, 
24 ; means to become thankful, 24, 25, 26, 196, 
197; a carnal man unthankful, whv, 25; motives 
to thankfulness, 26, 198, 199, 200 ; not only 
verbal, but real, thanksgiving is required, 200. 
(See Bless, Praise.) 

Tradition — Popish faith is built upon traditions 
522, j23. 

Treasure/.— The pope's treasury, what, 99 ; the 
pope's treasury confuted, 99 ; Christ is the only 
treasury of the church, 99. 

TVibulation.— God's children are subject to tribula- 
tion, 52, 65, 79. (See Affliction, Persecution, 
Suffering.) 

Trust— God'ii children are prone to trust in them- 
selves, why, 128 ; not to trust in anything but 
in God, 132, 133, 134, seq.; signs of trusting in 
these outward things, as riches, Ac, 129, 130; 
It is a dangerous thing to trust in ourselves, or 
in the creature, why, 132 ; popery to be detested, 
because it teacheth men to trust to their own 
works, satisfactions, Ac, 133 ; we must not trust 
our own graces, 133 ; creatures may be trusted 
to subordinately, 135, 136 ; worldlings trust in 
the creature above God, yea, against God, 135 ; 
how to cure false confidence, or trusting in our- 
selves and in the creature, 136, 138 ; to trust in 
God a lesson hardly learned, 139 ; God, to make 
us trust in him, is fain to cast us out of ourselves, 
139 ; God is the sole and proper object of trusti 
144 ; God in Christ the object of trust, 144 ; it is 
a man's duty to trust in God, 145 ; trials of trust 
in God, or signs whereby to know whether we 
trust in God, 146, 147, 148 ; helps or means to 



trust in God, 149 ; trust in God, how to be exer- 
cised in great afflictions, 152 ; trust in God, liow 
exercised in the hour of death, 153 ; God, to 
strengthen our trust, hath given us his, (1.) pro- 
mise, (2.) seal, (3 ) oath, (4 ) earnest, (5 ) a pawn, 
(6.) seisin, 154 ; objection against trusting in 
God answered, 155 ; a Christian may trust or 
rely on God for the time to come, 168 ; trust 
what, 305. (See Confidence ) 
Truth.— Truth may not be spoken at all times, 233, 
234 ; God is true and faithful, how, 36.) ; objec- 
tion against this answered, 361 ; how to know 
the word of God to be true, 366, 37:* ; it is a mat- 
ter of comfort to believe the word of God to be 
true, 367, seq. ; the word of God, or evangelical 
doctrine, is most true and certain, 373. 

Fam — Jlinisters* labour is not in vain in the 

Lord, 7. 
Vehe?}ieni.—Ca.Tna.\ men are vehement, 3.53. 
Unbelief —The heart nf man is full of unbelief, and 

can hardly be settled in the persuasion of divine 

truth, 464, 465. 
Uniformity— A Christian i,s uniform, 301. 
Union —There is a threefold union, viz., (1.) of 

Christ and our nature, (2 ) of Christ and his 

members, (3.) of one member with auother, 108. 

Wait. -Grounds of waiting upon God for deliver- 
ance from trouble, or motives thereunto 163, 
164, seq., 410. 

Watf — It is a commendable custom for Christians 
to bring one another on their way, 338. 

Weak — The weakest creatures have the strongest 
shelters, 430. 

Will.— Kvery one in his calling placed by the will 
of God, S, 9; the more will, advisedness, and 
deliberation in sin, the greater the sin, 236. 

n75'tom— Wisdom manifold, 260, 261; wisdom, 
what, 261 ; carnal or fleshly wisdom described' 
261, 262, 2G3 ; why called fleshly wisdom, 261, 
262 ; all carnal men have not fleshly wisdom, 
261, 262; fleshly wisdom is where there is no 
simplicity nor sincerity, 202 ; God's children net 
ruled by fleslily wisdom, whv, 263, 274, 275 ; 
mi.schief of carnal wisdom, 264, 265 ; carnal or 
fleshly wisdom hinders our joy and comfort, 273, 
274 ; popery is founded on carnal wisdom, 522,' 
523; how to avoid fleshly wisdom, 350,351 ; a 
Christian needs wisdom, why, 277 ; wisdom may 
be had, 278 ; we should go to God for wisdom, 
278, 279; God gives wisdom for the things of 
this life, 279 ; true wisdom toucheth conversa- 
tion, 280. 

Word— Ihe preaching of the word, accompanied 
with God's Spirit, is able to convert and change 
the most wicked hearts that be, 10, 11, (see 
Ministiy, Preaching) ; it is a matter 'of conse- 
quence to believe tlie word of God to be true, 
certain, and immutable, 2,li7, seq.; the word of 
God is the judge of all controversies, 363 ; Christ 
the Word, how, 390, 446 ; the word of God is 
most true, certain, and infallible, 373 ; how to 
know the word of God to be true, 366, 373 (See 
Scripture.) 

Vror/t/. —Christianity may stand with converse in 
the world, 253 ; religion makes a man converse 
in the world untainttNi, 254 ; wicked men called 
the world, why, 261, 346, 347. 

Tex and Nap — Grounds of yea and nay, S53 ; dis- 
semblers are yea and nay all at once, 354 ; all 
promises and prophecies are yea in Christ. 383. 
389, 390, s^e. ' 



END OF VOL. III. 



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