The Pollution of Sin, and Use of the Promises

2 Corinthians 7:1. Having therefore these promises (dearly beloved) let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Having set forth the state, guilt, and power of sin, I shall now in the last place for the further opening the exceeding sinfulness thereof, discover the pollution and filthiness which therefrom both the flesh and spirit — the body and soul — do contract.

The Apostle in the former chapter had exhorted the Corinthians to abstain from all communion with idolaters, and from all fellowship in their evil courses. Several arguments he uses to enforce his exhortation. First from the inequality of Christians and unbelievers: be not you unequally yoked with unbelievers (verse 14) — it has a relation to the law of Moses, which prohibited to plow with an ox and an ass, or to put into one yoke things disproportionable. Secondly, from their contrariness, and by consequence their incommunicableness to each other — there is as everlasting and unreconcilable a hatred between Christ and Belial, righteousness and unrighteousness, as between light and darkness (verses 14–15). Thirdly, from those precious and excellent promises which are made to Christians — they are the temples of God, his people, and peculiar inheritance; he is their Father, and they his sons and daughters (verses 16, 17, 18). And there are many reasons in this one argument drawn from the promises to infer the Apostle's conclusion. First, by that unction and consecration whereby they are made temples to God, they are separated from profaneness, designed to divine and more noble employments, sealed and set apart for God himself, and therefore they must not be profaned by the unclean touch of evil society. Secondly, by being God's temples, they are lifted to a new station; the eyes of men and angels are upon them — they offend the weak, they blemish and deface their Christian reputation, they justify, comfort, encourage, and settle the wicked in their sinful courses, by a deep policy of the deceitful heart of man, apt to build ungrounded presumptions of safety to itself, by the fellowship of such whom it conceives to be in a good condition. Thirdly, they involve themselves in the common calamities with those with whom they communicate. If Israel had not separated themselves from Egypt by the blood of the Paschal Lamb, but had communicated with them in their idolatry, they should have felt the sword of the destroying angel in their houses, as well as the Egyptians. If upon hostility between nations, warning be given by an adversary to all strangers to void the place which he comes against, and they take not the summons — though of themselves they be no way engaged upon the quarrel, yet being promiscuously mingled with the conquered people, they also shall share in the common calamity, and become captives with the rest — so good men by communion with the wicked, are involved in the general miseries of those with whom they communicate. Fourthly, they betray the safety and tranquility of the church and state wherein they live; for they under Christ are the foundations of the commonwealth — their prayers establish the prince's throne, their cries hold God fast and will not let him alone to destroy a people. If the salt be infatuated, everything must be unsavory; if the foundations fail, what can the people do?

Now lastly, in the words of the text the Apostle shows the aptness of the promises to cleanse and purify, and that therefore they to whom they are made do misemploy and neglect them, if they purify not themselves from all that filthiness of flesh and spirit which by communion with the wicked they were apt easily to contract.

I shall not trouble you with any division of the words, but observe out of them the point I have proposed, touching the pollution and filthiness of sin, and infer other things in the text by way of corollary and application to that.

The wise man says that God made all things beautiful in their time, and then much more man, whom he created after his own image in righteousness and holiness with a universal harmony and rectitude in soul and body. He never said of any of the creatures, "Let us make it after our own image," as he did of man, and yet the creatures have no more beauty in them than they have footsteps of the power, wisdom, and goodness of him that made them. How much more beautiful then was the soul of man, for whose service this whole glorious frame was erected, and who was filled with the knowledge and love of all God's revealed will? Now sin brought confusion, disorder, and vanity, both upon the whole creation, and upon the image of God in men and angels. What thing more glorious than an angel, what more hideous than a devil, and it was nothing but sin which made an angel a devil. What thing more beautiful and benign than heaven, what more horrid and merciless than hell, and yet it was sin which drew a hell out of heaven, even fire and brimstone upon God's enemies. What more excellent and befitting the hands of such a workman than a universal fullness and goodness in the whole frame of nature? What more base and unserviceable than emptiness and disorder? And it is sin which has put cracks into all the creatures to let out their virtue, and has brought vanity and vexation of spirit upon all things under the sun. In one word, what more honorable than to obtain the end for which a thing is made? What more abhorred than to subsist in a condition infinitely more woeful than not to be? And it is sin only which shall one time or other make all impenitent sinners wish rather to be hurried into that fearful gulf of annihilation, and to be swallowed up in everlasting forgetfulness, than live with those marks of vengeance, under those mountainous and unsupportable pressures, which their sins will bring upon them.

When we look into the Scriptures to find out there the resemblances of sin, we find it compared to the most loathsome of things. To the blood and pollution of a newborn child, before it be cut, washed, salted, or swaddled (Ezekiel 16:6). To the rottenness of a man in his grave, the whole world lies in mischief and sin (1 John 5:19), even as a dead man in the slime and rottenness of his grave. To that noisome steam and poisonous exhalation which breathes from the mouth of an open sepulcher, their throat is an open sepulcher (Romans 3:13), that is, out of their throat proceeds nothing but stinking and rotten communication, as the Apostle calls it (Ephesians 4:29). To the nature of vipers, swine, and dogs (Luke 3:7; 2 Peter 2:20). To the dung or garbage, the poison, sting, excrement, vomit of these filthy creatures; to a root of bitterness which defiles many (Hebrews 12:15); to thorns and briers, which bring forth no other fruits but [reconstructed: curses] (Hebrews 6:8). To the excrement of metals, dross, and reprobate silver (Jeremiah 6:28; Ezekiel 22:18). To the excrement of a boiling pot, a great scum (Ezekiel 24:11-12). To the worst of all diseases, sores (Isaiah 1:6), rottenness (2 Timothy 3:8), gangrenes or leprosies (2 Timothy 2:17), plague and [reconstructed: pestilence] (1 Kings 8:38). The menstrousness of a removed woman (Ezekiel 36:17). To a vessel in which there is no pleasure, which is but the modest expression of that draught into which nature empties itself (Hosea 8:8). And which is the sum of all uncleanness, sin in the heart is compared to the fire of hell (James 3:6). So that the pure eyes of God loathe to see, and his nostrils to smell it (Zechariah 11:8; Amos 5:21). It makes all those that have eyes open and judgments rectified to abhor it in others. The wicked is an abomination to the righteous (Proverbs 29:27). When desperate wretches pour out their [reconstructed: oaths] and [reconstructed: execrations] against heaven, scorn and persecute the word of grace, count it baseness and cowardice not to dare to be desperately wicked, then every true heart mourns for their pride, has compassion on their misery, defies their solicitations, declines their companies and courses, even as most infectious, serpentine, and hellish exhalations which poison the [reconstructed: air] and putrefy the earth upon which they [reconstructed: tread]. And when God gives a man eyes to look inward, unridges the conscience, unbowels the heart, stirs up by his word the sink which is in every man's bosom, makes him smell the carrion of his own dead works, the uncleanness of his evil conscience, the filthiness of his nature, every man is then constrained to abhor himself, to be loathsome in his own sight, and to stop his nose at the poison of his own sores (Ezekiel 36:31).

For the more particular discovery of this truth, let us first look upon the best works of the best men. Though we say not that they are sins, and in natura rei culpable, as our adversaries charge us; yet so much evil does adhere to them by the mixture of our corruptions, by passing through our hands, as when sweet water passes through a sink, as that God might justly turn away his eyes from his own graces in us, not as his graces, but as in us. It is true, the spiritual offerings and sacrifices of the saints, as they come from God's grace, are clean and pure, a sweet savor, acceptable, well pleasing, and delightful to God. But yet as they come from us they have iniquity in them, as not being done with that thorough and most exact conformity to God's will, as his justice requires, and therefore if he should enter into judgment, and mark what is done amiss, he might reject our prayers, and throw back the dung of our sacrifices into our faces, for abusing and defiling his grace; for cursed is every one that continues not in everything written in the law to do it. Clean then and acceptable they are. First, comparatively in regard of wicked men's offerings, which are altogether unclean. Secondly, by favor and acceptance, because God spares us as a father his son that desires to please him. Thirdly (which is the ground of all), by participation with Christ, being perfumed with his incense, being strained through his blood, being sanctified upon his altar; when he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of gold, to purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, then shall they offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness, then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord. But in itself our best righteousness is as a [reconstructed: menstruous] rag. If God should lay righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet, should take such exceptions as he justly might at the most holy action that any saint can offer to him; if he should show the conscience how short it falls of that total perfection which his pure eye requires, how many loose thoughts, how much deadness, weariness, irreverence, diffidence, [reconstructed: vitiates] our purest prayers; how many by-ends, corrupt respects, ignorances, oversights, forgetfulness, worldly intermixtures deface and blemish our brightest actions; how much unbelief consists with the strongest faith; how many thorns, stones, birds, do haunt and cover the best ground, the most honest and good heart to stifle and steal away the word from it; how many weeds do mingle with the purest corn; how much ignorance in the sublimest judgments; how much vanity in the severest and most exact minds; how much looseness and digressions in the most grave and composed thoughts; how many impertinencies and irregularities in the most bridled and restrained tongue; how much misuse of the seasons and opportunities of grace in the most thrifty redemption of our time; how much want of compassion and melting affections in our greatest alms; of love to the truth, and right acceptation of the beautiful [reconstructed: feet] of peace in our largest contributions; how much self-allowance and dispensation to iterate and [reconstructed: reiterate] our smaller errors; if in these and a world of the like advantages God should be exact to mark what is done amiss, who were able to stand in his presence, or abide his coming? Say the papists what they will of merit of [reconstructed: condignity], commensurate to eternal life, and proportionable to the justice and severest scrutiny of the most pure and jealous God, yet let the conscience of the holiest of them all be summoned to single out the most pure and meritorious work which he ever did, and with that to join issue with God's justice to perish or be saved according as that most perfect of all his works shall appear righteous or impure; and I dare presume none of them would let their salvation run a hazard upon that trial. So then there is pollution by way of adherency and contact in the [reconstructed: best] works of the best men.

How much more then in the best works of unregenerate men? Their sacrifices unclean and abominable before God, being offered upon the altar of a defiled conscience (Proverbs 15:8; Titus 1:15). Their prayers and solemn meetings — hateful, loathsome, impious (Isaiah 1:13-15). For either they are but the howlings of [reconstructed: af]flicted men, that cry out for pain, but not out of love (Hosea 7:14), or the babbling of careless and secure men, that cry Lord, Lord, and mumble a few words without further notice, like Balaam's [reconstructed: donkey] (Matthew 7:21), or the wishings and wouldings of inordinate men, that pray for their lusts and not for their souls (James 4:3). Or lastly the bold and unwarranted intrusions of presumptuous men, who without respect to the word, promises, or conditions of God, would have mercy from him without grace, and forgiveness of sin without forsaking of sin. Their mercies are cruel mercies; their profession of religion but a form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5). All as I said before but the embalming of a carcass, which abates nothing of the hideousness of it in the sight of God.

And now if the best works of wicked men are so unclean and full of filthiness in God's eyes, where then shall appear their confessed sins? If their prayers and devotions stink, how much more their oaths and execrations? If their sacrifices and that which they offer to God is unclean, how unclean is their sacrilege and that which they steal from him? If their mercies be cruel, how cruel their malice, murders, [reconstructed: briberies], oppressions. If there be so much filthiness in their profession, how much more in their persecution, in their reviling and scorning of the ways of God? If their fastings and maceration be sinful and not to the Lord (Zechariah 7:5), what is their drunkenness, their spewing and staggering, their clamors and uncleanness, all their cursed complements and ceremonies of damnation?

O consider this all you that have hitherto forgotten God! Remember that his eyes are purer than always to behold iniquity; remember that his spirit will not always strive with flesh! Admire his bottomless patience, which has thus long suffered you an unclean vessel to pollute yourself and others, and forborne you with more patience than you could have done a toad, or serpent, than which notwithstanding in his sight you are far more unclean. And remember that his patience is salvation, and should lead you to repentance! Consider, that the law of the Lord is pure, and his fear clean, and his holiness beautiful, the garments with which he clothes his priests, garments of comeliness and praise, made for glory and beauty; he comes with fire and soap, with water and blood to heal our sores, to purge our uncleanness. But now if there be lewdness in our filthiness, obstinacy in our evil ways; if it suffice us not to have thus long worked the will of the Gentiles, let us with fear consider those woeful denunciations: Let him that is filthy be filthy still; Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone; Because I have purged you, and you were not purged, you shall not be purged from your sins any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon you (Revelation 22:11; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 24:13).

We have considered the [reconstructed: Quod sit], that sin is full of filthiness and pollution. I will but name the [reconstructed: Quid sit], what this filthiness is. It has two things belonging to the nature of it. First, a privation of the nitor or beauty which the image of God brought into the soul with it. A difformity to the holiness and brightness of the law. The law was both holy and good, not only the rule but the beauty of our life and nature. So that as evil is a declining and swerving from the law as a rule, so it is sin, and as it is a swerving from the law as our beauty, so it is the stain and pollution of the soul. Secondly, it notes a positive foulness, a habitual (both natural and contracted) defiledness of mind and conscience, an introducing of the image of Satan, hideous marks of hellishness and deformity in the soul, body and conversation. Every desire, motion, and figment of the heart being nothing but the exhalations of an open sepulcher, the damp and steam of a rotten soul.

Now in the last place let us see the Quale sit, those evil properties which accompany this pollution. Four woeful qualities belong to it. First, it is a deep pollution of a crimson dye, of a scarlet tincture that will not wear out (Isaiah 1:18). Like the spots of a leopard, or the blackness of an Ethiopian, which is not by way of accidental or external adherence, but innate and commingled, belonging to the constitution (Jeremiah 13:23). It is engraved upon their heart, written with an iron pen, and the claw of a diamond, and so fashioned even in the very substance of the soul (Jeremiah 17:1). It is an iniquity marked, which cannot be washed away with niter and much soap, no more than marks imprinted and incorporated in the substance of a vessel (Jeremiah 2:22). The whole inundation and deluge of Noah could not wash it off from the earth, but it returned again. A shower of fire and brimstone from heaven has not so cleansed it out of the country of Sodom, but that the venom and plague of it does still there appear in a poisonous and stinking [reconstructed: lake]. The plague which came among the Israelites for the abominations of Baal Peor had not cleansed the filthiness all away, but many years after the stain remained (Joshua 22:17). In fact, the very flames of Hell shall not in all eternity be able to eat out the prints, or to fetch away the stains of the smallest sins from the nature of man. In fact, which is yet stronger than all this, though grace be of itself apt to wipe out, and conquer sin, yet that measure and portion of grace which here the best receive, though it may shorten, weaken, abate, yet it does not utterly root it out. Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am free from my sins? The best of us have yet our sores running upon us, and stand in need of a garment to cover our pollutions.

Secondly, it is a universal pollution. I said to you when you were in your blood, live. We are by nature all overdrowned and plunged in the filthiness of sin. The Apostle here calls it filthiness of flesh and spirit, to note the compass of the stain of sin. For notwithstanding some sins belong principally to the spirit, as pride, heresy, idolatry, superstition, etc., and others to the flesh, as drunkenness, gluttony, uncleanness, etc., yet certain it is that every sin defiles both flesh and spirit, by reason of their mutual dependency in being and working, and of the contagious quality of sin. Sins of the flesh soak and sink and eat into the bottom of the spirit, to drown that with hardness, insensibility, error, security, inconsiderateness, contempt of God, etc., and the sins of the spirit break out like plague sores into the flesh, pride into the eye, malice into the hand, heresy to the tongue, superstition and idolatry into the knee, etc. The soul and body have so near communion, that one can no more sin alone without the contagion of the other, than one wheel in an engine move without the motion of the other.

Thirdly, it is a spreading pollution. A leprosy, a gangrene, a plague, that diffuses poison and infection upon others. First, it spreads in a man's self. An evil lust will infect the thoughts, and they the desires, and they the words and actions, and they grow into habits and reflect back again upon the heart and conscience to harden and defile them. Secondly, this infection stays not in a man's self only, but runs forth upon others, to lead and misguide them; we will certainly do as we have done, we and our kings, our princes, and our fathers, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. To drive and compel them; why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? To comfort and hearten them; you have justified, and are a comfort to your sisters Sodom and Samaria. To exasperate and enrage them; you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. To deceive and seduce them, as the old Prophet of Bethel did the Prophet of the Lord by his lie. To teach and instruct them; the Israelites by their idolatry taught their children to walk after Baalim. And by how much the more authority over the persons of men, or [reconstructed: eminence] of place, or reputation of piety any man has, by so much the more spreading and infectious are his sins, being taken with the more trust and assurance. If a minister be loose and scandalous, a magistrate careless and rusty, a gentleman rude and unclean, a man that professes the power of godliness, unjust and worldly, strange it is how the lower and more ignorant rank of men, who believe that surely such men as these are not by their places so far from, or by their learning and studies so unacquainted with God as they, will be hereby strengthened in their deadly and formal courses. Thirdly (which is yet worse) the very godly are apt to be infected by the sins of the wicked. It is not so strange to see a godly man misguided and seduced by the errors of others like himself, the estimation of whose persons may over-rule the opinion of their actions, and so make a man take them upon trust from them. But that a holy man should catch infection from the example of another who is in the gall of bitterness, is a thing that wonderfully sets forth the corruption of our nature, and the contagion of sin. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, and were polluted; the people of Israel saw the Midianitish women and were ensnared. A holy man's conversing with loose, carnal and formal men, [reconstructed: disaccustoms] him from the ways of God, brings a deadness of spirit, and insensible decay of grace upon him secretly, and therefore the more dangerously conveys a mediocrity and compliancy of spirit with forms only of godliness and pharisaical outsides, begets much dispensation and allowance in many errors, that he may keep pace, and not seem too austere, censorious, and ill conceited of the men whom he walks with. Therefore David would not suffer a wicked man to be in his presence, nor any wicked thing to be before his eyes, lest it should cleave to him. Take heed, says the Apostle, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Fourthly, it spreads not only upon men, but defiles and curses the good creatures of God about us; it puts a leprosy into the stone in the wall, and the beam in the house, barrenness into the earth, mourning into the elements, consumption into the beasts and birds, bondage, vanity, grief, and at last combustion and dissolution upon the whole frame of nature.

Fourthly, it is a mortal and poisonous pollution, the pollution of deadly sores and putrefactions. I said to you in your blood live, yea I said to you in your blood live. It notes that that estate wherein they were in their sins was so deadly, that the cure of them was very difficult, it required the repetition of God's power and mercy. If a child newborn should lie exposed in its blood to the injury of a cold air, not have the navel cut, nor the body wrapped, or washed, or tended at all, how quickly would it be that from the womb of the mother it would drop into the womb of the earth? The state of sin is an estate of nakedness, blood, impotency, obnoxiousness to all the temptations and snares of Satan, to all the darts of death and hell. The ancients compare it to falling into a pit full of dirt and stones, a man is not only polluted, but he is bruised and wounded by it. To conclude, there is no deformity nor filthiness extant which did not rise from sin. It is sin which puts bondage into the creature, which brings discords and deformities upon the face of nature. It is sin which put devilishness into angels of heaven, and hurried them down from their first habitation. It is sin which put a sting into death, without which though it kill yet it cannot curse. It is sin which puts fire into hell, and supplies to all eternity the fuel and materials for those unextinguishable flames. It is sin which puts hell into the conscience and arms a man with terrors and amazements against himself. It is sin which puts rottenness and dishonor into the grave; he that died without sin rose up without corruption. It is sin which wrings out those clamors and groans of brute creatures, which wrestle under the curse of Adam's fall. It is sin which enrages and maddens one beast against another, and one man against another, and one nation against another. It is sin which brought shame and dishonor upon that nakedness to which all the creatures in Paradise did owe awe and reverence. It is sin which turned Sodom into a stinking lake, and Jerusalem the glory of the earth, into a desolation and haunt for owls and bitterns. It is sin which so often stains heaven and earth with the marks of God's vengeance, and which will one day roll up in darkness, and devour with fire, and reduce to its primitive confusion the whole frame of nature. It is sin which puts horror into the law, makes that which was at first a law of life and liberty to be a law of bondage and death, full of weakness, unprofitableness, hideousness, and curses. It is sin which puts malignity and venom into the very Gospel, making it a savor of death to death, that is, of another deeper death and sorer condemnation, which by trampling upon the blood of Christ we draw upon ourselves, to that death under which we lay before by the malediction of the law. And lastly (which is the highest that can be spoken of the [reconstructed: venom of sin]): it is sin which, in a sort, and to speak after the manner of men, has put hatred into God himself, has moved the most merciful, gracious and compassionate Creator, to hate the things which he made, and not to take pity upon the works of his hands. If God had looked round about his own works, he could have found nothing but goodness in them, and therefore nothing but love in himself. But when sin came into the world, it made the Lord repent, and grieve, and hate, and destroy his own workmanship.

And the consideration hereof should drive us all like lepers and polluted wretches to that fountain in Israel which is opened for sin and for uncleanness, to buy of him white clothing that we may be clothed, and the shame of our nakedness may not appear. For which purpose we must first find out the pollution of sin in ourselves, and that is by using the glass of the law, which was published on purpose to make sin appear exceeding sinful. For as rectum est sui index & obliqui so purum est sui index & impuri, that which is right and pure is the measure and discovery of that which is crooked and impure. Now the law is right, pure, holy, [reconstructed: just], good, lovely, honorable, clean; and therefore very apt to discover the contrary affections and properties in sin. And having gotten by the law acquaintance with ourselves, there is then fit place for the apostle's precept, to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. First the Lord discovered the preposterousness of Israel's services to him, when they came before him in their uncleanness, and lifted up hands full of blood, and then comes the like precepts to the apostles here, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes, etc.

But can an unclean thing cleanse itself? Can that which is intrinsically, naturally, inherently unclear purify itself? It may pollute any thing which touches it, but how can it cease from that which belongs to its nature, or wipe out that which has eaten in, and is marked in its very substance? It is true of ourselves we cannot cleanse ourselves, it is Christ's office to sanctify his church, and it is his comeliness with which we are adorned, without him we can do nothing; but yet having him we must wash ourselves. For God works not upon men as a carver upon a stone when he would induce the shape and proportions of a man, but yet leaves it a stone still and no more; but as himself did work upon earth in Paradise when he breathed into it the soul of man, and so made it a living creature. It is true a natural man is as dead to grace as a stone is to natural life, and therefore if only man should work upon him he would continue as dead still; but he who of dead earth made a living man, is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham, and the work of conversion is a work of vivification. Now then being quickened, we must walk and work ourselves. I will take away, says the Lord, the [reconstructed: stony] heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, etc. So then God commands us to cleanse ourselves when yet it is his own work. First, to teach us that what he does is not out of duty or debt, but of grace and favor — for when he does that which he commands, it is manifest that ours was the duty, and therefore his the [reconstructed: greater] mercy, to give us money with which to pay him the debt we owed. You work all our works for us, says the prophet. The work as it is a duty is ours, but as it is a performance it is yours. Secondly, he does it to show that though he be the author and finisher of our faith, though he who begins our good works does also perform them until the day of Christ, yet he will not have us abide always under his hand as dead stones, but, being quickened, and healed by his Spirit, and having our impotencies removed, we likewise must cooperate and move to the same end with him; for he does not so work for us, but he with all gives us a will and a deed to concur with him to the same actions. As we have received Christ, so we must walk in him. Thirdly, to show us where we must fetch our cure, to teach us that he will be sought to by us, and that we must rely upon his power and promises. Therefore he commands us the things which we cannot do, that we might know of whom to beg them, for it is faith alone which obtains by prayer that which the law requires only but cannot effect, by reason of the weakness of it. In one place the Lord commands, cast away from you all your transgressions, and make you a new heart and a new spirit. In another place he promises, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh. How can these things consist together, he commands us to do that which he promises to do himself? But only to show that God gives what he requires. The things which he bids us do, (as if they were to be the works of our own will, and being indeed the duties which we owe) yet he promises to do in us, to show that they are the works of his grace, and that his promises are the foundation of all our performances. For we by working do not cause him to fulfill his promises, but he by promising does enable us to perform our works. So then we cleanse ourselves by the strength of his promises, they are the principles of our purification. This the apostle expresses in the text. Having therefore these promises (dearly beloved) let us cleanse ourselves.

This then is the next thing we must inquire into, wherein the strength of this argument lies, and how a man ought to make use of the promises to infer and press upon his conscience this duty of cleansing himself. Here then first we must note, that promises contain the matter of rewards, and are for the most part so proposed to us. Abating only the first promise of [reconstructed: calling] to the obedience of faith, which I conceive is rather made to Christ in our behalf (Ask of me and I will give you the [reconstructed: heathen] for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession) than to us formally, because the seed of Abraham are the subject of the promises, I say excepting only that, I conceive all other promises to bear in them the nature of a reward, and so to carry relation to presupposed services. For benefits have usually burdens and engagements with them, so that promises being the representation of rewards, and rewards the consequents of service, and all services being generally comprehended in this of cleansing ourselves from all [reconstructed: filthiness], and of finishing holiness in God's fear, manifest it is that the promises are in this regard fit arguments to induce our duty. The Gospel which is the Word of Promise has an obedience annexed to it, which the Apostle calls the obedience of the Gospel: And faith being the hand to receive the promises has an obedience annexed to it likewise, which the same Apostle calls the obedience of faith, for it is not only a hand to receive, but a hand to work. To live to ourselves, and yet lay claim to the [reconstructed: promises], is to make God a liar, not to believe the record which he gives of himself, that he will not cast away precious things upon swine. His promises are free in [reconstructed: origin], made only out of grace, but conditional in facto esse, performed and accomplished with dependance upon duties in us. God is faithful, says the Apostle, who shall establish you and keep you from evil, there is the promise, and we are confident that you will do the things which we command you — there is the duty which that promise calls for. When we pray, Give us our daily bread, by saying, Give us, we acknowledge that it is from God, but when we call it ours, we show how God gives it, namely in the use of means. For bread is ours, not only in the right of the promise, I will not fail you, nor forsake you, but by service and quiet working in an orderly calling.

Secondly, promises are apt to purify not only as arguments to induce it, but likewise as efficient causes and principles, being by faith apprehended, of our holiness. And so the force of the reason is the same, as if a rich man having given a great estate to his son, should add this exhortation, having received such gifts as these, and having now wherewithal to live in quality and worth, keep yourself in fashion like the son of such a father.

Efficient causes they are. First, as tokens and expressions of God's love, for all God's promises are grounded in his love. His justice, truth, and fidelity are the reasons of fulfilling promises, because in them he makes himself our debtor (therefore says the Apostle, There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which God the righteous judge shall give to me (2 Timothy 4:8); and again, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted (1 Corinthians 10:13), and faithful is he that has promised, who also will do it (Hebrews 10:23); and Saint John, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)). One would think a man should rather fear the revenge than expect the forgiveness of sins by God's justice, but God is as just in performing the mercy which he promises, as in executing the vengeance which he threatens. So then justice and fidelity are the reasons of fulfilling promises, but God's love and mercy is the only reason of making promises. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you (says Moses to Israel) because you were more in number than any people, but because the Lord loved you, that is the ground of making the promise, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, that was the ground of performing his promise (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). For your word's sake, and according to your own heart, says David, have you done all these great things (2 Samuel 7:18, 21). According to your own heart, that is, ex mero motu, out of pure and unexcited love, you did give your word and promise, and for your word's sake you have performed it, not for any thing that was in me (for [reconstructed: who am I] O Lord, or what is my house?) have you brought me here. You will perform, says the Prophet, the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old (Micah 7:20); why truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham? We must note, the promise after a sort began in Abraham (therefore he is called the father of the faithful) and when God makes a promise, it is only out of mercy; but the promise was continued to Jacob, who being Abraham's seed was an heir of the promise, and so the inheritance which was out of mercy given to Abraham, did out of truth and fidelity descend to Jacob, the seed of Abraham; and therefore we shall find covenant, mercy, and oath joined together in the Scripture, to note to us both the ground of making the covenant, mercy, and the ground of performing the covenant made, the truth and fidelity of God. Your God shall keep to you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers, says Moses (Deuteronomy 7:12). To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, etc., says Zechariah in his song (Luke 1:72-73). Thus we see that the promises are the tokens and fruits of God's mere love. And in that regard they are apt to cleanse, or to move us to any duty which God requires of us. For love and mercy, being by faith apprehended, are strong arguments to love and fear God again. We love him because he loved us (1 John 4:19), and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness; the goodness of the Lord begets fear, and that is all one as to cleanse and purify for the fear of the Lord is clean and pure. There is an unclean fear, like that of the adulteress, who fears her husband, lest he should return and discover her in her falseness to him; but the true fear of the Lord is clean, like that of a chaste spouse who fears the departure of her love. There are none so destitute of humanity as not to answer love for love.

Secondly, promises are the efficient causes of our purification, as they are the grounds of our hope and expectations. We have no reason to hope for anything which is not promised, or upon any other conditions than as promised. Hope is for this reason in Scripture compared to an anchor both sure and steadfast, because it must have something of firmness and stability to fasten upon before it can secure the soul in any tempest. To hope without a promise, or upon any promise otherwise than it stands, is but to let an anchor hang in the water, or catch in a wave, and thereby to expect safety to the vessel. This argument the Apostle uses why we should not cast away our confidence, or slacken our hope, because there is a promise, which by patience and doing the will of God we may in due time receive, and which is a firm foundation for our confidence to rest upon (Hebrews 6:19; Hebrews 10:35-36). So Abraham is said to have believed against hope in hope that he should be the father of many nations, and the ground of that hope is added, According to that which was spoken, to that word of promise, so shall your descendants be (Romans 4:18). And elsewhere he is said to have looked for a city which had foundations; that is, a city which was built upon the immutable stability of God's faith and promise (Hebrews 11:10). Thus we see promises are the grounds of our hope, and hope is of a cleansing nature. The grace of God, says the Apostle, teaches us to deny [illegible] and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; the reason of which is presently enforced, Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God (Titus 2:11-13). And again, He that has this hope in him, says Saint John, namely to be like him at his coming, purifies himself even as he is pure (1 John 3:3). He that hopes to be fully like Christ hereafter, and to come to the measure of the stature of his fullness, will labor to his uttermost to be as he was in this world. For a man hopes for nothing in the future which he would not presently compass, if it were in his power. No man is to be presumed to hope for the whole who hates any part, or to expect the fullness, who rejects the first fruits of the Spirit. He that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:[illegible])? That is, he that cannot endure nor look on that little glimpse and ray of holiness which is in his brother, in one of the same passions, infirmities, and corruptions with himself, will much less be able to abide the light of the Son of righteousness, and that most radiant, spotless, and vast holiness which is in him. The same reason holds here: he that cannot endeavor to purify himself here, does never truly hope to be like Christ hereafter. He that directs his course towards York can never be presumed to hope that he shall by that journey get to London, when he knows, or might easily be informed that it is quite the other way. And the truth is, no wicked man has any true — or as Saint Peter calls it (1 Peter 1:3) — lively hope to come to heaven. Blind presumptions, ignorant wishings and wishful thoughts he may have, but no true hope at all. For that ever supposes some knowledge and preapprehension of the goodness of that which is hoped for; and there is nothing in heaven which wicked men do not hate as very evil to them: the presence of the most holy God, the purity and brightness of his glory, the company of Christ Jesus and his saints, etc. If they might be suffered first to have a view of it, and see what is there doing, what divine and holy employments take up all the thoughts, desires, and powers of the blessed company there, they would abhor no place more. Hope begets love — whom having not seen, you love, says the Apostle (1 Peter 1:8) — hope to be like Christ hereafter will work a love and desire to express so much as we can of his image here. He that longs for a thing will take any present occasion to get as much of it as he may together. Notably does Saint Paul set forth this purifying property of hope in the promises: I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13, 20). I am already apprehended of Christ, he has in his body carried me in hope to heaven with him, and made me sit together in heavenly places, and this hope to come to him at last, to attain to that prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, makes me press, and pull, and strive by all means to attain to perfection, to express a heavenly conversation in earth, because from there I look for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hope, as we said, is an anchor; our anchor is fixed in heaven, our vessel is upon earth; now as by the cable a man may draw his vessel to the anchor, so the soul being fixed by hope to Christ, does haul and draw itself nearer and nearer to him.

Thirdly, Promises are the efficient causes of our purification, as they are the objects of our Faith: For we dare not believe without Promises. Therefore Abraham staggered not through unbelief, but gave glory to God, because he was fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was able to perform. It is not God's power simply, but with relation to his Promise which secures our faith. So Sarah is said through faith to be delivered of a child being past age, because she judged him faithful that had promised. Now by being objects of faith, the Promises must needs cleanse from filthiness; for faith also has a cleansing property, it purifies the heart, and works by love, and looks upon the things promised as desirable things, rejoices in them, and works homogeneous and suitable affections to them. Again, we must note, that sin comes seldom without Promises to pollute us, begets vast expectations and hopes of Good from it. Balaam was whet and enlivened by promises to curse God's people; the Strumpet in the Proverbs, that said to the young man, Come let us take our fill of loves, conceived most adequate satisfaction to her adulterous lusts by that way. This was the delusion of the rich fool in his Epicureanism, Soul, take your [reconstructed: ease], eat, drink, and be merry, for you have much laid up for many years: of the Jews in their idolatries to the Queen of heaven, because that would afford them plenty of victuals, and make them see no evil: of Gehazi's foolish heart, who promised to himself olive yards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants and maidservants by his officious lie. And this was one of the devil's masterpieces when he tempted Christ, All these will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Thus we see sin seldom comes without promises to seduce and pollute the soul. And yet the truth is these promises cannot hold up the hope of any man. When a man has wearied himself in the pursuit of them, yet still there is less hope at last than at first. But now faith fixing upon sure mercies, upon promises which cannot be abrogated or disannulled (being made irreversible by the oath of God, who after he has sworn cannot repent) and seeing not only stability, but preciousness in the promises, and through them looking upon the great goodness of the things contained in them as already subsisting and present to the soul, and by this means overcoming the world (whose only prejudice and advantage against Christ is this, that the things which he promises are long hence to come, whereas that which it promises it likewise presents to the view of sense; which difference faith destroys, by giving a subsistence and spiritual presence of things hoped for to the soul) by this means, I say, faith does mightily prevail to draw a man to such holiness, as becomes the sons and heirs of so certain and precious promises. Till a man by faith apprehends some interest in the promises, he will never out of true love endeavor a conformity to God in Christ. By them, says Saint Peter, we are made partakers of the divine nature, and do escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. What is it to be made partaker of the divine nature? It notes two things: first, a fellowship with God in his holiness; that purity which is eminently and infinitely in God's most holy nature is formally, or secundum modum creaturae, so far as the image of his infinite holiness is expressible in a narrow creature, fashioned in and communicated to us by our union with Christ. Secondly, a fellowship with God in his blessedness, namely in that beatific vision, and brightness of glory which from the face and fullness of Jesus Christ (who as a second Adam is made to us the Author and Fountain of all heavenly things) shall at last in fullness, and does even now in flashes and glimmerings shine forth upon his members. And all this we have from those great and precious promises which are made to us of holiness and of blessedness. For as we say of the Word in general, so more especially of the Promises, they are operative words, and do produce some real effects, being received by faith. As a man when he receives a deed signed, sealed, witnessed, and delivered, does not only take parchment or wax, or empty words, but has thereby some fundamental right created to the things in the deed mentioned to be conveyed, so that the deed is declaratory and operative of some real effects: so in the word and promises of God sealed by the blood of Christ, ratified by the oath of the Covenant, testified by the Spirit of Truth, delivered by the hand of Mercy, and received by the hand of Faith, there does not only pass empty breath and naked words, but also some real effects by the intendment of God are thereby produced; namely, the cleansing of our sinful nature from the pollutions of the world, and the transforming thereof into the image and purity of the divine nature.

Fourthly, promises are the efficient causes of our purification, as they are the rays and beams of Christ the Sun of Righteousness, in whom they are all founded and established. They are all in him, yes, and in him, Amen. Every promise by faith apprehended carries a man to Christ, and to the consideration of our unity with him, in the right of which we have claim to the promises; even as every line in a circumference, though there never so distant from other, does, being pursued, carry a man at last to one and the same center, common to them all. For the promises are not made for anything in us, nor have their stability in us, but they are made in and for Christ to us, to Christ in our behalf, and to us only so far forth as we are members of Christ. For they were not made to seeds as many, but to seed, namely to Christ, in aggregato, as comprehending the head and the members in the unity of one body. So then every promise carrying us to that unity which we have with Christ by his Spirit (who is therefore called a spirit of adoption, because he vests us with the sonship of Christ, and a spirit of holiness and renovation, because he sanctifies us by the resurrection of Christ) does thereby purify us from dead works, and conform the members to the head, building them up in a holy temple and into a habitation of God through that Spirit by whom we are in Christ. In one word, our interest in the promises is grounded upon our being in Christ, and being one with him; and our being in him is the ground of our purification. Every branch in me that brings forth fruit, my Father purges, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2). And in this respect the promises may be said to purify, as still carrying us to our interest in Christ, in whom they are founded.

Fifthly and lastly, the promises are causes of our purification, as exemplars, patterns, and seeds of purity to us. For the promises are in themselves exceeding great and precious (2 Peter 1:4). Every word of God is pure and tried like gold seven times in the fire, it is right, and clean, and true, and altogether righteous, and therefore very lovely and attractive, apt to sanctify and cleanse the soul. Sanctify them by your truth (says Christ) your word is truth (John 17:17), and again, Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3). For the word is seed, and seed assimilates earth and dirt into its own pure and clean nature. So by the word there is a trans-elementation, as it were, and conforming of our foul and earthly nature to the spiritualness of itself. Therefore the Apostle uses this for an argument, why the regenerate cannot [reconstructed: sin] (namely in that universal and complete manner as others do) because they have the seed of God abiding in them, that is, his word, Spirit, and promises abating the strength of lust, and swaying them to a contrary point. For thus the word of promise makes a man's heart to argue. Has God of mere grace made assurance of so precious things to me who by nature am a filthy and unclean creature, obnoxious to all the curses and vengeance in his book? Has he wrought so great deliverance, and laid up such unsearchable riches for my soul? And should I again break his commandments, and join in the abominations of other men? Would he not be angry till he had consumed me; so that there should be no escaping? Should I not rather labor to feel the comforts and power of these promises, encouraging me to walk worthy of so great mercy, and so high a calling? To walk fitting for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in light? Shall I that am reserved to such honor, live in the mean time after the lusts of the Gentiles, who have no hope? Has God distinguished me by his Spirit and promises from the world, and shall I confound myself again? Shall I requite evil for good to the hurt of my own soul? These and the like are the reasonings of the heart from the beauty and purity of the promises.

Thirdly and lastly, promises are arguments to infer our purification, because in many of them that is the very matter of which they consist, and so the power and fidelity of God is engaged for our purification. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me, says the Lord (Jeremiah 33:8). And again, I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you, etc. (Ezekiel 36:25). And again, They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save them, and I will cleanse them (Ezekiel 37:23). And again, I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely (Hosea 14:4). The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purge the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgment, and by the spirit of burning (Psalm 4:4). Which promises, bringing along the fidelity and power of God to our faith, do settle our hearts amidst all the corruptions and impotencies of our nature. When the conscience is once thoroughly acquainted with the sight of its own foulness, with the sense of that life and power which is in concupiscence, it finds it then a great difficulty to rest in any hope of having lusts either subdued or forgiven. The Psalmist, when his sore ran, and ceased not, refused to be comforted, thought himself cast out of God's favor, as if his mercies were exhausted, and his promises come to an end, and his compassions were shut up, and would show themselves no more. Therefore in this case the Lord carries our faith to the consideration of his power, grace, and fidelity, which surpasses not only the knowledge but the very conjectures and contrivances of the hearts of men. The Apostle says, That Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 1:19-20; Colossians 2:12). That Spirit which raised him from the dead is therefore called a spirit of holiness, because the sanctifying of a sinner is a resurrection, and requires the same power to effect it, which raised Christ from the dead. When Saint Paul had such a bitter conflict with the thorn in his flesh, the vigor and stirrings of concupiscence within him, he had no refuge nor comfort but only in the sufficiency of God's grace, which was able in due time to work away and purge out his lusts (2 Corinthians 12:9). And the prophet makes this an argument of God's great power above all other gods, that he subdues iniquities, and blots out transgressions (Micah 7:18-19; Isaiah 43:25). Though we know not how this can be done, that such dead bones, souls that are even rotten in their sins, should be cleansed from their filthiness, and live again (Ezekiel 37:3): yet he knows; and therefore when we are at a stand, and know not what to do to cure our lusts, then we may by faith fix our eyes upon him, whose grace, power, wisdom, fidelity is all in these his promises put to pledge for our purification (2 Chronicles 20:12).

Thus we see how promises in general do work to the cleansing of us from filthiness of flesh and spirit. The same might at large be shown in many particulars. I will but name those in the words before the text (to which it refers.) The Lord promises to dwell in us as in spiritual temples, and this proves that we ought to keep ourselves clean, that we may be fit habitations for so dove-like and pure a spirit. Flee fornication (says the Apostle) why? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you — therefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits for they are God's (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). And again, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy — for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). He promises to be our Father, and make us his people, and this also is a strong argument why we should purify ourselves, and as obedient children not fashion ourselves according to the former lusts in ignorance, but as he who has called us is holy, so should we be holy in all manner of conversation (1 Peter 1:14, 17). And if we call him Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's works, we should pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. You are a chosen generation (says Saint Peter) a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the virtues of him, who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9, 11). When you were of the world, you were then strangers to the covenant, and aliens from the house and Israel of God, but now being become God's household, you are strangers and pilgrims in the present world, and should therefore abstain from the lusts of the flesh, which are sensual and worldly things (Ephesians 2:12, 19; 1 John 2:16). Those that are a peculiar people, are a purged people too. He will purify to himself a peculiar people, that they may be zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).

The consideration of which things should make us labor to settle our hearts to believe, love, and prize the promises, to store up and hide the word in our hearts, to have it dwell richly in us, that in evil times and days of temptation we may have some holdfast to rely upon (Psalm 119:89-91). In times of plenty, security, and peace, men go calmly on without fear or suspicion; but when storms arise, when God either hides his face, or lets out his displeasure, or throws men upon any extremities, then there is no hope but in our anchor, no stay nor relief but in God's promises, which are settled and sure, established in heaven, and therefore never reversed or cancelled in the earth. And if this faithful and sure word had not been David's delight and comfort, if he had not in all the changes and chances of his own life remembered, that all God's promises are made in heaven, where there is no inconstancy, nor repentance, he had perished in his affliction. Though David by a prophetic spirit foresaw that God would not make his house to grow, but to become a dry and withered stock of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), yet herein was the ground of all his salvation and of all his desire, that the Lord had made with him an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and [illegible], that he had [illegible] by his holiness that he would not fail David (2 Samuel 23:5; Psalm 89:35-36); so that it was as possible for God to be unholy, as for the word of promise made to David to fall to the ground, and be untrue.

Now that we may the better apply the promises to ourselves, and establish our hearts in the truth and fidelity of God by them, we may make use of these few rules, among various others which might be given.

First, promises generally made, and so available for all, or particularly to some, are by the ground of them equally applicable to any in any condition to which the promises are [reconstructed: suitable]. All the promises are but as one in Christ, as lines though several in the circumference do meet as one in the center. Take any promise and follow it to its original, and it will undoubtedly carry to Christ, in whom alone it is Yes and Amen, that is, has its truth, certainty, and stability all from him. Now the promises meeting in Christ cannot be severed or have a partition made of them to several men (for every believer has all Christ, Christ is not divided) any other way than the need of men's present estates does diversify them, and so fit them for such promises as now to others, or at other times to themselves would be unseasonable and inapplicable. The Lord in assenting to Solomon's prayer, made a general promise to any man, or to all the people, that whatever prayer or supplication should be made towards his temple, he would hear in heaven and forgive, etc. (1 Kings 8:37, 42). [reconstructed: Jehoshaphat] being after in distress, applied this general to his present [reconstructed: situation], when the children of Ammon and Mount Seir came to turn Israel out of their possessions (2 Chronicles 20:8). The Lord made a particular promise to Joshua, that he would be with him to bless his enterprises against the Canaanites, and to carry him through all the difficulties and hazards of that holy war (Joshua 1:5-6). And Saint Paul applies the promise to all the faithful in any straits or distresses of life, as the Lord himself had before applied it from Moses to Joshua: Let your conduct be without covetousness — for as God was with Joshua, so will he be with you, he will not fail you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Christ made a particular promise to Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And the same in effect he applies to all his, I pray that you would keep them from the evil. And the consequent words to Saint Peter make it good: When you are converted strengthen your brothers, that is, comfort and revive them by your own experience, that when they are brought into the like case with you they may have the benefit of the same intercessor and the sympathy and compassion of the same Savior who delivered you (Luke 22:32; John 17:15). As our Savior says in matter of duty, What I say to you, I say to all, so we may say of him in matter of mercy, What he promises to any, he promises to all in an equal estate. It is good therefore to observe the truth of God in his promises to others, and when we find ourselves reduced to their condition, to apply it to ourselves, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope (Romans 15:4). This is the counsel of Saint James, Take my brothers the Prophets for an example of suffering affliction and of patience — you have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and [illegible] (James 5:10-11). And Saint Paul assures us that for this cause God comforted him in his tribulation, that he might be able to comfort them who might be in any trouble with the comfort with which he himself had been comforted by God (2 Corinthians [illegible]). A poor Christian might object, Alas, if I were an Apostle, if I had such graces, such services, such ways of glorifying God as Paul had, I might hope for the same power and providence of God in my afflictions as he finds. But I am a poor ignorant, unfruitful, and unserviceable creature, who do more blemish than adorn my profession of the Gospel of Christ, and shall I look for such care from God as Saint Paul? Beloved, the members in the body would not so argue; if I were an eye, or a tongue, one of the noblest parts of the body, perhaps some compassion and remedy might be shown me in my distempers; but I am but a joint of the foot, or a mean, dishonorable, and less serviceable member, therefore though I am tormented with a gout or stone, the tongue will not speak, the head will not work, the hand will not distribute anything for me. The children in a family would not so argue; my father is careful to provide medicine, and cure the diseases of my brother, because he is grown up to do him credit, and his country service, but I am but a child, that lies upon him, and does no work, I am unable for any employments, and therefore I shall perish in my disease without care or regard. Surely if the members of a body, or the children of men, who are evil, would not thus argue, how much less reason have any of Christ's, who have a head entrusted with the care of his meanest members, and a father tender of the falls and failings of his weakest children? Thus rather should the soul resolve: though Paul had more grace than I, yet he had no more merit than I. All the compassion which was shown to him was out of favor and mercy, not out of debt or duty; and my wants and miseries make me as fit for mercy as he was; and the compassion of a father is most commended toward the unworthiest and most unprofitable child.

Secondly, promises in themselves are certain, but the ways of performance are often undiscernible and hidden; therefore we must live by faith, and not by reason, and measure the truth of God's words by the strength of his power, and not by our own conceits or apprehensions. When we look upon God in his promises, we must conceive of him as a God infinite in wisdom to contrive, and in power to bring about the execution of his own will. There is a promise made of calling the Jews to Christ, and causing them to turn from their transgressions. The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that return from transgression in Jacob (Isaiah 59:20). But he who should consider the extreme obstinacy and stubbornness of that people against the Gospel, would think it impossible, that they should ever be pulled out of the [reconstructed: snare] of the Devil; therefore the Apostle makes God's power the ground of certainty in this promise, They also shall be grafted in again, for God is able to graft them in — as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Romans 11:23, 26). The Sadducees and Gentiles derided the doctrine and promise of the resurrection from the dead; and our Savior carries the one from their own prejudice to God's power: you err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God (Matthew 22:29). And Saint Paul the other, from their reason to faith in God: Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? (Acts 26:8). Therefore we shall find men's unbelief in Scripture has risen partly from apprehension of power in those whom they fear, and partly from apprehension of impotency in those whom they should trust. When the Israelites heard of giants and sons of [reconstructed: Anak] in the promised land, presently they murmured against the Lord and his servants, and provoked him by their unbelief of his mighty power which they had had so frequent experience of — How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be before they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? (Numbers 14:1, 11). They provoked him again by infidelity in the wilderness, when they asked meat for their lust, and that was by calling the power of God in question; They spoke against God, they said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; but can he give bread also, can he provide flesh for his people? (Psalm 78:19, 20). They measured God by their own reason, and charged God with that impotency which they found in themselves. This was the sin of that noble man who attended upon the king of Israel in the great famine at Samaria; when the prophet foretold a marvelous plenty which should suddenly come to the place, he measured God's power by his own conceits of possibility in the thing: If the Lord would make windows in heaven, this thing could not be (2 Kings 7:2). There was a promise made to Israel to restore them out of that great captivity of Babylon, and this seemed to them as incredible as for men to be raised out of their graves after so many years' consumption, therefore they said — our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off for our parts. We have no more reason to believe any promise, or to rest upon any expectations of deliverance, than dead bones have to revive again. Therefore the Lord acquaints them with his power together with his promises: O my people, you shall know that I am the Lord! that is, that my ways and thoughts are infinitely above your shallow apprehensions, when I shall have brought you out of your graves (Ezekiel 37:11, 13). Though there should be famine, and mountains between God's people and his promises, famine to weaken their feet that they could not crawl away, and mountains to stop their passage which they could not climb nor overpass, yet when there was no might nor power left in them, the Spirit of the Lord should be their strength, their feet should be like deer's feet to skip over the mountains, and the mountains should be as a plain before them (Habakkuk 3:17, 18, 19; Zechariah 4:6, 7). All doubts and distrusts arise from this, that men make their own thoughts the measure of God's strength, and have low and unworthy conceits of his power. This therefore in all difficulties we must frame our hearts to, to look off from second causes, from the probabilities or possibilities which are obvious to our reason, and admire the unsearchableness of God's power and wisdom, which is above all the thoughts of man. If a rich man should promise a beggar a great sum of money, and he should discomfort himself with such plodding scruples as these: Alas these are but the words of a man who means well, and takes compassion on my poverty; but how can he possibly make good this promise? If I should engage myself thus to another poor man, I should be sure to fail his expectations and [reconstructed: flatter] him with wind, what quiet or comfort could he have? but he would have more wisdom than to measure rich men by his own poverty and baseness. So should we do in any difficulties and distresses either from sins, afflictions, or temptations. As Abraham did [reconstructed: waver] not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform (Romans 4:19, 20). And after, he offered up his son in faith, because he knew that God was able to raise him even from the dead, from where he had before in a figure received him, namely from a dead and barren womb (Hebrews 11:29). This was Job's only comfort upon the dunghill, that that God who would, after worms had consumed his flesh, raise him up at the last day, and make him with those very eyes to see his [reconstructed: Redeemer], had power enough in his due time to deliver from that woeful [reconstructed: condition] into which he had [reconstructed: cast] him, and to revive his strength and estate again (Job 19:25, 26, 27). A man perhaps is haunted and pursued with such or such an unclean affection, is wearied in wrestling with it, and cannot prevail (as indeed there is nothing that cleaves more pertinaciously, or is more inexpugnable, than a strong and importunate lust). What must he now do? Sink under the weight? Is there no remedy, nor way of escape? God forbid. When his own strength and wisdom fails him, let him look off from himself to the power and promises of that God, who is all-sufficient to save to the uttermost those that come to him by Christ. He is a Refiner, a Sun of Righteousness that can cure the barrenness of our hearts by the healing virtue of his wings, and purge away our dross and corruptions from us. That promise which God made to Paul in the stirrings and conflicts of his concupiscence is made to all of his temper: My grace is sufficient for you; and there are two things in that promise, grace to make it, and sufficiency to fulfill it. Lay aside, says the Apostle, every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset you. Alas, may the soul answer, if it be a weight, how shall I move it? If it be a [reconstructed: besieging] and encompassing sin, that does so easily occupy and invade all my faculties, how shall I repel or drive it off? Well, says the Apostle, if you cannot quit yourselves of your clog and burden, yet run with patience the race which is set before you, be content to draw your chain, and to lug your lusts after you. But how can the soul be patient under such heavy and such close corruptions? Under the motions, importunities, and immodest solicitations of so many and so adulterous lusts? Look, says he, to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith; consider him — lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. He does not any of his works by halves; he is a perfect Savior, he finishes all the works which are given him to do; if he has begun a good work in you, he is able to perfect it; if he be now the author, he will in due time be the accomplisher of your faith.

We must note, all the promises are made in Christ; being purchased by his merits, and they are all performed in Christ, being administered by his power and office. And in Christ, we must note, there is, first, a will that we should be holy, expressed in his prayer to his father, 'sanctify them by your truth' (John 17:17). Secondly, a power to execute that will, he is able to save those that come to God by him; and he quickens whom he will. Thirdly, both his will and power are backed and strengthened with authority and an office so to do, for he was sanctified and sealed by his father to this purpose. Fourthly, he is furnished with abundance of wisdom to contrive, and of fidelity to employ both his will, power, and office, for fulfilling all God's promises of grace and mercy. In him there were treasures of wisdom, and he is a merciful and faithful high priest. Fifthly, to all this he is further engaged by his kinship with us; he is our brother by his sympathy and compassion towards us; he has felt the weight of sin in the punishment thereof, and the contradiction of sinners, and lastly by his propriety to us; he should defraud himself, if he should not fulfill all his promises to the church; for the church is his own house. All the promises are made to him, in aggregate, with his church, to the seed of Abraham, that is to Christ, namely to the head and members together. As when any evil befalls the church he is afflicted; so in all the advancements of the church he is honored, and, in a sort, further filled; for the church is his fullness. Though as God, as man, as mediator, he be full by himself; yet as head he accounts himself maimed and incomplete without his members. So that when Christ pleads and prays for the church he is an advocate and intercessor in his own business; for the affairs of the church are his.

Thirdly, promises are many times subordinate to one another, and are performed in an order, succession, and dependency. Therefore we must not anticipate, nor disturb the order which God has put in his promises, but wait upon him in his own way. Grace and glory will he give, but first grace before glory, no man must snatch at this promise till he has interest in that. Godliness has the promises of this life, and of that to come; but we must note the order which our Savior puts, first seek the kingdom and righteousness of God, and then all these things shall be added to you. The Lord promises to call men to Christ, 'nations that knew you not shall run to you.' The Apostle tells us whereto he calls, 'God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.' Therefore in the next place he promises to sanctify and cleanse his church; 'I will put my law in their hearts, and in their inward parts.' The qualification of this holiness is, that it be whole and constant. 'The very God of peace sanctify you, and preserve you blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,' is the Apostle's prayer for the Thessalonians. Therefore in the next place, God promises perseverance, 'I will not turn away from them, to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.' But this perseverance is not so certain, but that it admits of falls, slips, and miscarriages; therefore in that case, he promises healing and restoring. 'I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely. I will bind up that which is broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.' And after all this comes the promise of glory, and salvation. Now then we must wait upon the promises in their own order. When God has called us to the knowledge of Christ, we must not skip over all the intermediate links, and look presently for the accomplishment of God's promise of salvation, or perseverance by God's sole power, and in the meantime omit all care of holiness in our conversation. When we are sanctified, we must not resolve then to sit still, as if all our work were at an end, and expect salvation to drop into our laps. But we must make it our care, and esteem it our own duty to continue faithful to the end, that so we may receive a crown of life. For God does not fulfill his promises in us only, but by us too; and those things which in regard of his word are his promises, are also in regard of his command our duties. And therefore we must take the promises in that connection, and dependency which they have among themselves.

Fourthly, promises, though always necessary, are yet most useful in extremities, and therefore it is best for us to store up of all sorts; though we see no present use of some particulars, yet we know not what time may bring forth, what ways God may please to try us by. Secondly, it is best to acquaint our hearts with those which are most general, precious, fundamental, wherein God's power and goodness is principally seen, and from them it will be easy to infer the rest. As Job argues from the final resurrection to a deliverance from the dunghill. And David from the deliverance of his soul from hell, to the deliverance of his feet from falling. And Habakkuk, from the deliverance out of Egypt and the wilderness, to the deliverance out of Babylon. And Abraham from a miraculous generation in a dead womb to a miraculous restitution of Isaac from the dead again. And Paul from a deliverance out of the mouth of the lion, to a deliverance from every evil work. Some notable act of God's mercy and providence may be applicable to several more particulars; because experience works hope. Thirdly, it is good to bring a man's self to a view of extremities in himself, to keep fresh in his eye the nakedness, poverty, and utter disability that is in him to further his own happiness; and that will fit him to go with patience and faith through any other exigencies which he may be brought to. There is as little ground why a sinner should believe and trust God for the forgiveness of his sins; as hope for any comfort and support in his distresses. If a man can therefore now keep before him a distinct view of the filthiness of his sins, and that anguish and extremities which it brings, and live by faith in the remission of them, he will be much the more fitted to trust and lean on God in the midst of any other distresses. There is not so much evil, so much unremovableness, and unmitigableness in any [illegible] or misery, as there is in sin; and therefore if we can trust God for pardon, purging, and extinguishing of sin, we may much more trust him for the supporting of us under, or delivering us from any other evil.

Fifthly, experience of God's wisdom, truth, and power in some promises will settle and establish the heart in dependance, and expectation of the like in others. Sense does corroborate and confirm faith. And this we shall observe to be a very frequent argument in Holy Scriptures to conclude God's favor for the present or future, by his proceedings past. When the Israelites were afraid of the Anakims and Giants of the Land, this was Moses his argument, Dread not, neither be afraid of them; the Lord your God which goes before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, etc. And again, I commanded Joshua, says he, at that time saying. Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two Kings: so shall the Lord do to all the kingdoms wherever you pass. So David argued against [reconstructed: Goliath], The Lord did deliver me from a lion and a bear, therefore he will deliver me from this Philistine. And Saint Paul, The Lord has delivered from a sentence of death, and does deliver, therefore I trust that he will deliver. So the faithful argue in the Prophet: Are you not he that did cut Rahab, and wound the Dragon; that did dry the sea, the waters of the deep and made a passage through the depths of the sea for the ransomed to pass over. Therefore the Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion, etc. These and sundry the like examples were written for our learning that we also through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope; that we might learn to store up the passages of God's providence in our lives, that they may be for precedents and rules in after times. Men are apt to sink under the present sense of any evil that presses them, because they do not look backward to God's former ways of mercy towards them; whereas if men could thus argue, I have known a famine, and felt a pinching season so long ago, and I did then outlive it, and God's providence cared for me and carried me through that plunge and distress: I have felt a sore disease, and been in the mouth of the grave and yet I live to praise God's power: the buffets of Satan have heretofore bruised my soul, and I have been even drenched in my own sorrows, and swallowed up of despairing and uncomfortable thoughts, and yet out of them all the Lord has delivered me, and let his countenance shine upon me again: and he is the same God still, as full of compassion to commiserate my calamities, as full of power to effect, as full of wisdom to contrive, as full of fidelity to perform his own promises, as he was before: and therefore I will wait upon him in the ways of his own mercy, and rest in the constancy, immutability, indeficiency of that God with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of changing: I say if men could thus learn to comfort their hearts by their experiences and review of God's former proceedings, they might with the more quietness and silent affections expect the salvation of the Lord again.

Sixthly, the same thing in temporal and inferior blessings may belong to one man, only ex largitate, out of that general providence which causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad alike; and to another ex promisso, out of God's promise; because godliness has the promises of this life as well as of that to come. Now there is a vast difference between these two, to have a thing only out of patience and forbearance, and to have it out of engagement and promise. For by the promise there is a discharge of all the forfeitures, incumbrances, vexations, perplexities which attended the same thing. As in temporal, so in spiritual and theological respects, there is a great difference in tenures touching the same things. The wicked in the earthly things they enjoy are wholly tenants at will, they have no engagement at all from God, they may be thrust out every hour; for all their right was forfeited in Adam, and restored to them only by a general providence during God's good pleasure: as a condemned malefactor till the time of his execution has something allowed him out of favor, but may at pleasure be cut off from it. But the faithful have all things by inheritance, by the right of Christ's purchase, and by Covenant in him. Not only things present, but things to come are theirs; they have the truth of God pawned for their preservation and supplies so long as they continue in his way; a way of piety, industry, and honesty. And they have them for themselves and their seed. The promises were to Abraham and his seed. I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. The wicked have earthly things only as [reconstructed: dispensations] and employments, no, as vexations, and toils of life; as idols, snares, and thorns, things that entangle their hearts, and take them off from God. As a cloud exhaled by the sun hides the light of the sun which drew it up; as a worm eats out the wood, and rust consumes the iron which breeds it; as water in a vessel raised by the fire, puts out the fire which raised it: so the great estates and temporal blessings of God to evil men, serve but to intercept the thoughts, and to blot out the notions and remembrance of him that gave them. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said I will not hear. And this has been your manner from your youth, says the Lord (Jeremiah 22:21). But the faithful have earthly things as rewards of their righteousness, as an accession, advantage, and overplus to the kingdom of God; as testimonies of God's love, and care of them; as exercises of their thankfulness, charity, mercy, etc.

But it may be objected, why then have not the faithful more abundance of these things than worldly men? I answer, first, a little that the righteous has is better than great possessions of the ungodly. For first they have the main substance of these things as well as the other, they live, and eat, and are clothed as well as they; and secondly they have the comforts more, less anguish of heart, vexation and contention of mind than the others have. And to them it is all one whether they go into heaven through the gate or through the wicket. As a bird with a little eye and the advantage of a wing to soar up withal may see far wider than an ox with a greater: so the righteous with a little estate, joined with faith, tranquility and devotion, may have more pleasure, feel more comfort, see more of God's bounty and mercy, than a man of vast possessions, whose heart cannot lift itself above the earth. Secondly, as nature when she intends a further and more noble perfection, is less curious and elaborate in inferior faculties: (as man is exceeded by the eagle for sight, and the hound for scent, and the hare for swiftness, because nature intending in him a more spiritual and divine soul, chose to be less delicate and exact in the senses) so God intending to bestow upon the faithful a far more exceeding and abundant weight of heavenly glory, does not always so fully enlarge his hand toward them in these earthly things, as to those who have no other portion but in this life. We see then how much it concerns us to look to the ground of our tenure, to observe in what service we hold our estate, whether as appurtenances to God's kingdom; or as merely the pastures of a beast, which do only fatten against the day of slaughter.

Seventhly and lastly, God's promises to us must be the grounds of our prayers to him. Whenever God makes a promise, we must make a prayer. And there are two things in this rule to be observed. First, that we can make no prayer in boldness, faith, or comfort, but for things promised. For if we will have God hear us, we must pray according to his will: we must ask in faith, we must see the things we ask made ours in some promise and engagement before we must presume to ask them. This (as we have before observed) encouraged David, Jehoshaphat, and Daniel to pray to God, because he had made promises of the things they desired, and therefore they were certain that they prayed according to his will. This was Nehemiah's ground in his prayer for the reparation of Jerusalem. Remember, I beseech you, the word which you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you transgress, I will scatter you abroad: but if you turn to me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out to the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from there, etc. Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand. O Lord, I beseech you, let now your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who desire to fear your name, etc.

Secondly, that God will not perform promises, till by prayer they be sought for from him; till in our humble desires we declare that we account his promises exceeding great and precious things. The Lord had promised deliverance to Israel, yet says the Lord, For this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. Thus says the Lord, After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to the place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you — thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. But how shall this excellent promise of God be effected; it follows — [illegible] upon me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you, etc. So again, the Lord makes a promise of forgiveness of sins, [illegible] blots out your transgression for his own sake, and will not remember your sins. But for the execution of this promise, God will be sought to. Put me in remembrance, says he, and let us plead together: for when we pray to God to fulfill his promises, we testify first, that they are promises of mercy, and not of duty or debt; because God is not bound to tender them to us, but we to beg them of him. Secondly, we declare our need, and by consequence estimation of them, and dependence upon them. And lastly, we subscribe to the truth, and acknowledge the wisdom, power, fidelity, and ways that God has to make good all his own words to us. We have no reason therefore to esteem anything a blessing, or fruit of God's promise, which we do not receive from him upon our knees, and by the hand of prayer. As promises are the rule of what we may pray for in faith; so prayer is the ground of what we may expect with comfort.

Thus we see what use we are to make of the promises to [illegible] from all filthiness of flesh and spirit: and the use we may make of them likewise to perfect ourselves in the fear of God. For as the exceeding great and precious promises of God do cleanse our natures, and make us escape the corruption and filthiness which is in the world through lust; so do they serve to add one grace to another, and to make them abound in us, till we come to charity, which is the bond of perfection, as Saint Peter shows. And again, Grow, says he, in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more a soul does abound in the knowledge of Christ, who is the sum, fountain, and treasury of all the promises, the more will he grow in grace and to perfection. For as some promises are in our hand, and performed already, as rewards for our service past: so others are still before our eyes, to call and allure us, as the prize to which we press. Be steadfast and unmovable and abound always in the work of the Lord, says the Apostle, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Holding fast, and going on has a crown attending it. The more we proceed in holiness, our salvation is still the nearer to us. If we lose not the things which we have worked, we shall receive a full reward.