Part 11

Besides, God says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles; but perhaps it may be long first. “I waited long,” saith David, “and did seek the Lord;” and at length his cry was heard: wherefore he bids his soul wait on God, and says, For it is good so to do before thy saints; Psalm xl. 1; lxii. 5; lii. 9.

And what if thou waitest upon God all thy days? Is it below thee? And what if God will cross his book, and blot out the hand-writing that is against thee, and not let thee know it as yet? Is it fit to say unto God, Thou art hard-hearted? Despair not; thou hast no ground to despair, so long as thou livest in this world. It is a sin to begin to despair before one sets his foot over the threshold of hell-gates. For them that are there, let them despair and spare not; but as for thee, thou hast no ground to do it. What! despair of bread in a land that is full of corn! despair of mercy when our God is full of mercy! despair of mercy, when God goes about by his ministers, beseeching of sinners to be reconciled unto him! 2 Cor. v. 18–20.

Thou scrupulous fool, where canst thou find that God was ever false to his promise, or that he ever deceived the soul that ventured itself upon him? He often calls upon sinners to trust him, though they walk in darkness, and have no light; Isa. 1. 10.

They have his promise and oath for their salvation, that flee for refuge to the hope set before them; Heb. vi. 17, 18.

Despair! when we have a God of mercy, and a redeeming Christ alive! For shame, forbear: let them despair that dwell where there is no God, and that are confined to those chambers of death which can be reached by no redemption.

A living man despair when he is chid for murmuring and complaining! Lam. iii. 39. Oh! so long as we are where promises swarm, where mercy is proclaimed, where grace reigns, and where Jerusalem sinners are privileged with the first offer of mercy, it is a base thing to despair.

Despair undervalues the promise, undervalues the invitation, undervalues the proffer of grace. Despair undervalues the ability of God the Father, and the redeeming blood of Christ his Son. Oh unreasonable despair!

Despair makes man God’s judge; it is a controller of the promise, a contradicter of Christ in his large offers of mercy: and one that undertakes to make unbelief the great manager of our reason and judgment, in determining about what God can and will do for sinners.

Despair! It is the devil’s fellow, the devil’s master; yea, the chains with which he is captivated and held under darkness for ever: and to give way thereto in a land, in a state and time that flows with milk and honey, is an uncomely thing.

I would say to my soul, O my soul! this is not the place of despair; this is not the time to despair in: as long as mine eyes can find a promise in the Bible, as long as there is the least mention of grace, as long as there is a moment left me of breath or life in this world; so long will I wait or look for mercy, so long will I fight against unbelief and despair.

This is the way to honour God and Christ; this is the way to set the crown on the promise; this is the way to welcome the invitation and inviter; and this is the way to thrust thyself under the shelter and protection of the word of grace. Never despair so long as our text is alive, for that doth sound it out,—that mercy by Christ is offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinner.

Despair is an unprofitable thing; it will make a man weary of waiting upon God; 2 Kings vi. 33; it will make a man forsake God, and seek his heaven in the good things of this world; Gen. iv. 13–18. It will make a man his own tormentor, and flounce and fling like a wild bull in a net; Isa. ii. 20.

Despair! it drives a man to the study of his own ruin, and brings him at last to be his own executioner; 2 Sam. xvii. 23; Matt. xxvii. 3–5.

Besides, I am persuaded also, that despair is the cause that there are so many that would fain be Atheists in the world: For because they have entertained a conceit that God will never be merciful to them; therefore they labour to persuade themselves that there is no God at all, as if their misbelief would kill God, or cause him to cease to be. A poor shift for an immortal soul, for a soul who liketh not to retain God in its knowledge! If this be the best that despair can do, let it go, man, and betake thyself to faith, to prayer, to wait for God, and to hope, in despite of ten thousand doubts. And for thy encouragement, take yet (as an addition to what has already been said) the following scripture; “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy;” Psal. cxlvii. 11.

Whence note, They fear not God, that hope not in his mercy: also God is angry with them that hope not in his mercy: for he only taketh pleasure in them that hope. He that believeth, or hath received his testimony, “hath set to his seal that God is true,” John iii. 33; but he that receiveth it not hath made him a liar, and that is a very unworthy thing; 1 John v. 10, 11. “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly multiply pardons.” Perhaps thou art weary of thy ways, but art not weary of thy thoughts, of thy unbelieving and despairing thoughts; now, God also would have thee cast away these thoughts, as such which he deserveth not at thy hands; for he will have mercy upon thee, and he will abundantly pardon.

“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” Luke xxiv. 25. Mark you here, slowness to believe is a piece of folly. Ay! but sayst thou, I do believe some, and I believe what can make against me. Ay, but sinner, Christ Jesus here calls thee fool for not believing all. Believe all, and despair if thou canst. He that believes all, believes that text that saith, Christ would have mercy preached first to the Jerusalem sinners. He that believeth all, believeth all the promises and consolations of the word; and the promises and consolations of the word weigh heavier than do all the curses and threatenings of the law; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Wherefore believe all, and mercy will to thy conscience weigh judgment down, and so minister comfort to thy soul. The Lord take the yoke from off thy jaws, since he has set meat before thee; Hos. xi. 4; and help thee to remember that he is pleased in the first place to offer mercy to the biggest sinners.

Sixthly, Since Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, let souls see that they lay right hold thereof, lest they, notwithstanding, indeed come short thereof. Faith only knows how to deal with mercy; wherefore put not in the place thereof presumption. I have observed, that as there are herbs and flowers in our gardens, so there are their counterfeits in the field; only they are distinguished from the other by the name of wild ones. Why, there is faith, and wild faith; and wild faith is this presumption. I call it wild faith, because God never placed it in his garden, his church; it is only to be found in the field, the world. I also call it wild faith, because it only grows up and is nourished where other wild notions abound. Wherefore take heed of this, and all may be well; for this presumuptuousness is a very heinous thing in the eyes of God: “The soul,” saith he, “that doeth ought presumptuously (whether he be born in the land, or a stranger), the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people;” Numb. xv. 30.

The thoughts of this made David tremble, and pray that God would hold him back from presumptuous sins, and not suffer them to have dominion over him; Psal. xix. 13.

Now this presumption, then, puts itself in the place of faith, when it tampereth with the promise for life, while the soul is a stranger to repentance. Wherefore you have in the text, to prevent doing thus, both repentance and remission of sins to be offered to Jerusalem; not remission without repentance: for all that repent not shall perish, let them presume on grace and the promise while they will; Luke xiii. 1–3.

Presumption, then, is that which severeth faith and repentance, concluding, that the soul shall be saved by grace, though the man was never made sorry for his sins, nor the love of the heart turned therefrom. This is to be self-willed, as Peter has it; and this is a despising the word of the Lord, for that has put repentance and faith together; Mark i. 15. And “because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off: his iniquity shall be upon him.” Numb. xv. 31.

Let such therefore look to it, who yet are, and abide in their sins; for such, if they hope, as they are, to be saved, presume upon the grace of God. Wherefore presumption and not hearkening to God’s word are put together; Deut. xvii. 12.

Again, Then men presume when they are resolved to abide in their sins, and yet expect to be saved by God’s grace through Christ. This is as much as to say, God liketh sin as well as I do, and careth not how men live, if so be they lean upon his Son. Of this sort are they that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity; that judge for reward, and teach for hire, and divine for money, and lean upon the Lord; Mic. iii. 10, 11. This is doing things with an high hand against the Lord our God, and a taking him, as it were, at the catch. This is, as we say among men, to seek to put a trick upon God, as if he had not sufficiently fortified his proposals of grace by his holy word, against all such kind of fools as these. But look to it.

Such will be found at the day of God, not among that great company of Jerusalem sinners that shall be saved by grace, but among those that have been the great abusers of the grace of God in the world. Those that say, Let us sin that grace may abound, and let us do evil that good may come, their damnation is just. And if so, they are a great way off of that salvation that is by Jesus Christ presented to the Jerusalem sinners.

I have therefore these things to propound to that Jerusalem sinner that would know, if he may be so bold as to venture himself upon this grace.

First, Dost thou see thy sins?

Secondly, Art thou weary of them?

Thirdly, Wouldst thou with all thy heart be saved by Jesus Christ? I dare say no less, I dare say no more. But if it be truly thus with thee, how great soever thy sins have been, how bad soever thou feelest thy heart, how far soever thou art from thinking that God has mercy for these: thou art the man, the Jerusalem sinner, that the Word of God has conquered, and to whom it offereth free remission of sins, by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

When the jailor cried out, “Sirs, What must I do to be saved?” The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” He that sees his sins aright, is brought to his wit’s end by them; and he that is so, is willing to part from them, and to be saved by the grace of God.