Of the Truth of God
sparing mercy, much more for saving mercy. Sure that heart is made of marble, which the mercy of God will not dissolve in love! "I would hate my own soul, (saith St. Augustine) if I did not find it loving
God."—3. To imitate God in shewing mercy. God is the Father of mercy; shew yourselves to be his children, by being like him. St.
Ambrose saith, "The sum and definition of religion is, Be rich in works of mercy, be helpful to the bodies and souls of others. Scatter your golden seeds; let the lamp of your profession be filled with the oil of charity. Be merciful in giving and forgiving. 'Be ye merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' "
OF THE TRUTH OF GOD
The next attribute is God's truth, Deut. 32:4., "A God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he;" Ps. 57:10., "For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds." A God of truth, Ps. 86:15., "Plenteous in truth." God is the truth. He is true: 1.
In a physical sense; true in his being; he hath a real subsistence, and gives a being to others. 2. He is true in a moral sense; he is true sine errore, without errors; et sine fallacia, without deceit. God is prima veritas,—the pattern and prototype of truth. There is nothing true but what is in God, or comes from God. I shall now speak of God's truth, as it is taken, from his veracity in making good his promises, 1
Kings 8:56., "There hath not failed one word of all his good promise."
The promise is God's bond, God's truth is the seal set to his bond.
This is the thing to be explicated and discussed, God's truth in fulfilling his promises.
There are two things to be observed in the promises of God to comfort us: 1. The power of God, whereby he is able to fulfil the
promise, God hath promised to subdue our corruption, Micah 7:19., "He will subdue our iniquities." O! saith a believer, my corruption is so strong, that sure I shall never get the mastery of it. Thus Abraham looked at God's power, Rom. 4:21., "Being fully persuaded that what
God had promised he was able also to perform." He believed, that God, who could make a world, could make dry breasts give suck. This is faith's support, there is nothing too hard for God. He that could bring water out of a rock, is able to bring to pass his promises.—2.
The truth of God in the promises: God's truth is the seal set to the promise. Tit. 1:2., "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie hath promised." 'Eternal life,' there is the sweetness of the promise:
'God which cannot lie,' there is the certainty of it. Mercy makes the promise, truth fulfils it. God's providences are uncertain, but his promises are the 'sure mercies of David,' Acts 13:24.; "God is not a man that he should repent," 1 Sam. 15:29. The word of a prince cannot always be taken, but God's promise is inviolable. God's truth is one of the richest jewels of his crown, and he hath pawned this jewel in a promise, 2 Sam. 23:5., "Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." Although my house be not so, that is, though I fail much of that exact purity the Lord requires, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, that he will pardon, adopt, and glorify me; and this covenant is ordered in all things sure: "The elements shall melt with fervent heat;" but this covenant abides firm and inviolable, being sealed with the truth of God; nay, God hath added to his word, his oath, Heb. 6:17., wherein God pawns his being, life, righteousness, to make good the promise. If as oft as we break our vows with God, he should break promise with us, it would be very sad; but his truth is engaged in his promise, therefore it is like the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be altered. "We are not (saith Chrysostom) to believe our senses so much, as we are to believe the promises," &c. Our senses may fail us, but the promise
cannot, being built upon the truth of God; God will not deceive the faith of his people, nay, he cannot; "God, who cannot lie, hath promised;" he can as well part with his Deity, as his verity. God is said to be abundant in truth Exod. 34:6. What is that? viz. If God hath made a promise of mercy to his people, he will be so far from coming short of his word, that he will be better than his word. God often doth more than he hath said, never less. He is abundant in truth.
1. The Lord may sometimes delay a promise, but he will not deny; he may delay a promise, God's promise may lie a good while as seed under ground, but at last it will spring up into a crop. God promised to deliver Israel from the iron furnace, but this promise was above four hundred years in travail before it brought forth. Simeon had a promise that he should not depart hence, "till he had seen the Lord's
Christ," Luke 2:26., but it was a long time first, but a little before his death, that he did see Christ. But though God delay the promise, he will not deny. Having given his bond, in due time the money will be paid in.
2. God may change his promise, but he will not break his promise.
Sometimes God doth change a temporal promise into a spiritual, Ps.
85:12., "The Lord shall give that which is good," perhaps this may not be fulfilled in a temporal sense, but a spiritual. God may let a Christian be cut short in temporals, but God makes it up in spirituals. If he doth not increase the basket and the store, he gives increase of faith, and inward peace; here he changeth his promise, but he doth not break it, he gives that which is better. If a man promiseth to pay me in farthings, and he pays me in a better coin, in gold, he doth not break his promise? Ps. 89:33., "I will not suffer my faithfulness to fail." In the Hebrew, it is to lie.
OBJ. 1. But how doth this consist with the truth of God? He saith, He will have all to be saved, 1 Tim. 2:4., yet some perish.
Ans. St. Austin understands it, not of every individual person, but some of all sorts shall be saved; as in the ark, God saved all the living creatures, not every bird or fish were saved, for many perished in the flood, but all, that is, some of every kind were saved, so God will have all to be saved, that is, some of all nations.
OBJ. It is said, Christ died for all; "he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world," John 1:29., how doth this consist with God's truth, when some are vessels of wrath, Rom. 9:22."
Ans. 1. We must distinguish of world. The word is taken either in a limited sense, for the world of the elect; or in a larger sense, for both elect and reprobates. "Christ takes away the sins of the world," that is, the world of the elect.
A. 2. We must distinguish of Christ's dying for the world. Christ died sufficiently for all, not effectually. There is the value of Christ's blood, and the virtue; Christ's blood hath value enough to redeem the whole world, but the virtue of it is applied only to such as believe. Christ's blood is meritorious for all, not efficacious. All are not saved, because some put away salvation from them, Acts 13:46., and vilify Christ's blood, counting it an unholy thing, Heb. 10:29.
Use 1st. Here is a great pillar for our faith, the truth of God. Were not he a God of truth, how could we believe in him? Our faith were fancy; but he is truth itself, and not a word which he hath spoken shall fall to the ground. "Truth is the object of trust." The truth of God is an unmoveable rock, we may venture our salvation here, Isa. 59:15.,
'Truth faileth:' truth on earth doth, but not truth in heaven. God can as well cease to be God, as cease to be true. Hath God said, he will do
good to the soul that seeks him, Lam. 3:25., He will "give rest to the weary?" Mat. 11:28. Here is a safe anchor-hold, he will not alter the thing which is gone forth of his lips. The public faith of heaven is engaged for believers: can we have better security? The whole earth hangs upon the word of God's power, and shall not our faith hang upon the word of God's truth? Where can we rest our faith but upon God's faithfulness? There is nothing else we can believe in, but the truth of God; we cannot trust in an arm of flesh, we cannot trust in our own hearts, this is to build upon the quicksands, but the truth of God is a golden pillar for faith to stay upon. God cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. 2:13., "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." Not to believe God's veracity, is to affront God,
1 John 5:10., "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar." A person of honour cannot be more affronted or provoked, than when he is not believed. He that denies God's truth, makes the promise no better than a forged deed; and can there be a greater affront offered to God?
Use 2d. Of terror to the wicked. God is a God of truth, and he is true in his threatenings; the threatenings are a flying roll against sinners.
God hath threatened to "wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses," Ps. 68:21. He hath threatened to judge adulterers, Heb. 13:3. To be avenged upon the malicious, Ps. 10:14.,
"Thou beholdest mischief and spight, to requite it with thy hand:" To "rain fire and brimstone" upon the sinner, Ps. 11:6. And God is as true in his threatenings as his promises; God hath oft, to shew his truth, executed his threatenings, and let his thunderbolts of judgment fall upon sinners in this life; he struck Herod in the act of his pride; he hath punished blasphemers: Olympius, an Arian bishop, reproached and blasphemed the blessed Trinity, immediately lightning fell down from heaven upon him, and consumed him. God
is as true in his threatenings as in his promises; let us fear the threatening, that we may not feel it.
Use 3d. Is God a God of truth? let us be like God in truth. 1. We must be true in our words. Pythagoras being asked what made men like
God? answered, "When they speak truth." It is the note of a man that shall go to heaven, Ps. 15:2., "He that speaketh the truth in his heart."
Truth in words is opposed, (1.) To lying, Eph. 4:25., "Putting away lying, speak every man truth to his neighbour." Lying is when one speaks that for truth, which he knows to be false. A liar is most opposite to the God of truth. There are (as Austin saith) two sorts of lies: 1. An officious lie, when a man tells a lie for his profit; as, when a tradesman saith his commodity cost him so much, when perhaps it did not cost him half so much; he that will lie in his trade, shall lie in hell. 2. A jesting lie: when a man tells a lie in sport, to make others merry, he goes laughing to hell. When you tell a lie, you make yourselves like the devil, John 8:44., "The devil is a liar," and the father of it. He deceived our first parents by a lie. Some are so wicked that they will not only speak an untruth, but will swear to it; nay, they will wish a curse upon themselves, if that untruth be not true. As I have read of a woman, one Anne Avarie, 1575, who being in a shop, wished that she might sink if she had not paid for the wares she took; she fell down speechless immediately, and died in the place. A liar is not fit to live in a commonwealth. Lying takes away all society and converse with men; how can you converse with him whom you cannot believe what he saith? Lying shuts men out of heaven, Rev.
22:15., "Without are dogs, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."
And as it is a great sin to tell a lie, so it is a worse sin to teach a lie, Isa. 9:15., "The prophet that teacheth lies." He who broacheth error teacheth lies; he spreads the plague; he not only damns himself, but helps to damn others. (2.) Truth in words is opposed to dissembling.
The heart and tongue should go together, as the dial goes exactly