A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

Secondly; I am to show, that we are apt to suspect his Truth in keeping his Promise. When Straits and Difficulties come, and things go cross to our Expectation, we had need of more than God's single Word. There is not one of an hundred that lives by Faith, and can bottom his Comfort on a single Promise, and can rejoice in the Lord his God, when outward Supports fail. We are led altogether by Sense, and therefore in cross Providences we look upon Promises as words of course, and are apt to say, Where are his Promises, and the Soundings of his Bowels? and, where is the ready Help which God hath promised in the time of Trouble? And therefore as a Prop to the Soul, he hath backed his Promise with an Oath. Mark it, Christians! it is very usual, even with God's dearest Children, to unravel their Hopes, and to question all upon a cross Providence, as David, Psal. 116.11. I said in my haste, All Men are Liars. Why doth David retract that Charge, and impute it to his haste? The Apostle saith, Rom. 3.4. Let God be true, and every Man a Liar. We are changeable Creatures, our Beings are a Lie; to day we are, and to morrow we are not; and so our Promises are a Lie, we say, and do not; and therefore why doth David impute it to his haste, as if he had spoken something that were untrue? Certainly there was some blame in the Expression, for he acknowledgeth it was spoken in haste. The Speech hath respect to those Messages and Assurances which were brought to him from the Mouth of God by Samuel, Nathan, and other Prophets. They comforted him with God's Promises, and now he was Thunderstruck, blasted with some sore Affliction, far enough from the Case of a Man that had many Assurances from Heaven; now all Men are Liars, Prophets and all. Once more, Psal. 31.22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine Eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the Voice of my Supplications, when I cried unto thee. God hath cast off all care of David, he doth not look after a poor banished Man, which wandereth up and down in the Wilderness, a poor Flea that is chased and hunted to and fro. Such Pets and Passions of Distrust, such irregular and unbelieving Thoughts usually have we upon any cross Providence, when Sense contradicts the Promise. Always we find Sense and Distrust making Lies of God; therefore a single Promise will not serve the turn, but we need an Oath.