reproach, that the Heathen should rule over them, wherefore should they say, among the people, Where is their God?" (Joel ii. 17.)

DOCTRINE IV. God making good his promises, confuteth these reproaches and insultations; when deliverance cometh their mouths are stopped: "The poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth" (Job v. 16). "The righteous shall see it, and iniquity shall stop her mouth, then when he sets the poor on high from affliction, and maketh them families like a flock" (Psalm cvii. 42). In both these places it is not said, God stoppeth their mouths, or the saints stop their mouths, but they stop their own mouths; then we need not answer our adversaries, they answer themselves, they have not a word to say, and all their pride and insultation is defeated and silenced.

USE I.-Prayer is necessary. Desire God to appear and right himself, that he may confute the perverse thoughts of men, and wrong applications of his providence, that carnal men may see your hope and confidence in God is not in vain; you may beg deliverance on this ground, that the mouth of iniquity may be stopped.

USEII.-Wait. Carnal men reproach God's people with their trust, when in their distress he stays a little, when they have humbled themselves for their sins, and sought reconciliation with God as his word prescribeth, and are sufficiently weaned from carnal props, and learned to depend on him, the wicked shall find himself mistaken about the godly whose ways he counted folly.

SERMON XLIX.

VERSE 43.—And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for I have hoped in thy judgments.

In the first verse of this portion David had begged for deliverence according to the word, this he backeth with several arguments; his first argument was from his enemies who would else reproach him for his trust; he now enforceth that request from another argument, lest his case and condition should make him afraid, or his disappointments ashamed to own his faith in God's promises, and so his mouth be shut up from speaking of God and his word, for the edification of others, and the confutation of the wicked. Here observe,—

I. His request, "And take not the word of truth out of my mouth." II. The profession of his faith repeated by way of argument and reasons, "For I have hoped in thy judgments."

First, For his request: you may wonder why he beggeth that the word of truth may not be taken out of his mouth, rather you would think he should ask that it might be kept in his heart: but you must consider that confession of truth is very necessary, and in time of dangers and distresses very difficult, the proper seat of the word of truth is the heart, it must abide there. But when the heart is full, the tongue will speak: “I believed, therefore have I spoken" (Psalm cxvi. 10). The word is first in the heart and then in the mouth, therefore David saith, "Take it not out of my mouth." And pray mark, he doth not only deprecate the evil itself, but the degree and extremity of it, "take it not utterly out of my mouth." God's children may not have liberty to speak for him, or if liberty not such a courage as is necessary; therefore, though he should or had failed in being

ashamed to profess his hope, yet he desireth he might not wholly want either an occasion or a heart so to do, that he might not wholly want an occasion having no relief and comfort by the promises, nor a heart as being altogether dismayed or disconsolate.

The profession of his faith is renewed: "For I have hoped in thy judgments," the word judgment signifieth either the law, or the execution of the sentence thereof.

1. The law or whole word of God, so that I have hoped in thy judgments, is no more, but in thy word do I hope; as it is, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope" (Psalm cxxx. 5).

2. Answerable execution when the promise or threatening is fulfilled. (1.) When the promise is fulfilled, that is judgment in a sense when God accomplisheth what he hath promised, for our salvation and deliverance. Thus God is said to judge for his people, when he righteth and saveth them according to his word: "O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong, judge thou my cause" (Lam. iii. 59).

(2.) But the more usual notion of judgment is the execution of the threatening on wicked men; which, being a benefit to God's faithful servants, and done in their favour, David might well be said to hope for it. Their "judgment" is our obtaining the promise.

Points:

I. It is not enough to believe the word in our hearts, but we must confess it with our mouths.

II. Such trials may befall God's children, that the word of truth may seem to be taken out of their mouths.

III. At such a time God must be dealt withal, as much concerned in it: David saith to the Lord, "Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth."

IV. If it please God to desert us in some passage of our trial, we must not give him over, but deal with him not to forsake us utterly.

V. They will not utterly be overcome in their trials, who hope in God's judgments.

DOCTRINE I.—It is not enough to believe the word in our hearts, but we must confess it with our mouths. So it is expressly said: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 9, 10). There is the whole sum of Christianity, and it is reduced to these two points: Believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth; an entertaining of Christ in the heart with a true and lively faith, and a confessing of Christ with the mouth in spite of all persecution and danger. So in the first solemn proposal of the Gospel: "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). Where not only belief is required, but open profession, for that end serveth baptism, which is a badge and bond, a badge to distinguish the worshippers of Christ from others, and a bond to bind us to open profession of the name of Christ, and practice of the duties included therein. So, Jesus Christ is called the great High Priest, and Apostle of our profession (Heb. iii. 1). The Christian religion is a confession, not a thing to be smothered and kept in secret, or confined to the heart, but to be openly brought forth, and avowed in word and deed to the glory of Christ. If a man should content himself to own God in his heart,

what would become of the church of God and all his ordinances, and the assemblies of his people, among whom we make this open confession?

1. This confession is necessary as well as the inward belief, because God hath required it by an express law, which law is confirmed by a sanction of great weight and moment, the greatest promises on the one hand, and the greatest penalties and threatenings on the other. That there is an express law for confession, besides what hath been said already: "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter iii. 15); where they are required not only to revere God in their hearts, but to be ready to own him with their mouths, and to give a testimony of him when it should be demanded. Yea, that sanctifying God in their hearts is required, in order to the testimony given with their mouths, that having due and awful thoughts of God, they may not be ashamed to own him before men. Now, this is backed with the greatest promises, and on the other side with the severest threatenings: God hath promised no less than salvation to those that confess him: "Whosoever will confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven" (Matt. x. 33). 'Father, this is one of mine,' he will do them more honour than possibly they can do him: and, "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10). Salvi esse non possumus, nisi ad salutem proximorum etiam ore profiteamur fidem, (saith Austin,) "We cannot be saved, unless we profess the faith that we have." On the other side, the neglect of profession either out of shame or fear, is threatened with the greatest penalties: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels" (Mark viii. 38). Then, when all shadows flee away, and we would crouch for a little favour, that Christ should be ashamed of us,-these Christians but cowardly and dastardly ones, I cannot own them to be of my flock and kingdom. Oh, how will our faces gather blackness; the same is Luke ix. 26: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's, and of the holy angels." So for fear: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, if we deny him he will deny us" (2 Tim. ii. 11). So that you see it is not a matter of small moment, whether we confess or not, but a thing expressly enjoined by God, and that upon terms of life and death.

2. This confession is of great use, as conducing much to the glory of God and the good of others.

(1.) The glory of God, which should be the great scope and end of our lives and actions, is much concerned in our confessing or not confessing what we believe. When we boldly avow the truth, it is a sign we are not ashamed of our master: 66 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death" (Phil. i. 20). Ministry or martyrdom, he calls this a magnifying of Christ, whereas flinching, concealing, halving the truth, denying confession, it is called a being ashamed of Christ: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words" (Luke ix. 26); as if his name were a thing base, unworthy, not to be owned.

(2.) The good of others and their edification is concerned in our con

fessing or not confessing. No man is born for himself, and therefore is not only to work out his own salvation, but as much as in him lieth to procure the salvation of others, and to bring God and his truth into request with them; therefore, not only to believe with the heart, that concerneth himself, but to confess with the mouth, that concerneth the good of others; when we own the truth, though it cost us dear, that tendeth to the furtherance of the Gospel: "For I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places," &c. (Phil. i. 12, 13). But when we dissemble, that is a scandal and a stumbling-block to others, whom we justify and harden in a false way, as Peter, fearing them of the circumcision, dissembled; and the Jews dissembled with him, insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation (Gal. ii. 12, 13). Men of public fame and favour, when they are not men of courage and of selfdenying spirits, their temporizing may do a great deal of hurt, and like a torrent or stream carry others with them. Oh! let us beware of this. Zuinglius saith, Ad aras Jovis et Veneris alorare, et sub Antichristo fidem occultare, idem est: as well worship before the altars of Jupiter and Venus, as hide our faith under antichrist. Fear and weakness excuseth not, the fearful and unbelieving are put with murderers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and sent together to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev. xxi. 8).

USE I. To reprove them that think it to be enough to own the truth in their hearts, without confessing it with their mouths. This lbertinism prevailed at Corinth, where they thought they might be present at idols' feasts, as long as in their consciences they knew that an idol was nothing. The Apostle argueth against them, 2 Cor. vi., and concludes his argument thus: 66 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Cor. vii. 1). To pretend to serve God in my heart, whosoever thinks so, mocketh God and deceiveth himself. He that warreth with the enemies of his prince, and is as forward in battle as any of the rest, can he say, I reserve the king my heart and affections? Or, when a woman prostituteth her body to another, will the husband be content with such an excuse, that she reserveth her heart for him? God is not a God of half of a man, he made the whole body and soul, and will be served with both, he bought both : "Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirits which are God's" (1 Cor. vi. 20). Therefore, you should not only love him in your hearts, but openly plead for him, and maintain his quarrel. The Devil asketh but Christ's knee: "Fall down and worship me" (Matt. iv. 9). What! where all the martyrs of God rash, inconsiderate, that suffered so many things rather than lose their liberty in God's service? Would we be content, God should deal with us as we deal by him, glorify our souls only, love our souls, but punish our bodies eternally?

Them that though not tainted with this libertine principle, yet are afraid or ashamed to own the truth.

1. Some are afraid because of troubles and persecution. Hath Christ endured so much for us, and shall we be afraid to own his truth? God forbid. If I would fear, whom should I be afraid of? "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him

who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell" (Matt. x. 28). Whom should a child fear? his father, or the servants of his house? So, whom should we fear? God or man, a prison or Hell?

2. Ashamed in peace and out of trouble; ashamed to own Christ in such company, or to speak of God and his word. Oh, Christians, shall we be ashamed to speak for him that was not ashamed to die for us, or count religion a disgrace, which is our glory? Would a father take it I well that his son should be ashamed of him? Are we ashamed of the Gospel, the great charter of our hopes, the seeds of the new life, the power of God to salvation? "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. i. 16). Oh, shake off this baseness: "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only" (John v. 44). USE II. To exhort us to confess with the mouth, and to own the truths we are persuaded of. And here I shall handle the case of profession.

1. How far it is necessary. It is a matter intricate and perplexed, and therefore I care not to comprise all cases, but to the most notable I shall speak.

2. As to the manner how this profession is to be made.

First, How far we are bound to profess. 1. The affirmative. 2. The negative.

1st, The affirmative.

1. It is certain that the great truths must be owned and publicly professed, or else Christ would not have a visible people in the world, distinct from Pagans and Heathens. Our baptism bindeth us to this profession, and to all practices consonant and agreeable with it: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10). To own Christ as the Saviour of the world, evidenced by his resurrection from the dead.

2. It is certain we must do nothing to contradict the truth in the smallest matters: "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2 Cor. xiii. 8). Nothing contrary to the glory of God, or the prejudice of the least truth, whatever it costs us.

3. In lesser truths, when they are ventilated and brought forth upon the stage, and God crieth out, Who is on my side, who? We ought not to give up ourselves to an indifferency, to hide our profession for any danger : "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth" (2 Pet. i. 12). The church of God is out of repair sometimes in one point, sometimes in another; the orthodoxy of the generality of men is usually an age too short, in things now afoot; they go wrong, or forbear to give help to the church, because the God of this world hath blinded their eyes; fight Christ, fight antichrist; they are resolved to be lookers-on.

4. When our non-profession shall be interpreted to be a denial: thus Daniel (vi. 10) opened his casement which looked towards Jerusalem, and prayed three times a-day as he was wont. We must rather suffer than deny the truth by interpretation, when such practices are urged as cross a principle, and we comply.

5. When others are scandalized by our non-profession, or not owning the truths of Christ, that is not only with the scandal of offence or contris