What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us ?-ROM. VIII. 31.

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THE words are a glorious conclusion and triumph of faith the conclusion upon all the former particulars in the chapter, and the foundation of all the comforts that follow after, to the end of the chapter. They are as the centre of the chapter. All the beams of heavenly comfort in this divine chapter, they meet, as it were in one, in this short clause, What shall we say then to these things?' &c.

In the words, briefly, there is first a question, 'What shall we say to these things?'

And then a triumph, If God be with us, who can be against us?' It is a question answered with another question, What shall we say to these things?' He answers it with another question, 'If God be with us, who can be against us?'

'What shall we say to these things?'

To these things before mentioned. If we be in Christ, there is no condemnation to us; if we be led by the Spirit, if we be heirs of heaven and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we suffer with him, if we have the spirit of prayer to help our infirmities in the worst conditions, if all creatures groan with us, and if all work for our good, if God from all eternity hath written our names in heaven by election, and separated us from the rest of the world in vocation, and hath sanctified and justified us, and will after glorify us, 'what shall we say to these things?'

The heart of man is full of doubtings and misgiving, full of thoughts: According to the multitude of my thoughts, thy comforts refreshed my soul,' Ps. xciv. 19. A multitude of thoughts and a multitude of comforts. There is comfort after comfort, because there are thoughts after thoughts, and surmises after surmises. There is no waste comfort set down in this

* Saint Paul's Challenge' forms No. 8 of the Sermons entitled 'Beams of Divine Light' (4to, 1639). Its separate title-page is as follows:- Saint Pauls Challenge. In one Sermon. By The late learned and reverend Divine, Rich. Sibbs: Doctor in Divinitie, Mr of Katherine Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne. Psal. 27. 3. Though an Host should encampe against me, my heart shall not fear; though warre should rise against me, In this will I be confident. London, Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne, and Rapha Harford, 1638.'-G.

chapter; and when he hath set down all, he comes and concludes in a triumphant manner, 'What shall we say to these things?' He propounds the quære to himself, he catechiseth his own heart and others. If these things be so, what can be said against them? Surely the unbelieving, doubting, dark, rebellious heart of man hath many things to say against divine truths; for though divine truths be lighter than the sun, and there is no greater evidence of anything in the world, yet they find no place in the unbelieving heart. Let God say what he will, the doubting heart is ready to gainsay it. But these truths are so pregnant and clear, that it is a wonder that anything should be said against them: What shall we say to these things ?'

Again he means, what comfort can you have more? What can you desire more? What can be said more ? What use will you make of all that hath been said? What will you suck out of it? If all this be true that hath been spoken before, that a Christian is so elevated above the common condition; if God love him from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in glorification; if in the middle time all shall work for the best, what comfort can the heart of man desire more? and what use can you make of this for courage and for comfort for the time to come? These things are implied in this question, what shall we say to these things?'

Use. It is good often to propound quæres and demands to our own hearts, when we read or hear divine truths; to ask our own hearts, You have heard these things, what say you to them? For whatsoever God saith in his word will do us no good till we speak to our own hearts, and be convinced of it, and say it is so. Therefore we should say to ourselves, Here are many comforts and duties pressed, but what sayest thou to it, my heart? Dost thou not stand out against comforts and advice? It is no matter what God saith, unless he overpower the unbelieving heart to say, 'What shall I say to these things?' Shall I not agree with God and his Spirit, and his comforts? Shall they be best in regard of an unbelieving heart? Oh no! Therefore let our care be to store them in the treasury of our memory, which should be like the pot of manna, to contain heavenly comforts. Let us treasure up all the truths we can, all will be little enough when we shall need comfort. But when we have them in our memory, let us ask ourselves, Are these things so or no? If they be so, believe them; if they be not so, then let us give liberty to ourselves, and away with hearing and reading, &c. If they be so, for shame let me yield to them.

Let us ask these questions with some fruit; let us deal thus with our own hearts, often call them to account whether we believe or no; for we have such a faculty and power, we can reflect upon ourselves. And we ought to desire of the Spirit of God to teach our hearts to reflect upon themselves, to examine whether we know, and if we know, whether we believe, and what use we make of these things, and why we should live thus? Doth this life and course of mine agree with these principles ? The best of us all are tardy this way. Therefore let not that part without making some use of it. But I proceed to that I will more dwell on,

If God be for us, who can be against us ?'

Here is first a ground laid, and then a comfort built upon it. The ground that is laid is, 'If God be with us.' When he saith, If God be with us,' he doth not put the case, but lays it as a ground. If God be with us,' as indeed he is with all his in electing them, in calling them, in working all for their good, in glorifying them after, &c., If God be with us,' as he

is, then this comfort is built upon this ground, who shall or can be against us ?"

For the first, the ground that is laid is, that God is with his children. Indeed, he is with the whole world. He is everywhere; but he is with his church and children in a more peculiar manner. The soul is spread in the whole body, but it is in the brain after another manner, as it understands and reasons. God is everywhere; but he is not everywhere comforting, and directing, and sanctifying, nor everywhere giving a sweet and blessed issue. So, besides the general respect, that I will not now stand on, God is with us' that are his in a more peculiar manner in all his sweet attributes: in his wisdom to direct us, with his power to assist and strengthen us, by his grace and love to comfort us; and he is with us in all our perplexities, to stay our souls. He is with us by his sweet and gracious mercy, to feed us with hidden manna, with secret comforts in the midst of discomforts. When there is no comfort else with us, then God is with us; and then he is with us in the issue of all that a godly man takes in hand in his name. He is with him in all crosses, to direct and turn them to his best good; All things work for the best to them that love God,' Rom. vi. 23. He is with them in all his sweet relations as a gracious Father in covenant, as a husband. He is with them in those sweet comparisons: as a hen, Mat. xxiii. 37; as an eagle, to carry them on his wings above all dangers, as he carried the Israelites in the wilderness, Deut. xxxii. 11. He is with them in all comfortable relations. Therefore God, in the Scriptures, borrows names from everything that is comfortable. He is with them as a rock, to build on; as a shield, to defend them; in the time of heat and persecution, he is a shadow, to keep them from the heat; he is with them as a light. Christ is our life in death, our light in darkness, our righteousness in sinfulness and guilt, our holiness in impurity, our redemption in all our miseries. There is somewhat of God in every creature; therefore God takes names from his own creatures, because there is some strength or comfort in them. God gives himself variety of names, as there are variety of our distresses. Are we in misery? God is a rock, a shield, a tower of defence, a buckler; he is all that can be said for comfort. He is with us in his attributes and sweet relations, and all sweet terms that may support our faith, that whatsoever we see comfortable in the creature, we may rise more comfortably to God, and say, God is my rock and shield, and my light and defence.

And then God is with us in every condition and in every place whatsoever. He is not only a God of the mountains and not of the valleys, or a God of the valleys and not of the mountains, as those foolish people thought, 1 Kings xx. 28, but he is in all places, and at all times with his. If they be in prison, he goes with them: Acts xvi. 22, seq., he made the prison a kind of paradise, a heaven. If they be banished into other countries, he goes with them; 'I will go with thee, O Jacob, into Egypt, and bring thee back again,' Gen. xlviii. 21. If they be in death, he is with us to death and in death: In the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me,' Ps. xxiii. 4. At all times whatsoever, and in all conditions, God is with us. In all our affairs whatsoever God is with us. 'Fear not,' Joshua; 'fear not,' Moses. What was the ground of their comfort? I will be with thee.' He was with St Paul in all conditions, therefore he bids him 'fear not,' Acts xxvii. 24. So our blessed Saviour, the head of all, in Acts x. 38, in the speech of Peter to Cornelius, he did all things well, for God was with him.' You see how God is with his children.

What is the ground that the great, and holy, and pure God, blessed for ever, should be with such sinful and wretched creatures as we are? that he should not only be with us, and about us, and compass us as a shield, but be in us?

The ground of all is his free love in Christ. Christ was God with us first. God, that he might be with us, ordained that Christ should be God with us; Emmanuel,' that he should take our nature into unity of person with himself. Christ being God with us, that he might satisfy the just wrath of God for our sins, and so reconcile God and us together, he hath made God and us friends. So that this, that God is with us, it is grounded upon an excellent and sound bottom; upon the incarnation of our blessed Saviour, that for this very end, that God might be with us, was God with us; that is, he was God and man, to bring God and man together; he was God and man in one, to bring God and man, that were at contrary terms, to terms of reconciliation; to recollect and bring us back again to God, from whence we fell. So the reason why God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are with us, it is because Christ, the second person, God and man, is with us, or else there could be no such sweet terms as these are. You see how it is founded. Christ took our nature, and advanced and enriched it. Now he having taken our nature and our persons to be one with him, how near are Christ and we together! There is one common Spirit in him and us, one common Father, 'I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God,' John xx. 17. There is one common kingdom and inheritance. We are fellow-heirs with him. Oh, how near is Christ to us! Our souls are not so near our bodies as Christ is to us, and God in Christ. So you see this, that God is with us. It is founded upon an excellent, wonderful, comfortable mystery. This I suppose is clear; therefore I come to that I intend further to enlarge; that is, the comfort built upon this ground, If God be with us, who shall be against us?'

One would think this a strange question; for a Christian no sooner comes to be one with Christ, and so to be reconciled to God, but he hath against him all the powers of hell; and then he hath the whole world against him presently, Satan's kingdom; and then he hath an enemy that is worst of all, that stirs up strife and rebellion and contention even in his own heart, his own flesh. So that we may say, who is not against a Christian? If God be with us, all else but God will side against us. There are two grand sides in the world, to which all belong. There is God's side, and those that are his; and there is another side, that is, Satan's, and those that are his; two kingdoms, two seeds, two contrary dispositions, that pursue one another, till all the one be in hell, Satan and all his seed together, the devil and all that fight under his banner, that are led with his malignant, poisonful spirit. Though it may be they cannot do more hurt, or do not out of politic respects, though they have poisonful hearts, yet these never leave contending till they be in hell; and the other never leave till they be in heaven together. Christ makes it his prayer, My will is, that where I am, they may be also,' John xvii. 24, and his will must be performed; so that be need not ask the question, If God be with us, who shall be against us?' There will be enow against us.

It is true. But in what sense are they against us, and how far are they against us?

They are thus far against us in their wit,* in their plots and policies; in their wills they would devour all if they could. They are against us in * That is, 'wisdom.'-G.

their endeavours. They do what they can against the church and people of God. They are against us in their prevailing likewise. Their endeavours are not idle, but prevail very far over God's people, even to insolency: 'Where is now their God?' Ps. xlii. 10, as it is oft in the Psalms, and to the dejection of God's people; The Lord hath forsaken me; the Lord hath forgotten me,' Ps. xxxi. 12. God's people are brought very low, to the pit's brink; the pit almost shuts her mouth upon them. So you see they are against them many ways. God gives a great length to their tether.

And many reasons God hath to let them prevail, both to draw out their malice the more, and then to shew his people their corruptions the more, and then to exercise their graces in waiting, and for the just confusion of their enemies at the latter end, and for the sweet comfort of his children at the end-when God sees the fittest time to meet with the enemies-that they might have sweet experience of God's seasonable care, however God put off a long time for some respects. So you see they may prevail a long time. Yet who can be against us in this sense, that is, to prevail altogether? Who shall be against us, so far as to have their will in the issue? They prevail a great way. What do they intend? Not to prevail over the person of God's church and people, but the cause, which, in spite of Satan and his instruments, and all, must stand invincibe to the end of the world. They intend likewise to prevail over the courage of God's people. That they cannot neither; for Saint Paul saith after, in this chapter, In all these things we are more than conquerors,' Rom. viii. 37; that is, abundant conquerors, a strange high term. But in some sense we are more than conquerors; for if we consider what weak persons God's children are, what strong enemies they have, and what weak means they prevail with in the sight of the world, to flesh and blood, that such persons should prevail over such enemies, by such weak means as they do, in this respect, they are more than conquerors. So he may say, 'Who can be against us?' that is, to have their wills, to overthrow the cause of Christ, and the courage of God's children; they may prevail in this or that particular, but at the last all their plots and counsels shall prove abortive, and bring forth a lie. All is but to magnify God's power the more in letting them go so far, and then to dash all their moulds and plots. God's children, they have the devil and all his company, the world and the flesh [against them]. But there is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for them, the blessed Trinity, that are able to blow away the other three, and all the strength and support they have whatsoever.

Who shall be against us?'

It is not a question of doubting, or inquisition to learn anything, but it is a question of triumph. He doth, as it were, cast a bank, and bid defiance to all enemies whatsoever. 'Who shall be against us?' Let them stand out, Satan and the world, and all Satan's supports; let them do their worst. There is a strange confidence which is seated in the hearts of God's children, that they dare thus dare hell and earth, and all infernal powers; they set God so high in their hearts, that they dare say with a spirit of confidence,' Who shall be against us?' The meaning is not, who shall be against us, to take away our lives or liberties, &c. As the speech is, they may kill us, but they cannot hurt us. The worst they can do is to send us to heaven, and make us partakers of that we desire most. First, we desire that God will be with us here; and, secondly, that we may be with God in heaven. They make God's children partakers of their desires by killing