2. Nor will they believe his threatenings, wherewith he useth to alarm souls, and to urge them forward to their duty.
3. Nor will they believe and receive his offers, as true.
5. Nor will they believe, that he is the true prophet, priest, and king, that must save souls from hell and death, and therefore they will not give him employment in his offices.
All which cannot but be a high provocation, for in effect it is to say that he is not the truth, nor worthy to be believed. Let them consider this, and see how they think he shall take this off their hands. No man will take it well that another should either call or account him a liar; and can they think that Christ shall take it well at their hands, to be accounted by them a liar? What will they think to be challenged for this in the great day? Now, the truth is, all unbelievers, as they make God a liar, (O horrid and abominable crime! Whose hair would not stand on end to hear this?) 1 John v. 10, 11. "He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son." So do they make the Son of God a liar, in all his sayings, in all his offices, and in all his works; and they make the Holy Ghost a liar, in not believing that truth that he hath sealed as firm truth. They make the covenant of suretiship betwixt the Father and the Son, a mere lie and a forgery. O dreadful! They make the word of truth a lie, and they make all the saints liars, and all the officers of Jesus Christ, who declare this truth, and the saints who believe it, and rest upon it, liars.
Fourthly. Hence is there ground of reproof to the godly, in that,
1. They do not firmly enough believe his sayings, neither his promises, nor his threatenings, as appeareth too oft upon the one hand, by their faintings and fears, and upon the other hand, by their carelessness and loose walk.
2. They make not use of him, in all cases as they ought. His offices lie by and are not improved; nor is he gone to as the truth, in cases requiring his help, as the truth; that is, in cases of darkness, doubtings, confusion, ignorance of their case and condition, and the like.
3. They do not approach to him, nor to God through him, heartily and cordially, as the very truth, and true way.
4. Nor do they rest with confidence upon him in all difficulties, as being the truth that will not fail them, nor disappoint them.
5. Nor do they rejoice in him, as satisfied with him, who is the truth, in the want of all other things.