Full text of "The works of Thomas Goodwin"

OCT 1 o 1988 

~ -OG/CAL SEW^ 



^( 



BX 9315 .G66 1861 v. 8 
Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680. 
The works of Thomas Goodwin 



NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. 



PURITAN PERIOD. 



THE 



WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D. 

VOL. VIII. 



COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. 



W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational 
Union, Edinburgh. 

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh. 

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, 
Edinburgh. 

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, 
Edinburgh. 

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church 
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh. 

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- 
terian Church, Edinburgh. 



General ©Ottor. 
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh. 



THE WORKS 



THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D., 

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



With (general frcfate 



BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., 

LINXOLV COLLEGE J HONORARY CAN'iW OF WORCESTER J K15CTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINGHAM. 

%\\b lJUmoir 

BY ROBERT HALLEY, D.D., 

PBINCIPAL OF TUE INDEPENDENT KEW COLLEGE, LONDON. 



VOL. VIII. 

CONTAINING : 

THE OBJECT AND ACTS OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 



EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL. 

LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. ROBERTSON. 



M.DCCC.LXrV. 



EDINBDRGH 

PRINTED BT JOHN GREIG AND SOS 

OLD FflTSlC GARDES8. 




I 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Pbeface to the Keader. . 1X 



PAET I -OF THE OBJECT OF FAITH. 

BOOK I. 

The mercies in God's nature the object, and support, and 

encouragement of faith. — How we are to act faith thereon. 3 

BOOK II. 

The second object of faith, Jesus Christ.— Of our being drawn to 
him by the Father, and our treating with him for an 
interest in his person, and salvation by him. — That Christ, 
as God-man in one person, is the object of our faith. — That 
as a spiritual Messiah and Saviour he is propounded to our 
faith. — That not only Christ in his person, but in all that he 
hath done and suffered for our salvation, and now doth for 
us in heaven, is the object of our faith. . . • 140 

BOOK III. 

The free grace of God, as declared and proposed in the covenant, 
is the object of faith.— Of the soul's applying itself unto the 
free grace of God, and treating with it for its salvation. — 
That the absolute declarations of this free grace, or the 
absolute promises of the gospel, are the object of faith of 
recumbence, or adherence. — That election-grace, and the 
immutability of God's counsel, as indefinitely proposed in 
the promises, are also the object of faith. — How the believing 
soul may consider and regard God's absolute decree of 
election. ....••• 1*^ 



VI CONTENTS. 

Faqb 

PART II.-0E THE ACTS OF FAITH. 
BOOK I. 

The acts of faith in the understanding are a sight of Christ, a 
discerning and knowledge of his excellencies, and a hearty 
assent to the truths of the gospel concerning him. — That 
this mere assurance of the object, or a general assent to the 
truth of the promises, is not the act of faith justifying, but 
an application is necessary. — What the acts of the will are, 
which are exercised on Christ in believing. . . 257 

BOOK II. 

Of faith of assurance. — That all justifying faith is not an assur- 
ance of our personal interest in Christ. — That yet assurance 
of salvation may be obtained. — How assurance is caused by 
three witnesses in heaven, and three on earth, and of the 
difference of their testimony. The discoveries and mani- 
festations which Christ makes of himself to the soul. — Of 
joy in the Holy Ghost. — Directions unto the faith of such 
who want assurance how to take in, and to make use of God's 
eternal, electing love, in believing with comfort. . . 338 

BOOK III. 

Of the actings of faith in prayer. — That we are not bound to 
pray with assurance of obtaining the very particular blessing 
which we ask. — That God, neither in the revelation of him- 
self and of his attributes, nor in his promises, hath obliged 
himself to give us the very particular blessing which we ask. 
— That the essential acts of faith in praying do not neces- 
sarily require that we should have such a certain particular 
persuasion. — How we are in prayer to act faith upon tem- 
poral promises, and how upon spiritual. . . . 420 



PART HT.-OF THE PROPERTIES OF FAITH. 

BOOK I. 

Of the excellence and use of faith. — That good works are not 
slighted by exalting faith. — Of the excellency of faith, in that 
it gives all honour to God and Christ ; and that for this 



CONTENTS. 



1'aok 



reason God hath appointed it to be the grace by which wo 
arc saved. — Of the excellency of faith, as it hath a general 
influence on all our graces. .... 459 

BOOK II. 

The difficulty of faith. — That it is above all the powers and 
faculties in man. — That all which is in man is so far from 
enabling him to believe, that it doth withstand his believing. 
— That faith is the work of the alone mighty power of God. 480 

BOOK III. 

Though faith be a difficult work, yet we ought to use our endea- 
vours to believe. — What those endeavours are. — Cautions 
about using them. ..... 520 



BOOK IV. 

Though faith be a difficult work above our power, yet God com- 
mands us to use our utmost endeavours to believe. — The 
reasons why God commands us so to do, and how the infinite 
power of God in working faith, and our own endeavours, are 
very well consistent together. — Discouragements removed, 
which may arise either from our own unability to believe, or 
from the sense of our great sinfulness, or from the thoughts 
of an absolute decree of election, resolving to save only some 
particular persons. — Directions to guide us in our endeavours 
to believe. ...... 546 



A PEEFACE TO THE EEADEE* 

As in this fourth volume of the author's works, which by the generous 
encouragement of some few worthy gentlemen, who in a noble zeal to 
promote the doctrines of the gospel, engaged to take off the whole impres- 
sion, there are great and important truths discoursed with the same life 
and spirit which shined in the former, so I doubt not but it will find the 
same grateful acceptance. After the discourse of the person and mediation 
of our blessed Lord Jesus, which you had in the third volume, it naturally 
follows in order to have the knowledge of the genuine nature of that faith 
which looks to the Mediator, and comes to him from an interest in his 
person, sacrifice, blood, and righteousness. You have first the infinite 
mercies of God's nature displayed as far as man's thoughts and words can 
reach them, proposed as the great object which a believer regards, as the 
spring of all those acts of grace exerted in saving a sinner, and in which he 
trusts and hopes. You have then the promises, which are nothing but 
the mercies of the divine nature, and his gracious purposes proclaimed to, 
us, and so are absolute as they themselves are, proposed as another object 
which the soul considers in believing. You have then Jesus Christ set 
forth as the great object of faith in his person God-man ; and it is 
indeed a sufficient argument to prove his divinity, that we are commanded 
to believe on him ; nor could we have a certain and undoubted faith in 
him if he were not God : for what assured confidence and hope could we 
have in a creature, whose goodness, wisdom, and power, in the highest ex- 
cellence of them, are imperfect and defective ? The author therefore insists 
on it, that the true believer who heartily comes to Christ for life and salva- 
tion, regards him as the Son of God, and looks to and considers the spiritual 
excellencies of his person. He is the object of faith, too, in respect of what 
he hath done and suffered for our salvation, and of what he at present doth. 
He is the object of faith proposed to us in his death, resurrection, and in- 
tercession : and therefore I once had thoughts to have drawn into this dis- 
course of the object and acts of faith, as into their proper place, those 

* As the greater portion of this preface relates to the treatise contained in this 
volume, it i3 inserted here. — Ed. 



X PREFACE TO THE READER. 

treatises of the triumph of faith in Christ's death, resurrection, and inter- 
cession, which were many years ago printed in quarto by my dear father 
himself. But when I considered that that excellent book is in so many 
hands, and perhaps the most of them who will have this volume have that 
already, I apprehended it would look like a wrong, and an imposing upon 
them, to reprint it again, to make them pay for what they had already. 
Therefore the reader is to take notice, that the latter end of the title of the 
second book in this first part of the object of faith, directs him to those 
discourses of the triumph of faith which are in the quarto volume. 

The second part of this treatise is concerning the acts of faith, in which 
that chapter about joy in the Holy Ghost was his Concio ad Clerum, which 
the author made when he commenced Bachelor of Divinity in Cambridge, 
but finding in his papers that he designed it to be a part of this discourse, 
and not finding that he had clone it into English himself, I translated it, 
that it might be suitable to the other parts, though my English doth not 
reach the eloquence of his Latin. 

The third part treats of the properties of faith, and in it you have dis- 
couragements removed, and the Arminian objections answered. They 
reproach us, that by depriving men unregenerate of power to believe, and 
by ascribing the work of faith entirely to grace, we make men's endeavours 
to believe impossible, and all their attempts of this nature frivolous and 
vain. The author, with great strength of thought and clearness of expres- 
sion, baffles these unreasonable cavils, and shews how the prevailing and 
always victorious grace of God and our endeavours may very well be con- 
sistent together. 

In the discourse of the order and government of the churches of Christ,* 
though the author hath drawn down those forms which have been erected 
by men, and fashioned to suit with the political regiment of kingdoms, and 
hath in the room of it asserted that order which is of Christ's own institu- 
tion, which, though it doth not dazzle and take men's vain minds with any 
appearance of greatness and state, yet sufficiently recommends itself by its 
own plain native beauty. Though it is not pompous, yet it is handsome ; 
though it is not framed according to the admired rules of human policy, 
yet it is orderly, and so perfectly suited by the wisdom of the Great King 
of saints to the cases, circumstances, and necessities of them his subjects 
in all ages, so fitted to prevent corruption both of doctrine and manners, to 
promote holiness, and to attain all the ends of religion, that as there never 
hath been any need, so there never will be, to add anything to his orders. 
It is this institution of Christ which the author asserts, but maintains it 
with that candour as well as strength of mind, that they who differ from 
him in judgment cannot be angry. Here is no pride nor arrogance, which 
is insufferable in any man, much more in a minister of the gospel. Here 
are no reproaches, no base and sly insinuations, no invidious reflections 
with which controversies are usually managed ; but here are sober thoughts, 
* To be given in a subsequent volume of this series. — Ed. 



PBBFACB TO I ill". BKADBB. li 

calm reasonings, and the truth shewing itself in such a mild and lovely 
aspect as may creato inclinations to it in the souls of all persons whom 
passion or interest liath not too much prejudiced. 

Thus T have endeavoured to set before thee at one view tho general 
design of this book ; and that thou mayest see that thou hast all the MSS. 
which I promised printed in it, 1 have annexed a catalogue* of them, direct- 
ing in what part of the book thou mayest find any of them. 

I am, 

Thy hearty sonant, 

In our TiOrd Jesus, 

THO. GOODWIN. 



* This catalogue it has not been thought necessary to insert. — Ed. 



IC 



OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS OF JUSTIFYING 

FAITH. 



VOL. YIII. 




OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS OF JUSTIFYING 

FAITH. 



PART I. 

Of the object of faith. 



BOOK I. 

The mercies in GocVs nature the object, and support, and encouragement of 
faith. — How ice are to act faith thereon. 



CHAPTER I. 

The words of the text opened. — That the mercies in God's heart and nature are 
a fundamental object and support of faith. — Presumption thereon beaten off. 

Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him 
is plenteous redemption. — Psalm CXXX. 7. 

The ' work of faith,' John vi. 29, whereby a sinner's heart is first won, 
then strengthened and supported to trust and stay itself on God for its 
eternal salvation, is in general experience found to be a matter of greatest 
difficulty, exercise, and conflict. There is need therefore of all sorts of 
encouragements and suggests that can possibly be raised out of the holy 
Scriptures, with the largest dilatings on them, which may either serve to 
bring humbled and broken hearts and God together at first, or afterwards 
to hearten them to ' hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm and 
stedfast to the end,' Heb. iii. 6, 14, and all little enough ; such, and so 
great, and so manifold are the discouragements which unbelief within us 
doth foment, and which Satan doth indiscernibly cast in. Now above all 
other inducers and supporters unto faith, the consideration of the mercies in 
God's heart and nature is the strongest, the most winning and obliging. Unto 



4 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

thoroughly humbled and broken hearts it is I write this. As for others, 
who were never heavy laden with sin, look as sin sits light upon their 
hearts, so they set as light by the mercies of God, and a confused slight 
apprehension that God is merciful (which yet is their common plea) serves 
their turn, and is a salve sufficient for their sore ; which indeed is but 
proportionable unto that like confused apprehension of their sinfulness, 
which in like manner they use to wrap up, that we are all sinners. Ay, 
but take a soul that hath been unhinged from off the opinion of his being 
in a good estate, which is so natural to us, and our souls do turn them- 
selves upon, and who also is made thoroughly sensible of the abounding 
' sinfulness of sin,' as sin, the least ; and then hath taken in the dismal 
prospect of the heinous guilt of his bold presumptions and crying rebellions 
against knowledge, and especially hath been amazed with that numberless 
account of the innumerable multitude and variety of sinnings which he is 
to give unto God the judge of all men ; and together herewith hath been 
struck as with lightning and a thunderbolt, with the dreadfulness of that 
wrath of the great God that is due thereunto (all which apprehensions do 
yet prepare men's souls for faith justifying, and dispose them the more readily 
to attend to, and take in these encouragements unto faith that follow) ; and 
to work some apprehensions of these, and to set forth these, hath been the 
drift of those the subjects of the foregoing treatises. Unto such a soul (I 
say), filled with the apprehensions of these things, the most enlarged, full 
discovery that can any way be made of the riches of the mercies that are 
in the heart and nature of God, and of the fulness of merit that is in 
Christ's righteousness and redemption, do all prove little enough effective, 
either to beget a sound and saving faith, when upon this conviction it is 
anew to be wrought in such a soul, or when some beginnings of that faith 
are in some degree raised to keep it up, nourish and sustain it in a com- 
fortable rest and confidence unto the end ; which difficulty doth not arise 
from any want or scantiness in the objects themselves, which are so over- 
rich and superabundant for the pardon of sinners, but from the deep 
incredulity, and vast fears, jealousies, and misgivings which our souls 
(when the hideous apparitions of sin and wrath are raised up once in men's 
consciences) do create and harbour in themselves in matters of so infinite 
moment, as salvation and damnation appear then to be at such times.. 
The truth of these things, besides daily experience, we may readily perceive 
by the pulse of his heart that penned this psalm, and the beatings thereof 
therein ; who being sunk into the greatest depths — ' Out of the depths 
have I cried,' &c. — which depths (when we fathom them) we find to be 
his sins, both in the multitude and heinousness of them, as the following 
verse, ver. 3, tells us: ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities' (therein 
lay the bottom of his distress), ' Lord, who shall stand? ' In which con- 
flict and sad condition, what hath his faith its next and immediate recourse 
unto of all other things, which the word of God (for that, as the 5th verse 
says, he consulted) did afford, and which he commends unto all the Israel 
of God, ver. 7, as the mainest prop and support unto his and their faith ? 
Even this: ' With the Lord there is mercy, and with him there is plenteous 
redemption,' ver. 7 ; and then again, ' With thee there is forgiveness,' 
verse 4, as the fruit both of mercy and redemption ; and therefore it is that 
' my soul doth wait for the Lord,' ver. 7. And therefore ' let Israel hope 
in the Lord.' And ' he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,' ver. 
7 and 8. This is the summary effect of this psalm. Nor yet herein do 
we find this poor humbled soul to pitch his hope and confidence upon any 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 5 

gracious works had been wrought, or wcro in or with himself; ho is 
altogether silent as to any mention of such, but wholly and absolutely his 
alliance is upon what was with God, and in God : ' Mercy is with him,' 
&C, says he. And this is it was the foundation and bottom of his hope ; 
this was all ho had now to say ; and yet opposcth this alone unto all the sins 
and iniquities which came up before his view, whether in their greatness or 
multitude. There is mercy with God, enough to pardon them, yea, and 
more than enough: 'plenteous redemption,' overflowing redemption, and 
of mercies together with it. Again, whether all these mercies were as 
yet his own in particular or no, he speaks not that neither; not whether 
God were the God of his mercies (as David, when established in assurance, 
elsewhere speaks, Ps. lxxxix. 24), but only utters this for the present (and 
that he was sure of) that ' mercy was with God,' and in God: ' Forgiveness 
was with him ; ' there it was to be had for such sinners as he was, and for 
the Israel of God, and therefore he personally puts in for a share in them ; 
that was all his hope. Yea, and thereupon he quietly ' waits,' as he there 
professeth to do, till the Lord should give forth some farther special word 
of comfort to his doleful and desolate soul. 

I. Three things are here said to be with God, which phrase, with God, 
he again and again chooseth to expi-ess the grounds of his hope in God by. 
He applies it: 1. To mercy, the original and womb of all: ' Mercy is with 
him.' When a quality is in one as a disposition, or his nature, we find it 
said, that it is with him : of Nabal, ' Folly is with him ; as is his name, so 
is he,' 1 Sam. xxv. 25. 2. To redemption, which I understand to be the 
mediation and satisfaction of the Messiah (which was in those times in the 
psalmist and other believers' eyes) the procuring cause of all. 3. To 
forgiveness, as the fruit and effect of both : ' Forgiveness also is with thee.' 

Yet, II., these three axe said to be with him in a differing sense or 
respect. 

1. Mercy is with God ; that is, it is in him as his nature, and is all one 
as if he had said, He is of himself, and of his own inclination, a most 
gracious and merciful God, mercifully disposed to forgive ; ' ready to for- 
give,' as the 86th Psalm expresseth it. It is his name, it is his nature ; 
and in this sense it is said to be with him. It is also in his purposes and 
resolutions of his will ; yea, it is the ' delight' of his soul. 

2. Redemption is in that sense said to be with God, as his treasures are 
elsewhere said to be with him, that is, laid up with him or by him, Deut. 
xxxii. 84. And thus Christ's redemption or righteousness was then with 
him, in the virtue of Christ's bond and covenant given to God to perform 
it ; and as truly with God then as since that Christ hath actually paid it, 
Christ being ' the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world.' And God 
did accordingly then under the Old Testament pardon sinners upon the 
intuition and security thereof, as Rom. iii. 25, 26 shews; which place 
plainly speaks forth this truth, as also Acts xv. 11 the same. In Job, you 
have a term equivalent unto the psalmist's word ' redemption:' Job xxxiii. 
24, 'Deliver him' (saith God of an humbled sinner); 'I have found a 
ransom,' or atonement. 

III. In the virtue and intuition of these two it is that David says, ' For- 
giveness is also with him ;' that is, it is laid up ready by him on purpose 
to be had from him ; as money coined lies ready by a rich man, as a rich 
man lays up ready money designed for such a special use, so is forgiveness 
laid up as on purpose. He is ' ready to forgive,' Ps. lxxxvi. 5. And God 
hath minted his mercies forth from out of his purposes into promises, 



6 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

where they lie exposed, and to he given forth to every one that will come 
in for grace, and take them from mercy's hands, even ' redemption from 
all iniquity,' whereof there is this undoubted evidence given in the psalm, 
that God would have the sons of men thereupon, and for that cause to 
' fear' him; that is, to worship him and come to him, which if forgiveness 
were not with him, and to be had from him, for him, they would never do. 
You find moreover a special encomium of plenteous given to one of those 
three, in saying • plenteous redemption,' which is placed in the midst of 
the three, on purpose to shew that the glory of this epithet is to be trans- 
fused to both those other ; and so what is given to that one is in like 
manner to be attributed to the other two, but especially unto the first, 
viz., mercy, which hath in other scriptures eminently the glory of riches 
or plenteousness ascribed unto it, that being the original both of redemp- 
tion and forgiveness, and they but derivatives from it. And so it is all 
one as if he had plainly said, that 'plenteous mercy' also is with him. 
And indeed elsewhere David gives the very same attribute unto mercy : 
Ps. ciii. 8, ' The Lord is plenteous in mercy.' And for that other of for- 
giveness (the effect of both), it is impliedly all one as if he had said of 
that also, that ' plenteous forgiveness is with him,' which very style God 
himself doth in terms equivalent elsewhere use of it: Isa. lv. 7, ' I will 
abundantly pardon.' So then plenteousness and riches were intended, 
and are to be attributed to them all, but above all unto mercy, of which 
you so often read the same to be spoken of; as ' abundant mercy,' 1 Peter 
i. 3; 'the exceeding riches of his grace,' Eph. ii. 7. 

The heart and drift of the psalmist being thus laid open, I begin with 
the mercies of God, these being the original, the matrix, the prima 
primum, the first causes of our salvation, and that other of Christ's right- 
eousness (or redemption) but a primo ortum, or that which sprang or rose 
up from thence. This therefore of the mercies in God's heart ought to 
have the priority, as having deservedly the pre-eminence in the thing itself, 
and as being most fundamental, and accordingly procreative of faith. 

Obs. The observation for our practice which comes forth and meets us 
out of the whole is, that it is a most behoveful and advantageous way for 
humbled sinners, in their treaties with God for forgiveness, to take the 
most ample view of the infinite mercies that are in the heart and nature of 
God, together with promises of forgiveness indefinitely delivered, and so 
to plead them unto God ; which to do will prove the greatest support and 
strength to their souls for believing. This I confess to be in view so plain 
a point, and so obvious in the very proposal of it unto every common 
understanding in Christianity, that it will perhaps be wondered at that I 
should so largely insist upon it ; yet this I will aforehand say, that the 
true and real spiritual exercise and practice of it, as it is not commonly 
enough and experimentally understood, but very greatly disused, so the 
use and benefit that follows thereupon is exceeding great, and not suffi- 
ciently known. And unto souls humbled and broken as aforesaid, that 
this course should be taken by them, is so remote from strengthening 
presumption in them, that on the contrary, through the efficacy of the 
same mercy, it proves most operative to make the soul holy and obedient 
unto God, according unto that true, ancient, and frequent character given 
of saints under the Old Testament, where we find these two joined, as 
impossible to be ever separated (when they are in truth either of them), 
'one that feareth God' (whereby his obedience is expressed), and 'that 
hopes in his mercy' (whereby his faith is expressed); as Ps. xxxiii. 18, 



Chap. II. J of justifying faith. 7 

1 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that 
hope in his mercy;' and Ps. cxlvii. 11, * The Lord taketh pleasure in 
them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.' And as you find 
these two distinctly thus mentioned, and these two alone mentioned, to 
speak tho whole sum of all true practical religion, so of the two you find 
the special indigitation to be set over and put on that latter of these 
characters in both places, ' upon them that hope in his mercy.' Those, 
and those especially, that are eminent in that grace it is that ' his eyes 
arc upon,' and whom he hath pleasure in. And let this be sufficient once 
for all to strike off the presumptuousness of impenitent sinners, that 
resolve to go on in sin, from laying on impure hands upon these ' holy 
mercies' (as the mercies of Christ are styled by the apostle, Acts xiii. 34, 
out of Isa. lv. 3, see the margin of your Bibles). And finally, to roll the 
fatal stone upon the sepulchre of such sinners as shall thus presume on 
mercy, take but that one scripture, Deut. xxix. 18-20, ' If any man or 
woman hearing the words of this curse ' (which is there pronounced upon 
one's turning away from the Lord after the tender of the covenant of 
grace, published in that and the following chapter, as Rom. x. shews), 
1 shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk 
in the imagination of mine heart: the anger of the Lord shall smoke 
against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie 
upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.' And 
this, to be sure, is load enough to press down such sinners above any other 
to the very bottom of hell, who, bearing themselves upon that grace made 
known and tendered them, shall wilfully go on in sin without repentance 
and turning unto God. 



CHAPTER II. 

An explication how this assertion is to be understood: 1. On the negative. 
Not as if alone considered, the mercies in God (as they are abstractly in 
God's nature) were a sole foundation for faith, but as being joined with an 
indefinite declaration of his good will to us men; and in that conjuncture 
all the mercies that are in God do flow in to support our faith. This 
negative part of this explication confirmed from the instance of the devils, 
and of our first parents, until God's revelation of his good will to manldnd 
made to them. 2. The positive ground of faith laid open, and the reason 
why a declaration of his will is necessary. — Two premissory cautions more 
added, for the tinder standing the assertion. 

Ere I come to the proof of the assertion, it is necessary to state and ex- 
plain it, to prevent mistakes. 

And first, on the negative ; it is not as if the knowledge of the mercies 
in God's nature were alone a single adequate ground of faith, though we 
could attain unto never so enlarged apprehensions thereof. This negative 
is evident, 

1. Because where and whom God hath absolutely and peremptorily, and 
for ever, by a special bar and proviso, declared, and excepted from mercy 
and pardon, there and unto those all the mercies that are in God's nature, 
though known by them, can no way be drawn in, or ever become an object 
or ground for their faith, such as shall anyway benefit those persons 



8 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

declared against. This is the case of the devils, who are shut out from 
mercy ; and this not only hy that single holt of the law, ' Cursed he every 
one that continues not,' &c. ; for that doth alike shut us men up, until 
faith, that is, the gospel, he revealed ; hut they have that, and a farther and 
stronger holt and bar, never to he shot bach, or rather (as the apostle meta- 
phors it), ' everlasting chains,' of God's making, never to he broken or 
knocked off, that hold them fast under darkness. Which chains are super- 
added to that single sentence or curse, which merely the law pronounceth 
against them, for that alone might have been annulled through a grace of 
pardon, as well as to us men it is ; but God did further declare . irreco- 
verably against them, and each of them, personally, on the negative, 
that he will never be merciful to them : ' He spared them not,' says the 
apostle, ' but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment ;' he gave them no quarter. And 
thereupon some divines have said (which I will not dispute) that despair of 
mercy, taken abstractly for this single apprehension in their understand- 
ings, that God will have no mercy on them ; and that apprehension also, 
as it is accompanied simply with no hope of mercy, that this alone would 
be no sin in them, seeing it is but conformed unto what is the truth, which 
God hath revealed to them concerning themselves ; only the consequences 
hereof in them are the sins, as blasphemy and the like. 

2. But however, secondly, I may more safely assert, whatsoever the 
devils do believe, or ma}' be supposed to believe, of the mercies that are in 
God's nature, that yet, however, their faith thereof doth no way capacitate 
them to lay hold upon them for pardon, but cause them the more to tremble 
at the thoughts that they are for ever utterly excluded, whilst they revolve 
within themselves that such riches of mercy are in God, but in nowise do 
concern them, and withal to think (which hath the sting in it) that all 
those mercies should be ' kept,' and entirely ' reserved' (as God's expression 
in the second commandment is) for the sinners of the sons of men, while 
themselves, on the contrary, are ' kept' and reserved under those ' chains 
unto judgment,' as the words of two apostles are, 2 Pet. ii. 4, Jude 6. But, 
that these apprehensions should enrage and provoke them unto that 
resolved and obstinate malice and revenge, which they bear against God, 
these all, I am sure (without any debate), are sins, yea, the highest kinds 
of sinnings, and yet are but the consequents of that despair fore-mentioned, 
which in itself alone would be no sin. 

8. Nor yet, thirdly, would the single knowledge of all the mercies that 
are in the nature of God have been a full and sole ground of actual posi- 
tive faith, unto us sinners of the sons of men, had not God after the fall 
first unbosomed himself, and declared his purposes of mercy towards us in 
his Messiah. Our first parents, during that doleful space of interim (sus- 
pension shall I call it) between their fall and that ever-to-be-blessed decla- 
ration let fall by God, of his good will to men, in the promise of the 
blessed ' seed of the woman,' &c, until then, I say, although they were not 
utterly debarred upon their sinning, as the devils were upon theirs, yet 
they had not any ground or footing for a positive act of faith, for forgive- 
ness : notwithstanding we should or might suppose them to have known, 
and (after their fall) to have retained, and continued to have known or 
remembered that infinite goodness, which is the spring of mercies in God, 
to have been in the divine nature, as well as any other divine perfections ; 
and that possibly that goodness might be dissolved and melted into mercy 
and forgiveness unto sinners, such as now themselves were become. But 



Chap. II. J of justifying faith. 9 

yet still the curse of the law, ' Thou shalt die the death,' standing in full 
force and lull butt (as we say) against them; and that being the whole of 
the mind and will of God, which at that present was revealed to them; 
therefore they had no ' door of faith' and hope in any way open before them, 
but were, as to their own apprehension, utterly shut up, unless some ' word 
of faith' should be further made known to them. God had not let fall the 
hast intimation of mercy, neither by proclaiming his nature to be merciful, 
nor as yet had he said, ' I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious ;' nor 
was there any instance or example of any one of the sons of men (for, alas ! 
there were but those two extant) whom he had de facto pardoned, which 
might give them any encouragement or dawn of hope. 

But notwithstanding, perhaps it might be proposed as a question that 
would require a just debate, whether an utter despair (such as we speak oi 
to be in the devils), singly considered, and cut off from the cursed conse- 
quents fore-mentioned, had not yet in them been properly a sin during that 
interval, which in the devils simply and alone it is not. And the ground 
of the demur is this apparent difference between the devils' condition and 
theirs, during that space, that God had not negatively pronounced of 
them, I will never be merciful, as of the devils he had from the first of 
their sinning. Yet still this must be said, that they had not the smallest 
twig for a positive act of faith to ' set foot upon' (I allude to that in 
Noah's flood) : but in that condition of theirs, nothing in sight did appear, 
but an overflowing deluge of wrath, which did environ and overspread 
them, and their posterity in and with them, through the first curse, not as 
yet taken off, nor mitigated by any new declaration cf God. This for the 
negative state of the assertion. 

II. For the positive ground of faith. Blessed, yea, for ever blessed be 
our God, who hath not only by that promise to them, but with millions of 
other promises and declarations since made to us, thrown open all the win- 
dows of heaven, and freely exposed all the mercies in his heart and nature 
unto us the sinful sons of men, ' Peace on earth, good will towards men,' 
&c, not in hell, nor to the devils : and withal hath given an invitation, 
nay, a command, to hope in them ; and hath taught us to know him by this 
of his mercy, above all his perfections ; yea, and pronounced of our know- 
ledge and faith thereon, that he esteems it to be our glory, yea, his own 
greatest glory, that we should ' know him to be a God that exerciseth 
loving-kindness, righteousness, and judgment in the earth' (on earth still, 
not in hell) ; and < that therein he doth delight,' Jer. ix. 24. Moreover, in 
that he hath not, by any express proviso or exception, declared against any 
sort of sinners, or any individual person of the sons of men ; so as to say 
of any such, or such, I will never be merciful to, nor pardon them (as 
against the devils he did), that sort only excepted that sin against the Holy 
Ghost ; thereby it comes to pass, that not any one can say, I am debarred 
or excluded. And hence a wide door for hope and faith stands open, for 
any one to come in at. Nay, he further ' commands every man every- 
where to repent,' upon the hopes of mercy, through the indefinite promul- 
gation of it ; adding withal, ' whosoever believeth and repenteth, he shall 
be saved,' laying at the gage for the performance thereof, all the mercies 
in his nature, by which we, through these declaration?., have free access 
unto, and full liberty to plead them all afore him, and urge him with them. 
The product or issue of all which is, that the revelation of the mercies of 
his nature, thus joined with the declarations of his gracious willingness to 
shew mercy to us men, is now become a just and meet ground and object 



10 OF TIIE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

for a sinner's faith : whereas otherwise, like as breasts never so full, if there 
were not a teat, and a vent fitted to the child's mouth, they would never 
afford any succour to a perishing infant, so here in this case. And it is 
not an allusion foreign to the Scriptures, to compare God's mercies and 
promises unto ' breasts of consolation.' And the reason of this conclusion 
is, because God's shewing or his actual exercising of mercy dependeth upon 
an act of his will, and is not a mere, sole, single effect of his nature. For 
if it were solely an act of his nature, it would have been, and would still be 
necessary for him to shew mercy on the devils : and therefore look as God's 
actual shewing mercy dependeth upon an act of his will, — ' I will be merciful 
to whom I will,' &c. — so some revelation or manifestation of his goodwill (at 
least indefinite to mankind) is necessary to our faith, and not merely the 
knowledge of the mercy in his nature ; and as both concur to the effecting 
the thing, so also the apprehension of both should do unto our believing. 
And otherwise, ' Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been 
his counsellor ?' Rom. xi. 31. And it is notorious that the apostle utters 
that maxim upon this very point of God's will, in shewing mercy, for which 
compare ver. 30-32. 

I add unto these things concerning the stating of this assertion, these 
two premises more, for the practical understanding of it. 

1. I must not be understood, as if that every time the soul doth exer- 
cise an act of faith, he must of absolute necessity take into his thoughts 
such an ample review of these mercies ; and that otherwise it were not 
faith. No : for it often falls out, that in the exercise of believing, such 
things as are most fundamental to faith, and were at first explicitly taken in 
and considered by believers, are afterwards but as things taken for granted 
and supposed. And yet, notwithstanding, all those subsequent after-acts 
of faith are put forth in the strength of them. We may know that general 
principles of knowledge in any kind being once inlaid and preconceived, do 
yet virtually work, and the force of them conduces to the making of every 
conclusion, when yet we do not explicitly think of those principles. And in 
like manner it comes to pass, that our souls do many times really act true 
faith upon particular promises of forgiveness, or the like promises, when 
yet we did not aforeband, or together therewith, revolve in our minds at 
large the thoughts of these mercies, which yet are to be always supposed 
the bottom of those promises, and fundamental to our faith. And notwith- 
standing this, yet the belief of them doth secretly and really work and 
accompany such a faith : even as principles of knowledge, innate and taken 
for granted, are wont to do our improvements of knowledge from them, 
whilst those principles lie dormant as to our thinking, and yet those 
improvements grow up in the virtue and strength of them. We may see 
this in that one most fundamental principle of faith of all other, that there 
is a God ; which being inlaid in the bottom of the heart of every believer, 
works in all particular acts of faith whatever ; and they are all founded and 
borne up upon the strength and w r eight thereof, when itself, in the way of 
a formed proposition, is not discerned, nor brought forth into an explicit 
act or thought. And thus it falls out in the faith of forgiveness, it is always 
put forth in the force of the belief of those mercies, when yet the concep- 
tions thereof lay hidden deep in the soul. Which to be so, may appear by 
this experiment : that all our faith for forgiveness may at any time be 
readily and finally resolved into the mercies of God, as the ultimum objec- 
tion in quod, as the ultimate object or foundation. This will be found if 
the heart will at any time call for the bottom-ground of its faith, or of its 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 11 

recourse unto God for forgiveness, and but ask of itself the reason why it 
so believes, Yet, 

fc- 2. It still stands good (and is even sufficiently inferred from that which 
was last said) that the more ample diffused prospect, view, and contempla- 
tion of these mercies, which upon all great occasions (especially in conflicts 
of believing) we can possibly make or attain to, is the most conducible ex- 
pedite way to give an abundant evidence unto faith, and doth wonderfully 
hearten a broken-hearted sinner to lay hold upon any particular promise, 
especially of forgiveness; which otherwise comes but barely clad, in com- 
parison of what it appears to be, when the riches of mercy (being appre- 
hended with it) do environ and array it, which superadd wonderful allure- 
ments to our faith. And this assertion, as I said, is inferred even from 
what was spoken afore, viz., that if the tacit hidden belief of fundamental 
principles (such this is) do virtually, yet strongly, influence all subsequent 
acts of faith, then much more if there be an extensive revolving of them in 
our thoughts, they will come to have, according to the proportion of that 
enlargement (through the Spirit's accompanying of them), answerable 
effects, in an enlargement and increase of faith in us. 



CHAPTEK III. 

The proofs of this assertion: 1, by Scripture, and afterwards by reasons.' — One 
Scrij)ture above all other singled forth, and that alone, Exod. xxxiv. G, 7. — 
This made a new text for the subsequent discourse. — The grand assertion 
resolved into two heads, both of them distinctly drawn out, and proposed to 
be proved out of the text. — The eminency of this one Scripture is commended 
thereby to all our faiths. — Old Testament faith, and New, one and the same. 

I come to the confirmation of the assertion, as thus stated and explained, 
which proceeds, 

1. By Scripture. 

2. By the true and innate reasons thereof, drawn from the nature of 
faith, and the wonderful suitedness that the mercies in God's heart hold, 
by way of object, with and unto that principle of faith in our hearts, so as 
to attract and draw forth faith in all the acts of it. 

1. By Scripture. I single out only that renowned original God himself 
immediately published unto Moses concerning his pardoning mercies to him 
and us all; for unto him it was, though on our behalf also, that they were 
proclaimed, Exod. xxxiv. Two grand daeds there were, which Old Tes- 
tament faith held all upon. The first, of the promised Messiah, given to 
Eve and Adam at first by God himself, the immediate revealer, and after 
renewed to Abraham, David, and so on. The second, this glorious display 
of pardoning mercies, which was as immediately, but far more solemnly 
proclaimed, regio more, by God himself. And these two were as the two 
pillars, Boaz and Jachim, in the house of God, and are in Ps. exxx. set 
out as two known ' cities of refuge ' for broken hearts to fly unto. I shall 
make the latter of these the stage or substratum of all throughout this 
treatise, the grace and mercy in God being the originale originans, the 
womb or original even of the promise of Christ himself, and bears up an 
answerable pre-eminence of order and stress in the foundation of our faith. 
And this scripture, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, holds forth the amplest and largest 
display of mercy any other affords. And therefore I have most deservedly 



12 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

made choice of this one, to sustain henceforth the whole weight of all that 
follows, and shall accordingly found all upon it as upon a new text. 

And the Lord passed before him, and 2»'ocl aimed, The Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and 
that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto tlie third and to 
the fourth generation. — Exod. XXXIV. 6, 7. 

I shall not yet handle it in such an orderly and continued way as is usual 
to complete the exposition of a text, but do reserve that when I come to 
the merits of it afterwards. In the mean while, I shall only make obser- 
vation of such things about and out of it, as do directly tend to prove that 
general subject I affixed as the title to the whole discourse in the front, 
upon the entrance unto it; the substance of which is resolved into two 
propositions and heads. 1. That the mercies in God's heart and nature 
are a prime object and support of faith, as it hath been stated. 2. That 
mercy and grace in God are truly and properly properties of the divine 
nature and being; or, that God is of a merciful nature, and that his heart 
and purposes are to shew mercy, as the effects of that mercy in his nature ; 
which two will make the demonstration complete. And my design is to 
allege the heads of no other proofs for either than what these words, and 
the coherence of them, and circumstances about them, or citations of them 
elsewhere, do afford ground for ; and shall call in no other scriptures, but 
reductive only, for aid, and but such as of themselves will come about 
this, to back and confirm those proofs first, so grounded on the words. 
The grounds for the first head are two : 1st, Some special observations 
made upon this proclamation itself of mercy, which contains the occasion, 
circumstances, end, and purpose of it, and the issue and use made of it by 
Moses at that instant time. All which, as they do wonderfully enhance 
the grace and mercy of God proclaimed in it, so do mightily also commend 
these words unto our faith. 2dty, That these very words (as to before the 
substance of them) were ever after made use of as the common refuge and 
asylum (and therefore the object) of the faith of the saints of the Old Tes- 
tament, as to which they ordinarily had recourse for their support in point 
of forgiveness, and upon other occasions in which they stood in need of 
mercy ; the evidence of both which, when they shall be spread before us, 
and punctually exemplified in so many instances of the best and greatest of 
saints, and their practice, this rich parcel of Scripture will come concredited 
and recommended to our faith, with a mighty testimonial, under the hands 
of so many renowned witnesses that lived and died in the faith ; as the 
apostle speaks of those saints, Heb. xi., throughout that chapter, and in 
chapter xii. ; and as the apostle there exhorts those Hebrews of the New 
Testament to live by faith, from the instances of such a cloud of witnesses 
under the Old Testament, of whom he gives the catalogue, so may I, upon 
as just a ground, invite all believers needfully to attend this scripture, as 
being also the spring of all other scriptures about God's mercies that after 
followed, which are but as lesser streams from a fountain. And I may 
withal invite them to study the mercies of God as they are set forth 
therein, and to have it much in their meditations, treaties, and pleadings 
with God, and in all their exercises of believing ; because in this small 
compass of words God hath met with, and by it supported so many of his 



Chap. IV.] ov justifying paith. 13 

precious ones of old." 1 And we that arc believers under the New Testament, 
1 we having the same spirit of faith; according as it is written, I believed, 
and therefore have I spoken, wo also believe, and therefore speak,' 2 Cor. 
iv. 13, as the great apostle, citiug David's Old Testament faith to express 
his own New Testament faith by ; and wo professing with all the apostles 
and primitive saints to ' believe that wo shall bo saved by the same grace 
of Christ' and mercy of God that they, under the Old Testament, were 
saved by (which great maxim is expressly uttered in the name of the 
apostles, and of all the Christians of the New, Acts xv. 11), may well be 
induced to make a like improvement and valuation of this Old Testament 
carkanet,* bestudded with so many jewels. 



CHAPTER IV. 

That the mercies of God's heart and nature are the prime object of faith. — The 
first proof drawn from some special observations upon this proclamation of 
mercy, Exod. xxxiv. G, 7; and upon the story, occasion, occurrences, cir- 
cumstances, end, and purpose of it by God. — The issue and effect of it, and 
the use Moses made of it; which, as they exceedingly exalt the grace and 
mercy proclaimed, so do greatly commend it to our faith, for the support 
of it'. 

That this proclamation of grace was fully intended by G od for a founda- 
tion to our faith, and that it tendeth directly to prove the assertion, the 
following observations will, I hope, when taken along and put together, 
sufficiently possess us of. It is true that these observations themselves 
are but about circumstantials of the proclaiming it, in comparison unto the 
gracious matter and merits themselves contained in the proclamation itself; 
and these concern but the occasion, season, &c, which God took for this 
first publishing of it; yet such they are as the consideration of them doth 
greatly tend to the exalting of God's grace, which is proclaimed therein ; 
and the two last of them will end in a punctual proof of this first, head. 

Obs. 1. That it was God himself who immediately published this. Wise 
princes, if matters of extraordinary grace be to be declared or manifested, 
choose to do it themselves, and not by others, though favourites. And if 
ever there were words of grace spoken, then are these such. They are 
suavissima concio (as onef styles them), the sweetest sermon that ever was 
preached. And God himself was the preacher, and for the reason fore- 
mentioned would be the proclaimer of them. 

The vulgar translation, and the Romanists addicted thereunto, do put 
the honour of proclaiming it upon Moses (forsooth), and that it should be 
he who said, 'Jehovah, merciful,' &c, to the great obscuring of the great- 
ness, yea, majesty, of God, given demonstration of herein. 

It is true those words in verse 5, translated ' he proclaimed the name of 
Jehovah,' are elsewhere rendered ' called on the name of Jehovah.' And 
indeed the very same words, in the Hebrew, are used of Jacob: J Gen. 
xii. 8, that he ' called upon the name of the Lord.' And so if the 
coherence here had not apparently contradicted it, it might have been so 
understood here, and attributed to Moses. But, to be sure, those words, 
verse 6, ' And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, 
* A collar or necklace. — Ed. f Osiander. % ' Abraham.' — Ed. 



14 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

merciful,' &c, this must necessarily be referred to God himself, not to 
Moses. For, 

1. He that passed by was he that proclaimed this, and that was God. 

2. We find God himself, in chap, xxxiii., to have given it out to Moses, 
and to have beforehand promised that himself would be the proclaimer: 
' I will proclaim the name of the Lord' (saith he), and so not dictate it 
only for Moses to proclaim it. And accordingly we see that here in chap, 
xxxiv. he performs it: ver. 5, 6, 'The Lord descended in the cloud, and 
stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the 
Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, 
merciful,' &c. 

3. Moses's true time and first beginning to speak was but at the 8th 
and 10th verses: 'And Moses made haste, and bowed his head, and wor- 
shipped. And he said,' &c, namely, after that God had done speaking. 
And thereupon it was that he began to speak in all great haste, and to 
urge what God himself had said. So as indeed it is plain that both 
speeches, both that in verse 5 as well as that in verse 6, are to be under- 
stood not of invocating the name of the Lord, but of proclaiming the Lord, 
as our translators have rendered them both, and both alike to be wholly 
referred to God as the proclaimer. And that it should be twice said he 
proclaimed, was to put a notoriety upon it, and to shew of what moment 
it was for us to know that the great God proclaimed thus his own name 
and glory. And the stream of the Hebrew text runs thus, verse 5, ' And 
the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed 
the name of the Lord.' He that descended and stood with Moses, he it 
was that proclaimed it; and that, to be sure, was God. 

But we find Moses, in Num. xiv., expressly urging these words as 
God's own words upon him, so to put the more force into his plea: 
ver. 17, ' And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, 
according as thou hast spoken, saying' (quemadmodum pronunciasti 
dicendo* even as thou hast pronounced, God, in saying), ' The Lord is 
long-suffering,' &c. 

Obs. 2. It is further said, that ' God descended to proclaim this, '"in 
verse 5, which still speaks the more grace. I know it is historically 
meant of God's visible descending in the cloud ; yet give me leave from 
that shadow or type thereof, to decipher the impresses of grace signified 
thereby. For, 

1st, That God should shew mercy to sinners, hath the greatest con- 
descension in it, but much more to come down and proclaim it: 'He 
humbled himself to behold things in heaven' (even to behold his angels 
that never sinned), Ps. cxiii. 6 ; but for him not only to behold, but withal 
to deign to cast an eye of grace and mercy upon sinners, the things on 
earth, yea, and himself to descend unto earth to proclaim it, this is con- 
descending indeed in ' the high and lofty One.' And further, 

2dly, For the great God to shut up the emblazoning his incomprehen- 
sible simple nature into the narrow compass of a few words and form of 
speech, and those words importing several distinct things, and so, as it 
were, to pourtray forth himself by piecemeals and brokenly, by an imperfect 
delineation (for such these epithets are) to the end to bring himself down 
to our low capacities and conceits, this was a farther condescending 
indeed ; it is a speaking to us of himself in the image of our own puerile 
understandings. But, 

* Junius and Tremel. 



Chap. IV.J of justifying faith. 15 

8dly, This his visible descending in the view of all the people, to pro- 
claim this grace by words, was a most certain pledge given that be who 
was tbo Jehovah, God blessed for ever, would ono day break the heavens, 
and come down and take our nature, and dwell among us, and put tbis 
proclamation into full force and virtue, which in the mean while, until ho 
should do this, had yet its efficacy upon the saints of the Old Testament ; 
and upon that descending, to bo sure, we shall have cause to say, as in 
the same chapter, that ' the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by 
Jesus Christ;' which are the great materials of this great proclamation, and 
of which the second person, the Son of God, was indeed the proclaimer. 

Obs. 3. The subject-matter of this proclamation consists chiefly of grace 
and mercy. It is true matter of justice comes in and hath a place in it, 
but how ? Afterwards ; but mercy excels, exceeds, and is the prevailing 
argument. 

1. In the number of the particulars here recited. There are thirteen 
titles (say the Jewish writers) given to God here; others reckon fewer, 
some but eleven (that is the least), whereof the three first are counted by 
them to be the proper names of God: Jehovah, Jevohah El, translated the 
Lord, the Lord God ; all which three do yet suit with and impliedly intend 
mercy. Tho other nine (which are attributes) even seven of them speak 
altogether God's gracious affections towards repentant and believing sinners, 
as is evident in the very reading and counting of them. 

2. If all the first three be taken for the proper names of God, yet of 
those attributes that follow, mercy, &c, have the first place and rank ; 
yea, and all the seven (the whole set for mercy) are placed together first, 
and so claim to have the chief place in point of order and precedence 
before all. 

3. In God's own foreshewn declaration of what his mind was to be 
therein (chap, xxxiii. 19, which explains this), where, when he promiseth, 
1 1 will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,' he adds, ' I will be 
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy to whom I will 
shew mercy.' Why are these latter so nearly and immediately subjoined 
to his proclaiming his name, but that his great name, which he then and 
here intended to proclaim, consisted most in his being merciful and 
gracious,* &c. Himself beforehand professeth it ; yea, and the other, the 
first words before these in the same verse refer most properly thereunto. 
• I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee ; ' and goodness is the 
genus that comprehends mercy, grace, long-suffering, kindness, truth, &c, 
in it, as branches from that as the root. 

4. The quotations that David so often, and the prophets, make of the 
words, do confirm this, they rehearsing no other but only those that belong 
to mercy :f Ps. lxxxvi. 15 ; Ps. ciii. 8; Ps. cxlv. 8. 

The two latter, indeed: 1. 'That will not clearing clear the guilty;' 
2. ' Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, to the third and 
fourth generations ; ' these two are commonly referred to punitive justice, 
as importing acts and resolutions in God thereof, the first being rendered, 
that will by no means clear the impenitent. And yet, 

1st. About this meaning there is a very great controversy among inter- 
preters, some very judicious casting this very clause in among God's 
mercies, in chastising, but not destroying ; in taking vengeance on their 

* Quod potissiniiim in misericordia consistit. — Oleaster. 

t Non est pars ultima gratia quod nos ad se talibus blauditiis allicit Deus. — Cal. 
in Ps. cxlv. 8. 



16 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

inventions, and yet forgiving them, as in Ps. xcix. 8, of which interpreta- 
tion afterwards. And if so, then justice hath but one left, and mercy may 
challenge eight of the nine to belong to it ; but however mercy may 
triumph and say, if justice be avenged twofold, mercy is gracious seven- 
fold, it carries it clear. 

2dly. This rehearsal of his mercy and grace doth come in directly and 
absolutely and for themselves, and the current of them hath its spring 
purely from tbe heart of God, and runs with a straight, direct, natural 
stream ; but these of justice mentioned come in but accidentally, and 
indeed but as occasioned by God's having gone so far in declaring so much 
mercy, and having poured forth so much grace from his whole heart, to the 
view of sinners of all sorts and sizes. Because he knew how much and 
how deeply this root of bitterness was seated in men's hearts, to say in 
their hearts, ' I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of 
my heart,' &c, Deut. xxix. 19; and how apt are they to 'turn all this 
grace into wantonness ; ' therefore it is that at last, and but at last, he 
brings this high threatening in, ' that will by no means clear the impeni- 
tent.' And so, as the apostle says of the law, that it was ' added because 
of transgression,' so is this a mere occasioned additional (though most 
necessary by reason of man's corruption), because of obstinate sinners 
continuing in sin against light, and indeed but to vindicate and turn the 
glory of his mercy, which he is pleased to account his highest glory, from 
impure claim and profane hands of presumptuous sinners laying hold 
thereon when resolved to continue in their sins. And look, as mercy 
itself in him is from and of itself, not moved by anything in the creature, 
but, on the contrary, justice (though it is as essential to him as mercy) yet 
makes and puts forth itself but only upon man's sin, just so doth tbe 
mention of it come in but in relation and for the prevention of man's sin, 
and abusing of his mercy. 

Sdly. Again, unto those acts of justice specified there are bounds and 
limits set, 'visiting the iniquities, &c, to the fourth generation,' and 
further; and after that is passed and gone, leaving the door for mercy wide 
open ; and it is for them that hate him, which is the second command- 
ment's addition ; and those that hate him love death. Yea, in that very 
decalogue, the law (which, if any part of Scripture, was designed to speak 
justice and wrath), the comparison between the shewing mercy exceeds by 
thousands, so as it is not the proportion of one thousand to three or four, 
but of thousands ; * and to how many thousands he limits not that neither, 
but leaves room for to set down millions of millions of thousands, and yet 
this is in the law. But here in this gospel declaration he plainly sets no 
number either of thousands or millions of thousands, none at all; for of his 
mercy there is no end.f And at this very time, whilst God renewed that 
law and those words in it with his own hands, he utters with his own 
mouth this proclamation of grace so far excelling, professing to pardon all 
sorts of iniquities, transgressions, and sins, which he knew and foresaw the 
sons of men would commit against that law. 

Obs. 4. The season which God was pleased to take the advantage of is 
most observable. It was this: this people had immediately before com- 
mitted that greatly heightened sin in all manner of circumstances of it, of 
making and worshipping the golden calf; the story of this you find to be 

* Quia Dei dementia judicium exsuperat. — Calvin, in verba. 
f ISotaudum est Deum iras suae terminum ponero, misericordirc nullum. — Rivetus 
in verba. 



OHAP. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 17 

the subject 'of, chap, xxxii. throughout, by which high transgression they 
had utterly, on their parts, broken the covenant, as Moses his breaking the 
tables of stone did shew ; the sense of the high heinousness of which sin 
the Jews bear upon their spirits unto this day, it being usual with them 
wben any eminent punishment befalls their nation, to say that an ounce of 
the golden calf is in it. In which chapter you also have the deep resent- 
ment which God took thereat, and a most eager zeal to have been avenged 
was breaking forth: 'Lot me alone,' says he to Moses, that was about to 
intercede for them, • that my wrath may wax hot against them to consume 
them,' ver. 10, which, though in sound of words seems to express an high 
indignation conceived, and to check Moses, as it were, for praying for them, 
yet in reality did tacitly insinuate an inclinableness to mercy upon Moses's 
farther entreaty ; and indeed, to invite him the more earnestly to put him- 
self forth in interceding for them, importing that he was not absolutely or 
wholly resolved, but overcomeable by entreaties, which Moses took the 
advantage of, and followed his suit, and upon the assault God began to 
relent of the severity he had threatened;* and yet still God did not reveal 
this to Moses, but kept it to himself, for, ver. 30, Moses, as it were, speaks 
of it uncertainly to the people : ' Peradventure I shall make an atonement 
for your sins.' But God carried it still to him, as if it still stuck with him, 
so as to be avenged, as by the hard conflict Moses had with God, carried 
dialogue-wise between them, and God's quick reply unto his prayer, ver. 31 
to the end of the chapter, appears. And again, chap, xxxiii. to ver. 4, the 
tidings hereof the people hearing, though they mourned and humbled them- 
selves, ver. 4, yet still God carries it reservedly and aloof off to them, as 
unto what he would do with them (as those words shew, ' that I may know 
what to do unto thee,' ver. 5), whether pardon or destroy them. But 
Moses thereupon farther speaking with God, the Lord was so familiar with 
him above all times ever before, either with himself or ever with any other 
man, that Moses was bold to plead for farther favour to that people, and 
for a special high privilege to himself : ' Shew me thy glory ; ' all which 
transactions were the most lively representations and types of Christ's 
intercession and prevalency for us, in and by whom God was to manifest 
all his glory, specially of grace and mercy, to his chosen children ; John 
i. 17 and 18 compared. And hereupon God sets him a time, which was 
the next day early ; and at his time set comes down to him (which was in 
view of all the people), and then comes off like the great God himself, 
proclaiming all those his mercies to him of ' pardoning iniquity, trans- 
gression, and sin.' And though this was done in his hearing alone, yet 
for the people's sake, and on their behalf, for whom he had so vehemently 
interceded, whose concernment this was as well as his own, as that clause, 
• keeping mercy for thousands,' shews. And having done this, he restores 
and estates them into the same favour they were in before, he renews his 
covenant with them which they had broke : ver. 10, ' Behold, I make a 
covenant ; before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been 
done in all the earth, nor in any nation ; and all the people amongst which 
thou art shall see the work of the Lord.' 

Obs. 5. Observe the haste God made to do this. After that this treat- 
ment between himself and Moses was come to its full issue, he makes no 
delay, his heart was so full of it : ver. 2, ' Be ready,' says God to Moses, 
' in the morning.' And it could be appointed no sooner; for the solemnity 
which the Lord was pleased to make and observe in the doing it, which 

* Diodati. 

VOL. VIII. B 



18 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

was to have all the people forewarned, ver. 3, put in expectation, &c, and 
then himself to descend in their view, ver. 5. And according to God's 
command, ' Moses rose up early in the morning,' and, it is added, ' as the 
Lord had commanded him ' (so that God had appointed the very earliest 
of the morning too), and all speed was used that could be, and God made 
him not stay for a moment. After Moses was come, ' the Lord descended in 
the cloud and stood with him there ; ' and then ' the Lord passed by before 
him, and proclaimed,' &c. And what he performed to Moses and the 
people in this respect he also doth to us ; for how often do you read of his 
hearing us in the morning ; as in Ps. v. 3, and of his ' causing us to hear 
of his loving-kindness in the morning ; ' as Ps* cxliii. 7, 8, ' Hear me 
speedily, Lord ! Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning.' 
And Ps. xc. 14, '0 satisfy us early with thy mercy.' Look, as Moses 
hasted, ver.'8 (as is said), to put up his suit and petition upon it, and that 
we are bidden to seek God early, so God was as early with him, which was 
intended for a precedent for us that shall for ever need this grace and 
mercy which he here proclaims. Nay, sometimes God prevents us before 
we call, but is always ready to forgive ' (as the Psalmist's word is), and, to 
be sure, comes down to ' help in time of need,' Heb. iv. 16. Oh the 
riches of his grace ! and the depth of the ' riches of the wisdom and know- 
ledge of God,' Rom. xi. 33, that thus contrived and took the fairest season 
and opportunity for advantage for his expressing his grace and heart to us, 
magnifying thereby his mercy and goodness to the utmost. I said there 
were two grand pillars in the Old Testament: one, God's promise of Christ; 
and the other, this manifesto of God's gracious nature : and lo, the advan- 
tage God took for both, upon the commission of the most heinous sins ; 
the one upon occasion of the first and greatest sin, and of the largest 
extent of mischief in the consequence that ever was committed, viz., our 
first parents' fall, by which all mankind were undone ; and it was upon 
that occasion he let fall that promise of Christ, which was the first founda- 
tion of Old Testament faith, and continues such to the end : and now again 
upon the first greatest sin this people did commit after their having received 
the law, and heard God's voice, it was that he publisheth this other. And 
he pardoned each of these their sins whilst he was a-speaking and uttering 
of these promises ; and this latter of his mercy was the original of that 
other of the Messiah himself, considered as he is our Saviour, and the over- 
comer of Satan for us. We may well, therefore, hereupon glorifying him 
say, as that the Lord is ' gracious and full of bowels' (with the apostle 
James), so in respect to the opportunity God took, that he ' waiteth to be 
gracious' (with the prophet Isaiah), that is, to manifest it in the fittest sea- 
eon ; for he is a God of judgment, Isa. xxx. 18. What heart guilty of the 
most heinous sins, that is now humbled for them, should not this move 
and encourage to come in unto such a God ! * 

Obs. 6. Moses having heard what God had spoken, God then speaks 
anew inwardly to Moses's heart, and Moses instantly puts it into practice 
and suit. Now, as this shews most effectually what God's intention had 
been in uttering his meaning, Isa. Iv. 10, 11, so it doth most exemplarily 
instruct us what use this publication of mercy is to be put out unto by us ; 
that we should lay hold on it by faith, and turn, and put it into prayer, 
but especially in the case of pardon of sins. For so of Moses it is said, 
ver. 8, that when God had done speaking, and was passing apace by him, 
' Moses made haste, and bowed his head towards the earth, and worshipped ;' 
* Talibus blanditiis allicit ad se nos Deus. — Calvin. 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 19 

even as one that is an humble suppliant to a king, as he passcth by him, 
follows him, and humbly presents his petition in haste, lest ho should be 
gone out of sight ; so here. 

If it be said, might he not at leisure have, at any time afterwards, put 
up the same petition upon the same ground ? the answer is, that when God 
is near, and greatly present to the soul (as he was here to Moses), that is 
the most acceptable time of praying for all or anything a believing soul 
desires. Let them take that opportunity, and though such a special near- 
ness should not fall out till towards the end of one's prayer, yet let them 
then take the advantage of that time and tide to pray over again afresh, 
and put in all they desire to pray for, or would have God do for them, for 
God is with them. 

Now, what was Moses's petition ? It follows, ver. 9, ' And he said, Now 
if I have found grace in thy sight, Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee,, go. 
amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquities and 
our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.' In which, as I said, he puts 
into use and practice (laying hold on the words now spoken by God) him- 
self to speak a good word from thence for that people. The effect of which 
prayer is, that although they were indeed a stiff-necked people, as any ia 
the world (this he first confessed), that yet God, for this his name's sake, 
would not leave them, but pardon their iniquities, and mine own too, Lord, 
says he, for the expression is, ' pardon our iniquities.' Which for God to 
do w T as the plain intent of his declaring it. And it is implied fob at God 
would do this not for the present only, but to continue to do it. He prays 
for the future as well as for the present when he says, ' Pardon our ini- 
quities,' &c. This the words foregoing, 'for it is a stiff-necked people,' i. e., 
they will ever and anon be sinning against thee, and also the words that 
follow, do shew, ' Take us for thine inheritance,' says Moses, which words 
Calvin renders ut possideas nos, that thou mayest possess us for thine in- 
heritance. As if he had said, says he, God cannot come to enjoy and 
possess his chosen as his inheritance, otherwise than by pardoning their 
sins continually; for man's frailty is such that they would, after his receiv- 
ing pardon, fall from that grace, if they be not continually reconciled to 
him ; which concerns us Gentiles as well as them then. God must not 
only take us to be his, but keep us to be his, and continue to be merciful 
to us, according to this his great name, or we shall be utterly lost and 
undone. 



CHAPTER V. 

TJiat the mercies of God's nature, as they are proclaimed in Exodus xxxiv., 
are a prime object and support of faith. — That this name of God, Exodus 
xxxiv. 6, 7, was an asylum or strong tower, unto which the faith of the 
most eminent saints of the Old Testament had recourse, especially for forgive- 
ness ; and the evidence hereof carried through the times of the Old Testament, 
from Moses, by a cloud of witnesses, as Moses, David, Nehemiah, and the 
propihets. 

This proclamation of grace being a magna charta of the Old Testament, 
was so highly valued by the prophets and saints of those times, that ever 



20 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

after it had been proclaimed to Moses, they had, throughout all ages,* 
frequent recourse thereto ; and their wont was to make rehearsals of it 
upon several occasions, as either when particular mercies were to be ob- 
tained, or exhortations made to bring men in to God, or thanksgiving and 
praise offered. Their manner was upon such occasions to rehearse these 
words, but especially in the point of forgiveness. Besides that use that 
Moses made of it instantly upon the place, when God had done proclaiming 
it, he putting it presently in suit in all haste in the behalf of tbat people, 
the same Moses, in more cool blood, makes the same improvement of it in 
after times. And the occasion was another most beinous sin of murmuring 
committed by this people, and then he again urgeth God with these his 
own words for a forgiveness of them: Num. xiv. 17, 18, 19, ' And now, I 
beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast 
spoken, saying, Tbe Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the impenitent,' — 
or perhaps, rather as others, ' clearing I will not clear;' that is, although 
he forgive, yet he will chastise, and not altogether leave unpunished, — 
' visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and 
fourth generation.' 

Next comes David, who, although he had, over and above this proclama- 
tion of mercy, common to him with all the saints, a personal covenant of 
sure mercies particularly made and renewed to himself, yet, however, he 
had an usual recourse unto this more general refuge ; of such use and 
valuation was it with him, and ought to be with us. Thus in Ps. lxxxvi., 
twice, in ver. 5 and 15, by way of prayer, ' Thou, Lord, art a God full 
of compassion, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth ; have mercy 
upon me, and save me,' ver. 16. And then again, in another psalm, viz., 
cxlv., he brings in all the saints, with their hearts and moutbs full of it, 
pouring forth in a way of praise (for in that channel the stream of that 
psalm runs) the very same words ; having first said, ver. 7, ' They utter 
the memory of thy great goodness, and sing of thy righteousness.' Then 
in tbe next follows, as being their universal joint outcry, and the burden of 
their singing, ' The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and 
of great mercy.' So as this was the general vogue of the saints of tbose 
times to cry this scripture up. 

In Psalm ciii. we have a reference to these words, yea, an express quota- 
tion of them. David repeats these very words of Moses in ver. 8, • The 
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.' In 
which rehearsal there is not only a videtur alludere ad Mud Mosis, an allu- 
sion, &c. (as Calvin), but a plain citing or quoting of the words, as having 
been spoken to Moses by name, and as punctually alleging them out of him 
in such a manner as we use to quote Jeremiah, Isaiah, or any other of the 
prophets' writings when we have occasion ; for in the very words before, 
ver. 7, he says, ' He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the 
children of Israel.' 

The coherence of which words, ver. 7, interpreters have wholly drawn 

* Nee mirum est Davidem sumpsisse hasc Elogia ex celebri illo Mosis loco, Exod. 
xxxiv. 6, quum prophetis visionem, qua? illic refertur, summo in prctio fuisse : quia, 
nusquam clarius, vel familiarius, exprimitur Dei natura. — Calvin in Ps. cxlv. ver. 8. 

Mollerus, upon the 86th Psalm (where this description of mercy is twice re- 
hearsed), hath these words : ' Sumptus est hie versus ex Mose, et quia tanquam 
insignis quasdam gemma inter cseteras promissiones elucet, crebrb repetitur in scrip- 
lura.' — Mollerus in ver. 15, Ps. lxxxvi. 



CflAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 21 

up, and exhale into vcr. G, as if these words, ' He made known his ways to 
Moses,' were intended only for a particular instance of God's delivering the 
oppressed, as ho had done the Israelites ; because, in the verse before (ver. 
5) say they, he had spoken of God's vindication of such as were oppressed. 
But some later critics have, to a more ample scope, drawn those words of 
ver. 7, down to a coherence with the next, ver. 8, ' The Lord is merciful,' 
&c, the very words of God to Moses ; and to justify this coherence rather 
than the former, those writers do pertinently compare the words which 
Moses had first spoken to God, chap, xxxiii. 13, with these of God's unto 
Moses in this chap, xxxiv., which (say they) were spoken by God, as in 
answer unto what Moses had there said. Now, in the foregoing chapter, 
Exod. xxxiii. 13, Moses had said, ' I pray thee, if I have found grace in 
thy sight, I pray thee shew me thy way ' (or thy ways, as Junius, and Dru- 
sius., and others render it), ' that I may know thee' ; that is, say they, 
know thee by what thy inclination and disposition is, and dealings shall be 
towards this people ; for, in the following words, he had presented before 
him the case of this people : ' Consider,' says he, ' that this nation is thy 
people' ; and thereupon was further bold to ask, ' Shew me thy glory.' 
Upon which request on Moses's part it was, that God promiseth there to 
proclaim his name. Now, the Jewish writers* usually understand by thy 
ways, the properties of God, his inclination and disposition ; by which, or 
from which, being inwardly in his nature moved, he outwardly goeth forth 
to dispense unto his people ; and so by ways, in this speech of Moses, are 
complexly understood both the attributes of God's nature, as the root and 
the principles in his heart, or the original cause, and his dealings, proceed- 
ing from thence, as the effects ; and to know what these ways were, was 
that thing which Moses desired of God, that he would fully reveal to him, 
that so he might know him, both for his own comfort, but especially in 
reference to what was, or how his mind stood, towards this people. And 
God in answer hereto did punctually, according to these two requests, first 
promise to do this for him : chap, xxxiii. 19, ' I will cause my goodness to 
pass before thee : and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee' ; 
and then did perform it, in the words of my text : chap, xxxiv. 6, ' Pro- 
claiming the name of the Lord, the Lord God, merciful,' &c. Hereupon 
these interpreters, comparing all these things together, are bold (and that 
rightly) to understand this passage in Ps. ciii., 'He made known his ways 
to Moses,' to be meant both of that his name and properties proclaimed by 
God in Exodus unto Moses. What ways ? (says Drusius on Exod. xxxiii. 
13) or what properties ? He is passionate for this explication of Moses ; 
and that by ways God's purposes, innate dispositions, mores or ingenium 
should be meant. And before him Genebrard, out of the Jewish writers, 
doth the like on Ps. ciii. Dr Hammond, on Ps. ciii. 7, 8, vehemently con- 
tends for the same coherence : The place (says he) evidently refers to 
Exod. xxxiii., where Moses petitions God: 'Shew me thy way'; then, 
ver. 18, ' Shew me thy glory.' By his way and glory, meaning his 
nature, and his ways of dealing with men. 'And God said, I will make all 
my goodness pass before thee, and proclaim the name of the Lord ; ' by 
which his nature is signified ; and what that name is, is set down by the 
enumerations of his attributes, chap, xxxiv. 6. He proclaimed the Lord 

* Viassuas, hoc est, qualiter se gerat erga suos. — Muis. Apud Hebrseos plerunque 
via significat rationem, et institutum vitse, mores, negotia, &c, et Scire viam tuam, 
id est, rationem agendi qua, uteris erga tuos, vel simpliciter quomodo cum piis agas. 
— Mollerus in Ps. lxxxvi. 11. 



22 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

merciful, gracious, &c, just as here (says he) in the Psalm, in the next 
verse, the Lord is merciful, &c. Only Dr Hammond differs from the other 
in this, that he interprets by ways made known to Moses, God's manner of 
his dealings, or his actions, to be meant ; and the following words, his acts, 
to the children of Israel, the word translated his acts he would have to 
import his nature and attributes that follow, according to his understanding 
the Hebrew phrase, &c. ; but he and they all agree in that scope I allege 
this place for. And indeed the psalmist teacheth us that God's ways mean 
his inward dispositions, Ps. ciii., for after he had said, ' He made his ways 
known to Moses,' he subjoins, ' The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow 
to anger, and plenteous in mercy,' God thereby declaring at once to Moses 
that these were the dispositions in his nature, and that according unto these 
they should find his proceedings should be, not with this people only, but 
with all his children for ever in the world, as also with wicked men impeni- 
tent ; so as Moses might certainly know him thereby, as he requested, and 
know where to have him, as we use to say, which was the main intent of 
what he had desired to know. And accordingly the rest of the psalm that 
follows is a verification in so many experiments of what God's ways in 
mercy had been to that people from Moses's time downwards, drawn into 
maxims or propositions, according unto what he had here declared to Moses 
so long before. 

And that his ivays should more particularly and eminently note out his 
mercies in pardoning sins, &c. (which is one of David's applications and 
interpretations of Moses here), that passage in Isa. lv. confirms. For 
speaking of God's ' having mercy,' and ' abundantly pardoning,' ver. 7, he 
adds, ver. 8, 9, ' For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your 
ways, my icays, saith the Lord : for as the heavens are higher than the 
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
thoughts.' The like many other scriptures express. I conclude, What is 
all this other than that David, in this famous psalm of mercy, as in which 
he makes a celebration of the mercies of God to himself, from ver. 1 to 7, 
and from thence towards others of his children, in sundry particulars, doth 
first professedly take these words of Moses for his text, even as we are wont 
to do some portion of scripture, and make a sermon upon it ; that is, that 
part of them that concerned mercy, and then plainly writes a comment upon 
it in the rehearsal of sundry particular gracious dealings ? All which are 
but explanations, confirmed from experience, of these several properties of 
grace, mercy, long-suffering, &c, more briefly summed up by God himself, 
in Moses. And this might, though not in the same order, be exactly shewn, 
if prolixity here forbade it not. 

But we meet not with these words only in David, upon these occasions 
specified, but as frequently also, at least with some pieces of them, in the 
prophets, unto the same or other like purposes. As Jeremiah, in that 
solemn prayer for the church, in the condition it was in his times, Jer. 
xxxii. 18. Then again, in the prophet Joel, he lays it as a foundation and 
corner-stone of faith and hope, to persuade the people to come in, and turn 
to God : Joel ii. 12, 13, « Turn ye to me,' says God himself by him, ' with 
all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, &c, and turn unto the Lord your 
God, for he is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,' 
&c. These are still God's words in Moses anew repeated. 

Yea, Jonah points as plainly unto these words, as those the remembrance 
whereof moved God to be merciful in pardoning the Ninevites, upon their 
serious and solemn repentance. He attributes that his sparing them, unto 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 23 

the substance of these worils which Jonah had learned from Moses, as the 
cause of God's pardoning them ; and was certainly led to do it by the Holy 
Ghost that penned that prophecy ; although ho uttered it whilst ho was 
expostulating the matter with God for his having spared them, that when 
he had sent him with so precise a message to foretell them of their utter 
destruction within so many days : ' I knew,' says he, ' that thou art a 
gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and 
repentest of the evil,' Jonah iv. 2. And his saying, ' / knew, 1 prompts 
evidently that the knowledge he had of God, had been taken from these 
words in Moses, as that which from his writings was the familiar, wonted, 
and common notion ; which both he and that people that knew the law 
were nourished up in. And that when matter of threatening judgment was 
apprehended (which excited to repentance), the thoughts of this scripture 
was at hand, and rose up in their minds, as here it did in his, although 
to a worse purpose, as in his thought. Yea, and Jonah tells God there 
plainly that, from the knowledge of that very declaration of mercy, and 
God's wont in pardoning, he had suspected that this might or would prove 
to be the issue ; and that the remembrance of mercy, as he had declared it 
to Moses, would overcome him, and prevail with him haply to give repent- 
ance to those Ninevites, and thereupon to save them, even against the 
peremptory message of their destruction, wherein God shewed he loved the 
glory of his mercy more than of his justice, or his own declared threatening, 
and his own prophet's credit. 

And which is yet more to be wondered at, and God to be adoi*ed in it, 
is, that although the prophet knew this aforehand from this scripture in 
Moses, yet the poor Ninevites knew not thereof, having not seen as then 
Moses's writings, nor had ever heard one", tittle of this proclamation of 
mercy ; nor can we think that Jonah had revealed it to them, for a 
denunciation of destruction was precisely all of his commission ; but it was 
God's own Holy Spirit who alone prompted these poor ignorant souls with 
this suggestion, to ' cry mightily unto God ; and to turn every one from 
his evil way, who can tell if God will repent, and turn away from his fierce 
anger, that we perish not?' chap. iii. 8, 9. And they had to do with God, 
who to be sure knew and was privy to himself, what he had set forth him- 
self by, as that which was in his heart and nature ; and he ' could not deny 
himself,' and his own declaration of it, though these poor souls could not 
have challenged him by it. 

I only add this comfortable observation (comfortable indeed to us 
Gentiles) from Jonah's allegation of these words, even that 'Jehovah, 
gracious and merciful,' &c, as in Moses it was proclaimed, that this pro- 
clamation concerned not only the Jews, or was a measure for God to go 
by towards that people, but was intended by God, even at the first delivery, 
for us Gentiles also. For he proceeded according to the tenor of it with 
those Ninevites, who were an handsel of the Gentiles' conversion to come. 
And therefore let us Gentiles, from the apostle's instruction, Rom. xv. 9-11, 
adore and glorify God for his mercy, and exercise our faith much upon 
these blessed words, ' Jehovah, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant 
in kindness and truth,' as having been proclaimed and written that we 
might have as much hope as the Jews had therein, and so turn to the Lord, 
as these Ninevites did. This for Jonah. 

Next the prophet Micah brings in a piece of it, chap. vii. 18, by way of 
wonderment at such and so gracious a God : ' Jehovah, Jehovah God, 
pardoning iniquity and sin.' Thus God speaks to Moses: ' Who is a God 



24 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [[BOOK I. 

like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression 
of the remnant of his heritage ?' So the prophet there. ; 

Hezekiak also, that holy king, writing to his brethren of the ten tribes, 
inviting them to return to God from forth of that long and great apostasy and 
revolt from God and his worship which they had made, assuring them that 
God would notwithstanding pardon and receive them again upon their repent- 
ance. He assures and he persuades them of it by God's own words, the 
words of this proclamation, so commonly known amongst all Israel : 2 Chron. 
xxx. 9, ' For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and therefore 
will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him.' 

Lastly, good Nehemiah, almost a thousand years after Moses, doth make 
mention of these words : Neh. ix. 17, ' Thou art a God ready to pardon, 
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest 
them not.' Mark the whole drift of that which follows in that chapter, 
and you will find it to be : first, to ascribe all the mercies and forgive- 
nesses of that people, both in the wilderness, and in after ages that followed, 
upon and after most grievous backslidings, which he there all along 
reciteth, unto that declaration of mercies first uttered to Moses, as the 
cause of all, and as that which had been verified over and over in so many 
experiments, through so many ages ; and, secondly, his scope was to put 
force into his present prayer and plea for mercy and restoration for tie 
future to this then so sinful and broken a people, which he pursues as his 
main drift in that chapter, concluding his prayer thus: ' Thou art a merci- 
ful and a gracious God.' Yer. 13, ' Now therefore our God, the great, the 
mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy.' &c. 
Now that word of his therefore draws unto this his conclusive pra} T er the 
strength of all he had alleged, both of that proclamation recited, ver. 17, 
and of all God's merciful dealings with that people in former ages, 
according to the tenor thereof ; and that, therefore, God would please to 
manifest and magnify, and put forth the same grace now to them. Yea, 
and to that end he repeats and revives again the memorial of the same 
words (for it is a blessed memorial to all generations), as our translators 
have observed, in referring us unto Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 

And Xehemiah's times being with the last of those (I do not say the last) 
wherewith Scripture records of the Old Testament do end, and he in that 9th 
chapter having gone over all times that had been past from Moses's time, 
and having devolved all God's merciful dispensations during all those times 
into the mercy of God then published, as the well-head of them all, and he 
still continuing to plead the same for the whole time to come, from those 
times of his, from hence I may well conclude that this publication of 
mercy was accounted the basis or foundation of Old Testament mercies, on 
God's part, and faith on theirs, in all the after ages of it. 

You see I have traversed this from Moses to the last of Scripture records. 
And though a thousand other promises had been given between, yet still 
this is above all rehearsed, as the original of all other. So as I may well 
conclude it to have been a main article of the Old Testament creed. 



Chap. YL] of justifying faith. 25 



CHAPTER YL 

117/(7/ ig imported by the name Jehovah made use of in this proclamation of 
mercy, Eacod. xxxiv. G, 7. — 2 hat as it signifies (ii^Vs infinite essence, it 
denotes the subject of all those mercies which are in him.- — That this name 
of God, Jehovah, doth best suit, and is most fitly joined with those epithets 
merciful and gracious. — What supports of faith may he derived from these 
two, Jehovah and merciful, joined together. 

Having thus shewed that the mercies of God's nature, as proclaimed 
in Exod. xxxiv., are the great ohject and support of faith, I now come to 
the description itself in this his proclamation, and which is God's picture 
drawn by his own pencil, as far as words could render it ; the smaller 
models whereof David and the prophets drew, as I have shewn, and wore 
next their hearts, as men wear precious medals of their friends upon their 
breasts. 

It is mavi&sima concio, as one* styles it, the sweetest sermon that ever 
was preached, and preached by God himself, upon the highest subject, and 
therefore the richest text the whole Bible affords. It is maxhne insignis 
natures Dei description the most renowned and signal description of the 
nature of God. 

Dr Preston | hath singularly displayed the glory of God set out in this 
delineation, as altogether most lovely, but his scope was to win the souls 
of men to lore him (which the reader may consult as he thinks meet), but 
my design in this explication which follows is to consider it as it is a ground 
for and support of faith, to draw men to believe, which was God's original 
and primary purpose in this his first delivery of it, though it as fully con- 
duceth to that other end also. 

And we have example for disposing it to either of these purposes, the 
prophet David having penned two Psalms, more eminently appropriated 
by him to himself as his own : the one enstyled David's prayer, though 
many other psalms are prayers — it is Psalm lxxxvi. ; the other, David's 
praise, Ps. cxlv., no psalms else in their titles bearing these ensigns of 
honour but these two, the first his tephilla, the latter his tehilla ; in each 
of these he makes a solemn rehearsal of these very words in Moses. In 
the first, Ps. lxxxvi., he brings them in as they were a support unto his 
faith in his distresses from sins and miseries, to which use he puts them, 
ver. 3, 4, G, and 7. And again, ver. 16. 17, he makes a plea of these 
words by way of prayer (which is exercising faith) in that distressed con- 
dition. In the second, Ps. cxlv., he brings them in as they are an elogium 
or celebration of the glorious nature and excellencies of God, to excite the 
sons of men to love and praise him. And upon the like design he doth 
again resume them in a rehearsal, in Ps. ciii. Now as that worthy man 
fore-mentioned made this latter his design, so I shall take the first for mine. 
And yet as David, in those places specified, culls out and takes only what 
of God's words concerned his mercies, leaving out the threatening part, as 
that of 'visiting the iniquities of the fathers on their children,' so shall I 
insist only on the mercies of God therein promulged, that being the sole 
subject of my pursuance. 

The materials of this description I reduce to two parts, which of them- 
selves the words fall into. 
* Osiander. f Calvin in Psalm lxxxvi. \ In nis sermon of Love, from p. 35 to 44. 



26 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

1. Quis sit, who he is, and what proper name or names of his it is, of 
which and under which he makes this proclamation of himself. It is 
Jehovah, Jehovah, twice repeated, translated 'the Lord, the Lord;' to 
which is added El, ' the strong God.' 

2. Qualis est, what a God he is. This is expressed in those several per- 
fections that follow, attributed to him, which we usually call properties 
and attributes ; as that he is strong, merciful, and gracious, &c. Or if 
you will, 

1st, That name Jehovah notes his infinite essence, as the substratum of 
those attributes. 

2dry, The other that follow set out those perfections of that essence, as 
merciful, &c. 

I. Who? Jehovah. 

There are of those proper names of God which signify (and we so trans- 
late them) God or Lord, three that are most eminent, and all three revealed 
to Moses. 

1. Ehije, I am: first mentioned, Exod. hi. 14. 

2. Jehovah, Exod. vi. 3. 

3. The abridgment of Jehovah, Jah : Exod. xv. 2, ' Jah is my strength,' 
first there used. 

And these are the chiefest names of God, and for substance signified one 
and the same thing. 1. And all of them, Jehovah especially, are the chiefest 
names, proper to God alone, and never given, or to be given (as other 
names are) to any creature : Ps. lxxxiii. 18, ' That men may know, that thou 
whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all "the earth.' And 
of Jah it is said, it is that name by which God will especially be exalted : 
Ps. lxviii. 4, ' Sing unto God, sing praises to his name ; extol him that 
rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah.'* 2. They all three of them 
signify that God is being, being fulness of being, the original of all being. 
They all speak absolute essence and existence alone, and of himself. 

Jehovah, therefore, is of all other names placed here designedly, as the 
seat and subject of these attributes that follow ; for as this name speaks 
him to be the whole of being, so these attributes speak the excellencies and 
perfections of that divine being, and are but particular explications and 
decipherings of what a God he is that entitleth himself Jehovah, or 1 am. 

But, 2 (which is more to my purpose), the first revelation of it with 
God's own comment made upon it, was to betoken, and be a sign of 
mercy, and in a more especial design. And pHmum being mensura reli- 
quorum, the first, the pattern or measure of what follows it, therefore Jehovah, 
of all other names, doth best suit and join with merciful and gracious. Now 
that it was first given and revealed as a token and signal of grace and 
merc}^, is evident thus. 

When God first appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Exod. hi., and 
had thus told him, ver. 7-11, ' And the Lord said, I have surely seen the 
affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by 
reason of their task-masters ; for I know their sorrows ; and I am come 
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them 
up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with 
milk and honey ; and to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, 
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me : 

* From rnrr. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 27 

and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 
Come now therefore, I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring 
forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.' Moses thereupon, to 
obtain a farther information and confirmation from God of his intentions 
of grace to that people, particularly desires to know by what name he 
should represent him unto them, vcr. 13-15 : ' And Moses said unto God, 
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, 
The God of our fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me, 
What is his name ? what shall I say unto them ? And God said unto 
Moses, I am that I am : and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto 
Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of 
our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, 
hath sent me unto you : this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial 
unto all generations.' Ainsworth, penetrating into the mystery of this 
question and petition, conceives Moses's drift therein to be to draw forth 
from God more fully and explicitly, whether he sent him upon a message 
of mercy (pure mercy), or for judgment (as in the issue it might prove) ; 
and that he would signify so much by some special name he would please 
to assume, to testify so much thereby. And in answer unto Moses, God 
first there tells him his name was Ehijeh, &c, ' I am that I am,' ver. 14. 
And this was his first answer unto Moses's request. Now this Ehijeh is 
in signification for substance the same with this of Jehovah. 

Therefore, again, when a second time God was pleased to renew his 
instructions to this his ambassador (the most extraordinary of any other until 
Christ came) in Exod. vi., still in further answer thereunto, God says, ver. 
1-7, ' And Jehovah said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do unto 
Pharaoh ; for by a strong hand shall he send them away, and by a strong 
hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and 
said unto him, I am Jehovah. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, 
and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty ; but by my name Jehovah 
was I not known to them. And also I established my covenant with them, 
to give unto them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, in the 
which they sojourned. And also I have heard the groaning of the sons of 
Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in servitude, and I have remembered my 
covenant. Therefore say thou unto the sons of Israel, I am Jehovah, and 
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will 
rid you out of your servitude : and I will redeem you with a stretched-out 
arm, and with great judgments ; and I will take you to me for a people, 
and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your 
God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.' 
God in this declaration puts over the whole of that covenant, and these 
mercies thereof, and his purposes therein, unto the import and memorial of 
his name Jehovah, to signify so much to them, and doth farther lay that 
as his gage, to inform them thus at the close of all, ver. 8 : ' And I will 
bring you in unto the land which I did lift up my hand to give it to Abra- 
ham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it to you for an heritage : I 
am Jehovah.' This last clause, ' I am Jehovah,' I look upon to be put in 
at last, as one useth to do his name and seal unto a covenant or deed (such 
as this is) for performance ; so God he subscribes unto all, ' I am Jehovah ;' 
all hath this seal, as the apostle elsewhere speaks. 

Now the ground upon which Ainsworth affixeth this meaning upon that 
question of Moses, chap. iii. 13 (besides that God himself, in the 7th verse 



28 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

of that chapter hath solemnly assured us, that he did electively give, and 
designed himself this name unto these graceful ends and purposes), his 
ground I say is this (as in his note on the 13th verse of the 3d chapter he 
declares), that Moses understood that God by names might, or was wont 
to manifest his works. So the Hebrews teach upon this place (says he), 
that when God judgeth his creatures, he is called Elohim (God), Sabaoth 
(Lord of Hosts) ; when he doth mercy unto the world he is called Jehovah, 
as in Exod. xxxiv. 6, ' Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful and gracious.' 

You see the sense which the Jews themselves do put upon it, and how 
that they refer us to this very text, ' Jehovah, merciful, gracious,' &c. And 
surely if God himself did so expressly assume this name as a sign and seal 
of his gracious covenant, and the mercies thereof, &c, then that in this new 
proclamation of grace and gospel-mercies he should to a greater emphasis 
double it, ' Jehovah, Jehovah, gracious,' &c, surely it was electively and 
designedly done, to shew that this name (of all other) should bear the flag 
and colours of mercy. 

And let us farther join to all these this one remark, that in that deliverance 
specified in those chapters, Exod. iii. and vi., their redemption out of Egypt 
(which w T as the occasion of God's first revelation and application of that 
name to the mercy of that deliverance, put afterwards into the command- 
ments), God had therein an higher aim unto that mercy promised their 
fathers to be performed by Christ, of whom as Moses was the type, so this 
deliverance was of that redemption performed by Christ, Luke i. 72. And 
I am Jehovah, is the gage to the performance of both, the latter as well 
as the former. We may see reason, then, why that when God cometh to 
proclaim his gospel-mercies more illustriously (as here he doth, if any- 
where in the Old Testament, yea, in the whole Scripture), he should make 
his proclamation of them under his great and chiefest name Jehovah, as 
the great standard-bearer of those transcendent mercies. 

2. And what if in the New Testament you find (conform to what is here) 
this his name Jehovah expressly assigned as the fountain of the whole of 
his grace, as the spring likewise of peace, which is the whole of spiritual, 
yea, all, blessings ? And yet thus we do expressly find it ; and in the last 
book of the New Testament, which puts the farther weight upon this notion. 
'Grace and peace' had been often wished in other Epistles of the New 
Testament from God, as • the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. ; but 
in Rev. i. 4, ' grace and peace' is prayed for ' from him who is, and which 
was, and which is to come.' This directly points us unto these very 
places in Exodus, 3d and 6th chapters, where the name Jehovah is used, 
and which we have explained as the most judicious interpreters do gene- 
rally observe, and our worthy translators have in their marginal citations 
referred us.* And as his name Jah is the brief of Jehovah, so he that 
is, he that was, and he that is to come, is, in words at length, the un- 
deciphering of the same name Jehovah, of which afterwards. Now, from 
God as such, that is, as Jehovah, is the whole of gospel grace at once 
wished and prayed for, this name being the ground and original of the 
gospel itself, and of all the mercies of it. 

Use. And ere we go any farther, let us here stand and wonder at the 

* And otherwise this is strange and uncouth language to Grecian ears to say > 
dffo Td\> o u/v, and so of the rest, and not arrb rov ovrog, &c. But the reason is 
this, his great name Jehovah stands as inflexible and indeclinable as his nature is 
immutable. It keeps its state, and will not be subject to the laws and rules of 
grammar, as in other languages. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 29 

thought that this name, of all other names, this ' great and terrihlo name, 
by which he chooscth to be exalted, Ps. lxviii. 4, that this great name, as 
Jer. xliv. 20, which is so terrible and so holy (as, Ps. xcix. 3, he meaneth 
this name there, for it is that name which was made known to Moses and 
Aaron, as it follows there, verse 6, whereby we are referred to those very 
passages in Exodus, 3d and Gth chapters), that name so terrible to tho 
Jews for these many hundreds of years, that they have not dared to pro- 
nounce it, and is called his 'dreadful name among the heathens,'* Mai. 
i. 14, that this should be made the basis, the subject, tho signal of so 
much grace; this must needs (in the very entrance) afford us strong 
consolation, in that out of the strong should come forth sweetness, Judges 
xiv. 14. And the reason hereof doth hold forth this, that God accounts 
mercy to be his greatest attribute (at least in the name Jah), as Jehovah 
his greatest name, which he hath chosen to be the special subject of mercy 
and grace as the predicate. 

The inquiry next will be, what special particular affinities there are 
between this great name Jehovah and the mercies of God, or rather (as 
being more close to our purpose) what special supports of faith (the aim 
of my subject) may be fetched from the blessed and intimate conjunction 
of these two, Jehovah and merciful, put together ? I answer, much every 
way. I shall instance but in some few, leaving it to others to enlarge unto 
more on this argument. 

1. This great name wholly and abstractly speaks being itself: ' I am 
Jehovah;' that is, I have fulness of being, I am an immense sea of being, 
and am all, and in whole, very being itself. That then God should put 
Jehovah, and merciful, and gracious together, what is the result hereof? 
and what would God have us to understand thereby, but that his mercies 
have being itself for their root and foundation, not only that mercies are 
with him, but that they have a very being itself to rely upon, whilst we 
rely upon them ? So as look what Wisdom, or Christ (who is Jehovah), 
in the Proverbs says of himself — Prov. viii. 21, 'I cause those that love 
me to inherit substance,' — the same (God thus inviting us to believe on 
Jehovah, merciful) may we as confidently say, that we believe upon what 
is substance, upon substantial mercies. And hence it is that even our 
faith, when pitched on God, is alone dignified (and no other kind of know- 
ledge is so) with the title of bnoGTaeig, subsistence or reality, Heb. xi. 1, and 
said, to be our rest. For why, God himself is the ultimate object of it, 
1 Peter i. 22, and basis of its reliance ; as also his Son Christ, they being 
subsistence and reality. And to this purpose you find these his names, 
Jah, Jehovah (which is indeed Jehovah doubled or repeated twice as here), 
to be put under the feet of our faith as a firm rock of being to stand upon : 
Isa. xxvi. 4, ' Trust in the Lord for ever: for in Jah Jehovah is the rock 
of ages.' So in the original; and the translators have here signally, on 
set purpose, put Jehovah in capital letters. They might have done so by 
Jah also, which they translate 'the Lord;' for it is not singly Jehovah, 
but accompanied with Jah, which is being, and being itself. And he 
fetcheth this out of these two names, that he is therefore a rock, and a 
' rock of ages,' whom we may therefore perfectly trust on ; for in the rela- 
tion he speaks this in the verse before, ' Thou wilt keep him in perfect 

* That the heathens knew him to he the God of the Jews under this name Jah, 
or law, as the Grecians wrote it, and that they called their chief god Jove, is well 
known. See Aug. de Consens. Rcligionis, c. 22 ; Diodor. Siculus, lib. ii. c. 5 ; 
Macrobius, lib. i. ; Saturni, c. 18 ; and Grotius his Animadvert, de Verit. Relig. 



30 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

peace, whose mind is stayed on thee;' unto which perfectly answers that 
of the apostle, 1 Peter i. 13, 'Trust perfectly on the grace revealed' (so 
in the margin also). And why? Because in trusting on that grace you 
have being itself for the foundation, Jehovah, gracious, who is the first 
being, and therefore the lowest foundation, on which all that is built stands 
firm. 

2. Jehovah imports that God only is, or alone hath true being in him. 
For why else doth he appropriate this name Jehovah to himself alone as 
incommunicable unto creatures, since all his creatures are but ccquivoce 
entia, shadows or pictures of being, not true being itself; as a man's pic- 
ture is called a man equivocally, and not in a true sense. And as their 
being is but a shadow of being, such are all the mercies in them but 
equivocally mercies, in comparison unto the mercies that are in God, who 
is Jehovah, merciful, in whom his mercies have being, or rather are him- 
self. So that it must be said that God alone is ' merciful and gracious,' 
as truly as Christ says that God alone is good, for mercy is but a branch 
of goodness. That Jehovah is merciful as God, not as creatures, I shall 
have occasion afterwards to pursue this more fully. 

If therefore we at any time think we may have any degree of confidence 
upon the mercies and pities that are in creatures, even such as are in nearest 
and dearest relation to us, as fathers, &c, of whom Christ says, ' Though 
evil, they yet know how to give good things to their children,' and so like- 
wise to pity them, then how much more may we be encouraged to rely on 
God, who is an heavenly Father to us, the only true and loving Father, as 
he only is the true and living God, and is withal styled ' the Father of 
mercies,' 2 Cor. i. 3. And his mercies are true and living mercies, as 
himself is. That passage in Ps. lxxxvi. 10, ' Thou art God alone,' will be 
found eminently to be spoken as a magnifying of him, in relation to his 
mercy (if the 5th and 15th verses be compared with it); and indeed it is 
the main current of that whole psalm, of which hereafter; so as we may 
say he is merciful alone. And if sins come to be pardoned, there God's 
mercies solely and alone can stand us in any stead, not only because that 
God alone can pardon sins committed against himself, the great sovereign 
Being, nor can any creature have any influence thereinto — ' none can 
forgive sins but God,' Luke v. 21 — but besides, for this, that he alone 
hath mercy great enough in him to do it. The creatures have not mercy 
sufficient enough in them, great sins they could not find in their hearts 
to pardon; so great an iniquity, if to themselves, as sin is against God, 
they cannot forgive : ' Who is a God like unto our God, pardoning 
iniquity?' &c. 

The inference and direction to our faith from hence is, as to trust per- 
fectly on him (as before), so only and alone upon him: 'My soul, wait 
thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my 
rock,' Ps. lxii. 5, 6; all one as to say, he only hath firmness of being, 
whom my soul can build upon ; and therefore he is my salvation. If any 
creature had all the goodness and clemency, mercy and grace, that is dif- 
fused throughout the whole of intelligent natures, angels and men, it were 
not to be relied upon, but being laid in the balance with God, he were 
' altogether lighter than vanity,' as it follows there, ver. 9. And the 
reason is correspondent, if in their being they are vanity — Isa. xl. 17, 
' All nations before him are as nothing ; and they are counted to him less 
than nothing, and vanity,' — then in their goodness much more. And as 
God only is being, so only to be relied on as merciful. Yea, if your own 



ClIAl>. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 31 

graces, that arc in your own hearts, though wrought hy God's Spirit, even 
that mercy and kindness which you have for yourselves, whom you love so 
much, yet are no way to he trusted in, but are as to such a purpose lighter 
than vanity, and would fail but for his mercy, the maintainor of them, then 
much more all that is in all creatures else whatever. 

I shall after have occasion to shew, that the ground for all this exhorta- 
tion, thus only to trust in God, is, in the latter end of this very psalm, 
centred upon, and referred to the words of this proclamation, my text, in 
verses 11, 12. 

3. Jehovah imports that his being is of himself, ivrouv, &woq>V7)g, and 
such is Jehovah as merciful, or his saving mercies; and indeed all his 
mercies whatsoever, they flow and proceed wholly from himself, having no 
motive but from what is in himself, either as to the persons to whom, or 
as to the things and mercies bestowed. For although to be merciful is his 
nature, yet the dispensation or giving forth of mercy is from his will; and 
that which his will is guided by is the good pleasure of his will, Eph. i. 5, 
and according as he is pleased to ' purpose within himself, verse 9, you 
may observe is this, ' I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful.' This 
is the royal preface and effort unto this proclamation of his nature,* in 
which he speaks but himself to be Jehovah, merciful, or the possessor of 
all being. And that looking as Jehovah, he is Lord of being itself, so the 
Lord of all his mercies themselves ; and that as his being is of himself, so 
that his shewing mercy is from himself. And all reason is there for.it; 
for his mercies, whence these acts of mercy flow, are himself; and also 
where and to whom his saving mercies go, himself goes with them. He 
bestows his whole self on whomsoever he bestoweth them. This you 
expressly find, Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even /, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins;' i.e., I 
that am what / am, Jehovah, am he that doth it, and I do it of myself. 
He resolves it wholly into himself, and as moved by nothing but himself, 
so as he assumes this thing to himself, and takes it wholly on himself. 
The prophet Ezekiel, chap, xxxvi. ver. 22, thus expresseth it, ' I do not this 
for your sakes, but for my own holy name's sake.' And again, lest they 
should not take in the weight of this sufficiently at once saying, he repeats 
it, and withal leaves a smart and round memento behind him for them to 
think on, why they should consider it: ver. 32, not for your sakes do I 
this, ' be it known to you.' And this there spoken of was the cleansing 
them from their sins, ver. 25 ; and giving them a new heart and saving 
repentance, ver. 26, 31 ; mercies to salvation all of them. And that 
clause at the close of all, its being known to them, rounds them in with a 
witness. And by a good token of the clean contrary in yourselves do you 
remember (says he): ver. 31, 'Then shall ye remember your own evil 
ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in 
your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations.' Thus 
mercy comes over them with a triumph, as sinners confounded even with 
their being pardoned ; as elsewhere it is said, that ' mercy rejoiceth against 
judgment.' 

4. Jehovah imports him in general to be the fountain of all being to all 
things else that have being, and him to be the original Being, other things 
but derivative ; so the best and noblest, highest sort or rank of beings, do 
derive their original, and hold their dependence entirely upon Jehovah, as 
he is gracious and merciful. And therefore Jehovah, merciful are well 

* Compare Exod. xxxiii. and xxxiv. 



32 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

joined together, seeing it is grace and mercy that gives being to the most 
transcendent works of God. 

Those of our redemption, the first sort of beings, that hold their copies 
of him, are the works of his first creation, of which himself thus speaks, 
Isa. lxvi. 1,2,' All these things have my hands made,' pointing to heaven 
and earth, this visible world, and all therein. And all ' those things have 
been ' (says he) ; that is, by this same hand of mine all these things exist 
and have a being, as you also have it Acts xvii. 25, 28; or all these things 
' continue in being,' as elsewhere the word is used. And this is dictum 
Jehovce, the saying of Jehovah ; and it is as if he had said, You all that 
have being and existence hold of me in capite, as I am Jehovah. But 
there is another, an higher rank of beings, that holds of him as he is 
Jehovah, gracious and merciful. And such a superior kind of beings God 
himself there intimates in saj'ing, with difference from those other makes 
or beings, ' To him will I look' (or ' but to those will I look') ' that is of 
poor and contrite spirit, and trembles at my word;' that is, who hath a 
gracious heart, of which, and all that belong to it, Jehovah as merciful is 
the founder. And the dilating on this being full and pertinent to the 
notion in hand, and tending so much to the glory of our Jehovah, and the 
mercy of him, I shall enlarge upon this division of tbese two ranks, as 
taking up and dividing between them the whole breadth of beings, as both 
the Scriptures and the schoolmen abundantly shew. 

1st, The schoolmen reduced all things derivative from God as the 
fountain unto two orders. The first is ordo natures, the order of things in 
nature, which are those by the first creation, which are continued in exist- 
enceby common providence, whereof God in the prophet there first speaks. 
Secondly, ordo gratia 1 ,, the order of things in grace, which are wholly super- 
natural, which also the prophet there insinuates, with distinction of one 
from the other. 

2dly, The Scripture also itself speaks the difference of their productions, 
as when it speaks of some things ' not made with hands, and not of this 
building,' Heb. ix. 11; that is, not of this ordinary make, by the first 
creation or common providence, of which God also so slightly and under- 
valuingly had spoken in that of Isaiah, ' These things my hands have made ; 
but,' &c. 

(1.) For the proof of this I will instance in the highest of that rank, in 
the order of grace, and things supernatural, the head of them all, viz., 
Christ's human nature, in its advancement by personal union with the Son 
of God; ay, and Christ's body too, as having been conceived by the Holy 
Ghost, Heb. ix. 11, where it is said that hereby he became an high priest 
1 by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to 
say, not of this building.' Also as to the work of grace wrought by a new 
creation in the heart of a sinner (which is the image of Christ with differ- 
ence from that of Adam), as it is said to be ' a new creature,' so the way 
of producing it is said to be a new creation ' made without hands,' Col. 
ii. 11. And this new creature, with the whole system of things belonging 
to it, is called another new world, or beings of another kind. And, 

(2.) All those things appertaining to this order of grace have the name 
and nature of being as truly as those other: 'of him' (that is, of God) 
'you are in Christ Jesus,' 1 Cor. i. 30; i.e., you have another being 
founded in Christ de novo, anew. You have your existence in him; God 
declares himself there the founder of a new creation, and Christ to be the 
head of it. And these things that are by this new creation, he s ets in 



Chap. VI. 1 of justifying faith. 83 

opposition to all else of the old creation, and that are the highest perfec- 
tions of them, in saying he brings to nought things that are by things that 
are not, which he nameth anew to be of him. 

(3.) And these things of the new creation are an higher and more tran- 
scendent kind of beings (not only a differing being), and are so in God's 
esteem ; for in that place of Isaiah he speaks of the greatest things of the 
first creation, pointing to them undervaluingly, ' All these things have my 
hand made;' but 'unto him will I look,' and have respect, and my eye is 
upon, that is of my new creation. And of Christ's human nature (in that 
Heb. ix. 11), though it be made of the same stuff we are all made of, yet 
because it was brought forth by this new way of creation, he terms it ' a 
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands.' 

(4.) All things of the new creation hold their existence of Jehovah upon 
this title of Jehovah, gracious. ' Of him ye are in Christ Jesus,' says the 
apostle ; but of him as Jehovah, gracious and merciful, says the prophet ; 
for the apostle refers us for the proof of this unto Jer. ix. 23, 24, ' Thus 
saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,' &c. : ' but let 
him that glories glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that 
I am Jehovah which exercise loving-kindness, and judgment, and right- 
eousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Jehovah.' To 
this place the apostle refers us, as appears by his next verse: ver. 31, 
' That according as it is written,' says he, ' He that glories, let him glory 
in the Lord.' He hath Jehovah and Jehovah over and again, and him as 
exercising loving-kindness, and so as merciful (in which he delights), as 
the foundation of this new being in Christ : ' Of him ye are in Christ 
Jesus,' whereof this he brings as the proof. 

And this is the account given why he assumes the name Jehovah, as if 
he had never been known by that name before ; though we find it in Moses 
from the very 2nd of Genesis, and so on, often used, yet our most judicious 
commentators say that it was to signify he came to give being to his pro- 
mises. He had made promises before, made a covenant, promised that 
good land, which he had done under other names ; but now, says he, I 
come to shew myself Jehovah, in giving being to those promises and that 
covenant, to give existence to them. Which is all founded on this, that 
his name Jehovah is not only to shew that he hath being in himself, but 
to give being to all things else, but especially to his covenant of mercy and 
grace, whereof those things were the types. 

In the New Testament, this is the founder of this new rank of beings in 
grace, as ' Jehovah merciful ' is set out by that blessed title, more suitable 
to the expression of the New Testament, of his being ' the Father of mer- 
cies;' that is, the conditor or author novi ordinis: 2 Cor. i. 3, ' Blessed be 
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the 
God of all comforts.' His being Father of all gospel mercies is set next to 
his being the Father of Christ, because of him we are in Christ Jesus 
what we are in grace. This his title of 'Father of mercies' bears two 
senses : 

1. That he is a merciful Father, it being an Hebraism, say some, as 
when he is called the ' Father of glory,' &c. ; that is, a glorious Father. 
And in that he says of mercies in the plural, this intends or augments the 
emphasis of it. It is as if he had said, he is summe misericors, he is a most 
merciful Father in the highest degree. Thus Beza, Grotius, and others. 

2. He becomes the author and original of all gospel mercies that are 
founded in Christ, having taken on him first the relation of a father to us 

vol. vin. c 



34 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

in Christ, mercies being here taken for the effects of mercy, as often in 
Scripture the word mercies is used for merciful effects or benefits. And 
the -word bixrigpuv, in Latin miserationes, doth properly signify the gracious 
effects flowing from mercy in God, which are called his mercies, and so do 
differ from tXtog, which signify the mercy that is seated in the heart of 
God himself." And mercies being thus understood, when it is said he is 
the Father of mercies, it implies he is a Father that gives being to those 
mercies, as a father doth to his child. And they are the mercies of the 
gospel, and all the mercies of the gospel in Christ, which here he especially 
and apart intends ; for he speaks of such mercies, which he bestows as he 
is the Father of Christ, as well as he is the Father of mercies, as the words 
following imply, ' the God of all comfort,' and therefore likewise the Father 
of all mercies. 

Now of these mercies or benefits of this new rank of beings which God, 
as Jehovah merciful, is the Father of, there are two sorts : 

1st, Such as impress something on us, work some real new being in us, 
which we call a physical change. 

2dly, There are privileges granted us, which work a mighty change in 
us in our state and condition before the Lord. The first are such as when 
he makes us holy, and the like, and such were most of the benefits of the 
first creation, when we were framed and formed first out of nothing. But 
the greatest benefits in grace do impress nothing upon us, make no physical 
change (though such a change is the consequent of them), and yet are 
things of the greatest make, and have the greatest reality in them, and the 
title of creation given to them. The first sort are like unto that, that he 
will at the resurrection ' change our vile bodies into the likeness of his 
glorious body,' in Phil. iii. 21, which is done ' according to the working 
whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself.' But the latter 
are efyvaiai, they are privileges ; as in John i. it is said, he gave us 
e^ovsiav, power, or right, or privilege (as it is in the margin) to become the 
sons of God. And answerably (to explicate this), there is a twofold power 
in God. First, That which we call potentia, whereby he is the author of 
all those works which flow from mere power and force, whereby he made 
the world. But, secondly, there is potestas, dominion or sovereignty; and 
the acts of this kind of power, or sovereignty, by which he makes things 
that are not, to be, of the two are the greater, far greater than the other. 
The greatest works in the order of grace are of sovereignty's make; you 
may see it by that in kings, who have no more physical power than other 
men ; by their own hands they can work no more than another man, yet 
they can do strange acts of another kind, which flow from their sove- 
reignty: they can make knights, create noblemen, set up favourites, which 
are called their creatures; which actings of theirs are not by any internal 
workings on the person, but by external works as to the person, that 
resides in their own breast, and then expressed and put forth : and yet 
they are as real effects in their kind as any other. 

You may see these two different works in that, 1 Cor. i. 30, where Christ 
is said to be made righteousness to us, and sanctification to us. Righteous- 
ness of justification is a work of God upon us, but sanctification is a work- 
ing holiness in us; and yet each of these have the title of being given 
to them, • Of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who is made both these to you.' 
I shall only enlarge upon the latter of these two, namely, that these out- 

* Vid. Drusium in 2 Cor. i 3- 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 35 

ward privileges have yet the most real heing in them ; which will also ap- 
pear hy tho consequents that follow. 

Thus, in Scripture phrase, God's advancing to an office or dignity is 
said to be a making or constituting: thus Ex. vii. 1, ' The Lord said to 
Moses, See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother 
shall be thy prophet.' And 1 Sam. xii. G, ' The Lord advanced' (that is, 
made) • Moses and Aaron,' and set them up in those offices, furnish- 
ing them with gifts suitable. Thus, Mark iii. 14, it is said, ' Christ or- 
dained twelve,' apostles namely; the word is 'made' them. Ho prefers 
them to that office out of grace ; for in Rom. i. 5 it is called ' grace and 
apostleship.' These were acts of grace, making of them, or constituting 
of them in an outward office, the consequence whereof was enabling them 
with such and such gifts ; but the office was but an external privilege with 
authority. Now, there are many of the greatest blessings or benefits we 
receive in Christ that are an external preferring us unto a dignity, an high 
privilege, in which the benefit mainly consists, but hath for its concomi- 
tant and its consequence the most real effects of any other. And the 
privilege itself hath a transcendent being in itself, and they are bestowed 
upon us by way of a creation, or God's making or calling us so to be, 
according to what is said, Rom. iv. 17, ' God calls those things that are 
not as though they were,' and gives them being. From this general I give 
particular instances. 

First, That we should be the people of God. His calling us to be so 
is his making us so by way of privilege, from the contrary state wherein we 
were, of not being his people till he is pleased to call us so ; and this is 
answerable unto a new creation of mercy : 1 Pet. ii. 10, ' Who in times 
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not 
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.' This was done by calling, 
ver. 9. Here is a change wrought in our state and condition, analogous 
to that political change which a king makes in a man when he prefers him ; 
and this wholly the effect of mercy, ' who have obtained mercy;' and hereof 
the Scripture uses the same phrase of making us his people, as truly as it 
is used of the old creation : Ps. c. 3, ' Know ye that the Lord he is God ; 
it is he that made us, and not we ourselves, his people ;' that is, made us 
his people. He speaks in distinction from the first make, and it is founded 
on this, that he gives us this new being as he is Jehovah, as he is God, 
and this is done by way of preferment or exaltation. That in Deut. xxxii. 
6, ' Is not God thy Father? hath he not made thee, and established thee?' 
in Acts xiii. 17 is thus expressed, ' The God of his people Israel chose our 
fathers, and exalted the people.' 

Secondly, He hath called us to be the sons of God : it is but a title and 
privilege in itself, as out of John i. 12 I shewed. He gave them s^ousiav 
to become the sons of God, as a privilege by patent; as also to be heirs 
and co-heirs with Christ, as in Rom. viii. 17. But this in the consequents 
of it appears to have the greatest being to follow upon it; it hath so in 
itself; but I say it doth appear, it will appear one day to have so : 1 John 
iii. 1, ' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now we are the sons of 
God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.' What will be the con- 
sequent of it ? ' But we know that when he shall appear, we shall he like 
him, for we shall see him as he is.' And it is but the Father's calling us 
to be his sons. What is that ? It is but giving us that relation upon his 
own saying, we shall be so. It is calling us what we were not to be now 



86 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

what we are ; and his saying we shall be his sons, it is but an act external 
upon us ; and yet this hath the greatest reality of being flowing from it, 
and contained in it. 

Thirdly, It is thus also in justification. It is but calling us from what 
we are not, yea, from the contrary, to be righteous in his righteousness, by 
the power and dominion of him that is Jehovah, the fountain of being, who 
says to an ungodly person, ' Thou art righteous,' and in saying it makes 
him such : Rom. v. 19, ' By the obedience of one many shall be made (or 
constituted) righteous.' This is a matter of the greatest reality, and hath 
the firmest being in it, and yet is but an act external upon us ; the 
soul in itself hath no being as to this righteousness, for God justifies it as 
ungodly ; it hath no such being, but God gives it, and gives it by an act that 
is external to us, answering to that forensical act of pronouncing a man 
innocent at the bar. 

The second sort of beings or blessings of grace are such as do impress 
something upon us, and their beings consist wholly in such an impression. 
As when God comes to a soul that is nothing but sin, and gives it a new 
heart, and a new spirit, and it becomes a workmanship created to good 
works, this he does by working this new creature in it, by internal chang- 
ing our corrupt hearts, as one day he will do our vile bodies. These, and 
all such effects, are but the fruits of Jehovah merciful. 

3dly, There is a third sort of this rank'of mercies which are imminent* in 
the heart of God, which are called his thoughts of peace and mercy, Isa. 
lv. 7, 8, which in Ps. xl. 5, Christ says, are infinite for multitude towards 
us, being continued, fixed in him from everlasting : Jer. xxix. 11, ' I know 
the thoughts that I think towards you.' And these I call imminent* in 
himself, according to that Eph. i. 9, 11, ' which he purposed in himself.' 

There are also a middle between his purposes in himself, and the execu- 
tion of them upon us, all which are called mercies. There are also 
promises which are his promises of mercy, a middle between both, and 
unto all these he gives a being as he is Jehovah merciful : ' All the pro- 
mises of God are yea and amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20. And that these in Christ 
are said to be amen, it imports they have a real being and existence ; for 
what is amen but ' so be it ; ' so that he sets to his promises answerably, 
' Let it be so' (which was the word at the first creation, and it was so), and 
so shall these promises one day be. 

But what do I, treating of these little makes of grace, mercy in and upon, 
and towards us, that shew Jehovah gracious and merciful, in giving a 
being to them all, while I am to give instances of a far greater make and 
being that flow from Jehovah gracious to be sure ? for it is the grace of 
union we now speak of. 

1. What say you to Jesus Christ, that new thing? Jer. xxxi. 22, 
Jehovah ' created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man ; ' 
that man of men, that strong man Jesus, conceived in the womb of that 
virgin in Nazareth, a city of the ten tribes, whom therefore he exhorts to return. 
Now take Jesus Christ as God-man and mediator, and all of him from top to 
toe, and all he was made of, it is all of God, out of grace, I will not say of 
mercy. That the Son of God should take that flesh was a new thing, which 
I need not insist on. 

2. As his person, so all his offices were all made things by Jehovah 
gracious : Acts ii. 36, ' That all the house of Israel may assuredly know, 
that he hath made that same Jesus Lord and Christ.' He made him a 

* Qu. ' immanent ' ? — Ed. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 87 

king : Ps. lxxxix. 27, ' I will make my first-born, higher than the kings of 
the earth.' He was made a surety and mediator : Heb. vii. 22, ' He was 
made a priest after,' &c. ' By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better 
testament ; ' ' made an high priest,' Heb. iii. 2, so the margin hath it ; 
all out of grace and prerogative. Thus in himself. 

3. To be sure, whatever he is made to us to be, that is of Jehovah 
merciful to us : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God 
is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' 

4. Then how was he made these to us ? 

He ' made him sin,' 2 Cor. v. 21, as strange a work for God to make 
his Son to be, as any of the former. ' He made him sin, that knew no 
sin.' Will you have it further? 'He made him a curse,' Gal. iii. 13. 
And these were real makings, for his soul felt the effects of them, though in 
themselves they were but external imputations. But he felt the effects of 
them as we do the benefits of his being made such. And thus as to his per- 
son and offices, and what he is made to us all, are new beings of Jehovah 
gracious to him, aud merciful to us. 

3dly, He is Jehovah merciful ; he is the Father of all the mercies that 
are in the heart of Christ himself, through whose heart all God's mercies 
run and flow to us. Jehovah merciful gave being to them, God com- 
manded him to love us, and put into his heart, as a man, that ' love- which 
passeth knowledge,' Eph. iii. 19. All those sure mercies of David, that is, 
of Christ (Acts xiii. 34, and Isa. lv. 3), that are either in his heart towards 
us, or are the benefits he purchased and bestows upon us, Jehovah merciful 
is the Father of them all ; that he is ' a merciful high priest,' Heb. ii. 17 ; 
that he does pity us according to the measure of our needs, Heb. v. 2 ; 
that he hath mercies in his soul wherewith to do it : all this is what God 
bestows upon his heart to make him such. As God gave him a body fitted, 
he gave him a heart fitted : Ps. lxxxix. 24, speaking of Christ under the 
type of David, says he, ' My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him,' 
and he speaks it as in relation unto his government and dispensation of 
things to us, even as of David in the type it is there spoken in relation to 
his government. My mercy shall be with him (says God) to execute all 
for me, and to dispense all the mercies out of mercifulness in himself, which 
I myself would dispense, God having given up all into his hand, God's 
mercies and faithfulness are with him in the execution. 

Lastly, It would be too poor a thing for me now to tell you that Jehovah 
merciful gives being to all the mercies in the hearts of fathers, mothers, 
friends, or whomever you know to be pitiful. Bead over all stories, and 
put all the mercies you can read of or hear of into one heart, if a father 
had all the mercies that a father ever had, how pitiful would he be. But 
who is the Father of these, and gives being to them ? It is Jehovah 
merciful ; and shall not he that made the eye see, and shall not he that 
put these mercies into all the hearts of all the creatures, yea, into the 
hearts of them that are evil (for such are parents, both fathers and mothers), 
be himself merciful ? And shall it be said, • How can a mother forget her 
child ? ' And shall not this, in a more infinite transcendent manner, be 
attributed to God ? I have told you he is the Father of Christ, and of all the 
mercies in Christ, and that is beyond all. Bemember that he is Jehovah 
merciful, that gives being to all in whom your souls do trust. 

5. The name Jehovah, by which God makes himself known in this pro- 
clamation of mercy, Exod. xxxiv. 6, imports him also to be the first and 
last in being, and so his giving being to all things from the first unto the 



38 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

last, and that they all -wholly and all along depend upon him for being ; 
which is in a great part the mind of that speech, Isa. xliv. 6, ' I am the 
first, and I am the last.' And in another place of the same prophet, chap, 
xli. 4, ' Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from 
the beginning ? I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he.' He 
speaks it in relation unto all created beings, from the first creation through- 
out all generations. Wherein observe how he is absolutely in both places 
said to be the first, but not with the last, which is only in the latter text, 
for time was when there was no creature with him from all eternity, and 
then he was first only and alone. But in this second text he is said to be 
with the last, and yet nevertheless he is said to be the last in that other. 
The reasons of which I take up thus, that for time to come God hath 
ordained some sort of creatures to exist to eternity, like as himself doth, 
and so in that respect he is said to be with the last, even of them ; but yet 
take in this with it, that nevertheless he is also the last, as truly as the 
first, chap. xliv. 6, as also Rev. i. 11. This is to be understood in respect 
(say I) of their total, and absolute, and continual dependency upon him ; 
and it is all one as if he had said, although they do continue to eternity, 
yet it is through me and from me, for I am the last however, because it is 
I uphold them in being so to do ; for I only have immortality of being, 
1 Tim: vi. 10, and they but by participation from me, and so in truth and 
de jure, of right, • I am the last.' 

Now what the prophet speaks, as in respect to those first beings of the 
creation, the apostle in his Revelation applies unto grace and salvation, the 
things of the second sort of beings. For in respect thereto it is the apostle 
utters the same saying, as by comparing Rev. i. 4th and 8th verses appears. 
In the 4th verse he wisheth ' grace and peace from him which is, and 
which was, and which is to come.' And from Jesus Christ, ver. 5, who, 
ver. 8, says of himself, ' I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, 
the Almighty.' And this his title, ' I am the beginning and the ending,' 
is spoken in relation unto grace and salvation ; for upon this title it is that 
grace is wished from him as well as from the Father ; and also they are 
the very benefits of salvation which he had there spoken of, ver. 5, 6. 
Thus then in grace he is the first and the last, as well as in the prophet he 
is said to be so in relation unto the beings of the first creation. 

And his being the first and the last notes forth not only the two extremes 
of grace and salvation, that is, of the first beginning and last ending or 
accomplishment of our salvation, as if he were the author only of these ; 
but this expression of his being the first and last encloseth and taketh in 
the whole line and series of benefits of grace and salvation whatsoever, 
continued all along between that first and last. Even as in respect of 
natural beings (as life and motion), his being the first and last takes in all, 
whatsoever of them, from first to last. 

Only I observe, that his being 'Alpha and Omega' in this respect is 
resolved into his being Jehovah, for both in ver. 4 and 8 it runs thus, 
' From him that was, and is, and is to come,' which is the deciphering of 
Jehovah; and thereby he is apparently made and is declared the fountain 
of all and every whit of grace, both past, present, and to come ; and not 
only at first, or at the last alone, but all along in the intervals of time 
between. 1. 'From him that was;' and so he is the eternal spring of 
that grace which was from everlasting, and is shewn at conversion. 
2. Which is;' that is, he at present continues to dispense all grace to us. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 89 

8. ' Who is to como;' so ho is the author of all grace, for everlasting, unto 
the last. 

And yet I will not restrain these his titles only unto matters of graco and 
salvation, for they comprehensively relate unto all other works which Christ 
doth for his church, or towards others, or that are prophesied of in this 
book, as by the repetition of them, chap. xxii. 13, at the end of this book, 
and as after all the works of his kingdom perfected, it^appears. f I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last;' yet 
still so as here at the beginning of the book, wherein grace and peace is 
wished, it must be allowed to have a special relation to grace and the works 
thereof. Thus God is the immediate forger of every link of that golden 
chain, whereof the first is rivetted in his own heart, and the last ends in 
him also. Thus it is in his loving us, and thus it is in his saving us ; he 
is the first and last in both. 

1. In loving us (which is the foundation of all grace to us, for love is 
the ground of all mercy, Eph. ii. 4, and so of all benefits of salvation) he 
is the first. So it is said expressly, 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him because 
he first loved us,' and not we him, ver. 10. And he is the last in loving 
also; ' whom he loved he loved to the end,' John xiii. 1 ; and we should 
not love him to the end, if he did not continue to love us to the end. Thus 
it is in the foundation of mercy. 

2. In the works of salvation he is the first and the last, Heb. xii. 2. 
He is the ' author of our faith,' and so the first, and ' the finisher,' and so 
the last. Thus he is at death too, when we ' receive the end of our faith, 
the salvation of our souls,' 1 Pet. i. 9. And after that, he is thus to us at 
the day of judgment: 2 Tim. i. 18, ' The Lord grant he may find mercy at 
that day.' It is then we have need of mercy, and he is the giver of it. 
And as at the first and last, so all along between, he is thus the fountain 
of all mercy and grace to us. ' It is by the grace of God I am that I am,' 
says the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 10 ; ' and it is not I, but the grace of God that 
is with me;' i. e., which is all along with me in every act and step. We 
are therefore continually to look for, and depend upon the mercy of our 
Lord Jesus Christ even all along unto eternal life, Jude 21. 

It is not as the Papists say, who acknowledge God to be the first in the 
benefits of salvation, as that at the first mercy doth all in justification (and 
they call it therefore the first justification), which they ascribe to God's 
grace wholly; but then they feign a second justification, as that which saves 
us, and makes us heirs of eternal life through the merits of works. Oh, 
but Jehovah merciful and gracious is the first and the last, and all and 
everything of grace depends upon him, and it is wholly grace and mercy 
from first to last. 

Yea, and he is Jehovah gracious with the last (as you heard the prophet 
Isaiah speak, chap. xli. 4), for eternal glory is as much from his grace as 
conversion itself at first. ' It is the gift of God,' Eom. vi. 23, and ' grace 
reigns' even in heaven to eternity, Rom. v. 21, as much as ever it did in 
this life, and more, and it is grace then that entertains us in heaven : Eph. 
ii. 5-7, ' Who hath quickened us and saved us' (so in this life, as he 
had said in the verses before), ' that he in ages to come might shew the 
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ 
Jesus.' This is to be done in heaven. We have grace here but by 
driblets, and but imperfect holiness, and a defective communion with God, 
&c. ; there it is he profusely spends and pours forth his riches reserved to 
that time, and then the vessels of mercy possess the whole of ' the riches 



40 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

of glory,' Rom. ix. 23, the well-head whereof is mercy, as there is ex- 
pressed. 

6. This name of God Jehovah imports also his being • from everlasting 
to everlasting;' and as his name El that follows, translated God, notes 
forth his power, so Jehovah and Ehije his eternity, as Calvin and others 
observe. But we have a sm*er word of prophecy that the import of it is 
eternity, from the before-cited apostle's own paraphrase upon it: Rev. i. 4 
(which many of our divines upon that place have observed), ' Him which 
is, which was, and which is to come,' which is the unciphering of the very 
name Jehovah, and the true reason why he saith not uko rov ovrog, but 
arrb tov 6 uv, was (as Calvin and Beza have observed), to point as with the 
finger unto this very name Jehovah, lam, Exod. 3d and 6th chapters. Yea, 
the form of the Hebrew word Jehovah, says Ainsworth, implies so much, 
Je being a sign of the time to come, and so Jehovah, he will be ; Ho, of 
the time present, Hovah, he that is, and Yah, of the time past; Havah, he 
was. And again elsewhere the same author observes,* that Jehovah cometh 
of Havah, he was, and by the first letter, J, it signifies he will be, and by 
Ho, it signifies he is ;f and this the Hebrew doctors, says he, acknowledge, 
in saying that the three times, past, present, and to come, are compre- 
hended in this proper name Jehovah, as it is known to all, say they. 
Thus Ainsworth on Gen. ii. 4 out of them. 

Now, as his being, so these his mercies are from everlasting; for both 
Jehovah and merciful are still correspondent: Ps. xxv. 6, ' Remember, 
Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindnesses, which have been ever 
of old.' They are mercies as to time past, which the word 'remember' 
insinuates ; and they are his special mercies to his elect, which with dif 
ference he styleth his 'tender mercies;' and they are his 'loving-kind- 
nesses,' which word imports his entirest love, as Ps. xviii. 2. The same 
word signifies to love heartily in the midst of the bowels. And these have 
been ' ever of old,' and that not only as of a time of an old date, and so 
the word is elsewhere used, but these have been for ever of old; it is that 
oldness of eternity. They are as old as Jehovah himself, the ' Ancient of 
days,' is. And why? Because they are the mercies of him that is 
Jehovah. And thus we find his everlasting love stated in difference from 
what is of old : Jer. xxxi. 3, the Lord hath ' appeared to me of old.' This 
the church says, that is, in ancient times, in former times; ah, but appears 
not now to me. In answer thereto says God, Dost thou speak of times of 
old? Yea, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love,' &c, and so of an 
elder date than that old time thou speakest of, in which I should have 
appeared to thee. And thus here our translators have emphatically trans- 
lated the words ' for ever of old.' 

But what, are they everlasting only from time past ? No ; but as Jeho- 
vah imports his being to everlasting also, so his mercies are : Ps. c. 5, ' The 
Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all gene- 
rations.' And the eternity in this place is that part of it for time to come, 
for it is from generation to generation. And as we find the everlastingness 
of them either way thus singly and apart set out in these Psalms mentioned, 
so we find them in Psalm ciii. 17 to be conjoined, ' The mercy of the Lord 

* Ainsworth on Ps. Ixxxiii. 18, which is, with a special observation, cited by Dr 
Jackson, of the divine essence and attributes. 

t Phrasis est quae oecurrit apud Judseos, qua Deura significare volunt, et aeterni- 
tatem TaecapsuG-iySjg exprimi.— Capellus in Apoc. chap. i. ver. 4. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faitii. 41 

is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.' So, then, 
Jehovah that was, that is, and that is to come, is merciful and gracious. 

And this speaks more than what is in the former assertion ; for by this 
he is not simply the first in grace, and so in mercy to us : that might have 
been, though he had begun to have loved but then when he first wrought 
on us, or as having purposed it from some very ancient date ; but this 
imports his having ever loved us since he was God, and had being, or shall 
have being, both his own nature inclining him, together with his purposes 
of mercy taken up by his own will towards us. For he would have his 
mercies unto his children to bear the resemblance of his very being Jehovah, 
and so answer to his name in being as eternal as himself : Isa. liv. 7, 8, 10, 
' For a small moment have I forsaken thee ; but with great mercies will I 
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but 
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy 
Redeemer. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but 
my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my 
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.' 

Use. The use of which is this, to trust on him at all times and seasons. 
You heard befoi*e, out of Ps. lxii., you should trust in Jehovah solely, and 
alone, so ver. 5 ; but ver. 8 you have that added, ' Trust in him at all 
times ;' for he that was, is, and is to come, is your Jehovah merciful. The 
worst times are those when you have sinned against him, yet come to him 
with faith at such time. You are not to imagine that indeed when we have 
walked holily, and only then, we may come with expectation of mercy and 
pardon from him : no, but trust in him ' at all times,' only come humbling 
yourselves, and turning unto him ; draw near to him and he will draw near 
to you. God is not as man, to be merciful by fits, when the good humour 
comes on him ; but consider, he is merciful as Jehovah, and therefore with 
a constancy, and continually, which in express words you have, Ps. lxxi. 3, 
' Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort : thou 
hast given commandment to save me ; for thou art my rock and my for- 
tress.' Ver. 14, ' But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more 
and more.' 

7. The name Jehovah also imports immutability, unchangeableness of 
being : Mai. hi. 6, ' I am Jehovah, I change not ;' so in the original. It 
is as if he should say, My name Jehovah speaks my being to be unchange- 
able. His name, / am, in short, imports, that he is always one and the 
same in being ; which Christ, as being God, assumes when he said, ' Before 
Abraham was, I am,' John viii. 58. And the apostle says also of him, 
Christ, ' the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8. And 
therein also you have interpreted what is spoken of Christ, Bev. i. 8, ' He 
that was, that is, and is to come' (the paraphrase of Jehovah), to be meant 
of unchangeableness ; semper idem, always one and the same. And as God 
is thus in his being unchangeable, so in his mercies ; the mercies of this 
David are ' sure mercies,' Isa. lv. 3 ; Acts. xiii. 34. These his special 
mercies to his chosen have the similitude of his being. It is Jehovah that 
is merciful ; and as Jehovah signifies firmitude of being, and is therefore 
compared to a rock, &c, so these his mercies are likened to things of longest 
duration, to those things which to us men are such in our account. Thus 
he compares them to the mountains, which cannot be removed ; yea, moun- 
tains of brass, Zech. vi. 1 : Isa. liv. 10, ' For the mountains shall depart, 
and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, 
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that 



42 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

hath mercy on thee.' Also, in Ps. Ixxxix., the perpetuity of mercy is one 
eminent piece of this psalm ; for with that he begins, ver. 2, ' For I have 
said, Mercy shall be built up for ever : thy faithfulness shalt thou establish 
in the very heaven.' And they are the sure mercies of our spiritual David 
(Christ), he means. Now, to set forth the perpetuity hereof, he first useth 
words that express firmitude, as ' established,' ' built up for ever,' ver. 2, 4. 
Then he uses such similitudes as are taken from things which are held 
most firm and inviolable amongst men, as ver. 4, fcedus incidi, I have cut 
or engraven my covenant (so in the Hebrew), alluding to what was then in 
use, when covenants were mutually to be made, such as they intended to 
be inviolate, and never to be broken ; to signify so much, they did engrave 
and cut them into the most durable lasting matter, as marble, or brass, or 
the like. You may see this to have been the way of writing in use, as 
what was to last for ever : as Job xix. 24, ' Oh that my words were graven 
with an iron pen and lead, in the rock for ever !' And what is that rock 
or marble here ? No other than the heart itself of our gracious and most 
merciful Jehovah, and his most unalterable and immoveable purposes, 
truth and faithfulness.* This is that foundation in the heavens, whereon 
mercy is built up for ever ; as ver. 2, which (as the apostle says) ' remains 
for ever ;' and so they become ' the sure mercies of David,' Isa. lv. 3. 
Again, solemn oaths amongst men serve to ratify and make things sworn 
to perpetual. This also is there specified as having been taken by God, 
' Once have I sworn by my holiness,' &c, and sworn by him that cannot 
lie, and sworn to that end, ' to shew the immutability of his counsel,' Heb. 
vi. 17. And not only is the immutability of his mercy illustrated by these 
things taken from what is firm on earth, but he ascends up to the heavens, 
and first into the very highest heavens : ver. 2, ' For I have said, Mercy 
shall be built up for ever : thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very 
heaven :' comparing them to an house built not on earth, or upon a foun- 
dation of earth, which thieves break through, and violence destroys, but in 
heaven, whither they cannot reach. And there is good reason for it, for 
these mercies have a ' sure foundation' laid in God's heart, ' The Lord 
knows who are his.' And then they are founded also on that ' corner- 
stone, elect and precious,' Christ ; and which having been begun to be laid 
in the heart once of every one that is regenerate (though but the other day 
converted), yet will never cease to be built up even to eternity. We are 
apt to think, How little of mercy have I yet shewn forth upon me ! Con- 
sider, God hath but begun with thee ; he laid in thy heart at conversion a 
small spark and seed of grace ; and therewith, as the foundation, the par- 
don of all thy sins, which, as to all that is to follow, is but as a foundation 
buried under ground. But mercy hath not done with thee ; for it is in 
infinite glorious works that follow, to be ' built up for ever,' continually to 
be added unto, both in grace and glory. For God's dispensations in heaven 
are but a continuation of mercy to eternity, and a laying forth riches of 
grace and kindness on this structure, Eph. ii. 7. The prophet adds in that 
verse, ' Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.' Some 
say, cum ccelis, with the heavens ; that is, it is a mercy as stable as heaven 
itself, meaning the visible ones. But I take it to be a supernatural super- 
creation phrase, to express a grace and mercy above all that is or was 
earthly in our first creation-condition, and above all comparisons to be 
made therewith, consisting altogether of blessings heavenly ; yea, super- 
celestial, as the word is in Eph. i. 4. And thus much the expression ' in 
* Marmor liic nihil aliud est quam iminotissima Dei fides, Veritas, &c. — Musculus. 



ClIAl'. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITII. 43 

the heavens' doth import : as in Luke x. 20, ' Rejoice that your names are 
written in heaven.' And Heb. xii. 23, ' The first-born whose names are 
written in heaven.' And in saying hero that these mercies are ' established 
in the heavens,' I understand them to be such super-celestial mercies 
spoken of. The heavens is the place they came from, and where they are 
established and fixed, and unto which they tend, rising up to their original, 
and where they are finished and completed. They are established in the 
heavens, in the highest heavens, where the angels and saints are,* ver. 2, 
5, 6, 7, compared. And therefore they are as sure and safe as treasure there 
laid up is, as Christ says. This house of mercy is as eternal and unde- 
molishable as that our house in those highest heavens is, 2 Cor. v. 1. 

And because we see not those highest heavens (but only by faith) he 
farther points us to the heavens we see : ver. 28, 29, ' My mercy will I 
keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. 
His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of 
heaven;' which in ver. 3G, 37, is more punctually amplified : 'His seed 
Bhall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me : it shall be 
established for ever, as the moon ; and as a faithful witness in heaven. 
Selah.' And he introduceth these not as examples only, to which his 
mercies for their unchangeableness may be likened, but he proposeth them 
as God's faithful witnesses thereof. f As the rauibow is set forth as a wit- 
ness that God will destroy the world with waters no more, thus the conti- 
nuation of the heavens, and of the sun and moon, are proposed as wit- 
nesses of the perpetuity and unchangeableness of these mercies ; and this 
not for duration only, but immoveableness and fixedness. For though the 
sun sets, and leaves darkness behind him for half the time of his course, 
yet this Father of lights is without so much as ' shadow of turning' in his 
mercies towards us, as the apostle's comparison is, James i. 17, and else- 
where. He hath pawned the covenant of day and night : Jer. xxxi. 35, 36, 
1 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordi- 
nances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth 
the sea when the waves thereof roar ; The Lord of hosts is his name : If 
those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of 
Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.' The like is 
in Jer. xxxiii. 20, < Thus saith the Lord, If you can break my covenant of the 
day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night 
in their season; then may also my covenant be broken,' &c. Yea, and that 
covenant of the waters of Noah (we spake of) to which the rainbow is appointed 
as a faithful witness, is also appealed unto, and called in by God as a wit- 
ness of this his mercy's covenant : Isa. liv. 9, 10, ' For this is as the waters 
of Noah unto me : for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no 
more go over the earth ; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with 
thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be 
removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the 
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.' 

Now this unchangeableness of mercy is put upon the account of his 
being Jehovah, as was observed out of Mai. iii. 6, ' I Jehovah change not ; 
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.' Unto which bring that of 
Lam. iii. 22, and then you have what it is in Jehovah which is the cause 
that we are not consumed : ' It is the Lord's mercy we are not consumed,' 

* Coeli non visibiles, sed qui mundi architecturam superaut. — Calvin. 
t Non solum proponit ea ut exeinpla, sed ut testes : Quarum rerum? Earum scili- 
cet quas Davidi promisit. 



44 OF XHE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

which is all one as to say, It is of the Lord's mercy, as the cause why we 
are not consumed. So then the evident inference or conclusion from hoth is, 
you are not consumed, because my mercies, who am Jehovah, change not, 
which the words that follow do more expressly shew to be the cause or 
reason of this, ' because his compassions fail not ; ' which still carries this 
before them, that we are not consumed, because his mercies consume not, 
because God, that is, Jehovah, consumes not, fails not, changeth not. 
Job xiv. 11, ' The waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and 
drieth up,' but these his special mercies fail not, nor are ever drawn dry, 
because Jehovah, or inexhaustible being, is the inexhaustible fountain of 
those mercies. 

I have given the reason why the name Jehovah merciful is used ; but 
farther, the duplication of it here is to be considered : Exod. xxxiv. 6, 
' Jehovah, Jehovah.' The reason hereof, which interpreters ordinarily 
give, riseth but to this, that it was to stir up Moses his and our attention 
the more unto the matter that follows. I should rather and further say, 

1. It is to shew an infinite vehemency and heartiness of affection to have 
been in the heart of God when he uttered this, and it manifests how much 
his soul was in what his voice proclaimed. Such duplications have (as it 
were) a double strength in them, to heighten and enforce those things 
they are prefixed unto, according to the nature of the matter unto which 
they are prefixed. Thus if the matter be an affirmation, the reiteration 
affixed intends and makes it an asseveration far the stronger. Thus when 
the two tribes and a half made an appeal to God in the case of their altar, 
to the intent to express the truth and sincerity of their souls therein, in the 
highest manner, say they, ' The God of gods, Jehovah, the God of gods, 
Jehovah, he knoweth,' &c, Josh. xxii. 22. In this appeal to God as a 
witness (for such it is), they rehearse no less than three names of God (say 
some), El, Elohim, Jehovah ; or, as others interpret it, ' God of gods, 
Jehovah.' But whatever meaning we take, it is certain that they are 
repeated twice over, which must needs have the greatest emphasis that 
could be given, and all was to give the greatest confirmation to the matter 
affirmed by them. Again, if it be set unto matter of prayer or praise, the 
repetition of ' Lord, Lord,' Ps. lxxii. 18, or of ' Jehovah' (as of the person 
invocated or praised) or the doubling the matter petitioned for, as ' be 
merciful, be merciful,' Ps. lvii. 1, likewise when the seal to either is put 
at the close of either, as of ' Amen and amen,' Ps. lxxii. 19, such doubled 
rehearsements do manifest a redoubled vehemency and intention in the 
invocators. Now according to this general rule, 

2. In this duplication of the name of Jehovah here must be allowed the 
like intended emphaticalness, according to the kind of the matter it is 
prefixed unto. Now that which it is prefixed unto is a description of God, 
or a lively character of him, even as when we would notify the character 
given of a man to be most proper, genuine, and expressive of what the man 
is, we use before or after it to make a double indigitation of his name, 
which carries this import or signification : ' This is the man, this is he.' 
To the same purpose is it that God's name is doubled here. And it is as 
if in words he had more plainly said, ' This is your God, this am I ; ' or if 
you would know what a God I am, look upon this description of me, upon 
this my portraiture drawn to life : ' Such a God am I, Jehovah, Jehovah 
merciful.' 

When the watchmen in the Canticles saw the spouse keep such ado, 
Cant. v. 9, 10, and to make so anxious an inquisition after her beloved : 



Chap. VII. J of justifying faith. 45 

* What is thy beloved,' said they, ' more than another beloved ? ' ' What' ? 
says she. She then describes him in all his beauties from head to foot ; 
and at the close, having said, ' he is altogether lovely,' she adds, ' This is 
my beloved, and this is my friend.' She doubles it there, and with the 
same efficacy doth God in his setting forth himself double this his name 
here : ' Jehovah, Jehovah,' &c, as if he should say, ' This, this am I.' 

Nay, yet further here in this proclamation in my text there is not a 
duplication only, but a triplication of the subject; that is, the name of 
God is not only twice repeated, but thrice, j-flrT miT Vn> translated • The 
Lord, Lord, God.' And what is or can be the mind or intent hereof other 
than this, that God, the whole that is in God, is merciful and gracious? &c. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The other name of God, ^, El, used in this ■proclamation of mercy, Exod. 
xxxiv. 6, 7. — This name imports that all the three persons are merciful, 
which is particularly proved concerning the Holy Ghost. — This name El 
also imports an attribute in God, his strength and power, and that it is in 
conjunction with mercy. — How much this hath an influence to make mercy 
effectually prevailing, and to conquer all difficulties which lie in the way of 
its acting. 

' I have considered the first name of God, Jehovah, implied in this pro- 
clamation of mercy, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, and have evinced that mercy is an 
essential property of his nature ; what remains next to be considered is 
what the other name of God, ^, El, here made use of, imports. 

There are two significations of this name of God. It is sometimes put 
for an essential name proper to God, as our translators have rendered it in 
this text, and it is sometimes put for a special attribnte of God, • strong, 
powerful,' noting greatness and dominion, and both here intended, for it 
signifies both ; and truly Junius always translates the word El wherever he 
finds it Deusfortis, the strong God, and so puts both together. 

Now if we translate it as our translators have done it, ' God, Jehovah, 
Jehovah,' El, God (he repeats the name of God three times), the import 
of that is, that the three persons are herein proclaimed to be merciful and 
gracious. There must be some great mystery in the thrice repeating it. 
If the thrice repeating an attribute, ' Holy, holy, holy,' if the thrice repeat- 
ing, ' The Lord, the Lord, the Lord,' Num. vi. 23-26, hath the mystery 
of all three persons, then the repetition of the name of God, fixed to mercy 
and gracious, hath the like. So Ainsworth and others have improved it. 
So that from this it is evident that all three persons incline to be merciful 
and gracious, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; 
and what is this other than what we have, 2 Cor. xiii. 14, * The grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the 
Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.' The Holy Ghost is therefore both 
gracious and loving, as well as the Father and Son, for it is he communicates 
the love and grace of both those persons. I find not (I confess) a scripture 
where the Holy Ghost is called merciful, but I find scripture where he is 
called good, which is the root of mercy: Ps. cxliii. 10, ' Thy Spirit is good.' 
Neh. ix. 20, ' Thou gavest them thy good Spirit.' I find also that love is 
ascribed to him, Eom. xv. 13. Now what is mercy ? It is but love and 
goodness extended to creatures in misery. I find also that grace and 



46 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I. 

mercy are the fountain of all blessings both spiritual and temporal, Eph. 
i. 2, 3. And I find grace, and mercy, and peace is wished as from God 
the Father, and God the Son, so from God the Holy Ghost, Rev. i. 3, 4. 
So then he is the fountain of grace. I will not open that controversy 
between papists and us about seven spirits ; it is but one Spirit, 1 Cor. 
xii. 4. But what I will insist on is, an answer to that question, Why the 
Holy Ghost should bear the name of ^, El, ' strong,' ' the strong God,' 
for it signifies both an attribute as well as a person ; Jehovah the Father 
is called, and Jehovah the Son is called, and the Holy Ghost is called so 
too ; but why is this name El here, ' the strong God,' given unto him 
rather than Jehovah ? 

The answer is, he hath the execution of all the mercy that God doth dis- 
pense to us; it is committed to him. The Father had the decreeing part 
of all mercy, the Son the purchasing part, and the Holy Ghost the opera- 
tive part, which requires power and strength ; and therefore you find so 
often the Holy Ghost to be expressed as ' the power of God,' as Christ's 
person in the Proverbs is called ' the Wisdom of God.' The Holy Ghost 
is called 'the power of God:' Luke i. 35, 'The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.' And in 
Luke xxiv. 49, he is called ' the promise of the Father.' Who is that 
promise ? Compare it with Acts i. 4, and you will find it is the Holy 
Ghost. What is the Holy Ghost called in that place of the Acts ? 
* Christ being assembled together with them, commanded them that they 
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.' 
Where was that promise ? The 5th verse tells us, ' You shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost.' How is the meaning of that expressed ? ' You 
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,' ver. 8. 
And in Scripture these things are often joined : ' The gospel came not in 
word only, but in the Holy Ghost, and power,' 1 Thes. i. 5. 

The Holy Ghost then is he that shews mercy, he is o s>.ioJv. There are 
five offices which the Holy Ghost exerciseth in the churches, mentioned in 
Rom. xii. 8, and the last is called 6 eXsuv, a shewer or executor of mercy, 
to supply all needs and necessities to the sick, &c. : ' Let him that is the 
shewer of mercy do it with cheerfulness ;' i.e., whose office is to be merciful. 
There are many particular mercies which the Holy Ghost hath the office to 
distribute, as he is the dispenser of mercy. For example, 

1. Begin with regeneration; that is mercy: 'According to his abundant 
mercy he hath begotten us,' 1 Peter i. 3. Who begets ? The Holy Ghost. 

2. Who brings home all the sure mercies of David, all that the Father 
hath decreed, or the Son purchased '? John xvi. 14, 15. He will not leave 
us as orphans unprovided for. Therefore, 

3. Is it not mercy to take care of orphans, children that are fatherless 
and motherless, that else would be destitute ? John xiv. 17, 18. The Holy 
Ghost says, ' I will not leave you orphans ;' the word is so in the original. 
Is it not mercy to tend the sick ? Alas ! how doth the Holy Ghost attend 
thy soul all the time of thy infirmities and sicknesses ; and to ease thee he 
bears them, Rom. viii. 26. 

4. Who is the advocate to plead for thee, and undertakes all thy suits 
for thee, and to obtain all good ? It is the Holy Ghost ? Who makes all 
thy prayers, Rom. viii. 26, draws all the petitions thou puttest up ? He 
indites them. Who does bear with the noisomeness that is in thee ? It 
is the Holy Ghost. And is it not that mercy, as it is in a nurse or mother, 
to bear the noisomeness of a poor child ? And though he be grieved, yet 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 47 

ho continues his love and care, so as no mother nor nnrse doth tho like. 
Is not this mercy ? Who mourns with thee in misery like a dove (as he is 
called), who keeps thee company, and brings thee cordials ? It is he who 
is the author of all comfort, Acts ix. 31. Who fills thee with all joy and 
peace in believing ? It is the Holy Ghost, Rom. xv. 13. To conclude, 
who strengthens thee in all temptations, and upholds thy feeble knees and 
weak hands ? It is tho Holy Ghost. And is not that mercy ? Eph. iii. 
16, ' That you might be strengthened with might, by his Spirit in the 
inner man.' I have done with this word 7N, El, as it signifies a person, 
and imports the mercy of the Holy Ghost. I come now to bit, El, as it 
is an attribute (and the most of translators so render it; Junius calls it 
Deus fords, ' the strong God'), and so the word signifies strength, strength- 
ening, strong in might. We call it vis in Latin, ' that power that subdues 
all things to itself,' Philip, iii. 21. And so God is 'mighty in strength,' 
Job ix. 4. Now I am to handle it as an attribute, I join greatness with 
it, for so they are joined, and both with mercy; as in Jer. xxxii. 17-19, 
where he joins 'great,' and 'mighty,' and 'mei-ciful' all together: magnus 
Me, jjotens Me, as Piscator renders it. I confess I wonder at it, to find it 
up and down when they make prayers in Scripture, as Jeremiah does 
here, that they should put 'merciful' and 'mighty,' 'terrible' and 'great,' 
all together; you shall find it so, Neh. i. 5, ' Lord God of heaven, the 
great and terrible God, that keepest covenant and mercy,' &c. Here 
they are joined together. And so when he made his solemn prayer, Neh. 
ix. 32, ' Our God,' says he, ' the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, 
who keepest covenant and mercy,' &c. ; which is plainly the same that 
Moses expresseth it in Exodus. You have it also in Dan. ix. 4, in his 
solemn prayer, ' Lord,' says he, ' the great and dreadful God, keeping 
the covenant and mercy,' &c. Thus mercy, and great, and terrible are 
joined all together, and all refer to this passage in Moses, as the margin of 
your Bible shews. Now, when he says ' the terrible God,' truly it imports 
two things : 

1st, His being glorious and illustrious, and that he is to be reverenced. 

2dly, It imports a dreadfulness : he is 'terrible in praises,' Exod. 
xv. 11. What doth that imply ? That he is magnified, illustrious, great, 
and glorious in praises, not only doing things that are dreadful, though so 
he is said to be terrible in doing to the sons of men, and yet he speaks not 
of judgment, Ps. lxvi. 5, but wonderful works of mercy. 

That which I am to give account of is, that power and mercy should be 
joined together, God the strong and God the merciful. Take in greatness 
(if you will) and take in terribleness. In Ps. lxii. 11, 12, says he, 'God 
hath spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto 
God. Also to thee, Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou renderest to every 
man according to his works.' I confess it is alleged, I heard it once, and 
twice, that is, God set it on upon me as a special ground of comfort. 
You have the phrase so used in Job xxxiii. 14, ' For God speaketh once, 
yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not.' I confess I was suspicious it might 
refer to this passage of Moses. I found, first, the English annotators say, 
that it was a plausible interpretation to refer it to what God had said upon 
mount Sinai, where there are two things (say they) said: first, that God 
was a jealous God ; secondly, shewing mercy, Exod. xx. 5, 6. I consulted 
Hammond, and he in his paraphrase refers us to what God had spoken in 
mount Sinai, but he speaks it indefinitely; but the others refer it to the 
second commandment. I stick at this, that jealousy is mentioned in the 



48 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

commandment, but power is not; but here he says, 'Power belongs to 
thee, Lord God, and mercy.' I thought therefore I might go further, 
and take a step further upon mount Sinai, where the law and this declara- 
tion was given, as it is expressed, Exod. xxxiv. The psalmist says, ' he 
heard it twice;' he heard it from God's mouth, 'that power belongs to 
God,' and he heard it that mercy belongs to God ; and he heard the same 
from Moses, Num. xiv. 15, 16, ' Let the power of my Lord be great, accord- 
ing as thou hast spoken, saying,' &c. In Psalm ciii. he expressly quotes 
God's saying to Moses, 'The Lord, gracious and merciful;' and in Psalm 
lxii. he says he heard it once and twice, again and again, both from God 
and Moses, that power belongs to him, and mercy belongs to him. 

I come now to that which is the main thing which I shall endeavour to 
make use of, which is this, why these two are joined together, power and 
mercy, by Moses, Num. xiv., by Daniel, Nehemiah, and Jeremiah. I will 
not give you the heathen account ; you know Tully says, Jupiter is called 
optimtts maximus ; he reduceth it to this very thing ; he is called optimus, 
the most good god, the most good, or thrice good god (says he), he is for 
his benefits ; propter vim vero et potentiam maximus; for his force and 
power he is called the great God ; he knew God to be good, but knew not 
God to be merciful. But let us follow Scripture. 

The inquisition is this, why he joins strength, and greatness, and dread- 
fulness with mercy. 1. Say I, to set mercy out the more, to exalt mercy 
the more. Certainly it is prefaced to that purpose, Neh. ix. 32, ' Our God, 
the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and 
mercy,' &c. It was well he could say first ' our God,' before he says ' the 
great and terrible God,' that so they might be sure that should import no 
hurt to them. But the preface is to set forth and aggrandise mercy the 
more, that a God so great, so dreadful, should yet be merciful. The lion 
in Christ commends the lamb that is in him, as Rev. v. 5, 6, that he that 
is so great, and strong, and terrible, should be a lamb. It is because ' the 
name of God is in him' that he is strong, and he is merciful too. Look, 
as the unworthiness and sinfulness of us, whom God loves and shews 
mercy to, commends his love, as you have it in Rom. v. 8, so the greatness 
and terribleness of the person that loves doth advance and magnify his 
goodness and mercy, that he that is so great and terrible, and hath such 
power, should yet be so merciful, Psalm lxxxix. It is a Psalm which pro- 
fesseth to sing and set forth the mercies of God, and the sure mercies of 
David; ' I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever,' and ' mercy shall 
be built up for ever,' ver. 5. ' The heavens shall praise thy wonder,' thy 
miracle. He calls mercy the greatest miracle that ever was. Wherein 
lieth it ? He tells us in these words, ' Who in the heavens can be com- 
pared to the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the 
saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him : Who 
is a strong Lord like unto thee ?' &c. So that mercy in the first verse 
meets in this God, that in the seventh and eighth verses is so great a God, 
so fearful to all that are round about him ; and they that are nearest him 
know him best; they say so of him, that this God should be a God of 
mercy. This begets a stupor, an amazement, that he that is able to rebuke 
all, and destroy all with a nod, should yet have so much love and mercy. 
This exalts and sets out his mercy, and makes it a wonder. 2. This great- 
ness and power in God conduce to make him — we must not use that word 
make but after the manner of men — to be merciful and gracious. The multi- 
plying grace issues from Jehovah as he is almighty. This is the difference 



ClIAP. VII.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 49 

between God and man. In man, weakness is the foundation of mercy very 
much; those that are weakest for age, as children, will cry bitterly if they 
see any one in misery ; those that are weakest in sex, as women, arc most 
pitiful ; those that are of softest tempers amongst men, are more merciful, 
which ariseth from weakness; but in God mercy flows from strength, and 
power, and greatness : ' The Lord God, strong, merciful.' You find in 
scripture God is merciful, not after the manner of men : 2 Sam. vii. 19, 
' Is this the manner of man, Lord God ?' Thus he spake when he con- 
sidered the greatness of the mercy bestowed, as when it is said, ' My 
thoughts are not your thoughts ; but as the heavens exceed the earth, so,' 
&c, Isa. lv. 8, 9. It is also true, God is merciful not after the manner of 
men for kind of mercies : ' I am God, and not man,' therefore you are not 
consumed, Hos. xi, 9; i.e., because I am merciful as God. His mercy 
then proceeds from his greatness and his strength. From his greatness, as 
is plain from 2 Sam. vii. 19, when he had said, ' Is this the manner of 
men, Lord God?' says he; ' according to thine own heart hast thou done 
all these great things : wherefore thou art great, Lord God : for there is 
none like unto thee, neither is there any God besides thee.' God did it 
out of his own heart, as having a great heart. The mercies he declares to 
David there, proceed from strength, as he is ' the Lord God, strong and 
merciful.' So it is also Num. xiv. 17, ' Let the power of my Lord be 
great, as thou hast spoken.' 

I would make it plain that God's mercy proceeds from strength; or that, 
because he is a strong God, able to do all things, because he is almighty, 
therefore he is merciful. 1st, It fits him to be merciful ; his strength doth 
so qualify him, as we may speak after the manner of men. He hath all 
that qualifies a person for the reality of mercy. He is free from all misery, 
hath no subjection to any kind of misery whatsoever; hath no subjection 
to potentiality, as the schoolmen speak in this point. Why? Because he 
is a strong God, he is a powerful God, and an almighty God, and that 
keeps him off from all misery, and exempts him from all the dints and im- 
pressions of misery. 

There is, I say, a blasphemous question that hath been traversed up and 
down by corrupt divines, Whether God hath mercy truly in him, and be of 
a merciful disposition ? And what reason do they give for it but this ? 
Say they, Mercy arises from sense of misery, that one lays to heart others' 
misery, as that which may be one's own, which we cannot suppose to be 
in God." 

Say I, to answer it, Here lies the question, What it is that is truly 
mercy, whether it be that one out of weakness is condoling you or pitying 
you, that is unable to help, whether that be truly mercy or no? Or 
whether a readiness of will and a propenseness of affection, joined with 
ability to succour effectually and irresistibly, whether this be not mercy 
rather? since the first proceeds from weakness, but this from strength. I 
say here lies the question, whether yea or no, one that out of weakness and 
passion condoles with you, and hath from that ground pity in him, that 
affection of pity, of suffering with you, and is sorry you are in misery, and 
troubled you are so, but yet is unable to help, whether this be mercy truly 
or no ? Or whether one that hath readiness of will, his soul is inclined to 
help, and he joins ability to help, which of these two is mercy? Say I, 
the last, and that is in God, and it is demonstrable thus : 

1. If he that is merciful be himself liable to misery, he is not in that 
sense merciful. Why ? Because he is so far weak and unable to help. 

VOL. VIII. D 



50 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

That same king in the famine could not shew mercy, because he could not 
help: 2 Kings vi. 26, 27, '0 lord my king, kelp,' says the poor woman. 
If anybody kelp, a king could ; but, says ke, ' if tke Lord kelps tkee not, I 
cannot.' I am a poor weak creature, in plain words. Skould I kelp tkee 
out of tke barn, to give tkee bread; or winepress, to give tkee drink? I 
can do neitker, saitk ke. "What was the reason he was thus unable to 
grant an aid ? He was weak and ready to die, as well as other men. 
That is mercy wkick in tke issue and event will prove itself so ; tkat is 
mercy indeed and truly. 

2. If ke be not able to help you efficaciously, he does but increase your 
misery, as you see in the case of this poor woman and the king. Poor 
woman, wkat ailed ske ? He told ker ke could not kelp ker. Tke woman 
was extremely disturbed tkat ske came to tke king, and tke king could not 
help ker. ' Wkat ailetk you ? ' says ke, 2 Kings vi. 28. Says ske, I 
come not to you for mercy, but for justice ; kere is a woman ate my ckild 
yesterday, and I skould kave ate ker son, but ske katk kid him. So ske 
came to tke king for justice. Directly ke could not kelp ker in tkat 
neitker ; ke could not order tke ckild to be killed, it kad been murder, 
but ke increased ker misery by all tkis. So tkat now, say I, tkat wkick 
fits for mercy is, tkat one is free from all misery, impotency, and weak- 
ness, and katk a fulness of ability to succour, and tkis is from strengtk. 
Now, 

2dly, To pardon sin (wkick is our case) is in itself an act of tke greatest 
Btrengtk in God, and therefore strengtk fits kim for being merciful. Tke 
Pkarisees said, ' No man is able to forgive sins but God,' Mark ii. 7. 
Says Ckrist, I will skew you I am able to forgive sins. Wky ? To tke 
man sick of tke palsy, says ke, ' Take up tky bed, and walk.' He did 
tkis to skew tkat ke wko kad power and strengtk to keal suck a disease, 
had power alike to be merciful; and had he not been tke almigkty God, ke 
could not kave said, ' Tky sins are forgiven tkee.' 

3dly, For a man to contain kis anger, it is from strengtk : Prov. xvi. 
32, ' He tkat is slow to anger is better tkan tke migkty : and ke tkat 
ruletk kis spirit tkan ke tkat taketk a city.' Tkus it is tke strengtk of a 
man to overcome kis passion : ' Let tke power of my Lord be great, 
according as tkou kast said, Tke Lord is long-suffering,' Num. xiv. 17—19, 
Tbere is a good saying in one of tke Collects in tke Common Prayer Book : 
' Lord, tkat skewest tky omnipotency ckiefly in skewing mercy,' in for- 
giving sins ; wkerein it is accounted an kigk act of omnipotency to forgive 
sins. 

But you will say, Tkougk kere is an ability to succcur, and out of 
Btrengtk to skew mercy, yet wkere is tke affection of mercy, and wkence 
arisetk tkat ? 

Ans. Tke seat of mercy is tke will, as appears by tkat speeck, ' I will 
be merciful to wkom I will be merciful,' Exod. xxxiii. 19. Now tke will 
of God katk affections in it; for tkere is katred of sin, wkick is an affec- 
tion tkat is natural; and love, an affection of tke will, tkat is natural. 
Tkougk tkcse affections in God are but various postures of kis will to 
various objects, wkat tken is mercy in kis will ? Not a mere act, but a 
propensity, an inward inclination, from out of kis goodness of will, to skew 
mercy to tkem tkat are in misery: Ps. lxxxvi. 5, ke is ready to forgive: 
' Tke Lord is good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy.' Tkese 
are not metapkors (as bowels and tke like, used of mercy); Ps. xxxiv. 18, 
but ' tke Lord is nigh unto them tkat are of a broken keart;' not in respect 



Chap. VII. ] op justifying faith. 61 

of omnipotence merely, so he is to all, but in readiness of disposition and 
inclination, he is ready and quick to be merciful so soon as he sees their 
hearts. If any say that God willeth mercy, and it is his will to shew 
mercy, let them but add and acknowledge that there is a propenseness in 
his will thereunto unto such merciful acts ; and then they must say too, 
that mercy (as to the affection of it) is a property in God. 

But doth his power and strength move and stir that affection in him, and 
render his will prepense unto mercy ? 

Am. Yes. And to prove that it moves, I take that of Moses for my 
ground, Num. xiv. 17—19 ; when pleading for forgiveness, he says, ' Let the 
power of my Lord be great. Pardon, I beseech thee, this people, as thou 
hast forgiven them hitherto.' He woos God with that very consideration, 
and presents it to him. Now it is a sure maxim, that what Moses was 
taught by God to move God with, that God himself is certainly moved 
withal. 

If you say unto me, But in what manner is he moved with it thereunto ? 

Am. Because he hath power lying by him to ' help in time of need,' and 
he can put it forth as easily and readily as we think a thought, or speak a 
word. 

There is a saying in 1 John iii. 17, ' If a man hath this world's goods, 
and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion 
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? ' Truly God hath love 
dwelling in him, yea, ' God is love,' 1 John iv. 16, and he hath power to 
help them whom he loves, and he sets himself to love his children. Why 
then, thinks he with himself, have I power to help them I love, and do I 
see them in misery, and shall my power lie by, and not shew itself? I 
may say that if he thus sees them whom he loves to abide in misery, and 
yet shut up bis affection of mercy towards them, how doth love dwell in 
God ? how is he love to sueh ? So that this is my conclusion. Mercy 
implies in itself a non -subjection to misery, and also an ability and fulness 
of strength to help ; and a will which, though it hath not passions in it, yet 
hath love and propenseness to goodness. There is a readiness to forgive, 
there is an affection which is the foundation of shewing mercy ; so that he 
only is truly merciful. It is a bastard-mercy that is in creatures, for that 
is true mercy that is able to help, with a propenseness to do so, which 
alone is in God, who is ' the Lord God strong, and the Lord God merciful.' 
It is then but a bastardly, spurious mercy that is in creatures, and only 
God is merciful upon this respect, that God only is God. ; 

Use 1. Is God's power and strength joined with mercy ? Is it that 
which fits him for mercy ? Oh bless him that you find so dreadful an attri- 
bute as power joined with mercy. Why, you find them divided elsewhere, 
when they are to be exercised on others than the elect : Kom. ix. 22, ' What 
if God, willing to shew his wrath, and make his power known, endured with 
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction ? ' There is 
power joined with wrath ; let us therefore adore this God, that hath in this 
proclamation of mercy, Exod. xxxiv., put the God strong and merciful 
together. 

Use 2. Do we find mercy and power joined together and paired elsewhere, 
as in Ps. lxii. 11,12? Then, as it is n that psalm, go, trust him in all times ; 
for upon these two grounds he b ds us, ver. 8, to ' trust in him at all 
times.' But there are some times in your lives that you are in such a case 
and condition that you have no kind of hope, or possibility of thought, that 
such a thing should come to pass ; but « trust in him at all times.' Why? 



52 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

Because power belongeth to him, and mercy ; these two put together will 
effect anything. What is too difficult for God the strong, and God merci- 
ful ? Now I draw this use out of Jer. xxxii. 17, 18 (which I cited before), 
' I prayed unto the Lord, saying, Ah, Lord God, behold thou hast made the 
heaven and the earth by thy great power, and stretched-out arm ; and there 
is nothing too hard for thee : thou shewest loving-kindness unto thousands, 
and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their chil- 
dren after them : the great, the mighty God, the Loixl of hosts is his name.' 
The case stood thus : The prophet Jeremiah was bid to buy a purchase of 
land, as you read in the fore-part of the chapter ; it was at a time when the 
city was destroyed by the sword, famine, and pestilence, as at ver. 24, and 
the city given into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they were by prophecy 
to be seventy years. The thing that was signified by this was, as God told 
him : ' Thus saith the Lord of hosts, houses and fields shall be possessed 
again in this land.' The poor man's spirit was extremely exercised about 
it, not for the loss of his money, but strangeness of the thing (as you will 
see it a strange thing, but he saw more), and it was the strangest thing 
could fall out, and the greatest mercy to the people of God that could fall 
out. Because the manner of conquerors was to remove all the people ; as 
when they conquered Judea they took all the people and removed them, and 
planted them in other countries, and brought people out of those countries 
and planted them in Judea. They did so with the ten tribes ; they took 
the ten tribes out of their own land, and carried them into Media, and 
planted in the room of them the natives of those countries where them- 
selves were planted. The land of Judea was a fruitful place ; and that 
there should be brought into that land strangers to possess it, and that 
there should be seventy years' time before they should return, this was the 
greatest wonder in the world they should return ; yet, notwithstanding, the 
Lord intended that the land should not be inhabited but by a company of 
poor Jews that were left. But the land was made desolate ; 2 Chron. 
xxxvi. 21, it is said, the land enjoyed its Sabbaths. There was a law, that 
the land, every seventh year, should not be digged, and accordingly God 
says, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21, 'Your land shall enjoy its Sabbaths, it shall 
be desolate.' But all this tended to make good that which was so strange 
a thing to be done. There was the Babylonian monarchy to be destroyed. 
Of them it is said, ' The children of Israel and the children of Judah 
were oppressed together, and all that took them captives held them 
fast, they refused to let them go : but their Redeemer is strong, the 
Lord of hosts is his name,' Jer. 1. 33. When tbey were destroyed, that 
they should possess every one their own land again, what a wonderful 
thing is this ! The Turk does not thus, yet they were as barbarous as the 
Turks, Neh. v. 12. Nay, the priests were free from taxations upon their 
land; Jeremiah's land stood free, Ezra vii. 24, 25. Was not that a strange 
word, that there should be buying and selling of land again ? It was not 
done for any nation else ; that in Ps. cxxvi. 2, the heathens among them- 
selves said, ' The Lord hath done great things for them.' Now Jeremiah 
received the revelation of this in ver. 15, that there should be houses, and 
fields, and vineyards possessed again in the land. He goes to God to 
strengthen his faith therein : ver. 17, ' Thou art the great and potent God, 
thou shewest loving-kindness unto thousands.' He urges these two attri- 
butes upon God — you may see what it is to urge two such attributes upon 
God, and have faith to do it. — When he had urged these (I shall shew you 
the issue of it), directly God makes this gracious promise upon this prayer 



Chap. VII. J of justifying faith. 53 

of his, to restore them to their own land, and restore him not only his 
money, but land too. Read what God did in answer, from the 3Gth verse, 
to the end of the chapter. This good prayer of his, urging in this difficult 
case these two great things : the power and mercy of God ; you see what 
it drew out from God, and what great things God did for his mercy's sake, 
and by his power, for these poor people. Therefore let us, in all straits 
and difficulties, make use of it, and remember to do likewise. God is the 
strong and merciful. ' Is anything too hard for me ? ' says God, in the 
same chapter. No ; mercy sets God on wcrk, and causes him to exert his 
power, which effects everything. 

/ r ae 3. Let us glorify him according to the greatness of this mercy and 
greatness joined together. Men, the more great they are, do degenerate 
into rigour, and severity, and cruelty. Your great kings have but the name 
of gracious, says Christ, by a reflection on them : Luke xxii. 25, ' The 
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise 
authority upon them are called benefactors.' I take his meaning to be this: 
You call them benefactors ; you are fain to call them so gracious, and so 
clement, and just and gracious, and you call them benefactors for all their 
greatness and exercise of lordship over you, though they rule you according 
to their lusts. But our God, that is, the strong God, is the merciful God ; 
and he that is the great King, whose name is terrible, Mai. i. 14, is also a 
good God, a merciful God, a gracious God. He is so merciful a God as 
all the angels adore him, and worship him, while they consider the miracles 
and wonders of his mercy. Let us therefore adore him, since the angels do 
it. Consider Ps. lxxxix., where the sure mercies of David are set out, and 
the angels celebrate the miracles of his mercy, those angels to whom he is 
so dreadful and fearful in their assemblies, ver. 6-8. Oh, how much more, 
if they magnify the conjunction of power and mercy in God, should we, 
whom God shews mercy to, who are the objects of mercy, and subjects of 
mercy, which the angels are not ! 

Use 4. Is mercy thus joined with power and greatness ? See, poor 
wretch, what need thou hast of his power and mercy every'day, need of 
his strength, need of all mercies to thy soul. As for sanctification, and 
holiness, and faith, and helping us to believe, they are from strength, and 
depend upon the strength of God : Ps. Ixxxvi. 15, 16, ' But thou, Lord 
God, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and 
plenteous in mercy and truth.' Thou, Lord, Adonoi, art a God ; El, 
the strong God, full of compassion ; the same words as Moses useth. 
Instead of Jehovah, Adonoi is used, Lord ; but then El, strong God, is 
the same word. The meaning is, let all the strength and power thou the 
strong God hast in thee be for my advantage. Now, is it not a bold 
request to say, Lord, wilt thou give me all thy strength to help me ? A 
very bold request indeed ; but his mercy moves him to grant it. Thus 
then petition him : Thou art a God merciful and gracious, give thy strength 
to me ! Thou, God, givest all thy attributes up to thy children, to serve 
their advantage, as well as to serve thy own glory ; give me thy strength ! 
Dost not thou need strength, poor wretch ? How oft is thy heart apt to 
sink, and thou canst not believe but so long as God helps thee to do it. 
How apt to swoon in thy despondencies and doubts*. Dost thou find 
strength come in to help thee to believe ? It is the strong God helps 
thee: Ps. exxxviii. 3, ' He strengthened me with strength in my soul,' says 
he, when my soul is sinking. Thou hast a heart weak to duty, feeble 
hands, weak knees ; who strengthens thee in the inner man ? He does it 



54 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

according to the riches of his glory, that is, of his mercy, which is emi- 
nently called his glory; he strengthens us in the inward man, Eph. hi. 16. 
Lastly, Is God strong and merciful ? Ps. xxxi. 24, ' Be of good courage, 
all you that hope in the Lord, and he shall strengthen your heart;' for he 
is your strong God, and he is your merciful God. Indeed, if we had faith 
and hearts to improve and put together these two things, what might we 
not ohtain from the hands of God ? Where there is power to enable, and 
mercy to make willing, what cannot be done ? Jeremiah putting together 
these two things, Jer. xxxii. 17, 18, says God, in answer to Jeremiah's 
prayer, ' There is nothing too hard for me ; ' I have power to do it, and 
heart to do it. Improve all to the good of your own souls. Go and say 
unto God, thou God, plenteous in mercy, and full of compassion, give 
me thy strength, I am a poor weak creature ! A little cordial, you see 
what strength it gives ; so a little of the strength of God, how doth it 
strengthen the soul ! Make use of his strength, ' he is the God of your 
strength,' Ps. lxxxix. 16. 

Use 5. If power be thus joined to mercy, then make use of it for pardon 
of sin. Though sins be great, yet in such cases, let the soul go to God 
with these words, ' Let the power of the Lord be great to pardon' and to 
forgive, as you see Moses pleads it. That strength that concurs to do all 
things else, it doth conduce to pardon sin. ' Is it easier to say, Take up 
thy bed and walk, or to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee?' saith our 
Saviour Christ. It is twice said in Jer. xxxii., 'Nothing is too hard for 
me;" God speaks it once at ver. 27, and Jeremiah says it at ver. 17. He 
speaks it of matters of providence ; apply it to sin : there is no sin too hard 
for him, for merciful power, or powerful mercy to pardon. God is as strong 
in forgiving sin, and in the power that forgives, as he is in his providential 
working power; and as God's power is good at making worlds, nay, at 
making his heavens wherein he dwells, the high and holy place, so his 
power is as good at pardoning sins ; and the one is as great a work as the 
other. In such cases, let thy faith bring it to this, God is able to pardon 
thee ; and do but think with thyself, 'He that was able to make a world is 
able to pardon me ; he can find that in his heart as is sufficient to pardon 
me. It is a great step of faith when men see and are convinced of their 
sinfulness, to go to God and say, Thou art able to make me clean, thou 
art able to pardon my sin. 

Use 6. Doth power thus yoke with mercy; nay, is it the eatio of mercy? 
(I mean of that phrase) then take God's counsel to lay hold on his strength. 
Isa. xxvii. 4, ' Fury is not in me.' He speaks as to his vineyard, his 
church ; fury is not in me against my church, I can do that no hurt ; but 
my fury is against briars and thorns : as ver. 4, ' Who would set the briars 
and thorns against God in battle ? He would go through them, and would 
burn them together.' Well, is there no remedy if they be briars and thorns ? 
Yes; even for them there is a remedy. What is that? Ver. 5, 'Let them 
take hold on my strength.' Of my strength; what is that? It is an allu- 
sion to Jacob's story, that had power with God, Gen. xxxii. 28. The 
meaning is, humble yourselves. Suppose a child or servant should see 
one coming to strike him, they fall down in the humblest manner, and lay 
hold upon their han'ds. Lay hold, says God, upon my mercy, and strength 
joined with mercy, and I am charmed, you may rule me ; mercy says it 
twice before power's face, you may make peace with me, and you shall 
make peace with me. 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 55 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The next word in this proclamation of Estod. xxxiv. G, 7, explained; merciful, 
— -from whence mercy ariscth in God. 

I come now to the next attribute expressed in this proclamation, merciful: 
' The Lord, the Lord God, strong, gracious, merciful, abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgres- 
sion, and sin,' Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. Things attributed to God here are of 
three sorts : 

1. The inward disposition or inclination, or aptitude and readiness to 
mercy, that is in the four first attributes, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, 
much in goodness, and truth is added. 

2. There are his purposes and resolutions of mercy, keeping mercy for 
thousands; and they are immanent acts in God, kept and laid up in God's 
own breast. 

3. There are extrinsecal acts of mercy issuing from both : ' pardoning 
iniquity, transgression, and sin.' 

The meaning plainly is, first, God is merciful as he is Jehovah ; that is 
his nature. Secondly, he fully resolves to shew mercy ; there is his heart. 
Thirdly, he hath done it, and doth it every day, in pardoning sin ; there ia 
his wont and practice. So that God is every way merciful : in his nature, 
in his purposes, and in his deeds and performances. These four, merciful, 
gracious, long-suffering, much in goodness, are all of mercy's kindred and 
alliance ; and it is very observable, that when, in Ps. ciii. 8, the psalmist 
doth quote Moses's words, he only quotes these four attributes, and leaves 
out truth, for it was not akin to mercy; it was not congenial to it, and waa 
not recited there. Though it fell in with mercy, yet it is not of mercy's 
pedigree. These four are therefore attributes of pure mercy, which yet 
have their distinguishment, which I shall after shew. 

Obs. That which I observe is, that to describe the merciful designs of 
mercy, and grace, and long-suffering, is to define the nature of God. Of 
which I shall say two things : 

1. That all God's being merciful, it is resolved into God's nature of 
being merciful, because if being merciful be the cause of merciful effects, 
then mercy must have an existence before; and where but in him? 
Merciful effects suppose his being merciful as the root and principle in 
himself; so that merciful effects, and pardoning sin, &c, are attributed to 
him as the cause : Ps. lxxviii. 38, * But he being full of compassion, for- 
gave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.' It is plain forgiving their 
iniquity is resolved into this, his being full of mercy, as the causs. Saith 
Calvin, the cause is ascribed to mercy, which is naturally in him. In 
Ps. lxxxvi. he implores merciful gracious effects towards himself; ver. 1-4, 
' Bow down thine ear, Lord, hear me ; for I am poor and needy. 
Preserve my soul, for I am holy : thou my God, save thy servant that 
trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, Lord : for I cry unto thee 
daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant : for unto thee, Lord, do I lift 
up my soul.' These mercies he implores in these verses upon this ground, 
because God himself is merciful ; it is his nature. And so, too, Neh. ■ 
ix. 31, ' Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them : for thou 
art a gracious and merciful God.' Here these merciful effects of not con- 
suming them is ascribed to mercy as the cause. Jer. hi. 12, 'Return, and 



56 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

I will not cause mine .anger to fall upon you : for I am merciful, saith the 
Lord.' Still it runs in the causal particle ; therefore they are infinitely 
out that say, he is said to be merciful because he does merciful effects, 
whereas the Scripture says he does merciful effects, for he is merciful. 

2. The second thing I would say to shew he is merciful is, that he says, 
' Jehovah, Jehovah, God,' and then ' merciful, gracious, long-suffering.' 
This thrice repeating the substantial name of God hath not only a mystery 
in it of the Trinity, but refers also to those attributes that follows to signify 
what Jehovah is ; he gives him his substantial names, and then his other 
properties four times, which declare in reality that Jehovah, Jehovah, God, 
are one and the same with merciful and long-suffering, as I have shewed 
you largely before. And to this end too the name of God is joined with 
faithfulness : Deut. vii. 9, ' Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is 
God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that 
love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.' Here 
is, first, a vehement indigitation of God's being God : ' Know ye therefore,' 
says he, ' know that the Lord thy God he is God.' And to the end they 
may thus know him, he adds, that he was ' the faithful God.' Faithful- 
ness is his truth. That he insists thus on the name of God first, and then 
the faithfulness of God, it is to bring over the Godhead into faithfulness, 
that so they might trust to his faithfulness as his Godhead. And indeed 
you find it expressly called himself: 2 Tim. ii. 13, 'He abideth faithful; 
he cannot deny himself.' Faithfulness is himself: Titus i. 2, ' God that 
cannot lie.' Why? Because he is God ; it is his Godhead to be true and 
faithful. Wherever he hath engaged his word, there his Godhead is 
engaged to make it good, for he is the faithful God ; and wherever his 
mercy is engaged, there is his Godhead engaged, and laid at stake to 
eternity, to shew mercy to that soul. Now read over that Deut. vii. 9 
once more : ' Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful 
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and 
keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.' Then read these 
words in the text of Exod. xxxiv., 'Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful, 
gracious.' What faithful is there, merciful is here. 

Let us now consider why merciful is in order placed first ; the truth is, 
in order of nature, grace is before mercy, and I could give many scriptures 
where grace is first named ; but the reason why he here puts merciful 
first is, because he is to speak to sinners. He presents himself to sinners ; 
and if to them he had said at first clash, God is good, or God is gracious, 
or God is love, sinners would have said, This speaks short to us, and 
why ? Because he is good to all his creatures that never sinned ; he is 
gracious to angels that never sinned ; ay, but merciful, with that proper 
effect, ' pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin,' that is a welcome say- 
ing to sinners, and speaks home to their case. 

I shall now consider what is the rise of mercy, which doth involve the 
Godhead itself ; that one attribute should be ratio alterius, as to our appre- 
hension, is allowed by them that did most exquisitely argue about God and 
his attributes. Now then I shall shew you what it is makes him merciful 
(it will help our faith to consider it), not how all attributes fall in, as holi- 
ness, &c, do, but what is the special genealogy and descent of mercy (we 
• speak after the manner of men, and yet the Scripture speaks the same), 
what is the ratio misericordus. Mercy fetcheth its pedigree, — 

1. From his blessedness. God comes to be merciful by descent, from his 
having all fulness of perfection completely in him, and being happy in him- 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 57 

self, and having no need of any thing, Acts xvii. 25. He is the hlcssed 
God, and all-sufficient God, and so all-sufficient, that lie is ahove all misery, 
that misery cannot reach him; and this makes and inclines him to be mer- 
ciful. God having all within himself transcendency and completely, that 
he need not any thing that is out of himself, ho is therefore able and bath 
power to make others blessed ; and being merciful, therefore, he can par- 
don, though sinners sin against him. For why ? Their sins do not hurt him, 
he is full of all enjoyments, and is equally happy, whether the creatures be 
or not be ; and as equally happy, whether the creature sin or not sin 
against him, for they no- way reach to hurt his enjoyment : Job xxxv. G, 7, 
' If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him ? or if thy transgressions be 
multiplied, what dost thou unto him ? If thou be righteous, what givest thou 
to him, or what receiveth he of thine hand ?' Neither the one nor the 
other can any-way hurt him, or benefit him ; he is not benefitted by the 
righteousness of any creature. Nay, Christ himself says, Ps. xvi. 2, ' My 
righteousness extends not to thee ;' thou art never the better by it, thou art 
so perfect a God. Nor is he hurt by sin ; therefore he can easily pardon. 
All are not alike to him as to his external glory ; but as to his inward essen- 
tial happiness, they are all alike as to any prejudice they can do it. 

What made Paul that he could forgive injuries ? It was that he got 
good by them ; he was not injured at all, Gal. iv. 12. And so the blessed- 
ness of God, and his being above all so high, and above the reach of all, 
is a ground of his being merciful. I observe in Luke i. 72, that mercy is 
there said to be promised ; ' To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, 
and to remember his holy covenant.' Among these it was to Abraham God 
made himself known by name, and it was to strengthen his faith in the 
promise of mercy. And the first name by which he manifests himself is 
this : ' I am,' says he, ' God all-sufficient,' Gen. xvii. 1, and the word sig- 
nifies, I am full of paps, I am all-sufficient of myself, and therefore I am a 
God that can afford what is in me unto others ; I have a breast full for 
others, as well as happiness in myself. And thus, ' God of comfort,' and 
' Father of mercies,' are well joined together, 2 Cor. i. 3, that is, he that 
is so blessed in himself is merciful in himself. Abraham, to whom God 
thus proclaimed himself all-sufficient, is the standard instance of being jus- 
tified, and the father of the faithful ; and that maxim is drawn from his 
example, Rom. iv. 5. Now it was all-sufficiency that Abraham heard of, 
which encouraged him to believe. 

There was also another name of God, and that was jvbu? bit, El Hehjon, 
1 God most high,' brought up by Melchisedek, when he came to Abraham, 
Gen. xiv. 19. It is four times used there, and that is the first use of it 
upon Abraham's occasion. What is the meaning of this ' the most high 
God' ? It is, that he is above all, out of the reach of all. Now you find 
the Scripture calls it, ' the mercy of the Most High,' Ps. xxi. 7. Nay, it 
is observable, that 6 iXswv in Greek, and in the Hebrew ho eleon, is the 
word for merciful. The most high and the merciful God, are well then 
joined together. The schoolmen ordinarily say, true mercy is only in God. 
Why ? Because he only is above all misery, and therefore able to help his 
people out of it. The Scripture says, it is the mercy of the Most High : 
Luke vi. 34, 35, ' Be ye merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' 
That is the exhortation, imitate your Father ; and, says he, ' you shall be 
the children of the highest.' You shall be like him that is highest ; there- 
fore ' be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' 

2. Mercy is in God ad modum virtutis, as a perfection, which you know 



58 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

is after the way of being a virtue. All perfections are in God, and there 
are these three sorts of perfections in him : First, Such as we call meta- 
physical transcendent excellencies in himself, as majesty, glory, unchange- 
ableness, infiniteness, eternity. Secondly, We say there are perfections of 
faculties, of understanding (which the Scripture says is infinite), and of his 
will. But, thirdly, there is also in him perfectiones morales, moral perfec- 
tions. We are forced, and God himself is forced, to speak of himself in this 
manner, that we may understand. It is a good saying of the schoolmen, It 
becomes God to be most perfect, not only in his absolute being, and the 
excellencies thereof, but also in virtue. If you would have Scripture, see 
1 Peter ii. 9, ' Shew forth the praises of him who hath called you.' We 
translate it ' praises,' but in the margin it is ' virtues.' Whom doth he 
speak of ? Not of Christ only, but of God the Father : ' Now you are the 
people of God,' ver. 10. ' As he which hath called you is holy' (there is 
one virtue) ; ' so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,' 1 Pet. i. 15. 
And answerably hereto, ' shew forth the virtues of him which hath called 
you.' Now mercy is one virtue eminently intended in Peter ; for it fol- 
loweth, ' which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of 
God ; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy,' from 
God, by calling you ; and therefore shew forth that virtue. Now holiness 
is a virtue we all acknowledge : ' As he which hath called you is holy, so 
be ye holy in all manner of conversation.' And what ? Is not this parallel 
to that Scripture, ' Be you merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful,' 
Luke vi. 35. As holiness, then, is a virtue in him, so mercifulness is a vir- 
tue in him. If you yet doubt of it, consider further what is said, ' Be you 
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,' Mat. v. 48. He speaks it of 
mercy, for it refers to verses 4-4, 45 : ' Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despite- 
fully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven.' Now, then, that mercy whereby God is per- 
fect, must needs be himself, his essence, nothing can perfect God but him- 
self; he should otherwise be beholden to an accident, and quality, and 
creature, if anything perfect him but himself. Now to shew the descent of 
mercy for strengthening our faith, consider, 

1. The blessedness of God is the rise of goodness in him (still we speak 
after the manner of men). Now there is Jhis goodness of being, entity of 
goodness ; and there is his goodness by which he communicates himself, 
and that is an attribute, which is all one with his being, only it inclines 
him to communicate : Ps. cxix. G8, • Thou art good, and dost good.' The 
nature of goodness is to communicate itself, and to be sure goodness in God 
is his nature. But how doth it rise from blessedness ? says our Saviour 
Christ (there is but one saying of his that is not in the Evangelists), Acts 
xx. 35, ' It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Is he a blessed God? 
He will give then, he will communicate himself. In Exod. xxxiii. 19, 
which is the preface to this text, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, says God to Moses, • I 
will cause all my goodness to pass before thee, and I will proclaim the 
name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be 
gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' Doth God 
proclaim all his goodness ^here ? No; there be many attributes he doth 
not proclaim. The best interpretation I have is, that which is his goodness 
communicative for us (as for his essential goodness, it is himself), such as 
mere} 7 , and grace, and truth, these are those he proclaims, so that his 
goodness is the ground of his being merciful and gracious ; Ps. xxv. 6, 7, 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 59 

David there praying earnestly for forgiveness, ' Remember,' says he, • 
Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have been 
ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions : 
according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, Lord.' 
He enters upon this, that God was good, and goodness itself, because he 
knew that mercy centred in goodness : Ps. lxxxvi. 5, ' Thou, Lord, art 
good,' that is the first; then 'ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy.' 
And this is the first burden of many psalms, ' The Lord is good, and his 
mercy endures for ever.' And it was that they sung in the temple, as you 
may read in the Chronicles. You see, then, there is blessedness first, and 
goodness ariseth from blessedness. 

2. The next thing in God is love, and that ariseth from goodness. 
The goodness that is in God inclines him to love, and to be the most pro- 
fuse lover. You read in 1 John iv. 7, 8, ' God is love.' The question 
is, whether this speech doth not import, that he is love in himself, as 
well as that he shews love. There are these reasons why it imports what 
he is in himself, when he says, God is love. Says he, ver. 7, 'Every 
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God,' that is the affirmative; 
and ver. 8. ' He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love '; 
that is, he knows not God in what is most proper to him, as to what doth 
most abound in him, for God is love. We ordinarily say of a man that is 
of such a disposition, I know him, he is so and so ; so the believer knows 
God to be love. Thus the apostle says positively, ' He that is born of 
God knows God, for God is love.' I take the meaning thus : When a 
man hath tasted^that the Lord is gracious, the truth is, it is not only an 
act of love that he tastes, but he tastes God, he sucks in dietatem, he 
sucks in this, that there is a principle in God to maintain his love to 
eternity. And so God being love, he knows him to be so. Again, he 
says, ' All love is of God, for God is love.' What is the meaning of that ? 
That if God be the author of all love, then certainly there is love in him ; 
' He that made the eye, shall not he see ? ' But that which most con- 
vinceth me is, that he saith, ver. 12, ' No man hath seen God at any time.' 
He speaks it of his love, which none sees but as manifest by effects; but 
God is love essentially. Says Aquinas, Whoever hath a will, hath a prone- 
ness to love. Says Musculus, As every one is in goodness, so in love. 
If God then hath a will inclined to anything, it is to love ; he hath hatred 
in him to sin, he hath the opposite : he hath a love also to something, only 
it is guided by his will towards creatures. 

3. Love and grace are the roots of mercy. Where he sets his love, if 
there be misery, there love is drawn out to pity and mercy. The school- 
men say, it is but extensio amoris, but an extending of love to the creature 
when in misery. And indeed the Hebrew word for mercy, IDll, signifies 
also love or good will. Our translators oft render it, ' merciful loving- 
kindness :' Ps. cxvii. 2, ' His merciful kindness is great towards": us.' 
And it is mercy he speaks of, for it is quoted in Rom. xv. 9, ' The Gentiles 
shall glorify God for his mercy.' And Ps. cxix. 76, ' Let thy merciful 
loving-kindness be for my comfort ;' or thy loving-kindness be stretched 
out into mercy where there is need. Where there is love, there is a design 
of good to the party loved ; then desires follow. Where there is love, there 
is a rejoicing over the person : when he prospers, then there is joy ; if he be in 
misery, there is a drawing out that love into pity. If you say, ' The Lord 
is gracious,' you go not beyond merciful, for that is grace and love drawn 
out to the full length, as far as grace and love can reach. What ph rase 



60 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS BoOK I. 

the schoolmen expresses it by, the Scripture doth the like ; Ps. xxxvi. 10, 
1 Oh continue thy loving-kindness : ' draw out at length thy loving-kindness 
(so in the margin). And it speaks of mercy, for he magnifies mercy : ver. 
5, ' Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens.' In that scripture too which is 
famous amongst us, Jer. xxxi. 3, ' I have loved thee with an everlasting 
love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee,' that last clause 
hath two significations (it is varied in the margin) : I have extended loving- 
kindness to thee, I have stretched out loving-kindness to thee; so Piscator 
reads it. Now hence it comes to pass, that in shewing mercy God makes 
the foundation of it to be love : Ephes. ii. 4, 5, ' But God, who is rich in 
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.' Bom. v. 8, ' God com- 
mendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us.' Mercy is there called love; and it is indeed but a commending 
or extending of love towards sinners ; ' when we were sinners, Christ died.' 
Tit. hi. 4, ' The kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man ap- 
peared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according 
to his mercy he saved us.' When the kindness and love of God appears, 
mercy follows ; according to his mercy (being sinners) he saveth us. 

Use 1. Is mercy the nature of God, and is he mercy himself ? Then 
consider, look how great God is, so great is his mercy. Our transla- 
tion reads it, As is his greatness, so is his mercy. Why '? Because 
it is God's. Where he pitcheth mercy by his will, there the whole God- 
head is engaged, Jehovah, Jehovah, God gracious and merciful ; he brings 
over all the whole Godhead when he will be merciful. 

Use 2. We do not treat with the will of God every day. He that is a 
believer treats with the will of God, that he would but be merciful to him. 
Now those that treat with the will of God, either in a way of assurance, or 
in throwing themselves upon him, and hoping in his mercy, what have they 
to plead ? All the mercies in the nature of God, to be a ground of plea 
before him, to tell him what a God he is in mercy. Oh that we would but 
inure our hearts to this practice ; it would be a mighty advantage ! La Num. 
xiv., Moses having first urged the mercies that were in God himself, that he 
is a God long-suffering, great in mercy, then he prays, ' According to thy 
great mercy do thou pardon.' What mercy ? The mercy he mentioned 
which is in God himself: ' Deal,' says he, ' according to this mercy in thee 
which thou hast spoken of.' As if one were to supplicate a merciful man, 
he implores the mercy and ingenuity of his nature, which upon all occasions 
he had shewn. Moses was the first that brought up this happy expression, 
' According to thy mercy' (I know not where it is used by any other man), 
that is, according to the infinite mercy in thy heart and nature. David did 
next use it, Ps. xxv. ; and in the great case of his sin of adultery, Ps. 
Ii. 1, ' tbat he would be merciful to him according to the multitude of his 
mercies.' And as he needed all the mercies in God, so he confessed the 
sin of his nature, and hath recourse to the mercies in God's nature. But 
it is Ps. xxv. 7 I pitch on ; there he doth not content himself only with 
this expression, ' According to thy mercy,' but he adds another phrase, 
• For thy mercy's sake', and ' goodness' sake.' Muis observes in this cohe- 
rence, ' Good and upright is the Lord/ that he centres in his nature. 
Thou hast a merciful nature ; deal with me according to that, and for the 
sake of that, according to thy mercy, for thy goodness' sake. The medita- 
tion of that attribute was the foundation of his faith and prayer herein. 
When he hath done, he referreth himself to Moses : ver. 11, ' For thy name's 
sake, Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.' He refers to that name 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 01 

proclaimed before Moses, Exod. xxxiv. G, 7. But you will say, How do these 
expressions, ' for thy name's sake,' ' for thy goodness' sake,' ' for thy mercy's 
sake,' imply the same as ' for himself,' < for his own sake' ? how do they in- 
volve the Godhead ? Look to Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for mine own sake,' that is, for my self: Isa. xlviii. 
2, ' For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it.' You have 
it twice in one verse ; and that which is ' for mercy's sake' in one place, is 
1 for mine own sake' in another : and behold it is I, I am he, as I am God, 
who doth it. What is this but ' Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful' ? We 
may learn from Old Testament phrases that which wc do not so much con- 
sider. They have taught us in their prayers from Moses's example, how 
to pray and urge the mercies of God ; Dan. ix. 18, 19, he has said ' For 
thy mercy's sake do this ;' and at ver. 19, ' For thine own sake do this ;' 
ho puts them both together. To me this is a great thing, that when we 
go to pray, we have the liberty to urge God to shew his mercy for his own 
sake ; that although it is we who have the benefit of the mercies, yet we may 
urge him, Thou shalt have the glory of it, thou shalt have the glory of thy 
grace by it, and the glory of thy mercy by it. It is yet again a greater 
advantage in praying, that we have all the mercies in God before us to 
spread before him; mercies in his word might be limited, but in his nature 
they cannot. What may we not obtain at the hand of God, if we could 
improve this notion, to go to God to be merciful to us as God, and accor- 
ding to the mercies that are in his nature, and for the sake of them ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

The other part of the proclamation of the mercies of GocVs nature in Exotl. 
xxxiv. explained. — The meaning of those words, Jehovah, pardoning iniquity, 
transgression, and sin, shewed by the explication of another text, Ps. Ixxx. 
30 to 37. — That the covenant of grace in Christ is the substantial scope and 
design of the psalm. — That the promises of God's pardoning mercies do 
concern, and are made unto Christ's spiritual seed. — That there is such an 
amjilifi cation of grace in them as to extend to the worst cases they can 
possibly be supposed to be in. — That they are strengthened by the firmest 
engagements. 

If his children forsake my law, and icalk npt in my judgments ; if they break 
my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; then will I visit their trans- 
gression with the rod, and their iniquity ivith stripes. Nevertheless my 
loving -kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness 
to fail. My covenant will I not bveak, nor alter the thing that is gone out 
of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I ivill not lie unto 
David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. 
It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a, faithful witness in 
heaven. Sefo/i.— Psalm LXXXIX. 30-37. 

I shall centre in the 89th Psalm for the illustrating that great attribute 
of Jehovah merciful, Exod. xxxiv., ' Pardoning iniquity, transgression, and 
sin,' &c. ; although, first, I must necessarily premise some few things con- 
cerning the main drift of the psalm. 

I shall first remark the occasion of making this psalm. It is certain 
the penman of it lived in such times wherein great and sad disasters did 



62 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

befall the house and throne of David, as appears by what so bitterly he 
complains of, from ver. 38 to the end. But the question lies, what times 
this should belong unto, which ariseth from hence, that Ethan the Ezraite 
is the author of it, of whom we read, 1 Kings iv. 31, that he lived in 
Solomon's time, and therefore most interpreters assign this calamity unto 
the times of Rehoboam's reign, until when that this Ethan should live is 
no wonder ; for Rehoboam succeeded Solomon, and it was in the beginning 
of his reign that the ten tribes were deplorably cut off from David's house, 
and given to Jeroboam, and never did return again. 

Now Piscator and others object, that in ver. 40 it is said, ' Thou hast 
broken down all his hedges, thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin,' 
which cannot (says he) belong to any other times but those of the captivity. 
The answer given by some is, that within the first five years of Rehoboam's 
reign, Sishak king of Egypt took also the cities of Judah, and the strong- 
holds, 2 Chron. xii. 4, yea, he came to Jerusalem itself, and spoiled the 
temple, 1 Kings xiv. 25, by all which David's throne lost its virgin primi- 
tive glory ; as likewise by this Rehoboam himself, the king and his king- 
dom, servants, &c, were made tributaries to Egypt, 2 Chron. xii. 2. This 
event those interpreters judge a full and sufficient ground for the prophet 
to utter his fore-mentioned complaint upon. And indeed it may be said, 
that in this great change there was an initial performance then, and a 
beginning of those final disasters upon David's throne and family, though 
it had a more full accomplishment in the captivity of Babylon, unto which 
Piscator and others do rather refer this psalm. But there is this difficulty 
attends that interpretation of theirs, that there must have been another 
Ethan, and he an Ezraite too, living at the captivity ; which though it 
possibly might fall out, those of the same kindred giving to their posterity 
the same names of their famed ancestors, yet this not being extant, I should, 
to compound all, rather think that this Ethan of Solomon's time, seeing 
that this dismal calamity began in Rehoboam's time, did further, by the 
spirit of prophecy, foresee how an after total eclipse would in the issue fall 
out from this unhappy beginning, it foreboding that final ruin which fol- 
lowed, this being a laying the axe to the root of the tree, and so he wraps 
up both in one. But be it either the one or the other, however, he that 
wrote it did upon these fatal events begin deeply to consider what that 
covenant made with David should mean and intend, especially as touching 
that clause of the perpetuity thereof; the promise being, that it was estab- 
lished for ever, as at the first promulgation of it was declared, 2 Sam. vii. 13, 
whenas this prophet by these occurrences foresaw that David's successive 
outward kingdom would one day cease. And that at the captivity it had a 
fatal period, Ezekiel did pronounce : chap. xxi. 25-27, ' And thou, profane 
wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an 
end; thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: 
this shall not be the same : exalt him that is low, and abase him that is 
high.' With which compare this Ps. Ixxxix. 39, ' Thou hast profaned his 
crown by casting it to the ground.' And as he had begun, so he threatens 
to go on : 'I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, 
until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it him ; ' that is, until the 
true David shall come, who was intended by the type of David's temporary 
kingdom. And by the consideration of these things our psalmist was by 
the Spirit led into the clear understanding of the mystery of the covenant 
of grace, founded on Christ the spiritual David, to set forth which is the 
intimate scope of the psalm. And by this it was that he comforts and 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 03 

relieves himself (as he well might) against those sad overthrows that fell 
upon that external successive kingdom and shadowy covenant of David's 
house over Israel, which was temporary. And those words (which I 
understand to he the prophet's own), ver. 23, ' I have said, Mercy shall 
be built up for ever, thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very 
heaven ; for I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto 
David, my servant,' do express so much. And it is as if he had said, I 
have, notwithstanding the wreck I have seen hath and shall fall out to 
David's family, set down with myself as a fixed conclusion, that there are sure, 
stable mercies of David signified, that shall be built up for ever. And this 
he was resolved and assured of (and his words at last do argue as much), 
that notwithstanding those doleful miseries befallen David's family, and 
the Jews, related from ver. 39, &c, that he should yet be in the faith and 
confidence of those spiritual mercies. And accordingly he concludes the 
last verse, ' Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and amen.' 

This he according to this scope proposeth at the beginning : ver. 1, ' I will 
sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever : with my mouth will I make known 
thy faithfulness to all generations.' And these mercies (as was said) are 
those of the covenant of grace (which afterwards are in this psalm set forth), 
and summarily they are the mercies promised unto Christ and his seed, 
whom David tvpified, as they are formed up into a covenant of grace ; of 
which he professeth to sing throughout this psalm ; and therefore the most 
particulars therein are to be understood to relate thereunto. This sum- 
mary or breviate of all he declares in the 3d and 4th verses expressly, as 
the words of God himself, whom he introduceth to speak in the midst of 
his own discourse in these words : ' I have made a covenant with my 
chosen ; I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish 
for ever ; and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.' 

That the covenant of grace in Christ is the substantial scope of this 
psalm, all Christian^interpreters * do agree, and the arguments are invincible 
which Musculus and Calvin have urged to persuade this, as not only that 
our Saviour hath the very name of David their king given him by the 
prophets, Jer. xxx. 9, Ezek. xxxiv. 23, Amos ix. 11, and by the apostle, 
Acts xiii. 34, as in relation to these sure mercies, who is therefore intended 
as the substance of this shadow, but because the promises in this psalm 
are not fulfilled if not in him. For not only David's seed, but his kingdom 
and throne, are said to continue for ever. And if the fleshly seed of David 
can be supposed to continue still on earth, yet to be sure his kingdom hath 
not, whereas the promise is of his kingdom's continuance for ever, as well 
as of his seed. And if God hath failed in point of his successive kingdom, 
who will believe that other of his seed, unless as both were accomplished 
in our Jesus ? And this the angels at his conception do expressly assert : 
Luke i. 32, 33, ' He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the 
Highest ; and the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David : 
and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom 
there shall be no end.' Which was taken from Isa. ix. 6, 'For unto us a 
Child is born, unto us a Son is given : and the government shall be upon 
his shoulder : his name shall be called "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty 
God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.' 

Christ's kindgom is said to be the throne of David, because shadowed 

* Kegnura Christi vocatur regnum Davidis, quia adumbratum fuit regno Davidis, 
&c. Sic Theophilactus inter Grsecos, Bernardus inter Latinos. — Lucas Brugensis in 
locum. 



64 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

out by that of David ; * himself professeth that his ' kingdom was not of 
this world,' John xviii. 36, which David's kingdom was, after the mode and 
splendour of other earthly kings, which hitherto Christ's hath no way been. 
And in this psalm those great promises of pardon of sin, from ver. 30, 
appertain to that spiritual kingdom which Christ did found. And answer- 
ably, the seed of this David are a spiritual seed, which by his word and 
Spirit he begets, who are therefore named Israel, even the very Gentiles, 
Isa. xliv. 5 (who are the surrogate Israel), and their conversion (as well as 
of the Jews) the apostle expressly terms ' the building again tbe tabernacle 
of David : ' Acts xv. 16, 17, ' After this I will return, and will build again 
the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down ; and I will build again the 
ruins thereof, and I will set it up : that the residue of men might seek 
after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith 
the Lord, who doth all these things.' In which speech is also confirmed, 
that David's outward successive kingdom was utterly brought to ruin (as 
to be sure in Herod's time, wherein Christ was born, it was), and that now 
it was wholly to be raised up anew by Christ in a spiritual kingdom, then 
begun over both Jew and Gentile, they becoming one fold, and David 
their king becoming one shepherd over them, as the prophet hath it, 
Ezek. xxxiv. 23. 

These covenant mercies then being the declared ditto of his song, and the 
most eminent mercies in that covenant being God's ' pardoning mercies ' 
to those under this covenant, he therefore particularly singles forth those, 
and they have a special and large room in this psalm, from ver. 30, &c. 
But before I come to discourse of the greatness of these mercies in par- 
doning sin, I cannot pass over that praise and celebration which the 
psalmist breaks forth into, of our great God who is the Father and Founder 
of this mercy and covenant, in the 5th verse, which is as a preludium to 
his song : ' And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, Lord ; thy faith- 
fulness also in the congregation of thy saints.' 

Herein to provoke us men to sing and set forth these mercies, he sets 
before us the example of the glorious angels in heaven, who though never 
having sinned, and so never needed the pardoning mercies of this covenant, 
do yet praise God for it, and on our behalf; then how much more are we 
obliged ! 

' The heavens do praise thy wonders, Lord.' These wonders are 
those w T onderful mercies last mentioned (for he continues to speak punc- 
tually to this his subject he had thus proposed to sing and celebrate), and 
so they are not chiefly to be understood of God's wonders at large, though 
that is a truth also, that the angels celebrate God for them. 

That the angels are expressed by the heavens, t sundry places do shew : 
Job xv. 15 : ' Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints ; yea, the heavens 
are not clean in his sight ;' compared with chap. iv. 18, ' Behold, he puts 
no trust in his servants ; his angels he charged with folly.' See also Ps. 1. 
4, 6. And that the angels are meant in this place by the psalmist, all 
interpreters, from the force of the coherence before and after, do agree. 
For it follows immediately in the same 5th verse, ' Thy faithfulness also in 
the congregation of thy saints ;' that is, is also praised among them ; 
which being a continuation of the same sentence and matter, must be 
understood of the same kind of praise, though indeed by another order of 

• Dicitur Messise iniperiuni Davidis solium, quod Davidis solio adumbrabatur. 
Et sic locum, 2 Sam. vii. 13, explicat Isaac Ben. Arama. — Grotius in locum. 
t The Eastern translations, Syriac, &c, do concur with this. 



Chap. IX. J of justifying faitii. 65 

praises.* That it is not meant of tho material heavens is clear, it being 
the praise of the wonders of his mercy and faithfulness, as was said. And 
such praises are subjects of that super-celestial nature, which tho material 
heavens are not capable to set forth the praise of. Nay, they have not the 
least material impress or stamp upon them to hold them forth unto us 
men. They declare indeed the glory of God in his works of creation, pro- 
vidence, &c, but not those of grace. And if anywhere it be applied 
thereto, it is but merely allusively, as out of Ps. xix. The apostle doth, 
in Rom. x., apply the psalmist's word of the heavens, Ps. xix. 1 ; and, 
indeed, but as by way of parallel type, shadowing forth the apostle's 
preaching throughout the earth. And besides, would he set (think we) 
and join the material heavens, inanimate creatures, and the congregation 
of the saints, in one choir together, in their praising God ; as in like man- 
ner in singing^forth these like praises of covenant-mercies and faithfulness, 
especially when the heavens spoken of are brought in as the precentors, or 
chief and first singers in this sacred concert ? The heavens therefore here 
are the inhabitants of heaven, as earth is often put for the inhabitants of 
the earth ; you have both in one place, Ps. 1. 4. 

His wonders. The word in the original is the singular number : mirabiU 
tuum, ' thy wonder,' the eminent wonder above all wonders, the sum of 
wonders, which are the contents of the covenant of grace. The contrive- 
ments and dispensations of it are all wonders, nothing but wonder, both in 
the whole] of it, and every the least part of it, and all make up but one 
wonder of wonders, above and beyond all wonders ; and therefore by way 
of transcendent eminency it is thus styled. The head of this covenant 
also, Christ, our spiritual David, his ' name is Wonderful,' Isa. ix. 6. 
Again, God's pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin (to celebrate which 
so many verses in this psalm are spent), is a wonder of wonders: ' Who is 
a God like unto thee, that pardonest iniquity ?' &c, Micah vii. 18. 

It follows in the psalmist, in the same verse, ' Thy faithfulness also in 
the congregation of the saints' ; namely, of the saints on earth, who have 
the most reason to magnify God for his mercy in it, as Rom. xv. And 
from whom also it is, by what is published in their assemblies, that the 
angels do learn much of these wonders, as that scripture shews (which is a 
place greatly parallel to this here), Eph. iii. 10, ' To the intent that now 
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known 
by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' I say, parallel to this, for as 
there the angels and the church (on earth), so here the heavens and the 
congregations of the saints on earth, are joined in their adoration of these 
mysteries. 

I only shall observe, that the angels' principal part in this celebration is 
distinct from that of us men ; it is to praise the wonders of this covenant ; 
or as it is a wonder, so it is most proper to them to admire and ''adore God 
for it. Well, but the mercy itself, and the faithfulness of God therein, 
that you see is ascribed and allotted to the congregations of the saints, or 
men on earth, as their theme, and to praise, that is our part. For why ? 
That is an interest peculiar and proper to us, the top and height of our joy 
and comfort lies herein. But the angels they fall down chiefly to the 
wonders and excellencies of w T isdom and glory that are discovered in it, 
which they are therefore (as out of curiosity) said to pry into, 1 Pet. i. 12. 
And it is upon the account hereof they worship: Rev. vii. 11, 12, 'And 
all the angels stood round the throne, and about the elders and the four 
* Qu. 'praisers '? — Ed. 

vol. viii. E 



66 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 
saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgivirig, and 
honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.' 
Which place, though at first it shews that they heartily rejoice in what 
concerns the salvation of us men contained therein, in that they first say 
Amen unto a song which the sons of men had in praise of God begun before 
them to sing, ver. 10, ' Salvation' (that is, the glory of our salvation) ' be 
unto God, and the Lamb ;' and unto this the angels say Amen first, ere 
they begin their own, of blessing him for his glory, wisdom, &c. The 
salvation then, and so the mercy and faithfulness of God therein, is the 
eminent argument of our song. But the wisdom and power shewn therein, 
though we chant forth the glory of them also, is principally the matter of 
theirs. 

The grand mercies and faithfulness promised unto Christ our David (the 
subject of this song), I reduce unto three heads, according to what we find 
summarily put together in ver. 3, 4, where you have, 

1. The promise of a throne and kingdom to be established. 

2. The choice and designation of the person (Christ), the true David, 
under the type and shadow of king David. 

3. The promise of mercy to the seed of Christ under the same type. As 
for the perpetuity of these mercies, it runs along through the whole of all. 

1. As touching the throne promised, you have a magnific description of 
a kingdom, which begins at the 7th verse, and reaches to the 15th, which 
kingdom, indeed (as there described), is that which God the Father pro- 
miseth unto his Son Christ, our David. And it is a matter worthy our 
inquiry, why the kingdom which God the Father did hold and visibly 
execute in the Old Testament, should be set out here, when he promiseth 
his Son a throne, &c. The true mystery and resolve of which is, that it is 
the same throne and kingdom for substance and economy which himself 
held, which he promiseth to his Son, and that therefore he sets forth his 
own herein ; for indeed it is all one. We know how Christ himself says, 
that God the Father had ' committed all judgment' to him, because he was 
the Son of man, John v. 22-27 ; and that the Father visibly judgeth no 
man, but hath given up all to his Son ; and this to that end, ' that all men 
might honour the Son as they honour the Father,' ver. 23 ; and therefore 
it is he is said to ' come in the glory of the Father,' and to ' sit on the 
Father's throne,' Rev. iii. 21, yea, and it is called • the throne of God and 
of the Lamb,' Rev. xxii. 3. Hence therefore it is that the prophet being 
to declare what a throne it was which God here intended and promiseth to 
give to him, makes sq ample a description of God's own kingdom (although 
much in the Old Testament language) as that which he meant to estate this 
his Son into, who yet because he was to come of David in the flesh, and 
David was his type, this kingdom is styled the throne of David in the 
shadow, but in reality and in the substance is indeed the kingdom of God 
the Father. And this, to be the true air or scope of those verses, seems 
to me most genuine and accommodate, and the best account that perhaps 
will be given of those verses. This for the kingdom, expressed in the first 
part of the psalm. 

There is inserted between this and the other parts that follow a most 
comfortable application, directed (as in the midst of this discourse) to those 
that are under this covenant, and are the blessed objects of this grace and 
mercy of so great a God their King, who either live under the continual 
sound thereof, and have their hearts stirred and awakened with the sound 



Chap. IX.] of justifying fjvith. 67 

thereof, so as by faith to pursue after the enjoyment of it, or especially 
those that have arrived unto a solid assurance of their share and interest 
therein. Or, if you will, the following words are a congratulation of their 
infinite happiness, as elsewhere it is expressed, • Blessed are the people 
whose God is the Lord,' Ps. xxxiii. 12. The hlessedness of the people 
instated in this covenant is displayed in thisPsalin lxxxix., 15-18, ' Blessed 
is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, Lord, in the 
light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day ; and 
in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou art the glory of their 
strength ; and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. For the Lord is 
our defence ; and the Holy One of Israel is our King.' 

2. The choice, and advancement, and dignity of the person who was to 
be estated in this throne, even of Christ, is described under the shadow of 
David. This Christ he dignifies with the highest titles of honour ; ' his 
holy One,' ' his mighty One,' upon whom God laid help for us all; ' his 
chosen, his exalted One,' ver. 19, ' his Servant,' his Cbrist and Messiah, 
with God's own holy oil anointed by God himself, ver. 20, in whom should 
rest all the power of God (which before in ver. 8, 10, 13, you heard of), 
to establish and strengthen this his Christ, and beat down his enemies, and 
wherewith to overrule all, ver. 21-23. And compare but the expressions 
in ver. 8, 13, with these ver. 21-23, likewise ver. 9 and ver. 25; in like 
manner yer. 10 with ver. 22-24, in which latter he says, their* mercy also 
and faithfulness (which the prophet had said did support God's throne, and 
did go before him to execute all the administrations of his kingdom, ver. 8 
and 14) is promised unto this his King: ver. 24, ' My mercy and my faith- 
fulness,' says God, ' shall be with him;' that is, in the whole of his govern- 
ment towards my church, to perform all with as much mercy and faithful- 
ness as I myself would. If you will farther have it, God committed all the 
mercies that ever he had promised, or meant to bestow upon any or all his 
children, into the hands of his Christ, to give forth to them, and constituted 
him to be his own executor, and hath given him an heart of mercy of equal 
largeness thereunto, and faithfulness to perform it unto every tittle, as 
himself hath ; so as he that shall compare all those descriptions of God's 
kingdom in the foregoing verses with the expressions of Christ's kingdom 
here, will readily acknowledge that God's Spirit in this psalmist did on 
purpose set forth the former representation of God's kingdom to the end, 
to shew that the like glory, yea, the same kingdom for substance, he hath 
devolved upon his Son, and put into his hands ; which was the genuine 
drift and scope of so large a description of God's kingdom therein made. 
In the conclusion he proclaims, among other of the royal titles which God 
bestows upon his Christ, that of being God's Son: He shall cry unto me, 
'Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.' Which in 
how transcendent a manner it is true of Christ, you may read, Eph. i. 3, 
1 Pet. i. 3 ; and of all sons, his first-born is ' higher than the kings of the 
earth,' ver. 26, 27 of this 89th Psalm, with which comports that of Rev. 
i. 5, ' The Prince of the kings of the earth.' These titles of Christ you 
find from ver. 19 to 28. 

3. The other part of Psalm lxxxix. is that which I have chosen as my 
text, from ver. 28 to 37, and this part principally concerns the seed, the 
spiritual seed of Christ, as the former does his kingdom and personal dig- 
nities. You may remember how it was said that the mercies of this cove- 
nant were prophesied by the Psalmist as the eminent subject of his song : 

* Qu. ' his ' ?— Ed. 



68 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

• I will sing,' says he, • of the mercies of the Lord for ever,' &c. ; that is, 
1 which are for ever.' And in this special part of the song we find mercy's 
voice elevated to the highest note, or to the highest ela* which can be 
supposed it should reach unto. For as the height and top of mercy's glory 
is put forth and seen in pardoning of sins — that is the most proper seat 
or subject wherein and whereupon the mercies of God are manifested and 
spent — so in this paragraph, if anywhere in all the Scriptures, pardoning 
mercies are ascendant, and in their supremest elevation. 

Two things are to be farther cleared towards a foundation unto that 
setting forth the greatness of God's pardoning mercies to his children, as 
here they are held forth. The first, that by David's children here the 
spiritual seed of Christ are intended, as by David Christ himself is (as hath 
been shewn), and so the parallel runs thus: 1. David's person is the 
shadow of Christ's person. 2. David's temporal throne of Christ's throne, 
who was his eminent seed after the flesh. 3. That as David had other 
children after the flesh in a succession, so Christ a spiritual seed in their 
several generations. And of this spiritual seed, or children of Christ, and 
of God's pardoning mercies unto them, is this paragraph to be understood. 
1. That Christ hath a spiritual seed, unto whom he is the father, as David 
was a father to his other successive seed ; and that David bore the shadow 
thereof, there are many passages in this and other scriptures which do con- 
firm it. It is observable that in the 9th of Isaiah, before cited, when the 
promise of the throne of David is again more expressly than here repeated, 
that withal, ver. 6, one eminent title amongst those other is, of his being 
' the everlasting Father,' which title doth necessarily relate to a seed, unto 
whom he that is said to sit upon David's throne is also a Father. And 
answerably, we see both the promise of Christ's throne and these promises 
to his seed and children to be nearly conjoined in several passages in this 
Psalm, as being inseparably riveted and involved both of them in this one 
and the same covenant, and as the alike substantial parts thereof, and in- 
volved in the same oath. Tbus ver. 28-30, ' My mercy will I keep for 
him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed 
also will I make to endure for ever; and his throne as the days of heaven. 
If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments,' &c. At 
the entrance of my text, and again at the conclusion, ver. 35, 36, • Once 
have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed 
shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.' For he pos- 
sesseth his throne upon such terms as that his children also should be 
effectually saved. And what reason there should be that any should sever 
these two, which God hath so closely joined together, I understand not. 
We cannot conceive that the promise of the throne, which is unto Christ's 
person, should be the sole and alone subject of the oath, but the promise 
concerning the other seed and children should be without oath, and limited 
to David's other fleshly children in their successions as unto temporal 
respects, and not to take in the spiritual seed of Christ, or those of David's 
seed who were such, especially seeing in other scriptures true believers on 
Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, are so frequently termed the seed and 
children of Christ (our David), ' Lo here am I, and the children which thou 
hast given me,' Heb. ii. 13. And in Psalm xxii., which so lively sets forth 
Christ as he was hanging on the very cross, the issue and product of his 
crucifying is in the close said to be, that • a seed should serve him, and it 
shall be counted to the Lord for a generation.' Parallel unto which is that 
* The highest note in the musical scale, according to the notation then in use. — Ed. 



CilAP. IX.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 69 

Isaiah liii., in which Christ Jesus is as evidently also held forth as crucified ; 
the fruit whereof is there declared to be, that ' ho shall see his seed,' and 
' see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied in them,' and their effectual 
salvation by him, ver. 10, 11, for nothing else will satisfy Christ about 
them. 

And to this purpose it may be farther observed, that in these promises 
in my text, made in David's name, as in behalf of his children, there is 
this strange difference apparently made between David the father and his 
children, that the Holy Ghost says not on his part, ' If he forsake my law, 
I will visit him with rods,' &c, but only if his children do, ver. 30, 31, 
whenas yet we all know, take David personally, he did foully forsake God's 
law, yea, despise the commandment, as the prophet Nathan challenged 
him, and was sharply visited with rods. Yet there is no mention of any 
of his sins, nor so much as of an if about any such matter, but all of him 
is passed over in silence. And to what other mystical purpose should 
this be, but that as Melchisedec's genealogy is omitted to make up a like- 
ness to the Son of God, to the like intent there is omitted the mention of 
David's sins in this place, that David hereby might bear the type and 
shadow of Christ's person, and withal be a perfect type of him in his rela- 
tion unto his children, who was in his own person not only without sin, 
but above the least supposition of it ? But if his children should sin, and 
some of them might be left unto great sins, yet for the mercy promised 
him they should be pardoned. And under this representation David 
comes to personate Christ, as he was to bear the relation of father unto 
his spiritual children, as for whose sake those promises were made. And 
in this manner, upon Christ as such a father and our David, and those 
promises to his seed, did that oath rest, as well as for the throne. If we 
also take the succession of David's fleshly seed, good and bad, the mercies 
and forbearance of God towards them (taking the circumstances of their 
sinnings, &c.) were greater towards them than unto any other succession 
of men that have been on earth. And we find it often in the story of the 
Kings and Chronicles put literally upon this reason, that is, ' for David 
my servant's sake.' And these dispensations of temporal mercies to those 
his children were but the shadows of those sure mercies, of pardoning 
mercies, promised to the spiritual seed of Christ. And for a farther con- 
firmation of this, the spiritual children or seed of Christ are also termed 
David's seed and children here in the text, by the same just reason that the 
faithful are termed the sons of Abraham. For the foundation of Abra- 
ham's title to his being the father of all the faithful stood thus, that 
because a covenant and oath was promulged personally and particularly 
unto him, how that in Christ, who was to be his seed after the flesh, all 
the nations of the earth should be blessed; and that seed out of all 
nations being Christ's seed first, therefore he had the honour to be styled 
' the father of all the faithful,' whether Jews or Gentiles, and the repre- 
senter of Christ therein. Yea, and that oath and covenant involved the 
spiritual seed, as made unto them as well as unto himself, who laid hold 
upon it by faith, or as unto Christ, or rather with Christ for them, for so 
it is expressly interpreted to be: Heb. vi. 16, 17, 'For men verily swear 
by the greater ; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all 
strife. Wherein God, willing to shew unto the heirs of promise the im- 
mutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' Now, the very same 
covenant and oath being in more ample and plain terms renewed unto 
David, the analogy holds between David and Abraham, and this psalm is 



70 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

an evidence of it. If then Christ and the spiritual seed in Abraham's case 
are not to be separated, then not in the case of David, wherein both are 
more distinctly and expressly mentioned, and included in one and the same 
covenant, than in Abraham's they were. Only David being a king set up 
so immediately by God, therefore the promise of the throne unto Christ his 
successor is more eminently indeed spoken of, yet not so as that it should 
be the sole object of that oath, but that God's faithfulness unto the children 
of Cbrist, or heirs of salvation, is taken in, as in Abraham's case it was, 
though far more obscurely. 

And that the spiritual seed of Christ are reckoned as David's house and 
children, that place alone may perhaps be sufficient to prove, in which the 
conversion of the Gentiles is termed ' the building up the tabernacle of 
David:' Acts xv. 15-17, 'Unto this agree the words of the prophets; as 
it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of 
David, which is fallen down ; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and 
I will set it up : that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all 
the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doth all 
these things.' Among the Hebrews* a tabernacle was put for one's 
house ; and that house signifies children is well known : Luke i. 33, ' He 
sball reign over the house of Jacob for ever;' by which is meant the spiri- 
tual seed, whether of Jew or Gentile, as before opened. 

Having thus cleared and evinced it, that by David's children here in 
this Psalm lxxxix. 30 is intended the spiritual seed of Christ, I come now 
to shew how in verses 30-37, the glories of Jehovah, pardoning iniquity, 
transgression, and sin, are most signally displayed in this 89th Psalm, 
from verse 30 to verse 38, ' If his children forsake my law, and walk not 
in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my command- 
ments ; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity 
with stripes. Nevertheless my loving- kindness will I not utterly take from 
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor 
alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my 
holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, 
and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as 
the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. But thou hast 
cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.' That 
God will pardon your sins of ordinary infirmities that you commit, that 
you think easily the covenant of grace doth reach and extend to ; ay, but 
here is a proviso (you call them so in acts and wills) which is an amplia- 
tion of the covenant of grace upon the supposition of the worst of cases, 
of the worst of those who are under the covenant of grace : ' If his chil- 
dren forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments,' &c. You see the 
amplitude of the covenant of grace (what hath God to do to run out to 
this ?), and you shall see the largeness of the covenant of grace, how far it 
extends. 

1. I begin with the word if; it implies, that it is a case may fall out, 
God hath not said temere, rashly, or used all these words in vain. It is a 
case may sometimes fall out. 

2. What is the reason of this if, if they shall do so and so ? It is not 
so much, as Museums says, to shew what man will do, but it is to shew 
what God will do. If men do so and so (and make a supposition to the 
utmost), if they do so and so, yet I will do so and so (says God), as far, 

* Hebraeis omne habitaculum ffx'/jr/} dicitur, quia ea habitatio vetustissima. — 
Grotius in locum. 



ClIAP. IX. j OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 71 

nay, beyond what the imagination of man can reach, as Christ is a Saviour 
to the utmost. 

3. Ho useth the word if, not that what is supposed does oft fall ont, for 
there are millions of saints go to heaven, and not come within the compass 
of this place, and therefore it is what seldom happens. Ay, but sometimes 
it does, for God would not in vain use so many words. It is hard to say 
what sins God pardons after regeneration ; in some God exalts his justify- 
ing grace more, in some his sanctifying. If one of ninety-nine be gone, he 
leaves all the other for those few's sake ; he hath made provisoes in this 
covenant of grace, he hath put this // in. 

4. He repeats it, and indigitates it over and over; for, as Calvin says, 
it is the hardest thing in the world to believe it, and whoever lives in 
great sins, it is the hardest thing in the world to believe that God will 
pardon him. 

But doth he speak of the members of Christ, is it of those that are actual 
members of Christ that he speaks this ? Is it not of their sins before con- 
version rather? Nay, but it is after: 'If his sons forsake my law,' says 
the 30th verse. Those that are his sons and children are actually in the 
state of grace. At the day of judgment, says he, Heb. ii. 13, ' Lo I and 
the children which God hath given me;' and he is called an 'everlasting 
Father,' Isa. ix. 6. 

Another observation is concerning his seed, that the greatest of their 
sins may come under this if, under this proviso ; so Calvin and Musculus 
observe. David did not commit a sin of infirmity when he despised the 
commandment of the Lord, but his sin extended to the most heinous guilt. 
And he speaks of such sins as may not be called mere infirmities. Observe 
how he sets out their sins supposable. 

1. He reckons up all sorts of laws broken: ver. 30, 31, there is my laws, 
judgments, statutes, and commandments ; and interpreters fetch out all the 
judicial laws in rites and statutes, and moral laws in commandments. 

2. Then observe how he expresseth it, for the act: ver. 30, ' If they for- 
sake my law, and walk not in my judgment;' ver. 31, 'If they break my 
statutes, and keep not my commandments ;' here is a worse than all, ' If 
they profane my statutes.' It is translated, 'If they break my statutes;' 
but in the Hebrew, and so in the margin, it is ' If they profane my statutes.' 
Now, for a saint to be a profane person, as Esau was, Heb. xii., how heinous 
is the guilt ! 

3. Take the title of their sins ; he calls them • transgressions' and ' ini- 
quities,' ver. 32 ; ■ pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin.' One of 
the words signify falseness, treachery of sin. Thus he sets out the great- 
ness of those sins which it is supposed saints may fall into, after they are 
children. 

4. Here are sins of omission and commission. Of omission : ' if they 
walk not in my judgments,' ver. 30. Of commission : ' if they forsake my 
law, and break my statutes, or profane them,' ver. 31. I will not say that 
it is not to be said how far men may sin ; as it cannot be said how far men 
may go and not be sincere, so neither how far a man may sin. Though it 
is certain there was a seed of God remained, yet that person that was 
excommunicated is called ' the wicked person.' And you know the story 
of the apostle John's young thief, recorded by Eusebius, which was an 
amazing instance of a man's falling into sin. Water may be so heated, that 
any body that puts his hand into it may say, Here is no cold in it ; but yet, 
though it scalds, let it stand a while and all the heat will be gone. Let 



72 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

men in a state of grace be inflamed with lusts, that one would think there 
is nothing of grace, yet there is a principle of grace which will reduce them 
at last. Thus much for the greatness of sin. 

5. God promiseth chastisements in such cases. He does not bring 
great chastisements for ordinary infirmities, but for such sins as these are, 
that they may not be judged of the world : 1 Peter i. 17, ' If ye call on 
the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every 
man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.' Though he be 
a Father, yet therefore be afraid of him. It is not for men to say, Let 
men live as they list, they shall be saved ; no, says God, I will put a stop 
to you by chastising you. See what these chastisements are in these cases, 
and how he speaks of them : you may see the covenant of grace to shine 
in all still. First he says, he will ' visit them with rods and with stripes.' 
He calls them rods, 2 Sam. vii. 14, when the promise was first made to 
David (this very promise), < I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. 
If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with 
the stripes of the children of men.' It is a moderation of the correction, 
I will not whip him so hard as to kill him, says God, but as you whip 
men : I will not chasten with soreness of my displeasure, but deal with 
them as men. The truth is, God whips with rushes, in comparison to his 
vengeance in the other world : it is with the rod of men, which men may 
bear. He hath a sweet word, ' I will visit their transgressions with rods.' 
He says not, I will strike ; no, it is a fatherly word, I will visit them as 
you do sick folks, to help them : it is a word full of tenderness. Again, 
he says, * I will visit their iniquities :' it is a sweet word ; he does not say, 
I will visit them ; no, I love them, I have no anger at them, and wrath for 
them, but I have at their transgressions, Isa. xx. This is all the fruit of 
my chastising, to take away sin. 

6. Consider the promises he makes to this case (the promises of chas- 
tisements you heard), but consider the other part of the promises that are 
here mentioned, and it will extremely affect your hearts. 

1st, Says he, I will be kind for all this, I will not make my kindness 
void : so it is in the Hebrew, ver. 33, ' Nevertheless, my loving-kindness 
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' My 
kindness shall never fail in pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin ; I 
will ever be abundant in kindness and truth, Exod. xxxiv. 7. Well, go 
then, count the number of promises he makes of this kind ; they are just 
the number of what he says of their sins. He had said four things of their 
sins : ' If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments : if 
they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ;' and there 
are four several expressions which relate to his pardoning them, ' Not- 
withstanding my loving-kindness will I not make void, nor suffer my faith- 
fulness to lie : my covenant will I not profane, nor alter the things gone 
out of my lips.' So that here is four to four. 

2dly, Consider how he suits these expressions in correspondency to 
their sins. 

1st, ' If they keep not my commandments,' ver. 31 ; ' My mercy will I 
keep for him for evermore,' ver. 28. 

2dly, < If they forsake my law,' ver. 30 ; ' I will not alter the thing gone 
out of my lips,' ver. 31. 

3dly, ' If they profane my statutes,' ver. 31 ; ' I will not profane my 
covenant,' ver. 34. It is a mighty speech ; as if God had said, I should 
run into profaneness, and be as profane as you, if I should break covenant : 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 73 

as if God were in danger of this, if he failed Christ's seed in this case, of 
being a profane God, and an unholy God, and a lying God to David, which 
can never be. 

7. He binds all this with an oath ; ' Once have I* sworn by my holi- 
ness, that I will not lie unto David.' I have sworn absolutely. Now con- 
sider : 

1st, An oath is the highest confirmation of all other, Heb. vi. G. 

2dly, He tells you it is an oath but once taken. Why but once ? To 
shew that all is irrevocable, both oath and thing sworn to. 

3dly, Though it bo sworn but once, to shew it is irrevocable, yet not- 
withstanding we hear of it twice in this psalm : ver. 3, ' I have sworn unto 
David my servant ;' and again, ver. 35, he took the oath but once, but 
we hear of it twice. He took an oath to his Son, that ho would make him 
a king, and set up his throne ; that the 3d verse shews ; and he takes an 
oath for his seed, and his seed in this case of sinning, and it is as sacred to 
him concerning his children, as it is to Christ, to oblige himself to give him 
a throne and kingdom. 

4thly, Consider what he swears by. Of all things else this amazeth me, 
he swears by his holiness : ' Once have I sworn by my holiness.' Now 
bring all your consciences to God, and what is it you do dread in God ? His 
holiness. What is it provokes him ? It is laid in the foundation of jus- 
tice and wrath ; and because he is a God so pure that his eyes can endure 
no iniquity. Now then that his holiness, which is the most against sin, 
should be brought in to be sworn to pardon sin, what can you have more ? 
Calvin says, to swear by his holiness, is more than to swear by himself; 
for he swears by that thing which is like to be your greatest enemy, to con- 
demn and destroy you. 

5thly, Lastly, He swears by that which is most eminent in his holiness, 
and must be profane and lie, if he doth not perform. 

8. Consider that all this is founded upon Christ, though the mercies are 
in the heart of God. It is a mighty expression when he says, ' If his chil- 
dren forsake my law, I will visit their transgressions.' He speaks to them, 
If they do so and so ; but when he comes to make his promise, ' notwith- 
standing my loving-kindness shall not be void from him.' From him, 
ver. 28, i.e., from Christ. What, does Jesus Christ need any mercy? 
Ay, it is well for us he doth not for himself. But thus, as he is the head 
of all saints, and he and they make one body, the covenant of grace and 
mercy was made with him, and so they are called ' the sure mercies of 
David,' Isa. lv. 3. All the mercies God bestows are for his sake ; and it 
is well now that God hath sworn, that he will not take his mercies from 
Christ in relation to us ; and that Jesus Christ can go to God and plead, 
Lord, I have no need of mercy ; but thou hast given me all thy mercies 
for those who are mine ; Lord, fulfil th ;m to them. There is one use which 
Calvin makes, Live upon the covenant of grace, you need no more ; and if 
you be guilty of great sins, you had need live upon it. But let me com- 
mend one use, which David makes in the midst of the psalm, ver. 15-18, 
• Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound,' &c. He speaks in 
relation to the covenant of grace, to all them that are under it. He sets 
it in the midst as an use of application to the persons under it. But what 
kind of persons are they that are under it ? They ' know the joyful sound.' 
All interpreters acknowledge it is an allusion to the sounding the trumpets, 
which you read of, Num. x. 4, 10 ; Lev. xxiii. 23. This I find by Ains- 
worth and others, that 'joyful sound' here imports (what was typified by the 



74 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

sounding their trumpets and cornets) the spiritual joy the people of God 
should have in the favour of God, and meeting with God, and communion 
with God, in his covenant of grace. This is plainly the meaning, for (says 
he) • they shall walk in the light of thy countenance.' When did they 
sound trumpets ? They sounded trumpets for war, for feasts, upon extra- 
ordinary occasions of great joy, as at the dedication of the temple, Ezra 
iii. 11, 12 ; when the people returned from captivity, 2 Chron. v. 12, 13 ; 
when the foundation of the temple was laid, Ezek. iii. 10 ; and at its dedi- 
cation, Neh. xii. 35 ; and every new year they had trumpets and cornets 
sounded ; the one was made of rams' horns, which they called a cornet, the 
other of silver ; the one had a loud sound, the other a shrill, Ps. xcviii. 6. 
There is both trumpets and sound of cornets ; with these they made a joy- 
ful noise. Now what is the meaning of this, but to tell us, Oh blessed are 
those people into whose ears God blows joy, and peace, and salvation ? 
Says the apostle, ' If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound,' who knows 
what is meant ? 1 Cor. xiv. 7, 8. But when God comes and speaks to a 
man's soul all this that I have said of the covenant of grace, and tells him, 
that he is his salvation, and blows this with his own immediate voice, ' Oh 
blessed is that man that hears this joyful sound :' this man may • walk in the 
light of God's countenance.' Consider what he says of it : ' They shall walk 
in the light of thy countenance, and in thy name shall they rejoice, and in 
thy faithfulness shall they be exalted : thou art the glory of their strength,' 
&c. Such as have had this trumpet sounding in their souls, are enabled 
to walk triumphingly, and are prepared for war. They sounded the trum- 
pet for war : we are in war ' more than conquerors ;' ' grave, where is 
thy victory ?' Oh seek to the Lord that he would blow and make this 
blessed sound in your souls, that you may have God to rejoice in, and God 
himself alone. The angels may wonder at the wonders of the covenant, 
but you rejoice in them as yours, and you may do it all the day long ; and 
in doing so you will be taken off from all that is in yourselves. ' La thy 
name shall they rejoice :' ' They glory in this, that they know thee that 
exerciseth loving-kindness in the earth,' and ' their joy shall none take 
from them,' Ps. lxxxix. 6. 



CHAPTER X. 

Of the mercies of God's heart and nature. — That mercy and grace are true 
essential properties in the divine being. — That there are some that deny this. 
— This head discoursed in three branches: 1. An explication; 2. Th« 
proofs out of the text; 3. Answers to the principal objections. — 1. The ex- 
planation: 1st, How it is to be understood that mercy, or any other 
attribute, is the nature of God ; 2dly, Of the difference between those mere 
similitudinary attributes borrowed from man, as sorrow, repenting, dc, and 
those substantial attributes in God, the likeness whereof are communicated 
to man, and so attributed both to God and also to man, such as holiness, 
goodness, mercy. — The state I put the question into, for the jxroofs of the 
assertion. 

It may be greatly wondered at, that it should ever so much as have en- 
tered into the thoughts of any of the sons of men,* sinful men, who there- 

* It need not stumble any that such an opinion is vented by the same persons 
that speak at the same rate of the sacrifice which Christ made by offering up him- 



Chap. X.] of justifying faitii. 75 

fore need an infinity of mercy from the great God, to save and pardon them, 
to affirm that all tho mercy which God himself so magnifies in this scrip- 
ture, and for which other scriptures do so highly extol him, should be 
ascribed to God only e similituiline effectus ;* that is, because he doth and 
exerciseth loving-kindness ; and only because that his outward dispensations 
are such as men who are mercifully disposed use to exercise, out of a 
pitiful nature. But God, say they, without any inherent disposition or 
affections which should properly have tho name of mercy, or which, as 
such, should be the root and inward principle of such merciful acts, doth 
exert them. They answerably affirm mercy to be an attribute of that rank 
which are usually termed after the manner of man : as when God is said 
to grieve and repent, which are merely ascribed to him, because he doth 
6uch things towards us, as we men are wont to do when we grieve and 
repent ; but God doth them without any inward principle of grief or repent- 
ance: and it is so here in the case of mercy, say they. But their question- 
ing this great truth is not the occasion of my speaking to this point in 
this place ; but my method and subject necessarily lead me to it ; without 
the demonstration of which added to the former, my grand assertion, which 
bears the title of my subject, would be imperfect, and of less power and 
force upon believers' minds : and being thereby obliged to prove it out of 
the text, I saw some necessity first to premise that general explication that 
follows, to prevent mistakes out of vulgar apprehensions. 

I offer then an explication, how it is to be understood that any of God's 
attributes are of the nature of God, or may be said to be^the nature of God. 

This explication of this I shall absolve by these two explanatory pro- 
positions : 1st, The Scriptures say, that he is God by nature, Gal. iv. 8, 
in difference from those that are but called gods ; and so we may affirm 
that what God is, he is by nature, that is, by his being himself God ; and 
eo the perfections of his being are himself, and termed his Godhead, 
Col. ii. 9. 

1. These divina nomina (as the ancients call them), that is, these names 
attributed to God, such as wise, powerful, holy, good, merciful, are said to 
be his nature, because there is that in his divine nature or Godhead which 
truly answers to what is intended to be signified by these names, and he is 
by nature that which these attributes do express him to be. 

2. It were absurd to think or understand that any attributes whatsoever, 
as they are words and outward characters or expressions, should be the 
nature of God ; but yet these things signified by these outward words and 
characters are truly and inwardly in the nature of God, and he is such a 
God by nature ; and that these outward words and names do proprio et 
primario sic/nificatv , as the schools speak of them, in their primary and 
proper signification, convey to our minds what is really in God's nature. 

3. Nor yet are those glorious inward conceptions and apprehensions that 
are conveyed to, and begotten in, our minds by these significant characters, 

self for the sins of us men ; denying that also to be a price or ransom properly to 
redeem us, and would make it to be but metaphorical. And truly, when these two 
grand pillars of faith are thus enervated, and made weak, by taking from them what 
gives the strength and substance unto them, what remains there of solidity sufficient 
for the heart of a sinner, loaden with that infinite weight of his sins, to sustain and 
bear it up, and him to stay himself upon ? 

* Quoad actus secundos ; non quoad actus primos : quoad effectum, non affectum : 
objective ; shewing mercy to us ; not subjective, as from mercy in himself : xar' 
dvdouTTO'Traditav. 



7(> OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

begotten by tbe Spirit in us ; nor are tbese the nature of God, although 
they be the inward bright rays and shillings thereof. Both which is evident 
from that speech, 2 Cor. iv. 6, ' God, that commanded' (by creation namely) 
' light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light 
of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ ;' where, 
first, it is the glory of God himself that is said to be known ; and yet, 
secondly, the most illustrious light that was in the minds of the apostles them- 
selves, whereby they knew him, was but a created resemblance of that glory 
of God made in and through the face and person of Jesus Christ, who is a 
far more glorious/epresentation of the Godhead than what those attributed 
names can any way render to us. 

4. It remains to be proved, that yet the things themselves conceived of 
by us, and expressed by these names, are substantially and by nature in 
God ; or that there are those perfections in his nature and Godhead as do 
really answer to what these outward significant characters of attributes, 
and those inward beams of himself in our conceptions, do represent his 
nature to be. And the evidence for this may be drawn from the lesser to 
the greater, from that lower representation of God and his Godhead, made 
to the heathens by the works of God's providence and creation. And 
surely, look what those representations or manifestations of God made to 
them are termed, or what is spoken of them, we are warranted to speak 
the same, yea, much more, of these attributes of God's own choice to set 
forth himself by. Now, it is expressly said, Rom. i. 20, that ' the in- 
visible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God- 
head ;' where, 1st, ' those invisible things of God ' are his properties, 
such as are essential to him, and particularly power and eternity are there 
instanced in ; which, 2dly, are invisible in themselves to us, as LnYGodhead 
is, and but known of us, as God is pleased to make show of them unto us, 
as ver. 19, ' Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, 
for God hath shewed it unto them.' And, thirdly, that those invisible 
things or properties of God are essentially and by nature in him ; there is 
this evidence in that text, that what of them is manifested is said to have 
been in God himself before he made, yea, although he had never made the 
world (which is the manifestation of them there specified), or had any of 
these names given him ; and he gives for instance those two essential at- 
tributes, eternity and power. And in that he says eternal, he proclaims 
the reality of that attribute which we call power, to have been substantially 
in him from eternity, like as eternity itself also, before ever these attributed 
names were given him, or before any such works or effects of his were ex- 
tant, by which these are made manifest. The things were in him before. 

Yea, he riseth up higher, and expressly styles that which was signified 
and represented by these works, &c, to be his Godhead, in adding his 
eternal power and Godhead, which let critics interpret how they please, 
either to his divinity, as Beza, or Godhead, as our translators, yet either 
both do and must centre in this conclusion, that it is styled either of these, 
because there is that in his Godhead and divine being which in an excess 
of fulness doth in truth answer unto that manifestation of him. And so 
the argument becomes strong and prevalent for the point before me, that 
if those ruder and obscurer impresses made of himself by the works of 
creation, ver. 20, and those imperfect medals of himself stamped upon the 
souls of those heathens thereby, of which, ver. 19, he speaks (' for God 
hath shewed it to them'), be called his Godhead, then how much more 



Chap. X.J of justifying faith. 77 

do those names or attributes which God in his word, by his own institution, 
hath appointed, and in infinite wisdom himself invented and revealed, being 
accompanied and brought home by the power, supernatural light, and 
blessing of his Spirit to the souls of his saints, through his word (as out of 
2 Cor. iv. 6 was observed) ; how much more, I say, shall these be styled 
his Godhead in the sense and for the reason above said, even because they 
do, in their proper, direct, and absolute signification, shew what his Godhead 
is ! And there is that in God that corresponds to, and to an infinity doth 
make good what is spoken of him by these, as we call the representation of 
a man's face in water the man's face which it represents, because, as 
Solomon says, it answers ' as faco to face ; ' and so it is here. And the 
representations by these are but as those of a man's face or whole person 
in broken pieces of a looking-glass severed one from the other, whereby it 
comes to pass that not the whole in any is entirely seen, but one lineament 
or cast of the countenance is represented in one ; another part, as an eye, 
in another piece of that glass, and so of the rest. And therefore in the 
plural it is here said, ' The invisible things of God are clearly seen,' &c, 
in relation unto our multiplied conceptions of them in and by his works or 
attributes severally. For whilst by one act we take into our conception 
that he is wise, we then do not so much as think of his power or goodness. 
We see an eye in a distinct attribute severed as it were from the rest, but 
actually see not an hand at that instant, and so of the rest. God hath cast 
the apprehensions of himself into lesser moulds, to fit the narrow bore of 
our understandings. And if any man, apprehending some one or more, as 
those in the text, should say, there are no more, he should greatly derogate 
from the Godhead. But notwithstanding the multiplicity of the represen- 
tations of these attributes, or of our conceptions thereby, yet still there are 
all those perfections in the Godhead, which do in omnimodd et unitissimd 
simpUcitate, in an undivided unity and simplicity in the Godhead, answer 
unto all these. And look as we call the broken, scattered, diffused beams 
of the sun upon disturbed or surging waters, the sun, although they repre- 
sent it but by piecemeal, this beam in one wave in one part, and that beam 
in another wave another piece of it, because though it be thus scatteredly and 
brokenly done, yet there is that in the light and body of the sun that answereth 
unto all these, so it is here. And were it not thus, we could not be said 
to ' know him that is the true God,' as John xvii. 3, nor to know the truth of 
God as it is in God ; and so the heathen had not been ' without excuse, in 
that when they knew God they glorified him not as God.'* Only we are 
to correct these our imperfect conceptions by this rule, that whilst we make 
a composition of all these, to the end that thereby we might come to 
understand what God in the whole is (which is but a multiplicity in our 
imperfect contemplations of him), that yet still in the close of all we sit 
down with the faith of this, that in him all these perfections are inseparably 
one indivisible being, and all of them himself, and withal comforting and 
relieving ourselves against that present deficiency, that God hath reserved 
a time in the other world, in which with one intuitive act of knowledge or 

* I leave it to the schools to dispute : the Scotists on the one side, other school- 
men on the other; Quid sit fundamentum distinclionis attributorum in Deo, num in re 
an in ratione ratiocinante. This I am sure of, that what of the things of God are 
multiplied in our conceptions, are hut one in God, and one God. Sicut si quceratur 
an potentia sensiliva coloris et odoris sint idem, an distinguantur ? Respondendum, 
in sensibus externis quidem distingui, in sensu interno esse realitlr idem. — (Raphael 
Aversade Sanseverino in Part, prima, Quaest. 3. Sect. 4). 



78 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

entire view at once, we shall see all those perfections of his to be but one 
simple nature and fulness of the Godhead, which is a seeing God face to 
face. And then we shall find also that these attributes in this life did yet 
truly and really represent what was really and truly in himself. 

And thus much for the first explaining narrative or account (as I call it, 
because it consists of so many branches), which though it contains but 
what is common to other attributes, yet was necessary to be premised both 
for the better understanding of the proofs, and for the preventing mistakes 
perhaps in some vulgar understandings, as also conducing to the bringing 
forth something towards the state of this question, as it particularly con- 
cerneth mercy, viz., this, 

That this attribute of merciful is said to be natural to God, or the nature 
of God, because it directly signifies what is in God's nature, truly answer- 
able thereunto ; and that God's intent in proclaiming himself merciful, &c, 
is to declare what properly himself is, and his Godhead is. 

II. The second explanatory proposition is, that there are two ranks of 
these attributes, as our divines, and the attributes themselves, as in the 
Scriptures they are related, speak them to be. 

1. The first is of such as are utterly incommunicable unto us creatures, 
nor have they any respect unto the creatures ; such are God's infinity, sim- 
plicity, immensity. 

2. There are those that are communicable to us, that is, in the shadow 
and likeness of them, as wisdom, holiness, truth, goodness, mercy ; and 
such as have a respect unto the creature, as power, which is seen in creating 
and governing the creatures ; and goodness likewise, which respects a com- 
munication {of good unto the creature, whereof grace and mercy are eminent 
branches, and to be sure do respect the creature only, for God is not 
merciful to himself. ' The Lord is good, and his mercy endureth for ever,' 
was the solemn set song in the temple wherewith to praise the Lord. And 
this communicableness of some that are God's essential properties is 
evinced by that speech, ' He makes us partakers of his holiness,' Heb. 
xii. 10. And in like manner it holds of his wisdom, truth, goodness, 
mercy, kindness, long- suffering, &c, in that these are styled the image of 
God, that is, of what is in God, as the original pattern, *gaar6twnf. Now 
because the attributes of this latter rank are in a shadow communicable to 
the creature, and have a respect unto the creature, &c, therefore these men 
do confound these kind of attributes, at least some of them (as they please 
to except), with those that are but metaphorically attributed to God, and 
are apparently but borrowed from what is really in the creatures, and 
attributed unto God. And they do utterly deny these are first really and 
essentially in God, but only the image and shadow of them communicated 
to us, as hath been said, whilst yet they acknowledge those of the first 
rank to be essentially in God. But for the confirmation that the second 
rank communicated, &c, are no less essentially his divine nature than the 
first, I shall allege but two arguments. 

1st. The first is out of 2 Pet. i. 4, where we are said to be 'partakers of 
the divine nature;' whereby either, 1, the divine nature or Godhead itself 
is intended : and so we are said to be partakers of it in this just sense, by 
way of communion with the Godhead in the three persons, who, becoming 
our God, gives up himself, and all the perfections that are in him, unto us, 
to be enjoyed by us ; and so either here or hereafter we are to be ' filled 
with all the fulness of God,' Eph. iii. 19; not bodily (or by personal union, 
as Christ, CoL ii. 9), but in the objective communications thereof, for our 



ClIAP. X.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 79 

eternal happiness. And if this be understood, as many do understand it, 
we have his Godhead directly and immediately termed his divine nature, 
which yields an additional confirmation to what was affirmed in the former 
explication. Or, 2, by divino nature there is meant that Dei/ormltus, as 
the ancients called it; that is, the image of God, or a conformity unto God 
in us, which is the more common opinion ; and so understood, it falls in 
to be a proof of the assertion of this second explication ; for therein three 
things are necessarily imported: 1, that there are in God such perfections, 
as whereof we, in the likeness of them, are participants ; and so that that 
whole set and sort of communicable perfections in God are intended, and 
are expressly termed the divine nature, because they are first and originally 
in him, and then in us. Again, 2, the image of those perfections are 
styled the divine nature in us, as being the imitation of his ; and that not 
only in respect of the resemblance or likeness which the graces communi- 
cated have to his perfections, as those we have inherent in us bear the 
semblance of those in him. But further, 3, in respect that they become 
a new and divine nature in us, in our kind, even as his perfections (thus 
communicated) are a nature in him, even a blessed and divine nature. 
And for their resemblance unto him in that very respect, they are in com- 
mon called a divine nature in both him and us; being first true of him, 
and then in us, as the apostle John, in case of love, speaks of Christ and 
us, 1 John ii. And for that they are a nature in him as well as in us, 
therefore the conclusion is, that these communicable attributes are truly 
his divine nature, as well as the incommunicable. But, 4, there is this 
difference betwixt these perfections in God and those communicated to us, 
that in us they are but inherent qualities, which are termed a nature, be- 
cause they become as natural in us as any inbred and innate qualities can 
be said to be; whereas in God, look as he himself is ' the most high God,' 
Gen. xiv. 22, and elsewhere, ' God most high,' so these perfections are 
accordingly in him after a most high and transcendently supreme surpass- 
ing manner, incomprehensible by us ; whereof the following argument is an 
invincible evidence. 

Arg. 2. These communicable attributes of wisdom, holiness, truth, good- 
ness, power, &c, are so attributed to him, as such as are in him alone; 
notwithstanding that we men do partake of these, and the angels also do 
far excel us men in all these; thus, ' as wise as an angel of God' is the 
expression, 2 Sam. xiv. 17, and they are styled ' the holy angels,' and 'that 
excel in strength,' Ps. ciii. 20, far above us men in this life. Yet God 
alone retains and challenges the honour of being ' only wise,' Bom. xvi. 27, 
1 only holy,' Bev. xv. 4, ' only good,' Mat. xix. 17, ' the only true God,' 
Bom. iii. 4. Which attributions with an only must and do necessarily 
import, 1, that this wisdom, holiness, goodness, truth, and strength, are 
in God as God, and that they are of his divine essence and nature, which 
we creatures are in no wise capable of. Our souls are one thing, namely, 
substances; our graces another, namely, accidents; but the essence of God, 
and his divine properties, are but one and the same ; of which more after- 
wards. And hence it is that although these are communicated to us, yet 
indeed are but equivoce attributed to the creatures, and are in them but in 
a semblance, even as the picture of a man is called a man. And though 
because men assumed and imposed these names first, and applied them to 
men, and seeing such and such qualities in them, they thereupon gave them 
the names of wise and merciful, to signify those things in a man which, 
according to man, is wisdom and mercy ; and it was they that gave these 



80 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

denominations to men like themselves, because men are next and first in 
our view; yet in truth and reality the sole honour and glory of these names, 
thus invented by men, and applied to men, are due to God alone, for the 
true reality and substance of these in the creature is in God, and men had 
the gifts and qualifications of them derived from God. And men having 
given such and such several names unto those excellencies that are in men 
and angels, calling man, for that little wisdom in him, wise; for holiness, 
holy ; yet these falling out to be the likeness and resemblance of what is 
in God substantially, therefore God, in speaking of himself unto men, useth 
the same terms and style, to set out those glories in himself; and this 
account the schoolmen* have wisely given. Seeing, then, that these 
attributes that are communicated to the creatures are as they are in God 
his nature, as well as the incommunicable, there are these consectaries 
from thence. 

The first is to shew the apparent and jet infinitely vast difference that 
is between those attributes which are said to be ascribed to God after the 
manner of man, which have been specified again and again, and those we 
call communicable to men, and are in common ascribed to us and to God. 
The difference is manifest; that those after the manner of man (as when 
God is said to grieve, Gen. vi., be troubled, Jer. xxxi. 20, his repentings, 
Hos. xi. 8, &c, of which sort those men would persuade us the mercies 
in God to be, and would reduce and bring mercy in God thereto) are such 
as are truly, and properly, and originally in the creature first, and then 
borrowed from the creature by way of similitude only, God condescending 
in that language to speak of himself after our manner, and weaknesses, and 
passions, so to make a smart and sensible impression upon our dull souls. 
But, on the clean contrary, these communicable attributes, whereof mercy 
is one, are first and originally in God, and derived from his fulness, which 
God vouchsafes to express to us by those names which we men give to the 
semblance of them in us men, as hath been explained. 

Hence, 2, we may likewise discern how easily men may err from the 
right in this matter; because mercy in us men, in the sound of it, speaks 
weakness and an affectionate passion as the conjunct of it; and when 
spoken of God, is expressed by the sounding of bowels, &c, and by God's 
being troubled for us, which is acknowledged to be indeed spoken of him; 
but it is to be understood after the manner of men, because he doth that 
which merciful men are wont to do when their bowels yearn within them. 
But yet still mercy itself, that is the root of all as it is in God, is another 
thing. We must cut off all such imperfections, whilst yet we are helped 
by them, as we are men, to conceive how tender his mercies are towards 
us. We poor creatures are apt to drench our conceptions in what mercy 
in the creature is, and through the tincture and apprehension we have 
thereof, taken from the creature, do we look upon the mercies in God, and 
so conceive of them as if God had borrowed the denomination of them 
from us, to express himself to us by; and so we are apt to think mercy to 
be a mere metaphorical [attribute in God. We grant mercy in us to be 
analogous to what is in God, but that mercy in God to be the original 
idea, and not metaphorical or similitudinary. 

Hence, 3, let us, in our thoughts about these mercies in God, form and 
cast our conceptions in the mould of this rule, that though they be in God, 

* Ista nomina per prius dicuntur de Deo, quam de creaturis: sed quantum ad 
impositionem per prius a natis imponuntur creaturis (quas prius cognoscimus). — 
Aquinas, 1 parte, Quoest. 13, articulo 6, in fine. 



Chap. XL] of justifying faith. 81 

yet after an unconceivable manner to us ; and that they aro in God for the 
kind and being of them, with an infinite difference, — as being in God as 
God, and in the creature but as a creature ; and therefore, that as far as 
God's essence and being transcends ours for kind of being, so far doth 
holiuess and mercy in him exceed the mercies that arc in us, even for kind 
also, as Christ in the very point of mercy informs us, in saying, ' So shall 
you be the children of the Most High,' Luke vi. 35, 3G. And so much 
higher in mercy is God than we, for our comfort, ' as the heavens are 
higher than the earth ;' as God himself speaks of himself, Isaiah lv. 9. 

These things forelaid, the true measure of the decision of this question 
(if any will dare to make a question of it) is, 

Whether that these attributes, merciful and gracious, &c, although in 
common attributed unto man, do not yet serve, and be not intended by 
God, as really and fully to express and set out to our faith what a God he 
is in himself, and what his very nature and inward disposition, and inclina- 
tions of soul are, and affections of heart, a root and principle of merciful 
effects ; as when he is said to be holy, good, wise, true, strong, powerful, 
or the like; which are all communicated to man, and yet not ascribed to 
God after the manner of men only ; as when he is said to be grieved, and 
pricked at the heart. 

And if any will deny these, and such-like, to be essential attributes, or 
expressive of the true nature of God, they must affirm that no attributes, 
whereof men partake the name, are at all such, and that all do serve to 
express but outward effects merely, and no way inward dispositions, as the 
principle of those effects in him. And thus proposed, I shall make this 
one main argument of the assertion, viz., that mercy is a parallel attribute 
with those other. None dare say that he is holy in his works, or in respect 
he doth holy works, but that he is holy in his being, as he is God. The 
like is to be understood of his being good, wise, merciful, &c. 



CHAPTER XL 

That mercy and grace in God are properties of his divine being and glory. — 
No other proof alleged but from the text, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 

I come now to the farther proofs of this assertion, that mercy and grace 
are properties of the divine nature. And I profess to allege no other (that 
I may shew this text to be a complete abundary of all God's mercies) than 
what the text, either in the words themselves, or the aspect of them upon 
what went before, do afford the heads of, and foundations for ; and I shall 
then call in the help but of such other scriptures, which as volunteers 
willingly offer themselves to assist in this cause, and verify and confirm 
each hereof, when first extracted out of the word. 

The point to be proved is, that mercy and grace are glorious properties 
of the divine being or nature. 

Arg. 1. The first argument is drawn from the true reference and strict 
correspondency this proclamation of God, merciful, &c, holds with the 
foregone transactions in the chapter before, Exod. xxxiii., which lead on to 
it, which were Moses's request, God's answer and promise unto his request ; 
and here in my text, God's performance according to his promise. These 
three are correspondent, one to the other. Observe we then, 1st, what 
it was Moses desired of God ; and, 2dly, what God promised to gratify 



82 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK. I, 

him in ; and, 3dly, the thing which God did punctually perform. And, in 
my beginning with this first, I shall but keep to that method generally 
observed for the opening of a text, in discovering its occasion, coherence; 
and yet withal prove my assertion at once. In the 33d chapter, Moses had 
desired of God that he would shew him his face and glory ; that is, his 
divine essence immediately, or his essential glory as it is in himself. This 
Moses aspired unto, ver. 18, ' I beseech thee, shew me thy glory ;' but God 
tells him that this seeing his face, or the immediate vision of his essence 
or being, none is capable of, and live, ver. 20, which yet leaves a room for 
hope that the frailties of this life being removed, a man may see God's 
face in that other life. But yet, in lieu thereof, God, to gratify him, pro- 
fesses his gracious resolution to grant the privilege, as far as was possible 
for any mere man to partake of it and live ; and to manifest his foresaid 
face and glory, and his being God, as far as was expressible, and might be 
represented unto man, and he live, in these words : ver. 19, ' And he said, 
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name 
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, 
and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' And the best interpre- 
tation of this is that which I find in Oleaster,* who paraphrasing those 
words of God's, ' all my good,' that is, myself, says he, in whom is all that 
is good or excellent, or a perfection, shall pass before thee, and be made 
known by voice signifying it, ' I will proclaim my name,' &c, or by a 
vision of his, ver. 23, ' Thou shalt see my back parts,' representing it. 
And you heard how the names or attributes of God do signify truly and 
properly what is really the nature of God. So then God's essential divine 
perfections are intended and promised by God, to be seen and ^proclaimed 
by such characters of words ; or a name and attributes, as far as was 
possible, those perfections in himself to be by words expressed ; yet so as 
still these words should be such as should represent what was in himself, 
or the divine nature, in truth and reality answering thereunto, as in my 
explication premised, chap, vi., I have shewn. 

From whence I argue, that if these first and chief attributes proclaimed, 
viz., Jehovah, merciful, gracions, long-suffering, much in goodness and 
truth, had not served to signify that essential goodness which was in him- 
self ; or if there had not been that glory essentially in himself which these 
names were intended to signify, then God had neitber gratified Moses to 
the utmost he was capacitated for, nor answered his desire to see his glory, 
as far as he was capable to see it, and live. For that there are some such 
other names and attributes of his in Scripture which do express his nature 
and essence, all do, and must acknowledge, as wisdom, holiness, &c, which 
are not here expressed ; and therefore, if he doth it not in these here, 
professedly by himself proclaimed, and proclaimed as professedly to that 
very end and purpose, make his essence known ; then nowhere else should 
he be thought or judged to do it ; nay, he had done it in none, for he had 
professed beforehand he would do it in these, that he would proclaim his 
goodness and glory. And whereas there are (as was said) other attributes 
and epithets that would have set forth his divine being and glory, that he 
should name none of those, but, in lieu thereof, choose and single forth 
merciful, gracious, above all others, to express bis glory by, argues that 
mercy is not only his nature, but the glory of it ; at least, it must be 

* Ego transire faciam omne meum bonum, id est, meipsum ; in quo sunt omnia 
bona quae coram te explicabuntur voce : Clamabo nomen Domini. — Oleaster in 
verba. 



Chap. XL] of justifying faith. 88 

acknowledged such as do signify what his nature is, as really and as 
properly as any other denomination whatsoever can do, or ever will do. 
Yea, he would, since he professeth to proclaim that name which should 
express his glory, rather have made choice of those other names that are 
essential, if those had not been such as much as any. And this first 
argument is but as the porch or portal to the whole building. 

Arg. 2. My second argument is from the very order and division which 
the words (as to the point of mercy) do naturally fall into ; and this may 
well be taken for one proof of this assertion, a preliminary one, for I yet 
make but an entry to the text. For three things may be easily discerned 
distinct in this proclamation, and succeeding one the other in an orderly 
dependence one upon the other. 

1. An inward, merciful, and gracious disposition to shew mercy, which 
is the root or spring, placed therefore in order the first: 'Jehovah, 
Jehovah, God merciful and gracious, long- suffering, much in goodness and 
truth.' 

2. His blessed purposes and resolutions to bestow it, in these words : 
' keeping mercy for thousands ; ' that is, reserving it in his intendments to 
bestow it, which are immanent acts in God, flowing from the former, kept 
and laid up in his own breast, and now uttered. 

3. Extrinsecal, or outward works of mercy issuing from both : as ' par- 
doning iniquity, transgression, and sin,' that being given as one instance 
(the most eminent), for all other of that sort, external mercies. 

Whereof the sum is, 1st, he is merciful and gracious : that is his nature 
as he is Jehovah, Jehovah ; 2dly, he fully resolveth to shew mercy : there 
is his heart ; 3dly, he hath done it, and doth it, in pardoning every day : 
there is his wont and practice, as Moses upon it says : Numb, xiv., ' Par- 
don as thou hast pardoned, from Egypt until now.' And by these three 
God sets himself out to be every way, and all sorts of ways, merciful. 

And this general may serve instead of a more exact division of the words 
which others would give, and doth give some light to prove this head, if 
there were no other to follow ; but this is but as the threshold or first 
entrance to the whole. 

Arg. 3. Merciful effects are ascribed unto the mercy of God as the proper 
cause of them, and therefore the mercy attributed to God must be properly 
an inward principle in God, whence those effects do proceed. It is an 
approved maxim, and will approve itself, and carry itself thorugh the 
whole Scriptures, that as in the general all God's works are ascribed to 
God as God, Ps. lxxxvi. 8, 10 ; so in particular every genuine attribute 
hath, for the glory of it, proper work attributed in a special eminency unto 
it as the special cause of that work. As the creation of the world is attri- 
buted to power, Rom. i., and to wisdom, Ps. cxl. 24, yea, and the greatness 
of his work is attributed to the greatness that is in himself, Ps. lxxxvi, 10, 
and Ps. cxlv. 3-6, as in like manner the goodness of them to the goodness 
that resides in him ; and thus the performance of his promises is attributed 
to that essential truth that is in him, and are styled truth ; the like must 
be allowed unto mercy, whilst we find the Scriptures attributing such and 
such works unto mercy in God as the proper cause of them. Furthermore, 
the distinction of one essential attribute from another is, to our under- 
standing, fetched from that special and proper relation they have in 
Scripture given them unto their several objects and effects. Justice refers 
to a sinner as to be punished, mercy to a sinner to be forgiven, and are 
thereby distinguished as to us, who cannot conceive of their simple oneness 



84 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

as it is in God's divine being.* There is that really in God which answers 
to each and every one as so distinguished. 

Now, that merciful effects are ascribed to the mercy of God, as the proper 
cause of them, as truly and as roundly as any other effects are to any other 
attributes whatever, is evident out of this text, to which, as for the ground- 
work of my proofs, I have limited myself; as also from other scriptures 
which confirm the same. 

I. Out of this text. 

1. It appears from God's own method. First, 'Jehovah, merciful,' &c, 
absolutely simply such is proclaimed; and then, 'a God that pardons 
iniquity.' The first is placed before as the principle or cause, the latter as 
the effect thereof. 

2. It is evident by Moses his gloss upon the interpretation of it, Num. 
xiv-., where he first allege th, as the foundation of his request, the two chief 
of these first five absolute abstract attributes, power and mercy, as the 
summary of the other : ' Let the power of my Lord be great, according as 
thou hast said, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy.' 
Thus as they are in God himself; and then he mentions those that speak 
the effects thereof, ' forgiving iniquity and transgression.' Which having 
premised, his petition is framed accordingly, verse 19, which he indites 
thus, ' Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the 
greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt 
even until now.' Now, compare we the one and the other together, and 
look as the words he cites of God's speech have two parts or clauses — 1, 
the Lord, long-suffering and of great mercy, which are the abstract attributes ; 
2, pardoning iniquity, &c, that speak the effects — accordingly his applica- 
tion of them in his petition hath two parts or clauses manifestly answering 
to and expounding those other two: 1, that phrase, ' according to his great 
mercy,' answereth and expouncleth these words, • the Lord, long-suffering, 
great in mercy,' &c, as strongly pleading that according to that mercy he 
had thereby declared to be in himself and gracious nature as a principle of 
pardoning, he would please to pardon them ; 2, his adding, ' As thou hast 
forgiven them all along from Egypt until now,' denoting matter of fact 
done and put forth by mercy, doth as pertinently expound that clause in 
God's own words cited by him, ' forgiving iniquity and transgression,' 
which in like manner also denoteth matter of fact as the effect of mercy. 
And put both together, and they fall into this true and genuine sense and 
meaning; as if he had said, According to that infinite mercy abounding in 
thy divine nature, who art Jehovah, God, merciful and long-suffering, &c, 
out of which, and according to which, thou hast de facto pardoned them 
hitherto, pardon them again now; which that it is the scope of God's 
words in my text, is the thing I am a-proving. So then in these words, 

1 the Lord, long-suffering, and of great mercy,' there is the cause first 
specified, or principle in God moving him, and which therefore Moses in 
the first place premiseth as his foundation to move God withal. Then in 
the other w r ords, ' pardoning iniquity,' there is the effect promised, with 
this declaration of his nature, which flows from that inward blessed dis- 
position or principle of mercifulness, which he sues unto, and implores 
that God would accordingly put forth in an actual pardoning of them. 

* "We must not say, Formaliter, quod Deus quatenus miscricors punit, nee qua- 
tenus puniens est misericors : non dicitur per misericordiam punire, aut per justitiam 
vindicatricem misereri, sicut non dicitur, per intellectum vult, et per voluntatem 
intelligit. — Sanseverinus, Parti. Quaest. 21, Sect. 1. 



CUAP. XI. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 85 

The first speaks mercy to be an attribute of his nature, for he clearly 
parallels it with his power, as an essential attribute: 'Let the power of 
my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, the Lord God of great 
mercy.' The second, of pardoning iniquity, speaks that effect llowing 
from that nature as an act of his will yet put forth, according to his 
nature, which those words of Moses, ' according to the greatness of thy 
mercy,' do sufficiently import. And it was Moses that first brought up 
this so happy expression in praying, ' according to thy mercy,' upon this 
occasion, and as extracted from those words, ' the Lord, long-suffering* 
merciful,' which was afterwards often used by David and the prophets as 
a ground of their seeking of pardon and mercy, and that unto this very 
purpose and meaning in which I have now expounded it. For this of 
Moses was the original of it, and is the highest and utmost motive that 
can be used to God, to put forth all the mercies of his nature to succour 
us in all our distresses, and that according thereunto he would deal with 
us ; which is enough and enough (as we say) for us to ask, or to support 
our faith in asking. And all these are at once seconded by Nehemiah, 
chap. ix. 31, 'Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not 
utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and mer- 
ciful God.' 1. There is the root or bbva^ig of mercifulness in God himself, 
the efficient cause: ' for thou art a gracious and merciful God;' 2, there 
is the effects of that mercy: ' thou therefore forsookest them not;' and 3, 
there is the same mercy in his nature, and set out as the final cause moving 
him thereunto : ' for thy great mercy's sake.' 

By David's application of the words of my text, I shewed in the fore- 
going chapter how David, rehearsing first these four attributes appertain- 
ing to mercy word for word, hath likewise by name cited Moses, as out of 
whose writings he had them. And his method there is accordingly the 
same with this we have shewn was that of Moses. First, abstractly to 
recite those attributes as the principles in him and the cause : Ps. ciii. 8, 

* The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in 
mercy.' And then to bring in many of the outward effects of that mercy: 
ver. 9, 10, ' He will not always chide ; neither will he keep his anger for 
ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according 
to our iniquities.' And amongst others he introduceth that of pardoning 
iniquity, &c. : ver. 12, ' As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he 
removed our transgressions from us.' 

Elsewhere and in other scriptures we find the same ; and indeed other 
scriptures that speak about the mercies of God, speak but according to 
God's intent in these words, they being derivatives all from this. Now, 
when in Psalm Ixxviii. 38 it is said, ' He, being full of compassion, forgave 
their iniquities,' he plainly assigns the mercifulness in God to have been 
the cause* of his forgiving them, and therefore mercy is most properly 
ascribed to God, and is in God. And this speech of his there is but 
explicatory of these words here in the text. In like manner, in Psalm 
lxxxvi., after he had so earnestly sought for mercy at God's hands (as 

* preserve my soul, save thy servant,' ver. 2; ' be merciful to me,' ver. 3), 
he foundeth all his petitions on this, ' For thou art good, and ready to 
forgive ; plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.' He sup- 
plicates his good and merciful nature to move himself to put forth these 
acts of mercy towards him. Likewise Nehemiah, chap. ix. 31, giving an 
account of God's gracious dealings with that people notwithstanding their 

* Causa attribuitur ejus misericordise, quje naturaliter in ipso est. — Cat. in verba. 



86 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

sins, « Nevertheless,' saith he, ' thou didst not forsake them, for thou art 
a gracious and merciful God.' That particle for, in this and those other 
places, doth undeniably testify that God being himself truly and properly 
merciful, from thence and according thereunto it is that he acteth 
graciously and compassionately towards us, as moved by and from a true 
principle and disposition in himself. Oh how perfectly contrary are these 
professed dictates of the Holy Ghost unto what some would elevate and 
dilute this attribute unto, viz., that he is only said to be gracious and 
merciful, &c, for or because he doth merciful things; whereas the Scrip- 
ture style all along you see is, he doth merciful works for he is gracious 
and merciful. 

Yea, further, to confirm this, it is so remote that God should be styled 
merciful in relation to his works of mercy, that his works of mercy have 
their denomination or name of mercies * (as frequently they have in the 
Scriptures, and in common use of speech) given them from that proper 
special relation they owe and bear unto the mercy that is in God, from 
whence they do proceed. And so they are not styled mercies because 
they respect us or our needs, the objects of them, but in respect to the 
merciful God, who is the original subject in whom mercy is, and he the 
Father and fountain of them. And as the effect ordinarily bears the name 
of its proper cause, as the child of the father, so those mercies bear their 
name of and from his mercy, who is more eminently styled the Father of 
them than of any other his works wrought by other attributes. And that 
which confirms this notion is, that in the case of other attributes, their 
proper works or effects have their denomination from that attribute which 
is their cause, wherefore so in this. Thus Psalm cxix. 137, 138, ' Right- 
eous art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Thy testimonies 
that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.' There they 
are termed righteous and faithful judgments, as proceeding from his being 
a righteous and faithful God, and as from whose righteousness they pro- 
ceed. In like manner also the works of his grace in us are termed grace, 
grace freely given, being the free impressions and fruits of the grace that 
is in himself. And indeed, in that elogium of him that he is the ' Father 
of mercies,' 2 Cor. i. 3, look as the word of mercies, ofarig/iuv, doth import 
mercies bestowed, f so Father of those mercies is spoken of God to a like 
purpose ; as when the sun is said to be the father of lights (for unto the 
sun is that allusion of God in the apostle, James i. 17), the meaning is, 
that the sun hath first all light originally seated in itself, and so communi- 
cates all those lights and glory with which the moon, stars, and air are 
enlightened. Looking-glasses are arrayed and do borrow from that sun, 
and yet themselves are called lights. But how ? Only by participation 
from it, the original light. And in the same respect is God the Father of 
mercies, as he is also entitled the ' Father of glory ' in Eph. i. 17. Which 
in like manner notes, 1st, that he is a glorious God in himself — 'the God 
of glory,' Acts vii.2 — having an essential glory abiding in him, as light 
doth in the sun. And then, 2dly, that he disperseth glory to his saints 
and angels, as the Father of all their glory. And in and for the same 
reason he is magnified to be the ' fountain of life,' Ps. xxxvi. 9 : 
1, because he is the living God, and hath life in himself, as a fountain 

* As in that speech (to name but one instance), ; I am less,' says Jacob, 'than 
the least of all thy mercies;' less in worth than this staff, or any other mercy 
bestowed. 

t See Drusius in locum. 



Chap. XL] of justifying faith. 87 

hath water first in itself; and, 2, that from thence he derives life to 
others in lesser streams. And answcrably in the words of the apostle 
Paul, 2 Cor. i. 3, he is styled merciful, and the Father of mercies. These 
being the offspring of his mercy, do bear the name of mercy from God the 
Father of them. 

It hath been sufficiently by all those foregoing passages of Scripture 
proved, that all outward effects of mercy are ascribed unto mercy, an attri- 
bute of God, as their cause and principle. I shall shut up this argument 
with a further proof of this inference, that therefore there is an inward 
principle of mercy in God himself, which is that cause. 

1. First, in reason. If the mercies of God be the cause, they must have 
a real being and existence afore all outward effects of mercy, and a greater 
than the effects, for it produceth them ; and in whom or in what can that 
mercy have an existence or being, but in God himself, whose mercy alone, 
and greatness of mercy too, it is said to be ? It is the mercy of God to 
which those effects are attributed, and therefore it is in God. And cer- 
tainly did those merciful effects proceed from other principles in God more 
eminently than mercy, he would never give the honour away from them, 
and cry up his mercy so much as the principal cause ; he would not give 
the honour to it if it were but a made attribute, and not real and genuine. 
And if that which I before laid at the entrance be true (as it is), viz., that 
genuine attributes have their proper effects attributed to them, in relation 
to which they are distinguished one from another as to our conceptions of 
them, it must then hold, that if all merciful effects are set over by the 
Scriptures unto the mercy of God as their proper cause (as hath been 
shewed), then mercy itself also is and must be as genuine and essential an 
attribute as any of the other. I hope the same plea for other attributes in 
this cause will be admitted and allowed in mercy's behalf; as, for instance, 
when it is said, * the Lord is good, and doth good,' Ps. cxix. 68, here 
doing good, being the effect of his being good, and attributed thereunto a,s 
its proper cause, doth invincibly argue his being good to be an essential 
attribute in him, &c. Thus, in like manner, when it is said, ' God being 
merciful forgave their iniquities' (which is the highest act of mercy), and 
divers others like to this that have been alleged, doth it not as aloud speak 
that God being first merciful in himself, doth out of that merciful disposi- 
tion pardon and forgive sins? Again, when it is said, 'The righteous Lord 
loveth righteousness,' Ps. xi. 17, hereby is imported that God first is 
himself righteous, which righteousness in this place is that integrity, recti- 
tude, and uprightness of his nature, whereby he is wholly addicted, and 
disposed, and inclined unto holiness and righteousness, and then thence a 
suitable affection flows, he loveth righteousness. Then surely on this 
other hand, when it is said God is merciful, and delighteth in mercy, that 
affection of delight ought to be interpreted to arise from an innate propi- 
tiousness unto merciful acts, as proceeding from a merciful inclination and 
disposition of heart, unto which to shew mercy is so naturally agreeable, 
as he delights in it ; and therefore it is said, that above all he is known by 
it; that is, known how merciful in himself he is, even as when it is said 
he is known to be a just God by the judgments that he executes, Ps. ix. 16. 

And indeed, those and such like speeches up and down the Scriptures— 
' Shew us thy mercy, Lord,' Ps. lxxxv. 7 ; thy mercy, that is, which is 
in thee, in thy heart and nature, lying of itself hid and latent there, unless 
and until thou puttest it forth in mercies towards us ; and in Ps. xvii. 7, 
'Shew thy wonderful loving-kindness,' or, as others read it, Mirifica 



88 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

misericordiam titan?, 'make wonderful thy mercy ; thy mercy,' which is 
so wonderful in itself, and as it is in thee, therefore shew it and give 
demonstration of it by wonderful effects ; to which corresponds that of Ps. 
cxi. 3, 5, ' His work is honourable and glorious ; and his righteousness 
endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered : 
the Lord is gracious and full of compassion ; ' as also that in Eph. ii. 7, 
to ' shew outwardly the exceeding riches of his grace ' (namely, within 
himself), — and many the like phrases, I say, do evidence the point in hand. 
For so in the case of other attributes it is acknowledged, that to prove 
them to be essential such expressions do serve ; as when of God's truth 
and uprightness it is said, Ps. xcii. 15, 'To shew the Lord is upright, and 
there is no unrighteousness in him.' So of his power, ' to make his power 
known,' Rom. ix. 22. ' To shew himself strong,' 2 Chron. xvi. 9. And 
this for the third argument, fetched from the relation of mercy in God as 
the cause, and mercies as the effect. 

Arg. 4. That which gives a farther addition of strength unto the fore- 
going argument, and will withal grow up to a new one, is, that God hath 
placed and ranked this of merciful amongst other attributes, which must 
be acknowledged to be of his essence, and to express what his nature is. 
And merciful being seated on this royal throne together with them, without 
any character or difference from them, yea, with the first of them, and with 
an height of greater eminency in some respects, how shall we otherwise 
understand it than that it is an attribute of the same kind, of equal rank 
and dignity, and of as high an alliance to the divine nature as they are of? 

Here are in the text two attributes especially, or indeed four, which God 
hath seated on this high bench, and hath set merciful in equal royal state 
with them, next himself, Jehovah, God. First, the two ; the one sitting 
on the right hand, the other on the left, of merciful placed in the midst, as 
on the throne between them. 1. Strength, or power to assist and strengthen 
the hands of it ; ^, El, indifferently signifies either strong or God (as is 
well known) ; I take both, as Junius throughout the whole Old Testament 
doth, everywhere translating it the ' strong God.' 2. There is on the left 
grace, to quicken mercy in all its actings ; so read the words thus, ' God, 
the strong, merciful, gracious.' 3. Unto which two are added goodness or 
kindness* And 4. Truth. I might reckon in long-suffering as a fifth ; 
but it is so apparently a sprig of mercy, or rather indeed but mercy itself 
stretched out at length, or continued (as waiting is but faith continued), 
that therefore I shut up that into mercy, and mention it not here as 
distinct. 

But I do take in the other two, ' abundant in goodness and truth,' as 
distinct, and as importing inherent principles in God of goodness and truth, 
in which his nature doth abound; and although in our English the word 
abundant would seem to carry the sound or report more toward actual 
kindness, and to God's performance of truth, yet the original word itself, 
and as it is by others translated, signifies as well much, ample, large, 
plenteous in goodness and truth, and is by our own translators, in Ps. 
ciii. 9, rendered 'plenteous in mercy' ; and these words much, plenteous, 
&c, do in their connotation strike deeper, and reach unto the bottom, and 
express the mind and treasury in God's heart and nature, as it is stored 
with a plenteousness in all goodness and truth, and how out of that infinite 
riches it is that in the outward dispensation he so abounds in goodness and 
truth. And that it is thus intended is undeniable ; for, as the Lord is first 
* Note, that some translate that word goodness, others kindness. 



ClIA;\ XI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITII. 89 

good in himself, and out of that goodness doth good, as in Ps. cxix. G8, 
and like as ho is essential truth first, who ' cannot lie,' Titus i. 2 ; i.e., his 
nature is truth ;* and then from out of that nature it is that having spoken 
once the word, he pcrformeth truth, so for the same reason the ground 
why he is so much and so abundant in goodness and truth, dispensatorily 
or in actual execution, must be, that he is much in goodness and truth first 
in himself essentially. That such exceeding abundance in the one is from 
the superabundancy of the other; and the reason is, because the degrees 
of much kindness and goodness in outward effects do as much depend and 
hold on the plenteousness of each of them in his nature, as simply his doing 
good in the least degree doth upon his being good, or no good at all would 
be done. The abounding therefore of goodness and truth in his nature 
must fundamentally be here understood as the spring, the overflowing of 
which causeth those high floods of each in his actings and dispensations. 
And goodness and kindness in any one who is such do most genuinely 
express nature in him, and what is natural to him, since by way of emi- 
nency we give such dispositions the style of ' good nature.' And so, seeing 
goodness and kindness are thus attributed to God, they speak nature in 
him also, or if yon will, the goodness of his nature (as with reverence I 
may speak), the most of any attributes. 

Upon these fore-mentioned accounts I may justly reckon upon four com- 
peers which mercy here hath, and is every way equal with them, and with 
each of which I might vie on mercy's side, and plead it to be as natural as 
any of them. I reason from them now as they are placed altogether as fixed 
stars, all of them in this glorious constellation, declaring the glory of God, 
Ps. xix., and of the like brightness and equal magnitude ; they are all 
merciful, and all alike formed up and cast in one and the same mould, 
that is, one and the same uniform kind of speech, and under that attri- 
buted alike to God, viz., such a form as was in the foregone argument, 
said to be, denoting inward, innate, inherent dispositions, which the four 
here for certain do, under such a form, denote, and are all four in them- 
selves such. And it is very hard to think and judge, that one alone of 
merciful, uttered in the same tenor, should be otherwise, that that alone 
should be adventitious. God is said to be good, and true, and the strong 
God, from that innate strength, goodness, and truth that is in himself, and 
not only from his doing good, &c. And why ought we not as well conceive 
him to be merciful (as it is here placed amongst these other) from an inhe- 
rent inward merciful disposition in himself, and not in relation only to the 
merciful effects he doth, and every day brings forth ? And God himself, 
who best knows himself, and how to speak of himself, having put no 
character of difference, who shall dare to make a difference ? so vast a 
difference, as to affirm that merciful is but a made, artificial attribute, 
raised up merely from his outward works of mercy, as his style of being 
the Creator is from the works of his creation, without which he had not 
had the actual glory of that title ; whenas those other that sit round about 
it here have the honour (de jure, and of right) to be acknowledged abso- 
lutely, and de se, to be and to have been in him, whether he had ever acted 
according to them, yea or not. 

And further, there may be added unto this that which I inserted, that 

merciful holds this its rank and place amongst them with so great an 

eminency. Search this and other scriptures ; first, here in this it is placed 

* Verus in natura, verax in sermone ; so, in respect of strength, he is loyyi'^ 



00 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

with the first, and by Moses made the great dominator, together with 
power, which two he alone supplicates whilst he allegeth these words, 
Num. xiv. 17-10, they two being as eminently set up in the words ; and, 
6econd, elsewhere the Scripture gives and bes .o^s a richer and larger coat 
of arms upon mercy, than on any other attribute that is not akin to this. 
One word usually serves to express any other attribute; but what a multi- 
plication and heaping up of words frequently is there to emblazon the glory 
of this ! In the text here, there is ■ merciful, gracious, long-suffering, 
plenteous in goodness,' which are in a manner all but various characters 
of mercy, and are much the same with mercy. However (as we say), they 
are of nearest kindred to it, and are therefore singled out and severed from 
all the rest of the words that follow in the text, by the psalmist, Ps. ciii. 0. 

Lastly, The Scripture loads mercy in God with titles of honour, and 
supperadded epithets of greatness, riches, glory, plenteousness, fulness, 
abundance, multitude, variety, manifold, eternity, everlastingness, un- 
changeableness, and what not. The like super-attributions might be 
observed given to the outward effects of it, above what to the effects of 
other attributes. It would be therefore yet more strange, and beyond a 
possibility of imagination, that this so magnified an attribute, extolled (as 
we say) to the heavens, yea, above the heavens, yea, great above, and so far 
above the heavens, Ps. cviii. 4, should in the end be but a similitudinary 
metaphorical attribute, ex similitudine effectus, and after the manner of men 
only, and so to have in comparison but the shadow of an attribute, but in 
reality and truth infinitely below all other. 

But there is in other scriptures that which brings in yet new and farther 
confirmation to this fourth argument, in that we find mercy not only natu- 
rally growing up in one bunch or cluster thus with these four (as in this 
one place), but that traversing the large garden of the Scriptures, we may 
besides frequently meet with each of those and mercy apart, and yet some- 
times joined and sprouting forth as two flowers growing upon one sprig ; 
that is, you may up and down espy mercy and power, and they two alone 
joined together in one stalk, then grace and mercy singly and alone on 
another. The like may be observed of mercy and goodness, as also of 
mercy and truth in other scriptures, and thus mercy and they are 2u/xjZ>uro/; 
so that if we acknowledge any of these four, especially if we own all of 
them to be natural attributes in the Godhead, we cannot but own mercy 
to be so too ; for we find both altogether with mercy (as here), and each 
(elsewhere) to grow alike as a natural branch together with another, which 
to be sure is natural, that it must be too hard to think that in so multiplied 
a variation, mercy should still be but as an ingrafture by art, and should 
not naturally grow out of one and the same stock of the divine nature. 

In this argument it holds that both juncta et singula juvant; we have 
argued in general from the conjunction of all together, and now we shall 
argue particularly from the singular and apart constellation of each with 
mercy. And as the conjunction of all, so the singular constellation of each 
with mercy so often will evidence it to be a fixed star indeed in this fir- 
mament. 

1 . Mercy and power (the two first in the text) are singly paired by Moses, 
when he hath occasion to allege these, God's own words, Num. xiv., ' Let 
the power of my Lord be great,' ver. 17; and pardon joined with it also, 

1 The Lord great in mercy, pardon according to the greatness of thy mercy.' 
He pairs these two and that for greatness alike equally; then are they 
pairs in kind and eminency, which is the particular we are arguing. Yea, 



Chap. XI.] of justifying faith. 91 

and of the two ho greatens mercy, for mercy hath the epithet great twico 
given it; the ' Lord of great mercy,' ver. 18; and again, ' According to tho 
greatness of thy mercy,' ver. 19; and greatness in the latter is in tho 
abstract given, but to power this title is given but once. The prophet 
David also sets these two alone together as most eminent in God : Ps. lxii. 
11, 12, ' Power belongs to God: also unto thee, God, belongeth mercy.' 
Look how power is God's (as some read it), or belongs to him, and is with 
him; so and in like respects mercy is God's, and is with him. There is 
no difference at all put, and that is enough, for power is God's in that 
transcendent manner that it essentially belongs to him. And whereas 
power to be such in him might discourage, he therefore, for his own com- 
fort, and of God's people, adds, 'To thee alto mercy belongeth,' so to poise 
and balance it; which, if mercy were not every way equal to it, it would 
no ways poise his power, and so not have relieved souls that tremble at 
the power of ' the great and mighty dreadful God,' as Nehem. ix, where 
merciful is also joined. And this is not the first time they have been thus 
paired as by David ; for David himself adds, ' For God hath spoken once, 
and twice have I heard this.' It is David's preface to those former words. 
And what will you say if this citation of his refers us and brings us back 
again to those very words, first, of God to Moses in my text, and then of 
Moses to God in this Num. xiv., as that which from both he had heard of 
twice ? Sure I am I find no reference to any other, or any sense given by 
interpreters more probable or so proper. Now, that power is an essential 
attribute of the divine Being, there was none that ever yet denied it, it 
being so expressly entitled his ' eternal power and Godhead,' Eom. i. 20, 
and therefore no less must its compeer mercy be. 

A second pair is mercy and grace, here placed next to merciful, gracious. 
You find these two alone singled out, and paired, as the two great letters of 
his name are, though many more are in it. First, when God promised to 
Moses to proclaim this his name, he specifies but these two only: Ex. 
xxxiii. 19, ' I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be 
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will 
shew mercy.' And how often elsewhere do you meet with these two in 
like single couples ? I need not abound in instances, they are so many : 
Ps. cxlv. 8, ' The Lord is gracious, and great in mercy ;' moreover, Ps. 
cxvi. 5, before cited. Likewise Neh. ix. 31, ' Nevertheless for thy great 
mercy's sake, thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for 
thou art a gracious and merciful God.' 

Now, besides that as to the things themselves, grace and mercy are sub- 
stantially one (for grace, considered in its distinction from mercy, what is 
it but love or favour simply considered, with a connotation of freeness in 
God, as not being obliged by any worth in the creature why he should be 
gracious ?) The very definition of grace giver by God himself is a love 
that is free, and that loveth freely. Thus, Hos. x.v., ' Receive us gra- 
ciously,' prays the church, ver. 2 (and it was Gou that put those words 
into her mouth, as in the same verse), and God answers, ' I will love them 
freely,' ver. 4, so explaining it. And that love in God is the root and 
ground of mei-cy, and mercy but love ampliated, or stretched out and 
enlarged to those he loves when they be in misery, I shall have a fairer 
occasion to demonstrate; and therefore, that if love and grace be an essen- 
tial principle in God, then mercy must needs be also. Besides this way of 
proof (which I now waive), I insist only upon this at present, as that which 
is proper to what is now afore me, viz., that grace and mercy are compeers 



92 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [EoOK I. 

and equals in every respect; and that, therefore, if gracious he an essential 
attribute, then m ■ i/id. Now, that grace is such, I urge this one argument, 
that God accora.is Lis being gracious as the height and top of his glory, 
yea, and his bebg merciful to be so too. Give me leave to put a weight 
upon this. When, in general, it is said of God (as often) that he is a 
glorious God, that which this carries to every understanding is, that an 
infinity of surpassing glory is in himself, and proper to him as God, and 
essential to him, which glory it is required of us to glorify. In like man- 
ner, when, in particular, it is said of any attribute that it is his glory, and 
which we are also called upon to glorify him for, in the manifestation of it 
to us, there is necessarily, withal, imported therein an essential glory, 
which is the root whence that manifestation proceedeth, and which is there- 
fore to be glorified by us, the proper glory of that particular attribute being 
the end of that manifestation. As when either in special it is said of grace, 
as Eph. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory of his grace,' it is no less nor no 
other than when in general it is said, ' that we should be to the praise of 
his glory.' Surely as in the latter speech, ver. 12, ' To the praise of his 
glory,' by his glory to be praised is meant all the attributes, as power, 
wisdom, &c, the result and crown of all which is his glory, that are the 
causes of, and are manifested in our salvation, all which, both the attributes 
and this glory of them, must be acknowledged to be essential, and that 
answerably there is an essential glory of them in himself, which was and 
had been in him although he had never made any outward manifestation 
at all thereof. So in the former speech, ver. 6, his particular instance, 
the glory of his grace, must necessarily be understood, that his grace is 
glorious with the same kind of essential glory proper to it as the other, 
and to import this it is styled the glory of his grace. Some would have it, 
that by the glory of his grace to be praised should immediately and directly 
be meant the glorious manifestations of his grace, yet still there must be 
imported therewith and thereby an essential glory that is the glory mani- 
fested ; and it must needs be so, for all manifestation is but of what is and 
hath being as the object of that manifestation, so as still we must resolve 
all into an essential glory that is at the bottom, and is the foundation ; 
3 ? ea, and that intrinsecal glory of any attribute is that which is the ultimate 
object of our praise when we are called upon to glorify it, the farthest 
mark, the terminus which we transmit our glorying of God in that respect 
unto, as that which we aim to praise and glorify, as indeed it is ex- 
pressed, • to the praise of the glory of his grace.' The aspirements and 
holy aims and Teachings of godly souls in their giving glory to God, rest 
not in praising or in giving glory to the manifestation of his glory, although 
that be never so glorious, but by means and upon occasion thereof are 
carried out to and terminate in his essential glory itself, as that which is 
in their aims to give glory to. And indeed thereby only it is fulfilled, that 
'he that glorieth, gloricth in the Lord,' as the apostle and prophet calls U3 
to do, whilst both speak of mercy manifested, 1 Cor. i. 31, Jer. ix. 24. 
And indeed either none of those attributes of wisdom, power, &c, shewn 
in our salvation, that wear and have the title of his glory stamped upon 
them, are essential to him, or this of grace also must be so, which is 
styled his glory, xar Igo^ijf, by way of eminency and singularity. The 
truth of these things that one place, Rom. ix. 23, declares, ' that he might 
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.' Here is at 
first a manifestation of glory, in those words make known, and withal a 
riches of his glory which is manifest, whereby it is evident that glory must 



Chap. XI.] of justifying faith. 93 

needs be understood to be different from tbat manifestation, be it never so 
glorious; for it is the thing tbat is manifested, and what can tbat be otber 
tban tbose ricbes of glory which be possessetb in himself, and makes 
known by communications and manifestations thereof on bis saints, as it 
follows there ; like as in that speech in the verse afore, verse 22, which in 
coherence is parallel to and yokes with this, ' God willing to make bis power 
known; ' tbat is, bis power being an intrinsccal, essential attribute in him- 
self, he manifests it, and makes it known; the like holds of his glory 
spoken of here. And the close of this is, that those riches of glory there 
do prove to be the glory of his grace and mercy in a special manner 
intended, and so bear the name of glory by way of eminency. This 
iEstius and others have observed; and my ground why specially mercy is 
intended is, because the saints, who are the vessels, or receptacles, or sub- 
jects unto whom these ricbes, &c, are to be communicated and manifested 
in them, are in respect unto this styled ' vessels of mercy.' The riches of 
the glory of mercy, then, are those which are the principal contributors, 
although the glory of all other attributes do likewise empty their streams 
into the same vessels, to fill them with glory. So then mercy stands every 
way equal with grace (an essential attribute), and that in glory, yea, in 
riches of glory, and therefore is of as high an alliance to God as that is. 
They are every way rated alike in God's books, the Scriptures ; and God, 
who is an equal prizer and valuer, doth not set a deeper estimation or 
value tban the real worth doth bear. As then I shewed afore, mercy and 
power were paired as equal for greatness, so mercy and grace we find to be 
equals. These two are for estate and riches equal, and are as peers for 
glory and honour too, and they are both alike God's riches and glory, by 
the valuation of which God shews what a rich and glorious God he is in 
himself. I conclude this, as I did the former, who then shall dare to say 
to rich mercy, to mercy which God accounts his glory (when withal he 
shall see it placed by God himself immediately, and bidden to sit there by 
him on the same throne with equal royalty with other so high-born essen- 
tial attributes of mine), who then shall bid and say, Thou rich, and great, 
and glorious mercy, come off the seat thou sittest on, as too high for thee, 
and sit thou at the footstool of all these other ? 

For those other two attributes, goodness and truth, so much having been 
said of the former two, it is not necessary to enlarge on these ; yet, to com- 
plete this confirmation, I shall add some things as to both. 

A third pair is mercy and goodness. • Merciful, and much or plenteous 
in goodness,' says the text; where, whether goodness imports (as in the 
general notion of it) a communicativeness of good things — ' The Lord is 
good, and doth good,' Ps. cxix. 68, it being the innate property of good- 
ness to be communicative — or whether more specially kindness, bounty, 
benignity be intended, as many translate the word here and elsewhere ; 
however it be taken, it is singly paired with mercy. 

1. As to goodness, how many psalms do begin with, and some also do 
begin and end with, ' The Lord is good, bis mercy endures for ever.' I 
instance only in Ps. cxviii., whereof both the first and last verses have 
those words. It was the usual form of praising the Lord, to sing : ' The 
Lord is good, his mercy endures for ever,' Jer. xxxiii. 11, and had been 
prescribed unto the Levites, 1 Chron. xvi. 41. And though he is good to 
all his creatures, Ps. cxlv., yet here it is that goodness that extends itself 
to his Israel, as Ps. lxxiii. 1, which draws forth the goodness in bis nature 
in the communications of it to its full length ; and tbat is specially intended 



94 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

in this text, for it is that goodness which brings forth pardon of sins, saving 
mercies which the text speaks of, which two the psalmist puts together : 
Ps. lxxxvi. 5, ' For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ; and 
plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.' 

2. And as his goodness and mercy are paired, so kindness (x^ ar ^ T7 >^) 
and mercy : Titus iii. 4, ' After that the kindness and love of God our 
Saviour toward man appeared.' And mercy is not far off them: for ver. 5, 
1 According to his mercy hath he saved us,' for indeed they are all but one. 
And again, Luke vi. 35, 36, ' He is kind unto the unthankful, and to the 
evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' And to 
shut up this, you have both kindness and goodness joined and paired with 
mercy in Ps. xxv. 6, 7, ' Remember, Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy 
loving-kindnesses ; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the 
sins of my youth, nor my transgressions : according to thy mercy remem- 
ber thou me for thy goodness' sake, Lord.' These two import not 
barely his affording outward favours, which we call kindness, nor barely a 
doing kindness, as we use to say, or God's being good to us in benefits 
communicated ; but they connotate withal a root that is in God's nature, 
from whence these outward kindnesses proceed. The Lord is first good in 
himself, and thence and therefore doth good ; and in like manner he is of 
a kind heart and nature in himself first, and thence and therefore is kind 
to others, even to the evil and unthankful, as Luke vi. 35, and the abun- 
dancy of his goodness and kindness in effects is from the amplitude and 
largeness of the goodness and kindness in his own heart and nature, as I 
shewed in the beginning of this second confirmation, and as is evident from 
the 8th verse of that 25th Psalm now cited, it immediately following, ' the 
Lord is good and upright ;' which as an essential principle in God, and the 
root of that mercy and kindness which he sued for, he resolveth ultimately 
his faith into, as Muis hath observed. And among men we use, by way of 
eminenc} 7 , to express goodness in a person by good nature ; and one that 
is kind in his outward deportment, we term him one of a kind heart and 
nature. And indeed kindness denotes an inward kind disposition more 
principally, and in the first place ; even as when the Scripture denominates 
a man ' a liberal man,' it doth it principally from that noble, free, and large 
disposition of liberality in his spirit, whence liberal actions proceed, as 
Isa. xxxii. 8, ' A liberal man' (such in himself) ' deviseth liberal things :' thus 
it is in kindness also. And in God, to whom these are thus attributed, it holds 
much more ; goodness is so essential to him, as he alone is to be called good, 
as also that ' he alone is holy,' Rev. xv. 4, which evidently imports he as God 
hath such and such an holiness and goodness in him as is proper to him alone, 
and transcendeth that goodness that is in creatures, and theirs is no good- 
ness in comparison. And as he was essential holiness, and should have 
been so for ever, although he never had produced a work (who yet is holy 
in all his works he doth produce), so he was and had been essentially 
good, although he never had communicated a good thing to any creature. 
And if it be the nature of goodness to communicate itself, then it is the 
common voice of all mankind, as the common voice of the Scriptures too, 
that goodness is the nature of God. Now mercy is not only paired there- 
with, but it is indeed essentially all one with it. Mercy is but bonitas summd 
externa, as the school speaks, it is but goodness extendible, an aptness or 
readiness in his goodness to extend itself to sinners, as well as to commu- 
nicate good things to others that had not, nor have not sinned, which by 
creation God did. Mercy is but a promptitude to communicate so much 



Chap. XI. J of justifying faith. 95 

further, viz., to sinners. Mercy is but goodness with a nevertheless, that 
is, though they are sinners, as Neh. ix. 81. And, indeed, as in the school- 
men's right apprehensions, they are but one and the same in God, so in 
the sense of the Scriptures also. Thus his mercy to sinners is expressly 
styled his goodness : Rom. xi. 22, ' towards thee goodness,' &c, which 
along after in the chapter doth bear the name of mercy, ver. 30-32, and 
chap. xii. 1. And again, his mercy to sinners is in like manner termed 
kindness, as expressly, Luke vi. 35, ' He is kind to the evil and unthank- 
ful.' Ver. 3G, ' Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' 
To conclude this, mercy, goodness, kindness, are so near akin, and of ono 
stock, that if one be essential to God, then must the other be also. 

The last pair are truth and mercy : these two are alone thus yoked, one 
under the names either of truth or of faithfulness, the other of mercy or 
loving-kindness. And thus you meet with them so frequently in so many 
psalms as I scarce need particularise any, but might refer it either to tho 
reader's remembrance, or adventure upon his advertency thereof, at his 
but turning over a few leaves, soon to find enough. I will instance but in 
one or two : Is God to be praised ? The height of praises is for his ' mercy 
and truth :' Ps. cviii. 3-5, ' I will praise thee, Lord, among the people : 
and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is 
great above the heavens : and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou 
exalted, God, above the heavens : and thy glory above all the earth.' 
And you have these words over and over in two several psalms, Ps. 
lvii. 9—11. In Ps. cviii. his mercy is magnified not only to the heavens, 
but as great ' above the heavens ;' that is, to an infinity, as that which the 
heaven of heavens do not, cannot contain, as they do not God himself. And 
so it is an extolling of mercy by this, that it is an infinite, as God himself, 
in whom it is. And that which is translated ' the clouds,' which his truth 
is said to be exalted unto, are indeed the heavens, as two learned critics* 
have with vehemency contended for. And the 138th Psalm hath not only 
joined them together for praisef (vei. 2, 'I will praise thy name for thy 
loving-kindness and thy truth'), but adds, ' for thou hast magnified thy 
word' (namely, as it sets forth those two attributes) ' above all thy name.' 
The greatest part of his word is taken up either with promises which loving- 
kindness or mercy made, or of the performance of them which truth 
effecteth ; so then these two are to be magnified above all his other pro- 
perties whatever ; which two to celebrate all nations are specially called 
upon to praise him for, Ps. cxvii. 1, 2, which is interpreted to mean both 
Jews and Gentiles when converted ; as the summary of the gospel, Rom. 
xv. 8, 9, imports, and as Christ's ministry in the 40th Psalm (a psalm 
made up for Christ, if any other, see ver. 6-8) was foretold : ver. 10, ' I 
have not concealed thy loving-kindness, and thy truth, from the great con- 
gregation.' Or is God to be prayed unto for any kind of saving mercies, 
and the continuance of them ? it follows, ver. 11 of that psalm, ' Withhold 
not thou thy tender mercies from me, Lord : let thy loving-kindness and 
thy truth continually preserve me.' I need mention no more ; paired we 
see they are equally : and of the two, if either be greater, it is his mercy, 

* See Piscator on Ps. lvii. ver. 11, and on Ps. xxxvi. 6, and Dr Hammond on 
Ps. lvii. 10. 

t See Dr Hammond, Annot. on the 2d verse of the 138th Psalm. His word 
being here annexed to loving-kindness and truth, must needs be that part of his 
word to which these two are applicable: 1. His promise; the matter whereof is 
loving-kindness. 2. In the performance of which is truth and fidelity. 



96 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK 1. 

as to whomever, that will attentively consult those scriptures, it will 
appear. 

Now that his truth is an essential attribute, none can deny that will 
read that scripture, 2 Tina. ii. 13, ' He is faithful, and cannot deny him- 
self.' It is himself; he is true in such a transcendent manner as no crea- 
tures can ever come to be partakers of. Which difference between him 
and them, in respect of truth, I take to be the adequate meaning of that 
Kom. iii. 4, ' Let God be true, and every man a liar.' It is a vehement 
asseveration on God's behalf, as if he should say, Although all men should 
be liars, yet God is truth, that is, there is a possibility for the most faith- 
ful plain-hearted man that ever was yet. to become a liar (Adam and the 
angels that fell were created true and holy, but ' abode not in the truth') ; 
but of God it is pronounced, that he is true in such unchangeable a man- 
ner, that it is ' impossible for him to lie,' Heb. vi. 18, for his truth is his 
Godhead, and himself, and so is mercy. 

Arg. 5. It is a common professed maxim among divines, that whatever 
is in God, is God himself. Quicquid est in Deo Deus est. This in the 
utmost latitude of it I argue not now, for all internal acts are not God's.* 
But when we speak of such as are attributes abstractly given him, whereby 
to describe him ; that these should express his being God, yea, his very 
Godhead, this is generally, and must be adhered unto by us. And how 
this is to be understood and cautioned, I hope to shew afterward. 

That this should hold true of mercy, long-suffering, &c, in a more emi- 
nent way of evidence, that which I shall now further observe out of this 
text, may, I hope, for the present serve to evince, which, if gained, doth 
afford a fifth strong argument, and meet to be brought the last for the shut- 
ting up of all. 

I have so much considered and dilated within myself what should be the 
mystery of so vehement a triple or thrice recital of the substantial names 
of God, by themselves alcno lirst, as ' Jehovah, Jehovah, God,' before 
these four or five attributed abstract names, ' merciful, gracious,' &c, 
which then do as entirely by themselves follow, I cannot but apprehend 
that some more than ordinary mystery must be in it, the like not being 
ordinary that I know of. 

I know that it is put over to the importing the mystery of the three per- 
sons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to shew they are all merciful, long- 
suffering, &c, and equally or alike such. And that is a great mystery 
indeed, and greatly for our faith and comfort. But then withal reflecting 
that these merciful three do possess and subsist in that one Godhead and 
simple divine essence, and that the attributes they have in common are the 
attributes of the Godhead, or of God himself as God, and so are theirs, 
because each of them is God, I came to this farther inquiry, Why should 
not this triple rehearsal of the names of God be intended to declare that 
God, as God, is merciful, long-suffering, &c, or that merciful, &c, are 
himself in the same, and in as true a sense as any other attribute is said 
to be in Scripture. In the substantial names ' Jehovah,' &c, he proclaims 
who, in the attributed names or properties he declares what that Jehovah 
is, as in which his Godhead and his being Jehovah consisteth, namely, in 
1 merciful, gracious,' &c, so as Jehovah, Jehovah, is these attributes, and 
reciprocally these attributes are Jehovah, Jehovah. In those his substan- 
tial names he speaks himself as at once by the great ; in these attributed 
names or properties he unfolds himself, and explicates himself by parcels, 

* Qu. ' God ? '—Ed. 



Chap. XL] of justifying faith. 97 

for the letting in of himself into our understandings, the bore of which is 
not large enough to take in the whole at once. Thus elsewhere wo also 
find such conjoined to the being of God, though not with this triple men- 
tion of his name : ' Lord, the great and terrible God, that keepeth 
covenant and mercy,' &c, Neb. i. 5. And Solomon before him thus speaks, 
1 Lord God, there is no God like thee, who keepcst covenant and mercy,' 
1 Kings viii. 23. And so for pardoning : ' Who is a God like unto thee, 
that pardoneth iniquity?' &c, Micah vii. 18. And though these, being 
acts, are not God or God himself, yet you see they are attributed as proper 
and peculiar to him as he is God, and do argue him to be God alone, and 
are such as, if he were not God, could not be acted by him ; concerning 
which this rule is to be held, that therefore they necessarily proceed from 
the Godhead itself; and farther, must be ascribed unto those properties of 
the Godhead of the first sort, which in the Scriptures are held forth as the 
proper causes of such acts or effects, and so reductive (as we say), must be 
resolved unto those attributes in God, their causes, which are the very 
Godhead. And in this sense here Jehovah keeping mercy, and pardoning 
iniquity, as acts proper to Jehovah, are to be ascribed to Jehovah (as here), 
Jehovah merciful and gracious (that goes before), as divine properties in 
him, that are causes thereof, and as those that do immediately express his 
Godhead, and are himself, as this triplication of the name of God prefixed 
imports. And thus considered and stated, both sorts do indeed come all 
to one. So, then, we may call them essential attributes, that imports his 
being God, and without which he were not God. 

Nor need it here to stumble any, that 'pardoning sin,' &c, 'keeping 
mercy for thousands,' are also here attributed to him ; but of them it must 
not be said that they are God ; if he shall withal consider that there is this 
vast difference between those first abstract attributes immediately coming 
next to ' Jehovah, Jehovah,' and those other that follow, they being appa- 
rently acts in God, and from God, as his wonts and practices, whereof 
those five of the first rank are the causes, as was at large shewn in the 
argument. And yet even those acts speak him to be God too in this 
respect, that they do necessarily suppose and involve his being God as God, 
as proper to him above,* as he is God, or they would never proceed from 
him. 

I begin with the first, that ' merciful,' &c, are one with Jehovah. And 
now I must call in the help of other parallel scriptures, both to confirm the 
thing itself, viz., that as other true and real attributes are one with Jehovah 
himself, or are himself, so mercy is, and that upon the same grounds ; as 
also, by way of parallel, to justify that construction and collection I have 
made of this thrice repetition, and which I make the rise of this argument 
out of the text. 

1 1. One attribute which is undeniably evident to be essential to and with 
Jehovah is truth and faithfulness, which is his Godhead and himself: 
Tit. i. 2, ' God that cannot lie ;' that is, because he is God, or that truth is 
his Godhead, and his Godhead is truth. He were not God else ; and he 
must cease, if otherwise, to be God : whereof the one can no more be than 
the other. Yea, and in terminis it is styled himself: 2 Tim. ii. 13, ' If we 
believe not, yet he abideth faithful : He cannot deny himself.' Why? For 
faithfulness is himself. 

Now let us bring a parallel scripture speaking this very thing of God's 
being faithful as God, and expressing this in the like, yea, well-nigh the 

* Qu. ' alone' ?— Ed. 

vol. vin. G 



98 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

same equipage of language with this in Exodus xxxiv., proclaiming Jehovah 
God, merciful God. And the language being the same, and that being the 
intent of it there, it must be the same here. That scripture is Deut. vii. 9, 
' Know that the Lord thy God he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth 
covenant and mercy with them that love him.' Here is first a vehement 
indigitation of his being God, ' the Lord thy God he is God,' to the end 
that they might know that he was the faithful God, as God. He that is 
God, the Lord thy God, is faithful; that is, faithfulness is essential with 
his Godhead, that therefore they might surely build upon it as upon his 
Godhead itself. For why ? Faithfulness was he himself, and it is to the 
intent they might know him. Now, do we not hear God proclaiming him- 
self in a like strain, Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful, &c, and this to the 
same intent, that they might know him, and know what a God he is, in and 
by these ; yea, and truth or faithfulness being one of those very attributes 
that follow, 'much in truth,' as you have heard? This place, then, in 
Deut. vii. 9, must refer unto that uttered before it in Exod. xxxiv., and 
therefore may well serve to illustrate it, which this also confirms, that 
' keeping mercy for thousands' here in Exodus very well accords with ' he 
keepeth mercy,' &c, in Deuteronomy. Now, then, after you have read 
over once more a second time that passage in Deuteronomy, ' Know that 
the Lord,' &c, and then that preface joined to ' the faithful God,' to shew 
that he is faithful as he is God, with those other said places pre-confirmed, 
then bring this of Exodus to it, ' Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful,' and 
the same construction and purpose will arise up out of it, that this God, as 
God, is a merciful, gracious God, in the same sense and intendment that 
1 the faithful God' comes in in Deuteronomy, and after comes in here, 
'much in truth;' and thus uttered to the same full intent and purpose, 
that we might know what a God God is. 

And if the parallel of these two be not sufficient to evince the same, then 
take another passage in Psalm lxxxvi. 15, ' But thou, Lord, art a God 
full of compassion, and gracious; long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy 
and truth.' He says not simply, Thou, Lord, art full of compassion, but 
manageth it with this reduplication, ' Thou, Lord, art a God full of com- 
passion ;' and so speaks no less than that, as he is God, so he is merciful, 
&c, and that his Godhead is the substantial root and subject of his mercy. 
And that which adds farther confirmation is, that ' plenteous in truth ' 
comes in, and is coupled with mercy. They are pairs, then, and pairs 
alike in this, that they are his being, and God himself both. This for the 
first, which at once gives strength to our argument and illustration to this 
place. 

2. Holiness is argued to be God himself. And why ? Because whereas 
in one place it is said 'he swore by himself, having no greater to swear by,' 
Heb. vi. 13 (God will swear by no less than himself never), in another place 
it is, ' He swore by his holiness,' Ps. Ixxxix. 35. And these two oaths 
were, as to the matter of them, of a kind, being set as seals to the covenant 
of grace and mercy both. The first was given to Abraham, * to perform 
the mercy promised,' Luke i. 72, 73; the second to David, and in his 
name and type, unto Christ, to ascertain ' the sure mercies ' given him. 
And the like instance of the same forms of swearing is given in the case of 
verifying God's threatenings : Amos iv. 2, ' The Lord sware by his holiness. 
And in chap. vi. 8, ' The Lord hath sworn by himself.' So, then, his 
holiness is the Lord himself. And we may add this reason, because he 
can swear by nothing less than himself, as the apostle affirms ; and there- 



Chap. XI. J of justifying faith. 09 

fore swearing by bis boliness, bis holiness must be himself. The evidence 
on mercy's side, that it is himself, is equivalent ; for whereas in some 
places it is said, ' Remember not the sins of my youth, according to thy 
mercies, and for thy goodness' sake,' Ps. xxv. 7; and Neb. ix. 31, 'Never- 
theless, for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not consume them,' &c. ; 
when God speaking the same hrlsaiah xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he' (that is, 
that Jehovah merciful) ' that blottetb out thy transgressions for mine own 
sake, and will not remember thy sins.' What in the one is ' for his good- 
ness' sake,' and ' for thy great mercy's sake,' is ' for his own sake' in the 
other. So, then, goodness (as all must confess), yea, and mercy, are him- 
self. You have it again in Daniel's prayer, chapter ix., and there both 
these conjoined are brought in together as explicatory the one of the other;. 
In ver. 18, 19, ' We do not present our supplications before thee for our 
righteousness, but for thy (/rent mercies. Lord, hear, Lord, forgive, 
for thine own sake, my God!' What in the very words before is ' for 
thy great mercies,' which is plainly ' for thy mercy's sake,' is in the next 
petition ' for thine own sake ;' and you have these two picked out as scat- 
tered, one in one place, the other in another, and so brought together, and 
argued from. 

I come now to a third proof. It is certain when we hear such and- such 
effects as involve his being God, and which could not be done unless he 
were God, and do argue him God alone, that then those effects must pro- 
ceed from the Godhead itself. And farther, unto what in the Godhead can 
we ascribe them, but such properties in the Godhead as in the Scriptures 
are held forth as proper to produce such or such effects ? And whilst we 
say such or such a property in God did effect such or such a thing, we may 
warrantably also say that his Godhead did it. The creation of the world 
is a mighty product of the Godhead, and argues him God alone : as Isaiah 
xliv. 24, ' I am the Lord that maketh all things.' And we must say that 
the Godhead did effect it, for ' he made them by himself.' Yet further, we 
find the making of them attributed peculiarly unto power and wisdom, as 
proper causes of such effects ; and withal, that power of his to be styled 
his Godhead, Rom. i. 20. So his wisdom also we find to be styled in- 
finite, Ps. cxlvii. 5, which is equivalent as to say it is his Godhead, for 
that alone is infinite and without bounds. Now, in correspondency unto 
these, we find the effects of pardoning sin, &c, to involve his being God, as 
that which could never be done if he were not God : Micah vii. 18, ' Who 
is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, &c. ? because he delighteth 
in mercy.' That speech, ' Who is a God like unto thee?' is still used to 
shew he is God alone, and that, as the great God, he doth such and such 
works,- which, if he were not God, he could not do: Ps. lxxxvi. 8, 'Among 
the gods there is none like unto thee, Lord ; neither are there any works 
like unto thy works ;' and ver. 10, 'For thou art great, and dost wondrous 
things, thou art God alone.' Now, pardon of sin is a work of such wonder 
and greatness, as none ever more. And you see in that prophet how they 
stand aghast and wondering at him, as a God so great, as God alone, none 
like him, in that he can pardon sin. And if he were not so infinite a God, 
he could not do it ; for sin and sins are infinite. It is his Godhead pardons 
sins, as well as his Godhead made the world. It is a truth, though ill in- 
tended by those that spake it: Mark ii. 7, 'Who can forgive sins but God?' 
And had not Christ been God as well as man, he could not have done it 
then. Now, as other works of God have some special attribute in God as 
* Ps. xxxv, 10, as in Micah in pardoning, so there in delivering. 



100 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

their more proper cause, and unto which those works are ascribed for the 
honour of that attribute ; and from thence we rightly argue that they are 
his Godhead (as all those ' invisible things of God ' the apostle terms his 
' Godhead,' Rom. i. 20), so as the Godhead pardons sins ; so read the 
Scriptures, and you find pardon attributed specially to mercy in God as its 
proper cause. I need cite no places. And this is done for the glory of 
his mercy and grace. And certainly he would not instruct us to give this 
honour due to his Godhead, and in which he, as God, is so highly con- 
cerned, if mercy were not his Godhead, as well as any other attribute is. 
He will not give his glory to what is not himself. We may as warrantably 
then say his mercy and Godhead, as the apostle doth his power and God- 
head. And this as intending to make both one and the same ; yea, and 
add his eternal mercy too, for that epithet is given to it, Ps. xxv. 

And when it is pleaded to God that he would pardon sins for his mercies' 
sake, Neh. ix. 31 , the plain meaning and resolution is this, for thy great 
mercies' sake, which are thyself, or which are in thyself. And there is this 
farther reason to back this, and as strong as that before mentioned was for 
the former, that for his mercy's sake, or for the glorifying of thy mercy. 
This denotes God's utmost and most proper end for which he pardons and 
shews mercy, and withal, the highest motive by which he is moved to 
forgive, &c. And it is urged by these in their petitions as the most pre- 
vailing plea they could move God withal. Now that can be no less than 
himself, whose highest and supremest end is himself; and he is moved to 
acts of grace and pardon by nothing but what he is moved with in and from 
himself. And therefore, in that 43d of Isaiah, he holds up himself to their 
view, and himself alone : ' I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgression 
for mine own sake ; ' and we are sure it is mercy for which and by which 
he only is moved thereto within himself, and is himself. And truly doth 
not his thrice repeating there I, I, he, answer to his thrice repeating 
Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful? &c, Exod. xxxiv. 6. 

Arg. 6. The four first attributes we meet with at the entrance in this 
divine proclamation, Exod. xxxiv. 6, do, in what is common to them all, 
prompt us with a sixth argument, that mercy and grace are essential pro- 
perties of the divine nature. 

1. The four attributes are, 'merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant 
in goodness and truth.' But I reckon not that of truth in this enumeration, 
as likewise the psalmist doth not in his rehearsal of the words of this pro- 
clamation, Ps. ciii. 9, which is word for word the same as to these first 
four. They are in the original in both places, though our translators have 
varied their translations of them there from what is here, yet without any 
material difference ; for what there they have rendered ' plenteous in mercy ' 
(which they have varied too in the margin, ' great in mercy,' according to 
the Hebrew), here they render ' abundant in goodness.' But the psalmist 
omitteth the mention of ' and in truth.' And the reason of that omission 
may be the same that mine is in stopping there, namely, because he takes 
those attributes that purely concern mercy, and are branches of it ; whereas 
truth or faithfulness comes in here, not as being any way a branch of 
mercy, but as mercy's supervisor, or mercy's remembrancer, to see to it, 
that mercy does perform what God out of grace hath promised and declared ; 
according to that memorandum of old Zacharias, deduced out of the three 
names of himself, his son John, and Elizabeth : Luke i. 72, ' To perform 
the mercy promised, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath,'' &c. 

2. That which I call common to all these four, from which I would 



Chap. XI.] of justifying faith. 101 

deduce my argument, are two things. First, that the form of speech they 
are attributed to God in is nouns, not participles, which denotes them to 
be inherent dispositions, or properties in God, which set him forth ah intra, 
or by what are in him, the inwards of himself. The second is, that for the 
special kind of them, they are of those which divines stylo the virtues of 
the divine nature. 

3. The argument from these, or either of them, riseth thus: 1st, That 
inherent dispositions in God are to be accounted his nature. 2dly, And 
specially virtuous dispositions are so to be esteemed ; and such mercy and 
grace are, and therefore are truly his nature. 

There are two things then to be performed by me in handling this argu- 
ment, which consists of two branches. (1.) To establish the proof of this 
one proposition, that these four names are attributed in such a form of 
speech as denotes them to be inherent dispositions, intrinsecal properties, 
that are truly in him. (2.) That for the special kind of them, they are 
among the virtues, or virtuous dispositions of the divine nature of God. 
This proposition hath, as you see, two branches. 

2dly. The second thing to be proved is the consequence inferred from 
them, viz., 1. That if they be inherent properties that then they are in 
and of the divine nature. 2. That if they be properly to be reckoned 
among the virtues of God, and so to be esteemed, that then much more 
they are in and of his divine nature. But all these being in their order 
joined and put together will make the argument complete. 

My method shall be to handle the two branches of the proposition and 
the proof of them first, and then the two consequences and the proofs of 
them, whereof the first is a step to the proof of the latter, and both centre 
in one and the same reason of either. 

1. As for the first branch of the proposition or hypothesis, it is the 
animadversion of that learned critic and literal expositor Genebrard, com- 
menting upon the 8th or 9th verse of Ps. ciii., which I even now cited, to 
shew that these four first attributes that set forth mercy are word for word 
in the original, the same with these four here. He beginning to expound 
this first word merciful, speaks on this wise of it, and the like of the rest. 
It is a noun, says he, not a participle, as also those that follow; because 
thereby is declared not the acts of God, but, as it were, an immoveable 
quality, or that which is perpetual in God. And then of the other three 
that follow, for the same reason he pronounceth the same of them : for 
these are properties, says he, that are innate in God ; nor are they assumed 
by him contingently, according as circumstances are and give occasion. 
Thus he. Wherein his argument lies not simply in this, that for the form 
or manner of speech they are nouns, which are not qualities, as great, 
im'mense, but taken conjunctly therewith, that the matter of the things 
attributed are qualities. And whereas Genebrard says that merciful denotes, 
as it were, an immoveable quality in God, his quasi is but to allay and 
qualify our apprehensions, that we should conceive of them with an infinite 
disproportion, as they are in God, and in us men. In us they are mere 
qualities, differing from the essence of us, as accidents are from the subject 
they are in, but in the divine nature there are no accidents ; and yet he is 
fain to make use of an assimilation to these of qualities, to convey their 
inherency, as of qualities, to our apprehensions, as the nearest notion to 
do it by ; and that however they are immoveable principles in the divine 
nature, as inherent qualities use to be. This he absolutely affirms to be 
signified thereby ; and so that mercy is and was permanently in his nature, 



102 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

whether he had ever purposed or shewn any act of mercy, yea or no, and 
not contingently attributed for that he acteth mercifully. And this diffe- 
rence he observed to be between such attributes that are expressed of God 
by way of nouns and quality-wise, which these are ; and such as denote 
acts, by participles. 

And this being thus explained, the foundation of the argument proceeds 
from the common use of speech, that when qualities are simply and 
absolutely attributed unto a person in the form of nouns, as that he is 
liberal, holy, devout, courageous, bold, and the like, that then, in the 
wonted acception of speech, men commonly understand, and readily con- 
ceive and apprehend, that he is a person of a liberal spirit, an holy and 
devotional soul, and so addicted inwardly, so or so disposed, inclined, and 
affected within himself; of such a temper, frame, and constitution of spirit, 
or a man of such inherent principles of heart inwardly moving him, sway- 
ing him to liberal and holy actions, and that these are his indoles, ingenium, 
his spirit, as the Scripture word is. And in like manner, God's intention, 
who makes use of our wonted language to make himself known unto us by, 
as in other his attributes is apparent, here analogously should be to describe 
himself in such attributions of speech as we use when we would set forth 
a person, who and what he is, and paint him forth by such qualities and 
dispositions as we know are in him. Thus God here, thereby signifying 
what properties are truly and really in himself, as far as possibly they are 
by words expressible to us. And as we when we have set out a man of 
such qualities, good or evil, we use to say, That is the man ; so we may 
say, This is our God. And indeed, IGod himself here doth say in termini*, 
full} 7 as much as this of himself thrice over, 'Jehovah, Jehovah, El, God, 
God, God, merciful, gracious,' &c, as if he had said, This is your God. 
And as for those other attributions given to God, purely after the manner 
of man, which the opposers would choke this truth with, they are expressed 
by words that denote acts only, and those but occasionally expressed : as 
that ' it grieved him,' ' it repented him,' and the like, as it is obvious to 
observe in these scriptures where they are used. But these are solemn 
names and denominations, whereby God purposely makes a description of 
himself what a God he is ; and accordingly they do fully answer to this 
question, whenever it be demanded, Qitcdis dens sit, ac quis? who and what 
a God is he ? as plainly, and directly, and absolutely, and in the like strain 
of speech, as any other of their fellow- attributes do ; as when it is said, he 
is wise, and good, and almighty, these words are justly judged and acknow- 
ledged to signify what a God he is in his essence ; and in like manner, 
these here to be a description of his nature, and that even such a God he 
is, set out by such characters as are given him ah intra, as our divines 
speak ; that is, such as do declare what a God he is inwardly, that shew 
his very inwards to us. And those characters do express in reality that to 
be in his divine being which answers to all these (as I have opened it in the 
explication I premitted), it being a commonly received maxim among 
divines of all sorts : Deus dicitur quis, ac qualis est, ah eo quad natura est. 

And for the close of this point we may affirm, that this his title of mer- 
ciful, gracious, doth as roundly give and return an absolute answer to any 
such inquiry, What a God is he ? as any other attribute whatsoever : Ps. 
cxvi. 5, ' Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.' 
This is the saints' vogue and saying of him, as here he speaks these of 
himself; and it is formed up so as it may serve to be an answer (as the 
apostle's word is), an account in readiness to be given to any stranger to 



Chap. XI. J or justifying faith. 103 

religion who knows not God. If an heathen, suppose such as were in 
those times, or are now, should be inquisitive, and demand, What a God 
is your God ? say this to him, Our God is merciful ; yea, our God is 
merciful, with an emphasis. And it is as if they had said, If any would 
know what our God is, let him know him by this, that if he have any in- 
ternal perfection (who is all perfections, good, holy, wise, gracious), he is 
as perfectly merciful as any of these. And (say I) if any such an one be 
not satisfied with the saints' plain verdict, given in upon their own know- 
ledge, let them then hear and attend to what God himself says of himself, 
and take from his own mouth what he is : ' Jehovah, Jehovah, God mer- 
ciful and gracious.' He multiplies his substantial name thrice, as well as 
his attribute of mercy four times. And why, but because if God, as 
God, be to be known by anything, it is by these. The psalmist seems to 
vie with all other attributes whatsoever, yea, as it were outvies all other, 
with this of his being merciful, whilst he so vehemently speaks it, ' yea, 
our God is merciful.' He sets the crown upon the head thereof. 

There was an additional branch in the supposition, that these attributes 
are the characters of virtues in the divine nature, or virtuous dispositions 
in God, which superadds unto the former, and is a farther step towards the 
proof of the consequences therefrom, which are to follow, viz., that there- 
fore they are in and of his divine nature. 

All perfections are in God, in all kinds of perfections whatsoever. The 
attributes of God are usually reduced by schoolmen, as well as our divines, 
to three heads. 

1. Such as are utterly incommunicable to us creatures, as unchangeable- 
ness, infinity, eternity, ubiquity, or to be everywhere, and his divine glory. 
These are the absolute and metaphysical excellencies (as I may call them) 
of his divine entity. 

2. There are also all super-excelling habilities that belong to and are found 
in intelligent creatures ; as faculties of understanding, which the psalmist 
says is infinite, knowing all things, &c. So of a sovereign will, which doth 
whatever he pleaseth in the earth, and in the heavens. 

3. All sorts of virtues belonging to either of these, perfectlones morales, 
all such as are not founded upon imperfection (as humility, self-denial, 
&c, are), and when I call them virtues, I mean all the excellencies of good- 
ness, such as are holiness, righteousness, and mercy, and grace there ; 
and truth also, which is mentioned here. God ought to be every way 
most perfect, say the schoolmen, not only in the perfections of entity, or 
of natural being, but in the eminency of goodness and virtue, in that kind 
of being also. Hence his royal titles among the heathens were Deus 
optimus maximus, a God that is most great in power and the absoluteness 
of being, and a God most good. And the goodness therein meant was 
that virtuous goodness we speak of, whereby he is inwardly, and of him- 
self, ready to do good to his creatures, according to that of the psalmist, 
« The Lord is good, and doth good ;' of which goodness,_ mercy and grace 
are the eminent branches, according to that of the psalmist, ' The Lord is 
good, and his mercy endureth for ever.' And therefore I rightly said that 
the virtuousness of mercy in Scripture language is the excellency of his 
goodness. 

And let no man boggle at the word virtue, or deem it as a lowering of 
the Godhead to say he excels in virtues ; for the Scriptures ascribe this to 
him in terminis, 1 Peter ii. 9, where the apostle exhorts ' to shew forth 
the virtues' (so in the original) 'of him that called you.' Observe, they 



10-1 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

are the virtues of him that calleth us, riot our virtues that are iu us that 
are called. 

And by him that called us is meant not Christ only, and his virtues as 
man, but God the Father chiefly,* to whom our calling is there ascribed; 
as also in chap. i. 15, it had been by the same apostle, with the like ex- 
hortation, for there he says, ' As he that hath called you is holy, so be 
you holy,' &c, as children of your Father. Thus in like manner, though 
in other phrase but in substance the same, he entered his exhortation to 
all sorts of goodness, wherein we are to imitate him and be like him, shew 
forth the virtues of him that hath called you ; that is, says Gerard, those 
attributes of God which in calling you he shewed forth. And particularly 
and to be sure the most eminent is that which the apostle specially 
instanceth in, and in this, and in no other else ; so in the following verse, 
' which have now obtained mercy.' So as in effect this exhortation is all 
one with 'Be ye merciful,' because your God that called you is merciful; 
even as in the former exhortation he had said, ' Be holy, for I am holy ;' 
holiness in God being the foundation of all those virtues in God, as well 
as in us, which the comparing of those verses shews ; and the apostle also 
there enforceth from this, that we must be like our Father. 

These virtues are to us poor creatures the especial attributes we praise 
God for, insomuch as the Holy Ghost records it for the title and name of 
praises, the word agerccc there used signifying at once both virtues and 
praises, as it is there translated ; or else let those that boggle at the word 
virtues say of them, that in God they are the patterns, and samples, or 
ideas of what are called virtues in us;f and it is enough to my purpose. 
And the reason why that is to be acknowledged is, that there is not, nor 
can be, any perfection which the creature partaketh of a likeness to God 
in, but it is and must be found after an infinitely more excelling manner in 
God, and the nature of God, than it is in the creature. Only take this in, 
that they are found in God after the manner of God, in us creatures after 
the mode'or manner of creatures, with an infinite difference. 

Observe how in the forming this argument I put in this limitation, there 
is no perfection in man, in which he partaketh of a likeness to God, but the 
perfection thereof is in God. And the reason of this my limitation • is, 
because there are two sorts of gracious perfections in us, whereof some 
indeed are not in God, though in Christ they are found; as humility, 
lowliness of heart, submission of our wills. These are not by way of like- 
ness to the like which correspond in God, but by way of applyings of the 
soul unto God, or by way of subjection of the creature to such other 
attributes in God as are incommunicable; as his sovereignty, greatness, 
absolute will, &c. And in that respect it is they are reckoned parts of the 
divine nature, because they give the greatest glory to the divine nature, in 
the way now specified. But as for such perfections as are said to bear a 
likeness with what is like unto what is attributed unto God, of them all we 
may and must say, that there is no perfection of such in the creature but 
it is much more in God, which is the major or first proposition. And this 
doth in a more special manner hold true in such virtues or spiritual graces, 
in which we are said to be like him, and wherein he is expressly made our 
pattern in the Scriptures. And of those it must be acknowledged, that if 
they be properly in the creature, then they are more properly in God; of 

* See Gerard in locum. 

t Non tam virtutes quam ideas virtutum in Deo sunt. — Eekerman, Si/st. TheoL, 
c. 4. 



Chap. XI. J of justifying faith. 105 

all which the holiness and purity of God's nature is the root, as being in 
himself first, and so becomes the first rule and measure of such virtues 
in us. 

And that this is particularly true of this virtuo of mercy (the thing in 
hand), those speeches of Christ, who came out of the bosom of the Father, 
and hath declared him both in his nature and in his will, do uncontrollably 
evince : Luke vi. 27, 28, ' Love your enemies, do good to them that hate 
you;' and verse 35, 'Love your enemies, and ye shall be the children of 
the Highest: for he is kind to the evil and the unthankful.' And in the 
close of all, verse 36, ' Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is 
merciful:' as, that is, after the image of God, as Col. iii. 10, 'Put on the 
new man, after the image of him that created him ;' whereof mercy and 
love are in the 12th verse following mentioned to be an eminent piece: 
' Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mer- 
cies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.' And then 
add those other speeches of our Lord in Mat. v., which correspond with 
those recited out of Luke vi. : Mat. v. 48, ' Be you perfect, even as your 
Father which is in heaven is perfect.' He speaks of the perfection of 
virtues, and specially of that of mercy; for unto works of mercy unto 
enemies, &c, he had particularly exhorted: ver. 44, 'But I say unto you, 
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' 
And this he exhorts to by the instance of God's mercy to the worst 
sinners : ver. 45, ' That ye may be the children of your Father which is 
in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' And thereupon exhorts us to 
be perfect in that grace, upon this very ground, because it is a perfection 
in God first, and originally in him, and that we have thereby the likeness 
of the perfection of our Father. This for the proof of the two branches of 
the proposition. 

2. I come to the proof of the consequence in the second place proposed, 
from both, viz., that if these attributes do denote inherent dispositions, 
properties, or permanent qualities, and not acts only, especially such 
qualities as are virtues in God, that then they are of the divine nature 
itself. I put both into one, because the reason of either centres much in 
one, although the reason of the latter greatly adds force to the other. 

And that reason will at once serve both for a proof of the consequence 
and also for a caution in this case, that whilst we are forced to use the 
term of qualities to express them by, to relieve our apprehensions of them 
(whereas indeed they are not such qualities as are in the creature, and yet 
denoting inherency and permanency of like properties in God, and not of 
acts only), they can be no other but his divine nature. 

And the reason is founded on this, that in God there are no accidents 
(and such those in us creatures are) inherent or permanent in him ; and 
therefore these attributes denoting properties, like to qualities in us that 
are inherent and permanent, they therefore can be no other than the divine 
nature itself; which is confirmed by the infinite difference that is and must 
be acknowledged to be between the creatures and God blessed for ever in 
this respect, that the inherent qualities in us men or angels, be they never 
so excellent, yet they differ from the substance or being of the persons in 
whom they are, as accidents do from their subject ; and they are said to 
be added to perfect and adorn the subjects in which they reside. And 
although the most eminent of creature qualifications do vastly differ from 



10G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

the substances or essences they are in, yet there are some of them that so 
immediately flow from their substances, and are so proper and specifically 
peculiar to them, that if we should suppose they could be separate from 
that subject or person, the very nature and proper being of that subject 
would withal cease to be what it was. It is an assured maxim, Proprie- 
tatum negatio est naturarum deletio ; as to deny the faculty of reason itself 
to be in one of mankind is to degrade a man as a man, and blot him quite 
out of the catalogue or roll of men, and to set him down a brute; of 
which it is said, Ps. xxxii., ' They want understanding.' So that commonly 
we allow the term of natural unto such properties, and call them essential, 
or belonging to the essence, although not the essence itself ; but yet they 
rise to no higher dignities than of faculties and qualifying abilities, which 
are at best but accidents, though of another kind than ordinary accidents 
are of, and therefore called natural, because they are inbred, inlaid, and 
blended with the inward constitution and temper of the substance itself. 
But, on the contrary, wdien we speak of God, and say, that mercy is a 
property, and of his nature; our intentions, and God's also in so speaking, 
reach infinitely higher, and intend thereby that it is his very divine nature, 
as far as it is by words expressed to us ; even as eternity and power are 
said to be his Godhead, Bom. i. 20. And the reason thereof is, because 
God, and the essential nature -of God, is perfected by nothing but himself, 
and so not by anything differing from his own being ; for then his God- 
bead, as he is God, should be imperfect, and needed something besides 
himself to add perfection and liability unto it, which the Scripture utterly 
denies of him: Acts xvii., 'that he needeth not anything.' And therefore 
all such attributes, and this of merciful, being in tenor of speech given to 
him, after the manner of the attribution of inherent qualities, for our con- 
ception's sake, are to be understood to be his divine nature, in a transcen- 
dent manner, inconceivable by us. 

Moreover, take in this for a second caution also, that when we call both 
these, or any like qualities in men or angels, as also these attributes in 
God, natural or nature in either, the word nature or natural must be taken 
and understood with an infinitely vast differing respect in the one and in 
the other ; for these qualifications, thus said to be natural to us angels and 
men, are but at the best the shadow of what is substantially natural in 
God ; and accordingly, that mercifulness which is in man is but the 
imperfect shim* of that essential mercy which is in the divine being. And 
hence it is so far remote from God's being called merciful, righteous, after 
the manner of man (as those other attributes, the opposite instances, which 
are styled but ad similitudinem effect us), that to the contrary, these inherent 
qualities in man (take them in their perfection) are said to be ' after God,' 
Eph. iii. 24. And therefore they are propriissime, most properly in God 
first ; yea, and in truth only in God (as goodness is said to be), and but 
similitudinarily, and by way of semblance, in man. And this by way of 
caution also. 

But, 2dly, I urge this reason further, upon and from the account of that 
additional, viz., that mercy and grace are to be reckoned among the highest 
virtues that are in God. Now, true and perfect virtues are inherent in that 
person that deserves the style of virtuous, and if they be true, they are 
permanent, and constantly abiding in him ; yea, and the perfection of them 
lies in the inward disposition and addictment of the mind as the root of 
the actings, or performing virtuous things, though they, as being the fruits 
* That is, ' shimmer ' ?— Ed. 



Chap. XL] of justifying faitii. 107 

thereof, have the name of mercy, and their due valuation ; hut still that 
inward principle of those actings much more and above all, so far as they 
have been inbred, and by nature found in any person, that is the height of 
their perfection. And therefore in God, if they be true and perfect virtues 
indeed, as they must bo supposed to be, they must be all these, both inward 
dispositions, strong inclinations, propensions unto merciful acts, and seated 
in his nature, and to be his nature. And to be sure, God is not perfected 
(as man), or grows up in virtue by acquisition, or by the increase of habits 
that use to be acquired by use, practice, and exercise ; this were to lower 
him infinitely yet more, so to affirm. And therefore, if virtues be at all in 
him, and these virtues (as we have proved them to be), then they must be 
acknowledged his divine nature, and his perfections by nature. 

I shall cast in a coronis to all, and which will without contradiction con- 
firm all that I have hitherto said in this third argument : it is those words 
which our Lord hath made the conclusion of his exhortation unto us to be 
merciful, in that 5th of Matthew, last verse, ' Be ye therefore perfect, even 
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' 

1. You see here is a perfection attributed to God, which man is exhorted 
to imitate, ' Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' God's 
perfection is the original pattern, and man's imitation that is to be the copy 
to that pattern ; and God's perfection is to be understood after the manner 
wherein God is or ought to be understood to be perfect, as a God ; or as 
the evangelist Luke upon that occasion entitles him ' the Highest,' and 
men, as men in their kind, as ' children of the Highest ; ' so in ver. 35. 
And he therefore speaks it of such a perfection in God as is of the highest 
kind of perfection proper and essential unto God. And to be sure, there 
are some attributes of his that are the essential perfections of his divine 
nature, and then this spoken of by Christ's own arguing is among them 
that are of the highest rank. 

And, 2, it proves to be this so rich and precious attribute of mercy 
which Christ intended here, as appears both by the interpretation, that by 
comparing Christ's discourse about this of our being merciful in those two 
evangelists is apparently given of it. For whereas the one says, Mat. 
v. 48, 'Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,' the other says, 
Luke vi. 36, ' Be ye merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' And 
each come in as the last close and conclusion of Christ's exhortation unto 
mercy in either place. So then mercy is one of the highest perfections 
that perfect him that is ' the Highest,' or the most perfect in all perfections. 

3. This perfection of mercy must necessarily be understood to be intrin- 
secal to him, and so his nature. For nothing extrinsecal or outward to God 
can add any perfection to him. His own works, be they of mercy and 
never so excelling, add nothing to him ; he was as perfect a God before he 
made the worlds as since. And what is it can be his perfection but what 
is and was then in himself and of himself? who of himself is the fulness of 
all being; and if anything added the least perfection to him, he must be 
said to be of himself and in himself imperfect. And mercy being so plainly, 
expressly, in particular thus styled his perfection, it must be a property in 
himself and of himself, and without which he would not be so perfect as he 
is said to be ; yea, we may upon this ground further say, that without it 
he were not God. Let the opposites bring all their deductions and wonted 
pleas to make void this so great a truth, and you will see them all melt 
before this speech, as wax when it comes unto the fire, and be confuted in 
every part thereof. 



108 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

1st, The}- distinguish and say, God is merciful quoad effectus, in and for 
his doing works of mercy, and not because he is of a merciful nature and 
inward disposition of mercy. 

(1.) Consider that man is here exhorted to be merciful, as God is ; and 
though he in his exhortation mainly instanceth in works of mercy which 
man should perform, yet I demand, doth not the exhortation chiefly intend 
that men should be moved by an inward principle of mercy (compared 
therefore to bowels, which are called the inwards), that should move the 
heart to works of mercy ? Col. hi. 12, 'Put on therefore, as the elect of 
God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 
meekness, long-suffering.' And when Christ pronounceth that blessing 
upon their souls, Mat. v., 'Blessed are the merciful,' &c, doth not the 
word i\eri/jwveg import inward mercy and pity more than outward ? as 
Spanheim hath observed upon it. And if God were not in like manner 
filled with merciful dispositions moving thereto in his shewing mercy, why 
is his mercy set before them as the excellent pattern, when yet, according 
to them, it reacheth not to this, to be a pattern of inward mercy ? 

(2.) If God were not thus merciful ab intra, his inwards moving him 
thereto, do not they that affirm this make man more merciful than they 
would have God to be, seeing man is merciful with an inward affection of 
bowels, besides his works of mercy ; but God should be merciful only quoad 
effectus, only because he doth acts of mercy without the affection or inward 
principle of mercy ? 

And, 2dly, whereas they say, Mercy is spoken of God after the manner 
of man, or in like sense only as that God is said to grieve, repent, &c. 
But, 1, here in Christ's exhortation, on the contrary, man is called upon 
to be merciful after the manner of God, ' Be ye merciful, as your Father is 
merciful.' And, 2, if it were otherwise, according to that opinion they 
have of God, man should only be exhorted here to exercise and put forth 
outward acts and effects of mercy, for God, say they, doth only so. 
Again, 5 3, that mercy which is there exhorted to is that which is the 
perfection of mercy ; and certainly to be merciful inwardly, and of a merci- 
ful nature, is that which is the life, the height, the perfection of mercy. 

I finally close up all with this summary argument, that grace and virtue, 
that in man is a perfection and a piece of the divine nature in him, and 
likeness to what is in God (he being created after the image of God in 
truth, as the apostle's words are), and which same is likewise attributed to 
God as a perfection of him, and a pattern to us of the same ; that must be 
acknowledged to be in God as his divine nature and being. But such this 
grace or virtue of mercy is ; it is in man a piece of his divine nature, 
created after the image of God in truth ; and it is ascribed unto God as a 
perfection of his Godhead, and made the pattern of our perfection ; there- 
fore, as it is attributed to God, it must be his divine nature. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Some of the principal objections why mercy should not be a natural attribute 
of the Divine nature, answered out of the proofs and parallels in the foregone 
chapter. 

The proofs in the foregone chapters, especially the paralleling of power 
with mercy, and then of those other attributes, grace, &c, as they confirm 



Chap. XII.] of justifying faitit. 100 

the thing, so they will most amply serve to answer the greatest objections 
that are alleged against it. 

Obj. 1. The first objection lies thus, that is not natural- wherein God 
is arbitrary and free in working any effects thereof, or in the using of it, 
and puttings of it forth. But such is mercy, as even in these very passages 
unto Moses which are alleged ; ' I will be merciful to whom I will be mer- 
ciful,' which is adjoined to this proclamation. Compare Exod. xxxiii. 19, 
' I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to 
whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' 
In brief, that they say is not natural, the working and operation of which 
depends upon God's free will. 

Ans. The answer is ready, and clear, and home, as it may be taken 
from the instance of God's power ; for, according to this rule and measure, 
power itself in God should not be a natural attribute; for 'all things' 
which he worketh by his power, ' he worketh after the counsel of his own 
will,' Eph. i. 11 (and therefore it is he doth not all he can do, Mat. iii. 9 ; 
chap. xxvi. 53), which is the same with the exercise of his mercy, of which 
it is in like manner said they are ' according to the good pleasure of his 
will ' again and again, Eph. i. 5. His will keeps the operations both of 
mercy and power, as it were, under lock and key, and lets them out as 
God himself pleaseth. Yea, and further, you have both of these at once 
put together; and, as you have heard mercy and power in themselves 
paralleled, they are so in their operations too, as being like instances of 
this very thing, as appears in the apostle's allegation, and putting into one 
those two speeches of God : Rom. ix. 17, 18, ' For this same purpose have 
I raised thee up, that I might shew my -power in thee, and that my name 
might be declared throughout the earth : Therefore hath he mercy on whom 
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.' So, then, both are 
said to depend, and to be guided in their actings by his will alike. Again, 
look, that although the acting and effect of power is but voluntary, yet still 
that effect proceeds from that vis, force, strength, or power, that is natural 
to God, and which in God is infinite ; which power sets itself to the effect- 
ing everything, only his will still orders that putting forth of it where, and 
when, and the measure of it. And therefore it is all one to say, ' Who 
hath resisted his will?' as the apostle, as to say, ' Who hath hardened him- 
self against his power?' as in Job ix. 4, for his natural power immediately 
is that in him which exerts itself in every such act of his will, and without 
that nothing would be done or hath been done. And in parallel unto this, 
the manifestation of mercy in all the works of our salvation depends upon 
his good pleasure, and yet in and unto the effecting or endowing us with 
any and every benefit or saving work thereof, the whole of the riches of his 
grace that is intrinsecal to him doth immediately put forth themselves ; and 
without a mercy so infinite and natural to God, none of them would be 
bestowed or effected. Moreover, look, as if you should deny power to be 
in God essentially, because it is put forth by his will and pleasure, and 
affirm it to be but a metaphorical attribute, you should thereby make him 
no God at all ; for a weak God is no God. So, if you take mercy from 
him, denying it, in the reality and principle of it, to be in him, you despoil 
and rob him of his greatest riches, and make but a poor God of him to all 
that shall call upon him, and so, in effect, no God at all, either to be feared 
or worshipped. 

The mistake of the argument proceeds on this, that because acts or 
* Deus non utitur naturalibus, say they. 



110 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

shewing of mercy do hold of his will, therefore his very being merciful, the 
principle of those acts, must do so too. We grant his acting graciously to 
be arbitrary in him, and from his will, but not his being merciful and gra- 
cious ; that depends not on his will 5 though with his will ; that depends 
not upon an act of his will, though it be with will. 

But the true resolve of all is, that indeed his will (take it for the power 
of willing, or that whereby he willeth) is the very immediate subject of 
mercy, which mercy, as it is in his will, is but a propenseness, a strong 
and ready inclination in his will, that moves and sways him to those mer- 
ciful actings, which is not from an act, but an inherent disposition in his 
will, and natural to it, that it should be readily so disposed. 

Obj. 2. A second objection is, that mercy imports and ariseth from the 
weakness and deficiency in man's nature, * as from an apprehension tbat 
men themselves, being subject to the like miseries, shew mercy to the 
miserable, and so mercy is always joined with a passion (which we call 
compassion), trouble, or grief, in the heart of a man that is merciful ; all 
which infirmities and passions man only, not God, is said to be subject to, 
with difference from God, Acts xiv. 15. 

Ans. This is utterly an heathenish imagination, and had its original 
from them. ~" Aristotle says, thatf it is an uncouth, not agreeing to, or 
becoming the being of God, to say he loves. He thought it stood not 
with his greatness, nor was compatible with it. And Epicurus before him 
said, the divine nature was not penetrable by mercy or pity, because these 
find no entrance into the hearts of men, but through some defect or want. 
I may say of them in this point (as Christ of the Sadducees' denying the 
resurrection), ' They erred, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of 
God.' For whereas they would that mercy and pity should spring out of 
weakness and deficiency, as in man it doth since his fall, or at least is 
always accompanied with it ; such as grief and trouble, and the like 
passions ; on the perfect contrary in God it ariseth from and is accom- 
panied with his infinite power, all-sufficiency, and blessedness. And by 
how much he is above all and utterly incapable of any defect, the more 
able he is to succour and relieve us in misery, and also by so much the 
more his glorious will is the more disposed and prepense to mercy. Kings 
who live in an higher region, and are not subjicible to the common gusts 
of innumerable miseries, which their subjects in the lower regions are, yet 
out of the gi'eatness and generosity of their spirits are oftentimes merci- 
fully disposed, and forbearing unto those that apply themselves to them 
under such miseries which themselves never had, and of which they have 
not the least apprehension that they shall fall under them. The lion's 
strength and courage makes him sometimes to spare a poor lamb's life that 
lies prostrate at his feet ; which holds a semblance of what is in kings, and 
in God more transcendently, though both these indeed are but imperfect 
shims and glimmerings of what to an infinity is super-eminently in God. 
I betake myself, for the proof of this, to Moses his unfolding the mystery 
of God's joining power and mercy : ' Let the power of my Lord be great, 
as thou hast spoken, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, 
forgiving iniquity and transgression : forgive, I beseech thee, this people ;' 
which is as to say, Let thy mercy, which is thy power, or which proceeds 

* Misericordia est compassio super aliena miseria, et in tantum miseretur in 
quantum dolet. — Aquinas 22, q. 30, Art. 2d. 

f arcn-ov yf'.g dv sit} 'it rig (pair) <pi>.i7v tov A ice. — Aristot. Mag. Moral, lib. 2, 
cap. 11, Tom. 3, oper. Edit. Du Val, Paris, 1639. 



Chap. XII. 1 of justifying faith. Ill 

from and is strengthened by the almighty power that is in thee, be shewn 
in pardoning ; or, Thou, God, which declarest thy almighty power chiefly 
in shewing mercy and pity, forgive thy people. 

But be it so, that want, and weakness, and passion, as in man, are 
furtherances unto and companions of, yea, and the very rise of mercy in 
man ; yet that the same must hold in God, so as he cannot be inwardly in 
'his soul merciful, unless he be merciful from the same principle that man 
is, must be denied. How oft is it said, that God is not merciful as man 
is, but is infinitely beyond all that the thoughts and apprehensions of man 
can reach to, either in his own mercies he thinks himself to shew, yea, or 
that he is not able to think what mercy is, or what it should be in God, 
they are of such an infinite extent beyond his possible imaginations, ' as 
heaven is above the earth' ! Shall, then, man's mercies, or the imperfec- 
tions and passions of them, be made the measure of what mercy itself is in 
God ? God forbid. Man loveth not without a passion, and therefore shall 
not God, who is love (because he loves not as man doth), be said properly 
to love his creatures out of a pure and perfect principle of love in himself, as 
truly as to love himself or his Son ? It is said, ' the weakness of God is 
stronger than man ; ' and shall the weakness of man be the measure to him 
that is the God and strength of Israel, which in 1 Sam. xv. 29 is so highly 
protested against ? ' The strength of Israel is not as man,' &c. that 
ever the weakness of the creature should have been thought to have been 
a rule for the strength of Israel ! 

Again, in what doth the true substance and reality of mercy lie and con- 
sist ? Not in an apprehension of one's own self to be subject or exposed to 
the like distresses, or in being troubled and grieved as the consequents of that 
apprehension, especially if he cannot help. These are but accidental unto 
mercy, and but as it is in such or such a subject that is subjected unto 
infirmities, as in a man it is, who alone is capable of those fore-mentioried 
passions ; for mercy, and that more truly, is in Christ glorified, yea, in the 
angels and ' spirits of just men made perfect ; ' and therefore perfect in this 
virtue, but without any of these passions and disturbances as requisites 
to move them to be merciful. In what doth the substance, yea, the 
height of mercy lie or consist, but in a readiness and promptness of affection 
in the will of God to relieve and succour those that are in misery, whom he 
loves, joined with fulness of power to relieve them ? "Which latter clause, 
with fulness of power, doth especially render him most truly and highly 
merciful. 

I shall further proceed to shew how the parallel of those other attributes, 
grace, goodness, and truth, as well as with mercy, will abundantly put to 
silence another objection. 

Obj. 3. How can that, say they, be an essential attribute in God's nature, 
which if man had never been miserable had not been in God ? For mercy 
speaks a relation unto sin and misery, and if it depend on such a condition 
of ours, or the creatures' being first miserable, then it must be in God but 
contingently and occasionally, and not naturally. 

Am. The answer is from what the parallel of these four attributes afford, 
as likewise many other attributes which might be instanced in. 

1. Power or might in God relateth unto external effects, as unto the 
creation of this frame of heaven and earth, &c, Rom. i. 20. Now before 
God ever made any of them, or suppose he never had made any, shall we 
say he had not essential power inherent in him, whereby he was able to 
make them, and in respect thereunto was truly a God almighty ? 



112 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

2. Again, his power relates unto all he is still able to make or effect, and 
not to be confined unto what he hath done. There are an infinity of things 
possible to be done by him, which his power will never produce, but shall 
remain in a state of mere possibility; and yet his being styled almighty in- 
cludes a power to be in him in respect to those, as when it is said, ' God is 
able to raise up out of these stones children to Abraham,' Mat. xxiv. 53, Luke 
xix. 40, Mark xiv. 36. His divine ability is expressly said to extend to 
these, and shall we affirm he had no such radical power in respect to these, 
because he will never put it forth in bringing them to existence ? Nay, it 
must be said, that things thus possible are only and merely called such in 
respect of the power of his nature, but things which he causeth actually 
do respect his will and good pleasure joining with the power of his 
nature : Ps. cxv. 3, ' But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatso- 
ever he pleased.' 

3. In like manner the parallel of grace and goodness evinceth the same. 
Had not God been good (who is goodness itself, both as he is God, and in 
respect of a communicative disposition in himself, who is the fountain of 
goodness), although yet he had never made a creature to communicate any 
good things to. Surely yes. Then likewise he is gracious, though his 
pleasure had been never to have had one angel or man existed whom he 
would be gracious unto. The root of this matter had been in him, though 
never no effect or fruit of it had appeared above ground. His grace must 
be acknowledged to respect the creature only, for he is no way gracious to 
himself; and would he not thus have been, though no creature had been ? 
Must he of necessity have made creatures, if he would be truly gracious ? 
A man is to be acknowledged one of a liberal disposition, who is so in his 
natural temper, though he lives alone in a desolate wilderness uninhabited, 
where there are no poor, nor any one person to bestow his alms, or com- 
municate his riches to. The great element of fire is fire, and ready to 
burn, though it never yet had any fuel to prey upon. The like is to be 
said of truth, ' God cannot lie,' Titus i. 2 : and it is impossible, Heb. 
vi. 8, it is contrary to his nature ; and therefore truth (the contrary thereto) 
is his nature ; and this had been so eternally, although he had never given 
forth one word or promise, of threatening, or the like, for the performance 
of which he might have been styled true. Now yet it is apparent it was 
purely at his will and pleasure whether to have given forth any such word 
or not. And thus God also was truly and really merciful, and ready to 
forgive, although he never had pardoned one sin, nor ever had promised 
pardon to any one sinner. What need we say more ? 

Obj. 4. If any further object that word merciful (□["!!> Unchain) here used 
is a metaphor taken from bowels ; but God hath no bowels, and therefore 
it is but a metaphorical attribute ; I answer, 

Ans. 1. That some, as Polanus, render the word OJTV Bacham, diUrjere, 
to love, to be at the root of it ; and to be sure love in God is no metapho- 
rical attribute. 

Ans. 2. According to the measure of this argument, because this 
almighty power or strength in God is expressed by an arm, as Ps. 
lxxxix. 13, Luke i. 51, or that his all-seeing knowledge is set forth by an 
eye, and eyes that ' run through the earth,' 2 Chron. xvi. 9 ; that ' behold 
the nations,' Ps. Ixvi. 7 ; yea, ' behold all things in heaven and earth,' Ps. 
cxiii. 6 ; doth this put any prejudice that power and knowledge in him sig- 
nified thereby should not be essential? No more doth the ascribing 
bowels to him exclude mercy from being such. God speaks to us hereby 



Chap. XII. j of justifying faith. 113 

in our own piterills, in our own childish language, so to affect us the more, 
yet so as there is substantial reality in his heart answering to, yea, trans- 
cending what metaphors can express. And should ho speak these heavenly 
things in their own language, we could not receive them, as Christ tells us, 
John iii. 12. 

And certainly the psalmist's argument is so convincing, that as himself 
prefaceth of it, none of the most hrutish among the heathens should be 
able to gainsay it, Ps. xciv. 9, namely, why God as God must have an 
omnisciency, or an all-knowing power, within himself, which the Scripture 
expresses by an ear or an eye : ' He that planted the ear, shall not he 
hear ? He that framed the eye, shall not he see ? He that teacheth man 
knowledge, shall not he understand ?' This as certainly holds undeniable 
in this point of mercy ; shall not he that planted the inwards of us men, 
and bowels of mercy and pity in them, a natural storge* in parents to their 
children, and hath taught us to love, 1 Thes. iv. 9, and be good, and kind, 
and merciful to one another after his own example : Col. iii. 12, 13, ' Pat 
on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 
meekness, long- suffering ; forbearing one another, and forgiving one 
another,' &c. Shall not he have eminently and transcendently the perfec- 
tions of all these towards them he intends to love and make his children ? 
• Like as a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord them that fear 
him,' Ps. ciii. 18. The foundation of the psalmist's reasoning lies in this, 
that it is impossible any excellency should be in the creature, of which 
God is and must be the author, but the same must be virtually and in an 
higher reality in God himself. It is true indeed, that God hath neither 
eyes nor bowels of flesh, as Job says of him, and to him : ' Hast thou eyes 
of flesh ? or seest thou as man sees ?' that is, by the means of such organs 
or instruments of that sense, Job x. 4. So say I, Hath he bowels of flesh ? 
that is, such dolorous painful pangs of grief and trouble as we frail men 
clothed with flesh use to have, when moved with pity ? or is he merciful 
only as man is ? Woe were then to us. ' I am God, and not man,' says 
he, Hos. xi. 9, and he speaks it upon occasion of his being moved to mercy, 
as ver. 8, and yet he professeth himself moved to mercy as God, though 
not as man ; and yet as infinitely beyond us as the Godhead ; from whence 
he argues his transcending mercy exceedeth what is in man, as that speech 
insinuates. So as whilst in ver. 8 he speaks of himself after the manner 
of men, as of his heart and ' bowels being turned within him,' yet there, 
in the 9th, he avoweth of himself, that he is moved hereunto as God, and 
not as man is ; in so high sublime a way as is proper to him alone as God, 
and yet with a mercy, represented by bowels and heart, which is as infinite 
as his Godhead is, yea, it is his very Godhead. For so that speech that 
he assumes to himself, and this which I have brought forth by way of 
answer to an objection, I might have improved into two strong arguments 
for the thing in hand, that mercy is substantially and properly in him. 

Ans. 3. That bowels, though a metaphor, yet in its analogy is peculiarly 
fitted and adapted singularly to express what the iuward natural disposition 
of any one is. For, 

1st, It imports a natural affection, for it is put to express that which we 
call storge, : \ or the natural affection that is in parents. 

And, 2dly, with all the most inwardness and depth of that affection. 

* i. e., Gro^yn. — Ed. 

t Rahum, quasi visceratus, misericordia, arooyf, naturali amore et affectu prose- 
quens. — Genebrard upon the word in Ps. ciii. 13. 

VOL. VIII. H 



114 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

The eye that served to express God's omiscience, the arm, his omnipotence, 
these are outward parts ; but the bowels are of all most inward, and there- 
fore of all other speak what is most inward in God himself, and imports a 
principle of being mercifully moved from within himself. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

That in every object there is some special attractive to affect the faculties and 
principles in man's heart, to excite them to act on it. — That litis general 
maxim holds true, as to all the main acts of faith, for forgiveness : and that 
the mercies of God have the most proper influence into the faith of forgive- 
ness of sins, of all other attributes of God.' — This assertion carried through, 
and made good, in all the eminent acts of faith. 

We all know and acknowledge, that, in the nature of the thing, the whole 
being and subsistence of all sorts of mercies vouchsafed to us, hold of those 
mercies that are in God ; so as were it not that mercy is with him, our 
faith would be in vain, and we should have no such things or subject-mat- 
ter at all for us to believe. But that which I endeavour to demonstrate is, 
that take all sorts of mercies, with the particular promises made of them, 
as they come to be made objects of our faith, and in that respect the ori- 
ginal mercies in God's nature are the great fundamental which doth give 
and contribute an esse credibile, a credibility, or a believableness unto all 
the promises of mercies,* and a hopefulness to obtain them, so as not 
only an apprehension that God, who is faithful in his nature, hath made 
such promises, and useth to bestow such mercies, but the thought that there 
are such riches of mercy in his heart and nature plentifully and naturally 
to afford them, wonderfully addeth to the credibility and believableness (as I 
call it) of those promises and particular mercies, to be derived from that 
fountain, which we need or desire. For as all particular mercies pro- 
mised have their dependence upon the mercies of God's nature, in esse rei, 
in the nature of the thing (for they have their being thence, as from the 
Father of them), so further, our knowledge and apprehensions that such 
a treasure of grace is in his nature, mightily strengthened, and encourageth, 
and enhanceth faith in us. There is that in all other objects, whether of 
sense or knowledge, which philosophers term motivum objection, viz., that 
thing or consideration in the object proposed or apprehended, which is apt 
and fitted most properly to move, affect, and make impression upon that 
faculty, principle, or habit, that God hath made for it and suited to it ; as 
that beautiful colour should affect the sight or fancy. The like by analogy 
holds in the objects of divine faith. And what those naturalists term the 
objective motive, or that which the object moveth, that in divine objects 
proposed to faith, the Holy Ghost (as we shall see), using the same 
language, styles persuasivum fdei, the persuasives of faith. There are some 
special things in these objects that chiefly persuade the soul unto believing 
them, or bringing the heart over to believe, and so to embrace them accord- 
ingly. "We find in Scripture the great act of believing to be from our being 
first ' persuaded ;' as Heb. xi. 13, ' Having seen the promises afar off 
(there is the object), ' they were persuaded,' it is said, ' and embraced 
them.' And again, the same word is used of Abraham's faith ; ' being 

* Quod constitnit objecta divina in esse credibile : nam credibile, ut credibile, est 
ratio objectiva. — Snarez c/<= fide. 



Chap. XIII. 1 of justifying faith. 115 

persuaded,' &o., Rom. iv. 21. The schoolmen do therefore accurately 
inquire, what in divine objects principally it is that constitutes them in ease 
eredibile, or that gives their being of credibility to them. 

To bring this down to our purpose. From hence it follows, that what 
thing or things in divine objects revealed are found to bo the most fit and 
powerful in the way of object, to make a persuasion in the heart to a 
believing or embracement of them when they are proposed to us, that 
thing or those things we must acknowledge to give unto them their esse 
eredibile, or their being of believableness. Let us therefore now consider 
if that the view of the sight and light of the mercies in God's nature let 
into the soul, and shining upon the promises of mercy, like as the light 
upon colours, do not superadd a lustre and life upon them, and impregnate 
them, as the sun doth the plants, and all things below that have either life, 
spirit, or virtue in them. Let us try if the thoughts of these mercies in 
God will not put life into and quicken the soul of him that views them 
together with those promises, yea, and contribute so much to persuade to 
the faith of them, although the promises be but indefinite promises or 
declarations of God's will touching the forgiveness of sins, although these 
promises be indefinite, I say, as to persons, not naming who, nor excluding 
any ; yet let us [seej if the thoughts of God's mercies do not contribute 
and bring with the consideration of them the most of what is or may be 
supposed motivum, or persuasivum fidei, that which may persuade or draw 
out a faith on such promises. The truth of this will best appear by a 
survey made of what are the most eminent acts of faith. There are three 
more eminent acts of faith for forgiveness and all other spiritual blessings. 

1. There is a sight of the things promised, or to be believed ; but then 
that sight must be such a sight as hath an wroerausig or subsistence of the 
things promised, made, and given to the heart of a believer, together with 
the proposal of them. 

2. There is a discerning of a goodness in them, to allure the will and 
affections to embrace them, and cleave to them. 

3. There is a trusting on God, and a relying on him for the performance 
of them. 

I need not quote scriptures that these are the acts of faith. Two of 
them, viz., sight and embracing them, you have seen in the fore- mentioned 
Heb. si. 13. The other of trusting you meet with everywhere almost 
where faith is spoken of. I shall carry the reasons of the present assertion 
through each of these three acts, and shew how it holds good in each of 
them. 

1st. The first act of faith is a sight of the things believed, with a real 
subsistence given to them in the soul until the time of performance. Now 
the mercies in God apprehended, do give the most real subsistence unto 
forgiveness, and all other benefits whatsoever. 

The nature of faith requires that its object be presented to it, not with 
bare knowledge thereof only, but with a subsistence and reality given to it 
in the heart of a believer : for faith is defined to be the uv6sra<fi$, • the 
substance,' or subsistence, ' of things hoped for,' Heb. xi. 1, and likewise 
' the evidence, ' or sight, * of things though not seen.' For which compare 
Heb. xi. 1, 19, 27. God in the mean while, during the space and time 
that comes between the promise and the performance itself, is pleased to 
vouchsafe an aforehand image and substantial impress or wroeraffie, to the 
end to support the heart. Look, as the Son of God, the second person, 
being at last actually to be made flesh, it was meet and proper for him in 



11G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK I" 

the mean time, while he was but in the promise, that he above any other of 
the persons should be the person who should vouchsafe these precursory- 
forehand apparitions unto the fathers of the Old Testament, which gave 
an vnoaraag unto their faith, until the great promise of his coming in the 
ilesh, personally united, should be performed, so in some analogy it is in 
the matter before us. I have alleged this but by way of illustration only 
of God's gracious dispensation to his people in respect of a subsistence 
vouchsafed to their sense, which bears some resemblance unto this subsist- 
ence vouchsafed to faith inwardly, whereby the things as yet remaining in 
the promise are set before the soul ; which things therefore, when believed, 
must be some way made real and subsistent ; otherwise, indeed, it is not a 
true sight or spiritual faith, but vanisheth with its object proposed into an 
empty notion and speculation. It is therefore that thing in God, the re- 
velation of which gives a subsistence to the object of faith, that doth put 
it into an esse credibile, a being of believableness. 

I now proceed then to demonstrate that our first real believing the 
mercies in God do give a subsistence unto forgiveness in the promises. 

The subsistence that any divine object hath, is from a real and true 
knowledge of God himself made subsistent, first to the "soul, and then ex- 
plicitly or implicitly it concurreth to every true act of faith of any other 
particular object. Our [Saviour therefore, instructing them in particular 
acts of faith, Mark xi. 23, 24, first proposeth this general rule to them 
requisite to all true faith : ver. 22., ' Have faith in God,' or have the faith 
of God, because into that faith of him, or something in him (as his power 
or truth, &c), is the subsistence of every particular thing promised re- 
solved. ' He that comes to God must believe that he is,' &c, Heb. xi. 6. 
This is general to all true faith, but more particularly that attribute or rela- 
tion in God which is the most proper and direct cause of the thing promised, 
in esse rei, in the being thereof; that very same attribute being viewed by- 
faith, togetber with the promise, is of all other fitted most properly to give 
this subsistence to our faith. Thus when Abraham found that his body 
was dead, and Sarah's womb dead as to procreation, Rom. iv. 19, and that 
yet God had promised him a son ; that attribute in God, on which this 
thing promised did most directly and proximately depend, that attribute 
accordingly was with the promise presented to Abraham's faith, and ' he 
was persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform, and so 
became strong in faith, giving glory to God,' Rom. iv. 20, 21. Where we 
see that persuasion the apostle speaks of, the most proper ratio credendi, 
or ultimate ground of believing, and persuasive of his faith in that very 
particular thing, was that special attribute that in God was the most proper 
cause of the thing promised ; and the same was it which gave the subsist- 
ence to the thing and to his faith. 

Now therefore, to come home to the thing in hand. It is hence to be 
observed by this general rule or maxim, that whensoever the heart of a 
sinner shall attempt to believe the forgiveness of sin, there is nothing can 
be supposed to be in God, or concerning God, revealed, that should give a 
greater reality, and subsistence, and certainty of the promises in and to 
the heart of a believer, than the consideration of those mercies in God, 
which are the most eminent cause of that forgiveness, which is the thing 
promised. When the soul considers, that he who is so great a God, and 
so greatly merciful and gracious, is the same God who hath promised it, 
and hath means in him to make it good, what other thing (I say) can be 
so great a persuasive to believe as the light hereof ? And the greater the 



Chap. XIII.] of justifying faitii. 117 

light thereof is, which is brought down into such a promise, and with the 
promiso shines into the heart, the more, and in the greatest degree, doth 
the light of the true subsistence of forgiveness shine with it, and becomes 
realized to the soul, and appears clothed with such an evidence and sub- 
sistence as will eincaciously strike, move, and draw out real faith, that 
being the principle which is properly and specially suited to that object. 
And seeing it is the light of God himself shining in some attribute or other, 
either habitually or actually, implicitly or explicitly, immediately or re- 
motely, that must be the bottom of faith, and accompany faith always, and 
in every promise give that subsistence spoken of unto faith (whether it be 
his truth, faithfulness, goodness, or the like) ; then certainly that which of 
all other must needs be most effectual and genuine, in this case of forgive- 
ness, is this light and faith into God's mercies ; for they are those which 
move God most to forgive, and therefore move us most to believe in God 
for it. 

And the reason of this further is, that although all benefits whatever are 
the effects of mercy, and so styled (as the call of the Gentiles is, Rom. xv. 
9, and the ' Gentiles glorify God for his mercy,' and the splendour of the 
whole of their salvation from conversion downwards, as a people ' that had 
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy,' 1 Pet. ii. 10), yet .for- 
giveness of sins doth of all other most purely, immediately, and directly, 
depend upon mercies. Forgiveness is a pure act of and from grace ; as 
old Zacharias speaks in his song : Luke i. 77, 78. ' To give the knowledge 
of salvation by the remission of sins, through the tender mercies (or bowels) 
of our God.' To give other things, or to do for us in another kind, may 
require the calling in the help of some other attribute immediately to effect 
it ; as the resurrection of our bodies and glorifying of us, which (though it 
be a work of infinite mercy), requires the aid of power to effect it, even 
that ' power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself,' Philip, 
iii. 21. But forgiveness and pardon of sin peculiarly and immediately hold 
of mercy, and own and adore mercy for their immediate founder and bene- 
factor. Pardon and forgiveness are a pure emanation from grace, and 
issue in the glory thereof, above all other in God : Eph. i. 7, in Christ 
we have ' the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace ; ' 
Exod. xxxiv. 7, ' The Lord God, gracious and merciful' ; and then, ' par- 
doning iniquity, transgression, and sin.' This is a stream that springs 
and flows out immediately from that fountain : Ps. lsxxvi. 5, ' The Lord 
is good, and ready to forgive ; plenteous in mercy.' His being ready to 
forgive, flows gushing forth from his goodness, and his being plenteous in 
mercy. God is ' the Father of mercies,' all mercies bestowed being the 
most natural and immediate children of mercy in himself, and he thereout 
giving existence and being to them, as a father doth to his children. And 
from hence the heart of a humble sinner, when it is to seek any mercies at 
the hand of God, or hath received any, may and will readily know and 
acknowledge mere mercy, infinite mercy, to be the father of them. But 
above all other, pardon (when either we come to seek it, or to be thankful 
for it, this forgiveness of sins being the first-born of benefits in our calling) 
will own and know its Father, the Father of mercies, and cause the heart 
to fall upon its knees, and ask blessings for it. 

The truth of that general maxim holds in any other attribute, as touch- 
ing that particular dependency which its proper effects have upon it : as 
when God is styled ' the Father of lights,' in relation unto wisdom to be 
asked and given ; and when he is called ' the Lord of hope,' when joy 



118 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

and peace in believing are spoken of; and the ' God of all comforts' and 
1 Father of glory,' when comfort and glory are to be bestowed. But there 
is a farther reason why this or that attribute in God, that gives the sub- 
sistence to the performance, should, above all other, most properly conduce 
to give the subsistence to the faith of a believer (although the subsistence 
of the performance is differing from the subsistence given to faith in the 
mean time), because that hereby faith doth see all along, even until tbe 
performance of the promised blessings, the existence of tbem in wbat are 
their native roots and direct immediate causes. Thus it is said, Heb. xi. 
13, ' They saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded.' That phrase, 
afar off, refers not, wholly or altogether, to an importing the distance of 
time to come ere performed (though take that in also), but also to the words 
that went before, ' they saw them afar off,' that is, though the mercies were 
at a distance as to their individual existence, which was afar off, and remote 
out of sight, yet however this act of their faith was a sight, for they saw 
them really subsisting, or else their faith had not been worthy the name of 
sight. So then they were presented as if really subsisting afar off. Now, 
wherein or whereby should it be that they saw them thus subsisting afore- 
hand, when the things had not any actual existence ? There certainly was 
a seeing them in God, and in God by viewing those attributes especially 
that were to be the most direct and native causes of them. The knowledge 
of philosophy holds some resemblance, or like kind of existence, with this. 
Philosophy instructs us tbat though roses in winter have no existence, and 
though tulips have no flower nor stalks above ground for the greatest part 
of the year, and so they have not an actual existence for so long time, yet 
that in a true sense tbey may be said to have a real being and existence in 
nature, the mother and womb of all things. If vulgar apprehensions might 
be judges of this, they will say, Where is it ? they are not, for we see no 
such things extant. But a philosopher or a wise gardener will tell you 
tbat they have a being in their roots ; yea, and that each and every kind 
of those flowers have a several being in their several roots proper to their 
kind, in which, as in their causes, they have a latent hidden existence and 
being, which reason assures them to be true. And therefore a gardener 
doth, before summer comes, put a high value upon such roots as those that 
will bring forth such flowers. He sees them afar off in those roots, as their 
causes, many months before, and expects their growing up in their seasons. 
Even thus, and more satisfyingly, doth faith see in God a subsistence of 
the promises, whilst it views them in those attributes which are the proper 
originals of them, according to their kind. 

I shall now consider the second act of faith, which is, ' embrace the pro- 
mise ' ; and I shall demonstrate that an enlarged consideration of the mercies 
of God's nature do wonderfully persuade the heart to embrace the promises 
of forgiveness. The promises do thus persuade, by mercy's super-adding a 
real taste of transcendent goodness and sweetness, an overcoming sweet- 
ness, unto this grand benefit of forgiveness, and the promises thereof, by 
which the will and affections are demulced, and effectually drawn to 
embrace them. That these benefits of salvation are in themselves good, 
and must needs be most welcome, or, as the apostle expresseth it, 1 Tim. 
i. 15, 'worthy of all acceptation,' by a sinner sensible of his own sinful 
misery, we may very well and readily conceive, for they are suited unto all 
self-love in such a soul. But farther, that unto a truly broken, humbled 
sinner, the mercies that are in God, out of which he pardons, should have, 
as needs they must, infinitely more of goodness and sweetness in them 



ClIAP. XIII.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 119 

than pardon, or all things else that are in the promises, or apprehended 
with them, is that which a soul that hath tasted how good the Lord is will 
instantly acknowledge. A promise of life to a condemned man is sweet, 
for life is sweet, as we say; but 'thy loving-kindness,' said David, who 
had tasted how good the Lord is, ' is better than life,' and infinitely 
sweeter, Ps. lxiii. 3. And again says David, ' Because thy mercy is good, 
deliver thou me,' Ps. cix. 21. Deliverance was good; yea, but the mercy 
in God apprehended therewith was infinitely more good to him, which was 
the greatest inducement to him to seek deliverance. And indeed God's 
mercy doth eminently bear the style of goodness. Thus God himself says 
to Moses (Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19 compared), ' I will make all my goodness 
pass before thee ; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.' And 
David in this psalm first laid hold on the goodness that is in the mercy of 
God, and then prays and pleads, Deliver me. The same again you have 
Psalm lxix. 10, ' Hear me, for thy loving-kindness is good;' that is, it is 
sweet, it is pleasant.* And when the thing sought for comes to be granted 
and obtained, a believer rejoiceth more in the mercy and loving-kindness 
he finds to be in God's heart towards him, than in the benefit vouchsafed, 
and that is it which takes his heart: Ps. xxxi. 7, ' I will be glad and rejoice 
in thy mercy : for thou hast considered my trouble ; thou hast known my 
soul in adversities.' That God's mercy and kindness should own his soul 
at such a time, was more than the deliverance. And as the mercy of God 
stirs up the soul thus to a rejoicing at the performance, so it pleasantly 
allures and obligeth the soul to trust on the promise in hope of perform- 
ance; as those words, 1 Peter ii. 3, imply, ' If so be you have tasted that 
the Lord is gracious.' As we find them in the apostle, they do refer unto 
the psalmist's speech — Ps. xxxiv. 8, ' taste and see that the Lord is 
good ! ' — for his grace and mercy are his goodness : for so the apostle 
renders it, ' If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' The vulgar 
translation, whenever the psalmist says ' God is good,' do still render it 
Suavis est Dominus, 'the Lord is sweet;' and his mercies indeed are the 
primum dulce, the original sweetness of all other, which diffuse delicious- 
ness both into the promises and the benefits vouchsafed, and make them 
to be as honey to the taste ; and it is that taste of his graciousness which 
causeth us joyfully to receive and embrace them, and then to trust in him 
(which is the next act), for it follows in the next words of that verse of 
that psalm, ' Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' The apostle in 
that place mentioned instanceth in those that were and are but new-born 
babes in Christianity ; of whom yet he says, ' If so be you have tasted 
that the Lord is gracious.' What is it especially that Christians, whilst 
babes, do from the first of their faith seek out in the first and chief place 
for ? It is the forgiveness of their sins ; and that benefit it is which God 
first vouchsafes them as to their sense. And therefore most suitably to 
that state of theirs the apostle speaks thus to them, with difference from 
others grown up, ' I write unto you babes, because your sins are forgiven 
you,' 1 John ii. 12. He writes it as the most welcome news to them, and 
as that which whilst babes they are in the most eager pursuance of, and 
thence they seek out in the word for promises that speak forgiveness, and 
those they suck and lie tugging at, even as infants use to do the breast 
for the milk that is in it, and this from the first of their birth, next after 
crying. And if they could come at variety of breasts, they would and do 
affect the sweetest milk; and hereto they are led by a taste of that sweet- 

* Piscator in locum. 



120 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

ness. And the apostle's allusion is unto this, whilst he exhorts us ' as 
new-born babes, to desire the sincere milk of the word,' and subjoins, ' if 
so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious,' namely, in his having 
forgiven you all your trespasses, which so earnestly you then sought. And 
he joins these two together; for whilst we are seeking or sucking of for- 
giveness out of particular promises of forgiveness, we find God come at 
last, and his mercy and grace that forgive we meet with therein, and feel 
them to flow in with the promise, for they are the fountain of forgiveness, 
and of the promises also. It is God, you see, who is said to be tasted, 
and the sweetness of his mercies. It is not said so much that the sweet- 
ness of pardon, or that salvation, or the promise, are tasted; but over and 
above all it is God's grace that is tasted in and with them all, and that is 
it which makes us so greedy and desirous to suck comfort out of those 
breasts of consolation. For that desire, the apostle says, flows from taste, 
and this our sucking and tasting are through faith, and in the exercise of 
that we taste the grace that is in God's and Christ's heart towards us, 
whereof that grace in God's nature is the spring, or ocean rather, and we 
find that to be the most delicious of all other. My advice therefore to 
those that seek to believe is, to put in all of this sugar they can gather 
and grasp out of the original cane itself, as in the Scriptures they find it 
sprouting up, and therewith to sweeten all the promises they do or would 
lay hold on, as that which will most overcomingly persuade their wills to 
embrace them. 

We will -now consider the third act of faith, which is trust in God, and 
will prove that the view and intuition of the mercies in God doth mightily 
strengthen the heart to trust and stay itself upon God for forgiveness. 
And I shall shew how this is done, by persuading the heart even of the 
very truth and faithfulness of God in the promises, and of the assured 
performance of them, and how they give the most real evidence: 1st, of 
God's real intention; and, 2dly, of ability in the event to fulfil them; 
which two are the main causes of trust on the truth of any promise. And 
God's mercies do sufficiently alone assure us of all these, though we had 
no other evidence thereof. 

It is needless to insist that trust is an act of faith, and an eminent act 
thereof, and how a saint is characterised to be one that ' hopes in God's 
mercy,' Ps. xxxiii. 18, Ps. cxlvii. 11 ; and one that ' trusteth in his mercy,' 
Ps. xiii. 5; and Ps. Hi. 8, ' I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.' 
That which is specially incumbent on me is to give demonstration that the 
ample meditation of God's mercies will prove most effective to cause (as 
David's word is, Ps. cxix. 49) the heart to trust in God, over and above 
the consideration of the promises alone. 

It may be thought that God having once given forth promises of forgive- 
ness in his word, we should need the consideration of his mercies no more ; 
for out of mercy it is that the promises are given, and of mercy it is they 
speak, and carry it in the mouth of them. Of what use then can it be to 
have a distinct view of these mercies whereof we treat, in order to draw 
forth trust on them, since the ground of that is the truth of God ? If 
therefore our faith needed an establishment in those promises, it may have 
recourse rather unto the truth of God, or unto the assurance that God is 
true in his word and faithful in his promises ; and as for mercy, that is 
sufficiently supposed in his promises themselves. 

I acknowledge that these other attributes of truth and faithfulness hnve 
their share, and a great share too, in influencing the support of our faith. 



Chap. XIII.] of justifying faith. 1 21 

We cannot want the knowledge of any of his attributes, but our faith will 
be the weaker for it. We cannot bo without the knowledge of truth espe- 
cially, which is therefore so frequently mentioned with mercy. But yet 

still our hearts being too ' sbw to believe' (as Christ hath told us), when 
deeply humbled once, do foment and harbour so many jealousies of God, 
and are as full of dark cells of fears, doubts, suspicions of God, as full of 
unbelief, carnal reasonings against itself, as the earth is of damps, stilling 
vapours contained in vast caverns within the womb of it. Our hearts, I 
say, do therefore stand in need of the most spiritual cordials (as those that 
dig in mines, and work in the earth's caverns, are wont ever and anon to 
take) ; which cordials, the most sovereign to such a fainting soul apt to 
sinkings, are the rich mercies in the heart of God, which like to a box of 
the most costly ointment, do, when opened, fill the whole house (the 
heart) with the savour thereof; a savour (if any) of ' life unto life,' as the 
apostle speaks, 2 Cor. ii. 16. But over and above what spirit of life and 
consolation God's mercies in themselves immediately afford, my under- 
taking further is to shew, that an ample view of these infinite mercies 
entertained by us doth by inference or consequence wonderfully conduce 
to our very belief of the truth, and faithfulness, and willingness of God 
manifested in those promises to forgive and pardon us upon that account. 
And I shall also still continue the prosecution of my begun exhortation, to 
press and urge this practice and course upon the spirits of believers, or 
souls endeavouring to believe, viz., to fill and possess their souls with the 
most comprehensive apprehensions of the mercies of God, as to the draw- 
ing forth of trust or affiance on the promises of forgiveness, to be the most 
behoveful of all other. It is certain that in all trust and confidence upon 
another, whether in human matters on man, or divine on God, the know- 
ledge of the person whom we trust, and the inward qualifications, and dis- 
positions, and habilities that are in that person, are a greater basis and 
ground for trust than all or any sorts of declarations of that person, or any 
obligations by promises, oaths, &c., can be supposed to be: 2 Tim. i. 12, 
' I know whom I have believed,' or ' trusted,' as it is varied in the margin. 
His perfect knowledge of the person, viz., of God, did weigh above all with 
him, unto which fully accordeth that of the psalmist: Ps. ix. 10, 'They 
that know thy name will trust in thee,' And though promises are the 
means by which we believe, yet it is the promiser that is the basis or the 
foundation on whom our hearts ultimately and quietly rest for the per- 
formance. All our confidence is therefore resolved into the person, and 
what he is. Indeed, the greatness of the sum or thing promised, and the 
security given (whether it be by bond or the like), do greatly conduce to 
cheer the heart of one that trusts; but still all these are in the virtue of 
what we apprehend the promiser to be in his inward and innate disposition 
and habilities. 

There are two things especially that give the real truth to any promise 
made, and chiefly beget the adherence thereto in the soul of any that con- 
fide thereon. 

1. The honesty of the promiser, in respect of a real intention in him 
when he made the promise, and still continuing in him to perform it. 

2. That in the event it will assuredly de facto be performed. 

The reason why I add the latter to the first, and join both together, is, 
that the truth of a promise notes a respect and relation unto an actual 
performance, as that without which the promise cannot be said to be, or at 
least will not prove true in the reality of the thing, though it should be 



122 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

never so faithfully intended by him that promised. Hence then he that 
doth believe the truth of the promises of forgiveness, must necessarily be 
assured of the latter as well as the first, and indeed of both these two things 
fore-mentioned. 

I shall speak to each particularly, and shew how much our faith on these 
two is confirmed, even by our belief of this, that so great and infinite mer- 
cies are in the heart and nature of God. 

1. As to the truth and faithfulness of God's intention in these promises, 
that (say I) is as abundantly if not more confirmed to us by our firm belief 
of the mercies in God, than by any other arguments whatsoever; for it 
was mercy in God that wholly made those promises, and was the founder 
of them; and God had no other motive to make them than his mercies, 
and could have no other or greater design in the making, but firmly to 
resolve to perform them to the glorifying of his mercy, which is the Alpha 
and Omega, the beginning and ending, of all therein. And therefore the 
belief of his mercies must needs have as great an influence into our belief 
of the truth of the promises as any other thiug whatever. 

1st, Mercy, pure mercy, tenderness of mercy, made the promises, and 
caused him first thus to declare of himself, ' I will be merciful,' as Rom. 
ix., Exod. xxxiii. Yea, and his mercy was utterly free in his doing this. 
The grace we are saved by is the freest principle in God's nature. He 
might have chosen whether ever or no he would have let fall a word of 
mercy to any of mankind, and yet to choose he did it. And it was mercy, 
pure mercy, that was the head of and leader on of all the rest of the attri- 
butes to concur in this design. 

Nor, secondly, had he any other end to attain upon the sons of men 
which he should have aimed at, or would obtain by his giving and uttering 
those promises, but that truly and really he should forgive, must be all 
and the whole of his intent, and utmost of the design. Forgiveness of our 
sius is wholly ascribed unto mercy, as being from ' the riches of his grace,' 
Eph. i. 7. 

Nor, indeed, 3dly, could he have any other design but this ; it could not 
be to gain or bring us unto himself under the pretensions of offers of 
mercy, and the overtures thereof; for himself knew and foreknew that we 
all were and would be such wretched reckless creatures in ourselves, that 
all the promulgations and offers that should or could be made would not 
stir or move our hearts a jot unto the least attempt of nearer access unto 
God, unless himself first moved us thereunto. Mercy itself must work 
with the promises, or we should sit still and move not : Eph. ii. 4, 5, 'But 
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even 
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by 
grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together,' &c. And faith, it is 
' the gift of God, and not of ourselves,' as there it follows. And therefore 
it had been in vain to have made pretensions of promises, in hopes or 
expectation of our being willing, or of our coming in, if God himself were 
not really resolved. No ; the apostle hath resolved us it must be God 
himself must shew us that mercy to cause us to will and run, Bom. ix. 16. 
Therefore, as mercy was the first and sole mover, so it must itself be the 
performer, or all is in vain. 

4thly. Besides this, let us weigh that our great God did, long before he 
put forth those promises, both know and perfectly consider with himself 
what riches of grace and mercy lay by him, whereby he found his own 
sufficiency over and over abundantly to perform such promises, which to 



Chap. XIII.] of justifying FAiTrr. 123 

perform is more easy for him than for us to think or speak a word. 'I say 
unto theo' (says Christ, 6 X&yoj, the Word), 'thy sins are forgiven thee,' 
Mat. ix. 2. It was but a word of his mouth. The all-sufficiency of his 
own heart told him how merciful he could for ever find in his heart to be 
(as our phrase is of ourselves), and he first reckoned with himself, and told 
over what his ' riches in mercy ' were, and to what an infinite sum they 
arose, and found, by the largeness of his heart therein, that he could never 
be disenabled or impoverished in the expense of them, nor his heart grow 
narrower or scantier in process of time afterwards, when men should have 
acted and perpetrated their sins, than now it was when he made the pro- 
mise before they had sinned. ' I know my thoughts towards you, thoughts 
of peace,' &c., Jer. xxix. 11. And thereupon and withal there declares 
how in the end and event, as I have phrased it, the thing will assuredly 
be fulfilled which he had promised; so it follows, ' to give you an expected 
end.' For ' I know my thoughts towards you,' says he; I have summed 
and cast up all. I know what I have resolved I am able to do, and there- 
fore wait you, and expect the issue. And likewise he found in himself that 
he had for ever the absolute and full power of his own will. And upon 
this and such forethoughts within himself it was that he both took up those 
purposes of forgiveness, and issued out from thence those promises adequate 
thereunto.* When the covenant of grace and mercy, the sure mercies, 
were given forth to David under the type of him and his house, but sig- 
nifying his seed Christ, and those that were to be of him, David, in totwn, 
and in the whole, resolveth all those promises into God's own greatness and 
all- sufficiency within himself, as that from which alone, together with the 
consideration of his Christ, he was moved to make those promises : 2 Sam. 
vii. 21, ' For thy Word's sake' (which I would interpret of Christ, 6 /.oyo;, 
the Worclf), and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these great 
things.' And the great things he speaks of as done by God were his uttering 
those promises by Nathan, ver. 11-16, which David indigitates, ver. 19, 
1 But thou hast spoken,' See., all which was in the reality intended of Christ, 
and those children whom God gives him (as the apostle calls them), so Ps. 
lxxxix. 28, 29 ; Isaiah lv. And the consideration that God made these 
promises so freely, and out of his own heart, was that great foundation 
which confirmed David's heart in the faith of those promises, and may 
abundantly strengthen ours. Yea, the promises themselves that were made 
being so high and illustriously great, this became an invincible argument 
to David's faith, that God that made them was the true God, and he alone : 
so ver. 22, ' Wherefore thou art great, Lord God : for there is none like 
thee, neither is there any God besides thee.' For he considered with him- 
self that it could not enter into the hearts of men, or of any mere creature, 
to make such promises, of so large and ample extent, of such and so great 
mercies and forgiveness : ' Is this the manner of men, Lord God ?' ver. 
19. And therefore, if there were no other evidence, this alone sufficiently 
testified to him the greatness of God, 'Thou art God alone ;' and his heart 
being thus filled and enlarged with the mercies of God, and the greatness 
of God in them, he thereupon readily gave up his faith to the belief of the 
truth of them. And no wonder if we find in that first proclamation, Exod. 
xxxiv. 7, ' The Lord God, gracious, merciful, abundant in goodness or kind- 
ness,' set first, and then to follow ■ abundant in truth' also ; for the abun- 

* Compare with it Psalm lxxxix, 28, 29 ; Isaiah lv. 

+ Compare Dan. ix. 17, ' For the Lord's sake ;' that is, for Christ's ; and ver. 19, 
' For thine own sake,' 



121 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

dancy and overflowing of that kindness and mercy that God in those 
declarations professeth to be in himself, is that which assures us of the 
truth and reality of God's heart in the whole of it, as also of those promises 
which next do follow, of ' pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin.' His 
truth in his promises doth spring, and hath its rise, from that fountain, 
his super- abundancy of mercy. And as the promises are said to be ' true 
in Christ,' 2 Cor. i. 18, 20, because he purchased them, so upon the like 
ground they may also be said to be true in God, because mercy is the 
founder and maintainer of them. And from hence it follows, that as God's 
own knowing his own heart, and riches, and all- sufficiency to perform what 
he should promise, caused him to engage his truth at first in making these 
promises, so answerably it is operative in the soul of a believer, the more 
it comes to believe the truth of those promises, as there is a good reason 
it should do so. For this is a sure and undeniable rule, that what most 
moves God's heart to do a thing, that, when declared and revealed by God, 
must needs be most efficacious to cause the heart of a sinner to believe 
that he will do it. 

The second thing I proposed, as that which goes to make up the truth of 
a promise, is the assured reality of the performance of it in the event, or, 
as the prophet speaks, that ' though it tarry, wait for it, because it will 
surely come, it will not tarry,' Hub. ii. 3 ; that is, that it will certainly in 
the issue be fulfilled, for otherwise the promise is not re ipsa true as to the 
thing itself, and so not such as he that is to confide in it may build upon 
it. And the reason of this is, not only that the substantialness and essen- 
tiality of a promise relates to the actual execution of it, but farther, like- 
wise, because often it falls out that the person promising may have honestly 
and faithfully intended it, and promised it, and yet in the issue prove 
unable to perform, as we see amongst men it often falls out ; and then in 
that case and respect the promise doth in reality fall short of its eventual 
t'uth. Hence, therefore, to constitute a promise true, there must be 
added unto the sincerity of the intention of the promiser the reality of 
making the promise good ; and that as necessarily doth farther depend 
upon a full and sufficient ability in the promiser to perform it, as it doth 
upon the honesty of his intention. Hence, therefore, in like manner it 
must be acknowledged that in and to the full confidence of faith of him 
that depends upon the promise of another, there must necessarily also be a 
persuasion of the full and perfect ability of the promiser in the issue cer- 
tainly to perform it, so that on his part it shall not nor can any way be 
hindered. And this belief of the ability of the promiser to accomplish, is 
as great an ingredient into trust as any. This we may see in the apostle's 
faith : 2 Tim. i. 12, ' I know whom I have trusted, that he is able,' &c. 
Thus that wherein God's greatest sufficiency and ability, de facto, or actually 
to forgive our sins, doth lie, the apprehension and belief thereof must needs 
be judged the strongest inducer of us to trust on God for the forgiveness. 
Now it is evident that his all-sufficiency and ability to forgive doth properly 
and peculiarly consist in his being merciful. Not to cite many scriptures, 
this 34th of Exodus may suffice, ' The Lord strong, merciful and gracious, 
pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin.' Likewise Ps. lxxxvi. 5 (which 
is an extract from this), ' For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, 
and plenteous in mercy, unto all them that call upon thee.' You see here 
that his readiness to forgive flows from his goodness, and his being ' plen- 
teous in mercy.' And in analogous reason this may be seen in its shadow, 
the mercy that is in man. What is it that enables a man to forgive ? 



Chap. XIV.] of justifying faith. 125 

Merely tho goodness and mercy that is in him, so as a weak woman, or the 
poorest and otherwise most impotent man (if they abound in bowels of 
mercy, and be of tender hearts and natures), are able to forgive an injury, 
when yet they are utterly unablo to do any other good thing, especially not 
any great thing, for the party whom they forgive. But the mercy that is 
in them alone sufficiently empowereth them unto forgiveness, when to 
nothing else. So, then, if a firm belief of the ability of the person be the 
Btrongest persuasive unto trust and confidence, joined with that of his 
honest intention, further to confirm us of the certain real performance 
itself, then although from other topics we may come to believe that God is 
true in those his promises of forgiveness, yet more abundantly, as the 
apostle says in a like case, this belief springs from the intuition of the 
abundancy of the mercies that are in God, than from any other whatsoever ; 
and the firm belief of the ability to perform is that which most of all 
causeth trust. Thus it was in the faith of Abraham, that he staggered not 
at the truth of the promise as to the real performance, because he chiefly 
believed God's all- sufficiency to make it good : Rom. iv. 20, 21, ' He stag- 
gered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, 
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised 
he was able to perform ;' and so was assured thereby that the event would 
be accordingly. If a great person that had promised to give such or so 
vast a sum of money as is necessary to furnish a private man's house with 
household stuff and utensils, wares and provisions of all kinds, and to stock 
the man's ground, and had given his word and truth for the performance of 
all these, but, together therewith, had led that poor indigent person into 
all his treasures, and shewn him his riches, and where it was that all those 
kinds of such furniture do lie, and then had carried him into his fields, 
barns, and warehouses, where he should also see stock for cattle, corn, and 
wares of all sorts lie piled up, how would this hearten that man, or any of 
you, to believe that great person, the promiser, in his word and promise 
given. So it is here. Now consider those great riches of God which the 
Scriptures predicate so much, and out of which he pardons ; they properly 
consist in his mercies. These are they that are his substance, and give 
him ability to forgive : He is ' plenteous in mercy, and ready to forgive,' 
Ps. lxxxvi. 5. It is mercy that is even the principal obligee in the promise 
or bond, and truth and other attributes come in but secondarily as to this 
business of forgiveness, and rather but as witnesses to confirm what mercy 
had declared and signed before them. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The uses of the doctrine. — That the thoughts of the mercies in God's nature 
should encourage us to come to him for salvation and life. — That the con- 
sideration of them should cause any soul to hope that God will pardon 
him in particular. 

Use 1. Let the thoughts of these treasures of mercies, which have been 
described and demonstrated to be in God's nature, encourage us to come 
to him. Let us consider that there is no other use of all these riches of 
mercy in God, but to be given all forth unto sinners for his glory : whereas 
all his other attributes are to himself, and for himself. Thus his wisdom 
is the perfection of his own being : his love is that whereby he loves him- 



126 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

self : his all-sufficience is that which makes himself blessed ; but his mercies 
redound not in this manner unto or upon himself (for he is not merciful 
unto himself, or for himself), but the sole improvement and glory of thorn 
consists in extending them to others, so as otherwise they would lie useless 
by him. Now then, as a man's having a great estate lying by him, is the 
greatest provocation that can be to him to make him willing to lay it forth 
unto an improvement ; so these vast treasures of mercies which God pos- 
sesseth, are a motive unto him to expend them upon sinners. Full breasts 
love to be sucked and drawn, their fulness otherwise becomes a pain. It 
is the greatest vanity to have riches, and not to know on whom to bestow 
them. Do but possess thy heart then with the thoughts that there is this 
fulness of grace, these great riches of mercy in God, and it will make thy 
soul easy of belief, that there is a willingness in God to bestow them, and 
that he is resolved to give them out to thee whenever thou comest to him, 
especially since himself hath set them forth, and pi'oclaimed them on pur- 
pose to us ; as we find in the Scriptures, that where God doth set himself 
to persuade sinners to come to him, he thinks it sufficient to give them pro- 
mises of mercy and pardon. 

When convinced sinners come to have the prospect of their hearts, and 
of their lives past, and of their sins therein, in the great aggravations of 
them, set in order before them ; when the account of tbeir ten thousand 
talents comes in ; then, unless the superabounding mercies in God, which 
should pardon them, arise up to their faith, and are in solido told out before 
their eyes, and their faith prevails to assure them in good earnest that 
there are such infinite mercies in God, they cannot entertain a thought of 
hope or comfort. Till they see how the mercies of God are superabound- 
ingly able to forgive all these their heinous and aggravated sins, and to 
remove those heaps upon heaps of them, they will not be brought to 
believe ; but as Jacob's heart fainted, and he believed not till he saw the 
waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him, and then his spirit revived, 
Gen. xlv. 26, 27, so neither will these sinners believe till they see the 
mercies which God hath sent forth to carry them to heaven. Till then 
they are apt to cry out (as Cain did, Gen. iv. 13), ' My sin is greater than 
I can bear :' or as those in Jer. xviii., who, when God had invited them to 
turn from their evil ways, say at the 12th verse, ' there is no hope,' or our 
case is desperate. And so they forsook their own mercies (as Jonah 
expresseth it), and left the everlasting and never-failing spring thereof, 
ver. 14, and forgot the Lord, ver. 15, and betook themselves to lying vani- 
ties to give them comfort and ease. And other souls who are preserved 
from despair, yet think within themselves, and say, Oh, where are the 
mercies to be found that should pardon all those sins ? Is it possible that 
God should find in his heart to do it ? Is it possible that God should find 
in his heart mercy and grace enough to pardon such, and so great a sum 
of sins committed against grace itself ? And in this lies the stop and obstruc- 
tion of faith, as it did in like manner with them in the wilderness, who 
said, ' Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ?' Ps. lxxviii. 19. Their 
doubt (when matters came to a stress) was more of his power and ability, 
than of his will. The question is, Can God ? They do not say God will 
not. And truly there is as much unbelief in men's hearts about his mercy, 
when it comes to a pinch, as about his power ; though men ordinarily say 
that they question neither, and indeed till they are put to a distress, they 
question neither, but take them in an overly way for granted. But still 
there is the same reason of men's questioning the all- sufficiency of God's 



Chap. XIV.] of justifying faith. 127 

mercy, as there was in those Jews, and is in us upon any the like occasion, 
of questioning his power. Accordingly, we find these two in like manner 
expressly joined as parallel, and as points of like difficulty to he believed, 
Ps. lxii. 8, 11, 12 ; and indeed in doubtiDg one we question the other, espe- 
cially when we hear that God's ability to forgive lieth in his mercy ; for 
then to limit his power is as to this particular all one as to limit his mercy. 
And when men's consciences are throughly awakened to see their sins, 
then unbelief, on the other hand, awakens thoughts in them to limit God's 
mercies, which is another phrase used, Ps. lxxviii. 41. For men's narrow 
spirits, if not enlarged by faith, do much measure God's heart by their own, 
and so think God to be like themselves, Ps. 1. 21. They cannot imagine 
how a person so high, so great, and so grievously provoked, should be able 
to forgive, and therefore apprehend that he cannot be willing ; and hence 
a thousand jealousies of God do arise in men's souls, which are as full of 
dark cells of unbelief as the earth is of vast caverns within the womb of it. 
"We may judge that the disease lies here, by the remedy and application the 
Scriptures make, which, to satisfy men's souls in these very scruples, do set 
forth God in the greatness and prerogative power of his mercies, as the 
mercies of so great a God, and proportionable to his greatness. As men's 
hearts rise not up to glorify God as God, Rom. i. 21, so nor to believe 
mercies to be in him as a God so great and infinite, proportionable to his ■ 
greatness. God hath therefore in the Scriptures taken several ways, and 
at sundry times hath set forth his mercies to persuade men. Sometimes 
they are set out by way of admiration and wonderment : Micah vii. 18, 19, 
' Who is a God like our God, pardoning iniquity, and passing by the trans- 
gression of the remnant of his inheritance, and that delighteth in mercy ?' 
Sometimes they are displayed by comparing his thoughts and heart in par- 
doning, with what may be supposed to be in the thoughts of the largest 
and most tender-hearted parent, father or mother, and with the bowels 
which all men put together may be supposed to have in them ; and God's 
heart is declared to exceed them all in mercies and thoughts of forgiveness, 
as much as the heaven exceeds the earth : Isa. lv. 7, ' Let the wicked for- 
sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and return unto the 
Lord, and he will abundantly pardon.' Yea, but the sinner will say, 
My thoughts of sinning have for time past already been infinite, ' only 
evil, and continually' evil from my infancy, and my ways have been con- 
tinually perverse and froward, ungracious and opposite to God and his 
mercies, that should pardon me. Humbled sinners' thoughts will go on so far 
in a belief that God may pardon them, though they have gone out so far in 
sinning, as to think that if they had only at such a time of their lives 
sinned so and so against him, and been false to him, and not continued to 
sin out of the presumption of that grace that now should pardon them, 
then they might have hope of mercy. But they think that because they 
have so long provoked him, that now he may have sworn against them in 
his wrath, and that he cannot find in his heart to forgive such a wretch, 
though he may otherwise pardon as much as all men and angels putting 
their stock of mercies together, and making up one great purse of mercy, 
as would be sufficient to extend to forgive and discharge great debts. Oh 
but, says God, measure not my thoughts in pardoning either by the evil in 
your thoughts, or by your ways in sinning ; nor yet measure them by what 
the thoughts and ways of yourselves, men or angels, have or can have to 
forgive withal ! ' For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my 
ways your ways, saith the Lord. As the heavens be higher than the earth, 



128 OF THE OBJECT ANi) ACTS [BOOK I. 

so are my ways higher than your ways.' My ways of mercy are both above 
your ways of sinning, and they also exceed all the thoughts of mercy which 
the best natured of you can have in pardoning others. My ways and 
designs that I have upon you, and dealings I purpose towards you, tran- 
scend them all in opposite goodness, graciousness, and forgiveness, as much 
as the heavens do the earth. And also says God, ' My thoughts are not 
as your thoughts.' He speaks all this of his exceeding them all in pardoning. 
Nay, further, it rises higher, to this, meaning that the mercies of God do 
not only exceed men's thoughts in what any, or all of them, could find in 
their hearts in their proportion to pardon, but that also if you extend the 
compasses of your thoughts, that you or any believers have had of what 
mercies of God, and what tboughts of grace, have been exercised in pardon- 
ing themselves or other sinners ; yet the merciful thoughts of God in 
reality do exceed, and are above all such apprehensions that you or airy can 
take up, as much as the heavens are above the earth, and are still higher 
also, since ' his mercies are above the heavens.' For lo ! ' these are but 
parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him,' or appre- 
hended by us men, or that can be spoken by himself, unto what is in him- 
self ! Job xxvi. 14. 

I have enlarged upon these reasons, not so much for conviction, which 
in so plain a point needed not, as to stir up believers to the frequent 
exercise of this so useful an experiment, wherein when faith is versed it 
will find an abundant entrance into every promise that belongeth unto 
mercy in any kind, as well as in the point of forgiveness ; and yet this 
practice is neglected by Christians, for the want of which their faith con- 
tinues weak and narrow, and their joy and comfort in believing kept low 
and small, and God himself bereft of much of the glory would arise unto 
his mercy, if, together with the promises laid hold on, they would have 
recourse unto the spring and fountain, the mercies of God. But the nar- 
rowness of their spirits in believing causeth them to content themselves 
with a single and bare view of the things promised, and of the promises of 
them under the notion of being the word of God ; but they enlarge not in 
considering the rich mercies of God, that moved him to make those pro- 
mises. They have the consideration of the truth of God in them to perform, 
but expatiate not to the mercies that both gave the promises, and is the 
cause of all the causes of the performance. 

My advice to believers is, to meditate much upon, and to study the 
infinite riches of God's mercies, as the Scriptures so frequently (and there- 
fore call for the like frequency of thoughts upon them in our hearts) have 
set them forth unto us. Let us still join them all together upon any great 
and solemn occasion of exercising faith on promises ; and as, in the point of 
thanksgiving after mercies received, we have many precedents of saints 
recounting ' the loving kindnesses of the Lord, according to all he hath 
bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude 
of his loving-kindnesses,' Isa. lxiii. 7, so in like manner our faith should, in 
its pursuit to obtain mercies, collect and make the like catalogue, as we 
have been even now abundantly instructed ; for hereby we shall greatly 
honour God, and strengthen our own hearts. 

1. We shall honour God greatly (to give glory unto whom in the most 
ample manner is the most proper use of faith, Rom. iv. 20), for thereby we 
acknowledge and do homage to his mercies as the universal cause of all ; 
for this is an undoubted maxim, that what is first in any kind is the uni- 
versal cause of all that kind. Consider then in God all that is mercy in any 



CnAP. XIV.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 129 

kind, and he being originally and only merciful as well as only good, all else of 
mercy must hold its tenor of that mercy that is in him. This I under- 
stand to be the full of that title given him by the apostle, 2 Cor. i. 3, 
1 The father of mercies ; ' i. e., he being a fulness of mercy in himself first, 
he became the Father of all mercies, of what kind soever. He is the first 
in that kind; mercy itself is his nature, and all mercies purposed, promised, 
performed, held forth, or applied to faith, are all his immediate children, 
and not one of them have any existence but from him, and that considered 
as he is merciful too. Thus in another respect he is styled ' the Father of 
lights,' James i. 17, in respect of heavenly gifts from above, they holding 
in chief of him as such in that kind of effects ; like as the sun (to which 
the allusion manifestly there is) may be called the father, or first original 
of all heavenly light that comes down upon the world from itself, or from 
stars that have their light from it. 

2. And also this course of meditating on the riches of God's mercies will 
prove most comfortable to us ; for, 2 Cor. i. 3, now cited, where he pro- 
pounds him to our faith as the Father of mercies, he adds this other 
immediately, ' the God of all comforts ; ' for in exercising our faith on him 
as a Father of mercies, we shall find him to be a God of comfort to us, 
whilst we are but expectants and waiters on him by faith all along until the 
performance. 

3. And by virtue of his mercies being the universal, supreme, and 
sovereign cause of all mercies, promises, &c, it holds good that our faith 
may have a free, ample, and immediate recourse unto them in all cases, or 
occasions whatsoever. For the law or privilege that accompanies his being 
the first cause in other kind of effects, doth by analogy hold in this. Take 
him as he is primus motor, the first and universal cause of all being and 
motion, and it is a maxim universally consented to by all divines, that 
although there be a chain of second causes subordinate one to another, that 
have a power each to bring forth their proper effects (as the sun brings 
forth light, and that light heat and warmth, and that warmth quickens and 
enlivens the seeds and roots in the earth, and they bring forth herbs, which 
herbs and flowers have divers colours and qualities they are adorned withal), 
yet God, who is the first and universal cause, hath an immediate influence 
and concurrence into all and each, as immediately into the very last as 
into the first ; and that a far greater than they have all or severally into 
their effects ; so as God not only works by them, but with them, and he as 
immediately causeth the light to quicken plants as to send out light, and 
as immediately he causeth the plants to bring forth flowers, yea, and that 
last effect too, those orient colours with which the lilies (that are our tulips) 
are arrayed above Solomon in all his royalty ; yet these particulars are 
immediately attributed unto God more than unto their second causes : ' If 
God,' says our Saviour, ' so clothe the grass of the field,' Mat. vi. 28, 30, 
Luke xii. 17, 28 ; and indeed he works ' all in all,' 1 Cor. xii. 6. I need 
not insist on it further, being it is but for illustration ; be you only exhorted 
to hold this golden chain and descent of mercies let down to your faith to 
lay hold upon ; see his thoughts and purposes to have mercy immediately 
flowing from the essential mercies of his nature, and then regard his pro- 
mises of bestowing such and [such] mercies as another link let down from 
his purposes. And though the faith of a believer lays hold on these promises 
as on what are next it, yet those first and essential mercies (so celebrated 
in his word) do immediately touch, influence, and reach unto all and each 
of these, unto the last as well as the first, to give subsistence to them, and 

VOL. VIII. I 



130 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

to make all good to the faith of a sinner. And hence the faith of believers, 
whilst it clasps itself into the promise of forgiveness, or any other promise 
in the word, may not only remotely depend on God's mercies (as a man 
that hangs his whole weight upon the. lowest link of a chain, may be said 
to hang also upon the uppermost, to which all are in subordination fastened), 
but he may in and with the promise have an immediate recourse to the top 
and supreme mercies themselves, for they are ready and present with the 
declaration of his word to make them good and real to the faith of a sinner, 
for whose sake and comfort they are and were written. He may bring 
down the consideration of all these mercies into every such promise, &c, 
to strengthen his heart in believing, and in treating with God for forgive- 
ness, for they are the original cause of those promises, and all promises of 
mercy are immediately conjunct unto, and dependent on, the mercies in 
God's nature, even as all particular rivers depend upon the universal ocean, 
from which they all come, and into which they run, as Solomon tells us, 
Eccles. i. 7, and each of them have the whole sea to maintain and feed 
them. And as they flow also into the sea, and every vessel, small or great, 
that floats in any of those particular rivers hath an open passage into the 
main, keeping to the course of that river, so is it here between the mercies 
of God, the ocean, and the current of promises of salvation, and the faith 
of a believer. And in this case there is that privilege which often falls not 
out in such as we have alluded to, viz., that the smallest rivulet of salva- 
tion running in the promises may bear up a vessel of mercy, and may be 
for his supply, if he thinks or finds he wants water, and sticks in the deeps 
of mire and quicksand. The believer's faith hath the freedom and liberty 
to suck and draw in the ocean of God's mercies, to draw (if it were possible) 
the whole of the sea itself to make a full stream for its support, and to help 
it off aground, and to help its being borne aloft above all mire of tempta- 
tions. Nor are there any stints set how much or how little it may let in ; 
and to confirm this, why should not faith as well have this immediate 
recourse, in and with the promises whilst yet unperformed, unto these 
essential mercies aforehand, to bestow and give forth the things promised, 
as well as after in thanksgiving, when we have received the mercies as per- 
formed unto us, we bless God for them, and we celebrate all those essential 
mercies in God as the original and immediate causes of them ? Thus 
Nehemiah did, Neh. ix. 17-20, &c. The great return which the Gentiles, 
and all the nations in the world, are said to bring unto God (when converted 
by the gospel), as the richest present of thankfulness, is set out by this, 
1 to glorify God for his mercy,' Rom. xv. 9. Now there is the same reason 
for one as for the other, and we shall find that, in the exercise hereof, and 
treating with God thereby, there will flow in upon our souls an abundance 
of strength and consolation, even spring-tides of them, to fill the channels 
of the promises, and also of our hearts, that give themselves up to them. 

Use 2. I shall yet farther, by way of use and application, enlarge this 
head, by adding, that this comprehension or intuition of the mercies in 
God's nature will also prove a great persuasive and encouragement to a 
bringing on an hope in men's souls, an hope of God's willingness to pardon 
themselves in particular. And this is a matter of great moment, it being 
found, in ordinary and common experience, that whilst humbled souls are 
helped so far on in their way of believing as to acknowledge the truth of 
God's intentions in the promises of forgiveness, and the reality of the per- 
formance to some or other, yet still they stick or waver whether God be 
willing to pardon them in particular. Now, whatever other encouragements 



Chap. XIV.] of justifying faith. 131 

unto such a soul others will allege, whereof there may be many, yet I shall 
insist on this one, and that alone, it lying in my way, and being suitable to 
the design of my discourse ; that if God but possesses and fill thy soul with 
an ample and enlarged apprehension of the mercies that are in himself, this 
will create withal an encouragement to thee that he intends good to thy 
soul in particular. As the flood, when it rose higher and higher, did lift 
up together with itself the ark, so an inuring thy soul to those comprehen- 
sions will insensibly elevate and raise up thy soul to a confidence that God 
doth intend all good to thee. Look, as if one that is timorous, and unused 
to travel in great waters, should be set in never so safe a vessel in the midst 
of the sea, or great overflow, where he saw himself environed about with 
nothing but waves, he would fear his being drowned and cast away ; so, on 
the contrary, if you set the most weak and fearful soul in the full view and 
prospect of God's mercies, and the vast ocean thereof, that he sees neither 
shore nor bottom, this poor but otherwise tumbled soul will soon take heart 
and courage to itself. For, 

1. The full and clear revelation of any divine truth in a way of sub- 
sistence to a man's soul, doth leave some application of itself to a man"s 
soul. And if a discovery be made of good things, the manifestation thereof 
doth usually leave an encouragement in the heart that they belong and 
appertain unto one's-self. The very manifestation that God makes of them 
(when God makes it) carries so much engraven in it. As this is found 
true in experience, so that definition of faith, Heb. xi. 1, 2, confirms it, 
even that the main of faith lies in a conviction of the substance of the 
things themselves, which, when it is made in the abundancy of the object 
revealed, the very sight and presence thereof is that which mainly draws in 
the heart to apply it, and cleave and adhere unto it for its ease in parti- 
cular. The truth of this might be abundantly made out, and it holds good 
in the particular point before me in a more especial manner, by how much 
the infinite sweetness of God's mercy hath a magnetic or a loadstone virtue 
in it, by alluring (as Hosea's phrase is, chap. ii. 14) to attract and draw in 
the heart unto them, and cause men to think that they may come to have 
a part and portion in them. Whilst they deeply consider that there is such 
an height and depth of mercy, a bottomless gulf in God's heart, it induceth 
the soul to cast anchor within the veil, as mariners do their anchors in the 
bottom of the sea blindfold ; which anchor is an hope of mercy for a man's 
self, upon what he clearly as yet sees not to belong unto him. 

2. For the confirmation hereof (besides this general ground) I observe, 
that when God himself doth set himself to draw men unto him, to turn to 
him, and so to believe and lay hold on his mercy, and would persuade them 
thereunto, the most efficacious course he takes is, in the most ample man- 
ner that may be in the first and chief place, to possess the hearts of those 
he addresseth his invitations unto of those infinite riches of grace that are 
in his heart and nature only in a general declaration of them only, whilst 
yet, in applying of them and of the promises to the persons, he is pleased 
to give but imperfect intimations and suspensive discourses of what he will 
do for them in particular. That one instance in Joel ii. 13, 14, may suffi- 
ciently serve for many others ; for the thing he there instantly exhorts unto 
is this, ' Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn unto me with all your 
heart,' &c. But what are the encouragements or invitations by which he 
would induce them to it ? What grounds doth he propose unto their faith '? 
They are two. The first and great one is, the royal declaration of the 
mercies that are in the nature of God barely proposed, and it is the same 



132 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

in the very words with that of his old and first proclamation, so often 
repeated throughout all ages (which he will for ever abide by), Exod. xxxiv., 
for so he begins, ' For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of 
great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.' 2. There are and use to 
be in the word more particular promises, wherein he far more utters what 
his will and resolution is for shewing mercy unto those whom he speaks to. 
Now, indeed, you will find that some promises are also annexed hereunto 
in this his exhortation, and both intended to provoke them to believe and 
turn to God ; but I beseech you to observe the vast and strange difference ; 
that is, the manner of his declaring the first and the latter. 

The first, viz., magnific description of his nature, he utters in the fullest 
and most enlarged, absolute, assertory way that possibly might be. He 
proclaims that with open mouth, and speaks plainly without reservation or 
hesitation. That magnific description of himself he utters with open mouth 
in the fullest and amplest manner that possible might be ; but the second, 
viz., the promise made to the persons, and the things pi'omised, he is 
pleased but to mutter (as I may so speak), and concerning this he says no 
more but, ' Who knows if God will repent and leave a blessing behind 
him ? ' He is sparing and reserved, you see, in this way of the declaration 
of his will : yea, and elsewhere, the hope he gives as to this part is yet 
more slender; for but to an • It may be,' Amos v. 15; Zeph. ii. 3; yea, 
but to an ' If there may be hope,' Lament, iii. 29. To say tbat ' there is 
hope,' gives us a sight but afar off; but to say, ' If there may be hope,' 
gives a far more uncertain sound. Yet this is what God doth in this sort 
of declaration concerning what his will in promises to these persons lets 
fall to them. 

By all which we may clearly see that it is the certain and clear conviction 
and evidence of the grace in God, though joined but with such promises 
that speak but indefinitely, and contain but imperfect obscure hints and 
intimations, and that give but a slender hope (as one would give of good 
will to a man in his particular) that it is this conviction which hath the 
strength and attractive influence in it, and is sufficient, with those promises, 
to draw in the soul to cast itself upon God, and to hope in his mercy. 
And this inference from that fore-mentioned passage in Joel is strong and 
clear ; for it must not be denied that God, in those treaties and proposals 
to men, did apply himself to work faith in them, and accordingly gave forth 
what was most effective, at least sufficient, to beget faith in men's hearts, 
and to bring them in to him. And further, it must be owned that the great 
God (the proposer here), knowing our frame, and what it is wherein the 
unbelief in men's hearts doth mostly lie, did therefore apply himself, and 
frame his exhortations up of such things as would be most effective of faith 
in us, and best able to remove the contrary obstruction of unbelief. Now, 
we plainly see that in these passages he spreads the plaster thickest and 
deepest with that medicinal salve, viz., of the display of the mercies of 
God's nature, and but thinly with that other of suspensive intimations of 
his good will to the persons in the promises annexed. And therefore that 
which is the most hardened core of unbelief in us, must be understood to 
consist chiefly in the doubting of the plenteousness and fulness of mercies 
that are in him to pardon us. This is the great and deep ' sore of men's 
hearts,' if men would but know it in themselves, as Solomon speaks, 
1 Kings viii. ; and the virtue and influence of this sovereign plaster men- 
tioned is it which doth dissolve that core and work of the devil ; and in 
our believing of these things of our God it is that the main stress of faith 



Chap. XV.] of justifying faith. 133 

doth lie (though men discover it not), and in that point their faith needs 
most to be strengthened aud relieved, rather than in the other. And this 
one thing apprehended once, though but with slender half promises of that 
mercy to us, which are but intimations rather than promises, will yet be 
abundantly effective to persuade the heart, and beget in it a good hope 
through grace of mercy for itself, and thereupon to come in and turn unto 
God, who thereupon will reveal himself in other promises more fully to his 
soul. 



CHAPTER XV. 

That God, considered as justifying the ungodly, is the object of faith. — How 
we may be said to be justified from eternity. — In what sense it is to be under- 
stood that we were justified upon the resurrection of Christ. — How we are 
said to be justified when we believe. 

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justi- 
fieth.— Rom. VIII. 33. 

In seeking justification, our faith must have recourse to God, as justify- 
ing also. Thus in the words of the text it is expressed, ' It is God that 
justifies.' And upon this the apostle builds his confidence, as well as upon 
that, that Christ died. Therefore we find, that as Christ dying, so God as 
justifying is made the object of faith; Rom. iv. 5, ' That believeth on him 
that justifieth the ungodly ' i. e., who believeth on God the Father, imput- 
ing Christ's righteousness to persons ungodly. And therefore you shall 
find that the righteousness we are justified by is called as often ■ the 
righteousness of God,' as of Christ : thus Rom. i. 17, ' The righteousness 
of God is revealed from faith to faith ;' for as faith looks at this righteous- 
ness as purchased by Christ, so appointed by God, and bestowed by him, 
and imputed by him : 2 Cor. v. 21, ' For he hath made him to be sin for 
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
him.' We* see Christ there to be the meritorious cause of that righteous- 
ness, for his soul paid for it. But his Father was the original cause of all, 
for he made him sin for us, and he makes his righteousness ours. It is 
called ' the righteousness of Christ,' as he is the worker of it; but ' the 
righteousness of God,' as he is the appointer and imputer of it. So Rom. 
iii. 25, 26, it is called ' the righteousness of God' for a double reason ; 
because God sent forth and appointed Christ, ver. 25, and because he is 
the justifier by it, ver. 26. It is called ' the righteousness of faith,' as the 
apprehender of it, Rom. iv. 13. It is called 'man's righteousness' (Job 
xxxiii. 26, 'He will render to man his righteousness'), because it was 
extended to him, and paid for him. Yea, let me add this farther, that God 
justifying is the main and ultimate object of your faith. Christ, though he 
is the first and next to you, yet God is the ultimate, in whom faith rests. 
Therefore believers, 1 Pet. i. 21, are said ' by him to believe in God, that 
their faith and hope might be in God.' Thus, as the promise brings you 
to Christ, so Christ brings you to God. 

The reason of this is, because God hath as great a hand in justifying 
you as Christ ; yea, he is the principal in it : 2 Cor. v. 18, ' And all things 
are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath 
given to us the ministry of reconciliation.' Therefore in the matter of 



134 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

justification, Isaiah liii. 11, God calls him his servant; ' My servant shall 
justify many.' It was God against whom principally our sins are com- 
mitted, and unto whom the satisfaction of Christ was paid, and by whom 
it was ordained, and by virtue of whose decree it hath power to justify. 
As the value of it to justify us depends on the worth that is in Christ, so 
the acceptation of it for us depends upon God's will ; ' By which will ye 
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus,' Heb. x. 10. It is 
the will of God, spoken of before, which Christ came to accomplish. It was 
God that appointed the persons for whom Christ died, and Christ, as Me- 
diator, put not in a man, but whom his Father gave him ; and then the 
great blessing of pardon comes to be bestowed. God guides, and directs, 
and orders the bestowing of it, and sets his hand to the act of grace, ere 
pardon comes down. Christ's merits have their efficacy to justify us ex 
compacto, from agreement between the Father and the Son ; for though the 
merits are in themselves superabundant, uvsgiir'Kiovaes, 1 Tim. i. 14, the 
apostle therefore shewing how the righteousness of Christ is more to us 
than Adam's sin, tells us also that free grace must put in before it can be 
accepted for us, Rom. v. 17. 

There are two things in justification. 

1. The righteousness imputed; and that is Cbrist's, and to him we go 
for it. 

2. The act of imputation, the accounting it mine or thine ; and that is 
the act of God primarily. 

Justification is attributed as much to free grace as to Christ's righteous- 
ness, for both are joined : Rom. iii. 24, 25, ' Being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ : whom God hath 
set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbear- 
ance of God.' Therefore faith looks as much to free grace ordaining and 
imputing, as to Christ performing. In a word, God's free grace is the 
original, Christ's righteousness is instrumental to the manifestation of free 
grace, and faith is the instrument of apprehending all ; and yet God still 
is in all, 2 Cor. v. 18 ; and Christ is ' all in all,' Col. iii. 11. And faith, 
as it is our act, is nothing at all in our justification, but only as it appre- 
hends all. 

Now, for a direction concerning God justifying as the object of your 
faith, you are to consider all the acts and ways of God justifying, and to 
direct you to a right conceiving of God as justifying, you must know that 
there are tria momenta, or three stages of motion in this way. I do not 
say that there are three parts of justification itself, which, as it is applied 
to us, is actus individuus, an individual act; but three several steps, three 
paces and progresses of God, as I may call them ; though, in respect of 
the materials which justification consisteth of, it is actus totalis, an entire 
act, a complete discharge from all sin, and a perfect investiture with the 
whole righteousness of Christ. God pardons not the debt by halves, nor 
bestows Christ's righteousness by parcels, but entitles us to the whole in 
every of those moments of justification : yet, in regard of our investiture 
into this, there are several pauses, or several iterations of this act ; as in 
passing over an estate in land, when the deeds are drawn, written, and 
sealed, there is a title or interest given into the whole estate ; and then 
again, when possession is further given, it is not an interest into any new 
parcel, but both convey the whole estate ; yet they may be called several 
acts oi conveyance, and of title and admission into it : and such several 



Chap. XV. J of justifying faith. 135 

acts of investiture of us into this whole grace of justification were performed 
towards us by God, which go to the accomplishment of it. This also 
answers to the distinct works of the three persons, who, as they have a 
distinct hand in the whole work of redemption, so also in this main point 
of our justification. 

1. The first progress or step was at the first covenant-making and 
striking of the bargain from all eternity. We may say of all spiritual 
blessings in Christ what is said of Christ, that their ' goings forth are from 
everlasting.' Justified then we were when first elected, though not in our 
own persons, yet in our Head, as he had our persons then given him, and 
we came to have a being and interest in him. ' You are in Christ,' saith 
the apostle, and so we had the promise made of all spiritual blessings in 
him, and he took all the deeds of all in our name ; so that in Christ we 
were 'blessed with all spiritual blessings,' Eph. i. 3; as we are blessed 
with all other, so with this also, that we were justified then in Christ. To 
this purpose is that place, Rom. viii. 30, where he speaks of all those 
blessings which are applied to us after redemption, as calling, justification, 
glorification, as of things already past and done, even then when he did 
predestinate us : ' Whom he hath predestinated, them he hath called, them 
he hath justified, them he hath glorified.' He speaks it as in the time 
past. Neither speaks he thus of these blessings as past simply in regard 
of that presence, in which all things stand before him from eternity, all 
things both past, present, and to come, being to him as present. Nor doth 
he speak it only in regard of a resolution or purpose taken up to call and 
justify, he ' calling things that are not as if they were,' Rom. iv. 17. For 
thus it may be said of all his other works towards the creatures in common, 
that he hath created and preserved them from everlasting. But in a more 
special relation are these blessings decreed said to have been bestowed, 
because, though they existed not in themselves, yet they existed really in a 
Head that represented them and us, who was by to answer for them, and 
to undertake for them, which other creatures could not do ; and there was 
an actual donation and receiving of all these for us (as truly as a feoffee in 
trust may take lands for one unborn), by virtue of a covenant made with 
Christ, whereby Christ had all our sins imputed unto him, and so taken off 
from us, Christ having then covenanted to take all our sins upon him when 
he took our persons to be his ; and God having covenanted not to impute 
sin unto us, but to look at him for the payment of all, and at us as dis- 
charged. Of this seems that place, 2 Cor. v. 19, evidently to speak, as 
importing that everlasting transaction, as I have shewn,* ' God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
unto them' ; i. e., not imputing them then, when he was reconciling us unto 
himself in Christ. So as then God told Christ, as it were, (for it was a real 
covenant), that he would look for his debt and satisfaction of him, and that 
he did let the sinners go free ; and so they are in this respect justified from 
all eternity. And indeed, if the promise of life was then given us (as the 
apostle Paul speaks, Titus i. 2), then also justification of life, without which 
we could not come to life. Yet this is but the inchoation, though it be an 
estating us into the whole tenure of life. 

2. There is a farther act of justifying us, which passeth from God 
towards us in Christ, upon the payment and performance by Christ at his 
resurrection : for Jesus Christ (who as he was one with us by stipulation 

* In his discourse of Christ the Mediator, Book i. chap. i. in vol. iii. of his works* 
[Vol. V. of this edition.— Ed.] 



136 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

before, so then by representation), at the time, the fulness of the time of 
payment appointed (which the apostle therefore calls the ' due time,' Rom. 
v. 6), came into the world as our surety, and as representing our persons, 
as Adam once did ; and at several payments, for three and thirty years and 
upwards, at last finished all at his death, and laid down the last payment 
when he laid down his life and his body in the grave, sin and the curse all 
the while holding him in bands as a debtor : but at that instant when he 
arose, God then performed a farther act of justification towards him, and 
us in him, admitting him as our advocate, into the actual possession of jus- 
tification of life, acquitting him from all those sins which he had charged 
upon him. Therefore we read, that as Christ was made sin in his life and 
death, so that he was justified also, 1 Tim. iii. 16. After he had said, 
that he was ' manifested in the flesh,' i. e., the likeness of sinful flesh, he 
says, he was ' justified in the Spirit,' when by the power of that eternal 
Spirit he was quickened, and so declared to be that righteous one with 
power ; at which time, as he vindicated himself before men, of all those 
imputations laid on him by men, as being an impostor (which, when he was 
under the curse, he lay under, but now was justified to all the world), so 
also before and by his Father he was discharged, and justified also from 
all those debts he had before charged him with, as now having fully paid 
the utmost farthing, and so received him up into glory, as it follows in that 
text. I say then, in the same sense that God made him sin, in the same 
sense he is said to have justified him ; and therefore, Heb. ix. 28, it is 
said, he shall at the latter day ' appear without sin ;' implying, that when 
he appeared here, he appeared with sin : therefore there was a time when 
these sins were taken off, and the first moment of it was when he rose from 
under that state of humiliation (whereof the last part was his lying in the 
grave), and when he began to enter upon a glorified state, which was at his 
resurrection. And that he should be thus justified, is not spoken of him 
abstractly considered in himself, but as he hath us conjoined in him, and 
as he connotates us ; this new title to life, and of being righteous, he 
entered not upon for himself alone, but he was an attorney, took posses- 
sion, and was admitted for us, and we by him as our advocate ; which I 
take to be the meaning of that place, Rom. iv. 25, ' He died for our sins, 
and rose again for our justification.' When he died, then he paid our debts, 
and God received from him the price, and therefore the matter of justifica- 
tion is indeed the merit of his obedience and death ; but at his rising, then 
the formal act and deed of discbarge was delivered to him by God, and that 
for our justification : ' He rose for our justification.' And our justification 
is attributed to his resurrection, not only because he rose again to apply 
it, but principally in this respect, because at his rising he received it for 
us, for he being justified then, we were justified in him : and therefore, 
as justification in respect of the matter imputed is attributed to his death 
and blood (we were justified by his blood) so the formal imputation of it to 
us ; may be ascribed to his resurrection, when the discharge of all was 
reckoned to Christ. And in this respect, when the apostle would shew 
them the benefit and necessity of Christ's resurrection in respect of them- 
selves, he says, 1 Cor. xv. 17, ' If Christ be not risen, your faith is in 
vain, ye are yet in your sins,' i. e., that although Christ died for your sins, 
and you had faith in that his death to be justified from your sins, yet this 
faith would be in vain, and neither it nor Christ's death would justify you ; 
and your title to justification were nothing worth, if Christ be not risen : 
for though you did believe, and could say the money was paid for you, if 



Chap. XV.] of justifying faith. 137 

Christ had not risen to take delivery and seisin of the estate in your names, 
your plea would have been made void, the formality of justification being 
wanting. Now all this argues that our justification hath a farther depend- 
ence upon his resurrection than merely as to working faith, and that he 
rose not only to give us faith, but that supposing we could have faith in 
his death, yet without his resurrection it had been in vain. For indeed 
this present state of our justification by faith depends upon that fore-passed 
justification of his in our stead then ; and as when he ascended we ascended 
with him (and therefore we are said now to ' sit together with him in 
heavenly places,' Eph. ii. G), so when he was justified we were justified also 
in him ; and as it may be said, Adam condemned us all, and corrupted ua 
all, when he fell, so did then Christ perfect us all, and God justified us all, 
when he died and rose again. 

3. But these two acts of justification are wholly out of us, immanent acts 
in God ; and though they concern us, and are towards us, yet are not acts 
of God upon us, they being performed towards us, not as actually existing 
in ourselves, but only as existing in our Head, who covenanted for us, and 
represented us : so as though by these acts we are estated into a right 
title to justification, yet the benefit and the possession of that estate we 
have not without a farther act to be passed upon us, whereby we have not 
as existing in our head only, as a feoffee in trust for us, as children under 
age, this excellent grace given us, but are to be in our own persons, 
though still through Christ, possessed of it, and to have all the deeds 
and evidences committed to the custody and apprehension of our faith. 
We are in our own persons made true owners and enjoyers of it, which is 
then done at that instant when we first believe ; which act is the comple- 
tion and accomplishment of the former, and is that great and famous justi- 
fication by faith which the Scripture so much inculcates, and almost only 
mentioneth ; yea, and so speaks of it, as if we were not justified at all till 
then : so 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' Such were some of you; but now ye are sancti- 
fied, now ye are justified :' which before they were not; and therefore the 
apostle speaks of a now of justification, being ' now justified,' Kom. v. 9, 
that is, ' now we believe,' ver. 1 ; and so ver. 11, 'By whom we have 
now received the atonement,' because though it was given in Christ afore 
for us, yet then only we receive it ; and therefore before faith the Scrip- 
ture pronounceth the very elect, even those whom Christ died for, ' chil- 
dren of wrath as well as others,' till they believe, Eph. ii. 3. So as when 
we are said to be justified by faith, it is not only because then faith appre- 
hends that justification that was in God's breast before, and that then we 
are justified merely foro conscientue, though before we were so in foro Dei, 
as much as ever (as some express it) ; but further it must be said, that even 
in foro Dei, in God's court, and according to the judgment of that open 
court which God hath set up in his word, and according to the proceedings 
of his word (which is the rule he professeth to judge men by, and therein 
he keeps to the rules of his word, as Christ says, ' I judge no man, but the 
word I speak shall judge you,' John xii. 47, 48), God doth judge, and 
pronounceth his elect ungodly and unjustified, till they believe ; yea, and 
bj' the Spirit of bondage he testifies to their consciences, that before faith 
they are ungodly, unjustified, and children of wrath. If it were not a real 
truth, the Spirit of truth would not evidence this to them : so, therefore, 
when we are said to be justified by faith, it implies more than a justifica- 
tion in our consciences, and causing us to apprehend our justification ; for 
upon believing there'is an act passeth from God which makes a real change 



138 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I. 

in our estates, from a state of ungodliness to an estate of justification ; 
which is a real moral change, as truly and as really as sanctification is a 
physical change, and that not only in our apprehension and judging of our- 
selves, but in the course of God's proceedings of judgment upon us ; that 
whereas before, he, by the rules of his word, which he keeps to, would and 
must have proceeded with us as persons ungodly, out of Christ, now 
according to those rules he doth pronounce us just, and we come actually 
to have a real claim, title, and interest, according to course of law, as we 
say, in justification, which till now we were debarred of. 

But the question may be put, How could they be said to be justified 
afore, both from eternity and in Christ, if they may be truly said even 
in God's judgment to be justified but now, and that they were till now 
unjustified? 

The answer is, That these seeming contradictions, in divers respects, are 
both true. 

1. That before God, according to the rules of his word, which are the 
rules of his proceedings before men, being God's revealed will, they are 
as yet unjustified ; but according to those secret passages of his secret will 
transacted with Christ, and to which he is privy, they are justified persons 
before him. 

2. Though the person abstractly considered is always justified before 
God, yet the person concretely taken, as invested with, and remaining in 
an estate of unbelief, is in relation to that estate, according to the rules of 
his word, unjustified ; so as the change is first and primarily in regard of 
the state of the person from unbelief to faith, and then it looks towards the 
person himself. 

3. Their justification before faith, coram Deo, in the sight of God, is of 
them not as actually existing in themselves, but only as they were repre- 
sented in their head; for their persons, as considered as represented in 
Christ, did in him, as their head, receive justification, and all blessings else, 
but not in themselves do they receive them actually as existing until faith ; 
as we are said then to be condemned and corrupted in the first Adam, 
when he sinned, as representing us, but we are in our own persons not 
actually corrupted till we exist and are born from him. So as to conclude 
this, they are said before faith to be justified in Christ by representation 
only, and not as in themselves. They are said to be in themselves actually 
justified through Christ after faith, but they cannot be said to be justified 
of themselves without Christ, neither before nor after faith. At the closure 
of these three advancements and passings forth of our justification, take 
these two observations concerning them all. 

Obs. 1. That each of these being in and through Jesus Christ, who is 
our righteousness, and so they all depend upon him, therefore these three 
progresses of God going on to justify us, depend upon three several acts of 
Jesus Christ, which as he puts forth, so doth God also answerably put 
forth a new step in this work. 

(1.) When Christ did but undertake for us, and took by covenant our 
sins off from us, and indented with and entered into bond to God for our 
debts, God then discharged us in his secret purpose ; and knowing Christ 
able and faithful, expected all from him. 

(2.) When in the fulness of time he had performed what he under- 
took, as Christ did a new act, so did God also therein justify both him 
and us. 

(3.) When Christ by his Spirit knits us to him, and works faith in us, 



Chap. XV.] of justifying faith. 139 

to look towards that satisfaction and justification wrought for us, then doth 
God put forth another act (and it is the last act, and the accomplishment 
of all), and pronounceth us righteous in ourselves through him. 

Obs. 2. All these acts of justification, as they depend upon Christ, so 
upon our being one with Christ ; and look what kind of union there is, 
answerable is the act of justification passed forthwith. From all eternity we 
were one with Christ by stipulation, he by a secret covenant undertaking 
for us ; and answerably that act of God's justifying us was but as we were 
considered in his undertaking. When Christ died and rose again, we were 
in him by representation, as performing it for us, and no otherwise ; but 
as so considered we were justified. But now when we come in our per- 
sons, by our own consent, to be made one with him actually, then we come 
in our persons through him to be personally and in ourselves justified, and 
receive the atonement by faith. 



140 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 



BOOK II. 

The second object of faith, Jesus Christ. — Of our being drawn to him by the 
Father, and our treating with him for an interest in his person and salva- 
tion by him. — That Christ as God-man in one person is the object of our 
faith. — That as a spiritual Messiah and Saviour he is propounded to our 
faith. — That not only Christ in his person, but in all that he hath done 
and suffered for our salvation, and now doth for tis in heaven, is the object 
of our faith. 



CHAPTER I. 

That the mercies in God's nature are not the object of our faith, but as they 
are considered together with Christ. — That God's mercies and Jesus Christ 
are accordingly propounded jointly to our faith. 

There are two grand objects our faith doth act upon, God the Father and 
Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit beiDg the person -who anoints us, generally 
teaching us all things. Our Saviour Christ therefore, John xvii. 3, havirig 
spoken of giving eternal life to them that believe, superadds, ' This is eternal 
life, to know thee' (the Father), ' the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
thou hast sent;' thereby setting forth them two as the objects which our 
faith and knowledge are carried out unto for eternal life ; which eternal life 
is begun in this world by the knowledge of faith, and perfected by the know- 
ledge of sight in the world to come. 

That which in the Father our faith cloth specially act upon, are the riches 
of his grace ; and free grace is indeed, and in reality, but the love of God 
in election, though uttered in absolute promises and declarations, yet ex- 
pressed indefinitely as to persons. God indeed absolutely declareth in the 
promises and covenant of grace what his heart was and is unto an elect 
company, but conceals the persons (which promises I therefore term 
indefinite), thereby ascertaining us that there are some of mankind he so 
loves resolvedly and unchangeably, whom he intends therein ; which pro- 
mises shall infallibly take hold on them. And that covenant and those 
promises I call absolute, because they promise to give the very conditions 
required to salvation in that covenant. 

The other object of our faith is Jesus Christ, both in his person and his 
suffering, death, resurrection, intercession; and likewise the benefits that 
are the fruits of all these. And our faith is to aim at the having fellow- 
ship with him in all these, as the object of faith, as well as the free grace 
of God the Father. In all which benefits which our faith seeks from these 
two, I might quote many scriptures, wherein Christ and the free grace of 
the Father are still joined, and go hand in hand. I instance particularly 



Chap. I.J of justifying faith. 141 

in justification for all tho rest, in which thero is both the grace of the 
Father and the righteousness of the Son, that concur both thereunto ; and 
our faith is distinctly to exercise itself upon both these, for obtaining jus- 
tification. This conjunction you see in Horn. iii. 24, * Being justified freely 
by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' You have 
it also in Rom. v. 15, ' The grace of God,' that is, of God the Father, and 
1 tbe gift by grace ' (tho gift of righteousness and justification thereby) 
' which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.' And 
again he says at verse 17, ' They which receive abundance of grace, and 
of the gift of righteousness,' &c. — a righteousness by which we are made 
righteous, ver. 19. There is both the grace of God in the heart of the 
Father, and there is the gift of righteousness by grace, ' which is by one 
man Jesus Christ,' as by whose righteousness we are made righteous; and 
these concur to our 'justification of life,' as it is termed in verse 18. 
Now, there being these two grand objects of the faith of all believers for 
the first benefit they are brought to seek at first, all converts under the 
gospel are therefore brought to a distinct communion and fellowship 
(through faith) both with the Father and also with the Son, to obtain both 
grace and righteousness from both, and afterwards in the course of their 
lives they enjoy a distinct fellowship with both Father and Son: 1 John 
i. 3, ' These things I write to you, that you may have fellowship with us : 
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;' 
with these two objectively is our fellowship transacted. The Holy Ghost 
is he who, 1 John ii. 20, is styled the ' anointing' of us and our eyes, to 
converse with these, and by whom we 'know all things;' but our fellow- 
ship is objectively with the Father, and with his Son. 

In the old covenant there were two grand utensils placed at the upper- 
most end of the holy of holies (which the believing Jews had their eyes 
upon whilst they looked towards the holy temple), the ark and the mercy- 
seat. The ark was the type of Christ's person; the mercy- seat, as the 
apostle denominates it, Heb. vii., was the type of God's grace joined with 
Christ's person, as atoned and made propitious by Jesus Christ; for the 
word in the Hebrew signifies expiation, which alone was made by Christ, 
but imports therewith pardoning mercy through his expiation ; and so it 
respected at once both the grace in God atoned, and also Christ; who is 
therefore, Rom. iii. 25, styled ' the propitiation for our sins.' And yet 
withal that propitiatory hath the name of mercy-seat given it by the 
apostle himself, Heb. ix. 5, by which name our translators have therefore, 
in Exodus xxv. 17, rendered the Hebrew. Thus it was in the type; and 
the thing signified thereby is that throne of grace whereat Christ officiates, 
as the same apostle in substance styles it, Heb. iv. I cite it to shew that 
these two, ark and mercy-seat, were immediately and inseparably conjoined 
together, and the one set upon the other; as if you should set two plain 
chests one on the top of the other immediately, and nothing between. 
The mercy-seat was uppermost on the top of the ark, as you read Exodus 
xxv. 21 ; this being imported thereby, that all the grace in God's heart 
flowing to us is through Christ, and as supported by Christ, and his 
mediation and expiation, so as it is God's grace and mercy as in Christ. 
And unto these two the eyes of the believing Jews were cast, and had their 
expectation fixed for grace and mercy, as appears by the instance of that 
humbled publican — ' Lord, be merciful to me a sinner ' — whose coming to 
the temple to worship, as it doth shew him to be a Jew or Jewish pro- 
selyte, so the word wherein Christ forms that his petition is Old Testament 



142 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOR II. 

language, as of one who, looking towards the propitiatory or mercy-seat, 
prays to God to this effect, ' Lord, be mercifully propitious to me from 
thy mercy-seat;' which in gospel language is 'from thy throne of grace.' 
And furthermore observe, that these two were both of a like size and pro- 
portion, as long, as broad, as deep, the one as the other (Exod. xxv. 10, 
17 compared), to shew that however the essential grace and mercy in 
God's nature is essentially infinite, yet his dispensatory mercy and grace 
laid up for us, and intended towards us sinners of the sons of men, are of 
the same extent and commensuration with Christ, and his merits and 
righteousness, &c, because all that grace which God hath intended to 
bestow upon us, for the matter, manner, or measure, is but commensur- 
able, and of like extent, with all that Christ purchased and procured, and 
is no more nor no less. As also because that these two must never be 
separated; for God hath conjoined them thus closely and immediately one 
to the other, only God's grace is uppermost, and the fountain of us, and 
Christ, and all; and the glory of it is the supreme end of all, Eph. i. 5, 6. 
Some converts indeed more distinctly, and withal amply and abundantly, 
have their hearts run out sometimes to God the Father, and pursue after 
the attainment of his love and grace, and have their hearts drawn and set 
more largely to treat with the Father, and his grace, and to seek the obtain- 
ing more frequently the manifestations of his grace, and have their hearts 
more intent upon what his work for their salvation in his heart is. They 
consider that it was he who first decreed Christ, and our salvation through 
him, and called Cbrist to die for us, and gave us to Christ, &c, and with 
a peremptory and unchangeable love ordained the salvation of some through 
faith and holiness ; and accordingly they desire to have the manifestations 
of his grace made forth upon their souls. But others have the Lord Jesus 
Christ in their eye, and treat with him through his death, redemption, and 
the w T orks which he performed towards it, in a more large and abundant 
manner. But though his heart goes out thus more amply to Jesus Christ, 
and hath communion with him and his righteousness, yet he believeth also 
on God the Father, that ordained and sent his Son out of his grace, and 
believes on him as the pardoner of his sin. And, e contra, he that hath 
communion with God the Father in seeking his love, he doth it in Cbrist 
impliedly, as through whose mediation he hath access unto the Father. 
But still the eyes of either may be more setly and wistly set, and fixed 
upon one of them, as on Christ, or the Father, more explicitly than on the 
other. It is what the apostle intimates, 1 John ii. 13 (I cite it to this very 
purpose, to shew that sometimes the heart of one Christian runs out more 
to the Father, and at other times more to the Son), ' I write unto you, 
fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.' Who 
is that? Jesus Christ; chap. LI, 1 That which was from the beginning, 
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life :' that is appa- 
rently Jesus Christ. Then again, says he, • I write unto you, little chil- 
dren, because ye have known the Father.' Here the spirits of the one run 
out at differing seasons, sometimes more to God, sometimes more to Jesus 
Christ. I will not stand to explain whom he means by fathers, and whom 
by babes, nor need I do it as to my purpose ; it is enough for the present 
that it is ascribed to the same sort of persons at different times, that when 
they were babes, they knew the Father ; when fathers, they knew Christ 
more intently. The reason of which different intentions of our spirits is, 
that our souls are narrow vessels, and use not to be intent on two so emi- 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 143 

nent objects at once, which thcuforo take their turns in our hearts, that we 
take in sometimes the one, and sometimes the other. 

There must also be allowed a great variety of God's method herein. The 
apostles, though living under Christ's ministry, yet their faith had acted a 
long while on God, far more than unto Christ, of whom then they had but 
the Old Testament notions and conceptions, though they believed he was 
he, the Messiah already come : John xiv. 1, ' Ye believe on God, believe 
also on me.' And so it is now with many Christians, who at first have 
recourse to Old Testament promises, which speak of grace and mercy in 
God for pardon of sin, through a promised Messiah, and so treat with God 
for their salvation ; and though they do it with an intermingled knowledge 
of Christ, yet not so much applying themselves to him. And the reason 
is, because it is God in whose name the arraignment for the guilt of all 
our sins is in Scripture drawn. And therefore the nature of the thing, 
when we are convinced of sin, calls for it, and we apply ourselves to him, 
whose grace and mercy is to forgive us : and repentance being that grace, 
which in a special manner is called for towards God, Acts xx. 21, hence, 
therefore (though with imperfect actings of faith, and hopes of mercy from 
God), it is taken for granted, that it is in and through Christ, in whom 
God alone is merciful. Though, according unto John the Baptist's ministry 
(who directed to believe on Christ, in the close and issue of it), we come 
to Christ at last, yet at first we attend far more unto repentance towards 
God ; but God leaving us unto a failure of comfort from the evidences 
thereof (as to our discerning them), the Father sets our hearts agoing unto 
Jesus Christ amain, as sensible how much we had neglected him, and his 
interest in our salvation ; and he sets us a-work to seek and look for justi- 
fication from him with might and main ; and then to come to God himself 
again for mercy. But there are others who at first dash do believe and 
fasten on Christ at the work of humiliation ; as the jailor (in Acts xvi. 31, 
where his first conversion is recorded) comes to Paul trembling, being struck 
with a sight of, and terror for sin, and cries out, ' What shall I do to be 
saved '?' The apostle puts him upon Jesus Christ at very first : ' Believe,' 
says he, ' on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.' The apostle took 
the shortest course with him ; and thereupon his heart entertained the Lord 
Jesus. But then read on the story at verse 34, and you will find that his 
believing on Christ brought him to God ; for it is said, ' He rejoiced, 
believing in God, with all his house :' whereby was answerabty fulfilled 
that of 1 Pet. i. 21, ' Who by him,' namely Christ, ' do believe in God, 
who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and 
hope might be in God.' And Rom. v., shewing the fruits of faith, how 
that ' being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ,' ver. 1. And going on to other effects of faith, the last fruit 
he mentions is in ver. 11, ' Not only so,' says he, ' but we also joy in God, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ.' 



144 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK II. 



CHAPTER II. 

That when we come to Christ, and believe on him, there is a concurrence and 
consent of all the three persons in the Godhead unto that yreat work. 

No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him; 

and I will raise him up at the last day. 
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, 

except it were given unto him of my Father. — John VI., 44th and 65th 

verses compared. 

I design to prove from these words, that as Christ is the ohject of faith, 
so, when any soul is converted, and drawn to believe on him, there is the 
concurrence of all the three persons in the Trinity to that work, and that 
they all put forth conjointly a renewed act of agreement in it. I confess 
in this text there is mention only of the Father, and his consent in it, for 
indeed it is hard for me to take a text that will hold forth all three persons 
together ; but in this chapter you have all three. You have the Father's 
consent here in these words, ' No man can come to me, except the Father, 
which hath sent me, draw him.' You have the Son's consent, ver. 37, 
1 Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.' And you have (as 
some interpret it) the Holy Ghost's also at the 63d verse, ' It is the Spirit 
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak unto 
you they are spirit, and they are life,' though I think by spirit is there 
rather meant the Godhead quickening the human nature of Christ. This 
is a subject of great and weighty moment, and will be of use to you many 
ways to quicken your hearts. I will first open and prove it to you, and 
then make use of it. 

"When God doth convert and draw our souls on to believe, we use to 
look upon the work itself as a great work wrought in ourselves ; and it is 
true, as I shall after shew. But there is more done for us in heaven than 
is done in our hearts at that time. At that great union which is made 
between Christ and the soul, and the drawing on of the heart to close with 
Christ, there is a special council called ; there is a concurrence, a consent, 
a joint meeting of all three persons to this great work, and that in a special 
manner. Though they concur in all works, yet where a council of them 
all is professedly called, there is a plain note and character of a more 
special and remarkable concurrence. Thus, at the making of man espe- 
cially, they are all named : as you read in Gen. i. 26, that when God made 
man, he called a council : ' Let us make man,' saith he, and all the three 
persons did concur and join in that great work. Now, at the making of 
the new man there is the like council held ; there is the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. The Father draweth, the Son accepteth, and the Holy 
Ghost is the instrument of both, and quickeneth and enliveneth the heart. 
Such a great conjunction is a matter of infinite wonder. If you look into 
the heavens, you shall not see great conjunctions of planets every day. 
There hath been but seven since the creation itself, and the creation itself 
began with one of them. But here is a greater conjunction in the heaven 
of heavens, when there is an influence of all the three persons into a soul 
at its first turning to God. 

There are four great conjunctions (as I may so speak) of these three 
persons. 



Chap. II. J of justifying faith. 145 

1. The one was from everlasting, at our election, in which both Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost had a hand. 

2. The other was at our redemption, when Jesus Christ himself was 
sealed up to bo the son of God ; and at his baptism the Father from 
heaven appears and owns him, and the Holy Ghost descendeth like a dove 
and lighteth upon him. And there was the Son of God, the second person, 
dwelling in the human nature. Thus did all these three meet together at 
that time. And upon the cross likewise they did the like, for the Father's 
hand bruised him; therefore he cries out to him, 'My God, my God,' &c, 
but all that while the Holy Ghost supported and upheld him, and he was 
filled with the Spirit beyond measure for strength to stand under the 
weight of the Father's wrath, for no created strength could have done it. 
And he himself also, through the eternal Spirit, the Godhead dwelling in 
him, offered up himself as a sacrifice to his Father, Heb. ix. 14. 

3. The third conjunction of them is, when faith is wrought, when the 
sinner is called to Christ, which I am now to speak of. 

4. The last conjunction is in heaven, when God and all the three per- 
sons shall be all in all for evermore, which is the great conjunction indeed, 
and to which all the rest tend, and where they all centre. 

I remember, in Acts xiv. 27, faith is called ' the door of faith.' Truly 
there are three keys to open this door, and they are severally in the hands 
of these three persons of the Trinity, and they all concur and bring their 
keys with them when the heart is opened and the soul is drawn to Christ. 

Though I dare not say that faith on our part is always explicitly a 
marriage act, or that the soul did at first take Christ under the nature and 
consideration of a husband explicitly so considered, yet the thing in itself, 
in the nature of it, is a marriage, and it is the solemnisation of the greatest 
marriage that ever was but one, and that was when the human nature and 
the Son of God were married together, whereby that man Christ Jesus 
became the natural Son of God. Now at this marriage all the Trinity are 
present ; and although Christ is offered to the soul at other times in the 
preaching of the word, yet now he is actually given and bestowed. The 
souls of all believers were given to Jesus Christ from everlasting, John 
xvii. 6, and Jesus Christ was given for thee upon the cross ; but when thou 
comest to believe, and God cometh to reveal Christ in thee and for thee, 
then he is actually given to thee even by the Father. 

That 1 may express it to you, and tell you what great things are done in 
heaven for you when your hearts are drawn to believe, and then make it 
out when I have done, 

1. Let me tell you, that when your souls are first turned to God, and 
when you bebeve, though perhaps you know neither the time nor the thing 
I now speak of, yet notwithstanding even at that time, first God the Father 
riseth up in heaven (as I may so express it), and as Jesus Christ said to 
his mother when he hung upon the cross, ' Woman, behold thy Son,' so 
saith God the Father, « Son, yonder is a soul which I gave thee from ever- 
lasting, which thou diedst for upon the cross, and now is the fulness of 
time come for to have mercy upon that soul, go take him and own him for 
thine, and actually now possess him.' This you have here in John vi. 37, 
♦ All that the Father gives me shall come to me.' Here is, you see, a 
giving before our coming, and it is a giving de prasenti, at present, to dis- 
tinguish it from that of everlasting ; a deed of gift made, and that by the 
Father ; an actual delivery and seizin, whereby the soul is put into the 
hands of Jesus Christ. And the Father likewise, he whispers to the heart 

vol. vm. k 



14G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II 

of the sinner, woos the soul to come to Christ ; and therefore the 43d verse 
saith here, that ' they shall be all taught of God,' that is, the Father; and 
that ' no man can come unto Christ except the Father draw him,' ver. 44. 
It may be thou art at church, or in the assembly of the saints, and there 
thou hearest the word preached, and perhaps standest in the crowd mingled 
among many others; or it may be thou art at home, and there art weeping 
and bewailing thy lost condition ; saith God the Father unto Jesus Christ, 
' Son, behold thy spouse ; behold yonder soul that stands in such a place, 
I will marry you two before such time as this soul stirs out of this place.' 
It is as if a king, when his son comes into an assembly, should rise up 
from his royal throne, having spied out a beggar all in rags standing in the 
midst of the crowd, and should say, Son, yonder is your wife, go and take her 
and marry her here presently before me. So it is here ; for there is none 
comes to Christ but those to whom he is thus given. And then Jesus 
Christ is glad that the hour is come ; This is the joyful day (saith he), that 
I have long expected ; and so he goes and embraces that soul, though per- 
haps the soul knows not this. 

2. Our Lord and Saviour Christ knows all his byname, John x. 14, 15, 
which place indeed is very emphatical ; for he saith, that look as the 
Father knows him, and as he knows the Father, so he knows his sheep, 
and is known of them (for known of them he shall be in the end), and he 
knows them all by name. And when the Father hath thus commended 
and actually given a soul unto him, Jesus Christ looks upon that soul, and 
thinketh with himself, Yonder soul I should know ; that is the soul that 
my Father presented unto me in all that beauty from everlasting, which I 
now am to be the author of, and must bestow upon it. Ay, but doth 
Christ know the soul in all her sins ? Yes ; and by a good token (saith he), 
I should know that soul though in her sins, for I remember she was brought 
to me in all her sins, when I hung upon the cross to die for her ; and together 
with her was the catalogue of these very sins presented to me when I was 
in the garden, and when I hung upon the tree. And what doth Christ now 
do? He apprehends this soul (as the apostle saith, Phil. iii. 12), takes it, 
and takes it as commended unto him actually by the Father: ' That I may 
apprehend,' saith Paul there, ' that for which I am apprehended of Christ 
Jesus.' He had spoken before of a race which he was to run ; now, saith 
he, Jesus Christ took me by the hand when I entered into this race. It 
may have an allusion to that, or it may allude to the mother's apprehend- 
ing the child in the womb, which she doth, though the child apprehends 
not her. However, this is certain, that he speaks of conversion and 
entrance into the race of Christianity ; and that before we apprehend Jesus 
Christ, he apprebends us, and takes us upon the gift of his Father as his ; 
even as we love God because he loved us first, so we apprehend Christ 
because he apprehends us first. And Jesus Christ doth this with the 
greatest gladness that can be ; for as he longed to die for all our souls 
(' Now is my soul troubled,' saith he, John xii. 27, and ' for this cause 
came I unto this hour'), so when the fulness of time is come that the 
Father hath appointed for him to receive a soul, how glad is he of tbat 
hour ! If he sits in heaven expecting when his enemies sball be made his 
footstool, how much more doth he expect when a soul which he hath loved 
and paid so dear for shall be brought unto him. 

3. And then when the Son hath thus owned and acknowledged this soul 
anew, the Holy Ghost, who is the third person, and who is privy to God's 
election, and to the heart of Jesus Christ when he died, and knows for whom 



ClIAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 147 

ho died, and had a hand in all, he is sent down from heaven by Jesus Christ : 
Gal. iv. 0, • Because you are sons' (sons by election), ' God hath sent forth 
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' And as 
there was a fulness of time, and when that fulness of time was come (as it 
is verso the fourth), ■ God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made 
under the law ; ' and as the Holy Ghost did come and overshadow the Virgin 
Mary (as you have it in Luke), and did unite that man, that beginning of 
an infant (bow shall I express it ? for Christ was in the womb as we are, 
as small and as little as we are), as there was a fulness of time in which 
that nature was formed by the Holy Ghost, and was united to the Son of 
God, so there is a fulness of time whenas the Holy Ghost, thus sent by 
Jesus Christ, having taken and apprehended the soul, cometh down into 
the heart. In Isa. liii. 1, the Holy Ghost is called 'the arm of the Lord;' 
and why is he called so ? but because he is the arm of the Son of God by 
whom he takes hold of the soul. Now this Spirit, when he comes down 
thus into the heart, works eyes, and feet, and hands, and all for to look 
upon Christ, and to come to Christ, and to lay hold upon Christ ; for faith 
is expressed by all these : by seeing of him, and coming to him, and receiv- 
ing him, and laying hold of him. And faith is eyes, and hands, and feet, 
yea, and mouth, and stomach, and all ; for we eat his flesh and drink his 
blood by faith. It is compared to all the members, for the new man is 
originally nothing but faith. Thus now, as Jesus Christ takes hold of us, 
so by the work of the Holy Ghost we come to take hold of him ; and we 
embrace him, as the phrase is in Heb. xi., and we embrace him gladly, as 
it is in Acts ii. 41. 

And all three persons having thus severally and apart agreed together in 
it between themselves, the Father beginning the business in commending 
us to the Son, and the Son sending the Spirit into the soul, and the Holy 
Ghost working grace in us, he leads us from one person to the other back 
again. And therefore in our coming unto God, you have all the three persons 
mentioned together : Eph. ii. 18, ' Through him we have access by one 
Spirit unto the Father.' Here is Christ, Father, Spirit. The word there 
which we translate access, in the original it is a conduct, a leading us by the 
hand, KgoGaywynv ; for as Jesus Christ took us, and took us by the hand as 
it were, and led us into that race, and took hold of us by his Spirit, so 
what doth the Spirit do ? He leads us by Christ to the Father, for we 
come to God by and through Christ, being led in the hand of the Spirit. 
Thus the soul comes to have communion with all the three persons, fellow- 
ship with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost, till this 
fellowship is perfected in heaven. And though you see not these things, 
though you see not what the blessed Trinity do for you then at that time 
when you believe, as that the Father thus gives you to Christ, and that 
Christ himself apprehends you, and that the Holy Ghost is sent down into 
your hearts, and takes you by the hand thus, and carries you back again 
through Christ to the Father, yet all these things are done, and they are 
done for you ; and when God causeth your souls to close with the Lord 
Jesus, they are thus transacted in heaven for you. 

I will give you some instances of this in the conversions of men in the 
New Testament, and I will take Paul's first ; and although his story has this 
extraordinary in it (which indeed is all the privilege he had in this above 
us), that Jesus Christ appeared visibly from heaven unto him, and the Holy 
Ghost likewise in a visible manner fell down upon him ; and the story tells 
us distinctly, that Christ and the Holy Ghost did thus and thus appear in 



148 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

it, and in that I say the story is extraordinary ; yet notwithstanding what- 
soever was done at his conversion by God the Father, and by Jesus Christ, 
and by the Holy Ghost visibly, the like is done by the three persons be- 
tween themselves invisibly at the conversion of every soul that is drawn to 
believe in Christ. For in matter of redemption, and of salvation, and of 
conversion, and of faith, and the like, the apostles themselves had no privi- 
lege which we have not. Now we see how all three persons met at his conver- 
sion. First, in Gal. i. 15, you have the Father ; he had appointed a time 
when he meant to give Paul to Christ, and to reveal Christ unto Paul. 
Mark the phrase, ' When it pleased God' (that is, when the time was come), 
' who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 
to reveal his Son in me.' When it pleased God, saith he, i. e., God the 
Father, for he saith, it pleased God to reveal his Son in him, so that it 
was he who appointed the time, and who at that time began anew to act 
for him. And though God had Paul in his eye from his mother's womb, 
yet there was a time appointed to call Paul in, and until then (saith he in 
the verses before), I lived as other Jews ; but then when it pleased God, 
namely, God the Father, to reveal his Son in me, then it was thus and thus 
with me. Here now is God the Father. You shall see likewise the second 
person, Jesus Christ, coming in. When Paul was journeying towards 
Damascus, Acts ix. 6, Christ from heaven appears to him, and thus speaks 
to him, ' I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ; arise, and go into the city, 
and it shall be told thee what thou must do.' And as Jesus Christ himself 
speaks to Paul, so likewise Christ goes and speaks to Ananias : verse 11, 
' The Lord said unto him in a vision, Ananias, arise, and go into the street 
which is called Straight, and inquire for one called Saul of Tarsus.' You 
see both that Christ knew Paul fully, and took notice of him, and knew 
him by name ; and so he doth every soul that is turned to him. And he 
names the house too, he vouchsafeth to do so ; ' Go,' saith he, ' and inquire 
at the house of Judas.' This was to shew what notice he takes of all 
circumstances when a soul is converted to him. And he tells Ananias like- 
wise what Paul is doing : ' Behold,' saith he, ' he prayeth,' he is mourning 
and bewailing his condition. And he takes notice too of his election, and 
under that notion sends Ananias to him : ' He is,' saith he, verse 15, ' a 
chosen vessel unto me.' You see how withal he orders every circumstance. 
Thus now you have, first, the Father appointing the time, and at that time 
putting forth his act, — • When it pleased the Father to reveal his Son in 
me,' — and you have the Son likewise appearing from heaven to Paul, telling 
him that he would send Ananias to him (so verse 12), and appearing to 
Ananias likewise, and telling him that he must go to Paul. Now, at the 
17th verse, you have the Holy Ghost, the third person, for he in a visible 
manner falls upon Paul when Ananias came to him, and had laid his hands 
on him. Here then, in this instance of Paul's, you have all three persons 
concurring in this great work. Now that which was thus acted in this 
extraordinary and visible manner towards Paul in his conversion (I mean 
visibly by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost), the like is done invisibly, that 
is, undiscernibly to thee. Paul's conversion had a pattern in it, and it is 
a pattern of the extraordinary conversion of the Jews his countrymen, who, 
it is thought, shall be called after the same manner, and it is most likely 
they shall be so. But yet, notwithstanding, if you take that in this con- 
version of Paul's, which is the privilege of all believers, namely, to have 
then the joint consent of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, so far his conversion 
is a pattern of all conversions, and of the work of faith in all God's people 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 149 

to tho end of tho world. And do but mark it, that which wa3 done here 
visibly, in the conversion of Paul, and by express direction from heaven, is in 
effect oftentimes done as plainly in ordinary conversions here below. You 
shall find a soul guided by a secret providence to go to such a church to 
hear such a man. Though it is true indeed he is not directed by an 
extraordinary revelation, as Paul was to Ananias, yet moved and guided he 
is to go to such a place, and there he goes, he knows not why ; and when 
he is there, God directs the minister to speak that to the soul which shall 
most nearly concern it, even as in a vision he directed Ananias to speak to 
Paul what concerned him. Now when he hath brought the heart and the 
word thus together, by his providence (for what he did then visibly, he doth 
now by his providence) tho Holy Ghost falls upon the heart, and draws it 
to Jesus Christ. 

You shall find the like in the story of Cornelius, Acts x., which likewise 
is an instance of the same thing. While Peter was speaking those words, 
namely, preaching of Christ to him, for, saith he, verse 43, ' To him give 
all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in 
him shall receive remission of sins.' While Peter yet spake these words,' 
saith the text, ' the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.' 
And you have the same story repeated again by Peter himself, Acts xi. 15. 
' As I began to speak,' saith he, ' the Holy Ghost fell on them.' And as 
the Spirit fell on them thus in their hearing the word, so Christ himself 
bade Peter go, for he had a vision from heaven, and the Lord spake to him 
to that purpose. Here now is both the Son and the Holy Ghost visibly 
concurring in the working of faith, yea, of that distinct degree of faith which 
Cornelius had to believe evangelically, though he had a faith before in the 
Messias to come. Now look what extraordinarily the three persons did 
thus in heaven, and from heaven by revelation then, the same thing, though 
in an ordinary and in a secret invisible way, doth the Holy Ghost, and the 
Son, and God the Father, now do for all souls that are turned to Christ. 
They do by a secret providence guide thee, and cast thee to live in such a 
family, and there thou receivest this and that instruction ; or they guide 
thee to such a ministry, or to such a passage of Scripture, and then the Holy 
Ghost falls on thee. Jesus Christ hath as much hand in this, and the Holy 
Ghost as strong a hand, and it is as great and strong a fruit of the eternal 
decree of God, as it was to Paul and to Ananias.* Though many do not 
know the time of their conversion, yet by the story of it you shall have as 
strange and as extraordinary providences of God, in bringing them to the 
means of comfort, and the means of comfort to them, and in bringing them 
to the means of faith, and setting it on upon their hearts ; and you shall 
herein have as strong a providence as this was of speaking visibly from 
heaven to Paul and Ananias. And the reason of it is plain ; for what is 
our calling and believing ? It is but the acting, or rather fulfilling, of 
election ; and accordingly it hath the name of election given to it oftentimes 
in the Scripture. Now what the three persons did at thy election, the 
same is done when thy soul is called and believeth ; though perhaps thou 
hast not the knowledge of the time when, much less of the thing, yet all this 
is done for thee, and that in heaven, when God doth draw thy heart first to 
believe. 

* Qu. ' Cornelius' ?— Ed. 



150 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK II. 



CHAPTER III. 

The uses of the doctrine. — We should consider faith on the Lord Jesus as a 
matter of the greatest importance, since all the jjersons of the Godhead 
concern themselves in it. — We shoidd not neglect this great business of believ- 
ing. — We shoidd glorify all the three persons for the great things which they 
do for us at the time of our believing. 

The doctrine which I have explained and proved in the former chapter, 
affords us these great and useful inferences. 

1. You see that salvation is no slight thing, and that believing and turn- 
ing to God is no slight matter, when all the three persons do thus concur 
in it. The converting and drawing of a soul to believe is a business of 
infinite moment; and why? Because all heaven, and all hell, and often- 
times earth, or much on earth, are stirred about it, even as they use to be 
at great transactions. What a stir there is in the spirits of men when a 
great transaction falls out in state affairs ! There is much more in this. 
All in heaven are stirred, for you have seen that the three persons move 
in it; and Christ tells us there is joy in heaven even amongst the angels 
when a soul is turned to God. And all in hell are stirred about it too, for 
all the devils rage and come forth, and are all in arms. The strong man, 
when he is bound and cast out, is in a rage, and therefore pours forth all 
the floods of persecutions, and disgraces, and temptations, and violence 
upon the soul. And earth is stirred about it too, for you shall have carnal 
friends and companions, and this world, stand amazed at it, and think it 
strange, as the apostle saith. Herein the soul is conformed to the image 
of Christ himself. When Christ was born, they were all stirred at it. 
Heaven was stirred at it, for the Father sent the Holy Ghost down ; and 
the angels came and sung the news of it, and the shepherds come and 
bring the news of it; and 'Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with 
him,' Mat. ii. 3, Luke ii. It is a great business, and God gives evidence 
of it that it is a great business; for all heaven (I say), and earth, and hell 
are stirred when God doth thus bring a soul home to Christ. 

2. We therefore should not neglect the great business of salvation, nor 
the time of God's stirring of us. Though God offers Christ at all times in 
the ministry of the word, yet you never come actually to believe till all 
tbree persons thus concur in it, and till they join in a special concurrence 
together for your turning and conversion. Consider with yourselves, you 
that think you can believe and repent when you will, can you call this 
great council together in heaven ? Can you appoint God the time when it 
shall be done? No. 'It pleased the Father,' saith the apostle, 'to reveal 
his Son in me.' It is the Father draweth, and it is the Son that must 
take hold of you, and it is the Holy Ghost that must come down into your 
hearts. And it is not in man's power to call this great assembly together, 
thus to join votes together. Is it in the power of subjects to call the three 
estates, of king, and both the other estates when they please ? No. So 
neither is it in the power of any creature to call together this great council 
of heaven. You may as well order the conjunction of the stars, and call the 
planets together when you will, which is impossible, Job xxxviii. 31. He 
speaks under the very allusion that I now mention it for: ' Canst thou 
bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his 
sons ? ' He meaneth stars, which have these several names given them. 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 151 

• Knowest thou tho ordinances of heaven ? Canst thou set the dominion 
thereof in the earth?' that is, canst thou appoint when the stars shall 
meet, and hy their conjunction have great influences upon men ? can you 
go and set that clock ? No, saith he, you must wait upon God at his 
time to do it. When therefore the Spirit of God moves you, then think, 
Now I will follow, and now it may be is the time that God will reveal his 
Son to me; and because thou knowest not the time, therefore, I say, wait 
upon God at all times. Though God in the ministry of the word offers at 
all times, and stands ready to bestow (if thou couldst come) faith upon 
thee, and to draw thy heart, and actually to bestow Christ upon thee, yet 
for this there is a fulness of time, a special time, which thou must wait for, 
even as the world waited for the fulness of time when God should send his 
Son in the flesh. This conjunction is not towards the elect at all times, it 
is but then when the fulness of time comes in which God means to turn 
them. And this is the reason why the elect, though they are moved often 
beforehand, and have many motions in their hearts, yet there is not an 
effectual faith wrought till such a time appointed by the Father. And 
this should make no man neglect, but stir him up rather, because salvation 
is so great a business, and the time is not in our own hands. Canst thou 
move God to give his Son to thee actually when thou wilt ? Or canst thou 
move Jesus Christ to come and take possession of thee when thou wilt ? 
Or canst thou move the Spirit of God to come and give thee faith when 
thou wilt? No; all these are in the gift of the three persons; and no 
man receiveth anything except it be given him from above, John hi. 27. 
Therefore you should wait upon the Lord, and observe his time, and that 
with fear and trembling (if I may so express it by the contrary). They 
that serve the devil, as conjurors and witches, wait for the falling of fern 
seed, as they call it, night after night, when it is told them it is in the 
possession of such and such angels ; which, when they have got, they 
think they can do great wonders by it. Are they in this dependence upon 
their head, Satan, that damneth and undoeth them ? How should we 
then wait upon God for the droppings and influences of heaven, and for 
the sending of the Holy Ghost into us to work faith in us ? 

3. Thou that art a believer, do but look back upon the work in thy con- 
version and turning to God ; though perhaps thou canst not tell the timewhen 
it was done, yet it may be thou canst tell when it was not done. Do but 
think with thyself (I say) what great matters were done for thee in heaven, 
when thou wast first brought to Jesus Christ, which it may be thou never 
takest notice of. Perhaps thou hast been searching into the work of God ■ 
within thee, and thou hast done well so to do ; and it may be thou hast 
seen and took notice of the great difficulty of that work, and what a great 
many lifts were put to thy heart, and a great many knocks, before such 
time as it was driven home to the Lord Jesus. But hast thou withal con- 
sidered that there was as great things actually done for thee then in heaven as 
when thou wast first chosen, or as when Jesus Christ hung upon the cross ? 
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were all set on work to make up the 
marriage between thy soul and Christ ; and they all set providences on 
work to that purpose. If a condemned man were not to have a pardon 
till three kings met, and there were no more but three kings in the world, 
and these must all concur together for the sealing and signing of it, how 
would he value that pardon ! Thou lookest, it may be, on the difficulty of 
the work in thine, own heart only, and how thou wentest from one ordi- 
nance to another, and what rubs there were in the way, and thou hast 



152 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

considerations what was done upon earth in thy own heart; hut look up 
higher, and consider what was done in heaven as the original of all, and 
let that be the thing for which thou praisest and blessest God. Go home, 
and down upon thy knees, and thank these three persons that have done 
all this for thee, though thou sawest it not, when thy heart was first drawn 
to Christ. For God doth give thee assurance, that all the three persons 
concur, 1 John v. 7, 8. There is the Father from heaven, and the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, and all these give a testimony; and the truth is, a 
testimony is to be had distinctly from all these apart, for the apostle would 
never have mentioned them there unless the witness both of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost was to be given apart; even as water, and spirit, 
and blood are distinct, though they all concur, so are the witness of all 
these three persons in giving assurance. 

I have known them who, when they have been turned to God, have 
looked back upon the greatness of the work to be such, as that for ten 
hundred thousand worlds they would not have it to be done again. Why ? 
For fear it should not be wrought. I would not have you to do so, for that 
God who did work it out of his eternal love, he repents not, and therefore 
he would do it again if it were not done, or if it were to do again, so well 
he loveth you. Only in this imitate them, to set an high price and value 
on it, and consider that ere this match was made, the Father said Amen in 
heaven, and the Son said Amen, and the Holy Ghost said Amen, before ever 
thy heart said Amen. And withal consider that all the three persons are 
likewise engaged, and will everlastingly carry on this work. 

4. You see the reason why, though the gospel is preached, and sets forth 
Christ the great object of faith, yet all do not believe. Our Saviour resolves 
it even into this, that the three persons do not concur in the doing of it, as 
you may observe it here in John vi., ver. 36, 37, ' I said unto you,' saith 
he, ' that ye also have seen me, and believe.' What is the reason ? Look 
the next words, ' All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me ;' and 
the reason why you do not come is, because my Father hath not bestowed 
you upon me. And therefore he goes on in like manner, ver. 44, ' No man 
can come to me, except the Father draw him ;' which he brings in to answer 
the murmuring of the Jews (for, ver. 41, -it is said they murmured amongst 
themselves), and to shew the reason why they did not believe ; • No man 
can come to me,' saith he, ' except the Father draw him.' And so likewise 
afterward, ver. 64, he gives the reason why, when he had twelve disciples, 
yet one of them believed not : ' For Jesus knew from the beginning who 
they were that believed not, and he said, Therefore said I unto you, that 
no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.' 
You shall see it evident, saith he, amongst yourselves, all among yourselves 
do not believe. Why ? Because those only believe that are drawn by the 
Father, and are given to me by the Father, and to whom the Father doth 
give power to believe. 

5. Therefore by this also magnify the free grace of God in calling yoa, 
and in working faith in your hearts. Do not only consider that you had 
the three persons thus concurring, but likewise that they have called you 
out, and not others ; and that though the same gospel is preached to others 
that is preached to you, who come and hear the same sermons which you 
do, yea, and it may be their hearts are mightily moved by the Holy Ghost, 
yet thou hast faith wrought effectually in thee, which is not in them. 
What is the reason ? Because that was done in heaven for thee by all 
three persons, which was not done for them ; and they were not given to 



CnAP. IV. J OF JUSTIFYING FA1TII. lW 

Jesus Christ by the Father, and therefore he did not give his Spirit effec- 
tually to dwell in their hearts. By this consideration also magnify the free 
grace of God. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Of a believer's being drawn unto Christ by the Father. — The reasons why it is 
the proper work of the Father to draw the soul unto Christ. 

No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him : 
and I u-ill raise him up at the last day. — John VI. 44. 

The subject I have next afore me is, a believer's being drawn to Christ, 
and that by the Father, and the soul's treating with Christ for its salvation. 
My assertion is, that Christians are to make it one great exercise of their 
faith' distinctly to treat with the person of Christ for their salvation, as well 
as with God the Father through Christ : and this, as at their first conver- 
sion to obtain salvation, so afterwards all along in their lives, to maintain 
fellowship both with the Father and the Son. But I shall first discourse 
how it is the Father who teacheth us to know Christ, and draws us to him ; 
and also shall shew how the Father teacheth. 

1. I speak not of the working the principles and habits of faith, the 
hearing ear, and the understanding heart; but of the actings of faith, 
•which the Father draws out in the soul towards Christ. 

2. I limit it not unto the actings of faith at first conversion, but I mean 
those which are continued all a man's life long, which are all ascribed to 
the Father, as well as those at one's first conversion, as in Mat. xi. 25-27 
you find it, where all that is revealed of the Son is ascribed unto the Father. 
And indeed, at our first conversion, our treating with Christ is eminently 
for pardon of sin, and justification, which are the usual inducements of our 
first coming to him. But that is too narrow, for Christ, in the whole 
latitude of him, in his person, and in whatever belongs to him, is that 
which the Father goeth on to teach us all our lives long. 

3. I yet limit it to the attainments by faith of recumbence (a sort of 
faith which is common to all Christians), and my reason is, because in the 
text it is that faith whereof he speaks, which all shall be taught. And so 
in Isaiah liv. 13, and in Jer. xxxi. 34 (which two are the prophets which 
our Saviour here refers to, speaking in the plural), the promise runs, 
1 They shall be all taught, from the least to the greatest.' I shall not 
therefore speak of that faith which only some particular Christians arrive 
to, as faith of personal assurance, accompanied with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory, for that is the Spirit's work, as he is the Comforter ; but I 
shall discourse of that faith which is common to all the children, as in 
Isaiah liv. 13 they are called ; and as salvation is called the ' common sal- 
vation,' Jude 1, so that act of faith is the act that is common to all Chris- 
tians in all states, whereby the soul casts itself on Christ to be saved and 
justified; and such is the apostle's faith said at first to have been, Gal. ii. 
16. It is a believing in Christ, that we may be justified : ' We believed in 
Christ,' says he, ' that we might be justified.' So they began thus to treat 
with Christ, to have salvation from him. This is the faith which I intend, 
whereby I come to Christ (though I know not I am the person designed by 
him in his dying), my heart being drawn from its being taken with what it 



154 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

knows of Christ in order to its salvation ; all which I plead to move him to 
receive me, and to plead which my heart is strengthened, trusting on him 
to ohtain it. 

4. I animadvert here about this faith of recumbency, that there may be 
many attainments in the course of this sort of faith, which every such 
believer arrives not at : so as my meaning is not that unless all and every 
one hath experimented in themselves all and every such actings, that they 
should not have a true faith of recumbence ; but my intent is to mention 
no other acts than what such a state and elevation of believing is capable 
of, and so may be attained by all, though their faith for their salvation 
rises not up to personal assurance, which much tends to the comfort of 
such believers, and serves to provoke them to seek those attainments. 

5. I animadvert that I aim not to set down in a method these workings 
and actings of faith on Christ in such an order as to say this is first 
wrought, then follows that, and so a third ; for God himself in his workings 
doth not always use one and the same method, but according to his good 
pleasure. God's ways of wooing us to his Son, and Christ's winning of 
our hearts to himself, are as the way of a man with a maid (as Solomon 
speaks of their wooings), various ; and as occasions lead on to their dis- 
covery, temptations being diverse, the discoveries which answer them are 
various. So as what I for my method's sake may handle first, God may 
have wrought last in thy soul ; and what I shall mention last, or in the 
middle of this discourse, God may have wrought first in thee. But first 
and last such dealings of his as follow use to be transacted with us, and in 
us, in the way of believing. 

6. When I limit it thus to faith of recumbency upon Christ, where may 
fall out many experiments I shall mention, which every particular person 
hath not yet attained to, who yet is a true believer ; for they are the ex- 
periments of a man's whole life in this way of treaty which I aim at ; yet 
some or other of these experiments will suit the lowest of all in that lower 
form. But however, though a man should continue all his days but a 
recumbent, he is yet capable of them at one time or another. 

7. Into this drawing of our souls to Christ by the Father I shall not 
draw in the handling of the preparatory works ; as the work of humiliation 
for sin, contrition, self-emptiness, regeneration, and the like, which yet tho 
Father, in drawing us unto Christ, maketh use of; but the work itself is 
properly the Spirit's, to whom our first regeneration is attributed : ' That 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit,' John iii. 6. This is also the effect of 
John Baptist's ministry, who baptized with the Spirit as with water, which 
Spirit did regenerate : Luke i. 10, ' Many of the children of Israel shall he 
turn to the Lord their God.' And in Isaiah xl. (in which chapter his 
ministry is prophesied of), the effects of it on men's hearts are expressly 
attributed to the Spirit : ver. 7, ' The Spirit of the Lord blows upon it ;' 
blasting, through the sight of sin, all the excellencies that men glory in. 
And this ministry, as preparative to the actings of faith, must last to the 
end of the world ; for as Christ himself preached it, Marki. 15, ' to repent,' 
in order to receiving the gospel, so, when he sent his apostles out, he gave 
this commission, that ' repentance and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name among all nations,' Luke xxiv. 47 ; that is, repentance in order 
to receiving remission of sins by faith. But the working the acts of be- 
lieving, and to teach and instruct souls to come to Christ, this is the work 
of God the Father, and is my subject. 

Obs. That to teach and instruct souls to come to Christ, and to draw 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 165 

them to Christ, is the Father's work ; even as to make known the Father 
in his love and grace, so as to draw us to believe on him, is the work of 
Christ the Son. It is the honour our Saviour Christ hath given his Father 
in this text, John vi. 41, interpreting that great promise made to the church 
of the New Testament (Isa. liv. 13, that ' they shall be all taught of God') 
to mean, that it is God the Father who teacheth, and causeth souls to come 
to Christ himself; and he repeats it again, ver. 65 of this chapter, that 
none do come, ' unless it be given them of the Father.' We all know that 
all three persons do concur in every outward work, but yet so as some 
one work is more eminently attributed to one person, and another ,to 
another. And this of revealing Christ, and drawing to Christ, is more 
properly attributed to the Father ; as to reveal the Father is attributed to 
the Son ; and to reveal both Father and Son in the way of personal assu- 
rance, is attributed to the Spirit, who is therefore called ' the Comforter.' 
I shall give a scripture or two to prove it : Mat. xi. 27, ' All things are 
delivered unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth the Son but the 
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son will reveal him.' And whereas you may object, that 
it is not there affirmed, ' none knows the Son but the Father, and he to 
whom the Father shall reveal him,' and that this last clause is not added 
in Christ's speech, the answer is, that there being that addition concern- 
ing the Son's knowing the Father, that ' none knows the Father but to 
whom the Son reveals him,' it doth by the law of parallels imply, that the 
like is also to be added to that of the Father's knowing the Son. But the 
second answer is, it is expressly affirmed before, and was the occasion of 
this his speech ; for he had said, • Father, I thank thee that thou hast 
revealed these things to babes.' And the things revealed were himself, and 
faith to lay hold upon himself ; for he doth upbraid the city, that they had 
not entertained his ministry in his preaching the gospel ; the substance of 
which was his preaching himself, and to believe on him, which those babes 
had received. And the apostle ascribes it expressly to the Father that had 
revealed it to him : Gal. i. 15, 16, « When it pleased God, who separated 
me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son 
in me, that I might preach him among the heathen.' He speaks eminently 
of God the Father's revealing his Son at his first call, which also the Father 
continued to do, and went on further and further to do all his life long ; for 
it was to this end, that he might preach him among the Gentiles, which 
the apostle went on to do, and accordingly grew in knowledge, and in the 
revelation of Christ all his life long, that he might so preach him. You 
have the same, 1 Cor. i. 9, where the calling of us to fellowship with his 
Son is eminently attributed to the Father : < God is faithful, by whom we 
were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' And his 
calling there is not only by commission, as when a man is called to an 
office, but operatively ; and it is unto the whole fellowship of Christ, from 
first to last, that we enjoy. And it is the Father who is meant in both 
places, for he calls Christ his Son. 

There is a great harmony in theological reason, why this working of 
faith in the soul to Christ, why this wooing work should belong to the 
Father. 

1. The Father was he that chose our persons for his Son : ' Thine they 
were, and thou gavest them me,' says Christ, John xvii. 6. It was the 
Father that commended us to his Son at first, and presented us to his Son 
in all the glory of which Jesus Christ, if he would but take us and own us 



15G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK. II. 

to be his, should be the author. He did it to allure him, he did speak to 
his heart to die for us, as you have it, Ps. xl. 6-8, which is quoted in Heb. 
x. 7 : l Lo, I come to do thy will, God.' It is added in the psalm, ' Thy 
law is in my heart.' It was God the Father commanded him ; also it was 
he moved him to it, and drew him to it, to speak in the words of the text, 
and did write the very law of it in his heart, for the law written in his heart 
hath reference to his dying for us, and being mediator for us. He wooed 
him, and told him he would love him, if he would die for us : John x. 17, 
1 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.' Now 
then, who so fit a person as the Father to woo us, when we are to be won, 
and our hearts to be brought to Christ ? and to whom is it more proper to 
woo for his Son than the same Father that commends his Son to us ? And 
who is fitter also than the Father to move the matter to us, to teach us 
and instruct us, and commend his Son to us, and to draw us to take him, 
and to write this law in our hearts, as the greatest obedience we can per- 
form to him ? I speak not of the ministry of humiliation in that work 
going before, but of the wooing part, which is proper to God the Father. 

2. Our believing is a receiving Christ ; it is a giving ourselves up to him 
as to our lord and husband, and it is proper for the Father to woo for him, 
because all other fathers have the power of bestowing their sons or daugh- 
ters, and therefore God hath it much more. Hagar, though but a woman, 
yet had a right, and exercised the power of getting a wife for her son. To 
give in marriage is oft spoken of in Scripture to be by parents, and thus it 
is here in Ps. xlv., where Christ is represented as the husband, and the 
church his wife. Who is it that speaks to the church, to love her hus- 
band, to worship her husband, and to forsake all for him ? It is God the 
Father: ver. 10, ' Hearken, daughter, and consider, and incline thine 
ear,' &c. This is God the Father speaking of Christ unto his church. But 
you will say, This is not found amongst other fathers, that they should con- 
descend to woo the wife for their sons, but it is enough for them to give their 
consents, and leave it to their sons to gain the heart themselves. Thus 
it is amongst men, and the reasons for it amongst men are plain, which 
will not hold as to God. 

1st, Fathers are strangers to the person whom the son is to woo, and so 
leave it to his liking ; it is enough for him to give his consent and leave to 
get the person's heart. But the case here is otherwise, for every elect soul 
is the daughter of God, even in election, before conversion ; and as he 
knows his Son, so he knows the soul, he knows his daughter too, not only 
as made his daughter by marriage to his Son, but as originally chosen by 
him. As Eve is said to be the daughter of God by creation, as Adam was 
the son of God by creation, Luke iii. 38, so it is here. Therefore he 
leaves it not to his Son only to speak for himself, and gain her, but he out 
of the same fatherly interest which he hath in the soul, as well as in his 
Son (though he hath interest in her as his daughter, which is a lower inte- 
rest than what he hath in his Son), wooes her. 

2dly, Marriages amongst men stand upon equal terms, and persons of a 
like rank use to marry together ; and the father will not condescend in 
that case to woo for the son ; no, it were uncouth if he should, and not 
proper. But the church, and every poor soul, is the unworthiest creature 
to be matched so gloriously to Christ that ever was. Nay, it was an enemy 
before, an utter enemy, utterly averse ; so that it becomes a matter not 
only of love, but of grace and mercy, for to have this soul gained and 
brought in to Christ. And it is fulness of mercy and grace to woo such a 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 157 

soul, and an infinite condescension so to do, and none greater but that of 
God's giving his Son to die. And since it thus belongs to grace, the Father 
will have the honour of it as well as the Son, for you read of ' the grace of 
the Lord Jesus, and of the Father,' and sometimes both put together, 
2 Thes. i. 12. Is it a matter of infinite grace, the person being so low 
and unworthy ? In that case, saith the Father, I will be your spokesman, 
for it is matter of grace. It is not matter of pure affection, as a husband 
hath to a wife, but it is a matter of grace which I have to such a soul ; I 
will therefore shew it in this my wooing such a soul. Oh this infinite 
condescension in the great God ! 

8dly, The Father doth engage to woo us to come to Christ, because he 
promised his Son when he wooed him to die for us, and gave us to him ; 
and he promised that when we came to be converted, he would give us, and 
would draw us to his Son : John vi. 37, ' All that the Father giveth me 
shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.' 
Our Saviour Christ doth not speak like a wooer there, for all he saith is, I 
will not refuse them if they come. He hath indeed an hand in drawing 
the soul : ' When I am lifted up,' says he, ' I will draw all men after me,' 
John xii. 32, but he doth it secretly, and those thou hast given. But 
what is the meaning of those words, John vi. 37 ? It is resolved into this, 
that his Father, in giving them, promised they should come to him, and there- 
fore the Father draws them : and it is therefore the work of the Father. 
In Ps. ex., the Father speaks to Christ, and he promiseth there, that they 
shall be a willing people to him : ver. 1, ' The Lord said unto my Lord' 
(i. e., God the Father said to his Son, the great God Jehovah said to his 
Son), ' Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool ;' 
and I will destroy thine enemies for thee. And ver. 3, God the Father 
makes this promise to him, ' Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy 
power.' It is the Father's promise ; I will bring the will and heart of thy 
people off to thee, and thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, 
w T hen the gospel comes. 

Use 1. Let us then encourage ourselves in the hope that the match is 
like to go on, if God the Father thus strikes in, and God the Son also. 
Hath God begun with thy soul to represent Christ to thee, to take thy heart '? 
Dost thou set thyself to seek him, to have him ? Thou hast not only thy 
husband Christ to draw thee, but thou hast his Father to draw thee ; and 
he is thy Father too ; and that match will thrive and must go on. 

Use 2. Wouldst thou see and know who it is that is at work in thy 
heart ? (thou poor soul that lay at God day and night to give thee Christ, 
and have thy heart inflamed towards the Lord Jesus) dost thou know who 
it is that is at work in thy heart all this while ? Who ? It is the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we have had little knowledge of this, 
to return the thanks to our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
whereas indeed it is he does it. Thou hast not one degree of fellowship 
with the Son, but God the Father draws thee to it. ' Not that any man,' 
saith Christ, John vi. 46, ' hath seen the Father.' None seeth the Father 
while he is doing of it, for he doth it secretly, and doth not tell you, I the 
Father am drawing of you. No ; but still he holds up Christ to you, and 
Christ will come and tell you of his love afterwards. The Father does not 
come in to me here as an object of faith in his work. When he works, he 
doth not say, I am he that works it. He doth not come with authority 
and tell thee, I thy Father draw thee, but he is the efficient that draws, 
though he propose not himself objectively nor authoritatively. As Christ 



158 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

said to Peter when he washed his feet, ' What I do to thee, thou shalt 
know hereafter.' So God the Father comforts himself (if I may so speak) 
with this, or reserves this glory to himself, that we shall know one day 
what he is doing. ' In that day,' says Christ, John xvi. 25, ' I will shew 
you plainly of the Father.' The Father had wrought all this while, but 
secretly, and had not discovered himself; and though Jesus Christ in his 
doctrine had taught the apostles, and instructed them about the Father, 
yet, alas, poor creatures, they did not understand it ! they did not take it 
in ; it was but as a speaking to them in proverbs : ' But in that day ' (after 
his ascension) ' I shall shew you,' says he, ' plainly of the Father,' ver. 25. 
What do I quote this for ? To shew that though these poor disciples had 
heard say, it was the Father that drew them to believe, and they found the 
work upon them to be powerful and effectual, yet it was obscure to them 
that it was he that did it ; but he tells them that the time cometh (which 
time must be after his ascension) when he would tell them plainly it was 
the Father did it. It was the Father, though now unseen, and spoken of 
in parables and proverbs, that drew thy soul in morning by morning ; and 
thou wilt give all the glory to the Father one day : ' Oh what manner of 
love is it' (viz., of the Father), ' that we should be called the sons of God !' 
1 John iii. 1. Oh what manner of love is it that the Father should woo us 
to be his children, and to receive his Son, and so to be his sons ; for 
herein he ' gives us power to become the sons of God,' John i. 12. It is 
enough for other fathers to give consent, and leave it to their sons ; but here 
in this case, as Jesus Christ came down from heaven to redeem and pur- 
chase his church and spouse, so God the Father comes down into the 
hearts of men, and draws them, and does it immediately. I do not say he 
doth it by his Spirit, as if himself did it not. It is true, the Spirit doth 
join in it, and so doth the Son, but the Father does this himself imme- 
diately. Is it not a mighty thing that the Father should teach us to woo 
his Son, and become a tutor to us and an instructor of us. What conde- 
scension would it be in kings to tutor their children. Poor creatures ! we 
are no more able to woo Jesus Christ than the meanest country creature, 
one that walks up and down the streets in all rags and poverty, is able to 
woo a king ; but the Father comes and teaches us to woo Jesus Christ, and 
makes representations of Christ to us. He made the match with Adam and 
Eve; and as Adam was his son, and Eve his daughter, he wooed her heart 
for him. And he who created her body and soul, and made her a woman, 
and gave Adam her heart, gives the heart of every Christian to his Son. 
You then that know the Lord Jesus, magnify the Father for ever, that hath 
called us to fellowship with his Son. 

CHAPTEB V. 

That the Father teacheth us to know Christ as the great object of our faith. — 
That he] instructs us that eternal life is to be found and obtained only in 
Christ Ids Son. — That he teacheth us to seek this life only in him. — That 
he teacheth us to look to the person of Christ, and to seek and desire an 
■interest in himself, as well as salvation by him. — How God the Father 
teacheth ws to know Christ his Son, and what are the effects which his 
instructions have upon us. 

I come to the other part of my subject. As I told you it was the Father 
drew you to Christ, so the other part of the subject is this, That the Father 



ClIAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITII. 159 

teacheth ns to know Christ, as tho matter of his teaching, and instructs us 
in what concerns him that may woo us, and teach us to come to Christ. 
As he draws us, so he useth variety of cords, or motives, or persuasions, to 
draw. 

I shall first shew what it is materially that the Father teacheth us, and 
then I shall shew you the manner how he teacheth. It wero infinite to run 
over all the particulars concerning Christ that the Father teacheth. There 
is a great variety herein, and something takes hold on one man's heart, and 
something on another, as they are scattered up and down. All the doc- 
trines which Christ delivered, that we read of in the gospel of John, and 
which persuade to come to himself, are all of them the words of the Father. 
1 The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me,' 
John xiv. 24. And those words doth the Father himself speak inwardly 
to the soul of a man. It is a large field, to shew you what he teacheth 
concerning his Son Christ. I think it therefore the best way to give you 
what is said in one scripture, which expressly sets down what is tho 
Father's record: 1 John v. 11, 12, 'This is the record, that God hath 
given us eternal life ; and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son 
hath life : and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.' This is the 
great record of God the Father concerning his Son ; and he that believes 
not the record God gives of his Son, makes God a liar. Here is the great 
doctrinal record summed up to you, and it is short and brief. But you may 
ask me, Was this record given to draw men to believe ? Is it so intended ? 
I answer, that though it intends assurance, yet it intends also the matter 
which God hath recorded to cause faith, and to bring men on to believe. 
This is plain from ver. 13, ' These things have I written to you that 
believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have 
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.' 
There is assurance : but suppose you want assurance, yet there is what 
may draw you to believe, ' that you may believe on the name of his Son.' 
It is to bring men on to believe ; and therefore in the words before he 
saith, ' He that believes not makes God a liar, because he believeth not 
the record God gave of his Son.' That which causeth them that believe 
further to believe, causeth one that doth not believe to come in to believe. 
It is not designed for them that have assurance. How is that proved ? 
Because the apostle saith, ' He that hath not the Son hath not life ;' and 
therefore what he speaks is to draw men on to believe. Let us see what 
things they are God hath recorded of his Son for to believe concerning 
him, that we who do believe may believe further. 

1. The first record is, that ' the Father hath given us eternal life.' By 
us here is not meant only us that believe already, but it is as well intended 
to induce others to believe. He hath given us, i. e., us men ; he hath 
given amongst us (give me leave to express it) eternal life. As if a man 
goes to a college, they of the college tell him such a founder hath given us 
such a fellowship or exhibition, though every one is not capable of that 
fellowship or exhibition, but yet it is given to the college, and they all can 
say, it is given to us, i. e., to that body amongst us for such uses. Thus 
to give is taken plainly, John vi. 32, * My Father giveth you the true 
bread from heaven.' He speaks to them that never did believe; yet, saith 
he, my Father gives to you eternal life ; to you the sons of men, that grace, 
that mercy is given ' before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9. It is made 
known to all the sons of men to whom the gospel is preached, as that 
which is given amongst them ; and there are those among them which 



160 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

hear this grace of the gospel to whom it shall be given effectually, and 
therefore it may well be indefinitely expressed, that God intends eternal 
life to the sons of men. This is a great thing in the heart of God, which 
God the Father doth reveal to a poor soul, that his whole purpose, inten- 
tion, and resolution, which he will never be frustrated of, is to give eternal 
life unto the sons of men. This is his heart, his whole heart, and thus 
much of his heart he doth reveal of himself, that his purpose is in and 
through Jesus Christ to give eternal life, John. iii. 16. He hath given 
eternal life with the most serious purposes and unchangeable resolutions 
to the sons of men. Though he doth not tell you the names of the 
persons, and so declare who they are, yet he declares that he gives it to 
them that believe ; therefore, you that hear it, believe and come in. 

2. He says, I have given eternal life, but how must you have it ? This 
life is conveyed to men in my Son (saith God), and by my Son, and there 
is no means else whereby you may have eternal life. Jesus Christ is the 
common receptacle of life eternal, for God hath made Jesus Christ his 
Son to be the fountain of life, to be the bread of God that should give life 
to the world : John vi. 33, ' I am the bread of life, that came down from 
heaven, and giveth life unto the world.' This life is only to be had in his 
Son ; and if you will have life you must go to him, for it is in him. 
God the Father did never vocally preach the gospel in the New Testament 
but once or twice, and then he spake from heaven himself, and not his 
Spirit ; and what said he ? Mat. xvii. 5, ' This is my beloved Son, hear 
him,' i. e., take him, receive him, go to him. Well, though God doth 
not speak vocally now with an outward voice, but secretly in the souls of 
poor sinners, yet he says, This life is in my Son, there I have laid it; you 
cannot have it from me, but him ; he gives his flesh for the life of the 
world, and there is not anything else in heaven or earth will give you life ; 
naj r , I can give you life no other way (i. e., according to his own appoint- 
ment in the New Testament), but by having my Son. The soul sees it is 
not having grace, as humiliation, contrition, but it must have the Son if it 
have life. I have sometimes thought that if I had the life of grace in me, 
I had the Son ; but it is contrary here, you must have the Son if you have 
life. You must not go to God for the righteousness of Christ only, and not 
go to the Son himself. You must do more, you must go to Christ for life : 
1 This life is in my Son,' says God. You must not go to God for Christ's 
sake only, but you must go to Christ. I do not say that you have no 
grace else, for you may have gone to him for his Son's righteouness, and 
for his favour ; but yet you must take his person in too : John vi. 53, 

' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
no life in you.' The Father causeth souls to see a necessity of coming to 
his Son at last. If you could suppose you could give your body to be 
burnt, and had all faith, and knew all mysteries, all would be in vain ; if 
you have not the Son you have not life : ' Except you eat my flesh,' says 
Christ, ' you have no life in you.' The Father puts souls upon a necessity 
of going to Christ. 

3. I observe, that the Father doth allow in his record that a man should 
out of love to himself seek life in Christ and salvation in Christ. He 
allows thee to go to him to be saved, for it is what God bids thee do, and 
prompts thee to it. His record doth declare it to thee ; nay, it is the first 
thing he mentions ; for before he tells you life is in my Son, he tells you, 
eternal life is given amongst you, and bids you seek it. The aim of going 
to Christ for salvation is an allowed aim by God the Father in the record 



Chap. V.] of justifying FAITH. 1G1 

concerning his Son ; nay, he threatens you, that you shall not have life if 
you do not go to him : ■ You will not come to me,' says Christ to the 
Pharisees, ' that ye might have life,' John v. 40. Every soul that comes to 
Jesus Christ comes at first for life: ' We believed in Jesus Christ,' says 
the apostle, Gal. ii. 16, ' that we might be justified ;' it was a self-aim in 
them, you will not come to me to be saved ; this the Father sets on in a 
conviction to the heart, and he puts men on a necessity to come to Christ, 
and allows self-love in coming. The argument is invincible, God in 
ordaining your salvation did ordain it chiefly for his own glory, and yet 
he had infinite love to you. And doth this love of God to you stand with 
God's glory ?; Then certainly your aiming out of self-love at your own salva- 
tion stands with the glory of God in saving of you, and this is in order to 
believing. But withal he tells men this, ' This life is in my Son.' If you 
ask, Where doth it lie ? It lies in my Son (says God), and in having him 
you have life, for eternal life lies not in anything out of the Son of God ; 
no, it lies in himself. Therefore there is no danger in any man's seeking 
Jesus Christ for his own salvation, for he seeks it in Christ himself ; for 
if thou seekest happiness in the Son of God, and life in him, thou mayest 
make self-love thy aim as much as thou wilt, he is your life, Col. iii. 2, 3, 
and Christ lives in you, Gal. ii. 20. People desire heaven; do you know 
what heaven is ? It is to live in God and with God for ever, and you 
place in God glorified above yourselves that happiness you seek. 

4. He puts you upon seeking his Son, and puts you on coming for his Son, 
as that which above all concerns yourselves. How is that proved ? ' He 
that hath the Son,' saith he. It is a powerful phrase, it is a marriage 
phrase. To have him, to enjoy his person (says a poor virgin that truly 
loves him), is more than all. I desire to have him to save me, to have 
him that I may have eternal life, but I principally desire to have himself. 
This is the record which God the Father gives concerning his Son, to draw 
men on to believe. 

5. God the Father directs us to seek to have Christ as the Son of God, as 
well as [as] a Saviour. ' He that hath the Son,' saith he, ' hath life ; ' we must 
then come to him as the Son, and give up ourselves to him as the Son, as well 
as regard him as the author of life and means of salvation to us : it is not having 
the Redeemer only, but it is having the Son ; as he lives by the Father, so 
we live by him ; and as Christ says, ' My Father is mine, and I am his,' so 
the soul comes to be Christ's, and Christ becomes its salvation and life. 
Observe what the apostle says, Gal. ii. 20, ' The life I lead in the flesh it is by 
faith,' of two things, or of Christ considered in two notions, as Son of 
God, and as Redeemer, ' who loved me, and gave himself for me.' If you 
rightly examine the story of the disciples'^believing in Christ, recorded in 
the 1st, 2d, and 3d chapters of John, you will find that sometimes they 
say, they had found the Saviour of the world, sometimes they would say 
they had found the Son of God, and sometimes the Son and Saviour ; you 
are therefore to have him as Son of God, and to believe in him, and to 
love him as God loves him. What doth God love him for ? What, only 
because he died for you? No ; he loves him above all, because he is his 
Son. Now you are to have the image of God's heart in your hearts ; you 
must have an heart after God's heart toward the Lord Jesus. You love 
him because you come to him to be saved by him ; but if you love him as 
God doth, you must come to him as the Son, and love him as the Son, 
the glory of whose person is infinite. This is the record God gives of him, 
that you must not only look at Christ as an ordinance to save you, but as 

vox,, vni. L 



1G2 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK. II. 

the Son. I do not say all this is done for a poor soul at first conversion, 
but this is the record God teaches you and will bring you to, viz., not only 
to seek his redemption, but to have his Son, and to have your hearts 
flaming in love after his Son. 

Secondly, I come now to shew how God doth teach these things con- 
cerning his Son. Will you know how the Father teacheth, and when it is 
his teaching ? His teaching is not to teach you the doctrinals of salvation 
and of the Son, for he leaves that to ministers and to the Bible, to 
teach you the doctrinals only in a doctrinal way. But God the Father's 
teaching, 

1. Is to bring the knowledge you have of Christ home to your souls, to 
say to your souls, Ps. xxxv. 3 ; to speak to your hearts, Hosea ii. 14. 
They all heard Christ's sermons, but ' those come to me,' says he, ' that 
have heard and learned of the Father,' John vi. 45. The Father doth not 
speak to us of his Son vocally, as I told you he spake of his Son to Adam 
(the giving of the ten commandments was by the ministration of angels), 
but he teacheth your hearts. What is the meaning of that ? Among all 
the notions which you have of Christ as the object of faith, if there is but 
one notion of Christ set home upon the soul (I call it an intuitive beam of 
light of the knowledge of Christ), that is the notion the Father teaches ; 
and all the knowledge thou hast otherwise is not the teaching of the 
Father, nor will save thee. No ; it is what he teaches thy soul, what he 
opens thy heart to receive, that is saving. If you would go to Christ with 
all the knowledge that notionally you have, and spread it before him, and 
woo him, it would not take effect ; but if thou feel such a light brought 
into thy soul concerning Christ that comes to thy heart, go to Jesus Christ 
with that one notion, and he knows his Father's voice in thy heart, and he 
accepts thee, and listens to thee. When a man comes to die that hath a 
great deal of knowledge, it is one little promise, one beam of light that 
comforts him, and he hath that instruction sealed to him : Isa. 1. 4, ' He 
wakeneth morning by morning; he wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned.' 
It is a prophecy how God the Father taught Jesus Christ ; he did not know 
everything at once, but morning by morning he knew something still of 
himself. Thus the Father comes and awakens thine ear, and causeth thy 
soul to be attentive, and brings home something to thy soul ; thou mayest 
read the Bible all the day afterward, and not understand so much as to 
have it brought thus home, and thy heart awakened. 

2. A second thing he teacheth : he doth take thy heart with what he 
saith thus to thee, by an intuitive beam. I compare this to the beams of 
the sun in a burning glass ; as they burn the thing they fall upon, so this 
beam from God takes and inflames the heart. The poor disciples (Luke 
xxiv. 32) talked with Christ, and knew not that it was Christ, till ' he 
opened their understandings,' ver. 45, and then (say they) ' Did not our 
hearts burn within us ?' &c. There is an inflammation of the spirit, a taking 
of the heart, that accompanieth such teachings as the Father teacheth. A 
father's teaching imports affection, which doth draw : 1 Cor. viii. 3, ' If 
any man love God, the same is known of him ;' i. e., is made to know God (so 
Beza and Austin read it), whom God hath made to know ; so that still when 
God teacheth, there goeth affection with it. As there he speaks of love, I 
speak of believing ; when the Father comes and teacheth, and brings in the 
light of Christ, then the affections, the will, the whole heart follow, there 
is longing, thirsting, eager desires. 

3. The manner of his teaching is expressed, Eph. iv. 20, 21, ' If so be 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 103 

that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in 
Jesus.' He speaks of such a teaching as all Christians have, for he speaks 
it of such a teaching as makes them holy. It is spoken of Christ himself, 
of Christ properly, therefore he saith, ' as the truth is in Jesus.' The 
words are a plain distinction of a double knowledge. There is a know- 
ledge which is not as the truth is in Jesus ; but if you have been taught 
the truth as it is in Jesus, that is the Father's teaching, and that is his 
Son's teaching. Truly, if the gospel of John had been written before Paul 
writ this epistle, I would have said Paul had alluded to those words of John, 
for he hath all three words, heard, read, learned, of the Father. 

But you will say, is it a false knowledge which carnal men have of Christ, 
who are not taught of the Father ? Truly, I say, it is not a true know- 
ledge, it is false in regard it is not as the truth is in Jesus ; it is not a fantas- 
tical knowledge, but it is a phantasmatical knowledge. Now what is it to 
be taught Christ as the truth is in Jesus ? It is a real knowledge : 1 John 
v. 20, ' He hath given us an understanding to know him that is true :' he 
speaks it of the Father, but it follows of Christ too, to know the true Christ. 
There is a parhelion of Christ, } 7 ou call it a false sun, but the true sun 
always outshines it, and the other is but a shadow ; but this is to know 
Jesus Christ in the substance of himself. If you see the picture of a man, 
it is a knowing the man, but it is not a knowing the true man indeed whose 
person it represents. As God the Father did beget his own Son from eter- 
nity, so he begets that real idea of the Lord Jesus Christ in a poor believer, 
that never entered into the heart of any other man : so that the believer 
can say, I have been with Christ to-daj 7 , as one said, Jesus Christ and I 
have been together this day ; I saw him this morning. He who sees the 
Son, and believes on him, hath life, John vi. 40 ; it is a real, solid, sub- 
stantial sight, so that we have an understanding given anew to know the 
true Christ. It is not the phantasma, but it is something let in from the 
person himself, that begets that idea that is taken from the person himself. 
Though it is hard to express it, yet our ordinary comparison illustrates it. 
When a man is asleep, we call them phantasms which in a dream repre- 
sent images of fathers and mothers, and persons that are dead ; but if you 
see the person himself, you say, Man, I am sure that this is he ; this is 
not a dream; as the poor blind man said, ' Behold, I see ;' therefore this is 
put in by Christ and his apostles themselves, ' We know assuredly thou 
art the Son of God,' and that thou earnest from God. Thus the Father's 
teaching shews you the true Christ, whom the apostles have seen, heard, 
and felt, 1 John i. 1, 2. When Christ rose again, said he to his disciples, 
' Feel, here is flesh and bones, a spirit hath them not ;' a spectrum hath 
them not. When Christ is represented to the soul by the Father, the soul 
is not deceived, though it hath not assurance personal of its own interest : 
his presence is real, and it is called the real presence of the Lord Jesus ; 
and this is to teach the truth as the truth is in Jesus. 

4. It is so to teach you, as to persuade you that all you know of him is 
for his glory, that all tends to the glorifying of him. Look what particu- 
lars the Father teacheth you concerning Christ, there goes along with and 
accompanies that light, that which tends to glorify the Son ; and if you 
cannot believe that he is yours, there will be secret veins and strains of 
holy affections accompanying your glorifying him in your hearts : 2 Thes. 
i. 12, ' That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, 
and ye in him, according to the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ.' Therefore, if the Father teach you any thing about his Son, his 



1G1 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

person, sufferings, justification, or the like, there is something in the heart 
doth rise up to the glorifying this Jesus : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We behold 
the glory of the Lord,' which is meant of Christ. Thus when Thomas 
would not believe, John xx., our Saviour, as a means to make him believe, 
shews him his hands and his feet ; his heart falls down, though his knees 
did not, and he cries out, ' My Lord, and my God.' You read in the 
evangelists of man} 7 that received cure from him, came to him and wor- 
shipped him with their bodies and souls too, as it is commanded, Ps. 
xlv. 11, ' He is thy Lord, worship thou him,' says the Father to his church. 
Oh, when there comes in but a beam of the excellency of Christ's person, 
that makes the believer to glorify him : Oh how precious is this Lord Jesus ! 
And the soul doth sanctify him in his heart, in his will and affections, and 
the soul comes to him for his blood, and the Father hath taught it so to do. 
Oh how precious is that blood, saith the poor soul, if I might have a part 
in it, that can make sinners righteous, that can bring in everlasting right- 
eousness, that sin shall never undo me, that can justify all my sins in a 
moment ! Perhaps the soul cannot say, I have a portion in it, but yet it 
can say, I come to him to have it so, 1 Pet. ii. 7. No cordial so precious 
as this blood of Christ to justify the soul ; and though the soul cannot say, 
I have part in this righteousness, yet it doth say, if I had all the righteous- 
ness of men and angels, I would account it dog's-meat, fling it away that I 
might have his righteousness. The soul falls down aghast at this righteous- 
ness in an admiration, Oh how glorious is this righteousness ! So that 
although the soul knows not its interest in it, but remains in doubts, yet 
it hath the highest value of it, and stands adoring, as John did, when he 
said, ' Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world,' 
John i. 29. In seeing this Jesus that hath sufficiency to take away sin, 
the soul stands aghast, and worships him ; and though it doth not fall down 
on its knees, yet adores him in its heart. These are the teachings of the 
Father, which have such effects, and thus you have seen how he teacheth. 
He brings home the light of the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ to the 
soul, he induceth a special light, he wakens the soul morning by morning, 
affects the heart, takes the soul, represents all in the truth, in the reality, 
as the truth is in Jesus, and teacheth the soul so to know Christ, as to 
give glory to him. For when Christ is represented as he is a Jesus, 
there is a glory that accompanies that representation, a glory which so 
raiseth the soul above itself, that it stands amazed at him, and falls down 
before him, and glorifies him. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Christ our Saviour typified by Noah's ark. — As Noah was instructed by God 
to enter into the ark for his safety, so God in the covenant of grace teacheth 
us to knoiv Chnst, and to come to him for salvation. — That onr faith looks 
both to the free grace of God bringing us to Christ, as icell as to Christ. — 
Without Christ the grace of God doth not, nor can, save us; and therefore 
it is necessary that we explicitly act faith on him for salvation. 

For this is as the ivaters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters 
of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would 
not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, 
and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither 



Chap. VI. ] of justifying faith. 1G5 

shall the covenant of my peace be removal, snith the Lord that hath mercy 
on thee, thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! behold, 
I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and In;/ thy foundations with sapphires. 
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy nates of carbuncles, and all 

thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the 
Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. — Isaiah LIV. 9-13. 

I have, in a discourse* on this scripture, shewed the parallel betwixt 
Noah's covenant, about his entrance into the ark to be saved from the flood, 
and the covenant of grace. I came to an use, which hath been this, that 
the example of Noah in his entrance into the ark, and making of the ark, 
and the like, was a figure of the saving work that God effects upon the 
hearts of his people, in bringing them under the covenant of grace, and 
Avithin the safe bounds of it. I shall accordingly consider the work of 
faith wrought in Noah, he being made heir of the righteousness of faith. 
Noah was instructed by God in two things as objects of his faith. The 
first was the grace of God : ' Thou hast found grace in my sight.' The other 
was the necessity of his entrance into the ark, which was to him the type 
of Christ; hence correspondency to answer the type we have what is said 
in verse 13, ' They shall be all taught of God.' The covenant of grace did 
undertake, Jer. xxxi. 34, that God would teach them to know him, and 
that they should not need any other to teach them. The grace under the 
covenant of the gospel teaches us to know two things. The first is, to 
know God in his grace: Jer. ix. 24, 'Let him that glorieth glory in this, 
that he understandeth and knoweth me.' As to what ? It follows, ' That 
I am the Lord that exerciseth loving-kindness, judgment, and righteous- 
ness, in the earth : for in these things do I delight.' To know God in his 
loving-kindness, this is what God doth instruct his people in, and teacheth 
them to exercise faith ahout it. The second thing which the covenant of 
grace teaches us is, to know Christ who is our ark : John vi. 45, • It is 
written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man 
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto 
me.' So then these two things before me are naturally deduced from the 
text, and example of Noah. God teaches his people to know him in his 
free grace, and be teaches them to know him in his Christ, and instructs 
them in the nature of faith in him. From God's instructing Noah to 
enter into the ark, we may infer that God doth also, in the covenant of 
grace, which this is a prophecy of, instruct us to know his Son Christ, 
and to come unto him. When the ark was prepared, God invites Noah 
into the ark: Gen. vii. 1, 'And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou, and 
all thy house, into the ark;' which words I shall by and by translate into 
pure gospel, and I will shew you that the very same language is used con- 
cerning our believing in Christ only. I must first shew you this thing, 
that the ark was the type of Christ, for that is the first thing I must turn 
into gospel, the ark into Christ. The ancient writers of the church, the 
fathers (as they call them), say, that by ark is meant the church. Now, it 
is true that one and the same type often signifieth two or three things ; as, 
for example, the temple signified the body of Christ — ' Destroy this temple,' 
saith Christ — it signified the church universal, the body of Christ mystical ; 
it signifieth every particular soul: ' Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost,' 
1 Cor. vi. 19. But this let me say, when you shall find a parallel made 
between the thing and the thing signified, and in particular applied to one 
* In vol. ii. of his works. 



1G6 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

thing, you must only understand it so, and there you must not understand 
it as a type of the other. In 1 Peter i. 21 you have Noah's ark made a 
type of Christ, as he is administered to us in baptism : ' The like figure 
whereunto ' (having spoken of the ark) ' wherein few, that is, eight persons 
were saved through water.' The like figure is baptism, whereby we are 
saved; but here baptism, signified bj T the ark, bears not the figure of the 
church, and that plainly for this reason, because the ark is the figure of 
that wherein we are saved ('wherein few were saved, eight persons'). 
Now, the eight were the persons saved, and saved in the ark, and they 
bare the resemblance of the church in being saved ; but it is the ark that 
bears the resemblance of that wherein we are saved, who is Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour of the world, signified and applied to us in baptism. You will 
say it is baptism that saves us; but how doth it so? Because we are bap- 
tized into Christ, Rom. vi. 3; and it is said to be therefore by the resur- 
rection of Christ that he saves; although he mentions the resurrection as 
signified in baptism, he means his death too, for he puts that part, the 
resurrection, for the whole. Baptism unto the person baptized under the 
water (whether by pouring it upon it, or dipping under it, it is all one, for 
baptism is called sprinkling) implies a covering under the water and rising 
again. How doth Christ save ? ' He died for our sins, and rose again 
for our justification,' Rom. iv. 25; and we are said to be 'baptized into 
his death' as well as into Christ and his resurrection, Rom. vi. 3. It is 
the most lively example that ever was ; we are baptized into Christ, and 
into his death, and into his resurrection, as ye have it there expressed. 
This baptism thus representing Christ is said to be figured out by the ark. 
As for the ark, Ainsworth, that holy man, well observes concerning it : 
Every Christian (saith he) is baptized with Christ; and as Noah was in 
the ark, so we were all in Christ representatively, when he hung on the 
cross, and when he rose. And so we were in the ark: when that was 
under water, we were under water; when the ark got up, we rose up upon 
the water. It was impossible for the ark to be overwhelmed, because 
God took care of it; so it was with Christ, God upheld him; and death, 
although he was laid in the grave, could not have dominion over him. It 
was impossible for death to hold him. The ark too kept Noah and the 
church, the ark bare off all (I need not stand to enlarge upon it) ; there is 
no example or figure (as I know) so lively. Moses being baptized in the 
cloud and the Red Sea of baptism (because it was the figure of it), is no- 
thing so lively as this. Now, the ark being thus proved to be a type of 
Christ, wherein we are saved, we shall next consider God's invitation of 
Noah to come into the ark: Gen. vii. 1, ' Come thou, enter into the ark.' 
I shall decipher this out into gospel language, and give you plain words 
for every tittle of it: ' Come thou, and thy house, and enter into the ark.' 
Here is, 

1. An invitation to come into the ark, like to Christ's inviting sinners to 
come to him: Mat. xi. 28, 29, 'Come to me,' saith Christ, 'all ye that 
are weary and heavy laden;' and Rev. xxii. 17, 'The bride saith, Come, 
and the Spirit saith, Come, and take of the water of life freely.' 

2. What is this coming? It is that which is applied to Christ: John 
vi. 33, ' He that comes to me shall never thirst.' Coming is believing, for 
to believe is to come to Christ to be saved : ' You will not come to me,' 
saith Christ, ' that you may have life,' John v. 40. 

3. The words of God's invitation to Noah are, ' Come, and enter.' The 
expression is answerable concerning faith : Heb. xi. 3, 'Through faith we 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 107 

understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that thincs 
which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' This it is like- 
wise expressed, Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' By coming to Christ, and believing 
on him, we enter both into him and also into rest. 

4. "We are said to enter into Christ only by coming and believing, 
whereas we were out of Christ before : ' He was,' saith the apostle, Rom. 
xvi. 7, ' in Christ before me.' When he did believe, he entered into 
Christ, he came to be in Christ, as Noah was in the ark, and so was saved. 
Suitable hereunto is also that text in Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemna- 
tion to them that are in Christ,' no more than there was destruction unto 
them that were in the ark, for they were brought safe to land. As we thus 
enter into Christ by faith, so we dwell in Christ, and continue in Christ, 
1 John ii. 23, 24. 

5. Yet it falls well, as God invited Noah to come into the ark, so he 
invited his family too : ' Come thou and thy house.' The gospel invitation 
runs thus in these very words, Acts xvi. 11, when the poor jailor came, 
and knows not what to do to be saved ; • Believe thou on the Lord Jesus,' 
says the apostle. Do but come into the ark, and ' thou shalt be saved, 
and thy house.' Thus the gospel was preached, as might apparently be 
shewed at large ; so that I have demonstrated unto you that Gen. vii. 1 is 
plain gospel, and the word about believing answers it. Christ is your ai'k, 
and faith is your coming, and by faith you enter into Christ, and continue 
in him (answerably as Noah did in the ark), till thou arrivest safe to land, 
thou and thy house. Thus you see that still the parallel holds on about 
Noah in his covenant and the work of faith. I shall now proceed to shew 
in some proportion that God teaches us to believe upon Christ as he taught 
Noah to enter into the ark. 

1st. I shall first answer a case or two. I told you that Christ is the 
object of your faith, distinct from free grace, or that we are to believe on 
Christ, and treat with him, as well as with God's free grace. Now the 
case to be resolved is this : Many souls (some such souls I am sure I have 
known) have been mightily carried out to treat with God the Father and 
his free grace, and they have found an open door, if they will go in at that 
room. If they will go to the Father, they find all the love in his heart in 
giving men to Christ, and commanding him to die for them ; and they find 
all this love to be free and unchangeable, and they find the thoughts of it 
to be a support of faith ; and although they have not found assurance, yet 
they are so much assured of the will of God, as to know that he is resolved 
to save sinners, and they know that salvation must flow from it, and that 
makes them seek God, and apply themselves to free grace ; and they can 
turn all other considerations of Christ into motives and pleas, and so lay 
themselves at the feet of God. Yet, while they do this, they take it for 
granted that all God's love is through Christ, and that he was God in 
Christ reconciling the world to himself, or that he had never done it else. 
And so, though Jesus Christ is implicitly honoured by them apart and 
distinctly, yet they do not explicitly apply themselves in a distinct manner 
to the Lord Jesus. They do not make use of Christ so distinctly, although 
they go to God through Christ. The answer to this case is useful and 
profitable. 

1. I say that here are two objects of faith, and they are equal objects of 
faith at least, and equally necessary ; but I say, too, that where the Father 
is, there is the Son : John xiv. 10, 11, ' I am in the Father, and the Father 



1G8 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

in me, and I in you ;' and you shall know this one day ; and ' my Father 
and I are one,' and we ' agree in one, John x. 30. Their hearts are not 
divided ; so that if thou canst find the heart of God open to thee, and that 
there is a full door open, and that thy heart is strengthened to go in at it, 
then for certain thou hast also a sense of the love of Christ, and thou takest 
it for granted that all that thou hast is through Christ, and is from the 
heart of Christ; and so far thou givest him the honour of it. Thou mayest 
be sure of it by this token, that Christ himself hath to do with his Father 
in saving us, more than with himself. He eyes his will, and regards what 
he hath said to him about our salvation, and the undertaking of it, and the 
carrying of it through : John vi. 37, ' I came clown from above, not to do 
my own will, but the will of him that sent me ;' thus saith Jesus Christ 
himself; ' And this is my Father's will, that he hath sent me, and that of 
all that he hath given me I should lose none.' Now, canst thou go unto 
the heart of the Father, and regard him as the fountain of all that Christ 
hath done, and look on him as giving to Christ them that he would have 
saved ? Dost thou see that Christ hath undertaken to him for thee, and 
that he hath such and such a love in his heart to save thee, and that, thou 
hast a declaration of it, and the indefinite promise of it in the gospel '? 
And do these thoughts take thy heart, and dost thou thus treat with the 
Father, and his will, and free grace for salvation ? Thou herein honourest 
Christ, for it is no question but Christ, that came to do his Father's will, 
agrees to it, and hath it always in his view. He tells us that he doth his 
Father's will as to the persons who are to be saved : John vi. 37, ' All that 
the Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will 
not cast out, for I came not to do my will, but the will of him that sent 
me,' i. e., to save the persons that God the Father gave me. Dost thou go 
to God, although he doth not tell thee immediately that he loves thee ? 
This is the will of the Father, and Christ came to do the will of the Father 
unto persons, and therefore to those persons whose hearts are taken with 
his grace. And this is a sign Jesus Christ hath satisfied for thee, and 
makes application to the Father for thee : John v. 24, ' Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent 
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is 
passed from death to life.' You must know this, that one great end of 
Christ's preaching was to discover the Father, and to shew how much the 
Father's heart was engaged in saving man by him, and in sending him into 
the world. Now suppose that in his preaching a good soul had been taken 
with this love of God the Father that gave his Son, and that this soul was 
drawn out upon that to apply itself to the Father, it herein heard Christ, 
and applied itself to him also. ' He that heareth my words,' saith Christ, 
while he is magnifying God the Father, John v. 24, and understandeth, 
' and believeth on him that sent me' (i.e., believes upon him as having 
sent me), that man, saith he, ' hath everlasting life ;' although eminently 
thus his heart is carried unto the Father that sent him. 

2. The soul of man is apt to be intent upon one object, and so to be 
more flat in another : this is undeniable matter of experience. Oh that I 
were humbled! says the soul sometimes, when the heart goes out to be 
abated for sin. At another time the heart is as much drawn out for Christ 
and for his grace ; and while it is drawn out that way, a zealous love for 
holiness comes in, and then it runs out to that. We cannot be intent 
upon many objects with intenseness of thought, through a narrowness of 
mind. Sometimes all about the Father and his free grace takes up our 



Chap. VI. J of justifying faith. K'»9 

thoughts, and the Boul runs out that way; and soraetiracs the Son, and 
sometimes the Spirit, employ all our thoughts, as indeed we must adore 
every person in his office. Sometimes we are carried to communion with 
the Father, and sometimes to enjoy it with the Son, and sometimes to have 
it with the Eoly Ghost. Now all this ariseth from the narrowness of our 
minds, and therefore Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are fain to take their 
turns, and to be entertained by vicissitudes. 

3. Is the Father discovered to thee in his free grace to draw thy heart 
into communion, while Christ is not so free to thee when thou attemptest 
to go to him ? Know this for a truth, that whatever is discovered of the 
Father's heart, it is done by Christ; and whatever is discovered of the 
Son's heart in dying and rising, it is done by the Father ; therefore thou 
mayest be sure that the Father is with thee when thy heart is drawn to 
Christ, for that drawing is from the Father ; and if thou hast thy heart 
drawn to the Father, it is effected by Christ, Mat. xi. 27. How is it that 
thy heart is drawn unto the Son, and thy heart is all set upon Christ? It 
is the Father that doth it, and he doth it secretly in the word he doth 
teach thee ; yet no man hath seen him ; he doth it, and doth it secretly ; 
and so likewise no man cometh to the Father but by Christ. Thou art no 
sooner with Christ, and hath put forth a few acts of faith, but he sends 
thee to the Father, or thou couldst not come to him, as thou couldst not 
come to Christ but by the Father, and as the Father discovers him. And 
therefore be assured that he who hath the Father hath the Son, and he 
that hath the Son hath him by the Father. 

4. It is best to have the heart both drawn out to the free grace that is 
in the Father's heart, and to have the heart drawn out to Jesus Christ and 
his fulness. It is best for thee to have thy heart from the beginning (as 
some have had) to know both the Father and the Son, and to continue thy 
addresses to either. Oh that is best ! I will give you a great many scrip- 
tares for it. Thus it was with Paul from his first conversion: 1 Tim. L 14, 
< The grace of our Lord was abundant, with faith, and love, which is in 
Jesus Christ.' By our Lord there is meant the Father, for he is made 
distinct from Jesus Christ in the next words. Paul had an abundant 
entrance both to God the Father in his free grace at his conversion, and 
he had abundant entrance unto Jesus Christ with faith and love drawn out 
unto him. To the same purpose is 1 John ii. 13, 'I write unto you, 
fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write 
unto j'ou, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write 
unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.' Let that 
therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning, let it 
remain in you, and you shall continue in the Son and in the Father. You 
knew the Father at first, and believed on him and Christ, and if you will 
cleave unto your first works, to what you have heard and had from the 
beginning, to what you have known of God the Father, and of the Son, 
you will continue in both, and there lies your comfort ; and if you cast it 
off, as those heretics did (who knew the Father, but not the Son), thou 
hast not the Father nor the Son. Thy case, indeed, may be such, that 
though thou knowest both, yet thy heart is not so taken with the one as 
the other ; but yet, while thou goest unto Christ, it is because the Father 
hath sent him, and it is his will that thou believe on him. If thou dost go 
unto the Father, it is because Jesus Christ hath died, and they both agree 
in one. It is best to join both : Rom. iii. 24, ' Being justified freely by ins 
grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ' It is best to join 



170 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

the grace of God, and faith on the blood of Christ, and to have our hearts 
equally carried to the one and the other, although the Father must have 
the pre-eminence. This is the truest and rightest frame of a Christian. 

But you will say, Is not the knowledge of the Father and his grace alone 
sufficient, although I have not the other ? Is not the saving knowledge of 
the mercy and grace of God sufficient, although I do not know Christ nor 
believe on him ? And so on the contrary. 

1. I answer, No ; grace alone would not save you without a Christ, for 
he is to satisfy the justice of God, that so grace may save thee, and that 
God might be just, and the justifier of those that believe. I will not enter 
into that discourse, that through the whole Old Testament there was a 
glimmering of Christ, that it began in Adam (that Christ should destroy 
the works of the devil), and in Enoch's ministry, and in Noah's ministry, 
who as he was ' heir of righteousness by faith,' so he was the preacher of 
it, and is said to preach Jesus Christ in his day. Peter, speaking of the Jews, 
how they were saved, saith, Acts xv. 11, ' There was a yoke that neither we 
nor our fathers could bear; yet if we believe on the Lord Jesus, we shall be 
saved, as they were ;' and how ? By the grace of Christ, and by believing 
on him, and having an eye to Christ. They knew not the way how Christ 
would save them ; they did not dream it should be by dying, but they had 
an eye to him, as shewed in the type. There was the temple, and they 
looked towards it and the mercy- seat, &c. The ark was Christ, and the 
mercy-seat was the favour of God, and the mercy-seat and the ark were 
equal. Thus look what purpose of grace he hath to save, the ark, which 
is Jesus Christ, is as large. You have the mercy-seat, the favour of God ; 
and the purchase of Christ, who is the ark, is equal to it. 

2. The necessity of coming to Christ was more clearly insisted on after 
the time of Christ's ascension, and the publication of the gospel to all 
nations. They are required to believe on Christ distinctly, and to treat 
with him distinctly, as well as with the Father ; and sooner or later the 
elect shall do it, and have some glances to Christ. Christ answerably prays, 
John xvii., 'I pray not for these only, but for all that shall believe on me 
through their word ;' we all believe through their word to this day. 
How doth Jesus Christ characterise his church that was to come ? He 
doth it by this mark, that they should believe on him, and (saith he) ' I 
pray not for the world.' Can you think then that any man since should 
have knowledge to grow up to salvation, from a principle of nature, without 
Jesus Christ ? No ; they are left out in Jesus Christ's prayer. Thus like- 
wise Christ saith, John viii. 2-i, « If you do not believe that I am he ; if 
you do not come to me that ye may have life, that ye may be saved, you 
will die in your sins.' There must be an absolute treating with Jesus 
Christ, a flashy faith is not sufficient ; nor is it enough that you have pur- 
posed such an act, but you must come to Christ, and treat with him, and 
continue to do so to the end. In Noah's covenant (for I follow the figure, 
and I have shewed in another discourse how it was a type of the covenant 
of grace unto the church in the New Testament) it was necessary for Noah 
and his family to come and enter into the ark if he would be saved ; and 
so it is as necessary for us to come and enter into Christ by faith to be 
saved : as Noah entered into that ark to be saved from the waters, so we 
into this ark to be saved from the wrath of God. All that grace which 
Noah found in God would not have saved him by way of his ordination, but 
in and by the ark. I have saved you and you. Though he was acknow- 
ledged by God to be a righteous man, and though he had been a preacher 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 171 

of righteousness, yet all this righteousness, and all the good sermons which 
he had made, would not save him from these waters, but he must have 
drowned with the rest had he not entered into the ark. Thus though thou 
wert as righteous as Noah, yet if thou art saved, it must be by coming into the 
ark. Say what you will of yourselves, beiug puffed up with vain hopes, 
you must be saved by Jesus Christ alone. And therefore it is said that 
Noah and his house entered into the ark. If you take the church in general, 
there is no salvation out of the church (so some have applied this figure of 
the ark) ; ay, but I say, ' there is no other name by which we can be 
saved, but that of Jesus,' and no other benefit but faith, nulla solus extra 
( '/tritium, no salvation out of Christ. If thou art without God and without 
Christ, thou art in a desperate case. 

My design is to shew the necessity of faith on Christ, by going over the 
story of the progress of the gospel from the first and earliest beginning of 
it, when the gospel began. When John the Baptist began it before Christ 
preached, his point was to point and direct men to believe on Christ. You 
find that the gospel began with John: Luke xvi. 16, ' The law and the 
prophets were until John ;' when he baptized men, he said to the people, 
I baptize you, but, saith he, believe on Christ. John verily baptized men 
with the baptism of repentance and humiliation ; though he taught them 
repentance, he yet enjoins them to believe on Christ, Acts xix. 4, he did 
join faith with repentance : he pointed men to Christ, and told the Pha- 
risees there was such a one among them, whose shoe-latchet he was not 
worthy to unloose, and sets forth the fame of Christ's ministry. He bap- 
tized, to make Christ manifest unto the people of Israel, John i. 38—41, 
and his disciples, Simon and Andrew, fell to Christ. It is also set down 
in the very beginning of the gospel, that faith on Christ is the only way of 
life : John iii. 36, ' He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : 
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God 
abideth on him.' "When the gospel began, this was still put into it, that 
we must believe on Christ. It is evidenced also by the care that our Lord 
and Saviour is at to make himself known to poor souls, that they may 
believe on him, although he preach the Father's love too. The poor blind 
man had his eyesight given him, but he knew not who did it, yet there 
was something within him that did defend Christ against the Pharisees ; 
and Jesus Christ takes occasion to meet him again, and though even then 
he did not know him, yet afterwards he did make himself manifest. 
There were some that did know him, as Nathanael, but they did not 
believe distinctly on him ; but Christ takes care that this poor blind man 
should. There is a poor woman also, John iv. 26, to whom Christ reveals 
himself: • I am he,' I am the Christ that speaks to thee, saith he. And 
then there Were others too who did believe on him, as ye read there. He 
would go out of the nation of the Jews, to a place where an elect woman 
was, on purpose to reveal himself to her. When the time was come for 
the Canaanitish woman to believe on him, he went out to the coasts of 
Tyre and Sidon ; and so he never went out but once to the coasts of the 
Gadarenes. And then he came to that poor woman * to discover himself 
to her; and yet how averse was she at first, but at last she followed him, 
and found that he was the Messiah, and Christ did approve and own her 
faith. The eunuch, Acts viii. 37, came to Jerusalem to worship, and 

* The author seems here to go back to the case of the woman of Samaria. There 
is no woman mentioned as having been brought to follow him while he was in the 
country of the Gadarenes. — Ed. 



172 OF T1IE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

believed on Christ to come, but did not know that he was come ; yet what 
care doth Christ take that he should know him ! He was devoutly read- 
ing in the Scriptures in his chariot (he employs his time well), and he 
reads that full text of the Old Testament concerning Christ. Providence 
so orders it that Philip is going the same way, and is commanded to join 
himself to him to do that work of instructing him, and he preacheth Christ 
to him, and the eunuch's heart is taken, and straightway he believeth. As 
Christ calls poor fishermen, and they straightway left their nets and fol- 
lowed him, so this man straightway believed on Jesus Christ, and goes 
home, and rejoiceth. 

What is the reason that after Christ's suffering, and after the gospel was 
thus preached, God would have us, in order to salvation, to know Christ, 
and come to him ? 

1. It is ' that all may honour the Son, as they honour the Father,' John 
v. 23. In honouring Christ, they honour the Father and his grace. In 
looking to the grace of God that was in his heart to save, they honoured 
the Father, they believed on him, and so honoured him ; but you must 
believe also on the Son and honour him, and how is that but by believing? 
John v. 23. Christ having spoken of believing, brings the other in ; God 
will have all men to honour the Son, by believing on him, as well as on the 
Father. Salvation runs on in the knowledge of God the Father and the 
Son, John xvii. 2, 3 ; 2 Pet. i. 2. 

2. Another reason is, because now God had fully manifested his Son 
unto the apostles who preached him ; whoever therefore upon their preach- 
ing did not believe on Christ, it was a sign that the god of this world had 
blinded their minds. For God had now sent his Son : ' He hath in these 
last days spoken to us by his Son,' Heb. i. 1, immediately after his tak- 
ing flesh, and therefore he would have the knowledge of his Son to take 
place. John vi. 37, Christ speaks to the same purpose, ' Him that comes 
to me, I will not cast out ; and all that the Father hath given me shall 
come to me, for my Father sent me.' And he sent Christ on purpose that 
he might be known and manifest unto all the world. He therefore that 
doth not now believe on the Son, doth frustrate the end of God's sending 
him, for he did it with an intention that those souls that are saved should 
believe on him. 

3. It is the ordination cf God, it is the will of God that it should be so, 
John vi. 3G-38, our Saviour Christ doth use a very sweet argument and 
parallel. The reason (saith he) that I must receive all that come unto me 
is, because the Father sent me, and gave me them before I came into the 
world, and I was sent to do his will answerably. That you should come 
to me, this is the Father's will, because he hath sent me on purpose to be 
made known to all that shall be saved : John vi. 40, ' All that the Father 
hath given me shall come to me.' The text doth plainly shew this, that 
God himself, that gave his Son, doth not save men unless they come to his 
Son ; and therefore if he will have them, whom he did give unto Christ to 
be saved, he is fain to draw them to come to him. In marriage you have 
the father usually to give the daughter unto the husband ; but if she doth 
not give her consent, it is not the father's giving that makes it a marriage. 
Thus it is not our Father's gift, but our consent unto Christ, that makes a 
match with our souls. All the Scriptures, and all in the Scriptures, will 
not save you, if you have not faith in Jesus Christ. If you should suppose 
that you had all the Scripture in your mind and heart, it would not save 
you, 2 Tim. iii. 15. Though thou art a Timothy, brought up from a child 



Chap. "VI. J of justifying faith. 178 

to read the Scriptures as he did, and knowest there, rot they are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation only through faith which is in Jesus Christ. 
If thou hast not faith in Jesus Christ, all that wisdom in the Scriptures 
will not save thee, nor have power to save thee. If they save thee, it is 
through faith on Christ revealed in them. ' Search the Scriptures' (says 
Christ, John v. 39), ' for ye think therein ye have salvation ; ' but search 
them, for they speak of me more than of anything else, and ye ought to 
know me, or ye shall die in your sins. But you will say, May not a man 
have love to God the Father upon the thoughts of his free grace alone, and 
may be* not then repent for sin ? I say, no ; you cannot repent unless 
you believe on his Son Christ, Rom. i. 5. Love to God, and turning to 
God, will not save you, if you swerve from the means of grace and the way 
of faith. What says Christ ? John v. 42, 43, ' But I know you, that ye 
have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and 
ye receive me not : if another shall come in his own name, him ye will 
receive.' I know that you have not the love of God in you ; why ? Be- 
cause you want faith in me. Love to God springs from faith in Christ, 
and therefore never talk of love to God, if you have not treated concerning 
salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Acts xxvi. 17-19, what saith Christ 
himself from heaven, when he gave Paul his commission ? ' I send thee,' 
saith he, ' to open the eyes of the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive for- 
giveness of sin, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.' Will 
not all this do ? Will not turning unto God from self-love, and loving 
God, and being sanctified, serve to save us under the gospel ? No ; read 
the next words : it must all be, says Christ, ' through faith that is in me.' 
Christ saith it from heaven, this is his commission, and he declares it, that, 
under the gospel, remission of sins and turning to God, forgiveness of sin 
and sanctification, were all through faith in him. Be convinced then, that 
if ever you be saved, there is a necessity that God teach you to come to the 
Son. You think it is an easy thing to come to Christ, and to look to him and 
to his name for pardon, and to go to him for forgiveness and sanctification : 
but let this be preached to you, and inculcated to you, to go to Christ : let 
it all be urged upon you, yet you will not come to Christ that you may have 
life, and you will die in your sins, unless God the Father draws you to him. 
Our Lord. Jesus Christ gives a great instance of this : John vi. 63, 64, 
' It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words 
that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life. But there are some 
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were 
that believed not, and who should betray him.' He doth give the greatest 
instance in the world, that let men live under the highest preaching of the 
gospel, and the powerfullest ministry that ever spake, even the preaching 
of Christ himself, yet a man will not come to Christ. Whom doth Christ 
pitch upon for an instance but upon Judas, that had been with him from 
the beginning, and had heard him preach all his sermons, and heard his 
parables ? and yet he is a devil for all this. • For he knew from the begin- 
ning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. There- 
fore I said,' says he, ' that no man can come to me, except it were given 
unto him of the Father,' ver. 65. Therefore there must be a teaching 
from God, and none but those that are taught by a secret work, beyond 
what any powerful minister in the world can make, will believe. A man 
otherwise will never do it, he will never give up himself to God and Christ, 
but there will be ' a heart departing from the living God,' Heb. iii. 12, 



174 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

that is, from Christ, as the coherence of the words shew. So that it is a 
plain case, that those whe live in gospel-times, must all of them be taught 
of God, if they ever come to Christ. They that live under never so power- 
ful means, if God doth not touch their hearts, they will never come. Oh 
bless the Lord, that hath taught you to know his free grace, and to believe 
on his Son, which is the great work of God, as Christ calls it, John vi. 29. 
It is instead of all else to believe on God, and him whom he hath sent. 
To him to whom the gathering must be, to him you must come, as mem- 
bers to a head, and as lost creatures to a Saviour. Do not come to this 
and that sign, and think you have none of Christ, because you cannot find 
them ; but come to him, and dwell with him, and remain with him, day 
and night. 

CHAPTER VII. 

That Jesus is proposed to our faith as a spiritual Christ and Saviour. — That 
unless he was the Son of God, he could not be a quickening Spirit to us. 

In the 6th chapter of John our Lord makes it the set subject of his dis- 
course, to draw his hearers unto a true spiritual faith upon himself; and 
to that end proposeth himself altogether (as indeed he was) a spiritual 
Messiah, and inculcates it over and over. The occasion which he took 
was the falling short of this spiritual faith, in that faith which those of 
Capernaum had of him. They acknowledged him indeed upon the miracle 
of the loaves, — ver, 14, ' This is of a truth that prophet that should come 
into the world,' — a prophet, and a far greater prophet than Moses, who 
had given their fathers bread from heaven in the wilderness, ver. 31. But 
Christ speaking of a living bread which his Father would give, and which 
himself would give, vers. 27 and 32, and that it was the ' true bread ' 
typified by Moses his manna, and which endured to eternal life, they had 
upon that speech a further advance of faith concerning him, viz., That he 
was able, by his interest in God his Father, to procure a bread whereby 
their bodies might live for ever, as Adam's should have done by eating of 
the tree of life : ver. 34, ' Then said they, Lord, evermore give us this 
bread.' Thus far they went in believing on him. But when they heard 
him say that he himself was that living bread that came down from heaven, 
and that he who eateth that bread should live for ever ; yea, and that it 
was his flesh, as he was Son of man, which they must eat, and that which 
he would give for the life of the world ; there they stopped and left him, 
and were offended (vers. 61 and 66) at his sayings, which were too hard 
to bear, ver. 60. That glorious sermon wherein he makes this very argu- 
ment his subject, you may read from ver. 27 to the very end of that 
chapter. At ver. 63 he opens and unriddles all, and discovers the mystery 
to them to lie in this : ' It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth 
nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are 
life,' thereby explaining how and whence it was that he was living bread, 
and what made his very flesh or human nature to be eternal life, and gives 
a perfect reason why those who do eat it, and receive it, and himself there- 
with, in that manner as he and his Father intended in the giving of it, and 
agreeably to the nature of it, should live. The words are the key to all that 
sermon foregoing, and unto what follows after ; and it is as if he had said, 
You must all know that my very person, whom you do not yet truly under- 
stand and fully believe in as you ought ; for you see and behold me but as 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 175 

a man who works these wonders (as ver. 3G, ' Ye have also seen me, and 
believe not') ; you must yet know, that this my person consists of more 
than a mere man consisting of bod}- and soul, which you only look at, and 
whom you suppose God is present with, more than ever with any man that 
hath been in the world ; but know I am God in my person as well as man, 
and it is that Spirit or Godhead which is that which gives the life that I 
speak of, * it is the Spirit that quickens,' which elevates and advanceth 
my flesh or humanity to that high state of life, as to give life to men, in 
that I who am God united unto that flesh in one person, and giving and 
offering it as a sacrifice to my Father ' for the life of the world ' (they being 
sinners) — as his words are, ver. 51, ' And the bread that I will give is my 
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ' — I who am God have 
sublimated and spirited this sacrificed flesh (by reason of this union) to be 
a spiritual food to your spirits and souls, which flesh alone, if it had been 
separated from, and not thus united to this Spirit, would have profited 
nothing as to giving that life I have been speaking of; and therefore you 
must understand all my former words I have been speaking about eating 
my flesh, &c, spiritually, and of a spiritual eating, for so the nature of the 
thing requires ; for I am a spiritual Christ, and a spiritual Saviour, and 
not a fleshly. And hence it is that ' my w r ords ' which I have uttered ' are 
spirit and life,' and do become such to any of you that hear and under- 
stand me aright ; and there were some present who at that time, and in 
that manner understood those words, and found him and these his words 
to be spiritual life unto them, as ver. 67, 68 shews. And as my flesh is 
by virtue hereof the procurer of life unto you as sinners, so my person, 
consisting of God-man, is eternal life in itself to them who as sinners do 
eat my flesh by faith. And they have not only eternal life from me, but 
I am in my person eternal life unto them in their communion with me. 

This passage, as thus interpreted of his Godhead and human nature, is 
the centre into which all the lines of that sermon do run, and will approve 
itself to be the true and genuine meaning, as wherein he doth at once not 
simply give an explanation of what his scope and meaning was, namely, 
that the eating his flesh, &c, was in a spiritual way to be understood by 
faith, and not of a carnal eating (which his last words of that verse do 
import, • My words they are spirit and life'), but chiefly beyond that, it is 
to give the account and ground why it was so in those first words : * It is 
the Spirit that quickens,' &c, which putting life into the human nature, 
and offering it up to God to give us life, made his flesh and himself to be 
altogether a spiritual food (though the most real of foods, ' meat indeed,' 
as ver. 55) unto the souls of men ; and also, because thereby he answers 
all their cavils, queries, and exceptions they had before made. And the 
view of all these have confirmed me in the foresaid interpretation of his 
Godhead to be meant by spirit, and by flesh his human nature, which was 
the sense of the ancients. And I have wondered that the most of our 
latest interpreters have diverted from it, and betaken themselves wholly to 
expound this scripture to design the manner of eating to be spiritual (as 
Beza, and after him divers), and have rested solely in that sense as full 
and adequate; whereas this other interpretation I have given not only 
takes in that of theirs, but beyond it gives the reason of it, why it can be 
no other than a spiritual eating, for the life the Godhead gives cannot be 
corporeally eaten. And then the concurrence of other scriptures, using 
the same words to express the Godhead's dwelling in his human nature 
personally, doth further confirm me in it. And lastly, the disciples' words 



176 OF TIIE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

■which they return in answer to this discourse of Christ's (which shews 
how they understood it), doth put me out of all doubt that this was indeed 
his meaning ; and I am more confirmed in it by the concurrence of other 
scriptures. 

1. We have the concurrence of Rom. i. 3, 4, ' Concerning his Sou 
Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made the seed of David according to the 
flesh ; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit 
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.' Where, as his 'flesh' is 
his humanity, so that ' Spirit of holiness ' is the Godhead of him, as he is 
the Son of God, and termed here the ' Spirit of holiness ;' as Heb. ix. 14, 
it is called the ' eternal Spirit,' the Son of God being the fulness of the 
Godhead dwelling in that flesh, which (as he adds) he was declared to be, 
by the resurrection from the dead, that Spirit or Godhead of his raising 
him up again by his own power. For which cause he is also said to be 
' quickened in the Spirit,' or by the Spirit ' having been put to death in 
the flesh,' 1 Peter iii. 18, and likewise 'justified in the Spirit,' 1 Tim. 
iii. 16, namely, to be God as well as man, as himself had declared himself 
to be. But would you have this of the first chapter to the Romans more 
plainly deciphered ? The same apostle doth it in plainer words in the 
same Epistle. That parallel in the same Epistle, Rom. ix. 5, relates to 
what hath been said, ' Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning 
the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen.' As 
in that first chapter he had distinguished about his person, saying, as con- 
cerning the flesh, that is, his human nature received from David his fore- 
father, as his seed, so in this chap. ix. he useth the same again, ' Of 
whom' (viz., the fathers), ' as concerning the flesh, Christ came.' And in 
his so cautious distinguishing in both places as concerning the flesh, doth 
evidently import he had somewhat else, some other thing or nature 
besides which his person (the Christ) consisted of. And what that other 
nature should be, required a farther declaration, and might be expected he 
should say it, which the apostle doth with the highest solemnity and 
adoration of him, when he addeth, 'who is God, blessed for ever. Amen,' 
which Godhead acknowledged in the 9th chapter he had styled ' Spirit' in 
chap, i., and which you find also in John vi., in Christ's speech : ' It is 
the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profiteth nothing,' that is, of itself alone. 
And this Spirit or Godhead, thus united into one person, is said to ' be made 
a quickening Spirit' to us, 1 Cor. xv. 45, 4G, in similitude to Adam his 
being a living soul ; that is, a person consisting of a reasonable soul, 
united to a body which it dwelleth in and inspireth, and then by generation 
propagateth us the like unto him therein ; so here in Christ typified by 
him, his Godhead or Spirit dwelleth bodily in his flesh or human nature, 
and thereby doth first quicken and spirit that flesh even by the spiritual- 
ness and heavenliness, above all that is communicated to mere creatures ; 
and therefore he is himself there styled a spiritual and heavenly man, who 
in the virtue hereof is then made, by a regeneration both of our souls and 
bodies, ' a quickening Spirit' to us. And though this there spoken of him 
(as to us) is particularly in relation to his quickening and raising our 
bodies, yet his so doing must first and more specially be understood, that 
he is a quickening Spirit to the souls of those in this life, whose bodies he 
raiseth at the resurrection, as Eph. ii. 1 the phrase is used. 

2. This interpretation doth alone solve all the riddles and quarrels which 
had been raised before by the Capernaites ; and this sense therefore, con- 
taining a sufficient answer unto all and each of them, must needs have been 



Chap. YIL; of justifying faith. 177 

intended and directed as an answer to them, whereas that other narrowed 
sense mention, cl falls short of this scope. They murmured, ver. 41, 42, 
because he said, ' I am the bread which came down from heaven. And 
they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother 
we know ? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven ? ' 
Now this one speech of his, ' It is the Spirit that quickeneth,' is a sufficient 
account how both might stand. I am God, says he, the Son of God, and 
the Godhead (which he calls Spirit, and is the Spirit of that Son) is in me, 
and it was thai which came down from heaven ; but my flesh, my human 
nature, that indeed I had from my mother, whom you knew ; and yet let 
me withal further tell you, says he, that this Son of man, whom you think 
only to be a mere earthly man, should, by the right of natural inheritance 
had from his being united into one person with the Godhead and Son of 
God, have been in heaven at the first instant of that union, and by due 
never have lived upon earth in frail flesh, but only to that end to redeem 
you by giving his life for the world, ver. 51, and this Christ tells them in 
the very words before : ver. 61, 62, ' When Jesus knew they murmured at 
it, he said unto them, Doth this also offend you ? What and if ye shall 
see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ?' i. e., in his due right. 
And accordingly, in 1 Cor. xv., it is from this very ground of his union 
with that Spirit, the quickening Spirit, his Godhead, ver. 45, that he, the 
man, is said to be the Lord from heaven ; ver. 47, ' The first man is of the 
earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven;' and an heavenly 
man, ver. 48, for in the right of that union he was to have been ' in heaven ;' 
and in that respect he is said to be ' from heaven' here in John vi., as also 
in this to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. xv., because that his due was to have 
been there before ever he came on earth. They had also quarrelled with 
him how he, being but a mere man, could be the living bread that came 
down from heaven, as he had said, ver. 41 and 52, and that ' he that 
eateth of that bread shall live for ever,' ver. 58. Now this word quickening 
spirit resolves the difficulty, for it was his Godhead, united to that flesh, 
that was the principle of that eternal life which we partake of from him ; 
therefore ' he that eateth me,' saith he, ' even he shall live by me,' ver. 57, 
and yet so as it was that his manhood and flesh, as it was united to the 
Godhead, which made him to become bread and food to us, without which 
his Godhead alone simply would not have been fit meat either for soul or 
body ; nor would his flesh alone, if it had been separated from the God- 
head, have profited anything. And thus the personal union between both 
natures is not only asserted, but made the ground of all he had spoken of 
himself. 

3. Again, that question, ver. 52, ' How can this man give us his flesh 
to eat?' is by this mystery unfolded, even that he is in his person Spirit 
united to flesh. And it is the Spirit that gives the life ; and therefore it 
was that his flesh must be understood to be a spiritual food, made to be 
such by the Spirit in him. And this also shews his speeches to have been 
so intended, that thence and therefore answerably their eating must be a 
spiritual eating of the soul or spirit by faith ; and that any one hearing 
and understanding those his words which he had uttered concerning it, and 
receiving them by faith, their souls should find them to be spirit and life 
to them, by conveying himself (who is eternal life) to them through faith 
on him, who, as a quickening Spirit, is their life : and thus their cavil (how 
can this be?) is solved ; for thus it might and could well be, according to 
spiritual principles, rationally suited to and corresponding one with another. 

VOL. VIII. M 



178 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

And, moreover, it further appears that he meant it not at all of a corporeal 
eating, as our bodies do our ordinary food, by that saying he subjoineth, 
ver. 56, ' He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, 
and I in him ;' for no man is said to dwell in his meat, though for a while, 
till concocted, his meat may be said to be in his body ; but, says he, ' He 
that eateth my flesh dwells in me, and lives in and by me, even as I live in 
the living Father,' as it follows, ver. 57. Thus this interpretation answers 
all their exceptions. 

4. That confession which his disciples hereupon made, which is the last 
part of the chapter, is indeed but a short sum of all this, even a brief ex- 
position and confirmation of Christ's whole sermon, but especially of this, 
ver. 63. The print and impression on their souls who had savingly be- 
lieved punctually answered to this his doctrine ; for when our Saviour saw 
that his new disciples of Capernaum had so soon left him (ver. 66, ' From 
tbat time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him'), 
he turneth himself to his old disciples, Peter, and the rest of them that had 
stood by, and heard all the discourse ; thus speaking to them, ver. 67, 
• Then said Jesus to the twelve. Will ye also go away?' And now hear 
them speak according to their experimental sense : ver. 58, 59, ' Then 
Simon Peter,' in the name of the rest, ' answered him, Lord, to whom shall 
we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life ; and we believe, and are sure, 
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' They had by blessed 
experience found him to be a fountain of spiritual life to their souls, 
because he was God's Son. They had found, they had felt him to be their 
life, because that flesh, that is, that man, whom they saw with their eyes, 
whom they had conversed with, and had heard so many words and sermons 
from, and this among the rest, was indeed in his person the Son of God, 
and united to the Son of God personally, and that the Spirit or Godhead 
in him the Son had quickened their souls full many a time ; for they had 
found that his words he had spoken concerning himself, in declaring that 
he was the Son of God, and God, had been eternal life to them. They 
therefore cry out as men that should be undone if they should ever come 
once to leave him; 'Whither shall we go?' say they ; 'thou hast the 
words of eternal life.' And this life he had in his very person, and in his 
being God's Son, which, therefore, Simon, ver. 69, superadds, ' And we 
believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' 
If, therefore, there should be a parting of us and thee, farewell eternal 
life, and let go our souls, and all, for thou art the soul of our souls, the 
life of our lives ; which life he withal affirms to be conveyed to them, and 
maintained in them, by and through their believing on him as the Son of 
God. 

And now observe the full and express correspondency which the words 
of this their confession holds in reference unto Christ's words, specially 
those in ver. 63. Our Lord had, in the 57th verse, ascended higher in 
setting open the fountain and original source or cause of his own blessed 
and eternal life, to the end that, carrying their thoughts to the well-head 
of all life, they might know to whom ultimately to attribute the glory of 
this life together with himself, and might discern the blessedness of that 
life itself derived to them, and the descent and derivation of it. His words 
are, ' As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he 
that eateth me shall live by me.' It is as if he had said, The Father is 
the primum vivens, the original principle of all spiritual life ; being a Spirit 
(as John iv. 24), the fountain of that life which is in me, and from me let 



CflAP. VII.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 179 

down to you; whence it is that the life with which I quicken you and other 
believers is a communication of the life that is in my Father himself 
through me ; and the foundation of my own life in myself, and of being 
life unto you, or any believers, lies in this, that I am his Son, the Son of 
God; having the same, the very same life essentially in me who am God 
that is in my Father, so as there is the same Spirit and Godhead in both. 
I am the living Son of this living God, who, as such, is my Father, and 
have life in myself, though from him ; and he sent me who am this life 
down from heaven in this flesh, which j r ou behold with your bodily eyes, 
to give life to the world ; and therefore I am able, through and by means 
of this my flesh, who is one person with me, to derive and let down this 
life to you, and the life which my Father himself hath, even eternal life; 
fur he is the eternal God, and therefore I am eternal life also ; and there- 
fore it is that the life I can and do communicate from him to you is eternal 
life likewise. And again, as my Father is a Spirit (as John iv. 24), so am 
I, and therefore it is a spiritual life which I make souls partakers of, which 
is conveyed to those souls by a spiritual means, wrought on purpose by 
my Father in their hearts, unto whom he hath appointed to give this life ; 
which means is believing on me with their whole hearts, and by that faith 
entertaining mj r words which I speak of myself, who am life to them. 

Xow let us come to their short and summary confession fore-mentioned : 
ver. 69, ' We believe and are sure thou art that Christ, the Son of the 
living God.' This they allege as the ground and reason why they found 
that he was eternal life to them ; concerning which confession I note three 
things, answering to what had gone afore in Christ's speeches. 

(1.) That he is God ; which is evident they acknowledge, by saying the 
Son of the living God, the natural Son of the living Father, as he had said 
before, ver. 57. Creatures that are living themselves, animals, as we call 
them, do beget living creatures too, endowed with a life like their own, 
and they beget in their kind, as a lion begets a lion, and a man begets a 
man. Thus God begetting this Son (and he is his only begotten Son), he 
begets him like himself, a God ; and therefore to say he is the Son of the 
living God, imports that he is God, and that living God. 

(2.) Observe (which in substance is the very same), he had said of him- 
self in ver. 63, ' It is the Spirit,' or the Godhead in me, ' that quickeneth.' 

(3.) Observe that it was by faith on him and his word that they had life 
eternal derived unto their souls from him. ' We believe,' say they; which 
is in return unto all that Christ had spoken of believing, and eating his 
flesh, to be that spiritual eating by faith throughout that sermon, from 
ver. 14. 

(4.) And let me cast in this to this confession of theirs. One of those 
apostles that then stood by (the apostle John, who survived, and wrote his 
first Epistle after all the rest of them were dead), reviveth this very same 
confession of theirs, here made, in his own name, and in the names of 
them all (as Peter here), though dead, and allegeth that their general sense 
and experience they had of the same of which they here spoke. Thus in 
1 John i. 1, 2, ' That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, 
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our 
hands have handled, of the Word of life ; for the life was manifested, and 
we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, 
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.' We, by which 
he means these his fellow- apostles that had been, not himself only, nor 
other fellow- Christians then alive, for he speaks of those who had seen, 



180 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

heard, and handled of the Word of life, viz., the true Christ ; and how 
they had all found that he was that Word of life, and eternal life that was 
with the Father afore the world was ; whom after often in that Epistle he 
styles his Son, and God, and concludes the Epistle with the same, even as 
he had hegun — ' This is the true God, and eternal life.' 

Thus we have seen the truth of all this justified hy wisdom's children, 
and sealed to by their experience. 

Now, in the last place, take notice (and it is to our purpose) that in the 
midst of this sermon it is that Christ lets fall the words of my grand text, 
for a part of this sermon it is ; and that for this cause, and on this occa- 
sion it was, that because he is so spiritual a Messias, that therefore it is 
necessary that every one that believes in Christ, so as to have life, must 
be ' taught,' and have ' learned from the Father,' that grand teacher of his 
Son ; and that all this is put upon this very ground, because they are to 
know and receive him spiritually, — spiritually, I say, in both those respects 
fore-mentioned at the entrance ; for he is a spiritual Christ, who is the 
object, and the faith he is to be received withal, in the subject, must be 
spiritual, suited unto the true spiritualness that is in this object ; his 
person, as God-man, or a quickening Spirit in flesh, and as he is a Saviour, 
giving his flesh for the life of the world (both which he treats of in that 
sermon) in the real savoury eating whereof, and in whom eternal life con- 
sists, and is derived, neither of which no man can do unless first taught 
by the Father to know him, and then drawn by God to him as to a spiritual 
Saviour. And for confirmation of this you may again observe, how that 
presently after he had uttered these words, ver. 63, from the doctrine 
thereof he infers, ver. 65, ' Therefore said I unto you, that no man can 
come unto me, except it were given to him of my Father.' Which speech 
and particle therefore plainly refers unto the words of ver. 63 we have been 
upon, and is as if he had said, Because I am to be believed on as a Spirit, 
or God dwelling in this flesh, to be the quickener of all that believe, there- 
fore, or for that reason it is, that no man can come to me for life unless 
taught by the Father spiritually ; for to believe on me in a suitable manner, 
that is, spiritually, suitable unto what I am in my person, and also in my 
salvation and life, that I do give to others, and in both which I am a Spirit 
quickening ; and correspondent^ 7 , to believe on me, and on tbe Godhead 
dwelling in my flesh personally, this is above the reach of nature, or of 
flesh and blood, and therefore this must be given by my Father, who 
seeks such professors and disciples of me as believe on me in spirit and 
truth. 

From all which we may conclude, that to know Christ spiritually, both 
in himself: 1, as he is a spiritual Christ; and, 2, a Saviour in the true 
spiritualness of him ; and, 3, in a spiritual manner to understand him in 
both, and come to him under the true representation thereof, is that teach- 
ing of the Father meant as the truth is in Jesus, and for want of which, or 
falling short of which, it is that men perish. This therefore must be 
accounted a point of greatest moment to us to know, and to be searched into. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
That Christ represented as a quickening Spirit is a proper object of our faith. 

My next work therefore shall be to shew that Christ, as represented a 
quickening Spirit, in that latitude of sense which the Scriptures in that 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 181 

notion of him intended, and revealed by the Father as the truth thereof is 
in him, and taken in and understood by us accordingly, doth become and 
prove as proper and full an object for our faith to exercise itself upon, as 
any other notion whatsoever wherein he is represented. 

I have in this large title comprehended the main materials that follow, 
and in laying open the spiritualness of our Christ (the object, which in 
Scripture is expressed by Spirit that quickens), the spiritualness of the 
faith and heart of a true believer, with difference from common faith in a 
carnal heart, will all along appear, and appear by this, that when the 
spiritualness that is in the object is spiritually discovered, if the actings of 
the soul be really and in verity conformable, and answerable thereto, then 
it is spiritual faith in us also. For it is a certain rule, that the spiritual- 
ness of the subject, viz., the soul, lieth in a suitableness unto, and closing 
with the spirituality of its objects as represented in their bare and naked 
true spiritualness, abstracting from other respects, for then they attinge 
and affect that object as it is in itself. So here in this case, when the 
true spiritualness of Christ is presented, and apprehended as the truth is 
in Jesus, the spiritualness or fleshliness of the heart will be discovered 
thereby, as the heart shall be found to fall in with or bear off from what is 
in that object purely spiritual. I shall not then need to discourse any 
more than to discover to you what a Christ you have, and how spiritual, 
and then do you lay your hearts to the naked apprehension thereof, and 
see how your hearts agree with him, and are affected accordingly towards 
him, and what it is in him causeth you to ' desire him,' as the prophet 
speaks, as such a Christ, comparing spiritual hearts with spiritual Christ, 
see how they agree and like each other. 

Other ways and modes out of scriptures are and have been taken by 
others unto a great success in their discoveries of Christ, and the truth of 
saving faith thereby, and for substance they are the same with this of mine 
that follows. But I chose this as that which my Saviour's sermon in this 
sixth chapter of John hath led me to, and which hath fallen into my own 
heart, and hath animated my pursuances after Christ in a more special 
manner than any other apprehensions of him whatsoever. I limit myself 
unto what this notion, viz., ' a quickening Spirit,' will afford herein. For 
it is made a kind of definition of him (if I may so speak), or the most 
proper description, whether in his person or what he is made to us, in two 
words, ' a quickening Spirit,' 1 Cor. xv. 45. Christ's speech, ' God is a 
Spirit,' John iv. 24, is as proper a definition of God as can be given (for 
he passeth our logic), it expressing the kind of his being, as his name 
Jehovah, that he is fulness of being. And this definition of Christ is like 
it ; given first by Christ himself in this 6th of John, and then by the apostle : 
1 The Lord is that Spirit,' 2 Cor. iii. 17; and again, ' a quickening Spirit,' 
1 Cor. xv. 45, and I call it a definition of him, or rather the exactest 
description of him, because it is used to illustrate both his person and his 
work as a Saviour : 1 Cor. xv. 45 to 50, ' The first man Adam was made 
a living soul ; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that 
was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and afterwards 
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second 
man is the Lord from heaven.' I think I may, without the hazard of being 
confuted, undertake to say, that this is a more perfect definition, or at 
least an exacter character of Adam the first man, given him by God him- 
self,|from and upon his very creation, than ever any philosopher gave of 
man, whilst they went about to make a definition of him ; and I may 



182 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK II. 

answerably affirm the like of this definition of Christ, that he is a quicken- 
ing Spirit. It denotes his person to be God, ' the Lord from heaven,' and 
withal a man in one person with God, ' the second man.' That the word 
spirit in the New Testament is often set to express his Godhead as his 
humanity flesh, is so well known (Rom. i. 3, 1 Tim. iii. 16, 1 Peter 
iii. 18, 19, Heb. ix. 14), as it needs not be insisted on. The parallel 
then between our Christ and the first Adam, by way of super- eminent 
comparative on Christ's part, will run thus: Look, as Adam the first man 
was in his own person first and originally made a living soul, having that 
animal rational soul, ' the breath of lives ' infused by God into a body 
organised for that soul to act and enliven, as our souls do our bodies, and 
so make up one person with it; so the Godhead of the second person, 
united into one person, was thereby made a quickening Spirit unto that 
flesh of his assumed. Only we must here abate of the parallel (for it is 
but a type, and so holds not in all things), that the Godhead in Christ is 
not the soul of his body, for he hath a soul which makes up with his body 
an entire human nature ; but his Godhead is that which makes up one 
person with that human nature, and infinitely enliveneth and spiriteth it 
above what our souls do, or can do our bodies. And he useth the word 
quickening to express that super-celestial life by; not that Christ's human 
nature was dead before, but that it was called up to and raised from* 
what it was not (and God's calling things that are not as if they were, the 
apostle parallels with a resurrection, Rom. iv.), nor never would have 
been, if he had been but a mere man, though made by a new creation, 
bestowing never so excelling a soul and body, above the soul and body 
which the first man, Adam, consisted of. But here the Spirit or Godhead 
elevated that soul and body of Christ's human nature into a state of life, 
of an higher kind and rank, infinitely surpassing the life which any soul or 
body, if but mere creatures, could have been capable of, or than even 
God's power (without making a personal union thereof with the Godhead) 
could have raised such a mere creature unto. It is a divine and super- 
celestial life, above all that of angels in heaven, peculiar to him through 
that union by inheritance, as being now become by inheritance the Lord 
of heaven, and in taking flesh the Lord from heaven, which to have been 
was his right at the first instant that he was man. The apostle therefore, 
being to express that life which by the Godhead the second Adam was 
raised unto, doth it by a term of super-excellency, in a way of comparison 
unto the first man's being but ' a living soul ;' but calls this and gives it 
an higher term of ' quickening,' denoting this high and transcending eleva- 
tion of it above what by mere creation could have been communicated. 
And he useth the word spirit in the way of super-eminency unto that of 
soul; that look, as the Godhead in Christ's person excels the soul or spirit 
in man, so proportionably doth that life, flowing from that spirit or God- 
head in Christ, excel the life that was in Adam by creation, or that could 
have been in any mere creature. And because it is a raising it up unto a 
life (that was not, nor never would have been, in any mere creature, but is 
wholly a super-creation life), he therefore deservedly calls it a quickening 
even of the human nature of Christ. And whereas it is said, he was 
' made a quickening spirit,' the meaning is not, nor can be, that the Spirit 
or Godhead itself in him was made. No; far be it from me so to interpret 
it ; but the meaning is, that by that union of the Godhead with the human 
nature, the Godhead was made a quickening Spirit thereunto. And so the 

* Qu. 'to'?— Ed. 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 183 

parallel, as to Christ's person, runs no further than to this, that as Adam's 
soul breathed into his body, and becoming one person with it, did inspire 
and impregnate it, and he became a living soul, so the Godhead inspirited 
this his human nature with a divine life, suitable to the glory of that God- 
head which dwelt in him. And the reason why this parallel, as in respect 
to Christ's own person, is intended to extend no further, is, because this 
of Adam's state is alleged but as a type and shadow, and therefore not in 
all things holding a likeness unto the substance typified out thereby. Thus 
it is true first of the person of Christ, that his person as God-man is con- 
stituted or made up of a quickening spirit; and certainly as the first man 
Adam is in his person intended first in this of being a living soul, so Christ's 
person in that of a quickening spirit. 

But, 2, as Adam is said to be made a living soul also in respect of 
conveying a like life and image unto us men his sons, as the next verses 
do plainly express the scope to be, so the parallel of Christ's being made a 
quickening spirit, aims to signify also what he is made (by virtue of that 
his personal union) to be unto us, of which there can be no doubt. From 
this notion of his being a quickening spirit (as it hath been explained), the 
spiritualness of this our great Christ, as he is made and set forth the spiri- 
tual object of our faith, and accordingly taught by the Father, as the truth 
is in Jesus, to all believers, hath these two branches in it, in the handling 
of which distinctly I shall accomplish this task I have undertaken. 

1. You have the spiritualness that is in the person, as 'the Word was 
made flesh;' or what he is in himself, Son of God, and God dwelling in 
our nature personally, and quickening thereof. 

2. The spiritualness of him as a Saviour, or in what he is and hath done 
for us as sinners, that were dead in sins and trespasses. And although 
the particular occasion of the apostle's introducing these words, was what 
he is to us in the resurrection of our bodies, yet it in general reacheth to 
all that he is to our souls, for our eternal salvation. I divide this argu- 
ment into these two heads ; for these two were the two eminent titles or 
descriptions given him, as he was the Christ, by those disciples that first 
believed on him from the beginning of his manifestation to Israel. John 
the Baptist (from whom Christ's other disciples learned him to be the 
Messias or Christ), in a sermon to his disciples, recorded by the evan- 
gelist John, chap, i., first represents him to their faith as a Saviour for 
sinners: 'Behold,' says he, 'the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins 
of the world ! ' So at the beginning of it, ver. 29 ; but in the close of it, 
ver. 34, ' And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God.' And 
the Son of God consisting of two natures : as a man, he was conceived after 
the Baptist himself (as by the story, Luke i., appears) ; but he had another 
nature, in respect of which he says he was ' afore him,' that is, as God, and 
Son of God. Thus verse 30, ' This is he of whom I said, After me cometh 
a man w T hich is preferred before me ; for he was before me.' So then Christ 
as God-man, the Son of God, and Saviour from sin, is set forth to a believer's 
faith, and this from the first, by John. 

And sometimes some of those first disciples utter their faith on him as 
Son of God, sometimes others speak their faith on him as Saviour of the 
world. Some express their faith on him as Son of God. So Nathanael 
upon his very first seeing and hearing of him : John i. 49, ' Nathanael 
answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the 
King of Israel.' The faith of the Samaritan disciples, chap, iv., is thus 
expressed: John iv. 42, ' Now we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, 



184 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' And 
Peter, in the name of the disciples, expresseth the same: Mat. xvi. 16, 
' Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God;' just as here in John vi. G9 
you find. And the revelation of this, in that spiritual manner that you 
have heard, was that which caused them to cleave to him and say, 
' Whither shall we go ?' &c. And it was from the Father teaching: Mat. 
xvi. 17, 'Blessed art thou, Simon: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' It was the Father had 
taught him so to believe on his own Son ; ' and upon this rock,' saith 
Christ, ver. 18, 'I will build my church;' for all the saints of the New 
Testament did all ' come to the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son 
of God,' Eph. iv. 13. And in their so believing he was the Son of God, 
they believed that he was such a Son of God as was God, or that Son of 
God who was God, which their confessing him the Son of the living God 
imported, as was observed. And therefore Christ, in his arguing with the 
Jews (who quarrelled with him, that he being a man should make himself 
God), makes the conclusion of an argument, wherein he proves he was 
God, to run thus : John x. 33-36, ' The Jews answered him, saying, For 
a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, 
being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written 
in your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he called them gods unto whom the 
word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him 
whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blas- 
phemest; because I said, I am the Son of God,' that is, such a Son as 
was true God ; for the thing wherein they had said he blasphemed, verse 
32, was, that he said he was God, yet he concludes that he was the Son 
of God ; so that to believe he was the Son of God, was all one as to believe 
he was God. And hence it also was that in other scriptures to believe on 
him as God, and on him as Saviour, are also joined in the apostles' con- 
fession by the same Peter: 2 Peter i. 1, ' Simon Peter, a servant and an 
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with 
us, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' And 
they are also by Paul joined together: Titus ii. 13, 'The great God, and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ.' 



CHAPTER IX. 

That Christ's person, as Son of God, in one person with the man Jesus, is 
the prime object of faith, and taught by the Father, as the truth is in 
Jesus. 

To evidence that Christ's person, as the Son of God in one person with 
the man Jesus, is the great object of our faith, two things are to be con- 
sidered : 

1. That the spirits of the first believers on Christ were generally taught 
by God, and carried out to him, to receive, obtain, close with him as such ; 
that is, under the apprehension of his person, Son of God, and God-man 
(which properly is called his person), not God simply in his divine nature 
singly considered, but God manifest in flesh, or the Son of God made flesh. 
You heard before the Baptist's confession, who was the leader on unto this 
distinct faith on him in this particular, as also the confession of the apostles, 
even long before Christ's ascension. 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 185 

Other particular instances may be given ; as you find this to have been 
at the bottom of Martha's faith, when Christ himself ransacked and searched 
into it : John xi., Christ puts her faith to it by way of question, vcr. 25, 26, 
' Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this ?' But she answers 
not in terminu and directly: ver. 27, ' She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I 
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into 
the world.' She brings forth the very bottom of her faith, and ground of 
all, the chief, the primary thing which she believed about him, which car- 
ried all the rest. She utters what lay most near her heart. Thus also 
unbelieving Thomas, when his faith had obtained a resurrection, upon occa- 
sion of Christ's being risen from the dead (whereby he was declared to be 
the Son of God, and God, Rom. i. 3, 4), whither runs his faith thereupon ? 
' My Lord, and my God,' John xx. 28. The eunuch heard Philip expound 
to him the 53d chapter of Isaiah, which treats of Christ's being a Saviour, 
and bearing our sins : Acts viii. 32, 33, ' The place of Scripture which he 
read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter ; and like a lamb 
dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation 
his judgment was taken away ; and who shall declare his generation ? for 
his life is taken from the earth.' This text must needs lead Philip to 
preach Jesus to him as a Saviour for sinners ; but he beginning (as it is 
there said) but with that scripture, proceeded to add many more : ver. 35, 
' Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and 
preached unto him Jesus.' And whereas there was but one passage in that 
which he read that gave occasion to preach him to be the Son of God, viz., 
1 Who shall declare his generation ?' or whose Son he was ; yet that neces- 
sarily fell in, and deciphered who the person was that was to be the Saviour. 
Now observe how the eunuch's faith took hold of that above all other ; for 
when Philip told him, ver. 37, ' If thou believest with all thine heart, thou 
mayest be baptized, the eunuch's heart tells us what it was above all other 
which his whole soul closed in with ; and that was, ' I believe that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God.' And yet we may well suppose that Philip's dis- 
course had run mainly upon his being a Saviour, and his bearing our sin, 
for it was the main argument of the text, which the eunuch gave him to 
expound, and sure he kept to it : ' He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, 
and as a lamb dumb before the shearer ;' which the Baptist referred to in 
his ' Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,' 
John i. 29. But the Spirit of God did (we see) set that other character 
of his person, which the Baptist also gave him, ' Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God.' 

But to give over the pursuit of any more single instances, let us see the 
universal effect of this doctrine, both in the Baptist's ministry, and of the 
apostles', upon the whole lump, body, and generality of believers. What 
the effect of John Baptist's ministry was, is prophesied of Isa. xl. 3, ' The 
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
make straight in the desert a highway for our God ;' which is undeniably 
applied by three evangelists to mean, that that Lord and God, to make way 
for whom in men's hearts that preparation was, is evidently our Lord Christ, 
as appears in the same evangelists. And what was the issue and conse- 
quent of it, that Christ coming and preaching after John ? ' The glory of 
the Lord' (Christ) 'was revealed; and all flesh' (that is, believing flesb, 
whose eyes Satan had not blinded) ' saw it together ;' that is, they all enter- 



186 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

tained him by faith, as their Lord and their God (as Thomas professed 
him), when he began to manifest his glory, John ii. 11. 

Then again, what was the effect of the apostles' ministry, who, after 
Christ's ascension, were sent forth to preach him ? It follows in tbe same 
prophecj 7 , Isa. xl. 9 : '0 Zion, thatbringest good tidings, get thee up into 
tbe high mountain ; Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy 
voice with strength : lift it up, be not afraid : say unto the cities of Judah, 
Behold your God.' This gospel message was, ' Behold your God !' that 
is, your Christ, who is your God, Son of God in his person, the ruler, the 
rewarder, in whom is eternal life, and the shepherd of his people : ver. 
10, 11, ' Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm 
shall rule for him ; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before 
him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs 
with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that 
are with young.' The voice of the crier, the Baptist, had cried him up, 
' Behold the Lamb of God !' the Son of God; and the eminentest message 
which the apostles delivered, was, ' Behold your God !' that is, we preach 
a Saviour unto you, who is God. So they preached, and so they believed 
that heard them : 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6, ' For we preach not ourselves, but Christ 
Jesus the Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God 
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face 
of Jesus Christ.' In the face, that is, in the person of Jesus Christ, who 
is God, and the image of God, ver. 4. And when the veil was taken 
off from all nations, and specially when it shall be taken off from the few* 
(which in the 3d chapter, ver. 15, 16, afore, he had applied the prophecy 
of Isaiah unto), Oh, how will they stand astonished at the faith and revela- 
tion of this very thing, that the person of their Messiah, they so long waited 
for, proves to be their God, Isa. xxv. 7. When the veil shall be taken 
off from all nations, &c, then, ver. 9, ' It shall be said in that day, Lo, 
this is our God, we have waited for him.' Oh, wonderful (will they say), 
this Messiah we waited so for, is our God ; he is so in his person, he will 
save us ; he is our Saviour also, and his name is Jesus, that saves his 
people from their sins ; this is the Lord, and he will save us. God and 
Saviour, you see again, Son of God and Saviour joined ; and this is the 
faith of believers, this is he they believe upon, and this universally. What 
one saint is there distrusting it, or questioning it ? For it found the most 
general acceptation in the hearts of believers, when he wrote to Timothy : 
1 Tim. iii. 16, ' And without controversy,' saith he, or with one consent, 
' great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the flesh,' or made 
flesh ; 'justified in the Spirit :' i. e., his Godhead manifested in the resurrec- 
tion ; ' preached to the Gentiles, and believed on in the world.' This last is 
that which proves that Christ is God-man, Son of God in the flesh, and 
was, as such, the prime grand object of all the believers' faith that were in 
that age of the world ; and he is the great mystery and foundation of all 
Christian religion ; and therefore under that notion and apprehension of 
him, made lively and real to our souls, it is that we must come to him. 
I have not alleged these places singly to prove that Christ is God, though 
they serve for it, but that as such he is the primary foundation of a 
believer's faith. 

2. The second thing is (which I carry with me still along), that to teach 
and reveal to souls, that Christ is the Son of God, is the work of the 
* Qu. 'Jews 1 ?— Ed. 



CnAP. X."] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 187 

Father, which he doth in such a manner, as no human understanding doth 
arrive at, nor can attain unto, without his teaching : this is express and 
recognised by our Saviour, as his seal of approbation, set to that confession 
of Peter's, ■ Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God,' Mat. xvi. 16. 
• And Jesus answered,' ver. 17, ' and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon 
Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven.' It was a revelation which made him blessed, and 
such as was peculiar to tbem that are saved, and which all that are saved 
were to have ; and it had not been taught him by man, and by education 
alone, &c, nor from his own natural understanding (by which men that 
live under the knowledge of divine truths come to profess them, but without 
the special revelation of the Father they cannot attain to the blessedness of 
true faith), but wholly it was to be ascribed to the Father's revelation, 
which is there opposed to flesh, or fleshly ways, of discovery. And lastly, 
it is the Father of Christ, his Son : ' My Father,' saith Christ, « hath 
revealed this to thee,' to whom principally this belongs, to reveal this point 
of all other, that I am his Son ; for he begat me, and he discovers me to 
them whom he means to bless. ' He is thy Lord, worship thou him,' Ps. 
xlv. 11. The point the Father instructs her in is, that Christ is her Lord, 
and means her God withal (' My Lord and my God,' says Thomas, instructed 
by the same hand), as the following words, ' worship thou him,' evince ; 
for it is God alone whom we are to worship. 



CHAPTER X. 

The uses of the foregoing doctrine. — How ive are to exercise faith on the 
person of Christ, God-man. 

Use 1. One end of mine in enlarging upon this head is to direct your 
faith in your approaches and addresses to Christ, viz., to pitch your souls 
upon his person of being God-man, and under the notion and apprehension 
thereof, taken in and formed in your minds, still to act all the other several 
exercises of your faith upon him. I do not say you have no true faith 
unless you have explicit thoughts hereof in all such actings ; for foundations 
(as this is one) firmly laid in the soul do implicitly work when they are 
not in acta e.vercito, or explicitly thought upon, but an habitual appre- 
hension thereof carried along in the soul may have a true and real efficacy 
in it ; yet the more you have of explicit, enlarged conceptions thereof, and 
reflections thereupon, and the oftener they are renewed, you will find them 
the more powerful and working ; for it being so great a truth, that in the 
reality of the thing itself, his person in being God and God-man, is that 
which gives the ground and foundation, influence and virtue, into all we 
believe upon him for; then the explicit acting of faith hereon, and through 
the faith of it, upon all else he doth for us, must needs have a proportionable 
effect in all. You all know and profess, as touching his person, that he is 
God, Son of God, &c, and volant or flying thoughts thereof run through your 
minds at times, but do your hearts dwell upon the meditation of it as that 
which puts life into your hearts in all you believe concerning him ? For 
this his person is not only eternal life (taken abstractedly, as it shall be 
possessed in heaven) in the sequel alone, but it is the life of your faith 
exercised on his death for forgiveness of sins, for saving from wrath. Many 
in their judgments think that the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine 



188 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

that Christ is God, is but a matter of speculation and contemplation ; and 
though it is a truth, yet it is such as one might let lie by him, as that 
which will do them no hurt nor good. And most men in the practice of 
their faith make little more use of it than this comes to, whereas it is such 
a truth as thy life lies in it, even eternal life. And such the apostles and 
those believers accounted it, and did cleave to Christ accordingly through 
the faith of it, and of him under the contemplation of it. Christ having 
said he was ' the bread of life that came down from heaven,' and it was his 
Godhead made him to be that living bread, John vi. 56, useth this phrase, 
' He that eateth my flesh, &c, dwelleth in me, and I in him.' As a man 
first chews with delight, and then takes down his meat, and by its abiding, 
its dwelling in him, and his digesting it, it turns into his own body, and so 
gives life and strength to him, so must it be with our knowledge of Christ; 
he must dwell in us by faith, and we in him, and this will quicken you to 
purpose. Hath the Father thus taught and instructed thee to live upon 
him, and to come to him for life as such ? It is his participation of life 
from the Father, and so his being Son of the living God, that gives him 
life, and so through him thou comest to have that life of the Father in thee, 
by dwelling in him, as the next verse, ver. 57, shews, • As the living 
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me, shall 
live by me.' 

Use 2. The next use is for information of the right state of this assertion 
I have been upon, that the person of Christ as God-man is the principal 
object of faith. You will ask me, Do all that truly believe on him come to 
him under that apprehension, simply for his person's sake, as moved there- 
unto by the consideration simply of his person ? This is a spiritual pitch 
indeed ; but do all believers at first come to him under this apprehension, 
and cleave to him for it ? 

I answer, that there are two scopes or purposes that I drive at in my 
having pressed this, that Christ's person is the object of faith. 

1st. That the faith on his person as God-man is the foundation of all 
else we believe upon him for as he is our Saviour ; and as that is it which 
makes him able to take sins away, and to give us a righteousness to justify 
us, and which puts that power in force which his death hath to kill sin, 
and which himself hath to quicken us, so all that we have to deal with him 
for, and all that our faith is carried out to him, and to God through him 
for, is all in the virtue and force of this faith first begotten in you, that he 
is God-man, the Son of God : 1 John v. 5, ' Who is he that overcometh the 
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? ' And so in 
the force, and virtue, and strength of this, that Jesus is the Son of God, it 
is that we have victory over the world. It is remarkable, that when 
Christ had uttered these faithful sayings about himself, John xi. 25, 20, 
unto Martha, ' I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth on 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and 
believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this ? ' He then puts her 
faith strictly to it to answer to these particulars (as one puts a catechist to 
answer catechetical questions). Now we see that she doth not answer as 
one would have thought she should, directly and distinctly unto these par- 
ticular points of faith in question put unto her, but seems to divert unto 
another head, unto the great article of faith. She saith unto him, ver. 27, 
' Yea, Lord : I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which 
should come into the world.' This answer she utters in full, and upon the 
whole matter, unto the question he had put, and though it was [not] in 



Chap. X.] of justifying faith. 1R0 

express terms, not in tmuinis, nor in the particulars, but yet fundamentally 
it \\;is a comprehensive answer, and most direct; for therein she shews she 
believed that that was the foundation of all these particulars, and of many 
more things that she believed of him, and indeed of whatever else that 
Christ might ask her. ' I believe,' says she, ' that thou art the Son of 
God ; ' and this she conceived, and most rightly, to be a full answer unto 
these particulars; for she saith, Yea, Lord, I believe them all, I believe all 
that thou hast asked me, by believing this one thing of thee, that thou art 
the Christ, the Son of God, and so art the cause of all these, and of what- 
ever else is attributed unto him that is the Christ, in the prophecies of 
him, that he should come into the world. In the virtue and strength of 
this she believed he was the resurrection of souls dead in sins and tres- 
passes, and of souls that had begun to believe on him ; and then of their 
bodies at the resurrection, and that he was eternal life, so as they that 
believe on him shall never perish, and their souls shall never die, whatever 
their bodies for a while did. And she believed all in the strength of this, 
that he was the Son of God ; so that the believing of this is fundamentally 
necessary for every Christian to know. 

Only I add this, that foundations, though they bear up the whole build- 
ing, yet oftentimes lie hid under ground after they have been first laid ; 
and so it is in our faith of principles and foundations, though they remain 
in the heart, and bear up all of our faith else about what we do believe, yet 
they are not always drawn out in our thoughts into formed-up propositions, 
though at first they were inlaid as such. They bear the weight of all, and 
to have the faith of them is common to all believers, and is universally 
assented to as a foundation : 1 Tim. iii. 1G, ' This is the great mystery of 
godliness ' (that is, the great ground of all godliness, the pith of it) ' God 
manifested in the flesh, believed on in the w r orld.' And Eph. iv. 13, they 
1 all come to the unity of the faith,' that shall be saved through all ages ; 
all that either are now converted, saith the apostle, or that are to be con- 
verted (take the lowest Christian) and have these things in their faith about 
Christ's person, that he is God, and the Son of God. 

So that, 1, in coming to him for that which will save them, they come 
to his person in so doing. They would not have his righteousness and 
blood, and the fruits of either, pardon of sin, &c, without having himself 
also; and so it is his person they believe on for their salvation. 

Yet, 2, they may be at present moved rather with that in his person 
which will save them, than with his person himself. 

And yet withal, 3, even that also, to come to his person for itself, as the 
principal motive wherewith to close, is in radice, in semine, in the bud, but 
not in the blossom. There is that in the heart (if drawn out) which is pre- 
pared to it, disposed to it, and suited to it. 

2dly, A second end and purpose for which God first inlays in the heart 
the knowledge of Christ's person, and the fulness of the Godhead dwelling 
personally in our nature, and for which end also I have pressed it, is, that 
first or last it should become the greatest motive and inducement of our 
coming to Christ, and to close with him, and cleave to him as such, rather 
than as a Saviour ; that the thought of it should be above that of Saviour, 
yea, and abstracted in the consideration of it from that of Saviour ; and 
this explicitly, the heart being drawn to him upon that account, and accom- 
panied with affection answerable. 

Those that will urge that either this is the first inducement, or the more 
common inducement, to come to him, principally to have his person, con- 



190 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

sidered in itself and for itself, do press too bard upon weak believers, and 
urge tbat to be at first which tbey are growing up to all tbeir days, and per- 
baps attain it not in tbis life. Alas ! at first our bearts are taken up witb 
tbe tbougbts of sin, and witb Cbrist as tbe remedy and Saviour from sin. 
John's ministry began tbere in tbe bearts of bis disciples, and be called 
upon tbem to ' bebold tbe Lamb of God, tbat took away tbe sins of tbe 
world.' And tbe great apostle pronouncetb tbis to be tbe most ' faitbful 
saying, and wortby of all acceptation, that Cbrist came into tbe world to 
save sinners.' And I am induced to think tbat in bis proposing of it in 
tbat place, where he speaks of his own conversion, he had an intent to 
insinuate that himself had that sentence in his eye at his first conversion 
chiefly or mainly. Dr Preston's similitude is tbe best to express this by 
(I mention him, for I think he was the first that used it of any other), that 
as when a marriage is proposed unto a woman, that which may move her 
at first to listen to it may be the hearsay of an estate, and paying her debts 
with which she is encumbered ; these may persuade her to view and see 
the person, and to entertain a visit from him, and to acquaint herself with 
him ; but after some long converse, her heart is so taken with his person, 
that if he bad nothing, she could beg with him all the world over, for she 
is satisfied witb his person alone. And thus it is between our souls and 
Christ : we come to Christ at first, as the Lamb of God that takes away our 
sins, that will save us from wrath, and pay our debts (and the truth is, we 
must always come so to him, to cleanse us from sin every day). But 
through 'acquainting ourselves' with him (as tbe phrase in Job is), tbere 
often appears tbat to us in bis person which takes our hearts more than 
his being a Saviour to us : est aliquid in Christo formosius Salvatore, there 
is something in Cbrist more beautiful than a Saviour, and our hearts in 
time may rise up to this. The best composition of this matter is that in 
the prophet Isaiah, wbicb takes in both, which speaks the hearts of con- 
verts from whom the veil was taken off, chap. xxv. 7, who thereupon (in 
tbat verse 9) ai'e brought in saying and uttering the bottom of their hearts, 
' Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us.' They 
looked at Christ, and received him both as God and as their Saviour (for 
of Christ it is spoken, compare 2 Cor. iii. 16-18); and it follows, 'We 
will rejoice in bis salvation.' God allows us we should aim at, and hope 
for, and rejoice in our salvation by Christ, and come to him upon that 
account, as well as on the account of his being our God, and Son of God. 
God and Cbrist love us so well, as they love we should love ourselves in 
coming to the Son, and therefore would have us come to him as a Saviour 
as well as for his person; yea, and to be glad, and rejoice in bis salva- 
tion. And truly there is good reason tbat we should do so, both on our 
part and on his also, for it cost Christ's person something to save us; for 
he humbled his person, and gave away himself, for he gave away the pre- 
sent glory of his person due to him, that he might save and redeem us, and 
no less would have done it. And he hath no reason to have his love herein 
lost or forgotten, or swallowed up only in his person. 

Nay, further, led me add, you, being sinners, cannot come to rejoice in 
his person, or to think with yourselves what a husband you have of him in 
himself, till you believe on him for pardon of your sins and the salvation of 
your souls (and therefore faith for justification is in tbat Epistle to the 
B,omans pressed first) ; and after you have seen yourselves lost by reason 
of sin, then you are directed to come to Christ as a propitiation for sin. 
This he doth discourse in chap, iii., from ver. 21, and in chap, iv., and we 



Chap. X.j of justifying faith. 191 

must have peace with God as sinners, being justified by faith, Rom. v. 1, 
ere we can rejoice in God. But then to rejoice in God is made a further 
attainment and fruit of this faith in the issue in these words, ver. 11, ' But 
we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Yet still take this along 
with you, that if you come to him as to a Saviour, you may and must come 
to him as God, and the Son of God, and believe on him as the person who, 
as such, is your Saviour, and is the foundation of your whole faith on him 
for your salvation. Yea, and though you come as moved chiefly becauso 
he is Saviour, as that for which you come at first, and, in doing so, are 
accepted of God, and justified and pardoned, yet, let me tell you, you will 
be more accepted by God after your faith riseth up to take his person as in 
itself, and as moved to love him from what you see in his person alone, or 
chiefly considered. God the Father loves it more that you should love the 
person of Christ in and for himself: John xvi. 27, ' The Father loveth you, 
because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God ;' 
which is all one as to say, You have believed on and loved me, because I 
am his dearly and only beloved Son ; than which nothing can endear you 
more unto him, nor be a higher exercise of faith in you. Some strains of 
such thoughts and affections as these, though but in the bud, have, as was 
said, some puttings forth intermingled in weaker believers, that are drawn 
to him by the faith and hopes of his being their Saviour. Such spirits may 
run in the veins of your hearts, whilst yet you are most eager to seek sal- 
vation ; but then they are but as in the bud, they are not fully blossomed. 
A soul may find he hath some such things offering to rise, and mix them- 
selves with his faith and hopes for salvation ; and this will make your 
prayers accepted wonderfully, as the words before speak in that John xvi. 
26, 27, ' At that day } 7 e shall ask in my name ; and I say not unto you, 
that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, 
because you have loved me.' And this will more obtain with God, than 
your faith that your sins are pardoned, and that Christ died for you : yea, 
far above it. I use to say Christ's love in suffering is more to be valued 
by you than his suffering, or the fruits of it ; but his person more than all 
of them. You must know that it is his person you must ultimately abide 
by ; for in the enjoyment of him in his person will be the top and height 
of your eternal life, and so, consequently, you have to do with him for ever- 
more ; and therefore to have him so revealed to you as to have your hearts 
taken therewith at present in some lesser tastes and glimpses, is the most 
spiritual teaching by the Father of all other. And this is attainable in 
this life, for it is in grace as in the root, and will be drawn out and ripened 
by the Father. And surely the disciples had the seeds of such dispositions 
in their hearts, that did look forth sometimes into actual exercises, as 
appears in that speech that Christ useth of them, ' The Father loveth you, 
because you have loved me.' And sure some such thing was in Peter's 
heart when he said, ' Lord, thou knowest that I love thee ;' and that 
because he was the Son of God ; for that is the main thing they expressed 
why they cleaved to him, as was said before. And the imperfection of this, 
and that it abounded no more in them, made Christ complain that they 
should mourn for themselves, because of his departure from them to 
heaven; whereas, says he, ' if you had loved me' (that is, my person itself, 
as the next words shew), ' you would rejoice, because I go to my Father.' 
I put this gloss upon that text ; for it is all one as if he had said, If you 
loved my person for itself, you would love my personal good and happiness 
more than your own, and so have rejoiced more for this than have mourned 



192 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK II. 

for your own supposed loss and want of present comfort in me. And many 
of those primitive Christians had such goings forth of spirit towards the 
person of Christ as those had whom Peter wrote to : 1 Pet. i. 8, ' On whom 
believing, though you see him not, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and 
full of glory.' This must be chiefly in and for his person ; for his person 
it is whom we shall one day see, and rejoice in glory with him ; and it is 
faith in the mean time rising to such a pitch as supplies the room of the 
si»ht of him with a joy springing from something which is answerable to 
that sight. And sure Paul had it, who, above all, and in the first place, 
expresseth his desires to be to win Christ, that is, Christ himself, his per- 
son, and to be found in him, and then to have his righteousness, and the 
power of his death, &c. And I have been induced to think that some such 
strain of heart was somewhat more prevalent in that eunuch, Acts viii. 
The man was truly godly before, and therefore he came to worship; and 
you read his devout employing of himself whilst he was a-travelling. He 
had the 53d of Isaiah preached over to him by Philip, for the words of the 
chapter he gave Philip for his text to preach on. And in that chapter we 
read how that God ' laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all, and made his 
soul an offering for sin;' and that ' he was led as a sheep to the slaughter,' 
to take our sins away, as the Baptist had interpreted it. And so Philip 
preaching to him Jesus, as the text hath it, it lay in his way principally to 
set out Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sins; and surely Philip did keep to 
his text. There is but one passage in the chapter, and in the words which 
the eunuch read, that gave occasion to him to preach his person to be the 
Son of God, and that is those words, < Who shall declare his generation?' 
Yet we read that when he desired to be baptized, and Philip said to him, 
' If thou believest with thy whole heart,' &c. (as if he had said, What is 
there in thy heart, which thy heart most closeth with, concerning this Christ 
that I preached to thee?), the eunuch says, ' I believe that Jesus is the 
Son of God,' so as he pitcheth upon that as that which his heart was most 
on. And though he closeth with him as a Saviour, according to Philip's 
preaching, yet that is not mentioned by him, but this, that he was the Son 
of God; and so it is said he went away rejoicing, being baptized into Jesus 
Christ, upon that account. 

But though this is attainable, yet Christians are a-growing up to it ordi- 
uarily, but by degrees ; for, poor creatures as we are, we learn Christ by 
piece and piece, as when we look upon the moon through a telescope, it 
appears so big, and vastly great, beyond what we can take in at once, that 
we must travel over it with our eyes, first taking a view of one part, and 
then removing the glass to another, and see, perhaps, but a quarter of it 
at once. And thus it is with our knowing Christ ; that is, with such a 
knowledge as affects us and draws our hearts to him ; with such a know- 
ledge we know one thing of him in one year, and another in another. For 
one sta^e of our lives our hearts run after him for his blood to wash away 
our sins, and for his righteousness to cover us in the presence of God. In 
another stage we pursue after holiness to be had from him, for the subduing 
corruption through the power of his death, and quickening our hearts with 
his life ; and, in another way* we pursue after him for the loveliness of his 
person ; and it is that we should make the top of our desires, why we should 
desire him (as the prophet Isaiah speaks unto believers), we are perhaps 
a-growing up to this all our life long, and attain it not till we come to the 
bein» of a more perfect man, and to the fulness of our stature in Christ, 
* Qu. 'stage'? -Ed. 



Chap. X.] of justifying faith. 103 

which we shall have in this life in the knowledge- of him as the Son of God ; 
whereof tho apostle there speaks, Eph. iv. 13. Yet this let me add, that 
faith of recumbence may bo capable of this, and yet remain in the course 
of a faith of recumbence ; that is, want settled assurance that sins are par- 
doned ; and they may remain such to whom Christ hath not yet said, 
1 Your sins are forgiven,' and thou art the person that I died for : and so 
they have not an assurance that he is their Saviour, though they continually 
exercise faith on him, to be saved through his death ; yet their souls in this 
posture or dispensation are capable of being raised up under this faith, to 
cleave to him, and follow after him for his person more than as a Saviour. 
And the reason is, not only because God often works one way, and discovers 
one thing more to take the heart than he doth another, according to his 
good pleasure, and so he may give a beam of the knowledge of Christ in 
his promise, 2 Cor. iv. G, more bright to inflame their hearts towards him 
than the apprehension that he is a Saviour. There is not only this reason 
of it, but God also deals thus with them, that such may be assured, with a 
clear and certain light, that his person is thus amiable, and glorious, and 
lovely in himself, which causeth them to cleave to him so as they would 
not part with him, no, not with his person, for ten thousand worlds ; when 
yet, whether he died for their sins, or will pardon them, is doubtful to 
them. But the other truth they may have no doubt of, but a discovery of 
it, and the notion of it lieth more open to such a spirit than the attainment 
of the assurance of the pardon of his sins. 



vol. vm. 



191 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK III. 



BOOK III. 

The free grace of God, as declared and proposed in the covenant, is the object 
of faith. — Of the soid's applying itself unto the free grace of God, and 
treating with it for its salvation. — That the absolute declarations of this 
free grace, or the absolute promises of the gospel, are the object of faith of 
recumbence, or adherence. — That election-grace, and the immutability of 
God's counsel, as indefinitely proposed in the promises, are also the object of 
faith. — How the believing soul may consider and regard God's absolute 
decree of election. 



CHAPTER I. 

How the soul may for its salvation treat with the free grace of God as declared 

in the covenant. 

I shall first discourse of a soul's treating with the free grace of God as it 
is proposed to us in the covenant of grace, before I consider what kind of 
promises they are which are the object of our faith. There is a great cry- 
ing up of free grace, as that which, in the way of believing, men's souls 
rely upon ; but they who have traversed the paths of it, so as to arrive at 
a free and familiar intercourse therewith, find it exceedingly difficult, until 
God guides them into it by a straight and direct line. And there are many 
dangerous mistakes in the application of our souls unto it in the seeking of 
it. I shall therefore treat of it in a way of giving directions about it. 
(1.) We must lay hold on free grace according as it is set forth in the 
covenant of grace. The covenant you have at large in Jer. xxxi., and in 
Ezek. xxxvi., cited in Heb. viii. Now the covenant of grace is but the 
pure resolutions of grace in the heart of God, put into written promises. 
It is a translating of the pure grace in the heart of God, and purposes 
thereof, into promises, into indefinite promises, not naming the persons to 
whom they are designed : they are expressions of purposes as they lay in 
his heart. Men think it an easy thing to deal with the grace of God for 
salvation, and tbat they need no directions and teachings, for God, say they, 
is merciful in his nature ; he is a merciful God, and it is but going to him 
for mercy, &c. But the free grace of the purposes of God, as it is set forth 
in the covenant, is a further thing than a declaration that God is merciful 
in his nature ; and a man needs teaching how to treat with free grace, as 
it is in God's heart, set forth in the promises, in the immediate and abso- 
lute promises : 2 Thes. iii. 5, ' The Lord direct your hearts into the love 
of God.' He speaks of that love which is in the heart of God himself 
towards us : rightly to go to, and close with, and lay hold on that grace, 
needs direction, and that from God. ' The Lord,' says he, ' direct your 
hearts into the love of God !' He speaks to those that already had been 



CilAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 195 

in some measure acquainted with that love. All of you whom God saves, 
one piece of the indenture of his covenant is, that he will teach you to know 
him. To know him in what ? To know him in the pardon of your sins, 
and how to obtain it at his hands ; for so it follows, ' I will forgive their 
sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more.' And to know how to 
deal with the grace of God for pai'don of sin upon grace's own terms, for 
this men's souls need direction in. ' The Lord direct your hearts into 
the love of God !' 

I shall shew you some of God's teachings. • You shall be all,' says he, 
' taught of God ;' taught of God in his free grace. When free grace comes 
to teach the heart to treat with grace, it teacheth it, 

1. To renounce all self, or else free grace will have nothing to do with 
you. From the very first purpose free grace had to save man, it laid that 
for a foundation, that the salvation should not be of works, but according 
to the purpose of his grace given us before the world was, 2 Tim. i. 9. 
There you have it purely set down as it was in God's heart. And the holy 
apostle, when he speaks of grace, and of our being saved by grace, he still 
puts in this negative, ' not of works,' as the opposite of grace, Rom. 
xi. 5—7. And whereas faith is required wherewith to close with that grace, — 
Eph. ii. 8, ' By faith you are saved, through grace, it is the gift of God,' — 
a man must renounce all power in himself to believe, and all helps to 
believe, but what are drawn from the pure grace of God : Hosea xiv. 2. 
See there God's instructions : ' Take with you words,' says he, ' and turn 
to the Lord, and say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us gra- 
ciously,' &c. Here you have free grace (as free grace) instructing and 
teaching men that would turn to God, how to apply themselves unto it. It 
is a treaty of free grace's here that is recorded, ' Receive us graciously.' 

' I will love them,' says he, ' freely,' ver. 5. Now he teacheth you upon 
his own terms how you must deal with his grace. And that it is upon his 
own terms, it is clear by this ; for he bids them take these words in their 
mouth. So that it is a sure way to know how to treat with the free grace 
of God. It must be done with a renunciation of all that is opposite to it, 
and which will spoil the treaty, and enervate and make it void. Accord- 
ingly they say, ' Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses,' &c. 
Asshur shall not save hs. He expresseth it in Old Testament language under 
the figure of a temporal deliverance. We will not (say they) call in the 
help of Asshur, nor think to ride upon horses. You must be helpless, you 
must not think to deal with free grace on horseback, for you shall not pre- 
vail so ; no, nor on foot neither, for ' it is not in him that willeth, or that 
runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy,' Rom. ix. 16. And so the close 
is here, It is not our hands in which we trust; we will not say, the work of 
our hands shall save us ; but how then ? ' With thee the fatherless find 
mercy :' as if he had said, The strengthless, the helpless, the utterly deso- 
late of all helps by means, but only the free grace of God and Christ, the 
fatherless, shall find mercy. For the soul to give up itself to the gracious- 
ness of grace to accept it, to receive it graciously, to give up itself to the 
efficacy and power of free grace to work what it will, with renunciation of 
all else, this is the first lesson free grace teacheth, when a man will come 
to have salvation by it. I will not meddle with you else, says God ; lay 
that for the foundation of your treaty, or my grace shall not treat with you 
at all. What is free grace ? God tells you in these words, ' I will love 
them freely.' What is grace ? It is love : ' I will love them freely,' says 
God ; and all their backslidings shall be no discouragement to me. Now 



196 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [CoOK III. 

you see God bids you take words ; he hath put the substance and efficacy 
of those words into your mouths, and they are his own terms. I have oft 
said, If a soul would but go and take the very words (understanding them) 
as they are recorded where the covenant of grace was penned (Jer. xxxi. 
33, 34, and the like in Ezek. xxxvi., ' I will give a new heart :' and in Jer. 
xxxii. 40, ' I will put my fear into your hearts, and you shall not depart 
from me ;' this is pure absolute grace). If a man should take these words 
that God hath put into his mouth, and use them, or the effect of them, to 
God, sajdng, Lord, I present them to thee, and beseech thee to make them 
good to my poor soul, and should seek God day and night, the Lord would 
own and accept that poor soul. 

2. God teacheth the soul to treat with the grace of God in the free 
sovereignty of it. There is the grace of God's nature, which you read of 
in Exod. xxxiv., ' The Lord God, gracious and merciful,' &c. The 33d 
chapter was a preface unto what follows in the 34th chapter concerning 
the proclaiming his name ; and, saith God, ' I will proclaim my name 
before thee ; and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful, and I will 
be gracious to whom I will be gracious.' This is a plain declaration that 
that grace of salvation he would not shew to anybody. It is a limitation : 
' I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will be merciful,' &c. ; I 
will have freedom, and exercise dominion in doing of it. Are you to treat 
with grace ? You are to treat with this same declaration — ' I will be 
gracious,' &c, ' and I will be merciful to,' &c. — and you are to apply 
yourselves to the sovereignty of it. This is to treat free grace upon its 
own terms. When a poor soul sees itself lost, and comes to God, to the 
free grace of God, he doth not come on horseback, nor on foot neither, 
but he falls flat down at the throne and sovereignty of God : ' He will be 
gracious to whom he will be gracious,' &c. He hath to do with this same 
will of the great God, and the soul acknowledgeth that he is absolutely 
free, and that he may choose whether to do it to me or any such poor 
unworthy wretch as I am ; he may if he please not shew me any mercy : 
' Whom he will he hardens,' as the apostle saith, Rom. ix. And I am a 
poor creature, says he, and I lay down myself at thy feet; if thou wilt be 
merciful, here I am ; I throw myself upon thee, thou mayest give me up 
to hardness. If souls come thus nakedly to him, he then hath a dominion, 
to cast them off, as fully as to accept them. If thou comest thus nakedly 
to him, thou hast nothing to ingratiate his grace but his own grace, which 
he shews to whom he will ; and that mil hath a will : ' I wiM be gracious 
because I will be gracious.' Because mercy pleaseth him, and mercy and 
grace hath taken thy heart, poor creature, thou comest to him to cast it 
that way. The absolute freeness and dominion of grace is the glory of it, 
and God will have our hearts brought to seek it, as it lies in his heart. 
God loves to have it acknowledged, at one time or other, by every soul he 
saves. Though I dare not say that there is an absolute necessity of such 
a disposition of soul, yet to be sure when the soul thus applies itself in 
treating with grace, there is true faith and dependence on God. There is 
not only an acknowledging that God may refuse me if he please, but the 
soul says, If thou hast no pleasure in me, here I am ; my will is made 
subject as well as my understanding, it must be thine own pleasure purely 
must cast it on me; this is faith of submission. And yet withal thinks the 
soul, Who knows but he may be merciful, and merciful to me ? And that 
keeps it at the throne of grace, and will not let it go away. 

8. Free grace loves to be treated according to the fulness of its own free- 



CHA.P. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 197 

ness, and the extent of its own freeness. The meaning is, it is absolutely 
as free to God to save any sort of sinner, one as another, it is as indifferent 
to him to save out of any condition. So that put what case you will, put 
what condition you will, free grace hath a freedom to extend itself to it. 
It is not only said, 'I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful' as for 
the person, but there is a nobleness of liberality, so that there is no sort 
of sin (the sin against the Holy Ghost excepted) but may be pardoned, no 
sort of condition — be it poor, weak, contemptible, what you will — but a 
man may be saved in it. Now, when the soul sees this, he honours free 
grace mightily; he comes not to be accepted because he hath fewer sins, 
that were to derogate from grace, nor is he discouraged because of the 
abundance of sin; no, for there is an amplitude in this grace, liom. iii. 
22-24. As to the point of being saved by grace, grace knows no differ- 
ence; so for thy outward condition, be it what it will, there is no condition 
any one is in but one or other have been in it and saved ; for God is no 
accepter of persons, but is rich to all that call upon him. Now, to have 
a soul possessed with the thoughts of the freeness of his grace, and to 
treat with God accordingly, this honours his grace, and this God loves, and 
this he delights in. 

4. We must treat with this grace as that which is absolute, unchange- 
able, irreversible, where it is once pitched. If I in seeking God can find 
this grace of God to own me and embrace me while I seek it, then what 
do I come to ? To a state of irreversible grace, of grace that will carry on 
the work, that will undertake all for me, that is faithful, and will do it. 
What says God ? Ps. lxxxix. 32, 33, < Though they break my laws, I 
will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes. 
Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer 
my faithfulness to fail.' You have it also in Isaiah liv. 10, ' With ever- 
lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee. The mountains shall depart, 
and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee.' 
Noah's waters may as soon overflow to cover the earth, as thy sins over- 
flow thy heart. When the soul shall thus have the amplitude of grace, of 
grace past, present, and to come before it, and turns itself round about, 
and sees no end, Oh, says the soul, that my heart may be the subject of 
this grace ! that I may come under the dominion and protection of this 
grace ! For this grace will do the business, it will do it thoroughly ; it 
answers all my objections, makes provisos for them; it satisfies all the 
desires that I have or can have. Now, suppose that God yet carries it 
concealed towards thee, yet thou art happy if he fires thy heart with this 
grace, and causeth thy soul to seek after it, and teacheth thy heart to 
come to God, and to spread all these properties of his grace before him, 
whereby he saves men, and thy heart is strengthened to plead that God 
would cast them upon thyself, and thou canst by the hour relate between 
him and thee how by this grace thou desirest to be saved, and by no other. 
Though thou hearest of other ways, of free-will grace, where God moves 
but leaves thee to will, yet if thou hadst ten thousand souls thou wouldst 
not venture one that way. Dost thou heartily say to God, Lord, I 
had rather go upon this way of free grace than upon that way of free-will 
grace, though offered to all ? Oh save me this way ! Lord, I have no- 
thing to return, but I shall ' render the calves of my lips ;' I shall adore 
thee and bless thee. Oh that there should be such purposes of grace, and 
that they should thus take my heart ; I am resolved to be saved no way if 
not saved this way, and by this grace. To be thus taught and instructed, 



198 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

you had need have the Lord ' direct your hearts,' 2 Thes. iii. 5. In the 
original it is to direct by a right line ; it is an emphatical expression to 
signify such a direction as that they shall not go about, but go straight 
and immediately unto the heart of God and love of God. 

Wbat do men do ? They come with their conditions to ingratiate them- 
selves with God when they come to treat with grace, which is to bring to 
grace what should ingratiate their souls to it. We use to say, God's grace 
is a preventing grace, preventing what is in man ; but by this way men 
would prevent the grace of God, and be aforehand with it. Do not go 
round about, but go by a right line, and venture thyself, though thou 
knowest not whether thou beest the person or no, and lie at God's feet. 
To bring conditions whereby thy faith should be raised to free grace is not 
agreeable to the mind of grace. The truth is, you will find free grace will 
say to your souls, I will not be thus dealt withal. 

Ol'j. Would you have us use no endeavours, means ? &c. 

Ans. This I said is so remote from it, as nothing is more. In Noah's 
instance, though God said to him, ' Thou hast found grace in my sight,' 
yet 'he prepared an ark.' And in Philip, ii. 12, 18, we are commanded 
to • work out our salvation ; for it is God that worketh,' &c. But how 
work out our own salvation ? We are to use those endeavours which we 
have power to use, in subordination to the grace of God, that works the 
will and deed, and we are to wait in the use of means, renouncing all we 
do as to any purpose of ingratiating ourselves with God, yet we are to use 
these means in subordination to God, that works the will and the deed. 

Obj. But would you have a man treat free grace thus, and leave out 
holiness ? 

Ans. God forbid ; for if you seek the grace of God in truth, and as it is 
in itself, and in the heart of God, then if your heart know the grace of God 
in truth, it will teach you to be holy, and to make gracious returns to God 
again : Titus ii. 11, 12, ' The grace of God hath appeared, &c, teaching 
us to deny all ungodliness,' &c. It is spoken of the gospel and doctrine 
of it which thus teacheth you. But if God the Father do instruct your 
heart, and make known to you his free grace as it is in his heart and 
draws you to depend upon it, wholly upon it, if so be you have learnt from 
the Father what it is for God to be gracious, and how he is gracious to a 
poor soul (or as it is in John vi. 45, if you have 'learnt of the Father'), 
you will be taught to be holy, yea, it is part of your indenture when you 
come to plead the covenant of grace. The grace of God is the greatest 
teacher of holiness that ever was : says God in that covenant of grace, Jer. 
xxxi., ' I will write my law in their heart.' Of all laws else he will write the 
supreme law which free grace hath to write. What is that ? To have 
the grace in God answered with grace in you ; to have your hearts ingenu- 
ously wrought upon to comply with his grace, and not to abuse it : Col. 
i, 6, ' If you have known the grace of God in truth,' &c. There is a true 
knowledge of the grace of God, and there is a counterfeit one ; but if it 
be true, it teacheth all holiness, it stamps a frame of heart upon you, it 
teacheth you how to apply yourselves to grace in its kind, and therefore to 
return grace for grace and love for love. It is the law of the thing, it is 
the law of nature to love those that love you, and on whose love you 
depend. It is the law of pure nature, and it is the pure law of grace : 
1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his command- 
ments, is a liar; ' that is, doth not know God. Not know him ! In what? 
Do not know him in his love, ver. 13, 15. For it is the love of the Father 



CUAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 199 

he speaks of. I tell yon, no man seeks grace in this manner I speak of, 
but he professeth to God and his own soul that he would not be saved by 
that grace unless it wrought holiness in him. It is part of the indenture 
he draws with God. I acknowledge that to be made holy simply upon the 
sight of the pure grace of God, it is a high and spiritual thing, and our 
hearts are carnal. The law is holy and spiritual, the terms of free grace 
are holy and spiritual, and we poor wretches are carnal and sold under sin, 
and cannot come off to the motives thereof, to be acted by it continually. 
It is true, but yet when the soul lay at God's feet to obtain it, and 
humbled itself, that soul thereby kept on a plea for holiness as well as for 
grace, and doth obtain it, and hath it wrought in his soul. He that hath 
the love of this world, hath not the Father's, 1 John ii. 15. A man whose 
heart is taken with the grace of God to be saved by it, if he loves the 
world inordinately, or more than God, the love of the Father is not in him, 
he knows it not ; but of a gracious soul the apostle saith, Rom. vi. 14, 
• Sin shall not have dominion,' for grace shall break the dominion of sin. 
Those cursed men, Jude 4, turned the grace of God into wantonness (they 
were Simon Magus's followers, and the devil was his master), and what 
did they profess ? That a man was saved wholly by grace, do what he 
would, and that was the grace of the Father. Oh how doth the apostle fly 
out against these men, and follow them with all the curses that God brought 
upon wicked men in the Old Testament, and upon the angels that fell ! 
Men that have nothing but self-righteousness in them to be wrought upon, 
they wonder to hear that the grace of God should work a man above him- 
self, to love God above himself, that a man should be taken with free grace, 
and not abuse it; for the nature of self-love is to run away with free grace, 
and be unthankful. But what is the grace we speak of, as it is in the heart 
of a Christian ? If self-love only, it were the worst direction ever was given 
to teach self-love to serve its turn, and to run away with salvation, and let 
self do as it pleaseth. But the doctrine of free grace which we profess to 
salvation, is a principle of love to God above a man's self; there is that at 
the bottom. If it be so, then the more pure and clear you can bring this 
grace in the heart of God towards a poor soul, you move that man so much 
the more, you boil up grace to a height. If there be love and grace in the 
soul, and that grace be prevailing, it will work answerably, it will make 
the grace of God its greatest interest, because it is God's. "We profess 
this is the principle of grace, and therefore to teach men thus to follow 
the grace of God is to teach them that principle that must be put into 
them by the Holy Ghost. 



CHAPTER II. 

What high regards the faith of the apostle Paul had to the free grace of God 
the Father as the object of it. — How he magnifies and celebrates this free 
grace discovered to his apjyrehensions and thoughts. 

I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of 
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love uhich is in Christ 
Jesus. — 1 Timothy I. 13, 14. 

The Holy Ghost hath declared Paul ' a pattern ' in his conversion ' to those 
that are after to believe,' 1 Tim. i. 16, and as a pattern of encouragement 



200 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

and hopes to the greatest of sinners that were to come after him, to believe. 
And so likewise in the very work of conversion he is proposed as an 
example also unto them, although he indeed at first attained unto that 
perfection therein which other converts are growing up unto in their whole 
lives. But yet the seeds of the whole being sown, and foundations laid in 
their first work, they are springing up to a full growth throughout their 
whole lives. As every child that comes into the world by ordinary gene- 
ration hath the same parts essential to mankind, both of the inwards of 
bowels and ventricles of the head, in a less size and proportion than Adam 
had, who was made a man of full stature by an extraordinary way of 
creation, and therefore had all in the full proportions of a man grown up 
to perfection, and also each part acting in their full vigour and activity 
from the first ; so is it here, every convert receives all the same principles 
of faith and love at first, only the actings and increase thereof do in many 
things grow up into an actual energy, and yet so as at the first those prin- 
ciples do necessarily so far act in all converts as is requisite to put them 
into a state of life and salvation. And this, in the point of the actings of 
faith upon God and Christ for justification and salvation, is in a special 
manner seen; some men's spirits being more intensely carried out unto God 
the Father for grace and mercy, others more unto Christ Jesus for his 
righteousness, although whilst they act faith more upon the one or the 
other, they yet implicitly take in the other, whilst they look more on God's 
grace and mercy, yet so as they regard it in and through Christ, and 
e contra. 

But our great convert here, in this narration of his conversion, is pro- 
pounded unto us as an high example of faith drawn forth in an intense 
manner unto each, both the grace of God and Christ, in the most abound- 
ing workings of it. In the book of the Acts, we find an historical relation 
of the outward circumstances and manner of his conversion, twice related 
by himself. In this Epistle to Timothy, he acquaints us with the most 
intimate working, impressions, and sentiments of his spirit, and what 
principally his heart was taken up about at the time thereof, the sense 
whereof he retained unto that day ; and these especially he utters in 
ver. 14 : ' And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith 
and love which is in Christ Jesus.' He had begun to give solemn thanks 
to Christ (the great donor and endower of all gifts unto men, Eph. iv.), 
ver. 12, for putting him into that office and dignity of the apostleship, and 
this from the time of his conversion. ' And I thank Christ Jesus our 
Lord,' says he, ' who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, 
putting me into the ministry,' which blessing he greateneth from the con- 
sideration of his having formerly been so great a blasphemer of Christ, and 
a persecutor of his new created Christian church, and professors of him : 
ver. 13, ' Who,' says he, ' was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and 
injurious.' But then, in the middle of that ver. 14, he proceeds more 
particularly to magnify the mercy and grace of his conversion for the sal- 
vation of his own soul, without which, though the grace of apostleship 
might have saved others, yet himself had proved a castaway, as was the 
case of Judas ; that therefore is the great mercy which he centres in the 
following verses, and therein first (as I take it, and humbly submit it, 
together with this my analysis of the whole paragraph to ver. 18) he 
predicates the grace and mercy of God the Father shewn to him in and 
through Jesus Christ; 'But I was bemercied,' says he, or was 'endowed 
with mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our 



Chap. II. J of justifying faitii. 201 

Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.' 
Then, secondly, he magnifieth Jesus Christ for his mercy also in coming 
into the world to save him, the chief of sinners ; ver. 15, 16, 'This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I 
obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffer- 
ing, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life 
everlasting.' And then, lastly, he shuts up the whole with this solemn 
doxology, or giving glory to God the Father : ver. 17, ' Now, unto tho 
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory 
for ever and ever. Amen.' 

And when he enters upon this narrative of his conversion, he at first 
useth a word somewhat uncouth, whereby to express the mercy of it, a 
word whereof in the English tongue we cannot give the full and proper 
force in one word (which the Greek itself is), I was 'bemercied' (if we 
may so speak), misericordia donatus* endowed with mercy, encompassed 
with mercy. It is a like word unto that spoken to to the blessed virgin, 
Luke i. 28, Ks^afirufiBV^, * gracioused,' or one whom God's singular grace 
owned, embraced; and so here says the apostle, I was 'mercified,' 'endowed 
with mercy,' I had nothing but mercy, and was all over mercy. There was 
not only nothing of merit, but no fitness or any disposition in me towards 
it to make way for it, but the contrary ; only there was a capacity, a possi- 
bility left of having mercy bestowed upon me (that was all), ' because I did 
it ignorantly,' says he, 'and in unbelief; ' which imports that if he had 
pursued those injuriousnesses, and persecuted Christ and his saints, having 
first had a conviction of sight that accompany those actings, they had been 
that unpardonable sin, and would have rendered him incapable of all grace 
and mercy. And he useth this word this first time (for it is after also) in 
relation to God the Father's mercy then vouchsafed in calling him by 
grace (as he elsewhere says, Gal. i. 17, speaking of the Father), which 
proceeded from his electing love, grace, and mercy towards him, which 
there, Gal. i., you have also expressed in those words, ' When it pleased 
God, who had" separated me from the womb' ; (that that is an election- 
phrase, see iEstius on the words, and others). And this/ separation of him 
had ordered all things all along from the womb about him, and in his 
course of life before his conversion had taken care to keep and prevent 
from falling into that unpardonable sin, upon the very brink of the pit 
whereof he had at last walked. And then ' called me by his grace,' says 
he there ; the wonderful mercy of which he here also, narrating his con- 
version, celebrates ; and indeed our first calling, as it is the breaking forth 
of election-grace and mercy, so it bears the image and pattern of it. I was 
then bemercied (says he), drenched, and covered all over with the abundant 
mercies thereof. It was poured forth upon my soul by wholesale, and 
on the sudden, and at once. This was the execution of election; and 
this first mention of this word I in my interpretation refer to God the 
Father's grace, to whom both calling and election are everywhere peculiarly 
attributed. 

Now, observe how he again repeats the same word (for he useth it twice 
on this occasion and in this place, for he delighted in it and in the very 
thinking of it), and inserts it when Christ's part at his conversion comes to 
be related ; ver. 15, 16, 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- 
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I 
* See Beza's reason against the ordinary translation. 



202 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus 
Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which 
should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.' 

Now in this verse 14 he proceeds to magnify this grace of God the Father, 
discovered at and in his conversion, with the highest elogy and epithets 
that could be given it — ' and the grace of our Lord,' says he, ' was super- 
abundant,' — and together therewith to acquaint us with the principal in- 
ward workings of his heart, and most intimate exercises and actings of his 
own spirit towards that superabundant grace that shined on him at his first 
conversion ; and to declare with what entertainment or acceptation (as his 
word is, ver. 15) he received that, and took in that grace then discovered, 
he adds these words, ' With faith and love, which is in Jesus Christ,' 
which are the two graces that answer, by way of return and reception, unto 
the grace of God when discovered, and are exercised about, and act there- 
upon. He speaks not here of the work of his first humiliation for sin, 
which is the first work in all true conversions (though he hints that he had 
deep and thorough impressions that way, in saying, ver. 15, ' me, the 
chiefest of sinners'), but here he omits it, and mentions only the work of 
faith and love, the principal object directly acted upon being the free grace 
of God. And to set forth these actings of his soul thereupon I take to be 
his principal scope in this verse. The chiefest question about this inter- 
pretation is my referring those words, ' and the grace of our Lord,' unto 
God the Father, because the title our Lord is more frequently given to 
Christ, in distinction from the Father, and is given unto Christ in ver. 12 
afore, and also Christ is only mentioned in ver. 15, 16 afterward. I find 
some interpreters, as Calvin and others,* on this 14th verse call it ' the 
grace of God,' without the mention of Christ here ; and some others say 
gratia Dei in Christo, the grace of God in Christ, which still denotes the 
grace of God, though in and through Christ. And many of those that 
carry the words to Christ, yet ever and anon put in also ' the grace of God,' 
and, as it were, could not forbear but to do it. But the reasons of my 
interpretation, which will also serve to solve the objection, are, — 

1. Because grace is most frequently ascribed to the Father in the point 
of justification and salvation (which is the thing he speaks of here, as ver. 
15 shews), and that in distinction from Christ, as out of Rom. v. and chap, 
iii. may be observed ; though also it is sometimes given to Cbrist, yet most 
usually, I say, unto the Father ; even as the title of our Lord is sometimes 
given the Father, though more commonly to Christ, which solveth part of 
the objection. But besides, to speak more close to the point, those other 
places wherein Paul gives the account of his conversion, which I call 
parallels to this, and therefore argue from them as such, he still entitleth 
the grace thereof unto the Father. Thus Gal. i. 15, 16, ' But when it 
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by 
his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the 
heathen.' And the very same you find, 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10, ' For I am the 
least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I 
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am : 
and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I laboured 
more abundantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
with me.' 

2. There did always rise up to me, in the reading of this scripture, a 
distinction, implied in the verse itself, of Jesus Christ from him whom he 

* Calvin, Dickson, Illyricus. 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 203 

calls our Lord, to whom the grace is ascribed. ' The grace of our Lord,' 
says he, ' was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ 
Jesus.' That last clause, ' and love which is in Jesus Christ,' speaks of 
Christ as of anotber person from our Lord spoken of afore. He says not, 
1 and love unto Jesus Christ,' but in Jesus Christ, noting that love of his 
to have been borne to some other person in and through Christ. And if 
so, then unto whom more property than unto that person of whom he had 
immediately before spoken, and whose grace, he says, had been so abound- 
ing to him ? Which person must be the Father, if a person distinct from 
Christ; and so he speaks of a love returned unto him in and through 
Christ, for his grace shewn him in Christ, as all the Father's grace is said 
to be, who hath chosen us in Christ. 

8. Though he from thence runs the rest of his discourse upon Jesus 
Christ in the two following verses, 15, 16, magnifying him for his hand 
and mercy shewn in his conversion, yet in the conclusion he issues all in 
giving glory to God the Father, ver. 17, and as one not having words to 
set forth that grace any further, he chooseth to break off, and falls to 
adoring God the Father : ' Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, 
the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.' 
Wherein he speaks in the usual style of doxologies given to God the Father 
upon such solemn occasions. Thus in the same Epistle we have it, chap, 
vi. 15, 16, ' Who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and 
Lord of lords ; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no 
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or can see : to whom be 
honour and power everlasting. Amen.' Wherein this honour and praise 
is given to God the Father distinct from Christ, as by the comparing the 
last words of the verse afore it appears. Now this glory, thus solemnly 
given in this first chapter, all acknowledge to refer to the grace of his con- 
version before related, and so to signify him to have been the person whose 
infinitely abounding grace had done all this for him. He had begun to 
thank Jesus Christ, ver. 12, but he ends with glory to the Father; and in 
reason, that being the grand and solemn conclusion of this his narrative, 
it may well be thought that an express mention of the Father his grace 
therein should be found somewhere in the premises ; and where else if not 
in these words of ver. 14 ? for all the rest did run wholly upon Christ. 
Yea, and if it be not there, then that of the mercy of God the Father is 
wholly left out, unless argued by way of inference, in this narrative of the 
greatest conversion that ever was in the world; and also that when he sets 
himself to celebrate the grace towards him shewn therein in words so high, 
as superabundant, &c, the like to which are not anywhere else to be found, 
unless in that Kom. v. 20, bKigziriPisaivciv r\ %<%?, and there it is appa- 
rently spoken of the grace of the Father, in distinction from, though in 
conjunction with, Christ and his righteousness, as verse the last and those 
afore shew. ' The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant,' wregsir'ksovage, 
it flowed over, or issued forth with an abundancy, yea, overplus; so in 
Rom. v. ; it overfilled Paul, and ran over and over, as more than enough. 
He compares himself to a vessel (and we are styled vessels of mercy and 
grace, Rom. ix.), into which, on a sudden, were poured forth from above 
spouts and floods by wholesale, that not only filled it brimful, but to a 
running over on every side. Yea, he speaks as if the windows of heaven, 
the flood-gates thereof, even of the heart of God, filled with that infinite 
treasury of love and grace towards him, had been set open, and had poured 
down the streams thereof into his soul. 



2 '± OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

t The next inquiry may be, in what manner it is he intends that this grace 
of God had so superabounded, whether in the way of effects, that is, in so 
stupendous a work of converting so prodigious a sinner unto God, in im- 
planting in his soul the principles of faith and love, and of the whole new 
creature, in one so confirmed and hardened in unbelief, and so resolute in 
such a violent fury against Christ and his saints ; so that the abundance of 
that grace was demonstrated in so mighty and wonderful effects (which is 
all, or the main that interpreters here take notice of, as wherein this super- 
abounding grace was seen), or whether withal he intends not to speak 
apprehensive, that is, in respect of the discovery of that grace itself, as it 
was and had been borne towards him in the heart of God, and now broke 
forth upon his soul in and to his own apprehensions. To this query I 
answer, 

1st, That it is true that the superabundancy of God's grace must needs 
have been discovered to him in so great and wonderful a change and work 
wrought upon him, for it was unparalleled grace to work it, and there was 
a just ground for him to adore it as he doth. Yet, 

2dly, In the knowledge of it barely by such effects, the cause itself 
remains hidden, and might still not have been known in itself, no other- 
wise than in what is different from itself, for so the effects are from their 
causes ; and such a knowledge is but secondary. And, 

3dly, It would not have been said that the grace of the Lord had been 
over-full, or more than enough, in respect of the works of faith and love, 
for the works thereof themselves were yet imperfect in him ; but we may 
say of the grace as it is in God's heart, and as it is apprehended and laid 
hold on by us, by immediate faith, that so indeed it superabounds, both as 
to what it hath wrought, and in all which it hath undertaken to work for 
us ; and this is infinite, and stretcheth itself, and extendeth to all eternity. 
And this grace, thus taken in as it was by Paul (that chosen vessel, Acts ix.), 
might well be deemed to be infinitely more than he could take in, and so 
to overflow, as hath been said. 

But further, we may know that there is a flowing of the grace and love 
that is in God himself to men's souls in manifestation made by itself, and 
of itself, which the apostle calls a ' shedding abroad the love of God into 
the heart by the Spirit,' Rom. v., and it is one after-fruit of faith which 
many attain to. There is a taste of the pure unmixed sweetness in and of 
the grace of God, as it comes from out of his own heart, and is immediately 
conveyed through those breasts of consolation, the absolute promises 
whereof even new-born babes do oft partake : 1 Pet. ii. 3, ' As new-born 
babes desire the sincere milk, &c, if so be you have tasted that the Lord 
is gracious.' Which surely this our apostle (if ever any) had at this his 
very infancy of regeneration ; and that was it, and the experience thereof 
was it that drew him here to declare that the grace of our Lord was super- 
abundant ; not re ipsa only, as it resides in God's heart unknown to us, 
nor as demonstrated only by those gracious effects it had wrought in him, 
but apprehensive, or in his own apprehensions and sentiments of it ; and in 
that sense it is he especially utters this here. He saw and laid hold of, 
and took in, that fulness of the grace of God borne towards him, and as it 
now was, and had been, from everlasting ; a grace which was over-full, as 
his word is, that is, as to his own thoughts and comprehensions. What he 
prayed for the Ephesians, that they might ' comprehend with all saints, the 
height, the breadth, length, and depth of God's grace towards them, and 
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,' the same himself found 



ClIAr. III.! OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 205 

in his measure, in the glorious sight, sense, and taste of this superabounding 
grace, which he found was not only ' sufficient' (as 2 Cor. xii. D), but more 
than enough for his turn ; and, to be sure, more than enough for his soul 
to take in. It camo upon his spirit as a mighty sea, which had neither 
shore nor bottom. He saw there was an infinity of it, which he was no 
more able to take in into his comprehension, no more than a narrow vessel 
is able to take into itself the main ocean ; and in this respect it is he 
terms it such abundant grace. To conclude ; in a word, it is objective 
spoken, as to the grace itself, as it was presented unto him for the object 
of his faith, but apprehensive as to his soul, and not ejficienter only, that is, 
as an efficient cause of that work of faith God had wrought upon his heart, 
unto which most would needs narrow it. It was not a mere reflection upon 
the operation of the grace of faith and love, as in his heart, but a far more 
enlarged contemplation and admiration of the height and depth of the 
grace itself as it was in God's heart, now manifesting itself unto him, how 
superabundantly and how greatly he was beloved (as the angel says of 
Daniel), or how abundantly he was graciously accepted by God in his 
beloved, as in Eph, i. G. And the grace in God himself was its own 
reporter of it. Paul first had seen how sin had abounded in himself, the 
chiefest of sinners (ver. 15), and then that that grace borne in God's heart 
to pardon, love, and accept him, had abounded much more for the pardon 
of it ; and grace, as justifying him without anything in himself, was the 
object his heart was now taken up withal at his conversion. 



CHAPTER III. 

That absolute declarations about God and Christ, and absolute ]xromises of 
salvation, are the most proper and only objects of that act of application of 
faith we call faith of recumbency or adherence. 

By absolute declarations, &c, I mean such as are not made unto condi- 
tions or qualifications, which first should be viewed by the soul to be in 
itself as a ground to believe upon God and Christ for justification. 

Gerard, in his controversy* with Bellarmine, puts this meaning upon 
the terms absolute promises and conditional. The promises (says he, 
speaking of the gospel-promises) may be called absolute as in opposition 
unto our works and merit, and yet conditional in that God requireth faith, 
and so no works being required to justification, they are in that respect not 
conditional. But granting, as well as he, that faith is requisite, and faith 
alone, I do withal affirm that there are promises that are absolute, holding 
forth no condition, as they are the object of faith. And faith, viewing 
merely what is in those promises, which specify no condition of faith itself, 
lays hold on God's grace, and Christ as therein manifested. And thus 
absolute promises stand in a full opposition unto all conditional promises, 
as those absolute promises may be supposed, and objected first unto faith's 
view, and as they are the raisers up of it thereupon, so as upon the sight 
thereof the soul is brought to apply the salvation made known in such pro- 
mises. Now the promises are such as these : Jer. xxxi. 33, ' This shall be 
the covenant that I will make with the house; of Israel ; after those days, 
saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it 
in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' 
* Ger. de Justif., sect. 134. 



206 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

Which being immediately made to the elect, and being an absolute under- 
taking on God's part, to perform the conditions themselves, I therefore call 
them most absolute. That declaration also is absolute in John vi. 37, ' All 
that the Father hath given me shall come to me.' Likewise, Heb. iv. 6, 
' some must enter in,' whereunto God hath bound himself with an oath 
(as there) to perform it. Now as for the persons concerning whom these 
promises are made, they are only known to God : ' The Lord knoweth who 
are his,' 2 Tim. ii. 19. Some detract from the absoluteness of these pro- 
mises, in saying they are made upon other fore-supposed lower and subordi- 
nate prerequisite conditions to be performed first by men, as to improve 
natural helps well, &c. But this were to embase the covenant of grace by 
subjecting it to the covenant of works, as that which must take its rise 
from former actings of ours, predisposing to the gifts of grace. From all 
which works in that very place in Jeremiah, the prophet distinguisheth those 
promises of that covenant of grace. 

Thus absolute pi*omises in the controversies with the remonstrants are 
on all sides understood ; Qua; nan habent annexam conditionem, which have 
not a condition annexed, as upon the sight of which our faith on those 
conditional promises should any way depend. 

I join unto promises of salvation the absolute declarations in the word, 
because there are many such manifestations of God and Christ delivered in 
the word, as they are the objects of our faith, which yet we do not ordi- 
narily term promises, though they are tantamount thereunto, as they are 
objected to our faith. And indeed all such truths and declarations may be 
taken for and turned into absolute promises, and absolute promises into 
such naked declarations ; such declarations, I mean, as these, that Christ 
' came into the world to save sinners,' &c, which is delivered in way of a 
saying: ' This is a faithful saying,' or grand assertion of the gospel, rather 
than in a direct promissory way. And in terming these declarations rather, 
I conform to the language of the Holy Ghost, who, when he most setly 
proposed God and Christ as the objects of our faith, useth that expression 
to do it by, Rom. iii. 25, ' Whom (/. c, Christ) God hath set forth to be 
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness,' &c. 
Then again, ver. 26, ' To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, 
that he might be just, and a justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.' It 
is used, you see, both of God and Christ as in relation to our faith. You 
have the like also 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6, ' For there is one God, and one Mediator 
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom 
for all, to be testified in due time.' And 2 Tim. i. 9, 10, the like, ' Who 
hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our 
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in 
Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the 
appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and 
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.' Where not only 
God and Christ as Saviour, &c, but the very eternal purposes and grace of 
God and Christ of saving, as they are properly and only to be limited to 
the elect, are said to be the matter of the gospel. And the manifestation 
and naked declaration of this, according to its plain intent and purpose, is 
the gospel in its height and eminency, and the seed and head of all the 
promises of salvation, from which they are all derived and flow, and into 
which they all do again run, as rivers into the sea. And therefore by ab- 
solute declarations I intend all in the word wherein those purposes of grace 
are indefinitely revealed ; I say indefinitely, because there is no naming the 



CUAP. III. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 207 

persons of the sons of men to whom they are intended, and yet they are 
in that manner revealed, and with that intent, to draw men in to helieve for 
their particular salvation, as well as any other promises whatever. And 
this I hope will appear plainly in this discourse, but especially in that 
which follows it, unto which this is but introductory, the professed subject 
thereof being to shew how faith of adherence may make use of the absolute 
revelation of electing grace, though wanting assurance thereof; which I 
have long since in print promised to publish.* 

Mr Bulkely, in that New-England controversy, seems to be an opposer 
of this opinion, that absolute promises are the means and primary object of 
full assurance of faith, through an immediate testimony of the Spirit, with- 
out conditional promises ; by which only, says he,t in the ordinary course, 
if we will have any trial of our estates by the word, we must have it by tbe 
conditional promises ; yet would I not, says he further, make the absolute 
promises useless. I acknowledge they are of singular use ; 1st, In that 
they shew us the only cause of our salvation, even free grace, and no other ; 
2dly, They are a foundation for the faith of adherence or dependence to 
stay upon. There be two acts of faith, saith he, one of adherence or de- 
pendence, another of assurance. There be also two kinds of promises, 
absolute and conditional. Mark now how these do fit and answer one 
another, the absolute promises to the faith of adherence, the conditional to 
the faith of assurance. For example, God comes and says, For mine own 
sake will I do thus and thus unto you, in an absolute promise. Here is a 
ground for the faith of adherence to cleave unto ; though I be most un- 
worthy, yet will I hang upon this promise, because it is for his own sake 
that the Lord will perform this mercy, that he may be glorified. There be 
also conditional promises, — ' He that believeth shall be saved,' — by means 
of which (we have the experience and feeling of such grace in ourselves) we 
grow to an assurance that we are of those that he will shew the free grace 
upon. And thus the absolute promises are laid before us as the foundation 
of our salvation, which is wrought in the adhering to the promise, and the 
conditional as the foundation of our assurance. And though I do not 
wholly fall in with this latter pai-t of his conclusion, as if conditional pro- 
mises served only for a foundation of assurance, yet with the former part, 
that absolute promises are suited and fitted unto faith of adherence, or of 
the act of justifying faith, properly and truly such, I fully close with, and 
do add, that it is they that are the most proper objects for such a faith, 
and not conditional promises. And I shall endeavour to demonstrate this, 
in the case of one who is now a-beginning first to believe ; for as everything 
must have a beginning, so must a man's believing; and of that case it is I 
now specially treat, though I do withal judge that the true act of faith as 
justifying doth, throughout the whole of a man's life, even of him that hath 
assurance, lie not in an assurance I am justified, but in that of adherence 
only, as I have elsewhere J shewn. 

It is not unknown that besides those believers who have, through grace, 
attained unto a full assurance of faith, there are two ranks of other true 
believers whose faith doth fall short of assurance : 1, such as are now 
a-beginning to believe, as the jailor, Acts xvi. ; and, 2, such as have had 
for some long time true faith already wrought, and many fruits thereof in 
the course of their lives, and yet ' walk in darkness, and have no light,' 

* In my preface unto Christ set forth, in 4to. 

t Discourse of the Covenant, p. 149. 

t Fart II., Book II., Chap. I , of this discourse. 



208 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BoOK III. 

and are fain to betake themselves to live by a pure and bare faith of recum- 
bency, or of mere casting themselves on God and Christ, renewed afresh 
(even as they did at first) for their salvation. And so they do as good as 
continually begin to believe, as if they had never believed before ; and this 
they do, although they have some glimpses of good hope at times, which 
yet not rising up to overpower and silence doubts, they return to make 
that kind of faith their sole life. And although there may be found some 
difference between these two, yet I put them both into one bag, as we say, 
and range them together in my ensuing discourse, which I shall prosecute 
in the person of one who is now but a-beginning to believe ; concerning 
whose case there is the most difhculty, how to instruct such an one to make 
use of such absolute promises and declarations, and how he should come 
to close with them, and with what faith. And so, whilst I shall speak to 
this case of the one, I shall but speak to the case of the other. That which 
we inquire after is, what object he that is first to believe may find to set 
his foot first upon, and which may become a ground to him of that special 
act of faith whereby he lays hold on Christ for his own salvation. 

I suppose him humbled for sin, and convinced that unless he have a 
ground for his being saved, from something else than what is in or from 
himself, he must perish. I suppose him looking about him into the world, 
and crying out thereupon, as they in Acts ii. and the jailor, ' What shall I 
do to be saved ?' I suppose him, also, to see and apprehend his way to 
be to believe, and cast himself on God and Christ, looking about him for 
a ground or foundation in the word, unto that his faith. 

Now then I shall proceed. 

And here I shall proceed both negatively and positively. 

1. Negatively, I shall shew, that no qualification in a man already wrought 
can be a ground and object for his first act of faith, so that in the sight of 
it he should be certainly and personally persuaded to act that faith on God 
and Christ. 

1st, It is not his humiliation or sight of his sin, or of his being in a lost 
condition, wherein if he remains he must perish. For the sight of that 
but leaves him where he was, and it is faith by which his condition must 
be altered. The sight of sin and misery may and doth indeed put a neces- 
sity upon his soul to look out for salvation, and that is it which makes him 
cry out, ' What shall I do to be saved ? ' And it is such a work, as with- 
out it he would never seek out for Christ, nor go to him to save him. But 
for him to build on that sight as that which he, having had wrought in him, 
he may with confidence believe in Christ, is all one as to say that a male- 
factor's being convicted, and cast, and condemned at the bar by a judge 
and his own conscience, should be a ground for his hopes of pardon and 
salvation ; whereas the procedure so far with him is clean contrary, though 
it be indeed a preparation to quicken him to seek for a pardon, yea, and 
makes him capable of it in this respect, that as by our law none is capable 
of a legal pardon, until he be legally condemned, so nor is such a man of a 
gospel-pardon till he is thus convicted. The proper work or effect of such 
a humiliation, is wholly and altogether to possess the soul with the appre- 
hensions of no other objects than what belonged to his unregenerate and 
unjustified estate, and which would argue him still to be in that estate ; 
and the prospect of this fills his mind, having nothing else in his eye ; and 
though there is and may be somewhat of what is spiritual in that sight of 
his, yet as Christ said to him, John xiii. 7, ' What I do (to thee) thou 
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter ; ' so we may say of the 



ClIU'. HI. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITII. 



209 



present work that is upon such a man, that after somo light and dawn of 
faith is hroken in upon his spirit, he may afterwards come to see what 
God was then a-doing with him, but not at that present when nothing but 
darkness is upon the face of that earth. 

It is true also that those words of Christ's, ' Come unto me, all ye that 
are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,' do contain a particular 
invitcment to such, rather than any other sinners, who also doth invite all 
others ; and it is a special condescension in Christ to speak thus particularly 
to those that are heavy laden, because of all others they are apt to be dis- 
couraged ; yet still that wearisomeness is not a ground or foundation for 
that act of his first believing, to build itself upon it for his being saved. 
He that will rest in the sight of that, and not come to Christ, will sit down 
short of salvation, nor is this a ground of his faith, or of his coming to 
Christ. But when such do come to Christ out of a sight and sense of their 
burden, yet it is not upon the sight thereof as a spiritual qualification 
which should render them more acceptable, but it is the sight of their sins 
with which they are burdened, and the sense of the load thereof, and 
thereupon of their need of ease, that drives them to come upon Christ's 
so gracious invitation. They poor creatures look at nothing but them- 
selves, and their sins and loads, and are taken up wholly therewith, and 
with desire of ease. 

That great maxim of the apostle (Rom. iv. 5, ' But to him that worketh 
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted 
for righteousness') doth confirm all this, and withal doth exclude the sight 
of any other work wrought, or qualification whatsoever that may put in to 
be a ground to any man's faith. Under these words, ' to him that worketh 
not,' I understand all qualifications, and holy dispositions, and actions, for 
they are included under the name of works, as in opposition to faith, and so 
in Scripture language inward works as well as outward. And the root or 
principle inherent in the soul of either, are accordingly here excluded 
from having to do either as ingredients into justification itself, or into a 
man's faith or believing for justification. 

Also, 2dly, by 'him that worketh Hot' is there meant, not he that worketh 
not at all really, but who when he comes to be justified looks at no work of 
his, or anything in or from himself, but singly believes on him that justifies 
the ungodly. 

And so, 3dly, instead of looking to any good in himself, he views nothing 
but the contrary, ungodliness, as in himself considered at that time, and 
the present business he is taken up about namely, to be justified, and to 
believe that he may be so. And although this is spoken of them that are 
in their state godly and holy, for this is a maxim fetched from Abraham's 
example after he was converted many years, even Abraham when he came 
to be justified in that point looked upon himself as ungodly, and viewed 
no works at all in himself, and was in his own eyes as if he had had none ; 
yet this maxim doth much more punctually suit one that is now coming 
forth of his natural state, and hath nothing bat ungodliness to view. And 
unto the sense of those things a man's humiliation brings such a man, and 
therein doth the proper work of it lie ; and our supposition being of one that 
begins to believe, it cannot be otherwise with him. 

2. We are now to consider what positive grounds, or motiva jldei, what 
motives of faith, or what drawings forth of faith are here ; or wherein doth 
the hope concerning this thing, as the Scripture speaks, lie ? My asser- 
tion is this, that it must be some absolute declaration or promise (which 
are tantamount) about what is simply in God and Christ as touching our 

VOL. VIII. ° 



210 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

salvation, the light of which coming into the soul is and must be the objec- 
tion motivum, the moving object, the persuader (as Heb. xi. speaks) of a 
man's faith, to draw in his soul thus at first to cleave to God and Christ 
for a man's personal salvation in particular, and hereon his faith is built. 
And the reason is evident from what is foregone ; for if no present or pre- 
cedent qualification in such a soul can prove an effectual persuasive or 
cncourager in part or whole, as a condition or qualification in the person, 
then it, must remain that what is absolutely declared to be in God and 
Christ, without respect to such conditions as first wrought, must be the 
ground and objection motivum of his faith. 

Obj. But some will here say, A promise that mentions the condition of 
faith itself is a sufficient and obvious ground to draw on faith at first, which 
is usually set forth in this syllogism : Whosoever believeth on him (meaning 
Christ), shall never perish ; but I believe, saith the soul, therefore I shall 
not perish. And is not this a conditional promise (will they say) which a 
man may at first close with ? and thus to close with such a promise in the 
former way of such a syllogism men usually are taught. 

Ans. An answer unto this I return, first in general, that when I exclude 
conditional promises from having an influence into our first act of believing, 
my intention is not, nor can it so be understood as, to exclude our believing 
itself from being a necessary requisite qualification, condition (call it what 
you will), for I have already supposed it absolutely necessary to our being 
estated into the actual and personal possession of those good things in those 
promises or declarations which I call absolute. Yea, my very question, 
and the state thereof, as I have proposed it, presupposes so much, and 
takes it for granted, for it is queried with what faith a soul is to close with 
such a promise ? So as my inquisition runs after this, whether such 
absolute promises be not a proper object of faith, which indeed is required 
necessarily to our instating into salvation ? and whether those promises 
be not proposed with an intention in the Scriptures as such ? My search 
is after an object of faith, what it is, and on what inducement a man doth 
so believe, or what is the object of that faith. Every act must have an 
object, and so justifying faith must have so too ; and what that must be is 
my inquest. And my affirmation is, that absolute declarations of God and 
Christ (in the promises and otherwise), as Saviour and justifier, are the 
proper object of such a faith. And therefore when I exclude all conditional 
promises, my exclusion in this argument only is of a conditional promise 
that should be the object of that first faith, as that which the soul first 
viewing to be in itself already wrought, should thereby be heartened and 
persuaded to begin to believe on God and Christ for its personal salvation. 
The meaning of that promise, whoever believeth on him shall be saved, is 
but to shew that an act of believing is absolutely and necessarily required 
to be put forth by him that will come to be partaker of that salvation. But 
still this will remain firm and indubitate, that it is those absolute promises 
or declarations that are the objects or foundation and sole ground of that 
act of believing ; and so absolute promises are the objects of faith as the 
conditional act whereby we are to be estated into the possession of those 
promises ; so as this .objection is no prejudice to my assertion, it touches' 
it not. More summarily take my assertion, thus it is : not that those 
absolute promises (objectively such) require not faith in us ere we be par- 
takers of the salvation in them, for that were to say that God saves his 
elect absolutely, without requiring anything to be wrought in them, which 
sense we have before abhorred; but the meaning is, that they require not 
any intervening condition unto faith itself, upon the sight of which as a 



Chap. III. J of justifying faith. 211 

groundwork faith should come to lay hold upon them ; hut they are exposed 
barely and nakedly unto faith as objects to be laid hold upon (that is, God 
and Christ in them) for our salvation, so as though those promises (who- 
ever believes, &c, and the like) in which faith is mentioned, are but con- 
ditionally in this sense, that they hold forth an act on our part to put forth 
as that without which no man shall obtain salvation, yea, by which he is 
instated into it ; yet let the whole Scripture be searched, and there is not, 
nor can there be, any instance brought of promises that do mention the 
condition of believing, wherein a preceding condition is first mentioned as 
that which must first be seen and viewed by the person who is to believe, 
to be in himself, and which he should build his first act of believing upon. 
And in the argument we have in hand, as hath been stated, that only can 
be called a condition which is a condition to believing itself, and which is 
supposed to be propounded to that end, that faith seeing such and such 
qualifications wrought in the soul, should thereupon be induced to believe, 
so as that condition should be an evidence to him to take or challenge that 
promise as his own, and thereby belonging to him as if he had been per- 
sonally named. Such qualifications I find set out indeed in promises for 
the faith of assurance after a soul's first having believed, as being signs of 
a man's being in the faith, and of his being justified by his faith foregone. 
But no such qualifications can be or ought to be built upon by one that 
comes first to Christ, or ought to be ingredients to his first act of justifying 
faith, nor indeed to any act of true, pure justifying faith as such ; for that 
were to make what is in ourselves after faith to be the foundation of it, 
and to mingle with it, and to make the first act of faith to be assurance 
that I am in the state of grace already, and thereupon I do believe that I 
am saved and justified. 

This assertion our later and more knowing divines have more generally 
declined, which yet the papists would impose upon us protestants, as an 
absurdity generally maintained by us, whenas it is the Lutherans only that 
do at this day affirm the act of justifying faith to be an assured persuasion 
that our sins are pardoned. 

I have often, therefore, reflected upon the application of such like pro- 
mises, ' Whosoever believes shall be saved,' as it is ordinarily formed up 
into this syllogism, "Whoever believeth hath, &c. ; but I believe, therefore 
I have eternal life. I have often reflected upon it, as fearing lest that this 
assumption, ' but I believe,' out of which they fetch a conclusion of assur- 
ance, ' therefore I have eternal life,' be not so well understood, but mis- 
taken by many to be the first act of justifying faith. 

I would therefore, in the second place, examine into what act of faith or 
belief that application of faith in the assumption, in the syllogism, ' but I 
believe,' is to be resolved into. 

1. First, The most judicious do take the meaning of that ' but I believe' 
to be only this : I seeing and finding by experience with myself, that I have 
a true faith wrought in me, and such a faith as the Scripture describes to 
be true and unfeigned, therefore I apply that promise, ' whoever believes,' 
&c, with an assurance to myself, which is the conclusion. And this indeed 
I take to be the most proper sense and mind hereof, as it comes in that 
6yllogism, that can be given of it, and, so understood, it is not to be dis- 
allowed. And I find it in that sense to be interpreted by our greatest 
divines ; but then let me give this animadversion upon it, that so under- 
stood, it cannot be that first act of justifying which an humbled 6inner doth 
put forth, which is the point we seek for ; nor can this be the genuine act 
whereby the sinner is justified, and so not the act of justifying faith itself ; 



212 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III- 

and the reason is undeniable, because this believing is indeed but the sight 
and experience of a former, foregone, or forepassed act of faith, which the 
soul must have first put forth. It is that which, in this sense given, is the 
object of his assumption, ' but I believe,' and so we are still to seek as much 
as at first, and put to a new inquiry what that first formal act of believing 
was, and what it should be ; for to be sure this ' but I believe ' is, and 
must needs be, another act than that first was, yea, and of another kind. 
First, it is another act, for it is an act of faith after another, namely, a 
former ; nor is it a mere repeating or renewal of the first act, but a sight 
of that other which was the first act thereby expressed, yea, and is founded 
upon the intuition of the first, in the strength of which intuition the soul 
says, ' but I believe.' It is a secondary and after act arising upon a first. 
Secondly, it is another kind of act, for it is a reflex act of the mind upon 
its own act ; but justifying faith is a direct act on Christ. And again, it 
is an act of another kind, for my seeing I believe is an act of experience, 
which hath sight and sense in it of what is in a man's self ; whereas the 
first act of faith must be a mere pure act of faith, and not of sight. And 
so, thirdly, they differ in their objects ; for the object of my seeing I believe 
is my own believing, but the object of my faith at first, when I began to 
believe, was and must be God and Christ as the objects : John hi. 16, 
' Whoever believes on him hath everlasting life.' 

2. Others have apprehended the meaning of this ' I believe,' to be a 
present act of assurance that I am justified (as supposing that faith of assur- 
ance hath for its object, ' I am justified'), and so that very first act to be 
the condition of the covenant. This opinion differs from the former, for 
in the syllogism before, it is the act of assurance that I am saved, which 
made the conclusion; and the sense that I believe is seeing and finding I 
put forth such an act. But this second sense cannot stand. 

For, 1st, in such a syllogism, Whoever believes shall be saved ; but I 
believe, therefore I shall be saved, this ' but I believe,' if it be understood 
of assurance, doth make the minor proposition all one with the conclusion itself. 

2dly, That actual justification which a sinner hath on God's part, through 
justifying faith, is a consequence of that faith, or follows or ensues upon 
that special act of faith, which is properly styled justifying faith, put forth 
on our part. And that God endows a soul with his justification upon that 
act, and not after this, the Scriptures do expressly affirm : Acts x. 43, ' To 
him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth 
in him shall receive remission of sins.' This receiving remission of sin is 
made the end or issue of our believing. Thus also, Acts xvi. 30, 31, ' What 
shall we do to be saved ? ' or, put into a state of salvation ? ' Believe on 
the Lord Jesus,' says the apostle, ' and thou shalt be saved,' which at 
present thou art not, until thou dost believe, nor until thou believest shalt 
bo ; but on the contrary, without believing, a man remains in a state of 
condemnation, according to what our Saviour had declared, ' He that be- 
lieveth not is condemned already.' The like you have in John viii. 24. 
All which places, and many other, might be alleged to speak, that as an 
actual justification there is obtained and received, so to be bestowed upon 
believing with such a faith, which the Scripture therefore calls justifying ; 
and a man is therefore required thus to believe, to that end that he may 
obtain and receive it. This being an assured truth, it will then follow, that 
not only faith of assurance that my sins are forgiven, is not an essential 
specifical act of justifying faith as such, but that it is impossible it should 
be such ; yea, and that it is a contradiction, that that act of faith whereby 
we believe ourselves justified, should be one and the same individual act 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 213 

with that which is called justifying faith ; hut especially it is a contradiction 
that this should be one and the same faith with the first act of faith. And, 
first, the impossibility of it appears in tins, that that faith whereby a man 
is really and actually justified is, in order of nature, first, and must be sup- 
posed first before a man be justified, because, thereupon or therewith, it is 
that God doth justify him, and endow him with that benefit, Rom. v. And 
this is our justification, which is according to the rule of the word which 
we have by faith, and which God will proceed by at the last day, and with- 
out which he will not own any man to be justified and saved. But that 
other act, of faith of assurance, whereby I believe or apprehend that I am 
justified, must necessarily first suppose this act of justification on God's 
part, according to the rules of his word, to have been first passed upon a 
man, and therefore, must suppose also that he hath believed already ; and 
by a former act of faith hath obtained justification, which till then he had 
not, but remained in a state of condemnation. Which first act of believing 
must therefore be such a believing with an aim and end that I may be saved 
and justified, and that my sins may be remitted in such a manner as hitherto 
they have not been remitted, and without which faith I must die in my sins, 
perish eternally ; for so the word of God, which God will proceed b} r , every- 
where tells me. And therefore it is that a sinner that first believes, as ever 
after also, doth apprehend such a necessity of believing, as was said, and 
doth at first, therefore, necessarily look on, and hath in his eye, that justi- 
fication that is according to the rules of his word, and which he aims at as 
upon a thing to be obtained, and which he is to receive, and so to be a 
thing to come upon his believing, which was evidently the case of the jailor, 
and upon those terms required of him by the apostle. Whereas in the other 
act, of faith of assurance, whereby a man believes and apprehends that his 
sins are forgiven, he within that act doth suppose and look upon his justi- 
fication as a thing obtained, and therefore it is impossible that the first act 
of believing, whereby a man is justified, and whereof justification is a con- 
sequence, and that / am justified, should be one and the same individual 
act, but they are necessarily two, not only in order of nature, but in time, 
one before the other. Yea, it would be a vain confidence, nay, a falsehood, 
for any man to believe with his first act of faith that he puts forth, that he 
is justified ; for he cannot truly and justly believe it until he be justified. 
A thing must first be and actually exist ere it can be apprehended, or else 
it is but fancy to him that believes it, unless by way of prophecy. 

2. Upon the same or the like ground it is no less than an apparent 
contradiction, that I should, by my first act of faith, believe that I may be 
justified, and withal to be first justified thereby, and by the same individual 
act believe I am justified from the same sins, for that would make one and 
the same act, and one and the same object of that act, to be at once an 
antecedent and a consequent of itself, to go before itself, and to follow after 
itself, which to me are a contradiction. 

(1.) The object, namely, justification, should according to this opinion be 
bestowed upon a man before he can believe he hath it, and must actually 
exist, when yet justifying faith is declared to be that act upon which, and 
by which, justification is bestowed upon us, and first comes to be existent, 
which is a contradiction in one and the same object. 

(2.) The act of faith, if it should be exercised and have a tendency upon 
both these objects at once, must be before and also after itself ; for all acts 
are diversified by their objects and their tendency thereunto. Now, then, to 
affirm the first (or indeed any) act of faith justifying, to be a belief that a 
man is justified, is to make justification the antecedent to such a faith, 'for 



214 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

a thing must be before we believe it to be. And then on the other hand, 
that the first act should be the act whereby a man is justified, necessarily 
makes justification the consequent of its faith, and therefore these two 
would be a contradiction, and cannot consist together. 

Obj. But it may be objected, that there is a justification in God's heart 
and intention from all eternity, and in Christ representatively dying and 
rising as a common person before a man believes ; and so faith is but to 
believe that which is already extant, and a man's justification by faith is but 
a justification inforo conscientia. 

Ans. It is sufficient to say, let that justification or salvation after a man 
believes be what it will, yet to be sure it benefits no man without that jus- 
tification of application to his person, as I may call it: for_ that which 
brings a person into a state of justification, according to the rules of the 
word, is done by God upon believing, and until then a man remains under 
condemnation, and may truly say, God will not, nor cannot own him to be 
a justified person, no, not in his court, the open court which he will keep 
and proceed by at latter day, according to the rules of which he will then 
reckon a man to be under condemnation whilst he was an unbeliever ; and, 
if a man had died in that unbelief, he must have condemned him, as he 
doth all other unbelievers that shall then appear before him : For ' shall 
not the judge of all the world do right?' Gen. xviii. God will not look 
upon him as justified from all eternity, but as one that remains under unbe- 
lief, as the apostle speaks. He will not allege of any that he had justified 
him from eternity, and therefore save him, for his own declared word, 
which is the rule he judges by, would interpose and cause him so to pro- 
nounce and condemn that person that is under unbelief. And Christ hath 
sufficiently informed us in what he says, John xii. 48, ' The word that I 
have spoken, the same shall judge you at latter day.' And he speaks it 
upon occasion of the very thing in hand : ver. 46, ' Whosoever believes in 
me, shall not abide in darkness.' Thus he speaks affirmatively : ' And he 
that believes not on me, there is one that judgeth him,' ver. 47, 48. Thus 
he speaks negatively. And who is that that will judge him ? God. And by 
what will he judge him ? Even by this very word that Christ had spoken, 
ver. 48. And indeed that justification, according to the rules of God's 
word, is that which is the aim and drift of a humbled sinner, which he 
makes after, for it is that which he hears and understands, God calling upon 
him in his word for to seek it : ' Believe, and thou shalt be saved.' In 
answer hereunto the soul says, Lord, I believe that I may be saved ; and 
it is God according to his word that he hath to deal withal herein. 

It is in vain to say, I am justified by faith only in respect to the court of 
mine own conscience. It is in vain to say that a man's apprehension and 
faith that he was justified from eternity, is all that justification which the 
Scripture so constantly speaks of to be by and upon believing ; for, according 
to that opinion, a man was as much justified before he believed as after, 
and his faith would add nothing new to his state, but only his own appre- 
hension of it ; whereas the Scripture speaks of a man's justification by faith 
as of a real thing, and as a thing done anew ; for being justified by faith 
first, we have then peace with God, and peace with God is that justifica- 
tion which is in a man's own conscience, which there is made a fruit of 
justification by faith first, and whereof faith is also first the instrument ; 
and we have ' access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,' so that we 
are actually put into the state of grace before God, considered as he is the 
judge of all men, and thereupon we come to ' rejoice in hope of the glory 
of God.' But yet how far a believer wanting assurance, or one that begins 



Chap. III.] of justifying FAITH. 215 

to believe, may make rise of God's eternal purposes as they are doclared in 
the word, that he will justify sinners of the sons of men ; and how far such 
a one may urge and plead this as a motive which God hath declared to have 
been in his own heart, upon which he is moved to justify us in time ; and 
how far a soul may plead, that thereforo God would bo pleased accordingly 
thereunto to exert and put forth this justification of application, or indeed 
now actually to give it, which such a soul seeks for as yet to come, and 
cometh unto God. for to obtain it ; A how far I say the consideration of these 
decrees or purposes indefinitely made will promote and help forward such 
a one's faith, this is matter of another discussion ; but, in the meanwhile, 
what hath been at tho present said may serve for an answer to the aforesaid 
objection. 

These things having been thus on the negative cleared, both in shewing 
that no prerequisite condition in us is the object or ground for the first act 
of faith, as also that that act is not, nor cannot be, an assurance of our being 
justified, it comes next to be treated of affirmatively, what that first act 
of faith justifying should then be, both as to the object of it, as also for the 
kind of the act, &c. ; and then, after that, I shall shew that this act of faith 
is, and may be suited to the first sort of promises of salvation, which I 
have termed absolute, and how it may and is to apply itself unto them, 
which is the designed issue I drive all unto. 

I shall therefore propose and pursue the sense which may rightly be, 
and is the mind of one that doth now first set himself to believe ; but I must 
give this caution concerning it, that it is not to be understood as any part 
of that fore-mentioned syllogism, nor to be made the minor of it in those 
terms, ' but I believe,' and yet is a true application of those promises fore- 
mentioned, ' Whoever believes shall be saved' ; for there is this difference 
between this sense and the two former, and the drift of the fore-mentioned 
syllogism formed up by divines on the behalf of Christians that have already 
believed, which is made for, and serves to express their assurance in which 
it ends, for the soul thereupon infers, ' Therefore I shall be saved.' But 
this expression, ' I believe,' expresses what he doth, and what he attempts 
to do, and doth not at last terminate itself upon its own act of believing, as 
the other did, but spends its intention wholly upon God and Christ, who 
are to be the justifiers of him, to whom he therefore hath recourse for his 
justification. This first act of believing, then, is not a studying of, or reflec- 
tion upon, its own act, as seeing that he believes ; but it is a doing the 
thing in a direct manner ; he believes he doth the thing* by a direct act, 
and carries the soul forth of itself unto those who are his judges, and to be 
the justifiers of him, and doth this in a correspondency and an immediate 
answer or obedience unto that faith the promises call for, which directs him 
to, and requires of him to believe. Now then, affirmatively to set forth 
this direct act of justifying faith as properly such, in order to clear how 
absolute declarations or promises about salvation do suit it, and it recipro- 
cally suiteth them, let us fully examine and consider these three things 
about it. 

1. What is the proper object of such an act. 

2. What kind of act it is that he then may put forth. 

3. What is the aim and drift of him in his faith's acting upon that or 
these objects. 

Which three do comprehend, as I take it, all that belongs to the sub- 
stance of that act of believing ; for, as to the adjuncts of it, that it be 
unfeigned faith, spiritual faith, and that all these are in a spiritual manner 
* Qu. ' He believes : lie doth, &c.' ?— Ed. 



216 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

to be put forth, all these are supposed in all true fflth ; but it is the sub- 
stantialness of the act which we now inquire into. 

1. The object of such a faith is God and Christ, according to what they 
have declared themselves to be, considered as in relation to their saving 
and justifying of the sons of men ; God considered as declared to be a 
justifier of sinners, and Christ as a saviour ; these two, or either of them 
believed as such, come all to one as to our obtaining of salvation on either, 
which I observe, as from many other instances, so in that of the jailor, 
Acts xvi., which I have had and shall have occasion often to have recourse 
unto ; for here, as the apostle had at first propounded Jesus Christ to him 
as a Saviour — • Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved,' ver. 34, 
— yet when actual believing unto salvation comes to be spoken of, ver. 36, 
it is only mentioned that he believed in God ; for whilst we believe on the 
one in a more distinct manner, we know the interest that either have in 
our salvation, and it is interpreted that we believe in both ; and the believ- 
ing on the one in so explicit a manner is so far from excluding the other 
implied by it, as in concesso it involves both, and the soul knowing the 
interest of both, his faith may be really resolved into a faith of both or 
either of them. 

I shall therefore give instances of God and Christ apart being set forth 
in the promises to our faith. 

(1.) Christ, under the simple and absolute consideration of being a 
Saviour, is represented to us in the promises as the object of our faith : 
Isa. xlv. 22, ' Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; 
for I am God, and there is none else.' Christ is there spoken of, as 
appears from what follows in ver. 23. He is set forth as the only Saviour. 
' There is no God else besides me,' says he ; 'a just God and a Saviour.' 
And we see him as such nakedly proposed to our faith, as these words 
shew, ' Look unto me,' &c. We have a place parallel to this in the New 
Testament: John vi/40, 'And this is the will of him that sent me, that 
every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlast- 
ing life : and I will raise him up at the last day.' He that seeth the Son, 
i.e., with a spiritual light, so as to believe on him. These are acts purely 
acting upon him as he is the Christ and a Saviour; and the believing on 
that object requires no conditions first to be looked at by him that is to 
believe. And Christ had proposed himself before in like manner, as lift 
up on the cross and crucified (and thereby being become a Saviour), as the 
naked object for faith to look at: John iii. 14, 15, 'And as Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; 
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.' 
We have another instance of his being declared and set forth as a Saviour : 
1 Tim. i. 15, ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief.' 
The words are a bare proposal of him, wherein he is set forth as the 
immediate object to a sinner's faith. His being a Saviour, and his intent 
to save sinners of this world (not devils), is nakedly declared, simply so 
considered. He terms the manifestation of Christ 6 mtsroi Xoyog, ' a faithful 
saying,' speaking of that faithfulness upon which faith may build ; for 
unto faith doth faithfulness relate as an object fitted for it, holding on this 
Christ as a sure foundation for faith : 1 Peter ii. 6, ' Wherefore also it is 
contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, 
elect, precious ; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.' 
And the apostle Paul in that text, 1 Tim. i. 15, asserts this 'faithful say- 
ing' to be 'worthy of all acceptation.' He means that it deserves hearty 



Chap. III.] of .justifying faith. 217 

entertainment and receiving by faith. And of this faith on Christ tho 
apostle had proposed himself an example in the preceding ver. 14, so that 
this faithful saying had been the ground of his own faith. 

(2.) God the Father, as a justificr of men ungodly, is declared and set 
forth as the object of a sinner's faith : Kom. iv. 5, ' But to him that 
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth tho ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness.' It is a bare and absolute declaration of him, 
what a God he is in and of himself in justifying, and he is proposed as 
absolute as absolute can be, in opposition unto * all or any prerequisite 
qualification which the person to be justified should view in himself, col- 
laterally, to induce him to believe. 

1st, The justified person, or the subject, is the ungodly ; and God is set 
forth by this attribution, that he is a God that justifies the ungodly. 

2dly, Therefore the man is ungodly in the person's eye who justifies. 
God looks on him as ungodly, as one without any work, or disposition, or 
qualification which he respects in justifying. 

3dly, The person who comes to be justified is ungodly in his own 
thoughts and apprehensions of himself, as the foregoing words, viz., ' He 
that worketh not, but believeth,' &c, do shew. The meaning is, he is 
such an one who looks at no work in himself on the account of which he 
should be justified, or for which, and upon which, he might believe that he 
shall be justified. Yea, he is one who views nothing but the contrary, 
viz., mere ungodliness in himself, for which he should be condemned. It 
is true, indeed, that an act of believing is required of him ; but'jthat is but 
now a-putting forth by him, and therefore he builds not upon any former 
act of faith, for all in himself is in view nothing but ungodliness, and so 
there is an utter want even of faith itself, as any way seen by him, to 
induce him to believe on God. Hence then it is that he believes on God 
nakedly, as viewed to be a justifier of men ungodly ; and it is under that 
consideration he believes on him. And this is the faith which is imputed 
for righteousness, that noble and heroic pure faith which gives glory to 
God. And herein his heart in believing answers unto God's heart in sav- 
ing. For look, as God doth not choose him unto salvation upon faith 
foreseen, or good works foreseen, so nor doth the soul believe in God upon 
works foreseen, or faith foreseen. Such a first choice of us by God upon 
the foresight of our faith and working, would derogate from the freeness of 
that grace which is in his heart : Kom. xi. 6, ' And if by grace, then it is 
no more of works ; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of 
works, then it is no more grace ; otherwise work is no more work.' That 
it is spoken of election appears by ver. 5, ' Even so then at this present 
time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.' God then 
looks into his own heart only for that which should move him to do this. 
And yet withal, it must be said that he actually saves no man without faith. 
As God thus looks in election at no faith or works in us, so the soul's first 
act of believing knows not, nor looks at any in his own heart to move or 
induce him to believe on God ; but the soul only looks at what is in God's 
heart, as declared in the promises, and at his sole free grace in justifying ; 
and yet he knows withal that faith is requisite that he mayibe justified, 
and that without it all the grace which is in God's heart would never 
justify nor save him, whilst yet he had nothing in his eye viewed in him- 
self either directly or collaterally to move him to believe. He hath nothing 
which either with a direct or squint eye he should consider, but only and 
merely God as justifying. 

We have in the Old Testament a parallel to this Rom. iv. 5, of God's 



218 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

being a justifier of the ungodly purely considered : Isa. xliii. 25, 26, ' I, 
even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and 
will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance ; let us plead 
together : declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.' This promise Mr 
Bulkely acknowledgeth to be an absolute promise, as such are those wherein 
God says, I will do thus or thus ' for mine own sake.' And that it is 
parallel to this text, Rom. iv. 5, is evident, 

[1.] Because it is spoken of God as a justifier both in ver. 25, where he 
says, ' I am he who blotteth out transgressions,' and in ver. 26, where 
justification is expressly mentioned. 

[2.] He instructs the persons who are to be justified to apprehend their 
own utter ungodliness : ver. 22-24, ' But thou hast not called upon me, 
Jacob ; but thou hast been weary of me, Israel. Thou hast not brought 
me the small cattle of thy burnt- offerings, neither hast thou honoured me 
with thy sacrifices : I have not caused tbee to serve with an offering, nor 
wearied thee with incense. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with 
money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices ; but thou 
hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine 
iniquities.' 

[3.] Which, when God had said, he sets forth himself barely, nakedly, 
and absolutely, and as alone considered in what is in himself, as the 
justifier of them. For this is imported by those words, ver. 25, ' I, even 
I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions ; ' whereby he emphatically 
calls in all the thoughts and intentions of tbeir minds to be first on him- 
self, as he is in himself and of himself a God pardoning sins and justifying 
their persons, as the apostle with the like emphasis expresseth it when he 
speaks of him as justifying the ungodly. 

[4.] God tells us that he blots out transgressions for his own name's 
sake, and for that alone ; and that he doth it upon no other motives or 
ground but only what is in his own heart. That he doth it only for the 
sake of that great name of his, uttered and proclaimed on purpose 
(Exod. xxxiv.) to shew what inwardly moves him to be a God pardoning 
iniquity, transgression, and sin. 'I, even I (says God), who am Jehovah, 
gracious, merciful, abundant in kindness and truth, pardoning iniquity, 
&c, do blot out your transgressions, for this mine own name's sake.' 

I remember that Zanchy says that that text, Exod. xxxiv. 7, is also 
spoken of Christ, who is God with God, and the justifier of us also for his 
own sake, and righteousness' sake. However, according to my former 
rule fiven, that God in Christ is always to be understood, Christ must be 
taken in, as the person in whom and in whose righteousness God justifies. 
So that, when I say that God, and what is in God alone represented in 
the promises, is the object of faith, it is to be understood only in opposi- 
tion unto what is in us, and not as opposed to Christ, who is co-partner 
with God in this his glory, and who also was his counsellor; and in like 
manner God is not excluded when we speak of faith in Christ alone. 

[5.] Lastly, To fix their hearts on himself alone when they would seek 
to be justified, he adds in that Isaiah xliii. 26, 'Put me in remembrance; 
let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.' As if 
he should say, K you can think of any other way of being justified than 
onlv me, tell it of me ; but indeed there is none. 

And these and such I call, 1, declarations and promises; for these two 
in this matter come all to one as to our purpose. And we use that ex- 
pression of God and Christ's being declared and set forth as the objects of 
faith, because it agrees with those phrases used by the apostle to the same 



CUAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITII. 219 

purpose (as was observed) : Rom. iii. 24, ' Being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.' Here both God 
and Christ are mentioned as the causes of our justification. He first 
speaks of Christ: ver. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth,' says he, viz., as an 
object of our faith, as justif}ing, ' to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood.' And then he speaks of God the Father in those words, ' To 
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
the forbearance of God.' He means the righteousness of God justifying, 
which he again repeats : ver. 2G, ' To declare, I say, at this time his right- 
eousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in 
Jesus.' 

(2.) I call them absolute declarations and promises, because as they aro 
the propounded objects of faith in this matter of justification, so they are 
simply and absolutely to be viewed by us ; and no conditions or qualifica- 
tions are to be considered in us, as upon the intuition of which we should 
come to believe in them. 

And now give me leave to cast in my thoughts concerning that great 
convert Saul; for which if you will not take what follows as proofs, yet 
admit them as conjectures. 

[1.] His first saving faith on Christ was but a bare act of recumbency at 
his first conversion ; so that though he saw Christ in heaven appearing to 
him, yet this sight at that instant wrought not a saving act of faith ; but 
Christ left that for his Spirit to work. The vision stunned him indeed, 
and put a stop to his career, and convinced him, as great miracles did 
others, that he was the Messiah whom he had persecuted. But the true 
and thorough work was done within his own soul, when he was retired 
alone with God and Christ. And my reason why he had not by that 
vision a true saving faith is, because he makes his having known Christ 
visibly with his bodily eyes to be a not knowing him, if compared with 
the knowledge which is the effect of the new creature: 2 Cor. v. 16, 17, 
' Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though we 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no 
more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old 
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;' which scrip- 
ture some interpreters have applied to this very thing. And the same is 
evident also by this chief reason, inasmuch as he had that conviction, 
which first astonished him, by the law, which was preparative to an act of 
saving faith wrought in him after; for so himself gives the account, Rom. 
vii. 7, where he says that he ' had not known sin but by the law.' The 
Pharisees' principle was that lust was no sin; and therefore he say3, 
verse 9, 'I was alive without the law once,' viz., before my conversion, 
while a Pharisee; but ' when the commandment came,' in the true light of 
it, 'sin revived' in my conscience, says he, 'and I died.' He then saw 
himself in a state of death, which wrought a death in the apprehension of 
his soul: Rom. vii. 10, 'And the commandment, which was ordained to 
life, I found to be unto death.' His meaning is, that that law, which he 
verily thought he should live by, was found by him, unto his utter con- 
fusion, to be unto death. And this apostle then in the beginnings of his 
conversion, lying under such apprehensions, with that great account of 
sins coming in withal, may very well be thought to have no mind to eat or 
drink, but to spend his time in humbling himself under the mighty hand 
of God. And then if we bring it to that account which he gives of the 
work of faith in him, Gal. ii. 15, 16, he there including himself with the 
rest of the Christian Jews, yea, and with his fellow-apostles, it shews that 



220 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

they altogether with him had come in but with such a faith. And it is 
certain that those converts during John the Baptist's and our Saviour's 
time had but a faith of recumbence, for they received not the Holy Ghost 
as a Comforter and as an assurer till after the ascension. And it was they 
who were the poor, the meek, the captives, &c, to whom Christ at first 
preached, Mat. v. 1-4; and who were the weary and heavy laden, Mat. 
xi. 28, 29; and who were wrought upon by John the Baptist's ministry, 
ver. 12; and then they cleaved to Christ: ' Whither shall we go?' said 
they ; ' with thee are the words of eternal life,' John vi. G8. They had 
assurance that he was the Messiah. And the faith that Paul and the 
other apostles were justified by, was their believing on Christ that they 
might be justified (the words in Gal. ii. 15, 16 are express), and not a 
believing that they were justified already, and therefore it was not an act 
of assurance. 

[2.] My second reason is from the narrative of his conversion, Acts ix. 
It is first said that he did not eat nor drink for three days, ver. 9. Now, 
that he was fasting all that while, and neither ate nor drank, shews his 
humbled condition, and that his sins came in upon him all that time. 
And that conviction you read him mention of himself, Gal. ii., that by the 
works of the law he could not be justified ; which conviction in him was, as 
it is in us now, preparatory to faith in Christ. 

[3.] And yet that Christ should say of him, ' Behold, he prayeth,' verse 
11, doth as clearly argue that he had true justifying faith begun, such, 
viz., as, Gal. ii. 16, he mentions. The first part exactly agrees with his 
relation, Bora, vii. And withal the proofs that he had saving faith then 
is, that he prayed, and so prayed, as Christ gives an eminent signal 
approbation, and so an acceptation of it, with a behold to it: 'Behold, he 
prayeth.' And ' how shall they call on him on whom they have not 
believed?' says himself afterward, Born. x. 14; and yet both his faith and 
prayer in faith seems not to have been an assurance, for it had not risen 
up unto that yet. And my reasons for it are : 

1st, That he had not received the Spirit as a comforter till Ananias was 
sent to him to put his hands upon him, and to tell him he was a chosen 
vessel unto Christ, ver. 15; and therefore Ananias, as it would seem, 
breaking in upon him, calls him brother at first dash, ver. 17. 

2dly, Had he had assurance of faith before the coming of Ananias, he- 
would not have continued without eating and drinking so long, but would 
have received food to strengthen him, as he did upon his receiving the 
Holy Ghost, ver. 19. 

[4.] A distinction of this double work of faith of recumbency first, and 
of personal assurance after, you may observe in Gal. ii., and that both 
were in our apostle, that of recumbency first, and then that of assurance 
expressed afterward, will appear by comparing verses 16 and 20 together. 

First, He had a faith that he might be justified, and a faith it was upon 
a work of conviction in the first place ; for it was wrought first, and was 
common to them all. 

Secondly, There was faith of assurance : ver. 20, ' I am crucified with 
Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the 
life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me, and gave himself for me.' 

The last observation is, that it was the indefinite declaration, that Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners, and so was the Messiah, which 
was revealed to him as the ground of that his first faith of recumbency, that 
he might be justified, and it was that drew him in. And my conjecture for 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 221 

it is (if you will not allow it to be proof), that after he had proposed his 
example, 1 Tim. i. 15, he commends that faithful saying, that Christ came 
to save sinners, after the story of his conversion that went before, in which 
he at once propounds his own example or pattern of obtaining mercy, and 
also the very ground of that his faith, to all that should afterwards believe, 
as it follows, ver. 1G. 

Obj. But you may say that his expression, ' whereof I am chief,' argues 
his faith to have been assurance. 

Am. 1. I answer, it is true that he had now assurance, and so could add 
it, that Christ came actually and personally to save him. 

Am. 2. Yet his end in doing it was not so much to express his faith as his 
sinfulness, and thereby to prevent and remove a great discouragement that 
keeps souls off from believing, viz., the greatness of sins, which in my 
example you may see, says he, is taken away, and so is no hindrance at all 
to believing. For that the scope of that addition centres in that scripture, 
1 Tim. i. 16, shews : ' Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in 
me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to 
them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.' And 
therefore still it may remain firm that the object of his and all believers' 
faith at first is this saying, or the substance of it, as ' worthy of all accep- 
tation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners ;' which, say I, is 
clearly an absolute indefinite declaration in the very sound of it. 

The corollaries from this instance of Paul are these : 

(1.) That both the work of humiliation and of faith wrought in him, 
were for the acts and objects conformable to the work of faith in all other 
believers, though the outward means and other circumstances were ex- 
traordinary. 

(2.) By a faith of bare recumbency that we might be justified, founded 
upon an indefinite promise or declaration, we may likewise pray in faith 
for pardon acceptably before assurance obtained. Our faith and prayer 
both may be grounded upon no other than an indefinite promise, declara- 
tion, and example ; yea, and we may from thence be able to plead for the 
pardon of the greatest sins. 



CHAPTEB IV. 

What act of faith it is which those that want assurance may exercise upon such 
absolute declarations and promises, and of the suitableness between that act 
and such objects. 

2. All acts do receive their specification or kind from their objects and 
their tendency thereunto, and so we must next discern the kind of the 
actings of these men's faith from that (with difference from that other per- 
sonal assurance) by their suitableness unto those their objects, viz., these 
absolute promises. In such absolute declarations and promises for salva- 
tion there are eminently two things to be attended. 

(1.) The matter of them, or things contained in them, and absolutely 
promised or declared, and that are exposed to be the object and aim of 
faith. 

(2.) The tenor of them as they respect persons. 

(1.) The matter of them promised is either salvation itself, which is 
expressed in those promises of God's pardoning a man's sins for his name's 
sake, and of God's being our God, and writing his law in our hearts, and 



222 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

his saying, I am a Saviour, and there is none hesides me, and many the 
like ; or there are the causes thereof which do express the motives moving 
God thereunto, such as are the declarations of the riches of his mercy and 
grace, his free love, the good pleasure of his will for his name's sake, &c. 
Although these in the matter of them are thus absolutely declared or pro- 
mised, yet the tenor of them to persons is not universal, as if God intended 
all and every man in such promises, as was said ; but they are indefinite 
only, and promiscuous, yet are to be promulged or made known to all. 
This may suffice as to the object. Again, 

(2.) There being two faculties in the soul, the understanding and the 
will, each of these have a proper acting and exercise of faith towards God 
and Christ, as they have revealed themselves in these declarations and 
promises, that so a soul may obtain the things therein. And we must 
allow even in them that first believe, as well as in any other that want 
assurance, actings of faith both in the understanding and also in the will. 
For every man that believes must believe ' with his whole heart,' as the 
eunuch, Acts viii., and ' with the heart man believeth to salvation,' Rom. 
x., and that with respect towards these absolute promises. 

And in the first place, it must be granted that there is both an assurance 
of faith in the understanding, and in the will a firm adhering to the things 
revealed in the promises. First, In the understanding there must be an 
act of assurance. But how ? and of what ? Namely, of and about that 
first thing we noted in the promises, viz., the matter or things contained in 
them. And as in respect thereunto, look as the promises and declarations 
are absolute, ' yea and amen ;' so every believer must have as absolute an 
assurance of faith thereof. As, for instance, a soul must be assured con- 
cerning Christ that he is a Saviour, and that there is none besides him, 
and that he came into this world with a most absolute purpose to save 
sinners of mankind (for they are only the dwellers in this world to which 
he came), which elogy or saying the apostle doth therefore propose and 
commend to the faith of men as the most sure and faithful saying that ever 
was uttered: 1 Tim. i. 15, ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom 
I i am chief.' I say, he proposeth it to be entertained with all acceptation 
of faith and assent by them, and to be absolutely believed by them without 
wavering or doubting. And Christ himself imposeth the faith thereof as 
essentially necessary to salvation : John viii. 24, ' If ye believe not that I 
am he,' the Messiah, or Saviour of the world, as I have often declared 
myself to be, ' you shall die in your sins.' Thus likewise, concerning God, 
we must absolutely believe that he is a God of mercies, pardoning iniquity, 
transgression, and sin, Exodus xxxiv. 6, a justifier of the ungodly, Bom. 
iv. 5, a God of pardons, Neh. ix. 17 (so it is in the Hebrew). These 
things must be as veriby and indubitably believed with full assurance of 
understanding (as it is termed, Col. ii. 2) as that we believe there is a God; 
for by the same necessity that he that comes to God must believe that he 
is, by the same parallel of necessity, he that cometh to God or Christ to 
be saved and justified, must as absolutely believe that he is a justifier of 
the ungodly. There must be fixed likewise in every believing soul a firm 
persuasion of the full resolvedness of God's and Christ's will, purposes, and 
intentions to save some of the sons of men effectually, concerning which 
there are likewise so many testimonies and absolute declarations in the 
word. 

Lastly, There ^is necessary a belief of the infinite riches of mercy that 
are in the divine nature, which are as the sea that feeds and maintains the 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faitu. 223 

springs of those bis purposes and intentions, and the streams issuing from 
those springs in overflowing promises with abundant kindness and truth. 
And the more the soul comes to be persuaded and possessed of all these 
things in the assurance of understanding, the deeper foundation is laid, and 
the stronger hold and obligation there is upon his will to draw it to trust 
on God for a man's particular salvation. 

Secondly, In the will there is to be in every believer a firm and fixed 
adherence or cleaving unto God and Christ, and unto the good things pro- 
mised by them : Ps. lxiii. 8, ' My soul cleaveth unto thee ' (so the Hebrew 
word is, it being the same that is used Deut. x. 20, and chap. xiii. 4) ; it 
is further added, ' My soul cleaveth to thee behind.* The meaning is, that 
when God seemed to turn away from him, and to leave him, yet the soul 
will not part so with him, but takes hold of him, though behind, when yet 
it cannot see his face and favour. A soul that hath assurance, and sees 
the face and favour of God to stand towards him, may be said to cleave 
unto God before ; but when God turns away his face, that soul cleaves to 
him behind ; that is, it both will and doth lay hold on him through adher- 
ence of faith, as it resolves never to leave and forsake him, however he 
should seem to deal with it. Thus Ruth is said to cleave to Naomi, Faith 
i. 14, which act of cleaving to her, when Naomi bade her return, Ruth thus 
expresseth, verse 16, ' Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from 
following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou 
lodgest I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.' 
And verse 17, ' Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried : 
the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.' 
"Which cleaving, verse 18, is further termed a being ' stedfastly minded to 
go with her,' analogically unto which this cleaving of the soul by faith to 
God is termed a cleaving with purpose of heart; that is, a stedfast fixed 
resolution of heart not to part with him, Acts xi. 23. And thus doth the 
will of a believer cleave firmly and stedfastly unto God, when yet God 
makes as if he would shake it off, and to depart therefrom. And whereas 
Ruth said, ' Nought but death shall part thee and me,' Job, he says, 
1 Though thou kill me, I will trust in thee ; ' that is, death itself shall not 
part me from thee, will this soul say unto God in his ultimate resolves. 
Nay, the soul says to God, Hell shall not part thee and me ; for thou art 
there, and I will cleave to thee if thou throwest me thither. Thou shalt 
never be rid of me, for that is my resolution. The reason of this fixedness 
of the will is from that spiritual sight and assurance that (as we said) is in 
the understanding, of the things themselves contained in the promises, the 
understanding being thereby invincibly possessed of those riches of mercy 
and goodness which are in God, of that mercy and forgiveness that is with 
him, and that is there to be had, and of that abundance of grace and 
righteousness which is in Christ, and plenteous redemption for the 
salvation of sinners (Ps. cxxx.), and all these shining in those absolute 
declarations and promises, and through them into the soul. Faith in the 
understanding lets down into the will the absolute and complete goodness 
of the salvation promised, and that in the causes of it ; and the will is 
drawn thereby with as invincible a resolution to cleave unto God for the 
obtainment thereof. And then again, another reason of this its cleaving, 
is, that God, though he hide his particular favour and grace from this soul, 
and holds it yet in suspense as to that, yea, and turns away, as was said : 
yet, in the mean time, he secretly by his right hand upholds that soul, and 
draws it by that his efficacious power to cleave to him ; and that also 

* For this reading of the words, see Piscator, Dutch Annotat., Genebrard, Muis. 



224 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

follows in the next words of that verse, in that psalm fore-cited, • Thy right 
hand,' that is, thy power, ' upholdeth me,' and causeth me thus to hang 
upon thee, though it be but behind ; and if he seems to go away, yet then 
the soul is carried to follow hard after him the more ; as our translators 
have rendered it, ' My soul follows hard after thee.' And hence it is that 
though God should defer him long, 3 7 et he continues to seek him. And 
thus you see, as to the matter of those absolute promises, there is both an 
assurance in the understanding, and a firmness of adherency in the will, 
even in him that at present wants sight and assurance of the face and favour 
of God, which was the case of the psalmist at that time, and therefore the 
same may be in any that wants that assurance. 

And these two acts are (though in a greater or lesser degree) common 
unto all believers. 

But, 2dly, there is further, the tenor of those absolute promises, which 
comes to be considered as they respect persons ; and from thence it is that 
so great a difference is between the faith of him that hath a personal 
assurance of his interest therein, and the faith of these other believers that 
want it. As also from hence it is that difficulty ariseth, how such souls, 
wanting personal assurance, may yet come to lay hold on such absolute 
promises for their own persons, and with what kind of faith. 

(1.) What is the difference between that act of faith, which the apostle to 
the Hebrews calls ' full assurance of faith,' Heb. x., as comprehending not 
only an assurance of the things and matter of the promises, as that God's 
absolute will is to save sinners, &c, but together therewith an assurance 
that I am the very individual person whom God means to save, &c. 
Between this faith, I say, and the faith of single and simple adherence, 
the difference lies herein, inasmuch as faith in the understanding of him 
that is an adherent only comes short in this, that he doth not as yet firmly 
and prevailingly over his doubts believe that himself is the individual 
person intended by God in the promises, concerning which the other is 
fully satisfied, and accordingly can and doth with assurance apply those 
promises to himself, that they are his, &c. So as indeed the former hath 
a whole or complete assurance, both of the matter and also of his own 
personal interest ; but this other poor soul hath but an half assurance, 
namely, of the matter, &c, but not of the second, viz., his personal 
interest therein, touching which God is as yet pleased not to reveal that 
to him. ' 

(2.) As to the difficulty mentioned, viz., how such souls may yet have 
recourse to such absolute promises, and with what kind, or rather degree, 
of faith ; for answer hereto, I still take that rule along with me, that faith 
is to be some way or other answering and conformable to what is in the 
promise, or it is not faith ; and that if it comes up to the tenor of it, as 
we see it hath done to the matter thereof, it must needs be true faith. 
And my grand assertion here about it is, that there is and may be place 
for actings of true faith both in the understanding and the will of such an 
one, answering and conformable unto the tenor of these promises, as we 
heard there was in each of those faculties towards the matter of them. 
And this correspondency must be distinguished by its tendency towards 
that tenor of them. Now, this suitableness and conformity between this 
faith wanting personal assurance, and the tenor of these promises (which I 
call absolute) lies thus. 

1. On the part of the promises, the tenor of them is indefinite to 
persons, and not universal to all men. It is true those second sort of 
promises fore-mentioned, which express a condition whereunto salvation 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 225 

is annexed, are universal, that is, to all and every one that hath the 
qualifications in them. And in that strain they run, ' Whosoever bulieveth 
shall be saved ; ' and more emphatically, Rom. iii. 22, the apostle speaks 
of ' the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, 
and upon all them that believe,' where he ingeminates the universality to 
all, and upon all them that believe, but not to all men absolutely : Pro- 
missiones evangelii universcdes suit/, non absolute, sed resrpectu credentium, says 
Parana very well in his commentary on that text : the promises of the 
gospel are universal, not absolutely, but with respect to believers. But in 
absolute promises it is not so, for they mention no such qualifications 
already wrought. 

[2. 1 In this very tenor of them which thus respecteth persons, we must 
consider that they have yet something of absoluteness, or of certainty, 
concerning persons, which is as certainly to be believed, and yet some- 
thing that is but indefinite ; both which I shall specify, to the end that I 
may by and by shew the punctual conformity of faith wanting personal 
assurance unto the tenor of those promises. 

1st. That which is absolutely or certainly declared in those promises 
concerning persons, for all faith as of a certainty to build on, is this : 

(1.) It is most certain and absolutely declared in such promises concerning 
persons, that some shall have those promises fulfilled on them : Heb. iv. 6, 
' It remaineth, therefore, that some must enter in.' Which declaration 
made thus under the gospel, speaks the true intent of all absolute promises 
as to persons, shewing they are understood, but only of some, and yet cer- 
tainly and absolutely of some. The expression is, ' they must enter in ; ' 
for which also the apostle there allegeth an oath of God, than which 
nothing could make the promise more absolute. Likewise those passages 
of Christ's evidence the same thing: John x. 16, 'Other sheep I have 
which are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
my voice,' &c. 

(2.) It is absolutely certain also in those promises, that these persons 
are (1.) Of all sorts of sinners, and all manner of iniquity shall be forgiven, 
except that against the Holy Ghost, says Christ, to some or other. (2.) Of 
persons in all ages or successions of times. (3.) In all nations, and of all 
places : ' Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be saved ; ' and 
' Thou hast redeemed us out of all nations, tongues, and kindreds,' &c, 
Rev. v. 9. (4.) Out of all ranks and conditions, bond and free, poor and 
rich, kings, and all in authority. By all men, all sorts of men are intended. 

2dly, Yet these promises are withal still indefinitely uttered as to per- 
sons. For if some, and but some — ' that I may win some,' says the greatest 
converter of souls — are saved, then still not all ; if out of all nations, then 
not all in or of a nation. And truly in their saying, ' Thou hast redeemed 
us out of all nations, tongues, and kindreds,' he makes the very redemption 
of Christ to be but of some in all, and they that speak this speak it not of 
themselves, as they had been justified, called, and sanctified. No; they 
say not, Thou hast called us out of all nations, &c, but plainly, Thou hast 
redeemed us with thy blood out of all nations, so limiting it to redemption. 
They speak of those namely on whom Christ, in shedding his blood for 
them (they speaking it to Christ), had his redeeming eye, which he had 
not in redeeming unto the rest of those nations, which are therefore distin- 
guished from these even by a redemption of them, which is not of those 
other. And there is a vast difference between saying, Thou hast redeemed 
all nations, as the Universalists say, and, Thou hast redeemed us, a select 
company, out of all nations, as they speak here. There is no such univer- 

VOL. VIII. p 



226 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

sality the promises are made unto, though these promises are to be pro- 
mulged to the universality of all mankind. And the promises are then 
to be styled indefinite, whilst they absolutely and certainly declare that 
some must and shall enter in, and that all shall not, and yet do no way 
signify who they are, either by any discernible mark or character of differ- 
ence, or by naming those persons (God reserving that to himself, and leav- 
ing it in suspense) until the qualification of faith and such other graces 
are wrought in them. And those promises which are made unto such 
qualifications we call conditional promises, which are in their tenor uni- 
versal ; but not so tbese absolute of this sort which we speak of, for they 
can bear no other title, as they respect persons, but of indefiniteness, 
though they be otherwise never so absolute. If we will take an impartial 
survey of all absolute declarations and promises of salvation, they will be 
found thus indefinite, as in respect to persons, as they are proposed for 
objects unto our faith. Thus it is in that grand proclamation which was 
made on purpose as the foundation of Old Testament faith, wherein the 
riches of the mercy in the divine nature are discovered and exposed, ' The 
Lord, gracious, merciful,' &c, Deut. xxxiv. 6. This, as it respects persons, 
to whom God means to be gracious, have this professed restriction pre- 
mised thereto by God himself the promulger : ' I will be merciful to whom 
I will be merciful ; ' chap, xxxiii. ver. 19, ' I will proclaim the name of 
the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and 
will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' The import of which, what 
is it other than that he will absolutely be merciful unto some, even those 
whom he will, but not to all ? And who those are to whom he will be 
merciful he reserves within himself, and yet professeth to proclaim this, 
that all the people might know it, and accordingly Moses published it to 
all. And this was of all other the first most solemn promulgation of mercy 
publicly made that ever was made before, and so the tenor of it is rrtensura 
reliquorum, the measure of the rest. That God also will blot out, or pardon 
transgressions for his name's sake, Isa. xliii. 25, is an absolute promise, 
fitted to the faith of any one that hath a will to believe. It speaks to no 
condition or qualification, but the contrary : ver. 22-24, ' But thou hast 
not called upon me, Jacob ; but thou hast been weary of me, Israel. 
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt- offerings, neither 
hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices : I have not caused thee to 
serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought 
me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of 
thy sacrifices ; but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast 
wearied me with thine iniquities.' He names no person but Jacob ; that 
is, his people elect, as elsewhere he calls them; yea, and there also, ver. 21, 
• The people he had formed for himself, to shew forth his praise,' who are 
in other scriptures termed before their calling, ' children of God,' John 
xi. 52 ; his people, Acts xv. 14, and Acts xviii. 10. But who these are, 
till they believe, none knows. Yea, and he limits this pardon unto them : 
Micah vii. 18, 19, ' Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and 
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? he retaineth 
not his anger for ever, because he delight eth in mercy. He will turn again, 
he will have compassion upon us ; he will subdue our iniquities ; and thou 
wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' The words are purely 
what are in Exod. xxxiii. and xxxiv., and they whom they concern are but 
the remnant whom he hath chosen for his heritage, which who knows but 
he ? The like we have also in that declaration concerning Christ's inten- 
tion of coming into the world to save sinners, commended for such a 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 227 

faithful saying, for all our faith to receive and accept : 1 Tim. i. 15, ' This 
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief.' It is sinners in the 
world indefinitely, he says not all, not all universally, which the very sound 
and tenor of the speech shews. And it is of great force to confirm it to be 
so, that he speaks of that redemption by Christ, and that sort of purpose 
therein to save these sinners, to be every way one and the same with that 
which he had of saving the apostle himself, which the apostle came then 
to find and discern, when Christ had by such an overflow of love and 
almighty power wrought faith in him : ver. 14, ' And the grace of our 
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.' 
And therefore he was now able with assurance to put in his own name, in 
saying, ' of whom I am chief.' And in saying so he puts himself (we 
evidently see) into the same rank and number, sort and heap, of all the 
sinners that were redeemed, and all of them redeemed with the same grace 
and intention that Paul himself had been redeemed with, and made the 
subject of in Christ's heart. He himself was redeemed with no other aim 
than they all were. That which did put the difference was, that he was 
the chief of that rank in sinning. And surely Christ's aim and eye at him 
in dying for him was out of a special grace and love, whereby he died not 
only to make him salvable, as some would dilute Christ's intention in dying 
for the non-elect, affirming that Christ died for all men thus far, barely to 
make this proposition true of all men, that if they would believe they should 
be saved. It is certain that he died for Paul with a further intention of 
love than so; even efficaciously to give him faith, and invincibly save him. 
For that grace in converting him effectually it is he there so predicates, 
ver. 14, ' The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and 
love,' &c, and magnifies Christ for having come into the world to bestow it 
on him. Christ did not die with one intention for Paul, and another inten- 
tion for others, for he ranks the other sinners for whom Christ died in 
common with himself, together in one rank with his own person. He puts 
himself and them in the same rank. Now Christ died for him as a chosen 
vessel to himself, &c, as Christ himself that died for him from heaven 
speaks of him, Acts ix. 15, and in dying bore the same love to the rest of 
those sinners he died for that he did to Paul ; he dying for him and them 
considered in one body, Eph. ii., whereof Paul was but a member. And 
therefore Paul propounds himself as a pattern of this grace unto all that 
should by virtue of Christ's dying come to believe : ver. 16, ' For this 
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all 
long-suffering, for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him 
to life everlasting.' And withal commends this faithful saying thus inde- 
finitely uttered, ' that Christ came into the world to save sinners,' as the 
most accommodate object to their faith, upon which they should embrace 
and lay hold on Christ, as it had been so to him, when in his humiliation 
be had seen himself to be the chiefest of sinners. To conclude this, I will 
say, that after all the wringing, and writhing, and turning things this way 
and that, and when men have said all that they can, it will be found that the 
world, which is the adequate object of Christ's aim in dying (which he is 
elsewhere said to have come to save, and is thereupon proclaimed to be 
the Saviour of the world, John iv. 42) is no otherwise to be understood 
than of men in the world indefinitely taken. Yea, and that other phrase of 
'all men,' of whom likewise he is said [to be] the Saviour, will after all agi- 
tations issue in and come to its being an indefinite expression (as we have 
explained it), noting out men in all nations, of all ranks, ages, conditions, 



228 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

and sorts of sinners over all the world. And so it imports an indefinite- 
ness, and not an universality of persons to have heen intended in it ; and 
so all these declarations and promises of salvation which are ahsolute are 
to be understood. 

I come now to demonstrate the suitableness of the faith of one that 
knows not of a certainty of himself to be intended, unto the tenor of the 
promises as it respects persons. Let us see then what actings of faith 
there may be in such an one for his own personal salvation, although he is 
not assured of his personal interest, and view withal (which I mainly intend) 
the correspondency which faith in such an one doth hold with the tenor of 
such promises, as it hath been opened ; which will at once evince that such 
a faith is saving; for if faith answers the promise, it is certainly true saving 
faith ; as also make way to instruct us how in such a case we may apply 
ourselves unto absolute promises, which is the point I ultimately drive at. 

I shall, as I have done before, when I shewed the correspondency of 
such a man's faith to the matter of the promises, go over the actings of 
the soul towards the tenor of them, and that as to both the understanding 
and will. 

1. These absolute promises do in the tenor afford and lay before faith 
in the understanding of such an one, these great truths that follow, which 
are productive of faith in his will, and do draw on this will to close with 
God and Christ, with acts therein suitable to the tenor of the promises for 
his particular salvation. They present to faith in his understanding : 
1st, That there are some, and those not a few, persons whom God cer- 
tainly and undoubtedly intends to save, and whom he will effectually give 
faith unto. And although the man may yet be suspensive whether his own 
person or no be included, yet in the mean while faith may and doth meet with 
and come up to this part of the promise, in that he full} r believes that some 
shall be saved. And he may and doth believe this piece of the tenor of it, 
notwithstanding his wavering as to his own person, even as absolutely as 
the promises themselves, viz., that God is absolutely (that is, certainly) 
resolved to save some with a free and efficacious grace. ' There are that 
shall come to me,' says Christ, John vi. 37. And again, there are those 
that are the children of God (in God's purpose) who shall hear my voice, 
John xi. 52 ; and the belief of this at once gives hope as concerning this 
thing ; for if the example of that one person, Paul, is proposed by himself, 
and the Holy Ghost speaking in him, as a pattern and flag of mercy held 
out to toll and invite others in, who were after to believe (as in that 1 Tim. i. 
we may read), then much more are we encouraged when we hear that 
there are a many for whom Christ came into the world with an absolute 
intention to save them. Thus Christ speaks: ' My blood,' said he, ' that 
is shed for many for the remission of sins,' when now he was to die, Mat. 
xxvL 28 ; and when they shall come together in that last great general 
assembly, it is said of them, Rev. vii. 9, ' Lo, a great multitude, which 
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, 
stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, 
and palms in their hands.' And likewise the belief of thus much concerning 
persons in a matter of so near and great concernment as a man's salvation 
is, will, through the Spirit's drawing, quicken and stir up the will to put in 
for it for a man's self (although he knows not certainly that he is the person 
intended), and accordingly to endeavour after the obtaining of it. This we 
manifestly may find in the coherence of the 6th and 11th verses of Heb. iv., 
' Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein' (namely, that 
rest), ' and they to whom it was first preached entered not in, because of 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 229 

unbelief,' the confirmation of which he prosecutes in the following verses. 
In the 11th verse, he draws forth this inference from that his former : ' Let 
us labour therefore to enter into that rest,' says he in ver. 11, ' lest any 
man fall after the same example of unbelief;' which punctually answers 
in tbe way of exhortation unto both parts of his foregoing doctrine in that 
ver. G ; and the true reason of such an inference may be seen in the ordi- 
nary practice of men : for if when men know aforehand that one, yea, but 
one shall, in running a race, obtain a crown, yet all that are habilitated for 
a race will venture their ability and skill to run for it, and this when it is 
but for a ' corruptible crown,' as the apostle enforceth his exhortation, 
1 Cor. ix. 24, 25, then how much more when we know that not one only, 
but many, and so great a multitude shall obtain, and that the gage or 
price at stake is not a corruptible, but ' an incorruptible crown,' as the 
apostle (ver. 25) further heightens and raiseth his motive and argumenta- 
tion to this our very purpose in hand. 

2. These absolute promises and declarations do lay before the under- 
standing of such an one, that these some or many are of all sorts (as was 
said), out of all nations, ages, both of succession of times, and ages of 
persons, and also of all sinners of all sorts, in all the degrees, and sizes, 
and proportions of sinnings, even the chiefest, as the apostle's vision shews, 
Acts ix. 12; all manner of beasts, wild and creeping things, from the basest 
worms to the most loathed and monstrous beasts, were involved in that 
sheet, which was the figure of the church catholic, represented unto Peter, 
as those that were to be called and converted out of all sorts of sinners, 
even the vilest. These declarations, in like manner, hold forth that it is 
God's very design to comprehend and take in of all these, whatever their 
sins, their ranks, their conditions be. He would have some of all kindreds, 
families, callings, that he might be said to extend his rich free grace unto 
an all, all in some respect. And this opens the door of hope to the soul 
we are speaking of, yet far wider. For he now looking upon himself 
round about in all circumstances whatsoever, and viewing himself all over, 
may see that whatever rank, condition, or sinfulness we can suppose him 
to be in, or he finds himself to be in, yet he finds that his own condition is 
not only not to be excluded, but taken in in that indefinite way mentioned 
in the promise. The very same condition and degree of sinfulness that he 
stands in, is to be found in the persons of some or other, whom in the pro- 
mise God intends, and so comes to be comprehended in the promises ; and, 
further, he may thereby see, in such absolute declarations, all objections of 
all kinds that can any way be made by carnal reason (which is so jealous of 
God), or that can be alleged either from his sins, or circumstances, or con- 
jectures, wholly to be removed and answered ; and all this these absolute 
promises do suggest and prompt him with. And though still he demurs 
whether his person, singly and particularly considered, be certainly the man 
whom God will own still further, yet, even as to that point, namely, his 
person singly considered, he hath this to say, that seeing God hath no 
where, nor by any fatal mark or brand, as upon Cain, set him out for 
destruction, why then (may he not well think thereupon) shall I exclude 
myself? ' There is no difference,' saith the apostle, ' for all have sinned ;' 
being therefore all alike, whoever tbey be that have sinned, they are capable 
alike of being ' freely justified by his grace, through tbe redemption that is 
in Jesus Christ,' Rom. hi. 22-24. The meaning is, that there is no differ- 
ence of sins, small or great (as to the point of God's free grace to justify a 
man), which is any bar that shuts any man out. He finds, likewise, that 
as there is notbing of good in him that should move God to be merciful to 



230 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

him ; so, nor on the contrary, nothing of evil that will be of power to divert 
God from his declared resolution to pardon all manner of sin de facto (but 
that one against the Holy Ghost), as Christ that bore our sins, and paid 
the price for us, tells us. So as his single individual person stands free of 
all incumbrances, of all quare imyedits, of all that should prejudge him, and 
let him ; he stands as free for free grace as freely to accept and receive 
him, as ever any man did whom it hath accepted, anything in the whole 
word of God notwithstanding. It is not that such or such sins, or manner 
of sinnings after illuminations, &c, shall be a cross-bar, or spoke, or hin- 
drance against a man, no more than sins before ; for, whenever a man 
cometh to God to be justified, whether after calling or before, he comes and 
sues it sub forma impii, as looking upon himself as an ungodly person, 
whilst he is a-suing for justification, and appears in that court. He is not 
to consider his being already godly ; there is no difference, no, not in that 
respect neither. He may see that it is pure free grace in God's heart he 
hath to deal withal, and to treat with God by, and to try what quarter it 
will give ; and it is the glory thereof that moves God to be merciful where 
he will be merciful ; and where he proves to be gracious, he is to an vkip- 
<x\iovac[j,a, he is to an overflowing superabounding fulness gracious to them. 
Those that run in a race, or strive for masteries, have the confidence of 
their own skill, or strength, or use, and accustomed agility for their confi- 
dence, and do venture thereupon ; but this ?oul hath the absolute grace of 
God before him to rely upon, and so ventures upon what it shall be 
willing to do for him. 

3. These absolute promises do, together with all these considerations, 
hint to him an it may be ; that is, that he may be one God will be merciful 
unto.* If it must be somebody's lot (in that language the apostle speaks, 
Eph. i.), then, says he, why not mine ? So prompts the Holy Ghost often 
such souls ; and this, though but a far-off apprehension, hath brought many 
a soul near, and drawn and encouraged them to come to God for their 
particular salvation. The people of Nineveh believed God in his threaten- 
ings, Jonah iii. 5 ; and this thought withal fell into them by the suggestion 
of the Spirit : ver 6, 9, ' Who can tell if God will return and repent, and 
turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not ? ' And, says the prophet, 
Joel ii. 14, 15, ' The Lord your God is gracious and merciful, slow to 
anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil : who knows if 
he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him ?' In the case 
of the child David sought the Lord : for, says he, ' I said ' (that is, I had this 
saying or apprehension of faith in my mind), ' Who can tell whether God 
will be gracious to me ?' 2 Sam. xii. 22, in sparing his life ; and yet the 
prophet had told him it should die ; but David thought it might be but of 
the nature of a conditional threatening, which by prayer might have been 
diverted. And, in other scriptures, promises are uttered in the slender 
style of an it may be, as Zeph. ii. 3, ' It may be ye shall be hid in the day 
of the Lord's anger.' Some of these were promises and apprehensions in 
case of temporal deliverances, others of eternal salvation connexed with 
them. However, my argument is strong from either, for these so indefinite 
expressions uttered in temporal promises with but an ' it may be,' and 'who 
can tell but that God ?' &c, did yet however draw them in to seek God with 
a true faith for the obtaining the things promised, the faith in them answer- 
ing to the utterance and tenor of the promise from God ; then much more 

* Interrogo nunc credisne, Opeccator, Christo? Dicis, Credo. Quidcredis? Gratis 
nniversa peccata tibi per ipsum posse remilti. Habes quod credidisti. — Aug. Gerard, 
de Just p. 1050. 



Chap. IV.] of justifyinox faith. 231 

in the case of eternal salvation, if tho promises thereof speak, or whisper 
rather, but an it may be, and who knows ? should we be drawn to believe. 
And so much (for certain) these absolute promises do speak of hope to such 
a soul before us, yea, or any soul whatever that hears and observes them ; 
and if they leave but such a hint or impression upon the soul as David had 
and spake of — ' I said, who can tell but God will be gracious to me ?' — that 
so such a soul comes but once to say within itself, Who can tell but God 
will bo gracious to me, in pardoning and saving of me ? This it may be in 
the soul's apprehension may and will have, through the Spirit's assisting, 
and God the Father's drawing (without which never so certain and direct 
promises made to all universally, or particularly to any one by name, would 
not have any drawing virtue in them to work faith), I say these it may bes, 
or I may be the person, may have as much power aud force in them to win 
the heart to believe, and by faith to put in for them, and to pray to obtain 
them, as in temporal salvations they had. For the reason is the same in 
both, yea, and the weight far the more on this side of salvation eternal, by 
how much a man's salvation (the subject-matter of such spiritual promises) 
is infinitely nearer to such a man's soul, to move and stir him, than all or 
any temporal salvation is or can be supposed to be to any. This the 
apostle hath instructed us in, as touching the very point before us : ' They 
strive for a corruptible crown,' says he, 'we for an incorruptible;' it is an 
inference from the less to the infinitely greater. And a soul once made 
apprehensive to purpose, as we say, of the weight of salvation, the massy 
import and concernments thereof joining all their forces with these so weak 
it may bes, will yet, as smaller and more weak cords, twisted with greater 
and stronger, have together a mighty power in them to draw the soul, 
when withal God shall be at the end of these ropes, and draw with them. 
And how slender these hopes, and however contemptible some may and 
do account them, which these it may bes do afford, yet they are from God, 
who is pleased to speak in that style to us men ; and ' the weakness of 
God,' when he comes to work upon souls by them, ' is stronger than the 
greatest power of men.' He can draw a mighty whale to shore with a 
twine thread. He can hold fast the greatest ship in the most tempestuous 
storm by the cable of a slight straw. 

Now, behold the correspondency and conformity of such an apprehen- 
sion of faith in such a soul unto the indetiniteness of these promises in 
the word; just as God speaks, so they believe. God is a gracious and 
merciful God (that is, absolute), and it may be God will be gracious to 
you, and who can tell? So says the promise on God's part, as it is 
spoken unto us; that is, it is but indefinitely spoken. And then says the 
soul, Who can tell but he will be gracious to me (as David said, ' It may be 
God will bless me for Shimei's cursing to-day') ? So speaks the heart as 
it were in an echo to the other voice in the promise. 

4. There is a fourth act of faith may be in the understanding of one that 
is not yet assured of his present personal salvation, and it may be an act 
of assurance too, as for the future, namely, that if that faith which in his 
will he is now a-putting forth (of which next) prove true spiritual faith, 
and that he hold fast the beginning of his confidence unto the end, then it 
is an absolute certainty that he shall be saved. And this is a great addi- 
tion, that crowneth all the former considerations with a further hope ; and 
who is there that is at the very brink of believing would not, upon this 
and the other considerations, cast himself in upon God's mercy? 'He 
that plougheth should plough in hope; and he that thrasheth in hope 
should be partaker of his hope,' 1 Cor. ix. 10. The apostle speaks it to 



282 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

another business ; but I may thus far apply it to this in hand, that as it is 
a comfortable encouragement to a ploughman to plough and to cast in his 
seeds into the ground, because he is in an ordinary way hopefully assured 
he shall, if his corn take root, have an expected and desired crop; and 
with that hope he ploughs, and in the hope of it doth at the present throw 
away his seed. Do men take pains to plough, and venture to sow their 
corn in hope ? Then how much more should we ! We endeavour, as the 
apostle's word is, and take pains to believe, knowing that if our seed that 
is cast come to have a root, as Christ in opposition to the thorny ground 
insinuates, it will bring forth fruit unto perfection, and ' in due time we 
shall reap if we faint not.' And this is a sowing far more certain for the 
hopes of it than that other, and yet we see men ordinarily venture both 
their labour and seed corn. Yea, this venture to believe (for so I call it 
as to the soul's own apprehension) upon these it may bes of salvation, are 
far more sure and certain than our exercising faith and spending prayers 
upon those it may bes of temporal promises for things outward. For faith, 
although it be true faith, doth often prove uncertain and issueless as to the 
obtaining of the particular thing we aimed at in such promises for outward 
things (which was David's case in that instance mentioned), but this 
adventure of faith and of our souls on these it may bes for salvation, if it 
prove true faith in the end, though in the lowest degree, will never be un- 
successful as to that salvation we seek for. For Christ hath said, ' He 
that seeks ' (continues so to do) ' shall find, and to him that knocks it 
shall be opened.' 

2. I shall now consider these acts of faith in the will in such a believer, 
and how conformable those also are to the indefinite tenor of absolute pro- 
mises. Let us next consider what acts of faith in the will (that are true 
acts of faith) such a soul may put forth, and which may stand with these 
indefinite apprehensions, when very far short of an assurance that he is 
the person ; for which the pure, absolute promises afford him no further 
ground. 

(1.) There may be a coming unto God and Christ. The act of coming, 
which is so often used to express believing both on God and Christ (as 
Christ himself expresseth it in his sermons, and we read of coming unto 
God through Christ, Heb. vii.), is an act of the will (as Rev. xxii. 17, 
• Let him that is athirst come, and let him that will,' &c). And the 
saving act of faith is expressed by it : John vii. 37, ' If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me and drink;' and it follows (as explaining what he 
meant by coming), ' He that believeth on me,' &c. And the aim, end, or 
errand of such a soul in its coming, and for which it comes, is said to be 
that it may be saved; that is its business it comes unto God and Christ 
for. Now, such an act may well stand with the fore-mentioned indefinite 
apprehension as concerning his own person, and with that suspensive un- 
certainty (as I may term it), for in that respect he may yet come to have 
it given and made good to him, although he knows not that he hath, or 
certainly shall have, a share in it. And therefore undeniably the saving 
act in the will may be put forth without such a personal assurance. That 
phrase of coming is taken from what is ordinary with men, and is on pur- 
pose chosen out to express the aim of such a faith in such a condition. 
For a man useth to come to another for a thing that is in that man's 
power to bestow whom he comes to, when yet he utterly hath no assur- 
ance from him that he shall obtain it, and yet ventures to come. Nothing 
is more ordinary in common practice than this, and therefore the act of 
faith which is without assurance is most aptly set forth thereby. And 



ClIAl'. IV. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 233 

truly that speech of Christ's, ' Him that cometh unto me I will in no ways 
cast out,' John vi. 37, was spoken as on purpose to the heart of many an 
one that comes (especially at first), to hearten him against, and obviate 
this very fear of being rejected; and who therefore so comes, as in his 
own thoughts he may remain suspensive in himself, whether he shall be 
received as to salvation, which is his errand, yea or no, especially in the 
case of him who but now first comes, seeing that until he hath come and 
put forth such an act, he cannot come to know whether it will be a true 
and spiritual act of faith, or coming with a true heart, yea or no. Yet 
however at his first coming the intent of his soul in coming is, that ho 
may be received. And come he must first in a direct line to Christ ere he 
can reflect upon his coming, whether it be with a true heart (as, Heb. x., 
it is explained), nor will he know his welcome unto Christ until he actually 
comes or hath come. 

And that the aim of such an act of coming to God or Christ, or God in 
Christ, is purely that he may be justified, and that this is that genuine act 
whereupon a man is indeed justified, the example and instance of the 
apostles themselves, as it is alleged by one of the greatest of them in the 
name of himself and all the rest of them, doth manifestly declare : Gal. ii. 
10, ' We, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but 
by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that 
we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the 
law.' In which words he tells us plainly, that by such a faith, having 
such an aim or tendency in it, that they might be justified, it was that 
they came to Christ. And it is spoken of their having renounced works 
for justification (which the Jewish principles did lead unto), and their 
betaking themselves unto faith, that they might be justified, from the first 
of their conversion unto Christ. Those words, ' even we,' do point unto 
the other apostles together with himself; even we that were the first-fruits 
of Christianity, and eminentest among believers, had yet but the same like 
faith at first which all believers else have, viz., that which was pitched 
upon the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (as Peter, 
2 Peter i. 1, speaks), which he styles ' like precious faith,' which was then 
and is to be for ever common to all believers, both small and great, at 
first; which faith (as by comparing this in the Galatians appears) was not 
a believing at the first dash, that they were justified, but a believing that 
they might be justified, and so a coming unto Christ with this aim and 
errand, that I may be justified as to the future. And if any would question 
whether it were spoken of all the apostles or no, yet however, to be sure, 
it was Paul speaks it of himself, and Peter of himself, who was the chief 
of the apostles ; and of Peter, who professed his faith in the name of all 
the apostles, Mat. xvi. For, if you observe, it is the continuation of a 
speech he had begun to make unto Peter personally : ver. 14, ' I said unto 
Peter,' &c, and this is part of what he said to him, ' We who are Jews by 
nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified 
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have 
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, 
and not by the works of the law ; for by the works of the law shall no flesh 
be justified ;' in which he proceeds to confute and reprove Peter, who by 
Judaism had exposed no less than the great point of justification by faith. 
But Paul appealeth to his own experience at and from his first conversion, 
and often after, by what a faith he had lived to be justified by it, and 
presseth it on him ' before all' that were present (as he relateth it in verse 
14), as a commonly received principle amongst believers, yea, and even 



234 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK. III. 

amongst us too, says he, that are Jews, and not Gentiles. And that the 
act of coming to Christ, whereby faith is expressed, includes this as the 
end and intent of that coming, and is indeed in the form of it, viz., ' that I 
may be saved,' or, ' that I might be justified,' that speech of Christ's shews 
(although spoken to Pharisees, and yet spoken of the contrary act of un- 
belief in them, and so as the contrary illustrates wherein the spirit of true 
faith lies), ' Ye will not come to me that ye might have life,' John v. 40 ; 
that is, you will not believe, which is a coming to me with that intention 
to have life from me ; which all those whom I save do put forth and 
exercise towards me, and do come unto me for ; but these proud justiciaries 
did scorn to do it, and would not thus come. That particle ha, that, 
denotes out the end or aim which he is to take up, who would come to 
Christ, or believe on him savingly, and imports not only what is the event 
or consequent upon believing.- And as the sole aim of a soul in believing 
is, that he may be saved, so likewise God's will and intention in requiring 
faith is declared to be, that he that believes may have life, John vi., God's 
aim answering that of the believers. And again, that this is the aim and 
business of the soul in coming, Christ's invitation to come shews : Mat. 
xi. 28, &c, ' Come to me, ye that are heavy loaden, and I will give you 
rest ;' which promise in the last words doth at once speak to what their 
souls were burthened for the want of, and most of all desire, namely, rest ; 
and also guides and directs those souls with what they should intend and 
design in coming to obtain from him, even rest : ' And you shall find rest 
to your souls.' Now, as this act of coming with this intention, that I may 
have rest, doth and may well stand with a suspensive uncertainty, that I 
am the person, so it may and doth answer to the indefinite apprehension 
the understanding of such an one hath. The understanding tells him from 
the promise, that he may be the person whom God may justify ; then in 
correspondency, says the will, I do believe, or come to God and Christ, 
that I may be justified, and so he exactly comports with the indefiniteness 
of the promise as to his person ; for as that holds forth an it may be God 
will, &c, so the aim of his coming is, that he may be saved. And it is 
certain in experience, that with such a poor and slender it may be at the 
first, many a soul hath cast anchor within the veil blindfold (as seamen 
cast their anchors when yet they see not the earth at the bottom of the 
sea, or know that their anchor will take hold, nor yet know how to trail it 
or apply it certainly to that earth, so as to be able to say, it shall without 
peradventure fasten and take sure hold thereon, but a long time perhaps 
comes back to them again), and yet have in the end found a firm and sure 
holdfast in the heart of God and grace of Christ, to hang upon with the 
whole weight of their souls, the weight of their sins hanging upon them 
also, with all the pondus of them. 



CHAPTER V. 

That election-grace, and the immutability of God's counsel indefinitely proposed 
in the promises, is the object of faith. 

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, 
he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing 1 will bless thee, and multiply- 
ing I ivill multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he ob- 

IVU ut significat finem, non solum consequential^ — Brugensis in verba. 



CilAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITIT. 235 

tained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater ; and an oath for 
confirmation is to than an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more 
abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, 
confirmed it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it itas 
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled 
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope ire have as 
an anchor of the soul, both sure and sled fast, and which entereth into that 
within the ceil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made 
an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec. — Heb. VI. 13-20. 

The 11th verse begins an exhortation, whereof all that follows is the 
prosecution. The words of that verse are theso : ' We desire that every 
one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto 
the end.' Here are two things distinct : 1st, An exercise, and diligence ; 
2dly, This is directed towards the attainment of full assurance of hope 
unto the end ; which is somewhat parallel to that of Peter, 2d Epist. i. 10, 
1 Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' To ex- 
hort them to all diligence, he lays before them the examples of the eminent 
saints that they had known in their times, — ver. 12, ' That ye be not sloth- 
ful,' — and refers unto using that diligence he speaks of: 'Be followers of 
them who through faith and patience inherit the promises ;' that is, that 
have got possession, and obtained, and have arrived unto eternal glory. 
And by patience, he doth not only mean patience in suffering, but con- 
stancy in well-doing, especially waiting by faith for the attainment of the 
promise, as patience is taken in Rom. ii. 7, ' Who by patient continuance 
in well-doing, seek for glory and immortality.' As for that other part, 
' the full assurance of hope unto the end, he begins at ver. 13, to pro- 
pound the example of Abraham more particularly and eminently, and shews 
how God, to assure him in his hope, did give him a promise and an oath, 
both which you have in ver. 13 ; that is, he arrived at the end of his days at 
the enjoyment and fulfilling of the promises, as those other saints he spake 
of, ver. 12, are said to have ' inherited the promises.' Some refer his 
obtaining the promise to what was in this life, in having Isaac given him, 
&c, and by having the comfort of it ever after while he lived. But he 
had obtained the promise of Isaac before this oath was given, and therefore 
it is rather to be understood to mean it after that oath given, upon his 
offering up Isaac, he having patiently endured to the end of his days, as 
his exhortation (verse 11), had said, that then he attained the full posses- 
sion of it. 

The assurance which was given to Abraham was the greatest that heaven 
could afford, a promise and an oath. I say the greatest, as, 1st, the 
apostle himself argues, ver. 16, if amongst men an oath, when they swear 
by God, that is greater than themselves, is of such authority, as it ends all 
strife, though men be liars, and may be supposed even in swearing to lie, 
yet an oath taken by God, or by their gods, whoever they be, is accounted 
so sacred, and of such authority, as all men rest in it, and there is an end 
of strife ; much more when God shall take an oath. This you have, ver. 
16, ' For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is 
to them an end of all strife.' For tha^ God himself should swear, the 
apostle says, ver. 18, that 'it was impossible for God to lie therein.' It 
cannot be supposed of him, though of men it may, so ver. 18. But, 2dly, 
Whom did God swear by ? He sware by himself: ver. 13, ' Because he 
could swear by no greater, he swear by himself;' he staked himself; as if 
he had said, I will cease to be God if I do not perform this. 



236 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

Tl e thing he sware to was to bless Abraham with all blessings, and that 
unto the end ; ' Surely blessing I will bless thee.' And if he sware by 
himself to perform this, then all the power in God, and long-suffering of 
God towards Abraham, were engaged to the uttermost to work upon Abra- 
ham's soul, and to bear with him effectually to attain this. And whereas 
those that should read but hitherto what Paul said of the oath to Abraham, 
would expect of Paul he should declare how this oath did concern those 
whom he exhorted, or otherwise it had been in vain, and an example not 
applicable to his purpose, which was to exhort them to the ' full assurance 
of hope unto the end,' such as Abraham had. And whereas, because it 
was a voice from heaven, they might think that this was singular and 
proper to Abraham alone, he therefore proceeds in the 17th and 18th verses 
to apply it to them to whom he wrote, to all the heirs of promise and sal- 
vation, and together therewith expounds what was the matter intended in 
the oath and promise. Thus he applies it in these words : ver. 17, 
' Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise 
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' (1.) Observe 
that word, ver. 17, ' wherein God willing,' &c. ' Wherein,' or in which 
oath and promise he had spoken of before. (2.) It is made to the ' heirs 
of pi*omise,' and therefore to all that are heirs with him, which all that are 
Christ's are said to be : Gal. iii. 29, ' And if ye be Christ's, then are you 
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.' (3.) In verse 18 he 
shews the intent of the oath to be, that we all do believe that have the faith 
of Abraham ; which faith he doth describe by such acts and terms as might 
include the weakest of believers, unto tbat end that all such might have 
strong consolation. So as we are to look upon Abraham in this manner of 
dispensation (though it was so singular an example in him) to him per- 
sonally, as that he therein was, Rom. iv. 16, ' the father of us all.' As in 
the case of imputation of righteousness by faith, it is said in the same Rom. 
iv. 22-21, ' It was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not 
written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him ; but for us all, to 
whom it shall be imputed,' &c. And indeed this is held forth in the very 
promise which was then given him, and which the oath confirmed. The 
promise is in Heb. vi. 14, ' Surely blessing I will bless thee.' Now in 
Gal. iii. 14 the same blessing that was given to Abraham is said to ' come 
on the Gentiles that were after to believe ;' and so, in blessing Abraham, 
he blessed us all that are heirs of promise ; and we have the same promise 
with him and them. For in the latter part of the promise, ' In multiplying 
I will multiply thee,' all the spiritual seed are included. ' In multiplying 
I will multiply thy seed,' or all seed to thee, says God, Gen. xxii., which 
were the spiritual seed, heirs of promise of salvation with him, and children 
of the promise with his Isaac, Rom. ix. 7, 8. 

Let us next consider what is the matter of that promise and oath. 1st, 
in the letter of it, it is to bless him and us with « all spiritual blessings in 
heavenly things,' imported in this doubling the words, ' In blessing I will 
bless thee,' and so thy seed. I will bless thee with faith, with holiness, 
with perseverance to the end, and salvation at the end. But, 2dly, the 
apostle brings forth a deeper and higher matter that this oath and promise 
did intend, and that is, the immutability of his counsel confirming the pro- 
mise by an oath. So, then, his own counsels about Abraham's salvation, 
and of us all, are the same kind of decrees for the salvation of us all that 
was for Abraham's. 

1. If you ask what is meant by his counsel here, I answer, it is his 
everlasting decrees and purposes taken up within himself concerning Ab- 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 237 

raham's salvation, and of us all; and it is the same kind of decrees for the 
salvation of us all that was for Abraham's.* 

1st. I say God's decrees and resolute determinations concerning our 
salvation are imported by the word counsel. Concerning Jesus Christ to 
be crucified the apostle utters himself thus, Acts iv. 28, that the Jews did 
but ' whatsoever God's hand and counsel determined before to be done.' 
His counsels, then, are his determinations and purposes. 

And, 2dly, they are his purposes within himself, and so differ from a 
promise. A promise made, is God's outward declaration to do so and so 
for us, but his counsel are his purposes within himself, decreeing so and 
so, as in Eph. i. 9, and v. 11, compared. 

3dly. His counsel imports these his purposes which have been from 
everlasting : Acts iv. 28, ' What thy counsel determined to be done afore- 
hand.' Aud so it imports the same that foreknowledge doth, which in 
matter of our salvation is said to have been before the world began. And 
what other is this counsel of his in matter of Abraham's and our salvation, 
but the very same we find Eph. i. 3, 4, 9, and ver. 11? ' Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as he hath 
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world ; in whom also we have 
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of 
him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.' What is 
the counsel of God here, is election and predestination there. 

2. As his counsel shews it to be his electing love and purposes, so the 
oath shews these to be immutably fixed and pitched, and that to shew forth 
the immutability of the promise the oath was given, as verse 17 of my text 
imports. God's oath shews an unchangeableness ; not a peremptoriness 
only, but an irreversibleness, and that the matter sworn to shall never be 
recalled. Therefore, in Psalm lxxxix., when God mentions his oath to 
David, the t}"pe of Christ, and to his spiritual seed (the same that was here 
made to Abraham's seed), says God there, in the 35th and 3Gth verses, 
' Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David, his 
seed shall endure for ever.' Ver. 34, ' My covenant will I not break, nor 
alter the thing that is gone out of my lips;' it having been thus confirmed 
by an oath. Our divines have generally owned this notion, and from 
thence, in the case of our redemption by Christ, that he should suffer in 
our stead, have observed that all God's threatenings of the law (as the law 
itself also) was given without an oath added, and that so God might dis- 
pense with any commination or exchange of the persons threatened, and 
put Christ in their stead; for all those threatenings were without an oath. 
For if they had had an oath annexed to them, we had been everlastingly 
undone and lost, and Christ's redemption would not have saved us. But 
now the gospel coming, and promises thereof, because God intended them 
with an immutability, he hath therefore confirmed them by an oath, Heb. 
vii. 21. Those priests, viz., of the law, verse 19, were made without an 
oath, and therefore were changeable ; as, verse 12, he says both law and 
priesthood were to be changed, because made and given without an oath; 
but this with an oath, and an oath irreversible, ' by him that said unto 
him,' — unto Christ, namely, — ' The Lord sware, and will not repent, thou 

* Jacobus Capellus doth analyse the matter of these 17th and 18th verses. Cujus 
duo sunt prsecipua capita. 1. Qucrnam eleetionis! ostendere hceredibus salutis, ii sunt 
electi. Immutabilitatem, quam sit firraum et immutabile suum prsedestinationis de- 
cretum, Consilii sui secundum electionem scilicet. — Capellus in verba. 



238 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

art a priest for ever.' Where he gives an oath, he will never repent, rior 
make alteration of it, viz., of what he hath sworn unto. 

3. I add, that such an oath is absolute ; and though there are qualifica- 
tions that God will work, which are necessary to our salvation, and unto 
the complete performance of the oath, yet these conditions God supposes 
and includes in the oath, and by the oath undertakes to work them, and 
effect them in us. When, therefore, God took this oath concerning Abra- 
ham's blessing, ' I blessing will bless thee,' &c. (which also takes in the 
salvation of all the spiritual seed), God did absolutely swear and undertake 
to perform and accomplish it, and to that end, withal, to give all these 
qualifications requisite to the full performance. God doth not swear by 
halves in it, but to do the whole as to Abraham and our salvations. Why, 
now, I appeal unto all sober spirits tbat will consider things, whether they 
will or dare say that God should make an oath for Abraham's salvation, 
when yet, according to the principles of free-will grace, as they state it, 
the performance of this oath must depend upon Abraham's will, and to the 
end of his days, and his will must cast the issue of it, and God would only 
have been to give him such assistance as he should have a power to do so 
and so. It was Abraham's will that must have cast the event, which is so 
mutable and changeable as any of ours is, or can be supposed to be. Can 
we think that God, in swearing that he would save Abraham, and bring 
him to obtain the blessing, as the phrase is here, should depend upon the 
mutability of such a man's will ? He was to live many days after this ; 
and if God in his oath had not undertaken to carry on his will effectually 
and invincibly, as well as to save him in the end, if he went on to will, 
there is a supposition and a possibility that his oath might have failed, and 
that God should have taken his own name in vain. I might say the like 
concerning Isaac, who was included in the oath, who was a young man at 
this time, he being the first of the seed, the pattern of the rest. He was 
included in the seed absolutely, and God's promise was absolute, as to give 
him Isaac, so to continue Isaac, that his covenant might continue with him 
for ever as it was. And do we think that God would betrust an oath, such 
an oath, as to cease to be God if it were not performed, upon any creature's 
will ? What though they suppose he should foreknow certainly their wills 
would hold out unto the end, yet, would God honour a creature's will, so 
mutable a thing as they say it is, as to venture and pawn an oath upon it, 
and swear for their salvation in this manner, so as to say, If Abraham be 
not faithful Abraham to the end, I will not be God ? Do you think that 
God would debase himself so much, if that the keeping Abraham and Isaac, 
and by consequence us all unto the end, had not depended upon his will, 
so as to overcome and carry on theirs and ours infallibly unto the end ? 
If God sware by himself, then certainly he sware by all himself, and will 
therefore put forth all in himself to the utmost whereby to make good his 
oath ; and therefore his will and power to the utmost whereby to make 
good his own word, nay, to make good himself. Their principles put God 
upon these straits, that though God will vouchsafe such means and helps 
as by the laws of free-will-grace they say he doth use, yet if the will of 
Abraham in the freedom of it, or of any or of all the saints, shall be defi- 
cient on its part, then God cannot save him, for he hath tied himself up 
unto the principles of the liberty in the will, to act or not to act, according 
to its innate liberty, and so according to this principle he should swear by 
his holy self to work what he is not able to work, nor can undertake to 
work. It may be objected, that something in Abraham was made the 
cause of that oath : vtr. 16, ' By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord ; for 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 239 

because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only 
Bon ;- that in blessing I will bless thee.' And therefore it was not an irre- 
spective or an absolute oath, but founded upon an act of Abraham's. 1st, 
I answer in general, the papists, as Pereriug,* would draw this particle 
because, set before the promise and oath, ver. 17, and then again 
repeated, ver. 18, and put after the oath, to favour their merits. And 
truly the force of those particles will as soon, yea, rather make for their 
merits, than for God's having in his decrees had a simple fore-respect unto 
this famous act of Abraham's obedience as foreseen, and upon the fore- 
sight of which he should have thus immutably resolved and taken up such 
a purpose in his decrees ; but it will serve the turn of neither. 

1. Because the promise or matter sworn unto was given to Abraham 
long before this his high act of obedience, and therefore it cannot be the 
merit of this obedience, nor yet could the foresight of this obedience after 
to come any way be the ground of making that promise ; for it is the pro- 
mise that contains the matter of the oath sworn to. Now God long before 
this oath gave the same promise to Abraham without an oath, which here 
he confirms with an oath : Gen. xii. 2, ' I will bless thee, and thou shalt 
be a blessing; and in thee,' that is, in thy seed, as here, Gen. xxii., 'shall 
all the families of the earth be blessed ; ' as here in Heb. vi. it is said, 
' all the nations,' &c. ; and the same again is in Gen. xviii. 17, 18. And 
the apostle also, Heb. vi., affirms the same, by saying that the promise had 
testified the same thing that this oath did, and that the oath was but a 
confirmation thereof. If indeed the promise had been but now first given 
upon his obedience, there might have been some colour for merit, or a 
respective decree, but so it was not. And it is inconsistent to think a 
promise declared a long time before should be in respect unto an act that 
was to come after ; for it must be something that had at that present been 
performed by Abraham, upon which, as foreseen, if anything foreseen had 
been the ground of it, the promise should have been declared. For it 
being so that at the giving of the promise he was actually and indubitately 
estated thereinto, and possessed of it, it therefore must have been some 
present or former act of obedience, upon the respect of which, if any such 
respect had been, the promise should have begun to be uttered to him. 
Now in that Gen. xii., those promises are said to have been given him at, 
and together with, God's first command and invitement of him to go out of 
his own country, and as antecedent to any act of obedience first put forth by 
him. Thus we have the account in ver. 1-3, ' Now the Lord had said unto 
Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee : and I will make of thee a 
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt 
be a blessing : and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him tbat 
curseth thee : and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' 
There you have the promises and the date of them ; and then his obedience 
follows after as the effect of those promises uttered to him, and moving his 
heart thereunto. Thus expressly, ver. 4, it follows, ' So Abraham departed, 
as the Lord had spoken to him,' &c. So that of the two, it must be said 
that Abraham had rather an eye and respect unto the promises first given 
absolutely unto him, than that God had a respect unto Abraham's obe- 
dience foreseen, and that he did thereupon declare them. And it will 
remain that God's eternal counsels had first resolved to do such and such 

* Cum sit cansale, et denotat causam meritoriam, non obscure significatur, 
Abrahamum egregio illo facto, meruissc ut sibi tales proraissiones a Deo darentur. 
— Pererius in verba. 



240 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK ITT. 

things for Abraham out of mere grace, and from thence put them into 
promises, and uttered them to Abraham without mention of respective 
conditions upon which he should give forth these promises, as foreseeing 
Abraham would do so or so, and those promises drew his heart to that 
obedience upon the manifestation of them. 

But, 2, although we grant that these promises and this oath after them 
might have been given with a respect unto some former or present act of 
obedience, yet still the decree or counsel that determined to give those 
things promised, might still be, yea, and was, absolute ; that is, without 
respect to those acts. Even as a father may and doth often absolutely 
resolve within himself to give such and such good things to his child, and 
yet defers giving the promise of them to him until such or such an act or 
acts of obedience are performed by him ; and then in giving the promise of 
them professeth an high approbation of that obedience, and as a gratifica- 
tion or remuneration of it to him, makes the promise, although the counsel 
and determination of it in his heart had been absolute. And so indeed in 
substance and effect the apostle speaks here, that both the promise and 
oath 'were but to shew or declare the immutability of his counsel and 
absolute determination taken up before, so as still the decree and the 
immutability of it was fixed first, and God did but by these utter and 
declare it. It was not his oath made his counsel for the future immutable, 
but his counsel being immutable, he did by his oath shew it, and gave 
demonstration thereof. 

3. That singular obedience was the occasion of the oath, as Kivet speaks. 
' By myself have I sworn it,' says God ; ' because thou hast done this, and 
hast not withheld,' &c. But it was the immutability of his counsel that 
was the supreme cause why Abraham did that thing. It was that which 
was the cause of that obedience in Abraham, and of the oath and all ; and 
if he had not been greatly strengthened by the promise before given, which 
had absolutely declared and shewn what his counsel was, Abraham had 
never arrived at so high an act of gracious obedience as this was. 

Nor, 4, would God for one singular act of obedience have sworn then 
his perpetual perseverance, which was to consist in so many other acts of 
grace to succeed for so many years yet to come till after Abraham's death, 
had not his own grace immutably decreed it first, and therefore it was that 
he did not stick to make declaration of it by an oath irreversibly, which if 
it had been left to Abraham's will, only assisted with power to persevere or 
not to persevere (as it is said of all other believers by the Arminians, that 
so they are left), God would never have ventured an oath thus. 

But, 5, what he sware to Abraham here therein did God in person swear 
to all Abraham's seed, the heirs of promise with him, whosoever they be, 
and therefore their salvation and perseverance is as sure as Abraham's, 
though they never do or did perform any such high act of self-denial as 
Abraham here did. And therefore this must wholly flow from the immuta- 
bility of God's counsel both towards Abraham and them all alike, or else 
Abraham had this promised him upon more hard and higher, yea, unnatural 
terms than the rest have. 

The corollary which I infer from hence is, that the promises of Abraham's 
salvation and ours are but extracts, transcripts of God's everlasting decrees 
concerning man's salvation. His counsels within himself are the original, 
and those are the types. The matter of the promises are the decrees of 
election. Promises are but God's inward counsels put into words and into 
writing ; as when a man makes his will which he had contrived within 
himself, he sets it down, and seals or swears to it before witnesses. Or 



CnA.P. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 241 

promises are but tho expressions of election, but concerning persons and 
things only. There is this differing case between the caso of Abraham and 
Isaac in this particular, that the person of Abraham by name was expressed 
in tho promise made of them. But tho promises mado of the rest of the 
seed are as to persons made indefinitely, concerning whom the persons are 
not named, but yet intending them very persons, and them only, and 
therefore they are called children of promise as well and as much as Isaac 
was. And in that place Isaac is called a child of promise as he was an 
elect child of God, and declared by promise so to be, to prove election, 
which is the subject of that chapter ; and first Isaac, then Jacob's instance 
brought for the proof of it. 

It is next to be considered, how doth this oath, as to tho matter of it, 
belong to us ? 

1st. It doth, re ipsa, in the nature of the thing, belong to us as well 
as to Abraham, and our salvation is sworn to as well as Abraham's, 
and therefore it is made sure, whether we have attained the assurance of 
it or no, if we be true believers. And indeed I desire my salvation to be 
no surer than Abraham's was, and it is as sure by this oath as his was. 

2. Yet it tends to the same end that it was made for to Abraham, which 
was for the confirmation of him in his faith, and to us to give ' assurance 
of hope,' Heb. vi. 11, for that is the head of this discourse, and he carries 
it along in his eye, ver. 17, to give a strong consolation ; even as it served 
to give Abraham assurance, so it serves to give us. 

As for observations upon this oath as it relates to us, and Abraham's 
example therein in the tendency of it to give us assurance, I would consider 
this oath two ways. 

(1.) In the matter of it, as it is to be made use of by all believers as a 
ground for them to attain assurance by. 

(2.) In the circumstances of it, as by the story it appears it was personal 
and singly given to Abraham, and God's dealings with him in doing of it 
are to be considered, which are not common to all believers, but yet hold 
some parallel with God's dispensations to some eminent saints in the New 
Testament, as in relation to his giving assurance to them as he gave to 
Abraham. 

My observation upon the oath in the matter of it, as it is common to all, 
is this, that the immutability of God's counsel in his electing grace doth 
in the whole of it lie as a fit object to all believers, even the weakest, so as 
it is not only warrantable for them to have recourse to it, and apply it to 
themselves, but it is their duty. I shall prove and explain this by parts. 

1. That it belongs to all believers, we have shewed before from ver. 17 
and 18. But, 

2. That which I observe for this purpose is, that his scope was to relieve 
even the weakest. Do but observe how, ver. 18, when he describes 
believers, his description of them is such as includes the weakest, and such 
as have not attained a faith of assurance but of recumbency, although the 
faith of those that have assurance may be included in that description. 
Yea, in the general it may be observed in that verse, that he speaks of conso- 
lation, and ' strong consolation,' as of a thing which yet might be obtained, 
as distinct from the faith which he doth describe, for so the words run. 
He speaks of their consolation as of a thing which they might have for the 
future. But the faith which he describes is that which in the time past 
all those had already attained, and might now attain to this strong conso- 
lation, so that their strong consolation is a distinct thing from their first 
faith exercised at conversion ; and he chooseth to decipher all believers by 

VOL. VIII. Q 



242 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

the acts that were at first, though continued still, that so he might be sure 
to include all the seed. But let us examine every word whereby he doth 
describe their faith, and it will be found to be such as I have said, and 
which the weakest, even they that want assurance, have. 

1st. His first expression, ' We that have fled for refuge.' This speaks 
the very heart and condition of one who at first begun to believe, and doth 
not necessarily import assurance that be is saved, or that he shall certainly 
be saved. For it speaks but his running and flying for refuge and shelter 
to be saved. And, as I said, it speaks the very heart and condition of such 
a man at that time, and in his first act of believing (though he exerciseth 
it all his life, whether with assurance or without it), but his condition at 
first is that which this holds forth. (1.) He hath a sense of present 
danger, and that the extremest, as a man in danger of death by reason of 
his own sins that come upon him, together with an apprehension that the 
wrath of God abideth on him in the estate he hath thereunto continued in; 
and so (2.) flies out of, and from that condition (and that word imports a 
terminus d quo) or, if you will, he flies d Deo irato, from an angry God (or 
from out of that dominion wherein there remains nothing but wrath to him, 
if he continue therein), unto a God of grace, and his dominion of grace in 
and through Christ, as the Scripture expresseth it, Bom. v. and vi. And 
this his then condition, and this act of flying for refuge thereupon, doth not 
necessarily contain in it assurance of being saved, &c, but only a hope 
that he may be saved from the wrath to come, even as coming to Christ 
imports a believing on Christ that we may be saved (as Christ speaks when 
he says, ' Come unto me, that ye may have life'), as also a believing on 
Christ that we may be justified, as the apostle's speech is, which imports 
not a knowledge that we are justified or that we have life. And thus much 
the metaphor here barely insinuates, whether it be taken for one that is in 
danger of his life, and seeks to save it by flying to another dominion, or to 
a privilege place, as the murderer fled to the city of refuge, Num. xxxv., 
not as then knowing he should be able to arrive thither, or whether the 
gates would be set open to him ; or whether it be taken for such a flight 
as that of Joab to the horns of the altar. And all we believers may from 
our experience well know that the first acts of faith at conversion, and per- 
haps for a long while after, were but such as these ; and yet we can all say, 
we, seeing our lost condition, have fled for refuge, all of us. 

2dly. If we consider what it is to lay hold on the hope set before us, the 
question here may be about the word hope, whether the thing hoped for 
should be that intended, or the hope which out of the gospel offers itself 
to, and riseth up in and to a man's own heart and apprehensions from 
what is in and out of the revelation of grace maJe therein. And thus we 
may take hope for the grounds thereof set before the soul in the gospel, 
together with the hopes which they beget in men's hearts upon the revela- 
tion of them, that the salvation spoken of may be theirs, and he or they 
may be the person that shall obtain it. This I find to be the sense of 
Calvin,* and of the most considerative late interpreters; and my main 
reason (as theirs also seems to be) is, that in the next verse he says, 
1 Which hope we have as an anchor,' &c. Now the hope there compared 
to the anchor of the soul must be the hope which a man hath in his own 
heart for himself to obtain it, and it cannot agree to the object of hope or 
thing hoped for, since the things hoped for are such for which this anchor is 

* Certe in vocabulo spei est metonymia, effectus pro causa accipitur : Ego pro- 
migsionem intelligo cui spes innitifur ; nequo enini iis asscntior qui speru accipiunt 
pro re sperata. — Calvin in verba. Thus also Cameron, Jacobus Capellus, Gomarus. 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 248 

cast into within the veil. And I add not simply the act of hope in our 
hearts, but withal the grounds of that hope, as arising from out of the 
revelation of the gospel ; or as Calvin cloth most aptly express it, coufidendi 
maUriam, the matter of hoping, there being in the word hope, as he says, 
a metonymy of the effect for the cause, and so the promise on which hope 
bears up itself and is grounded, is connotated in that word hope. So then 
I expound the words thus, that to a man truly a-working upon by the Spirit 
of God, the same Spirit (as he is a Spirit of faith to him) doth begin to raise 
up in his heart a hope, from some declarations or other in the gospel about 
the grace of God, and the intent of Christ coming into the world, and the 
tenor of such promises laying forth this before him, that there is an hope 
for him that he maybe saved, notwithstanding his sinful condition; as it 
is said, ' There is hope in Israel concerning this thing.' And he is said to 
' lay hold on this hope,' which the Spirit of God hath thus raised up to 
him and in him, as a man is said to lay hold on the hopes of such a pre- 
ferment, which the intimations of the person in whose power it is set before 
him, and he resolves not to let slip the opportunity of it, but to put in and 
seek it with all his might. So here this believer lays hold fast upon the 
hopes that have been begotten in him, and the grounds thereof, and will 
not cast them away, but holds them fast, and that strongly too (as the 
word signifies) with all his might, and he will not at any hand forsake 
those mercies which he hopes may be his own. Hope is taken here, as 
Cameron would have it, in opposition to an utter despondency, whereby a 
man doth cast away all hope, and lets all go ; as they in the prophet, who 
said, ' there is no hope.' Now then this also does not necessarily speak 
full assurance, but a faith rather that wants it. For, 

1. Because that is barely and simply called hope, with distinction from 
full ' assurance of hope,' in ver. 11. Here is the hope of the recumbent 
expressed, but there the hope of one fully ascertained and insured. And, 
again, this hope is distinct from ' consolation' in the same ver. 18; and 
hope thus singly taken in this distinction (ver. 11), speaks a lower matter 
than assurance, and we use, in ordinary phrase, to say of a matter we are 
not fully certain of, I hope well. Under the Old Testament, when assur- 
ance was so rare a thing, for they were generally under bondage, their faith 
was expressed by this, ' those that hope in his mercy.' I observe there is 
hope, as it is in us sometimes single and simply said, and there is a good 
hope, which is rising up to some degrees of assurance ; and in all languages, 
when we would express hopes that are exceeding promising, we call them 
good hopes when yet we are not sure ; and this word we have, 2 Thes. ii. 
16, ' Now our Lord Jesus Christ, and God, even our Father, which hath 
loved, and given us everlasting consolation, and given us good hopes through 
grace, comfort your hearts ;' that is, more and more, with further degrees. 
And that consolation which is already vouchsafed, but under good hopes, 
is yet called ' everlasting,' because it is such as will not (finally) be taken 
from us, though suffering many interruptions at present. The consolation 
under such good hope is everlasting consolation, but it riseth not up to 
strong consolation, which the apostle says they may here attain, and which 
those that have an anchor that holds fast may yet want. 

2. This hope is said to be set before them to lay hold on, because the 
groundwork and foundation is in the promises, and the things declared in 
the gospel, which give the heart this hope for its own salvation ; as, for 
example, the promise being indefinitely expressed concerning some, and 
that there is a seed shall be made partakers of it, and that Christ died for 
sinners ; by such promises as these indefinitely expressed doth the Spirit 



244 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

of God work a hope in the heart of the weakest believer, and causes the 
heart to think with itself, why may not I be the man that shall obtain ? 
And from such expressions set before us, the heart doth gather itself up 
into hope, and by the power of God lays hold on them in such gospel- 
manifestations that may give it hope. As to Benhadad's servants, a word, 
though afar off, did give them hope concerning the life of their master, and 
they laid hold upon it ; and, says the soul, take away this hope and you 
take away my life. The devil comes and persuades a man to cast it away ; 
but, says the soul, I have laid hold on it, and I will never let it go ; I will 
hold it and keep it, and hold to it. And though neither of these words, 
either of • laying hold,' or that it is said to be • set before us,' do express 
that we have possession of it, or apprehensions that it is ours already, but 
that we view it before us ; and likewise the word to lay hold, or to retain 
so fast as I will not let it go, is short from being a persuasion that it is 
already mine, but argues indeed that I would have it mine, and therefore 
lay hold upon it, and seek it that it may be mine, and that I would keep it 
for mine, yet with hopes it shall never be taken away. 

3. That similitude of an anchor, though it would seem to express an 
assurance of hope, in that it is called ' sure and stedfast,' is more inclining 
to express the hope of a recumbent, than assurance of hope ; for he that 
casts anchor, casts anchor in the dark, blindfold as it were, in the bottom 
of the sea. It expresses a pure act of faith, joined with hope, of what a 
man sees not, and it is usually cast in extremities, just as when a man 
fears he may be cast away, knows not but he may ; and when he casts it, 
he knows not whether it will take hold of the ground or no ; and sometimes 
it comes back again. And whereas it is said, it is an anchor sure and sted- 
fast, it follows not that he speaks in respect of a man's own apprehension, 
but it is so re ipsa, in the nature of the thing itself, through God that 
secretly strengthens it. That weak hope which a poor believer hath doth 
stay it, and but stay it, as a ship in a storm, that it shall not split upon 
rocks of despair. God makes a mere it may be, and who knows but that 
God will be merciful to a man, which is as slender a hope as may be, and 
as a weak straw for holding the heart in a great extremity of temptation, 
and yet God makes it as strong to hold the heart that it shall not sink or 
be cast away, as the strongest cable that is. It is sure, because it breaks 
not, snaps not asunder, as the ropes of the anchor use to do ; and it is 
stedfast, because where it hath took hold, there it sticks, and holds the will 
as firm to cleave to God that he will not let him go till he bless him and 
assure him, when the assurance in the understanding of the party, that God 
will certainly save him, may be fluctuating, and in that respect his soul be 
cast up and down, and ready to sink, and that in the storms of doublings to 
the contrary. Therefore it doth not necessarily imply fulness of assurance. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

How absolute election and absolute promises are the ground of faith of recum- 
bency. 

The ground of all faith is an expression of God in his word, which is 
either a command or a promise. Now the grounds of justifying faith are 
accordingly the promises of justification and salvation by Christ contained 
in the word, and the command of God to rest on them for their salvation. 
Now that which I would establish is this, that indefinite promises may be, 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 245 

and are sufficient ground to draw tho heart in to believe. By indefinite 
promises I understand such as are not made universally to all men, as some 
would have the promises run, as that God hath loved all, and Christ died 
for all ; nor such as particularly design out the persons that shall be saved, 
or arc intended (as conditional promises do, and the promise first made to 
Abraham personally did design out himself as intended) ; but they are 
called indefinite, because they mention that only some of the sons of men 
are intended by God, not all, and that without mentioning particularly or 
personally who those persons are ; so as they are not indefinite as leaving 
the thing promised uncertain, for salvation is absolutely pronounced unto 
some of the sons of men, but only because they design not the persons who 
are certainly intended. Such are those promises, ' Christ came into the 
world to save sinners,' ' God was in Christ reconciling the world,' which is 
made the matter of the gospel's ministry ; and though the promulgation of 
this bo made to all men — ' Preach the gospel to every creature' — yet this 
is not the gospel to be preached, that God hath promised to save every 
creature, though, upon this promulgation of them, it becomes the duty of 
every one to come to Christ, and a command is laid on men to do it. Now 
a soul that is newly humbled looks out for a promise upon which he may 
come to Christ. He cannot rest on promises conditional, for he sees no 
qualifications of faith or any grace in himself. It is true, says that soul, 
' he that believeth shall be saved,' but I am now to begin to believe, and 
have not faith yet ; and what ground will you give me of believing ? For 
this there is no answer, but to lay such promises before him : • God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only Son,' ' Christ came into the world 
to save sinners,' &c. But how, will the soul say, should I know I am one ? 
That, I say, all the world cannot yet assure thee of ; no promise is so 
general as certainly to include thee, none so certain as to design thee. How 
then ? says the soul. Say I, they are all indefinite, and exclude thee not ; 
they leave thee with an it may be thou mayest be the man ; and it is certain 
some shall be saved, and there is nothing in thee shuts thee out, for God 
hath and will save such as thou art, and he may intend thee. As therefore 
there is in such promises a certainty of the thing promised, that it shall be 
made good to some, so there is an indefiniteness to whom, with a full 
liberty that it may be to thee. Now if the heart answer but the promise, 
two things are begotten in it. 

1. An assurance of the thing promised, that the promise is as true as 
that God is, which is the assurance James requires, chap. i. 

2. But then, concerning the party's own interest that is to believe, the 
soul is not assured, nor can be, that he is one intended, till he hath indeed 
believed ; but the indefiniteness of the promise begets only an hopefulness 
that he may be intended, and that is all that can be required of such a soul, 
and enough to draw forth (if his assent be spiritual) true acts of justifying 
faith, of trusting, waiting, coming to Christ, &c, which when the command 
shall also back and urge him in particular unto it, and make it a necessary 
duty to him, though yet he knows not certainly he shall be accepted, all 
this serves to draw him on to faith, through the power of the Spirit accom- 
panying both. 

Now that such indefinite promises, backed with the command, are 
grounds sufficient enough to draw on such acts of faith, there are these 
proofs : 

1. We have the first in Heb. iv. 11, ' Let us labour therefore to enter 
into that rest, lest any man fall after the example of unbelief.' By enter- 
ing into rest there, he means faith : ver. 3, ' We who have believed do 



246 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

enter into rest.' It appears also from the opposition, when he says, 'Lest 
any fall after the example of unbelief;' so as he evidently exhorts unto 
faith. Now this exhortation, ' Let us therefore endeavour to enter in,' 
or truly to believe, and so take heed of a false faith, is an inference of 
something said before. Now what was it the apostle had mainly driven at 
in all his discourse before ? Even this, that there was a promise of rest, 
verse 1, and of a rest that remains for the people of God, ver. 9. More 
particularly, if you examine what promise this is upon which he exhorts to 
faith, it is expressed plainly in the 6th verse, ' Seeing it remains that some 
must enter into rest, let us therefore endeavour,' &c. This was not an univer- 
sal promise, that all men might enter in and be saved ; nay, it is the contrary, 
for this promise was fetched by the apostle out of an oath God had made 
against some that they should not enter in, for so it is in the 5th verse, ' If 
they shall enter into my rest.' It is such a promise as shews that some 
are excluded with an oath ; it is a promise that, in the letter of it, hath 
swearing in it that some shall not enter, and is but by implication or illa- 
tion a promise that some shall. It is indefinite, for he says, that only 
some must enter in, not naming who, but only speaks of some, and so 
leaves it, yet with a certainty of the thing promised unto some, in saying 
some must enter in. There is a must put upon it, that some shall and 
must. In the 9th verse he calls those for whom the rest remains, ' the 
people of God,' the elect, and yet upon this indefinite promise he exhorts 
every one. He says not only, ' Let us' (viz., all) ' endeavour to enter in,' 
but, verse 1, he says more expressly, ' Let us fear, lest, a promise being 
left' (or forsaken of us), ' any of you should come short of it.' So as 
though it is but an indefinite declaration of God's mind to save some, yet 
every one is bound to put in for it, and to take heed that not any one fall 
short. 

2. I shall prove this by reason. 1st, If the indefiniteness of God's 
mind declared concerning his intent of saving but some be not sufficient 
ground to faith, then all those divines whose judgments having been for 
particular election and reprobation, and so they must needs understand the 
mind of God's promises not to be universal, could never have come to have 
believed savingly, which would be too hard a censure. Since therefore the 
indefiniteness of the promise was the ground of their believing, this also 
may be ground sufficient to any man's faith. 

2dly, Faith in us is to be but answering unto, and conforming to the 
promise in the word ; and if it be, it may be true faith. Now there are 
promises in the word that speak but indefinitely, that speak but it may bes. 
Thus Moses propounds the promise to the people when they had sinned : 
' I will go to the Lord,' says he, ' peradventure I shall make an atonement 
for you.' Thus the Ninevites reason too : Jonah iii. 9, 10, ' Who knows 
but the Lord may be merciful ?' And yet this wrought repentance, as 
Christ tells us. So likewise speaks Joel, chap. ii. 13, 14, ' Turn unto the 
Lord, for he is gracious and merciful, and repenteth him of the evil ; who 
knows if he will return and repent ?' 

3dly, In temporal promises believers exercise true acts of faith, and it 
is required of them to believe about them ; and yet these promises are but 
indefinite, not absolute to their persons, though it is certain that God will 
perform them to some. Now, therefore, w 7 hy may it not be as well thus in 
matter of salvation ? 

4thly, Answerably the acts of faith themselves required of us, are suit- 
able to such promises. Trusting, and waiting, and coming to Christ, and 
casting one's self upon him, are the acts of application in our faith. Now 



Chap. VI. J of justifying faith. 247 

these arc indefinite acts of tho soul, i. c, which are and may bo performed 
when wo know not certainly that a thing shall be ours, or that we shall 
obtain it. They are often performed by men in other cases with the greatest 
venture that may be, as in Benhadad's servants, that put ropes about their 
necks, and sackcloth on their loins : ' Peradventure,' say they, ' he will savo 
our lives.' Thus men come to Christ, John vi. 37, when they know not 
but they may be cast out. Yea, such a submission is an act of faith, and 
hath its chief excrciso in case of not knowing that a man is certainly 
intended. 

5thly, Where there is but a true hopefulness, thcro may be faith : 
1 Peter i. 21, ' That your faith and hope might be in God.' _ And to beget 
an hope, tho indefinite promises do serve sufficiently. This saying, that 
Christ died to save sinners, I not knowing but I may be one, may breed 
hope. If you had no promise, then indeed you were without hope : Eph. 
ii. 12, ' Without hope, without promise.' But where there is but a promise 
indefinitely revealed, there may hope be begotten ; and where hope is, there 
may and ought endeavours to be, and so an endeavouring to enter in and to 
believe ; when thou canst not say to the contrary, then ' there is hope con- 
cerning this thing,' Ezra x. 2. And if there be so, then there may be faith 
of recumbency, or trusting on Christ to perform it to me. 

6thly, Where love may be begotten, there may faith or trust also, for 
faith works by love ; but love may be begotten when there is not a cer- 
tainty that we shall obtain. How many fall in love that are taken with a 
person's excellency and beauty, and suitableness to them, though they have 
but little hope, no assurance they shall obtain the party's good will ! This 
we see daily in human experience, and why may it not be so in this case ? 
Yes, we see it to be in many that love God for his being good to sinners, 
&c, though they apprehend not certainly that he will be so to themselves. 
And if love to God is thus produced, why may not faith or trust be so be- 
gotten ? Yea, is not the purest and greatest trust shewn in putting one's 
self into the hands of a spirit whom we know to be noble, though we cer- 
tainly know not how he will deal with us ? 

7thly, The main thing that is in faith, and which draws on the heart to 
cleave to the goodness of the promise, is the sight of the things promised 
in their reality. Thus it appears through the whole 11th chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, that faith being the evidence of things not seen, 
they saw and were persuaded of them, and embraced the promises. Now, 
therefore, if there be but a spiritual sight, and assurance, and persuasion 
of the existence, and worth, and excellency of the things promised (as 
Christ's righteousness, justification, &c), though the assurance of the in- 
terest be wanting and be left but indefinite, this will cause the heart to 
venture all for them, and to rely on God, and come unto Christ, and this 
is enough. On the other side, if it were a truth that God intended and 
had promised to save all, and this were preached and believed, yet if men 
saw not the excellency of things promised, the persuasion of their interest 
would not move them. 

8thly, It is plain peevishness not to come in to Christ upon such in- 
definite promises. It is such an obstinate temper as was in them who 
would not believe unless he would come off the cross. Thus men will not 
come to him unless he will assure them by a general promise that all may 
be saved, and are intended, and so themselves particularly. It is as if 
men should say, We will not go to church, for there is not room for all ; 
and unless a church be built into which all may come, we will not stir. 
You do not so in case of advantage or preferment. Men use all endeavours 



248 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

for a place or a living which many put in for, and hut one can obtain it. 
' Though all run,' says the apostle, ' yet but one obtains ;' and yet the 
worth and glory of the thing moves, because it is a crown, 1 Cor. ix. 25. 
So why should it not be here ? Yea, if you be affected with tbe things 
themselves, you will be glad to venture. 

9thly, Upon such indefinite promises, it becomes a duty to come to 
Cbrist for life, and God may back such promises with a command justly, 
and therefore faith may be wrought, and men are to come in upon 
such promises. Many duties are commanded upon mere uncertainties. 
Thus the believing wife is commanded to stay with her husband, ' For 
what lmowest thou' (says the apostle, 1 Cor. vii. 1G), ' but thou mayest 
save thy husband ?' In like manner doth God command thee to go to 
Christ for salvation, although his promise holds forth but a what lmowest 
thou but thou mayest save thy soul ? and wilt thou not go to him ? So then, 
although the promise were but uncertain in respect of its performance to 
thee, yet it is certain that God commands thee upon this to go to Christ 
and trust on him, and give thy soul up to him ; and this command is 
not indefinite, but universal, and therefore a soul eyeing both hath full 
ground to come in. 

But yet let me add this, that together with the indefinite promise to 
save, God, where he works faith, conveys a secret hint, to the soul whom 
he draws to believe, of his mind, and good will, and inclination towards it. 
Christ doth some way or other break his mind to it, and God gives the 
heart a special ticket of favour from himself, over and above that indefinite 
revelation in the word, ere the soul will come at him, which is part of that 
teaching of the Father meant, John vi. 45, 46, ' He that hath heard and 
learned of the Father, comes unto me.' God whispers in a man's ear that 
which doth specially encourage him, and so Christ also doth by his Spirit. 
Thus it is said, John x. 3, that Christ ' calleth his own sheep by name, 
and they hear his voice.' The meaning is, that whereas there is a general 
invitation goes to men's ears to come to Christ, and a general indefinite 
proclamation, which all men living in the church do hear or may hear, — 
and this is the voice' of us ministers, and God's voice in and by us, — yet 
there is conveyed with this a secret voice, and private ticket, and impress 
on their hearts whom God means to save, of special mercy towards them ; 
which voice only his own sheep hear, whom also he is said to call by 
name, to shew it is thus particular, it being a special intimation, as if a 
man were called by name, as Cyrus was called by name; and as of 
Moses God says that he knew him by name, i. e., took special notice of 
him, so doth Christ of those whom he calls by name, and that makes 
them follow bim. And the want of this is given as the reason, John x. 
26, 27, why the Jews believed not, for Christ says they were * not his 
sheep;' and therefore, in the dispensing the promises, he did not thus 
speak to their hearts as to believers he did, for he adds, ' My sheep hear 
my voice' (the voice before mentioned), 'and I know them, and they 
follow me.' He brings this as the reason why he dispensed not that voice 
to them, and the want of that he assigns to be the cause why they believed 
not. And if you consider verse 16, it will appear that the reason they are 
not called his sheep, is not because they believe not already ; for there he 
calls those his sheep whom he had not yet brought in, ' whom yet I must 
bring in,' says he ; and how will he bring them in ? ' They shall hear my 
voice;' he will call them by name too, as he had done others. And there- 
fore (says he) this is the reason why you, being not of my sheep, believe 
not; for if you were, I would speak to your hearts, and cause you to hear 



Chap. VI. J of justifying faith. 210 

my voice, and to come in; which, bccanso I vouchsafe not to you, there- 
fore it is ye believe not. 

Now, concerning this secret hint or ticket given, which I make to be in 
faith, let me add this to prevent mistakes. I do not mean that it is always 
so loud a voice as shall quell and prevail against doubts in a man's sense, 
so as to triumph with assurance that Christ is his. No, that is not the 
extent of it ; for we should ' condemn a generation of righteous men,' if I 
or any other should teach so ; but it is such a special intimation as really 
gains the heart, and encourageth it to come to Christ, and carries it on 
against discouragements, and it doth the deed so prevalently, as that they 
follow Christ wherever ho goes, and will never leave him. To explain my 
meaning further, you must consider, that in the speaking of a Spirit in 
and to our spirit, though the voice be entertained, yet it is not always dis- 
tinctly discerned to be from another. Satan, when he works effectually on 
the children of disobedience, 2 Thes. ii. 9, 10, so as he makes them 
believe the lie of popery, yet their souls perceive not a voice of Satan dis- 
tinct from their own thoughts, for then they would not believe the error ; 
but their hearts close with the suggestions of the devil, and as soon as cast 
in they are entertained as their own thoughts, yet upon Satan's effectual 
working. Thus when the Spirit of Christ from Christ speaks the mind of 
Christ to the soul, to cause it to believe in him that is true, it follows not 
it should discern that voice distinct from its own thoughts in its own 
sense, but his own thoughts from it effectually entertain such an apprehen- 
sion so as to carry him on to Christ. And the reason is, because every 
thought in a spirit, such as a soul is, is a kind of speech ; it is called 
Xoyog, and therefore the very speeches of the Spirit cast in are often not 
discerned from the man's own. Thus if a man's ear did form sounds in 
itself, and voices in itself, then a secret whisper would not be discerned 
from its own noises, as a loud voice would be. There is a loud voice of 
the Holy Ghost coming as a witness to assure, and then he speaks so loud 
and so distinctly as a man discerns it to be distinct from his own spirit, 
and infallibly to be the voice of God ; and it is as if a voice from heaven 
should say, ' Thy sins are forgiven ' ; but this first voice of Christ in the 
extent of it being to carry the heart on to Christ, and not to assure it, 
therefore it is not always discerned as distinct, yet so as the heart is 
taught effectually this lesson, to go to Christ; and that other voice is 
therefore called a witness, because it hath relation to this hint given to 
put it out of question. It is like the secret scent a bloodhound hath 
gotten of the hart that is struck, when the master hath bade it go seek, 
which though he see not the hart, yet it carries him on till he find him 
out. So this secret voice of the Spirit, though it prevails not against 
doubts in a man's sense, yet it carries him on against discouragements, 
there being an impression of Christ's special inclinableness to it, which 
cannot be worn out by any temptation. 

Now, if this be in faith (as you see it is), then it is not an easy work; 
for, you see, Christ vouchsafes not this to all to whom the gospel is 
preached. He did not vouchsafe it to those Jews who heard the outward 
voice of his mouth as a minister of circumcision, and who believed not 
because they heard not his special voice, which he did not vouchsafe, 
because they were not of his own sheep. Can all the angels in heaven, or 
ministers on earth, procure this voice to you, or bring you news of it ? 
No ; and yet without it the heart makes not after Christ. And therefore 
Paul makes this to be the great difficulty to bring a natural man in to 
believe, because all his understanding cannot know God's mind in the 



250 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

word, unless the Spirit reveal it: ' Who knows the mind of a man, hut the 
spirit that is in him ? so nor doth any know the deep things of God, but 
his Spirit,' who is a privy counsellor, and is in his bosom. And therefore 
he concludes to shut nature out herein : ' Who hath known the mind of 
the Lord ? But we have the mind of Christ,' 1 Cor. ii. 16. 



CHAPTER VII. 

How the faith of a believer should depend on electing grace for salvation. 

Though a believer views God's electing love, and depends on it for his 
salvation, yet he doth not so commit his soul to that one single act of God's 
choosing persons as so to rely on it that God having chosen men's persons 
on his part, they themselves should care to do nothing as on their parts. 
No; this is the highest degree of profaneness and contempt, and a per- 
verting of our whole Christian religion, and to bring in that of Simon 
Magus, and indeed the devil's divinity, for he was the most famous 
sorcerer in the world, Acts viii. 9-11. It was depths, as they themselves 
termed their doctrine; but the Holy Ghost, who penned the Epistle, 
animadverts upon it, and calls them depths, Rev. ii. 20, 24. The Gnostics 
took no other part of the Christian profession but that, ' By grace ye are 
saved,' and so left men unto a licentious liberty, which Peter speaks of: 
2 Peter ii. 19, 'Whilst they promise them' (i. e., their disciples) ' liberty, 
they themselves are the servants of corruption.' That was the latter part 
of their doctrine ; and Jude supplies the forepart in saying, verse 4, that 
they ' turned the grace of God unto lasciviousness.' And yet even this 
hath been affixed as a calumny upon them that profess the doctrine of 
irrespective election. I will therefore explain in these following particulars 
the true dependence of a believing soul upon electing love for salvation. 

1. A soul who hath begun to be wrought upon by ' tasting how good the 
Lord is' in his electing grace, or (as the apostle speaks, Col. i. 6) 'since 
the day he first heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth,' hath 
been affected with it, casts himself upon it to be saved. And so quick, 
and speedy, and operative was the power of God in the ministry of those 
first times, and to such a height did their convert hearers ascend, as to 
apply themselves unto a dependence on that grace for salvation. Where 
God hath thus begun it in us (and we cannot begin any good thing unless 
God himself begins), we may look toward his electing love. Nor is any 
man fit to look toward the grace of God in election, till God awaken him 
with the gracious knowledge of it, no more than a sinner not yet convinced 
of his sin by nature, and his being under the wrath of God for sin, will 
ever look after Christ as a Saviour. 

2. It is not my design to consider whether all saints, from their first 
conversion, know this grace of God in election, as that grace upon which 
salvation doth depend ; but whether sooner or later, as God pleaseth to dis- 
pense great discoveries of grace to him, and whenever his soul begins to 
take in the sense and savour of this grace, he should follow on with might 
and main in his inquest after it. Let him ' follow on to know the Lord ' 
and his grace, and God will ' rain down righteousness upon him,' as the 
prophet speaks in the psalmist's words. Let him ' follow hard after him,' 
where the words in the original are 'follow him behind;' i.e., if thou 
shouldst lose that sight of his face, and the taste that he is good begins to 
grow less and less in thy heart — yea, and he to try thee turns away his 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faitit. 251 

faco from thee, yea, and turns his back on thee, as offering to go away — 
then down on thy knees, and liko an importunate beggar follow him 
behind, and with the most vehement earnestness desire him to give theo 
his grace, and that manifestation of his face again, that overcame and took 
thy heart at the first, and then thou shalt be saved. 

8. Let such a soul be sure to look at and take all along with him the 
whole complex of God's methods and holy purposes and decrees of grace 
belonging to the doctrine of election. Now there are two sorts of decrees: 
the first is an act of absolute election of the persons that are elected unto 
salvation ; the other is of the means by which and through which God 
brings men junto salvation, who are in that manner elected. And both 
these are decreed with the same pcremptoriness as to the decreeing of each, 
and with like absoluteness indispensably ; so as no man ever was or will 
be saved without his diligent attendance to the decree of the means, as 
well as to that of his salvation, which is the decree of the end, as we call 
it. And the putting these two together doth pave the way of seeking God 
according to election complete. These two sorts of decrees we find dis- 
tinguished and stated to our hands : 2 Thess. ii. 13, ' God hath from the 
beginning chosen you,' namely, your persons, ' to salvation.' AVith that 
he begins ; and this is that election first mentioned, Eph. i. 4. And it is 
our foundation, that is, of our persons elected, and also of all things else 
(the means) decreed in order to our salvation ; and these two decrees are 
alike fixed, and made absolutely necessary to be attended to ; but the 
latter as subordinate, or rather subservient to the other, and ordained to 
accomplish and bring into effect that first original act, the election of our 
persons, by bringing us to that salvation which was ordained to us. And 
this decree of the means the apostle subjoins in those words, ' Through 
sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth,' that is, of the gospel, 
which in New Testament speech has that title, the truth, by way of emi- 
nency. Which true means are indeed no other than a true, saving, 
justifying faith, and holiness of heart, and new obedience. And these 
two, as they are the decreed means to bring us to that end of salvation, so 
they are parts or pieces of that salvation itself which we were chosen unto 
by the first decree, and which God has ordained, not as conditions of that 
original act, of which he had said before, he had ' chosen us from the 
beginning unto salvation.' Conditions they are not, in any sense, either 
of the Arminians, who would have a man acknowledge when he has truly 
believed that then he is actually elected, and not before (now, according to 
our doctrine, God chooses no man/o>- his faith, but unto faith, and through 
faith), or of those other divines that orthodoxly do hold election of persons, 
who do call them quasi conditions, but as it icere conditions, no more than 
a pepper-corn, if it be required as an acknowledgment of a rent-farm, 
which is the lowest diminutive term. But I am afraid to give it, lest it 
should diminish from the praise of the glory of God's free grace, and lest 
he should not brook it. 

There are two points which God is especially tender of : that of justifi- 
cation is the one, and his free grace in election is the other. But God is 
especially tender in point of election ; for that act is wholly within himself, 
wherein he has no creature to look on, but the ideas of us which himself 
hath formed and represents us to himself by. In which first act also 
within himself, his grace, the highest principle in him, assumes to himself 
the most sovereign absolute freedom. If you come to that point with him 
(and it is of that point he speaks it), God in his sovereignty proclaims, 
Rom. xi. 35, ' Whoever hath first given him, he shall be recompensed,' be 



252 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK. III. 

it but a pepper-corn. I am afraid to diminish an hair from God in speak- 
ing what will have the sound or preference of the least such appearance in 
the point of justification. It is not the proud notion of merit only (though 
the primitive fathers used the word in a good sense, but our protestants 
have generally avoided it), but of works too, must be exploded. God loves 
not faith as a work, though it saves his children whom he loves, much less 
will he admit- it to be considered in election, which is a purely pure act of 
himself within himself. Besides, I cannot see that what is a part of salva- 
tion itself (at least the beginning of it) should have put upon it the nature 
of a condition. If a father should say, Marry my daughter, upon a con- 
dition that you marry her, I should think he at least speaks not so properly ; 
for to marry her is to have the person herself, and not the condition of 
having her. And whereas the Scripture says, ' Look unto me, all the ends 
of the earth, and be ye saved.' Looking (there) unto him is not the 
condition of being saved, but that whereby we are saved, and so ' he that 
believes hath eternal life.' Marrying a man's daughter (in the case men- 
tioned) is not a condition, but an essential ingredient into the constitutive 
nature of the thing, and the means of enjoying her person. 

Both the decree of, and production of the means decreed, is in Scripture 
expression termed the fruits which flow from his original decree of the 
election of the person, in the virtue of which God bestows them; and God's 
choice of the person is the cause of our performing them, according to that 
of the Psalmist, Ps. Ixv., 'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest' (there 
is the first decree, and then follows), ' and causest to approach unto thee.' 
So as the bestowing of these means which we are to observe and perform 
are seminally contained in the choice of the person, and in the love out of 
which he is chosen. Yea, the love that God bears to the person chosen is 
that which moveth God's heart to appoint the means, and then to work the 
means in the heart. Yea, further, this love moves God to the act of elec- 
tion itself, and is therefore the original grace of all grace, even as that we 
call original sin is the cause and matrix of all sin. Let no man therefore 
(this being the order of God's decrees) separate what God hath inseparably 
and unalterably joined. 

5. Hence, and above all, the principal object which I propose to your 
eye and pursuance is this love and grace which was and is in God's heart, 
and is that love which is the cause of all, but especially of working faith, 
and quickening at the first, and ever after, according to Eph. ii. 4-6 ; yea, 
this love and grace is the cause of election itself, and of all the fruits of it : 
Eph. ii. 4-6, 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith ho 
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with 
Christ (by grace ye are saved) ; and hath raised us up together, and made us 
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' It hath been even his love 
from everlasting which hath done it, according to that in Jeremiah, chap, xxxi., 
' I have loved thee with an everlasting love.' Let the soul then infinitely 
admire that love, and possess his heart with all the royal and glorious pro- 
perties of it, as that it is free, absolute, unchangeable, everlasting, &c, as 
follows in those royal titles in which the Scriptures do array and present it 
to the sons of men ; and let him admire and adore that the great God 
should love so well his mere creatures, out of which love that absolute 
decree of election did then flow, and all those purposes concerning the 
means which that love all along continued unto a man's conversion, and 
doth then work, and put them into execution unto salvation itself (for this 
love is actus continuus, as the eternal generation of his Son is, and yet from 
everlasting both), so as at and before, yea, unto the very moment before a 



CUAP. VII.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 253 

man's conversion, it is one and the same love for the substanco of it that 
at any time was or shall be ; and it is the same love which wrought con- 
version itself, and which works every good work in us that belongs unto 
salvation, though, according to the general rules of his own word, be hath 
obliged himself from discovering it any way, no, not to the men themselves, 
until that fulness of time bo come, appointed by his secret will, for every 
elect man's first conversion and calling ; and therefore this love is the prin- 
cipal principle and object, which is to be addressed unto and pleaded, 
and God plied with the utmost intenseness of a man's soul and earnest 
diligence, both for the manifestation of itself after conversion, and also to 
convert a man who is as yet to be converted ; and this I eminently propose 
to be noted in this seeking of God in the way of election ; and my proposal 
of it is for two uses or improvements of it in the matter of election. 

1st, That the soul may implore this love, and the grace of it, to manifest 
and discover itself unto the soul of the person by an intuitive light of the 
Spirit, joined with a word of promise, with an overpowering efficacy, as 
when in prayer God sometimes answers, ' Thou art a person so beloved !' 

2dly, That the soul may also wait with the most vehement expectations 
and longings (with a • neck stretched out,' as the apostle's word* is) how 
the work of God goes on in him, and how the discoveries of God's grace 
do rise and spring up in him unto a more perfect day. 

8dly, That the soul may humbly beseech that pure free love both to 
fulfil all and each of those designed graces and blessings decreed, together 
with that act of election, to fetch and dig out every grace thou wantest, or 
art deficient in, in the exercise thereof, and to draw it forth out of that full 
and inexhaustible mine of glory which is in God's grace : Phil. iv. 19, 
• God shall supply all your need according to the riches of his glory by 
Jesus Christ.' And the soul is to regard all and each of these as con- 
sequential fruits that spring from such a love, and were as peremptorily 
decreed to be in a subordination, as fruits of that great act of the election 
of persons. 

For a conclusion, let me but lay open the heart of one scripture: Col. i. 
5, 6, ' Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 
which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as 
it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God 
in truth.' The grace of God principally meant, ver. 6, is the grace of 
elective love, which is properly in God's heart toward us. But what 
should be meant by the grace of God made known by preaching by their 
faithful minister, and which, being known by them in truth, brought forth 
faith and love in them from the day they heard it ? The grace of God, as 
it stands in this coherence, must be either the grace which was by the 
gospel made known to be in God's heart toward sinners, to move them to 
come in to God, and so to work faith in them, whereby to be reconciled to 
God ; or else it is the laying open what the grace of God required to be 
wrought in them, and so to direct them how they should turn to God; or 
else both of these, which is the truth. It is not what the grace of God 
required to be wrought in them that only or chiefly should be intended by 
grace, because that grace of God intended is that grace (if you observe the 
Beries of the words) which, after it is known, brings forth that fruit spoken 
of; ' fruit in you,' says the apostle. Now that cannot be understood 
chiefly or only of inherent holiness or faith, for that grace itself is the 
thing that is the very fruit itself, said to be brought forth, and that in them, 
as the phrase there is. And therefore it is not the grace, or the knowing 
* Apparently smxrerjo/Mivog, Phil. iii. 14.— Ed. 



254 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III. 

of that grace begun experimentally to be in tbem, that is wholly or chiefly 
meant. There must, therefore, be another grace of God, that was the 
cause of that grace or fruit in themselves, which could be no other than 
the grace in God's heart towards them, taught and discovered to those 
Colossians by the preaching of the truths of the gospel, ver. 5, which gospel 
itself is therefore styled ' the grace of God which bringeth salvation ;' that 
is, the blessed news to sinful men of salvation by the sole grace that is in 
God's heart towards them, Tit. ii. 11 ; and this doth most properly and 
principally bear the name of grace, and of the grace of s God, and is in God 
himself, who is the ' God of all grace,' 1 Pet. v. 10, and is the cause of all 
grace in us, and that by its appearing, being made known to us in truth. 
This is gratia gratians, the grace that makes us gracious. 

But now the inquisition will be, what grace of God borne to us men 
should be here meant, whether to all men alike in common, a love of God 
alike to all men; or the grace of election, exerted at election of some men 
chosen out by God out of the rest of mankind, designing particularly sal- 
vation to their persons, but promulged and proclaimed to all men, so as 
his love to mankind hath appeared to all men, but is not intended to all 
men. That this grace should be intended here, there are these reasons 
which prove it. 

* (1.) Because the truth and reality of God's grace, indeed, is but to a 
remnant: Bom. xi. 5, 'Even so then, at this present time,' when the 
apostle wrote, ' there is a remnant, according to the election of grace,' ver. 
5 ; whose very persons (God's choice carries the sway in it) are styled ' the 
election:' ' The election hath obtained, and the rest,' that are not elected, 
' were blinded,' ver. 7. And this election is but of a remnant whom God 
had reserved to himself, or they had all gone alike to the fire, and been as 
Sodom and Gomorrah, if they had been left to their own free wills. 

(2.) I find election itself expressed by finding grace in God's sight, whilst 
others of the sons of men are not vouchsafed it. Thus Moses his election 
is expressed, Exod. xxxiii. 16, ' Wherein,' pleads Moses to God, « shall it 
be known that I' (Moses myself) ' and this people have found grace in thy 
sicht?' The phrase is used to express the being God's own chosen people. 
And as for Moses, God owns it, and expresseth it to himself: ver. 17, ' I 
will do as thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight.' And 
he speaks more expressly for election yet, ' And I know thee by name.' 
And as for the people of the Jews, Jer. xxxi. 2, 3, the chosen elect among 
that people are said to have ' found grace in the wilderness,' the rest being 
cut off by the sword ; and thereby their being an elect people is also ex- 
pressed, for there it follows, ' I have loved thee with an everlasting love ;' 
and that, I am sure you will say, imports their election. And as for Moses, 
whereas he grew bold upon that encouragement, ' I know thee by name,' 
to ask of God to see his face and his glory, God gave him this answer, ' I 
will make all my goodness to pass before thee,' and will proclaim the name 
of the Lord before thee, ' The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful,' 
&c, viz., all the attributes of his gracious nature. But to whom should 
the attributes be applied for their salvation ? God there makes a reserve 
of the elect only to be the persons who should have the benefit of these 
attributes for their particular salvation ; and therefore adds, ' I will be 
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I will 
shew mercy.' As if he had said, I have indeed proclaimed all the attributes 
of grace and mercy that are in my nature, in common to all the people, but 
with this reserve to myself, that as to my will, which governs the manage- 
ment of those attributes unto persons for their salvation, this I keep the 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 255 

counsel of it unto myself, ' according to the counsel of my own will,' Eph. 
i. 11. And so answerably it is in Exod. xxxiv., ' I will be merciful to whom 
I will be merciful.' And the apostle Paul allcgeth these very words, ' I 
will,' &c, to prove the point of election to be by special grace, and the 
good pleasure of his will, in the case of Moses his election, and in the ease 
of hardening Pharaoh. And that phrase, ' they found grace,' doth not 
import a grace inherent or discovered in them, but a grace from God 
without thrm, or dwelling in God's heart towards them, and coming from 
without upon them, not in them. And it is to be observed that that is the 
phrase God himself, in expressing his shewing mercy to the persons whom 
he there chooseth (as hath been opened, Exod. xxxiii. 19), ' I will be mer- 
ciful on whom I will be merciful.' And to bring this home yet nearer to 
these Colossians, and what is spoken of their receiving the grace of God 
without them, which was the cause of their so quick conversion, as I 
observed, this was truly the grace of God inventa et non quash a, in Isaiah's 
words, ' I am found of them that sought me not,' as he promised. And of 
whom and what sort of men did he prophesy it ? Expressly of those heathen 
Gentiles, that had been heathens to the time of their conversion : Isaiah 
lxv. 1, it follows in that verse, ' And I said, Eehold me, behold me, unto 
a nation that was not called by my name ;' which was punctually fulfilled 
in this city of Colosse, who were heathens, till the day they heard the 
gospel of the grace of God ; but from that time brought forth fruit, and the 
like was in all the world. We poor ministers in these times stand picking 
the lock, which asketh often much time, but the apostles and primitive 
ministers broke open the door of faith, as it is called. 



OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS OF JUSTIFYING 

FAITH. 



PART II. 

Of the acts of Faith. 



BOOK I. 



The acts of faith in the understanding is a sight of Christ, a discerning and 
knowledge of his excellencies, and a hearty assent to the truths of the gospel 
concerning him. — That this mere assurance of the object, or a general assent 
to the truth of the promises, is not the act of faith justifying, but an appli- 
cation is necessary. — What the acts of the will are, which are exercised on 
Christ in believing. 



CHAPTER I. 

That faith in the understanding is a spiritual sight and knowledge of Christ. 
— That it is a sight distinct from bodily sense, and from reason, and other 
ways of knowledge. — That this sight hath the greatest certainty in it, and 
realiseth to the mind the things believed. — That the true believer sees the 
spiritual excellency and glory that is in Christ, so as to have his heart 
affected with it. — That he sees an all-sufficiency of righteousness in Christ. 
— That he is persuaded of Christ's readiness to save sinners, with some 
secret intimation that there is mercy for himself, though a sinner. 

And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and 
believeth on him, might have everlasting life. — John VI. 40. 

The subject I intend to treat of is to set forth to you those special acts of 
justifying faith exercised upon and towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And 
(that I may be distinctly understood) when I say the acts of faith, I do limit 
myself simply and merely to those acts which are of faith as justifying. 
There are the offices of faith (as you call them), which are many and diverse, 
each whereof have several acts ; as for example, it is the office of faith to 
justify, it is the office of faith to sanctify, it is the office of faith to enablo 
you to live in communion with God and with Christ in all your ways, &c, 
in all conditions. Now I single out one of those offices of faith, and that 
is, as it justifies, as it treats with Christ about justification ; and I shall 

VOL. VIII. R 



258 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

consider the acts that it performs as such. There are likewise several 
degrees in faith, in which every one of those offices is performed. There 
is weak faith and strong faith, there is faith of assurance and faith of 
recumbency. Now in discoursing of the acts of faith, my scope is not 
to speak of the high degrees, hut those that are more essential, and are 
ingredients in the lowest degrees of faith of recumbency, wherein a sinner 
treats with Christ about justification. There are also the effects of faith as 
it purifies, and sanctifies, and conformeth the soul to Christ, and bringeth 
joy and peace, and worketh love, and the like ; my scope is to handle none 
of these now. And thus by shewing you what my scope is not, I do 
thereby open to you particularly what it is that I pitch upon. Now there 
is no one scripture that puts all the acts of faith, as it treateth with Christ 
about justification, together ; neither shall I be able it may be to speak 
of all, but I purpose to follow the method that is here in this text ; and 
I begin first with that of seeing : ' He that seeth the Son,' &c. 

I purpose in a brief way to lay open those acts of faith (as it justifies a 
sinner) whereby the soul doth pitch upon Jesus Christ as the object 
thereof. There is no one scripture that mentions all, neither shall I be 
able to mention all to you ; yet those that are more eminent, and may 
come under what is here in the text, I shall go over with as much brevity 
as I can. 

In these words, compared likewise with the 37th verse of this chapter, 
you have three several sorts of acts of faith : 

1. Seeing the Son : ' Every one that seeth the Son.' 

2. A coming unto him ; so verse 37 (for you may take that verse in 
likewise), ' He that cometh unto me.' 

3. A believing on him : ' And believeth on him.' 

Now it is to be remarked, that that faith by which we are saved, which 
the apostle calls ' believing to the saving of the soul, is seated in the whole 
heart, so you have it in Acts viii. 37, ' If thou believe with thy whole 
heart ; ' and indeed every faculty, and every power of the soul in believing 
doth put forth a several sprig, a several film into Jesus Christ ; as you 
see in the roots that are in the earth, every root shoots a small string into 
that by which the tree and the root is united thereunto ; thus are we rooted 
in Christ, and grounded in him, as the expression is in Col. ii. 7, which is 
then when the faculties do thus shoot forth several acts suitable to them- 
selves, into our Lord Christ, and then the soul believeth on him. 

I will begin first with the first act of faith here, and that is seeing, 
which notes out that act of faith which is in the understanding, which we 
call the act of knowledge. Hence we find that in Scripture our being 
justified by Christ is ascribed to the knowledge which we have of him ; you 
have it in Isa. liii. 11, ' By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
many ; ' when he saith by his knowledge, he doth not mean that we are 
justified by the knowledge that is in Christ (though perhaps in some sense 
that might be said), but it is by the knowledge we have of him. The word 
his there is taken objectively ; it is called, you see here, a seeing the Son ; 
here is the act, and here is the object ; the act it is seeing, the object i3 
the Son. In this sight of Christ there are four things which I would 
Epeak to : 

(1.) It is a spiritual sight or knowledge of him. 

(2.) It is a sight in distinction to bodily sight, and in distinction from 
reason, and other ways of knowledge. 

(3.) It hath a certainty in it. 

(4.) It hath a reality in it. 



OflAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 259 

(1.) It is a spiritual Bight, which doth distinguish it from all knowledge 
of Christ after the flesh; for there is indeed a sight of Christ, and a real 
sight of Christ, which is contradistinct to faith, a sight of the bodily pre- 
Benoe of Christ, and this the apostle speaks of in 1 Peter i. 8, ' In whom, 
though ye see him not, yet ye believe ; ' and the truth is, our faith shall end 
in such a sight, lor we shall one day see him as he is, and to be believing 
in the mean time, having not seen, is that blessedness which is pronounced, 
John xx. 29. When Paul was converted he saw Christ, his eyes were 
elevated to see Christ, whether as in heaven or in the air I will not dispute, 
as some do ; but certain it is that he saw him, and yet that was not a sight 
of faith. Now in 2 Cor. v. 16, 17, he prefers that knowing of Christ after 
the new creature, by that spiritual sight the new creature hath of him, to 
all the knowledge of Christ after the flesh in any such visible manner ; thus 
wicked men shall see him at the latter day, and be never the better for the 
sight of him ; but it is a spiritual sight of Christ by the eye of faith that 
saveth a man. In 1 Cor. ii. 14, the apostle tells us, that spiritual things 
are not known by the natural man, because they are spiritually discerned, 
so that the knowledge of a spiritual man is a spiritual knowledge. The 
meaning is, it is such a knowledge and sight of Christ as is suitable to the 
spiritualness that is in him, it takes in a genuine notion of him. Spiritual 
things may be set out by words to the reason and to the fancies of 
men, so as to take with them ; but we do not know them nor see them till 
we see them purely and nakedly, by an impressson the Holy Ghost makes 
upon us, that conveys the proper, and native, and natural image to us. 
As for example, go take a song in music, that is set or written, or pricked 
upon a book, a man may be taught the art of music, so that he may know 
the proportions and harmony according to the rules of art that are in this 
lesson as it is set or pricked upon the book ; this artificial harmony of it 
he may know, but yet notwithstanding the real, natural harmony, the ear 
only taketh in when this lesson is sung. Why ? Because the ear is that 
sense which is suited to take in the harmony and sound of music. Thus 
as God hath given us an understanding to know spiritual things thereby, 
the reason that is in them, the rational exercises of them, so far forth as 
they may be set out by words, all this the natural man takes in, but still 
there is that which is natural and proper to the things themselves, which 
he understands not. 

(2.) It is, in the second place, called a sight, to distinguish it from reason 
and other knowledge. So faith is expressed, ' He that seeth the Son ;' and 
in Heb. xi., ' They saw the promise afar off,' and Abraham ' saw Christ's 
day,' John viii. 56. And though Christ is now come, and exhibited, and 
is taken again out of our view, yet it is the sight of him that saveth us. It 
is not merely knowing him, but it is knowing him in a way of sight, for we 
may know him in a way of reason, we may gather one thing out of another, 
and so have the knowledge of him, and yet not have that which is faith 
about him, though whatsoever a man doth believe he hath reason for it ; 
reason subserveth and comes in to confirm it, yet the act of faith lies in a 
sight, rather than in a knowledge that is made up out of reason. 

The Holy Ghost still, when he speaks of faith, expresseth it to us by the 
knowledge of the senses, Philip, i. 9. Spiritual knowledge is there called 
sense ; the word i3 so, if you read your margin, and it is so in the original, 
' That your love may abound in knowledge and in all sense ;' so the word 
is. It is true, indeed, that faith is said to be of things not seen, Heb. 
xi. 1, but yet itself is said to be a sight. The things themselves are not 
seen, that is, to reason, and to the bodily senses they are not seen : but 



2G0 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK I. 

the mind hath a new sense, as it were, put into it, by which it sees them 
otherwise than either reason or sense could present them to a man. 

The Holy Ghost (to make this a little out to you), when he doth work 
faith in us, and reveal Christ and spiritual things to us, doth two things : 

First, He doth first give us a new understanding, a new eye, as it were 
on purpose, that is as truly suited to behold spiritual things as the natural 
eye is to behold colours : 1 John v. 20, ' He hath given us an understanding 
to know him that is true ;' that is, a new eye to see Christ with ; he puts 
a spiritualness into the understanding ; he doth not create a new faculty, 
but endues this with a new activity, which is as much as if he gave us a 
new understanding. 

Secondly, When he hath done so, himself comes with a light upon this 
new understanding, which light conveys the image of spiritual things in a 
spiritual way to the mind, such an image of the things as is taken off from 
the things themselves, such as no form of words, no reasoning, not all the 
wit and parts of a man, no discourses about Christ and spiritual things, 
would ever form in him. The angels, who have seen Jesus Christ in heaven 
in his glory, if they should all come down, and use all their art, all their 
rhetoric, come with all their pencils to paint and set out Jesus Christ to us 
in the most lively manner that can be ; yet all they could do, or could say, 
would not beget (without the power of the Holy Ghost, without his art 
joined with it) such a sight of Christ as faith gives us. If they should all 
set themselves to beget an image of Jesus Christ in our minds and under- 
standings, it would be but a jiarheUoii , as they call a false sun ; as we can- 
not see the sun but by his own light, so we cannot see Jesus Christ but by 
his own light, and by the light of the Holy Ghost. 

There is a seeing of spiritual things merely by the effects, and there is a 
faith wrought thereby ; for the devils they have a sense, and they have a 
knowledge, and a real knowledge too (so far forth as effects go), that there 
is a God, for they feel the lashes of his wrath upon their spirits ; yet, not- 
withstanding, this is not faith, this is not that faith which is the spiritual 
faith, which is the faith of sight, which here this text and the Scripture 
speaks of ; so that now it is a spiritual sight of him which is in the nature 
of faith. And the truth is, it is such an image of Christ framed in the 
heart (and when I say an image, I mean not the image of Christ in holiness, 
but the image of knowledge of him ; for a man knoweth nothing, but there 
is an image of it framed in his mind) ; such a sight of him by which we 
know him, as all the creatures, and all the knowledge, and all the descrip- 
tion of him in the world, would never work. As you have it in 1 Cor. 
ii. 9, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart 
of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.' He 
speaks there of the things of the gospel, and so of Jesus Christ eminently 
above the rest, and of the knowledge of them. There are such images of 
these things created there by a peculiar artifice of the Holy Ghost, as never 
entered into the heart of carnal men. It is his peculiar art (that is the 
truth of it), which is in no knowledge else, that is thus in faith. It is not 
that which we shall have in heaven, for that is seeing him face to face ; it 
is not such a knowledge only as we have of other things here below, which 
yet we believe really, though we never saw them ; but, I say, there is a 
peculiarity in it, which the Holy Ghost works in the hearts of the people 
of God, which is the sight of faith. It is therefore called in 1 Cor. ii. 4, 
' The demonstration of the Spirit.' There are two principles in Scripture 
which all knowledge, even of spiritual things, is reduced unto. The one 
is called the ' revelation of flesh and blood,' Mat. xvi. 17 ; the other is called 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 2G1 

the ' demonstration of the Spirit,' 1 Cor. ii. 4. ' Flesh and blood,' saith 
Christ to Peter, ' hath not revealed these things to thee ;' implying that 
there was a knowledge which flesh and blood works in us, which is the way 
of man's nature : but then there is another knowledge which ariseth from 
the demonstration of tbe Spirit. It is light (as the apostle tells us in Eph. 
v. 13) that makes all tilings manifest. How comes your eye to see colours, 
or to see anything else ? Why there is a light comes, and that light takes 
of the image of the colours, and of the things you see, and brings them to 
your eye. Now spiritual things are all nothing else but light ; now God 
himself and Jesus Christ is nothing else but light ; and so is heaven, it is 
called ' the inheritance of the saints in light.' Now tbe Holy Ghost comes 
with the beams of this light, and every one of those beams doth bring the 
image, the natural, native image of the thing to the eye, to the understand- 
ing ; and therefore the apprehension of it is called sight, and we are there- 
fore said by the psalmist to ■ see light in his light,' Ps. xxxvi. 9 ; the beams 
of the sun, you know, convey every of them an image cf the sun, and such 
an image of the sun whereby you see the sun, so as nothing else can repre- 
sent the sun to you ; and so the Holy Ghost he doth cause the beams of 
God, and of Christ, who, as I said, is nothing else but light, for to shine 
into our hearts, and all those beams which he letteth and bringcth in, they 
convey the image of God and of Christ to us, and so we see him. In 
1 Pet. ii. 9, we are said to be ' translated into his marvellous light.' It is 
cabled ' marvellous' because it is above reason, or the natural knowledge of 
a man; and it is called 'his light,' not only because Christ works it, as in 
Eph. v. 14 it is said, ' Christ shall give thee light,' but because it is the 
light of himself, it conveys the image of himself to the heart. 

Yea, let me tell you this, the sight of faith is so genuine a knowledge, 
that though it differ in degrees, yet the very same knowledge that Christ's 
human nature hath of himself, the same knowledge in its degree doth the Holy 
Ghost work of him in the heart of a Christian. This is a great speech, but 
it is true the knowledge wbereby Jesus Christ knows and sees himself, you 
must needs say is a natural knowledge of himself : that is, he sees himself 
as he is in himself, not by hearsay. Now look what spiritual representa- 
tions Jesus Christ hath of God, and of himself, and of his own righteous- 
ness, in his mind, the Holy Ghost coming fresh from the heart of Christ, 
stampeth the very same upon the heart of a Christian in his measure. You 
will say, How prove you that ? the text is clear for it, in 1 Cor. ii. 16, ' We 
have the mind of Christ.' He speaks there of spiritual knowledge ; that 
whereas other men have the letter, the literal knowledge, yet they have not 
these thoughts, have not that mind stamped upon their minds which is in 
Christ himself; but such we have (saith he), we have the mind of Christ, 
we have those spiritual thoughts as it were from his heart, because w T e have 
the Spirit which works in us, impresseth upon us the same thoughts of 
him that are in his own heart of himself. All other enlightenings that 
men have, they are from Christ indeed ; he is said, John i. 9, to be ' the 
light that enlighteneth every man that comes into the world' with all sorts 
of common knowledge. As now go take the light of the night, all the light 
you see in the night by the moon, it is all the light of the sun, but yet it is 
not that light whereby the sun conveys its beams to the eye when it riseth, 
and when a man beholds it ; so men that are not regenerated, that have 
but a temporary faith, they have a light from Christ, such as is the light of 
the sun shining in the moon ; they have a light, as from the effects ; they 
have a light also which the letter of the Scripture, and the Spirit shining 
upon it, begets in them ; but still it is not a sight of the thing itself, it is 



2G2 OF THE OBJECT AXD ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

not seeing the Son, it is not such as when the image of the Son himself is 
conveyed into the mind and understanding by the Holy Ghost. We may 
know there is a sun by what light we see in the moon, but it is another 
thing to have a beam of the sun itself shine into a man's eye, whereby the 
very image of the sun is conveyed into his eye. And therefore this sight 
of faith it is called sight, because it is thus elevated above all rational 
knowledge of Christ whatsoever ; it is a further thing, though joined with 
it ; it is (I say) superadded to reason, let it be elevated and enlightened 
ever so much by the Holy Ghost in a rational way. 

Go, take a temporary believer, it is true he sees those things, by the help 
of the light of the Spirit, which nature would never help him to see, and yet 
it is but by natural understanding, remaining natural, and reason elevated, 
and reason improved, and reason enlarged and convinced. But faith 
goes higher than all this, faith is more than a man's having an optic 
glass set before his eye, to see that which else he could not see, because it 
is so far off ; the eye of itself is capable of it, if it stood nigh it. There is 
more than all this in faith ; it is as it were a new eye, to see those things 
in such a manner as all the optic glasses in the world would never help 
a dim eye to see at a distance. Therefore, now faith (as I said afore), is 
called the ' demonstration of the Spirit ;' all other knowledge is but by 
derived images of the things of Christ, by hearsay, so much of Christ as 
may be conveyed to us by words and by rational discourses, the Holy Ghost 
enlightening them. In all this there are but secondary images conveyed 
to the hearts of carnal men, more or less, as they are more or less en- 
lightened ; but to see the Son as he is in himself, as here the text holds it 
forth, this is proper to believers. So that, take any man that hath been 
never so much enlightened in the knowledge of spiritual things, and not 
savingly enlightened, when that man comes to turn to God, and to believe 
in earnest, he will say he never saw these things before, he will say he 
doth now see Christ so as he never saw him before, and that he sees 
God in that manner as he never saw him before. And though he knew 
never so much before, yet now after he is turned unto God, he sees that 
' old things are passed away, and all things are become new ;' as the apostle 
says in 2 Cor. v. 17, and he speaks it in respect of knowledge. Let now 
a carnal man speak of Christ, and let a holy man who savingly believes 
speak of the same Christ, and of spiritual things, they shall both speak of 
the same things, yet the knowledge, that is, the sight which the believer 
hath of Christ, and of spiritual things, is clearly differing from that of the 
other. 

I shall open but one scripture to you to express this ; it is in John iii. 12. 
Our Saviour Christ had been discoursing with Nicodemus, about the point 
of regeneration, which is a thing belonging to the kingdom of heaven. 
Now, saith he, ' if I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how 
shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?' What is his meaning 
there of having told him of earthly things ? He had spoken of heavenly 
things, and why doth he call them earthly ? Because he had expressed 
them under earthly words, and he had not given light, he had not gone 
forth with what he spake in a spirit of irradiation to Nicodemus his heart ; 
hence, therefore, Nicodemus clean mistakes Christ. But now when Jesus 
Christ doth enlighten a man, whilst he or the ministers of his word speak 
earthly things, he stamps the impress and image of the heavenly themselves 
upon the heart, and then a man believes ; he conveys them in their heavenly 
hue, conveys them in that notion and apprehension that his own heart hath 
of them, and therefore, John iii. 11 (saith he), ' We speak that we know, 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 268 

and testify that wo have scon.' And ' wo,' too, who are helievcrs, ' have 
the mind of Christ,' 1 Cor. ii. 1G. So that a believer hath such a kind of 
knowledge of heavenly things as Jesus Christ himself hath, such a know- 
ledge of the Son as Jesus Christ hath of himself, in his measure ; it differs 
indeed in degrees, but it is of the same kind. 

Hence it is that a believer is said, when he believeth, to witness to the 
truth of God, ' to set to his seal that God is true,' John hi. 33. What is 
the reason ? Because ho knows the truths of God, the great truth espe- 
cially about Christ, which is the thing eminently he witnesseth unto, and 
he knows it not by reason, but by sense, by sight, and therefore he is a 
witness. For you know, if any man give a testimony merely by hearsay, 
we account it as no witness in comparison ; but if a man speak by sense 
and by sight, then he speaks like a witness. Now, because a believer takes 
iu spiritual things by a spiritual sense, by a spiritual sight, therefore he is 
said to witness when he doth believe. 

And the sight of faith, though it is joined with reason, yet it is intuitive. 
We do not gather the knowledge of Christ out of other things, but it is a 
sight of himself. In 1 Cor. xiii. 12, we are now said to j see through a 
glass darkly,' yet we are said to see. Rational knowledge is to gather one 
thing out of another, but the knowledge of faith, so far as it is a knowledge 
of faith, is to see a thing in itself, to see Jesus Christ in himself. 

That I may demonstrate this yet further, you shall find that the know- 
ledge of faith in the souls of men, is not proportioned to the compass of 
their natural understanding. Why ? Because it is a way of knowledge 
above what the understanding naturally hath, or can be improved, or raised 
up unto, remaining natural ; it is therefore a way beyond it, it is by way 
of sight. What is the reason that God hath chosen fools, rather than the 
wise men of the world ? < You see your calling,' saith the apostle, ' how 
that not many wise men after the flesh,' &c, 1 Cor. i. 2G. If God had 
meant to convey the knowledge of spiritual things only to those that know 
him here in a rational way, and by reason, elevated by the Holy Ghost, 
certainly he would have chosen the wise men of the world, because they by 
knowledge would have glorified him more in such a way of knowledge. 
No ; but he chose the fools of the world, because he hath a way of con- 
veying himself to their understandings beyond the way of reason, and that 
is by way of sight. Therefore you shall observe, men who are ignorant in 
a rational way, that cannot make out a rational discourse of spiritual 
things, that cannot lay before you a rational connection of one truth 
with another, and when they speak of them, though they have otherwise 
much grace and holiness, they will speak incoherently of them in their 
expressions, and yet it is apparent that yet these men, as being godly, have 
as strong and deep a knowledge of heavenly things as those who have 
infinitely more strength of natural reason. Why ? Because faith goes by 
way of sight, it goes in a way beyond and above reason, and the knowledge 
of God and of Christ in a rational way. When we come to heaven, will 
God then proportion to you a knowledge of himself (and degrees of happi- 
ness depend upon greater degrees of knowledge of him), according to men's 
parts and understandings which they had in this rational way here ? No ; 
but he lets in a light of himself, a light of vision, which he that hath the 
lowest parts, if God let in no more* light to him, shall know more of him 
than these of far greater parts, into whom he hath not let in so much light. 
And so doth God here, because that faith is sight, and is the prelibation, 
the beginning of heaven. 

* Qu. ' let in more' ? — Ed. 



2G4 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

This is clearly (as to me), also the difference between that way of know- 
ing God which believers have now, and that which Adam had in innocency ; 
if Adam had stood, he amongst his children that had the most parts (those 
parts being all carried in a rational way), should have known more of God 
than he that, it may be, was more holy, and had lower parts. But it is not 
so in the second Adam, because he hath a way of letting things into the 
mind beyond the way of reason, by the way of sight and spiritual light, 
conveying beams of himself to us, which conveyeth those images of himself 
and of spiritual things to us, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, 
nor ever entered into the heart of man remaining natural. 

I will only give you a caution, that I may not be misunderstood ; for as 
this is a great truth, so I would clear it from mistakes. The light of faith 
doth not destroy reason, but makes use of it, subordinates reason to itself, 
restoreth, rectifies it, and then useth it, even as reason makes use of sense; 
though the acts of reason, the thoughts of a man in a rational soul, are 
clean differing to what he hath in the sensitive soul, yet reason makes use 
of sense. And thus the Holy Ghost makes use of all the rational discourses 
and descriptions of Christ in the word, makes use of the letter of the word, 
but by them conveys those spiritual thoughts of Christ, which all that letter 
cannot hold forth to a man. And, as I said afore, if the angels from heaven 
should come and preach Jesus Christ to us, should with all their pencils 
go and paint out what knowledge they have of Jesus Christ, they could not 
beget one such sight of Christ in the heart as the Holy Ghost doth when 
he comes to work faith. And yet the apostle tells us it comes by hearing, 
and in hearing. The more rationally the preacher discourseth out of the 
word, and lays open the meaning thereof in a rational way, so much the 
better, because it is suited to the minds of men ; yet where the Holy Ghost 
works faith, he conveys a light beyond all that reason, though he makes use 
of that reason too. This word of God hath an harmony of reason in it, 
and if a man would open a place of Scripture, he should do it rationally; he 
should go and consider the words before and the words after; but yet still, 
if the Holy Ghost comes not with a further light than all this rational 
opening of the word affords, a man will never believe, for faith is a sight 
beyond it. The Holy Ghost useth motives to move you to holy duties, 
but then he comes with a power joined with those motives beyond the 
moral force of them. He useth signs out of your own hearts to comfort 
you, but he comes with a light over and above those signs ; for if you should 
stick there, you would never have comfort; so he useth reason; he de- 
stroyeth it not, but subordinateth it. 

The apostle saith that the Scripture is not of any private interpretation, 
2 Pet. i. 20. If the Scripture might be known by the light of reason (it is 
written rationally, and suiting to reason, I acknowledge), but if the Scrip- 
tures might alone be known, and the meaning of the Holy Ghost therein, 
by the light of reason, they were of private interpretation, for man's reason 
is but a private interpreter in comparison of the Holy Ghost the author ; 
yet notwithstanding he useth reason to interpret it ; but when he hath 
done, he himself comes and seals up to a man's spirit that this is the 
meaning of the Holy Ghost in it, or else a man never believes. So that it 
is the light of the Holy Ghost now that casteth the balance ; and he doth 
this not only in the principles of religion, but in deductions of principles 
too; for though a man gather by reason one thing from another, yet if he 
have not the light of the Spirit to seal up those deductions, he doth not 
believe in a spiritual way ; therefore it is called in Job xxxiii. 16, ' sealing 
of instruction.' If the Holy Ghost do not go, and by a supernatural light 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith, 



2G! 



reveal the truth to a man, all the reason in the world will never work 
spiritual faith in his heart. Hence now you see why it is called sight. 

The end why I have insisted so long upon this is, as to open it, so to 
take you oil' of yourselves, and all your own knowledge, that you may therefore 
seek out to the Holy Ghost to make spiritual things evident to you by their 
own light, in their own hue, that you may not rest in rational knowledge, 
and in notional knowledge of the things of the word, for you may go to 
hell with all that, unless you have a spiritual sight of the things them- 
selves. 

(3.) As faith is a spiritual knowledge, and as it is a sight heyond 
that of reason, though of spiritual things, which yet are suited to reason, 
so the knowledge of faith is a certain knowledge. So you have it in Heb. 
xi. 13, ' They saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them ;' 
that is, they had a knowledge of assurance of the things they did believe. 
I say the knowledge of faith it is a certain knowledge. And why ? Be- 
cause it is a knowledge of sight. What a man sees, it is certain that he 
sees it when he sees it. "What is the reason? Because sensus turn fallitur 
circa proprium objection, — Sense is never deceived about its proper object. 
Therefore if it be a spiritual sight and a spiritual sense, it hath a certainty 
joined with it. The knowledge of faith it is called assurance in Heb. x. 
22, but in Col. ii. 2, as you do increase in it, you are said to ' increase in 
all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of 
the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.' It is very em- 
phatical. He tells us in the following words, that there are ' hidden in Christ 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;' and his scope is to prefer the 
knowledge of the gospel, and of Christ therein, to all other knowledge. 
Nay, saith he, it doth not only excel all other knowledge in regard of the 
object of it, but it is a knowledge that, when it is genuine, when it is saving, 
it excelleth as to the riches of assurance in the knowledge itself. It is such 
an assurance, and so rich, as you cannot have from your senses, or any- 
thing else. The apostle heaps up expressions ; he calls it assurance, he 
calls it full assurance, he calls it full assurance of understanding, he calls it 
riches of full assurance, and he calls it an acknowledgment ; words enough, 
one would think, to make knowledge sure. 

But let me here add a caution too. My meaning is not that every saint 
that is a true believer hath an assurance that Jesus Christ is his, or that 
he hath the assurance of his own salvation. No ; many believers have not 
that, neither is that essential to faith or to the act of application. This 
doth not lie in believing that Christ is mine, for if it did, God would give 
it unto every man ; but the act of application is real application, giving 
myself up unto Christ, that he may be mine, and I his. But now, though 
there is not an act of assurance of my own interest, yet there is an act of 
assurance of the thing I believe on. I do never truly believe, unless there 
be an assured persuasion of the truth of the things on which I believe, 
and which I believe. Thus you must understand those scriptures where 
you have mention of the assurance of faith, as in Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw 
near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.' And so in James i. 6, 
' If any man pray, let him ask in faith, without wavering, for he that 
wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.' Of 
which place many have mistook the meaning; for is the meaning this,_that 
when a man comes to ask a promise at the hands of God, he must believe, 
without wavering, that he shall have it ? No ; if this were the faith that 
James here meant when he saith, ' If any man pray, let him ask in faith, 
without wavering,' who almost is there (unless in some special manifesta- 



2GG OF THE OBJECT A>.'D ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK I. 

tions of God to him) that doth thus ask in prayer, or can ask temporal 
promises with such a faith, without wavering? But yet there is a faith 
which is without wavering; that is, there is an assured belief of the truth 
of those promises, that God made them, and that he is faithful to perform 
them according to the intention of them. Here now is a persuasion of the 
thing, and an asking in faith without wavering ; and, saith the apostle, 
' He that wavereth is as a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed ; 
a double-minded man is unstable,' saith he, ' in all his ways.' What is 
the reason that carnal men are unstable, and that they do not walk fully 
up in the ways of religion ? It is because that their faith in the things do 
not rise up to a stableness; it hath a wavering in the belief of the prin- 
ciples themselves, so far forth as they are principles of practice. Whereas 
now, if these things were spiritually and prevailingly rooted in their hearts, 
above the natural darkness of unbelief, that there is a God, who is a 
rewarder of those that seek him, and that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of 
the world, and that he hath made these and these promises, and is thus 
gracious and willing to receive those that come unto him; if these things, 
I say, were believed in a real and spiritual manner, and that the hearts of 
men were, without wavering, persuaded of them, without question it would 
draw men's hearts, and cause them to walk answerably, and keep them 
from being driven with the wind and tossed. 

So that this is the apostle's meaning (which is the thing I drive at), that 
in all faith there is a fixedness, an assuredness, a persuasion, namely, of 
the things that I do believe ; but it doth not follow that it should be an 
assured persuasion of my own interest in the things themselves, for so 
who asketh in faith ? Many poor souls that even ask salvation at the 
hands of God, they do not ask it as fully believing, and being assured that 
they shall be saved, and yet in the mean time they fully believe that sal- 
vation that God hath made known to them, and with which their hearts 
are taken, and that is the persuasion and assurance of faith. I shall give 
you some scriptures that this faith is a knowledge that riseth up to a per- 
suasion, to an assurance, John vi. 69. Peter there, in the name of all the 
apostles, confesseth his faith, and the faith of all the apostles : ' We 
believe,' saith he, 'and are sure' — of what ? that we shall be saved? no; 
but — ' that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' Of this a man 
must be sure, or it is not faith ; and so likewise he must be sure of all 
other things that are fundamental unto faith ; the things which he lays 
hold on, and which his soul pursues after, he must believe with a certainty 
that they are. When Jesus Christ was to go out of the world, what was 
it that he thanks his Father for, and why ? I can (saith he) comfortably 
leave the world, and leave these disciples in the world ; for ' I have given 
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,' 
John xvii. 8. Wherein now lay their receiving them, and their believing 
them ? for that is the meaning of receiving. ' They have received them,' 
saith he, ' and have known surely that I came out from thee.' He had 
begotten in them that faith which rises up to assurance, and he distin- 
guisheth them thus from the world: 'I pray for them,' saith he in the 
very next verse, 'I pray not for the world;' for indeed the world do not 
surely know or are persuaded of the things that are in the word, for if 
they were, certainly that persuasion would alter the frame of their lives, 
and would make them walk answerably, and cause them to be holy. If a 
man be unstable in his ways, it is because he is unstable in the belief of 
the principles he professeth to walk by; and so indeed hereby Christ dis- 
tinguisheth the faith of the world and the faith of those that were his 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 207 

disciples, whom he had wrought upon: ' They have surely known,' saith 
he, « that I came out from thee ;' and ' for these,' saith he, ' I pray, but 
I pray not for the world.' And the truth is, this full persuasion or assur- 
ance of the thing, it is an effect of the former property I mentioned, viz., 
of spiritual sight; for if I see a thing, and see it really (which is another 
property of the knowledge of faith, and which I shall speak to by and by), 
it always begets a certain persuasion in me that the thing is. Perhaps I 
may not reflect upon my own knowledge, yet notwithstanding an assur- 
ance and a full persuasion doth always and most necessarily follow a real 
sight of a thing. Take a man that is awake, he can and doth say with 
himself, and say it by way of difference and distinction from one being 
asleep, I know assuredly such a man is before me, I know assuredly that 
the sun shines. Why ? Because he sees the man, and he sees the sun ; 
whereas if a man be asleep, and in a dream, it may be he thinks he doth 
the same, but still there is no certainty in it. But now look where there 
is a reality of sight, there is also always accompanying it so far a full per- 
suasion and assurance ; and the man is able to say, that the knowledge he 
hath is different from all other knowledge. So that, I say, this is the 
third thing in this sight of Christ which a believer hath, he hath an assur- 
ance of the thing. This even the poorest and meanest believer hath, take 
him out of those temptations and doubts which the devil may suggest to 
him ; take him when he is himself, he hath an assurance that is of the 
things themselves. And the reason is clearly this, because he sees spiri- 
tual things by their own light; and the ground of faith, the very formate 
ratio, is the "light and demonstration of the Spirit. 'Now, that is more 
infallible than all that a man knows by his outward senses, or by reason, 
by how much the witness of the Spirit is above the witness of nature, and 
the light of the Spirit above the light of nature ; as an oath hath more 
certainty in it than a promise, so the light and demonstration of the Spirit 
hath more certainty in it than all the rational apprehension a man hath of 
Christ. In a word, the heart of a believer, by the light of the Spirit, sees 
more reason to believe that these things are so and so which the word saith, 
that there is such a Christ, so glorious and so good; he hath, I say, more 
reason to believe it than he could have by all the demonstrations that 
sense or reason can afford. As when a man sees the sun by its own light, 
it hath riches of evidence in it, hath it not ? so when a man sees Christ 
by his own light, it produces riches of assurance, namely, that the thing 
is. I say not that it carries with it riches of assurance that Christ is 
mine, or that I shall be saved, for that is another thing; all the torches in 
the world cannot give that light which the sun itself gives, no more can all 
the rational apprehensions a man hath give him such a sight of Christ as 
a believer hath by the demonstration of the Spirit. 

(4.) This knowledge of faith is a real knowledge, a real sight of Christ 
and of spiritual things. I do not speak of visions and revelations extra- 
ordinary, but it is such a knowledge as doth give a man a real possession 
of the things, and doth make the things themselves really subsisting to a 
man's spirit, and he feeleth really that there is such glory, and excellency, 
and sweetness in Jesus Christ as the word holds forth, and indeed as is in 
Jesus Christ himself; for now the Spirit of Christ is present, and joineth 
with his spirit, for always sight hath, as a certainty, so a reality joined with 
it. A man may have by way of reason a conviction that things are, he may 
know that things do exist, as now a man may know by the light of the 
moon and by the light of the stars that there is a sun, which shines upon 
them, and that this sun existeth; but when a man sees the sun itself, here 



2G8 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

is a knowledge sub esse prasenli; here is a presence of that sun to him, 
which makes it really existing to him. Such is the knowledge of faith; 
and therefore in Heb. xi. 1 faith is called b-oc-uaig, the evidence, that 
which gives a subsistence to the things not seen; that is, by the outward 
senses, or by the light and dictates of reason. Now, suppose that there were 
an artificial instrument made, by which things that we never saw, or never 
took in with our bodily eyes, might be really conveyed into our minds and 
fancies, such (if it were possible) as might stamp the image of them upon 
our fancies, we would say this were a very strange kind of instrument. 
Optic glasses they do not so much ; they indeed will present a thing to 
you which you glimmeringiy discern afar off, but you must first discern it 
with your bodily eye ; but now if there were an engine as could present a 
thing afar off, which your bodily eye never beheld, and stamp it upon your 
fancy, this you would say were strange. Now, the Holy Ghost hath an 
art to do this, and he doth do it, though he useth the word, and the de- 
scription of Christ in the word, and useth the promises, yet that image of 
Christ and of heavenly things wbich he works in the heart of a believer is 
by a peculiar art of his own which he useth, and it is far beyond, infinitely 
beyond, what we can take in by our fancies, or senses, or anything else; 
and therefore, because the knowledge of faith hath this reality in it, you 
shall find that there is almost no sense but in the Scripture faith is com- 
pared to it. And this is merely, I say, because it is such a knowledge as 
hath a reality of the things known conveyed to a man's soul, though they 
be absent. It is compared to hearing: John x. 16, 'My sheep hear my 
voice;' and they hear it so as to discern it from the voice of a stranger. 
It is compared to eating: John vi. 54, 'Whoso eateth my flesh,' &c. 
And elsewhere it is compared to tasting: Ps. xxxiv. 8, 'Taste how good 
the Lord is.' Hence in John vi. 55 Christ saith ' his flesh is meat indeed, 
and his blood is drink indeed ; ' that is, the soul finds a reality in it, and it 
is not as when a man dreams he eats, but Christ and the promises, and 
the things that the soul feeds upon, they have a reality in them, they are 
meat indeed and drink indeed, and the soul finds them so. They that are 
temporary believers have a show of this, both of a sight, and of a reality of 
sight, and they are said to taste of the powers of the world to come ; but 
yet let me say this to distinguish it from this other. 

1. They do not see spiritual things in their spiritual nature, as they are 
in themselves, though they may see an accidental goodness in them, and 
so be taken with them, and so may taste of the sauce of that flesh of 
Christ which it is sauced up in, as I may express it; that is, that acci- 
dental goodness which it is presented to us in, with those benefits that 
accompany it, as freedom from hell and the like ; but the spiritual, the 
genuine, the native excellency that is in Jesus Christ himself, this they do 
not see, nor is it made real to them. Now, to see a thing, or to know a 
thing in the effects, or in the accidental goodness of it, is not to see or to 
know the thing properly and truly ; but to see a thing in its own true, 
genuine notion, to see the spiritual excellency that is in Jesus Christ, and 
so to have the heart taken with him, considered in all his spiritual excel- 
lencies, this is spiritual sight ; and indeed this is only to know the things 
themselves, which the other doth not. 

2. And then again, though there be a seeming reality in the knowledge 
and impression that is made upon the heart of a temporary believer, yet it 
is but as the knowledge one hath that is asleep, and dreams that he sees 
and converseth with a man, which sight then seems to be exceeding real, 
and indeed is more real than the picture of a man is, because in his fancy 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 209 

he seems to have the reality of the man presented to him with whom ho 
converseth, and his image seems, as it were, to be stamped upon his fancy ; 
but yet it is but a phantasmatical knowledge ; it is not that knowledge and 
sight of a man which men have that are awake, that giveth a subsistence, 
as the knowledge and sight of faith doth, which is such a knowledge as is 
suited to the things themselves, a spiritual knowledge, and a real knowledgo 
also. I told you before, that the knowledge of a believer is to have such 
thoughts, in his measure and degree, as are in the heart of Christ himself. 
Now those things which yet are not (as the day of judgment is not yet), 
yet arc present to the heart of Christ ; and therefore it is said, God ' calleth 
things that are not as if they were,' Rom. iv. 17. If now I have the mind 
of Christ, if I have that spiritual notion of things to come, of heaven that 
is to come, stamped upon my heart, that is in the heart of Christ, that I 
know them in that manner he knows them, in my degree and proportion, 
then it is present to my heart as it is to his. Jesus Christ doth not only 
know things, but they have a subsistence, they are present to him : ' All 
things are present and naked with him with whom we have to do,' Heb. 
iv. 13. So much faith then, so much openness and nakedness, and so 
much presence of the things we believe. You shall find in 1 Cor. ii. 9, 
that the things of God are said to ' enter into our hearts.' It is not only 
that we know the images and notions of things, but we have the presence 
of the things themselves ; therefore, in Heb. xi. 13, believers are there said 
to ' embrace the promises.' What is the reason they are said to embrace 
them ? Because they so saw them as having a reality in them ; they did 
not embrace a cloud, but they felt a presence, a subsistence, in the things 
promised, in God, and in Christ, on whom they believed, though Christ was 
not then incarnate. And in John vi. 47, 51, and 54, when a man is said to 
believe, he is said to ' eat the flesh of Christ, and to drink his blood,' as truly 
as a man eats meat or drinks wine, and he feels a presence, even as a man 
feels the presence of the wine he drinks to strengthen his spirits. He doth 
not only know that there is wine, and sees it, but he feels a power and 
virtue joining with his body and with his spirits ; so a man knows and feels 
the presence of Christ and of heavenly things in his spirit, while he believes, 
and finds a reality in them : ' My flesh is meat indeed,' saith he, to shew 
that faith feels as true a reality in the things believed, as a man doth in 
the meat he eats. And indeed, what is the reason that carnal men leave 
Christ for the pleasures of the world ? Because the pleasures of the world 
are real things to them ; therefore, unless God make the things of another 
world real too, a man will never leave realities for notions. All that reason 
or notions can represent of Christ, will never take a man's heart off from 
the real things he sees here below ; and therefore God comes, and he weighs 
down the reality of the things of this world, by the reality of the things of 
the other world. And so much now for this first thing in faith, viz., that 
it is a sight : ' He that seeth the Son,' saith he ; and so you have the act 
seeing, with the kind and properties thereof. 

I come now to the acts of faith in the understanding, as terminated on 
the great object of faith. I shall confine myself to Christ, because he is the 
great object of our faith ; and for that I shall say these few things to you. 

First, The soul that God doth give faith to, sees the spiritual excellency 
and glory that is in Jesus Christ, and the heart is taken with it: in 2 Cor. 
iii. 18, saith the apostle, speaking of the beholding of Christ, ' We see as 
in a glass the glory of the Lord.' I mention it for this, that it is called a 
seeing of his glory ; that is, that surpassing excellency, even to a glory, 
that is in Jesus Christ. Every one whom God draws in to believe, he doth 



270 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

sooner or later cause some glimpse of the glory of Christ in a spiritual and 
real way to pass before him, which takes the spirit, so that he is like one 
that is fallen in love with one at first sight, when the party is passed by ; 
but there is a sight, a glimpse that has taken the heart ; so though that 
glimpse of Jesus Christ seems to be gone, yet there is that impression upon 
tbe soul, and upon the heart, that other beauties and glories are but as 
shadows in comparison of that which is in Jesus Christ. And such a sight 
of the thing, though it be but in transitu, takes the heart for ever. The 
church in Cant. v. 9 had such a sight of Christ, for see how mightily she 
magnified him ; and though that sight was vanished, yet she was so taken 
with it, as she seeks all the world over for him, insomuch as others stand 
wondering at her; ' What is thy beloved,' say they, 'more than another 
beloved?' They saw no such beauty in him: ' Oh,' saith she, ' my beloved 
is such a beloved as is thus and thus;' and so she falls a-setting out of his 
glories and excellencies. It is such a sight as doth put out a man's eyes 
to all things else for ever doting upon them as formerly he did ; even as 
they that go on pilgrimage to Mahomet's tomb, after they have been there, 
they use to burn out their eyes, that, after that sacred sight, they may 
never behold creatures more. Such a thing now is really wrought in the 
heart of a Christian in some measure; as Christ saith, ' He that drinketh 
of this water shall never thirst any more,' John iv. 13. So he that hath 
thus seen Jesus Christ, he never sees anything more as he saw it before ; 
he may have his heart taken with folly and vanity, yet not so as before, 
because he hath seen the Lord Jesus ; there is that impression made by 
that sight of the glory and excellency which is in him. You have this in 
2 Cor. v. 17, ' If I have known things after the flesh,' saith he, ' henceforth 
know I them no more ' ; that is, I can never value carnal things at that rate 
I have done ; I see through them all, saith he ; I do not value them now 
by a fleshly sight and consideration. If I have seen them so, I see them 
now so no more. Why ? Because I have seen Jesus Christ by the know- 
ledge of the new creature, and now old things are passed away, and all 
things are become new. Even as God has moulded fancies to faces, so he 
hath framed and moulded the knowledge of Christ to Christ; and even as 
the eye is framed to colours, so is the new understanding suited to Jesus 
Christ ; it is a spiritual understanding, and so suited to a spiritual Christ ; 
that having taken in the image of Jesus Christ in the real and spiritual 
notion of him, the heart is moulded into it, and that heart can never be 
taken with 'any other beauty or carnal thing of what kind soever that is 
here below : 1 John v. 20, ' He hath given us an understanding, that we 
may know him that is true.' 

Secondly, When God draws the heart to believe, it sees also an all-suf- 
ficiency of righteousness in Jesus Christ, and in his satisfaction : Ps. 
cxxx. 7, ' With whom is plenteous redemption ;' and in Kom. v. 17, it is 
said, ' They receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of grace ; ' you have 
the like in Philip, iii. 8, ' I count all things,' saith he, ' but loss and dung, 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; ' and next to 
the knowledge of Christ, what is most valued by him ? The righteousness 
of Christ ; and therefore saith he in the next verse, ' That I may be found 
in him, not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the 
faith of Christ.' Now a man sees that satisfaction, and that worth aud 
fulness in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, that if he might have the 
righteousness of Adam, or the righteousness of the angels, or as great a 
righteousness made his, to be his, and be inherent in him, and he to be 
justified by it, he would throw it all away as dross and dung in comparison 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 271 

of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, which he sees held forth to 
hiui. 

The third thing that the soul sees, and is persuaded of when God draws 
the heart to him, it is the graciousness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
and that in two things : 

First, In the general ; in his readiness to receive sinners. Whatsoever 
thoughts a man had before of Christ (as when a man is first humbled he is 
apt to have hard and sour thoughts of Christ), yet when he comes to know 
' the mind of Christ,' as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ii. 1G, that is, to know 
his gracious inclination, God doth make an impression and stamp of the 
gracious heart and inclination that is in Jesus Christ to receive sinners, 
and sets it as it were upon the heart, and he persuades them better things 
of Christ than either what they naturally, or when they arc first humbled, 
think of him. 

Secondly, There is stamped upon the heart of a Christian some secret 
hint or whisper of mercy to him ; I do not say it riseth to assurance, 
for then it would quell all doubtings ; but in every one that God takes to 
himself, as he lets him see the readiness that is in Christ to receive sinners 
indefinitely, so there is some secret kind of whisper of mercy and grace to 
him, a secret hint, as I use to call it. In John x. 3, it is said, that Christ 
calls his sheep by name, even as he called Moses by name, and Cyrus, which 
implies a special intimation ; and Christ he doth distinguish, and saith, the 
reason why others that were not his sheep do not come, is because they do not 
hear his voice. Now that you may not mistake me, though it be a whisper, 
yet it is but a whisper and a hint, which the soul oftentimes in itself doth not 
so discern as to reflect upon it, but yet it is full enough to carry the heart 
after Christ, and never to leave him. I use to compare it to the[scent of a 
bloodhound ; when he is sent to seek, though he finds not, j T et having once 
had the scent he never leaves, but hunts up and down till he finds it, and 
though he knows not where it is, yet it is enough to carry him on. So the 
soul, when it hath wound Jesus Christ, as we may so speak, this hint, this 
whisper is enough to carry on to Christ, so as never to leave him, and 
that with some encouragement, though it doth not rise up to assurance, 
and prevail over doubtings. I distinguish it thus : assurance is when the 
Spirit of God so speaks to a man that he speaks as a witness, when he 
comes in and evidenceth to a man the truth of his estate, and that Jesus 
Christ is his ; and when he speaks as a witness he will speak so loud as 
to prevail over all temptations, and over all doubts, or else he will lose his 
end ; for a witness must so speak as to put the thing out of doubt, or else he 
is no witness. But now in this secret whisper of faith he doth not so, he 
doth not come then to speak as a witness, but he comes to speak then as 
one that would work the heart into Jesus Christ, and carry on the heart to 
Jesus Christ, and in this case a secret whisper, which he himself doth really 
back, is enough to carry on the heart, though it is not enough to quell all 
doubts and temptations. Insomuch now as when a man is humbled, and 
sees his misery, and the like, and when he is walking alone, or is in prayer, 
he thinketh in himself, well, I may find mercy from God, Jesus Christ may 
pardon me, &c. This he may take for his own thoughts, because it doth not 
rise to that height as when the Holy Ghost speaks it as a witness, and in 
such a distinct manner from his own thoughts as that he should rest satis- 
fied in it. Nay, a man is apt to take such thoughts, and to fling them 
away, and discerns them not from other thoughts put into his mind about 
other things ; yet for all that the Holy Ghost, that puts them in, leaves them 
not, but carries them on in a way of encouragement and hopefulness, and 



272 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

never lcaveth him till they have boiled up either to the vision of Christ, 
or to the assurance of Jesus Christ as bein£ his. 



CHAPTER II. 

That the mere assurance of the object, or a general assent to the truth of the pro- 
mises, is not the act of faith justifying, but application is necessary. — This 
proved by several reasons. 

As I have explained the nature of the act of faith in the understanding, 
so now I will shew that true justifying faith includes more in it, or that it is 
not a bare general assent to the truth of the promises, though never so spiritual ; 
for still in Scripture the act of faith that justifies is called ' believing on 
him,' so Rom. iv. 5, and everywhere almost we find it thus : ' He that believes 
on him that justifies the ungodly ; ' it is not he that believes only that 
God will justify the ungodly. It is an ancient received maxim of divines, 
aliucl est credere Deuin, ct in Deum ; for to believe on him implies a par- 
ticular application. Those that are for general assent urge those scriptures 
most, Rom. x. 9, ' If thou believe with thine heart that God raised up 
Christ from the dead, thou shalt be saved ;' and that in 1 John v. 5, ' He 
overcometh the world that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ; ' and 
ver. 10, ' He that believeth not the record God hath given of his Son, 
makes God a liar.' But it is observable that, in both places, believing on 
him, which is an act of application, is added, as that which makes this 
general assent a complete act of faith. Thus Rom. x. 11, he confirms his 
saying by the Scripture, which withal interprets his meaning : ' For the 
Scripture saith, He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed ; ' and so 
in 1 John v. 10, ' He that believeth on the Son of God.' He leaves it not, 
therefore, in a general assent. I shall now give the reasons of my assertion. 

Reason 1. Faith doth not consist merely in assent, because a man, in 
believing, comes not in simply as a witness to a truth, for so the angels do 
believe, and testify the truth, and might be said to have faith justifying, 
Rev. xix. 10. They are said to ' have the testimony of Jesus ;' they testify 
that God is true in his promises. But when men believe, they come not 
in barely as witnesses to the New Testament, but as legatees for a portion 
in it ; they therefore rest on it for themselves, and so their faith makes an 
application of it. When some have reasoned against general assent to be 
faith, in that the devils believe, as James says, it hath been answered that 
the devils' assent, though it is operative to cause terror, yet it is not a 
spiritual assent and sight of it, such as a believer in the general hath of 
the things he believes. And they say true, for there is a difference in a 
regenerate man's believing there is a God, and it is another sight than 
devils have. But yet still the argument will hold, if fetched from the good 
angels, for they do in as spiritual a manner as the saints believe the truth 
of the promises, and assent to their goodness, and see the excellencies of 
Christ, and adore them, and yet do not believe with a justifying faith. 
And why? Because these promises not concerning their salvation, they 
trust not in them; they come not in as legatees, but as witnesses and ad- 
mirers. Now, then, if an act of general assent spiritual be common to 
them with believers, surely God hath not put the act of justifying upon 
what is common to both (whenas it is in them, it justifies them not), but 
rather upon such an act as is proper to man, and not in them ; and tbat is 
trusting, relying on the promises, and on that Christ whom they believe to 
be the Son of God, for their salvation. 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 273 

Eeaaon 2. Justifying faith is Beated in the whole heart, as he said in 
Acts \iii. ;$7, ' It' thou believest with thy whole heart,' thou shalt be saved.' 
Yea, and so it is in this Horn. x. 9, ' If thou shalt believe with thy heart 
that (iod hath raised up Jesus,' &c. Now, if only a general assent, though 
aever so spiritual, in the understanding, which is but one faculty in the 
heart, were that act that justified, then the will should be excluded, which, 
if faith be with the whole heart, it is not. And now, if the will come in to 
put forth an act, then an act of application must be also added to that 
general assent, such as indeed is to trust in Christ, to cast myself on him, 
to wait upon him, which are all acts of the will. It is true indeed that in the 
understanding part, there is no other act of faith required absolutely unto 
justification, than a spiritual sight of, and assent to the truth and goodness 
of the things believed. This is all God exacts of the understanding, for an 
assent or assurance that these things are mine is not of the essence of faith, 
but there are acts of the will besides that go to make up faith ; therefore, 
Heb. xi. 13, there are three things attributed to faith : First, A real sight 
of the promises : ' They saw them.' Secondly, A persuasion or assurance 
of their truth and goodness : ' they were persuaded of them ; ' and these 
two make up a spiritual general assent in the understanding. But then, 
thirdly, is added their embracing them: ' they embraced them,' which is an 
act of the will, or an act of application ; so, Rom. iv. 5, to believe that God 
justifies the ungodly, is the act of general assent, but to believe on him that 
justifies the ungodly, is an act of application ; it is an act of the will, rest- 
ing on him for a man's own particular salvation. 

Reason 3. Yea, by this act of the will is the union on our parts com- 
pleted between Christ and us, and we are thereby made ultimately one 
with him. Now one main end of faith is to make an union with Christ on 
our parts, and that, as it is done without assurance that Christ is mine, so 
it is not chiefly made by a general assent ; and to the union made on 
Christ's part, it is not necessary I should then apprehend it when Christ 
first doth it, because it is a secret work done by his Spirit, who doth first 
apprehend us ere we apprehend him, as he first loves us ere we love him, 
Philip, iii. 12. But for the making a real union with him (so far as on 
our part it is made), it lies not primarily in believing Christ is mine, or 
that Christ is, but in joining myself to his person in the shooting in of my 
will into him, in taking him, and consenting to be his ; to believe he is 
mine is indeed to apprehend that union, and to believe spiritually he draws 
in the heart to it, but to have my will drawn to him, to rest in him, to 
cleave to him as the fountain of life, Deut. xxx. 20, it is that makes the 
real union. As in marriage, consent makes the match, so the consent of 
the will to have Christ as my Lord, king, head, husband, makes the union ; 
for the main subject by which we are united to Christ is the will, for by 
the will we cleave to those things we apprehend good, and shoot our souls 
into them. But if that which united on our parts were such apprehensions 
whereby we perceive we are made one with Christ, it should be in the 
understanding most, and so that which makes the union should be assensus de 
Deo, a believing something of God, not a cleaving to God, and that which 
I am united to should mainly be a proposition. Indeed, when I apprehend 
myself united unto Christ, then my will cleaves more to him, is drawn out 
more to him, as those that are new married, when a man can say, ' I am 
my beloved's, and he is mine ;' but he must be my beloved afore. As he 
that lusts after a woman commits adultery, and so is made before God one 
flesh with her, though not afore men, so he whose heart is taken with the 
beauty of Christ, and cleaves to him, hangs on him, is united to him, for a 

von. viti. s 



274 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOO.C I. 

marriage-glance makes afore God a union with Christ. Such acts of faith 
make the union, and therefore upon such acts of recumbency Christ sheds 
grace and life into the soul, having recourse to him as the only fountain of 
life ; but when assurance comes, then a man can plead this union, to fetch 
strength from Christ by virtue of it, and so then a man discerns the con- 
nection between Christ and his grace, how it flows from him ; but it flowed 
before. 

CHAPTER III. 

What the nature is of this special faith of application. — That besides a spiri- 
tual faith or wisdom to know all other divine truths savingly, there in a 
special faith on Christ and God's free grace for justification ; or, that God 
in Christ, as a saviour and justijier, is the object of that special faith which 
is justifying. 

That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make 
thee vnse unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. — 2 Tim. 
III. 15. 

It is of justifying or saving faith that I profess to discourse. It con- 
sistetb of two words : 1, justifying, or saving ; 2, faith. And so it calls for 
two things to be handled by him that will handle it thoroughly, as distinct 
commonplace heads. The fir^t is the doctrine of justification through 
faith, as it is an act of God upon us, upon or through our believing. And, 
secondly, there is the doctrine of the nature of that faith itself; and which 
of these two a man begins to handle first (we living under the sunshine of 
the gospel), it is not much material. 

Under that head of the doctrine of justification itself by faith, there are 
these things : 

1. Whether, upon a man's believing, there is an act of justification 
passeth from God, so as in a true sense a man may be said to be then 
justified, so as not hefore ? And how that this may stand with God's 
justifying of us with Christ when he rose, and with God's justifying of us 
in Christ from everlasting ? Or if you will, whether that faith be only for 
the manifestation of a man's justification to himself, or it be not also for 
the alteration of a man's condition before God ? 

2. That nothing but faith in man is that principle which God hath 
ordained to receive this blessing, and faith only, and faith without works. 

3. Under this head of justification comes the treating also of this, how 
it is that faith is said to justify, or how God looks at it, whether as an 
habit, or an act, or an instrument, or a condition, or what. 

4. There are the objects of this faith, both Jesus Christ as the matter of 
justification (which I have at large discoursed of in those treatises long 
since published to the world). And, secondly, there is God as justifying, 
for the soul ' believes on him that justifieth the ungodly.' So that as Jesus 
Christ is the author, and cause, and matter of justification in his death, 
and resurrection, and ascension, and intercession, &c, so God in his grace 
and mercy, and in all his acts therein, is also the object of faith ; and a 
glorious justification it is, wherewith God justifies us. How great, how 
free, how unlimited is it, and such as no sins can hinder ! A justification 
total at once, and eternal for ever. These things I have discoursed of 
before in the first part. 

Now concerning faith itself, by which we are justified (I taking it at pre- 



Chap. III.] of justifying fa.itii. • 275 

sent for granted that we .are justified through faith, which is the language 
of the Scripture), that which now we are to do, it is to make the inquiry, 
what this faith is. 

The first thing in the general which I pitch upon towards the inquiry 

after the true nature and notion of faith, is this, that the faith by which 

saved and justified is a special faith, pitched upon God's free-grace, 

and Christ as matter of justification to us, as its special object ; as you 

shall see out of this scripture, and many others also, in the proof of it. 

The proof of this great truth I might have founded upon many scriptures, 
as you shall see anon ; but I did choose out this, because it clearly distin- 
guisheth a special faith from a general faith, and distinctly puts the business of 
salvation upon that special faith. If you mark it here, he tells us, verse 16, 
that ' all Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitalh for doctrine,' 
&c. And that all the things revealed in the Scripture, be they what they 
will, are all of them able to make a man wise unto salvation, and so to 
beget in him a ' wisdom,' which indeed is nothing else but ' faith.' Take 
it in the general notion of assent, what prudence is to all virtues, that faith 
is to all graces, it is ' wisdom to salvation.' But yet there is in it a special 
faith, without which all the knowledge a man hath, 3'ea, all the knowledge 
that is unto salvation, would not be unto salvation, were it not for this ; 
and that is (as the text hath it), ' faith in Jesus Christ,' — ' which is able 
to make thee wise unto salvation,' saith he, ' through faith which is in 
Jesus Christ.' So that these words which I have now read, they hold 
forth to us a twofold faith or wis lorn, as you may call it, for the Scripture 
calls faith wisdom sometimes, and wisdom faith. 

■ There is first of all a general faith, respecting all divine objects, which 
is here called wisdom, and wisdom unto salvation (in that sense unto sal- 
vation as repentance is unto salvation, and as other graces are said to be 
unto salvation), which is a belief and knowledge of the Scriptures, and all 
things revealed in them, and a having a man's heart suitably affected with 
the things according to the nature of them; as to believe a God, and all 
the attributes of God, all the promises, and all the threatenings, or what- 
soever else is contained in the book of God, which being taken by faith 
into the soul and heart of a believer, makes him wise unto salvation ; 
this, I say, is properly called general faith. Faith (as I said before) is 
often called by the name of wisdom in the Scripture; as in Luke i. 17 it 
is said, that John Baptist should ' go before him in the spirit and power 
of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the dis- 
obedient to the wisdom of the just;' that is, he should bring them to the 
faith of their fathers, and to the same knowledge, joined with wisdom; to 
the same creed (for the materials of it) which the prophets and fathers 
held, and were saved by, and the doctrine of which the Jews in those 
times had generally corrupted. All these spiritual things are taken into 
the soul, and apprehended by such a principle of wisdom in heavenly 
affairs as human wisdom serves to in earthly affairs. Faith is therefore 
rightly called wisdom, because it superadds unto notional knowledge in 
things spiritual, as wisdom in men superadds unto knowledge notional in 
worldly businesses. That knowledge which constitutes a man a wise man, 
as such, in worldly matters, beyond a man simply knowing, is such a 
degree or kind of knowledge as over and above the notion affects and 
strikes the spirit of a man to act accordingly, and puts him on to practise ; 
whereas the like knowledge in others, though it may be more clear and 
distinct for the notion, is overly, and affects not the man, nor is strong 
enough to overcome his affections to the contrarv. Now, look what differ- 



276 • OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

ence there is in this twofold knowledge about temporal things, the like 
there is as to spiritual ; there is an enlightening of the Holy Ghost, which 
clears up the notion of all things spiritual to be known, unto which faith 
is a farther special gift superadded, to affect and strike the heart with 
them, as the gift of wisdom added to knowledge useth to affect in outward 
affairs. Take then faith as it hath thus all the Scriptures, and all in them, 
for its object, and as it thus strongly makes an impression on the heart to 
act accordingly, and it is a wisdom unto salvation. 

But yet, secondly, there is a peculiar or a special faith, without which 
the other is not, nor would be, of itself alone effectual unto salvation, and 
that, you see, is faith in Jesus Christ, — a faith of the promise of grace 
and salvation in and through Jesus Christ, as it is several ways expressed 
in the New Testament. 

Now, you see, the apostle doth not only hold forth this distinction, but 
he doth withal shew that all the faith, and knowledge, and wisdom we 
have, though never so spiritual (for even of such he speaks), will not make 
us wise unto salvation, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. 

So that the observation to the scope in hand, which I raise out of these 
words, and purpose to discourse of, is this, that that faith which doth save 
— the other may be unto salvation, as all graces are — that which truly 
saveth and putteth me into the state of salvation, or upon which I am put 
into that state, is a special faith, which here is said to have Jesus Christ 
for its object, or (which is all one) that hath the grace of God in Christ to 
rely upon. Faith on the promises of salvation and justification through 
Christ, and through the free grace of God in him, is that special faith 
without which all the true wisdom, the spiritual wisdom, spiritual faith, 
believing all things else whatsoever, would not otherwise be unto salvation. 
This, I say, is clearly the scope of the words, that besides that faith 
whereby we believe, and believe spiritualty (yea, and unto salvation too), 
all the things revealed in the word of God, there is a special faith by 
which we are saved, and by means of which all the rest of our faith in all 
other things is wisdom unto salvation : ' is able to make thee wise unto 
salvation,' saith he, 'through the faith which is in Jesus Christ.' 

Now, in the opening and treating of this point, I shall do these things : 

1. Give you some explication of it. 

2. I shall deliver some concessions, some things that may and must be 
yielded unto and granted, concerning this general faith, and the difference 
between it and special faith. 

3. I shall offer some proofs of Scripture for to make the point good. 

4. I shall urge some reasons why that Gcd hath not ordained to save 
any man by the most spiritual faith of all things in the world, if a man 
could be supposed to have it, without this other special faith of applica- 
tion. If a man, I say, did believe all the Scriptures, and all things in 
them, and that with an affection answerable and suitable to such objects 
themselves therein revealed, yet that man would never be saved without a 
special faith, which hath Jesus Christ and the grace of God in him for its object. 

You shall find in your protestant writers a great deal of do about this 
faith ; I would open to you that which I conceive to be the nature of it, 
and the sense wherein I would press it upon you. And, 

1. To begin with the explication of it. I do not call it a special faith 
because it hath a special root and principle created on purpose in the 
hearts of men to be the root of it, so as that that general faith we speak of 
should have one root, and this special faith another. No ; but the same 
faith, for the root and principle of it, in the spirits of men, whereby I 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 277 

believe all things elso in the word of God, the power of God, the justice of 
God, or whatever else, that wisdom whereby a man knows savingly all 
things in the Scripture, all truths whatsoever, and the goodness of them, 
that faith whereby I truly and spiritually believe that there is a God, is 
also the root of that faith whereby I am possessed of salvation, or whereby 
I am justified, with the same principle of faith whereby I believe all things 
else unto salvation, with the same principle also I believe on Jesus Christ, 
and on God as justifying. It is clearly the scope of Heb. xi. ; I will not 
stand now to open it. You know the ordinary similitude that is given : it 
was the same eye by which the Israelites beheld all the things in the wil- 
derness, and wherewith they did behold also the brazen serpent ; and yet 
notwithstanding they were cured by beholding the brazen serpent, and by 
nothing else. I confess this similitude will not in all things hold, but yet 
it is that by which it is illustrated ; I only speak now by way of clearing of 
this term, special faith, and not by way of confirmation. Abraham, by the 
same faith whereby he did believe in the promised Messias, in the seed in 
whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, Rom. iv. 21, by the 
same faith he is said to have believed the power of God, that he was able 
to give him a child. 

Secondly, It is not called special in this sense, that only a faith on 
Christ, and on God's free grace, is proper to the elect, but that wicked 
men and devils, and men that shall be damned, may have a true general 
faith upon all objects else whatsoever; it is not, I say, meant in that sense 
neither, it is not meant subjectively special. There are they who say that 
as for the belief of all things in the general in the word of God, that is 
common to devils, because in James it is said, ' They believe there is a 
God, and tremble,' James ii. 19; but, say they, to have a special faith to 
believe in Jesus Christ, this is proper to the elect. But it is evident that 
in every man that shall be saved the faith whereby he believeth all things 
in the word of God is a new kind of faith, and all things become new to 
him. The spiritual man judgeth all things spiritually, knoweth them 
spiritually, and so believeth them spiritually, as you have it in 1 Cor. ii. 
14, 15. And as the devils know there is a God, and believe that, so they 
know and believe that Jesus Christ is a Saviour: Mark i. 24, ' I know who 
thou art,' saith the devil, even ' the Holy One of God ;' yet he did not know 
this spiritually as a true believer. 

Thirdly, It is not called special in respect of any special act that is 
proper to it, and it alone; that is not the specialness neither which I 
intend. Some by special faith mean that special act of assurance of a 
man's salvation, and make that to justify. The truth is, there are many 
protestant writers, and holy and godly men, that have in all their opposi- 
tions against the papists urged a special faith in this sense. But not to 
insist on a long confutation, the faith of the apostles at first was not a 
faith of assurance; they 'believed, that they might be justified,' Gal. 
ii. 16. Others by special faith understand that other act of trust or con- 
fidence, and going out of a man's self, and they say that therein lies this 
same specialness of faith. Now, I grant indeed that an act of trust, and 
confidence, and reliance is required to faith, it is that which I*would rather 
call the act of particular application, as hereafter may be shewn. And 
they contend for this as that special faith, in opposition to those which hold 
that the general faith, the belief of the things themselves, as that Christ is 
the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, and that God justifies the 
ungodly, being spiritually believed, is that act upon which God justifies us. 
But I would not make the specialness of faith to lie in respect of any act 



278 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT II. BOOK I. 

■which this faith hath proper to it, since there are none such hut what we 
find common to our faith on other objects. For if it he said that the act 
of saving faith is a trusting upon this object, viz., the grace of God for 
salvation, why, this act of trusting is not proper and peculiar only to faith 
justifying, nor hath only the grace of God justifying for its object, but it is 
common to this faith to pitch upon other attributes of God. I rely upon 
God for all spiritual things else besides salvation and justification; I rely 
upon him for his Spirit ; I go out unto Christ for holiness, and strength 
against sin, and for duty; I rely on him, and trust on him, and come unto 
him for temporal things; I trust him for to sanctify me; in a word, all the 
promises of good things are the object of that act of trust on God. The 
like may be said of assurance. I may have assurance from God of other 
things as well as of my justification ; so as special faith, whereby we are 
saved or justified, which the' apostle here speaks of, is not so called, because 
ii hath a peculiar act appropriated to it. 

Fourthly, and lastly, Therefore, that I call (and I think it ought to be 
called, and only ought to be called so) a special faith, whereby we are jus- 
tified, which hath, 1, an eminent special object, proper and peculiar, ap- 
propriated to it; which hath, 2, a special aim; and, 3, which hath a special 
effect, or a special consequent rather, or, if you will, concomitant, or that 
which dcth accompany it. 

First, I say it is to be called special faith, in respect that God hath 
framed on purpose a peculiar and special object for it. Whether the act 
be believing the thing or object itself, in the truth and goodness of it, or 
relying upon it, or call it what you will for the act of it, now that is clear 
in the text to be faith in Jesus Christ. Look over all the Scriptures, and 
all the divine and spiritual truths in them, the belief of those things is not 
special faith, though they may sanctify the heart, though the heart maybe 
answerably affected thereto, till it come to faith in Jesus Christ, or to trust 
in the special mercy and grace in God for pardon and justification. I will 
put both these together ; it is either, I say, the free grace of God, who is 
our justifier (for God as justifying is as much the object of faith as Christ 
himself, and more), which is the object of this special faith, or else Jesus 
Christ and his righteousness, as the matter of our justification and salva- 
tion, and faith as it respects these two as they are objects, and that for 
justification, that I call, I say, special faith. I will not stand much to 
shew you, as I might do, that what in the Old Testament is called trusting 
in the mercy of God, and believing on the mercy of God, that in the New 
is called believing on Christ, and how that both come to one. If there- 
fore you will have the language of the New Testament, the special act of 
justifying faith is to believe upon God as justifying : ' To believe on him 
that justifieth the ungodly,' so Rom. iv. 14, and to believe on the righteous- 
ness, or on the blood and sanctification of Christ, or on Jesus Christ as for 
righteousness ; so the text speaks here, ' Through faith in Jesus Christ.' 
These two make up the special object of faith. 

And, secondly, the believing these, and on these, as for salvation, and 
having that special aim and intent so considered also, is called, and ought 
to be called, special faith. It is not coming unto God or to Christ for any- 
thing else temporal and spiritual, but as coming for salvation and pardon 
of sin, believing that a man may be justified, as it is expressed, Gal. ii. 16. 
This, I say, is the peculiar aim of special faith, and in that respect it ought 
to be called special, as it comes to God for justification. 

And therefore, thirdly, there is a special consequent or concomitant, 
which doth accompany and follow upon it, and that is, it doth in a special 



ClIAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 270 

manner justify an I sure a man, which no faith else, thongs r.«ver so 
spiritual, upon any other ohjoct, is said to do. la Roin. iii. and in Horn. iv. 
this is clearly made out ; the apostle speaks there, as you all know, of 
faith as it doth justify, and that faith alone justifies without works ; and 
as faith doth thus justify, what doth ho make there to be the object of it ? 
First, Jesus ; so chap. iii. 22, ' Tho righteousness of God,' saith he, 
• which is by the faith of Jesus unto all and upon all them that do believe,' 
namely, on Jesus ; and ver. 26, he is said to be ' the justifier of him which 
believeth in Jesus;' and ver. 28, he concludeth, that by such a faith, and 
no other, a man is justified. And as he makes Jesus thus to be the object 
of it, so God as justifying too ; so chap. iv. 5, ' To him that worketh not, 
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly;' namely, on God, who 
is the justifier, whose righteousness it is, and so called, because he is the 
bestower, the imputer of that righteousness, as you may read in the 21st 
and 22d verses of the 3d chapter : ' The righteousness of God which is by 
the faith of Jesus,' saith he, ' whom God hath set forth (ver. 25) to be a 
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness,' &c. 

And therefore this denomination of special faith (say I) it ought to have 
from these three things : 1, because it hath a special object made and 
appointed for it, viz., the grace of God justifying aud saving, and our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and his righteousness the matter of our salvation 
aud justification ; and, 2, in respect of the aim the heart hath in believing, 
that it comes to these as for salvation and justification ; and, 3, that upon 
thus corning God is said to justify, as faith genuinely and spiritually 
pitcheth on these objects ; you have all these in that one place, Gal. ii. 16, 
4 Knowing this, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by 
the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we 
might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law : 
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.' Here is, first, you 
see, faith described by a special object, and therefore callei ' the faith of 
Jesus Christ,' the faith in Jesus Christ, and again, the faith of Christ; it 
is three times so mentioned in relation to this special peculiar object, so 
that the faith which justifies us is a special faith in respect of the object ; 
secondly, it is a faith which hath a peculiar aim, which believeth in Jesus 
that the soul might be justified : ' We believed in Jesus, that we might be 
justified,' saith he. To come to Jesus Christ for anything else than for 
salvation, and for justification, is not a special faith ; and then, thirdly, 
there is a special concomitant, or that which doth accompany it, a special 
effect, or call it what you will, and that is, that we are justified, though not 
by the act of believing, yet upon believing, which is evident by this, for 
how else did they believe ' that they might be justified' ? And it follows 
after, ' By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified ;' but oppositely 
by and upon believing a man is. And it is this special relation to its 
object which makes this faith (to speak in the Scripture language, 
and if you will you may call it by that name instead of special faith) 
to be called ' precious faith.' What is it that makes it so more precious 
than the belief of all things else whatsoever ? either of the truth, or power, 
or faithfulness of God ; or be the thing what it will be, what is it that makes 
it excel all such faith of any kind ? It is the object of it ; so you have it 
in 2 Peter i. 1 : he writes ' to them' (because none else are true Christians) 
1 that have obtained like precious faith with us ;' we translate it ' through 
the righteousness,' it is iv, in, or on the righteousness of God, and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. Faith, as it is pitched upon this as its special object, 
hath a special excellency, and is precious faith, and in this respect every 



280 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK I. 

man's faith is as precious as that of the apostles themselves was, though 
they might excel in degree, yet its preciousness is not from its own degree 
of acting, but from the object that it is pitched upon, even because it is 
faith in God, and in our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

And let me add this too, it is not only special, as we say of remedies of 
a disease, that there are many remedies for such a disease, Oh, but this is 
a special one, not only a sovereign one above all the rest, but it is the only 
special remedy ; for faith only as it is pitched upon the righteousness of 
Christ, and the free grace of God in him, so it only justifieth. 

So now I have expressed to you by way of explication what I mean by 
special faith in that sense wherein it doth differ from some who would have 
it called special in other respects. Now the consideration of this point is 
of exceeding great moment, both to direct your hearts what faith especially 
continually to exercise, as will appear in the use of it, and also especially to 
clear the doctrine of saving justifying faith. The papists and popish 
spirits, what have they done ? They say that there is a general faith ; 
that is, that faith which a man hath of all the Scriptures, and the things 
revealed in them, which they call fides catholica, catholic faith, and this 
they affirm to be the faith that justifies. They say, that faith saveth and 
justifieth, or God doth save and justify me upon my believing that he is 
true, that he is omniscient, that he is all-powerful, as well as upon believ- 
ing on his grace and mercy, and upon God as justifying. They say, that 
faith doth justify and save as well when it looks to the law, when it believes 
that God created the world, when it doth believe the first Adam, as well 
as when it believes the second Adam. They say, that to believe truly 
the justice of God condemning, is saving and justifying faith, as well as to 
believe the mercy and grace of God pardoning and saving. The truth is, 
according to their doctrine, to believe the devil to be an accuser, is a part 
of justifying faith, as truly as to believe that Christ is an intercessor and a 
Saviour ; to believe that of Moses, that < Cursed is every one that continueth 
not in all that is written in the book of the law to do it,' is part of justifying 
faith, as truly as to believe that Jesus Christ was made a curse ; and indeed 
to hold this, is consonant to all their principles. For how do they assert 
that faith justifies ? Say they, faith doth not justify us in relation to its 
object, but either as it is a disposition, and so to believe the threatenings 
of the law, disposeth, say the}', to faith, or else it justifies as all other 
graces do. Now, love to man they say justifieth, as well as love to God. 
So the belief of all the stories in the Bible, they say, that justifies a man, 
as well as to believe in God that justifies, or in Jesus Christ that died. It 
agrees, I say, with the principles of their doctrine, they make all to be 
parts of righteousness alike ; the whole wisdom whereby Timothy did know 
the scriptures (as they say) saved him, as well as faith in Jesus Christ ; 
whereas here the text is clear, that all the other were made wisdom to him 
unto salvation, but through faith which is in Christ Jesus ; that had he 
known all the rest never so much, or never so spiritually, they would not 
have saved him, had he not had special faith in Jesus Christ. In a word, 
that faith that sanctifies also justifies with them. Now the belief of all 
things in the Scripture is a means of sanctifying (as must be acknowledged), 
but that which doth justify us is a special faith, pitched upon the grace of 
God justifying, and upon our Lord Jesus Christ. So much now for the 
explication of this thing. 

2. I come next, for the further explication of it, to some concessions, as 
I call them, or grants, some things that may and must be yielded to, as 
concerning faith upon these objects. 



Chap. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 281 

(1.) That all other spiritual faith pitched upon any other ohject besides 
God as justifying, and Christ as for righteousness and salvation, is a saving 
faith in a largo sense. I say that spiritual faith which hath all the Scrip- 
tures, and all things in the Scriptures for its object, may be called a saving 
faith in this sense, that it is unto salvation ; so the text is clear, ' The 
Scriptures, they are able to make thee wise unto salvation.' All things 
delivered in the Scriptures being believed, the faith and the belief of them 
is unto salvation, it tends unto salvation ; but how ? As all things else 
are said to be unto salvation that are true graces in a man, so it is called 
' repentance unto salvation,' ' repentance unto life.' Unto life it is true, 
without which God saveth no man, and which are in order to it ; but special 
faith pitched upon Jesus Christ, and upon the grace of God, is saving in a 
higher sense than so ; for if you mark it, those other are said to be unto 
salvation only because and by reason of special faith ; they would not be 
unto salvation, but only because joined with, or subservient to, or springing 
from faith in Jesus Christ : ' They are able to make thee wise unto salva- 
tion,' saith he, ' through faith which is in Jesus Christ.' It is called wisdom 
unto salvation, but yet in a more peculiar manner this special faith is the 
faith which saveth us ; for the other is called only wisdom unto salvation, 
even through this faith. Now if that the other be unto salvation, as 
through the faith in Jesus Christ, then the faith in Jesus Christ must be in 
a special manner saving. Now how is that in a special manner saving, but 
because there is nothing else in man that doth receive salvation, and the 
right to salvation, as I have shewn elsewhere?* All other general faith, 
that is, faith upon all other things else spiritually and truly apprehended, is 
a wisdom unto salvation ; but it is not peculiarly said to be saving, or to 
be that which saveth us : we are only saved through faith on Christ and 
his righteousness. To clear by the way likewise another thing, you shall 
find that the apostle doth apply'that place, Hab ii. 4, ' The just shall live 
by faith,' both unto that special faith in man which lays hold on the 
righteousness of Christ for justification and salvation, and likewise to that 
general faith, whereby we believe all things else in the word of God. He 
applies it first unto justifying faith clearly in Rom. i. 17, where, speaking 
of the gospel, he saith, ' It is the power of God unto salvation, to every 
one that believeth, for,' saith he, ' therein is the righteousness of God 
revealed from faith to faith : as it is written, The just shall live by faith.' 
Now, in Heb. x. 38, he likewise saith, ' The just shall live by faith ;' but 
the faith he there means is a general faith, as believing that there is a God, 
and all spiritual objects else, as he opens it throughout that chapter, which, 
in the general notion of it, he calls, f thei substance of things hoped for, 
and the evidence of things not seen,' in the following chapter, Heb. xi. 1. 
So that I say, in a large sense, it may be said that all graces as well as 
this are unto salvation. In a large sense we may be said to live by that 
general faith (as I may so call it) to live by the belief of anything else in 
the word of God, with affections suited to that knowledge and that faith. 
It helps us to mortify lusts, it helps us to quicken many graces in us : 
whatsoever God sanctifies us by, that faith takes it in, and so in a sense it 
may be called a life of faith ; in temporal temptations it upholds us by 
many temporal promises, a thousand considerations there are in the word 
which are not the objects of special faith ; but now the faith by which we 
live the life of justification and of salvation, the faith by which we live in 
God's sight (as the Scripture's expression is), is only a special faith, which, 
in Rom. v. 18, is called, 'justification of life ;' and indeed this very dis- 
* In Eph. ii. 8, in the 1st vol. of his Works. [Vol. II. of this edition.— Ed] 



232 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

tinction and difference doth salve a great objection of the papists, and doth 
reconcile those two places, Rom. i. 17, and the whole eleventh chapter of 
the Hebrews. 

(2.) The second concession, or grant, or caution (call it what you will), 
which also is a great truth, is this, that it is the same principle of faith by 
which we believe all things in the Scripture thus savingly and unto salva- 
tion, and by which we believe on Jesus Christ too; it is the same principle, 
or seed, or habit of faith by which we believe that Christ is the Son of 
God, and by which we believe on him for righteousness ; it is the same 
principle of faith by which we believe that God is (as the apostle saith, 
Heb. xi. 6), and by which we believe on him for justification. You have 
an instance in Abraham; by the same faith whereby he believed, and 
looked at the promised Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth should 
be blessed, whereby he was justified, and which was accounted unto him 
for righteousness, by the same faith he believed the power of God, ' that 
God was able,' as the expression is in Rom. iv. 21. And this answers 
another objection also, a great one, which is used to be made ; for, say 
they, saving faith is commended to us in the Scripture by other acts than 
by the act of justifying; it is said to overcome kingdoms in Heb. xi. 33, 
and to have done all those great acts which were done in the Old Testa- 
ment, which yet were not acts of justifying faith ; and the apostle doth 
make justifying faith, and the faith that did all those great acts, to proceed 
from one and the same root. We answer, indeed it is true that justifying 
faith is commended to us by other acts which it hath done besides that of 
saving men ; and the apostle's scope in Heb. xi. is to set out that faith 
whereby we are justified, by all things else which it doth, thereby to com- 
mend it the more as justifying us, as indeed it must needs do. Just as 
the Scripture doth, it sets out Jesus Christ not only as a Saviour, but it 
sets him out also in a world of excellencies else, as that in him and by him 
all things were created also, and that he is the judge of all the world and 
of all mankind, that he is the head of all principalities and powers, of all 
the angels, and bj T a thousand excellencies besides, and all these are to 
commend him so much the more to us as a Saviour ; so the apostle sets 
out faith in this Heb xi. (and you shall find it likewise in other scriptures), 
that the faith that justifies us is said to do a world of exploits for us 
besides justifying. But yet it doth not justify us as doing any of those 
things ; as Christ he doth not save us as he is a head of all principalities 
and powers, or as all things were created in him and by him, but he saves 
us as dying upon the cross ; only it is the same Saviour that doth the one 
and the other, and therein lies his excellency. So it is here as to faith, 
and that answers what the apostle's scope is in that Heb. xi. It is not so 
much to treat of faith as justifying, as to shew forth the excellency of that faith 
which dothjustify in other things, which it continually doth for them it justifies. 
(3.) There is this also to be granted, that special faith it is not true in 
any man, and therefore saveth no man if joined with unbelief and denial of 
many other things besides believing on Christ for righteousness. There 
are, I say, many things which, if a man should deny and not believe, 
besides believing on Christ and on God that justifieth, he would not be 
saved, nor could he believe savingly with this special faith I now mention 
unless he believed them. In 2 Tim. ii. 18, the apostle saith that denying 
of the resurrection did ' overthrow the faith of some ; ' for, saith he in 
1 Cor. xv. 13, 'If there be no resurrection, then is Christ not risen: and 
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
vain, and ye are yet in your sins,' and so you overturn the faith in Christ 



CilAP. III. j OF JUSTIFYING FAITF. 283 

for the pardon of sin; so that now a man cannot have a right saving, justi- 
fying faith upon God as justifying, or upon the righteousness of Christ, it 
he deny many other things. There are those that say they believe on 
Christ as a Saviour, believe on him as an intercessor and mediator, and 
yet, notwithstanding, deny him to be God. Now, although we are not 
saved by believing that Jesus Christ is God, but by believing on his right- 
eousness, and on his satisfaction and obedience, as the scripture expresseth 
it, yet, notwithstanding, we cannot savingly believe the one if we deny the 
other. And the truth is, those that deny Jesus Christ to be God, they do 
clearly, be they who they will be, take away the gospel and the foundation 
thereof, and the satisfaction of the wrath of God for sin made by Jesus 
Christ, which the gospel holds forth, and which is the object of our faith. 
That place in 2 Peter i. 1, which I quoted before to another purpose, is a 
place that affordeth abundance in it to the present purpose : ' To them,' 
saith he, ' that have obtained like precious faith with us, in (or on) the 
righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' Here you see he 
describeth the faith of the primitive Christians, that special peculiar faith, 
which yet was common to all them that were true believers ; it was upon 
the righteousness of our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Now, here is 
the question, ^^Vhother that our God and our Saviour be two distinct per- 
sons, or whether it be meant only of Jesus Christ? for in the original it is, 
aud so Beza reads it, our God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. To decide 
this, it is clearly meant one person, viz., Christ. For, first, the article 
7-oy clearly carries it ; it is not said twice, as it would have been if two per- 
sons had been intended ; it is not said, ' of our God and of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ,' but ' of our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' And then, 
secondly, you shall find that this is the style of the New Testament, that 
when it speaks of God the Father, he is called God and the Father, and 
when it speaks of Christ, he is called God and our Saviour; as, for example, 
speaking of God the Father in Eph. i. 3, saith he, 'the God and Father;' 
Uod and Father there are one person, and he speaks not of two, but of 
one ; for (which also confirms the first reason) the article 6 it is put before 
God, but not before Father, it is not the God and the Father, but the God 
and Father, speaking of one ; the like you have in 1 Cor. xv. 24, and in 
Col. ii. 2. This, I say, is the proper style of the New Testament concern- 
ing God the Father. Answerably, when the Scripture speaks of Jesus 
Christ, he is called God and our Saviour ; so you have it expressly in 
Titus ii. 13, « Looking for the appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ.' As by God and the Father is meant God the 
Father, so by God and our Saviour is meant Jesus Christ. Here now is 
the faith, the common faith of the primitive Christians ; it is faith on the 
righteousness of him who is our God and our Saviour, and men can never 
truly believe upon his righteousness unto salvation unless they believe that 
he is a God as well as a Saviour, for he had never else been a Saviour had 
he not been God, and his righteousness had never been the righteousness 
of a Saviour had it not been the righteousness of God ; and therefore to 
deny him to be God is to deny his satisfaction, and he that denies the one 
denies the other; 'denying the Lord that bought them,' saith he in 
2 Peter ii. 1. Now then, though special faith hath for its object Jesus 
Christ as a Saviour, and his righteousness as that of a Saviour, yet a man 
must believe other things too concerning Jesus Christ, as here he must 
believe that he is God also. There are many other things a man must 
believe, and believe them strongly too, which fall under the nature of 
general faith, which yet are necessary to special faith, so that he who 



28 -i OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK I. 

denies them cannot have true special faith. Take away Christ as being 
God, and you even take away the Saviour too, for they go both together ; 
and accordingly it was the general faith of all those primitive Christians to 
believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as God and as our Saviour. 

(4.) The fourth concession or grant which I shall mention, which, though 
it seems to be all one with the other before, yet hath a difference, is this, 
that to this special faith on Christ and on the grace of God, there is the 
faith of other things requisite, either implicitly or explicitly. It is not only 
that he who denies some things, which are believed with a general faith, 
cannot have a true special faith, since the denial of the one cannot stand 
with the truth of the other, which was the meaning of the foregoing con- 
cession ; but that unless a man believe many things, which yet are but the 
objects of a general faith, either implicitly or explicitly, he can never come 
to have true special faith. We may see this in the instance of the eunuch 
in the confession of his faith, Acts viii. 37. He says no more but that he 
believed 'Jesus to be the Son of God,' but yet withal, his faith was pitched 
upon Christ as a Saviour dying for sinners, for the occasion of his believing 
was Philip's interpreting to him the 53d chapter of Isaiah, which openly 
mentions Christ's being wounded for our sins ; and the eunuch adds in his 
confession, that he believed Jesus to be that person who was intended, and 
he believed too that this person was the Son of God, as that which alone 
made his death and offering himself for sinners satisfactory unto God, for 
he accordingly desires to be baptized for remission of sins as obtained by 
Christ. His believing him to be the Son of God is indeed only mentioned, 
because this was the great thing necessary in order to his believing on him 
as a Saviour, but yet this last is as strongly implied and intended. To the 
same purpose we have another scripture, Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cometh to 
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek him.' He that cometh to God is he that cometh to believe on 
him, cometh to him for salvation, for faith is often so expressed, though 
special faith lies in coming to God for mercy, believing upon his grace, 
believing on him that justifieth the ungodly ; yet a man must believe first 
that God is, and that spiritually, and he must be wise in that point savingly 
too. A man must believe also that God is just, and the justifier of him 
that believeth in Jesus, that he is true and faithful in his promises ; there- 
fore a man is said, when he believeth, to « set to his seal that God is true.' 
Yet, to believe the truth of God, to believe the justice of God, to believe 
that God is, all these belong to general faith, to the same faith wherewith 
I believe a thousand things else in the Scripture. Only let me say this, 
it is not necessary that a man should believe all these explicitly, that is, in 
distinct propositions, especially not in a method and order, first this and 
then that ; as to say, First I came to believe that God was, and then I 
came to believe that God was true. But when God comes to reveal him- 
self as a justifier, then, as when the sun in one beam sheweth the whole 
sun to the eye, so it is here, that often at once when God reveals himself 
as a justifier of the ungodly, to be believed on, he also with that beam 
enlightens the soul with the knowledge of what other perfections are in 
him, which may conduce to represent him to us as a justifier of the ungodly. 
To illustrate this by the instance of Adam's first sin ; as in that there were 
many sins concurred, but that one sin which the Scripture reckoneth, that 
one disobedience by which we all fell, was eating the forbidden fruit, so it 
is here : though there are many acts of believing, yet the one act which 
justifies is that which regards Christ, and his blood and righteousness. 
When Abraham was to believe in the promised Messiah, in the promised 



Chap. IV. ] of justifying faith. 2R5 

seed, ' in whom all the nations of the earth should he hlessed,' he believed 
in the power of God too, as I said even now out of Rom. iv. 21 ; and it was 
absolutely necessary for him so to do, for he knew, according to the pro- 
mise, that the Messiah could not come unless he had Isaac. Now, though 
his faith looked at Christ especially, yet to support this faith that the 
Messiah should come, he believed in the power of God to give him Isaac ; 
his special faith was supported by his belief on the power of God ; and yet 
his belief on the power of God, that God was able to do thus and thus, was 
not tbat which justiiied him, for it was but a general faith, and yet I say it 
supported his special faith. You have the like in Heb. xi. 19, when" he 
thought to offer up Isaac : his eye was then upon Christ, whom God would 
raise from the dead, but yet he believed that God was able to raise up Isaac, 
without which he should never have Christ, nor Christ should never have 
come. Abraham's faith was twice put to it, in believing on the power of 
God concerning Isaac : the one was for his being conceived and born, and 
the other was when he offered him up ; you have the one in Rom. iv. 19, 
and the other in Heb. xi. 18. 

So that now faith in the general of these truths, that the word of God, 
or the promises of God, are true, that God is faithful, tbat he is just, that 
he is powerful, all these they are the supports of special faith ; but yet 
still that special faith which I am justified by, is only that whereby I believe 
upon the grace of Christ, and upon the grace of God as justifying. There- 
fore that wbich divines do say to clear the point of faith justif} T ing alone, 
may be applied here. Faith, say they, doth not justify alone, as if it were 
unaccompanied with other gi-aces ; as the eye though it sees alone, yet if it 
were alone, if it were out of the head, it would not see. Now the same do 
I say of this special faith, it would never come to justify us, if it were not 
supported with acts of general faith. A great many of such nerves meet 
in this eye of special faith upon the grace and mercy of God, and concur 
therewith ; and though they are before that act, yet are in order unto justi- 
fication. When men are humbled for sin, upon the sight of sin as sin, they 
could never be thus spiritually humbled for sin, if they did not know God 
spiritually, and the goodness of God : I mean, take goodness in the general 
sense, as God is good and sin is evil, they could not see sin to be the 
greatest evil, except they saw God to be the chiefest good ; for as God 
knows sin by knowing himself, as the schoolmen speak, so we know the 
evil of sin in that light whereby we know the goodness of that God against 
whom we have sinned, and from whom sin hath drawn us ; but now a 
thousand of these acts, if you could suppose so many to precede, are not 
those whereby we are justified, but they are in order to justification. A 
man is never justified, till he be wrought upon to a special throwing of 
himself upon Christ and his righteousness, and upon God as justifying. 



CHAPTER IV. 

That a sj)ecial act of faith on the free grace of God as justifying shiners, and 
on the blood and righteousness of Christ, is the onhj true justifying faith. — 
This proved by several arguments. — What are the reasons why God hath 
singled out this special faith to be that faith upon which he justifies. — The 
uses. 

3. Having explained the nature of special justifying faith, and what acts 
conduce to it, I come now to demonstrate, that it is only by this special 



28G OF TnE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

faith that we obtain an interest in Christ and his righteousness unto salva- 
tion and justification. 

(1.) You know that there is a special part of God's word, which is the 
gospel, even as Christ, the grand subject of it, is called eminently 6 Xoyog, 
1 the Word,' John i. 1. Now what is the gospel ? Truly it is nothing else 
(take it strictly in the special sense and meaning of it) but that doctrine 
which holds forth the grace of God justifying, pardoning, and saving sin- 
ners, and which holds forth Jesus Christ made righteousness to us. Now 
then, this gospel it is called in a peculiar respect ' the word of faith ;' and 
for what respect but this ? because it is a special object of a special faith 
which God saveth us by. The apostle, in Rom. x. 8, speaking of the gos- 
pel in distinction from the law, and from all else in the Scripture, saith, 
• This is the word of faith which we preach.' What is that same special 
word of faith ? Ho tells us, ver. 9, ' That' (so we read it, but some trans- 
late it nempe, or), ' namely this, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and believe with thy heart, thou shalt be saved ;' and the 
Scripture saith, ver. 11, ' Whosoever believeth on him shall not be 
ashamed.' This is called the word of faith, which holdeth forth this spe- 
cial object of the special faith of a believer. And then again, in Gal. iii. 
1, 2, the gospel it is called the ' hearing of faith,' having spoken of Christ 
being crucified before their eyes in the w T ords before ; so also in 1 Tim. 
iii. 9, it is called ' the mystery of faith.' Now as the gospel is called in a 
special manner the word of faith, so in us that faith is called special faith 
which relateth to this word, and the rest is rather called ' wisdom to salva- 
tion,' whereby we know all things else in the Scripture ; but this carries 
the name of faith, and is called ' faith in Jesus Christ,' and therefore it is 
is called ' faith of the truth,' 2 Thes. ii. 13, that is, of the gospel ; it is 
not only faith of truth, take it in general any truth revealed in the word, 
but faith of that truth ; ' God hath chosen you to salvation,' saith he, 
1 through faith of the truth.' As the gospel is called the word of faith, so 
on the other side faith is called the faith of the gospel, Phil. i. 27. Thus 
it is a special faith, because it has this special object. 

(2.) Then again add this to it, that though the apostles'were to preach 
all the word of God, yet they had a special ministry : ' The word of faith 
which we preach,' saith Paul in Rom. x. 8. Now the faith that is to be 
in Christians, it is to be suited to their ministry : ' So we preach, and ye 
believed,' 1 Cor. xv. 11. Now then, if that preaching of remission of sins 
in the name of Christ, if preaching the righteousness of God through faith, 
the righteousness of faith which is in the Son of God, if this were the spe- 
cial proper ministry of the apostles, then that is the special faith of a 
Christian which is suited to this ministry. Now it is evident that this was 
the special thing that they preached. In Acts xx. 24, thus saith the 
apostle, ' So that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus.' What was that ? ' To testify 
the gospel of the grace of God.' Take the gospel as it holds forth the 
grace of God, that is, that special grace of God, his free grace in pardoning, 
saving, and justifying sinners, this is the special ministry (saith he) which 
I received of Jesus Christ. You have it likewise elsewhere often professed 
by the apostle. 

When Jesus Christ began to preach, he began with this, Mark i. 15, 
1 Repent, and believe the gospel,' the gospel of grace, and the gospel that 
holds forth Christ; and as he began, so he ended with it : Mark xvi. 15, 
' Go and preach the gospel, and he that believeth shall be saved.' And 
whon he was in heaven, what was the commission he gave to Paul ? Paul 



Chap. IY.] of justifying faith. 287 

said, in the place I cited even now, that his ministry was to ' testify the 
gospel of the grace of God.' Now what was Paul's commission given him 
by Christ from heaven ? See Acts xxvi. 18, ' I send thee to the Gentiles, 
to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God ; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and 
an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.' 

(3.) Consider this likewise, that when any of the people came to Christ, 
or came to the apostles, to know what to do to he saved, still they directed 
them to faith upon a special ohject for salvation. What saith Paul to tho 
poor jailor in Acts xvi. 31, when he asked what he should do to ho saved ? 
He gives him the most sovereign, special, only remedy, ' Believe on the 
Lord Jesus, and thou shalt he saved.' He doth not bid him believe on 
God simply, and believe that God is powerful, just, ivc, hut he points his 
faith to that which is the special object of it, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus,' 
saith he. You may have in the Scripture, and in the New Testament, 
descriptions of one that shall be saved, by faith on other things besides 
believing on Jesus Christ, but you shall never have a direction (when a 
man comes to ask what he shall do to be saved) unto any thin<* else. So 
in John vi. 29, Christ himself, when they asked him, what they should do, 
that they might work the works of God, he directs them to this, ' Believe 
on him whom he hath sent.' 

(4.) Consider, that all the saints from the beginning of the world, 
especially under the New Testament, do profess their trusting upon the 
special grace and mercy of God, as the special object of their faith. You 
have them brought both together, both the saints in the Old and in the 
New Testament, in Acts xv. 11, and they both meet in this centre, in this 
special faith. The apostle there had in the very words before spoken of 
their fathers under the Old Testament, and he had said, that the law was 
a yoke, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear ; how shall wo 
be saved now ? and how were they saved then ? Mark what follows : ' But 
we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ' — I take it, 
that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not meant the grace personally 
in Jesus Christ, but that grace which God beareth us through Jesus Christ— 
' we shall be saved, even as they,' or (as the words is in the Greek), ' after 
the manner they were ;' and all by believing, and that for salvation, having 
that special aim, and acting our faith upon the grace of God in Jesus 
Christ. This (as I said before) was the special faith of all the primitive 
Christians : 2 Peter i. 1, ' To all them,' saith he (for none else are true 
Christians but those), ' that have obtained like faith' (even this special 
faith), ' on the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ;' and in 
1 Peter i. 21, there you shall see what manner of Christians they were, 
and what their faith was upon : ' Who by him do believe in God that raised 
him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be 
in God.' This is the description of the primitive believers, they believed 
in God through Jesus Christ, in God justifying through Jesus Christ ; and 
this was the faith of the apostles themselves : Gal. ii. 16, ' We,' saith he, 
speaking of the apostles, ' have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be 
justified ;' and there, ' in him, and the faith of Jesus,' is three times men- 
tioned, as being that which only we are justified by ; and in Kev. xiv. 12, 
you have all the saints described by this, that they keep the faith of Jesus ; 
they are described by this special faith. 

(5.) Lastly, It appeareth that it is through this special faith that we are 
thus saved, having this special object, because it is not said only, that all 
that do believe shall be saved through him ; which you have in Acts xiii. 39, 



288 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS TPaRT II. BoOK I, 

' By him,' saith he, ' all that believe shall be justified, and receive forgive- 
ness of sins.' But whereas some might say (and truly it might be objected), 
Suppose I believe, though it be on something else, yet I may be saved by 
Christ, and for Christ's sake meritoriously ; therefore, to obviate this, there are 
two places more, which if you do but add, you will see that it is not only all 
that believe shall be saved' 'through him, but, through him all shall be saved 
that believe on him also ; that is, as none but believers, and such as have 
faith, are saved, and saved through faith, so their faith must be on him too 
by which they are saved ; for so it is expressly said in Acts x. 43,' Through 
his name whosoever believeth in him '■•hall receive remission of sins.' The 
like you have in Acts xxvi. 18, ' By faith which is in me.' And therefore 
now here is the thing wherein the strength of the argument lies: the 
Scripture doth not only say, ' He that believeth shall be saved ;' for so it 
saith too, He that repenteth shall be saved, and faith is not only said to be 
unto salvation, for so repentance is said to be unto salvation ; but it is 
plainly expressed, He that believeth is saved by believing on him. Qui 
credit et credendo quidem salratur, who believes, and is indeed saved by 
believing. And this is yet more express : Rom. iii. 22, ' This' (says he) 
' is it that is witnessed by the law and all the prophets, even the righteous- 
ness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, to all and upon all that 
believe.' He confesses not himself to have said, on them that believe, but 
more emphatically also adds, by faith ; so as this righteousness is not only 
said to be on them that believe, for it is on them that repent too, but it is 
also expressed that it is by believing : ' It is the righteousness of God, 
which is by faith on them that believe ;' and this faith is the faith of Christ. 
Add to this that place in Gal. iii. 22, where there is the like duplication, 
' The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith 
of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.' It is given, and by 
believing on Christ. And all argues, that as salvation is by faith alone, so 
that it is by faith upon this special object, upon Jesus Christ. 

4. But you will ask me, What is it in Christ that is the special object of 
this special faith ? 

I shall give you an answer out of the Scripture in a word or two. You 
shall find it to be faith in his blood, and faith in his righteousness, or in 
his obedience. Faith in his blood you have in Ptom. iii. 15, and faith in 
his righteousness you have in that place I have so often quoted, 2 Pet. i. 1. 
These are the matter of our justification, which the soul hath recourse unto, 
to be accepted for, and to have them imputed to it. 

If you ask, answerably to both these, for what it is that the soul comes 
to Christ, believeth on his blood, believeth on his righteousness, to obtain 

what ? 

I answer, It is to obtain two things, the one answering his blood, and 
the other answering his righteousness, viz., ' remission of sins, and an 
inheritance among them that are sanctified,' these being the two legacies 
which the soul comes for ; and both ' by faith that is in me,' saith Christ, 
in Acts xxvi. 18 ; so that indeed there is the whole obedience of Christ, 
active and passive, blood and righteousness, for remission of sins, and for 
an inheritance, as thus you have them singly mentioned in several scrip- 
tures ; and to give you them both in one scripture, Rom. v., first at the 
9th verse, saith he, ' Being now justified by his blood;' and what doth his 
blood serve to justify us from more peculiarly ? ' From wrath :' ' Being 
justified by his blood",' saith he, ' we shall be saved from wrath through 
him ; ' and elsewhere we are said to be justified from sin and from wrath ; 
and then, in ver. 18, 19 of that chapter, ' As by the disobedience of one 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 289 

many were made sinners' (viz., that act of Adam's disobedience imputed to 
them), ' so by the obedience of one many are made righteous' (so the word 
is), they are constituted righteous by that righteousness and obedience. 
He had spoken of his blood before, ver. 9, he now speaks of his righteous- 
ness, for he opposeth it to that actual disobedience of the law which Adam 
committed, which consisted of one act ; but this is abundance of grace, and 
of the gift of righteousness. My brethren, we are not made righteous by 
the act of believing ; no, we are constituted and made righteous by that 
obedience of Christ on which we believe ; the text is express for it. Now 
observe it, as justified by his blood takes away wrath, as you have it ver. 9, 
so our being made righteous by his obedience is for 'justification of life.' 
Read the very words of the 18th verse, where, speaking of justification of 
life, which is distinct from remission of sins, and freedom from wrath, h« 
saith, it is by having the righteousness of Christ made ours, we being made 
righteous by his obedience. So that, I say, this is the special object of 
faith, and this was the faith of the primitive times. 

4. I now come to shew the reasons (which have the greatest harmony in 
them with all other truths, and have as much conviction in them, being 
added unto Scripture, as any) to make this thing good, why that God should 
single out this act of faith, as having in a special manner his grace, and 
Christ's righteousness for salvation, in its eye. Why God, I say, should 
single out this act of faith, as that upon which he is said to justify ; so that 
let a man have never so much faith concerning God himself, under all other 
consideration, be it a belief of the power, justice, truth, or whatsoever it 
be that doth glorify God never so much, if it be not (if we could suppose 
them severed) faith towards God as merciful, saving, justifying, &c, it is 
not justifying. Or, let a man believe never so much of Jesus Christ, and 
that spiritually too, if he do not believe in Christ as a Saviour, for right- 
eousness and pardon, on his blood for justification, and on his righteousness 
to be saved by it, all the other faith will do him no good, neither is any 
other faith said to save or to justify. Now the reasons why God hath 
singled out this special act of faith in such a peculiar manner, as that which 
should be peculiarly saving, and upon which he saveth men, they are these : 

(1.) Consider what is the end of faith. It must needs be this : to bring 
us to God, that we may come to him, and close with him, and so may fear 
him, obey him, or whatever else you will put upon it. Without this, all 
the world must yield that the end of faith is not attained ; therefore in the 
Scripture that faith that saveth us is everywhere expressed by a coming to 
God, and a coming to Jesus Christ. You have the expression frequently 
in John v. and John vi. ; as, on the contrary, unbelief in those that have 
the gospel preached to them is expressed by not coming to Jesus Christ, 
and by departing from the living God ; so you have it in John v. 40, and 
Heb. iii. 12. Now none will come to God unless upon a special ground of 
confidence in God justifying and accepting. To believe all of God else, to 
believe that God is true in his word, in ail his promises, and not to have 
the substance of that promise in the eye, viz., that God is a justifier and 
a Saviour, will be ineffectual ; all other promises, and believing on God 
under all other notions, will never bring a man to God, or make him come 
unto him, Heb. xi. 6, « None cometh to God but he that believeth that 
there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him.' Special 
faith is here expressed by seeking of God. You have the like in Isa. xi. 10, 
the which if you compare with Rom. xv. 10, they both will open to you 
that in Heb. xi. 6. In Isa. xi. 10, saith the prophet, ' In that day' (speak- 
ing of Christ) ' there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign 

VOL. VIII. t 



290 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

to the people, and to him shall the Gentiles seek.' Mark the expression, 
seek; and now compare with this, Rom. xv. 10, and see there what the 
apostle renders and translates the prophet's seeking into. ' And again,' 
saith he, quoting this place in Isaiah, ' Esaias saith, there shall be a root 
of Jesse, and he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, and in him shall the 
Gentiles trust.' Mark it, seeking and trusting they are put all for one ; I 
allege it for this, that the notion of seeking in that Heb. xi. 6, is believing 
on God, and expressed both by seeking and coming to him. Now, saith 
the apostle in Heb. xi. 6, there must be a twofold apprehension in a man 
for the ground of his coming to God: 1, an apprehension aud a spiritual 
belief that God is ; 2, that he is the rewarder of them that seek him, or (if 
you will, in the apostle's language elsewhere) of them that trust in him, or 
believe in him. It is not therefore simply the belief of all things concern- 
ing God that will bring a man's soul to seek to him, or to come to him, 
unless God be considered as he promiseth himself a reward, as he did to 
Abraham. The blessing of Abraham in forgiving his sins, and giving him 
heaven, whereby was it expressed? ' I will be thy reward,' saith God in 
Gen. xvii. 1, or it may have relation to that in Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know 
thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou hast not forgotten them that 
seek thee.' Thou art a God that dost regard, and hast a special regard to 
them that seek thee, and do trust in thee ; for seeking and trusting are put 
both for one in that psalm likewise. Now what was the name of God in 
the Old Testament, which did draw in the hearts of all his people to trust 
in him, and to seek him ? It was, ' The Lord God, gracious and merciful, 
pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin,' Exod. xxxiv. 6. This was his 
name, and those that knew it and believed it spiritually, they trusted in 
him, and looked upon him as one that was a rewarder, and ' not forgetful ' 
(which is all one, for a diminutive expression implies more than it express- 
eth) 'of them that seek him.' So that now, if a man would come to God, 
and be brought to him, it is not all the general faith about God that the 
soul of man can take in, let him know never so much of it, that will do it, 
unless he withal know him in his special promise of favour, and of being a 
reward to them that trust in him ; otherwise men are driven away from 
God, men will never come to him, if it were not for a promise of special 
mercy, pardoning them, accepting them, and rewarding them : ' There is 
mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared,' saith the psalmist in Ps. 
cxxx. 4-7. No man would fear God, would come to him, would seek to 
him, or worship him, or meddle with him, let him have never so much faith 
in all things else, if it were not that there is ' mercy with him, and plenteous 
redemption,' as it follows there. Men would not seek God, nor come to 
God, but under the notion of a God promising reconciliation in Christ, 
promising to be a reward in Christ, and to be favourable in Christ. 

The papists (that I may shew you the deceits and mistakes of men all 
along as I go in this great point) they tell us that it is general faith, faith 
to believe all things else of God, as well as to believe upon God giving of 
himself out to us in special promises, that is justifying faith ; and therefore 
they do find fault with Calvin, and .blame him and others of our protestant 
writers, for saying that the schoolmen erred in making God (simply con- 
sidered) the object of faith; and for Baying that God in Christ, God as 
justifying, God as rewarding and pardoning sin, as he is thus, is the 
special object of faith; and they seem to argue strongly for their opinion. 
I shall mention their argument, and answer it in a word. Say they, the 
primary object of faith must needs be God himself, simply considered, in 
all his attributes, and not in any special manner, God in Christ, or God in 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 291 

respect of grace and mercy; because, take God as justifying, and God 
revealed in Christ, that is but a secondary thing to God himself, it is but 
oltribiihiiii secundarium, an attribute at second hand, by reason of bis own 
purpose taken up to shew mercy to sinners, therefore, say they, that which 
is not the primary thing in God cannot be the primary object of our faith. 
And then farther they argue thus too: vision in heaven succeedeth faith, 
but to know God in himself, or God to be all in all, to know God in all 
his excellencies, this, say they, is the perfection of heaven; therefore God 
so considered must needs be a more perfect object of faith than to con- 
sider God as justifying us, or God revealed in Christ; for, say they, faith 
and vision have the same object, only with this variation, that God is 
revealed obscurely to our faith here in this life, but clearly in the world to 
come. 

For answer to this, and so to clear this first reason that I have men- 
tioned before I go off of it, I say, God himself, simply considered in him- 
self, is not the primary object of our faith; for faith cannot see God as in 
himself, none can see God and live ; that is appointed indeed for vision in 
the world to come. We must therefore make that the primary object of 
our faith which is suited to us, and suited to the way of believing by God's 
ordination, and to a man's mind and spirit here in this life, as we are in 
our way to heaven ; and therefore now to go and throw off Christ and faith 
in him, and make communion with God as God all in all, immediately in 
himself, to be justifying faith, though there is such a communion with him 
in the world to come, when God shall be all in all, yet this is not suited 
to what we see here in this life, therefore we must take that to be the 
primary object of faith which is ordained to be so unto us while we are 
here. Now, God is revealed to us here in this life two ways : either by 
such words or names which he hath given himself as do express his attri- 
butes, which are his back-parts, as that he is called just, and faithful, and 
true, and gracious, and merciful, and knowing all things, &c. ; or else God 
is to be considered as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, in the word of 
the gospel which is preached to us, for what is Jesus Christ but God 
manifested in the flesh ? Now, then, of the two, which do you think is 
the chief object of our faith, whether God revealed in his attributes, or 
God revealed in Christ? Certainly God revealed in Christ. I yield you 
that God known in himself is beyond both these, for both these are but 
means to know him by ; but of the two, I say, God in Christ is the special 
object of our faith, the other is but a secondary thing in comparison of 
this. Why ? Because it was the knowledge of God which they had in 
the Old Testament; and the truth is, that aboundeth with such a know- 
ledge of God, in words expressing his attributes, and if that had been the 
more perfect, then all that addition that Jesus Christ hath brought by the 
revelation of himself had been in vain. Now, if our minds could arrive at 
God immediately, we needed neither the one nor the other. 

So that the sum of the answer is this, that it is true that the knowledge 
of God simply considered in his nature, in his being, in all his excellencies, 
when he is known, is most excellent; but the question is of that way of 
knowing him which God hath appointed us in this life. And so, I say, 
the knowledge of God in Christ is the most excellent, and Jesus Christ is 
he that makes all the attributes of God (which is another way of knowing 
him in this life) more conspicuous than they were in the Old Testament ; 
therefore Christ, and God revealed in Christ, pardoning, justifying, saving, 
and all that Jesus Christ hath done to that end, is to us the primary object 
of faith. 



292 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK I. 

(2.) Another reason why God hath appointed such a special faith to be 
justifying, is, because men that are sinners (for in that consideration the 
strength of the reason lies, or at least there is thereby a further strength 
added to the former) can never come to close with God ; they can never 
come to seek him, but under the representation of God in Christ, and of 
God pardoning, and God justifying. This is certain, tbatthe more strongly 
a sinner believes all things that are in God, all his excellencies, his holiness, 
his power, his justice, take all the attributes that are in God ; the more 
strongly, I say, he believes these, if he should not withal apprehend this 
God as one that not only hath mercy in his nature, but that holds forth 
mercy in his promises, and in Christ, for the pardon of sin and for salva- 
tion, the more it will drive a sinner off from God, unless the special grace 
or mercy of God, as it is held forth in the promise, be revealed to that 
man's soul ; and then, indeed, the more strongly he believes all the excel- 
lencies that are in God, the more such a belief will strengthen his heart to 
come to God, and to believe in him, when once he hath closed with him 
under the notion of merciful, and justifying, and pardoning in and through 
Christ; otherwise, I say, it puts men off from God; so it did Cain, so it 
did Adam, who ran away from God. And what is the reason that the 
devils believe and tremble ? It is, because all that they know and appre- 
hend of God hath no special promise of mercy to them as sinners from 
that God. They know that God is merciful, but because there is not a 
declaration of God's will to be merciful to such as are in their condition, 
because they know that his mercy is limited to men, that good-will is to 
men on earth, as the angels sung, Luke ii. 14, and not unto devils in hell, 
that no name is given unto men by which they can be saved but only the 
name of Christ, and not to devils ; therefore the more, I say, that they 
know of God, the more they tremble, and the more they go off from God ; 
but it is God apprehended under that special notion, as one that hath a 
name of being merciful, put out in his promises to such sinners as we are, 
that draws sinners to him. 

So that let papists and popish spirits, that would have a general faith to 
save us, dispute what they will, that God, considered in himself, is the 
chief object of faith, yet still clearly take us as sinners, God, as a justifier 
of sinners, out of his infinite mercy and grace, is the chief object of faith 
unto us. You have it plainly in Rom. iv. 5, ' To him that believeth on 
him that justifieth the ungodly, is faith accounted for righteousness.' Go, 
take a man that is ungodly, and how will this man ever come to believe in 
God, unless under this notion, that he is one that justifies the ungodly? 
And therefore that is the faith that is accounted for righteousness. It is 
not believing that God is true, or holy, or just, simply considered in him- 
self, if a man believe these never so strongly, that will justify him ; but to 
believe on God under this notion, that he is a justifier of the ungodly, this 
is a man's faith which is accounted to him for righteousness. Without 
this, it is certain sinners would have no heart to come unto God. You 
have an excellent expression to this purpose in Eph. iii. 12, where, speak- 
ing of Jesus Christ, and so of God, considered as in Christ revealed, he 
saith, ' In whom' (having spoken of Christ in the very words before) ' we 
have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.' Here is 
the special faith expressed, which is pitched either upon God as justifying 
in Christ, or upon Christ through whom God justifieth. Now go, take a 
sinner, he would never have any boldness, never have any confidence, so 
much as to come to God ; he would have no heart to do it ; he would be 
driven off from him, if he did not first look on God as in Christ; for, mark 



Chap. IV.] op justifying faith. 203 

it, he mentions Christ twice, ' In whom we have boldness by the faith of 
him.' The meaning is this, that take the reality of the thing itself, the 
access, the leave that God giveth for sinners to come to him, it is in and. 
by Christ. In uhom, saith he ; God really admitteth men to him, or else 
would not do it. And as thus for the reality of the thing, it is in Christ, 
and without him there would be no access to God, so it is only that man 
who apprehendeth Christ, and cometh to God through Christ, that hath 
this access with confidence, and therefore that is added, by the faith of him. 
For this is a true rule, which will never deceive us, that look what it is 
that rnoveth God to accept us, the apprehension of that in God strength- 
eneth our hearts to come unto him to be accepted. Now if God did not 
look upon us in Jesus Christ, there were no acceptation of us on God's 
part; and if we, on the other side, did not by faith look upon God through 
Jesus Christ, there would be no confidence, no boldness, but the heart 
would go back; therefore he puts in both, • In whom,' saith he, ' through 
the faith of whom, we have boldness, and confidence, and access to God.' 
If there were a glass (to make such a supposition) through and by which 
the sun did shine upon the world, and take that glass away, and the sun 
did not shine ; and, on the other side, if that the eyes of men and other 
creatures were so weak that they could not behold the sun but through 
that glass; if both these were true, what a great necessity were there that 
the means of the sight of the sun should be still as through that glass. 
So is it here ; God himself, out of Christ, shineth not upon sinners, neither 
can the sore, the weak eye of a sinner dare to behold that God, which is a 
consuming fire, but as looking through this glass; and therefore, I say, 
though man in his primitive innocent state had another way and means of 
coming to God, as Adam had, yet notwithstanding now, as sinners, we 
have not. And let me tell you this too, that, take Adam's condition, there 
was a special kind of faith even in him too. He must have believed and 
known (at least if not by faith, by some other ways, — whether it was by the 
law of natural righteousness in his heart, I dispute not) that this God did 
accept him to life, and that he was in his favour. It is true, indeed, he 
had this knowledge by the intervention of his own good works ; otherwise, 
though Adam had known God to be omniscient, to be holy, to be just, to 
be true, and to be happy, and perfect, and blessed, if that he had not 
taken all these attributes of God in at this little hole, the beams shining 
in at this hole, that this God justifieth me, approveth me upon my obe- 
dience, — he had the sight of this through his works and holiness, be- 
cause the law between Adam and God stood as between a creator and a 
creature, — all the other knowledge would not have comforted Adam's heart, 
had not he, I say, apprehended God to justify him; though then, indeed, 
the way of justification was on the account of Adam's holiness, and 
through his works. Hence now, therefore, God, as justifying and approv- 
ing of Adam as a person in his favour, and God as his God was the primary 
notion under which Adam looked upon God, and to him all the other were 
but as secondary in comparison of this, much more is it so to a poor 
sinner. And therefore, now let us consider God justifying us out of grace 
(for otherwise, if we consider ourselves under the first covenant, all the 
attributes of God come in upon us with terror), and then all his attributes 
shinincr but through this one consideration, that God is a God that justifies 
sinners, come in sweetly upon us. And therefore, let popish spirits say 
what they will, yet still unto us as sinners it is God as gracious, God as 
justifying, it is God as in Christ revealed, which is the proper and special 
object of justifying faith. For, consider, when a sinner doth turn to God, 



294 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

and come to believe in good earnest, what is the chief thing he hath in his 
eye in the knowledge of himself? He hath the guilt of sin, poor soul ! 
I am, saith he, obnoxious to the wrath of the great God ; this is the chief, 
the first thing he hath then in his eye ; therefore, now answerably in his 
seeking unto God, what hath his faith recourse unto ? To that God who 
justifies the ungodly, and to that Christ through whom he doth it ; and 
therefore he hath recourse to them for justification first, and sanctification 
afterwards. And why ? Because the power of sin is not first in his eye, 
but the guilt of sin, therefore answerably justification (take him as he is a 
sinner), and God as justifying, and Christ as justifying, must needs be in 
his eye first, and then afterward Christ as sanctifying. Adam, he might 
have leave to study all the attributes of God, one after another, by pieces 
and parcels, and pick and choose which he would think of first, even as 
scholars do pieces of divinity ; and God might draw out an act of faith and 
knowledge of or to himself, under this attribute or that attribute, as he 
pleased; but this poor soul that is a sinner, when it comes to God, he hath 
not the leisure to look over all things else in God, or, if he hath, he is 
terrified with them ; but, saith he, I am lost. And what is the first ques- 
tion he asketh ? ' "What shall I do to be saved ? ' That is the first ques- 
tion in order of nature ; therefore, now, if you will answer this poor soul's 
question, you must tell him of God in Christ, and of God's saving and 
justifying sinners in Christ. 

(8.) A third reason why God hath appropriated our salvation to such a 
special faith on Christ is, because it is unto that faith, the object of which 
only pacifieth the heart against condemnation, that God only doth annex 
justification. If to any at all it must needs be that faith, the object of 
which alone pacifieth the heart against guilt and condemnation ; but now 
only the faith that is in Jesus Christ and his righteousness, and upon God 
as justifying, hath that for its object which alone is able to quiet and pacify 
the heart against condemnation, therefore God hath annexed alone to this 
faith our being justified. Yea, it is this which first puts in the chief life 
into the soul : Kom. i. 17, ' The righteousness of God is revealed from 
faith to faith ; ' and it follows, • The just shall live by faith.' The greatest 
death is in the guilt of sin, so that if we could suppose that a general faith 
could act against the power of sin, yet it could not raise the soul from 
death in the guilt of it, until the righteousness of God which acquits it be 
revealed, Col. ii. 12, 13 ; to this also accord those places which express, 
that ' he who seeth the Son hath life,' and that ' he who believeth on the 
Son hath life,' John iii. 26, 1 John v. 11, Gal. ii. 20. But will you first, 
before I proceed to prove this, mark how I express myself ; I say, that 
faith, the object of which serveth to pacify ; I do not say, that faith, the 
act of which always pacifieth, but whose object alone I must have peace 
from. Look what thing, what consideration, what apprehension alone must 
give that soul peace and quiet against condemnation, certainly faith upon 
that object is it which God hath annexed justification unto. Always the 
act of faith upon Christ and upon grace doth not bring peace, but there 
is that in the thing believed, or that will do it in the event. Now the 
reason of the consequence of this is clear, for justification you know 
is opposed to condemnation, therefore that object of faith, and that of 
faith which serveth to pacify the heart only against condemnation, the 
belief on that thing certainly only justifieth. Now there is nothing but 
God as justifying, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and his 
righteousness, through whom God justifieth, that is able to pacify and 
quiet the heart of a sinner ; nothing else will do it. We use the like 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 295 

argument against the papists, that therefore we are justified by faith 
alone. 

I will give you clearly a scripture for this, and so pass from it. In 
Rom. iii. and Rom. iv., the apostle discourseth of faith as justifying, and 
he makes the object of that faith in chap. iii. to be Jesus Christ ; he 
calleth it ' the faith of Jesus,' ver. 26, &c. ; he also makes God as justi- 
fying the ungodly the object of faith in chap. iv. ver. 5, and he doth shew 
that we are justified alone by faith as acted upon those two objects, and 
not by the works of the law. Now how doth he conclude in chap. v. 
ver. 1 ? ' Being justified by faith,' saith he (that is, by this faith on God 
justifying, and on Jesus Christ, which is the faith only by which he had 
proved we are justified in the words before), ' we have peace with God 
through Jesus Christ;' that is, this the only faith that pacifieth the heart; 
faith only as pitched upon these objects nakedly, and barely, and singly 
will quiet the heart, and bring peace with God; nothing else will do it. 
Now I appeal to the experience of all believers, and in this case I may 
very well do it ; I appeal to all your consciences, you that have been exer- 
cised in the conflicts of faith and believing, what hath ever quieted your 
hearts ? All that you knew of God or of Jesus Christ would not do it, 
till you came to lay hold upon the grace of God as justifying ungodly 
wretcbes merely for his own name's sake, and till you laid hold on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom you are justified ; nothing else but God 
nakedly and simply considered, without anything in yourselves, hath ever 
quieted the heart of you sinners. As the apostle argues from experience 
in a like case, so do I argue from experience in this case too. The apostle 
in Gal. iii. 2, when he would prove that it is the gospel only that conveys the 
Spirit, saith he, ' This only would I learn of you,' you that are so much for the 
law, I pray tell me your experience, I appeal to your own experience (and 
experience in this case is a sure rule), ' Received you the Spirit by the works 
of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? ' What doth he mean by the Spirit ? 
He means the Spirit of God sealing up salvation to them, as in Eph. i. 13, 
1 You were sealed by the Spirit of promise,' and ' we have received the Spirit, 
the anointing,' 1 Cor. ii. 12. Of this Spirit he speaks, for afterwards he 
speaks of the common gifts of the Spirit, ver. 5. Now I appeal to you, 
saith he, what was it that did bring this Spirit down into your hearts, thus 
sealing up salvation to you ? Was it all the works of the law that ever 
you did ? No ; it was by the hearing of faith, saith he. Now the thing I 
cite this for, is to shew that in a case and argument of this nature the 
apostle appeals to the very experience of Christians. What is the reason 
that the experience of Christians must needs decide such a case as this is ? 
Because that God's dispensations are alway suited to his own appointments 
or ordinances ; that is, you will find that God will only bless his own way, 
and his own means. Now then (saith the apostle) if works of the law had 
been a way and a means through which God conveyed his Spirit, some 
of you would have had the Spirit conveyed to you by works of the 
law ; I appeal to you if ever you had. But, on the contrary, you have 
found it, and generally found it, that the Spirit was conveyed to you by 
the hearing of faith. Certainly then this is the truth. Why ? Because 
experience would not second this unless it were God's own appointment 
and ordination, that the hearing of faith conveyeth the Spirit, for that 
which God sanctifieth to be effectual hath always the substance of his own 
ordination in it. Now then in the like manner do I here argue, that faith 
whose object only quieteth the heart against condemnation is certainly that 
as pitched on that object alone upon which God doth justify us; now 



296 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BOOK I. 

nothing can, or ever did, or will quiet the heart (I appeal to all experi- 
ence), but this special faith pitched upon the grace of God justifying 
immediately and freely, and upon the Lord Jesus Christ made justification 
to us. 

(4.) The soul can lay hold upon no promise that God hath made (it 
cannot only neither come to him, nor treat with him, but can lay hold 
upon no promise else), neither by way of assurance, nor by way of recum- 
bency ; it cannot with any heart cast itself upon God or Christ for the 
performance of any promise further than as it hath pitched, either by way 
of assurance or casting itself, upon the special mercy of God to pardon, or 
accept it in Jesus Christ ; and therefore this must needs be the first and 
principal act of faith. I do not say, that no man can cast himself upon 
God for any other promise till he be assured that God doth justify him ; 
but till he hath dealt with God for justification as a God that justifieth the 
ungodly, and as a God thus merciful, and till he hath dealt with Jesus 
Christ, and come to him for salvation, this soul can never come to him 
for any other promise with any cheerful heart. It is most certain, you 
cannot have recourse to God for other promises with any boldness and 
heartiness further than your hearts are in a proportion strengthened 
to rest upon, and to have recourse unto the grace of God to justify, and 
unto our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through whom we are justi- 
fied ; it is a thing which you may make a use of now by the way. 

Take this for a rule, that your way when you would deal with God for any 
temporal promise, it is to renew your faith for your justification and salva- 
tion. I will give you an instance or two for it; in John xi. 26, 27, &c, 
there was the sister of Lazarus, Martha, who was to deal with Jesus Christ, 
and he with her, concerning the raising of her brother; Christ he tells her 
that her brother shall rise again: ver. 23, 'Yea,' saith she, ' I know that 
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.' Christ now he was 
to bring her heart off to this, that he should rise sooner, that he would 
raise him up now, which she was very backward to believe. What doth 
Jesus Christ do therefore ? He puts her first upon this, to renew her faith 
upon him for salvation, so you have it clearly, ver. 25, Jesus said unto 
her, ' I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, though 
we were dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, 
shall never die.' Here you see he draws her on to believe in him for 
salvation, and to renew that faith. There are a great many observations 
which may be made out of these words ; as, first, this, you see the special 
faith of the gospel, which Christ would have us put into our creed. You 
know there is a creed which we call the apostles' creed, but here is one main 
article of a creed which Christ hath made: ' Believest thou this ? ' saith 
he. He cloth catechetically instruct her in this main point, namely, that 
he is the resurrection and the life, and that whosoever liveth and believeth 
in him shall never die. To believe, therefore, with a special faith on Christ 
for salvation, and against condemnation, this is the great thing of the gospel ; 
and Christ he doth urge it upon her, that he might bring her faith first off 
to this, and then it would be easy for her, more easy for her, having renewed 
that faith upon Christ for salvation, and not dying, to believe that he would 
raise her brother, which was a temporal mercy which she was then treating 
with him about, and which he was rather bringing her off to be persuaded 
of. Hence therefore I conclude, that if you would have any temporal mercy, 
or believe in any promise else, first believe in him for salvation and against 
condemnation, believe on him for pardon of sin, renew such acts of faith. 
Another thing I observe by the way, out of those words, is this, her answer 



Chap. IV. 1 of justifying faith. 207 

is, ■ Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.' Hence 
some say, that to believe that Christ is the Son of God is true faith, and 
faith enough. But you must join Christ's words and her answer together, 
for Christ doth nit call her to believe that he is the Son of God, but to 
believe on him that she might not die, and therefore I say, put her answer 
and Christ's words together, and the meaning is clearly this, she believed 
him to be the Son of God, and she believed in him also that she should not 
die ; and having brought her heart off to this, it was more easy for her now 
to believe that Christ would raise up Lazarus her brother, than which she 
desired nothing more of a temporal mercy. 

You shall find) likewise, that when men and women came to be healed, 
as for instance the man sick of the palsy, Mat. ix. 2, when he was brought 
to Christ to be healed of his palsy, what doth Christ first say to the poor 
man when he came to him ? He said unto him, ' Son, be of good cheer ; 
thy sins be forgiven thee.' They brought him to be healed of his palsy ; 
you see Christ, afore ever he heals his palsy, speaks first to the man, ' Son, 
be of good comfort ; thy sins be forgiven thee.' What do I argue out of 
these words ? First, that Jesus Christ, the good Physician, he knew the 
sore of the man's heart ; poor man, he would fain be healed of his palsy, 
but the desire of forgiveness stuck in his spirit, and his faith stuck most at 
that ; for Christ here he speaks ad cor, to the heart, and therefore, afore 
he would heal his palsy, he first speaks to that which was most in his eye, 
and which the man most wanted, and which he came for : ' Be of good cheer ; 
thy sins be forgiven thee.' The words argue that the man was exercised 
about this, how his sins should be pardoned through Jesus Christ that was 
the Saviour of the world ; therefore Christ first tells him, thy sins be for- 
given ; for the man thought with himself, Alas, the curing of my sickness 
will do me no good, if that my sins remain ! What doth Christ therefore ? 
He answereth according to the man's thoughts ; Thy sins, saith he, are 
forgiven thee. Again, thought the poor man, this temporal mercy will net 
be granted, unless he forgive my sins too ; my sins brought this disease 
upon me, and it will not be taken away unless my sins be forgiven. There- 
fore Christ, speaking to the poor man's heart, tells him first that his sins 
are forgiven. Hence, I say, I argue that the man's soul was more exercised 
about the forgiveness of his sins than about his palsy ; therefore, I say, any 
of you too cannot come with comfort to believe any other temporal promise, 
or anything else, unless you come first, either by assurance to believe your 
sins are forgiven, or to deal with God about forgiveness, as this poor soul did. 

I might give you the like instances in many others that were healed, and 
I might exemplify this to you in the business of Abraham. The Lord did 
make a promise to Abraham which seems to be but an outward promise, 
(and take the letter of it, and it was but an outward promise) concerning 
the multiplying of his seed. And it is a thing that Bellarmine objecteth. 
You talk, saith he, that your faith that justifies is pitched only upon God 
as justifying, and upon Jesus Christ. The faith that Abraham was justified 
by was believing the multiplying of his seed as the stars of heaven. In 
Rom. iv. 3 it is said, ' The Scripture saith, Abraham believed God, and it 
was counted unto him for righteousness.' Now, where is it said that 
Abraham's faith was counted unto him for righteousness ? You have it in 
Gen. xv. 6. And upon what occasion was it spoken, that his faith was 
counted to him for righteousness ? It was believing of that promise, that 
God would make his seed like the stars of heaven. Now, saith the great 
objector, here is your justifying faith ; it is merely faith upon a temporal 
promise. But you shall see how this man is mistaken, for read but the 



298 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

first verse of that Gen. xv., and mark what God saith afore he makes him 
that temporal promise, if you will make it such, though, if I had time, I 
could shew you it is more ; but take it so. Saith God there first, ' Fear 
not, Abraham : I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' There 
God makes a special promise of mercy and blessednsss unto Abraham, and 
having made this, he makes him a promise of multiplying his seed, ver. 5 ; 
'And he believed in the Lord' (ver. 6), ' and he counted it to him for right- 
eousness.' That is, his faith was exercised upon the special promise, by 
reason of which, and by virtue of which, God did bestow upon him this 
other promise, of making his seed as the stars of heaven. I could give you 
another answer to it, but I only allege it for this purpose, that temporal 
promises are believed in, but in the strength of having first closed with 
God and with Jesus Christ, under special promises of mercy, pardon, and 
forgiveness, and of receiving of happiness and of blessedness in and through 
Christ. There is no treating with God for any promise, till that faith hath 
thus pitched itself upon his free favour in Christ, either by way of assurance, 
or by way of casting a man's self upon him to be justified ; for a man 
treateth with God before as an enemy, and will a man come to an enemy 
for anything, whenas his heart is not with him ? Therefore further, when 
the soul doth come to God, having some promise out of God's heart, that 
he is a justifier of such as he is, and so resteth upon him to be justified by 
him, he will then have recourse to him for anything else too. And the 
truth is, a man hath no heart to treat with God till then about anything ; 
therefore, in 2 Pet. i., 3d and 4th verses compared, he saith that, ' through 
the knowledge of him' (that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, for he had spoken 
in the verse before of believing in the righteousness of God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ) ' are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.' 

The last sort of reasons which I shall give you for the confirmation of 
this, viz., why that God hath singled out special faith thus to justify us 
upon ; and why he doth not justify us upon general faith, be it never so 
good ; and why, though we believe other things never so spiritually, and 
let them have never so spiritual effects upon our hearts, yet it is only be- 
lieving upon God as justifying and saving which is the right faith. I say, 
the last sort of reasons to evince it are these, because it suiteth every way, 
and agreeth with all the principles that are held forth in the doctrine of 
faith and justification ; and the contrary opinion doth disagree with all true 
orthodox, sound principles held forth about it. 

1. In the first place (for this contains some two or three particulars in 
it), it was a meet thing, and well suited together, that God should bestow 
all benefits upon us (if he will bestow them through faith), through that 
faith that is suited peculiarly to, and is pitched upon, the benefits which he 
doth bestow. It is a rule which Christ hath, and he hath it twice : he 
hath it in Mat. viii. 13, and he hath it in Mat. ix. 29, 30. The rule is 
this : ' Be it unto thee according to thy faith,' saith he ; so it is in Mat. 
ix. 29, when the poor blind man did come unto him to be healed. He 
hath the very same expression in Mat. viii. 13 : ' Go thy way, and as thou 
hast believed so be it done unto thee.' That is, look what is the proper 
aim of your faith, that by God's ordination doth God upon believing be- 
stow upon you. Now if a man had the faith of working miracles, and if 
he would work a miracle, why according to his faith it would be unto him. 
If a man came to Jesus Christ to be healed, it was to him according to 
that faith. Therefore, now, according to this rule then doth God give 
forth justification, when a man's soul comes to him to be justified, believes 
on him as a justifier, when he comes to Jesus Christ for that righteousness 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 299 

which should justify, when he believeth on Jesus that he may be justified, 
ns it is in Gal. ii. 10. Saith the apostle in Rom. iv. 5, ' He that believeth 
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness ;' 
that faith, and no other, for that is his meaning. To believe on Christ, 
or upon God, under any other notion, though it may make a man holy, yet 
it will not justify a man. You may see the truth of this in the outward 
elements of the sacraments, as bread and wine in the Lord's supper, and 
water in baptism ; look what it is that they are ordained by God to signify, 
that they seal up to us : they signify the blood of Christ, and the death of 
the Lord Jesus, and our being one with him therein ; and as they signify 
these by God's ordination, so they do seal up these to us in a more eminent 
manner. So it is here ; look what it is that the heart comes to God for, 
that is it that God returns again to the spirit ; therefore he returns not 
justification to a man till he come to him to be justified; therefore it is that 
special act upon which this great benefit is given forth. I do not say that 
every man that comes to Christ hath the exact notion of the word, justified 
by Christ. Alas, the ancient language of the fathers was, of being saved 
by Christ, for they were not acquainted with this word justified. Our 
divines of the Reformation speak more distinctly than they, but they meant 
the same thing. Only I should add this caution, that benefits of a kind, 
if a man come to God for any one, God gives him all the rest ; all benefits 
which are out of us, as adoption, sonship, pardon of sin, which are all 
acts without us, if a man come to God for one, suppose sonship, he 
gives him all the rest ; and according to the kind of faith is the benefit 
bestowed. 

2. Again, That God justifies us by a special faith, it agrees with this 
principle also, viz., with the way of God's justifying us ; and what is that '? 
It is not that God doth justify us by faith, as it is an act put forth by us, 
an act of ours, or a quality in us, but he doth justify us by reason of the 
objects laid hold upon by faith, the free grace of God, and of Jesus Christ ; 
so that not so much faith as these are said to justify, being apprehended 
by faith. I might be exceeding large in manifestation of this ; it is a 
received principle amongst all our orthodox divines ; I will only mention 
that in Gal. iii. 8, ' The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the 
heathen by faith, preathed the gospel, saying, In thee' (speaking of Abraham 
personating Christ) ' shall all nations be blessed.' By blessing here he 
means justification clearly, for he speaks of taking away the curse in the 
following verses ; the thing I cite it for is this, to observe that this expres- 
sion, ' In thee shall all nations be blessed,' serves wholly to take off all from 
a man's self, when you come to the business of justification. ' In thee' (saith 
he), that is, in Christ, in that seed, they shall be blessed, for sot he apostle 
explains it : verse 16, ' not seeds' (saith he), ' but seed,' namely, Christ. It 
is not therefore being blessed in believing, or blessed by faith, or through faith, 
as it is an act, but it is through faith as laying hold upon Christ ; it is in 
Christ, in in Christ, and in in only him. Now mark how this truth suiteth 
others ; if we are justified thus, by Jesus Christ as the object of our faith, 
and by God as he is the object of our faith (because he is the justifier, 
and Christ's righteousness is the matter whereby we are justified, and in that 
respect we are said to be justified by faith, because faith lays hold upon 
these objects), then assuredly it is only faith as pitched upon these objects, 
by which and upon w T hich w r e are justified. This necessarily and clearly 
follows, if (I say), by God as justifying us (out of ourselves) and by his 
grace, and by Christ's righteousness (which is out of ourselves in him), and 
by faith, not as a quality or act, but only as apprehending these ; if in this 



300 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

sanse we are only said to be justified by faith, then it is evident that faith 
by apprehending these, and by no other act, is said to justify us. 

Therefore, do but see the mystery of other opinions. What is the reason 
that the papists say, that faith alone in Christ doth not justify ? This is 
the true mystery of it, they do not hold that the grace of God is the justi- 
fier of us, nor the righteousness of Christ the matter of our justification, 
therefore faith doth not justify in respect of its object with them, but it 
justifieth us only as a righteous quality in us, and a righteous act per- 
formed by us ; and therefore with them the belief of any truth, whatsoever 
it be, justifies as well as the believing on Christ, or on God that justfies 
the ungodly ; therefore they say, faith justifies as a disposition ; that is, 
as any other grace or disposition in us, and not per modum apprehensiotm, 
as laying hold on Christ and his righteousness ; and their ^uirov -^ivbos 
consists in this, that they assert faith to be only an assent, (and so it may 
be pitched on any other truth as well as Christ dying), and not a fiducial 
apprehension of Christ ; this agrees with their principles, and the other 
agrees with ours. 

And what is the reason that others, who hold that faith justifies as an 
act, lean to this, and say, that general faith is that which justifies ? 
Because if it justify us merely but as an act, pitch it upon any other object 
as well as this, it will be to us for righteousness, and indeed it may be as 
well. 

But we are justified by Christ, and through faith, even as you would say 
an house is enlightened by the sun, and enlightened by opening the win- 
dow, it comes all to one, for the house is enlightened by opening of the 
window, because opening of the window lets in the sun that enlighteneth 
it ; so it is here, for therefore faith is said to justify, because it lays hold 
upon, and lets in Christ, and God as justifying, into the heart of a sinner. 

3. Again, in the third place, if a man were justified upon any other act 
of believing of any divine truth, though believed never so spiritually and 
truly, and not on this special act of believing on Christ, and on God as 
justifying, he were plainly and clearly justified by sanctification ; as, for 
instance, if I believe that God is holy (this I call part of a general faith), 
and believe it spiritually and rightly, it makes me holy as he is holy, in 
my affections. Here now the belief of God's holiness, if it be a true belief, 
with the whole heart, serveth only to frame the heart to holiness answer- 
ably : now then, if I should be justified by believing that God is holy, I 
should clearly be justified by being sanctified. To give you another 
instance, I believe that God is just, and therefore I fear him : Noah (the 
text saith), ' moved with fear, prepared an ark,' Heb. xi. 7. He believed 
that God was just and true in his threatenings, and so feared God ; if 
Noah now had been justified by this faith of his, he had clearly been justi- 
fied by faith sanctifying, or, if you will, by sanctification ; for what is holi- 
ness and sanctification but a right knowledge of God in the mind, with 
suitable affections framed in the heart accordingly ? If therefoi'e a man 
were justified by any other faith than by faith throwing himself upon 
Christ for justification, he should be justified by sanctification. So again, 
I believe that God is thus and thus excellent in himself, thus and thus 
happy and blessed, that he hath all these perfections in him, here now is 
faith in my understanding ; therefore I love God, here now is the work of 
that faith upon my heart, answerable to the faith I have of him in my 
understanding. If now I were justified by that faith which knows God to 
be thus excellent, I should be justified by sanctifying faith, by faith as it is 
sanctification; or, if you will, by sanctification itself: for, I say, sanctifi- 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. C01 

cation is nothing else but faith in the mind, having suitable affections 
thereunto in the whole heart. Therefore, though justifying faith sanctifies 
most of all faith else, anil all other faith, though never so spiritual, would 
not sanctify without it, because it alone lets Christ and God into the heart, 
that doth sanctify me, and justify me too, yet still, I say, faith no way doth 
justify but as it lays hold upon God as justifying, and Jesus Christ, whose 
righteousness is justification to us. Add to this to confirm it, that in 
Adam acts of trust in God were required, as well as acts of love (which, 
whether they had a supernatural revelation for their rise or no is not mate- 
rial to this point), but yet Adam's faith had not justification by grace, and 
by imputation for its object. He indeed was justified by such acts of faith 
(as being acts of the image of God in him), as well as by acts of love, and 
i } contra (as the papists speak) ; but to have such an act singled out, in 
respect and relation to such an object, this is proper and peculiar to, and 
is the very pith and marrow of the covenant of grace, namely, grace justi- 
fying us by imputation, and this was the way to make it a distinct cove- 
nant from that of Adam's ; whereas, if by general faith on other objects, 
or upon any other grounds or promises, we were justified, it would have 
been the same way, and the same faith for act and object that Adam was 
justified by. 

I should add one reason more, and that is this, it agrees with the nature 
of faith, which is a trusting; but I will not enlarge further upon this, but 
only give you a use or two. 

Use 1. By this yon may have a very great light to distinguish things. 
It is an excellent thing to consider the several w T ays of conversion, as 
popish spirits do lay it forth, and as the divines who are of the reformed 
churches, opposite to them, do lay it out. Eead a popish divine, and see 
how he will describe conversion, and the work of God in saving a man; he 
will tell you that he saw his sinfulness, that he was contrite under it, 
humbled under the sight of it, that he feareth God, hateth sin, upon the 
sight of the evil of it, and begins to have good purposes. There are seven 
dispositions the papists have (the Council of Trent hath them), which they 
make conversion to consist in ; and then what do they say when a man 
hath all these dispositions in him ? Through their general faith, believing 
the threatenings of God, believing the goodness of God, and the evil of 
sin, &c, then a man hath holiness infused into him by the sacrament, 
when he goes to it, being thus prepared by his own dispositions, and -so 
here is the man converted ; thus they tell the story of it, but they leave 
clearly out special faith in Jesus Christ, and upon God for justification, 
and upon his free grace, and so all their justification is merely by what is 
wrought in themselves. And, my brethren, here is much of the ordinary 
conversion of protestants described in this : many men that profess the 
Lord Jesus Christ, if you go down into their hearts, you shall find no treating 
with God in the way of his free grace, or with the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
the matter of their righteousness, to be justified through his blood, and to 
apprehend it through special faith. 

Use 2. It doth teach us what we should especially live by, by what 
faith and upon what object we should especially live ; we should live upon 
that faith which is exercised upon the free grace of God, which is ordained 
to be the special object of our faith, and upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
upon his righteousness. Every man, you know, hath three lives in him : he 
hath the life of reason, which the reasonable soul liveth ; and he hath the 
life of sense, wdiich is the life that a beast liveth ; and he hath the life of a 
plant. If I may make comparison, as the life of reason is the eminent life 



302 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK I. 

of a man, which a man as a man leadeth ; and if you exhort a man to live 
as a man, you would exhort him to live the life of reason in a more eminent 
manner, though he exercise other acts of life too ; so it is here, the eminent 
act of faith is to live upon the free grace of God in Christ, to live upon the 
righteousness of God revealed in the gospel, revealed from faith to faith, 
for by faith the just do live, Rom. i. 17. Now though to live upon all 
other truths else, and to act them and digest them, is also a living by faith ; 
so the apostle speaks in Heb. x. 39 ; yet notwithstanding comparatively 
this life is but as if a man should cease to live the life of reason, which is 
proper to a man as a man, and live only the life which is common to other 
creatures. The life of a Christian lieth especially in living by faith on 
Christ, by ' the faith which is on him,' as the Scripture calls it ; that is, 
the nobleness of his spirit as he is a Christian ; and if there were no more 
ends of it but only this, that it is the most precious life, it should draw up 
your hearts to live this life of special faith. In 2 Peter i. 1 saith the apostle, 
' To them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteous- 
ness of our Saviour Jesus Christ.' What is the reason that the faith of all 
believers is called alike precious ? Because it is pitched upon the right- 
eousness of Jesus Christ, which righteousness being possessed by a weak 
believer, and made his own by believing, he hath the same precious faith 
the apostles had, the preciousness of it lying in this object. Hence, I say, 
all faith is alike precious ; but, if you come to other faith whereby you 
believe other truths, here indeed it is not alike precious faith. He that 
hath the strongest faith on the power of God, simply so considered, he hath 
a more precious faith than he that hath a weaker faith in that power. I 
allege it for this, that the preciousness of justifying faith lies as it is 
exercised upon this precious object Christ ; and therefore, if you would live 
that life of faith which is most precious, most so in God's esteem, most 
excellent in itself, live upon this Christ. 

Use 3. I might enlarge upon that by way of use which I hinted before, 
namely this, that you cannot believe heartily and strongly on anything else, 
but as your faith on this Christ and his righteousness receiveth increase. 
You cannot believe on God for temporal things, no, not for spiritual things, 
not for sanctification and making of you holy, further than your faith 
receiveth increases, and attaineth to more degrees in this thing, that it is 
more and more exercised upon Jesus Christ and upon God as justifying. 
But you will say, Alas, I believed that long ago, I am already assured that 
God doth justify me, and shall I now go and live upon that faith, as the 
great faith by which I must especially live ? Yes, certainly, for Abraham 
did so ; you have that great place in B,om iv. 3 for an instance of it. 
' Abraham,' saith he, ' believed God, and it was counted to him for right- 
eousness.' The words are taken out of Gen. xv. 6, Abraham had been 
assured of his justification long before ; in Gen. xii. 1, 2, &c, you shall 
see there God had blessed him, and he upon the faith of it had left his 
country, and God had assured him of his justification, given him as much 
assurance of it (for he spake to him personally face to face) as Christ did 
to the man to whom he said, ' Thy sins are forgiven thee ;' and yet 
Abraham he hath the promise often renewed to him, and his faith often 
renewed in it ; and that place which the apostle citeth to prove that he 
was justified by faith was not the first act of faith he put forth, but a 
faith he had many years afore, and this is the faith Abraham lived 
upon. When he had Canaan promised him, he had recourse to that God 
that justifieth, and then laid hold upon the promise of Canaan ; when 
Isaac was promised, he had recourse to that promise in which it was said, 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 303 

1 In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,' Gen. xii. 8. 
Still he renewed his faith upon the special mercy of God, and upon Jesus 
Christ ; and he did this again and again, and it was his element, his orb, 
his sphere in which he moved ; and when any temporal promise was pro- 
pounded to him, he renewed his faith on this, and so believed that temporal 
promise. This should be that life of faith which we should live for our 
justification by God and by Christ ; it is the eminent thing of the gospel, 
which of all other God will have glorified, and therefore would have us live 
upon it. 

Use 4. And we may learn likewise from hence how to seek and obtain 
all other things : ' First seek the kingdom of God,' saitli Christ. What 
doth the kingdom of God consist in ? 'In righteousness, and peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost,' saith the apostle, Rom. xiv. 17 : that is, the right- 
eousness of Jesus Christ, whence peace ariseth, and joy in the Holy Ghost; 
seek after this, saith he, exercise faith upon this, and then all other pro- 
mises will come in upon you. Paul, though he had his belief for justifica- 
tion in Cbrist many years before, yet, saith he, ' I account all things but 
loss and dung.' He inured himself to cast away his own righteousness, 
and to wrap himself in Christ, he would still exercise a special faith ; ' I 
have,' saith he in Phil. iii. 8, 9, ' accounted all things loss, and do account 
them so, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own 
righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith ; ' so that, I 
say, he still renewed a special faith upon Christ, and upon the righteous- 
ness of Christ. If a man would have any other promise made good to him, 
this is the way to have it. You see how Christ taught Martha to do it, to 
believe on him, that she should not die, and then she would easily believe 
that her brother should be raised from the dead. It is special faith, and 
therefore we should in a special manner exercise it. So much for this 
subject, which I have, with as much brevity and clearness as I could, 
opened ; consider it now as a truth of very great moment, and which con- 
futeth many errors that run abroad in the world, not only in the hearts of 
popish divines, but protestants also. 



CHAPTER V. 

TJie acts of faith in the will. — The believing soul trusts in Christ alone for 
help. — That this confiding in Christ is the act of faith uJiich justifies. — 
The nature and properties of a true confidence in Christ. 

Having displayed to you the knowledge of faith as it is expressed to us 
by sight in the understanding, and having proved that a bare assent to, or 
a mere belief of, the truths apprehended by us, is not saving and justifying 
faith, but that a special act of faith on the mercies and free grace of God, 
and on Christ as a Saviour, is necessary, I will proceed on to those other 
acts of faith which are in the will (which is the next faculty), and which the 
heart puts forth toward Jesus Christ therein. 

1. As the soul sees the spiritual excellency and the glory that is in Jesus 
Christ, so the will doth set the highest value and esteem upon that excel- 
lency that is in him, a value and esteem far above what a man hath for all 
other things whatsoever ; and this is to believe. This you shall find in 
1 Peter ii., 4th and 6th verses compared: 'To whom coming, as unto a 
living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious. 
Wherefore it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief 



304 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

corDer stone, elect, and precious : and he that believeth on him shall not 
be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.' It is 
clear that the apostle here speaks of faith, and he makes the foundation of 
our believing on him to be seeing his preciousness ; and therefore in Isaiah 
xxviii. 16, which the apostle here quoteth, you have this stone's being a 
precious stone and believing on him both joined together: 'To him 
coming' (saith he, verse 4) ' as to a living stone, chosen of God, and pre- 
cious;' that is, you believe on him under the notion of seeing his excel- 
lency and his preciousness. And therefore the closure of all in the 7th 
verse is, ' Unto you which believe he is precious,' that is, you esteem him 
precious ; and it is spoken not as a consequent of faith, but as that which 
goes before faith, or is joined with it, and is requisite to it, for therefore 
the soul comes unto him because he is precious, as the 4th verse hath it, 
even under that notion. There are four things under the apprehension of 
which a man comes to Christ, as these words hold him forth: 1, as he is 
a stone that hath a foundation which the soul may build upon ; 2, as he is 
a living stone, and a fountain of life unto all that believe on him ; 3, as he 
is the only appointed means by the Father, 'chosen of God;' 4, as he is 
precious, which is the thing I cite it for, both precious in himself and in 
all that he brings with him. In Mat. xiii. 45, 46 you have a believer 
compared to a merchantman seeking goodly pearls; his miud is set, as all 
men's minds are, to find precious stones ; that is, to attain to that which 
he accounteth precious. Thus when the soul is first humbled for sin, it is 
taken off from seeing anything in the world that can help it ; and therefore 
it seeks after somewhat else. And what will it seek after? After that 
which is precious, after pearls, after graces (for such our graces are, which 
our souls are said to seek after), that will beautify him, and make him 
acceptable unto God, these indeed are pearls, and goodly pearls. Yea, 
but sai:h the text, he found one pearl of great price, so verse 46, a pearl 
that was more excellent than all, and he went and sold all that he had, 
sold away all his graces (for that is the meaning), he accounted all, even 
grace itself, to be loss and dung. He put no value or price upon these 
pearls ; but if his graces may serve to honour this one pearl, and that this 
may be set so in them all, that they all may be obscured, he cares not, so 
precious is Christ unto him. So you have it likewise in Paul, in Philip, 
iii. 8: 'I have accounted all things loss for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ ; yea,' saith he, ' I do account them dung.' I have done 
so heretofore, when I was first turned to God, and I am of the very 
same mind to this day ; I do account them so to this very hour. This is 
the first thing in believing on Christ, which is an act of the will. He that 
believeth on him, unto him Christ is precious. 

2. He that believeth on Christ, God stampeth upon that man's will, upon 
his heart, an instinct after Jesus Christ, and after mystical union with him, 
so as he can never be quiet without him. This you have in John vi. 44, 
45 : 'No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, 
draw him. It is written in the prophets, that they shall be all taught of 
God : every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, 
cometh unto me;' that is, believeth on me. Now what is the teaching, the 
effectual teaching, that the Father exerts upon the spirit of a man, when he 
draws him to Christ Jesus, and sets him on work upon coming to him and 
seeking of him ? Why it is this, God doth plant in that man an impression, 
an instinct (what shall I call it ?) after Jesus Christ, so that nothing will 
satisfy him but Christ. That which is here called teaching, is elsewhere 
put for a natural instinct, such an instinct as a man hath after a thing which 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 305 

he can never be quiet without, such as parents have to their children. This 
teaching that the Holy Ghost (I will not say only aims at, but) eminently 
aims at here, I interpret by that in 1 Thes. iv. {), * As touching brotherly 
love, ye need not that I write unto you.' It is not a teaching from words 
to love one another, ' for,' saith he, ' ye yourselves are taught of God to 
love one another.' It is an impression stamped upon one saint to love 
another saint ; there is, as it were, a natural instinct upon their spirits to 
do so. So saith Christ, ' All that come to me, they are taught of God ;' 
i.e., their coming to Christ is from another thing than merely a teaching of 
them by way of knowledge : it is putting an impression and stamp upon 
their will, that they can never be quiet till they come to Christ, and this is 
called a drawing of the Father. It is such an instinct as God put into the 
beasts that came to the ark, for what guided these poor creatures to the 
ark, that they should come running by couples thither ? Why, the Lord 
made an impression upon their fancies, and upon that which is answerable 
to our affections, that they were never quiet till they came thither ; and 
thither the poor creatures must come for refuge. Such an instinct doth 
God put upon the heai't of a believer, a marriage affection, call it what you 
will, an instinct of mystical union with Christ. The angels they know 
Christ, and they see his excellency, and they value him, but they have not 
this marriage affection to him that the soul of a believer hath ; they have 
an affection of love and of fear of him as a Lord, but they have not that 
affection to him as to a husband. Such an instinct as this doth the Holy 
Ghost put into the heart of all those whom he doth work upon. We see 
it in other creatures. That I may express it by way of similitude, take a 
dog : when he is sick, there is a grass he runs to, and he doth it by an 
instinct ; this is that which must cure me, saith he : not that*he doth of 
himself make such inference, but there is an impression stamped upon the 
nature of that creature by God, whereby he is taught of God to do so. 
And so the hart, as some say, when it is struck, it presently runs to the 
herb called dictamnus, and is never quiet till it do so ; it is taught of God 
to do it. So is a man taught of God to go to Jesus Christ. Certainly it 
is the main meaning (I will not exclude others), and the most eminent, of 
that place, that he that believeth on Jesus Christ, he is thus taught of God. 
The angels they are taken with the glory of Christ, and are affected with it ; 
but a believer hath an affection after mystical union with him. 

3. The soul that hath thus an instinct after Christ, and so cometh to 
him, looks up to him for help, with a confinement to him alone. I will 
have it from you, saith the soul, or from none else. This you have in Isa. 
xlv. 21, 22 : ' There is no God else besides me, a just God and a Saviour. 
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, 
and there is none else.' Who is this God here ? What person ? It is 
clearly the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; for if you 
look into Kom. xiv. 11 and Philip, ii. 10, you shall find there this place 
quoted, to prove that Jesus Christ is Lord both of quick and dead, and that 
he shall come to judgment. And it is evident too to be Jesus Christ by 
this, because he speaks of all the ends of the earth looking unto him ; for 
when Christ came, he brought salvation and the gospel to be preached to 
all the ends of the earth. The Jews they looked upon God the Father ; 
but when Christ came, he drew the eyes of all the ends of the earth unto 
him. Now, saith he, ' look unto me.' What is faith ? Faith is a casting 
up of the eye unto Jesus Christ for help, as they did upon the brazen 
serpent ; they saw other things besides, but with another eye, whenas they 
looked upon that as the only remedy. So when the soul hath seen Christ, 

VOL. VIII. u 



806 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [PAKT II. BOOK I. 

seen his excellency, and hath an instinct after him, and doth but open his 
eye, nay, his eyelids, towards Christ, the meaning of that look is, I will 
have help from you, and only from you ; and here is a glance or cast of 
faith. And as it is a looking unto Christ, so it is a looking with a confine- 
ment to him alone. This is clear out of the text : 'lama Saviour,' saith 
he, ' and there is none besides me ; ' therefore so look unto me, as to con- 
fine yourselves to me alone. The soul of man would seek an hundred ways, 
when it is humbled for sin, to relieve itself; but now to have all these holes 
that a man would run unto stopped, and to be confined alone unto one, 
when God hath wrought this in the heart too, there is a great step and 
proceeding on in the work of faith. As in taking of God to be a man's 
God, he takes him so to be his chiefest good, as he is divorced from all 
things else, with a confinement of all his expectations of happiness only 
from him — ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ?' saith David, Ps. lxxiii. 25 ; 
— so in taking Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, as Paul resolved to know 
nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified, so the heart resolveth too, 
when it goes about to believe in earnest, and it is stopped up from all ways 
of relief else. "When Paul (that I may make the comparison) was surrounded 
with his lusts, in Rom. vii. 24 saith he, ' Oh wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me ? ' When he spake that speech, he was as a man that 
looked round about him, and saw no help, and so he cries out, ' Who shall 
deliver me ?' At last he spies out Jesus Christ : ' I thank God, through 
Jesus Christ my Lord,' saith he. And so doth the soul ; as in sanctifica- 
tion, so in justification, it looks about it, sees help in nothing, and betakes 
itself alone unto the Lord Jesus. 

Jesus Christ he is more, far more jealous of your faith than of your love. 
He will give you leave to love subordinately other things besides himself, 
and with himself, but he will not give you leave to believe on any, to look 
for help from any but from him. This faith is reserved for him alone. 
The eye of a man that believeth is shut up to all things either in his own 
heart, or whatsoever else there is that may help him, and his eyes are only 
upon Christ, as the phrase is in 2 Chron. xx. 12. When a man comes to 
be saved by Christ, he doth Christ this honour, that he resolves to have 
peace and quietness, and satisfaction and salvation, and all only in, and 
from, and by Christ. As a man, when he would honour a physician whom 
he trusteth, saith be, I will take physic of none else but of you ; I will die 
rather; so, saith the soul to honour Cbrist, you alone shall save me; 
• Asshur shall not save us,' as it is Hos. xiv. 3. ' And truly in vain is 
salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains,' 
Jer. iii. 23. They used to worship upon their mountains, therefore now 
to look to the mountains for help was to look to their duties, to their wor- 
ship, to their sacrifices for help ; but now they renounced all this, and fixed 
on God alone, ' in whom the fatherless find mercy.' The soul, when it is 
helpless, when it is graceless, when it is fatherless, then it resolves to look 
to none else but unto Jesus Christ for help. This, I say, is a great pro- 
ceeding in faith also, to resolve thus to have help from none else, and to 
confine itself only to Christ ; for the soul to say, I will so" throw myself 
upon him, and upon that free" love in him, that, if he will not save me, I 
will be lost for ever. Thus the heart of a believer doth look to him as the 
only Saviour, and as such an one that ' there is none else besides him.' 
And this is the third act of the will. 

4. As a man thus looks to Jesus Christ for help, and confines himself 
unto him alone, so he then comes to him. This you have here in this 
John vi. ver. 37, ' All that the Father giveth unto me shall come to me, 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 307 

and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' The soul goes out 
of itself naked, a naked soul, to naked Christ, empty, and stripped of all 
things, and comes unto Christ, and deals and treats with him about ever- 
lasting salvation. You have faith also expressed under this notion in Heb. 
vii. 25, ' He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by 
him.' And the like is in 1 Pet. ii. 3, • Unto whom coming, as unto a 
living stone.' The Holy Ghost hath on purpose, in a gracious manner, 
variously expressed faith to us, because the apprehensions that souls have 
of their own way of believing is various. Some souls cannot say they have 
received Christ, but they can say they have looked up to him, and confined 
all their expectations to him, and they have come to him, &c. Now, when 
the soul comes to Christ, what is the business and errand that the soul 
hath? for one comes to none but he hath some business, some errand with 
him. See how Christ himself expresseth the errand and aim of the soul 
in coming to him, John v. 40, • Ye will not come to me, that ye might 
have life.' This is the errand of the soul, incomes to Christ, that it may 
have life from him. He doth not only express there what is the consequent 
of the soul's coming to him, namely, that it might have life as the con- 
sequent of its coming, as that which he will bestow, but that which is the 
aim, the errand, and business that faith hath with Jesus Christ; therefore, 
Heb. vi. 18, we are said to have fled unto him, fled to him as unto a city 
of refuge. Now what was the aim, and business, and errand that a poor 
murderer had that fled to the city of refuge ? He came thither, with all 
might and main, to be let in there, that he might have succour and. help, 
and that he might be safe ; and when the high priest died, he was delivered. 
So the soul comes unto Christ for refuge, comes unto him that he may 
have life. We have it to the same purpose expressed Gal. ii. 16; speaking 
there of the faith of all the apostles, saith he, ' Even we who are Jews by 
nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,' we apostles, ' knowing that a man 
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; 
even we,' saith he, ' have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be jus- 
tified by the faith of Christ.' How doth he express faith? He expresseth 
it by this — a coming unto, or a believing in Jesus Christ, that we may be 
justified, that we might have life; this being the aim, and errand, and 
business the soul hath with Christ in its coming to him. Here, now, lies 
that act of faith (if it be a spiritual act, if it be joined with that spiritual 
sight I mentioned before), it is not that we believe that Jesus Christ did 
justify us, and had justified us, but we believe that he may justify us. 
When the apostles first believed, this was not the act of faith they put 
forth, that they were justified, but ' we have believed,' saith he, ' that we 
might be justified.' So that the aim and errand the soul hath with Christ 
in coming to him is, that it might have life, and accordingly it comes unto 
him. 

5. The soul's coming unto Jesus Christ, and treating for salvation with 
him, doth grow up to a believing on him, to a resting on him, to a 
trusting in him for it. I shall not need to give you many scriptures to 
prove that this act of trust is the great and eminent act that is in faith, 
and that upon which God doth rather pronounce and pass the sentence of 
justification upon a man than any other. The text hath it here, and you 
shall find it almost everywhere, that it is called believing on him. Some 
would place that great act of faith whereby we are justified in believing 
the thing, in believing him to be the Son of God, and a Saviour. I con- 
fess it is a great act of faith, but that is only the act of the understanding 
whereby we see and know him, which I have opened before; but the 



308 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK I. 

eminent and the principal act of the will of a man (and he must believe 
with his whole heart) is trust, is believing on him : 1 Pet. ii. 6, ' Behold, I 
lay in Sion a chief corner stone : he that believeth on him shall not be 
ashamed.' And you have the like again in Rom. ix. 33. You shall hardly 
have a place which, usually, men allege to prove that all the act of faith 
as justifying lies in believing the thing, but immediately after follows this 
phrase, ' believing on him,' on purpose to shew that the bare belief of the 
thing is not the only act of faith, as some would have it to be. As, for 
instance, in 1 John v. 4, this is made the great act of faith there, ' This is 
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' And what is the 
faith? 'He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.' One would 
think now that the apostle would make all believing to lie in believing the 
thing, in believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and accordingly is 
this place cited by some; but mark what he saith at the 10th verse, ' He 
that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself;' there is 
believing on him too mentioned. Another place that is cited is in Rom. 
x. 9, ' If thou believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved.' Here now the faith that saveth us is called believing 
the thing, namely, ' that God hath raised Christ from the dead ;' but if you 
read a little on, you shall find that believing on him cometh in the 11th 
verse, ' The Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be 
ashamed;' so that, indeed, the eminent act of faith in the will is this trust- 
ing, is this believing on him. It is called rolling of a man's self upon 
him, leaving, committing, or betaking a man's self to him, as Ps. x. 14. 
It is the Old Testament expression, but it rightly expresseth the nature of 
faith. 

There have been some that would make the act of faith in the will to be 
a cleaving unto Christ for his excellencies. The truth is, that is nothing 
but love, it is not faith ; but that act of the will, which is properly faith, 
answers unto Christ as a Saviour, and as a means of salvation appointed by 
God. Now go, take Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and as a means of salvation 
appointed by God, it is not love answereth to that in Christ, but it is a 
trust and believing on him. It is not a cleaving unto Jesus Christ for his 
excellencies, that is that proper act of faith which we call justifying, but it is 
that act of the will which hath relation unto him as a Saviour, and as the 
means of salvation ; and the proper act that answereth to that, is trust and 
confidence. Assuredly, God hath singled out that to be the eminent act of 
justifying faith, which is proper to the elect of mankind, in whom he works 
faith in ; now, to cleave unto Jesus Christ for the excellencies that are in him, 
to see him spiritually, and to love Christ upon the sight of him, and to value 
him, and to prize and esteem him (all these that I have named before), are 
all in the good angels, that yet have not faith ; they believe that Jesus Christ 
is, for they see him every day, and they see the grace that is in him more 
than we do, and are taken with it more than we are, they likewise hear us 
preach, and attend our sermons, and pry into the things delivered, and 
they know all the truths about Christ as well as we. If God therefore 
should have made these to be those proper acts of faith, they would have 
been such acts as are common to the good angels, and therefore he hath 
singled out rather that to be the act of faith justifying, which is proper and 
peculiar to the elect sons of God ; and what is that ? It is believing on 
him. The angels they do not believe on him as a Saviour and Redeemer, 
ihey have not this act of trust and confidence, they do not come unto him, 
or rely on him for salvation, therefore, I say, God hath singled out this 
believing on him as the eminent act of faith justifying : ' He that seeth the 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 



309 



Son, and belioveth on him,' saitk Christ, John vi. 40, and in John xiv. 1, 
' If you believe in God, believe also in me ;' and so in a multitude of places 
else. And there is a great deal of reason that this act of faith should be 
pitched upon, to be the eminent act upon which God justifies us. For, 

(1.) It is an act that is competent to all estates of a Christian, while he is 
here below. When the soul is in temptation, when a man comes to die, 
when he first believes, let him be in what condition he will, this act of 
trusting in God is that act which is common to all believers in all estates. 
It is most reason and fit therefore, that this act of faith should be pitched 
upon as the eminent act in our justification. If assurance that Jesus Christ 
is mine had been to be it, though many of the saints have it, yet they have 
it not always ; when they first began to believe, even the apostles themselves 
came unto Christ that they might be justified, and so it was not believing 
that they were justified. But now, let the saints be in the heaviest deser- 
tion that can be, let them be in never so much darkness, in never so great 
temptation, either when they first believe, or when they come to die, or at 
any time in all their lives, still, whether they have assurance of the love of 
God, or not assurance, yet (as the psalmist saith, Ps. lxii. 8) they ' trust 
in God at all times ;' and the soul still comes to Christ and relies on him. 
Therefore, I say, there was the greatest reason in the world, that of all acts 
else this should'be pitched upon. The first act of faith cannot be assurance, 
for the thing must be made mine, before I can believe it is mine ; and 
afterward temptation comes, and overthrows a man's assurance, but it never 
overthrows a man's believing on Christ ; since this is that anchor that tides 
it out all a man's life, that cable that bears the stress in all storms, as well 
as in the fair weather, it is reason that to it the act of justification should 
be attributed. Now let the ship be in what storm it will, it is this that 
holds it, this is the cable, this act of our believing on him. You shall find 
that you can bottom your heart on God, and on Christ, when you cannot 
believe that he is your God and your Saviour. 

(2.) Of all acts of faith, this of pure trust doth honour God most, and hath 
indeed more of faith in it. The purer the trust is, the greater the trust is ; 
and the greater the trust is, the greater the faith is ; and the greater the 
faith, the greater honour comes unto God. The end why God hath 
ordained faith is, that his free grace might be glorified ; now his free grace 
is glorified by no act of faith more than by this of pure trusting in him. 
In Rom. iv. 20, where Abraham's faith is set out to us, it is set out by 
this, that ' he gave glory to God.' You do not honour God so much with 
your love, you do not honour him so much by being assured of his love, as 
you do by trusting in his love. It magnifies the sovereignty of God, which 
God aims at to magnify in our salvation, it leaves the soul at God's feet, 
for that is the posture of the soul, when it says, Here I am, and I will trust 
in thee alone ; it magnifies the faithfulness and fidelity of God, and faith- 
fulness is that attribute which, in one that makes a promise, is the chief 
thing he aims at. Now faith takes hold of Christ through a promise, there- 
fore it is a grace suited and fitted to magnify the faithfulness of God in 
making this promise ; and so there is nothing that doth glorify the faithful- 
ness of God more than believing on him. If a man have assurance, he 
doth glorify God in a way of rejoicing, in a way of triumphing, in a way of 
thankfulness, but pure trust doth another way glorify God, it glorifies God 
in a way of obedience. I do shew as much admiration and esteem of a 
man, if I am sueing to him for his friendship, and depend upon him, and 
do all acts I do in such dependence, as I do by acts of requital and thank- 
fulness when I am assured he is my friend ; and so it is here, and therefore 



310 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

now bath'God chosen out this act of trust and confidence, believing on him, 
as John vi. 40, ' He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him.' I shall 
now assign a property or two of this trust and confidence, that I may the 
more fully explain it. And, 

[l.J This confidence in God is to trust perfectly upon him ; that is, wholly 
and entirely. I use the Scripture phrase, which you have in 1 Pet. i. 13, 
and I shall thereby open a scripture to you, which (as I take it) our trans- 
lation hath not rightly rendered, and I find very learned interpreters of the 
same judgment ; he exhorts them there to trust perfectly in the grace that 
hath been brought to them, through the revelation of Jesus Christ. We 
read it, ' hope to the end ; ' look in your margins, the Greek is, ' hope 
perfectly. ' ' Hope perfectly,' saith he, ' on the grace that is brought;' for 
so it is in the original, ^ggo/xlvjjv, and not, that is to be brought, as we 
translate it. Hope and trust in the Scripture are usually put for one and 
the same, as Job xiii. 15, ' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;' it 
is, ' I will hope in him ' ; and many other places might be given. Now, saith 
the apostle Peter, « trust perfectly, or entirely, on the grace that is brought 
in the revelation of Jesus Christ ; ' it is not only said to be the revelation 
of Christ, which shall be at latter day, but it is a revelation of Christ 
which we have now under the gospel. The gospel is said to be the reve- 
lation of Jesus Cbrist, and in the revelation of the gospel and of Christ is 
the grace of God made known to us. I shall not need to heap up places 
to shew you that by the revelation of Jesus Christ is meant the gospel ; in 
Rom. xvi. 25, you have the word so used : ' The preaching of Jesus Christ, 
according to the revelation of the mystery,' &c. You have the like in Gal. 
i. 12, where Paul, speaking of his knowing the gospel, he useth the very 
same phrase: ' I was taught,' saith he, ' by the revelation of Jesus Christ;' 
and ver. 16, ' It pleased God to reveal his Son in me ;' and so in other 
places. That which I cited the text in 1 Peter i. 13 for is, that he saith, 
1 Trust perfectly upon this grace, which is brought or tendered to us ' (and 
to trust upon free grace and Christ is all one ; the gospel reveals nothing 
for matter of confidence to us, but the free grace of God, and Christ him- 
self). Now when he saith, Trust perfectly upon it, what is his meaning ? 
It is this: he would have you to do it entirely, both for subject and object, 
as I may so express it ; he would have all in you to put this , trust and 
confidence in him, to believe on him with the whole heart ;tand he urgeth 
this exhortation, because the soul hath a great deal within itself that doth 
not come forth to trust in Christ ; for though all in a man believes in this 
sense, that there is never a faculty but goes out to Jesus Christ, especially the 
will, yet there is a great deal of infidelity still remaining, and so a man cannot 
trust perfectly in this life. As for subject, take the subject of confidence, that 
is, all that is in a man doth not trust perfectly and entirely without doubting 
in the grace brought by Jesus Christ ; but take the object, and so even the 
meanest believer may trust, and doth trust perfectly, in that grace which is 
brought to light in the gospel by Jesus Christ ; that is, he relies upon 
nothing else, he entirely, and wholly, and fully, and with the whole will, 
doth lean upon our Lord and Saviour Christ, and upon nothing else ; upon 
nothing in himself, and upon nothing in the world else, but upon that 
which revealeth grace, and Jesus Christ unto him ; no, he relies not 
upon the promises further than they have the grace of God and Jesus 
Christ as the subject of them. And this is the property of all true faith, 
that it doth trust perfectly in that grace that is in God, and in our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. As now when the soul doth magnify and 
glorify God as the great God, it doth do it perfectly and entirely in this 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 311 

sense, that it sees how great a God ho is, and that there is none besides 
him so to be honoured and glorified. It falls short indeed of honouring 
him perfectly ; as for the subject, that is, all in a man cannot do it ; but 
yet, saith he, I see that God requires all that is in me to glorify him, 
therefore I will glorify him alone, and thus entirely glorifies the, object ; 
and so in this sense doth the soul trust perfectly in the grace that is revealed 
in the gospel. 

[2.] The soul doth trust Jesus Christ with all and for all. I will put 
them both together ; with all it hath, or ever shall have, and for all it ever 
looks for. It doth trust Jesus Christ with all, even as in Gen. xxxix. 6 
we read that Potiphar trusted Joseph ; — I bring it but for an allusion, to 
shew what confidence he had in Joseph, and what ours should be in Christ 
— the text saith, that ' He left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he 
knew not aught he had, save the bread which he did eat.' Now if you 
come to believe on Christ you must thus put your trust in him, thus believe 
on him, thus leave yourselves, and all you have and are, with him, and at 
his disposal, and at his service ; even as if you should out yourselves of 
your estate, and put it all into another man's hands, and be at his finding 
for ever ; so Paul in 2 Tim. i. 12 : ' For the which cause,' saith he, ' I 
suffer these things : nevertheless I am not ashamed ; for I know whom I 
have believed, that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him 
against that day.' What did Paul do when he came to believe ? Saith 
he, I had a little righteousness, and I flung it all away, I resolved that I 
would never trust in it ; I had learning, and knowledge, and parts, and I 
threw it all away, I gave it all up to Christ, to be at his dispose. He took 
Jesus Christ upon those terms, to give up all to him ; and, saith he, For 
the which cause I suffer these things, I do trust him beforehand, I have 
committed to him all I am and have, I have not my reward yet, but I trust 
him, and he goes upon trust with him ; he beforehand hath put me upon 
a great many sufferings, and for this cause I suffer all these things, because 
I know whom I have believed. If Christ now should fail, Paul he had 
been the most befooled man that ever was, he had missed of all the happi- 
ness he should have in this world ; for usually they that believe in Christ, 
they are of all men most miserable in respect of the world ; but mark it, 
' Nevertheless,' saith he, ' I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have 
trusted.' When a man believes he puts off all to Christ, and betakes him- 
self to him, and to what he shall do for him, and if Christ should fail this 
man of his trust, the poor creature would be the veriest fool that ever was ; 
but I know I shall not be ashamed, saith Paul ; and in relation to this doth 
the Scripture often use this word: ' He that believeth shall not be ashamed.' 
Isa. xxviii. 16. Oftentimes a man trusteth God for the salvation of his 
sonl, and goes on so to do, and doth not of a long while know that God 
hath received him ; he hath not received an earnest- penny a long while, 
not of what he trusted God for : for joy in the Holy Ghost is the reward 
of faith. Now to stand this out of purse for many years, before a man 
receives a penny, this is a great and mighty trust, yet thus oftentimes the 
soul doth ; to be sure at first it doth so. A man parts with all, leaves all 
with Jesus Christ, betakes himself clearly and entirely to him, and what- 
soever he is or can be in this world, he leaves it with him ; and to be dis- 
posed of according to the directions that he shall give to his spirit and 
conscience for evermore. I expressed it before by that of Potiphar to 
Joseph, but there is a more lively expression of it, and that in a way of 
faith, though not upon Christ as justifying, yet it was drawn out of that 
faith which also doth justify ; the instance is in that poor widow of Zare- 



312 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

phath, in 1 Kings xvii. You know she had hut so much meal in a harrel, and 
oil in a cruse, as would make a cake for herself and her child ; and behold, 
saith she, ver. 12, ' I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress 
it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.' What saith Elijah to 
her ? • Fear not ; go and do as thou hast said : but make me thereof a 
little cake first, and bring it unto me.' Alas ! it would make but a little 
cake in all, for it was but a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruse, 
even little enough all of it to serve Elijah himself; yea, but, saith he, 
make me a cake first. This woman had need have a great deal of confidence 
in the prophet's words, that there should be meal and oil multiplied for her 
and her son, after Elijah had done ; she might have thought that the 
prophet, as a man half- starved, had come to put a trick upon her, to get 
away that little provision she had. Let me be served first, saith he ; she 
went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and made a cake for him 
first, and then you see the oil and meal increased, but first God would 
have her trust the prophet. Even thus doth God and Jesus Christ 
deal with us ; when we come to believe on him, he will have us to trust 
him first, and put over all to him ; and to do so is to trust perfectly. 

God himself did betrust us all with Jesus Christ, and he was faithful to 
us, and Jesus Cbrist trusted all with God. How many millions of souls 
were to save after Christ died ! How many thousands are to come yet under 
the New Testament ! Christ died afore these are saved, he trusted his 
Father with them, and God the Father trusted him too, for he saved I 
know not how many thousand souls afore Christ died. The like he re- 
quires of us ; ' Make me the cake first,' saith he, and so the soul doth put 
over all nakedly and entirely unto Jesus Christ, when it comes to trust 
upon him ; it is to throw a man's self out of all possibilities of what he 
may be in this world. Indeed, a man must do so, if he take up Jesus 
Christ in earnest, for he knows not what Christ will call him unto, or what 
truth he will have him hold forth ; now for the soul to come nakedly thus, 
and to give itself up to Jesus Christ, and to do this beforehand oftentimes, 
when he doth not know whether Christ will save him or no ; to do this 
first, as the poor widow did to the prophet, this is a great matter. For a 
man to venture to sea, without either sail, or oar, or mast, or anything 
of his own, and to be wafted by free grace, and Jesus Christ, to commit 
himself to those winds that shall blow from him, and from that promise he 
makes, this is the great trust, and this the soul doth when it comes to Christ. 

And as it trusts him with all, so it trusts bim for all ; and all the happiness 
it looks for, is to be at Christ's finding for evermore ; nay, to be so at his 
finding, that not only its comfort shall be from him, but all its strength to 
perform any duty shall be all from him, so as not to do a duty without 
him, no, not to eternity, to receive all happiness from him, and all comfort 
from him. Nature, pure nature was never brought up to tbis, it did not 
know what it meant. Adam was not called in this way to trust on God, 
he had a stock of grace communicated to him, which lay in the use and 
exercise of his own free will. Now, saith nature, therefore I will see a 
stock before I trust, give me my portion of goods, as the prodigal said ; I 
will see something in myself, by which I may be able to do this, or to do 
that, I will see the money in my purse, before I set a-work upon this or 
that ; this naturally the soul doth. But now when the soul comes to trust 
on Christ, it doth not so, it trusts him for all, for all grace here, and glory 
hereafter ; it believes now upon him, and trusts him, and knows not whether 
it shall be able to do it the next hour ; ' The life which I now live,' saith 
the apostle, ' I live by the faith of the Son of God ; and it is not I that 



Chap. V.j of justifying faith. 313 

live, but Christ that liveth in me,' Gal. ii. 20. And to do'this quietly, too, 
is an act of entire trust ; for when faith doth grow up a little, though it 
doth not grow up to assurance, yet it will grow up to the quieting of the 
heart thus, and that beforehand ; and when a man is able to say, "Whether 
I shall be saved by Christ I know not, yet I find abundance of ease and 
quietness by resting and trusting on him, this is a perfect confidence ; thus 
faith is expressed in Ps. xxxvii. 7 : (now as it is a trust in promises, so it 
is much more in Jesus Christ), ' Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for 
him,' and ' he that trusteth in me is at perfect peace.' And as it is in 
Lam. iii. 29, ' Put our mouths in the dust, if so be there may be hope.' 
Yea, a great act of this trust is to believe against hope, as it is said that 
Abraham did, in Rom. iv. 18. For the soul to cast away itself upon God, 
in such a pure trust as this is, that let God at any time throw it into any 
distress, so that he knows not what will become of himself, yet to be con- 
tent, and to submit to it, and quietly to leave himself with God, and with 
Christ, tbis, though it is hard, yet when faith doth get a little heart and 
strength, it doth this, being enabled by the power of God to do it. 

6. Sixthly, As the soul thus comes to Cbrist, and believeth on him, trusteth 
him with all and for all, so it abides by him, and will not stir away from 
him, in respect of waiting on him in his own way, both for the manifesta- 
tion of his grace, and love, and salvation, with submission and quietness. 
I shall not say, that every soul that believes, finds distinctly all and every 
one of these things in him ; I do not urge that, but I shall yet mention 
those that are in the hearts of believers, some one or other of them. And 
as this is as main a thing as any other, I shall open all the particulars of it. 

(1.) The soul abides by Christ, and there lies, as the man did at the pool 
of Bethesda, or as he did that did fly to the city of refuge, who durst not 
stir from thence for his life, for if he should be found out of that city of 
refuge, he was a dead man, and therefore he went thither to take up his 
dwelling there ; and this (as I said before) the apostle alludes to in Heb. 
vi. 18, when he speaks of faith : ' Having,' saith he, ' fled for refuge to lay 
hold upon the hope set before us.' In Acts xi. 23, it is said, that when 
' Barnabas came to Antioch, and had seen the grace of God, he exhorted 
them all, that with purpose of heart they would *go<fftiemv, cleave unto the 
Lord ;' that as they had come to him, and given up their souls to him, 
so they would abide by him, remain and continue with him, and not go 
away ; therefore you shall find in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the 
apostle opposeth to faith, departing from God. You have it first in chap, 
iii. verses 12 and 14, where he alludeth to the Israelites departing in their 
hearts and spirits from the guidance of that angel in the wilderness (which 
angel was Christ, as he shews in 1 Cor. x.), ' Take heed,' saith he, verse 
12, ' lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from 
the living God.' Do not you err in your hearts through unbelief, as they 
did; that angel from whom they departed is the living God, is Jesus 
Christ himself. And saith he, verse 14 (in which expression of his there 
is very much), ' we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning 
of our confidence stedfast unto the end.' It is clear that he speaks of 
faith ; the word vKoaraGig, which we translate confidence, is the same word 
that is used in Heb. xi. 1, ' Faith is the evidence, or the subsistence, of things 
not seen.' Now when he saith, we should ' hold the beginning of our con- 
fidence stedfast unto the end,' his meaning is, that as they came nakedly 
unto Christ for salvation, from him, and in him alone, — for when a man's 
soul first cometh to Christ, it is certain he doth so, for he is emptied of 
himself, — so they should continue waiting upon him, that tbey may be 



314 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

made partakers of him ; he mentions that, because the thing the soul aims 
at in believing, is to be made partaker of Christ ; seeing you did so at first, 
saith he, did you at first come nakedly unto him ? Continue to do so still, 
and to wait nakedly upon him ; and he gives this reason why they should 
do it : ' For,' saith he, ' he is the living God.' If you wait upon men, and 
wait long upon them, you think with yourselves, they are but men, whose 
breath is in their nostrils, therefore I may lose all my labour, if I wait 
long before they answer me in what I desire ; but, saith the apostle, wait 
upon Jesus Christ, for he is the living God ; if you should wait never so 
long upon him, he liveth in the end to answer you ; and this indeed, in 
Heb. x. 38, is called living by faith, in which place also the apostle oppo- 
seth unto faith departing from God : ' If any man,' saith he there, ' draw 
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him ; but we are of them that be- 
lieve to the saving of the soul.' Believing there, you see, is opposed to 
withdrawing from God. 

(2.) I added likewise, that believing is waiting on him in his own way, 
even as at the first we came nakedly unto Jesus Christ, at the first looking 
to nothing in ourselves (for so we did if we believed) ; and when the soul 
hath begun thus to close with Christ, and with him alone, it finds that 
Jesus Christ long defers before he manifesteth himself ; and it is apt there- 
upon, if not to depart, yet to desert from him, and to ease and help itself 
some other way than by waiting and believing on him. Now the apostle 
would have us still to exercise such acts of faith as we did at the beginning : 
' Hold the beginning of your confidence stedfast,' saith he, and still con- 
tinue to wait on him, and to cleave to him, and to believe on him. The 
Galatians, you know, were soon diverted (as the apostle tells them, chap. i. 
ver. 6) from the gospel they had received unto another gospel ; they had 
begun to believe in Christ, and in him alone, but afterwards they were 
diverted to works, and to what was in themselves, as the soul is apt to do 
too much. ' You did run well,' saith he, chap. v. ver. 7; 'who did hinder 
you ? ' ' This persuasion,' saith he, ver. 8, ' cometh not of him that 
calleth you.' I desire you, saith he, to consider when you were called, 
how you were drawn to believe on the Lord Jesus ; remember but the first 
work of faith, how nakedly without works, or any thing in yourselves, you 
came unto Jesus Christ ; you are now diverted, and fallen away from the 
grace of Christ, that is, from seeking salvation in a way of free grace ; do 
but now remember (as he said in another case, ' Piemember thy first love ') 
your first faith. Certainly this your new persuasion is not of him that 
called you. If this new way that you have taken up, which diverts you 
from Christ, had been the way, surely he that called you would have per- 
suaded you so at first when he drew your hearts to him. The apostle 
speaks clearly of the point of waiting ; for, saith he, speaking of himself 
and other believers that professed faith in Christ, and kept it up in the 
integrity of it, ' We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness 
by faith,' Gal. v. 5 ; you began to do so too, saith he, but you would not 
wait as you began, but j'ou would needs divert to ease yourselves to works, 
and to something in yourselves. But, saith he, I have confidence in you 
through the Lord, that you did close with Christ at first; you will ,be 
brought about again, for God will never let you rest in yourselves ; so he 
saith, ver. 10, ' I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be 
no otherwise minded' in the end. So that now to continue to wait thus 
upon the Lord Jesus, to wait though a man's eyes fail (for so David saith 
he waited, Ps. lxix. 3), is a special act of faith ; it is a very great subjec- 
tion of the creature for to wait nakedly upon God, and not to know, as 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 315 

oftentimes it falls out with many poor souls, what God will do with them. 
The business of salvation it is so great, and self-love is such a strong 
principle in a man, that a man had need have such a principle of faith to 
quietliim in the mean time ; for self-love is impatient in matters of great 
moment, and would be put out of doubt presently, and so the heart is apt 
to turn to itself and to works ; and it is apt also out of peevishness to say, 
as he did out of wickedness in 2 Kings vi. 33, ' What should I wait for the 
Lord any longer ? ' Tbe prophet Habakkuk, speaking of faith (for though 
he speaks it in the case of the Babylonish captivity, yet the apostle, citing 
that saying, applies it to the matter of justification and salvation, whereof 
the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity was a type), saith, chap. ii. 3, 
1 The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak,' 
and speak home to the heart, and be accomplished, and not lie, though it 
tarry, and therefore wait for it ; ' Because it will surely come, it will not 
tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him : but the 
just sball live by his faith,' ver. 4. This text the apostle cites in Heb. 
x. 35 : ' Cast not away your confidence,' saith he, 'for yet a little while, and 
he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now, the just shall live 
by faith.' It is an allusion to these very words of the prophet. 

(3.) I mentioned also that the soul waits thus upon Jesus Christ with 
submission and quietness. A man doth not know how his soul may be put 
to it, and sometimes it is put to it with manifold temptations, and often- 
times those temptations are answered with nothing but submissions. 
Certainly submission unto God is the clearest answer of all other unto 
doubts or disquietness of spirit ; and whensoever a man arriveth there, he 
is always upon ground, and will cease floating. Such acts of faith as these 
doth God enable his servants sometimes to put forth ; for I do not mention 
only those that are simply and absolutely necessary to salvation, but those 
acts that the soul puts forth towards Christ in its treaty with him for sal- 
vation in some instance or other; in Lam. iii. 26, 29, the place I cited 
even now, where the prophet speaks of waiting, saith he, ' It is good that 
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 
He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 
He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so there may be hope.' In those 
eastern countries, the manner of those that did profess an absolute subjec- 
tion to another was to fall down at their feet and to kiss the dust, a3 
amongst the Turks they do to their emperors at this day. Now, saith he, 
thus should the soul wait upon God, put his mouth in the dust, if so be 
there may be hope ; not only wait when there is hope, but if there may 
be any hope, if there may be any supposition of hope, he is to wait 
upon God with putting his mouth in the dust. Faith it is ordained to 
glorify God his own way, and in glorifying of him to cause the heart to 
apply itself to him in the great business of salvation. It is said of 
Abraham in Piom. iv. 20, that ' he believed and gave glory to God.' Faith 
it is the great instrument of giving glory to God. Now, in the matter of 
salvation, what is most eminent in God? what is the flower of his glory 
in the way of justifying and saving a man ? It is the freedom of his grace. 
If it be grace, then it will be free : ' I will have mercy because I will have 
mercy, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,' Rom. ix. 15. 
Faith, then, it is also an instrument of glorifying even grace in all the way3 
of its freedom, according to all the advantages that free grace hath over us 
to glorify itself upon us, as it is free to accept us, or free to refuse us. For 
a man now to wait upon the Lord in the time of distress, and apply him- 
self thus to the freedom of his grace by faith with submission, this, I say, 



31G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

is the highest way of faith's glorifying that which is highest in God in the 
point of salvation, for a man to cast away himself thus into the freedom of 
the grace of God. Absolute submission God requires of no man ; that is, 
that men should be content to be damned, or the like ; but hypothetical 
submission in supposed cases is what God enableth his servants to perform 
to him ; that is, submission with ifs: ' If the Lord,' saith David in 2 Sam. 
xv. 26, ' say thus, I have no delight in thee ; behold, here am I, let him 
do to me as seemeth good unto him.' He spake it indeed in the point of 
a temporal business, or a business which concerned the service of God ; 
had it been in the case of his own salvation, it had been the highest acting 
of faith in the world. What he saith in that case, the soul too saith with 
an if; < Here I am, let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto him.' You 
know that saying of Job, chap. xiii. 15, ' Though he slay me, yet will I 
trust in him.' In this case, this same venture for salvation thus with sub- 
mission glorifies the freedom of the grace of God, and the freeness of the 
grace of Christ ; however, a man loseth not his end, for usually when a 
man begins to have such submissions appear in his spirit, God hath 
instantly done, and all doubts and temptations are by this answered, and 
so the heart is quieted, and indeed there is no objection beyond it. 

7. Seventhly, True genuine faith, in its coming to Christ for justification and 
pardon, righteousness, or whatever else, applies and fashions the heart to 
' the law of faith.' I use that phrase here, that Christ enableth the heart 
to apply itself in coming to Christ for all these, according to ' the law of 
faith,' for you have the same in Rom. iii. 26 in another case, but it is 
applicable to this. There you shall find that the apostle speaks of the 
law of faith, by which he saith works are excluded, and he argues thus : 
If a man believe in Christ for salvation at all, works must wholly be 
excluded, according to the law of faith, that is, according to the nature of 
faith; if it be true faith, and genuine, it is impossible, saith he, that 
works should have any mixture with it. It is such a phrase, as we say, 
the laws of friendship, that is, which a man must keep to, and which are 
essential to him, if he will be a true friend, and not feigned; so saith the 
apostle, if works be mingled with faith, it is against the law of faith, it 
overthrows the nature of faith. As a man saith, such a thing is against 
the law of arms, that is, when a man doth things contrary to the principle 
of arms, as when a man is treating, to use acts of hostility, so it is against 
the law of faith to mingle works with it. When he saith therefore works 
are excluded, he saith it is by the law of faith, by the law of the nature of 
faith, as I may express it; even as elsewhere, Rom. xi. 6, he saith, ' If it 
be of works, it is no more of grace;' for it is 'the law of grace to be grace 
only, and it will admit no works amongst it, and so it is the law of faith, 
or else it is no faith at all, if you come to Christ for salvation, to renounce 
works. Now, what the apostle saith of the law of faith, in that sense I 
shall make use of to the purpose that I have in hand, namely, this, that if 
it be true and genuine faith which a man comes with to Christ for salva- 
tion, then it will apply itself towards Christ, according to the necessary 
laws and nature of faith, and according to what by believing he seeks for 
at Christ's hands. Now, do but consider when the soul comes to Jesus 
Christ to believe, what is it that according to the law of nature in faith is 
necessary, that if you will believe, and believe in earnest, and believe 
honestly, the heart must do ? It is this, that whatsoever I would have 
from Christ, my heart doth apply itself suitably and answerably to Christ 
again, as a creature should do; whatsoever I would have Christ be to me, 
in my proportion I desire answerably and suitably to be to Christ again. 



Chap. VI. j of justifying faith. SI 7 

As for example, if I come to a man and desire him to be my friend, and I 
come on purpose to him for friendship, why now the law of friendship 
requireth friendship from me again; it is necessary, according to the law of 
friendship, that that should be the purpose and frame of the spirit of a 
man in so coming. So saith Solomon : Prov. xviii. 24, • A man that hath 
friends must shew himself friendly.' You read in Scripture (that I may 
yet explain this further) of a 'faith unfeigned;' as in 1 Tim. i. 5, un- 
feigned, without hypocrisy, without guile. You read likewise in Heb. x. 
22 of drawing nigh unto God with assurance of faith; you read likewiso 
there of a true heart : ' Let us draw nigh with a true heart, in full assur- 
ance of faith.' Now, it is not that truth of heart is itself that which God 
doth justify a man for, or that that hath any ingrediency (as not faith 
itself, not as a work) to justification ; yet notwithstanding it is that which 
doth naturally flow from believing, if a man believe truly and in earnest, 
and is so conjunct with it as it is an essential ingredient, even to faith its 
being an unfeigned faith, faith without hypocrisy, without guile. I observe 
that when the Scripture speaks of believing for justification, it doth not 
only speak of an uprightness of sanctification, but of an honesty, and 
uprightness, and unfeignedness in the act of faith itself. You have it in 
Hab. ii. 4, where he speaks of living by faith, he speaks of an upright 
soul; another man, saith he, that doth not believe, 'his soul is not upright 
in him.' And so in Psalm xxxii. 1, 2, ' Blessed is he whose transgression 
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the 
Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is not guile.' This 
very place of the psalmist the apostle quoteth in Bom. iv. 7, 8, to hold 
forth this great truth, that our justification before God doth lie and consist 
merely in God's not imputing sin to us, but the righteousness of the Lord 
Jesus, and so consists in nothing in us. And therefore, if you observe it, 
you shall find that he leaves out this sentence, ' and the man in whose 
spirit there is no guile.' Why ? Because it is not uprightness, or any- 
thing in us, that is any ingredient in our justification, and yet the prophet 
David hath it of the man who believeth thus for justification ; he is a man, 
saith he, in whose spirit there is no guile ; that is, he is sincere in the 
very point of believing for justification and blessedness, of which he there 
speaks. And it answers to those other phrases of 'faith unfeigned,' or 
faith without guile, and of ' drawing nigh with a true heart, in full assur- 
ance of faith.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

That where there is true and unfeigned faith, the soul is prevailed on to con- 
sent to give itself to Christ in all services and obedience. — That yet this 
choosing of Christ to be our King and Lord, and submitting to him accord- 
ingly, is not that act of faith which justifies a man. 

I will now explain what it is for a man to believe unfeignedly, or accord- 
ing to the very law and nature of faith : and I shall open it to you briefly. 

Thou comest to believe in Jesus Christ ; let me ask thee this question, 
What is it thou aimest at in thy coming to him ? what wouldest thou have 
from him ? what wouldest thou have with him ? what is thy intent, thy 
business with him ? The soul will say, I would have pardon of sin, and I 
believe on him for the forgiveness of my sins ; for ' blessed is the man 
whose sin is forgiven ;' [and forgiveness lies only in him. Why now, 



318 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

according to the law of faith, according to that ingenuity* and unfeignedness 
of faith, what will be the issue of it ? Thou wilt let fall all the weapons 
that are in thy hand against God presently. It floweth, I say, naturally, 
from the very law of believing. As, for example, if a traitor, having been 
a rebel against his prince, should come to him for his sovereign grace and 
favour, to pardon and forgive him, he comes to seek pardon of his prince, 
who may choose whether he will pardon him or no ; and then certainly 
the very law of his coming to him for grace, requireth (and requireth it 
naturally, and it cannot be otherwise) that this man should come nakedly, 
and come upon his knees, and lay aside all his hostility, and his weapons 
which he hath used against hrm. So it is likewise with the soul that comes 
to Jesus Christ for the pardon of sin ; it is against the law of faith to do 
otherwise, as truly as it is against the law of arms for a man in a treaty for 
peace to come and practise anyfact of hostility. This you shall find in the 
Scripture to be natural unto faith, and to flow from it as naturally as any 
thing can do, Hos. xiv. 2. There the prophet sets them a-work to seek 
by way of faith, mercy at the hands of God : ' Take with you words,' saith 
he, ' and turn to the Lord ; say unto him' (this now is the voice of faith), 
' Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously ' ; and, ver. 3, they coming 
thus unto God, say, ' Asshur shall not save us,' i. e., no creature shall help 
us, ' for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.' We look for help from thee 
alone, and we come to thee for grace ; take away all iniquity, and receive 
us graciously. What follows upon this ? what follows as a natural and 
necessary consequent upon it ? Read the 8th verse, ' Ephraim shall say, 
What have I to do any more with idols ?' God doth not come in here, and 
say, Ephraim, you must leave your idols ; but Ephraim saith it himself, 
and he saith it as finding it inconsistent with what he is seeking for : I am 
seeking for grace at the hands of God, and to have all iniquity taken away, 
what have I therefore to do any more with idols ? This is the voice of 
faith, and the law of faith. So again, when you come to believe, let me ask 
you, What do you come for ? do you come for pardon ? what is it in God 
that should move him to give you pardon ? Oh his free grace, his infinite 
love ! What kind of love is it you seek for, as that which only must pardon 
you ? A love unchangeable, such a love as is not bestowed upon the rest 
of the world, which millions of nobles, and great ones in the world, have 
no interest in ; a love that continueth to everlasting, a love that freely 
accepts you for nothing in yourself. This indeed and in truth is the aim 
of your faith, for you can have pardon from no other principle in God, but 
from such a love as this. If that faith now aims to have from God such a 
love, out of which, and out of no other a man can be pardoned, and castcth 
himself upon God for this, and without this is never quiet ; if faith come 
to God for this, if it be faith unfeigned, if it keep to the law of faith, if it 
be faith without guile, if there be a true heart in this faith, if there be an 
honest heart (for that is another expression that Luke hath, Luke viii. 15, 
and he means not only in respect to commands, and the like, but in rela- 
tion to the word of the gospel, holding forth Christ to us, to believe on him), 
if, I say, a man have an honesty of faith, and an ingenuity* of faith, and 
cometh unto God for such a love, it must needs frame and fashion in a 
natural way the heart to a suitable disposition unto God. I find in Acts 
xi. 2G, where Barnabas bids them by faith to abide by the Lord, it is said, 
he exhorted them ' with purpose of heart' to do it. There is a purpose of 
heart that is always the ingredient in the nature and being of faith, for 
faith you must know is seated in the whole man, hath its effect upon the 
* That is, ' ingenuousness.' — Ed. 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faitii. 319 

whole heart, therefore it draws out all in a man, that as the will doth trust 
in Christ, so there is a cleaving to him with a genuine purpose of heart. 
Whatever now faith would have from God, and comes to God for, it comes 
to God upon the terms of the law and nature of the thing, to return in its 
proportion that to God again ; the heart behaves itself accordingly, and 
must needs do so when it comes to believe. Abraham when he believed 
upon God for to have his Son Jesus Christ (for he saw his day, and knew that 
he was to be put to death, or at least that he was to bo saved by him), 
would he have God's Son from God ? doth he believe this in earnest ? and 
doth he come to God for salvation through his Son to be given for him '? 
This faith now being honest faith, faith unfeigned, genuine faith, saith he, 
God shall have my son again ; and though Abraham had not that distinct 
thought when he first believed, yet there was seminally in his heart, when 
God called him to give up his son to God ; and you have it there in James 
ii. 22. Further, when the soul comes to Jesus Christ for pardon, I ask 
thee again (and do but consider it), what is it that thou dost come to Christ 
to be pardoned through ? I come to him to be pardoned through his 
blood, and through his sufferings, his having borne the wrath of God, which 
is the only all-sufficient sacrifice of himself, offered up to God when he 
bore our sins upon the cross. Dost thou so ? The very law and nature 
of faith, if it be genuine, hath this seed and principle in it, which I say is 
naturally and essentially an ingredient in it, that it will make thee to say, 
as the apostle himself cries out in Rom. vi. 2, 3, &c. How shall I then 
live in that which Jesus Christ died for ? Do I come for every part of 
Christ's obedience to be counted mine ? Certainly then the very law of 
faith frames the heart to this, to conform myself to that obedience of his, 
to apply myself thereto. The law of faith seminally doth all this, and it 
is not only in the case of assurance of the love of God, but in the case of 
depending upon the love of God ; not only in the case of assurance that 
Christ died for me, but in depending upon this, that Christ died for me. 
Thus faith hath a thousand ways whereby it sanctifies the heart, by going 
to Christ for virtue, by looking to the example of Christ, by looking to its 
oneness with Christ, and the like ; but the truth is this, that that which 
we call sanctification (or call it what you will), is contained seminally in 
the very law of faith, when it is actually drawn out and exercised. You 
call it repentance, and sanctification, and the like, but seminally it lies in 
believing, and in the very law of believing, if it be faith unfeigned, if it be 
a true and genuine act of faith, which I take it is the reason why all is 
ascribed to believing. It is not as if the soul when it comes to believe, and 
sees itself lost without Christ, &c, concludes, I must repent to perform a 
condition of my justification : no ; but the very nature of the thing doth 
it ; for if a man come to God otherwise, he may be answered as Isaac 
answered Abimelech, Gen. xxvi. 27, ' Wherefore come ye to me, seeing 
you hate me, and have sent me away from you ?' Or, as Jephthah said to 
the elders of Gilead, Judges xi. 7, ' Did not you hate me, and expel me 
from my father's house ? and why are you come unto me now, when ye 
are in distress ?' If any man comes thus to God, can he think he shall be 
accepted ? So that, I say, repentance and sanctification, take the acts of 
it, they are all seminally included in faith, and flow from it, if it be faith 
unfeigned, and without guile, if it be faith that resteth upon Christ for the 
blessedness of having our sins covered. But let me add this for caution's 
sake, though this is what the law of faith, when the soul comes to treat 
with Christ for justification, requireth ; yet it is not that upon which, and 
that act for which God doth justify us ; but rather, I say, whatever God 



320 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

respecteth in faith, trusting on him is certainly that act which he hath 
singled out for the purpose of our justification. 

The soul, in treating with Jesus Christ for justification, according to 
this law of faith mentioned, doth apply itself to all, and the whole that is 
in Christ, or of Christ, or belonging to Christ, and doth give up the whole 
soul to God and to Jesus Christ. If a man do believe with faith unfeigned, 
this is withal included in the very nature of it ; although indeed when I 
come to Jesus Christ as a justifier, for that is my particular business with 
him, I believe on him that justifieth the ungodly; yet being come, faith 
corresponds or applies itself to all that is in Christ, or of Christ, or belong- 
ing to him any way. I shall endeavour to explain and prove this. You 
have often heard it, and I find it in some discourses urged that faith is not 
only a believing on Christ, but a taking and a receiving of Christ, and that 
therein also lies the act of justifying ; but I do not urge it so; for I take it, 
that the formal act of justification is when the soul resteth and believeth 
on the Lord Jesus, and the Scripture carries it so throughout. Yet withal 
notwithstanding this taking of Christ, this applying the whole soul to whole 
Christ, and all that is of him, or in him, or belonging to him, is essential 
to this faith, it is included in it, even in the very nature of the faith itself, 
if it be unfeigned faith, if it be honest faith, if it be faith that is faithful, as 
I may so express it. I shall endeavour to explain this by degrees. 

(1.) I lay this down for a most certain truth and principle, that God 
hath ordained the spirit of faith to be that great principle in the soul till it 
come to heaven, whereby the soul shall immediately treat with Jesus Christ 
or God in Christ, all those ways whereby he is to be treated withal by the 
soul ; so that all sorts of transactions between God and Christ pass through 
the cognisance of faith, and are let first into the soul by faith. So that as 
Jesus Christ himself is a mediator between God and us, in bringing us to 
God, so the spirit of faith in the soul is that whereby the soul doth treat 
with Christ, is both the spirit of faith which the Holy Ghost who acts the 
soul in the ways of believing, and the principle of faith in the soul itself. 
When you come to deal with Jesus Christ, or with God through Christ, all 
things else are shut out of doors, and there is none that appears, or are 
seen together, but God and Christ, and the spirit of faith in the soul, and 
the soul acting faith towards God thereby ; so that whatever excellency is 
in Christ's person (besides his being a Saviour, or the object of justification), 
whatever relation besides God hath put upon him to bear towards the soul, 
and ordained him to be unto it (as there are multitudes of them, as an 
head, an husband, a prophet, lord, and king), all these that faith which 
doth justify is also ordained to take in, and unto these all doth the soul 
that comes to Christ for justification suitably apply and demean itself, it 
being, as was said, the only eminent principle that is ordained to treat 
with Christ ; so as although the consequent of believing may be love, 
and mourning for sin, &c, yet that which transacts all with Christ as he is 
a king, as he is a priest, as he is a prophet, as he is excellent and glorious 
in himself, is faith ; and it is faith that transacts all these first and primarily, 
nakedly and immediately, with Christ, and then love and all other things 
arise. Hence therefore faith that comes to Christ for justification is such 
as is fitted to take in and apply itself to all that is put upon Jesus Christ 
in his relation to us, and all that faith shall be instructed in, it apprehends 
it and closeth with it. For otherwise there should be something in Christ 
ordained by God to be to the soul, which the soul should not have a prin- 
ciple to take in or apprehend ; for whatsoever Christ is ordained to be to 
the soul, the soul apprehends it only by faith. Yet, 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 821 

(2.) Although all such applications of the soul to Christ by faith, as of 
consenting to be Christ's, the taking the person of Christ to be mine, &c, 
are the proper peculiar acts of faith, yet are they not that formal act of 
faith as justifying ; but the Scripture puts this upon what is here mentioned, 
seeing and believing on him ; and although the soul is thereby married to 
Christ as an husband, as Rom. vii. 3, ' To bring forth fruit to God,' yet 
to take him under that notion as an husband, is a conjugal act, whereas 
justification is a forensical act in God, and believing upon him is answer- 
able. And then again, to take bim upon consideration of his excellencies 
as an husband, is an act of love, and so if this was the justifying act, love 
would go before faith, whereas love ariseth from the acts of faith. Yet, 

(3.) Although thus to take Christ, and to receive Christ as a lord, and 
as a king, and a husband, and apply the soul accordingly to him, be not 
that formal act of faith as justifying, yet all such acts do flow from, and 
are contained in, the very nature of that act of faith that seeketh justifica- 
tion from Christ, and this according to the law of faith before mentioned, so 
as if it be faith unfeigned, faithful faith, that soul who comes to Christ for 
justification, if it comes truly to him as such, doth withal necessarily take 
him as a lord, as a king, as a husband, in all his relations, and accordingly 
applies the soul wholly to him. You shall find therefore in John i. 12 that 
which is elsewhere called believing on his name, is there called receiving of 
him : ' As many as received him, to them he gave power to be the sons of 
God, even to as many as believe on his name.' He that doth believe on the 
Son, he also receiveth him ; and how receiveth him ? He receives him as 
he is a Lord as well as he is a Saviour ; that is clear and evident from 
what is the occasion of this speech in the verse before, for that which others 
are blamed for in that 11th verse is, because they received him not as such : 
1 He came unto his own ;' that is, he came unto his own house, as a lord 
and master over his own house (for so indeed the phrase implies, the 
phrase e/j ra 'ibia, to his own, as it is elsewhere translated ; so in John 
xix. 27 John is said to have received Mary, Christ's mother, si: to. 'idia, 
to his own home or house ; the like you have Acts xxi. 6) ; ' and his own 
received him not.' They did not receive him as one that came as a Lord, 
and that was to be the ' Lord over his own house,' Heb. hi. 6, as we are 
said to receive a king when we acknowledge him, and are subject to him 
as such. Now then you see he explains the one by the other, believing on 
his name by receiving of him, and receiving of him by believing on hi3 
name ; now from hence I infer that whosoever believes on the name of 
Jesus Christ for salvation, it is in the nature of that act to receive him also 
as a head, as a lord, as a husband, as a king, &c. And that which further 
explains this is Col. ii. 6, ' As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord' 
(mark the words), ' so walk ye in him.' All obedience is but walking in 
Christ, as faith is receiving of Christ, and that as Jesus the Lord ; now 
what is said of receiving Jesus as a Lord, it is true of receiving him under 
any other relation he bears towards us, wherein the word doth manifest 
him, as a husband, as a head, as a prophet, as a king, &c. 

(4.) The next thing I add to explain this, is, that yet it may be, that at 
the first when a man comes to believe on Christ for salvation, he hath not 
those distinct thoughts of taking Jesus Christ as a king, and as a husband, 
and the like, though still it is included in the very nature of that act of 
faith that comes to him for justification (if that faith be genuine), so as the 
heart doth virtually and implicitly do all this in the very coming to Christ 
for justification. And as to this first, Christ is pleased to deal with some 
men in their coming to him so distinctly, as haply to propound all of Christ 
vol. vin. x 



322 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART. II. BOOK I. 

at first, and to carry on the soul in that -way and manner in the whole 
treaty with him. Thus it was with Paul from the first, who sought Christ's 
person first, and then his righteousness : ' Lord,' saithhe, ' what wilt thou 
have me to do ?' Acts ix. 6 ; and Philip, iii. 8, • I count all things but loss 
and dung, that I may win Christ :' I have, says he, and do so at present 
too. He had done so from the very first, and what was the order and 
design of his faith ? ' That I may win Christ' (says he) ; he mentions that 
first, that he may have his person first, and that being found in him he 
might have his righteousness, and not his own. And I myself have known 
some, that when they have seen their lost condition, have come unto Jesus 
Christ, and looking about for a warrant for them in particular for this, they 
have found this ground, that God hath commanded them to believe, and so 
authorised them to go to the Lord Jesus, of which being assured, and then 
going to Jesus Christ, he told them that he could not deny them his right- 
eousness, because he is his Father's servant : and it is true they had his 
warrant, and so he must give it them ; as if I have a ticket from the king, 
to have so much money from the lord treasurer, he being but a servant, 
and I having the king's warrant, he cannot deny to pay it to me ; but 
withal, the soul thus coming to Christ, authorised by the command of God 
so to do, Christ hath yet dealt thus with that soul : It is true (saith he), I 
cannot deny you that righteousness which you come to me for, for I am 
appointed by my Father to give it unto all that come to me for it. But 
know withal, that my Father hath appointed me to be as a king to you, to 
be as a lord, to be as a head to you. I say, thus distinctly hath the thing 
been driven, and the treaty been made. But, 

Secondly. All souls are not thus distinctly dealt withal, but they have 
this virtually and implicitly : for, first, many poor souls, when they first 
come to Jesus Christ, their minds are swallowed up so much about pardon 
of sin, that their present thoughts did then only in an explicit way look 
upon Christ as a Saviour, though that act of faith in coming to him only as 
a Saviour, being such a faith as is genuine, and true, and in earnest, and 
ingenuous (at the same time that the soul seeks salvation by him), it 
includes a disposition to be anything Christ would have it to be towards 
him, or a submission to Christ in anything which he is ordained by God to 
be unto the soul ; yet so as that they have not such explicit thoughts'Sat 
that moment drawn forth, they do not make such an explicit consent of 
taking him to be their king, and their head, and the like, to make a mar- 
riage with him ; I say, they have not these distinct thoughts drawn out in 
their first coming to Christ, whether it be in respect to the taking and 
receiving him as a lord and husband, or whether in respect to the taking 
Christ himself the Saviour, many cannot say, that the revelation of Christ 
to them was under the consideration of God's offering, or giving Christ 
unto them, and that so they did receive Christ and take him ; but they can 
say, they have come to him, and yet in their very coming (as the truth of 
it is) they do take him ; but because taking of him implies a looking at him 
as given, yea, the phrase to take him, implies an apprehension in them, 
that he is given to them as theirs, for a man is to take only what is his 
own, and so in common understanding it would seem to imply that the 
faith of a believer hath for its ground a thought that God hath given Christ 
for him in particular, which many truly believing souls cannot find ; they 
must therefore come to him as given by God for sinners, &c. 

Thirdly. Neither doth God so drive on this treaty about justification, that 
he should keep off and suspend to justify the soul coming to Christ for salva- 
tion, till the soul first doth distinctly apprehend that it must have his per- 



Chap. YI.J of justifying faith. 323 

son before it can have his righteousness, and that he is to be to it a Lord 
and King, as well as a Saviour. We cannot conceive that God should for- 
bear to justify the soul, till it comes to have such distinct thoughts, for 
such distinct apprehensions of Christ many poor souls cannot tell how to 
make out at tho first, neither doth Christ drive on the treaty of the soul 
with him in such distinct terms. But as was said, this is in the very nature 
of the act ; and though they come to Christ only for justification, yet if it 
be a coming unto him in good earnest, they do, by that very act, take whole 
Christ, and all that is in him, and all that he is ordained to be to the soul. 
For as it is in marriage, though a woman marries one that is rich that all 
her debts may be paid, yet she marries him, and takes him as an husband, 
to all other ends and purposes else. Or I may illustrate it by a comparison 
of the contrary, which your ears may well bear, for we use to illustrate one 
contrary by another. Those that are properly conjurors, they never make 
a distinct and explicit contract with the devil, but by going to him to do 
such and such things for them, they take the devil to be their head, and 
they give their souls up to him by an implicit covenant, even by their very 
going to him. So doth the soul by going to Jesus Christ in earnest, to be 
justified by him, and that according to the law of believing, though it comes 
to him at first for nothing but justification, yet because the law of believing 
doth require a man to take whole Christ, the soul doth it, and doth apply 
itself to that law, that whatsoever the word doth reveal concerning Christ, 
the soul corresponds with it. And if faith be genuine and ingenuous, it 
naturally includes this in it. If I seek salvation from him who, being all 
excellency and glory, became nothing, and emptied himself of all for those 
who are saved by him, who gave his whole self to purchase that salvation 
which I seek, the law of faith then requires that I should submit, and apply 
my whole self to him, and to all in him. But yet so it is, that the soul is 
drawn out to do all this, as upon coming to Christ, he is revealed to the 
soul, and it is instructed in him. In John i. 12, he having said, 'As many 
as received him,' then, as it were, thinking that this needed an explanation, 
he mentions by way of interpretation, ' even as many as believed on his 
name ;' and this explication is on purpose to relieve many a poor soul, who 
thinks with itself, Alas, I cannot remember that I did thus distinctly receive 
him as my Lord and Head, or that I saw God the Father giving of him to 
me, to be such unto me. Ay, but hast thou believed on him ? Then thou 
hast received him : ' As many as received him, even those that believe on 
his name.' The like you have in Luke xiv. 26, compared with Mat. x. 37 : 
' He that hateth not father and mother, is not worthy to be my disciple ; ' 
so it is in Luke. But in Mat. x. 37, ' He that loveth father and mother 
more than me, is not worthy of me.' Because whosoever comes unto Jesus 
Christ, and gives up himself to be a disciple to him, the very nature of the 
thing is to come to him for himself, and upon his so doing, he hath Christ 
himself. It is, you see, made all one. Now I say, it is all virtually con- 
tained in our coming to him for justification, because that the soul, when 
it comes to him in earnest, comes with that truth and with that unfeigned- 
ness that still, according as Christ is revealed, what he is ordained to be to 
tho soul, so it doth and would apply itself to him ; and this is evident also 
by this, that these poor souls that come thus to Christ distinctly for justifi- 
cation, though they cannot say, I remember when I was married to Jesus 
Christ, I cannot remember when I took him as my Lord, and King, and 
Head, &c, under such distinct ideas, or that the treaty was so driven on, 
yet they do all to him that a wife should do to a husband, they seek to 
please him and content him ; they do all to him as servants should do to 



824 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

a master ; and this by reason of coming to him for justification, and depend- 
ence upon him thereon, though it may be they had not, in their first closing 
with him, such distinct thoughts, that they came to him as a husband and 
as a master ; and though they cannot say, that they have put forth an act 
of taking Christ as an husband or lord, under that distinct notion, and 
that such a formal contract hath passed, yet such a seminal, -virtual dispo- 
sition of their souls they express abundantly in supposition, and tendency 
of their desires towards him, wishing, Oh that he would be a husband to 
me, and how infinitely should I rejoice if I might be so happy in him ! 
And though I cannot say that I have taken him under this thought, yet my 
soul renounceth all other lords, according to that in Isa. xxvi. 13. 

Again, the truth is, that faith as to our perception is a confused thing at 
first; it is like the chaos, but yet like to that it hath the seeds of all tbings 
in it towards Jesus Christ ; and even as in making the world God brought 
forth one thing after another out of that confused lump — first, he said, 
1 Let there be light,' and then light started up, &c, and he was six days in 
perfecting of the whole — so it is in faith ; it is, I say, a confused lump at 
first, but there is the substance in it of all that ever the soul shall be to 
Christ, or that Christ shall be to the soul ; and in drawing forth these, 
God doth not tie or keep himself to any constant method ; he doth not 
make every soul to say distinctly, I will first take Christ, and then take 
his righteousness. No ; but many a poor soul (it may be) comes to Jesus 
Christ first for his righteousness, and by coming to him for his righteous- 
ness, the truth is, he takes Jesus Christ himself; and yet in the natural 
way of method, and in the dependence of the things, a man hath first 
Christ, and then his righteousness. And besides, the order of these act- 
ings in the soul is as the ministry is under which a man liveth ; for there 
is that obediential principle in faith, that whatsoever the word of God shall 
«all for at your hands, faith is ready to apply itself to Christ accordingly. 
There is many a poor soul cannot say, I have taken Christ to be my 
husband, and yet it will shew conjugal dispositions ; it will say, Oh that he 
were my husband ! and if he were my husband, how infinitely should I 
rejoice ! It cannot say, I have taken Christ for my Lord, when I began 
first to believe ; but this it can say, Other lords besides him have ruled 
over me, but I have renounced them all ; I will make mention only of his 
name. So that the truth is, this taking Christ as a Lord is virtually and 
seminally in every soul that eomes to Jesus Christ for salvation, for it 
takes whole Christ; and as it relies only upon him, so it receives all that 
is in him, and all that belongs unto him ; and God, who judgeth righteous 
judgment according to the real substance of the thing, and stands not upon 
formal thoughts and explicit contracts, or distinct apprehensions in the 
person believing, as if the want of them should make void what is sub- 
stantial, justifies a man upon that faith which God sees and knows to have 
such a true genuine principle in it. 

Having thus explained my meaning as clearly as I could, I shall now 
prove the substance of this truth from the Scripture. The covenant of grace 
under the law directed believers to look on God as their God, and to avouch 
him to be such ; David calls him Lord, Ps. ex. 1. And in so doing, the 
very nature and law of faith requires and causeth the heart, according to 
this principle, to apply itself to Christ as to a father and as to a lord, which 
the prophet refers to, and interprets it, Mai. i. 6, • If I be a father, where 
is my honour ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? ' It is impossible 
the heart should come to God to be a Father (if it come to him in earnest), 
or come to Jesus Christ to be a Saviour, but it will turn to him, as it is in 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 325 

Jer. iii. 19, ' Thou shalt call me Father, and not turn away from me.' And 
Jesus Christ, he expresseth this to be the believer's case all along in his 
preaching, as in that place I quoted even now, Mat. x. 38, ' He that loveth 
father and mother better than me, he is not worthy of me ; ' that phrase 
doth necessarily imply that he that comes to Jesus Christ takes Christ, 
and he hath Christ, whole Christ ; it is the very nature of the act to do bo ; 
for why else doth he speak of that man as possessing himself, for he doth 
not say, He is not worthy of my righteousness, but, ' he is not worthy of 
me ; ' so that it is there implied that the soul takes Christ himself under all 
relations. Why? Because he parts with all other relations for him ; he 
hates father and mother in comparison of Christ, and it is because he comes 
to Jesus Christ to be all these to him ; and this Christ argues from the 
nature of the thing itself, as is imported in that phrase, ' he is not worthy 
of me ; ' i. e., he deals unworthily and unsuitably to what he came to me 
for. And hence it comes to be made inconsistent with faith, and against 
the nature of the act, for a man believing to go on in any sin : John v. 44, 
' How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another? ' And when 
Christ speaks of the soul's coming to him for rest, Mat. xi. 28, he mentions 
his yoke, as elsewhere taking up his cross ; and in Luke xix. 14, he ex- 
presseth their unbelief by this, that they would not have him to reign over 
them. Our Lord and Saviour Christ, he was a mean man in view, and all 
the world contemned him, and the gang of the world was against him, and 
he that would keep his correspondency with the world, and hold in with 
the world, and have honour from the world, he would never believe on him; 
for if he did believe on him in earnest, he would let go all his correspondency 
with the world, and take Jesus Christ, ipso facto, as his Lord and as his 
Master. 

And the apostles preached accordingly, as you shall find in Acts ii. 36 : 
' Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same 
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.' He would have them 
know this, ; and know this assuredly, that God had made him, as Christ the 
Messiah to save them, so he had made him Lord ; and in Acts v. 31 you 
have the like : ' Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince 
and a Saviour.' Whoever therefore comes unto him as to a Saviour, if he 
come in earnest to him for salvation, if it be faithful faith, if it keep to the 
law of faith, he doth also necessarily apply himself to Christ as to a prince ; 
for, mark it, for what end doth the apostle quote this ? They had said, ver. 
29, 'We ought to obey God rather than men;' and then they give this 
reason for it, because he is exalted to be a prince (they say), therefore we 
ought to obey him; and upon those terms we and others also have believed 
on him. In like manner they add, verse 32, • We are his witnesses of 
these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to 
them that obey him;' that is, that have received Jesus Christ as a Prince 
as well as a Saviour, giving that as a true description of believers. Hence 
therefore faith is not only opposed to doubting, but it is opposed to dis- 
obedience. You have an express place for it in ] Peter ii. 7, ' Unto you 
which believe he is precious : but unto them which be disobedient, a stone 
of stumbling,' &c. Unbelief, you see, and unbelievers, are expressed by 
being disobedient. Why ? Because virtually and seminally taking Jesus 
Christ as a Lord and a King, in all things to obey him, is contained in the 
very nature of faith. You have it in your very creed — ' I believe in Jesus 
Christ the Lord ' — and the same is imported too in that text (though it be 
not the whole meaning of it), Eph. iii. 17, ' That Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith.' This phrase imports an having received him into the 



326 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

heart by faith, as a Lord into his own house; and so it answers to that in 
John i. 11, 'He came to his own,' &c; slg ra 181a, to his own house, as 
Lord over it. There is in a believing soul a door of faith opened, Acts 
xiv. 27, to receive the King of glory; thus the heart sets open all its 
doors, as you have the expression, Ps. xxiv. 9, ' Lift up your heads, ye 
gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall 
come in;' and gives up all the keys unto Jesus Christ, and sets him up a 
throne, there to dwell and rule. And that is the reason why, though 
heaven is his throne, and earth his footstool, yet he delights to dwell in a 
broken and humble spirit, and in a believing heart, because he can rule 
there, and he may do what he will in that heart; and accordingly we are 
said to receive him when we do believe. Hence therefore you shall find 
in Scripture that all the profession of faith and of Christianity is expressed 
to us by this very thing, calling of Jesus Christ Lord. You have it in 
1 Cor. xii. 3, ' No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost.' He was speaking of their being converted to the faith, and he 
expresseth it by calling Jesus the Lord. To the same purpose is the 
apostle's exhortation, Heb. iii. 1, 2, ' Let us look to Jesus, the Apostle of 
our profession,' to guide us, as well as to him our high priest to save us. 
And answerably he speaks, Heb. v. 9, that ' he becomes the author of 
eternal salvation to them that obey him;' and it is such salvation as is 
eternal in the issue. In 2 Cor. v. 15 you shall see it is made the very 
law of believing : ' The love of Christ constrains us ; because we thus judge, 
that if one died for all, then were all dead: and,' saith he, 'he died for 
all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but unto 
him which died for them, and rose again.' You see it is included in the 
very nature of the thing. Do I believe that Jesus Christ died for me ? or, 
do I como to Jesus Christ to be saved by his death and by his resurrec- 
tion, I myself being a dead creature without him ? Thy heart then cannot 
but judge that it is the very law of the thing, that therefore I should live to 
him that died for me and rose again. Compare this now with Rom. xiv. 7 : 
' None of us,' saith he, ' liveth to himself,' that is, none of us that are true 
believers; for ' to this end,' verse 9, 'Christ both died, and rose, and 
revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.' Do I come 
to Jesus Christ now to be justified by his death, and by his resurrec- 
tion ? Why, he that died and rose again both died and rose again that he 
might be Lord both of the dead and living. Hence therefore, saith he, 
none of us liveth to himself; the natural and necessary law of the thing 
requires that we should live unto Christ. So that, I say, if it be faithful 
faith, if it be faith that is genuine, and that keeps to the law of believing, 
according to the nature of the object, when it comes to Jesus Christ, to be 
justified by his death and by his resurrection, by the like reason it gives 
itself up to Jesus Christ, as to a lord and king, and all the relations that 
God hath set forth in his word that Jesus Christ is ; therefore in 2 Cor. 
viii. 5 you have an expression of the soul's resigning itself up perfectly 
unto Jesus Christ, that it giveth up itself and all that is in it unto the 
Lord, and applies itself to him as to a lord and king. ' This they did,' 
saith he; ' first, they gave their own selves to the Lord, and then unto us, 
by the will of God;' that is, unto us the apostles, to guide them and direct 
them, but they gave their own selves up first to him. For faith causeth 
the heart to apply itself to the law of believing, and to all that is revealed 
concerning Christ in the word. It takes whole Christ, and gives up the 
whole soul, and that is included in the very nature of faith; so that a man 
cannot believe in deed and in truth unless he doth thus. Therefore now, 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 327 

why should we make repentance, and sanctification, and such things con- 
ditions of the covenant of grace (as many do), whereas they are all 
seminally included in faith ; and it is impossible for a man to believe but 
all these things must follow. God shall not need to stand treating with 
sinners in such a manner as this, You come to me for salvation, therefore 
thus and thus I expect you should do. God need not insist on such 
things as conditions ; for if the soul doth come to him for salvation, all 
this is included in faith itself, and they are part of salvation itself; and 
when God bids me do all these things, he doth but bid me be saved. If a 
prince should say to one, I will give thee my daughter in marriage if thou 
wilt but marry her and take her for thy wife, will a man now say that this 
is a condition ? No ; it is that without which he cannot come to enjoy 
her, without which she cannot be his wife, or he have communion with 
her; the very law and nature of the thing requires it. So it is here, and 
therefore is faith made the sole condition (if I may call it a condition, for 
there is no need to call it so much), because it virtually includeth all these. 
He that believeth truly, according to the law of faith, he takes whole Jesus 
Christ, and gives up his whole soul to him, to be ruled and disposed by him 
for ever. As for instance, 

1. Dost thou come to Jesus Christ to be justified ? and dost thou do it 
in earnest ? Thou dost take Jesus Christ to be the fountain of grace to 
thee for evermore, thou dost come to him with a resolution to be nothing 
in thy own account to eternity, and that Jesus Christ shall be all in all to 
thee, and do all in thee, and for thee, and thou reckonest thyself to be a 
cypher, and that for evermore. 

2. Dost thou come to Jesus Christ to be saved and justified by him in 
earnest ? Thou comest to take Jesus Christ, with all the life of Christ, 
and all that belongs unto him. As when one takes a husband, she casts 
her fortune with him, as we say, to live with him ; so dost thou in receiv- 
ing Christ. This is Paul's phrase in 2 Cor. iv. 10, • That the life of Jesus 
may be made manifest in our body ; ' he speaks it when he was persecuted. 
And what life was that ? It was a life of persecution to which he cheerfully 
submitted. Thus thou dost subject thyself unto a conformity to all that 
did accompany the life of Christ personally here upon earth ; thou sayest 
as Ruth to Naomi, Ruth i. 16, ' Entreat me not to return from following 
of thee : for whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will 
lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.' Thou 
takest Jesus Christ to follow him all the world over, with all the disgrace 
that shall accompany him ; thou takest Jesus Christ with losses, and with 
crosses, with all inconveniences, with his crown of thorns as well as with 
his crown of glory, as oftentimes hath been expressed ; and Christ need 
not make a bargain with thee to do so, it is contained in the thing itself, 
if thou come to him in earnest. Thou takest Jesus Christ with all his 
graces, the meekness of Christ to subdue thy pride, &c. For there is 
nothing in thee naturally but is contrary to Christ ; thou takest him to 
have every thought brought in subjection to him. Thou takest him with 
all his offices ; thou takest him as thy prophet, that is, whatsoever truth 
Jesus Christ shall reveal to thee — and thou knowest not what truths he 
may reveal to thee in this world, afore thou goest out of it, for which thou 
mayest suffer, and be called even to lay down thy blood — thou receivest it, 
yea, and thou wilt watch and observe where truth is, and where the Spirit 
of God stirs abroad in the hearts of his people, so as a child may lead thee, 
as the prophet says, Isa. xi. 6 ; thou wilt take the least hint of light, the 
least beam, and neglectest nothing that riseth up in the church to consider 



328 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK. I. 

it ; and so thou takest him as a king also to rule thee, and to he under no 
sceptre but under his, and under no government but under his : Isa. xxvi. 
13, ' Other lords have ruled over us, but we will make mention only of thy 
name.' Dost thou come to Jesus Cbrist in earnest for justification ? Thou 
art pleased with him in all things, with all the counsels of Jesus Christ, 
all his decrees and purposes, all the ways of his providence, all that is 
contained in this whole book, that is his will and mind. Thy soul, because 
it is well pleased with Jesus Christ, is well pleased with all that is his, and 
thy heart will say, I wish nothing wanting either in Christ or in what 
belongs to him ; and this is all included in the very nature of faith. If I 
believe in earnest, if that my faith be suited to the object that faith believes 
upon, though God may draw these things out of the lump, out of the matter 
or chaos of faith, by degrees, one thing after another, yet it is all there, 
even when the soul first comes to lay hold upon Christ ; therefore we are 
said to go on ' from faith to faith,' and that the ' righteousness of God is 
revealed from faith to faith,' Rom. i. 17. 



CHAPTER VII. 

What the errors are to which men are obnoxious in believing. — How the fatal 
mistakes are to be rectified. 

They do always err in their hearts. — Heb. III. 10. 

The apostle's scope in quoting this psalm, was to exhort them not to 
harden their hearts against Christ, or against the Messiah's voice ; and the 
psalmist's, even as the apostle's design here, was to press this exhortation 
by the example of their forefathers (who in this were types of them), that 
they should take heed of dealing with the Messiah as their forefathers had 
done with Moses, which he enforceth from the fearful issue and event that 
befell them in so hardening their hearts against Moses that God sware 
against them in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest of 
Canaan, which was therein a type of heaven, into which Christ's ministry 
propounds an entrance by faith ; and this oath was a most binding one, for 
the form of it, ' If they shall enter in,' is an abrupt breaking off in a 
vehemency of spirit, and imports the highest resolution that they shall not 
enter in ; it is an usual form of oath elsewhere used by God, as Ps. Ixxxix. 
86, ' If I fail David ;' it expresseth with the greatest vehemency that God 
would not fail him : so Mark viii. 12, ' If a sign shall be given to this 
generation' (for so it is in the Greek); which is explained by another 
evangelist : Mat. xii. 39, ' A sign shall not be given them.' And it is such 
a kind of oath as wherein is expressed most peremptoriness and resolution, 
according to our usual way of speaking (which if I do !) ; and it is a most 
binding comprehensive oath, for it may have all things put in for to swear 
by ; it is as much as if he had said, If so, then I am not God, not true, 
not just, &c. What one will may be put in to bind it, so as it is swearing 
by all things in God. Now the sin for which he sware against the Jews in 
the wilderness was unbelief, which is expressed here by not knowing his 
ways or proceedings, and by erring in their hearts ; they are both but 
expressions of their unbelief; for ver. 12 he explains it, bidding these 
' Take heed that there be not an evil heart of unbelief ;' and so, ver. 18, 
he again explains it, ' To whom sware he, they should not enter into rest ? 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 829 

those that helievc not, so as they entered not in becanse of unbelief,' ver. 
19, which we find to have been their sin : Ps. Ixxviii. 19, ■ Can God furnish 
a table ?' and ver. 22, ' God's anger waxed hot, becanse they believed not 
on God, nor trusted in his salvation.' And so now under the gospel this 
is the sin for which God will swear against men. There are three sins, of 
which this unbelief consists, mentioned here : 

1. Ignorance of God's ways ; for the mercies of God in pardoning are 
called his ways : Isa. lv. 9, ' My ways are not as their ways ;' it is spoken 
of pardoning, which men not knowing depart from God. 

2. An erring in heart, not going the right way, but taking wrong ways. 

3. An hardness of heart, not receiving in, or entertaining the word with 
dispositions and impressions suitable to the word, and such as it recmires, 
with a soft heart. 

Now the thing I mean only to insist upon, is, concerning the erring in 
heart ; that is, in unbelief. 

Obs. That men, by nature, are exceeding apt to err in the way of faith 
and believing on Christ. 

The point is natural from the words, as also from Rom. x. and Rom. 
ix. 32, where he shews how the Jews could never be brought to this way 
of believing, but being ' ignorant of God's righteousness,' that is, this of 
the righteousness by faith, went still about to set up their own. They 
turned the ceremonial law, which was gospel in the type, and taught them 
to go out of themselves unto the Messiah by faith, as their true high priest, 
offering himself a sacrifice and his own blood for them, into a way of works, 
and thought that for these sacrifices, as they came from them, they should 
be accepted, of which David saw the vanity, Ps. li. 16. This I take to be 
the apostle's meaning in his expression, ' They sought it as it were by 
works,' and not by faith exercised on Christ, as shadowed out by those 
ceremonies. If God would give them any other laws, ceremonial, judicial, 
or moral, they would receive them. ' "Whatever,' cry they out, ' the Lord 
says, we will do,' Deut. v. 27, and the grave and wise, religious and devout 
spirits among them would set themselves to live thereby ; but the way of 
faith they could never endure. The reason of it is, because this way of 
faith, and of being saved by Christ, is a new way, whereof there are no 
footsteps in nature, neither corrupt nature nor pure nature; therefore, 
Heb. x. 20, Christ is called the ' new way,' whereas the old way, to be 
saved by something in ourselves, nature hath gone in, and conscience, 
though blindly, puts us upon it (for some footsteps there are in corrupt 
nature left) ; but here is no tract, no footstep, no guide to lead us to Christ 
but the Holy Ghost, who alone must guide our feet into these ways of 
peace: thus the apostle speaks, Gal. v. 5, ' We through the Spirit wait for 
the righteousness of faith.' This he spake to the Galatians, who, having 
once received Christ, and clearly committed themselves to him, did yet 
recede to works ; and as Abraham, after he had received the promise, 
turned unto Hagar, who was the type of the covenant of works, hoping to 
have Ishmael, the typical issue of that covenant, to live in God's sight, so 
did these Galatians turn to a covenant of works, hoping to live thereby. 
They turned from Christ to the law, because this is the way of nature, and 
nature will ever return to itself and its own ways : ' But we,' says the 
apostle, ' through the Spirit, wait for the righteousness of faith.' This is 
above the way of nature, and therefore it is what the Spirit must teach us ; 
and he doth, saith Paul, teach us. Faith also is called the way ' by which 
we have access unto God,' Eph. hi. 12 ; and, Acts xiv. 27, it is called ' the 
door of faith.' Now, men are naturally blind, as the men of Sodom, and 



3°0 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

cannot find it, and, as shepherds do, come in at the wrong door, John x. 1 , 
so sheep also; for, ver. 9, he speaks it of salvation, and believing on 
him, as well as of false teaching. 

Let us then desire God, above all things, to guide our hearts aright in 
the way of believing, or (to transfer the apostle's speech, 2 Thes. iii. 5) 
to direct our hearts in believing on, and waiting for Christ, as his phrase 
there is, < even to guide our hearts into the ways of peace ;' for it is a secret 
hidden tract, and being a way clean out of a man's self, a path which even 
pure nature never trod, it must needs be hard to find. Many seek right- 
eousness, but not in a way of faith at all, as the Pharisees and papists, and 
those who have no more than a principle of morality amongst us, Kom. ix. 
32. And even those that pretend faith, and to go that way to heaven, do 
yet bewilder themselves, and go out of their way ere they are aware of it. 
And indeed this way of faith is a way that few find, Mat. vii. 14 ; and let 
us ministers give never so plain and express directions, which the natural 
man's head carries away with him, yet without a peculiar teaching and 
leading of the Spirit, his heart will go wrong. As our life is hid with God 
in Christ, so the way to come unto it is hid. The Holy Spirit must take 
us by the hand, and lead us in unto God and Christ. It is like going up 
to some high lantern or minster by a way and an ascent which a man 
never went before ; he sees several stairs, and is apt to take this way and 
that way, if left alone, and to mistake dangerously too, for if a man sets 
but a step wrong, he may fall and ruin himself. 

My purpose is not to go over the differences of false faith and true, but 
only the mistakes in the way of faith and of believing; and those not all, 
but a few by way of instance. Nor do I intend to speak of the hindrances, 
or impediments, and pull-backs in believing; of the stumbling-blocks that 
lie in the way, and do hinder poor souls (such as are the discouragements 
from the greatness of their sins, not being humbled enough, &c), but only 
of the errors and mistakes in the way of believing. Nor shall I discourse 
of the errors about faith in the doctrine of it, or the opinions about it, but 
of the practical errors in men's hearts, for of these the text, Heb. iii. 10, 
speaks, ' They err in their hearts,' &c. And, 

I shall consider the errors of common and ordinary professors of Christ, 
of common protestants, as you call them, who yet are sound in their opi- 
nions about the doctrine of faith. Now, their errors are, 

1. When, knowing the things that Christ hath done and suffered, they 
rest in a general assent to these, as that Christ came into the world, and 
that what is said in the word of him is all true, and the promises true, and 
think this is to believe, and so rest in this, without any special application, 
as those professors did, James ii. 19, whom, therefore, James confutes, by 
telling them that the devils believe thus as well as they. If, indeed, a man 
were only to be a witness to the truth of the gospel, and to the legacies 
God hath given and bequeathed therein, and that faith were no more but 
to give in testimony, as I acknowledge that in part it is such an act, then 
this might be good faith ; but, alas, there may be witnesses to a covenant, 
and who may assent to the truth of all the promises, who yet are nothing 
concerned in them. Witnesses give evidence in things wherein they have 
no title, and so the angels are said to ' have the testimony of Jesus,' Rev. 
xix. 10, and the devils also bare witness to him ; but a man is to believe 
as a legatee, that is, as one that hath an estate bequeathed in God's will, 
and therefore appropriation is necessary for him. You shall nowhere 
almost in Scripture find, where the general assent to the gospel is made 
and acknowledged to be faith, but that in the same Scripture, not far off, 



Chap. VII. J of justifying faith. 331 

an act of application comes in, and is mentioned as that which makes up 
complete that act of general assent: so Rom. x. 9, ' If thou confess with 
thy mouth, and believe with thy heart, that God hath raised up Jesus from 
the dead, thou shalt be saved.' Here is all put upon an act of general 
assent; well, but, ver. 11, this act is expressed with an act of application 
joined to it, ' For the Scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not 
be ashamed :' so it follows; now to believe on Christ is more than an act 
of general assent ; it is to give up my soul to him to save it, and thus to 
trust myself with him, to commit myself to him ; and to renounce all things 
else is an act of the will, and not barely of the understanding in general 
assent, as you may observe 1 John v. 5, 10, compared together. 

2. A second error of these common professors is, that when they endea- 
vour to add application to faith, yet they take a not doubting for that 
application, and exercise not their souls at all unto positive acts of believ- 
ing. Their faith is a mere want of doubts, not an application of Christ 
with comfort. As they never doubt but that Christ is theirs, so they never 
have many thoughts about him as theirs, but do take it for granted, as a 
thing they never call in question, and yet it was never proved to them ; 
but Rom. iv. 20, it is not only said, that Abraham ' staggered not at the 
promise,' but also, that ' he gave glory to God by believing :' not only 
by not questioning God's power, by a careless kind of taking it for granted, 
but by exercising daily acts and thoughts of faith on the promise, he daily 
glorified God by acts of believing, which thoughts do glorify God more than 
any thoughts else. 

A man possesseth not Christ by faith as he doth money in his cupboard, 
or evidences of land that lie by him, which he takes for granted he hath, 
and yet perhaps never looks on them once in a twelvemonth. No ; Christ 
is as meat that a man feeds upon, chews, digests, and his stomach works 
upon continually, and the man lives upon him every day, and that is the 
application of faith, John vi. 53, and if other bread be our daily food, then 
surely Christ much more ; and therefore answerably it is called the life of 
faith : ' The life I live is by the faith on the Son of God,' Gal. ii. 20. Now 
life is a continuation of action and motion ; and as the heart is the prin- 
ciple of life, and always beats, and if it lies still a man dies, such is faith ; 
it is not a sleeping thing, a not doubting simply that Christ is mine, but a 
continual active whetting my thoughts upon Christ as mine, or casting 
myself upon him to be mine, a living on him, and in him. But these men 
live in a good opinion of themselves, and of Christ's being theirs, and they 
are not sued nor troubled in it by Satan's tentations, and no doubt3 come 
to put them out of possession, and this they account faith, and take it for 
granted they shall never be cast out. 

3. Many in their practice do make this application of faith to be a be- 
lieving and a persuasion only, that their estates are good, and so make 
faith only a good persuasion and opinion of their present condition ; so as 
the object, the terminus of their faith, is their own estate, and not Christ 
and his love ; their faith is not a good opinion of him, or founded upon the 
daily thoughts they have of his merit, satisfaction, mercy, grace, righteous- 
ness, &c. But their faith is a good opinion of themselves, arising out of 
the self-flattery of their own hearts, so as they honour not Christ in their 
thoughts so much as themselves ; this is a judgment of charity to them- 
selves rather than faith on Christ. I call it that charitable opinion which 
one Christian is bound to have of others, that they are the children of God, 
and that their estates are good, and that they are in Christ ; now such 
a charitable opinion of themselves, whereby, as the apostle says of the 



332 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaBT II. BOOK I. 

Hebrews, they are persuaded good things of themselves, is the only faith 
of a great many persons; hut this is not to believe on Christ, but on them- 
selves. And that their own estate is indeed the object thus of their faith 
is evident by this, that if any man go about to discover their present natural 
condition, whilst they are without true faith, not to be good, they presently 
fly out, and say you would bring me to unbelief and despair, for an appre- 
hension that their present estates is good is that, and all that, which they 
account faith, whenas indeed those that seek their good would but bring 
them from a false belief of their estates and of themselves to a good and 
a true belief in Christ, and upon God's free grace, which are the prime ob- 
jects of faith. 

4. Some men if they can but get daily into their hearts such kind of 
thoughts about Christ as they hear believers are said to have, then they 
think they apply Christ indeed, when yet indeed they bring in as true a 
formality in the matter of believing as they do in matters of duties, without 
real apprehensions of Christ, or without the power of them on their hearts, 
and without framing their affections suitably to the things which they be- 
lieve. They do but mumble over a few set thoughts of faith as they do 
their prayers, without communion with God ; if they think over such and 
such thoughts of faith towards Christ every day, as papists use to say over 
such and such prayers every day, and can but force their guilty hearts with 
quietness to entertain such thoughts, and to let them have passage through 
them, and if they can but keep down doubts, that they may not arise to 
interrupt them in such thoughts, then they verily think that they believe, 
whenas yet these thoughts pass through them but as drink doth through 
men in a dropsy, they digest it not into nourishment and substance, but it 
runs through them, and leaves no strength, no vigour behind. Whereas to 
apply Christ is not simply to take him into thy thoughts only, and 
think thus and thus barely of him, but to strike forth a sprig or fibre from 
every faculty into him, to be rooted in him, to draw nourishment from 
him, to digest him, to give up thy soul to him, and to be one with him, 
John vi. 56. 

5. A fifth error in the faith of this kind of common protestants is, that 
though they put some trust and confidence in Christ, and in their opinions 
and sayings profess that they renounce all but Christ, yet still secretly their 
own righteousness is the ground even of that their very trust on Christ, 
and so they make themselves the rock of that their trusting upon that only 
truly rock Christ. Thus they use to think that Christ will rather save 
them for the smallness of their sins and good dispositions, and so that in 
that respect they are nearer to Christ than others. The 3 T oung man that 
came to Christ, came indeed, but encouraged by his having kept the com- 
mandments from his youth. These men stand as it were on two boughs, 
whereof the one is a rotten one, and so must needs fall and perish. One 
foot they have on Christ, but another upon themselves, on their own good 
works, which, though they trust not in under the notion of merit (as the 
papists hold), yet in a lower way they trust in them, as those which their 
souls in their confidence put their weight most upon, and as those which 
commend them to God, and make them rather accepted by God ; and so 
they trust not perfectly on the grace revealed by Christ, 1 Peter i. 13. 
These use Christ and his righteousness as many ministers that are in suit 
for livings do the king's title, they procure that also to strengthen their own 
title, which they have otherwise from their patrons, but rely not chiefly on 
the king's, but to make all sure do take it in. Such is the case of these 
men ; their souls have secretly recourse to their own goodness natural more 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 333 

than unto Christ, although in the mean time they are sound in their opinions 
about justification by faith and by Christ only. For look, as all men by 
nature are atheists in heart, saying therein that ' there is no God,' when 
yet their opinions about God are right and good, so these justiciaries are 
papists in their hearts, and therein they practise this popery, whilst they 
are protectants in judgment and opinion, in the point of justification by 
Christ alone. 

All these have had all this application and thoughts of faith without being 
humbled and emptied of themselves, so as it is but the natural opinion of 
themselves, which out of self, which was never yet thrust out of them, men 
use to have of themselves ; so as the mind is full of itself, and Christ doth 
but swim upon the top of their thoughts, they build Christ upon sand, and 
digged not first into themselves to let him in as a foundation, as he that 
built upon a rock did, Luke vi. 48. He cast out all false earth, and did 
let in a foundation ; but men, though they build upon Christ, yet they lay 
him upon their own earth undigged up at all, and so the waves do easily 
come between their thoughts and Christ, and temptations part them in the 
issue, and overthrow all. 

Secondly, I shall give some further instances of men something humbled 
for sin, and of the mistakes that such are apt to fall into in the way of be- 
lieving. 

1. If men come to be a little humbled, then they are apt to apply Christ 
too soon. If the earth be scared and raised a little, they let in Christ as a 
foundation presently, when yet all the false earth is not cast out. Self- 
flattery helps them to receive the word with joy immediately, as the stony 
ground did ; or if they be pricked a little, they apply the plaster when the 
corrupt matter is not let out, nor the sore launched* to the bottom, and so 
a slight apprehension of Christ skins over the sore again, and the core in 
it, and in the end it breaks out worse than ever. The law is a school- 
master to drive to Christ, but some run away from school too soon, and so 
want the grounds of learning, and so come to nothing. When in the uni- 
versity, as I may allude, they never thoroughly parsed their former estate 
by nature, nor saw all the faults in it, and therefore all the duties and 
exercises they perform anew are false and improper ; therefore he, in 
Luke vi., is said not only to have digged, but to have 'digged deep.' Now 
by this digging deep, or being humbled, I do not mean deep terrors (for 
it is not necessary that all earth should be digged out with pickaxes, God 
useth such tools unto none but only hard earth, but small shovels and 
spades may empty some), but so as men must be thoroughly emptied by a 
spiritual insight into their former estates, and see to the bottom of the 
naughtiness of it, and their own inability to help themselves, ere the Rock 
Christ be laid. 

2. A second error of such is, that the ground of their applying and taking 
Christ, is an encouragement from this, that they are not such great sinners ; 
and so though as they are sinners, they see that they have need of Christ, 
yet because they have not been so great sinners, they think they shall the 
sooner be received by him, and thus they are encouraged to believe. They 
think because they have fewer debts they shall the sooner be forgiven, 
whereas it is all one with God and Christ to justify a small sinner and a 
great ; and as the greatness of any man's sins averts not God a whit the 
more from justifying that man, so the smallness of a man's sins moves him 
not a whit the more to pardon a man. Free grace, as it respects no good to 
allure it, nor it is free, so nor no evil to put it off from us, nor less evil to 

* Qu. ' lanced ' ?— Ed. 



334 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

incline it towards us. In this matter of justification (it being freely by the 
grace of God, Rom. iii. 23, 24), 'All,' says he, ' come short and are alike, 
there is no difference' in this respect. As the distance between the heavena 
and the earth is such as hills are not considerably nearer to the heavens 
than mole-hills, and the distance is so vast above both as the difference of 
hills and mole-hills holds no proportion, but is nothing, so it is in this 
case ; for any man therefore to think, that because he is a smaller sinner 
than others, he shall be the sooner accepted of God, is to derogate from 
free grace, and to build something on himself. But, 

Thirdly, I shall give instances in men that have been more thoroughly 
humbled, and of the errors they are liable unto. 

1. When men have been humbled and terrified for sin by God's wrath, 
and filled full of disquietnicnt, which is counted by some the only deep 
humiliation, then they rest in this, because they have been thus humbled, 
and so build not upon Christ, but upon their own sight of sin and misery. 
If indeed man's heart had this rock in the womb of it, as the earth hath 
other rocks, so as it were but digging till you come at a rock that is buried 
in it; if men's hearts had Christ under that false earth, which were to be 
digged out, then indeed it were but digging, and so then afterwards build- 
ing ; but there is this difference, that as Christ must be laid into the heart, 
and this after a digging out the false earth, so the end of this emptying us 
by humiliation is but to make room for Christ, the heart being full afore of 
itself, so that, after all, this rock must be brought in, and laid, de novo, 
anew, 1 Cor. iii. 11. Christ as a foundation is said to be laid, not as 
growing there, and therefore after men have digged, if then they let all 
alone, and say they have been troubled for sin, and know the smart of it, 
and therefore Christ will save them, they build on emptiness. This is as 
if men should think the ground must needs be good, and seed must needs 
be sown in it, because it hath been broke up and ploughed, whenas many 
fallow grounds are ploughed. Because they have been under the school- 
master's hand, therefore they think they are come to Christ, and must 
needs have learning, whenas many come up to the highest form at school 
that are never sent to the university, or admitted into a college, and many 
are soundly lashed, and yet get no learning. Though none can be pardoned 
till they be condemned by the law, yet many are condemned, and put into 
stocks and irons, that are never pardoned ; these have a promise, ' Come 
to me, ye that are weary and heavy laden,' and they make use of it as of a 
promise speaking ease to their very being weary, whereas it is but a promise 
of invitation unto such to come to Christ, so as without coming they shall 
never be eased. Ease lies not in being weary, but in coming to Christ ; 
and yet many are heavy laden that come not to him, but would get ease 
and rest in and from this very thing, that they were once heavy laden. 

2. If men escape this error, and do not rest in being humbled, but begin 
to build and fill up the hole they digged, yet they lay not in the first place 
Christ as their foundation, they lay not in Christ nor God's rich mercy in 
him as the first thing to fill up their own emptiness, but they fill up the 
hole they have digged with new earth of their own new obedience and refor- 
mation, duties and performances, and build upon them. What in humili- 
ation was discovered amiss, that tbey endeavour to reform, and do begin to 
turn over a new leaf; the sins which were set upon their consciences they 
turn from and mourn for, and then build their faith on these reformations, 
so leaving Christ out, and not laying the strong rock, the everlasting 
foundation of God's rich mercy in him alone, so as their humiliation hath 
set them a-work to get grace and reformation, but not to get Christ, and to 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 335 

make him their aim, and him in the first and chief place, which yet was 
Paul's aim, Phil. iii. 8 (which place I delight often to urge), ' That I may 
win Christ,' where Christ is made the aim, as you see, and God's free 
mercy in him the aim of faith. And this is another error and outlet at 
which nun leave the way of faith quite, which error some that have faith 
begun are apt to run into, and though at first they were set in the right 
way. yet go out, and leave aiming at Christ, and exercising faith on him, 
and fall a-resting in reforming. These, as the Colossians,* are diverted 
from Christ to the rudiments of their own hearts. This is the way of 
reason indeed, which thinks doing the contrary sufficient to make amends 
for the former miscarriages; but this is not a way of faith, and this is as 
rank popery (though finer) as any is at Rome, and yet secretly practised in 
men's hearts. 

3. When men hear of Christ as a mark set up, and that him thev must 
have ; and so now they have set Christ up as their aim, and look" to the 
having him alone, because they hear this is necessary to salvation ; yet 
then this error is apt to fall on them, and prevent them of true faith, if 
Christ rectify it not, that they think to get him by their own endeavours ; 
and that secret conceit carrying them on in all, undermines faith as well as 
the former, for they think to make out Christ, and work out a faith out of 
themselves, by their own endeavours for time to come. The former were 
diverted from Christ unto their own new acquired righteousness and obedi- 
ence, and fell a doating upon that ; but these have Christ in their eye, and 
do pursue after him, but yet their hearts secretly make account to attain 
him through their own endeavours. But the soul must be emptied as well 
of all conceits of its own ability for time to come, as of all opinion of its 
own righteousness past or present, or Christ doth not become all in all. 
As men do derogate from Christ, and free grace that bestows him as a gift, 
if they have an eye to their own graces and obedience instead of him, so 
also if they have an eye, or secret confidence of their own endeavours, 
thereby to attain him, Christ is not set up as yet, so as he must be, in such 
a heart. It is true, men may and must endeavour after faith, as Heb. 
iv. 11, ' Let us endeavour to enter into that rest ;' entering into rest being 
there put for believing, as appears verse 3 ; yet we must use endeavours 
but as means, wherein Christ gives the heart strength to believe, and so to 
endeavour in a waiting wholly on Christ to have faith given. So as men 
must come to see their own utter inability to believe, and that as God finds 
them Christ, so he must give them hands to take and receive him by. In 
Rom. x. 6, 7, we have a caveat against this error ; for speaking of the way 
of believing, and that Christ is to be believed, and confessed to be the only 
Saviour, yet since the heart will be apt to say, ' "Who shall ascend up to 
heaven,' to bring Christ down to me, therefore he there says, ' Say not in 
thy heart, "Who shall ascend ?' &c. The heart is apt to be setting up 
ladders of its own making, and to say in itself, I will go pray, and seek 
Christ, and so get him ; but thou must to Christ as ' near thee,' to give 
thee power. 

4. When the heart is humbled, and emptied of all righteousness past, 
of all reformations and righteousness, and endeavours to come, and knows 
that Christ bestows himself for none of those, but is wholly and absolutelv 
free in it, yet when the soul is thus left stripped and naked, and no righteous- 
ness, no abilities of its own do encourage it, yet still the mere self-flattery 
in one's spirit that springeth immediately from self-love, will be apt to step 
in, and help one to think, that rather I than another shall have mercy ; 

» Qu. ' Galatians'? — Ed. 



33G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I. 

that although God shews mercy freely without respect to anything within 
us, yet I (will the heart he apt to think), rather than another, shall find it, 
and God will have pity on me rather than another. This same self will 
flatter one too much, which thought, though not seconded by any respect 
to any righteousness, or anything of a man's own, you will find will arise 
from that very self-flattery in a man, from which it is natural to a man's 
spirit to think well, and hope well of a man's self; even as Peter in another 
case said, ' Though all others, yet not I.' There is a natural self-confidence 
arising out of that great love which we bear to ourselves, that will offer its 
help to form up our faith for us. As Haman thought, I am the man the 
kin<? will honour ; so the heart is apt to think, ' I am the man God will 
save' ; and this not so much from any encouragement or drawing of the 
heart by God, but out of the natural forwardness to think well of ourselves. 
Labour therefore to find your encouragement to believe to come from the 
consideration of what is in Christ, from his all- sufficiency, free grace, and 
love alluring you, and not from your own heart's persuasions merely ; listen 
not to what self-flattery will say, but what Christ will speak in a promise ; 
and acknowledge in believing not only the freeness of grace (that it respects 
no qualification in any, and shews mercy for no righteousness, ability, &c), 
but also the sovereignty of that grace shewn too towards those persons 
whom it accepteth ; see how that when all persons are stripped of all quali- 
fications, and are presented naked before God, and as divested of all con- 
siderations of good or ill in them, that should move him for or against 
them, that besides this freedom in accepting without respect to such 
considerations, he sheweth a sovereignty in his gracious will, in accepting 
this man rather than that, and which he exerciseth in his accepting you. And 
the thoughts that this depends thus upon the mere sovereignty of God, will 
keep down and poise this same self, which else will be apt to encourage 
one's heart above what it should ; the thought of that sovereignty will lay 
thee yet lower, and dash all self-flattering conceits that would strike in to 
make out a faith, and give a hope. It will make thee to see, that any one 
is as fair for it as thou, and that God out of a sovereignty accepteth or 
refuseth, and that so it falleth as his will pitcheth ; only withal thou mayest 
think, that thou art as fair for it as any other, even in that respect, and so 
there is no cause of discouragement. Do but only make the scales even in 
thy apprehensions and hopes for mercy, and let no qualifications in thyself, 
nor no self-flattering conceits of thyself, cast the balance, but reduce thy 
faith to a pure absolute dependence upon God's will for thy acceptation, 
and so shalt thou find God from himself in the end secretly swaying thy 
heart to rest on his love, and to quiet thy heart in so doing, and then shall 
thy faith give him the whole, full, and entire honour, in accepting thee, and 
derogate nothing from him. 

5. Many make a promise the sole ground of their faith, and look no 
further than the letter of it ; and so as the Jews were deceived with the 
letter of the law, and saw not into the bottom of Moses's ministry, so some 
arc deceived with the letter of the promises, and look not to Christ in 
them ; they see not that he is the jewel in the casket, but rest upon the 
superscription without, and look not to what is within ; they have got some 
promise or other, but they never regarded to believe on Christ in and by 
that promise, who is the great promise that is conveyed in every promise : 
• In whom all the promises are yea and amen.' They stick in the letter, 
take the whole shell, but crack it not, whereas it is the kernel within that 
is the food of faith. A child hath more wit than these men ; give him a 
nut, and he will desire you to crack it, for there is a kernel in it that he 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 337 

desires, or else he will bid you take it again. So says faith, when it comes 
to a promise, Give me Christ in it, or I will have nothing. 

6. Men seeking Christ, and finding some sweetness, their faith rests in 
that, and looks not out still for Christ himself and union and communion 
with his person ; a present is sent, they rejoice in that, and they let the 
man that it came from go. Rom. v. 1, one fruit of faith is having peace 
with God : ■ And not only so, but to joy in God through Christ,' ver. 11. 
Mark it, it is not only a joj/rom God, but in God through Christ. Take 
heed then of resting in joy infused, when God and Christ are not the im- 
mediate object of thy joy, and communion with them in believing the chiof 
thing desired by thee. 

7. Men hearing that it is Christ's righteousness imputed by faith must 
save us, they seek for the righteousness of Christ as it were severed from 
himself, and the aim of their faith is carried forth after his righteousness, 
without seeking him first or chiefly, but seeking his righteousness primarily 
to be theirs at God's hand ; as if the suing for the money which this 
surety of ours paid for us, and that God should accept it for us, were all? 
No ; the surety himself must be ours first, and that is the right way of faith, 
to seek Christ first, and then to apply his righteousness for pardon. That 
was Paul's method, first to be found in him, then his next thought was of 
not having his own righteousness, but his, Philip, hi. 8, 9. 

Though this I must add, that it is not Christ simply or abstractly, but 
Christ concretely considered, with his righteousness as he is a Saviour and 
Mediator, and as given for the remission of sins, who is the object of faith, 
and which the believer hath in his eye ; for he is first egged forward on 
to lay hold on Christ by the sight of sin, and as seeing righteousness in 
Christ that will pardon, yet so as he is to believe on him to that end, 
that • in his name he may receive remission of sins,' Acts x. 43, and 
so as to believe upon himself first, and in believing to close with his 
person first. 

8. Many men take Christ with his benefits, but yet chiefly for his 
benefits, and that is as bad as the former; this is to marry him for his 
portion. As you are not to sever it from himself, so nor to desire him 
only for it, for you hear both must go together, first him, then his righteous- 
ness ; that is Paul's method, Philip, hi. 8, 9, ' That I may win Christ,' 
him first ; then follows, ' Not having mine own righteousness, but the 
righteousness of God by faith ; ' that is, Christ's righteousness imputed by 
God unto faith. 



vol. vni. 



338 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS "PART II. BOOK II. 



BOOK II. 

Of faith of assuranee. — That all justifying faith is not assurance of our per- 
sonal interest in Christ. — That yet assurance of salvation may be obtained. 
— How assurance is caused by three witnesses in heaven, and three on earth, 
and of the difference of their testimony. — The discoveries and manifestations 
which Christ makes of himself to the sold. — Of joy in the Holy Ghost. — 
Directions unto the faith of such who want assurance how to take in, and to 
make use of God's eternal, electing love, in believing with comfort. 



CHAPTEE I. 

That justifying faith is not assurance of our personal interest in Christ, though 
it be an assurance of the truth of the promise. 

He that hath the Son hath life'; and he that hath not the Son hath not life. — 

1 John. V. 12. 

The first conclusion we will begin with and premise as a foundation to 
what follows, is, that that act of faith which justifies a sinner, is distinct 
from knowing he hath eternal life, and may therefore be without it, because 
it doth not necessarily contain prevailing assurance in it. By prevailing 
assurance, I mean such an assurance as overpowereth doubts and sense to 
the contrary, so as, in the believer's knowledge, he is able to say, Christ is 
mine, and my sins are forgiven ; such an assurance whereby a man is a 
conqueror, as Paul speaks, Kom. viii. 37, when he expresseth such strong 
assurance. And this I first lay down, not only for more clear and orderly 
proceeding in this point, but also thereby to allay the cavils and exceptions 
which men have against the doctrine of assurance. When it is affirmed 
that none are in the estate of grace, and true believers, but only those who 
are, or have been, undoubtedly assured, by an overpowering light of the 
Spirit in their own sense, that Christ is theirs, and that their sins are for- 
given them ; when it is asserted, that then, and not till then, they did 
begin to believe, by such an assertion the generation of many just ones is 
condemned, whose faith, either through weakness, never came to such a 
growth of persuasion, or through temptations and prevalence of fears and 
doubts are interrupted in it, who yet cleave to Christ with full purpose of 
heart, and walk obediently towards him in all their ways. And, indeed, if 
that were the meaning when assurance is spoken for, that it were made the 
essential act of faith whereby a believer is justified, there were just cause 
for many and great exceptions. And yet my scope further herein is, not 
to encourage any to rest in such a faith, without such assurance, and con- 
tent themselves with it, as many do, making a bad use of such a doctrine, 
and so neglect seeking for a further work of assurance to be superadded. 
No, the next conclusions shall manifest the contrary ; but the intent of this 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 339 

present conclusion is, to keep such as have their hearts drawn to Christ, 
and upheld to believe, though without such prevailing assurance, from such 
discouraging thoughts, as therefore to think their estates accursed, and that 
they cannot be in the estate of grace, because they want such a work ; for 
if faith be without it, then such souls that do entertain such thoughts do 
entertain an untruth, and that against their own souls, and the work of God 
in them, and make him a liar. And also my end is to keep off those that 
have assurance superadded to faith, from censuring the present condition 
of many of their brethren, as if they were without grace, because they want 
such assurance. 

First, I will therefore first prove, that true faith may bo without such 
assurance. 

1. Because justification and blessedness hath been pronounced to such 
a condition as hath wanted this assurance, and this by Christ himself, who 
is to judge at the latter day who are in the estate of grace and who are not. 
Thus, Mat. v. 3, in the first sermon, whereof we have the notes, of blessed 
persons recorded, he pronounceth a blessedness to .the poor in spirit, to 
the meek, to those that mourn, to those that hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness, all which estates want assurance. Now Christ's scope was not 
to draw those in which such dispositions were, to begin now to believe, for 
that were to found faith upon conditions ; but his scope is to shew that 
such have true faith begun. Poverty of spirit is when they apprehend 
themselves poor and empty, it is not being spiritually poor, for then they 
could not be pronounced blessed, but an apprehension of their condition, 
as such (opposite to the apprehension the church of Laodicea had of them- 
selves, who thought themselves rich, and that they had need of nothing), 
and so implies want of assurance. So mourning under the sense of their 
sin and misery implies wanting comfort, as the promise that they shall be 
comforted implies, which comfort assurance brings always with it, and is 
indeed the thing promised to these, afterwards to be given them. So 
hungering after righteousness implies emptiness, and the thing promised is 
fulness, so as all these want assurance, and all these Christ pronounceth 
blessed, and none are, or can be called blessed, but such whose sins are at 
the present forgiven ; as Paul after him defines the blessedness the Scrip- 
ture speaks of to consist in this : Rom, iv. 6, 7, ' David describeth the 
blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness ;' he gives 
a description, a definition of it, that it lies in this, ' Blessed are those whose 
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.' If blessedness then lies 
herein, then surely the estate of those persons was such as their sins were 
forgiven, and yet they wanted assurance, and yet not faith, for a man is 
justified only thereby : Rom. iv. 5, ' To him that believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' Therefore, 
these that were poor [in] spirit, that mourned, that hungered and thirsted 
after righteousness, had faith lay at the bottom, as is necessarily to be 
supposed ; for a man never comes to be truly poor in spirit, till he 
sees the riches that are in Christ and in free grace ; for it is Christ's 
fulness, and the sight of it, that empties a man, more than all the legal 
sight of his insufficiency and misery, and yet the believer in the sight of 
all this fulness still thinks himself therefore deeply poor (wanting assur- 
ance), for though he admires that there should be such riches, yet he hath 
no share in them in his sense yet, and no power to lay hold on them. 
Faith in its first act discovers at once with one eye a man to be poor and 
ungodly, and with the other looks up to Christ's riches, and to him that 
justifies the ungodly, Rom. iv. 5. So hungering and thirsting after Christ's 



340 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK II. 

righteousness (to instance in no more) doth imply faith as the bottom of 
it ; for none can so hunger truly, but he that sees tbe true worth and 
preciousness of Christ. ' Unto them that believe only Christ is precious,' 
1 Peter ii. 2 ; and Christ is precious not out of self-love only, but out of an 
apprehension of the suitableness and fitness of all that is in him for them, for 
true hunger also implies that. What makes the stomach hunger after things 
but suitableness ? Thus the soul hath an instinct to Christ as its meat 
and nourishment, and that supposeth faith also, though assurance be the 
eating of him with comfort and filling contentment ; and as hunger goes 
afore eating, so faith goes afore assurance. Now if such souls Christ pro- 
nounced blessed here, surely if they should die in this condition, at the 
latter day he would not go back from his word, but he would say, ' Come, 
ye blessed,' also. Neither is their blessedness pronounced to a future 
condition to come, which these dispositions made way for, for, besides 
what is before said, Christ in the very words tells us, he speaks it of their 
present condition, 'theirs is the kingdom of God.' This he spake to 
such as John's ministry had converted, and that truly, who (as it is in 
Acts xix. 4) did teach the people not humiliation only, but faith also, 
' saying to the people, that they should believe on Jesus Christ.' And 
Christ he comes after to preach assurance to such, and to tell them that 
their sins were forgiven them. As a farther confirmation, I will add to 
this an instance or two. 

(1.) Let us look on the poor publican, and let us consider his estate, 
which Christ there approves, and we shall find it to have faith in it, and 
yet not assurance, Luke xviii. The Pharisee he had an assurance that his 
estate was good, built upon himself; for, ver. 9, Christ's scope was to 
discover their presumption that trusted in themselves that they were 
righteous, and to this end tells them of a poor publican that indeed comes 
into God's presence, but it is at a distance : ' he stood afar off.' Had he 
had assurance, it would have encouraged him to have drawn near with 
boldness : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw near with full assurance of faith.' 
But, on the contrary, he was so much cast down with shame, that he could 
not lift up his eyes to heaven, and yet he lifts up an eye of faith: ' Lord, 
be merciful to me a sinner.' He flics out of himself, and hath recourse to 
God's mercy, which, by all his carriage, and the opposition made, he had 
no assurance of. The presumptuous Pharisee could do nothing but give 
thanks, his assurance was so great. This man in an humble prayer begs 
that mercy that he yet wanted in his own sense, and yet Christ pronounceth 
the state of this man justified : ver. 14, ' I tell you,' saith Christ (and I 
promise you I will believe him), ' that this man went to his house justified, 
rather than the other.' He was then certainly justified, and therefore out 
of his example he makes this promise to such as are truly in his condition, 
that ' they shall be exalted,' in the same verse. 

(2.) That also of the woman of Canaan, to whom Christ would give no 
outward word of encouragement, who yet had true faith, which Christ 
extraordinarily commends, Mat. xv. 22-26. 

Besides these instances, I will give you demonstrations of it, and then 
the reasons and grounds of it. 

i* (1.) The first demonstration is drawn from the state of desertion, where- 
in a true believer may want assurance, when yet he continues to believe ; 
' for the just live by faith,' Hab. ii. 4. Therefore as when the heart 
ceaseth beating the man dies for it, so when faith ceaseth exercising itself 
the believer would die. And again, that which is a true act of faith to 
continue our union with Christ, may be a true act to begin that union. 



Cu.kV: I.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 311 

Now, it is not assurance continues our union and being in the estate of 
grace, therefore it doth not necessarily begin it. And now then if in the 
course of a Christian's life he be brought to live by faith without assurance, 
then much more may he begin to live by it, for at the beginning it may be 
supposed weakest; as a man that hath had experience he hath lived may 
be brought into a swoon, when he doth not perceive himself to live, or 
into a frenzy, so as he doth think himself dead, and to live amongst 
ghosts, as some have done, so much more may a child that is in the 
womb live and not know it. Thus Heman likewise, as to his spiritual 
state thought himself (through a frenzy) a man dead, and to be ' free 
among the dead,' and to be one whom God had cut off, and remembered 
no more, Ps. lxxxviii. 5, and from whom God did not only hide his face in 
regard of the light of his countenance (which some have said is the only 
desertion can befall a Christian in which he retains his assurance, and 
doubts not but that God still is his God though he hides his face), but had 
cast him off, verse 14, he says he was one ' cut off by his hand.' And yet 
when Heman had such desperate thoughts prevailing over assurance, he 
had faith, and expresseth it in verse 1 : ' Lord God of my salvation, I 
have cried night and day afore thee.' Mark it, and you will find that it is 
just the voice of faith wanting assurance: he cannot call him his God; he 
says not, ' My God, my God,' as Christ could, when he wanted the light 
of God's countenance, — assurance of faith remaining in him when the com- 
fort of faith was wanting, — but yet Heman doth look up to God as the 
God of his salvation ; that is, as that God who must save him, and in 
whom his salvation, if ever he be saved, lies; from whom he looks for 
salvation, and to whom he hath recourse for it, though he could not say, 
God is my salvation. Yea, and thus it had been with him from his youth, 
verse 15, either he had once assurance, and now had lost it, or from his 
youth and first beginning had ever wanted it. And if it was either of the 
two, the argument holds good to prove faith not to be assurance, for 
still he hath recourse to God by faith in prayer, and so had faith in his 
heart, when yet he was under terrors and apprehensions of God's casting 
him off. Why should I instance in Job, David, Jonah, and many more ? 
I will only give that direction in Isaiah 1. 10. The prophet having in the 
verses immediately afore expressed that triumphing assurance, ' It is God 
that justifies me, who shall condemn ? ' now, saith he, if a soul that fears 
God wants such a light as comfortably enableth his soul to say so, yet ' let 
him trust in the name of the Lord.' You see then that he might exercise 
faith in that condition. And to say the case of this man the prophet speaks 
of was not a state of justification, is a gross absurdity, for the prophet calls 
God his God ; though the dejected soul could not say so, yet the prophet 
says so for him. 

As for those that will say, that faith is a triumphing, a prevailing assur- 
ance, I would refer them but to ten or twenty years' experience, which 
may (if they be not the more wary) lamentably confute them ; for they 
may fall into this darkness as well as Job did, and then if they do so, what 
is the faith they live by ? It is that of Heman's, a casting themselves 
upon the God of their salvation, a cleaving to him ; it is that of the church 
in the like distress: Lam. hi. 21, ' The Lord is my portion, says my soul, 
therefore will I hope in him.' God did not aloud say to her soul that he 
was her God, but he enabled her soul to say that he was her portion ; that 
is, to pitch on him, and choose him, and rest in him, and betake herself to him, 
as all the good and portion she ever looked for, which act of recumbency 
afforded hope as the consequent of it. Faith notes out a betaking a man's self 



342 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK II. 

to God, a choice of him as a man's portion, as one all the good I look for 
lies in, and therefore I will hope in him, for help is to be had only in him, 
and from him, and I will do anything that there may be hope for me. 
Now if sometimes those who have assurance are brought to this faith, then 
surely it is good faith ; and if it be good faith after assurance, then it 
may be so before ; and yet to this, one that hath had assurance may be 
brought. 

(2.) That there may be true faith without assurance is evident from this, 
that if doubting be a corruption, as you will easily grant it is, then as all 
other corruptions may prevail against the spirit and other graces, so may 
doubting prevail against assurance of faith, and there is no more privilege 
of freedom promised from the one than the other. If David may fall into 
a gross sin, and murder and adultery may prevail, I know not but that 
doubting may prevail too. For believers are perfectly freed from the pre- 
vailing of no sin but that against the Holy Ghost ; and if the power of sin 
may prevail against grace in other faculties, I know not but the guilt of sin 
may prevail against assurance in the conscience also. And further, I am 
sure that though the Holy Ghost, the witness, be God, yet the light he 
witnesseth by is but a creature, a beam, a voice, a saying to a man's soul, 
' Thy sins are forgiven ; ' and therefore, as other prevailing workings may 
be interrupted, so may that also, and then what faith have men recourse 
unto, but such as is a casting a man's self on free grace, that faith which 
stood them in stead at first ? It is not the remembrance of his former 
assurance will uphold a man, for he may grow blind, and forget he was 
purged from his old sins, 2 Pet. i. 9. He speaks of assurance in that and 
the following verses. Assurance depends on strict and holy walking, and 
so may be interrupted by our remissness and negligence. 

(3.) That true faith may be where prevailing assurance is not, appears 
by this, that the sense of belief of general principles and foundations of 
faith may be over-clouded and prevailed against by temptations to the 
contrary, and by the atheism of a man's heart, so that a poor believer shall 
say, I doubt whether there be a God or no, whether the Scriptures be true 
or no ; I cannot find I believe the truth of the promises. Thus the natural 
atheism of the heart may overflow, and seem to conquer this faith that there 
is a God, and yet then the soul believes strongly, at the same time, that 
there is a God ; and it appears in its actions, though not in its sense and 
light, for the soul fears this God in all its ways and walks, as believing this 
truth. Hence I argue, that if faith in the general may be overpowered in 
sense and inward light, when yet a man truly believes, then much more 
may the particular persuasion of a man's being in the estate of grace, which 
is but a deduction out of those general principles, be, in a man's sense, 
prevailed against by doubting, when yet secretly he doth most truly believe. 
The apostles, when Christ was dead and crucified, did almost begin to call 
in question the general principles of faith ; they were much staggered in 
them, as appears from that speech, Luke xxiv. 21, 'We trusted,' said they, 
' it had been he should have redeemed Israel, and it is now the third day,' 
when he promised to rise, and yet we see him not. His sufferings staggered 
their faith, and therefore, ver. 25, he calls them ' slow of heart to believe 
what the prophets had written ;' and yet then they did secretly believe, and 
had recourse to the sepulchre, and an eye what should become of him. 
Thus Thomas also would not believe the resurrection of Christ, a main 
article, unless he saw him. Now if the faith in the principles may be in 
the heart, and yet be prevailed against by doubting, then much more the 
particular conclusions derived thence to ourselves, which are at no time so 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 343 

full} 7 assented to as the other ; and yet faith must then be in the heart, for 
a man dies else. If the main root and stock may seem dead, much more 
the branches and the buds. 

(4.) Wicked men are not immediately bound to have assurance, and 
therefore it is not the essential act wherein faith consists. They are con- 
demned, you know, for not believing. Now if the first act of faith com- 
manded were to believe that Christ is mine, and that my sins are forgiven, 
how could a man in the state of nature be bound to it ? For such an 
assurance of Christ being his, is not a truth in the state wherein he stands ; 
but yet he is every hour bound to come to Christ as the fountain of life, 
and to cast himself on him for his pardon, and to choose him as that means 
appointed by God for remission ; for Christ blames the Pharisees that they 
did not do so : John v. 40, ' Ye will not come to me, that ye might have 
life.' Therein, therefore, lies the act of faith which justifies. 



CHAPTER II. 

The reason why there may be true justifying faith in a man, and yet he want 

assurance. 

As I have given arguments to prove that all true faith is not assurance, 
I shall now give the reasons why there may be true faith in a man who yet 
wants such assurance. 

1. Those essential acts that are attributed to faith, and whereby it is 
expressed, fall short of expressing assurance in a believer's sense. Faith 
is expressed by seeing Christ, and his worth and excellency, John vi. 40, 
by looking on him as they in the wilderness did on the brazen serpent, 
not as that which had already healed them, but looking on it as the means 
appointed to cure them, and that only. So also faith is expressed by coming 
to him, which implies not so much a persuasion that a man's sins are for- 
given by God, as a having recourse to him to forgive them, as a flying to 
him that is gracious, and chosen by God on purpose ; as a ' coming unto 
him as unto a lively stone, chosen of God,' 1 Pet. ii. 4 ; and so, John v. 40, 
they are blamed for not coming to him that they might have life ; and 
because such may truly come, who yet in their own sense may fear whether 
he will receive them and do them good ; therefore Christ assures such, 
John vi. 37, ' He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.' Christ 
speaks it to assure such as do come, who, though they come, yet wanted 
this persuasion in their own sense. To go up to Christ for help is to trust 
or believe on him, as to go down to Egypt for help is called a trusting on 
that nation, Isa. xxxi. 1. This coming argues a choosing him, a betaking 
a man's self to him. Again, that act of trusting on him (as there, in Isa. 
1. 10, trusting on the name of the Lord is commanded, when light is want- 
ing) doth not necessarily imply or require a prevailing assurance that God 
is my God, and that my sins are pardoned by him ; but there may appear 
a great trust in the want of the sense of this. As for example, then a 
traitor trusts a king, when, upon a proclamation of pardon indefinite, he 
comes in, and lays down his weapons, and refers himself to him ; when he 
leaves all his hopes among the rebels, and puts his life, his service, and all 
into his hands, ' if there may be any hope,' as the church in the Lamenta- 
tions says, Lam. iii. 29. Such a trust was in Job : ' I will trust him, though 
he kill me,' Job xiii. 15, when yet God fought as an enemy against him. 
For trusting hath two several significations with it. The one intimates a 



344 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK II. 

quiet security that the party that is trusted will do such or such a thing, 
as when a man says, I trust and am persuaded he will do such a thing for 
me ; the other signification intimates that, upon an high esteem of a man's 
goodness, faithfulness, ingenuity, and indefinite expression of himself and 
carriage to others, a man puts over all to him, and commits himself, his 
cause, and all, upon his good will and grace, to obtain his suit ; and this 
reliance is then accounted the greatest trust, when the man cannot say he 
hath a particular assurance from him in whom he confides. Thus says the 
psalmist, Ps. x., ' The poor leaves himself with thee,' Ps. x. 14 ; he rolls 
himself on God, Ps. xxxvii. 7, which, in ver. 3, is expressed by trusting. 

Again, waiting is another act of faith, which implies a looking for help 
from Christ, a waiting for pardon from him, not an assurance of pardon 
already attained. Waiting is an act of faith, whereby a man renounceth 
all vain hopes and helps, and betakes himself wholly to Christ, and con- 
tinues to look for help from him and none else ; and this act doth not reach 
so far as to assurance in sense, for assurance is the thing waited for, and 
yet this waiting is faith. He that made the 130th Psalm was a believer, 
being a penman of holy writ, and it is likely to be David himself ; but 
whosoever he was, he was then in a sense of tbe want of forgiveness ; ver. 
1, he says he was in ' depths.' And what depths ? It appears by the 
third and fourth verses, that it was the want of forgiveness that troubled 
him ; for he pleads, ' If thou markest iniquity, who shall stand ? ' and 
' there is forgiveness with thee.' In this case he could not say his sins 
were forgiven him. Nay, he felt in sense that God retained them, and 
marked them, and set them on upon his conscience, and therefore that 
which, in this case, he builds his faith upon is this, ' Forgiveness is with 
thee.' It is there to be had ; and answerably, an act of waiting suitable to 
that estate is put forth, a waiting for the Lord, ver. 5 ; and ' in his word' 
■ — that general promise of pardoning sinners — ' do I hope.' 

2. We have another reason why faith may be without assurance, if we 
consider the main object of faith, which first, and primarily, and adequately 
in the first act of it, is here in the name of Christ, John i. 12, that is, him- 
self, his person. The object of faith is not so much this proposition, that 
Christ is mine (that is an axiom), but Christ himself, and therefore faith is 
still expressed by believing on him, and receiving him, John i. 12 ; and the 
reason is, because faith is that which completes the union betwixt Christ 
and me. Now the things united are his person and my soul, and that 
which makes the union is my cleaving to him as my chiefest good, and 
giving myself up to him, and joining myself to him, consenting to be his, 
and taking him to be mine, and not this proposition, that my sins are for- 
given, though I acknowledge forgiveness of sins is that which my faith also 
aims at in him. But further consider, 

First, That Christ, and Christ alone, is the first promise, and the great 
promise that faith looks at, and that justification and salvation, and the 
promises of all a man's privileges he hath, or is to have by Christ, are 
secondary, and therefore to be believed in the second place, and are made 
in Christ, and not to men till they are in Christ, for all promises are yea 
and amen in him, and is made all in all to us. So as ere any man can 
believe his sins are forgiven, or look upon any privilege which is to be had 
by Christ as his own, he must first be united to Christ, and Christ must be 
made his ; there must be an act of faith closing with his person, consenting 
to be his, and receiving him as indefinitely offered, to be his (if he will 
take him), and then, and not before, can any man come to believe he hath 
the pardon of his sins, or that he shall have glory, and be saved. These 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 848 

secondary promises they are the object for assurance to work upon, but tbo 
person of Christ is the object of faith, which faith lixeth on, and the believer 
first comes unto Christ, and takes him, and therefore assurance of justifica- 
tion and salvation must necessarily come in after believing on the person 
of Christ. Now Christ, who is the great promise, is but indefinitely 
offered, though that offer indefinite is made known to all ; therefore, 
answerably, it is not required that the act of faith should be assurance ; 
but the promise of justification and glory, &c, are determined, and made 
definito to them that are believers, &c, and accordingly they still run in 
that strain ; and therefore to believe them requires assurance. And then, 

Secondly, The assurance that Christ's person is mine, is not the first 
object of the first act of faith, for he is not mine till I have taken him ; 
then he becomes mine, according to the rules of the word. This indeed 
the heart may have, and hath, a secret hint of, of especial goodwill in God 
and Christ, in the offer of himself to a poor soul, conveyed through the 
indefinite promise. The believing soul doth think that God means Christ 
for him, and designs Christ to him ; but this is not assurance, for he cannot 
say that Christ is his till he hath taken him ; it is the taking a gift makes it 
the man's that takes it, and not the offer of it. So that till out of such a hint, 
conveyed through the indefinite promise, a man hath taken Christ, there is 
no room for triumphing assurance, for a man to say that Christ is his. Again, 

Thirdly, If we consider in what faculty faith is said principally to reside, 
it will appear, that the main act of faith is not assurance. It principally 
is seated in the will, for the consent of that, and the knitting of that to 
Christ, makes the union, as consent in marriage doth ; therefore believing 
is called receiving him, John i. 12, and coming to Christ, and being drawn 
to him, is the phrase by which it is expressed, and that principally is of 
the will. Now if the main act of faith were an assenting to an over- 
powering light that Christ is mine, and a setting it down that my sins are 
pardoned, then the main act that made the union were in the understand- 
ing ; but now, that first work upon the understanding is expressed by seeing 
him, but not by seeing him at the first to be mine ; so babes are said to 
know the Father, 1 John ii. 13, but not to know that he is their Father. 
Y\ T hen men assent not to the worth that is in Christ (though ignorance 
whereof is the ground of men's refusal of him), then it is that they make God a 
liar ; but to close with Christ's person as tendered to me, that is the main 
act of faith. And it should be granted, that by drawing, John vi. 44, is 
meant a drawing my understanding to assent that Christ is mine, yet a 
drawing of the will is mainly intended. 

Fourthly, Hence, therefore, I argue in the fourth place, that assurance 
comes in but to confirm and seal to what pure faith hath done, and there- 
fore follows upon faith, and so all expressions that express assurance imply : 
as when it is called establishing or confirming, sealing and giving in ear- 
nest, and a witnessing, all these suppose an act of faith already passed, 
which estates us into Christ and salvation, to which assurance comes in as 
a confirmation. For an earnest supposeth first a bargain made, which that 
confirms, and a witness supposeth some act passed, a deed made, and then 
there is place for a witness, and so a seal comes in after the deed is drawn 
and concluded, to add a confirmation, so that the first act of faith doth not 
include prevailing assurance in it, but after men believe then comes in seal- 
ing : Eph. i. 13, ' After ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise.' And therefore the sacraments of the Lord's supper and bap- 
tism, which are seals and instruments of assurance, are to be administered 
after a man hath faith, or is supposed to be in a state of grace : ' Let a 



346 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK II. 

man examine himself, and so let him eat,' 1 Cor. xi. 28. They are not 
to begin grace, but to confirm it ; whereas were faith assurance, they might 
begin it. 

Add to this, Jifthly, that assurance comes in as a reward of faith, as a 
light superadded to faith, that when a man hath trusted God upon his bare 
word, and a secret hint of a promise, and hereby hath set to his seal that 
God is true, and borne the stress of many overpowering doubts and tempta- 
tions, and yet cleaves to Christ, though not fully knowing in his sense 
Cbrist is his, then God sets to his seal; therefore, says Christ, Rev. ii. 17, 
' To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna.' A man's 
faith must fight first, and have a conquest, and then assurance is the crown, 
the triumph of faith ; but faith must be tried first ; and what tries faith 
more than temptations, and fears, and doubts, and reasonings against a 
man's estate ? That triumphing assurance — Rom. viii. 37, 38, ' We are 
more than conquerors. And I am persuaded that nothing shall separate 
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus ' — comes after a trial, as none are 
crowned till they have striven, and therefore establishment comes after 
suffering ; so 1 Peter v. 10, ' After ye have suffered a while, establish, 
strengthen, settle you.' This putting into joint and rooting is after suffer- 
ing ; if they should have had it before, he would have prayed absolutely 
for it ; and this the apostle also imports in 1 Peter i. 7, 8 in speaking of 
the joy of believing (' believing in Christ, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and glorious : receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls'), 
the context argues that this joy unspeakable and glorious, which thus 
accompanieth triumphing assurance, is called receiving salvation, and the 
end of faith, and the reward of faith, which is tried with manifold tempta- 
tions, ver. 7, and therefore it is called the earnest of heaven, and God 
therefore dispenseth it voluntarily and freely. 

Add to this, sixthly, that that light which causeth assurance of faith is a 
distinct thing, and superadded to faith ; and the Scripture speaks of it as 
a thing distinct from faith (though it doth coalesce with it, and they both 
make one), and may be separately considered, and is called sense as so 
considered; for either it is by a reflex act upon grace in a man, and then it 
is experience (as the apostle calls it) which breeds this hope, or by an 
immediate discovery of the Spirit with joy unspeakable, which hath sense 
and sight in it ; and therefore Job, though he believed afore, yet when this 
light broke in afresh, ' I heard of thee,' says he, ■ by the hearing of the 
ear ; but now mine eyes have seen thee,' Job xlii. 5 ; and therefore, too, 
Isa. 1. 18, assurance (when it is spoken of in the distinction it hath from 
faith) is called light, and the want of it darkness ; in which darkness yet 
the light of faith shines, but so as comparatively with that light which 
comes in with assurance, the soul is said to be in darkness, and to walk 
by faith, and not by sight; though I confess even the light of assurance is 
not sight compared with the sight in heaven, when we shall see Christ as 
he is, 1 Peter i. 8, compared with 1 John iii. 2, yet comparatively to 
naked faith, and the ordinary light that faith hath, it may be called sight 
and sense ; so as I may say to one that believes, having strong sights and 
lights of God daily, as Christ said unto Thomas, ' Thou hast seen and be- 
lieved,' John xx. 29, but the other believes though he sees not. 

I will now shew how in such acts of faith as these all the main ends of 
faith are and may be attained and accomplished by indefinite acts of recum- 
bency, and trusting on God, though wanting assurance ; as, for instance, 

First, The first main end of faith is to glorify God's free and rich grace 
and Christ, and to attribute all to them in point of justification and salva- 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 347 

tion, and to magnify and set them up alone in my heart ; that is it for 
which Abraham's faith is commended : Rom. iv. 20, ' He was strong in 
faith, and gave glory to God.' Now I acknowledge that when assurance 
comes, it enableth the heart many ways to glorify God more than mere 
naked faith, or casting a man's self upon Christ doth, for it hath all the 
other hath, and more ; and besides, it causeth the heart to be more thank- 
ful, and more fruitfully and cheerfully obedient ; it perfects love, opens and 
gives vent to a new stream of godly sorrow, adds new motives, enlargeth 
and encourageth the heart in prayer, winds up all graces to a new and 
higher key and strain, causeth a spring tide of all ; and yet so as God is, 
and may be as truly, and in as right a way, glorified by those acts of faith 
in a state of mere recumbency, as by the other, though I do not say so 
amply, and with so large a revenue as when assurance comes. Now a man 
doth rightly glorify God's rich grace and Christ by two things : first, when 
the heart attributes all that wholly and fully unto Christ and God's grace, 
which God in the Scripture ascribes to them in point of salvation ; and, 
secondly, when the heart is bowed in all the carriages, and dealings, and 
practices of it, to demean itself accordingly — viz., in a word, to give unto 
God that which is God's, as Christ says in another case. Now both these 
a soul that is as yet but hung upon Christ doth and may do, for that soul 
in a spiritual manner sees the riches, the fulness of grace in Christ, adores, 
admires it, renounceth all vain hopes in all things else, resolves to have 
help no way else, robs and detracts nothing from Christ in the secret 
practices of the heart, for it deals with nothing else but Christ for salva- 
tion ; the soul hath, for what it apprehends to be in him, left all its own 
righteousness, parts, abilities, comfort in all creatures, and accordingly 
walks every day. Only the soul wants this prevailing light, that this grace 
and Christ is his, which when it comes, though it adds to his comfort 
indeed, and so causeth him in a way of particular thankfulness to glorify 
this grace in relation to himself, yet the faith of recumbence attributes as 
much to the grace itself as the other of assurance doth, by way of praising, 
glorifying, and admiring it. And this faith of recumbence expresseth thus 
much by resting on Christ, parting with all for him, as well as the other 
glorifies him in other acts of rejoicing in him, &c. The grace of Christ is 
as truly glorified by the one as by the other, only in a several way ; the 
one honours it by acts of dependence upon it to be obtained, the other by 
way of thankfulness for it as already enjoyed. As the saints under the Old 
Testament believed as truly on Christ, though yet to come, as we now on 
him though already come, and it was but a differing circumstance of Christ 
to come, and already come, made the difference (and yet such a difference 
as thereby we receive more grace and comfort than they had) ; so the saints 
that want assurance of Christ being yet theirs, or his benefits theirs, by 
depending on him that he may be theirs, and all his benefits theirs, they 
glorify him as truly as they that believe all his benefits are theirs, and in 
present possession (only I confess there is a new edition of many graces in 
a man by the coming in of assurance, there is much grace and comfort that 
follows) ; as a man may shew his true love in admiration of the worth, and 
parts, and faithfulness of one to whom he sues to be his friend, and honours 
him as much by acts of observance to gain his friendship, as he may do by 
acts of requital when he is assured of his love to him. It will, I confess, 
add much to the cheerfulness of all he doth go about for him, when he 
knows him to be his friend ; but he honours him no less truly in the one 
than in the other, and these acts of recumbency do change and purify the 
heart as truly as acts of assurance, and carry it on to obedience, for not 



348 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK II. 

only the beholding Christ in his glorious excellencies do change the heart, 
2 Cor. iii. 18, but the expectation and dependency the soul is put into, 
works an holy ingenuity. For God's love, and so great a favour out of 
free good will in God being tbe aim, the expectation of the soul, that God 
would pardon his sin out of as great a love as if Christ were yet to be given, 
how can he look for such love at God's hands (and without it the soul 
reckons itself undone), without answering God again with all the love in 
his heart ? How can a man profess that he expects such kindness at God's 
bands, and be unkind to him ?* How can the heart be able to look God 
in the face, if it be so disingenuous ? Can the soul come to Christ to 
pardon sin through his death, and live in it ? Why Christ may and will 
say, How would you have me to pardon these sins ? Through thy death, 
Lord, thinks the soul, and so expecteth ; and how then canst thou find in 
thine heart to live in them ? Now, though all these effects are in a mora 
direct way wrought by faith of assurance, yet they are as truly all wrought 
by faith of recumbency or expectation, when it is in earnest. And let me 
add this, that in two respects the soul in such a state honours God's grace 
more. 

1. It honours that property and attribute of grace, that it is free; for a 
man, in trusting God, when he knows not in his own sense that grace is 
his, yet' refers himself to it, and devolves himself on it, and doth all in 
dependence upon it, as much as one that is assured doth; and herein be 
gives a real acknowledgment of, and magnifies the prerogative and freedom 
of this grace. And, 

2. Though all the acts of grace (as they are of themselves) are less and 
weaker that accompany such an estate than those that flow from assurance, 
which, like the early and latter rain, make the heart more fruitful, yet if 
you put upon these acts of recumbent faith the relation of being trials, so 
they glorify God more, and are more acceptable ; for it is not simply acts 
of faith, but the ' trial of faith,' which is ' found to honour and glory,' 
1 Pet. i. 7 ; that is, to the honour both of that grace, and also of Christ 
who is the object of it. Faith, when it is tried, glorifieth God most in 
some regard. Now, therefore, to leave all hopes and comforts, and rest 
wholly on Christ for life and comfort, and to obey him, &c, when I know 
not that he is mine, though the acts of grace be fewer, yet the trial is 
greater. As mercies draw out love more, yet afflictions do try love more, 
and therefore make it exceeding acceptable ; so assurance draws love out 
more, makes a spring-tide of it; but a state of recumbency tries it. A 
servant that is in health may do more work than one that is sick, and yet 
what a sick servant doth is as much accepted, because it is a trial of his 
faithfulness, though it be less. 

Secondly, The second main end that faith serves for, is to put men into 
the estate of grace and justification before God. It is that act upon which 
God pronounceth a man justified, therefore we are said to be 'justified by 
faith,' and to ' have access into this grace wherein we stand,' Rom. v. 1, 2, 
for though God loves a man from all eternity, yet he cannot save a man, 
and pronounce his sins forgiven, according to his rules in his word, till an 
act of faith hath passed, so as by reason of that act I am before God, accord- 
ing to his revealed will, in that estate I was not in before ; and so according 
to the rules of his word (which is the rule he will judge by), he can after 
that act pronounce a man's sins forgiven, which before he could not, if he 
keeps to his rules, as all other estates are conveyed by some mutual act, 

* See my sprmons on friendship with God, out of James ii. 23, the first reason of 
the doctrine. — M. S. 



CUAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 319 

so is the estate of grace. The main intent then of this act of faith being 
that God may justify me, and that I maybe saved, it is not therefore 
absolutely necessary to such an act that I should know I certainly do per- 
form it, but it may suffice to do the deed, that God knows it ; for real 
justification, and to be in the state of grace, and so accounted by God, is 
the main end of it. And therefore the apostles, though they knew the 
Father, and believed on him, John xiv. 1, 7, yet they knew not that they 
did know the Father, ver. 8. It was necessary they should know the 
Father, and honour his free grace by believing on it, or they could not 
have been justified; but it was not necessary they should know this, for 
then they had not indeed been justified. That I should know I am justi- 
fied is not necessary to God's justifying of me, but the intent of it is for 
my comfort, that I may have peace with God in my conscience ; ' There- 
fore being justified by faith ' (which is the prime act), ' we have peace with 
God,' as the fruit of it, Rom. v. 1 ; it tends to my joy in believing, and 
that I may have strong consolation. Now to the having a thing, it is not 
necessary that I know I have it, for a man may have a thing and think he 
hath lost it, and a man's hand may be so numbed with holding a thing 
that he may not know that he holds it. As to a being in the devil it is not 
necessary to know it, so nor to a being in Christ; God then hath chosen 
out such an act to justify a sinner as shall be common to all ages of Chris- 
tians, that the least may not be excluded, such an act as is common to all 
times and all estates. This act is faith of recumbence ; but faith of assurance, 
knowing myself to be in Christ, and to be justified, could not have been 
such a common and constant act that justifies, unless we will say it cannot 
be prevailed upon by doubts. Yea, I must be first justified by an act of 
faith, resting on Christ for justification, ere I can come to have assurance 
I am justified; for faith at first looks at my estate, not as in God's decree 
of election, but as it is laid down in the rules of the word; and according 
to the rules of the word I am not in a state of justification till I have be- 
lieved on Christ for justification, and on him that justifies the ungodly ; 
and therefore in Scripture men are said to believe ' that they may be justi- 
fied,' Gal. ii. 16 ; in that text the apostles themselves are said to do so. 
So then the first act of faith is casting myself on Christ for justification, 
and not believing that I am justified. 

I come now to answer the objections, the answers to which afford new 
reasons of the thing. 

Obj. 1. If faith be not an apprehension that Christ is mine, wherein 
then lies that special application and appropriation of Christ, and the pro- 
mise which is made to be in faith, and urged upon believers ? 

Ans. 1. I answer, First, We urge a special application as absolutely 
necessary in opposition to the papists' faith, who teach their followers that 
to believe only the general truths, that there is a God, and that Christ hath 
died, and to believe as the church believes, is true faith, which we say 
may be in devils, as James also affirms, James ii. 19. But we say, more- 
over, unless there be a further application, it is a vain faith; but then 
understand rightly what that particular application is, namely, when my 
heart is, by the belief of the generals, drawn in to Christ in particular, to 
rest on him for my own salvation ; when I assent not only as a witness to 
a will, but come in as a party, as a legatee, put in for a share, that Christ 
and all his benefits may be mine, and so give myself up to him, when 
special mercy to me is the aim of my faith. Here now is a true applica- 
tion and appropriation, for I rest not in a general assent, but my faith 
joins my heart to Christ, consents to take him as mine, and to be his, and 



350 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

the scope of my cleaving to hirn is that he may be mine. And this, as it 
is more than papists' faith, and is indeed the life of faith, so also is it less 
than assurance, which is rather a verbal challenging him as mine than a 
real appropriation. I apply Christ, when I believe on him that I may be 
saved, as well as when I believe he is mine, and I shall be saved. In the 
instance of the man in the Gospel that sold all he had to buy the pearl, 
that bargain of his made the pearl his, and did appropriate it to him, for 
thereby he bought it, and it was not a persuasion of its being his made it 
first his, but a selling all that it might be his, though that persuasion came 
in afterwards. 

Ans. 2. Secondly, For further clearing of this, I answer: You must 
know that there is a twofold application, the one is real, which makes a 
thing mine ; the other is axiomatical, whereby I say it is mine ; or, if you 
will, the one is an apprehension of the understanding, when I judge and 
discern, and can challenge this as mine ; the other is in the will, when I 
choose it for my portion, cleave to it as mine, take it to be mine. Now 
the main and first act of application of faith lies in the will, for that is the 
faculty that is drawn to Christ, whereby I come in particular to Christ, and 
join myself to him; it is therefore called receiving Christ, John i. 12, and 
therefore Christ puts it upon their will, John v. 40, ' Ye will not come to 
me that ye might have life.' As, for example, there is a double appropri- 
ation of meat or apparel, the one a challenging a lawful right, when I can 
say this meat is mine, I have a right to it, but the other is eating it, digest- 
ing it, and making it one flesh with me, and that is the true, real applica- 
tion that appropriates it; and so for clothes, it may be insignificant to^say 
they are mine, and belong to me, they may do so, and I never wear them ; 
but the true appropriation of them is to put them on, and wear them. 
So in medicines, to apply them to the sore for cure, to bring the salves and 
the flesh together, that is the real proper application of them. Thus it is 
in faith also, the cleaving to Christ in my will, the hungering after him, 
and digesting him, the putting him on, the laying my soul to him, this is 
the proper real application of him, this is an act af the will ; but to appre- 
hend he is mine, and so to challenge a right in him, that is but an axioma- 
tical application, an act of the understanding, though where it is in truth 
it increaseth that application, and draws the will more unto Christ. Now 
if the main application of faith lay in believing that Christ is mine, then 
it were mainly an act of the understanding, and a proposition were the 
chief object of it, and not Christ's person, and that drawing spoken of, 
John vi. 44, were specially drawing the understanding to assent, whereas 
it lies mainly in drawing my will to him, to choose him to be mine. 

Obj. 2. But you will say, I must believe Christ is mine ere my will 
can thus apply him, as I must believe meat is mine ere I eat it, and that 
clothes are mine ere I put them on. 

Ans. I answer, If the condition of making meat mine be to eat it, and 
if a father offers a child a suit, saying, it shall be his if he will wear it, 
then he must eat that meat first, and put those clothes on, that they may 
become his ; and so it is here. 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 351 

CHAPTER III. 

That Assurance of Salvation may be obtained. 

These things have 1 written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of 
God, that ye may know that ye hare eternal life, and that ye may believe on 
the name of the Son of God. — 1 John V. 13. 

The doctrine of assurance is that which of all other civil men and popish 
spirits do gainsay and calumniate, which they do out of ignorance, as men 
are apt to ' speak evil of that they know not,' Jude 10. Now assurance of 
salvation such men never had experience of, as Christ (speaking of the 
Spirit as a Comforter, John xiv. 1 7) says, ' The world cannot receive him, 
for it knows him not.' Neither are such men solicitous about it, for as- 
surance of earth here contents them, and makes them think themselves 
happy enough. They oppose this doctrine of assurance also out of envy, 
because they think much that so great a privilege should be bestowed upon 
any which themselves want, and therefore envying that others should ex- 
ceed them in so great a happiness, as this must needs be acknowledged, 
which indeed is able to outvie all other, they deny it, and would make it a 
thing impossible, and a fancy in them that have it. And the devil bears a 
great part in it also, who, when he cannot hinder the salvation of Christians 
in the event, would hinder their comfort ; and as he knows how much this 
assurance-office increaseth spiritual traffic, and raiseth the customs of God's 
glory and revenues of grace double, by encouraging Christians to trade 
more in all manner of holiness, so his spite therefore is exceedingly at it 
to put it down ; and indeed if he could get the opinion to prevail, that no 
such thing is to be attained, Christians would give over looking after it. 
And then, too, all our hearts naturally being fruitful of doubtings and dis- 
trust, are apt to join in with our enemies, and to be glad to hear of a doc- 
trine of doubtings ; and then also that presumptuous security which stills 
the hearts of many is at the best but blind careless hope, and that, too, 
counter- checked with a world of real guilt, so as in their own sense they 
cannot call it a certainty or infallibility ; and then such persons labouring 
after assurance (as in their opinions having thought it attainable), in the 
real pursuit of it find it so difficult that they are apt to give over, and to 
think it like that of the philosopher's stone, a devised invention, good in- 
deed if it could be procured, but not to be had ; and then those also who 
have attained it cannot demonstrate it to others, especially not to those 
who have not experience of it, for it is ' hidden manna, a white stone which 
none knows but he that receives it,' Rev. ii. 17. 'A stranger doth not 
meddlle with his joy,' Prov. xiv. 10 ; that is, it is a business he is not 
skilled in, as the opposition shews, for the words afore are, ' the heart 
knows the bitterness of his soul,' that is, terrors of conscience are best 
known to him that hath them. Carnal people will not believe there are 
any such troubles for sin, and when men are troubled they ascribe it to 
any other cause ; much less then will they believe their joys and assurance, 
which are more remote from their reason than the other. So as it is no 
wonder if that thing be denied which the most are ignorant of, and do 
envy at as the greatest happiness in others, and which the devil opposeth, 
and which is so hard to attain, and which is not demonstrable or obvious to 
sense. 

Now my purpose is both to establish and vindicate this work and doc- 



352 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

trine of assurance, it being both a work which furthers and advanceth the 
power of godliness in their hearts who enjoy it (as shall be shewn), and 
also it being a branch and appendix of faith, an addition or complement to 
faith, and therefore is called the assurance of faith, Heb. x. 22, it therefore 
lies next in my way. Now this text, 1 John v. 13, doth not only assure 
us that assurance of salvation may be obtained by believers, but further 
refers us to this whole epistle for the proof thereof: ' These things,' saith 
he, ' have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, 
that ye may know ye have eternal life.' 

I shall speak something of the coherence of the words, though indeed the 
words are the close and argument of the whole. In the 7th and 8th verses 
he tells us of fixed witnesses to confirm believers' faith, for of faith he had 
spoken, ver. 5, 6, and in ver. 10, 11 he tells us of the record or testimony 
which these witnesses give in their evidence of, which contains the sum of 
the gospel, and the object that faith is exercised about. 1. That eternal 
life is to be had alone in Christ. 2. That this eternal life he hath given 
to all believers; ' that God hath given us' — that is, believers, for to them 
he writes and intends his Epistle — ' eternal life.' Both these would God 
have to be believed and embraced, and for the confirmation of both serve 
those six witnesses. First, he would have men believe and rest in, and 
take his Son as the only fountain of life, which proposition the witnesses 
in heaven do especially confirm, which is called believing on him. Aod 
then, secondly, he would have these believers that have taken his Son, and 
believed in him, know and believe that they shall certainly be saved, be- 
cause they have his Son, and life in him ; for ' he that hath the Son hath 
life,' and he partakes of eternal life; and to that end God hath appointed 
the three witnesses on earth in a believer's own conscience, ver. 10. And 
to these two heads, especially the latter, is it that all this Epistle of John 
drives at ; that whereas there are many souls that do entertain that first 
record, that Christ is the fountain of life, and so depend on him, and rest 
in him alone, but yet are backward to entertain the other, namely, that they 
have the Son, and that they belong to Christ, and that they believe on him 
aright, therefore for such did he intend this Epistle, that they may come 
to the assurance of faith concerning their own particular estates : ' These 
things have I written to you,' saith he, ' that have believed on the name of 
the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have the Son, and that ye have 
eternal life.' And yet not for these only doth he write, but also that they 
which have some knowledge of this begun may know it yet more, that so 
they may go from one degree of faith to another, and further believe on 
his name. And because this text refers us to what is written iu this 
Epistle, I will content myself with what may thence be gathered as touch- 
ing both (it being a point the text calls for), viz., that not only believers 
may know they have eternal life, but that these things were written to assure 
them of it. 

First, Therefore let us argue from the scope of the whole Epistle ; those 
arguments which the Holy Ghost spends whole books upon, are certainly 
both of necessary and of common use. As when Solomon writ a book on 
purpose to shew the vanity of the creatures, when Paul writes an whole 
epistle to prove justification by faith, as that to the Galatians ; and another 
epistle to shew the natures and offices of Christ, as that to the Hebrews, 
these must be regarded as very considerable. Now John wrote his Gospel 
to prove Christ to be the Son of God, thereby to draw men to believe on 
him, that they might have eternal life : John xx. 31, ' These things are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; 



Chap. HE.] of justifying faith. 353 

and that believing ye might have life through his name;' and therefore he 
endeavours through the whole to give all the characters and demonstrations 
that ho was God, as divines observe. So, likewise, he wrote this his Epistle 
to teach them who believe how they may know that they do believe, and 
that they have eternal life, and to that end gives all the evidences and 
means that may tend to this. He not only demonstrates that eternal life 
is given to believers, but gives evidence that they might particularly know 
their interest. The signs given in this Epistle tend to this purpose. And 
farther to assure yon that this is his scope, the beginning of the Epistle 
doth answer to this his conclusion, for he puts in the argument of the whole, 
1 John i. 4, ' These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.' 
Joy ariseth only out of some good we know, and know, too, to be ours. 
Men, in a vulgar sense and phrase of speech, may be said to be happy, 
though they do not know it, as a king that is asleep, and a believer in a 
temptation, but rejoice in that their happiness they cannot, unless they 
know it; or at least it cannot be full joy else, not so full for parts as Chris- 
tians are here capable of. Full joy ariseth only out of the possession of 
the chiefest good, and the knowledge of it, and that is eternal life, and 
Christ in whom it is. Let the happiness be never so great, if the persons 
know not that it is theirs, their joy is diminished and detracted, and can 
in no sense be said to be full joy; and therefore the apostle says not only 
that he wrote these things that they might have eternal life, the chiefest 
good, but that they might know it, that so their joy might be full. Moral 
philosophers, disputing against Plotinus, who said the happiest condition 
might be without knowledge, bring this very argument against him, and 
argues truly, that reflection or knowledge of a man's happiness is neces- 
sarily required to it, for otherwise it is lessened. Reflection is a part of 
the perfection of a perfect action, and a man should see but imperfectly, 
he should but half see, who did not observe he saw; but especially a reflec- 
tion is essentially required to joy (which is the companion of happiness), 
and to full joy. 

Secondly, He wrote these things that they might have fellowship and 
communion with God and Christ. A soul may have real union, and the 
marriage knot which can never be untied, that is knit by faith, and by 
casting a man's self on Christ, but yet mutual fellowship and communion, 
and a mutual expression of love, and walking as friends, may be wanting. 
But now the comfort of friendship lies in the mutual knowledge and sense 
of each other's dearness and love. A man can have no hearty fellowship 
with one he thinks, for all that he knows, to be his enemy. Such suspi- 
cions are the bane of friendship. These things, therefore, the apostle 
wrote that we might have fellowship with Christ, as he had. Now, the 
fellowship that he had with God, he says, was this, chap. iv. 16, • We have 
known and believed the love of God to us.' This fellowship lies not in 
God's bearing us good-will simply, but in knowing and believing it, and 
that in such a manner as God hath it, that as he certainly doth bear love 
to us, so we certainly know it, and this fellowship he calls ' dwelling in 
love ;' for the soul walks in the assurance of it, and works in it, and lies 
down in it, as a man doth in his house, and he possesseth God's love, and 
knows it is his own, as he knows his house is his own. 

Therefore, tkirdbj, he calls upon believers to behold and consider God's 
love, as it is in a special manner set upon themselves in making them sons ; 
' Behold,' says he, ' what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon 
us, that we should be called the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 1. Of all things 
in God or men, love desires to have itself considered and taken notice of, as 

VOL. VIII. z 



354 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

much as wisdom, and power, or any other thing whatever, and therefore 
he calls on them to behold God's love ; and, above all, love desires notice 
to be taken of the party beloved, whom it is in special directed unto, more 
than of any other, for the emphasis lies in the speciality of it ; therefore 
he would not have them run out in general thoughts of admiring God's 
love to mankind, and his giving bis Son, but as having bestowed him on 
us. For when this great benefit is thus specially apprehended, it doubles 
our admiration of it, and then it takes and affects us. And to this purpose 
he bids them view their present condition into which they were put, viz., 
the estate of grace, to look on this more than God's love in giving Christ 
to die, and offering heaven, &c. ; they were to regard their being put into 
the present possession of it; ' That we are called,' says he, 'to be his 
sons;' and he bids them view it again and again what now at present they 
were : ' Beloved, now we are the sons of God,' says he, ver. 2. He ex- 
horts not only to blind hopes of heaven, and indefinite considerations of 
God's love to some, but to a joyful persuasion of their present particular 
happiness in that now they were sons ; and though the world knows us not 
to be such men, yet to our comfort we may know it, for to that end he 
brings in the world slighting us, as not knowing us, because it appears not 
what we are and shall be: ' But we know,' says he, ' that when he appears 
we shall be like him;' and let the world think of us what they will, we 
know what they are, and what ourselves are: chap. v. 19, ' We know we 
are of God, and that the whole world lies in wickedness ;' so that his scope 
is evident. Now, would the Holy Ghost lose all this labour, as if none 
could attain this assurance he should? Hath he not said, his word shall 
not return empty? 

And again, fourthly, he shews the blessed effects that would follow upon 
this assurance. 

1. The more assurance a man hath of being now at present the son of 
God, the more true hope he hath of what is to come in heaven ; and the 
more true hope a man hath, the more will he purify himself as Christ is 
pure, chap. iii. ver. 8. Carnal men calumniate this doctrine, as that which 
makes men secure, and more bold to sin, for if they were sure of heaven, 
then they might think to live as they please, as being sure to get thither : 
no ; it works a clean contrary effect, it makes a man purify himself. This 
doctrine he goes on at large to prove in the following verses, shewing that 
assurance is so far from making men unrighteous, that he whom it works 
not thus with, to make him more holy, hath no true assurance in him, but 
is manifestly the child of the devil, so ver. 10 ; so chap. ii. ver. 6, 9. Nay, 
there is not a greater means to keep from sin tban assurance ; therefore 
(says he), as my end of writing is, that you may know you have eternal 
life, so also, ' that ye sin not,' chap. ii. ver. 1. Now if there were danger 
of looseness in assurance, he could never have made these two ends meet 
in one epistle together, had not the one been a means to the other. Yea, 
and says he, when a man hath sinned, there is no speedier way to recover 
that man again, and reclaim him from sin, than assurance ; therefore, says 
he, in the same chapter, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins.' 
He bids them consider and believe this, and maintain the assurance of it, 
to raise them again. Then David's heart began to gush, and bleed, and 
break, when the prophet told him his sins were forgiven ; and therefore 
the apostle he useth that as a motive to the confession of sins, viz., the 
assurance that God will pardon them, chap. i. ver. 9, when a man knows 
not but out of his own mouth he may be condemned, he is loath to 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 355 

confess ; but when a pardon comes, he cares not what he lays open. 
And then, 

2. Assurance perfects our love to God, chap. iv. 1G, 17. ' Herein is 
our love made perfect,' ver. 17. Herein, that is, hereby, • that we know 
and believe God's love to us,' ver. 1G. As we cannot love one heartily, 
whom we apprehend to be an irreconcileable enemy, so we cannot love one 
perfectly whom we do not know to be a friend ; therefore, as full joy ariseth 
out of assurance of God's love, so perfect love ariseth only thence. Men 
may love God afore as one who may be reconciled to them, but now their 
love is perfected ; men may believe afore, but now their faith is perfected, 
and what is wanting supplied. And this perfect love, which ariseth out of 
assurance of God's love, doth cast out fear and jealousies, and suspicions, 
and a servile slavish temper ; it throws out such fear as hath torment joined 
with it, as apprehending God a judge, and ourselves under bondage. This 
fear the assurance of God's love frees us from, and casts out; much of which 
remains in many souls that have faith, and some love to God begun ; 
therefore, when assurance comes, their love is said to be made perfect, 
there is that degree added which frees them from their fears, and which 
completes their love begun. Now God would have all his children serve 
him without this fear, he would have this child of bondage cast out (that I 
may allude to the casting out of Hagar), yea, and that he would have us so 
freed from such fears he hath took an oath, Luke i. 74, ' that we should 
worship him without fear ;' and we shall serve him the better, though men 
[thatj have nothing but self-love in them, think that fears and doubtings 
are the only means to keep men in awe. And, 

3. As this assurance will breed full joy, perfect love, and cast out fear, 
so also confidence in God, and a certainty that our prayers are heard, 
which the apostle brings in as another motive to get this assurance, chap. iii. 
ver. 19, 21, 22, and so in the verse after my text, ver. 14, 'This is the 
confidence that is in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he 
hears us.' He brings it in as an effect of knowing we have eternal life ; 
for doubting that our persons are accepted, makes us doubt whether our 
prayers be ; and until then we shoot at rovers, as it were, and know not 
when our prayers will take or hit the white, whether they will come weep- 
ing home or granted. But when God hath given a man assurance of his 
love unto salvation, he useth often to give him the like special assurance 
for many special mercies, ver. 15, so as he knows he hath the petitions 
that he desired of him, knows it even then when he asks them, as by the 
context appears. This will encourage a man to pray, for then it is a man 
hath access to God with boldness, freedom of speech and confidence, Eph. 
iii. 12. And, 

4. As love, so faith is made more perfect also ; so as assurance helps 
faith also, and till then there is something wanting in faith. And there- 
fore in the text (if you mark it), says he, ' These things I write to you that 
believe, that ye may know ye have eternal life, and may believe on the 
name of the Son of God.' For when assurance comes in faith is increased, 
for it receives a new degree, whereas before there is something lacking in 
faith ; as philosophers say, to see and not observe is but an imperfect 
action, so to believe and not to know it is but half your faith ; and there- 
fore, Heb. x. 22, he exhorts to assurance of faith ; and therefore, Mat. ix. 2,* 
the word translated, ' Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee,' is 8uoou, 
that is, confide, believe, and be confident ; and therefore, Eph. iii. 12, we 
are said to ' have confidence in the faith of him ;' and therefore he 
urgeth it on them as their duty, as well to believe that God hath given 



356 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

them eternal life, as to begin to believe that life is in Christ, and so to fly to 
him : and (says he) ye make God a liar in not believing the one'Jas well 
as in not believing the other, ver. 10, for the believing not God in that 10th 
verse, whereby men make God a liar, is spoken to believers, and hath 
reference to this record, ' that God hath given us eternal life,' ver. 11 ; 
and therefore as they make God a liar that will not believe in Christ as the 
fountain of life, and as such a sufficient Saviour as God presents him to be 
(and the main ground men believe not, lies therein), for they thereby pro- 
claim they believe not Christ to be as God says he is, so the}" that have 
believed (having that witness in themselves, ver. 10, which would assure 
them of the goodness of their estates, would they listen to it, and cherish 
it), if they give way and ear to the doubts of their own hearts, they give 
God the lie, and will not receive his testimony, which is greater than any 
man's, ver. 9. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The objections against assurance answered. 

Now I proceed to answer cavils and objections which are most specious, 
and I shall answer them out of this Epistle, which is a sufficient abundary 
to establish this doctrine ; only I premise, that I will name no more of 
them but what may hence be confuted, nor add any further confirmation 
of those confutations than what the Epistle affords. 

Obj. 1. The first evasion is this ; it is pretended that the persons to 
whom this great privilege is vouchsafed were men of extraordinary grace, 
as apostles, and some few such it may be attainable by, but every ordinary 
man cannot, nor must now look for this privilege. 

Ans. I answer, As the scope of St John is to assure all believers, so he 
says in general that he writes it to them that believe ; not to apostles only, 
but to you that believe, says St John, one of the apostles ; yea, he writes 
to all believers, for it was ever yet deemed a catholic general Epistle, as 
the title of it is. Yea, and if the apostle, and St John himself, had assur- 
ance (and if any of them had, I should think that this disciple, that Christ 
loved, and who lay in his bosom, and who knew his heart, and whom the 
disciples employed to get out Christ's secrets, had assurance), then other 
believers may have it too. He speaks to this purpose, 1 John iv. 14, 16, 
' We who saw Christ do testify these things ; ' ' we know and have believed 
the love that God hath to us.' He tells them his scope was, that they 
believers might have fellowship with us ; you believers with us apostles ; 
that is, that they might have the same fellowship : ' And our fellowship,' 
saith he, ' is with God the Father, and God the Son,' 1 John i. 3. Yea, 
Christ told his apostles, John xv. 9-11, that ' as his Father loved him, so 
he loved them ; ' and he had said as much afore in that sermon, and all 
this was to assure them that they should undoubtedly be saved, and greater 
assurance could not be given : « These things have I spoken to you,' says 
he, ' that your joy might be full,' ver. 11, i. e., ' that my joy might remain 
in you ; ' Christ's meaning is, that his joy might be in them. Now Christ's 
joy arose out of assurance that the Father loved him, and he would have 
them enjoy the same joy, not for measure, for that is impossible, but for truth, 
to arise out of the same cause, and from the same grounds; that so your joy 
might be full. Now the same joy that Christ wisheth to them, the same 
doth St John to all believers ; and as Christ says that he spake those things 
that their joy might be full, so St John says that he wrote these things that 



Chap. IV.J of justifying faith. 357 

their joy might be full also. So that (to wind up this) as Christ had assur- 
ance, and joy thence arising, so he here endeavoured to raise in his dis- 
ciples the same, that they might have his joy, and full joy ; and the apostles 
endeavoured too to beget the same joy in believers that was in themselves : 
• That ye may have fellowship with us, and that your joy may be full,' 1 John 
i. 3, 4. Now wherein were the apostles to rejoice but in this, that their names 
were written in heaven ; so Christ says, Luke x. 20, that as in matter of 
holiness Paul and the apostles propounded Christ as a pattern, and themselves 
as an example, as they followed Christ, — ' Be ye followers of us, as we are 
of Christ,' — so in point of assurance Christ propounds his joy as the pattern 
for the apostles, and they theirs for believers ; and therefore this privilege 
is not to be looked for only in them, but in believers. 

Obj. 2. The second evasion is this; it is objected, that though assurance 
may be vouchsafed to some of lower rank than apostles, yet it is to such 
as are of long standing in Christianity, who after long experience have 
hope and assurance begotten in them. 

Arts. I grant it, that many not till then have had it, yet it is attainable 
for others also ; for all sorts of ages in Christ, for babes, young men, old 
men : 1 John ii. 14, ' I write to you babes];' ver. 12, ' for your sins are 
forgiven you.' He tells them so, because it is that thing he goes about to 
persuade them of ; it is pardon which is the great thing they have in their 
eye when they are young, and that is the grand mercy they are in pursuit 
of, and which they most pray for, and are most solicitous about. And 
though they are but babes, and so have but little faith, yet he says, their 
sins are forgiven ; to you, babes and infants, it is given to know this, which 
is hid from the wise and prudent. Christ therefore tells many new converts 
on the first day, that their sins were forgiven, and he tells this to those of 
ordinary rank, not disciples and apostles only : so he told that palsy man, 
Mat. ix. 2 ; so he said to Mary, who was lately a sinner, a known sinner, 
Luke vii. 37, 39 (and the Pharisees thought her so still), he tells her, 
ver. 48, ' Thy sins are forgiven thee ; ' and to another, saith he, ' Thy 
faith hath made thee whole.' And seeing your sins are forgiven you, 
though you be but of a day's standing, therefore you may take the comfort 
of it as well as others. And the apostle John gives this reason of his 
writing to them : * Children, because,' says he, ' you have known the 
Father.' Aristotle observes it, and experience finds it true, that one of 
the first acts of reason in children is, to call upon their fathers and 
mothers, for they are apt to know them soonest of anything, and therefore 
the first words they speak are Mam and Dad, &c. So to babes in Chris- 
tianity, one of the first fruits of the Spirit in them often is, to call upon 
God as a Father, to own God as a Father, to express child-like affection to 
him as to a father, and to seek his fatherly love ; and though all babes 
cannot say he is their Father, yet they come to him as children to a father. 
Now this knowledge and instinct after God as a Father being in all babes, 
the apostle endeavours to raise it, and to teach them to know their Father 
more ; but the Church of Rome teacheth her children to know their 
mother, but to doubt of their father, which is a sign they are bastards, and 
she a strumpet. 

Obj. 3. The third evasion is, to object concerning the manner of assur- 
ance, though indeed they will grant that by an extraordinary revelation and 
certificate from heaven men may be assured, as Paul was, who was rapt up 
into the third heaven, and as those were by Christ when he was upon the 
earth ; yet they deny that in the ordinary way of God's dealing with men 
such assurance is attained. 



358 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

Arts. But St John here gives ordinary directions how men may come to 
be assured, for he writes an whole Epistle on purpose, which if men 
believe not, neither would they believe if one from the dead, or an angel 
from heaven, should assure them ; and he tells us, that there are not only 
witnesses in heaven, but also witnesses on earth, in a believer's own breast ; 
a believer hath the witness in himself, and carries a work of faith and 
sanctification in him, to which if he give ear he may come to be assured, 
1 John v. 8, 10 ; and to this end the apostle gives many signs of the work 
of grace in a man. 

Obj. 4. Yea, but they object, fourthly, that let these signs be never so 
infallible in themselves, so as he that hath them in him shall surely be 
saved, yet the word names no man in particular ; it says not that thou, 
John or Thomas, hast these things in thee. 

Ans. In answer to this, John tells us two things : First, That ' every 
one who believeth hath the witness in himself,' a work of the Spirit in him, 
whence this testimony may be fetched, chap. v. 10. And, secondly, that 
' he hath given us his Spirit also,' chap. hi. 24, to witness and testify with 
the word, and with the work in a man's heart, and make application, chap. v. 
ver. 6. As therefore, when they ask how we knaw that the Scripture is 
the word of God ? for, say they, it is nowhere written that it is the word, 
we answer, that it is an authentical proof of itself, it carries its own testi- 
mony with it ; so is grace, and the word written in the heart of a believer : 
that word engrafted, and the law written in the heart, is an authentic 
evidence of itself ; and as God's Spirit accompanies his word with a divine 
light and authority, so he doth his own work in the heart ; there is but 
this difference, that the one is the word written with ink, the other delineated 
with the Spirit of the living God. And if the apostle says of the Corin- 
thians, that they were so fair an epistle of Christ, that it might be known 
and read of all men, much more then is this true of themselves. 

Obj. 5. Fifthly, they say, Yea, but our hearts are deceitful ; and who 
can know them ? and many are deceived. 

Ans. I answer, that it is true that the natural frame of it is such ; and 
yet the apostle, in this Epistle, refers men to the judgment of their own 
hearts, as a witness in this point. 1. As for matter of condemnation, 
therein the testimony of a man's own heart may be right, and give in a 
right verdict, though it may be thus deceitful ; for in a man's own cause a 
deceitful person will take part with himself : therefore, if such an one con- 
demns himself, his witness is so much the more authentic ; and therefore, 
says he, ver. 20 of the third chapter, ' If our hearts condemn us, God is 
greater than our hearts, and condemns us much more.' And, 2, as the 
testimony of our deceitful hearts, though deceitful, may be taken for con- 
demnation, so the testimony of our renewed hearts may be admitted for the 
justification of a man's estate ; therefore he adds, ver. 21, ' If our hearts 
condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God.' 3. Though it be 
true that our hearts as natural are deceitful, yet, chap. v. ver. 20, he says, 
that ' the Son of God hath given us a mind that we may know him that is 
true, and we are in him that is true.' So that though our spirits are 
deceitful, yet that new understanding is given on purpose to know the truth, 
and to discern of it. And, 4, though our own hearts are deceitful, if left 
naked, yet he hath not left us without another witness to guide this new 
mind, and that is his Spirit : chap. ii. ver. 20, 27, ' You have received an 
unction, which teacheth you all things.' And that Spirit is one of the 
witnesses, chap. v. ver. 6, 8. 

Obj. 6. Yea, but they object, sixthly, that there are many enthusiasms, 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 359 

and Satan joins with hypocrites' hearts, and deludes them, and so a man 
shall not be able to know the Spirit's witness from that of this great deceiver. 

Ana. The apostle tells us, chap. v. ver. 0, ' It is the Spirit that beareth 
witness, because the Spirit is truth.' That is, did he not give an infallible 
testimony, he were not fit to be reckoned a witness ; and if he is a witness, 
then he is so as to persuade men to whom he gives witness, for why else is 
he said to witness ? And this record too is the record of God, which is 
greater than man's, and therefore infallible : chap. ii. ver. 27, ' This anoint- 
ing,' says he, ' teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie : ' that 
is, doth not, cannot deceive you. A man may see a thing with false lights, 
and be deceived ; but if I see a thing with the light of the sun, I see it with 
a true light, and am not deceived. 

Obj. 7. They object yet seventhly, That it is true man may have such a 
knowledge, as is joined with some probable hope, and a good and a happy 
conjecture, which often doth not deceive in the end, but yet not such but 
there wants an infallibility, so as there may falsum subesse, be a mistake 
at the bottom. 

Ans. I answer, How often doth John inculcate, ' By this we know,' and 
' We know,' &c. ? and more expressly, chap. ii. ver. 3, ' Hereby we know 
we know him.' We know him was too little : he therefore adds, But ice 
know ice know him ; and chap. iii. ver. 19, ' We know we are of the truth' 
(how can this be without infallibility ?), ' and shall assure our hearts afore 
him.' If they themselves were to put words of assurance into any testi- 
mony or into any bond, they could not say more, or put in more expressions 
to put all out of doubt. 

Obj. 8. True, say some in the eighth place, they may know at the pre- 
sent that they are the sons of God (' Now we are the sons of God,' 1 John 
iii. 2) ; but what will become of us hereafter ? Whether we shall continue 
so, we know not. 

Ans. The apostle answers them in that third chapter, ver. 2, 3, that 
indeed what the great glory of that estate hereafter will be, they knew not, 
nor the world knows not ; and in outward appearance they are now (though 
for the present the sons of God) of all men most miserable ; and therefore, 
in regard of their outward garb and splendour, it doth not appear what they 
shall be, as it doth not appear what wicked men shall be ; but yet, for the 
certainty of our future condition, as now we are the sons of God, so ' we 
know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.' 

Obj. 9. Yea, but, ninthly, it will be said, there are many that seemed a3 
good as yourselves, whom you thought good Christians, and they thought 
themselves such, and yet they have turned apostates ; and will not their 
falling away dash a believer's assurance ? 

Ans. He answers, ver. 19 of the second chapter, that they were never 
true : ' They went out from us, because they were not of us ; if they had 
been of us they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out 
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.' 

Obj. 10. Yea, but yet, tenthly, in that there are such among professors, 
who are a great while not manifested to themselves or others, may not this 
however disparage and bring all to an uncertainty in the best, seeing they 
know not but they may prove such ? 

Ans. No, says the apostle, ver. 20, ' but ye have an unction from the 
Holy One, and ye know all things.' He speaks by way of difference, and 
to answer the cavil ; and ver. 27, ' That same anointing teacheth you all 
things, and is truth, and is no lie,' and therefore by his teaching you are 
not deceived. And, among other things, he hath taught you the truth of 



360 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

your estates, even as it hath taught you that you shall abide in him ; and 
chap. iii. 19, ' Hereby we know we are of the truth.' 

Obj. 11. But, eleventhly, it 4 will be objected, will not this assurance 
make men licentious, and secure, and more careless ? 

Ans. No, says the apostle ; however presumption in carnal hearts may 
work, yet in those who are truly godly it hath the contrary effect. For he 
that hath this particular hope for himself, hereafter to be like Christ, and 
to be at present the child of God, this hope conforms him to Christ here, 
to whom he must be conformed hereafter : ' He purifies himself as he is 
pure.' It works out corruption ; and, therefore, ver. 1 of the second 
chapter, he says, he wrote these things ' that they might not sin. 

Obj. 12. But poor believers they object, twelfthly, that they fall into sin, 
and then all their assurance is clean dashed and eclipsed. 

Ans. As, in the third chapter, there is a seed mentioned which remains 
in them unshaken out, so they may if they sin go with a confidence to God 
through Christ, and recover themselves : ' If any man sin,' says he, 1 John 
ii. 1, ' we have an advocate with the Father,' &c. — an advocate that never 
pleaded bad cause, or was cast in his suit, and who pleads with a father 
and not with a judge, and who is ' Jesus Christ the righteous ;' whose 
righteousness is eternal, and which no sin can outvie, and which is made 
ours ; so as 'if we confess our sins,' chap. i. 9, 'he is a just God in nothing 
else but to forgive them, and to cleanse us also from all unrighteousness,' 
and hath bound himself to both by promise ; and hence, and hence only, 
ariseth full joy and perfect charity, ver. 4 of the first chapter, and ver. 17 
of the fourth chapter. Love can never be perfect when a man is possessed 
with jealousies of enmity that may be for time to come ; therefore, ' true 
love casts out such fear,' ver. 18 of that fourth chapter. Am are tanquam 
aliquando osurum, venerium est amiciticc, to love as one who afterwards will 
hate is the poison of friendship ; so that no joy can be full, though in the 
greatest good, the enjoyment of which for time to come is uncertain. 

CHAPTER V. 

How assurance is produced in the heart of a believer, by three witnesses in 
heaven, and three witnesses on earth. — The different nature of the testimony 
which they give. 

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and tlie 
Holy Ghost : and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness 
in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 
—1 John V. 7, 8. 

As we have seen the apostle's scope, in this Epistle, to have been chiefly, 
first, to assure God's people ; and, secondly, to shew the fruits of such 
assurance as motives to it ; so, in the next place, let us consider what he 
hath written that may help a believer to this assurance ; what directions, 
what helps, what evidence he hath described, whereby he may come to be 
assured. This will both demonstrate tbat this is in the scope of this Epistle, 
as likewise shew that assurance may be had, by shewing from what grounds 
and proofs it is derived. He directs them to two trinity of witnesses, 
whereof three are in heaven, and three on earth; fori take it that all these 
six witnesses have their evidence set to one and the same record, both that 
Christ is the fountain of life, and that God hath given to a believer eternal 
life. These witnesses do not part or divide their witness (as if the three 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 361 

in heaven should witness to the one part, and those on the earth to the 
other) ; but as each classis of these agree among themselves in one, so they 
both agree in the same testimony unto both ; and, therefore, as the wit- 
nesses on earth do witness to a believer that he hath eternal life, so those 
in heaven do join singly in this very testimony also. And because, in all 
things we would have proof of, the greatest furtherance any one can do, is 
to produce and direct us to such as are the only true, faithful witnesses that 
can speak infallibly in the cause, therefore John, to help a poor believer in 
this great point of assurance, points out to him the sole infallible witnesses 
that can give in evidence, which, if he do attend unto, and examine, and 
seek unto for their witness, he may get evidence sufficient. And in this 
point he brings plenty out of both courts, both of heaven and on earth, 
three in either ; that as none were condemned but under the mouth of two 
or three witnesses, so none are assured of salvation but by as many. These 
witnesses serve, as I said, to confirm two records : the one, that Jesus was 
that Christ, and the Son of God ; the other, that we are sons in him, and 
heirs of life. We have the same, and as many as Jesus Christ hath. Now 
we are to consider them as they are witnesses to our title and adoption. 

Of those three in heaven, and who are meant by them, there is no diffi- 
culty among interpreters. The being of the three persons, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, and how they have given testimony to this part of the 
record, that Jesus is the Son of God, is evident in the story of the Gospel : 
the Father from heaven, saying, ' This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased, hear him ;' and Christ himself, who came from heaven, 
witnessed of himself, as often in the gospel of John is evident — for instance, 
John iv. 26 ; and the Holy Ghost witnessed this by descending upon him, 
Mat. iii. 16, 17 ; Acts v. 32. 

But how these three witness salvation to a believer is a difficulty, and a 
thing not ordinarily observed. As also again, what should be meant by 
blood, water, and spirit, this hath puzzled interpreters. I accord with 
those who, 

First, By blood understand the work of justification on a poor sinner, 
and, by a synecdoche and metonymy, all that whichtgoes to his justifica- 
tion. By blood then here is to be understood both that which is the object 
of faith as justifying, which in Christ you know is chiefly his blood (which 
is called ' the blood of the New Testament, shed for the remission of sins ; ' 
that is, that blood which ratifies all the promises of the New Testament, 
his blood being put for all his obedience), as also that rich grace in God 
which sprinkles or applies this blood to poor sinners, and which faith in his 
blood looks unto : Rom. iii. 24, 25, ' Being justified by his grace, through 
the redemption that is in Christ : whom God hath set forth to be a propi- 
tiation, through faith in his blood.' All these synecdochically are com- 
prehended in blood, in this place of John, even Christ's blood shed, and 
free grace sprinkling it, and the promises ratified by it, which are the 
object of faith. And by a metonymy the work of faith itself is also meant, 
which lays hold on this' blood (the object connotating the act itself), that 
is, faith in his blood. In a word, the whole work of justification, and 
whatever goes to it, is meant by blood. 

Secondly, By water I understand sanctification, both in the habits and 
fruits of it ; for whom Christ's blood justifies, it also doth cleanse and 
sanctify, and washeth away the filth of sin ; thus it is expressed John 
iii. 5, a man being regenerated, and 'born again of water and the Holy 
Ghost ; ' that is, of the Holy Ghost working as water, purifying and cleansing. 
So says the apostle too, Eph. v. 26, ' Christ gave himself for his church, 



362 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT II. BOOK II. 

that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the 
word.' And as habitual regeneration or sanctification, so actual cleansing 
a man's self daily is signified to us by water ; thus in Isa. i. 16, • Wash 
you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings ; cease to do evil, 
learn to do well.' Especially purifying the heart is denoted by it, which 
is done by faith, and follows upon believing ; thus Jer. iv. 14, ' Wash thy 
heart from wickedness ; how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within 
thee ? ' It makes the heart fruitful unto every good work, and every grace 
to grow up in a man, Ps. i. 

And that these two witness that Christ is the Son of God may easily be 
conceived : as, first, that his blood is able to take away the guilt of sin 
(which nothing else could do), this argues it to be the blood of God, Acts 
xx. 20. The force of it lies in this, that it was ' offered by the eternal 
Spirit,' Heb. iii. 14, so likewise water witnesseth it, in that it should be 
able to subdue sin, wash away the power of it, change the heart, make a 
man a new creature ; all this argues him to be the Saviour of the world, 
Acts v. 31, and that these do also join to give in testimony to assurance, 
that God hath given a man eternal life, is also evident by that in Heb. 
x. 22, 'Let us draw near with full assurance of faith.' And what conduceth 
to effect that assurance, and to help it forward ? Both these here men- 
tioned : first, ' having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.' And 
by what is that done ? By this blood here meant ; see Heb. ix. 14, 'How 
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered 
himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works ? ' 
This blood, sprinkled on the conscience by faith, helps forward assurance of 
faith. The second is also mentioned, ' having our bodies washed with 
pure water ; ' that is, our whole man sanctified and cleansed. He writing 
to the Hebrews, speaks in the language of the Levitical law, which he 
explains to them in all that Epistle, in which there was the sprinkling of 
the blood of goats by hyssop, which signified justification, or the sprinkling 
of Christ's blood upon the conscience, Heb. ix. 13, 14, and also they 
washed their bodies with water when they went to sacrifice and were un- 
clean, which signified the sanctification of the whole man, body being put 
for the whole; as Kom. xii. 1, 'Offer up your bodies a reasonable sacri- 
fice to God,' that is, your whole man ; which phrase he useth when he 
alludes to the sacrifices of the law, as there he doth. 

Now then, the third witness, the Spirit, is the Holy Ghost, who comes 
down from heaven and dwells here on earth in the heart of a believer, and 
so takes part with him, and joins his witness to these other two, his testi- 
mony being the greatest, the clearest of all the rest. And his witness we 
may find Kom. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits, 
that we are the sons of God.' He joins his testimony to the other two, 
and puts all out of question. Now, both these two testimonies of blood, 
that is, the work of justification and faith, and water, that is, sanctifica- 
tion, Paul shuts up in one, namely, ' our spirit ; ' not our spirit as naked 
in itself, our natural spirit, which is full of deceit, but as framed and 
renewed to the obedience of faith and true holiness, and as enlightened and 
irradiated by the Spirit, and so fitted to witness the truth ; and both those 
testimonies he calls the witness of our spirits, because our apprehending 
justification and believing, as also that of sanctification, are works seated 
in and of our spirits. The testimony of both those is fetched and produced 
out of the records that are written in our own bosoms, from those gracious 
acts and dispositions, and dealings of God with our spirits, in drawing us 
to faith, and justifying, and also sanctifying of us ; and they are called our 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 303 

spirits, to distinguish both those from that other testimony of the Spirit 
which is fetched out of the records in God's own breast, and quoteth not, 
nor referreth us not to any dealing of God with us, or work in us, but is 
an immediate voice of God's Spirit. And this John himself intimates unto 
us (to accord John and Paul), that by some of these witnesses he means 
the work of God in ourselves (which Paul calls our spirits), when he adds, 
' He that believe th hath the witness in himself,' whereby he declares that 
some of those witnesses, both the work of faith and sanctification, are 
works of and in himself, and that they may give him some evidence. The 
meaning is, he carries in his own bosom written the matter of a good testi- 
mony, if produced, and viewed, and examined. 

Having found out what the witnesses are John directs us unto, let us see 
how they witness. 

First, The work of faith in Christ's blood, and the blood of Christ 
sprinkled by faith, have a testimony in them if examined ; that is, when 
first a man sees he was brought in, and his heart won to believe, according 
to the true tenor and right course of the Spirit in the work of faith, and 
upon the right grounds, motives, and terms, and reasons the word chalks 
out, and according to the right aim, and intent, and purpose of God in the 
gospel, which is in justification to set up Christ's blood, and his rich grace; 
when he sees he came in at the right door of faith, as Acts iv. 27 ; when 
he sees that God's Spirit opened to him, and guided him in at the right 
door; in brief, when he hath seen the guilt of his sin as the greatest evil, 
an emptiness and insufficiency of help in himself, or anything in him for 
time past, present, or to come, and in all creatures and means whatever, 
and then hath had the fountain of Christ's blood opened to him, as Hagar 
had that well by the angel, which she saw not ; when he spies Christ 
out, and his blood as the only means to help him, and sees the all- 
sufficiency of redemption in it to wash him, justify him, and prizeth it 
accordingly, and thirsts after a draught of it, and hungers after nothing 
but his righteousness, so as nothing can down with him else, and he eyes 
nothing but it, and resolves to have help from nothing but him ; and when 
bethinking himself how to close with Christ, and to get an interest in that 
blood, he finds God graciously opening the riches, the freeness of his 
grace, that imputeth, sprinkleth it, and is enabled to see grace so free, so 
rich, that nothing in himself can hinder it, as nothing in himself can 
further it ; and not only so, but when he finds God's Spirit secretly still 
dealing with him to take it, to take God at his offer of it, as being faithful, 
serious in it, as being also the richest purchase that ever the world had ; 
when he finds God's Spirit reasoning with him in private, answering and 
taking away his scruples and objections that lie betwixt him and the 
taking of it, urging him, pressing him, laying afore him God's command 
to believe his threatenings, his invitations, his willingness, and he sees 
how welcome he shall be; when he finds God's Spirit drawing and 
winding in his heart to close with Christ and his blood, and, he knows not 
how, over-persuading him to rest in Christ, and to cast himself on him, 
causing him to trust in him, which else he should never have done, and 
so he takes Christ with all his offices, to give himself up to him, to rest in 
him, to go no further, no whither else for help ; when he finds he can 
with some secret establishment of spirit implead the arguments of faith, 
wield faith's weapons, and find his spirit strengthened thereby against 
carnal reasons and guilt, so as he comes away from the bar and throne of 
grace with a kind of victory over the pleadings and condemnings of his 
heart, and is he not non-plussed, but sees in free grace and Christ's blood 



364 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

sufficient matter suggested to answer to all, and so he rests ; when he 
finds that as out of self-flattery he is not encouraged to believe, but out of 
the importunity of God's Spirit that follows him with such thoughts, that 
God will have it so, so also that his heart is raised above self-love in it to 
God's aim and end in justifying, namely, to admire the riches of bis grace, 
to adore the all- sufficiency of his blood, to ascribe all to it. And then, as 
the work of faith in Christ's blood, so the effect of his blood thus appre- 
hended, impleaded, evidenceth it to him ; for still when guilt ariseth he 
can oppose Christ's blood to it, and bathes his soul in thoughts of faith 
about it, and so finds the guilt quelled, allayed, his conscience pacified, 
stilled, and quieted by it, when no duties nor nothing else will give him 
ease. This, if a man observe these things, may be an evidence to him 
that Christ's blood is sprinkled on him. This is the testimony of blood — 
as, Heb. xii. 24, it is said, ' The blood of Christ speaks better things than 
the blood of Abel' — this same speaking comfortable things in the con- 
science of a man, and easing a man of his load, purging, pacifying, stilling, 
allaying the conscience when nothing but his blood doth it, not duties, 
not vain hopes ; this is the witness of blood, though bloody iniquities cries 
loud, as the blood of Abel in Cain's conscience, yet this blood speaks better 
things ; and a man still in distress can have, with some support, recourse 
to this blood, when to nothing else, and finds the faith in it secretly sup- 
porting him. This is the first witness, when a man observes this ; for 
though faith is not assurance, yet upon believing a man may have some 
evidence from the work of it, and the effect of Christ's blood in his con- 
science apprehended by faith; and therefore the Scripture points us to 
the work of faith, as that which may be known, and which gives in evi- 
dence. So in the first verse of this chapter he says, ' He that believes is 
born of God ; and therefore Christ said to that poor man, ' If thou canst 
believe;' 'Lord,' says he, 'I believe; help my unbelief,' Mark ix. 24. 
He could not have answered so unless he could have discerned the work of 
faith in himself. So that new convert, Acts viii. 37, ' If thou believest 
with thy whole heart, thou mayest be baptized.' Baptism was the ordi- 
nance to men newly converted, which conveyed the Spirit as sealing, bap- 
tism being the seal of righteousness ; and this man, before thus sealed by 
baptism, could tell he believed, for he answers, ' I do believe that Jesus ia 
the Son of God.' 

The second witness is the work and workings of sanctification, water. 
The believer finds that closing thus with Christ changeth him, renews him, 
washeth him from the power of sin, puts a new spirit and principle into 
him, clean opposite to sin, so as he cannot sin ; he finds a new spring of 
gracious dispositions in him, still bubbling naturally up, and cleansing, and 
working out corruptions, John iv. 14 ; he finds many several streams of it, 
of love to God and Christ, and that for themselves, a stream of hatred of 
sin running against a stream of love to it; every grace is a stream in him, 
and all his graces do testify also, if they be observed. Read this Epistle of 
John ; you will find he cuts this water into many rills and signs, in every 
of which, as so many signs, believers may see and have some evidence of 
their estates. And he says not only that such dispositions are in God's 
children, but he presents them to them as signs whence they might know 
they have eternal life, it being his scope to help believers this way. One 
sign that he gives is a bent of heart to keep all God's commandments : 
chap. ii. ver. 3, ' Hereby we do know we know him, if we keep his com- 
mandments;' and verse 5, 'Hereby we know we are in him,' especially 
then, when 'the commandments are not grievous;' and chap. v. ver. 3, 



CllAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 860 

'This,' says be, 'is the love of God, that we keep his commandments;' 
that is, this is the certain sign and fruit of it. So chap. ii. ver. 29, ' Ye 
know,' says ho, ' that every one that doth righteousness is born of him.' 
So purging a man's self from sin upon tho hope and assurance of heaven, 
is another sign described by him: chap. iii. ver. 8, 'Every one that hath 
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.' So having a seed 
in a man contrary to sin, that he cannot sin, is another sign which he 
displays : ver. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his 
seed remainethj in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' 
So love to the brethren is another distinguished character: ver. 14, 'We 
know we are passed from death to life, when wo love the brethren,' 
when it is such love as we could lay down our lives, our estates, and goods 
for the church, ver. 16, 17; and this love is in deed and in truth hearty, 
real, ver. 18; then hereby we know we are of the truth, ver. 20; and then 
finding the Spirit dwelling in us, is another mark of our good state : verse 
24, ' Hereby we know he abideth in us, by the Spirit he hath given us;' 
and then he gives signs suitable to those times, and to hinder their being 
mischiefed by the false teachers among them, chap. iv. And also he gives 
reasons still why such signs are infallible ; this you may observe if you 
read this Epistle, as when he shews that if we love God it is certain God 
loves us, chap. iv. verse 10, proving it by this strong reason, because his 
love is the cause of ours, verse 19 ; so he shews why love to the brethren 
is an infallible sign, chap. iv. verse 7, and chap. v. verse 1, because love is 
of God, and he is the fountain of it, and he that loves the begetter loves 
the begotten, and so on the contrary. And also he proves sometimes one 
sign by another : chap. v. verse 2, ' By this we know that we love the 
children of God, because we love God, and keep his commandments.' So 
that when one sign is not so evident, yet a man may have recourse to 
another : and then also, when a man's heart is raised by faith to overcome 
this world, to despise the good things of it, and endure all the evil, when 
he is tried in both, and overcomes both through faith, chap. v. verse 14, 
he makes it a sign of being born of God. And you shall observe withal, 
that he doth this by way of difference, giving the contrary as infallible 
signs of wicked men ; he that walks in any sin ' hates his brother,' such 
an one ' is in darkness,' chap, ii., ' knows not God,' chap. iii. verse 6, but 
1 is of the devil,' verse 8. ' And he that loves not the saints abides in 
death, and is a murderer, and hath not eternal life in him,' verse 14. 

I shall name no more, but return to this testimony of water, and add 
this, that as that of blood is a testimony drawn from quelling the guilt of 
sin, and opposite thereto, so this of water is a testimony drawn from sub- 
duing the power of sin, and putting in contrary principles. Now as the 
power of sin, when it prevails, strengthens the guilt of sin against us, and 
raiseth doubts, so when the cleansing power of grace prevails, it helps to 
strengthen faith in Christ's blood. Faith having once rightly and alone 
closed with Christ's blood to justify the believer, and having ascribed all to 
it, then water may come in as a witness to justify that faith. Now the 
ordinary error is, that men neglect the blood of Christ, and the work of 
faith, and the sprinkling of it on their consciences for justification, and the 
evidence thereof, and betake themselves wholly to water, ere they have 
closed with this blood. They would see themselves sanctified ere they 
have closed with justification. But if a man hath been guided once aright 
in the work of faith, and his heart pitched right for justification, to seek it 
alone in blood, then water comes fitly in as a witness, and is to be listened 
unto ; but till then, the danger is, lest men should have that recourse to 



366 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BOOK II. 

water which they should have to the blood of Christ, and rest therein for 
justification. 

The third witness is that of the Spirit, whereby is meant an immediate 
testimony of the Holy Ghost, superadded to all these. The testimony of 
faith finding ease in Christ's blood, as rested in alone for salvation, is often 
prevailed against by the guilt of sin, and counter-checked ; and that testi- 
mony of water is worn out and obliterated by the power of sin, which 
also strengthens that guilt ; so as though the soul hath an assurance, 
depending on the prevalency of the fruits of grace in itself, which when the 
prevalency of that grace and faith is in the soul may give a certainty, yet 
it is such as even then the soul lingers after, and waits for a further dis- 
covery, and is taught to do so. There is therefore a third testimony, and 
that is of the Holy Ghost himself, which is immediate ; that is, though it 
backs and confirms what the other two said, yet quotes them not, builds 
not his testimony on them, but raiseth the heart up to see its adoption and 
sonship, by an immediate discovery of God's mind to it, and what love he 
hath borne to it ; which is not argued from what is wrought in itself, but 
God says unto a man's soul (as David desires), ' I am thy salvation,' Ps. 
xxxv. 3, and as Christ said upon earth to some few, ' Thy sins are forgiven 
thee,' so from heaven it is spoken by his Spirit (which yet dwells in the 
heart afore), that a man's sins are forgiven, and he is owned by the whole 
Trinity to be God's child. And this testimony was that which the apostles 
received, when they received the Holy Ghost after Christ's ascension as a 
Comforter, whom yet they had before already, and knew by the fruits and 
effects of him, both water and blood, faith and holiness, that he was in them, 
but yet not so as afterward, John xiv. 16-20, they now knew the Spirit, 
and he dwelt in them, verse 17, they knew before that they had grace, and 
that they believed ; so Peter says, ' I believe that thou art the Son of God.' 
And after his death, afore the Holy Ghost was given, when Christ asked if 
he loved him ? Peter says he did : ' Thou knowest I love thee,' John 
xxi. 16. They had the testimony of water and blood both, but they had 
not yet the Spirit as a Comforter immediately sealing up all : 'I will send 
you the comforter,' says Christ, John xiv. 16, 20, ' and at that day you 
shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.' Thus 
he promises that he would further manifest himself to them, that whereas 
they knew afore dimly, then tbey should know to purpose ; and this like- 
wise we find the Ephesians did receive after they believed, and had been 
sanctified : Eph. i. 13, ' In whom, after ye believed, ye were sealed wdth 
the Spirit of promise.' As seals are for confirmation, so they were sealed 
with grace and holiness, and the image of God before, for that follows upon 
faith ; and they had trusted on Christ, had closed with Christ, and the 
word of truth, and gospel of salvation. But now when they by sheer faith 
had honoured God, by sealing to his word, then God comforts them by 
sealing them with his Spirit. And this witness is immediate, that is, it 
builds not his testimony on anything in us ; it is not a testimony fetched 
out of a man's self, or the work of the Spirit in man, as the others 
were ; for the Spirit speaks not by his effects, but speaks from himself, 
and confirms the other, and therefore is said to witness with the other, that 
is, comes in to strengthen their witness. And though the Holy Ghost 
joined with water and blood in their testimony (for grace wdthout him can- 
not evidence, as it cannot work without him), yet so his testimony lay hid 
in theirs, as they are said to witness, and his testimony is concealed, 
though he allegeth them, and clears them up to a man, and therefore a 
man shall find the same signs sometimes evidence to him, and sometimes 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 3(17 

not, as the Spirit irradiates them ; and yet this testimony of his is over 
and above theirs, distinct from theirs, and severed from theirs, and there- 
fore is said to make a third witness, which as witnessing in the other he 
could not be said to be. But though this testimony of the Spirit be beyond 
the witness of faith or water, and above what the word in any sound or 
syllables carries with it, yet it is always in and with the word, and accord- 
ing to it, and therefore they are said to be ' sealed with the Spirit of promise,' 
Eph. i. 13. It calls up some word that echoes to it, and goes with it. 
The Spirit opens God's mind in some words, and also, though it may 
come in from an evidence received and entertained from the former 
witnesses, blood and water, and therefore is said to witness with the other, 
as coming to back what they said, yet so as their testimony then comes to 
be considered but as the occasion upon which this of the Spirit is let in, 
and as the hint given ; but it raiseth the soul up higher, and the other 
testimony as it were falls down, and God's immediate mind and acceptation 
out of the riches of his grace, entertains a man's soul and thoughts. For 
as Christ received no testimony from man, though he says John gave testi- 
mony of him ; and as in some colleges when the college seal is put to, 
there needs no hands, no witnesses ; or as when the broad seal is put to by 
a king, he writes teste meipso ; so doth the Spirit speak in the language of a 
king, teste meipso, ' witness myself,' and receives and borrows no witness 
from what is in us, but makes his own abundantly satisfy. And this w: 
though it is placed first (after the manner of the Hebrews and other Scrip- 
tures), yet comes in as the last of the three, as being the greatest, and that 
which puts all out of question, which the other did not so fully ; and there- 
fore he is said to witness with our spirits, because their testimony is usually 
given in first ; this of the Spirit backs and confirms what they said, as 
seals come after a man's hand is set. as the greater witness ; or as an oath 
comes in after a promise to put all out of doubt, and to end the controversy, 
Heb. vi. 15-18, there it is said, that God makes a promise, and though 
that might assure, yet we have doubting hearts, and therefore he adds an 
oath to end all strife ; and ' that he might more abundantly shew to the 
heirs of promise the immutability of his counsels, he confirms them with 
an oath.' So herein I may say, that though the witness of blood and water 
might assure, if men were watchful, and could observe their hearts, yet 
because that testimony ends not the strife so fully, therefore he being will- 
ing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of salvation their adoption, seals 
them with his Spirit, which is to them an end of strife, and for the present 
conquers all doubts. And as when he swears, he useth no name but his 
own, for none is greater than himself, so when he thus witnesseth, he useth 
the help of no witnesses but his own, and upon this witness follows joy 
unspeakable and glorious, it being the earnest of heaven ; for it is a seeing 
my estate of grace and adoption, not in the effects or love-tokens, but in 
God's breast, as they in heaven do. Now such joy follows not the other 
two witnesses, though peace and quiet may. 

Having considered the witnesses on earth, let us consider the witnesses 
that are in heaven, since also these concur in giving assurance. And 
besides what this place says, which to me is clear, let us see what evidence 
in other scriptures may be for this distinct witness. In Eev. i. 4, 5, John, 
who had experience of this work, and had gone through these three forms, 
wisheth to all believers ' grace and peace,' not from the Trinity in common 
only, but from each apart : first, from the Father, ' from him who is, 
was, and is to come,' that is, from Jehovah, God the Father, the style of 
the whole being attributed to him who is fans Deitatis, the fountain of the 



368 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAET II. BOOK II. 

Godhead. It is meant of the Father, because the other two are afterward 
distinctly mentioned ; and then afterwards the apostle wisheth peace to 
them ' from the seven spirits which are before the throne.' By which he 
means the Holy Ghost, who is the author of all spiritual graces, and who 
in his gifts is various, and yet but ' one Spirit,' as the apostle says, 1 Cor. 
xii., the effect is by him put for the cause. And that he means the Holy 
Ghost is plain, because grace can be wished from none but God, and 
therefore he must mean the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity. 
Then at last the apostle wisheth them peace ' from Christ Jesus, who is 
the faithful witness.' Grace is the original of that love and favour these 
three have in their hearts to a believer, and peace is the copy, the assurance 
of it in his own. He wisheth them peace from all these, from the Father, 
from the Son, and from the Holy Ghost ; you see he names them not only 
together, but as it were apart, from the Father, and from the Spirit, and 
from the Lord Jesus, that peace might be spoken from all these three 
witnesses. That promise made by Christ to his apostles, when he pro- 
miseth them to send the Comforter, John xiv., is a farther proof of this 
thing ; they then had an implicit knowledge of the three persons' love to 
them ; but he calls them to a more distinct bottoming, and pitching their 
thoughts on them all; ' Ye believe in God,' says he, ver. 1, 'believe also 
in me.' They could not have believed in the one but the other must be 
supposed, for none comes to the Father but by the Son, ver. 6. The 
thoughts of believers under the Old Testament ran much, and were drawn 
out more distinctly to God the Father : John v. 32, ' All men honoured 
the Father ;' and says he, ver. 9, • He that knows me knows the Father ;' 
and ver. 17, he says, that they knew the Spirit. But all this was but 
implicitly, therefore he promiseth a more distinct manifestation of these, 
and their love to them with a witness after the Comforter should come, 
which he says he will send, ver. 16, and then they should know he was 
' in the Father, and the Father in him, and they in him,' ver. 20. To 
clear this, consider, 

First, That all three persons have each a peculiar proper hand in our 
salvation, God the Father in electing, Christ in redeeming, the Holy Ghost 
in sanctifying, as many places of Scripture shew. For God's intent in the 
gospel is as well to set up and magnify the three persons in a believer's 
heart, as his attributes, and the riches of his grace and mercy in common ; 
therefore in Eph. iii. 3-5, Paul speaking of the knowledge he had in the 
mystery of the gospel, refers us to what he had writ afore in few words 
(not in another Epistle, but in this, namely the first chapter), wherein he 
presents to them, first, what in a more particular manner God the Father 
had done for them, from ver. 1 to ver. 6, that he had appointed and set 
out all the blessings they were to enjoy, elected Christ, and them in Christ, 
designed the persons who should enjoy them to the praise of the glory of 
his grace. Then, secondly, he presents them with what God the Son had 
done ; ver. 7-9, • Redemption through his blood,' and the purchase of all 
the blessings God appointed to us, both remission of sins, and the making 
known the gospel, and the obtaining heaven by his blood. Then he shews 
them what the Holy Ghost hath clone, how he had sealed them, and became 
the ' earnest of their inheritance,' ver. 13, 14. Now it being a principal 
scope of the gospel, as to draw men to salvation, and to magnify the riches 
of God's grace in common to all the three persons, so also to make known 
and have men take notice of, those three distinct hands these three per- 
sons have in our salvation. Therefore, 

Secondly, Each of these three persons will have their love distinctly 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 300 

considered, and their several work, which manifests their love, distinctly 
viewed, and studied, and taken notice of by believers. And though, when 
one person is honoured, they are all jointly honoured in that one, and he 
that knows the one knows the other, — ' He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father,' John xiv. 9, — yet they will have their love considered so dis- 
tinctly, that, as Christ says, John v. 23, • They may honour the Son as 
they honour the Father,' and so the Holy Ghost also ; and take notice and 
acknowledge what they have done for them, and that they may believe on 
the Son as well as on the Father : John xiv. 1, « Ye believe in God, believe 
also in me ;' he draws their thoughts to himself more distinctly than yet 
they were. And therefore, 

Thirdly, As in point of believing we are to exercise faith on all three, so 
in point of assurance we may have an evidence from all three ; and there- 
fore, as they are the object of an act of recumbency, so of assurance too, 
as witnesses. God draws out a believer's thoughts sometimes more dis- 
tinctly and clearly, to consider and admire God the Father's love in elect- 
ing him, in laying out all the blessings he should have in Christ, in 
choosing, appointing, and calling Christ to die for him ; in giving Christ 
to him, and him to Christ, in putting Christ to death himself, and becoming 
the executioner, in imputing that his death to him, &c. And then God 
carries the soul more clearly to consider Christ's love also in his work, in 
giving himself, and that so willingly, in having an eye to it when he hung 
on the cross, in bearing its name written in his heart, when he was crucified, 
and in taking all its sins on his back, which made his soul heavy unto the 
death ; and then God carries the soul on to a more especial taking notice 
of God the Holy Ghost's love, which is not • considered ordinarily by 
believers. He brings souls to consider it is the Holy Ghost sanctifies 
them, who begat them, and formed the new creature in them, and who 
takes the pains to foster it, as a nurse its little one, day and night, and 
who endures with much grief their corruptions, which yet he cleanseth 
them from when they have defiled themselves, and who bears with them 
though they rebel and resist his motions, and who watcheth them, and 
attends them when they wake to suggest good thoughts to them, and when 
they shall go to the ordinances is ready to assist them. God makes them 
consider that all assistance in duties is from the supply of the Spirit, that 
all the comforts they have had is 'joy in the Holy Ghost;' that he ' helps 
their infirmities,' indites their prayers, makes intercession in their hearts, 
leads them and guides them, and carries them in his arms as children ; 
that he keeps them for heaven, and hath took up their hearts as his temple, 
for ever to dwell there ; that he seals them up for heaven, and is the 
earnest of that inheritance, and he testifies that not only this is done, but 
that he doth it, and that it is his part, as you have them branched out, 
Rom. viii. and Eph. i., and by this distinct discovery of the love of all the 
three persons in their several workings, and contributing to the work of 
our salvation, they bear a several witness to a poor believer, so as he is 
carried on from witness to witness ; and as a man that is to have a testi- 
monial goes to every man apart for his hand, so is the soul carried from 
one person to another. 

I shall only answer an objection, and add a caution or two. 

Obj. The objection is this, How the Holy Ghost is said to be a distinct 
witness on earth, and also in heaven, and to have also a distinct testimony 
as one of the three in heaven, from that of the three on earth ? 

Ans. To answer this, consider that it is the Holy Ghost who is the 
reporter and recorder of all these six testimonies, and therefore is named 

vol. viii. a a 



870 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

in both, for blood could not testify without him, nor water ; as grace 
cannot work, so nor comfort without him, unless he irradiates it, and opens 
the mouth of it to witness. This I think to be the most genuine intent of 
that place Rom. viii. 16, when he is said to ' witness with our spirits ;' 
for grace in us could not witness if he joined not with it ; yet he is said to 
have a distinct witness from theirs, because he hath a testimony beyond 
and without theirs ; and so it is the Holy Ghost also that is the reporter 
of the Father's love, and of Christ's, and of his own, for as Christ says, 
John xvi. 14, 'He shall glorify me, and receive of mine, and shew it to you.' 
He it is that witnesseth Christ's love, and so the Father's also ; they do all 
by him, and nothing immediately apart ; and therefore, when Christ says 
he will manifest himself, in that place of John xiv. before quoted, he first 
promises the Comforter, as the manifester of him and of the Father. But 
yet they are said to be three, and their testimony apart several, because 
their love and work is distinctly revealed and witnessed by that Spirit, and 
his own also. And the soul is drawn to consider, that the person of the 
Father shews his love more especially in electing, the Son in redeeming, 
and he himself in comforting, &c. So that though he witnesseth all, yet 
it is in their name, and they are the persons concerning whom the witness 
is given ; and his witness, as he is one of the three on earth, is distinct 
from that as he is one of the three in heaven. For as he is a witness on 
earth, the matter of his testimony is in general, the blessings themselves 
bestowed, justification, adoption, &c. ; and the whole work of the three 
persons, as it is in common for salvation, is the thing witnessed, as it is 
also by water and blood. But now, as he is a witness in heaven, the per- 
sons that have done these come in to be more nighly considered ; and his 
witness is of himself, and of what he hath done towards the believer's salva- 
tion. He opens the believer's heart to have fellowship with himself, and 
to see that he it is that hath sanctified, comforted him, &c. ; so that he 
witnesseth his own part in this salvation. In the other testimony, he wit- 
nesseth that the person is sanctified, elected, &c. ; but now he makes him 
take notice, in an especial manner, of the person sanctifying and sealing 
him, &c, and of the Father as electing, &c. And therefore, he influenceth 
the man to walk so as not to grieve him, to bear a respect to him that doth 
all this in that relation : upon which ground is that exhortation of the 
apostle founded, ' Grieve not the Holy Spirit, wherewith you are sealed,' 
Eph. iv. 30. For when a believer takes notice that the Spirit hath done 
all this for him, wrought all the grace he hath, and brought in all his com- 
fort, he will have a respect to him, and have a distinct tenderness to him 
in that relation, as well as to Christ and to the Father. La the one, the 
Spirit is as the common broad seal of the whole Trinity, and of all the 
blessings bestowed upon us ; in the other, he is a seal of himself in a more 
distinct manner, and so of the other two. As in seals of offices that a 
bishop or archdeacon give out, there is the seal of the office, and often they 
will set then own private seals on the back side also ; so doth the Spirit, 
who, as he is reckoned among the witnesses on earth, is the seal of the 
office in common, the things sealed being the blessings and works of the 
whole Trinity in common ; but in the other, their private seals are set to, 
and his among the other, which makes him a distinct witness. 

Only now these cautions must be added : 

First, That this distinct testimony of these witnesses in heaven is a thing 
many Christians have not observed in themselves, nor may happily never 
come to have a full experience of. God doth not deal with all in this manner. 
Many come not to have assurance at all, much less this. The people of 



ClIAP. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 371 

God under the Old Testament had it not, for the three persons were not so 
distinctly known in their several works in their salvation to them ; and 
therefore, when the apostle had discovered this mystery, Eph. v., how the 
Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Spirit seals, in the third chapter, 
I and 5, he gays, that in other ages this mystery, in this distinct 
manner, was not made known to the sons of men, not as it is now revealed. 
And the apostles also then had it not, John xiv. 1 : that is, not so distinctly, 
and in that manner I have spoken of it. It is a thing many know not the 
meaning of. that yet have grace ; for their hearts are wholly drawn out to 
Christ, and they hut implicitly apprehend, or seldom consider or think, 
what God the Father or the Spirit hath done. 

And then, secondly, this caution must be put also in, that for the order 
of this distinct testimony in those that have it, or of taking notice of Christ's 
love, or the Father's, no rale can be set down. Christ's love breaks in upon 
many first, and then the Father's. What hath been said, is to shew such 
a work is in some, and may be had, and is to be aimed at, being now made 
known to you. 

Neither, thirdly, is my meaning, as if believers could apprehend the 
Father's love thus apart from Christ's, or Christ's from the Father's ; or 
as if the one could be without the other, for the one is not to be severed 
from the other ; and if any thinks the Father loves him ere he hath had 
faith in Christ and rested on him, it is a Turkish, Jewish faith. But yet 
things that are not in themselves, nor in our supposition, severed, may in 
our thoughts be more distinctly viewed, and apart sealed to us. 

And, fourthly, though believers know and acknowledge what the three 
persons have done for them, yet that is not the work meant by the testi- 
mony of these witnesses. As long as this knowledge is deduced but by 
way of consequence, — that is, when they consider that because they are 
sanctified, therefore they are justified ; and because they are justified, there- 
fore they are elected, redeemed, &c, — this is to know it by way of deduction. 
But it is an intuitive knowledge that I mean : to see it, and to have the 
heart affected, and the love of each distinctly brought home to them, and 
their hearts to dwell on the direct consideration of the work and love of each 
person, so as to come to have also fellowship with them all in prayer and 
walking from day to day. 

The fifth caution is, that to direct poor souls humbled to faith, the way 
is not to direct them first to God the Father's love, but to cast themselves 
on Christ, who leads to the Father, Eph. ii. 18 and John xiv. 6. For at 
first men apprehend God, according to the rules of the word, as an angry 
judge, and Christ as he that pacifies him, Col. i. 21 ; but when they are 
come to God, and cast themselves on him through Christ, then they are 
brought to see God the Father (whom before they looked on as a judge) to 
be pacified by Christ, and to have as willing an heart to save them as Christ 
himself hath. It was suitably the speech of a godly person, ' As Christ 
makes intercession for me, so God loves to have it so.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

That since assurance is attainable, it is our duty earnestly to desire and endeavour 

the attainment of it. 

Since then, as we have seen, assurance of our salvation may be attained, 
let us not rest and content ourselves in abiding in this wilderness of faith 



372 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

of reliance only, though it be that which brought us out of Egypt, and will 
lead us to Canaan, and is that by which God translateth us from death to 
life. Say of that state, This is not my rest, though I have much rest and 
quietness of heart in it and by it. 

It is the duty of every one that doth believe to grow up to assurance, 
and it is his sin not to make out for it ; it is his sin to sit down on this 
side of it. There is this difference between a believer and one in an unre- 
generate condition, that a man who doth not yet believe, and is not imme- 
diately (in that state) obliged to acts of assurance, yet is obliged immediately 
to believe on the name of the Son of God ; but to be assured, cannot be 
the first act required of one that doth not yet believe. But now when once 
a man hath believed on the name of the Son of God, then the next and 
great duty that lies upon him, is to endeavour to know that he hath eternal 
life, and by all ways and means to seek after the knowledge of it. There 
are many duties which a man is bound to, but not bound to immediately. 
Every man in the world that hears of the gospel, is bound indeed to receive 
the sacraments, of baptism first, and then the Lord's supper, &c, but he 
is not bound to these immediately, but he is bound to be in the state of 
grace first, to be in Christ first ; he is bound to repent, and to turn to God, 
and to believe on the name of the Son of God. But when once he is in 
the state of grace, all these things lie upon him then as duties. The 
apostle, 1 John v. 10, urgeth it as a duty, for a man that already believeth 
to seek after the knowledge that he hath eternal life; saith he, ver. 10, 
' He that believeth on the Son of God ' (if he have but that faith of reli- 
ance) 'hath the witness in himself; ' the meaning whereof is not that he 
hath the prevailing act of witnessing, for then, if that were the meaning, 
every man that believes on the Son of God should have an act of assurance ; 
but the meaning is, he hath the matter of it in himself; he hath the spirit 
of adoption within him, and he hath the blood of Christ sprinkled upon bis 
conscience ; mid therefore, having the matter of assurance in himself, if he 
do not grow up unto it, it is through his own default ; it is because he 
neglects or turns a deaf ear to the continual whisperings and secret 
suggests of the Holy Ghost concerning his condition, and rather willingly 
listens to Satan, and saith of all the Spirit's impressions, that they are but 
the voice and savings of his own heart, and doth not listen to the voice of 
the blood of Christ, which speaks, though with a still voice, better things 
than his conscience doth or can do, whenever he hath recourse to it by 
faith : for he never goes to Christ, and throws and bathes himself in his 
blood, but still there is a secret witness comes off with it, 1 John v. 8, 
more or less to the quieting of his heart. Now when men are as negligent 
in cherishing the dictates of the Spirit as they are in complying with his 
motions to good, when they regard not the voice behind them, but though 
God speaks once or twice, as Job says in another case, yet they never 
mind it ; when they who have the matter of the witness in themselves thus 
go and throw it all off, and are in love with the contrary despairing and 
doubting thoughts, they are guilty of a great sin, which the apostle lays 
before them. He who doth this ' makes God a liar ; ' for as in that other 
part of God's record, wherein God hath set forth his Son Jesus Christ as 
a sufficient Saviour, and hath given that record of him, that he is his Son, 
and that in him is life, and that there is a propitiation in his blood, every 
man now that is in his natural estate that hears this, and comes not in and 
believeth, that receiveth not this record, he makes God a liar, he openly 
contradicts God's testimony, and proclaims that he believeth not that 
Christ is such a Christ as God hath testified he is, so on the other side, in 



Chap. VI. J of justifying faith. 873 

a man that is in a state of grace, that hath faith, and so hath the Son and 
eternal life, all the fears and doubts that man hath to the contrary do in 
like manner make God a liar. The apostle John speaks that of not receiv- 
ing God's record upon occasion of both ; for as the six witnesses serve to 
shew us that Christ is the Son of God, so that we are the sons of God, and 
have eternal life when we do believe ; and therefore that speech of his, 
1 He that believe th not the record God gave of his Son makes God a liar,' 
it holdeth as well of a believer's not believing he hath eternal life after he 
hath believed, as of his not believing on the Son of God. So that as it is 
the duty of every man to believe on Christ for salvation, and to believe this 
record that God hath given of his Son — and it is the great damning sin not 
to believe this, John iii. 18, and John xvi. 8, 9, and by not doing it men 
do make God a liar — so also it is the duty of every one that believeth, 
having the witness in himself, to grow up unto assurance; and if, they 
encourage all fears and doubts to the contrary, so far they do in their 
measure and proportion make God a liar, in this respect, that they believe 
not the record that God hath given concerning believers, as well as his 
Son Jesus ; for the not believing God, ver. 10, hath reference to this 
record, that God hath given us eternal life, ver. 11, so that the apostle, 
upon the very same ground, in the 10th and 11th verses of this chapter, 
urgeth those in whom God hath wrought faith, and to whom he hath given 
his Spirit, to grow up to assurance, and to know they have eternal life, 
that he urgeth those that are not believers to believe on the Son of God, 
he urgeth this common ground to both of them, of making God a liar. 

Obj. But here will one thing be said, Are the meanest Christians obliged 
to this ? and may the lowest Christians attain to this ? 

Ans. Yes, all sorts may ; for you see John here writeth his epistle to 
all sorts: 1 John ii. 14, 'I write unto you babes,' as well as unto you 
'young men' and 'fathers,' 'because your sins are forgiven you, for his 
name's sake, and because ye have known the Father.' And, saith he, your 
sins being forgiven you, I write these things even unto you, that you may 
grow up to the knowledge of this, and that you may know that you bave 
eternal life ; and though it be true, as I said, that the first act of faith 
which those that are newly converted do put forth cannot be assurance, 
yet it may be the very next act. Our Saviour Christ pronounceth to the 
poor palsy man even at the first that his sins were forgiven him, Mat. ix. 2, 
and so to Mary, Luke vii. 37, 48, when she was newly converted (yet she 
had believed first, which occasioned her coming to him), that her sins were 
forgiven ; so that even babes in Christianity are capable of it. There are 
many things we attain not, because we do not set them up as our mark, 
but we rest below them, as in the case of perfection ; as many, saith the 
apostle, as are thus minded, let them aim at that mark that I aim at. 
Men are [as] their endeavours, and as their mark and aims are. Now then, 
go home, and set this up for your mark and aim from this time forth ; say 
with yourselves, I do see it is my duty to grow up to assurance that I have 
eternal life, it is my great sin to do otherwise ; I see that it will improve 
all graces in me, it will help me to confidence in prayer, it will perfect my 
love unto God, it will make me serve him without fear, it will make me 
more holy, besides all the comfort it will bring in to me; this, therefore, I 
will set up as my mark, I will never pray but I will seek this in a more 
eminent manner; I will never receive the Lord's Supper but I will put 
this in, that the Lord would come in to bestow it on me ; I will listen to 
all the witnesses I find whispering to my heart by the Spirit, or by the 
promises suggested to me, and that is this, of what it is that assurance 



374 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK II. 

be attained in this life, as far as this Epistle of John holds it forth. Let 
me first give this as a premiss to all that follows, that you may understand 
my meaning more distinctly, that though a man is assured of all implicitly 
at once, yet the Holy Ghost oftentimes doth distinctly set on first one 
thing and then another ; you have experience of it in all your whole con- 
verse with God, that one truth is set on at one time, and another at 
another ; so it is with the object matters of assurance. 

First, He hath assurance of all those benefits which God hath bestowed, 
and of all the privileges which a man enjoys in Christ, as to know the 
pardon of his sins, and that I am justified, that I have right in eternal life, 
that I am a son ; tbis you see the text holds forth: ' That you may know,' 
saith he, 'that you have eternal life;' so chap. iii. ver. 1, 2, 'Now are we 
the sons of God.' To see the privileges of a man's sonship, and to be 
assured of it, this is the first degree of assurance, or at least the lowest 
actings of it. 

Now, to come to know that my sins are forgiven me, and that I have 
eternal life, &c, what is this ? It is but implicitly the assurance of the 
privileges which I have in Christ, which, I say, is the lowest degree of 
assurance. Why ? Because this is it which more suiteth self-love ; all 
this while the soul may not have explicit sense so much of the love of God 
shed abroad in the heart, but explicitly or distinctly in his own considera- 
tion, his thoughts are taken up rather with view of the privileges which he 
hath in Christ, and he triumpheth therein. Now, as to love Christ for his 
benefits is the lowest degree of love, though there may be true love in it, 
so to have assurance of the benefits we have by Christ is the lowest degree 
of assurance. 

Secondly, Besides assurance of my interest in all the benefits and privi- 
leges of a man who is in Christ, there is explicit assurance of the love of 
God in Christ ; and this assurance John also holds forth in this Epistle, 
when he says, ' We have known and believed the love that God hath to us,' 
John iv. 16. It is not only a knowing and believing that I have eternal 
life, and that I am the son of God, &c, but withal explicitly to know also 
and believe the love that God hath to me, and to have my heart taken and 
swallowed up with that, which in the next words he calls dwelling in love, 
so as a man walks in it, works in it, lies down in it, shelters himself in it, 
as a man doth in his house. Now the love of God is brought home to the 
heart in and by two things (which also John here holds forth, for I confine 
myself to what he saith), 1, in those benefits which the Lord out of love 
hath bestowed upon me, and given me the assurance of, and over and 
above this, his love with them ; and, 2, also in those works that God 
hath done to procure those benefits and privileges to me. 

1. There is assurance of God's love in the benefits themselves: ' Behold,' 
saith he, ' what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
should be called the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 1. He calls upon believers 
to behold, to consider it again and again, not to admire the love of God 
indefinitely. He calleth them not to an indefinite consideration of the 
love of God unto some, or what may be their lot, which, indeed, may draw 
in faith of recumbency, or reliance upon God for his love, but to a con- 
sideration of a determinate special love which God at the present bore to 
themselves in particular, and had settled on them, and had bestowed upon 
them, and is now at present estated on them : ' Now,' saith he, ' we are 
the sons of God.' And he calls them to consider the infinite greatness of 
this love : ' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon 
us, that we should be called the sons of God.' Here is not only the 



ChAJ>. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 375 

privilege of sonship, and the glory of it, set on upon the heart with assur- 
ance, but here is an admiration of that love set on more than tho benefits 
themselves. 

2. We ought especially to regard the works and actings of God for us, 
and to rejoice in the assurance of his love seen herein, and to have this 
love shed abroad in our hearts. This you have 1 John iv. 9, 10, where 
he speaks of the love both of the Father and tho Son in what they have 
done for us: • Herein is love,' saith he, on the Father's part in election, 
' that he loved us first,' ver. 9, and also ' that he sent his only begotten 
Son into the world to die for us, and to be the propitiation for our sins,' 
ver. 9, 10 ; and herein is love on the Son's part, as in these common to 
him with the Father, in giving himself so willingly for us : ' Hereby we 
perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.' It is the 
Son's love, whose life it was, he speaks of. Now for the heart to be taken 
with this love of God in what he hath done for us, and to have the heart 
steeped and dipped in that love, so as to taste and relish the love more 
than what is purchased by it, this is a further thing than the former; it is 
an higher degree of assurance; this is called, Eom. v. 5, ' the shedding of 
the love of God abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost,' which is another 
thing than by way of consequence to apprehend this love, and the greatness 
of it, from the .benefits bestowed, when we have them. This is when all 
the powers do taste that love as in itself diffused and brought home by the 
Holy Ghost, which all the arguments in the world and rational discourses 
can never do. When I have an assurance that my sins are forgiven, and 
that I am a son, &c, though if the Holy Ghost spake no more, yet I 
might, by way of argument, argue what a love this is ; but to have the 
love itself brought home, and shed abroad in my heart, this is more, for 
the love is more than all the benefits, or than all that God hath done 
for us. 

Thirdly, That which the apostle holds forth here, and intends in this 
Epistle, is not only an assurance of the benefits that they are ours, that we 
are sons, and have eternal life; it is not only the assurance of the love of 
God shewn in these benefits, and in what he hath done for us, and what 
love he hath borne to us, but it is a fellowship with God the Father and 
God the Son; so he tells you, 1 John i. 3, 4, ' These things we write unto 
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is 
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' Now, to have fellowship 
with God, and with Jesus Christ, is more than simply to know and believe 
the love that God hath to us. It is when all the excellencies of God and 
of Christ are made known to us, and our interest therein, and all in an 
appearance of love. It is not only when God manifesteth his love in the 
benefits he hath bestowed on us, and in that which he hath done for us, 
but when all that is in God, and all the beauty and glory in him, appears 
to us clothed and apparelled with love, as he saith, 1 John iv. 6, ' God is 
love.' ' We know and believe,' saith he, ' the love that God hath to us;' 
in what he hath done, that is one thing; but then it follows, ' God is love;' 
himself, and all in himself, is thus manifested to us, this is another. 
There is, 1, the love that God hath to us; and then, 2, God himself is 
said to be love, and God is so to be apprehended by us, and so we ought 
to have fellowship with him, and to have an interest in all the excellencies 
and glory that are in him, and then the heart dwelleth in God (as it follows 
there), and God dwelleth in him. It is not a burning up of the flesh, as 
some speak, or that the creature ceaseth to be a creature, and is one with 
the Creator, God with God. No; that is an higher union than Jesus 



37G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

Christ himself had in the flesh, by whom our redemption was purchased, 
and by virtue of which it was called the blood of God, and the righteous- 
ness of God (which can be said of no man in the world). But though the 
man Christ Jesus was one person with the Son of God, and so all his 
obedience was the obedience of God, yet he had a distinct being, and he 
had a distinct will from that of the Father, a will of his own : ' Not my 
will be done,' saith he, Mat. xxvi. 39, ' but thine.' Whereas now that 
other notion is of a higher union than the union that Christ had, and if 
men were raised up to such a union, then they might by their death redeem 
sinners, as Christ himself did. I therefore mean only that the glory of 
God objectively, and all that is in God in a way of love presented to the 
soul, filleth it, dwelleth in it ; as if the sun should come down into a house, 
and dwell in it, instead of dwelling in heaven, and yet still the house remain 
what it was before ; so it is here : God dwells in the heart, and the heart 
dwells in God, and yet still the heart remains what it was ; that this is a 
further thing than that I spake of afore, and that it is more than for a man 
to know the love of God in what he hath bestowed on him, and done for 
him, is evident by that place in John xiv. 21, ' He that loveth me, shall be 
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.' 
And the apostle speaks of this too, Eph. iii. 18, 19, where, besides 
' knowing the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,' there is a phrase 
of being ' filled with all the fulness of God;' that is, whenas all the fulness 
that is in God is presented to a man in a way of love ; not that he is swal- 
lowed up into God, but God filleth him. He dwelleth in God, and God 
dwelleth in him, yet he remaining still what he was, and God remaining 
what he is too. It is not the fulness of God dwelling in us bodily, or per- 
sonally, as it dwelt in the man Christ Jesus. No ; that is proper to Christ 
by distinction, Col. ii. 9, from God's dwelling in us: 'In him,' saith he, 
' dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Now by body there is meant 
person, as they that understand the idiom of the Greek tongue know; as 
soul in the Hebrew is put for person, so many souls are said to come out 
of Jacob's loins, Exod. i. 5 ; so bodily in the Greek is taken [for] per- 
sonally. There is, I say, a personal union between the fulness of the God- 
head dwelling in Jesus Christ and himself, and therefore in the same place 
it is said to dwell in him, as the head of all principalities and powers; and 
all that is in God filleth him as our head, and dwelleth personally in him ; 
which phrase, I say, is used by way of distinction from the creature. And 
yet all this while that the Godhead dwelt bodily or personally in him, he 
remained in the flesh, whereas the union that is now cried up is higher 
than this of Christ's, and while men seek to be spiritual, they detract from 
God, and run into blasphemy against God and Christ. But this communi- 
cation of which I speak is objectively, when all that is in God is presented 
to the soul in a way of love ; and when the soul hath fellowship and com- 
munion with him, all that is in God is his, and he sees himself an heir of 
God, Rom. viii. 1G, 17, and he hath all that is in God to delight in ; and 
God manifesteth the beauty and glory that is in himself unto him in love, 
and so the soul dwells in God, and God in him, and all in love. 

Fourthly, Add this to it, that there is communion and fellowship with 
all the persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and their love, severally and 
distinctly. This is that communion that John held forth, and which the 
Comforter, promised unto the apostles, brought them into, and which the 
apostle here would wind us up to, and put us upon the seeking after. 
Now there is an implicit communion with all these persons, so that if my 
heart be affected with the love of one, I may know the love of all the rest 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 377 

implicitly, as appears from John xiv. 7, 9, * If ye had known me, you 
should have known my Father also;' but this is but implicitly, and there- 
fore he saith afterwards, ' At that day ye shall know both me and my 
Father, and that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.' 
1 Shew us the Father,' saith Philip, ' and it sufficeth us.' The poor man 
spake he knew not what, spake ignorantly, as oftentimes they did; but 
Christ here promiseth more, ' I will give you the Spirit,' saith he, ' and 
he shall be in you, and I will love you, and my Father shall love you, 
and we will make our abode with you.' Do not then stint yourselves 
here, that it sufficeth that you know the Father. No ; Christ putteth you 
upon labouring after a distinct knowing of, and communion with all three 
persons ; and the apostle John also speaks in the same strain : 1 John 
i. 3, ' That we may have fellowship with the Father, and with the Son ; ' 
not only with the Father by having fellowship with the Son, and by having 
fellowship with the Son so to have fellowship with the Father, and so to 
have fellowship with the one in the other implicitly, but distinctly with the 
one and with the other, and distinctly with the one as with the other, and 
so to be acquainted with all, and to view the love of one as well as of the 
other; as Christ saith, John xiv. 1, 'Ye believe in God, believe also in 
me ; ' so have communion with God, and have communion also with me. 
There is also an implicit knowledge of the Holy Ghost : ' You know him,' 
saith Christ to his disciples, John xiv. 17 ; that is, they knew him in his 
work, but they knew him not in his love distinctly, and they had not 
acquaintance with his person, and they had not^the love of the Holy Ghost 
brought home to them. Now we are distinctly to have communion both 
with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as he saith in that place : John 
xiv. 23, ' 1 will love him, and my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him.' As the three angels that came 
to Abraham were all entertained by him, so for a man to converse with, 
and entertain into his heart, or rather be entertained by all three persons, 
and to have the love of them all distinctly brought home to his heart, and 
to view the love of them all apart, this is the communion that John here 
would raise up our hearts unto. And this John here in this chapter, ver. 
7, 8, tells us, that there are three witnesses in heaven, w T ho as they witness 
that Christ is the Son of God, so they witness to us that we are the sons 
of God, and that we have eternal life in his Son : ' There are three that 
bear record in heaven,' saith he, and these are three persons in the divine 
nature, and not three manifestations only ; for if so, then there would be 
as many persons as, manifestations ; and when Christ saith, John xiv. 21, 
' I will manifest myself unto you,' if Christ were but only the manifestation 
of God, then there would be a manifestation of a manifestation. No ; he 
is a person : ' I will manifest myself,' saith he, ' and my Father he will 
manifest himself unto you ; ' and so when it is said, 1 Cor. xii. 7, that 
• the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal,' if 
the Spirit himself were but a manifestation, there were a manifestation of 
a manifestation. No ; the Spirit is a person, and manifesteth himself, as 
Jesus Christ is a person, and therefore speaks of manifesting himself ; and 
as the Father is a person, and therefore saith he will manifest himself. 
They are three persons, and not manifestations only. Neither are they as 
the attributes in God, for if so there would be then more than Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost ; there would be as many as attributes : wisdom is an 
attribute, and power is an attribute, and truth, and justice, and holiness ; 
and therefore if all in God were thus varied there were more than three. 
It holds forth therefore persons. Jesus Christ speaks as a person : John 



378 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

xiv. 1, 'Ye believe in God, believe also in me;' and tbe Holy Ghost 
speaks as a person, speaks in the language of a person : Acts xiii. 2, 
' Separate rne Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
them ;' you have the like in Acts x. 19, 20, ' The Spirit said unto Peter, 
Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go 
with them, doubting nothing : for I have sent them.' Still, I say, the 
Holy Ghost speaks as a person. Now as these three are one in nature, so 
they become three distinct witnesses, and their very being three witnesses 
argue them three persons ; let me also cast that in by the by. There is 
a notable place for it in John viii. 13, 14. The Jews there excepted 
against the testimony of Christ, and they said, that he bore record of him- 
self, and therefore his record was not true. Why, saith he, I am not 
alone, but there is the Father that witnesseth with me, and it is written in 
your law, that the testimony of two men is true ; and, saith he, I am one 
that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness 
of me ; so that in witnessing he joins himself with his Father, as equal 
with him therein, and makes himself and his Father two witnesses (you 
see how he stands upon it in that place), and himself as authentic a 
witness as his Father. Now as the Father and the Son thus witness, 
so saith the apostle in 1 John v. 7, the Holy Ghost also is a witness : 
1 There are three,' saith he, 'that bear record in heaven, the Father, the 
"Word, and the Holy Ghost.' Now the witness that they bear is : 1, that 
Christ is the Son of God ; and 2, that we are the sons of God, and that 
we have eternal life. When Christ was baptized, all three persons wit- 
nessed that he was the Son of God, and they all owned that nature that 
was baptized ; the Father from heaven said, ' This is my beloved Son ; ' 
he speaks distinctly, the Holy Ghost he comes down from heaven, and 
with joy answerably, ' like a dove descended upon him ; ' and you heard 
even now of Christ bis witnessing of himself: John viii. 13, 14, ' I bear 
witness of myself,' saith he ; teste meipso ; he speaks like God, like one 
that was as good a witness as the Father. Now what was done to Christ, 
the same is a believer capable of (for that is John's scope), capable to 
receive as distinct a witness, though not in a visible way, and by a voice 
from heaven, for God speaks not now so to the spirits of men, but yet in as 
distinct a manner. For the three persons, as they loved us distinctly (as 
might be shewn at large), so they bring home their love distinctly and 
apart to the soul, and the communion that John would raise us up unto is 
with all three persons distinctly, to view their love severally, and have it 
all severally brought home to our hearts, all of them manifesting their love 
unto the soul. Besides the three witnesses that are on earth, the water, 
and blood, and immediate testimony of the Spirit in common, there are 
these three witnesses of the persons in heaven, and therefore hast thou had 
the love of the Father brought home to thee ? Rest not in that ; get the love 
of the Son brought home to thee too, and then rest not until all three per- 
sons manifest their love to thee. 

As in believing, sometimes a man's heart is drawn out to believe in God 
the Father ; that is, look what is said of God the Father's love, and con- 
cerning his giving Christ, and choosing men to life, and in this his election 
regarding neither sin in them nor good (for free grace is properly the 
Father's), a man hath support from all such considerations, and he believeth 
in God, but whilst he doth so his heart it may be is not so distinctly drawn 
out to Jesus Christ at that time ; so it is in assurance : sometimes a man's 
communion and converse is with the one, sometimes with the other ; some- 
times with the Father, then with the Son, and then with the Holy Ghost ; 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 370 

sometimes his heart is drawn out to consider the Father's love in choosing, 
and then the love of Christ in redeeming, and so the love of the Holy 
Ghost, that seurcheth the deep things of God, and revealeth them to us, 
and taketh all the pains with us ; and so a man goes from one witness to 
another distinctly, which, I say, is the communion that John would have 
us to have. And therefore ' grace and peace ' — grace is that love that is in 
the nature of God, and peace is that joy that flows from the assurance of it — 
are wished ' from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' Ordinarily you have it from 
the Father and the Son, but John (and he alone) pronounceth it from all 
three, Rev. i. 4, 5, witnessing, as the love of God, so the love of themselves 
distinctly ; as the grace of God the Father is brought home with peace, so 
the grace of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost, and therefore as 
our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, as he saith, 1 John i. 3, so 
also with the Holy Ghost, 1 John iv. 13; and this they in the Old Testa- 
ment wanted. And this assurance it is not a knowledge by way of argu- 
ment or deduction, whereby we infer that if one loveth me then the other 
loveth me, but it is intuitively, as I may so express it, and we should never 
be satisfied till we have attained it, and till all three persons lie level in us, 
and all make their abode with us, and we sit as it were in the midst of 
them, while they all manifest their love unto us ; this is John's communion, 
and this is the highest that ever Christ promised in this life (in his last 
sermon, John xiv.), and you must know that this Epistle of John it answers 
to that sermon : ' At that day,' saith Christ, ver. 20, namely, when he 
would send the Comforter, • you shall know that I am in the Father, and 
you in me, and I in you.' That union and communion with the Father 
immediately, which is the whole of some men's religion, whilst it pretends 
to more spiritualness (for what more spiritual than for creatures to be 
swallowed up into God'?), it runs into the highest derogation to God and 
to Christ that can be. But that which Christ promiseth is, that they 
should know their union with the Father, but he leaves not out the Son. 
Poor Philip, he ignorantly said, ' Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth.' 
No, saith Christ; the Comforter shall shew you your union with the Father, 
and with me too ; for you must never betake yourselves to the Father only, 
and leave me out. Therefore now to talk of such a communion, wherein 
men betake themselves to the Father, and go to him immediately, this is 
not the communion which John had; and he that denies the Son, and com- 
munion with him, denies the Father also. The communion which the 
apostle exhorts to, is with all the three witnesses in heaven, which a man 
shall find when he comes there, and your communion for ever will lie in 
them ; the fulness of the Godhead dwelling then in you by vision, which 
now you take in by faith, and all three persons will be enjoyed and possessed 
by vision. It is by a more high and elevated way, but it is of the same 
nature, and hath still the same object. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Christ's discovery of himself to the soul, instanced in the example of Christ's 
manifesting himself to Mary Magdalene, after his resurrection, as a pattern 
of his like dealings with believing souls, seeking him now after his ascension 
into heaven. 

Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rab- 
boni ; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ; for I 



380 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren, and say unto 
them, I ascend unto tuy Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your 
God.— John XX. 16, 17. 

We are married to an husband risen from the dead (as you have it in 
express words, Rom. vii. 4) ; there is nothing can be supposed, therefore, 
more welcome than to hear authentic stories of his deportment and con- 
verse, after his advancement, and so great an alteration, with any that were 
his familiars before, and espoused to him, as we all are. And in this chap- 
ter, wherein you find his first flight after his being risen again, you have 
two eminent such instances, the one in his demeanour towards a poor 
mean woman, and the other towards his apostles, who were as mean crea- 
tures as herself. 

It seems to me evident, that the most eminent scope of these stories left 
to John, after all the rest, to record, is to hold forth this sweet and plea- 
sant disposition of Christ our Lord to such souls as love him, and the 
ground and intent of this relation is to shew how his spiritual dealings, and 
all discoveries of himself to poor souls, now he is in heaven, do hold pro- 
portion and analogy with these bodily appearances and converses, accom- 
panied with suitable spiritual impressions unto this woman. 
i And as a ground for this, I take in its coherence that promise, John 
xiv. 21 ; he had promised to his apostles to comfort them personally ; not 
by his Spirit only, but by his own personal seeing and conversing with 
them again after his resurrection : ver. 18-20, ' Yet a little while,' says 
he, ' and the world seeth me no more ;' for after his resurrection he 
appeared not to one carnal man, but only to his own ; ' but you shall see 
me,' and that alive, risen from the dead ; ' and because I live, you shall 
live also ; and in that day' (as also by my Spirit after my ascension), ' you 
shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.' Now, 
lest others in after ages should think that they, being born out of time, 
are therefore deprived of this privilege of Christ's appearings, such as he 
made unto the apostles and others in that age upon his resurrection, he 
adds that promise, ver. 21. So then these his bodily apparitions, with 
spiritual impressions, as they were to these his disciples, were proofs and 
pledges of like spiritual manifestations of himself to our faith unto the end 
of the world. 

Obs. 1 . That Christ by a strong and strange providence singleth out some 
special persons, to make them partakers of special privileges and discoveries 
from himself. And it was a great privilege Christ vouchsafed to this 
woman, in manifesting himself to her after his resurrection. It gladded 
his Father's heart to see his Son risen again, as he utters it rejoicingly, 
Ps. ii. 2, ' This day have I begotten thee,' speaking of the resurrection, as 
appears from Acts xiii. 33. As Solomon's mother's heart rejoiced at the 
day of his coronation, so God's heart is glad at the coronation of his Son, 
of whom Solomon was a type. It must needs also proportionably rejoice 
the heart of a poor soul, who so dearly loved Christ, to be the first that 
should see him alive again, and in his new robes and dress ; and that 
Mary had this first sight of him was not casual, nor fell out indifferently, 
but electively, and as done out of choice by Christ, he had a set design to 
take and find her alone, and so to honour her more eminently with this 
discovery, and his providences were answerably strong to accomplish it (as 
you may observe in the history), that it might appear he intended to put a 
differing respect upon her from the rest. Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, 
and Mary the mother of James, with other women, had visited his sepulchre, 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 881 

and after them also Peter and John, Luke xxiv. But still our Lord with- 
holds himself, and comes not out of his invisibility ; and Mary Magda- 
lene herself, for whom this favour was designed, was deprived of the sight 
of her Lord at present, because they were in her company. But when 
they were gone home, and Mary stood without at the sepulchre (John 
xx. 10), and was now severed from the rest, Christ had her alone, and 
then breaks forth from out of his obscurity ; and that it was a designed 
favour to her, the Holy Ghost remarks, and puts a note upon it : Mark 
xvi. 9, that ' he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had 
cast seven devils.' 

Are there not some of you here present, towards whom in eminent dis- 
coveries of himself, or in some other privileges, God hath held the like 
course, and hath made a manifest difference between you and others ? He 
hath shewn thee perhaps more mercy than all thy kindred, or than others 
of thine own rank, sex, society, and country, wherein thou hast lived. Hast 
thou not perceived how God hath revealed his secrets to thee a babe, when 
he hath industriously hid them from the wise and prudent ? Christ thanks 
God for this on his disciples' behalf, Mat. xi. 25, and wilt not thou thank 
him on thine own behalf ? Kings and prophets have desired to see and 
hear the things which you see and hear. We should leam to observe and 
study out such peculiarities of mercies, by considering what God hath done 
for us comparatively to others. 

Another thing to be considered is, Who was this Mary to whom Christ 
vouchsafed this first discovery of himself '? I insist not on it that she was a 
woman, to whom Christ revealed himself, in his person, in such a manner 
as he vouchsafed not to the whole college of apostles ; however they excelled 
her in the discovery of the deep mysteries of the gospel, which was their 
glory, 1 Cor. ii. ; yet in the personal discovery or manifestation of the per- 
son of Christ himself, she is preferred before them. I therefore limit it to 
the revelation of his person, because there is a ' Spirit of revelation in the 
knowledge of him,' which consists in personal communion with him ; as 
well as there is a way of notional wisdom and prudence vouchsafed to ordi- 
nary Christians, Eph. i. 17, and many a poor soul is therein preferred to 
the holy, learned ones of the world, the reason of which is evident, because 
the promise of that manifestation is made to them who love him most, 
John xiv. 21, which weak ones, women and unnotional souls, often most 
do, and of this intuitive knowledge such souls are as immediately capable 
as the learnedest. 

But there is another consideration beyond this, upon which the Scrip- 
ture itself hath put the notoriety and greatest observation, and that is this, 
that she had been the greatest of sinners. We have this from the Holy 
Ghost himself, who would have us to observe it, and therefore upon thi3 
very occurrence he hath recorded it, there where he mentioneth this privi- 
lege, Mark xvi. 9. It is all one as if he had said, he appeared first to 
Mary, who had been of the highest rank of sinners; so, then, as her sins 
hindered her not from being converted to Christ, but he shewed his power 
therein the more, so they hindered him not from vouchsafing to her the 
highest and choicest favour of manifesting himself. Take her fellow- 
parallel in this, the apostle Paul : ' Not only to me the greatest of sinners, 
he shewed mercy first in my conversion,' 1 Tim. i. 13; but, after conversion, 
he had that sight of Christ which exceeded this of Mary Magdalene's, and 
that of all other apostles. Fore-past sins then hinder not, but other pre- 
dispositions concurring, invite Christ rather to the highest manifestations 
of himself. Neither doth this hold true only of great sins before conversion, 



382 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

but after it also, for who shall set the limits to the dispensations of free 
grace ? But what was it which was considered in this Mary Magdalene, 
which drew forth to her this peculiar favour of manifestation from Christ ? 
You read formerly of her love, Luke vii. 47 ;* but you find her heart here 
more full of it, even to a running over, than were the hearts of all the 
rest of the apostles. It was full sea with her when it was a low ebb with 
the rest, and it was that which took Christ's heart ; do but compare the 
present springings and beatings of her heart and spirit with those of the 
apostles. ' But Mary,' says the text, John xx. 11, ' stood weeping without,' 
&c. ; that but is a note of singular commendation put upon her for her affec- 
tion, in comparison with the carriage of their spirits ; they, after a little 
search, carelessly went home, ver. 10, but Mary yet was solicitous, and 
remained in a weeping posture at the sepulchre. Observe in her all sorts 
of characters of a prevailing passion of love in the midst of fears, despairs, 
and unbelief; she stood, she would not go away when they did, and, as she 
was not discouraged by their example, so all the halberts of the guards 
about her affrighted her not, she feared no colours, but love made perfect 
had cast out fear, and had fixed her with an unmoved courage at the grave, 
and a secret instinct of the Spirit arrested her, that she could not stir out 
of the circle ; and then she iceeps, which shewed that she could not bear the 
absence of him whom she loved, whereas the rest were gone away with dry 
eyes ; and as she wept, she stooped down, looking into the sepulchre, 
though Peter and John had told her, and she herself had seen, that Christ 
was not there ; yet, for all this, she looks, and looks again, and cannot 
content herself. It is the nature of vehement love and desire after what we 
want and value, to look, and search for it where we know it is not ; so 
violent was her love and desire, that she would not trust her own eyes ; 
yea, she was so overcome with these affections to her Lord, that though 
she saw two angels in white, who began to comfort her (ver. 12), yet love 
and desire after Christ had so transported her, that she minds them not, 
nor all their comforts ; and out of restlessness and impatience of spirit, that 
suffered her not to continue in one place or posture long (as is the nature 
of violent affections), she turns herself back from them, as refusing to be 
comforted by them, and espied Christ, and thought him to be the gardener, 
and Christ discovers himself to her, and calls her familiarly by her name : 
' Jesus saith unto her, Mary,' ver. 16. Now, I shall make some observa- 
tions concerning Christ's thus discovering himself to her, and I shall make 
an analogy between this his bodily appearing in this case to Mary, and his 
spiritual manifestation unto such souls which seek him. 

Obs. 1. That tbe persons unto whom Christ delights to manifest himself 
are such who are impetuously and passionately fond of him. They are 
such who can no way be satisfied but by seeing him, and enjoying com- 
munion with him ; and when Christ stirs such a spirit unto an unconquer- 
able desire after him, he answers it, and corresponds with it. As Jesus 
Christ knows what it is to love, so he doth love and value a soul's fondness 
of himself, and delights in nothing more. And as he knows that without 
manifestations of his love, the spirit which he hath made would fail before 
him, Isa. lvii. 1G, so he an swerably takes care that to be sure no soul shall 
die for love of him; it is his own promise, John xiv. 21, and this gives the 
full reason of this his dealing with Mary. Faith carries it in the point of 
justification from all other graces, but love carries from all other graces as 
to Christ's manifestation of himself to the soul ; and Mary, you see, loved 
much, and there is no reward for such pure quintessential love as is fixed 
* If the woman there mentioned was indeed Mary Magdalene. — Ed. 



Chap. VII.] , of justifying faith. 383 

on the person of Christ, but love again manifested, and the enjoyment of 
his person, nor else will, or indeed can recompense the loving soul. 

Obs. 2. That Christ makes early discoveries of himself unto those 
believers who are vehement in affections and desires after him, when he 
defers the manifestations of his love to others, who though holy and having 
well settled affections, yet have them not so vehement and flaming. For 
let us but consider the different course which Christ held towards this 
Mary Magdalene and the other disciples, according to that different temper 
of spirit which was in her and them. We have two sorts of Christians 
exemplified in them and her. In the apostles we have an instance of 
judicious, wise, discreet professors, yet holy, that have true and solid 
affections to Christ, though not so flaming ; who while they think to live 
by a solid and rational faith, and content themselves with it, are apt to 
think any extraordinary assurance, or special manifestation of Christ, to be 
idle tales, and will not hearken to them ; or if they think there is anything 
in them, they come (as John and Peter did to the sepulchre) and see the 
grave-clothes of Christ, and rest in inferior discoveries of graces as signs in 
themselves which satisfy them, whereas these are but the grave-clothes of 
Christ, and severed from his person, afford but little hearty comfort ; and 
they go again about their business, as Peter and John did, and think it a 
folly to look any further. But others are, as Mary, more affectionate, 
passionate Christians, that have great impressions made on their wills and 
affections, they know not how or why, that come to the throne of grace to 
seek Christ, and have his love from himself manifested, as Mary did, and 
find little, as she did not at her first coming to the sepulchre, the first time, 
that look, and look again, and see nothing appear, and yet will not go 
away. Xow though the first sort are loved by Christ, yet he defers his 
appearing to them all day long, until night, until the evening of their days, 
as he did to his apostles ; but the other sort of believers, being impatient 
after him, and lying down at his feet, and not stirring till they are blessed 
with a sight of him, are favoured with the appearance of him to them in 
the morning early, as Mary was, for it was early in the morning when this 
manifestation was made to her, and therefore, perhaps, it not being fully 
light, she took him for the gardener. 

Obs. 3. That the time and season of Christ's discovery of himself to the 
soul is, when it hath run through the use of all means, and ventured diffi- 
culties for it. We see that Christ stayed from manifesting himself to Mary, 
who loved him so much, till she had been twice at the sepulchre, for she 
thought that he must be thereabouts, or nowhere, and would not go away, 
but stayed there, looked in, inquired for him of angels, ay, and of Christ 
himself too ; but then, after the full use of means, though they in them- 
selves were vain and ineffectual, Christ stays not a jot longer, but unex- 
pectedly appeared, John xx. 14. She had said all her poor soul could say 
to express affection, and had done her due in the use of all means, and all 
in vain ; and when Christ had left her to the extremity of mistakes and 
distresses about what she desired, then, at last he who had stood behind the 
curtain all that while, and under a disguise, steps out and manifests himself to 
her. And thus it often falls out (that the analogy may be observed), in the 
inquisition of poor souls after Christ in their own hearts, and in the mani- 
festation of himself to them. He both useth gradual means in that discovery, 
and yet all along leaves them to doubts and distress, till himself breaks 
forth and appears. They would know whether Christ be risen in them, or 
to them, or not; they run to the ordinances, and first this angel, this 
minister, then another minister gives them encouragement, and sometimes 



384 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

reproves them for not believing ; yea, they are bidden to remember the 
days of old, and God's dealings with them then, and they have promises 
brought home to their hearts in a seasonable manner, yea, and impressions 
and suggestions, sometimes in whispers, sometimes in loud testimonies to 
their hearts in prayer ; but then they go abroad and talk with Christians 
stronger than themselves, and find them to have such a work upon them 
which they want, and find them to speak of such discoveries to which they 
are strangers, and then such and such corruptions break forth and over- 
power them, to think that Christ is stolen out of their hearts (as Mary says 
here, John xx. 13), and then all which they had received of Christ before 
seems as idle tales to them, and so they are possessed, as she was, with a 
fixed imagination, that either he was never in their hearts, but that in all 
hath been a counterfeit work, or that he hath been driven away by their 
lusts, or stolen away by Satan ; and yet in the midst of this distress their 
love works, as Mary's did, and they inquire all over the city for him, as 
the church in the Canticles, Cant. iii. 1, 2. Then Christ sends angels, 
ministers, and good friends, one of a thousand, to comfort them ; and they 
ask why the soul weeps, and tell it that it is in a mistake ; but the 
soul is so far prepossessed with prejudice, that it turns away from all com- 
fort, as Mary did, and ' refuseth to be comforted,' Ps. lxxvii. 2; then Christ 
himself begins to appear, though luce dubid, in some more doubtful light, 
as to Mary here, which yet is truly from himself, in impressions of ravish- 
ing joy, or the like ; but they presently question this too, and discern not 
Christ in the business, but take him for another, as Mary mistook him for 
the gardener ; they are ready to think, that Satan having stolen Christ 
from them, endeavours to delude them with false joys, and so they turn 
away from Christ, as Mary did, John xx. 14-16 ; but when Christ hath 
drawn out their affections towards himself to the utmost, in this dark way, 
wherein doubtings are mingled with their faith, which yet doth whet their 
love and desires after his presence, as it had such an effect on Mary, then 
at last he breaks forth in discovering himself to them, as Joseph did to his 
brethren ; and his bowels turning within him, he can hold no longer, but 
appears as the sun out of a cloud, as Christ risen from the dead indeed, he 
appears like himself glorious to their souls. He appears to be such indeed 
as they looked not for. They, like Mary, sought for a dead Christ (as 
Christ is no other in our imaginations, till we see him to be what he really 
is, when he thus appears to us), but they find a living, quickening Christ, 
bringing heaven and glory into their hearts. The reason of this dispensa- 
tion of Christ is, that he may take their hearts the more when he doth 
appear, and that he may come to them with a greater evidence. Nihil tarn 
certum, quam (juoil ex duhio certum ; there is nothing more certain than that 
whose certainty is cleared out of doubts. And dothing proves more certain 
when made manifest, than what before was most doubted. And besides, 
he renders himself doubly welcome, when he comes not only unexpected, 
but at that time when we have had all our thoughts, desires; and hopes, 
seemingly baffled and frustrated with mistakes. Though Christ is now 
risen, and in heaven, yet he deals with us more nost.ro, in a way suited to 
our state, after an human way, and plays with us in prteludiums, discovers 
himself, and withdraws. He appears first in such a dress as we shall not 
know him. Thus Moses contrived the discovery of himself, and of his love 
to his brethren, in such a taking way, and suffered their hearts to be pre- 
pared by all such circumstances, that when he should discover himself, a 
way might be opened to fill their hearts with a greater joy and astonish- 
ment, he laid a train for their affections, to blow them up at once. I need 



Chap. VII. ] of justifying faith. 385 

Dot till you, that man hath such a principle in him, that is apt to be ever 
taken with such a story, when told, whether it be true or feigned, as relates 
the congress and meeting of two absent friends, or lovers, who ran through 
many difficulties and mistakes about each other ere they met. We all find 
the powerful influence of such relations. Who almost when a child hath 
not been moved to weep, in reading the story of old Jacob the father, and 
of Joseph and his brethren, and of his discovery to them ? Christ our 
tiller brother, though in heaven, yet plays with Christians, as those who 
are under age.* If you would frame a romance, it could not be more full 
of variety than is this manifestation of Christ to Mary ; thus he dealt with 
his disciples going to Emmaus, he mingleth himself with their company, talks 
as a stranger, makes as if he would have gone farther, warms their hearts, 
breaks bread, and vanisheth. Have there been any such transactions 
between Christ and thee ? They all have proceeded from the same love and 
pleasant kindness as these did towards Mary Magdalene, and are of the 
same kind, and shall be told as largely at the latter day, as this concerning 
her is recorded here. 

Obs. 4. From the manner of Christ's discovering himself, observe, that 
nothing can give full joy, or thoroughly settle the heart in believing, and 
overpower all doubts, till Christ himself comes and manifests himself to 
the soul. If the vision of angels, and comfort spoken by them, could not 
have this effect on Mary, what then can do it ? Though they sympathise 
with us in our distress, and in some cases suggest comforts to us, yet they 
cannot comfort us without Christ's appearance to our souls. 

Obs. 5. When Christ himself comes on purpose to manifest himself, you 
then need no other witness. What cared Mary Magdalene for angels, or 
grave-clothes, &c, when she had Christ himself before her? As you need 
not light a candle by which to see the sun, so when Christ witnesseth im- 
mediately to our hearts it is enough ; as when he swears by himself, there 
needs no other oath to confirm what he says. 

Obs. 6. When Christ is pleased to direct one word, it sufficeth. ' Mary,' 
says he to this woman, and no ruore, John xx. 16. Thus when Joseph 
said to his brethren ' I am Joseph,' it was enough. She was before in the 
depths of distress, and ready to faint away; and one word from that 
mouth who speaks from heaven not only wipes away all tears, but fetcheth 
and revives her again. If a soul be never so far shot into despair, one 
glance of Christ's eye in prayer, and one beam from him, shoots it back 
again. Be not therefore discouraged in thy deepest desertions, since one 
word from Christ in a moment will revive thee. 

Obs. 7. When he is pleased to appear, and speak to any soul, he doth it 
as punctually and effectually as if he called it by name. He is the good 
shepherd who knoweth his sheep by name, and they know his voice, John 
x. 3, 4. We are the stars in his right hand, Rev. i. 20; and he calleth 
all the stars by then- names, Ps. cxlvii. 4. And well he may ; for as hang- 
ing on the cross our names and the bills of our sins were brought to him, 
so now he is in heaven, as our high priest, he bears the names of the tribes 
on his breastplate, and hath our names to present to his Father ; and when 
he speaks comfort, though he doth not vocally name us, as here he calls 
Mary, yet he speaks this comfort as punctually as if he named us. Thus 
in the manifestation of himself unto Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 17, says he, 
' Thee have I known by name ;' i. e., I discover myself to thee as one that 
speaks to such an one by name. Doth he write any love-letters from 

* Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus. 
VOL. VIII. B b 



386 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

heaven to thee ? He punctually directs them to thy heart, as if he had 
wrote thy name. 

Obs. 8. Christ must, when he appears, own us, before we can own him. 
He begins first, and calls Mary; then she answers, Rabboni, Master. As 
he loves us first before we love him, so he must manifest himself first before 
we know him, or rather are known of him. 

Thus we have seen Christ's manifestation of himself to Maiy Magdalene ; 
let us now consider her carnage and behaviour. 

Ver. 16, ' She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to 
to say, Master.' She calleth him Rabboni, too low a word, and not full 
enough of reverence for Christ, considering that state he was now in. 
Thomas afterward riseth higher, and said, 'My Lord, and my God;' but 
she here plainly ' Rabboni,' which was the usual title given to those who 
were teachers among the Jews, and the old name which she used to give 
Christ before. Ver. 17, 'Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am 
not yet ascended to my Father.' It was a loving familiarity that she was 
entering into ; she would fain have been touching of him, and embracing 
of his feet, as we read the woman did, Mat. xxviii. 9. The Greek word 
(here in John xx. 17 translated touch) clvrrov signifies to hang about one, 
to cleave to one. It was a loving familiarity, such as she had used to 
Lazarus her brother* when risen; she thought to have enjoyed him as a 
friend, and as a friend on earth, with such a love answerable. It was this 
same woman that formerly fell at his feet, and washed them with her tears, 
and wiped them with her hair, and after that poured ointment upon his 
head ; and she thought that she might use her wonted respect in such a 
familiarity, which became not that state wherein Christ was now. It is 
certain that she used no gesture uncomely for a woman to use to a man, 
her friend, supposed to be in an earthly state, for then she should have 
had some special reproof for it from Christ; neither indeed was her spirit 
at this time capable of any such thing ; but the unmeetness of it lay with 
respect to the present condition of Christ, which she considered not, and 
that was, that he being now risen, and so in that state wherein he was 
changed from an earthly to an heavenly man, 1 Cor. xv. 44, 45, that kind 
of converse which was once suitable was not so now ; as if a friend should 
be made a king, embracing or familiar speaking would not be so proper as 
bowing to him. It was then some familiar converse with him which she 
desired, such as she was wont to have, proceeding from her love unto him ; 
and therefore he only saith unto her, ' Touch me not, for I am not yet 
ascended to my Father.' The truth is (and you shall find it true in expe- 
rience), when souls are admitted into near fellowship with Christ, there is 
an aptness in them to be too familiar, as here we see Mary was ; and there- 
fore, it is a good lesson that is given to the church in Ps. xlv., who being 
advanced to be a queen, and to sit at the right hand of Christ her Lord, 
hath this counsel given her by God, ' He is thy Lord, worship thou him,' 
ver. 11. The King saith he shall greatly desire thy beauty, and so be 
familiar with thee ; but withal remember that ' he is thy Lord : therefore, 
worship thou him.' It is such a familiarity as still must be joined with 
the greatest observance. Or it may be, this poor woman, being in a kind 
of amazement, forgot herself, she knew not what she did, even as Peter when 
he was with Christ transfigured in the mount, the text saith, ' He knew not 
what he said : ' no more did she now well know what she did. But why 
did Christ forbid her to touch him ? It is evident that he did suffer men 
to touch him after his resurrection. He suffered the disciples here in this 
* Was Mary Magdalene the sister of Lazarus ? — Ed. 



Chap. VII. J of justifying faith. 387 

chapter, ' ho shewed them his hands and his feet,' and bids Thomas to 
handle him ; and in Lnke likewise, he bids the apostles feel whether a spirit 
had llesh and bones ; and the women in Mat. xxviii., to whom he did appear, 
tliov embraced his feet. What should be the reason, then, that Christ would 
not have this woman to touch him ? Some say the reason was, because 
Christ was now about to send her upon a message to his disciples, whom 
he knew were in great need of comfort ; and therefore, though for her to 
have communion with Cbrist had been exceeding sweet, yet, saith Christ, 
do not you stand staying hero with me, to shew your love to me as formerly 
3*ou have done ; do not hang about me, I have other work for you to do : 
go and comfort those poor souls which are weeping at home ; go, tell my 
brethren that I am risen again ; as for conversing with me, there will bo 
time enough hereafter for that : ' I am not yet ascended to my Father.' 
This, indeed, is a very probable and good meaning, and shews that our 
Lord and Saviour Christ took a great deal of care of his poor brethren, that 
seeing now he was risen, and had begun to declare it, they likewise should 
have the news of it, that they might be comforted. But I rather think the 
reason of the difference to be this, that he permitteth his disciples thus to 
handle him and touch him, and forbiddeth her to do it, was because that 
they might be witnesses that he was truly risen again with a true body, and 
that so they might be fully satisfied of his resurrection ; but now this woman 
she was already, by this appearance of his, fully satisfied in it, and there- 
fore, as her aim was not fo touch him for any such end, so there was no 
need she should touch him for any such end for which the rest of the apostles 
did indeed handle him, her aim only being to have some familiarity with 
him. Therefore, though Christ appeared to his disciples, and suffered him- 
self to be touched by them, yet it was in order to beget faith, it was not in 
a way of familiarity ; but now that faith that he was risen again being 
begotten in Mary, he forbids her that familiarity with him that she was 
entering into. And observe the reason he himself gives : • for,' saith he, 
' I am not yet ascended to my Father ; ' the meaning whereof is this, that 
he forbids her this familiarity in this earthly state wherein she was, and 
forbids it also to all such. But in that state of the world to come, when 
he and she, both glorified, should meet, then she should have a full fami- 
liarity with him. • I am not yet ascended,' saith he, nor you with me ; 
but one day we shall meet, though not in bodily embraces, for they profit 
nothing, yet in bodily substance, and what is answerable and analogical 
hereunto. And it is as if he had said, When you and I shall be in heaven 
together, with ail my saints and children, you shall have familiarity enough 
with me ; but now, saith he, this kind of familiarity is not ordained to you, 
nor is it the time appointed. I am not in a state to be familiar in that way 
I was before ; but when I am ascended, and when you shall be risen again 
and ascended, and shall have glorified bodies with me, then we shall be 
familiar. As one thing is forbidden to her, so to quiet her, another thing 
is promised ; and it is implied that, when he is ascended, and his children 
with him, when they shall have bodies taken up thither, and be where he 
is, John xvii. 24, that then he will be familiar with them. If you maik it, 
he doth not say, Touch me not, for I am risen ; as if he had only intended 
to shew that his present state allowed it not, or as if he meant to say, 
Though you were familiar with me before my death, yet now you must not 
be so, for I am risen. No ; it is a higher reason : ' For,' saith he, ' I am 
not yet ascended ; ' which clearly holds this forth, that indeed there is a 
time after his ascension in which he and his people shall be familiar, when 
he and they are in heaven together. Stay but till then, saith he ; and in 



388 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAKT II. BOOK II. 

the mean time, between me and you though there be a spiritual familiarity 
by faith now I am risen, and shall be when I am ascended, yet this kind 
of familiarity which you would now have with me, is reserved to the life to 
come ; and when I am ascended, and so you are with me, then we shall be 
familiar ; and therefore he addeth afterward, ' I ascend to my Father and 
your Father ; ' we shall all be together one day, and then we shall be 
familiar. 

This I take to be the meaning, and I know not how otherwise to resolve 
it ; other senses are put upon it, but to me this is most natural and genuine, 
and indeed most for our comfort. I will strengthen it with one instance, 
which I have often thought of, to this very purpose, and it is of our Saviour 
Christ's appearing in his transfiguration, when he carried up James, Peter, 
and John into the mount, and was transfigured before them. Now all the 
evangelists have this as a preface to that story, that Christ said, ' There 
are some standing here that shall not taste of death, till they see the Son 
of man in his kingdom.' So that that transfiguration was a glimpse or an 
entrance into that glory of his kingdom, which, with his saints and children, 
he is and shall be possessed of. Now in that kingdom, to shew that fami- 
liarity that shall be between his members and himself, you have Moses and 
Elias both (one having had his body in heaven afore, and the other, through 
the power of God, assuming his body, and being risen again) talking and 
familiarly conversing with him. Thus it will be in the kingdom of heaven ; 
and this, I say, Christ implies in this speech of his to Mary, ' Touch me 
not,' saith he, ' for I am not yet ascended ;' forbear this familiarity with 
me till we be in heaven together, for then we shall be familiar enough. He 
meaneth not that there shall be embracing of him, as here she would have 
done, but metaphorically, that there shall be an intercourse of familiarity 
between him and his children. It is a parallel phrase of speech with that 
in Mat. xsvi. 29 (and indeed the one interprets the other), 'I will not drink 
of this fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new with you in my 
Father's kingdom.' It is not that Christ will then drink wine, but he 
metaphorically expresseth the mutual joys which he in and with the saints, 
and they in and with him, shall have by the spiritual entertainment in 
heaven. Look, then, what familiarity there is amongst men at table, when 
they eat and drink together : such a kind of enjoyment, in a familiar way, 
shall the saints have with Jesus Christ in heaven, whereof there is some 
earnest here, Rev. hi. 20, as that there is but a metaphorical expression, 
so this of touching him here is : then in heaven they shall touch him, that 
is, they shall be familiar with him. He expresseth it in one place by that 
familiarity we have one with another at a supper, and in this place by her 
touching of him, or embracing him. It is certain that much of our happi- 
ness in heaven will lie in a blessed familiarity with Jesus Christ. Christ 
is a perfect husband, and all other husbands are but shadows of him, and 
there shall be the utmost familiarity then between us ; not that kind that 
is between man and wife here, but what transcends it, our bodies shall be 
made spiritual, 1 Cor. xv., as his also is ; and yet, as bodies earthly are 
suited each to other in converse earthly, — ' they two are one flesh,' — so 
Christ's spiritual body and ours in an heavenly way ; yet I say that all 
such near converses here are but the shadows of it, because it will be tran- 
scendency more intimate, for we shall be one spirit with Christ ; therefore, 
in that 1 Cor. vi., where the apostle saith, that ' the body is not for forni- 
cation, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body,' he addeth, ver. 14, 
1 God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own 
power ; ' that is, God hath appointed the very bodies of the saints (take 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 389 

them as glorified), for Christ to take pleasure in them, and for them to 
take pleasure in Christ ; and as he hath suited the eyo to beauty here, so 
he hath suited those spiritual senses there to that glory which is in Christ. 
Ola. 1. In the mean time, Christ being now risen and ascended, we may 
learn this, not to know him after the flesh. Mary hero would have been 
familiar with him in a kind of human familiarity; our Saviour Christ 
refuseth this, to teach her that though he would one day be thus familiar 
with her, yet for the present that familiarity she was to have with him was 
by faith. ' Henceforth,' saith Paul, 2 Cor. v. 16, ' I know no man after 
the flesh; yea, though I have known Christ after the flesh, I know him no 
more.' Though the apostles had the earthly image of Christ in their 
fancies, yet, when they prayed to him, they did not set before them such a 
Christ as they had seen, but a spiritual Christ, as glorified, as ascended, as 
risen again; and under these considerations did they put forth their faith 
to him, and unto this doth he call Mary here, ' Touch me not, for I am 
not yet ascended.' If you will have any converse with me by faith, so it 
is ; as for that familiarity to which we are ordained hereafter, that becometh 
not us now. So that, indeed, the least knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Christ in a spiritual way by faith, it is worth all the bodily knowledge we 
can have of him ; though he should appear to us all a thousand times, and 
be never so much otherwise familiar with us, it were nothing in comparison 
of that we may have by faith. ' Though I have seen Christ after the flesh,' 
saith Paul, which expression of his, I think, may rise to this : though I was 
enabled, by the eye of my body, to behold him in heaven glorified (for so 
he did when he was converted, and so wicked men shall see him at latter 
day), yet that sight I have by the new creature, by faith, is worth more 
than all the other. That sight that the poorest believer hath of Jesus 
Christ by faith, is a higher one than that which Paul had of him by his 
bodily eyes. It was a means, indeed, of converting Paul, and it may be of 
the Jews ; but else had not Christ wrought in him a touching of him by 
faith, a sight of him by faith, and by the new creature, that other would 
have done him no good, for it will do wicked men no good at latter day. 
Therefore now, if you will deal with Jesus Christ, you must deal with him 
by faith, you must touch him that way: there is no other, till such time as 
you come up to heaven, and be ascended with him; then, indeed, you 
shall see him face to face, and have familiarity enough with him. ' Touch 
me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go and tell my 
brethren,' &c. 

Obs. 2. You see our Lord and Saviour Christ was not only careful to die 
for us, but to apply comfort to us. You shall read in the story of the 
evangelists that the disciples were got into a corner, and there they were 
weeping and mourning. Saith Christ unto Mary, What do you stand 
staying here with me ? Go your ways, saith he, and tell my brethren ; 
poor souls, they have need of comfort. Such are his dealings with poor 
souls now he is in heaven. He seeth such an one weeping and mourning 
after him. What doth he ? Why, he doth in his providence order such 
a speech in a sermon : though he doth not tell the preacher so much, yet 
his Spirit doth secretly guide him. Go, saith he, and tell such a one such 
a truth as shall comfort his heart. Jesus Christ knows all your distresses, 
and as he sent Mary to his disciples, so he sendeth a word providentially, 
either publicly or privately, or he sendeth, indeed, his own Spirit — a better 
messenger than Mary was — down into your hearts, to be a messenger of 
comfort to you, when you go up and down mourning, and want comfort. 
Ye may see, I say, how careful our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is of 



3C0 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

those that are in distress, in want of him; how he takes care to have them 
comforted, therefore he despatcheth away this good woman to his disciples. 
That is one observation. 

Obs. 3. Another observation is this, that for us to be means of perform- 
ing of duty to others, to comfort them, and to bring others to faith and to 
believing, and to go about errands, and to do businesses that Christ sets 
us about, is much better in its season than enjoying communion with 
Christ. The thing is clear from this : Mary, though she had not been thus 
familiar with Christ, yet what a great deal of happiness would it have been 
to her soul, what comfort to have but stayed by him a while. No, saith 
Christ, I have better work for you to do than this, for certainly he did not 
send her to her loss. Go, saith he, as fast as you can, and tell my brethren; 
do that work and business, and refer the other till hereafter. And this was 
better for her, and she should have a greater reward than to have stayed 
there to behold him, and personally to have communion with him. To be 
employed in works for the glory of Christ and good of his churches, when 
he calleth us thereunto, is more acceptable than private communion with 
him in prayer, &c. Why ? For we shall have familiarity enough with him 
in heaven. So he saith here, go and do that work I appoint you, and then 
fear not familiarity when you and I am ascended. Do you that I send you 
about, and believe me we will find a time for the other; we will meet in 
heaven. In the mean time, go and tell these poor souls that are mourning, 
and saddened for the want of me. This may hearten us in the work of 
our callings, to do what our hands find to do. Spiritual self must be some- 
times denied to do carnal business. Cbrist denied glorious self when he 
left communion with his Father to come into the world, and to work out 
our salvation in it. 

Obs. 4. Another observation from hence is this, that God doth often- 
times use means, very weak means, to reveal the greatest truths to his 
children, yea, to the greatest of his children. Here is the great point of 
the resurrection ; yea, here is the great point of the ascension, which was 
higher than the resurrection. Whom doth he employ to break it first but 
a poor woman, and employs her to the greatest apostles. It is not ruinis- 
ters^only that do always bring forth a truth; God oftentimes blesseth the 
meanest in a church to do it. Angels teach the women, they the apostles. 
He would honour, and he did honour Mary to bring the first news of the 
resurrection to the apostles ; therefore we should not straiten truths only 
in respect of persons, but, as the Holy Ghost saith, ' a child should lead 
us,' Isaiah xi. 6; I mean in respect of truths. 

Obs. 5. Again we may note this, that if we do know anything of God and 
of Christ, if any special thing be told us for the good of others, we ought 
to tell it, and not to keep it close. So soon as ever Christ had told Mary, 
' Go tell my brethren,' saith he. 

It is the first time he called them brethren. He called them disciples 
and apostles when he sent them forth to preach, and when he took his fare- 
well of them to die, he called them friends ; but now he is risen again, he 
calleth them brethren, not only to fulfil what was plainly foretold of him in 
Psalm xxii. 3 (which psalm, in the former part of it, is a prophecy of the 
crucifying of Christ), that as he made use when he was upon the cross of 
that saying, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Nay, God 
had in his providence put into the Pharisees' mouths to speak the very 
words that he had foretold in this psalm ; so now, being risen again, he 
useth that compilation which was prophesied that he should use, ' I will 
declare thy name unto my brethren;' therefore saith he here, ' Go tell my 



Chap. VII.] of justifying faith. 301 

brethren.' Not only, I say, for this reason doth he call them brethren, but 
also hereby the more to break their hearts, for they were guilty of more 
sin against him now than they had been in all their converse with him. 
Some of them, namely, Peter, had denied him, and they had all forsaken 
him, yet when he riseth from the dead, the first word he speaks of them 
he calleth brethren, thereby to assure them how his heart and mind stood 
toward them, notwithstanding their sin and unbelief. 

Obs. 6. Our Lord and Saviour Christ, in the manifestation of himself to 
souls, still riseth higher and higher. He had called them servants a long 
while, and they had called him Master; when he was to take his leave of 
them he called them friends ; now he is risen he calleth them brethren, a 
relation that hath more sweetness, a higher style than any of the former. 
The longer you converse with Christ, the longer you live with him, the 
more sweetness you shall find in him, the more nearer and intimate pas- 
sages of his love, and of the sweetness of his relations you shall find to 
increase and grow upon you. Hast thou found God sweet in one relation? 
Hast thou found sweetness in such a promise ? He hath some further thing 
reserved to reveal of himself to thy soul. Hath Christ called thee friend? 
Wait but a while, and he will rise higher; he will call thee brother. You 
see here, after his resurrection, he speaks more kindly than he did before 
his death: ' Go, tell my brethren,' saith he; and now being ascended, and 
in heaven, his expressions are yet more sweet; he professeth himself to be 
a husband, and they to be his spouse. The longer thou knowest Christ, 
the more love thou shalt still find in him ; he will still rise higher, and 
increase in his expressions. 

But what is the message he would have his brethren told ? ' Tell them,' 
saith he, ' that I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and 
your God.' 

Here, you see, he doth not only satisfy this poor woman, that he was 
risen again, but he tells her a greater matter than his resurrection at the 
very first word, he breaks open to her the great article of his ascension. 
When Christ once begins to reveal himself to a soul, he goes still on to 
reveal greater and greater things. Mary here she would have contented 
herself with his dead body, she seems to desire no more : ' Tell me where 
thou hast laid him,' saith she, ' and I will take him away.' Poor woman, 
she had been unable to have borne away a dead body, but her affections 
goes beyond her strength, and now she hath not only Christ's body dead, 
but Christ's body risen ; and not only so, but she hath news of his ascen- 
sion : ' I ascend,' saith he. Still our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will 
exceed our expectations in the manifestation of himself : you look for him 
risen, you shall find him ascending, — I speak in allusion to the text, — he will 
still be better than you can imagine, he hath still reserves beyond whatever 
your heart can think : • I ascend,' saith he. As soon as he was risen, his heart 
was presently upon ascending into heaven. The truth is, it was his due to 
have ascended into heaven when he first rose, therefore he speaks in the present 
tense, ' I ascend,' I am going thither, though he was to stay a long while, 
forty days upon earth ; but, I say, as soon as he was risen, his heart was 
above, it was in heaven, all his mind was upon ascending ; he was held 
here indeed below, to do that service to his disciples and saints, to teach 
his apostles the mysteries of his kingdom, and of his resurrection, yet his 
heart was upon his ascension, so should every soul be. What saith the 
apostle ? ' Are ye risen with Christ ?' What is the next step ? Heaven. 
Ascend, saith he. Do we profess ourselves risen with Christ ? Let us not 
set our affection on things on the earth, let us ascend to heaven, ' let us 



392 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

seek those things which are ahove.' Christ was up in his affections sooner 
than in his body : ' I ascend,' saith he. 

What is the reason that Christ would have Mary to tell his disciples at 
the first dash, that as he was risen, so he would ascend, and ascend pre- 
sently, ascend soon ? 

This is the reason, among others ; they did dream, and their thoughts 
ran upon nothing but a temporal kingdom, and such a kind of Messiah as 
should ' restore again the kingdom unto Israel.' Nay, the truth is, that 
even when he was ascending they could not be kept off, but still this ran in 
their minds, ' Wilt thou at this time,' say they, ' restore the kingdom unto 
Israel ?' For the apostles, you must know, were ignorant in many things, 
and though it was necessary that they should know infallibly, yet it was 
not necessary that they should know all things at all times. John did not 
know his Revelation a long time after he was an apostle. Now, to break 
off their thoughts from this carnal conceit, the first news he sends them 
word of, was, that he was to ascend ; he would not let them lie in an error 
so long ; how careful is our Lord and Saviour Christ, that as his people 
should not lie long uncomforted, so that they should not lie long in error ; 
the very first news, you see, that he sends his disciples, afore he speaks with 
them himself (to drive that error out of their hearts) is, ' I ascend,' saith 
he, ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God.' 
You shall find that Christ, when he had spoken of his ascension before, he 
usually said, ' I go to my Father,' and ' I go to him that sent me,' &c. ; 
so John xv. 6, 10, 28, but now he puts their names in too : ' I ascend to 
my Father, and your Father :' for still (as I said) he reserves comforts for 
them. It became Christ, when he was risen from the dead, to speak higher 
things than he had done before. Now the scope and end principally of it is 
this, he bad told Mary that he was not yet ascended, and that therefore she 
should forbear her familiarity with him ; ay, but, saith he, know, and tell 
my disciples too, that ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father,' and 
therefore where I am you shall be also ; I ascend to heaven, you shall 
ascend thither too ; for what is the reason that I go to heaven but because 
my Father is there ? I must go to my Father's house ; why, he is your 
Father too, and therefore you shall ascend too, and that by virtue of my 
ascension. We go to heaven by virtue of our sonship, or adoption ; there- 
fore saith the apostle, Rom. viii. 17, ' If sons, then heirs, and heirs of God.' 

Christ doth not say, I ascend to heaven ; no, he speaks higher : ' I ascend 
to my God, and to my Father.' For God considered as a Father is heaven, 
and therefore in that Rom. viii. we are said to be heirs of God; not heirs 
of heaven, for indeed God is heaven. 

' I ascend to my Father.' He shews here the reason why he was risen, 
and why he did ascend, and so why the saints shall rise and ascend; 
because God is his Father, and God is their Father. What is the reason 
that Abraham shall rise one day ? Because he is the God of Abraham ; 
so Christ himself argues from that very thing in Mat. xxii. 32. So here 
he shews them the true ground why he was thus risen, and why he was to 
ascend; because, saith he, God is my God, and my Father. And he 
plainly intimates that they shall go to heaven too, and rise again, as he 
had clone ; for what God is to me, saith he, the same he is unto you. Is 
he my Father ? he is your Father too ; what the consequent was of his 
being my God and my Father shall be the consequent of his being your 
God and your Father. The consequent of his being my God and Father 
is, that I rose again, and am now going to heaven ; so the consequent of 
his being your God and your Father shall be, that you shall rise again, 



Chap. VIII. | of justifying faith. 393 

and go to heaven too. This is clearly the scope of Christ : ' Go, tell my 
brethren this,' saith he, 'that I ascend to my God,' &c. 

I might shew here how he is the God of Christ and the Father of Christ, 
and that in him what he is to Christ he is likewise to us. But I will not 
stand upon that now. 

Obs. 7. Only observe this, that the tenor of the covenant is altered, — it 
was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob, and so the God of the 
Jews ; but now it is the God of Christ, and? so our God, because he that 
Abraham typified out is come. Abraham, with whom the covenant was 
made, was but a shadow, Christ is the substance. And so I proceed to the 
18th verse. 

Verse 18, ' Mary Magdalene came, and told the disciples that she had 
seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.' There is 
little I shall observe out of these words, but only that which before I did. 
Mary she goes and doeth her duty, she leaves communion with Christ, and 
goes to perform that which Christ had enjoined her, as indeed we should. 
Though communion with Christ may be sweeter to us, as it is with a child 
to be with his mother all day, yet it is his duty to go to school all day, and 
then he shall come home to his mother at night ; so it is our duty to be 
conversant in our callings, to be doing those things Christ sets us about, 
and it is more acceptable to God than to have communion with him all 
day long. You see Mary counts it so here ; she leaves Christ, and goes 
and tells the disciples what he had spoken to her. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Of joy in the Holy Ghost ; that it springs from our communion with God the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. — 1 John I. 4. 

This apostle John was the love and delight of Christ when he lived upon 
the earth, nor had he less familiar converse with his Lord Jesus after his 
ascension and investiture with glory in heaven ; hence the apostle makes 
this preface to his Epistle : 1 John i. 3, ' That which we have seen and 
heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us : and 
truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' 

The only begotten Son of God, coming out of the bosom of the Father, 
revealed the Father and his love ; and, indeed, he only could do it, John 
i. 13. In like manner John, that bosom-apostle, who lay in the bosom of 
Christ, opens to us those breasts of consolation which himself had sucked ; and 
as they were full breasts, so he writes these things that our joys may be full. 

What therefore this Epistle aims at, we may guess by the frontispiece, 
to which also relates, and comes almost to the same thing, what he repeats 
at the end, and which is near the close of the Epistle : 1 John v. 13, 
1 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son 
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may 
believe on the name of the Son of God ;' for however believers may be 
happy by having an interest in this life, yet then only they gladly rejoice 
when they know themselves to have it, and exult with a full joy when they 
know the life which they have to be eternal. Hence then there arises two 
things more distinctly to be treated of: 1. That it is the chief aim of the 
apostle to fortify the way for believers to attain communion with God, and 
to ascertain themselves concerning eternal life. 2. That thence only a 



394 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II* 

fulness of joy doth redound : ■ that your joy,' saith he, ■ may be full.' The 
papists, who have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, to 
endanger others too would deprive the church of Christ of assurance of 
salvation, which is the trusty rudder to steer her in a storm, and so put 
her out to sea, not a calm sea, but unquiet and troubled (as Isaiah speaks, 
chap. lvii. 20), and there leave her to be driven about with the whirlpools 
of a fluctuating conscience, or to be tossed with the hurricanes of tempta- 
tions, and at last to suffer shipwreck. 

If in no other respect, in this at least, they are enemies of the Christian 
peace, of that which is the best peace, * peace of conscience.' To overthrow 
them all I oppose this single apostle John alone against them. 

But they will say that it is granted indeed that to the prophets, and 
apostles, and to Christians of the first magnitude, this extraordinary privi- 
lege of assurance is vouchsafed and manifested to them by extraordinary 
revelation, but that it is not discovered to the common sort of Christians 
by any revelation founded on the word. But, says the apostle, I have 
wrote these things (and indeed he wrote them on purpose) to that end, 
that they who believe may know that they have eternal life. What need 
is there of any heavenly messenger to tell them ? They have John, let 
them hear him. It is not only to the apostles that John, who was one of 
them, writes this, but to all who believe : 1 John i. 3, ' That which we 
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship 
with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus 
Christ.' His meaning is. that you believers may have communion with us 
apostles, in the same fellowship with Jesus Christ which we have. He 
directed this Epistle to all who believe on Christ, and to persons of all 
ages among them : 1 John ii. 12-14, ■ I write unto you, little children, 
because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, 
fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write 
unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write 
unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have 
written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the 
beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, 
and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked 
one.' He doth not therefore speak of assurance and joy in the Holy 
Ghost as a privilege peculiar to grown believers, of the largest and strongest 
size, or to young men established in the faith, but to children themselves, 
to whom it is given (as our Saviour speaks, Mat. xiii. 11), more often 
given, to know this mystery of joy in the Holy Ghost. 

If we read over the whole Epistle, we shall find that there are as many 
right and infallible marks, and certain signs given, whereby we may know 
our adoption, as there are verses in it ; such are, walking in the light, 
1 John i. 6, 7 ; confession of our sins, ver. 9 ; observance of God's pre- 
cepts, 1 John ii. 3, 5, observance especially of that precept of Christ which 
is the test of his disciples ; to love the brethren, ver. 10. Then he tells 
us (1 John iii. 3) that the greater our hope is, the more it will purify us ; 
and that whoever is born of God doth not commit sin, ver. 9 ; and that 
he hath given us the Spirit, ver. 24. 

Obj. But the papists reply, that they freely grant that all these are 
certain signs of salvation in the general, but that the apostle John doth not 
name, or so much as intimate, any person to be assured of his salvation in 
particular. Whence therefore can any one promise himself that these 
signs are in him ? 

Ans. The apostle himself furnisheth us with an answer to this : 1 John 



Chap. YIIL] of justifying faith. 395 

v. 10, ' He that believeth on the Son of God bath the witness in himself: 
he that believeth not God hath made him a liar ; because he believeth not 
the record that God gave of his Son.' In himself, that is, in his heart, 
assenting and agreeing to these signs ; for as the word of God, which we 
have in our hands, and which is divinely inspired, hath' the inward testi- 
mony of the Spirit in itself, and is the evidence and judge of itself, by like 
reason also hoyog Me s/Atpvrog, that word which you bear written in your 
hearts, hath annexed to it a most credible and authentic evidence of itself; 
' He who believes,' says the apostle, ' hath the witness in himself,' and 
that witness is, that God hath given to us eternal life, ver. 11 ; and the 
same apostle exhibits to us three witnesses (ver. 8) who use on earth to 
confirm and seal to the consciences of believers their proper particular 
salvation. As there are three in heaven, who before had accomplished 
their salvation established in the greatest reality (ver. 7), so ' there are 
three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood : 
and these three agree in one,' ver. 8. There is the spirit of adoption, 
Rom. viii. 16, the water of sanctification, Heb. x. 22, and the blood of 
Christ and justification, Heb. ix. 14. Now in the mouth of two or three 
witnesses every word shall be established, 2 Cor. xiii. 1. 

Obj. But the papists again object that the heart of man itself is deceit- 
ful ; who can know it ? Jer. xvii. 9. And we experience daily many to 
be deceived, and to be deluded with a false hope. 

Ans. Be it so ; yet to us who truly believe, Christ hath given us an 
understanding that we may know him, 1 John v. 20, he hath put into us 
that true new heart, that renewed understanding which judgeth all things, 
1 Cor. ii. 15 ; and besides, he hath given us the Spirit, which is a Spirit 
of truth, and knoweth all things, and teacheth us all things, 1 John 
ii. 20, 21, 27 ; for all these signs of salvation which the Spirit hath in- 
serted in the Scriptures he hath written in the hearts of believers, and 
hath taught them to read them in themselves as well as in this Epistle, so 
that there is no need that any man should teach us, ver. 27. 

To which this also may be" added, that since all knowledge chiefly owes 
the certainty of its evidence, which is in itself, to the reality which is in 
the object, faith, therefore, which is eXsyx*s, an evident demonstration, 
and i-zbaracig, or real subsistence of the things which are believed, doth claim 
to itself the highest certainty and infallibility. For if the sense is not 
deceived about its proper object, nor the understanding about its proper 
object (which, since it is a sublimer and more abstracted power of the soul, 
often corrects the sense), much less can faith, in which the image of God 
chiefly shines forth, be deceived about its proper object, since it is more 
noble than reason, and raised above it, and often convinceth reason of 
errors and mistakes. For it is the vnloraGig, the subsistence of things 
believed, and the 'i'Asyyog, the evident demonstration of them, and there- 
fore challengeth to itself the highest certainty. And indeed the certainty 
and infallibility of knowledge chiefly ariseth from, and is owing to, both 
the reality which is in the object, and to the evidence which is in the 
knowledge itself. Therefore, though hypocrites deceive themselves, and 
being deluded with false appearances, dream that they believe, yet they 
who are sincere believers, who are awake in the broad daylight of a clear 
and bright faith, see and embrace the things themselves really subsisting. 
But the papists, when they are so reduced that they cannot defend their 
error in the grossest sense, in denial of all assurance of salvation, begin to 
soften their opinion, and to smooth it with some little distinction, and 
pretend to acknowledge that a man may have a conjectural and probable 



39G OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

opinion of his salvation, but not a certain and infallible knowledge, this 
they stiffly deny. But they shall not so evade the cogency of this apostle's 
reasoning, who not only often inculcates these and the like expressions, 
From this we know, and By this we know, but speaks more plainly, 1 John 
ii. 3, ' Hereby do we know that we know him ; ' and 1 John iii. 19, 
1 Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts 
before him.' Ay, say the cavilling papists, this doctrine doth render men 
secure indeed, too secure ; this your assurance makes them careless, 
profligate, and loosed to all wickedness. The apostle, as foreseeing and 
aware of this cavil, meets with it, and prevents it at the first entrance of 
this second chapter: 1 John ii. 1, 'These things,' says he, ' write I unto 
you, that ye sin not.' To which also agrees what he says, 1 John iii. 3, 
• And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is 
pure.' This assurance of faith, when it is genuine, begets an ingenuous 
spirit in the heart of the believer, Ps. Ii. 14, 15. There is not a stronger 
bridle to restrain sin, nor a quicker spur to holiness, than this hope, and 
assurance, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

But what though the believer falls into great sins, as the greatest lights 
have their eclipses, yet the certainty of faith is not utterly lost ; for as the 
seed of faith remains in him, not as yet shaken out, 1 John iii. 9, so the 
firm establishment of faith abides also unshaken : 1 John ii. 1, ' My little 
children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' 
We have assurance in this, that Christ being a righteous advocate, he will 
never be the patron of a bad cause, and therefore since he pleads ours, we 
may be sure to prosper in it. And he is not only a righteous advocate, 
but his own very righteousness pleads for us, and pleads not before a judge, 
but a Father, who in this shews himself just to us his children, that ' if we 
confess our sins, he is righteous to forgive,' 1 John i. 9. 

Obj. But it is objected by others than the papists, Many fall by sinning 
so as wholly to fall away, though therefore it should be granted that be- 
lievers may have assurance at present, yet how shall they be ascertained 
of the future ? 

Arts. But notwithstanding all, the foundation of God and faith stands 
sure ; for what says the apostle of these who thus totally fall away ? 
1 John ii. 19, ' They went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if 
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us ; but 
they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.' 
But of those who are true brethren indeed, what says he ? 1 John iii. 1, 
' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
should be called the sons of God ! therefore the world knoweth us not, 
because it knew him not.' Ay, but they will object, that he says indeed 
rightly, that ' now we are the sons of God,' ver. 2, but leaves it uncertain 
whether we shall be so for the future. The apostle, to obviate this objec- 
tion, goes on and says, that ' though it doth not yet appear what we shall 
be, yet we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him ; ' for, as 
he says 1 John v. 11, ]2, 'And this is the record, that God hath given to 
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, 
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.' God hath now given 
us this eternal life, whose gifts are dfisTafiiXri-a, ' without repentance,' 
Rom. xi. 29, and the life which he gives is eternal, and so it is impossible 
that ever it should be cut off by any fate or death. And as it is given to 
us, and to be enjoyed by us, so it is deposited in Christ to be kept for us ; 
and he is so powerful and so faithful as to preserve what is committed to 



Chat. VIII.] op justifying faith. 307 

his charge : 'And these things have I written to you,' says he, 1 John 
v. 13, 'that you may know that ye have eternal life.' 

From this alono perfect love and full joy result ; for there cannot be 
perfect love in the heart of any believer which nourisheth a fear of any 
future hatred or enmity which God may havo against him, nor can there 
be a full joy where the mind is obnoxious to the least suspicion of a change 
in its happy state. For any one so to love as that hereafter ho will hate, 
is the poison and bane of friendship ; and thus for us to enjoy God the 
chiefest good, in so uncertain a manner as that afterwards we shall lose 
him, would afford more bitter than sweet reflections to our thonghts ; but 
the apostle wrote all in this his Epistle, ' that our joy may be full,' 
1 John i. 4. 

Having thus surmounted the chiefest rocks of those objections and 
doubts, with which the papists endeavour to obstruct the entrance (of which 
Peter speaks, 2 Peter i. 11) into the kingdom of God, let us now with full 
sails (that I may use Paul's word, nXrigopogiav, Heb. vi. 11) strive to enter into 
the harbour itself of joy in the Holy Ghost, a joy so great, a joy so full that 
wejmay rather be said to enter into it than that to enter into us. But we shall 
better understand how full and deep this joy is if we consider the fountain 
from which it springs. For as water will rise as high as its spring-head, 
so this joy doth too. Nor is there any need for us to search for the foun- 
tain afar off, for it is near to us (as that in Gen. xx. was to Hagar) since 
the verse preceding my text opens this spring to us : 1 John i. 3, 4, ' That 
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have 
fellowship with us : and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with 
his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy 
may be full.' This communion with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the 
blessed spring from whence these clear, lively, and refreshing waters come, 
bubbling up unto eternal life, John iv. 14. All joy, which God as the most 
excellent and wise worker hath inserted into the actions of creatures to 
sharpen, excite, and animate them, doth either accompany or follow vital 
actions and operations, and a full, complete joy doth only attend such an 
action of our souls as is most vital, and most perfect ; and to such an 
operation there are these three things requisite : — 

1. That it should have for its subject the most vivacious and lively 
power or faculty of our souls. 

2. The object, about which it is exercised, must be the most noble of all 
other. 

3. The power or faculty must be joined to this its object with the most 
intimate union. Even Aristotle's philosophical school te&cheth us thus 
much ; but that great dictator of nature could never find out what this most 
perfect and vital operation was ; but the apostle John hath unlocked and 
opened this mystery out of Christ's school, and his most secret counsels. 
Communion with God and his Christ is this most vital and perfect opera- 
tion of our souls above all other, and let us see how all the fore-mentioned 
particulars do exactly square with this communion, and are found in it alone. 

(1.) For this operation, viz., communion with God and Christ, is most 
vital : John xvii. 3, ' And this is life eternal, that they might know thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou bast sent.' And indeed 
this communion is the only vital action ; for those who live in carnal 
pleasures ' are dead while they live,' 1 Tim. v. 6. And as the apostle 
denies that such live, so Austin denied that they had any joy, for as 
good is the sole object of the will, so of true joy likewise. Wicked men, as 
they only lust, not love, so they wanton, not rejoice. 



399 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

(2.) This blessed communion hath for its seat both the understanding 
and will, which are called the quintessence, the very ' spirits of the mind,' 
Eph. iv. 22; these are the subjects and receptacles of this communion, and 
of this full joy, according to that song of Mary, Luke i. 47, ' And my spirit 
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour ; ' and this part of the mind, the spirit, is 
more sublime, pure, and more lively than any other, and formed for infi- 
nitely greater pleasures than all our external senses and appetites. These 
are vastly deep, and most capacious gulfs, which can at one draught take 
in and drink more of pleasures and joys than all the other lower powers of 
the soul (which are only subservient to these, as purveyors of pleasures for 
them), and they are able also to collect, to treasure, and heap up these joys 
unto eternity. But the gates of the senses are too narrow to admit an 
entrance of this full joy ; therefore ' lift up your heads, you everlasting 
gates,' that I may speak in the psalmist's phrase ; ' you gates of eternity,' 
viz., you higher powers of the rational soul, which only is immortal, ' that 
the King of glory may come in,' attended with this retinue, Ps. xxiv. 7, 
whom yet to receive even these passages of the soul are too narrow, though 
they are never so much enlarged. As the eye, too small and unequal to 
the light of the sun spread far and wide, cannot with one look behold and 
comprehend all its beams diffused through the whole compass of nature, 
'the peace of God' doth not only surpass all our senses, but our under- 
standing too, Philip, iv. 7. 

2. This communion, as the most noble operation, hath the most perfect 
object. For our communion is with God, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 
Our communion is with God, who, as the Father of spirits, is the fountain 
and centre of our souls, and they cannot have any rest or complacent satis- 
faction but in the bosom of this their Father. Our communion is with that 
God who is ' the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things,' 
who can do all things, who fills all things with himself, and who is ' all in 
all,' 1 Cor. xv. 20, in whom alone we feast upon that abundant heap of 
bliss and pleasure, which he hath but sparingly scattered in other things 
besides himself. All those delights which we, like bees, do but lightly 
touch in other things, we in a super-eminent manner do find and taste in 
God, who alone can fill and satisfy the various desires of our minds, and 
he doth indeed fill them ; the enjoyment of him is the fullest and most 
satisfactory blessedness of our souls, for this enjoyment of himself is alone 
full, and sufficient to his own happiness from all eternity. It is full, for 
it fills all the Godhead, the possessor of it, and yet doth not empty itself ; 
it is sufficient, for it hath a present and constant supply from him who is 
all in all, and therefore it must be full and most satisfying to us : 'I will 
be his God,' says God, Rev. xxi. 7, ' and he shall inherit and possess all 
things.' 

Our communion is also with Christ, ■ in whom all fulness dwells,' Col. 
i. 19, ii. 9, who, as he is ' full of grace and truth,' John i. 14, with grace 
he delights our wills, and with truth gratifies our understandings. 

3. Then also the union, on which this our communion is founded, is of 
all other the closest, which by the help of faith in the understanding, and 
of love in the will, joins God and the soul into one spirit. For there are 
two arms of the soul wherewith we embrace God, the understanding and 
will ; and there are also two hands in believers, adjoined to those arms, 
faith and love, by which we lay hold on God, and embrace him. 

(1.) Faith, as it always unites us unto Christ, so sometimes it is strength- 
ened and elevated by a light flowing from above, and makes us to rejoice 
with joy unspeakable : 1 Pet. i. 8, ' Whom having not seen, ye love ; in 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 399 

whom, though nowye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak- 
able, and full of glory.' David also speaks to the same purpose, Ps. iv. 6, 
' There be many that say, Who will shew us any good ? Lord, lift thou 
up the light of thy countenance upon us.' The greatness of this blessed- 
ness he illustrates, ver. 7, ' Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than 
in the time that their corn and wine increased.' To this farther light is 
also added from that place in Ps. xxxvi. 9, 10, ' For with thee is the foun- 
tain of life, in thy light shall we see light : Oh continue thy loving-kindness 
unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart !' 
This heavenly light, with which faith sometimes shines, is not a dry light, 
but drops with honey, and bedews the soul with the most delicious sweet- 
ness. What doth Philip pray for ? John xiv. 8, ' Philip saith unto him, 
Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us ;' it was sufficient to satisfy 
him, what Christ promised, ver. 21, 'He that hath my commandments, 
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be 
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him :' 
which he often performs, and sometimes illuminates the mind with light, 
which doth not only shew him conspicuous to be seen, but which doth 
exhibit him present to the soul in the most real and intimate presence, 
whence ariseth the most real and closest union and communion, and also 
the highest and most glorious joy. But if we consider the union which 
the senses and the understanding produce between themselves and other 
things, how superficial and merely outward is it ! and how weak and empty 
is that intercourse which they have with those things ! Now the joys 
which arise hence are of the same kind, they are not solid, but only plated 
or gilded over, for the substance of the things remain without, and only 
the shadowy and vanishing images of them enter in by the windows of the 
senses, and walk through the soul, and being deceived with a thin cloud, 
we do not embrace the things themselves. What thin and airy pleasures, 
therefore, doth the trifling enjoyment of all these things afford us ! The 
mind is only lightly touched with air, but doth not feed on true nourishing 
joy. These mere shadows of things leave the mind, which is formed to 
be sustained by firmer and more solid food, unquiet and hungering after 
the things themselves ; but faith, by an admirable art, which is peculiar to 
itself, and is unknown to reason, gives a reality to all things which it repre- 
sents. Faith is the uKoeracig, ' the substance of things hoped for,' Heb. 
xi. 1, and affords to the things which it believes a real subsistence and 
presence of them before the mind, and doth not transmit its objects by tie 
shadows of species only, which supply the place of the things themselves. 
And hence likewise the greatest and highest, the most real and solid, the 
truest and fullest, and most serene joy, is predominart in the, satisfied 
mind. 

(2.) I now come to consider the second bond of this communion, and 
the other cause of this 'joy in the Holy Ghost,' which is the conjugal union 
of the will to God in the bonds of love. For as soon as that threefold 
most blessed and kind aspect of the Trinity, of which we have spoken, hath 
shined on the soul, she kindles with an heavenly flame, and a reciprocal 
love to God ariseth in her ; for the love of God manifested to her, doth as 
with a fan make this flame of divine love to break forth. And hence the 
holy soul doth triumph, and is sweetly delighted, for that great conjunction 
of these two loves, both of that which flows from God to us, and that which 
is in us infused, never falls out, but it brings jointly with it an august and 
solemn jubilee in the heart. 

Hence the apostle Peter hath joined these three most intimately together : 



400 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

1 Pet. i. 8, ' Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye 
see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of 
glory.' 

[1.] ' You believing,' saith he, ' love.' The apostle John speaks answer- 
ably : 1 John iv. 16, 19, ' And we have known and believed the love that 
God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in 
God, and God in him. We love him, because he first loved us.' His 
meaning is, that whilst faith more clearly views all those infinite perfec- 
tions, and all those infinite lovely things which are in God alone, the first 
infinite and the first lovely being, and sees all these things mingled and 
seasoned with love, whilst faith savours and discerns all God to be entirely 
love, and whilst the soul sees God to be such an husband who looks for 
no other dowry in his spouse than only a return of love for his love, and 
whilst the soul also knows that all those are blessed with love who thus 
place their love, the ingenuous soul, conquered and overpowered with love, 
flows into this vast ocean with a reciprocal tide of love, and pours itself 
wholly into it. 

[2. J ' You loving,' says the apostle, '' rejoice with joy unspeakable.' It 
is not easy to conceive, much less to speak, how much this intercourse and 
sweet strife of love doth delight the soul. For, 

First, A love that is yet single and divided, a probationary love, hath I 
know not what self-sufficiency in it, and applauds itself in its own bosom, 
is a price and reward to itself, and nourisheth itself ; and to love one who 
yet loves not again, yields most abundant fruits, for love is the relish of 
all things, and doth sweeten the most bitter circumstances of life. But 
these considerations are very mean, and small, and only little gleanings in 
comparison to that harvest of joy which springs from the mutual concourse 
of two loves, and a fastened union of souls. It is sweet to love and 
to be loved again : Prov. xxvii. 9, ' Ointment and perfume rejoice the 
heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.' To 
which answers that saying of David, mourning for the death of his Jonathan : 

2 Sam. i. 26, ' I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, very plea- 
sant hast thou been unto me ; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the 
love of women.' 

Secondly, To all this we may moreover add, that the beginning of this 
love is from him who loves without beginning, and without end ; without 
measures, and without any preceding merit, and who receives nothing from 
any other, but it is from himself only that he hath it, that he loves freely, 
and therefore he loves the more vehemently, because he hath not love in 
him so much as himself is love. As Bernard sweetly says, whose love we 
taste not only to be stronger than death (Cant. viii. 6, since Christ laid 
down his soul as a pledge of his love, John xv.), but better than life, as 
David found it to be, Ps. lxiii. 3. As God rests satisfied in the love of 
himself, so the soul rests satisfied in the love of God, and so in God himself, 
whom therefore David calls his rest, Ps. cxvi. 7. 

Thirdly, Nor is the joy of a Christian yet in its height and splendour, 
for the soul doth not only perceive that she is loved again by her beloved, 
but that she is most closely united with him, and that she enjoys her 
beloved, which union Christ himself makes ; and as the enjoyment of him 
is the blessed fruit of that union, so he is the efficient of it too. 

First, The soul is united to Christ, for being allured by the sight of the 
divine excellencies, and powerfully drawn by his love, as with a magnetic 
force, she goes out of herself, and most earnestly desires union with God ; 
this she breathes after with so great a vehemence, as she doth not only 



Chap. VIII.] of justifying faith. 401 

desire to be united to Christ, but to bo melted, to bo transformed into bira, 
as much as his being at present her absent bridegroom will admit ; sliu 
reposeth and layeth close herself in the most inward bowels of his love, 
for whoever loves God is said to abide, and to dwell in God, 1 John 
iv. 15, 10. 

Secondly, And behold now how good and pleasant it is, for God and the 
soul, as husband and wife, to dwell together in unity ; and not only to 
cohabit, but to rejoice in one another : Isa. lxii. 5, ' For as a young man 
marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee ; and as the bridegroom 
rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.' Cant. i. 2, 
' Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than 
wine.' And behold how Christ dismisseth his spouse filled with himself, 
and full of joy ; for what virtue and efficacy must there be in the kisses of 
his mouth, whose lips breathe life, Gen. ii. 7. Souls, angels, and all the 
heavenly spirits, are the breath of God ; and not only so, but he breathes 
the Holy Ghost himself, John xx. 22. These kisses of his mouth are 
better known by the impressions which they make upon us, than they can 
be by any of our expressions ; we may experience the joy, but are not able 
to speak what it is ; we may more easily obtain its possession, than learn 
perfectly the nature of it.* Nor doth Christ only give the kisses of his 
mouth, but the entire possession of himself, so that the soul takes hold on, 
and possesseth whole God, wholly as her own, so as it is free for her to 
enjoy all the sweetness of God (if it were possible to an infinity), and to 
draw out and taste all the pleasures which can be drawn from Christ, even 
to eternity. 

Butjthis joy, which is already so full, is yet more full and abundant, and 
flows to a greater exuberancy, so that I may use Job's words, Job xxvi. 14, 
' How little a portion is heard of him ;' and believers do more profusely 
and exuberantly rejoice that all these excellencies and perfections, which 
afford so much joy and delight to them, are in God, than if they were in 
themselves ; for love, whose offspring is joy, a bright clear spark, and 
resembling its oi'iginal, with a pure disinterested flame, loves God for 
himself, as God loves himself ; and therefore loves all those perfections, 
which it sees to be infinite in God, and flowing from his essence, and with 
which his nature being crowned and adorned, shines with incomparable 
brightness. And besides, this sincere affection of the will doth wish and 
pray, that God may have all the revenues of his glory, arising from the 
present dispensation of things, and offers all these to him ; and as this 
love is thus ingenuous, so this joy too is not less ingenuous and illustrious, 
for both of them are of the same nature and kind ; therefore the believer 
doth congratulate and rejoice at all that beauty, glory, goodness, and sweet- 
ness, which he believes to abound most affluently in God, and he doth 
more sweetly rejoice (infinitely more), that God doth possess all these per- 
fections in an infinite manner, and incommunicable (as to their essence), 
to other things, nay, to believers themselves, than he rejoiceth in his own 
felicity. So that this joy is a joy of friendship, as the fore- mentioned love 
is also a love of friendship, which our Lord Jesus, the fountain of love, 
taught us, when he reproved his disciples' ingratefully mourning for his 
departure from them : John xiv. 28, ' Ye have heard how I said unto you, 
I go away, and come again unto you ; if ye loved me, ye would rejoice, 
because I said I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I.' 
Which glory and honour of his person his forerunner John the Baptist 

* Quisquis itaque curiosius indagare voluit, non aurem, sed mentem paret ; non 
audiendo, sed videndo gustatur manna boc absconditum. — Bernard. 
VOL. VIII. C C 



402 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT II. BOOK II. 

declared, when he lived upon earth, John i. 29, 30. The apostle Paul 
boasts in ' the hope of glory,' Rom. v. 2, and the believer made an heir 
with Christ may deservedly do so too ; for he knows that joy (which 
the apostle sometime enjoyed), though inexpressible, and he takes in some 
little drops descending from that river, which waters and makes glad the 
city of God ; and the time will come that he shall be more thoroughly and 
deeply plunged into the fountain of the Deity, where one flood of joy will 
continually follow another without any interruption. We rejoice therefore 
in hope of the thing, and we rejoice in the thing itself ; we rejoice in the 
possession, and also in the promise ; in the present exhibition, and in the 
future expectation ; and as if all this joy were too little (which indeed is 
exceeding great), and not noble enough, the apostle subjoins, Ptom. v. 2, 3, 

1 And not only so' (he speaks in a rhetorical figure called climax), ' but 
we also glory in tribulations,' &c, till at last we come to glory in God 
himself, or in ' his love shed abroad in our hearts,' verse 5. The apostle 
fixeth here the highest top of all, than which there is nothing more sublime 
or more divine, that we do not only rejoice in those perfections of God, 
with which he is blessed, but that the joy too is in some manner the same, 
to which also that speech of Christ hath a reference : John xv. 11, ' These 
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that 
your joy might be full.' He doth not only say, that my joy may be con- 
cerning you, but that it may be and abide in you, viz., that very same joy 
with which Christ doth rejoice, and therefore we are said to enter at last 
into the joy of our Lord ; not into that joy only with which saints and angels 
do rejoice, but with which God himself rejoiceth. This is a wonderful 
fastening of love, which is the cause that as one mind is in the persons 
loving, so likewise one joy, not mutually only, but individually, and joining 
into one flame, and this is the axpri, the complete strength, and fullest 
increase of joy ; it is (as I may so speak) the plenilunium, the full moon 
of it, than which nothing is fuller ; for since the joy of Christ, the foun- 
tain of lirdit, remains in us, that joy which we borrow from him must be 
also full. 

I will speak in a word what is the sum of all, and what is the highest 
top of this joy ; the joy of a believer is in God, and on the account of God, 
their joy is God himself, and the joy of God himself, who himself is the 
God of peace, and of joy, and of all consolation. What says God of all 
the pleasures and imaginary joys of the wicked? Isa. lvii. 21, ' There is 
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.' But on the contrary, believers, 
though sometimes they seem sorrowful, yet they are always rejoicing : 

2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making 
many rich ; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.' Though the 
expression is ' as sorrowful,' yet of the joy it is not said ' as rejoicing,' but 
' always rejoicing.' The happiness of the world may have an as if put to 
it all, and as the world, so all its felicity passeth away (though an as if 
cannot be 6aid of the punishment of the ungodly, which is real, and en- 
dures for ever) ; but the joy of the godly is not with an as if, but is solid 
and permanent; the very tears of praying believers are sweeter than the 
songs and applauses of theatres. You may believe the apostle, who says, 
Gal. v. 22, that true joy is ' the fruit of the Holy Ghost,' and that it grows 
not on any other stock, whereas the joys of the wicked are the mere rinds 
and shells of the fruits of paradise, and, as Tantalus his apples, deceive 
any one who endeavours to taste them, and vanish into vapour and air ; 
they are nothing but the spectrums and apparitions of pleasures and joys ; 
they are like Jonah's gourd, which wither in a moment; they are like the 



OBAP. IX. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITn. 403 

Crackling of thorns under a pot, which is soon at an end, Ecclcs. vii. G; 
it makes a loud noise, a great blaze, but as it ariscth and iucreaseth on a 
sudden, so the substance of it is thin and vanid ; it is a short-lived flame, 
and leaves nothing remaining; they are deceitful joys, which allure but do 
not satisfy us, which under a show of kindness hurt us, which emasculate 
our minds, and which in all respects have a greater mixture of troubles 
ami misery than delight, Prov. xiv. 13. But, on the contrary, the joys of 
a believer are pure, without any mixture of a baser alloy: they are the 
drops and dews of heaven, and clear streams flowing from God the fountain 
of all pleasures ; they are joys cleared from all filth and dregs : Isa. xxv. G, 
'And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast 
of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of 
wines on the lees well refined.' They are joys co-natural to the mind, 
which both heal it and restore it to its right genuine taste of things ; they 
are joys which when once the soul hath drunk and taken in, it will never 
thirst more to eternity, John iv. 14, for it will be abundantly satiated with 
them: Jer. xxxi. 14, 'And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fat- 
ness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.' 
They are joys which increase with their own growth, and in their agitation 
ferment to a greater quantity; they are joys which never fail, being full 
and sufficient to themselves; they are 'the breasts of consolation,' Isa. 
lxvi. 11 ; they are such joys which disarm all evils, and pulls the sting out 
of all sorrows, and sweetens the most bitter calamities, even death itself, 
the very remembrance of which how bitter is it to us ! They are joys 
which infuse into us a true and invincible strength of mind, Neb. viii. 10, 
so that we glory and triumph in the midst of afflictions, Rom. v., and 
though storms and thunder-bolts may fall upon us, yet they are like hail 
falling on the house-top and shattered to pieces, and do not break us, but 
are themselves broken. The heavens and earth may fall into ruins, as 
Christ hath told us that they shall pass away, when not an iota, not a 
tittle, of this word and of this joy shall be diminished. And when the 
believer shall see this world declining to the extremest age, and long since 
condemned to the punishment of an old witch (2 Peter iii. 7, ' The heavens 
and earth which now are, are reserved unto fire'), at last all in flames, he 
will not only be in safety, but will stand erect and joyful upon the ashes 
and ruins of the world; and not having the least part of his happiness 
lessened by this universal desolation, he will cry with a great and cheerful 
voice, ' I have lost nothing.' 



CHAPTER IX. 

Directions unto the faith of such as want assurance: how to take in and malt* 
use of God's eternal, electing love in believing with comfort. 

The applying acts of faith (as I have shewed) are two, the one of assur- 
ance, the other of recumbency, for in both I apply justification and Christ 
to myself; only the one is an application axiomatical, that he is mine, the 
other real. Now, to direct a soul that hath triumphing assurance added to 
his faith, and a right persuasion of his justification, overbalancing all doubts 
to the contrary, there is no great difficulty, for his thoughts may in the 
particular application of all these to himself follow God's ways in justifying 
him in particular, step by step, without any error (as Paul here doth), and 
take God's proceedings directly as they lie, to mould his thoughts of appli- 



404 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BOOK II. 

cation thereby ; his thoughts may climb up to eternity, and from thence 
with comfort view himself written in God's heart, and in the book of life, 
and then given unto and made one with Christ, and in him discharged from 
all his sins, justified by an eternal and unchangeable covenant made by 
Christ undertaking for him, and he may drink in all these with comfort, 
and utter this with triumph, ' Who shall condemn ? God hath justified ; ' 
and then he may come down from thence and see.Christ's day, as Abraham 
did, and rejoice with Abraham, knowing as assuredly that Christ did repre- 
sent his person, as that he took our nature. He may ' behold the Lamb 
of God,' as the Baptist says, carrying and bearing his sins all the while he 
was on the earth, and on his body upon the tree, and he may see himself 
then representatively in Christ fulfilling the law, undergoing the curse, 
dying on the cross, as truly as we all believe that we sinned in Adam, and 
were in the garden with him. And he may say, to the comforting of his 
own soul, I was justified in Christ when he arose, and discharged of all my 
sins, as truly as Christ was dead and is alive ; and as Christ died unto sin 
once, and dieth now no more, so likewise he may reckon himself, as the 
apostle says, to live unto God for ever ; he may look back upon himself 
when enwrapped in his blood, and in the pursuit of his bold and bloody trans- 
gressions in his former estate, that though his estate was then accursed, 
yet that his person in Christ considered, was really beloved of God ; and, 
though he was not under the communication and dispensation of love and 
mercy, God being debarred by his rule from shewing it, yet he was under 
the affection of love and good will. But now, the partition wall being 
beaten down, and that which did let being removed, and his estate by faith 
altered, he finds God's favour flowing in amain upon him, and when he 
looks into the written revealed word, he may write his own name into every 
particular promise, and read in them all the sentence of his own justifica- 
tion pronounced. 

But all the difficulty lies'in directing the other sort of believers, or begin- 
ners to believe, how they should take in, or make use of a right application 
of Christ's dying for us, and of God's thus justifying us, as hath been 
spoken. The difficulty lies in this, that they must have recourse to Christ's 
dying, because from thence their faith must fetch justification for them- 
selves ; who, yet in dying, they believe, aimed but at some particular 
persons, who were then also justified by God, as also from all eternity, and 
they alone. Now, so to have recourse to this death of Christ, as with 
assurance to apply it, and so as to apprehend that their names then were 
in that bill, this is it they want, and such an act of application they cannot 
put forth ; and what other act of application is there to be put forth towards 
Christ dying, or God justifying, to cast themselves upon Christ and God ? 
To what end should they do it ? "What ! to trust to Christ to die for their 
sins ! that is done already. "What occasion then is there, or what suitable 
object is there, for such an act towards Christ as dying, or God as justifying, 
for both is done already, or not at all, and therefore to what end should 
they cast themselves on either ? To assoil this difficulty, there have been 
many ways thought of by some of late. 

Some make the sole and proper act of justifying faith to be an evidence 
and overpowering persuasion of our eternal justification, and of Christ's 
having borne all our sins, as one with us, and that this persuasion is wrought 
by an immediate revelation of the Spirit ; and therefore seem to exclude all 
acts of bare recumbency, and casting a man's self on Christ, from the canon 
of faith as unuseful ; yea, condemn the exercise of such acts, teaching men 
so to wait for such a revelation, as till then not to entertain a thought that 



ClIAr. IX.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 405 

thoy have faith : which is an error against the generation of many believers, 
against Scripture and experience. 

Secondly, Others assert that men are not to look at all to God's ways of 
justification from eternity, but only to the indefinite promise, when they 
exercise an act of taking Christ, and casting themselves on him ; even as 
when a sinner is yet to be humbled for sin, the promise is not to be consi- 
dered by him till he be humbled by the law; and so they judge men are 
not to trouble themselves with the thoughts of the other, supposing them 
to be an hindrance and a discouragement ; but when men, after believing, 
have also assurance given them, that they have now obtained that justifi- 
cation which the promise holds forth, then indeed the consideration of God's 
ancient justification from eternity, and of Christ's dying for particular men, 
will come comfortably and seasonably in; and only then, and until; then, 
they are not to look to it at all ; so as the indefinite promises are given to 
recumbents, and the revelation of the other is for them that have assurance 
only. 

Thirdly, Others say, that though there be but a special intention for 
some, yet it is so as to make allsalvable, if they would believe ; which error 
makes a supposal of another justification promised than what is the fruit 
of an eternal love, and satisfies not souls, which will rest in nothing but 
eternal love, and effectual intention of God and Christ, and prize it more 
than his death. 

A fourth opinion asserts, that seeing there is wrought a condition of 
humiliation particular to God's elect, they seeing it to be wrought, under 
it cast themselves upon a promise, which intimates something in us as the 
ground of faith ; and of all the former this is the most false. That which 
I shall say wdll both confute these and open a 

Fifth way. And for our proceeding herein we resolve this difficulty into 
these questions : 

Quest. 1. The first is more general, viz., What should be the occasion 
and object of the aim of a believer's faith in an act of recumbency ? The 
answer is made by these several propositions. 

Ans. 1. Let him consider, that howsoever those who shall be saved were 
justified from eternity in God's secret will (and therefore it were in vain to 
have that in their eye, so as to cast themselves upon God for the begin- 
ning of such a justification, as if it were now to be begun, which is already 
past), yet there is a true and real act of justification which is begun to be 
performed when a man first believes, and which is an act to be passed 
according to the rules of God's revealed will, and which, in relation to God's 
proceedings thereby, is an act now begun to be performed when a man shall 
believe, and not before. This is the justification which the promises of the 
gospel holds forth, as an act for time to come, that God is yet to do ; and 
the performance hereof may be the object and aim of such an act of faith. 
Thus (Gal. ii. 16) the apostles at first ' believed that they might be justi- 
fied;' and so (Rom. ix. 30) the believing Gentiles are said to have 
< attained to righteousness, having sought it by faith' ; so as justification 
may be, and is to be, looked upon and entertained not only by assurance 
that it is already past, but also, and that first, by seeking and believing for 
the attaining of it for time to come, and by having it in our eye as a thing 
to be actually given and bestowed. So as they are in a great mistake who 
would have faith to be a particular evidence and apprehension of God's 
having already justified us, both from eternity, and in Christ's bearing our 
sins. And the foundation of their error lies in this, that they imagine that 
there are no other acts of God's justifying us but those two, and that be- 



406 OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK IB 

fore God we were as actually justified afore faith as after. And also their 
error lies in imagining that all the use and end of faith is but to clear up 
this to us, and to cause us to apprehend it ; whereas there is a true, real, 
new act of justification begun upon a sinner, which doth not only alter the 
apprehension of his estate, but also his estate itself, from a state of sin and 
wrath to a state of righteousness and favour, and this according to the 
rules of God's revealed will. So as faith serves not only to give men the 
knowledge of their eternal justification, but actually to possess them of 
that in themselves personally which they had before only representatively 
in another ; and this by a further act of God upon the sinner ; which act 
being to be performed, since it is for the future promised, a sinner that 
either begins to believe, or that cannot put forth an act of assurance, may 
and ought to exercise an act of casting himself upon Christ to be justified, 
and thereby seek to attain the righteousness that is of faith. And to this 
end, 

2. Because all acts of God's justifj-ing us depend upon union with 
Christ, we having him, and being in him first, and then thereby having 
right to his righteousness, therefore, as the aim of a soul casting itself on 
Christ is to have justification from him, so to have union with him also ; 
and thus it may and ought to cast itself upon God and Christ, to be made 
one with him. And there is the like reason and occasion for such an act 
as for the former, it being a privilege now to be anew obtained as well as 
the other. For though we were one in Christ before God in representation 
from all eternity, and when he was upon the cross, and by a covenant 
secretly made between God and him, yet there is an actual implanting and 
engrafting us into Christ, upon believing to be obtained, and not till then, 
which the apostle calls baptizing, and planting into Christ, and being in 
Christ, Bom. vi., 2 Cor. v. 17, Gal. iii. 27, until which time even those 
who were elect afore are said to be ' without Christ in the world,' Eph. ii. 
12. So as he may and ought at first to look at Christ as yet to be ob- 
tained, and so to seek after that union with him which is yet to be wrought, 
upon which this justification yet to be attained depends ; so Paul, Phil. iii. 
8, says, ' We accounted all loss, that we might win Christ,' and obtain an 
interest and a share in him ; so as if there be both an union with Christ, 
and a justification depending thereupon yet to be obtained, there is a just 
ground and occasion given for the casting a man's self upon Christ to ob- 
tain this ; yea, and this very casting a man's self upon Christ, out of 
spiritual apprehensions and affections, is the very act which both makes 
this union, and estates us into justification ; and therefore the seeing of 
Christ, and coming to him, are made the acts of justifying faith, John vi. 
35 and 40. And further, to this end, 

3. Though those acts of justifying us from eternity in his secret will 
were distinctly fixed, and set upon such and such particular persons 
by name, and not left at random, as that thus he would justify some, yet 
God in his revealed will (out of which our faith is to expect that our justi- 
fication now in time is to be applied, and according to which God proceeds 
to the last act of justification) hath folded and summed up those fore-passed 
ways and passages of justifying such and such particular distinct persons 
there named, in his secret will, and hath gathered and expressed them in 
indefinite promises to some sinners indefinitely, and believers generally ; 
which promises are the abstract, contents, and argument, as I may so call 
them, of the book of life, and of his secret and distinct purpose concerning 
some particular persons. And thus he hath done, both to fit the faith of 
poor souls with objects proportional, and suitable to such an act of recum- 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 107 

bency ; as also that he might have these to conic between their faith and his 
decrees, and that they might take in those his eternal transactions first, 
represented through the indefiniteness of those promises, and so cast them- 
selves upon such promises for that their particular justification, which is 
promised, uowto be performed. Therefore one that would believe, is bound 
first to have in his eye that last way of justification, that is to be performed 
the last of the three, according as it is held forth and promised in the re- 
vealed will of God, and from thence to ascend up to the other. His faith 
is not to climb up to the top of the ladder at the first ; he is not to make 
it his first business to he assured whether he in particular were intended, 
ere ever be will exercise any act of recumbency, or look after any promise, 
or seek out for the justification that is to come. This proves a real hin- 
drance to many, for it is to inquire into God's seci'et will to me, as the sole 
ground of my faith, whereas I am to learn it out of his revealed will ; and 
1 am to begin at the last step, and from thence to ascend to the other. 
And in relation to that third act of justification, which the indefinite pro- 
mises hold forth, and presents the person with, and which a believer sees 
is yet to be performed, it is that a believer doth exercise an act of recum- 
bency, and comes to Christ, and trusts in Christ to be justified dr futuro, 
for the future. And the promises of that justification which is upon faith 
to be performed upon the sinner being thus indefinite, they do suitably re- 
quire, and are fitted to draw forth an act of recumbency, to cast myself upon 
God and Christ for justification, seeing those his promises run indefinitely, 
that he will save some sinners, and justify all believers. And accordingly, 
as the promises thus framed out of those his particular transactions are in- 
definite, so the first acts of faith which he requires are but such acts as are 
suitable to their indefiniteness ; namely, to cast a man's self upon them, 
that Christ and justification may be bis ; not at first to believe they are his, 
or that Christ hath done this for him: thus David did, Ps. exxx., and thus 
the apostle would draw in the Hebrews to such an act of faith, and endea- 
vours by faith to enter into his rest (Heb. iv. 11) upon this ground, be- 
cause the pi^omise is, that ' some must enter in.' And again, as he hath 
fitted the promises of that justification which is upon believing to be per- 
formed, to such an act of faith, so also, he hath represented and offered 
Christ also, who is to be made one with us for our justification, as a 
Saviour for sinners indefinitely, as one that came into the world to save 
sinners indefinitely, that did bear the sins of the world indefinitely for all 
sorts of sinners, that so this representation of his Son might draw on the 
heart of a poor believer to take him, and come to him, and cast himself 
upon him, that he might be his, and one with him, by that union which is 
yet to be accomplished upon believing. Now the indefiniteness of the pro- 
mise, which fits it thus for faith, and in which the secret transactions of 
God are included, consists but in three things, which make them to 
differ from the other, i.e., there are three things in the promise which make 
it indefinite. 

(1.) There is the concealing of the persons, that whereas in God's de- 
cree and transaction with Christ the persons are named, here in the promise 
they are concealed ; and it is said indefinitely to be for some, to that end 
that none might say he is excluded, and that is one thing makes the pro- 
mises indefinite. 

(2.) Whereas men might notwithstanding think, that yet those some 
might be limitecLto some certain conditions of men, or but to some kind of 
sinners, as not to great sinners, &c. ; and so men might think, that for 
their condition and sins they might be excluded ; therefore secondly, the 



408 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

indefiniteness of the promise lies in this, that it speaks indefinitely of all 
kind of sinners and conditions, be the case what it will, and the sin what 
it will, for to some in those conditions, and guilty of those sins, the pro- 
mise is made. 

(3.) The indefiniteness of the promise lies in this, that it names a quali- 
fication of faith, and so makes it general, that whosoever believeth shall be 
saved, "so as a sinner may further see, that there is but a want of a true act 
of faith between him and justification. 

And these indefinite promises do yet fully agree with those particular 
intentions of God, and not cross them at all: for, first, although God's jus- 
tifying from eternity was fixed only on particular persons whom he looked 
on in Christ, and also that Christ in his death represented only their per- 
sons, and did bear their particular sins, yet the promise of that justification 
to come, which is the fruit of those transactions, might thus indefinitely be 
propounded, and say it may, that salvation is for some, and name none ; 
and God might so express his purpose, as might put all men that hear it in 
expectation and dependence, concealing the particulars ; for there is an in- 
definite truth, which results out of those particulars put together, and is 
the abstract of them. For if God in his secret will hath justified such and 
such particulars, and there is yet a justification to be performed upon be- 
lievers, the promise, which is the contents of those particulars, may be pre- 
sented indefinitely, that there is a justification for some, and this may be 
declared and propounded to all. 

Again, secondly, if Christ died for such and such particulars, whose par- 
ticular sins he did bear ; and it be true withal, that amongst their particu- 
lar sins, all kind of sins but that against the Holy Ghost were to be found, 
and that all cases of sins imaginable, and all circumstances and aggrava- 
tions of sinning whatsoever, are found in one or other, whose sins Christ 
bore ; then it may be propounded to a man's faith, that Christ died for all 
such sins as he is guilty of ; neither is there any circumstance or case he 
can instance in, but it may be said Christ did bear it. 

And so, thirdly, if God hath purposed to bless all those particular men 
with faith, and a serious will to receive Christ, from eternity, and if Christ 
also did die that he [might purchase them faith, then God might further 
express this promise of Christ and justification freely and generally, that 
' he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth should not perish ;' 
for so it will prove in the event. 

Only, in the fourth place, I will add to these three former propositions 
this caution, that believers, when they are exhorted to look to the pro- 
mises thus indefinitely made and propounded, they must take heed of 
imagining Christ's death for sins and sinners, to have been performed by 
him indefinitely, or at random, as if it were not then intended for such and 
such particular persons, and for the expiation of their particular sins. The 
indefiniteness of the promise ought not to breed any such opinion, which 
yet is the conceit that usually is taken up as the meaning of the indefinite- 
ness of the promise ; men looking at Christ's death but as an individuum 
vagum, and the benefits of it as an office, into which some one must be 
chosen, but that it was not intended and particularly resolved who they are. 
They think it is like a jewel of value, sufficient to pay all men's debts that 
shall obtain it, but intended for none in particular when it was first pur- 
chased ; and they look at faith as that which first determines whose it shall 
be, because the Scripture says, ' Whosoever believes,' &c. These con- 
ceits you ought not to entertain, and take up as the meaning of God in 
the indefinite promises, for this is to make God to elect upon faith fore- 



Chap. IX. J of justifying faith. 409 

seen, and to make Christ die for propositions only, and qualifications, and 
not for names and persons ; wlienas Christ says, before ho laid down his 
life, John x. 14-16, that he ' knew his sheep,' and that by name, ver. 3, 
' and laid down his life for them ;' and these are those who were yet 
uncalled, sheep of another fold, not yet brought home. As the high priest 
went into the holiest, with the names of the tribes on his breast, so Christ 
to tho cross, with our names in his heart, and also died that men might 
have faith. And as he died for particular persons, so he did bear particu- 
lar sins, and it was just with God, who professed to deal with him in jus- 
tice, that Christ should know what he paid for, as it is requisite we should 
know what God pardons, to magnify his grace. And if he had laid down 
his life thus at random, without such a reference to persons and sins, his 
love to one in dying had not been more than to another of those he died 
for, nor the greatest sinners more beholding to Christ dying than the 
lesser. And that Christ did not make his payment at adventures, as we 
say, and that God would not have the promise so understood, appears by 
this, that in his revealed will, in which he hath set forth these promises, 
he hath withal revealed that Christ did die for particular persons, and did 
justify particular persons; but because in that his revealed will he hath 
utterly concealed those particulars, therefore the promises are propounded 
indefinitely. And thus you have an answer to the first question, namely, 
what a believer should cast himself upon God and Christ for ? The sum 
of which answer is this, that he may, and must do it, to obtain that justifi- 
cation held forth in the promise, and that union with Christ which are to 
come ; which promise is therefore propounded indefinitely, that Christ died 
for some, and that God will justify some sinners, and all believers; which 
indefiniteness is not yet so to be understood as if who those particulars are 
were yet unresolved of, and that upon believing it were only determined. 

Quest. 2. But these answers do solve the difficulty but in part, and do 
leave still occasion for further queries. For although there is a justification 
to be obtained indefinitely propounded in the promise, which may be the 
aim of faith of recumbency, yet it being withal revealed what act of justifi- 
cation fixed and determined upon particular persons have been passed 
already, the question is, whether a believer in casting himself, for the ob- 
taining of what is to come, should at all as yet take into consideration those 
fore-passed acts and intentions of God and Christ, or wholly lay aside the 
thoughts of them till he hath attained to assurance of faith, and in the 
mean while wholly and only eye that justification through Christ's death 
which is to come, as it is indefinitely held forth in the promise ? For it 
may seem one thing to imagine, by reason of the indefiniteness of the 
promise, that God and Christ were unresolved of particulars, which conceit 
we gave that last caution against, and another thing to forbear such 
thoughts for the present, and to confine our thoughts in believing merely 
to that justification yet to be performed, as it is indefinitely offered in the 
promise, which occasioneth this question. 

Ans. To this question I answer, that a believer may not only take into 
his consideration the justification which is to come, as that God hath pro- 
mised to justify some sinners through Christ, but likewise he may consider 
in the like indefinite manner that God hath justified those whom he 
means to perform this promise unto, from all eternity, for whom also 
Christ died as one with him. And the grounds which sway me unto 
this are, 

1. Because I find that the aposle doth set forth these eternal transactions 
of God with Christ about the justifying of sinners as the main and sum of 



410 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

our ministry, to be declared to the sons of men in an indefinite manner, to 
draw men on to faith : ' The miuistry of reconciliation,' says Paul, is this 
2 Cor. v. 19, 20, ' to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world' 
(he speaks of those eternal passages), • not imputing their trespasses unto 
them.' God was, that is, from eternity, reconciling, and not imputing the 
sins of the world, i.e., of the world of elect, unto them ; for none will say 
that any other were then justified but those that are predestinated ; and this 
he would have all men to consider, to draw them in to be reconciled to 
God, as it follows. 

And the reason of it is, first, because those eternal transactions are 
revealed as well as promises, and whatsoever is revealed is for all believers 
to make use of. And, secondly, they are so revealed as that if indefinitely 
considered, there is no difference between the declaration of God's eternal 
decrees, and Christ's special intention in dying, whilst indefinitely pro- 
pounded, and the indefinite promises of that justification which is to come. 
They come all to one in a manner, the indefinite promises being but the 
abstract of the other, they being but the extracts and copies of the former 
transactions, made up, and expressed in a promise of that justification 
which is the fruit of them. And therefore, thirdly, though they speak 
expressly only of that justification yet to be performed, yet they do neces- 
sarily, virtually include and presuppose that which is past, as that which 
is the cause of what is promised, and is to come. Yea, and fourthly, 
that justification which is in the promise is no other than such as is the 
sole and proper fruit and effect of the former, and therefore is to be con- 
ceived and looked at by a believer, as that which hath an inseparable 
dependence and communion with that forepast by God and Christ. So 
that whilst the soul aims at that which is to come, as the effect, it may look 
at the other as that which is and must be the sole cause of it, if ever he 
attaineth it. For the justification in the promise is such as can be from 
no other cause than those former special transactions in God and Christ 
towards him. For as the justification promised is promised to be unchange- 
able, such a justification as is true, stedfast, unalterable, so the promise 
which is made to every one that thirsteth runs in these terms : ' I will 
make an everlasting covenant with you, and establish the sure mercies of 
David,' Isa. lv. 1-3. Such a justification as was performed to David was 
sure, that ' though his children sin, yet my mercy,' says God, ' I will not 
take from him.' And such a covenant promised to be made to everlasting 
cannot but be presupposed as the proper fruit of that justification which 
hath been from everlasting, and is no other, and therefore may be looked at as 
the ground of it. If indeed there were any other justification in any of the 
promises besides that, which is the proper effect of that as the cause, then 
all those former intentions of God to sinners might be laid aside, and needed 
not to be considered, but there is not any such. For the blessings held 
forth in the promise are but the former blessings bestowed upon particular 
persons in Christ, folded up and made up in an indefinite promise ; and 
therefore the one doth mutually argue the other. For if a soul can challenge 
an interest in the justification promised, he may comfort himself with his 
interest in the former, and that he was one with Christ, dying and rising. 
And again, when it is said that Christ died, it must be thought he had 
either an unresolved aim, or a resolved. An unresolved aim would be 
unbecoming of him, and if it was resolved, then he died designing the par- 
ticular persons for whom his death was meant. And again, all the know- 
ledge hereof a recumbent in the way of his faith may make use of, as well as 
one that hath assurance, it is but turning the key another way, as the 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 411 

same arguments are used in logic and rhetoric ; so Eph. i. 9, 10, that 
which brought in the Ephesians to trust in Christ, ver. 12, was the 
opening of the mystery of God's will and purpose together in his elect in 
Christ, ' according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself.' 

Quest. 8. But still all this doth but in general shew that these fore-passed 
Ways of election and Christ's death may be taken in. A third question 
therefore will be, How, and in what manner, and what order, and to what 
end and purpose, a recumbent believer is to take into his thoughts these 
fore-passed passages, so as to make it a help to such an act, when as yet 
his faith can perform no other? How he is to draw them in, and make 
them ingredients, and how they are to have an influence into his faith, to 
be helpful to him ? For this, I say, take these directions out of the for- 
mer grounds laid. Cut before I give them I premise a caution, which also 
makes way for a right understanding of what follows. 

The caution is, that the believer is not to take into his thoughts these 
fore-passed fixed acts of justification, to that end as to make it his only and 
first work and business, to inquire whether he was thus justified or no, so 
as until he is resolved thereof, he will sit still, and exercise no act of faith 
at all, nor look after any promise ; for it doth prove a real hindrance to 
many, when that is the fruit of this their knowledge. Though indeed we 
are not to rest or quiet ourselves in any acts of faith till such an assurance 
is obtained, but to wait for it in all, yet we are not to do it so as to cast 
off the exercise of this other act of faith, and seeking justification to come, 
till we have particular evidence of that which is past. This is a wrong mo 
made of God's ways, so to inquire after his secret will, concerning our par- 
ticular, as to neglect his revealed ; whereas we are so to look to what is 
past, as to quicken us unto, and not to keep us from, seeking that justifi- 
cation to come. So as we say that the knowledge of this fixed and eternal 
justification is then a help to an act of recumbency, when the believing 
indefinitely and in general that thus God did towards some, doth quicken 
our faith of recumbency. Which that it may do, take these directions. 

1. The believer may take in the consideration of these ways of God's 
justifying, and Christ's dying for certain men, who were one with him. 
This in the general he may do, to the end to pitch and point the aim and 
scope of his faith aright, so as to aim at his casting himself upon God in 
Christ for such a justification as only is the proper effect of the former, so 
as distinctly he may make it the desire and aim of his faith, that he may 
obtain such a justification as doth only proceed from an eternal love, and 
as is the sole fruit of a former eternal justification, and of Christ's par- 
ticularly dying for his sins. And the reason why in this way he may take 
it in is, because though he looks upon that of God's love which is passed 
as not now anew to be obtained, yet as to that part of it which is to come 
and to be manifested now in the actual bestowing of all the blessings of it, 
he may cast himself upon God now to obtain it (it being yet to come), and 
to have it performed to him in the strength and virtue of the former ; appre- 
hending and knowing that no other but such a justification is meant in the 
promise by God, nor can be obtained by any, but so that still the aim of 
his faith and prayers may be to be justified with the justification of God's 
chosen, and to be justified out of that love with which he justifies those 
whose sins Christ bore upon the tree. Thus David often in many particular 
blessings frames his prayers, which are but the aims and meaning of faith 
expressed and folded up into desires : Ps. cvi. 4, ' Kemember me with that 
favour thou bearest to thy people : and oh visit me with thy salvation ; ' 
that is, that salvation which proceeds from such a special favour ; Ps. 



412 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

cxix. 132, 'Look upon me, and be merciful to me, as thou usest to do to 
those that love thy name.' Thus he dealt also in matter of justification 
when he came to die and to express his faith at last : ' Thi3 is all my 
desire,' says he, ' and all the salvation I look for.' What kind of salvation 
was in his desire and expectation ? That which proceeded from the sure 
covenant, ordered and sure. And thus God's Spirit doth point the aim of 
the poorest believer's faith, so that the meaning of his faith, if he could 
express it, is, that he might be justified with the justification of God's 
chosen ; with that justification which is the sole fruit of Christ's having 
borne his sins in particular. 

2. He may consider what is already done by God and Christ towards 
the justification of some sinners thus indefinitely, as the cause of that 
justification which is promised. He may consider this, to that end, to 
quicken him to seek such a justification, as that must needs be, which is 
the fruit and effect of such transactions and intentions in God justifying, 
and Christ dying thus for particular men and sins ; and he will thereby 
both strengthen and quicken the act of his faith, of casting himself upon 
God for the obtaining of it. For as one that hath assurance by his faith 
receives and turns all such considerations into comforts, believing they are 
true concerning him, so the other that wants assurance may turn them all 
into motives to quicken and to strengthen his heart the more eagerly to 
seek it, and cast himself with the stronger and faster act of dependency 
and cleaving to God to obtain it ; there is all the difference, and these 
considerations will further the one as well as the other. And the con- 
sideration thereof may serve and be turned into a double motive to quicken 
and set an edge upon their faith. 

First, By considering these proceedings of God in justifying thus from 
everlasting, &c, to be the cause of the justification which is in the promise, 
and which he is seeking, his heart will be the more inflamed to seek such 
a justification as that must needs be, which is the effect and stream of such 
special love both in God and Christ. And the more spiritual insight into, 
and conviction of, those proceedings a soul hath, the more he will come to 
see the freeness, the fulness, the absoluteness, the unchangeableness, the 
greatness of that justification which he is putting in for, and so his heart 
will be fired with it. For when a man shall hear and consider that God 
hath, out of an infinite unchangeable love, been a-justifying some men 
from eternity, and hath done it so resolvedly, as though knowing and 
making account what their sins would be before, yet he resolved they should 
be no bar nor no hindrance, and that no estate, no condition, should alter 
or interrupt his purpose towards such ; — and when he shall also consider 
that further, God hath took such special order concerning them, that he 
hath given them to his Son, and reckoned to him their sins, and looked at 
them as one in him ; — and withal considers, that the justification which is 
offered in the promise, is such as is the fruit, and proceeds from these ; 
why, thinks he, this is such a justification as, if I obtain, it will fully 
answer all my fears, and wants, and doubts, and scruples ; and it is such 
as none can be like to it, such as my heart may securely rest in ; such as, 
if a poor sinner would himself have drawn his own pardon, he could not 
have drawn it more fully, nor can desire a better. And by these considera- 
tions will his heart be taken with a longing after such a justification as 
this ; Lord, will the soul say, justify me with the justification of thy 
chosen ones ! And oh that it may be, that I might be the subject of it ! 
And it may prove so, thinks he ; and if I were to choose, I had rather be 
one of a thousand of those who are in possibility of being justified out of 



Chap. IX. ] of justifying faith. 413 

Such a love, than any other. And why ? Because this is such as if I 
obtain it, and it prove mine, a sea of eternal love will come with it and fill 
my heart, and I shall be out of the gun-shot of all cases that can fall out, 
it being such a justification as shall have all the unchangeable love of the 
great Clod, and the efficacy of Christ's death to feed it, and maintain it, 
and us in the state of it. And thus he may consider all those passages, 
to inflame his heart toward this love, and to draw it in, and this ere he 
can say it is his. The souls of believers are usually taken with this way 
and proceedings of God and Christ in justifying, and it so likes them, and 
takes hold of their hearts, that they can never let go seeking of it. Thus 
God propounds the consideration of the unchangeableness and of the ever- 
lastingness of the covenant, to allure the hearts of believers, Isa. lv., for 
the consideration hereof doth quicken the heart to come in: says God, 
ver. 3, ' Incline your ear and come to me, and I will make an everlasting 
covenant with you ; even the sure mercies of David ;' that is, I will justify 
you out of the same love I justified David with, yea, the mercies of Christ, 
who is that spiritual David, shall be yours. 

Secondly, By the consideration thereof he may strengthen his faith in 
the persuasion of the certainty that such a justification shall be settled and 
estated assuredly upon some, and that therefore it is to be obtained ; which, 
if believed, will exceedingly help a man's faith to cast himself with the 
more boldness and confidence on Christ to obtain it. When men look 
upon God as one that contents himself with this, that he hath done his 
part to save them, and that however it falls out, yet he contents himself, 
for he shall have glory out of them, this will and cloth work a carelessness 
in men ; but when men shall be possessed with this thought, that God is 
resolved upon it, to save some, and that Christ hath took sure order for 
them, and that therefore there is a certainty in the thing, so as it is to be 
had and worn by some, and that God is most serious in it, for he hath 
been a-justifying from eternity, and Chi'ist hath died for particular sinners ; 
when this persuasion of the certainty of the thing itself is fixed upon men's 
hearts, so that together with the greatness of it, they are also persuaded 
that such a thing there is resolved on in God's breast to bestow, it will 
draw men's hearts into a dependence upon God for it. When men believe 
that Christ shall undoubtedly justify many, because he hath borne their 
sins, Isa. liii., and that there is a rest into which some must enter in, 
Heb. iv. 6, this will quicken them to labour to obtain it, as knowing it 
is to be had. For to that end those considerations are there brought in, 
and the chief hindrance of faith lies in not believing the thing, and the 
certainty of God's purpose in it, that there is mercy with him, and plen- 
teous redemption. The assurance of this, though but towards an Israel, 
yet the certainty that Israel should be redeemed, caused him to wait, 
Ps. cxxx. If men have no heart to the thing, though God meant to 
save never so many, they would never be saved ; and if they have, they 
shall be saved, though never so few are intended. Now there is no- 
thing more effectual to persuade the heart of the certainty of the thing, 
than the consideration of God's eternal justification and Christ's special 
intention. 

Thirdly. In the third place, These eternal ways of justification may be 
considered as the cause of that justification in the promise, to that end, to 
quiet and settle most of all those carnal objections, fears, and scruples in 
men's hearts, which are most dangerous, and the greatest hindrances of 
faith. And indeed the consideration of it will serve to quell all of them, 
but only one, which of all the rest is least dangerous. For when a man 



414 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

shall consider that the justification which only is to be obtained, is such as 
is the fruit of an eternal, unchangeable love, &c, all the objections taken 
from the greatness of his sins will be scattered ; for God's eternal thoughts 
in pardoning are beyond all imaginations ; and that love also regarded 
neither sins nor goodness, but pitched upon persons freely, and that when 
lie knew what their sins would be when he chose them ; and also, all fears 
of being rejected for often backslidings will vanish, because the justification 
to be obtained is to be the fruit of a love that is unchangeable ; and all his 
fears likewise of provoking God to cast him off, and of falling away, and 
that he may one day fall by the hand of Saul, will dissolve, when he con- 
siders the blessings of eternal love to be the sure mercies of David, out of 
which God justifies. And though he hears and reads, that after such a sin, 
God took advantage of Saul, Esau, &c, and swore in his wrath against 
those in the wilderness, yet the justification he is seeking of, and hath in 
his eye, is such as, if obtained, he may be assured of it never failing, as 
flowing out of an ancient, peculiar love, and therefore proceeds not in shew- 
ing mercy by rules, or examples of dealing of others, and which knows no 
bounds nor bottom ; but God excepts, and says, ' Though I make a full 
end of them, yet not of thee ;' and he says also, I will have mercy because 
I will, and where I will, though I harden others. Now the believer, know- 
ing the justification, which he now seeks, by reason of these former trans- 
actions, to be thus full, it quiets all such fears, and resolves all into one, 
whether he shall obtain it [or] no ? That is all his care, his heart is eased 
of all other ; and this is a good care, unless in case of utter despair, for 
this quickens him the more to seek at God's hands to reveal himself to him, 
and it keeps him in dependence. And when once his spirit is truly won 
and taken with the way of salvation, he will never let go his dependence, 
but like a burr, the more he is shook off, the more he will cleave on. Yea, 
and against that one scruple, whether it be for him, he hath, in such a way 
of dependence, many things to uphold him, that his soul can quietly wait, 
and by reason of a hint given, doth secretly more incline in his constant 
thoughts towards hopes than otherwise. Now take all other ways of justi- 
fication, which are not conceived to be backed thus with an eternal justifi- 
cation and an eternal love, but wherein God proceeds as he sees cause, and 
let a man be supposed, in his own apprehension, to be estated into it, and 
that cloud cleared, yet if he knows his own heart, he must needs be filled 
with sad, and dark, and dangerous fears. Sometimes the greatness of his 
sins past must needs amaze him, and his often backslidings and falls after 
enlightening, if none of these damp his hopes, or if none of these disquiet 
him, yet, having no security of his own heart, he fears for time to come ; 
and the doubts which arise about the thing itself, and the way of salvation 
he depends upon, will be greater, and of worse consequence, and make his 
heart sit more loose towards God, than when, on the contrary, his heart is 
rasolved that the justification itself, which he depends on, doth answer all 
fears and scruples about his whole estate and condition, and all the query 
is onlv about his person, and this is a doubt which, when all others are 
resolved into it, God can easily answer when he will ; and if at any time 
the spirit be ready to fail, he breaks in, and resolves it. It is a doubt 
which the security his heart hath from the way itself, about all other things 
that can be objected, doth countervail. 

Quest. 4. As there yet remains in his heart that one scruple unresolved, 
whether his person shall obtain that justification to come, he knowing that 
it depends upon what is past already, the question is, What acts of faith, 
and of the applications of faith, he should put forth towards both the justi- 



Chap. IX. J of justifying faitii. 415 

fioation that is to come, and likewise towards that which is past, for bis 
own particular ? 

Am, 1. It is true there are two acts of faith which be cannot put fortb : 
1. He cannot exert an act of application with assurance : be cannot put 
tbat fortb towards either ; and indeed, if be could do it towards citber, be 
illicit towards both. If, then, the sole application of faith that justifies, 
lay in assurance, he would have no faith, and therefore it is well for him 
that it doth not. 2. To cast himself to obtain justification past, is a con- 
tradiction and absurdity ; therefore that is not the act of application in his 
faith neither, though it may well be exercised towards what is to come. 

Jus. 2. This I must suppose as a foundation for all, that there is yet an 
impression and hint wrought in the heart of the poorest believer, of special 
mercy towards him, which is it that hangs his heart upon what is past, and 
causeth him to depend upon what is to come. This I mention first, because 
this is the principle of all those acts that I shall after mention, and this is 
like the first principles which are indemonstrable, but the conclusions from 
thence are and may be demonstrated. So about this I cannot give you any 
direction, for that Spirit that works the mind, and searcheth the deep things 
of God, must work it in you. It is the principle of faith, and is indemon- 
strable ; only what acts of faith this principle may be drawn forth into, as 
conclusions from that principle, this I will direct you unto. 

This, therefore, being given by God to the heart, and supposed by us, 
such an one may be directed and enabled, before he hath assurance, to put 
forth these acts of application for his particular. 

(1.) He may put forth an act of renunciation of salvation by all other 
ways of justification supposable, than such as is by Christ's special inten- 
tion in dying, and justification from eternity. And this he is to do, not in 
his opinion only, when the query is about truth or falsehood, but be may 
and can, and is to be directed to do this for his own particular salvation, 
when he is consulting on what way to pitch as for his own salvation ; and 
that not of necessity only, because there is no other way, but out of choice. 
For when once in general be bath view r ed the certainty, the stability of this 
way of salvation, in the whole progress of it, and how, when obtained and 
declared, it secures the heart ; and so his heart fully approves it, and sees 
also how it magnifies God's love and the riches of his grace, and Christ's 
love also ; and withal bis heart hath had that undiscerned hint of intention 
towards him, be so approves it, not only as best and truest in itself, but as 
best for him also ; and doth constantly venture, and resolves constantly to 
venture, his particular interest upon this way of salvation alone ; and betakes 
himself to it, to deal and trade in his thoughts with it for his own salvation. 
He ventures not only his own interest upon the truth of it, but upon the 
performance of it to him, and all other ways that can be supposed or pre- 
sented to him as possible, be utterly renounceth. He betakes himself to 
this rather, and chooseth to venture to be saved by virtue of these eternal 
past transactions of God and Christ, than any other. And though this hint 
is not boiled and raised up unto assurance, and he cannot yet say that he 
was justified from eternity, and that Christ had a special eye to him, yet he 
is content fully to hang expectation upon it, for his own particular ; and as 
David said of the law, ' I hate all false ways, but thy law do I love,' so says 
he of this way of the gospel, of these ways of God, which are yet past find- 
in » out, that this way of salvation he loves. And though, for aught he 
knows, there may prove a venture in it to him, yet he had rather venture 
to be saved this way, than saved the other way ; and bad rather be one of 
a hundred that should have a draw for this, than one of two for another. 



41 G OF THE OEJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BOOK II. 

(2.) He may put forth an act of dependence upon God for the obtaining 
that justification to come, with submission to, and with reference, and by 
virtue of that which is past. 

[1.] It is an error that men imagine that there can be no room for 
dependence, but only when all is 3 T et to be resolved on by him on whom 
we depend. For though I suppose the foundation of all their salvation 
tbat shall be saved laid in God's heart, and in Christ's heart, and the 
thing resolved on, yet if the actual performance and execution be yet to 
be accomplished, as it is, there is room for a dependence. As if it were 
known that a prince had resolved to bestow an office on some particular 
man, but not declared who it is, every man capable might live in depend- 
ence for the actual bestowing it upon himself in particular, as well as if 
they knew he were not resolved, but might dispose of it this way or that 
way. Men therefore falsely conceive that if God and Christ were yet to 
make their will, then they would seek to them with dependence, because 
they hope that they might gain their hearts towards them, by obedience 
and dependence, to dispose of Christ's death and the riches of it towards 
them; but when their will is made and sealed up from eternity, they think 
there is no room for dependence, when yet there is the greatest of all 
other. 

[2.] For there may be a dependence with submission, which Jeremiah 
calls waiting quietly, and putting the mouth in the dust, Lam. iii. 26, 29. 
The top and flower of God's glory in the ways of justification is his freedom 
therein; and therefore, as it is called grace, a being 'justified freely by his 
grace,' so free grace too ; which freedom is shewn most in justifying some 
and condemning others, and in directing the course and progress of these his 
ways as he pleaseth. Now faith is appointed the instrument in us that 
should glorify God's grace in all the prerogatives of it, to glorify it as God 
glorifies it ; and therefore, among other things, faith ought to glorify the 
freedom of it as well as the riches of it in pardoning ; and this it cannot do 
more than by submitting its own salvation to this free, disposing, ordering 
grace of God, and to let God have his liberty in it. Faith frames the 
heart, and turns and applies it to the freedom of God, and glorifies him 
according to all the advantages his grace hath over men, whereof this is one 
of the greatest, viz., his freedom. It casts away itself in the glorifying of 
it, it ventures upon it with submission, because it is free ; and if it falls out 
that the soul attains it, he glorifies that freedom, acknowledging that it was 
God's free mercy which saved him. If he thinks it may be otherwise 
(though in this case it cannot, however he may think so), yet withal he 
thinks that there is an instance of God's freedom that will be glorified, and 
he commits and submits himself, not to the sufficiency of God's and 
Christ's grace, but to the freedom of it, and launcheth himself into it with- 
out either oar or stern,* and commits himself to those vast waves, and the 
current and stream of God's mind towards him, to save or drown him. 
Thus David in a particular case exerciseth his faith, and if he had no other 
acts in matter of his salvation, this act of faith would have saved him. 
What says he? He submits himself to God's own thoughts towards them : 
2 Sam. xv. 25, 26, ' If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will 
bring me again, and shew me his habitation. But if he say, I have no 
delight in thee ; behold, here I am, let him do to me as seemeth good to 
him.' He refers himself to God's thoughts wholly, with an holy depend- 
ence and submission. And thus faith may exercise acts of submission and 
dependence towards what is past, as well as for the obtaining of what is to 
* That is, ' rudder.'— Ed. 



Chap. IX.] of justifying faith. 417 

como ; or rather faith may act for the obtaining of what is to come, by 
virtue of what is past already, and so it honours God in both. 

[8.] And faith may act, not with a bare and naked submission only, but 
with a reference also to be justified by virtue of what was done then, which 
I may do, though I cannot tell whether I was then justified or no. This I 
know, that some men were justified then, and that what is to como hath an 
inseparable connection thereupon ; therefore in casting myself upon what 
is to come, I may refer to what was done then, and I may have recourse 
to be justified now by virtue of that justification then performed by virtue 
of Christ's intention towards me. For as a man may refer to that he 
knows not the event and purpose of, so I may hang all my expectation 
upon what was done then, and I may refer to God's heart and Christ's 
heart towards me then, not only with a bare act of submission, but with 
hopeful expectation, which is the greatest trust in the world. For if the 
matter were now to be|begun to be cast, the support of a man's depen- 
dence might be a confidence in himself, that he might do something which 
in the end might incline God, and then a man's trust were in his own 
heart ; but when I refer to what was past before I was, I refer merely to 
God's heart towards me ; I then refer with dependence on the bare free 
thoughts of God and Christ, which is the most naked, purest trust in the 
world. Now this is not only nakedly to submit, but it is to exercise faith 
in this manner ; as if the soul should, say, Lord, by virtue of what Christ 
did, and thou didst from all eternity towards me, now justify me. As a 
man may and ought to exercise the thoughts of faith which God works in 
him, though he thinks they are but his own thoughts ; as a man is to pray, 
though when he prays he knows not whether he prays aright, so a believer 
is to refer to God's thoughts towards him, although he know them not, and 
to cast anchor in the dark ; he ought to make trial what God's heart is to 
him, and to cast anchor upon it, though he cannot fathom it. And whilst 
his faith appeals thus to God's heart and Christ's heart towards him, God 
doth the thing, he hitting right. And again, men may and ought to take 
in thus by way of reference what is past, because they must be justified, if 
ever they be so, by virtue of what is past, and therefore their casting them- 
selves upon God for justification may be with this reference, that it should 
now be performed to them by virtue of what is past. God and Christ did 
mutually trust each other about our salvation. God trusted Christ, ere he 
died, for saving many thousands, upon Christ's bare word, and Christ 
trusted God to see the fruit of his death in many thousands yet to come, 
and he sees his seed and is satisfied ; and if they trust one another, shall 
not we ? 

(3.) A soul thus referring to what is past by God and Christ, for him 
to obtain justification by virtue thereof now, may yet be bolder in the 
exercise of his faith. For all these thoughts of what God and Christ hath 
done, he may turn into pleas to God, and plead before God the ancient 
passages of that his transaction with Christ about him, and try how they 
will take upon his heart, and see what God says to them. Thus Habakkuk, 
in the name and person of poor believers, puts God to it, to draw out his 
thoughts towards them in his prayer which he makes, Hab. i. 12 : '0 
Lord,' says he, ' art not thou from everlasting, my God, and mine Holy 
One ? ' He puts him to it, and reminds him of his ancient thoughts ; and 
he puts the question to God, to see what he would say to it ; and what 
doth God answer again ? Ere he goes any further, he hath a gracious 
persuasion, an echo of God's heart towards them, ' we shall not die.' So 
do thou, go and turn all that thou knowest about God's eternal transactions 

VOL.. VIII. d d 



418 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II. 

with Christ towards sinners, and Christ's undertakings and undergoings 
for sinners, go and turn them all into holy pleas and queries with God 
daily in thy prayers, as touching thine own particular. Ask him, ' Art 
thou not mine, Holy One, from everlasting ? ' ' Lord, look on me again ; 
dost thou not know me ? ' Desire him to look into his own heart, and 
view the idea he had of thee, and the thoughts he had towards thee from 
everlasting ; boldly ask him, if he did not then commend thee to his Son, 
and write thy name in his heart himself? Mind him of all those secret 
passages, go over them all, and turn them into queries, which another soul 
which hath assurance would do into comfort and thanksgiving. Go down 
from thence, and spread all that Christ hath done before the face of God, 
tell over all the story of his being in the garden, on the cross, and say, 
Lord, did not Christ do all this for me, a vile wretch, by thine own appoint- 
ment ? Had not Christ me in his heart, when he hung on the cross ? 
and hadst thou not me in thine eye, as one with him, when he suffered ? 
and didst not thou then, unbeknown to me, charge these and these particular 
sins upon him ? &c. I say, turn all into such queries about thyself, put 
God to it, see what he says to these things. How often is God so put to 
it that he cannot deny it, but plainly confesseth all this was true while the 
soul is a-speaking ? However, whilst the soul is thus pleading, he finds 
thereby his load taken off, his mind eased ; and why ? Because he hits 
God's very mind, speaks the bottom of Christ's heart, and so finds the 
blood of Christ speaking better things than the blood of Abel. He shall 
find in these pleadings God's eternal love, and Christ's death, to be as a 
plank to a man a-sinking, to have a reality in them, to bear his heart aloft. 
He shall find, whilst he is pleading thus blindfold, as I may so say, and 
casting anchor in the dark, that his pleas take hold, and establisheth, 
and settleth his heart in the midst of all tossings. Thus as a bold man 
will by putting questions draw out another's secrets, so by such pleas and 
queries doth the heart often in a holy cunning draw out God's mind. 
However, thereby doth the soul find a support, and he shall find them to 
take with his heart, and to take with God ; that as in preaching God's 
mind, if a son of peace be present, it takes with him, and his heart closeth 
with it, and is won ; so in pleading over God's mind, and questioning 
thus with him, a man being a son of peace, and hitting right, God owns 
him, and all he says, to be true. 

(4.) Under such an act of referring himself to God's heart and former 
proceedings, and in such a way of pleading, he may improve every promise, 
and all the fulness that is in Christ. Is there any benefit that God's love 
ever intended to bestow, or that the merits of Christ's death purchased, or 
can help a man unto ? In the same way he refers to and pleads Christ's 
death for his justification, he may refer to it for all blessings else, for that 
way of salvation he depends upon will help him, and be improvable for all. 
If a man be sick, he can plead, Lord, did not Christ bear our sicknesses 
and infirmities ? Was not his soul made a curse to redeem me from all 
miseries ? Lord, I refer to his death for my recovery, as well as for my 
salvation, by virtue of it heal me ! And he may have upon these plead- 
ings of his, all things done for him, and by virtue of Christ's death ; and 
his faith may make use of it, and have recourse to it for all, and receive 
all from it, as well as he that hath assurance. Indeed, happily he may 
want the discerning of seeing all done by virtue of Christ's death, as he 
that hath assurance hath, but it may be as truly done upon these acts of 
faith for him, as upon acts of assurance. 

(5.) Since God, when he justifies now, doth it out of the same frame of 



Chap. IX. J of justifying faith. 419 

heart and free love renewed, or rather continued, out of which he chose 
and elected, I may, without looking back to that love as electing, cast my- 
self upon him, to bear such a love now to me as he did bear to his elect, and 
out of it to justify me, and so contract all that is said of eternal love in 
electing, down to a present love to be set on me, to justify me. For, as 
out of that love he elected, so out of such a love afresh taken up he justifies ; 
and that is yet to come, and so I rest not on love or free grace as electing, 
but on such a grace or love as out of which he elected me, to justify me ; 
a love that shall have all the attributes of God freely, unchangeably exer- 
cised in it, all but* from eternity that electing love had, and is differing 
but in order to a different act of election, than of justification now,f and 
so free grace and electing love are for substance the same ; and in so do- 
ing I do draw but a model, map, or description of what a love I desire 
God may bear to me, alluding to the pattern of that love I hear he bare 
men, in electing them in the mount of eternity. 

* Qu. ' that ' ? — Ed. | Q u - ' of election then, of justification now ' ? — Ed. 



420 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 



BOOK III. 

Of the actings of faith in prayer. — That ice are not bound to pray uith assur- 
ance of obtaining the very particular blessing which ice ask. — That God, 
neither in the revelation of himself and of his attributes, nor in his promises, 
hath obliged himself to give us the very particular blessing which ice ask. — 
That the essential acts of faith in praying do not necessarily require that ice 
should have such a certain particular persuasion. — How ice are in praxjer 
to act faith upon temporal promises, and how upon spiritual. 



CHAPTER I. 

That God hath not, by any revelation of himself or attributes, engaged himself 
to give us the very particular blessing which ice ask, and therefore we are not 
bound to pray with faith of assurance of obtaining it. 

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that wavereth is like a wave 
of the sea, driven of the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he 
shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all 
his ways. — James I. 6-8. 

The absolute necessity of faith in praj T er he doth vehemently and peremp- 
torily express. 

1. Vehemently: He doth not say he shall obtain no great or large gifts 
or favours, but nothing, not anything, without this. 

2. Peremptorily: 'Let not that man think;' let him not entertain so 
much as a thought that God will hear him ; ' let him not think that he 
shall receive anything of the Lord.' 

The apostle binds up our faith in prayer strictly unto such a belief as 
hath a not doubting or not wavering accompanying it, and under that 
resolute manner presseth it, as that on which the stress of all asking in 
faith in prayer should lie. He instanceth in one particular of wisdom for 
all other, but thereupon gives the same common rule for praying for any- 
thing else which we may think or make account to obtain. Thus extensive 
is his caution, reaching to anything, as those words shew : ver. 7, ' Let not 
that man,' namely, that wavereth, ' think he shall receive anything of the 
Lord.' He cannot regularly, or according to God's ordinary course which 
is set about praying, receive anything. God may hear us afore we ask, 
but if we think to receive anything by prayer, it must be by praying in 
faith, ' without wavering.' So as this is proposed as a general rule hold- 
ing in all prayers, that whatsoever we pray for, we ' pray in faith, nothing 
doubting.' But then here comes the difficulty, the last words immediately 
foregoing having been, ' Let him ask, and it shall be given him,' and these 
words coming next, • But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting ;' the 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 421 

coherence whereof would seem to carry it thus : let him ask in the faith and 
confidence of this, that he shall receive the thing itself he prays for when 
and whilst he prays, nothing doubting but that he shall receive it, and 
otherwise he shall not obtain it. 

The text thus understood, hath been a mighty stound and plunge to 
many poor souls, that have lived in a lower region and way of believing. 
If this be the case, will some say, then I never yet have prayed one faithful 
prayer in all my life. Nay, I have not prevailing assurance, that is, a faith 
with a nothing doubting ; no, not for my own salvation, but am full of 
doubtings and sinkings of heart about that great point. I have not obtained 
so much in and by all the prayers I have hitherto made, and how much 
more may I say as to particular requests of what I stand in need of, that I 
never yet had this happiness to be able through faith to say I shall receive 
them afore I did receive them. Yea, those Christians that have assurance 
of their salvation, do find in experience very few of their petitions for par- 
ticular mercies answered, wherein they have had a full forehand persuasion 
that they should receive the very particular. 

It must therefore be looked upon as a case of very great moment and 
usefulness to resolve, and which requires a thorough discussion, to satisfy 
the many scruples about it. 

The case I propound thus : 

"Whether it be a necessary requisite unto praying in faith for the obtain- 
ing any or every particular thing a Christian prays for, that he should pray 
in or with such a special faith and persuasion as amounts to a not doubting 
that he shall certainly receive it, so as if he fall short of this persuasion of 
faith in prayer, he must not think to receive it ? 

First, I lay down this assertion : 

That there is a true spiritual and effectual praying in faith, which doth 
obtain and prevail with the Lord, that yet is short of, and rises not up unto 
this special persuasion of faith without doubting, that I shall certainly 
receive the very particular I seek of the Lord. 

Many pregnant instances and examples in Scripture might be alleged to 
prove this assertion, which I omit, because they may pertinently fall in, 
and will well mingle with several pieces of the discourse. I know also it 
is a commonplace head in our modern divines to handle, what it is to pray 
in faith, by the measure of which I might proceed to demonstrate this 
assertion; but this I decline now, for it will fall in with my following 
method. But I choose rather, for the clearer demonstration of it (for I 
know no better or more conducing and fairer way), to take a survey of the 
most essential things unto faith in prayer, and chiefly because, in so doing, 
it will not only prove, but withal discover the very foundation and intrin- 
secal grounds how and whereupon it comes to pass that such a special per- 
suasion of faith in prayer is not of absolute necessity to obtain the blessing 
desired. Now these essential things, &c, are two. 

1. The principal object of faith, which faith in praying eyes, and acts 
upon, to move God to bestow what he asks. 

2. The proper genuine acts of faith in praying, which yet fall short of 
being assured I shall receive the particular mercy prayed for. 

And my demonstration for both these is founded on this great truth, 
common to them both, that they do admit of a latitude : First, unto our 
faith in praying ; and, secondly, unto God in answering ; so that it is not 
necessary either that faith in its acting upon these objects should rise up 
to that assured persuasion that you shall receive, or that God should grant 
you the very particular ; but God and faith both have room and line enough 



422 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK Ill- 

left them ; God to answer the prayer in some other thing, and faith to ask 
the blessing without such an assurance. 

1. I begin my demonstration with the primary objects of faith in prayer 
(as our divines call them), which are these things in God which our faith in 
prayer treats with God upon, which faith presents to God, and pleads with 
God, and urgeth upon God that it may^obtain ; or which are the principal 
supports unto faith, that do strengthen it to continue to pray, and hearten 
it that it shall obtain. And my diligent inquiry shall be, whether an 
acting on these in our prayers doth necessarily require and exact such a 
particular persuasion, &c. 

Now the prime and principal objects of faith, by which it thus deals with 
God in prayer, are three. 

(1.) Some special attributes of God, as his wisdom, power, mercy, which 
faith applies itself unto, and treats with God by. 

(2.) The promises, general or particular, of such or such good things, 
which faith lays hold upon, and urgeth unto God to be fulfilled by virtue 
of those attributes. 

(3.) The name of Christ, in which under the New Testament we are 
explicitly to put up all our prayers, as for which and whose sake God will 
bestow all he hath promised. 

Now if tbere be a due application of the soul unto God in and through 
all these, according as the nature of these may require, then it is certain 
there is true faith, and a due acting of faith in prayer. For what is or can 
faith be other than a suitableness in its acting upon its proper object, for 
the glorifying of God thereby ? All acts do receive their distinguishing 
kind and genuineness from their tendency and conformity to their objects, 
and so must faith ; and it is true, genuine, unfeigned faith, when it puts 
forth such and such acts as its true and proper object doth require. And 
it is certain, that to pray in and with such a faith, so levelled towards these 
objects, must needs be a praying in faith, and so must obtain. 

Now the most bottom ground why a faith duly acting in prayer upon these 
objects, and pleading these motives, may yet fall short of a certain persua- 
sion, ' I shall receive the very particular,' &c, lies in this one proposition. 

Prop. That God hath not in the revelation of himself, through these 
objects to our faith, so bound up himself in, or by virtue of, any or all of 
these, though duly implored in prayer, that he will certainly give the very 
particular we shall ask in true faith on these, the nature of these things 
not absolutely or necessarily requiring it, as they are to us revealed. 

And the inferences from hence will be, 

1. That if God be not certainly bound up by any one, nor all of these 
therefore mentioned, then by nothing else, for these are those, and such as 
for which he is pleased and moved to grant all that he doth grant to us by 
prayer. 

2. And hence it will follow, that if God be not necessarily bound up by 
these to give the very particular, that then our faith in prayer is not bound 
up to a certain persuasion, I shall receive that very particular; for our 
receiving must be from God's giving, and his declared intention in giving 
some way answerable thereto. And therefore, if God professeth not to be 
bound up to give, &c, our faith cannot be bound up absolutely to think we 
shall receive. And again, that must needs be acknowledged right faith, that 
treats with God in all and each of these, according to God's own inten- 
tion in his revelation of all and each of them ; for then God is truly sought 
to, when according to the tenor of his own Mill and revelation of himself. 

And take notice, that the materials of the demonstration of this assertion 



ClIAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 423 

proposed (which I shall carry through all theso three places mentioned), will 
serve also to direct and instruct us how to form and level our prayers 
aright, and teach us how to apply our faith to God's attributes and promises. 

1. I affirm, that the attributes of God, to which faith is to apply itself 
in prayer, have reserved to themselves a latitude, or a liberty left unto God 
in what particular to answer our prayers, as shall be most for the glory of 
any of those his attributes which we implore. That God as represented to 
us by his attributes, and so his attributes, are the grand object of faith in 
prayer, appears by the prefaces unto all the eminent prayers recorded in 
the Old and New Testament, the saints therein taking into their prayers 
such or such particular attributes as had nighest conjunction with, and affinity 
unto, the particular things they pray for, as being the next and immediate 
cause of them, and so strengthen their faith for the obtaining that particular. 

Before I fall into the particular instances of attributes to demonstrate 
my foresaid assertion, I shall again renew the memory of this, that it is the 
nature and property of faith, and that which God ordained it for, to apply 
and turn itself every way, to each and every attribute, according to the 
kind and nature of each, and according to that way and manner of dispens- 
ing and giving forth things to us, which each attribute doth hold forth, 
and in doing so it honours and glorifies that or those attributes, according 
to the nature and kind of each attribute and way in their affecting* things 
for us. And hence it comes to pass that faith in prayer is such a latitu- 
dinarian, that it is not bound up to a certain persuasion or belief, that it 
shall receive this or that very particular which it asks, and is bound to ask, 
and which particular promises, according to a man's sense of need, direct 
faith unto. And the reason is clear, because the kind or nature of these 
attributes, and the way and the manner of the dispensation of them, doth 
admit of a latitude in God's intention, in his engagement of those attri- 
butes, for the performance of the promises prayed for ; and God for the 
glory of them, as became him, necessarily reserved a liberty how and in 
what particular to answer our prayers as shall be most and best agreeable 
to the nature of the attributes, and for the manifestation of the glory of 
them. And hence if faith applies itself (as so it ought) to God in pleading 
his engagement of any of those attributes, according to their kind, it must 
be with a reserve on faith's part, leaving God's performance unto his own 
latitude reserved. I only except what may and doth fall out sometimes, 
that God is pleased to give a special persuasion and assurance (as some- 
times especially in spiritual things he doth), otherwise in the ordinary way 
and course faith must leave all to God, with submission to want the mercy 
sought when it shall be most for the glory of that attribute it hath or had 
recourse unto in prayer ; for God's will disposeth itself in giving unto us, 
according as he intended the glory of such and such his attributes; and 
this (which is a sure ground in itself) gives measure to our prayers, and 
faith therein, and is a main foundation to decide this case. 

(1.) We ought to apply ourselves unto God's all- sufficiency and power, 
with a firm assurance in it. But though as to his power he requires that 
we should confide in it to obtain the thing prayed for, yet he exacts not 
as to his will for us to believe that he will certainly effect it, but left that 
part rather unto an humble submission, whether he would do it, yea or 
no, for he would have that left to him. Thus when the two blind men 
came to him, Mat. ix., who prayed vehemently to him — ver. 27, ' Two 
blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have 
mercy on us' — all the question that Christ asked them was this, 'Jesus 
* Qu. 'effecting'?— Ed. 



424 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this ?' ver. 28. He says 
not, believe ye that I will do this, but only that I am able to do this ; and 
doth your petition, that I would do this for you, proceed from a faith on 
my power, that I am able ? ' They say unto him, Yea, Lord ;' and they 
spake their heart as far as their faith went, and as far as Christ's question 
reached. And look, as Christ did not ask them, whether they did believe 
he would cure them, so neither did they express that they believed any 
such tling; he loaded their faith with no more but that of his power, and 
as to the belief of that, Christ was absolute to require it ; but as to the 
belief of his particular will, for that particular thing, there is not a word 
spoken. And yet Christ in answer to their faith in praying, approved 
their faith by saying, 'Be it to you according to your faith,' ver. 29;* for 
it came up to his demand, and the performance testified thereunto, that it 
was such a faith as he required, for thereupon their eyes were opened. 
And these were all the transactions that passed betwixt Christ and the 
men in that particular, and yet they obtained w 7 hat they prayed for there- 
upon. Now, that which was faith sufficient in them to obtain by prayer 
will also be in us. And further, suppose this faith had not been put forth 
in the way of prayer, that is, if we suppose they had not prayed, but only 
believed this, yet it must be acknowledged that the same faith put into a 
prayer must needs be good, be as good faith to obtain. For look, what is 
true faith out of prayer, that faith if it be formed up into a prayer, doth 
according to the measure of it make prayer in faith ; and so it all comes 
to this sum, that it is as if these blind men had explicitly said, Lord, we 
come to thee to be cured, and believe thou art able, which makes us come ; 
and though yet we know not whether thou wilt, yet we come, and we leave 
that to thee. Now, would not this have been praying in faith ? And will 
not the circumstances of those transactions justify it to be so ? Yes, with- 
out question ; and yet I need not say how much it fell short of assurance 
that they should have the thing. 

Another instance, more express than this, is in Mat. viii. 2 : ' Behold, 
there came a leper, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou 
canst make me clean.' This faith of his was put forth in praying, for it 
is said ' he worshipped;' the other evangelist says 'he fell on his face.' 
It was an adoration, with supplication to be cured. He acknowledges him 
to be Lord of all diseases, even as that centurion had, who said, Si voles res 
acta est: If thou wilt, the thing is done. Thus says the leper, 'Thou 
canst make me clean,' and in this latter he is positive, nothing wavering; 
but as to Christ's will, he puts an if to that, ' If thou wilt,' &c. Where, 
first, he manifests his desire and request, that he would cure him; yet, 
secondly, speaks as one not assured that Christ would do it; and, thirdly, 
as one that resigned up himself to his will, and left it to him to do as he 
pleased, having 'made first his request known' with a faith on his power; 
and though he believes absolutely that he could heal him, yet he prays not 
absolutely that he would, but with a reference and submission to his will :f 
' If thou wilt.' Now, observe how abundantly Jesus Christ approved this 
faith as thus put forth in praying. ' I will,' says he, ' be thou clean' (it is 
the imperative). He had asked, 'If thou wilt,' with an if to that; but 
Christ answers him positively and absolutely: 'I will,' says he. 'Thou 
canst,' says the poor man; he speaks that absolutely of his power, and 

* Fides quam C'hristus laudat est de potentia ipsius, non de potentise ipsius exer- 
ci[tati]one. — Brug. in verba. 

t Jadicio et vtluntati Christi resignat quicquid sit magis utile, idque, scit Deua 
nescit homo. — Alapid. in verba. 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 425 

Christ speaks as absolutely of his obtaining : The thing is done, says he, 
' be thou clean.' And the reason of this difference of believing on his 
power and on his will (that the one must be absolute, the other needs be 
but indefinite) is, because if we do not believe his power absolutely, that 
he is able to do the thing, we do not believe he is God, nor do we come 
to him and glorify God as God ; but to believe he will, or that ho will not, 
do a thing, or may not, this detracts nothing at all from his being God, 
but, on the contrary, exalts him in the acknowledgment of the liberty, 
dominion, and sovereignty of his will. And it is evident that our Saviour 
Christ puts the great pillar of faith upon believing his power : Mark ix. 23, 
Jesus says unto the father of that child possessed with the devil, ' If thou 
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth;' and the father 
cried out, and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief;' 
for even belief of his power is not so full, without all wavering, but it may 
have an imperfection accompanying it. But I cite it for this, that faith is 
said to be omnipotent, as God's power is ; faith on his power can do all 
that God can do, and this even in the point of pardoning sin. Moses hath 
recourse to the power of God, Num. xiv. ; so that to believe that he is able 
to pardon, lying at the feet of his will, is good faith. 

Obj. But you will say, Power is but an attribute only, and will our 
believing on one attribute thus obtain ? 

Ans. A believer's dealing with and applying himself to any attributes of 
God, that is effective of the thing, with a spiritual faith exercised upon it, 
is a prevailing faith in praying; and the reason is, because it engages all 
the attributes while it applies itself to one, although I do not explicitly 
think of the rest, even as to touch Jesus Christ anywhere by faith, but 
the hem, conveys all Christ, and all of him. If I deal by spiritual faith 
with him to be justified, and no more, yet adoption, sanctification, and all 
follows; and as the apostle says, Rom. vi., 'If we be planted together in 
the likeness of his death, we shall be likewise in the likeness of his resur- 
rection;' ver. 5, 'If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also 
live with him.' If we have one benefit, then all. 

(2.) We have to do with God's mercy in praying in faith. I need not 
enlarge upon that, for it is our constant plea : Bom. x. 12, ' He is rich in 
mercy to all that call upon him.' It is spoken especially to what he is to 
men, in or upon their prayers, for it is to ' them that call upon him.' Now 
directly mercy will be acknowledged mercy in the glory of it, and that is to 
be free ; that attribute, therefore, deserves a greater latitude yet as to par- 
ticulars, wherein he will shew mercy ; and is in that respect more regu- 
lated by his will than any attribute whatsoever. Mercy will be exalted as 
mercy, Isa. xxx. 18, and therefore in its freedom, which is the top glory of 
it ; and therefore in that place where he himself gives himself the most 
full, absolute declaration of mercy, and the characters of his nature, 
Exod. xxxiv. ; yet in the 33d chapter he prefaces thereunto, ' I will be 
merciful to whom I will.' If he is free to be merciful as to the persons, 
then how much more in the things wherein to be merciful. For of any- 
thing he hath to bestow, mercy is most his own, it is his riches, and he 
hath enough of them, and ' shall he not do what he will with his own ?' 
And having such abundance and variety of them, if he doth not gratify us 
in one thing, he hath to do it in another, and hereby mercy is exalted, as 
you heard the prophet speak. And if it be thus then that attribute which 
our hope is most in, yet it doth not require a certain belief that we shall 
receive the thing we ask, but God himself reserves a liberty to himself, and 
leaves thereby a latitude to our faith. 



426 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

(3.) God's wisdom also reserves a liberty to itself, and gives line to faith : Isa. 
xxx. 18, ' The Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore 
will he be exalted that hath mercy on you : for tbe Lord is a God of righteous- 
ness : blessed are all they that wait for him.' The meaning is, he is a God of 
wisdom, a wise God, he knows what is every way best, and therefore waits 
to be gracious in the best way, that his mercy may be most exalted ; he 
waits not only the fittest season wherein to be merciful, but in what parti- 
cular things most to gratify us, and will find out a time wherein it is best 
for us. Though a believer therefore coming to God, hath all the promises 
of God before him, and his own judgment is, that he hath more special 
need of such or such a promise, yet God's wisdom (who is a God of judg- 
ment, and also made all the promises), having much more all those pro- 
mises afore itself, also considers for its own glory and its own good, in 
what, or by which promises to answer us ; and as it is for the glory of 
his wisdom to order the passages of his providence, so as to be past find- 
ing out, so also his dispensations to his people in answer to their prayers, 
have much of the like variety, that he should not always do it one way. 
It is true God hath promised that he will withhold no good thing, but what 
that good thing is that shall be good for us, that he only is judge of, who 
as he is a Father, is termed also to be a heavenly Father, whilst he sits 
in heaven, considering what to give us that is good for us : Luke xi. 13, 
' If ye then being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father,' &c. Thou askest of him some 
earthly thing, as thou thinkest it best for thy need, but he answers thee 
as a heavenly Father : Mat. vi. 32, ' Your heavenly Father knows that you 
have need of all these things.' Earthly fathers know but what are earthly 
good things, and of them they give to their children such things as they 
judge best ; but God judges as a heavenly Father, and so of what is best as 
in relation to heaven, and thy coming thither, and his thoughts are herein 
as far above earthly fathers as heaven is above earth. He hath also 
declared, that all things shall work together for thy good ; but what parti- 
cular dispensation shall work for good to thee, and how, this he says not, 
nor dost thou know. It may be the contrary to what thou desirest shall 
work for good, and that lies in his wisdom only to judge and dispose of, 
upon the glorifying of which in his own way thou must wait. So that wis- 
dom reserves to itself a latitude, and it is meet it should, for the glory of 
itself, for there the glory of it lies. Hence, therefore, if faith applies itself 
as it ought unto God's wisdom, according to the kind and way of dispen- 
sation of it, why then faith also must be left to a latitude too, and not be 
bound up to the particular that thou suest to him for, but must wait also 
on him for what his wisdom will judge best, and so indeed it is added, Isa. 
xxx. 18, that ' because he is a God of judgment, and waits thus to be gra- 
cious his own way, therefore blessed are those that wait on him,' i. e., that 
wait on him as such a God ; a God of judgment ; for waiting is but an act 
of faith continued. 

(4.) A fourth thing about which it hath to deal with God in prayer is, 
the glory of God, and so it is to frame its petitions, not only for what shall 
stand with the glory of God, but what shall be most for his glory. The 
apostle shews, that faith of all other eyes God's glory, and treats with it : 
Kom. iv. 21, ' Abraham was strong in faith, and gave glory to God.' And 
as it is the object of faith in common, so of faith in particular, as it is put 
forth in prayer, and which faith applies itself unto in praying. This we 
have in the Lord's prayer, in the close, ' For thine is the kingdom, power, 
and glory ;' and in the first petition, ' Hallowed be thy name,' which is 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 427 

the measure of all that follows ; and we are hereby taught to enforce all 
our prayers with this, as with which God is principally moved to grant us 
our requests, and which the soul in praying, if it prays aright, maketh use 
of as pleas unto God to grant those requests ; and it is the highest plea, 
and most effectual way to obtain that faith hath, or can have, in praying. 

Now it is certain, that what that particular should be, which, as concern- 
ing my particular condition, should be most for the glory of God, that only 
is known to him, who as he knows our concernments and interests, so his 
own above all. We pray indeed for what we judge would bo most for his 
glory, as concerning us, and make a great plea of it, and God highly accepts 
it from us, because it is what is best in our view and judgments ; but he 
performs according to the riches of his own glory, according to his own 
destinies and vast purposes of glory to himself, so as a man may pray in 
the highest faith, and in the sublimest way, according to what he judges, 
and yet still not know certainly that he shall receive ; for what is most for 
God's glory, God only himself knows. It is true, indeed, that all the pro- 
mises, which are the declarations of his will, are for his glory : 2 Cor. i. 20, 
1 All the promises of God, in him,' namely, Christ, ' are in him yea, and in 
him amen, unto the glory of God by us ;' there is none but doth tend to his 
glory, more or less, but the performance of which of them to my particular 
will be most for his glory, that still is reserved to himself. And this attri- 
bute of his glory hath a mighty compass and room to answer thee in, by 
some promise or other, though yet it doth not give thee the particular thou 
desirest, according to that one particular promise which thou hast singled 
out to urge. Yea, as this gives a greater latitude than any of the former 
attributes, singly considered, and so therefore an answerable allowance 
must be given unto faith, in respect unto this attribute above all other ; for 
what is and will be most for his glory, he alone is the sovereign judge of. 
1 Therefore,' says the apostle, Rom. xi. 36, ' of him, and through him, 
and to him are all things ; to whom be glory for ever.' That other royalty 
also of his kingdom, or of his being king, is appropriate and essential to 
him as he is God (Ps. xciii. 2, Ps. lxxiv. 12), which David's faith so often 
lays his foundation on in praying, and therefore is so arctly conjoined in 
the Lord's prayer with his glory ; and therefore every son of his that comes 
to him as to his king (as David often did, when he says, ' My God and my 
King '), as he hath great encouragement, because he is his king, who can 
do anything, so he must consider that his kingdom is of a vast extent, and 
that he hath many dominions, and an infinity of designs and ends towards 
persons of all sorts in those dominions, that he hath many irons in the fire, 
many concernments and ends of a greater breadth than what thy narrow 
desires or concernments are, especially as they are comprehended in the 
shallowness of thy understanding, for they are of a greater breadth than 
any one particular promise can or doth contain. In the administration of 
a kingdom, a favourite very near to his prince comes with a request to be 
gratified ; he has had many large promises of all sorts given him, and his 
particular request in his view is but a small one, as the life of a friend that 
hath run into treason, or the like, and he thinks the grant of it will not be 
a prejudice to any of his prince's affairs ; but that king having a large 
dominion, and many persons, yea, perhaps parties and interests to deal 
with, this business and request of his may fall cross unto, and interfere 
with some very great interest of his own, which this favourite knows not 
of, and so he denies him his particular request, but yet takes care to gratify 
him in another, that shall be best for his particular. And as he hath a 
kingdom to administer, so he deals in politics, and hath more general ends 



428 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

than a subject can think of or imagine, and knows that which none of them 
can do ; he hath a vast extent of affairs in that kingdom, and his honour is 
interested to see all things, as they shall tend to his more general ends ; 
and thus it is much more with God, who is the King of kings, and the 
greatest that ever were are but as petty constables to him. He hath designs 
upon particular times, wherein the saints do live, which are part of the 
administrations of his kingdom, and he hath such designs in those times, 
as according to his ordinary providence he cannot do that for his people 
that live in this age, at this time, which he can and doth in another for 
them. General providences, or at least more general than thy particular, 
do cross often particular requests, whereof in the end we come to see a 
reason. This some understand (and I believe rightly) to have been Baruch's 
case, Jer. xlv. Poor man, he was miserably discomposed for the common 
calamity which Jeremiah had threatened : ' Thou didst say, woe is me 
now' (says God to him, ver. 3), 'for the Lord hath added grief to my 
sorrow, I fainted in my sighing, and found no rest ;' and he had besought 
God much for the averting of that calamity, the thoughts of which lay so 
heavy upon him and pressed him down ; but especially, he had sought for 
a quiet condition for himself in these turbulent times to come, ver. 5, 
' Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.' What were the 
great things ? what preferment, or honour, or riches ? He was a man too 
godly to be so ambitious and worldly. No ; he only desired to live in the 
land quietly, that he might have such a particular privilege, and he sought 
it for himself; it was a thing he sought for himself, as the text saith, he 
sought only quietem in communi inquietudine, quiet and ease amidst the 
common disturbance ; and great things these were to seek, in respect of 
God's common providence at the time he lived in, ardua et difficilia, things 
hard and difficult to be done.* Therefore God tells him, ver. 4, ' That 
which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted will I 
break up, even this whole land ; and seekest thou great things, and hard 
things for thyself?' It is contrary to the general design I have, and there- 
fore too great or too hard for thee to obtain. Yet thus far God gratifies 
him, as far as ordinary providence would reach and extend : ' I have given 
thee,' says God, ' thy life for a prey in all other countries,' but I cannot 
gratify thee in this ; although he had a promise sufficient to have asked 
this upon, viz., « Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be 
long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.' 



CHAPTER II. 

That God hath not in his promises obliged himself to give us the very particular 
blessing which we pray for, and there/ore tee cannot pray with assurance of 
obtaining it. 

I shall now carry on the same demonstration touching promises, the 
second object of faith, viz., that the manner of God's declaration of them 
is such as God hath not bound himself so up but that there is this liberty 
reserved, in what particular promise he thinks best for us to answer our 
prayers, and as shall be most for his own glory, especially considering how 
promises are taken in by us into our prayers. 

I come then to promises, the second object of faith before mentioned, 
and therein to consider, whether the promulgation of them, as God hath 
* Castellio in locum. 



Chap. II. J of justifying faith. 429 

been pleased to make it, doth not reserve the like liberty to God, as hath 
been shewed of his attributes, and so by consequence the same latitude to 
faith in prayer, which is a putting of promises in suit ; so as that notwith- 
standing that God hath engaged himself in promises, we may pray in faith, 
although short of such a persuasion, that we shall receive the very par- 
ticulars we ask for. I shall discuss this point under a general consideration 
of promises ; and, indeed, the general consideration had of them will much 
conduce further to discover and lay open the very bottom ground or root 
why a faith short of such a persuasion may be prevailing to obtain, and 
will withal stub up by the roots such objections as may be made against it. 

The objection may be framed up of these particulars, that there being 
one attribute not hitherto mentioned, viz., God's will, which hath drawn in 
those other fore-mentioned attributes into a confederacy with itself, to 
assist and perform what that will determines ; and this will being revealed 
in particular promises, his will hath thereby put out of its own hands all 
liberty to answer or not to answer our prayers. The>e promises also now 
serving wholly as directions and sea-marks to guide how to steer the course 
of our prayers ; and God having moreover made superadded promises to 
hear our prayers, and further his purposes and contrivances about his 
church, being known to him from the beginning (as all his works are, 
Acts xv.), and that being the purest part of his providence, and therefore 
eminently called foreknowledge ; and he having before ever he made any 
promise considered all, and cast and given forth his promises according to 
the idea of those his purposes, as his purpose is to grant upon their 
prayers, therefore there should and ought to be a special persuasion of faith 
in our prayers, that we shall receive the very particular. 

Now for assoiling this objection, and for the better clearing the bottom 
reason of what I am pursuing, I have cast this general consideration of 
promises into these three heads : 

First, As touching the matter of them, or things promised. 

Secondly, The tenor they are delivered in, as in relation to persons. 
These two as they lie in the words abstractly considered. But, 

Thirdly, A distinct consideration must be and apart had of them, as 
they are taken by us into our prayers, and therein urged unto God. 

First, Touching the matter of them, there are these assertions. 

1. God hath so framed and suited his declared promises to his secret 
purposes and designs, of what he means to bestow upon his children, that 
there is extant some either promise, or instance, or declaration (which 
always implies a promise in them), for all and every good thing he means 
to bestow. He hath so drawn out his purposes into promises, as the sea 
into rivulets, that, I may safely say, there is no particular good thing he 
hath purposed to bestow, but there is a declaration of his will, either by 
instance or promise for it. God's will is open and manifest in this, that 
we have the whole of his secret will, as it concerns us, touching good things 
to be bestowed, in his revealed will ; and as his children are ' children of 
promise,' Heb. vi. 17, and ' heirs of blessing,' 1 Peter iii. 9, which are of 
equal extent, because promises and blessings are of like equal extent, so 
in like manner there is no blessing but is a blessing of promise some way 
or other ; and like as God blessing us in Christ blesseth us in nothing out 
of him, so whatever he blesses his children withal, it is by, and not out of, 
a promise. Whatsoever is given is given by a word, and there is nothing 
we need or can desire but there is some promise or other for it, as the 
matter of it. 

2. It is also further true, that whatsoever God actually performs there 



430 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

is a word for it ; this assertion is a consequence of the former. He rules 
the world by his word, or if judgments be on the world, or particular per- 
sons, they are shewn in some threatening, or some instance of the like in 
the word, and they are all but ' executing the judgments written,' Ps. cxlix. 
9 ; and therefore God's dispensing judgments upon men is synonymously 
called his taking hold of them : Zech. i. 6, ' But my words and my statutes, 
which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of 
your fathers ? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts 
thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, 
so hath he dealt with us.' In wbich place you have, 1. God's thoughts, 
what he meant to do, which is his secret will. 2. You have God's thoughts 
put into words, suited unto his will. 3. You have the performance, they 
took hold of them, so that they are suited to both the threatenings and 
purposes, which are in this respect parallel. It is said not a word fell to 
the ground, 1 Sam. hi. 19, 1 Kings viii. Again, performances and pro- 
mises are adequate. 

Secondly, The tenor of promises is to be considered apart from the 
matter of them, and it lies in this, how the declaration of these promises 
doth intend and respect particular persons. And as to that there are these 
assertions : 

1. Though there is no good thing but is in some promise or other, as 
hath been said, yet God's secret will was never to perform or bestow all 
and every good thing in specie (which he hath promised) to all and every 
one of his children personally ; nor is it declared anywhere in the word 
that he will do so. This is apparent in temporal promises of temporal 
things. He hath not given riches to all saints, nor wisdom, nor honours. 
There are not many rich, wise, or noble, though some are so ; and yet, 
because he will bestow of all these upon some, therefore there are promises 
that do particularise all these.* The like may be said of many promises 
in spiritual privileges, gifts, degrees of grace, &c. The sense of this asser- 
tion you may take up and conceive of thus, that our God, the God of all 
grace, and the God of all comforts, having the whole body of his elect 
before him, and all parcels of good things in prospect and intuition, his 
will was to give all and every good thing in specie among them, and in his 
secret purposes he dispersed and ordered them amongst them. 

2. Every good thing that every one of them hath he hath it by promise, 
yea, and to that very end it was that God made such manifold promises, 
particularising every good thing in one of them or other, because he would 
bestow nothing without or besides a promise in his word. 

3. Take the declaration of promises as they respect persons, and so when 
God made and gave forth all these promises of his revealed will, he had in 
his eye whom he meant to bestow these particularities of things promised, 
in their several kinds, upon, and so made these promises with a special 
intent unto them, and de facto bestows them upon them individually, 
although in his word he named not those particular persons, but keeps and 
reserveth that in his own breast, both what good things, and whom he would 
bestow them upon. 

4. The declaration of God's will, and his intent in such promises, is for 
the most part not universal to all and every saint. Some promises indeed 

* Gerard upon those words, John xiv., ' Whatsoever ye shall ask, I will do ;' 
though lie peremptorily determines there is no prayer but God answers, yet in his 
giving an account why so many prayers come short, one of them is, ' Deus nuspiam 
in verbo suo dedit ejusmodi promissionem, quod in temporalibus velit dare nobis 
omnia quae desideramus.' 



ClIAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 431 

are universal, but then they run in the strain as that cloth, ' Whoever 
believes shall not perish,' John iii. 1G ; but many other are but indefinite, 
and so to be understood by us. This indefinite tenor of promises is clear 
in the case of the promises to work miracles, which may illustrate what I 
mean about these other. These promises wo have John xiv. 12, ' He that 
helieves on me, the works that I do he shall do also ; and greater works ;' 
Murk xvi. 17, ' And these signs shall follow them that believe : in my namo 
they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues,' &c. These 
speeches are but indefinite, and yet run in this strain, ' He that believes on 
me,' &c, but are not made to whoever believes. No, not in those times : 
1 Cor xii. 10, ' To another is given the gift of working miracles,' &c. But 
if you hear of such a promise, ' Ho who believes shall be saved' (as Mark 
xvi. 16, Christ had said), you must understand it universally of all that 
believe. For in that tenor of universality it runs, John iii. 16, ' Whoever 
believes,' &c. But there are absolute promises of salvation, which are the 
object of faith, which are not universal to all men ; the promulgation of 
them is, indeed, to be made to all, but the promises themselves are not 
intended to all, and we see it in the performance, which falls out accord- 
ingly, both which promises and performances are yet adequate as to Cod's 
secret intent ; he in his secret intent having those individual persons in his 
eye, whom he would bestow such and such particular things upon, and 
made those promises with an eye to them, but still not naming those parti- 
cular persons in his word, there was a reserve in his breast on whom he 
would bestow them. And so because his will and intent was to perform 
them to some, therefore he hath given forth all sorts of particular promises 
in that tenor mentioned, ' He that,' &c. ; and yet because his will was to 
perform each but to some, therefore these promises run in an indefinite strain 
and tenor. I call them indefinite, because the declaration made in them 
respecteth not all persons, but some, and those not declared who they are. 
Obj. But you will say, that all and every Christian hath a right to every 
promise. 

Ans. What greater instance is there than that of Christ himself? And 
yet although all things are Christ's, and the promises of all things are made 
in him to us, as the great founder of them — 2 Cor. i. 20, ' In him all the 
promises are yea and amen' — he never had the performance of all and each 
of the good things of this world promised in specie, but less thereof, and 
more of the contrary, than any of his children. And what of them he 
hath in the other world is per modum eminentia, in a way of eminence, 
as the holy apostle (that was but a small draught of him) says of himself, 
that though he had all things, viz., in the right, yet he was ' possessing 
nothing.' 

5. Promises being thus indefinite, it is sufficient for any to obtain them 
that their faith on them be but an indefinite act, and so a faith answering 
to the tenor of the promise. An indefinite act from us is rightly and duly 
suited to an object that is but indefinitely proposed by God to us, and to 
such an indefinite act is suited. I mean that, as the promises declare not 
individually whom the things promised are intended unto, so the faith, though 
in the understanding part not certainly knowing that I am the person, yet 
in the will, puts forth indefinite acts, answerably to that suspense in the 
understanding ; so that I cast myself upon God to obtain that thing pro- 
mised, by virtue of that promise which must and shall be made good to 
some, and what do I know but unto me ? And these indefinite acts of 
faith are good faith, for they are answerable to the mind and tenor of many 
promises that run in the style of a bare it may be, which you meet with so 



432 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

oft in Scripture, both concerning spiritual and temporal things ; and who 
knows but God may intend it to me, says the soul ; and therefore I do put 
in for it, and am bound so to do, both in respect of my own needs, and 
God's promulgation of it to me as well as to any other. From hence there 
ariseth these three corollaries : 

(1.) As faith is good faith, because it answers the tenor of the promise, 
so it is a praying in faith when my prayers answer to such a faith, without 
a certain knowledge that I shall undoubtedly obtain. 

(2.) Such promises as are declared by God being, in the respect before- 
mentioned, but indefinite, hence this attribute, the will of God, stands in 
great freedom, which he hath reserved within himself, how to perform these 
promises : notwithstanding they are the declarations of his will, and he 
hath on purpose (that he might retain this liberty within himself) in that 
manner uttered them. And by this it will appear that as great a latitude 
is left to his will, notwithstanding the promises given forth, as to any other 
attribute whatsoever before specified, which latitude lies in which and what 
promises he will be pleased, and is pleased, to gratify such and such per- 
sons, doing it to some in one thing, to others in another ; and it is accord- 
ing to his will in all, as it is said of bestowing his gifts, it is ' according to 
his will,' 1 Cor. x. 

3. Again, on our part, hence it comes to pass that his ways and judg- 
ments, which are the performances of his promises and threatenings, are 
past finding out ; and accordingly, his will in dispensing this or that to 
particular persons, is past finding out, notwithstanding the declaration of 
all sorts of threatenings and promises particularly made in his word. If a 
man would go about to make a collection from the word, of all such threat- 
enings or promises, together with all the variety of instances, which are 
interpreters of his mind in either, wherein either are set forth as performed 
(as that when men have lived to such a degree of sinnings, the threatening 
hath been executed, as several instances do set out), and will thereupon 
say, that upon such a sinner God will certainly bring such a judgment, 
because I find he did bring it upon such and such sinners, in such a case, 
which we have instances for, and those suited according to the threatenings ; 
in the end he will find a great latitude and variety of judgments, of several 
sizes and proportions, in those various instances which the word holds forth, 
and some instances of the same kind, in the highest measure, on whom God 
forbore to bring the execution of such punishments, whilst he hath brougbt 
upon the smallest sinners of that kind the same. If he shall, besides, also 
consider those many intermediate instances, of higher and lower sizes, 
between either of these two extremes of greatest and smallest, that have or 
have net been punished ad libitum, as God thought meet, that man will 
conclude, from all such collections, that no man can make a certain judg- 
ment what God will do, from such instances of such judgments joined 
together. And thus it is in promises, and the instances belonging to them ; 
for God's faithfulness and truth are as well engaged in his threatenings as 
his promises, and there is so great a variety of degrees of qualifications of 
the persons that the promises are thereby made unto, as there will appear 
that God hath bestowed and fulfilled such and such a particular promise to 
one that had less of- that qualification ; as in giving riches to some, wben 
yet he hath passed by another that hath had more of that grace or qualifi- 
cation that the promise is made unto, and yet he leaves him in deep poverty, 
as he doth many of his precious ones, notwithstanding his promises and 
their prayers ; and therefore no absolute judgment can be made, which is 
the point in hand. 



Cn,VP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 433 

Thirdly. The third consideration of the promises is, as they come under 
our prayers, or are put into suit by us in prayer. The former considera- 
tions shewed what latitude is left to God for the performance, and to our 
faith in believing, as to the promises, considered in the matter of good things 
promised, and the tenor as to the persons. Next follows the consideration 
of them, as any of them are upon occasion singled out by us, and taken into 
our prayers ; for God hath not made promises, or doth bestow good things 
promised, altogether as they lie abstractly in his word, but hath made 
special promises besides unto our prayers about them, or when we ask them, 
or supplicate about them : ' Ask, and it shall be given ; ' ' Ask wisdom of 
God, and it shall be given.' And this may seem such an obligation on 
God's part, that although the promises of the good things themselves, 
abstractly taken, and severed from our prayers, may not ascertain us of 
obtaining, yet when the addition is made of God's promise to bestow them 
when they shall be prayed for, that makes such double obligation on God's 
part as may afford a certainty to our faith, that we shall obtain the very 
particular we pray for. But concerning promises as thus considered and 
proposed, I offer these assertions or proposals. 

1. The promises we do put in suit for good things we pray for, are but 
a few, in comparison of the many that God hath made in his word. The 
promises in our prayers are but like the gleanings, in comparison of a great 
harvest ; what through our negligence in prayer, straitness of comprehen- 
sions to glean and gather them, I may say of them as the apostle doth of 
the earth, that it stands in the water and out of the water, so do the pro- 
mises stand out of our prayers, an ocean of them, as well as some are taken 
in. For what the psalmist says of the law, that it is ' exceeding broad,' 
and that there is no ' end of its perfection,' the like we may say of promises, 
if we take them in all particulars of them ; and for multitude, they are such 
as we cannot number them, for our understandings are narrow as they are 
broad. So as God hath, besides what we put in suit, a multitude of other 
promises that lie afore his understanding, and which he intends to his 
children ; and hence it comes to pass, that he hath a mighty compass and 
roomth, by reason of the breadth of the promises, to answer us in, besides 
what we pray for. 

2. Consider those few promises that we single forth, and take down in 
our prayers, and then put up to God, or consider the good things promised, 
which you request in prayer, and you will find that they are but as they 
are first taken in by our apprehension, and according to what we judge of 
them to be best for us. For prayers are formed by us, and so put up to 
God, as they lie before our understandings ; and alas, poor creatures, as 
we are said to know nothing as we ought, in general, so nor particularly 
what to pray for as we ought. No, not as to the matter we are to pray for. 
The apostle hath told us so, and that in relation to our prayers, E,om. viii. 
And though there is so great a choice of promises that lie exposed before 
us, with so great a variety and multitude for us to pick and choose, yet we 
know not what is most expedient in our condition, and which to single 
forth and pitch upon. But as Calvin observes, we are blind and ignorant 
in seeking God ; yea, and although we know our own evils, the sores of 
our hearts, our needs and wants, yet our minds are more confused, and 
clouded, and tangled, than to know what rightly to pitch upon, or what 
is most meet and expedient as to our present need. So that there falls 
out a great variation of the compass by our steering aside, between what 
the needs of our prayers point to, and God's intentions are oftentimes 
towards us. 



434 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT II. BOOK III. 

3. Hence we are attentively to consider the infinitely wide difference 
between promises, as they lie before God's understanding and intentions of 
his good will towards us (as in Jeremiah the prophet himself hath expressed 
it, ' I know the thoughts that I have towards you ;' and yet even those 
thoughts lie in some promise or other in the word, as it is afore him), and 
what we are apt to pitch upon by reason of our clung understandings and 
confused apprehensions, when his promises lie afore us, and are chosen by 
us. The corollaries which arise from hence are these. 

(1.) We may see the reason why God gives, and that by virtue of pro- 
mises, so many and so great good things, besides, and without, and above 
our prayers. 1. He doth this besides and without our prayers : ' I am 
found,' says God, < of those that sought me not;' and he gives things that 
enter not into our thoughts and heart. And, 2, he doth it above and 
beyond our prayers, ' more than all we are able to ask or to think,' as the 
apostle saith ; for why ? The reason hath been told us, even because pro- 
mises are of infinite breadth, and the declarations of his will, as they lie 
before his understanding, and his word, which is in his eye, are exceeding 
large. And we may truly say, that for God to do according to what is let 
in, or comes into our minds, is not the main part of what he intends, he 
is so abundant in kindness and truth, above all we can sue for. God is 
greater than our hearts in this respect, and knows his thoughts and inten- 
tions towards us, infinitely beyond those short ideas we shape forth to our- 
selves, for ourselves, out of his promises. Miserable, at least imperfect, should 
we be, if God should answer us but according to those imperfect models, 
draughts, and proposals of our petitions. We should have been infinitely 
disadvantaged, if God should have bound himself up to our prayers, and 
have given nothing else. 

(2.) We may also hence see how it comes to pass, that God's will may 
still retain that great freedom and latitude as to performance of promises, 
notwithstanding his promise is to hear our prayers, and that he may still 
be executing his will, according to some promise or other, as they lie before 
his divine understanding and will, therein performing as he judgeth most 
expedient ; as Christ saith, ' It is expedient for you I go away ;' when yet 
at present that word brake all their hearts, to think of his departure. But 
by the taking in of those fore-mentioned things, we may with satisfaction 
discern how both these things may stand together, that God may still deal 
with us according to his declared will in promises, and yet deny us that 
individual we seek in prayers, notwithstanding his promises to hear our 
prayers. 



CHAPTER III. 

That the essential acts of faith in prayer are such as do not necessarily require 
a certain persuasion of obtaining the very particular bless'uig for ivhich we 
pray. 

I come to inquire into the principal and most essential acts of faith in 
praying, and shall still carry on the same demonstration founded on this, 
that the essential acts of faith do admit of the like former latitude, and are 
such as do not necessarily require that in praying we should have such a 
particular persuasion of obtaining the particular blessing whiclf we ask. 

1. The first and main act of faith in praying is, a firm belief and per- 
suasion of the fore-mentioned grand and fundamental object of faith, as of 



CHAP. III. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 435 

God and his attributes, and the truth and faithfulness of his promises ; and 
hereof our assertion is, that there must be an assurance of faith, or a certain 
firm and fixed persuasion, without wavering, of the fundamental objects of 
faith. This assurance of faith, excepting in times of great tentations and 
overflowings of unbelief, we must always retain, and by virtue of a firm 
faith in these we must always pray, or wo must not indeed think to obtain 
anything of the Lord. And this, as it is a great truth, so it will prove to 
be the main intention of our apostle, when he says, ' But let him pray in 
faith, nothing wavering.' The apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews lays 
and makes this fundamental necessary unto both faith and prayer : ■ He that 
cometh unto God,' says he, Heb. xi. 6, • must believe that he is, and that 
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' And thus to do, being 
of the substance of faith (verse 1), must be firmly believed, without waver- 
ing ; and as our apostle here (James i. 7), exhorts to pray in faith, so in 
verse 5 you may observe how he had first set forth God as a God that 
giveth liberally, &c, and thereupon his exhortation is, to pray in the faith 
of God, as such a God that giveth liberally ; and also our Saviour Christ 
doth, as an introduction to his exhortation unto faith in prayer (Mark 
xi. 23, 25), preface this, verse 22, « Have faith in God,' says he, speaking 
of faith in praying to God in Christ's name, of the prevalency of whose 
name with God an assurance also is required under the New Testament : 
John xvi. 23, * Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give 
it you.' 

Obj. You will here say to me, This is but a general faith, what profit is 
there in praying with a faith that is such ? 

Am. I answer, That there is much advantage every way, if the general 
faith you pray in be the same with that in Heb. xi., if it be a faith which 
is there said to be a ' sight of him that is invisible,' ver. 27 ; that is, a 
seeing God in himself and attributes by a spiritual light and sight of faith, 
which doth render and present God and Christ subsistent, and really 
present too, and with the soul in prayer. This very sight and presence of 
him, when we come to pray, will in some good degree cause us to pray 
in faith. 

If you ask how or wherein ? I answer, By operating and working in the 
soul two eminent things in prayer, that have a great tendency to obtain the 
desired blessing. 

(1.) This sight of God and Christ, with this foresaid assurance of faith, 
will humble the soul deeply in the presence of this great God. And, 

(2.) This sight of him presents us with that in God which will encourage 
us to pray, and to ask the things we would have ; and these are good steps 
unto praying in faith. 

(1.) There is an humbling act of faith put forth in prayer. Others style 
it praying in humility; give me leave to style it praying in faith. In faith, 
which sets the soul in the presence of that mighty God, and by the sight 
of him, which faith gives us, it is that we see our own vileness, sinfulness, 
and abhor ourselves, and profess ourselves unworthy of. any, much less of 
those mercies we are to seek him for. Thus the sight of God had wrought 
in the prophet : Isa. vi. 5, ' Then said I, Woe is me ! for I am undone ; 
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of un- 
clean lips : for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' And 
holy Job speaks thus, Job xlii. 5, 6, ' Now mine eye seeth thee : wherefore 
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' This is as great a requisite 
to prayer as any other act ; I may say of it alone, as the apostle here, that 
without it we shall receive nothing from the hands of God. God loves to 



436 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

fill empty vessels, he looks to broken hearts. In the Psalms how often do 
we read that God hears the prayers of the humble, which always involves 
and includes faith in it : Ps. ix. 12, ' He forgetteth not the cry of the 
humble,' and Ps. x. 17, ' Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble : 
thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.' To be 
deeply humbled is to have the heart prepared and fitted for God to hear 
the prayer; and therefore you find the psalmist pleading sub forma pauperis, 
often repeating, 'I am poor and needy.' And this prevents our thinking 
much if God do not grant the particular thing we do desire. Thus also 
Christ himself in his great distress, Ps. xxii., doth treat God, ver. 2, ' 
my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not ; and in the night- 
season am not silent. Our fathers trusted in thee. They cried unto thee, 
and were delivered. But I am a worm, and no man ; reproached of men, 
and despised of the people ; ' ver. 6, and he was ' heard ' in the end ' in 
what he feared.' And these deep humblings of ourselves, being joined with 
vehement implorations upon the mercy of God to obtain, is reckoned into 
the account of praying by faith, both by God and Christ, Mat. viii. There 
comes to him a poor man to heal his servant, ' beseeching him,' says the 
text, which (the man believing that he was God, and the Son of God, as 
ver. 9) is to be interpreted to have been a supplication or prayer put up 
unto him. He came not to him as one friend useth to do to another, that 
entreats a favour from his friend as such, but as to one that was God : 
' There came to him a centurion, beseeching him,' says the 5th verse. He 
beseecheth him for his servant that lay at home sick, and he tells him his 
case ; saith Christ at the 7th verse, ' I will come and heal him.' Ver. 8, 
' The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou 
shouldst come under my roof.' This being joined with that faith the 9th 
verse speaks of, Jesus Christ thereupon pronounceth, ' I have not found so 
great a faith, no, not in Israel ; ' and his coming and praying in that deep 
humility is to be reckoned in unto his faith, which did obtain. Thus faith 
in prayer lays its foundation. 

(2.) To come to God with such an assurance of faith, 'that he is,' &c, 
Heb. xi. 6 (as hath been fore-mentioned), doth many ways encourage the 
soul in prayer, and raiseth hopes to be heard, and so excites him further 
to pray, more than that general faith, as I may call it. 

[1.] For when God doth sistere se procsentem, make himself thus present 
to faith, this will mightily encourage the heart with a hope that he hears 
the prayer. If the soul but knows it hath ' communed with God ' (as it is 
said of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 33), and God with it, a man doth from thence 
cany away a secret persuasion, even this at least, that God hears him, and 
that his prayer is accepted ; and will you say this is no great matter ? If 
Christ but says, ' It is I,' Mark vi. 50, then, ' Be not afraid, or be of good 
courage,' Bono animo sitis, will follow thereupon. His real presence doth 
scatter fears and misgivings of heart, as the sun doth clouds, and works a 
persuasion of acceptation, both of a man's person and prayer. If the soul 
can but say, I have seen God to-day, as Job, or as an holy man once said, 
I am sure Christ is alive, I saw him — it was in prayer — this morning ; if 
God presents himself as the living God, this will hearten the soul to believe 
on him, and pray to him for anything whatever. 

[2.] If the soul believes with assurance of faith that God is a rewarcler 
of them that seek him (as it is in the fore-cited Heb. xi. 6), this also leaves 
a persuasion that a man's prayers shall not return empty, that he ' doth 
not seek him in vain,' Isa. xlv. 19, but that he shall have a reward and 
return of his prayer one way or other. David makes this very attribute of 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 437 

his being a God bearing prayer as a foundation of his faith in prayer. 
Ps. lxv. 2, '0 thou which heai-est prayer, unto thee all flesh (that is, 
man) shall come,' and therefore do I come among the rest ; and this is in 
the substance of it a parallel speech unto that in Heb. xi., ' that he is a 
rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; ' as also of our apostle, ' that 
he giveth liberally to them that ask.' And Calvin's outcry and inference 
from thence is, that we do never seek God in vain; and nunquam irritas 
fore joeces he hath up an hundred times in his Commentaries on the Psalms. 
Yea, this very faith on God, as hearing prayer, in the substance of it, 
helped David against the grandest objection which the heart can have to 
discourage it from believing that his prayer shall be heard, viz., prevailing 
iniquities in point of guilt, and the conscience of sins that have in a godly 
man's practice for a while prevailed. But here upon this, that God is a 
God hearing prayers, David's confidence riseth, that these should not 
hinder a man's hope of being heard (and these if anything would), but 
notwithstanding them, David is still resolved to pray, and would have 
others to do so too, because God is a God hearing prayers, which he will 
never be if be hears not sinners ; and so it follows, ver. 3, ' Iniquities 
prevail against me ; as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.' 

But though this faith in God, that he is a God hearing prayer, makes 
something towards an hopefulness that I may obtain the very thing, and 
towards a certain confidence that God will some way or other answer me, 
yet still whether certainly or no in the very thing I ask, this scripture 
speaks not ; and so still it may fall out, I may pray in faith, when not 
necessarily with a confidence I shall have the thing. And yet this I may 
say hereof, that this faith hath obtained a good degree of praying in faith, 
when put up in Christ's name, which the gospel doth require. 

The particulars of such like principles, fundamental unto our faith in prayer, 
are divers others besides this, of all which there must be a firm belief with- 
out wavering, as of and about several attributes of God, and also the truth 
and faithfulness of God in all his promises. Likewise, there must be a 
belief of the name and interest that Christ hath with his Father, in whose 
name I come ; and the necessity of a stedfast faith of these is founded on 
the same reason that the faith that there is a God already instanced in is 
founded upon ; and the same fruits and consequents to encourage the heart 
in prayer doth follow the faith of them as we have seen doth the faith of 
that other, that there is a God. There must be an hypostasis, a subsistence 
of all these fundamentals in a man's heart, and he must fixedly believe 
them, and that with spiritual faith, as that there is a God, and he a re- 
warder, so that he is able to help and succour me in any distress. Also, 
I must fixedly believe that he is a God merciful and gracious, and willing 
to help, and gives liberally, &c, there ought not to be a doubting here. 
Martha firmly believed the resurrection, and doubted not; she believed the 
thing when yet she w r avered about the application of it to that particular, 
whether her brother should be raised up then or no before the general 
resurrection. And indeed you find the belief of these things, in Heb. xi., 
to be the basis, fulcrum, substantia, the foundation and support that bears 
up all ; and therefore, to pray in the faith of such as these principles, with 
out doubting, is required ; and it is the belief of these doth make a man 
continue in prayer. Yea, and when all is said to the contrary, the faith of 
these is the main of faith, and the faith of these causes us to cleave to God, 
and to follow after him, and not to take any denial, because we believe 
those things are in him, and such promises made by him. Only it is a 
spiritual faith that doth this, a faith which makes God real, and all h's 



488 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK III. 

attributes real, it is a faith in earnest. Now, when I say he believes these 
things, which are the foundations, without wavering or doubting, my mean- 
ing is not that a true and firm believer may not have many injections cast 
in to the contrary by Satan, and many reasonings of his own speculative 
understanding, and great degrees of unbelief mixed with the faith of them, 
as hath been the case of many poor souls that have been exercised long 
with this temptation, that there is no God, and reasonings to the contrary, 
yet so as still the belief of those things remaineth firm in his practical 
understanding, which carries him unto obedience and all duties ; and in 
like manner, to cleave to God in prayer, such a one prays and behaves 
himself as verily believing there is a God, to purpose ; and his cleaving to 
God, and following after God, clearly shews that he believes there is a God 
in earnest. My meaning also is not as if God did not grant many requests 
upon prayer when men are very weak in faith of those things.* There 
came a poor man to Christ about his child vexed with the devil, and says 
to him, ' But if thou canst do anything, have compassion upon us, and 
help us.' Christ discerned his faith was very weak in the great business 
of his power, that he should put an if to it ; ' And Jesus saith unto him, If 
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth ; ' and the 
man cries out with tears, ' Lord, I believe ; help my unbelief.' He began 
to gather up a faith upon the power of Christ, he plucked up an heart to 
believe through the power of the Spirit, yet discerning a great deal of un- 
belief, and darkness, and deficiency, even to this very point; for it was the 
power of Christ therein which was the thing spoken about, as appears both 
by Christ's speech and his. As a cannon discharged makes a recoil until 
it comes to that which firmly holds it, so it is with many a poor soul his 
faith in prayer. 

But my further design is to shew, that such a faith as this, which is 
without wavering, and a praying in such a faith, is that which well suiteth 
with the scope of the apostle here in this place. 

1. The persons that he gives this caution to, about asking in faith, 
nothing doubting, were certainly temporary professors of religion, or as we 
usually call them, hypocrites, that in the end waver in their faith about 
religion itself, and the spiritual principles of it ; and when they come to a 
stress of persecution, which was the case of those times, the wavering that 
is in their hearts appears in their prayers, and in their irresolutions and 
readiness to fall off, and in making them to close with any shifts or preten- 
sions that may colour their deserting those principles which the persecution 
is directed against. And my reason why he points to, and levels the dint of 
this caution against such, is, because, ver. 8, he doth expressly say, speaking 
of those men, ' A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.' As he is 
wavering in his prayers, so in his mind, which makes him unstable in his 
whole course, which proceeds from his not having spiritual prevalent convic- 
tions of the principles of faith which he doth profess ; and this looseness 
or shockiness is seen in their prayers between God and them, but especially 
when they come to be in any stress. I have compared it thus : there are 
two pins in a wall, the one is loose, and yet hath a room in the wall, and 
seems firm, and there is another pin that is riveted, so that it is fixed 
indeed ; the difference of these two pins you will see when you hang any 
weight upon them, and put them to a stress. When you come to hang 
any thing upon that which is loose, and not fixed, itself and all will tumble 

* Ames well distinguished, that ' Dubitatio minuens tantum assensum consistere 
potest cum fide infirma, sed non ilia dubitatio quae tollit assensum,' and for that he 
quoteth this very place, James i. 6-8. — Medulla I. 2 c. 5 de fide, Thes. 44. 



Chap. III. J of justifying faith. 439 

down with it. And thus it is in times of temptation, that the wavering of 
their faith is seen in such apostates. 

2. The very word here used, diaxomfuvog, translated ' wavering,' or 
doubting, is used in Scripture elsewhere to express the opposite to that 
faith which is fixed, as to the principles to be believed, and unto them 
applied. 

(1.) I find it used of Abraham's faith, whereby he believed the power of 
God, that God was able : Rom. iv. 20, ' He staggered not at the promise 
of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and 
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform,' 
&c. The word translated he staggered not, is the same that is used here, 
translated not wavering. And this commendation of his faith is not that 
he staggered not in the belief of the will of God, for he had a personal pro- 
mise from God, that God would do it, and therefore no wonder if it be not 
said,*ke doubted not of that ; but that which his faith is commended for, 
was that he staggered not at the power of God, but was fully persuaded 
God was able. 

(2.) The same word is used^in Mat. xxi. 21, when he speaks of faith in 
prayer, • If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall say unto this moun- 
tain, Be thou removed ; xal /Ar\ diazoidrtn ; if you do not stand disputing 
or wavering, whether it is possible for God to do this, or not to do it. If 
you think in respect of the power of God it be too hard or difficult a thing, 
this is to doubt* in Christ's intention, so as indeed it is the believing, or 
doubting about his power, that the word is there pitched upon, consonantly 
unto that of that too often confident apostle, Mat. xiv., who, walking upon 
the waters, and his faith sinking together with himself, Christ reproved 
him, and said unto him, ' thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' 
His doubting was not of Jesus Christ's will, for Christ had resolved him of 
that in bidding him come to him ; but when he saw the wind boisterous, he 
began to doubt of his power. 

(3.) The word diaxeivofievo; signifies disputing, or a disceptation against 
a thing : Acts xi. 2, ' When Peter was come to Jerusalem, they of the cir- 
cumcision contended with him ;' it is the same word that is used here. So 
those men of whom' the:,apostle speaks are bntxgiv6/taw, disputing, waver- 
ing and reasoning against things in religion, principles in religion (which 
they had professed), upon occasion of persecution. The hearts of such use 
to begin to cavil against religion, and call in question this or that which 
they professed, as willing to be rid of it. Now prayer is to be put forth 
with a faith opposite to such a reasoning, or (as it is translated) such a 
wavering, and as being fully satisfied of the truth of those things, they 
should never have so much as a thought to desert them ; and therefore 
we find, 1 Tim. ii. 8, that as we should be without wrath, so %wf'S bia\o* 
yid/mi, without reasoning, disputing against : we must pray with a heart 
fixed in the principles of faith. 

(4.) Even here in the text it is an attribute of God that is proposed to 
the faith of a man that prays, and to believe the truth of it fixedly, which 
attribute is this, that God ' gives liberally, and upbraids not ;' and to doubt 
of this goodness and readiness of God to hear prayers, and return answer 
to them, is the principal thing which the apostle had in his eye, whilst he 
says, ' But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.' So then the faith he 
intends is about the reality of the truth of this, and other the like attributes 
given to God. 

* Multi enira, quia putant id quod petunt esse arduum et difficile, hinc diffidunt 
se a Deo id impetraturos, ideoque nou impetrant. 



440 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BoOK III. 

2. A second act of faith is of adherence, or cleaving unto God, for the 
good things promised, and of recumbency, coming to, and casting one's 
self on God to obtain it, with trusting on God, and waiting on him. And 
these may strongly be exercised and put forth in prayer, effectually to 
obtain, when yet a particular personal persuasion, that a man shall obtain 
the very thing he asketh, is wanting. The truth of this assertion, concern- 
ing such acts of faith as these, although deficient in special assurance, might 
be carried through the whole Bible in many particular instances, as of David 
for bis child, Hezekiak for his life, &c. But I shall content myself with 
this only, and fix and centre upon this one argument for it : that there 
may be a true exercise of these kind of acts of faith, and effectually put 
forth in prayer, for the great and grand business of a man's own salvation, 
who yet may want personal assurance of his salvation, from whence ariseth 
an invincible demonstration that there may be a true faith, and praying in 
faith for all other things whatsoever, short of such an assurance. For the 
truth of the antecedent, I need not much insist upon it, it being so fre- 
quently true in experience, and now so generally entertained and acknow- 
ledged by our divines ; and few or none of protestant divines, holding that 
faith of assurance, or a particular persuasion of a man's own salvation, is 
that essential act of faith by which we are justified and saved. That the 
first act of justifying faith, in him that begins to believe, is not an act of 
assurance that he is justified is most clear, for that were to say, that a man 
should first believe he is justified, that he might be justified by that act, 
which is a contradiction. The aim of the first act, yea, of the true justify- 
ing act of faith, as justifying is always and all along a believing on God, 
that a man • may be justified : ' Gal. ii. 16, ' Knowing that a man is not 
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we 
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of 
Christ, and not by the works of the law : for by the works of the law shall 
no flesh be justified.' It notes forth both the aim of the soul, when it puts 
forth faith for justification, as also that justification follows upon believing, 
unto which agrees that speech of Christ, though spoken to the contrary, 
and to unbelievers, and shewing what unbelief is : 'Ye will not come [to] me 
that ye might have life ; ' that is, ye will not believe (which elsewhere is 
expressed by a coming to Christ), with that intent to have life from me, 
which all those whom I save do come unto me for. That particle, ' that 
ye might have life,' denotes out the end or aim which he is to take up, 
who truly comes to Christ, or believes upon him, and it signifies not only 
what is the event or consequent* that would follow upon believing. 

And yet a faith on some promises or declarations or other for salvation 
the man must have ; for faith and promises, &c, in the word are relatives, 
and on promises made unto conditions or qualifications, not wrought as yet 
in him (we speaking now of a first act of faith justifying put forth) he 
cannot then in the first act of his believing lay hold, both because he hath 
no such qualifications as are certain and proper characters of a person 
already in a state of justification ; nor would he discern any such in him- 
self if we could suppose he had them ; for the true and genuine work of 
humiliation doth altogether divest a man of all, and presents him to him- 
self as empty of all good, and lays him naked afore God as an ' ungodly' 
person, Bom. iv. 5, and he sees and views nothing but sin in himself; and 
faith being that which first puts him into a state of justification, Bom. v. 1, 
he therefore can neither lay hold on any promise made to believing itself, 
for he is supposed now to begin to believe, and never to have done it before ; 
* Ut significat finem, non solum consequential!!. —Brugensis in verba. 



Chap. III. J of justifying faith. 4-11 

and therefore he is wholly left unto absolute promises and declarations, and 
to throw and cast himself upon God and Christ in them, as a man that is 
in a ship that is sinking under him doth cast himself upon a rock that is 
afore him, and that immediately with his whole weight, and without the help 
of plank or board, or anything to convey him to it ; so here is the rock 
Christ, and the soul now flung upon it, it having nothing else to set his 
foot upon. 

This condition is much the same with that of a person that, after long 
conflictings with various doubts and tentations about his spiritual estate, is 
ever and anon turned out of all within himself, as in his own apprehensions, 
that should give him so much as ease in his hold on Christ, and so he 
wanteth prevailing assurance, though perhaps his faith from some experi- 
ences, &c, is a-growing up towards it. In this case this man may and 
doth find it the safest, easiest, and shortest way for his faith to have an 
immediate recourse unto absolute promises, and to use such pleas in 
prayer as may be fetched from, and picked up out of them, and taken up 
from them ; for they usually contain in them naked discoveries, and 
layings open of the causes and original of man's salvation, and those very 
things which move God and Christ to save us, as there is the motive in 
that promise : ' For my name's sake I will blot out thy transgressions.' 
The manner of such souls is to turn them into pleas from out of those pro- 
mises, and to return them upon God as motives to him to save their souls 
in particular. 

The corollary from this will prove to be an invincible demonstration for 
that grand assertion which is my general subject ; for if justifying faith 
and praying with faith for justification doth not at first, nor oftentimes long 
after, rise up to assurance of faith, or a certain persuasion that I am 
justified, or that I shall be justified, and remains but an adherence or 
coming to Christ that I may be justified, — unto which faith yet the promise 
of being justified is made, and the prayers from out of that faith are heard, 
and shall be answered, 'though the soul as yet apprehend it not, — the corol- 
lary from thence is, that then certainly such a faith wherewith a believer 
comes to God to obtain such or such a particular mercy promised (which 
is far less than salvation), and prays in such a like faith, though far short 
of a certain persuasion of obtaining it, must needs be of prevalency with 
God to obtain, though he hath not assurance. The reason of the conse- 
quence is, d majuri ad minus, from the greater to the lesser. Justification 
is the greater, if not the greatest spiritual blessing by far (however, to be 
sure salvation is), and is absolutely necessary, as without which a man 
cannot be saved; but many other spiritual blessings, as those promises 
about such degrees of grace, &c, the like also of such or such temporal 
mercies and promises, are infinitely of less necessity and moment to us, 
and in no respect absolutely necessary ; and therefore if faith of recumbency 
prevails to obtain the greater, then much more the less. It would be 
strange that such a faith of recumbency and adherence, wanting personal 
assurance, and praying therewith, should obtain the greater, and that the 
same kind of faith for other mercies should not obtain the less, or that 
God should ordinarily part with the grand blessing, the blessing of blessings, 
upon so low and cheap a rate of believing, as this seems to be for the 
degree of it, in comparison with that of assurance, and yet hold all other 
mercies at a higher price and rate, and hold them harder and faster, so as 
none should obtain them unless they be first assured they shall have the 
very particular they ask. Who would not think that if faith of recumbency 
be good faith for salvation itself, it should not be for all things that are 



442 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK III. 

less than salvation itself, yea, that are comprehended in it, and go with it, 
and have all the promises annexed to it ? I may say, as the apostle says of 
God's giving Christ, ' If he hath given his Son, how shall he not with him give 
us all things ?' So here, if he hath committed the keys of life and salva- 
tion into the hands of faith of recumbency, to open this great mass of 
treasure, shall he shut up all his lesser cabinets from all capacity of 
opening them ? I may boldly say, how shall he not give us all things, with 
the same faith, and give power unto it over all other blessings whatever ? 

2. Neither can any account be given why that the same person should 
be obliged unto so hard and high a condition of believing, as faith of assur- 
ance is, and which is a further special gift of God superadded unto faith of 
recumbency, or else he shall not receive mercies of any inferior rank and 
kind, when yet if he prays for the transcendent mercy of the whole of his 
salvation, but with a faith of recumbency only without assurance, he shall 
receive it, when yet not the other without that highest degree of faith, as 
the contrary assertion doth and must suppose. 

3. Let this consideration be added, that it is hard to suppose that this 
same believer should be obliged to pray for all other things with a faith of 
assurance, whilst yet he wants assurance of the main, viz., of his own 
salvation, which is as the grand lease upon which the promises of all other 
mercies, as lesser causes, do depend ; yea, and whilst he conflicts daily 
with, and is under, doubtings of his personal interest in salvation, his real 
interest in which must give him interest in all other promises. And in 
this case, who will not readily see that assurance of his interest in the love 
and favour of God, that is the fountain of all other blessings, and of his 
interest in Christ, the purchaser and channel of all blessings, must be had 
first, as that which must in any ordinary way be the foundation of his 
assurance, that he hath or shall have any of the smaller rivulets or streams 
that flow therefrom ? He must in reason be assured of the grand lease 
ere he can claim, or with assurance sue for particular demesnes belonging 
to it. What more absured than to think that we must be bound to ask 
all other things else in the name of Christ as being our Christ, to be given 
us out of God's special grace and love, and all this with an assurace we 
shall receive from thence, whilst yet we are in doubt, or at least do not 
certainly know that Christ is ours, or that God certainly loves us. This 
were to put men's faith upon contradictions. I deny not, but in the case 
of the faith of miracles, those that wrought them were persuaded and 
assured God would work such a miracle by them ere they would declare 
that they would attempt it, or did attempt to work it. And also I grant, 
that many of those that had such a faith were not yet believers with a 
saving faith. But the case is far otherwise here, for in and unto them the 
working of miracles did not depend upon that special love of God which he 
beareth to his children, but in the fate* in hand. All blessings given to 
any true believers, after justification, comes out of the same love that 
salvation itself doth ; and therefore, if this believer suppose faith of assur- 
ance that he shall receive them, it must withal be an assurance that 
God out of that special favour will bestow them on him, for otherwise 
his supposed faith of assurance terminates itself in God's bestowing 
the things without a persuasion of God's love to give them; and if so, 
then he prayeth but with such a faith of assurance as was common to men 
unregenerate, that did work miracles, who barely had a faith God would 
do the thing by them, but without a respect of a love borne to their persons 
therein. And so it would be a contradiction to say the same person should 

* That is, ' fact, or deed.' — Ed. 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 443 

want faith of assurance of God's special love fur his salvation, and that yet 
he should pray for particular blessings out of a faith of assurance, that God 
out of such a love would give him them. At least it would be a faith of 
miracles, to have such an assurance for particular blessings, when a man 
wants assurance of God's love. 

4. Yea, and lastly, he should be obliged to this assurance (if such a 
tenet were true) about things which are not so certainly proposed, viz., the 
promises of degrees of grace, &c, as also temporal things, which are not 
with au absolute certainty proposed in the promises of them. 

CHAPTER IV. 
How we are in prayer to act faith upon temporal promises. 

The next object of faith, on which it acts in praying, is tbe promises. 
Faith in prayer treats with God by his promises ; and though it treats 
with God, and with God only through Christ, yet it deals with promises. 
Prayer is a putting promises into suit, as you do bonds and bills, which 
are your specialties. I reckoned up five attributes before, which did not 
biud you up to believe you should have the particular thing which you 
ask. I add two more, the will of God and the faithfulness of God ; and 
when you come to promises, you have to do with these: 1, you have to 
do with the will of God for promises and declarations of his will ; and, 2, 
with the faithfulness of God, that he will perform that which he hath pro- 
mised. Now, mark it, put but these five things together ; in appearance 
they would seem to answer any distrust which you may have concerning 
receiving the particular mercy requested. 

1. Promises are a declaration of God's will. 

2. When I am in present need of anything, I find a promise, and then 
it is faith's duty to lay hold on that promise, and to put it in suit, and to 
urge it to God. 

3. When I come to pray, I am moved hugely to urge that promise, and 
this by the Spirit of God. 

4. God's faithfulness lies at stake to perform it; for you will say, he 
cannot deny himself. 

5. I come and pray in Christ's name, which hath great efficacy with God. 
Now, put these things together, and what should hinder but that I 

should obtain ? But though you put other things together, and put all 
these things together, yet it will be found that faith may not rise up to an 
assurance, nor is it bound so to do. 

To assoil this particular, the main thing to be done is to shew what 
latitude God's will in his promises do allow to faith, that it shall not bind 
it up, that I must be necessitated to believe that I shall have the; particu- 
lar thing. If we will know the true meaning and intent of God in his 
promises, we must search into the nature, and kind, and tenure of the pro- 
mises; and thereby we shall find that God, in making these promises, hath 
not bound us up to any particular persuasion, that I must believe I shall 
receive the very particular mercy which I ask. This must be granted, 
that look what God promiseth, so faith ought to believe. This we must 
stick to, and bide by. Look what is the true intent and meaning of God 
in making promises, that faith must be persuaded of ; but take any pro- 
mises, and there is not such a declaration of the will of God in them, as 
shall bind me up to such a persuasion of assurance, that I shall receive the 
particular blessing. The promises are of three sorts : 



444 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

1. Personal promises, made to particular persons; as the promise of a 
son Isaac made to Abraham, which in itself was a temporal promise, but 
there was added Abraham's salvation in the seed of Isaac, of whom Christ 
should come. David likewise had the temporal promise of a kingdom, and 
he had the promise of salvation through his seed, namely, Christ. Now, 
tbis must be said, that they were bound up to a special faith, aud to a 
persuasion that God would do this thing for them, for the promises were 
made to them personally, and to both of them with an oath. But these 
cannot be drawn to an example to us, to bind us to believe we shall have 
the like. 

2. The second sort of promises are promiscuous promises, promises in 
common, as it is called ' the common salvation,' and therein is not put in 
me, or thee, or you, but they are made in common and at large. Now, 
take the promises that are in common and promiscuously, and they are 
distinguished according to the subject-matter of them, and also the tenure 
of them. The matter of them varies with the kind of them, and so will 
vary our case in hand to speak to it; and the tenure of them depends 
upon what is the matter of them. 

(1.) Some promises are of temporal things, that is the matter of them. 

(2.) Other promises are about things eternal. The apostle hath made 
this distinction to our hand : 1 Tim. iv. 8, ' Godliness hath the promise of 
the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' Now, you see, there 
are differing matters promised, either temporal things, or things belonging 
to salvation. This makes a very great variation in the promise; and 
accordingly tbey differ in their tenure, or manner of promulging. God 
hath framed the tenure and form of promulging them according to the 
matter of them ; and as we say that he works contingently in contingent 
things, necessarily in necessary, so he hath delivered promises of temporal 
things one way, and promises of eternal things another way. 

(1.) I begin with temporal promises to God's people, and concerning 
them I have this maxim or assertion. 

[1.] For the tenure of them; they are but indefinite, not universal to all 
the people of God. The people of God have indeed all the promises before 
them; but take any temporal particular promise, and it is not universal to 
all the people of God, but is in God's intention indefinite, and designed but 
to some of them. God's intent in making them was never to perform them 
to all godly men in all things. Tbere is no good thing temporal (be it 
deliverance, riches, honours, &c.) but God hath given a promise of it; 
for whatever good he doth any of his children, he doth it by a word, a 
promise, and there is no distress or want any of us are in but there is a 
promise suitable for it, if we could find it. But yet I affirm that God never 
intended to give all these outward things to all his saints; for not many 
of them are rich, not many noble, &c. : from this is clear that he did not 
mean such promises for them all. But the case stands thus : God had the 
whole body of the elect afore him, and ho gives all among them, and dis- 
perseth all among them; and whatever good thing any man hath, he hath 
it by a promise, and through prayer on that promise. Hence it necessarily 
ariseth, that it is impossible that every man that prays should have every 
temporal promise for which he prays performed to him, for God never 
intended it. I seek such a mercy which God hath promised, and God 
takes liberty to answer my prayer another way, and yet still performs the 
design of his promise. 

Obj. But have not I right to all the promises, as I am a Christian ? and 
therefore doth not God intend them all to me ? 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 445 

Ans. Had Jesus Christ right to all the promises? You will saj, Yes; 
and you say rightly, for in him were ' all the promises,' both of this life 
and that other, • amen.' Yet you know and find that our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ had but few of them fulfilled to him in specie, or in 
kind; he that was tho founder of all the promises, and for our sakes 
became^ poor, had not the promise of riches fulfilled. For our sakes he 
was despised, and his face more marred than any man's, and so he had 
not the honours of this world, though he had the right to all. How then 
were the promises fulfilled? Virtually he had all; and now he hath all 
riches and honour, and all to dispose of, as the angels' song in the Revela- 
tion shews. Now, it is said, Rom. viii. 32, if God gives Christ, ' how 
shall he not with him give all things ?' What saint in the world ever had 
all things in kind ? None. How is it then he hath all things virtually ? 
How is it that he hath as good as all things ? I give you Paul's instance : 
2 Cor. vi. 10, 'As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making 
many rich ; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.' In solido, 
virtually, eminently he had all, while he had Cod and Christ ; as Christ 
had all while he was in the world, when yet he had nothing, for he had 
not a hole to hide his head in. That the promises must needs be indefinite, 
and not universal, is evident also by this, that in the Old Testament they 
were not universal, for they were never performed universally (this very 
point was the quarrel between Job and his friends ; they insisted on it, 
that all godly men had outward prosperity, and Job says the contrary) ; 
yet in the Old Testament they were in their prime, in their auge,* in their 
dominion, for there was a constellation of outward promises then, yet not 
performed to all saints. Why else doth Jeremiah complain, saying, 
' Thou art an enemy to me ?' And why doth David make such com- 
plaints, Ps. lxxiii. ? 

When thou comest to pray for such a good particular temporal thing, 
and hast it not, thou mayest as well say thou hast not Christ, as say that 
God doth not answer thee. Why ? Because with Christ thou shouldst have 
all things (as the apostle tells us), but not all things in specie, in the kind ; 
no, God never meant it. 

Now then what kind of faith ought we to have about temporal promises ? 
The promises are not made universal to all godly men, for they are but 
indefinite ; hence your faith that applies to God must be suitable to the 
promise, and so if the promise be indefinite, your faith must be indefinite. 
And what is that ? the Scripture prompts it everywhere, and it is this 
thought of thy heart, ' It may be God will be gracious to me in this thing ;' 
and this, it may be, makes me pray, and urge this promise, being in need, 
to put in for it ; but whether I shall receive it or no, I am not certain, but 
I throw myself entirely upon God. 

[2.] Temporal promises for the tenure of them are conditional, that is, 
they are made to such and such qualifications in men, which if they do 
fall short of, God is not obliged to bestow them, or to perform them, 
though they pray for them ; though they are declarations of his will, yet 
they are declarations of his will upon condition, viz., to them that fear 
God and pray to God. I make an argument from threatenings, which are 
declarations of God's will as well as promises. You shall have some 
threatenings uttered, which seem very peremptory declarations of God's 
will, yet there seems to be a condition of God's will, why God does not 
perform them. Such was that threatening denounced to Hezekiah, for 
God came upon him by a prophet, with the same assurance by which God 
* That is, avyri, splendour, brightness. — Ed. 



446 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK III. 

inspired Scripture : Isa. xxxviii. 1-3, ' Hezekiah was sick unto death, and 
Isaiah the prophet said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thy house in 
order : for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face 
toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, and said, Kemember now, 
Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a 
perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight : and Hezekiah 
wept sore.' Here is no condition mentioned, but it is with the same light 
spoken by the prophet with which he wrote his prophecy ; yet notwith- 
standing there was a tacit condition, it being but about a temporal thing, 
and Hezekiah understood this, and therefore he turned his face to the wall 
and prayed. Here he did set himself to perform that condition which 
might prevent this threatening, for the threatening was upon such a con- 
dition, if he did not pray and thus humble himself. On the other hand, 
that you may see God's liberty, we find, 2 Sam. xii., that the prophet 
expressly tells David, that the child which he had by his wife Bathsheba 
shall surely die. What doth David do ? Thought he, This is but a condi- 
tional threatening, I may get it off if I humble myself: ver. 16, 'David 
therefore besought God for the child ; and David fasted, and went in and 
lay all night upon the earth.' Here he performed that condition upon 
which threatenings used to be diverted, but God took his liberty for all 
that, and the child died ; yet, says David, ver. 22, ' While the child was 
yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, Who can tell whether God will be 
gracious to me, that the child may live ?' He had reason to do as he did, 
to fast and pray ; for ' who could tell ?' &c. Here are clear instances on 
both hands : David prayed against the prophet's words on the one hand, 
and Hezekiah prayed, and God reversed his threatening. Now promises 
are conditional as threatenings are, and being so, consider what an uncer- 
tainty (let me say it) there is in point of conditional promises, such as 
temporal promises are, and therefore ordinarily there is not required a 
certain persuasion that they shall be granted. 

Obj. But I have, saith the believer, some evidence I am a godly man, 
and here is a promise to them that are righteous and fear God, I put this 
in suit, and shall not I have it ? 

Ans. 1. Let me first tell thee, that God doth not always perform the 
promise to him that hath the qualification, for God takes a great liberty, 
as by comparing these instances in David and Hezekiah plainly doth appear. 

Ans. 2. I would say this to thee, the promises of temporal things to 
conditions, are made yet to particular conditions of righteousness and fear- 
ing God, and they are not made to every righteons man fearing God ; for 
example, take Ps. xli. 1-3, ' Blessed is he that considers the poor : the 
Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and 
keep him alive ; and he shall be blessed upon the earth : and thou wilt not 
deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon 
the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his beds in his sickness.' 
These promises are not made to all sorts of righteousness, but they are 
made to that part of righteousness which any man is eminent in, viz., the 
laying to heart the miseries of others, and considering the poor, which 
many a saint dear to God doth not do. Thus take also what David says : 
' I have been young, and now am old ; yet have I not seen the righteous 
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread,' Ps. xxxvii. 25. Is this made to 
righteous men in general ? No ; it is limited : ver. 26, ' He is ever 
merciful, and lendeth ; and his seed is blessed.' A man that abounds in 
that kind of righteousness of doing good, and being liberal, says he, God 
will remember it, and his seed shall be blessed. 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 447 

Ana. 3. I answer again concerning conditional promises, that the truth 
is, it is at the pleasure of God, upon what degree of that qualification ho 
will be pleased to bestow and perform the thing promised. It is evident 
that promises temporal in every kind, nay, in any kind, are not performed 
to all that are righteous, or fear God ; no, he does not do it to them that 
are qualified in the highest degree for the promise, not to them who in the 
highest degree have been merciful ; lesser saints that truly fear God will 
have more of such promises, and saints that are more exactly holy shall 
be most afflicted ; and truly the nature of communion with God calls for 
this. I will hold communion with that soul, says God, and that soul 
shall have much communion with me, and therefore I will afflict that soul 
for every little going aside ; God will take that at the hand of a lesser 
saint, which he will not take at the hands of a higher saint. 

Ans. 4. God takes advantage to put off or not perform a temporal pro- 
mise, which a man hath prayed for. He takes a small occasion, according 
to his liberty, to put it off and not to perform it. It is a strange thing to 
consider the liberty God takes in performing promises. You shall have a 
man break the conditions over and over, and yet notwithstanding the 
Lord fulfils the thing to him. So in Hezekiah's case, fifteen years was 
granted him, and notwithstanding the pride of his heart, still God goes 
on to perform his promise, for he lived his fifteen years. Now that God 
takes occasion, on the other hand, for a small matter in comparison to put 
off a temporal promise, the instance of Moses and Aaron is a very great 
proof. When Moses and all the people of God came out of Egypt, truly 
the promise was without any clog, to carry him and the people into Canaan ; 
and of all men Moses had the most reason to expect that he should carry 
them into Canaan, for he was their leader, and had brought them out of 
Egypt, and had endured that people in their murmurings, and suffered more 
than ever any man did in governing them. Moses understood this promise, 
and it was that which made him pray so hardly about it, and God did deny 
him upon the most 1 small occasion that could be: Deut. iii. 22-25, 'I 
besought the Lord, saying, Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy ser- 
vant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand : and I pray thee, let me go over 
and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and 
Lebanon.' But in the 26th he says, ' The Lord was wroth with me for 
your sakes, and would not hear me : and said, Let it suffice thee ; speak 
no more unto me of this matter.' Now consider with yourselves this 
instance : this poor man was the meekest man in the world, and had never 
been angry but in God's cause, unless in this business, and then he was 
rash with his mouth, and did not sanctify God afore them, as God chal- 
lenged him for it, Num. xxvii. 14. Would not God pardon such a man as 
this, that had been humble, and sought God ? Nay, there was more than 
all this, that made the denial of the going into Canaan the harder to him, 
because it was a privilege the patriarchs had, to be buried in Canaan, Deut. 
xxxiv. Therefore, you that think to have promises temporal upon condi- 
tions, you depend upon very great uncertainties, for God upon the least 
trip may take occasion to cut you short of them. It was the case of God's 
people, Num. xiv. 34 ; he had promised they should go into Canaan, but 
you fail first, and break your word with me, says God, I will justify myself 
that I did not perform the promise to you ; ' But you shall know my breach 
of promise,' i.e., you shall know that I do not fail in my word, but you are 
wanting in your performance. 

Ans. 5. If you take temporal promises, they that live by free grace are 
heartless to urge the condition of the promises. They are loath to say, I 



448 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET II. BOOK III. 

have such a condition, Lord, therefore do such a thing for me. The people 
of God that live upon free grace under the gospel, run rather out to self- 
humhlings ; and if it be truly examined, it will be found that David's 
pleading his righteousness up and down, was his pleading against his ene- 
mies. There is, indeed, one passage which appears otherwise, Ps. lxxxvi., 
where ' he desires God to be merciful to him ; for,' says he, ' I am holy.' 
In truth the meaning is, I am thy favourite, I am an ingratiated saint with 
thee (and you have it so in the margin), I am one whom thou favourest 
(as in the salutation of the angel it is, ' Hail, Mary, thou art full of grace :' 
so the papists make it, but it is, ' Whom God hath grace unto') ; and the 
frame of David's spirit was to plead free grace thereupon, ver. 5. 

Obj. But would you have us to leave off eyeing all conditions, and make 
no use of them that way ? 

Ans. 1. God often doth perform the promises according to the conditions 
performed. 

Ans. 2. God made them to this end, that all that plead the promise 
should look to it, that they have performed the condition ; and though 
saints under the New Testament are heartless to plead such things, yet they 
should make sure to have the condition, not as that for which, nor as that 
unto which, but as that without which God will not fulfil such things, for he 
doth not fulfil them to his children without them. Now suppose thou 
followest such a promise, and seest such a condition in it, and thou dealest 
with thine own heart, and the power of God, to have the thing promised, 
and God disappoints thee after all, what then ? Thou art made more holy, 
there is the answer ; and if thou art made more holy by seeking the con- 
dition, there is no hurt done thee. 

Ans. 3. Temporal promises, in the performances of them, are to be under- 
stood disjunctively ; that is, God will either give thee this blessing or a 
better, either the one or the other. God promised Abraham, that he would 
give him the land of Canaan for a possession ; the promise was made per- 
sonally to himself, Acts vii. 5, ' though he gave him no inheritance in it ; 
no, not so much as a spot of ground to set his foot on,' and yet God had 
promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after 
him. Here is a promise made, and truly the Lord comes off in it, Heb. 
xi. 14, 15, 16. God gave him a better country; and, indeed, all the 
patriarchs lived as strangers in the land God gave them, expecting a better 
country. Abraham had no hurt done him, that he had not the land in 
possession which was promised to him, for he was taken to a better country. 
Thus God also dealt with Aaron, when he said to him, ' Go up that moun- 
tain and die ;' Aaron was shrewdly hurt, for he was carried to heaven. God 
does commute promises (as the law word is), doth transfer them, inter- 
change them one for another. Moses looked for that promise of Canaan, 
and as you heard, he died and went to heaven so much the sooner. Nay, 
you heard how his body must not go into Canaan, it went to heaven. For 
who appeared in the transfiguration but Moses and Elias ? Insomuch as 
Moses hath been in heaven so many thousand years before other saints 
shall have it. Well, then, if thou dost ask riches, and repairs in thy estate, 
and God gives self-sufficiency, that is, content, here whilst thou seekest a 
temporal blessing, God recompenseth thee with a spiritual blessing. As 
one said to another, What shall I give to take thee a box on the ear ? Says 
he, Give me an helmet, and strike as hard as thou wilt ; so God brings thee 
into afflictions, and gives thee patience and consolations to bear them, and 
this is security and defence enough for thee. James pronounceth it a 
blessed thing to endure, and that we should count it all joy to undergo 



ClIAP. IV.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 449 

trials, if they bring forth patience, James i. 2, 3. To the same purpose 
the psalmist speaks, Ps. cxxxviii. This psalm was mado upon oecas in of 
his having been in the midst of troubles (as ver. 7 shews), hazards, and 
dangers from enemies ; now what doth he Bay ? Ver. 3, ' In the day when 
I cried, thou answeredst me;' and how did he answer him? He was in 
distress, and God strengthened him with strength in his soul, in his inward 
man, and therein performed his promise much better. 

Ana. 4. That which makes a further uncertainty yet to faith, and a 
greater latitude on God's part to perform these temporal promises, is the 
alteration made concerning them under the New Testament, in comparison 
of what was under the Old. The largeness of performance of temporal 
promises was predominant under the Old Testament, when that constella- 
tion reigned conspicuously ; for they were helps to their faith, as pledges 
of spiritual things ; nay, their degrees of holiness had signs from their 
prospering in outward things ; thus I understand that Ps. cxii. 1—3, 
4 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his 
commandments. His seed shdl be mighty upon the earth : the generation 
of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house ; 
and his righteousness endureth for ever.' It speaks not only of a man 
that fears God, and delights in him, but of one who doth so greatly, that 
man according to the dispensation of those times should be blessed, so as 
that his seed should be mighty upon earth, &c. But Jesus Christ being 
become an high priest of good things yet to come in the other world, Heb. 
ix. 11, ' And he having obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much 
also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon 
better promises,' (Heb. viii, 6), as his coming wrought alteration in the 
law (Heb. vii. 12); so it wrought an alteration in the dispensation of pro- 
mises, and in the performance of them. Good things yet to come began 
to be the eminent promises, because Jesus Christ is now come, who is the 
heavenly man, 1 Cor. xv. Bead the Old Testament, and there you find, 
' Blessed shall you be in your basket and store, blessed in the field,' &c. ; 
but read Eph. i., you shall find, that when Christ is come, who hath 
1 blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things,' the blessing 
now is communion with God, increase of faith, larger measure of the Spirit. 
These are the blessings above board, and promises of temporal things are 
subservient to carry us through the world, and for our living in the world 
to get more grace. "What did they serve Jesus Christ for, but to carry him 
through the world ? To this end do the promises of outward things serve, 
and it is enough if we have meat, and drink, and raiment ; let us be there- 
with content, saith the apostle. They are not now so much as pledges to 
our faith, as they were to believers under the Old Testament. No ; the 
best use of them is, that they are means to raise our hearts to serve God 
more cheerfully, 2 Cor. iv. Now, then, you see the dispensation is plainly 
altered, and therefore now temporal promises are mightily diminished, and 
impaired, and abated, and checked. 

2. But yet, secondly, they are further checked by the promise of the 
cross and persecution. What is the meaning of that saying, Mark x. 29, 30, 
' You shall have an hundredfold in this life' ? How ? ' With persecution.' 
Instead of promising temporal things, he proposeth leaving all, and instead 
of all you shall have persecution. You shall have an hundredfold, not of 
the things, for they are taken from them. How then is it ? In having 
spirituals, which God makes up to them. 

3. Yet further, under the gospel it falls usually out, that to whom God 
means to do most good in a gospel way, he brings things clearly and per- 

vol. Yin. f f 



450 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

fectly contrary to temporal promises upon them ; this you shall find in the 
apostle Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 8. The Corinthians had less grace : ' You are 
full, 'says he ; ' ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us :' ' we,' 
that are the leaders of you, the eminent Christians ' to this present hour, 
are hoth hungry and thirsty, and are naked, and huffeted, and have no 
certain dwelling-place ; and labour, working with our own hands,' &c, ver. 
11, 12. How many temporal promises was poor Paul's faith deprived of ? 
Under the Old Testament, as a man was more righteous, God ordinarily 
prospered him ; but now, according as a man is more holy, God ordinarily 
afflicts him. Therefore, now as to praying in faith about temporal things, 
and with a certainty, you see how many ways it is cut off. 

I shall make two conclusions, from what hath been said about this 
alteration under the New Testament. 

1. God on his part finds, and thinks himself in greater liberty, and takes 
greater latitude for performing temporal promises now, than he did under 
the law, and he indeed herein deals with us as he pleaseth. If he took 
such a liberty in the Old Testament (as Ps. xxxvii. expresseth he did), that 
when the wicked prospered, the godly went down the wind ; if he took such 
a liberty in Jeremiah's time, that Jeremiah complains of it, much more may 
we think that he will do it under gospel-dispensations. Only a little to 
relieve you, consider that God seems more peremptory to undertake for 
necessaries in this life ; it is a thing he hath declared, 1 Tim. vi. 8 : 
' Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.' He propounds 
no other terms but so ; and the reason is, because we cannot live without 
them, we cannot serve him without them, and so he does undertake for 
these things. That promise which is enforced by five affirmations, and 
indigitated by four negatives, Heb. xiii. 5, ' I will never leave thee, nor 
forsake thee,' that promise absolutely comes in about providing for fami- 
lies, for such as are married, and have children, as the coherence shews. 
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ seems, Mat. vi., to put us off from any 
vehement seeking for these things. No, not by prayer ; for he tells us, 
' Your Father knows you need these things,' therefore do not spend thoughts 
on them, do not seek them vehemently, for you have one who takes care of 
you, and knows your needs (if one should say so to a child, it would make 
him careless) ; he knows you need all these things. All these things; that 
is a good word, but consider it is not all you wish for that you need, ver. 
31. If we live, God will provide necessaries, and if we die, if we should 
die for him, for the Lord, that is a privilege and advantage beyond all tem- 
poral promises, beyond all advantages of living in the world, and enjoying 
all promised temporal blessings. 

I might shew you how precious our lives are to him, and that he will not 
cast us away. The world lives upon meat and drink, but we live upon 
God's love and care. What saith the apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 11, 13, ' For we 
which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also 
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh ; we having the same 
spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I 
spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak.' What a long while did 
Peter and Paul live ! A man would wonder that men that lived in continual 
jeopardy, should live forty years preaching, as they did (for they died within 
two years of the destruction of Jerusalem), and they lived by the power of 
the resurrection of Christ. ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints.' Who knows how he disposeth of their lives ? Now, as on 
God's part he takes a liberty about performing temporal promises to us, yet 
with that caution to give necessaries, so our faith, touching outward things, 



Chap. Y.] of justifying faith. 451 

should be answerable ; our faitlt should be at less certainty to obtain out- 
ward things than they had in the Old Testament, yet our prayers should 
be earnestly and vehemently for our lives, that we may live to serve God. 
The alteration of God's dispensation on God's part must needs alter our 
faith. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning praying, and faith in prayer, for performance of promises purely 
spiritual. — A division of spiritual jjromises into three sorts. — .4 discussion 
concerning absolute promises. — How this maxim is to be understood, that 
absolute promises are to be absolutely sought by us. — With what manner of 
faith in prayer any soul may deal ivith God for the performance of those 
2iromises. 

Promises purely spiritual are such as purely concern our salvation. 
There are three sorts of promises that concern salvation. 

1. Such as are absolutely absolute, absolutissiirue ; that are absolute 
indeed, prima prima ; such are all those immediate declarations of God's 
purposes to save, and all such promises as hold forth so much of the 
covenant of grace : Jer. xxxi. 33, ' I will write my law in their hearts.' 
"Which promises God makes without respect had to any prerequisites at 
all in men, as unto which he should have respect in his making those pro- 
mises ; which God is so far from, that in those promises he undertakes to 
perform the conditions. 

2. A second sort of promises are absolute in this sense, that they express 
a certainty of performance of them, but yet do suppose prerequisite quali- 
fications first wrought by God, and a continuation thereof ; and though not 
for which, yet as upon which, and not without which first wrought, they are 
ever performed to any. The qualifications are such as faith and repentance, 
&c, which do at first put a man into a state of grace, according to that of 
the apostle, speaking of faith, ' Whereby we have access into the grace 
wherein we stand,' Rom. v. 2. They are such promises as these :.' Whoso- 
ever believeth hath eternal life, and shall never perish,' John hi. 16, and 
John xviii. 36 ; 'He that believeth shall never die,' John xi. ; ' They shall 
never enter into condemnation,' John v. 24. Unto this sort belong all 
promises of perseverance, and of giving the possession of salvation in the 
latter end of our lives ; and these, because of the certainty of the perform- 
ance, though made unto such and such qualifications, I do call secondarily 
absolute. 

3. There is a third sort of promises belonging to salvation, which I call 
aditional promises, as those that are made of giving more or less degrees 
of grace, and of preserving a man through his whole course from falling 
into gross sins, and of giving joy and peace in believing, 'joy unspeakable 
and full of glory,' and peace which passeth understanding. These I call 
additional to salvation, because they belong but to the bene esse, to the 
better being of a Christian, and yet have salvation in them, as the apostle's 
word is ; i. e., they belong to salvation, but not absolutely to the esse or 
being of a believer, as such, or as without which he is not a believer, and 
shall not be saved ; whereas those two former are essential to salvation itself, 
without which none is or can be saved. 

According to this division of promises, I shall first shape this general 
division of answers to the point in hand, viz., how we are to act faith about 
each of these promises, and to manage our prayers about any of them. 



452 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

1. As to that third and last sort of additional things and promises of 
salvation, they are those that are the occasions and matters of the greatest 
complaints amongst Christians. We pray indeed for such and such graces, 
and holy dispositions, &c, but we find no more performance of them than 
we do in temporals ; and this causeth a great discouragement, scruple, and 
sadness, rising even unto this, that God therefore answereth not our prayers 
at all, and that therefore we pray not in faith. 

2. As to the second sort of promises, which I call secondarily absolute, 
they being of the essence of salvation, and the final possession thereof 
being annexed unto the qualifications of faith, &c, first wrought ; a be- 
liever that sees, and spiritually perceives the qualifications wrought in 
himself, may further by a faith of certainty believe and pray for the per- 
formance thereof. He withal must diligently attend unto a continuing in 
that faith and mortification of lusts, &c, which are to be the consequents 
of the first faith wrought, to the end to obtain such promises. For even 
such promises are uttered with an if; thus it is said, that ' we are made 
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence to the end,' 
Heb. iii. 14 ; and such is that promise of Christ, ' He that endures to the 
end shall be saved ;' and such is the contrary threatening of the apostle, 
' If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do 
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,' Rom. viii. 13. So as hypo- 
thetically it may be said, that if those that have true faith once, should not 
continue and exercise to do those things throughout the future course of 
their lives, they would certainly perish. But yet because God hath 
absolutely undertaken, without ifs or ands, to keep and to preserve them 
out of his faithfulness, and to sanctify them oXorehetg, which word imports 
finally and totally (as his promise is, 1 Thes. v. 23), therefore believers may 
pray absolutely, that is, with a belief of certainty, for the performance of 
those promises, and God's continuing to preserve them to the end. 

3. But, thirdly, as to that first sort of absolute promises and declarations, 
which I call most absolute, there is in experience found (as well may be 
thought), some difficulty in the thing itself, how a man may apply his faith 
thereto, whether in an absolute way, or how ? and consequently, how he 
may make use even of such promises in praying, and wind them into his 
prayers, and pleas for his salvation, by virtue of them. 

There is a trite and common maxim passeth up and down (but I fear is 
not so well understood by all), viz., that spiritual promises and things being 
absolute, therefore all men are bound to pray absolutely, or with a faith of 
certainty about them. And the supposed grounds for this are, 

(1.) That faith in us being to be answerable to the matter and nature of 
the promise, and the things therein promised, therefore if the promise be 
absolute, then the faith ought to be absolute, and then as absolute a pray- 
ing for them in such a faith ought to be also ; and that absoluteness of 
faith required of all in praying for them, is understood to be' a faith of 
certainty, or assurance that they shall absolutely, that is, certainly, obtain 
them. 

(2.) A second supposed ground is, that this is a commonly received 
din'erence between temporal promises and spiritual ; that the temporal 
are to be prayed for conditionally, &c, and so with an it may be, therefore 
oppositely all spiritual promises, and the performance of them, are to be 
prayed for absolutely, without any if or it may be. And hence men think, 
that every man is bound to seek for these with such an absolute faith as is 
certainly persuaded they shall obtain, although a man cannot assure him- 
self the like of temporals. Here I judge it conducible to the point afore us, 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 453 

to consider how that common maxim is to be understood, as in relation 
unto our prayers about absolute promises. 

1. Let no man deceive himself that these are called absolute promises, 
as if God would save men without those qualifications mentioned wrought 
in them. Let not any man imagine that he should seek for salvatiou 
absolutely, thinking that though he should want those qualifications, yet 
he should obtain it. No ; for some of those very promises instanced in, 
are to work the very conditions themselves, and are thereby differenced 
from the covenant of works. I may absolutely say, as the apostle cloth in 
my text, without those qualifications, ' Let no man think to receive anything 
of salvation from the Lord ;' for without true faith and boliness, which are 
a part of writing the law in our hearts, no man shall see or be accepted of 
God, Heb. xii. 

2. The matter in those absolute promises, which is salvation itself, and 
the qualifications promised to be wrought, are absolute indeed in this sense, 
that they are things of an absolute necessitj', as to man on his part ; mark 
that. Both the things themselves are necessary, and that every man should 
seek after them for himself also is necessary. 

(1.) The things are of absolute necessity. Christ calls them, as most 
interpret that speech, that - one thing necessary;' and in this sense indeed, 
in respect of the kind of absolute necessity of them, these spiritual promises 
are rightly distinguished from temporals, which do not contain matters of 
absolute necessity. It is not necessary to have honours, riches, pleasures, 
which yet are the materials of many promises ; but to be saved is, for the 
man is destroyed else. So as the things are of absolute necessity to every 
man. 

(2.) Thereupon it is of as absolute necessity, for every man to seek for 
the accomplishment of them to himself, for it is his own salvation : ' Work 
out your own salvation,' Philip, ii. 13; of which working, there spoken of 
in the general, this of a man's seeking to God by prayer is one great part. 
It is an argument of sufficient cogency that is couched in that clause, - your 
own salvation.' And thus, and in this sense, in respect to man, these 
things, I confess, are absolutely necessary. 

(3.) But then, thirdly, we must take in God's part too, whose mind in 
such promises is, that although the matter of these promises be most abso- 
lute ever}* way, yet as to the tenor of them, that is, the declaration of them, 
as to the persons to whom he intends them, so they are utterly indefinite, 
that is, are intended but for some, and not to all men universally ; which 
is manifest in this, that God doth not write his law in the hearts of all men, 
as we see in common experience, and which the apostle would have us 
observe in saying, - All men have not faith.' Hence, therefore, it comes 
to pass, that though all men ought, out of their own necessity, to put in 
for a share and interest in the things therein promised, yet as necessarily, 
I say, it doth fall out, that in the first puttings forth of faith towards such 
promises, none can or must think to set out with a full persuasion, or an 
absolute faith, as in this argument and upon this occasion I term it, that 
they shall obtain, as if they were infallibly certain that their individual 
persons were absolutely intended by God in those promises. No ; and the 
reason is, because evidently they are not universal promises, and therefore 
men cannot, nor must not, at first dash, or at their first entrance into faith, 
believe that they are elected, or be assured of their personal interest in such 
promises. No ; but all they are capacitated to do, in point of believing at 
first, is, to comply with the indefiniteness of the promise, by a faith that is 
suitably indefinite as to their persons, whereby, though not knowing of a 



454 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

certainty they are the persons, they yet cast themselves upon God and 
Christ, to be made partakers of the salvation promised therein. The pro- 
mises being made to some (and who knows or can tell, but God may be 
gracious to me ? as I have elsewhere shewn), they wait on him to find the 
accomplishment. 

And then indeed, after a soul hath exercised these indefinite acts of faith, 
turning therewith and thereupon unto God with its whole heart, then indeed 
believers may come to be assured, with a faith answering to, and corre- 
sponding with, that certainty which is found in that second sort of promises, 
which I have termed secondarily absolute. They endeavouring to believe, 
or to enter into that rest, as the apostle speaks, Heb. iv., if they find that 
in doing so, they arrive at true spiritual faith and sound repentance, and 
that in the event these actings of both prove to be such, then indeed they 
may be assured of their personal interest in, and God's intendments of their 
particular persons therein, because then they find that God hath wrought 
the qualifications in them, according to his promises and declarations in 
those first sort of promises made, unto which qualifications salvation is 
absolutely, that is, certainly, annexed ; and by those qualifications thus 
wrought, their persons are set forth and declared to be those whom God, 
in the first sort of promises, had indeed intended. But until these qualifi- 
cations be wrought, or whilst they are but in the working, and a man's 
heart under the anvil, or but in hammering thereunto, or whilst they are 
not discerned by themselves to be in them, they can but apply themselves 
with a faith suitable to that tenor in which God hath on his part uttered 
(as in respect of persons) in those his most absolute promises, which, as 
to persons, are but indefinite. And to be sure, if we will deal with God, 
we must treat with him according to his own way and manner of revelation. 
For it is from him we are to have our salvation made over to us, and there- 
fore this application of faith must be suited to the tenor of the promises ; 
it must be even an indefinite faith (as I may call it), in respect unto a man's 
own personal interest, yet with a firm cleaving unto God, and to the good 
things promised, to obtain them through a casting ourselves upon him, 
though we be not assured we are the persons who shall infallibly obtain 
(for the event must shew that), and yet we are, as in respect of our pursu- 
ance after the salvation promised, to seek for it, out of the same necessity 
that a man condemned to die doth seek for his life. And the parallel 
between the case of such a one and of this other holds very much alike. 
For if a king should declare his absolute purpose and intention to be to 
pardon some in such or such a rebellion, but says not whom, though he 
declares withal he will be sought unto in such an humble and submissive 
manner (as he himself will be the judge of) by them that shall obtain that 
pardon. In this case those that sue for it, not knowing whom he intends 
personally, nor whom he will judge to seek it in that manner he desires, 
they in their seeking cannot be absolutely, that is, certainly assured they 
shall find grace ; and yet they pursue it out of an absolute necessity as to 
themselves. And so the case falls out to be oftentimes in souls that seek 
for salvation, — I judge some difference may be found in these two cases, 
yet in this main they are alike, — for many believers, though true, yet do 
not, nor cannot a long while, judge or discern in themselves, whether they 
seek and apply themselves to God with such an unfeigned faith as the word 
describes and God requires, so as they are enforced, and yet enabled by 
God to seek him by such a faith, as the event must prove whether it be 
true or no ; and yet they make a venture of a believing, and of a turning 
unto God (as the consequent of that faith), submitting unto God, and leav- 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 455 

ing it for him to judge of, and to give them the Spirit whereby to discern 
the truth of it. 

Lastly, To move and stir up all men to come to God with such an inde- 
finite act of faith, God makes an universal promulgation of these promises, 
though they shall be accomplished but in some persons, that men may be 
assured that they shall be most certainly fulfilled unto some that thus lay 
hold on them, and so they are universally made known. He would have 
the promulgation of them to be universal, to the intent that every man that 
hears them, finding himself nowhere excluded, and withal not knowing but 
he may be one of those some who shall have those things promised fulfilled 
in him and upon him, may thereupon (and he ought to do so) apply him- 
self to God by acts of believing, and to prayer for his particular attainment. 

2. We shall now consider with what manner of faith, and level of such 
faith in prayer, any sort of soul may treat with God for the performance 
of those absolute promises. To the end I may assign to every one their 
right and due elevation of faith in prayer, about absolute promises, I must 
necessarily set out the several climates that all or any believers are brought 
into, or do live in ; and according to the elevation of their faith must their 
applications in prayer necessarily be supposed, and accordingly measured 
forth to be. 

The several elevations of believers are these : — 

(1.) The first elevation is of such as are in ipso articulo, vel apice conver- 
sions, upon the point of believing in God and Christ for salvation, and 
who, through that faith, are turning to God, and have been humbled for 
sin, &c, without which no man will come to Christ. I plainly mean those 
that are now to put forth a first act of saving faith, having never done it 
before, which was the case of the jailor, Acts xvi. 30, 31, ' What shall I 
do to be saved ? ' said he ; ' Believe in the Lord Jesus,' said the apostle. 
And as everything must have a beginning, so every one that is saved must 
have a first beginning to believe. 

(2.) The second sort are such as have had (and that perhaps for some 
time) a true faith already wrought in them, and some fruits thereof in the 
course of their fives. They are such as have truly come to God through 
Christ for salvation, and from the first putting forth of faith have also con- 
tinued to pray, and to seek for salvation at the hands of God, and yet, 
through God's dispensations towards them, are kept under, without pre- 
vailing assurance that they are or shall be saved, although withal there be 
some lesser degrees of hopes growing up towards assurance, that are added 
to, and do accompany their faith more or less. 

(3.) The third sort is of those that have triumphant assurance of salva- 
tion, whether obtained by experience of then own graces, and manifold gra- 
cious dealings of God with them, or further by a superadded immediate 
testimony of the Spirit, by whom the love of God is shed abroad in their 
hearts immediately, beyond all those experiences. You have both in Rom. v., 
where it is first said experience breeds hope, that is, an assurance (in 
which sense the word hope is there used in 1 John iii. 2, 8), and then fur- 
ther, that the love of God, which is shed over and above immediately into 
the heart by the Holy Ghost, breeds a hope or assurance beyond what 
experience gives, which he there calls a hope which maketh not ashamed ; 
no, not in respect of the continuance of that assurance in our hearts. 

Now as touching this last sort, of such as have personal assurance of 
faith, there is not, nor can be, no difficulty how either then faith should come 
to close with such absolute promises mentioned, or how they may take such 
promises into their prayers. And as touching the first and second sort, 



456 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III. 

there is often found small difference in the attainments of their faith, they 
heing fain to live mostly upon a mere act of adherence and recumbency, 
without additional comfort. I shall therefore speak to both in a notion 
common to both, which is the consideration of men wanting prevailing 
assurance. 

1 . There is this general rule, that whatever degrees or actings of faith 
in any of these mentioned are to be allowed unto true faith, the prayers also 
that are put up in such a faith must be allowed to be a praying in faith to 
all intents and purposes, which therefore shall be accepted of God, and shall 
obtain and have power with God (as the phrase used of Jacob is) for what 
the man prays for. And the reason is clear; for if the faith be such as 
wherewith God is well pleased, as the apostle's aphorism of it is, then cer- 
tainly the prayer put up, though but according to the proportion and eleva- 
tion of tbat faith, must be accepted as a praying in faith also. And the 
proof of this is from what the apostle says in treating of saving faith, Rom. 
x. 15, where he so nearly links faith and prayer together, and makes them 
of so like an extent in regard of obtaining salvation itself, as evidently shews 
the truth of this maxim ; and to that end he brings together two things 
sometimes far remote in place one from the other : speaking of each singly, 
first, he speaks for faith, ' Whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed,' 
ver. 11 ; secondly, he speaks for prayer, 'Whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved ;' and this conjunction of each one with 
the other, and his prescribing the same influence for salvation unto each, 
doth plainly hold forth there three things : — 

(1.) That true faith from the first sets a man upon prayer for what his 
faith aims at, which was his own case during the first three days of his con- 
version : ' Behold he prays,' says Christ, Acts ix. 11, for now he had begun 
to believe. 

(2.) Such prayers out of that faith do obtain salvation, which is the 
matter there spoken, and is the great aim of faith at first. 

(3.) He speaking this of faith in prayer in general, and so of all the 
degrees thereof, and accordingly of all praying out of all, or any such de- 
grees of faith as a man hath attained, therefore all such praying out of that 
faith which he hath, is accepted to obtain. And my ground for this is, 
that the apostle utters those speeches of faith and prayer in the general, 

I Whoever believes,' ver. 10, and ' Whoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord,' &c, and therefore means that all and any of them that do believe, 
and do call upon the name of the Lord, with whatever degree of true faith, 
shall be accepted according to the degree of faith in prayer. And in verse 

II (which is the middle between them two sayings), you have this reason 
of it given, ' For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon 
him,' whether out of a strong or weak faith, whether out of a faith of recum- 
bency to obtain, or assurance that they shall obtain, which accords with 
what our apostle says, ' He giveth liberally to every one that prayeth in 
faith,' I add by way of explanation to both, be the faith of what degree and 
elevation whatever. 

2. A second maxim or rule is this, Upon these, and such like general 
dictates of the Holy Ghost, I may warrantably conclude, that so as a man's 
faith in all these three several conditions fore-mentioned doth rise, so far a 
man's praying in those degrees of his faith, or his putting forth faith in 
prayer, will rise also. The stream never riseth higher than the fountain, 
but so far it will. A man can but pray with that faith which he hath, 
and his prayer shall be accepted according to what he hath, agreeable 
to that assertion of the apostle, 2 Cor. viii. 12, 'It shall be accepted 



ClIAP. V.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 457 

according to what a man hath, and not according to what a man hath 
not.' So that as the apostle speaks of God's judging men at latter 
day, that those that are without law shall be judged by what light and 
power they had without the law, and thoso that have sinned living under 
the law shall be judged by the law, and the light and power they had there- 
from (and in like manner they by the gospel that had the light of it, and 
all in their due proportions), so I may say of praying in faith, he that prays 
in faith of bare recumbency without assurance, shall by that faith obtain 
what he prays for without assurance ; and he that prays with some hope- 
ful trust of obtaining, though not rising up to full assurance, which is some- 
times the case of the second condition, he shall obtain according to the 
measure of his faith, although short of full assurance. In short, I may say 
of them all, as Christ did, ' Be it unto you according to your faith.' 



OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS OF JUSTIFYING 

FAITH. 



PART III. 

Of the properties of Faith. 



BOOK I. 



Of the excellence and use of faith. — That good works are not slighted by exalt- 
ing faith. — Of the excellence of faith, in that it (fives all honour to God 
and Christ ; and that for this reason, God hath appointed it to be the grace 
by which ue are saved. — Of the excellency of faith, as it hath a general 
influence on all our graces. 



CHAPTER I. 

The excellency of faith disjriayed in several particulars. 

In discoursing of the properties of faith, first, I will begin to shew the 
excellency that is in faith above all obedience else. But before I come to 
demonstrate the excellency of faith, I will first premise these few considera- 
tions to all, that I shall speak of faith's excellency, because men think faith 
too much magnified and works slighted. 

1. Faith, in itself, is of all graces the meanest and the lowest, a poorer 
and a more beggarly grace than to love, by far : for in loving God, we return 
something to him, love for his love, we give as well as we take ; but in 
believing we receive all from God ; so Gal. iii. 22, ' the promise' is said to 
be ' given to them that believe,' and ver. 14, to be 'received by faith.' "We 
lay but hold upon what he offers, Christ and the grace that is revealed through 
him. Now as prastantius est dare quam accipere, so to love and obey is, in 
itself, better than to believe, it is more honourable for us. Believing is 
passion rather than action, for indeed God puts Christ upon us and into 
our hands, or we would not take him. We do but sit still, as it were, when 
we believe, and see what God will do in us and for us ; and therefore God 
the rather chose to advance this grace, which is the weakling, to all the 
rest. God chose to shew his power in this grace ; and that which is the 
most foolish in the eyes of reason, hath God chosen to be his agent. 

2. Therefore it is not faith, as it is a quality or an act simply in itself, 



i GO OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK I. 

that we shall or do commend it to you ; it is not for any worth in itself, 
but as it is an instrument singled out by God to do all by in us. As Peter 
said of himself, having healed the cripple, Acts iii. 12, ' Why marvel ye, 
or look ye so earnestly on us, as if by our own power or holiness we had 
done tbus ?' No ; be it known to you, that we are but the instruments. 
So may faith say, It is not any excellency or holiness in me above other 
graces, that doth anything more than they ; I am but an instrument of 
conveyance. Thus a seal of wax is of itself of far less worth than a pearl 
or piece of gold, and yet it may ratify a covenant, which a piece of gold 
doth not do. ' Now he that believes hath set to his seal that God is true,' 
John iii. 33 ; and so the covenant is struck up betwixt God and him, and 
therefore it is more precious than any grace else, yet but as an instrument, 
not in itself. 

3. It is such an instrument as, in all that is attributed to it, Christ who 
is the object of it, and God who is the worker by it, are magnified and 
glorified when it is commended. So that in commending faith, and desir- 
ing you so earnestly and above all to believe, we do desire you but to set 
up Christ in your hearts above works, and above obedience, and to let him 
be all in all. We desire you but to magnify God's free grace above your 
own merits, and what you can earn, and to magnify God's power above 
your own. If God had used any other grace, some honour would have 
reflected upon it, and so much have been taken away from God ; but ' by 
grace ye are saved, and through faith' (as the instrument), Eph. ii. 8. And 
why is it of faith, and not of any works or disposition in us else ? ' Lest 
any man should boast,' ver. 9 ; for, Rom. iii. 27, ' boasting is clean excluded 
by the law of faith ;' that is, an ascribing anything to a man's self, or to 
anything in a man, is excluded, for that is meant by boasting. Did not 
faith do all ? Or if works did anything, a man would boast ; for whatever 
faith is said to do, Christ is still as fully said to do, as if he did it without 
the help of faith ; for faith is but the bare fetching it from Christ, or receiv- 
ing it from him, or suffering Christ to do all in me. And therefore, what 
is said to be done by faith, is all one in Scripture phrase, and in God's 
account, and in the believer's esteem, as to say, that Christ doth it ; so 
that Christ is no whit afraid you should attribute too much to faith. 

1st, In Scripture phrase, therefore, to be justified by faith, and to be jus- 
tified by Christ, is all one ; to be in Christ, and to be in the faith, is all 
one and the same ; for faith doth all by going to Christ. Memorable is 
that place, Acts iii. 16, when Peter speaks of healing the cripple, he says, 
' Christ's name, through faith in his name, had made the man whole.' 
What he attributes to faith is wholly attributed to his name, and to faith 
but as in his name, and his name manifested through it ; and so his blood, 
through faith in his blood, justifies : and therefore it is promiscuously called 
' the righteousness of faith, and ' the righteousness of Christ ;' for it is all 
one. Faith robs not Christ a whit ; and so to live by faith, and to have 
Christ live in me, is all one, Gal. ii. 20. 

2dly, And thus it is in a believer's account also, for it is the very instinct 
of faith, the form of it, to attribute all to Christ ; it is not faith else ; it is 
the property of it to do so ; 'I live by faith,' says Paul, Gal. ii. 20, ' yet 
not I, but Christ lives in me :' faith still comes in with yet not I. 

And, 3dly, Thus it is in God's account ; and therefore Christ cares not 
how much he attributes to faith, for he doth but closely herein attribute all 
to himself: when he says, ' All things are possible to faith,' Mark ix. 23, 
he derogates nothing from himself, he doth not put faith into commission 
with himself, but it is all one as to say, all things are possible to my power, 



CuAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 4G1 

which faith makes use of. Christ, when he had done a miracle, or par- 
doned a man, would seem to put off all from himself, in Baying, ' Thy faith 
hath saved thee,' and ■ thy faith hath made thee whole :' which was enough 
to have made any man proud of his faith ; and had it been any other grace, 
it would have done so ; but he knew that that faith which was in their 
hearts whom he saved and healed, said within them, Lord, thou alone hast 
made me whole. Thus faith doth trust Christ, and Christ doth trust faith. 
So as when we attribute so much to faith, we do but attribute it to Christ, 
and desire you but to honour him. 

Secondly, We will shew you the prerogatives and excellencies of faith, 
which (as the apostle says in another case) are ' much every way.' 

1. You will see what it doth, that works do not. 

2. You shall see that all which works do, it doth, and much more also ; 
and therefore we commend it to you above all, and more than all. 

1st, It is in a primary sense the sole instrument in the covenant of grace, 
and works and obedience are but subservient, and as a consequence 
annexed to it, though as necessarily annexed as the other. Our great busi- 
ness in the covenant of grace is faith, as the form of the covenant of works 
lay in doing. Therefore still the two covenants, and the righteousness 
conveyed by both, are differenced by doing and believing only : Rom. x. 5, 6, 
and Gal. iii. 11-13, &c, Acts xvi. 30, 31, and the reason is couched in three 
words, in Rom. iv. 16, • Therefore it is of faith, that it might be of grace, 
and that the promise might be sure.' 

1. That it might be of grace, given freely, requiring nothing, but receiv- 
ing. If God had required giving again any thing from us as the condi- 
tion, then it had not been of grace, that is, not every way of grace, Rom. 
xi. 6, if it had been by any works as the condition, then grace had been no 
grace. 

2. Therefore it is of faith, because this covenant is a promise. So it is 
called, as in that place, so in Gal. iii. 14, 17-20. Thus he calls the 
covenant of the gospel throughout in that chapter, and therefore mentions 
faith only as the instrument to lay hold of it, as answering thereunto ; for 
what is there should answer to it but faith ? For though it contains com- 
mands, yet power to do what is commanded is also promised, to give a new 
heart, &c. ; and therefore faith is that which alone answers to it, to lay 
hold on those promises. 

3. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be sure; therefore it was both 
necessary to be by way of promise from God to give all and do all, and to 
require nothing but receiving and believing the promise from him, that the 
covenant might not depend on us, but on God and his promise, and upon 
nothing in us but receiving and believing the promise. God, in the cove- 
nant of works, had to do with pure nature ; betwixt which and God, till 
there came a breach, there could be no cause of suspicion of God's love to 
man ; and therefore love was required, and not faith primarily ; but, in the 
covenant of grace, God hath to do with terrified consciences ; which, if 
anything else than faith should have been required, could not have been 
raised up to any persuasion of God's love and favour. But now, a poor soul, 
though humbled, and seeing no worth in himself, and a soul in desertion 
that sees no righteousness of its own, yet may come to the promise to have 
salvation sure to itself by faith, though for the present it hath nothing to 
bring to the covenant. God requires humiliation indeed afore, because 
men will not believe else ; and he requires obedience after, as that which 
necessarily follows upon faith, so as a man cannot truly believe but it will 
follow, as heat follows light. Yet, upon believing, the bargain is struck up ; 



462 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BoOK I. 

and though faith be the great instrument, yet we say withal, that works 
are necessary to be in the person justified, yet not to justify. Thus heat 
is as necessarily in the sun as light ; yet it makes not day by its heat, but 
by its light. Works of new obedience are required as necessary to the 
possession of salvation, but faith is that alone which puts us into a condi- 
tion of having the title and right to it, by the blood and righteousness of 
Christ. Obedience is necessarily required in all that are made sons, and 
so cry, ' Abba, Father ;' for if he be a father, where is his honour ? But 
it is faith alone that makes us sons, Gal. iii. 26. And though we are as 
necessarily ordained to sanctification, as to faith and to salvation through 
both, 2 Thes. ii. 13, by which, as the necessary way, we come and are 
brought to salvation as the goal, yet it is by faith alone that we are put 
into that estate : Eph. ii. 8, 9, • By grace ye are saved through faith, and 
that not of works,' &c. Then might some say, works are not required ; 
yes, says the apostle, as a necessary means you are ordained to come to 
salvation by, which is the end of your faith, and which are a necessary 
condition of that estate, though faith alone puts us into it ; for he adds, 
ver. 10, ' We are his workmanship, created to good works, which God hath 
ordained we should walk in.' They are the condition of the subject that 
shall be saved, who must be made meet, not the condition of the promise 
of salvation itself. They are the condition of faith, or of the person believ- 
ing ; but as sight is that which saves us in heaven, by which we have all 
our happiness communicated to us, so is it faith that saves us here. 

2dly. Accordingly faith doth all in us, till it hath brought us to salvation. 
It carries along this great venture of a man's soul safe to heaven, and leaves 
it not till it hath put it into Christ's hands in heaven, till itself ends in 
sight. It begins and it ends with us, and stands by us, when else all 
would fail. 

(1.) It begins, for it gives us the first ken of Christ and happiness. When 
the soul is bartered and tossed in the waves of humiliation at first, it is 
faith climbs up to the top of the mast, and spies Christ out to get on board 
him, when all was in despair, and thought to be cast away : ' By faith we 
have access into this grace,' Rom. v. 2. And, 

(2.) When we are in the state of salvation, faith doth all; for whenas all 
graces else would soon be overcome and cast out again by lusts, and would 
soon be tripped up from off their standing, faith is able to keep its legs and 
standing, Rom. v. 2. Therefore, 1 Peter i. 5, we are said to be ' kept 
through faith unto salvation.' If we were in any other grace's keeping, 
we were undone ; for how soon would all our love be non-plussed if that 
were the condition of the covenant ! How soon did all graces fail in 
Adam ! But faith is never non-plussed, it still trusts in God; and there- 
fore above all armour else faith is commended, Eph. vi. 16, as that which 
stands us in stead when all else fail: ' above all, take the shield of faith.' 
When a man's head-piece is cracked, his shield will hold, and he will safely 
lie under it when all weapons else are taken from him. Let lusts, devil, 
hell do what they will, the believer is secure, if lusts rage ; whereas other 
graces left to themselves would say, 'Who shall deliver us?' Faith 
raiseth up itself: 'I thank' (saith the apostle, Rom. vii. 25) 'my God 
through Jesus Christ,' &c. Let Satan roar and cast in fiery darts, faith 
quencheth them, Eph. vi. 16; we 'resist him, being stedfast in faith,' 
1 Peter v. 9. Let God frown and terrify us, and do what he will, faith 
can look upon him and trust him, Job xiii. 15. Thus faith fights it out 
against all opposition. When a man comes to die, it is faith that resigns 
and delivers a man's soul into Christ's hands: 'These all died in faith,' 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 4G3 

Heb. xi. 13; and salvation is therefore called 'the end of our faith,' 
1 Peter i. 9. 

2. All the works in the world cannot unite you to Christ, and enable you 
to lay hold on him and justification by him; this is faith's work alone. 
That ties the marriage-knot betwixt Christ and you, as nothing makes man 
and wife but consent; though there be love and kindness, yet that makes 
the match. So doth faith : Hosea ii. 20, ' I will betroth thee to me in 
faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord,' that is, believe in him; as 
Isa. liii. 11, 'By his knowledge he shall justify many.' Faith on our 
parts makes the match ; therefore (John vi." 47 compared with all the 
following verses) Christ calls believing ' eating his flesh, and drinking his 
blood,' whereby we are as nearly joined to Christ as to the meat we eat. 
Now, though all the members in you serve to many good purposes, yet you 
can make meat only yours by eating it, and you have but one mouth to do 
it with, and no member else can let it down into your body to nourish it, 
so is there no grace can receive Christ but faith ; no duty, no performance 
can help thee to him. It is true indeed the union on Christ's part is in 
order of nature first made by the Spirit; therefore, Philip, iii. 12, he is 
said first to * comprehend us ere we can comprehend him ;' yet that which 
makes the union on our part is faith, whereby we embrace and cleave to 
him, and come to have any communion with him; and it is faith alone 
that doth it. Love indeed makes us cleave to him also, but yet faith first, 
for faith works love ; and we cannot love him till we believe he loves us, 
1 John iv. 10, 16. And though love may cleave to him as to a lovely 
object in general, yet our union to him, as to a head and husband, offered 
to be ours, faith makes. Faith brings Christ into the heart, and then love 
clings to him, which else it could not do. We are united not on to Christ 
as good for us, but as given to us ; now faith makes that union of receiving 
him as given, though love makes the other. All communion, too, that is 
between Christ and us is by faith ; by it we draw near to him, Heb. x. 22, 
by it he reveals himself to us. All our fellowship with him is transacted 
by it ; it is as the priest between Christ and us, that deals between us and 
him for us. 

3. Faith makes things it believes real and present, and to subsist to the 
heart, and therefore it is called ' the subsistence of things hoped for,' Heb. 
xi. 1 ; and so causeth us to have a real communion and fellowship with 
the person of Christ daily, insomuch as Christ is said to ' dwell in our 
hearts by faith,' Eph. iii. 17; whereas, though a man loves many that are 
absent, let love cannot make them present to talk with them when he 
would, though it may make pictures of them, and so please itself in them, 
but faith makes Christ present. 

4. Faith is that mother-grace which begets children on'all graces, and stirs 
them up, and sets a-work. I will not say that the first act of faith begets 
the habits of all graces first ; for ' he that believeth is born of God,' 1 John 
v. 1, and itself is a part of that image in righteousness begun. The 
opinion that the first habits of all graces should arise from faith, hath risen 
out of the experience godly men have had, that faith did first open the sluice, 
and set the wheel a-going, and stirred up their graces, which we attribute 
to faith most gladly. It is that grace that begins all the acts that are 
begotten on other graces, therefore it is said to ' work by love,' Gal. v. 6. 
I am sure it causeth the first love to God and Christ, for we cannot love 
him till he loves us ; and as to all that obedience to God which love works 
in us, it is not love so much as faith that works by it ; and in this sense it 
is said, James ii. 22, that ' faith worketh with works.' (1.) Faith lets in 



464 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK I. 

all the strength we do' ( all with : ' The life I lead,' says the apostle, Gal. 
ii. 20, ' it is by faith in the Son of God.' (2.) All the motives which 
influence us to work, faith sets on : ' That I should live to him,' says the 
apostle, ' who gave himself for me,' 2 Cor. v. 15, Gal. ii. 20. And 2 Cor. 
v. 14, 15, says he, ' The love of Christ constrains us :' but how ? ' because 
we thus judge' (by faith namely) ' that Christ died for us.' (3.) All accep- 
tation of our works, when we have done them, are through faith, that stamps 
Christ's acceptation on them, mints them, and makes them current : Heb. 
xi. 6, ' Without faith it is impossible to please God ;' as faith justifies our 
person, so our works. (4.) When love, which is the fulfilling of the law, 
falls short, then faith hath recourse to a righteousness, which makes it up ; 
therefore, Rom. viii. 3, ' the righteousness of the law' is said to be ' fulfilled 
in us.' How ? Rom. x. 4, ' Christ is the end of the law to every one that 
believeth.' 

5. Whatever works doth or can do, faith cloth it much more. It may 
say as Paul said, in regard of the rest of the apostles, ' Are they apostles ? 
so am I, iu labours more abundant ;' and yet says faith, ' I am nothing,' 
though I do all. Doth a man in working obey God ? In believing he doth 
much more, Rom. i. 5, Acts vi. 7. Doth works please him ? Faith much 
more, for it makes all accepted ; therefore in the Gospel Christ is taken 
with nothing but their faith still ; he still speaks of that, and in one place 
wonders and cries, ' Great is thy faith !' Do works increase sanctification ? 
Rom. vi. 22, ' Having your fruit in holiness,' &c. Faith doth it much 
more, it is the instrument bj which the heart is purified, and faith doth it 
in a more nimble way, by going to Christ, Acts xv. Therefore, when the 
apostle would exhort them to grow in all grace, he exhorts them to grow 
in faith. Do works glorify God ? ' Let your works so shine before men, 
that they may glorify your heavenly father.' Faith doth it much more, 
Rom. iv. 20. Abraham ' was strong in faith, giving glory to God.' It 
sets up all his attributes, but especially free grace (for that faith only doth), 
which God ordained most to be admired, Eph. i. And as only faith glorifies 
that attribute, so faith only honours and magnifies Christ, and is created 
on purpose to do it. A few thoughts of faith glorify God more than a 
thousand acts of obedience. Yea, the greatest glory our obedience doth 
reflect upon God ariseth from this, that it proceeds out of faith, that we 
should trust God so far as to venture all our obedience beforehand : 1 Tim. 
iv. 10, ' Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in 
the living God.' 



CHAPTER II. 

The excellency of faith shewed in farther instances. — That it is ordained to 
(jive all the glory to God, and therefore God puts the greatest honour upon 
that above any other grace. 

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that per - 
isheth, though it be tried ivithjire, might be found unto p>raise, and honour, 
and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. — 1 Pet. I. 7. 

The scope of the apostle (from the third verse) lies especially in three 
things. The 1st is to comfort them against afflictions, which is the general, 
which runs through all. And, 2dly, he doth that by setting out the great- 
ness of salvation, which God hath appointed as the end of their faith, ver. 11. 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 405 

Bdly, His design is to commend and set out to them, that they might 
live by it, the excellency of that grace of faith, both as that which should 
keep them, as he saith, ver. 5, they are ' kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation ;' unto that salvation he had spoken of before, 
as likewise being that grace which bears the shock of all the trials and 
tentations which they run through in this world, and overcomes them all ; 
which grace, therefore, eminently above all else, shall be ' found unto 
praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' 

It is faith here he means that shall be ' found unto praise, and honour, 
and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ ;' for although he saith, 'The trial 
of your faith might be found unto praise,' &c.,}'et either first it is an Hebraism, 
trial of faith, that is, faith tried : or otherwise if you take it (as some), for 
the afflictions themselves that do try our faith, if they be so precious, much 
more precious than gold, then faith itself that is tried must needs be much 
more. If the fining pot and the furnace, as Solomon saith in the Proverbs, 
which doth try the gold and silver, and which is cast away when the gold is 
tried, be of such worth and excellency, then the gold and silver itself much 
more. But it is not afflictions or tentations that shall be found unto praise, 
and honour, and glory, at the latter day ; but it is faith being tried by all 
those, that shall then be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, and 
that shall be crowned by God, as of all graces the most glorious and the 
most eminent also. And because that this grace is a hidden grace, and 
the glory of its transactions are not seen (as an anchor under water), there- 
fore he saith, ' It shall be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ.' 

Jesus Christ is the chief object of faith, and faith honoured him when 
he was not seen, as the text hath it here: ver. 8, ' Whom having not seen, 
ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet ye believe.' Because 
that faith honoured and trusted him thus when it saw him not, therefore 
will Jesus Christ, when he shall appear, honour this grace ; that is, he will 
acknowledge an honour to be in it, and give the crown of all that is in us, 
unto faith : ' It shall be found,' saith he, ' unto praise, and honour, and 
glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' And although that faith shall 
cease then (as the apostle elsewhere tells us), as the pillar of the cloud, 
and the pillar of fire ceased when the people came out of the wilderness 
into Canaan, yet notwithstanding the glory of faith, and the fruit of faith, 
and the end of faith, and the crown that shall be given to faith, begins but 
then. It shall be found, viz., for its past service, ' unto praise, and honour, 
and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Now then, having to myself 
and to you also proposed the handling of the doctrine of faith in all those 
particulars which are useful, — I have shewn you some of the acts of faith, 
and also the author of it, and what is done for you when you believe, — I 
shall in the next place come to shew yon the excellency of this grace, and 
what a great deal of honour and glory there is in it, and shall be put upon 
it at the latter day. To manifest this unto you, let me lay this for a 
foundation, before I speak of that honour that God hath put upon it; that of 
all graces else faith is the meanest and lowest, it is the poorest and the 
most nothing ; but God always takes things that are not, and he filleth the 
hungry, and sends the rich empty away ; he hath respect unto the low 
estate of this grace. It is in itself, I say, the poorest and the most beggarly 
grace of all other, if you compare it but with love, or with any else. It 
was love, whereby Adam was united unto God, and not faith, which was 
answerable to that covenant; and love had something whereof to boast, but 
faith hath not ; for in loving we return something unto God, for we return 

VOL. VIII. g e 



46() OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK I. 

love to him, we give him love for his love, although he loveth us first; we, 
I say, do return something unto him again ; we give as well as take ; but 
in believing we do nothing but receive from God. The promises are said 
to be ' given unto them that believe,' Gal. iii. 23, and ver. 14, to be 
1 received by faith.' Now you know what Christ himself said (it is a speech 
of his recorded in Acts xx. 35), ' It is more blessed to give than to receive.' 
So it is more honourable in itself to love God and to obey him, than merely 
to believe and to receive from him. But because God will not be beholden 
to the creature, and it shall never be said that any creature gave first to 
him, and was not recompensed again, hence therefore he hath taken faith, 
which of all graces else is the most empty (it is indeed nothing else but an 
open mouth for God to fill), and hath chosen to put glory upon it : 'Go 
ye,' says Christ, Mat. ix. 13, ' and learn what that meaneth, I will have 
mercy and not sacrifice.' I find by Christ's own alleging it, that this saying 
is used in a double sense, or a double meaning, as indeed many scriptures 
are so intended by the Holy Ghost ; either that God doth prefer mercy 
shewn by a man to himself, or by one man to another, before sacrifice to him- 
self (and so it is urged, Mat. xii. 7, upon an occasion of the Pharisees 
murmuring at the disciples plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath 
day), or else Christ meant (which indeed is the scope of Mat. ix. 13, com- 
paring it with Hosea vi. 6, out of which Christ quotes it) to shew that 
God delights in his own shewing mercy more than in all our sacrifices, 
and that he delights more in our knowing him to be merciful and to 
be gracious, which indeed is seen in our believing on him, than in all our 
obedience which we perform to him. And that this is Christ's meaning is 
plain, for he speaks in the verse before of his own saving that which is lost, 
and of being a physician to them that are sick : ' They that be whole,' saith 
he, ver. 12, ' need not a physician, but they that are sick.' And then he 
presently adds, ' But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy 
and not sacrifice ;' that is, I that am the Son of the great God, that am 
the Messiah, delight rather in being a physician, in healing, in shewing 
mercy to poor souls, than in all obedience as from you. And in Hosea 
vi. 6 this is also added : ' I desire the knowledge of God more than burnt- 
offerings.' What is it in us that in us answers to mercy and grace in God? 
It is faith, it is the knowledge of him. You must know that the Old 
Testament useth much the phrase of knowing for believing: as in Isa. liii., 
' By his knowledge shall he justify many;' and Jer. ix. 23, ' Let him glory 
in this, that he knoweth me which exercise loving-kindness in the earth.' 
Now then here is the sum of this text, that God is more pleased, infinitely 
more pleased, thus in giving, in pouring forth his grace upon us, in shewing 
mercy to us, than he is with all our sacrifices, or whatever else we offer to 
him ; and therefore answerably he is more pleased with our knowing of 
him to be gracious and merciful, and so in believing on him (for this 
knowledge doth in the law of it always contain suitable affections to God, 
and is the principle of all in us), than with all burnt- offerings. The least 
thing that God could have required of you, the meanest act upon his being 
merciful to you is this : do but know that I am merciful, do but believe it, 
do but rely upon it. The apostle, in 1 Cor. i. 30, saith, that God ' made 
Jesus Christ unto us to be wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption.' To what end ? ' That according as it is written,' saith 
he, ' he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.' Now where is this 
written ? It is in Jer. ix. 24, ' Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that 
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise 
loving-kindness in the earth ;' which brings us to the point in hand ; and 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 407 

it is as if he had said, I "will give you leave to glory in your faith if you 
will. Why ? Because your faith it is merely knowing how good I am ; 
so that when you glory in your faith, in your knowing of me, which 
exercise loving-kindness in the earth, the truth is, you glory in the Lord, 
for so you see the apostle interprets it. It is but as if God should say 
this, I am thus great and glorious, a God that exercise loving-kindness, and 
delight more in shewing mercy than in all I receive from you, only I desire 
to have this mercy apprehended and believed by you. And when the 
creature comes to apprehend God to be thus merciful, it excludes all boasting, 
the very law of this knowledge doth, because it is suited to its object ; it 
gives all honour to that God whom it knows to be thus gracious, it admires 
and adores him for it. Faith, my brethren, it is a passion, it is not an 
action, therefore it is compared to seeing the Son ; now take the sense of 
seeing, and fit intramittendo, non extramittendo, it is done by receiving 
something in, not by sending anything out. The eye sees by receiving, 
by taking in the beams of the light, or by taking in the image of the colours 
from the object, irradiated by the light, and not by sending forth a light of 
itself ; and so indeed is faith. Therefore it is that God hath chosen faith, 
because it is, if I may so express it, a mere passive grace. We shall know 
God by vision hereafter, and we know God by faith here ; and both are 
parallel in this, that as heaven is but knowing God as we are known, it is 
but seeing his glory, and so being glorified thereby, as it is in John xvii. 24 ; 
so faith is but a knowing of God, and a giving glory to him, according to 
that knowledge of him, drawing on the whole heart answerably to live unto 
him. Saith Paul in Gal. iv. 9, ' You have known God, or rather, are 
known of God.' Mark how he diminisheth and draws down even faith 
itself as low as possible. He seemed as if he would have put something upon 
our knowledge of God when he had said, ' You have known God,' but he takes 
away what he gives : ' You are rather known of God,' saith he. So that our 
knowing God hath nothing to commend itself at all, for it is a mere receiving, 
it hath nothing to glory in itself, no, notas it is knowledge, but from its object ; 
for the thing it labours to apprehend, it is to be ' known of God.' The 
honour and glory of this grace I shall shew you by demonstrating two things. 

1. The honour which this grace is ordained to give to God. 

2. The use and hand it hath in our salvation. God honours it for both ; 
for God hath a respect to both these. 

1. To demonstrate the honour which this grace is ordained to give to 
God, I shall premise, that whatsoever honours God most, certainly God 
will honour that most. It is the rule that God himself gives in 1 Sam. 
ii. 30. Therefore if that this grace shall be ' found unto honour and glory 
at the appearing of Christ,' it must be upon this ground, because it hath 
given most honour and glory unto God ; for, saith he, ' Them that honour 
me, I will honour.' 

(1.) Take faith in the general nature of it. God hath appointed this 
grace to be the universal receiver, as I may so express it, of all the revela- 
tion of his glory which he dispenseth unto mankind in this world. Look 
what the eye and light is to this whole creation, this visible frame of heaven 
and earth, and all the glories that God hath stamped upon it, that is the 
light of the Spirit and faith in the heart of a believer to all those glorious 
things in the new creation, in that new world which God hath revealed in 
the gospel, which the gospel is the map of. All those things which are 
there revealed, they are all taken in universally, and apprehended by this 
grace of faith. God having made this glorious frame of heaven and earth, 
if he had not made also an eye to have seen all this, all that he had done 



4G8 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaBT III. BOOK I. 

had been in a manner lost, in respect of his end in it. So is it in this 
new world, which Ps. viii. speaks of ; saith the psalmist there (speaking 
indeed of the gospel, and of the things of the gospel, and of Christ, as the 
apostle interprets it in Heb. ii.), in allusion unto man's contemplating the 
heavens, the moon, and tbe stars, and the like, ' When I consider thy 
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast 
ordained.' How comes he to consider all these ? Because he hath an eye 
to see all these, which doth let in the knowledge of all these iuto his mind. 
If a man's body had not had this small member, the eye, he could not take 
into his consideration at all the heavens, or the moon and stars, &c. So 
it is here ; God hath made a new world, whereof Jesus Christ is the sun, 
and he hath made a whole new creation, ' a new creature,' and revealed a 
world of glorious truths, which have infinitely more harmony in them 
than there is in the old creation, and the law thereof. Now this 
little eye of faith, which God creates in the soul, and the light thereof, is 
that which takes in all these, without which the glory of all these would be 
lost. Therefore we are said to ' behold the glory of the Lord,' in 2 Cor. 
iii. 18. And as the eye is a mighty large sense, of a most large compre- 
hension, — you see it can run up to heaven presently, it can go from east to 
west, and take in half the heavens at once, — so is faith in the soul ; it doth 
draw in God and all his beams, draws in Christ and all his glory through 
a narrow cranny. Faith is a strange grace, for it doth in this partake of 
divinity itself. For wherein lies the excellency of God's knowledge ? His 
omniscience lies in this, that all things past, present, and to come, are 
present to him. Faith doth this too ; it doth not only take them all in, 
but makes them all present. ' Abraham saw my day, and rejoiced,' saith 
Christ in John viii. 56. And Heb. ii. 9, ' We see Jesus crowned with 
glory and honour.' Faith makes all God's decrees from everlasting, and 
the day of judgment, and life to come, present to the soul ; it makes Christ 
hanging upon the cross present. This is that grace which hath therefore a 
kind of a participation of divinity and omnisciency in it. It is the universal 
receiver of all that glory which God himself revealeth unto mankind. 

(2.) I might shew you, that God hath made this grace an adequate 
instrument to honour and glorify his free grace by all the ways he would 
have it glorified ; and to honour and glorify Jesus Christ in all ways that 
he would be glorified. Free grace in God himself, and in Jesus Christ, 
who is God's servant, and faith in us, these three are a measure adequate 
one to another, and in God's ordination ordained to glorify each other. 
As Jesus Christ did fully glorify free grace, and all the attibutes of God 
besides, and served free grace in its own way, so hath God appointed 
faith such a principle in the soul, as to apply itself to glorify free grace and 
Christ, to their full satisfaction, and to detract nothing from them. 

(3.) Hence it is that God is not regardful, is not shy to put this grace 
in commission with Christ and with himself, and with all his own attributes. 
He glorifies it so much, because indeed it glorifieth him. It sets all the 
attributes of God on work, and it is said to do all that those attributes do, 
and all that God himself doth. It sets the power of God on work, and 
then it glorifies his power. It is said of Abraham, Rom. iv. 20, 21, that 
he ' being strong in faith, gave glory to God.' And what was it he gave 
God the glory of? ' He was fully persuaded that what he had promised, 
he was able also to perform.' It was a persuasion which gave this glory to 
him, and it was a persuasion of the power of God in God for the raising up 
of Isaac. Hereby now he gave glory to God ; yea, hence, because without 
faith God should lose his glory, therefore the want of it puts a stop to hia 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 469 

attributes in tbeir working. As faith sets all the attributes of God on work, 
so it doth give them scope, vent, and time, as we say, that without it they 
will not work, they will do nothing. It is said, Mat. xiii. 58, that when 
Christ came to Nazareth, ' he did not many mighty works there, because 
of their unbelief.' Faith holds the arm of God's wrath, and of his justice, 
and it lets loose the arm of his power, and wieldeth and manageth all that 
is in God ; and God he is not shy to attribute all to faith that he himself 
doth. You shall find this in many instances in Scripture. Take that 
memorable place in Acts iii. 16, sec how strangely he speaks there ; ' Know,' 
saith he, ' that his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man 
strong, whom you see r.nd know.' You see here that he putteth his name, 
and faith in his name, both into commission together for the making this 
man strong ; and his name is all his attributes, his mercy, and his good- 
ness, and his power, and whatsoever else was employed in doing that great 
miracle to this poor man. And here now is the reason also couched why 
that God is not jealous to put faith into commission with his own name, 
because that faith gives all to his name again, it gives all to God. Faith, 
if it be genuine, will not rob Christ a whit ; therefore in the Scripture you 
shall find, that what faith is said to do, Christ is said to do, to save, and to 
justify, and to sanctify, &c. 

The Scripture calls the righteousness of Christ the righteousness of faith, 
and the reason is this, because it is all one in respect of the soul's account, 
which truly believeth, and it is all one in God's account. It is all one in 
the soul's account to say that God doth it, and Christ doth it, and faith 
doth it, because the law of faith, the genius of faith, the form of faith, lies 
in this, in attributing all to God, and all to Christ, and nothing to itself. 
While God doth all upon believing, faith attributes all to him ; it is not 
faith else, for it is the genuine property of faith so to do : Gal. ii. 20, ' The 
life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.' 
But mark 'how he diminisheth it : ' Nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me.' Faith still comes in with, 'It is not I,' even then 
when all is attributed unto it. It is its essential property so to do, and to 
give all unto God. Thus it doth in the soul's account. And thereupon in 
God's account it is all one too. You shall find that Christ seems careless 
what he attributes to faith. The truth is, this grace trusteth Christ, and 
Christ trusts this grace with all ; for he knew that when he attributed any- 
thing to faith, be closely attributed it altogether to himself. It were a 
strange thing to hear that faith should be made omnipotent, that you should 
make another God of it as it were (as I told you even now it was made 
omniscient, because it maketh all things present to it), which is only attri- 
buted to God, Matt. xix. 26, that ' with him all things are possible ;' and 
Christ (Mark xiv. 36) makes it a property of God only, ' Father,' saith he, 
' all things are possible unto thee.' Were it not blasphemy now to say of 
any creature, or of any man, that all things are possible to him ? When 
Christ, in like manner, took on him to forgive sins, in Matt. ix. 3, they 
quarrelled with him, ' This man blasphemeth,' say they ; ' who can forgive 
sins but God only ? ' But now you shall find in plain words in Scripture 
(even of Christ himself, who hath said it, Mark ix. 23), that ' all things are 
possible to him that believeth ; ' it is, you see, the very same phrase that 
is used concerning God himself. I need not to tell you that you are saved 
by faith, and that you live by faith, and are justified by faith : no, what is 
said of God is said also of faith. And when Christ saith that all things are 
possible to him that believeth, it is as if he had said, All things are possible 
to me ; because the grace he ascribes all this to gives all unto God again, it 



470 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK I. 

only apprehends the power of God, is but persuaded that God is able, and 
so resteth upon it; this is faith. Christ, when he had done a miracle, when 
he had saved a man's soul, when he himself was present in it, yet he would 
seem to put it off from himself, and to put it upon the man's faith : ' Thy 
faith hath saved thee,' and ' Thy faith hath made thee whole,' and the 
like. Had these speeches been spoken to any other grace, had he said it 
to humility itself, it would have made it proud ; but because he speaks it to 
faith, which still comes in with ' It is not i,' and that God doth all, and 
though I live by faith, yet it is the Son of God that liveth in me, and doth 
but merely know God, and take in what is in God, and what is in Christ, 
and sets all these a- work, so long faith is still nothing. Though as Paul said 
of himself, that he did more than all the apostles, so though this grace doth 
more than all graces else, more than the angels in heaven, yet notwith- 
standing ' I am nothing,' saith the poor soul, 'I have done nothing,' ' It is 
not I, but the grace of God that is in me,' And because that faith doth 
thus glorify God in this high and transcendent manner, by giving all to 
him, hence it is that God puts so much honour and glory upon it ; and it 
will be found even thus high 'unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ.' And therefore when we exhort you to believe, 
what do we exhort you to ? To set up Jesus Christ in your hearts, to set 
him up a throne there, to ascribe all to him, and to go out to him for all, 
and to set up God in your hearts, and to attribute all to him, to make him 
and Jesus Christ all in all. This is that is done when we exhort you to 
believe. So that there is no danger in commending this thing to you, for 
the very nature, the very law of the grace itself, if right and true faith, is 
to empty the creature of all, and to give all unto God. 

CHAPTER III. 

The excellence of faith, in that it is most active, and hath the greatest influence 
in the uhole course of our salvation from Jirst to last. 

2. This grace will be found of all other unto honour and glory at the 
appearing of Christ, if we respect man's salvation. This I shall make forth 
to you by running over some particulars. I will not stand to shew you the 
excellency of faith in this respect, that if there be any condition of the cove- 
nant of grace, faith alone is it (as our divines speak), and it is that alone 
that God requires, but I say I will not stand upon that; only this is it that 
I will hold forth to you, that this grace is that which carries the soul on 
from first to last, and never ceaseth till it hath brought it to salvation. In 
this little poor brittle vessel God hath ventured the blood of Christ, ventured 
in it the souls of his redeemed, the dwelling of his Holy Spirit, and all the 
works of the Spirit ; they are all in this brittle vessel through the power of 
the Holy Ghost acting the soul by it, to set the soul safe on shore in the 
other world ; and it ceaseth not, I say, till it hath carried the soul to Christ, 
and put it immediately into his hands. It begins all, and it endeth all, 
manageth all till the soul comes to heaven. I say in this life, my brethren, 
there are two principles of life to mankind, as there is of life and nourish- 
ment to the sons of men : the one is in the womb by the navel-string, by 
which it takes in all its nourishment then. But no sooner is it out of the 
womb, and cometh into the world, but it hath another principle to take in 
nourishment by, and then the other is cut off, and is of no use. So it is 
here ; there are two principles we are to live by for evermore ; there is faith, 
which is a seeing of Christ absent, and there is vision, which is seeing of 



CilAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 471 

him present in heaven. We are here in this world as children in the womb, 
in comparison of the other ; and the glory of the other differs from that we 
have here, as much as the glory of the king upon his throne, from what he 
was in the womb. Now all the while we are here, it is this principle of 
faith that we live by, which is as the navel-string to convey nourishment to 
us ; but when faith hath performed all its offices, and we are grown up 
'unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ,' which is for heaven, then the soul is carried into the other eternal 
world, and then indeed faith ceascth, and the soul lives by vision. Faith 
is both nurse, and midwife, and all, to the soul, both for the beginning and 
carrying on, and doing all, till you come to the other world. I shall run 
over some particulars to manifest this to you. 

(1.) It is faith that prepares the soul for Christ. A man's conscience 
may be first set a- work in the sight of sin, set upon by all, and they may 
humble him, and bring him down very low ; but that which strikes the 
great stroke in preparing you for Christ is the taking you off for ever from all 
abilities, and from whatsoever is in yourselves, and out of that emptiness 
to go to Jesus Christ. Now it is faith only that doth this ; that only is 
the emptying grace which is the filling grace of Christ. Though the Spirit 
begins upon a man's conscience first, yet it is faith that perfects that work 
of making you nothing, and then it comes and raisethyouup to all things in 
Christ. Now as it is a rule, both in the law of nature and of common- 
wealths, that it is the same power must make void a law that makes a law, 
the same power that creates must annihilate and bring to nothing, so it 
is the same faith that brings the soul to nothing, and empties it of itself, 
and of all things else, and that brings it unto Jesus Christ, and fills it 
with the fulness that is in him. It is all but faith digging downward, and 
working upward. In John xvi. 8, it is said, ' The Spirit shall convince 
the world of sin, and of righteousness.' The thing I quote it for is this, 
the word there that is translated ' convince,' is the same that is used in 
the definition of faith in Heb. xi. 2. You know faith there is called < the 
evidence of things not seen ;' the word is 'iXiy/os, conviction, the same that 
Christ useth here when he saith, ' The Spirit shall convince the world of 
sin ;' that is, he shall work faith in them to see their lost condition ulti- 
mately. The same spirit of faith and conviction that convinceth me of 
righteousness, convinceth me of my lost condition ; and therefore he adds, 
if you mark it, ' Because ye believe not on me ;' for that is the ultimate 
conviction that prepares a man for Christ. To take a man off of his own 
bottom, to make him see that he hath no ability to believe in Christ of 
himself, this faith doth ; and having done thus, convinces a man of his lost 
condition ultimately. What is the reason the first promise is made to 
poverty of spirit by Christ, in Mat. v. 3 ? Certainly in poverty of spirit 
there he includes faith, and Christ would not have pronounced a blessed- 
ness but upon forgiveness of sins, and that is upon believing ; yet it is 
eminently denominated poverty, because it is a work of faith, as making 
the soul poor. It is faith only that makes a man fling away his own right- 
eousness, and to count it dross and dung, as you have it in Phil, hi., and 
to lay hold upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. It is faith that 
ultimately strikes that great stroke in preparation so much spoken of ; and 
truly other preparation will not drive a man to Christ. 

(2.) And then when the soul is thus ultimately emptied by faith, and is 
lost, it is faith that first spies out Christ, as that all-sufficient satisfaction 
received by God the Father. When the soul is in a storm, and is even 
cast away in his own apprehension, when it hath thrown overboard all his 



•172 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK I. 

own goods, all his own righteousness, all his own hopes, all his own abili- 
ties, or whatever it be, and if God should leave the soul in that condition, 
the wrath of God, like mighty waves, would break in upon it, and swallow 
it up. What doth faith now ? It climbs up to the top of the mast. Oh 
there is Christ, I have spied out the Lord Jesus, and it makes out to him 
instantly, gets aboard of him presently. Therefore now the entrance into 
the state of grace is attributed unto faith, in Rom. v. 1, ' We have access 
by faith into this grace wherein we stand.' 

(3.) Then again, though there is a radical union that we have with Jesus 
Christ, without all preparation, for he takes us before we take him, yet 
notwithstanding, all the communion we have with Jesus Christ is transacted 
by faith. The union, on our part, is mainly and primarily by faith : it is 
that which, on our part, ties the marriage knot ; it is not love, but consent, 
that makes man and wife. It is the heart's coming off to be Christ's, and 
going unto Christ to be his, and to be righteousness for him, and to be a 
head and a Saviour to him ; this is it which makes a union, and this is 
done by faith. There are but two things that do marry us unto Christ, as 
Hos. ii. 19 clearly holds forth : ' I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness 
and in loving-kindness ; ' that is now on God's part. But what is on our 
part ? It follows : ' and thou shalt know the Lord.' There are but these 
two things make the match. Here is the faithfulness and loving-kindness 
of God on his part ; and then here is on our part, ' You shall know the 
Lord.' I opened that before out of Jer. ix. I need not stand to repeat it, 
for in the Old Testament you shall find that faith is expressed, as there, by 
our knowing of God, who exerciseth loving-kindness in the earth. Now 
though that love doth unite too, for the soul is united to what it loves by 
love, yet it is faith that brings Jesus Christ into the heart, and reveals him 
to the soul in all his excellencies and his glory. We apprehend his love 
first, or his excellencies first, how lovely he is, even before love unites the 
soul to him. So that faith is first, and though that love may unite us to 
him, as for the excellencies in his person, yet take him as he is a mystical 
head, and as a husband, and a husband given, so it is faith that goes out 
to him as such, and goes out to him with an instinct after mystical union 
with him. 

(4.) And then, all fellowship and communion with him, to be sure, is by 
faith. Unto all communion and fellowship with another, there are two 
things required. The first is, to make that person real and present ; and 
the second is, to have a familiar bold access. Now it is faith only that 
doth both these things to us, and therefore it is faith that lays the founda- 
tion for all the fellowship and communion that we have with the Father 
and with the Son, the which the apostle John so much commendeth. First, 
it is faith only that makes God and Christ present, that so we may have 
fellowship with them, for we only have fellowship with those that are some 
way or other present to our spirits. It is not love that makes another pre- 
sent ; it may set the fancy on work to make pictures of the party absent, 
but it is divine faith alone that hath the art to make God and Jesus Christ 
present. It ' sees God that is invisible,' &c, causeth God to dwell in the 
heart, and bringeth Christ down from heaven, and causeth him to dwell in 
the heart. There is no more of God to my soul than that which by faith 
it takes in of him ; therefore wicked men are said to be without God and 
without Christ in the world, for so far is God and Christ got into a man's 
soul, as he by faith sees him, and takes in the knowledge of him, and takes 
him in so really, as love could not make that realit}' ; it may set the fancy 
on work, as I said, to make pictures in the fancy and to talk of him, but 



Chap. III. J or justifying faith. ',,'■'> 

the party is not there present, so as faith makes God and Christ to he to 
the soul. And then again, it is faitii that makes us familiar with God : all 
our ' access with boldness' it is ' by the faith of him,' as Eph. iii. 12 hath 
it ; ' beholding him with open face,' we come to him with open face, with 
confidence and boldness. The communion we have by faith with Christ, 
is often compared unto eating and drinking, as in John vi. 46. It is so 
for the reality of it : ' My flesh is meat indeed,' saith he. Now a man hath 
many members in his body, but he hath communion with his meat no way 
but by his mouth and stomach, and indeed he can have it no way else : the 
hand takes it, the eye sees it, and the like, but unless the mouth and 
stomach receive it, the man starves still. Faith alone is that which takes 
Jesus Christ to fetch nourishment from him, makes a man find the sweet- 
ness that is in him, and draws virtue from him, makes my soul in this 
respect one with him, and he with me. 

(5.) And then all the joy we have in Jesus Christ, it is through believ- 
ing : Rom. xv. 13, that you may be ' filled with all joy and peace through 
believing.' In John iv. 14, unto him that believeth there is promised a 
fountain of living water, springing up in his own heart, which faith is indeed 
the fountain of, for you see it is to him that believeth. He that believeth 
hath the witness in himself, hath the fountain of all joy in himself; so the 
next words to the text, • In whom believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak- 
able and full of glory.' 

And thus, as it brings us into communion with Christ, so it brings the 
Spirit also down into the heart. I acknowledge that the Holy Ghost comes 
down without all preparation upon a man's heart, for how else is a man 
prepared but by the Holy Ghost, when he comes to convert a man '? Yet 
there is a coming of the Holy Ghost down upon a man's soul upon believ- 
ing. The great promise of the Holy Ghost, which the New Testament so 
much speaks of, to seal a man up to salvation, to give a man fellowship 
with the Father and with the Son, which was the great coming down of the 
Holy Ghost you read of in the primitive times in respect of grace, — he came 
upon men in respect of gifts, but that is nothing to salvation, — but that 
great promise of sending down the Holy Ghost to seal up a man's salvation, 
and to give him communion with God the Father, and with -Jesus Christ, 
and to fill him with the fulness of God, the coming of the Holy Ghost to 
this purpose we receive by faith. The text is express for it, Gal. iii. 14, 
• That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' And that 
is the reason, I take it, that in John xiv. 17, Christ speaking of that coming 
of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, he tells them that they had him already, 
they had him so far as to enable them to believe : ' He dwelleth with you,' 
saith he ; but there was a farther having of him as a Comforter. Now he 
tells them there, that the world cannot receive that Spirit, because it seeth 
him not, neither knoweth him. I take it the meaning may be this, that 
the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost to come thus as a comforter, ts 
a sealer, which is the thing promised there to the disciples, till such time 
as a man knows and sees, that is, believes. For otherwise, if this were 
true, that no man could receive the Holy Ghost till he knoweth him and 
seeth him, I would ask, How comes a man unconverted (as all once are) to 
know him and see him, and to see Christ ? By faith, that must be acknow- 
ledged. And who works this faith ? The Holy Ghost certainly. There- 
fore there is a receiving of the Holy Ghost, as a comforter and as a sealer, 
upon believing. 

And then I might likewise shew you, that all our standing in grace is by 
faith. Rom. v. 2, ' By whom we have access by faith into the grace wherein 



474 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK I. 

we stand ;' and stand by faith, for as we have access into the grace by faith, 
so we stand by it too. And in the words a little before the text, we are 
said to be ' kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' Mark 
it, faith is joined there in commission with the power of God. Doth the 
power of God keep you ? Faith keepeth you too. And as I said before, 
God is not shy of attributing that to faith which is proper only to himself, 
because faith attributes all to the power of God, and gives that the honour. 
But I say, we are kept through faith ; for, my brethren, if the way of our 
being kept were by other graces, we were in a miserable case, we should 
be at a loss ever and anon ; but faith is never nonplussed. Adam did not 
live by faith, and what then ? He had no access into the grace in which 
he stood, no, in which he fell rather ; but ' by faith we have access into 
the grace wherein we stand.' Faith it stands, and stands out all storms, 
as I may express it to you. Whenas waves are ready to overwhelm the 
soul, what doth faith ? It leads a man to the Rock that is higher than he, 
as the psalmist hath it, Ps. lxi. 2. All a man's other graces are but like 
quicksands : if he stand upon them, he is soon swallowed up. It is faith 
that carries the soul to Christ, who is the rock, and upon whom, when the 
soul hath set its footing, it standeth sure. If the soul be in any disquiet- 
ness, what recovers it ? It is faith. ' Why art thou cast down, my 
soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? Trust thou in God,' Ps. 
xlii. 5. There is the remedy. Be you in any great tentation, if you can 
but get to believe, and to see God and Christ, so as that by faith he become 
but present to your spirits, and that you can see that in him that draws 
your hearts to rest upon him, your tentation is gone presently ; it is impos- 
sible that any man can be miserable if he believe. • Thou wilt keep him 
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.' It is a famous place that 
in Isa. xxvi. 3. And how is the mind stayed on God ? By faith. If a 
man be fallen, what reduceth him again ? It is faith. If you let go your 
faith when you fall into sin, you will fall down to the bottom ; as when a 
man is going up a ladder, if his foot slip, and he let go his hands, what 
can hinder him from falling to the ground ? When Christ foresaw that 
Peter would sin against him, what said he ? 'I have prayed that thy faith 
fail not.' If thy faith fail not, that will recover all again. ' If any man 
sin,' saith the apostle, ' we have an advocate with the Father.' Let him go 
to Jesus Christ, and begin to recover himself by faith, and then let him 
mourn for sin, &c. Renew thy faith, and thou renewest all. It is faith 
that bears the brunt of all tentations. When all other graces are under 
hatches, and dare not look out, faith will be above board, and steer the 
ship still. ' Above all, take the shield of faith,' saith the apostle. A shield, 
you know, stands a man in stead when his sword is gone, and when his hel- 
met is cracked ; and when all his other armour is gone, he may lie safely 
under his shield, for that used to cover the whole man. It is faith that 
can deal with the wrath and anger of God, and with all the fiery darts of 
Satan, and makes a man, when he hath done all, to stand ; so the expres- 
sion is in Eph. vi. Other graces in such a case, poor things, they will all 
stand trembling, and cry out, ' Who shall deliver us ?' But faith says, ' I 
thank my God, through Jesus Christ,' he is he that will deliver me. And 
it quencheth all the fiery darts of Satan too. We may in this case speak 
of faith, as the Scripture speaks of God in Isa. lix. 16, ' He saw that there 
was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor ; therefore his 
arm brought salvation.' Indeed faith is the arm of the Lord, and that 
brings salvation to us, when all other graces are at a loss. It is faith which 
cau bear out conflicts with God himself. This was it that bore Christ 



ClIAr. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 475 

upon the cross, and enabled him to say, • My God, my God,' when God 
had forsaken him. And when God seems to be a man's enemy, and to 
fight against him, he secretly upholds faith within him to stand it out : 
1 Though he kill me,' saith Job, ■ yet will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. 
And when God, who is greater than our heart, and is able to condemn us, 
and when conscience, that hath so much guilt laid up in it, is against us, 
then can faith have access with boldness unto the throne of grace ; or at 
leastwise the soul thereby is enabled to trust in God. 

I should shew you here likewise, that faith is the mother of all graces ; 
and when I say so, my meaning is not, as some have said, that all habits 
of sanctification, and of all graces, they are wrought upon us after faith, 
and after the act of believing. No ; 'he that believeth, he is born of God,' 
John v. 3 ;* and faith itself is a part of the new creature, which God 
works in us. Eut though it be not the mother of all the habits of grace in us, 
which are all wrought in the whole lump at first ; and though God draws faith 
out first, yet it is that grace that sets all other graces a-work, that sets all 
wheels a-going. When God hath drawn out faith to lay hold upon Christ, 
then it works by love, it is faith that then goes out for strength in Christ, 
that manageth all motives to move to obedience, and to live to him that 
died for me. It is faith that fetcheth all acceptation for every work we 
do ; ' without faith it is impossible to please God.' As faith justifies the 
person, so it justifieth, and (as Luther was wont to say) it fulfils the whole 
law in Christ. Why ? Because I have recourse to Christ, which hath a 
righteousness beyond mine, and it throws away its own righteousness : 
therefore it is called ' the end of the law to him who believeth,' Rom. x., 
that is, the perfection of the law. 

I might shew you also, that it overcomes the world, it overcomes all 
the good of the world, and all the evil of the world ; and likewise how it 
sweeteneth all crosses. It overcomes all the good things of the world. So 
Heb. xi. 13, Moses, by faith, ' seeing him that was invisible,' forsook 
Egypt, and ' refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.' It brings 
in objects so strong, so vigorous, so transcendently glorious into the soul, 
that it mastereth reason, and sense, and lusts, and all. It overcomes the 
evil of the world : Heb. xi. 33, ' Through faith they subdued kingdoms, 
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the 
edge of the sword,' &c. ; 2 Tim. i. 12, ' Therefore I also suffer these things : 
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded he is able to keep 
that I have committed to him.' 

And when you come to die (let me but add that), it must be by faith ; 
faith, as it begins all, so it ends all. It is that which must stand you in stead 
when that king of terrors environs you. It is not your own graces that 
will help you ; but if thy soul hath been familiar with God by faith (for 
there is a familiarity grows upon God by exercising acts of faith towards God), 
faith will resign up the soul immediately into the hands of God and Christ 
with boldness. ' Lord,' saith he, ' into thy hands I commend my spirit.' 
That very speech was the voice of faith, and it was the greatest trust that 
ever was. ' These all died in faith,' saith he in Heb. xi., and therefore 
salvation is called ' the end of our faith,' in this Epistle, chap. i. ver. 9. 

I shall in a word make a use of it, and so conclude. And the use is but 
plainly this, to pitch your hearts upon seeking that at the hands of God 
and of Jesus Christ, and upon exercising that especially which will most be 
found unto the glory of God in you, and most to honour and glory unto 

* This is a mis-quotation. In 1 John iv. 7, we read, ' Every one that loveth is 
born of God.' — Ed. 



476 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK I. 

you also, at the appearing of Jesus Christ, and that is this grace of faith. 
There is no grace glorifies God so much as this ; a few thoughts of believ- 
ing glorify him much more than a great deal of obedience. This will be 
found at the latter day. If you find that this grace hath not sprung up in 
you, or abounded in you, seek unto God that this grace of all graces else 
may abound ; and to that end I have set out the excellency of faith to you. 
It is the great work of God ; so Christ said when they asked him, what 
they should do that they might work the works of God ? ' This,' saith he, 
1 is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' Our 
Saviour Christ, when the apostles said unto him, ' Lord, increase our faith,' 
Luke xvii. 5, he did presently on purpose fall on the commending it yet 
more to them, and setting out the excellency of faith, and told them what 
great things it could and would do, to the end he might make them inflamed 
yet more after believing, and that their hearts might be set yet more upon 
endeavouring after it. You say well, saith he, to say, ' Lord, increase our 
faith ;' for of all graces else it is good to seek the increase of that, because 
it is such a grace as can do all things, that can set on work all that is in 
God, and set a-work likewise all other graces. 



CHAPTER IV. 

How good works are not slighted by exalting faith alone to have an interest in 

our justification. 

The second thing which I propounded, was to invalidate a false corollary, 
that corrupt minds are apt to deduce from our putting so much of the power 
of godliness to faith, and attributing so much to it, as that it should be the 
sole instrument of justification, of union on our parts, and communion with 
Christ, and more to be looked out for than all works else. Hence men 
take occasion to think, that inherent holiness and obedience issuing thence, 
are hereby slighted, and that this tends to have works of holiness neglected. 
But for answer, 

1. As for slighting of works and inward holiness, we are bold to profess, 
that take faith when it beholds with open face the glory of Christ, who is 
the desire and delight of faith's eye, and when it is a-viewing over the 
beauty of Christ from top to toe, and every part of his righteousness 
wrought for it and imputed to it ; and then when it casts its eye upon its 
own inherent holiness wrought in itself, and all the good works of holiness 
wrought by itself, which to eternity it shall be enabled to do, it will think 
meanly of them all. Yea, if the rich and glorious righteousness of all the 
angels in heaven should offer to present itself to a believer's thoughts with 
a supposed imagined offer of exchange, it will and doth slight them all in 
comparison of this of Christ's, which faith hath in its eye. As the sun 
puts out the lesser stars, so doth the righteousness of this Sun put out the 
glory of the obedience of all the morning stars, saints and angels. What 
says Paul, Phil. iii. 8, 9, when faith is broad awake, and the Sun of 
righteousness arisen on him ? Then he accounts all the righteousness 
and conformity to the law but as dung and dross, which our divines inter- 
pret rightly of his righteousness and works done after conversion as well as 
before. ' But what' (says Bellarmine) ' doth he account the fruits of the 
Spirit, which are for God's relish, and pleasing to him ? doth he call these 
dog's meat ? It is a blasphemy to do so, if that be his meaning.' But 
take these two things with you, and you will not say so : 1st, That it is 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. J 77 

but a comparative contempt, not simply ; lie slights indeed his own right- 
eousness, but how ? For the super-excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
Lord, and in comparison of winning Christ, and being found in him, which 
faith can only help you to. And he not only slights but also renounceth 
his own righteousness for the righteousness of faith, that is, the righteous- 
ness that faith hath in its eye and keeping, not his own. And in this 
manner (comparatively, namely), we find Paul seeming to slight the law. 
It would stumble a man to hear how he speaks of it, as when he calls it 
1 a schoolmaster' and ' a prison,' Gal. iii. 23, 24 ; and ' beggarly weak ele- 
ments,' Gal. iv. 9 ; ' the ministry of death,' 2 Cor. iii. 7 ; and ' engendering 
to bondage,' Gal. iv. 34. But these were spoken but comparatively to the 
glorious things that are revealed in the gospel, not simply, for otherwise 
he commends the law as 'holy and good,' Rom. vii. 12, as ' ordained for 
life,' ver. 10. 'The law is good,' says he, 'if a man use it lawfully,' 
1 Tim. i. 8. But if they would set it in competition with the gospel, then 
it is Paul slights it ; and though he says that in itself it is glorious, 2 Cor. 
iii. 7, yet says he, in comparison with the gospel, the ministration of 
righteousness, it loseth its lustre, and hath no glory in this respect, by 
reason of this glory that excelleth, ver. 10. And, 2dly, this is only in the 
point of justification, and in relation thereunto. If the statute law offers to 
be brought into that court, or works be impleaded there, then faith casts 
them out with indignation. If they will stand at the bar and give in wit- 
ness, they may be heard, and their witness is not slighted ; but if they 
would have a hand in the sentence of justification, then they are cried 
down, and bidden to stand by, and hear faith alone to plead a man's case. 
2. Then a thing is slighted, when the respect that is due to it is not 
given it ; but when more than is due is denied, it is not slighted. A man 
slights not an inferior magistrate if he gives him not the honour due unto 
a king, nor a king if he gives him not the spiritual honour due to a minister. 
As the priests slighted not the king when they drove him out of the temple, 
and denied him to offer sacrifice, so we slight not works nor inward holi- 
ness, if we attribute not that to them which God is pleased to attribute to 
faith, or to Christ rather (for faith is but Christ's instrument to glorify 
himself by), if we say they cannot help to justify or unite to Christ ; nay, 
if when they will presume to do faith's office, we slight them not if we drive 
them out of the court, for all honour that is due to these in their places we 
give to them. Indeed, because love had once the honour to unite us to 
God as the primary and immediate tie of union, and works had the prero- 
gative of justifying, — « Do this, and thou shalt live,' — therefore, they are apt 
to look for the same respect still ; but sin broke the covenant of works, 
and made void that covenant, and then God put these out of commission, 
and out of these great offices, and substituted faith ; and if they will be 
content with their places, and give Christ and free grace the throne, they 
shall have honour enough under him. We will acknowledge the new crea- 
ture to be worth all the creatures else ; and though the soul be more worth 
than a world, yet inward holiness in the soul is worth all men's souls 
devoid of it, though but an accident ; and so, though a logician would 
reckon it less worth than the meanest substance, yet a poor soul and a 
believer esteems it more worth than millions of worlds, and thinks a dram 
of grace, a shred of this, in value above all rubies, as Solomon speaks. 
Yea, and if they could be severed (as yet in imagination and supposition 
they may), grace is more worth than superadded glory, and a Christian 
prizeth it, values it more than simply happiness. Glory is the embroidery 
of grace, and the stuff is of more worth than this embroidery, if they could 



478 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT III. BoOK I. 

be severed ; yea, indeed, grace itself is glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. It is the 
image of Christ, and called glory, and makes the church all glorious within. 
As sin is worse than hell, so grace is more worth than heaven, take heaven 
only for our joy and happiness there. Paul was content to part with heaven 
for ever (if you take heaven for a comfortable communion with Christ), but 
no offer could have been so great as to have bought of him one dram of 
grace and inward holiness, and of the love which he had to Christ in his 
heart, or of one good work that he had done for him. It was the saying of 
an holy man, that he would willingly of the two rather have more grace 
here, and exchange it for and abate of degrees of glory hereaiter. ' But 
yet hereby,' says Paul, ' I am not justified.' Yea, though God justifies us 
not for inward holiness, yet he prizeth us the more for it, and every degree 
of holiness added makes us more lovely in the sight of God, and more 
amiable, 1 Peter iii. 4. 'A meek and quiet spirit is before God of great 
price ;' it is that which makes our persons beautiful in his eyes, and makes 
him greatly desire us, and to have communion with us, and to delight in 
us : 'So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty,' Ps. xlv. 11. That God 
delights in one more than another, is because he hath bestowed more 
holiness, more beauty on them. It is not indeed that which caused him 
to set his love on us, but it is that which draws it out : Cant. iv. 9, ' Thou 
hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse,' says Christ of the graces in 
his church. It is true, we are ' accepted in the beloved,' in Christ through 
free grace, Ephes. i. G, and it is faith makes the match ; yet inward holi- 
ness doth cause him to delight in us, and to take more pleasure in us. 
And so as to every act of obedience we acknowledge a great deal of worth 
in it, as that it is a fruit of the Spirit, a child begotten by Christ, Rom. 
vii. 4, o, and therefore if the soul prizeth Christ, it must needs prize the 
begotten by him (as John says, 1 John v. 1, in case of loving our brother), 
and the soul will desire still to have more children by him. And likewise 
as it is fruit by Christ to the glory of God, it glorifies him though it justifies 
not us ; and what is grace but making God's glory our end ? and if so, 
then a man desires to be filled with works ; and that being his end, his 
desire of holiness is infinite, as the desires of a man's end are to be. And 
likewise he prizeth it as a rich treasure for himself laid up in store against 
that day, 1 Tim. vi. 19, when he shall receive bills of exchange in heaven ; 
therefore a man is said to be rich in good works there, as well as rich in 
faith elsewhere, James ii. 5. 

3. Neither may anything we attribute to faith cause a neglect of holiness 
and obedience. 1st, Indeed it is true, if we attributed all this to an idle 
faith, to a faith that had no efficacy to change a man's heart and life, and 
thought true faith might be without ether graces, as the papists do, and 
that it might stand with a reigning sin, and then made such a faith the 
instrument of our union with Christ, &c, then this calumny might justly 
be laid upon our doctrine, and that which we profess. But on the contrary, 
we profess that so much faith as there is, so much holiness and obedience 
too, and that it doth as necessarily follow upon it as light doth from the 
sun. "When we say (as the apostle doth), that in Christ nothing availeth 
anything but faith, we add withal, ' which worketh by love,' Gal. v. 6, and 
that that faith which is without holiness is dead (as James says), as you 
say, that is a dead drug that works not. If we made faith an idle hand to 
receive pardon only, then it were something ; but we make faith a labouring 
and a working hand also : ' Remembering,' says the apostle, ' your work of 
faith,' 1 Thes. i. 3, John vi. 28, 29. It is full of works, as Chrysostom 
says, it hath all good works in the belly of it ; and therefore Col. ii. 7, the 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 470 

being ' established in faith' hath ' abounding in thanksgiving' joined with it, 
for fulness of faith makes the heart full of thanks, and therefore full of 
obedience We profess that he that lies in any known sin, or neglect of 
any duty, doth deny the faith, 1 Tim. v. 8, that is, denies really what in 
words he affirms, and he shews he wants faith, and grace, and all. Yea, 
we say that the way to increase in holiness, is to increase in faith : 2 Peter 
iii. 18, ' Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.' This is 
the root ; water that, and you will be fruitful. The more faith there is, 
the more love there is too ; and the more love, the more a man is con- 
strained to love God again, and that love is laborious and desirous to please 
him, so as works do necessarily follow faith, not necessitate infaUibilitatis 
only, as fruit doth from a good tree, and these are fruits of the Spirit, but 
in a sweet manner, necessitate coactionis, for ' love constrains.' And as the 
grace revealed teacheth the understanding by a logical illation to denv 
ungodliness, Titus ii. 12, so it teacheth the heart by a physical instinct to 
love God when believed, and to mortify sin, and to put off corruption. ' If 
you have learned and been taught the truth as it is in Jesus,' you will put 
off the old man ; for if you know Christ as in truth he is to be known, that 
will follow, Eph. iv. 21, 22. And indeed not Christ only, but Christ 
apprehended by faith, doth it, and must needs do it when he is beheld by 
faith. As the sun heats through a burning-glass, so doth Christ, when he 
is let into the heart by faith, change it ; and therefore, 2 Cor. iii. 18, we are 
said to be changed into his image by beholding his glory, by the Spirit 
that is in him. And that is one reason among others why we make faith 
to be the primary grace, because it virtually contains all the other in it. 
As love is said to be ' the fulfilling of the law,' Rom. xiii. 8, and so con- 
tains all the commandments, — ' Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, 
&c, and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this 
word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour' (as the apostle says), it is recapitulated, 
reduced to those as to the head, the sum of all, that virtually contains all, — 
so I say of believing, that it alone is the fulfilling of the gospel, and it 
virtually contains love and all works else. For the object of faith is Christ 
as he is presented to us in the gospel. Now he is presented not as justifica- 
tion only, but as sanctification also ; therefore he that takes Christ as he is 
given, takes Christ for both, and Christ is made both, and he doth turn to 
him as well as believe in him in that very taking him. Therefore faith is 
receiving Christ as a Lord, and repentance is walking in him, Col. ii. 6, 
and therefore repentance is called ' a turning to Christ,' 1 Peter ii. 25. As 
when a man takes a place on him, it is supposed he subjects himself to the 
conditions and work required in it. As when a man marries a wife, it is 
supposed he will love her ; so when a man receives Christ as the truth is 
in him, it is supposed he is to obey him ; therefore it is called ' the obedi- 
ence of faith,' for all obedience is spoken in that one word, John vi. 38 ; 
when they asked what they should do to work the works of God, Christ 
tells them, ' This is the work of God, to believe ;' they meant all works ; 
and he answers the question by pointing to this one work, as containing all 
works else in it. 



480 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 



BOOK II. 

The difficulty of faith. — That it is above all the powers and facidties in man. 
— That all which is in man is so far from enabling him to believe, that it 
doth tcithstand his believing. — That faith is the work of the alone mighty 
power of God. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of the difficulty of faith ; how hard it is to attain to believe. 

Now that I have shewn you the use and excellency of this grace of faith, I 
will, discover to you the difficulty to attain it ; and this is useful to be done, 
both to make men the more to seek out for it, as also to get out of them- 
selves to God to work it. And it is indeed necessary, because else men 
will rest in an easy, slight faith, which is always a false faith ; for naturally 
men do imagine it the easiest of all things else required in us to salvation, 
that it is the easiest thing of all the rest to believe, and they wonder that 
any should make any difficulty in it. Men think if they could but do other 
things as well as believe, they should do well enough. To pray, and to 
keep the Sabbath, and to part with lusts and beloved sins, these things 
indeed are hard and difficult, and to a man impossible ; but to believe in 
Christ for salvation, this they make nothing of ; and whatever they do, 
they will surely believe and never despair ; and if they come to a poor soul 
thai is any whit troubled, they rate him, and use to say, Thou art a fool 
indeed, canst not believe ? And hence of all works else men mind this of 
faith the least. They make a business of it to be humbled, and to have 
strength to perform "duties ; but to believe, they think that would easily 
follow if they could but do other things that God requires. And hence 
also men do wonder so at such poor souls as are humbled and cut off from 
carnal hopes, that they should keep such ado and such a toil to get Christ, 
who is the object of faith, and to lay hold upon Christ, which is the main 
act of faith ; that they should run up and down from this ordinance to that 
in such a restless manner, turmoil themselves about obtaining him, as if 
there were any question to be made of having him at any time, or any 
difficulty in it. What need then is there, say they, of so many complaints 
of the want of Christ ? of so many heart-breakings and pantings after him ? 
of such troubling of ministers how to obtain him ? Men wonder at this, 
because they know not, and assent not to the power and greatness of the 
work of faith. Now this difficulty of the work of faith might in the general, 
by many ways, be made good. As, 

1. From setting forth to you the excellency, and preciousness, and glory 
of this grace, which are two epithets Peter gives it, 1 Peter i. 7, and 
difficilia pulchra, the most excellent things are difficult to compass. 

2» From the wonderful effects of it, and privileges we obtain by it. It 



Chap. L] of justifying faith. 481 

is that grace which God alone hath put in trust to give livery, and seisin, 
and possession of Christ, and heaven, and all things else. It is that elixir, 
the least dram whereof turns the heart of stone into a heart of llesh, brings 
Christ down from heaven into the heart, makes use of all the grace, power, 
virtue, that is in him ; which only can command it, and doth do it ; which 
can do all that God's attributes can do, having all God's attributes, wisdom, 
power, mercy, &c, to use, and manage, and set a-work for its own and the 
church's good. Faith of miracles did cast out devils, removed mountains, 
brought down fire from heaven, healed diseases ; but justifying faith doth 
more. It is the greatest wonder-worker in the world ; it resists Satan, 
quencheth all his darts, bears the stross of all temptations, overcomes the 
world, and therefore itself must needs be difficult. 

3. I might demonstrate this to you by comparing faith with all other 
works to be wrought as necessary to salvation. We will only set it by 
that which of all other is the easiest, and that is to humble men, and pull 
down their plumes and proud thoughts. When men think themselves to 
be rich, and to have need of nothing, then to see themselves poor, and 
blind, and miserable, and naked, how hard is it! What towers doth self- 
righteousness erect ! What high thoughts are elevated by self-flattery ! 
and how strongly doth carnal reason fortify all these ! How many weapons 
of warfare hath God prepared, and doth he use to batter down these ! 
And how many shifts, and shelters, and burrows hath the heart to fly 
unto ! Until all these be stopped, the heart is not taken, and to stop all 
these is out of the power, wisdom, and foresight of any man, and it must 
be the Spirit must do it. Now, if this be so difficult, then to bring men 
to believe must be much more ; for besides, all this fore-mentioned is but 
to prepare for believing. And if all this must be done to prepare the way 
for Christ, what difficulty is it to bring Christ into the heart ! And indeed, 
if then it were easy, and Christ would come alone, yet inasmuch as the 
work that makes way for it is so difficult, in that respect if no other, faith 
might be said to be difficult also. Yet besides, all this is but destroying 
and pulling down ; and we see in the works of art which men are able to 
do, it is easier to destroy than to build up, to wound than to heal, to cut 
and break off from the old stock than to engraft into the new, to slay than 
to make alive and bring a new soul in ; and yet such is the work of faith 
in comparison of the other. And moreover, thus to humble men, there is 
much assistance in a man's own heart to further it. There is a conscience 
in him, not capable only, but ready to convince him, if he would but hear 
it speak. There is matter enough might be picked and alleged out of his 
heart and life to condemn him, and persuade him that his estate is miser- 
able and damnable, if but produced; and therefore at the day of death it is 
so easy to persuade men to such thoughts, and at the day of judgment 
they will be easily convinced. And this state of sin and wrath is the 
common condition of all men, and was surely every man's once, so as it is 
a wonder it should be so hard to convince men of it ; for to pull down this 
house should seem to be a matter of no great difficulty, for it is ruinous, 
and apt to fall of itself ; nay, would fall but for false supports put under 
it to hold it up. But to bring men to believe, there is no principle in 
men that hath any power to give assistance to it, but it must be wrought 
anew; there is nothing to be raised out of what is in a man's self that can 
give any ground for it, for it is founded upon nothing in a man's self. 
And it is the condition but of a few to obtain Christ and this precious 
faith; for ' all men have not faith,' nor never had, nor never shall, because 
it is the faith of God's elect. 

VOL. VIII. h h 



482 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK II. 

4. To empty out of a man's heart his false faith, and to convince him 
he is an unbeliever, how hard is it ! The Spirit must ' convince the world 
of unbelief,' John xvi. 9. The law, as it required not faith, so it discovers 
not unbelief ; as it is a sin against the gospel, so the gospel discovers it ; 
and it is a still sin, that lurks and makes no noise, for it shews not itself 
in positive acts, as envy, uncleanness, &c, but in a privative way, and so 
goes stilly on, steals the heart away from God and Christ; and by a bare 
doing nothing doth all, and gives way to the reign and stirring of all lusts, 
which therefore are perceived, but not it. If therefore to convince the 

heart of unbelief be so difficult, which yet is in the heart already, then to 

bring in faith, to make faith anew in the heart, must be much more diffi- 
cult; and if to cause the heart to see faith when it is wrought cost so many 

years' search in many poor souls, what is it to work it ? 
But to let such as these and many other demonstrations go, we will 

reduce the main grounds tbat may demonstrate this difficulty of effecting 

faith in the heart to these two heads : 

1. Let us consider what is done by God for a man in heaven without him, 
when faith is wrought. 

2. What unability, yea, and obstacles, there are to the work of faith 
within a man. 

1. If the difficulty lay only in regard of what was to be wrought in us, 
it were enough, as the second head will abundantly discover ; but, besides 
this, at the bestowing faith, and at the celebration of this great union by 
faith between Christ and us, there must be a special consent and concur- 
rence, and joint-meeting of all three persons in the Trinity, when this match 
is made. As God called a council when he made man, — ' Let us make 
man,' says he, Gen. i., — so there is as solemn a council called of all the 
three persons when this new man is made ; and especially at the work of 
faith, for then Christ is bestowed. Conjunctions of sun and moon are not 
every day, especially not in one climate, especially not great conjunctions 
of the planets. Now, it is at a great conjunction of the whole Trinity; 
and when their special consent is that Christ shall be bestowed upon such 
a soul, it is then only and at such a time that faith is wrought, and in 
such a soul only. Though Christ be offered at other times by us ministers 
with warrant from God, yet at that time when faith is wrought he must be 
actually given to thee, and not for thee only. He was given for thee from 
the beginning of the world, and upon the cross; but now he is actually 
given to thee, and thou to him. The Father as a Father stands by, and 
says in heaven, Son, I give this soul to thee, to wed and betroth to thyself 
for ever; take him and own him as thy own from everlasting. And there- 
fore says Christ, John vi. 37, ' All that the Father giveth me shall come 
to me.' A deed of gift, and a delivery, is passed, by God the Father, of 
the soul into Christ's hands, and of Christ to the soul by him also. Take 
(says God) this Christ my Son for thine, with all that he and I am worth. 
There is a giving of Christ before the soul receives him, and a giving de 
pmsenti, in the present time, as distinguishing it from that which was 
from everlasting. And Jesus Cbrist, as a loving husband, bestows him- 
self, and embraceth the poor soul as his, which he had formerly redeemed 
by his blood, but hitherto had lived without him. He apprehends or em- 
braceth the soul first ere we apprehend him, Philip, iii. 12. As he loved us 
first ere we loved him, so he must apprehend us first ere we can apprehend 
him, and therefore our apprehension of him by faith is to ' apprehend that 
for which we are apprehended;' we give up ourselves to Christ, because 
he gives himself first to us. And then furthermore, Christ puts forth his 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 483 

arm from heaven, viz., the Holy Ghost, as the joiner together of both, and 
who is called 'the arm of God' in working faith, Isa. liii. 1. He is sent 
into the heart, Gal. iv. 6; and ho creates hands in us to comprehend 
Christ again, who apprehends us, and to embrace him in the promise who 
hath now embraced us, Heb. xi. 13; and gladly to embrace him, and not 
to let him go. And having him now hand in hand, we have manuduction, 
we are led by the hand by Christ to the Father through the Spirit, Eph. 
ii. 18, who therefore joined our hands together. Now, to get all the three 
persons thus joined at once effectually and actually to bestow Christ and 
the Spirit of faith upon a man, is not within any man's command. God 
indeed stands ready to do it at all times when the word is preached and 
Christ offered ; but actually thus to do it, this is rare. It is not accom- 
plished to the elect at all times, not till the fulness of time of calling 
comes, nor to any other but them. Faith is a receiving Christ; and until 
the time comes that the Father actually bestows Christ on thee, thou canst 
not receive him ; yea, and he must put his hand into thy hands too : John 
iii. 27, 'A man can receive nothing unless it be given him from heaven.' 
And that thou dost receive him, and hast a heart to do it, that must be 
given thee. And however men may think the least obstacle of faith to lie 
in this, because God is ready to do all this to every man when the gospel 
is preached ; yet when Christ gives the reason why some believed not and 
others did, he resolves it into this, John vi. 30, 37, ' I said to you, that 
} T ou have seen me, and believed not.' Why ? ' All that the Father giveth 
me shall come to me;' and verse 64, giving the reason why Judas believed 
not, therefore it was, saith he, I spake to you of this giving of the Father, 
both of you to me, and me to you, and of faith to you to come unto me. 
And this is the reason why the elect have not faith at all times wrought. 
There is a fulness of time for drawing and knitting a soul to Christ, as 
there was for Christ to take flesh. And canst thou appoint the time of 
this their meeting ? Canst thou send forth, and hast thou power of call- 
ing this great general council together when thou wilt ? Canst thou move 
God to give his Son at this time to thee, or Christ now to take possession 
of thee? No; all is a gift, and actually then bestowed, though given 
afore, when faith is wrought. This match must be concluded in heaven 
ere in thy heart, and the Father must say Amen to it, the Son Amen to 
it, and the Holy Ghost Amen to it, ere thy heart can say Amen to it; and 
therefore think not that it is an easy matter to believe. 

2. If you consider what inability, yea, what obstacles, are in the heart 
itself savingly to believe, you will grant it is difficult. 

(1.) There is nothing in the heart to help towards it. 

(2.) There is all in the heart, and without the heart, against it. 

(1.) There is nothing in the heart that induceth it to believe. There is 
no principle to promote it and help it forwards. 

1st, To clear this, consider that it is true (as all grant) that we have a 
posse remotum, a remote capability; we have faculties wherein this faith 
may be engrafted, so that God shall not need to add a new faculty into the 
soul ; but this will and understanding of ours, which was apprehensive of 
and comformable to the law, is the same which is to apprehend Christ, and 
to be made conformable to the obedience of faith ; and the same natural 
faculties are the subjects of both. There need not a new finger to be 
added to the hand to apprehend Christ withal; and there are no more 
faculties in the soul when it is regenerated than when it was in unbelief, 
only they are endued with new powers and abilities. 

2dly, But yet some affirm, and those such as are godly and judicious, 



484 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK II. 

great divines, that though new faculties are not added, yet the understand- 
ing and will of Adam, in the state even of pure nature, wanted that habit 
or principle whereby believers are enabled to believe in Christ. To believe 
and put trust in God as a faithful Creator he had power to do, but not in 
Christ as a Mediator. So that as the way of salvation by Christ is new, 
and contrary to that whereby Adam was to attain to life ; so there must 
be a new principle to attain it, a new spring which might turn the stream 
of all the faculties from looking to be saved by doing, to which they natu- 
rally teed, and which might direct a man to glorify God by believing. It 
is a new instinct to carry the soul of itself to Christ, as before it was carried 
out to works. As the law of faith and the law of works are different, Rom. 
iii. 27, and this law of faith is a new law, so it was not written in Adam's 
heart. This assertion, I confess, if it could be clearly proved, would argue 
faith to be exceeding difficult indeed, as being not only out of the reach and 
power of corrupt nature, but of pure nature also. But this I list not now 
to dispute. 

3dly. However, whether it was in Adam's power to believe or not, yet sure 
I am, that the objects propounded to be believed are of a higher difficulty, 
infinitely higher than any which that state was capable of. Adam in 
innocency could not have been set so hard and sublime a task and exercise 
as to believe in Christ is, and all his other lessons given him to learn were 
easy in comparison of this. So that suppose we have no other principles 
than what we had afore in Adam, yet this faith is a difficulter piece of 
service than he was set about ; for example, for Adam to believe that God 
made him and the world (which was a point of faith to him as well as to 
us, though the world was not six days' standing, for the making of it was 
not a thing to him seen, and therefore it is reckoned as an act of faith, 
Heb. xi. 3), this was easy in comparison of our believing God himself to be 
made man, and to come down into the world clothed with our frailties. 
This would have put all the faith in him to a stand, and made him stretch 
his eye-strings, for the angels themselves put out their necks to behold it. 
So to believe that the soul that sins shall die, and that on that day he did 
eat of the forbidden fruit he must die the death, was easy for him ; for if 
by doing he lived, he might well believe that by transgressing he should 
die ; and yet his faith was easily overturned in this, he believed it not long, 
and therefore fell. But to believe that God would give, or hath given his 
Son to death, and that God would ' make him sin who knew no sin,' this 
would have staggered and amazed his faith. So for him to believe that 
whilst he pleased God in all things he should continue in his favour, and 
live by doing so, and be justified by it, was easy ; for his own sense of 
God's love, brought into his heart and maintained by obedience, might 
persuade him to it, and he had a sacrament of the tree of life to confirm 
him in it, and God's remunerative justice might assure it to him. But to 
believe that God will and doth justify an ungodly person, and account him 
as righteous as the angels, would well nigh have posed, if not non-plussed 
his faith. And further, to believe that when that ungodly person to be 
justified hath not one dram of power to please God with, yet he ought to 
live in another, and to have a principle of life and grace out of himself, and 
to have his life and abilities hid in another, fetched from another who lives 
in him, and all to be fetched by believing, this would have been a paradox 
in Adam's divinity, and would well nigh have overthrown it, for it crossed 
and contradicted the faith which he had in that his estate, which was 
maintained by a stock of grace in himself committed to his own hands to 
dispose of. As the psalmist said, ' I thought to understand this, and it 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 485 

was too high for me ;' so may I say, when he should have attempted to 
believe this, he would have found load enough to charge his faith with, if 
it had not been too high for him. When our Saviour Christ, John iii., 
conferred with Nicodemus about the easy and most familiar things which 
concerned salvation, the truth of which even earthly light might convince 
him of, as that ' what is born of the flesh is flesh,' and therefore corrupt 
man's nature is so ; nature and sense might have instructed him in all this, 
and in a farther truth also, viz., that therefore if ever this nature enters 
heaven, it must be changed and born again, and that image which at first 
was lost must be restored. He that heard of the state of innocency would 
have easily assented unto this, that the same image must be renewed ere 
God accepts us, and yet this sets Nicodemus his mind in an uproar, 
John iii. 12, and yet these things Christ tells him were but earthly in 
comparison, ' and if ye believe not these,' saith he, ' how shall ye believe 
if I tell you of heavenly things ?' Now what were those heavenly things 
but the truths of the gospel which are necessary to be believed, which 
Christ brought down from heaven, because they had never grown in 
Adam's garden, who was a man of the earth, earthly ? And he instanceth 
in some of them in the following verses ; he instanceth in the human and 
divine nature of Christ, and their union, and the doctrine of faith, and in 
being cured by believing on him, as they in the wilderness were by the 
brazen serpent ; he instanceth in that amazing thing also, that God should 
so love the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth 
on him should not perish. Now to believe these and the like things, must 
be by a power derived from heaven. 

4thly. But sure I am, that whether Adam had such a power, yea or no 
then, yet now in corrupt nature it is utterly lost and gone ; for besides the 
general reason that the whole image of God is lost, there was a special 
reason why he should lose this of faith above any other part, for he fell by 
unbelief, and therefore all the ruins fell upon that arm, and broke it all to 
pieces. The special guilt of that sin shattered that part of God's image 
all to shivers. We are ' shut up under unbelief,' Rom. xi. 32, and faith 
is the way out of that miserable condition we are in, when the door is 
locked and barred by unbelief, and we cannot open it, nor shoot nor break 
open the lock. To believe but the law of Moses, how hard is it ! And 
though men have a conscience, in which the law is written by nature, yet 
Christ tells the Pharisees, John v. 47, that they did not truly believe 
Moses. How hardly are men brought to believe the threatenings, espe- 
cially with application, when yet they are thundered out against all, and 
there is a guilt tells us that we deserve death who do such things, Rom. 
i. 32, much more hardly are men brought to believe the promises, which 
belong but to a few : ' If ye believe not Moses's writings,' says Christ, 
'how shall ye believe my words ?' John v. 47. He argues a minori ad 
ma jus, from the less to the greater. Did I say to believe the law ? I may 
say that to do the whole law exactly is as easy as to believe savingly in 
Christ. This is a received maxim among all divines, and despairing Spira 
set his seal to it out of woeful experience, when he spoke these words, 
You command me to believe. I say I cannot ; your command is as impos- 
sible to me as to keep the moral law. 

5thly. All the principles left in man will help nothing towards the attain- 
ing of it. 

1. All the parts of wit and wisdom in the world will not help us to 
believe : 1 Cor. ii. 5, ' Faith stands not in the wisdom of men, but in the 
power of God ; ' the wisdom of other men cannot beget it, nor the wisdom 



486 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK II. 

of a man's own heart cannot attain it, or give the least inclination to it, hut 
the alone power of God, for of that likewise he speaks, and therefore says 
he, ver. 6-8, ' The wisdom of the princes of this world,' that are the 
wisest, ' came to nought, and could not reach it. Eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love him.' 

2. Natural conscience cannot arrive to faith, it will set you a-doing 
indeed, but not a-believing ; it will discover other sins to you, but not this; 
for the Spirit must convince of unbelief. The law of works is written in 
conscience, but not the law of faith ; and therefore men that make con- 
science of private prayer, and of keeping the Sabbath, and of avoiding 
uncleanness and adultery, and dare not omit or commit any of these, yet 
make no conscience of believing, nor are struck with a sense of unbelief. 
Nay, therefore believers themselves, that take thought about other things, 
are often careless of believing, look not at this as the main duty, the great 
command, the highest obedience. 

3. All the duties thou canst perform cannot beget one jot of faith: Rom. 
ix. 16, ' It is not in him that wills nor runs, but in God that sheweth 
mercy.' Though Paul was as exact in keeping the law as ever man was, 
yet, 1 Tim. i. 13, he was an unbeliever. If a man should go and make 
money (as I may so say) of all he is or hath, and put all into one stock, 
if he should call in all bis strength which is put out, and is in the hands of 
learning, riches, honours, &c, and convert and turn every thought for every 
moment's time he is to live upon nothing but believing, and trade with all 
that he can make for nothing but for faith, he could not compass one 
dram. Let him take his flinty heart in one hand, and all the promises in 
the word of God in another, and strike his heart and them together to 
eternity, he would not strike out so much as one spark of saving faith. 

4. All external means cannot work faith. Christ preached, and preached 
as powerfully as ever man did, he ' spake as never no man spake,' — John 
vi. 63, ' The words I speak to you are spirit and life,' — yet the Jews remained 
unbelievers ; and Judas, that heard all his sermons, and missed not one, 
yet remained an unbeliever ; for it follows, ver. 64, 65, ' There are some 
of you believe not. For Jesus knew who should betray him. And there- 
fore I said to you, that no man can come to me except it be given him of 
my Father.' And though he preached plainly as well as powerfully, John 
x. 24, 25, yet still they doubt, as they themselves say there ; nay, says 
Christ, ' My works bear witness of me,' ver. 25, ' but yet ye believe not;' 
there is something else in it ; it is because ' ye are not of my sheep,' 
ver. 26 ; and ver. 37, ' If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not;' 
yea, John xv. 24, ' he did works which none other did ; ' and • if ye 
believe not me, yet believe the works.' But though such works as were 
never done before were added to such words as were never spoken by 
any but him, yet these admirable works and words did not effect faith in 
their hearts : John xii. 37, ' Though he had done so many miracles, yet 
they believed not on him.' 

5. As there is nothing to help to work faith within or without a man, so 
all in him is against it. As, 

(1.) All thy sins, both the power of thy sins, and the guilt of thy sins, 
oppose thy believing. 

1st. The power of thy sins is opposite to faith ; for till the heart be 
divorced from every lust, thou canst not give Christ and faith entertain- 
ment. It will forbid the banns of matrimony between Christ and thee. 
Thou canst no more take Christ for thy salvation and portion, and set him 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 487 

up in thy heart, than thou canst at once look up to heaven, and down upon 
the earth : ' How can ye believe,' says Cbrist, ' whilst ye receive honour 
one from another ?' John v. 44. 

2dly, The guilt of thy sins causes thee to depart from God, and bids 
Christ to depart from thee : ' Depart from me,' says Peter, ' fur I am a sinful 
man,' Luke v. 8. Guilt of wrong and enmity is always suspicious, and 
makes a man look upon God as an enemy, and therefore he dares not 
trust him. Men will rarely trust a reconciled enemy, nor will men be 
brought to venture themselves upon a God reconciling himself through 
Christ. Judas runs to the Pharisees when he had betrayed Christ, but he 
durst not come at Christ, his guilt would not suffer him. Sins will tell 
thee, and defiled conscience will tell thee, that thou must look for no 
mercy, and that ' there is no hope,' Jer. ii. 25, and when we would look for 
salvation, yet it is far off ; for because our sins testify against us, and we 
know them, therefore the guilt of them ariseth and puts off such thoughts 
of mercy, and discourageth the heart. As presumptuous men think they 
shall be saved because their sins are so small, so poor humbled souls, when 
they see their sins once, surmise that they shall never have mercy, because 
they are so great. What ! I ! a blasphemer, a contemner of mercy, shall 
I oUaki mercy? The soul cannot believe this. Though sin when slighted 
furthers presumption, yet when discovered it hinders faith. 

(2.) All the righteousness that is in a man for time past, and endeavours 
for time to come, also hinder the work of faith. 

1. Righteousness for time past is a hindrance to it, for men cannot have 
any righteousness in and of themselves but self will be conceited of it ; and 
a conceit of their own merit hinders them from seeing their need of, and 
looking out for Christ's. The Pharisees, that thought themselves righteous, 
were so far from faith or coming to Christ, that Christ says he came not 
to call such. The Jews ' going about to establish their own righteousness, 
submitted not to the righteousness of God by faith,' Rom. ix. 31, 32, and 
Rom. x. 3. As the law was not given for a righteous man, that is truly 
such, so nor the gospel is not given for him that hath any conceited 
righteousness of his own. Faith is that whereby we ' believe in him that 
justifies the ungodly.' As Laodicea, that thought herself rich, was thereby 
kept off from coming to Christ by faith, to buy gold of him, so the more 
goods have been increased, and the richer a man hath thought himself, the 
loather he is to break and become a bankrupt, and to suffer so much loss, 
and to stand at the courtesy of free grace, and put off his robes and come 
as a beggar, and lie naked at Christ's door. And, 

2. Endeavours for the time to come also hinder and spoil faith. A man, 
when he sees his former sinfulness and want of faith, and hath suffered the 
wreck of all his former estate, is apt to begin of his own cost to build a 
new ship to set to sea in, and lades it upon a new stock with new wares of 
duties he never did afore, and launcheth it into profession, and thinks by 
his own rowing, and tugging, and hauling, in the end to arrive at Christ, 
who goes as fast from him as he makes after him, whilst he thus goes out 
in his own strength. But if he would tie his cockboat to the ship of God's 
free grace, and commit himself to sea with it, and suffer the stream of it, 
and the gales of the Spirit, to carry him on in the use of means, he might 
attain to faith, and to the righteousness of God. Rom. ix. 32, the Jews 
sought it but as a by-faith, but as it were by the works of the law ; and I 
may in this case allude to it, a man must seek Christ and faith, but it must 
be in a way of faith, else though the duties be evangelical which they 
endeavour to perform, yet they are, as it were, the works of the law, as the 



488 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAET III. BOOK II. 

apostle's phrase is, and will be accounted as legal. A man may seek the 
righteousness of faith, and yet not by faith, or in a way of faith and sense 
of a man's own inability, and so seek after the faith itself, ' as if it were a 
work of the law ; ' and then, as Paul says, as a man condemns himself in 
what he allows, so he undoes himself in what he endeavours, and goes to 
hell by striving to go to heaven. The people of Israel, if they would have 
gone into Canaan by the way of faith in God alone, who offered to cast out 
their enemies before them, they might have done it, but that way they 
rejected through unbelief, and then set to it by their own strength ; but 
they were beaten back by their enemies, and God commanded them to go 
back again even to the brink of the Eed Sea ; so doth God deal with souls 
that have gone far into the wilderness, and are nigh believing and laying 
hold, yet subject not their souls to God's way of working faith, but attempt 
it by their own strength, and this casts them behind-hand, and they are to 
begin the work anew, and so they are brought thereby as far off as at first, 
and have need to be humbled of those their new endeavours, and then they 
are fit to enter. God hath said that no man shall prevail with his own 
strength, 1 Sam. ii. 6. And thus to endeavour after faith with our own 
strength is like the scrabbling and striving of one that cannot swim, which 
sinks him the sooner and the more, and is opposite to the way of faith ; 
for faith fetcheth all strength from another, since that is essential to that 
grace, and is one rule in the law of faith, as the apostle calls it, and there- 
fore strivings for faith out of our own strength are most opposite to the law 
of faith. A man's own strength prevents and supplants supply by faith, 
which is passive, and a receiving borrowing grace. And therefore Christ 
tells us plainly, that ' many shall strive to enter, and shall not be able,' 
like a man that would open the flood-gate of a sluice ; one who attempts to 
break open the door of unbelief, which is shut against all the world, is like 
to a man who would open the flood-gate of a sluice, the more he pulls to 
open it, the more he keeps it shut, whilst he doth it out of his own strength, 
whereas, if he would go on the other side of the stream, and commit him- 
self to it, the stream would do it alone, and carry him through it. 

3. All parts of natural wisdom and reason are against faith also. 

1st, For besides that some rest in knowledge, Rom. ii. 17-20, know- 
ledge and gifts also puff up, 1 Cor. viii. 1, but he whose heart is lift up 
believes not, Hab. ii. 4. They are opposed ; nothing opposeth faith more 
than pride, nothing makes proud more than knowledge ; and therefore, to 
confound the pride of the world, he chose out this grace of faith, which by 
making a man become a fool, saves him, 1 Cor. i. 19-21, and confounds 
all men's admired wisdom by ' saving them that believe.' 

2dly, And again, carnal reason keeps men from faith, because that is the 
form of a man as a man, and will be listened to. The philosophers defined 
a man to be animal rationale, a rational animal ; now faith hath a reach 
beyond all this, and therefore when a man ties himself to reason, and con- 
sults with it, he is kept from believing ; and when he would believe, he 
must not consider what reason says to the contrary. So Abraham, Pk,om. 
iv. 19, being not weak in faith, considered not his own body, that whereas 
reason and consideration, out of wisdom and reason, would have raised 
many an objection up, he consults not with it. And therefore God hath 
chose this grace of faith as that which fools are as capable of as wise men ; 
yea, and more, for they are apt to be credulous, and out of a sense of their 
want of wisdom to resolve their judgment into another's. Yea, and there- 
fore God hath ' chosen the poor and foolish things of the world,' because 
faith in them is more easily wrought. ' Have any of the rulers believed in 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 489 

him?' John vii. 48, 49. 'But this people that know not the law are 
accurst 1.' 

Bdly, The more reason a man hath, the stronger objections he will raise 
up against believing; therefore, in temptations, the more knowledge a man 
hath, the stronger he pleads against himself, and his wit serves to make his 
indictment the more full, and to dispute against his own salvation the more 
shrewdly, as Spira did, to the amazement of the standers by, invent such 
objections as another would not have dreamt of. And thus it hinders 
afore and in the working of faith. Afore, what is it keeps men from being 
humbled ? Their carnal reasonings, their strongholds. Now all that 
reason, which, before a man was humbled, shewed its strength in main- 
taining the goodness of his estate, when he is humbled, turns head, and 
pleads against a man's estate, and against his having any interest in mercy ; 
and indeed, whilst a man will go in a way of reasoning, and consider his 
dead soul, he will never believe. A man must believe above and against 
all reason; as Abraham considered not his dead body, so nor must he con- 
sider his dead soul. And hence it is that we have more ado with carnal 
reason after men are humbled than before. Self-flattery, when that was 
general, used and commanded all the reason in a man to fight for a good 
opinion of his estate ; and when self-flattery is slain, and that good opinion 
of a man's self with it, then unbelief turns all the same force and weapons 
another way, and all the reason in a man is employed to fight to keep a 
man in it. 

4thly, Self in a man is against it also, and the greatest enemy to it ; and 
therefore in faith there is the greatest self-denial that is in any other grace. 
To deny a man's reason, and subject all his thoughts to the authority and 
wisdom of another, and to give God leave to take away all reason and wis- 
dom from me, and to resolve my thoughts into his words, and to think as 
he thinks, whatever my own thoughts are, all this is hard. And so to be 
content to be nothing of myself for ever, and to do nothing of myself, to 
throw myself away, to lose, to forget myself, to be lost to myself, dead to 
myself (as Paul was, Gal. ii. 20 and 2 Cor. xii. 11, who, though he did 
more than all, yet says he was nothing, in those words, ' Not I, but 
Christ,' &c), and to take Christ into my heart not only to rule all, but to 
do all, to have the glory of all, both the grace and the glory I have, to have 
no reason, no will, no power, no life of my own in myself, but Christ to be 
all, this is to believe, and this is a farther self-denial than was in pure 
nature in Adam. This self is brought to by losing and forfeiting itself, and 
this only in point of faith. Adam, though he had grace from God, yet he 
had it in himself, and of himself could work, and could say, This have I 
done, and this is my righteousness of my own weaving, and this is my 
happiness of my own keeping ; and it was allowed him to say so. But now 
cut off that same I, away with that self, make it a cypher to eternity ; 
though it be something as a creature, and have a name in the catalogue of 
beings, and is advanced to the highest state of happiness, yet let it be 
nothing in doing, nothing in righteousness, nothing in glorifying or making 
itself happy, and let Christ be all. Adam was as much in his aims and 
designs to deny himself, as we now, in point of sanctification, he was herein 
to aim at God as much as we, and to respect himself as little ; but in point 
of believing we fall lower, for that empties us, annihilates self, fetcheth 
righteousness, power, life, all from another, as well as it works to another. 
And this is therefore difficult, because it is a higher strain of glorifying God 
than Adam knew, or than the heart is either in pure or corrupt nature 
acquainted with. Self rests in itself, and would not go out of itself ; this 



490 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

is natural to it, and it was used to do so -when it was at the best, and 
therefore this way of believing is a way which self would never take, but it 
will fall a-doing and performing duties, and keeping the law, and mourning 
for sin ; and if you have any work for it to do in itself within doors, it will fit 
to it, but to go abroad and beg all of Christ, to live upon alms, to stand to 
the courtesy of Christ and grace, and to do this for eternity, self was never 
brought up to it. It would live of itself, of its own lands and revenues, 
though lesser and meaner, rather than be in dependence, though to enjoy 
a kingdom. And though going to Christ be a short cut, yet it had rather 
go about, make a new way of works, than go to Christ, and by Christ, who 
is the Way and the Life : ' Ye will not come to me,' says Christ, John v. 40, 
' that ye might have life ;' no, they will undertake to fulfil the law rather. 
The Pharisees and the Jews did so ; they would rather appeal to it that 
was their condemner, to Moses who accused them (as Christ says, ver. 45), 
than come to Christ who offered to save them. They would rather go to 
the law, that was ' the ministry of condemnation.' The Galatians, that 
they might be eased a little in point of believing, would be in bondage to 
the ceremonial law, which they nor their fathers were able to bear. And 
papists will rather give over kingdoms, and put themselves into monasteries, 
lie in hair, live upon the alms of others, whip and rend their bodies, keep 
strictly to their canonical hours, than go to Christ, than cast off works, and 
betake themselves to faith. And the same you may see in poor humbled 
souls ; they run to every duty, but never dream of faith, that that must ease 
them. Thus Christ's sheep will hang upon every briar ere they come to him. 
4. If there were nothing in us against it, yet the devil opposeth it more 
than any thing. He opposed not the moral virtues of the heathen, nor 
doth he oppose a deluded Christian in performance of duties ; but when he 
comes to lay hands on Christ, when he will go that way, then he musters 
up all the forces he can. ' The god of this world blinds the eyes of them 
that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine to them,' 
2 Cor. iv. 4. This is the point he would keep them blind in, viz., the 
knowledge of Christ by faith ; and hither tend all his delusions and oppo- 
sitions, that our faith might fail. 



CHAPTER II. 

That all the faculties and powers in man do not afford him abilities to believe. 
— That all human wisdom is so far from promoting faith, that it sets itself 
against it. 

By grace ye are saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the 
gift of God.— Eph. II. 8. 

I shall proceed on still in opening of that faith which saveth us, of that 
faith which justifieth us, and ceaseth not till it hath put us into the hands 
of Christ. I shall now proceed farther to shew you the greatness of it in 
respect of the working of it in our hearts, and tb.6 disproportion that is 
between our hearts in which it is wrought, and this grace itself. I will 
shew how hardly it is attained unto, that it is fetched out of the rocks (as 
I may so speak), by an almighty power. And to that end I have chosen 
this text, and especially this particle here, ' and that not of yourselves, it 
is the gift of God ;' which I intend not so much to discourse of by way of 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 491 

exposition, for that I have done before,* as to lay open the thing to you in 
a corninon-placo way; only in general take the scope of the apostle before in 
this chapter. His scope is to magnify the free grace of God, as the sole 
author of our salvation, which he magnifies in two respects : 

1. By shewing the misery that a man lay in when God first set his heart 
upon him, * dead in trespasses and sins,' deserving a thousand deaths, 
' children of wrath,' &c, vers. 1, 2, 3. 

2. By laying open the way of God's bringing us unto salvation ; and he 
tells us this, that seeing free grace was the contriver of our salvation, and 
its end was to magnify itself, therefore, it having the making of its own 
laws, it would be sure to order our salvation so, that though of necessity 
something was to be wrought in us, or we could not be saved, yet it would 
pitch upon such things as should have as little an ingredient into our sal- 
vation as possibly the thing itself would bear : ' For by grace ye are saved,' 
saith he, ' through faith : and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God ; 
not of works,' &c. 

There are but two things required of us, faith and works. The apostle 
puts a difference betwixt these two clearly ; and he tells us, that faith is 
taken up into commission, as it were, when works are not : ' By grace ye 
are saved through faith, not of works ; ' no, by no means. Though works 
are as much required as faith, yet God doth by no means own them, doth 
not so much as look upon them in the matter of salvation. For indeed 
faith is that grace that doth so glorify God and his free grace, that he is 
not jealous, as it were, to put it into commission even with himself and 
with Jesus Christ. But now, when God had therefore required of us as 
little as could be in the matter of salvation, when he had required only that 
we should know this grace of his, and lay hold upon it (without doing of 
which, his grace would be lost), and that in laying hold upon it, faith should 
give all the glory unto free grace, here man might step in and say, I have 
faith in myself, or I contribute something to the getting of faith, and to the 
attaining thereof. No, saith the apostle ; we will cut you short there, that 
still free grace may be magnified. It is true ye are saved through faith, 
but that faith ' is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' 

This now is enough for the opening of the words, and shewing you the 
apostle's scope. The thing then that at this time I intend to discourse of 
is this, to manifest unto you that saving faith is not of yourselves. That 
is my theme, put what title you will upon it : to shew you, I say, that there 
is nothing in yourselves that contributeth to the working of faith in you ; 
and in doing of this I have this aim, namely, that when you see that all in 
yourselves, or all that you can do, can no way help you to the attainment 
of faith, you may come to understand both the several false ways that men 
do take in the "matter of believing, and also may the more clearly see, in 
the negative, what the right way of believing is, and what the nature of 
justifying faith is ; and likewise, that by seeing your inability to attain it, 
you may come to prize it the more, and that you may be emptied of your- 
selves, not only in respect of the grace you believe on (for you believe only 
on free grace), but in respect of this also, that you must come to free grace 
itself even to work this faith, to believe upon it. For what can lay a man 
more low in himself than this, that when he sees himself lost, andthat God 
hath provided a remedy, and requires nothing but faith, honest faith, faith- 
ful faith, as I use to call it, that yet the man of himself is unable to attain 
to this faith ? And further, I have also this end in it, that you that have 

* In his exposition on Eph. ii. in Vol. I. of his works. [Vol. II. of this edition.— 
Ed.] 



492 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK II. 

your hearts taken off by God, and have been taught and led in the right 
way of believing, and enabled to do it, may be thankful to God, and go on 
in a way of dependence upon him for the perfecting of the work of faith in 
you, for every storey, every garnish in this building, as well as the founda- 
tion, is not of yourselves. And likewise further, that those that think that 
faith is so easy to be had, may indeed be convinced that they have* no faith : 
faith, saith he, ' it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' I shall not 
go about to shew you, in the general, the greatness of the work of conver- 
sion, and that that is not of a man's self, and how that to change the heart, 
and to create new faculties, to turn a man from darkness to light, and from 
Satan to God, and the like, is a great work, and requires an almighty power. 
No ; I shall keep strictly to the point of believing, and in that not speak so 
much of the habit of faith, as of bringing the soul to the acts of faith, clearly 
and plainly to close with Jesus Christ, and to trust upon free grace, and in 
nothing in a man's self. I shall particularly demonstrate these two things : 

1st. That all that is in man, or all that is from man, can no way help 
him unto this faith. Yea, 

2d. That all that is in man, and all that is from man, is against it. And 
therefore, certainly faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. 

(1.) I shall only premise this in the general, which I will but briefly 
touch upon, that if we take pure nature, that is, nature in innocency, in 
Adam afore he fell, it was far above it to believe those things which we do 
now believe. I will not stand to dispute that point, whether Adam, yea or 
nay, had that principle of faith we have. Only this is what I say, that if 
Adam had the same principle of faith that we have, yet to believe those 
things which, when we believe to salvation, we do believe, was infinitely, if 
not above the proportion of his faith, yet above what it was put to believe. 
If the wheels be the same, yet there is a new spring put in, which doth 
turn all the wheels, and the stream and course of them, another way. And 
that is, whereas Adam sought salvation from God by doing, and by obedi- 
ence of the faith he had, which indeed sets all the wheels in him a-going, 
here comes a new spring into the heart, which turns all the wheels quite 
another way, and sets the heart a- work to seek salvation out of itself, in 
another. There is a new instinct, a new genius therefore, carrying the 
heart unto another, unto Christ, to be saved, differing from what the genius, 
and spring, and instinct of Adam's faith carried him unto. The truth is, 
the law of faith (as the expression is in Rom. iii. 23) which is written in 
our hearts, is differing from that law of works that was in his heart, and 
was written there. So that I say, suppose that he had a principle of faith 
such as we have, yet he was never put to believe that which we are ; yea, 
certainly it was far above the proportion of it so to do. I shall but give 
you an instance or two. 

1. He believed that God made him, and that God made the world (I will 
not dispute whether his faith might be resolved into sanctified reason or 
no). It was an easy thing for him to believe also this, that God, when he 
made him, had a consultation, expressed in Gen. i. 26, ' Let us make man,' 
and let us make a world. But was he put upon it to believe that that God 
who made the world would himself be made man ? If he had the same 
principle of faith we have, yet I believe it was so dim as it could hardly 
have seen so far without new spectacles, but it would have stretched his 
eye-stringg, have put his eyes to it, to have discerned this, even as it puts 
the angels' necks to it, as Peter speaks, 1 Pet. i. 12, to stoop down to 
behold this. 

2. Adam believed that the soul that sinned should die, and that on that 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 403 

day he did eat of the forbidden fruit he should begin to die. There was 
reason for him to believe this, because he found that by doing the will of 
God he lived ; therefore he might very well on the contrary believe, that if 
ho transgressed the will of God, ho must die ; and } T et you see how easy 
his faith in this thing was overthrown. The devil came with a suggestion 
of a doubt, Gen. iii. 2 : ' Yea, hath God said that you shall die the death 
that day you eat ? ' And how easily did the tempter hereby prevail against 
his faith ! But what if God had said to Adam, that God himself shall die, 
and that God himself should be made sin that knew no sin, and be made a 
curse ! If such a thing as this should have been propounded to his faith, 
and if the devil had come with such a suggestion, ' Yea, hath God said ? ' 
he would have put his faith to it. 

3. For Adam to believe that whilst he pleased God in all things, he 
should continue in his favour, and should be justified in so doing, it was 
easy ; why ? Because he had a principle of conscience in him, which was 
still to give him peace by doing, and to give a testimony of the favour of 
God towards him. He had a principle adequate to this in his own bosom, 
and it was natural uuto him, for he had the notion of the remunerative 
justice of God, whereof he had the image also in his own bosom, that might 
assure him of it. But to come to believe that God will justify the ungodly, 
and to apprehend myself to be ungodly, and then to believe that God 
will justify me, and to believe that God will and doth account an 
ungodly person as righteous in his sight, as all the angels in heaven 
are, in point of justification, this would have posed, have non-plussed 
Adam's faith. And further, when that ungodly person, though justified 
perfectly, should continue still imperfectly holy, and not have a dram 
of power and ability in himself to please God, but he must turn himself 
out of doors, go and live in another, must fetch a principle of life and grace 
from Christ, — as Christ tells us that we must do: John xv. 5, ' Without 
me ye can do nothing ;' and as the apostle's faith was, Gal. ii. 20, ' I now 
live ; I live by the faith of the Son of God ; and it is not I, but Christ that 
liveth in me,' — all these would have been parables, solecisms in Adam's 
opinion. Faith, therefore, by which we are saved, may well be said not 
to be of ourselves, for it is indeed above this pure nature, this pure self. 

(2.) But besides, a second consideration in the general about it, may be 
this. If Adam had power to believe all these things, which I will not dis- 
pute nor utterly deny, yet now it is above self, for he utterly lost it, and 
we all have lost it, and so lost it, that of all things else which we .are able 
to do, we are weakened in the point of believing. Besides the general rea- 
son which is common to the loss of all grace else (viz., if that faith had 
been a part of the image of God, the whole being lost, it had also been lost 
with the rest), I say, besides that general reason,. there is this special one 
to evince this, that in losing that faith he had, we are utterly disenabled of 
ourselves to believe. For, do but consider, where was it that the tempta- 
tion entered in ? Certainly it was in a way of unbelief. We will not dis- 
pute whether that faith he had might be resolved into spiritual reason or 
no. Yet a faith it might be called, and so answerably his first sin may be 
called unbelief. ' Yea, hath God said ?' saith the devil to Eve ; and at 
that she staggered, became dizzy, reeled and fell, and fell upon that arm, 
and broke it all to pieces. If a man be killed with a shot in his eye, we 
know that shot piercing the eye, and carrying that away with it, kills the 
whole man ; and the man being killed, it must be an almighty power that 
must go to the raising of that man presently again ; but now it were a far- 
ther thing to raise that eye, beyond and besides raising the whole man, 



494 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaP.T III. BOOK II. 

because the whole body remains, but this eye must be made anew ; so it is 
here. In Rom. xi. 32, we are said (and it is an emphatical expression), 
both Jew and Gentile, to be ' shut all up together in unbelief (so you have 
it in your margins), ' that God might have mercy upon all.' Do but mark 
what he compares unbelief unto (that I may fit it to that thing we have in 
hand, namely, that in the matter of believing we are of all the rest most 
disenabled), he compares it to a prison or bonds. Suppose now that a 
man had life in him, yet if he be shut up, if he be manacled in fetters, as 
likewise the word signifies, he is utterly disenabled. And it imports first, 
that God in a special manner hath shut up all unbelief. Other sins (if I 
may so speak) are they for which God imprisons men ; but to the end they 
may be surely imprisoned, he makes unbelief the jailor, and we are all as 
it were shut up in a dungeon, with a door of unbelief fast locked upon us. 
Therefore now the apostle makes the greatness of the mercy of God to lie 
in giving faith, as appears by the context ; God, saith he, ' hath shut them 
up altogether in unbelief,' over and above their other sins, that when they 
were all thus cock-sure the prisoners of death, ' he might have mercy upon 
them.' In Gal. iii. 22, you have the like phrase : ' The scripture,' saith he 
there, ' hath concluded all under sin' (the word is a compound, evwxksim, 
of the same root xkziu), hath shut up all under sin. There are, as I may 
so speak, outward prisons of all a man's sins else in which he is shut ; but 
in Rom. xi. he makes unbelief to be, as it were, the inner prison. So that 
God now shews a farther mercy in giving of faith. And notwithstanding 
all a man's sins, the promises which are by faith in Jesus Christ given to 
them that believe (as it follows there in Gal. iii. 22), may come and knock 
at the prison-door, and tell this poor man, We have broke up all your other 
prison- doors, and have passed through all those prisons, and if now you 
will but believe, do but come out of this dungeon you are in, and you shall 
be delivered. Alas ! saith the poor soul, though all the other prison-doors 
be set open, and there be a free access unto grace, notwithstanding all my 
sinfulness, yet I cannot believe. No more indeed he cannot, for he is shut 
up under unbelief. Therefore, now what saith the text in Gal. iii. 22 ? 
1 The promise is given to them that believe ;' and as the promise is given 
to them that believe, so Eph. ii. 8 tells us, that * faith is the gift of God :' 
for a man being shut up under unbelief, locked up in that inner prison, the 
promises may come and knock a thousand years at the prison-doors, and 
all to no purpose, unless God, as the expression is, Acts xiv. 27, ' open a 
door of faith' unto him. So that we are in a special manner in this cor- 
rupt estate shut up under unbelief, over and above all the loss we sustained 
by Adam. But these are yet but general demonstrations. I shall now 
come to the particulars, and by the grace of Christ manifest this to you. 

1 . That there is nothing in a man (in the condition we lie in by nature) 
that can help forward, or is any way conducing to the work of saving faith 
in the heart ; and that unless God come by an almighty power to work it, 
he can never believe. And, 

2. That all that is in a man, and all that comes from him, duties or endea- 
vours, or what else you will, are all against it. To make manifest the first 
of these, I shall go over all that is in you, take you all in pieces, your 
understanding, your will, your affections, your conscience, and shew you 
in all these particulars that faith is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 

1st. I will begin with the understanding. All the parts of wit and of 
wisdom that all the wise men of the world have had since the creation, 
or shall have to the end of the world, if they had met in any one man's 
heart or head, could not help him in the least to believe on Christ in a 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 495 

saving manner. The thing is demonstrable abundantly. What says the 
apostle ? 1 Cor. ii. 5, ' That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
men, but in the power of God.' It cuts the throat of a man's free will 
directly. Therefore he tells us in ver. G-8, that the wisdom of the princes 
of this world came to nothing as to the matter of believing. Nay, in 
1 Cor. i. 18, 19, he tells us, and ho prosecuteth the same all along almost 
to the end of the third chapter, that God had a design by setting up faith 
in the hearts of his people to save them, thereby to confound the wisdom 
of all the wise men in the world : ' The preaching of the cross,' saith he, 
' is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it 
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the 
wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' And ver. 21, 
' After that the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the 
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.' This poor thing faith, 
to save men by, he sets up as a principle in the hearts of his people who 
are saved, to confound the proud principle of wisdom, parts, wit, and 
understanding, that the wise men of the world boast themselves so much 
of. And as God in man's redemption had an eye to confound the devil, 
as appears by the curse in Genesis, so he chooseth out that which is the 
most excellent thing in man, as that which in the way of saving man he 
would most confound. I will do it, saith he, by the foolishest object, 
Christ crucified ; by the foolishest instrument, preaching ; and by the 
foolishest means within a man, mere faith; and by this I will accomplish 
that good and salvation w 7 hich all the wise men in the world by their 
wisdom shall never attain. He doth not say, he will confound the wise 
men, for he saved many wise men — not many wise men indeed, so ver. 26, 
in comparison of the other, but some wise men — therefore he says not that 
he will confound the wise men of the world, but ' the wisdom,' in the 
abstract ; for they must lay their wisdom aside when they come to believe, 
and become fools. The apostle there useth two or three words very 
observable. In the 19th verse he saith, that God reprobateth, maketh no 
use of the wisdom of the world in point of salvation. And ver. 20, he 
saith that God hath made it foolish, he hath put a scorn, an affront upon 
it ; and he shews that wise men are the greatest fools in the world, whilst 
poor souls scramble up to heaven by believing. 

And then again, if you will know the reason why God doth it, and the reason 
likewise why wisdom in a man cannot attain to it ; the reason why God doth 
it is, that he may confound that which is in man his chiefest excellency, as 
wisdom is, and that it may be in his power (mark it) to save whom he will, 
and that it might be in his power only to raise men up to what degrees of 
grace and faith, and so of glory to come, he pleaseth. And this he doth 
whilst he makes no use at all of wisdom in this point, but makes use of 
faith. Why ? Because he can make the foolishest people that are, believe, 
as much as the wisest men in the world. Nay, he can raise up a principle 
of faith unto an higher degree in a simple man, if he pleaseth, than the 
wisest and learnedst man in the world can attain to by all notional learning. 
He therefore pitched upon this grace of faith to confound the wisdom that 
is in man, so that all his parts and wisdom cannot help him one whit. 
This might be insisted upon largely, but it needs not. 

And not only doth the natural wisdom in man fall short in it, but it is 
in itself a hindrance to it. 

1. For reason, which is also joined with wisdom, is utterly against the 
way of faith. 'I thought,' saith he in Ps. lxxiii. 16, 'to comprehend 
this ;' he thought to do it by his own wisdom, and that thought spoiled him. 



496 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK II. 

So saith wisdom, for it is a puffed up principle, I think by my own brains 
and wit to attain this ; which a foolish soul cannot do. Pride, of all things 
else, is most opposite unto faith : ' The just shall live by faith' (saith he 
in Hab. ii. 4), and he opposeth living by faith to him whose heart is lifted 
up in him ; and wisdom and knowledge puffeth up, as the apostle saith in 
1 Cor. viii. 1. It is therefore in itself the greatest enemy unto faith. "When 
the wisest man in the world comes to see his natural condition, and comes 
to believe, it lays that man as low as the poorest and simplest creature in 
the world : I would not care (says he) if I were a fool, if of a king I were 
a beggar, so I had but one dram of faith to interest me in Jesus Christ. 
So that now he that is a rich man, when he comes to believe, he rejoiceth, 
as James saith, that he is brought low, &c. 

2. And then again, reason, which is the form that constituteth man as 
he is man, and is the highest thing in man till faith comes, is utterly against 
it. For when faith comes, it deposeth reason, which before ruled as king, 
it subdueth it, even as reason itself subdueth sense. Reason therefore 
riseth up against it ; for when reason comes to be put froni its kingly power 
and regency, which it hath retained in a man all his da3*s, when a stranger 
shall come, and tell reason of strange things in another world, which it 
never heard of, never took in before, and upon the news of this, though it 
sees not one jot of reason in it, yet it must lay itself down at the foot of 
this stranger faith, and receive the law at his mouth ; — reason, that hath 
been the supreme principle, and the king and dominator in the heart of 
man, will never do this, but it will stir and raise up all the force it can 
against it to resist it. When faith shall come and say, I will have all these 
counsellors of yours, all your carnal reasonings, put away from you, reason 
flies upon the height still, still consults with flesh and blood, and will 
never yield of itself. In Rom. iv., when Abraham came to believe, reason 
would have been putting in many objections. Do but consider your body, 
being now dead (saith reason), and consider the deadness of Sarah's womb. 
But what saith the text ? ' Abraham being not weak in faith, he considered 
not his own body being now dead, when he was about an hundred years 
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb : he staggered not at the 
promise of God through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, giving glory to 
God,' Rom. iv. 19, 20. He gave himself up unto faith. 

3. And, thirdly, the more and stronger reason a man hath in him, when 
he comes to believe, he will find the harder pull of it, and have the stronger 
objections. In men that are in distress of conscience, the larger their 
knowledge is, the deeper is their distress ; because the more knowledge a 
man hath, the more arguments he finds out against himself ; and all the 
reason a man hath will but serve to make his indictment the fuller against 
himself, and enable him the better to dispute, and the more shrewdly to 
argue against himself. As Spira, being a man of a strong reason, you know 
how he reasoned against himself, to the amazement of all men. 

4. Carnal reason (if you would know how it is a hindrance) hinders 
both before faith and after. Before faith it is an hindrance, for you will 
never believe till you see your natural condition. Now what is it that 
hinders men from seeing that ? All men are ready to acknowledge them- 
selves sinners, but they will not acknowledge themselves to be lost and 
undone. Why, carnal reason useth all the strength it hath to build up 
hi<m towers, and plausible shifts and pretences to make a man think he is 
in°a good condition. All the reason a man hath is mainly exercised in 
maintaining the dispute of this against his conscience, or the grumbling in 
his heart about the goodness of his estate. Again, on the other side, when 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 497 

once a man comes to be humbled, and then should como to believe, all this 
reason turns head again, and useth as much strength of objection against 
himself, why he should not have mercy, and tells him he must have this 
and this qualification before he comes to Jesus Christ. I say it useth as 
much strength in this case too, and turns the weapons it used afore quite 
another way. And let me tell you this, never any man comes to believe, 
if he will go the way of reason, while he stands considering his dead soul ; 
as Abraham, if he had considered his own dead body, had never believed. 
The self- flattery that is in every man, while he is in his natural estate, is 
the general of all the forces of reason in him, it leads on an army of reasons 
to fight for this, that he is in a good estate ; and though his conscience 
and the word of God tell him the contrary, yet he will maintain this stiffly ; 
for he must lose such an opinion of himself if ever self-flattery should yield 
to the contrary. Now when God hath killed this general self-flattery, and 
then faith comes to lead up all the forces in a man too, then doth unbelief, 
then doth despair come and turn all the same forces another way. So that 
there is as much to do, and more, yea, infinitely more, to raise men up to 
bottom their hearts in a way of faith, and rightly to rest upon Christ and 
free grace, and to have peace with God, being justified by faith, than to 
shew them their natural condition. You see now that wisdom and reason 
in man conduceth nothing to believing, but that it is all against it. 

CHAPTEK III. 

That all the workings of a natural conscience irill not help a man to believe ; 
but that, on the contrary, they withstand faith. 

You have another principle in you (and there is a great deal of hope 
from that, for it is a good principle), and that is your conscience ; which 
is indeed the best principle in a man, for it doth instigate a man to good, 
and hath a moral goodness in it. But let me tell you this, that take 
natural conscience, for we speak now of what is in nature, though never so 
much enlightened, and let it remain still in that state which by nature a 
man was in at first, and it conduceth nothing to believing ; nay, it is the 
greatest enemy to it that the heart of man hath. Therefore still, ' Faith is 
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' 

1. I confess it is a good principle in a man ; it tells him of his sinfulness, 
but, alas ! it will never help him a whit in believing. Come to conscience, 
and consult with that ; it sets you a-doing indeed, but it will not direct 
you one whit in the way of faith, but rather setteth you out of the way 
clean contrary. It is capable of what the law saith, for itself is but the law 
written in the heart naturally ; and it hath an ear to hear what the law 
saith to a man under the law, but it is deaf to what the gospel saith, and 
understandeth not a word of it. If you speak to natural conscience con- 
cerning a Saviour, and urge it to believe on him, its answer will be like to 
that of the Jews (and it was this principle of conscience which made them 
so speak), John is. 29, ' As for Moses, we know that God spake unto him ; 
but this fellow, we know not whence he is.' Just so saith conscience ; 
Moses I know, and if you talk to me of the law, and what I ought to do, I 
can hear it ; but as for the gospel, the truth is, I know not the thing, it is a 
stranger to me. 

2. Nay, which is more, conscience enlightened will help to discover all 
sort of sins, and tell a man roundly of them ; but conscience alone will 
never discover unbelief to you, in the bottom of it, and will never tell you 

VOL. YIH. I i 



498 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK II. 

of that ; but it must be a spiritual ligbt in the mind and judgment that 
doth it. In John xvi. 8, Christ saith that it is the Spirit, — and he speaks 
of the Holy Ghost's coming as a comforter, — that must convince of the great 
sin of unbelief. There are two sins which are out of the jurisdiction of 
conscience to set them home upon the heart ordinarily. One is the guilt 
of Adam's first sin, — a man's conscience may help him through spiritual 
discerning to see the corruption of nature, but not the guilt of Adam's sin 
ordinarily, — and the other is, want of faith in Christ ; for a man to see 
that to be the great sin, and to have it set home upon the heart, it is the 
Spirit of the gospel that must do this. What comes within the compass of 
the law written in the heart, that conscience will tell a man of; but this is 
the law of faith. Come to men troubled in conscience, that make conscience 
of all sort of things, the truth is, they make no conscience of the matter of 
believing, as if there were no such command ; nay, they think they do well 
to argue against themselves, and that they do well to refuse the promises, 
and they please themselves in so doing. Men will wrangle and cavil against 
the command of faith, and against themselves ; whereas yet all other sins 
stare them in the face. Now to have the heart discern unbelief as the great 
sin, and to have it set home upon the soul, and to look upon faith as the great 
work of God, and that this I must attain to, or else I am undone, con- 
science will never help a man to this ; it is the Holy Ghost in your hearts, 
and the gospel, that must do it. 

3. Let me tell you also, that conscience not subordinated unto faith, as 
in natural men it is not, is the greatest hindrance to believing that can be. 

(1.) It is the greatest hindrance of it, first, in respect of the guilt of sin. 
For what is the great hindrance in believing ? The greatness of your sins, 
your hearts clearly misgiving you in that. Now it is conscience that is 
the subject of them ; and it is the conscience raiseth and conjures them up, 
as I may so express it, against thee ; for all the sins that lie in that dark 
cell thy heart, are made by conscience to appear and stare in thy face, 
therefore it is called an evil conscience ; for though to represent a man's 
sins is good, yet it is called an evil conscience, because the state of a man 
is evil, and it is his conscience is the representation of the man's state, and 
tells him so, it being the subject, the drain, the sink of all a man's sins, 
where they lie till such time as God stir that sink. Now what is it that 
keeps men from believing ? The greatness of their sins, when their con- 
science is awakened, it continually presents to them their sins ; and all the 
discouragements they have, as from their sinfulness, are from a conscience 
unsprinkled with the blood of Christ, unsubdued unto faith. Conscience 
hath not learned its lesson from faith, it hath not gone and dipped itself 
in the blood of Christ by faith ; for if it had, it would be quiet, and not 
always suggesting to a man what his sins are, so as to discourage and 
hinder him from believing. This the Scripture tells us : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us 
draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience.' "What is it that sprinkles the con- 
science ? It is the Holy Ghost in the soul, that by faith takes the blood 
of Christ and sprinkles it upon the conscience ; so you have it in Heb. 
ix. 14, ' How much more shall the Hood of Christ, who through the eternal 
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from 
dead works, to serve the living God ? ' There is nothing then that can 
satisfy the conscience in respect of the guilt of sin, but the blood, and death, 
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When a poor soul looks upon itself as 
thus sinful, and upon Christ as so holy, he saith as Peter did unto Christ, 
1 Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord,' Luke v. 8. And there- 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 499 

fore your consciences, by stirring up the guilt of sin, do hinder you from be- 
lieving; ami whilst that conscience shall be suffered to speak loudei than faith, 
it will cry i'iiith down, till that faith comes and brings in the blood of Christ ; 
and then that cries louder, as the apostle's comparison is in Heb. xii. 24. 
Otherwise, 1 say. unless the conscience be sprinkled by the blood of Christ 
through the Spirit of faith, the guilt of sin in the conscience will cry down 
faith in a man's heart, and the voice of sin there will be louder than the 
voice of the blood of Christ. In Isa. lix. 11, 12, they say, ' Salvation is 
far off from ns ; ' they thought there was no hope. Why ? Their sins did 
fly in their faces, and discouraged their hearts ; for, say they, ' our trans- 
gressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us ; for our 
transgressions are with us ; and as for our iniquities, we know them.' Slight 
thoughts of sin further presumption, but sin discovered as it is in itself, 
hinders faith. That I who am a blasphemer, injurious, &c, that I should 
have mercy, is this possible ? saith the soul. I need not insist upon this, 
for you all feel it. 

4. Conscience hinders faith if it be not subordinated to it, for conscience 
is a secret enemy, and the closest enemy that can be of any other thing 
that is in man unto the way of believing, and hinders the work of faith 
more closely and secretly than anything else, till Jesus Christ and his 
Spirit hath subdued and subordinated it to be a servant unto faith. To 
express my meaning, and to convince you of this, you will all yield that 
know anything of God, that there is nothing so opposite to the gospel as 
the law is, unless it be subordinated to the gospel. It must have, in a 
manner, all the formality of it destroyed, though the materiality remain. 
If any man seek for salvation in a legal way, he must needs acknowledge 
he crosses the way of the gospel and the law of faith, as Paul expresses it 
in Bom. iii. and ix. 32, 33, and the whole Epistle to the Galatians is 
evident for it. Now if that the law be thus in itself, as it is a covenant of 
works opposite unto the gospel, then likewise is natural conscience (though 
never so much enlightened, if it remain still a natural conscience, as it doth 
till faith hath got the victory of it) also an enemy unto faith, and must 
needs be so. And the reason of it is this, because that natural conscience, 
and the light it takes in by the Spirit, or however otherwise, is the vice- 
gerent for the law ; for it is that principle in a man which God hath set up 
for to make a man apprehensive of all that the law shall say. It doth keep, 
as I may so express it, the law's court in a man's heart. Now, on the 
other side, this great principle of faith, and the Holy Ghost acting of it, 
and acting the soul in a way of faith, is that which keeps the gospel's court; 
that is, all its proceedings concerning a man's condemnation, justification, 
salvation, absolution, they are all despatched by faith, and that in the way 
of an evangelical covenant. 

Now, my brethren, this is a certain truth, likewise, that all men in their 
natural condition, they are under the law. Let them be never so much 
enlightened with the knowledge of the gospel, yet, notwithstanding, for 
certain the law is the predominate principle in them ; as, on the contrary, 
he that is brought into the state of salvation, he is under grace ; it is the 
apostle's distinction in Rom. vi. 14. And being under grace, under the 
free grace of God in Christ, under the gospel, he is under faith as the 
supreme principle in his heart. As the strength of sin is the law, so the 
strength of conscience is the law ; but the strength of faith it is the gospel, 
and the grace of God in Christ. The apostle, in that Rom. vi., compares 
the law and grace to two sovereigns, two kings, which do sway the heart 
and spirit in their several ways ; that is, if the person of the man be still 



500 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

under the law, then the law sways the heart in a legal way ; if he be under 
grace, then doth the free grace of God in Christ sway the heart in a gospel 
way ; and the one doth this by reason and the means of conscience, and 
the other by means of the Spirit of faith. Now then, go take a man in 
whom hitherto the highest and supremest principle in him hath been the 
conscience remaining in its natural defilement, though never so much 
enlightened, it will be true to its master, true to the law, and will never 
subject to this new stranger faith, that will bring the free grace of God in 
Christ as a supreme sovereign over the other. It will stand for it to the 
death, it will (I say) be faithful to him whose vicegerent it is ; it will strive, 
and especially in the point of justification. If it have not the face to do it 
plainly and directly, it will do it secretly, and it will turn the very gospel 
into a legal way. If it will comply with the knowledge of the gospel, and 
the knowledge of faith exceeding far, yet still it will seek to undermine it ; 
it will carry on the heart in a way of works, yea it will turn the duties of 
the gospel themselves into works, and underhand seek to be justified by faith. 
5. Conscience, if it did proceed aright, so as to help faith, yet it should 
do no more than what the law is to do. And what is the law's office ? To 
shew a man his sinfulness, and his inability to help himself to do anything ; 
to discover corrupt nature to a man, and send him with a new petition to 
the court of free grace, and, as I may so express it, to follow the allusion 
taken, Gal. hi. 24, to whip the soul thither, and to be a schoolmaster 
hereby to faith. This, I say, is that which conscience should do if it pro- 
ceed aright ; it should lay open all a man's sinfulness to him, send him 
with a petition to the throne of grace (as in Heb. iv. you have it), where 
grace sits as king, and thereto own grace as a sovereign, and to take the 
law from its mouth, conscience itself professing that it finds the heart so 
corrupt, and such an utter inability in it, that it can never attain to God's 
favour by itself, or any course which conscience can prosecute. Thus 
conscience should accompany faith to Christ, and deal with Christ nakedly 
and immediately, both for justification, and likewise for sanctification and 
glory, and whatever he is to receive. Now conscience should wait to 
receive a new commission from the throne of grace, and from faith, for to 
subserve faith in this, to direct the soul merely in what is to be done, but 
lets faith take its course for to supply strength to the soul to do all that it 
doth, for to live out of itself in another, and still to have recourse for 
acceptation and justification alone on that Redeemer. And when the soul 
hath been dealing with Christ, conscience will sometimes come in to con- 
firm as a witness that a man lives as a justified person should do, when he 
hath thus acted faith upon Christ ; then conscience still is subordinate unto 
faith, and receiveth its commission and power from it. But this you shall 
find by eternal experience, and it shall be found at latter day in the hearts 
of all men that have not saving faith, that let there be never so much 
enlightening, their consciences will still work in a legal way, and will in 
the tenor of their proceedings take a clean contrary course ; and whilst 
conscience holds its commission from the law, it will direct and sway the 
heart legally, and undermine faith in the power of it. It will still set the 
heart a-work to seek the favour of God by doing, though it be by doing 
things that the gospel itself commandeth. It will still, I say, proceed 
according to that legal tenor, though it will diminish it much. And there- 
fore you shall find this to be true, that whenas conscience hath subdued the 
heart in a way of humiliation to see a man's own sinfulness, and hath 
brought the heart under, and then conscience is upon the tbrone again, 
then it hath the sway of the heart ; then it will listen (natural conscience 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 501 

will do so, though thus enlightened), to hear all that the heart ought to do ; 
and look what sinfulness it sees in itself, it will set itself to practise the 
contrary, and put tho heart upon doing of it, and will whip the heart as a 
runaway home to his master. But how ? To serve out his years, and to 
make up the time that is lost, and by such ways to get and obtain the 
favour of God, yea, to get faith itself; and then, upon conforming to what 
it hears the word say, whether out of the law or out of the gospel, it will 
take upon it to pronounce a peace, and a justification, and an absolution ; 
for the natural office of conscience in the old covenant is to accuse, and so 
to excuse, and to give peace when a man doth well. And thus, instead of 
being a witness, it will become a judge ; it will take upon it to pronounce 
upon the heart the sentence of absolution. Yea, and if that a man is 
enlightened thus far as to be convinced that by the works of the law no 
flesh shall be justified, what will conscience do ? It will go and turn all 
the duties of the gospel, faith, and repentance, and mourning for sin, and 
all things else, into duties of the law ; that is, the heart shall have that 
resting upon them which natural conscience had upon the duties of the 
law. In Rom. ix. 32, there is an excellent exposition of the apostle's ; 
speaking of the Jews that had the ceremonial law (so much light of the 
gospel they had), he saith, 'They sought not righteousness by faith, but as 
it were by the works of the law.' Mark his phrase, ' as it were by the 
works of the law.' Some of them that were more enlightened, and saw 
their own sinfulness, knew that their own righteousness alone would not 
stand them in stead, and they sought after evangelical graces, as love unto 
God, and the like. You may read of one of them, a scribe, that came unto 
Christ, in Mark xii. 34. I know, saith he to Christ, that though the rest 
of the Jews and pharisees trust in all these sacrifices as mere works of the 
law, yet a man must have an inward work, he must love God with all the 
heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all 
the strength ; and this, saith he, is more than all whole burnt- offerings and 
sacrifices. And our Saviour Christ tells him upon this, that he was not far 
from the kingdom of God. But what doth he do now ? Though that 
which he pitched upon was that which is required by virtue of the evan- 
gelical covenant, yet his legal spirit turned this as it were into a work of 
the law ; he sought salvation as it were by the works of the law, and so 
did the Jews, though they were very much enlightened many of them. And 
in Bom. x. 2, saith the apostle, ' I bear them record, that they have a zeal 
of God, but not according to knowledge.' That zeal there which he speaks 
of is a zeal arising from conscience ; a conscientious zeal, as we use to call 
it, whereby they set themselves to aim at the glory of God, yet it was still 
as it were a work of the law. I do not say that any man doth attain to 
true love of God, or truly to aim at the glory of God above a man's self; I 
do not say that any man attains to that who is not in the state of salvation, 
I believe the contrary plainly. But this some of them pitched upon, and 
did think thereby to obtain salvation, even as well as by outward works of 
the law. Therefore, saith the apostle, they are utterly mistaken, their 
conscientious zeal utterly misleads them, for it is not according to that 
knowledge of faith which the apostle clearly meaneth, which teacheth us to 
fling away all in ourselves, and to submit unto the righteousness of God, 
as it follows there, ver. 3. 

6. And therefore, now when conscience hath once gone and got up into 
the throne —that is, when it hath subdued the heart to legal humblings,— 
the soul is then in most danger of being misled in the way of believing, 
when it comes just to the point. Why? Because that conscience having 



502 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

got the dominion, so as it never had so before fully till now, it will seek to 
hold it, and to sway the heart its own way ; and if gospel-light comes in, 
conscience still will turn it, as it were, into the light, and tenor, and way 
of the law, to seek salvation still by works. But when faith, and when the 
Holy Ghost comes, he sets up, as I said afore, grace upon the throne, 
and natural conscience must then take its commission from faith, to direct 
a man in serving the living God, as it is Heb. ix. 14. For the truth is 
this, and I ought to saj r it, that still there is a use, and a great use of con- 
science ; and therefore you find that obedience is made to spring from 
'love and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned,' 1 Tim. i. 5, and those 
are the principles that Paul reckons up ; and he saith of some, ver. 19, 
that they had 'made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.' For still 
conscience remains in a man as a guide, when it is sanctified and purged by 
faith, that he may serve the living God ; but then I say it must be indoc- 
trinated by faith, and purified by faith ; for it is faith itself that fetcheth 
out this legal strain that is natural to the conscience, and subdues, as all 
the rest of the whole heart unto faith, so conscience also. Now, in all 
natural men, the truth is, conscience runs into a pramunire, goes beyond 
its commission, takes upon it to absolve, to justify, to give peace, and to 
do it in a predominate way to faith ; it does it from doing, and from what 
a man sees in himself, and not from the law of believing. 

You may by this see the true and clear reason why that in all natural 
men by nature, though never so much enlightened, their spirits are acted 
in a legal way. The reason is clear, because that conscience is the highest 
principle in nature. Conscience is a principle in a man that believes, and 
it ought to be so when it is purified and made more quick, and enlightened 
with a more spiritual light to guide him in the way of serving God, but it 
is not the supreme principle ; no, it is but an under principle unto faith ; 
for if the matter of the law be an under thing to the gospel, certainly con- 
science is so to faith. Now, therefore, whilst that conscience remains the 
supremest principle of all things else, it must be a deadly enemy unto 
faith, and still sway the heart its own way, and it must needs do so till 
the Holy Ghost hath subdued the whole heart to a way of believing in the 
Lord Jesus. By what I have now said, you may see then and understand, 
from the proper principle that is in all men's hearts, what is the reason 
why they are thus misled in a way of doing, and that they ' seek righteous- 
ness not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.' And so I pass 
from this principle of conscience, and from shewing how that that is an 
enemy unto faith, and I come to the will. 



CHAPTER IV. 

That all the powers of a man's will cannot enable him to believe. — That faith 
therefore is an effect of the infinite power of God alone. 

I now come to demonstrate that the power and faculty of will in a man 
doth not help him to believe, but is against faith. 

1. Take the will of a man in his natural condition, let that will remain 
but still natural, and let it be excited and stirred up never so much by 
light, or by conscience, or anyhow otherwise, yet till that almighty power 
comes that puts a new life into it, there is both first an inability in it to 
help a man in believing; yea, there are principles in it that are all contrary 
unto faith and to believing. First, to make it out to you that a man's will 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 503 

is thus disenable! to believe, yea, that nothing is more unable than the will 
is to give up the whole man unto free grace and to God's own way of sal- 
vatiou by Jesus Christ. C insider how this truth is sadly confirmed to U3 
by manifold experiences, and by the Scripture also. 

If we come to many men that are upon their death-beds, or in distress, 
and under the fears of hell and of the wrath of God, having their con- 
sciences enlightened, and God having struck sparks of hell-fire into them, 
which have taken hold of all the gunpowder there, we shall find that the 
will in such distress, when it comes to the point of believing, sinks into a 
discouragement under thoughts of an impossibility. For ask them then if 
they will be saved ? Yea, they would give ten thousand worlds to be 
saved. Will you but then throw yourselves upon Jesus Christ and upon 
free grace, and let your hearts be quieted in so doing ? for to have the will 
brought to a quietness, this is the proper effect of faith there, to have this 
storm allayed, and the winds still, by rolling a man's self, and committing 
this little cock-boat to those waves of free grace to save him ; it comes to 
this point, you shall find that the will sticks at nothing more, and these 
poor souls will then tell you that of all things else they cannot do it, and 
they will profess they cannot, and you shall see they cannot do it. Now, 
if there were any ability in the will of a man to close with the Lord Jesus 
Christ entirely and wholly, certainly a man would then do it, whenas he 
himself professeth he desires salvation more than millions of worlds. I 
remember in the story of Spira, who yet I believe was a believer and is in 
heaven, that he being left to the nakedness of his own spirit, and divested 
of the Holy Ghost to strengthen his heart in believing, to join with his 
will — for so the Holy Ghost doth when a man is enabled to believe and to 
rest himself quietly upon God — when all objections were answered, and all 
the promises of the gospel laid before him, as they were abundantly by 
many that came to him, and that pitied him with the greatest tenderness 
that can be, he still complained of this, I have a wound in my will, and I 
cannot do it, I cannot believe ; as once one said, being exhorted to lay hold 
upon Jesus Christ, Bid me, saith he, pointing up to heaven, lay hold upon 
yonder star ! 

Besides the manifold experience that we have of the truth of this point, 
I shall give you a scripture or two for it. In John i. 13 the evangelist, 
speaking, at the latter end of the 12th verse, of them that believe, he adds, 
verse 13, ' which were born not of blood' — for say not you have Abraham 
to your father — ' nor of the will of the flesh.' Take the natural will that 
every man hath, and it will not help him to believe. No ; he that believeth 
truly he is 'born of God;' so saith the text in 1 John v. 1. 'He that 
believeth on the Son of God ' (as verse 10 hath it, for you must take both 
together), and doth do this truly, ' he is born of God ;' and his being born 
of God, so as to believe, is not of the will of the flesh. Compare these two 
places together, and they clear this point fully. And in this Eph. ii. what 
is the eminent thing that the apostle in the series of his discourse doth 
hold forth as the reason why faith is not of a man's self ? He had said 
afore, verse 1 and vei-se 4, that we were ' dead in sins and trespasses ;' 
and that faith is a new life, ver. 5. And where lies the death most? 
Truly you will find in verse 3 that it is in the will: 'fulfilling,' saith he, 
' the wills of the flesh ;' so it is in the original. As the chief subject of 
death is the heart, so the chief subject of this spiritual death is the will of 
a man. And (saith he) know this, that you being dead in sins and tres- 
passes, and dead in your wills especially, ye are saved by grace through 
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is the will, i. e., 



5"04 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

the heart especially, that is the seat of faith ; ' with the heart a man 
helieveth to salvation,' Rom. x. 10. To embrace mercy and grace offered 
according to the word, to close with it upon God's own terms, to bring tlie 
will off to this, this is a great point indeed ; for he must be born of God 
that believes truly, because it is not through the will of the flesh, for that 
is a dead will, utterly unable to believe. And because I have fallen upon 
that place in Rom. x., give me leave to speak a little out of it. The 
apostle there doth shew you (that you may see what a hard thing it is for 
the soul to believe thus) what plunges the hearts of men are put to when 
they are emptied of themselves and of their own righteousness. He had 
shewn in the former part of that chapter, and in the latter end of the 9th 
chapter, that it was the great error and fault of the Jews that they sought 
righteousness ' as it were by the works of the law,' as I said even now. 
Now whenas a Jew, in whose case the apostle puts it, for he had discoursed 
of the Jews all along, should come to be convinced that he could have no 
righteousness by doing, see but what plunges that man's heart will be put 
to : ' The righteousness which is of faith,' saith he, ver. 6, ' speaks on this 
wise : Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is. to 
bring Christ down from above) ; or, Who shall descend into the deep ? 
(that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead).' Here you see the law 
of faith, when it comes to direct a man, doth begin to empty out of him 
abundance of sayings that the heart is apt to run into. Say not in thy 
heart, saith he ; the Holy Ghost goes to the bottom of the heart, and 
fetcheth up those despairing thoughts that arise out of the fainting, and 
succumbency, and despondency of the will ; and he pitcheth upon those 
sayings that the heart in that case is apt to form up against itself when a 
man is emptied of his own righteousness. 

I will open this place of the apostle a little, ' Say not in thine heart,' 
&c. The heart, when once it hath lost a bottom in itself, and is cast off 
from that legal way, is apt amongst other things to run into all sort of 
thoughts of impossibilities of ever attaining unto life. He expresseth the 
case as in the instance of a Jew living under the old law, that had heard 
in the abstract that there should be a Messiah, and that God must be 
satisfied by that Messiah. Now how would that Jew reason with himself 
in this case ? He would say, Who shall climb up into heaven, to bring 
down a Messiah from thence ? for he that must be my Messiah, and must 
save me, must come down from thence. Quis, quia, saith he, Who, who 
can go up to heaven and climb up thither ? No man hath a ladder to do 
this ; and though the angels go thither, can all the angels in heaven per- 
suade the Messiah to come down from heaven and die for me, and do thus 
and thus for me, that I may be saved ? He speaks, I say, in the case of 
a Jew that is put off from the law, and lies under terrors of conscience, 
and hath heard of a Messiah, and that God for his part is willing to save 
men if the Messiah will do thus and thus. Such sayings as these, and 
such thoughts of impossibilities, will rise up in the man's heart ; ' Who 
shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down from above ?' or when he is 
brought down from heaven here upon earth in the nature of a man, who 
shall persuade him to undergo the wrath of God for my sins, and to satisfy 
for them, or they must never be satisfied for ? or if he be willing to do it, 
who shall support him in undergoing this ? Or ' who shall go down into 
the deep, into the abyss, to bring up this Christ again from the dead "?' for 
he must rise again, or else he can never satisfy for my sins, and so I shall 
never be saved. Oh who can do all this ? A Jew now would have all these 
thoughts, and have tired himself in these impossibilities concerning his 



Chap. IV.J of justifying faith. 606 

salvation, if once he see he cannot have it by the law, which hitherto he 
hath gone by. And these words which the apostle here useth, he quoteth 
out of Deut. xxx. 11. Now you must know this, that though Moses had 
most of all preached the law, and given it at mount Sinai, and had hid the 
gospel under the types and shadows of legal ceremonies ; yet now when he 
was to die, he doth, through the Holy Ghost coming upon him, preach the 
gospel and deliver the covenant thereof clearly and plainly to the Jews ; 
for you may read in Deut. xxix 1, that he calls it ' the words of the cove- 
nant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel 
in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in 
Horeb.' It is another covenant ; and therefore the apostle pertinently 
quotes the words of this last great sermon of Moses, to distinguish the 
covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Now then he propounds 
this covenant unto them ; and when the soul comes to enter into that cove- 
nant, being left naked by the law, Moses sheweth the averseness that is in 
the heart thereunto, and how apt the spirits of men are to turn aside into 
all sort of thoughts of impossibilities in the way of that covenant. "When 
the law was given in Horeb, Exod. xix. 8, when that other covenant was 
given, oh then they were very forward, as if they would have undertaken to 
have fulfilled the whole law : f All that the Lord hath spoken,' say they, 
' that will we do.' But when Moses comes to preach this other covenant, 
besides that which he had taught them before, he knew well enough, as the 
11th verse of that Deut. xxx. hath it, that they would say in their hearts, 
* Oh this is hid from us.' ' But this commandment,' saith he, ' which I 
command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off : it 
is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, 
and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it '? ' (you may see that 
they made a greater difficulty of this covenant, than they did of fulfilling 
the law delivered in Horeb) ; ' neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst 
say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may 
hear it and do it ? ' They were apt to say that this covenant was hidden 
from them ; and the word there used for hidden is used by Moses also for 
what is too hard, for what is impossible, as in Gen. xviii. 11, the angel tells 
Sarah, when the promise was made of Isaac, ' Is any thing too hard for the 
Lord ?' Now if you look into Luke i. 87, you shall find, that unto Mary 
the mother of our Lord Christ, that unto her, being in the same unbelief 
in some degree of it, the angel useth the same expression, only changeth 
the word too hard into impossible : * Is any thing impossible for the Lord ? ' 
That which is here hidden, is all one with hard, and that is all one with 
impossible. So that this is his meaning, when he saith, ' Say not this com- 
mandment is hidden from thee ' ; that is, ' Say not that it is impossible for 
thee to attain it.' 

And, by the way, let me give you this note upon those two places last 
quoted. Isaac, you know, was the type of Christ, eminently made so in 
Rom. iv., and also in Heb. xi. Now it is observable that the angel used 
the same word to Sarah the mother of Isaac, when his birth was promised, 
that the angel useth to Mary, whenas the incarnation of Christ, typified out 
by Isaac, was promised also. Now the instances which Moses gives of 
climbing up to heaven, and going over the sea, were to the Jews the lan- 
guage of impossibilities. They were ready to say, You may as well bid me 
go climb up to heaven ; and where shall we have ladders to do that ? You 
may as well bid us go over the world, and fathom the great gulf, the great 
sea, and fetch things from far, which in those days, because they wanted 
the loadstone, and therefore could not launch out into the vast ocean, but 



506 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

were fain to creep along by the coasts, was thought a thing impossible ; 
you may as well bid us do these things as bid us believe in this word, and 
join with this covenant you now give us. This their hearts were apt to say. 
Now the apostle, alluding to this place, and giving the interpretation of it, 
speaks in the language of a Jew that is to believe on Christ as to come,' and 
as coming to die for him ; which Jew, when he shall hear that he is a sinner, 
and that the law cannot help him, nor all his sacrifices and oblations, but 
that there must be a mediator that must satisfy God for his sins, and this 
mediator must come from heaven to do it, and he must go to hell too, and 
be fetched up again from thence, will presently say within himself, ' Who 
shall go up to heaven' to persuade the Messiah to come down and die for 
me ? Alas, it is impossible I should be saved if this be the way of salva- 
tion. And when the Messiah is here, and is to undergo the wrath of God, 
and to die upon the cross, who shall support him ? This the soul of a Jew 
would be apt to speak, as sinking under the desperate impossibilities of this 
way of salvation. Now these impossibilities which the heart of a Jew would 
forge, and did forge unto themselves, the same under the gospel do the 
spirits of men, if the Holy Ghost leaves them but a little unto themselves. 
Though they hear what God hath done, that he hath gone and sent Jesus 
Christ from heaven for them, and hath fetched him again from the deep 
(for what Moses calleth the sea, the gulf, that the apostle interprets hell, 
at least by way of allusion), and that God requires nothing in the world of 
them but to believe this ; so saith ver. 9 of Rom. x., 'If thou shalt believe 
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' 
Yet notwithstanding, though a Christian knows all this, and though the 
gospel and the way of believing is most clearly and nakedly preached, the 
soul, when it forecasteth with itself all his own sinfulness, and unworthiness, 
and discouragements, will sink under the same thoughts of the impossibility 
of his salvation that the Jew had : he will still be saying, Who shall climb 
up to heaven, to bring Christ down to this heart of mine ? or where shall 
I have a ladder to reach up to close with Jesus Christ ? or if I be sinking 
down to hell, who can go and get Christ to put forth his arm to pull me 
out again '? This, I say, is the manner of the spirits of men, even under 
the gospel. The scope of the apostle there, is to hold forth two contradic- 
tions, namely, that of all things else, it is the most easy to believe, and 
that of all things else, it is the most impossible ; so taking in all that the 
sinful heart of man is apt to say of itself. It is easy, a man will say, for 
it is no more but this : there is Christ, and there is the word, God hath 
done all for you ; he hath sent Christ down from heaven to die for you, 
and all is ready, and God requires nothing of you, when the news is brought 
to your hearts, but closing with it. So that take the act in itself, and it is 
the easiest thing in the world that God requires, the smallest matter that 
could be required of the sons of men. But yet, when a man is divested of 
his own righteousness, he will have thoughts of a thousand impossibilities, 
a^ this despairing Jew had, and he will still have such sayings in his heart, 
Who shall bring this Christ down hither ? and who shall move this Christ 
to pull me up from the deep when I am sinking thither ? Is it possible 
that God should ever do thus for me ? Is there any hope that he should 
regard my soul so from everlasting, as to persuade his Son to come and 
die for me that am thus and thus a sinner ? Is it possible that ever salva- 
tion and I should meet ? That though God hath sent Christ down from 
heaven, and he is come up again from the deep, is it likely that Christ should 
do this for me ? I may as well think to climb up to heaven, and take hold 
of Christ there, and go down into the deep, and come up with Christ there 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 507 

in my heart, as to believe this. The heart, I say, is apt to fall into these 
thoughts of impossibilities. 

I have been the longer upon this, because it gives light to that scrip- 
ture, which is exceeding difficult to understand. I know there is another 
meaning of the words, namely, that when the soul is emptied of itself, and 
hears that there is a Christ, it thinks to get him by endeavours. What 
though I have nothing in myself, yet I hope to climb up to heaven, &c. 
But the text clearly holds forth likewise, these despairing sinful thoughts 
which the soul is apt to have when it comes to believe ; therefore what 
Baith the apostle in the following verses of that chapter? Though God re- 
quires no more of men but that they believe that God hath raised Christ 
from the dead, and that all these impossibilities which the Jew might 
plead are taken away, and that God looks for nothing more than that the 
heart and the word meet, yet how doth the apostle complain, that although 
they have heard, yet ' who hath believed our report?' verse 16. For a 
man so to believe it as to give up his soul unto it, who hath done it? Few 
do it ; so that, though Jesus Christ be thus nakedly and plainly taught, 
and men need not frame the Jew's impossibilities of moving Christ to come 
down from heaven and die, and of supporting him under his Father's 
wrath, and bringing him up again from the grave, yet to persuade them to 
rest quietly in this Christ, and to have their hearts and wills quiet in so 
doing, how hard a business is it ? When the soul is humbled for sin, and 
stripped of itself, it is the greatest impossibility, as to his own power, to 
believe ; ' Who hath believed our report ? ' and why ? Because the arm of 
the Lord is not revealed. It must be the arm of the Lord, an almighty 
power, that must do it. 

I shall end this thing only with giving you the reason of it, why it is 
thus hard, and why the heart fancies all these impossibilities in faith, that 
though God hath done so much, yet to believe that God should have done 
this so for me as that I may come and rest upon it, and to have my heart 
quieted in so doing, is of all things in the world the hardest and the most 
impossible. 

This is a rule which I believe will be found true, that look what power 
God puts forth in doing anything, the same power is required to draw the 
heart in to believe that God is able, or that God hath done that thing ; I 
mean to believe the thing in earnest, so as to venture all my soul for ever 
upon it. This is partly the scope of that place in Eph. i. 18, 19, where 
the apostle saith, that ' the same power that went to raise up Christ from 
the dead, goes to the working of faith in them that believe.' The Jew 
now in his despair (because Christ was not as yet come) must needs con- 
clude that it must be an almighty power and engagement that must draw 
Christ from heaven, and support him under the wrath of God, and bring 
him from hell to be a Saviour unto him. But now, after all this is done, 
there must yet go as great a power to cause a man to believe that Christ 
hath done all this for him, as there did to make Christ do this. The 
place is express in that Eph. i. 19, where the apostle plainly saith that 
the same greatness of power which wrought in Christ when he was raised 
from the dead, works in those that believe, in causing the soul to rest 
quietly upon this Christ for justification and salvation. So that, although 
God now requires nothing of us under the gospel but to believe the thing 
is done (in the manner I have spoken), yet there must be as much power 
go to work that faith in the soul, as to bring Christ from heaven, and to 
raise him up again, which was the thing the Jew in his despairings stuck 
at. This is a great truth (and I shall give you a further ground for it), 



508 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK II. 

that it is all one for God to do a thing, and to make a man believe it, and 
that the same power is required to the one as much as the other. In 
Mark ix. 22, 23, the father of the possessed child comes to our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ ; and what saith the poor man in the doubtings of his 
spirit, and misgivings of his heart ? ' Lord,' saith he, ' if thou canst do 
anything, have compassion on us and help us.' There he questions Christ 
and his power. "What answer doth Christ give him again, who had more 
reason to question him than he had to question Christ '? 'Jesus said unto 
him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.' 
Here Christ and the man do, as it were, stand looking one at another ; ' If 
thou canst help me,' saith the man, ' If thou canst believe,' saith Christ, 
all things are possible. I observe this from it, that Jesus Christ makes it 
the greatest matter to believe ; when the poor man asked him if he could 
do that which required an omnipotent power, saith he, Canst thou believe ? 
And he gives the reason of the hardness of it, because he that believes 
aright, that man's faith doth invest itself, as it were, and doth join issue 
with the omnipotent power of God ; and he that believeth the one, viz., 
that an infinite power that can do thus and thus, his faith is stretched to a 
kind of infmiteness ; therefore saith Christ in the next words, ' all things 
are possible unto him that believeth.' Now, for a man when he is con- 
vinced of his sinfulness, to believe that God is able to pardon him, or to 
believe anything else in the matter of salvation, there must be as great a 
power come from God to make a man do this in earnest, to work this in a 
man's heart that this is possible to be done, as there is power in God to 
do it ; God can as easily do it as he can do the thing itself, and he can as 
easily do the thing itself, as make the man believe it. As there is a hand of 
omnipotency stretched out to do things of omnipotency , so there must be an eye 
created by the omnipotent power of God to elevate the soul of a man to see 
it, and the will quietly to rest upon it, and to leave all else, and to betake 
itself to this power of God, to this will of God, this grace of God, and 
mercy of God. I say, comparing these two places together, Christ speaks 
as if the working of a man to believe were a matter of as great power as 
to do the thing. So far as anything is impossible to any one's thoughts, 
so far it is incredible ; so far as it is possible, so far it is credible ; and 
therefore, if a man believes that this thing is possible to be done which 
requires an infinite power to do it, he must believe in that infinite power, 
and it must be infinite power that must stretch the soul to believe this, 
and to rest quietly in it. Therefore to draw the heart to believe is all one 
as to bring the Messiah down from heaven, and up from the grave again, 
though the thing itself, on our parts, seem a poor matter to it ; yet take 
the act itself, the same power goes to the one as to the other, and the 
heart of a man under the gospel will be as apt to object impossibilities, and 
doth object, as the Jew T himself did before the Messiah came. 



CHAPTER V. 

That all in man's will is opposite to faith, and withstands his believing. 

As there is thus an inability in the will to the way of believing, so there 
is an adverseness. Not only is there nothing in the will which can help 
a man, but there is a resistance in the will to the work of faith, and to 
believing. I shall give you one scripture for it, which is John v. 40. Saith 
Christ there, • You will not come to me that ye might have life.' The 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 509 

place is full to the point in hand. Our Saviour Christ speaks complain- 
ingly, and wondering at it, as you shall see by his discourse. I and my 
Father, saith he, I profess to you, require nothing of you but that you 
would have a will to come unto me, that your wills be but brought off to 
close with me according to my worth ; that you would be but a willing 
people, as it is in Ps ex., and as ho saith in Rev. xxii. 17, ' He that is a 
willing man ' (so the word is in the original) ' let him take of the water of 
life freely.' Thus speaks he here, I require nothing else but that you have 
a will to come unto me ; and as he said at the 6th verse of John v. to the 
man that had an infirmity thirty-eight years, ' Wilt thou be made whole ?'— r 
that is, hast thou a will to be made whole by me, by leaving all things else, 
and giving thyself up unto me and my power ? I require nothing else of 
thee, — so saith he to these Jews, I require no more of men to be saved, but 
that they will come unto me ; yet, saith he, and he speaks wondering at it, 
*■ you will not come to me that ye might have life.' It is certain of the 
Pharisees, whom he spake to, and so of all men else, that their wills pitch 
upon this, that they would be saved. It is clear these Pharisees did so. 
You think, saith he, to have eternal life in Moses's writings. I know there 
is one Moses in whom ye trust, ver. 45. But mark it, and see the infinite 
stubbornness and averseness of the will of man in his natural condition by 
this instance. You would fain have eternal life, saith he, and you think to 
have it by the Scriptures and Moses's law, and so you choose rather to venture 
your salvations upon doing all that Moses hath said, and you will rather 
go and trust in Moses as a lawgiver, as one that hath presented God as a 
judge to you, who hath cursed you if you continue not in everything the 
law requires to do, and so venture upon that curse, rather than you will be 
brought off to come to me for everlasting life. This is clearly his scope. 
In reading the Scriptures, saith he, you will make such interpretations of 
them as shall fit your cursed opinions of attaining salvation in a legal way, 
rather than you will go search the Scriptures a little more to see how Moses 
prophesied of me. ' Search the Scriptures,' saith he, ' for they are they 
which testify of me ; ' but you will not come to me that ye might have life, 
you will trust in Moses rather, yea, in Moses that accuseth you, for in your 
consciences you cannot but find that Moses doth accuse you. I come as a 
Saviour, and require nothing of you but a will to come unto me, and you 
will not do it : you will go venture yourselves upon a killing letter, upon a 
ministry of condemnation, and not upon the law of free grace. Nay, Christ 
aggravates the sin of man's will by this, ver. 43, ' If a man come in his 
own name, him you will receive.' These cursed Jews (give me leave to 
call them so, for the wrath of God came on them to the uttermost) did and 
would trust upon I know not how many false Christs, that in those days, 
and after Christ's ascension, told them they were Messiahs. They came 
in their own names, merely in their own power, without any miracles ; but, 
saith Christ, I am come in my Father's name, and not in my own name, 
and I am come with all power and miracles, and yet you do not receive me, 
you will not believe me, no, not for my work's sake. What can be clearer 
than this, that in the wills of men there is that inbred in them, that of all 
things they will take any course rather than clearly, and nakedly, and entirely 
give up themselves to Jesus Christ, to have eternal life in his way ? 

The reasons of this averseness in the will of man to the way of believing 
are chiefly these : — 

1. The will of man is set, if it will be saved, to be saved in its own way. 
It is natural to men, if they be not saved that way, that they themselves 
would, for the will to grow sturdy. If God will save them in their own 



510 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK II. 

way, then, indeed, they are willing to be saved, but they will not be saved 
in God's way. Look what way tbe heart of a man naturally fancieth to 
itself to be saved in (as it doth the way of doing and the like), that way 
the will sticks to ; and you may move the earth off of its centre as soon as 
move the heart off of that way it is set upon. A man is apt to be in a 
chafe if he cannot have a thing his own way. As in that instance of Naa- 
man, in 2 Kings v. 11, 12, ' I thought,' saith he, in a pet, and in a chafe, 
' that he would surely have come out to me, and do so and so. Doth he bid 
me go and wash in Jordan ? I could have washed at home in better waters 
than all the waters of Israel.' So that because tbe way for his cure, which 
was designed by the prophet, was so contrary to the way that his fancy and 
mind pitched upon, hence therefore he would have none of it. So is it 
with the sturdy spirits of men to this day. The way that pure nature 
went was a way of doing, and the will of man sticks to that way still, and 
never will be brought over but by an almighty power ; for you may as soon 
throw the earth off the hinges of it as stir and remove the will from its 
obstinate posture. If you have any work for me to do, saith the will or 
conscience, I will be doing, but to believe, I am resolved against it. 

I will give you an instance of it in the Galatians. It is evident the 
apostle thought they had true grace many of them ; it is clear in Gal. v. 8, 
' This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you ; ' and I am confident, 
saith he, that God will bring you off again. But yet, notwithstanding, see 
the madness of it, as he himself calls it ; and truly it is a strange thing, 
but that nature will have its course in the hearts of men, otherwise I say 
it is the strangest thing in the world, that these Galatians, so that they 
might ease themselves a little of waiting through the Spirit for the right- 
ousness of faith, would choose to be in bondage to the whole ceremonial 
law. Nay, which makes the wonder yet more, the Gentiles (such as 
these Galatians were) never had the ceremonial law given them, and 
therefore though the apostle did permit the Jews to continue in the 
ceremonial law after the ascension, though they were believers, yet Paul 
flies in the face of the Gentiles if they offered it ; for, saith he, you 
were never under it ; yet, I say, these Galatians would rather put themselves 
under a yoke which they were free of, which God never at any time 
put upon them, than through the Spirit wait for tbe hope of righteous- 
ness by faith. So prevalent is this strain of spirit which is in the con- 
sciences and wills of men, and such an averseness to the matter of be- 
lieving, not an averseness to salvation, for all men desire that, but to the 
way of salvation, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, that men would rather 
do anything than believe. The great contest between God and the hearts 
of men is practically, though men know and discern that God will have 
them saved in his way, yet they will be saved in their own way and upon 
their own terms ; and rather than they will believe in Christ, which is 
God's way of salvation, they will put themselves under the hardest bondage 
that can be. You may see it verified in the papists, and truly there is a 
world of this popery in the hearts of all men ; they would rather go and 
give over their kingdoms, put themselves into monasteries, lie in hah", live 
upon the alms of others, tire out themselves by saying the whole book of 
Psalms over once every twenty-four hours, and to that end rise twice or 
thrice hi the night, break their sleeps, whip and rend their bodies, do all 
this rather than betake themselves to faith ; for indeed there is nothing they 
jeer more and contemn, than the way of justification by faith. And many 
of Christ's sheep themselves hang in these briars, and do not come home 
clearly and fully to this way of God ; they will sit down in humiliation I 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 511 

know not how many years before they will stir a foot to Jesus Christ, and 
the free grace of God ; they will go and spend all their time and thoughts 
in proving the old work (which hath, it may be, been true and sound in 
itself), rather than stir immediately unto Jesus Christ and free grace, to 
begin a new or a farther work upon them. Experience shews how true 
this is in the souls of men ; and the reason is this, because man sticks in 
this, to be saved in his own way, and will not be saved in God's way ; even 
just as Naaman the Syrian acted in the instance before mentioned. 

2. The second reason, or rather the second and chief thing in the will 
of man that makes it thus averse, is that self, as I may so call it, that is in 
every man. That which we call self, or sticking to a man's self, and pleas- 
ing of a man's self, this same self is strongest in the will above all other 
powers in a man. The will is the throne and seat of self, even as the heart is 
the seat of spirits ; and self will always rest in itself, as the earth doth 
upon its centre, and will never be removed till that Jesus Christ flings it 
ofl' of its own hinges. Now as the will is the chief seat of self, so the 
chiefest of self-denial lies in the will in the way of believing ; as when a 
man comes to believe, there is a great deal of self-denial in the understand- 
ing, but the great self-denial lies in the will. There is a great deal of self- 
denial in the understanding: Prov. iii. 5, ' Trust in the Lord with all thine 
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.' There are no things 
more opposite than faith, and leaning unto a man's own understanding ; 
therefore I say there is a great self-denial there, to give up all my thoughts 
for ever to the wisdom and authority of another, to give God leave to take 
out both my eyes, and only to take me by the hand, and lead me and guide 
me whither he will, and to strengthen me and teach me the way whither I 
should go, to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ; this is great 
self-denial. But the will is more put to it. You shall find in Rom. x., 
that Paul doth resolve the reason of men's not believing into the wills of 
men, and into the want of self-denial there. He begins to tell them a 
strange thing at the latter end of the 9th chapter: ' What shall we say?' 
saith he, ver. 30. I will tell you a strange thing, which you will all wonder 
at, and know not what to say to ; yet I must say it. And what is that '? It 
is this, saith he : ' The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have 
attained to righteousness.' This is a contradiction, that those that did not 
follow nor pursue after righteousness at all should attain it, especially you 
will think so when you hear the rest : ' But Israel, which followed after 
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness,' or, 

• the righteousness of the law.' There must be some great reason of this. 
He tells you the reason of it. First, he saith that the righteousness which 
the Gentiles attained was ' the righteousness which is of faith; ' so ver. 30, 

• But Israel,' saith he,' ' hath not attained to the law of righteousness.' 
"Why ? ' Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works 
of the law,' so ver. 32. And God, saith he, hath made these two so 
contradictory one to another, that he that doth seek righteousness as it 
were by works, though he may mince the matter much, yet he shall never 
attain to it ; for the Holy Ghost hath pronounced it in Gal. v. 4, that 
' Christ is of no effect ' to him that goes that way. So that these two being 
incompatible, hence it was that the Jew could not attain to the righteous- 
ness he sought for. But what was it that hindered him ? The apostle 
satisfies us : Rom. x. 3, ' They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted them- 
selves unto the righteousness of God.' He ascribes it first to an ignorance 
in them ; there now comes in the understanding, • they being ignorant,' 



512 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

saith he, * of God's righteousness.' But then the other two hindrances 
lie in the will, and they do lie in the will where self hath its principal seat 
and throne. For, he saith, ' they sought to establish their own righteous- 
ness ;' mark that word, ' their own righteousness.' When we are said to 
be saved, it is according to God's own purpose and grace (as I remember 
the expression is in 2 Thes. i. 12). Here now doth self come in, and will 
needs set up its own righteousness. He brings it in like to a design that 
a company of men have in a state ; as they would set such a one up king, 
and all their courses bend that way, or as a stepmother would set up 
her son to be king against the true heir, so they sought to establish 
their own righteousness ; there lies the reason, you see self is in it, they 
sought to establish it because it is their own. And they were zealous in 
this ; for they being ignorant of God's righteousness were zealous of their 
own. And this word establish is exceeding emphatical ; it is making a 
thing that is tottering to stand ; like setting up a dead man or a sick man, 
if you set him up again and again, he falls : but yet their design was, that 
though all their works of righteousness did fall before their own con- 
sciences, and their own hearts misgave them, yet self was so strong in 
them as it would needs be still making their own righteousness to stand ; 
they sought to establish it, as the apostle saith. As man is said to seek 
out many inventions, so all the endeavour and sway of their heart went 
that way, which notes out the natural design, and project, and drift of their 
hearts, that they sought to establish their own righteousness. 

2. But then a second thing in the will is, a pride which would not be 
subject to the righteousness of God ; so the next words are, but ' have not 
submitted themselves,' saith he, ' to the righteousness of God.' They had 
some glimmerings of it certainly, both in the ministry of the prophets and 
holy men amongst them, who did teach in their synagogues, but still they 
would not submit, and all that could be done could never bring them to it. 
It is the same word that is used in Rom. viii. 7, w T here, speaking of the 
corruption that is in us, of flesh, he saith it is ' enmity against God, 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' There is a 
great deal of enmity naturally in men against the law of God, against the 
duties and commands of it ; but there is ten thousand times more enmity 
in the wills of men against the way of the gospel. Here the word likewise 
is a passive word ; they would not be subjected, all that could be done 
would not bring them under. So that clearly and plainly you see, it is 
not only an ignorance in the understanding, and carnal reasonings there ; it 
is not only a sinking of the will out of apprehensions of impossibilities, and 
fostering all such appreheusions (as it is ver. 6 of Rom. x.) ; but it is also 
a going about to establish their own righteousness, and a not submitting, 
out of pride of heart, a secret pride of spirit of self in a man, unto the 
righteousness of God ; that is, that righteousness which God out of our- 
selves in Christ hath provided for us. 

Now let us consider what of self there is in the will, and how far the 
principle of self is against believing, and how far self is denied in it, and 
that not in the consequence of believing, but in the acts and concomitants 
of it. 

And before I shall say what I have to say thereof in the particulars, let 
me say this to you first, that of all corruptions in your hearts, the working 
of self in the will of a man is the most still, the most secret. It is not 
drawn forth into propositions ; a man doth not say distinctly within him- 
self, I will have none of God's righteousness, but mine own. No ; the 
workings of self-love in a man do seldom come forth into such distinct 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 513 

thoughts, but it is inlaid, and it works naturally, slily, slowly, and 
strongly ; yet when a man shall resolve his actions into principles, he shall 
find that thai is at bottom. So that I say it may be you will not find what 
I shall now say of this self, to arise in distinct thoughts within you, but yet 
the principle of self being in the will sways it that way, that it will not 
submit to the righteousness of God. It is inlaid, I say, in it, and 
connatural. The thoughts of unbelief are seldom drawn forth into proposi- 
tions. Who almost in his heart doth distinctly and deliberately think there 
is no God ? Yet tho thought that there is no God sways all the life of a 
wicked man : ' The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God,' and that 
is the reason of all his sinfulness. Who is there that saith within himself, 
I will thus and thus love myself, I am resolved and purposed so to do ? It 
needeth not, it is inlaid in a man's heart, and there needs no new purpose 
or resolution so to do. 

Now let us consider what self-denial God requires in the will when a 
man comes to believe. I will not urge that which some have urged, as 
that in believing the soul must so come to God as to aim more at glorifying 
God in it, than the saving of himself, and have such a distinct thought within 
himself. That this should be the aim of a man's faith when first he comes 
to God and to Christ, or that this should be the self-denial that God 
requires, distinctly so to do, is too hard to put the truth of faith upon. 
You shall observe the Scripture speaks unto men coming out of their 
natural estates, and when they come to believe, and inviteth them upon 
principles of self-love. ' What shall I do to be saved?' saith the poor 
heart. ' Believe, and thou shalt be saved,' saith the Scripture. Only the 
law of faith is to do so and so for him that died for thee. The truth is, 
to say tbat the glory of God should be the aim of a man's heart in his 
first believing, or else his heart is not right, is to make the love of God to 
be before faith in a man. Neither will I urge the point of self-denial, 
which is higher than the former, that a man must be content to be disposed 
by God as he pleaseth, be willing to be saved, or to go to hell, to be dis- 
posed in any way, so God may be glorified. I wonder that any should 
make this at least a part of preparation to faith, which is the highest act 
that can be supposed to flow from believing at any time, and than which 
nothing is greater. That any should make that to go before faith, which God 
seldom or never puts men to when he hath given them assurance, and hath 
given them communion with himself, for then they are out of the supposi- 
tion of it. I say this is hard to me, and certainly it is not this self-denial 
that is thus the concomitant of faith. And I shall say of it, through the 
grace that is given me, only this, that as in the sin against the Holy Ghost, 
for so I use to call it, there is such an enmity in the heart of a wicked man 
that sins that great sin, as to desire above all things to be revenged upon God, 
for that is the property of that sin ; as that, I say, is the highest degree 
of sin, so this is the highest disposition of grace. Now millions of wicked 
men have never that spirit of enmity against God drawn out, as they that 
sin that sin have. So, on the contrary, there is many a soul that has 
abundance of grace and holiness, and goes to heaven with it, that never had 
this disposition of self-denial drawn forth out of it. It is indeed a duty, 
but upon occasion, when the heart is put to it, either in desperate tempta- 
tions, or else sometimes in a way of supposition hypothetically, when the 
soul enjoys most communion with God. It is when God begins with his 
sovereignty to contend with the will of man, and resolves to break it. I 
will not say but there is that in grace which will do it, for there is no attri- 
bute in God but the image of God in us hath somewhat to answer and com- 

VOL. VIII. k k 



514 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK II. 

ply withal ; therefore if God will shew his sovereignty in the salvation of 
men, if his sovereignty will put the heart to it, where the image of God is 
there is a principle to comply with that sovereignty. But this I say, God 
doth not do it, or hut seldom, and but to a few : and therefore this is not 
that self-denial (which I am now to speak to) which is a hindrance in the 
way of believing. God doth not insist on the denial of mere self, but of 
sinful self. Now to put a man upon a being contented to go to hell that 
God may be glorified is the denial of mere self, and God doth not always 
put this upon men. I confess it is a forfeit, which, because we are sinners, 
God may take of us and make us vail to ; but God doth not ordinarily put 
men to it. Christ indeed in the gospel puts men upon the denial of sinful 
self, ' How can you believe,' saith he, John v. 44, ' if you love yourselves ? ' 
but not upon the other. And though Paul did it, and Moses did it, yet it 
was not in pursuit of their own salvations, and as a condition of being saved, 
but in zeal to God for the salvation of others. The truth is, God leads 
men on in the way of believing rather by glorifying his free grace in saving 
men, not only in saving them at last, but in letting them see that his glory 
and their good are joined together, and that this should strengthen their 
faith, that in their salvation God will be infinitely glorified. And God loves 
us so well, as he would have us in seeking salvation from him, and in seek- 
ing his glory, therein to love ourselves also. But now to come to those 
self-denials which are in the will, and which are opposite to the way of be- 
lieving in a more ordinary way. There are two objects of faith, the one is 
Christ and the righteousness God placed in him, and of God's appointment ; 
and there is the free grace of God towards us, which is in the heart of God 
himself, and which is delivered to us in all those indefinite promises which 
are in the Scripture. Now the will of a man is to deal with both these, 
and is put upon a self-denial in both these. 

1. Indeed though God did not take that forfeiture, namely, to make 
the condition of salvation this, that a man should be content for the glory of 
God to go to hell, seeing he deserved it, I say, though he doth not urge 
that forfeiture, yet he will have you saved in and through another person 
than yourselves, or you shall never be saved; and he will have your wills 
come off to it, and this is a just and a necessary forfeiture for God to urge 
upon the wills of men. 'The life that I now live,' saith Paul, 'it is by 
faith in the Son of God,' Gal. ii. 20. And I say that this forfeiture hath 
God taken of men by reason of the fall. Saith God now, It is true I did 
trust your own wills once with power and ability to save yourselves, and 
you had all in your own hands, but you have forfeited yourselves to destruc- 
tion, and you have forfeited your own power for ever, forfeited the having 
of it in you as you had it before ; therefore now I will betrust it in the hands 
of another, whom you shall live in, whom you shall have recourse unto for 
every penny you receive, and }'ou shall have recourse continually unto him 
as beggars, even unto my Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This forfeiture I 
say God takes of us as we are sinners, and it is well he did so, and indeed 
salvation must come that way, or we could never else be saved. Now then 
if I must go thus out of myself, and continually live upon another, then 
self in me must for ever be laid aside, as it necessarily follows : and God 
therefore hath made the way of salvation the most contradictory unto self, and 
to the way of self, that can be ; he hath set up not our own, but his righteous- 
ness, and that righteousness too in another. Now this self-denial is the 
hardest self-tlenial in the world. To make this forth to you : Is it not a great 
matter, think you, for the soul to be content to be nothing in itself, and Christ 
to be all for ever, to throw away and to forget itself, to be lost to itself, and 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 515 

dead to itself, as Paul said he was, Gal. ii. 19, 20. And ' I have nothing,' 
(saith lie, 2 Cor. xii. 1) ' though I have <l<me more than all the apostles.' 
Is it not a great self-denial, not only to take Christ into the heart to rule 
all a man's passions aud desires, but that he must not only rule all, but 
do all there ; and that he must have the glory of all that is done ? And 
so to have the glory, as that all boasting, no not a thought of it, must rise 
or lift up itself 2 I say not that faith doth actually keep down all such 
thoughts in a man, but this is the way of believing which the spirit of a 
man must subject to. Faith excludeth boasting, boasting even in works, 
and in works of righteousness, that is clear in Ephes. ii. 9. For a man to 
say, I have nothing but the grace of God in me, this, I say, is the greatest 
self-denial the creature can be put to, and it is certain that the natural 
sway and bent of the heart is most opposite to this of anything. Now this 
self hath gotten by forfeiting itself through sin, that it must be lost thus 
forever ; but it is well lost, for it is lost in him that saves it with a greater 
salvation. And this forfeiture doth God take of self in everything, so that 
self, as it were, loseth the right of the creation, that is, that law which 
passed between the creature and the creator about it, which was this, that 
according to the law of creation it had his righteousness in his own keeping; 
it could say, This have I done, this is my own righteousness, of n. 
getting, though you gave me the stock to set up withal ; this is the happi- 
ness of my own keeping : and it was allowed him to say so. You have it 
clearly, Rom. iv. 2-5, in the apostle's distinguishing the two covenants, 
' He that is saved by works, he hath whereof to glory,' saith he, as Adam 
had, and the reward came of debt, of a natural due : but now self must 
fall lower. A man must not only have all this boasting of self for ever ex- 
clnded, but he must reckon himself for ever ungodly, as it follows there in 
that Rom. iv. 5, I must believe on him that 'justifies the ungodly.' Now 
that a man should be in himself ungodly, cuts off that same /, that same 
self, makes it a cypher to eternity ; that though a man is a creature still, 
yet the truth is, he is rased out of the catalogue of creatures, ' Of him ye 
are in Christ Jesus,' 1 Cor. i. 30. It is a mighty expression of the apostle's. 
You were something once, but now you are what you are in Christ Jesus. 
To have self, I say, thus to be a cipher in being, nothing in doing, nothing 
in righteousness, nothing in making a man's self happy, yea, to be an un- 
godly self in a man's own account, worse than nothing (as that place in the 
Romans shews), and Christ to be all here, is a self-denial that the heart is 
brought to and brought off to, and gladly brought off to, when it comes to 
believe. Adam was to aim at God, and to make God his end in all things, 
as we do, and to respect himself as little, but in the point of believing we 
fall lower, for that emptieth and annihilateth us. How should this be done, 
think you ? How shall a man be brought to this *? You may as soon fling 
the earth off its centre, and hang the huge hills in the air. If you should 
see the earth remove and hang in the air by virtue of a load-stone, what a 
miracle would this be to us ! as hard a thing is it to throw self off of itself. 
For the truth is, the other having been the way of nature, even in pure 
nature, self will never, especially now when corrupted, go out of itself. If 
you have any work for it to do within doors, it will do it ; yea, and work 
itself to death, even for salvation, as many have done ; but to go abroad, 
to live upon alms, to stand to the courtesy of another, this is what self was 
never brought up to ; and therefore like one that had a great estate in his 
own hands, will think much to come down and live upon mere courtesy and 
upon alms, he will rather be content to scrabble up anything, though it be much 
less than what he might have upon courtesy and upon the alms of others, 



516 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaBT III. BOOK H.. 

to get a living, nay, if he can get but husks, he would rather do it than 
enjoy the fairest life in coming under another. So it is here. This is 
therefore, I say, the highest self-denial, and yet this is the self-denial of 
faith, and that in the will of a man, in relation unto Jesus Christ, whom 
God hath appointed us to live by. 

2. Faith is likewise to deal with the free grace of God. What is the 
eminent principle of God's free grace ? It is his will; ' I will be merciful,' 
says God, Esod. xxxiii. 19, Kom. ix. 15, 'to whom I will be merciful ;' 
and ' he hath made known to us the mystery of his will,' so the gospel is 
called, and the promise of salvation, Ephes. i. 9. Our wills now must 
come and deal with this will of God, and to be sure that is cross to self. 
Now to mention the self-denials in that respect, I do not say these things 
are always drawn into distinct thoughts, but the heart doth this by a new 
inlaid principle, which God puts into the spirit of a man. 

1st. The first thing herein is this, that though God doth not urge this, 
that a man shall so take Christ, that is, that a man shall be contented to 
be damned so as God be glorified, if he save him. No ; the poor soul doth 
seek for, and God treats with it for salvation ; therefore why should that 
be urged as a condition, or a qualification, or preparation before a man 
comes to believe ; yet, if you believe, and believe in earnest, you submit 
to God to be disposed of in this world, not according to your wills, but 
according to his own will. The law of believing carries this with it : 
1 When thou wast young thou wentest whither thou wouldest,' saith Christ 
to Peter, John xxi. 18 ; that is, when he was first converted ; ' but when 
thou shalt be old, another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' It 
was Christ in his will that carried him whither his fleshly will would not. 
Now this also is a forfeiture we have brought upon ourselves by sinning. 
The truth is, we brought it upon Jesus Christ himself, for he thus resigned 
his whole self to God : ' Not my will, but thy will be done ;' yea, it was 
to the undergoing of his Father's wrath, though he knew it was not for 
eternity. But to be in this world as Christ was, to be content to be poor 
and to be despised, let a man be never so great, to have all his high 
thoughts brought down when the glory of God in believing is manifested 
unto him ; and for him that is of high degree to ' rejoice that he is made 
low,' James i. 10 ; for a man so to value the favour of God and free grace 
which he seeks, as to be contented to be disposed of thus, or else he is not 
worthy of it, as Christ saith, Mat. x. 37, 38. ' let me be as an hired 
servant,' saith the prodigal, Luke xv. 19, so I may be in thy house ; for a 
man to say, though I am a dog, yet let me have some crumbs, some mercy, 
let me have salvation — saith Paul, ' If by any^means God would save me' 
— here is a self-denial now that faith bringeth, and here is a great deal of 
load upon the will ; even in this, if there were no more. But then again, 

2dly. We are brought to this self-denial likewise, being sinners, to make 
a venture of our souls (if I may so express it) upon him that is free to save 
us or to destroy us, to throw away ourselves in a dependency upon such a 
God as shews mercy freely, and to venture entireby upon this free grace 
and rich love of his. Faith is the greatest venture that ever was made in 
the world ; it is more than to commit a little cockboat without oars to the 
mercy of waves and winds, to be carried to such a shore. This God hath 
fairly obtained by our sins. He carries it freely, as we must all know, he 
commands us to believe, to venture ourselves thus upon him. All believers, 
when they come first in, make this venture more or less : 'We believe that 
we may be justified,' Gal. ii. 16. They did not know that they should be 
justified certainly, the apostles themselves did not. Now to venture a 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 517 

man's self upon a u-ho can tell ? as I may so express it, and as the Scrip- 
ture expresseth it in Joel ii. 14, ' Who can tell if ho will return and repent, 
and leave a blessing behind him ?' And for the will in this case to deal 
with one, that if ho be of one mind, ' who can turn him ?' as it is in Job 
xxiii. : this is a great self-denial ; for mark it, when self in a man ia 
awakened, and awakened with apprehensions of so great a matter as salva- 
tion and damnation is to a man's soul, when the soul is awakened to 
purpose, and a man comes to God with whom he deals upon terms of free 
grace, all in self must needs be infinitely solicitous accordingly. Look how 
high a man's value of salvation is, look of what moment he apprehends 
damnation to be of, so far is self up in arms, all up in arms about it ; and 
what saith self? let me be assured presently. As in all points of 
moment you know what infinite fears a man will have if he have not assur- 
ance, because of the greatness of the thing, for the greatness of the thing 
hinders quiet trusting ; and, when self is thus awakened, especially corrupt 
self, for we have nothing else in ourselves by nature, what a bustle must 
this needs make in the soul of a man to make this great venture ! How 
solicitous is he ! And how hard to be quieted by a pure trust in God ! 
In this case, for the soul to be called so from itself, and from its own stand- 
ing, to be persuaded to leave its own footing, and all the carnal support 
and the confidence it once had, in the way that is natural to it, by which 
it gets peace, to be persuaded, I say, to go and throw itself off of this 
standing ; self is in this case the most wary principle that can be. There- 
fore now to go and venture upon this God, and upon the freedom of his 
grace, upon the promises of God, upon the commands of God, to stand at 
God's arbitrement thus, and to refer a man's will to his will, and to cast a 
man's self into those everlasting arms (as they are called in Deut. xxxiii.), 
to leave a man's own standing ; it is as if a man should leave his own 
standing and cast himself into the arms of a mighty giant that stands upon 
another pinnacle, one whom he hath also wronged and abused often, and 
he himself hath no hands to lay hold upon him neither, but he must depend 
upon his catching of him. Here is the greatest venture, the greatest trust, 
the greatest self-denial that can be ; thus the heart throws itself out of all 
possibilities, and submits to the free grace of God in Christ, and this is 
done in believing. And then, 

3dly. In the way of believing self is yet often-times more put to it ; for 
God makes a man wait, and makes him wait long ; so that though God 
doth not put a man to that submission that he should be content for his 
person to be damned so God may be glorified ; yet he puts him to this 
submission oftentimes, that he shall wait his time for revealing of his grace 
and love to him. And therein God shews the freeness of his grace exceed- 
ingly, that although it is certain that whoever doth venture himself thus, 
that doth thus throw himself upon the Lord Jesus Christ and God's free 
grace, shall certainly obtain in the issue ; yet for the manifestation of this 
I will be free, saith God, I will take my own time. Now, in this case, for 
the soul still to submit to this free grace of God, to wait upon the mani- 
festation of it, and this when God hides his face, as in Isa. viii. 17, ' I 
will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and 
I will look for him ;' for the soul I say to do this, and to do this with any 
quietness, in a matter of so great moment, is the greatest self-denial that 
can be. The eyes of men are apt to ' fail with looking for the salvation of 
God,' as David expresseth it in Ps. cxix. 123 ; but to be brought to wait, 
and for a man to be glad that he may do so, for it is for his soul, there is 
that pride in the will that opposeth this, and opposeth nothing more. There 



518 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK II. 

is a pride, there is an impatiency in the will, when the soul doth find itself 
lost, and taken off from itself, and hang in the air, as it were, and hang by 
a thread ; self in this apprehending the danger, must needs be impatient. 
If God will come and assure it presently, it would be quiet ; but to be 
brought to wait, and still not to be assured, I say this is the hardest thing 
in the world to do. In this case the quarrel is not in men's understand- 
ings ; no, there is a foundation laid enough to draw the understanding in ; 
a man sees the riches of grace that is in God, he sees the promise to be 
indefinite, he hath the universal command upon that promise to draw him 
in, i. e., that it is God's will that he should do so, and so he hath a war- 
rant to come to God. But I say in this case the quarrel lies in the wills of 
men, that they can wait no longer : and what doth the will do ? It sends 
to the understanding, and saith, Oh look out, Is there any tidings yet ? Do 
you see any better ground yet of hope ? Oh I am lost and undone, I can 
wait no longer ! The wills of men are apt in this case to say so, in a world 
of sinking discouragement. And this I say is the pride that is in the will : 
' His soul which is lifted up' (saith he in Hab. ii. 4), which is haughty, 
that is, which hath that reigning in him, ' is not upright, but the just shall 
live by his faith.' For a man to see other poor souls to have comfort, and 
that he should not have it, to see how God had dandled others, as it were, 
even from their first turning to him, and shined upon them, and yet still 
hides his face from him, this causeth self to swell, and the bigger a man's 
will is, the more it swells in such a case as this. You have two principles 
in your wills, the one opposite to the other, that is, self-flattery and impa- 
tiency. If a man will go and believe in a carnal way, self-flattery will help 
him to believe, that is, a man loves to have a good opinion of himself; and 
while he hath but slight thoughts of his sinfulness, if God should say, I 
will but have one man saved, he would be apt to say as Hainan, when the 
king asked him, ' What shall be done to this man whom the king delights 
to honour ?' Haman thought in his heart, ' To whom would the king 
delight to do honour more than to myself ?' So will a man be apt to say, 
I am the man whom God intends to save. But when that this self-flattery 
is killed, then despairing impatient pride riseth up, especially when a man 
is not assured for the present ; and therefore then to be quiet and still, 
and quietly to wait upon God, this I say is the greatest self-denial that can 
be, and this self-denial is and lies in the wills of men. 

4thly, If God comes in with his wrath upon a man's soul, as sometimes 
he doth when the soul goes on thus in a way of waiting on him : if God 
hide his face from him, and not only so, but comes in with terror and 
wrath upon him, — though still God in all such cases doth not put his heart to 
this, to be contented to be damned so God may be glorified ; yet this he 
puts the heart upon, and requires of self, in such cases, that a man should 
take part with God, and this is a just thing laid upon a sinner that waits 
upon God for salvation, namely, that he should acknowledge himself 
worthy to be destroyed, that he is in the hand of God as the clay is in the 
hand of the potter, — the soul is to have no repining and grudging thoughts 
allowed for that present wrath that is upon him, but to judge himself full 
of his own fruits, and to say as they in Micah vii. 9, ' I will bear the indig- 
nation of the Lord, because I have sinned :' and the like expression you 
have in Isa. xxxix. 8. Such a kind of submission it is that God requires 
of a man in a way of believing. And take this from the word of God, there 
is nothing will quell murmurings in such cases ; heart-risings against God, 
which do arise from the pride of the will, and self in the will, which is the 
proper seat of them (for the will is the chief seat of self), nothing I say 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 519 

allays and quiets them but only faith. And tho quarrel lies not in want of 
understanding, so much as not having a will to submit, and it is nothing 
but faith, waiting quietly upon the Lord, and submitting a man's sedf to 
God, that will quiet the heart in such cases. Now I say not that every 
man hath this when he first cometh to believe, but God draws it forth in 
the course of a man, and in his way of believing, as he hath strength, and 
there is occasion for it. And unto this the will must needs be opposite 
and averse, and therefore still faith is not of yourselves, for this self that 
is in the will is in itself most opposite unto faith : ' By grace ye are saved, 
through faith, and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God.' I shall 
not need to make uses, for the things themselves are practical and experi- 
mental ; and if the Spirit of God go home with them into your hearts and 
spirits, he will make uses of them for me. 



520 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAP.T III. BOOK III. 



BOOK III. 



Though faith be a difficult work, yet we ought to use our endeavours to believe. 
— What those endeavours are. — Cautions about using them. 



CHAPTER I. 

Though faith be a difficult ivork, yet we are to use endeavours to believe. — 
What those endeavours are. 

That we are to endeavour to believe, is generally granted. The only 
question will be, what kind of endeavours we mean ? We will take the 
most of them out of the 4th chapter of James, where he directs sinners 
what to do. As, 

1. To cleanse their hands and hearts, taking heed of hindrances and 
impediments which may hinder God's working of it, or provoke him to 
leave off the work ; to refrain all ill company, which quencketh all good 
motions ; as all sins also of what kind soever, which grieve the Spirit. 
Thus the apostle, Heb. xii. 1, bids us ' lay aside every weight that presseth 
down, and the sin that so easily besets us ;' those sins our natures are 
most prone unto. And, Heb. iii. 12, when he had bidden them in the 
12th verse ' take heed lest there were in them a heart of unbelief,' he sub- 
joins in the 13th verse, 'lest any of you be hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin ;' for as unbelief keeps off from God, so nourishing any sin 
keeps in unbelief. So Heb. xii. 16, 17, when he exhorts men to 'take 
heed they fail not of the grace of God,' he adds, ' lest any lust of unclean- 
ness, as in Esau, causeth you to sell your birthright and part in heaven.' 
The patient, though he cannot give himself physic, and make it work, yet 
he can abstain from drink ere he takes it ; he can bring an empty stomach. 
A woman cannot of herself conceive nor quicken the fruit of her body, but 
yet she can take heed of what may destroy it, and hinder quickening and 
conception. She may beware of journeys, dancings, violent motions which 
may cause it to miscarry ; and so much the more careful are they that are 
to bring forth a prince, an heir of a kingdom. Now, such an one is the 
new creature which is a-forming in the heart. And though abstinence 
from sin, and fearfulness to offend, can no way further the work, yet 
because the contrary may hinder it, we are to endeavour it. And to this 
hath that text a reference, Phil. ii. 13, when he speaks of ' working out 
salvation with fear.' He means not a doubting fear (as the papists would 
have it), but a fearfulness of displeasing and offending God, upon whom 
the work depends ; as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. ii. 3, ' I was with you,' 
says Paul, ' in much fear,' &c. Now this, in consideration of their depen- 
dence upon God, men are able to do ; for in respect of men whom they 
depend upon, they can and do forbear their dearest pleasures, and why not 
much more for God and the work of grace ? 



Chap. I.J of justifying faith. 521 

2. Men may endeavour to bo humbled for their sins, and take such con- 
siderations into their hearts as may serve to humble them ; which, though 
it is not faith, nor works faith, yet it leads to it : James iv. 9, ' Be afflicted, 
and mourn, and weep,' says he, giving counsel to sinners what to do : ' let 
your laughter be turned into mourning.' Men can give over their carnal 
mirth, and go alone and consider their sins, and set themselves to mourn 
for them, and humble themselves in the sight of God ; and ' God,' says he, 
1 shall lift you up,' raise up your hearts to believe. Though men cannot 
cast in the seed, yet they can go about to plough the ground that fits for 
it, and breaks the clods, Hosea x. 12. And because this is preparatory to 
faith, therefore endeavouring after this is endeavouring for faith, because 
it is an endeavouring for that which fits for faith, and is necessarily pre- 
required. Only this, it is not all the humiliation in the world can give 
them power to believe ; as many think, Oh, if I were thus humbled I 
could believe ! But, on the contrary, when they are humbled it is a new 
work to create faith ; as though the seed in the womb be prepared for the 
soul, and made fit to receive it, yet it is the almighty power of God must 
send and put a soul in. But because God never gives faith to unbroken 
hearts, therefore men are to endeavour after this work. 

3. There are duties and ordinances God hath appointed, in which to 
bring our hearts before him ; which I think James means when he says, 
' Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you,' James iv. 8. He 
means coming to these duties wherein God's presence is seen ; as Korah, 
Dathan, and Abiram, being priests, and conversant in ordinances, are said 
to draw nigh to God, Num. xvi. 9, 10. And this also men may do ; they 
may come unto God, and present their souls before him by prayer, by 
hearing the word, by good conference, by reading, &c, and look up to 
him, and say, ' Lord, now do thou work,' Luke xi. 14. He promiseth 
the Spirit himself, who is the beginner of all grace, to them that ask him. 
When therefore a man comes to these means, wherein God dispenseth 
faith, and lies at the pool still, he may be said to endeavour after faith. 

4. There are special opportunities wherein God draws nigh in his ordi- 
nances. When God stirs a man's spirit, and strengtheneth it to ask and 
endeavour, then a man should bestir himself, and hoist up sail while the 
wind blows ; as when the pool was stirred, the diseased stepped in. There 
are times when God's bellows blows the coals, as the prophet speaks ; and 
then if we be not purged, we are not purged. And ' working out our 
salvation with trembling,' I think hath reference to it, Philip, ii. 12. He 
means trembling to foreflow* any opportunity. But now this is the error 
of men, that when God doth draw nigh to encourage their hearts still to 
seek and wait on him for faith, they rest in these as the work of faith. 

5. But lastly, I conceive that these are not all the endeavours are to be 
used after faith ; but further, souls humbled are to attempt the exercise of 
the very act of believing ; that is, they are to take promises into their 
thoughts, and to bring their hearts to them, to look up to Christ, and con- 
sider his fulness, and attempt to lay hold upon him, to exercise thoughts of 
taking him, and treating the marriage with him, and consider what is in 
him, may move them to take him ; and what is in the promise may be a 
ground for their faith, and to encourage them ; and so far as God strengthens 
a man's heart, so far go and try, and try again, and see when and what 
thoughts of faith will take thee. We have an express place for this, Heb. 
iv. 11, ' Let us labour to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the 
same example of unbelief.' In the former part of the chapter, he shews 

* That is, to forego, or let slip. — Ed. 



522 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

that men entered not in because of unbelief, so as faith is the means of 
entrance ; now, therefore, he exhorts men to labour to believe ; not to 
knock and ask only, but to put forth thoughts of faith, to set their feet in, 
to endeavour this daily. And therefore, ver. 16, he bids men ' come to 
the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy ; ' those tbat had not yet 
obtained it, must come that they may obtain it. But you will say, we 
cannot come. Why come, says he, to obtain help itself, in the next words. 
So Heb. xii. 2, he exhorts them to ' look to Jesus, the beginner and finisher 
of faith ; ' to look to him as the beginner as well as the finisher. And my 
reasons why men are to endeavour and attempt the immediate acts of be- 
lieving, are, 

(1.) Because God commands men to believe and to come to Christ, 
1 John iii. 23. And therefore Christ, when any came to him, would still 
urge faith on them : ' Canst thou believe ? ' says he, Mark ix. 23. And 
80 the apostle Paul, when the jailor came trembling, 'Believe,' says he, 
Acts xvi. 81, ' on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.' Now, if we 
are to endeavour to practise other commandments to shew our duty, as I 
said before, then to believe also ; and my inability to do it right hinders 
not, nor frees me not from attempting to do it, and reaching as far as I can. 
(2.) If ministers are to present promises and motives unto men, then 
those considerations, and motives, and promises which the ministers of the 
word are to present to hearers and humbled souls, to beget faith in them, 
humbled souls may and ought with application to consider alone, and digest 
and exercise thoughts of faith about. ' The word was preached,' says the 
apostle, Heb. iv. 12, to the Israelites, promises preached, but 'they profited 
them not, because they mingled them not with faith ; ' therefore, says he, 
' let us take heed, lest a promise being left us, any of us should seem to 
come short of it,' for want of applying those promises. And though it be 
true that but some shall enter in, yet the promise is indefinitely made to 
all, ver. 6, and upon that ground, ver. 11, he exhorts all to labour after 
faith, to look up to Jesus as the author of faith. 

(3.) Men are to inure their hearts to the same thoughts of faith believers 
have, so far as recumbency or casting a man's self upon Christ, and bring- 
ing their hearts to promises goes, because God works on us as upon 
creatures reasonable ; and the same considerations, and thoughts, and 
objects of faith which believers have in their minds, a man that is yet to 
believe may think over and over. They differ only in the manner, in the 
form ale, not the materiale ; and as fruits, they have the same form and 
shape, they differ but in relish and taste. And God doth often engraft 
true thoughts of faith upon the notions we had being unbelievers, and 
changeth them into true thoughts of faith whilst we are a-thinking them ; 
as the loaves were increased in the breaking them, and as the water was 
changed into wine in the pouring of it out. So tbat men believe often truly 
ere they are aware of it, by exercising their hearts to thoughts of faith ; 
and whilst they attempt it, God helps them, as to pray, so to believe. 
And therefore it is their error that would have souls humbled to lie still, 
and see if God will begin to draw their hearts to believe, and not to attempt 
till then. It is indeed a man's strength to sit still, but there is a twofold 
sitting still : the one is a doing nothing at all, not setting a foot forward, 
not a thought towards believing, and that is naught ; but the other is a 
quelling all conceits of abilities in myself to believe, and not to suffer a 
thought to stir upon that ground, yet so as to think thoughts of faith, 
with a quiet dependence upon God. Sitting still is not opposed to using 
means, but to trusting in means. Again, sitting still is opposed to tur- 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 523 

bulency of thoughts, that a man's 'thoughts should be quiet and sedate for 
the event, and yet use the means. Only I add this caution : first, that 
though a man attempts to believe, yet he should not expect power from 
himself to believe ; but in attempting and thinking thoughts of faith, expect 
power from God, and do it in subordination to God's power. A man is to 
bring his heart to the promise, and then expect power from the promise to 
close with it. Secondly, that a man's soul do not rest in his own endea- 
vours, but still wait for a farther work. 



CHAPTER II. 

That the resting in our holy duties and endeavours is an hindrance unto faith ; 
but a right performance of them is very well consistent with it, and needful. 

When we shew that in the working of faith, and in men's coming on to 
believe, duties, and good performances, and new endeavours, become to 
many the greatest hindrances to believing on Christ alone, and do interpose 
themselves and come betwixt Christ and the soul ; men taking up a rest, 
and putting confidence in them ere they come to Christ. When, therefore, 
we cry out against this resting in duties, and shew the vanity and empti- 
ness of all you can do to save you, or obtain Christ and God's favour, and 
bid men, as Luther, take heed not of their sins only, but of their good 
works also ; then men are apt to say and think that we do cry dosvn all 
good performances, and speak downright against good duties, and do drive 
men wholly off from the performance of them ; and not only carnal men 
are apt to think so, but this is the case of poor broken souls, that when 
this their error, and the emptiness of all their performances to this end 
is discovered to them, their hearts flag, and they sit down discouraged, 
and their hands grow feeble in the performance of them. And we find 
Luther complaining of nothing more than this mistake and cavil which 
accompanied his doctrine, the chiefest of whose thoughts and breath was 
spent in this very point, to beat men off from carnal confidence in works 
(as the deepest and most bottom corruption in man's nature), and to bottom 
their faith immediately upon Christ, wherein he makes the power and the 
truth of faith to consist ; which, whilst he endeavoured, this calumny was 
still raised, that he spake against good works and holy duties. And still 
this shadow follows this truth ; and to this purpose he still professeth,* 
that as it was the hardest thing in the private exercise of men's spirits not 
to consult with duties, to lay works aside, and to cast a man's soul out of 
duties, and to lay all upon Christ, so it is the difficultest matter in all the 
circle of theology, to give both their limits ; for, whilst duties are only 
taught, faith is lost, and whilst faith is urged, carnal people dream (says 
he) that good works are spoken against. And thus, whilst Paul taught 
justification by faith without the works of the law (E,om. iii. 28), this 
objection was started up, that he made void the law, which cavil is there- 
fore there met withal by him : ver. 31, 'Do we make void the law ? No ; we 
establish it.' So whilst Christ taught that publicans and sinners went into 
heaven before Scribes and Pharisees, they cast this aspersion, falsely 
deduced from that his doctrine, that therefore he was a friend to publicans 
and sinners. 

1. To clear this therefore, first, it might be alleged, and that truly, that 
our scope, when we speak thus against their good works, is chiefly to dis- 

* Luther in Gal. v. 



524 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

cover that works performed in a state of unbelief by carnal men, are wholly 
sinful and abominable ; and though, if we take them in the abstract, they 
are to be pressed upon them as their duties, though they spoil them in the 
performance of them, yet that, in the concrete as performed by them, we 
cannot but declaim against them, and discover their sinfulness to them. 
Now for wicked men to argue from the concrete to the abstract, and to 
infer that, because we speak against wicked men's best performances, and 
discover them to be sinful, that therefore we speak against the duties 
themselves commanded, or that they are not their duties, this is an argu- 
ment fetched out of the devil's topics. "We profess that wicked men's best 
works occasionally prove their greatest sins ; as Luther says of the evil 
world, Tunc est pessimus cum est optimus, they are then worst when they 
seem best ; and the more holy in appearance they are, and the more good 
works they do, eb purius diabolo serviunt, they serve the devil more purely. 
But it follows not that therefore we speak against the duties themselves. 

2. But, secondly, I shall propose more pertinent and proper considera- 
tions to the thing in hand: first, by way of explication, I will premise 
two or three general considerations ; and then, secondly, draw up formal and 
direct answers to this cavil and mistake. 

(1.) The first thing that I premise byway of explication is, that when we 
speak against trusting and resting in duties, as opposing the work of faith, 
we mean not only resting in them with an opinion of merit, and satisfying 
God in the most gross and popish sense, — for that opinion may be renounced, 
when yet the heart practiseth a more refined, fine-spun popery secretly, — and 
that is, that though men expect that it is Christ alone must pardon them, 
and think that their performances are not able to satisfy God for their sins, 
but Christ's satisfaction is it which must stand them in stead, yet they look 
upon their own performances as those which may compass Christ and an 
interest in him, and they look at them as motives that may prevail with 
God to give them Christ ; which secret opinion is not much less derogatory 
from God's grace and Christ than the other, for Christ is more than justifi- 
cation, because he brings justification and all with him. If he hath given 
us his Son, ' how shall he not with him give us all things ?' Rom. viii. 32. 
All are less than Christ ; and therefore to think, though not to merit, yet 
to obtain Christ for our own performances, and so to rest in them, is as 
bad as the former. It is indeed a new shift, beyond what gross popery 
dreamt of; yet as it is in laws, though never so direct and express cautions 
be made to prevent all evasions, yet cunning heads will invent new to de- 
fraud and go beyond the statute ; so though our divines have expressed 
themselves never so fully against works, yet men renouncing merits, their 
hearts have yet farther inventions of resting in works and duties, as motives 
to move God, they think, to give them Christ, which yet are as opposite to 
faith as the other, and therefore are excluded by the apostle, Rom. x. 6, 
' The righteousness of faith,' saith he, ' speaks on this wise, Say not in thy 
heart,' &c. For let us preach Christ never so fully, and let men's opinions 
be never so much convinced, yet their hearts are apt, in their secret con- 
sultations about their own salvation, to think of a course of doing : ' "Who 
shall ascend up to heaven, to fetch Christ thence ?' Though the way be 
by Christ, yet they think, by doing, to get him and procure him. No, says 
the apostle ; it is by a sheer way of faith, closing with him as freely given, 
and put into your mouths and hearts. 

(2.) The second thing I premise is, that as God, in giving Christ, and in 
justifying us by Christ, looks at no performances either as meriting or as 
moving him to do either, so faith, that apprehends and lays hold on Christ 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 525 

as given, and upon justification in him, whether by an act of casting a 
man's self on Christ for justification or otherwise, looks not at duties, or 
all that ever a man hath done, either as meriting or moving causes, that do 
further him an} 7 way in either, or prevail with God to bestow either. So 
that look as there is an exact opposition between grace and works in God 
(Rom. xi. 6, that if it be of mere grace, then all duties are excluded ; and 
if of works, then grace is excluded, so as these two cannot mingle), so there 
is as exact an opposition between faith and duties, in point of apprehending 
Christ and justification by him ; for faith is a grace chosen on purpose to 
suit with God's free grace, to cause our thoughts to answer to his in this 
great business, to take Christ as given, upon the same considerations that 
God bestows him, and so his righteousness too. Therefore, to be justified 
by grace and by faith, is all one ; and therefore, ' it is of faith, that it might 
be by grace.' And when we are said to be justified by faith without works, 
what is the meaning of it, and why is it attributed to faith, but because faith 
is the sole instrument of apprehending God's giving me Christ, and justify- 
ing of me ? As also because in that its apprehension, as God in justifying 
looks not to works, nor any thing in me, as the moving cause, or any way 
conducing to it, so faith apprehends it, having no eye to works, why it 
apprehends it, and so is said to justify without works, that is, to apprehend 
it, having no eye to works as moving causes. Yea, as God looks not to 
faith itself, as a work, but only as an instrument apprehending, so faith 
looks not on itself as a work, any way having any influence into obtaining 
Christ and his righteousness, but only as a hand receiving it. And there- 
fore, God chose this grace of faith, knowing that though, when the believer 
believes, he performs a work, yet he would not look to that act as a work, 
but look to Christ and his free grace : as Luther expresseth himself, ' When 
I believe, I use to imagine, as if there were no such quality in me as faith,' 
&c. ' So as,' says he in another place, ' I do not know whether there be 
any righteousness else, or unrighteousness in the world.' Hence then it 
comes to pass that faith, when it goes about its proper business of laying 
hold upon Christ and justification through him, is careful to shut out and 
exclude works ; it beats all duties and graces off with poles, as it were, from 
putting their hands to this ark, which it alone is appointed to touch and 
possess ; and it is exceeding jealous of duties, lest they should step in and 
spoil her virginity, as Luther calls it, which she reserves for Christ, which 
is tainted and polluted, if works mingle their help with faith in this busi- 
ness. For, as I said before, if it were any way of works, grace should be 
no grace ; so if the soul thought it any way of duties, it were no faith. And 
therefore Paul, though he had never so many performances to boast of, and 
elsewhere to men he doth boast of them, yet in point of justification he 
thinks not of them : ' Though I know nothing by myself, yet hereby I am 
not justified,' but it is the Lord that freely of himself doth, without relation 
to any thing in me. And therefore, 1 Pet. i. 13, we are exhorted to trust 
perfectly, to trust and lean, fully and wholly, on grace ; not so as to stand 
mainly upon it, and lean to works, but wholly and upright upon it. 

(3.) The third thing I premise is this, that man's nature is exceedingly 
prone to rest and trust in his own performances, and not to look out wholly 
to God's free grace and to Christ ; Malum hoc est commun'mimum (as Luther 
calls it), the most common evil, and deepliest rooted. Some of our divines, 
as Chemnitius, &c, have gone about to shew that, from Cain and Abel to 
this very day, this hath been the great and standing controversy in the 
world, and difference between the world and believers, whether we are 
accepted before God by works or by faith. Cain thought by sacrifice to do 



526 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK III. 

it, and neglected faith ; but Abel, though he brought sacrifice also, yet, 
Heb. xi., he offered it by faith, not resting in it, and so ' by faith offered a 
more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness he was 
righteous,' which the other did not, thinking alone by sacrifice to do it ; the 
apostle puts the difference on purpose, Heb. xi. 4. Thus, in Asaph's time, 
God by Asaph corrects it as the common error of that age, and shews it 
was not by works, not by sacrifice, that they are accepted, Ps. 1. 7, 8. 
Thus it was in Isaiah's time also, ' Have we not fasted, and thou seest 
not?" Isa. lviii. 2. And thus in Christ's time too, ' What shall we do to 
work the works of God ? ' John vi. 28. They thought to obtain righteous- 
ness by doing, and therefore Christ, as correcting their error, points them 
to believing. Thus the Pharisees ' trusted in themselves,' says the text, 
1 that they were righteous,' Luke xviii. 9, that is, the righteousness they 
trusted unto, it was that only in themselves, and out of themselves. In a 
word, Paul says of them all, Eom. ix. 32, 33, that they ' sought not 
righteousness by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.' The pro- 
mise of salvation they hoped for as well as believers, but, as some expound 
that place, in Acts xxvi. 7, of the unregenerate Jews, they hoped to come 
to the promise by works ; which promise, though Paul also looked for by 
faith, yet they thought by serving God day and night only to attain it; 
that was their way to attain ; but Paul, though he aimed at the same pro- 
mise, yet sought it by faith. And this was the general error of all the 
twelve tribes, as he says there. And this was the reigning error in popish 
times, that they still trusted in their works, and though they knew Christ 
as a redeemer, yet they left him, and faith in him, and sought justification 
by the works of the law. Now, that a corruption should be so general in 
all ages from time to time, and so universal and so irreclaimable, that all 
Christ and his apostles did could not work men off from it, this argues that 
it is most natural, and that nature sticks here. As why have Pelagian con- 
troversies been still in the church started, though still more refinedly, but 
because there are Pelagiance fibra, Pelagian fibres in every man's heart, as 
he said, roots, and a spring of it within ? Now the other error about 
works hath been more ancient than this, and more lasting, because more 
natural. Yea, so natural is it, that even believers, that have faith begun, 
are apt to rest in, and trust too much in duties. The apostles could not 
get rid of all the grudgings of it, Mat. xix. 27. 'We have forsaken 
all, what shall we have therefore ? ' And though he tells them what 
they should have, yet elsewhere he beats down that. Therefore Luke 
xvii. 7, 8, 9, Christ there endeavours to beat down all swelling conceits 
of their performances in them, tells them that when they had done all 
they could, they must confess themselves unprofitable servants. And upon 
what occasion comes it in? Look the 5th and 6th verses, and you will find 
that it is upon occasion of a conference about faith, they desiring the in- 
crease of it, and Christ commending it, and telling them, that a grain of it 
was more worth than all their works, and then he comes in with this asser- 
tion, as removing the main hindrance of it. And therefore the Galatians, 
a whole church that had received Christ, yet how soon, says the apostle, 
were they removed to another gospel from the grace of Christ, Gal. i. 6. 
That other gospel was looking partly to works and partly to Christ, and 
joining Christ with the law. And this we all find by experience to be true 
more or less ; and the reason is, because reason hath the law for its object, 
and to be justified by the works of the law, and accepted for them ; and so 
when men hear of grace and Christ, they think that yet they should go that 
way too. This most agrees with reason and the dictates of a natural con- 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 527 

science, for it was that way which in innocency was tho way, and so some 
sparks of light that men should he saved hy works are in every man's 
heart, as well as of the duties of the law, the legal way of salvation ; and 
though a man he hrought to acknowledge that Christ pardons, yet he will 
have as much of his own way as he can, so that natural reason hath some 
knowledge of justification hy the law; hut of justification merely hy grace, 
now man is fallen, this reason is ignorant of, and there is no such spark of 
light sown in man's heart by nature ; therefore the apostle, Rom. x. 3, 
gives this as the reason they were ignorant of God's righteousness, that is, 
of God's way of justifying. And therefore it must be revealed, Rom. i. 17, 
and when it is revealed, it is entertained only by faith ; and that not to 
faith at first, but from one degree of faith to [another, for faith only is 
apprehensive of it ; so as if God would make a man more and more to 
cast himself upon Christ's righteousness, and add a farther insight into it, 
he must add to a man's faith ; and look how much carnal reason there is, 
and want of faith, so much relying upon duties there will be even in the 
best. And though men's opinions may be set right, yet this being an innate 
spark and principle in the heart, which is rooted out of it only by faith, 
therefore the heart under-hand will have recourse and rest in performances 
more or less ; for we, in the working of our hearts, are not guided by 
our notions, but by the rooted principles of nature ; therefore though men's 
judgments are convinced that there is a God, and that fully and clearly, 
yet atheism is rooted, and a settled principle in the heart, and therefore 
sways in the workings of a man's spirit ; and accordingly, as ' the fool says 
in his heart, There is no God,' so naturally a man says in his heart, Duties 
must help me to Christ. And therefore the righteousness of faith is 
brought in as checking and contradicting such sayings that are apt to arise 
in a man's heart, which are not wrought out by opinion, but by a principle 
of faith, and a divine light accompanying : ' The righteousness of faith says, 
Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring Christ down 
from above,' Rom. x. 6. And therefore, in another place, God carefully 
meets with those thoughts of their own righteousness, Deut. ix. 4, ' Speak 
not in thine heart, that for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in 
to possess this land,' &c, either as the moving cause, or the meriting 
cause. And ver. 6, he comes over it again with a more special instruction 
in this point when he says, ' Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God 
giveth thee not this good land for thy righteousness ;' for of all else the heart 
is most uncapable of this lesson, to discern the way of faith and works. And 
as ignorance and opposite reason, so also pride (which is the other reason 
there, Rom. x. 2, used by the apostle) makes men to trust in their duties, 
' they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish 
their own righteousness.' He brings both in as reasons why they submitted 
not to God's righteousness of faith, for they would set up their own. Na- 
ture desires to do so, because as self-love hath set up itself for a man's God 
and end, so for a man's Christ also ; there is the same reason of the one 
that is of the other, and pride is seen in both ; for we would have wherewithal 
to boast. Therefore, Deut viii. 14, 17, he bids them take heed of the lift- 
ing up of their hearts, in saying, ' My might, and the power of mine hand, 
hath got me this wealth.' As it is thus in matters of wealth, so pride 
makes men think that through their prayer and their fasting, they should 
get Christ. And this corruption was so rooted, that the main end of the 
forty years' troubles in the wilderness was to work out this conceit, and 
that by humbling them, ver. 16, which shews that pride was the original 
of this corruption. 



528 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK III. 

These things premised, the answers to that fore-mentioned cavil and mis- 
take are easily framed. As, 

1. In drawing men on to a right way of believing, we speak not at all 
against duties, but only discover, and bid men beware of this corruption 
which so naturally accompanies the performance of them in men's hearts, 
which because it is so natural, and so prevalent, and so dangerous, therefore 
it is as much to be spoken against. Now this corruption is but accidental 
to the duties ; and therefore the duties, however, ought to be performed, and 
are holy and good. We speak not against the things, but the ground of 
performing them, with an eye to them, as anything that might move God 
to give you Christ, which you are apt unto. And thus as when we speak 
against merits of works in our controversy with the papists, we speak not 
against works, but their performing them upon that ground ; or, as when 
we speak against things lawful, and say, that more are damned for things 
lawful than unlawful, and that tbey condemn themselves in what they 
allow ; and, that more are cast away upon sands than upon rocks, viz. 
gross sins ; we in this speak not against the lawfulness of the things, or 
forbid men to use them, but against their corruption that place so much 
their happiness and rest in them, that they are kept from God their chiefest 
good. Now as things lawful step in betwixt God and men, so duties step 
in betwixt Christ and them, but both through their corruption ; and in this 
sense Luther said, Cavendum est a peccahs, imo a bonis operibus, we are 
to beware of sins, ay, and of good works too. 

2. When we tell you that the performing of duties in many does hinder 
faith, the meaning is not that of themselves they do so, for one command of 
God doth not hinder another ; but it is so by reason of your corruption, that 
is apt to rest in them, so they do hinder men. As the law stirred up con- 
cupiscence, and was the occasion of evil, so are works the occasion of oppo- 
sition to faith ; and therefore the apostle says, Rom. ix. 29, 30, many that 
are profane attain to the righteousness of faith sooner than others that 
follow the righteousness of the law ; not that the righteousness of the law 
is in itself contrary, no, this is not Paul's meaning, for, verse 32, he makes 
the question how it came so to pass : ' Wherefore ? Because they sought it 
not by faith ;' had they sought righteousness in a right way, duties would 
not have hindered them. For this you must consider, that grace and 
works, faith and works, are opposed. But how ? Only in point of justifi- 
cation, and attaining of Christ ; so that we should not look to them, or use 
them with an eye to them as causes to move God to bestow Christ on us. 
Herein they only clash ; and it is man's corrupt opinion too that sets them 
at odds. It is the pride of nature that will bring duties in to justle out 
faith, else they would not hinder but further each other. Not so much 
works as boasting are ' excluded by the law of faith,' Rom. iii. 27. Let 
the heart lay boasting aside, and resting in them and faith, and they will 
do well otherwise, and both glorify God ; or, as Luther says, when faith 
goes to believe and to deal with Christ, then she shuts works out, and 
will be with her spouse alone ; naked Christ with naked faith, and works 
stand at the door as servants, that when faith will walk abroad, they may 
attend her. 

3. We speak not against duties, but would reduce you to a right method 
and order in attaining to the right performance of them ; and that is, to 
get faith first as the cause of all obedience, and which makes all accepted, 
without which God is not well pleased with all you do, and not to look at 
duties as the cause of faith. Bona opera von pariunt Jideni, sed fides parit 
bona opera. Good works do not bring forth faith, but faith brings forth good 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 529 

works : Titus iii. 8, ' Theso things affirm constantly that those which have 
believed may be careful to maintain good works.' That is the right method, 
first to exhort men to believe, then to fall a-doing. A physician bids his 
patient first take physic, and then drink broth; he forbids him not to 
drink, but to take physic first : so we exhort you to take Christ, and then 
fall a- working. 

4. Whereas you may ask, Are duties no helps afore faith ? I answer, 
fourthly, Holy duties may be considered both as duties commanded to be 
performed by God, and so we say all ought to perform them. And 
secondly, also as means appointed by God to convey Christ, as conduit 
pipes convey water ; or to bring us to Christ as boats convey us over the 
water, and so they are back-doors to let us in to Christ : and so we exhort 
you to them. But the thing we speak against is, that either men rest in 
the performance of them as duties only, and look not at them further as 
rrfeans ; or, if they do, yet regard them rather as motives to move God to 
bestow Christ than simply as means, in the use of which God bestows sal- 
vation. Now if the heart rests in them, or looks at them in this manner, 
then we speak against them. 

5. When we go about to shew you the vanity and emptiness of them, we 
do it not that simply they are vain in themselves, but vain to that end you 
use them for, and that is to get Christ for them, or to be justified by them. 
For though they serve not to that end, yet they may serve for another, 
the other ends above mentioned. If a man that is troubled in conscience 
would go and take physic, his taking physic may be useful to him, and not 
in vain, for he may other ways have need of it ; but yet to the end to cure 
the wound of his conscience, we may say it is in vain, to make him look to 
a higher means. And so when we say, the labours of chemists going by 
their art to get gold is vain and ridiculous, we do not mean that it is simply 
so; for it is many ways useful, yet not to make gold. So we say of duties, 
they are useful, but not to justify you, not as you think by your art to get 
and work Christ out of them. No. 

6. When we speak against resting in duties, what is our scope ? To 
bring Christ and you together, naked Christ and the naked soul ; that you 
may not embrace clouds, but Christ in all ; that you may not rest till you 
have Christ in your eye beyond all duties ; that you may have the work 
of faith in your eye above all works. This is all our scope, as it was 
Christ's, who directed them above works to believing, as that great work 
of God ; and as it was Paul's scope, who directed them to seek it by faith, 
Rom. ix. 32. We speak not against duties as servants to attend faith, but 
we would marry you to Christ, and have him to be your husband, and not 
duties your paramours. 

CHAPTER III. 

Cautions about using our endeavours to believe. — We must act in subordination 
to God's jwiver, as icorking in us both the will and the deed. — We must also 
renounce all ability in ourselves. 

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, 
but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling : for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his 
good pleasure. — Philip. II. 12, 13. 

Having proved that we are to use endeavours to believe, and that a right 
and due performance of duties is not incompatible with faith, my next 
vol.. viii. l 1 



530 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK III. 

business is to add some cautions to be observed in using our endeavours, 
and in attempting to believe, and going fortb to believe, and continuing so 
to do. There are cautions which it becomes those to have who are in 
dependence upon God, and his free grace, and his power to work faith in 
them at pleasure, as the text hath it : 'He works,' saith the text, ' the 
will and the deed according to his good pleasure.' Now, although the 
apostle shews here how the soul is to manage and behave itself, not only 
in the point of believing, but in working out our salvation in all the parti- 
cular duties of it, yet what the apostle saith here is in a more special 
manner applicable to believing, because that is what we are saved by : 
' Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.' It is the great 
work of God. 

In the text you have, 

1. A duty, which is that I am exhorting you to, to work out your own 
salvation, which is eminently by believing ; for it is faith unto salvation': 
' Believe, and thou shalt be saved ; ' and work it out (saith he) to perfec- 
tion, as the word signifies. 

2. You have here the manner in which this is to be done (which is the 
thing I chose the text for), it is ' with fear and trembling.' 

3. Here is that which should cause this fear and trembling in working 
out our own salvation, and that is the point in hand, ' for it is God that 
worketh in you both to will and to do ; ' therefore, saith he, ' work it out 
with fear and trembling.' And this now, the words being rightly opened 
and interpreted, doth hold forth how the soul in all its endeavours, in a 
subordination and dependence upon the power of God to make the faith I 
put forth true faith, and to help me both in the will and the deed ; it shews 
how the soul, I say, ought to demean itself to God therein as in dependence 
upon that power. 

I will first open the words a little, and then proceed. The papists say, 
that by fear and trembling here, is meant doubting, opposing it to all 
cei'tainty and assurance of salvation, a doubting whether that God will save 
you or no, which, say they, keeps the heart awful. For they go only a 
legal way, and a way to work upon self-love only ; and I confess if that 
were the way of God's working grace and faith upon a man's heart, if it 
w 're to work merely upon self-love and in a legal way, their interpretation 
would be the best ; for it is with a fear and trembling whether ever God 
will work it in me, yea or no ; and therefore to have that awfulness con- 
tinually upon a man's spirit would be best to rouse self-love, and to 
provoke that, and work upon that. But this sense cannot stand, for the 
text hath respect to that place in the Old Testament which these words are 
taken out of; and, as Austin observed long ago, these words are taken out 
of Ps. ii. 11. And the Septuagint there useth the very words in the 
Greek which are used here by the apostle, and therefore surely the Holy 
Ghost had an eye to it. Now, saith the psalmist there, ver. 11, ' Serve 
the Lord with fear' (speaking of Christ), ' and rejoice with trembling, 
kiss the Son,' &c, which is indeed especially believing on him, closing 
with him. Now if it were meant of that popish doubting, it had been the 
greatest contradiction in the world to say, ' Kejoice with trembling; ' because 
for me to rejoice in that salvation which Christ bringeth to me, and to be 
doubtful of it, is a contradiction. Yea, the word here rejoice signifies the 
highest rejoicing, to rejoice so as to leap for joy; as high a rejoicing" as 
rejoicing ' with joy unspeakable and glorious,' for it is a rejoicing with 
glory. So then he commands at once the highest assurance, the highest 
rejoicing, and yet withal to tremble; he speaks therefore of such a_fear 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 531 

and trembling not as hath doubting, but such as may stand with the 
highest joy that is ; and therefore he doth not mean a diffidence, a con- 
tinual hesitation and dubitation, or a consternation of mind, as they would 
carry it ; for then, I say, it had been the greatest contradiction in the world 
to bad them rejoice with trembling, if by trembling had been meant a con- 
sternation and diffidence of mind. 

But besides this, you shall find if you search the New Testament, that 
this phrase of trembling, as it is used there, hath plainly another meaning 
and sense than this which the papists put upon it. 

It is opposed first to high-mindedness or confidence in one's self: Rom. 
xi. 20, ' Be not high-minded, but fear.' Fear therefore is opposed to 
self-conceitedness, and to trusting in a man's self, and therefore it notes 
out a working out of our salvation with the highest submission and depen- 
dence upon God, who is the worker of it. And that this should be the mean- 
ing of the word here in the text, is clear from what follows : ' For it is 
God,' saith he, ' that worketh in you both the will and deed ;' and there- 
fore fear and trembling is opposed to conceitedness, and high-mindedness, 
and confidence in a man's self, and it is an exhortation to submission, as 
I might shew you out of James iv. 7, where he saith, ' Submit yourselves to 
God,' speaking how they should behave themselves for God to give them 
grace, as in opening that place would appear ; I say then, it is opposed in 
the New Testament to high-mindedness and conceitedness, and is put for 
a submission to God, to be low and empty in a man's self, in respect of any 
strength in a man's self. 

And then again it is put for a fear of offending or displeasing one; so the 
phrase of fear and trembling is used again and again in the New Testament. 
You received Titus (saith he, 2 Cor. vii. 15) ' with fear and trembling.' 
With fear and trembling they received that holy messenger of God, that was 
an holy evangelist. What ! were they in a fear, in a hesitation and dubita- 
tion that Titus would do them hurt ? No ; surely that popish interpreta- 
tion of fear and trembling cannot be applied to their receiving of Titus ; 
but it hath this meaning, they were afraid of doing anything which might 
offend or displease, or be distasteful to a man so eminently holy ; and he 
being an evangelist, they received him with all submission to his doctrine ; 
and therefore the word obedience is annexed to it: 'Remembering the 
obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.' Even 
as if Christ himself were upon the earth, and a man should converse with 
him, how would a man fear in all his ways lest he should do anything that 
should not be suitable to so holy and so heavenly a spirit as he hath in 
whom God dwelleth. So that indeed the meaning of the words, ' Work 
out your salvation with fear and trembling,' is this : it is as if the apostle 
had said, Seeing you have a work begun in you by God, — for so he tells 
them they had, and gives them as much assurance of it as the testimony of 
an apostle could do : chap. i. verse 6, ' Being confident of this very thing 
(saith he), that God, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it 
until the day of Jesus Christ.' — As he therefore by his power hath begun 
to work in you all at the first, so you must depend upon the same power to 
continue to work in you the will and the deed, and yet you are to co-work 
with him, in a continual subordination to that power which hath begun to 
work in you ; you are so to work out your salvation as to fear to offend 
that God upon whom your salvation dependeth, to tremble lest you omit 
any opportunity wherein this God begins to work upon you ; for you must 
be beholden to him for salvation, if ever you have it, and it is he that 
worketh in you the will and the deed. Work out thereibie your salvation 



532 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

with your own endeavours, but with the highest fear and trembling, that is, 
with the greatest humility and submission of mind, and dependency upon 
the power of God, who must do all, without all self-confidence, or self-con- 
ceitedness, or trusting in your own power, and with the greatest fearfulness 
to displease tbat God upon whose good pleasure the will and the deed in per- 
fecting of it dependeth. In a word, this exhortation of the apostle is a 
caution against security, and the giving over of the use of all means and 
ways further to work out our salvation. It is a caution against pride and self- 
conceitedness, and going on out of high-mindedness in our own strength. 
It teacheth us how to manage our hearts in the use of our own endeavours, 
namely, so as to fear to offend that God upon whose power we depend for 
so great a work, and also to tremble to omit any opportunity wherein this 
God doth work upon us. This is the general scope of the words. And so 
you have tbe meaning of the phrase. I shall now come to such particulars 
as, added to all the former I have delivered, will perfect and complete this 
particular subject which I have spoken of concerning faith, which you may 
remember was this, namely, to shew you how to manage and guide our souls 
ior the manner of our endeavouring after believing, and in believing ; how 
to manage our souls, I say, and our endeavours, after such a manner as 
that we may co-work with God in a way of subordination to his power. 

1. Therefore (and I shall keep myself exceeding much to the sense of 
these words, ' with fear and trembling'), we do work with God in a subordi- 
nation to his power, when we go forth in a renunciation of all our own 
abilities, in a continued distrust of all our own abilities. And this is to 
work it out with fear and trembling, because God works in us the will and 
the deed ; ' Be not high-minded,' saith he, ' but fear ;' be not self-conceited, 
do not stand to go forth upon your own legs. There is no danger at all 
for men to attempt believing, and to attempt it again and again, whilst still 
they go forth in doing of it, with a perpetual renunciation of their own 
strength. We use to tell you (and we tell you truth in it), that there is 
nothing hinders faith more than a man's own endeavours to believe. But 
how ? Endeavouring in his own strength. And when we say that self, 
and all in self, and from self, is against faith, the meaning is this, that 
confidence in a man's self, and in his own endeavours, is that which undoeth 
men. The great mischief lies in the rising up of such thoughts as these, I 
will go pray, and I will believe, and I will work out a faith in Christ, which 
the heart is exceeding apt unto ; and you that have experience of the spiritual 
conflicts and spiritual attempts and exercises of spirit in the way of believ- 
ing, cannot but find it. The heart, I say, is apt still to be saying, as he in 
Ps. lxxiii. 16, ' I thought to know this,' and this is it which we speak- 
against ; as the apostle James, chap. iv. 13, 15, teacheth men to check 
themselves : ' Go to now,' saith he, ' ye that say, To-day or to-morrow, we 
will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and 
get gain, &c, whereas you ought to say, If the Lord will, we will do this 
or that ; but now,' saith he, ' you rejoice in your boasting.' What he saith 
of civil actions, and of our dependence upon God therein, holdeth much 
more, infinitely more, of spiritual actions. Why ? Because that an ordi- 
nary providence accompanieth us in civil actions ; the same providence 
that accompanieth beasts in all their actions, doth accompany men in 
an ordinary way, and so men may better say of such things, We will go to 
such a city, and do this, and do that ; yet you see the apostle checks their 
hearts in the midst of such thoughts ; much more then are we to suppress 
all such thoughts in things that are spiritual, in which we depend upon 
God only, and upon him alone, and upon a good pleasure of his in a more 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. • r ' : '"'> 

Immediate manner. We should take our hearts at it, and do but watch 
your hearts, and you will take them at it again and again. It may be that 
such thoughts will not come into distinct propositions in your hearts and 
spirits, but they will lie there taken for granted. We should take our 
hearts at it, I say ; and when you find your hearts will go out to attempt 
any spiritual thing, or to attempt believing, and to say, I will do this, or I 
will do that, and so go forth upon that ground, and in your own strength, 
assisted by such a conceit, you should, when your hearts are so doing, 
check yourselves. Even as they said in Jer. ii. 18, ' What hast thou to do 
in the way of Egypt ?' so you should say to your hearts when you find them 
so doing, What hast thou to do to go out in thy own strength, in any con- 
fidence in thyself? Men may say, and it is ordinary for them to do so, 
that it is God that doth all, and we can do nothing, and yet in the mean 
time trust in themselves, and in their own strength. The Pharisee him- 
self, as the text saith, Luke xviii. 9, trusted in himself, yet if you read on, 
you shall find him thanking God for all that he had, and that he was not 
like other men, as if that God had done all, and he had done nothing ; 
whereas the very scope of that parable is to speak against those that trusted 
in themselves. Let this point, continual acting self-renunciation (that is, 
continually to act a renouncing of yourselves in your going forth in all 
things that you do, especially in the point of believing), be settled on your 
hearts. You are as frequently to exercise these acts negatively, as to 
exercise acts affirmative or positive ; that is, as frequently to renounce your 
own strength in the doing of a thing, as to do it. I will not insist upon 
such places where when the saints have done thus and thus, still they cry, 
1 Not unto us, Lord, not unto us,' as Ps. cxv. 1, though there is the like 
reason in the doing of a thing, that there is after the doing of it. And so 
in Isa. xxvi. 12, ' Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us and for us ;' 
they are not content only to say so, to acknowledge that God doth all, but 
as it follows there, verses 17, 18, they add, ' We have been with child and 
in pain, and we have as it were brought forth wind.' Thy soul, it may be, 
hath been humbled and terrified ; thou hast had a world of conceptions 
within thee, but still thou hast brought forth nothing ; say thou then, 
Lord, thou hast wrought all my works in me and for me. What, I say, 
they do when God had wrought all in them, that do thou still whilst thou 
art a co-working with God. So in Hosea xiv. 3, when they were to seek 
salvation, because such thoughts of self-confidence will arise, they do pre- 
vent and forestall them, they do renounce beforehand all carnal confidence : 
1 Asshur shall not save us.' Why do they speak this, but because they 
knew their hearts would be apt to run to Asshur, for he speaks there not 
of temporal deliverance but of spiritual, and alludeth to what they were 
wont to have recourse unto for temporal deliverance, to express what the 
Spirits of men are apt to have recourse unto for spiritual. ' Asshur,' say 
they, ' shall not save us.' They lay that for a conclusion before they begin, 
We will dam up that door, there shall not a thought come in of having 
recourse unto anything, or of having any confidence in ourselves, or in any- 
thing in us, or in anything we can do, ' but in thee the fatherless find 
mercy.' The Scripture delights much to run upon these negatives. It is 
not content only to express positively that we are to believe, and that we 
are thus to believe, and upon this to believe, but that we are in the doing 
of it to renounce whatsoever is in us. To give you some instances for it. 

(1.) See how the apostles speak, Gal. ii. 16, for they speak of their own 
faith there : ' Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, 



584 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. EoOK III. 

that we may be justified by the faith of Christ.' Here now were two prin- 
ciples laid iu their hearts ; here was first a negative one, and that principle 
was riveted in them, they knew they could never be justified by any works 
of their own ; ' Knowing,' saith he, ' that a man is not justified by the works 
of the law.' And he comes in with a negative again, ' That we might be 
justified by the faith of Christ, and not,' saith he, ' by the works of the 
law.' This was the first principle that was inlaid in their hearts; and then 
the second is a positive one, ' But by the faith of Jesus Christ.' And as 
this was the opinion and judgment of the apostles, so their practice was 
answerable, for mark the practice of their hearts upon this: 'We therefore,' 
saith he, ' have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the 
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law.' While they believed, they 
excluded the works of the law in their own hearts, and renounced them. 
There was an act, I say, of renunciation, even in the work of believing. 
' Not by. the works of the law,' saith he, ' but by the faith of Jesus Christ.' 

(2.) Where the apostle expresseth the doctrine of faith, Ephes. ii. 8, 
(and men's hearts should answer the doctrine) he comes in with two nega- 
tives there also, 'Not of ourselves,' saith he, and 'not of works.' He hath 
two negatives to all the affirmatives that are there. Why ? To teach the 
hearts of men, that still in the way of believing they should shut the back- 
door, as I may so express it, that no thoughts of self-confidence may come 
in and mingle themselves with the rest of their souls when they go to be- 
lieve. As Abraham, when he sacrificed, had a double work, one was to 
kill the sacrifice, and to lay it on the fire, and to offer it up ; and the other 
was to drive away the fowls that came down upon the carcasses ; so you have 
a double work when you go to believe, if you will go forth in the power of 
God. As you are to attempt to believe in a subordination to the power of 
God, so you are to beat off and drive away all thoughts of self-confidence 
and self-conceitedness, to be ever a renouncing of yourselves, as you would 
be of lusts tbat rise up. 

(3.) You have the like expressions in Horn. ix. 16, that so you may see 
how the Scripture runs still upon negatives, to teach men's hearts what 
to do : ' It is not, saith he,' ' of him that willeth, nor of him that 
runneth.' And the apostle there brings it in by the by, as a conclusion of 
what he had spoke concerning the doctrine of election. ' So then,' saith 
he, ' it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that 
sheweth mercy.' One would have thought it had been enough to have 
said, 'It is of God that sheweth mercy.' No; but he would bring in the 
negative, he would have men renounce their own willing, and their own 
running, and to depend upon that God that shews mercy. 

Now, if thou hast had abundant experience, and liest under a deep sense 
of thine own unability to believe, the many experiences thou hast found of 
attempting in vain, as thou thinkest, to believe, are apt to discourage thee. 
But do thou now mind what the Spirit of God shall direct thee to, and that 
is this : do not go turn all the experiences of the vanity of thine own 
attempts into discouragements, that because thou hast found it to be in 
vain, therefore it shall be so for time to come ; no, but go turn them all 
into self-renunciation ; let all this confirm thy heart, that faith is therefore 
not of ourselves ; let it, I say, confirm thee in that more, and inlay that 
principle into thy heart more, so as that thou shouldst maintain that against 
the next time in all the attempts thou settest upon believing. And if thou 
dost so, thou dost work with fear and trembling, thou dost go forth and 
co-work with God in a subordination to his power, to glorify that alone. 
Discharge all thine own strength continually, discharge it of any help at all 



ClIAP. IV.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 535 

that thou expectost from it. If it would rise up and attempt, disclaim it ; 
yea, because it will rise even whilst thou art setting upon the work, let it 
be the first thing thou dost to say, 'Asshur shall not save us;' Lord, not of 
myself, not anything in me, but through thy power, I throw myself upon 
thee. Suppose that the act thou aimest at be to go out of thyself only to 
Christ, yet if thou hast but this thought, I will go out of myself to Christ 
out of my own power, or without renouncing of thyself, thou art still in 
thyself. Such thoughts hinder God from working: even as Jesus Christ 
did not work miracles in his own country because of their unbelief, so, 
whilst self thus riseth up and mingleth itself with that strength which God 
giveth, God withdraws his assistance. The words in Heb. x., quoted out 
of Hab. ii. 4, 'His soul which is lifted up,' signify, as Pareus well observeth, 
pnnens smpstan, &c, that is, that soul that doth make a bulwark of itself, 
and trusteth in itself; for when the heart betakes itself to its own strength, 
and goes out in that, it leaves to trust in God ; and it is not endeavours, 
but it is endeavours without renouncing of what is in a man's self endea- 
vouring, which frustrateth faith, for God hath said, ' In his own strength 
shall no man prevail,' 1 Sam. ii. 9. Men that are convinced of the neces- 
sity of Christ, and that they must get Christ, what do they say within 
themselves ? I will pray, and I will fast, and I will go to Christ : that 
same / will spoils all. They are like to swimmers that are beginning to 
swim, their very scrabbling and pawing in the water of themselves at first, 
their very eagerness is it which makes them sink, whereas if they lay but 
still and committed themselves to the stream, even that would carry them. 
To act out of a man's own strength is opposite to the very fundamental law 
of God, it doth prevent and supplant the power of God in working with us. 
That I may express it to you by a similitude which is more familiar, you 
know that the apostle expresseth faith by the opening of a door, in Acts xiv. 
Now a man's endeavours to this are like as if a man in the water should 
be to pass through a great sluice, and he should go on the back-side of it, 
and pull and pull, the more that he pulls, and the more he would open it 
by pulling, the worse he is, whereas now if he would commit himself to the 
stream, it would open it, and he might pass through it. So that now that 
is the first thing, fear and trembling imports a renouncing of all confidence 
in a man's self. And let a man attempt still with a renunciation of a man's 
self, and all in a man's self, and act and practise this, and then attempting 
to believe will never hurt him, or put him oft' from faith, but he will find 
that God will co-work with him in the doing of it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

We must use our endeavours to believe, being fearful of doing anything to 
offend that God upon whose power we depend to ivork faith and all other 
things in us. 

2. Fear and trembling here, in relation to God's working the will and 
the deed in us, is extended also to fearfulness of offending, of sinning 
against that God that must work. So that now that soul that depends 
upon the power and good pleasure of God for working faith in him, and 
would work in a subordination to this power of God, the law of this de- 
pendence lays this obligation upon him, that in relation hereunto he should 
be fearful even in this respect, of offending or provoking God, upon whom 
he doth depend to work in him both the will and the deed. There are, I 



536 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

say, many motives to keep us off from offending God, but especially when 
the soul hath this consideration in his eye, his being in a continual depend- 
ence upon God for working of faith, or for working out his own salvation. 
The apostle, James iv. 5, doth give such sinners direction as indeed were 
fallen back, or had strong lusts to which they were subjected, how they 
should demean their souls towards God for the giving of them more grace 
to overcome their corruptions. ' Do ye think that the scripture saith in 
vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ? ' The words are taken 
out of Gen. vi., for we have them nowhere else in all the Old Testament. 
1 The imagination of the thoughts of man's heart are evil, and only evil 
continually.' The apostle here puts in for evil, envy, by a metonymy for 
all the rest, for that sin these Jews were most guilty of. He therefore 
instanceth in that peculiarly, as being peculiar to that nation, and he had 
spoken of enyyings and strifes which they had amongst themselves in the 
words before. Now, saith he, it is true, this is your nature, and you have 
it from the womb, but there is a God that giveth more grace, and it is his 
gift : '^But he giveth more grace,' saith he, verse 6, that is, he hath grace 
and power enough to overcome this spirit of envy in you, and he hath pro- 
mised to do it. But then let me tell you this, you must depend upon this 
God, and you must walk as those that do depend upon God to give more 
grace to overcome this corruption. Now, what he saith in the general to 
such, is applicable to the point in hand. Now, what doth he prescribe 
them ? He prescribes them submission to God, and emptiness in a man's 
self of all confidence in himself '. ' He resisteth the proud,' saith he, ' and 
giveth grace to the humble : submit yourselves therefore to God ; resist 
the devil, and he will flee from you,' verse 7. He bids them first submit 
unto God, as he that was the giver of all this grace, whereby their cor- 
ruptions must be overcome ; that is, give your souls up to him to be 
wrought upon in his own way, and, although you are to use endeavours, 
as afterwards he directs them to humble themselves, &c, yet in all, saith 
he, submit to God, and go to him, and tell him, that he is as free to work 
or not to work as he pleaseth. Lord, say to him, I urge not anything in 
myself, I put my mouth in the dust, I present my soul before thee, and 
submit unto thee. For that is certainly the meaning of it, for he speaks 
not here in respect of afflictions, but in respect of a dependence upon God 
for to give more grace, if you mark the coherence. A man should not say, 
I have prayed and fasted these many years, and yet God doth not come. 
' Submit yourselves to God,' saith he ; acknowledge thine own unworthi- 
ness, and thine own vileuess, that such is the cursed nature of thine, as it 
is pure grace to give thee anything, and if it be grace it is free. Why dost 
thou complain as if God were bound to give it thee ? No, saith he, submit 
to God. That is one thing, but that which is proper to the second parti- 
cular I mentioned, is what followeth : ' Resist the devil, and he will flee from 
you.' Although the lust of envy rise, saith he, yet it never comes to any 
act of consent, never breaks forth into any act of consent, never produceth 
any gross effect, but the devil is in it. Now, then, ' resist thou the devil.' 
What is the meaning of that ? That thou dependest upon God to subdue 
this spirit of envy in thee that is still arising, resist the devil. He means 
this, that the lusts in a man put him not upon a gross act without the 
devil ; the devil is in it then, therefore resist, keep thy will stedfast against 
this Satan, ' resist the devil, and he will flee from thee.' There is a com- 
pact, as it were, between God and Satan in such cases ; he doth say to 
Satan, If that soul doth resist thee, thou shalt flee. Even as when Christ 
was tempted, there was this law of the temptation, that if Christ did resist, 



Chap. IV. J of justifying faith. 537 

if he stood out from consent, the devil was to leave him. So that in deed 
and in truth, tho effect of this exhortation, ' Resist the devil,' it is this, that 
though these lusts rise again and again, yet they should, in dependence 
uj on God who gives more grace, not give up their will to the consent, 
for the devil can never hurt us without the consent of our own wills. It 
is, I say, to take heed of giving consent to a gross sin, when we are in 
dependence upon the power of God to give grace or faith, or anything else we 
would have of his Spirit. And he mentioneth this, to what end and pur- 
pose ? Not as if these moved God to work, for a man's fear to offend God 
doth not move him to work, but because it is uncomely, it is against the 
law of dependence, against the obligation of it, to do otherwise. When a 
man depends upon the power of God to work more grace, to work the will 
and the deed, for a man then to commit gross sins, is against the law of 
dependence. So you have it in Heb. iii. 13, ' Take heed lest your hearts 
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' As he bids them take heed 
of unbelief, so of being hardened with the deceitfulness of sin, it is all one 
with resisting the devil in the interpretation I have given ; for as unbelief 
makes a man depart from God, so consent to sin keeps men in unbelief, 
and so casteth the work behind-hand again and again. Now, though a 
going on in a dependence upon God, with a fearfulness to offend God, upon 
whom a man dependeth, doth not move God to do anything, for what he 
doth is of grace, yet, notwithstanding, by way of removing an impediment, 
it hath its place, for there would be a hindrance otherwise. As a patient 
that takes physic can do nothing to make the physic work, yet he can 
abstain from what shall hinder the working of it, he can abstain from 
drinking, or from eating before it, or whatever else is required ; and 
as a woman, though she cannot conceive, yet she may take heed of 
what is any hindrance of conception, of journeys, and violent motions, and 
the like ; so it is here, though a man cannot further his own salvation by 
working anything at all, simply considered, as what himself doth, and 
though a fearfulness to offend move not God simply, yet the contrary would 
put God off, that is certain ; and it is against the law of dependence be- 
tween God and us. Therefore saith the apostle here, while Christ is form- 
ing in your hearts, take heed of doing anything that will provoke the great 
God ; and if you will have more grace, resist the devil, and you will find 
this to be true, • he will flee from you.' So that, though this fearing and 
fl ambling doth not help forward our salvation, proprie et per se, as they say, 
that is, in itself properly, or as if it did reach the effect itself, yet it doth it 
per accidens, it removeth that which would be destructive, and would hinder. 
Though it doth not move God, yet not to do it may provoke God. 

If you ask what sins a man should forbear in dependence upon God, and 
upon the power of God in working faith ? 

(1.) I may instance even in this of envying, because James instanceth in 
it. There are some sins that are more contrary to a dependence upon the 
power of God to work in us ; as now to think with one's self, I have waited 
thus long upon God, and he doth not answer; I have attempted to believe, 
and I know not whether I have true faith in me or no, but others have ; such 
a soul was wrought upon but the other day, and he is full of assurance. 
Envying at this, and thinking much of this, is contrary to dependence upon 
God. Take heed therefore, lest the devil go and get thy consent to such 
envyings ; take heed lest thou nourish and cherish them in thy heart ; 
resist the devil in these, that he may flee from thee ; for these, I say, are 
contrary to that dependence thou hast upon the power of God, for is not 
his power free ? ' You lust and have not,' saith he, James iv. 2, ' because 



538 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

you ask amiss ;' and you envy and lust, and have it not while that dis- 
position is in you. For remember it is grace which is the thing you ask ; 
and if it be grace, shall not God do with his own grace what he will ? 
Therefore if he will give it to another sooner than unto thee, shalt thou 
envy him ? What art thou depending upon ? Art not thou depending upon 
the power of God ? And is not that free ? Submit thyself to God, and put 
thy mouth in the dust. It was Cain's sin, that when he was to deal with 
God for acceptation, and his brother's sacrifice was accepted and not his, 
he was wroth and full of envy against his brother; and that spoiled him, 
and undid him. It was Esau his sin tbat he envied, because Jacob was 
accepted and not he. When thou seest others that have attained to much 
assurance and to much faith, and still thy spirit is kept under hatches, 
under temptation, and under much inability to believe, this example of 
other younger Christians than thou, that have attained sooner than tbyself 
to much assurance, because God flows in upon them, the example of this, 
I say, should rather encourage thee than cause thee to repine. As beggars 
at a door, though they are not served first, yet when they see others served 
they do not repine at this, but they are encouraged to see that still others 
as they come are served ; so, suppose others are served first, yet God will 
lift thee up in his due time, as the apostle saith : « Submit unto God,' 
saith he, James iv. 7, ' and he will lift thee up in his due time.' So 
Peter also hath it, 1 Peter v. 6. God hath a time to lift thee up if thou 
wilt submit unto him. You know the example of the woman of Canaan, 
when Cbrist saith to her, First let the children be served, she answers, 
' Yea, but dogs may have crumbs when the children are served ;' let me 
but have crumbs while they are eating, or crumbs after they have done, it 
will serve my turn. She was so far from repining that Christ had children, 
that he would first give to this and then to that before her, that she says, 
Lord, I confess I am a dog, give me but the crumbs when they have done. 
Such a spirit as this, that thus goes forth in a dependence upon God, 
without repining, and thus submits unto God, with such a spirit will God 
co-work. Let it be so far, I say, from causing thee to repine, as let it strike 
thy heart with a sense of thy own unworthiness, and encourage thee to 
continue in thy dependence. 

(2.) So likewise impatience is another sin. When thou hast waited long, 
Oh, thou criest out, I can wait no longer, as the psalmist said. He spake 
it in respect of evil doers and their prosperity in temporal things : ' Fret 
not thyself because of evil doers,' as being a thing opposite to quietness 
and trusting in the Lord. For a soul to be thus turbulent, and to be up 
in arms if God come not presently, this is contrary to dependence. Re- 
member that God ' giveth grace to the humble,' grace to those that put 
their mouths in the dust: Isa. xxx. 7, 'Your strength is to sit still;' and, 
as Lam. iii. 28 hath it, to • sit alone.' There is a double sitting alone, or 
sitting still : the one is to do nothing at all, and not to stir to lay hold 
upon God and upon Christ at all. This is not the sitting still or sitting 
alone the prophet means ; but there is a sitting still in respect of im- 
patiency, of quelling all impatient thoughts, in opposition to turbulency of 
spirit which ariseth from a man's self, that if God must not give him what 
he would have now he can stay no longer. I say the heart must be quiet, 
it must be sedate, it must submit to God, wait upon God, and he will do 
it in his due time. And so much for the second direction imported by this 
fear and trembling. 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 539 



CHAPTER V. 

We omjht to use our endeavours to believe, being very watchful not to neglect 
idii/ gracious opportunities which Uod uffordetk us. 

3. We should also tremble for fear of omitting any opportunity that God 
giveth. That you have also James iv. ; it follows there, verse 8, ' Draw 
nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.' And when God doth draw- 
nigh to you to give more grace, then especial!} 7 draw near to him. Now, 
drawing nigh to God is coming to such duties, or using such means, 
wherein God doth draw nigh to a man. Mark the apostle's phrase; he 
doth not only say, Go, pray, or go, humble yourselves, or fast, and the like, 
although he exhorts to these afterwards in the case of relapsing, but he 
prefaceth all here with this : first, ' Draw nigh to God ;' that is, point the 
aim of your souls to be to draw nigh to the presence of God, and let no- 
thing satisfy you in all you do but God's drawing nigh to you, which if 
you do you will never rest in any duties you perform. He exhorts you so 
to draw nigh unto God. I will not insist upon that, but as I take it these 
words, and so likewise the trembling to omit any opportunity, do import 
that there are special times wherein one hath a more special dependence 
upon the power of God for the working of faith. There are special times, 
I say, in which God doth draw nigh ; and a man should tremble to omit 
any such opportunity. It is intimated in the text here likewise, Phil, 
ii. 12, 13, for ' it is God,' saith he, ' that worketh in you the will and the 
deed, according to his good pleasure.' Mark that expression ; there is a 
good pleasure of God, saith he, which exalteth and sheweth itself in this, 
in helping men, and working with men when he will, and how he will, and 
at such a time as he himself best thinks meet. Now then, as the diseased 
men (you know it is the ordinary comparison) that lay at the pool, when 
the pool was stirred, presently stepped in, so do you join with God, and 
work out with God, when you find that he begins to work, as sometimes 
he doth, in a more especial manner. You shall find in Jer. xxxi. 18, that 
when Ephraim found that God began with him, having been formerly wild 
and unaccustomed to the yoke, when God began to chastise him, and so to 
work upon his heart afresh, Ephraim says, ' Thou hast chastised me, and 
1 was chastised : turn thou me, and I shall be turned,' that follows ; I take 
the meaning to be this, it is as if he had said, Lord, I have gone on like 
an unruly heifer unaccustomed to the yoke ; thou hast begun so far as to 
lay a great chastisement upon me, and thou hast awakened my heart ; 
Lord, take this time to turn me ! Now, turn me, and I shall be turned. 
Alas ! I cannot do it of myself ; I shall be an heifer again if thou lettest me 
alone, but thou begunnest to chasten me, and to open my heart, and it is in 
order to turning to thee. Lord, now turn me, and I shall be turned. When 
you find God doth draw near to you, use all that strength that God doth 
give you in drawing nigh to you ; convert the whole stock of it to attempts 
on believing. If a man have but a little stock to trade withal, he will 
employ it in what is absolutely necessary, he will not go and lay it out in 
everything which soon it may be spent upon, but what is absolutely neces- 
sary and best for him. When God doth draw near to thee, and begins to 
enlighten thee, do not go and pray after knowledge, and gifts, and the like; 
no, turn thy strength to faith to believe, that is the one thing necessary, 
and God will be as willing to help thee that way as another, for this is the 
great work of God. And let me say this to you likewise, when God doth 



'540 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

draw near to your hearts by promises or by exhortations, attend to them. 
You read the word, and you attend upon the word, and you have exhorta- 
tions and promises delivered to you in the word. Now thou art a poor soul, 
and liest at the pit's brink of believing, thou comest and hearest a promise 
that doth nearly concern thy condition, for it speaks to the very thing, to 
that which thy soul hath long desired and sought for, and is a promise 
fitted and suited to thy present condition ; or there is an exhortation made 
to thee in what thou readest or hearest, that is as fully directed to thee as 
thou canst desire, to stir thee up to do that which thy soul saith, this is 
the thing which thou must do next. Now I say, when God comes thus 
nigh you, either by suggesting promises thus, or by what means or ways 
soever it be (and the more occasional the better), whether by exhortation 
or the like, be not coy now, for God draws near to thee, do thou close in 
and clap in with that promise, or with that exhortation, and say, Lord, 
now set this exhortation upon my heart, this promise upon my heart, this 
is the thing thou hast spoken of so long, now set it upon my heart. ' Be 
not faithless, but believing,' saith Christ to Thomas, John xx. 27. There 
is a coyness and an averseness in the soul to put it off, saying, I see not 
enough to persuade me; but be not faithless, saith Christ, but believe. 
Christ had answered Thomas to his own desire, had fitted him just, for, 
saith Thomas, ' Unless I see the prints in his hands and in his side, I will 
not believe.' Why, saith Christ, now have I used a means and a way 
fitted to thy own desire, here are my hands, and here is the hole in my 
side, feel them, and be not faithless, but believe ; strike in now with this 
to believe. So I say to thee, God comes with promises and exhortations 
that do fully suit thy condition, now do thou look up to God, be not faith- 
less, but believe. 

I shall give you some suitable instances, first in promises, and then in 
exhortations. 

(1.) When any promise comes that is fitly spread for thy sore (as I may so 
express it), a plaster fit as can be, a promise that is suited to the wants 
and indigencies of thy own estate, Lord, say thou, do but set this seal 
upon my spirit. Still as he offers and brings thee a promise, do thou go 
and speak to him again ; as he speaks to thee in a promise, do thou urge 
him to fulfil it. Thus, I say, when God doth thus draw near to you, do 
you draw near to him. I shall give you but an instance or two of the 
soul's thus drawing near to God. 

1st, The first is the instance of the apostle Paul in Rom. xv. 9-13, he 
had there, in ver. 9-11, begun and heaped up four promises together — I 
do not know the like in all the Scripture — of the Old Testament, that did 
assure him that God did intend mercy to the Gentiles : ' That the Gentiles.' 
saith he, ' might glorify God for his mercy ; as it is written, I will confess 
to thee among the Gentiles. And again, he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, 
with his people ; and again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles. And again, 
Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign 
over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust.' Here were promises 
now fully fitted to the Romans who were Gentiles, speaking to their very 
condition, to help and to strengthen their faith. When he had delivered 
these promises that thus nearly did concern them (and the last of all the 
promises he mentioned was, ' in him shall the Gentiles trust '), instantly 
what doth the apostle do ? He claps in with a prayer to God for them, 
teaching them what they should do upon the like occasion, a prayer that 
God would make good these promises to them. ' Now the God of hope,' 
saith he, those are the very next words, the God of faith (for faith and 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 541 

hope are oftentimes taken for one in the Scripture) ' fill you with all joy 
and peace in believing.' The promise before was, ' In him shall the 
Gentiles trust ; ' here comes a prayer now, Lord, wilt thou make good 
these promises to these Gentiles, teaching them by this what they themselves 
should do upon all such occasions. ' The God of hope,' says he, ' fill you 
with all peace and joy in believing, that ye may abound in hope through 
the power of the Holy Ghost.' The thing exhorted to being above their 
power, and lying in God alone to work, to shew this dependence, and 
what way they were to take upon all such occasions, he prays thus for 
them. And this was the usual manner of the apostle, for you shall find 
him praying in all his Epistles for those to whom he wrote, and he tells 
them the words he used for them in his prayer, and his end was to teach 
them to pray for the same thing. When he would exhort the Ephesians 
to pray that God would give them eyes enlightened to know the great 
things of the gospel, how doth he do it ? 'I also,' saith he, Eph. i. 15, 16, 
1 after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, cease not to give thanks for 
you, making mention of you in my prayers.' Therefore you yourselves 
are much more bound to do it. It was but a more artificial way of the 
apostle's to set them on work by his example, that if he did thus for them, 
much more they should do it for themselves. The text is extreme perti- 
nent to the thing in hand, that when God comes thus to us in a promise, 
we should presently clap in with God. When the apostle had spoken of 
trust in God, or hope in God, to which the Gentiles should come, and there 
was a promise and prophecy to that purpose, he knew that God was only 
to work it, therefore he goes to him, and goes to him as the God of hope. 
And why is he called the God of hope ? Because he alone is the God that 
works hope in the heart. His prayer then is, Thou hast said, that the 
Gentiles ^shall hope in thee ; thou that art the God of hope, work it in these 
Gentiles. He calls him ' the God of hope' in the same sense that he had 
called him ' the God of patience and consolation,' in ver. 5, after having 
spoken, ver. 4, that the Scriptures were written to give us comfort and 
patience : for a man must have all his comfort from the Scriptures, for 
comfort from them is the true comfort, and a man must keep to them. 
1 Thou art the author of all comfort,' says the apostle, ' therefore comfort 
them ;' for that is the meaning of it. So here he calls him ' the God of 
hope,' because the thing he desires is hope in God, and he was the only 
God to work it. Now as the promise was that the Gentiles should trust 
in him, so the thing he prays for is, that they may be filled with all joy and 
peace in believing. And when you hear a promise, do not pray barely and 
scantily for the thing promised. He had mentioned no more but trusting 
in Christ, but he prays, you see, for joy and peace, and for abounding in it 
too, and that through believing : and (let me tell you) all joy and comfort 
that is not in the way of believing is no true joy and comfort. And then, 
thirdly, he adds, ' through the power of the Holy Ghost.' It is the power 
of God must work it. He goes forth in the sense that it is the power of God 
that must do it for them, yet because God had promised to do thus and thus, 
he doth therefore strike in to move God that was the God of working faith, to 
do it by the power of the Holy Ghost. You see the place is every way per- 
tinent to the thing in hand, for he had spoken of a promise, and of a promise 
to the Gentiles at large, which promise depends for the fulfilling of it upon 
the power of God and of the Holy Ghost ; he therefore presently prays that 
God would make it good to these Gentiles, and thereby he teacheth them 
that when they hear such promises they should go to God, who is the God 
of that promise and of that work, to work it in them, and that in a depend- 



542 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

ence upon the power of God. God indeed is not much taken or moved of 
himself by this, for he is moved only by what is in himself, but he takes 
an occasion to do it when we thus go to him with his own promise ; and 
therefore let us strike in still, as a promise is brought to us by his provi- 
dence, either in the preaching or reading, or bearing of the word, or any 
other way, or occasionally, that suiteth our condition. 

2dly, There is another instance of the woman of Canaan, Mark vii. 27. 
Our Saviour Christ did seem to put her off, but the truth is, he did inti- 
mate a promise to her (and therefore I quote the story of it as it is in the 
evangelist Mark) : ' Let the children first be filled,' saith he ; ' for it is not 
meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto dogs.' He doth not 
deny the dogs wholly, mark it, but he was ' a minister of the circumcision 
to confirm the promises made unto the fathers,' as you have it, Rom. xv. 8. 
He was to serve the circumcision first : now he doth not say that the dogs 
should not have the leavings ; no, bub saith he, but let the children first be 
filled. This poor woman catcheth hold of that word presently, for that 
word had a hint in it ; therefore, thought she, surely the dogs may have 
the leavings, they may have the crumbs that fall while the children are 
eating ; and therefore she retorts this upon Christ, that though the Jews were 
children, and she a Gentile being a dog, yet according to the analogy of 
that very similitude and metaphor he useth, she might have crumbs, and 
when the children were filled she might have what was the refuse and over- 
plus. Thus Christ, you see, gives this secret hint, and there was indeed a 
great hint in it. Now, saith the text, — this is it I quote it for, — Christ 
said unto her, ' For this saying go thy way.' One evangelist hath it, ' Be 
it as thou wilt,' thy will be done as it were, and not mine ; thou shalt carry 
it : but here the text saith, ' For this saying, go thy way ; the devil is gone 
out of thy daughter.' Christ in appearance speaks half popery, that he 
should thus respect her faith and her saying ; therefore Bellarmine urgeth 
it for the point of faith to justify a man in a formal and in a meritorious 
way. No ; but the meaning is this, that upon the occasion of her expres- 
sion of her faith thus taking hold of the promise, and catching hold upon 
what Christ had said, and retorting it upon him again thus, he spoke thus 
graciously to her. As she upon occasion of his words said, ' The dogs may 
have the crumbs,' he upon occasion of her saying is overcome, and yieldeth 
to her. So, say I, when thou takest occasion upon a promise to strike in, 
as this poor woman did, upon occasion of thy striking in, God cometh in 
to thee ; he is taken oftentimes with the retorting of a man's spirit to him 
again with his own words. You will say when you hear promises, Oh, if I 
knew they belonged to me in particular, I should be encouraged to lay hold 
on them. Alas ! do but think with yourselves how remote the instances of 
promises I have given you, both as to the Romans and this woman, were 
from determinately pointing at them. The promises the apostle reckons 
up were made to the Gentiles, and there were millions of Gentiles besides 
these Romans ; yet the promises being indefinite to the Gentiles, the apostle 
prays, that God would fulfil them to the Romans. How remote was the 
poor woman of Canaan from the promise. She was a dog, and there were 
ten thousand thousand dogs such as she, yet she takes hold of the hint that 
Christ gave her, and her need makes her clap in and strike in with it. 
Therefore do not stand and say, Till God fit the promise to me, that I shall 
have a full and absolute assurance that this promise is mine, I will not 
believe. No ; strike in afore : Paul did here for the Romans, and you see 
the poor woman did so. 

(2.) The like I may say for exhortations. When God doth come with 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 543 

exhortations to you to believe, the promise is laid before yon, and yon are 
pressed and urged to lay hold upon them. Consider now that excellent 
saving of Luther, ' Faith doth but suffer God to do good to it.' When 
God, I say, comes and pins promises to you, puts them into your heart, 
when he doth come with exhortations in the ministry of the word to lay 
hold, then lay hold and strike in, for God draws near to you ; say, Lord, 
set this exhortation upon my heart ; let that which thou exhortest me to, 
work it in me. You shall find this, that in the Scripture there are exhor- 
tations to such things as you cannot do, as to make you a new heart. Y( u 
have such an exhortation in Ezek. xviii. 31, where the prophet exhorteth 
us to make us new hearts. Saith the poor soul, Alas, how can I make 
myself a new heart ? Lord, thou knowest I cannot do it. What doth God 
besides ? As he makes this exhortation in Ezek. xviii. 31, so in the same 
Ezekiel, chap. xi. 19, he makes promises of giving a new heart : ' I will 
put a new spirit within you,' saith he, • and I will take away the stony 
heart, and give you an heart of flesh.' Here now as in one place he exhorts 
them, so in another place he makes a promise to give it. The apostle James 
giveth them this exhortation, James iv. 8, 'Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.' 
And the same you have in Jer. iv. 14, 'Wash thine heart from wickedness.' 
Now look in Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27, and you shall find a promise that God 
will pour his Spirit upon them, and wash them from all their filthiness.' 
And so in Deut. x. 16, he exhorts them to circumcise their hearts : you 
shall find in the same book, chap. xxx. 6, this promise, ' I will circumcise 
thy heart, and the heart of thy seed.' Well then, when you hear exhorta- 
tions to anything, consider that God's promises are as large as his exhorta- 
tions, as to the matter of them ; that is, there is nothing he exhorteth unto, 
but there is some promise or other for to work it. Now then I say, that 
when God comes and exhorts thee to that which thou art next to do, do 
thou go and urge God with his promise, and say to him, Lord, this is that 
thou now exhortest me to, and it is that which I have waited for long, and 
now thou puttest me upon it afresh ; thou hast made a promise to work it : 
Lord, work it in me, according to thy promise. Thus I say, when God 
comes upon thee with an exhortation, strike thou in with him ; when he 
draws near to thee, draw thou near to him. And this is another way of 
working out our salvation with fear and trembling, fearing to omit any 
opportunity wherein God comes near us, either by promises that concern 
our condition, or by exhortations ; and where exhortations come near thee, 
there promises are made answerable in some place or other, and do thou 
urge the promise together with the exhortation ; and not only tell him of 
his promise, that he hath promised to give what he exhorts thee to, sub- 
mitting thyself to him, laying thyself at his foot, but also tell him this, 
that it is as easy for him to speak the word in thy heart to do it, as it is 
for him to speak to thy outward ear, for he may do the one as well as the 
other. You shall find that God wisheth that there were such an heart in 
his people, that they would do thus and thus. Tell him it is as easy for 
him to do it, as it is for him to wish it. What saith the poor man in Mat. 
viii. 2 '? • Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.' The truth is, 
he had not a promise, he had nothing to have recourse to but the power of 
God, which now we are dealing with in the point of faith, speaking to a 
soul that is in dependence upon it. This I am sure of, saith he, it must 
lie in thy will if thou dost not do it for me, for it is in thy power to do it. 
What saith Christ in answer ? Shall any soul come to me and say at latter 
day, that he told me I was able to do that for him which in faith he asked, 
and would not, or shall challenge me that I did not '? Xo ; ' I will,' saith 



544 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III. 

he : 'be thou clean.' Christ will not have a soul to be frustrated that 
comes thus, and acknowledged his power, and submitteth unto it, for so 
this poor man did : Lord, saith he, I am unworthy to be healed ; for it is 
a modest way of expression ; it lies only upon thy will, and I subject myself 
unto it. And so the ruler whose daughter was sick, deals just so with his 
power, Mat. ix. 18 : ' Speak the word,' saith he, ' and she shall live.' He 
submitteth himself to him. When poor souls, I say, do thus, as it were, 
lie at the catch, and wait for a word or for an encouragement from God, 
and upon occasion of a word of exhortation from God, do go to him and 
tell him of his power, that if he will, he is able ; and when he hath made 
an exhortation and a promise, do urge this upon him, the Lord will hear 
such a soul in the end, and he will, in the end, satisfy his desire. Nay, 
suppose thou beest guilty of a great deal of unbelief and impatience, and 
envying of others, and what is said in the word by way of reproof, comes 
near thee and strikes thy very soul, go thou and take an occasion upon those 
very reproofs to go to God, to work the contrary of that in thee which he 
reproveth thee for. In Luke xvii. 5, ' the apostles said unto the Lord, 
Increase our faith.' The truth is, it does not cohere with the words before, 
and so all interpreters do generally acknowledge. Now then, the comparing 
of one scripture with another will help us out. What is Cbrist's expression 
in the words afterward ? ' If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be 
thou planted in the sea ; and it should obey you.' Now if you look in 
Mat. xvii. 20, there you shall find it thus : ' Jesus said unto his disciples, 
Because of your unbelief you could not cast him out : for verily I say unto 
you, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this moun- 
tain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ; and nothing shall 
be impossible unto you.' Now clearly, by comparing one place with another 
(Christ using the same expression, ' If ye have faith as a grain of mustard- 
seed,' and speaking in one place of removing a sycamine tree, for he used 
both certainly, and in another of removing a mountain), it is evident that 
the occasion of the apostles' saying, ' Lord, increase our faith,' was, that 
Christ chid them for their unbelief, and told them that the reason why they 
could not cast the devil out of the child was, because they were a faithless 
generation. And now upon Christ's chiding them thus for their unbelief, 
what do they do ? ' Lord,' say they, ' increase our faith.' Poor men ! 
So that now, when God meets by a reproof with what the heart is in this 
way guilty of, let that be an occasion to thee, as it was to the apostles here, 
for to go to God, and thus to pray to him, Lord, do thou take this away 
from me ; do thou work in me the contrary to that thou reprovest me for. 
And as that prayer had an effect upon Christ, to give more faith to his 
apostles, so thou wilt find a suitable effect of thy prayer too. 

Lastly, Acknowledge still all that God doth do for thee in the way 
of believing. I told you, in one of the premises I made, that God doth 
give power to one thing when he doth not to another, and that you are to 
act so far as he gives power. This text, in Philip, ii. 12, 13, hath it, that 
he works the will, and he works the deed, first the will, and then the deed 
itself, and he goes on thus by degrees, and this of his good pleasure. He 
will work the will first one day, and the deed another ; he will produce a 
desire after the thing, and then the thing itself afterwards. Now, still as 
God doth work, acknowledge his good pleasure in it ; and so far still as 
God enables thee to do, to act in the way of believing, so far do thou 
acknowledge his grace and good pleasure in it : ' Lord,' saith the poor man, 
Mark ix. 24, ' I believe, help thou my unbelief.' Christ asked him, if he 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 545 

could believe ? how far be could go in believing? Lord (saith he), I can 
believe a little, help thou out with the rest. He acknowledged God in the 
one, and hath recourse to him for the other. In Rom. ix. 17, saith the 
apostle, ' It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God 
that showeth mercy.' His scope is, that they should be thankful to God, 
and not ascribe anything to their own willing, or to their own running, 
when they had done ; and withal, to remember that, in depending upon the 
power of God, the greatest dependence of all was upon his mercy. The 
thing, I say, is to that purpose worth your observation, and you may make 
a distinct thing of it if you will. When thou art in a dependence upon 
God, and practisest these fore-mentioned rules, though weakly, yet thou 
sinnest against him again and again, and art put off by it ; and whereas 
thou art to work out thy salvation with fear and trembling, thou provokest 
him oftentimes, and sinnest again and again against him, yea, against the 
very obligation of that dependence thou hast in thy eye for power from 
God to work and help forward faith in thee. To comfort thee in this, 
observe how these words come in. They come in as a corollary from the 
testimony of Moses in the verse before : for ' he saith to Moses, I will have 
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I 
will have compassion. So then,' saith he, ' it is not in him that willeth, 
nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy.' Why doth he 
use the word mercy here ? Because that soul that is in dependence upon 
God to work the will and the deed in salvation, hath as much to do, if not 
more, with the mercy of God as with the power of God, for it is mercy sets 
that power on work. Suppose thou sinnest against him, and provokest 
him, yet be not discouraged, remember that in willing and in doing thou 
hast to deal with God that sheweth mercy. In waiting on his power thou 
wilt sin against him again and again, therefore, still remember, ' it is not of 
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.' 
So here in the text it is intimated too, ' It is God that works according to 
his good pleasure ;' that is, the good pleasure of his everlasting will, as it 
is in Eph. i. 5. Now the apostle doth not use this speech to take men off 
from running, but to put them in mind, that if in running they do backslide, 
and do contrary to God' s pleasure, and provoke that God upon whose 
power they depend, they should yet remember that he hath mercy as well 
as power. His mercy then should encourage thee still to depend upon that 
power though thou sinnest against that power, and still thou shouldst have 
mercy and power in thine eye. The psalmist puts them both together in Ps. 
Ixii. 11, 12, ' God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this ; that power 
belongeth unto God ; also unto thee, Lord, belongeth mercy.' There- 
fore, now, if you will go to work out faith with God, and to work out your 
own salvation in a way of believing, as you are to have recourse to the 
power of God, so you must have recourse to his mercy ; and, though you 
fail in these directions, yet remember that ' it is not in him that willeth, 
nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy,' ' out of the good 
pleasure of his will.' 



vol. viii. m m 



546 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 



BOOK IV. 

Though faith be a difficult work above our power, yet God commands us to 
use our utmost endeavours to believe. — The reason why God commands us 
so to do, and how the infinite power of God in working faith, and our own 
endeavours, are very well consistent together. — Discouragements removed, 
which may arise either from our own unability to believe, or from the sense 
of our great sinfulness, or from the thoughts of an absolute decree of election, 
resolving to save only some particular persons. — Directions to guide us in 
our endeavours to believe. 



CHAPTER I. 

Though faith be a difficult ivork above all our abilities,' yet God commands us 
to use our utmost endeavours to believe, and it is our duty so to do. — The 
reasons of it assigned. t 

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,' lest any man fall after the same 
example of unbelief — Heb. IV. 11. 

When I proved before * that all our natural powers are so far from helping 
us to believe, that in this matter they disable us, I might likewise have 
come to the affections, and it were easy to shew how that they are all against 
the work of faith, and opposite to it, -and in this I might be very large. 
For take all those affections which we call good, and are raised up in the 
hearts and spirits of men, while in their natural condition, as ' zeal for 
God' (which men are capable of), as the apostle calls it in Eom. x. 2. 
Zeal, you know, is tbe intending of all the affections. Now one would think 
that in the heart of those men where we see a zeal of God, or a zeal for 
God, this zeal should not be an enemy unto faith ; yet the apostle tells us 
plainly it is in that Rom. x., I do my countrymen (saith he) no wrong: 
ver. 2, ' For I bear them record they have a zeal for God, but it is not 
according to knowledge,' i. e., it is not according to faith, for by know- 
ledge he means faith there ; for, ver. 3, says he, ' they have not submitted 
themselves unto the righteousness of God.' I might instance, I say, in all 
other affections whatsoever that are good. And as for evil affections, you 
will easily believe that they are enemies to faith, as all the lusts of men 
are. You need take but one scripture for it, John v. 44. Christ speaks 
there in the language of impossibility, of inconsistency, that faith should 
ever be wrought in the heart while lusts remain, that they and faith should 
stand together : ' How can ye believe,' saith he, ' if ye receive honour one 
of another, and do not seek that honour that is of God only ? ' 

I might likewise shew you that all that comes from us, either take right- 
eousness that is past or all endeavours for time to come, as they cannot 
* In Book II. of thia third part. 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 5-47 

help us to the attainment of faith, so they are enemies to the way of believ- 
ing. If we consider all the righteousness that comes from us, let corrupt 
nature be never so much advanced, it is an enemy, it strengthened the 
enmity that is in the heart against the way of believing. Men cannot have 
a righteousness of their own, as they count it, but they are conceited of it. 
If men have any appearance of righteousness, oh it must needs be grace, 
it must needs presently be accepted. And the conceit of our own right- 
eousness is that which hinders us from seeing need of, and looking after, 
Christ and faith. The Pharisees thought themselves righteous, and they 
were so far from faith and coming unto Christ, that Christ professeth he 
came not to call such, Mat. ix. 13. As the law was not given for a right- 
eous man (the law in the legal tenor of it), so nor the gospel neither. Faith, 
in the fundamental law of it, as I have formerly expressed it, is directly 
opposite to that conceit of a man's own righteousness, which is in every 
one's heart by nature. Herein lies the pith of faith, to ' believe on him 
that justifies the ungodly,' and that in opposition to all in a man's self ; so 
you have it, Rom. iv. 5. You know Laodicea, that thought herself rich, 
was kept off from going to Christ to buy gold of him ; and the richer a 
man's heart and life is of appearing goodness, the loather he is to break (as 
he must do), and become a bankrupt, that he may have Christ ; the loather 
he is to suffer so much loss, and to count all things else but as dung and 
dross, as the apostle saith. As a man's own righteousness for time past, 
so some kind of endeavours for time to come, are a hindrance to faith. I 
do not only mean endeavours of changes, and reformations of heart and life, 
and the like, that these undermine faith, but oftentimes endeavours after 
faith itself, when they are put forth in a man's own strength, do hinder 
and undermine faith. Endeavours for the time to come, if they be not 
guided aright, do secretly undermine faith, and the work of it. A man 
when he sees his former sinfulness and want of Christ, and the necessity of 
faith, and hath suffered a shipwreck of all his own righteousness, yet he 
begins to build a ship anew of his own cost, and he thinks by hauling, and 
tugging, and rowing, in the end to arrive at Christ ; and whilst a man doth 
so, Jesus Christ goes as fast from him as he makes after Christ, whilst he 
doth it out of his own strength. Whereas if a man would give up and lay 
his naked soul, that little cock-boat which hath so great a venture in it, if 
he would put it into the ship of Cod's free grace, as I may so express it, 
and commit itself unto it and unto Christ, and suffer the streams and gales 
of the Spirit in the use of means (using of them but as means), to parry him 
along, the soul would attain unto faith, But men seek after faith itself, 
not in a way of faith, but as a work of the law, in their own strength, which 
strength man, under the legal covenant, once had. To beat down this 
presumption is the apostle's design, Rom. ix. 16, ' So then it is not of him 
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.' In 
such a presumption a man ' condemns himself in what he allows,' as the 
same apostle says in another case ; a man undoes himself in what he endea- 
voureth, and if God be not the more merciful, a man goes to hell, endea- 
vouring and striving to go to heaven. This the apostle clears in this chap- 
ter, out of which I have now chosen my text, which refers unto the example 
of the Israelites ; for he had propounded the example of the Israelites and 
then- unbelief, and their falling short of Canaan, as types of us under the 
gospel. Now it was not only their lusts, the flesh-pots of Egypt, that 
hindered them from coming into Canaan, but it was because they sought 
to go into it, and yet not by a way of faith. You know God offered to 
carry them thither, to cast out their enemies before them, if they would 



548 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

have gone in his way — even those that perished they might have entered — 
but that way they rejected through unbelief. And then you shall find in 
Numb. xiv. 40, that they would enter upon the work in their own strength, 
and rose up early in the morning to do it ; but what doth God do for this ? 
He brings them back again to the very brink of the Red Sea, where they 
were afore. So it is even with poor souls that have gone far in the wilder- 
ness, and are nigh heaven, nigh as it were to believing ; and yet not sub- 
jecting their souls and endeavours unto God's way of working faith, but 
attempting it in their own strength, they are cast behind-hand again, and 
in their own sense are as far off as at first ; and when God hath humbled 
them for endeavouring in their own strength, they are fit to enter. For 
God hath said in 1 Sam. ii. 9, ' By his own strength shall no man prevail ;' 
but men seeing no strength in themselves to save themselves, and being 
convinced of that, yet think they may go out in their own strength to get 
this Christ that shall save them, and so being still in themselves, they never 
prevail, for by a man's own strength he shall never prevail ; so doth the 
Holy Ghost speak, he speaks it of all things else, but especially it holds 
true in the matter of believing. 

You see in this text, Heb. iv. 11, that the Holy Ghost makes an exhor- 
tation to us, by faith to labour to enter into that rest : and this text I shall 
make no other use of, nor of anything about it, but merely so far forth as 
it may become a subject to this common-place we have in hand. And there 
are two ends or purposes which this text will serve for. The one is to 
shew you, that notwithstanding what you have heard, that faith is not of 
ourselves, it is the gift of God ; yet we are to labour to enter into that rest, and 
labour to believe. And the second thing it serves for is this (and it is a 
great point), that an indefinite promise, that is, a promise that God will 
save some, not naming who, is a sufficient ground to draw in any man's 
heart to believe, take whatever ground of faith is held forth in the word. 
And this is natural to the text, and to the coherence of it ; for he had said, 
ver. 6, 'It remains that some must enter into rest:' and his inference from 
that is this, which we have here in the 11th verse, ' Let us labour, there- 
fore, to enter into that rest.' When men hear that faith is not of our- 
selves, but that it is the gift of God, there are these three things do usually 
arise in the spirits of men. 

1. Either men do cavil at this doctrine, as lying as a stumbling-block in 
their way, that if all that we can do cannot produce faith, but it is the gift 
of God, and that God must do all, then say they, men were as good sit 
still, and not labour and endeavour at all after it, for God must do all ; and 
these are cavillers. 

2. On the other side, such poor souls as desire to attain to faith, and to 
labour for it under the use of means ; yet hearing that faith is not of our- 
selves, yea, that a man's own endeavours, if they be out of a man's own 
strength, as I have said, cannot obtain faith, yea, they are hindrances unto 
believing ; they are discouraged and disheartened from all endeavours ; 
they think it cuts the sinews of all endeavours, strikes at the root, and 
causeth all to wither. 

3. There are those that do expressly teach, and have taught this doctrine, 
that a man having seen his lost condition, is to do nothing else but to stand 
and wait, whenas God, without any puttings forth, or actings towards faith, 
will by an almighty power overpower his soul to believe. 

Now then, that there may be an answer and satisfaction given to all 
these three, I have taken this text as the bottom for that discourse, that 
shall be an answer to them all. 



Chap. I. of justifying faith. 549 

After I have opened the text very briefly, and shewn you how it is a 
bottom to what I shall deliver, then I will come to do these three things 
more especially. I shall answer first the objection made, as it is a cavii. 
I shall, secondly, answer it as it is a discouragement to good souls. And, 
thirdly, shew you what kind of endeavours they are, and how they are to 
be managed, which God hath appointed to attain unto faith. 

But first I must open the text, and I shall do that exceeding briefly. 
You see it is an exhortation that we should endeavour to enter into that rest. 

1 . Let us consider what is meant by entering into rest, which is to be 
the object of our endeavour. There are two things intended by it. 

The fust is more general, viz., the possession of heaven, that we are to 
make sure of that, that we be not as the foolish virgins, upon whom the 
door was shut, whenas others entered in, Matt. xxv. 10. Thus entering 
into rest is often taken in Scripture for the full possession of heaven. So in 
the 10th verse of this very chapter, our Saviour Christ's ascending into heaven 
is called his entering into rest after his work was ended, as God entered 
into rest after his work was ended. And (Matt. xxv. 23) when men come 
to possess heaven, it is called ' entering into their master's joy :' as when 
a man is said to have a full possession of an office given him, he is said to 
enter upon it. An heir that was under age had a right and title to his in- 
heritance, yet he enters upon his land and estate when he comes to years : 
so that now if you take it in this sense, then this is the meaning of it, that 
we should endeavour to be found in the number of those that shall enter 
into that rest. 

But, secondly, by entering into rest is meant more particularly the attain- 
ment of true saving faith, whereby we come to have a sure title to that rest 
in heaven, and to make at present thereby such an entrance upon it as gives 
a right before possession, which comes afterwards. And this I make plain 
to you by these two reasons. 

First, By what is said at the third verse of this very chapter, 'We which 
have believed do enter into rest:' so that faith is clearly and plainly an 
entering into rest, in the apostle's sense, in this chapter. In having an 
estate of land passed, besides the writings there are two ceremonies used ; 
there is entering upon some part of it, and there is a giving of some piece 
of the ground, as a tuft of earth, and the like. So is it here ; we by faith 
do enter upon this rest, and we receive then an earnest of joy, the seal of 
the Spirit, the first-fruits of heaven. It is evident also that by entering into 
rest is meant believing, by the very words that follow my text, for the very 
next words are, ' Lest any man fall through the same example of unbelief.' 
He sets before their eyes the example of the Israelites, and of those 
Israelites that went far towards Canaan ; and yet, saith he, through un- 
belief they never entered into it. Now let us, saith he, take heed of falling 
through unbelief as they did ; let us therefore labour to attain to true faith, 
by which we enter into rest, and have such a right to it as we shall never 
be dispossessed. And so now you see that by entering into rest is meant 
believing. 

Secondly, The word here translated labour signifies to study to enter into 
that rest, to have all the powers and faculties in us intended in attaining to 
true faith. He expresseth it by a word that signifies the labour of the 
mind, which is proper to scholars and students, whose minds are taken up 
with the greatest intention and the greatest labour. Now, saith he, there was 
never any scholar studied more to find out what is truth, giving up his under- 
standing" unto God, who is the great enlightener, never any philosopher 
ever »ave his mind more to find out natural truths, than a believer doth to 



550 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK IV. 

attain unto true faith ; we are to • search for it as for silver : ' when he 
therefore saith, ' Let us labour to enter into that rest,' his meaning is, that 
we should use the utmost of our endeavours to attain to it, and to attain, 
as to the rest, so to the entering into that rest. 

And so I have done with the exposition of the words, and you see how 
they are a bottom to that discourse which I mean to proceed in. I shall 
come now to those particulars which I have laid down to discourse of. 

1. I am to answer this great cavil, made either by secure profane persons, 
or by those that are opposite to the doctrine of free grace, viz., that if faith 
be not of ourselves, and all that is within us be against it, and that God 
must do all, then we are not to endeavour. The apostle, you see, speaks 
point blank against it ; and notwithstanding the Israelites (who were types 
of temporary believers under the gospel, and of such as attain not to true 
faith) endeavoured to enter into Canaan, and yet fell short, he makes this 
use of it, that we should therefore labour for to enter into that rest. But 
for the answering of this, as it is a cavil, more particularly : (1.) I say this, 
that this doctrine, that it is God which works faith, and that doth all in us 
in the matter of believing, is attended upon and clogged in this, with a like 
cavil that all other mysteries of the gospel are. The mystery of the gospel 
lies in this, it is a reconciling of contradictions ; and all your cavillers take 
part with one part of the contradiction to overthrow the other. As now, 
that God should peremptorily elect men to salvation, and yet man's will 
should be free ; how can these two stand together, say the cavillers against 
free grace and God's everlasting love ? So likewise when they hear that 
God works conversion in men unresistibly, say they, how can this be if 
God work upon the free will of man ? So now here, when we say that it 
is God only worketh faith, and that it is his gift, and that all our endea- 
vours are not able to produce it, what do they presently conclude and 
retort upon us ? Then we were as good lay all endeavours aside. But 
really this is all one with that deceit which hath damned many a soul, viz., 
if I be elected, whatever I do I shall be saved. It is all one with that kind 
of cavil of the papists, that hath accompanied the doctrine of justification by 
Christ alone, and by faith in him, and that without works ; for, say they, 
we were then as good do no good works at all. So now is it here, if that 
faith be not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God ; then say they, we were 
as good sit still and endeavour nothing at all. This is the first thing in 
the general that I premise ; that it is, I say, but a like cavil to all those 
that carnal men have made against all the truths of God, the mystery of 
which lies in reconciling these contradictions. But, 

(2.) Secondly, To speak more directly to those that cavil thus, and that 
say it is therefore in vain to use endeavours. Let that man appear or 
stand out from all the rest at the day of judgment, or now in this world, 
that is able to say, I used my utmost endeavours to attain salvation, and 
could not attain it, God would not give it me. If he did not use his 
utmost endeavours, then God is clear. I will not stand now to dispute, 
whether de jure, as we say, if a man should use his utmost endeavours, 
God infallibly would work grace in that man's heart ; but, de facto, we may 
challenge all the sons of men. And let me tell you this, that at the latter 
day, when men shall come to be condemned — I speak this to clear God — 
God will not go and say, I therefore condemn you because you did not put 
forth an act of saving, justifying faith. No ; but he will condemn men 
because they did not put forth that uttermost, which, through that assist- 
ance corrupt nature had from him, they might have put forth. When God 
comes to judge all mankind, it is said, that he will 'judge them that lived 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 551 

under the law by the law ; and them that lived without the law, he will 
judge without the law,' Rom. ii. 12. Now, it is true, in rigour, whether 
men know the law or not, God might condemn them upon it as if they 
knew it, for they knew it once in Adam, and are bound to know it ; but 
he will not go that way to the work ; but if men have lived without the 
law, he will consider them but so far forth as the light of nature went, and 
so far judge them ; and if they have lived under the law, then he will pro- 
ceed in judgment so far as the law went, and that spirit and strength that 
accompanies the law ; and so if they lived under the gospel, he will con- 
demn them for not using that assistance, that spirit and strength, that 
accompanies the hearts of men that live under the gospel, and leads them 
on to faith. He will not condemn men for negatives, but rather for what 
is positive ; because they loved darkness rather than light, and because 
they would not believe, but cleave to their lusts. 

For if any man attempted and fell short, the impediment did lie in his 
own will. That point will never come to be disputed, whether he could or 
no. God will cut off all with this, he would not. Impii non posse est ejus 
non velle, the impotency of a wicked man is his not willing ; and yet this 
inability to will is not merely a moral, but a natural impotence. That 
they cannot is resolved by Christ into their lusts as the reason : John v. 
40, 44, 'Ye will not come to me that ye might have life;' and 'how can 
ye believe' (and why, where lies the difficulty?) 'that receive,' says he, 
verse 44, 'honour one from another?' The impediment lies in them- 
selves, in their willing the contrary, in their ' loving darkness more than 
light.' If indeed the impediment were extrinsecal wholly, a door, locked 
on thee, or that God held it so fast in his hand that thou couldst not wring 
it out, then there were room for complaint ; but it being intrinsecal, in thy 
will, thou hast no cause to complain. 

(3.) For answer to this cavil, I say, that there is no man would make this 
cavil, or would complain, that endeavoureth in a right way ; and if he 
endeavoureth not in a right way, there is reason God should complain 
rather of him. For I ask, Upon what ground is it that thou thinkest to 
attain unto faith ? If thou thinkest to obtain it for thy own endeavours, 
and by them to compass it, I say this plainly to thee, it is pity thou 
shouldst ever attain it that way : 1 Sam. ii. 9, ' He will keep the feet of 
his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness ; for by strength 
shall no man prevail.' And my reason is this, because it would be dis- 
honourable unto God, for God never gave it upon those terms. If he 
should, he then should lose the glory of his grace, and grace should be no 
grace ; it would be then of debt, as the apostle saith in Ptom. iv. 1-3. 
Now, then, if ever God give it he will give it of free grace, or he will not 
give it at all : ' Not of works,' saith he, Eph. ii. 9, ' lest any man should 
boast.' On the other side, if any one doth endeavour, in a subordination 
unto grace, in a dependence upon grace as it is free, that he is content to 
venture his endeavours upon the free grace of God towards him in Christ, 
as thinking that nothing he doth moveth or swayeth God anything at all, 
but that God is as free after twenty years' endeavours of his as the first 
day ; I say, if any one doth endeavour thus, that man shall be sure to 
attain it, and he shall have no cause to complain. And if he should miss 
he would not complain, because he sought it upon such terms that God 
was still free, and he depended upon free grace, and he endeavoured still 
in a subordination thereunto ; and so howsoever he had his end, and he 
would never complain. I In a word, either a man seeks salvation in sub- 
ordination to free grace or not ; if not, it is justice to deny him, because 



552 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK IV. 

his endeavours, if they speed, would derogate from God's grace. If he 
seeks salvation subordinately to free grace, then, however it falls out, he 
will have his end ; for if he obtains, he says, not unto my endeavours, but 
to thy grace, be the glory ; and so he magnifies free grace. If he obtains 
it not, yet, Lord, says he, thy grace is magnified, and the freeness of it 
demonstrated in this, that so many endeavours missed, because thou wert 
free whether thou wouldst save me or not. 

(4.) Let all such cavillers consider tbat the Scriptures do'speak the clean 
contrary, and those very places that hold forth that God doth all according 
to his good pleasure, do infer from thence that we should therefore endea- 
vour in our proportion. You have it in Philip, ii. 13, ' Beloved brethren,' 
saith he, ' work out your own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is 
God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' 
Here the apostle lays down this position as strongly as any caviller upon 
earth can, for he tells us that it is God that not only works the deed but 
the very will in us ; and that he doth not only give power to the will, and 
then the will puts forth the act, but that he works the very act of will : 
' It is God,' saith he, ' that works both the will and the deed.' And this 
he saith he doth of his good pleasure. He so works it as he will not be 
obliged to do it to this man or that man, or upon this man's endeavours 
or that man's endeavours, but out of his good pleasure, when, and where, 
and how he will. Here, I say, the objection is made as strong as any 
man can make it to raise this cavil upon it, therefore let us do nothing. 
But see how the apostle urgeth it to the quite contrary : ' Let us therefore,'' 
saith he, ' work out our own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is 
God that works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' And 
again, whereas men are apt to cavil and say, Many have endeavoured, and 
they have missed, therefore we had as good sit still. What doth Christ 
say ? He infers likewise the clean contrary from it in Luke xiii. 24 : 
' Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many will seek to enter, and 
shall not be able ;' not be able through their own lusts, and through their 
their own wills, that undermine their endeavours. Observe it, he draws 
the very clean contrary inference, that because many do seek to enter, and 
shall not be able, therefore, saith he, do you do more. He bids them take 
more pains : Do you strive, saith he, wrestle it out, even as wrestlers and 
contenders for masteries use to do, as the apostle saith in 1 Cor. ix. 24, 
endeavouring to put nothing to the venture, or to an uncertainty, as far as 
possibly you can : ' Thus strive,' saith he ; ' for many have sought to 
enter, and have not been able.' So that now these that make this cavil 
must needs run point-blank against the Scripture, which, you see, makes 
an inference quite contrary to it. I might add also that of our Saviour 
Christ in John vi. 27, where when they had taken a great deal of pains to 
follow him for the loaves, he diverts their labour to something else, and he 
bids them labour or work for the meat that endures to eternal life. 
But thej T might say, Why, but it is a thing that is not of ourselves, it is 
the gift of Christ, and why should we labour after it ? Yes, saith Christ ; 
' Labour you for the meat which endureth to everlasting life, which the 
Son of man shall give you ;' and notwithstanding he is to give it you, yet 
do you labour for it. But I shall make use of this place when I come to 
shew you what acts we are to put forth, and truly one plainly in a word is 
this, to believe ; for so it is there, ver. 28, 29, ' Upon this say they unto 
him, What shall we do to work the works of God ? ' or, what do you mean 
by this labouring ? Saith Christ, ' This is the work of God, that ye believe 



Chap. I.] of justifying faith. 



553 



on him whom he hath sent.' He puts them upon believing itself, and the 
exercising thereof. 

2. Now to prosecute those three heads mentioned, I shall shew you, 
and give a reason or two why, though faith is not of ourselves, but is the 
gift of God, yet notwithstanding he requires endeavours at our hands as 
means to attain it ; and though he works both the will and the deed of his 
good pleasure, yet his good pleasure is that we should co-work with him. 
How to manage and guide your endeavours herein I must speak to in the 
last head. In the mean time there are these reasons why God hath joined 
both the one and the other. 

(1.) That by our labouring and endeavouring we may shew and acknow- 
ledge what our duty is. It is God's command that we should believe and 
lay hold upon Jesus Christ, and cast ourselves upon him for salvation, 
therefore it is our duty, and we are to labour to attain this, and to labour 
after it in truth and in the spiritualness of it ; not so much to shew what 
we are able to do, but what we ought to do, and what our duty is to do. 
It is not required to shew our ability, but our readiness. Our weakness 
and our inability doth not cut the bond of our duty. We set young chil- 
dren to school with their hornbook at their girdles oftentimes, long before 
they have skill, or are capable of skill, to read them ; we teach them to 
take up a book, to look upon the letters, to shew them thereby what it is we 
would have them do, and what it is we intend to bring them up to. So 
doth God himself with us. And we do like and approve it in little chil- 
dren, that they will sit at school with a book thus in their hand, rather than 
be still at home careless, playing with babies and rattles, and the like. 

(2.) God requires men's endeavours to thisjery purpose, that men may 
see their inability, which is a great lesson thai furthers faith. Nature will 
and doth think it can believe and repent, till it makes trial ; and as we use 
to put conceited persons upon services to shew them their folly and their 
weakness upon trial, so God deals with us. Men, if they saw not their own 
inability, would be apt to say in their hearts as they Deut. viii. 7, ' My 
power, and the might of my hand hath done this :' and they would not see 
their disability but by attempting to do something. Thus Christ suffered 
the woman that had the bloody issue to use all means else ere he cured 
her, to shew her the inability and insufficiency of all means ; and she spent 
all upon physicians that could do her no good, that so she might fly to him. 
And thus God left nature to use all her shifts and inventions to attain to 
happiness, and to use all her wit and strength ere he sent his Son into the 
world : 1 Cor. i. 21, ' After that in wisdom men knew not God,' that is, 
after trial made of the strength of natural wisdom, but not till then, ' it 
pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching them that believe.' 

(3.) God hath appointed our endeavours and means to be used, not as 
duties only, but as testimonies and evidences that we do wholly depend 
upon God for to work all our works in us and for us, seeing in the use of 
means and endeavours of ours God useth to come. Carelessness giveth over 
the use of means ; but when a man dependeth upon God for a thing, that 
dependence will make him to use those means whereby to attain it, as a 
testimony he doth depend upon God, and so God requires it. In Luke v. 4, 
when Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, saith Christ unto him, 
• Launch out into the deep, and let out your nets for a draught ;' Simon 
answering, ' said unto him, Master, we have toiled,' toiled to weariness (so 
the word signifies), and ' toiled all the night,' which is the opportune sea- 
son for fishing, ' and have caught nothing ; nevertheless,' — this is it I quote 
it for, — ' at thy word I will let down the net.' His meaning is, as if he 



554 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK IV. 

should have said, although all the endeavours we have used hitherto have 
been frustrate, notwithstanding the fair opportunities we have had, having 
had all the night before us to fish in, and we have took abundance of toil, 
cast in the net again and again, and all to no purpose, ' yet at thy word,' — 
that phrase implies that he did it merely in a dependence upon Jesus Christ, 
and upon his word,' — ' at thy word,' saith he, ' I will let down the net,' as 
an evidence that he depended upon the word of Christ, and subjected him- 
self unto it, when he himself had little hope, as those words imply, ' We 
have fished all night, and have caught nothing.' When they used rams' 
horns seven days in compassing the city of Jericho, they did not use them 
as a means that would be effectual in itself to the blowing down of the 
walls, but they used them as signs that they believed his word, and that 
they did depend upon him to effect that which they desired, because God 
had said and appointed that in that means he would do it. So doth God 
command and require endeavours, not so much as means, though they 
have likewise the nature of means, but as signs that we depend upon him 
who worketh all in all, and hath appointed to work them by those means. 

(4.) God hath appointed to us to use endeavours, and that we should 
strive to enter into that rest, that salvation may be prized, that the gift of 
faith may be valued. It is not that those endeavours promote our salvation 
so much, but it is that it may cost us somewhat, to the end that we may value 
it. The salvation of men cost God much ; it cost him his Son, it cost his 
Son his blood, it hath cost the Holy Ghost abundance of attendance upon 
us. Now we are the men to be saved, it is our own salvation : therefore 
there is a great deal of reason that it should cost us somewhat too. Those 
things that come to us very lightly, we do as lightly regard them ; it is in 
the nature of man so to do, and God deals with us as with men. Things, 
I say, that are easily gotten are lightly esteemed ; we may see it by expe- 
rience in those that think they have had faith ever since they can remem- 
ber, how slightly do they speak of it, and how lightly do such kind of souls 
esteem of it. If we had salvation and faith dropped into our mouths, we 
would the more lightly regard it ; therefore God would not have us sloth- 
ful for the attaining of faith, not slothful for the discovering of faith, not 
slothful in holding fast the profession of faith unto the end : so you have it in 
Heb. vi. 12. ' We desire,' saith he, ' that every one of you do shew the 
same diligence' (that is, after conversion) which you have shewn before, ' to 
the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful,' &c. 

(5.) Even for this very reason doth God require us to endeavour, though 
he himself works all, that when our endeavours without him have proved 
unsuccessful, his power in working faith at last might appear the more. 
When a man hath endeavoured and used the means long, and to no pur- 
ine, as he thinks, if in the end God comes in, it magnifies his free 
grace and his power towards us. As in that instance before quoted in 
Luke v. 5, when they had toiled all night, and took nothing, that then there 
should be so great a draught of fishes taken by casting down the net once 
more, this made Peter fall down amazed, this made him acknowledge Jesus 
to be the Lord, and to say to Christ, ' Depart from me, for I am a sinful 
man ;' so struck was he with the greatness of that power that appeared 
in that work. God doth sometimes hide his power under means, and lets 
men endeavour that they may see even by experience their own inability, 
which lesson is hardly otherwise learned. We had scarce ever learned this 
great lesson, that it is God that works faith in us, but by the experience of 
our own inability, and that experience of our own inability is taught us 
from attempting endeavours according to God's command. Nature is apt, 



Chap. I.J of justifying faith. 555 

and will be apt, to try if it can work faith out of itself ; it is apt to think I 
will take the promises and this heart of mine, and strike the one against 
the other till sparks come out ; and till a man see by his own experience 
that nothing comes out, he will never believe himself to be so unable to 
attain it as he is. We use to put conceited persons upon hard services and 
businesses, to the end they may even by their own experience see their folly 
and weakness. It is experience that must teach us the truth of this doc- 
trine, or else we are apt to say as they in Deut. viii. 17, ' My power, and 
my might, and my hand hath done it.' And therefore Christ suffered the 
poor woman that had the issue, first to use all means, to spend all that she 
bad upon physicians, that when the inability of all means else should appear, 
the cure he was to work on her might the more be magnified. 

(6.) In the last place, I add this as an answer unto this cavil, that in using 
those means God hath appointed, and such endeavours as God requires of 
us, there is nothing derogated from the power of God in working when 
he works faith, neither doth the power of God exclude such endeavours, 
but both may well stand together. First, I say, the use of them doth 
nothing derogate from the power of God in working, no more than the clay 
and the spittle which Christ used to restore the blind man to his sight. 
They of themselves could conduce nothing to the effecting of it, but in seem- 
ing appearance would rather put one's eyes out more ; yet Christ, who 
might have restored him otherwise, would have this used, and his power 
did no less appear in the working of it thus, than if he had wrought it 
immediately without it : so God may and doth shew as much power in our 
using the means, as in working without them. Did not God, think you, 
shew as much power in taking of a rib from the man to make the woman 
of, and in taking red earth to make the body of the man out of it, as he 
shewed in the first day's creation, when he made all things out of mere 
nothing ? God, even in some miracles, seemed to use means, which might 
have some show and colour of working the effect wrought, as in healing 
Naaman's leprosy, the washing in Jordan might seem to have likelihood of 
a remedy for a disease, and God did it to hide his power. Thus too, in 
such works as are standing works (as the conversion of souls is, which is 
the standing miracle of the world), God loves to hide and clothe his power 
under our endeavours, and in using means, as well as in working it imme- 
diately ; and as he is found of those that sought him not, so he is found 
also of those that seek him ; and alike power, and alike free grace appears 
in both. And then again, on the other side, the power of God doth not 
exclude men's endeavours, for though God doth not work faith in men for 
their endeavours, as the moving cause, neither doth he work by them as 
adjuvant causes, that reach the effect ; yet, as concomitant instruments, he 
doth. You have that clear in that expression of the apostle in 1 Cor. 
iii. 8 ; at the 7th verse he had said, that ' neither is he that planteth any- 
thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase :' yet, not- 
withstanding, at the 8th verse, he saith, that ' we are co-workers with God, 
and labourers together with him.' So that I say, although man doth 
nothing, and it is God that doth all, and faith is not of ourselves, but is 
the gift of God, yet there are endeavours and means that God hath 
appointed for the attaining of faith, and both these may stand together. 
And so let this be enough, if not too much, for the answering of that objec- 
tion as it is a cavil ; namely, that if God work all, and we do nothing in the 
producing of faith in us, then men were as good sit still, and not labour 
and endeavour at all after it. 



556 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 



CHAPTER II. 

Discouragements against using our endeavours to believe, which arise from the 
thoughts of the difficulty of faith, as being above our own power, considered 
and answered. 

I come now to answer the discouragements of poor souls that even lie at 
the brink of believing, as I may so express it, who yet being sensible of 
their own inability to believe, and that they are not able to attain Christ 
without Christ and faith, are therefore apt to sink into discouragements, 
and to think it is in vain to attempt it, to practise or to go about believing, 
or to put forth any act of faith at all, especially if they have done it, and 
felt no comfort in their own sense, nor felt any power coming in beyond 
what in an ordinary way doth assist men. I say, in that case, they are 
apt to be discouraged, and to give it over as in vain, and not to set upon 
it. Now, for their sakes, I shall do two things : — 

1. I shall remove their discouragements. 

2. I shall give what directions are suitable unto such souls, which indeed, 
in the close, will be this (as you shall see afterwards), to put them upon 
believing, and upon exercising the acts of faith continually, for so Christ 
did, and so did the apostles. 

1. I will first remove their discouragements ; and to such souls as are 
sensible of their own inability, the first thing I shall say, as in relation to 
their discouragement, is this, that to be cast down in the sense of thine own 
inability and insufficiency to believe, or to act any spiritual good as of thy- 
self, is a great part of faith. It is the negative part, it is the emptying 
part, as I may so call it, as the other is the filling part ; it is part of that 
poverty of Spirit which Christ makes the promise to in Mat. v. 3. Now, 
if the sense of thy own inability be kept within its own bounds, and thou 
earnest this principle continually along with thee in thy heart, the more 
thou hast of it the better it is, for still, as God digs deeper in discovering 
this unto thee, the higher he builds in the work of faith and believing, and 
he will certainly do it ; and so far it is but a foundation of giving all unto 
God. And let me say this to you, God's end in bringing men to salvation 
that way, viz., to take all power from them of what is in themselves, it was 
not that any should be discouraged, but that they might go out of them- 
selves unto him for help ; and, therefore, now to maintain a constant sense 
thereof is one direction which I shall afterwards give you. But I will now 
speak to the discouragement itself. When your souls are brought to this 
emptiness as in yourselves, for you upon this to be discouraged, and to 
give over the work, do but consider the ground of this, and consider the 
sinfulness of this. For a man to be discouraged, and to give over the work, 
either because he cannot do it, or because he thinks it will never be done, 
and therefore he will do nothing, no not that which he finds his heart 
strengthened to do, because he knows not whether it be the power of God 
in it, yea or no ; for a man, I say, thus to be discouraged, is to despair 
of the power of God ; it is to add to the sense of thine own inability, 
a despair of the power of God too. You must know it is a peevishness if 
a man doth not wait upon the power of God in its way, as it is, on the con- 
trary, a meek and humble temper to wait upon the free grace of God in the 
freedom of it. Yea, the truth is, the ground of this discouragement is the 
highest pride ; for when a man hears that he can do nothing of himself, 
though withal he hears that God is able to work faith, and to work it 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 557 

instantly, if therefore he will sit still and do nothing, the ground, I say, of 
this is the highest pride. For the true reason of this discouragement, if 
you resolve it into its causes, is indeed this, that men would have their 
own endeavours to be means to compass grace. This is the way of nature. 
Now, although thou seest thine own inability, yet thy nature riseth up with 
another corruption ; and because thou canst not have it by thyself, and 
because thou canst not prevail by thy own strength, when it is once disco- 
vered, therefore thou wilt do nothing at all. This, I say, is the working of 
pride one way, even as to be conceited of a man's own strength, till he is 
sensible of his own inability, is the working of it another way. It is all 
but pride working two several waj r s, that because a man findeth that it is 
not in his own power to attain unto faith, to attain the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and that he cannot compass it to himself in his own way, even as men do 
wealth, therefore he will sit down in a pet discouraged, and fling off all. 
It is not therefore the doctrine that we can do nothing, and that God must 
do all, that discourageth, but it is the pride and the corruption that is in 
the spirits of men. For would flesh reject and renounce using endeavours 
as in its own way, and use them in a way of subordination unto God and to 
his power, a man would be so far, if he come once to this, from being 
discouraged, as there is nothing more will quicken. As when a man comes 
to submit unto God, when his heart is brought to lie down at the feet of 
free grace, instantly he hath peace ; so when the heart is once brought to 
renounce seeking salvation in a man's own strength, and not only so, but 
to set upon the business in a subordination to the strength and power of 
God, the strength and power of God falls upon that man. 

2dly. Let me speak to this discouragement by way of removal or taking 
of it away. In the way of believing there are two eminent discouragements : 
the one is concerning the will of God, whether he will accept me into 
grace and favour ; and this ariseth from the doctrine of election, that seeing 
salvation and the free grace of God is pitched but upon a few, how there 
can be an object of faith propounded to the sons of men, and a ground for 
them to believe, that do not know whether they be elected, yea or no ; or 
how do I know whether this Christ is mine or no, whom you bid me to 
believe upon ? And unless I be elected, all that I do will be in vain, and 
all will be frustrate. But, besides this, there is another discouragement, 
and that is concerning the power of God, that is requisite to the working of 
faith ; because we are unable of ourselves to believe, will some say, and it 
is God that worketh faith in us, therefore I will not put forth any act of 
faith until I feel the power of God in my own sense coming upon me, over- 
powering me, and drawing my heart to believe. The truth is, that both 
these objections or discouragements do in a manner come to one, at least- 
wise there is a great deal of parallel betwixt them, and the same thing that 
answers the one will answer the other. I will afterward answer the first 
objection, by shewing, that election is so far from being a discouragement, 
that it is the greatest encouragement to any soul in the way of believing 
that can be. But now I shall only make a parallel of this objection with 
the other, and so shew you how the discouragement may be taken away by 
the same reason or consideration in the one, that it is removed and taken 
away in the other. I say, both these discouragements are alike, and they 
come all to one ; for a soul that doth not know whether it is elected or no, 
whether God will accept it, doth but venture its faith, and its going to God, 
and to Christ, in a subordination to his free grace, upon God's good pleasure, 
and the freedom of his will ; and one that is sensible of his own insufficiency, 
doth but venture his believing, and endeavoureth in a subordination to the 



558 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

power of God, so as the thing comes all to one ; yea, so far as any man 
may have hope and ground to think that God may accept of him (which 
may be the ground for faith notwithstanding election), so far may that man 
have a hopefulness that the power of God will accompany him in the exer- 
cising of faith. And the reason of it is clearly this, because the power of 
God is set a-work by his will, and both these are commensurable and pro- 
portionable ; and so far as the will of God goes, so far his power goes ; 
and so far as I have hope, and have ground to hope that God may accept 
me, so far I have ground also to wait upon him, to put forth that power to 
accompany me, and to strengthen me, and enable me in believing, and in 
all the acts of it. As therefore men do make a venture upon the will of 
God in casting themselves upon it to save them, and accept them (and it is 
the best venture that ever was made), so far men ought to attempt the 
exercise of faith without discouragement, in a way of subordination unto the 
power of God, and to put themselves into the stream of it. The truth is, 
when all is done, God will be trusted in both. 

3. Join but these two following things together, and do but consider 
what a great encouragement this doctrine is, that it is God only that must 
work in us, rather than a discouragement. I say, join but these two things 
together, which are both true : first, that God doth all, which is the 
objection ; but, secondly, take this in too, that this God who doth all, useth 
graciously to come and join with men while they are acting and exercising 
of faith, and his power raiseth them to believing savingly and spiritually ; 
if you consider these two things together, then instead of a discouragement, 
it is the greatest encouragement that ever was or could be supposed to be. 
Now thus it is, only God will be free, he will take his own time, he will 
shew his liberty in the time as well as in the person. But when we take 
the pen in our hand, and often attempt to write after the copy, though of 
ourselves we know not how to write a letter, yet in obedience to him, going 
about to do our duty, he takes us by the hand, and strengthens and enables 
us to do it. The poor impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, that attempted 
to go in, and cried out to go in, and could not for thirty years, yet at last 
the poor man having continued thus long lying there, Jesus Christ came 
and healed him ; not because he lay there, but to shew that he blessed his 
waiting on him. In that James iv., what says the apostle ? James iv. 8, 
' Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.' To draw nigh 
unto God is to draw nigh unto him, as in putting one's self under ordinances 
and means (as of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, it is said they did draw 
nigh unto God), so by believing. ' Let us draw nigh,' saith he, ' with full 
assurance of faith,' Heb. x. 2. And when men put themselves under such 
means where God's presence useth to be, then doth God use to draw nigh 
unto them, ' Draw nigh unto God,' saith he, ' and he will draw nigh unto 
you.' I could give you a multitude of places, as Prov. i. 23, ' I will pour 
out my Spirit upon you ;' and Mat. vii. 7, ' Seek, and you shall find ;' and 
Luke xi. 13, 'He will give the Spirit unto them that ask.' Thus God, 
though he doth all, yet he is graciously pleased to join with us (and how, 
I shall shew you by and by), and to act us through his strength acting of us, 
and to come in and work that for us which we aim at. And if so, then it 
is the greatest encouragement to us which can be, that God doth all. If 
that God should have said to you that are the sons of men, I will give you 
assisting grace, which yet I leave to the liberty of your wills to join withal, 
or not to join withal ; in this case all the sons of men, when it had been 
thus of themselves and their own power, would have fallen off from God, 
and would have turned this grace into wantonness. But if God shall say, 



Chap. II.] of justifying faith. 559 

I will not deal with you according to the way or the will of the creature, 
but whilst I assist your will to do thus and thus, I will come in with a 
farther power, and I will do all for you and all in you, and so draw the 
creature to wait upon an higher power, and to act in a subordination there- 
unto, this way of salvation is the greatest encouragement that can be ; 
and why is it so? Because that in this case God undertakes to do all, 
and it is better to wait in a way of uncertainty (if I may so express it, 
though it is not so), in a dependence upon the power of God this way, than 
to have gone the other way as Adam did, and as all legal Christians do ; 
for what saith the heart ? Here is my comfort, that that God, in depend- 
ence upon whose power I act, still so far as he assisteth, and depend upon 
his power to work all in me, he is able, and nothing is too hard for him. 
I have an hard heart, a base unbelieving heart, apt to depart from the 
living God ; but I depend upon the power of God to overcome this hard 
heart, to draw me in to the Lord Jesus, and there is nothing too hard for 
his engagement. I say, to depend upon such a power, whenas you have 
that power also that doth engage itself, that when he doth give a will to use 
such and such means, he often and ordinarily comes in ; to depend, I say, 
upon such a power is the greatest encouragement that can be. 

I shall make a parallel of it now, with the throwing of a man's self upon 
the free grace of God to save him in the way of election. Men usually say, 
that election is the most discouraging doctrine in the world ; but really 
whosoever throws himself upon the riches of the free grace of God, and 
depends upon such a love as God manifesteth to the elect to save him, will 
find all objections are answered, whether they be taken from unworthiness, 
or any other reason, they do all vanish before it, only this one remaineth, 
whether thou art the person or no. And for that I say, there is an easy 
answer, that the indefinite promise, as I shall in the sequel shew you, is 
the ground of faith. So now when you come to depend upon the power of 
God, faith doth as it were make but one venture, and that is at first ; for 
if once you find that power of God to be engaged, it is so engaged as that 
it will for ever do all in you, and cany it on for ever afterward, and that 
you may be sure of. So that indeed all the venture you make is at first to 
get this faith wrought in you ; but if this power be once engaged, it will go 
on, it will everlastingly save you ; and therefore Christ still makes an 
encouragement of it. When he had said, Mat. xix. 24, how hard it is for a 
rich man to enter into heaven, as hard as for a camel to go in at the eye 
of a needle, the disciples, the text saith, were discouraged ; ' What man 
then shall be saved ?' say they. It was merely because they did dream of 
being saved by something in a man's self. How doth Christ answer ? 
• With man this is impossible,' saith he, ' but with God all things are 
possible.' He tells them this to raise up thefr hearts again ; therefore, saith 
he, do but you venture upon the power of God, though the work be thus 
difficult, and that will overcome your lusts, and that will subdue the hardest 
heart, and strongest earthly mind. Christ, I say, in that place, makes it 
an encouragement, and indeed it is the greatest. 

4. The next thing that I would say for the encouragement of such, is this, 
that if God do give thee an heart to labour and to endeavour still to renew 
thy faith, and thou dost renew thy faith continually upon it, God will 
bestow and doth bestow usually the thing in the end. In Luke xi. there 
is a parable exceeding clear to this purpose. Christ there exhorts them to 
pray, and to continue to pray, and he doth it upon this ground, by the 
parable of a man's friend coming to him, whom in the end he heareth, 
because of his importunity, ver. 8. Now though God doth not hear for 



5 GO OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

thy importunity, yet when he gives thee a heart that doth in a way of im- 
portunity and constancy exercise acts of faith, never stand disputing whe- 
ther they be true acts of faith. Suppose thou hast not true faith at pre- 
sent, suppose thou shouldst not have it, suppose thou be but a temporary 
believer, if he enable thee to continue thus, he doth usually join with the 
believer in the end. And so Christ concludeth that parable, and bids them 
seek and they shall find ; for, saith he, he giveth the Spirit unto them that 
ask him, ver. 13. 

5. Though God doth all, yet he doth it usually in the use of means, and 
in them useth to come. When we have the pen in our hands, and offer to 
write, though we make never a true letter, yet he often takes a man by 
the hands, and guides and strengthens it. The man that lay at^the pool, 
when, though impotent, he still attempted to go in, though he could not, 
John v. 7, yet he still lying at the pool, Christ comes and heals him. Yea, 
though the principle out of which they use the means be not spiritual but 
natural, yet God takes the advantage of it to work. It was not a right 
ground moved Naaman to wash in the waters of Jordan, and yet God 
healed him, using the means, which else he would not have done. 

6. Though some should have failed that have used the means (as believers 
themselves sometimes), yet this should not discourage men to neglect them. 
It discourages not in other things. Men forbear not procreating, because 
it is God puts in a soul, and the dependence is well nigh as great in the 
first as in the second birth. Men forbear not to sow because some years 
have proved barren. We forbear not to preach, because every sermon 
takes not effect ; we are not discouraged, because God hath bidden us wait 
if at any time he will give men repentance, 2 Tim. ii. 25. If preachers 
wait for the salvation of others, then men ought to do so for their own ; 
and so much more should they, whose salvation it is, be content to ven- 
ture endeavours, because, says the apostle, Philip, ii. 13, it is ' their own 
salvation.' Men will venture journeys for their own preferment. 

7. That some have missed, should quicken us the more to the more 
heed-taking ; for they failed because they put not more strength to the 
work, but grew slothful and negligent. Upon this ground our Saviour 
Christ provoked his disciples : Luke xiii. 24, ' Strive,' saith he, ' to enter 
into the strait gate : for many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' 
That which these men would use as a discouragement, Christ turns into a 
reason, therefore do you strive or wrestle, or put to your utmost strength, for 
many have striven, and faintly endeavoured, that came short, therefore lose it 
not for a little more pains. So the apostle in 1 Cor. ix. 24, because many 
run that miss, therefore he exhorts them to endeavour ' so to run that they 
may obtain,' to endeavour to make all sure ; so do I, says he ; ' I there- 
fore so run, not as uncertainly,' that is to say, this consideration quickens 
me to use my utmost care and endeavour. 

8. That God doth all, should so much the more quicken us also ; so the 
apostle argues : Philip, ii. 13, ' Work you out your salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God works in you the will and the deed,' i. e., seeing 
this great work depends upon God, to work how and when he will of his good 
pleasure, let not us think therefore to be idle, but set ourselves to the use 
of those means with the more fear and trembling, which God hath declared 
his pleasure is that we should use, as those that wholly depend upon his 
working all in all, and therefore fear to provoke him and put him off, 
tremble to neglect any means or opportunity he hath appointed. 

9. If God give men a heart to continue endeavouring, though he gives it 
not therefore, yet it is a sign he means to bestow grace on them. It is his 



Chap. II. J of justifying faith. 561 

bounty and mercy to set thy heart a- work about salvation, and r 
mercy which he affords to few ; be thankful for what thou hast received, 
and not discouraged, and God may give thee more. There are but a few in 
the world that do seek him, and if he should turn away any that do, he 
would have fewer. 

10. The ground why men are discouraged is, because they would have 
their endeavours a means to compass grace, and think by their own strength 
to prevail, which when it is discovered to them that it is bootless to 
endeavour, then they sit down discouraged, and sit down in a pet, and fling 
all away, because they cannot have grace in their way. But if that be the 
root of the discouragement, it is pride and corruption, and not the doctrine 
that God doth all, which discourageth. For would flesh renounce the 
opinion of its own strength, and its using endeavours its own way, and use 
them in subordination to God as means appointed by him only, then this 
doctrine would discourage no man, but quicken him. So that endeavours 
are not spoken against, but this way and ground of endeavouring, as 
thinking by what we do to obtain mercy ; sp d it is not this doctrine 
that God doth all which discourageth, but pride and corruption, which 
because it hears it can do nothing, therefore it will do nothing ; for there 
are other motives enough to persuade a man to endeavour, as that it is a 
man's duty, &c. 

Obj. But you will say, If I should act faith upon God and Christ, I 
should do it all in a natural way, it would be a natural act, and not a 
spiritual act ; and doth God in such cases come and join with men by his 
almighty power, working faith in them ? To that I answer, that some- 
times God doth do so. I will give you but an instance of it, parallel 
thereunto ; it is of Xaaman the Syrian. He came not out of his own country 
in a way of faith, but he had a providential hint given him by a maid that 
lived with him, that was a Jew, that if he went into the land of Israel, he 
should be cured by a prophet that was there. And when he came into 
Judea, and had spoken with the prophet, he had a reproof from one of hi3 
servants, that told him it was but a very small matter he was bid to do, and it 
was no great business for him to try. Upon this he went and tried, and 
upon no other ground but this, yet you see God cured him, and cured both 
his body and soul at once. When the woman of Samaria came to the 
Samaritans, she brought abundance of them unto Christ, and her speech 
did beget a kind of faith in them ; but when they came to Christ himself, 
then say they, ' Now we believe, not because of thy saying, but for his own 
word.' So that in deed and in truth, though God begins to act a man's 
spirit, suppose in a natural way first, yet he doth turn it into a spiritual 
way in the very act. When thou takest a pen in thy hand to write, then 
God takes thee by the hand, and writes for thee. It is in this as it is 
in prayer ; a man goes to prayer, puts himself into the presence of God, 
and the Holy Ghost falls upon him, and he not knowing how nor what to 
ask, he teacheth him what to ask with groans that are unutterable, as the 
apostle speaks. 

11. Let me say this to you, it is encouragement enough to you to act 
and exercise the way of believing (as I shall shew you afterwards) ; it is, I 
say, encouragement enough that God may thus join with you, although 
neither I nor all the world can give thee any certain evidence that he will. 
I dare not say (not for all this world, as some do), that if a man useth 
such abilities as God giveth him well, then God will certainly give him 
faith if he go on so to do. To make a certainty of it, I say I cannot. 
But it is encouragement enough, though there cannot be a certainty made 

vol. via. 8 n 



562 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

out, that God oftentimes doth so, and it may be the ground of a thousand 
duties. Thou art a poor soul, and knowest not whether thou hast faith or 
no, yet thy soul desires to receive the Lord's supper, and art in question 
whether thou shouldst or no. Why, if there be that work which thou hast 
reason to judge may be grace, it is a ground for thee to perform that duty, 
for otherwise none can go to the Lord's supper but those that have assur- 
ance. And answerably to this, ' What knowest thou,' saith the apostle Paul, 
' but that thou who art a believing wife,' staying with thy husband that is 
otherwise troublesome to thee, ' mayest convert him ? ' and upon this What 
knouest thou? though thou art not at a certainty God will, there is a ground 
of staying with thy husband, and of using all means to bring him unto 
God, and it is encouragement enough. Tbough, then, you have acted 
faith, and still you find not the power of God come upon you in your sense, 
drawing you to believe so as you aim at, this, I say, ought not to dis- 
courage you. Why ? Because you ought to do as much for your own salva- 
tion as you would do for another's, or as ministers, or as a godly people are 
to do for the salvation of another. We forbear not to preach because 
every sermon taketh not effect ; because in 2 Tim. ii. 25, God hath bid us 
wait if at any time God will give such an one repentance. Now, if that be 
a motive and an encouragement strong enough, that God may do it, then 
it may be encouragement and motive strong enough to thee, that God may 
at last strike in and give thee power to believe. It is the apostle's own 
words (I quote it as comparing it with what a man may do for his own 
salvation, upon the like ground he is to do for the salvation of another) in 
Phil. ii. 12, ' Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it 
is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.' I put the empbasis 
upon the words your own. If men are to wait thus for the salvation of 
others, because God may peradventure give tbem repentance, much more, 
then, though God doth all, art thou to wait, and in the mean time to act 
faith, and to work out thy own. Wby? Because it is thy oini salvation. 
And that others have missed who have endeavoured, is not a discouragement 
neither, so much as an encouragement, for there are thousands that have 
obtained. I have known some souls tbat have gone to God, and have 
taken Jesus Christ tremblingly, and the word hath stuck in their teeth 
whilst they were giving thanks unto God for giving them Jesus Christ, and 
God hath fallen upon them, and given them full assurance of his love before 
they had done. I say thousands of souls have gained this way, as well 
as some bave missed. 'We, of his fulness,' saith the apostle in John i. 13, 
have received grace for grace.' Therefore, as men coming from a dole, 
who have gone there and have obtained, are examples of encouragement 
unto others, so should the example of all such who have obtained faith and 
salvation encourage thee. Let me say this to you, faith is the greatest 
venture in the world, so I use to express it ; and when all is done, you 
must make a venture upon it. You make a venture upon God's will when 
you throw yourselves upon it to accept you ; and you make a venture upon 
his power when you act faith with a subordination thereunto to work faith 
upon you. You must resolve to cast away your own endeavours for the 
glorifying of his power, as you must cast away your own righteousness for 
the glorifying of his free grace, and to be glad to put your mouths in the 
dust; and yet if there may be any hope, and if there may be faith, you 
ought to work out your salvation, because he worketh in you both the 
will and the deed. In all things else men do so. Husbandmen cast the 
seed into the ground, and wait for the increase, because it is God that 
giveth it, and men do the like for preferment. In all such natural things, 



Chap. III.] of justifying faith. 5G3 

I say, men do act upon a dependence and in a subordination to the power 
of God, and should they not do so in matters of salvation ? 



CHAPTER III. 

That the sense of heinous sins is another great hindrance of faith, which dis- 
heartens nun from endeavouring to believe. — These disconrajements answered 
and removed. 

Though God commands and encourageth us to believe, yet there are 
certain discouragements lie in men's way. As, therefore, when the children 
of Israel were to return from the captivity, God bids his ministers take 
away the stumbling-blocks, — Isa. lvii. 14, ' Cast up, cast up, take away the 
stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people,' that they might not be 
hindered in their journey, saith the Lord, — so when we do exhort you to be 
reconciled to God, there are certain stumbling-blocks to be removed, there 
are certain discouragements which we must therefore remove, the chiefest 
whereof is the boundlessness and heinousness of men's sins ; and when 
their eyes are opened to behold them, they are apt to be discouraged with 
the sight of them, and to think that reconciliation belongs not unto them. 
Now then, I shall display the riches of God's mercies in pardoning the 
greatest sins, to take away this discouragement, as it hinders you from 
coming in to Christ. And if sin be the greatest of them, that ought not to 
discourage you from coming in for mercy : for do but consider the sins of 
Manasseh, as they are set down 2 Kings xxi., 2 Chron. xxxiii. It is said, 
verse 6, that ' he did much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, and 
provoked him to anger.' 

1. His sinning was much for continuance, for it is said he was king over 
Israel fifty-five years, being twelve years old when he began to reign, and 
it was towards the latter end of his days when he humbled himself. 

2. His guilt was much in regard of the sins themselves, for he made a 
covenant with the devil, gave away his soul to him ; verse 6, he dealt with 
familiar spirits. Add to this, murder, and that of the innocent ; for it is 
said, ' he filled the streets of Jerusalem with blood, from one end to the 
other,' 2 Kings xxi. 16. So to this, idolatry, a sin greater than all the 
other, and it was the worst sort of idolatry: 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9, 'He made 
them to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before them.' 
Add to this, that it was a relapse, though not of himself, yet of the whole 
kingdom ; for though his father had destroyed the images, broken down 
the altars, yet he did build them up again, and set up idolatry in the 
house of God, and he there set up a carved image, the idol which he had 
made — all this he was guilty of, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3-10. And those sins 
were not confined only to his own person, but he made Israel also to sin ; 
and for these sins were the children of Israel carried into captivity, 
Jer. xv. 14. He would not pardon them in regard of a temporal punish- 
ment. And Manasseh did all this against admonition, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10. 
He sinned also against education, for he had a good father, and he lived 
twelve years under his government, in which time, no doubt but he 
instructed him ; and he sinned also against the greatest mercy that could 
be, for he was made king of God's own people. Thus, you see, his sins 
were very great, and yet, for all this, the Lord had mercy on him: 2 Chron. 
xxxiii. 12, 13, ' And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord, and 
humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto 



5G4 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

him, and he was entreated of him, and God heard his supplication, and 
brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.' He humbled himself 
greatly because he had sinned greatly ; for when one hath sinned greatly, 
without great humiliation the Lord will not give mercy ; but when he did 
so, the Lord did hear him, and brought him to his own kingdom. A 
greater sinner than he could not be, and yet see how gracious and merciful 
the Lord was to him. 

Obj. But this was but the example of one man, it is not like the Lord 
will deal thus with me or any other, 

Ans. Look but to that nation which was co-partner with him, the people 
of the Jews ; see how they combined with him in the same sin : Jer. ii. 2 
(for Jeremiah lived in those da}'s, and he made his prophecy to this people), 
' Go and cry in the streets, I remember the espousals, and the kindness of 
thy youth,' &c. There he shews how they sinned against their education, 
when they were brought up in the wilderness under the hands of Moses 
and Aaron, for then Israel was holiness unto the Lord : verse 21, ' Yet I 
had planted thee a noble vine, holy and righteous seed ; how then art thou 
turned a degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me ? ' They sinned also 
against deliverances, against promises of amendment : verse 20, ' Of old 
time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds, and thou saidst, I will 
not transgress,' &c. They sinned also against much mercy: verse 5, 
' What iniquity have your fathers found in me ? Have I been a barren 
wilderness unto you ? ' The Lord was not a wilderness, but a paradise, 
abounding in infinite mercies towards them. The} 7 sinned also against 
many prayers : Jer. iii. 4, ' Didst thou not cr}' unto me, Thou art my 
father, and the guide of my youth ? ' God doth, as it were, by way of 
mockery, lay open, their hypocrisy, and reproacheth them, that when they 
had sinned, then they cried out, ' Thou art my God, and the guide of my 
youth.' They sinned also against example ; yet now, what doth God say 
unto them ? Jer. iii. 6, 7, 8, ' Behold what Israel hath done ! She is gone up 
to every high mountain, and hath played the harlot. And I said, after all 
this, Turn you to me : but yet she turned not,' &c. Yet see what the Lord 
saith, verse 12, ' Go and proclaim those words in the north, Return, 
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause my anger to fall 
on you.' And whereas they had a proverb amongst them, ' If a man put 
away his wife, and she go from him, and becomes another man's wife, shall 
he return unto her ? ' No ; yet says God, ' Though thou hast played the 
harlot with many lovers, return unto me ; ' only acknowledge thy fault, that 
thou hast transgressed against me, aud I will graciously receive thee. 
Jer. iii. 1, 19, the Lord makes an objection (in that verse 19), saying, 
' How shall I put thee amongst the children, and give thee a pleasant land, 
a goodly host of the heritage of nations ? ' They were such a polluted 
people, that he could not tell how to take them to himself; yet if they 
would but come and say, ' Thou art my father,' and submit themselves, the 
Lord would receive them. Thus, we see, the Lord was not merciful to one 
man only, but to a whole nation. See this instance farther : Ezek. xx. 7, 
' Cast ye away every one your evil works, but they rebelled against me.' 
But saith God, verse 9, • I wrought for my name's sake,' &c. After he 
had brought them out of Egypt, and gave them his judgments and Sab- 
baths, yet there also they rebelled as much as in Egypt: verse 13, 'But 
the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness,' &c. What doth 
follow? verse 14, 'Yet I wrought again for my name's sake, that it should 
not be polluted,' &c. And again, verse 15, ' I also lifted up my hand that 
I should not bring them into the land that I promised them,' &c, ' yet,' 



Chap. III.] ok justifying faith. 

Says God, verse 17, ' nevertheless, I spared them,' &c. Notwithstanding, 
for all this (verse 21), tho children of Israel rebelled yet again, they walked 
not in God's statutes, but provoked his fury against them ; and yet (says 
God, verse 22), ' I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name's sake,' 
&c. ,But (verse 28) when they came into the land which God had given 
them, when they saw every green tree, and every high hill, they committed 
worse abominations there, they offered their sacrifices, &c. ' Yet,' saith 
God, verse 41, ' I will sanctify you, and accept you, when I bring you out 
from the people, and I will be sanctified in you before thera.' Thus, also, 
in Neh. ix., there are. brought in I know not how many yets of sinnings, 
and yets of mercies, one after another, as striving which should overcome. 
Mercy enters first, and begins, verses 8, 9, 10, and then comes in their 
rebellion, ver. 16, 17, and an aggravation of that their sinfulness, ver. 16; 
but a yet of mercy follows, verse 19, ' Yet in thy manifold mercies thou 
forsookest them not.' Though he had spent manifold mercies, yet he 
goes on, nevertheless, in acts of mercy, and though they persisted in acts 
of sinnings six or seven times, yet God hath the last word in mercy, 
verse 31. And this God hath not done to one man, but to a whole nation, 
therefore sin should not be a bar to hinder you from coming in to believe 
on Christ, and to be reconciled to God. 

1st, Because God is merciful. If men were not sinners, God would not 
have had an opportunity to shew mercy, for mercy is a helping of those 
that are in misery. And if we were not enemies, there was no need of 
reconciliation. All the saints in heaven had not had need of reconciliation, 
if they had not been enemies. 

2dly, He delights in mercy. If he had not delighted in it, would he 
have bruised his only Son for it, and have made him an offering, Isa. liii., 
that so a way might be opened for a display of mercy by satisfaction made 
unto justice ? And if he had not had pleasure in mercy, he would not have 
delighted to have put his son to grief. 

3dly, There is very abundant mercy in God: 1 Pet. i. 3, ' Who accord- 
ing to his abundant mercy,' &c. And Ephes. ii. 7, it is called ' the exceed- 
ing riches of his mercy,' not only riches, but exceeding riches, that will 
never be drawn dry. 

4thly, He may pardon the greatest sins, because his mercy is free ; and 
as he doth not look to any good in the creature to move him to shew mercy, 
so he doth not look at any sin to dissuade him, and therefore sin cannot 
hinder thee from reconciliation ; and thus herein consists the freeness of 
grace. Now this is the difference between love, mercy, and grace, that a 
man may love one that never offended him, and mercy is towards those 
that are in misery, but grace doth what it doth freely, and doth not look 
at anything in the creature. In Ezek. xxxvi. 22, it is said, ' God wrought 
for his name's sake,' and therefore because God works for his own name's 
sake, no evil can hinder him from shewing mercy. See then how easy a thing 
it is for God to shew mercy. A stomachful man will say that he can do 
anything but pardon. But God is the father of mercies, and so he doth 
beget mercies. And as it is natural for the ear to hear, the eye to see, so 
it is natural to God to shew mercy. 

5thly, God will pardon the greatest sins, because of the end he aimed 
at in setting up this way of grace and mercy. It was ' for the praise and 
glory of his grace,' Ephes. i. 6, that sin should not hinder ; nay, the more 
sin there is, the more is his grace glorified. As it is with a physician that 
professeth to come merely to shew his skill, the greater the disease is the 
gladder he is, for he shall shew the greater skill if he cure it. "When to 



5C6 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

shew mercy is the plot of grace, sinfulness and misery is the subject of that 
plot for it to be shewn in. What contrivances will mercy have to shew 
itself in this case ? ' Where sin doth abound, there doth grace abound much 
more ; ' and therefore it is that God doth let his people many times run on 
so far in sin, because grace may abound so much the more. 

To help you in this, do but lay to heart the examples of such whom God 
hath pardoned. ' He hath shewn mercy to me first,' saith Paul, 1 Tim. 
i. 16 ; and do you think that he did begin and end with him? No; he 
shewed mercy to me first, says the apostle, ' that I might be a pattern to 
tbem that should believe to eternal life.' Think of that which Christ says, 
Mat. xii. 31, 'All blasphemies shall be forgiven but that against the Holy 
Ghost.' Here you see all manner of blasphemy, which is the highest kind 
of sin, and that against the Son of man, and the means of grace, which is 
a higher degree, pardoned. Christ, who hath been at the sealing of so 
many pardons, saith that he hath seen all sin pardoned, except the sin 
against the Holy Ghost. 

Obj. Well, but you will object, that your sins have been of long con- 
tinuance. 

Ans. I answer, The mercies of God have been from everlasting. God 
hath laid up thoughts of peace from the beginning ; and therefore, though 
thy sin hath been for many years, yet it hath been but as yesterday with 
God ; and as long as thou hast not been sinning longer than he hath been 
thinking of mercy, cast not off all hope of mercy. God's mercy is like a 
mighty river that hath run from everlasting. Do but think how long men 
did lie in their sins before the flood, and yet he forgave them. 

Obj. But you will argue the reiteration of your sins. 

Ans. I answer, That God doth reiterate his mercy, Isa. lv. 7. He ' mul- 
tiplies mercies to pardon,' and heaps up mercy, &c. And we do not only 
read of the greatness of his mercy, but also of ' the multitude of his loving- 
kindnesses ; ' and it is said that he doth heal backslidings (and what is a 
backsliding but the falling into the same sin again ?), and what is the 
reason of this? Because he loves freely; and therefore, though he fall 
into the same sin again, yet do but remember the sure covenant of mercy 
and grace that he hath made. 

Obj. But you will say, I have sinned stubbornly. 

Ans. I answer, God doth pardon that also, Isa. lvii. 17, 18, ' He did go 
on stubbornly, but yet,' saith God, ' I have seen his ways, and I will heal 
him ; I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to them that are afar off.' 
The Lord can help though we be never so far off from him. 

Use. The use of all this is, not to encourage any to sin against God, 
though the world be ready to practise it, and to say, Because grace abounds, 
therefore sin may abound much more. But it should not embolden any to 
sin against him, for his anger shall smoke against such an one. But if 
any soul is cast down in the sight of his sins, let him look upon the infinite 
riches of mercy arid grace in God, and they will take away that bar that 
hinders him from reconciliation ; and though his sins be never so great, 
yet if they be not against the Holy Ghost they may be pardoned ; yea, all 
blasphemy else. Christ, under whose hands all pardon goes, doth say it. 
Therefore believe against the time of distress, take hold of the mercy of God 
in Christ : but cursed be that heart that doth make himself by this pre- 
sumptuous. You may trust in God as much as you will, only your hearts 
must be conformable ; and if you walk worthy of reconciliation, you cannot 
trust too much. 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 5G7 



CHAPTER IV. 

That men should not be discouraged from believing by the doctrine, of ejection. 
— That the consideration of God's having, by his electing decree, appointed. 
only some far, chosen by him unto sal rat ion and eternal life, ought to be no 
discouragement to obstruct our endeavours to believe. 

Though, by the foregoing considerations, men may be brought to acknow- 
ledge that the greatness of their sins ought to be no bar to their believing, 
yet many will stumble at the doctrine of particular election, as importing 
that God designs salvation only to a few. Therefore, say they, though we 
should come in, and seek it never so earnestly, yet we might miss of it. 
If indeed we could be certainly assured of obtaining it, this would give life 
and hope to stir for it. 

But for satisfaction of this scruple, we shall not need to fetch an answer 
from the universality of God's love to all, or of Christ's death extended to 
all on condition they will ; I shall, therefore, rather propound such con- 
siderations as may persuade men, notwithstanding the true doctrine of 
absolute election, to come in and believe, and which may convince them of 
their neglect, and of their just damnation if they do not ; and to this end 
I propound these ensuing considerations. 

1. Unless thou didst undoubtedly know that thou shouldst certainly miss 
of salvation, and unless God had declared that thou art none of the number, 
there is hope concerning thy being saved. There is an it may be, which is 
as much as we find many promises expressed in. Thus, as in Zeph. ii. 3, 
so in Joel ii. 12-14, God exhorts them to turn unto him with their whole 
heart, ' for he is gracious,' &c, 'and who knoweth if he will turn and repent, 
and leave a blessing behind him ? ' If it be no more, yet God expects that 
you should have upon this a hope which may quicken you, and stir you to 
cast yourselves upon his free grace, and since all is in him, to refer your- 
selves to his mercy, depending upon him in the use of all means. ' Let us 
turn,' say the poor Ninevites (who therefore will rise up in judgment against 
thee), 'for who can tell but the Lord may repent of the evil?' &c. ; 
and God did repent, Jonah iii. 9, 10. They saw there might be a door of 
escaping, and they were, though ' prisoners, yet of hope,' Zech. ix. 12 ; 
and venture they would for a pardon, though they did not know certainly 
they should obtain it. 

2. But further, suppose it more unlikely than likely, that thou shouldst 
speed in this suit, that considering it is a case of absolute necessity, to 
seek out for reconciliation and peace, there is a strong ground to move thee 
to seek out for it, and to spend the utmost of thy endeavours to attain it, 
and to think it an infinite mercy, that it is not declared to be absolutely 
impossible for thee. In case of absolute necessity, we see men weigh not 
improbabilities, but do put themselves and all their endeavours upon a 
venture, though the business be very uncertain. As for example, men 
being pressed to the wars, though it be certain that some shall die, and 
those in all probability who fight in the fore- front, or venture upon some 
desperate piece of service, yet it being necessary for them to undertake 
that service as commanded them upon pain of life, and there being some 
possibility that they may escape, and that it may fall out so, in this case 
they are content to hazard and venture themselves. Therefore also, why 
not much more in this case shouldst not, thou venture, though there were 
more unlikelihoods that thou shouldst not obtain, than that thou shouldst ? 



5G8 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BoOK IV. 

But I will give you another example, of the two* lepers, 2 Kings vii. 3, 4. 
They reasoned with, themselves, ' If we enter into the city, then the famine 
being in the city, we die there : if we sit here, we die also. Come, let us 
fall into the camp of the Aramites : if they save our lives, we shall live ; and 
if they kill us, we are but dead.' Thus in a case of necessity they chose 
that which, though it had many improbabilities in it, yet might fall out 
otherwise than they feared. There was an if it may be made of saving their 
lives, and yet a most unlikely one, for they did not know but that the Ara- 
mites might be resolved to cut off all the Jews, and spare not a man alive ; 
and if they meant to spare any Jews, yet of all others, they might well think 
they would cut off them, because being lepers, they were unfit for service 
or employment, and might infect the camp. And now then, suppose that 
this were thy case, that of all others, thou wert most likely not to obtain 
mercy, that, being a persecutor, a contemner of grace, &c, shouldst in all 
probability be cut off, yet there being some possibility, in a case of such 
necessity, come in and venture thyself. And the necessity is greater in thy 
case ; for as to these lepers, there might have been supposed some mira- 
culous way of preserving them, but for thee, there is no other way than of 
faith : God hath no other. And then the death which the lepers should 
die, both in one way and the other, would be alike ; but if thou seekest not, 
thou wilt die a worse death. 

3. But in this case of reconciliation, there is, supposing the doctrine of 
particular election, both a certainty that God intends it for many, and it is 
of equal and indifferent likelihood in view, that it is intended for thee as for 
any other, which, besides that great necessity to enforce thee, may add much 
encouragement and hopes to thee. For thou heardest before that none of 
thy sins are any bar at all (and if anything, they must hinder), no sin but that 
against the Holy Ghost. Though there be many signs of election, yet none 
of absolute reprobation. But on the contrary, no former dealings of God with 
thee, nor no dealings of thine with him, though never so base and injurious, no 
circumstance of any sin, either that it hath been so often and so long lain in, 
and committed after such mercies, conviction, deliberation, can exclude thee 
from hopes of mercy ; nay, none of these do argue thee further off from mercy, 
than another that is in the estate of nature with thee. There is nothing can 
be said concerning thee, but it might have been said of some who have recon- 
ciliation with God for their portion. As no temptation hath befallen you but 
what is common to man, says Paul, 1 Cor. x. 13, so nothing can be objected 
against thee, but hath been and is common to those who have obtained mercy. 
No leprosy makes thee unfitter or unlikelier to be saved than another. So 
that lay but these two together, — first, that some in all ages shall find mercy, 
and that thou art as fairly capable of it and as nigh as another, since there 
is no qualification in the statute to exclude thee, no exception against thy 
country, sex, age, parts, &c, for God did look to none of all these when he 
chose men : Acts x. 34, ' He is no respecter of persons,' — so as thou mayest 
say, as they did, Acts xv. 11, 'I believe that through the grace of Christ 
I may be saved as well as they ; ' for grace is free, and requires nothing in 
the person, not in one way nor another, to whom it intendeth favour ; and 
therefore, I seeing nothing against my hope of having salvation, as well as 
nothing why I should deserve it, I am as near it as another, and therefore 
will stand for it. In 1 Kings xx. 31, when they heard the kings of Israel 
were merciful kings, and that they had spared others in the like case that 
they and Benhadad were in, and when they saw nothing in their condition 
which had not been pardoned in others, they upon this say, ' Let us put 

* ' Four.'— Ed. 



Chap. IV.] of justifying faith. 509 

ropes about our neck : peradventure the king of Israel may save thy life.' 
It was but a pgradvmtun, and a greater one than can be supposed in thy 

case, for they had heard only in the general of the kings of Israel ; but 
whether this king Ahab were of such a disposition, they knew not, and yet 
they ventured upon it to seek to him ; but thou nearest that this great 
God is a God gracious, merciful, &o., and that he hath pardoned thousands 
in the like condition. 

4. Thou art not only thus equally capable of it as well as another, but 
there is a probability and a likelihood that God doth intend thee, because 
thou hast heard that he is a merciful God, and willing to be reconciled by 
his own appointment. The news of it is directed to thee by himself, and 
he hath bidden thee to stand for it, and to come in for it ; for the word of 
reconciliation which we preach is made known but to a few, and those too 
to whom it comes, it comes as an act of mercy ; and by God's direction, it 
comes rather to one place than another, rather to one man than another ; 
as, why was Paul forbidden to go into Bithynia, Acts xvi. 7, and called to 
go into Macedonia, and bidden, Acts xviii. 10, to stay at Corinth and 
preach ? but because, as God says there, ' I have much people in this 
city.'* When the plague comes to a place whei-ein any man lives, whenas 
other places are free, he fears lest God might intend to take him away by 
it rather than the others in other places, and still looks on himself if he 
hath no token on him ; so when the gospel comes to the place wherein thou 
livest, and thou hast not the sound of it confusedly, but the knowledge 
distmctly of it to thy ears, thou hast cause to think it exceedingly probable 
that God doth intend thee for salvation, and that the kingdom of God is 
come nigh thee. It is a great probability of election that the gospel is 
come to thee, 1 Thes. i. 5, and it is a sign that God means to save thee, 
and hath chosen those to whom he makes known this mystery of his will of 
reconciling and gathering souls to himself, Eph. i. 9. Those servants of 
Benhadad had no intimation of mercy from Ahab himself, or by his direc- 
tion, but thou hast from God ; for the mystery hid from all ages, and now 
from most of the world, is revealed unto thee, and he hath directed the 
gospel to thee in an especial providence, and since he hath not proclaimed 
this pardon to all persons, but to a few ; therefore thou being among them 
to whom this proclamation of mercy is sent, hast cause to put in for it, and 
much encouragement also to do so. 

5. Especially this gospel offering great salvation, as an addition to this 
peace and reconciliation made with God, ought to excite and encourage thee 
to seek it. The lepers thought only to save their lives, and so did Ben- 
hadad, for he was perhaps out of hope of having his kingdom again ; but 
thou hast not only hope of saving thy life, but of having eternal life ; and 
this, added to the capableness of thy attaining it, and the probability 
annexed to it, should exceedingly quicken thee to seek out for it. For in 
case of preferment, when a great office is void, a living or a fellowship in a 
college, which will certainly be bestowed on some, as soon as a man shall 
hear of such a thing, and have a hint of it from the party that bestows it, and 
be told from him that he is as fair for it as any other, that he is as capable, 
that there is no clause in the statute to exclude him and shut him out, and 
that he hath as good means to make for it as any other, how would he be 
quickened to use his utmost endeavours, to lay out his money, and to put 
in for it, when yet he knows that there are many suitors, and that the place 
can be bestowed but upon one ? Now this is the case in hand ; the gospel 
offereth great salvation, so great, as the apostle can no otherwise express it, 
Eeb. ii. 3, but in this phrase, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great 



570 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

salvation ? ' And this thou art as fair for, and canst make as good moans 
for it, if thou comest to Jesus Christ, as another. This the apostle inti- 
mates, 1 Cor. ix. 14, speaking of his endeavour to be partaker of the gospel 
and the salvation in it : ' Know ye not,' saith he, ' that they which run in 
a race run all, though but one receives the prize ? ' Yes ; all will venture, 
and therefore why not thou ? Will not this practice of men in case of a 
' corruptible crown,' as he calls it, though there be an uncertain tie* in it, 
condemn the neglect of seeking an incorruptible crown (as ver. 25), and stop 
men's mouths from pleading that few can attain, and some may miss it ? 

6. Consider God's manner of revealing and making known this reconcilia- 
tion to be had (suppose but by a few), yet it is indifferently to be propounded 
unto all, as importing that all should be stirred up at the hearsay of it, 
with the hope of it, to endeavour after it. Christ bade them say to every 
house to which they came, Luke x. 5, ' Peace be to this house ;' and God 
expects that every one to whom this news comes should look out for peace 
as a thing belonging to him, Luke xix. 42. Yea, he commands all to whom 
it comes to stand for it, and to use all means to attain it, 1 John iii. 23, 
Acts xvii. 30, and he will condemn men if they neglect to do so, Heb. ii. 3, 
and not only doth so, but beseecheth you to be reconciled, to come in and 
seek it at his hands ; and if one that had a great preferment in his gift 
should do so, would it not mightily encourage you with hopes to attain it, 
if he should send to thee to stand for it ? 

7. With this news which thou hast heard of willingness in God to be 
reconciled, &c, thou either art affected and moved to come in or not affected ; 
for one of these two things must fall out. If thou beest not affected at all 
to listen after it, thou hast no cause to complain that thou shalt not obtain 
it ; for can any complain he cannot obtain that which he hath no heart to 
nor mind to obtain ? But if thou beest affected with it, and hast a heart 
desirous to obtain it, if thou art set a- work to seek out for it, if God hath 
enamoured thee with his Son, and given thee an high esteem of recon- 
ciliation with him, and given thee a heart to seek after it, this may give 
thee a rational presumption of success, for there is more than a probability 
that it is intended for thee, and that thou art a son of peace : Luke x. 6, 
for if it be hid, ' it is hid to them who are lost : in whom the God of this 
world bath blinded the minds of them which believe not,' 2 Cor. iv. 4. 

Professors who have a work of the Spirit upon them have usually spent 
their chiefest thoughts in poring upon that work, to discern the truth of 
it from a temporary work, and so by way of signs to apply conditional 
promises unto themselves, thereby both diverting from faith in Christ and 
from looking up to him (and so dishonouring him), and also putting too 
much upon their own graces. Now I would have them rather to make this 
use of all such workings, that though they doubt of the truth of them, yet 
they should however look on them as encouragements in a way of believing, 
to facilitate the work of faith the more, that though no such works can be 
made a ground of faith, yet they may help to remove stumbling-blocks 
which lie in the way of it, even in as full a manner as encouragements from 
the promises of the covenant, as made to believers and their seed, may 
help the children of believers more than others when they come to believe. 
For there are but a few in the world whose hearts God enlighteneth and 
affecteth with the powers of the world to come ; and half of them whom he 
doth so stir are usually such as are elected and savingly wrought upon ; 
thus there were as many wise virgins as foolish among professors. Now, 
therefore, though thou canst not tell what to make of thy work in itself, 
* Qu. ' uncertainty '?— Ed. 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 571 

nor art able to say whether it be grace or no, and so canst not fetch assur- 
ance from it, yet thou mayest from it be encouraged to hope that possibly 
thou belongest to the election of grace, and so it may help thee to go to 
Christ with more probability of success. For now thou art not within an 
hundred to one of salvation, but at least within two to one ; so that it is 
but half odds that thou art one to whom God may shew mercy. And thus 
encouraged (using it no farther), thou mayest go to Christ lightened of 
many fears at which others stick, thou having so fair a lot for heaven. 
But because such are in this respect in the like probability of salvation, as 
the children of believing parents, I refer them unto that consideration, that 
what encouragement their being under their parents' covenant may give 
them, the same may these strong workings and stirrings of the Spirit of 
God give these. 

8. If thou wilt seek salvation, and dost continue to seek it, there is a 
certainty that thou shalt obtain it ; and it is a false slander to say, that 
there being few elected, therefore my salvation may prove uncertain though 
I seek it. Now, that there is a certainty promised to seeking, is plain from 
what Paul says, 1 Cor. ix. 26, 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;' 
that is, I so run that I shall be sure to speed. He had said in ver. 24, as 
I shewed before, that in the Olympian games many run, but yet but one 
receives and wins the crown, and yet many will run, though it be so un- 
certain ; but, says he, in endeavouring after salvation in the gospel, of 
which he there speaks, if you will but endeavour to run as you ought, with 
your utmost might, you shall be sure to obtain ; as many as will take pains 
to do it, and use all means, as he speaks there, shall be successful. Some 
indeed fall short through lazy running ; but, says he, ' so run, that you 
may obtain;' that is, there is a running and a seeking which will certainly 
obtain; 'I therefore,' says he, 'so run,' and so running, shall obtain, not 
as uncertainly, but so as I shall be sure to enjoy the prize. And so Christ 
also hath said, ' Seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
to you. And he backs this by a strange convincing demonstration to 
assure them of it : Luke xi. 4, 5, if one comes to a friend at midnight, and 
desires some necessary thing of him, though he be one who hath no list to 
rise, ver. 7, nor regardeth the relation of friendship at all in it, ver. 8, but 
saith he hath all his children already in bed with him, ver. 7, yet for his 
importunity's sake he would rise in the night : ' Xow then, I say unto you,' 
says Christ, ' knock, and it shall be opened.' Though the door seem shut 
against thee, though thou shouldst think God intended not friendship to 
thee, and had, as it were, all his friends about him already, yet he will 
open to and let thee in, ver. 10. He confirms it by experience, that there 
was never yet any turned away, but every one that asketh receiveth, and 
that seeketh findeth ; and there was never any yet that did so that was 
sent away empty. 

CHAPTER V. 

Some general considerations premised to open a way for the following direc- 
tions to guide us in our endeavours to believe. 

Having thus removed the discouragements of faith, I now come to some 
directions to guide us in our endeavouring to believe. 

I shall first in general explain to you what I intend, by way of premise, 
that so my scope and meaning may be apprehended. My scope is not to 
give directions about all ways, and means, and helps, outward and inward, 



572 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaRT III. BOOK IV. 

to attain faith, such as you would give to mere carnal men ; that is, to 
men that do lie still in the profaneness of their hearts, and in the looseness 
of their estates, insensible of anything ; I will not, I say, go about to shew 
what such men should do, and what endeavours they are to use ; no, I 
speak to such as are under discouragement, and lie under the sense of their 
own inability to believe, for it is that objection which occasioneth what I 
shall speak. I do not mean neither to shew you what preparative works 
there are to faith, or to insist upon them ; but I speak to a soul that is 
brought to the brink of believing, that is convinced of its poor ruined state, 
which indeed is the first part of faith, for so self- emptiness is ; one that 
lies at the pool, as the cripple at Bethesda, that is, made sensible of his 
own disability, and lies under that discouragement. I am only, I say, 
now to deal with such an one ; and therefore all that I shall speak shall 
be pertinent as to the condition of such a soul, and I shall not meddle with 
anything else. 

Now, the question is this, what such a soul is to do ? Whether, as some 
have said, to lie still, and only to wait (as they in Acts i. 8) for the power 
of the Holy Ghost to come upon them ? Whether he is not to stir till such 
time as God comes, and to his feeling and sense overpowers his heart to 
believe ? Whether, I say, till God comes with such a power as is infinitely 
beyond his own, and enables him to believe, and draws his heart unto it, 
he is not at all to attempt it till then, not only because it is in vain, but 
because otherwise it will be an attempt in his own strength ? or whether, 
yea, or no, the soul ought not, as the text here hath it, to labour for to 
enter, and to set his feet into that rest by believing ? 

I have two things to say to this. First, some generals are to be pre- 
mised. Secondly, some directions are more particularly to be delivered. 
The generals which I premise shall be these four : 

1. That God in working faith in the hearts of his elect, although he 
always shews an almighty power, the same that wrought in Jesus Christ 
when he was raised from death to life, yet notwithstanding he doth not 
always so affect the spirits of those in whom he works faith, as to make it 
appear to their sense, that it is a power of that almighty proportion. I 
say, God doth not always, in the sense of the party himself, come with a 
predominant overpowering power when he draws the soul to believe. He 
doth not always come as he did upon the prophets, with a strong hand, in 
a man's own sense, but he oftentimes sweetly insinuateth himself, and gently 
slideth into a man's heart, and mingleth himself and his Spirit, and power 
with their spirits, in a way of a compliance to the pace (if I may so express 
it) even of the natural motions in their hearts, and in a sweet and still 
way, yet omnipotently carries them on so to act. God is exceeding free in 
the working of faith and grace in the spirits of men, and he doth deal 
variously. In Job xxxiii. 29, having described a work upon one that lies on 
his sick bed, how he is troubled for his sins, and then sends for a messenger, 
one among a thousand, to shew unto him his uprightness, &c. : ' These 
things,' saith he, ' worketk God oftentimes' (mark that word oftentimes, 
not always) ' with man.' God is found of some that sought him not, and 
others he puts them upon seeking long before they find him. The power 
of the Holy Ghost comes upon a man as wind, but it doth not come always 
as a rushing mighty wiud, in that predominant overpowering sense, as that 
he shall feel it to be a wind externally that doth thus and thus move him, 
as it came upon the apostles, Acts ii. ; but oftentimes comes like a still wind, 
in a still small voice, as you know it did unto Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 12. When 
the Spirit of God came upon the prophets, sometimes he carried them by a 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 578 

1 strong hand/ as the word is ; but how doth he deal with Ephraim and 
the ten tribes, Hosea xi. 3 ? — and his dealing with them that were 
his people then, is a type of his dealing with his people under the gospel 
— he dealt with Ephrairn as a nurse dealeth with her child when she 
teacheth him to go. ' When Ephraim was a child,' saith he, • I loved 
him, I taught him also to go, taking him by the arms.' This comparison 
of a nurse teaching of a child to go, and so joining her strength with the 
strength of the child, would be a full comparison, if that the nurse did 
put the inward strength into the child, as God doth ; but yet allowing 
that disparity, it holds forth thus much however, and serves thus far 
to illustrate the thing in hand, viz., that God in working upon a man doth 
apply himself as it were to his natural pace, and yet works strongly. He 
doth not say that God dealt with Ephraim as Christ did with the lame 
man, make him go and leap and dance as it were presently ; no, he doth 
not let him feel always such an omnipotent power coming upon him as 
shall enable him so to do ; but he deals with him as a nurse deals with her 
child when she teacheth him to go. Now a nurse, you know, doth not 
take and hurry the child, doth not come with a power that shall be sensible 
to it beyond and above its own, and remove it from one place to another, 
as she is easily able to do ; but first she sets the child gently down, and 
then lets it try if it can feel his legs, as you use to say, and then if it can 
stand upon the ground, and then lets it try to set one foot before another. 
Just thus as the nurse deals with a child, and applies herself to its weak 
state and condition in teaching it to go, so doth God unto his children in 
teaching them to enter into this rest, and to believe, and in guiding all 
their steps therein. He first letteth a man see he cannot stand, letteth 
him see there is not a power in himself, then sets his heart upon Christ, 
and lets him try if he can stay and rest upon him, when yet he cannot walk 
in Christ, as he thinketh ; and then he taketh him by the arms, when yet 
it may be he cannot set one foot before another, and so gives him now a 
little strength, and then a little strength, insinuating and sliding in his 
power, his supporting and assisting power, according to the pace of the 
motions of a man's heart : and although in the working of faith he gives all 
power, and faith is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God ; yet he doth not 
always come with such an almighty and over-ruling power, when a man is 
sensible of his own emptiness, as to the man's sense shall hold proportion 
with the power that raised Christ from the dead. That same drawing that 
is spoken of, John vi. 44, ' No man cometh unto me except the Father 
draw him,' you may interpret by Hosea xi. 4, ' I drew them with cords 
of a man,' that is, I did not overhaul them ; but as one man would per- 
suade another, so I insinuated my love and my power to them, huraano 
more, though there was an almighty power went with it. And it is inter- 
preted also by what follows in John vi. 44, ' They shall be all taught of 
God.' He by his almighty power puts an instinct into the heart (for that 
is his teaching) after Christ and after free grace, and causcth the man to 
renounce himself, and so sets the heart earnestly intent upon these things. 
The heart would have Christ, and, says he, why may not I have Christ ? 
and what is between me and Christ ? A thousand such thoughts God 
casteth in, and yet it is but like an instinct, though God himself be at the 
bottom of it. As we are said to be taught of God to love one another, it 
is not by a sudden shedding, in an instant, into the heart, abundance of 
love unto the saints ; but it is, as I may so express it, by a still and secret 
touch of the heart, whereby it is drawn on to love them, such as when 
the iron is touched with the loadstone. And observe, whom doth Christ 



574 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

speak this of when he saith, John vi. 44, ' No man can come unto me except 
the Father draw him ' ? It appears evidently hy what follows at verse 64 
of that chapter, that he speaks of his disciples : ' There are some of you,' 
saith he, ' which believe not. Therefore said I unto you, that no man can 
come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.' Now had all these 
apostles when faith was wrought in them, think you, seeing themselves first 
unable to believe, had they the sense of an omnipotent power, that with a 
strong hand carried on their souls to believe in a sensible and discernible way? 
Clearly no ; for see what is said, John xiv. 6-8, of these very men of 
whom Christ saith, they had not come unto him unless the Father had drawn 
them, and unless the Father had taught them. See what is there said of 
these very men, I say, whom Cod hath shewn so much power in drawing 
them unto Christ : ' Whither I go you know,' saith Christ, ' and the way 
you know.' Thomas saith unto him, ' Lord, we know not whither thou 
goest, and how can we know the way V Either Christ here must speak 
what is false, or Thomas must speak what is false, one would think in 
appearance. The truth is, Thomas he did know, and he did not know ; 
and whereas, John vi. 45, he saith, ' They shall be all taught of God' to 
know him, here, John xiv. 7, he saith, ' If you had known me, you had 
known my Father also : and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen 
him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.' 
Yet Philip was drawn unto God, and drawn unto Christ, and was drawn 
too by being taught of God, and taught of Christ. There is no way then 
to solve it but this, that God, when he works faith, doth not always come 
with such a power upon the soul, that he shall be sensible that there is 
such an omnipotent power upon him working faith in him. No ; oftentimes 
though a man doth the thing, and truly believeth, and doth it by the power 
of God working on him, yet he scarce can discern it from his own power, 
and froni his own thoughts. This truth is evident — and whoever he be 
that denies it, his own experience shall confute him before he die — by the 
light that God puts into the soul concerning the manifestation of himself 
unto us. There is a constant light that a Christian carries about him, that 
he walks by, such as is in the day, whether the sun shine or not shine, which 
yet notwithstanding keeps to the pace of a man's own understanding ; and 
there is a light which sometimes comes in upon a man, and is like the sun 
breaking through a cloud, that a man can look up and see the sun, and 
can confidently say, now I do see the sun ; and yet both these lights are 
supernatural, and both from the almighty power of God ; and he that hath 
that ordinary light of faith, which keeps pace w'ith his own understanding, 
he believes, and he believes truly and strongly too ; and when those extra- 
ordinary lights cease, the ordinary one remains, and carries on the soul to 
Jesus Christ, and to faith in him. Job all his life had enjoyed an ordinary 
light of faith. ' I have heard of thee,' saith he, Job xlii. 5, ' by the hear- 
ing of the ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee.' There came another 
li<dit in then. So I take it, Paul, when he was under that great temptation, 
2 Cor. xii., he prayed, and he would fain have had his request, fain have 
had his corruption subdued, fain have had such a power manifested in his 
weakness as he might have seen Satan trampled under his feet presently. 
No, saith God ; ' my grace is sufficient for thee.' God insinuated himself 
strongly to support him, though Paul felt not such a sensible power as 
might presently overcome the temptation. The truth is, it is in the matter 
of working faith in the heart, as it is in the temptations of Satan. There 



Chap. V.] of justifying faith. 575 

are temptations of Satan which a man cannot discern from his own thoughts ; 
and yet the devil is strong in such temptations. And again, there are temp- 
tations in which a man apparently feels the devil, and can distinguish them 
from his own thoughts, as in all those hellish blasphemies that are injected 
and cast into the soul. So it is in the workings of God, he doth sometimes 
insinuate himself into the soul so stilly and secretly, that a man cannot 
discern those insinuations from his own thoughts, but takes them indeed 
to be his own, and yet there is the mighty power of God that acts the 
spirit all that while. And then again, there are mighty workings of God 
that come with a noise, with a stupendousness. I shall only add one con- 
firmation of it from Eph. i. 19, where the apostle praycth that their ' eyes 
may be opened to see the power of God that wrought in them that believe,' 
and in their own hearts. 

2. The second general premise that I shall add is this, that God in carry- 
ing on the heart to believe, gives power to one act and not to another, and 
he hath appointed that one act to be a step and a degree unto another. In 
2 Thes. i. 11, the apostle prays that God would ' fulfil all the good pleasure 
of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.' The word fulfil signi- 
fies to perfect and accomplish a thing by degrees, to be doing of it I know 
not how long, as a man is about perfecting some masterpiece of work, or 
as a painter is perfecting of a picture, which he is fain to go over again and 
again before he hath fulfilled that idea he hath in his head. So is the very 
work of faith in the heart, which is what God hath in the idea of his own 
good pleasure and will, and he is a long while in perfecting it. You read 
in 1 Thes. Hi. 10, that there was something ' lacking in their faith,' and a 
great deal lacking too ; and here he prays that God would ' fulfil that work 
of faith ; ' and you see he saith it is the work of faith with power ; that he 
would fulfil one part after another, and so as to make one a step unto another. 
1 After you believed, you were sealed,' says he, Eph. i. 13. ' After they 
had suffered a while, they were established,' 1 Pet. v. 10. Hence now — 

3. (Which comes to the point in hand) A soul that is sensible of his own 
inability to do anything of itself, and is cast down in the apprehension 
thereof, may and ought to act in and towards believing, so far as it finds 
its spirit strengthened by God, not examining or staying till it knows cer- 
tainly that this is such a power and such a strength as is so from God, as 
will now, at this instant, enable it truly and throughly to believe. Why ? 
Because, as I said before, God doth not always carry on the work of faith 
by such an overpowering light, especially at first, but applies himself to the 
pace of a man's understanding and will ; yet notwithstanding, because God 
doth give power to one act and not to another, still so far as a man finds 
his spirit strengthened by God, so far let him join with God, and all in a 
suboi-dination to the power of God to work further, for still there is some- 
what lacking to your faith ; and in such a way as this, you will still find 
that God will come in and shew you greater things than these. In 2 Cor. 
xii., Paul would have had a power instantly to overcome that temptation. 
No, saith God ; ' my grace shall be sufficient for thee ; ' i. e., that power 
that I proportion out to thee shall be sufficient to uphold thee. Improve 
that, and join with that which I ordinarily give thee, and it shall be suffi- 
cient to carry thee through, though thou dost not attain what thou prayest 
for ; for the truth is, Paul prayed for more, and all the answer from God 
was, ' My grace is sufficient for thee.' In James iv. 8 saith he, ' Draw 
nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.' Do but mark what that 
place holds out : when he saith, ' and he will draw nigh unto you,' he doth 
evidently mean a sensible drawing nigh of God to a man's spirit, that the 



570 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK IV. 

soul shall be able to say, This is God, and I feel my heart filled with his 
presence. Now in order to this, he bids us draw nigh first unto God. If 
now we should exhort a man that is cast down thus in the sense of his own 
inability, and should say unto him, ' Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw 
nigh unto you,' what would he say ? He would say, God must draw nigh 
unto me first, before I can draw nigh unto him, for I have no ability to do 
it ; why then do you say, Draw nigh unto God ? he must first draw nigh 
unto me, even as he must love me first, before I can love him. Of neces- 
sity, therefore, the apostle must suppose an insensible drawing nigh of God 
unto a man's spirit, to enable him to draw nigh unto God, that so God may 
draw nigh unto him sensibly, and apparently, and evidently. So far forth, 
therefore, as thou findest, by an insensible power in thee, that thy heart is 
strengthened to draw nigh unto God, do thou draw nigh unto him, still main- 
taining a sense of thy own inability to do anything of thyself; and if thou wilt 
draw nigh unto him while he doth thus insensibly draw nigh unto thee, he will 
draw nigh unto thee manifestatively, so as thou shalt be sensible of his presence. 
I quote that place for this, that God doth give us strength to do one thing 
which is in order to some farther thing ; he doth give an insensible strength 
to draw nigh to him, so that the heart finds itself enabled to go into the 
presence of God, and cast down itself before him. In this case, saith the 
apostle, go and draw nigh unto him, join with this strength you find, and 
you shall find a farther strength, for the promise is there of an apparent 
drawing nigh, which the other was not. The like is certainly the meaning 
of Luke xi. 13, where Christ saith, ' He will give the Spirit unto them that 
ask him.' Will not a man be apt to say now, How shall I ask the Spirit 
if I have not the Spirit ? Therefore without all question this is his mean- 
ing, that when a man doth find that he doth want the Spirit, as he thinketh, 
yet, saith he, so far forth as thou findest thy heart strengthened to ask 
(which is yet the Spirit's working), go and ask. Here is the Spirit work- 
ing insensibly to ask, as in order to obtaining the Spirit in a sensible way. 
The like is certainly the meaning of all those places, ' Seek, and ye shall 
find ; ask, and it shall be given you,' &c. So that this is the thing I drive 
at, let every one of you in the way of believing and acting of faith (seeing 
God goes thus stilly and yet strongly, seeing likewise that God doth do 
one thing that is in order to another, step after step perfects the work of 
faith with power), so far forth still as you find that your hearts are strength- 
ened to do anything that is spiritually good, though it may be you cannot 
discern that it is spiritually good in the doing, yet strive to do it. Though 
James himself had said, ' Every perfect gift is from above,' and that no 
man can have wisdom (if he will have a perfect gift of it) but he must have 
it from the Father of lights ; yet, saith he, ' If any man lack wisdom, let 
him ask it of God,' James i. Let every man say that he will go so far as 
he finds strength to carry him, for God perfecteth the work of faith with 
power. When that poor man came to Christ, Mark ix., and asked him if 
he could do anything ? saith Christ, ver. 23, Yes, ' if thou canst believe.' 
Do but observe that phrase, ' if thou canst believe ;' it implies, indeed, 
that he could not do it without a strength and assistance, therefore the 
poor man afterwards saith, ' Help thou mine unbelief;' yet Christ puts him 
upon this, so far as thou findest thy heart heartened, as I may so express 
it, so far as thou findest thy heart any ways strengthened, that thou canst 
say, I can thus far believe, try, and put it forth ; and so the poor man did : 
' Lord,' saith he, ' I do believe; help thou mine unbelief.' So now, there 
is many a poor soul that is not able to say, I have a heart to take Jesus 
Christ ; no, on the contrary, I have not the boldness to do it ; yea, when 



Chap. V.J of justifying faith. 577 

T go about to do it, my thoughts fail mo, and my heart misgiveth me in 
doing of it ; I have no strength at all to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. But 
canst thou go unto him ? Yes ; I find that, the soul will say, I have that 
strength put into me, that though indeed I cannot lay hold of his person, 
yet I can go unto him, and I can lay myself down at his feet. Still say I, 
so far forth as thou findest thy heart strengthened, so far forth still join 
with that strength, and act under God's activity upon thee. Say within 
thyself, Though I cannot go to him to lay hold upon his person, yet I can 
go to him to have power to lay hold upon him ; go so far with it, put forth 
so far as thou findest thou canst put forth. The truth is, God takes you 
as little children by the arms, though his power go along with you. Now 
if the child had but knowledge when the nurse first teacheth him to go, 
what would it say ? I cannot set one foot before another ; it is no matter, 
will she say, therefore set your feet upon the ground, and try whether you 
feel them or no ; and still so far forth as the child findeth strength, still so 
far it should act and go, being still held by the arms by the nurse. So do 
thou in a subordination to the power of God that is working faith in thee, 
and fulfilling the work of it with power. So far as thou findest thy heart 
heartened or strengthened to put forth acts of faith, or anything towards 
believing, so far still enter. 

Those men that would have a soul that is sensible of his own inability 
lie and wait till God come with a sensible power to enable it to believe, and 
not to stir till then, what do these men do ? They exhort that soul to 
wait for a power from above, do they not ? Yes ; this is all one with what 
I say, for where hath the soul that sense ? Certainly from God. And 
where hath it that power to wait ? Certainly from God. ' No man can 
say Jesus is the Lord, without the Holy Ghost,' much more to be sensible 
of his own unbelief. Then the meaning must needs be this, 'that so far 
forth as God strengtheneth the soul to act, so far forth it should act ; or 
imagine it is in an ordinary way strengthened to wait, say I, if thou findest 
thy heart strengthened by God to go further, go further ; set one foot 
before another, for God doth apply his power to the pace of a man's will 
and understanding, and that not always in a discernible way as it is a 
power, but as a nurse doth to a child. Even to wait for the righteousness 
of faith and the power of God, is a work of the Spirit, and an almighty 
work too ; so saith the apostle, Gal. v. 5, ' We through the Spirit wait for 
the righteousness of faith.' And therefore, as the apostle saith in another 
case, ' So far as any man hath attained,' so far still let him join with that 
power ; that is, so far forth as he finds his heart strengthened (and the 
Holy Ghost still strengtheneth men when they act anything), so far let 
him still put forth. You shall find that Paul took the same course : Philip, 
in. 12, 13, ' I do reach forth,' saith he, ' to those things which are before, 
and I press towards the mark,' &c. I do reach forward, I stretch all my 
sinews. The word there is a metaphor taken from a man in a race, or that 
is running towards the goal ; he doth not only use his feet, but he runs 
with his hands stretched out, that where his feet may not come, his hands, 
if possible, may come ; so saith he, I do reach forth, I do follow after it, as 
much as ever I did after persecuting the church (for the word is the same), 
so that still he applied himself to what he had attained, and still so far as 
he could, so far he reached ; and yet all this was the grace of God in him. 
So, I say, let the soul of every man that is thus made sensible of its own 
inability, act so far forth as he findeth the Spirit of God strengthening him. 
Do what thou hast to do with all that might thou findest thy spirit assisted 
withal. 

VOL. VIII. o o 



578 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaKT III. BOOK IV. 

4. The fourth and last general premise which I shall mention, and which 
indeed doth follow from all the former, is this, that such souls are not to 
stay from exercising acts of faith till they feel and discern that they are 
clothed with such a power as will and doth enable them truly to believe. 
They are not, I say, to stay until they discern this, that now I have such 
a power fall upon me, now I will believe, and this I have waited for, and 
I must lie waiting for it till I find this power. I yield this indeed, that 
you may seek and wait for the assurance of such a power that shall over- 
power your spirits over and above the ordinary pace of the natural motion 
of your own hearts to believe in Christ. Such a thing God vouchsafeth, 
such a thing the apostle prays for towards the Ephesians, chap. i. 19, such 
a thing the apostles themselves waited for (Acts i. 4), till power from on 
high came upon them, and the promise is made unto us for believing and 
sealing us as well as unto them, Acts ii. 41. We may therefore wait for 
such a power to persuade our hearts to believe beyond the pace, I say, of 
the motions of our own spirits. But yet, that which I add withal is this, 
that you are not to stay from attempting to believe till you feel such a 
power come upon you, not to stay till you can say, I feel a divine power 
now clothing me, which will enable my soul to believe. For, 

1st, To stay from attempting to believe till you feel such a power, is 
perhaps ever to stay. Not only because that God oftentimes doth not give 
it even to those whom he doth give faith unto truly, but how dost thou 
know but that there is such a power now upon thee as, if thou dost join 
with it, thou shalt truly believe, which before thou didst not ? For that 
must needs be seen when the thing is done, it is not seen in the cause, it 
is not seen in the feeling the power and the proportion of that first, but it 
is seen in the effect, it is seen in the acting of it, it is seen in the thing a-doing. 
If a. mariner that is to set a ship over sea would say, I will stay till I feel 
such a wind blow as I shall be sure will carry me over, and last till I come 
thither ; or a wind that should take the ship out of the port, and go and 
throw it on the other side, before I'll stir or hoist up sail, or give up my 
vessel to the wind, for this that now blows is not high enough, it is too 
still ; this man might stay for ever, and never go over sea. But what do 
wise mariners do ? Why when they see a gale, though it be but a still 
gale, yea, though it be but a side wind, if there be a necessity to go, they 
will hale and tow out with it ; and though when they are at sea it begins to 
turn, yet still they wait, and make use of a side wind, and oftentimes meet 
with that wind that doth directly carry them over indeed. 

2dly, To stay for such a power first, and wait for it, till thou mayest be 
able to discern that it will enable thee and overpower thee to believe before 
thou attemptest it, is to expect from God (ere thou puttest forth an act of 
faith) a greater assurance than of election. And would you stay till God 
persuade you that you are elected before you believe ? Will you have that 
to be the first thing God persuades you of, and to be the bottom of your 
faith ? In thy desiring such a power to come upon thee as to thy sense 
shall be such, thou desirest a harder matter, a greater thing than for God 
to come upon thee with his love, and to testify unto thee that thou art 
elected, and that he hath loved thee from everlasting, because such a power 
as shall be such in thy sense, is the immediate fruit of that love and of that 
will in him, I mean not the fruit in thee, but from himself. Nay, it is 
more than to stay believing till God assure thee and persuade thee that 
thou art elected, it is to ask a thing yet more hard. And what is the rea- 
son ? Because election is a standing, permanent thing, a foundation always 
remaining, and is at all times, and if we could apprehend it, might be 



Chap. Y.] of justifying faith. 579 

demonstrated to the soul ; but such a power as shall rise to that proportion 
as to thine own sense, thou shalt think I am now clothed with it, and shall 
titled to believe, that comes when God pleaseth, and is a fleeting 
thing, and so thou puttest thy believing upon the evidence of that which is 
not permanent, but is arbitrary and fleeting, and very difficult to be. 

Bdly, Wilt thou consider this, that though indeed it is the power of God 
that gives ability to believe, yet it is not the sense of the power of God in 
my heart tbat gives me my warrant to believe, therefore I am not to for- 
bear till I feel such a power. It is, I say, indeed the power of God that 
gives thee ability, but it is not that which gives the warrant or the ground. 
It is the command of God to believe on the name of his Son, and it is the 
indefinite promise that Christ came into the world to save sinners, inde- 
finitely thus expressed, and the like, that is the ground of believing. 
Therefore now upon the command thou art to attempt the duty, and to 
look up unto God for power to accompany thee in that duty, and thou art 
not to stay and wait first to be clothed with such a power as a warrant or 
ground for thy believing, as if else thou shouldst believe in vain. Yea, 
when thou hast pitched upon the right ground of believing, and attempted 
to believe, this power usually comes in and accompanies it. Thou art to 
do thy duty according to the command, that is the warrant, to begin and 
to leave it unto God to enable thee, to assist thee to do it truly, as well as 
perform any command else. It is true, indeed, no man doth believe in the 
event unless God doth draw him, yet no man doth first believe upon this 
ground, because he feels that God doth draw him. I acknowledge that 
God may apply himself to such an error in the souls of some, as I have 
found he hath done ; for God doth apply himself sometimes even to our 
errors rather than he will lose an elect child of his, which is the freedom 
of his grace, and so he may do in this case. One whose spirit is possessed 
with such an apprehension of such an objection and such a mistake, God 
may come upon him, and draw him to believe by a sensible mighty power ; 
but herein God doth in his infinite grace and mercy apply himself to this 
error rather than lose his child. Even as in the first age of reformation, 
when they taught that all faith was assurance that a man's sins were for- 
given (which is as great an error as can be, it condemns the generation of 
many of the righteous), and yet God did apply himself unto this error in the 
experience of the most of that age, and came upon them accordingly. 

Lastly, To end this fourth general premise. For thee to stay believing 
till thou feelest thyself clothed with such a power, it is indeed all one, and 
in a manner like to those other bars which are cried down so much, and many 
of them justly, and which do keep thousands from believing. Men think, I 
must have this, or I must have that first ere I believe, and so they are 
detained from believing ; and if it were not for the infinite goodness of God 
to them, they would be ' ever learning, and never come to the knowledge 
of the truth,' as the apostle saith in another case, 2 Tim. iii. 7 ; they would 
ever be in the way of believing, and yet never believe. One hears that 
there is such a course of humiliation to be run through, and as men that 
are to be cured must run through such a course of physic, or such things 
must be taken by way of preparation for such a medicine, so they are told 
that first this disposition must be wrought in them, and then that (many 
of which, the truth is, must have faith preceding them, or they cannot be 
wrought, as it may be easily demonstrated), and a man must go through 
each of those, in their several degrees, before he must attempt to close 
with Christ. Whereas, now go and take such a soul that hath run through 
all those several methods and courses, when it comes to believe in the Lord 



580 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

Jesus, it is so far from being helped in his own apprehension by having had 
such things wrought in him, that it is possessed with the clean contrary 
thoughts. In souls that are most humbled, this is, as it were, the last 
thing in their being so humbled, that they see nothing in themselves ; and 
this very sight of themselves, when they are sufficiently humbled, would 
be a hindrance of coming and closing with Christ nakedly ; for whenas a 
man should close with Christ nakedly, and with Christ immediately, to 
come unto him under the sight and sense of such a thing wrought before, 
would be a hindrance unto faith. So, as the work of preparation is never a 
warrant or a ground unto any to believe, though it may really be a pre- 
paration without which a man would not believe, but it is not so apprehen- 
sively to the party ; so it is here. Indeed, it is the power of God really 
that doth enable to believe, but it is not the power of God apprehensively, 
viz., that I see I am clothed with such a power, and I wait till I am 
clothed with such a power, and so I believe. There are a great many of such 
diversions from Jesus Christ. One saith, I must have Christ before I can 
have faith ; another saith, I cannot take Christ till I find I have faith ; 
whereas God giveth faith and Christ and all at once ; and thy taking Christ 
is thy faith and thy believing ; and upon thy attempting to believe, God 
gives all these at once. In thy going to him he gives thee power to come ; 
as Christ saith, in doing of his will a man shall know him, so in falling to 
believe a man believeth. As in that question, whether the soul be first 
created, and then infused into the child, we usually answer that it is created 
and infused, and knit and united to the body, and all at once ; so we may 
say here. But I say by those things before mentioned and answered, Satan 
diverts men from that which the apostle calls them to labour for, and that is 
to believe, and to enter this rest, Heb. iv. 11. And so much now for those 
generals which I have mentioned by way of premise. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Directions given to guide us in on?- endeavouring to believe. — That ue ought 
to furnish our thoughts with all such considerations as are motives and en- 
couragements of faith, and lag them up in our hearts, and meditate often 
upon them. — That we should attempt to exercise the very act of believing 
itself. — Objections ansivered. 

What remains is to give some directions to guide us in our endeavours 
to believe. 

Direct. 1. The first that I shall give is this, to provide and lay up in 
thy heart all considerations that are matter for faith and believing, that 
although the true act of faith be from the working of God alone, yet do 
thou cast in the seed (they are the materials of believing), and retain 
them in thy soul. As for example now, to go over some instances, it is 
true thou canst not see the excellency of Christ spiritually without an 
almighty power, which thou must wait till God be pleased to enable thee 
with. Suppose this, yet all those excellencies materially thou canst lay 
together, and thou canst furnish thy heart with the consideration of them, 
which are the materials that are to draw and win thy heart to Christ. So 
if we consider all those promises of free grace, that Christ ' came into the 
world to save sinners ;' and ' Look to me, all ye ends of the earth, and be 
saved ;' and ' I am thy Saviour, and there is none besides me,' &c. ; and 
also if we consider all sorts of answers to all objections made of thy un- 



ClIAP. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 581 

worthiness and thy sinfulness, &c, all such things thou mayest collect 
together and furnish thy heart continually withal, these thou mayest study 
and chew upon, and revolve them in thy mind, as they of old that sacri- 
ficed, who though it is true could not bring fire from heaven to burn their 
sacrifice, yet they could, in dependence upon God, lay their sticks together, 
and fetch the bullock out from the stall, and bring it to the altar, and lay 
it thereon, and bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar, and wait till 
fire came from heaven and set all on a flame. Suppose thou wert thus to 
wait till the power of God come sensibly upon thee, yet in the mean time 
thou mayest go thus far. The word which the apostle here useth, Heb. 
iv. 11, which we translate 'let us labour,' is 'let us study;' and it signi- 
fies the study of the mind. Let us study (saith he) as a man whose head 
ploddeth upon a thing, and gathers together many notions and materials 
for such a head, so let us study to believe and to enter into that rest. 
Saith Solomon, Prov. ii. 1, 'If thou wilt receive my words, and hide my 
commandments with thee ' (it is Wisdom that speaks it, and by command- 
ments there is not meant only the ten commandments, but it is a gospel 
precept, and they are the promises, the revelations of God that he 
means). If thou wilt do so, saith he, 'if thou seekest for wisdom as for 
silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasure ; then shalt thou under- 
stand the fear of the Lord.' And yet, ver. 6, he saith, ' The Lord giveth 
wisdom ; and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding ;' 
which in the language of the Old Testament is as much as to say, he giveth 
faith. But yet, saith he, do thou hide all the promises and all the com- 
mands within thee ; do but thou search for them, and take them out of 
the veins where they lie in the Scriptures, and treasure them up in thine 
heart, and then God will come and he will mint faith for thee before thou 
art aware of it. Thus saith the prophet, Lam. iii. 19, 20, 'Remembering 
I remembered' (as it is in the original) 'my afflictions;' he chewed upon 
them. So likewise remembering he remembered what might comfort him, 
viz., all the materials of it : ' This I call to mind,' saith he, verse 22, 
'therefore have I hope.' In Isaiah lxvi. 11, the promises are called 'the 
breasts of consolation,' which he saith they shall suck and milk out. 
Now, if thou findest thou canst not suck, or if thou suckest and none 
cometh, yet do as children do, who oftentimes lie with the breast and the 
teat in their mouths, so do thou ; lie with such thoughts and promises as 
are the materials of faith in thy heart. And whilst thou endeavourest to 
suck, or perhaps canst not, yet lying so, thou shalt, it may be, find it flow- 
ing in upon thee before thou art aware of it ; and whilst thou takest some- 
thing of this into thy mouth, somewhat will go down. 

I might likewise instance in all such motives as the Scripture useth to 
be urged unto God, to move him to be merciful and favourable to a poor 
soul. All such thoughts also thou mayest live in the midst of, and dwell 
in, and gather together a bundle of them, and lay them up in thy heart, 
and meditate on them continually. This is a certain rule ; look what 
motives the Scripture holds forth as those which move God ; they, whilst 
the heart thinks of them, move it to believe, rather than they move God to 
be merciful : and the intention of all the motives the Scripture useth to 
move God to be merciful to us by, is rather to strengthen and to beget 
faith in us, to move and raise up faith in our hearts, that God will be thus 
merciful to us, and to stir up hopeful thoughts thereof, rather than to move 
God himself. Multitudes of these instances might be given, as Ps. cxix. 
12, when David would desire God to teach him his statutes, who only was 
able to do it, what saith he ? ' Blessed art thou, Lord ; teach me thy 



582 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

statutes.' Here now is a motive, and a mighty one ; it is as if he had 
said, Lord, thon art full of happiness, and thou art blessed in thyself, and 
livest in the midst of happiness, and knowest no sorrow, knowest not what 
the misery of a poor sinner is (i.e., not in experience) that is ready to 
perish ; thou art blessed, but I am a poor lost thing ; without thy help I 
perish for ever. Oh communicate some of that blessedness unto me, enjoy 
it not alone ; let a soul ready to perish be blessed by thee. Such things as 
these move God ; why do they move him ? Because they are the thoughts 
of his own heart, which moved him to communicate himself to sinners, 
moved him to choose men to eternal life. Now look what doth and hath 
moved God in his own nature and in his own will from everlasting, do 
thou take such things into thy thoughts, and urge them unto God, and 
they will beget faith in thee before thou art aware. So likewise (Ps. cxliii. 
9-12) saith the psalmist, ' Teach me, and quicken me,' &c. Why ? ' For 
thy Spirit is good.' What nioveth God to save a poor sinner, and to amend 
a naughty heart ? Because his Spirit is good, and full of goodness : ' Thou 
art good, and doest good,' saith he. The psalmist likewise useth the same 
motive, Ps. cxix. 68. And Christ himself puts such motives as these into 
our thoughts, and these beget faith when the soul liveth in them : ' You 
fathers' (saith he, Mat. vii. 11) 'know how to give good things to your 
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to 
them that ask ? ' He speaks to a soul that thinks he wants the Spirit, yet 
because this soul hears indefinitely that God is a father to some sinners, 
and that he is an heavenly Father, who exceeds in bowels all earthly fathers, 
therefore, saith Christ, ' How much more shall not he give good things, 
yea give his Spirit to them that ask ? ' Now I say, whilst we take all such 
motives, — and when I say motives, I mean not motives to believe, drawn 
from our own good, but such motives as move God, for they are the great- 
est support of faith, and do rather serve to move us and stir our hearts to 
believe than to move God, although they did move God once, for they were 
the cause why he did from everlasting purpose good to us — whilst we take 
these, I say, into our souls, and there let them lie, and think of them, and 
revolve them again and again, there is a strength, a hopefulness begotten 
in the soul from them, even as the stomach, by having meat put into it, is 
strengthened by the food's being concocted, and digested, and assimilated 
to it. 

Now the reason why such souls may thus far labour and study to enter 
into this rest, why they may take all such things into consideration as are 
materials of believing, is clearly and plainly this : because if those that 
are ministers of the word, and the preachers of it, are to present promises 
and such motives to beget faith in men, if they may present them to their 
judgments, and understandings, and thoughts, then those considerations 
and promises, and the like, such souls ought to digest, to revolve, to think 
upon, and still to say, Why is not my portion herein ? In this Heb. 
iv. 1,2,' The word,' saith he, namely the gospel, for so the word signifies 
in the original, ' it was preached unto them, but it profited not, because it 
was not mingled with faith in those that heard it.' He compares faith 
there to that digestive faculty, as the word implies, in the stomach, which 
works upon the meat, and so by degrees doth assimilate the meat into the 
body, and into the likeness thereof. Now, saith he, that was the reason 
the word profited them not, because they did not mind those promises, they 
did not take them into then* thoughts, they did not study them (as the 
word here in the text also signifies), and it is answerable to what he had 
said : verse 1, ' Let us therefore fear, lest a promse being left us of entering 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 583 

into his rest, any of yon should come short of it,' come short of it by not 
revolving those promises, and exercising your thoughts upon them. 

Direct. 2. But then, secondly, we are to attempt the exercise of the act 
of believing. Let me urge that upon you also, for I shall speak to the 
thing itself fully and punctually. Let men exercise themselves, I say, to 
the act of believing, in the consideration of such promises, and of all such 
motives as are in Scripture held forth as moving God. And when I 
say they are to exercise the act of believing, my meaning is concerning 
going to Christ, and relying on him, and resting on him, and casting them- 
selves upon him. They are not simply to seek to be humbled, or to abstain 
from sin, or to practise holy'duties in expectation of mercy, though all these are 
to be done, but to inure the heart to familiar and constant acts of believing. 
This is what I direct and exhort unto, and shall give you grounds for it. Take 
the very words of this text : Heb. iv. 11, ' Let us labour (or study), to enter 
into that rest,' which I told you is believing. And why is it called entering 
into that rest ? Men think, when they come to believe, that they have a 
great long journey to go, as the people of Israel had in the wilderness, and 
that they must go through this and through that first, see this and see 
that first in themselves, and so perhaps stay in the wilderness forty years; 
whereas' the apostle tells us plainly, it is but going over the threshold, it is 
but entering into that rest. Therefore, saith he, do you attempt to do it, 
do you labour or study to do it, it is but a step, saith he ; you are even at 
the door, and what is the door ? It is the door of faith : « We that believe 
have entered into rest,' saith he, ver. 3. Such souls should make this 
their daily task and study, and indeed all souls shonld do so. ' All a man's 
labour,' saith Solomon, Eccles. vi. 7, • it is for his mouth.' You heard 
before that faith was compared to the digestive faculty in the stomach, it 
being that which works upon the promises as the stomach doth upon the 
meat. ' All a man's labour,' saith he, ' it is for his mouth.' Indeed, of 
the most men it is the great labour that they may eat, and by eating live. 
Now all a man's labour it should be for this mouth of faith, and to furnish 
it that he may live, and live by faith ; and as Christ compares it to the 
eating of his flesh, and the drinking of his blood, therefore above all else 
labour for this, and for all other in order unto this. And that I may put 
such souls upon this in an immediate manner, do but consider all these 
scriptures which I shall now give : First, that Christ says (John vi. 27-29), 
' Labour not (or work not) for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat 
that endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of God shall give you : for 
him hath God the Father sealed. Then say they unto him, What shall 
we do that we may work the works of God ? Jesus answered and said 
unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath 
sent.' I told you even now, that all the labour of man it was for his mouth ; 
now here Christ makes use of that similitude, and though I cannot say he 
alludeth to it, yet he speaks in that allusion, and it is a place that may 
have an allusion thereto. ' Labour not,' saith he, or work not, ' for the 
meat which perisheth,' for outward meat, which is obtained by outward 
labour, but labour for that bread which the Son of God shall give you, that 
is, himself; for a man goes to Christ for Christ, and Christ doth give him- 
self to a sinner coming to believe on him : ver. 35, ' I am that bread of 
life,' namely, which the Son of God giveth. Now as he alone is that bread, 
so it is believing alone that doth make us partakers of that bread (as that 
35th verse sheweth), ' I am that bread of life : he that cometh unto me 
shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.' Mark 
now the coherence of these words one with another to that which now I 



584 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

aim at : Before our Saviour Christ had said, ' Labour or work not for the 
meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life.' 
These Jews they plainly, and nakedly, and simply, and honestly ask Christ, 
without cavilling, what peculiar thing they should do ? (and in that case 
Jesus Christ always answers plainly) : ' What shall we do,' say they, ' that 
we may work the works of God ?' by works of God they mean works accep- 
table to God. You would have us labour, what works will you put us upon? 
They thought now that there was not one special work only, but many 
works, therefore they express it in the plural ; and yet they thought there 
might be some other thing he would teach them than what Moses's law did. 
Christ, } 7 ou see, both answers at once their question, and explains what he 
meant by labouring for that meat which endures for ever, and the thing he 
puts them upon is this, to ' believe on him whom God hath sent;' and this, 
saith he, is ' the work of God.' It is as if he had said, You speak of 
works, I put you upon this as the work. It is called ' the work of God,' 
as a broken heart, Ps. li., is called ' the sacrifice of God ;' that is, that 
which is acceptable unto God, which God delighteth in eminently. And 
as he puts them upon believing alone eminently, so he puts them upon it 
immediately. These Jews whose hearts, according to their questiou, and 
Christ's speech before, were so taken off from the consideration of earthly 
bread, come unto Christ thus with a naked, simple, plain question, to be 
instructed by him, as they in the Acts did when they asked the apostles 
' what they should do to be saved ? ' You see how Christ answers 
them, he puts them upon believing, and thereby explains what he meant 
by labouring or working for that meat, in his own exhortation in the 
words before. And as he did here, so upon all occasions else he did 
likewise : saith he to the poor man (Mark ix. 23), ' If thou canst believe,' &c. 
Come try, let me see, saith he, whether thou canst. The poor man had said 
unto Christ, ' K thou canst do anything;' and Christ saith unto him, Do 
not doubt of power in me, for there is power enough in me, but canst thou 
believe ? Come let me see. He puts him, you see, upon believing. And 
so likewise, in another place, says Christ, ' Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate.' The words in the text here do clearly interpret his meaning to be 
to put them upon believing. You know, it is called ' the door of faith ' in 
the Acts, which Christ calleth 'the strait gate,' and bids them ' strive to 
enter in.' ' Labour,' saith the apostle, ' to enter into that rest;' and ' we 
that believe have entered into it,' saith he, Heb. iv. 3. As Christ did 
thus, so did the apostles also ; they did still put men upon believing as 
well as upon repenting. When the jailor in the Acts did, in a plain and 
blunt manner, ask them what he should do to be saved ? ' Believe in the 
Lord Jesus,' say they, 'and thou shalt be saved, and thy household.' Was 
the jailor, think you, to wait and expect till he received a power -to enable 
him to believe ? No ; but so far as he found his heart strengthened, so 
far he was to attempt it. And, as this was the command, so they always 
held it forth clearly and nakedly to them. And to clear it more to you 
that souls are thus to make experiment of believing continual^, consider 
but this farther. What course will you take ? Will you seek to God by 
prayer, as you are to do, and by the performance of all other duties ? Or 
will any man direct you to prayer because it is your duty, and because the 
Spirit of God may fall upon j^ou in prayer, as oftentimes he doth upon 
men ? The same say I also, and there is just the same reason ; do thou 
fall upon believing, and though thou beginnest and attemptest to do it with a 
quivering heart, and lavest hold upon Christ with a trembling hand, yet the 
power of God may fall upon thee in the doing of it. You use to stir up 



ClI.U'. VI. j OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 585 

yourselves to other duties, and that hecause they are commanded ; for I 
suppose now that such a soul as I speak to resolveth not to do nothing ; if 
you mean to he idle, there is an end of it now ; if you mean to do anything, 
attempt to helieve ; you have no more power to do any duty than you have 
for believing, or, at least, it must be the almighty power of God that must 
help you to perform any duty spiritually as well as to believe ; therefore, 
so far forth as you make conscience of performing any other duty, make 
conscience~of this. In Isa. lxiv. 7, these two arc joined together, ' None 
calleth upon thy name, and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.' Here 
is prayer, calling upon God, and believing, both joined together, and 
stirring up themselves to do it ; for what is it to take hold of the Lord ? 
It is the same in Isa. xxvii. 5, ' Let him take hold of rny strength ;' that is, 
let him believe (it is taking hold of the arm of the Lord), and let him stir 
up himself to do it, let him reach as far as he can to take hold of it. 

I shall now, in the next place, answer such objections as oppose my 
preceding assertions. 

Obj. 1. One objection will be this : If I have not God's power to 
concur, I shall not have true faith, I shall not put forth a true act of 
believing, and therefore I were as good forbear to exercise or attempt 
to do it. 

j Ans. 1. I answer first : This holds against the use of all duties else as 
well as against believing ; for unless the power of God doth enable thee, 
thou canst not think a good thought, and according to this, thy argument, 
thou shouldst forbear all thoughts that are materially good, as well as the 
act of believing. If you are not, nor ought to be deterred from any other 
duty, why should you be from this ? 

Ans. 2. Secondly, I answer, Do you still try and renew thoughts and 
acts of faith howsoever. For if, in thy attempting to believe, God doth 
accompany thee, and evidence to thee that he doth come in, and fall upon 
thee, and perhaps manifest his love unto thee, thou shalt have cause for 
ever to bless God. If that thou dost attempt and thou fallest short, yet 
notwithstanding thou wilt then see thy defect, and thou wilt be humbled in 
thy own sight, as thou art in the defective performance of all otber duties, 
and so wilt be put upon going to God for power with more eagerness. 
But, however, do not therefore forbear. 

Ans. 3. Thirdly, Suppose that thy attempt to believe be in itself for the 
kind of it but a natural act, that is not yet spiritual ; yet though thou sow 
it a natural act, as I may so express it, it may rise up a spiritual one in the 
very doing ; and though thou sowest it in weakness, God may make it rise 
in power. God oftentimes ingrafts true acts of faith upon those literal 
notions we have of God and of Christ. It is evident by this, that after a 
man believeth savingly, who had much knowledge of the gospel before (and 
materially his thoughts now are but the same thoughts he had before, only 
they formally differ), God comes now in with a new light, and grace hath 
altered all into spirituals. And in the exercising such thoughts of faith 
doth God come in, and changeth them in the very doing. When Christ 
intended to do that miracle of turning water into wine, he doth not first 
change the water into wine, but he bids them pour it out, and in the pour- 
ing of it out the water was turned into wine ; so is it here, even as the 
loaves multiplied in the breaking and dividing of them. God doth change 
thy attempts to believe, they being done in subordination to his power, into 
genuine true thoughts of faith, whilst thou art a-thinking ; and thou believest 
thyself into true believing through the power of God before thou art aware 
of it ; and by plunging thyself, and by exercising thy heart and thoughts, 



586 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PaET III. BOOK IV. 

and by wallowing up and down (how shall I express it ?) in that sea of 
blood, thou wilt feel thy conscience eased, and grow up to a steadier famili- 
arity in believing, and that in a way thou knowest not how. You find this 
in other duties, that when you go to prayer deadly and coldly, you meet 
with life and quickness from God even in the duty. Why may it not be 
so here ? 

Ans. 4. Lastly, To such souls as stick'at this objection, I answer: Would 
any man exhort you unto any means in order unto faith, as to pray, or to 
hear, or to think of your sins, and the like ? Why not to believing, why 
not to the acts of faith together with all these, and above all these ? For 
mark it, if you be put upon prayer, what is prayer ? This is certain, if 
thou thinkest with thyself, I shall now make but a natural prayer, and it 
will not be a spiritual prayer, let me tell thee this, let the prayer thou 
rnakest be what it will be, so far forth as thou prayest in any reality, so far 
thou hast faith proportionably to thy prayer. Consider what I say ; if it 
be a spiritual prayer thou makest, and God turns it to be so, then he gives 
thee spiritual faith ; therefore thou mayest as well concurrently believe as 
pray, for prayer is but the venting of faith. Therefore if thou wilt say, I will 
forbear the act of believing because it may prove a natural act, an act of 
mine own, and not genuine and true, thou mayest upon the same grounds 
as well forbear praying, for so far forth as thou hast an ability to pray 
aright in faith thou hast to believe, for prayer is the acting of faith, take it 
in its proportion, that is, whether you consider it naturally or spiritually. 
Men may exhort you to means of faith, but this you will still find, that all 
those means are as difficult things as faith itself : and therefore the apostle 
(Rom. x.), you see, directs unto faith as the most easy and short cut of all 
the rest ; you may forecast, saith he, this and that, but ' the word is nigh 
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which 
we preach,' ver. 8. The apostle speaks just thus, as if one should be 
brought to a table full of meat, and he that is brought should say, What is 
it I should do that I may eat of this meat, and be partaker of it ? Cer- 
tainly any one would answer, The meat is here on the table, do thou fall 
a-eating : so doth the apostle say, ' The word,' saith he, ' is nigh thee ;' it is 
next door to thy mouth, and to thy heart, and thy lips, do but digest it, 
which is the mingling it with faith, as he speaks in Heb. iv. ; do but take 
it in thy thoughts and apprehension, and then it is in thy heart. Tbou 
standest now at the threshold, do but step in : ' Enter in,' saith he. But 
will the man say, I must have a stomach to it ? Mark what I say, if eating 
and tasting will be the way to beget a stomach, were it not best to fall to ? 
So it is here ; ' Taste and see how good the Lord is.' If there were meat 
that would get a man a stomach by eating it, assuredly then a man would 
first fall to and eat : now this meat, which is Jesus Christ, doth do so. 
If coming into the sun would give eyes to a man, and cause the films to 
fall off, as well as give a man light to see himself with, a man that is blind 
would not stand complaining of his blindness, and say, I will not go abroad, 
for I cannot see this sun, I will rather stay here in this dark dungeon, in 
this prison, till the sun force itself through the walls, or come in at some 
cranny, and so cause the scales to fall off my eyes. No ; certainly he would 
go abroad into the air, that so the sun might cure him of his blindness. 
Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness, and he hath 'healing in his wings,' 
viz., in his beams, Mai. iv. 2. It is an elegant metaphor, comparing these 
diffusive beams to the spreading of the eagle's wings over her young ones. 

How doth the iron come to have virtue to cleave to the loadstone ? It 
is by being brought to the loadstone ; so doth the soul get power to cleave 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 587 

unto Christ by coming unto Christ ; and the longer the sonl is kept off 
from exercising thoughts of faith upon Christ, it is like the iron kept from 
the loadstone, it grows weaker and weaker. 

Obj. 2. A second objection is this : you will say, I may build myself up 
in a temporary faith by this course, whereas it were better for me to go 
and search into the falseness of that if it be false. 

Aus. 1. If you take the way of the Scripture, I do not know how any 
man shall be fully able to answer all those temptations about a man's being 
a temporary believer, but only by believing ; I have known many souls 
beaten into that way at last, and never could have peace till then. And I 
find this likewise, that take the Epistle to the Hebrews, — and there is no 
book in the New Testament, nor no passages in the New Testament, that 
hint more about temporary believers than that book doth, for he speaks of 
men that fall away through unbelief after enlightening, and he speaks 
extreme suspiciously of the Jews, for certainly many of them were such, — 
what course doth the apostle take in this Epistle to keep them from falling 
away ? He doth not go about so much to discover to them that their faith 
was a temporary faith ; no, but all the course of that Epistle to such kind 
of men, supposing such among them, still runs upon this, to renew faith, 
and to ' take heed of departing from the living God through an evil heart 
of unbelief;' and ■ let us,' saith he, ' hold the hope of our confidence unto 
the end,' Heb. hi. 6, 14. I say, the whole Epistle doth not lie so much 
in discovering this to be genuine, and that to be false faith, as in exhorting 
them to believe, for God indeed often converts such into true faith whilst 
they exercise it. And certainly, let men go on in a way of believing, and 
either their sins will make them leave off believing, or their believing will 
make them sound. And this you will find, that there is no way to cut the 
knot of all these temptations ; nay, there is no way for a man, of a tem- 
porary believer to become a true believer, but by exercising faith con- 
tinually, so far forth as God strengtheneth his heart. And then as he said 
of prayer, that it will either make a man leave sinning, or his sinning will 
make him leave praying, so believing will either make him leave his 
unsoundness, or his unsoundness will make him leave his believing. If a 
a man be a true believer, and be troubled with that temptation, it is the 
only way to end it ; and if he be a temporary believer, and in that state, 
it is the only way to make him sound. It is that you see which the apostle 
directs to. 

Am. 2. Thou mayest, for aught thou knowest, be but in a temptation 
that thou art, or that thou mayest prove a temporary believer. That 
power which hath hitherto assisted thee, may be the same power which 
accompanies workings unto salvation, and then thou losest time to try it 
out that way ; and to try it out, it is the difficultest controversy in the 
world that "ever any soul entered upon ; and thou wilt never bring it to a 
conclusion or determination but by believing. That must still end that 
controversy ; thou mayest sooner get a new title by believing afresh, than 
try out thy old title ; and after that thou hast renewed acts of faith, then 
thou wilt see the truth of all the work formerly wrought in thee, and not 
before. 

Ans. 3. On the other side, if thou shouldst be a temporary believer 
at the present, which yet thou knowest not, then consider that the way 
to make thee sound is to put thee upon believing and renewing thy faith. 
Mark what I say, it is the way to make thee sound. If indeed that faith 
were nothing else but a secure taking for granted that a man is in the state 
of salvation, that might endanger thee. But that is not it that I put 



588 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

thee upon when I put thee upon believing, but it is to have a constant 
recourse, in a sense of thy wants, unto Jesus Christ, both for justification and 
for sanctification, and to act and exercise faith upon him, and to whet thy 
soul upon him, and to do this continually. Now, take this course, and let 
all thy imperfections and hypocrisies thou seest or suspectest to be in thee 
drive thee unto Christ to make thee sincere ; let them drive thee unto 
Christ for justification, make that improvement and use of them, still to 
put thee upon believing ; if anything will make thy heart sound, this will 
do it. Thus having recourse unto Christ, thou wilt see farther light to 
discern thine own emptiness and hypocrisy ten thousand times more than 
by poring upon and studying out thy own condition, by comparing that act 
and this act together, and this by-end and that by-end, and the like ; for 
if thou goest thus by faith unto Jesus Christ, thou dealest with the foun- 
tain of grace ; and by exercising thyself to faith in him, and so acquaint- 
ing thyself with him, thy heart will be changed before thou art aware of it. 
As Solomon saith, ' He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ;' so he 
that acquaints himself thus with the Lord Jesus, constantly renewing 
acts of faith upon him, he shall learn wisdom, he shall learn holiness, 
he shall learn how to go out of himself; he will shed light into him for 
to see his emptiness more, and he will shed Spirit into him for to fill him 
more. 

The observation which I make upon the Epistle to the Hebrews is to 
this purpose and effect : the apostle there writes to all the Jews, whether 
temporary believers or other ; but suppose they were such that did profess 
the name of Christ in the strictness of it, yet he speaks exceeding suspi- 
ciously of many of them. The Holy Ghost in no book holds forth so much 
the state of a temporary believer, and the issue and terror of it, than in 
that Epistle, both in the Gth, 10th, and 12th chapters ; and therefore he 
speaks more distinctly of the sin against the Holy Ghost, which a temporary 
believer is nearer to fall into, and he threateneth and aweth them with that ; 
yet notwithstanding, you shall find that there is no Epistle that doth by way 
of exhortation (though the apostle in other Epistles may commend the doc- 
trine of faith, as he doth in the Epistle to the Romans, and in other places) 
so much exhort men continually to believing, all and every man : ' Lest any 
man,' saith he, ' fail and come short of the grace of God ; ' and, ' lest there 
be found in any man an evil heart of unbelief.' Read the 3d chapter ; it 
is the whole scope of it, and it is the whole scope, in a manner, of this 4th 
chapter. He lays before them the example of those that fell in the wilder- 
ness, and tells them it was unbelief was the cause of it; therefore he bids 
them labour or study to enter into that rest, and to take heed lest they fall 
after the same example of unbelief. You are now, saith he, of the house of 
God, if you continue to be so ; ye are partakers of Christ if you hold fast 
your confidence. So that I say, we are not so much to trouble ourselves 
with that great controversy, whether we be temporary believers or no, when 
we find the Holy Ghost stirring in us, but to improve that strength we have 
from the Holy Ghost in direct acts of faith towards Jesus Christ, going out 
to him for a supply of all imperfections and defects ; and thus having 
recourse unto him, it will make a man sound ; and as he said of praying, 
that praying would either make a man leave his sinning, or his sinning 
would make him leave praying ; so certainly it is in the matter of believing. 
Arts. 4. The last answer I shall give to the objection is this : thou canst 
not say thou art a temporary believer, thou mayest fear it. A true be- 
liever may fear it, but he cannot say he is such ; and a temporary believer, 
though there is that in the word, which, if it were opened, might convince 



Chap. VI.] of justifying faith. 589 

him, and shall do so at latter day, yet usually he cannot say it of himself 
that he is such an one. Therefore now, thou that wilt abstain from putting 
forth acts of faith for fear lest thou rnayest build thyself up in a way of 
temporary believing, consider this, that though thou mayest build up a 
temporary faith, yet thou mayest not forbear putting forth true acts of faith, 
for thou mayest be a true believer for aught thou knowest, therefore thou 
art to go and cast thyself upon Christ, to follow on the motions of the Holy 
Ghost, and that assistance he gives thee. For wouldst thou quench the 
motions of the new creature ? If thou knewest them to be so, I am assured 
thou wouldst not ; but if thou knowest them not, yet thou oughtest not to 
do it. I remember what a poor child about ten years of age once said : I 
am oftentimes, said he, tempted to take Jesus Christ, I see so much beauty 
in him, but I fear I shall be a hypocrite in doing of it. What a pitiful 
thing was this, that such a temptation should keep such a soul when he is 
again and again provoked by the Holy Ghost, from laying hold upon Jesus 
Christ, from taking of him. 

Direct. 3. The third direction is only a farther exhortation to continue to 
renew acts of faith, and not to cease or faint, or to give over. The very 
scope of this 3d chapter of the Hebrews is to put them upon renewing acts 
of faith, and holding out to do so continual!}'. He doth both bid them 
continue to do it, and also he bids them daily to renew acts of faith, and 
expresseth it under both kinds of expressions. First, he exhorts them to a 
constancy of holding out : ver. 6, to ' hold fast their confidence and the 
glory of their hope,' or ' the rejoicing of their hope,' or their faith ' unto 
the end.' And ver. 14, to ' hold fast the beginning of their confidence sted- 
fast unto the end,' opposing it there to ' departing from the living God ; ' 
and therefore by faith to abide and stay by God. But that is not all : he 
exhorts them likewise to renewed acts of faith ; you shall see his expressions 
in the 7th Terse, and so in other verses : ' Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost 
saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice,' ver 7. Hearing his voice there is 
believing ; so he interprets it himself in the end of the chapter. So like- 
wise, ver. 13, he bids Christians to ' exhort one another daily, while it is 
called to-day,' and therefore answerably, to renew their faith daily : for 
that is his scope, and the thing he calls upon them to do in answer to those 
exhortations. So ver. 15 : ' Whilst it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his 
voice, harden not your hearts ;' and unbelief will harden your hearts, saith 
he. I observe this, that he doth speak to these Jews converted ; suppose 
whether some were temporaries or no, however he speaketh to them all, 
even as we use to speak to any soul that is a- coming on to Christ, whom 
we would move to turn to God at a sermon, telling him that now is the day 
of grace, now is an acceptable* time, and therefore cleave to him, and turn 
to him. Even such kind of motives as we would use to such an one, doth 
the apostle use to them that are already converted, or enlightened at least, 
and had long professed the name of Christ : ' Whilst ityis called To-day,' 
saith he ; and ' take heed lest at any time ' (so the word is in the original, 
ver. 12), ' that you do cease from believing,' or ' lest there be in any of you 
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing,' or neglecting it : but ' to-day,' saith 
he, ' hear his voice.' So that in deed and in truth, what we would say, or 
anv man would say, unto one that is now to be converted, the same he 
saith to them ; for a Christian's life it is, and ought to be, a continual 
renewing of faith, and so a renewal of his conversion, as you have them 
put together : Luke xxii. 32, ' I have prayed thy faith fail not ; when thou 
art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' And the apostle contents not 
himself only to speak in the language of words of constancy, and to bid 



590 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

them to do it daily, ' To-day,' &c, in a positive way ; but he useth nega- 
tives too : ' Take heed, lest at any time there be in any of you an evil heart 
of unbelief,' ver. 12. Take heed, lest you let go your hold, lest you cease 
to believe ; for if you do not renew acts of faith, certainly corrupt nature 
will renew acts of unbelief; and if one be not acted, or if it be intermitted, 
the other will steal up. And • the house of God are we,' saith he, if we do 
thus daily hear and obey his voice ; and ' we are made partakers of Christ, 
if we hold fast thus the beginning of our confidence.' I take it his mean- 
ing is this : the doctrine, saith he, which we teach, it is the right way to 
heaven ; and you need not doubt of that, saith he, for it is that which will 
build up the house of God, and will make men partakers of Christ. Now, 
saith he, if ye continue thus to act faith, and do but practise according to 
that doctrine that is taught in the house of God, in the church, you will 
become his house in deed and in truth, according to the doctrine taught in 
the church. 

Obj. Now there is an objection will also attend this direction, which I 
would meet withal, and that is this : Yea, but will the soul say, I have 
renewed faith often, and done it long, and I find not yet that power accom- 
panying my faith, which doth evidence it to be true ; and notwithstanding 
all I have done, I do not yet know whether all the acts of faith I have put 
forth be not in vain ; and as they have been, so they may still be, and 
therefore I had as good give over. 

Ans. I will answer thee, speaking to this objection, so far as it relateth 
to the point in hand, viz., the power of God co-working with us. 

1. First of all, consider what Christ said to Peter when he came to wash 
his feet, John xiii., and Peter reluctated : ' What I do now,' saith Christ, 
• thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter ; ' and if thou knewest, 
thou wouldst not reluctate. Christ requires obedience to that, the meaning 
whereof he knew not at the present, but should know afterward ; and when 
the Holy Ghost came upon him after Christ's ascension, he found that 
Christ thereby had sealed up to him the washing away of his sins, for God 
made that unto them a temporary sacrament, though Peter knew not the 
meaning of this at the present ; and thus Christ doth many things unto us, 
which we know not the meaning of till afterwards. So say I to thee that 
sayest, thou hast exercised acts of faith a long time, and knowest not whether 
it be true. Thou mayest know hereafter, though thou knowest not now, 
when the Spirit comes on thee, and brings all things that are past to thy 
remembrance, and lets thee see the truth of all that God hath wrought in 
thee ; when he comes to seal up to thee thy redemption unto the day of 
redemption, there will a light come, that will shew thee that thou hast all 
this while been a-believing, and a-believing truly and acceptably unto God ; 
and therefore, however, continue still doing so. 

2. Though thou hast put forth acts of faith never so long, or never so often, 
and hitherto in vain (' if in vain,' as the apostle speaks), yet continue still 
to do it ; and that because God works it of his good pleasure, you know 
that is the encouragement. Philip, ii. 14, ' Work out your salvation, for 
it is God that worketh in you of his good pleasure.' And in 2 Tim. ii. 25, 
he bids them preach to men, and to continue in so doing, to see ' if God 
at any time will give them repentance.' Though a man hath preached 
multitude of sermons, and men have heard multitude of sermons, yet 
preach still, and go to sermons still ; for though all the former have been in 
vain, there may come a time in which God may give repentance unto men. 
And the apostle, Heb. iii. 12, useth the very same word (though I confess 
it is not in our translation), ' Take heed lest at any time there be in you an 



ClIAP. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 591 

heart of unbelief.' In this case, I say, as Paul saith in Heb. x. 35, ho 
speaks it indeed in regard of afllictions or temptations outward, but all that is 
there said is applicable to this temptation, and to temptations inward : 
1 Cast not away your confidence,' saith he, ver. 35; and ver. 36, ' Ye have 
need of patience, that after you have done the will of God ye might receive 
the promise ; for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and 
will not tarry.' Suppose now thou hast acted faith, and findest as thou 
thinkest nothing come, yet do not throw away that confidence, that faith, 
that acting upon Christ, begotten in thee ; cast it not away, as men are apt 
to do when they cannot attain the thing they seek for presently. I say in 
this case to thee, as the apostle said there, ' You have need of patience ; ' 
and what was the reason he thus spake, you have need of patience ? 
Because the truth is, God will try evei'y soul that doth believe, he will try 
their patience, if not with outward afflictions, yet with inward ; and if not 
with inward, then with outward. Now I apply this to thee in this case, 
for if any sonl needeth patience, then such a soul as this that makes this 
objection needs patience ; he needs it because God puts him to it, and 
patience there is put for a patient continuance, as in Rom. ii. it is called 
and interpreted, and so the meaning is, you need a patient continuance in 
renewing still your confidence and believing, that when you have done the 
will of God herein over and over, merely in submission to him, you may 
inherit the promise. He puts that in to quiet them in the mean time. 
And so say I to thee that art ready to faint, and to give up all, quiet thy- 
self with this, that it is the will of God thou hast done all this while, and 
that it is his will thou shouldst rather act faith upon him, and have recourse 
unto him than to have forborne it ; and though thou knowest not whether it 
be true faith or no, yet it is the will of God thou shouldst do it. « You 
have need of patience,' saith he, ' that after you have done the will of God, 
you may receive the promise : for yet a little while, and he that shall come 
will come, and will not tarry.' Thou wilt find that God in the end will 
come, and will give thee, to thy own sense, spiritually and truly to believe. 
In the mean time, I say, quiet thyself with this, that that which thou art 
a-doing is the work of God: • This is the work of God,' saith Christ, ' that 
ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' And this is the waiting and sitting 
still that the Scripture speaks of. It is not to sit still and to do nothing 
toward believing, but it is doing the will of God in continuing still to 
believe. And then the apostle adds, ' The just shall live by faith.' Will 
a man deliberate whether he shall put forth acts of life or no, whether he 
shall breathe or no ? Why, there is a necessity for him to breathe, it is 
that whereby he liveth ; and therefore though thou fetch thy breath hardly, 
yet fetch it still, for thou diest else. So he saith here, that faith is our life, 
therefore continue to put forth the acts of faith, or else thou diest. In 
Rom. v., speaking of the effects of faith, for that is the scope of that chapter 
from the beginning towards the middle, he saith there, that trials and 
afflictions, whereof this is the greatest, breed patience ; and what doth 
patience breed ? It breedeth experience. When a man hath patiently con- 
tinued to wait, to exercise faith, in the end he cometh to experience that he 
hath true faith ; you may apply it unto this as well as unto any other temp- 
tation whatsoever. And what is the issue of experience in the end ? It 
breedeth hope, that is, assurance ; for it is clear it is so meant, because 
he adds, ' Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.' It pro- 
duceth, I say, that effect in the end. So that still I say to such souls, 
they had need of patient continuance in renewing their confidence, and in 
living by faith, and in the end he that shall come will come. And as the 



592 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV. 

apostle there in Hob. x. adds, ' The just shall live by faith,' so he adds like- 
wise, ' If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.' Tbe 
word is a word used amongst soldiers, not to recoil, not to give over, being 
wearv of waiting, or the like. Now as the general hath no pleasure in such 
a soldier, so saith he, in such an one ' my soul shall have no pleasure.' 
And he adds the greatest motive in the world wby men should continue 
still thus to act faith, though their patience be thus tried ; for, saith he, it 
is ' believing to the saving of the soul' (ver. 39), but this drawing back, 
this recoiling, and seeking to do it, tendeth to perdition. ' We are not of 
them who draw back unto perdition,' saith he, ' but of them that believe 
to the saving of the soul,' that is, that continue thus to believe ; for his 
meaning and his argument lies thus : you must hold out, saith he, and 
continue to believe, for you cannot be saved else ; and if you will forbear 
to act faith thus, what will be the issue of it ? You will draw back, and 
then God will come to have no pleasure in you ; and this, saith he, tendeth 
to perdition ; you hazard perdition by it, therefore it is necessary to continue 
so believing. Now I say to such a soul as is wearied out with such a temp- 
tation as this is, Whether dost thou mean to be saved, yea or no ? Thou 
wilt say to me, Yes. Very good. Whether dost thou mean ever to renew 
faith upon Christ again or no ? If thou sayest never, I have nothing to 
say to thee, but only this, thou drawest back to the certain perdition of 
thy soul. If ever thou meanest to renew faith again, or else thou canst not 
be saved, then, say I, though thou hast been discouraged a thousand and a 
thousand times, yet continue to do it still, for if ever thou comest to salvation, 
it must be by having fresh recourse to Christ, and exercising acts of faith 
upon him. Now by discontinuing to do it, thou dost not get more 
power to believe ; if it were so, there were something in it ; but thou 
drawest back, and puttest thy perdition upon a hazard, thou puttest 
thy utter hardening upon a hazard, therefore cease not, no, not for a 
moment. And let me say this to thee likewise, Thou art discouraged, 
because what thou hast done hitherto is in vain, and, therefore, thou fearest 
that what thou shalt do will be in vain also. When thou comest to thy 
deathbed, or to lie under any great affliction or temptation, thy discourage- 
ment will be greater than now, for then Satan will tell thee, thou hast often 
renewed acts of faith, and thou hast found it to be in vain, and thereupon 
hast drawn back from God, and discontinued the exercising of such acts, 
and therefore thou hast cause now to fear that God will have no pleasure in thee. 
There is no way, therefore, say I, but for thee to hold fast thy confidence, 
and to live by faith (thou hast need of patience, I confess that), and let the 
necessity of the thing put thee upon it, for it is as necessary as the living 
of thy soul is. It is ' believing to the saving of the soul.' 

Obj. But you will say, I am weary, I have so long time exercised faith, and 
cannot find whether my faith be true or no, I find no strength by it, little 
or no support by it. What saith the apostle, Heb. xii. 12, for there is no 
Epistle where he speaks to this point in hand more than this to the Hebrews? 
' Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.' Though even 
all your strength be gone through weariness, yet use the strength you have ; 
though these hands hang down through weariness, yet with that strength 
you have lift them up once more, yea, again and again. It is not in this 
as in other weariness. In other weariness a man gets more strength by 
discontinuing to labour ; but where this kind of weariness is through long 
waiting, by discontinuing thou shalt not have more power against the next 
time. No; but if thou wilt lift up the hands that hang down, thou wilt 
find that God will help to lift them up too. In Isa. xl. 28, the prophet 






Chap. VI.; of justifying faith. 593 

there speaks to those that are read}- to faint for waiting upon the Lord, 
and he hids them consider : * Hast thou not known,' saith he, ' hast thou 
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of 
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ?' Consider, saith he, that God 
hath created the ends of the earth, and he upholds them every moment ; 
he hath done so from the beginning of the world ; and though the earth is 
continually changing, and the world a-moving, yet he fainteth not to hold 
up all this, as he did not faint at first when he created it ; and « he giveth 
power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.' 
When thou thinkest I am even weary, I can believe no longer, yet lift up 
those hands that hang down, and strengthen those feeble knees, what 
strength thou hast put forth ; and that God who is the Creator of the ends 
of the earth, that fainteth not, neither is weary, will give power to the 
faint, and increase strength to them that have no might. Take a poor soul 
now that finds a defect of spiritual strength, Oh, saith he, I have no 
strength at all. If thou wert a young man, and wert put to do acts of acti- 
vity, thou wouldst think thou hast natural strength enough to do such 
things withal. Now the prophet tells thee, that thou who hast the 
sense of no spiritual strength in thyself, thy case is more sure to have 
strength continued to thee, waiting upon the Lord, than a young man that 
hath never so much strength for youthful feats : ' Even the youths,' saith 
he, ' shall faint, and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall ; but 
they that wait upon the LordV though they have no strength, ' they shall 
renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall 
run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.' Therefore continue ; 
he that shall come will come in the end ; and in the mean time, he that up- 
holds the ends of the earth upon nothing, he upholds thy heart to believe upon 
nothing. I mean, faith is a thing depending upon nothing in a man's self. 
The prophet, I say, compares the promised supply of spiritual strength with 
a present stock of natural strength, which a young man having, he thinks 
himself able to do any natural action. Yea (saith he), ' they shall mount 
up with wings as eagles.' An eagle when he grows old grows callow, as 
you call it, that is, all the feathers come off; but washing himself in foun- 
tains, his wings and feathers come again, and he mounts up anew ; so, 
saith he, ' thou shalt renew thy strength :' though thou art even faint and 
grown weary, and though thou thinkest thy old stock of strength is gone, 
and thou hast believed all that strength out, and that thy soul is naked, 
and that there is nothing left, ' yet wait upon the Lord,' ' look again to his 
holy temple,' as Jonah saith, and ' he will renew thy strength, and bear 
thee up as with eagles' wings.' 



END OF VOL. VIII. 



VOL. VIII. P P 



Princeton Theological Semmary-Spe* 



1 1012 01087 0972 



DATE DUE 




HIGHSMITH # 45220 



B