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. 89, 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. 329
those that believe not, so as they entered not in because of unbelief, ver.
19, which we find to have been their sin : Ps. Ixxviii. 19, Can God furnish
* God s anger waxed hot, because they believed not
a table ? and ver. 22,
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
: Isa. Iv. 9, My ways are not as their ways ; it is spoken of pardoning, which men not knowing depart from God.
called his ways
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 requires, 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. iii. 12 ; and, Acts xiv. 27, it is called the
door of faith. Now, men are naturally blind, as the men of Sodom, and
330 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 arid papists, and those who have no more than a principle of morality amongst us, Rom. 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.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 881
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
* For the Scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not
joined to it,
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 Kom. 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, bat 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
< The life I live is by the faith on the Son of God, Gal. ii. 20. Now
faith :
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 doubts 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
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
Hebrews, they are persuaded good things of themselves, is the only faith of a great many persons; but this is not to believe on Christ, bnt 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 young 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 protestants 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
nseth 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 [PAKT 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 heavens 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 disquietment, 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 now, 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 they 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. 835
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 men 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.
8. When men hear of Christ as a mark set up, and that him they 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.
* 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 bringChrist down to me, therefore he there says, Say not in
iv. 11,
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 absolutely 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.
836 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 be 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 selfflattery 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
king 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 allsufficiency, free grace, and love alluring you, and not from your own heart s persuasions merely ; listen not to what selfflattery 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
are 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
1 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 jojfwm 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 chief
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, iii. 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, iii. 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. VIII.
838 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK