Chapter II
Tlie reason why there may be true justifying faith in a man, and yet lie 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
* 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
tions says, Lam. iii. 29. Such a trust was in Job :
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 the 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. 345
secondary promises they are the object for assurance to work upon, but the
person of Christ is the object of faith, which faith fixeth 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
definite 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 good will 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. When 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
: 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
ing
tism, which are seals and instruments of assurance, are to be administered
* Let a
after a man hath faith, or is supposed to be in a state of grace
B16 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, fifthly, 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 ChrisHs 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
* 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
light broke in afresh, I heard of thee, says he,
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 conies 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 theso
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 out 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
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAET 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 soulis put into! works an holy ingenuity. For God s love, and so great a favour out of free good will in God being the 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 hands, 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 more 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 he 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 springtide 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, Eom. 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 sermons on friendship with God, out of James ii. 23, the first reason of the doctrine. M. S.
CHAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 349
so is the estate of grace. The main intent then of this act of faith being that God may justify me, and that I may be 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
the scope of my cleaving to him 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. 80 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