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
* You will not come to me that ye might have life. The
Christ there,
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 he 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 ?
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
thce, 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 [PART 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 the 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 Naaman, 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 the 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 rightousness 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 the 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 hair, 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 in 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
off 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-
* Trust in the Lord with all thine
denial in the understanding: Prov. iii. 5,
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 Bom. 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
: What shall we say ?
strange thing at the latter end of the 9th chapter
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 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
the Gentiles attained was
of the law, so ver. 32. And Gocl, 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
* have not submitted themselves, saith he,
subject to the righteousness of God ; so the next words are, but
* 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 Kom. viii. 7, where, 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 apprehensions (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, silly, slowly, and
strongly ; yet when a man shall resolve his actions into principles, he shall find that that 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 the 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 iieedeth 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 b 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 that 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 cora-
VOL. VIII. K k
514 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART 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 but 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 wil] 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 jou. 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-denial 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 he, 2 Cor. xii. 1) though I have done 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 and 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 ? 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 my own
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,
4 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 mast not only have all this boasting of self for ever ex
cluded, 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. 80. 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 [PART III. BOOK II.
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, Exod. xxxiii. 19, Rom. 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 : 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 entirely 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 who can tell ? as I may so express it, and as the Scrip ture expresseth it in Joel ii. 14, Who can tell if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him ? And for the will in this case to deal
with one, that if he 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 is
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 D ivid "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 Haman, when the
* 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
king asked him,
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 the 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 self 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 Jaearts and
spirits, he will make uses of them for me.
520 OP THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III,