Chapter III
Cautions about using our endeavours to believe. We must act in subordination
to God s power, as working in us both the will and the deed. We must also renounce all ability in ourselves.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation withfear and
trembling : for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. PHILIP. II. 12, 13.
Having proved that we are to use endeavours to believe, and that a right and due performance of duties is not incompatible with faith, my next VOL. VIII. L 1
530 OP THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAKT III. BOOK III.
business is to add some cautions to be observed in using our endeavours, and in attempting to believe, and going forth to believe, and continuing so
to do. There are cautions which it becomes those to have who are in
dependence upon God, and his free grace, and his power to work faith in them at pleasure, as the text hath it : He works, saith the text,
* the
will and the deed according to his good pleasure. Now, although the
apostle shews here how the soul is to manage and behave itself, not only in the point of believing, but in working out our salvation in all the parti cular duties of it, yet what the apostle saith here is in a more special manner applicable to believing, because that is what we are saved by
: Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. It is the great work of God.
In the text you have,
1. A duty, which is that I am exhorting you to, to work out your own
salvation, which is eminently by believing ; for it is faith unto salvation :
Believe, and thou shalt be saved ; and work it out (saith he) to perfec
tion, as the word signifies.
2. You have here the manner in w Thich this is to be done (which is the
thing I chose the text for), it is with fear and trembling. 3. Here is that which should cause this fear and trembling in working out our own salvation, and that is the point in hand, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do ; therefore, saith he, work it out with fear and trembling. And this now, the words being rightly opened and interpreted, doth hold forth how the soul in all its endeavours, in a subordination and dependence upon the power of God to make the faith I
put forth true faith, and to help me both in the will and the deed ; it shews how the soul, I say, ought to demean itself to God therein as in dependence upon that power.
I will first open the words a little, and then proceed. The papists say, that by fear and trembling here, is meant doubting, opposing it to all
certainty and assurance of salvation, a doubting whether that God will save you or no, which, say they, keeps the heart awful. For they go only a
legal way, and a way to work upon self-love only ; and I confess if that were the way of God s working grace and faith upon a man s heart, if it were to work merely upon self-love and in a legal way, their interpretation would be the best ; for it is with a fear and trembling whether ever God
will work it in me, yea or no ; and therefore to have that awfulness con
tinually upon a man s spirit would be best to rouse self-love, and to
provoke that, and work upon that. But this sense cannot stand, for the
text hath respect to that place in the Old Testament which these words are taken out of; and, as Austin observed long ago, these words are taken out of Ps. ii. 11. And the Septuagint there useth the very words in the Greek which are used here by the apostle, and therefore surely the Holy Ghost had an eye to it. Now, saith the psalmist there, ver. 11, Serve the Lord with fear (speaking of Christ), and rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, &c., which is indeed especially believing on him, closing with him. Now if it were meant of that popish doubting, it had been the
greatest contradiction in the world to say, Rejoice with trembling; because
for me to rejoice in that salvation which Christ bringeth to me, and to be doubtful of it, is a contradiction. Yea, the word here rejoice signifies the
highest rejoicing, to rejoice so as to leap for joy ; as high a rejoicing as
rejoicing with joy unspeakable and glorious, for it is a rejoicing with
glory. So then he commands at once the highest assurance, the highest
rejoicing, and yet withal to tremble ; he speaks therefore of such a fear
CHAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 531
and trembling not as hath doubting, but such as may stand with the
highest joy that is ; and therefore he doth not mean a diffidence, a con tinual hesitation and dubitation, or a consternation of mind, as they would
carry it ; for then, I say, it had been the greatest contradiction in the world to bid them rejoice with trembling, if by trembling had been meant a con sternation and diffidence of mind.
But besides this, you shall find if you search the New Testament, that this phrase of trembling, as it is used there, hath plainly another meaning and sense than this which the papists put upon it.
It is opposed first to high-mindedness or confidence in one s self: Rom.
xi. 20, Be not high-minded, but fear. Fear therefore is opposed to
self-conceitedness, and to trusting in a man s self, and therefore it notes out a working out of our salvation with the highest submission and depen dence upon God, who is the worker of it. And that this should be the mean
ing of the word here in the text, is clear from what follows : For it is God, saith he, that worketh in you both the will and deed ; and there fore fear and trembling is opposed to conceitedness, and high-mindedness, and confidence in a man s self, and it is an exhortation to submission, as , I might shew you out of James iv. 7, where he saith, Submit yourselves to God, speaking how they should behave themselves for God to give them
grace, as in opening that place would appear ; I say then, it is opposed in the New Testament to high-mindedness and conceitedness, and is put for a submission to God, to be low and empty in a man s self, in respect of any strength in a man s self.
And then again it is put for a fear of offending or displeasing one ; so the
phrase of fear and trembling is used again and again in the New Testament. You received Titus (saith he, 2 Cor. vii. 15) with fear and trembling. With fear and trembling they received that holy messenger of God, that was an holy evangelist. What ! were they in a fear, in a hesitation and dubita tion that Titus would do them hurt ? No ; surely that popish interpreta tion of fear and trembling cannot be applied to their receiving of Titus ; but it hath this meaning, they were afraid of doing anything which might offend or displease, or be distasteful to a man so eminently holy ; and he
being an evangelist, they received him with all submission to his doctrine ; and therefore the word obedience is annexed to it : Remembering the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. Even as if Christ himself were upon the earth, and a man should converse with him, how would a man fear in all his ways lest he should do anything that should not be suitable to so holy and so heavenly a spirit as he hath in whom God dwelleth. So that indeed the meaning of the words, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, is this : it is as if the apostle had said, Seeing you have a work begun in you by God, for so he tells them they had, and gives them as much assurance of it as the testimony of an apostle could do : chap. i. verse 6,
* Being confident of this very thing
(saith he), that God, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it
until the day of Jesus Christ. As he therefore by his power hath begun to work in you all at the first, so you must depend upon the same power to continue to work in you the will and the deed, and yet you are to co-work with him, in a continual subordination to that power which hath begun to work in you ; you are so to work out your salvation as to fear to offend that God upon whom your salvation dependeth, to tremble lest you omit any opportunity wherein this God begins to work upon you ; for you must be beholden to him for salvation, if ever you have it, and it is he that worketh in you the will and the deed. Work out therefoie your salvation
582 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAKT III. BOOK III.
with your own endeavours, but with the highest fear and trembling, that is, with the greatest humility and submission of mind, and dependency upon the power of God, who must do all, without all self-confidence, or self-con-
ceitedness, or trusting in your own power, and with the greatest fearfulness
to displease that God upon whose good pleasure the will and the deed in per
fecting of it dependeth. In a word, this exhortation of the apostle is a
caution against security, and the giving over of the use of all means and
ways further to work out our salvation. It is a caution against pride and self-
conceitedness, and going on out of high-mindedness in our own strength.
It teacheth us how to manage our hearts in the use of our own endeavours,
namely, so as to fear to offend that God upon whose power we depend for
so great a work, and also to tremble to omit any opportunity wherein this God doth work upon us. This is the general scope of the words. And so
you have the meaning of the phrase. I shall now come to such particulars
as, added to all the former I have delivered, will perfect and complete this
particular subject which I have spoken of concerning faith, which you may remember was this, namely, to shew you how to manage and guide our souls
J^br the manner of our endeavouring after believing, and in believing ; how
to manage our souls, I say, and our endeavours, after such a manner as
that we may co-work with God in a way of subordination to his power.
1. Therefore (and I shall keep myself exceeding much to the sense of
these words, with fear and trembling ), we do work with God in a subordi
nation to his power, when we go fiprth in a renunciation of all our own
abilities, in a continued distrust of all our own abilities. And this is to
work it out with fear and trembling, because God works in us the will and
the deed ; Be not high-minded, saith he, but fear ; be not self-conceited, do not stand to go forth upon your own legs. There is no danger at all
for men to attempt believing, and to attempt it again and again, whilst still
they go forth in doing of it, with a perpetual renunciation of their own
strength. We use to tell you (and we tell you truth in it), that there is
nothing hinders faith more than a man s own endeavours to believe. But how ? Endeavouring in his own strength. And when we say that self, and all in self, and from self, is against faith, the meaning is this, that
confidence in a man s self, and in his own endeavours, is that which undoeth men. The great mischief lies in the rising up of such thoughts as these, I
will go pray, and I will believe, and I will work out a faith in Christ, which
the heart is exceeding apt unto ; and you that have experience of the spiritual
conflicts and spiritual attempts and exercises of spirit in the way of believ
ing, cannot but find it. The heart, I say, is apt still to be saying, as he in
Ps. Ixxiii. 16, I thought to know this, and this is it which we speak
against ; as the apostle James, chap. iv. 13, 15, teacheth men to check
themselves : Go to now, saith he, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow, we
will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain, &c., whereas you ought to say, If the Lord will, we will do this
* you rejoice in your boasting. What he saith
or that ; but now, saith he,
of civil actions, and of our dependence upon God therein, holdeth much
more, infinitely more, of spiritual actions. Why ? Because that an ordi
nary providence accompanieth us in civil actions ; the same providence that accompanieth beasts in all their actions, doth accompany men in
an ordinary way, and so men may better say of such things, We will go to
such a city, and do this, and do that ; yet you see the apostle checks their
hearts in the midst of such thoughts ; much more then are we to suppress
all such thoughts in things that are spiritual, in which we depend upon God only, and upon him alone, and upon a good pleasure of his in a more
CHAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 533
immediate manner. We should take our hearts at it, and do but watch
your hearts, and you will take them at it again and again. It may be that such thoughts will not come into distinct propositions in your hearts and
spirits, but they will lie there taken for granted. We should take our
hearts at it, I say ; and when you find your hearts will go out to attempt any spiritual thing, or to attempt believing, and to say, I will do this, or I
will do that, and so go forth upon that ground, and in your own strength, assisted by such a conceit, you should, when your hearts are so doing, check yourselves. Even as they said in Jer. ii. 18, What hast thou to do
in the way of Egypt ? so you should say to your hearts when you find them
so doing, What hast thou to do to go out in thy own strength, in any con
fidence in thyself ? Men may say, and it is ordinary for them to do so, that it is God that doth all, and we can do nothing, and yet in the mean time trust in themselves, and in their own strength. The Pharisee him
self, as the text saith, Luke xviii. 9, trusted in himself, yet if you read on, you shall find him thanking God for all that he had, and that he was not
like other men, as if that God had done all, and he had done nothing ; whereas the very scope of that parable is to speak against those that trusted
in themselves. Let this point, continual acting self-renunciation (that is,
continually to act a renouncing of yourselves in your going forth in all
things that you do, especially in the point of believing), be settled on your hearts. You are as frequently to exercise these acts negatively, as to
exercise acts affirmative or positive ; that is, as frequently to renounce your own strength in the doing of a thing, as to do it. I will not insist upon such places where when the saints have done thus and thus, still they cry, Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, as Ps. cxv. 1, though there is the like reason in the doing of a thing, that there is after the doing of it. And so
in Isa. xxvi. 12, Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us and for us ;
they are not content only to say so, to acknowledge that God doth all, but
as it follows there, verses 17, 18, they add, We have been with child and
in pain, and we have as it were brought forth wind. Thy soul, it may be, hath been humbled and terrified ; thou hast had a world of conceptions within thee, but still thou hast brought forth nothing ; say thou then, Lord, thou hast wrought all my works in me and for me. What, I say, they do when God had wrought all in them, that do thou still whilst thou
art a co-working with God. So in Hosea xiv. 3, when they were to seek
salvation, because such thoughts of self-confidence will arise, they do pre vent and forestall them, they do renounce beforehand all carnal confidence : Asshur shall not save us. Why do they speak this, but because they knew their hearts would be apt to run to Asshur, for he speaks there not
of temporal deliverance but of spiritual, and alludeth to what they were wont to have recourse unto for temporal deliverance, to express what the
Spirits of men are apt to have recourse unto for spiritual. Asshur, say
< shall not save us. They lay that for a conclusion before they begin, We will dam up that door, there shall not a thought come in of having recourse unto anything, or of having any confidence in ourselves, or in any
they,
thing in us, or in anything we can do, but in thee the fatherless find
mercy. The Scripture delights much to run upon these negatives. It is
not content only to express positively that we are to believe, and that we
are thus to believe, and upon this to believe, but that we are in the doing of it to renounce whatsoever is in us. To give you some instances for it.
(1.) See how the apostles sneak, Gal. ii. 16, for they speak of their own
faith there : Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ,
534 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [?AKT III. BOOK III.
that we may be justified by the faith of Christ. Here now were two prin
ciples laid in their hearts ; here was first a negative one, and that principle was riveted in them, they knew they could never be justified by any works
of their own; Knowing, saith he, that a man is not justified by the works
of the law. And he comes in with a negative again, That we might be
* by the works of the
justified by the faith of Christ, and not, saith he,
law. This was the first principle that was inlaid in their hearts; and then
* But by the faith of Jesus Christ. And as
the second is a positive one,
this was the opinion and judgment of the apostles, so their practice was
answerable, for mark the practice of their hearts upon this : We therefore,
saith he, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. While they believed, they excluded the works of the law in their own hearts, and renounced them. There was an act, I say, of renunciation, even in the work of believing. Not by the works of the law, saith he, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
(2.) Where the apostle expresseth the doctrine of faith, Ephes. ii. 8,
(and men s hearts should answer the doctrine) he comes in with two nega tives there also, Not of ourselves, saith he, and not of works. He hath two negatives to all the affirmatives that are there. Why ? To teach the
hearts of men, that still in the way of believing they should shut the back
door, as I may so express it, that no thoughts of self-confidence may come
in and mingle themselves with the rest of their souls when they go to be
lieve. As Abraham, when he sacrificed, had a double work, one was to
kill the sacrifice, and to lay it on the fire, and to offer it up ; and the other was to drive away the fowls that came down upon the carcasses ; so you have
a double work when you go to believe, if you will go forth in the power of God. As you are to attempt to believe in a subordination to the power of
God, so you are to beat off and drive away all thoughts of self-confidence and self-conceitedness, to be ever a renouncing of yourselves, as you would be of lusts that rise up.
(3.) You have the like expressions in Kom. ix. 16, that so you may see how the Scripture runs still upon negatives, to teach men s hearts what
to do : It is not, saith he, of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth. And the apostle there brings it in by the by, as a conclusion of what he had spoke concerning the doctrine of election. So then, saith
he, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. One would have thought it had been enough to have
said, It is of God that sheweth mercy. No; but he would bring in the
negative, he would have men renounce their own willing, and their own
running, and to depend upon that God that shews mercy.
Now, if thou hast had abundant experience, and liest under a deep sense
of thine own unability to believe, the many experiences thou hast found of
attempting in vain, as thou thinkest, to believe, are apt to discourage thee. But do thou now mind what the Spirit of God shall direct thee to, and that
is this : do not go turn all the experiences of the vanity of thine own
attempts into discouragements, that because thou hast found it to be in
vain, therefore it shall be so for time to come ; no, but go turn them all
into self-renunciation ; let all this confirm thy heart, that faith is therefore not of ourselves ; let it, I say, confirm thee in that more, and inlay that
principle into thy heart more, so as that thou shouldst maintain that against
the next time in all the attempts thou settest upon believing. And if thou
dost so, thou dost work with fear and trembling, thou dost go forth and co-work with God in a subordination to his power, to glorify that alone.
Discharge all thine own strength continually, discharge it of any help at all
1 OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 535
CHAP. IV.]
that thou expectest from it. If it would rise up and attempt, disclaim it ;
yea, because it will rise even whilst thou art setting upon the work, let it
be the first thing thou dost to say, Asshur shall not save us; Lord, not of
myself, not anything in me, but through thy power, I throw myself upon
thee. Suppose that the act thou aimest at be to go out of thyself only to
Christ, yet if thou hast but this thought, I will go out of myself to Christ
out of my own power, or without renouncing of thyself, thou art still in
thyself. Such thoughts hinder God from working
: even as Jesus Christ
did not work miracles in his own country because of their unbelief, so,
whilst self thus riseth up and mingleth itself with that strength which God
giveth, God withdraws his assistance. The words in Heb. x., quoted out
of Hab. ii. 4, His soul which is lifted up, signify, as Pareus well observeth, ponem seipsum, &c., that is, that soul that doth make a bulwark of itself, and trusteth in itself; for when the heart betakes itself to its own strength, and goes out in that, it leaves to trust in God ; and it is not endeavours,
but it is endeavours without renouncing of what is in a man s self endea
vouring, which frustrateth faith, for God hath said, In his own strength
shall no man prevail, 1 Sam. ii. 9. Men that are convinced of the neces
sity of Christ, and that they must get Christ, what do they say within
themselves ? I will pray, and I will fast, and I will go to Christ : that
same I will spoils all. They are like to swimmers that are beginning to
swim, their very scrabbling and pawing in the water of themselves at first,
their very eagerness is it which makes them sink, whereas if they lay but
still and committed themselves to the stream, even that would carry them. To act out of a man s own strength is opposite to the very fundamental law
of God, it doth prevent and supplant the power of God in working with us.
That I may express it to you by a similitude which is more familiar, you know that the apostle expresseth faith by the opening of a door, in Acts xiv. Now a man s endeavours to this are like as if a man in the water should
be to pass through a great sluice, and he should go on the back-side of it, and pull and pull, the more that he pulls, and the more he would open it
by pulling, the worse he is, whereas now if he would commit himself to the
stream, it would open it, and he might pass through it. So that now that
is the first thing, fear and trembling imports a renouncing of all confidence
in a man s self. And Let a man attempt still with a renunciation of a man s
self, and all in a man s self, and act and practise this, and then attempting
to believe will never hurt him, or put him off from faith, but he will find
that God will co-work with him in the doing of it.