Chapter V
We ought to use our endeavours to believe, being very watchful not to neglect
any gracious opportunities which God affordetk us.
3. We should also tremble for fear of omitting any opportunity that God
giveth. That you have also James iv. ; it follows there, verse 8, Draw
nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. And when God doth draw
nigh to you to give more grace, then especially draw near to him. Now,
drawing nigh to God is coming to such duties, or using such means,
wherein God doth draw nigh to a man. Mark the apostle s phrase; he
doth not only say, Go, pray, or go, humble yourselves, or fast, and the like,
he" exhorts to these afterwards in the case of relapsing, but he
although
prefaceth all here with this : first, Draw nigh to God; that is, point the
aim of your souls to be to draw nigh to the presence of God, and let no
thing satisfy you in all you do but God s drawing nigh to you, which if
you do you will never rest in any duties you perform. He exhorts you so
to draw nigh unto God. I will not insist upon that, but as I take it these
words, and so likewise the trembling to omit any opportunity, do import
that there are special times wherein one hath a more special dependence
upon the power of God for the working of faith. There are special times,
I say, in which God doth draw nigh ; and a man should tremble to omit
any such opportunity. It is intimated in the text here likewise, Phil,
ii. 12, 13, for it is God, saith he, that worketh in you the will and^the deed, according to his good pleasure. Mark that expression ; there
is^ a
good pleasure of God, saith he, which exalteth and sheweth itself in this,
in helping men, and working with men when he will, and how he will, and
at such a time as he himself best thinks meet. Now then, as the diseased men (you know it is the ordinary comparison) that lay at the pool, when
the pool was stirred, presently stepped in, so do you join with God,^ and
work out with God, when you find that he begins to work, as sometimes
he doth, in a more especial manner. You shall find in Jer. xxxi. 18, that when Ephraim found that God began with him, having been formerly wild
and unaccustomed to the yoke, when God began to chastise him, and so to
work upon his heart afresh, Ephraim says, Thou hast chastised me, and
1 was chastised : turn thou me, and I shall be turned, that follows ; I take
the meaning to be this, it is as if he had said, Lord, I have gone on like
an unruly heifer unaccustomed to the yoke ; thou hast begun so far as to
lay a great chastisement upon me, and thou hast awakened my heart ;
Lord, take this time to turn me ! Now, turn me, and I shall be turned.
Alas ! I cannot do it of myself ; I shall be an heifer again if thou lettest me
alone, but thou begunnest to chasten me, and to open my heart, and it is in
order to turning to thee. Lord, now turn me, and I shall be turned. When
you find God doth draw near to you, use all that strength that God doth
give you in drawing nigh to you ; convert the whole stock of it to attempts on believing. If a man have but a little stock to trade withal^ he will
employ it in what is absolutely necessary, he will not go and lay it out in
everything which soon it may be spent upon, but what is absolutely neces
sary and best for him. When God doth draw near to thee, and begins to
enlighten thee, do not go and pray after knowledge, and gifts, and the like ;
no, turn thy strength to faith to believe, that is the one thing necessary, and God will be as willing to help thee that way as another, for this is the
great work of God. And let me say this to you likewise, when God doth
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III.
draw near to your hearts by promises or by exhortations, attend to them. You read the word, and you attend upon the word, and you have exhorta tions and promises delivered to you in the word. Now thou art a poor soul, and liest at the pit s brink of believing, thou comest and hearest a promise that doth nearly concern thy condition, for it speaks to the very thing, to that which thy soul hath long desired and sought for, and is a promise ntted and suited to thy present condition ; or there is an exhortation made to thee in what thou readest or hearest, that is as fully directed to thee as thou canst desire, to stir thee up to do that which thy soul saith, this is the thing which thou must do next. Now I say, when God comes thus nigh you, either by suggesting promises thus, or by what means or ways soever it be (and the more occasional the better), whether by exhortation or the like, be not coy now, for God draws near to thee, do thou close in and clap in with that promise, or with that exhortation, and say, Lord, now set this exhortation upon my heart, this promise upon my heart, this is the thing thou hast spoken of so long, now set it upon my heart. Be not faithless, but believing, saith Christ to Thomas, John xx. 27. There is a coyness and an averseness in the soul to put it off, saying, I see not enough to persuade me ; but be not faithless, saith Christ, but believe. Christ had answered Thomas to his own desire, had fitted him just, for, saith Thomas, Unless I see the prints in his hands and in his side, I will not believe. Why, saith Christ, now have I used a means and a way ntted to thy own desire, here are my hands, and here is the hole in my side, feel them, and be not faithless, but believe ; strike in now with this to believe. So I say to thee, God comes with promises and exhortations that do fully suit thy condition, now do thou look up to God, be not faith less, but believe.
I shall give you some suitable instances, first in promises, and then in exhortations.
(1.) When any promise comes that is fitly spread for thy sore (as I may so express it), a plaster fit as can be, a promise that is suited to the wants and mdigencies of thy own estate, Lord, say thou, do but set this seal upon my spirit. Still as he offers and brings thee a promise, do thou go and speak to him again ; as he speaks to thee in a promise, do thou urge him to fulfil it. Thus, I say, when God doth thus draw near to you, do you draw near to him. I shall give you but an instance or two of the soul s thus drawing near to God.
1st, The first is the instance of the apostle Paul in Rom. xv. 9-13, he had there, in ver. 9-11, begun and heaped up four promises together I do not know the like in all the Scripture of the Old Testament, that did assure him that God did intend mercy to the Gentiles : That the Gentiles. saith he, might glorify God for his mercy ; as it is written, I will confess to thee among the Gentiles. And again, he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people ; and again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles. And again, Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. Here were promises now fully fitted to the Romans who were Gentiles, speaking to their very condition, to help and to strengthen their faith. When he had delivered these promises that thus nearly did concern them (and the last of all the promises he mentioned was,
< in him shall the Gentiles trust ), instantly what doth the apostle do ? He claps in with a prayer to God for them, teaching them what they should do upon the like occasion, a prayer that God would make good these promises to them.
< Now the God of hope, saith he, those are the very next words, the God of faith (for faith and
CHAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 541
hope are oftentimes taken for one in the Scripture) fill you with all joy and peace in believing. The promise before was, In him shall the
Gentiles trust ; here comes a prayer now, Lord, wilt thou make good these promises to these Gentiles, teaching them by this what they themselves
should do upon all such occasions. The God of hope, says he,
* fill you with all peace and joy in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. The thing exhorted to being above their
power, and lying in God alone to work, to shew this dependence, and what way they were to take upon all such occasions, he prays thus for
them. And this was the usual manner of the apostle, for you shall find him praying in all his Epistles for those to whom he wrote, and he tells them the words he used for them in his prayer, and his end was to teach them to pray for the same thing. When he would exhort the Ephesians to pray that God would give them eyes enlightened to know the great
things of the gospel, how doth he do it ? I also, saith he, Eph. i. 15, 1G,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in mj prayers. Therefore you yourselves are much more bound to do it. It was but a more artificial way of the
apostle s to set them on work by his example, that if he did thus for them, much more they should do it for themselves. The text is extreme perti nent to the thing in hand, that when God comes thus to us in a promise, we should presently clap in with God. When the apostle had spoken of
trust in God, or hope in God, to which the Gentiles should come, and there
was a promise and prophecy to that purpose, he knew that God was only
to work it, therefore he goes to him, and goes to him as the God of hope. And why is he called the God of hope ? Because he alone is the God that
works hope in the heart. His prayer then is, Thou hast said, that the
Gentiles Ashall hope in thee ; thou that art the God of hope, work it in these
Gentiles* He calls him the God of hope in the same sense that he had
called him the God of patience and consolation, in ver. 5, after having
spoken, ver. 4, that the Scriptures were written to give us comfort and
: for a man must have all his comfort from the Scriptures, for
patience
comfort from them is the true comfort, and a man must keep to them.
* Thou art the author of all comfort, says the apostle, therefore comfort
them ; for that is the meaning of it. So here he calls him the God of
hope, because the thing he desires is hope in God, and he was the only God to work it. Now as the promise was that the Gentiles should trust
in him, so the thing he prays for is, that they may be filled with all joy and
peace in believing. And when you hear a promise, do not pray barely and
scantily for the thing promised. He had mentioned no more but trusting
in Christ, but he prays, you see, for joy and peace, and for abounding in it
: and (let me tell you) all joy and comfort
too, and that through believing
that is not in the way of believing is no true joy and comfort. And then,
thirdly, he adds, through the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the power
of God must work it. He goes forth in the sense that it is the power of God
that must do it for them, yet because God had promised to do thus and thus, he doth therefore strike in to move God that was the God of working faith, to
do it by the power of the Holy Ghost. You see the place is every way per
tinent to the thing in hand, for he had spoken of a promise, and of a promise
to the Gentiles at large, which promise depends for the fulfilling of it upon
the power of God and of the Holy Ghost; he therefore presently prays that
God would make it good to these Gentiles, and thereby he teacheth them
that when they hear such promises they should go to God, who is the God
of that promise and of that work, to work it in them, and that in a depend-
542 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III.
ence upon the power of God. God indeed is not much taken or moved of himself by this, for he is moved only by what is in himself, but he takes an occasion to do it when we thus go to him with his own promise ; and therefore let us strike in still, as a promise is brought to us by his provi dence, either in the preaching or reading, or hearing of the word, or any other way, or occasionally, that suiteth our condition.
2dly, There is another instance of the woman of Canaan, Mark vii. 27. Our Saviour Christ did seem to put her off, but the truth is, he did inti mate a promise to her (and therefore I quote the story of it as it is in the
: Let the children first be filled, saith he ; for it is not meet to take the children s bread and cast it unto dogs. He doth not deny the dogs wholly, mark it, but he was
evangelist Mark)
* a minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, as you have it, Rom. xv. 8. He was to serve the circumcision first : now he doth not say that the do^s should not have the leavings ; no, but saith he, but let the children first be
filled. This poor woman catcheth hold of that word presently, for that word had a hint in it ; therefore, thought she, surely the dogs may have the leavings, they may have the crumbs that fall while the children are
eating ; and therefore she retorts this upon Christ, that though the Jews were
children, and she a Gentile being a dog, yet according to the analogy of that very similitude and metaphor he useth, she might have crumbs, and when the children were filled she might have what was the refuse and over
plus. Thus Christ, you see, gives this secret hint, and there was indeed a
great hint in it. Now, saith the text, this is it I quote it for, Christ said unto her,
* For this saying go thy way. One evangelist hath it, Be
it as thou wilt, thy will be done as it were, and not mine ; thou shalt carry it : but here the text saith, For this saying, go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. Christ in appearance speaks half popery, that he should thus respect her faith and her saying ; therefore Bellarmine urgeth it for the point of faith to justify a man in a formal and in a meritorious way. No ; but the meaning is this, that upon the occasion of her expres sion of her faith thus taking hold of the promise, and catching hold upon what Christ had said, and retorting it upon him again thus, he spoke thus
* The dogs may have the crumbs, he upon occasion of her saying is overcome, and yieldeth to her. So, say I, when thou takest occasion upon a promise to strike in, as this poor woman did, upon occasion of thy striking in, God cometh in to thee ; he is taken oftentimes with the retorting of a man s spirit to him
graciously to her. As she upon occasion of his words said,
again with his own words. You will say when you hear promises, Oh, if I knew they belonged to me in particular, I should be encouraged to lay hold on them. Alas ! do but think with yourselves how remote the instances of promises I have given you, both as to the Romans and this woman, were from determinately pointing at them. The promises the apostle reckons up were made to the Gentiles, and there were millions of Gentiles besides these Romans ; yet the promises being indefinite to the Gentiles, the apostle prays, that God would fulfil them to the Romans. How remote was the poor woman of Canaan from the promise. She was a dog, and there were ten thousand thousand dogs such as she, yet she takes hold of the hint that Christ gave her, and her need makes her clap in and strike in with it. Therefore do not stand and say, Till God fit the promise to me, that I shall have a full and absolute assurance that this promise is mine, I will not believe. No ; strike in afore : Paul did here for the Romans, and you see the poor woman did so.
(2.) The like I may say for exhortations. When God doth come with
CHAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 543
exhortations to you to believe, the promise is laid before you, and you are
pressed and urged to lay hold upon them. Consider now that excellent
saying of Luther, Faith doth but suffer God to do good to it. When
God, I say, comes and pins promises to you, puts them into your heart, when he doth come with exhortations in the ministry of the word to lay
hold, then lay hold and strike in, for God draws near to you ; say, Lord,
set this exhortation upon my heart ; let that which thou exhortest me to, work it in me. You shall find this, that in the Scripture there are exhor
tations to such things as you cannot do, as to make you a new heart. You
have such an exhortation in Ezek. xviii. 31, where the prophet exhorteth
us to make us new hearts. Saith the poor soul, Alas, how can I make
myself a new heart ? Lord, thou knowest I cannot do it. What doth God
besides ? As he makes this exhortation in Ezek. xviii. 31, so in the same
Ezekiel, chap. xi. 19, he makes promises of giving a new heart : I will
put a new spirit within you, saith he, and I will take away the stony
heart, and give you an heart of flesh. Here now as in one place he exhorts
them, so in another place he makes a promise to give it. The apostle James
giveth them this exhortation, James iv. 8, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. And the same you have in Jer. iv. 14, Wash thine heart from wickedness. Now look in Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27, and you shall find a promise that God
will pour his Spirit upon them, and wash them from all their filthiness. And so in Deut. x. 16, he exhorts them to circumcise their hearts : you
shall find in the same book, chap. xxx. 6, this promise, I will circumcise
thy heart, and the heart of thy seed. Well then, when you hear exhorta
tions to anything, consider that God s promises are as large as his exhorta
tions, as to the matter of them ; that is, there is nothing he exhorteth unto, but there is some promise or other for to work it. Now then I say, that when God comes and exhorts thee to that which thou art next to do, do
thou go and urge God with his promise, and say to him, Lord, this is that
thou now exhortest me to, and it is that which I have waited for long, and now thou puttest me upon it afresh ; thou hast made a promise to work it :
Lord, work it in me, according to thy promise. Thus I say, when God comes upon thee with an exhortation, strike thou in with him ; when he
draws near to thee, draw thou near to him. And this is another way of
working out our salvation with fear and trembling, fearing to omit any
opportunity wherein God comes near us, either by promises that concern
our condition, or by exhortations ; and where exhortations come near thee,
there promises are made answerable in some place or other, and do thou
urge the promise together with the exhortation ; and not only tell him of
his promise, that he hath promised to give what he exhorts thee to, sub
mitting thyself to him, laying thyself at his foot, but also tell him this,
that it is as easy for him to speak the word in thy heart to do it, as it is
for him to speak to thy outward ear, for he may do the one as well as the
other. You shall find that God wisheth that there were such an heart in
his people, that they would do thus and thus. Tell him it is as easy for him to do it, as it is for him to wish it. What saith the poor man in Mat.
viii. 2 ? Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. The truth is, he had not a promise, he had nothing to have recourse to but the power of
God, which now we are dealing with in the point of faith, speaking to a
soul that is in dependence upon it. This I am sure of, saith he, it must
lie in thy will if thou dost not do it for me, for it is in thy power to do it. What saith Christ in answer ? Shall any soul come to me and say at latter
day, that he told me I was able to do that for him which in faith he asked, and would not, or shall challenge me that I did not ? No ; I will, saith
544 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK III.
he : be thou clean. Christ will not have a soul to be frustrated that comes thus, and acknowledgeth his power, and submitteth unto it, for so
this poor man did : Lord, saith he, I am unworthy to be healed ; for it is
a modest way of expression ; it lies only upon thy will, and I subject myself unto it. And so the ruler whose daughter was sick, deals just so with his
power, Mat. ix. 18 : Speak the word, saith he, and she shall live. He
submitteth himself to him. When poor souls, I say, do thus, as it were,
lie at the catch, and wait for a word or for an encouragement from God, and upon occasion of a word of exhortation from God, do go to him and
tell him of his power, that if he will, he is able ; and when he hath made an exhortation and a promise, do urge this upon him, the Lord will hear
such a soul in the end, and he will, in the end, satisfy his desire. Nay,
suppose thou beest guilty of a great deal of unbelief and impatience, and
envying of others, and what is said in the word by way of reproof, comes
near thee and strikes thy very soul, go thou and take an occasion upon those
very reproofs to go to God, to work the contrary of that in thee which he
reproveth thee for. In Luke xvii. 5, the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. The truth is, it does not cohere with the words before, and so all interpreters do generally acknowledge. Now then, the comparing of one scripture with another will help us out. What is Christ s expression in the words afterward ? If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be
thou planted in the sea ; and it should obey you. Now if you look in
Mat. xvii. 20, there you shall find it thus : Jesus said unto his disciples, Because of your unbelief you could not cast him out : for verily I say unto
you, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this moun
tain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ; and nothing shall
bs impossible unto you. Now clearly, by comparing one place with another
(Christ using the same expression, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-
seed, and speaking in one place of removing a sycamine tree, for he used
both certainly, and in another of removing a mountain), it is evident that
the occasion of the apostles saying, Lord, increase our faith, was, that
Christ chid them for their unbelief, and told them that the reason why they could not cast the devil out of the child was, because they were a faithless
generation. And now upon Christ s chiding them thus for their unbelief, what do they do ? Lord, say they, increase our faith. Poor men ! So that now, when God meets by a reproof with what the heart is in this
way guilty of, let that be an occasion to thee, as it was to the apostles here,
for to go to God, and thus to pray to him, Lord, do thou take this away from me ; do thou work in me the contrary to that thou reprovest me for. And as that prayer had an effect upon Christ, to give more faith to his
apostles, so thou wilt find a suitable effect of thy prayer too.
Lastly, Acknowledge still all that God doth do for thee in the way of believing. I told you, in one of the premises I made, that God doth
give power to one thing when he doth not to another, and that you are to
act so far as he gives power. This text, in Philip, ii. 12, 13, hath it, that
he works the will, and he works the deed, first the will, and then the deed
itself, and he goes on thus by degrees, and this of his good pleasure. He
will work the will first one day, and the deed another ; he will produce a
desire after the thing, and then the thing itself afterwards. Now, still as God doth work, acknowledge his good pleasure in it ; and so far still as God enables thee to do, to act in the way of believing, so far do thou
* Lord, saith the poor man, Mark ix. 24, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Christ asked him, if he
acknowledge his grace and good pleasure in it :
CHAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 545
could believe ? how far he could go in believing ? Lord (saith he), I can
believe a little, help thou out with the rest. He acknowledged God in the
one, and hath recourse to him for the other. In Rom. ix. 17, saith the
* It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. His scope is, that they should be thankful to God, and not ascribe anything to their own willing, or to their own running, when they had done ; and withal, to remember that, in depending upon the
apostle,
power of God, the greatest dependence of all was upon his mercy. The
thing, I say, is to that purpose worth your observation, and you may make a distinct thing of it if you will. When thou art in a dependence upon God, and practisest these fore-mentioned rules, though weakly, yet thou sinnest against him again and again, and art put off by it ; and whereas thou art to work out thy salvation with fear and trembling, thou provokest him oftentimes, and sinnest again and again against him, yea, against the
very obligation of that dependence thou hast in thy eye for power from God to work and help forward faith in thee. To comfort thee in this, observe how these words come in. They come in as a. corollary from the
c he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I
testimony of Moses in the verse before : for
* it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy. Why doth he use the word mercy here ? Because that soul that is in dependence upon God to work the will and the deed in salvation, hath as much to do, if not
will have compassion. So then, saith he,
more, with the mercy of God as with the power of God, for it is mercy sets that power on work. Suppose thou sinnest against him, and provokest him, yet be not discouraged, remember that in willing and in doing thou hast to deal with God that sheweth mercy. In waiting on his power thou
wilt sin against him again and again, therefore, still remember, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. So here in the text it is intimated too, It is God that works according to
his good pleasure ; that is, the good pleasure of his everlasting will, as it
is in Eph. i. 5. Now the apostle doth not use this speech to take men off from running, but to put them in mind, that if in running they do backslide, and do contrary to God s pleasure, and provoke that God upon whose
power they depend, they should yet remember that he hath mercy as well as power. His mercy then should encourage thee still to depend upon that power though thou sinnest against that power, and still thou shouldst have mercy and power in thine eye. The psalmist puts them both together in Ps.
Ixii. 11, 12, God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this ; that power belongeth unto God ; also unto thee, Lord, belongeth mercy. There
fore, now, if you will go to work out faith with God, and to work out your own salvation in a way of believing, as you are to have recourse to the power of God, so you must have recourse to his mercy ; and, though you fail in these directions, yet remember that
* it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy, out of the good pleasure of his will.
VOL. VIII.
546 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.