Book IV
Though faith be a difficult work above our power, yet God commands us to
use our utmost endeavours to believe. The reason why God commands us
so to do, and how the infinite power of God in working faith, and our own
endeavours, are very well consistent together. Discouragements removed, which may arise either from our own unability to believe, or from the sense
of our great sinfulness, or from the thoughts of an absolute decree ofelection,
resolving to save only some particular persons. Directions to guide us in our endeavours to believe.
CHAPTER I.
Though faith be a difficult icork above all our abilities yet God commands us
to use our utmost endeavours to believe, and it is our duty so to do. The
reasons of it assigned.
Let its labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same
. HEB. IV. 11.
example of unbelief
WHEN I proved before * that all our natural powers are so far from helping us to believe, that in this matter they disable us, I might likewise have come to the affections, and it were easy to shew how that they are all against the work of faith, and opposite to it, and in this I might be very large. For take all those affections which we call good, and are raised up in the hearts and spirits of men, while in their natural condition, as zeal for God (which men are capable of), as the apostle calls it in Rom. x. 2.
Zeal, you know, is the intending of all the affections. Now one would think that in the heart of those men where we see a zeal of God, or a zeal for God, this zeal should not be an enemy unto faith ; yet the apostle tells us
plainly it is in that Rom. x., I do my countrymen (saith he) no wrong: ver. 2, For I bear them record they have a zeal for God, but it is not
according to knowledge, i. e., it is not according to faith, for by know
ledge he means faith there ; for, ver. 3, says he, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. I might instance, I say, in all other affections whatsoever that are good. And as for evil affections, you will easily believe that they are enemies to faith, as all the lusts of men
are. You need take but one scripture for it, John v. 44. Christ speaks there in the language of impossibility, of inconsistency, that faith should ever be wrought in the heart while lusts remain, that they and faith should stand together
: How can ye believe, saith he, if ye receive honour one of another, and do not seek that honour that is of God only ?
I might likewise shew you that all that comes from us, either take right eousness that is past or all endeavours for time to come, as they cannot * In Book II. of this third part.
CHAP. I.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 547
help us to the attainment of faith, so they are enemies to the way of believ
ing. If we consider all the righteousness that comes from us, let corrupt nature be never so much advanced, it is an enemy, it strengtheneth the
enmity that is in the heart against the way of believing. Men cannot have a righteousness of their own, as they count it, but they are conceited of it. If men have any appearance of righteousness, oh it must needs be grace, it must needs presently be accepted. And the conceit of our own right eousness is that which hinders us from seeing need of, and looking after, Christ and faith. The Pharisees thought themselves righteous, and they were so far from faith and coming unto Christ, that Christ professeth he came not to call such, Mat. ix. 13. As the law was not given for a right eous man (the law in the legal tenor of it), so nor the gospel neither. Faith, in the fundamental law of it, as I have formerly expressed it, is directly opposite to that conceit of a man s own righteousness, which is in every one s heart by nature. Herein lies the pith of faith, to believe on him that justifies the ungodly, and that in opposition to all in a man s self; so you have it, Eom. iv. 5. You know Laodicea, that thought herself rich, was kept off from going to Christ to buy gold of him ; and the richer a man s heart and life is of appearing goodness, the leather he is to break (as he must do), and become a bankrupt, that he may have Christ ; the loather he is to suffer so much loss, and to count all things else but as dung and
dross, as the apostle saith. As a man s own righteousness for time past, so some kind of endeavours for time to come, are a hindrance to faith. I do not only mean endeavours of changes, and reformations of heart and life, and the like, that these undermine faith, but oftentimes endeavours after
faith itself, when they are put forth in a man s own strength, do hinder and undermine faith. Endeavours for the time to come, if they be not
guided aright, do secretly undermine faith, and the work of it. A man when he sees his former sinfulness and want of Christ, and the necessity of
faith, and hath suffered a shipwreck of all his own righteousness, yet he
begins to build a ship anew of his own cost, and he thinks by hauling, and
tugging, and rowing, in the end to arrive at Christ ; and whilst a man doth
so, Jesus Christ goes as fast from him as he makes after Christ, whilst he doth it out of his own strength. Whereas if a man would give up and lay his naked soul, that little cock-boat which hath so great a venture in it, if he would put it into the ship of God s free grace, as I may so express it, and commit itself unto it and unto Christ, and suffer the streams and gales of the Spirit in the use of means (using of them but as means), to carry him
along, the soul would attain unto faith, But men seek after faith itself, not in a way of faith, but as a work of the law, in their own strength, which
strength man, under the legal covenant, once had. To beat down this
presumption is the apostle s design, Rom. ix. 16, So then it is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth merc
ty. In such a presumption a man condemns himself in what he allows, as the same apostle says in another case ; a man undoes himself in what he endea-
voureth, and if God be not the more merciful, a man goes to hell, endea
vouring and striving to go to heaven. This the apostle clears in this chap
ter, out of which I have now chosen my text, which refers unto the example of the Israelites ; for he had propounded the example of the Israelites and
their unbelief, and their falling short of Canaan, as types of us under the
gospel. Now it was not only their lusts, the flesh-pots of Egypt, that hindered them from coming into Canaan, but it was because they sought to go into it, and yet not by a way of faith. You know God offered to
carry them thither, to cast out their enemies before them, if they would
548 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.
have gone in his way even those that perished they might have entered but that way they rejected through unbelief. And then you shall find in Numb. xiv. 40, that they would enter upon the work in their own strength,
and rose up early in the morning to do it ; but what doth God do for this ? He brings them back again to the very brink of the Red Sea, where they were afore. So it is even with poor souls that have gone far in the wilder
ness, and are nigh heaven, nigh as it were to believing ; and yet not sub
jecting their souls and endeavours unto God s way of working faith, but
attempting it in their own strength, they are cast behind-hand again, and
in their own sense are as far off as at first ; and when God hath humbled them for endeavouring in their own strength, they are fit to enter. For God hath said in 1 Sam. ii. 9, By his own strength shall no man prevail ; but men seeing no strength in themselves to save themselves, and being convinced of that, yet think they may go out in their own strength to get this Christ that shall save them, and so being still in themselves, they never
prevail, for by a man s own strength he shall never prevail ; so doth the Holy Ghost speak, he speaks it of all things else, but especially it holds true in the matter of believing.
You see in this text, Heb. iv. 11, that the Holy Ghost makes an exhor
tation to us, by faith to labour to enter into that rest : and this text I shall make no other use of, nor of anything about it, but merely so far forth as
it may become a subject to this common-place we have in hand. And there are two ends or purposes which this text will serve for. The one is to shew you, that notwithstanding what you have heard, that faith is not of
ourselves, it is the gift of God ; yet we are to labour to enter into that rest, and labour to believe. And the second thing it serves for is this (and it is a
great point), that an indefinite promise, that is, a promise that God will save some, not naming who, is a sufficient ground to draw in any man s heart to believe, take whatever ground of faith is held forth in the word. And this is natural to the text, and to the coherence of it ; for he had said, ver. 6, It remains that some must enter into rest: and his inference from that is this, which we have here in the llth verse, Let us labour, there
fore, to enter into that rest. When men hear that faith is not of our
selves, but that it is the gift of God, there are these three things do usually arise in the spirits of men.
1. Either men do cavil at this doctrine, as lying as a stumbling-block in
their way, that if all that we can do cannot produce faith, but it is the gift of God, and that God must do all, then say they, men were as good sit
still, and not labour and endeavour at all after it, for God must do all ; and these are cavillers.
2. On the other side, such poor souls as desire to attain to faith, and to labour for it under the use of means ; yet hearing that faith is not of our
selves, yea, that a man s own endeavours, if they be out of a man s own
strength, as I have said, cannot obtain faith, yea, they are hindrances unto
believing ; they are discouraged and disheartened from all endeavours ; they think it cuts the sinews of all endeavours, strikes at the root, and causeth all to wither.
8. There are those that do expressly teach, and have taught this doctrine, that a man having seen his lost condition, is to do nothing else but to stand and wait, whenas God, without any puttings forth, or actings towards faith, will by an almighty power overpower his soul to believe.
Now then, that there may be an answer and^satisfaction given to all these three, I have taken this text as the bottom for that discourse, that
shall be an answer to them all.
CHAP. I.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 549
After I have opened the text very briefly, and shewn you how it is a bottom to what I shall deliver, then I will come to do these three things more especially. I shall answer first the objection made, as it is a cavil.
I shall, secondly, answer it as it is a discouragement to good souls. And,
thirdly, shew you what kind of endeavours they are, and how they are to be managed, which God hath appointed to attain unto faith.
But first I must open the text, and I shall do that exceeding briefly. You see it is an exhortation that we should endeavour to enter into that rest.
1. Let us consider what is meant by entering into rest, which is to be the object of our endeavour. There are two things intended by it. The first is more general, viz., the possession of heaven, that we are to make sure of that, that we be not as the foolish virgins, upon whom the door was shut, whenas others entered in, Matt. xxv. 10. Thus entering into rest is often taken in Scripture for the full possession of heaven. So in
the 10th verse of this very chapter, our Saviour Christ s ascending into heaven
is called his entering into rest after his work was ended, as God entered
into rest after his work was ended. And (Matt. xxv. 23) when men come
to possess heaven, it is called entering into their master s joy : as when
a man is said to have a full possession of an office given him, he is said to
enter upon it. An heir that was under age had a right and title to his in
heritance, yet he enters upon his land and estate when he comes to years
so that now if you take it in this sense, then this is the meaning of it, that we should endeavour to be found in the number of those that shall enter
into that rest.
But, secondly, by entering into rest is meant more particularly the attain ment of true saving faith, whereby we come to have a sure title to that rest
in heaven, and to make at present thereby such an entrance upon it as gives a right before possession, which comes afterwards. And this I make plain to you by these two reasons.
* We which have believed do enter into rest : so that faith is clearly and plainly an
First, By what is said at the third verse of this very chapter,
entering into rest, in the apostle s sense, in this chapter. In having an
estate of land passed, besides the writings there are two ceremonies used; there is entering upon some part of it, and there is a giving of some piece of the ground, as a tuft of earth, and the like. So is it here ; we by faith do enter upon this rest, and we receive then an earnest of joy, the seal of
the Spirit, the first-fruits of heaven. It is evident also that by entering into
rest is meant believing, by the very words that follow my text, for the very next words are, Lest any man fall through the same example of unbelief. He sets before their eyes the example of the Israelites, and of those
Israelites that went far towards Canaan ; and yet, saith he, through un
belief they never entered into it. Now let us, saith he, take heed of falling through unbelief as they did ; let us therefore labour to attain to true faith,
by which we enter into rest, and have such a right to it as we shall never
be dispossessed. And so now you see that by entering into rest is meant
believing.
Secondly, The word here translated labour signifies to study to enter into
that rest, to have all the powers and faculties in us intended in attaining to
true faith. He expresseth it by a word that signifies the labour of the
mind, which is proper to scholars and students, whose minds are taken up with the greatest intention and the greatest labour. Now, saith he, there was
never any scholar studied more to find out what is truth, giving up his under
standing unto God, who is the great enlightener, never any philosopher ever gave his mind more to find out natural truths, than a believer doth to
550 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.
attain unto true faith ; we are to search for it as for silver : when he therefore saith, Let us labour to enter into that rest, his meaning is, that we should use the utmost of our endeavours to attain to it, and to attain, as to the rest, so to the entering into that rest.
And so I have done with the exposition of the words, and you see how
they are a bottom to that discourse which I mean to proceed in. I shall come now to those particulars which I have laid down to discourse of.
1. I am to answer this great cavil, made either by secure profane persons, or by those that are opposite to the doctrine of free grace, viz., that if faith be not of ourselves, and all that is within us be against it, and that God must do all, then we are not to endeavour. The apostle, you see, speaks point blank against it ; and notwithstanding the Israelites (who were types of temporary believers under the gospel, and of such as attain not to true
faith) endeavoured to enter into Canaan, and yet fell short, he makes this use of it, that we should therefore labour for to enter into that rest. But
for the answering of this, as it is a cavil, more particularly
: (1.) I say this, that this doctrine, that it is God which works faith, and that doth all in us
in the matter of believing, is attended upon and clogged in this, with a like
cavil that all other mysteries of the gospel are. The mystery of the gospel lies in this, it is a reconciling of contradictions ; and all your cavillers take
part with one part of the contradiction to overthrow the other. As now, that God should peremptorily elect men to salvation, and yet man s will should be free ; how can these two stand together, say the cavillers against free grace and God s everlasting love ? So likewise when they hear that God works conversion in men unresistibly, say they, how can this be if God work upon the free will of man ? So now here, when we say that it
is God only worketh faith, and that it is his gift, and that all our endea vours are not able to produce it, what do they presently conclude and retort upon us ? Then we were as good lay all endeavours aside. But
really this is all one with that deceit which hath damned many a soul, viz.,
if I be elected, whatever I do I shall be saved. It is all one with that kind of cavil of the papists, that hath accompanied the doctrine of justification by Christ alone, and by faith in him, and that without works ; for, say they, we were then as good do no good works at all. So now is it here, if that
faith be not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God ; then say they, we were as good sit still and endeavour nothing at all. This is the first thing in the general that I premise ; that it is, I say, but a like cavil to all those that carnal men have made against all the "truths of God, the mystery of which lies in reconciling these contradictions. But,
(2.) Secondly, To speak more directly to those that cavil thus, and that
say it is therefore in vain to use endeavours. Let that man appear or stand out from all the rest at the day of judgment, or now in this world, that is able to say, I used my utmost endeavours to attain salvation, and could not attain it, God would not give it me. If he did not use his utmost endeavours, then God is clear. I will not stand now to dispute, whether de jure, as we say, if a man should use his utmost endeavours, God infallibly would work grace in that man s heart ; but, de facto, we may challenge all the sons of men. And let me tell you this, that at the latter
day, when men shall come to be condemned I speak this to clear God God will not go and say, I therefore condemn you because you did not put forth an act of saving, justifying faith. No ; but he will condemn men because they did not put forth that uttermost, which, through that assist ance corrupt nature had from him, they might have put forth. When God comes to judge all mankind, it is said, that he will judge them that lived
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 551
under the law by the law ; and them that lived without the law, he will
judge without the law, Rom. ii. 12. Now, it is true, in rigour, whether men know the law or not, God might condemn them upon it as if they knew it, for they knew it once in Adam, and are bound to know it ; but he will not go that way to the work ; but if men have lived without the
law, he will consider them but so far forth as the light of nature went, and
so far judge them ; and if they have lived under the law, then he will pro ceed in judgment so far as the law went, and that spirit and strength that
accompanies the law ; and so if they lived under the gospel, he will con demn them for not using that assistance, that spirit and strength, that
accompanies the hearts of men that live under the gospel, and leads them on to faith. He will not condemn men for negatives, but rather for what
is positive ; because they loved darkness rather than light, and because
they would not believe, but cleave to their lusts.
For if any man attempted and fell short, the impediment did lie in his own will. That point will never come to be disputed, whether he could or
no. God will cut off all with this, he would not. Impii non posse est ejus non velle, the impotency of a wicked man is his not willing ; and yet this
inability to will is not merely a moral, but a natural impotence. That
they cannot is resolved by Christ into their lusts as the reason : John v.
* Ye will not come to me that ye might have life ; and how can
40, 44,
ye believe (and why, where lies the difficulty?) that receive, says he, verse 44, honour one from another ? The impediment lies in them
* loving darkness more than
selves, in their willing the contrary, in their
light. If indeed the impediment were extrinsecal wholly, a door, locked on thee, or that God held it so fast in his hand that thou couldst not wring
it out, then there were room for complaint ; but it being intrinsecal, in thy
will, thou hast no cause to complain.
(3.) For answer to this cavil, I say, that there is no man would make this
cavil, or would complain, that endeavoureth in a right way ; and if he endeavoureth not in a right way, there is reason God should complain rather of him. For I ask, Upon what ground is it that thou thinkest to
attain unto faith ? If thou thinkest to obtain it for thy own endeavours, and by them to compass it, I say this plainly to thee, it is pity thou
* He will keep the feet of
shouldst ever attain it that way
: 1 Sam. ii. 9,
his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness ; for by strength shall no man prevail. And my reason is this, because it would be dis honourable unto God, for God never gave it upon those terms. If he
should, he then should lose the glory of his grace, and grace should be no
grace ; it would be then of debt, as the apostle saith in Rom. iv. 1-3. Now, then, if ever God give it he will give it of free grace, or he will not
give it at all : Not of works, saith he, Eph. ii. 9, lest any man should
boast. On the other side, if any one doth endeavour, in a subordination unto grace, in a dependence upon grace as it is free, that he is content to
venture his endeavours upon the free grace of God towards him in Christ, as thinking that nothing he doth moveth or swayeth God anything at all, but that God is as free after twenty years endeavours of his as the first
day; I say, if any one doth endeavour thus, that man shall be sure to
attain it, and he shall have no cause to complain. And if he should miss he would not complain, because he sought it upon such terms that God was still free, and he depended upon free grace, and he endeavoured still
in a subordination thereunto ; and so howsoever he had his end, and he would never complain.* In a word, either a man seeks salvation in sub
ordination to free grace or not ; if not, it is justice to deny him, because
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.
his endeavours, if they speed, would derogate from God s grace. If he seeks salvation subordinately to free grace, then, however it falls out, he will have his end ; for if he obtains, he says, not unto my endeavours, but to thy grace, be the glory ; and so he magnifies free grace. If he obtains it not, yet, Lord, says he, thy grace is magnified, and the freeness of it demonstrated in this, that so many endeavours missed, because thou wert free whether thou wouldst save me or not.
(4.) Let all such cavillers consider that the Scriptures do"speak the clean contrary, and those very places that hold forth that God doth all according to his good pleasure, do infer from thence that we should therefore endea vour in our proportion. You have it in Philip, ii. 13, Beloved brethren, saith he, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
: for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Here the apostle lays down this position as strongly as any caviller upon earth can, for he tells us that it is God that not only works the deed but the very will in us ; and that he doth not only give power to the will, and then the will puts forth the act, but that he works the very act of will : 1 It is God, saith he,
* that works both the will and the deed. And this he saith he doth of his good pleasure. He so works it as he will not be obliged to dp
it to this man or that man, or upon this man s endeavours or that man s endeavours, but out of his good pleasure, when, and where, and how he will. Here, I say, the objection is made as strong as any man can make it to raise this cavil upon it, therefore let us do nothing. But see how the apostle urgeth it to the quite contrary
: Let us there/ore,
saith he, work out our own salvation with fear and trembling
: for it is God that works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And again, whereas men are apt to cavil and say, Many have endeavoured, and they have missed, therefore we had as good sit still. What doth Christ say ? He infers likewise the clean contrary from it in Luke xiii. 24 : Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many will seek to enter, and shall not be able ; not be able through their own lusts, and through their their own wills, that undermine their endeavours. Observe it, he draws the very clean contrary inference, that because many do seek to enter, and shall not be able, therefore, saith he, do you do more. He bids them take more pains
: Do you strive, saith he, wrestle it out, even as wrestlers and contenders for masteries use to do, as the apostle saith in 1 Cor. ix. 24, endeavouring to put nothing to the venture, or to an uncertainty, as far as possibly you can : Thus strive, saith he ; for many have sought to enter, and have not been able. So that now these that make this cavil must needs run point-blank against the Scripture, which, you see, makes an inference quite contrary to it. I might add also that of our Saviour Christ in John vi. 27, where when they had taken a great deal of pains to follow him for the loaves, he diverts their labour to something else, and he bids them labour or work for the meat that endures to eternal life. But they might say, Why, but it is a thing that is not of ourselves, it is the gift of Christ, and why should we labour after it ? Yes, saith Christ ; Labour you for the meat which endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you ; and notwithstanding he is to give it you, yet do you labour for it. But I shall make use of this place when I come to shew you what acts we are to put forth, and truly one plainly in a word is this, to believe ; for so it is there, ver. 28, 29, Upon this say they unto him, What shall we do to work the works of God ? or, what do you mean by this labouring ? Saith Christ, This is the work of God, that ye believe
ClIAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 553
on him whom he hath sent. He puts them upon believing itself, and the
exercising thereof.
2. Now to prosecute those three heads mentioned, I shall shew you, and give a reason or two why, though faith is not of ourselves, but is the
gift of God, yet notwithstanding he requires endeavours at our hands as means to attain it ; and though he works both the will and the deed of his
good pleasure, yet his good pleasure is that we should co-work with him. How to manage and guide your endeavours herein I must speak to in the
last head. In the mean time there are these reasons why God hath joined both the one and the other.
(1.) That by our labouring and endeavouring we may shew and acknow
ledge what our duty is. It is God s command that we should believe and
lay hold upon Jesus Christ, and cast ourselves upon him for salvation, therefore it is our duty, and we are to labour to attain this, and to labour
after it in truth and in the spiritualness of it ; not so much to shew what we are able to do, but what we ought to do, and what our duty is to do.
It is not required to shew our ability, but our readiness. Our weakness and our inability doth not cut the bond of our duty. We set young chil dren to school with their hornbook at their girdles oftentimes, long before
they have skill, or are capable of skill, to read them ; we teach them to take up a book, to look upon the letters, to shew them thereby what it is we would have them do, and what it is we intend to bring them up to. So doth God himself with us. And we do like and approve it in little chil
dren, that they will sit at school with a book thus in their hand, rather than be still at home careless, playing with babies and rattles, and the like.
(2.) God requires men s endeavours to this_very purpose, that men may see their inability, which is a great lesson that furthers faith. Nature will and doth think it can believe and repent, till it makes trial ; and as we use to put conceited persons upon services to shew them their folly and their weakness upon trial, so God deals with us. Men, if they saw not their own
inability, would be apt to say in their hearts as they Deut. viii. 7, ./ My power, and the might of my hand hath done this : and they would not see their disability but by attempting to do something. Thus Christ suffered the woman that had the bloody issue to use all means else ere he cured
her, to shew her the inability and insufficiency of all means ; and she spent all upon physicians that could do her no good, that so she might fly to him. And thus God left nature to use all her shifts and inventions to attain to
happiness, and to use all her wit and strength ere he sent his Son into the world: 1 Cor. i. 21, After that in wisdom men knew not God, that is, after trial made of the strength of natural wisdom, but not till then,
* it
pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching them that believe.
(3.) God hath appointed our endeavours and means to be used, not as duties only, but as testimonies and evidences that we do wholly depend upon God for to work all our works in us and for us, seeing in the use of means and endeavours of ours God useth to come. Carelessness giveth over the use of means ; but when a man dependeth upon God for a thing, that dependence will make him to use those means whereby to attain it, as a
testimony he doth depend upon God, and so God requires it. In Luke v. 4, when Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, saith Christ unto him,
* Launch out into the deep, and let out your nets for a draught; Simon
answering, said unto him, Master, we have toiled, toiled to weariness (so the word signifies), and toiled all the night, which is the opportune sea son for fishing, and have caught nothing ; nevertheless, this is it I quote it for, at thy word I will let down the net. His meaning is, as if he
554 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.
should have said, although all the endeavours we have used hitherto have
been frustrate, notwithstanding the fair opportunities we have had, having had all the night before us to fish in, and we have took abundance of toil,
* yet at thy word,
cast in the net again and again, and all to no purpose,
that phrase implies that he did it merely in a dependence upon Jesus Christ, and upon his word, at thy word, saith he,
* I will let down the net, as
an evidence that he depended upon the word of Christ, and subjected him
self unto it, when he himself had little hope, as those words imply, We
have fished all night, and have caught nothing. When they used rams
horns seven days in compassing the city of Jericho, they did not use them
as a means that would be effectual in itself to the blowing down of the
walls, but they used them as signs that they believed his word, and that
they did depend upon him to effect that which they desired, because God
had said and appointed that in that means he would do it. So doth God command and require endeavours, not so much as means, though they have likewise the nature of means, but as signs that we depend upon him who worketh all in all, and hath appointed to work them by those means.
(4.) God hath appointed to us to use endeavours, and that we should
strive to enter into that rest, that salvation may be prized, that the gift of
faith may be valued. It is not that those endeavours promote our salvation
so much, but it is that it may cost us somewhat, to the end that we may value
it. The salvation of men cost God much ; it cost him his Son, it cost his
Son his blood, it hath cost the Holy Ghost abundance of attendance upon
us. Now we are the men to be saved, it is our own salvation : therefore
there is a great deal of reason that it should cost us somewhat too. Those
things that come to us very lightly, we do as lightly regard them ; it is in
the nature of man so to do, and God deals with us as with men. Things,
I say, that are easily gotten are lightly esteemed ; we may see it by expe rience in those that think they have had faith ever since they can remem
ber, how slightly do they speak of it, and how lightly do such kind of souls
esteem of it. If we had salvation and faith dropped into our mouths, we
would the more lightly regard it ; therefore God would not have us sloth
ful for the attaining of faith, not slothful for the discovering of faith, not
slothful in holding fast the profession of faith unto the end : so you have it in
Heb. vi. 12. We desire, saith he, that every one of you do shew the
same diligence (that is, after conversion) which you have shewn before, to
the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, &c.
(5.) Even for this very reason doth God require us to endeavour, though he himself works all, that when our endeavours without him have proved
unsuccessful, his power in working faith at last might appear the more. When a man hath endeavoured and used the means long, and to no pur
pose, as he thinks, if in the end God comes in, it magnifies his free
grace and his power towards us. As in that instance before quoted in Luke v. 5, when they had toiled all night, and took nothing, that then there
should be so great a draught of fishes taken by casting down the net once
more, this made Peter fall down amazed, this made him acknowledge Jesus
to be the Lord, and to say to Christ, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man ; so struck was he with the greatness of that power that appeared
in that work. God doth sometimes hide his power under means, and lets men endeavour that they may see even by experience their own inability, which lesson is hardly otherwise learned. We had scarce ever learned this
great lesson, that it is God that works faith in us, but by the experience of
our own inability, and that experience of our own inability is taught us
from attempting endeavours according to God s command. Nature is apt,
CHAP. I.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 555
and will be apt, to try if it can work faith out of itself ; it is apt to think I
will take the promises and this heart of mine, and strike the one against the other till sparks come out ; and till a man see by his own experience that nothing comes out, he will never believe himself to be so unable to attain it as he is. We use to put conceited persons upon hard services and
businesses, to the end they may even by their own experience see their folly and weakness. It is experience that must teach us the truth of this doc
* My power, and my might, and my hand hath done it. And therefore Christ suffered the
trine, or else we are apt to say as they in Deut. viii. 17,
poor woman that had the issue, first to use all means, to spend all that she had upon physicians, that when the inability of all means else should appear, the cure he was to work on her might the more be magnified.
(6.) In the last place, I add this as an answer unto this cavil, that in using those means God hath appointed, and such endeavours as God requires of
us, there is nothing derogated from the power of God in working when he works faith, neither doth the power of God exclude such endeavours, but both may well stand together. First, I say, the use of them doth
nothing derogate from the power of God in working, no more than the clay and the spittle which Christ used to restore the blind man to his sight. They of themselves could conduce nothing to the effecting of it, but in seem
ing appearance would rather put one s eyes out more ; yet Christ, who
might have restored him otherwise, would have this used, and his power did no less appear in the working of it thus, than if he had wrought it
immediately without it : so God may and doth shew as much power in our
using the means, as in working without them. Did not God, think you, shew as much power in taking of a rib from the man to make the woman
of, and in taking red earth to make the body of the man out of it, as he shewed in the first day s creation, when he made all things out of mere
nothing ? God, even in some miracles, seemed to use means, which might have some show and colour of working the effect wrought, as in healing Naaman s leprosy, the washing in Jordan might seem to have likelihood of
a remedy for a disease, and God did it to hide his power. Thus too, in such works as are standing works (as the conversion of souls is, which is
the standing miracle of the world), God loves to hide and clothe his power under our endeavours, and in using means, as well as in working it imme
diately ; and as he is found of those that sought him not, so he is found
also of those that seek him ; and alike power, and alike free grace appears in both. And then again, on the other side, the power of God doth not
exclude men s endeavours, for though God doth not work faith in men for
their endeavours, as the moving cause, neither doth he work by them as
adjuvant causes, that reach the effect ; yet, as concomitant instruments, he
doth. You have that clear in that expression of the apostle in 1 Cor.
iii. 8 ; at the 7th verse he had said, that neither is he that planteth any
thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase : yet, not
* we are co-workers with God, and labourers together with him. So that I say, although man doth
withstanding, at the 8th verse, he saith, that
nothing, and it is God that doth all, and faith is not of ourselves, but is
the gift of God, yet there are endeavours and means that God hath
appointed for the attaining of faith, and both these may stand together. And so let this be enough, if not too much, for the answering of that objec tion as it is a cavil ; namely, that if God work all, and we do nothing in the
producing of faith in us, then men were as good sit still, and not labour and endeavour at all after it.
556 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART III. BOOK IV.