Chapter
Eleven
Endeavour
diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner,
without any delay; and then also continue and increase in your most holy
faith, that so your enjoyment of Christ, union and fellowship with Him, and
all holiness by Him, may be begun, continued and increased in you.
Having already
discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of a holy practice, my
remaining work is to lead you to the actual exercise and improvement of them,
for the immediate attainment of the end. And I think it may be clearly
perceived by the foregoing directions that faith in Christ is the duty with
which a holy life is to begin, and by which the foundation of all other holy
duties is laid in the soul.
It is before
sufficiently proved that Christ Himself, with all endowments necessary to
enable us to a holy practice, is received actually into our hearts by faith.
This is the uniting grace by which the Spirit of God knits the knot of
mystical marriage between Christ and us, and makes us branches of that noble
vine; members of that body, joined to that excellent head; living stones of
that spiritual temple, built on the precious living corner-stone, and sure
foundation; partakers of the bread and drink that came down from heaven and
gives life to the world. This is the grace by which we pass from our corrupt
natural state to a new holy state in Christ; also from death in sin to the
life of righteousness, and by which we are comforted, that we so may be
established in every good word and work.
If we put the
question: 'What must we do that we work the works of God?' Christ resolves it,
that we 'believe on Him whom He has sent' (John 6:28, 29). He puts us first on
the work of believing, which is the work of God by way of eminency, the work
of works, because all other good works proceed from it.
The first thing in
the present direction is to put you upon the performance of this great work of
believing on Christ and to guide you therein, for you are to consider
distinctly four things contained in it.
1. The first is, you
are to make it your diligent endeavour to perform the great work of believing
on Christ. Many make little conscience of this duty. It is not known by
natural light, as many moral duties are, but only by supernatural revelation
in the gospel, and it is foolishness to the natural man. These are sometimes
terrified with apprehensions of other sins and will examine themselves
concerning them and, it may be, will write them down to help their memories
and devotion. But the great sin of not believing on Christ is seldom thought
of in their self-examinations, or registered in the large catalogues of their
sins. And even those who are convinced that believing on Christ is a duty
necessary to salvation do neglect all diligent endeavours to perform it:
either because they account that it is a motion of the heart which may be
easily performed at any time, without any labour or diligent endeavours; or,
on the contrary, because they account it as difficult as all the works of the
law, and utterly impossible for them to perform by their most diligent
endeavours, except the Spirit of God work it in them by His mighty power; and
that therefore it is vain for them to work until they feel this working of the
Spirit in their hearts; or, because they account it a duty so peculiar to the
elect, that it would be presumption for them to endeavour the performance of
it until they know themselves to be elected to eternal life through Christ. I
shall urge you to a diligent performance of this duty, notwithstanding all
these impediments, by the following consideration. It is worthy of our best
endeavours, as appears by the preciousness, excellency and necessity of it
already discovered.
If the light of
nature were not darkened in the matters of salvation, it would show us that we
cannot ourselves find out the way of salvation, and would condemn those that
despise that revelation of the way of salvation that God has given us in the
gospel, declared in the Holy Scriptures. The great end of preaching the gospel
is for the obedience of faith (
Rom.
1:5), that so we may be brought to Christ and all other obedience. Yea, the
great end of all revealed doctrines in the whole Scriptures is to 'make us
wise unto salvation by faith that is in Christ Jesus' (2 Tim.
3:15
). The 'end of the law given by Moses, was for righteousness to every one that
believes' (
Rom.
10:4); and Christ was that end for righteousness. The moral law itself was
revealed in order to our salvation by believing on Christ; or else the
knowledge of it had nothing availed fallen man that was unable to perform it.
Therefore, they that slight the duty of believing, and account it foolishness,
do in this way slight, despise and vilify the whole counsel of God revealed in
the Scripture. The law and the gospel and Christ Himself are become of none
effect to the salvation of such. The only fruit that such a one can attain to,
by all the saving doctrines of the Scripture, is only some hypocritical moral
duties, and slavish performances, which will be as filthy rags in the sight of
God in the great day. However, many do not mind the sin of unbelief in their
self-examinations, and write it not in their scrolls; yet let them know that
this is the most pernicious sin of all. All the sins in their scrolls would
not prevail in their condemnation, yea, they would not prevail in their
conversation, were it not for their unbelief. This one sin prevailing makes it
impossible for them to please God in any duty whatever (Heb. 11:6). If you
will not mind this one main sin now, God will at last mind you of it with a
vengeance, for 'he that does not believe on the Son, shall not see life; but
the wrath of God abides on him' (John 3: 36). 'The Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess. 1:7, 8).
2. Believing on
Christ is a work that will require diligent endeavour and labour for the
performance of it. We must labour 'to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall by unbelief' (Heb.
4:11). We must 'show diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end, that we
may be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises'
(Heb.
6:11, 12). It is a work that requires the exercise of might and power, and
therefore we have need to be 'strengthened with might by the Spirit in the
inward man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith' (Eph.
3:16, 17). 1 confess it is easy, pleasant and delicious in its own nature, because
it is a motion of the heart, without any cumbersome bodily labour; and it is a
taking Christ and His salvation as our own, which is very comfortable and
delightful; and the soul is carried forth in this by love to Christ and its
own happiness, which is an affection that makes even hard works easy and
pleasant; yet it is made difficult to us by reason of the opposition that it
meets with from our own inward corruptions, and from Satan's temptations.
It is no easy
matter to receive Christ as our happiness and free salvation, with true
confidence and lively affection, when the guilt of sin lies heavily on the
conscience and the wrath of God is manifested by the Word and terrible
judgements - especially when we have been long accustomed to seek salvation by
the procurement of our own works, and to account the way of salvation by free
grace foolish and pernicious; when our lusts incline us strongly to the things
of the flesh and the world; when Satan does his utmost, by his own
suggestions, and by false teachers, and by worldly allurements and terrors, to
hinder the sincere performance of this duty.
Many works that are
easy in their own nature prove difficult for us to perform in our
circumstances. To forgive our enemies, and to love them as ourselves, is but a
motion of the mind, easy to be performed in its own nature; and yet many that
are convinced of their duty find it a hard matter to bring their hearts to the
performance of it. It is but a motion of the mind to cast our care on God for
worldly things, and rich men may think they can do it easily, but poor men
that have great families find it a hard matter. That easy comfortable duty,
which Moses exhorted the Israelites to, when Pharaoh, with his chariots and
horsemen, overtook them at the
Red Sea, 'Fear not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will
show you today' (Exod.
14:13), was not easily performed.
The very easiness of
some duties makes their performance difficult, as Naaman the Syrian was hardly
brought to wash and be clean, because he thought it to be too slight and easy
a remedy for the cure of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:12, 13). Even in this very
case, people are offended at the duty of the believing on Christ, as too
slight and easy a remedy to cure the leprosy of the soul; they would have some
harder thing enjoined them to the attainment of so great an end as this
everlasting salvation. The performance of all the moral law is not accounted
work enough for this end (Matt.
19:17, 20). However easy the work of believing seems to many, yet common experience
has shown that men are more easily brought to the most burdensome,
unreasonable and inhuman observations - as the Jews and Christian Galatians
were more easily brought to take upon their necks the yoke of Moses' law,
which none were able to bear (Acts 15:10). The heathens were more easily
brought to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods
(Deut. 12:31). The Papists are brought more easily to their vows of chastity and poverty
and obedience to the most rigorous rules of monastic discipline, to macerate
and torture their bodies with fastings, scourges and pilgrimage, and to bear
all the excessive tyranny of the papal hierarchy, in a multitude of burdensome
superstitious and ridiculous devotions.
They that slight the
work of faith for its easiness show that they were never yet made sensible of
innumerable sins, and the terrible curse of the law and wrath of God they lied
under, and of the darkness and vanity of their minds, the corruption and
hardness of their hearts, and their bondage under the power of sin and Satan;
and have not been truly humbled, without which they cannot believe in a right
manner. Many sound believers have found by experience that it has been a very
hard matter to bring their hearts to the duty of believing; it has cost them
vigorous struggles and sharp conflicts with their own corruptions and Satan's
temptations. It is so difficult a work that we cannot perform it without the
mighty working of the Spirit of God in our hearts, who only can make it to be
absolutely easy to us, and does make it easy, or allow it to be difficult,
according as He is pleased to communicate His grace in various degrees to our
souls.
3. Though we cannot
possibly perform this great work in a right manner, until the Spirit of God
work faith in our hearts by His mighty power, yet it is necessary that we
should endeavour it; and that before we can find the Spirit of God
working faith effectually in us, or giving strength to believe. We can perform
no holy duty acceptably, except the Spirit of God work it in us; and yet we
are not hereby excused from working ourselves, but we are the rather stirred
up to the greater diligence: 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure'
(Phil. 2:12, 13). The way by which the Spirit works faith in the elect is by
stirring them up to endeavour to believe. And this is a way suitable to the
means that the Spirit uses, that is, the exhortations, commands and
invitations of the gospel, which would be of no force, if we were not to obey
them, until we find faith already wrought in us.
Neither can we
possibly find that the Spirit of God effectually works faith, or gives
strength to believe, until we act it; for all inward graces, as well as all
other inward habits, are discerned by their acts, as seed in the ground by its
springing. We cannot see any such things as love to God or man in our hearts
before we act it. Children do not know their ability to stand on their feet
until they have made trial by endeavouring to do so; so we know not our
spiritual strength until we have learned by experience from the use and
exercise of it.
Neither can we know,
or assure ourselves absolutely, that the Spirit of God will give us strength
to believe before we act faith; for such a knowledge and assurance, if it is
right, is having faith itself in part, and whoever trusts on Christ assuredly
for strength to believe by His Spirit, in effect, trusts on Christ for his own
salvation, which is inseparably joined with the grace of saving faith. Though
the Spirit works other duties in us by faith, yet He works faith in us
immediately by hearing, knowing and understanding the Word: 'Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God' (Rom.
10:17
). And, in the Word, He makes no absolute promise or declaration that He will
work faith in this or that unbelieving. heart, or that He will give strength
to believe to anyone in particular, or begin the work of believing in Christ,
for faith itself is the first grace by which we have a particular interest in
any saving promise. It is a thing hidden in the secret counsel and purpose of
God concerning us whether He will give us His Spirit and saving faith until
our election is discovered by our believing actually.
Therefore, as soon
as we know the duty of believing, we are to apply ourselves immediately to the
vigorous performance of the duty and, in so doing, we shall find that the
Spirit of Christ has strengthened us to believe, though we know not certainly
that He will do it beforehand. The Spirit comes indiscernibly upon the elect
to work faith within them, like the wind that blows where it lists and none
knows whence it comes, and where it goes, but only we hear the sound of it,
and thereby know it when it is past and gone (John 3:8). We must therefore
begin the work before we know that the Spirit does, or will work in us
savingly; and we shall be willing to set on the work, if we are Christ's
people, for 'Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power' (Ps.
110:3). It is enough that God discovers to us beforehand in the gospel what
faith is, and the ground we have to believe on Christ for our own salvation;
and that God requires this duty of us, and will help us in the performance of
it, if we apply ourselves heartily to it: 'Fear not, I command you; be strong,
and of good courage' (Josh. 1:6). 'Arise, and be doing, and the Lord will be
with you' (1 Chron. 22:16
). Therefore, whoever receives this gospel discovery as the Word of God, in
hearty love, is taught by the Spirit, and will certainly come to Christ by
believing (John 6:45). Everyone that receives it not despises God, makes Him a
liar and deserves justly to perish for his unbelief.
4. Though the Spirit
works saving faith only in the elect, and others do not believe because they
are not of Christ's sheep (John 10:26), and on that account it is called the
faith of God's elect (Titus 1:1); yet all that hear the gospel are obliged to
the duty of believing, as well as to all the duties of the moral law, and that
before they know their own particular election, and they are liable to
condemnation for unbelief, as well as for any other sin: 'He that does not
believe is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the
only begotten Son of God' (John 3:18). The apostle Paul shows that the elect
Israelites obtained salvation, and the rest that were not elected were
blinded; and yet even these were broken off from the good olive tree, because
of their unbelief (Rom. 11:7, 20).
We cannot have a
certain knowledge of our election to eternal life before we do believe; it is
a thing hidden in the unsearchable counsel of God, until it be manifest by our
effectual calling and believing on Christ. The apostle knew the election of
the Thessalonians by finding the evidence of their faith that the gospel came
to them, 'not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance,' and that they had 'received the word in much affliction, with
joy in the Holy Ghost' (1 Thess. 1:4, 5, 6). We are to see our calling, if we
would find that out that God has chosen us (1 Cor. 1:26, 27). Therefore, we must believe on Christ before we know our election, or
else we shall never know it, and shall never believe.
And it is no
presumption for us to trust confidently on Christ for everlasting life, before
we have any good evidence of our election, because God, that cannot lie, has
made a general promise 'that whoever believes on Him, shall not be ashamed',
without making the least difference among them that perform this duty (Rom.
10:11, 12). The promise is as firm and sure to be fulfilled as any of God's
decrees and purposes, and therefore it is a good and sufficient ground for our
confidence. It is certain that all that the Father has given to Christ, by the
decree of eternal election, shall come to Christ; and it is as really certain
that Christ will in no wise cast out any that come to Him, whosoever he is
(John 6:37). And we need not fear that we shall infringe God's decree of
election by believing on Christ confidently for our salvation, before we know
what God has decreed concerning us, for, if we believe, we shall at last be
found among the number of the elect and, if we refuse to believe, we shall
thereby wilfully sort ourselves among the reprobates, 'that stumble at the
word, being disobedient, whereunto also they are appointed' (1 Peter 2:8).
I shall add further
that, though we have no evidence of our particular election before we believe,
yet we are to trust on Christ assuredly to make it evident to us, by giving us
that salvation which is the peculiar portion of the elect only. All spiritual
saving blessings, with which God blesses His people in Christ, are the
peculiar portion of them whom God has chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world (Eph. 1:3, 4); yet we must necessarily trust on Christ for those
saving blessings, or have none at all. We are to pray in faith, nothing
doubting, that God will 'remember us with the favour that He bears to His
people; that we may see the good of His chosen, and glory with His
inheritance' (Ps. 106: 4, 5). Therefore we are to trust assuredly on God that
He will deal with us as His chosen people.
Thus it appears that
it is not presumption, but your bounden duty, to apply yourselves to the great
work of believing on Christ for salvation, without questioning at all
beforehand whether you are elected or no: 'Secret things belong to God, but
those things that are revealed, belong to us, that we may do them' (Deut.
29:29).
The second thing
directed to is that you shall endeavour for a right manner of performing this
duty. This is a point of great concernment, because the want of it will render
your faith ineffectual to sanctification and salvation. The great duty of
love, which is the end of the law, and the principal fruit of sanctification,
must flow from faith unfeigned (1 Tim. 1:5). There is a feigned faith, that
does not really receive Christ into the heart, and will not produce love, or
any true obedience, such as Simon Magus had (Acts 8:13, 23), for,
notwithstanding his faith, he was in the 'gall of bitterness, and in the bond
of iniquity'; and such as those Jews had, to whom Christ would not commit
Himself, who did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue
(John 2:24; 12:42); and such as the apostle James speaks of: 'What does it
profit, my brothers, if a man say he has faith, and has no works? Can that
faith save him? The devils also believe and tremble' (James 2:14, 19). Take heed, therefore, lest you deceive your souls with a counterfeit
faith, instead of the precious faith in God's elect.
The way to
distinguish the one from the other is by considering well what is the right
manner of that believing which is effectual to salvation. Hypocrites may
perform the same works for the matter, with true saints, but they are
defective in the manner of performance, wherein the excellency of the work
does chiefly consist. One great reason why 'many seek to enter in at the
strait gate, and are not able' (Luke
13:24
) is because they are ignorant and defective in the right manner of acting
this faith by which they are to enter. Now I confess that God is only able to
guide us effectually in the right way of believing. And we have this great
consolation, when we see our own folly and proneness to mistake our way, and
if we heartily desire and endeavour to believe on Grist aright, we may
confidently trust on Christ to guide us. God has promised that the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err in the way of holiness; and that He will
'teach sinners in the way. The meek will He guide in judgement, and the meek
will He teach His way' (Ps. 25:8, 9); and He commands them that lack wisdom to
ask it of God in faith, nothing doubting (James 1:5, 6). But, however, we are
to know that God guides us only according to the rule of His Word; and we must
endeavour to learn the right way of believing out of the Word, or else we are
not able so much as to trust rightly on God for guidance and direction in this
great work.
To help you here, I
have given you before in this treatise a description of saving faith, and have
shown that it contains two acts in it: the one is believing the truth of the
gospel; the other is believing on Christ as revealed and freely promised to us
in the gospel, for all His salvation. Now, your great endeavour must be to
perform both these acts in a right manner, as I shall show concerning each of
them in particular.
In the first place,
you are highly concerned to endeavour for a right belief in the truth of the
gospel of Christ, that so you may be well furnished, disposed and encouraged
to believe on Christ, as revealed and promised in the gospel. In this way you
are to remove all discomfortable thoughts and objections of Satan and your own
conscience, and to overcome all corrupt inclinations that hinder a cheerful
embracing of Christ and His salvation. It is found by experience that when any
fail in the second act of faith, the reason of the failing is commonly some
defect in this first act. There is some false imagination or other in them,
contrary to the belief of the truth of the gospel, which is a stronghold of
sin and Satan that must be pulled down before they can receive Christ into
their hearts by believing on Him. If they knew the name of Christ, as He is
discovered in the gospel, and judged aright of the truth and excellency of it,
they would not fail to put their trust in Him. And we are in great danger of
entertaining such false imaginations, and to account many truths of the gospel
strange paradoxes, yea, foolish and pernicious, because of our ignorance,
selfconceitedness, guilty consciences, corrupt affections and manifold errors,
with which our judgements are prepossessed in matters of salvation; and
because Satan labours to beguile us, as he did Eve, 'through his subtilty, to
corrupt our minds from the simplicity of the gospel that is in Christ' (2 Cor.
11:3). 1 shall therefore give you some particular instructions. that are of
greatest moment to prevent such defects as we are most liable to in the first
act of our faith.
1. You must believe
with a full persuasion that you are a child of wrath by nature, as well as
others, fallen from God by the sin of the first Adam; dead in trespasses and
sins, subject to the curse of the law of God, and to the power of Satan, and
to insupportable misery to all eternity; and that you cannot possibly procure
your reconciliation with God, or any spiritual life and strength to do any
good work, by any endeavouring to get salvation according to the terms of the
legal covenant; and that you cannot find any way to escape out of this sinful
and miserable condition by your own reason and understanding, without
supernatural revelation, nor be freed from it, except by that infinite power
that raises the dead. We must not be afraid, as some are, to know our own
vileness and sinfulness, neither must we be willing to think ourselves better
than we are, but must be heartily desirous and glad to know the worst of our
own condition; yea, when we have found out the worst that we can of ourselves,
we must be willing to believe that our hearts are deceitful, and desperately
wicked, beyond all that we can know and find out (Jer. 17:9). This is all
necessary to work in us true humiliation, self-despair and self-loathing, that
we may highly esteem, and earnestly seek the salvation of Christ as the one
thing necessary. It makes us sick of sin, and sensible of our need of the
great Physician, and willing to be ordered according to any of His
prescriptions, whatever we suffer, rather than to follow our own wisdom (Matt.
9:12). It was for want of this humiliation that the scribes and Pharisees were
not so forward to enter into the kingdom of heaven as the publicans and
harlots (Matt.
21:31
).
2. You are to
believe assuredly that there is no way to be saved without receiving all the
saving benefits of Christ: His Spirit as well as His merits, sanctification as
well as remission of sins, by faith.
It is the ruin of
many souls that they trust on Christ for the remission of sins, without any
regard to holiness; whereas these two benefits are inseparably joined in
Christ, so that none are freed from condemnation by Christ, but those that are
enabled to walk holily, that is, 'not after the flesh, but after the Spirit'
(Rom. 8:1). It is also the ruin of souls to seek only remission of sins by
faith in Christ, and holiness by our endeavours, according to the terms of the
law; whereas we can never live to God in holiness, except we be dead to the
law, and live only by Christ living in us by faith. That faith which receives
not holiness, as well as remission of sins from Christ, will never sanctify
us, and therefore it will never bring us to heavenly glory (Heb.
12:14
).
3. You are to be
fully persuaded of the all-sufficiency of Christ for the salvation of
yourself, and of all that believe on Him; that His blood cleanses from all sin
(1 John 1:7). Though our sins be never so great and horrible, and continued in
ever so long, yet He is able to deliver from the body of death, and mortify
our corruptions, be they never so strong.
We find in Scripture
that abominable wicked persons have been saved by Him: idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, covetous, drunkards, extortioners, etc. (1 Cor. 6:9, 10); such as
have sinned against the light of nature, as the heathens, and the light of
Scripture, as the Jews; such as have denied Christ, as Peter, and persecuted
and blasphemed Him, as Paul. Many that have fallen into great sins are ruined
for ever, because they do not account the grace of Christ sufficient for their
pardon and sanctification, when they think they are gone, and past all hope of
recovery, that their 'sins are upon them, and they pine away in them, how
shall they live? (Ezek. 33:10). This despair works secretly in many souls,
without much trouble and horror, and makes them careless of their souls and
true religion. The devil fills some with horrid, filthy, blasphemous thoughts,
on purpose that they may think their sins too great to be forgiven; though
commonly such thoughts are the least of the sins of those that are pestered
with them, and rather the devil's sin than theirs, because they are hurried
into them sore against their wills; but, if their hearts be somewhat polluted
within them, Christ testifies that 'all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven, except the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost' (Matt. 12:31). And as
for those that are guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the reason why
they are never forgiven is not because of any want of sufficiency in the blood
of Christ, or in the pardoning mercy of God; but because they never repent of
that sin, and never seek to God for mercy through Christ, but continue
obstinate until death; for the Scripture testifies that 'it is impossible to
renew them again unto repentance' (Heb. 6:5, 6). So that the merits of Christ
are sufficient for all that seek to Him for mercy by believing.
There are others
that despair of ever getting any victory over their lusts, because they have
formerly made many vows and resolutions, and have used many vigorous
endeavours against them in vain. Such are to persuade themselves that the
grace of Christ is sufficient for them, when all other means have failed, as
the woman that had the issue of blood, and was nothing bettered, but rather
grew worse by any remedies that physicians could prescribe, yet persuaded
herself that, if she might but touch the clothes of Christ, she should be
whole (Mark 5:25-28). Those that despair, by reason of the greatness of their
guilt and corruption, do greatly dishonour and undervalue the grace of God,
His infinite mercy and the infinite merits of Christ's blood and power of His
Spirit, and deserve to perish with Cain and Judas. Abundance of people, that
give up themselves to all licentiousness in this wicked generation, lie under
secret despair, which makes them so desperate in swearing, blaspheming,
whoring, drunkenness and all manner of wickedness. How horrid and heinous
soever our sins and corruptions have been, we should learn to account them a
small matter in comparison to the grace of Christ, who is God as well as man,
and offered up Himself by the eternal Spirit as a sacrifice of infinite value
for our salvation, and can create us anew as easily as He created the world by
a word speaking.
4. You are to be
fully persuaded of the truth of the general free promise, in your own
particular case, that if you believe on Christ sincerely, you shall have
everlasting life, as well as any other in the world, without performing any
condition of works to procure an interest in Christ, for the promise is
universal: 'Whoever believes on Him, shall not be ashamed' (Rom. 9:33),
without exception. And, if God exclude you not, you must not exclude
yourselves, but rather conclude peremptorily that, how vile, wicked and
unworthy you are, yet, if you come, you shall be accepted as well as any
others in the world. You are to believe that great article in the Creed, the
remission of sins, in your own case, when you are principally concerned, or
else it will little profit you to believe it in the case of others. This is
that which hinders many broken wounded spirits from coming to the great
Physician, when they are convinced of the abominable filthiness of their
hearts, that they are dead in sin, without the least spark of true grace and
holiness in them. They think that it is in vain for such as they are to trust
on Christ for salvation, and that Christ will never save such as they are. Why
so? They can be but lost creatures at worst, and Christ came to seek them that
are lost. If they who are dead in sin cannot be saved, then all must despair
and perish, for none have any spiritual life until they receive it by
believing on Christ.
Some think
themselves to be worse than others, and that none have such wicked hearts as
they, and though others be accepted, yet they shall be rejected. But they
should know that 'Christ came to save the chief of sinners' (1 Tim.
1:15
); and that the design of God is to 'show the exceeding riches of His grace in
our salvation' (Eph. 2:7), which is most glorified by pardoning the greatest
sinners. And it is but our ignorance to think ourselves like nobody, for all
others, as well as we, are naturally 'dead in trespasses and sins'; their
'mind is enmity to God, and is not subject to His law, nor indeed can be'
(Rom. 8:7); and 'every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts are only
evil,' and continually so (Gen. 6:5); they have all the same corrupt fountain
of all abominations in their hearts, though we may have exceeded many others
in several actual sins.
Others think that
they have out stayed their time, and therefore now they should find no pace
for repentance, though they should seek it carefully with tears (Heb.
12:17). But, 'Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation' (2 Cor. 6:2), even as long as God calls on you by the gospel. And,
although Esau was rejected, who sought rather the earthly than the spiritual
blessings of the birthright, yet they shall not be rejected that seek the
enjoyment of Christ and His salvation as their only happiness. If you come
into Christ's vineyard at the eleventh hour of the day, you shall have your
penny, as well as those that came early in the morning, because the reward is
of grace, and not of merit (Matt. 20:9, 10). And here you must be sure to
believe steadfastly that Christ and all His salvation is bestowed as a free
gift upon those that do not work to procure any right or title to Him, or
meetness or worthiness to receive Him, but only 'believe on Him that justifies
the ungodly' (Rom. 4:5). If you put any condition of works, or good
qualifications between yourselves and Christ, it will be a partition-wall
which you can never climb over.
5. You are to
believe assuredly that it is the will of God you should believe in Christ,
and have eternal life by Him, as well as any other; and that your believing is
a duty very acceptable to God; and that He will help you, as well as any
other, in this work, because He calls and commands you by the gospel to
believe in Christ. This makes us to set cheerfully upon the work of believing,
as when Jesus commanded the blind man to be called, they said unto Him, 'Be of
good comfort, rise; He calls you' (Mark 10:49). A command of Christ made Peter
walk on the water (Matt. 14:29
). And here we are not to meddle with God's secret of predestination; or the
purpose of His will in His gracious invitations and commands, by which we are
required to believe on Christ. This will of God is confirmed by His oath: 'As
I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way, and live; turn, turn from your evil ways;
for, why will you die, O house of Israel?' (Ezek. 33:11.) Christ testifies
that He 'would often have gathered the children of Jerusalem, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and they would not'
(Matt.
23:37
). And the apostle Paul testifies that 'God will have all men to be saved',
etc. (1 Tim. 2:4).
You are to reject
and abandon all thoughts that are contrary to this persuasion. What if few be
saved? Thy salvation will not make the number too great, for few will follow
you in the duty of believing. What if the wrath of God be revealed from heaven
against you in many terrible judgements, and the Word and your own conscience
condemn you, and Christ seem to reckon you no better than a dog, as He did the
woman of Canaan? (Matt. 15:26.) You are to make a good interpretation of all
these things, that the end of them is to drive you to Christ, as this was the
end of the curses of the law and all the terrible dispensations of them (Rom.
10:4). If a prophet or an angel from heaven were sent of God on purpose to
declare that the sentence of everlasting damnation is declared against you, it
would be your duty to believe that God sent him to give you timely warning for
this very end, that you might believe and turn to God by faith and repentance.
Jeremiah prophesied against the Jews that God would 'pluck them up, pull them
down, and destroy them for their sins'; yet he himself taught them, 'if they
turned from their evil ways, God would repent him of the evil' (Jer. 18:7, 8,
11). Jonah preached nothing but certain destruction to
Nineveh
, to be executed upon them within forty days (Jonah 3:4); yet the intent of
that terrible message was that those heathenish people might escape
destruction by repentance.
The most absolute
and peremptory denunciations of divine vengeance against us, while we are in
this world, must be always understood with a secret reserve of salvation for
us, upon our faith and repentance. And we are to account that the reason why
God so terribly denounces His judgements against us by His Word is that we may
escape them by flying for refuge to His free mercy in Christ.
Take heed of
fostering any thoughts that God has absolutely decreed to show no saving mercy
to you, or that you have already committed the unpardonable sin, or that it is
in vain for you to attempt the work of believing, because God will not help
you in it. If such thoughts prevail in your hearts, they will do you more hurt
than the most blasphemous thoughts that terrify you, or any the grossest
abominations that ever you were guilty of, because they obstruct your
believing on Christ for salvation. 'The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.'
Christ says, 'Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely' (Rev.
22:17). Therefore, we are to abandon all thoughts that hinder our coming to
Christ, as very sinful and pernicious, arising in us from our own corruptions
and Satan's delusions, and utterly opposite to the mind of Christ, and
teachings of His Spirit.
And what ground can
we have to entertain such unbelieving thoughts? Has God made us of His privy
council, that we should be able to know that God has decreed us to damnation,
before it be manifest by our final unbelief and impenitence? As for the
unpardonable sin, it consists 'in renouncing the way of salvation by Christ
with the whole heart, after we have attained to the knowledge of it, and are
convinced of the truth of it by the gospel'. It is the sin that the Christian
Hebrews would have been guilty of, if they had revolted from Christianity to
the religion of the unbelieving Jews that accounted Christ to be an impostor,
and were most rancorous persecutors of Him and His ways (Heb. 6:4, 5). They
that have committed that sin continue implacable, malicious enemies to Christ
and His ways to the end, without any repentance. Therefore, if you can but
find that you desire seriously to get an interest in Christ, and to be better
Christians than you are, if you be troubled and grieved that your hearts and
lives are so wicked, and that you want faith, love and true obedience, yea, if
your hearts are not maliciously bent to persecute the gospel, and prefer
atheism, licentiousness or any false religion before it, you have no cause to
suspect yourselves to be guilty of this unpardonable sin.
6. Add to all these
a full persuasion of the incomparable glorious excellency of Christ, and
of the way of salvation by Him. You are to esteem the enjoyment of Christ
as the only salvation and true happiness, and such happiness as has in it
unsearchable riches of glory, and will make our cup to run over with exceeding
abundance of peace, and joy, and lory, to all eternity. We 'must account all
things but loss or the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord'
etc. (Phil. 3:8). Such a persuasion as this will allure and incline your wills
and affections to choose and embrace Christ as the chief good, and never to
rest satisfied without the enjoyment of Him, and to reject everything that
stands in competition with Him, or the enjoyment of Him. Christ is precious in
the esteem of all true believers (1 Peter 2:7). Their high esteem of His
incomparable preciousness and excellency induces them to sell all, that they
may buy this pearl of great price (Matt. 13:46). This makes them say, 'Lord,
evermore give us this bread, that comes down from heaven, and gives life to
the world. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life'
(John
6:33
, 34, 68). 'Because of the favour of His good ointments, His name is as
ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love Him' (S.of S. 1:3). They
are sick of love to Him, because He is, in their eyes, the chiefest among ten
thousand (S. of S. 5:8, 10).
As the glory of God,
that appeared in the wonderful beauty of the temple and in the wisdom and
glory of Solomon, drew worshippers to God from the utmost parts of the earth,
so the unparalleled excellency of Christ, which was prefigured by the glory of
Solomon and the temple, more powerfully draws believers in these gospel days.
The devil, who is the god of this world, knows how necessary it is for our
salvation to discern all the glory and excellency of Christ and, therefore,
where the gospel is preached, he makes it his great work to eclipse the glory
of Christ in the ministry and to blind the minds of the people, 'lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them' (2 Cor. 4:4).
One that is convinced of the truth of the gospel may be averse to the
embracing of it until he see also the goodness of it, that Christ is
altogether lovely and excellent.
I come now to 'the
second principal act of faith by which Christ Himself, and His Spirit, and all
His saving benefits, are actually received into the heart, which is believing
on Christ, as revealed and freely promised to us in the gospel, for all His
salvation'. The Spirit of God habitually disposes and inclines our heart to a
right performance of this act, by enabling us to perform the first act,
according to the former instructions, by believing assuredly those great
things of the gospel by which we are delivered into a form of doctrine (Rom.
6:17), which we are to obey from our hearts, and to follow as our pattern in
the manner of our acting faith in Christ for salvation. Therefore, I need only
exhort you briefly to act your faith in Christ according to that form and
pattern, in which you have been already so largely instructed.
You are to believe
in Christ as alone sufficient, and all sufficient for your happiness and
salvation, despairing altogether of any attainment of happiness by our own
wisdom, strength, works of righteousness, or any fleshly, worldly confidences
whatever. We must be as dead people to all other confidences, and account them
to be loss for Christ, according to the example of the blessed apostle (Phil.
3:3, 7, 8). We must not be grieved that we have nothing to trust upon besides
Christ for our salvation; but rather we are to rejoice that we need nothing
else, and that we have a sure foundation to rely on, incomparably better than
any other that can be imagined. And we must resolve to cast the burden of our
souls wholly on Christ, and to seek salvation no other way, whatever becomes
of us.
If the cripple lay
not the whole weight of his body upon a strong staff, but part of it upon a
rotten one, he is like to receive a fall. If the swimmer will not commit his
body wholly to the water to bear him up, but catch at weeds, or struggle to
feel out ground, he may sink to the bottom. Christ will be all our salvation,
or nothing. If we seek to be saved any other way, as the Galatians did by
circumcision, Christ will profit us nothing (Gal. 5:2).
You are also to
receive Christ merely as a free gift, given to the chief of sinners, resolving
that you will not perform any conditions to procure yourselves a right and
title to Him, but that you will come to Him as a lost sinner, an ungodly
creature, trusting on 'Him that justifies the ungodly', and that you will 'buy
Him without money ', and 'without any price' whatever (Rom. 4:5; Isa. 55:2)
Look not on your faith or love, or any good qualifications in yourselves, as
the grounds of your trusting in Christ, but only to the free grace and
loving-kindness of God in Christ: 'How excellent is your loving-kindness, O
God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your
wings'
(Ps. 36:7). For if
you make your own faith, love or good qualifications to be your first and
principal foundation, and you build Christ on them, instead of building all on
Christ, you invert the order of the gospel, and Christ will profit you
nothing.
Another thing to be
observed diligently is that you must come to Christ for a new holy heart and
life and all things necessary for this, as well as fr deliverance from the
wrath of God and the torments of hell. You must also come to Him with an
ardent love and affection to Him, and esteem Him better than a thousand
worlds, and the only excellent portion, loathing and abhorring yourself as a
vile, sinful and miserable creature, and accounting all things dung in
comparison of His excellency; that you may be able to say from the bottom of
your heart, 'Whom have I in heaven but You? There is none on earth that I
desire besides You' (Ps. 73:25).
Lastly, you must
endeavour to draw near with 'full assurance of faith' (Heb.
10:22
), trusting on Christ confidently for your own particular salvation, upon the
account of that general promise 'that whoever believes on Christ shall not be
ashamed' (Rom.
9:33
). You must check yourselves for all doubtings, fears, staggerings, concerning
your own salvation by Christ, saying with the psalmist, 'Why are you cast
down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me?' etc. (Ps. 42: 11).
The third thing
contained in this direction is the avoiding all delay in the performance of
this great work of believing in Christ. Until we have performed it, we
continue under the power of sin and Satan and under the wrath of God, and
there is nothing between hell and us besides the breath of our nostrils. It is
dangerous for
Lot
to linger in
Sodom
, lest fire and brimstone come down from heaven upon him. The man-slayer must
flee with all haste to the city of refuge, 'lest the avenger of blood pursue
him, while his heart is hot, and slay him' (Deut. 19:5, 6). We should make
haste, and not delay, to keep God's commandments' (Ps. 119:60), and 'flee for
refuge to the hope set before us' (Heb.
6:18
). And God commands us to flee thus by faith, without which it is impossible
to please God in other duties. The work is of such a nature that it may be
performed .as soon as you hear the gospel. 'As soon as they hear of me, they
shall obey me'
(Ps. 18:44). 'As
soon as
Zion
travailed she brought forth her children' (Isa. 66:8). We have many examples
of those that received the Word by faith at the first hearing of it. Three
thousand were added to the church on the very same day wherein Peter first
published the gospel in
Jerusalem
(Acts
2: 41
). So many Jews and Gentiles were converted at the first hearing of the
apostle Paul at
Antioch
(Acts
13:48
). The jailer and all his house believed, and were baptized, the same night in
which Paul first preached to them (Acts
16: 33
, 34). The gospel came at first to the Thessalonians, 'not in word only, but
in power, and in the Holy Ghost' (1 Thess. 1:5, 6). If God open the hearts of
His people to attend diligently, they may be instructed in the knowledge of
the gospel by one brief sermon sufficiently to begin the practice of saving
faith. And, when they know their duty, God requires immediate performance,
without allowing us the least respite in the state of unbelief.
When Satan cannot
prevail with people to reject wholly the duty of believing, his next attempt
for the rum of their souls is to prevail with them at least to delay and shift
off the performance of it, from time to time, by several false reasonings and
imaginations which he puts into their minds. The most ignorant and sensual are
easily prevailed with to deter this duty, until they have taken their fill of
the pleasure, profits and honours of this world, and are summoned to prepare
for another world by infirmities, age, sickness, praying and hoping that a
large time of repentance will be granted unto them before they die. But such
delays show that they are really unwilling to repent and believe, until they
are forced by necessity, and that they prefer the pleasures, profits and
honours of the world above God, and Christ, and their own souls. Thus they
unfit themselves more and more for this great duty by their customary walking
in sin, and by misspending the precious time of their health and strength,
which is most meet for the performance of this great work. They highly provoke
God never to give them time or grace to repent of it.
Others imagine that,
after they have heard the gospel of salvation by Christ, they may lawfully
defer the believing it until they have sufficiently examined the truth of some
other different doctrine, or until God be pleased to afford them some other
means to assure them fully of the truth of the gospel. Thus they that are
called 'seekers' misspend the day of grace, 'ever learning, but never coming
to the knowledge of the truth' (2 Tim. 3:7). But the truth of the gospel so
clearly evidences itself by its own light that, if people do not wilfully shut
their eyes, or blind themselves by their own pride, and love their lusts, they
would easily perceive that it is the truth of God, because the image of His
grace, mercy, power, justice and holiness appears manifestly engraven upon it.
It is a sign people are proud when they consent not to the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to the 'doctrine which is according to godliness' (1 Tim.
6:3). If they were humble and sincerely inclined to do the will of God, they
would 'know whether the doctrine is of God, or no' (John
7:17
); they would quickly be persuaded of the truth by Moses and the prophets,
Christ and the apostles, spoken to them in the Scripture. And if they will not
hear them, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead, or
whatever other miracle be wrought to confirm the divine authority of the
gospel (Luke
16:31
).
Another sort of
people there are that delay the great work of believing, to the rum of their
souls, resting in an attendance upon the outward means of grace and salvation,
instead of any endeavours to receive Christ by faith, though they be convinced
of the truth of the gospel. This they call waiting upon God at the doors of
His grace and salvation, in the use of means appointed by Him, and sitting
under the droppings of the sanctuary. But let them know that this is not the
right waiting on God required in Scripture. It is rather disobedience to God,
and to the means of His appointment, who requires that we should be 'doers of
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves' (James 1:22), and that we
should come in to the spiritual feast (Luke 14:23), and not only stand at the
door, or sit under the droppings of the house of God, lest Christ repute us no
better than eavesdroppers. That holy waiting on the Lord commended to us in
Scripture is ever accompanied with believing and hoping in the Lord, and
depends thereon: 'I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and
He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord' (Ps. 27: 13, 14).
'It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of
the Lord' (Lam.
3:26
).
What is it that
these deluded ones wait for, before they perform the duty of believing? Is it
for more knowledge of the gospel? The way to increase your knowledge, as well
as any other talent, is to make use of what you have received already. Believe
heartily on Christ for all your salvation, according to that little knowledge
of the gospel which you have, and you will have an interest in the promise of
knowledge contained in the new covenant: 'They shall all know me, from the
least to the greatest of them, says the Lord' (Jer. 31:34). Is it for the
appointed time of your conversion that you wait? Then you wait as those
impotent folk that lay at the pool of
Bethesda
, waiting for the season when the angel will come down and move the water.
Know, then, that if you enter into Christ now by faith, you shall find in Him
waters of life, and the Spirit moving them for the healing and .quickening of
your soul. God has appointed, by His work, that it shall be your duty to
endeavour that the present time shall be the time of your conversion: 'As the
Holy Ghost says, Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart'
(Heb. 3:7, 8). And you shall never know at what time God has purposed, in His
secret council, to give faith to you, until you actually believe.
Do you wait for any
manifestations or flowings in of God's saving love to your soul? Then the way
to obtain it is to believe that the 'God of hope may fill you with all joy and
peace in believing' (Rom.
15:13
). You have sufficient manifestation of God's love to your soul by the free
promises of life and salvation by Christ. Do but 'trust on the name of the
Lord, and stay upon your God', when you 'walk in darkness, and see no light'
of sensible comforts any other way, otherwise you wait for comforts in vain,
and this shall 'you have at the Lord's hand, you 'shall lie down in sorrow'
(Isa. 50:10, 11).
Do you wait for any
qualifications to prepare you for the work of believing? If they be good and
holy qualifications, you cannot have them before faith, but they are rather
included in the nature of faith, or they are fruits of it - as has been
largely proved. If they be bad and sinful, it is strange that any should wait
for them, and yet no more strange than true. Some foolishly wait to be
terrified with a sense of God's wrath, and despairing thoughts, and these they
call the pangs of the new birth; though, in their own nature, they are rather
the pangs of spiritual death, and bring forth hatred to God, rather than
holiness, and, therefore, we should strive to prevent them by believing God's
love in Christ, rather than to wait for them. It is true, God makes these
despairing thoughts, as well as other sins, work for good to them that are
delivered from them by faith in Christ; they are moved thereby to hate sin,
and to prize Christ the more and the comforts of His gospel, and to loathe and
abhor themselves; yet many are brought to Christ without them, by God's giving
them the knowledge of their own sins and of Christ's salvation together.
Several examples of these were above-mentioned, who received the Word with joy
at the first hearing of it. And we must not desire or wait for any evil or
sin, such as these despairing thoughts are, that good may come of it; neither
should we expect to be worse before we be better, when we may and ought to be
better presently, by believing on Christ.
The fourth thing in
the direction is that we should continue and increase in the most holy faith.
And that we may, we must not think that, when we have once attained to the
grace of saving faith, and thereby are begotten anew in Christ, our names are
up in heaven, and therefore we may be careless, but, as long as we continue in
this life, we must endeavour to continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
not moved away from the hope of the gospel (Col. 1: 23); and to 'hold the
beginning of our confidence, and rejoicing of hope steadfast unto the end'
(Heb. 3:6, 14); and to 'build up ourselves in our most holy faith' (Jude 20),
'abounding therein with thanksgiving' (Col. 2:7). Though we receive Christ
freely by faith, yet we are but 'babes in Christ' (1 Cor. 3:1). And we must
not account that we have 'already attained, or are already perfect' (Phil. 3:12, 13); but we must strive to be more rooted and built up in Him, until 'we
come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the state of the fullness of
Christ' (Eph.
4:13
).
If the new nature be
really in us by regeneration, it will have an appetite to its own continuance
and increase until it come to perfection, as the new-born babe (1 Peter 2:2).
And we are not only to receive Christ and a new holy nature by faith, but also
to live and walk by it, and to 'resist the devil', and to 'quench all his
fiery darts' by it; and also to ' grow in grace', and to 'perfect holiness in
the fear of God'; for we 'are kept by the mighty power of God through faith
unto salvation' (1 Peter 1:5). As all our Christian warfare is the good fight
of faith (1 Tim. 6:12), all spiritual life and holiness continue, grow or
decay in us, according as faith continues, grows or decays in us, but when
this faith begins to sink by fears and doubtings, the man himself begins to
sink together with it (Matt. 14: 29-31). Faith is like the hand of Moses;
while it is held up,
Israel
prevails; when it is let down, Amalek prevails (Exod.
17:11
). This continuance and growth in faith will require our labour and industry
as well as the beginning, though we are to ascribe the glory of all to the
grace of God in Christ, who is the finisher, as well as the author of it (Heb.
12:2).
The church meets
with great difficulties in her marching through the wilderness of this world
to the heavenly Canaan, as well as in her first deliverance from Egyptian
bondage; yea, we often meet with greater difficulties in going to perfection
than we did in the beginning of the good work, the wisdom and mercy of God so
ordering it that we should be exercised with the sharpest dispensations of
providence, and the fiercest assaults of our own corruptions, and Satan's
temptations, after we have grace given to us to stand in the evil day.
You must therefore
endeavour to continue and go on in the same right manner as I have taught you
to begin this great work of believing in Christ, that your faith may be of the
same nature from the beginning to the end, though it increase in degrees, for
our faith is imperfect and joined with much unbelief in this world and we have
need to pray still, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief' (Mark 9:24), and
therefore we have need to strive for more faith, that we may receive Christ in
greater perfection. If you find that your faith has produced good works, you
should thereby increase your confidence in Christ, for salvation by His mere
grace. But take heed of changing the nature of your faith, from trusting on
the grace and merits of Christ, to trusting on your own works, according to
the popish doctrine 'that our first justification is by grace and faith only,
but our second justification is only by works'.
Beware also of
trusting on faith itself, as a work of righteousness, instead of trusting on
Christ by faith. If you do not find that your believing in such a right manner
as I have described does produce such fruits of holiness as you desire, you
ought not to diminish, but rather to increase your confidence in Christ,
knowing that the weakness of your faith hinders its fruitfulness. And the
greater your confidence is concerning the love of God to you in Christ, the
greater will be your love to God and to His service. If you fall into any
gross sin, after the work is begun in you, as David and Peter did, think not
that you must cast away your confidence and expect nothing but wrath from God
and Christ, and that you must refuse to be comforted by the grace of Christ,
at least for some time; for thus you would be the more weak, and prone to fall
into other sins; but rather strive to believe more confidently that you have
'an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous', and that 'He is the
propitiation for our sins' (1 John 2:1, 2). And let not the guilt of sin stay
at all upon your conscience, but wash it away with all speed in the fountain
of Christ's blood, which is opened for us, that it may be ready for our use on
all such incident occasions; that so you may be humbled for your sins in a
gospel way, and may hate your own sinfulness, and be sorry for it with godly
sorrow, out of love to God. Peter might have been ruined for ever by denying
Christ, as Judas was by betraying Him, if Peter s fait had not been upheld by
the prayer of Christ (Luke 22: 31, 32).
If
a cloud be cast over all your qualifications, so that you can see no grace at
all in yourselves, yet still trust on Him that justifies the ungodly, and came
to seek and to save them that are lost. If God seems to deal with you as an
enemy, bringing on you some horrible affliction, as He did upon job, beware of
condemning your faith and its fruits, as if they were not acceptable to God,
but rather say, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will
maintain mine own ways before Him' (Job 13:15). Strive to keep and to increase
faith by faith, that is, by acting faith frequently, by trusting on God to
keep and to increase it, 'being confident, that He which has begun a good work
in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ' (Phil. 1:6).
Next
Chapter
