The Life of Faith

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

These are the words of a man pursued by the law until he came to Christ, words proceeding from the Spirit of Christ, whose nature it is to apply general truths to particular cases. So St. Paul says here, “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” He sees that he is dead by the law; therefore he seeks a better husband. The law finds him dead, and leaves him dead. Thus pursued by the tenor of the law, he flies to Christ and says, “I am crucified with Christ,” nevertheless I live. How? “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

There are three ranks of men in the world, and all men may be included under them.

1. The state of nature.

2. The state of men under the spirit of bondage.

3. The state of grace under the gospel.

This is the speech of one of the third rank, of a man awakened by the spirit of bondage, who has attained a clear and evident sight of his misery and of the excellent remedies, of a man who has attained a new frame and temper of soul. It is the speech of a person in the state of grace, who now aspires to a more noble and excellent life. In these words we may consider several things.

1. That there is another kind of life than the ordinary life of nature.

2. That it is a better and more excellent life than the one he formerly lived; as if he had said, “Now that I have seen the misery of my former natural state, and the excellence of a spiritual life by faith in the Son of God, I consider my former life to have been wretched, not worthy of the name of life, compared with the life I live now, since this one is founded in a better root than the ‘first Adam.’”

3. The spring of this life is the Son of God. God is life by nature, and we have life in no other way than from him who quickens all things.

4. The conveyance of this spiritual life is by faith. Water does not spring forth without a conduit to carry and spread it. The sun does not warm without beams, and the liver does not convey blood without veins. So faith is that vessel which conveys this spiritual life, that conduit in which all spiritual graces run for the framing and working of spiritual life, conveying everything, to settle upon those excellencies of the Son of God.

5. The object and root of this spiritual life is faith in the Son of God as the one who loves the believer and gives himself for him.

So there is a life besides the natural life, and the root of it is Christ, who is our life. Life is the best thing in the world, the thing we most esteem; as the devil said concerning Job, “Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:4). Life is the foundation of all comforts; life is the vigor proceeding from soul and body. So the spiritual life is nothing else but that excellent vigor and strong connected strength of the soul and body renewed. It is grounded on supernatural reasons, and it makes the soul follow the directions of the word, overmaster the flesh, and so by degrees be transformed into the image of Christ, which consists in holiness and righteousness.

Doctrine. The first point, then, is that there is a better life than a natural life, because there is something in a man that aspires to and looks toward a better state. A child in the mother’s womb has life and senses in that dark place, but it is not content with them. It is restless, as if in a prison, and tumbles and turns up and down; for the life it has is not meant for dwelling there, but is a beginning-life to fit it to live in the more open and spacious world, into which it must shortly be sent forth.

So in this dark life of ours there is a divine instinct, power, and faculty in men, which nothing here can satisfy. This shows that there is a place to satisfy the will and the understanding and to fill the affections, and that there is a condition which will make a man fully happy. It shows that there must be a better life, which is this spiritual life; for this life which we live in the flesh is a thing of nothing. This little life we live here, what is it for? To live a while, to eat and drink and enjoy our pleasures, and then fall down and die like a beast? Oh no, but to make a beginning for a better life.

If this life is such a blessing, what then is that most excellent spiritual life we speak of? It holds out beyond everything. By this spiritual life, when someone is most sick, you will see him most lively and spiritual. When sense, and spirit, and sight, and all fail, yet by reasons drawn from spiritual life he comforts himself in Christ, in the glory to come, and in what Christ has done for him. So the apostle shows that the aim of a Christian is to be, in the sufferings of this life, for the increase of a better one, when he says, “Always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor 4:10). When the body is weakest, the spirit is strongest.

Take a man who does not have this spirit and hope, and he is deadly afraid at the thought of death, because he has no faith, no knowledge, no quickening life, no sense or taste of more excellent things. He does not know whether there is a Holy Spirit or not; or if he is convinced in conscience, he is still taken up with horrors, and fears condemnation at hand forevermore. Oh, what are we without this life? Otherwise a heathen or an infidel would be as happy as we are.

A Christian furnished with this spiritual life can see Christ and glory beyond all the things of this life. He can look backward and make use of all things past, and see the vanity of things so admired by others. He can taste things that nature does not relish. He has strength of reasons beyond all the apprehensions of reason; he is a man of strong working. This should stir us up above all things to get this spiritual life in us, lest, like St. Paul’s living dead widow, we be dead while we are alive (1 Tim 5:6). Therefore, unless we mean to be dead creatures, we must labor for a spiritual life, for there is another death which follows the first death. We not only lose God and Christ, life and glory, eternal life, and communion with saints and angels, but we also come to eternal torments with the devil and his angels. Therefore, above all things, let us go to Christ, that we may live in his sight.

What is the reason we do not seek more for this spiritual life? Because, when the conscience is not awakened, we think there is no such thing. Like Judas, we walk on in the state of nature, in drunkenness, voluptuousness, covetousness, and the like, until we perish suddenly. If the conscience is awakened, oh, then it is easy to work upon such a person, who sees his misery and desires the remedy. It was easy to persuade Jacob to send to Egypt for grain when there was a famine in the land of Canaan. It is easy to persuade men who are hungry and thirsty to eat and drink, easy to persuade a laden, weary man to lay down his burden and rest. So it is with us. If the conscience is awakened to a sense of sin, and of that intolerable wrath and eternal punishment due to it, we should and would long for this spiritual life.

I beseech you, let us believe there is such a life. Look at 1 Peter 1:3. There he blesses God, “who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” None can go to heaven but those who are begotten again here. The main help is the use of the means. This is that pool of Bethesda; if we lie at it, the angel of the covenant will put us in to be healed. Never rest, then, until this life is gotten in us.

When we find such an antipathy between our spirits and sin as there is between poison and our spirits, then there is a beginning of the work. So we should hate sinful persons, whose conduct hinders the progress and increase of our spiritual life. As for those who will venture on every occasion, no wonder they fall into sinful courses. What is all their care and effort but to draw a person into sin? They care for their lusts, and never think of anything more. A Christian will care most for the nourishing of his best life, knowing that of good and bad company, the one quickens him and the other deadens him.

Christ is called life, the bread of life, the tree of life, and he gives us living water to refresh our souls; not that he is essentially bread or a tree, but he is so by the efficacy of his working in us. For God is life in himself. Therefore he swears by it: “As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner” (Ezek 33:11). We are not considering life here in so high a sense, though this life must be derived from him principally. In him it is so by nature. The Son is the fountain of life, because he is God, who is radically, fundamentally, and essentially life.

But before Christ could be fitted to be life for us, he had to be man first, as he says, “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55). And the reason he so quickens is that he is also God, being that bread which came down from heaven, of which “whoso eateth shall live for ever.” Now this great work of our salvation had of necessity to be performed by an infinite person as God, who could not die; he therefore took on himself a mortal nature, to open a current to mercy and justice. Therefore his flesh is meat indeed; but the flesh profits nothing without the Spirit who quickens, for there must be a Spirit to seal all this up to us. As without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, so without the Spirit sealing these things to our souls, we can have no comfort from them.

When we speak of spiritual life, it is Christ we live for; by him, and in him, and through him we live. Therefore “the last Adam is called a quickening Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45), because by that Spirit he quickened himself, and quickens us now to live the life of grace, and will hereafter quicken our dead bodies at the resurrection. So he is called “the Sun of righteousness” (Mal 4:2), for light and heat, because as the sun gives light and warmth, so he is the light of the world, as John says, “lighting everything which cometh into the world” (John 1:9), warming also and cherishing the mass of things, and therefore he is called light and life.

Thus we have seen briefly that there is another life than the life of nature, that this is a most excellent life, and that the root and spring of it is the Son of God. Now the way this life is conveyed is “by faith.” A fountain is not sufficient to send water abroad; there must be pipes to convey it for use. So from the heart and liver there must be arteries and veins for the maintenance of life and the conveyance of blood through all the body. Christ is the heart and liver of all spiritual life; but there must be a conveyance to bring it to us, and this is faith. But why is faith the grace that conveys life to us?

(1) Because we are saved now outside ourselves, by another. Therefore the grace that brings us to this great good must lead us out of ourselves. This is what faith does, which is the hand of the soul, to lay hold of all the graces, excellencies, and high perfections of Christ.

(2) Because faith gives all the glory to the person on whom it relies and in whom it trusts. Paul shows why works were excluded and such a righteousness was brought in: he says it was “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth” (Rom 3:26); and then he adds, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith” (Rom 3:27). If it had come by love, or humility, patience, or anything in us, there might have been some boasting; but this looks another way, and lays hold upon another’s riches. Faith acknowledges that there is nothing at home; therefore it goes to another to fetch it, which otherwise it would not do.

(3) Because we must be brought back to God by a way contrary to the one we were lost by, for by that same way we could never have recovered. The serpent, as we know, shook Eve’s faith in believing the threatening. While they kept the word and feared the commandment, they kept their life; but, losing this reverent respect, they lost communion with the fountain of love. So we fell by unbelief, and must return by faith in the righteousness of another.

By this time we have come to the main thing intended, how we live by the faith of the Son of God. Perhaps we will not reach the depth of so profound a mystery; I will only endeavor to give you a few heads in which faith principally exercises her powers and functions.

1. The life of faith is exercised in our effectual calling.

2. In the state of justification, from which comes reconciliation.

3. In a vigorous life, arising from the comfort of our justification.

4. In our sanctification; in those supplies faith finds out to make up for its imperfection.

5. The life of faith in glorification.

6. We live by faith in all the various passages of this life, as we shall see when we come to them.

Thus we live continually by the faith of the Son of God, and so we must live until we come to heaven.

1. We live the life of faith in our effectual calling. The Spirit works it; the Spirit is God’s hand. This makes our eyes bent upward to see a better life, to see a calling, to live holily and righteously in all things, and to see what a rich means is provided to reconcile God and man and to satisfy justice, and so to draw us into a new way and course of life, to rely on God and look to him in all our actions. Then the grace of union is given. God’s Spirit works on our hearts by this faith, so that we have first union, and then communion, with God. Thus the soul, being seasoned, and seeing the excellency and necessity of another new life, touches Christ, and begins to live the life of faith in effectual calling. For at first we are dead and unlovely creatures, estranged from grace and gracious actions, until, in this state, the Spirit reveals Christ, and faith to unite us to him.

2. We live the life of faith in justification. This is a life of sentence that the soul lives by, peace being spoken to it by the pardon of sin; for God by his Spirit reports as much to the soul, giving us assurance that Christ our surety and peacemaker is raised up again. So it is said, “Even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ, and raised us together, and made us sit in heavenly places with him” (Eph 2:5-6). And why? Because our Surety has paid our debt. We say of a condemned man that he is a dead man until he has a pardon; and when he has obtained it, we change our speech and say he lives. So it is in justification: being united to Christ and believing our pardon, we are said to live.

Our sins lie on him as our surety; for then, as our husband answerable for the charge, he pays all our debts. Thus by virtue of our marriage to Christ, he discharges all our debts and goes away with them, even as the scapegoat in the wilderness went quite away with all the sins and iniquities of the people, never to return. Let us look, therefore, at our sins, and at the curse and wrath due to them, and at all of it as laid on him. Look at whatever is good in him: that is for us. Whatever is evil in us, look in him for it to be taken away, pardoned, and not imputed.

As we sin daily, so there is a fountain daily running, to wash away sin and uncleanness (Zech 13:1). Therefore, for our daily sinning, we must continually run and bathe our souls in this blood, and apply to ourselves the comforts of his sufferings, intercession, and obedience. St. John teaches us as much when he says, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). If we sin daily, he justifies the sinner daily; he came to save sinners. Therefore, when sin stirs us up to run from God, we should run to him.

Faith says, “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Why? My sin was condemned in Christ, and a condemned person has no voice. Christ came to destroy sin, and condemned sin in the flesh. Our sins were crucified with him, and are now all condemned sins, if we will go to Christ, who has borne all our iniquities, as the prophet Isaiah excellently shows. Therefore St. Paul triumphantly asks the question, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?” Why? “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall then separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:33-35).

So in our daily sins you see that we have use for these things: upon our confession, to have a daily pardon taken out every day as a matter of course. Thus God would not have us sink. As long as there is matter of guilt in us, God will have a way to cleanse our souls and renew our comforts. Every day we run into new debts, and every day in the Lord’s Prayer we are taught to ask pardon and to run to God, to have the book crossed out with his blood.

Every day a Christian must eye the brazen serpent, I mean the Lord Jesus, signified by it. He must sprinkle his heart with the blood of Christ, as the Israelites did then, that the destroying angel may pass by him in the day of wrath. This is what it is to live by faith: every day to apply for our pardon; to look to our advocate and surety, who has paid our debts and canceled that obligation against us, contrary to us, as the apostle says; daily to wash in that ever-running fountain. Christ is “a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec” (Ps 110:4). Though the act is past, he remains the same still. What puts down our courage, and strikes us with terror and fear, but our sins? Oh, but why is this brazen serpent lifted up, if not thus to wash away our daily frailties and failings, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:14-15)?

So justification is not only a sentence of pardon, but it is also a title to everlasting life: “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive the abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17). Where God pardons, he advances. So if Satan comes to shake my title, to shake this faith, assure him that Christ came to save sinners. If he objects, “Your title is worthless and stained, since you have so many sins and corruptions about your mortal body,” answer him, “What is my faith for but for my comfort, to show me that my title is in Christ? My strength and ground of comfort is in him, not in myself.”

See one parallel example of how David lived this life of faith in justification: “If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who shall stand?” (Ps 130:3). There he pronounces death on himself before he is acquitted, and so must we in the like case. But then comes the appeal: “But mercy is with thee, that thou mayest be feared” (Ps 130:4). Enlarge on it yourself.

If a man is not sound in this point, all he does is nothing. This is all in all. Our sanctification without this is nothing. This is the ground of all. Be careful of this: to look to Christ’s obedience, life, death, and sufferings, and to those comforts flowing from our share in them.

But let me direct you a little further before we leave this sweet point. First, look back every day over the passages of it. See how we have passed along, see what sins have escaped you; then come to God at night, confess and be sorry for all, resolve against all, crave strength against all. Oh, it is a fearful state to sleep in sin; better to sleep in a house full of adders and venomous beasts. See also and watch every morning. Corruption clings to all our best actions; we pass no day in which we do not have cause to say, “Lord, forgive us our sins.”

By this course we will keep our souls free, being ready for death. By our particular reckoning, clearing the score every day, we will be ready for our great general pardon, and when trouble comes, we will have only that to encounter. I beseech you, therefore, put this into practice. Be sure with each day to clear the sins of that day; so you will live a life of comfort, and be fit for all estates, for life, for death, for sickness, trouble, or whatever comes, since all our business then lies in heaven.

Objection. If this is so, we need not care how we sin; we only have to apply for a new pardon every day.

Answer. Oh, beware! Before our pardon is sealed, there must be confession, sorrow for sin, and resolution with full purpose to do so no more. There must be arraigning, condemning, and judging of ourselves for it, because whatever we would not have God do, we must do ourselves. Our time in getting this discharge sealed is for the most part according to our sin. He who has such a resolution to sin every day, because sin is pardoned every day, may go long enough without pardon, or at least without the comfort of his pardon.

For though pardon of sins is pronounced, yet God keeps joy in his own hand. So David had his sin pardoned (by the judgment of faith he knew this much), yet how he prays for joy, and that God would heal the bones which he had broken (Ps 51:8)! He roared all the day, and still felt a pain like the breaking of bones. The joy of the Spirit had left him. This he cries to have restored. Thus, though sin may be pardoned, yet the more we sin, the harder we will find it to repent, and the longer we will lack joy; or, it may be, we will go all our lifetime mourning without comfort in such a case.

Now let us see how it may be known that we live the life of faith in justification.

Trial 1. By trying how it comes into the soul, as the apostle says: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Rom 7:4). After a man is dead by the law, and apprehends himself slain, then he comes to live this life of faith. Christ quickens none but the dead. Why do the papists not attain this grace of justification? They never see themselves wholly dead, but join some life to the natural state of man. Therefore Christ does not quicken them. Only those are quickened by him who find themselves dead in the law. Then they come to have a holy despair, and to see that life and comfort are outside themselves, in another. Justification springs from a holy despair, and from receiving life after we have seen ourselves dead.

Trial 2. Where this life of faith is, there is a wonderfully high valuing and prizing of Christ, of his righteousness, merits, and obedience, and of the wisdom of God in that way of forgiving our sins by this God-man, the wonderful mediator. So Paul counts all things “but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil 3:8), being content to suffer the loss of all things to win Christ. It is the precious pearl to sell all for. Paul counts all our own righteousness as nothing in regard of this. There must be a high estimation of the riches of Christ’s obedience and sufferings; for where there is not this high estimation of it, they are rotten in the point of justification. But you see how Paul sets all things at nothing and counts them vile in regard of it. So in Romans 4:16 Abraham is brought in to be justified by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed. And in Psalm 32:1-2 he is pronounced to be the blessed man, “unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and whose sin is covered.”

Trial 3. When we have a zeal against all contrary doctrine, as St. Paul shows to the Galatians, who would have joined works to faith: “Christ is become of none effect unto you; whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace” (Gal 5:4). And in the third chapter he says, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?” “This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal 3:1-2). A man sound in the point of justification has a hatred of popery, and of all such doctrine as impairs the riches of the grace of Christ. Death is in the Romish religion. Why are some of them then saved? Not because they die in that religion, but because they reverse their judgment on this point of justification. So you see there is a hatred, a zeal in such people, like the zeal St. Paul had against contrary doctrines.

Trial 4. There is peace and joy settled in the heart, as we read: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1-2).

Question. To add one thing more before I leave this point: in the case of relapse, what shall we do then? Are we not cut off? Must we not be grafted in anew?

Answer. I answer, not everyone who falls goes down on all fours and falls away completely. There are degrees of falling. A sick man, though ill, is not immediately dead; some life and strength remains, which works its way out toward health again. In the same way there is so much grace and life in justification left as to recover him again.

But as in other cases, so in relapses also, a man must live by faith. We see that even those who were in the state of grace are entreated to be reconciled (2 Cor 5:20). Though we fall, we must not therefore fall off, but stir up grace and recover ourselves again.

So it is said: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7). And then he adds the reason: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9). So too: “They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? Shall not the land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord” (Jer 3:1). Thus we must live by faith in spite of all our slips and falls, and not let go our hold, but still run to the horns of this altar, still fly to this city of refuge, and so we shall be safe.

Question. But what is the reason that many who are justified still do not find daily comfort?

Answer. Perhaps they plaster themselves over, and do not search the bottom of their corruption. So it was with David in Psalm 32:3: when he kept his sin hidden, his bones grew old through his roaring all the day long, and God’s hand was heavy upon him day and night. Then he shows how he found comfort: “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto thee; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Ps 32:5). So it may be in this case. We do not deal freely with God; we do not ransack our sins; we do not search all the corners. Sin is a marvelously subtle thing. Again, by this means God will often humble us for a former sin, and keep comfort away until we are more humbled and stand in awe of sin.

3. Hence springs a vigorous life. It is a life of cheerfulness. When a man has had his pardon sued out, then come life and joy, and strength for holy actions, well rooted and grounded. Who should rejoice, if a triumphant righteous person should not? Who has cause to rejoice more than kings? By justification we are made kings and priests, are lifted above all sins and lusts, world and devil, and have a right and title to heaven. Shall a carnal man rejoice in his titles and privileges, and shall we not rejoice much more, being sons of God by adoption and heirs of all things?

So we read: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,” and joy in tribulation (Rom 5:1-3). Once we are justified, the sting of all troubles is taken away. God is ours. We rejoice in God. This is all in all. The blood of Abel cries for vengeance; but the Spirit of God, in this state, tells me that the blood of Christ speaks better things: mercy, mercy. In his blood is always comfort, though we are weak and unskillful in applying it. Washing in this blood should make a Christian walk on cheerfully in the comforts of the Holy Spirit. But I hasten to the next point, which is:

4. The life of faith in sanctification. This springs from these grounds:

(1) Faith lays hold on Christ as God offers him. How is this? See 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” God gives Christ not for justification only, but for sanctification also, and this is how faith must lay hold of him.

(2) Faith receives him as whole Christ in all his offices: not as a priest to save only, but as a king to rule, as a wife receives her husband, to be governed and ruled by him.

(3) Again, Christ came to take away not only the guilt of sin, but the dominion of sin. He came, as John speaks, to destroy the whole work of the devil, as it is said: “He gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25-27). Christ purges his church not only from the guilt of sin, but also from meddling with filthy things in the world and polluting itself with them. So the apostle shows that “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4). He came by water as well as by blood. Therefore faith puts him on, not only by justification, but also in sanctification. To make this clear:

[1] Upon justification, sanctification comes of necessity. For what is it that stops God’s mercy? His anger for sin committed, and in that case he denies his Spirit. But with reconciliation there comes also the Spirit, as the apostle says: “In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13). Now the Spirit, once given, is the seed of all graces. Whoever is justified has the Spirit of Christ: “And if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom 8:9).

[2] Again, having the Spirit of Christ, faith fetches all strength from Christ. Samson’s strength was in his locks; a Christian’s strength is in Christ. The devil knows this well, and therefore labors especially to weaken faith and draw us away from our strength. Christ says, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5); and St. Paul affirms that he “can do all things through Christ who strengthened him” (Phil 4:13). The Spirit gives strength.

[3] Again, as by Christ and his Spirit we have strength, so by his Spirit we have strong, convincing reasons, so that we work with strength from reason. Why does a Christian conduct himself in a holy, just way that answers to his profession? “Oh,” he says, “I have great reason. Christ has loved me and given himself for me; and should I not give myself to him, deny my lusts, and live to him?” For indeed, the foundation of all Christian obedience is laid by faith in Christ. So when a man looks to heaven, he has a reason to abstain from everything that blocks and hinders his safe and comfortable passage; to magnify the riches of Christ’s love, which has provided such an inheritance for him; and to live accordingly. So when he looks to the pardon of sins past, he sees reason to hate them more and more, to strive against them in time to come, and to love Christ the more, who has pardoned them. And when he looks to God’s free love in Christ, he sees reason to be inflamed with divine love, to admire the riches of that grace, and to be thankful.

[4] Again, Christian affections are like the wind, to carry us on in a holy life. Thus strength, and reason, and affections, these make a man work. First, love sets us to work: “we love him,” says the apostle, “because he loved us first” (1 John 4:19). We have his love first shed abroad in our hearts, inflaming the affections and kindling the heat of divine love; and then we send back a reflection of love to him. God cares for nothing but faith which works by love. This love is a most active affection, stirred up by faith. Indeed, all our Christian graces are set to work by faith in Christ.

Thus you see faith laying hold of Christ as God offers him; and as these things I have mentioned follow from it, we come to live the life of faith in sanctification. See an example of this in that woman who, because many sins were forgiven her, loved much. Love is bountiful. All obedience comes from love. Love is the keeping of the law. This affection is stirred up by faith, yes, by Christ, for by him we have the promise of the Spirit, from whom all graces come, and the promises of the new covenant, to have hearts of flesh given to us and his Spirit put in us. All promises of justification and sanctification are derived from Christ. They are in him, made for him, and effected for his sake; for he is “yea and amen,” the center and ground of all the promises. Now, being brought by faith to live in justification, we must of necessity also live by faith in sanctification. There are two parts of a holy life: first, mortification, dying to sin; second, vivification, living to righteousness.

For the first, what brings it about in a man in this case? Why, he looks at what brought Christ to suffer so much: my sin. So this affection stirs up in him, in a sort, the same passion which was in Christ, and makes him hate sin with a perfect hatred, as it is said: “They should look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born” (Zech 12:10). Second, it looks on the love of Christ, which made him give himself for us. This makes us hate sin, and provokes us to live for him who has done so much for us. These two things in the death of Christ stir up hatred of sin.

Then again, in vivification, the same Spirit who gave life to him also gives life to us: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God: set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:1-2). So the same Spirit who is in Christ, being sent into us, gives us life also, to have rising and heavenly thoughts. As the foot and little finger, though distant, live and stir by the same life and spirits diffused through the whole body, so the same Spirit gives life to every Christian in this way. And as by imparting strength he also imparts reasons from the resurrection of Christ to make us heavenly-minded, so when the soul dies one way, it lives another way. For when Christ has by the Spirit revealed a better state and a life to come, of eternity, immortality, tranquility, and glory, then a Christian dies to all worldly things and has his affections taken up in that direction.

Thus we see how to lead our lives every day so that we live the life of faith not only in justification, but also in sanctification, and how to fetch grace for grace out of Christ’s fullness. Therefore in all our needs, go to him still. He is not only a sacrifice that satisfies for our sins; he is also a storehouse and treasure of all good things. He is made to us sanctification; therefore let us beg favor from him, and endowments of grace conformable to his grace. And again, when we lack fullness, let us not despair, but fetch the large vessel of faith, and we shall have a share of the large graces which are in Christ, according to the largeness of our faith.

Question. What is the reason that so few find strength and comfort in Christianity?

Answer. They set about getting grace and killing corruptions by their own strength, and so they are always lacking; but if a man depends upon God, he shall have fullness out of Christ. God has sanctified his nature for this purpose, that out of his fullness we might have grace for grace. And so again, every day go to God, and plead for strength against sin, for power to lead a holy life, and for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, to supply the defects of our sanctification. St. Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). It is a magnificent speech, and a great matter to have a man ready to suffer all things and overcome all things. This will make us work wonderfully, if we have this strength supplied.

See an instance in Luke 17:3-4. Our Savior tells his disciples that they must forgive their brother seven times, and seven times, as often as he confesses his fault. They thought this a wonderfully hard duty, for nothing is so sweet to a man as revenge, since he would gladly carve out his own portion in all things and do things in his own strength. Upon this the disciples fall to praying, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), as though they had said, “We need faith to believe the pardon of so many sins, and to enable us to forgive so often.” And so I say of the subduing of sin: we need faith to have so many sins subdued; yet faith will do it.

Now in this great work, first, go to God, beg his Spirit, and repent of all manner of sin; second, then beg faith. This will set all other graces to work. It is like the blood and spirits which run all over the body. So in our spiritual life, this faith must run along in all graces and set them working; yes, it sets God and all his attributes working. It runs to Christ and prays, “Lord, increase my faith, for I can bear nothing as I should, resist nothing, believe nothing, and trust nothing.” This indeed must be all our strength, to see nothing in ourselves, but all in Christ.

Since Adam’s fall, it was appointed that Christ must keep all our joy, our strength, and our ability, yes, must be our life. Since that time God will not trust us with it, for we would quickly lose it all again. It is Christ’s office. He has these endowments given to him, as man, to furnish us with all things fitting for a spiritual life. Faith will fetch all from God in Christ, who is made the mediator of the New Testament, to convey all these things to us. Yet further, let us see some trials to discern whether we live this life of faith in sanctification.

Trial 1. If it is so with us, there will be a placing of ourselves under Christ’s government in all duties. Faith will do all that Christ commands, depending upon him for strength; and whoever depends upon Christ for strength in one duty will depend upon him for strength in another. There is a harmony between the soul of a Christian and the command of obedience. He listens to the precepts of duty as well as to the promises of forgiveness of sins. Where this universal obedience is not, there the life of faith in sanctification is not; for faith here takes no exception to one duty more than another, but looks for all the strength of performance from Christ, who for this cause is stored with all fullness, that it may drop down upon all his members.

Trial 2. Again, there will be a wonderful care not to grieve the Spirit in such a one. It is as if he should say, “I must depend upon the Spirit for help and assistance to do everything, to guide me in my whole course, and shall I grieve and abandon the Spirit? Shall I conduct myself so as to make him leave me? He must lead, instruct, and comfort me, and assure me of my happiness; shall I then quench the Spirit?” Therefore, I say, there will be a giving way to the Spirit, and a settled resolution that this guiding in sanctification is the best guidance of all. A believing heart trembles at anything which hinders the Spirit’s working. It does not set a step forward in anything without the direction of the word and Spirit.

Trial 3. There will be courage to set upon any duty, to encounter and resist any sin, and on this ground, as if he should say, “Do I not have a storehouse of strength to go to? Is he not full of grace and goodness? Are not all his works wrought for us? Do I not have exceedingly many great, rich, and precious promises of help? Is he not the truth itself? Is there not then supply enough in Christ to help me out in all things?” It would be like Pharaoh to set us to work without strength and ability to go through with our work. There is light and heat in the sun to direct and cherish; much more in Christ, their Maker. It is grace that leads us through all. We are justified freely through his grace, and by his grace we have continual strength supplied to enable us in all things. It is grace, grace! One who lives a sanctified life by faith will therefore cheerfully set upon every duty.

Trial 4. Again, in this case, all is alive in a man. As we see in a living fountain, whose water will sparkle and leap, so there will be living joys, speeches, delights, and exhortations, and a sense of good and evil. He will trust God and rely on his word and promise, because Christ cannot touch the soul without our being made alive. As the man who no sooner touched Elisha’s bones than he stood up and revived (2 Kgs 13:21), so a touch of Christ gives life and makes vigorous. As Christ’s promise is: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life” (John 4:14).

Let the use of all be this: upon this discovery, remember to go to Christ for succor, and labor to live plentifully and abundantly in him this life of faith.

Objection. But some may say, “How should I go on to finish this great work of grace? It is a mighty thing to attain to, with so many sins to overcome, so many temptations to grapple with, so many right hands and eyes to cut off and pull out.”

Answer. I answer, faith teaches us to fetch all from Christ, to beg his Spirit to help us in the course of sanctification, that by his might we may prevail. And so in all sins that would master us, beg strength from Christ, and then set upon the walls of Jericho, and they shall fall before you.

How shall this be done?

As they did it. They believed the promise, that by compassing it seven times it should fall to the ground. So we, having so much and so many promises for the subduing of sin in us, let us set upon our sins, look up to Christ, and believe the promise; and our walls of sin shall fall so far before us that they shall hinder neither our comfort nor our salvation. Eclipse it they may for a little while, but the sun will shine again, break through, and dispel all those clouds and mists.

Let us set upon all Goliaths, therefore, by the word and Spirit, and also set our will against them, so that we heartily desire and endeavor to be rid of such hindrances and encumbrances, and we shall in the end find a notable victory over them. And so in all troubles and vexations, as in Luke 17:3-4 and following, beg of God, with the disciples, the increase of faith. This will help us out in all storms and tempests; help faith and you help all. This will set heaven and earth working for our good. We see in Hebrews 11 that all is attributed to faith. Why? Many other things concurred in doing those excellent actions; but all is attributed to faith, because faith is that great wheel which set all the rest working and stirs up all. In the same way it is said of love, in 1 Corinthians 13:4 and following, that it does all, and for the same reason: because in those things mentioned there it stirs up all the rest.

So in any grace which is lacking in us, go to Christ and say, “Lord, I lack wisdom, counsel, strength, understanding, prudence in your holy fear. The fullness of these is in you. Lord, it is for your glory to help your poor servant, and to bestow some measure of these upon me to do your own work with. See, Lord, I lay myself down before you, that you may work by me. I have an angry spirit, full of tossings and turmoilings, but you are the Prince of peace, abounding in meekness. Oh, bestow on me such a meek and peaceable spirit that, learning of you, I may be meek and lowly in heart.” I give only a few instances; enlarge on them yourselves. In all things let us, with confession of our needs, have an eye to his fullness, and then we shall find the more of his abundance, when we do not set upon these duties in our own strength only.

Two things are opposite to this life of faith.

(1) Despair. This cuts the pillars of hope. Against this: several, Luther for one, have been tempted to despair, yet by setting about the work they have overcome. So the Israelites were afraid upon the evil report of the spies of Canaan; but when they went on, they overcame and beat down all their enemies. So we say, “Oh, I shall never overcome such a sin, or such a corruption, or do such a duty.” This is not true. Go on, look to Christ, join his strength with your endeavor, be out of love with it, resolve thoroughly, set upon it strongly, and down it shall go before you.

(2) The second is presumption; for know this, that in his own strength no man shall be strong. In St. Paul’s words, “By grace I am that I am” (1 Cor 15:10). So again he says, “In him” (that is, in Christ) “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). If we do presume, it is just for Christ to forsake us, as he did Peter. Take heed also of spiritual self-sufficiency, lest we rest on ourselves and do not go to Christ. Our moving to every good duty is by him. It is but a word for him to help us, whether in things tending to a spiritual or a natural life. Therefore, in conclusion of all, do not leave him. In your emptiness go to his fullness. If your cistern is dry, turn the tap of your faith, and his fountain will fill it again. Take him still along with you, and you cannot help but live this life of faith in sanctification.

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

Here we see our blessed apostle presenting himself as an example of a man living another life than the life of nature, from higher reasons, grounds, and principles: “I live,” he says, “by the faith of the Son of God.” First, he considers another life than the rational one, and corrects its error; for as reason corrects the senses, so faith corrects reason. This makes a man a new creature. The spring of this life is Christ. The means by which it is conveyed is faith. It is fitting now that we should draw everything from outside ourselves; for since Adam lost what he had, it is dangerous to trust ourselves with it any more. Therefore Christ keeps it for us, and makes it ours by the conveyance of his Spirit, making us all children of grace.

Faith is wrought in us by the Spirit of God, and then it works, as Augustine says, “Being acted upon, we act.” Thus, once we are knit to Christ by effectual calling, faith is consecrated as that by which we live. Christ is conceived in our souls by faith. As he was conceived in the Virgin’s womb by her yielding to the promise, so when we close with the promise, faith is wrought, and then Christ comes to live in the heart, just as, when she believed the promise, he came afterward to live in her womb. In the last sermon we set forth many things concerning the life of faith: how it lives in effectual calling, in justification and sanctification, in glorification, and in the several grand passages of this life. One of these remains yet to be unfolded, namely, the life of faith in glorification.

Question. But how? Vision is for glory; what does faith have to do with this, since faith is of things unseen?

Answer 1. I answer, we live by faith in glorification in this way: faith lays hold on the promise, and we have the promises of glory set down in the word, and with the promise we have the first-fruits of the Spirit; and since we have the earnest and first-fruits, God will surely give the harvest. We have the Spirit, and from this faith reasons: God will make good his promise; he will not take back his earnest. In this way faith gathers great matters, believes all, and so lives comfortably in the expectation of enjoying it.

Answer 2. Again, faith lives by the life of glorification in Christ the head. There is but one life of Christ and his members, and one Spirit, one with him in union in the first degree of life. His glory is our glory. As in justification our debts are made his, so his glory is made ours, as we see in John 17:1 and the verses that follow; and he has gone to prepare a place for us, to bring us where he is. “The glory which thou gavest me,” says Christ, “I have given unto them” (John 17:22); yes, and in him also we sit in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). So in regard to Christ, to whom we are knit, we live the life of glory.

Answer 3. By reason of the nature of faith, as in Hebrews 11:1: it is to make things absent have a certain being. Now faith is wrought by an almighty power, raising us above ourselves to fasten on and lay hold of so many mysteries, and so it makes an almighty working in the soul, and makes things far off become evident. Thus it presents glory to us as though it were present, and in some sort we live by it.

How to Know Whether or Not We Live the Life of Faith in Glorification

1. Where this is in faith, it makes a Christian glorious, and puts him in a spirit that is glorious in all conditions. There is no grace in him that is not set on fire by this faith of glory to come. When faith looks back on things, it has strength, but when it looks on glory, all graces and virtues are set to work.

(1) Hope is set to work by faith, and keeps the soul, like an anchor, steadfast against all assaults.

(2) Hope stirs up patience; for, says the apostle, what we hope for, we wait patiently for it. Thus patience is exercised in two ways: (1) in suffering grievances; (2) in the expectation of time. So faith thus puts life into patience, reasoning: Why? What! It will not be long; these afflictions will not last forever; I myself shall be gone before long; glory will come at last, for ever and ever; therefore I will bear all patiently.

(3) Again, it sets courage and magnanimity to work, as in Hebrews 11. What made all the patriarchs so stout to hold out and endure so many miseries, except that they had an eye to the glory to come? What made Abraham forget his father’s house, going he knew not where, except that he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and therefore he was a stranger at home? We have the same of Moses, who forsook Pharaoh’s court because he saw him who is invisible. Yes, and of Christ himself it is said that for the glory which was set before him he despised the shame and endured the cross, being now set at the right hand of the Father in glory and majesty (Heb 12:2).

So in 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul says, “For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”; and the reason is, “For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen …” He who hopes in this way does not lack a comfortable life. And therefore on this ground the apostle’s concluding exhortation is, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).

This makes a man zealous and fruitful, and so it makes a man sincere, as in 2 Corinthians 5:9: “Wherefore we labour,” he says, “that whether absent or present we may be accepted of him.” The ground of this is, “For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body.” In this case our comfort is to be sincere in working in all things.

Now there is an order of things. Whoever lives the life of faith in these grand passages, that soul lives the life of faith also in all the other passages of our life; and these grand passages will run through the lesser courses of our life. To touch on one: when a man is in extremity of both outward and inward affliction, then faith lays hold on this general truth, that God is wonderful in working, and that his ways and thoughts are not like our thoughts and ways. In all the several cases faith makes use of everything God has done or promised, as follows.

1. Of a man in the state of grace, when God in desertion appears as his enemy.

(1) In this case faith at first conquered God, and obtained a blessing by wrestling, as Jacob did. Faith therefore knows the same way again: to go to those precious promises God has made, of returning again, of not forsaking and not being angry forever, of not plowing all day to sow, as Isaiah 28:24 speaks. Faith knows that God works by contraries. It knows that God takes away the sense of his love, not in anger, but to stir up the conscience and the sense of sin, so that we may lament and mourn for it the more, and so receive a surer report of its forgiveness.

Faith knows that his name is wonderful. He raises things past hope. When a man is in despair concerning himself, and everything in himself, and all comforts, then he is nearest home, as Paul said excellently: “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead” (2 Cor 1:9). So faith looks at God working with Christ, the Son of his love, how roughly he dealt with him, and yet how lovingly; for Christ is a pattern as well as a cause of good to us. Christ, in the case of his forsaking, went to God, saying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).

Faith sets God’s promise against his present working, as though it should say, “Though thou killest me, yet will I trust in thee” (Job 13:15); for all this, your love is the same; you are merciful and gracious, and will not be angry forever. Faith, if I may say so, pulls off God’s mask and sees through the dark cloud, and sees that God appears an enemy for a time so that he may return again with the greater abundance of comfort afterward. Faith knows, as Paul speaks, that it is God who comforts the abject, raises the dead, will be seen in the mount, making our extremity his opportunity.

So faith reasons: Is it so, indeed? And is he wonderful in working? Does he work in this way and that by contraries? Then I will answer his working in the same way; I will believe one contrary in another; I will expect the sun to shine again, though now it is under a cloud. I may say the same of any other extremity, as in the raising of our dead bodies. Faith, as it is in Ezekiel, sees a spirit quickening and putting life in dry bones, assuring us by this that he can as easily raise up the dead as deliver us out of any extremity. St. Paul’s argument is to trust in God, who raises the dead, that he can do all things and work wonderful changes in our greatest miseries.

As for the church now in misery, there is a promise that Babylon shall be cast into the sea like a millstone (Rev 18:21). Now faith believes the promises of glory: how God will outwork all human policy, and catch the crafty in their own nets; that as certainly as day comes after night, so assuredly all God’s promises shall be made good, as David resolves in Psalm 130:6: “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.”

So in any cloud, get faith, and it will break through all impediments. Believe the former grand passages of calling, justification, and sanctification, and then we will trust God for the rest. Then is faith most glorious. When it works alone, then it works most strongly. Then also God delights to show himself most effectually; for when all other means fail, and faith works it out alone in wrestling, then he has all the glory, and then all is well. And therefore we must do in this case as the prophet advises: “Let him who sits in darkness and hath no light, trust in his name” (Isa 50:10).

Faith raises men up and sets them on a rock, so sure that nothing can take away their comfort and joy in God; because Christ’s name is wonderful, who then works in desperate cases when it is seasonable. A mighty God delights to work mightily, when we are mightily plunged. Then faith presses its suit hard: Help, Lord, or none can. Our Savior, you see, slept in the ship until a mighty tempest rose, and then he rebuked the winds and the seas; so he seems to sleep now in the church. Why? So that we may wake and stir him up by our prayers.

When the Israelites’ quota of bricks was doubled, and the people were greatly perplexed, then Moses came at the right time to promise deliverance. So when the afflictions of Christians are doubled, then they are commonly most humbled. They pray hard, search, believe, and apply the promises, and then deliverance comes. Therefore in all emergencies let us set faith to work, for this stirs up prayer, and prayer stirs up God, and God stirs up all the creatures.

Let us not, therefore, blame any trouble so much as to cry out, Oh, I am undone! What will become of me now! No, find fault with an unbelieving heart. It is not the trouble but our weak faith that makes us sink in these waves. Beg God then, in great trouble, for great faith to go through it. Cry, Lord, increase my faith, for the trouble is small when the faith is great.

(2) In daily afflictions. Whatever we suffer by them, labor to take away the sting of sin by living the life of faith in justification, as David did (Ps 32:5). Let us confess our sins to God and beg to have their sting taken away, and upon this we shall find him forgiving our iniquity, as David did. So in all our weaknesses and imperfections of sanctification, go to Christ for more grace, and say: Lord, though I am poor and empty of goodness, and of what your exact holiness requires, yet Christ has abundance of fullness to supply my wants. Oh, let me receive some grace for grace out of his fullness, and accept what he has done for me in his pure and perfect obedience; good Lord, impute it to me, for you have made him to be for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

And so for glorification: in all afflictions let us set glory before our eyes, as Paul did, remembering that our light and short afflictions, which are but for a moment, cause unto us a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory, not being worthy of that glory which shall be revealed (2 Cor 4:17). So in any affliction we still have use for the life of faith in glorification. All these must be used in our afflictions, living the life of faith in all.

(3) In sickness of body. Trust in Jesus; he is as powerful and as willing to help us now as he was to help others in the days of his flesh. All things are possible to us if we believe. It takes only a word from him to rebuke all storms and tempests whatsoever. Let us not do like Asa, trusting only in the physician or in subordinate means (2 Chr 16:12), but let us know that all medicine is only dead means without him. Therefore, with the means, run to Christ, that he may work with them, and know that virtue and strength come from him to bless or curse all sorts of means.

(4) So for disgraces. Let us commit our reputations to him as we do our lives (he cares for both), remembering what Peter speaks: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified” (1 Pet 4:14). He means that such a Spirit shall rest on us as shall make us glorious. So in Hebrews 12:2 we are therefore, in sufferings, pointed to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the glory which was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This suffering hinders our happiness; look to him: he is now set in glory, and so shall we be.

It is not in man’s power to alter men’s opinions. God has this in his power, when he will heap honor or pour disgrace on any man. Therefore let us look up, and desire no more good name than God will afford us. If dogs bark, no matter; at length God will clear our name, and our righteousness shall break forth as the noonday. This much the church assures herself of in Micah 7:8: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: though I fall, I shall rise again.” It is as though she should say: God’s servants are never finally forsaken. A time will come when God will do me good for all this, when I am humbled and have made a right use of it.

That we may do this, think: God in Christ has given me the pardon of sin; what do all other things matter then, which cannot hurt me, and shall all work together for my good? David, we know, began to complain grievously in this way; but afterward, when the Lord had spoken peace to his soul in the life of faith in justification and sanctification, then he says, “Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping” (Ps 6:8). Then he despises the shame.

(5) In our particular places and graces. Here too we must live by faith; for a Christian knows that he stands as in a circle, set there by Christ to work. Therefore faith concludes: Here I look for understanding, wisdom, success, blessing, and ability to carry through to the last stitch the business I am set about. He who set me here will enable me, and if I have ill success, then I will go to Christ, and I shall succeed well with his assistance, as Peter did, who, though he had toiled all night and caught nothing, yet at length, at Christ’s command, casting out his net, caught abundantly (Luke 5:5).

So there may be many who take much care and toil for heaven, to subdue and overcome corruptions, and yet catch nothing, and find no corresponding success. Oh, let them go to Christ, and trust him as Peter did, and they shall overcome in such a way at length that all shall be well.

So if magistrates, ministers, and people would trust God for strength more than they do, things would be better with them than they are, as we see in the instance of Moses, who, being commanded to go to Pharaoh, complained for want of utterance. But what does God say to him? “Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?” (Exod 4:11). Therefore in all such wants, faith goes to him for what it lacks. Christ’s encouragement to his disciples, we read, was the same: “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer, for I will give thee a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:15). This was made good also in the past troubles of the church, when poor simple women silenced great learned men with their answers.

Now faith sees what Moses did (Heb 11:24). It looks up to Christ, to him who is invisible. It is with faith in this case as it was with Micaiah (1 Kgs 22:19), when he had seen the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand. Then Ahab, a king on earth, was nothing to him, when he had seen the King of heaven in his glory. So when by faith we see Christ, heaven and glory over our head, Christ caring for his church and standing at the right hand of God, by the assistance of his Spirit this will put invincible courage in us.

(6) For provision and protection. Faith goes to Christ, hangs and depends on him for all these things. Faith knows that it has encouragements, promises, and examples enough to strengthen our dependence on him, to name one: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s will to give you a kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Hence the believing soul argues from the lesser to the greater. What! Will God deny me daily bread, who will give me heaven, and raise me up to life everlasting? And so it cites and turns over the promises often: that the little which the righteous has is better than the abundance of the wicked, for he adds no sorrow with it; that a little with love is better than a stalled ox with contention (Prov 15:17).

Yes, and in this case by faith we know that the saints, in extremity, shall be extraordinarily provided for. Sometimes he will bless a little, as the five loaves and two fishes multiplied suddenly to feed five thousand people. They were in great want before, and were suddenly supplied. So it shall be with us. Sometimes, we know, the woman’s oil increased; the ravens also in distress shall feed Elijah; Lazarus shall have the dogs to lick his sores. In the use of the means we need not fear, and when means are lacking God will create means when all fails; for then faith lives best, knowing that God commands all means, and can suddenly do what he will.

And so for protection and preservation: faith knows that Christ will be our shield and protector, and therefore it relies on him. “Fear not,” God says to Abraham, “for I am God, all-sufficient, thy buckler and thy exceeding rich reward” (Gen 15:1). Hence the saints in all ages have so esteemed him: their rock, fortress, strong tower, salvation, helper, deliverer, refuge, and the like; and Christ tells his disciples that he is with them even to the end of the world (Matt 28:20). He rules his own by his kingly office for the good of his church. This much we know he made good, both in Egypt and in the wilderness, bringing his people safely into Canaan through all those dangers they were in; providing also for the woman persecuted by the dragon a place of refuge in the wilderness, where she was safely kept (Rev 12:6).

(7) And for our children.

Objection. Oh, some say, I could be content with a little, but I have many children.

Answer. Here faith steps in and answers: But are they not also Christ’s children, and must he not provide for his own? Do what you can, therefore, and for the rest do not despair, but cast this burden on him who has commanded you to be anxious in nothing, but in all things to make your suits and supplications known with prayer and thanksgiving.

In this case faith in a dying parent follows Christ’s example: “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me: that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:6, 11). So a dying father may say: Lord, yours they were, you gave them to me; I have done what I can for them. You, Lord, are the first, best, and last Father, and yours are the world and its fullness. Now, therefore, holy Father, keep them in your name, for you are the refuge of the poor and needy, and your time is to help when all other help is at a standstill.

Why, consider, is he not the Father of the fatherless? Then let us leave them to him with that resolution and confidence of the prophet David: “When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up” (Ps 27:10). Not that he means fathers and mothers usually do so, but though they should, or even when they forsake us by death, yet God wonderfully saves and protects their posterity. Then learn to exercise your faith. Though you leave them little, yet trust in God, and know that he who rests under the shadow of the Almighty, as the psalmist speaks, shall be safe (Ps 91:1).

He who provided for them in the womb, and prepared breasts for them before they came into the world, he who put such tender affection in women: know that he will also have care, and be more compassionate over your children after you. Let faith then settle your heart on these grounds. In the womb they were nourished and formed, you do not know how. Oh, says David, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14). And after your death they shall be nourished, you do not know how. For this cause many are punished in their generations, because they would not trust God, but used ill means to perpetuate their houses, such as covetousness, worldly policy, and the like.

(8) In prosperity. What use is there here for the life of faith? Oh yes, very much; for,

[1] What makes prosperity sweet, except that by faith one knows that his sins are pardoned? What comfort of his life, I ask you, does a prisoner in the Tower have, though he abound in all outward plenty of gold and silver, so long as his pardon is not sealed? This sweetens prosperity, the life of faith in justification: that all my sins are nailed with Christ on the cross, that the handwriting against me is canceled and done away. Thus one comes to be of the firstborn, “whose names are written in heaven” (Heb 12:23), and to rejoice that he has a double portion, being exempt from many fears, crosses, and miseries that others are vexed with. Who are better Christians than those who know they enjoy all good things with God’s favor and blessing? Here faith has a continual work, to see God’s love in all, and so to be abundantly thankful, according to what we have received.

[2] The life of faith orders our prosperity. How? Not to abuse those good blessings bestowed on us, not to be puffed up by them, not to disdain others, but to relieve others by them. Faith causes us to think of them as they are set forth in the word. It causes us not to delight too much in them, and shows us better and more lasting riches, friends, and the like. It makes us take Saint Paul’s counsel (1 Cor 7:29), to rejoice and do all things as though we did them not, and to use the world as though we used it not, because the fashion of this world passes away; and therefore it makes men, as Paul speaks in another place, not trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who can do all things. In sum, it causes us to manage all the things of this world so that by them our hearts are not drawn away from the chief good.

So again, in all the comforts of this life, it makes a man eat and drink and sleep and do all in Christ, looking up to him in all his actions, living by faith, and rejoicing that now he has a title and a right to all the creatures. He being clean, now to him all things are clean, because he is now in Christ, who is pure, without spot, and Lord of all; for to the unclean all things are unclean. It cost Christ dear to purchase our liberty to the creatures. Therefore, finding and rejoicing in this freedom, we live the life of faith in prosperity; while faith eyes God in all the passages of this condition, sets him in the first place, receives all, and rejoices in all as coming from the love and graciousness of so good a God; returning in humility the strength and glory of all to him, and also supplying the necessities of his members.

(9) In God’s ordinances. In the preaching of the word and in the sacraments, faith makes us live this life of faith. We are not to be captious about how it comes about that God has appointed this means, above all, to teach men by until the end of the world. Faith makes us lay aside our own side-notions and think: Why, it is enough for me; his will shall be the rule and square of all my thoughts and actions. He has sanctified this ordinance and made it effectual to this purpose; therefore I believe he will bless his own means. Though to the world it seems to be the foolishness of preaching, yet it shall be effectual to my salvation and to that of the rest of his church. He made the world by his mighty word, he repaired the decayed world by it, and by it he will also call for and raise up all the dead at the last day. Therefore I will rest on his ordinance without further dispute.

And so for the sacraments. What is a little water to the washing away of sin? Oh, but the blood of Christ, this is the cleanser, this washes away our sins. His ordinances make it powerful and effectual, for the believing soul, to the end for which he has appointed it. So the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper seem weak and feeble things; yes, but they are ordained to strengthen and increase faith. Here the Christian soul believes that God can so strengthen faith by his Spirit, working in us by this means a nearer communion with Christ and a hatred of sin, and blessing his own ordinances, that, as meat and drink refresh, sustain, and feed this mortal body, so his ordinances by his blessing shall be effectual for the refreshing, fortifying, and nourishing of our souls to life and endless immortality.

(10) Again, so it is in our combats. Of necessity we must fight the good fight of faith in many ways. First, if any trouble assaults a believer, he has recourse to the life of faith in justification and sanctification. As he conquered God at first, in repenting, praying, and wrestling for forgiveness of sins, and in applying the promises, so now he knows how to conquer any evil that befalls him. As it was said to Jacob, “Thou hast, as prince, had power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen 32:28), so a Christian, having in his first new-birth pangs conquered God and prevailed, can now by the same assistance and skill conquer all things also.

Second, a Christian fights this good fight by living the life of faith in glorification. Saint Paul says, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life” (1 Tim 6:12), implying that the way to live this life of faith is to lay hold of eternal life, with serious and constant meditations on the glory to come. Canaan, we know, was given to the Israelites, divided and given by Jacob before his death, long before they came there. Who would not fight, then, for such an inheritance? Now there were serpents, giants, and enemies both strong and many along the way; so they fought against all, and overcame all.

Even so, between us and heaven there are many enemies to overcome: the flesh, the world, the devil, and all that numberless number of events into which, by their malice and our frailty, we are tempted. But here faith must lay hold of eternal life and answer all objections with this: All these shall not make me lose eternity; there is no comparison between heaven and earth, between false pleasures here and true substantial joys to come. This, says the Scripture, “is our victory which overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Why? Because faith makes Christ’s victory ours. Christ overcame sin, hell, death, the world, and all; and since Christ himself is ours, all of it is made effectual for us, as what we have done and suffered. So Christ overcomes in us by his Spirit, as the apostle has it in 1 John 4:4, “Stronger is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” So a weak Christian has a strong Spirit in him, which no power can prevail against, though he suffers some setbacks.

Question. But how does faith fight against the world by the life of glory?

Answer. The world offers and presents petty, base things before us. Faith keeps them off and sets the glory to come against them, preferring that before all. So Moses did, who because he saw him who is invisible, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, esteeming the rebukes of Christ before all the treasures of Egypt, because this glory presented better things to him than this world has (Heb 11:24-27). And if, on the left hand, the world threatens troubles, afflictions, persecutions, and the like for well doing and for not running into sinful courses with others, then faith remembers what is said in Romans 8:18, that “all the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

We see, then, that the life of faith in that glory to come helps us in all temptations to fight the good fight against all enemies whatsoever. He who has a crown before him, it will make him run through the pikes or anything else to attain it. So faith, having glory, immortality, and the joys of heaven before it, overlooks and despises all oppositions, and sees all things subdued to Christ as though all were past; and from this it gathers assurance that it shall triumph over all in him.

(11) So we persevere to the end, fighting and living this life of faith; that is, a Christian makes it his daily and continual life. This is a ground of perseverance. A Christian then lives, in a sort, the life of Christ, as it is said in Romans 6:9, “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.” So such a one, once living by faith, dies no more.

There is a perpetual supply of spiritual strength imparted to him from Christ the head, by which he lives by faith in all the passages of this life. “What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ?” (Rom 8:35). Nothing can. It is a never-failing river, kept up until death, so that whoever drinks of it shall never thirst again; for Christ’s promise is, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:26). For after faith ends, then comes the life of vision, so that all our life the life is the same. We continue so living even until death, and then faith leaves us to the enjoyment of the thing believed. But does faith leave us when we come to die? Oh no!

(12) We die by faith also. For a Christian knows that he is in heaven already. As he lives by faith, so he dies in faith also. Faith makes him, like Stephen, resign his soul to God with comfort. He knows that Christ will receive that soul which he has purchased by his blood. He dies by faith, because he sees death conquered in Christ before him, and because he looks beyond death and looks over all things that are between him and glory, having the Spirit of Christ in him, which makes him bold and fearless, as David says, “I will not fear though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, because thou art with me” (Ps 23:4).

This blessed faith in the Son of God makes us do all things and suffer all things cheerfully and with comfort. Faith makes absent comforts present to us. It eyes such sweet contentment in God’s presence that all difficulties below seem as nothing. It knows whom it has trusted, and what is laid up for it. A believer sees invisible things. Oh, the glorious things that the faithful soul beholds! He sees the angels ready to carry him from a house of clay to a heavenly paradise; from the company of sinful men here in misery to the sweet society of saints in perfect bliss, a bliss whose first-fruits and pledge he himself now enjoys, and which he longs to possess fully.

Objection. But how can this be, when neither eye has seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for his own?

Answer. Indeed, to carnal sense these things cannot be discerned; but to a renewed soul, the Spirit that God has given reveals how far they surpass all earthly contentments whatsoever. We see they are compared to a kingdom, to a feast, to a crown, familiar likenesses, so that the humblest capacity might conceive them and be taken with them. What is more desirable than a kingdom for honor! What glory there is in a rich diadem! And what sweet refreshments there are in a feast! Yet, alas! These are all only shadows; the reality is heaven itself. Do not talk, then, of riches, but of thriving in grace, which will make you rich indeed. What good will the riches of the world do us at the last day? They take wings and fly away. If we do not have the true riches, we may die in want for all these, as Dives did. Know this, that if there is anything good in earthly kingdoms, there is much more in this spiritual kingdom.

Again, the children of God know these heavenly things by their taste. They have the first-fruits of them even in this life; and if the communion of saints here is so delightful, how much more will it be in heaven! God’s children have a taste of that eternal Sabbath in heaven by keeping a holy Sabbath to God here on earth. They have a taste of that eternal rest and peace which they shall enjoy hereafter by the peace of conscience which they have here. And that heavenly joy which flows into the soul now is only a taste of that eternal joy which we shall have our fill of one day.

God is so far in love with his children that he does not keep all their comforts for another world, but gives them a taste of the sweetness here. But what are all refreshments below to what we shall have above in God’s presence? As John says, “We are the sons of God, but we know not what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). Only this we know, that when Christ our head appears, all his members shall be like him. Our life may well be said to be hidden with Christ in God, because flesh and blood does not discern the things prepared for those that love him. We lead a hidden life. We cannot see God face to face, or know him here as perfectly as one day we shall. All that we have now is a taste of the good things to come, and only a taste.

The life which we now live is a life of faith, and we are to walk by faith, not by sight. Therefore, if God did give us all here, what need would we have of faith? It would be no commendation for a Christian to abstain from the sinful courses of the world if he saw the glory that he shall have present before him. But God will show the world that he has a people whose comforts are higher and greater than the world affords, who live by faith and not by sight.

God does not reveal to us now all that we shall have hereafter, because we are not capable of such delicacies; we cannot digest them. So it was with Peter and John: they could not see Christ’s glory in his transfiguration without being spiritually drunk with it: “Master, it is good being here: let us build tabernacles.” Oh, but the Holy Spirit says, “They knew not what they said” (Mark 9:5-6). So likewise Saint Paul, when he was caught up into the third heaven and heard unspeakable words, could not digest them, they so ravished him; therefore God gave him “a prick in the flesh,” that he might not be exalted above measure (2 Cor 12:7). Are we stronger than Peter and Paul, to bear those revelations from above? Is it not goodness in God to reserve them until such time as we are better able to relish them? Moses, desiring to see the face of God, had this answer, “No man can see my face and live” (Exod 33:20). So he who would conceive rightly of the joys of heaven must die first.

Though we cannot see or understand these spiritual excellencies, yet let us often think of them. The life of a true Christian is taken up with the consideration of those things which he shall hereafter have in heaven. There is no grace in a Christian but is set to work this way. What is faith without this? The chief work of faith is about things not seen. It makes absent comforts to be, in a manner, present, and so overcomes the world by seeing these things above the world. How is patience strengthened, but by the consideration of future relief? If there were not better times hereafter for the godly, they would be of all creatures most miserable; but the thought of that makes them wait with patience. What makes men so tender in conscience, and so fearful to sin, but the eyeing of him who is invisible?

And do we have such glorious comforts in another world? Let this cheer up our hearts with joy against all contempts and slighting here below. The world does not know God, nor us, nor does it know what things are prepared for us; and shall we care for their abuse and scorn? What though we walk up and down here unknown? Our condition shall one day be manifested with glory in the sight of all, and then we shall esteem things below as they are. The consideration of this should raise up the spirit of every Christian.

What makes us do things that are excellent, but our believing there is an excellency in such ways and courses? He that sees an excellency in God, you may turn that man loose to any temptation; for if Satan tempts him to any sin, he considers thus with himself: Shall I lose the sweet contentments of heaven for a base lust? Shall I lose my peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit for the satisfying of my unruly corruptions? Consider what we lose in the committing of any sin. The profit and pleasure that a man gets in following the world, alas! What is it to the precious comforts which we lose? Who would be beholden to Satan for anything? Is it not a disparagement to go from God, as if there were not sufficient in him to quiet the soul? Does God not have enough, but we must be beholden to the devil our enemy?

Oh, then, let us admire the love of God to his poor creature, in preparing such great things for him. Let us say with David, “Lord, what is man, that thou art so mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou so regardest him?” (Ps 8:4). How wonderful is your mercy, in having such high thoughts toward lost sinners! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that hath thought us meet to be partakers of an inheritance, immortal and invisible, reserved in the heavens for us” (1 Pet 1:3-4). A sound Christian begins his life in heaven here on earth: he praises and glorifies God by a holy and fruitful way of life. This is our best way of blessing God. Praise in the heart will soon break forth in the tongue.

The apostle, when he speaks of the state of God’s children, calls it a “heavenly kingdom,” a “glorious inheritance,” a “wonderful light,” a never-fading condition. He is not able to express their happiness, it is in every way so full. “So God loved the world” (John 3:16). So: that is, in a way I cannot utter. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath showed, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). It is so free and so rich a love that I am not able to declare it.

Do not envy the wicked, then, in their pleasure and finery. Alas! These last only for a term of life. Pity them instead, when you see them delight in such sinful vanities. Shall a Christian envy any in their pleasures here, when he himself is in so wonderful a state? He should be so far from grudging and repining at the prosperity of others that he should solace himself cheerfully with his future hopes. The thoughts of his good to come should revive him more than any want or discouragement should deject him. What though we do not have our comforts in possession? We are sure of them; God reserves us for them, and them for us. We are like little children, who do not think of the portions that their parents have left them until they come of age. Many weak Christians do not think of their Father’s portion; in their minority they do not mind those unspeakable joys laid up for them. But as they grow in grace, so they will have more knowledge of it and more longings after it.

If it is a great matter to come out of a dark prison to see the light of the sun, what will it be to come out of this dark world into the glorious light of heaven? A natural man does not know this, but once we come to see that light that we shall have in glory, then we will admire it, and cry out with the apostle, Oh the exceeding love of God in Jesus Christ! Indeed, those things that came by the gospel cause wonderment, that God should love flesh and blood so as to prepare such excellent things for them.

But we must know that God qualifies here all those for whom he prepares happiness hereafter. The reason is that no unclean thing shall enter heaven. We must not think to come out of the mire and dirt and enter heaven immediately. No. There must be a suitableness wrought in us for such a condition. Those who will not live holily here have no dwelling in that holy place. If your heart can tell you that you would rather have this honor and that pleasure than grace in your soul, the word of God tells you just as plainly that the excellencies of heaven are no portion of yours. A swine loves the puddles rather than the sweet fountain; so wicked men delight in the world more than in heaven, which plainly shows they shall never come there.

Nothing will comfort us at last but a true change of heart. If you are not a new creature, you shall have no part in the New Jerusalem; therefore let us not feed ourselves with vain hopes. There is none of us but desires heaven; but why do you desire it? Is it because it is set forth as a kingdom, an excellent place of joy and rest? Is it for this only? Be assured, then, you will never come there. You must desire to have heaven because of the divine nature, because it is a holy place and near to God, if you would possess it indeed; and “if thou hast this hope in thee, thou wilt purge thyself, as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).

If we would have faith ready to die by, we must exercise it well in living by it, and then it will no more fail us than the good things we lay hold on by it, until it has brought us into heaven, where that office of it is laid aside. Here is the prerogative of a true Christian above a hypocrite and a worldling: when they trust, and the things they trust in fail them, then a true believer’s trust stands him in greatest stead.

Use. To apply it all, then, see how faith is the life of our life and the soul of our lives, because by it we are knit to Christ Jesus, the life and food of our souls. Let us then make use of it; let us house and entrench ourselves in him, as it is in Psalm 90:1, make him our dwelling-place in all generations. He is our buckler; our enemies must break through Christ before they can come at us. All is ours in him, and in his strength and might we shall overcome all adverse powers whatsoever.

You see, then, that this is no idle grace, but a mighty working one. It works in heaven, and earth, and hell. It works against Satan, it works by love to God, makes us love him and work toward him, and makes us industrious to work for others. Faith is the root of the tree, love the branches. Thus faith works mightily and strongly; it is a quickening and an active grace. As for those, therefore, who do not find it active, it is no wonder they lack its comfort; they must strive to stir it up and set it to work, so as to live by it. Those who find they have it, let them put it to better use than many do, who use it to swear by.

This shames us in troubles, to be unarmed. Where is our shield of faith, when every poor little dart strikes our armor through? This shows we have only a paper shield. We ought therefore to bewail our unbelief and labor for this grace, which is so active and useful, and all the more because it is most miserable to be in a storm without a shelter. This will help us in all miseries whatsoever, and make us conquerors over all in him who has loved us.

Oh, the excellent use of the life of faith! It looks back and makes use of all God’s works, promises, wonders, threatenings, and judgments, and it gathers strength, wisdom, courage, and instruction from all. It looks and sees all things past as if they were still working, doing, promising, and threatening in the present, and it is affected accordingly, when by strength of imagination it presents the ideas of things past as present, to work on us the more; and so it is overawed from sinning against God. Sometimes it sees all this world on fire, and therefore it puts off worldly things and enticements all the more lightly, as perishing things condemned to be burned. So it is the best spyglass in the world; it presents to itself things far off as present and at hand, and makes them excellent, great, and glorious to the sight from far off.

Therefore above all things let us study to live this life of faith (oh, it is worth all our pains!) and shun unbelief as that which alone makes us miserable, causing the guilt of sin to lie on us and shutting us up under the wrath of God. Yes, it seals us up to the day of wrath, turns all our actions into sin in God’s sight, and is the cause of that great condemnation John speaks of. On the contrary, the believing soul lives a life full of comfort, is admitted into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, has a shelter to keep off all storms and tempests whatsoever, and comes by this life of faith to be assured of its part and portion in the love, merits, obedience, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of the Son of God; in sum, to be assured of its salvation in particular, as Saint Paul was, “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

But this much will suffice for this time. I will pursue these things more fully in the next sermon.

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who hath loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

We have already, from the words immediately preceding, spoken of spiritual life and of its excellency; and, in the third place, of the manner of its conveyance, which is by faith; and, fourth, of the spring and fountain of this spiritual life, which is the Son of God, described here by his love and the fruit of it: “He loved me”; and, as a fruit of that love, “he gave himself for me.” Now, to come in the last place to the apostle’s particular application, which he expresses in this word “me”: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Here these points offer themselves to our consideration:

First, that God loves some with a singular and special love: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Second, that faith answers God and Christ’s particular love by a particular application: “Who loved me.”

Third, that this particular faith in God’s particular love is the ground of assurance, which springs from this particular faith.

Fourth, that this assurance, which proceeds from our particular faith in God’s particular love, is the spring of all spiritual life, which sets the whole soul working. For what is the ground of my living by faith in all the passages of my life, but my apprehension of his love, who loved me and gave himself for me? And can I then do less than give myself to him? Now to unfold these in order.

1. That Christ loves some with a special, superabundant, and singular love. For Christ, when he suffered on the cross, looked with a particular eye of his love on all who should believe in him, as now in heaven he has carried our names on his breast. As the high priest had the names of the twelve tribes written in precious stones on his breastplate (Exod 28:21, 30), so Christ, our high priest, has the names of all his children in his heart, to present them always to God by his intercession, so that when he now appears before God, the church appears with him before God in his heart. The Father sees the church in the heart and breast of Christ.

Now as this, I say, is true in heaven, so on the cross the church was in the breast of Christ. There was only a certain number for whom Christ savingly laid down his life (John 17:9). Paul was in the breast of Christ when he shed his blood: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” So then, Christ loves some with a singular, special, and superabundant love. Here, then, the question concerns (1) general love and (2) general gift.

Question. Did Christ love all, and give himself for all, since here the apostle says, “He loved me, and gave himself for me”?

Answer 1. I answer briefly, first, that Christ’s loving and giving himself ran parallel, in even lines, with God’s love and gift (John 6:37, 39); for Christ gives himself for none but those whom God has first given him. Christ had his commission, and he came to do his Father’s will, not his own (John 6:38), and he will save all whom his Father has given him; as it is written, “Thine they were, thou gavest them me” (John 17:6). Those whom the Father gives in election, Christ redeems, and by redemption saves; for redemption, in regard to its efficacy, is no larger than God’s election. Therefore he joins them: “Christ loved me, and gave himself for me.” His love is only for those whom God gave him, for he looks on all he died for as they were in his Father’s love. There is a company in the world whom God hates: “Esau have I hated” (Rom 9:13). Here love and gift go together. He gives himself for no more than he loves, and he loves no more than God loves.

Answer 2. Again, for whomever Christ loved and gave himself to death, there are other fruits which accompany this. Those who have a share in Christ’s redemption have the spirit of application. Where anything of God is obtained by Christ, there, I say, is grace to apply it by his Spirit; and many things go with it. For those he died for, as the apostle shows, for them he rose again, and for them he sits at the right hand of God (Rom 8:34). These go together: “For if he spared not his own Son, but gave him to death for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). Where God gives Christ, he gives the spirit of application with him.

But we see that the greatest part of the world does not have faith (2 Thess 3:2); for it is the faith of the elect. Worldlings do not have it, nor the grace of application, and therefore they do not have the favor of God obtained by Christ. So it is written, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Rom 5:10). These go together. Now the greatest part are not saved by his life; therefore they are not reconciled by his death.

Other places clear up this truth, as Hebrews 9:14, where it is shown that where Christ has offered himself up for any, there is also a purging of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. But most are not purged; therefore they have no share in Christ’s death.

A strong further reason for this is shown by Christ, where he avows plainly and makes a main difference between two sorts of people, saying, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine” (John 17:9).

Objection. But here some may object that Christ’s death is of larger extent than his intercession.

Answer. To cut off this objection, Christ says later in the same chapter, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). That is, I prepare and sanctify myself to be a sacrifice as a priest; I prepare myself to be a holy sacrifice for such. Therefore Christ sanctified himself for them, not for the world. Under the law there was a brazen altar for sacrifice and the golden altar for incense, and the golden altar for incense was effectual for no more than the brazen altar was for sacrifice. And Christ offered himself a sacrifice for all those he makes intercession for.

The point is clear. I will not answer all the objections that might be brought, but only take on some of the main ones, which are brought by the papists against this truth. Saint Paul’s meaning, therefore, is not that he loved me with that love with which he loved all mankind. The apostle means a more special love: He loved me in such a way that he gave himself for me; that is, with a more special love than he bears toward all mankind.

This is a point that tends to God’s honor and man’s comfort. For God has the more praise and thanks from his elect and from those who are redeemed by the singularity of this love, and the greater it is, the more they acknowledge themselves bound to God and Christ. These are the ones who are elected; these are the ones for whom the Scriptures exist, for whom the world stands and Christ came. They love God and single him out (Ps 116:1), and the more they do so, the more God singles them out to delight in.

Singularity enhances and raises favors to higher degrees than they would otherwise reach. The fewer that are taken out of the world from the refuse of mankind, the more their hearts are inflamed to love God in return. God, as the psalmist says, has not dealt so with every nation (Ps 147:20). When will a man be most thankful to God and give him glory, but when he can say, “You have not dealt so with the rest of the world. What is in me more than in the rest of mankind? I differ in nothing from them except in your singular love”? From this the heart comes to be knit in love to Christ in return. But against this it will be objected:

Objection. Why does Christ by the ministry persuade all in the church to believe in Christ, and to believe the forgiveness of sins, if Christ did not die for them all?

Answer. I answer that in the church he calls all, that he may cull out his own. The minister speaks indiscriminately both to the elect and to those who are not, because God will not rob his own children of the benefit, though they are mingled with others to whom the blessed things do not belong. It is as with the rain: it rains as well on the rocks of the sea and on the barren heath as on the good ground. Why? For any good to the rocks? No, but because, together with them, it rains on the fruitful ground, which has the benefit of the rain. So God rains the showers of his ordinances on all, but the benefit of them is only to his ground, not to the reprobates. The sun shines on all, but who has the comfort of that shining? Only those who have eyes to see it and use it, not the blind.

But for those who do not believe, the ordinances have another use. They have this benefit by Christ’s death, that mercy is offered them, and some gifts of the Spirit. God offers and stirs up good promptings in them, but they rebel against them. There are many degrees and means of faith. They do not use all the means they ought, nor take all the degrees, and therefore they are without all excuse, because he gives more grace, not only the means; he is ready to give more grace than they are willing to entertain. So it is their rebellion which is the cause of their damnation. Such reprobates in the church are said to resist the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51), to quench the Spirit, which implies that the Holy Ghost is ready to work more in them than they are willing to entertain.

Is it not so by experience? There is a company of profane persons who, out of the abundance of their wicked hearts and the poison of their breeding, will not condescend to hear at all. Others do come, though for some side purposes and carnal ends. Perhaps the Holy Ghost, in their hearing, beats on their consciences and awakens them. But what do their rebellious hearts say? “Shall I stoop to leave such and such courses that are pleasurable and gainful?” And so they resist the work of the Holy Ghost in the ministry, when their hearts tell them that there is a readiness in the Holy Ghost, and that he is sent from Christ and the Father to work more effectually in them than they are willing to be worked upon; and that is why they are damned. “Thy perdition,” says the prophet, “is of thyself, O Israel!” (Hos 13:9). Their own consciences will tell them this much.

So it does not matter what cavils they raise about Christ’s intention and God’s election. Look, man, to your own heart. Does not your own heart tell you that you are a rebel, and live in profane, wicked courses, in neglect of holy duties? You carry your own sentence and the cause of your damnation in your breast. I appeal to the worst, who live in sins against conscience. Here is the ground of your damnation.

There are many ascents and degrees to saving faith. You withstand the beginnings and the promptings of the Spirit. If they come in and work on your heart any estrangement from sin, your proud heart begins to rebel and will not yield. The only true obedience is that which lays itself at the foot of Christ, and is willing to be led and persuaded in anything so far as frailty will permit, and allows itself in no evil course. This is what brings sound comfort; and because they do not do this, they are without all excuse.

Objection. If this were not so, they might object another day, “Christ did not die for me, so why should I be damned for not believing?”

Answer. Their consciences, therefore, will tell them that they did not use all the means to believe, nor take the degrees of faith. For God’s Spirit does work after a fashion in wicked men, as in the three bad grounds, where the word was effectual in various degrees. But when it comes to the outcome, they did not hate their sins, they were worldly minded; or the plow had not made furrows deep enough to humble them, to value mercy and Christ above all things, and to hate sin above all. This is enough to justify their condemnation.

Though Christ is offered and there is a command to believe, yet their hearts tell them that they do not do all they might. They must know that God’s secret purpose in electing some, and redeeming some, and leaving others is hidden from the world, as his secret will, and that is not the rule of our obedience; God’s revealed will and commandment is. Therefore men must look to what God commands. If their conscience tells them that they do not yield the obedience which they ought and might, but rather resist the promptings of God’s Spirit, then their damnation comes to be just.

They are commanded to believe. Believe what? Not the remission of their sins; for you must know that there is (1) the act of faith and (2) the fruit of faith.

Now a wicked man is not first commanded to believe the forgiveness of his sin, but in this order, in obedience to a subordinate duty that comes before it. He is commanded to believe that he shall have benefit by Christ by yielding the obedience of faith to Christ. The act is one thing, and the fruit is another. Everyone is bound to believe and cast himself on Christ for salvation, but not bound to believe the fruit unless they have the act.

Objection. But it will be objected, “We are not bound to have the first act of faith, to believe. If we were, it would be in vain; we would be believing a lie.”

Answer. I say no. The gospel runs this way: whoever believes in Christ shall have the fruits of the death of Christ, shall have everlasting life. Thus whoever believes and casts himself on Christ does the act, and shall have the fruit. Away with idle questions: “What? Does the fruit of Christ’s death belong to me? Did he die for me?” Go to the act. If you have grace to cast yourself on Christ, and to assent when he offers and invites you, it is well. Yield the act of faith, and leave off questioning what is then put out of question. Do not reason over this, whether God has elected you, or Christ has died for you. This is the secret will of God. But the commandment is to believe in Christ. This binds. Therefore, yield to Christ when you are called and bidden to cast yourself on him; then you will find, to your soul’s comfort, the fruit of his death.

Caution. Let no man excuse himself by quarreling against Christ for not giving himself for all. No man is condemned except for not yielding obedience in the act of faith, and for not doing all that his heart tells him he might but is unwilling to do. It is for rebellion that he perishes. It is as when a criminal is condemned who has been given a book to read, and refuses to do it. His not reading is the cause of his execution and death, as well as the evil deeds he has done: his refusing pardon, in that he will not read, joins with the other. Both are causes of his death, that he does not read, and that he is a criminal.

So in this case, when a man will not yield the act of faith, though his other sins will damn him, yet if he would believe and take the mercy offered, his other sins would not damn him. If men would or could believe, no other sins would hurt them; but because they do not, their other sins shall be laid to their charge, and their rebellion too, that they will not believe and take the benefit of God’s offer.

They refuse mercy because mercy cannot be had without conditions of obedience; as Christ reproves the Jews, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). This is the condemnation indeed, the great and main cause of condemnation. They would have heaven, if they might have it with their lusts; but they will not yield to the act of faith, to take Christ as he is offered to them, on his own terms, to be ruled by him, for better and for worse. This they will have none of, and this is what damns them. They would single out of Christ what they please.

When Christ sent the seventy disciples out to preach and heal the sick, even though they were to be refused by many, they were still taught by our Savior both to wipe off the dust of their feet against them and to convince them of this, that the kingdom of heaven had come near to them (Luke 10:11). In vain, therefore, do wicked men and our adversaries cavil against God’s justice in this. At the last every man’s conscience shall accuse him of being guilty of it, and shall clear God of it, in that they would have none of wisdom’s counsel, shutting their eyes against all instruction and refusing to be reformed. This I thought good to add, to avoid the snarling of wicked, carnal, profane persons.

2. The second point is that true faith answers this particular love and gift of Christ by applying it to itself. True faith is an applying faith. There is a spirit of application in true faith; for God in the Scriptures offers Christ, and Christ offers himself in the ministry, to all who believe. On this ground faith comes to make Christ our own. It appropriates Christ to itself in particular. Christ is a garment, faith puts him on; Christ is a foundation, faith builds on him; Christ is a root, faith plants us in him; Christ is our husband, faith yields consent, and consent makes the match. So then, there is a particular truth that strikes the decisive stroke between Christ and us: “He loved me, and gave himself for me.”

The nature of faith is to make generals become particulars, to narrow generals into particulars; for there is a particular cause, which must have a particular narrowing. Christ’s love is set forth to all in general. Before it does me good, I must have a particular, narrowing faith to make it my own.

Now the papists are enemies to this particular faith, since it is opposed to their opinions and authors, except for some of the more honest among them who lean toward us. They say that we ought to believe with a catholic, general faith that there is remission of sins for the church, but not “for me”; for where, they say, is your name set down in Scripture? They are against this special faith because they know it is the ground of assurance, to which they are enemies; this assurance also being an enemy to all their fooleries, forgeries, and the courses they take to have assurance.

We must know more clearly that there is a particular faith required of us. A Christian ought to say, “Christ loved me.” Nor is this by any special revelation; for God’s Spirit ordinarily witnesses this much, first or last, to all who are his, except in some cases. Now, that you may know that this particular faith is aimed at by God in the Scripture, look at what the end of the ministry and of the sacraments is. Are we not ambassadors from God to men, to unfold Christ’s love in particular to them, and, if they believe, then to tell them that they may be assured of salvation? Does not the apostle speak in particular in Romans 10:9, that “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”? This is spoken to every man in particular.

And as for the sacraments, what kind of faith does baptism seal when water is sprinkled on the child? Does it seal a general washing away of guilt? No, but a particular washing away of the guilt and filth of the sins of the one baptized. Why are the sacraments added to the word, but to strengthen faith in particular? Therefore each one in particular is sprinkled, to show the particular washing of our souls by the blood of Christ. What is the reason that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is added to the word, but that everyone may be persuaded that it is his duty to cast himself on Christ, and to eat Christ, and to believe his own particular salvation? It overthrows the main end of the sacraments to hold a confused faith in general.

Therefore, seeing it is the main end of the word and ministry, let us labor for this particular faith, that we may say specifically, “Christ loved me, and gave himself for me.” Yes, “for me,” if there had been no other men in the world but me. And labor for this all the more because it is what distinguishes us from counterfeit Christians and believers. For where does the main difference lie? It is in appropriation. True faith appropriates Christ to itself, makes Christ a man’s own, since it is the nature of saving faith to draw the general into particulars. This is what is meant by eating Christ, drinking his blood, and putting on Christ; all of which enforce particular acts of faith. But against this it will be said:

Objection. Saint Paul had a special revelation, without which no man ought to believe this much.

Answer. I answer that he had no special revelation, for he enlarges the comfort to all: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38). It is idle to speak of a special revelation, unless we call it so in that it is hidden from the world; in that way every Christian has a special revelation from the Spirit. For the Spirit, who knows the “secret things” of God, and who knows his heart, testifies to him that he is a child of God, and so he has a special revelation; but not if we distinguish one Christian from another. Every true Christian has this revelation, because they have the spirit of revelation, for which the apostle prays (Eph 1:17). “For if we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his” (Rom 8:9). Thus we have seen that God loves some with a singular and special love; and second, that they have a special faith to make this love their own.

3. The third point is that assurance springs from this particular faith, so that a Christian may be assured of the love of Christ. But here various questions and cases must be answered and explained to clear up the point; otherwise our speech will not answer to the experience of God’s people, or to the truth itself. First, we must know that there is a double act of faith in the believing soul: (1) an act of faith, trusting and relying, and (2) an act of assurance upon that act of relying.

For it is one thing to believe and cast myself on Christ for pardon of sins, and another thing, upon that act, to feel assurance and pardon. The one looks more principally to the word; the other is founded on experience together with the word. We ought to labor for both: for trust and consent in the will, to cast ourselves on Christ for salvation; and then, upon believing, we ought to find and feel this assurance. But these are often severed, and sometimes the first is without the second. The first brings us into the state of grace. A man may be in the state of grace, by giving consent to Christ and relying on him for mercy, and yet lack assurance of pardon and reconciliation in the second place.

This often happens, especially in the new birth, that in those strugglings when little grace strives with corruption, the Spirit of God is exercised there in the act, in yielding the obedience of faith, to cast itself on the arm of Christ, into the bosom of Christ, and on God’s mercy. As for any feeling, it does not so much insist on that at first as it regards the act; after this, assurance comes as a reward, as God sees good.

Then again, it often happens in the time of temptation that the first act of trust is without the act of persuasion or feeling, which requires more experience. In the time of temptation a Christian has experience rather of corruption and the wrath of God, having no experience of the contrary; yet he yields the first act of trust with a particular faith, casting himself on the mercy of Christ and on his death for the comfort of redemption.

Question. But here a question must be asked: What is the reason that, where the first act of faith is, casting itself on the mercy of Christ in the promises, there is still not the sense of pardon and reconciliation, nor that full persuasion? Why is this so often suspended?

Answer 1. I answer that there are many causes of it. To name some:

(1) In some the distemper of the body helps the distemper of the soul. I mean a melancholy temper, which is a constitution subject to distrust, fears, and temptations. Some tempers, which are of a bold spirit, are subject to presumption, the devil suiting himself to their temper. So where this melancholy abounds, which is prone to fear and distrust, the devil mingles his suggestions with their constitution and causes those tempers to be inclined to fear where there is no cause of fear. They are careful enough to do their duties abundantly, as God reveals his will to them; they cast themselves on God’s mercy, and renounce themselves. They are humble souls; only, out of distrust, with Satan applying himself to their distemper to help it along, they are kept in darkness.

(2) It also comes about, many times, from a judgment not rightly persuaded: as when they think they have no faith because they do not have it in so great a measure, and when they do not rightly understand the covenant of grace, which requires truth as its perfection, and not measure. For Christ will not quench the smoking flax. He does not despise the day of small things, but cherishes it. “Thou hast a little strength,” he says to the church of Philadelphia, “and hast kept my word” (Rev 3:8). Yet they think, out of a spiritual covetousness, that they have none, because they do not have as much as they would like, and as stronger Christians have. They misunderstand the covenant of grace, where truth counts as perfection. Sincerity is our perfection, and it is known by a strife against its contrary, and by a desire of growth in the use of all means. There is not so much as truth where this is not present; where the least of it is, there is this strife against the contrary, and a desire of growth to a further measure by the use of means.

(3) Also, they are perhaps held without this persuasion and assurance of the pardon of their sin because they are taken up with other cares. They do not value this as much as they should; whereas this is a far different kind of gift from what most people take it for. God grants this sweet heaven upon earth, the sense of his love in Christ, to no one unless it is long sought and highly valued, so that afterward we may be thankful for it.

(4) Again, perhaps they are negligent in holy communion with those who are better than themselves, casting themselves into dead and dark company that lack life, who bring them into the same temper as themselves.

Many other causes may be reckoned why these acts are severed, so that men who cast themselves upon Christ in the spirit of obedience do not have that assurance of the pardon and forgiveness of their sins. From this we may give an answer to another question.

Question. Why do some Christians feel more comfort than others who have the same means of grace?

Answer. 1. I answer: because God stirs up in some a higher esteem of it than in others; they have more spiritual poverty.

2. Again, there is a difference in the ages of Christians; some have had longer experience in the ways of God than others.

3. Again, men differ in their temperament. Some are of a more cheerful temperament. Therefore there is a clearer manifestation in them, and the disposition of the outward man helps the work a little.

4. Again, men differ in their worldly temper. For lack of Christian prudence, men cast themselves too much upon the employments of the world, so that they allow the strength of their soul to be carried so far in one direction that they have no time to gather assurance of salvation. Though in the main they are conscientious, yet many such are so worn out with the world that, as they differ in heavenly-mindedness and in their lack of care for this, so they differ in assurance and in their lack of the sense of God’s love.

5. Again, as God has a purpose to employ men, as he has great and many things for some men to do, so he allows them a greater measure of assurance and pardon of sin, because he intends them to go through a great deal of business. Those he intends shall not go through such employments, he does not grant that portion of assurance; for these are distinct gifts of the Spirit, to give the spirit of faith to cast ourselves upon Christ, and to give the spirit of assurance. The Spirit does both, as in 1 Corinthians 2:12 and the verses that follow, where it teaches us those good things that we have from God. Yet sometimes the Spirit does not so teach us the good things of God as it enables us to do the works of the Spirit, because God has various employments for Christians.

Question. Another question some may raise is this: Why does it often come to pass that Christians of greater abilities lack assurance, and sometimes die without it, when many times a weaker Christian of lesser abilities has it? Men of ordinary rank many times die with more assurance than their great teachers. What is the reason that poor Christians of slight knowledge and gifts have a heaven upon earth, and enjoy a great deal of comfort when they end their days, while men of greater abilities die with their comfort more concealed?

Answer. I answer that many reasons may be given. Christians are too prone to value gifts; and those who have them are very prone to be proud of them, and to think that grace and gifts go together, when these are often severed. Men of excellent gifts many times have no grace at all. Their gifts are given them for the good of others, not for themselves, and they are proud and barren all their days, without any feeling of what they can talk of so largely, with glory, to others; because they value these things, and neglect grace, humility, faith and broken spirits, which God values more than all gifts. Therefore you have men far above others in gifts and in the glory of the world, who lack this assurance.

Question. But suppose they are good Christians; yet they often grow proud and puffed up with great gifts, for the apostle says, “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor 8:1).

Answer. Again, when there is a great deal of good ability in knowledge, there is often great inquiry made after things that should not be looked after, and many irrelevancies, while they lack knowledge and experience in what they should look after more.

Then again, men of greater gifts may out of some error look for comfort too much in sanctification and in the covenant of works, more than in faith. A poor Christian, perhaps out of right judgment, may seek comfort, when he stands in need of it, in faith, in justification, casting himself upon Christ. Another man, thinking to find his comfort more in graces and gifts than in casting himself upon Christ in justification, may justly be deprived of that comfort. For we honor God most, whatever our graces are, by casting ourselves upon Christ and ending our days in mercy, making our appeal to mercy.

The graces of sanctification and excellent abilities are excellent for the good of others, but if we place too much trust in them, it is just of God that we should often go mourning to our graves. Therefore we must set them in their right place and take them as signs and evidences of our comfort, but not forget to rely rightly on our free justification and its fruits as the foundation of comfort. This is what made Saint Paul count all things but dung and dross in comparison of the righteousness of Christ (Phil 3:8).

Then again, God does this to show his freedom: to whomever he pleases he will give more assurance, to show that he is a free giver. Our salvation is according to his good pleasure, and so is the feeling of it; some shall have more, some less. God will sometimes manifest his comforts and feeling more to weak Christians than to others, as a father or mother shows the greatest love to the weakest child. God knows that strong Christians have other things to support them than feelings. They can go back, as holy David does, to former experiences, and rely strongly upon the word and promise; so he allows them to support themselves with stronger things than present feelings. To those who are weakest he grants the sweet feeling of his love, as parents dandle and take most pains to please the sickest and weak children.

But we should leave this to God, who gives us what measure he will, and at what time he will. Some he thinks good to keep a long time from feeling this assurance, to humble them for being too bold with sin. And some, likewise, he will keep longer from this assurance, perhaps all the days of their life, because they have been too confident in the past in touching and meddling with petty sins, which, like pitch and fire, have burned and defiled them too much. In the meantime he supports them with sufficient grounds of a happy state, notwithstanding their infirmities. They may be as good Christians after a fall as ever, though they perhaps never attain that feeling and sense which they formerly enjoyed. For though they do not have feeling, yet they may have strong faith, as Christ upon the cross had strong assurance without feeling, when he said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). Thus we see that assurance may be obtained.

Question. Now we come to a more principal question: How may we know whether we have the act or not, the first act, to yield the obedience of faith? For that is the main thing. Perhaps a Christian may die in the rage of a fever, or in childbirth, and never have strong assurance. Many go to heaven who never have it.

Answer. 1. But as for the first, a man in his right temper may know that he performs the act of faith in trusting by the reflective act of his soul, if it is not hindered. Let him turn back upon himself. As, how do I know I understand a thing when I conceive it? Why, by a faculty the soul has of knowing that it understands. So, how does a soul know that it believes, except by a reflective act of the soul, by which it knows it believes when it does believe, especially when the soul is in a right temper? If a natural soul knows it understands when it understands, and loves when it loves, so the soul by the Spirit knows that it believes when it does believe. If, as I said, the soul is not distempered, it is the nature of the conscience to bear witness of its own act; and usually God’s Spirit, together with the conscience, reveals it (Rom 8:16).

2. But the safest course is to go to the fruit. Know that you have the act of faith by the fruit. I will name just one now, because in the next point I shall have occasion to speak more of it. The fruit of this act is seen especially in the greatest temptation. For if a man has a spirit of prayer, so as to go to God and have boldness in extremity, he certainly believes; for faith is the cause of prayer, and prayer is the breath and flame of faith. Where there is the spirit of prayer, there is always the spirit of faith. Where there is boldness to go to God, there certainly is the Spirit, by which we may be assured that we have the spirit of adoption, even though we do not find so evident a witness that we are the sons of God.

Yet if we have liberty and boldness to go to God in extremity, it is a sign that the spirit of faith is there, as we may see in David: “For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee” (Ps 31:22). He said he was cut off, yet he cried to God when he was in temptation. Though his flesh yielded, and said he was cut off from God and was not the child of God, yet there was a better principle within him to pray, “nevertheless I cried unto thee.”

So Job says, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). Job lacked this assurance and feeling; yet, notwithstanding, see the act of his faith: “Though he kill me, I will trust in him.” When in extremity we can trust God, and go boldly to the throne of grace, and not sink in despair, it is a sign that we are in the state of grace and yield the act of faith. Though we do not find that sweet feeling, at length God will be merciful to us, so that after we have yielded the obedience of faith, we shall find the assurance.

Question. But at what time especially?

Answer. First, especially when a man has yielded the act of faith, and cast himself upon God, and lived a long time by faith, God will then seal this believing with the spirit of adoption. When we believe, especially against a temptation of distrust, then we usually have the sealing of the Spirit.

Then again, when we have striven with any corruption a long time, God, as a reward of our holding out, will crown our faith and our obedience with a sweet sense of his love. After Job had striven a long time, at length concluding, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him,” God manifested himself in mercy to him. The woman of Canaan, after she had striven and wrestled with Christ, at last gets a gracious answer. So when we can subdue our corruptions, and perform holy duties in some strength of grace, in reward of our diligence and care we have some comforting revelation of the Spirit and more than ordinary taste of the life to come, God crowning our diligence with the sweet sense of his love.

And also, when he has some great employment for us, to encourage us the more, he will give us the more evidence and manifestation of his love, more rapture; as the disciples who were with Christ on the mount saw his glory there, because they were to see him abased afterward. Those whom God means to honor and use in any great employment, he often gives the full assurance of his love beforehand.

Again, it comes sometimes in the midst of sufferings, to reward our faithfulness, as Paul in the dungeon was so filled with joy as to sing at midnight. It comes to encourage us, that whatever our threatenings and torments shall be in our sufferings for the name of Christ, yet if we yield obedience to God, our comfort shall be more than our discomfort, as Saint Paul had the spirit of glory, which raised him above his abasement. Thus we see when they are severed, and when God is pleased to grant the manifestation together with the act.

Now I come to the fourth and last point, indeed the chief of all: that this particular faith in obedience to Christ, with assurance of his particular love, is that which carries us along all our life of faith to the day of death. “I live,” Paul says, “this life of faith in the Son of God” (Gal 2:20). Why, what makes him do so? Oh, I have good cause to love Christ and to depend upon him. Why? “He hath loved me, and given himself for me”; and I feel as much to my soul’s comfort, therefore I will wholly depend upon him, in life, in death, and forever. And indeed particular, special faith, if it is joined with some assurance, is the ground of living by faith. No man can live a holy life by faith unless he first knows that God loves him and Christ loves him. Holy actions spring from love, and are directed by love to the right end, which love alone moves us to aim at. How can any spirit aim at the glory of one whom it does not first love? Can any soul, not knowing whether Christ loves it or not, aim at Christ’s glory as it should?

Question. I beg you, if we speak of doing or suffering, thankfulness or cheerfulness, especially at the hour of death, where do all these come from?

Answer. Do they not come from some taste of God’s love? When do we love, except when many sins are forgiven? And when are we willing to suffer anything for Christ’s sake, except when we know that he has suffered such great things for us? We count it a glory to suffer anything for Christ when we know he has loved us and given himself for us.

Question. Again, as for thankfulness, how can a man be thankful for what he has no knowledge of? What makes a man thankful for the great work of redemption in Christ, except a particular faith?

Answer. This is what made Saint Paul and the rest of the apostles so often break out, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3). He breaks out into thanksgiving that he, together with other Christians, had the Spirit, which persuades them of God’s and Christ’s particular love. Then again, as for thankfulness for ordinary blessings, how can a man thank God for any ordinary blessing if he is not assured that it comes from the love of God in Christ? When he is persuaded of this, then he can give thanks both for the principal favor and for other lesser favors.

Objection. Otherwise he may think: What is all this to me? I am only being fattened for the day of slaughter. It is good for me to take my pleasure while I may enjoy these things, considering that I am only like a traitor who has the liberty of the prison. This smothers our thankfulness.

Answer. It is the believing soul that is thankful for mercies, and also cheerful in duties. How do Christians come to be a voluntary people, zealous of good works? In Titus 2:11 the apostle sets zeal between faith and works, looking both ways, saying, “The grace of God, which bringeth salvation unto all men, hath appeared,” by the first coming of Christ and the giving of him to death, “teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.” Here faith looks backward. Then, looking forward, he says, “Looking for, and waiting for the appearance of the blessed God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath redeemed us, that we might be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

Question. Where does zeal for good works come from, except when we look to the grace that has brought salvation and redemption from our sins, and to the glorious coming of Christ?

Answer. When faith looks both these ways, it is set on fire, and it makes us zealous. When the heart is sprinkled with the blood of Christ in the forgiveness of sins, then we serve the living God (Heb 9:14), and are a voluntary and a cheerful people, when our hearts are enlarged with assurance.

Question. Further, what makes a man ashamed of his evil life? What breeds those affections of repentance, grief and shame mentioned in Ezekiel 36:31-32, “Then shall ye be ashamed…”?

Answer. When God had once pardoned their sins and given them many favors, then, he says, you shall be ashamed that you have served me thus and thus, and grieve that you have departed from me. So it is then that Christians come to have those two painful affections of shame and grief, the two ingredients of true repentance. Why? “Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me.” It is as if one should say, Has he done so? Were my sins the cause of his death, and did his love move him? I am ashamed that I have offended so gracious and so sweet a Savior. It makes a man weep over Christ: it was my sins that caused his death and torments.

This particular faith fills the soul with all divine graces, and it follows Christ, and sees that he did all for us. Then a man sees that Christ was born for him: “To us a child is born, and to us a son is given” (Isa 9:6). It follows Christ in his whole life, and so all that he did was for me. His death: He died for me; his sweating in the garden was for me, and my sins caused it. So I see his love, and the foulness of my sins. He was thrust through the side for me, and cried upon the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” My sins had an active power there. He rose again for me, he is now in heaven for me, as carrying me in his breast. The sight and consideration of this draws the soul back to Christ in repentance for sins, and in all holy duties whatsoever.

This is the reason why those Christians who have been pulled out of the fire, and often converted by a violent conversion, are the most fruitful and loving Christians, as Saint Paul and others. They know Christ has forgiven them a mighty debt, a thousand talents; and the greater that debt appears to be, the more they know they are bound to God, and bound to sacrifice and give themselves up to Jesus Christ, who has discharged so great a debt for them.

When they consider his wonderful love to such as they are, they are inflamed with love in return; as in the gospel, the woman who had many sins forgiven her, therefore she loved much. The prodigal young spendthrift in the gospel, for whom the fat calf was provided, no doubt could not satisfy himself with expressions of it. God sometimes provides fat calves, great measures of comfort, even for prodigals, and they of all people show the most love; they do not know how to satisfy him by any pains they take. The love of Christ, says Paul, constrains me (2 Cor 5:14), a holy violence moves me, who was a persecutor and a blasphemer.

So the sense of the love of Christ in pardoning sins will constrain one to a holy violence in performing all duties. Why, if any base aims come into a man’s mind, is a Christian in that case to regard himself, to seek his own ease, honor, pleasure? No; this consideration, if he has any assurance of the pardon of his sins, will move him to the contrary. Christ died for me; shall I not live to Christ, live to him who gave himself for me? Shall I not seek the honor of him who abased himself for me? So it quells all base aims, this consideration of Christ’s particular love.

So it stirs us up to spend ourselves for Christ and for his church, at any cost, to sacrifice our Isaacs. He loved me, and gave himself for me; is anything I can give, then, enough to answer it? He gave himself for me, therefore I will give myself for him. This will make a man prodigal, even of his blood, for Christ’s sake. When a man is moved to be discontented with his condition, and to doubt God’s providence in particular things, this will help: Christ has loved me, and given himself for me. Will he who has given himself not give me all necessities?

So this stirs us up to all duties, and cuts the sinews of all spiritual sins, of distrust in God’s providence, and of all base aims. It stirs me up in the particular practice of a holy life to go to him for all graces. I have himself, therefore he will give me his Spirit and grace. I have the field, therefore I shall have the pearl. He has given me himself, therefore he will give me all that he has; his Spirit, graces and privileges, all shall be mine.

Accordingly it is used in all Paul’s epistles as a compelling argument: as elect, and by the mercies of God, do this; moving them to all spiritual duties from the love of God in Christ. And, dearly beloved: you are dearly beloved; the love that Christ bears you cost him dear indeed. It is a strong inducement. Saint Peter’s argument to this effect is very strong: You are not bought with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ are we redeemed from our vain way of life (1 Pet 1:18).

You see, then, and I give you only a taste of it, what strong motives there are here to live a holy life, and all drawn from particular assurance: because Christ loved me, and gave himself for me. From this, by the way, we may have a strong argument against the papists, who hold that we cannot have particular assurance. For what is brought as an argument to stir us up to holy duties must be known by us. The arguments which serve to persuade in this case must be known. We do not persuade another to a duty by arguments he is ignorant of. Here the apostle speaks to Christians, taking it for granted that they knew they were elected by God, and dearly beloved in Christ. What is an argument stirring us up to duty must be known better than the duty. And because this is an argument that stirs us up to all kinds of duties whatsoever, we may therefore be assured.

But here a question may be asked.

Question. Does not a holy life, and do not holy actions, sometimes proceed from a soul not fully assured? Then what shall we think of those good works that proceed from a Christian without strong assurance? If all obedience in doing and suffering that is pleasing comes from faith and assurance, then what shall we think of such works as do not proceed from it? If you ask many a good Christian, What assurance do you have that Christ has given himself for you? they will perhaps stagger at it; for a humble, brokenhearted Christian is apt to speak worse of himself than there is cause to, though he is diligent in good works. What shall we think of such works, then, when those who do them are not assured of Christ’s love in particular?

Answer. I answer that no holy life can proceed except from faith, from the first act of it. There must be that; but sometimes we do not know our faith, because the reflective act is hindered; we do not know we believe when we believe. Holy duties may proceed from a man when he does not know his grace and state. At such a time let him only examine himself: why does he do his duties, is it out of love to God or not? Yes. Can he endure God to be spoken evil of? No. Will he allow himself in any known sin? No. In this case, though he dares not say he is assured, yet the things he does come from some love and desire of glorifying God.

Christians often do not know their state in such cases. They do work from a secret persuasion of God’s love, though they do not know it. He has what he thinks he does not have; he works from what he thinks he does not work from. He works from love to God when he thinks he does not, because he thinks he does not have as much as he would like; he works from grace when he thinks he has none. A child lives when it does not know that it lives. A child drawing nourishment from its mother’s breast does not know that it lives, but the onlookers do, because they see the actions of life. So a Christian does not know that he lives the life of grace, when the onlookers do, because they see spiritual hunger in him, and his attending on the means of grace.

Now he himself does not see it, because of some spiritual covetousness, temptation or desertion that is upon him. Yet that is a true and gracious action which issues from a soul that reveals faith, even though it cannot itself be assured of its state, there being for the time a suspension of that assurance, through ignorance or other causes. But certainly in such people there is faith in the first act of obedience, and some assurance, where there are actions of spiritual life, though they do not have what they covet to have.

The best way is to labor for both, for assurance and for the act itself. For although those who have the act only perform good obedience, yet it is not so large, so thorough, so cheerful as it would otherwise be. We ought to desire both that God would give us a spirit of faith, and discover himself to us, that our sins are pardoned and that we are accepted to life, to give us strong assurance, so that we may be more plentiful in the work of the Lord. There is no Christian with a good heart who will not labor for the second as well as the first. He will labor to make his calling and election sure by all means, that God may have more glory and smell a sweeter sacrifice from him, and that he may have more comfort in this world. Though much good may be done without assurance, yet not so much as when there is full assurance, for then the soul is carried at full force in obedience to God. Doing and suffering are nothing then.

Use 1. Now for the uses of this. Seeing that the persuasion of Christ’s love to us in particular is the spring of all holy life, this serves, in the first place, to free this doctrine of assurance from scandal. Assurance, then, is not the ground of presumption or complacency. These do not spring from a particular faith, for a holy life, the very opposite, springs from it. No one can live a holy life except by a particular faith; and whoever in particular believes the forgiveness of his own sins will live a holy life, and will not put himself back into his former bondage. Whoever enslaves himself to his former courses, it is a sign he is not the person for whom Christ gave himself, unless he repents.

We see that those of the Israelites who had a mind to go back to Egypt all perished in the wilderness, and that those in Babylon’s captivity who would not come out when they were called perished. It is a pity they should ever be delivered who are in love with bondage. As for those who will serve and be slaves still, it is only fitting that their ears should be bored to perpetual servitude. Some will live in their sins and yet think that Christ died for them. No; those whom Christ loves in particular, he gives grace to lead a holy life and to be freed from the bondage of their former corruptions. Those who are not redeemed from their empty way of life are not redeemed from hell and damnation, unless God gives repentance. These two go together.

Therefore let this also be a rule for testing and discerning whether we truly believe that Christ loved us and gave himself for us: our care to live to him, and to give ourselves back to him by a holy life. Wherever the one is, there is the other. This is what may stop the mouths of many, and will shame them on the day of judgment, despite all their boasting that God is merciful and that Christ died for them. “Oh!” their hearts will tell them, “but I have not cared to have the fruit of Christ’s death in the governing of his Spirit. I would not have him as my king. My conscience tells me I would not have Christ on those terms. He offered himself to rule me. The minister told me of the danger, but I have preferred some base lust or other, such and such a course, before Christ. I hated to be reformed. I flattered myself with hope of mercy on no ground at all. Therefore I never had any benefit from him.”

Use 2. To make another use: if particular faith and assurance are the ground of a holy life, let us labor for it by all means. And let those who are in the state of grace come to this fire if they will be kindled. If they find themselves dull toward holy duties, let them come to this fire. Are we spiritually dead? Are we not as enlarged as we should be? Why, come and consider the infinite love of God in giving his Son for you, and the sweet love of Christ in giving himself for you, and dwell in the meditation of this love. Do not let your heart go off from the consideration of Christ’s sweet love in stooping so low, not only in becoming man, but so low as hardly any creature ever was, and all in love.

Should this not kindle love in us again? He should be all the dearer to us, the more abased he was for us. When we have warmed our frozen hearts with the consideration of his particular love toward us, then we add fire to holy duties. Iron, when it is warm, is fit for any impression. So our cold hearts, though stiff of themselves, being warmed and fired by the love of Christ, are fit to receive any impression, and to do and to suffer anything.

When we find ourselves backward to suffer anything for Christ, let us consider that Christ gave himself. Or, if we are not thankful and fruitful enough, let us consider what the end of Christ’s giving himself was: that we should serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives without fear; and that, being freed from the fear of death, from damnation, and from slavish fear, we should serve him cheerfully in the spirit of adoption and love. I beg you, in all indispositions of soul, let us make use of this, to come to Jesus Christ.

Experience teaches anyone when they are fittest for suffering, for doing any duty, and for resisting a sinful temptation to discontent or murmuring: it is when they enjoy the assurance of Christ’s love, and can read their own evidence that they are God’s children and members of Christ. Then they are fit for anything. Therefore we should, as the apostle Peter exhorts us, “give all diligence to make our calling and election sure” (2 Pet 1:10). It is a thing that requires all diligence. And the reason we have no more of it is that we do not give all diligence to attain it. It requires our utmost endeavor, being of the greatest consequence, for by it God has the most honor and we the most comfort, because it makes us most fruitful in our way of life.

Objection. But you will say, what then shall we say to those who cannot say in particular that Christ loved them and gave himself for them? What course shall they take who do not have this particular assurance and faith? What grounds do they have to come to Christ if they are willing?

Answer. I answer, those who do not have it should labor to have it by every means whatsoever.

Objection. But what ground do I have, who have been a wretched sinner, an unworthy wretch? What ground do I have to have anything to do with Christ, and to believe that he loved me and gave himself for me?

Answer 1. Consider that even the vilest who can hear me have the gospel offered to them. Again, consider that Christ took your nature, and how many inducements there are in this for you to go on by degrees in this particular faith, to come to it, so that you may be in this estate, to glorify God and to enjoy comfort.

Answer 2. Has not Christ taken your nature, and not the nature of angels? Ought you not to think that he loves mankind, and why not you, if you will come in and cast yourself on him? He is Jesus, a Savior; and Christ, anointed of God; and Immanuel, to reconcile God and man together.

Answer 3. Besides, you say you are a sinner. Why, but alas! what are your sins? Is not his righteousness above them? His righteousness is the righteousness of God-man, of a mediator who is God, and therefore far above your sins. Considering then the excellency of his person, believe that the blood of Christ is able to purge you from all of them.

Answer 4. For a further ground for this particular faith, we may think of this inviting of all those who are unworthy: “Whosoever will, let him come and drink of this water of life freely” (Rev 22:17). Yes, those who think themselves farthest off, he bids them come: “Come, all that are weary and heavy laden…” (Matt 11:28). If you find sin a burden, then Christ invites you, and sends his minister to beg you to be reconciled. Those who stand at the staff’s end, keeping him at a distance, he asks to lay aside their weapons and come in.

Answer 5. If that will not do, he lays his charge and command on you to believe. If you will not believe, you add this sin to all the rest. This is his commandment, that you should believe, or else you are rebels against his commandment. Indeed, he counts it a sin worse than the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, a crying sin, not to come in when the gospel is proclaimed.

Therefore never plead that your sins are great and many, but look to his offer, invitation, and command, for it is without any restriction of person, sin, or time. It holds even now, whatever you have been and are, since at whatever time a sinner repents there is no restriction on any sin except the sin against the Holy Spirit. If therefore you do not come in and cast yourself on Christ, to be ruled by him from now on, you have nothing at all to plead. It is not the greatness of your sins but your willingness to remain in your sins that hinders you, for the greater your sins have been, the greater his glory will be in forgiving them: “Where sin abounded, there,” says the apostle, “grace superabounded so much the more” (Rom 5:20).

Is it not to the honor of the physician or surgeon to cure great diseases and sore wounds? A mighty God and Savior loves to do mighty things: “He loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Did Paul find mercy? Who then should despair when such find mercy? He had sinned against the first table by blasphemies, and against the second by oppression and persecution. Who shall despair then, when such as he and Manasseh shall find mercy? Therefore by all means come in, and the greater glory Christ shall have by your coming.

Do not flatter yourself with this, as if your sins and unworthiness were such that God cannot show mercy to such a wretch as you are, or at least will not. No, no; do not deceive yourself. Examine your own false heart, and you will find that you are in love with your sins and will not leave them. And this will be alleged against you on the day of judgment by your own conscience: that you were more in love with your sins than with the mercies of God in Christ, and therefore willingly remained in your unbelief. This is the true cause, indeed, of your backwardness, and not the greatness of your sins. You see then that there is sufficient ground for any sinner to come in and labor for this particular assurance.

Objection. But suppose I am not one whom Christ redeemed and God elected.

Answer. Away with disputing, and fall to obeying. Put this question out of question by believing and obeying. Come in and stoop to Christ, and then it will appear that you are one whom Christ died for, for he gives himself for all who believe in him. You do your duty, you bring your heart to rest on Christ and to be ruled by him, and then you will put this question out of question, that you are one of God’s elect. The devil holds many in a state of darkness by this delusion.

Objection. If I knew that I were elected, or that Christ died for me, then I could believe.

Answer. “Secret things belong unto God, revealed things to us,” says Moses (Deut 29:29). Your duty is, when you are sought for, invited, entreated, and commanded to be reconciled, then to come in and yield obedience; and in yielding it, you will find the fruit of Christ’s redemption, that you are one for whom he gave himself. This much is for those who lack this particular assurance.

Well then, to draw to an end, as for those who claim to have a particular faith and assurance of salvation, by this they shall know it. These things will follow.

1. Then you have a care to live by faith in the Son of God daily, and in all estates and conditions. Where this faith and assurance are, they are always with care and conscience of duty. Herein it is distinguished from a false notion. Where there is no conscience of duty, there is no assurance of particular faith. This particular has its ground from the general, from the word of God. The word says that Christ gave himself for all believers; now, I know that I do believe. He loves all those who love him; and I know I love him, therefore I am loved by him. Thus true faith goes to the conditions of the word. Those who live in courses contrary to the word do not have this faith. “Be not deceived,” says the Scripture: “neither whoremonger, adulterer, nor unclean person, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9). “But I am such a one,” says a wicked man, “and yet I think to enter into heaven, and that God will be merciful.” No; in this case he will not be merciful, because one who concludes this way concludes wrongly, by a diabolical persuasion, contrary to the word.

2. Again, this faith is with conflict. You may know particular application, where it is, to be good, because it is with conflict against temptations. A man never enjoys his own assurance of Christ’s particular love except with a great deal of conflict. There are two grounds that faith lays:

(1) That general truth, that whoever casts himself on Christ shall be saved.

(2) The particular application of it: “But I cast myself on Christ, therefore I shall be saved.”

This particular application, which is the work of faith, is mightily assaulted, more than the general. The devil is content that a man should believe the former, but he troubles us in the application, “but I believe.” He hinders, as much as he can, the reflective act, so that we may not say, “I know I believe.” Thus, wherever the sense of Christ’s love is, there is a mighty conflict before it comes. The devil labors by all means to hinder application, for he knows that particular faith brings Christ home, who is all in all.

But false Christians go on in a smooth course, and are not assaulted this way from day to day. They hope well, not considering that while the strong man keeps the stronghold, all things are at peace. Yet there is no Christian who does not find his particular faith strongly assaulted, more than his general. This is the reason these two equal truths are not equally believed: because Satan hinders the application, the minor premise assuming more than the general truth. Those who have no conflict may fear they have no faith at all, God in wrath and justice allowing them to go on in a smooth, uninterrupted state. But all who have experience know what this spiritual conflict with an unbelieving heart means when it comes to application.

3. Again, a man may know his faith to be true by his willingness to search himself, and to be searched by others. He who has a true, sound faith, and a particular assurance from it, is willing to search his heart often. He would be better and better, laboring to examine himself and to be examined by others. Those who are willing to go on in a still, smooth course, because they will not break the peace of their own deluding, false hearts, rather thinking all is well than putting themselves to the trial, we may know that this is nothing but presumption. Where there is true application there is always a willingness to search our own evidence. Indeed, a Christian will be willing, when he cannot find his own evidence, to have the help of other Christians to read his evidence for him and to tell him of his estate, and he is inquisitive, especially when he meets with those who are skillful in these things.

4. Again, this particular faith is with a high prizing and admiration of the love of God in Christ, “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). It is a sign that he has no share in this love who prizes and values other things above it. If anyone had any assurance of this, he would value it above all other things in the world. He knows that although Christ gives other things, riches, kingdoms, and honors, to castaways, yet Christ gives himself to none but his dear children. Therefore when he knows that he has a share in Christ, he values him above all things in the world, and will part with everything rather than with his share in him. Meanwhile others go on with a general notion that Christ died for them and loves them, or, however that may be, that come what will, they will go on in their pleasures and profits, though their hearts tell them there is something higher in their souls than Christ and his love.

You see then that all of us who will may come in. There is ground enough to draw them on, if they are not false to their own comfort. And you see how we may test whether we are assured or not.

Exhortation. I beg you, therefore, as we desire to do anything that may please God, labor for particular faith and assurance. Would we have our whole course of life stink before God? I tell you, without this faith it is not possible to please God. Would we have all our life pass fruitfully, and nothing charged to our account when we come to die? Oh, pray that the Lord would increase our faith; above all, labor for particular faith and assurance, for there is nothing in which Satan opposes us more. It is a happy estate, a heaven on earth. If Satan opposes it most, and it is the greatest happiness we can enjoy, it is worth laboring after.

Let those especially who have ground and cause to be assured, humble, broken-hearted Christians, by all means not yield to Satan so far as to obscure the beauty of a Christian life and to weaken the good things in others, who see them so gloomy and cast down, as though Christianity were a life of perpetual sorrow and not rather of perpetual rejoicing (Ps 32:10-11). Our blessed Savior indeed shows that mourners are blessed, but it is chiefly because mourning tends to joy and ends in joy. There is a command to “rejoice evermore” (1 Thess 5:16), but nowhere is it written, “mourn continually.” Everyone, therefore, ought by all means to express this assurance in the beauty of a holy life.

Therefore those who make conscience of holy duties and of their ways, let them not yield to temptations of this kind. If we are in such darkness, let us not trust our own judgment, but let us trust the judgment of others. Often others know more about us than we know about ourselves. We ought to yield much to the discerning of Christians in this kind. It is an easy matter, when all things go well with us, in a right current, having some feeling, to have comfort and to be fruitful; but when we are in the dumps, and in the hour of temptation, then it is not so easy.

When a tree bears a great deal of fruit and abounds with leaves, it is an easy matter to say, “This is a fruitful tree.” But when in winter the sap falls to the root, and the tree is covered with snow and frost, the leaves shaken off, and the root that is unseen lies hidden, then it requires some judgment and former experience to say, “This tree has life, and is fruitful, though now none appears.” So a Christian may be in such an estate that he requires the judgment of some others to look on him. When in such a case, he must go to former times, for God’s love is constant, always like himself.

And go to the secret working of grace; when little appears outwardly, go to the pulses. As, if we would know whether a man in a swoon has life and breath, we go to feel the pulses, to see if any breath remains; so in a case of desertion, or seeming deadness of spirit, test which way the soul goes in its desires. Is there not a desire to please God? Are there not groans and endeavors with those desires? Are not those desires restless, and your soul unsatisfied? You do not content yourself with a little faith, but you desire more and more, and you are ashamed because you have so little. This is the pulses beating, and the breathings of a living soul. Do not yield to Satan, who tells you there is no ground for you to be assured of your estate. Where we find these evidences of a living soul, we ought to believe there is true life there. This I say to those who, without cause, are carried to doubt their estates.

Objection. And do not tie Christ to your conditions, saying: “If I had feeling and joy, I could believe and be cheerful; if God would send a messenger from heaven to me, an interpreter, one of a thousand, or if I had those supernatural sweetnesses that some others have found, and those joys; or if corruption were not so busy with me, and I were not so prone to be overtaken by it.”

Answer. But I say to you, know this for your comfort: while you are clothed with flesh, two fountains will have two streams. That which is born of the flesh will be flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit will be spirit still. Inform your judgment, do not be mistaken, and do not say you will not be comforted unless you find such a thorough mortification of your corruption as admits no strong flare-up.

Question. Shall St. Paul, that chosen vessel, have cause to cry out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24), and can you think to be freed from your corruptions?

Answer. No; do not deceive yourself. Your comfort stands in this, with St. Paul: not to allow the evil that you do; that sin shall not have dominion over you, as the apostle speaks, since you are not under the law but under grace. For he says in another place, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these two are contrary, so that ye cannot do the things which ye would” (Gal 5:17). Comfort yourself rather from this self-combat, and from it even gather your assurance that now sin and you are not one lump, and that a heavenly light has revealed this your darkness to you. Only be sure that sin has no quiet possession in you. Complain of yourself and of your corruptions to your Christ as fast as they come. Lay the burden on the strongest, and then do not fear the outcome. What you do not allow, what you complain of and repent of, shall not, cannot undo you, but the Spirit at last shall have a final victory. So much for your corruptions.

And for your joy and feeling: do not tie your Savior to your conditions and qualifications. Look to your desires and your constant walk, not your straying fits and your infirmities. Remember that this is Christian perfection: not to live in any gross sin, nor to allow any smaller sin. And for your imperfections, look up to that infinite fullness of your Savior, that storehouse of all grace, from whom we receive grace for grace: “who is made unto us of God the Father, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). And then, whatever your emptiness may be, a part of his riches, fetched and applied by the hand of faith, will make you complete with the best. And know that as in the state of innocence under the first Adam, his comfort came from within himself, upon his obedience or disobedience, so now under the second Adam, the true and substantial ground of your comfort is outside yourself, in your justification, and in the application of his all-sufficient merits and righteousness to your trembling soul.

Walk on therefore in the obedience of faith, having respect to all God’s commandments, and then assure yourself that the promise is so: you shall not be ashamed. Labor as much as you can for a higher measure of sanctification and mortification, for the greater it is, the more this will assure and confirm your justification; but with these cautions.

Caution 1. Do not be discouraged at your small measure, whatever it is, if it is true, so as to fly off from applying to yourself the riches of your Savior and sweet husband, in whom, whatever your poverty may be, if you are married to him, you are complete and rich with the best. For the weaker you are, the more need you have of a stronger helper to uphold and sustain you, it being the law of marriage for the wife to be endowed with all the riches of the husband, who is to pay her debts, whatever she may be, once she is married to him.

Caution 2. Again, whatever pitch of sanctification or mortification you obtain, do not rest in that, but on the all-sufficiency of your blessed Lord Jesus, who is yours, and so with him all his obedience, righteousness, and the merits of his life, death, and resurrection. For nothing in you is so exact but that in the time of temptation the devil will find a hole in it, and so make his advantage of it for your discouragement; whereas it is clear that the prince of this world being come, as our Savior says, found nothing in him (John 14:30).

Caution 3. And for the remainder, in those eclipses which damp your spirit in this your pilgrimage, by desertion, afflictions, or however it may be, know that precious faith, that it may shine the more, must be tried. Make a virtue of necessity, then, and buckle yourself to this business of the greatest importance. Strive to obey whatever you feel. In the sense of your misery, believe your happiness in Christ; in the sense of God’s anger, believe his love, and that he will not be angry forever. Faith, where it is, is of a victorious nature. Therefore, as in contraries you would have an evidence of any goodness in you, in contraries strive against contraries. When you feel nothing but matter for discouragement, know that the commandment is to believe, and your duty is to obey. No service can be performed comfortably without some persuasion. Strive then to get all the arguments you can of a good estate; and when you yourself are not able, get others to read your evidences for you, and believe the judgments of others who can tell you that these things found in you do not come from a corrupt and false heart.

And with all this, pray for the spirit of revelation, as St. Paul does (Eph 1:17). Pray that God would grant you his Spirit, to reveal to you that love he bears you and the riches you have in Christ; to show you the height, and breadth, and depth, and length, with all the dimensions of his love in Christ more and more; so that the more we grow in the sense and feeling of his love to us, the more we may be inflamed to love him again, for we cannot love him unless we find him loving us first. So beg him to give us the spirit of revelation.

And attend on the means that beget faith, which is especially the word, which is called the word of faith, and look to the examples of others, how God has brought them from a wicked course of life into a sweet state of grace. Take benefit likewise from the example of those we live with. Use all means to take notice of Christ’s particular love. It is the main thing we should labor after in this world.

Can we know how long we have to live in this world? What will make us die willingly, except knowing that Christ will take care of our souls? What made David commend his soul into God’s hands but this: “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth” (Ps 31:5)? What will make us die in the faith cheerfully? Why, this: “Lord, you have redeemed my soul”; when at the hour of death we can commend our soul to Christ: “Take my soul, blessed Savior. You have redeemed me, you have loved me, and given yourself for me. Look in mercy on that soul that you have sprinkled with your own blood.” Let us strive then for this particular faith, without which we cannot resign our souls comfortably to Christ at the last.