Preface: Caring for the Soul
1. The sole purpose of the following treatise is to give brief, plain guidance to readers with even the least education, so that they may live in this world in a way that will make them happy forever in the next. But telling people their duty is useless until they are persuaded that they must perform it. Before explaining the particular duties required of every Christian, I will therefore try to persuade them to practice one general duty that prepares them for all the others: thinking about and caring for their own souls. Without this, they will never think the other duties matter much to them.
2. We know that a human being consists of two parts, a body and a soul. The body is only the soul’s husk or shell, a mass of flesh subject to many diseases and pains during life, and finally to death itself. After death, far from being valued, it cannot even be tolerated above ground, but is laid in the earth to rot. Yet we devote a great deal of care to this less valuable part of ourselves. All our labor and toil goes toward maintaining it. Meanwhile, we scarcely think about the more precious part, the soul. We take no care over its condition. As though it had nothing to do with us, we leave it entirely neglected and never consider it.
3. This neglect of the soul is the root of all the sin we commit. Anyone who intends to begin a Christian life must therefore correct it first. This requires neither deep learning nor extraordinary abilities. Even the least educated person, unless they have an intellectual disability that prevents understanding, has enough understanding for it. They need only apply the same rules of common reason that guide their worldly affairs. I will therefore briefly set out some of the motives that stir us to care for outward things, and then apply them to the soul.
4. Four things especially tend to awaken our concern. The first is a thing’s worth. The second is its usefulness to us, when losing it would cause great harm and trouble. The third is the great danger it faces. The fourth is the likelihood that our care will succeed in preserving it.
5. As for the first, we know that our care for any worldly thing corresponds to its worth. We are most watchful over what is most valuable, and most afraid of losing it. No one locks manure in a chest, but people do lock up their money or whatever they consider precious. In this respect, the soul deserves more care than everything else in the world, because it is infinitely more valuable.
First, it is made in God’s image. It was God who breathed this breath of life into humanity (Gen 2:7). Since God possesses the greatest excellence and worth, the more anything resembles him, the more it should be valued. Yet nothing created on earth resembles God except the human soul. Nothing, therefore, should receive so much of our care.
Second, the soul never dies. We usually value things according to their durability: what lasts longest is worth most. The soul will last forever. When wealth, beauty, strength, and even our bodies fade away, the soul continues. In this respect too, the soul has the greatest worth. What extraordinary madness it is, then, to neglect our souls as we do! We can spend days, weeks, months, years, and even our whole lives pursuing a little worldly wealth that will not last. Meanwhile, we let the devil steal this great and lasting treasure, our souls.
6. A second motive for caring about anything is its usefulness to us, or the great harm its loss would cause. Common reason teaches us this in everything belonging to this life. If our hair falls out, we do not worry much, because we can manage well enough without it. But if we risk losing our eyes or limbs, no amount of care seems too much to prevent it, because we know what great misery that loss would bring.
Yet no misery can compare with the misery that follows the loss of the soul. It is true that we cannot lose our souls in the sense that they cease to exist. But we can lose them in another sense, one that would make us wish they could cease to exist. We can lose the happy condition for which they were created and plunge them into the utmost misery. In a word, we can lose them in hell, from which there is no bringing them back. They are then lost forever.
Even our bodies are involved in this, those favorites of ours on which we spend all our care. After death, they must certainly be raised again, reunited with the soul, and share whatever condition it is in. If caring for the body occupies all our time and thought, leaving none for the poor soul, then the soul will certainly become miserable forever through that neglect. But just as certainly, that very body must become miserable too. If you have any true kindness toward your body, therefore, show it by caring for your soul.
Ask yourselves how you will endure everlasting burning. If a little spark falling on the smallest part of the body is so unbearable, what will it be like to have the whole body thrown into the hottest flames? And this will last not merely a few hours or days, but forever. After many thousands of years in that unspeakable torment, you will be no nearer to escaping than on the first day you entered it. Think about this, I say, and remember also that this will certainly be the outcome of neglecting the soul. Give it some care, even if only out of pity for the body, which must share its miseries.
7. The third motive for caring about anything is the danger it faces. A thing can be in danger in two ways. First, it can face enemies from outside. This is the case with a sheep, which is always in danger of being devoured by wolves. We know that this makes the shepherd watch over it more carefully.
So it is with the soul, which faces great danger from its enemies. These, as we know, are the world, the flesh, and the devil. They are such well-known enemies that our very first act on behalf of our souls is to vow continual war against them. We all do this in our baptism. Whoever makes a truce with any of them is unfaithful not only to their soul but also to their vow, and becomes a person who has broken a solemn oath. This deserves serious consideration. To understand better the danger facing the soul, let us briefly consider the character of these enemies.
8. In war, as you know, several things make an enemy formidable. The first is craft and cunning, which alone have won many victories. In this respect, the devil is a dangerous adversary. Long ago, he gave ample proof of his cunning by deceiving our first parents, who were nevertheless much wiser than we are. It is therefore no wonder if he deceives and cheats us.
Second, an enemy’s watchfulness and diligence make him more formidable. Here the devil excels. Destroying us is his trade and business, and he wastes no time at it. He goes about “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). He watches so diligently for every opportunity to gain an advantage over us that he will certainly let none escape him.
Third, a nearby enemy is more to be feared than a distant one. If he is far away, we may have time to arm ourselves and prepare to resist him. But if he is near, he may come upon us unawares. The flesh is this kind of enemy. Shall I say it is at our doors? No, it is within our very breasts, always near us and ready to take an opportunity to harm us.
Fourth, the more treacherous and dishonest an enemy is, the more dangerous he becomes. Someone who conceals malice under the appearance of friendship can do much more harm. This too describes the flesh. Like Joab with Abner, it pretends to speak peaceably to us but wounds us to death (2 Sam 3:27). It eagerly provides pleasures and delights for us and so appears very kind. But there is a hook beneath that bait, and if we bite, we are lost.
Fifth, enemies are more formidable when they are numerous, and the world is a vast army ranged against us. There is no position or condition in it, and scarcely any created thing, that does not sometimes fight against the soul. The world’s honors seek to wound us through pride, and its wealth through covetousness. Its prosperity tempts us to forget God, and its adversities to complain against him. Our very table becomes a snare: our food draws us toward gluttony, and our drink toward drunkenness. Our companions, and even our closest friends, often join this war against us when their example or persuasion entices us to sin.
9. Consider all this, and then tell me whether a soul surrounded in this way has time to sleep. Even Delilah could tell Samson that it was time to wake when the Philistines were upon him. And Christ tells us, “If the good man of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matt 24:43). But we live among thieves and must therefore expect them every hour.
Yet who among us exercises the same ordinary foresight for this precious part of themselves, their soul, that they exercise for their house or even their least valuable possession? I fear our souls may say to us what Christ said to his disciples: “What! could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matt 26:40). I suspect many of us would struggle to say when we devoted even one hour to our souls, although we know they are continually surrounded by the most dangerous enemies.
What, then, is likely to happen to these poor souls, when their adversaries devote so much care and effort to destroying them, and we devote none to preserving them? Surely they will fare like a besieged town where no watch or guard is kept: it is certain to fall to the enemy. “Consider this ye that forget God”; indeed, you who forget yourselves, “lest he pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you” (Ps 50:22).
10. But I told you that there was a second way something could be in danger: from some disorder or disease within itself. This is often the case with our bodies. They are exposed not only to violence from outside but also to sickness and disease within. We readily recognize their danger then, and need no one to teach us to seek a cure.
The soul is in the same condition. We consider parts of the body diseased when they do not properly perform their functions. We call a palate unhealthy when it cannot taste correctly, and a stomach unhealthy when it cannot digest. So it is with the soul when its parts do not properly perform their functions.
11. The soul has three principal parts: the understanding, the will, and the affections. Little proof is needed to show that these are disordered. Let anyone look seriously into their own heart and consider how little they know about spiritual things. Then tell me whether their understanding is not darkened. Consider how much more readily they choose evil than good. Then tell me whether their will is not crooked. Consider how strongly they desire sinful pleasures, and how cold and feeble their desires are toward God and goodness. Then tell me whether their affections are not disordered, rebelling even against the voice of their own reason within them.
In bodily illness, the first step toward a cure is to discover its cause. Here too, we must understand how the soul first fell into this diseased condition. I will now briefly explain it.
12. God created the first man, Adam, without sin. He gave his soul full knowledge of his duty and enough strength to perform everything required of him, if he chose to do so. Having created him in this way, God made a covenant, or agreement, with him. If Adam continued to obey God without committing sin, then, first, the strength his soul possessed would remain with him. Second, he would never die but would be taken into heaven to be happy forever.
But if he sinned and disobeyed God, both he and all his descendants would lose that knowledge and perfect strength which enabled him to do everything God required. Second, they would become subject to death, and not only death but eternal damnation in hell.
13. This agreement was made with Adam and, through him, with all humanity. We usually call it the first covenant. Under it, God gave Adam a particular commandment requiring no more than this: he must not eat from one particular tree in the garden where God had placed him. But, persuaded by the devil, Adam ate from that tree and disobeyed God. He thereby brought the curse upon himself and all his descendants.
Through that one sin, he lost both the full knowledge of his duty and the power to perform it. We, being born in his image, share that loss. We have therefore become both ignorant of what we ought to do and weak and unable to do it. We are reluctant to do any good, and inclined and ready to do every evil. We resemble a sick stomach that loathes all wholesome food and craves the rubbish that feeds its disease.
14. Now you see how we acquired this sickness of soul, and also that it is likely to prove fatal. I therefore presume I need say no more to convince you that our souls are in danger. It is more likely that this description will make you think their condition hopeless. But so that you do not use that belief to excuse neglecting them, I will hurry to show you the contrary by proceeding to the fourth motive for care.
15. That fourth motive is the likelihood that our care will not be wasted but will help preserve what we care for. Without this likelihood, we become discouraged. A physician leaves a patient when he sees that there is no hope, knowing that further treatment is useless. But when he sees hope of recovery, he diligently administers medicines. In this very respect, we have strong reason to care for our souls. They are not beyond recovery. Indeed, they will certainly recover if we do our part.
16. Although Adam’s sin brought all humanity under the sentence of condemnation, God took such pity on our misery that he gave us his Son. In him, God made a new covenant with us after we had broken the first.
17. This second covenant was made with Adam and, through him, with us immediately after his fall. It is briefly contained in the words of Genesis 3:15, where God declares that the woman’s offspring will break the serpent’s head. Like the first covenant, it consists of mercies God will grant and duties we must perform.
18. In it, God promises to send his only Son, who is God and equal with himself, to earth. His Son is to become human, like us in every respect except sin, and to do the following things for us.
19. First, he is to make his Father’s whole will known to us. By performing that will, we can be sure of being accepted and rewarded by the Father. This was a great part of Christ’s work, which he accomplished in the many sermons and commands recorded in the Gospel. In this respect, he is our Prophet, since the work of a prophet in former times was not only to foretell but also to teach. Our duty here is to listen diligently to him, eagerly and willingly learning the will of God that he came from heaven to reveal to us.
20. The second thing he was to do for us was to satisfy God for our sins: not only Adam’s one sin, but all the sins of all people who truly repent and reform their lives. By this means, he was to obtain forgiveness of sins and God’s favor for us, and so redeem us from hell and eternal damnation, the punishment our sin deserved. He did all this through his death. He offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all who sincerely grieve over and forsake them. In this respect, he is our Priest, since offering sacrifice for the people’s sins is the priest’s office.
Our duty here is, first, truly and sincerely to repent of and forsake our sins. Without this, they will never be forgiven, even though Christ has died. Second, we must firmly believe that if we do this, we will receive the benefits of his sacrifice. All our sins, however many and great, will be forgiven, and we will be saved from the eternal punishments they deserved.
Another part of the priest’s office was to bless the people and pray for them. Christ also does this for us. His Father specially commissioned him to bless us, as St. Peter tells us: “God sent his Son Jesus to bless you” (Acts 3:26). The following words show what this blessing consists in: “in turning away every one of you from his iniquity.” The means he has used to turn us from our sins must be counted the greatest blessings of all.
As for praying, he did this not only on earth but continues to do it in heaven: “He sits on the right hand of God, and makes request for us” (Rom 8:34). Our duty here is to accept, rather than resist, his unspeakable blessing by being willing to be turned from our sins. We must not make all his prayers and intercessions for us useless and fruitless. They will never prevail for us while we continue in our sins.
21. The third thing Christ was to do for us was to enable us, or give us strength, to do what God requires. He does this, first, by lessening the severity of the law given to Adam. That law required him never to commit even the smallest sin, on pain of damnation. Christ requires only an honest and sincere effort to do what we can, and accepts sincere repentance where we fail.
Second, he sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts to govern and rule us, giving us strength to overcome temptations to sin and to do everything he requires of us under the Gospel. In this respect, he is our King, since a king’s office is to govern and rule, and to subdue enemies.
Our duty here is to surrender ourselves as his obedient subjects, to be governed and ruled by him and to obey all his laws. We must not side with any rebel; that is, we must not cherish even one sin. Instead, we must diligently pray for his grace to enable us to subdue them all, and then carefully use that grace for this purpose.
22. Lastly, he has purchased an eternally glorious inheritance for all who faithfully obey him: the kingdom of heaven, where he has gone ahead to take possession for us. Our duty here is to take the greatest care not to forfeit our shares in it. We will certainly forfeit them if we remain unrepentant in any sin.
Second, we must not fix our affections on this world but lift them upward according to the apostle’s command: “set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2). We must continually long to take possession of our blessed inheritance. Compared with it, everything here below should seem worthless and insignificant to us.
23. This is the substance of the second covenant under which we now live. You see what Christ has done, how he carries out the three great offices of King, Priest, and Prophet, and also what is required of us. Unless we faithfully perform our part, everything he has done will be of no benefit to us. He will never be a Priest to save those who do not also accept him as their Prophet to teach them and their King to rule them.
Indeed, if we neglect our part of this covenant, our condition will be worse than if it had never been made. We will then have to answer not merely for breaking the law, as under the first covenant, but also for abusing mercy, which is the most provoking of all sins.
On the other hand, if we faithfully perform our part, all the benefits of Christ already mentioned most certainly belong to us. This means sincerely setting ourselves to obey every command of Christ, refusing to continue willfully in even one sin, and grieving over and forsaking whatever sins we have previously committed.
24. Now you see how little reason you have to abandon the care of your souls because you think they are beyond cure. Plainly they are not. Indeed, they are in precisely the condition that most calls for our care. If Christ had not redeemed them in this way, they would have been so hopeless that care would have been useless. On the other hand, if his redemption had ensured that everyone would be saved, however they chose to live, we would have thought care unnecessary, because our souls would have been safe without it. But God has arranged matters so that our care must be the means by which our souls receive the benefit of everything Christ has done for them.
25. If, after everything God has done to save our souls, we will not give them a little care ourselves, we fully deserve to perish. Suppose a physician took on a patient with a desperate disease and, by his skill, brought him to the point where recovery was certain, provided the patient cared for himself and followed the physician’s instructions. Would you not think that a man who refused to do this had grown tired of his life? In the same way, a person who will not accept the easy conditions by which they may save their soul has certainly grown tired of it and is willfully throwing it away.
26. You see God’s great kindness toward our souls. The whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have all done their parts for them. The Father gave his only Son. The Son gave himself, left his glory, and endured the bitter death of the cross solely to keep our souls from perishing. The Holy Spirit has become, as it were, our attendant. He waits upon us with continual offers of his grace, enabling us to do what will preserve our souls. Indeed, he is so eager for us to accept these offers that he is said to be grieved when we refuse them (Eph 4:30).
What greater insult and affront could we offer God than to despise what he values so highly? Christ thought our souls worth every drop of his blood, yet we would not think them worth any part of our care! In worldly matters, we usually value things according to the judgment of those who understand them best. Certainly God, who made our souls, knows their worth best. Since he values them so highly, let us be ashamed to neglect them, even if only out of reverence for him. This is especially true now that they are in so hopeful a condition that nothing but our own carelessness can possibly destroy them.
27. I have now briefly covered the four motives for care that I proposed at the beginning. Each unfailingly stirs us to care about worldly things. I have also shown you how much more reasonable, indeed necessary, it is that they should stir us to care about the soul. What more can I say, then, except to conclude in Isaiah’s words: “Remember this, and show yourselves men” (Isa 46:8). That is, treat your soul as your reason teaches you to treat everything else that concerns you.
Surely ordinary justice requires you to do this. The soul supplies the reason you use in all your worldly affairs. Should the soul itself receive no benefit from the reason it supplies? That would be like the head of a household who provides food for the servants, only to have them prevent him from eating any himself, leaving him the only starving person in his house.
28. Mercy binds you to this just as justice does. You know that the poor soul will fall into endless and unspeakable misery if you continue to neglect it. Then it will be too late to consider it. Your last hope of refuge is God’s mercy, but you have despised and abused it. How can you have the face, in your greatest need, to beg for his mercy toward your souls when you would not show them your own? You would not give them even the ordinary kindness of thinking about them, or devote to them a few of those idle hours that you scarcely know how to fill.
29. Take this to heart. If you ever hope for God’s pity when you need it most, be sure to pity yourselves while there is still time, by giving your precious souls the proper care they deserve.
30. If what I have said has persuaded you to perform this necessary duty, my next task will be to explain how this care must be exercised. In a word, it consists in doing everything that tends to make the soul happy, which is the goal of our care. I now turn to showing you what those things are.
Sunday 1: Our Duties to God
The benefits Christ has purchased for us will undoubtedly make the soul happy, for eternal happiness itself is one of them. But these benefits do not belong to us until we fulfill the condition required of us. Whoever desires the happiness of their soul must therefore set about fulfilling that condition. I have already described it in general: a wholehearted, sincere effort to obey the whole will of God. But God’s will includes many particular requirements, and we also need to know what they are. We must know the things God now requires of us, whose fulfillment will bring us to everlasting happiness, and whose neglect will bring us to endless misery.
2. God has so deeply impressed some of these things upon our souls that we know them naturally. We would have known them to be our duty even if Scripture had never told us so. We can see this in pagans who have never heard of either the Old or New Testament. Yet they acknowledge that they are bound to certain general duties, such as worshiping God, acting justly, honoring their parents, and the like. As St. Paul says, “Their Consciences do in those things accuse or excuse them” (Rom 2:15). That is, their consciences tell them whether they have done what they ought in those particular matters.
3. Although Christ has brought greater light into the world, he never intended it to extinguish any of the natural light God has placed in our souls. Let me therefore advise you here, in passing, not to act against even this lesser light. I mean that you should not venture into any actions that natural conscience alone tells you are sins.
4. Any Christian heart has good reason to grieve at seeing people in these days who profess great devotion to religion, yet live in sins that even a pagan would abhor. They claim greater light and holiness than their fellow Christians, yet act against every rule of ordinary honesty, and make doing so part of their Christian liberty. Everyone who loves their soul must beware of being led astray by them. For that purpose, establish this principle as a foundation: no religion or opinion that permits people to practice wickedness can come from God.
5. Although we must not extinguish the light God has placed in our souls, this is not the only way he has revealed his will. We must therefore go further and learn the other things he has revealed by other means.
6. We come to know these through the Scriptures. They set out the commands God has given as the rule of our duty.
7. Some of these commands were given before Christ came into the world. These include the precepts scattered throughout the Old Testament, especially those contained in the Ten Commandments and that excellent book, Deuteronomy. Others were given by Christ, who added much both to the law implanted in us by nature and to the law of the Old Testament. You will find these in the New Testament, in the various precepts given by him and his apostles, especially in that divine Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7.
8. Each of these should be discussed separately. But that would make this work very long, and therefore less suitable for ordinary people with little education, for whose use alone it is intended. I choose instead to bring them all together and set out, as plainly as I can, the present duty of every Christian.
9. I find this briefly contained in the apostle’s words: “That we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12). Here soberly includes our duty to ourselves; righteously, our duty to our neighbor; and godly, our duty to God. These will therefore be the main divisions of my discussion: our duty to God, ourselves, and our neighbor. I begin with our duty to God, since it provides the best foundation on which to build the other two.
10. Our duty to God has many parts. The two chief ones are, first, to acknowledge him as God, and second, to have no other. These include all the particular duties that make up our whole duty to God, which I will explain in their order.
11. To acknowledge him as God is to believe that he is an infinitely glorious Spirit, existing from everlasting, without beginning, and continuing to everlasting, without end. He is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forever. He is subject to no change, but is unchangeable. He is not a bodily substance that our eyes can behold, but is spiritual and invisible, “whom no man hath seen, nor can see,” as the apostle tells us (1 Tim 6:16). He is infinitely great and excellent, beyond anything our understanding or imagination can conceive. He has received his being from no one, and gives being to all things.
12. We must believe all this concerning his essence and being. Besides this, Scripture presents him to us through various excellences: infinite goodness and mercy, truth, justice, wisdom, power, all-sufficiency, and majesty. He orders and governs all things by his providence; he knows all things and is present everywhere. Theologians call these the attributes of God, and we must acknowledge them all without doubt. We must firmly believe that all these divine excellences are in God to the highest degree, and can never cease to be in him. He can never be anything other than infinitely good, merciful, true, and so on.
13. But acknowledging him as our God means more than this. It means performing all the duties a creature owes to its God. I will now tell you what these are.
14. The first is faith, or belief. This includes not only the belief already described concerning his essence and attributes, but also belief in his word: the firmest conviction that everything he says is perfectly true. This necessarily follows from his attribute of truthfulness. We naturally believe whatever is said by someone whose truthfulness we trust. Since the Holy Scriptures are the word of God, we must therefore conclude that everything they contain is entirely true.
15. The things they contain are of four kinds. First, statements of fact. These include all the stories in the Bible, which tell us that particular things happened in particular ways: Christ was born of a virgin, was laid in a manger, and so on. They also include many points of doctrine, such as that there are three Persons in the Godhead, that Christ is the Son of God, and the like. We must believe that everything of this kind stated in Scripture is entirely true. But we must do more than believe it. Since these things were all written for our instruction, we must consider them for that purpose. Through them we must lay a foundation of Christian knowledge on which to build a Christian life.
16. The second kind of thing contained in Scripture is commands: the various things God requires us to do. We must believe that these come from him, and that it is entirely just and fitting for him to command them. But this belief must produce obedience. What we believe ought to be done must actually be done by us. Otherwise, our belief that these commands come from him only leaves us with less excuse.
17. Third, Scripture contains warnings of punishment. Many passages threaten those who continue in their sins with the wrath of God. This includes all the punishments and miseries of this life, both spiritual and temporal, and everlasting destruction in the life to come. We must steadfastly believe that these are God’s warnings, and that they will certainly be fulfilled against every unrepentant sinner. But we must use this belief to keep away from the sins threatened with this destruction. Otherwise, our belief adds to our guilt, since we willfully continue in sin despite those warnings.
18. Fourth, Scripture contains promises, both to our bodies and to our souls. For our bodies, there are many promises that God will provide what he sees to be necessary. I will name only one: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt 6:33). “All these things” means all outward necessities. But notice that we must first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We must make serving and obeying him our first and greatest concern before even this promise of temporal good things belongs to us.
There are many great promises to the soul. First, there is the promise of present relief and refreshment: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your Souls” (Matt 11:29). But it is clear that before this rest belongs to us, we must have taken Christ’s yoke upon ourselves and become his servants and disciples. Finally, there are promises to the soul of all Christ’s benefits, but only to those who fulfill the required condition. Forgiveness of sins is promised to those who repent of them; an increase of grace to those who diligently use what they already have and humbly pray for more; and eternal salvation to those who continue to the end of their lives in wholehearted obedience to his commands.
19. Belief in the promises must therefore move us to fulfill the condition. Until it does, we have no reasonable grounds to expect any benefit from them. Looking for their benefit on other terms is as madly presumptuous as a servant demanding a reward from his master without having done any of the work for which alone the reward was promised. You can easily decide what answer such a servant should receive. We must expect the same answer from God in this case.
Furthermore, God certainly gave these promises for no other purpose than to invite us to holiness of life. Indeed, he gave his Son, in whom all his promises are, so to speak, gathered together, for this purpose. We usually focus so much on Christ’s coming to make satisfaction for us that we forget this other part of his mission. But nothing is more certain than that the main purpose of his coming into the world was to establish goodness of life among people.
20. This is repeated so often in Scripture that no one who considers and believes what they read can doubt it. Christ himself tells us that he came to call sinners to repentance (Matt 9:13). St. Peter tells us, “That God sent his Son Jesus to bless us, in turning every one of us from our iniquities” (Acts 3:26). It appears, then, that turning us from our iniquities was the greatest special blessing God intended for us in Christ.
21. St. Paul teaches us that this was also the purpose of Christ’s very death: “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). Again, “Who gave himself for us, that he might deliver us from this present evil world” (Gal 1:4). That is, from the sins and evil customs of the world. There are many other passages to this effect, but I believe these are enough to assure anyone of this great truth: everything Christ has done for us was directed toward bringing us to live as Christians. Or, in St. Paul’s words, “To teach us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12).
22. We know that Christ is the foundation of all the promises: “In him all the promises of God are yea, and Amen” (2 Cor 1:20). Therefore, if God gave Christ for this purpose, the promises certainly serve the same purpose. How greatly we abuse them, then, if we make them serve a purpose directly opposed to their intention: encouraging us in sin. They will certainly do this if we persuade ourselves that they belong to us however wickedly we live.
The apostle teaches us a different use for them: “Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). When we do this, we may rightly apply the promises to ourselves and confidently expect our share in them. Until then, although the promises are certainly true, we can gain no benefit from them. We are not the people to whom they are made, since we do not fulfill the condition required to give us a right to them.
23. This is the faith or belief required of us concerning the things God has revealed in Scripture. It must serve the purpose for which they were revealed: bringing us to lead good lives. Merely believing their truth, without this, is no more than the devils do, as St. James tells us (Jas 2:19). But they are not as unreasonable as some of us, for they tremble, knowing well that this faith will never do them any good. Many of us, however, go on confidently, never doubting that our faith is sufficient, although we have not the slightest fruit of obedience to prove it. Let such people hear St. James’s judgment on this point: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so Faith if it have not works is dead also” (Jas 2:26).
24. A second duty to God is hope: a confident expectation of the good things he has promised. But, as I told you concerning faith, this must agree with the nature of the promises. Since they require a condition on our part, we can hope only insofar as we fulfill it. If we hope beyond this, we are far from fulfilling the duty of hope. Instead, we commit the great sin of presumption, which is simply hoping where God has given us no grounds to hope. Everyone does this who hopes for forgiveness of sins and eternal life without the repentance and obedience to which alone they are promised.
True hope purifies us. St. John says, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). That is, it makes him leave his sins and earnestly strive to be holy as Christ is holy. A hope that does not do this, however confident it may be, can rightly be judged to be only that hope of the hypocrite which Job assures us will perish.
25. Besides presumption, there is another way of violating this duty: despair. By this I do not mean what is ordinarily called despair, namely, despairing of mercy while we continue in our sins. It is only right for us to do that. I mean the despair that makes us abandon our efforts. Someone sees that the promises do not presently belong to them, concludes that they can never become a person to whom they belong, and therefore neglects every duty and continues in sin. This is truly sinful despair, and if continued in, it must end in destruction.
26. The work of hope is to prevent this by setting before us the universal reach of the promises: they belong to everyone who will fulfill the condition. A person may not have fulfilled it before, and may therefore have no right to them yet. But hope tells that person that this right can still be gained, if they will now earnestly set about it. It is therefore extraordinary folly for anyone, however sinful, to give themselves up as lost. If they will only change their course, they will be as certain to share in the promises of mercy as if they had never continued in those former sins.
27. Christ shows us this in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). There we see that the son who ran away from his father and squandered his inheritance in reckless living was, on his return and repentance, treated as kindly as the son who had never offended. Indeed, he received greater and more passionate expressions of love. The sole purpose of this parable was to show us how graciously our heavenly Father will receive us, however great our former sins have been, if we return to him with true sorrow for the past and sincere obedience for the future.
Indeed, a sinner’s return from the error of their ways is so pleasing to God that there is a kind of triumph in heaven over it: “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). Who would not choose to bring joy to heaven, to God and his holy angels, through timely repentance, rather than please Satan and his accursed spirits through stubborn despair? Especially when the former gains us endless happiness, and the latter brings us equally endless torments!
28. A third duty to God is love. There are two common motives for love among people. One is the goodness and excellence of the person; the other is that person’s particular kindness and love toward us. Both are present in God to the highest degree.
29. First, he possesses infinite goodness and excellence in himself. You have already been taught to believe this about him. No one can doubt it who considers just this one thing: nothing good in the world has any goodness that it has not received from God. His goodness is like the sea or ocean, and the goodness of all creatures is like small streams flowing from it. You would certainly think someone mad who said that the sea was no greater than a little brook. It is no less foolish to suppose that God’s goodness does not exceed that of all creatures by as much, indeed, by infinitely more.
Besides, a creature’s goodness is imperfect and mixed with much evil. His is pure and complete, without any such mixture. He is perfectly holy and cannot be tainted with the slightest impurity, nor can he be the author of any impurity in us. Although he is the cause of all our goodness, he is the cause of none of our sins. St. James expressly tells us this: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (Jas 1:13).
30. Second, God is not only good in himself, but wonderfully good to us: kind and merciful. We consist of two parts, a soul and a body, and God has shown infinite mercy and tenderness toward both. Consider what you were told earlier about the second covenant and the mercies offered in it, including Christ himself and all his benefits. Consider also that God offers them so sincerely and wholeheartedly that no one fails to enjoy them except through their own fault. He truly and affectionately desires us to embrace them and live.
This appears in his solemn oath: “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” He adds this passionate appeal: “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die?” (Ezek 33:11). You may also read Ezekiel 18 to the same effect. Consider this, I say, and surely you cannot help acknowledging his great kindness to our souls.
Let everyone also recall the many calls they have received to repentance and amendment of life. Sometimes these have come outwardly through the word, sometimes inwardly through the secret whispers of God’s Spirit in the heart. Their only purpose was to win and plead with that person to avoid eternal misery and accept eternal happiness. Let everyone remember these calls, together with the many other means God has used toward them for the same purpose. They will have reason to acknowledge God’s kindness, not only to human souls in general, but to their own in particular.
31. Nor has he neglected our bodies. All the good things they enjoy, such as health, strength, food, clothing, and everything else that concerns them, are entirely his gifts. Indeed, we cannot be unaware of his mercies toward our bodies. All the outward comforts and refreshments we enjoy each day are continual effects and witnesses of that mercy. Although some enjoy more of these than others, everyone enjoys enough of one kind or another to show abundantly God’s mercy and kindness toward their body.
32. Surely you will now think it only reasonable that we should love him, since he is in every respect so worthy of love. Indeed, this duty is so generally acknowledged that if you asked anyone whether they loved God, they would think you greatly wronged them by doubting it. Yet it is only too clear that very few truly love him. You will soon see this proved by examining some of the common effects of our love for people like ourselves, and then testing whether we can show any such fruits of our love for God.
33. There are several such effects, but for brevity I will name only two. The first is a desire to please; the second, a desire to enjoy the loved person’s presence. These are constant fruits of love. As for the first, everyone knows that someone who loves another person is eager to gain that person’s approval and to do whatever they believe will be pleasing to them. This desire is stronger or weaker according to the degree of love. Where we love earnestly, we are earnest and careful in seeking to please.
If we truly have the love for God that we claim, it will produce this fruit: we will take care to please him in everything. As you judge a tree by its fruit, you may judge your love for God by this fruit. Indeed, this is the test Christ himself has given us: “If ye love me, keep my Commandments” (John 14:15). St. John tells us, “That this is the love of God, that we walk after his Commandments” (1 John 5:3). Where this one proof is missing, it is impossible to demonstrate our love for God.
34. We must also consider that our love for God must not be weak or slight. The motives for it, his excellence and kindness, are of the highest degree. Besides this, the same commandment that tells us to love God tells us to love him with all our hearts and all our strength. That means as much as we possibly can, and above anything else. To fulfill this commandment, we must therefore love him to that degree.
If we do, our efforts to please him will not be slight and faint, but diligent and earnest. They will lead us to undertake the most difficult and costly duties. They will make us willing to give up our own comfort, possessions, friends, and even life itself when we cannot keep them without disobeying God.
35. Now examine yourself by this test. Do you have this fruit of love to show? Is keeping God’s commandments your constant and greatest concern? Do you obey him in everything, earnestly striving to please him to the utmost of your power, even to the point of giving up what is dearest to you in this world? If you do, you may truly say that you love God. But if, on the contrary, you willfully continue to break many of his commands, or even one, do not deceive yourself. The love of God does not abide in you.
This will become clear if you consider what Scripture says about such people: that they “are enemies to God by their wicked works” (Col 1:21); that “the carnal mind is enmity with God,” and everyone who willfully continues in sin has such a mind (Rom 8:7); and that whoever “sins willfully, tramples under foot the Son of God, and doth despite unto the Spirit of Grace” (Heb 10:29). There are many similar passages. Unless you can think hostility, trampling, and insult are fruits of love, you must not believe that you love God while you continue in willful disobedience to him.
36. A second fruit of love, as I told you, is the desire to enjoy the loved person’s presence. We constantly see this in our love for one another. If you have a friend whom you love wholeheartedly, you desire their company and wish to be with them always. It will be the same with our love for God, if that love is as great and sincere.
37. There are two ways of enjoying God: one imperfectly in this life, the other more perfectly and completely in the life to come. In this life, it is the fellowship, as I may call it, that we have with God in his ordinances: in prayer and meditation, in hearing his word, and in receiving the sacrament. All these are intended to bring us into intimacy and familiarity with God by speaking to him and hearing him speak to us.
38. If we truly love God, we will certainly value and desire these ways of fellowship with him very highly. Since this is all the fellowship we can have in this life, our love will make us value, with David, “one day in God’s courts better than a thousand” (Ps 84:10). We will be glad to have these opportunities to approach him as often as possible, and careful to use them diligently to unite us still more closely to him. Indeed, we will come to these spiritual exercises as cheerfully as we would go to our dearest friend. If we truly do this, it is good evidence of our love.
39. But I fear that few can offer this evidence. We see people’s usual reluctance and unwillingness to come to these exercises, and their negligence and lack of heart when they take part in them. Can we think God will ever acknowledge us as people who love him while we so dislike his company that we enter it only when dragged there by fear, shame before others, or some similar worldly motive? You would certainly not think someone loved you if you saw them avoiding your company and unwilling to come into your presence. Do not therefore be so unreasonable as to say you love God while you desire to keep as far from him as you can.
40. Besides this, there is another enjoyment of God, more perfect and complete: our perpetual enjoyment of him in heaven. There we will be united to him forever. We will enjoy him continually, without interruption, rather than only now and then for short periods, as we do here. If we have the degree of love for God that we ought, we cannot help desiring this most earnestly. We should desire it so much that we consider no labor too great to attain it.
The seven years Jacob served for Rachel “seemed to him but a few days for the love that he had to her” (Gen 29:20). Surely, if we love God, we will not think a lifetime of service too high a price for this full enjoyment of him. Nor will we consider all the enjoyments of the world worth a glance in comparison with it.
41. If we can truthfully tell ourselves that we long in this way to enjoy God, we may believe that we love him. But again, I fear that few can prove their love in this way. Looking at people’s lives, we see that they are generally not so eager for this enjoyment that they will take any trouble to obtain it. Moreover, there is reason to fear that many would choose to remain here forever, enjoying the world’s profits and pleasures, rather than go to heaven to enjoy God, if the choice were offered to them.
Like the descendants of Gad and Reuben, they would settle on this side of the Jordan (Num 32) and never desire that heavenly Canaan. Their affections cling so closely to earthly things. This clearly shows that they have not made God their treasure. If they had, their hearts would be with him, according to our Savior’s rule (Matt 6:22). Furthermore, it is only too plain that many of us value this enjoyment of God so little that we prefer the vilest and basest sins to him. We choose to enjoy those sins, though by doing so we entirely lose our share in him. This is the condition of everyone who willfully continues in those sins.
42. Judged by these tests, I fear many who profess to love God will be found not to love him. I conclude with St. John’s words, which, although spoken about love for our fellow Christians, apply very fittingly to this love for God: “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
43. A fourth duty to God is fear. This arises from considering both his justice and his power. His justice is such that he will not acquit the wicked, and his power is such that he can inflict the severest punishments upon them. Christ himself tells us that this is a reasonable cause for fear: “Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).
Many other passages of Scripture commend this duty to us: “Serve the Lord with fear” (Ps 2:11); “Fear the Lord ye that be his Saints” (Ps 34:9); “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10); and many similar passages. Indeed, all the threats of wrath against sinners that we encounter in Scripture have this purpose: to produce this fear in our hearts.
44. This fear is simply a reverent awe of God that keeps us from offending him. The wise man tells us, “The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil” (Prov 16:6). No one can therefore be said truly to fear God unless that fear restrains them from sin. This corresponds to our ordinary fear of other people. If we know someone can hurt us, we take care not to provoke them. If we are not equally careful to avoid displeasing God, it is plain that we fear people more than we fear him.
45. The madness of fearing people more than God will soon appear if we compare what people can do to us with what God can do. First, it is certain that no person, and I might add no devil, has the power to hurt us unless God permits and allows it. If we only keep him as our friend, we may say with the psalmist, “The Lord is on my side, I fear not what man can do unto me.” However great their malice, he can restrain them and keep them from hurting us. Indeed, he can change their attitude toward us, as the wise man says: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Prov 16:7).
We have a striking example of this in Jacob (Gen 32). When his brother Esau was coming against him as an enemy, God wonderfully changed Esau’s heart, so that he met Jacob with every expression of brotherly kindness, as you may read in the next chapter.
46. Second, suppose people were free to do you whatever harm they could. Alas, their power extends only a little way. They may rob you of your possessions, take away your liberty or reputation, or perhaps even your life. But you know that this is the utmost they can do. God can do all this whenever he pleases, and infinitely more. His vengeance reaches beyond death itself to the eternal misery of both body and soul in hell. In comparison with this, death is so insignificant that we should not regard it with dread.
“Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do,” Christ says (Luke 12:4). He immediately adds, “But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him” (Luke 12:5). These words compare the greatest evil we can suffer from people, the loss of life, with the graver evils God can inflict upon us. The latter are found to be the only truly dreadful things, and therefore God alone is to be feared.
47. There is one further consideration here. We may wrong other people without their knowing it. I might steal my neighbor’s possessions or defile his wife, and keep it so secret that he never suspects me and therefore never has me punished. But we cannot do this with God. He knows everything, even the most secret thoughts of our hearts. However secretly we commit a sin, he is certain to discover us. Unless we repent in time, he will just as certainly punish us eternally for it.
48. Surely we must now acknowledge that displeasing people is much safer than displeasing God. Yet, alas, our conduct is as though we believed the exact opposite. Nothing is more common than for us to rush into God’s indignation to avoid some present danger we fear from other people. We do this whenever we commit a sin to preserve our property, reputation, or even our lives. We are plainly choosing to provoke God rather than another person.
49. But God knows that fear of other people is not the only circumstance in which we venture to displease him. We commit many sins without this temptation, or indeed any other. Common swearing, for example, offers neither pleasure nor profit to attract us. Often we are so afraid of the harm others might do us that we are ready to avert it by committing the greatest sins. Yet we bring precisely those harms upon ourselves through sins of our own choosing. The careless spendthrift robs himself of his property. The deceitful and dishonest person, or anyone who lives in open and notorious sin, destroys their own reputation. The drunkard and glutton bring diseases upon themselves that shorten their lives.
Can we think that we fear God at all when that fear has so little power over us? Even reinforced by the many present harms that accompany sin, it cannot keep us from sinning. Such people are certainly far from fearing God. They seem instead to defy him, determined to provoke him whatever it costs them in this world or the next. Yet we are so unreasonably biased in our own favor that even such people claim to possess this fear. You may question multitudes of the most gross and scandalous sinners before meeting one who acknowledges that they do not fear God.
It is strange that people can deceive themselves in this way. But we certainly cannot deceive God. He will not be mocked. If we will not now fear him enough to avoid sin, we will one day fear him when it is too late to avoid punishment.
50. A fifth duty to God is trusting in him: depending and resting upon him. We must do this, first, in every danger, and second, in every need. We must rest upon him in all our dangers, both spiritual and temporal. Spiritual dangers include all the temptations that threaten to draw us into sin. Concerning these, he has promised that if we resist the devil, the devil will flee from us (Jas 4:7).
Our duty is therefore, first, to pray earnestly for God’s grace to enable us to overcome temptation; and second, to set ourselves courageously to fight against it, neither yielding nor consenting to it in the slightest degree. While we do this, we must confidently rest upon God, trusting that his grace will be sufficient for us. He will either remove the temptation or strengthen us to withstand it.
51. Second, in all outward and temporal dangers, we must rest upon him. We know that he can deliver us and will do so if he sees it to be best for us, and if we are among those to whom he has promised his protection: those who truly fear him. We have many promises in Scripture to this effect: “The angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (Ps 34:7); and “The Lord delivereth the souls of his saints, and all that put their trust in him shall not be destitute” (Ps 34:22); and many similar promises.
We also have many examples, such as the three young men in the furnace (Dan 3), Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan 6), and many others. All these teach us one lesson: if we conscientiously continue to perform our duty, we need not be dismayed by anything that may happen to us. The God we serve is able to deliver us.
52. In every danger, we must therefore first pray humbly for his help, and then rest cheerfully upon him, assured that he will bring about the outcome most beneficial to us. Above all, we must place our dependence wholly upon him, rather than relying upon created beings for help. Still less must we seek to deliver ourselves by unlawful means, by committing any sin. That is like Saul going to the witch, and therefore to the devil, for help (1 Sam 28:7).
Such courses commonly disappoint our present hopes. Instead of delivering us from our difficulties, they plunge us into greater and much more distressing ones. We then lack our only support, God’s favor and help, which we certainly forfeit when we try to rescue ourselves through sinful means. But suppose we could certainly free ourselves from the present danger in this way. Alas, we would still be far from gaining safety. We would only have removed the danger from something less important and brought it upon the most precious part of us, our souls. We would be like an unskilled physician who moves a pain from the finger to the heart.
We are therefore greatly mistaken when we think we have acted prudently by preserving our liberty, property, or even our lives through sin. We have not preserved them wisely, but madly paid too much for them: we have spent our very souls upon them. Christ tells us how little we gain from such bargains: “What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Matt 16:26). Let us therefore resolve never to value anything we can possess in this world so highly that we keep it at the price of even the least sin.
Whenever matters reach the point where we must either give up some or perhaps all of our worldly possessions, or even life itself, or else commit sin, let us remember that this is the occasion to fulfill the great and excellent duty of taking up the cross. We can never do this more properly than in such a case. Enduring something we have no possible way of avoiding can, at most, be called carrying the cross. We can be said to take it up only when we have a way to escape it through sin, but choose to endure the cross rather than commit the sin. Then it is not imposed upon us by unavoidable necessity; we choose it willingly.
This is highly pleasing to God, and so strictly required by him that, if we fail to do it when put to the test, we cannot be counted as followers of Christ. He has expressly told us, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). He says the same again in Mark 8:34.
It would therefore be spiritually wise to prepare ourselves for this greater self-denial, when we are called to it, by sometimes practicing lesser degrees of it. We know that someone who expects to run a race will regularly train beforehand, so as not to be defeated when running for the prize. In the same way, we should sometimes deny ourselves some lawful pleasure, comfort, or profit. We can thus gain enough mastery over ourselves to renounce everything when obedience to God requires it.
53. As we must trust God to deliver us from danger, so we must trust him to supply our needs. These, again, are either spiritual or temporal. Our spiritual need is for his grace to enable us to serve him, without which we can do nothing. We must depend upon him for this, provided that we do not neglect the means: prayer and careful use of what he has already bestowed upon us. Then we have his promise: “He will give the holy Spirit to them that ask it” (Luke 11:13); and “unto him that hath shall be given” (Matt 25:29). That is, God will give more to the person who has made good use of the grace they already have.
We must not therefore frighten ourselves with the difficulty of what God requires. Remember that he commands nothing he will not enable us to perform, if we do not fail to do our own part. Let us sincerely do our part, then, and confidently assure ourselves that God will not fail to do his.
54. We also have temporal and bodily needs, and must likewise rely upon him to supply them. Here too, we have no shortage of promises, provided we belong to those to whom they are made: God’s faithful servants. “They that fear the Lord lack nothing” (Ps 34:9); and “They that seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good” (Ps 34:10). Again, “Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from death, and to feed them in time of famine” (Ps 33:18-19). We also have examples of this, as in the case of Elijah and the poor widow (1 Kgs 17), and many others.
55. We must therefore look to him to provide everything we need, according to the psalmist’s words: “The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord, and thou givest them their meat in due season.” Our Savior has taught us to pray for our daily bread, teaching us that we must live in continual dependence upon God for it. But I do not mean that we should expect it from God by surrendering ourselves to idleness and expecting to be fed by miracles. No, honest industry and labor are the means by which God ordinarily gives us the necessities of this life. We must therefore never neglect them.
“He that will not labour let him not eat,” says the apostle (2 Thess 3:10). We may believe that God will pronounce the same sentence and allow the lazy person to lack even necessary food. But when we have faithfully made our own effort, we must also look to God for his blessing upon it. Without that blessing, our effort can never prosper. Having done this, we may confidently rest upon his providence for whatever measure of outward things he sees to be best for us.
56. But if our circumstances leave us unable to work, with no other means of obtaining life’s necessities, even then we must rest cheerfully upon God. We must believe that he who feeds the ravens will provide for us by some means or other, though we do not know what, as long as he pleases to let us remain in this world. In no circumstances should we torment ourselves with anxious and distrustful thoughts. Instead, as the apostle says, “cast all your care on him who careth for us” (1 Pet 5:7).
57. Our Savior earnestly urges this duty in Matthew 6, where he fully shows the folly of distrust. The passage is excellent, and I will therefore give it at length, beginning at verse 25:
“Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; neither for your body, what you shall put on; is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
“Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little Faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
I could add many other passages to the same effect, but this is so full and convincing that I believe it is unnecessary.
58. All I will say further about this duty is to remind you of its great benefits. First, by trusting God in this way, you engage and bind him to provide for you. You know that people consider themselves strongly obliged not to fail those who depend and rely upon them. Certainly God does so much more.
Second, practicing this duty brings great ease and peace. It frees us from the anxieties and excessive cares that disturb our minds, break our sleep, and gnaw at our very hearts. Those who have felt them certainly do not need to be told how distressing they are. But I would think that this distress should make us eager to embrace the means of removing them. We too often see that it does make people eager to use unlawful means. They cheat, steal, lie, and do anything to escape the fear of want. Alas, these usually prove deceptive remedies. They bring God’s curse upon us, and are therefore more likely to deliver us into want than to keep us from it. If you desire a certain and unfailing cure for anxiety, take this one: rely upon God.
59. Why should anyone fear want when they know they have someone caring for them who is all-sufficient and will not allow them to lack what is fitting for them? If a poor person merely had a trustworthy promise from a wealthy person that they would never be allowed to suffer want, they would certainly be greatly encouraged. They would no longer think it reasonable to be as anxious as before. Yet a human promise may fail us. The person may become poor and unable to keep their word, or prove false and unwilling to do so.
But we know that God is subject neither to poverty nor deceit. What a vile wrong we do him, then, if we dare not trust his promise as much as we would trust another person’s! And what great harm we do ourselves by loading our minds with a multitude of distressing and tormenting cares, when we can so safely cast our burden upon God! I conclude with the apostle’s words: “Be careful in nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6).
