Sermon 5

(Isaiah 53:1) Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

It's a great matter once to get the Gospel brought among a people, and such messengers, as may make the savory report of Jesus Christ to them; yet this is not all, there is a greater work behind, and that is, to get Christ believed on, and to get the report concerning Him received by the people to whom it is made; this being the greatest and gravest work of the prophets, and of the ministers of the Gospel, and the most eminent, not so much to get a word to say, as to get the word believed; and this is Isaiah's complaint, that though he himself brought the report concerning Christ, and foresaw many more would bring it, yet, that the exercise of faith in these who should hear it would be very rare.

We spoke of the great thing called for from a people to whom this Gospel comes, and the report of Christ is made, and that is to believe on Him, to receive and rest on Him of whom the report is made; except this be, though there were never so many preachers, and encouragements to preach, though you should flock to the ordinances every day, the ground of complaint will still remain, if there be not saving faith in Jesus Christ, which is the substance of the Gospel.

After confirmation of this point, we show what faith is from the several names the Scripture gives it, and wherein the exercise of saving faith is held out, all which imply these three. 1. A great hazard and danger that the hearers of the Gospel are in, whether they be sensible of it in such a measure at least, or not, we speak not now, yet they are so really; so much fleeing, coming, laying-hold, apprehending, etc. insinuate. 2. A fullness and sufficiency in Christ Jesus held forth to them, as the object of their faith, as one that can deliver out of that danger, and can right whatever is wrong. 3. An act, wherein mainly the exercise of faith is held forth, and it's the act of the soul under that danger and distress, betaking itself to Christ's fullness for help: it's a fleeing from the curse of the law, to Him, as to the City of Refuge; so every name that faith gets, sets out a man acting and moving some way for Christ's remedying the evil, and removing the hazard he is in.

Having spoken a little to this, that faith is the main duty that is called for, we may now follow the exhortation to press you to it, it being to no purpose to speak of Christ and of faith in Him, except He be received; this is the end of the word written and taught (John 20), even to believe in the name of the Son of God, and by believing to receive life in and through Him.

And therefore, secondly, seeing this is the main duty called for by the Gospel, that by faith you should receive it, and Christ offered in it, we earnestly exhort you to it; it is not so much to this or that particular duty, though these be implied; it's not so much to attendance on ordinances, nor to submission to discipline and censures, though these also be duties that we exhort you to; but it's to obedience to the great command of faith, even to believe on Him whom the Father has sent and sealed; it is to receive this Gospel, to submit to the righteousness of faith, to open to Him that is knocking at the door, to yield to Him and to give Him the hand, that bygone quarrels may be removed, and taken out of the way; except this be, we profess to you in His name, that you bring not forth the fruit that this Gospel calls for from you, and that no less will be acceptable to God, nor taken off your hand by Him.

And to add here the third branch of the doctrine, we say, that no less will do your turn as a necessary means for attaining the promise and that which is promised. 1. Look to all the promises, whether of pardon of sin, or of peace with God, of joy in the Holy Ghost, of holiness and conformity to God; there is no access to these, or to any of them but by faith; this is the very proper condition of the Covenant of Grace, and the door whereby we step into it; and if you think pardon of sin, peace with God, and holiness to be necessary, then this great Gospel duty of believing is no less necessary; for the Lord says (John 3:36), he that believes not is condemned already. 2. Look to the performance of any duty, or mortification of any lust or idol, and faith is necessary to that (1 John 5:5); it is by faith we obtain victory over the world; it was by faith (Hebrews 11) that all the worthies spoken of there, wrought righteousness, etc. 3. When any duty is done, of whatever nature it be, there is no acceptance of it without faith; it is not our praying, or coming to the church, that will make duty to be accepted, but it's faith, the word profited them not, says the Apostle (Hebrews 4:2), because it was not mixed with faith: and that for making the duty acceptable, faith is necessarily requisite, we may clearly see (Hebrews 11:6), where it is expressly said, that without faith it is impossible to please God; and how is it that Abel offers a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, it was nothing sure in Cain's sacrifice itself that made it be rejected, nor anything in Abel's that made it be received or acceptable, but faith in the Messiah to come, that was found to be in the one, and was missing in the other; is there not reason then to press this duty on you? and to exhort you not to think this a common and easy thing, though the most part think it to be so; if we look to the benefits of it, to the difficulty of it, and to the rarity of it in the world, there is no duty had need more to be pressed than this, even that Christ Jesus should get the burden of your immortal souls cast on Him by this saving faith. I shall therefore, in the further prosecution of this: first, show, what mainly you would eschew and avoid, as that at which folk more ordinarily stumble; secondly, what it is we would press you to, and on what grounds.

For the first, I know the deceits and mistakes in men about the exercise of faith are so many that they are more than can well or easily be reckoned up, yet we shall in some generals, spoken of before, hint at a few of them; for so long as you continue in the same snares, they must be still pointed out to you, and endeavors still used to undeceive and extract you out of them. And therefore, 1. Beware of resting on a doctrinal faith, which before, I called historical; we know it is hard to convince some that they want faith, yet we would have you to consider, that it is not every kind of faith, but saving faith, that will do your turn; it is the want of that which the prophet complains of. And therefore, to open this a little, you would consider, that there may be really such a faith as is an assent to the truth of the Word, in a natural man, yea in a reprobate, but that faith will never unite to Christ, nor be waited with the pardon of sin. First, I do not say, that every one that is in the visible church has this doctrinal faith, to believe a heaven and a hell, that the Scripture is the Word of God, and that all that believe in Christ shall get pardon of sin and life; the carriage, alas, of many testifies that they have not this much, whatever fleeting notions they may have of these things, or whatever esteem they may seem to put on the Gospel, and whatever profession they may make, that they believe the truth of it, yet in their deeds they deny it; for if there were a fixedness in the doctrinal faith of the Gospel in men, they durst not for their souls live as they do. Neither yet, secondly, do we say, that all they that have this doctrinal faith of the Gospel, or somewhat of it, do believe every passage in it alike, but often as they please them, they believe them: hence many believe what the Word speaks of mercy and of pardon of sin, and will not question that; but what it speaks of holiness, and of the severity of God's reckoning with men for sin, they do not so credit that part of the Word; it is true, where the faith of the one is, the faith of the other will some way be; but because the one agrees better with their corruption than the other, therefore the one is not so received as the other; and it is very frequent with such, to be found diminishing from one place, and adding to another, of the Word of God. Nor, thirdly, do we say, that all men do in a like and equal degree, believe the truth of the Word; there is in some more knowledge, in some less, in some more convictions, in some fewer; and though we preach to you all, yet there are some that believe not this to be God's ordinance, albeit there are many who will not be saved, that take this Word to be the Word of God, and believe what is the meaning of it, because the Word itself says it is so. And the reason of this is, 1. Because there is nothing that is not saving, but a natural man may have it; now, this doctrinal faith is not saving, and so a natural man may have it — yea, the devils believe and tremble; and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on this account, that they believe not thus, but tells them, that historical faith was not enough; and we think a man in nature may have a great persuasion of the truth of the Word of God, and that what it says will come to pass, and yet still continue but a natural man. A second reason is, because the Scripture speaks so often of many sorts of faith that are not saving, as (Exodus 14, at the close) it is said, the people believed the Lord; and (Psalm 106:12) then they believed His Word, and sang His praise; and (John 2:23) many believed on Christ to whom He did not commit himself; there was faith in them, which His signs and miracles extorted from them, which was not saving; and (Matthew 13) two or three such acts of faith are spoken of in the Parable of the Sower, that were not saving, however sound they might be in their own kind, and (1 Corinthians 13) we have such a faith spoken of, as a man dare not deny the truth of the Word, though he should bring his body to be burnt by his avouching of the same. A third reason is, because, as much credit may be given to the Word as is given to any other history that is creditably believed; and it is on this ground that we believe there were such men as Caesar, Pompey, Wallace, etc. and it being certain, that there may be impressions on the consciences of hearers, that this is God's Word, backed with some common work of the Spirit, and that it is generally received to be the Word of God, in the part of the world we live in; what wonder is it that people believe thus, and drink in this historical or doctrinal faith of the Word, so as they may even dare to suffer to death for it? And yet in the mean time, they may want saving faith, the devils being as sure as any natural man is, that God is true, and that His Word will be performed, and therefore they say to Christ, "Have you come to torment us before the time"; the pangs of a natural conscience in men will assure them of a judgment coming, though they tremble to think on it.

And therefore before we proceed further, take a word of use from this, and it may let you see the great and very general mistake of the most part of the hearers of the Gospel, in resting on this doctrinal faith. If you tell them that they have no faith, they will not by any means take with that; they believe there is a Savior, and that He is God and Man, and that such as believe on Him shall be saved, and on this they rest. It's such as these who think they have believed all their days since ever they had any knowledge, because the Word was always, or very long since, received in the place where they lived, for the Word of God, and they believe it to be so also; and know no difference between believing the Word, and believing on Christ held out in it. Though alas many of you believe not this much, for if you were among the Jews, you might be soon brought to question the truth of the Gospel. But though you had the real faith of the truth of the Word, take not that for saving faith, for as there is a real sorrow that is not the saving grace of repentance to life, so there is a sort of real faith that has a real object, and a real being in the judgment, which yet is not a real closing with Christ, and so, not saving faith. As, suppose a man pursued by his enemy, should see a strong castle-door standing open, or one in hazard at sea should see dry land, if he should stand still while the enemy were pursuing him, or abide still in the sinking vessel, the sight of the castle-door open, nor of the dry land, would not save him. So it's not the believing that there is a Savior come into the world to save sinners, that will save, except there be a resting on Him as He is held out in the [reconstructed: Word] of the Gospel. Historical faith is only (as it were) a looking on the Savior, but saving faith grips to Him, and rests on Him. Historical faith looks on Christ, but acts not on Him, closes not with Him; and therefore such as have it only, and no more, sink and perish without getting good of Him. We would think it a great matter to get many of you as far on in believing as the Devil is, who believes and trembles; the little trembling that is, shows that there is but little of this historical faith. Yet, as I have often said, this is not all, you may have this, and yet if you halt there, you will certainly perish if you were never so confident to be saved. The Apostle does well distinguish these (Hebrews 11:6): He that comes to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Where these two are presupposed: First, believing that God is, or has a being. And secondly, believing that His promise is sure and certain, that He is faithful that has promised, and will make His Word good. And then thirdly, on both these follows a coming to Him as a rewarder of diligent seekers of Him. The first two take in historical faith; for to believe that God is, is natural, and to believe that God is faithful in His promise, may be in natural men; but to come to Him, to get the hazard that the soul is in, removed through Jesus Christ, is a thing few do attain. This then is the first thing we would be aware of, not aware to believe the truth of the Word, but to be aware of resting on it as saving faith; it's not enough to look on Christ, and to grant that it is He, but the man must never be satisfied till he get himself rolled on Christ, and the weight of his salvation and peace laid on Him in His own way.

The second thing you would beware of, is, some common and quickly transient work on the affections, that may accompany historical faith; whether the affection of grief, or the affection of joy be stirred thereby, both are unsafe to be rested on; when you can't prove your resting on Christ, or where there is no relevant ground to prove it by, though you should tremble as Felix did, and be under alarming convictions of conscience and fears of your hazard, or though you should be affected with joy as the temporary believer may be, and sometimes is, what will that profit you? It's a great mistake to take some small work on the affections, which at the best is but an effect of historical faith, for a saving work of the Spirit. Or secondly, if it be not an effect of historical faith, it's an effect of a challenge of conscience, and smiting of the heart, as in Saul, who could say to David, "You are more righteous than I, my son David." Or thirdly, it's some common work of the Spirit, such as was in Simon Magus, of whom it is said, he believed, and who could say, pray for me; for folks to conclude on this ground, that they are brought out of nature into a state of grace, is to build upon a sandy foundation. The apostle speaks (2 Corinthians 7:10) of worldly sorrow, as well as of a godly sorrow and as there may be a worldly sorrow, so there may be a carnal joy, a piece of gladness, to speak so, in prayer, or at hearing of a preaching, or at a communion, which is not saving faith; some hear the word with joy (Matthew 13) who yet endure not; and John the Baptist's hearers rejoiced in his light for a season. Even as a sick man, who hearing (as we hinted before) that a physician who is skillful and able to cure him, is come to town, he grows glad in the contemplation of a cure of his disease; but here is the difficulty, when the physician tells the man that he must be so and so abstemious, and keep himself under such a strict diet, he cannot abide that, and so, all his joy vanishes. There is something like this in temporary faith, where some remote expectation of salvation will cause a carnal joy and gladness; but when it comes to this, that a man is called to quit his lusts, or his estate, or, in the world to undergo trouble and persecution for the gospel, by and by he is offended, he thinks (to say so) a bird in his hand is worth two flying; and therefore when the storm blows in his teeth, he turns his back and runs away. Especially we will find this to be with men in sickness, they will have impulses and seriousness, and sometimes flashes of sorrow under convictions or challenges, and sometimes flashes of joy that will vanish when they come to health again. When we speak of some common work on the affections, we would take in liberty and some warmness of spirit in prayer, which, no question, even unrenewed men may find more at one time than another, as when they are in some great hazard or strait, they will be more than ordinary serious in that duty, and yet that may be but an effect of nature. This proves a great stumbling and neck-break to many, that they think they are well enough if now and then they get utterance in prayer, as sometimes they will get words beyond what they expected, and when upon reflecting, they find that they have been in earnest, though it has been but with moral seriousness, that blows them up; upon which ground it is, that many substitute prayer in the place of saving faith, and when they pray with warmness, they believe they believe, when in the mean time they never knew what it was, in good earnest to lay themselves over on Christ Jesus. Therefore when we invite you to believe, this is another thing we would bid you beware of, that you put not a flash of sense in the room of faith.

3. There is yet a more subtle, though no less dangerous mistake, that you would beware of, and that is, when faith is confounded with obedience, and is looked on in justification as a piece of new obedience, with love, repentance, and other duties of holiness; so some think they believe, because they have some natural awe of God in their walk, and some fear of sin, and do perform some duties of religion, and walk honestly, as they think, according to the rule; which is to confound the Covenant of Works and of Grace, and to make the Covenant of Works a Covenant of Grace, or to turn the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works. Only with this difference, that though their works be not perfect, but defective, yet wherein they are defective, they think there is worth in their faith to make up that want, and to supply that defect; and so by faith they think they will obtain the acceptance of their works, and of their persons on account of their works; they look upon their works as pleasing to God, but because they are not perfect, they will believe, or exercise faith, to make up their defects, to which the way of grace is quite contrary, which makes the tree first good, and then the fruit. This way that many take, is not to draw the evidences of believing from works of holiness, which is warrantable, but the founding of faith, or their hope of heaven on works, and the use they make of their faith, is to ward off challenges for the imperfection of their works, and to make faith procure acceptance (as I just now said) to their works, and acceptance to their persons for their works' sake.

4. Beware of that which you ordinarily call a certain assurance, or sure knowledge of your salvation, and that all the promises are yours, whereby you think yourselves in no hazard; a hope and assurance of heaven that you can give no ground for, nor proof of, only you think you are sure of pardon of sin, and coming to heaven, and that you are obliged to maintain that groundless hope; but that is not saving faith, for it's a hope of heaven that can give you no right to Christ; there must first be a fleeing to Him, and closing with Him, before you can have any true and well-grounded hope of heaven; but your hope and confidence is, never to question the matter, you are like Laodicea, who thought herself rich, and to stand in need of nothing, when she was beggarly poor; or like these men, who, when God was threatening them with judgment, yet would needs presume to think that they leaned on the Lord: I think, among all the persons that God has indignation against, it's in a special manner against these: who have this sort of hope, and to whom God discovers the groundlessness of it, and yet they will still stoutly maintain, and stand fast by their hope; it's to these He speaks (Deuteronomy 29:19), who despise and tush at God's threats, and say, We shall have peace, though we walk in the imagination of our own hearts, and add drunkenness to thirst; the Lord there pronounces a curse, and to the curse adds an oath, that He will not spare such persons, but will separate them for evil, and cause all the curses of the law to overtake them; judge you now, what a condition this is for persons to be in, to be believing that all the promises are theirs, and yet instead of that, to be (in the mean time) liable to all the curses threatened in the Word of God; it's this that we call presumption, and the hope of the hypocrite that will perish (Job 8:13), the confidence of such shall be rejected and swept away as a Spider's Web, and shall be rooted out of their tabernacles, and bring them to the King of Terrors; they think they believe always, when they are not troubled nor disquieted, they never want faith, but have a great deal of it, which yet is but a guessing, which cannot support and uphold them when they come to a strait; when they are more secure they believe very well, and they think when they are more awakened and disquieted, they believe less, and their fancied faith ebbs quite on them; when they hear of any exercise of mind, or trouble of conscience in others, they wonder that they will not believe, and all this work is to maintain their deep security and strong delusion, this is then the fourth thing you would beware of, for it's not the faith that will turn away the complaint, Who has believed our report? And yet how many are there of this sort? Who say they shall have peace, and please themselves with this their good hope, say the Word what it will. O! be persuaded, that this is nothing else but woeful unbelief and presumption; and we preach to you terror and the curse of God, though you cry peace to yourselves; the Lord complains of such persons (Jeremiah 5:12), saying, They have belied the Lord; He sent His prophets to denounce judgments in the days of Josiah when there was a fair profession of religion and reformation, yet they would believe and hope that no evil should overtake them.

That which we aim at in this part of the use, is to make way for what follows, even to give you a clear ground for exercising of faith on Jesus Christ, when all these stumblings and mistakes are rolled out of the way: We therefore exhort you, to lay your hand to your heart, and narrowly to try, if you have called, or accounted any of these to be saving faith; for there are hundreds, in fact thousands, that perish under these pretexts, deceiving themselves, and deluding others, with a faith they were born and brought up with, and they have no more but their groundless hope to prove their faith by, and they will stick by it, be said to them what will. But be not deceived, for God will discover you; you think a strong presumption is faith, and that you can by such a faith drink in the promises, but God will make you vomit them up, and you shall be declared to be void of faith in the great day. Therefore be more jealous over your faith, and seek to have your grips of Christ secured, which is done, when from the belief of your hazard and self-emptiness, and of Christ's fullness, you go to Him and close with Him, to make up all you want, in Him. And this faith is especially qualified by the account on which we go to Him, and rest on Him, even as a conscientious duty is that which flows from a command, as obedience to it, so, one of the main things that qualifies this faith, is a receiving Christ as Christ, or as He is held out in the gospel, which is therefore well put in the description given of faith in the Catechism. And it's called a believing on Him whom the Father has sent, which is not to believe on Christ simply, but as He is held out in the word of the gospel. Presumption may look on Christ and His fullness, and few or none will readily dare to give Him a direct and downright refusal, or to reject Him professedly and avowedly when they hear of such happiness that is to be had in Him. But that which we say qualifies faith, is to desire, receive, and embrace Him according as He is held out in the gospel, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). When He is trusted with an eye to the promise, and when that which makes us rest on Him is the word of God; for though Christ be the material object of faith, yet the word is the formal object, whereby we get a right to Him, and there is no gripping or getting hold of Christ, but in, and according to His word. And therefore the generality of people (who on the matter, take the Antinomian way) think they have no more to do, but to apply Christ, and to count Him their own at the very first; but through their not exercising faith on the word of promise, they miss Him. This is, as I have said, a main qualification of saving faith, even to rest on Christ as He is held out in the word, and by the word, to take hold of Him, and rest upon Him. Saving faith does not simply rest on Christ because He is merciful and has all fullness in Him, but it rests on Him and His fullness as received in the word, and offered by God in His word. Faith takes God's faithfulness in His word, and lays hold on Him by that; Christ is the thing that makes [reconstructed: Happy], but God's faithful promise is the right by which we get a title to that thing. We would never love nor like of that faith that knows not the use of the word, that betakes itself to Christ, or the things in the word, but meddles not, nor has any dealing with the word that holds them out, when as it is only this word that gives us warrant to expect that His fullness shall be made forthcoming for our supply, and for the supply of all our need. Many desire, and expect good of God, but get it not, because their expectation is not founded on His word, and God's faithfulness in His word is not closed with. In a word, I would have you to think that faith is neither an easy, nor an insuperably difficult thing, but that it is easy to go wrong, and difficult to go right, and that without God's special and powerful guiding, you cannot believe nor exercise faith, nor walk in the way of believing in Him, and dependence on Him, that you may be helped to make a right use of Christ, and to build upon Him, that you may not slip nor stumble, and fall on the stumbling-stone laid in Zion, on which so many fall every day and break themselves to pieces.