Sermon 11

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

If we would soberly consider the frame of the most part of men and women that live under the Gospel, it would be hard to know whether it were more strange that so few should receive the report, and be brought to believe for all that can be said of Jesus Christ; or whether that among the generality of hearers that do not receive the report, there are so few that will let it light but that they believe. It's wonderful and strange to see unbelief so rife, and it's as strange and wonderful that among these many unbelievers there are so few that think they lack faith.

You remember the last day, we proposed to answer this doubt or question, What can be the reason, that when so few believe, all, almost think they believe? And then to speak a word to the last use that rises from the matter that formerly we have handled on these words: We show you, and we think the Scripture is very clear for it, that among the generality that hear the Gospel, they are very rare and thinly sown that do believe it, and yet go through them all, there will not one among many be found, but will assert they believe, and they will (to speak so) be crabbed and piqued to tell them that they lack faith, and so the most part of hearers live and die in this delusion; a thing that experience clears as well as the Word of God, and a thing that doleful experience will clear at the great day. Therefore some are brought in saying (Luke 13:26), We have eaten and drunken in your presence, and you have taught in our streets, to whom Christ will say, I know you not, depart from me; which does import this much, that some will come (as it were) to the very gate of heaven, having no doubt of their faith and interest in God, or of their entry into it, and will therefore in a manner plead with Christ to be in, and who would never once doubt of it nor put it in question, but they were believers and in friendship with Him. Although there will be no such debate or dispute after death, or at the day of judgment, yet it says this, that many hearers of the Gospel have drunken in this opinion which goes to death with them, and no preaching will beat them from it, that they are believers, and in good terms with God, till the intimation of the sentence of condemnation does it, and the wrath and curse of God meet them in the face. And O how terrible a disappointment will such meet with in that day? May it not then very reasonably and justly be inquired, what can be the reason and cause, when this is granted so generally to be a truth, that there are few believers, that yet it should be as true that few question or make any doubt of their faith, and how this comes to pass? I shall give you some reasons of it, which if you would think upon, and suffer to sink down in your hearts, you would not marvel that so many are in this mistake and delusion, and would put many of you, to have quite other thoughts of your own condition than you have. We shall only speak to such reasons as are sinful, culpable upon your part.

The reasons then are these. First, the most part never seriously think on the matter whether they believe or not, or they never put their faith to a trial, if the foolish virgin lights her lamp, and never looks whether there be oil in it, and takes on a fair outward profession of religion, and never looks what is within it, or how it is lined, to speak so, what wonder she goes up and down with the lamp in her hand, and never knows whether there be oil in her vessel or not, since she never considers, nor puts the matter to proof and trial? The people are expostulated with (Isaiah 44:9ff.) for making of images, that a man should cut down a tree, and with one piece of it should warm himself, with another piece of it should bake his bread, and of a third piece should make a god and fall down and worship it, and this is given for the ground of it (verses 18-19): They have not known and understood, and none considers in his heart, or as the word is, sees to his heart; they consider not that that cannot be a god. Folks would think that natural reason might easily discover this folly. We are persuaded that some of you will think your faith as great a folly, when there shall be as clear evidences to prove the rottenness of your faith and hope, as there were even to common sense to prove the image made of a piece of tree, not to be God; when it shall be found and declared, that though you were never convinced of sin, nor of your misery and lost condition, were never humbled nor touched under the kindly sense of it, never fled to Jesus Christ in earnest, nor never had the exercise of grace, yet out over the want of all these, you would needs keep up a good opinion of your faith and hope. We say, the reason why you entertain this conceit and opinion, is, because you never sit down seriously and soberly before God to consider the matter, nor do you put yourselves to proof and trial. Let me therefore pose your consciences, if you who have this opinion of your faith, durst assert to Him, that this faith of yours is the result of your serious examination and trial; is it not rather a guessing of fanciful opinion that you believe? And do you think that such a faith as that will abide the trial before God, that never did abide your own trial? It will doubtless be a sore beguile to go off the world with such an opinion of faith, and to have the door shut in your very teeth. Alas! there will be no amending or bettering of your condition after death. The day comes when many of you, if God graciously prevents not, shall curse yourselves that ever you should have been such fools as to have trusted your own hearts, or to have taken up this opinion of your faith without ground. We would therefore seriously recommend to you the putting of your faith more frequently to the trial, and that you would often read and think on that place (2 Corinthians 13:5): Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves, etc. O! do not think that a matter of such concernment should be left lying at conjecture and utter uncertainty, who loses, when you are so palpably accessory to your own ruin, by not endeavoring to put yourselves to so much as a trial? Do not say here for excuse, We have no more grace than God gives us; when you never endeavored to be so much as at the form of the duty, or to go the length you might have gone in putting yourselves to the trial. The deceit then, being desperate and irredeemable, if continued in, do not, for the Lord's sake, after all that is said to you, continue beguiling yourselves.

A second reason is, folks settling themselves on unsound evidences and principles of peace that will not bear them through before God. I do not say that they have nothing to say in word for themselves, but that all they have to say will be no ground to prove their faith, or to bear it through before God that they do believe indeed. It will be found at the best to be but a lie, as it's said of that man (Isaiah 44:20): A deceived heart has turned him aside, he feeds on ashes, he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? He may have a seeming reason for his faith, but it's no reason indeed. If many of you were going now to die, what reason have you to prove your believing by? Some will say, God has always been good, kind, and gracious to me, I was in many straits and difficulties, and I prayed and got many deliveries. Thus all the ground of your faith is but temporal favors or deliveries, which is even as if Israel should have made their receiving of temporal deliveries and their acknowledging of them, and having some sort of faith of them, to be ground enough to prove their receiving of Jesus Christ savingly. There is a doleful proof of the unsoundness of this ground (Psalm 78:34-37): When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and inquired early after God, they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer; they looked to God's by-gone favors for them when they were in the wilderness, and at the Red Sea, and they believed that he could do so still; but they did flatter him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue, for their hearts were not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant. Whereupon He destroyed them, and through their unbelief they did not enter into God's rest. It's also said a little before in that psalm (verse 32): For all this they sinned still. There may be many temporal favors and deliveries, and these acknowledged too, and yet no receiving of Christ for making our peace with God, for removing the quarrel between Him and us, and for making us cease from sin. Consider if it will be a good ground to plead with God upon, to say to Him, Lord you must bring me to heaven because I was in sickness and you raised me up, I was in this and that strait, and under this and that cross, and you carried me through and brought me out of it. The Lord will say to such that have no more to say, you had so many evidences of my power and yet you sinned still; and yet this will be all the pleading and reasoning that will be found with many of you, and the sad reply you will meet with from God.

A third reason is, people giving an external countenance to ordinances, and their formal going about of them; they think they have faith, because they keep the church and are not open contemners and disregarders of ordinances as some others are, because they pray, read, hear, etc. It seems it was something like this, that the persuasion of those spoken of (Luke 13:26) is built upon, Lord (say they) we have heard you preach, and have eaten and drunk in your presence; it is not simply that they heard Christ preach, for many heard Him preach who stoned Him, but that when others stoned Him, they followed Him and were not openly profane, nor professed contemners of Him and of His preaching, as those others were; such like words fall sometimes from your mouths: you will possibly say, what would we have of you? You are not profane, you wait on preaching, and live like your neighbors, and you content yourselves with that; Alas! this is a poor, yes, a doleful fruit of ordinances, and of your attendance on them; if there be more security, presumption, and desperate hazarding on the wrath of God, and less taking with the quarrel between Him and you on that ground.

A fourth reason is, people's hope, even such a hope, that contrary to the nature of hope, will make the most part of you ashamed; you think you believe, because you hope you believe, and that you will get mercy, because you think you hope in God's mercy, and you will not let anything lean to the contrary, nor so much as think that you may be deceived. The opinion that people have of obtaining mercy, that is maintained without any ground but their vain hope, is the most widespread, most unreasonable, and prejudicial evil that is among the professors of this gospel; hence if any ground and evidence of their peace be asked for, they will answer, that they believe; if it be again asked, how do you know that you believe, they answer, we hope and believe it is so, and can give no ground for it. Many are like those spoken of (Isaiah 57:10): "You have found the life of your hand, therefore you were not grieved"; they have a faith and a hope of their own making, and this keeps them off, so that the word of God takes no hold on them; we preach that you are naturally at [reconstructed: feud] with God, and offer peace and reconciliation through Jesus Christ, but you are deaf, for you think your peace is made already; and but very few come sensible of a quarrel with God, to this word as to the ministry of reconciliation. This is wondered at (in a manner) by the Lord Himself (Micah 3:11), where we have a people whose way is very unlike the gospel: "The heads judge for a reward, and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money, yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? no evil can come upon us"; it is not for real believing that they are charged, but for their confident asserting their believing when there was no ground for it. So it is with many, they will say, they hope to escape hell, and to get their sin pardoned, and to win to heaven, and they believe it will be so, when in the meantime there is no ground for it, but clear ground to the contrary.

A fifth ground is, folks' spiritual and practical ignorance of the righteousness of God, of which the apostle speaks (Romans 10:3), saying, Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they go about to establish their own, etc. What I mean is, folks being ignorant of their natural condition, of the spiritualness of God's law, what it requires, and of the way of faith, and of the command of believing, and the nature of it: it is from the ignorance of these three — to wit, of the mischief that is in them by nature, of the spiritualness of the law, and of the spiritualness of faith, and of the exercise of it — that they sleep on in security, and think they have faith when they have it not. And though sometimes they will say their faith is weak, yet they cannot be beaten from it, but that they believe; and their faith is up and down as their security stands or falls. This the apostle makes clear from his own experience (Romans 7:9), where before his conversion he says he was a living man, but after his conversion he begins to think himself nothing but a dead and gone man. The reason is, because before conversion he knew not himself, he knew not the law, nor the nature of the covenant of grace. Before the law came, says he, I was alive — he knew not the spiritual meaning of it, and therefore he thought he observed it, and so thought himself sure of heaven, and had no doubts nor disputings concerning his interest in God. But, says he, when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; I saw myself then to be lost and gone, and in every thing guilty. That which I thought had been humility, I saw it to be pride; that which I took for faith, I found it to be presumption and unbelief; and my holiness, I found to be hypocrisy. Not that his sin grew more upon his hand, but the sin that before was veiled was now discovered, and stared him in the face. This is a sad truth, yet a most real truth. The good believing (as many of you call it) and the faith that you have is a surer ground of your strangeness to God, and of your unbelief, than any other thing you have can be a ground on which to conclude you have faith and are good friends with God. You are yet alive, strangers to God, strangers to yourselves, strangers to the spiritual meaning of the law, and to the exercise of faith. If you would set yourselves to ponder seriously this one consideration, I think you might be somewhat convinced of it. Do you not see many that understand more of God than you do, and that are more tender in their walk than you are, who yet are more reluctant, more [reconstructed: troubled] and afraid to assert their faith and confidence in God than you are? And they are oftener entangled and put to question their faith — will you then consider what can be the reason that you have so strong a faith that you never doubted, and they are troubled with doubting sometimes, yes often, though they pray more, and are more diligent in the use of all the means, and holier in their conversation than you are? And you will (it may be) say, well for them that are like such a person. This is the reason of it: they see their sin, and the spiritualness of the law, and the nature of faith, and are dead to the law; but you are yet alive in your conceit. Do you, or can you think, that much praying, reading, meditation, and tenderness in folks' walk will weaken faith and occasion doubting? Or is it not rather likely that faith will be more confirmed by these than by the neglect of them? How is it then that you are so strong in your faith, when they find themselves so weak and doubting? Or have you an infused faith without the means? Or does God deal with you in a more indulgent way than He uses to deal with His people? How is it then that those of whom you cannot say but they are more tender than you are, cannot almost name faith, or assert their confidence in God, without trembling and fear that they presume; and yet you dare very confidently take a mouthful of it without any hesitation, and yet live carnally and without fear? Do not many of you wonder what ails some folks, what need they to be so much troubled, and why do they stand in need of some to pray for them and with them, and to answer their doubts — and you, meanwhile, need no such thing? And all your remedy is that you assure yourselves you believe, and think the questioning of your security is the very undoing of your faith. God help, you are in a woeful taking.

A sixth reason is, that people drink in some carnal principles that have no warrant in the Word of God, and accordingly square everything that comes in their way. 1. They lay it for a ground, that people should never doubt of God's mercy; we do not say that people should doubt of God's being most real in His offer of mercy to sinners in the Gospel, but from that it will not follow, that never one should doubt of God's love to them, or of their coming to Heaven, whether they close with the offer or not; are there not many whom God curses? And should not these doubt? A second carnal principle is, that there is no such reality in the threatenings of God as there is in His promises, as if He were utterly averse from executing a threatening, and as if it were a rare thing to Him to condemn any; and is there anything more opposite to Scripture than this principle is? Has He not said in the same place, namely, (Exodus 34) where He proclaims Himself to be gracious, merciful, long-suffering, etc., that He is a God that will not clear the guilty; and has not the Scripture said, that it is but a remnant that are saved, but (as it were) here one and there one, and that there are many damned for one that is saved; but know it of a certain, that He will make you one day vomit up these principles, with exquisite torment, when out of your own mouth He will convince you of your mistake and delusion. 3. When people lack many things, they supply all with an honest mind; this supplies your want of knowledge, your want of faith and of repentance, and of everything of which you are said to be short; though you live and should die carnal and unrenewed, yet you think still you have an honest mind or heart for all that — and what, I pray, is your honest mind? But a rotten and profane heart that veils your hypocrisy with a pretext of honesty; would you think that man honest, spoken of in (Isaiah 44:19), who with one part of the tree warmed himself, and with another part made a god and fell down and prayed to it? And yet in your sense, he has an honest mind, for he follows his light which is but darkness, and the deceit of his heart carrying him away from God, though he cannot see it; he discerns not, because he considers not that there is a lie in his hand, and that a deceived heart has led him aside — so it is with you; and if many of you saw what is latent under that honest mind and heart, there would be nothing that would make you loathe yourselves more; a little time will convince you, that that which you looked for most good from, was your greatest and most traitorous enemy. He that trusts in his own heart is a fool, says Solomon (Proverbs 28:26). It supposes that people are ready to rely on their heart, and to hearken to the language of it concerning their spiritual estate, but it says also, that they are fools that do so, for it betrays them, and there is no folly comparable to that whereby a man betrays his own immortal soul; and that he does who trusts in his own heart.

A seventh reason is from the deceitfulness of our heart, and the natural corruption that sticks to us; there is naturally in us, pride and self-conceit, we are disposed and given to think anything that is our own, though it be but a show, is as good as others' reality; to think our own light and knowledge, our own other parts and gifts to be as good as those of any others, whoever they be; and with pride there is joined self-love, we do not abide to think evil of ourselves, or to suspect ourselves. Though this self-love be indeed self-hatred, and is but love to our corruptions, and makes us that when we live in hatred of God, to think that we love Him, so that we cannot be induced to think that we love Him not, for we know that love to God is good, and we love ourselves so well, that we cannot endure to think that we want it; hence it's said of some in the last times (2 Timothy 3:2-3), that they shall be covetous, proud, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, etc., having a form of godliness, and denying the power of it, and the fountain of all is self-love, for (says he) men shall be lovers of their own selves. And as self-love is the fountain of much evil, so it's the fountain of self-deceit, and keeps out anything that may make men question their own condition, so that if a word come in and say, you have no ground for your faith, the heart will be ready to answer and say, it cannot be that I am a self-deceiver, and self-love as a partial judge will offer to vindicate the man, and so makes him shift the challenge. Now when all these are put together, you may see how many grounds people have to go wrong upon, and men having hearts disposing and inclining them to go wrong, and little pains being taken to discover the deceit of them, is it any wonder that they think they believe, when indeed they believe not, and be empty and empty-handed, having little or nothing to rest upon, while they think they are rich and want nothing; these are not fancied and far-fetched things but obvious, and at hand, and may easily be gathered from your daily practice. In all which, it's our design and scope to bring you to try your long unquestioned peace; do not therefore think that it is impossible to be thus persuaded, as many of you are, and yet to be mistaken, (which is another ground of people's deceit,) for Laodicea was very confident in thinking herself to be rich and increased in goods, and to stand in need of nothing, when she was in the mean time, poor, blind, miserable, wretched, and naked; and the Galatians, as we may see (Galatians 5:8), had a persuasion which was not of God. As there may be a persuasion of a point of doctrine as being right, which yet is an error, so there may be a persuasion of a man's spiritual state as being right, and which he will stoutly maintain to be so, while in the mean time that persuasion is not of God that calls him, but a strong delusion. If all that be faith that you call faith, then certainly the way to Heaven is much broader than the Scripture has chalked it out, and ministers needed not say, Who believes our report? for all should thus believe it: it will then, and must then turn to this, that your persuasion is not of Him that calls you; and if a deceit may lie and lurk under this persuasion of yours, you have certainly so much the more need to put the business to trial.

And this is the last use, which we cannot now insist on, that seeing so many think they believe who believe not, and that there are but few that believe the report, and indeed rest on Christ for their salvation, as He is offered to them in the Gospel, it is of your concern to endeavor to put yourselves without the reach of this complaint, and to make it sure that you have believed and received the report. Is there anything of concern if this be not? even to make your calling and election sure; and that cannot be made sure as to you, till your faith be made sure. If we could prevail this far with you, we would count it a blessed fruit of this and of many other preachings, even that some of you who have never questioned your faith, might be engaged first seriously to close with Christ, and then to put yourselves to the trial, that on distinct grounds you might be able to say, I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. There are many of you that talk of faith, and yet cannot only not assert your interest in Christ distinctly, but cannot so much as give any solid grounds of your believing, and should not this, think you, put you to try it? Is there not a day coming wherein you will all be tried, whether your alleged faith was true faith, or but presumption? and wherein the conscience which is now quiet, and which it may be never kept you from an hour's sleep, shall awake and put forth its sting, and shall bite and gnaw, and you who shall continue under the power of this delusion, will be put to gnaw your tongues for pain and horror under the gnawings of your conscience. You that never knew all along your life what these things meant, had need to stand the more in awe, and to be afraid when you come near death. Though it be a sad matter, that when we should be preaching, and would fain preach the doctrine of faith, it should, by reason of your delusion, be the great part of our work to be thus digging you out of your presumption, and overturning your carnal and ill-grounded hope; yet we have the greater confidence and the more peace, to speak to, and insist in these truths, because they lie so near to the great design of the Gospel, and to your immortal souls' salvation. And though we were able to preach more plausible and sweet things to you, yet if these doctrines profit you not, these would not; seeing therefore they are so profitable, we should not weary to speak, and you should not weary to hear them spoken of. Would to God you were seriously and sincerely aiming to be clear and thorough in the matter of believing, and that you stood in need, and were more capable of more pleasant truths; if so, we might have more comfortable, though we will not say more profitable doctrines to insist upon to you.