A Digression Concerning Fasting

There is a double manner of doing this duty. One is wholly public, which should be from morning until night in public by the whole land, that all together might confess and humble themselves for the sins of it — which is more extraordinary. But secondly, as for these days which are kept from week to week, it is well ordered that the time is so limited for these public exercises, as that there is time left for the private. For the business of particular humiliation goes forward better then. And these public exercises tend to that end — and what is the means without the end being attained? That is, that every man should mourn apart. So Zechariah 12: when it was a business of mourning, every family did it apart, and the wives apart. The wife and the husband are the nearest, and if any should be together, one would think they should be. And yet they must be apart then. The reason is that nothing humbles so much as particular sins — those wound the heart, which in public are not so much confessed, but only in general. But when you are every one in private, then you may consider what your lusts and your actions have been, and the circumstances of them. Then you may search your hearts and ways, look back and reflect upon yourselves. And that is the main business and duty of these days. Some of you it may be will say, 'I know not how to spend my time in private when I am from the church.' But consider: have you not committed many sins? Consider them. Can you not speak and confess them, and say, 'Lord, I confess I have fallen back into this again and again'? But secondly, when you have done this, seek reconciliation and beg it earnestly, which the heart will do when it is touched with the sense of sin. And the enumeration of them will work your hearts to it — when you see the multitudes, the circumstances, the aggravations of them. And because this is the greatest of all your requests, therefore you must be most earnest in it. Therefore God does purposely withhold assurance often, to teach men what it is to be reconciled to him. And fasting serves to intensify your prayers, that they may be the more earnest. Thirdly, renew your covenants also. Consider what sins you are most inclined to, and what occasions draw you most to those sins, and vow against them. Consider what good duties you have slighted most, and that your hearts are most apt to fail in, and promise better obedience. Fourthly, not only make a promise, but labor to bring your hearts to be willing to leave those sins in good earnest, and to perform those duties. And when the heart is strongly biased any way, it is hard to alter it. It is no easy matter to get an inward willingness — you must therefore have much reasoning with your hearts to bring them to it. Fifthly, when they are brought into a good temper, they are easily subject to be distempered again. Our affections shoot too far into worldly business: your love, your fear, your grief is subject to be too much in something, and it is not easy to bring the soul back again. You must therefore take a great deal of pains with your hearts.

That which is said of ministers — 'fullers of men's souls' — that is, every man now to be himself: to wash out the stains of his heart, and to make his soul whiter. As it is in Daniel 11. And that will move God either not to bring afflictions, or to remove them. Therefore cleanse your hearts from all pollution of flesh and spirit. And know that to get stains of a deep dye out will cost a great deal of pains — you must scour until your souls ache. And though it cause the skin to come off — if you do the work yourselves and plow your own hearts, God shall not need to do it by afflictions. Therefore do it, and give not over until you have done it, and have brought your hearts to be thoroughly humbled. For that is a great means to do it. What else is the meaning of that in James 4: 'Cleanse your hearts, you sinners,' etc.? But how should we do it, some would ask? Afflict yourselves and mourn, and let your laughter be turned into mourning. Be content to sit alone, get out of company, and not to take your former liberties — and mourn and humble yourselves, and do it constantly. For it is not bowing down the head for a day that God regards. But let sorrow abide in your hearts — it is continuance that God regards. Do it, and do it to purpose. For the lack of this is the reason for the coldness and remissness in our profession — namely, that we are not thoroughly and constantly humbled. It is the ground of every grace and the growth of it. Whatever seed is sown in a heart broken in pieces thrives and prospers, but all instructions falling upon a heart not broken will bring forth no fruit. If you were humbled, we should find wonderful fruit of our ministry. Do this therefore but one day, and you will be the fitter for it the next. Sorrow should be as a spring that runs along constantly from day to day. The sorrows of many are but as flash floods. And take heed that the continuance of this duty from week to week does not make you slacken your course herein — do not let your hands go faint. When these duties are new, you are apt to do much; but when continued a while, to be perfunctory in them. And let not any man complain that he loses a day's work — for is there any work so necessary as the salvation of the soul? Neither complain that a day's study is lost — for is there any excellence like the saving image of God stamped on the heart?

We are hence to be exhorted to choose the Lord for our God, when you hear he is so merciful a God. For no man ever served the Lord but he first made choice of him to be his Master. Every man, when he comes to years of discretion and to be master of himself, advises with himself what course he should take — whether he should serve God or the world. Now all the saints of God have made this distinct choice: 'We will serve the Lord, and go to no other.' Moses, when both stood before him — the pleasures of Egypt on the one hand, and God and his people with their afflictions on the other — he chose the latter before the former (Hebrews 11:25). So David says he did: 'I have chosen the way of truth; your judgments have I laid before me' (Psalm 119:30). For to choose is when a thing lies before a man and he considers and takes it. So Joshua: 'I and my house will serve the Lord.' Now I exhort you — seeing you are to make some choice, and seeing God is such a God, so exceedingly merciful — that you would make this choice: let him be your God. For what moves a man to make choice of one course of life rather than another? The ground of it is some happiness that he seeks. When men consider what makes most for their happiness, that they will choose.

Now if men were persuaded that to choose God were the best way for happiness, they could not but choose him. And surely, if God is so exceedingly kind and merciful a God, their chief happiness cannot but be found in him alone. Surely there is no husband, no friend so loving as he, no father so kind as he, so tenderhearted. He goes beyond all the sons of men in love and tenderness and kindness. For if there be any kindness in any man or woman, the Lord has put it in him. That natural affection in parents, etc., is not a drop to that ocean — not as a beam to the sun — compared to what is in him. And if the kindness in them is an excellence, then surely it is in him. And if the Lord has commanded us to be amiable and full of compassion and goodness, and easy to be entreated — as being part of that his image, and that holy frame of heart which ought to be in us — is it not then much more in himself? But that I may not urge a bare exhortation without some reason, consider how merciful the Lord has been to us, and how gracious he is to those that make choice of him. For first, he gives them the comfort of his presence, and there is no comfort like that. For joy and comfort is nothing else but the agreeableness of a thing to a man's mind — the fitting together of what agrees. Now there is nothing that better agrees with man's mind than the presence and face of God. For lusts and pleasures are the diseases of the soul, and the pleasures that agree to them are the destruction of it. Besides, when you are reconciled to him, you are out of all debt and danger. He will set your soul at rest, that was restless before. And besides, when you have the Lord to be your God, you have one to whom you may go and unbosom yourself — to advise with, when you can go to no one in the world. One from whom you may fetch comfort when you see no comfort anywhere else. You may run to him as to a refuge when you are overwhelmed with oppositions, slanders, and ill reports. And besides all this, and the glory which we shall have in heaven, consider what there is that your heart can desire that he will not do for you. If you have any business to do, God will do it better for you than you can for yourself. The Lord works all our works in us and for us (Isaiah 26:12). Are you a scholar with studies to bring to perfection? A tradesman with enterprises to bring to pass? Are you in straits? He will be entreated of you to do all for you if you go to him, and he will bring it to pass better than you can with all your planning.

Again, are you fallen into poverty, into sickness, into disgrace? You shall find him exceedingly kind. When you are sick, he will be careful and watchful over you. This David acknowledges (Psalm 31:7): 'I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble, and have known my soul in adversities.' When others overlook and forget you in adversity — as the butler did Joseph — he will not, but will take care of you. Again, if you are persecuted and have enemies to deal with — as who does not that lives godly? — so that (as David says of himself) 'My soul is among lions' — yet you shall find God stand by you, as he did by Saint Paul, to deliver you out of the mouth of those lions. You shall find him to be as a rock, as a place of defense, to shield you against them and all their incursions, so that all their plots and malice shall not hurt you. David had often proof of God in this. Again, if you do want anything, he has promised to grant whatever you shall ask. But if you shall say, 'I provoke him day by day' — yet know that he is exceedingly kind and will pass by many infirmities, for he knows of what we are made. One ill turn does not cause him, as it does men, to forget what was done before. The Lord keeps for us 'the sure mercies of David' — that is, such mercies as the Lord showed David, and not to him only, but to all his posterity. So he will not only be a God to you while living, but when you are dead, to your seed also. Such a God you shall find him. Therefore take him for your God and for your husband. If men knew him, they would choose him. As Saint Paul said to Agrippa: 'I would that you were altogether as I am' — that is, if you knew him as I do, and his service, you would not be half a Christian, but one altogether. Do but try — if you do not like his service, you may leave it. But the saints who have experience of both conditions, holding out, may be an argument of his kindness to all his people. And this also should move us to choose him for our master.

As the other use was to those without, to choose the Lord, so this use is to all those that are already in the covenant — to exhort them to confirm themselves in their choice, to be more and more well persuaded of him, that so they may love the Lord more and more, and cleave faster to him. One that is married may love her husband well, and yet by seeing more and more the excellencies in her husband, she may be more confirmed in her choice. In all afflictions, labor to think well of God and ill of yourselves. This was the praise of David — he always labored to extol God in all, and still held this conclusion: 'Yet God is good to Israel.' We are apt to fail much this way. We are ready to think that God deals harshly with us and his people. But we must learn to correct this error, and to have a good opinion of him, to labor to extol his mercy. But this we will not do until we see two things: first, God's exceedingly great kindness; and secondly, our exceedingly great rebellions. You look only to God's dealings, and so are ready to think that God has dealt harshly with you — but never think how abominable your conduct has been toward him. But learn to think that however you are situated, he is a God full of compassion even in your worst condition, and that you have deserved worse at his hands. He is exceedingly kind. Labor to think of this for yourselves and also for the church. God has been merciful to it in all ages, and is so still. So he says, 'I have been her habitation' — that is, a house for the church to dwell safely in — 'from one generation to another.' From Abraham's time to the time they were in Egypt, and there he was their habitation. And so in the wilderness, and so in all the times under the judges, and so to our times. Look on the church when it was in the worst condition. Take the church of God even when it seemed to be cut off — as in that great massacre in France — yet then the Lord was a habitation to it. A company was kept alive that grew greater than the former. So the church in Queen Mary's time — he suffered the storm to overtake them a little, but it was soon blown over. He was a habitation to keep off the storm from destroying them. And so he has been, and will be, to Bohemia and the Palatinate. But so he has been found to be to our church above all the rest, for our nation has been like Gideon's fleece. When all others about us have been wet and wallowing in blood, we have been dry. Therefore labor to see how good God is and how base we are. And take heed of abusing his kindness, lest he make this nation wet with blood when all others shall be dry — and we come to have war when all the rest have peace. The way to continue his favors is to remember them, and to humble ourselves before him in thankfulness. Thus much of this doctrine.

The next may be this third doctrine:

The Lord's name is called upon his people — that is, they are called by his name. For the opening of this point, we must know first that it is the Lord who puts his name upon them. For who would dare take this honor but those upon whom the Lord himself is pleased to bestow it? This is no small thing — where God puts his name, it brings something with it.

So secondly, it is not an empty title — a title without substance — but there is a reality in it. For where God gives his name to any man or people, there he bestows himself, and all he has is theirs, because they are God's (1 Corinthians 3, last verse). As a husband, when he bestows his name upon his wife, then he also gives himself to her. Now in Scripture, the Lord's name and the Lord himself are put in place of one another, so that it is no small privilege to have the Lord's name called upon us.

And to open this further, let us consider who they are that are called by another's name among men.

First, wives are called by the name of their husbands.

Secondly, children by the name of their parents.

Thirdly, temples are called by the names of those to whom they are dedicated.

Lastly, those that devote themselves to some man to follow his opinion are called by his name — as the Platonists, Aristotelians, Ramists, etc., from their masters.

In the same respects, those that are called by God's name are such as are married to him, and are born of him (for they are his children), and all such as are his temples dedicated to his service. Lastly, all such as are devoted to following him — as Joshua was, who said, 'I and my house will serve the Lord'; and as Jacob was: 'You shall be my God, and I will serve you.' All these are called by the name of the Lord, and the Lord is called by their names. So he is called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc. So that it seems there is, as it were, a certain match between them — a mutual agreement and relation, as there is between a husband and a wife, a father and a son. So if you are one who is married to Christ, and he has changed your heart and begotten you anew by his word, and you are dedicated to his service as his temple — then you are called by his name.

And the only reason for this is because he has chosen you — there is no other. When he cast his eyes upon all the earth, he chose you out to have his name called upon you. As it is said of the temple at Jerusalem, that he chose that place rather than any other to put his name there. And there is the same reason why his name is called upon a whole church. As when he looked on Europe, he chose out the Reformed churches to put his name there. And where the Lord puts his name, there he dwells — so that the one is put for the other. Either to say he chose a place to dwell in, or that his name is called upon it, are all one. There are two places where God dwells (Isaiah 57:15): 'Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit,' etc. The highest heavens and the lowest hearts are God's chief dwelling places. He has indeed other places where he dwells, but in these two he manifests a peculiarity of his presence — and that peculiarity is the presence of his grace and comfort. For he says in the same verse: 'to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' He reveals himself to these — and his secrets, which are hidden from all the rest — and he fills their hearts with joy and comfort.

If we are such as bear the name of God, then let us learn to be obedient to him, to give up ourselves to him. For so much is implied by this, that we are called by his name. Therefore we are said in Scripture to be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ — that is, we do by our baptism profess this much: that we give ourselves to his service. For to bear his name is to bear our own names no more — that is, our own natures no more. A man that is called by the name of the Lord is no longer his own man. As a man that gives himself to serve another — however much he serves himself, so much he wrongs that man. And the reason why a wife leaves her own name is to show that she is to give up herself to the obedience of her husband. She is not mistress of herself, not free. She depends on her husband as the ivy on the tree. She has no root of her own to rest on, but depends on him. So we, having taken the name of the Lord upon us, must think that we are no longer free. We leave our own names — we must have no more root in ourselves, but in the Lord. We must have no will of our own — his will must be ours. Therefore, you that bear the name of the Lord, let it not be in profession only, but do that thing which the name requires. That is, follow yourselves no more, but follow God. A wife before had the name of her father, but when she is married, as she leaves that name, so she leaves father and mother also to cleave to her husband. If her parents command one thing and her husband another, she leaves her father and mother and cleaves to her husband. So leaving father and mother implies leaving to bear affection to them in comparison to her husband. And thus must you do to Christ, as you have it in Luke 14:26. If you would be matched to the Lord, you must be divorced from all things else in the world — from everything that is very near and dear to you. Father and mother, sons and daughters are dear, but you must forsake them all for Christ's sake, or you cannot be his disciples. Indeed, he that is married to the Lord must deny his own soul. When his own soul desires one thing and Christ another, he must deny it and be divorced from himself, and take no root from himself but from the Lord, because he is able to sustain him. Wives are not bound to destroy themselves for their husbands, but this bond is nearer. Therefore Ephesians 5:31-32: this close conjunction between man and wife is made but as a shadow of that between Christ and his church, who is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone (verse 30). And as for this cause they leave father and mother (as the apostle says, verse 31), so for this cause must we leave all to cleave to Christ and be subject to him (as verse 24) — that is, our will must be subject to the Lord's. As if you have such a journey to go, say, 'Yes, but what does my husband say to it?' Thus Saint James teaches us to speak (James 4): 'I will go into such a city, if God will' — so in other business, say, 'If the Lord will' — to whom I am married — 'I will do it; else not.' And you have reason for it, because Christ loves us as his spouse and body. By this union we are one flesh with him — indeed, one spirit. And 'no man hates his own flesh,' says the apostle there. Though a man has all the imperfections in his body that may be — sores and boils, etc. — yet he hates not his own flesh, but labors partly to cover those wounds and imperfections, and to heal them if he can, for it is his own body. So does the Lord love you, if you have taken him to be your husband. You have reason therefore never to forsake him. And if any should object and say, 'I am a sinful wretch, an unfit match for him' — consider that yet, being his, he will cover your imperfections with his righteousness, as a man covers his sores from the view of others. And he will wash you from your corruptions. As if a man has a sore arm, he does not only cover it, but also washes it and heals it, because it is a member of his. So says the apostle there: 'He has washed his church with his own blood.' And this the apostle Saint Paul calls a great mystery — as if he had said, 'Great things are now revealed therein to you, and worth your considering.' Why therefore should we not give up ourselves to him? A wife may object against her husband and say another's husband is more wise, more kind — but you can say nothing against him. Consider this, and let it not only be a notion in your heads, but let it sink down into your hearts. And let the name of the Lord not only be upon you, but also in you. As we have it in Exodus 23:21, spoken of the Angel that went with them in the wilderness: 'My name is in him' — my name is not only upon him, so that he is not only called my Angel, but my name is also in him. That is, he is so affected as I am — he hates sin as I do, and therefore will punish it in you, and loves what is good as I do. So let the Lord's name be in you — that is, labor to be of the same mind and disposition that God is of, to have a heart after his heart, to be affected as he is. Labor to be thus minded, and you shall be the glory of the Lord, as the wife is the glory of her husband (as she is called, 1 Corinthians 11:7) — because when she behaves herself wisely and virtuously, those that see her commend her husband. Therefore so behave yourself in the world, so show yourself like your husband, that you be his glory. Show forth the virtues of Christ, as the apostle has it in 1 Peter 2:9. A man must so behave himself that the image of God may appear in him. And then he shall be his glory — as a wife, when she carries herself as the image of her husband, so that his wisdom and virtues appear in her, she is his glory. Consider this seriously. You are called by God's name. If you make this but an empty title, then you shall have but an empty benefit by it. But if in earnest you cleave to him and follow him, then he is yours and you his, and all that is his is yours.

If at any time you sin against God, this should be a great motive to humble yourselves the more — that you should sin against him whose name you bear, to whom you have given up your name and made a vow and promise to obey him. Thus learn to aggravate your sin, for it does aggravate it. And this use I also make for the day. There is a double humiliation. One comes from self-love, and that sometimes makes way for grace, but is not grace. But there is another that comes from a tender affection and love to God and Christ. For when a man loves one, he desires to please him, and therefore when he displeases him, it grieves him. And this is such a humiliation as is required of us on these days of fasting — therefore labor to work your hearts to this.

Now there is nothing that will work our hearts kindly to be humbled more than love. And nearness will surely make us love God. For why does the wife love the husband, and the husband the wife, but because they are near one to another? Now when the name of the Lord is called upon us, it is an argument that we are near to him. Therefore let that soften your heart, that you should carry yourself unworthy of this nearness. That was what smote the heart of David, when he considered how kind and loving the Lord had been to him. The Lord himself, when he comes to humble his people, takes this course with them — to tell them of the nearness that is between them and himself. As is plain in Jeremiah 2:2-3: 'Thus says the Lord: I remember you' — that is, 'put you in mind of the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when,' etc. Now when we see the Lord take this course, we should take the same. When he would humble David, he sent Nathan to humble him. This was one part of his message — to tell him of God's kindness to him (2 Samuel 12:7-8): 'Thus says the Lord: I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul,' etc. And this doubtless was the chief cause that made him confess and say, 'I have sinned against the Lord' — as it is in Psalm 51. He repeats 'against you' twice — there lies the emphasis: 'I have sinned against you, against you have I sinned.' That wounded him in a manner alone — that there was so great a nearness between the Lord and him. When a man commits a sin, there are two things to be considered in it. First, in that he sins against the law of God, and so he sees a great wrongness in sin. When he looks at sin and the straight law of God, he sees a deformity in it. But this alone does not humble us in that kindly manner. This will make us vile in our own eyes, this will make us see a wonderful deformity in ourselves. But there is another thing to be seen in sin — and that is the person against whom we commit it, and that is the Lord. And sin so looked upon comes to have another relation put upon it, not only as a wrongness and deformity, but as an injury, as a rebellion, an unkindness, repaying evil for good. The first way, sin is considered as a deviation from a straight rule. But in this latter, as against the person of God, as against your husband.

Now therefore to humble yourself, do thus. Go through all the particular dealings of God with you. Remember all the special kindnesses of the Lord — his keeping you from your youth, his many deliverances, how many special kindnesses he has done you. Recount his mercies every fast day. And when you have done this, go to your sins and say: 'These are not only transgressions against God's straight law, but also unkindnesses and injuries against his person.' And add to all this the consideration of the patience of God. 'Though I have played the wretch and harlot as never any have done, yet he has been patient, and is so kind that he bids me yet return.' And this will cause your heart to melt toward him. Labor to do this more and more.

There is an exercise of humiliation which is done in this manner — by seeing the Lord's kindness to you and your injury against him, and comparing the one with the other. But you will say, 'I would gladly do it, but I cannot — my heart is hard, and I cannot get it thus melted.' Therefore I say: exercise yourself to this. The reason men's hearts are thus hard, etc., is because men are idle — not willing to recount God's mercies to them. Do not say your heart is hard, but that you are sluggish. This therefore you ought to do especially at this time. In Leviticus 23:29, there was a time set apart for the Israelites for the performance of this duty of humiliation, and it was to be their exercise that day. They were then to labor to afflict their souls. Such as did not were to be cut off from among his people. And this consideration — that we are called by the name of the Lord — is a means to do it.

But you will say, 'I have done this, and yet my heart is hard still.'

It may be so indeed, and your heart not softened. But yet this I say: first, for your comfort, that if you continue doing this, the Lord accepts it. But if you do it not, your blood shall be upon your own head. We require only that you labor to do it, and the Lord will accept it, though you are not able to soften your heart. And secondly, know for your comfort also that God will join with you if you labor thus with your heart, and will send the spirit of humiliation upon you. As the disciples, though they rowed all night, yet Christ came at last — so though you toil many days and make no progress (as you think), yet know that God at length will come and help you. And that because he has commanded you to do this, he will not suffer you to be doing that always in vain which he commands. Therefore he will come. But that you may have the more ground for this, remember that you have many promises made of God's help. As in Luke 11:13: 'If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, etc.' — you shall never, of yourselves alone, be able to soften your hearts without the Holy Spirit. But continue knocking, and the Lord will give you the Holy Spirit, though you are but strangers. So that every man may come to God and say, 'Lord, you have made such a promise — you cannot go from your word, and therefore deny me not.' And be earnest with God, and he cannot deny you. The woman of Canaan was not a Jew, yet she, having this ground — that he was the Messiah — would not be put off. Therefore do you so, and you shall in the end find that your heart is softened. And the longer you wait, the greater measure you shall have of the Spirit. And when you have him, he shall humble your heart. As in Zechariah 12:10: 'I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.' The people of Israel were here exhorted to mourn and to separate themselves, and to do it every family apart. The business was the same that you are to do every fast day. Now says God: if you seek me aright, you must have the Spirit. And says God: I will do my part — I will pour on you the spirit of compassion (for so the word may be translated). The meaning of it is this: when the Spirit of God is thus upon you, you will be tenderly affected toward the Lord, even as a mother toward her child. Then says he: 'They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and be in bitterness for him' — that is, you shall then remember your rebellions, and the remembrance of them shall be bitter to your souls, as bitter things are to your taste. So it was with Josiah: the reason why his heart melted and he wept when he heard the book of the Law read, was because he had the spirit of compassion, which every one of us should have. So Job: 'Now I have seen you, I abhor myself' (Job 42). He was not thus before. He was a holy man, but this was a new work. For says he: 'I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.' He was enlightened anew — as it were, the Spirit shined into his heart with a new light. 'I have been in a mist all this while in comparison — but now my eye has seen you, and I have an experimental feeling of you; now I abhor myself.' It is a hard thing to abhor a man's self thus, which a man does when God's Spirit with a new light enables him to see God's love and kindness, and his own unkindness, in their true colors.

If the Lord's name is called upon us, we should learn hence to keep his name fair, to keep it pure and unspotted. As it was said of Saint Paul: he was a chosen vessel to carry God's name. Therefore it behooves them to take heed how it is polluted by them, or they give occasion that it be blasphemed. For the evil committed by you reflects upon the name of the Lord. A small thing is a great matter in you. One fly corrupts a box of ointment, but many flies in a barrel of pitch or tar are counted nothing. So many sins in a wicked man do not redound so much to the dishonor of God's name, as one sin in the saints. When a saint does a thing that is unseemly, he pollutes the name of the Lord — not that it can be polluted in itself, but it seems so to other men. Before men are regenerate, their sins are as blots upon a table before a picture is drawn upon it, which are not regarded by anyone. But after it is drawn, the least blot is seen by everyone. So it is when men are but strangers to God: the sins they commit do not reflect to the disgrace of God. But when God's image is renewed in a man, then these sins are more taken notice of, and cause the name of God to be blasphemed by his enemies.

This should teach us not to be ashamed of God and the profession of his name. For shall the Lord not be ashamed of us — as he shows he is not, when he is willing to put his name upon us — and shall we be ashamed of him? It is an unreasonable and unequal thing for a child to be ashamed of his father, for a wife to be ashamed of her husband, and so for us to be ashamed of the Lord, whose name we bear.

This is the more to be spoken of, because it is a fault very common among us, that we do not take notice of.

But most will say, 'We are not ashamed of religion, but we count it rather a glory to be accounted Christians.'

Let me examine you by these two questions. First, are you not ashamed of the strictest ways of religion? There is a common course of religion that you need not be ashamed of, because all are for it and commend it. But yet there are some special acts of religion that men cast shame upon. Such was that act of David when he danced before the ark, which seemed absurd in Michal's eyes for a king to do. Yet he said, 'I will be yet more vile.' Some of the ways of God give a more peculiar distaste to wicked men, and there is a shame cast upon the power of religion, by reason that the multitude goes another way. Now what is singular, that shame is cast upon. As in anything — let the multitude have never so ill-favored a fashion, it is no shame. Whereas if a few others wear a garment far more comely, but different from the fashion, yet it would be a shame to them. So it is here — there is shame cast upon holiness and sincerity, because the multitude is not holy. For holy men are like the gleanings after the harvest, or like the grapes after the vintage — exceedingly few, and not enough to bring godliness into fashion. Therefore if you would know whether you are ashamed of God or not, try whether you are ashamed of any of the peculiar acts of religion upon which shame is usually cast among men.

The second question I would ask is this: are you ashamed of God, or any task or duty, or his people, among those where the shame will do you some hurt? Consider whether you are not ashamed of religion among sinners. It is an expression put in for some cause in Mark 8:38: 'Whoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous generation, etc.' — as if he should have said, 'It may be you would not be ashamed of me among saints; but he that is ashamed of me among the worst of men, and in a dangerous time — in such a time as when it is ignominious to be a Christian (as it was then) — of that man will I be ashamed in the day of the resurrection.' You must therefore try yourselves: what you do before wicked men, and what you do before great men, when it is some loss to you to profess Christ, or any truth of his. And know that this is not a small matter. We must profess Christ in our times; we must make the word of God the rule of our lives. Perhaps we think that so long as our hearts are right, and so, that we run not out into evil ways with others, the matter of profession is but a small thing — that it is but as the leaves of godliness. 'If God has the fruit, why need we care for the leaves?' But remember that in Romans 10:10: 'With the heart man believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.' This will condemn many of us — the lack of profession — as well as the greatest sins. The Scripture is clear: we must profess God's name at all times, even then when we shall do it with the danger of our lives. You know that Daniel did so — in danger of his life. And it was not a needless matter, but it was in a matter that concerned his life. But that you may do this the more willingly, consider why men are ashamed of this profession. Why? Because men speak evil of you. But is this a good reason? No, for they do so out of their ignorance. As it is in 1 Peter 4:4: 'In which they think it strange that you do not run with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.' But if they knew the grounds of your actions, they would not speak evil of you. They see your actions, but your rules and principles that you go by in these actions, they know not. And therefore they speak evil of you. Shall we be discouraged for this? What if a geometer should be drawing lines and figures, and there should come in a country man who, seeing him, should laugh at him — would the geometer leave off his art for his derision? Surely no — for he knows he laughs at him out of his ignorance, because he does not know the art and the grounds of it. And is it not as great a folly for us to be ashamed of godliness, because men who do not understand it speak evil of it? Surely it is. And therefore remember David's two reasons when he did that act for which he was reviled by his wife. 'I did it for the Lord that chose me' — as if he should have said, 'The Lord deserved it; he loved and chose me, therefore I did it.' So this is your case: the Lord has chosen you when he has passed by many thousands of others. Therefore do it for the Lord. And another reason of David's was: 'It makes for my honor in the eyes of those that are good' (2 Samuel 6:24). Men think it brings no honor, because they shall get no credit by it among men. But know this: when men shrink from God, then God makes true that rule — 'Those that dishonor me, I will dishonor.' He that has made a profession of godliness and afterward falls away — God never suffers such a one to escape, but punishes him one way or another. Therefore Moses exhorts the people in Deuteronomy 4:6 to keep God's statutes and to do them: 'For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations,' etc. Now why should you be backward to bear the shame that the world casts upon you? Does not God observe all, look on, and with approbation? Does not God tell the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:2: 'I know your works, and your labor, and your patience,' etc.? When any man at any time casts shame upon you for religion, it is a persecution which God will record. As Luther said when any spoke evil against him: 'This will be accounted on my reckoning at the last day' — that speech is to be considered and weighed by us all. 'I know your patience' — therefore be not ashamed, but be bold in the profession and fear of God, doing those things that are glorious in the eyes of God and men that judge of things aright.

If the name of the Lord is called upon us, this should comfort us concerning ourselves and concerning the church of God. For where God's name is called upon any church, any nation, any man — you may be sure he will defend them, for he is engaged to do so, that his name may not be polluted. For the Lord is the worse spoken of when his people suffer. Therefore, whoever you are — rich or poor — be confident: God will defend you in all your sufferings. A man will not suffer his wife to be wronged. For says he, 'She is my wife' — he accounts himself wronged when any injury is done to her. So God accounts himself injured when any wrong is done to you upon whom his name is called. Isaiah 4:5-6: 'Although,' says the Lord, 'they may seem to be helpless — notwithstanding this,' says the Lord, 'fear not: I will create a cloud by day and a flaming fire by night.' That is, though there be no means, yet I will work without means. 'I will create them, make them of nothing.' 'I will be both their direction and their protection.' For the cloud by day and the fire by night has reference to that cloud that went before the children of Israel in the wilderness, which led them in the way and kept them from the heat of the sun. 'For upon all the glory shall be a defense' — that is, the churches, though they seem never so base, are glorious. Therefore they are called glorious. And not only upon one man or two, but 'upon all the glory' — that is, every man in the church, upon all the glory shall be a defense.

But then if this objection comes: why do we not see them afflicted? Do they not often suffer a storm? Are they not often scorched with the heat of reproach?

Therefore the Lord says: as they have various persecutions, so will I have various means of help. 'And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime for the heat, and for a place of refuge' — like the cities of refuge where they fled that were pursued by the avengers of blood — 'and for a covert from a storm and from rain.' The saints in a storm of persecution or any calamity are as a man under shelter, whereas all others are in the midst of the storm. Therefore be you assured: the Lord will not forsake his own people. They are as the apple of his eye. A man may bear much, but he will not suffer you to touch the apple of his eye. So God will suffer much, but he will be avenged on those that wrong his people. Thus much for this doctrine.

2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people that are called by my name do humble themselves:

We are now come to the conditions upon which mercy and forgiveness are here promised. The first you see is humiliation: 'If my people do humble themselves.' In the handling of which I will proceed two ways.

First, negatively: that without humiliation, and unless men do humble themselves, they can have no interest in these promises.

Secondly, affirmatively: that if they do humble themselves, then God will be merciful to them and forgive their sins.

For the handling of the first, I raise this doctrine out of the words: that without humiliation, no man shall obtain mercy. We see that God suspends mercy upon it here, as without which no mercy can be expected. Which therefore must needs be thought a matter of great consequence, and the more largely to be insisted upon.

I express the doctrine in a more broad and general word — humiliation — which contains in it both humiliation passive (or being humbled) and humiliation active (as for clearer distinction I call them), whereby we humble ourselves. This is the main thing intended in the text, explicitly and directly, which I also mainly intend in the prosecution of this point. Yet I include both together in this negative part of this discourse, because though in themselves distinct, they are always joined in their working. The latter always presupposes the former and necessarily implies it here. For no man ever came to humble himself who was not first humbled. This negative part — excluding men from mercy without both these — being also alike common to both. For it is equally true that no man ever attained mercy who was not first humbled, and who did not humble himself. So in this negative part they agree and concur.

Again, though that affirmative part mentioned is proper to that active humiliation — the promises of interest in mercy being made to those that humble themselves, and not to all that are humbled (there being many that are much humbled who yet do not obtain mercy) — yet I join both together in this first part chiefly. Because as they are joined in their working, so they must necessarily be in the explanation of them. For we cannot come distinctly to know and find out what it is to humble ourselves — which is the thing I principally aim at — without knowing what it is to be humbled. The one begins where the other ends; the one being a preparative to the other. That therefore we may see how far the one and the other goes, and how they are distinguished, we will include both in this first doctrine.

Now in handling this doctrine we will do two things.

First, show that men must be humbled and humble themselves before they can come to have interest in these promises.

We will show what it is to humble a man's self and to be humbled.

For the first, this place alone is sufficient ground. God would not have put in such a condition in vain, if it might have been spared in any. But besides this ground, we have the practice of all the master builders, who made it their first work — as here it is the first condition — to humble men, that they might be brought to humble themselves. And to omit all other instances, we have all three persons sealing this method.

This was God the Father's method in the first sermon that ever was preached — which he himself also preached — as a pattern for all ministers to follow. And when he would draw Adam and Eve in to seek the promise of mercy, he first expostulates the matter with them to humble them for their sin, and then lets fall the promise of the Messiah.

And secondly, Jesus Christ — the second person — in his first sermons in preaching the gospel, as in Luke 4:7, shows his approbation of this method in that he makes this his first subject of his first sermon. As appears by the text he takes to preach the gospel — but to whom? To those that are first humble and humbled: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to such as are poor and broken in heart.'

And the same order, the Holy Spirit — the third person — was foretold by Christ that when he was come, he would observe in working upon men's hearts by the ministry of the apostles, etc. John 16:8: 'He shall convict the world of sin' — for humiliation, that is his first work. Then of righteousness, for justification. Lastly, of judgment — that is, the sanctification which persons justified are to have wrought in them. We come now to the explanation and reasons of this point, which shall be:

To show the necessity of this humiliation to the others that follow.

Of the order of it, as it is here placed first of all the rest.

For the first: it is true indeed that the Lord might bring men home to him without this humiliation. He could do as he did at the first creation — say no more than 'Let there be light,' and there would be light, and that without any of this thunder. He might say, 'Let there be grace,' and there would be grace. He could come in the still voice, without rending the rocks, and say no more than, 'Open, you everlasting doors; lift up your heads, you gates' — and they would be open. But as though he might have brought the children of Israel out of Egypt into the land of Canaan without leading them through the wilderness, yet his good pleasure was thereby rather to humble them and prove them — so it is here.

And the reasons of this necessity may be drawn from the relation and respect which this humiliation has both to the other conditions that follow, and to all that is promised here in the text.

As first, without this men will not seek out for and come to Christ — they will not seek his face, that is, his person. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ by humbling us. Men would not come in to him unless they were driven. Men would not seek him unless they themselves were first lost. Men would not receive him unless they were first humbled. 'The poor receive the gospel' — the poor in spirit.

It is necessary in respect of receiving and seeking for mercy and pardon and forgiveness — which is the main thing here promised: 'I will be merciful to their sins.' For until then, our proposing of pardon and the promises of it, and inviting men to come in, would be all but lost labor. For until then, men would give us that answer, and give the promises the same reception, which they did who were invited to the marriage feast (Matthew 22:5-6). The text says they made light of it. And so we find by experience that when we preach the great things of the gospel — as justification and remission of sins — men account them as a small thing and set little by them. And the reason is because they are not humbled. Men otherwise would not prize Christ nor the promise of pardon by him — nor his righteousness, by which they are to be forgiven. A man would happily be content to have Christ's righteousness as a bridge to go upon to heaven, but he will not prize it as Paul did — who was ambitious of nothing so much as to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness but that which is by faith, accounting all things in himself and out of himself as dross and dung in comparison of it. But a man unhumbled will not set this high price upon it. And God will not have his jewels — much less Christ and pardon of sin — cast away at random to those who shall not value them. But when a man shall see the badness of his nature, the multitudes of his particular sins, and see that in his heart he never thought had been there, and stand amazed at them — then to have such a righteousness as shall perfectly cover all these sins — this he will think a great matter. So it was with Saint Paul, when he saw himself the greatest of sinners. And when a man thus sees his particular sores and diseases, and something in Christ's righteousness to answer them all — Christ's patience to answer his impatience, Christ's love to stand for his hatred, Christ's holiness of nature to cover his uncleanness — he will then begin to esteem every jewel in that cabinet. For he knows he could not spare one part of that righteousness. He sees a glorious righteousness to clothe and cover his nakedness from top to toe, and this makes him prize it and every part of it. This a man unhumbled will not do. And as he would not esteem the imputed righteousness of Christ, so neither the inherent righteousness from him, whereby he should be enabled to turn from his evil ways. But when a man sees and knows what a heart he has — how false, how full of sins, and empty of grace, and what strong lusts are there — then when he shall find the contrary graces worked in him, he prizes them highly, and Christ for them. Because they are the precious gifts of Christ, and he knows and acknowledges they are the sole work of Christ, because in his nature dwells no good thing. And why else does God after conversion suffer his people to fall into sin and into a variety of temptations, but that they might be more humbled still, and so know the worth of Christ therein?

It is required that men should be humbled, because otherwise they will not actually turn from their evil ways, nor be obedient to Christ in all things in their lives. An unbroken heart is like an untamed horse that will not endure the bridle and be guided by it — like an untamed heifer that will not go with the yoke. Such a man — God may command him what he will, but he will do what he pleases. But when the heart is broken and humbled once, then as Saint Paul, trembling, said (Acts 9), he will say also: 'Lord, what do you want me to do? I will do what you will, indeed and suffer what you will; call me to suffer for you.'

If this question had been asked Saint Paul before he was thus humbled, he would have given another answer. Before, God may bid us do what he will, but we as stubborn servants will do what we think good. We are proud and unbroken, and pride is the cause of all disobedience. Therefore it is said, 'High thoughts must be cast down that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God' — before every thought can be brought into the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). They exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and his will. For when his will is known, the heart yields not still. When the Lord commands anything — as to take heed of evil company, to have a care of their speeches — while men are unhumbled, they are ready to expostulate the matter, and in the end will do nothing at all. But when a man is humbled and the high thoughts cast down, then he brings every thought and affection — that exalted itself before — into the obedience of Christ. And as all disobedience is from pride and stubbornness of the will, so all obedience is from humility. When the heart is humbled, it is made pliable to God. Isaiah 66:2: 'I will look to him that is contrite and trembles at my words' — they are both there joined. That is, when he hears any command from me, he is afraid to break it, afraid of admitting the very occasions of sinning. A man who has been scorched by fire dares not easily meddle with it again. And the reason is that it makes a man choose the Lord freely for his husband and Lord, and from there follows kind obedience to him.

He who has made the choice himself will serve — otherwise not. But he will condemn himself, that he should make a choice so unsuitable to him. And it also teaches a man to set a high price upon Christ and forgiveness of sins, as you hear. And that will set all your desires to work, and cause you to refuse no obedience, whether active or passive. For what is the reason men obey their lusts, but because they prize pleasures and have a high esteem of honors, etc.? And the same effect will the prizing of Christ have in you — to do anything for him, so that you shall not count your life dear for him.

They would not do all this constantly and forever if they should come to Christ and be obedient for a while — as John's hearers and Herod were — yet they would return to their vomit again. They would not stay with him if they were not humbled. They might come in, as those hearers (signified by the second and third ground) did, who received the seed with joy. As those of whom it is said, 'Christ would not commit himself to them.' Men will not stay with him unless they are humbled. For unless a man is brought to part with all for Christ and to sell all, he will in the end repent of his bargain. If there is a reservation of anything, the time will come that he will go back and start aside like a broken bow. And until a man is thoroughly humbled, he will not be brought to part with all for Christ. He that is humbled — he only is the merchant-minded man, who sells all he has and goes away rejoicing, glad at heart that he has Christ though with the loss of the whole world. He is willing to take Christ upon all conditions, with losses and crosses, and to deny himself in everything. For he knows the bitterness of sin, and so sets such a price upon Christ that if the bargain were to be made again, he would do as he had done. But the other man — what he has done in a fit, he repents of afterward. Therefore true repentance — which godly sorrow and true humiliation works — is called 'repentance never to be repented of' (2 Corinthians 7:10). Other sorrow than godly may work a repentance, but it is such as men afterward repent of.

Men are soon weary of the yoke of Christ because they have not felt how grievous the yoke of sin and Satan is. But to one who has felt the burden of sin, the yoke of Christ is easy and sweet.

The last reason has relation to the last thing here promised — the taking away of the judgments and healing the land. God should not have the praise of his judgments and of his mercy in taking them away, unless men were humbled. For if when God did afflict men, he should restore them again without this humiliation, men would think that God wronged them before and now did but right them. But when God has humbled them so far that they acknowledge his justice in afflicting them, and their own desert to be utterly destroyed, and confess that it is his mere mercy they were not consumed, and humble themselves under his mighty hand — and now if the judgment is taken off and his wrath blown over — then they give him the praise of his mercy and judgments.

Thus you see why of necessity it is required. Now let us see the reason for the order of it — why it is required first. It is the first condition here. There is something in the order to be said by way of reason for it. The reason in general is that nothing is acceptable to God until the heart is humbled. You may pray, which is another condition, and you may hear, etc. — but all you do is but lost labor, unless it comes from a broken heart.

For first, that alone is a fitting sacrifice for God, without which act no sacrifice is accepted. You may see this in Psalm 51:16-17: 'You do not desire sacrifice, else I would give it you; you delight not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.' David knew that until his heart was broken, all his good deeds and all holy duties would have been in vain. It is as if David should have said: 'Lord, before I was thus humbled and my heart thus broken — as in the beginning of the Psalm he had expressed that it was — you did desire no sacrifice from me, nor would have delighted in any burnt offering from me. But the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and other duties but as they come from it.' This is the main sacrifice, and without it nothing is acceptable — unless it is laid upon this low altar, which sanctifies the sacrifice.

As it is only a fitting sacrifice for God, so this only makes us fitting priests to God. And before we are fit to offer a sacrifice acceptable, we must be priests. And we do not become priests to God until we have offered ourselves first to God as a sacrifice (2 Corinthians 8:5). And that we are not, until we ourselves are slain and broken, and so made a sacrifice.

Nothing is accepted until the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart. And until a man is humbled, the Spirit of God does not dwell in his heart. Therefore what he does until then savors not of the Spirit but of a carnal heart, and so is not acceptable. Until a man is humbled, he keeps the door shut upon the Lord and his Spirit. There is one within — his heart is full already; he dwells in his own heart himself. Therefore it is said (Isaiah 57:15) that he dwells in a contrite heart — that is, in it alone, for there is only room for him to do what he will in all the chambers of it.

Until a man will be obedient in all things, nothing he does is acceptable. 'He that turns his ear from the law — his prayer shall be abominable.' Now one who is not thoroughly humbled may be obedient in many things — he may pray, etc. — but yet he will have bypaths of his own. He has not fully renounced himself — that is, he is not humbled. Now unless a man's obedience is general, nothing is acceptable.

And so we come to the second thing proposed — what this humiliation is. Our main inquiry is after that which is mainly intended in the text: what it is to humble a man's self. But because the finding of it out depends upon the other also, we will with it show what it is to be humbled, that so we may the better know the true humiliation required of us. And for the finding out of this, we will first set before you the examples of those who have humbled themselves and have been humbled in Scripture, and from there gather what it is.

For this you shall find Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33 — in his affliction humbling himself greatly, and the Lord was entreated of him, verse 12. Likewise we have that of Saint Paul humbled (Acts 9:6), where we find him trembling and astonished, and saying, 'Lord, what do you want me to do?' See another example in Acts 2:37 — of those who were pierced in their hearts, crying out, 'What shall we do to be saved?' And so of the jailer (Acts 16), who came trembling and astonished, and would have killed himself. And likewise of the prodigal (Luke 15) — which though a parable, yet sets forth this condition of a soul humbled to us — of whom it is said that no one gave to him, and that he came to himself, etc.

Out of all these we gather those two main parts of humiliation mentioned: humiliation passive, and active. The first makes way for the second, to which no promise is made, and which may be found in an unregenerate man. The second, which is the fruit of sanctification, is what is meant here, and to which the promise is made. These go both together in the godly. And he that has the second never lacks the first in some measure, more or less — though many have the first that do not have the second.

Now the first is nothing else but a sense of sin, and God's wrath for it — expressed to us in those former examples by being pierced in the heart, it being a wounding of the heart and spirit.

To which is joined trembling fear, with considering and coming to a man's self, as we have it in the parable.

And this passive, legal humiliation stands in these particulars.

A sensibility of sin. Before, a man is as one that is in a dead sleep — what is done to him he does not feel, nor what is said does he hear; he is sensible of nothing. But this is the awakening of a man to be sensible of sin, so that now he is wounded, now he is smitten with it, now he feels it. So the jailer — as the foundation of the prison was shaken, so was his heart also, and had an earthquake within as well as one without. And his waking out of sleep was a picture of his awakened heart.

This humiliation makes a man fearful of his estate, whereas before he was bold. And others that are not humbled go on boldly and are punished, as it is said of the fool in Proverbs.

It makes a man consider his estate, which he never did before. As the prodigal came to himself — that is, entered into a serious consideration of his estate. Before, a man thought himself in a good estate, and little imagined he was in the gall of bitterness. But this work shows him his poverty, and that he is altogether naked, and that he has nothing to sustain him — as the prodigal saw he had not, no worth at all in him.

And this first work of humiliation is worked by the law and the curse thereof, which says in his hearing: 'Cursed be he who does not abide in all things to do them.'

By the law I say, which is the rule of righteousness, of which all particular rules are branches. And by the threatenings thereof, which are all branches of that great curse. The one being as the lightning to discover sin, the other like the thunderbolt that strikes the heart with fear of God's judgments. The one is like the indictment, the other as the sentence of the judge. I put both these together, because both go to humble a man. The law is like the taskmasters of Egypt, that commanded the Israelites to do the work but gave them no straw. So the law tells us, 'This and this is to be done' and binds us to do it, but gives us no strength, and so thereby discovers our sinfulness and inability for any good. And then as the taskmasters beat those who fell short of their quota, so comes the curse and strikes them dead who do not continue in all things to do the law. These two put together work this legal humiliation. Neither by 'the law' is meant only those ten words spoken at Horeb, but together with the explanation of them, as we find them expounded in the prophets and the whole Scriptures. So that by 'the law' is meant that righteousness which the whole Scripture requires. Now therefore when the Scriptures are laid to our hearts, the righteousness of the Scriptures is compared with the crookedness of our hearts and lives. And thereby we come to see how the least sin is forbidden, and the least duty must not be omitted, and that we must give an account for every idle word and every lustful thought and motion in the heart. As Saint Paul, when humbled, saw lust to be sin. And then we come to see withal the curse due to the least. This humbles a man.

And to this is further required the help of the Spirit joining therewith, without which the law does not humble a man. The Spirit is therefore called 'the spirit of bondage,' because he enlightens a man to see his bondage and slavery to sin and Satan, and his subjection to God's wrath. Not that he makes him such or brings bondage with it, but discovers it. And this not only by showing a man his bondage, but by making him believe it. For there must be a faith to humble as well as a faith to comfort. Whereas we set little by the threatenings and believe them not. For would the swearer swear, if he believed that threatening: 'The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain'? When therefore the Spirit enlightens a man to see his sins, and makes him believe the threatenings denounced against them, then a man is humbled — and not before.

And yet though these threatenings are proposed by the Word and made effectual by the Spirit, yet usually some affliction puts life into them. As we see in Manasseh, and also in Saint Paul who was first struck off his horse to the ground. And in the jailer, who thought certainly all his prisoners gone, for whom his own life must have been answerable — so that he would have killed himself. Sometimes a real affliction, sometimes an imaginary one — an apprehension of judgment, shame, poverty, misery — does God use to put life into the threatenings. And they put life into the law. And then the law is brought home to the conscience. And so sin is brought to light. For when men are sensible of miseries, then they are often brought to inquiry into the law of God to find what should be the cause of it. And when the law is brought home to the conscience, then sin is made alive. Saint Paul says (Romans 7): 'Sin appears to be sin' — which before was as colors in the dark. And sin being made alive, 'then I died,' says Paul there — that is, he apprehended himself a dead man. In which is a discovery of sin and our subjection to death for it. Wherein consist those two parts of this former humiliation which make way for the second humiliation.

Thus you see what it is to be humbled. Now we come to the second: what it is to humble a man's self. Which begins when the other ends. For then a man looks out for the remedy, as those who cried out, 'What shall we do to be saved?' Which is the second thing to be observed in those examples. After the wounding of their hearts, they made inquiry what to do to be saved. For those that belong to God's election go yet further. There is another kind of evangelical humiliation worked in them, which is a fruit of sanctification. For in one whom God means to save, when he is come to this, the Lord sends the spirit of adoption into his heart — the spirit of grace, as Zechariah calls him — which gives him some secret hope that he shall be received to mercy if he will come in. Which is a work of faith in some degree begun. And then says the soul to itself: 'I will go and humble myself; I will go home to God and change my course, and give up myself to him and serve him.' And this we shall find in these examples mentioned before, especially of the prodigal (Luke 15). He came to this conclusion: 'If I stay here, I die for hunger; but in my father's house there is bread enough.' Here was hope that bred this resolution. 'I will go home, and say to my father, I have sinned against heaven and against you,' etc. Here was that true humiliation we speak of. So Manasseh — he humbled himself greatly, out of a hope of mercy. For a man does not come to this active humiliation wherein he kindly humbles himself, unless he has hope of mercy. And the beginning of faith is with a hope of mercy, which sets a man to work to go to God and say: 'Lord, I have committed such and such sins, but I will return to them no more; I am worthy of nothing.'

Now there are four several compositions — or four pairs of ingredients — that have influence in this second kind of humiliation, to cause us to humble ourselves.

First pair: a hope of mercy as well as a sense of misery. Whereas before we did look upon God as a severe judge, we look now on him as one willing to receive us. Both are necessary. Sense of misery alone brings a man only to himself, as the prodigal is first said to come to himself. But hope of mercy joined with it drives a man home to God, as it did him also. Without hope of mercy, sense of misery drives us from the Lord. But hope of mercy being added to it causes this active humiliation we speak of, whereby we say, 'I will go and humble myself.'

The second pair of ingredients is the sense of our own emptiness, together with an apprehension of that all-sufficiency that is in God. Which we may also see in the prodigal, when he said, 'I shall starve and die if I stay here; but in my father's house is bread enough.' He looked to that all-sufficient fullness that was in God to supply his wants. The creature, while it finds anything in itself, will stand on its own foundation and not be humbled. But when it finds nothing in itself but emptiness, then it begins to seek out for a foundation. Seeing that to be in God alone, it goes out to him. For men will not be drawn off from their own foundation until they see another foundation to stand upon.

Third: there must be a sense of a man's own sinfulness, and of the Lord Jesus's righteousness. And so a light comes in that discovers both. Thus when Saint Paul was humbled, there was a light that shone about him, which was an outward symbol of that new light which shone within him — of Christ and his own sinfulness.

A sense of the love of God and Christ, joined with the sense of a man's unkindness toward God — whereby we look upon sins as injuries done to God, and unkindness shown therein.

And now let us see the difference between these two works or parts of humiliation, that we may further understand what it is to humble ourselves.

First, they differ in the matter they are concerned about. In the first, a man is humbled properly but for the punishment. A man is indeed humbled for sin, yet principally as it has relation to punishment. It is guilt that works on him. He is not humbled for sin as it is contrary to God and his holiness, but as contrary to himself and his own good. And thus we are not savingly humbled, until we come to love God and to have a light discovering the holiness and purity of his nature, which one that is savingly humbled has worked in him.

They differ in their grounds and principles from which they arise.

The first arises but from self-love, and is but a work of nature — though thus far a work of God, to stir up self-love by the sense of misery and to awaken it. But so as any unreasonable creature, if in danger, is used to be sensible of it. And what wonder then is it for a man, when he begins to have some sense of hell and death let into his conscience, to be wounded and apprehensive of it? But the other arises from the love of God kindled in the heart by hope of grace and mercy.

They differ in the instrumental causes that work them. The one is worked by the spirit of bondage — by an enlightening merely to see his bondage. The soul is as one that is in bondage, fearing God as a master, and has no further light than to see God as a judge. But this other is worked by the spirit of adoption, making the gospel also effectual, and discovering God as a father.

They differ in their effects, as:

The one drives a man from God, but this latter causes a man to go to God and to seek Christ. It works that affection to Christ that the church in the Song of Solomon had to him — who would not give over seeking him until she had found him whom her soul did love. Though there be twenty obstacles in the way, yet the soul has no rest. As a stone has no rest until it is in its own center, so neither does this soul thus humbled — but in God. Therefore it gives not over seeking him, though it has never so many denials.

The first breeds death — a listlessness and deadness. It makes a man as a log that does not move to God in prayer. So it worked in Nabal and Ahithophel. It breeds such discouragement as often ends in death. Of worldly sorrow (and such is all sorrow where God is not the end) comes death. But when it is right and true and kindly sorrow for sin, it does what an affection should do — it quickens him to do what he ought to do. So fear, when it is right, works. And so all other affections, which were put into the soul for that end, that it might be stirred up by them to what it should do, for God and its own good. Therefore this affection of sorrow for sin quickens a man to seek out to God, when it is right.

The first breeds a fierceness and turbulence in a man's spirit. As we often see in men whose consciences are awakened to see their sins — they are fiercer than they were before, for guilt of sin vexes their spirits. And where there is no sense of mercy from God, there is none to men. But he who is broken for sin spends his anger upon himself, frets chiefly for his own vileness and unworthiness. And the peace of God which his heart has a sense of makes his spirit gentle, peaceable, and easy to be entreated and persuaded. Bring him Scripture, and a child may lead him and persuade him. The rough ways are made smooth — the rough and perverse dispositions of the heart, and every mountain-like affection cast down. As it is said they were by Saint John's ministry, who came to humble men and prepare them for Christ.

They differ in their continuance. The former alone proves but a passion, and it comes but from flesh. So as all the fruits of flesh are, it is but as the flower of the grass — of the same fading nature is the root from which it comes. Though it comes like a violent torrent into the heart and swells above the banks, yet it is but as a flash flood. But this latter is as a constant river that has a spring. Though it keeps within the banks and does not overflow so much as the other, yet it runs constantly. And the further it runs, the greater it grows.

I will give you also some properties of that humiliation to which the promise is made here, by which it may be yet further known and distinguished.

We will take those fruits of it we find in the text. First, it will make a man pray; and second, seek God's face, and turn from his evil ways. It always has these as the consequences of it:

To pray. Judas was humbled, but he had no mind to pray, nor an ability to pray. The spirit of prayer did not go with it. But he that has that true humiliation is able to pour forth his soul to God. And indeed prayer is not the work of the memory and wit, but the proper work of a broken heart.

Again, secondly, to seek God's face. This true humiliation cuts a man off from his own root and foundation, and causes him to seek the Lord alone. Which seeking is usually expressed in prayer. That other will cause a man to seek mercy, but this to seek God's face. That is, if they have his favor, it is enough. They seek God as separated from all things else. Though such a soul had assurance of being freed from hell, it would not content him unless he saw God's face.

That which Absalom counterfeited — knowing it to be a true strain of a loving and humbled child to a father — when he had his life given him, though banished from the court: 'Let me see my father's face, though he kill me.' This is an humbled soul in truth toward God. Others, as God says in Hosea: they sought mercy, but 'they did not turn to me; they sought not me.'

True humiliation causes a man to turn from his evil ways. The other makes a man but give them over for a time while he is sick of them, and then returns again as a dog to his vomit. 2 Chronicles 33:23: it is said Amon humbled not himself as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but transgressed more and more. Which implies that when a man is humbled as he should be, he transgresses no more as he had done. And so Manasseh did so humble himself that he transgressed no more. True humiliation will make him become stronger against that sin he has transgressed in. As a bone that has been broken is stronger when it is properly set again. He especially humbles himself for and turns from his beloved sin, and with that from all the rest.

The second property is that it makes a man cleave fast to Christ, and so draw near to him in all the duties of obedience — to obey him constantly, generally, and thoroughly. Men may have light wounds made in their hearts which do not drive them to the physician. Which awakens men a little, but they fall asleep again. But when God humbles so as to save, he so fastens the apprehension of his misery upon him as to bring him home to Christ. He sets on the avenger of blood to pursue him to the utmost — and not for a mile or two, but to follow him until he is driven into the city of refuge. There is a humiliation which does not have this effect and consequent of it — and therefore I mention it as a property of the true — and this because of a defect that is in it. In which respect, though it comes near the true, yet differs from it. Which is seen in the event in this: that the true causes one to come to Christ and to cleave to him without separation.

That you may therefore see the difference between this and the other, and wherein the other is defective — mark how that which is true works this in one who yet is not quite cut off, but hangs by a thread as it were. There being some secret fibers, some veins and strings that are not cut in pieces, which keep life in the old man. And a man remains still upon his old stock, and so long Christ does not come into the heart. Not until a man is removed from his own foundation, and sees he can no way be happy in himself, or within his own compass — but sees all is to be had in and from the Lord Jesus. Until then, he will not go out of himself, nor cleave to or fully follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now then, the other humiliation is defective in this: that it is not in this manner sufficiently grounded. It does not cut a man wholly off from himself. The foundation is not laid low enough. There is wanting depth of earth. There is indeed so much earth as shall bring forth a green blade of profession, and such a foundation as there may be erected a slight building upon. But it is not low enough to bear a substantial building that shall stand out all winds and weathers. This true humiliation has these two things go with it.

A man sees no foundation in himself.

He sees a foundation outside himself to stand upon, and so he casts himself upon that, clasps about Christ, and wholly adheres to him. And so draws all sap and life from him, as the branch does from the root. And from there comes that resolution and ability to cleave to the Lord and to please him in all things.

As the resolution to do it, so all his ability to go through with it. For being joined to Christ, there comes the spirit of grace — called the virtue of Christ's death, because it works a virtue like his death — into the heart. But when the heart is not yet in this manner broken, many take up purposes and good desires, but are not able to keep them, because they were grounded on their own strength. Whereas if the heart were broken from itself and grafted into Christ, such purposes made in his strength would thrive and grow there. For if the soil is made good and fit plants are planted in it, it is certain they will thrive. Now in a good heart, those desires that are planted there do thrive and wither no more. And though there may now and then waves arise, and so they may be tossed to and fro, yet substantially they do not wither nor fall from the foundation. Those therefore who have begun a good course for a year or a month and do not go on in it — it is a sign they lack humbling. He that is truly humbled falls back no more. Manasseh did not, nor Saint Paul — 'Lord, what do you want me to do?' said he then. And he was as good as his word. Therefore take notice, you that do fall away, what the defect has been and wherein. For that will be a means to set you right and recover you again.

The third property of humiliation is to have all the affections moderate — all delights in worldly things faint and remiss, and all his affections taken chiefly about grace and sin. True affection in him will eat up the false. He esteems spiritual things at a high rate, and all other things as little. Ask such a one what of all things else he would desire, and he will tell you: Christ, and the favor of God, and the graces of the Spirit, and to have his lusts mortified, and his sins pardoned. And that he thinks little of the things of this life — he cares not in comparison whether he be poor or rich, bound or free (though if he may have a better condition, he will use it rather). As a man condemned to die, he little regards his estate or the things of this life. His apprehensions are taken up with greater things. Give him his pardon and take all else. So here — one truly humbled counts the favor of God so great that he esteems all things else light in comparison. When therefore men are violent in their affections toward worldly things, and in their desires and delights in them, and endeavors after them — it is a sign they are not humbled.

The fourth property is to love God and Christ much. Mary loved much, because much was forgiven her. That is, not simply that much was forgiven her, but because withal she had a sense of it — apprehended it as much — and her sin great by a work of humiliation. And so apprehended it a great matter to be pardoned. And so a man, having once apprehended death and hell and the wrath of God as belonging to him, and God comes on a sudden and tells him, 'You shall live' — when his neck was on the block and he expected nothing but death — this causes a man to love God much and to prize Christ. And this made Saint Paul also love Christ so much, that 'the love of Christ constrained him' — because 'I was a persecutor and a blasphemer, and he died for me, forgave me a great debt.'

He that is truly humbled will be content with any condition. As the prodigal son: 'I am content to be as a hired servant,' says he, 'and am unworthy to be called a son any more.' He was content to do the work of a servant, to live in the condition of a servant, to have the lowest place in all the family. And so Saint Paul looked on himself as the least of all the saints, thought he could never lay himself low enough. Now this contentedness is exercised about two things.

In a contentedness in the lack of outward good things. When a man is content with the meanest services and the least wages — to lack wealth and credit and gifts. As Jacob, being truly humbled: 'I am less than the least of your mercies.' Whereas another man that is not humbled, when he looks upon himself and God's mercies he enjoys, thinking highly of himself, thinks himself too great for them — the disproportion is rather on his side. Whereas Jacob, though he then had many mercies, yet said: 'Take the least mercy and lay it in one scale, and myself in another — and I am too light for it, less than it, and it too much for me.'

It is exercised in bearing crosses. One that is truly humbled still blesses God, as Job, and bears and accepts the punishment of his iniquity willingly and cheerfully. As we see it made a condition (Leviticus 26:41): 'If their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they bear or accept the punishment of their iniquity.' If the Lord lays upon him a sharp disease — say the plague, disreputation, poverty — yet he bears it willingly and cheerfully. For when a man thinks in earnest that which is said in Ezekiel 36 — that he is worthy to be destroyed — whatever befalls him from God, which is less than destruction, he blesses God for it and rejoices that he escapes so.

The humble man therefore is in all conditions contented — always cheerful and blessing God. If he has good things, they are more than he is worthy of. If evil — though never so sharp — yet they are less than destruction and less than he deserves. Whereas an unbroken heart is always turbulent, and thinks in the secret murmurings of his heart that he is not well dealt with.

I should come now to the application of this doctrine, but before I must resolve a case and scruple which does usually trouble the hearts of many.

The case in question is whether, for right and true humiliation, it is necessary that such a solemn humiliation and such a measure of sorrow and violent legal contrition must go before it.

There is a double kind of sorrow worked in the hearts of men. The one is a violent, tumultuous sorrow which arises from the apprehension of hell and punishment. The ground of it is self-love, and is commonly in those who are suddenly enlightened and so amazed therewith, being taken on a sudden. As we see in Saint Paul, who was taken suddenly as he was going to Damascus. And it was discovered to him that he was guilty of so great a sin as he could never have imagined. A voice from heaven to strike his ears on a sudden: 'Why do you persecute me?' And this we find by experience to have been in many who never have true humiliation, as we see in Judas. God indeed sometimes uses it to bring men to humiliation, as he did in Saint Paul.

But again, we find in experience in some a cleaving to God and holiness of life, and a constant care to please him in all things, without this violent, vexing sorrow. And many that have had their hearts deeply wounded, amazed, frightened, and have thereupon taken up great purposes which have come to nothing. The ground of which having been a violent passion, as that the root withered, so the fruit withered also. But a true apprehension and conviction of sin — as in itself the greatest misery — is more real and draws the heart nearer to Christ. So that in this case we may say of these two sorts, as Christ said of those who were bidden to go into the vineyard: they that said they would go did not, and others that said they would not go, yet went. Therefore we answer that it is not always necessary to have such a violent sorrow, or that a man should lie any long time in such an evident sense of wrath. Though always there is a right apprehension of sin which does humble a man. Which will appear by these considerations.

First: that is not always the greatest sorrow which is thus violent. Though it seems to be so, it is not always the greatest sorrow which melts into tears. As that is not the greatest joy which discovers itself in laughter. That is not the greatest sorrow which works the most violent commotion in the heart. There is a sad, silent, quiet sorrow that sinks deeper, and wets more slowly, and soaks into the heart, and makes the heart more fruitful in the issue. Which arises out of a more spiritual conviction of judgment, of the evil of sin. Though less passion accompanies it, yet a stronger and deeper affection of sorrow is worked. I call it deeper, because it is more constant and lasting, more to the purpose. The one being as a flash flood, the other as a spring.

Put the case that such a violent sorrow should be greater — yet it is not always alike necessary, neither on God's part nor man's.

Not on man's part: as some disease does not need so sharp and quick a medicine as another. As some men's flesh is harder to heal than others', so some men's hearts have more stubbornness in them than others. Some have made themselves children of the devil by their wicked courses, worse than they were at first. Others in comparison are but as the children of Adam — still as they were born. And therefore the same work may be worked in them with much less effort.

On God's part it is not always so necessary, but is proportioned to God's ends. And God differs and is various in his ends concerning men.

He means to bestow a greater measure of grace upon one than upon another. And where he means to set a greater building, there he digs a lower foundation. He means to use some as a means to comfort others, and therefore lets them see and feel more the bitterness of sin, that they may be able to comfort others with the same comfort with which they have been comforted.

He differs in the means to attain his ends. If he means to bring them to the same measure of grace, yet he will not always go the same way to work. As he often does without affliction what he sometimes does with it. As a man is brought to the same haven various ways — some in a calm is tided in, others are driven in with a storm. But it is no matter how they come, so they come in. The promise is made to those that come.

A third consideration is that it is not for lack of this greatness of humiliation that various people do not have so violent a sorrow, but from some circumstance in the work itself, as:

First, because the light of comfort comes in sooner to some than to others. They have the salve immediately after the wound is given. God having broken the heart, binds it up immediately again. A man may have as deep a wound which a mitigated medicine coming near to the bottom of the disease and soon applied may sooner heal than another less deep, to which the remedy is not applied until long after, which therefore takes longer. So also it is in joy — suddenness increases it for a fit. For example: put the case that a man is condemned for high treason and brought to the block, and truly expects death, and his pardon on a sudden comes. There is such a great, sensible change worked in him — and our natures are sensible of great changes — and therefore how excessively does he rejoice! But take one who is guilty of the same fault, who knows that if he does not have his pardon he should lose his life, but has his pardon immediately after the sentence is passed. He will prize his pardon as much as the other, though perhaps he is not so turbulently affected as the other.

It falls out thus by reason of the ignorance some have lived in before, who therefore are enlightened to know their estates all on a sudden. Whereas another has been brought up in knowledge, and the knowledge of his misery being let in by degrees, then the case does also differ. As between two men who were to go through a wood: one is set upon by thieves not suspecting any, and is put into fear of his life and knows not how to escape. But one comes on a sudden and rescues him and gives him his life. But another is warned before, knows he must go through such a passage, and that unless he has a strong guard to go along with him, he shall certainly perish. This man apprehends the danger as great as the other, and the benefit as great, and the love of him who should go with him as great. Only his passion — either of fear or joy — is not so violent as the other's. Though he truly rejoices in the deliverance as much as the other, and thinks himself as much bound to the man who delivered him.

I have spoken these things, because some are scrupulous in the point and think they may not safely apply the promise, because they have not had that measure of sorrow that others have had.

But let no man suffer his assurance to be weakened for lack of this. For a man may have as high an esteem of Christ and be as thoroughly convinced of sin, though he lacks that violent work which God works in some. Even a great sense of his wrath, letting them lie there and then speaks peace. So that as their sorrow was evident, so their joy was evident. In another, he works so that as soon as he sees sin, he sees God also pardoning.

And in those that have that violent flaring of affection in their first humiliation — look how much of it is violent will vanish, and what is substantial will hold. So that even they in the end come to this solid conviction of judgment at last, which only is constant and abides with them. Therefore let not your assurance be weakened for the lack of this, for faith unites to Christ and establishes us in well doing.

But you will say, 'Is it not good to get that sensible stirring sense and sight of sin?'

I answer: yes. For to that end God leads through crosses and suffers you to fall into sins, that you may see the vanity of the creature and the sinfulness of your nature. So that when you come to heaven, you may say by your own experience, 'It was not by my own righteousness that I came here.' Therefore though it is good to get it, yet let God go his own way and use his own manner of working — whether by legal terror or otherwise. What he sees good for you he will do to humble you. But you, use means to understand the law, your own heart and actions. And as you have fallen into new sins, labor to see what a case you would be in if Christ had not delivered you. But let not your assurance be weakened. For you must know there are but two main ends of humiliation, which if they are attained in you, you need not call your estate in question. Now first, it serves to make you willing to match with Christ. We are Christ's spokesmen and woo you every Sabbath day. But we find all the world like those who think themselves beautiful and rich and that they have matches enough — who though they are contented to have Christ for their husband in heaven, yet not on the earth with all those crosses they must take him with.

Now humiliation comes and makes men willing, when a man comes to see and say: 'I have no such thing in me as I imagined, no riches, etc., but I am in debt, and shall be arrested and laid in prison, and my life must go for it, unless Christ will marry me.' In that a man sees he shall be kept from all arrests by him, this makes a man willing to match with Christ — yes, glad, though many crosses follow in this life upon the marriage. Now therefore, if you find this worked in you, so that you can sincerely say, 'I am willing to take Christ and to be subject to him in all things, to follow him in all conditions, to give a full consent to take him, as I find that he in the word has a full consent to take me' — then certainly you are humbled, otherwise not. If you had taken him only in a fit and not out of judgment, you would have repented ere now.

The second end which humiliation serves is for sanctification. As the other helped him in his justification, so this: that every unruly lust may be broken and mortified in you, that you might fear to offend and be pliable to the Lord in everything. Whereas another who is unbroken quarrels with everything, thinks his work too much and his wages too little, and knows not why he should go a contrary way to the world. But a humbled man will do all this cheerfully, like a broken horse that turns at every check of the bridle, when another casts his rider. Do you find that you tremble at the word and fear sin and dare not venture in it, and so for duties — you dare not neglect them? And this you have experience of in the whole course of your life? Then surely this work of humiliation has been in your heart. Though you do not see the fire, yet if you find the heat, it has been there — for these are the effects of it. And as I speak this for the comfort of those that have not felt such violent sorrows, so let me on the contrary say to others who — it may be — have had such fits of sorrow, yet if you find an unwillingness to submit thus to Christ, find your neck stiff to the Lord's yoke, and such an unbrokenness in you that you cannot live without satisfying this or that lust, but can sin and bear it out well enough — let your sorrow have been never so great, now they are past and gone, and they were not right. Let men therefore examine themselves by the effects, for men are deceived on both sides. And then:

The first use is for exhortation to stir up to the duty. This exhortation I direct to two sorts of men: first, to those who are already truly humbled; and secondly, to strangers to it.

First, you that are already humbled and have obtained the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins — you must be humbled more. For if the Lord suspends his promise at this, then the duty is to be done daily. When God requires a duty of sanctification — and his promises are made only to such — there can be no excuse. There may be a hindrance in preparative humiliation; a man may be swallowed up in too much sorrow. But not in this, which is a duty of sanctification. And know this: that all degrees of grace arise from the degrees of this true humiliation. Which I make good to you thus. Faith and love are the great radical graces; all others are but branches springing out of them. Now they are strengthened by this humiliation. And graces, the more they grow, there is an addition still made to them, as there is an addition made to our humiliation.

First for faith. Know that the more strongly a man lays hold on Christ and prizes him, the more he goes on to apprehend his sin and is emptied of himself. Though a man took Christ truly at his first conversion, yet there are degrees of prizing him. When a husband takes a wife, though at their first marriage there was such love between them as they would have chosen each other before any other in the world, yet so as this their love may admit degrees. After marriage, they may see more grounds for loving each other more. So that though the match is made, yet they may be more confirmed in their choice, which may be made more full and absolute. So toward Christ, the will and affections may be wound up to a higher peg, which is done by a further degree of humiliation. What is faith but a laying hold of Christ? Now the emptier the hand is, the firmer hold it takes. And the more we are taken off our own foundation, the further we will cleave to Christ. A man in a river who is likely to be drowned, and has a rope cast to him, will be sure to catch as fast hold as he can — you shall not need to tell him. And to this end it is that Christians are still taught more and more, by the Spirit, to see the vanity of the creature, the vileness of their natures. And they are led through this wilderness to humble them, that so Christ may have the higher place in their hearts.

Again, the greater the thirst is, the greater will a man's draught be. And the more you add to your humiliation, the more will your thirst be after Christ, and you will drink deeper of the fountain of life, and draw more sap from him.

And secondly, it increases your love, for thereby we come to see ourselves more indebted to God, as having a greater debt forgiven us. What made Mary love much, but that she was sensible much was forgiven her? Therefore labor more and more to be humbled — especially as you fall into new sins, which the Lord often lets you do, that you might be humbled more. And the more light a Christian gets to discover his own vileness and the vanity of the creature, the stronger he will grow in grace, and the more established in well doing.

Now secondly, for those that are strangers to this grace of humiliation — that they may come to be humbled — let them observe these two rules. First, labor to see the greatness of sin. Secondly, to see your own weakness and inability to help yourselves. For the first: do not weigh sin by common opinion, but in a right balance. Do not do with your souls as some do with their bodies. When their beauty is decayed, they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses, and from others by painting. So do we for the most part with our sins. We desire to hide them from ourselves by putting false glosses upon them, and from others by feigned excuses. But deal impartially with yourselves here, and labor to see sin in its full vileness. And that you may do so:

First, pitch upon some one great sin and take it into consideration. So Christ, when he would humble Paul, tells him of his persecution: 'Why do you persecute me?' And so Saint Peter, when he would humble the Jews (Acts 2:1), tells them of their crucifying of Christ. So Christ, when he would humble the woman (John 4), reminds her of her adultery. And the method that God takes when he would humble us — it is good for us to take. For as when a man goes to rub a great stain out of a cloth, by the same labor he rubs out others that are lesser. My meaning is not that you should let other sins alone when I exhort you to single out one. But to consider all particulars also, though never so small. The multitudes of them will help to humble you as well as the greatness. When a man sees he has many debts — though but small, of sixpences and shillings — yet being many, the total sum may amount to a great quantity, and make a man see himself bankrupt. Therefore set your sins in order before you, give the due weight to every sin. But yet especially let great sins be in your eye. Now some sins are greater in their own nature, as fornication, swearing, drunkenness, etc. Others are made great by their circumstances, as that they were committed against knowledge, with deliberation. As Saul sparing the Amalekites, and sacrificing before Samuel came, wherein a command to the contrary was distinctly given. So God aggravated to Adam his sin: 'Did I not command you the contrary? and did you not know you should not?' We are not to take sins by number only, but also by weight. As when they were committed contrary to many promises and purposes, and so as hardness of heart follows upon it.

And secondly, withal labor to make sins present, though long since committed. Look on them as if they were newly done. For though our sins be great, yet if we apprehend them and view them at a distance and a great way off, they do not move us. Which is the reason why men are not more affected with the thought of death in their health, which yet is one of the greatest evils, and so apprehended by us when we come to die. The reason is because it is then conceived to be far off, and so men are not moved with it. Thus it is in our apprehension of sins also. The distance makes them seem small. There is not a near conjunction and application of the object and the affection. They are not brought near, but men look upon sins long since past as small. Whereas in truth, sins long since committed are the same in themselves and in the sight of God as they were when first committed, and therefore should be the same to you. So a man who has committed a treason twenty years ago may be executed for it now. Therefore Joseph's brothers remembered their sin as fresh, though long before committed, as if they had then committed it. Their affliction revived it in their consciences and made it present. But we usually look on past sins as none of ours. Job says that the Lord made him 'possess the sins of his youth' — he possessed them, that is, looked on them as his own. What is the reason why, to men in jeopardy — as in a storm at sea and in time of sickness — their sins then appear so terrible and fearful? They apprehend them as present. Now that which God does by affliction, let us labor to get done by meditation, and by faith to look on them as present. Turn that end of the optical glass which will bring them near to you. Labor to have a true judgment of their greatness, and that they are the same. For therein lies true humiliation: when the judgment is rightly convinced to esteem them the greatest evil, though it be not accompanied with so violent and turbulent a sorrow.

When you have made them thus present, do not quickly make an end, but let sorrow abide upon your hearts, for the work is not so soon done. You will get into some rock or other, unless you are continually pursued by the apprehension of your sins, until you come to the city of refuge. Do as David did in Psalm 51 — he set his sin before him. And as Saint Paul, to whom that sin of persecution was ever fresh in his memory and always in his mouth: 'I was a persecutor,' etc. In this case learn something from the devil, who, when he would bring a man to be swallowed up with sorrow, keeps a man's sin still before him and will not let a man rest. Therefore in 2 Corinthians 12 they are called the buffetings of Satan, because he comes often with blow after blow to discourage and amaze a man. Now learn from that practice of his to stay and dwell upon the meditation of your sins, and often to present them to your souls. Your green wood will perhaps not burn without much blowing — it is a frequent and intense pressing of arguments that works on the affections. So here: keep the object near the faculty, and at last it will work. Do not look on your sins by fits; let there be no interruption by worldly joys or pleasures, no intervals. And this is Saint James's counsel: 'Be afflicted, and mourn and weep' (James 4). 'Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness — humble yourselves.' That is, if you will have your hearts humbled, abstain from lawful delights for the time and get alone. So Joel 2 bids them set apart a day that they might have no interruption. And if that will not do it, set apart another. Let not one spark go out before another is struck. Otherwise you will always be beginning and never come to be humbled.

If you would come to lay your sins to heart and be affected with them, be sure you are not kept off by those false reasonings and excuses which hinder men from being humbled and keep their sins from coming in upon them. For instance, when a man comes to consider his sins, he says: 'Am I not in a good estate already? My sins are pardoned, for I have good desires in me and a good meaning — I mean no man any harm.' And thus these things keep him from seeing himself a child of wrath. But consider: you may have all these good things in you, and more than these, and yet be a child of wrath. These will be found to the praise of the Holy Spirit who worked them in you, but not to your advantage to escape condemnation. For though these are in you, yet they have not had their full effect, for they have not overcome the evil that is in you. For despite all these good things, you are still a Sabbath-breaker, a drunkard given to bad company. But in a word: if they overcome not every sin, they are nothing toward saving you. If they had been truly effectual in you, they would have driven out the darkness. All the good things you have do not help toward your salvation, because they do not make you a good man. Yes, all these good things and the good impulses you have had will help forward your condemnation, because you have misused the truth in your heart and have not put fuel to these sparks which God in mercy placed in you. That you should allow such talents as these to lie hidden in a napkin — will he not say you are an unprofitable servant?

A second thing that must be added to the sight of your sins to humble you is to know the misery and vanity that is in yourselves. We see by experience that men will grant that they are great sinners — but what is the reason that, notwithstanding this, they still hold out?

They do not know their own misery and vanity. Though we have preached to men again and again about their misery, yet they are not stirred. But when death comes, then they are humbled — and why? Because then they see what God is and what they themselves are. Death shows them the vanity of the creature. So the way to be humbled is to know how unable a man is to be happy within his own resources. To this end, consider:

First, the greatness of God and his power, and the terrors of the Almighty — that he is that God in whose hands your life and ways and all things rest. Consider that unless you seriously lay your sins to heart, this God is your enemy, and with him you have to do forever.

Consider what a weak creature you are. Think to yourself: a sickness may come upon my body, a loss may come upon my estate, yes, a conviction upon my soul that may drain the marrow from my bones. Above all, I have an immortal soul in a vessel of clay. And think: when that glass, that shell is broken, what will become of that poor soul? This would bring a man to the prodigal's situation. Belshazzar saw this when he saw the handwriting on the wall. Would it not have been wisdom in him to have seen and acknowledged it before? You are well now — you do not know what changes may befall you this year. You had better leave a thousand tasks undone than leave this one undone.

And yet thirdly, none of this will accomplish it except the Spirit of God comes upon you — to humble a man is a mighty work. Though Elijah should preach to you, yes, all the sons of thunder should come, yet without the Spirit they will not be able to humble you. Yes, God himself came down from heaven upon Mount Sinai with great terrors, and yet the people remained unbroken, though they were amazed for a time. When Christ spoke to Saint Paul and struck him from his horse, if he had not had a light within as well as without, he would not have been humbled. Nor the jailer, if there had not been an earthquake in his heart as well as in the earth. Jeroboam had as great a miracle done before him as Saint Paul — you may well think the withering of his hand amazed him, yet it did not make him give up his sin. And what was the reason? There was a miracle in both cases, but not the Spirit. And if we were to work miracles before you day after day, yet unless God sent his Spirit of conviction upon you, you would not be humbled. See also the necessity of the Spirit's help in admonitions. Amaziah was admonished by a prophet just as David was by Nathan, yet he was not humbled. And so we see some are humbled by afflictions, and others are not. Therefore pray that God would send his Spirit to convince you, and also learn not to be offended at us when, in preaching the law, your consciences are troubled. It is the Spirit that troubles you — else our words would not trouble you. Therefore do not be angry at us. And therefore also do not put off this duty of getting your hearts humbled, for you are not able so much as to humble yourself. Therefore take the opportunities of the Spirit when he stirs your heart.

But you will say, 'This rather discourages us from the work, for then we must always wait like mariners until the tide and the gale come, and I may as well sit still — for I may go about it to no purpose, seeing the Lord must do it.'

I answer: if you would go about it and shut yourself in private for a day, and then another, in the end God would send his Spirit. When Christ told them to go and row, though they rowed all night to little purpose, yet Christ came at last and they were on the other side immediately. It may be you will be at it for a month or two before you find the Spirit coming — yet he will come in the end, and then the work will be thoroughly done. For God has made a promise of the Holy Spirit, that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit as with fire — not only for his disciples, but for those who have never yet received it, for it is not only to increase grace but to begin it. Yes, if God has given you a heart to pray and to consider this promise, so that you have taken up a resolution to wait and set yourself to the work — when you have done so, the Spirit is already in your heart, the work is begun, though you do not think so. Never plead that you cannot do it without the Spirit, for I ask you this question: did you ever commit a sin in which you could say, 'I did it against my will'? Was there ever any duty which you intended to do that you could say you could not do? Your heart tells you no.

Therefore set about this duty, which is the main one — and which we have pressed so much, because it is like a nail driven into a wall on which other graces hang. This and faith are the great things which the master builders are occupied with, and indeed the foundation, which above all you must look to. And these exhortations should be like barbed arrows that stick in you and do not come out again, and not like other arrows that only wound.

We have finished with the negative part: that those who do not humble themselves have no share in the promises.

We come now to the positive part, which is for comfort: that if any man does humble himself, God will hear his prayer, his sins shall be forgiven, etc.

The doctrine is this: the Lord will be merciful to the humble.

I had intended to move on sooner, but the Lord's Supper draws near — which time is a day of reconciliation, such as was that feast on the tenth day of the seventh month, when all the people meeting together, Aaron the priest confessed their sins over the scapegoat which was sent into the wilderness, which was a type of Christ taking away all our sins. And the same is done and represented when we receive the Sacrament. Now one condition required of the people at that time was that they should humble themselves, and every soul that did not was to be cut off (Leviticus 23:27-30). And that releasing of the scapegoat was at the same time, as appears from Leviticus 16:20-31.

But to come to the point: the scripture is abundant to prove it. James 4:6 — God gives grace to the humble — sanctifying grace, and also saving knowledge. Psalm 25 — he shows his secrets to the humble. Yes, he dwells in such (Isaiah 57:15), and has a special eye for them. Those eyes that run through the whole earth fix themselves on the humble man for good (Isaiah 66:2): 'Other things my hand has made, yet them I regard not in comparison — to him will I look who is humble.' He also promises to fill them with good things, to give them honor and advancement, to exalt the humble and meek. Yes, he regards humility so much that even when wicked men have humbled themselves, they have not gone away without some mercy. When Ahab humbled himself (2 Chronicles 12), God promised he would not bring the evil in his days. And the best of God's children, when they have not humbled themselves, he has withdrawn his favor from them — as he would not look on David until he had humbled himself. All the world cannot keep a humble man down, nor all the props in the world keep a proud man up.

And what are the reasons why God respects humble men so?

A humble man gives God all the glory, and 'him that honors me,' says God, 'I will honor.' A humble man does as Joab did — Joab would not take the victory for himself, but sent for David. And that was the wisest policy Joab ever used. And so the apostles in Acts 3: 'Know that Jesus has made this man whole.' It is the humble man's wisdom in all actions not to put himself forward, but to say: 'No matter how I am regarded, so long as God is glorified.' And God will honor such. Therefore Christ in his prayer makes this a ground for being glorified by God (John 17): 'I have glorified you on earth — now, Father, glorify me.' And God will deal with his saints in like proportion.

Humility keeps a man within his own proper sphere, but pride lifts a man above his measure, puts everything out of joint and breeds disorder, and that brings destruction. Therefore humility was defined by some of the ancients as that which, out of the knowledge of God and of oneself, keeps a man within his own limits. Whereas a proud man lifts himself above his measure — like a limb in the body that swells and takes up more room than it should, or like bubbles in the water that should be plain and smooth. But humility brings everything back into its place, gives the Creator his due, and sets the creature where it should be. And therefore God loves it.

Humility makes a man sociable and useful and profitable to others. A man would not want a stubborn horse that will not go in the team with his fellows, nor tall trees that overshadow others and will not let them grow, and bring forth no fruit themselves. A man will not keep a cow or an ox that is always pushing at others. And such a one is a proud man. It is only the humble man who will live profitably among his neighbors and will not go beyond his own limits.

A humble man has such a character as the Lord delights in, for he is afraid to offend, always obedient, ready to do any service, and content with any provision. He loves much, is abundant in thankfulness, and holds fast to the Lord — because he has no foundation of his own. He keeps his lusts under control because he knows the bitterness of sin. He surrenders his heart to the Lord to follow him in all things. He is a man of the Lord's desires — as it is said of Daniel when he had humbled himself (Daniel 9). Such a character makes him fit for favor, and when a man is fit for favor, he will surely have it, for God is not stingy with us.

Has the Lord said from heaven that if a man does humble himself he will forgive him? Then this is a matter of great comfort. When I can say from God to anyone here who is downcast: if you do and will humble yourself, the Lord will forgive you — consider it, this is news from heaven.

Consider this (to compare spiritual things with things you are more familiar with): suppose any of you had committed high treason against the king, and had forfeited your life and goods. If someone came from the king to you and told you that if you would go to him and humble yourself it would be pardoned — would not that be great news? And is not our case the same? We are guilty of eternal death and have forfeited life and all. When therefore God himself shall say, 'If you will humble yourself, your sins shall be forgiven' — what comfort is that? Such a word should not be lost. A man who knows the bitterness of sin would wait and wait again to gain such a word from the Lord's mouth, and would keep it as his life. It was no small thing to get such a word from God — none but a favorite could get it, no, none but his Son, and he only by his death. If Christ had not obtained this charter for us, every man would have died in his sins. Now this we can and do say from God through Christ: that though your sins are great, and you have fallen into them many times and committed them in the worst of circumstances, yet if you humble yourself, you shall be forgiven. So you may say: 'I may hold God to his promise and put this bond in suit, and he cannot deny it.' This is a great matter. If a man would seriously consider what it means to have this great God, the Governor of the world, as an enemy — one would think they would find this gospel to be good news.

But you will say: 'I still do not know clearly what it is to humble myself, and neither can I humble myself — there is nothing harder.' Therefore I will explain it to you once more, so that you may know it, and also so that you may not think it harder than it is — by which the devil keeps many away.

You may know what it is by the expressions of those who have humbled themselves. David, having numbered the people, when he humbled himself said: 'Lord, I have sinned and done very foolishly.' Josiah's heart melted before the Lord. And Daniel 9: 'Lord, we have done very wickedly — and shame belongs to us.' He was ashamed. And Job, when he humbled himself, said: 'Lord, I abhor myself in dust and ashes.' And the prodigal: 'I have sinned against heaven and against you, and am no more worthy to be called your son.' And so they are said to be weary and heavy laden. There are many other expressions, but I will sum them all under two heads. To humble oneself is simply to bring one's heart and mind to these two acts.

Out of a sense of one's unworthiness, to say to the Lord: 'O Lord, I have done exceedingly wickedly and am worthy to be destroyed. I have been in the wrong way and done exceedingly foolishly, but your ways are righteous and you are just. Yes, I have dealt unthankfully and unfairly with you, who have been so good to me.' That is what melted the heart of Josiah and made Job abhor himself. As vile as the dust I tread upon, as ashes that are good for nothing — I am ashamed and confounded. This is the first act: a sense and acknowledgment of our own unworthiness and vileness. And the second is a sight of one's deserving to be destroyed, one's inability to help oneself, and the vanity of all things else. A man must further say: 'I am not only unworthy, but guilty of death. My sins will crush my back — I am not able to stand under them, and I am utterly undone. And when I look upon all the supports of my life — my health, my wealth, etc. — I see they are but vain things, reeds and feathers, as hollow ground on which I can find no footing. Therefore, Lord, be a rock to me, on whom I may stand and build.' And that this sight of our own inability is also necessary, we see from 1 Timothy 6:17: 'Charge those who are rich that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches.' These are both joined together, for insofar as a man trusts in riches, he is high-minded. The soul of man trusts in them so long as it perceives substance in them and does not see them as vanity. So far the heart rests upon them and is careless of the Lord. And why else do afflictions humble men — as with Manasseh — but because a man then sees the emptiness of all things? It brings him to say with the prodigal, 'I am dying of hunger, and these things cannot feed me,' and so to hold fast to the Lord. Which a man must necessarily do when he has but one thing to hold on to. Now when you are so moved as to express this sincerely, this is what it means to humble yourself.

We should from this learn to strengthen our faith. If you have done this — if you have thus humbled yourself, confessed your sins, and taken up a full resolution to forsake them — you shall have mercy, according to the promise in Proverbs 28:13: 'He that confesses and forsakes shall have mercy.'

But here we find that those who have humbled themselves come forward with two objections that hinder their comfort.

First, that they cannot mourn for their sins. Second, that they fall into the same sins again and again, and that therefore they have not truly humbled themselves. Now as we would not have the false comforted with false evidence, so neither would we leave the true discomforted. Therefore we will answer these objections. To the first:

If you are so far convinced in your judgment of your sin and misery and inability to help yourself that it has turned the bent and direction of your will — so that you say, 'I will go and humble myself before my Father, change my course, confess and forsake my sins' — then though your affections seem to you unstirred, yet this is enough to bring you into a state of grace. For I ask: to what end is mourning and weeping required, except to awaken a man to come home to God in this manner? When therefore you find these effects in yourself, you may be sure you have the purpose these things serve, and that is enough to save you. Suppose a man carries a deadly disease, and upon discovering and knowing it he is willing to give all he has to the physicians and is careful not to eat anything that will hurt him and increase it. If he knows it is deadly — though he feels no pain (and there are diseases, as you know, in which a man feels little pain and yet they are mortal) — it may make him just as careful to use the means. And so it is here: if the conviction of the sinfulness and deadliness of sin works those dispositions mentioned in you, then you have the purpose that mourning tends toward, and that is the same thing.

Though your affections are not so stirred, consider that the promises are made to one's coming in and taking hold of Christ and believing in him. They are not made to the commotion of the affections. And in these words the promise is made to humbling yourself out of a settled judgment. It does not matter by what means you are brought to take hold on Christ, so long as you come to him. It is all one whether I come to my journey's end by land or by water, on horseback or on foot, so long as I arrive there.

If you find that you are doing the things a humble man should do, then though your affections seem unmoved, yet in very truth they are moved and changed. For instance, if you are afraid to return to your sins and resolved to please God in all things within your power. For what are affections but various positions and directions of the will — the feet it walks upon? They are but the various motions and inclinations by which the will moves toward its objects. Now look at what direction your will is resolved and set — that way your affections are set also. If you see a man rise up early and go to bed late to avoid poverty and gain riches, a wise man will be sure that his aim and heart is set on riches. His actions show that his affections move strongly that way, though he says he feels no such stirring. Therefore, though you find this stillness of affections — yet if you are doing the same things that those who mourn and weep more openly tend to do, you may assure yourself your affections are truly moved.

I add this: it is no defect if your affections are not so sensibly stirred and yet your humiliation is sound. For it is the nature of the affections to move toward their objects quietly and to run along as water and wind do. If they meet with no obstacle, they run quietly; if they meet with trees, then the wind rises. And if the tide meets with the wind, then the waves rise. So if our affections are crossed, we are sure to hear from them. If you had not some hopeful assurance of your estate, you would hear of mourning and drooping. It may be that the work of grace in you has always gone on evenly — the stream has run calmly and quietly. But such people do find that upon some sudden events or divine impressions, when the Lord is pleased to make an impression upon them, then they hear from their stirring affections.

But to conclude all: know and settle it in your mind that the flowing and ebbing of your affections is not what your salvation depends upon, but rather a solid conviction of judgment which turns the will and makes you hold fast to Christ.

As for the objection that you fall into the same sins again and again — I answer: you may fall again and again, even into great sins, for which you have been soundly humbled. Why should we say more than Scripture does? Only take this caution: that you find a constant war against those sins — as Israel with the Amalekites — so as never to yield. Look upon your sins as your greatest enemy, never to be reconciled with, though you are defeated again and again. For what is true humiliation but to reckon sin the greatest misery? And indeed, if a man reckons anything else as greater — loss of wealth, for instance — then he would rather fall into sin than lose his wealth. This is where falseness of heart arises. But humiliation makes a man reckon sin such an evil that he would rather suffer anything than make a truce with it. The general ordinary power of grace in a man's ordinary course is not seen in keeping men from all relapses, but in setting sin and the heart at odds — as health and sickness are at odds. While a man is living, he cannot make friends with any disease — nature will resist it. It sets them at variance as the wolf and the lamb, as spring water and mud. Living waters will cleanse themselves, though the mud rises a thousand times. As the wolf reckons the lamb its greatest enemy by natural instinct, so if you reckon sin the most destructive thing in the world, it is because humiliation has made that impression on your heart — which God has set there as a brand in the flesh that will never come out. Then you will fight against every sin and never be reconciled to it, as the lamb is never reconciled to the wolf, because nature has planted that enmity there. If you find this to be the constant disposition of your mind, keep your assurance strong, though many weaknesses are discovered in you. It is entirely a fault among you to weaken your assurance by your daily failings and slippings. Satan labors at this above all else, for when your assurance and hope is gone you walk unevenly — like a ship that has lost its anchor or is without a rudder. You may sometimes feel a hardness in yourself, and yet if this is the constant disposition of your mind — do not weaken your assurance. Say: 'Though I find my heart hard and careless, irritable and angry often, whereas I should be meek and humble — yet I will not call the main thing into question. I will go and renew my humiliation, which will strengthen my assurance.' Hold that firm, however, for it draws a man into closer communion with God, further from sin, establishes him in well-doing, and makes him abound in the work of the Lord.

Learn from this also that it is not enough for a man only to be patient in afflictions — he must also humble himself under them. We must not only bear the cross, but willingly and cheerfully acknowledge God's justice in it and our own sin. For to be humbled is a further thing than to be patient. As in 2 Chronicles 12:6, when the people were left in the hand of Shishak, it is said that the princes of Israel humbled themselves and said, 'The Lord is righteous.' Being humbled is expressed by acknowledging God to be righteous, which is more than being patient. God looks for this in all afflictions, therefore he says in 1 Peter 5:6: 'Humble yourselves' — and not only be patient — 'under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.' Many a man in affliction may say he will be patient, but that is not enough. He must humble himself, which is more than patience. For patience is only to bear it contentedly, but a man must go to God and say: 'Lord, I confess I am sinful and have deserved more than this punishment. I wonder not at your judgment but at your long-suffering rather, that it is no worse with me, the least of saints and the greatest of sinners.' So we see it was with Naomi in Ruth 1:20-21: 'Do not call me by an honorable name, not Naomi, but Mara. I went out full, but I have come home empty, and the Lord has afflicted me. And seeing he has afflicted me, I will carry my sail accordingly.' This is truly to humble oneself. And so did David when he fled before Absalom: 'Let the Lord do with me what seems good in his eyes' (2 Samuel 15:26). And so said Eli: 'In all this the Lord is good' — that is, the Lord is just in all this, and I and my sons deserve it, and more. Thus when a man thinks it reasonable that God should punish him, he blesses God that the cross is no greater, without complaining or grumbling. If the Lord leads you through a variety of conditions, say with Paul: 'I know how to go without, and how to abound, and how to go through ill report as well as good report. And I am not only content but cheerful in all this — and would be so even if it were far worse.'

If the Lord has said he will be merciful to the humble, then let us humble ourselves more and more and get our hearts lower and lower. Since such mighty and large promises belong to the humble, know that as the Lord suspends his promises on this condition, so they shall be fulfilled upon the performance of it. And as we do this more or less, so shall the promises be fulfilled to us more or less. Therefore let us do this more and more. For if we humble ourselves, the Lord will fill our hearts with good things. When he sees a man taking a low place, he will say, 'Sit higher.' All the world cannot hold down a humble man, because the Lord sets his hand to raise him up. Neither can anyone keep up a proud man, because the Lord sets himself to depress and bring down the proud. When a wall swells, it is not likely to stand long. When a joint is displaced and swollen, until the swelling goes down it cannot be healed and set. As Mary the blessed Virgin said in Luke 1:48: 'He has regarded the lowly estate of his handmaid.' So he dealt with Naomi — he was long in humbling her, and then raised her up. So with Job: when he was humbled, then God doubled his estate. Thus God deals with the humble constantly. He never does any great thing for any man until he has first humbled him. How much was Joseph humbled before God made that promise to him that the sun, moon, and stars would bow to him — that is, his father and mother and brothers would obey him. And yet again, before God made good those promises, what lengths he went to in humbling him further — which doubtless made him prize those mercies all the more, and made him more thankful to God for them. So also in his glorious appearances to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — he would still beforehand humble them and make them low by some affliction or other before he would make any gracious promises to them. When Jacob was fleeing from the face of his brother and was in great straits, thus made low in his own eyes — then did God first appear to him. When a man is humbled, it is next door to advancement one way or another. Therefore it should be our wisdom to humble ourselves more and more, since there is so much benefit to be gained by it. Proverbs 22:4: 'By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life.' The rule holds constant; the Lord makes it good. Let a man be humble and fear God too — that is, allow himself no sin — and the Lord will make it good one way or another, in his time.

But you will say: 'We see the contrary — proud men are advanced and humble men are brought down. Proud men have riches while the humble man is poor. And as we say, where the hedge is lowest, all the animals go over and trample it down. Every man will be ready to trample upon the humble man.'

I answer first: the Lord gives outward showy things to proud men, but he gives his jewels to those who are humble. He reveals his secrets to them. These are princes, though they walk on foot, and the others are servants, though they ride on horseback.

But this is not all my answer. Secondly I say: that even for the things of this life, the Lord does exalt the humble and bring down the proud. Only with this caution: he does both in due season, when things are brought to maturity. As the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 5:6: 'Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.' God does not do it suddenly. When the proud are ripe like grain, then he puts in the sickle, cuts them down, and casts them into the fire. The wall that has swollen must have time to crumble and fall. And so on the other side, there is a due time for the exaltation of the humble. Therefore if you say, 'I have humbled myself and have not been healed, I have not been freed from such a temptation for all my humiliation' — then assure yourself you are not humbled enough. Go and bring your heart lower, and then be confident that this rule will hold. The Lord will take off the sharp dressing as soon as it has done its work. As soon as your heart is truly humbled, the Lord will help you — he will either remove the cross or give you something equivalent. And thus the Lord has always done. So he dealt with Joseph. You may think, and Joseph may have thought, it was long before he was exalted. But that time was not too long, for as soon as the Lord had truly humbled him, he immediately exalted him. As you may see in Psalm 105:18-20: 'His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron, until the time that his word came; the word of the Lord tested him. Then the king sent and released him.' And so he dealt with Job. All the time that his friends reasoned with him, his heart would not be brought down. But the Lord himself had to come and reason with him, and then Job began to abhor himself in dust and ashes. And how soon after was he restored, with all he had lost given back double? This being God's constant course — if you humble yourself and yet lie long under a calamity, you may assure yourself there is something still wanting in your heart. Therefore be content with God's dealing. In 2 Corinthians 12, lest Paul should be exalted, there was given him a thorn in the flesh. If Paul needed humility, who does not? Remember this rule: if God's people humble themselves, he will certainly help them — only it will be in due season.

But you will say: 'How shall we get down our stubborn hearts? Pride is very natural and the hardest thing in the world to overcome.'

Let every man consider whether he has been released from the plague of his heart — whether there is not some calamity that hangs continually on him. If there is, then know you are not humbled enough. (The meaning is not that you should be brought to a sense and fear of hell, but that your heart is to be brought lower. You may be truly humbled so as to be within the covenant, and yet not enough to have your heart brought to the particular frame God would bring it to.) And to bring your hearts lower, use these means.

First, consider your hearts often — consider what unruly desires you find hidden there. Make it your daily custom to search into this. We do not go a day's journey in this life without something being discovered in our hearts that may serve to humble us further. As it was with the Israelites in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2): 'You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you, and to know what was in your heart.' There is not a single day in which a godly and wise man may not discern something in his heart that is a matter of humiliation to him, which he had not seen before. Vainglorious words, unlawful silence, cowardice in good causes, worldly-mindedness, unruly desires that will keep stirring. And something will also be discovered in your outward actions. When you see such sparks ascending, remember to look to the fire — the furnace within. These are but the buds; there is a deep root of bitterness within. These are but the overflow; consider there is a spring within. Search into all the corners of the house for this sour leaven. So the first means is studying ourselves, for the way to humble oneself is to know oneself.

And secondly, as you must study yourselves, so you must study the Scriptures. That is, you must consider the strictness, the holiness, etc. that is required of you in them. Lay that alongside your hearts, apply this level and square to your ways, and it will reveal their crookedness. Dress yourselves by this mirror every morning, for it will show you the smallest spots. And this will greatly humble us. For this is a sure rule: degrees of humiliation follow degrees of illumination. As a Christian is enlightened more, so he is humbled more. Hence the one who is most conversant in Scripture is most humbled.

And thirdly, you must not only seek to increase your understanding, but also look to your hearts and ways — keeping yourselves upright and constant in a holy course and all holy duties. And this will be a means to increase your humiliation. Many people abstain from holy courses and duties because they say, 'We are not humbled enough.' It is true that we must begin with humility. Yet you must know that setting yourselves to a holy course is in itself a notable means to increase humiliation. For your watchfulness will increase tenderness, and tenderness will increase your humiliation. Men that are bold in sinning have their hearts grow hard, and so on the other side, when men are afraid to offend, their hearts grow tender.

But yet add to this diligence in your callings. For as the wise man says: 'The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than ten men who can give a reason' — that is, he is self-conceited and proud. A sluggard who has nothing to do looks abroad at other men's affairs and does not look to his own ways and his own heart, which would be a means to humble him. Therefore diligence is a great means to humble and bring down our hearts, because idleness is a means to lift them up.

And further, it is profitable to remember times and sins that are past. A man will be ready to say, 'I hope I am changed now — what I have been I care nothing about.' But the Lord, to humble David, told him what he had been: 'I took you from the sheepfold.' And to the Jews: 'Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite, and I saw you in your blood.'

Be careful to distinguish wisely between grace in you and what you are in yourself, and that will be a means to humble you. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:11: 'Not I, but the grace of God in me.' Suppose the Lord has graced you with many graces and gifts above others — you must not exalt yourself above others. We must look upon ourselves as in ourselves the same men still. Can the wall say it has brought forth the beams that the sun has cast upon it? The wall is the same. So if God has shined upon you and left others in darkness, are you any better in yourself? Shall the pen boast because it has written a fine letter? Who made it? Who put ink in it and guided it? The glory belongs not to the pen but to the writer. What if God has used you in some great work and not others? The praise is his, not yours. We do not praise the trumpet, but the one who sounds it. Paul was a better instrument than ten thousand others, and yet he says, 'I am nothing.' Smoke — a dusky and obscure vapor — climbs up into the light, as if it were better than pure air. Many exalt themselves above their brothers for gifts and outward things that are but trappings and do not make the real difference between man and man. As if a man were taller because he stands on a hill, or had a better body because he had a better suit on — you are the same man still. We are not to be proud, not even of any graces, much less of outward things.

Lastly, if the Lord is thus merciful to the humble, then take care not to apply those promises to yourself without cause, when you are not humbled.

But you will say, 'I am humbled.'

It is well if it is so. But consider: has your humiliation brought you home? Perhaps it has brought you out of Egypt, but has it brought you into Canaan? Has it driven you to the city of refuge? To the horns of the altar? To your Father's house? The prodigal changed many places before he came home in earnest. Many came out of Egypt who never came into Canaan, but died in the wilderness. The meteors have enough material in themselves to carry them above the earth, but not enough to unite them to the element of fire — therefore they fall and return to their first state. Are you watchful over all your ways — afraid to offend, looking to every step you set your foot, how you hear, how you pray, how every work is done, every word spoken, every hour spent? For this is certain: if a man is humbled, it will dry up the fountain of sin, it will heal his bloody flux, and make him careful in all his ways and afraid to sin. Thus much for this first condition.

'If my people that are called by my name do humble themselves, and seek my face.'

We are now come to the next condition: 'If my people seek my face.' Here we may observe this point:

That except a man seeks God's face, all his labor is lost in his humiliation and prayers, and whatever else he does.

This is put in among the other conditions, and therefore without this the promise is not made to us.

For the unfolding of this point, we must first inquire:

What it is to seek God's face.

It is to seek the Lord himself, for in Scripture his face is often used for his person. So the word is used in Exodus 20:2, in the first commandment: 'You shall have no other gods before my face' — that is, before me. So then the meaning is: we must seek the Lord himself. Many, when they are in distress, will seek the Lord for deliverance. In time of famine, they will seek him for grain and wine and oil, as the people in the prophet. But they do not seek the Lord himself, nor communion and reconciliation with him. They seek what he can do for them, but not his person, not himself. So those in Hosea 7:14: 'You have not cried to me,' says God, 'when you howled on your beds. You gather together for grain and wine, and rebel against me.'

They wanted grain and wine, etc., and sought them at God's hands — but not me, the Lord whom you had lost. You may seek salvation and deliverance from hell out of natural wisdom, because it is for your own good. And also, being convinced of the necessity of faith and repentance to escape hell and obtain salvation, men may thereupon go far in the performance of many duties, and be consistent for a time in them, and yet not seek the Lord's face in all these. And then the Lord does not regard them. Take a thief arraigned before the court — he will cry earnestly for his life, but he does not seek the face of the judge. That is, he does it without love to the judge, but only out of love for his own life. So we may do much to escape hell and attain the life opposite to it, and yet all this while not seek the presence of God. And then God regards it not. You find this disposition in yourselves and see it in others. If a man is ever so attentive to any of you and performs ever so many offices of friendship, yet if he can say he does not truly love you, nor value you for your own sake but for his own ends — in that case you care nothing for what he does. So the Lord — he knows the heart and the mind, and what your end is: whether it is communion with his person directly, or merely your own welfare. And if the latter, he regards not your humbling yourself nor your prayers. The promise, you see, is suspended on this. It is a distinguishing point and will separate between the precious and the worthless. To seek God's face is a mark set upon God's people alone.

We will therefore further and more particularly consider what it is to seek God's face or presence. And there are three ways to find it out.

First, by what is here joined with it: 'If they humble themselves, and seek my face.' By considering the connection these two have together, we can find out what seeking God's face is. Now there is a twofold humiliation worked in men:

The one is sorrow over the bitterness and punishment that sin brings with it, and this never brings forth either faithful prayers or seeking God's face.

But there is another kind of humiliation that has a further ingredient in it, and that is the sight of the filthiness of sin. When God opens a crack of light so that a man looks upon sin not only as that which brings bitterness with it, but as that which in itself is most filthy and abominable — and by that light it becomes such in his estimation. For it is one thing to flee from the sting of the serpent, and another to hate the serpent itself. To beware of the wolf because of his cruelty, and to hate the wolf itself, are different things. Other creatures may hate the properties of a wolf, but a lamb alone hates the wolf itself. Now with this latter kind of humiliation there goes and is joined an enlightening, whereby God shows a man his own glorious face. The radiance of it helps him further to see the filthiness of sin. God, by the same light of the Spirit by which he shows a man the ugliness of sin, also reveals his own excellencies. This makes the sinner thus humbled seek his face, to seek grace as well as mercy. But other men either do not see God's face at all, or only see his angry countenance. Only those whom the Lord calls effectually see his gracious face. Now he to whom it is hidden and who does not see it does not seek God's face — for none can seek it unless they have seen it. And he who sees it only as angry flees from God. But God reveals himself to the truly humble. The secrets of the Lord are with such (Psalm 25), and so in John 15:15: 'I call you no longer servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.' He reveals himself to those who are already his friends, or to those he is about to make his friends. One of the first things he does is to reveal his face to them. With men, people are first made friends and then secrets are revealed. But contrarily with God — he reveals his secrets and his face to us, so that we may be made friends with him. Then we grow into further acquaintance with him. These are therefore called the secrets of the Lord, because they are only revealed to the saints. Servants see what is done in the house, but there are many things their masters do not reveal to them. And so many come to the house of God and hear what is spoken of God and Christ, yet there are certain secrets hidden from them that are told only to the children, the sons and daughters of God. The others hear as much and see as much outwardly as God's children do, yet the inner secrets are hidden from them, and among others, God's face — and the excellencies of it are hidden from them. This he reveals, as his other secrets, only to those that fear him, and this revealing is a special work of the Spirit. If a man would see the sun, all the stars in heaven and torches on earth could not help him to see it. Unless the sun itself shines and rises, and a light comes from the sun itself, you cannot come to see it. So all the angels of heaven and the intellects of men on earth cannot show you God's face unless he opens the clouds and reveals himself by his own Spirit. It will not be done otherwise. This is therefore called the Spirit of Revelation in Ephesians 1:17, by which God reveals his secrets to his children when he begins to call them effectually. They see him and none else. We make known the doctrines about God and Christ equally to all, but the Lord makes the difference by revealing himself to one and not to another. What is said especially of the Jews in 2 Corinthians 3:15-16 is in like manner applicable to all of us. The Lord's face shines, as Moses's face did, and he gives the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ in the ministry of the word every day. But there is a veil that lies upon all men's hearts — upon all but those whom the Lord calls, and upon theirs also until he calls them, as upon the hearts of the Jews. Nevertheless, when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And until then, God's face cannot be seen, as Moses's face was not. And who shall take away that veil? The Spirit of the Lord. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (verse 17). And when he does free us from that veil, then we behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror with unveiled face (verse 18) — that is, we see the loveliness of his face, the blessedness of communion with him. And when the light breaks through the clouds thus, and the Lord gives a glimpse of himself, then they see him and never stop seeking his face more and more until they have found him. And because that other sort I spoke of — if they see him, they yet see only an angry face — that makes men flee from the Lord. As we see in distress and at death: many will do anything rather than go to God. They tremble at his presence and in no way desire it, as Adam did not but fled from it. And thus all would do, if no word were revealed. Therefore the Spirit of Revelation takes away the veil and breaks the clouds, that his own elect may have a glimpse of his face. And the Spirit of adoption, who is sent down into their hearts, shows God as merciful, full of kindness and love. They see not only his face, but his face shining with all gracious willingness to receive them. He presents God as a loving Father ready to welcome them, graciously to forgive and receive them. They see God's face — both his excellence and beauty, and also his love and graciousness toward them. And this makes them seek his presence and reconciliation with him, and never to be at rest without it. As Moses said: 'Lord, we will not stir a foot without your presence' (Exodus 34:18). A true suitor cares for nothing but the love and presence of the one sought. So they desire nothing, can be content with nothing, but the presence of God, communion with God, the light of his countenance.

The second thing by which I express what it is to seek God's face is to seek the Lord alone — apart from punishments and rewards — in his own person, as considered in himself, in his attributes, in his holiness and purity. So as not to seek the things he brings with him, but to seek himself and the things that are in him.

But you will say, 'This is very hard — to set aside all regard for rewards and punishments.'

It is an error to think that you may not make use of rewards and punishments, for:

First, punishments and the threatenings of the Lord are the true object of fear, and a faculty and habit may lawfully be exercised about its proper object. And so rewards are the subject of desire and may lawfully be sought after and desired.

The Lord himself in Scripture uses these motives — of judgments on the one side and rewards on the other. And therefore we may make use of them for our own hearts, for to that end God has set them forth.

Therefore I will set down two conclusions to clarify this for you, as to what use may be made of rewards and threatenings.

Conclusion 1: the proposing of and the attention to rewards and punishments is a good beginning to draw us on to seek the Lord's face — they are a good introduction. A man who has not yet seen God's face may be caused by the fear of hell to reflect on his own heart and ways and to feel the evil of them. And so the happiness of heaven may draw him on. But all this while he is only beginning. A woman who is considering whether she should marry a certain man begins by considering what she will be without him and what she will have with him. She considers him perhaps as one who will pay all her debts and make her honorable, etc. And yet perhaps she has not yet considered the man himself all this while. Yet these considerations are good preparations to draw her on to give him a hearing. But after conversation and acquaintance with the person himself, she likes the person so well that she is content to have him even if she should have nothing else with him. And so she gives her full and free consent to him, and the match comes to be made out of true and sincere love and liking. So it is here: men begin at first by considering their own misery most. If they should apply themselves to other things as remedies, they would still be wanting — for there is vanity in all things. And if they turn to themselves, they find they cannot help themselves in trouble. Therefore they judge they must go to the mighty God, who is able to do more than all, to deliver them from misery. And they consider that in going to him they shall have heaven besides. And yet all this while they do not consider the Lord's person. Yet this consideration makes way for God and us to meet and speak together. It brings our hearts to give way so that the Lord may come to us (for before this, as it were, we are not to be spoken with). It causes us to attend to him, to look upon him, to converse with him, to welcome him as a suitor, and to become acquainted with him. And while we are thus conversing with him, God reveals himself. Then, coming to know him in himself by that special light spoken of before, we love him for himself. Then we are willing to seek his presence, to seek him as our Lord, though all other things were removed. And now the match is made — and not until now. Then we look upon him in such a way that if all those other advantages were taken away, we would still love him and not leave him for all the world. So if we should imagine he would give us ever so much, yet if he were to withdraw his face, we could not rest. Before, if a man could only be assured he would not go to hell and would have his earthly comforts — that would be enough for him. But now it is not so. Now if God's countenance is but clouded, if any breach is between a man and God, he cannot rest until it is made up and he sees his face again.

Yet still, after the match is made, there is a second use of punishments and rewards. They are useful not only to bring us in but also to confirm us in our choice. They serve both as an introduction and as a help, once we have come in, to confirm us in our choice. As when a woman is married: she has this husband, lives in a well-furnished house, and has many comforts. She enjoys not only her husband's person but many additional blessings. So it is with us: though the Lord alone is sufficient reward — so that if we had nothing else we would never go back on our choice — yet having many good things with him helps us in our love to him and confirms us in our choice. These are then good additions, but not good principles and foundations. They encourage us much when added, and prompt us to seek the Lord for himself as the principal thing. So then, as zeros added to figures help to make the number greater, though if they stand alone they are nothing — so these. And though they are not good leaders, yet they are good followers. They are like a good wind that fills the sails and sets the ship forward with greater speed when the rudder is already set right to steer toward God alone.

The third thing by which I explain what is meant by seeking God's face is to seek the Lord's presence in opposition to self — when a man does it with denial of himself, not serving his own ends in seeking the Lord, but giving himself up to the Lord alone. In all things an unregenerate man does not know the Lord, is not acquainted with him, and therefore will not prefer the Lord to himself. But a regenerate man who knows him reckons all things — life, liberty, riches, etc. — as rubbish and dung, so that he may enjoy the Lord. He has set up the Lord as his God in his heart and does not desire to stand on his own foundation. Therefore when the Lord comes into competition with himself, and the matter is between God and his own credit, etc., he is willing to deny himself.

But here the great objection is: how is it possible for a man not to seek his own happiness, safety, and advantage?

This troubles many and makes them think their sincerity is but hypocrisy, and may put a scruple even into the best. I will therefore clarify this for those whose hearts are upright, as well as to exclude those whose hearts are not sound.

The answer rests on these two points.

First, it is true that a man may seek and love himself and desire his own happiness — yes, and all his actions may take their rise from this. So as to be moved in seeking the Lord and in doing what he does with a regard for his own good and safety. And that this is so, take these reasons:

Because God has commanded it, for he bids us love our neighbor as ourselves — where it is taken for granted that we must love ourselves, because loving ourselves is made the primary measure, the rule for loving our neighbor. Now to love oneself — what is it but to seek one's own good?

A man is commanded not to kill himself or hurt himself, and by the rule of contraries he is thereby commanded to seek the preservation of himself and his own good. For as when we expound the commandment 'You shall not kill' — say, of your neighbor — we say it includes the positive command, 'You shall seek the good of your neighbor.' So when we expound it of ourselves, we are to understand it as not only forbidding us to destroy ourselves, but as commanding us to preserve ourselves and seek our own safety.

It is impossible for the creature not to will its own happiness. The Lord does not command what is simply impossible even to pure nature. It is the nature of everything that has appetite to desire what is good for itself.

Self-love is a plant of God's own planting and therefore not to be uprooted. God put it into us all, for it is the nature of everything to do so, and the work of nature is the work of the author of nature.

Many motives which Scripture uses are taken from self-love — as Christ's words: 'Fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell.' And so when it promises us a kingdom. Scripture deals with men by working on this principle and by arguments drawn from our own interest. This is the handle which the Holy Spirit takes hold of and by which he leads a man into the ways of peace. We must not remove this handle.

The second part of the answer is that notwithstanding, we may and ought to seek the Lord in opposition to ourselves — that is, when God and ourselves come into competition. When the commandment comes into opposition with ourselves, the situation being such that if we obey God we hurt ourselves — then we must prefer God and his commandments to ourselves.

But you will ask: how can this stand with the former — that a man should make his own good the basis of his actions, and yet in his actions oppose himself?

When once a man is persuaded that even to deny himself is the best way to provide for himself, and that to let himself go, and his credit and life, and give up all to God, is what will put him into a better condition — when a man is persuaded of this, then you see both can stand together. And we never exhort a man to seek God in opposition to himself except when it is best for him to do so. Not to give himself up to anything that would be an immediate hurt to him, but when otherwise it would be worse for him, and when letting himself go is the nearest way to happiness. Then a man may be exhorted to it, when he is persuaded that his good is contained in God more than in himself. As we say the being of an accident is more in the substance than in itself — so that to remove the substance is to destroy it. So it is with the creature, which has no foundation in itself, so that separation from God is its destruction. As on the contrary, keeping close to God — even in a case that seems like ruin — is its happiness and perfection. As for example: when Abraham was to sacrifice his son, he thought he would not lose by it, nor Isaac either. He thought to himself: 'God has commanded me to do it, and I have never yet lost anything by keeping any commandment he gave me. God is able to raise him up again. I have never yet been a loser by him. And on the contrary, I shall certainly be a loser — and my son also — if I do it not.' It is indeed impossible that a man should act thus if he believed he would simply lose by it. But when he considers that though he is denied at present, yet he believes it will be for his good — and so it will be indeed. Take a beam of the sun: the way to preserve it is not to keep it by itself, for its being depends upon the sun. Take the sun away and it perishes forever. But though it may be obscured and cut off for a while, yet because the sun remains, when the sun shines forth again it will be renewed. Such is the creature compared with God. If you would preserve the creature in itself, it is impossible for it to stand — like a glass without a bottom, it must fall and break. When therefore this is considered by a man, then he will say: 'I will be content to deny myself and seek the Lord when myself comes into competition with any commandment of his.' And let this not seem strange to you: that the best way to make oneself happy is to yield oneself up fully to glorify God. We see it in common experience: take a grain of wheat that has fallen into the ground — if it remains whole, it perishes. But if it dies, it brings forth a hundredfold. In 1 Corinthians 15:36, the apostle says: 'What you sow is not made alive unless it dies.' He speaks there of the resurrection, but we may truly apply it to the resurrection of a sinner here: that unless a man dies — that is, is willing to let go of all he has and expose himself to whatever the Lord puts upon him — he perishes indeed. But if he dies, then he is made alive and shall be a gainer by it. Even in this life he shall receive a hundredfold. And when this is thoroughly considered by a man, he will easily seek God's face with neglect of himself. And that whenever a man suffers anything for a good conscience in obedience to God, it is the best way to provide for himself — this is not a mere notion, as may appear by comparing these passages together. First, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' and 'You shall love God above all, even above yourself.' And with that also Deuteronomy 10:13-14: 'You shall keep the commandments of the Lord which I command you for your good.' Now put both together: this is God's commandment, to love God above yourself, and all the commandments are given for your wealth and your good — therefore this one among the rest. Therefore denying ourselves when God and ourselves come into competition is the best way to provide for ourselves. Therefore set it down as a conclusion: to have God alone and to seek his face thus is your happiness. The end of everything is the perfection of it. Now God is the end of the creature, and therefore to obtain him is to obtain your perfection and happiness. Again, we have all from him as the branch has all from the root. Therefore as the way for the branch to keep life in itself is to keep close to the root — when it is broken off it dies — so we, so long as we hold to and seek the Lord, are preserved. This was the foundation that all the saints went on in their sufferings, both in persecution and death. This was the case of Moses and Paul when the one wished himself removed from the book of life and Paul wished himself accursed from Christ. That is: said Paul, 'If this be for God's glory and the good of his church, let me perish.' In which, though they seemed to imply their immediate destruction, yet they knew what was ultimately best for themselves.

And this is all the difference between a carnal man and one to whom God has revealed himself. They both agree in this: they both love themselves and seek their own happiness. But they differ in this: they seek it in different ways. The one seeks it in the Lord, but a carnal man seeks it in himself and the creatures. A godly man is so persuaded of God that he seeks him and cares not what he loses to gain him. But another man, when told of an invisible God, will not trust to things unseen. The things he sees he will rest upon, and so seeks a happiness within his own reach. Therefore when himself comes into competition with the Lord, he lets the Lord go.

But then another question comes to be answered: how these two should also stand together — to seek the preservation of oneself, and yet to expose oneself to destruction, as Moses and Saint Paul did.

For answer, you must know that in every regenerate man there are two selves.

That common nature which is in every man — in which the principle of self-love is rooted — has two tendencies: one toward the Spirit, which leads toward God, and the other toward the flesh. And these two in this common nature make two distinct selves. By the first a man is carried to seek the Lord; by the other to seek himself immediately and first. And these two are reckoned as two distinct selves in Scripture and so expressed to us. First, the flesh and corruption is called a man's self: in 2 Corinthians 4:5, 'We preach not ourselves but Christ' — that is, not for our own glory, which he calls himself, because men tend to identify with it. So in 2 Corinthians 12:2-5: 'I knew a man in Christ caught up into the third heaven — of such a one I will glory, but of myself I will not glory.' By 'self' he means the corruption that was in him. But there was something else in him that he reckons as another man from this self — 'a man in Christ.' 'Of such a man I will rejoice' — that is, of my regenerate part, which is a new creature in Christ. 'But not of myself' — that is, my flesh and corruptions I will not rejoice in, nor of the regenerate self either as of itself, but as it is in Christ, which is a further expression. And this corruption is called a man's self because it is spread over the whole man, as form through matter, and a man will defend it and fight against anything that opposes it as if it were himself.

And secondly, that the other regenerate part is called a man's self, which a godly man reckons as more truly his self than the other. We have an express passage for it in Romans 7: 'It is not I, but sin that dwells in me' — that is, not the regenerate part which I count as my true self, but sin, which I account as a lodger, dwelling within my roof. Yet it is called a man's self for the like reason as before, because spread over the whole man. And now it is easy to conceive how seeking to preserve oneself may stand together with exposing oneself to destruction, and how a man may seek the Lord in opposition to himself.

In what the flesh desires, a man is bound not to seek himself — that is, not that self. But yet he may seek the good of his other self and seek the Lord too, for God's will and that regenerate self are one. He may be said to seek God's face alone, though he seeks the desire of that self, for there is no difference, no opposition between them. And likewise, that regenerate self may seek God in opposition to the other self — that is, in what it desires when it desires amiss (for all those desires that are amiss come from that fleshly self). So we must not desire what our fleshly self would desire, but destroy it and its desires, and seek the Lord in opposition to it. This tends to the preservation of our regenerate self, and so proves in the end.

So then, to seek God's face contains these three things in it:

First, to have his face revealed to you and to see him as a Father.

To seek him apart from punishments and rewards.

To seek him alone in opposition to yourself.

And that all this ought to be done, we will give one reason and then come to the applications.

And that reason is drawn from the holiness of the Lord. In Isaiah 6:3: 'One angel cried to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' This was the proclamation of the angels on this occasion: the Lord sends Isaiah the prophet to pronounce a great judgment upon his people — the rejection of the Jews — and at the same time the angels are sent to proclaim God's holiness. Now holiness is the appropriation of a thing to the Lord's use and a separation of it from common use. And so the holiness of God himself (which is the rule of all other holiness) is an appropriation of his actions to himself as his end. He is said to be holy when he does things for himself. Therefore, being about to do so great a work peculiarly for himself and his glory — even to destroy his own people and overthrow kingdoms for his own highest ends and glory — he lets them know this as the only reason: because he is holy. For if he should not regard himself, he would not be holy. So Romans 11:33 to the end: the apostle, having spoken of this rejection prophesied by Isaiah, concludes: 'His judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out. Of him and through him and to him are all things, and to him be glory forever.' As if he should say: 'God has done all this, but I do not know the full reason, nor does anyone else. Only God is for himself, for being from no cause but himself, he may do all for himself. If he were from another, he might do all for another. Yes, otherwise he would not be holy.' Now if this is God's holiness, then the holiness of man is to do all for God. Which he is therefore to do because he is from another cause above himself, and therefore is to seek another end above himself — namely, the Lord. Then he is said to be holy when he has no eye to himself but to God: when in his recreations, his use of riches, and in his whole course he has his eye and aim at God and not at himself.

The nature of holiness is expressed in two things: first, in purity; second, in separation to God. So holiness, purity, and chastity are much alike. Chastity in a wife consists in keeping close to her husband and being separated from all others. And God's holiness consists first in the purity of his nature and second in a separation of all things to himself. Now our holiness is not so, but we being from another cause, we must do all for another end. Our holiness therefore consists in giving ourselves up to the Lord. Therefore says Isaiah: 'Sanctify the Lord and make him your dread' — as if he had said, if you make anything else your dread, you do not sanctify the Lord. What he says of fear is true of all our affections and actions. Holiness dedicates all to the Lord. Some actions are holy by their very nature — as prayer, keeping the Lord's day, and all such immediate duties of worship. Some become holy by having a right end put upon them, and so all actions of whatever kind may be holy — even recreations, which are common actions, and eating and drinking. All of these, when done to the Lord, become holy. It is the nature of moral actions to take their character from their circumstances, especially their end, more than from the substance itself. And so all such common actions may be holy to the Lord. So that place of Peter is to be understood: 'Be holy in all your manner of life' (1 Peter 1) — in all the turns of your lives, even in common actions. This being the nature of holiness in general, both as in God and in our actions.

There is a double holiness required in every man.

A giving up of oneself to the Lord, as in 2 Corinthians 8:5: 'They first gave themselves to the Lord.' To give oneself up as a sacrifice to the Lord — that is the holiness of a man. And when anything is sacrificed, it is given over to the use of that Lord to whom it is sacrificed.

The second is a giving up of all things along with oneself — one's understanding, will, thoughts, affections, life, liberty, credit, goods, all one's power and might whereby one is able to do anything. To resign all these to the Lord — by this he sanctifies the Lord. And this is the holiness of a man: to do all for the Lord only. So the conclusion is clear: let a man do whatever he will — keep the Sabbath, pray, etc. — if there is not this holiness in his heart, all his labor is lost. As you all grant: without holiness no man shall see God. Now it is not holy except it is given up to the Lord alone, excluding self and creature.

If all our labor is lost unless we seek God's face, though a man may go ever so far otherwise — then there is great reason to examine ourselves whether we seek the Lord for himself or not. For otherwise all your labor is lost, for then you do not set up God as your God in your hearts but something else — namely, that which you seek besides him. As in marriage we say: when a man marries a woman not out of love to her person but for her riches, he marries not the woman but her wealth. So it is here.

And then secondly, you will never hold out in seeking the Lord. And if you do not hold out, then all your labor will be lost. Ezekiel 18: though a man has been righteous all his days, yet if he falls from God all his righteousness shall be forgotten. And such a man as does not seek the Lord for himself will fall away, as appears from Hosea 7:16: 'They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow.' That is, when a man turns to the Lord but not for himself, he will turn again and spring back like a broken bow. For if he attains those ends for which he sought the Lord, his seeking is at an end. See this in Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25). He went far in obedience, but he did not seek the Lord in it. He was content to lose a hundred talents and to send back the Israelites he had hired — which was such a trial as even a good man might have stumbled at. Yet he did not seek the Lord in this. He was persuaded that if he had taken the Israelites with him, he would have lost the battle — which was his chief end in that action. He believed the prophet only so far as it served his own safety. And because he did not seek the Lord, he did not hold out. When he was put to other trials and new temptations, and saw another worship, it pleased him and he left the Lord, and sprang back like a broken bow — as a bow that is rotten, though otherwise fair, snaps when an arrow is drawn to the head. So many brought up in good families, when they come into new company and new trials, fall away because they did not seek the Lord himself.

If you do not seek the Lord for himself, you do not love him, and then all your labor is lost. For all the promises are made to those who love God. Song of Solomon 1:1-2: 'Because of the fragrance of your ointments; your name is like ointment poured forth, therefore the virgins love you.' That is, take those who do as much for the Lord as another does, though such a man carries the fair appearance of a spouse, yet all that he does comes from the affection of a prostitute. The virgins — they love his person, love him for his name's sake, for the personal beauty that is in him, and for the sweetness of his love (verse 5): 'Your love is better than wine.'

This point well understood will come among you as a messenger from the King of kings to all of you in the chamber of the Bridegroom, making this inquiry: 'Do you love him? Are you prostitutes or virgins?' And it will make every one consider: 'To what end have I done all this? Have I known the Lord and been acquainted with him? Have I sought God's face in all that I have done?'

But men will be ready to say, 'We do seek the Lord's face.' Therefore I will give you rules to distinguish and help men discern whether they seek the Lord or not.

Consider what opinion you have of yourself. Every man who is regenerate, at his regeneration, changes his opinion of himself. As Paul says in Romans 7: 'It is no longer I, but sin.' Before he was regenerate, sin was himself. But now a new Lord had come into the house — that renewed self, the regenerate part. And that which before was wholly himself, he now speaks of as an intruder, a lodger who should not be there. Now if you reckon the regenerate part as yourself, then you have sought the Lord's presence, for that part is thereby strengthened. The perfection of this self consists in union with the Lord, and so it seeks him. If not — if you account the flesh in you as yourself — it is impossible you should seek God rightly, for God and the flesh are contraries. A regenerate man says: 'Let me have God, and whatever else I lose — whether life or liberty — yet my self is safe.' He considers chiefly: does this tend to the safety of my self or not? And though he is content and would have the outward man do well too — as, if I have a fine house to live in, I would have it kept safe — yet if it is set on fire, it is no great matter, so long as my self is kept safe. Take a man who has clothes on — if he can keep his clothes whole, that is well. But if they are torn, he does not care, so long as his body is safe. So where the regenerate part is the self: if the outward man can be kept safe, that is well and he would rather have it so. But whatever happens, so long as the regenerate part is safe, he does not much care, for he accounts loss of outward things as no more than the tearing of his clothes. But take another man who as yet is no other than he was born at first, into whom no new man has come to dwell. He thinks to himself: 'Surely I must not destroy myself. I would keep a good conscience, but not so as to destroy myself.' And it is impossible that what a man reckons as himself he should suffer to be destroyed. Therefore when disgrace, imprisonment, etc. come, all these are reckoned as wounds given to himself. He lets God go in order to defend and keep himself from harm. All this difference comes from the difference of opinion a man has of what is himself.

But how shall I know what opinion I have of myself?

Consider in what you desire to excel. All things desire to have that excellence which is proper to themselves — every creature desires to build itself up. If therefore you desire to excel in things belonging to the outward man — to build yourself up in learning, reputation, wealth, and outward conveniences — then your outward man and flesh is your self. But if you seek an inward excellence, not caring about human approval, but seeking to have the praise of God, the comfort of a good conscience, and assurance of salvation — then it is a sign you reckon the inward man as your self.

Consider where you lay up your treasure. Do you lay it up in the regenerate part and endeavor to make that richer, carrying something every day into that treasury? Then you count that as your self, for where the treasure is, there the heart is also. When a man finds that though he has troubles abroad in the world and declines in his estate and health, yet so long as he finds his regenerate part safe and thriving and standing in good terms with God, he is at peace with himself. As a man when his house is broken into runs immediately to his chest where his chief treasure lies — if that is safe, he thinks all is well. But if you lay up your treasure in the outward man — a heap of outward things — so that when these things are gone, you reckon yourself undone: it is certain you make that your self. This was the case of Haman, Nabal, and Ahithophel, and of all carnal men, whose hearts must sink when outward things leave them or when they are put in fear of loss of life and goods. But another man is like grapes full of wine put into the winepress — what though the skin and husk perish? the wine is saved. So it is with the saints in persecution: their inward man is still preserved, they lose only their husks. But when a man has nothing in him but flesh and an outward man, then when these perish, all he has is lost, and himself with them. It is good therefore to test yourselves — what opinion you have of yourselves — before hard times come, that you may see whether you have something in you that will not then perish but be kept safe and sustain you. And by that you shall also know whether you seek the Lord's face or not.

The second rule is: consider what you make your ultimate end. We are now on a point that admits of very narrow differences, for as we have said, a man may perform many duties, go as far in them as another, and yet lose all his labor — all because he does not seek the Lord's presence. And the test of that lies especially in this: what you make your ultimate end. For though the actions are good, yet if the end is yourself, or if God's glory is made by you merely as a bridge to your own ends — all is lost. Now that you may not mistake here: you must know there is a double end. The one is the end of the work; the other is the end of the worker. Now the end of the work itself may be good even in hypocrites — the action being in itself a holy action, tending to God's service. And yet the end of the worker is not the Lord but himself. This difference runs through all actions. Two men going together in the same road may have different destinations. Zechariah 7: speaking of both the feasts and fasts of the Jews (two as holy duties as any other), verses 5-7, God says: 'But did you do them at all to me — or was it to return from captivity?' So Hosea 10:1: there was much fruit found in Israel, yet because they brought it forth to themselves and not to the Lord, Israel is called an empty vine. A carnal man and a regenerate man differ mainly in this: the carnal man, when he is about to do anything, asks, 'What good will this bring to me? What profit, what credit shall I have by doing it? If none, he sets it aside.' But a godly man (insofar as he is godly) asks this question: 'Is it commanded by God? Is it for his glory and advantage?' When therefore you come to preach the gospel or to study, consider your end — whether it is for God or not. Consider also what your end is in your trade or any civil action, and judge by that.

But is a man bound to seek God in everything? May he have no regard to himself?

The end must always be greater than what tends toward it. And therefore what is the highest good must be the highest end. And unless you make God better than all things else, you do not make him your end, nor your God. Again: the end commands all, is most perfect, and comprehends all the rest. And that also is proper to the Lord alone. This cannot be said of any man or creature, and therefore God alone is to be made your end.

But may not a man make his own happiness his end and do what he does for his own perfection?

A man may and always does so, and that of necessity, as has been said. Only this: there is a double end — one is the thing itself which a man makes his end, the other is the benefit or fruit that comes from attaining it. So happiness is that sweetness that follows all ends, even as the shadow follows the body. So then the question is: what is the thing from which you seek this happiness? For that is your main end. Do you think you can make yourself happy by those riches and pleasures that you aim at for yourself? Or do you look for all your happiness from the Lord alone? What a man looks to for his happiness, that is what he makes his chief end. If from God, then a man makes God his ultimate end, so that his own happiness is but the fruit that arises from and accompanies his seeking him.

But may not a man provide for himself?

True, but in this way: everything a man's mind is engaged with is either work or wages. If it is work, you must do it to God alone, whose servant you are. If it is a matter of wages — things belonging to your reputation and estate — these in like manner you are to look for from God alone. All of a man's employment is taken up either in doing all for God or receiving all from God. If any man were a perfect servant to another man, he would have his eye only on his master in matters of work, and would also take whatever wages his master was pleased to allow him for that work, and no other. He would resolve everything back to his master. But no creature is a perfect servant to another creature. We are such to God, however, and therefore we ought both to do all the work we do for God, and also for the matter of wages to take all from him and to depend upon his providence. So this provision for a man is nothing other than casting oneself upon the Lord. It is not our work to provide for ourselves but the Lord's. Let us do all for him, and it belongs to him to give us wages, and he will do it.

But may not a man in his actions have an eye to God and to himself also?

For answer to this, look at Matthew 6:22-23: 'The light of the body is the eye; if therefore the eye is single, the whole body shall be full of light.' It is a single eye that looks on a single object, on one object only. Therefore a man is said to have a single eye when he looks upon the Lord alone — when nothing else is made his God. He does not look on riches or anything else as his God. And then the whole body is full of light — that is, all the conduct is good and he sees where he is going. But if the eye is evil — that is, by the rule of opposition, if it is double (for a rule of interpreting Scripture is to open the meaning of phrases by what is opposed to them) — a double eye is a wicked eye. That is, if it is partly set upon God and partly on oneself, it is wicked. And so James calls such a one a double-minded man, who is unstable in all his ways. When a man has partly an eye to the world and himself and partly to God, he is as one pulled between two roads. He knows not which to take. He is unstable like a drunk man who staggers in all he does — now on one side for God, now on the other side for himself. And so his whole body is dark — that is, his whole conduct is wicked, for he is out of the right way. He cannot see a right path to walk in, has no clear aim toward which to tend, is unable to settle on a right object, but goes here and there from one thing to another, unstable in all his ways.

But you will say, 'The holiest man alive has some eye to himself in his actions.'

It is one thing when a man has chosen the Lord as his end and that way that leads to him — though he wavers in it and misses somewhat of the evenness of the path and has falls in it. It is another thing to be pulled between two roads, sometimes choosing one way, sometimes another, as a carnal man does. One who is resolved to go in this way — though with much unevenness — may fall and have many mistakes on the road. He may look too much to himself at times. But yet he has chosen the Lord and follows him. And this is the difference between him and the other, who has two roads and is torn between them.

But now the main question is: how shall we know whether we make the Lord our ultimate end or not?

There are these rules that may help you.

The ultimate end governs a man's whole life. All other ends govern only particular actions and only at particular times, because they are only particular ends. But the ultimate end commands everything in a man — all his ways and actions. Therefore you make the Lord your ultimate end when in all your actions, whether public or private, you look to the Lord. And in whatever a man does, in all those roles and relationships he stands in — whether he is a magistrate or a private man, whether in business or recreations — if God is a man's end, his eye will always be upon the Lord. Now he who does not make God his ultimate end will find he has some secret byways of his own, some secret motions differing and contrary to God, in which he goes (as the planets have a motion of their own), though it is not openly known, perhaps unknown even to himself, or not known at all times. But the ultimate end commands all and leaves nothing out — the least action is subject to it.

The ultimate end limits all the means and sets their bounds, but is not itself bounded by anything. 'The end prescribes the means, but no end is prescribed to the end itself.' It says: this far you shall go and no further. But there are no limits set to the end itself. As the master builder appoints every man his work, and they go as far as he appoints and no further. As if health is a man's end, it sets limits to all the means he uses — food, drink, medicine. He takes as much as tends to that end and no more. But there are no limits set to health itself — he can never have too much of it. So then consider: what is it that sets bounds to your course, so that when you have come to such a level, you say 'This far I will go and no further'? He that makes himself his end will be sure to have a holiness with such limits as shall not cost him his great friends or his estate. He will go as far as it comes to, until it begins to hurt himself — himself being his end. Therefore he limits his holiness and stops at such a level. But if God is his end, he thinks he can never have enough of God and holiness. And though his acts of holiness and zeal overshoot his reputation and overthrow his estate, yet he does not care, for it is not his end to preserve himself or what belongs to himself.

You shall know your ultimate end by a secret sense that accompanies every action you do, if you closely attend to it. For that is the difference between man and other creatures — that a man can look back on his own actions. So if you would ask your heart, 'What is my aim and purpose in this or that action?' there is a secret sense accompanying the action in your heart that would reveal it. Therefore in any business you do, consider why you do it, why you undertake it, why you are at such pains and cost in it. Ask your heart: is it for the Lord, or for yourself? If that does not reveal it to you, look to the circumstances and the manner of doing it. For instance: why do I preach in such a way, and pray in such a way? Why do I do it thus and not in a better manner?

If that does not do it, look to your affections. Consider how you are affected or troubled about the matter when the action is done. Suppose it was a business that, both for content and manner, was done for the Lord. But when it is done, what is it you are grieved about? Is it that you have gotten some discredit to yourself in the performance of it? Or is it that God has not had more glory from it? Are your affections troubled that you have offended God in it, that something has been lost to God? Or rather that something has been lost to yourself? By examining how your affections are occupied about a thing when done, you may discern your ultimate end.

Rule 5 is taken from Philippians 2:21: 'I have no man like-minded, for all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ, who genuinely cares for you.' Consider whether you seek your own things, or the things of Jesus Christ. And whether that is done naturally — as the word there means — that is, as his own business. To seek one's own and to do a thing naturally are treated as the same in that place. Consider whether you seek the things of Christ as naturally as your own. Whether you do or not, you will find it by these three things:

First, a man will go about what he does willingly when he has a business of his own to do. He does it willingly, applies his mind to it, and is exceedingly concerned. But when the business is another's, he goes about it perhaps because he sees it must be done and there is reason for it — but still he does his own in a different manner. And thus willingly do the saints do the Lord's business. See it in Paul, Romans 15:20: 'Yes, so I was eager to preach the gospel.' The word in the original means: I was ambitious to preach the gospel. Look at what desires an ambitious man has — and there are no desires so keen as those of ambition, for such a man looks past all for his advancement. Such desires had Paul for the preaching of the gospel. The same affection he expresses about himself in 2 Corinthians 11:28: 'Besides the things that are without, there is that which comes upon me daily — the care of all the churches. Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?'

Three expressions show his willingness and natural affection for the Lord's business. First, 'that which comes upon me daily' — he had, as it were, all care numbered and gathered together. Second, with anxiety — with the same concern a man has about his own business. Third: 'Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?' His affections were so warm and quick that immediately if any soul was hurt, if Christ lost anything, he was at once stirred and grieved.

Do you do it diligently? When anything is to be done for the Lord Jesus, do you do it with all your strength? If carelessly, you are far from seeking the Lord. Whatever a man does for himself — insofar as he conceives it to be for himself — he will do it diligently and with all his might. And we are commanded to love the Lord with all our might. And there is a curse on the contrary: 'Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord negligently.' The meaning is not: cursed is he who does the work of the Lord feebly and with infirmity — for then all the saints would be cursed. But what is done negligently is what is done hypocritically and for other ends, for they are the causes of that negligence. To that the curse belongs, and justly. This cold, half-hearted, formal, customary performance of duties — as when we receive the Sacrament or are engaged in any other duty or any cause that concerns the Lord, and go about it coldly — is a sign we do not do it for the Lord.

Consider whether you do it faithfully. For so a man tends to do his own business — for no man is unfaithful to himself. To another he may give only eye service, but not to himself. Now to do a thing faithfully is not to rest in the thing done, but to have a care that it be done effectively, so as to see the fruit and effect of it.

And if you ask how you shall know that you do anything faithfully:

That is known by this:

When a good action is to be done, you do not so much care that it be done as that you yourself should be the doer of it — for your own credit, etc. As Diotrephes, he was a contentious man, but himself would do everything. But would you be willing to see it done, even though another man did it? Do you desire to have it done and think it no matter by whose hand the work goes forward, so long as it goes forward?

Again, secondly: what do you do when a separation is made, a distinction between the Lord's business and your own credit? Are you still as careful? When two go together, you cannot tell which one is the master and which the servant of one of them until they part. So when your credit and God's glory go together, you cannot tell for which of them you are doing it. But there are times when your own business and the Lord's will be separated. Then consider what you do. Is it so that because you are not the first in a business, you will do nothing at all? Or if you will not be seen in it? That is a sign you do it for yourself and not for the Lord. When two men are to carry a beam into a house, if both strive to go in first, they carry it sideways and it will not go through. But if they are content to go one after the other, it goes in straight. So often great works both for church and state, which might be done, are hindered or carried wrong because men are not willing for others to go before them.

Therefore consider these things seriously and bring them home to your hearts. For to what end do we preach? That you might know these things only? (That only adds to your further condemnation, and you had better never have known them.) But we preach them so that you might lay them to heart. Take something away to consider these things. And if you have found yourselves failing in this, do not be discouraged, but labor to make your hearts perfect for time to come — thus to seek the Lord alone.

To stir you to this — which is the next use I make of this doctrine — and to quicken you to seek the Lord and not yourself, consider what great reason there is to do so. Consider what ties and bonds are upon you toward him, and the covenant between him and you that has been made.

I will ask you first: whose servant are you? And should not the servant seek the profit of his master? If a man sees a company of sheep and asks whose they are, and someone says, 'Such a man's, for he has bought and paid for them' — and has not Christ bought you? And besides this first buying of you, who gives you your wages and provides for you — food, drink, and clothing? Is there not good reason you should serve him alone? Then, if you are perfectly a servant (as you are), you do wrong to the Lord if you do not serve him.

Again, secondly, I ask you: who is your husband? Is it not the Lord Jesus? And if you are his wife, should you not seek his things? One who is unmarried is still her own, but when she is married, she is her husband's. When there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes. And if you had no husband, no king, so might you. But you are not your own. The covenant has already been made. You are no longer free to choose. If you say no, consider that when you were baptized it was into the name of the Lord, and that by way of a vow — which is an invocation with a pledge. If you say, 'But I was young then,' consider that since you came to years of understanding, you have not renounced it but confirmed it in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by receiving it often. Therefore you cannot recall it. That first covenant stands, as marriages made under age, when the parties come to full age and do not disclaim them, they hold. He being your husband — consider that as adultery is worse than fornication (the one being punished among the Jews with death, the other with only a fine), so the sins you commit in going after other loves are worse than if a pagan had committed the same. He who was circumcised, Paul says, was bound to keep the whole law. And so he who is baptized and has received the Lord's Supper is bound to give himself up to the Lord, as the Lord Christ has given himself to him and all things in him. And so the saints of Macedonia did (2 Corinthians 8:5): 'They first gave themselves to the Lord.'

And if you were not bound thus, yet he has deserved it at your hands. And both these we find urged by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13: 'Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized into the name of Paul?' There were men among the Corinthians who did not seek Christ alone in their profession of Christ — one was for Paul, and another for Apollos, another for Cephas. But the apostle says: 'Is Christ divided?' If Christ had indeed been divided among these three, they might have sought them. But Christ stands alone against them all, and therefore they were to seek Christ alone. And he brings two arguments for it:

Because they were baptized into the name of Christ and not of Paul or any other. And second: 'Was Paul crucified for you?' — that is, was not Christ crucified?

And secondly, how much is there in those words 'crucified for you'? We are not able to search into the height and breadth and depth of your obligation to Christ. His bodily pain was the least part of his sufferings. That of his soul was the soul of his sufferings: 'My soul is deeply grieved,' he said, when the weight of his sufferings made him sweat drops of blood on a cold night. And yet these were but the beginning of his sorrows, which fell upon him on the cross when he cried out: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Consider further the fairness of it. For did he not do for you what he requires of you? Did he not empty himself of that eternal glory and happiness which he enjoyed with his Father and might have continued to enjoy? Did he not make himself poor to make you rich? And what is it he calls you to deny yourself of? To forsake a friend or two, and to suffer some disadvantage in your wealth? Whereas he emptied himself of all his great glory. Is he not on equal terms with you — no, most unequal on his part? If he calls you to bear the cross for him, did he not bear a greater cross for you? Therefore Christ says: 'He who does not forsake father and mother for me is not worthy of me and is not fit to be numbered among my disciples.'

Lastly, besides all this, consider: it is best for yourself — which is the argument that moves men above all others. For if you do not do it, you shall be condemned for it. And if you will, you shall provide for yourself abundantly. But if you insist on saving your life, you shall lose it. If you will save your reputation and liberty, you may — but you shall go to hell with your liberty and reputation. These are the eye and the hand, and it is better to enter heaven without them than to be cast into hell with them. But if you are content to lose all these, you shall gain by it. The man who is most willing to suffer anything for Christ and God's cause provides best for himself. Judas, in going about to make himself rich, lost himself — it was his undoing. Peter and the rest left all and gained happiness. What was Paul's gain but going from prison to prison? How did Abraham save his son but by being willing to offer him? What gained Moses so much honor — to be the leader of God's people and so great a prophet — but the losing and refusing of his honors and pleasures in Egypt? The man who comes to resolve: 'I will be content to be of no reputation, so long as I may seek and serve the Lord' — that man is on the rising hand. It is the only way to advancement. On the contrary, he who says, 'I must and will be somebody in the world' — that man is in his downfall, he is ruining himself. Saul's trying to enrich himself with the cattle was his ruin. Jeroboam, through plots to keep the kingdom, lost the kingdom and ruined himself.

Is it of so much consequence to seek God for himself? Then take care not to forget the Lord in the midst of all his mercies. It is a common thing that God is hidden and covered from us in the benefits we receive from him. And whereas they should be like glasses and spectacles to help the weakness of our sight of him, they often prove as clouds to hinder us from beholding his face. But consider: this is the main part of the covenant — 'I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' And upon that basis all benefits come, even with himself. We do not usually think that we must first have the Lord himself. Our eyes should be fixed in the first place on him, and then on the mercies received from him. For Romans 8 says that with Christ he will give us all things. Therefore first we are to have him, then all things else. So 1 Corinthians 3 at the end: 'All things are yours' — but on what basis? 'For you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' We must first have him as our Lord before we can enjoy the benefits that come through him. It is a common fault that men look to the comforts and privileges that come through Christ but not to him — he is forgotten. As when we come to be humbled for sin, men in the first place look for a promise of forgiveness and say: 'If I can but believe my sins forgiven and lay hold of that promise, I have enough.' But Christ is forgotten by them. This is not the method we should take. Rather think: how shall I have forgiveness? Who gives it? Who brings it? It is a dowry that comes with my husband. When I have Christ once, I shall have his righteousness to clothe me. In 1 Corinthians 1:30: 'Of him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.' The meaning is that God the Father gives Christ to us as a father gives his son as a husband in marriage and says: 'I will make him worth all this to you, but you must have him first.' So God gives Christ, and when we have him, God makes him all these things — wisdom to you as a Prophet, righteousness to you as a Priest, and he will sanctify you and purge you from dead works, and he will be your King and deliver you from all your enemies. He will be made sanctification and redemption to you. Observe the phrases in Scripture — they lead you always to his person and urge you to make the covenant with his person. As when it is said: 'In him are all the treasures of wisdom' — if treasure is hidden in a chest, you must first have the chest, then the treasure. So if it is in a field, you must first buy the field. There is a mine that will hold you digging all your life long, but you must first purchase the field and then start digging for the treasure in it. And all sorts of treasures are in him — adoption, justification, etc. So John 6 exhorts them to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and that should nourish them to eternal life. But before men can have nourishment and strength from food, they must have the food itself, and there must be a joining with it and an assimilation of it to them. So 1 John 5:12: 'He that has the Son has life.' We must first have the Son, and then we come to have life through him. You must have these two distinct conditions. (I assume a man coming immediately out of an unregenerate state.) He is first to consider who Christ and God are — to consider their persons and to choose them as Father and Lord, to live and die with. And then secondly, he is to consider what he shall have with him. Yes, to look upon the benefits themselves, but chiefly to this end: that they may stir up your hearts to love him the better. Not simply to look on them as benefits alone, so as to say in your hearts: 'Though he is most glorious in his person, and so even if I had him alone I would have an exceeding great reward in himself — yet when I consider that all within the compass of this world is mine, that Paul and Apollos and all the good ministers who ever lived have served for my sake, that whatever is in this life or after death is all mine, and that all these he brings with him.' You should look on all of these as motives entirely to love him, and not merely as bare benefits. And say: 'Has he not given me all these? Has he not sanctified me and redeemed me and set me at liberty when I was a slave of sin and Satan? Have I not good reason to love him?' This is to seek his presence. It may be that though you have done the thing, you have not had this distinct consideration. Yet use it from here on to help you. Say not, 'I am in misery and there is a promise of pardon and adoption,' but look first to the Lord Jesus, go to him and take him. To convince you further of this: there is not one of you who would not say, 'I cannot be saved without a holy life.' And what is that but to live in fellowship with God and Christ? All true fellowship is not with things but with persons. Therefore in a holy course, all you have to do is with the Lord himself — to open your hearts to him, to come to him for counsel, to delight in him. To have fellowship with a person is to deal with him on all occasions. You are not only to be dealing with duties and privileges alone, for then with whom do you have fellowship? Not with the Lord, but with notions, duties, and your sins. Your chief business is with the Lord himself in all these things — with duties as means to bring you to the Lord, into his presence and to his person. This is to walk with God as Enoch did, which always has regard to his person, for that is what walking with him implies.

Again, no man can be saved without love to God, and that love must not be a love of desire merely but a love of friendship. The one regards things; the other regards persons. Your love must be first to the person, and then to the blessings you receive from him and the duties you are to perform to him.

But you will say: 'How shall we bring our heart to this? This is exceedingly hard. It is easy to seek the benefits that come through Christ — self-love will cause most to do so. Any man who is in need would gladly have his wants supplied. A man pressed with a burden would willingly have it taken off. It is easy to have your desires stirred in this way.'

What then shall we say to set an edge on your affections to seek the Lord's person? If we had the tongues of men and angels, all would be too little. Therefore let us beseech the Lord that he would be his own spokesman and reveal himself to us. There is no way to set our hearts to work to seek his face but by seeing him. And to help you to a sight of him is not in our power. Yet he is accustomed to do it while we are speaking of him in the ministry of the word. Psalm 9: 'They that know his name will trust in him.' And as they will trust in him, so they will seek his face. What was the reason Abraham and Moses sought the Lord thus for himself? Because they had seen his face. Of Moses it is said he spoke with him face to face. There are two ways to know a man: by report or by sight — by hearsay or by face to face. And all the saints have known him in this latter way to some degree, and have therefore sought him, though Moses in a more particular manner. Yet all saw him. Goodwill, says Aristotle, may arise from a good report, but friendship arises from sight and acquaintance. That is, we may bear goodwill toward one of whom we have only heard a good report, but we do not come to love him entirely and as friends until we have seen him and come to know him and be acquainted with him. Therefore though a man have a general knowledge of God by hearsay, yet he will not seek his face until he has seen him face to face. 2 Corinthians 3 at the end: the Lord's face appears indeed in the word, as in a mirror — but until the veil is taken away, we do not see him face to face. Therefore in the first place, go to God and beseech him: 'Lord, show me your face. Reveal your excellence to me by your Spirit of revelation, that my heart may be stirred up to seek you.' And will the Lord deny you this request if you do so? No. 'No man knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son reveals him,' says Christ. Therefore go to Christ and beseech him to show you himself and his Father. The reason we see God as we do — or only by glimpses — is that we forget to go thus to the Son. Or if we do, we do not seek earnestly. You know how hard Moses had to prevail for this, and you must beg hard as he did. And when you have obtained this, know that you shall see wonderful things, strange things in him, which eye has not seen. There are wonderful things to be seen in the law, if a man's eyes are opened. David said in Psalm 119: 'Open my eyes, that I may see the wonderful things of your law.' How much more wonderful things are there to be seen in the Lord if he reveals himself and opens your eyes? For the law is but an expression of him — as a letter or epistle is the expression of a man's mind, the portrait of his soul. When therefore your eyes are opened to see the Lord himself, you will see such things in him as will make you fall in love with him. What was the reason the spouse in Song of Solomon chapter 5 was so overcome with love she could not contain herself? Because the Lord had taken away the veil and shown himself to her. And so if God were to take any of us into the holy of holies, into the inner chamber, and open himself to us — then we would say as Thomas and Peter did: 'Now, Lord, we will go with you. Now, Lord, we will live and die with you.' And when we lose him, we would seek him as the spouse did — from watch to watch, from one ordinance to another — to find him, never leaving off until we had found him. As she did not, because she had had a sight of him. As Moses could not have this knowledge of God until it pleased God to reveal himself to him — so he would not give up, would not stir a foot, until God did reveal himself. Exodus 33:13: 'If I have found favor in your sight, show me your glory, that I may know you.' And so should we pray as earnestly as he did. And when God has made himself known to us, that will draw us. And that is the drawing meant in Song of Solomon 1:3: 'Draw me, and we will run after you' — that is, show yourself, and we will follow you, even as straw follows the lodestone. And if the Lord will but put the magnet to the iron, we cannot help but follow and seek him. And God does this by leaving an impression of himself upon the heart — of the loveliness and excellencies that are in him. As when two men are so closely linked together that no consideration can part them, it is because an impression of some excellence in each other has been made on their hearts. Until that impression is removed, they will not stop loving and clinging to each other. And so when this impression of God's excellence is once stamped upon the heart, nothing can take it off. No accident whatever is able to separate God and the heart once he has been seen. But until this is worked, the separation is easy — men will depart from God on any occasion. When we are taught by God himself, we so know him as it is said in Jeremiah 31 — we seek him earnestly, and not until then.

Besides, after God has spoken and revealed himself, there is something to be done on your part as well: grow into further acquaintance with him. This is done partly by speaking much to him and partly by much observing him in all his ways. Look upon him in all his actions and conduct, and by that you will see how worthy he is to be loved. Consider the first action he ever did: the making of the world. He could have enjoyed happiness within himself forever, as much as now. Yet out of his goodness he was willing to make men and angels and to provide abundantly for them. And afterwards, when all mankind were at one stroke lost — and he might have left us as he left the fallen angels, without any possibility of salvation — out of his love to mankind, his love to the human race, he gave his Son to redeem us. And if it were for this love to our people alone, he is worthy of all love and respect from us. But he has not loved only the nation as a whole, has he? Has he not given him, manifested and revealed him to you personally, when he has passed by thousands? Whereas you, if left to yourself, would have lost the advantage of the possibility of being saved, as most of mankind do. You would have been hardened, as millions of men are. But he has broken your heart and given you Christ — and that when you were utterly unable even to believe in him. And since he brought you home to his Son, how often have you been going quite away from him, and has he not still been as a shepherd to you, and brought you back again? You have played many a slippery trick with him, but he has kept you and embraced you and established the sure mercies of David to you. Think also of his wonderful patience: that when the eyes of his glory have been so often and so grievously provoked, day by day, yet he passes over all and spares you. Think if anyone would ever have endured as much as he has done. And add to this the consideration of his bounty added to his patience — his constancy in doing you good. Though you are uneven in your behavior toward him, yet a continual current of his mercy flows in upon you. And consider further: if it had been merely an act of his will to do all this, it would have been wonderful. But it has cost him dearly to have the opportunity to do it — it cost him his Son. Then consider the great love of his Son, that he would give himself. And when he was equal to his Father in glory, he would yet leave all to come under the same roof with you. And what he has done — had it not been done, you would have been undone forever. Consider how often he has stood with you in a tight place, pleaded your case, and pacified his Father for you. And labor to be led by all these rivers and streams of his goodness to that ocean of his personal excellencies that are in him. Gather an understanding of him in your minds from all you have heard or seen of him. The end of all these acts of his providence is that men might know him through them. As when you would have a man known to another, you go about to commend him, to describe him — it is good to do this of the Lord. Be often expressing his excellencies to others and meditating on them yourself. It may perhaps win others to him. However, it will quicken yourself and exercise your love toward him. There is a double way of knowing things, as I told you: one by report, another by sight. Labor to know him by experience, so as to be able to say: 'I know him to be thus and thus, and therefore I will hold fast to him.'

And with all this, consider his greatness — who it is that has done all these things for you: the great God of heaven and earth. This sets a high value on all he has done for us. If a great king merely glances his countenance upon you, how it is prized! But that the great God should look after such a wretch as you are, having nothing in you that should merit his respect — how should that move you! And from this consider also what he is able to do for you. Men do not know God in his greatness, and therefore he is not sought. Why do we trouble ourselves so much about the creatures — fearing this man and that man, and counting a little reputation or advancement a great thing? If we only saw God in his greatness, all these would vanish. See how the prophet describes him in Isaiah 40:15: 'All the nations are but a small thing to him, like a few drops from a bucket and the dust of the scales.' Suppose all the nations of the world were for you or against you — who would not think that a great matter? Yet let them be compared with the Lord — they are but as dust blown away with his breath. If our eyes were opened to see, as Gehazi's were, the host that was around him — so ours to see the Lord — we should desire him alone and seek him. Then a man would be ready for all varieties of change. Put him where you will, he will be content to have God's favor while he lives and heaven when he dies. Until this is worked in him, he does not seek God with a perfect heart. Until a man comes to this choice: 'I have many things in the world, but the Lord is my portion and my exceeding great reward. I can live on him alone.' For it is as impossible for him to have God without comfort as to have the sun without light. So that whatever happens to him he is able to say: 'I have lost nothing. I am not driven out of my inheritance and portion. I have God's presence, and that will be a direction and protection to me in hard times.' So that he may say: 'The Lord's name is my strong tower, and though others fly to other refuges, there the righteous fly and are safe.' You must seek God's presence in time of peace, if you would have it as your refuge in time of danger. Both of these we may see in Isaiah 4, the last two verses. 'The Lord will create upon every place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night' (verse 5) — that is, as the people of Israel coming out of Egypt had a pillar of fire to guide them by night and a cloudy pillar by day, so God promises to his people: 'I will walk before you and direct your way in all your actions, in difficult cases.' God guides them by an immediate illumining of his Spirit into those ways that will be most safe for them. In 1 Samuel 18:14: 'The Lord was with David, and he walked wisely.' God directed him and was his counselor. But when the Lord departed from Saul, he erred in everything he did. As the Israelites, if their two pillars had been taken away, would have been lost in the wilderness — so was Saul when the Lord departed from him. He was like a man wandering in a dark night. Whereas a godly man shall have a voice behind him saying: 'This is the way, walk in it.' Whereas if he went another way, he would break his neck. And what a great privilege is this!

But that is not all the benefit that the presence of God affords us — it gives protection also, as that passage in Isaiah shows. For it continues: 'Upon all the glory shall be a canopy, and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covering from the storm and from the rain.' That is: look at what a shadow is to a poor traveler in scorching heat in those hot countries — that is what the Lord's presence will be to all his saints. And it shall be a covering also, so they shall be under it as under a roof, standing like someone inside a house, dry, looking out and seeing others in a storm. As when the Egyptians were struck with hail and perished in it, the Israelites were safe.

And lastly, he will be a refuge to them when they are persecuted by any — whether by their own sins which follow them as the avenger of blood, or by evil men, or by the power and malice of Satan. If they run to him, he will be their asylum, their sanctuary. See this difference between the saints and others in Mordecai and Haman: both were in distress. Mordecai was persecuted — he fled to the Lord by prayer and had him as a refuge. But Haman had none when he fell out of favor with the king. So both Peter and Judas fell into sin, but Peter had a refuge to fly to — God, with whom he had been formerly acquainted. But Judas had none, and so the storm fell on him. So Saul, being about to fight the Philistines, had no refuge — God had departed from him — and therefore he fled to a witch. But David, when he was in as great a strait and the people talked of stoning him, had a refuge: he strengthened himself in his God. And therefore you find it repeated so often by him: 'God is my shield and the rock of my defense.' In fair weather men care for no such shelter, thinking they have no need of it. But remember: a storm may come, and it is good to provide for a rainy day. In Revelation 2:5, when the church had fallen from its first love, he threatened to remove the lampstand. By this he means not only the ministry (as the last verse of the first chapter shows — 'The seven lampstands are the seven churches'). Therefore captivity is thereby threatened — a removal from the city which was a place of ease and safety into a barren land where they would live more harshly. And this is threatened not because they had entirely forsaken, but because they had fallen from their first love and from some degrees of it. What cause then do we have to fear? And if so, what cause is there that we should now seek the Lord's presence? And then we shall be sure to find him a refuge. For go where you will, he is there. Psalm 139: 'Whether into the farthest parts of the earth or the heart of the sea, you are there,' says David. And as nothing is so terrible to the wicked as that — go where they can, God is there — so nothing is more comforting to the godly.

Now we have come to the last condition which the Lord requires before he will hear prayers and forgive sins, or heal the land of his people. And that is: 'If my people turn from their evil ways.' From this you may observe this doctrine:

That unless a man turns from his evil ways, he can have no share in the promises of the gospel. Now this point, like the rest, has a double office. The one is to exclude those to whom the promises do not belong — if you do not turn from your evil ways, your prayers shall not be heard. The other is to open a door of comfort to those who do turn — their prayers shall be heard.

But first, for a matter of warning to those without. And our method shall be first to know what it is to turn from our evil ways. For when the Lord hangs all his promises upon these conditions, we have reason to examine them closely. Therefore to understand this, we must know that every man is born turned away from God, with his back to God and his face toward sin and hell. And so he continues until he hears some call from God to the contrary, saying: 'That is not the way.' So this conversion of the soul is called a turning, because it is from one object to another — that is, from sin to righteousness, from Satan to God. And because there are many false turnings, and many men who wheel about and never truly turn, who yet suppose they are converted, we will endeavor to open to you what this true turning is. Now it may be found out four ways: first by the causes or motives by which it is worked; second by the starting point and destination of the turning; third by the manner; and fourth by the effects.

First, for the causes of this solid, true turning and the motives which work upon a man's heart to turn him. You must know that there are many things that may cause a man to leave his evil ways for a while. For instance, some present affliction, to escape which a man may seem to turn to God. Therefore God still complained of the Jews that they turned to him feignedly and not with their whole heart — because when he struck them, then they sought him and would turn from their evil ways. But when they were delivered, they turned to their old inclination again. So Pharaoh: when plagued with any new judgment, he would let the Israelites go. But as soon as that was past, he hardened his heart and would not let them go.

A second cause that may move men to turn is some present advantage. This appears in many of those who attached themselves to Christ: some did it for the loaves, some for comfortable living, some in the hope of an earthly kingdom which they thought he would establish. But all these left him afterward. There are many such false motives. But the only true motives are taken from the apprehension of eternal life and eternal death. The conversion is not right until then. And the reason is that all other motives may be outweighed. But the motives of eternal life and death cannot be topped by anything. Even if preferment be offered, or whatever the world can offer — these eternal things exceed all that Satan, the world, or the flesh can suggest. Therefore a man is truly turned when the Lord enlarges his thoughts to see the greatness and vastness of these two realities. For then all those other things appear as candles in the sunlight. So that if Satan comes with earthly honors and pleasures in his hand, the answer is easy: 'But what are these compared to eternal death and everlasting life?' These are not thought of nor considered by carnal men. Though they talk of heaven and hell, they do not see their immense vastness and extent, and therefore go on so confidently. Hence Christ in Mark 16, when he sends forth his disciples to convert men, bids them use these two arguments: 'Tell every man, if he believes he shall be saved; if not, he shall be condemned.' Here we see the motives Christ directs ministers to use — eternal life and death. And Paul, endeavoring to convert Felix, told him of the judgment to come, which made him tremble. And Christ told the woman of Samaria of that water and spring that flows up to eternal life. Consider therefore whether you have ever had a true apprehension of these, without which a man cannot be thoroughly moved. Which apprehension, if true, has these qualities in it:

First, it must be an apprehension of them as present. A man may perhaps have a slight thought of eternal life and death, looking upon them as things absent and far off. But when they are pressed home by God, a man is pursued and brought into straits by the apprehension of them, so that he has no rest until he is brought into another condition. A carnal man on his deathbed, having an actual apprehension of hell as present, is strangely affected. Now at conversion, the apprehension of these things seizes upon a man by a work of the Spirit and encompasses him so that he cannot shake it off until he turns to God. The wise man sees the plague beforehand, even as if it were present, and therefore does not wait until it comes but turns in the time of youth, health, and strength.

Secondly, it must be a deep, fixed, and settled apprehension. For sometimes a man who shall never be saved may be moved by a present apprehension of eternal death and life. But it is like a storm that is soon blown over. In him who shall be saved, however, it is pressed home by the Spirit of conviction, and such an impression is made as will never wear away — he still remembers it. And this is the true apprehension which moves to repentance.

But some will say: 'Can a man be moved by the mere apprehension of eternal life and death to turn from his evil ways, without an apprehension of sin and grace?'

When a man has a true apprehension of eternal life and death, he comes to know what sin and grace are — and never before. Until a man knows eternal death, he looks on sin as a trifle, as a thing of no account. Therefore the wise man says they despise their ways. But this apprehension is what helps to present sin in its vivid colors. And so also the value of grace is then understood, when it is apprehended as carrying with it everlasting happiness — as the needle draws the thread.

The second thing to consider is the starting point and destination, for there is no turning without going from one object to another. And there is no true turning except it is from Satan and the creature and your own selves to God. Of this you read in Acts 26:18, that Paul was sent 'to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.' You see these are the terms of true turning, and this is especially to be noted. For if there is no more than a turning from misery to happiness, it is not sound. For if you look upon sin and misery, grace and happiness in themselves without regard to God, you are only turning on your own axis — going different ways to the same center that other wicked men go to. So long as you look only at your own misery and happiness, which is the center of all mankind, you are not truly turning. Therefore in a true conversion, these motives are viewed in relation to God — as thus: 'If I follow myself and the creature, they are never able to save me. But if I give myself to him who has the keys of life and death, I shall be happy in him forever. Therefore from now on I will forsake Satan and every creature and give myself only to the Lord.' And upon this foundation a man makes this resolution: 'I will forsake Satan and submit myself to God, for he alone is the author of true happiness.' So that now God is made the destination to which you turn and give yourself. Hosea 7:16: 'They returned, but not to the Most High.' There is a turning spoken of — and one would think a significant one, for they fasted and they prayed. But this was no turning to God, and why? 'Because you have turned only from misery and sought your own happiness, and you have forgotten me,' says the Lord, 'who am the Most High and the only one able to deliver and save you.' And therefore their turning was counterfeit, not true. Such will spring back like a broken bow.

Thirdly, for the manner of turning: as it is expressed in Scripture, you must turn to the Lord with all your heart and all your soul. Though it is not expressed explicitly here, yet it is to be understood: 'If my people turn from their evil ways with their whole hearts.'

But what is this turning with one's whole heart?

A man is said to turn with his whole heart when he is fully enlightened and convinced in his understanding of the evil of a thing, and thereupon takes a full resolution to forsake it. As if a man is going the wrong way and another comes and tells him he is not on the right road that will bring him to his journey's end — if he is fully persuaded of this, he will turn back, and that willingly, as we say when we do a thing freely. So it is here: if a man is fully persuaded that sin is the cause of all misery and God of happiness, he turns to God with his whole heart. Now unless it is with the whole heart, this turning is but feigned, as appears from Jeremiah 3:10: 'And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the Lord.' This happens when men have some motives to move them, but not enough — they are not fully convinced, and so they turn only by halves. When therefore the illumination is perfect and full — that the ways in which he walks will bring him to misery, and the contrary to happiness — then a man turns perfectly and with his whole heart. And because turning thus with the whole heart follows full conviction, the apostle expresses this turning with the phrase 'opening the eyes' in Acts 26:18: 'To open their eyes and to turn them.' That is, every man goes on in his ways of sinning until his eyes are opened to see what he had not seen before. God often meets men in the middle of their ways and gives them some light and means — some exhortations and promptings to good, some checks for their evil ways. And if those admonitions are effectual enough to open their eyes — that is, to convince and persuade them that the way they are going leads to eternal misery — then they turn and are willing to do so. And therefore on the contrary, when God will not heal and convert a people, he does not allow their eyes to be opened, as in Isaiah 6:10: 'Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn to be healed.' Here we see that the first link in our conversion is the opening of the eyes, the second is the opening of the heart, the third is being converted and healed. And the two former will draw on the last. Because the Lord was resolved not to heal them, their eyes had to be shut. But at conversion, men's eyes are opened to see sin coming against them — like an enemy with a drawn sword — and to see the riches of the inheritance of the saints, which neither the eyes of natural men have seen, nor their ears heard, nor their hearts understood. And then is a man turned from his evil ways, and not before. A man goes on in a course of sin as Balaam did on his way. He met an angel with a drawn sword, but did not see him at first. As soon as his eyes were opened, no more persuasions were needed to move him to turn. So a wicked man goes on in a way where he is running onto the point of a sword, and he does not see it. But when his eyes are opened to see it, then he turns back. And when they are thus turning back — like Gehazi in 2 Kings 6:15-17, who, seeing an army coming against him and his master Elisha, cried out, 'What shall we do?' — Elisha answered: 'Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And so Gehazi saw when God opened his eyes. So do men when they set upon a new course — they meet with many oppositions and dangers on the way, which makes them cry, 'What shall we do?' Then God opens their eyes and they see also more with them than against them. They see the glorious privileges they have and the strength received from God. These things encourage them to go on resolutely, because the latter are far greater than the former.

Lastly, to find out what this true turning to God is, we must consider the effects of it. A man is then turned when he finds these three effects worked in him.

First, he finds that those evil ways of sin and those corruptions which before dwelt in his heart and had rule there are now put out of possession, and the contrary grace is made master of the house. So that he can say with the apostle in Romans 7: 'It is not I, but sin in me' — that is, sin was once master of the house, and what I now call my self had no existence in me. But now the case is altered: the regenerate part that is in me is master. And though sin thrusts in and dwells there also, yet it is but an intruder. No lust but is thrust out, and if it creeps in, it does so by one of these ways:

Either stealing in as a thief, by night, when one is not watching and does not see it. Or second, it breaks in by violence, as rebels taking advantage of some strong passion, so that one is unable to resist it. Yet sin does not dwell there as master, for it is expelled as soon as the rebel is found, as soon as strength is recovered. So that possession is still held by grace. As it is said of peace: 'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts' — that is, though you are ready to fall out with your brothers, yet do not let malice rule, but peace. Now what is said of one grace is true of all. So then examine yourself: how does sin come into you? Does it come in by stealth, or by violence only? And when it has come in, does it continue as master? Then you are not turned to God. For if you were truly turned to God, though sin crept in as a thief, yet you would not suffer it to take possession of the house but would cast it out. And if it broke in by violence, yet when you had recovered your strength and gotten the upper hand, you would keep it under.

The second effect is this: that when a man has thrust out sin, he hates it — as Amnon did his sister Tamar. He not only thrust her out of doors and barred the door against her, but he hated her worse than he had ever loved her. So a man who is turned does hate sin, hates it as truly as ever he loved it before. There is none but the regenerate man who hates sin truly. Suppose a man has lived a long time in some sin — perhaps in drunkenness, sexual immorality, swearing, etc. He may sometimes thrust it out of doors and by a firm resolution bar the door against it — as when he is on his sickbed or in some great affliction. But he does not hate it.

You will say, 'How shall we know that?'

Hatred is implacable and lasting — as in a man toward toads and serpents. He will never be persuaded to receive them again and grow friendly with them, but forsakes them forever. And again secondly, he will never minimize his sin and say, 'This far will I trim and cut back my sin,' but he will pluck it up by the roots. Hatred desires the utter abolition and destruction of what it hates. Thirdly, he will hate all kinds of sins. Sheep hate all kinds of wolves, and the dove all kinds of hawks. Therefore examine yourself by these general marks.

The third effect is fighting against it. The truth of turning is seen in a man's resistance throughout all his life. As the Israelites were never to seek peace with Amalek but to fight against them, to seek their destruction while they lived. Indeed it is true that such a man may be defeated by a sin, but he still fights against it. And so we will, if we are truly converted.

Herein lies the difference between the relapse and backsliding of the wicked and the falling of the godly into some sin. A saint never gives up the war, never enters into a treaty with sin. 'The Spirit lusts against the flesh' (Galatians 5) — that is, it will be ever stirring him up against it. All the world cannot make peace where God has put enmity. You will never come to say, 'I cannot help it, I must yield to it.' But you will never give over. For that is the property of one truly converted: to look on sin as an enemy. And whatever helps him against sin he counts his friend — such as admonitions and reproofs. And whatever helps sin against him he counts his enemy.

But you will say, 'If all this must be done, I cannot say I hate sin, for it hangs on me continually, and I find an inclination to delight in it as before.'

It is true that there is something in you — the flesh — to which sin is as fitting as ever it was. Hence the inclination to welcome it, which is ready to become as friendly with it as ever it was. Yet again, the state is such that there is also something in you — a new creature, a new self, your regenerate part — that hates sin with a deadly hatred, yes, and the flesh also that fosters it. So then this may be your comfort: that the spirit that is in you hates sin at the same time that the flesh in you delights in it.

If this turning to the Lord is a condition on which all the promises are based, then it concerns you to examine yourselves whether any way of wickedness is found in you. If it is — be it greater or smaller — then you are not converted. You are still in the bond of iniquity (it is the apostle's phrase to Simon Magus in Acts) — that is, tied up in it as in a fetter, shackled in it, as a man still in prison bound in chains. You are a fettered bondservant. For when there is any way of wickedness in you, it so binds the soul that a man is not able to run in the ways of God's commandments. Look back therefore upon your former ways and search your heart as thoroughly and narrowly as they searched for leaven before the Passover. Search as for your life, because if there is a way of wickedness, it will cost you your life. Search also diligently, for self-love makes it hard to find. This point needs application more than explanation. The business here is more with the heart than the head. Suppose it is a way of hostility — having an evil eye toward some man, though your enemy. If you go on in it, you are in a way of wickedness. It is the Lord's command that you overcome evil with good and that you love your enemies. Therefore you are your own worst enemies in walking in a way of hostility against others. Say it is the way of evil speaking, which is close to hostility (and I therefore speak of it next) — Titus 3:2: 'Speak evil of no man.' You must not speak evil of any man, though he is truly wicked. For you yourselves were such, says the apostle, and therefore do not do it. To make a habit of this — whenever you have an opportunity and someone will give you a hearing — this is a way of wickedness. It is one thing to fall into it beyond your purpose, another to give yourself liberty in it. It may be done for the good of the party, or when it concerns God's glory, but not out of envy. Again, suppose it is a way of idleness, to which men of all callings are subject. Consider that if you were free from all other sins and yet were idle, you are in a way of wickedness. The apostle speaks strongly against idle persons in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: 'For even when we were with you, this we commanded you — that if any would not work, neither should he eat.' That is, it is such a sin that he is not worthy to live who lives in it. As for scholars sent here with an opportunity in their hands to learn the knowledge of God and his true religion — for these to spend their time idly — of all others they are not worthy to live. If Paul may be the judge, you cannot be saved, because this is a way of wickedness. Are you not the Lord's servant? Does he not give you your wages? Suppose it is not a positive act of sinning in itself — yet sin will follow upon idleness. The reason a man neglects to do what he should is because he is doing what he should not. And therefore in 2 Thessalonians 3:11 he calls those idle persons busybodies, because while idle they are busy about something else — good fellowship, drinking, or perhaps recreations. Though these are in themselves lawful, yet they are most unlawful when a man makes a trade of them.

This way of idleness is common among men, and misspending time is counted no sin if a man has enough to maintain him. But consider how vehement the apostle is against all such in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, speaking of the same persons: 'I command you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks disorderly.' He gives this not from himself, but it is a command from Christ. And besides, he says that he who walks idly walks out of order — that is, contrary to his rule, which is to be diligent in his calling. Therefore he is like a soldier out of rank, a limb out of joint. Yes, says the apostle: 'Let him not eat.' He names a punishment in nature suited to it, as if he had said: nature has taught you as much. It is a rule ingrafted in nature — and therefore you see that drones are cast out of the hive, and stones and all things that lie still do not eat as living creatures do. This is a mother sin — it was the sin of Sodom. Solomon often touches on the sluggard and speaks against him. As there may be a way of wickedness by being idle, so also by minding earthly business too much. Against such the apostle speaks in Philippians 3:19: 'minding earthly things — whose end is destruction.' Minding — that is, being so absorbed that they mind it continually. Whereas men should be so engaged in the world and use it as if they used it not: buy and marry as if they did not marry. Let it be a secondary business. Do it as if you were not doing it, being so diligent in them that the main of your intentions is reserved for better things — such as growth in grace. Otherwise we forget the main errand for which we came into the world: to make our calling and election sure, and to give that our primary attention rather than treating it as a side matter. This is a fault even among God's people in part, as we may see in Martha, who troubled herself about many things. But Mary left all to hear Christ preach. And Christ on that occasion teaches us that she makes the better choice who takes more time from her worldly occupation to give to better things. Mark the reasons Christ uses why Mary chose the better part. First, because this alone is needful — that one thing necessary. There are many worldly things required to make up our comfort. 'You are troubled about many things,' he says to Martha, 'but this one thing is sufficient.' Many other things may be spared, but this is that one thing necessary. And again, this one thing shall not be taken from her. She shall enjoy it forever, and it will accompany her to heaven. Whereas death will strip Martha of those outward things and bring care and vexation of spirit. As in Martha, she was burdened. So Mary's part was the better, and let us also choose it.

Again, there is a way of wickedness that Solomon often touches on and speaks against: a false balance, by which he means any kind of unjust dealing in trade — selling inferior goods with a good appearance, any such hidden mystery of unequal gain. It is an abomination to the Lord, says Solomon. Is this the exercise of your calling for the good of men? No, it is for their hurt and the destruction of your own souls. Likewise, if there is any such secret way of sinning found in you — as the apostle speaks in 1 Thessalonians 4:4: 'that every one of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust' — by vessel he means soul and body, which were made wholly for the Lord to put his grace into. Take heed therefore of any such lust of uncleanness. The apostle does not mean any one particular act. Therefore if there is any such secret way of uncleanness of whatever kind, you are still in a miserable condition. For I tell you: if you had any work of regeneration in you, would it not resist every kind of sin? If you had any true tenderness of conscience, you would be sensible of every way of wickedness — as tender flesh is of every prick, or the eye of every mote. But you will say, 'The best may fall into these sins.' Answer: yes, but they do not make a path of them. Wicked men take their walks in sin — you shall find them there day after day. But not so with a godly man: he never draws a course of sin as a thread through his whole life. When there are ten thousand roads to one place, any one of them is enough to lead there. There are many roads to hell, and any way of sin leads to hell, though it be only one. Therefore you belong to Satan's side and not to the Lord's, unless you can say as Paul and the Corinthians did: 'Whereas I was sometimes a blasphemer and unclean, now I am sanctified and washed.' You must be able to say this of every evil way, or you shall not be saved.

As for the commission of sin, so for the neglect of duties: suppose it is the neglecting of God's ordinances — such as hearing the word. It is a monstrous thing that some make it a custom to be absent. They are openly showing the world that they lie in a way of wickedness. So also for negligent performance of duties, which will amount to the same degree of guilt as sins of omission and be reckoned as if you had not done them. You may have a way of wickedness in the very manner of performing duties, for God commands the manner of the duty as well as the substance. A man perhaps will not neglect the duty and yet performs it negligently. Now Christ bids us not only to hear but to 'take heed how we hear' — namely, in such a manner as to gain strength by every powerful sermon.

If you do not find your heart softened — which was hard before — and moved by it, I may say you have not truly heard. So in prayer: when prayer does not bring your heart into order, which was out of order before, you have not truly prayed. Remember that the manner is commanded as well as the substance. So for fellowship with the saints: we are charged not to forsake the assembly of the saints. Therefore it is a way of wickedness not to be found among them. What can you say for yourselves who neglect this command? How can you look to have your prayers heard, your sins forgiven? So for your speech: it ought to be profitable, ministering grace to the hearers — offering not dross but fine silver. Proverbs 10:20: 'The tongue of the just is as choice silver.' And this always: 'Let your speech be gracious always' (Colossians 4) — not only by fits.

So for family duties: look whether there is any way of wickedness there. Ephesians 6:4: children and servants ought to be brought up in the nurture of the Lord. This you ought to do for your servants, for when they are placed under your care, you become as parents to them. Deuteronomy 6:7.

There is a strict command to repeat and teach the ways of God on all occasions. Those families in which nothing is done to bring them up in the ways of the Lord have a way of wickedness in them. Search it out.

I have dwelt longer on particulars because it is spreading the net that catches the fish. Therefore Paul descends to particulars where he might have been content with generals in Romans 1:29: 'Being filled with all unrighteousness.' But he adds a catalogue of many particulars: fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, etc. So 1 Corinthians 6:9: 'Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?' That might have been enough in general. Yet he brings in a catalog of particulars: 'Do not be deceived — no fornicator, nor drunkard, etc., shall inherit the kingdom of God.' As if he should say: 'Should I stay in these general terms, you would be ready to slip away from it. Therefore I speak it of every particular course of sinning.' When a man is to fire at a flock of birds, he puts in not one bullet only but birdshot. So when we speak to many people, we are to apply many particulars. Nathan applied his message specifically to David. And if ministers should omit it, the people themselves should bring general truths to particular application in applying the word to themselves at home. And in applying these particulars, let them consider the doctrine delivered: that if there is any of these or any other way of wickedness in a man, he cannot be saved.

And though many will be ready to say, 'We already know this — it is no news to us,' yet I fear that if the hearts of men were ransacked and searched, it would be found they did not truly believe it. They think they may lie in some small sin and yet be saved by the mercies of God in Christ. For if they did not think so, they would not be so bold as to lie in sin as they are. Therefore the apostle on this occasion still inserts this caution: 'Be not deceived' — as in Ephesians 5:6: 'Let no man deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.' As if he had said: every man is apt to think that notwithstanding such courses of disobedience he may be saved. Therefore take heed. The apostle often uses such warnings. As 1 Corinthians 6:9 — it is as if someone said to a traveler asking the way: 'At such and such a place there is a turning off the road; if you do not take heed and mark it, you may be deceived and go astray. Many have lost their way there.' So: 'Do not be deceived,' says the apostle — it is twenty to one you will miss it in this particular. We are ready to think of God as a God all of mercy. And to see the greatness of God's justice requires spiritual eyes. Therefore though you know this, yet consider it. There are many things we know and yet do not know — we see and yet do not see them. That is, we do not consider them as we should. And the devil is quick to delude us, saying, 'Such a small sin may stand with salvation.' Therefore it is no wonder if many go wrong. I may say of that man who is fully persuaded that to lie in any sin whatever — even the smallest — will condemn him: it is a thousand to one that man will be turned.

Yet take this in to qualify it: notwithstanding a little swerving, a man's condition may be good. But it is continuing in it that makes it a way. For if you judge a man by a step or two, you will judge wrongly. Therefore I say it must be a way of wickedness. The ground is this: a way of wickedness proceeds from the root, from the frame of the heart, which a man will return to again, whether good or bad. For though a godly man may be carried away for a time, yet he returns again to his former course. On the contrary, a wicked man may be hemmed in for a stretch of his way by upbringing, so that he cannot go out. So Joash was hemmed in by Jehoiada and went straight on for many years. But consider what way you take when you come to the end of the lane — when you are your own man, at your own choice.

And therefore, because we are on a point of salvation and damnation, we need to distinguish exactly. And what requires us to distinguish in this point is that a regenerate man may have many relapses into ways he has forsaken, while wicked men may have standstills in their evil ways, and sometimes turn out of them, and perform many duties, and go far in obedience to the law.

The question is: how shall we distinguish this? It will serve to unmask the one and comfort the other.

Observe three rules to find the differences.

First, consider the search made for sin. An upright-hearted man, if there is any doubtful case in his whole life, is willing to be fully informed — to refer himself to the word and to godly men to find out what is right. When he himself doubts, he would be glad to be resolved, and would love the one who would do it for him. 'Lord, try me,' said David (Psalm 139), 'if there be any way of wickedness in me' — which was a sign of the uprightness of his heart. When the heart is not sound, a man is not willing to examine everything, as John 3:20-21 shows, from which this difference is taken: 'Everyone who does truth — that is, who is upright-hearted — comes to the light. But he who does evil hates the light, because he does not want his deeds known.' It is spoken of the Pharisees, who took it as an affront to have their uprightness questioned by our Savior. And this is sincerity — what the apostle calls it — when a man is willing to have all his actions brought to the sunlight (as that word implies), so that if there is any flaw in them it may be discovered and corrected. He does not want them kept in dark shops like defective goods, but brought into view and examination. Therefore the upright person delights most in the company of those who are freest from his own sin. They appear most beautiful in his eyes, and he loves a ministry that speaks to that particular sin. Everyone is eager to hear evil spoken of his enemy, and sin is his greatest enemy. Therefore you could not have done David a better service than Abigail and Nathan did in telling him of his fault. But you could not have done Amaziah and Jeroboam a worse one than the prophets did when they reproved them. He who wants a building torn down is glad for those who come with pickaxes. But if he wants it to stand, he cannot bear anyone who offers to meddle with it. So the strongholds of sin are to be pulled down. A godly man welcomes those who will help him against them. When conscience doubts that some course is not good — though it is ambiguous — if you are reluctant to have it examined fully, it is a sign you have a false heart and desire to continue in it. It is a sweet morsel to you (Job 20:12). When sin is kept as an ulcer that you will not let anyone come near, it is a sign you love it and are not turned from it.

Second, there is a great difference in the ground and principle of a godly man's forsaking sin and obeying the law, compared to that which is in an unregenerate man who is not truly converted, though he may go far in both. For the upright-hearted man has not only some present checks and passing resolutions to leave sin, but there is a law stamped upon his mind by which to resist the law of sin forever. This law the other lacks. Romans 7:23: 'I see a law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.' To a man truly converted there is a double law: the outward one written in Scripture, and the inward one printed on his heart, which is able to guide him. Therefore the apostle says in 1 Timothy 1:8: 'The law was not given for the righteous' — that is, it is not given to him as to others. For others, having no law within them, must be pressed only by what is without. But it is, as it were, needless to the other — he has one in his mind continually, opposing the law of sin.

Now because explaining what this law of the mind is will greatly help to clarify this difference, I will further show what this law of the mind is.

It is an inward habit of holiness corresponding to the law of God, as a copy corresponds to the original — answering it in every respect.

And it is called a law because it commands powerfully, as a law has authority in it. It effectually inclines and carries the heart on to do what the outward law commands. And on the contrary, it forbids with power and efficacy the committing of sin. And it has this power in it because it is the very power, virtue, and fruit of the resurrection of Christ and is the immediate work of the Spirit, who is stronger than Satan, the world, and the flesh.

And likewise it is called a law because as a law it rewards and punishes — refreshing the obedient with peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit. And when a man disobeys it, it causes grief and wounds the heart. That law in David struck him when he had numbered the people, and caused Peter to weep bitterly. And in the second place it is called the law of the mind because, though it sanctifies the whole man, it is most present in the mind. As the law of the members is called so because in a regenerate man it is strongest in the members and least in the mind and will. This law both illuminates the mind with saving, operative knowledge of God and his law, and stamps all the habits of grace upon his will (Jeremiah 32:4). An unregenerate man may through an enlightened conscience put a stop to evil courses, but without such a law as this.

This being thus explained, the difference between a natural conscience that is enlightened and this law of the mind consists in these effects.

The first is taken from the phrase itself: when it is called the law of the mind, it has a differing work upon the mind from that which the light of conscience has. For the knowledge this law stamps upon the mind differs from that which is brought into the conscience of a natural man.

Though an unregenerate man may first know the law and second consent to it as being good in itself, yet a regenerate man who has this law of the mind goes further and consents to it as good for him. This is the meaning of what the apostle says in Romans 7:15 — that he consents to the law that it is good. And therefore it has this same work upon his mind: that he also 'does not allow' what is not good for him (verse 16) — not as good for him here and now. This the other lacks, because he lacks the light by which the Holy Spirit convinces a regenerate man that it is best for him to obey the law in such and such circumstances — and when he comes to act it out on all occasions, answering all objections. The other sees the law as good in itself, but not for him in such and such circumstances. An envious man first knows what is good, second consents that it is excellent, but third does not see that it is good for him. And so also, though an unregenerate man may allow sin to be evil in itself, yet not for him in such and such circumstances.

But then you will object: 'It seems then that the knowledge of a carnal man and a regenerate man differ only in degree, not in kind.'

The absence of sufficient degree here changes the kind, as in numbers the addition of a degree changes the species and kind.

This law of the mind puts a deep desire in the soul against what is evil and toward what is good (Galatians 5:17). So that a man is not only stirred up to his duty by conscience but also has an inward inclination toward it. And so for sin: this law puts a strong inclination into the faculties that does not merely restrain the outward acts but weakens the habits of sin by a contrary impulse. But the light of conscience, though it may weaken the act, yet does not weaken the habit. So Galatians 5:24: not only are the acts restrained but the lusts are crucified — their force is reduced by a contrary desire, a desire that passes through every faculty and weakens it. Now nothing is weakened but by what is contrary to it. If therefore we look only to the restraining of outward acts, both the regenerate and unregenerate agree in that. And again, if we look only to the reduction of a particular lust and no more, we may also be deceived. But if the habit of sin is weakened by a contrary desire, then it is from grace and the law of the mind.

The difference is in the willingness to perform what is good and to abstain from evil. 'To will is present with me,' says the apostle in Romans 7. Another man, prompted by conscience, may do what is good. But to will it — and to will it heartily, with the full bent and inclination of the soul — he is not able to say he does so. In 1 Timothy 1:9: 'The law is not given to a righteous man' — that is, he has a law of grace in him that moves him to good without the outward law. As if to say: this outward law might be spared to this man, since he is a law to himself. But it is given to the unrighteous — that is, he would do nothing without it. He does not have in himself a strong inclination toward what is good and aversion to evil, as the other has. Romans 7:15: 'I hate the evil that I do.' He hates the evil the law forbids and longs for what the law commands. The law is put upon the wicked as a restraint to keep him in. He looks upon the commandments as chains and shackles. But a regenerate man looks on them as girdles and garters, which gird up his loins and better expedite his course. The law confines a regenerate man to live in that very element where he would choose to live. As if one were confined to paradise — where he would be anyway, though there were no such law. But another man is confined by it to the place where he would not be, and to actions he would not do. Therefore examine yourself: is there in you such a constant inclination to walk in the ways of godliness that you could be a law to yourself, if left to what the Lord has worked in you?

Fourth: they differ in the power that accompanies this law of the mind in a regenerate man. Where this law of grace is, there is not only a knowledge of what should be done — there is also a power that goes with it. This law is a kingdom. And a government consists not in word but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). First John 3:9: 'He who is born of God does not sin, neither can he sin.' Compared with John 1:12: 'Who were born, not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God.' The meaning of both compared is this: a regenerate man who is born of God has first such a habit as is in agreement with the will of God in all things. And this habit is like something innate — like natural qualities bred and born with us — so that he cannot sin. That is, he cannot but resist and strive against it and in the end have the victory over it. For there is a law within him that moves him toward what God wills. And second, not only so, but he is born thus, says the apostle — that is, though this disposition is infused, yet it is so deeply rooted in him that he can no more shake it off than a natural disposition he was born with. Therefore he cannot sin — that is, it cannot be that he should become a sinner given over to sin. On the contrary, natural men lacking this law are not and cannot be subject to the law of God, because their disposition to sin is natural to them. They are born of the flesh, of the will of man. So this law of grace works out all evil in the end and, when good is to be done, breaks through all difficulties. But corruption in the other works out all good and returns to sin. So he says: 'I am not able to keep the Sabbath, and abstain from such and such a sin — I am so strongly inclined to it.'

Fifth difference is from Romans 7: 'Not I, but sin' — and in the last verse: 'With my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.' This law of the mind makes a change in the person. Can any unregenerate man in the world say, 'It is not I, but sin'? If he does anything that is good, it is not fully him. If he does anything that is evil, it is him and only him that does it. A regenerate man himself never sins — that is, while he is himself, he never yields to sin. But it is his flesh when he is not himself. And an unregenerate man when he is himself never fully yields to the motions of grace. But a regenerate man whenever he is himself acts according to this part. He is never otherwise overcome except by a strong temptation, drunk and carried away with passion, when a mist is before his eyes. 'I always serve with my mind the law of God.' And therefore though he is overcome at times, yet with this difference: he looks upon it as a captivity and a bondage worse than that of Egypt. He is not like the servant in the law who was willing to have his ear bored through and to serve that master forever. Whereas another looks at sin as a liberty and the law of God as a restraint, and wishes it were not, though he may accommodate himself to it. And though he may delight in sin for a time, yet withal he delights in the law in the inner man. And that is the more constant, prevailing, and overcoming delight. So consider whether there is not another delight contrary to the delight in sin — though at the time when the flesh delights in sin it does not appear — which yet overcomes and outlasts the other.

Rule 3 is: consider the manner of your resisting and fighting against sin. And here there are four notable differences to be laid open.

The upright in heart fights against sin with the whole frame of his heart. All the faculties fight in their courses, as it is said the stars did against Sisera. First the mind: there is a change of mind in him, another opinion of his sin. There is a change in judgment — he is renewed in his mind. Let a man's opinion be kept right, and however his passions may stir, they will in the end vanish. While a man is unregenerate, he is as Colossians 1:21 says — 'an enemy in his thoughts,' or in his reasonings, as the word translated there properly means. 'But now he has reconciled.' And so after conversion a man is a friend in his understanding to the ways of God. He is in his judgment reconciled to them and thereby become an enemy to the ways of sin. The question here is not whether you think sin to be evil in general, or this and that to be unlawful. But whether it is evil to you, here and now, at this and that particular time, in these and these circumstances. And then conscience also comes in and fights against sin, being tender and always fearful. Proverbs 28:14: 'Blessed is the man who always fears' — whereas he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. That is a place which only conscience can be made guilty of — this hardness and this tenderness. Such a man would as soon venture into the mouth of a cannon as commit a sin. And though he may sometimes be carried away for a time, yet conscience fights against it. Then for the will: it also fights against sin, while with David he has sworn to keep those righteous judgments — that is, has firmly resolved against sin. Lastly he resists sin in his affections. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul prayed and prayed earnestly and could not rest with a denial — he was so troubled. So in David, Psalm 119:20: 'My soul breaks with longing for your judgments.' When a man hungers and thirsts after righteousness and weeps bitterly for sin as Peter did, it is a sign his affections are stirred. Now on the contrary, in an evil man, all the faculties fight in their courses for sin. As Ephesians 4:18-19: 'Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart — who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness.' Here you may see all four faculties in an ungodly man fighting for sin.

Their thoughts are darkened, etc. — their understandings are for sin, being estranged from the ways of God.

Then second comes the conscience — because of the hardness of their heart (so the word signifies), their conscience being insensible of sin.

And then third, for the will: they have given themselves over to it. They have taken to themselves a resolution to betray their souls to it.

Then fourth, for the affections: they are said to commit it with greediness — that is, with an insatiable desire, such as is in a covetous man who is greedy and can never have enough — his affections are so expansive.

This is the first difference, in regard to the subject.

The second difference is in respect to the object — what they fight against. A carnal man fights against gross evils. As we see in Herod when he beheaded John: what a contention was there in him? He was troubled about what report the people would give of it and about the murder of one he knew to be so holy and good a man. But a man truly regenerate, as he is enabled to see more than another, so also he fights against more. Another man sees no more than the moral good and evil, and so fights against no more. But besides this, a regenerate man sees the spiritual holiness that is in a duty and looks to the manner as well as the matter. He fights against those smaller motes in the sunbeam. All carnal men find fault with strictness in godliness. But another man's chief trouble is that he cannot be strict enough. Paul was a learned man and understood the law of Moses exactly and was not ignorant of the Ten Commandments. Yet when he came to be regenerate, he saw and understood it in a different manner: 'I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and appeared as a monster' — what had before seemed a small thing to him appeared 'above measure sinful.' So for good: when a man is changed in his mind, he discerns the whole will of God, that perfect will (Romans 12:2). Before, he saw perhaps only the main duties and the grosser evils.

This is a second difference in the object.

The third difference is in the outcome. The issue of a carnal man's resistance is always that he follows the worse. The godly in the end follows the best and is a conqueror. And though much assaulted, yet he walks after the Spirit (Romans 8:1) and in the end mortifies the deeds of the flesh. But a wicked man, though he may have many good intentions, yet walks — as Ephesians 4:17 says — 'in the vanity of his mind' and in the end fulfills the lusts of the flesh. This is Paul's own case being compared in Romans 7 with 2 Corinthians 12. Though he complains much in both, yet grace sufficient was given him to keep him from the act.

But some of God's children have had the worst in the outcome of the combat — as David, who fell into adultery, and Saint Peter, into denial of his master.

In some particular actions they may be defeated, but the combat is with the lust, which in the end is overcome, though those actions gave it a blow. Peter's lust was fear, which made him deny his master. But in the end it was overcome, as Acts 4:8 shows — his boldness there is evidence of it. So David had the victory over that lust: Psalm 51 shows how he hated it and was fenced against it.

Fourth difference is in respect of the duration of the combat. In the wicked it lasts but for a time, because what causes the combat in him has no firm root. Like a flower, though beautiful, it grows on only a stalk of grass and therefore soon withers. When the combatants fail, the combat ends. Saul held out for a while and carried things fairly, but in the end persecuted David and followed his lusts without any restraint. Judas was long restrained and kept himself in Christ's company, but at last his covetousness overcame him and he resolved to hand his master over to the Pharisees. Joash restrained himself the greater part of his life while his uncle lived. But two years before his death he gave himself over to do evil. The princes came and did reverence to him, and he yielded. So Amaziah, after he had overcome the Edomites.

In a regenerate man the combatants always continue. It is an immortal seed that cannot be uprooted. Therefore the combat lasts and increases. There was a strife of fear in Nicodemus, and he came by night. But he gained the mastery and spoke boldly for Christ. And so again we see it in Peter: there was a combat in him to his very death, as appears from what Christ told him: 'They shall carry you where you would not go.' This was a strife in him that never ended until he himself came to his end in this world.

Thus you have seen the differences between the relapses of the godly and those of the wicked. By these, examine yourselves.

If no promise belongs to any but to those who turn, then this follows: if any have provoked the eyes of God's glory by any sin, let him not think to settle the matter by offering sacrifice — that is, by prayers and confessions alone. For God requires this absolutely: 'Except you turn, I will not be merciful.' Do what you will — humble yourselves, fast, pray, seek my face, etc. — God will be satisfied with nothing unless there is a real turning. Therefore let no man say: 'I have sinned, and I am sorry, and I confess it, but I am not able to leave it — and yet I hope God will pardon me.' No — know that a promissory note is not payment. God requires all of this — humiliation and good purposes — and an act of turning besides. All is wasted effort unless a divorce is made from your sins. Well therefore might Daniel say to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:27): 'Break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquity by showing mercy to the poor.' Daniel does not exhort Nebuchadnezzar only to prayer — though that is likewise to be done. But to break off his sins by righteousness — that is, whereas he was an oppressor, now he must give to the poor and lift their burdens. That is, take the contrary course. This is the counsel God gave to Joshua in Joshua 7:8: when he was humbling himself and praying, God said: 'Get up. Take away the accursed thing from among you.' That is: fasting is not the way in itself (though it is to be done too). What I look for most is the removal of the evil that has provoked me. Though this is an acknowledged truth, yet look into men's hearts and there is a false notion lurking there: that hearing the word, receiving the Sacrament, etc. is enough to save them. Men would think their condition absolutely bad if they performed none of these duties. But if they come to church, give some alms, etc., then they think all is well. But know that unless you actually turn from all evil ways, all these performances are in vain.

And to convince you of this, consider that the end of the word, fellowship, and sacraments is to turn you from your evil ways. Therefore God accepts them no further than they have this effect. 'You shall keep my ordinances and statutes, that you may walk in my ways, to fear me, says the Lord.' That is the end of all ordinances and statutes. So though there be ever so much done, yet unless your lusts are mortified and victory is gained over those sins most natural to you, all is lost. Again, consider that those duties in which you trust (as we are all prone to do) — such as reading good books and confessing your sins — if they are rightly performed, they will work a true change. And if they do not, it is a sign they are but empty shells, not accepted. Without this fruit, what are they but bodily exercises — though perhaps performed with some mental effort — because they profit nothing? In 1 Timothy 4:8, the apostle calls what profits little 'bodily exercise.' Therefore Romans 2 at the end makes a distinction between a Jew in spirit and a Jew in the letter. And so between a right and a false performance of the duties of the law. The one in the letter, the other in the spirit. The one regards only the outward part of the duty, the other the inward. And if they are not inward, in the spirit, and thereby effectual to work a general change both in heart and life — their praise may be of men (that is, you yourselves and others may think you good Christians) but their praise is not of God, says the apostle. We are all God's cultivation. The ministers are the dressers of it. The ordinances are the fertilizer. Now what is the end of all cultivation? Is it not fruit? Is it enough for the trees to say, 'We have submitted ourselves to all fertilizing and watering, but we are still as barren, or our fruit is as bad as before'? Malachi 3:2: the end of Christ's coming is made to be as a refiner, to scour out stains. This passage compared with Isaiah 1 — where God says he abhorred their new moons and sacrifices because their silver had become dross — together shows that the end of Christ's coming being to purge out this dross, if this is not done, all performances — new moons, sacrifices, etc. — are in vain. Conclude therefore that unless there is a universal change — both of the object, from evil to all good, and of the subject in all the faculties — unless this is worked in you, you shall surely die for it. The Lord will not forgive you or hear in heaven when you cry, though you shed never so many false tears.

If this is the condition on which mercy is suspended, this also follows: good purposes and intentions alone will not serve the turn. Not but that these must precede every man's turning. And when they are true, they do bring forth this effect of turning from all evil ways whatever. But as there is a purpose that is true and the ground of sincerity, so there are false ones also. The true always continues and brings forth constant endeavors and fruits. But the other leaves us where it finds us and quickly dies and withers. There is so much in a carnal man as may breed good purposes, desires, and resolutions — namely, natural conscience and desires of preservation and salvation. These two put together work serious purposes. But this being all still flesh, is not able to work such a thorough change. As we see in marshy ground and in a rotten, wet soil: it brings forth broad, long grass that soon withers and decays, and is neither sweet nor useful. So it is with an enlightened conscience and self-love. They produce good purposes, in appearance great and serious, but such as the people expressed in Deuteronomy 5:29 — who purposed to keep the law. But God said: 'Oh that there were in them such a heart as this!' As if he said: the soil, the ground is not good for these purposes to grow in. Therefore they will surely wither. There wants a changed heart to give them root and nourishment.

The next point is gathered from the order of the words. Turning from our evil ways is placed last of all four conditions, because all the others only make way for this one. All the others — prayer and humiliation — are but preparatives to this. As the end of all dressing and pruning of trees is the fruit, and the end of plowing and sowing is the bringing forth of grain, so the end of all other duties is turning from our evil ways. The end is always the hardest. All difficulty is in the very summit and top of the hill. This being the uttermost of all the others, it is therefore the hardest. Therefore the prophets urge this on all occasions: 'If you turn, cease to do evil, rend your hearts — then will I leave a blessing behind me.' In that this is the pin upon which all hangs and is suspended, observe from it:

That it is a very difficult thing to turn from one's evil ways.

That this is the most difficult duty of all is plain from the Israelites. The Jewish religion was very costly — they were to kill so many sacrifices and keep so many feasts. Yet they were content to do all this, but not to turn. They would not be brought to it, while agreeable to everything else. This shows the difficulty of it. Their readiness to offer sacrifice was always acknowledged by God, while their reluctance to turn was still complained of. Again, we see it in experience. Let a man who has an evil and wicked heart — let him be broken in a mortar; lay affliction upon affliction; let him be brought to death's door. Yet all this will not change him. Yes, let God work miracles — not only before him but upon him — yet all is not enough to turn him. As we see in Jeroboam: a miracle was worked upon him. Though his hand was withered up and he was reproved by the prophet, and his kingdom was threatened to be taken away — yet this would not work upon him. He would not turn from his evil ways, finding such sweetness in that evil course by which he held his kingdom, and thinking he could not keep it if he left it. So all the great wonders in Egypt would not soften Pharaoh's heart or make him let the children of Israel go, because he thought it was for his profit to keep them still. The grounds of this difficulty are:

Because these evil ways are so pleasant to us, so suitable to all men according to their several inclinations. Now it is a rule in ethics that those things are most difficult about which joys and griefs are centered. And therefore the chief employment and purpose of virtue is to order them and guide them aright.

Because they are rooted in nature and agreeable to a man's natural disposition. And it is hard to stop the current of nature, in whatever direction it runs — especially running downhill. And then besides, upbringing adds to nature, and habit as a second nature adds strength to sin. And Satan adds to all these. For when lusts lie as sparks under embers, he blows them up. And to all these add the influence of wicked men among whom we live and who live with us in the same courses. Therefore in Ephesians 2 the course of the world and the prince who works in the children of disobedience are shown to be strong, potent, and effective workers in us. There is nothing so weak as water — yet let a great body of water be joined together and nothing is stronger. So though sin were weak in itself (and it is not), yet when multitudes join together with habit, Satan, etc., we are carried with the stream and the crowd.

Because every evil way in us is backed by an inward law of the members, which also makes it hard. Romans 7:23: the apostle, considering why sin should so prevail and lead him captive, gives this reason: 'I see another law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind.' This is given as the reason why he cannot do the good he would, and why he does the evil he hates. The reason he had so much to wrestle with it was that it is a law. It is called a law — the law of sin — because it commands powerfully, as a law does. A law implies a strong commanding inclination. Laws compel obedience and will have it done. They come with authority and will not be denied. And so does sin. Therefore it is hard to resist it, and it forbids good to be done, so that a man cannot do it. So 2 Peter 2:14: 'Eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin' — because as a law, it is armed with punishments and rewards. This is the definition of a law: a mere command is not called a law because it merely teaches. But when threats are joined with it, then it is called a law. And such are our lusts. If we resist them, they threaten with some evil. As when Ahab would have Naboth's vineyard, his lust not being satisfied cast him onto his sickbed, as if it meant to be revenged on him until it was satisfied. So did Haman's lust also. And as it threatens and punishes, so it promises rewards — profit and pleasure — if we will obey it.

Both of which show the difficulty of resisting it.

As also the fact that it is called the law of the members shows as much, for it is so called:

First, because it inclines not only in a moral manner — as when a man is persuaded by reason or motives to do something evil — but because it inclines us physically, as nature inclines us toward food and drink. A law so deeply rooted in the soul, if it inclines by way of nature, as weights hang on wheels and make them turn, as we say, whether they will or not — reason may be put off and denied, but not a strong inclination of nature. That will not be got off so easily.

Because it reveals itself (though seated in the whole man) most operatively in the sensual part, as on the contrary the law of the mind is most exercised in the higher part, though it sanctifies the whole man. The meaning is this: it appears in the faculties of the mind when they are set about any action that is good. And in relation it is called the law of the members because it is most discerned in the use of the members. As a man who has palsy — the affliction lies undiscerned in the hand, but when he comes to use it, he finds it. So the gout, or soreness, or lameness in the leg — though it is there, it is most discerned when a man goes to walk. Such a lameness or difficulty in our faculties appears when we go about anything that is good.

In the last place, this law of the members is said to rebel against the law of the mind. And if we consider its forces in this war, we shall find it difficult to resist and turn from them.

For first there is a strong faction of evil — many members, many lusts, legions of lusts warring. So the word implies: it is not a single combat but a battle of many. There is not a good impulse that comes into the soul but they give their vote against it, their voice against whatever is good. No good intention but they are ready to oppose it. Nor do they merely speak against it and tell us they dislike it — they will reason it out with many arguments. And they are not only able to give a voice against what is good but also to actively do something. They dampen and clog and hinder the spirit when it is about any good. Therefore it is called the flesh, because its nature is to dampen the spirit. As in legal proceedings there often comes an injunction from one court to stay the proceedings at another — so from the law of the members comes a hindrance, often stopping us when we would pray and confer, etc. As in war it is our part to stop passages, to take up bridges, to prevent the enemy from going where they would — so do they fight against us in our endeavors to do good.

So Galatians 5:17: the flesh so lusts against the Spirit that you cannot do what you would. And it not only stops you from good, but impels you to evil. It not only makes defensive war to hold its own, but labors to gain ground and fight — as fire fights with water, laboring to overcome grace where it has begun and to absorb it into itself.

And lastly, they are always able to make war. Though the victory is gained today, yet lusts are ready to set on us again tomorrow. A lust which you thought you should never hear of again sets upon you afresh. And though you resist all the motions and assaults the flesh puts upon you this day, yet there is such a brood, such a spring, that tomorrow there will be new ones to renew the assault and bring fresh supply. It is always recovering strength and setting up fresh attacks.

All of which considered, it appears to be most difficult for unregenerate men to begin to turn, or for regenerate men to gain any ground over their evil ways.

If to turn from our evil ways and to resist the law of the members is so difficult, then learn to proportion your effort to the work. Otherwise the business will not be effected. If much labor is required and little is given, then what is given will be lost.

Think therefore to yourself: if you have taken little or no pains, the work is not yet done. If any man has thought it an easy work, let that very fact be enough to convince him that the work has not yet been accomplished. The blunter the tool, the more strength must be put to it. Many remain in their sins because they have underestimated the difficulty of this work and thought less effort would have sufficed. Is it easy to change and turn the course of nature? See it by experience: if a man has a natural inclination, though it may be less active sometimes than at other times, yet it will return again and again. And if you do not bring as much force against it as it brings against you, you do nothing to resist it. If one comes against you with ten thousand and you meet him with but two thousand, which is likely to get the victory? You must not therefore spare any pains. The greater the good, the harder it is to attain. Is it easy to build a temple to the Lord and to keep it clean and in repair? See what pains Paul took in 1 Corinthians 9, the last three verses: 'Every man that competes is temperate in all things. Therefore I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.' He expressed it by what those who competed at the Olympian games did — who were at great pains and labors beforehand to prepare themselves for those exercises.

To bring it to particulars:

Is it not hard to keep watch and ward day and night against a spiritual enemy? To keep up the banks against the sea of lusts continually assaulting and breaking in? To take up and bear the daily cross without stumbling? To carry the cup of prosperity without spilling? To climb the hill of good duties without fainting? To abstain from the waters of pleasure when we are most thirsty and they are close at hand? To go against the crowd without sweating? To be as an owl among men and to bear the shame? As it is said of Christ, who went out and suffered outside the gate — he bore the reproach. And to do all this continually? These are no easy things, and yet they must be done. Men in this case are like spendthrifts who complain of poverty and that they cannot prosper, and yet will take no pains. The sluggard will not pull his hand out of his bosom. And men are sluggards in matters of salvation. But to quicken you, consider that this is the main business you came into the world to do. And do you think that a little spare time spent on it will be enough? Matthew 11:12: 'The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force' — that is, he who would have the kingdom of heaven must use violence to take it. Violence must be done to your appetites and unruly affections. He must keep them under, and that by force. And again he must use force in his prayers and other holy duties — that is, he must wrestle and strive in them and be fervent in them. There are some good duties to be done with violence, as it were. Christ shows in that place that when the preaching of the gospel came, and the beauty of the kingdom came to be opened to men, they took it by force. But who is so ravished now with those privileges — the hope of their calling, etc. — that they should take it with violence, sparing no pains? Therefore stir yourselves and consider what it will cost you. This concerns even those who profess the fear of the Lord. Look at what anger and passion they have been subject to — they are subject to still. Look at what slackness they used in prayer — the same they use still. Their old infirmities hang upon them still — they are found in the same path. The reason is that they think a godly course an easy thing. Therefore they have taken but small pains to be freed from the bondage of their lusts and to grow in grace. So also those who are outside are not willing to be at the cost and labor to begin to repent, but think it may be put off — it will be easily done at any time. But know, beloved: it is not so. Take a man accustomed to idleness: is it easy for him to become diligent and hardworking in his calling? So if there is any evil habit, how hard is it to prevent a man from still going downhill — to pull his feet out of the pit of uncleanness, dishonest gain, or gambling, etc.

But you will say: 'What is the labor we must take? Turn from our evil ways?'

Directions might soon be given. If there is any edge set on your desires, if you were once resolved — that very resolution is one means to overcome your evil ways. But to help you, take these:

To those who are strangers from the covenant — to those I speak first. When you are given to evil ways, do not first go about a reformation in any particular. Rather, endeavor to get a general change worked. It is a rule in medicine that when a man has a particular infirmity, the way to cure it is first to bring the whole body into a good frame and constitution, and that will work out the disease. So get the ultimate end altered. Therefore humble yourselves and seek God's face, and do not leave off until some assurance of God's favor has been obtained — until a new Lord is set up in your hearts, a new end. Until the end is changed, no good can be done. Therefore it is in vain to go about particulars first. The ultimate end is like the rudder to the ship or the bridle to the horse — it turns everything. Going about particulars only is as if one should set his shoulder against the side of the ship when one touch of the rudder would do it. Therefore Rehoboam erred in 2 Chronicles 10:14 because his heart was not prepared to seek the Lord. His failure in that particular is attributed to his want in the general. Job 17:9: 'The righteous shall hold on his way, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.' He who has his heart once changed holds on. But until that is done, all striving with particulars is in vain. Consider: take a gardener who works hard to dress a thorn bush. He may spend as much labor on it — fertilizing and pruning — as on any plant in the garden. Yet it remains a thorn bush for all the soil put to it. So though you pray and fast and humble yourself, yet if your nature is not changed, all will do no good. Cast a stone upward a thousand times — it comes down again, because it remains a stone. But if it were turned into something lighter, it would not. Therefore get a general change of heart, and then a change in particular will follow.

Go to Christ and beseech him to work this change in you. Let this be more in your practice. We formally acknowledge that the Lord alone can change us, yet this is not thoroughly considered. When your nature is strongly inclined to some evil way, so that you are almost out of hope of overcoming it, yet go to God. That place may encourage us: James 4:5-6: 'Do you think the Scripture speaks in vain? The Spirit that dwells in us lusts toward envy. But he gives more grace.' James had told them in verse 1 of lusts fighting in their members. They might ask how they should get the victory. 'True,' says the apostle, 'it is hard to overcome, and indeed impossible to nature. The spirit that is in us lusts toward envy, and will do so. But consider: the Scripture offers more grace than nature is able to provide. It does not tell you in vain that the grace offered there is able to heal. Though the disease is hereditary and past nature's cure, it is not past the cure of grace.' Acts 5:31: 'Him has God raised up to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.' When lusts are too strong for a man, Christ comes as a Prince and overcomes them, for he gives repentance. And the end of his coming was not only to give salvation but repentance. Though physicians could not cure Naaman, the prophet could. Though the disciples could not cast out demons, yet Christ could. Therefore do not say: 'It is a hereditary lust, it has clung to me for a long time, I have made many resolutions, and yet I cannot overcome it.'

Take a man who is born blind — he is past all cure by man. All physicians will give him up and say he is born blind. Yet remember that Christ cured those who were born blind and lame. This is the course Paul took in 2 Corinthians 12:8 — he had a troubling weakness he could not overcome: 'For this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.' So David also in Psalm 51:10, finding the remnant of his old disease and sinful dispositions, went to God for a new heart. When he could not make his own heart clean, he prayed: 'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' So he in the Gospel: 'Lord, help my unbelief.' Do not think all is done when you have taken up a resolution against your sin. To take up a resolution belongs to you, but to cure it belongs to God alone. Go to him therefore, for he has undertaken to circumcise your heart. Ephesians 3:16-20: having prayed that they might be strengthened in the inner man, Paul concludes: 'Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we are able to ask or think, according to the power that works in us.' As if he had said: you may find many weaknesses in yourselves. Then do as I do for you — go to the Lord to heal them. And know that he is able to do above all you can think: to subdue that lust which you thought could never be overcome.

But how will he do it? 'According to that mighty power that works in us.' That power is as strong as Christ himself, for it is the power of his death, the power that raised him from death to glory. It is able to work out all infirmities and to work into you all the graces you lack. Therefore do not give up. Have faith in the promises of sanctification as well as in those of justification. Is he not as bound by promise to perform these to you who believe, as the others? Where God has a mouth to speak, faith has an ear to hear and a hand to take hold. As God said to Joshua: 'I will conquer those giants for you, I will pull down those walls which they say are built up to heaven. Only be courageous and trust me. Do not be discouraged on any account.' Give not over saying it is a thing that will never be done. Had Joshua not trusted the Lord, he would quickly have sat down and given up. So I say to you concerning your lusts: be courageous. And none are courageous but those who put their confidence in the Lord. Do not faint or grow weary. Only believe you shall overcome, and you shall see them all conquered in the end. One word of his mouth was enough to still the raging winds, and is as able to still your lusts.

But here many will be ready to object: 'I have striven long and prayed long and taken much pains, and I have not gotten the victory.' This must necessarily be answered, for it is the case of many, and it is Satan's aim to discourage men and thereby cause them to give up the fight.

First consider whether your striving is right or not. For there is a false resistance of sin, and the promise is not made to that. And then no wonder if the promise is not fulfilled. For example:

First, it may be that you are not striving against the sin itself but against the disadvantage, disgrace to your name and estate, or sickness in your body that follows from it. So that if these were removed, you would be willing enough to keep the sin. This is not a right striving that will be accepted.

Second, it may be only a faint resistance. And a faint refusal only makes the beggar more importunate. Balaam gave the messengers a refusal, but it was a faint one. They perceived his hesitation, which made them the more persistent. It may be you are still content to parley with sin, as Eve did, and so by little and little you are brought to committing it. These faint refusals are no refusals. These half-hearted skirmishers are not to be counted as fighters against sin.

Third, if your refusal is more resolute, consider whether it is not only for a fit, for a brief good mood. He is only a cowardly enemy that will give over after one volley of shots. Satan and our lusts are not of that disposition.

Fourth, consider whether your resistance is not only against the gross act, and not against the smaller touches — the fringes and borders of sin that surround the act. These are of the same kind as the act, though not of the same degree. You resist perhaps the greater acts but admit the lesser — some dallying with it.

As the drunkard perhaps resolves to run no more into excess, yet he will sit with his old companions and be sipping until sometimes he is overtaken. Balaam will go with the messengers, but will not speak a word except what the Lord puts in his mouth.

The Levite would not stay all day, but yet he was persuaded to stay for breakfast, and then to stay for dinner, and so to stay all night. Thus dalliance brings on adultery, and lesser sins bring on greater — as a little thief let in at a window lets in the greater. If therefore you fail thus in your resistance, the promise is not made to you. It is true it is said, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' But the resistance must be the right kind, and not such as has been described. That is the first answer.

As you may be deceived in your striving against sin, so also about the victory — and that on both sides: by thinking you have the victory when you do not, and by thinking you do not have it when you do.

First, thinking you do not have the victory when you do. For example: when you find the sin you have been striving against rising up and lusting more than at other times, you therefore conclude you have not and will not get the victory. Whereas now sin is dying and losing ground. (As on the contrary, when you think all is at peace, you may be furthest from the victory.) Consider: does any man but a regenerate man complain as bitterly as the apostle does in Romans 7: 'The good that I would do, that I do not'? Or as the same apostle complains in 2 Corinthians 12 of the thorn in the flesh? Do you think any but a sound-hearted man can come to Christ with tears, crying out: 'Lord, help my unbelief'? Can any but a broken heart pray as earnestly as David in Psalm 51:10 for a new and clean heart? This deep sense of sin is evidence of our victory over it.

This complaining is a sign that we have the better of it. For what is the reason you complain against it but that you are striving against it? We know the mud that lies at the bottom of water does not trouble the water. But when they go about to clean the ditch, then the mud rises and defiles it. Yet that is a sign of cleansing. When one takes a firebrand to put it out by beating out the fire, the sparks fly most at that point. When we strive against sin, we feel it most — partly because Satan's way is to tear and rend when he is being cast out, and it is the nature of sin to do likewise. Also because our light is increased: the more grace we have and the more we strive against sin, the more we see it. Our sense of sin grows more acute.

Again, on the other side, you may think you have the victory when you do not. The sore may be skinned over when it is not healed at the bottom, and then no wonder if it breaks out again. Sin may only be asleep when you take it for dead. Therefore in our turning from our evil ways we must observe a right method. Let your humiliation be sound, your faith and assurance firm. When these preceding acts are not done as they ought to be, and yet you think your sin is mortified, it may deceive you. As we say: an error in the first digestion is never corrected in the second, nor of the second in the third. So if your humiliation has not been sound, your turning from your evil ways cannot be thorough.

To answer this objection: consider that you are striving against a spring of sin. If it were only a cistern to empty or a pond to drain, when the work was once done we should hear of it no more. But it is a spring of sin that runs continually. Therefore do not think that because it returns again, your former striving was in vain. As those who watch over the pump in a ship — though they pump out all the water today, they cannot say it will be empty tomorrow, nor that their pumping is in vain because it fills again. For if they ceased, it would sink the ship. So it is with sin, especially some sins. Some are more properly called the law of the members, being rooted in the constitution of our bodies and in our natural dispositions. And these are ready to return again and again.

There is a great difference between these and the temptations of Satan. Temptations — such as blasphemous thoughts — are like weeds thrown into the garden and cast out again. But these are like weeds growing in the garden that take root there. Though weeded out, they will grow again. We must not hope or expect to dry up completely the spring of original sin. The labor returns upon us in a circle. As in our houses, so in our hearts: we sweep them clean today, and again tomorrow they will be dirty again. Therefore do not marvel that you are kept in continual labor.

Again, consider that God allows some lusts and infirmities to cling to you in order to humble you. As he dealt with Paul — he sent that thorn in the flesh so that Paul might not be exalted above measure, but kept small in his own eyes. Though he cures the fever, yet he allows some restlessness to remain, so that though we walk in the way of his commandments, we go halting — that we may remember the work of redemption and be sensible of his mercy in Christ. Likewise he allows such lusts to haunt us to make us weary of this world, as Paul was, who therefore desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Also that we might learn to be merciful and compassionate toward others and to pity those who have like infirmities. Therefore though you fall, do not give up striving. It is Satan's purpose to have us discouraged. Be persistent with God, and he cannot in the end but give you the victory. For as Christ says: if you ask for bread, will he give you a scorpion? If you ask for grace, will he give you up to your lusts? He will not. It is God's manner to let his children strive, and to give them the victory in the end. Jacob wrestled all night until the breaking of the day, and then God gave him the victory and blessed him. The Lord allows us to strive long. But this is our comfort: we have a promise that if we resist the devil, he will flee.

And as to what you will say: 'I do not find it so':

The meaning of the promise is not that the devil will flee so that you shall hear of him no more, or that your lusts will never return upon you again. But that if you will be steadfast, you shall have the victory in that particular combat. As if when you have a fever, someone tells you: 'Take this remedy and you will be cured.' He does not mean that you will be so cured as never to have fever again, but that you will be healed for the present. So in that particular combat, you shall have the victory.

'But I am still haunted, and I do not overcome.'

Strive constantly and faithfully, and though it returns again and again, the Lord takes note of all your pains and warfare against it. What he says to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:2 may be applied to this: 'I know your works and your labor.' Though your corruptions are too strong for you, yet if you strive, the Lord counts it as a victory. You shall not be condemned for it. Do not give over. Rather think this way: 'If all this contention has won so little ground against my lusts, where would I have been if I had not contended at all? Therefore I must take yet more pains and row harder, so that at last I may overcome.'

And because this is of general use, both to the regenerate and the unregenerate, I will go on to add some more rules and directions — in which this labor consists — which we must take in resisting sin.

Rule 3: A third means in this labor against evil ways is to strive to take notice of all the ways God works to turn you from them — and not to let them pass without some impression toward the purpose God intends. God uses not only his word but many other means to turn people: his works, and the many passages of his providence. These strivings of his include a great cross that follows upon the commission of a sin, a dangerous sickness though not to death, great fears and terrors of conscience after some sin committed, an evil report brought against us, friends sent to admonish us, or a judgment executed on another person for the same sin — all in plain sight. When God meets with you by some such means, as he met Balaam, he expects you to understand something by it. If we neglect his dealings, he takes it badly and gives us over to our lusts more and more. Daniel 5:22: a judgment had been brought upon Nebuchadnezzar in the sight of his son Belshazzar, which should have been a means to turn him. But God says: 'You, Belshazzar his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.' As if he had said: I did all this to someone near you, in your sight, that you might be humbled and turn to me. This was also the case of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13 — God sent the prophet to him with signs and wonders, tearing the altar and withering his hand — and yet Jeroboam went on. The Holy Spirit notes this on purpose in verse 33: 'After this, Jeroboam did not return from his evil way' — as if God had said: I expected you to return after all these judgments, but you would not. So Jeremiah 3:8: Israel had been carried captive long before Judah — God had given Israel a bill of divorce for her adultery — and yet treacherous Judah did not fear. The judgment on their near neighbor should have caused them to return. Therefore consider what the Lord intends by all such passages of his providence toward you. They are all as warning shots before the main army, as cracks before a collapse, as crevices through which the Lord reveals himself. God brings people in by his works as well as by his word. You can take his works in vain just as you can take his word in vain. To let them pass without profit is to take his name in vain — for his name is whatever he makes himself known by, and he makes himself known by these acts. God will not hold innocent the one who takes his name in vain, but will utterly destroy such a person. God does not cut his grain before it is ripe, and all his dealings with people tend to ripen them. Nor does he bring the wicked to destruction until they are ripe for it — and every such passing of his providence ripens them further. Now, people are generally in one of three conditions regarding these dealings. Some take no notice at all. God passes by them and is not seen. Of the Israelites it is said in Deuteronomy 29: though they had seen great signs and miracles in the wilderness, they had no eyes to see them and no ears to hear them. Others do take notice, but the impression left behind is slight — like a light color not well set, the tint quickly fades. Of the disciples in Mark 6:52, it is said: 'They considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their hearts were hardened.' This was said because they were amazed at the new miracle of Christ walking on the water — as if he had said, if you had truly considered the miracle of the loaves, you would not wonder at this. But the earlier miracle had not left a deep enough impression because of the hardness of their hearts. The third case is quite different — as with the jailer, whose terror at the earthquake and the opening of the prison doors did not pass away like a dream but left such an impression that it brought him home. He fell down before Paul and Silas and asked: 'What must I do to be saved?' So should all such passages of providence work with us. That is the third direction.

Rule 4 is not simply to go about resisting a sin and turning from evil ways, but to fill the heart with something better. When sinful desires are mortified, the stream of our affections is not dried up — it is diverted. Therefore the way is not to try to stop the current of a sinful desire, but to turn your heart into a different channel and set it on something better. Take a crabtree stock that is sour or bitter — the only way to sweeten it is to graft in something of a different nature, which will gradually transform it.

But you will ask: what is to be put in?

Do not approach it as a merely moral person, but as a Christian. Get justification and sanctification. It is valuable to be deeply humbled for your sin — and you ought to be. Yet this alone is not the complete remedy. The heart must also be strengthened with the assurance of the forgiveness of that sin.

There is a double way to turn the heart from sin. One is to see the loathsomeness of the sin you are turning from. The other is to see the beauty of the contrary object you are turning toward. Do not spend all your effort on the first — do something of the second as well. The more genuine sorrow the better, but it does not come all at once. It is increased by assurance and hope of pardon. When a person begins to have real hope, they begin to purify themselves. As in all other endeavors: hope quickens effort. One who has no prospect of a kingdom does not pursue it, but when hope arises, he begins to stir. Therefore get and increase the hope of the pardon of your sins. Romans 15:13: 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.' From the context it is clear this is meant to strengthen and correct all infirmities. The apostle points to being filled with joy and peace through faith as a means of purification. If your heart were full of spiritual joy through faith and assurance, your heart would be purified. Faith is said to purify the heart. And when the blood of Christ is applied by faith, a virtue goes with it. Hebrews 9:14: 'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God, purge your conscience from dead works?' Add to this: set yourself to the work of sanctification. In John 17, Christ prays that his people might be preserved from the evil of the world.

But how is this sanctification to be achieved? 'Sanctify them through your truth; your word is truth' — that is, when they pass through this world full of evil and corruption, the way to keep them pure is to have the heart sanctified. When the heart is well prepared with grace, the corruption of the world falls off. This is the antidote against corruption. Though in your journey you encounter much bad air and infection, this will preserve you. And how are we to be sanctified? By truth. The more truth you get into your heart, the more grace. Grace and truth come together — 2 Peter 3 says: grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. But what truth? 'Your word is truth' — not every kind of truth will sanctify. The word of God is the specific truth that does it. Moral truths may accomplish many things in the soul — they may adorn it — but they cannot heal or purify it. The prophet told Naaman the leper: 'Wash in the Jordan.' There is a special virtue in that Jordan to heal you that is not in the waters of Damascus. You come to the word not as to a philosophy lecture, but as to what works wonders — the power of God goes with it. Yet note that it is not the word by itself that does it, as a medicine has its own inherent virtue. Rather, the Lord works through the word, as one writes a letter by means of a pen. Divine truths alone consecrate the heart to God, and no other kind of truth will do it. Therefore let us get much grace and truth into our hearts — assurance of justification, joy in the Holy Spirit — so that by tasting something better, the heart is drawn away from the pleasures of sinful ways. Sound joy will swallow up all other joys, even the joys of sin.

Stir up the graces that are already in you. When we tell you to go to God for help, we do not mean you should leave all the work to him. Some effort is required from you. I speak to those who have some beginnings of grace. You must stir up those graces God has given you. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:15: 'Neglect not the gift that was given you' — as if to say: Timothy, you can do much if you consider what ability you have received. So much Spirit, so much liberty, so much regeneration, so much freedom to good. He says to the church of Philadelphia: 'You have a little strength' — it is a talent, so use it. And in Jude 20: 'Build up yourselves' and 'cleanse yourselves.'

But you will ask: how can we do this, since it is the Lord who works in us both the will and the deed, and we can do nothing without the Spirit?

Though the Spirit does the work, we are also agents in it. Romans 8:13: 'If you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh' — as if to say, though you do it by the Spirit, yet go about it yourself. We can do something to draw the Spirit nearer to us, just as we can do something to grieve the Spirit and drive him away. As we stir up the flame of the Spirit by pure thoughts, so we quench it by corrupt ones.

But you will ask: what does it mean to stir up our graces?

Stir up your light: examine yourself concerning your evil ways. Endeavor to see them clearly and confess them, for that is the path to forsaking them. Proverbs 28:13 says so. Despise none of your sins, however small they seem. With the light you have, examine everything — the least doubtful thing, search it out fully. The idle word, the vanity and levity of conversation, however trifling it may seem — the dallying in your thoughts and eyes, the careless performance of duties.

Use your light further to get reasons against your sin. This is to consider your ways as David did — to ponder the reasoning. Take pains with your heart from day to day and think through what arguments can draw the heart off from sin. Against unlawful gain: think of it as like a coal that an eagle carries back to her nest with a piece of roasted flesh — it burns up her nest, her young, and herself. Had Ahab not been better off without his vineyard? Against pleasure: consider that it is only for a season, and what bitterness it will bring in the end, and how it forfeits a joy that far exceeds it. Against vainglory: all the pains you take will be lost, for the praise itself will be all your reward.

Having done this, add a third: exercise. As Paul says to Timothy: 'Exercise yourself to godliness. Think on these things' (1 Timothy 4:15). If your failing is in neglecting a good duty, accustom yourself to it. If it is in doing something evil, disuse it — that will help you greatly. A child who could not go without nursing for an hour or two, once weaned for a while, will no longer seek it. Do this with your besetting sin — the sin that clings to you more than the rest. Single it out and deal with it directly, as David in Psalm 18 kept himself from his particular iniquity.

Finally, observe the manner in which sinful desires grow upon you and how they fight for themselves. The lusts in us are warring lusts, as Paul says in Romans 7 and as James and Peter confirm. They have a strategy in fighting — and by observing it, you can learn to resist and prevent them.

Observe how any affection goes beyond the bounds Christ has set for it, and at that point it begins to war and rebel — as subjects do when they break their sovereign's laws. When Rachel insisted on having children at all costs and nothing else would satisfy her, that was a warring lust.

Observe how they fight for themselves and the strategies they use. They endeavor to take possession of the ports — the senses — preventing any good from entering that might oppose them, while drawing in through those same senses whatever feeds and strengthens them. When the heart is full of adultery, so is the eye. They also cut off the supply from the opposing side, causing us to neglect prayer, reading, and holy duties — as the Philistines disarmed the Israelites and allowed no blacksmith among them.

They draw men away from their strongholds by ambush, just as Joshua drew the men of Ai out from their city. As fishers drive fish out of the corners where they are safe and catch them in nets once they are wandering in open water — so sinful desires draw us away from the rock of our salvation, from our resolutions, from the ordinances, and from our callings, and then surprise us. They lead us into ambush by degrees — as Peter was drawn to deny his Master step by step. They also come upon us at first with only light skirmishes. A lust does not begin with full enticement toward great sin. We make light of the small thing and become careless — and then it attacks with full force. David first only looks at Bathsheba, then is drawn into conversation, then into sin. Therefore observe this pattern so that you may be skilled in this warfare. Having seen that this is their method — to act with subtlety — take Peter's counsel: abstain from them. When any affection grows violent, do not engage with it. If you do, you admit an enemy into your soul who will betray it. When David had such a desire for the water his soldiers had brought him at great risk, he refused to drink it and poured it out on the ground. So if your mind becomes set on some entertainment or company and your affections exceed their proper measure — do not engage.

Stand on watch as well. Though you have armor on, if you do not watch, it will do you no good. Saul, though armed, fell asleep, and David came and took his spear away. Therefore be sober and watchful. To avoid falling asleep spiritually, keep yourself sober. Also work to weaken the law in your members that fights against you. A law that is not enforced grows old and loses its power. Custom strengthens a law — so the less obedience you yield to your lusts, the weaker they become. When your lusts would have you omit some duty, if you yield, you strengthen them. If you refuse, you weaken them.

A law is also weakened when no one fears it. Do not fear the threats of your lusts. When the threats of a law are despised, they lose their force. If sin tells you that you will lose such a friend or incur such a danger — disregard that. It weakens the power of sin over you.

And if you cannot overcome it by reason, overcome it by force — by a strong resolution. Overcome the desires of sin by a contrary resolution driven home with power.

'And I will be merciful to their sins...'

These words that follow are the particular instances in which God would especially hear their prayers.

If they humble themselves and pray, whatever their sins are, God will be merciful to them.

Now the reasons he says he will be merciful to their sins (for so, according to the earlier translation, I prefer to read it):

The Lord does this in order to take away all objections. Some might say their sins are exceedingly great, and many, and often repeated. But all these are simply proper objects for mercy — which triumphs over them all as a mighty sea swallows up molehills.

Take note of this: all the humbling, praying, and new obedience that God requires here is not required as a satisfying payment for sin. No — God says he will act purely out of mercy. Though he requires these things, he does not forgive because of them. There is a secret tendency toward a works-based religion in thinking that something must be given, some satisfaction made, as if God would not otherwise forgive — as if we could balance our sins with our efforts. No: it is pure mercy, free forgiveness.

Consider how highly we should value this gift — the pardon of sin. God says, in effect: 'Remember that you deserve to be destroyed, and you are not able to pay the smallest part of what you owe. But it is out of pure compassion that you are forgiven.' The matter before us is a gracious promise of mercy and forgiveness. Of all points I fall most willingly on this one, for it is what will draw men in, if anything will. It is the proclamation of pardon that brings in those who have been rebels. The proclamation of law alone drives them away. Men are more easily won by kindness than by threats. It is the gospel that melts hearts and makes men see themselves clearly.

But someone will say: if the gospel does this, is it not unnecessary to preach the law first?

Not at all — the preaching of the law is still a preparation. In all who are raised in the church, some knowledge of the law comes first. But it is the gospel that softens the heart. Ice can be broken with hot water as well as with a hammer — so the heart can be broken by the gospel as well as by the law. The gospel, in fact, makes the prior knowledge of the law operative and sets it to work. So the law in its true working cannot function without the gospel, nor the gospel without the law. For a complete work, knowledge of the law must precede the gospel.

Whatever a person's sins are, if they are truly humbled for them and forsake them, those sins will be forgiven.

Notice this main point: the gospel was as fully preached to the Jews as to us. They had the same way of being saved — as great a mercy promised and given. Only the great mysteries of the gospel — in which grace and mercy are displayed — were not opened to them as fully as to us. They had the promises of forgiveness as fully and clearly, but they did not know the grounds of them as we do: Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection. For proof of the main point, take Isaiah 1:18: 'Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' The prophet had called them to learn to do well. But the people might object: what will all this gain us if we are such great sinners as you have declared? To prevent this, the prophet tells them that even if their sins are great and blood-red — of the deepest possible guilt — they shall be perfectly cleansed. And notice his expression: 'Come, let us reason together' — as if to say, this is a point that requires strong reasoning to persuade you to believe it. And indeed it is a hard thing truly to believe the pardon of one's sins. Therefore the Lord sets himself and your conscience together, and you shall see how he reasons for himself and will make this good.

We will first prove it from all his attributes.

First, from his truth. The Lord has said it, and this is argument enough to persuade you. Having made the promise of forgiveness that he would subdue their iniquities and cast their sins into the depths of the sea, he adds: 'You will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which you swore to our fathers from the days of old.' He has not only promised it but sworn it — an old oath with many witnesses: Abraham and Jacob and all the fathers since. Will he not be as good as his word? And Acts 10:43: 'To him all the prophets bear witness, that through his name, whoever believes in him shall receive forgiveness of sins.' Peter says to Cornelius: we deliver this from God — and not only we the apostles say this, but all the prophets bear witness to this truth. When the Lord has said such things and made an absolute promise, he expects you to believe it. It is a greater sin than you realize not to take hold of such promises. Consider how the Lord reasons in 1 John 5:9-11: 'If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. He who does not believe God has made him a liar.' If an honest person promises you something, you believe them. Will you not believe God? Do you think a man has more truth in him than God? And further: if you do not believe God's record of his Son, you make him a liar. And what is that record? The Lord has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son — that is, whoever believes and receives Christ shall have forgiveness of sins and life. It is the pardon that brings life to the condemned.

Second, though God has given his word — which is sufficient and greatly strengthens faith — it helps us still further when we know him to be one of a merciful nature and gracious disposition. We go to him more willingly when we know what he is like. Therefore consider how the Lord expresses his own nature in Exodus 34:6-7: 'The LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' As if he had said to Moses: do you want to know the very inward disposition of my soul? This is my nature — to be merciful and gracious. This is how God presents himself to us. Know that this is his nature, and it will strengthen your faith in the promises. All his promises flow from this nature and receive their strength from it. He is rich in mercy because mercy is who he is.

Third, add to this the attribute of his wisdom, and that too will help us believe his mercies. God who made these promises is perfectly wise and knows who he is dealing with. He knows the original corruption that is in us — the root of all sin. He knows our weaknesses and what is in our hearts. As one who has made a thing knows the inward nature of it, so God, who made us, knows what we are. It is no strange thing to him to see us fall into sin. Therefore in Psalm 78:38-39, after speaking of the extraordinary rebellions of the people of Israel after their departure from Egypt, it says: 'He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them, for he remembered that they were but flesh.' One would wonder how God could forgive so stubborn a people — who had seen his power so clearly — yet he did, because he wisely considered what they were made of. So also Psalm 103:13-14: after expressing promises of forgiveness, he gives this reason in verse 14: 'For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.' He knows what we are made of, and therefore he is full of mercy.

Fourth, there is one attribute from which you might object against the pardon of sins — namely, that God is just, and this terrifies you. But even from his justice we may draw an argument to strengthen faith in forgiveness. 1 John 1:9: 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us.' This is the ground of all our comfort — that he is just and faithful. For is he not bound by promise, and is he not faithful to keep his promise? Further: has he not been satisfied and paid for our sins by Christ? His justice will not allow him to require a second payment. It is now just for him to forgive. Faithfulness looks to his promises; justice looks to the blood of Christ as the ransom received, which cleanses us from all our sins.

Fifth, if all these do not yet persuade our hearts, the Lord condescends further and helps us with an argument drawn from what we ourselves know. Consider how you would deal with your own children. Psalm 103:13: 'As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.' If a child of yours offends you a hundred times, yet if that child comes and humbles himself, you will pardon him. Will not God do the same when his people humble themselves? But you will object: it is possible for a child to offend so gravely that even an earthly father cannot forgive him. True — but the psalmist's meaning is not that God forgives only as much as an earthly father. On the contrary: if you as earthly fathers can do so much, I who am the infinite God and not a man can do far more. I am almighty and can do whatever I will, and I show my power most gloriously in pardoning. Compare with this Isaiah 55:9: 'My thoughts are not your thoughts.' What though your sins seem great and in your own thinking unpardonable? God says his thoughts are not your thoughts — as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts above yours. He speaks this of pardoning: multiplying to pardon. Though you could not forgive, though you cannot even imagine how such transgressions could be forgiven — yet God can forgive them.

A second set of arguments is drawn from the means and instrument by which forgiveness is conveyed. Hebrews 12:24 says: 'We have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.' This is an encouragement to faith. The blood of Abel, though only the blood of a poor man, cried so loudly that it reached heaven and brought down vengeance on Cain. How much louder then will Christ's blood speak? What will it be able to procure for us? It speaks better things — that is, for mercy, which God is more ready to hear cried for than for vengeance. And this cry is not of the blood of an ordinary man like Abel, but of the blood of God's own Son. Compare this with Hebrews 9:14: 'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works?' As in the other place he compares it with Abel's blood, here he compares it with the blood of bulls and goats — which under the old covenant served by God's appointment for the outward purification of the flesh. How much more — infinitely beyond our thoughts or imagination — shall the blood of the Son of God purge your conscience? He only says 'how much more' — and he strengthens it with two reasons: first, it was offered through the eternal Spirit, meaning it was not merely the sacrifice of a man but of God; and second, the sacrifice was without spot.

There are three objections we commonly raise against ourselves because of our sins.

First, that our sins are too many. Second, that they are too great. Third, that we have fallen into them again and again.

The sprinkling of Christ's blood is sufficient to cleanse from all of these. Ezekiel 36:25: 'Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.' The blood of Christ is the water meant there. It cleanses from sin and defilement — from all of it, however many; from filthiness and idols, however great the sin. And if you have fallen into your sins repeatedly, Zechariah 13:1 says his blood is like a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness — not a cistern, but a fountain, a continual spring perpetually running to cleanse. As there is a spring of sin in us that defiles us again and again, so there is a spring of virtue in his blood that cleanses us — and it will never run dry.

The final reason is drawn from the freeness of the covenant God has made with mankind. John 7:37: on the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out: 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.' He makes a proclamation for all to come. Revelation 21:6 and 22:17 repeat the same general invitation and add that they shall have it freely. The terms of the covenant are these: if anyone thirsts — for those who do not thirst have nothing to do with it — let him come and take freely. That is, God will give it without any other condition than coming — without which no one can receive it — and thirsting — without which no one will come or prize it.

The consideration of this covenant should therefore move us and help us to believe that whatever our sins are, if we humble ourselves they shall be pardoned.

Before I apply this to any person, I must note those whom the Lord excludes — or rather, who exclude themselves. Remember the last part of his name in Exodus 34:6: he will not hold the guilty innocent. If you are a person living without concern for your sins, this children's bread is not for you. Consider: in your sickness and distress, did you not make many promises and resolutions against your ways? And after your recovery, did you not return to them with as much eagerness as before?

Again: perhaps you are one who does not thirst after these promises — who cares no more for them than for an old shoe. These promises contain the most precious gifts imaginable. None will ever obtain them without prizing them above all else. If your heart has never been broken by the weight of sin and God's displeasure, you have never come to thirst for them. A person who has gone through life whole-hearted and never alarmed by sin and judgment may hear these promises spoken of, but has nothing to do with them.

Those who are hypocrites are also excluded. An hypocrite is one who is not willing to omit religious duties entirely, yet is not willing to do them sincerely — one who soars high in outward profession but still has worldly gain in view, and will stoop for it when the moment comes: always watching for advancement, reputation, or money. You may appear clean in your own eyes and wash before Communion — as a pig can be washed as well as a sheep — but the inward nature remains unchanged.

Or perhaps you are simply a wicked person.

But you will ask: who are the wicked?

Here is a description of the wicked — one that no one need be offended by if it does not fit them. They are those who hate the Lord. This is the mark given in the second commandment. When we hear this, every person will quickly say: 'I hope I am not like that — I do not hate the Lord.' But know that there are many thousands who think well of themselves, who yet when tested will be found to hate him. Let me therefore put a few questions to you.

First: do you not hate the law? Do you not wish the law were not so strict, that it allowed more liberty? Let any unregenerate person examine himself honestly, and he will find in himself a desire that the law would permit certain sins. He regards the law as something contrary to him. The complaint made in the book of Wisdom is: 'Their ways are contrary to ours' — meaning the ways of the law. Where there is true contrariety, there is hatred. And if a person hates the law, he hates the lawgiver — for the law is the express image of God.

Second: is it not also true of you that you have no real delight in being where the Lord is? You take no delight in holy duties, except insofar as custom and habit have made them familiar. You take no delight in being among godly people — for where two or three of them are gathered, God is among them. When you are with them, you feel out of your element. If they are formal like yourself, you can endure their company. But if they are truly holy, and the holiness of God appears in them, you have no delight in them. You might manage to be among the saints — provided they stay quiet. But when God shines through them, you cannot bear to be there.

Third: do you hate those who resemble the Lord? For if you do, you hate the Lord himself. We test our love to God by our love to his people — and so also our hatred. Is there a secret dislike of them, though you cannot explain why? An instinctive aversion, though you cannot account for it? It is because God has put an enmity there, and no human effort can replace it with affection. All the gifts, sweetness of manner, and excellence of the saints will not remove the enmity that is in the wicked against them. David was a poet, a soldier, a man of excellent abilities — wise and courageous — yet he was greatly hated by many because of his godliness.

Fourth: do you not sometimes wish there were no God? Could you not be content to live forever in this world, so long as you were happy here — if only there were no hell? Could you be content if there were no heaven, no God, no final judgment? If every unregenerate person would honestly examine himself, he would find this tendency. And if anyone wishes that a certain person did not exist — wishes them removed — that is a sign of hatred. For it is the nature of hatred to desire the total removal of the thing hated.

Fifth: are you not living in some sin you know to be a sin? Everyone who continues in a known sin fears God as a judge. And those whom we fear in that way, we hate. A thief fears the judge — and in fearing him, hates him. The one who walks in darkness hates the light, and hates God who is the author of that light. If you are living in some evil way that you allow yourself in, you have no claim on these promises. Only those who make their claim on the promises take care over all their ways — who dare not omit the smallest duty, nor perform it carelessly.

Finally: are you not like the foolish virgins — putting off repentance, not bothering to obtain what you need in time, thinking you can manage it at the hour of death? Are you like the sluggard in Proverbs, rolling in the bed of your sin, reluctant to rise — turning like a door on its hinges, but always remaining on the same hinges? The Lord has declared in Deuteronomy 29 that he will not be merciful to such a person, but his anger will burn against him.

But you will say: are you preaching damnation to me? Will you leave us without hope?

Yes — while you are in such courses, we do preach that you are headed for destruction, and we want you to despair of yourself — in order to drive you out of yourself and to Christ. It would be a well-spent hour to strip you of false hope. But may we have no hope left at all? None in your present condition — only the hope of the hypocrite, which perishes with him. For if your hope were genuine, it would purify your heart, as John says. But you say: 'I still pray.' If you continue in your sins, your sins will drown out your prayers. And at the day of your death, when even the smallest part of these promises would be worth everything, it will be said to you that you had no claim on them — that there was a time when God called and you would not come. And therefore, when you cry out to him then, God will not hear you.

But if there is any broken-hearted sinner who desires to fear the Lord and serve him sincerely — one who has this witness in their conscience: that though they do not do the good they would, yet they strive against all sin and allow themselves in none, whether great or small — to you I say what the apostle says in 1 Peter 1:13: trust completely on the grace that is brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Trust not by halves, but trust completely. If I had told you to trust in your own sanctification, you might have done so only partially, because your sanctification is still imperfect. But since it is the free grace of God that is set before you as a rock to rest on, trust on it completely. Commit all your weight and burden to it. Hebrews 6:18 says that when God made the covenant of grace, he took an oath — specifically so that we might have strong consolation. This is an argument commonly forgotten among Christians, which is why they lack the strong consolation they could have. Do you think it a small thing to partially waste the oath of God? God has sworn that you might have strong consolation — and he intended that consolation to be so strong that when Satan attacks, it would stand like a fortress against all assaults. Why then is your faith so weak? What are the obstacles?

One obstacle is a misunderstanding of the covenant. Has not the Lord promised to justify the ungodly, and commanded us to believe in him who justifies the ungodly? Romans 4:5 says so. He has told us to come with an empty hand. Yet you come with a handful of your own humiliation and say that you could not come before, but now you feel you can come better. The more you bring in your own hand, the less firm your grip. A man in danger of drowning cannot take hold of a rope thrown to save his life if he is holding onto something else. An empty hand takes the firmest hold. Your humiliation, if it is genuine, will empty you of all self-reliance. Therefore if, through humiliation, you have nothing of your own to trust in, you are the fitter object for mercy. Do not always look downward at your sins. Look up to God. Hebrews 6:18-19 says those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them have strong consolation — a hope that is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that which is within the veil. This hope is not described as anything within ourselves but as a refuge we flee to outside ourselves — set before us, growing not from within us but coming from above. The object of our hope is the sure promise of God, confirmed by his oath. If we anchor on this, we will have strong consolation — both in its certainty of not failing and in its steadiness in establishing our hearts. But as long as we flee to anything within ourselves, we will be tossed by every wave.

A second obstacle is our daily failures. A person thinks: if I had true faith, it would purify my heart so that I would not fall as often as I do. While I continue to fall, how can I have strong consolation? To all sincere Christians I say: your daily failures should not discourage your faith and consolation. Rather, labor to grow in sanctification. Say to yourself: because my sins have been greater than others', I will work more earnestly at sanctification from now on. I will love more deeply and serve more faithfully in the time I have left. But do not say: therefore I will doubt or despair of God's mercy.

A third obstacle is the belief that you have not been humbled enough. But if your humiliation is enough to bring you home to Christ — if you thirst for Christ so that nothing will satisfy you until you have him — do not hesitate to take hold of the promises. This is sufficient. Do not make demands about the degree of your humiliation.

Finally, it may be that you have not prayed enough for assurance of forgiveness, and therefore you lack it. It is set down as a condition: 'If my people pray' — and among other things, to pray for forgiveness of sins and for assurance of it. No amount of argument can persuade the heart of this assurance — nothing can do it but the Spirit of adoption. Can so great a mercy be obtained without earnest prayer? Therefore go to God and ask for his favor. Though he delays, continue in prayer. It may be that the Lord withholds it because he wants you to prize it highly — which you would not do if you obtained it too easily. But do not be discouraged. Continue to pray, and in the end you will receive it abundantly.

Hear this, all of you who are sincere in heart: continue to seek God's face, and all your sins will be as if they had never been committed. What was said of Israel and Judah in Jeremiah 50:20 — 'The iniquity of Jacob will be sought for and none will be found' — will be said of you when your sins are sought on the day of judgment. Is this not an immense and unspeakable mercy? A person will be as if they had never sinned — as innocent as Adam was in Paradise.

But you will object: can sins that have been committed cease to have been committed, or cease to have been sins?

True: what has once been done can never be undone. All the acts remain as things once committed, and it can truthfully be said they were done and that they were serious. But when it is said that none will be found, the meaning is that they will have no power to harm you. As Christ said to his disciples in Luke 10:19: 'You will tread upon serpents and scorpions, and they will not hurt you' — so I say of sin: it will not hurt you, because its sting has been taken away in Christ. Or as the fire in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace — it had power enough to burn others, but could not so much as singe a hair of the three men, because Christ was with them. So those sins which will sting others to death because of their impenitence will do you no harm — they will fall away like the viper that dropped from Paul's hand and did not hurt him. Some say that God can see no sin in his children because, once a person is in Christ, there are none to be seen. But that is not the meaning of the saying 'God sees no iniquity in Jacob.' The sins are there — but as in a debt book where the entries have been crossed out and canceled. Though the figures can still be read, they cannot be enforced or demanded, because they are canceled. A falling star loses its light little by little, and when it reaches the earth it goes entirely out. So when sins begin to fall from their proper element — the unregenerate heart, where they had dominion — their light and influence decay, and in the end both their guilt and their power will entirely vanish.

I must add a caution here: believers must know that their sins remain charged against them until they actually repent once more. Until then, God's anger is kindled against them, and they may feel its effects in ways that trouble them deeply. The Lord met Moses and would have destroyed him for neglecting the ordinance of circumcision — the sin was not forgiven until he humbled himself and corrected his fault. So God was angry with the Israelites who fled before their enemies until the accursed thing was removed. When David sinned in the matter of Uriah, the end of 2 Samuel 11 says: 'The thing that David had done displeased the Lord' — and there was the wrath of a father against him, though not the wrath of an enemy. And when was God satisfied again? Only when David had humbled himself and repented. Therefore, to have strong consolation, search your hearts and lives carefully. Make sure there is no unrepented wickedness before you apply these promises. Then you may apply them to your comfort.

Something must now be said even to those we excluded before — for the aim of our preaching is not to shut anyone out forever. If the Lord will be merciful to our sins when we are humbled, there is an open door for those who are outside. Come, and welcome. God is abundantly merciful and ready to forgive and receive you. If anything will draw people in, it is the promises of mercy. A harsh warrant drives the fugitive away faster. But the proclamation of pardon brings rebels in.

What greater motive could there be than this: whatever your sins have been, however great in themselves or made worse by their circumstances, if you will come in and humble yourself and turn to God, he will be merciful to you. It does not matter what your sins have been. The only thing that matters is your humility — your willingness to confess and forsake your sins. Your sins have not gone beyond the price that has been paid for them. And God will not only pardon your sins but will leave a blessing behind. If you came to a person you had wronged so deeply and asked not merely for forgiveness but for a further kindness, they might say: 'How do you have the face to come to me after what you have done?' But the Lord never gives that answer. He is not like a man. Jeremiah 3:11 says: though if a man puts away his wife and she becomes another man's, he will not receive her back — yet God says: 'Return to me.' People can commit sins that others cannot forgive. But God can pardon any.

Consider the wicked counsel Ahithophel gave to Absalom — to go in to his father's wives, to create an irreparable breach between father and son, calculating that it was an offense David could never overlook. Yet God says: 'Return to me. I will scatter your sins like a mist and your iniquities like a cloud.'

Some sins are small as mist; some are heavier and more gross, like a cloud. God's mercy can scatter both. Do not say: 'I would have been a happy person if I had not fallen into this particular sin — then I could have been pardoned.' It is true that in view of God's honor it would have been better not to have committed it. But in terms of obtaining pardon, you may still be happy regardless. If you humble yourself, this sin will not bar you from happiness. You may be in as good a condition after you come home as anyone whose sins have been smaller. And know this: once you have come home, when God looks at you in Christ, all your sins displease him less than your repentance in and through Christ pleases him.

But how can a person be persuaded of God's readiness to forgive?

Consider this passage: 'As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live.' He has taken an oath that he delights more in saving than in destroying. You can believe him. Consider also what Christ used to do in the days of his earthly ministry — and he is just as merciful a high priest now as he was then. No one was more welcome to him than those who came to him with repentance. He is just as ready to receive us now as he was to receive them then.

But you may say: I do not doubt that Christ is willing — but what will God the Father do?

It is certain that God is not willing to have his Son's blood shed in vain — and it would be of no effect if sinners like you were not saved. The blood of Christ is honored precisely in that it is sprinkled on many for great sins. Do not think God is reluctant to pardon. Psalm 130:3-4 gives two further arguments. First: if he were to mark all that is done wrong, who could stand? None would be saved. Since it is not his will that all flesh should perish, he will not take advantage of our sins to cast us off entirely. Second: if he cast off all sinners, no one would be left to worship him. 'There is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared' — it is his full purpose to have people who fear and worship him. And shall I go further? God is not only ready to forgive — he actually desires to forgive. He is glad at heart when a great sinner comes in. This is shown in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin — how the woman rejoiced over finding the coin, and the shepherd over finding the sheep. And likewise in the parable of the prodigal son — how glad the father was when he heard his son was coming home, even though he had lived recklessly and wasted everything. This parable shows us how God himself is moved when a great sinner returns to him. Moreover, he does not merely keep the door open and say 'come if you wish.' He invites them. He calls them. He sends his ministers to bring them in. He entreats, pleads, commands, and warns.

But you will say: is it possible that I could be forgiven — I who have committed so many sins, so great and serious, and continued in them for so long?

Yes, it is possible. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. The apostle names some of the worst sins imaginable, and then says: 'And such were some of you — but you were washed.' From this we learn that those guilty of such sins now can be forgiven just as they were then. Such were some of you. Whoever you are, it does not matter what you have been. The only thing that matters is what you will be. Imagine one of the old prophets came to you in person and said: 'Will you turn to God now? If you will, all your sins will be washed away and you will be made an heir of heaven.' Would that not cause anyone with any honest feeling to relent and say: 'Lord, can you truly be so merciful as to forgive me after all this? Lord, I will come in and turn to you.'

Let me ask you this question: if you were given assurance of being received, would you be willing to give up all your sins right now? If your answer is no — are you not worthy to be destroyed? If your answer is yes — is this not cause for great comfort?

But some may say: if heaven's gate stands this wide open, I can come whenever I like. You wretched person — how dare you have such a thought! Do you not know that every such refusal of such an offer is so dangerous that it may put you in peril of never having it offered again? If the gate of heaven stood open like this at all times, why did God swear in his anger that certain Israelites would never enter his rest? Why did he say of those invited to the feast who refused that they would never taste of it? The reason is that the master of the feast was filled with wrath at having his offer refused — both because his love and kindness were despised, which fills a person with indignation, and because the thing offered was of such infinite worth: the kingdom of heaven and the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, whenever such an offer is made and refused, God is deeply angry. An axe and a sword go with this offer — to cut down every tree that does not bear good fruit. Do not say when you hear this offer: 'Good, there is such a thing — I will accept it another time; it comes too soon for me right now.' Consider also that Christ's purpose in coming was not only to save souls at the last moment. Titus 2:14 says his purpose was to purify for himself a special people, zealous for good works — which is a greater end than redemption alone. He came to purchase a people who would serve him in their lifetime. Can you think that having served your own desires all your life, you will yet be accepted at death? You may say: if a person is called at the eleventh hour, they will be received. True — if they are called for the first time then, and not before, as the thief on the cross, who had not been called before. But what if you have been called before, and have refused, and put it off until death? Your situation then will be exceedingly dangerous. And let me ask: what makes you resolve to come in at death? If it is love for Christ, you would come sooner. If it is only love for yourself, how can such a conversion be accepted?

Now we come to the final words: 'And I will heal their land.' Three points may be observed from them.

First: all calamities and troubles come from sin. This I draw from the order of the words: God first forgives their sins, then heals their land.

Second: if calamities are removed and sins are not forgiven, the removal is in judgment, not in mercy.

Third: if sin is once forgiven, the calamity will soon be taken away.

Regarding the first: all calamity comes from sin, all trouble from transgression. In the chain of evils, sin is the first link that draws on all the rest — just as grace is the first link in the chain of blessings. Consider this across all kinds of judgments, which fall under three headings.

First, temporal calamities — troubles relating to this life — all arise from sin, whether public or private. What was the reason for Solomon's troubles? The Lord raised up an adversary against him because he had departed from the Lord and set up idolatry. So the sword did not depart from David's house because of his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. And Asa: in 2 Chronicles 16, the prophet tells him: 'From now on you will have wars, because you did not rely on the Lord.' I could give a hundred such instances.

Second, there are spiritual judgments, which are far more grievous than the first. These occur when a person is given over to their own desires and to hardness of heart. This proceeds from other sins that came before. And it is a reliable principle that you never see someone given over to work uncleanness with eagerness, or to open and shameful sins, without the original cause being their careless and dishonest walk with God in private. Paul says this of the Gentiles in Romans 1:20-24: because when they knew God they did not honor him as God, God gave them over to dishonorable passions. So also Psalm 80:11-12: 'My people would not listen, and Israel would have none of me, so I gave them over to their own heart's desires, and they walked in their own counsels.' As if God had said: I used every means; they refused; they would have nothing to do with me; and so I gave them over. When you see a person given over to a lust, their heart so bound to it that they cannot live without it — know that this is a judgment for some unfaithful walking before, and for not living according to their own knowledge.

Third, there is a judgment beyond these — when the Lord forsakes a person and withdraws himself from them. Though people think little of it, this is the most terrible judgment of all. The loss of God's presence is a loss beyond all calculation. Take a person whose god is wealth or reputation — remove that support, and see how their heart sinks. How much more when the true God withdraws from a person? When that God who is the God of all comfort departs, the heart sinks into a bottomless pit of horror, as when the sun goes down and everything falls into darkness. All comfort comes from some degree of God's presence, though people do not realize it. When it is taken away, nothing remains but horror and despair. When God departed from Saul in 1 Samuel 16, from that day on he fell from one failure to another in his reign until he was destroyed. The cause was sin — he had cast off the Lord, and the Lord therefore rejected him. The same was Cain's case in Genesis 4: his punishment was to be banished from the presence of the Lord, which he himself acknowledged to be an unbearable punishment.

When any trouble comes upon you, do not stop at the surface of it. Look through it and beyond it to the inward root. Look to sin as the cause, and you will find it there. The immediate and visible cause may be something outward — an enemy, a disgrace, a sickness — but who permitted these things to happen? Is it not the Lord? And what was the reason for his permission but sin? People may have many different motives for what they do, but nothing moves the Lord except sin and grace. When an enemy attacks you, do not say 'this person is the cause of my trouble.' Rather: the Lord has allowed them to act, and sin has occasioned this permission. 2 Chronicles 12:5-7: Shishak was only the vessel through which God poured out his wrath. So I may say of sickness: it is only the vessel — it is the Lord's wrath that is poured out through it. Correct the common error of looking only for natural causes of the evils that befall you. If you fall sick, you look to some dietary disorder or a chill as the cause. If you fail in some project, you look for what folly or oversight caused it. These are only natural and immediate causes. Christians should look beyond these to the supernatural cause. When a famine came on Judah for three years in 2 Samuel 21:1, the natural cause was evident — a great drought. But David did not stop there. He went to the Lord and sought out the sin that was the cause. And God told him it was for the sin of Saul's house in slaying the Gibeonites. As wise leaders, when they find a small player in a conspiracy, do not stop there but look for the deeper cause and the one behind the plot — so we should look beyond immediate causes. When Jacob saw the angels ascending and descending, he looked to the top of the ladder and saw the Lord there sending them. Look not only to the nearest steps of the ladder but to the top, and there you will see the Lord sending one messenger to bring harm and another to be a deliverer. If you ask: how shall I know which sin has caused this? Pray earnestly and ask, as David did and as Joshua did when he saw the people flee before their enemies. Pray that God would reveal the particular sin to you. And if you cannot identify the specific sin — perhaps it was committed long ago, or it is some secret sin — be assured that sin is the cause. For as in nature, vapors rise invisibly from the earth but come down again as storms and rain that we can see and feel — so the judgment may be visible enough, but the sin behind it may be a secret one that passed without your noticing it.

Learn from this to see sin in its true nature. Sin is a hidden and invisible evil, and in itself — considered in the abstract — is hard to see clearly even for the best of us. Therefore look at sin as it is clothed with its consequences. When you view it dressed in calamity, you will form a very different opinion of it. Imagine knowing a person who, wherever they go, does nothing but harm — poisons one person, stabs another — and leaves traces of their destruction everywhere. How hateful and terrifying they would be to you. It is sin that does all this damage among us. When sin comes upon a person clothed and armed with God's wrath, as it often does at death, it is terrible. Why do we not view it that way at other times? Because we do not see it in its dreadful effects as clearly as we do then. Sin is the same at all times, but our perception is not always the same — just as a body is always the same size, even though its shadow is sometimes larger and sometimes smaller. What we now count a small sin — cursing, petty swearing — will one day be terrible. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira might seem small in itself, but see it clothed with the judgment that fell on them as they died at the apostles' feet. See the sin of Ahab's oppression of Naboth — which you might view as a powerful man doing a small wrong to a poor man — but see it clothed with Ahab's death and the dogs licking his blood, and it appears as what it truly is. So with the profaneness of Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire.

Learn also that if you want to remove a trouble, you must first remove the sin. In medicine: twenty remedies may be tried, but if you have not addressed the root cause of the disease, the patient is no better. Remove the cause, however, and the symptoms quickly vanish. So when some trouble falls on us, we set our minds and hands and friends to work to remove it — and all in vain — while we have not addressed the cause. The cause is sin, and while sin remains, the trouble will remain.

The reason our peace and prosperity are so often interrupted by troubles is that our lives are interwoven with so many sins. The reason for God's unevenness in dispensing his mercy toward you is the unevenness of your dealings with him. Do you have a healthy body, a secure livelihood, many friends? Do not think these things will protect you. See Adam in Paradise, Solomon in his glory, David on his mountain which he thought was firmly established. Then see Adam: once sin made a breach, he was quickly made miserable. Solomon: sin brought an army of troubles upon him. David: at the height of his prosperity, sin brought the threat of losing his kingdom and the rebellion of his own son. Sin in a man's best circumstances makes him miserable, and grace in the worst circumstances makes a person happy. Paul with a good conscience was happy in prison. David through faith was happy at Ziklag.

But you will say: how is it that calamities follow upon sin? We feel no such thing — and because judgment is deferred, the hearts of people are set on doing evil.

All of this must be understood with this qualification: sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death — and not before. God waited until Ahab had oppressed Naboth and taken possession of his vineyard. Only then, when he was seen going down to take it, did God send the message of death: 'Have you killed, and also taken possession?' So with Judas — he was a thief while keeping the bag, and went on in many sins within Christ's own company. Christ left him alone. He continued until he had betrayed his Master. And when his sin was perfected and fully ripe, then at last Christ came with judgment upon him. There is a fixed time for judgment, and if the Lord delays execution until then, you have little cause to comfort yourself. Ecclesiastes 8:11-12: 'Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the heart of people is set to do evil.' As if the wise man had said: go on then, those of you who have peace and comfort yourselves in this — that whatever the word and its ministers threaten, you feel nothing. Yet remember: as soon as a sin is committed, the sentence goes forth. The sentence is one thing, the execution another. Often there is a long interval between a judge's sentence and its execution. So the meaning is that execution is deferred. Therefore do not flatter yourselves — the sentence has been issued, and execution will follow. The vision in Zechariah 5 illustrates this. When swearing and theft had been committed, he saw a flying scroll — which verse 3 interprets as the curse that goes out over all the earth against those who steal and swear. The curse may be in flight a long time before it seizes its target, but it goes out as soon as those sins are committed. The parable of the ephah further shows this: the ephah represents the measure of the people's iniquities. Until it is full, the heavy lid is not sealed down. It is a long while before God comes to execution — not until sins are complete and the measure full. Then the lid of lead is laid down, sealing up those sins so that none are forgotten. God remembers them all. Then two women appeared with the wind in their wings — when sins are thus full and sealed, judgment comes swiftly like the wind and carries the wickedness to Shinar, where it is set on its own base: its proper place, a place of misery, just as hell is called Judas's own place. Sin may lie quiet a long time, like a sleeping debt not called in for many years. But if there is no receipt given, the creditor may demand it at the end and throw the debtor in prison. It was forty years after Saul's slaying of the Gibeonites before execution and vengeance were called for. So Joab's sin in slaying Abner — innocent blood — lay quiet throughout David's reign, until Solomon came to the throne.

Do not behave like a negligent debtor who lets a lawsuit run on from term to term until he is found in default and must pay both the debt and all the costs. Your sins are drawing swift destruction, and it does not slumber. Judgment is already under way and will overtake you and meet you at the journey's end — the end of your days. Let it be your wisdom to settle the matter with God now, while there is time. Otherwise you will not only pay for the sin itself, but for all the time of God's patience toward you that you have wasted. Revelation 2: 'I gave her time to repent, but she did not repent' — God intended to make her pay for all the time he had given her.

The next point from these words is:

If the calamity is removed and the sin is not healed, the removal is in judgment, not in mercy.

God here promises first to forgive sin and then to heal the land. So if he healed the land without forgiving sin, it would be no mercy at all.

The reason is that sin is worse than any trouble whatever. If God takes away the trouble and leaves the sin behind, it is a sign he has no love for you. When a physician removes the medicine and leaves the disease uncured, it is a sign either that the patient's case is desperate or that the physician intends to let him perish.

Further: the Lord does nothing in vain. If an affliction does a person no good, it must do them harm — for what does neither good nor harm is pointless, and that is the property of idols, which the scripture calls vanities. God's actions are not like that. If the trouble does a person no good by healing their sin, it must be doing them harm. You may ask: what harm? It builds you up toward destruction. If you saw a corrosive agent applied to living flesh — eating away the healthy tissue rather than the diseased — you would say it was applied for harm. So if you see an affliction that works on the living flesh, wounding the heart with sorrow, but does not remove the sin — you would rightly reckon that not the medicine of a friend but the wound of an enemy.

You can judge your spiritual condition, and God's disposition toward you, by the result of your afflictions. It is true that all kinds of troubles fall on all kinds of people — sickness, poverty, and so on — on the godly and the wicked alike. The difference lies only in the outcome. The same sun shines on everyone, but it hardens one and softens another. The same wind blows on all ships, but it carries one into harbor and dashes another against the rocks. Consider, then, whether your afflictions bring you home to the Lord or drive you away from him onto the rocks. It is a common observation in medicine that when a remedy produces no effect, the patient is gravely ill. So when afflictions produce no effect, it is a sign that person is spiritually in a mortal condition. If, as Matthew 7 implies, the one who does not receive a reproof from a fellow believer is dangerously hardened — either trampling on it like a pig or turning on the one who gave it like a dog — how much worse is it when a person is corrected by God himself and is worse afterward? Every affliction is a reproof from the Lord. In Isaiah 5, when God had pruned his vineyard and it produced no fruit, it was on the doorstep of destruction and being left desolate. Therefore, if you have passed through some great affliction and it is now past, ask yourself: what profit and good came to you from it? Did it come from God's providence? If so, there was something he intended by it, something he was communicating to you. If you let it pass without taking any notice of God in it — or if you noticed but were not changed — God must be greatly provoked. He will allow the tree to stand another year to see if it will bear fruit, but if it does not, he says: cut it down.

There are certain times when the Lord, through affliction, makes himself present to a person — as if appearing to them — so that they can reach out and feel him and understand what he wants. If such times pass with no good done, it is not a good sign but a warning of destruction. It is a drop of wrath running ahead of the great storm, a crack foretelling the ruin of the whole building. Therefore in distress, seek not so much to have the trouble removed as to have the sin removed. James says: 'Count it all joy when you fall into various trials' — which he would not have said if healing the sin were not a greater mercy than the suffering of the affliction is painful. If you have an affliction on you, say: 'It is well — I will bear it, for God means me good by it.' On the other hand, if you are living recklessly, continuing in sin, not being afflicted, and God allows you to thrive in sin — that is a sign he will destroy you. He is leaving you like an untended vineyard, to be overgrown with briars and thorns.

The last doctrine is:

Remove the sin, and the trouble will surely be removed too — either the trouble itself, or the weight of it, so that it is as good as no trouble at all. An affliction does not consist in its size but in its burden. What is a serpent without a sting? What is a large mass if it has no weight? God can so fashion the heart that it does not feel the burden of the affliction.

First, because troubles come from sin. It is true that some troubles are not for sin — some are for testing, for the confirmation of the gospel, some for the glory of God, as in the case of the man born blind. But for the most part they come from sin.

Second, God never afflicts us except for our profit. Hebrews 12 says: our earthly fathers corrected us, not always for our good — sometimes out of passion — but God corrects us for our profit. When the affliction has made us partakers of his holiness and we have turned from sin, he will stop afflicting.

But you will say: it was not so with David. His sin was forgiven, as Nathan told him, and yet the trouble was not removed — his child died, and the sword did not depart from his house.

There are two exceptions to this general rule.

First, when the name of God has been publicly dishonored — then though he forgives the sin, he may continue to punish for the sake of his own name and reputation.

Second, when we have not been thoroughly humbled. There can be genuine repentance even when our sinful desires have not been sufficiently mortified. God continues the affliction so that the heart may be more fully cleansed. This is why David in Psalm 51 cries out about his broken bones. His heart, he says, was not yet clean — and therefore he prays for a clean heart and a right spirit.

This gives great comfort. When any judgment is on us, we are prone to think we will never be free of it. But if you can get your heart humbled and your sinful desires weakened, God will remove the trouble. It is our own fault when, in affliction, we say we will never see better days. Why so? Is God not able to remove it? And if the sin is removed, will he not also be willing? No one is in a hard situation except the one with a hard heart. We are prone in all circumstances to think what is present will always continue. In prosperity, we say: 'Tomorrow will be like today — or even better.' In affliction, we say: 'As today, so tomorrow, and so forever.' But know this: if you humble yourself and turn from your evil ways, God will take away the calamity. 1 Peter 5:6 speaks to this directly: 'Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time.' When God has humbled a person, let that person humble himself — and then God will lift him up. That is the due time, and he will not delay one moment beyond it. And what I say of present affliction, I say also of future troubles you may fear your sins will bring. If you humble yourself and turn from your evil ways, God will be merciful to you and heal you.

End.