Means to Obtain an Interest in the Promises

Now I will show you some means whereby a man may so improve his time, that at last he may obtain this blessed estate; which are four; but before I do begin with them, you must be informed of this much, that we may use the means, but there is no means under heaven alone will do it, yet you must wait upon God in the use of the means, for it is not the means that will work faith, but the Spirit of God in the use of the means; and therefore the text says, To you it is given to believe, for faith is the free gift of God; it is God that must do it, and yet he will not do it without us, because we are reasonable men and women. The Lord affords us means, and therefore we are to wait upon him in the use of those means; let the Lord do what he will, and let us do what we should: we must not think when we have the means then we can get faith presently, for as Paul says, The same power that raised up Jesus from the dead must make us able to believe, or else all the angels in heaven, and all the ministers on earth, and all the help that men and means can do you, will do you no good: the means are various, as hearing and prayer, which are the conduits whereby God communicates faith; but I let those pass, and only fasten upon those which are needful for feeble Christians to bring them into this blessed state, and those are these.

First, we must, as much as in us lies, labor to pluck away all those props that the soul leans upon, and all those outward supports, and whatever outward contentment it is, which a poor sinner does repair and betake himself to for relief and help, that when all these are taken from us, we may be forced to go for support there where it is to be had. It is that which remains in the nature of man, and that which is natural to us all even from our first parents, that we would have the staff in our own hands, and support our own souls, and supply all those necessities that lie upon us.

Now the way to make the soul lean upon Christ, is, to pluck away all other props; for the last thing that we come to is the promise, and if we could find good anywhere else, we would never go to Christ; God hears last of us, and therefore we should do with ourselves as the enemy does with a city besieged, when he would make them yield, the only way is to famish them, cut off all provision, and stop all passages that none may come to relieve them, and then they will be forced to yield themselves to the mercy of the enemy; so it is with our nature, we are still trusting to our own strength, and relying upon something of our own; therefore famish your heart, and cut off all the means and comfort whereby your heart may be supported, and your conscience quieted, and when your heart is famished, it will then seek out to a Savior, and lie there, because there is no other thing to support it.

The poor woman in the Gospel had spent all her goods upon the physicians, and if she had had but a little means left, indeed, but one farthing token, for anything I know she would never have gone to Christ; but when all these failed, then she was forced to seek to Christ, that was ready and willing to do anything for her distressed nature: so our souls must have something to support themselves upon, for they cannot live without some support. Now therefore when all our carnal hopes are taken away, we must needs stay upon the promise, because we have nothing else. It is not required that a man should cast away those outward comforts that God affords him, but only this, that though you have all, yet labor to get your heart to see and acknowledge the emptiness of all these, and let not the heart seek too much content in them, for these are all but lying vanities, and broken staves, which will not only deceive a man, but pierce him too.

Now when the soul sees these things cannot support him, but lay him in the dust, then he will be content to have his heart severed from them. It is with the soul as it was with Noah's dove, when the Ark began to rest upon the mountain of Ararat, Noah sent out the dove, but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot: no question there were many dead carcasses, but the dove found no rest till she came to the Ark again; so when a man finds no rest in anything the creature affords, and can get no footing for the soul to stay itself upon them, then it betakes itself to Christ, and goes home to the promise, and rests there, and expects from there what is needful; as in the art of swimming, he that will swim must pluck his feet from the bottom, and commit himself to the stream to bear him up; so we must pluck our hearts from these things, and them from us; and though we have honor and preferments, yet we must not put any confidence in them, but learn by our believing to commit ourselves wholly to the power of the promise, and receive comfort from there only.

Let not the gods of this world, honor, and profit, and pleasure deceive you; did the pride of Pharaoh's heart deliver him? did the riches of Dives save him? did Herod's applause that he had, deliver him? did these gods secure them? in fact, have they not left them in the lurch? therefore let us take our hearts off from these things, and have a low esteem of them, and see a vanity, and emptiness, and insufficiency in them, that we may be forced to seek to Christ, and say as David said, Help Lord, for vain is the help of man. Labor therefore to see the private workings of your own heart, and hunt out all those mazes, and turnings and windings of your spirit, for it is wonderful to see how the soul is ready to hang her comforts upon every hedge, and shift and seek in every hidden corner for comfort: now when you see your heart thus seeking to settle itself, pluck away that prop, and see the emptiness of it, and then your heart will be fit and ready to go to Christ.

Now when this is done there is a little way made that the promise may come to the soul, therefore labor in the second place to have your hearts possessed thoroughly, and persuaded effectually of the fullness of that good which is in the promise, and of that satisfactory mercy and freeness of the grace of God in Christ, that so the soul may be established with that full content which is to be had in the riches of the promise. But mark what I say, persuade your heart of it, and content not yourselves that you are able to dispute somewhat fully of the excellency of the promise and of the riches of God's free grace; what is this to the purpose that the heart knows this, and yet is forestalled that it comes not to the promise? Therefore leave not your heart till it come to make that account of the promise, that the word says it is worth; I say leave not your heart till you see the promise of grace most beautiful in your eye, and that your heart may gain some earnest touching the goodness of God, and the riches of his grace towards you; and bring your heart to know and see, that the promise is better than all the riches and honors that you can have, or the world can bestow. They that know you will trust in you, for you Lord have never failed them that seek you (Psalm 9:10): this kind of knowledge ever breeds confidence and resolution, and persuades the heart; we dare trust a friend whose faithfulness we have tried; and rest upon that which we know by experience. The promises are of a tried truth; seek from one end of the heavens to the other, turn all the Bible over, and see if ever any man leaned on the promise, and the Lord did not perform that which he had promised for the good of his soul? Except the Lord had been my delight, I should have perished in my troubles (says David) (Psalm 119:92). My flesh fails and my heart also, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26). Here lies a great weight, and it is a work of marvelous difficulty and great necessity, and therefore that your heart may sit down satisfied in the sufficiency of the promise, I will propose three rules how you may improve the promise for your utmost benefit.

First, labor daily to present to your soul a greater good in the promise than you can see anywhere else: it is a man's skill, and it should be his endeavor daily to dog his heart, and to look what it is that the heart desires most, and present a greater good to your soul therein, than in all things you can have elsewhere. We should deal with our hearts as a man would do with a corrupt justice, when he would have him to be on his side, the only way is to bribe him; (though that is sinful) yet it is good to bribe the corrupt heart with the goodness of the promise, that the heart may cleave to it, and long after it. Do honors, or riches, or the applause of men, or any earthly pleasures offer you content and satisfaction? Then persuade your heart there is a greater worth and excellency in the promise than can be had in all the world. Here is an exceeding weight of glory, he that has this promise shall be made a king, and shall have glory that will never vanish: does your heart hanker after earthly joy and mirth? You shall find a [reconstructed: greater joy in the] promise, than in [illegible] of these thorns, (so I may say of anything else). Does your heart hanker after riches? Then tell your heart that there are unsearchable riches in Christ, and through him we have title to all the promises of this life and a better; we know he that offers most for the bargain has it: therefore we should observe the goings out of our hearts, and what offers itself to give us most content, and present our souls with a greater good in God than in all things else.

Oh the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the [illegible] passes [illegible] consideration of [illegible] as it works a longing after Christ, and the promises, so it should fill our faces with shame and confusion, that ever we should set light by such riches of mercy, and walk unworthy of so great salvation. Could we comprehend the unmeasurable dimensions of God's love and goodness revealed in his word, how would our hearts be enflamed towards him? When the sinner thinks thus with himself, I that have done all that I could against so good a God, that my heart even bleeds to think of it, there [illegible] under heaven [illegible] in pieces but God's [illegible] his wounds, and life, [illegible] heart-blood I have rent and torn a thousand times. Nay, there was no command in the world that my soul so much despised, as the command of the Lord Jesus. There was no spirit that ever spoke to me, which I so much resisted as the Spirit of the Lord. Oh how many sweet motions has the Lord let into my soul, thereby to pluck me from my base courses and sinful practices! By how many mercies has he allured me, by how many gracious promises has he invited me, to forsake [illegible] turn [illegible] but I have [illegible] the face of his [illegible] and blessed spirit, and rejected all terms of reconciliation. If I had lain in a dungeon, and been plagued with torments all my lifetime, yes, though I had another world full of misery to live in, I should count it infinite mercy, so the Lord would pass by my sinful miscarriages, and pardon these inward rebellions.

But that God should send his dearest Son to love me, and that so incomparably, so inconceivably, that I could not possibly hate him, so much as he loves and affects me, I could not so exceed in unkindness towards him, as he has exceeded in tender compassion towards me? Were it not righteous with God, never to speak comfort more to my soul, that have so lightly esteemed his promise and word of comfort? Had it not been just with God to take advantage against me? Was it not just that I which lived in sin, should have perished in my sin? Had it not been just that I who have so much loved corruption, should have reaped the bitter fruit of it long before this? But that the Lord should find an enemy, and not slay him; nay, that he should give his beloved Son out of his bosom to save him; is love not to be expressed. Oh the height of this mercy beyond my desire. Oh the breadth of this mercy without all bounds. Oh the length of this mercy beyond all times. Oh the depth of this mercy beyond all sin and misery!

Labor therefore to have access to the promise with your soul, and speak a good word for it, and say, Stand by profits, and pleasures, and preferments, room for the Lord Jesus Christ, and put a wonderful price upon the promise; this is an everlasting rule, whatever the soul does account as best, that it will choose and leave all others for it. I would have the soul outbid the world, and labor to out-shoot the devil in his own bow, and those things which the devil casts in your way, for hindering your soul from coming to the promise, let those things be as means to usher in the promise. As thus, when you see your heart look after friends, let those friends usher the way to think on the infinite love and favor of God in Christ; and when your heart would gladly hunt after wealth, let this usher a way to the promise, and say, If the heart finds such content in riches, what would it find in the riches of God's grace in Christ? Thus present a greater good in the promise than in anything else.

The second rule is, Labor to convince your heart of this, that all the things in the world without the promise are not good, and had you all that the earth can afford without a promise, they were rather a curse to you than a blessing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, it gives a kind of being and substance to all; there is no substance in honor and riches if they be not in faith; they are clogs and snares to a man, except faith give a title to that and a blessing with it; all our prayers have no substance in them, but are poor and empty words without faith in the promise to have what we pray for: the most broken and mean prayer, when a poor creature can scarce utter four words with any sense, yet if it be mingled with faith, is a very powerful prayer; and the substance of all your hearing, and my preaching lies in faith, otherwise they are but lost labor, for faith is it that gives a kind of being to whatever we speak or do.

The third rule in this second means is this, Labor to acquaint your heart with the goodness of the promise, before carnal reason comes and possesses your heart, how that the promise is most sure, and will come when it is most seasonable, and is best for you, and when God sees it most fit we shall certainly have it. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive comfort and mercy in time of need (Hebrews 4:16); not when I see it fit, but when God sees it fit, this is it which carries away many poor sinful hearts from resting upon the promise of God; sometimes the heart is a little affected with the excellency of the riches of God's grace, and sees what great things the Lord has done for his soul, and says, Oh that I were such a one, and let me die the death of the righteous; but when it comes to pass that he has not present ease and comfort, then he casts away the good promise of the Lord, and the devil prevails wonderfully with these poor creatures. Therefore says the prophet, When the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be on the vines, when the labor of the olive shall fail and yield no fruit, then will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17). Says the prophet, Comfort from the promise, and from the Lord Jesus Christ is then seasonable, when I have most need and may receive most good thereby; then shall I be sure to have the promise so to surprise my heart, that it may be possessed with the all-sufficiency of it.

In the third place see that you expect all the good which you need and can desire from that sufficiency of the promise; do not think to bring any good with you to the promise, but go to the promise for all good; there are all the cords of mercy that must draw you, and there is the all-sufficiency that can supply all your wants, look for all from there, and expect power from the promise to enable you to do whatever you would, and to make you able to believe the promise.

Object. It is a weak plea for a man to say, I dare not look to the promise, I cannot believe, if I could then I might expect some good.

Answer. You shall never believe upon these terms, you must not first have faith and then go to the promise, but you must first go to the promise, and from there receive power to make you able to believe the promise, O Lord remember your word to your servant, wherein you have caused me to trust (Psalm 119:49). When men are enlarged in love to a man, and make fair promises, this persuades the heart to trust to them, and to rely upon them for good; therefore a man does use to say, I dared not have thought it, nor expected, if you had not promised it; so the promise of God made to the soul, makes the soul to rest upon it.

To expect faith without a promise, is all one as if a man should expect a crop without seed, for the promise is the immortal seed of God's Word, whereby the Spirit breeds this faith in the hearts of all that are his. The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live (John 5:25): it is spoken of raising of a dead man from the grave of sin. First, there is the voice of Christ to the soul, before there can be an echo again of the soul to Christ; so the power of the promise must come to the soul, and we must hear the voice of God in the promise before we can return an echo again to the Lord; the Lord says, Come to me, and the soul says, I come Lord. When you see much deadness and unfitness of heart, do not go away, and look off from the promise, and say, Thus I am, and so it is with me; but rather go to the promise, and say, Whatever frailties I find in myself, yet I will look to the Lord, and to his promise, for if I want faith, the promise must settle me more and more therein, I must not bring faith to the promise, but receive faith from there, and therefore I will wait till the Lord please to work it.

Lastly, labor to yield to the equal condition of the promise, and make no more conditions than God makes; now the promise requires no more of a man, but that he should come and lay hold on mercy; therefore do you require no more than God in the promise requires; there is enough in the promise to do you good, therefore expect all good from it, and be content to go to the promise, and take of God whatever he has therein offered. Buy without money; this is the condition that God offers mercy upon, buy wine and milk, that is, grace and salvation without money, that is, without sufficiency of your own; if a man should go running up and down to borrow money before he comes to buy, he may famish before he comes; so the Lord offers Christ's mercy and salvation, and says, Come take it without money, and we run up and down to borrow money of prayer, and duties, and power against corruption, but you may be starved before you buy, if you go this way to work.

Therefore make God's commodities no dearer than God himself makes them, for this is the cause why many a poor soul is kept from coming to the promise: Oh, says one, if I were able to master my sins and distempers as such a one can do, then I would believe; this is to bring money; but are you content to have Christ, and that Christ may have you, and rule you, and supply your wants, and reveal your sins, and heal your corruptions; then go to the promise, and the Lord thereby will supply your wants, and master all your sins and corruptions; but that must come afterwards. When I passed by you, and saw you in your blood, (says the Lord) and behold the time was as the time of love, and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness; indeed, I entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine; (that is, you were content that God should marry you in all your rags) and washed you with water, indeed, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and anointed you with oil, I clothed you also with embroidered work (Ezekiel 16:8-9). First, he marries the Church to himself, and then he gives grace, and passes over his estate to his Spouse. Were it not a wonderfully great folly if some great King should make love to a poor milkmaid, and she should put it off, and refuse the match till she were a queen, whereas, if she will match with the King, he will make her a queen afterwards; so we must not look for sanctification, till we come to the Lord in vocation; for this is all the Lord requires of you, to see your sins, and be weary of them, and be content that the Lord Jesus shall reveal what is amiss, and take it away, and that the Lord should give you grace, then the Lord will bring you to himself, and you shall receive mercy from him, and then all your corruptions shall fall to the ground. To sum up the point briefly thus:

First, when we have plucked away all carnal props, there is way made for the promise to come to us.

Secondly, when our hearts are possessed thoroughly of the sufficiency of God's promise and grace, then the promise draws near to the soul.

Thirdly, when we expect all from the promise, even power to come to the promise, then the promise lays hold upon us.

Fourthly, when we are content to yield to the equal conditions of the promise, then the promise carries us quite away.

Thus we have seen the hindrances removed, and the means propounded, and now, that we may be moved and persuaded importunately to seek after this blessed grace of God, let us consider thus much; if you once get this grace, you get all other graces with it; it is a ground of comfort to set a man [reconstructed: awork], when in the doing of one work he may do another, in fact, all works; so it is in the work of faith, it should encourage us to labor for faith, because if we get this we get all: men that are wise to provide for themselves, and to lay out their money in a purchase for the best advantage, if they see it well wooded and watered, especially if there be some golden mines, all their mind will be upon that, because if they have that they have all with it; so it is here, get grace and get all, strengthen this and all is strong, want this and want all, once get this, and you need not seek for [reconstructed: wisdom], for faith will [reconstructed: make] you wise to salvation, and you need not labor for patience, for faith will make you patient, and faith will bring holiness with it to purge you, for faith brings all grace. Now the saints of God endeavor with much pains to get grace, and to subdue their corruptions; but yet they are feeble and weak therein, because they take not the right way.

Many a poor soul mourns and cries to heaven for mercy, and prays against a stubborn hard heart, and he is weary of his life because his vile heart remains, and yet [reconstructed: would you go there,] for if you would [illegible] grace you must first of all get faith, and that will bring all the rest; buy the field, and the pearl is yours; you must not stand struggling and striving with your own hearts, and think to master a proud heart, that will not do it, but let [reconstructed: faith] go to Christ, and there is meekness, patience, humility and wisdom, and faith will fetch all these to the soul. Brethren, if you set such a price upon any of those graces, then [reconstructed: labor for] faith, get that [illegible] glass, the [reconstructed: Lord], are changed into the same image from glory to glory. The Lord Christ is the glass, and the glorious grace of God in Christ, is compared to the glory of the Lord; therefore first we must behold the grace in Christ by faith, before we can receive grace; first, see humility in Christ, and then fetch it there; first see strength and courage to enable your weak heart, and then fetch it. Would not you be content to have a meek, gracious and [illegible] heart? [illegible] of you, [illegible] think it [illegible] that ever you [illegible] you say, [reconstructed: Oh that I could once see that day,] [illegible] this proud heart of mine might be humbled. If I could see the blood of my sins, I should think myself happy, and desire to live no longer; then get faith, and so buy the whole, for they go all together; you must not think to have patience and meekness, without faith, but buy faith and you shall have all together. Would you have the glory of God, and be more heavenly minded, then [illegible] this will increase all your graces, to your everlasting peace and comfort. When men use to make a purchase, they will reckon up all, and say, There is so much wood worth so much, and so much stock, worth so much, and then they offer for the whole, answerable to all the parcels: so there is item for a heavenly mind, that is worth thousands and item for a humble heart, that is worth millions. And are these graces [illegible] so much? What is faith [illegible: pages missing]