their souls upon any thing, upon their own sorrow and contrition, upon
their resolution to amend, upon external duties and privileges, upon civil
honesty, until all these succumb under the weight of their salvation; and
then, it may be, they will ask after him who bare our griefs. I would not
willingly speak of preparations to faith, because it putteth men upon
searching for something in themselves, upon fashioning their own hearts,
and trimming them to come to Christ; whereas there is nothing can be
acceptable to him but what cometh from him. But I think all that men
intend, who speak of preparations, may be gained this way by holding out
unto men the impossibility of coming to Christ, till they be emptied of
themselves. Not that the one is a thing going before, to be done by us,
but because they are all one; it is one motion of the soul to come out of
itself, and into Jesus; it is one thing really to distrust ourselves, and
to trust in him; and by this means, when the true nature of faith itself
is holden out, men might examine themselves rather by it, whether they
have it, than by the preparations of it.

But to come to our purpose, when the soul is pressed under burdens of sin
and misery, of duty and insufficiency, and inability to do it, then the
gospel discovereth unto the wearied soul a place of reposing and rest. The
Lord hath established Christ Jesus, an "ensign to the people;" those who
seek unto him shall find his rest glorious, Isa. xi. 10. When there is
discovered in us all emptiness and inability, yea impossibility to save
ourselves, or perform any duty, then are we led to Jesus Christ, as one
who is come with grace and truth, in whom it hath pleased the Father all
fulness should dwell; and the turning of the soul over upon him is
trusting in him. You would not mistake this; trusting in the Lord in its
first and most native acting, is not always persuasion of his good-will
and love in particular. No, the soul meets first with a general promise,
holding out his good-will in general; and the soul closeth with this, as a
thing both good and true,--as faithful in itself, and worthy of all
acceptation. This is it that we must first meet with,--an all-sufficient
Saviour, able to save to the utmost all that come to him; and the soul's
accepting of that blessed Saviour on the terms he is offered, this is
believing in him, and trusting to him, as a complete Saviour.

Now when the soul hath disburdened itself upon G