2. Q. What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A. First, how great my sins and misery are;[1] second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery;[2] third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.[3]
[1] Rom. 3:9, 10; I John 1:10. [2] John 17:3; Acts 4:12; 10:43. [3] Matt. 5:16; Rom. 6:13; Eph. 5:8-10; I Pet. 2:9, 10.
1. Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own,[1] but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death,[2] to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.[3] He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood[4], and has set me free from all the power of the devil.[5] He also preserves me in such a way[6] that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;[7] indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.[8] Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life[9] and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.[10]
[1] I Cor. 6:19, 20 [2] Rom. 14:7-9. [3] I Cor. 3:23; Tit. 2:14. [4] I Pet. 1:18, 19; I John 1:7; 2:2. [5] John 8:34-36;Heb. 2:14, 15; I John 3:8. [6] John 6:39, 40; 10:27-30; II Thess. 3:3; I Pet. 1:5. [7] Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18. [8] Rom. 8:28. [9] Rom. 8:15, 16; II Cor. 1:21, 22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14. [10] Rom. 8:14.
The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12 - Sinclair Ferguson
It concerns resolutions taken from the book of James
1. I resolve to ask God for wisdom to speak out of a single-minded devotion to him (1:5).
2. I resolve to boast only in the exultation I receive in Jesus Christ and also in the humiliation I receive for Jesus Christ (1:9-10).
3. I resolve to set a watch over my mouth (1:13).
4. I resolve to be constantly quick to hear and slow to speak (1:19).
5. I resolve to learn the gospel way of speaking to both rich and poor (2:1-4).
6. I resolve to speak in the present consciousness of my final judgment (2:12).
7. I resolve never to stand on anyone’s face with the words I employ (2:16).
8. I resolve never to claim as reality in my life what I do not truly experience (3:14).
9. I resolve to resist quarrelsome words as evidence of a bad heart that needs to be mortified (4:1).
10. I resolve never to speak decided evil against another out of a heart of antagonism (4:11).
11. I resolve never to boast in any thing but what I will accomplish (4:13).
12. I resolve to speak as one subject to the providences of God (4:15).
13. I resolve never to grumble. The judge is at the door (5:9).
14. I resolve never to allow anything but total integrity in everything I say (5:12).
15. I resolve to speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer (5:13).
16. I resolve to sing praises to God whenever I’m cheerful (5:14).
17. I resolve to ask for the prayers of others when I’m in need (5:14).
18. I resolve to confess it whenever I have failed (5:15).
19. I resolve to pray with others for one another whenever I am together with them (5:15).
20. I resolve to speak words of restoration when I see another wander (5:19).
St. Augustine, Confessions, Book Ten: CHAPTER XXVII
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38. Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I
loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought
thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things
thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These
things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless
they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open
my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my
blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odors and I drew in my breath;
and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou
didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace.
The Life of Arthur W Pink, by Iain H. Murray, page 203
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“The best of God’s children (if there be any best!) are frequently afflicted with fits of unbelief and chillings of love. Today they find themselves earnestly proposing and resolving to do things which are good, but tomorrow discover their zeal has somewhat abated, so uncertain and inconsistent are their affections.
Now hopeful, anon despondent,
now singing God’s praises, anon their harps upon the willows;
now walking obediently in the path of Divine precepts, anon straying off into bypath meadow.
None differ so much from them as they often differ from themselves!
Some will glorify God in one condition, but dishonor him in another.
They may conduct themselves becomingly while God keeps them low, and then become fretful against him when they are exalted.
On the contrary, others who tread softly in a time of prosperity are filled with murmurings when the cold winds of adversity smite them”
Anthony Burgess, Spiritual Refining: The Anatomy of True and False Conversions, Vol. 2, pp. 115-117:
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A second branch of chastisements, are indeed for sin, and flow from God’s anger, but they are wholly medicinal: They are to let blood, like the physician who intends health; not like the butcher, who is to destroy; because God would discipline us by them as children, not punish us as condemned malefactors.
And if you say, How can these be for conversion, when sometimes they fall upon those that are converted, such as are made God’s children already?
To answer this, you must remember what was said heretofore, that even those who are converted, do yet need daily to draw nigher and nigher to God; they are to be converted daily from those frequent corruptions, which estrange them from God; and thus when God’s own people have their afflictions, they are to consider, is not this to turn me nearer to God? Is there no such pride, such dulness and coldness in the service of God, that I am to be turned from? Well, it’s clear, to God’s own children, they are thus medicinal; but by the texts forementioned, and in several other places, it’s also evident, even to those who are sinners, and remain in an unconverted estate, God reacheth out his gracious offer in their troubles: That as it is said of several Psalms, which more principally contain the subjects of affliction, A Psalm to give understanding; so shouldst thou write, as it were, upon every trouble, upon every affliction, An affliction to give understanding. Do not physicians command men distracted, and out of their wits, to be kept in dark dungeons, to be bound in straight chains and fetters, to have hard and miserable fare, that so by all this hardship, they may come to their understandings again? Thus God doth, men by their sins are turned mad, they are grown out of their right reason; they indeed think strictness and preciseness is the way to make men out of their wits; but thy lusts and thy wickedness, deprive thee of all sound judgment; now God, that he may recover thee, binds thee in chains, afflicts thee with several judgments, that so at last you may seriously consider of your self, and your condition; so that there was never any trouble befall you but you should make as good use of it, as ever you did of the best sermon you have heard. Hence Parisiensis will not call these afflictions evil, but good; and therefore divides God’s dispensations into bona attractionis, and bona retractionis; good things drawing or attractive, these are God’s mercies; good things withdrawing or retractive from sin, and these are afflictions.
…
Secondly, Afflictions are converting, and not destructive, when God doth vouchsafe, inward teachings of the soul, inward melting and humiliations of the Spirit with them. God’s judgments upon Pharaoh, had no gracious operation upon him, because his heart was more hardened every day. Hence the Psalmist, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest thy way, Psalm 94:12, when God’s chastening and God’s teaching go together, then there is hope of an hearty conversion unto God: when God strikes on the back, and opens the eyes at the same time, then are afflictions blessed and happy to such men: The bitterness of them is quickly recompensed with the fruits of righteousness they bring forth, Consider then, doth the rod give thee wisdom and understanding: doth God speak wisdom to thy heart, while thy outward man is so sharply exercised? Then these things come from love, and will end in love: Oh this undoeth us in our calamities! We attend to the outward burden, and grievous nature of them, we ask, when will we be gone? We cry out, How long Lord? but we never remember that we are by our calamities in God’s school; we consider not, neither do we hearken to what God saith unto us; look then to have teaching, as well as striking: Oh woe be to that man, whom God only beats and beats, but teacheth him not at all: This is a forerunner of sad destruction.
John Calvin, Commentary on Habakkuk 1:12, Calvin’s Commentary, Volume XV, p42.
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This is a truth much needed: for Satan darkens, as with clouds, the favor of God, when any adversity happens to us, and when God himself thus proves our faith. But adversities are as it were clouds, excluding us from seeing God’s fervor, as the light of the sun appears not to us when the sky is darkened. If, indeed, the mass of evils be so great and so thick, that our minds are overwhelmed, they are not clouds, but the thick darkness of night. In that case our faith cannot stand firm, except the providence of God comes to our view, so that we may know, in the midst of such confusion, why he permits so much liberty to the wicked, and also how their attempts may turn out, and what may be the issue. Except then we be fully persuaded, that God by his secret providence regulates all these confusions, Satan will a hundred times a day, yea every moment, shake that confidence which ought to repose in God. We now see how opportunely the Prophet adds this clause. He had said, “Art not thou our God? we shall not die.” He now subjoins this by way of anticipation, “The Assyrians indeed do lay waste thy land as with an unbridled wantonness, they plunder thy people, and with impunity slay the innocent; but, O Lord, this is not done but by thy permission: Thou overrules all these confused proceedings, nor is all this done by thee without a cause.”
John Shaw, The Character of a Pastor According to God’s Heart, a sermon preached on August 25, 1752, pp. 14-15:
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They [the people] should be much in prayer for him. The best minister in the world, though abounding in gifts and graces, is yet desirous to have the pious and godly among his hearers, not insensible that he needs them. So was the Apostle, Romans 15:30, Now I beseech you brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me, in your prayers to God for me. So it is in Ephesians 6:18-19, Praying always…for me that utterance may be given me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. If such a minister of Christ as the Apostle, who was filled with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner, yet needed and desired the prayers of the godly, certainly, then, the ordinary and standing ministers of the gospel need them. And, if they need and desire the prayers of a people, it is the duty of a people to pray for them.
Richard Steele, “How the Uncharitable and Dangerous Contentions That Are Among Professors of the True Religion May Be Allayed,” in Puritan Sermons: 1659-1689, Vol. 4, p. 248:
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Apply yourselves to the practice of real piety. By this I mean, that we should employ our chief care to procure and increase a lively faith, to exercise daily repentance, to strengthen our hope, to inflame our love to God and to our neighbour, to grow in humility, zeal, patience, and self-denial: to be more diligent in watchfulness over our thoughts, words, ways, in mortification of our sinful passions and affections, in the examination of our spiritual estate, in meditation, in secret and fervent prayer, and in universal and steady obedience. In these things do run the vital spirits of religion: and whoso is seriously employed in these, will have but little time, and less mind, for unnecessary contentions. These will keep that heat about the heart, which evaporating, degenerates into airy and fiery exhalations, and leaves the soul as cold as ice to any holy desires. “It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” (Heb. xiii.9.)
It is manifest what a sad decay of these hath followed our multiplied quarrels; and how hard it is to be “fervent in spirit,” and withal to be fiery in controversies. He that walks with God, and whose “conversation is in heaven,” will be quickly weary of windy disputes with men, and will be apt to conclude, with one of the ancients, Lassus sum, dum et cum sermone atque invidia, et cum hostibus et cum nostris, pugno:* which hath occasioned divers great divines the more earnestly to long for heaven, that they might be out of the noise of endless and perverse disputations. The serious practice of godliness hath the promise of divine direction in all material points: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” (Psalm xxv. 14.) “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” (John vii. 17.) And likewise, he that “lives in the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit,” dares not “bite or devour” his neighbour. “Let not us,” saith the apostle, that so walk, “be desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Gal. v. 25, 26.)
John Durant
II Samuel 1:26, “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.”
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Tremble to think that you should ever sin against Christ, who loves you so much. View your sins in the light of your Savior’s love; and when you see the transcendency of that love which is in His bosom towards you, then sit down and bleed to behold your great sinning against Him. Then indeed has transcendent love a sweet working upon your spirit, when the thoughts of it ccan make you mourn for your sins. How sweetly did love work upon that woman (who was a sinner) when she tasted the transcendent love of her Savior? The sight of the great love which was in His bosom towards her made her sit at His feet, and weep bitterly at the thoughts of her sins….And though nothing in the world can melt the heart for sin, yet the thoughts of the love of Christ will. Well, believers, let it then have such working in your bosoms. O let his transcendent love (which you may read written with the blood of His heart) dissolve your adamantine heart. And let it make you mourn for your sins greatly. “They shall see Him whom they have pierced and mourn” (Zech 12:10). Why (believers) do you see Him whom you have pierced with your sins? Do you not mourn, especially when you see Him in the light of love? I say no more but this, either you have not tasted this transcendent love of Christ, or else you spirits are very much hardened, if the sense and thoughts of these do not cause you to mourn for sin. Therefore let this word of exhortation sink deeply into your hearts; weep, and weep tears of blood, to think that ever you should sin against Jesus Christ, who has written by His own blood this truth, that He loves you with a love passing knowledge.
Thomas Watson, Sermon preached on August 17, 1662:
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Think not the better of sin because it is in fashion. Think not the better of impiety and ungodliness, because most walk in those crooked ways. Multitude is a foolish argument. Multitude doth not argue the goodness of a thing. The devil’s name is legion, that signifieth a multitude. Hell-road is this day full of travellers. Esteem not the better of sin, because most go this way. Do we think better of the plague, because it is common? The plea of a multitude, will not hold at God’s bar, when God shall ask, Why did you profane my sabbath? why were you drunk? why did you break your oath? To say then, Lord, because most men did so, will be a poor plea. God will say to you then, seeing you have sinned with the multitude, you shall now go to hell with the multitude. I beseech you, as you tender your souls, walk antipodes to the corruptions of the times. If you are living fish, swim against the stream, dead fish swim down the stream, Ephes. v. 11. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
Keeping the Heart
by John Flavel
“Keep your heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
The second season in the life of a Christian, requiring more than common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of ADVERSITY. When Providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts—then look to your heart; keep it with all diligence from repining against God or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though sanctified, are troubles still. Jonah was a godly man, and yet how fretful was his heart under affliction! Job was the mirror of patience—yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble! You will find it hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion even in the best hearts! Let me show you, then, how a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding, under the hand of God. I will here offer several helps to keep the heart in this condition.
1. By these cross providences God is faithfully pursuing the great design of electing love upon the souls of his people, and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end. Afflictions come not by chance—but by counsel. By the counsel of God, they are ordained as means of much spiritual good to saints. “By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,” etc. “But he disciplines us for our profit,” etc. “All things work together for good,” etc. afflictions are God’s workmen upon our hearts, to pull down our pride and carnal; and being so, their nature is changed; they are turned into blessings and benefits! “It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” says David. Surely then you have no reason to quarrel with God—but rather to wonder that he should concern himself so much in your good, as to use any means for accomplishing it. Paul could bless God if by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead. “My brethren,” says James, “count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials.” ‘My Father is about a design of love upon my soul, and do I do well to be angry with him? All that he does, is in pursuance of, and in reference to some eternal, glorious ends upon my soul. It is my ignorance of God’s design that makes me quarrel with him.’ He says to you in this case, as he did to Peter, “What I do, you know not now—but you shall know hereafter.”
2. Though God has reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people—yet he has tied up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving kindness from them. Can I contemplate this scripture with a repining, discontented spirit: “I will be his Father, and he shall be my son: if he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of man, and with the stripes of the children of men: nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him.” O my heart, my haughty heart! Do you do well to be discontent, when God has given you the whole tree, with all the clusters of comfort growing on it, because he allows the wind to blow down a few leaves? Christians have two kinds of goods, the goods of the throne and the goods of the footstool; immovables and moveables. If God has secured those, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of these: indeed, if he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my soul, I would have reason to be cast down; but this he has not done, nor can he do it.
3. It is of great efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under afflictions, to call to mind that your own Father has the ordering of them. Not a creature moves hand or tongue against you—but by his wise permission. Suppose the cup is bitter—yet it is the cup which your Father has given you! Can you suspect poison to be in it? Foolish man, put home the case to your own heart; can you give your child that which would ruin him? No! You would as soon hurt yourself as him. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” how much more does God! The very consideration of his nature as a God of love, pity, and tender mercies; or of his relation to you as a father, husband, friend—may be security enough, if he had not spoken a word to quiet you in this case. And yet you have his word too, by the prophet Jeremiah: “I will do you no hurt.” You lie too near his heart for him to hurt you. Nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy suspicions of his wise and kind designs. Would it not grieve a faithful, tender-hearted physician, when he had studied the case of his patient, and prepared the most excellent medicines to save his life, to hear him cry out, ‘O he has undone me! he has poisoned me!’ because it pains him in the operation? O when will you be submissive?
4. God respects you as much in a low condition—as in a high condition; and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low; no, he manifests more of his love, grace and tenderness in the time of affliction—than in the time of prosperity. As God did not at first choose you because you were high, he will not now forsake you because you are low. Men may look shy upon you, and alter their respects as your condition is altered; when Providence has blasted your estate, your summer-friends may grow strange, fearing you may be troublesome to them. But will God do so? No! no! “I will never leave you nor forsake you” says he. If adversity and poverty could bar you from access to God, it would indeed be a deplorable condition: but, so far from this, you may go to him as freely as ever. “My God will hear me,” says the church. Poor David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could encourage himself in the Lord his God; and why not you? Suppose your husband or son had lost all at sea, and should come to you in rags; could you deny the relation, or refuse to entertain him? If you would not, much less will God. Why then are you so troubled? Though your condition is changed, your Father’s love is not changed.
5. What if by the loss of outward comforts, God preserves your soul from the ruining power of temptation? Surely then you have little cause to sink your heart by such sad thoughts. Do not earthly enjoyments make men shrink in times of trial? For the love of these, many have forsaken Christ in such an hour. The young ruler “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” If this is God’s design, how ungrateful to murmur against him for it! We see mariners in a storm can throw over-board the most valuable goods to preserve their lives. We know it is usual for soldiers in a besieged city to destroy the finest buildings in which the enemy may take shelter; and no one doubts that it is wisely done. Those who have decayed limbs willingly stretch them out to be cut off, and not only thank—but pay the surgeon! Must God be murmured against for casting over that which would sink you in a storm; for pulling down that which would assist your enemy in the siege of temptation; for cutting off what would endanger your everlasting life? O, inconsiderate, ungrateful man! Are not these things for which you grieve, the very things that have ruined thousands of souls?
6. It would much support your heart under adversity, to consider that God by such humbling providences may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited. And should you be troubled at that? Say, Christian, have you not many prayers pending before God upon such accounts as these; that he would keep you from sin; that he would discover to you the emptiness of the creature; that he would mortify and kill your lusts; that your heart may never find rest in any enjoyment but Christ? By such humbling and impoverishing strokes, God may be fulfilling your desires! Would you be kept from sin? Lo, he has hedged up your way with thorns. Would you see the creature’s vanity? Your affliction is a looking glass to reveal it; for the vanity of the creature is never so effectually and sensibly discovered, as in our own experience. Would you have your corruptions mortified? This is the way—to have the fuel removed which maintained them; for as prosperity begat and fed them, so adversity, when sanctified, is a means to kill them. Would you have your heart rest nowhere but in the bosom of God? What better method could Providence take to accomplish your desire, than pulling from under your head that soft pillow of creature delights on which you rested before? And yet you fret at this! Peevish child, how do you try your Father’s patience! If he delays to answer your prayers, you are ready to say that he regards you not. If he does that which really answers the end of your prayers, though not in the way which you expect, you murmur against him for that! As if, instead of answering, he were crossing all your hopes and aims. Is this sincerity? Is it not enough that God is so gracious as to do what you desire: must you be so impudent as to expect him to do it in the way which you prescribe?
7. It may support your heart, to consider that in these troubles God is performing that work in which your soul would rejoice—if you did see the design of it. We are clouded with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular providences tend to the fulfillment of God’s designs; and therefore, like Israel in the wilderness, are often murmuring, because Providence leads us about in a howling desert, where we are exposed to difficulties; though then he led them, and is now leading us, by the right way to a city of habitation. If you could but see how God in his secret counsel has exactly laid the whole plan of your salvation, even to the smallest means and circumstances; could you but discern the admirable harmony of divine dispensations, their mutual relations, together with the general respect they all have to the last end; had you liberty to make your own choice, you would, of all conditions in the world, choose that in which you now are! Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless—but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye. As God does all things according to the counsel of his own will, of course this is ordained at the best method to effect your salvation. Such a one has a proud heart—so many humbling providences appoint for him. Such a one has an earthly heart—so many impoverishing providences for him. Did you but see this, I need say no more to support the most dejected heart.
8. It would much conduce to the settlement of your heart, to consider that by fretting and discontent, you do yourself more injury than all your afflictions could do. Your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a sting. You make your burden heavy—by struggling under it. Did you but lie quietly under the hand of God, your condition would be much more easy than it is. “Impatience in the sick, brings severity in the physician.” This makes God afflict the more, as a father a stubborn child—who does not receive correction. Beside, it unfits the soul to pray over its troubles, or receive the sense of that good which God intends by them. Affliction is a pill, which, being wrapped up in patience and quiet submission, may be easily shallowed; but discontent chews the pill, and so embitters the soul. God throws away some comfort which he saw would hurt you—and you will throw away your peace after it? He shoots an arrow which sticks in your clothes, and was never intended to hurt—but only to drive you from sin; and you will thrust it deeper, to the piercing of your very heart, by despondency and discontent.
9. If your heart (like that of Rachel) still refuses to be comforted, then do one thing more: compare the condition you are now in, and with which you are so much dissatisfied, with the condition in which others are, and in which you deserve to be. “Others are roaring in flames, howling under the scourge of vengeance—and among them I deserve to be! O my soul, is this hell? Is my condition as bad as that of the damned? What would thousands now in hell give to exchange conditions with me!” I have read (says an author) that when the Duke of Conde had voluntarily subjected himself to the inconveniences of poverty, he was one day observed and pitied by a noble of Italy, who from tenderness wished him to be more careful of his person. The good duke answered, “Sir, be not troubled, and do not think that I suffer from need; for I send a harbinger before me, who makes ready my lodgings and takes care that I am royally entertained.” The noble asked him who was his harbinger? He answered, “The knowledge of myself, and the consideration of what I deserve for my sins, which is eternal torment; when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging, however unprovided I find it—methinks it is much better than I deserve. Why does the living man complain?” Thus the heart may be kept from desponding or repining under adversity.
The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. Ps. 145.9
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3.22-23
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Rom. 2.4
For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Cor. 4.7
“The very breath with which we complain is a blessing.” — Richard Allestree, The Art of Contentment
“Everything on this side of hell is mercy, and the mercies I receive are greater than my burdens.” — Matthew Mead (quoted by Edmund Calamy)
“We can never love God as He deserves. As God’s punishing us is less than we deserve (Ezra 9:13), so our loving Him is less than He deserves.” –Thomas Watson, All Things for Good
“There but for the grace of God go I.” — John Bradford
Arthur Dent, A Pastime for Parents: Or A Recreation, to Passe Away the Time; Containing the Most Principall Grounds of Christian Religion:
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The knowledge of the reprobates is onely literall and historicall. The knowledge of the Elect is spirituall, and experimentall….The reprobate hath a kind of natural feeling of sin, but it is without the true hatred of it, for in his heart he loveth it. The elect doth so feel his sin, that hee hateth it, taketh counsell against it, and prayeth against it.
Willem Teellinck, Redeeming the Time, p. 36:
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When you begin to consider the things which are happening all over the world, always remember that the Lord is working in them. He who can bring light out of darkness, will yet from the completed and combined work bring forth something glorious. Be not therefore too much vexed that there appears somewhere to come an ill stroke in your own affairs, or in the affairs of God’s people in your day, as is now the case; for the Lord would not permit this to take place, did He not mean to use it as a background to give the whole work a more beautiful lustre.
Anne Bradstreet, Meditations:
He that is to sail into a far country, although the ship, cabin, and provisions be all convenient and comfortable for him, yet he hath no desire to make that his place of residence, but longs to put in at that port where his business lies. A Christian is sailing through this world unto his heavenly country, and here he hath many conveniences and comforts, but he must beware of desiring to make this his place of abode, lest he should meet with such tossings that may cause him to long for shore before he sees land. We must, therefore, be here as strangers and pilgrims, that we may plainly declare that we seek a city above, and wait all the days of our appointed time till our change shall come.
Then we have the legal professors, who trust to their own works, and shall find that the curse of Sinai shall wither them. And what shall I more say? Have we not many who are not so inconsistent that we could put our finger upon any open sin sufficient to deserve excommunication, but who are guilty of enormous spiritual wickedness? They are dead, they bring forth no fruit; their hearts are hard as a millstone with regard to the conversion of sinners; they have not faith of God’s elect; they do not live by faith; they have not the spirit of Christ, and therefore they are none of his. God knoweth we have sought to use all care and diligence in this Church, both to keep out unworthy persons and to cast out unhallowed livers; but, despite all that, we cannot but be conscious, and we tell it you faithfully, that the enemy still continues to sow tares among the wheat. The gold is mixed with the dross and the wine with water: for evil men thrust themselves into the heritage of the Lord. When our muster-roll shall be revised at last, how many out of our more than two thousand members will be found to be base-born pretenders unto godliness! O my brethren, I conjure you, by the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you hypocrites, but shed that a sincere people might show forth His praise; I beseech you, search and look lest at the last it be said of you, “Mene, Mene Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
Joseph Sewall, “God’s People Must Enquire of Him to Bestow the Blessings Promised in His Word,” in Richard Owen Roberts, ed., Sanctify the Congregation: A Call to the Solemn Assembly and to Corporate Repentance, pp. 257-258:
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IMPROVEMENT FOUR. Let heads of families be exhorted to encourage the work of God by their prayers, example, and authority in their houses. Surely you know that the God who sets the lonely in families and builds the house, has committed this important trust to you with a solemn charge to bring up your children and all under your care, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You must therefore take up Joshua’s resolution, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). When God promises to pour out the Spirit of grace and supplication upon the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem, it is said that they should look to Him whom they had pierced and mourn; yea, that the land should mourn, every family apart (Zechariah 12:10-14). And then follows the more gracious promise of God’s opening a fountain in the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash away their sins (chapter 13).
Let heads of families, then, call upon the name of the Lord in their houses, that He may pour out His Spirit on them and so bless them in Christ Jesus, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed. Imitate King David, who after he had worshippped God with his people, returned to bless his household (2 Samuel 6:20). Let our family prayer in the morning be set before God as incense and the offering up of our hands as the evening sacrifice, lest that dreadful curse fall upon us and our houses, “Pour out Thy fury upon the heathen that know Thee not, and upon the families that call not on Thy name” (Jeremiah 10:25). Let us all walk before God in our houses with a perfect heart and in a perfect way, saying with the Psalmist, “Oh, when wilt Thou come unto me?” Then call upon all under your roofs to seek and serve the Lord. Travail in birth again with your children until they are born of the Spirit and so have Christ formed in them. Use your best endeavors that your servants may become the children of God and heirs according to the promise, by faith in Jesus Christ. Let your children and servants have leave to attend the means of grace as there may be opportunity and the business of your families will allow it. In a special manner remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy in all your dwellings, for the Lord has blessed this day and hallowed it to be a day of communicating spiritual blessings to His people.
Oh, wait upon God with your houses on the Lord’s day, and labor for the meat which endures to everlasting life! On other days abide with God in a diligent attendance upon your particular calling. Do your own business, and let there be no just occasion for that complaint, “We hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies” (2 Thessalonians 3:11). The great evil of neglecting our own affairs and meddling with those things which do not belong to us is both the parent and nurse of many shameful vices that have a tendency to dishonor God and grieve His Holy Spirit.
William S. Plumer, “The Rock of Our Salvation” 1867
A low state of piety paralyzes half the limbs of the body
of Christ. Cold and selfish–many never aim high. A low
estimate of evangelical doctrine, makes many indifferent
to the teachings of Christ Himself.
Love is too cold.
Faith too often staggers.
Repentance sheds too few tears.
Joy has but few spiritual feasts.
Pity for the perishing too seldom stirs the soul to its depths.
Adoring views of God have too little power over men’s minds.
Hope is too feeble to impart much animation.
The standard of Christian living and morals is low.
Sadly is the Christian profession compromised.
Covetousness has fearful power.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the
pride of life–terribly prevail among professors.
Fashion is the Juggernaut of Christendom.
Christ and Belial are invited to the same feast!
A much deeper tone of piety is needed in all the churches.
It is a great fault in professors, that they do not
more earnestly strive to imitate Christ . . .
in love,
in gentleness,
in tenderness of heart,
in submission to the will of God,
in zeal for the divine glory,
in self-abnegation,
in silence under unjust reproaches,
in all His imitable virtues.
The highest honor which we can render to
the Lord Jesus–is honestly and earnestly
to pray and labor to be like Him.
From Thomas Watson’s “Body of Divinity”
Of comfort to believers. Christ is at work for you in heaven; he makes intercession for you. Oh! But I am afraid Christ does not intercede for me. I am a sinner; and for whom does Christ intercede? ‘He made intercession for the transgressors.’ Isa 53:12. Did Christ open his sides for thee, and will he not open his mouth to plead for thee? But I have offended my High Priest, by distrusting his blood, abusing his love, grieving his Spirit; and will he ever pray for me? Which of us may not say so? But, Christian, dost thou mourn for unbelief? Be not discouraged, thou mayest have a part in Christ’s prayer. ‘The congregation murmured against Aaron;’ but though they had sinned against their high priest, Aaron ran in with his censer, and ‘stood between the dead and the living.’ Numb 16:6I, 48. If so much bowels in Aaron, who was but a type of Christ, how much more bowels are in Christ, who will pray for them who have sinned against their High Priest! Did he not pray for them that crucified him, ‘Father, forgive them’? But I am unworthy; what am I, that Christ should intercede for me? The work of Christ’s intercession is a work of free grace. Christ’s praying for us is from his pitying us. He looks not at our worthiness, but our wants. But I am followed with sad temptations. But though Satan tempts, Christ prays, and Satan shall be vanquished. Thou mayest lose a single battle, but not the victory. Christ prays that thy faith fail not; therefore, Christian, say, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ Christ intercedes. It is man that sins, it is God that prays. The Greek word for advocate signifies comforter. It is a sovereign comfort that Christ makes intercession.
Keeping the Heart
by John Flavel
“Keep your heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
The second season in the life of a Christian, requiring more than common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of ADVERSITY. When Providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts—then look to your heart; keep it with all diligence from repining against God or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though sanctified, are troubles still. Jonah was a godly man, and yet how fretful was his heart under affliction! Job was the mirror of patience—yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble! You will find it hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion even in the best hearts! Let me show you, then, how a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding, under the hand of God. I will here offer several helps to keep the heart in this condition.
1. By these cross providences God is faithfully pursuing the great design of electing love upon the souls of his people, and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end. Afflictions come not by chance—but by counsel. By the counsel of God, they are ordained as means of much spiritual good to saints. “By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,” etc. “But he disciplines us for our profit,” etc. “All things work together for good,” etc. afflictions are God’s workmen upon our hearts, to pull down our pride and carnal; and being so, their nature is changed; they are turned into blessings and benefits! “It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” says David. Surely then you have no reason to quarrel with God—but rather to wonder that he should concern himself so much in your good, as to use any means for accomplishing it. Paul could bless God if by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead. “My brethren,” says James, “count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials.” ‘My Father is about a design of love upon my soul, and do I do well to be angry with him? All that he does, is in pursuance of, and in reference to some eternal, glorious ends upon my soul. It is my ignorance of God’s design that makes me quarrel with him.’ He says to you in this case, as he did to Peter, “What I do, you know not now—but you shall know hereafter.”
2. Though God has reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people—yet he has tied up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving kindness from them. Can I contemplate this scripture with a repining, discontented spirit: “I will be his Father, and he shall be my son: if he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of man, and with the stripes of the children of men: nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him.” O my heart, my haughty heart! Do you do well to be discontent, when God has given you the whole tree, with all the clusters of comfort growing on it, because he allows the wind to blow down a few leaves? Christians have two kinds of goods, the goods of the throne and the goods of the footstool; immovables and moveables. If God has secured those, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of these: indeed, if he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my soul, I would have reason to be cast down; but this he has not done, nor can he do it.
3. It is of great efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under afflictions, to call to mind that your own Father has the ordering of them. Not a creature moves hand or tongue against you—but by his wise permission. Suppose the cup is bitter—yet it is the cup which your Father has given you! Can you suspect poison to be in it? Foolish man, put home the case to your own heart; can you give your child that which would ruin him? No! You would as soon hurt yourself as him. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” how much more does God! The very consideration of his nature as a God of love, pity, and tender mercies; or of his relation to you as a father, husband, friend—may be security enough, if he had not spoken a word to quiet you in this case. And yet you have his word too, by the prophet Jeremiah: “I will do you no hurt.” You lie too near his heart for him to hurt you. Nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy suspicions of his wise and kind designs. Would it not grieve a faithful, tender-hearted physician, when he had studied the case of his patient, and prepared the most excellent medicines to save his life, to hear him cry out, ‘O he has undone me! he has poisoned me!’ because it pains him in the operation? O when will you be submissive?
4. God respects you as much in a low condition—as in a high condition; and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low; no, he manifests more of his love, grace and tenderness in the time of affliction—than in the time of prosperity. As God did not at first choose you because you were high, he will not now forsake you because you are low. Men may look shy upon you, and alter their respects as your condition is altered; when Providence has blasted your estate, your summer-friends may grow strange, fearing you may be troublesome to them. But will God do so? No! no! “I will never leave you nor forsake you” says he. If adversity and poverty could bar you from access to God, it would indeed be a deplorable condition: but, so far from this, you may go to him as freely as ever. “My God will hear me,” says the church. Poor David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could encourage himself in the Lord his God; and why not you? Suppose your husband or son had lost all at sea, and should come to you in rags; could you deny the relation, or refuse to entertain him? If you would not, much less will God. Why then are you so troubled? Though your condition is changed, your Father’s love is not changed.
5. What if by the loss of outward comforts, God preserves your soul from the ruining power of temptation? Surely then you have little cause to sink your heart by such sad thoughts. Do not earthly enjoyments make men shrink in times of trial? For the love of these, many have forsaken Christ in such an hour. The young ruler “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” If this is God’s design, how ungrateful to murmur against him for it! We see mariners in a storm can throw over-board the most valuable goods to preserve their lives. We know it is usual for soldiers in a besieged city to destroy the finest buildings in which the enemy may take shelter; and no one doubts that it is wisely done. Those who have decayed limbs willingly stretch them out to be cut off, and not only thank—but pay the surgeon! Must God be murmured against for casting over that which would sink you in a storm; for pulling down that which would assist your enemy in the siege of temptation; for cutting off what would endanger your everlasting life? O, inconsiderate, ungrateful man! Are not these things for which you grieve, the very things that have ruined thousands of souls?
6. It would much support your heart under adversity, to consider that God by such humbling providences may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited. And should you be troubled at that? Say, Christian, have you not many prayers pending before God upon such accounts as these; that he would keep you from sin; that he would discover to you the emptiness of the creature; that he would mortify and kill your lusts; that your heart may never find rest in any enjoyment but Christ? By such humbling and impoverishing strokes, God may be fulfilling your desires! Would you be kept from sin? Lo, he has hedged up your way with thorns. Would you see the creature’s vanity? Your affliction is a looking glass to reveal it; for the vanity of the creature is never so effectually and sensibly discovered, as in our own experience. Would you have your corruptions mortified? This is the way—to have the fuel removed which maintained them; for as prosperity begat and fed them, so adversity, when sanctified, is a means to kill them. Would you have your heart rest nowhere but in the bosom of God? What better method could Providence take to accomplish your desire, than pulling from under your head that soft pillow of creature delights on which you rested before? And yet you fret at this! Peevish child, how do you try your Father’s patience! If he delays to answer your prayers, you are ready to say that he regards you not. If he does that which really answers the end of your prayers, though not in the way which you expect, you murmur against him for that! As if, instead of answering, he were crossing all your hopes and aims. Is this sincerity? Is it not enough that God is so gracious as to do what you desire: must you be so impudent as to expect him to do it in the way which you prescribe?
7. It may support your heart, to consider that in these troubles God is performing that work in which your soul would rejoice—if you did see the design of it. We are clouded with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular providences tend to the fulfillment of God’s designs; and therefore, like Israel in the wilderness, are often murmuring, because Providence leads us about in a howling desert, where we are exposed to difficulties; though then he led them, and is now leading us, by the right way to a city of habitation. If you could but see how God in his secret counsel has exactly laid the whole plan of your salvation, even to the smallest means and circumstances; could you but discern the admirable harmony of divine dispensations, their mutual relations, together with the general respect they all have to the last end; had you liberty to make your own choice, you would, of all conditions in the world, choose that in which you now are! Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless—but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye. As God does all things according to the counsel of his own will, of course this is ordained at the best method to effect your salvation. Such a one has a proud heart—so many humbling providences appoint for him. Such a one has an earthly heart—so many impoverishing providences for him. Did you but see this, I need say no more to support the most dejected heart.
8. It would much conduce to the settlement of your heart, to consider that by fretting and discontent, you do yourself more injury than all your afflictions could do. Your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a sting. You make your burden heavy—by struggling under it. Did you but lie quietly under the hand of God, your condition would be much more easy than it is. “Impatience in the sick, brings severity in the physician.” This makes God afflict the more, as a father a stubborn child—who does not receive correction. Beside, it unfits the soul to pray over its troubles, or receive the sense of that good which God intends by them. Affliction is a pill, which, being wrapped up in patience and quiet submission, may be easily shallowed; but discontent chews the pill, and so embitters the soul. God throws away some comfort which he saw would hurt you—and you will throw away your peace after it? He shoots an arrow which sticks in your clothes, and was never intended to hurt—but only to drive you from sin; and you will thrust it deeper, to the piercing of your very heart, by despondency and discontent.
9. If your heart (like that of Rachel) still refuses to be comforted, then do one thing more: compare the condition you are now in, and with which you are so much dissatisfied, with the condition in which others are, and in which you deserve to be. “Others are roaring in flames, howling under the scourge of vengeance—and among them I deserve to be! O my soul, is this hell? Is my condition as bad as that of the damned? What would thousands now in hell give to exchange conditions with me!” I have read (says an author) that when the Duke of Conde had voluntarily subjected himself to the inconveniences of poverty, he was one day observed and pitied by a noble of Italy, who from tenderness wished him to be more careful of his person. The good duke answered, “Sir, be not troubled, and do not think that I suffer from need; for I send a harbinger before me, who makes ready my lodgings and takes care that I am royally entertained.” The noble asked him who was his harbinger? He answered, “The knowledge of myself, and the consideration of what I deserve for my sins, which is eternal torment; when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging, however unprovided I find it—methinks it is much better than I deserve. Why does the living man complain?” Thus the heart may be kept from desponding or repining under adversity.
Rutherford
1. If ye prize Christ and His truth so as ye will sell all and buy Him: and suffer for it.
2. If the love of Christ keepeth you back from sinnning, more than the law, or fear of hell.
3. If ye be humble, and deny your own will, wir, credit, ease, honour, the world and the vanity and glory of it.
4. Your profession must not be barren, and void of good works.
5. You must in all things aim at God’s honour; ye must eat, drink, sleep, buy, sell, sit, stand, speak, pray, read and hear the word, with a heart purpose that God maybe honoured.
6. Ye must show yourself an enemy to sin, and reprove the works of darkness, such as drunkeness, swearing and lying, albeit the company should hate you for so doing.
7. Keep in mind the truth of God, that ye heard me teach, and have nothing to do with the corruptions and new guises entered into the house of God
8. Make conscious of your calling, in covenants, in buying and selling.
9. Acquaint yourself with daily praying; commit all your ways and actions to God, by prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving; and count not much of being mocked; for Christ Jesus was mocked for you.
Dr. M Lloyd-Jones
1. A loss of the feeling that God is against me.
2. A loss of that fear which dreads God, while awe and reverence remain.
3. That feeling that God is for me, kind, caring and concerned about me.
4. A sense of sins forgiven
5. A sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for Christ and Calvary
6. An increased hatred of sin
7. A desire to live a good life, well pleasing in his sight
8. A desire to know him better and to draw closer to him
9. A regret for, and consciousness of, our lack of love for God, and unhappiness about this lack
10. Desiring to hear and know more about him.
Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity, pp. 54-57:
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Of the redemption of time, how precious and valuable a treasure it is, and will be taught to be when it is too late.
Is the life of man so short and fleeting, our days on earth so few, and so uncertain! how careful should I be to manage every hour, endeavouring to match the swiftness of time by my celerity and diligence to improve it! I can have no business of greater or of equal moment to mind, than to secure the happiness of my soul in another world. And shall I lavish my time, and lose my pains about things unnecessary? What will all other business signify in the end, if this be neglected? Is there any interest more weighty that calleth me from such work? Is there any thing else that so well deserves my time, that may be put into the scales, or weighed in a balance against this? Shall eternity, which comprehends all time, have the least share of my time allotted for its concerns! How little a part of my time hath been hitherto employed in such work! How reasonable, how necessary, it is to redeem the little inch of time that yet remains, but hastens to a period! For, as there is no covenant to be made with death, so no agreement for the arrest and stay of time; it keeps its pace, whether I redeem and use it well or not.
The greatest part of our life is designedly employed to avoid death; we eat, and drink, and sleep, and labour, and rest, that we may not die; and yet even by these we hasten to death. Every breath, every pulse, every word, leaves one less of the number which God hath appointed me, and carries away some sands of the glass of time; and yet how little care is taken to employ it well! We seldom value it, till we can no longer use it to any advantage; and, though we know it can neither be retarded in its motion, or recalled when past, yet of nothing are we more prodigal. Yea, how many complain of it as a burthen, and know not what to do with their time, are exceedingly at a loss wherein to employ it, what to do to be rid of it! But, alas! how near is that change, when they shall think nothing too dear to purchase some few grains of that sand which now seem too many, while they are passing through their hour-glass! How sad will be the review of our lost and ill-spent time! How different an opinion of its value we shall have on a sick-bed, or when our time and hope are gone! How many weeks, and days, and hours, O my soul! have I trifled away in sloth and idleness, in foolish mirth and hurtful company, in vain thoughts and impertinent discourse, in excess of sleep and needless pastimes, feastings, inordinate care to adorn the body or gratify the sensual appetite! All that which is past is irrecoverable; and the little remainder flies apace. How quickly will it be gone! how soon, how suddenly, may an unexpected stroke of death conclude it! And yet this is all the opportunity I shall hever have to make my peace with God, and prepare for the everlasting world.
Did we consider as we ought, we should not foolishly throw away so much of it in trifles, and things impertinent, or what is worse. How much more might we redeem than commonly we do! to how much better purpose might we husband it! How much more work we might do, were we never idle, or did not loiter! We might walk far, did we not often stand still, or go out of our way. We see it plainly by the great and excellent effects of some few men’s industry in every age. Art hath found means to set spies and watches as it were on the sun, that he cannot look out but they take hold of his shadow, and force it to tell how far he is gone that day; and yet, while we are curious in making time give a just account of itself to us, how little do we consider the account of our time, which we must shortly give to God! Oh! that such a thought might effectually persuade me to redeem it! that I may not tarry till the end of time to know the worth of it! Let me not undervalue it, while it is given me to be used, that I may not eternally regret my folly when time shall be no more.
God calls me to diligence and labour; the work he calls me to is excellent, and the reward is glorious; to know, and love, and serve, and obey him, in order to eternal life! And shall I yet be idle? Is this the use and end of all my time? And do I know it, and believe it? Do I indeed believe it, and yet delay and loiter, and waste my precious hours in vanity? Am I going into eternity, and entering into another world, and know that I must be in heaven or hell for ever; and have I time to throw away? Am I fit to die, and to appear before my Judge, or am I not? Am I made meet for heaven, by pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace? Have I the earnest of the Spirit to witness and assure me of it? Is my interest in the promise of eternal life as firm, and my evidence of it as clear, as it may be made? Am I not conscious to myself, that much of this necessary work is yet to be done? And shall such an unprepared soul as mine be careless and indifferent how I spend my time?
Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth, A Treatise on Christian Assurance, p35-36.
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“A fourth reason why God denies assurance to his dearest ones, is, because they seek assurance more for themselves—than they do for his honor and glory; more that they may have joy without sorrow, comfort without torment, peace without trouble, sweet without bitter, light without darkness, and day without night—than that God may be exalted and admired, and his name alone made great and glorious in the world. The glory of God must consume all other ends, as the sun puts out the light of the fire. Many Christians are like the bee which flies into the field to seek honey to eat—but brings it not into the master’s hive. So they seek for assurance, that they may feed upon that sweet honeycomb, more than to fill their Lord and master’s hive with thanks and praise. That servant who minds his wages more than his work—must not wonder if his master is slack in paying; no more should he who minds his comfort more than obedience, who minds assurance more than divine honor—wonder that God delays the giving in of assurance, though it be sought with many prayers and tears. He who is most tender for God’s honor, shall find by experience that God is most mindful of his comfort. God will not see that soul sit long in sackcloth and ashes, who makes it his business to set God up upon his throne. He who minds God’s glory more than his own good, shall quickly find that God will even obscure his own glory to do him good. If we are not lacking in giving God glory—he will not long be lacking in giving us joy.”
