Stranger and Pilgrim

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

Zach — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:04:31 +0000

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.
Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.
Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new invention and contrivance to promote the aforementioned things.
Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.
Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances don’t hinder.
Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.
Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.
Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings.
Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world.
Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.
Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
Resolved, never to do anything, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the 4th Resolution.
Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
Resolved, to cast away such things, as I find do abate my assurance.
Resolved, never willfully to omit anything, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.
Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution.
Resolved, to be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that in Prov. 20:6, “A faithful man who can find?” may not be partly fulfilled in me.
Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, establishing and preserving peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects. Dec.26, 1722.
Resolved, in narration’s never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
Resolved, whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved. Dec. 18, 1722.
Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it. Dec. 19, 1722.
Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year. Dec.22 and 26, 1722.
Resolved, never to speak anything that is ridiculous, sportive, or matter of laughter on the Lord’s day. Sabbath evening, Dec. 23, 1722.
Resolved, never to do anything that I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or no; except I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking. Jan. 7, 1723.
Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.
Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism; which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this twelfth day of January, 1722-23.
Resolved, never henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s, agreeable to what is to be found in Saturday, January 12. Jan.12, 1723.
Resolved, that no other end but religion, shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it. Jan.12, 1723.
Resolved, never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion. Jan.12 and 13.1723.
Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eve: and to be especially careful of it, with respect to any of our family.
Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented, easy, compassionate, generous, humble, meek, modest, submissive, obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable, even, patient, moderate, forgiving, sincere temper; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so. Sabbath morning. May 5,1723.
Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or no; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of. May 26, 1723.
Resolved, that this never shall be, if I can help it.
Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world. July 5, 1723.
Resolved, that I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned. July 8, 1723.
I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.
Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer. July 8, 1723.
Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate it. July 8, 1723.
Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments. July 8, 1723.
Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
Resolved, when I fear misfortunes and adversities, to examine whether ~ have done my duty, and resolve to do it; and let it be just as providence orders it, I will as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin. June 9, and July 13 1723.
Resolved, not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness and benignity. May27, and July 13, 1723.
Resolved, when I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times. May 12, July ii, and July 13.
Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination. July 4, and 13, 1723.
Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13, 1723.
Resolved, never to do anything but duty; and then according to Eph. 6:6-8, do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man; “knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.” June 25 and July 13, 1723.
On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. Jan.14′ and July ‘3′ 1723.
Resolved, when I find those “groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), of which the Apostle speaks, and those “breakings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be wear’, of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness. July 23, and August 10, 1723.
Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance; according to Dr. Manton’s 27th Sermon on Psalm 119. July 26, and Aug.10 1723.
Resolved, that I will endeavor always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.
Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.
Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help. July 23, and August 10, 1723.
Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it. Aug. 11, 1723.
Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak. Aug. 17, 1723

Share on Facebook

Comfort in God’s Sovereignty

Zach — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:24:04 +0000

If the topic of comfort in God’s sovereignty is breached, the discussion cannot be complete without looking to the Psalmists of old. So many of the psalms (27, 30, 34, 139, 142, and many, many others) focus on the comforts supplied by a reliance upon God’s providence. I think there is special value to singing these truths; hence the reason why the Holy Spirit chose to inspire them frequently throughout book of psalms.

Here is a short poem that I wrote this afternoon (for a close friend of mine). I have not put it to music; but like the psalmists, I find great delight in expressing the glorious comforts afforded by God’s sovereignty, in verse.

Too wise to err, too strong to fail
Too loving to cause a needless tear
His plan assuredly shall prevail
And by His grace you’ll persevere!

Confused at times by things unclear
We learn that we are dust and frail
Yet God by this will draw us near
And lift our eyes, our doubts to quail

When sorrow doth the soul assail
To this assurance we adhere
God’s love with power doth entail
The saving grace that draws us near

Take up courage, do not fear
Every ship through storms must sail
The waves are but a thin veneer
And depths beneath with blessings swell

Sorrows leave the soul distraught
And fears, they never seem to rhyme
But Christ with blood your joy has bought
Lay hold and grasp this paradigm

We will not always understand
Nor can we live without some pain
But God in Christ will hold your hand
And bring from ashes untold gain

So count it all as joy sublime
Expound His grace with every thought
The oceans of God’s love in time
Unfold to show the plan He’s wrought

Share on Facebook

The Christian Marriage

Zach — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:06:48 +0000

I have just been blessed by a most lively and invigorating narration of C.H. Spurgeon’s paper ‘The Christian Marriage.’ This short piece proved both enjoyable and convicting, and so I feel compelled to share these thoughts on my blog!

Spurgeon’s emphasis here is more directed, it seems, on the characters and passions of a Godly wife. As an unmarried man (who longs to enjoy God’s favor in a covenantal marriage!), these admonitions say very little to me concerning marital obligations; but as the bride of Christ, Spurgeon’s paper offers a most helpful guide to honoring Christ as my head, my redeemer, my all in all.

Read these paragraphs two or three times, study their meaning, and measure your own life as the bride of Christ by these tokens of marital felicity. Earthly marriage is only a picture, a blessed picture, of our covenantal fellowship with Christ in God. We must always consider the reality in Christ as our pattern and standard for living the Christian life in marriage.

“Sometimes we have seen a model marriage, founded on pure love, and cemented in mutual esteem. Therein, the husband acts as a tender head; and the wife, as a true spouse, realizes the model marriage-relation, and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought to be. She delights in her husband, in his person, his character, his affection; to her he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in her eyes he is all-in-all; her heart’s love belongs to him, and him only. She finds sweetest content and solace in his company, his fellowship, his fondness; he is her little world, her Paradise, her choice treasure. At any time, she would gladly lay aside her own pleasure to find it doubled in gratifying him. She is glad to sink her individuality in his. She seeks no renown for herself; his honor is reflected upon her, and she rejoices in it. She would defend his name with her dying breath; safe enough is he where she can speak for him. The domestic circle is her kingdom; that she may there create happiness and comfort is her lifework; and his smiling gratitude is all the reward she seeks. Even in her dress, she thinks of him; without constraint she consults his taste and considers nothing beautiful which is distasteful to him.

A tear from his eye because of any unkindness on her part, would grievously torment her. She seeks not how her behavior may please a stranger, or how another’s judgment may approve her conduct; let her beloved be content, and she is glad. He has many objects in life, some of which she does not quite understand; but she be believes in them all, and anything she can do to promote them, she delights to perform. He lavishes love on her, and, in return, she lavishes love on him. Their object in life is common. There are points where their affections so intimately united that none could tell which is first and which is second. To watch their children growing up in health and strength, to see them holding posts of usefulness and honor, is their mutual concern; in this and other matters, they are fully one. Their wishes blend, their hearts are indivisible. By degrees, they come to think very much the same thoughts. Intimate association creates conformity; I have known this to become so complete that, at the same moment, the same utterance has leapt to both their lips.

Happy woman and happy man! If Heaven be found on earth, they have it! At last, the two are so blended, so engrafted on one stem, that their old age presents a lovely attachment, a common sympathy, by which its infirmities are greatly alleviated, and its burdens are transformed into fresh bonds of love. So happy a union of will, sentiment, thought, and heart exists between them, that the two streams of their life have washed away the dividing bank, and run on as one broad current of united existence till their common joy falls into the ocean of eternal felicity.”

What an unspeakably glorious thing! To partake in a covenantal union, for the praise and honor of God, a union which is in itself a picture of Christ’s redemption of his church. Joy! Joy! Joy unspeakable, and full of glory! Praise God for the gift of marriage!

Here are some very profitable and interesting quotes regarding the blessed gift of marriage:

Martin Luther:

“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”

“My Katie, is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus.”

“My dear son and my dear Kate. I have nothing [in worldly goods] to bequest to you, but I have a rich God. Him I leave to you. He will nourish you well.” (When he thought he was dying)

“Whoever finds himself unsuited to the celibate life should see to it right away that he has something to do and to work at; then let him strike out in God’s name and get married. A young man should marry at the age of twenty at the latest, a young woman at fifteen to eighteen; that’s when they are still in good health and best suited for marriage.”

“Marriage is the God-appointed and legitimate union of man and woman in the hope of having children or at least for the purpose of avoiding fornication and sin and living to the glory of God.”

“The ultimate purpose is to obey God, to find aid and counsel against sin; to call upon God; to seek, love, and educate children for the glory of God; to live with one’s wife in the fear of God and to bear the cross; but if there are no children, nevertheless to live with one’s wife in con- tentment; and to avoid all lewdness with others.”

“[Marriage] is just as necessary as the fact that I am a man, and more necessary than sleeping and waking, eating and drinking, and emptying the bowels and bladder.”

“Parents are sinning against God and human nature when they force their children to marry or accept a spouse for whom they have no desire. . . . Daily experiences clearly teach and show us what sort of trouble has come from forced marriages. . . . And even though God and human nature did not demand that marriage is to be unforced, a heart of fatherly and motherly affection toward children should refuse to tolerate anything but love and delight as the basis of marriage.”

“The greatest good in married life, that which makes all suffering and labor worth while, is that God grants offspring and commands that they be brought up to worship and serve him. In all the world this is the noblest and most precious work, because to God there can be noth- ing dearer than the salvation of souls.”

“This living together of husband and wife—that they occupy the same home, that they take care of the household, that together they produce and bring up children—is a kind of faint image and a remnant, as it were, of that blessed living together [in Eden].”

“You should think: ‘This child of man, this creature of God has been given to me by my Christ. May he be praised and glorified.’”

“With them God makes of your house a hospital, and sets you over them as chief nurse, to wait on them, to give them good words and works as meat and drink, that they may learn to trust, believe, and fear God. . . . O what a blessed marriage and home were that where such parents were to be found! Truly it would be a real church, a chosen cloister, yea, a paradise.”

“It is the highest grace of God, when love continues to flourish in married life. The first love is ardent, is an intoxication love, so that we are blinded and are drawn to marriage. After we have slept off our intoxication, sincere love remains in the married life of the godly; but the godless are sorry they ever married.”

“Christian love, should be a gushing, surging kind of love which overflows from the inner heart like a fresh stream or brook that is always in motion and never dries up. And this should be at the foundation and essence of our marriages.”

“When I was a boy, the wicked and impure practice of celibacy had made marriage so disreputable that I believed that I could not even think about the life of married people without sinning. Everybody was fully persuaded that anyone who intended to lead a holy life acceptable to God could not get married but had to live as a celibate and take the vow of celibacy. Thus many who had been hus- bands became either monks or priests after their wives had died. Therefore it was a work necessary and useful for the church when men saw to it that through the Word of God marriage again came to be respected and that it received the praises it deserved. As a result, by the grace of God now everyone declares that it is some- thing good and holy to live with one’s wife in harmony and peace.”

“I would not want to exchange my Kate for France nor for Venice to boot; to begin with (1) because God has given her to me and me to her; (2) because I often find out that there are more shortcomings in other women than in my Kate; and although she, of course, has some too, these are nonetheless offset by far greater virtues; (3) because she keeps faith and honor in our marriage relation.”

Others:

‘The husband, if his wife is a believer, should so love her that their life together may preach the marriage of Christ to His church.’ John Bunyan [25 Surprising Marriages, p. 379]

“Demographic trends, cultural shifts, and a weakening of the biblical concept of marriage have produced a situation in which marriage is in big trouble, even among many Christians… By any calculation, the statistics indicate that young adults are marrying much later in life than at any time in recent human history. As a matter of fact, demographers have suggested that this new pattern of delay in marriage has established a statistical pattern that in previous generations had been most closely associated with social crises like war and natural disaster.” Albert Mohler

Puritans:

Thomas Gataker (1574–1654) wrote, “There is no society more near, more entire, more needful, more kindly, more delightful, more comfortable, more constant, more continual, than the society of a man and wife, the main root, source, and original of all other societies.”

Over against the traditional Roman Catholic vilification of women as snares, John Cotton (1584–1652) wrote, “Women are creatures without which there is no comfortable living for man. . . . They [referring to the Roman Catholics] are a sort of blasphemers then who despise and decry them, and call them a necessary evil, for they are a necessary good.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) wrote to his daughter Bridget: “Dear heart, let not thy love for thy spouse in any way cool thy desire for Christ. That which is most lovable in thy spouse is the image of Christ in him. Look to this and love it most and everything else for this.”

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) called his second wife “a most lovely creature and such a gift of Heaven to me and mine that the sense thereof . . . dissolves me into tears of joy.”

Jonathan Edwards’s (1703–1758) last words were of his wife Sarah: “Give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever.”

‘Every family ought to be a little church consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by His rules.’ Jonathan Edwards

“The end of the creation of God was to provide a spouse for His Son Jesus Christ that might enjoy Him and on whom He might pour forth His love. And the end of all things in providence are to make way for the exceeding expressions of Christ’s love to His spouse and for her exceeding close and intimate union with, and high and glorious enjoyment of, Him and to bring this to pass.

And therefore the last thing and the issue of all things is the marriage of the Lamb. And the wedding day is the last day, the day of judgment, or rather that will be the beginning of it. The wedding feast is eternal; and the love and joys, the songs, entertainments and glories of the wedding never will be ended. It will be an everlasting wedding day.” –Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellany #702″ in The “Miscellanies”: Entries Nos. 501-832 in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 18, Ed. Ava Chamberlain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 298.

Share on Facebook

Not unto us, o LORD, not unto us

Zach — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:53:36 +0000

by Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)

Not unto us, o LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy Name, give glory for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake (Psalm 115:1).

Some expositors have supposed, that this Psalm was penned by the prophet Daniel; on occasion of the miraculous deliverance of Shadrac, Meshac, and Abednego, when they came out, unhurt, from the burning fiery furnace, into which they had been thrown by the command of king Nebuchadnezzar.

And, indeed, there are not wanting passages, in the Psalm itself, which seem to countenance this conjecture. As where we read, at the fourth verse (speaking of the idols of the heathens, and, perhaps, with particular reference to that golden image which Nebuchadnezzar commanded to be worshipped), their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands: they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they but they see not.

I dare say, that, in such an auditory as this, a number of Arminians are present. I fear, that all our public assemblies have too many of them. Perhaps, however, even these people, idolaters as they are, may be apt to blame, and, indeed, with justice, the absurdity of those who worship idols of silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. But let me ask: If it be so very absurd, to worship the work of other men’s hands; what must it be, to worship the works of our own hands? Perhaps, you may ask, “God forbid that I should do so.” Nevertheless, let me tell you, that trust, confidence, reliance, and dependence, for salvation, are all acts and very solemn ones too, of divine worship: and upon whatsoever you depend, whether in whole or in part, for your acceptance with God, and for your justification in His sight, whatsoever, you rely upon, and trust in, for the attainment of grace or glory; if it be any thing short of God in Christ, you are an idolater to all intents and purposes.

Very different is the idea which Scripture gives us, of the ever-blessed God, from that of those false gods worshipped by the heathens; and from that degrading representation of the true God, which Arminianism would palm upon mankind. “Our God [says this Psalm, verse the third] is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” This is not the Arminian idea of God: for our free-willers and our chance-mongers tell us, that God does not do whatsoever He pleases; that there are a great number of things, which God wishes to do, and tugs and strives to do, and yet cannot bring to pass: they tell us, as one ingeniously expresses it:

That all mankind He fain would save, But longs for what He cannot have. Industrious, thus, to sound abroad, A disappointed, changing God.

How does this comport with that majestic description, “Our God is in the heavens”! He sits upon the throne, weighing out, and dispensing, the fates of men; holding all events in His own hand; and guiding every link of every chain of second causes, from the beginning to the end of time. Our God is in heaven, possessed of all power; and (which is the natural consequence of that) He hath done whatsoever He pleased: or as the Apostle expresses it, (the words are different, but the sense is the same) “He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

Therefore it is, that we both labour, and suffer reproach: even because we say (and the utmost we can say upon the subject, amounts to no more than this: to wit, that) our God is in heaven, and has done whatsoever pleased Him. And do according to His own sovereign pleasure He will, to the end of the chapter; though all the Arminians upon earth were to endeavor to defeat the divine intention, and to clog the wheels of divine government. He, that sits in heaven, laughs them to scorn: and brings His own purposes to pass, sometimes, even through the means of those very incidents, which evil men endeavor to throw in His way, with a mad view to disappoint Him of His purposes. ‘All things,” saith the Psalmist, “serve Thee” (Psalm 119:91). They have, all, a direct tendency, either effectively or permissively, to carry on His unalterable designs of providence and grace. Observe: effectively, or permissively. For we never say, nor mean to say, that God is the worker of evil: we only maintain, that for reasons unknown to us, but well known to God, He is the efficacious permitter (not the agent, but the permitter) of whatsoever comes to pass. But when we talk of good, we then enlarge the term; and affirm, with the Psalmist, that all the help that is done upon earth, God does it Himself.

I remember a saying of the great Monsieur Du Moulin, in his admirable book, entitled Anatome Arminianismi. His observation is, that the wicked, no less than the elect, accomplish the wise and holy and just decrees of God: but, says he, with this difference; God’s own people, after they are converted, endeavor to His will from a principle of love: whereas they who are left to the perverseness of their own hearts (which is all the reprobation we contend for), who care not for God, nor is God in all their thoughts; these persons resemble men rowing in a boat, who make toward the very place on which they turn their backs. They turn their backs on the decree of God; and yet make to that very point, without knowing it.

One great contest, between the religion of Arminius, and the religion of Jesus Christ, is, who shall stand entitled to the praise and glory of a sinner’s salvation? Conversion decides this point at once; for I think, that, without any imputation of uncharitableness, I may venture to say, that every truly awakened person, at least when he is under the shine of God’s countenance upon his soul, will fall down upon his knees, with this hymn of praise ascending from his heart, “Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but to Thy Name, give the glory: I am saved not for my righteousness, but for Thy mercy and Thy truth’s sake..”

And this holds true even as to the blessings of the life that now is. It is God that sets up one, and puts down another (see Psalm 75:7). Victory, for instance, when contending princes wage war, is all of God. “The race is not to the swift, as swift; nor the battle to the strong” (Ecclesiastes 9:11), as such. It is the decree, the will, the power, the providence of God, which effectually, though sometimes invisibly, order and dispose of every event.

At the famous battle of Azincourt, in France, where, if I mistake not, 80,000 French were totally defeated by about 9,000 English, under the command of our immortal King Henry V., after the great business of the day was over, and God had given that renowned prince the victory, he ordered the foregoing Psalm (that is, the 114th), and part of this Psalm from whence I have read you the passage now under consideration, to be sung in the field of battle: by way of acknowledging, that all success, and all blessings, of what kind soever, come down from the Father of lights. Some of our historians acquaint us, that, when the triumphant English came to those words which I have taken for my text, the whole victorious army fell down upon their knees, as one man, in the field of conquest; and shouted, with one heart, and with one voice, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name, give the glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.”

And thus it will be when God has accomplished the number of His elect, and completely gathered in the fulness of His redeemed kingdom. What, do you think, your song will be, when you come to heaven? “Blessed be God, that He gave me free-will; and blessed be my own dear self, that made a good use of it”? O no, no. Such a song as that was never heard in heaven yet, nor ever will, while God is God, and heaven is heaven. Look into the Book of Revelation, and there you will find the employ of the blessed, and the strains which they sing. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, by Thy Blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation (Revelation 9:10).

There is discriminating grace for you! “Thou hast redeemed us… out of every kindred,” etc, that is, from among the rest of mankind. Is not this particular election and limited redemption?

The Church below may be liable to err: and if any visible church upon earth pretends to be infallible, the very pretension itself demonstrates that she is not so. But there is a Church, which I will venture to pronounce infallible. And what Church is that? The Church of the glorified, who shine as stars at God’s right hand. And, upon the infallible testimony of that infallible Church; a testimony recorded in the infallible pages of inspiration; I will venture to assert, that not one grain of Arminianism ever attended a saint to heaven. If those of God’s people, who are in the bonds of that iniquity, are not explicitly converted from it, while they live and converse among men; yet do they leave it all behind them, in Jordon (i.e. in the river of death) when they go through. They may be compared to Paul, when he went from Jerusalem to Damascus, and the grace of God struck him down: he fell, a free-willer; but he rose, a free-gracer. So, however, the rust of self-righteous pride (and a cursed rust it is: may God’s Spirit file it off from all our souls) however that rust may adhere to us at present; yet, when we come to stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, it will be all done away, and we shall sing, in one, full, everlasting chorus, with elect angels and elect men, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us.”

And why should we not sing that song now? Why should not we endeavor, under the influence of the Spirit, to anticipate the language of the skies, and be as heavenly as we can, before we get to heaven? Why should we condemn that song, upon earth; which we hope for ever to sing, before the throne of God above? It is, to me, really astonishing, that Protestants, and Church of England men, considered merely as rational creatures, and as people of common sense, who profess to be acquainted with the Scriptures, and to acknowledge the power of God, should have any objections to singing this song, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name, give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.”

Still more wonderful and deplorable it is, that some, who even make profession of spiritual religion, and talk of an inward work of God upon their hearts, should so far lose sight of humility and of truth, as to dream, either that their own arm helped the Almighty to save them, or at least that their own arm was able to have hindered Him from saving them. What can reflect deeper dishonour upon God, than such an idea? And what can have a directer tendency to engender and to nourish the pride of heart which deceiveth men?

It pleased God to deliver me from the Arminian snare, before I was quite eighteen. Antecedently to that period there was not (with the lowest self-abasement I confess it) a more haughty and violent free-willer within the compass of the four seas. One instance of my warm and bitter zeal, occurs just now to my memory. About a twelvemonth before the divine goodness gave me eyes to discern, and an heart to embrace the truth, I was haranguing one day, in company, (for I deemed myself able to cope with all the predestinarians in the world), on the universality of grace, and the powers of human free agency. A good old gentleman (now with God) rose from his chair, and coming to mine, held me by one of my coat buttons, while he mildly addressed me to this effect: “My dear Sir, there are some marks of spirituality in your conversation; though tinged with an unhappy mixture of pride and self-righteousness. You have been speaking, largely, in favour of free-will: but, from your arguments, let us come to experience. Do let me ask you one question. How was it with you, when the Lord laid hold on you, in effectual calling? Had you any hand in obtaining that grace? Nay, would you not have resisted and baffled it, if God’s Spirit had left you in the hand of your own counsel?”

I felt the conclusiveness of these simple, but forcible interrogations, more strongly than I was then willing to acknowledge. But, blessed be God, I have since been enabled to acknowledge the freeness and omnipotence of His grace, times without number; and to sing (what I trust will be my everlasting song when time shall be no more), “Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but unto Thy Name give all the glory.”

We never know so much of heaven in our own souls, nor stand so high upon the mount of communion with God, as when His Spirit, breathing on our heart, makes us lie low at the footstool of sovereign grace, and inspires us with this cry, “O God, be mine the comfort of salvation, but Thine be the entire praise of it.”

Let us briefly apply the rule and compass of God’s Word, to the several parts, of which salvation is composed; and we shall soon perceive, that the whole building is made up of grace, and of grace alone. Do you ask, in what sense I here take the word grace? I mean, by that important term, the voluntary, sovereign, and gratuitous bounty of God; quite unconditionated by, and quite irrespective of, all and every shadow of human worthiness, whether antecedaneous, concomitant, or subsequent. This is, precisely, the scriptural idea of grace: to wit, that it (i.e. salvation in all its branches) is “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God, Who sheweth mercy” (Romans 9:16). And thus it is, that grace reigneth, unto the eternal life of sinners, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord (see Romans 5:21).

1. In canvassing this momentous truth, let us begin where God Himself began: namely, with election. To whom are we indebted, for that first of all spiritual blessings? Pride says, “To me.” Self-righteousness says, “To me.” Man’s uncoverted will says, “To me.” But faith joins with God’s Word in saying, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name, be the whole glory of thy electing love ascribed: Thou didst not choose us, on supposition of our first choosing Thee; but, through the victorious operation of Thy mighty Spirit, we choose Thee for our portion and our God, in consequence of Thy having first and freely chosen us to be Thy people.”

Hear the testimony of that Apostle, who received the finishings of his spiritual education in the third heaven:

There is a remnant according to the election of grace. And, if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it [i.e. if election] be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise, work is no more work (Romans 11:5-6).

Let us sift this reasoning; and we shall find it invincible. There is “a remnant,” i.e. some of fallen mankind, who shall be everlastingly saved through Christ. This remnant is “according to election”. God’s own will and choice are the determinate rule, by which the saved remnant is measured and numbered. This election is an “election of grace,” or a free, sovereign and unmerited act of God. The Apostle would not leave out the word grace, lest people should imagine that God elected them on account of something He saw in them above others.

“Well, but” (may some say) “admitting election to be by grace, might not our foreseen good works have a little hand in the matter? Might not God have some small regard to our future good behavior?” No, answers the Apostle, none at all. If election be by “grace,” i.e. of mere mercy, and sovereign love; then it is no more of “works,” whether directly or indirectly, in whole or in part; “otherwise, grace is no more grace.” Could any thing human, though ever so little, be mixed with grace, as a motive with God for showing favour to Peter (for instance) above Judas; grace would all evaporate, and be annihilated, from that moment. For, as Augustine observes:

Grace ceases to be grace, unless it be totally and absolutely irrespective of any thing and of every thing, whether good or bad, in the object of it.

So that, as the Apostle adds, was it possible for election to be “of works,” then would it be “no more” an act of “grace”; but a payment, instead of a gift: “otherwise work were no more work.” On one hand, “work” ceases to be considered as influential on election, if election is the daughter of “grace”; on the other hand, “grace” has nothing at all to do in election, if “works” have any concern in it. Grace, and conditionality, are two incompatible opposites; the one totally destroys the other; and they can no more subsist together, than two particles of matter can occupy the same individual portion of space at the same point of time.

Which, therefore, of these contrary songs, do you sing (for all the art and labour of mankind, united, can never throw the two songs into one)? Are you for burning incense to yourselves, saying, “Our righteousness, and the might of our own arm, have gotten us this spiritual wealth”? Or, with the angels and saints in light, do you lay down your brightest honours at the footstool of God’s throne with; “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name give glory, for Thy loving mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.”

Certainly, election is the act, not of man, but of God: founded, merely, upon the sovereign and gracious pleasure of His own will. It is “not of works lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9); but solely of Him, Who has said, “I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15). God merits of us, not we of Him: and it was His free-will, not ours, which drew the impassable line between the elect and the pretermitted.

2. God’s covenant love to us in Christ is another stream, flowing from the fountain of unmingled grace. And here,- as in the preceeding instance, every truly awakened person disclaims all title to praise; shoves it away from himself, with both hands; and not only with his hands, but with his heart also; while his lips acknowledge, “Not unto us, O Thou divine and coeternal Three, not unto us, but to Thy Name, give glory!”

How is it possible, that either God’s purposes, or that His covenant concerning us, can be, in any respect whatever, suspended on the will or the works of men; seeing, both His purposes and His covenant were framed, and fixed, and agreed upon, by the Persons of the Trinity, not only before men existed, but before angels themselves were created, or time itself was born? All was vast eternity, when grace was federally given us in Christ ere the world began (see II Timothy 1:9). Well therefore might the Apostle, in the very text where he makes the above assertion, observe, that the holy calling, with which God effectually converts and sanctifies His people, in time, is bestowed upon us, “not according to our works,” but according to God’s own free purpose and eternal destination.

Repentance and faith, new obedience and perseverance, are not conditions of interest in the covenant of grace (for then it would be a covenant of works); but consequences, and tokens, of covenant interest:

For, the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election [which is the standard of covenant mercy] might remain unshaken, it was said unto her, “The elder shall serve the younger”; as it is written, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Romans 9:11-13).

Now, whether you consider this passage as referring to the posterity of Jacob and Esau, or to Jacob and Esau themselves, or (which is evidently the Apostle’s meaning) as referring to both; the argument will still come to the same point at last; namely, that the divine counsels and determinations, in whatever view you take them, are absolutely irrespective of works, because God’s immanent decrees and covenant-transactions took place, before the objects of them had done either good or evil. Of course, all the good, that is wrought in men, comes from God, as the gracious effect, not as the cause, of His favour; and all the evil, which God permits (such are His wisdom and His power) is subservient to promote, instead of interfering to obstruct, the accomplishment of His most holy will. I mention God’s permission of evil, only incidentally in this place: for, properly, it belongs to another argument. My present business is, to show, that the good, and the graces, which God works (not permissively, but effectively) in the hearts of His covenant people, are the fruit, not the root, of the love He bears to them.

3. To whom are we indebted, for the Atonement of Christ, and for redemption through His Blood, even the forgiveness of sins? Here likewise, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us!” It was God, Who “found a ransom” (Job 33:24). It was God, Who provided His own justice with a lamb for a burnt offering. It was God Who accepted the Atonement at our Surety’s hand, instead of ours. It was God Who freely imparts the blessings of that completely finished redemption, to the comfort and everlasting restoration of all those who are enabled to trust and to glory in the cross of Christ. Against such persons divine justice has nothing to allege: and on them, it has no penalty to inflict. The sword of vengeance, having been already sheathed in the sinless human nature of Jehovah’s equal, becomes, to them that believe, a curtana, a sword of mercy, a sword without a point. Thanks to the reconciling mercy of God the Father, and to the bleeding grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Human freewill and merit had nothing to do with the matter, from first to last.

4. As pardon exempts us from punishment, so justification (i.e. God’s acceptance of us as perfect fulfillers of the whole Law) entitles us to the kingdom of heaven. The former is God’s papesis, or passing by of our transgressions, so as not to take notice of them; and God’s aqeats, or letting us go finally unpunished. But justification (which is the inseparable concomitant of forgiveness) is not merely negative, but carries in it more of positivity, and exalts us to an higher state of felicity, than mere pardon (was it possible to be conferred without justification) would do. It is God’s okatoats, or pronouncing of us positively and actually just: not only innocent, but righteous also. St. Bernard, somewhere, preserves this obvious and just distinction. His words, I remember, are, that God is: “No less might to justify, than rich in mercy to forgive.”

Now, the great enquiry is, whether God be indeed entitled to the whole praise of this unspeakable gift? Whether we should, as justified persons, sing to the praise and glory of ourselves; or to the praise and glory of God alone?
The Bible will determine this question, in a moment; and shew us, that Father, Son, and Spirit, are the sole authors, and, consequently, should receive the entire glory of our justification: “It is God [the Father] Who justifieth” (Romans 8:33): i.e. Who accepts us unto eternal life; and that “freely, by His grace… through the redemption that is in Christ, and through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, without works” (Romans 3:24, 4:6): i.e. without being moved to it by any consideration of the good works, and without being restrained from it by any consideration of the evil works, wrought by the person or persons to whom Christ’s righteousness is imputed, and who are pronounced just in consequence of that imputed righteousness.

Justification is also the act of God the Son, in concurrence with His Father. St. Paul expressly declares, that he sought to be justified by Christ (see Galatians 2:7). The second Person in the divinity joins, as such, in accepting of His people through that transferred merit, which, as Man, He wrought for this very end. Now, let me ask you, did you assist Christ in paying the price of your redemption, and in accomplishing a series of perfect obedience for your justification? If you did, you are entitled to a proportionable part of the praise. But, if Christ both obeyed, and died, and rose again, without your assistance, it invincibly follows, that you have no manner of claim to the least particle of that praise, which results from the benefits acquired and secured by His obedience, death, and resurrection. The benefits themselves are all your own, if He gives you faith to embrace them; but the honour, the glory, and the thanks, you cannot arrogate to yourself, without the utmost impiety and sacrilege.

God the Holy Ghost unites in justifying the redeemed of the Lord. We are, declaratively and evidentially, justified “by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11): Whose condescending and endearing office it is, to reveal a broken Saviour in the broken heart of a self-emptied sinner, and to shed abroad the justifying love of God in the human soul (see Romans 5:5). Herein the adorable Spirit neither needs, nor receives, any assistance from the sinners He visits. His gracious influence is sovereign, free, and independent. We can no more command, or prohibit, His agency, than we can command, or forbid, the shining of the sun.

The conclusion, from the whole, is; that not our goodness, but God’s mercy; not our obedience, but Christ’s righteousness; not our towardliness, but the Holy Spirit’s beneficence; are to be thanked, for the whole of our justification.

And it is no easy lesson, to say, from the heart, “Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us!” Self-righteousness, cleaves to us, as naturally, and as closely, as our skins: nor can any power, but that of an Almighty hand, flay us of it. I remember an instance, of a clergyman, now living and eminent, above many, for his labours and usefulness. This worthy person assured me, a year or two since, that he once visited a criminal, who was under sentence of death, for a capital offence (I think for murder). My friend endeavoured to set before him the evil he had done; and to convince him, that he was lost and ruined, unless Christ saved him by His Blood, righteousness and grace. “I am not much concerned about that,” answered the self-righteous malefactor; “I have not, certain, led so good a life as some have; but, I am certain, that many have gone to Tyburn, who were much worse men than myself.” So you see, a murderer may go to the gallows, trusting in his own righteousness! And you and I should have gone to hell, trusting in our own righteousness, if Christ had not stopped us by the way.

I dare believe, that the above mentioned criminal, had the subject been started, would also have valued himself upon his free-agency. Free-agency, it is true, he had; and he was left to the power of it, and ruined himself accordingly: Free-will has carried many a man to Tyburn, and (it is to be feared) from Tyburn to hell: but it never yet carried a single soul to holiness and heaven. “Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself”; free-will can do that for us; “but in Me,” says God, “is thy help” (Hosea 13:0). His free grace must be our refuge and our shelter from our own free-will: or it were good for the best of us that we had never been born.

In one word, all the glory of our pardon and justification belongs to the Trinity, and not to man. It is one of God’s crown jewels, unalienable from Himself; and which He will never resign to, nor share with, any other beings. It is impossible, in the very nature of things, that He ever should: for how can any of depraved mankind be justified by works (and without being so justified, we can come in for no part of the praise); how, I say, can any of us be justified by our own doings, seeing we are utterly unable even to think one good thought until God Himself breathes it into our hearts (see II Corinthians 3:5).

Suffer me to observe one thing more, under this article: viz. that if God’s Spirit has stript you of your own righteousness, He has not stript you in order to leave you naked, but will clothe you with “change of raiment” (Zechariah 3:4). He will give you a robe, for your rags; the righteousness of God, for the rotten righteousness of man. Rotten indeed we shall find it, if we make it a pillar of confidence. I will say of it, as Dr. Young says of the world, “Lean not upon it”: lean not on thy own righteousness: if leaned upon, “it will pierce thee to the heart: at best, a broken reed; but oft a spear. On its sharpest point, peace bleeds and hope expires.”

Self-reliance is the very bond of unbelief. It is essential infidelity, and one of its most deadly branches. You are an infidel, if you trust in your own righteousness. You a Christian? You a Churchman? No; you have, in the sight of God, neither part nor lot in the matter. You are spiritually dead, while you pretend to live. Until you are indued with faith in Christ’s righteousness, your body, (as a great man expresses it) is no better than “the living coffin of a dead soul.” A Christian is a believer (not in himself, but) in Christ. And what is the language of a believer? “Lord, I am, in myself, a poor, ruined, undone, sinner. Through the hand of Thy good Spirit upon me, I throw myself at the foot of Thy cross; and look to Thee for Blood to wash me, for righteousness to justify me, for grace to make me holy, for comfort to make me happy, and for strength to keep me in Thy ways.”

5. For holiness, the inward principle of good works; and for good works, themselves, the outward evidences of inward holiness; we are obliged to the alone grace and power of God most high. We do not make Him a debtor to us, by loving and performing His commandments; but we become, additionally, debtors to Him, for crowning His other gifts of grace, by vouchsafing to work in us that which is “well-pleasing in His sight” (Hebrews 13:21).

Say not; “Upon this plan, sanctification is kicked out of doors, and good works are turned adrift.” Nothing can be more palpable and flagrantly untrue. Newness of heart and of life is so essential to, and constitutes so vast a part of, the evangelical scheme of salvation, that were it possible for holiness and its moral fruits to be really struck out of the account, the chain would, at once, dissolve, and the whole fabric become an house of sand. The Arminians, have, of late, made a huge cry about “Antinomians! Antinomians!” From the abundance of experience, the mouth is apt to speak. The modern Arminians see so much real Antinomianism among themselves, and in their own tents, that Antinomianism is become the predominant idea, and the favourite watch-word, of the party. Because they have got the plague, they think every body else has. Because the leprosy is in their walls, they imagine no house is without it. Thus: “All looks infected, that the infected spy: as all seems yellow, to the jaundiced eye.”

It is cunning, I must confess, in these people, to raise a dust, for their own defence; and like some pick-pockets when closely pursued, to aim at slipping the stolen watch or handkerchief into the pocket of an innocent bystander, that the real sharper may elude the rod of justice. But unhappily for themselves, the Arminians are not complete masters of this art. The dust, they raise, forms too thin a cloud to conceal them: and their bungling attempt to shift off the charge of Antinomianism upon others, rivets the charge but more firmly on themselves its true proprietors. The avowed effrontery, with which they openly trample on a certain commandment that says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”; may stand as a sample of the little regard they pay to the other nine. Pretty people these, to look for justification from the “merit” of their own works, and to value themselves on their perfect love to God and man.

With regard to sanctification and obedience, truly so called; it can only flow, and cannot but flow, from a new heart: which new heart is of God’s own making, and of God’s own giving:

I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh [a soft, repenting, believing heart] and I will cause ye to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Now, God accomplishes this promise, by the effectual working of His blessed Spirit: by the mystic fire of Whose agency having melted our hearts into penitential faith, He then applies to them the seal of His own holiness; from which time, we begin to bear the image and superscription of God upon our tempers, words, and actions.

This is our “licentious” doctrine: namely, a doctrine which (under the influence of the Holy Ghost) conforms the soul, more and more, to God: carefully referring, at the same time, all the praise of this active and passive conformity, to God Himself, Whose gift it is; singing, with the saints of old, “Thou, Lord, hast wrought all our [good] works in us” (Isaiah 26:12); and for all the works so wrought, for the will to please Thee, for the endeavour to please Thee, for the ability to please Thee, and for every act whereby we do please Thee- “Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name, give glory.”

And indeed, was not this the truth of the case, i.e. if conversion and sanctification and good works were not God’s gifts and of His operation; men would have, not only somewhat, but much, even, very much, to boast offer they would be their own converters, sanctifiers, and saviours. Directly contrary to the plain letter of Scripture, which asks; “Who maketh thee to differ from others, and what hast thou which thou didst not receive?” (I Corinthians 4:7)- i.e. from above. Nor less contrary to the scriptural direction; “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:31).

6. Once more. Whom are we to thank for perseverance, in holiness and good works, to the end? “Oh,” says an old Pharisee, perhaps, “the thanks are due to my own watchfulness, my own faithfulness, my own industry, and my own improvements.” Your supposed watchfulness answers a very bad purpose, if you make a merit of it. The enemy of souls cares not the turning of a straw, whether you perish by open licentiousness, or by a delusive confidence in your own imaginary righteousness. It is all one to him, whether you go to hell in a black coat or a white one. Nay the whitest you can weave, will be found black, and a mere san benito to equip you for the flames, if God does not array in the imputed righteousness of His blessed Son.

But, for the present, leaving Pharisees and legalists to the hands of Him Who alone is able, and has a right, to save or to destroy; let me address myself to the true believer in Christ. You were called, it may be, ten or twenty years ago, or longer, to the knowledge of God; and you still are found, dwelling under the droppings of the sanctuary, and walking in Him your Lord; sometimes faint, yet always wishing to pursue; tossed, but not lost, occasionally cast down, but not destroyed. How comes all this? How is it, that many flaming professors, who blazed out, for a while, like luminaries of the first lustre, are quenched, extinguished, vanished; while your smoking flax, and feeble spark of grace, continue to survive, and sometimes afford both light and heat? While more than a few, who, perhaps, once seemed to be rooted as rocks, and stable as pillars in the house of God, are become as water that runneth apace; Why are you standing, though in yourself, as weak, if not weaker than they9 A child of God can soon answer this question. And he will answer it thus: “Having obtained help of God, I continue to this day” (Acts 26:22). Not by my own might and power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts (see Zechariah 4:6).

And He, that kept you until this day, will keep you all your days. His Spirit which He freely gives to His people, is a well of water, springing up, not for a year, not for a lifetime, only; but “into everlasting life” (John 4:14). God’s faithfulness to you is the source of your faithfulness to Him. Christ prays for you: and therefore He keeps you watching unto prayer. He preserves you from falling; or, when fallen, He restores your soul, and leads you forth again in the path of righteousness, for His Name’s sake. He had decreed, and covenanted, and promised, and sworn, to give you a crown of life; and, in order to that, He has no less solemnly engaged and irrevocably bound Himself, to make you faithful unto death.

“Well, then,” says an Arminian, “if these things are so, I am safe at all events. I may fold up my arms, and even lay me down to sleep. Or, if I choose to rise and be active, I may live just as I list.” Satan was the coiner of this reasoning: and he offered it, as current and sterling, to the Messiah, but Christ rejected it as false money. “If Thou be the Son of God,” said the enemy; “if Thou be indeed that Messiah Whom God upholds, and His elect, in Whom His soul delighteth; cast Thyself headlong; it is impossible Thou shouldest perish, do what Thou wilt: no fall can hurt Thee; and Thy Father has absolutely promised that His angels shall keep Thee in all Thy ways; jump, therefore, boldly, from the battlements, and fear no evil.”

The devil’s argumentation was equally insolent, and absurd, in every point of view. He reasoned, not like a serpent in his wits, but like a serpent whose head was bruised (see Genesis 3:15), and who had no more of understanding than of modesty. Christ silenced this battery of straw, with a single sentence: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:7). So said the Messiah. And so say we. And this is answer enough, to a cavil, whose palpable irrationality would cut its own throat, without the help of any answer at all.

God’s children would be very glad, if they could “live as they list.” How so; Because it is the will, the desire, the wish, of a renewed soul (i.e. of the new man, or the believer’s regenerate part; for old Adam never was a saint yet, nor ever will be); it is, I say, the will and the wish of a renewed soul, to please God in all things, and never to sin, on any occasion, or in any degree. This is the state to which our pantings aspire; and in which (would the imperfection of human nature admit of such happiness below) we “list” to walk. For every truly regenerated person can sincerely join the Apostle Paul, in saying, ‘With my mind, I myself serve the Law of God” (Romans 7:25), and wish I could keep it better.

God’s preservation is the good man’s perseverance. “He will keep the feet of His saints” (I Samuel 2:9). Arminianism represents God’s Spirit as if He acted like the guard of a stage coach, who sees the passengers safe out of town for a few miles; and then, making his bow, turns back, and leaves them to pursue the rest of their journey themselves. But divine grace does not thus deal by God’s travellers. It accompanies them to their journey’s end, and without end. So that the meanest pilgrim to Zion may shout, with David, in full certainty of faith, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all my days, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Psalm 23:6). Therefore, for preserving grace, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give the glory, for Thy loving mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.”

7. After God has led His people through the wilderness of life, and brought them to the edge of that river which lies between them and the heavenly Canaan, will He intermit His care of them, in that article of deepest need? No, blessed be His Name. On the contrary, He (always, safely; and generally, comfortably) escorts them over to the other side; to that good land which is very far off, to that goodly mountain and Lebanon.

I know, there are some flaming Arminians, who tell us, that “a man may persevere until he comes to die, and yet perish in almost the very article of death”: and they illustrate this wretched, God-dishonouring, and soulshocking doctrine, by the simile of “a ship’s floundering in the harbour’s mouth.”

It is very true, that some wooden vessels have so perished. But it is no less true, that God’s chosen vessels are infallibly safe from so perishing. For, through His goodness, every one of them is insured by Him Whom the winds and seas, both literal and metaphorical, obey. And their insurance runs this:

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and when through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee (Isaiah 43:2).

“The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads” (Isaiah 35:10); so far from floundering within sight of land.

Even an earthly parent is particularly careful and tender of a dying child: and, surely, when God’s children are in that situation, He will (speaking after the manner of men) be doubly gracious to His helpless offspring, who are His by election, by adoption, by covenant, by redemption, by regeneration, and by a thousand other indissoluble ties.

There are no marks of shipwrecks, no remnants of lost vessels, floating upon that sea, which flows between God’s Jerusalem below and the Jerusalem which is above. The excellant Dr. William Gouge has an observation full to the present point:

If a man were cast into a river, we should look upon him as safe, while he is able to keep his head above water. The Church, Christ’s mystic body, is cast into the sea of the world [and, afterwards, into the sea of death]; and Christ, their Head, keeps Himself aloft, even in heaven. Is there, then, any fear, or possibility, of drowning a member of this body? If any should be drowned, then either Christ Himself must be drowned first, or else that member must be pulled from Christ: both which are impossible. By virtue, therefore, of this union, we see that on Christ’s safety, our’s depends. If he is safe, so are we. If we perish, so must He.

Well, therefore, may dying believers sing, “Not unto us, o Lord, but to Thy Name, give glory! Thy loving mercy carries us, when we cannot go: and, for Thy truth’s sake, Thou wilt save us to the utmost without the loss of one.”

8. When the emancipated soul is actually arrived in glory, what song will he sing then? The purport of the text will still be the language of the skies: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name give the praise.”

Whilst we are upon earth, we have need of that remarkable caution, which Moses gave the children of Israel:

Speak not thou in thine heart.. after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, “For my righteousness, the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land.” Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess this land…. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land, to possess it, for thy righteousness; for thou are a stiff-necked people (Deuteronomy 9:4-6).

Now, if the earthly Canaan, which was only a transitory inheritance, was unattainable by human merit; if even worldly possessions are not given us for our own righteousness sake; who shall dare to say, that heaven itself is the purchase of our own righteousness! If our works cannot merit even the vanishing conveniences and supplies of time: how is it possible, that we should be able to merit the endless riches of eternity? We shall need no cautions against self-righteousness, when we get safe to that better country. The language of our hearts, and of our voices, will be; and angels will join the concert; and all the elect, both angels and men, will, for ever and ever, strike their harps to this key; “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name, give the glory, for Thy loving mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.”

O, may a sense of that loving mercy and truth be, warmly and transformingly, experienced in our hearts! For indeed, my dear brethren, it is experience, of the felt power of God, upon the soul, which makes the Gospel a savour of life unto life. Notwithstanding God’s purpose is steadfast as His throne; notwithstanding the whole of Christ’s righteousness and redemption is finished and complete, as a divine and almighty agent could make it; notwithstanding I am convinced, that God will always be faithful, to every soul to whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light; and notwithstanding none can pluck the people of Christ from His hands; still, I am no less satisfied, that it must be the feeling sense of all this, i.e. a perception wrought in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, that will give you and me the comfort of the Father’s gracious decrees, and of the Messiah’s finished work.

I know it is growing very fashionable to talk against spiritual feelings. But I dare not join this cry. On the contrary, I adopt the Apostle’s prayer, that our love to God, and the manifestations of His love to us, may abound yet more and more, “in knowledge and all feeling” (Philippians 1:9). And it is no enthusiastic wish, in behalf of you and of myself, that we may be of the number of those “godly persons,” who, as our Church justly expresses it, “feel in themselves the workings of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things.” Indeed, the great business of God’s Spirit is, to draw up and to bring down. To draw up our affections to Christ, and to bring down the unsearchable riches of grace into our hearts. The knowledge of which, and earnest desire for it, are all the feelings I plead for. And, for these feelings, I wish ever to plead. Satisfied as I am, that, without some experience and enjoyments of them, we cannot be happy, living or dying.

Let me ask you, as it were, one by one; has the Holy Spirit begun to reveal these deep things of God in your soul? If so, give Him the glory of it. And, as you prize communion with Him; as you value the comforts of the Holy Ghost; endeavour to be found in God’s way, even the high way of humble faith and obedient love: sitting at the feet of Christ, and desirous to imbibe those sweet, ravishing, sanctifying, communications of grace, which are at once an earnest of, and a preparation for, complete heaven when you come to die. God forbid, that we should ever think lightly of religious feelings! For, if we do not in some degree feel ourselves sinners, and feel that Christ is precious; I doubt the Spirit of God has ever been savingly at work upon our souls.

Nay, so far from being at a stand in this, our desires after the feeling of God’s presence within, ought to enlarge continually, the nearer we draw to the end of our earthly pilgrimage: and resemble the progressive expansion of a river, which, however narrow and straitened when it first begins to flow, never fails to widen and increase, in proportion as it approaches the ocean into which it falls.

God give us a gracious spring-tide of His Spirit, to replenish our thirsty channels, to swell our scanty stream, and to quicken our languid course! If this is not our cry, it is a sign, either that the work of grace is not yet begun in us; or that it is indeed at low water, and discoloured with those dregs, which tend to dishonour God, to eclipse the glory of the Gospel, and to spread clouds and darkness upon our souls.

Some Christians are like decayed mile stones; which stand, it is true, in the right road, and bear some traces of the proper impression: but so wretchedly mutilated and defaced, that they, who go by, can hardly read or know what to make of them. May the blessed Spirit of God cause all our hearts, this morning, to undergo a fresh impression; and indulge us with a new edition of our evidences for heaven! o, may showers of blessing descend upon you, from above! May you see, that Christ, and the grace of God in Him, are all in all! Whilst you are upon earth, may you ever ascribe the whole glory to Him! And sure I am, that, when you come to heaven, you will never ascribe it to any other.

Share on Facebook

The Thirst For Glory – Introduction

Zach — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:21:18 +0000

“The thirst for glory is not ended by satisfying but rather by extinguishing.” Martin Luther

Two theologies exist in this world; amongst a cacophony of voices there are two stories of redemption, two worldviews of life, two overarching paradigms of ontology. These antithetical theologies are locked in mortal combat, they are the Story of Glory and the Story of The Cross.

This blog is dedicated to advancing the theology of the cross; a story that bring humility, a story that brings self-despair, a story that brings hope. The Cross Story is a theology which transforms the beholder and captivates the object of it’s power! It is a story which reaches out and makes you a part of its wonderful work by crucifying you with Christ.

The Glory Story is, for all intents and purposes, the chief arch-nemesis of the Cross. It seeks its own interests, it desires acknowledgment, and boasts of its own ability. Theologians of glory might be heard praising the Cross; but never without crediting themselves for part or all of the difference in their salvation.

By God’s providence, Martin Luther was graced with enabling to articulate these axiomatic antipodes with commanding contrast, brilliant profundity and scriptural humility. In twenty-eight pointed theses, Luther sets forth the fundamental truths most key to striking a death-blow to Romanism and works-righteousness. Instead of defining the theologies themselves, he describes the theologians.

Only eight months after Luther rocked the world with 95 Theses nailed to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, he was back with these 28 more pointed statements, this time they were nailed to the coffin of Catholicism. It is truly amazing how much insight God gave this man in only eight months, how far he was brought in truth, and how God made him free from the entanglements of Rome.

Known collectively as the “Heidelberg Disputation,” and worded in a way that only Luther could word them, these twenty-eight theses are as profound as they are intriguing. If any reader is not thoughtful in reading them, they can hardly be but misunderstood. Over the next few weeks, by the mercies of God, I hope to cover the Heidelberg Disputation in sections, to briefly explain each thesis from scripture, to show the wisdom concealed in these truths, and to exalt the resurrected Christ and the Glory of His cross!

“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” 1 Cor. 1:23-29

Share on Facebook

In Immanuel’s Land

Zach — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:38:20 +0000

Charles Spurgeon considered Rutherford’s letters to be “the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men.” And indeed, one familiar with Rutherford’s writings can hardly disagree. The beauty of his legacy lies in his dedication to exalting the glory of Christ, and to abasing himself.

Here is a poem, composed by Mrs. Anne Ross Cousin, wife of a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The poem is as remarkable as it is beautiful in that Mrs. Cousin extracted from the letters of Samuel Rutherford many of his most memorable sayings and wove them into a hymn of 19 stanzas, maintaining throughout high poetic excellence and great faithfulness to the language and spirit of the letters.

Read this poem, and then spend some time prayerfully perusing the letters themselves! They may be freely read and downloaded here. May God grant His people comfort and encouragement through the writings of this humble man of faith!

The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of Heaven breaks,
The summer morn I’ve sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

Oh! well it is for ever,
Oh! well for evermore,
My nest hung in no forest
Of all this death-doom’d shore:
Yea, let the vain world vanish,
As from the ship the strand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

There the Red Rose of Sharon
Unfolds its heartsome bloom,
And fills the air of Heaven
With ravishing perfume:
Oh! to behold it blossom,
While by its fragrance fann’d
Where glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

The King there in His beauty,
Without a veil, is seen:
It were a well-spent journey,
Though seven deaths lay between.
The Lamb, with His fair army,
Doth on Mount Zion stand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

Oh! Christ He is the Fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll drink above:
There, to an ocean fullness,
His mercy doth expand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

E’en Anwoth was not heaven
E’en preaching was not Christ;
And in my sea-beat prison
My Lord and I held tryst:
And aye my murkiest storm-cloud
Was by a rainbow spann’d
Caught from the glory dwelling
In Immanuel’s land.

But that He built a heaven
Of his surpassing love,
A little New Jerusalem,
Like to the one above,
“Lord, take me o’er the water,”
Had been my loud demand,
“Take me to love’s own country,
Unto Immanuel’s land.”

But flowers need night’s cool darkness
The moonlight and the dew;
So Christ, from one who loved it,
His shining oft withdrew;
And then for cause of absence,
My troubled soul I scann’d
But glory, shadeless, shineth
In Immanuel’s land.

The little birds of Anwoth
I used to count them blest,
Now, beside happier altars
I go to build my nest:
O’er these there broods no silence,
No graves around them stand,
For glory, deathless, dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

Fair Anwoth by the Solway,
To me thou sill art dear!
E’en from the verge of Heaven
I drop for thee a tear.
Oh! if one soul from Anwoth
Meet me at God’s right hand,
My Heaven will be two Heavens,
In Immanuel’s land.

I have wrestled on toward Heaven,
‘Gainst storm, and wind, and tide:
Now, like a weary traveller,
That leaneth on his guide,
Amid the shades of evening,
While sinks life’s ling’ring sand,
I hail the glory dawning
From Immanuel’s land.

Deep water cross’d life’s pathway,
The hedge of thorns was sharp;
Now these lie all behind me
Oh! for a well-tuned harp!
Oh! to join Hallelujah
with yon triumphant band,
Who sing, where glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel’s land.

With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He wove,
And aye the dews of sorrow
Were lustered with His love.
I’ll bless the hand that guided,
I’ll bless the heart that plann’d,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

Soon shall the cup of glory
Wash down earth’s bitterest woes,
Soon shall the desert-briar
Break into Eden’s rose:
The curse shall change to blessing
The name on earth that’s bann’d,
Be graven on the white stone
In Immanuel’s land.

Oh! I am my Beloved’s,
And my Beloved is mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His “House of wine.”
I stand upon His merit,
I know no other stand,
Not e’en where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

I shall sleep sound in Jesus
Fill’d with His likeness rise,
To live and to adore Him,
To see Him with these eyes
‘Tween me and resurrection
But Paradise doth stand;
Then-then for glory dwelling
In Immanuel’s land!

The Bride eyes not her garment
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of Grace
Not at the crown He giveth,
But on His pierced hand:
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel’s land.

I have borne scorn and hatred,
I have borne wrong and shame,
Earth’s proud ones have reproach’d me,
For Christ’s thrice blessed name:
Where God is seal set fairest
They’ve stamp’d their foulest brand;
But judgment shines like noonday
In Immanuel’s land.

They’ve summoned me before them,
But there I may not come,
My Lord says, “Come up hither,”
My Lord says, “Welcome Home!”
My kingly King, at His white throne,
My presence doth command,
Where glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.

Share on Facebook

Clay is the Potter’s Vocation

Zach — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:03:25 +0000

“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” Jeremiah 18:1-6

No doctrine can afford greater comfort to a child of God; than the doctrine of God’s omnipotent sovereignty. No truth brings more joy to the heart of a believer, than to know that his (or her) father reigns in full control.

It is only by Grace that we can see and embrace these truths; and only by mercy that we can find comfort in them. We live in a culture of pride and self-confidence; so from time to time, we must “arise, and go down to the potter’s house.” There we will see God’s greatness and sovereignty as He molds vessels of honor, and vessels of dishonor, all for His own awesome glory!

God is not playing with modeling clay;
He makes no hobby of men;
He doesn’t purpose to use them one day,
Then, think it over again!

Clay, is the Potter’s vocation –
Working the stubborn clod –
Clay, is the Potter’s vocation!
Clay, is the business of God!

Clay, is the Potter’s vocation;
The vessel, the Potter’s will.
There are no risks! The spinning discs
Reveal the Potter’s skill!

He’s making a New Creation!
His Wisdom is on display!
Behold, in the molding, His Image unfolding!
He’s breathing His life in clay!

Clay, is the Potter’s vocation!
No detail, left to chance.
All things combine, toward His design
His masterpiece to enhance.

He’s making a New Creation
And where it appears most weak
The clay will discover, its infinite Lover
Has made it the most unique!

I didn’t write this poem; I found it online without any author or source.

Share on Facebook

The Heart of a Man

Zach — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:52:07 +0000

Proverbs tells us that “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,” and, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes,” and again, “men will proclaim every one his own goodness.”

It is of these men that the scriptures reply, “but the LORD pondereth the hearts,” “but the LORD weigheth the spirits,” and, “the end thereof are the ways of death.”

The point is…what you think about your own own moral ability is distorted by the sinfulness of your own heart. Humility begins by asking what God says of our sinful hearts. Here is a sweeping survey of the biblical texts which unmistakably teach us what we must believe concerning ourselves and the hearts of men in general.

(Thanks to this website for arranging these texts!)

Is man basically good or basically evil?

Ecclesiastes 7:29 – “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
Romans 5:7-8 – For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:12,19 – sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners

c.f. Job 15:14-16, 25:4-6; Ecclesiastes 9:3

All men? Are there any exceptions?

Psalm 143:2 – Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
Romans 11:32 – For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. (c.f. Galatians 3:22)
Romans 3:23 – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
2 Chronicles 6:36 – “there is no one who does not sin”
Isaiah 53:6 – All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way
Micah 7:2-4 – The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
Romans 3:9-12 – What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (c.f. Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3)
1 John 1:8,10 – If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.
Mark 10:18/Luke 18:19 – And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

c.f. 1 Kings 8:46; 116:11, 130:3, 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Jeremiah 2:29; Micah 7:2-4, Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19; Romans 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 5:9-10; James 3:2; etc., etc.

Are people good deep down?

Mark 7:21-23 – “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (c.f. Matthew 15:19)
Psalm 5:9 – For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

Are men totally depraved? Is every faculty of the person corrupted?

Heart/Mind (Deceitful)

Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Titus 1:15-16 – to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 – Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Romans 1:28-31 – And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were… foolish
Ephesians 4:17-18 – you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Jeremiah 10:7-8,14 – among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. They are both stupid and foolish… Every man is stupid and without knowledge
Matthew 15:19 – “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (c.f. Mark 7:21-23)
Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 – The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… from his youth.
Proverbs 10:20 – the heart of the wicked is of little worth.
Proverbs 28:26 – Whoever trusts in his own [heart] is a fool

c.f. Deuteronomy 29:2-4; Psalm 10:4, 36:1-2, 58:4-5, 94:11; Proverbs 10:20; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Matthew 13:14; Mark 7:21-23; Romans 8:7; Ephesians 4:17-18, 23

Will/Choosing (Enslaved)

John 8:34 – Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”
2 Peter 2:19 – They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
Titus 3:3 – For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Galatians 4:8-9 – Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Romans 6:6,16,17,19,20 – We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey…? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed… For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Romans 7:14 – For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
2 Timothy 2:25-26 – God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

c.f. Isaiah 42:6-7; Psalm 51:12; John 8:31-32,36; 2 Corinthians 3:17

Affections/Desires (Perverted)

Romans 1:24-27 – Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
2 Timothy 3:2-4 – For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
Proverbs 21:10 – The soul of the wicked desires evil
John 3:19 – And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
John 8:44 – “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

c.f. Genesis 3:16; Psalm 4:2, 52:3-4 140:8; Proverbs 10:23; 2 Peter 2:13

et al (Utter Ruin)

Titus 1:15-16 – to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Romans 7:18 – For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
Isaiah 1:5-6 – The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

Can men change themselves or still do good when they want to?

Jeremiah 13:23 – Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Job 11:12 – But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man!
1 Samuel 24:13 – “As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’”
Matthew 7:18 – “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” (c.f. Luke 6:43)
Matthew 12:34-35 – “How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”
Romans 8:7 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 – The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… from youth.
Titus 1:15-16 – to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

c.f. Job 14:4; Matthew 12:34; John 15:5; Romans 14:23; Philippians 1:11; 1 John 5:18-19

Are men at least born pure? What about the “tabula rasa”?

Psalm 51:5 – Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Genesis 8:21 – the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
Psalm 58:3 – The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
John 3:6 – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”

c.f. Proverbs 22:15

What is the natural disposition of man toward God?

John 3:20 – “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
Romans 8:7-8 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God
Colossians 1:21 – And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds

c.f. Romans 1:28-30; James 4:4

What is man’s relationship to God?

Psalm 58:3 – The wicked are estranged from the womb;
Ephesians 2:12-13 – remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:3 – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

c.f. Isaiah 59:2

Can man then do anything to please God?

Proverbs 15:9 – The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord
Proverbs 15:8 – The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (c.f. Proverbs 21:27)
Proverbs 28:9 – If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
Isaiah 64:6 – We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please [God]
Romans 8:7-8 – Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

c.f. Psalm 50:16; Proverbs 21:4; Isaiah 1:10-15; Amos 5:21-24

Are men at least seeking God?

Psalm 10:4 – In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
John 3:20 – “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
Isaiah 65:1 – “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
Isaiah 64:7 – There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
Romans 3:10-12 – “no one seeks for God.”

c.f. Romans 10:20

Can the natural man comprehend the gospel or come to saving knowledge of God on his own?

1 Corinthians 2:14 – The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – our gospel is veiled… to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18,21-24 – For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles
Deuteronomy 29:2-4 – And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.”
Matthew 11:27 – “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

c.f. Psalm 119:18; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 42:6-7; Hosea 14:9; Matthew 16:17; John 8:43; Acts 22:14, 26:18; Ephesians 4:17-19; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 5:20

Can men of themselves accept God’s gift of salvation? Do men choose God or come to Him on their own?

John 3:27 – John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”
John 14:16-17 – “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.”
John 1:12-13 – But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:44,65 – “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Romans 9:16 – So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Romans 11:35-36 – “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things.
1 Corinthians 1:30 – And because of him you are in Christ Jesus
Philippians 2:13 – for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

c.f. Jonah 2:9; Zephaniah 3:9; John 15:16; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 1:6; James 1:18

Who supplies faith/belief/repentance?

Acts 16:14 – One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
1 Corinthians 3:6 – I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Acts 5:31 – “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”
Acts 11:18 – When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Philippians 1:29 – For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should… believe in him
Acts 18:27 – When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed
Ephesians 2:8-9 – For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
2 Timothy 2:24-25 – And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, [etc.]… God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth
1 Corinthians 12:3 – no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:3 – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence
Romans 11:36 – For from him and through him and to him are all things.
1 Corinthians 4:7 – For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
John 3:6, 6:63 – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

c.f. 1 Chronicles 29:14; John 5:44; Acts 3:16; Romans 12:3; Ephesians 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:2

Can men do anything to help themselves?

Colossians 2:13 – And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses
Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5 – And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

c.f. Psalm 49:7-9; Jeremiah 2:22; Ezekiel 16:6, 37:1-3; Romans 5:6

Who then can be saved?!

Matthew 19:26 – But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

c.f. Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27

If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
(Galatians 6:3)

Recommended Reading:

Pink, A.W. Our Accountability to God (formerly Gleanings From the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity). Online:The Total Depravity of Man and The Doctrine of Man’s Impotence.
Boettner, Lorraine. Total Inability. In The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.
Boston, Thomas. The State of Nature. In Human Nature in its Fourfold State.
Calvin, John. Book 2, Chapters 1-5. In Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Luther, Martin. The Bondage of the Will.
Edwards, Jonathan. Freedom of the Will (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1).

Share on Facebook

Humility in Prayer

Zach — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:41:48 +0000

Pride is idolatry of self. Spurgeon called it the “worst malformation of all the monstrous things in creation; it hath nothing lovely in it, nothing in proportion, but everything in disorder. It is altogether the very reverse of the creatures which God hath made, which are pure and holy. Pride, the first-born son of hell, is indeed like its parent, all unclean and vile, and in it there is neither form, fashion, nor comeliness.”

Humility, on the other hand, is of all graces most to be treasured and embraced. It ought to be lived in our communication, our dress, our thoughts, our doctrine, and in our prayer.

A child of God would never assert that he could do ought to merit righteousness, perhaps never think it; but the ongoing inability every Christian has in being continually and entirely heart-broken by God’s glorious grace to him or her is evidence enough of the pride still remaining within the heart.

Pride is a brainlessly ignorant thing, an entirely dishonest thing, a malignantly selfish thing, but above all, it is a most deceitfully adaptive thing.

Pride sometimes takes its shape in doctrine; it teaches the religion of man’s-sufficiency; it tells us what man can do, and will not submit itself to the scriptural teaching that we are by nature utterly lost, fallen, debased, and ruined creatures, as we are.

Other times, pride takes the form of prayer, petition, praise, even repentance, but all tainted with the stigma of self-righteousness. Men will “thank God” that they are not like other men, thinking themselves humble, never knowing that the deceitfulness of pride prompts them to pray.

Here are two prayers, the prayer of pride (penned by Spurgeon), and the prayer of humility. Read these prayers prayerfully and ask yourself whom you glorify in your thought, actions, words, in your prayer, and in your theology.

The Prayer of Pride

Lord, I was born with a glorious free-will; I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that I have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves. Thou givest grace to everybody; some do not improve it, but I do. There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and were as much blessed as I am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made use of what was given me, and others did not—that is the difference between me and them. I trust that my choice combined with God’s grace will save me.

The Prayer of Humility

Lord, I confess that I am by nature a sinner, inclined only to evil. In Adam I sinned and died, becoming enslaved to my depravity and unable to do the slightest thing pleasing to a Holy God. Could I do all that you demand, I would yet be but an unprofitable servant. But You have graciously and freely chosen to love me and send Your Son to purchase my redemption. Christ suffered Your wrath as my substitute, satisfying the exact demands of Your justice. By Grace, the Spirit of Christ hath worked in me both to will and to do, causing me to believe, and ever sustaining His Grace in my heart. You cause me to differ, You are the difference between me and them; apart from Your grace I am nothing. I plead the blood of Christ. I have naught else to offer. I trust that Your Grace alone will save me.

Share on Facebook

The Beauty of Humility

Zach — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:17:18 +0000

Over the last week I have been quick slack in blogging. However I have greatly appreciated the refreshment afforded by a God-Glorifying Lord’s-Day Rest. As part of my resting, I’m taking a little time to bring you another blog-post. To the end that Christ may be honored, through us, as we embrace the beauty of humility by grace.

Earlier this week I found myself at the library, waiting upon the rest of my family to finish some homeschooling projects. While the rest of them occupied a study room, I was entrusted with my youngest sister in the main room and using one of the public computers. She patiently sat in my lap as I skimmed through a few sermons by Jonathan Edwards, when I finished, I decided to spend the rest of my time teaching her a lesson on the Virtue of Humility; a valuable lesson to learn young!

Explaining humility in a way that a young child can understand requires some thought and patience. Out of curiosity, I actually turned to a regular dictionary to see how it might define the term “humble”.

“Having or showing a consciousness of one’s defects or shortcomings; not proud; not self-assertive; modest” – YourDictionary.com

Does such a definition comport to scriptural teaching? Manifestly not! True humility is not thinking little of ourselves, nor does it consist in lack of assertion; but rather thinking nothing of ourselves, and ascribing all greatness to God alone. Aaron Orendorff offers the following helpful insight:

If pride is the self-centered disposition to determine one’s own reality, to be god of one’s own life, to say in every act and word, “My will be done,” then humility cannot be merely the ability to forget one’s self (that is, to be self-uncentered) or even less the ability to be self-pitying, which is really just pride in reverse; rather, humility is the ability to find one’s center in the God whose overwhelming loveliness and glory are able to dethrone us from the usurped lordship of our own darkened hearts. Humility is spiritual sanity. Its constant refrain is, “God is God and I am not.

The most humble man ever to walk this earth was our Lord Christ. The Westminster Catechism tells us that Christ’s humiliation consisted in “his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.” All this, for the Glory of God.

For the child of God, humility is but a means to the same end, God’s pleasure in the display of His glory in Christ. It consists in exalting Christ and abasing self. Humility is not something achieved and forgotten about, it is a daily manner of living. The goal is God’s glory, humility is the means to accomplish that.

Culture offers us a superficial definition of humility; Christ has demonstrated true humility, that we should follow in His steps. True humility, we must remember, is an attitude before God, an attitude of contrition; it is a simple child-like trust in the resurrection power of Christ!

Holiness starts with self-abasement and “lowliness of mind”; if we desire to peruse these virtues we must rid ourselves of “I am not like other men” and “esteem others better than ourselves.” To esteem our brethren as better than us, is to esteem ourselves as nothing, and to esteem God as all in all. This is the mark of holiness and humility in the child of God.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

Share on Facebook