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January 14 - February 26, 2018
sin, the more it is seen the more it is hated, and thereupon is the less. Motes are in a room before the sun shines, but they then only appear.
the more grace, the more spiritual life, and the more spiritual life, the more antipathy to the contrary; when none are so sensible of corruption, as those that have the most living souls.
That matter which yields smoke was in the torch before it was lighted; but it is not offensive till the torch begins to burn. Let such know, that if the smoke be once offensive to them, it is a sign that there is light. It is better to enjoy the benefit of light, though with smoke, than to be altogether in the dark.
Christ looketh more at the good in them that he meaneth to cherish, than the ill in them that he meaneth to abolish.
though sin cleaveth to what we do, yet let us do it, since we have to deal with so good a Lord, and the more strife we meet with, the more acceptance. Christ loveth to taste of the good fruits that come from us, although they will always relish of the old stock.
A Christian complaineth he cannot pray. Oh, I am troubled with so many distracting thoughts, and never more than now. But hath he put into thine heart a desire to pray? He will hear the desires of his own Spirit in thee. “We know not what to pray for as we ought” (nor do anything else as we ought), “but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, with inexpressible sighs and groans” (Rom. 8:26), which are not hid from God. “My groanings are not hid from thee” (Ps. 38:9). God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. These desires cry louder in his ears than thy sins. Sometimes a Christian hath such
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God accepteth our prayers, though weak. (1.) Because we are his own children, they come from his own Spirit. (2.) Because they are according to his own will. (3.) Because they are offered in Christ’s mediation, and he takes them, and mingleth them with his own odors (Rev. 8:3).
There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, lost. And as every grace increaseth by exercise of itself, so doth the grace of prayer. By prayer we learn to pray.
There is a certain meekness of spirit whereby we yield thanks to God for any ability at all, and rest quiet with the measure of grace received, seeing it is God’s good pleasure it should be so, who giveth the will and the deed, yet so as we rest not from further endeavors.
It is comfortable what God saith, “He only shall go to his grave in peace, because there is some goodness” (1 Kgs. 14:13); though but some goodness. “Lord, I believe” (Mark 9:24), with a weak faith, yet with faith; love thee with a faint love, yet with love; endeavor in a feeble manner, yet endeavor. A little fire is fire, though it smoketh. Since thou hast taken me into thy covenant to be thine of an enemy, wilt thou cast me off for these infirmities, which, as they displease thee, so are they the grief of my own heart?
In the setting upon duty, God strengtheneth his own party that he hath in us. We find a warmness of heart, and increase of strength, the Spirit going along with us, and raising us up by degrees, until it leaveth us as it were in heaven. God often delighteth to take the advantage of our indisposition, that he may manifest his work the more clearly, and that all the glory of the work may be his, whose all the strength is.
It is not I, saith St. Paul, but “sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:17); for what displeaseth us shall never hurt us, quod non placet, non nocet, and we shall be esteemed of God to be that we love, and desire, and labor to be.
weaknesses do not break covenant with God. They do not between husband and wife; and shall we make ourselves more pitiful than Christ, who maketh himself a pattern of love to all other husbands?
Weaknesses do not debar us from mercy, nay, they incline God the more (Ps. 78:39). Mercy is a part of the church’s jointure, “Christ marries her in mercy” (Hos. 2:19).
3. If Christ should not be merciful to our infirmities, he should not have a people to serve him.
weaknesses are accounted either: (1.) Imperfections cleaving to our best actions; or, (2.) Such actions as proceed from want of age in Christ, whilst we are babes; or, (3.) From want of strength, where there hath been little means; or, (4.) They are sudden indeliberate breakings out, contrary to our general bent and purpose, whilst our judgment is overcast with the cloud of a sudden temptation. After which, (1.) We are sensible of our infirmity; (2.) We grieve for it; (3.) And from grief, complain; and (4.) With complaining strive and labor to reform; and (5.) In laboring get some ground of
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A Christian’s carriage towards Christ may in many things be very offensive, and cause some strangeness; yet he will own Christ, and Christ him; he will not resolve upon any way wherein he knows he must break with Christ.
There be some almost invincible infirmities, as forgetfulness, heaviness of spirit, sudden passions, fears, etc., which, though natural, yet are for the most part tainted with sin; of these, if the life of Christ be in us, we are weary, and would fain shake them off, as a sick man his ague; otherwise it is not to be esteemed weakness so much as willfulness, and the more will, the more sin; and little sins, when God shall awake the conscience, and “set them in order before us” (Ps. 50:21), will prove great burdens, and not only bruise a reed, but shake a cedar.
God’s children never sin with full will, because there is a contrary law of the mind, whereby the dominion of sin is broken, which always hath some secret working against the law of sin.
if there be any bruised reed, let him not except himself, when Christ doth not except him; “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden,” etc., (Matt. 11:28).
We are only therefore poor, because we know not our riches in Christ.
In Christ all perfections of mercy and love meet; how great then must that mercy be that lodgeth in so gracious a heart?
A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child, as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own in us. He sees his own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet his members.
that damned spirit, who as he labored to divide between the Father and the Son by jealousies, “If thou be the Son of God” (Matt. 4:6), so his daily study is, to divide between the Son and us, by breeding mispersuasions in us of Christ, as if there were not such tender love in him to such as we are.
Christ may act the part of an enemy a little while, as Joseph did, but it is to make way for acting his own part of mercy in a more seasonable time;
Cast thyself into the arms of Christ, and if thou perishest, perish there; if thou dost not, thou art sure to perish.
If God should bring us into such a dark condition, as that we should see no light from himself, or the creature, then let us remember what he saith by the prophet Isaiah, “He that is in darkness, and seeth no light” (Isa. 50:10), no light of comfort, no light of God’s countenance, “yet let him trust in the name of the Lord.”
He became not only a man, but a curse, a man of sorrows for us. He was broken, that we should not be broken; he was troubled, that we should not be desperately troubled; he became a curse, that we should not be accursed.
When God would have cured Babylon, and she would not be cured, then she was given up to destruction (Jer. 51:9). When Jerusalem would not be gathered under the wing of Christ, then their habitation is left desolate (Matt. 23:37-38). When Wisdom stretcheth out her hand and men refuse, then Wisdom will laugh at men’s destruction (Prov. 1:26).
if you will not meet Christ in the ways of his mercy, it is fit you should “eat the fruit of your own ways, and be filled with your own devices” (Prov. 1:31). This will be the hell of hell, when men shall think, that they have loved their sins more than their souls; when they shall think, what love and mercy hath been almost enforced upon them, and yet they would perish.
“Quench not the Spirit.” These cautions of not quenching are sanctified by the Spirit as means of not quenching. Christ performeth his office in not quenching, by stirring up suitable endeavors in us;
the means that God hath set apart for the effecting of anything, fall under the same purpose that he hath to bring that thing to pass; and this is a principle taken for granted, even in civil matters; as who, if he knew before it would be a fruitful year, would therefore hang up his plough and neglect tillage?
first, holy communion, whereby one Christian heateth another; “two are better than one” (Eccles. 4:9). “Did not our hearts burn?” (Luke 24:32), said the disciples.
Secondly, much more communion with God in holy duties, as meditation and prayer, which doth not only kindle, but addeth a lustre to the soul.
Thirdly, We feel by experience the breath of the Spirit to go along with the ministerial breath, whereupon the apostle knits these two together: “Quench not the Spirit;” “Despise not prophecies” (1 Thess. 5:19-20). Nathan by a few words blew up the decaying sparks in David. Rather than God will suffer his fire in us to die he will send some Nathan or other, and something always is left in us to join with the word as conna...
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Rather than God will suffer his fire in us to die he will send some Nathan or other, and something always is left in us to join with the word as connatural to it; as a coal that hath fire in it will quickl...
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Fourthly, grace is strengthened by the exercise of it; “Up and be doing, and the Lord be with thee” (1 Chron. 22:16...
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resting in a good condition is contrary to grace,
Infirmities are a ground of humility, not a plea for negligence, not an encouragement to presumption.
true peace is in conquering, not in yielding.
he will cherish his beginnings of grace in us, until he bring forth judgment unto victory. By judgment here, is meant the kingdom of grace in us, that government whereby Christ sets up a throne in our hearts. Governors among the Jews were first called judges, then kings: whence this inward rule is called judgment; as likewise, because it agrees unto the judgment of the Word, which the psalmist oft calleth judgment (Ps. 72:1-2), because it agreeth to God’s judgment.
Christ and we are of one judgment and of one will. He hath his will in us; and his judgments are so invested into us, as that they are turned into our judgment, we carrying “his law in our hearts, written by his Spirit” (Jer. 31:33). The law in the inner man and the law written, answer as counterpanes each other.
in the learned languages, the words that do express wisdom imply likewise the general relish and savor of the whole soul, and rather more the judgment of taste than of sight, or any other sense, because taste is the most necessary sense, and requireth the nearest application of the object of all other senses. So in spiritual life, it is most necessary that the Spirit should alter the taste of the soul, so as that it might savor the things of the Spirit so deeply, that all other things should be out of relish.
in spiritual life, it is most necessary that the Spirit should alter the taste of the soul, so as that it might savor the things of the Spirit so deeply, that all other things should be out of relish.
Christ “riding on his white horse” (Rev. 6:2), hath a bow, and goeth forth conquering (Rev. 19:11), in the ministry, that he may overcome either to conversion or to confusion.
The kingdom of Christ in his ordinances serves but to bring Christ home into his own place, our hearts.
those are misled, that make Christ to be only righteousness to us, and not sanctification, except by imputation: whereas it is a great part of our happiness to be under such a Lord, who was not only born for us, and given unto us, but “hath the government likewise upon his shoulders” (Isa. 9:6-7), that is, our Sanctifier as well as our Savior, our Savior as well by the effectual power of his Spirit from the power of sin, as by the merit of his death from the guilt thereof;
In the course of our life, after that we are in state of grace, and be overtaken with any sin, we must remember to have recourse first unto Christ’s mercy to pardon us, and then to the promise of his Spirit to govern us.
it is not sufficient that we have motives and encouragements to love and obey Christ from that love of his, whereby he gave himself for us to justify us; but Christ’s Spirit must likewise subdue our hearts, and sanctify them to love him, without which all motives would be ineffectual.
they seek for heaven in hell that seek for spiritual love in an unchanged heart,
