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Why we need a personal relationship with GodIt is one of the great joys of the Christian church that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is so easily accessible and readily available to sinners. The salvation He has procured is not hidden somewhere remote, but there for the taking. The question is whether those who need it most will actually take possession of it and make use of it. The Saviour must be embraced, His salvation needs to be grasped hold of. One pastor who felt the urgency of this point was Patrick Gillespie, who wrote a book on the covenant of grace. Patrick Gillespie (1617–1675) was minister in Kirkcaldy and Glasgow before being appointed Principal of Glasgow University. George Gillespie was his older brother. The following updated extract is from the section of his book devoted to explaining how the covenant is personal.What is personal about it?No one else can do it for meThis is a work and business which no one can transact for someone else, but each one must personally enter the covenant for himself. I mean, the saving interesting of a soul in Christ is an act which you cannot do by a proxy, nor transmit to your heirs, not even to your children.

It’s about persons, not thingsThe covenant of grace is not only, or even mainly, a covenant of goods or of things, but of persons. Both parties to the covenant speak the apostle’s words, “I seek not yours, but you” (2 Corinthians 12:14). On God’s side, it consists not so much in God promising life and salvation and all good things to us, as in His promising and bequeathing Himself to us, even Himself personally considered, the Father, Son, and Spirit. On the sinner’s side, it does not consist in our covenanting our service and duty and obedience to God, so much as in our giving ourselves away to him. “Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28). “And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).

It involves my whole personIt is a covenant with the whole person. It is not a covenant with this or that part of you, but with the whole person, soul and body. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20). There is no part in him that is not in covenant with God; yea, the very dust of the saints, their dead bodies are in covenant with God, and by virtue thereof, shall be raised up again at the last day, as Christ proves. (Matthew 22:31, 32).

It requires me to personally do somethingThis covenant requires and presupposes something to be personally done by us (beside what Christ did for us, and in our name) before we can actually have any benefit by it. “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me (John 6:57). And “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

What is so important about it?All who hear the offers of the gospel, as particular individual souls, have a duty to explicitly enter covenant with God through Christ on the terms of grace. The weight and importance of this duty will be apparent if we consider the nature and necessity of it, as follows.

Our survival depends on itConsider the wretched condition under which all lie, if they have not personally, each one for themselves, entered in covenant with God. They must stand or fall by their own righteousness, and by the tenor of the covenant of works that was made with Adam. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Romans 10:5). They are “by nature the children of wrath, even as others … without Christ, strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:3,12). “For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee” (Psalm 73:27).

Our blessedness depends on itConsider the thoroughly blessed state of these who personally enter into a covenant with God. If someone’s state is blessed on account of personal covenanting with God, then this must needs be a very weighty duty, and of huge importance. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15). “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou are my Lord … The Lord is my portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm 16:2,5,6).

Our access to Christ’s redemption depends on itConsider the ineffectualness of all that Christ did and suffered, without this personal covenanting with God on our part. This is the very application of the cure and remedy. Without it, we can have no actual benefit by the covenant of redemption, nor by what Christ suffered and did in order to fulfilling the covenant of suretyship. This is the very sprinkling of the blood of the covenant upon us (Hebrews 9:19–20). “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25).

It is like when a man contracts for himself and his heirs. His heirs cannot actually have any benefit by that covenant, till they have taken possession of the inheritance. So we can have no actual benefit by, nor right in law to claim, the everlasting inheritance by Christ’s covenant and death, until we take possession of Him by faith in Him. That is how we come to inherit the promises. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:14,22,26,29; see also Hebrews 9:15).

Our union with Christ depends on itWithout personally covenanting with God we cannot have an actual being in Christ, for it is by personal covenanting with Him through faith that we come to have the reality of a spiritual and mystical union with Him. As we can have no evil by or from Adam, without having a being in his nature, so neither can we have any good or benefit by Christ, until we have a being in Him, and be made partakers of the divine nature. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57).

Our assurance depends on itWithout this we cannot make our calling and election sure, the greatest business that is committed to us. How can a soul that has not personally entered covenant with God come to know certainly its everlasting estate? It is impossible for a soul to find out its election, if it has not found this effect of it, or to for the soul to make sure of its calling to the state of grace, without personal covenanting with God. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness within himself … He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life … These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:10,12,13).

Someone who has not covenanted with God is so far from having certainty about his everlasting state, that he lacks both the grounds of certainty, and the witness and evidences of it. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).

Our peace depends on itWithout personal covenanting with God, the soul can never be quiet inwardly, as being settled in a solid, well-grounded peace and satisfaction about its estate. It is continually tossed about, till it settles on this mountain, “Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee” (Isaiah 54:10). Though this is not the harbour and port where the souls of the saints shall arrive, yet sure it is a safe road for hope to anchor in, and for the soul to lie quiet and safe in, with peace at home. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (Isaiah 32:17). “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow” (2 Samuel 23:5).

Our boldness with God depends on itWithout this personal covenanting, no boldness or familiarity of access to God can be reached, or maintained. We find that the saints have been bold on this account, and have maintained their faith in evil times, when their souls have witnessed to a personal covenant between God and them. “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73:26). “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him” (Lamentations 3:24). “Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not” (Isaiah 63:16). See also Psalm 42 throughout. It is on this ground that we are exhorted to boldness (Hebrews 10:22).

Our comfort in difficult situations depends on itWithout such covenanting with God we will not be able to put a good construction on providences which do not look good at first sight, when there is any harshness in them. This is the very spring of satisfaction with all our providences, that God is in covenant with me, and these providences must come from covenant love. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25:10). “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot … Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:5,9,10).

Now, if personal covenanting is a duty of such importance, how is it that you dare to slight it? How does it come about that you dare not shake off and slight other duties, yet you are not more taken up with this? Will you hear the gospel, pray, read, meditate, and yet not personally enter into covenant with God? Let it be far from you!

← Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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We need to give the true God true worshipWhen we worship the true God, it is fundamentally not about what we get out of it, but rather glorifying Him. Yet as we worship Him, we are gradually being conformed more and more to His image. This benefits us as well as being honouring to Him. Meanwhile, our understanding of what God is like cannot but shape the manner in which we worship Him. When we have a true grasp of who He truly is, the consequence for our worship will be that it truly reflects what He is like. The way we worship God should tell a story about the kind of God He really is. These interconnected themes stand out in the following excerpt from Hugh Binning’s discussion of John 4:23–24 (“… true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth…”).Our worship should correspond to the God we are worshippingThe right manner of worshipping God is so as our worship carries the stamp of His image on it, such that it is like a mirror in which we may behold God’s nature and properties.

What He Himself is, that is what He wants to be acknowledged to be, and I think it would really be true worship if it had engraved on it the name of the true and living God, and if it proclaimed of itself: God is, and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.

Most part of our service speaks of an unknown God. Its inscription is, “To the unknown God.” There is so little reverence, or love, or fear, or knowledge in it, that it’s as if we did not worship the true God at all, but an idol. I fear that our worship is sometimes such that no one could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God!

But this is true worship, when it renders back to God His own image and name. In water from a pure and clean fountain, you may see your reflection distinctly, but a troubled or muddy water, he cannot see himself. So, pure worship is worship which receives and reflects the pure image of God, but impure and unclean worship cannot receive it and retain it.

Christians, please consider this, for the Father seeks a certain kind of worshipper —and why? Because in them He finds Himself (so to speak) — His own image and superscription is on them, His mercy is engraved on their faith and confidence, His majesty and power are stamped on their humility and reverence, His goodness is to be read on the soul’s rejoicing, His greatness and justice in the soul’s trembling.

O, how little true worship there is, even among them whom the Father has sought out to make true worshippers! We stay at the first principles of religion, and do not go on to build on the foundation. Sometimes our worship has a stamp of God’s holiness and justice, in the fear and terror of such a majesty which makes us tremble before Him — but where is the stamp of His mercy and grace which should be written in our faith and rejoicing? Tremble and fear indeed, yet rejoice with trembling, because there is mercy with Him. Sometimes there is rejoicing and quietness in the soul, but it quickly degenerates into carnal confidence, and makes the soul turn grace into wantonness, and think of itself above what is right, because it is not counterpoised with the sense of His holiness and justice.

O, to have these jointly written on the heart in worship — fear, and reverence, and confidence, and humility, and faith! That is a rare thing. It is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul. For the most part, our worship reflects nothing of God, neither His power, nor His mercy and grace, nor His holiness and justice, nor His majesty and glory. A complacent, faint, formal way, void of reverence, of humility, of fervency, and of faith!

I beseech you, let us consider, as before the Lord, how much effort and time we lose, and how we please no one but ourselves, and profit no one at all! Stir up yourselves as in His sight! For it is the fixed and constant meditation of God and His glorious properties that will beget the resemblance there should be between our worship, and the God whom we worship, and imprint His image on it. Then it would please Him, and profit you, and edify others.

Our worship should be spiritualOur worship must have the stamp of God’s spiritual nature, and be conformed to it in some measure, else it cannot please him. There must be a conformity between God and souls. This is the great purpose of the gospel, to repair the image of God which was originally on man, and make him like God again.

Now, this is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this image, and brings about this conformity with God. As the soul worships God in a way that is suitable to His nature, it is the more and more like God, and happy in that likeness. “God is a Spirit, therefore,” says Christ, “you must worship him in spirit and truth.” The worship of saints must be of a spiritual nature, so that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit. It is such worshippers the Father seeks. He seeks souls to make them like Himself, and this likeness and conformity to God is the very foundation of the soul’s happiness, and eternal refreshment.

This is a point of great consequence, and I fear, not much laid to heart. The worship must be like the Worshipped. It is a spirit that must worship the Eternal Spirit. It is not a body that can be the principal and chief agent in the business.: What communion can God have with your bodies, while your souls are removed far from Him, any more than He can with beasts? All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another. A human being can have no comfortable company with animals, or with stones, and trees: it is people that can converse with people; and a spirit must worship the self-existent Spirit.

Our worship should involve our whole personDo not, however, make a mistake on this point, as if in New Testament times we are not called to an external and bodily worship, and services to which our outward body is instrumental. This is one of the deep delusions of this age, into which some have fallen, that there are no external ordinances, but that Christians are called to worship all spirit. This is one of the “spiritual” teachings (as they would call themselves) which you must not receive, for it is neither the Spirit of God, nor of Christ, that teaches this — nor, indeed, the Spirit of God the Creator, because He created the whole man, body and soul, and so must be worshipped by the whole man. He created man with the capacity to offer up external actions in a reasonable manner with the inward affections.

Thus, as the Lord created us, so we should serve Him, every member, every part in its own capacity — the soul to precede, and the body to follow; the soul to be the chief worshipper, and the body its servant employed in the worship. True worship has a body and a soul as well as a true human being. As the soul separated is not a complete person, so neither is the soul separated a complete worshipper without the body. The external ordinances of God is the body, the inward soul affection is the spirit, which, joined together, makes complete worship.

Our Lord Jesus taught us to offer up our bodies and spirits both, in a reasonable service (Rom. 12:1–2). The sacrifice of the bodily performance, offered up by the spiritual affection and renewed mind is “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable and reasonable:” The spirit which dwelt in Christ above measure, did not think it was too base to express itself in the way of external ordinances! He was indeed above all, above the law, yet He willingly came under them — to teach us, who have so much need to come under them. He prayed much, He preached, He sang and read, to teach us how to worship, and how much need we have of prayer and preaching.

The spirit which Christ promised to His disciples and apostles breathes most lively in the use of the external ordinances all their days. “The hour is come, and now is,” said Christ, “in which the true worship of God shall not be in the external ceremonies of the Old Testament church, or in rites void of all life and inward sense of piety.” The true worship of God shall be made up of a soul and body, of spirit and truth — of the external appointed ordinances according to the Word of truth and the Spirit of truth, and of the spirit and inward soul-affection and sincerity which shall quicken and actuate that external performance. Worshippers who had no use of ordinances were never envisaged. Christ was not that kind of worshipper, His disciples were not that kind of worshippers, and therefore the idea that we can do without ordinances is a “new gospel,” which we ought not to receive.

As it is certain then, that both soul and body must be employed in this business, so it is sure that the soul and spirit must be the first mover, and chiefest agent in it. That is because it is a spiritual business, and relates to the Fountain Spirit, who has the most perfect opposition to all false appearances and merely external shows. The part of man that comes nearest to God must draw near in worshipping God, and if that is removed far away, there is no real communion with God. Man judges according to the outward appearance, and can reach no further than the outward man, but God is an all-searching Spirit, who tries the heart and reins, and therefore He will pass a different judgement on your worship then other people can do, because He observes all the secret wanderings and escapes of the heart out of His sight. He misses the soul when you present attentive ears, or eloquent tongues. There is no dallying with His majesty. Painting will not deceive him: His very nature is contrary to hypocrisy and dissimulation.

O consider, my beloved, what a one you have to do with! It is not other people, but the Father of spirits, who will not be pleased with what pleases others of your own flesh, but who must have a spirit to serve Him!

Alas! what are we doing with such empty names and shows in religion? Busied in the outside of worship only, as if we had no one to do with but others who have eyes of flesh, all that we do in this way is lost labour, and will never be reckoned as true worship!

Many make religion merely a matter of outward fashion and external custom. Even your very thoughts and minds are removed from this business. You have nothing present but an ear, or an eye, and your minds are about other business. Your desires, your fears, your joys, your delights, your affections never did run in the channel of religious exercises, but all your enthusiasm is for other things. You have no sense of God, His mercy, or justice, or wrath, or of your own misery and need. You sorrow in other things, but have no sorrow here — none for sin. You rejoice for other things, but you cannot rejoice at the gospel. Oh, be not deceived! God is not mocked.

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The rights and wrongs of swearing oathsEarlier this year, an environmentalist serving on a jury took the oath by swearing on a river. Jurors are legally permitted to swear on their own religious book, as well as to make a non-religious “affirmation” instead of taking an oath, but this was reportedly the first time someone has sworn an oath on a part of nature. This juror swore with his fingers dipped in a cup of water taken from his local river. He explained that nature was his god and that he treated the river with the same “reverence, sacredness and love in action as many religious people give to their holy book.” Religious oaths are classified by the Westminster Confession as a part of worship, differing from activities such as preaching and the sacraments only in that they are “occasional” (appropriate on specific occasions) rather than “ordinary” parts of worship. Oaths are often discussed by theologians as an implication of the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain …” As the following updated excerpt from James Durham’s work points out, one key reason for treating an oath as a part of worship is that you cannot swear by the name of someone you can’t pray to. When a juror swears by Almighty God, they are calling Almighty God to witness what they are swearing, and to judge them according to the truth or falsehood of what they swear. On this view, to call on someone or something that is not the true God is worse than futile.The Third Commandment both requires oaths, and requires oaths to be kept.

What is an oath?At the outset we would like to distinguish between these four things.

Oaths are sayings which directly invocate God by expressions such as ‘By …’ (‘By my holiness I have sworn,’ Psa. 89:35), or, ‘I swear by the Lord.’

Asseverations (also called vehement assertions) are expressions such as, ‘As the Lord liveth,’ ‘In conscience,’ ‘In faith,’ &c. Like oaths, these should be done in truth and judgment with fear, and when called to, but they differ in that, in oaths, we are only to make mention of the true God, and swear by Him, but asseverations may be expressed in terms such as, “As thy soul liveth” (2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6), and yet by so saying we do not swear by the soul of anyone.

Simple assertions, such as, ‘In truth,’ ‘Truly,’ ‘Indeed.’ These only speak the thing simply, and affirm what is asserted to be true or false. As such, these belong to the Ninth Commandment only.

Imprecations are either directed to oneself conditionally, such as, ‘If such and such a thing is truth, then let me perish;’ ‘Shame upon me, if I do not do this or that;’ or they are directed towards others, especially in things like, ‘Shame upon you,’ ‘the devil take thee,’ ‘vengeance on thee,’ and other expressions too abominable to mention.

Thinking in more detail about oaths. In oaths which are for confirmation, we distinguish between assertory oaths, which only confirm a thing to be truth, and promissory oaths, which engage the person swearing to perform a certain thing in the time to come, either absolutely or with qualifications.

When an oath has the right qualifications, either of these kinds of oath is a lawful piece of God’s worship, and may, and should, be made use of by His people. This is a clear truth from Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 6:13; Jeremiah 4:2.

What is the right way to swear an oath?What can we swear about?Consider, first, the matter of an oath. Assertory oaths must be about things that are (1) true; (2) weighty; (3) true and weighty to our knowledge. Meanwhile, promissory oaths must be about things which are (1) just and lawful, (2) possible, (3) profitable, (4) in our power, and (5) all of these to our knowledge.

What form should it take?The form of an oath must be, “By the true God …” Swearing an oath is a special part of God’s worship, for we can swear by no one whom we cannot invocate. Therefore idols, creatures, graces, &c., are excluded here, for none of these are God.

When is an oath called for?The impetus to swear an oath must be edification, that is, God’s glory, our own vindication, or our neighbour’s good, or the call of a magistrate putting us to it. The oath should be used for putting an end to controversies, when no other means of clearing up or deciding them remains.

What kind of expressions should we use?As to the expressions in which the thing is sworn, it is required not only that it be truth to the person who swears it, and true in that person’s meaning, but also that the expressions are plain and intelligible to the meaning and understanding of the person to whom the oath is given, otherwise it deludes rather than clarifies.

Hence these two rules are to be observed.

The meaning must be so clear that it may be, and is, most ordinarily and obviously gathered from the words and expressions that are used.
The expressions must be according as they are supposed to be understood by others, especially the one who requires the oath. If he means one thing, and we another, then God’s name is profaned, and the point of the oath is frustrated. Needless to say, equivocations in our expressions, and mental reservations, are condemned. Equivocation means using ambiguity in our words; mental reservation is when we privately give the words a different sense in our thoughts from what they seem to mean to anyone else.

How do we go about it?As to the right manner of swearing, these things ought to be noticed.

We must swear intelligently. It must be in judgment; we must understand the thing we swear, and the nature of our oath, and the God we swear by (Jer. 4:2).

We must swear with godly fear and reverence. We are now in an especial way in God’s own sight, and it is good if the heart would be filled with the sense that God is present.

We must swear in integrity. There must be single-mindedness in our aim, that it would not be to deceive anyone, but to express the truth truly and faithfully (this is called righteousness in Jeremiah 4:2.

And for the most part these properties or qualifications may agree to oaths, asseverations and imprecations.

What can we not swear by?What then may we judge of oaths that people swear by angels, saints (“by Mary,” “by Paul”) and other created things (such as heaven, light, the world), by soul, conscience, &c., or by graces, such as, “by faith”?

We need not be too particular in drawing distinctions here, for we conceive them all to be simply unlawful.

That is partly because none of these are God, and swearing is a special piece of God’s worship (Deut. 6:13). Swearing by any thing, whatever it is, which is not God, is condemned: “They have sworn by those who are not gods” (Jer. 5:7).

It is partly also because we cannot invocate any of these, and therefore we cannot swear by them. An oath carries along with it an invocation, or calling on the name, of the one we swear by.

Also, these other persons or things lack the properties of the one to whom this worship belongs. They lack, for example, omniscience, to examine whether we mean what we have sworn or not, and omnipotence, and justice to avenge, if things are not as we have sworn, and the sovereign right to call the swearers to a reckoning. It would also derogate from the thrust of this commandment, which gives this honour to God alone, as His due, and implies that He alone has all these properties in Him.

Indeed, such oaths are expressly prohibited by Christ. “Swear not at all, neither by heaven nor earth” (Matt. 3:34), for they stand in an inferior relation to God, and are His servants.

As none of these things are God, to take order with us if we swear falsely, so none of them are ours, so as we can lay them in pledge, for the least thing to be done to them if our oath is not true. None of them can be added to or diminished from by us. We cannot make one hair of our heads black or white, which is why we ought not to swear by our head. Much less can we quiet our conscience, or increase our faith, that we should so freely swear by these. Matthew 5:36 makes this clear.

← The solution for self-glory in church leadersReasons why ministers must be diligent in their ministry →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Guidance for getting rid of sinIt can happen that problems and difficulties coincide with very troubling sights of our sins. Things can then seem overwhelming, and we can’t stop thinking that God is not only angry with us but rightly so. Where can we then turn in this desperate situation? Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) imagines a dialogue between a man with a terminal illness and his pastor. The discussion takes place over several days and covers an extensive range of topics. On the second day, the sick man reaches out desperately for advice about his sins, which he feels are crushing him. In the following updated and abbreviated excerpt, the pastor offers him various considerations to encourage him, and the man finally realises that through it all, the pastor is chiefly trying to point him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zachary Boyd was minister of the Barony Parish, Glasgow. Well-known as a poet, he contributed around a tenth of the content of the Scottish Psalter (1650). He was Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Glasgow. He faced Cromwell’s army with bravery when they invaded Scotland and proceeded to Glasgow.Sick man: My soul is so blinded with my sins that I cannot get a sight of mercy. I’m afraid I will die in despair. Don’t you pity me at all?

Pastor: May the Lord pity you, and give me a heart to pray for you. May the Lord put the words in my mouth which will comfort your comfortless soul in this ongoing trial. Have patience in your pain. Sin is like a rotten tooth. The deeper root it has in your jaw, the more painful it is to draw it. But many people are more ashamed to confess a fault than to commit a sin. What is it in particular that grieves you, my friend?

Sick man: The wrath of God makes me afraid. His anger is like a lion, which cannot be tamed. My sin is past, but punishment is to come. Terrors shout from the fire, “Because you have fallen down before the god of this world, go down, down to him who you worshipped on earth!” I am beholden to God for such a long opportunity to repent. But I neglected it, and now God does not think I am worthy of comfort, for while I was in prosperity, I was so covered over with the spirit of slumber that I would not be warned or wakened by the voice of God’s trumpeter. Because I ignored Boanerges, the sons of thunder, now God will not deign to give me a Barnabas, the son of consolation.

Pastor: I rejoice from my heart, not in your grief, but in that you are so grieved for your sins. God in mercy by these sorrows whets your desires for Him. It is good to be of a humble and contrite spirit. “To whom will I look?” said the Lord. “Even to him that is of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” The more humble you are, the further you are from the danger of God’s judgments.

When sin is a heavy burdenSick man: Then it seems that a soul cast down by its own unworthiness is in less danger of judgment than those who are lifted high up in their own conceits.

Pastor: Without a doubt. Bless God, my friend, for a humbled heart! Yet never rely on any grace that is within yourself. Let God’s mere mercy alone be your strength and your support. The least opinion of our own worth is a frost which nips repentance in the blossom.

Sick man: My heart is strained and squished with grief. The heavy weight of my sins! How close they stick to me! I am like a tired horse that can’t wait to be rid of its burden.

Pastor: To be tired of sin is a sign that you will shortly be delivered from it. Sin is not a heavy burden to the wicked, because in them it is like water in its own element — though it has weight, yet it doesn’t weigh itself down. The sin-wearied soul has Christ’s promise of rest (Matthew 11:28), but woe to those who, like Laodicea, have need of nothing! For the most part, people are drowned in drowsiness. Complacency is far more dangerous than despair. Complacency has shaken hands with hell and death. The one who is greatest in God’s eyes is the one who is smallest in his own eyes.

Getting rid of this burdenSick man: But how can I be delivered from this burden?

Pastor: Listen to Christ in His gospel calling, “Come to me!” Go to Him who calls so lovingly, “Come!” Strive above all things to get a sight of your Saviour by the eye of faith. Urge on your heart a deep meditation on His mercy. His merits are able to cure our maladies.

Sick man: There is such a mist between me and Christ that it is not possible for me to see Him. If only my eyes were cleared with God’s eye-salve, so that I could clearly look at Him!

Pastor: The great desire you have to see Him is a sort of seeing. Not everyone sees Christ the same. Not everyone goes up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. Not everyone sees God face to face, like Moses. Not everyone lays their head in Christ’s bosom, like His best beloved disciple. But don’t be discouraged, just because you can’t get so close to Christ as you’d like. If you can’t get so close as to embrace Him like Simeon did, you can still strive to touch the border of His garment from behind with the finger of faith, and the flow of your sins will be staunched. Sighing for a sight of Christ is a real sight of Him. He wants to be found by those who never sought Him — how much more will He be found by those who seek Him and sigh for Him!

Christ is not always absent when He is unseen. What shall be able to separate a Christian from the love of Christ? What then shall be able to make a Christian soul despair? Shall damnation? No, for Christ, God’s salvation, is ours. Shall hell? No, for Christ has the keys of both heaven and hell. Shall the world? No, for Christ has overcome the world. Shall the law? No, for Christ has fulfilled the law. Shall death? No, for our Christ is the way and the life. Shall the Father’s wrath? No, for Christ has trodden the winepress of His wrath for you and for all repenting sinners. All Scripture points at Him, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Run, friend, to Him, and He shall deliver you from all your sins and from all your fears!

When sin puts comfort out of reachSick man: I cannot get quit of my sins. I try running away from them, but they only follow me the faster. Wherever I go with my thoughts, above or below, my sins follow close behind me. I try to chase them away, even beg them to leave me alone, but their answer is, “We are yours, we will stay with you!” It puts my soul out of peace and order and thrusts me away from the Lord my God. I’ve been seeking and sighing for comfort for so long, but I can’t see anything.

Pastor: Comforts are not always seen straight away. Elijah’s servant went up Carmel eight separate times to espy some appearance of rain. The first seven times he could see nothing, and at the eighth, all he could see was a little cloud of comfort. So hold on, my friend, a little while, with Elijah, on your knees. Send up your prayer to the top of the hill, again and again, and if you keep going till you perceive even a handsbreadth of mercy, eventually God’s comforts will rain down in great abundance on your wearied spirit.

Sick man: But how can I get quit of my sins?

Pastor: The best way to be quit of sin, in the sense that it does not reign in us, is to bend our hearts towards Christ, who is Immanuel, God with us. Though all are worthy to be condemned, yet there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. He is the heave-offering, which we must always lift up like a shield between God’s wrath and our sinful souls.

How mercy goes deeper than our deep troublesSick man: Just as I swim through one deep temptation, I fall into another that is deeper. My head is turned into a whirling giddiness.

Pastor: There is no deepness either in our sins or in our troubles, but the mercy of God in Christ is able to over-reach it by innumerable fathoms. Though afflictions rain down on us like water pouring from spouts, they may well wash us, but they shall not be able to drown us. A godly man should not be afraid for a spout full of bitter waters. There is no sin which Christ’s blood is not able to purge. Whatever your sin is, if you can repent, He can forgive. Christ can do anything but this: He cannot save someone who will not repent. Seeing you know that He is infinite in mercy, have all your recourse to Him. Just test His mercy. Humble yourself at His feet, and see whether or not there is mercy with Him that He may be feared. Christ is not only true, but truth itself, and He has said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.” He who is true may lie, but truth itself cannot lie.

Sick man: That is the truth. When I think of your comforts for my distressed soul, I think that all your purpose is to point chiefly at Christ, as though He alone were the ground of grace.

Pastor: Yes! Christ is Immanuel, God with us, God with man, God in man, God-man. In Him, God and man are one person. Because we ate of the forbidden fruit, He was hanged on a cursed tree. He has loved us with an inexpressible love. By the conduit pipe of His humanity, grace for grace has been conveyed to our graceless souls. Who can express His love? He loved us to the end, and of His love there is no end.

Sick man: Is it only in Christ, then, that salvation is to be found? All Scripture, you say, points at Him.

Pastor: The Scripture is plain. “There is none other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved.” He is full of love. He is the only Saviour, pointed out by Old Testament and New Testament alike. All religion is in this, that we know Christ. This is salvation, to know Christ and Him crucified. By His blood, the bill and bond of the law is crossed out and cancelled. He is our refuge against the force of God’s wrath. The church cannot come up from the wilderness except by leaning on her Beloved, Christ. Let people cover themselves as carefully as they can with their own righteousness, yet some part of them will peep bare until Christ comes with the covering of His righteousness.

← Experiencing the power of the resurrection todayFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Experiencing the power of the resurrection todayThe transformation from death to life is stupendous and miraculous. Only God can do it. Not merely as a hypothetical possibility, but in historical fact, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. This showed conclusively the utter futility and impotence of any opposition to God’s good ways, whether human, demonic, or merely natural. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ changed everything. As the Covenanting minister Michael Bruce (1635–1693) outlined in a sermon on Matthew 28, the transformative power of the resurrection is vast and unstoppable. In the following updated extract, Bruce vividly describes how spiritual death can be abolished in sinners’ hearts and spiritual life planted there instead, spiritual foes can be vanquished overnight, and spiritual growth can be seen even in barren and backsliding churches and communities.The Lord makes big changes in a little timeOne thing in this chapter which rejoices the heart is this — that a dead and buried Christ shall be a living, rising, and exalted Christ the next day, whoever might say the contrary. In the previous chapter is a dead and buried Christ, with many joining together to hold Him down in the grave, yet in this chapter He rises in spite of them all. All the men of the world, with all the devils in hell, shall not be able to hold our Maker in the grave one hour longer than His appointed time.

In the previous chapter, you see a sad and dark world. Now in the beginning of this chapter, there is a light world again, and a sound basis for gladness again. It’s but the space of three days, but what a change!

Such is the way that our blessed Lord orders business with His church and people. In a very little time, He can make a very great change.

There are three or four great changes produced in this small interval of time.

Before, never a one acknowledged Christ but one or two poor women. Now, more are beginning to acknowledge Him.
Before, a great stone was lying on the mouth of Christ’s grave. Now, there is no stone on it, but the stone is rolled away, and an angel is sitting on it. This will be a great change for the better in Britain and Ireland, when not one stone will be left to hold Christ in His grave.
Before, the soldiers are all standing watching Christ’s grave, laughing and domineering in their pride, and no doubt swearing many a choice oath, saying with much bravado that the God of the fanatics would never rise again. Now, all of a sudden, they are all fallen like dead men, and cannot handle their arms. All the instruments they were using to keep Christ in the grave are rendered useless.
Before, there is a great din about a dying Christ. Now, there’s a great din about His resurrection. Before, there’s nothing but darkness, the sun refuses to countenance this abominable act of the taking away of the life of the Son of God, the earth trembles, and the temple splits in two. Now, the rising Christ is astonishing to both friend and foe. The sun gives light again, and all things begin to look brighter.

The comfort of God’s powerI mention this for comfort to the friends of Christ. The saddest case of Christ’s friends will not last long. There will be a change for the better. What do you think, friends, of these three changes that a little time produced long ago?

In Exodus 10, Pharaoh commands Moses, ‘Get away, let me never see your face again, sir! If I see you again, your head won’t stick on your neck!’ Yet by midnight, Moses and Aaron are sent for in all haste, and all the people of Israel dismissed out of Egypt!

Then in Exodus 14, all the children of Israel are weeping in front of the Red Sea, pursued by enemies, with rocks on every hand. By the beginning of Exodus 15, they are all singing! Singing songs and rejoicing at the wonderful victory over their enemies, now floating on the water like dead carrion, the very same element where they had drowned so many of Israel’s little ones!

Also in Esther 7, see Haman feasted one day, and hanged the next.

Great are the changes that our Lord all of a sudden makes for the good of His church and people!

Christ makes big changes for His peopleAnd a rising Christ makes a great change for His church and people. Christ rising in a Christian’s heart makes a great change. Christ’s rising in the wider community makes a great change.

There are four great changes a rising Christ makes in a Christian’s heart.

The first is in Romans 7:9. ‘I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’ Whenever Christ comes to make a gracious change in a man or a woman’s soul, there sin lives, and they die. That is to say, all conceit of self-righteousness in the person falls while their sin revives — it’s not that the sin that was dead revives, but the poor person who thought sin was dead and he alive is made to change his thoughts.

The second is in Galatians 2:20. ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I.’ I, that I, that used to predominate in the poor body, the life is put out of it by a rising Christ, and another ‘I’ is brought to life, and life put into it, and that is by faith in the Son of God.

The third is, Christ makes the person who gave off an aura of the things of an evil world before, now give off an atmosphere of the things of heaven. Is that not a great change? You used to have an earthly smell before Christ rose in your heart, but now a heavenly smell. Before, a smell of the dunghill, now the scent of the pleasant land that lies afar off, where cinnamon and aloes are in abundance, all plants of heaven, every one sending out their fragrance.

The fourth is in Acts 16:24. There the gaoler takes Paul and Silas and puts them fast in the inner prison. But in verse 28, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises, and the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and every prisoner’s shackles fell off them, and the doors were opened. The gaoler called for a light and sprang in, but he came out again with an astonishing change on his heart. Before there was nothing but beating and binding Paul, now there is nothing but binding up his wounds. Before, nothing but harsh abuse, now nothing but tender care.

Christ makes big changes for the communityA rising Christ makes a great change in a community, in three or four ways, each more encouraging than the last. One, He strikes a blow against scribes and Pharisees, false and backslidden teachers. Two, He gives a boost to a holy, lively and faithful gospel ministry. Three, He puts a new life and a new lustre on His ordinances, which had neither life nor lustre while He was in the grave.

You see after His resurrection, how one bit of preaching by Peter draws 3,000 to Christ, and many of the Lord’s people who seemed to be lagging far behind, get new stock in, and get newly kitted out. The men of the world say, ‘We’ll never get provisions for the difficulties ahead of us.’ Aye, but never let them trouble their heads with that. Nothing will be lacking to us if ever a rising Christ comes among us.

There is another big change that a rising Christ makes, and that is, heaven and earth will be as it were thrown into confusion. Angels come out of heaven, and earth shakes and breaks up before Him. What a muddle! What a din there is when once He begins to creep out of the grave! He rises and makes heaven and earth concur with Him in what He plans to do.

Do you want to know why our day is so sad, and we have such little success? The reason is simply the absence of a rising Christ. He is not to be seen amongst us.

Our need of Christ risingI shall give you four or five words of warning. Take them with you, and use them as long as you live.

Until Christ rises in the hearts of His people in Britain and Ireland, he is not likely to rise in the wider community. Then, people and ministers, raise Him in your hearts! Exalt Him within, and then He will soon lift Himself up without.

As long as Christ does not rise, the devil’s kingdom will increase. Worldly ministers, people-pleasing ministers, and “idol shepherds” will increase and will persecute the saints and people of God. As long as Christ lies in the grave, so long will Satan’s kingdom increase. More will turn to popery than have as yet, more will turn to prelacy, more will defect from the covenanted work of reformation, more will turn profane, more will perjure themselves than have as yet. Well, if you want to have Satan’s kingdom declining and the devil’s kingdom decreasing, then pray much for a rising Christ, for that only, and nothing less, will do it.

Although it’s true that our Lord Jesus may rise in a very different way than many expect, and also without any human help (as here, He rose without any human assistance, not so much as one of His friends was with Him when He rose), yet remember that our Master expects every Christian to roll up their sleeves and help Him to rise.

How to help Him rise todayThere are four stones lying on Christ’s grave in Scotland, which every Christian should work in their own sphere to remove — a stone of popery, a stone of prelacy, a stone of God-provoking and cruel laws, and a stone of the persecution of those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus. Alongside these, and saddest of all, is a stone of backsliding and defection in ministers and people.

But you may say, ‘What can I do, as a poor private Christian, towards rolling these stones off Christ’s grave?’ I don’t believe there are any of you who can’t do these three or four things.

Though you cannot do anything by word or deed, yet you may do something by prayer and supplication.

Through the grace of God, you can roll away your own stone that you have laid there, of formalism, unconcernedness, fickleness, and unfaithfulness, and falling from your first love, and much unrepented sin and iniquity. Do something to roll that away, for this is the stone that most holds Christ down, and not prelacy or the prelates (although the prelates’ black hour will not be the less for holding Him down).

Though you cannot lift off the stone, yet I hope you may put Him to it, according to His word to raise Himself. This is the prayer of the church. ‘Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and ride prosperously, because of truth’ (Psalm 45).

Through grace, you may second Christ’s motion. At least join with Him and don’t counteract Him.

Now I challenge you all tonight to raise Christ out of His grave. Will you let Christ stay buried? For shame! Every one of you, do something towards raising Christ among you.

The more remarkably Christ has been buried, the more remarkably shall He rise. If you want to have a rising Christ in Scotland, and an astonishing day to enemies and to friends (for it will be astonishing to both — His people will be astonished about their fears and doubts as to their sin and duty), then, as I was saying, do what you can to roll away the stone on His grave. Do you want His government in action, His standard lifted up, His sceptre spreading on the top of the mountains? Then put away the stone.

← How and why to run the Christian raceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How and why to run the Christian raceOlympian athletes are legendary for their skill and dedication to their sport. Writing to the church of Corinth, the apostle Paul alludes to such athletic prowess in order to motivate Christian believers to live holy lives. In Ancient Greece, the Isthmian Games were held before and after the Olympic years, in a location close to the city of Corinth. This is one of several vivid cultural references Paul makes in this section of his epistle, with the intention of prompting believers to care for each other’s spiritual welfare. Discussing Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 9, David Dickson points out that Christians have all sorts of liberties now that Christ has set them free, yet they should use their knowledge and freedom in a way of love, not out of pride. As Dickson explains in the following updated extract, the same level of utmost self-discipline that an athlete displays in how he or she eats and trains in order to compete at the peak of their performance should be seen in the spiritual realm as believers suppress their own self-gratification in order to assist other believers heavenwards.We must run with the utmost self-disciplineThe noble Isthmian or Corinthian games were usually hosted near to Corinth, and those who competed in the games, whether running or wrestling, were not to indulge themselves in gluttony and pleasures, but were to be temperate in all things, bearing all things, in order to win the conqueror’s crown. In those games, the runners and wrestlers accustomed themselves to a most temperate diet, by way of preparation for the race. The winners in those games were crowned with laurel, or ivy, or honoured with some similar reward.

In the same manner, the Apostle wants Christians to be most moderate in how they use the things of this world, and to abstain from anything at all that might stop their progress, or hinder them in their warfare.

All this is in order to obtain an “incorruptible” crown, that is, an eternal one, laid up in heaven for all who strive lawfully, and finish their course. Christian wrestlers expect a more noble crown than that corruptible one, won by those who participate in the such sporting events.

We may follow Paul’s own example in running the Christian race and acting the part of a champion, and smiting his adversary certainly and seriously. Paul says he earnestly “keeps down” the body (v.27), the body of sin, and the old man, and the lusts of the flesh, in order that they would be slain. He kept his body (properly so called), by virtue of spiritual discipline, to be subject to his spirit. We should do the same thing. The Apostle nurtured his body in such a way that in labours, and watchfulness, and fastings, it would hold out in its duty, and not be drawn away by passion from the Spirit., and so that the body of sin (as much as lay in him) would be destroyed.

Paul’s purpose in “keeping down” the body of sin, or the old man, was, “lest, if I should live in a different way than I advise others to live, I should be a castaway, or blotted out as a hypocrite from the number of the saints.” “Therefore you do the same thing that I do,” Paul says, “and to the same end.”

When he speaks of “castaways” here, the Apostle does not contrast it with being elect, but with being approved. Just as Scripture refers to “reprobate silver,” meaning something which is not true and genuine, and calls that which is sincere, “approved,” so here the Apostle calls “reprobate” the one who does not live according to the profession of Christianity which he has made, and is not sincere, and as he ought to be.

Our running has to be helpful to our Christian brothers and sistersPaul’s exhortation is that the Corinthians would strive for temperateness, and not be so interested in their food that they would put a stumbling block in the way of fellow believers by what and how they ate. That is why he shows them that they must run in the Christian race, reminding them that in this race, all who run according to the laws of God (not only one, as was usual in their sports), would receive the winner’s crown.

Earlier on in the epistle, he exhorted them by his own example that they should moderate the use of their Christian liberty, chiefly in the things which appertained to gluttony, and specifically in the eating of things offered to idols.

We must use our knowledge with loveOne believer may know his liberty to use things which have been offered to idols. Yet a bare knowledge is not sufficient — it must be joined with love in use and practice. Knowledge without charity puffs up, and makes people proud despisers of the brethren who know only a little. But knowledge joined with charity edifies — that is, it accommodates itself for the good of others (1 Cor. 8:1).

Paul distinguishes between someone who knows with pride, and someone who knows with love to God and neighbour. The one knows nothing solidly, because he is puffed up with a vain opinion of his own knowledge. The other, as he is taught by God, so he is approved of by God that he is truly knowing (8:2–3). Not all who are converted have the same measure of knowledge. For example, some of the Corinthian converts from paganism had not yet abandoned their old opinions of idols, but retained some degree of reverence for the idol, and so their weak consciences were defiled when they ate things that were offered to idols, because they doubted whether they were doing the right thing. It is therefore too simplistic to say that it is lawful to feed on things offered to idols (8:5–7).

We must use our liberty with love“But,” some would object, “the eating of food is an indifferent thing, not part of our religion, and liberty is granted to us. Our eating and our not eating this or that food are both equally pleasing to God, assuming it’s for our health. We mustn’t be barred from our liberty!” (1 Cor. 8:8)

Paul answers that this is true indeed, yet there is a way in which you end up using your liberty in a way which damages your weaker brother (8:9).

For one thing, the weak one who sees you eating in the idol’s temple (with knowledge, yet without charity), is encouraged to eat too, yet in a way which pollutes himself (8:10). Indeed, by doing so, he is destroyed (8:11).

Additionally, when you sin in this way against the brethren, wounding their weak conscience, you are sinning not only against the brethren, but also against Christ, because the tendency of what you are doing is to frustrate or thwart the purpose of Christ’s death. Christ redeemed that brother, so that he would be saved, but you are eating in such a way that you are endeavouring, as much as in you lies, that that brother would perish (8:12).

Paul concludes that it is better to be deprived for ever of our liberty to eat those foods, than to eat in a way that causes ham to our brother (8:13).

Paul’s own examplePaul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 9, in summary, is, “I am an apostle, and am as free as any other believer, yet I not only abstain from things which are lawful and profitable, but I even adapt myself to the infirmities of all. I keep myself under control for the good of the gospel, and therefore you also should do the same.”

In the first part of 1 Corinthians 9, Paul has asserted his own right. He then shows how he moderates his use of that liberty. For example, in the question of the maintenance of ministers, he shows his resolution to forbear, choosing rather to die of hunger than to let others speak evil of him, saying perhaps that he preached for hire (1 Cor. 9:15–18).

Then he extends his moderating of his liberty to all sorts of “things indifferent.” In this, he was not serving himself, but others, so that he would win them to the gospel (v.19). He conformed himself both to the Jews, who were under the Mosaic ceremonies (v.20), and to the Gentiles, who were without the ceremonial law (9:21). He conformed himself also to the weak, those who doubted their liberty, by abstaining from things which were in fact lawful, just like they did (9:22).

In short, he accommodates himself in all indifferent things to all kinds of people, and that is for three reasons. First, so that he would gain as many as possible, or at least some. Second, so that the doctrine of the gospel would be better esteemed among all, by the way he behaved so moderately. Third, so that, by serving the advantage of the gospel, he himself would be saved, being made partaker of the gospel with other believers (9:23).

← Six things which combine to make a false opinion a heresyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How remembering leads to refreshingEvery believer in Jesus has by definition dedicated themselves to the Lord, to be His and for Him from now for ever. Sometimes it can be helpful for believers to explicitly reflect on this and articulate it in their own words. In Covenanting times it was not unusual for individual believers to formulate such “personal covenants” and sometimes to write them down. One godly woman who did this was Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlston (who died in 1696). Janet married Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston (1650–1726), a Covenanter who fought at Bothwell Bridge. He was arrested some time after the battle, and ended up imprisoned in Blackness Castle. Janet voluntarily joined him in prison (and some of their children were born there).At various stages in her life, Janet wrote down her reflections on the Lord’s dealings with her in the form of “soliloquies.” The earliest available of these follows in updated form. In her thoughts she moves seamlessly from addressing own soul by way of reminiscences and self-exhortations, to addressing the Lord in praise and prayer. Her recollections culminate in a renewal of her personal covenant with the Lord. Janet’s writings were discovered after her death and published at the request of her friends, with the hope that it would encourage others to write their own accounts and personal covenants.Recollections of the Lord’s graceLord, I desire to bless Thy name for Thy former loving-kindnesses to me in the day of my trouble, in helping and standing by me when overcharged with affliction, and deserted by friends. What was I, and my father’s house? A poor insufficient creature, taken up with nothing but vanities of all sorts. Oh, what moved so holy a God ever to condescend to look upon me, and pass by so many much more worthy than poor undeserving me! Oh, praises be unto thee, O Most High! Oh that my tongue were employed through time in magnifying the holy name of so merciful a God!

Placing me among the godlyMay not I say, His mercies are over all His other works to me? May not I sit down and admire free love? First, in inclining my heart to love Him and His people, and in casting my lot amongst the godly, and in bestowing a godly and kind husband on me (when I was left destitute without father or mother), and that He did so care for me as not to allow me to enjoy the desires of my heart, but was at pains to hedge in my ways with thorns. His infinite love did not allow me to sit at my ease, enjoying my pleasures in the day of Zion’s calamity, but prepared the way by smaller trials for greater.

Preparing me gentlyThou didst in Thy infinite wisdom, not at first cast me into the hottest flames of the furnace, lest I should not have been able to stand, but would in fright have fainted and turned back. But, oh, praise! praise be to Him who inhabits eternity, that condescended so far to me, a worm, as sweetly to train me up, in alluring me, and speaking comfortably to me, when I first entered into the wilderness!

Thou causedst Thy word to be to my soul as the honey and the honeycomb. Thou madest me sit under Thy shadow with great delight, and Thy fruits were sweet unto my taste; so that many a time which to onlookers was sad, was sweet to me. The Lord did so support and feast me in His banqueting house that I was made to rejoice in the midst of my tribulations.

Equipping me to stand strongLikewise, Thou didst not allow me to go on with those who were indifferent in Christ’s matters, but with Thy rods Thou didst raise such a zeal and love on my spirit, and so filledst my mouth with arguments, that I could not see any thing like defection from, or wrong done, to any of Thy truth, without resenting, testifying, and contending against it. Thou madest at least this change in my heart, which was proud and haughty, much disdaining the converse of the poor, but Thou helpedst me to be denied to great folk, and to the reproach I suffered on that front, making the company of the poor that were godly in the land, dear unto me.

And I hope they shall be so while they keep in God’s way, He having passed by the great ones, and honoured the poor boldly to testify for Him; and those whom He honours, I desire, through grace, to honour.

Confronting me with the truthPraise be to Thee whose care of me was such that it was ministers who were valiant for Christ that were sent in my way, those who did not flatter me in my sin, but faithfully and freely held out, in the gospel, what was sin and duty, and sealed the same with their blood.

Answering my prayersHow Thou didst encourage me with many sweet answers of prayer, to confirm me in Thy love! Thou didst help me, in the days of Thy love to me, to make a full resignation of all that was mine to Thee, so that when I was put out of all, stripped bare and made destitute, not knowing of shelter to me and my poor babes, how calmly and quietly didst Thou help me to go under it! So much so that I was made to fear that it was unthinking numbness, and not supporting grace.

Bringing me out of a sinful way of thinkingAnd such was Thy love, that even in that, Thou wouldst not let me go without a reproof. For there was a friend who was permitted to wrong me in a matter, and the Lord withdrew, and then I was as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. I could not get it borne, until I mourned for my folly in thinking that nature could do any thing in me, without assisting grace. Then He helped me to make a full resignation anew of all that was mine, and to look beyond all earthly portions to that noble inheritance which Thou hast purchased with Thy blood, and gavest me full contentedness in all my sufferings, both from friends and foes.

And when Thou didst (for the trial of my faith and patience) throw me in very hot flames of affliction, having all the discouragements from the world that a poor thing could meet with — and (what was sorest to me) not having that measure of the sense of Thy presence as sometimes before — oh, that condescendence! Oh, that fatherly love, that did not allow me to sink in this storm, which most people thought little of! There were few to sympathise with me, but many thought it their duty to add to my affliction.

Oh, praises, praises be to Thee, who in that time didst help me to sit silent, bearing Thy indignation patiently, because I sinned against Thee, yet Thy mercies did not fail towards me! But Thou didst in this extremity secretly support me, and didst, by restraining grace, fence me in, not giving me liberty to seek a sinful deliverance.

Renewal of my personal covenant with the LordO Lord, continue in Thy love, in keeping me in Thy way, that I may have reason to set up my Ebenezer, and to say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped me.” O Thou that hast begun this good work, perfect it, that I may praise Thy holy name through time and all eternity.

And now, O Lord, out of the sense of all these Thy loving-kindnesses towards Thy poor handmaid, I desire, in Thy strength, to renew previous commitments, and solemnly anew to enter in covenant with Thee. O Lord, help me to go sincerely about it, and let Thy presence go along with the duty!

O Lord, I here desire to enter solemnly into covenant with Thee, taking Thee for my Lord and Master, and accepting Thee on Thy own terms, taking Thee for my King, Priest, and Prophet, and in my station, through Thy grace, to stand by truth, and cheerfully to take on Thy yoke, and follow Thee. Lord, Thou knowest my weakness — I desire to believe that Thou wilt be a present help in the day of need to me, according to Thy promise, and in the faith of this I go on.

I here give my hearty consent to Thee to come and take possession in my soul, and to cast out all there that stands in opposition to Thee. Come, Lord Jesus, subdue all my corruptions, and bring them under Thy feet, that I may be, through Thee, a conqueror over them.

I desire here to take Thee for my all, to be ruled and governed by Thee, acquiescing to whatsoever shall be Thy way of dealing with me. Give me Thyself, and this shall be all my desire.

I desire to enter my protestation at the throne of grace, against all principalities and powers in me that stand out against Thee, and shall endeavour, in Thy strength, to war against them, for they are as a tyrant not having consent.

Whatever I have been, I do here accept of the offer of peace through Christ, and do make a sure covenant with Thee this day, never to be reversed, hoping Thou wilt make all forthcoming unto me, both on Thy part and mine.

I desire here to acknowledge all the controverted truths that are founded on Thy holy Word (the Word which I desire to be my rule), and to confess Thee before men, that Thou mayest confess me before Thy Father. Lord, give me it in that hour, if I shall be brought before great ones for Thy name’s sake.

I desire to adhere to all the articles of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, to which I stand engaged, only I disown the king’s part of it, he having un-kinged himself by the breach of Covenants, and by making our land a land of graven images, our land that was so solemnly given up to God. I desire in weakness to adhere to it, although it has been burnt by the hand of the hangman, and is now buried by those that better things were expected of.

O Lord, I desire to conclude by giving myself up to Thee, and all mine. Accept, Lord Jesus Christ, and help to perform, and acknowledge me as Thy covenanted child, protesting humbly, that failing on my part (against which I resolve, as Thou knowest) shall not make void this covenant, seeing I have accepted Thy offer, on Thy own terms, and will henceforth wait for what is good, so that when Thou comest I may rejoice in Thee, crying, “This is my God, and I have waited for Him.”

As witness my hand, at Blackness Castle, December 1687.
Janet Hamilton

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Three signs of Spirit-given prayerPrayer is the Christian’s heartbeat, pulsing continually. What keeps it going so constantly is the Holy Spirit, or as Paul calls Him, the Spirit of adoption, who has taken up residence in the believer. Life itself and all the signs of life come from the Spirit. In a sermon on Romans 8:15, “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” the gifted young preacher Hugh Binning identifies three characteristics of Spirit-given prayer.The chief principle and origin of prayer is the Spirit of adoption received into the heart. Many of you cannot be induced to pray in your family (or, even more seriously, on your own personally), because you say you aren’t accustomed to it, or haven’t been taught, or something like that. But, beloved! Prayer doesn’t come through education or learning — it comes from the Spirit of adoption. If you say you can’t pray, then it means you do not have the Spirit — and if you do not have the Spirit, you are not the sons of God. Please be aware of the logical conclusions of what you say.

But I hasten on to the characteristics of this divine work: fervency, reverence, and confidence, in crying, ‘Abba, Father.’

Spirit-given prayer is ferventUnfortunately, fervency is usually spent on other things of less importance than prayer. Truly, what people are spirited and passionate about is all in the way of contention and strife, or high temper and misnamed zeal. Yet because the things that we are so earnestly contending about have some connection with religion, we not only excuse our vehemence but approve it!

Other people’s spirits are burned up on the pursuit of the things of the world. The sharp edge of their desires turns that way, with the inevitable consequence that it is blunted and dulled in spiritual things, so that it cannot pierce into heaven and prevail effectually.

Fervent like burning incenseAs there were no sacrifices in the temple without fire, kept going perpetually, so there is no prayer now without some inward fire in the desires, kept blazing up and growing into a flame as those desires are presented to God.

As the incense that was to be offered on the altar of perfume (Exodus 30) had to be beaten and prepared, so, truly, prayer would do well to be made out of a beaten and bruised heart and contrite spirit (Psalm 51:17) — a spirit truly conscious of its own unworthiness and needs. That pounding of the heart will yield a good, fragrant smell, as some spices only do when beaten.

The incense was made of various spices, suggesting to us that true prayer is not one grace alone, but a compound of graces. It is the joint exercise of all a Christian’s graces, seasoned with all. Every one of them, whether humility, or faith, or repentance, or love, etc., contributes some distinctive fragrance. The acting of the heart in supplication is a kind of compendium and result of all these, just as perfume is made up of many ingredients.

But above all, as the incense was, our prayers must be kindled by fire on the altar. There must be some heat and fervour, some warmth, conceived by the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which will make our spices send forth a pleasant smell, as spices do when they are heated.

Fervent and unspoken and discerned by GodLet us commit ourselves to be more serious in our approaches to God, the Father of spirits. Certainly, frequency in prayer will greatly help us towards fervency, and help us to keep it when we have it.

Crying in the heart may be silent to others, but it strikes the ears of God. His ear is sharp, and the voice of the soul’s desire is shrill, and even if it cries in the depths, they will meet together. It is true that vehemence of affection will sometimes cause the voice to be lifted up, but yet that fervency will cry just as loud to heaven when it is kept internal. I am not insisting on such extraordinary degrees of vehemence that they affect the body — I would rather wish that we would accustom ourselves to a solid, calm seriousness and earnestness of spirit, which would be more constant than such raptures can be.

Spirit-given prayer is reverentAnother thing that prayer is composed of is reverence. And what is more suitable than reverence, whether you think of Him or of yourselves? “If I be a father, where is my honour? If I be your master, where is my fear?” (Mal. 1:6). When we call Him Father, or Lord, we proclaim this much — that we ought to know our distance from Him, and His superiority to us.

Reverent because God is our FatherAnd if worship in prayer does not have this characteristic, it lacks that congruity and suitableness to Him which is its beauty. Is anything more uncomely than for children to behave irreverently and disrespectfully towards their fathers, to whom they owe their beings? It is a monstrous thing even in nature, and to the light of nature. How much more abominable must it be, to draw near disrespectfully to the Father of spirits, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, to whom we owe not only this dust, but the living spirit that animates it, and “in whom we live, and move, and have our being (and wellbeing)”! — to draw near to worship this one, and yet to behave ourselves so unseemly and irreverently in His presence, that our hearts are not stricken with a sense of His glory, but lie flat and dead before Him! We scarcely have it in our thoughts, who we are speaking to.

Reverent because God is holyO the wanderings of heart we have in the worship of God! While we are in communication with our Father and Lord, whose heart is fixed to a constant attendance and presence by the impression of His glorious holiness? Whose spirit does not continually gad about, and get distracted by every thing that occurs, and so mar that soul correspondence? O that this word was written in capital letters on our hearts, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him” (Psalm 86:7).

That one fact — God — affects everything. Either we must change Him into an idol, which is nothing, or, if we grasp that He is God, we must realise our infinite distance from Him, and His unspeakable, inaccessible glory above us. He is greatly feared and reverenced in the assemblies above, in the upper courts of angels. How much more then should He be greatly feared and had in reverence in the assemblies of His saints, poor mortals, whose foundation is in the dust and in the clay (Job 4:19), and who drink in iniquity like water (Job 5:16)? There are two points of difference and distance from us. Angels are pure spirits, but we have bodies, which is further removed from His nature. And then, angels are holy and clean, but we are defiled with sin, which His holiness has the greatest antipathy against.

Let us consider this, my beloved, so that we may carry the impression of the glorious holiness and majesty of God on our hearts whenever we appear before Him, so that we may serve and rejoice with trembling, and pray with reverence and godly fear. If we realise, indeed, our own condition — how low it is, how base it is, how we cannot endure the clear sight of our own consciences — we cannot look on ourselves steadfastly without shame and confusion of face at the deformed spectacle we present. Much less could we endure to have our souls opened up to the view of other people. We would be overwhelmed with shame if they could see into our hearts! Now then, realise seriously what God is, how glorious in holiness, how infinite in wisdom — and I am sure you will be brought to a reverent, humble, and trembling behaviour in His sight.

Spirit-given prayer is confidentConfident because God is our FatherAt the same time, I must add this — that because He is your Father, you may intermingle confidence with your reverence. Indeed, you are commanded to do so, and this honours Him as much as reverence. For confidence in God, as our Father, is the best acknowledgement of His greatness and goodness. It declares how able He is to save us, and how willing, and so ratifies all His promises, and sets to our seal to His faithfulness.

There is nothing He regards Himself so honoured by, than a soul fully resigning itself to Him, and relying on His power and goodwill in all its necessities, casting its care on Him, as a loving Father, who cares for us.

Truly, there is much beauty and harmony in the conjoining of these two — rejoicing with trembling, confidence with reverence, asking nothing doubting, and yet conscious of our infinite distance from Him, and the disproportion between our requests and His highness. “Let us draw near with full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). There is much in Scripture, both exhorted and commanded and commended, about that liberty and boldness of pouring out our requests to God as one who will certainly hear us, and grant what is good.

Confidence is the opposite of unbeliefUnbelief spoils everything. It is a wretched and base-spirited thing, that can think no honourable thoughts of God, but only like itself. But faith is the well-pleasing ingredient of prayer. The lower thoughts you have of yourself, the higher and more honourable thoughts it will make you have of God. “My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts as your thoughts, but as far above you as the heavens above the earth” (Isa. 55:8). This is the rule of a believing soul’s thoughts of God and expectations from Him.

Confident because of God’s faithfulnessIn spiritual things which concern your salvation, which are absolutely necessary, you may take the boldness to be absolute in it, and say, like Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” and like Jacob, “I will not let thee go till thou bless me.” But in outward things (which have some usefulness in them, but are not always fittest for our chiefest good), or in the degrees of spiritual gifts, and measures of graces, the Lord calls us to pour out our hearts to Him — without anxiety, yet with submission to His pleasure, because He knows what is best for us. In these, we are not bound to be confident that we shall receive the particular thing we ask, but rather our confidence should fix on His goodwill and favour, that He will certainly deny us nothing that He knows is good for us. So, in these things we should cast ourselves absolutely and without anxiousness on His loving and fatherly providence, and give ourselves up to Him to do with us as He sees convenient.

There is sometimes too much limiting of God. This is ordinarily attended and followed with shame and disappointment in the end. On the other hand, there is intolerable remissness and slackness in many, in their laxness in asking for even the weightiest petitions of salvation, mortification of sin, etc. This certainly arises from the diffidence and unbelief of the heart, and the absence of the deeply rooted conviction both of the incomparable necessity and worth of the things themselves, and of His willingness and commitment to bestow them.

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The energetic activity of waitingAll our safety and wellbeing depends on keeping close to the Lord. Yet our sinful hearts keep drifting away from Him, to our own cost as well as His dishonour. When we then come to our senses and realise He is far away and we are in a desperate place without Him, what can we do? In the following updated extract, William Guthrie’s advice to helpless, sin-stricken people is not to give in to a passive, lethargic, despairing kind of inactivity, but to “wait” on the Lord by rejecting unsafe alternatives and by persisting in the expectation of grace from Him.While Isaiah speaks for himself, he speaks for all the godly, when he says, “I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him” (Isaiah 8:17). In these words you have the duty of the people of God: to wait on the Lord until He pleads their cause, and executes judgment for them.

One of the doctrines we can deduce from this verse is that when people are shaken out of their self-confidence, it is their duty then to wait on God.

Reasons why we should wait on GodWe are to wait on God for several reasons.

Because we are commanded to. “Wait on the Lord” is often commanded in Scripture.
Because of the promise that is annexed to waiting. “Those that wait upon the Lord shall never be ashamed.”
Because it is the most acquiescent and composed posture one can possibly be in. In an evil time, “it is good to hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
Because it has always been the work and practice of the people of God, even in the days of old. Says the Psalmist, “My soul waits for the Lord, more than they that do watch for the morning.”
Because it always has a joyful outcome. “Lo! this is our God! we have waited for him, we will rejoice in him!”

But so that you may better know when it is your duty to wait on the Lord, I shall in the next place show you three things. Firstly, what precedes, or goes before, waiting on the Lord. Secondly, what it means to wait. And thirdly, what follows a right waiting on the Lord.

Things that come before waiting[In order to wait on the Lord, these things should be firmly fixed in our hearts.]

It really is our duty. The duty itself is fully set out in this chapter. “Say not, ‘A confederacy!’ with them to whom this people shall say, ‘A confederacy’;” that is, “Do not let their words make you afraid.” “But only sanctify the Lord in your hearts;” that is, be only afraid of offending Him.

There is a promise held out to those who make Him their fear. “He shall be for a sanctuary unto them.”

A threatening is pronounced against those who fall away from Him. There is a threatening pronounced against the common multitude who decline and join with the times. “He will be for a stone of stumbling unto them.” It is only a promise held out to those who walk aright, while it is a threatening against those who go wrong and comply in an evil time.

What does waiting on the Lord mean?Exclusively on GodWaiting on God means that the heart terminates on Him, with an expectation fixed only on God for help, and on none else. “My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him.” That is, “Wait on God, and on no other.” Similar is that word, “Help us, Lord, for vain is the help of man.”

Pre-eminently on GodWaiting on God also signifies that your expectation is more on God Himself than on any created means. God can give you means, but if you don’t get Himself, it doesn’t matter what else you might get. He may send back your means for a plague to you and not for your good. Therefore plead with Him, and be blunt with Him, and say, “Go with us, Lord, or else carry us not up hence.” So I say, you should plead more for God’s presence than any other means under heaven.

Whatever it costsWaiting on God means submitting to the seasons of deliverance from your present condition, and to the ordering of it and all that concerns you, while under the trial.

For as long as it takesWait on God means resolving to remain at the duty of waiting, until He shows you what else you should do. For waiting on God is still your duty while you are in the dark, and can use no other means for your relief.

What follows after waitingThese things follow after waiting, and are clear from the text.

Stigma. You must resolve to be “for signs and wonders in Israel.” If ever you resolve to be someone who waits on God, you must resolve to be mocked, reproached, banished, imprisoned, and every other way persecuted for Christ.

Pressures. A great many temptations follow when you wait on God.

Isolation. There will be few left to preach the gospel or to consult with in that dark time. He says, “Go to the law, and to the testimony.” You must then make use of your Bibles instead of your ministers.

Eventual vindication. The manifest vengeance of God shall be on those who turn aside. That will be the lot of those who oppose the work and people of God.

The implications for usHave you been given your work and duty in a dark time? Then go to God. Don’t plead ignorance, saying, “What shall we do?” Instead, I say, wait on the Lord, and judge yourselves happy, that the thing which is your duty cannot take from you by enemies (though they may take your life from you).

Face temptations squarely. Before temptation comes, be resolved that they will not cause you to turn aside. Make the effort to be clear in your understanding as to the honesty and justness of the cause, and for that end be well acquainted with the Scripture, and there see what is your duty.

To conclude, believe this, that God’s wrath abides on those who turn aside from Him. All that they previously took pleasure in shall forsake them, or shall be embittered to them, in the day when those who waited shall enjoy what they waited for.

← What makes the Christian ministry special?Accurately valuing God's ordinances →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Why we should pray about everything and hide nothingEven when we are aware of needing God’s help in many areas of life, we can still be reluctant to pray. We think it’s too much to ask, perhaps — or maybe it’s too insignificant to mention in prayer. But Obadiah Sedgwick, a member of the Westminster Assembly, urges us in the folloiwng updated extract to pray about everything, and hold nothing back. The reasons he gives are all in the prayer-hearing God and His overflowing compassion.“All prayer,” extends itself not only to all the kinds and forms of praying, but also to all the matters or things for which we pray.

Five reasons to pray about everythingGod can hear every request as well as any individual request. He can hear a multiplied request as well as a single request. He doesn’t take things in, or observe things, by discourse, where one notion may be an impediment to grasping another. By reason of His omniscience, all things are equally simultaneously present to Him.

Indeed, God can grant many and great requests, as easily as the single and smallest petition. The greatest gift comes as freely and readily out of His hand as the most common mercy — even Jesus Christ, and pardon of many sins, are the same price as our daily bread. Though by comparison with the latter, the former gifts of a much more elevated nature and dignity, yet in respect of the fountain of them, all of them come from the freeness of His goodness and love.

Christ, by whom we are to put up all our requests (for He is our advocate and intercessor) is as ready and able to plead many and great requests, as well as a few and inferior ones. As He is our mighty Redeemer, so He is our mighty intercessor. And His blood is as efficacious and meritorious for many sins as for some.

This is the reason why God has made manifold promises. We may put up many and great requests all at once. The promises are called “the wells of salvation,” and “the breasts of consolation.” Now living wells afford a plenty, as well as a scanting measure of water. And the child may move from breast to breast, and draw enough from either, if one alone will not serve. If one promise does not cover all your needs, yet all of them do, and as God graciously comprehends all our supplies in all of His promises, so He has propounded them all to us, so that we would then there urge Him for the supply of all our necessities.

Lastly, God is rich in mercy, and plenteous in compassion. His mercies are often referred to as manifold mercies, and His goodness is called an abundant goodness, and His redemption a plenteous redemption, and His kindness a great kindness. Now mercy is a ready inclination to pity and help, and multitudes of mercies are like a compounded, and doubled, and redoubled opening up of God’s tenderness to do a sinner good.

Why we should hide nothing from GodYou should conceal not even one of your distresses from God. The heart and life of man are full of sin, and just as full of need. There is not any branch of the soul, nor limb of the body, nor turning of the life, but is replenished with some necessity or other. You have a mind which still needs to be enlightned, a judgment which still needs to be captivated, a heart which still needs to be converted and humbled. How many sinful commissions there are which need to be bewailed, and how many particular and vile inclinations yet need to be subdued! Besides all this, every grace which you have (and there are manifold graces in a holy soul), every one of them is in exigence, and needs more spiritual filling, both for its habit, and acts, and degrees. Indeed, all our duties are only lame-handed motions, which need more strengthning, or like mixed rivers, which should run more clearly.

In this case what should we do? to whom should we go? should we divide the principles of our helps, and go for some to God, and for the most to created things? O in no wise! for all our help is only in Him, who alone can help all!

Or should we branch out our helps, and present them as a beggar does his needs, one day mentioning one need, and some distance of time later, bring up another? O no! Come with all, and with all at once, to God, who is as able, and as willing, for many sinners, as well as for one sinner — and for many sins in one person, as well as for one in any. As they did with the impotent and sick man, they brought all of him, bed and all, and laid him before Christ, so should we bring body and soul, and every distress of either, and present the whole bulk before the Lord at once, root and branches, for a manifold supply. We should press Him for manifold mercies, for abundant strength, for God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think (Eph. 3).

Beloved, as your own unworthiness should not put you off from being a petitioner at the throne of grace, so the variety of your necessities should not discourage you from commencing your appeals at the throne of rich mercies. There is reason in God which will hearten us, and there is reason in ourselves to crave as earnestly and as simmultaneously for all our helps as for some. You equally need the pardon of this sin, as whatever else it may be, and mercy is as ready and able for both, as for either.

And if that corruption was more subdued, and yet this remained altogether untouched, you would have just as many, and more forcible, doubts about your situation from this discrepancy, and the inequality of the victory. Wherefore, as Abraham in his petition for the people of Sodom and Gommorrah took up request upon request, descending from high to low, from many to few, so should we in our requests ascend from one sin to more, from more to many, from many to all. You know that confession of sins should not only be particular, but universal; and our sorrow for sin should respect the kinds of sin as well as the particular acts? Well, all of this signals that there is an ampleness of grants, so much mercy and supply corresponding to the required latitude of confessions and sorrow.

Certainly it’s true that some one sin may (for some special reason, either of some guilt, or present insolency) be more insisted on then another, just as one clause in the plea may be urged more then another. Yet it should not be to the exception of the rest. “O that sin, Lord, by which I have dishonoured Thee so much, and yet which rages so much, pardon it, subdue it, out with it — and not only that, but sins like them, and not only them, but all my sins, blot them out, cleanse me from them!”

← Five things to do when everyone else despises ChristHow preaching is necessary for conversion →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Five things to do when everyone else despises ChristAlthough it remains a fact of history that after Christ died He rose again, yet at some times more than others, the wider relevance of this fact seems non-existent. For all the interest people take in Him, He might as well still be buried in the grave. His followers have little influence and little prestige, and He and they are more or less dismissed with a sneer everywhere. In times like this, what can Christ’s followers do? The Covenanting minister Michael Bruce gave five pieces of advice to hearers in his day. Observing the behaviour of the women in Matthew 28 over the period while Christ was in the grave, Bruce identifies five activities that believers can keep busy with, when Christ and His cause are at their most beleaguered.When the world has done their worst to Christ, and can do no more to Him, still the people of God always have work to do with Him. You can see in this chapter that Christ is dead and buried, and left alone, and yet for all that, there are some poor women who haven’t quite given up on Him. These poor people will not quit with Him.

So there is a huge difference between Christians looking at a buried Christ, and the world looking at Him. The world sees no beauty in Him, but Christ is always beautiful to the believer, whatever the world might do to Him.

In fact, poor redeemed sinners will always be following Him, whatever condition He is in. These women have a work to do with Christ when the world have done their worst with Him.

There are five pieces of work we have to do with Christ when the world has done their worst with Him.

Keep love burningKeep love burning in our hearts to Him. O friends, is there any love to a buried Christ among you? You see how love was still burning in these women’s hearts always. Remember this piece of work you have to do, to keep much love in your heart to Him. When curates, malignants, magistrates, prelates and backslidden clergymen have done their worst to Him, you must love Him as much as ever you did.

Keep company with HimKeep company with Him. As soon as the sabbath is over, these women run away to keep a dead and buried Christ company. If you spend time with Christ in a day like this, surely you will not keep company with those who betray Him.

Do what you can for HimWhatever seems to be Christ’s need at the moment, you must labour to meet it. Although there was a mistake in these poor women, yet they were right in the main thing. Christ’s broken body seemed to be them to be in need of embalming, so they prepared spices for that, although the mistake was that they did not believe He would rise again so soon. Still, there was something about Him that looked to them like something He needed, so they prepared a supply for that.

O how our blessed Lord Jesus in His members needs someone to speak a word for Him these days! But He cannot get a hearing! Some people will do nothing but swear and forswear, and play fast and loose with Him. He comes to some and asks a lend of their houses and lands a year or two, but they will not grant it. He comes to some and seeks a horse and saddle, but they will not give that. The disciples did not let Him go without a horse when He called for one, nor yet a saddle, even if the saddle was just that they spread their garments on it. But nobody takes an interest in the needs of Christ in His members these days, either to identify a need or supply it.

Refuse to take offence at HimGuard against being offended at Him. This was the thing He wanted from His disciples. “Blessed are they that shall not be offended in me.” All He desires from you is that you would not be offended at Him. Supposing He meets you with a violent death, do not be offended at Him. If for a long time He lets some enemy or other always have the upper hand over you, this is a piece of the work He calls for from your hands when His back is against the wall.

Love His despised peopleDo not let any of His suffering followers have less of a place in your heart on account of them backing their Master and getting suffering for their pains. “Am I naked? Then clothe Me,” He said, “and I give you this encouragement, that whatever you do for one of these suffering little ones, you do it to Me.”

O friends, are you done with Christ just because the people of the world are done with Him? It’s a black mark against professing Christians, that just because Christ is buried, they think they have nothing more to do with Him! It’s a black mark against our clergymen, that when Christ is buried, there’s almost never one of them who asks how He lies. O Christians, have you really nothing more to do with Him when the most of the world has done with Him? There is never less interest in Christ than when His back is to the wall, and O but you are ashamed people who do not take an interest in Him now, when He seems to be in His grave.

← What is our honest reaction to the gospel?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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What is our honest reaction to the gospel?Hearing about what Jesus did on the cross forces a confrontation. When the gospel of God meets our sinful hearts, what is our honest reaction? There can only be acceptance or rejection, and there is both sin and terrible danger in sidestepping the demands of the gospel even for the time being. John Welch of Irongray, reaching the end of a sermon on Isaiah 53, insisted that his hearers faced up to their response to the news of Christ crucified. As the following updated extract shows, his questions, posed in the consciousness of God’s presence, are very pointed. Will we prefer our sins to salvation? Or will we entrust ourselves to the Saviour?Now I come to ask what you have to say to the gospel. What do you say to it? Do you have something to say against what I have been telling you? Do you have something to say against what Christ suffered? or against what He did after He suffered, when He said, “Thrust in your hands into my side, and be not faithless, but believing?” Or will you be like Thomas and say, “My Lord and my God!” Friends, what will you do? Tell me what you think of all that has been said of a suffering Christ today. What effect does it now have on you? And what effect will it have afterwards? Will you leave this place without closing with Jesus Christ? What do you say to it? Do you have any objections?

“Yes,” says someone, “I have three objections that hinder me.”

I have too many doubts“I have many doubts in my heart, so that I dare not presume to come to Christ.”

But why do you not dare?

“I have been such a great sinner.”

I tell you then, sinners, in the name of the Lord, you who have these fears and doubts, come on, and do not let that hinder you. Instead let it put you to make all the more use of the Lord. Come away to Him. Though your sins were as scarlet and as crimson, ye shall be made white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). You have God’s command for it, and you have God’s warrant for it, and you have God’s revelation, and these are His revealed duties that He bids you do. Be serious in going about what is revealed in the Word of God to be your duty (and that is all that the gospel calls for), and unite with Jesus Christ.

Or are you saying, “I would love to go to Jesus, but I’m afraid of breaking up with Him again.” Only resolve in Christ’s strength, and He will keep you, and all the devils in hell shall not get you to break off. “But I have made so many promises, and I have broken them all, and I fear that I will do so again.” I say, you must resolve again in Christ’s strength, and as His hand lays the foundation, He shall finish the work. “Turn again unto me,” saith the LORD, “and I will heal your backslidings.”

I can’t do itSomeone is saying, though, “I can’t. You tell us to embrace Him, but we cannot. It’s as impossible for us as to touch the sky. We can’t even begin.”

What did the Lord say to the poor man who had the withered hand? He told him to stretch it out. “I cannot,” he would say, but yet what does the Lord say? “Stretch out thy hand” (Luke 6:10).

I tell you in His name, make an attempt, and show your goodwill, and He will help you to do it. If only you would give it a try, and just say, “Lord, I believe with the faith that I have, and as far as I can, I believe — Lord, help my unbelief.”

It’s a strange thing, friends, that you won’t even try. The man in Luke 6 might have said, “What’s the point of me stretching out my withered hand? I know I can’t.” But yet Christ tells him to stretch it out as he can, and He makes his attempt effectual. You who say you cannot do so much as to make an attempt, just make the attempt, and God will make these attempts effectual, and you will find Him.

Therefore, if you don’t dare to venture, or think you cannot get a grip of Him, yet will you give Him a look? “Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be saved, for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). This is all that He requires — that you would give Him a look.

I don’t want toAre there any other objections? “I don’t want to.”

That is the truth of the matter. “I don’t want to part with the world; I don’t want to serve Him; I don’t want to obey His commands. I am not resolved to do that yet. I don’t want to leave the world that I’ve got so much advantage in. No, no, I don’t want to come to Him, say what you will.”

Woe is me, that is a terrible thing. You don’t want to have Him? Let ministers say what they will, you don’t want Him? What’s the reason for that? He is able to declare of Himself that it is not His fault that you are unwilling.

“O,” you say, “He is a hard master, there is no living with Him. I won’t get my idols entertained in His service. I couldn’t cope with it. I can’t part with my lusts, and with my sin. If you want the plain truth of it, I don’t think there has ever been a man or a woman that ever had a happy day serving Him, and therefore I have to go my own way at my own risk. Whatever comes on the back of it, I must sin, and I must not miss out on my opportunities in the world.”

Well, friends, I say there is much more advantage to be had in coming to Christ.

But this is your opportunityFriends, we have encountered a strange piece of providence. I had planned to have preached elsewhere today, but against my own expectation I have been brought here again.

So it’s by chance that we are here today, and I have been presenting to you a bloodied, wounded, bruised Christ. He is all crushed with the wrath of God. He was forced to cry, “What shall I do? My soul is sorrowful, even unto death, and what shall I do?” This wounded Christ has purchased salvation to sinners, and has sent me here this day as His ambassador to make offer of Him. Have I made any impression on you? I have come in His name and I may not leave you like a knotless thread, a pointless waste of time.

It is in His name that we come here, and I summon and charge you all — as you will answer before the great God, and as you would want to be found of Him in peace, and as you would want one day to look Him in the face, and not call the hills and mountains to fall on you — I summon you to embrace Him!

I charge you by the love of Jesus Christ that put Him to suffer all those things. I charge you by the torments of hell that surely shall follow on those who disobey. I charge you by the love of Him who was dead and is now alive, and lives for evermore. I charge you by Him who has the keys of hell and death, and the keys of heaven.

Come and tell me what you plan to do. Or are you resolved to live as you have done? Do you live prayerless and godless? Will you leave off that? Are you drunkards? Will you leave off that? What are you going to do? Do you swear? Will you keep swearing more?

Are you repenting? Or have you decided to live a while longer in your sins? Will you continue in these things, and keep your idols, and your corruptions? Have you resolved to do that, or this? Will you come today and give up everything to the Lord, and embrace this suffering Christ, before His wrath comes upon you? Have ye drawn back? Will you draw back more? Or will you come to Him?

How will you respond?What do you say to it? I offer Him to you. I lay the offer at every individual’s door, and to every individual’s conscience, and I command and charge you to come and embrace Him, and I desire the Lord God of heaven that He would confirm this.

Now what do you say to it, you who have had so many preachings preached to you? I beseech you, give an answer. Come and take Him, and embrace Him today. For you cannot tell if you will ever have the offer again. I cannot tell if I will ever have the opportunity to speak to you again. What do you think, is it for nothing that we come out to preach, when we are at such high risk, and when we are seen as traitors and rebels in every one of these meetings? It’s not a small business, this. God calls us to be serious, and not to trifle. Therefore, men and women, will you come and close with Him?

Dear, beloved friends, will you let Christ’s death and sufferings persuade you to take Christ’s offer? I long for you to come to Him, for your own life and salvation. I press it on you, and as He is offered, so take Him. Dear friends, give your answer! Say it to Him — it’s not me that wants your answer. Say something to the Lord, for as the Lord lives, you must say something, yea or nay. As you don’t want God to speak in wrath to you, friends, say that you will be the Lord’s! Say that you will enter into an everlasting covenant with Him, never to be forgotten! Or as the Lord lives, these trees, and this water, and that brae, and the earth that you sit on shall be a witness against you eternally, and this tent, and I, and these clouds above your heads.

Therefore now, come, and take the offer, and tell God that from this day forward you resolve to be for Him. Old men, and young men, will you close with Him? Young bairns, the youngest of you all, will you close with Him? Say, “Lord, I would be content to close with Him.” Will you say this, old women and young women? Answer God, who is bidding you come to Him. Say with good David, “Thou art my God and my king … Thou hast made with me an everlasting covenant, well-ordered in all things, and sure.”

I would gladly fall down on my bare knees in front of you if that would get you to say the thing. O friends, give an answer! Say what Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!” and say with David, “O God, thou art my God,” and say with the church in Jeremiah 50:5, “Come, let us enter ourselves into an everlasting covenant with God …”

We must leave you, friends, and yet how can we think of leaving till you come to Him? Take heed what you are doing. Go to Him, and close with Him.

← Six features of an attentive ministerFive things to do when everyone else despises Christ →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How to be guided by conscienceFollowing our conscience is the right thing to do when our conscience is well-informed and characterised by the integrity that comes from being purged by the blood of Christ. We want neither a stupefied or seared conscience on one hand, nor a doubting, over-scrupulous conscience on the other hand. As Samuel Annesley shows in the following updated extract from his sermon on conscience, the sense of sin and the receiving of forgiveness need to be in the right balance. Then we will be equipped to navigate through life in a consistently Christian way.How to get a reliable conscience1. Get your conscience awakened from its natural lethargy.
2. Preserve your conscience tender from being seared.
3. Rectify its errors as you would get cure of blindness.
4. Resolve its doubts as you would a claim to your lands.
5. Break from your scruples as you would from thieves on the road.
6. Lay your head in Christ’s bosom to cure your trembling.

How to keep a reliable conscienceAnd then for the integrity and quiet of your conscience, observe these proposals, as meticulously as you would a doctor’s prescription in a tedious sickness.

Avoid sinning as you would a train of gunpowder.
Be as quick in your repentance as in the cure of a pleurisy.
Live under the felt presence of the jealous God.
Examine your heart, as princes sift out treason.
Pray for the grace you need, as starving persons cry for food.
Let every action be like an arrow shot at a mark.
Think of God as a wise physician.
Be as vile in your own esteem as you are in the eyes of the most hypercritical enemy.
Live on Christ, as the child in the womb lives on the mother.
Love God (as near as possibly you can) as God loves you.

Landmarks to use on the journeyBut you may find these rules, even though I have condensed them, to be too many, and too long to be always remembered. So, to ensure that you will not be overburdened with things which should never be forgotten, I shall commend to you some directions, which may be to your souls in your pilgrimage towards heaven, as ship provisions in a sea voyage — generally sufficient, when others cannot be had.

Plainly practise these reminders of direction in all your conscientious walking.

Consult duty, not eventsThere’s nothing in the world for us to do, but to mind our duty. Curious speculations, that do not tend towards holiness, are one thing: but misgivings based on predictions of what may or will happen to you when you do your duty, may be reckoned among your grosser iniquities. To venture to sin in order to avoid danger, is to sink the ship for fear of pirates, and must be reckoned amongst your greatest follies, your worst of sins.

Some argue, in effect, “This way of duty will probably bring down some people’s displeasure on me, and therefore to prevent that, I’ll take the course which will certainly bring down God’s displeasure.” Is not their reason dangerously distempered? Unquestionably their conscience is. Besides, by-ways will not lead you to the place you aim at.

On the contrary, keep your consciences from being violated, and you cannot be miserable. How calm and quiet, as well as holy and heavenly, would our lives be, if we had only learnt this single lesson, to care about nothing but to know and do our duty, and to leave all effects, consequences and events to God!

The truth is, it is a daring boldness for silly dust to prescribe to infinite wisdom, and to let go our work, to meddle with God’s. He has managed the concernments of the world, and of every individual person in it, without giving occasion to any one to complain, for more than the past five thousand years, and does He now need advice from you? Therefore let it be your only business to mind your duty.

Aye, but how shall I know my duty? Take a second reminder.

The advice you would give to someone else, take yourselfThe worst kinds of people are apt enough to lay such burdens on other folk’s shoulders, that if they would take them on their own, they would be rare Christians indeed. The outcry made by those who revile godliness, when they nitpick and dissect the misdeeds of Christians! Even they expect that those who make a profession of religion should be blameless beyond exception; and even they scorn those who fall away at all from their professed strictness. On the other side, those who are holy expect that even graceless persons should bear reproof, receive instruction, and change the course of their lives.

In middle cases, then, between these extremes, what exactness will serious Christians require from themselves, where the bias of their own corruptions does not misguide them? David was twice surprised to pass sentence against himself by parables in the abstract, where he did not realise he was implicated himself.

Where this rule is too short, add a third.

Do nothing on which you cannot pray for a blessingWhere prayer does not lead, repentance must follow. It is a desperate venture to sin on hopes of repentance. Every action of a Christian that is good, is sanctified by the Word and prayer. It is unseemly for a Christian to do anything, however trivial, that he can’t pray over. If Christians only but bestow a serious exclamatory prayer on every action, they would find that such prayers would cut off all things sinful, demur all things doubtful, and encourage all things lawful. Therefore do nothing but what you can preface with prayer.

But these rules are all defective, so I’ll close with an example that’s infinitely above defects.

Think, speak, and do what you are persuaded Christ Himself would do in your situation, if He were on the earthThe heathen kept in their view the best examples they had, and therefore let us follow the best of ours. There are many remarkable examples in Scripture, but I propose neither great nor small, but the King of Saints. It is better for a Christian to be an example, than to follow one. But by imitating Christ, you will come as near as possible to the best, for your fellowship shall be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, through the Spirit of holiness, the only one who can teach you what it is to abide in Christ, who was, and is, and ever will be our absolute copy.

O Christians! How Christ prayed, and redeemed time for prayer! How Christ preached, out of whose mouth proceeded nothing but gracious words, so that His enemies could not but admire Him! How little Christ valued the world, when He renounced it Himself and taught us to renounce it too! What time Christ spent in conversation, when He made the hearts of those who He happened to fall into company with burn within them! How Christ went up and down doing good to man, and always those things that were pleasing to God!

Four last remindersBeloved, to summarise, I commend to you these four reminders, to be so many scarlet threads on every finger of your right hand, so that you would never put your hand to any action, but these reminders would be in your eye.

Mind duty.
What’s another’s duty in your situation, is yours.
When you can’t say, “The blessing of the Lord be on it,” do not meddle with it.
But above all, as you would never renounce your name as a Christian, never forget to look to Christ. Whatever treatment you meet with from the profane world, remember Christ your Exemplar, and follow His steps. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.”

← Facing death with clarity and anticipationSix features of an attentive minister →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Facing death with clarity and anticipationPeople’s priorities change as they move through different stages of their life. What sort of things weigh most heavily when we are forced to think most seriously about death? Betrayed after years on the run, now severely wounded and on death row, John Nisbet of Hardhill (c.1627–1685) wanted his friends to know that he was facing his end with a clear sense of God’s love for him — so much so that he could hardly wait to get to meet Him face to face. Nisbet dictated his testimony from prison, shortly before he was executed at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. As the following abridgement shows, he is full of thankfulness to the God of all grace for introducing him to His saving truth and granting him firm commitment to it, as well as full of concern for the holiness and integrity of the Christian friends he leaves behind.Reasons for writingI have always thought that to live for Christ, and die for Christ, is a sufficient testimony for truth; yet now when I am within a few hours of eternity, to prevent mistakes, to satisfy my dear friends, and let them know how it is with me, and to let the world know what I die witnessing for, and testifying against, I judge it proper to leave a few lines behind me.

The Lord’s superabundant goodnessAs for myself, it pleased the Lord Jehovah, of his superabundant goodness and infinite mercy, powerfully to determine my heart to close with and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is made offer of in the everlasting gospel, for my king, priest, and prophet.

The Scripture has been to me from my youth the living oracles of His divine and sacred lips. When I was crying, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ and saying, ‘How shall I know the way of the Lord, that I may walk therein?’ then His Word was a light to my feet and a lamp to my path, exhorting me, ‘Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price …’ (Isaiah 55:1–8). When I was grappling with sin, Satan, and the world, and my own wicked and deceitful heart, the enemies of my salvation, His words were as props and pillars to me. It is by Him that I have fought the good fight, that I have finished my course, and that I have kept the faith. It is by Him shining in His Word that I know all my manifold sins and transgressions are freely pardoned, and that I have a just right and title to what is expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:30.

No room left to doubtSo that now, the guilt and condemning power of sin being fully pardoned by a judicial act of God’s free and sovereign grace, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially applied and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit, on and to my spirit, there is no room left me to doubt any more of my being freely justified by Him, of my being in union with Him, and in a state of grace. Nor of the power, dominion, and filth of sin, original and actual, being subdued, taken off, and washed away by the virtue of the Spirit of sanctification, or of being created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and being sanctified throughout in soul, body, and spirit, and made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light by Him who loved me, and gave Himself to the death for me, and redeemed me by power and price.

Longing to go to JesusNow, being in such a case of communion with Him, I am pained till I be freed of the remains of a body of sin and death, till I be freed of the world and all things therein, and also of this natural life, and be possessed of Himself, and with Himself, in His eternal inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, a place which He hath provided for all whom He hath chosen, all whom He hath called, for all whom He hath justified, for all whom He hath sanctified. O to be there, where I shall sin no more, neither feel any more of the withdrawings of His Spirit’s presence, and light of His glorious countenance, but shall be ever with Him, see Him as He is, and serve Him for ever and ever.

Appeal to Christian friendsNow, my dear friends in Christ, it is the unquestionable and indispensable duty of all who have any love to God, to His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, to the thriving of His kingdom, to their own soul’s salvation, and to the following generation, to act a close, constant and needy dependence on the Lord Jehovah’s all-sufficiency, for light, for counsel, for direction, for strength and ability, to make conscience in bearing testimony for Him, for His persecuted truth, work, and interest, in these lands.

O that in this all could act a faithful part for Him who has done so much for poor wretched us! When we were lying, dying, and rotting in our blood-red sins, He passed by us with His love and life-giving visit, saying to us, ‘Live, live!’

And on the other hand, to witness faithfully, constantly, and conscientiously against all that the enemies have done, or are doing, towards overthrowing the glorious work of Reformation, and banishing Christ out of these lands by robbing Him of His crown rights (for He, and He alone, is head of His own church), and by burning the Covenants, and persecuting His gospel ministers and members. Even though ministers and members may be turning their backs on Christ and His cross, reproaching and casting dirt on you and the testimony of the day, yet do not let this weaken your hands, stumble or discourage you from going on in the strength of the Lord your God, to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and witness a good confession for Him and His cause, resisting unto blood, striving against sin.

Leaving and adheringBut, my generation-work being done with my time, I go to Him who loved me, and washed me from all my sins — to Him who has counted me worthy to suffer for His name. If only I had many lives to lay down for Him, and much blood to seal His noble and honourable cause with! — He who graciously pitied me, and has now given me the full assurance of being a member of His church triumphant, the new Jerusalem, the city of the living God!

I die adhering to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the undoubted Word of God, an unerring rule of faith and manners, and a firm foundation for principle and practice in the ways of godliness and true holiness. And the Confession of Fatih, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as agreeable to them and safely founded on them. Likewise the Sum of Saving Knowledge, and the Directory for Church Government, in her doctrine, worship and discipline. I confess all the attained-to pieces of reformation in the Church of Scotland, particularly between the years 1638 and 1649, the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, the Acknowledgement of Sins and Engagement to Duties.

Last requestIt is my last request and my soul’s desire that, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, you would set apart much time, and mourn, and afflict your souls for your original sin, heart plagues, sins of persons and families, sins of kings and kingdoms, and for all the dreadful apostacies, hateful compromises, and sinful sidings of ministers and people with the enemies of God and godliness. Mourn that there is not more faithfulness and zeal for the cause of God amongst His people.

My dear friends, give up your contentions and censuring one of another. Sympathise with and love one another, for this is His commandment. Keep up your sweet fellowship meetings. What is proposed for continuing a testimony for truth and against defections, let it be done with Scripture light for direction, and with zeal tempered with knowledge, and with the spirit of meekness accompanied with patience and humility. Be always ready to give a reason of your faith, and be much denied to the world, to yourselves, and to your natural life, and when God in His providence calls you to lay it down for Him, do it cheerfully, and embrace the cross of your sweet Lord Jesus with open arms, for He will not send any on a warfare on their own charges.

Don’t take fright at His sweet, lovely and desirable cross. Because of the wounds I received when I was captured, I have not been able to lift up or lay down my head without someone helping me, but yet I have never been in a better place in all my life. He has not challenged me for a single thing since I came to prison, small or great, but on the contrary, He has so wonderfully shined on me with the sense of His redeeming, strengthening, assisting, supporting, through-bearing, pardoning and reconciling love, grace, and mercy, that my soul longs to be freed from bodily infirmities and earthly organs, so that I may flee to His royal palace, the heavenly habitation of my God, where I am sure of a getting a crown put on my head, and a palm in my hand, and a new song in my mouth, so that I may bless, praise, magnify and extol Him for what He has done to me, and for me.

So I bid farewell to all my dear fellow-sufferers. Farewell, my children. Pursue holiness in all your ways, and praise the Lord for what He has done for me, and tell all my Christian friends to praise Him for this too! Farewell, sweet Bible, and wanderings, and contendings for the truth! Welcome, death. Welcome, the city of my death, where I shall see Him, and be enabled to serve Him eternally with full freedom! Welcome, blessed company of angels and spirits of just men made perfect! But, above all, welcome, welcome, welcome, our glorious and only God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou art worthy. Amen.

← When pastors become predatorsHow to be guided by conscience →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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The danger of wavering on gospel basicsNew ideas and teachings are constantly cropping up in and around the church. Although believers, and the church as a whole, are meant to grow in knowledge, it has to be knowledge of the truth. The truth of the gospel is what we stake our souls on for eternity, and we cannot afford to be enticed into wavering on the gospel basics and swallowing false teachings. George Gillespie was particularly earnest in emphasising the duty of remaining loyal to the truths which God has plainly revealed in Scripture. In the following updated excerpt, he provides several reasons why instability is so dangerous.Fluctuating and wavering over those things which God has revealed for us either to believe or do, is a sin, while to be firm, fixed and established in the truth (to “hold fast the profession of it,” to “stand fast in the faith”) is a duty commanded. It is good theology to maintain this.

The value of being committed to the truthWe see the value of steadfastness from the very light of nature. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” (Jer. 2:11). The heathen Greeks used to say that he who goes wrong in his religion is drinking out of a cup that is full of holes. How firm and constant the heathen philosophers were in maintaining their opinions! They could not only displease their friends, but suffer the heaviest things for their opinions.

But set aside the light of nature. Every one of the earliest churches, to which the apostles wrote epistles, was expressly warned, either to stand fast in the faith, and to hold fast their profession, or to beware of and to avoid false teachers, and not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines.

It must be not only a truth, but a most special and necessary truth, when the apostles thought fit to impress it on the churches in all their epistles (see Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 11:3-4; Gal. 1:6-8; Eph. 4:14; Phil. 3:2, 18; Col. 2:6-8; 2 Thess. 2:2-3; Heb. 10:23; 13:9; Jam. 5:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 3:16-18; 1 Jn. 4:1; Jud. 3-4). All these verses are full and plain on this point, and most worthy of our frequent thoughts and observations, especially at a time when this corner of the world is so full of new and strange doctrines.

The dangers of wavering on the truthThwarting ScriptureIf we are not steadfast and unmoveable in the profession of our faith, we frustrate (as far as we are concerned) the reason why the Scriptures were written. Luke gives this reason to Theophilus, why he wrote the story of Christ’s birth, life and death, “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:4). When Peter hath mentioned the voice which came from heaven concerning Christ, he adds the certainty of the Scripture as a greater certainty. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19). A voice from heaven is more likely to deceive us, than the written word of God.

Looking like a false churchMaintaining and professing the true faith is one — indeed, the principal — mark of a true visible church. Christ Himself gives us this mark of His sheep (John 10:4-5).

Embarking on worse errorsIf once we forsake the way of truth, and go into an erroneous way, we shall not know where to find our paths. We shall wander from mountain to hill, and forget our resting place. As one wave comes after another, so one error comes after another. Error spreads like a canker (2 Tim. 2:17). “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). This has already made some (and I hope will make more), who were at first too susceptible to the new doctrines and practices of false teachers, now move away from them, seeing they increase to more ungodliness and more error, endlessly. One error breeds a hundred, and a hundred will breed ten thousand.

Missing out on gospel promisesIf we waver, and are led about with diverse and strange doctrine, then the prophesies which have gone before of the true church shall not be made good in us. It was promised of the church and kingdom of Christ, “The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge …” (Isa. 32:4-5). Those who were simply and rashly led about with every wind of doctrine shall (according to the promise) be so wise and knowing as to distinguish between truth and error, and between virtue and vice (see also Isa. 33:6).

Losing what we have gainedInstability and forsaking the way of truth makes us lose much that we had gained (2 John 8). All the comfort we enjoyed, all the good our souls ever received of such a truth, such a cause, such a ministry, and all that ever we did or spoke or suffered for the truth, we lose when we turn aside into an erroneous way.

Reducing gospel comfortWavering greatly hinders our spiritual comfort and contentment. To be “knit together in love” is one means, and to “have all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of gospel truths,” is another means, by which the apostle wishes the hearts of Christians to be comforted. It adds much to Paul’s comfort that he could say, “I have kept the faith…” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Risking our soulsWe put our souls and our salvation greatly in jeopardy when we turn aside from truth to error. It is said of the unstable that they wrest the Scriptures “unto their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:16), like a man who has fallen into quicksand, and the more he wrestles to get out, the more he sinks. When the apostle has spoken of Christ purchasing our reconciliation, justification and sanctification, he adds an “if” (Col. 1:23): “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” Not that our persevering in the faith is a condition in Christ purchasing these blessings, but it is a condition without which we cannot possess and enjoy what Christ has purchased. He who falls away from the true doctrine of the gospel proves himself to have no part in the benefits of Christ.

Some errors are in their own nature damnable, and inconsistent with the state of grace, or fellowship with God (2 Pet. 2:1). “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (2 John 9). Surely it may be said of Arians, Socinians, Romanists, Libertines, “they have not God,” because they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ (Gal 5:4).

There are also other errors, which may comparatively be lesser, yet impenitency, and continuing in them, condemns those who hold them. This is why the Apostle James reckons the one who errs from the truth to be in a way of death and danger of damnation (James 5:19-20).

← Five things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preachWhen pastors become predators →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Four good responses to the good newsWhen the Lord Jesus came to do His work of redemption, it cost Him dearly. He suffered in His body and in His soul and indeed died for the sake of sinful people like you and me. Preaching on Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities …” John Welsh of Irongray showed first the depth of Christ’s sufferings. He then asks, how should we respond? The following updated excerpt gives his four suggestions as to appropriate responses, concluding with a reminder of who should especially recognise themselves as summoned to act on the gospel call.Now that I have spoken of the suffering Saviour, I desire this of you. Rouse yourselves up to be suitably affected with what I have spoken from these truths. There are three or four ways you should respond.

WonderAnd the first thing I would exhort you to be taken up with is wondering. What man or woman is there among you that can hear these things spoken of, and not wonder at it? That Christ should have suffered all this for the like of you and me! That He who is the Son of God should have quit heaven, and that the Son of God should have become man, that He should have been put so sore to it as to die — for sinners!

I cannot tell what calls for wonder from us, if this doesn’t. O the height! O the breadth! O the length! O the depth of this mystery! That the Son of God should have been put so sore to it as to die for sinners, and not only to die, but to drink the cup of the Father’s wrath! Who can hear this declared, and not wonder at the hearing of it? O wonder! O wonder at it! Wonder at the hearing of it!

Detest sinDid our Lord Jesus Christ have to suffer such great sufferings? Well then, see how you should look on sin. Should not sin be very detestable to you, and very abominable? Should not be at very much pains to forsake sin, when it was sin that brought our blessed Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings, sufferings which would have brought you to such sad condemnation, and to lie under the wrath of God eternally and eternally?

Sinners, I think that supposing there was nothing else to motivate you to forsake your sins, and to hate every false way, and to hate the very least word and thought of sin, that this might be a motive — that it brought our Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings.

Love to Him will call for this. “All ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).

Don’t disappoint HimOur Lord Jesus Christ was brought to so many and so great sufferings. And He has undergone them so cheerfully. Has He not? And He is satisfied to see the travail of his soul.

O do not yet then do what you can to disappoint Him, while He is making offer of His blood to wash you! Do not do anything that will make Him regret that He shed His blood for the like of you! For when you do not give him a suitable meeting, you give him good reason to regret it, for you are doing what in you lies to make His sufferings of none effect.

BelieveBut what I mainly want to exhort you to is what our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts you to. Remember, after His resurrection, when He came out of the grave, when His disciples were gathered together in a room for fear of the Jews, He came in there among them, and said, “Peace be unto you” (John 20:21). Remember that in the beginning of that chapter there was some word of His resurrection. Some of them affirmed that He was risen, yet others still thought it was only imaginary and a mistake. (Although angels came down from heaven and gave testimony that He was risen, yet some of them could not believe that!) When He comes in among them, what does He say to Thomas? Just the same as He says to us today. He holds out His hands and the hole in His side, and says, “Be not faithless, but believe!” That is the thing. “Reach hither your hands into the hole in My side, and be not faithless, but believe.”

That is the thing I have come here for today as a messenger of the living God. It is to let you see this day the wonderful, condescending love of Christ, and to say to you, “Reach hither the hand of your faith, and take a look at this bloodied Saviour who was crucified. Come, put in your fingers, put in your hand in the hole of that bloody side of His, and be not faithless, but believe!”

That is the great thing that Christ calls for. That is the great reason why He wants His sufferings told us. Why? So that it would bring His people to unite with Him — to give Him credit, and to believe in Him.

That is why I now come here, and say this to you, and bid you reach hither your hand, and be not faithless, but believe. The great reason why He wants His sufferings told is — so that you would close with this suffering Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him, and be no more faithless, but believe! Say with Thomas, “My Lord, and my God!” As soon as Christ’s hands and His side were presented to him, Thomas could no longer stand out. If the same argument does not prevail with you, I wonder what will! Thomas said, “My Lord and my God! I can stand out no longer, for now I have seen the wonderful love of God! Now I see the wonderful love of Christ, which made Him undergo all these great sufferings! Now I have seen the wonderful excellency of the Saviour!”

Remember who this message is forAllow me to emphasise this a little here, for this is the great goal which Christ has in mind in keeping up the preached gospel — so that you would believe, so that you would be saved, and brought to close with Jesus Christ.

So I here summon all of you, of all ranks of persons, to a serious frame. Compose your spirits suitable to the message that I am to declare to you. Men and women, I come to you now, and I present before you a bloody Christ, a suffering Saviour. I come to you, as He did to His disciples, and I say to you, “Reach out your hands to a bloody Saviour. Take a look of Him believingly. Look to Him, and close with Him. Look to Him. He has said, ‘Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved!’ O come and take a look at this suffering Christ! Take a look at Him!”

You older people, maybe you have even been professing faith all your days, yet you never actually closed with Him. You have even thought it fashionable to believe in Jesus Christ, and yet to this day you have never done it. I summon you this very day at this present time to come and take a look of this suffering Jesus Christ, and stretch out the hand of your faith and close with Him, and come and say, “My Lord and my God!”

Secondly, I summon those who are outside of Christ — those who have never yet been hankering about to do it, and those who have made many attempts, but never came cleanly off in the doing of it. I summon you to come here, and stretch out your hands, and be not faithless, but believe. I summon you, whoremongers, adulterers, drunkards, or whatever you may be. Come to him, sinners! Come here and reach in your hands, and be not faithless, but believe, and close with this suffering Jesus Christ.

Will you let Him go away and not take the offer off His hand? and give Him no thanks for it? Shall He have that to say, that you would not take the offer, and that you would not give Him much thanks for His sufferings? Will you not take the benefits that He offers to you by His sufferings? I come here in His name, and offer you peace — will you not take it? I offer you healing in His name, and will you not take it off His hand?

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How to get a good conscienceSooner or later, our conscience will do its work of passing a verdict on us, so as to produce either shame (when conscience blames us) or comfort (when conscience approves of us). Those who have been regenerated can legitimately take comfort from knowing that the blood of Christ cleanses them from all sin. But how is this comfort possible, when even the regenerate still keep sinning? Samuel Annesley published a sermon on the conscience, in which he describes the ‘good conscience’ and, as the following updated excerpt shows, gives a list of ten suggestions as to how to get a good conscience.What kind of conscience should we desire?Two kinds of conscience are desirable, and cannot be commended too highly.

A good honest conscience. Conscience is good in respect of its integrity when it gives a right judgement of everything according to the Word of God. I grant that the law of nature binds, ecclesiastical laws bind, and political laws bind, but the Word of God is the principal rule, which precisely binds the conscience, because of its author. “There is one law-giver, who is able to save and to destroy …” (James 4:12).

A good peaceable conscience. Conscience is good in respect of its peace when it excuses, absolves, and comforts as it should — that is, when it is pacified by the blood of Christ. There was once a dying man, and it is said that the devil appeared to him, and showed him a very long parchment, where his sins were written on both sides, and they were many. Three quarters of the words he had spoken in his life were idle words, and all his actions were classified according to the ten commandments. Satan said to the poor sick man, “Do you see this? Behold your virtues! See how you will be judged!” But the poor sinner answered, “It is true, Satan, but you have not included everything, for you should have added here below, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins, and you have also forgotten, Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Why do we need a good conscience?1. You cannot possibly get rid of your conscience, therefore be persuaded to get a good one. The unconverted do what they can to extinguish conscience. They flatter it with worldly reasoning, they bribe it with mock devotions, they wound it with heinous provocations, they scar it with habitual wickedness, they trample it underfoot by sinning in spite of it; they run away from it by diversions, and will not endure to hear it. Yet they can sooner turn their souls out of their bodies, than conscience out of their souls. Indeed, even amongst all these indignities, their conscience is as fresh and active as if it was not being abused in these ways. It is only waiting its opportunity to be heard, and then it will make what was done perhaps 40 years ago as if it had been but yesterday. A conscience you must have, and sooner or later it will do its job.

Your own conscience will be either your best friend or your greatest enemy (of all created things), to eternity. There’s no greater riches, no greater pleasure, no greater safety than a good conscience. However great may be the pressures of the body, the hurry of the world, or the intimidations of Satan, they can’t reach the conscience. A good conscience uniquely cheers the dying body, joyfully accompanies the departed soul to God, and triumphantly brings both soul and body to the tribunal to come. There’s no more profitable means, nor surer testimony, nor more eminent conveyer of eternal happiness than a good conscience. On the other hand, there is no greater torment than an evil conscience. Though its gentler checks may be disregarded, its louder clamours will make you tremble. What will you do, when conscience shall reproach you with your abuse of mercies, incorrigibleness under judgements, contempt of Christ, and hatred of holiness? If you can’t endure to hear what conscience has to say now, how will you endure it to eternity?

How can we get a good conscience?But how shall we get such good consciences? Here are some suggestions.

Count no sin smallScrew up your obedience to every command to the highest. Ferret out every sin to the most secret corruption. When you have set your watch against the first risings of sin, beware of the borders of sin. Do not venture on temptations to sin, for you will find, like children on the ice, there’s always danger, never any good.

Repent immediatelyThere’s not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, therefore, without delay, set about the healing duty of repentance, and on every slip into sin renew it, speedily renew it. If only I could snatch you out of your state of impenitency, and persuade you to daily actual repentance!

Compose yourself to live as under God’s eyeLive as in the (more than) tangible presence of the jealous God. Remember, all things are naked and bare before Him. You cannot deceive Him, for He is infinite wisdom; you cannot flee from Him, for He is every where; you cannot bribe Him, for He is righteousness itself. Keep therefore fresh realisations of God in your thoughts. Speak as knowing that God hears you. Walk as knowing that God is nearer to you than you are to yourself. Read through Psalm 139. Christians, do nothing but what you are willing that God should take notice of.

Be serious and frequent in the examination of your heart and lifeThis is so necessary to the getting and keeping of a right and peaceable conscience that it is impossible to have either without it. We have a thousand matters to think on all the day long, the night too, the week, the year — but who questions with his own heart, “What am I? what am I doing? how do I live? is the course I follow good and lawful? is that which I omit my duty, or not? Is God my friend? Am I His? What hope do have I of heaven? Say I die tomorrow, today, this very hour, where is my assurance I shall be saved? what reply can I make against the accusations of Satan and my conscience? will Christ be my advocate, when I shall stand in judgement? Have I grace, or have I none? do I grow in grace, or do I decay? Am I better this year than I was last year? what sins have I conquered now, that held me in combat then? what graces have I obtained now, that I did not have then?” Review each day whether your hearts have been intent upon religion, and indifferent to the world. Have special care of two portions, of your time, i.e., morning and evening — the morning to fore-think what ought to be done, and the evening to examine, whether you have done what you ought.

PrayBe much in prayer — in all manner of prayer, but especially in secret prayer. Do not dismiss your own appeal by the love of sin, and you shall certainly be heard when you pray for grace. Believe it, Christian, it’s not your inevitable weakness, nor the spiritual dullness you feel, nor your lamented rovings, nor your distractions, nor your mistaken unbelief — not any of these, nor all of them together, can shut out your prayer. If you do “not regard iniquity in your heart,” then be encouraged. It is the voice of your beloved that says, “Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

Let every action have reference to your whole life, not only a partThe emphasis of the apostle’s exhortation is very great, “Exercise thyself unto godliness.” Let your whole life be a preparation for heaven, like an athlete’s preparation for victory. Strip yourself of all encumbrances, so that you may attend to piety. Pleasures may tickle you for a while, but they have a heart-aching farewell.

Live more on Christ then on the graces in youDo not venture to sin because Christ has purchased a pardon — that is a most horrible and impious abuse of Christ. For this very reason there was no sacrifice under the Old Testament law for wilful wickedness, lest people might think they knew the price of sin. But so that no one will be overwhelmed with the sense of their unworthiness, know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and our salvation is better, safer, more for God’s glory, and our comfort, in His hand then in ours.

Be in every way nothing in your own eyesIt is the humble soul that thrives exceedingly, and alas! what do we have to be proud of? Whether you look at our constitution, or our conversation [lifestyle], our conception is sinful, our birth is penal, our life is toilsome, and our death we know not what. But all this is nothing to the state of our soul. A convert, when he comes to be conscious of sin at all, sees more cause to be weary of his life than proud of his graces. To rise and fall, to confess sin and commit it, to see others outrun us, when they set out after us, to recover the time for communion with God which we trifle away in unobserved trivialities — surely for such persons to be low and vile in their own eyes hardly deserves to be called humility! Use Agur’s words about himself (or some think they are Solomon’s), “Surely I am more brutish than any man. My knowledge of holy mysteries is very little, and in comparison with my ignorance, nothing.”

Think good thoughts of GodThink good thoughts of God, whatever He does with you, whatever He requires of you, whatever He lays on you. We never arrive to any holiness (or peace) worth mentioning, till we lose our selves in God. Once we can unriddle God’s methods of grace, and decode God’s methods of providence, getting a good spiritual use out of both, then we are not far from having a good conscience.

Yet there’s still one thing lacking, and it’s implied in thinking good thoughts of God, but it must be eminently expressed.

Do all you do out of love to GodSpiritual love-sickness is the soul’s healthiest state. When love to God is both cause, means, motive and end of all our activity in the business of religion, then the soul is on the wing towards its rest. Our love to other things is properly regulated when it is the goodness of God that moves us to love them. We ought to love God in such a way that with Him or under Him we love nothing else, but all things only in Him, because otherwise we do not love Him with our whole heart. When husbands love their wives, and wives their husbands — when parents love their children, and children their parents, it is a rare pitch to love all these in God, i.e., to advance our love to God by them, and so far as any of them draw away our love to God, to say to them, as Christ said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me.”

← How (not) to discern God’s willFour good responses to the good news →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How (not) to discern God’s willWhere do we find God’s will for us? It could be His will for what doctrine we believe, or it could be His will for our life. Theoretically Christians will consult the Bible for this, but what place does this leave for getting guidance through dreams or impressions, or even God’s providence? William Bridge, a member of the Westminster Assembly, preached a set of three sermons on 2 Peter 1:19 titled “Scripture Light the Most Sure Light.” As the following abridged excerpt shows, he builds a case that Scripture is clearer and safer than all other sources, and all the light they can give us is only borrowed from Scripture.Revelations or visionsScripture light is a full light. Though God did sometimes speak by revelations and visions [in Old Testament times], now in these last [New Testament] days, He has spoken His full mind by His Son.

The stronger any Christian is, the more he walks by faith; and the more he lives by faith, the more he chooses to walk by the Scripture, the written Word of God, the object of faith. It’s in Scripture we have Christ pictured to the life before our eyes, not in revelations and visions.

Imagine that right now you had a vision. How would you know that this was the voice of God, and not a delusion of Satan? Obviously, by the truth that is communicated in the vision — but how do you know the truth, except by Scripture? Or maybe because the vision reveals some future thing which then comes to pass? Then read Deuteronomy 13:1–2: God may permit a revelation to come to pass, and yet it may not be from the Lord, but to test you, whether you love Him, and will cling to Him.

There is no danger in following Scripture light. But if people follow revelations and visions, they may easily be drawn to despise the Scripture. Indeed, what is the difference between an atheist, or an infidel, and a Christian, except that the Christian adheres to Scripture, and the other does not? Take away the Scripture from me, and there will be little difference between me and an infidel.

But, you will say, may God not speak by extraordinary visions and revelations? Yes, without all doubt He may. God is not limited. I’m not going to argue about what God may do. But though God may do this, yet it is a bad sign if I hanker for it, because such hankering implies that a person is not content with the Scripture.

Though God may sometimes work by extraordinary means, yet if that person’s heart is drawn off from the ordinary means by what is extraordinary, it is not right. It is possible for there to be visions consistent with the Word, but if you are more impressed by them than by the Word itself, then your faith is suspicious.

DreamsDreams often involve vanity, says the Preacher, “but fear thou God” (Eccles. 5:7). That is a check on paying too much attention to dreams. But the apostle says, “Let the word of God dwell in you richly,” and there is no check on that.

Dreams are also uncertain. It is hard to know whether a dream is natural or supernatural. Say it is supernatural. Then it is either from the devil or from God, and it is hard to know which. Say the dream is from God, yet it is hard to know its meaning and interpretation. Pharaoh had a dream, but all his magicians could not interpret it; that was a work for Joseph. The same with Nebuchadnezzar. Anyone may have a dream from God, but it requires no less than a prophet to interpret it. However, are we at such uncertainties in reading the Word? Can no one but a prophet understand the Scripture? No — the Word of the Lord is a lantern to the feet of all of us, plain in all things necessary to our salvation.

But may not God speak to us by a dream now, if He chooses? Without doubt He may; God is free. But Scripture does not indicate that dreams are an ordinance of God now.

Even if God did speak to me by a dream, yet if I made that a sign of my own godliness, or of God’s special love to me, then I am under a delusion. Even wicked men have had their dreams from God (Balaam, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and others). If I dream a strange dream, and conclude that therefore I am in God’s love, because He speaks to me this way, then I am deceived.

Who in the world dares to venture his soul and salvation on a dream, or the interpretation of it? But we may and must venture our souls and salvation on the Scripture.

Impressions on the soulImpressions (with or without a word of Scripture), even when they are good, are not our daily food. Our appointed daily food is the written Word of God (whether it comes with or without impression).

Good people are very prone to walk and live by impressions, but it is dangerous. It fosters ignorance, and keeps people unsettled in their spiritual state; for if a word comes, then they have comfort; but when none comes, then their comfort fails. Or, dwelling on the sweetness of the impression, they lose the sweetness of the very word which was impressed on them. But now take the written Word of God, and there is no danger in living and walking by it; indeed that is our duty.

Is there no use then of impressions? Yes, much, for they comfort in time of difficulty. When someone is in the dark, or does not know which of two ways to take to do God most service — or sees the way clear and yet many difficulties in the way — then God sets some word with power on his soul, it is much comfort to him.

But although God speaks by impressions sometimes, giving much light and comfort, yet if I make an impression the judge of doctrines, then I am greatly deceived. We are to judge doctrines by the written Word of God.

Although much comfort may be had from impressions, yet if the Word is not impressed on the heart according to its true sense, the impression is likely not of God, but an illusion of Satan. God only ever sets a word on the soul in its true sense. So, do I have an impression with a word? The impression may be God’s, yet the application may be my own. The Lord gave Abraham a word, that his seed should be as the stars; but Abraham made a false application of it when he went to Hagar for the fulfilment.

The safest, surest way is to keep close to the written Word of God, which is both the judge of all our doctrines, and the only rule of all our practices.

The light of grace in the saintsThe light and law within us here is imperfect. “We see only in part, and know only in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). But the written Word of God, the Scripture and its light, is perfect.

The light of grace within us is not able to convince others. But the Scripture, by the breathing of the Spirit of God with it, is able. How are “gainsayers” to be convinced (Titus 1:9)? By the light within? No, but by sound doctrine fetched from the faithful Word.

Is there, then, no use of the light within us? Does God not direct people this way? Yes indeed. This inward light not only exposes evil in us, and inclines us to good, but also enables us to good.

But it is a principle of good, yet it is not the rule of our goodness, or our lives. If it was, why would we need the Scripture? But Scripture is settled in heaven, and endures for ever (Psalm 119:89). Timothy had the light, and law, and Spirit of God within him, yet he was to be ruled by the written Word of God (1 Tim. 6:14).

Someone might say, “The Spirit in me is the same Spirit who wrote the Scripture, so why do I need to be ruled by the external Word instead of the inward Spirit?” The reason is that the Spirit is sent to open the Scripture to you, not to take away the Scripture from you. He is not sent to be your rule, but to be your help to understand the rule.

Even assuming you have the same Spirit who wrote the Scriptures, yet you do not have the same inspiration of the Spirit. Because people do not understand this, they think that if they have the same Spirit, they may set aside the Scripture as to their rule. But if something in me is my rule, then I am effectively my own rule, and so I am God, and what is this but horrid blasphemy?

Though the law, and light, and Spirit within, may be a great help to us in our way to life, yet they must be tested by the written Word.

Christian experienceThe written Word of God is more excellent than Christian experience. Whatever light there is in experience, it is borrowed from the Scripture, the Word of God written. Though experience is a great help to our faith, yet take it alone, abstracted from the Word, and it cannot heal our unbelief. The walking stick in someone’s hand is a good help, but it cannot heal their lameness. Experience likewise will be a good help in my way, yet it cannot heal the lameness of my unbelieving heart. But the written Word can, and does.

Is there then no use of our experiences? Is there no light in them? Yes indeed, for experience brings forth hope. “Experience worketh hope” (Rom. 5:4–5). But though experience is the parent of hope, yet it is not the ground of our faith. It is a help to faith, but not the first ground of our faith. The Scripture is, and the promise under Christ (Rom. 15:4).

Though we have much experience, yet if we do not trust in the Word, over and beyond all our experience, we do evil.

Divine providenceGod sometimes tests us by His providence. He lays a providential dispensation before us, to test and see what we will do (Deut. 8:2). But the Scripture is the rule of our doing.

The providence of God extends to everything, including all our sins. When Jonah fled from God, there was a ship right there that heading for Tarshish: here was a providence! And when Joseph’s brothers wanted to get rid of him, who came by but some merchants who traded in Egypt: here was a providence! So we cannot make our decisions from a bare providence. You may, however, make your decisions from Scripture, the Word of God written.

Does God never speak by providence, or sometimes guide and direct by providence? Indeed He does. But though the Lord does sometimes guide us with His providence, yet if I make the providence of God the rule of lawfulness or unlawfulness, then I am in a great error, and I expose myself to all kinds of sin. When two lawful things are before me, then when providence opens a door to one, and shuts the door on the other, it is directing to that one, not the other. But the providence of God does not make lawful something which is in itself unlawful. Providence is not the rule of lawfulness or unlawfulness. But the Scripture is. The written Word of God is the only rule by which I may and must make up my judgment of lawfulness and unlawfulness.

← When idolaters are better at devotions than believersHow to get a good conscience →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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When idolaters are better at devotions than believersWhen heathens were fervently praying to their false gods, who couldn’t possibly help them, Jonah, the servant of the living God, was fast asleep. The Covenanting minister Alexander Wedderburn draws on this historical event to reflect on how the Lord’s people can be put to shame by the diligence and commitment of idolaters to their false worship. The following updated and abridged sermon is on the words of the ship’s captain to Jonah. “The shipmaster came to him, and said, What meanest thou, O sleeper?” (Jonah 1:6).Jonah prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II. He is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, where he is called a prophet and servant of the Lord. Though he prophesied of prosperity, yet it was with small success in such a corrupt time. So the Lord sends him to Nineveh, the chief city of the Assyrian empire. This he is loath to do, and resolves to flee by sea to Tarshish. But the Lord follows him with a storm. Then, when all in the ship are busy praying to their gods, he is asleep. For this the captain strongly rebukes him, saying, “What meanest thou, o sleeper?”

Although these are the words of a heathen, yet they contain a deserved rebuke of a prophet of Israel. “What meanest thou?” A short, emotive utterance, expressing anger in the speaker, and unreasonableness in the one he is addressing.

How do we treat our God?The worshipers of the true God are sometimes outstripped in worship, and may justly be criticised for their neglectfulness, by idolaters.

How much reverence?Their gods were no gods at all, but devils, falsehood and vanity. They had eyes and could not see, ears and could not hear, yet they highly esteemed them, and reverenced them. They “walked in the name of their God” (Micah 4:5), and they boasted and triumphed in their gods. The Ephesians all with one shout cried, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19). Idolatrous Micah, though he made his god himself, yet he called it “my god,” and said, “What have I more?” (Judges 18:24).

Now compare this with the worshipers of the true God. Who triumphs in God, or makes their boast of Him? Do we exalt Him as God? Do we confide in Him as God? Do we walk in the name of our God?

How much diligence?As they revered their idols, so they were painstaking in worshipping them. Jeremiah notices their diligence. “Whom ye have loved, whom ye have served, whom ye have worshiped, and after whom ye have gone …” (Jeremiah 8:2). So many words to express their unwearying idolatry.

Compare this with the worshipers of the true God. Certainly our principles teach us the necessity of diligence in worship. But who runs, strives, fights, labours, according to their principles? Of whom can it be said in reference to God, “whom ye have loved, whom ye have served, whom ye have worshiped, and after whom ye have gone …”? It is just some feckless thing we do, and rarely we do that.

How fervent?As they were diligent in their worship to their gods, so they were very zealous and intent on it. In Isaiah 57: 5, Israel is challenged for, among other things, inflaming themselves with idols. The ancient Greek religious leader Pythagoras forbade sacrifices to be offered when doing or thinking about any other thing.

Although we should be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, yet how often our heart in His worship goes staggering between that and something else! In worshipping Him, we are like someone looking at a star through a telescope with a shaking arm — sometimes he has a glance of it, and straightaway loses it again. Who prays as if they were making intercession for their life? or hears as the hungry man eats his food? Who sings, making a melody in their hearts to the Lord?

How self-sacrificial?The idolaters prioritised the worship of their gods over their dearest and sweetest enjoyments. They made their children pass through the fire to Molech. This was a dreadful thing. Certainly, these parents were not lacking in natural affection to their young ones, yet they postponed that to the worship of their gods.

Compare this to the worshipers of the true God. A tiny speck appears an insuperable mountain in the way of His worship! Some will not come because they have a yoke of oxen to look after, etc (Luke 14:16-21). What would we risk for His honour or worship?

How much reliance?The heathen depended heavily on their gods for everything. If they were at sea, they had a god to depend on for safety; in their harvests they had a god to depend on for fruitfulness. The Romans went never out to any war without multiplying sacrifices.

Do we acknowledge the true God in all our ways, that He would bring it to pass? Do we in everything make our requests known by prayer and supplication? What a sweet life we would lead, if every difficulty gave us an errand to Him with a petition, and every deliverance a song!

Why should we outdo the heathen?If idolaters may justly reprehend the worshippers of the true God, it serves for lamentation and self-humbling. Especially if we consider things like these.

The excellency of our GodOur God is the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our God is in heaven, and does whatsoever He wills. Who is like the Lord among all the gods? Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands, but how excellent is our Lord’s name through all the earth! So excellent a God and yet worse served, how lamentable this is!

The infallible certainty of our principlesThe basis on which we walk, and which obliges us to diligent, zealous worship of our God, is infallibly sure. Whatever human ingenuity could imagine, to demonstrate the certainty of our principles and obligations to worship, we have it. The Son coming down from the Father’s bosom and revealing our duty to us. A voice from heaven witnessing to the truth of His being His beloved Son. So many miracles, and such divine doctrine, proceeding from Him. It is ridiculous to hear of the origin of some of the heathen gods, to whom they offered sacrifices. Often they were the work of their own hands, or some of the creatures which God had made to serve them!

The sweetness of our dutiesAn idol signifies sorrow, but the duties we are called to create a bit of heaven on earth. “In keeping of thy commandments there is great reward” — not only for keeping them, but in keeping them. What ease to a burdened mind is prayer! What joy in praises! What refreshing consolations from meditating on God as reconciled through a mediator! Similarly in all other parts of worship. “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord.”

The greatness of our debtIt never entered the mind of idolaters to worship their gods for the reason that we owe worship to ours. They thought they gave them corn and wine, and victory over their enemies, yet they never even claimed that any of them died for them, to prevent their eternal ruin. But this is the unspeakably great obligation we are under to worship. When our loss was desperate, He was broken for our iniquities, and in His stripes we are healed, and one of the goals He had in this was that we would be zealous worshipers of Him (Tit.2:14). “Ye are bought with a price, and are not your own, therefore glorify God in your bodies and souls” (1 Cor. 6:20).

The eternal weight of glory ahead of usWe have encouragements in our worship from the expectation of a far more excellent reward than idolaters could ever dream of or hope for. The philosopher Seneca comforted himself with the Elysian fields as he was dying. These were only imaginary, but supposing they were real, what a low reward they are when compared with the excellent, exceeding great, and eternal weight of glory that awaits the worshippers of God!

The assistance we are givenThe heathen never dreamed that their gods would give them assisting influences to help them at their worship. All they did, they did in the strength of inherent virtue, either natural or acquired. Philosophy might make you patient and bear reproaches — or despise riches and delight in poverty. Aye, but we have the influences of assisting grace secured to us by the word of Him who cannot lie, to help us at our worship. If we do not know how to pray, or what to pray, the Spirit helps our infirmities. There is a spirit of faith, and a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind. Idolaters get their water out of broken cisterns, that can hold no water, but the Rock follows us, and the Rock is Christ.

How can we outdo the heathen?Some things about their worship, we should imitate.

AweThey were kept in much fear and awe of their gods. They were constantly afraid that if they neglected their worship, their gods would avenge it. It is true, this is too servile a principle of gospel worship. Fear should not be the pace that should make our wheels go, it should be love (“If thou love me, keep my commandments”). Yet where fear is lacking, usually worship is lacking also.

DependenceAlso, they judged that they had need of their gods for everything they enjoyed — corn, wine, water, success in war, peace, childbirth, wisdom, or whatever else — and therefore had a god for each of them. This impression would contribute much to help us in worship. If we seriously believed that both our doing and our receiving depended on Him, our addresses to Him could not but be more frequent and fervent.

ReceptivityThey were also much heartened in their worship by the responses they had from their oracles. These responses were often ambiguous, so that whatever way things fell out, the response could be made to hint at it. Certainly, if we took notice of the answers God gives to prayer, we would have more delight in it.

If we could imitate them in these things, we would readily outstrip them.

I shall only add two things they omitted, which make our worship, not only in its nature, but in its manner, far exceed theirs.

GraceThough they were diligent and intent in their worship, yet they never dreamed of any gracious qualification in the person who presented the worship. Nature’s ladder was too low to scale the fort of a natural heart. But if you can be born of water and of the Spirit, it will give your worship a lustre theirs could never have.

The MediatorThough their sacrifices were numerous, and sometimes costly and cruel, yet they never dreamed of a high priest who stands with incense in His hand, which is the prayers of the saints.

This is the great ground of a believer’s hope in Christ, that He sits a high priest, not only to make intercession for the iniquity of his holiness, and to cover the imperfections of his worship, but to present it, and to second it before the throne of God. He knows that broken words and groans and such-like sacrifices, performed with the incense of righteousness of such a Mediator, can have acceptation. Therefore to outdo them, put your sacrifice always in Christ’s hands, pray in His name, praise in His name, and do all through Him.

← Nine ways to protect yourself from false teachingHow (not) to discern God’s will →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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When our words about each other attack GodWhen James wrote his letter to Christian believers, he included a section on our words. Our words have immense potential for either good or harm, but sometimes it’s not a case of either/or. Sometimes, out of the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing — and this is something which simply shouldn’t happen. Can a fig tree produce olives, or grape vine produce figs? The startling incongruity of these examples is nothing to the sheer wrongness of using our words both to praise God and to curse those who are made in God’s image. This point is developed by Thomas Manton as follows, in an updated extract from his commentary on the Epistle of James.“Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God” (James 3:9). Here James shows the good and bad use of the tongue: the good, to bless God; and the bad, to curse men — as well as the absurdity of doing both with the same tongue, using the same part of your body for the best and worst purposes.

Our words should bless GodThe correct use of the tongue is to bless God: “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise” (Psalm 51:15). Since God gives the gift of speech, he must have the glory; we owe it to him. This is the advantage we have over the other creatures, that we can be explicit in praising God. “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee” (Psalm 145:10). The whole creation is like a well-tuned instrument, but man makes the music. Speech, being the most excellent faculty, should be consecrated to divine uses. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:4). So then, go away and say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). This brings heaven on earth. Some birds sing in winter as well as in spring. Stir up one another (Ephesians 5:19), just as one bird sets a whole flock singing.

We praise “our Lord and Father,” that is, Christ (see James 1:27). We bless God most cheerfully when we consider Him as a father. Thoughts of God as a judge do not bring comfort. Our meditations on Him are sweet when we look on Him as a father in Christ. But not everyone can learn the Lamb’s new song (Revelation 14:3). Wicked men can howl, though they cannot sing. Pharaoh in his misery could say, “The LORD is righteous” (Exodus 9:27).

Our words should not curse each other“And with the tongue we curse men” (James 1:9). The same tongue should not bless God and curse men; this is hypocrisy. Acts of piety are empty when acts of charity are neglected. “God saith, ‘What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? … Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and your tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slenderest thine own mother’s son’” (Psalm 50:16, 19-20).

Hypocrites are the most censorious, but true piety makes people meek and humble. Some people can curse and bless at the same time (Psalm 62:4); other people curse, pretending to be pious. The evils of the tongue, where they are not restrained, are inconsistent with true piety. With this tongue I have been speaking to God, and shall it presently be set on fire by hell.

Our words should reflect our high status as God’s image-bearersMan is made after God’s own image. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). We may catch glimpses of God in His works, but in man we see God’s very image and likeness.

God’s image in man consists in three things.

(1) In his nature, which was rational. God gave man a rational soul, simple, immortal, free in its choice; indeed, even in the body there were some rays of divine glory and majesty.

(2) In those qualities of “knowledge” (Colossians 3:10), “upright[ness]” (Ecclesiastes 7:29), and “true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).

(3) In his state — all inward and outward blessings combined, as he enjoys God, exercises power over creatures, etc.

But this image is defaced and can only be restored in Christ. This was the great privilege of our creation — to be made like God; the more we resemble Him, the more happy we are. Remember your original height. We have the custom of urging people to walk worthy of their origins. Plutarch says of Alexander that he used to strengthen his courage by remembering that he came from the gods. Remember that you were made in the image of God; do not deface it in yourselves, or make it open to contempt by giving others opportunity to revile you.

Our words should not attack God via His image-bearersWe are dissuaded from slandering and speaking evil of others when we consider that they are made in God’s image.

We might ask, How can this be a motive, since the image and likeness of God is defaced and lost by the fall?

The answer is, in part, that James is speaking about new creatures especially, in whom Adam’s loss is repaired and made up again in Christ. “[You] have put on the new man, which is [being] renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). “Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). God is sensitive about His new creatures; intemperance of tongue against saints is dangerous. Take care what you say: these are Christians, created in God’s image, choice pieces whom God has restored out of the common ruins.

The other part of the answer is that James may be speaking about all people, for there are a few relics of God’s image in everyone. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:6). There would be no force in this reason if there were nothing of God left in man after sin, albeit much deformed. So this saying in James argues that there still remains in people some resemblance to God, such as the simplicity and immortality of the soul, some moral inclinations (instead of true holiness), ordinary evidences of the nature and will of God (instead of saving knowledge). Although these cannot make us happy, they serve to leave us without excuse. There is also some pre-eminence over other creatures, as we have a mind to know God, being capable of divine illumination and grace.

What is the force of the argument, that we ought not to curse people seeing they are made in God’s image?

For one thing, God has made human beings His deputies to receive love and common respect. Higher respect of trust and worship are to be reserved for God alone, but in other things Christians, even the poorest of them, are Christ’s receivers. “He that despiseth you despiseth me” (Luke 10:16). “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (Matthew 25:45).

For another thing, God Himself is wronged by the injury done to His image, just as, among us, contempt and spite for the king’s image or coin is taken as done to the king himself. In Matthew 23:18, to swear by the altar, which was the symbol of God’s presence, was to swear by God Himself.

Also, this is the fence God has placed against injury: “For in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:6). This is referred not to the murderer, as if he had sinned against those common ideas of justice and right in his conscience, but to the victim, who is the image of God. God has honoured this lump of flesh by stamping His own image on him; and who would dare to violate the image of the great King? To speak evil against him is to wrong the image of God. All God’s works are to be looked on and spoken of with reverence, and much more His image.

So then, in your behaviour toward people, let this check any injury or impropriety of speech: this person is in God’s image. Though images are not to be worshipped, yet the image of God is not to be splattered with reproaches, especially if they are new creations: these are vessels of honour. Consider who the sin is against: it is spiting God Himself, because it is done to His work and image. Solomon says, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker” (Proverbs 17:5).

← Making spiritual progressWhat do we need elders for? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Why We Should Embrace Jesus Without HesitationJohn Welsh was in real earnest when he pled with his hearers and urged them fervently to unite with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. The text of his sermon was Isaiah’s description of the Saviour suffering, bleeding, dying for sinners. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is not a Saviour to despise – this is the glorious Redeemer conquering sin and death by suffering and dying. The only hope of a sinner is to embrace Him by faith on account of His work on the cross. The following updated extract from John Welsh’s sermon, where he draws out the urgency of believing in Christ for salvation and the many incentives we have for doing so.How should we receive Christ?What way we are to close with a suffering Christ?

First, you must do it timeously. You must close with him instantly. At this very moment you must close with him. You must not stop to ponder what He has done for you, and what He has suffered for you, and how that is that you are made partakers of the benefits that He has purchased by His sufferings.

Secondly, you must close with Him deliberately. You may not do it in a sudden fit. A sudden dash at it will not do the turn. It must be a resolved business, after serious deliberation. So you must do it both instantly and advisedly, and the reason is, because I know that if you do not do it resolutely and deliberately, you are taking the best way to fall back again, and to turn your backs on Him when you meet with the cross.

Thirdly, as you must close with Christ deliberately, so you must not take him by halfs. You must take all Christ, as He offers Himself. He makes offer of Himself to be a king, and to be a priest, and to be a prophet, and you must take him for justification, and for sanctification. You must take him for a physician, and for a husband, to be a guide, to be a saviour and to be a redeemer – to be all things that you stand in need of.

And then, fourthly, you must close with Him cheerfully. You must close with whole Christ, with your whole soul. The whole soul must give its consent. You must not close with Him with your conscience only, and with your affections only, but you must close with Him with your whole soul.

On what terms should we embrace Christ?And then the next thing is the terms upon which you are called to close with Him. I shall give you these two or three words that set out the terms.

The first you will see in Isaiah 55:7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

You see another in Hosea 3:3: “Thou shalt abide for me for many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another: so also will I be for thee.” You must abide for Him for many days; you must not turn to other lovers, but you must say that you are wedded to Him as your husband, and you must prefer Him above all others.

And then thirdly, you must close with His cross. If you are going to close with Him, you must take Him and His cross. O sirs! You must take Him and His cross. If any resolve to close with Him, you must also resolve to take Him with His cross, and to follow Him whithersoever He goeth, and to sell all, that you may follow Him. These are the terms in Psalm 45:10: “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thy own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.”

What are some motives for uniting with Christ?The next thing that I am to speak to is the motives which we want you to be pressed with to close with Christ.

To receive peace and healingMaybe this would be a reason to move you to close with him – the great benefits that He has purchased to those who will close with Him, i.e., both peace and healing.

If this does not prevail with you, I don’t know what will. O sirs, shall I go away and leave you this day? Dear friends, I do not leave you until I have pressed on you these motives to close with Jesus Christ. I long to bring you to close with Him, for you shall get both peace and healing in time, and peace after time.

You will get peace with God, and peace with your own consciences. You will get peace to your own souls, perfect peace. That one shall be kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him, and why? Because He has purchased that to those who close with him.

Poor backslidden sinners, who are ashamed of your backslidings, and hard hearted sinners, who are ashamed of your hard heartedness, will you come to Him? Will you close with Jesus Christ, and take what He has purchased with these wounds? If you would come and close with Him ye shall get healing.

To avoid being rebels against GodHere is another motive. As you would not want to be found traitors and rebels against the great God of heaven, you must close with Christ on pain of rebellion. “This is his command, that ye believe on the only begotten Son of God.” He commands, and therefore we command and charge you in His name, to close with Jesus Christ, on pain of eternal damnation, on pain of being found disobeyers of the gospel, and on pain of all the punishments that shall otherwise come upon you.

To give satisfaction to ChristClose with Him, also, because He is a God who is greatly satisfied to have the benefits that He has purchased applied to sinners. He is greatly satisfied to have sinners making application of these benefits by closing with Him. If you want to give Him satisfaction for His benefits, and if you care about pleasing Him who is offering them, this is the way to satisfy Him, to close with Him.

To be responsive to all the calls you are gettingMany things call you to close with Him. You are called by your frequent sick-beds, whether sickness in your own persons, or sickness in your families. Also plenty other things are calling you too. The mercies of God are calling you. The judgements of God are calling you, and the torments of hell. You own unbelieving, sinful hearts are calling you, and your backslidden hearts. What then? Will you not give up your lusts and close with Him, and embrace Him? The angels are calling you, for they rejoice at the conversion of one soul. And you have the devil by all his temptations calling you. You have all these many calls to close with this suffering Lord Jesus Christ.

To be welcomed by HimWhy else should you close with Him? Because He takes it as a great proof of your sincerity, even when once you begin to say, “My Lord and my God.”

To honour the blood of the covenantClose with Him then, as you do not want to be found guilty of trampling underfoot the blood of the covenant, and counting it an unholy thing. It is the very blood by which sinners are to be saved.

← How far reaching is the commandment to believe?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How far reaching is the commandment to believe?It’s pleasing to God that we believe in Jesus Christ. It’s also the only way to obtain eternal life. Something that’s so much in our interest is also what God presses us to do – not just by giving us the basic information about the Lord Jesus but both inviting and commanding us to come to Him for life. According to John, “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23). What does this actually involve though? In the following updated extract from a sermon on this text, Hugh Binning explains how far-reaching this commandment is. It takes in all of God’s commands, and it views them as broken by sinners, fulfilled by Christ, and obeyed by believers.The Lord both invites and commands us to believePeople have different temperaments. Some who cannot be constrained by fear may be persuaded by love. With some a request will more prevail than a command. Others again are only emboldened by love and condescension, and therefore they must be restrained with authority.

In the administration of the gospel, the Lord accommodates Himself to people’s diverse dispositions.

God sometimes stoops down to invite and affectionately beseech sinners to come to His Son for life. He has prepared a marriage and banquet for us in Christ. He has made all things ready for receiving guests and for eating, and He sends His servants to entreat and invite to this wedding those who have no bread and clothing, and are poor and lame. He gives a hearty invitation to all who stand at an infinite distance from Him, and so are feeding on empty vanities outside of Him, to come and enjoy the riches of His grace, which runs as a river in Christ between these two golden banks, the pardon of sin, and the purification of our soul from its pollution.

And He comes yet lower, to request and plead with poor sinners, as if He could have advantage by it. He does not refuse to be a supplicant at any one’s door, to beseech him to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:14, 19, 20). As if we could do Him a favour, He requests us most earnestly. Truly it is strange that this does not melt the heart, and make it fall down into the belief and obedience of the truth!

But because the heart of man is desperately wicked, and is now become stubborn and froward, like a wild ass, or as a swift dromedary traversing her ways, therefore the Lord also gives out his royal statute, backed with majesty and authority. “This is his command.” He hedges in our way with threatenings as well as promises annexed to the commandment: “He that believeth has everlasting life, but he that believeth not is condemned already, and shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Truly it is a wonder that there should be any need either of an invitation, or a request, or a command, or a threatening. Why should we need to be invited, or requested, or commanded, or threatened to accept our own happiness? Might not a bare and simple proposal of Jesus Christ, His nature and offices, and of the redemption and salvation purchased by Him, suffice? What more should be needed, but to declare to us that we are lost and utterly undone by nature, and that there is a refuge and remedy provided in Christ? We would seek no other persuasion to go and dig for a treasure of gold, beyond someone showing us where it is hidden. How strange is the rebellious and perverse disposition of man’s heart!

In the text, this command of believing in Jesus is comprehensive, because it takes in all precepts, under a threefold consideration. It takes them all in (1) as broken and transgressed by men, (2) as fulfilled by Christ, and also (3) as a rule of righteousness, according to which the believer ought to walk.

Believe that we have broken all God’s commandmentsThe command to believe in Christ first of all means that a sinner should examine himself according to the law of God. We should lay out our whole life and course, our heart and ways, before the perfect and holy commandments. We should stop our own mouth with shame and silence, and find ourselves guilty before God.

Some speak of the work of the law as being preparatory to the gospel. But I conceive it would be more fitly expressed if it was put like this instead – that one of the essential ingredients in the bosom of believing, is that all sinners acknowledge their sin and misery, and discern their own abounding iniquity and danger of perishing by it, how guilty they are before God, and how subject to his judgment, that so finding themselves undone, they may have recourse to a Saviour.

Truly the Spirit’s work is to convince of sin, and then of righteousness, and when we are commanded to believe, the first part of our believing is crediting the law, and the justice and righteousness of God against us, and then believing and acknowledging the gospel. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” But it only breeds misapprehensions, when the law is seen as a condition without which we shall not be welcome to the gospel. Truly, I think, both are proposed as essentials of saving faith; not in such a way as one procures a warrant to the other, but only in an order that is suitable to any reasonable nature, and that is all. In other words, conviction of sin is only required of you because fleeing for refuge to a Saviour is a rational action which necessarily includes the sense of misery without Him. But the sense of sin and misery is not a thing which you should go about to prepare, so as to fit yourselves for a greater welcome at Christ’s hand.

Here it is easy to understand how the command of believing belongs to all who hear it, even the vilest and grossest sinners, who are yet stout-hearted, hard-hearted, and far from righteousness (Isa. 46:12), those who are spending their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfies not, and those whose hearts are uncircumcised, and their lives profane. The commandment of coming to the Son and believing on Him for life, is extended to them all. All are invited, requested, commanded, and threatened to this duty. All are instructed to believe in Christ, that is, out of a sense of their own lost estate, to embrace a Saviour for righteousness and strength.

Neither is there any fear that people can come too soon to Christ. We need not set down exclusions, for if they are not conscious of sin and misery, they will certainly not come to Him at all. The command that enjoins them to believe on the Son, requires them also to believe that they are lost without him. If even the most presumptuous sinners would once give obedience to this commandment, really there would be no fear of presumption in coming to Jesus too soon.

A sense of sin is not set as a porter, to keep out any who are willing to come in, but rather to open the door, and constrain those who are unwilling to enter in, so that if the least measure of the sense of sin can do this, we are not to wait till we have more, but to come to the Prince exalted to get remission of sins, and more true gospel sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation from dead works. You should not therefore understand any promises in the scriptures as if there were any conditions set down to exclude any from coming, who are willing to come. The promises only declare the nature and manner of what they are invited to, so that no one may misunderstand what it is to believe, and take their own empty presumptions or fancies, which embolden them to sin more, for that true faith which is full of good fruits.

Believe that Jesus Christ has kept all God’s commandmentsOnce anyone has acknowledged the guilt and curse of all the commandments by believing the law, they also look on the Son, Jesus Christ, and find the law fulfilled, the curse removed, all satisfied in Him. Then you find all the commandments obeyed in Christ’s person, all the wrath due for the breach of the commandments quenched by His sufferings. And you give a cheerful and cordial approbation of all this.

We should rest on Christ’s obedience and suffering as that which pacifies the Father’s wrath to the full. This is what gives the answer of a good conscience, and pacifies every penitent soul, and secures their title to heaven. This presents God with a full atonement and obedience to all the law, and He accepts this from a believer as if it were the believer’s own.

Faith takes in its arms, as it were, in one bundle, all the precepts and curses, and gives them over to Christ, putting them in His able hand, and then takes them all, as satisfied and fulfilled by Him, and holds them up in one bundle to the Father.

Believe that all God’s commandments direct us how to liveSo, thirdly, believing on the Son includes all the commandments again, this time as the rule of walking and the mark to aim at. Finding such a perfect exoneration of bygones in Christ and standing in such favour with God, the soul is sweetly constrained to love and delight in the divine laws. And truly this is the natural result of faith.

I want you to rightly observe this conjunction, that what is inseparably knit with faith is love to God and others, delight to do His will, to love Him, and live to Him. Do not deceive yourselves with vain words. If you do not find the smartness of the gospel and the doctrine of grace laying this restraint on your heart, you are yet in your sins. This is the reasoning of a believing soul: “Shall I, who am dead unto sin, live any longer therein? Shall I not delight in those commandments, when Christ hath delivered me from the curse of the law?” The believer may fall, and come short, yet the pressure of their heart is that way inclined.

But then observe the order. You must first believe on the Son, and then love him, and live to Him. You must first flee to His righteousness, and then the righteousness of the law shall be wrought in you. Therefore do not weary yourselves to no purpose. Do not wrong your own souls by seeking to reverse this order, which was established for your joy and salvation. Know that you must first meet with satisfaction in all the commands of Christ, before obedience to any of them be accepted, and having met with that, know that the sincere endeavour of your soul, and the affectionate impulse of your heart to your duty, is accepted.

If you then find yourselves afterwards oppressed with guilt and an inadequate walk, know that the way is to begin at this again, to believe in the Son. This is the round you must walk, as long as you are in the body. When you are defiled, run into the fountain, and when you are washed, study to keep your garments clean, but if defiled again, get your hearts washed from wickedness. “These things,” says John, “I write to you, that ye (who believe) sin not,” but if any sin who desire not to transgress, you have a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

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Celebrating the enthronement of King JesusSaturday 6th June saw the coronation of Charles III as King of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, in a ceremony which included anointment, public acclamation and enthronement. These core components of the ceremony can be traced over a thousand years for English kings, and stretch back further still in our heritage to the coronation of King Solomon. A prominent theme in the coronation service is that the King of kings is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom all monarchs are called to reflect, and to whom all must give account. In the Bible, several psalms are written to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ when He is enthroned as king over all. In the following updated extract, David Dickson comments on the kingdom of Christ from Psalm 97.A kingdom full of joy, majesty and righteousnessThe psalmist proclaims Christ king among the Gentiles, and commends His kingdom to them as full of joy, full of majesty, and full of righteousness.

Besides the sovereignty which God has over all people, He has a special kingdom, in which He reigns by the gospel of Jesus Christ. “The Lord reigneth!” (verse 1) The coming of this kingdom makes available comfort against all grief from sin or misery, and gives true reasons for joy and full blessedness. “Let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad” (verse 1).

However insignificant Christ’s kingdom may seem to the world, yet it is full of heavenly majesty. The glory of Christ’s kingdom is unsearchable, and hidden from the eyes of the world, who are unable to perceive the things of God unless He reveals Himself to them and opens their understanding. “Clouds and darkness are round about him” (verse 2).

Christ’s kingdom gives no liberty to sin. It is altogether for “righteousness and judgment” (verse 2). There, righteousness is taught to sinners, and sinners are made righteous, and kept in the way of righteousness, and rewarded according to their righteousness.

A kingdom that vanquishes its enemiesAfter the psalmist has set out how comforting Christ is to His subjects, he shows how terrible He is to His enemies. Even though the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom for righteousness, and a fountain of joy to all who receive Him, yet He does not lack enemies. When He gave the law at Sinai, “fire went before him.” But more, not less, wrath attends those who despise the gospel, and Christ will consume all His adversaries. “A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about” (verse 3), however many there are, and however completely they surround His little flock.

There is no match between Christ and His adversaries. “His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth” (verse 4–5). However great monarchs they may be, they cannot stand before His presence. Eventually, His judgments on the enemies of the church, and His blessings on the church, shall be so evident that onlookers will be forced to acknowledge God in them. “All the people shall see his glory” (verse 6). Those who serve graven images are reckoned as enemies to God and to Christ (verse 7). God will not have the worship that people want to give Him by serving or worshipping Him in, at, or before images. He wants to be served is by a direct and immediate worship, without the mediation or intervening of anything which may intercept His worship. “Worship him!” (verse 7)

A kingdom to be glad inAll true worshippers can take comfort. God’s wrath against idolaters is certain, and they have clear evidence of Christ’s supremacy over all created things.

Whether you think of the church collectively as “Zion” the mother, or in her particular branches, “the daughters of Judah” (verse 8), they have the same reasons for joy, and the same source of up-building – by God’s word and works of judgment. The manifestation of the gospel of Christ is the exaltation of God, and the manifestation of His excellency. As we grieve when it is dishonoured, so we should have joy when its glory is displayed. The joy of all the saints is, “for thou, Lord, art high above all the earth, thou art exalted far above all gods” (verse 9).

A kingdom to be holy inBelievers, the true worshippers of God, are here referred to as “ye that love the Lord” (verse 10). The love of God must be joined with, and manifested by, the pursuit of a holy life. We must not only abstain from, but hate and abhor, what is sinful.

Perhaps hating evil and loving God will readily make you subject to malice and persecution from the wicked, yet the godly will have their souls saved. Eventually they will be fully delivered from the harm which Satan and the wicked intend to bring on the godly for their godliness. The Lord “preserveth the souls of his saints: he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked” (verse 10).

The complete fruit of their righteousness will not be in their possession immediately however. It is like something “sown” (verse 11), and it takes time for the corn that is sown to spring up and come to a ripe harvest. Yet the Lord sees the heart. If by faith in Christ we have purified our hearts to the unfeigned pursuit of holiness, we are righteous in God’s sight, even if we have many infirmities, and even if we have periods of grief and interruption of joy. Yet eventually there will be a full harvest of gladness. “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart” (verse 11).

A kingdom to thankfully confess inWhatever our condition in life is, we are exhorted, “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” (verse 12). Whatever tribulation the faithful may have in the world, there are reasons for joy in the Lord, and they should make conscience of this commandment to rejoice in the Lord.

Whatever can be taken from the godly, their right and part in Christ can never be taken from them, and so there is reason to give thanks for this gift for ever. “Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,” or, “Confess to the remembrance of his holiness” (verse 12). That is, acknowledge to His glory the benefit which you have by being a subject of this king. Whatever work or word of Christ brings us to remember His name, it should also bring us to consider and remember His holiness, the untainted glory of all His attributes – wisdom, justice, goodness, power, mercy, truth, etc – and the untainted glory of His word, works and purchase to us.

Image source: Royal Collection Trust

← What can I tell my friends about Jesus?How far reaching is the commandment to believe? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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What can I tell my friends about Jesus?In a recent study of what people in the UK think about Jesus, it was found that following a conversation with a practicing Christian, around a third of non-Christians said they wanted to know more about Jesus, felt more positive towards Jesus, and were open to an encounter with Jesus. This seems to reflect a growing openness towards hearing about Jesus from Christians compared to previous findings, perhaps reflecting the upheavals and uncertainties of the last couple of years. So what would we most of all want our non-Christian friends to know about Jesus? Samuel Rutherford had no doubts about the attractiveness of Jesus to sinners, even people who thought they had no use for Him in their lives. In the following updated extract, Rutherford describes some of the wonder of Jesus as the Saviour. More than bare facts and doctrines, Rutherford is gripped with the beauty and loveliness of Christ, the eternal Son of God. Jesus has such a powerful magnetic influence that once He gives someone a glimpse of Himself, they can’t help but be drawn to Him for salvation. What then are some of these glimpses we want people to see?Jesus Christ has a unique aptitude for drawing sinners to Himself.

Jesus is the RedeemerThe Father is not the Redeemer, nor is the Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ is in person the Lord Redeemer. In the deep of God’s wisdom, the Son was thought fittest to make sons (Gal. 4:4). As Lord Saviour, Christ is a fit person to rescue captives, and to draw them into the state of sonship. I do not say this in a way that excludes the other two persons of the Trinity, for the Father draws sinners to the Son (John 6:44), and the Spirit of grace is a special agent in the work of conversion. But Christ is personally the one who draws sinners, and God works all plans He designed in heaven by Christ. It is Christ who brings many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10).

Jesus is the MediatorChrist’s role is to be a congregating and uniting Mediator (Col. 1:20). He reunites heaven and earth. He is our peace (Eph. 2:14), the Shepherd who gathers in one the sons of God (John 11:52). By the merit of His blood He makes sinners legally one with God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. We were banished out of paradise, but the Son was sent out to bring in the out-law sons.

Jesus embodies God’s mercy to sinnersIn Christ, God has laid down (so to speak) His compassion, mercy, and gentleness to sinners. In His person and work, Christ has taken away infinite wrath, and satisfied divine justice. God nowhere has so much mercy, graciousness, kindness, tender compassion to sinners and such a sea of love, as in the Lord Jesus. O but He is a most lovely, desirable, compassionate God in Christ!

The sinner finds all that God can have in him, or do for saving, in the Mediator Christ. Nothing can come out of God to the sinner, except through Christ. There is no golden pipe, no channel but this. All God, and whole God, is in Christ, and all God as communicable to the creature. If only God was seen in His lovelyness, His beauty would be strong ropes to draw hell itself up to heaven. Love, grace, mercy, are uniting attributes in God, attributes which solder or fuse things permanently together. These essential attributes that are in one person of the Trinity are in all three persons of the Trinity, yet the mediatorial manifestation of love, grace, and free mercy is only in the Son. Christ is the treasury, store-house, and repository of the free goodness and mercy of the Godhead. As the sea is a congregation of waters, so Christ is a confluence of these lovely and attractive attributes that are in the Godhead.

Jesus reflects God’s beauty to sinnersChrist is the face of God (2 Cor. 4:6). The beauty and loveliness of the person, and much of their majesty and glory, is in the face. So the beauty and majesty and glory of God is manifested in Christ. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory (Heb. 1:3); the Father is as it were all sun, Christ the Son is the substantial rays, light-shining, the eternal and essential radiating of this sun of glory. The sun’s glory is manifested to the world in the light and beams that it sends out to the world, and if the sun kept its beams within itself, we would see nothing of its beauty and glory. No man or angel could see anything of God, if He had not had a consubstantial Son, begotten of himself by an eternal generation. But Christ is the beams, and the splendour, and the shining (but the consubstantial shining) of the Father. As God incarate Christ reveals the excellency, glory, and beauty of God.

Christ is the drawing loveliness of God. If you see a creature’s beauty, or a man’s face, you see the creature itself and the man himself. That’s what Christ says to Philip (John 14:9). “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I am as like the Father, as God is like Himself; there is a perfect, indivisible, essential unity between the Father and me. I and the Father are one; one very God; He the begetter, I the begotten.”

So you see that God has pledged all His beauty, His loveliness, and His attractive virtue in Christ, the lodestone of heaven. Wisdom is a fair, lovely, and alluring beauty. Well, Christ is the essential wisdom of God. If ever your eyes once fastened on that dainty lovely thing Christ, that eternal, infinite flower and lily that sprang out of the essence and beautiful nature of God, with eternal, infinite greenness, beauty, fragrance, vigour, life, never to fade, that essential wisdom and substantial Word – if ever your eyes once fell on Him in a vision of glory, it would be un-possible to take your eyes off Him again! Such attractive rays and visual lines of lovely beauty and glory would come from His face to your eyes, and such darts of love into your understanding, heart, and affection, that you would be captivated by His glory for ever and ever.

Jesus came as close as He possibly could to sinnersThen there is so much warmness of heart, and such a fire of love, such a stock of free grace, so wide, so tender, so large a heart of mercy and compassion toward sinners, that He had to put Himself into such a posture of mercy that would most conveniently allow Him to get a strong pull of sinners to draw them – a large and wide handful, His arms full of sinners.

How? He had to be a man for us, to get all the organs of lovely drawing sinners to Him. He got Himself a human heart to love humans, human bowels to compassionate humans, human hands to touch the leper’s skin, a human mouth and tongue to pray for humans, to preach to humans, and in our nature to publish the everlasting gospel, human legs to be the good shepherd to walk over mountain and wilderness to seek and to save lost sheep; a human soul to sigh and groan for humans; human eyes to weep for sinners.

To lay down His life for His poor friends, He became a created clay-tent of free grace, a shop and a warehouse of compassion towards us. He borrowed the womb of a sinner to be born, He sucked the breasts of a woman who needed a Saviour, He ate and drank with sinners and publicans, He came to seek and to save lost sinners, He was numbered with sinners, He died between two sinners, He made His grave with sinners, He borrowed a sinner’s tomb to be buried in.

And now He keeps up the old relationship with sinners, even now that He is in heaven. Honour has not changed Him, He has not forgotten His old friends. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). In heaven Christ cannot now sigh, but He can feel sighing, He cannot weep, but He has a man’s heart to compassionate our weeping, in such a way as is suitable to His glorified condition. The head is in heaven, but He has left His heart in earth with sinners: that Comforter, His Holy Spirit, who He has sent to abide with us.

← The what, how and when of a pacified conscienceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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The what, how and when of a pacified conscienceThe New Testament gives us a picture of believers as people who have the kind of relationship with the Lord where they can freely go to Him, still with an awareness of their sin, but with the freeness and confidence that comes from a clear awareness of the power of the blood of Christ to wash their sin away. How can we come to share that freedom and confidence? What can be done about our guiltiness, and our sense of guilt? It’s all about the conscience. A clear, calm conscience comes from not simply registering our sins but also registering the effects of Christ’s atoning, justifying blood for us. James Durham preached a sermon on Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” In the following updated extract he explains the nature of this privilege of being able to draw near to God in full assurance of faith, as well as how and when we can (and should) do so.The conscience of a person un-reconciled to God is mighty and fearsome, a terrible pursuer, ready to seize on him. It is a dreadful thing to be exposed to God’s wrath, and to the challenges, accusations, throes and pangs of a conscience that has a quarrel against you, when you have nothing with which to answer its accusations.

Yet the efficacy of Christ’s blood is such that it is able to purge the conscience of whoever flees to it, and to fence and guard him against the wrath of God, and the challenges and accusations of his own conscience, God’s deputy. Once conscience has no just ground to pursue, so it cannot, and it will not, pursue him as God’s enemy. There is an efficacy in the blood of Jesus Christ to purge and pacify the conscience of the person who in good earnest has believing recourse to it – that is, I say, when he actually makes recourse to that blood, and when it is actually applied and made use of, by faith.

What can we expect for our conscience when we go to the blood of Christ?What can a conscience-troubled sinner expect, by fleeing to the blood of Christ? God’s rich and liberal allowance to that person is, you can draw near to Him with full assurance of faith. You may come to Him with confidence and boldness, as a Father, in all your worship and appeals.

The meaning is not that the sinner fleeing to this blood has no reason for humility, or repentance for sin, and no accusations of conscience. Nor does drawing near with full assurance of faith remove the holy awe and filial reverence which is due to God, and which is not only fully consistent with this full assurance of faith, but inseparable from it.

It does, however, mean that as believers whose consciences have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, we can expect these things.

We may boldly go to God in prayer, as if our friendship with Him in Adam had never been broken (v19). The blood of the covenant makes our relationship to Him as our Father as near, intimate, kindly, firm, and sure as Adam’s was pre-Fall, with considerable added advantages.
We may make use of the promises (– pardon of sin, sanctification, support in affliction, quickening, peace, comfort, etc.) according to need, with confidence. The believer may draw near with full assurance of the faith of God’s faithfulness to perform them, in His own measure, manner and time.
Heaven, eternal life, and glory, and indeed all things contained in the promises.
Full and thorough publication of pardon and justification before the tribunal of God at the day of judgement. ‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies, who is he that condemneth?’

How can we obtain this privilege?How may we attain this unspeakably excellent privilege of ‘drawing near with full assurance of faith,’ with holy boldness and confidence to obtain all these great things? The answer is in the words a little before, ‘… by the blood of Jesus …’ This assumes that we are fleeing to Christ for the satisfying of divine justice, and that we are applying to Him for purging, pacifying and satisfying the conscience.

Whatever is necessary and requisite in the application of Christ’s righteousness for making our peace with God, the same is needful to attain calmness, tranquillity and peace in the conscience. What is that? See Romans 4:5: ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.’

When you join this with the words in the text, it tells us that the way to peace and calmness of conscience is as follows. First, you are not to evade or refuse your debt, but to acknowledge it. Second, you are to renounce and disclaim all possibility of satisfying divine justice yourself. And thirdly, you are to flee to Jesus Christ, and through virtue of His satisfaction and blood, and the covenant of His grace, to rest on Him for pardon. You are ‘to believe on Him (although you are in some way ungodly) who justifieth the ungodly.’ This is the basis for peace with God, and should quiet the conscience.

But when the sinner has done this, if the conscience is still not quieted and calmed, three further things are necessary.

Actually renewing your application to ChristThis is not so much to get a new pardon, as a new extract of the same pardon which you received in your first fleeing to Christ. When someone has fled to Christ, and is at peace with God, if they do not have peace in their conscience, they are to take a renewed look at the promise, and to act faith anew on Christ’s blood – to display it to their conscience, acknowledging their sin, yet holding still by it the fact that they have fled to Christ, and on that ground making use of the promise for the renewed pardon of sin through His blood.

In this sense faith is called a ‘shield’ (Eph. 6:16). When the accusation is thrown in on the conscience, it burns like a fiery or poisoned dart. But faith goes to the fountain of Christ’s blood – to the covenant and promises – and out of these wells of salvation draws bucketfuls to quench the fiery dart. Faith makes the believer say, ‘I cannot make satisfaction for this sin, but here is a promise of pardon to those who have fled (as I have) to Christ and to the blood of sprinkling.’

Reasoning from solid gospel truthsYet accusations are not soon or easily removed, nor the conscience calmed, and so there is need of continuing in the fight, and of drawing conclusions from solid and undeniable premises.

This is what Paul does. Someone might have said, “You’ve been complaining of a body of death, and saying that with your flesh you serve the law of sin. Is not that a grievous accusation against you?” “It is true,” he would reply. “But there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1–2). That is making use of the shield of faith! To put the matter beyond doubt, he goes on and draws the conclusion, “I, by faith, have fled to Christ for refuge, and therefore there is no condemnation to me.”

Indeed, whenever challenges come in from sense and/or conscience, and are fanned by temptation, it is needful to reason from the grounds of faith, to ward off the blow and quiet the conscience. This is a reflex act of faith. It does not justify, yet it serves to reason the conscience into peace and calmness.

Bringing comfort to yourself by believingReasoning from solid gospel truths will ward off the force and bitterness of challenges, but that is not enough to thoroughly calm and settle the soul. It is also needful that the soul actively draws in peace and consolation to itself by believing. This, as Paul says, “is able to guard the heart and mind through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4). In Psalm 51, David is not labouring only to get his conscience calmed, but for it to be actually filled with consolation. The promises themselves are often somewhat insipid and tasteless (if I may put it like that) when they are not seasoned and enlivened by God’s voice going along with them, and putting flavour and life in them. This is “the voice of joy and gladness” which David is so eager to hear.

When should we use this freedom?What are the times or situations when the believer may and ought in a special manner to make use of his liberty and boldness to “draw near with full assurance of faith”? Undoubtedly, there is no situation where a believer may not aim at this. But more especially we should, in situations like the following.

When you have fallen into more gross guilt, as David had (Psalm 51).

When that gross guilt and grievous sinning is accompanied with great aggravations. In Psalm 51, David’s sin was aggravated mightily and yet he makes application to Christ over all that guilt and all these aggravations of his guilt.

When through folly you have relapsed in sin. I don’t say this to give a liberty to sin, God forbid, but to the commendation of God’s free grace, and of the worth and efficacy of Christ’s blood, and for the encouragement of lost sinners who would love to reach through to Christ for pardon and peace. As long as the blood of Christ has efficacy and worth, and as far as the promise extends itself, so long and so far the believer’s faith may reach to come with boldness and confidence.

When accusations are lively and very sharp – indeed, when they are sharpest and most piercing. Supposing these accusations were like so many troops of horsemen rushing in on him, and the conscience was like a lion rampant, standing with its claws ready to tear, the believer may and should (humbly acknowledging guilt) step forward confidently, and apply the blood of sprinkling. When did David made his most earnest and humbly-confident request to God for the joy of his salvation? When blood-guiltiness was staring him in the face, and when his very bones were broken, and when to his own sense, his grace was very much gone, and when he had (as is were) forfeited his right to consolation. That’s when he comes forward and draws near to God, on the grounds of grace.

When you find, to the great grief of your soul, you are exceedingly indisposed to duty – when your praying, repenting, hearing, etc., are not what you would like them to be. David prays not only for consolation but also for the lively exercise of grace, “Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, and uphold me with thy free Spirit.” It is without doubt a very damaging mistake for troubled sinners to think that first they must have a good spiritual frame and lively grace before they venture to draw near to God with confidence. I grant these are very desirable, and the desire for them is very commendable, yet if David had stuck at that in Psalm 51, he might have remained unwashed all his days. But, knowing the way of God’s grace, David steps humbly yet confidently forward in the exercise of faith over the sense of guiltiness and all its aggravations, over relapsing in sin, over indisposition, and over many sharp accusations (all granted, and lamented over) and makes all these together just so many reasons to go to God.

← Feeding the sheep means loving the sheepFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Four Ways To Keep Your Conscience UneasyOur sense that we’ve done something wrong (or indeed something virtuous) is the voice of conscience. An uneasy conscience is a very troubling thing. Whatever else is going well for us, when our conscience niggles and prickles, we cannot be at peace. The epistle to the Hebrews tackles the problem that we have an ‘evil conscience’ (Hebrews 10:22) and that our conscience needs to be ‘purged’ (Hebrews 9:14). The gospel has a solution to a defiled and accusing conscience. Peace of conscience is one of the key benefits that Jesus Christ can give us. However, in a sermon on these two verses in Hebrews, James Durham takes the time to identify four ways that people can temporarily buy themselves some suppression of the voice of conscience. He shows in the following updated extract that a conscience that goes quiet – but not because it’s been purged by the atoning blood of Christ – is a very dangerous thing.In Hebrews 9 and 10, the apostle’s purpose is to commend the transcendent worth and matchless excellency of Jesus Christ, and the incomparable efficacy of his most precious blood. He does this on the basis of this noble, notable, and unique effect of it, i.e., that when nothing else can allay the storm of an evil conscience, nor purge it from defilement, this blood can do it effectually, when applied by faith.

There is nothing that Christians should more aim at, and endeavour more to practice, than to follow the way by which they may get their consciences purged. All the more so for those who have had their consciences defiled all over again, after they were previously purged.

Observe from Hebrews 10:22 that a conscience which is not purged by the blood of Christ is a very evil thing.

The unpurged conscience is either awakened or asleep, and this is bad both ways. If it is awakened, and the terrors of God are freshly felt by it, who can express the terribleness of this? A wrath-wounded spirit, or a bad conscience roused by the terrors of the Almighty God, who can bear? But if an unpurged conscience is silent and asleep, it is in some respect worse, for it has this dreadful awakening ahead of it. The longer it sleeps, all the more terrible will be the awakening. No one can fully represent to you the exceeding terribleness of the terror of an evil conscience, when awakened by the wrath of God pursuing a quarrel with the soul. Do not allow yourselves to be so deluded as to think that a silent and stupid conscience is a good conscience, in no danger!

Observe too that though all are by nature have an unpurged conscience, yet in the covenant of grace, God has laid down a way how sinners may get their consciences purged.

The apostle’s argument here is that when the blood of Jesus is applied to the conscience, it successfully gives the conscience a real purging from sin, just as really and successfully as those who were ceremonially unclean were given access to ceremonial church-privileges by the ceremonial sacrifices and washings. Legally, as to the removing of the guilt of sin (and as to having peace with God and in your own conscience), the conscience is purged in such a way that sin cannot stand in the way of you expecting God’s favour. Though you are a debtor, yet there is a way laid down in the Gospel covenant to declare you free from the debt. If it is said, “How can you, how dare you come to God with such confidence, when you have an evil conscience through so much sin?” The apostle answers, “Let us come, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” As to a confident approaching to God, and application of Christ’s righteousness, those who have made application of the blood of sprinkling may come to God with as much holy and humble boldness as if their conscience had never been defiled and polluted.

Observe thirdly that the only way to have a defiled conscience cleansed is by the blood of Christ. There is no other way.

It is not the blood of bulls, or of calves, or any one, or all of those ceremonial sacrifices or washings that can do the business. God appointed many means of ceremonial purgation, yet they could never have cleansed the conscience. It’s only the blood of Jesus that has this effect. Nothing but the blood of Christ can satisfy God’s justice, and remove the quarrel betwixt Him and the guilty sinner. Till God is satisfied, the conscience cannot be quiet; seeing then that nothing can satisfy God’s justice but Christ’s blood, nothing can purge and satisfy the conscience but Christ’s blood. If it is said, “Who will lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” the conscience will answer, “I have many things to lay to their charge!” until that sweet word is spoken, “It is Christ who shed his blood.” Never till then will conscience be quiet.

There are four ways that people take, for cleansing and purging the conscience, which are all (if there be no more) ineffectual for achieving the real purging and solid satisfaction of the conscience, which you should be aware of.

DiversionSome endeavour to divert their conscience, and to seek a suspension of its pursuing the quarrel against them, claiming some other absorbing business. When Felix found himself beginning to tremble at the apostle’s searching and powerful discourse, he sought a suspension from it for a time, saying to the apostle (and to his conscience), “Go thy way for this time, and I will call for thee when I have a convenient season” (Acts 24).

Similarly, when some have some fit of conscience, they go to some light-hearted friend, or to some game to drive it away, or possibly they drink it down. Their friend helps them to laugh it off, and banish that depressive fit, and so to bring the person to get rid of this trouble of his conscience as a silly fancy, and as if it were for their good to do so. Very frequently, when people cannot endure to converse with their disquieted conscience, they labour to quash and quench any exercise that begins in it.

ResolutionsAnother way is also too common, and that is by seeking quieten conscience by something other than the blood of Christ. Some under terrible convictions will promise and vow that, if they drank excessively before, they will do so no more, and they will not go to this tavern or spend time in that company for such and such long time. Some will vow not to eat meat on a certain day of the week throughout their whole life; they will, it may be, vow to be more religious. But all along, they are still the same old carnal people they always were, because they did not aim single-mindedly at peace with God through Christ’s blood, but only for the time being to pacify their conscience.
CompensationSome seek to compensate the conscience. They will do some penance. Or they will pray, and try to weep tears in prayer. They will force themselves to mourn, they will give something regular donations to the poor, they will set themselves to amend things for the future. Yet the defilement of conscience lies there still unremoved, because they never betook themselves to the right fountain to wash. I do not condemn you or dissuade you from doing these duties, which are good in themselves, because commanded by God, but you must not rest on them. You must put a difference between founding your peace on them, and founding your peace on the blood of Christ applied to the conscience by faith. Please do not seek to bribe your conscience like this!
DiscussionSome people go and discuss their situation with exercised Christians, describing their situation to them to get some ease in their conscience. Now, this is good and commendable in itself, and when it is done rightly. Discussing things with godly believers may through God’s blessing do good, if it helps us to go to the fountain of Christ’s blood and wash there. But we are at fault when we try to get our consciences quieted by what people say, while we are not making recourse to the blood of Christ by faith. We must not use Christian discussion as the way to peace when we are doing nothing about how the justice of God can be satisfied. If we have a sense of sin and guilt in our conscience, our first work should be to take ourselves to Christ and the blood of sprinkling. Unless we are actually fleeing to Christ and to His blood, then words of comfort and advice spoken to us, either in public or private, are null and void as far as bringing us any advantage.

ConclusionSo we see that when nothing can pacify an evil and defiled conscience, nor purge it from dead works, yet the application of the blood of Christ by faith can and will purge that conscience, and give it such peace and quietness with holy and humble confidence and boldness in coming and drawing near to God, as if in some respect it had never been defiled by these dead works of sin.

The apostle insists on these two things.

The sufficiency of Christ’s blood as the price that satisfies God’s justice and quiets the conscience. When the conscience gets this blood applied to it by faith, it has no ground to seek any further satisfaction, as if something was left owing. Christ’s blood, as a full and condign price, satisfies for all the debt. “The blood of Christ shall purge your conscience from dead works.”

And the resulting confidence a believer has for going to God. Someone who has fled to Jesus Christ after committing sin, and has actually applied His blood to their conscience, may have quietness of conscience and may go to God with boldness and confidence. This is one of the rarest pearls and richest jewels of the gospel – one of the most excellent privileges of a believer – and one of the noblest and most notable epxressions and evidences of the grace of God – and indeed the great proof of the reality and efficacy of the satisfaction of our blessed Lord Jesus. When the conscience of the poor believer is confounded, and put on the rack with so many accusations about their sin, they may apply Christ’s blood, and on that basis have sweet peace and tranquillity of soul.

← Stepping towards assuranceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Stepping towards assuranceJesus once raised the alarming possibility that some people who claim to be on good terms with Him are actually complete strangers to Him. We do not want to be in the position of thinking we have a relationship with God when in reality it is only one-sided, not reciprocated on His side. But David’s confidence was not misplaced when he said, “God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure …” (2 Samuel 23:5). How does the Holy Spirit lead us to have an equally well-grounded assurance that we are one of the Lord’s people? In the following updated extract, Alexander Wedderburn identifies some of the steps that the Holy Spirit takes with us.What is the way and method by which Christians can be able to say, “The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant”? How does the Spirit bring them to this?

I will offer these steps by which the Spirit customarily brings the elect to affirm it as confidently as David does, in fact when he was dying, which was not time to dissemble. How does the Spirit bring the elect to this ground of assurance, to be able to affirm that God has made the covenant with them?

I confess, it’s a great privilege, and if it is your privilege, you have a great charter – the promises of this life, and of that which is to come. A little time will show this to be no fancy, but something surer than the covenant with the sun and the moon.

The Holy Spirit removes self-confidenceOrdinarily before the Holy Spirit brings the Lord’s people up to be assured that the Lord has made a covenant with them, He takes down their natural assurance. It’s like someone who has to build on an old foundation, and finds it rotten, and thinks it best to take it down to the bottom before he can build the new foundation.

Often in the beginning of the Spirit’s working, a person can readily give no account of the Spirit’s working, neither what He has done with the old foundation, nor the new. If I ask you your case, you can readily give no account. You dare not build on the old foundation, and you dare not say that you have a new work. This is very frequently a step in the way in which the Spirit brings the soul to say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” They can neither build on the old ground, nor dare they say they have a new ground. This ordinarily has a tendency to clarify that someone does have a share in the covenant. They don’t know what to say, they are so confused, the Spirit has taken away the old ground, but for all they know, the Spirit has not yet laid any new foundation. That case looks likely to be the beginning, which will come to some day in the week when you will say, “The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant.”

The Holy Spirit assists ordinary diligenceWhere the Spirit is leading, so as to clarify that someone is in a personal covenant with God, ordinarily He prompts them to duty, and assists all diligence.

We are not to expect assurance with raptures of joy and consolation and delight in God. Many a time we are like the Syrian leper who said, “I thought he would have come out, and called on his God, and laid his hand on the place!” We think that, except we get a remarkable elevation of peace and joy in prayer, we can never have peace. But we must not limit the Lord. If He takes that way, all well and good. But the ordinary way He uses is simply that He helps us at prayer, and stirs us up to delight in Him. Or another time, He withdraws Himself, and makes the desertion your burden; for the complaint at His absence may be as sweet a mark as the pleasure of His presence; the heart that complains of His absence may have their assurance confirmed, as well those who enjoy His presence.

Now when the Holy Spirit has pulled down the old rotten wall (– although possibly He has not yet brought the new structure above ground), yet He is assisting you in prayer, in believing, in repentance, in mortification of lusts – then He is about to bring you to say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” It’s near the break of the day, it’s not far from the dawn. He who has helped you to diligence is not far from bringing your consolation. Even though it may seem to be the darkest time of the night, yet if the Spirit is helping you at duty, and bearing you up in your situation, the day is near breaking with you.

The Holy Spirit gives recognisable characteristicsThe Spirit also guides us to assurance by giving us true marks that God has made a covenant with us. A person may say, “I have made the covenant with Him, and have vowed and promised and subscribed with my hand, but how do I know if He has made a covenant with me?” Here I shall enquire what the sure marks are, by which an individual may analyse whether God has made the covenant particularly with them.

The business is not so difficult to know, if you are diligent, and not a hypocrite, playing the cheat in your religion, but conforming your heart to the gospel, and wrestling with all the nonconformities of your heart. I have searched the opinions of many, how to come to reciprocal marks, i.e., how to know if He has made a covenant with us when we think we have made a covenant with Him. There have been so many fine distinctions and strong objections raised about these marks, that theologians add in so many restrictions and limitations that it’s difficult to give a reciprocal mark on which a Christian may rest. However, I will offer you the three things on which I lay the greatest weight myself.

Habitual preference for Christ’s prioritiesRichard Baxter has often repeated this mark: a habitual preferring of Christ’s interests to the interests of the flesh. That is indeed a great mark that God has made a covenant with you, when you habitually prefer Christ’s interests to all the interests of the flesh.

To elaborate.

When God enters into covenant with a person, they take up sin as an enemy. They hate it as an enemy. They have joined in league with the opposing forces. They identify sin, especially presumptuous sin, as an enemy, and treat it accordingly. They avoid any company that may bring temptations to it, for they have made a league with its greatest enemy, Christ. Shortly after Paul became a convert, he says, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” He was angry at the very existence of sin, and could not tolerate even the smell of it, whatever the sin may be – not only presumptuous and gross sins and neglects of duty. If you have entered into covenant with God, you have broken the covenant with death and hell. It gives you good ground to say, “The Lord has made a covenant with me,” if you take up sin as an enemy, and deal with it accordingly.

Also, the soul goes against sin as an enemy unitedly. The understanding says, “I should leave this sin.” The conscience says, “I will leave this sin.” The will and affections say, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, for I have kept the commandments of my God.” They turn that sin out of doors. If your understanding, will, conscience and affections unite against sin as an enemy, you may be sure you can say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” The bargain must be driven by both parties. So if you have grown complacent, and neglect duty, and treat sin as a friend, perhaps you may say, “I have made a covenant with the Lord,” but you cannot say, “The Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant.”

Pursuit of holinessThose who have made a personal covenant with the Lord, and He with them, have a second mark – they follow the design of the covenant, which is holiness. “Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord” (2 Cor. 7:1).

Therefore, look to the holiness of your heart and life. Someone may make the claim, “I am holy in my desires, and holy in my delights, I have a holy joy, and a holy peace,” but if they do not have a holy walk, that person cannot readily say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” He may have made a covenant with God, but he cannot say, “God hath made a covenant with me.”

Besides, not only must there be holiness be in the life and in the heart, but we must be careful to prefer the design of the covenant to all other things. What if the Lord was to give you the offer that He made to Solomon at Gibeon, “Ask of me riches, or honour (and the many things He named), and I will give it to thee”? As Solomon preferred wisdom to them all, so someone who is in covenant with God would prefer holiness to anything that God could offer.

It’s worth noticing Psalm 119:111: “Thy testimonies have I chosen as an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” What did he choose? God’s “testimonies,” which is a general word. It’s not only “Thy promises,” but “Thy testimonies,” which includes God’s commands. And what did he choose them for? “My heritage.” Why did he choose them? “For they are the rejoicing of my heart.” “Whatever I encounter, I get no true joy from it, and so I have chosen God’s testimonies; it is exclusively God’s testimonies that rejoice my heart.”

So the way to ascertain whether God has made the covenant with you, is, if you have come to see sin as the enemy, and deal with it accordingly, and if you have taken holiness, not only in your heart and life, but as your choice for your heritage, because it rejoices your heart.

Experience of covenant blessingsThirdly, you may know if God has made the covenant with you, by the fact that He accomplishes the covenant in your experience.

If He has begun to fulfil the covenant, then certainly He has made the covenant with you. Experience is a notable ratification of the promise. Those who believe have a witness within them that Christ is the Son of God – they have the Spirit within them, and none can send the Spirit but the Son of God. Take a view of the promises, and sort them, so that you may go to some specific promise when you encounter challenges, or come into deadness and desertion. It’s a dreadful thing when all the Bible is alike to us, and when we do not have some passages of the Bible that we may say of them, “These are my scriptures.”

Go and charge your heart and conscience, “See thou tell me nothing but the truth.” If these marks do not correspond with your characteristics, then whatever you say of making a covenant with God, I defy you to say, “God hath made a covenant with me.”

← Can you by searching find out God?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Can you by searching find out God?God is beyond us. However much we think we know about Him, He is an inexhaustible, unfathomable depth. He is not an object for us to scrutinise, or a challenge we can absorb, or something malleable which we can mould into a form of our own liking. Our basic starting point when we think of God is to realise that our minds simply cannot encompass Him. Yet He is knowable, when He makes Himself known. And when He makes Himself known, the knowledge of Him makes us not only realise our own littleness but also entrust ourselves to Him to be saved by Him and to live to His honour. These points are made by Hugh Binning in the following updated extract, where Binning reflects on God’s eternity and incomprehensibleness before insisting on the practical consequences for sinners like us coming to truly know God.God is the unbeginning alpha and the unending omegaThis is properly to be, and only this deserves the name of being – that which never was nothing, and never shall be nothing, which may always say, “I am.”

Man is, but look a little backward, and he was not, you shall find his beginning: and step a little forward, and he shall not be, you shall find his end. But God is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.

But who can retire so far backward as to apprehend a beginning, or go such a leap forward as to conceive an end in a being who is the beginning and end of all things, but without all beginning and end? Whose understanding does it not confound? We cannot imagine a being, but we must first conceive it as nothing and in some instant receiving its being. Therefore, canst thou by searching find out God?

A man’s imagination may extend to suppose to itself as many thousands of years before the beginning of time as have been so far. Then let all the angels and people of all generations from the beginning be employed in nothing but calculating this. And then suppose a product to be made of all their individual sums of years. It would be vast and unspeakable, but yet your imagination could reach further. You could multiply that great sum as often into itself as there are units in it. Now, when you have done all this, you are never a whit nearer the days of the Ancient of Days. Suppose then this was the only activity of humans and angels throughout all eternity, all this marvellous arithmetic would not amount to the least shadow of the countenance of Him who is from everlasting. All that huge product of all the multiplications of humans and angels has no proportion to that never beginning and never ending duration.

Our lives are fleetingly briefBut O, where shall a soul find itself here? It is enclosed between infiniteness before and infiniteness behind, between two everlastings. Whichever way it turns, there is no outgoing, whichever way it looks, it must lose itself in an infiniteness round about it.

Though we vainly please ourselves in the number of our years, and the extent of our life, yet the truth is, we are still only losing as much of our being and time as passes. First we lose our childhood, then we lose our adulthood, and then we leave our old age behind us also, and there is no more before us.

But though days and years are in a continual flux about Him, and they carry us down with their force, yet He abides the same for ever. He is the beginning without any beginning, the end without an end, there is nothing past to him, and nothing to come. He is all, before all, after all, and in all. He beholds out of the exalted and supereminent tower of eternity all the successions and changes of the creatures, and there is no succession, no change in His knowledge, as in ours. He is never driven to any consultation on any emergent or incident. He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?

The being of God is beyond usNow, canst thou by searching find out God? If mortal creatures cannot attain the measure of what is finite, O then, what can a creature do, what can a creature know, about Him who is infinite, and the maker of all these things? You cannot compass the sea and land, and how then can you comprehend Him who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? (Isa. 40:10). You cannot measure the circumference of the heavens, and how then can you find out Him who metes out the heavens with His span and stretches them out as a curtain? (Isa. 40:12, 22).

Canst thou by searching find Him out? And yet you must search Him, not so much out of curiosity to know what He is (for He dwells in inaccessible light which no man hath seen, nor can see; 1 Tim. 6:16), or to find what we cannot know when we have found – not so much to find Him, as to be found of Him. But though you never find Him out, yet you shall not seek Him in vain, for you shall find blessedness in Him.

This all means that we must seek GodWhat shall we then do? Seek him, and search him indeed! If we cannot know Him [through and through], we must reverence, fear and adore what we do know. Enough of Him may be known as may teach us our duty and show us our blessedness.

Let then all our inquiries of Him have special reference to this purpose, that we may out of love and fear of such a glorious and good God, worship and serve Him, and compose ourselves according to His will, and wholly to His pleasure. Whatever you know of God, it is but a vain speculation, and a work of curiosity, if it does not lead to this end, to frame and fashion your soul to union and communion with Him in love. Whatever you know of God, it is but vain speculation if it does not reveal yourself to yourself in such a way that in the light of God’s glorious majesty you distinctly see your own darkness and deadness and utter impotency.

The angels that Isaiah saw attending God in the temple cannot behold His glory, but must cover their face with their wings from the radiant and shining brightness of His majesty. Yet they have two other wings to fly with. Being composed in reverence and fear to God, they are ready to execute His commands willingly and swiftly. What then does Isaiah make of this glorious sight? “We are all unclean, people and pastor.” The glory of God shining on Isaiah does not pull him up into arrogance and conceit of the knowledge of such profound mysteries, but he is more abased in himself by it.

So it was with Job. “I heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,” he said (Job 42:5), “but as long as it was hearsay, I thought myself something; I often reflected upon myself and my actions with a kind of complacency. But now since I have seen Thee by the seeing of the eye, I abhor myself in dust and ashes. Self-love made me loathe other people’s sins more than my own, and self-love covered my own sins from me, presenting me to myself in a feigned likeness. But now I see myself in my true shape. Thy light has pierced into my soul, and I cannot endure to look at myself.”

Here is the true knowledge of God’s majesty: it exposes within you a mystery of iniquity. Here is real knowledge of God: it abases all things beside God, not only notionally, but in affection. This knowledge attracts and unites your soul to God, and draws it away from yourself and all created things. Knowledge falsely so called is what puffs us up, but true knowledge empties a soul of itself, and humbles the soul in itself, so that it may be full of God.

Finding God has concrete practical effects in our lifeThis then is the first property of saving knowledge of God: it removes all ground of vain confidence (so that a soul cannot trust to itself), and then its real, proper intent is to bring the soul to trust in God, and depend on Him in all things.

For this purpose the Lord has called Himself by so many names in Scripture, corresponding to our various needs and difficulties. It is so that He would make known to us how all-sufficient He is, so that we would turn our eyes and hearts towards Him. This was His intention behind revealing this name, “I am” – it was so that Moses would have a support for his faith. If Moses had looked at the outward appearances of things, was it not almost a ridiculous thing to go to the king with such a message, that he would dismiss so many subjects? Was it not the attempt of some madman to think of leading so many thousands into another nation? “Well,” says the Lord, “I am: I who give all things a being, will give a being to my promise; I will make Pharaoh hearken, and the people obey.”

What is there that this name of God does not match? If He is what He is, then He can make of us what He pleases. If our souls had this name “I AM” constantly engraved on our hearts, O what power the divine promises and threatenings would have with us! “I, even I, am he that comforteth thee,” He says. If we believed that it really was He, the Lord Jehovah, how we would be comforted! How we would praise Him by His name JAH! How we would stoop before Him, and submit to His blessed will!

If we believed this, would we not be as dependent on Him as if we had no being in ourselves? Would we not make Him our habitation and dwelling-place? Would we not be reassured about our own stability, and the stability of His church, from His unvariable eternity (like the psalmist in Psalm 90 and Psalm 102)? How can we think of such a fountain-being, without at the same time acknowledging ourselves to be shadows of His goodness, and acknowledging that we owe to Him what we are, and so consecrating ourselves to His glory? How can we consider such a self-being, independent, and creating goodness, without having some desire to cleave to Him, and some confidence to trust in Him?

In sum, whatever you hear or know of God, realise that it is vain and empty unless it descends down into your heart to fashion it to fear and love Him, and unless it extends to your outward behaviour to conform it to obedience. “You are but vain in your imaginations, and your foolish hearts are darkened, while when you know God you glorify him not as God.” If glorifying God is not the fruit and end of your knowledge, that knowledge shall be worse to you than ignorance, for it both brings on judicial hardening here, and will be your solemn accuser and witness against you hereafter (Rom. 1:21, 24). The knowledge of Jesus Christ, truly so called, is neither barren nor unfruitful, for out of its root and sap springs humility, confidence in God, patience in tribulations, meekness in provocations, and temperance and sobriety in lawful things (2 Pet. 1:5–8).

← Knowing the unknowable GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Knowing the unknowable GodWhen we think of God, it is alarmingly easy to fall into the trap of thinking that God is just another kind of creature – of course the best and greatest and most impressive in whatever dimension you consider, but ultimately just another creature. This line of thinking is something we should resist, because God is altogether other. He is in reality completely beyond us and above us, a different order of being entirely. We can truly know Him, but in order for this to be possible He has to accommodate Himself to us and make Himself known to us in ways that we can grasp. Hugh Binning highlights and underlines God’s transcendence in the following updated extract. He uses God’s self-description, “I AM THAT I AM,” as the basis for emphasising from various points of view that we must at all points maintain in our minds the distinction between the Creator and the creature, between God and everything else in existence. Only once we sense the littleness of our understanding are we in a position to start to learn who and what God is.The chief point of saving knowledge is to know God. And the starting point of the true knowledge of God is to discern how ignorant we are of Him, and to find Him beyond all knowledge.

In Exodus 3:14 the Lord gives a definition of Himself, but such a one as is no more clear than Himself to our capacities. It is indeed a short one, and you may think it does not say much. “I am.” What is there that may not say the same? The least and most insignificant creature has its own being! Yet there is more majesty in this simple style than in all others. Let creatures compare with creatures – let them take superlative styles – let some of them be called good, and some better, in the comparison among themselves. But God must not enter the comparison.

No comparisons are validPaul thinks it an odious comparison, to compare present crosses to eternal glory (Rom. 8). But how much more odious it is to compare God with creatures! Call Him highest, call Him most powerful, call Him most excellent, almighty, most glorious in respect of creatures – and all you do is abase His majesty, bringing it down to any terms of comparison with them, seeing He is beyond all the bounds of understanding. All these terms only express Him to be in some degree eminently above the creatures. As some creatures are above others, so all you do is to make him the chief of them all, as some creature may be the head of one line or kind under it. But what is that to His majesty? He speaks very differently of Himself. “All nations are before him as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing” (Isa. 40:17).

Certainly you have not taken up the true notion of God, when you have conceived him the most eminent of all beings as long as any being appears as a being in his sight, before whom all beings conjoined are as nothing. While you conceive God to be the best, you still attribute something to the creature. You imagine only some different degrees between beings who differ so infinitely, so incomprehensibly. The distance betwixt heaven and earth is but a poor similitude to express the distance between God and creatures.

All created things are inconsequentialNow, if you could imagine something that is less than nothing, then could you begin to guess at the vast distance between it and a being. So is it here: “Thus saith the Lord, All nations, their glory, perfection and number, all of them, and all their excellencies united, do not amount to the value of an entity, in regard of my majesty. All of them are just like zeroes. Join never so many of them together, they can never make up a number, they are nothing, and less than nothing.”

So then we ought to conceive of God, and to attribute a being and life to him, in such a way that all created beings vanish out of our sight. The glorious light of the sun, although it does not annihilate the stars, yet it annihilates their appearance to our senses, and makes them disappear, as if they didn’t exist. There is a great difference between the stars in the night, some lighter, some darker, some of the first magnitude, and some of the second and third, some of greater glory, and some of less. But in the day time all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory. Let the glorious brightness of God shine once on the soul, and in that light all these lights shall be obscured, and all the differences between them unobserved. An angel and a human, a human and a worm differ much in glory and perfection of being: but O, in God’s presence there is no such reckoning on this account. All things are alike, God infinitely distant from all, and so not more or less. Infiniteness is not capable of such terms of comparison.

This is the reason why Christ says, “There is none good but one, even God.” Why? because, in respect of His goodness, nothing deserves that name. Lesser light in view of the greater is a darkness, and lesser good in comparison of a greater good, appears evil. How much more then shall created light and created goodness lose that name in the presence of God’s uncreated light, and self-sufficient goodness!

God’s self-sufficient perfection is absoluteThis is why the Lord names Himself in this way, “I AM,” as if nothing else was. “I will not say,” He says, “that I am the highest, the best and most glorious that is; that assumes that other things have some being and some glory that is worth taking account of. But I am, and there is none else. I am alone. I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear I live for ever.” There is nothing else that can say, “I am, I live, and there is none else;” for nothing has its life of itself. No one can boast of what they have borrowed, and is not their own. As if a bird that had stolen from other birds its beautiful feathers, was to come out and argue with them about beauty. Would they not straight away every one pluck out their own feathers, and leave her naked, to be an object of mockery to all?

Even so, our breath and being is in our nostrils, and that depends on His majesty’s breathing on us. If He was only to hold in his breath, as it were, we would vanish into nothing. “He looketh upon me and I am not” (Job 7:8). That is a strange look, that not only looks man out of countenance, but out of life and being. He looks him into the first nothing-like existence, and then can he say, “I live, I am”? No, he must always say of himself in respect of God, as Paul says of himself in respect of Christ, “I live, yet not I, but Christ in me.” “I am, yet not I; but God in me: I live, I am, yet not I but in God, in whom I live, and have my being.” There is no other thing beside God that can say, “I am,” because all things are borrowed drops of this self-sufficient fountain, and sparkles of this first light. Let anything intervene between the stream and the fountain, and the stream is cut off and dried up. Let anything interpose between the sun and the beam and the sunbeam vanishes. Therefore this fountain-being, this original light, this self-being is the only one who deserves the name of being. Other things to which we give those names are nearer nothing than God, and in regard of His majesty, may more fitly be called nothing than something,

You see then how profound a mystery of God’s absolute self-sufficient perfection is infolded in these three letters, “I AM,” or in these four, “JEHOVAH.” If you ask what God is, nothing occurs better than this, “I AM,” or “HE THAT IS.” If I should say He is the all-mighty, the only wise, the most perfect, the most glorious, it is all contained in that saying, “I AM THAT I AM.” For that is really to be: to be all those perfections simply, absolutely, and as it were solely. If I say all that, and reckon out all the Scripture epithets, I add nothing. If I say no more, I diminish nothing.

← Discerning a call to secular serviceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Two ways we argue with GodThe welcoming Saviour occasionally seemed to push people away. This was what appeared to happen to the woman who came to ask for His help in Matthew 15. He made a seemingly dismissive comment counting her as one of the dogs instead of one of the children belonging to the family. Amazingly the woman didn’t take His words at face value but perceived the welcome disguised behind them. In humility she actually turned His words to her own favour, pointing out that even the dogs would eat the crumbs that fell from the meal table. She perceived that a crumb of grace was as good as a whole loaf. In the following updated sermon, William Guthrie takes a closer look at humility. Unlike this woman whose faith and humility were genuine, we can sometimes say apparently humble things which in reality expose our lack of faith and indeed our pride.True humility does not argue with Christ Jesus, but sweetly complies with Him. But let me show you what way false humility works. False humility is always at one of two extremes. It is either lower than God would have it, or it is higher than God can tolerate.

False humility goes lower than God wantsLeaving our responsibility to GodFor example, there are many of you who will leave it to God whether to save or damn you. That is false humility, because He has declared His mind peremptorily to the contrary. People are to keep pressing to get into heaven, until they are actually cast into hell. They will get no thanks from God for that kind of humility.

Giving a latitude to God where He takes noneFalse humility leaves it up to God to save you whether you believe or not. “We know,” say some, “that people should believe; but He may save us in any way. He may bring folk to heaven equally well without faith as with it.” Do you imagine that God will bring people to heaven if they do not believe? You are making a great mistake. “He that believeth not shall not see life. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”

Putting you lower than the reach of free graceWhen a man takes such a look of his guilt that he thinks himself below the free grace of God, it is false humility. Though he does not want to say that he has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost, yet he thinks God cannot pardon him. But it is a sin to think like this, when God has said, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven.” In this way false humility justles out the whole of God’s arrangements in the covenant of free grace.

Taking more care of the glory of God than He does HimselfIt is a strange sort of humility when someone stands up and says, “I think it would be an encroachment on the holiness of God to show mercy to me. He may show mercy to whoever He pleases, but He cannot pardon me.” That is a strange thing. You do not need to worry about encroachments on His holiness, when He has declared that He has found a ransom. Will you be wiser than God? He will never regard that as humility! It is enough to us that He has made a declaration through the world, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you Him.” As if to say, “I shall satisfy myself in myself. Don’t trouble your heads about that. I am satisfied.”

Thinking it is a mistake to take little problems to GodFalse humility goes lower than God allows when it treats it as a faux pas to put little things into God’s hand. Many think it would be injudicious for them at such a time as this to ask God to heal their sore head which incapacitates them from hearing the preaching, or to help their faint heart that hinders them from profiting by the Word. But this is the devil’s humility, for the Lord counts all the hairs of your head. Some think it would be some sort of gaffe to ask for a bag of meal from God, and a coat to put on their back at such a time as this – but He has commanded you to put all your needs onto Him, from your salvation to your shoe-latchet.

Thinking it a mistake to come to God often about the same thingThis humility justles with the majesty of God. This is the case with many of us. You have told God often what you are. You have frequented many communions, and yet you are not the better. You have come often with one and the same thing, and now you blush to come to Him again.

But in this you are humble overmuch. Really you should be ashamed that you have not come again and again about one and the same thing! Never account it a mistake to come to Him repeatedly (though the world would think it was), while He has told the brother to forgive the brother seventy times seven in a day. How much more will the great God of heaven forgive us in one day!

False humility rises higher than ever God allowed it“I’m not good enough to be saved by Christ”False humility goes higher than can be tolerated, in refusing to go into debt to God. This is when people are still seeking for some qualification before they dare approach Christ in believing. They say they would not hesitate to go to Him if they could only get their hearts so and so broken—that is, if they could endure some penance for their sins. But this is to justle with God, for He sings this one note, “Come without money, and without price.” Many are playing upon this string, “If only I had such and such a measure of sorrow for my transgressions”—i.e., “I’m not willing to venture on Him absolutely.” But you won’t get anything but God’s curse or displeasure if you don’t change your tune. If you stick out over any qualification, you spoil the market of free grace wholly.

“I’m too much of a sinner for Christ to save me”A false humility is unwilling to be absolutely in Christ’s debt. Those who have it resolve to be only a very little in His debt, even though they realise they must be in His debt to some extent. “For,” they say, “He may show mercy to any other sinner, but not to such a sinner as I am. I know He can pardon sinners, but I don’t want to assume that He will pardon the kind of sinner I am.”

But remember what distance is between you, the creature, and God; and between sin and free grace. The difficulty here is, to make God stoop to man, when there is such an infinite distance between God and the creature. But there is no comparable disproportion between your sin, and the sin of anyone else. Has free grace stooped to pardon the sin of any? Then the hazard is past. So your humility is proud humility, because you don’t want to be absolutely in His debt. You would dare to venture the pardon of one sin on Him, as long as it was only a bad thought, or suchlike, but you dare not venture the pardon of a great sin. That is strange ignorance! Since free grace has stooped to pardon any sin, then if you have the heart to venture the pardon of one idle word on Him, then you may also venture on Him the pardon of drunkenness, covenant-breaking, and indeed, every sin. No sin can stand in the way, because the disproportion is between sin and grace, and not between grace and a particular sin.

“I can’t go to God until I’ve got a broken heart”False humility also justles with God about sin after conversion. Many, when they come first to close with Christ, realise they must resolve to take Him on His own terms, and to be absolutely in His debt. But afterwards they think they cannot come if they don’t have such and such a stock of grace. “Am I supposed to go to God,” they say, “in such a frame as this, before I get my heart humbled?”

But don’t you agree that all your exercises of faith, repentance, etc., are from God, and absolutely from God? Then you have to be in His debt for repentance and a broken heart, as well as for the pardon of sin. This is not the time to be haggling with Him. You must be absolutely in His debt now after conversion, just as much as when you first closed with Him. It is true you ought to be in a better frame, yet you must be always in His debt. Since you lack a better frame, and cannot get it, you must always be in His debt – for new debt, as well as for the old. I grant it is your duty to seek for a good frame of spirit, but if you cannot get it, you are to cast all on Himself together, for He cares for you.

“All my experiences are worthless”False humility will not acknowledge crumbs to be real and true bread. Because people don’t have the special experiences that others report – because there is something they’ve never had, because they never knew a remarkable answer to prayer or a wonderful sense of God’s presence – therefore they despise everything they have experienced. Truly that is very proud. You think nothing of heart conviction – but someone may have something worse than that. You think it nothing that you see Christ to be a precious jewel; you think it nothing that your desire runs towards Him. But indeed I think very much of it. You think nothing of it that you account all His commands to be right, and that you have a respect to both small and great of them. But that is a miserable humility, since the Scripture has said, “They shall never be ashamed who have respect to all his commandments.” The crumbs are really bread just as much as big loaves. The woman in Matthew 15 was prudent; she could make do with little crumbs until she got more.

“I’ll make do without the things that God can give me”This high-handed humility says it won’t hold God to some promise, on condition that He will perform other promises. Some would not ask God for bodily health, or the life of their wives or children, provided He would save their souls and keep them from the troubles of this time.

But is it fair, do you think, to set such limits to the free bounty and holy majesty of God, so that you do not deal liberally with Him according to His own Word? Does He hold back anything from you? He is of a liberal heart, and allows His people to devise liberal things at His hand. Is He going to be in your debt, so to speak, if you let Him off from performing one promise as long as He makes good another one? Absolutely not, and in fact He allows you to seek your salvation and your health, and the health of your children, with food and raiment to you and them, and every other thing that may be for your good. I grant that if the Lord calls you to give up these things, you are to submit them all to Him, but when He is not expressly calling you to that, then you are not to do it, but to hold Him to His promise.

Has He not promised, “Thou shalt have bread, and thy water shall be sure”? Then you may seek it from Him, for He can well spare it. He will never thank you for not asking a temporal benefit, even if it was just the cure of a sore head, or sickly body. I say, Seek health, food, and raiment, and as much means as may carry you through the world without being burdensome to others. He hates the manner of a churl. “The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.”

← The cold comfort of a changeable GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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The cold comfort of a changeable GodUnlike us, there is nothing precarious about God’s existence. He has life in Himself and He is altogether perfect. He never changes, either for better or worse or to adapt to changing circumstances. So when a recent survey has shown that almost half of evangelicals in the US say ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Does God change?’ it raises questions about how solid someone’s faith is if they are not relying on the unchangeable God – and how lively their hope for the future can be. With our circumstances continually in flux and fears often threatening to overwhelm us, the comfort and hope that comes from the constancy of God cannot be underestimated. Faith in the unchanging and unchangeable God was what sustained one overwhelmed and fearful believer in Psalm 102. In the following updated extract, David Dickson points out the various weighty reasons for the believer’s distress yet balances them against the eternity, omnipotence, and immutability of the Lord.The church needs comfortPsalm 102 is consistent with the time when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon. About the end of the captivity, when the seventy years were now nearly expired, the weight of the misery of God’s people, and the mockery of the heathen, and the people’s longings for delivery, greatly afflicted the prophet and so he pours out this prayer.

It is no strange thing for the dear children of God to be under heavy affliction. They may be afflicted, and even overwhelmed. Yet the way for an afflicted and overwhelmed Christian to have relief, comfort and deliverance is, “to pour out his soul before the Lord.”

From the opening of the prayer we learn that a soul who is seeking relief and comfort in God, may both confidently pray for, and certainly expect a hearing and acceptance of their prayer. “Hear my prayer, O God. Let my cry come unto thee” (verse 1). Indeed the Lord permits His children to speak to Him in their own babbling forms of speech, even though the terms they use are not really fitting for His spiritual, invisible, and incomprehensible majesty (such as, “Hear me,” “hide not thy face,” “incline thine ear to me,” etc.) (verse 2).

The causes of the prophet’s grief are three. First, the church was experiencing the reproach and cruelty of the enemy (verse 8). Second, he had the sense that God’s anger was apparent in his situation (verse 9–10). Third, his comparison between the prosperity of the church in the past, and the adversity of the church in the present, made the present situation all the heavier (verse 9–10).

He sadly reflects that the consequence of this is likely to be that he and the church would be cut off without comfort or hope of deliverance. The church as a whole, or the scattered parts of it, may be almost disappearing, and utterly decaying under long-continued trouble: “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass” (verse 11).

The Lord remains constant till the end of timeBut from verse 12, the prophet strives to comfort himself in the hope of grace to be shown to the church. “But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever …”

His first source of comfort is that God has purposed to perpetuate the remembrance of Himself to all generations, and He endures for ever to see it done.

There is therefore ground of hope to believers, even in the saddest condition of the church; for although believers are mortal, yet God (in whom their life is hid), is eternal. “Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever.”

God wants His name to be known in all generations, and wants to have people making use of His word and ordinances in order to preserve the memory of His attributes, works and will. This is why the church must continue from age to age.

The Lord’s constancy will bring changes for the betterIn verse 13 the prophet reasons from God’s unchangeableness to conclude that the condition of the church will change from worse to better. This is good reasoning. “Thou shalt endure for ever,” he says, and therefore, “thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion” (verse 13).

We can even aim for and be encouraged by the expectation that there will be an enlargement of the knowledge and fear of God among those who do not yet know Him. The psalmist is looking forward in verse 15 to the heathen coming to fear the Lord. The Lord has a time when He is pleased to arise, to restore His afflicted people to comfort, and to restore religion to its own beauty, even in a way that makes kings fear and tremble when they see how God cares for His own despised people.

God will have glory in in restoring His church: “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory” (verse 16). Whatever instruments the Lord uses for this, He wants Himself to be seen to be the builder. As the glory of the Lord is obscured when His church is scattered, so when He sets up His own ordinances again, His glory is displayed. The connection between God’s glory and the salvation of His church is a reason for comfort and hope. However badly the church may be demolished, yet it shall be restored and repaired again.

The Lord’s constancy guarantees that the church will never be consumedThe prophet sorrowed on the personal level because he looked likely to die of grief for the church, and on another level because the church looked likely to perish in their captivity, and not go on to the hoped-for coming of the Messiah, and the conversion of the heathen, which was necessary for the perpetuation of Christ’s church to the end of the world.

In the history of Israel, it did sometimes seem that they were being stopped from going on in their journey to the coming of Christ. The tribe of Judah got so weak that it appeared there was no possibility it would last, or make any progress. There was the fear that if Judah was cut off, and Israel was abolished, then the Messiah who was supposed to be coming from them would never appear. This was the terrible fear with which the prophet is wrestling here (verse 24).

Against this fear and temptation the prophet (in the name of the church) is wrestling in prayer. He strengthens his faith by various arguments taken from God’s (which is to say, Christ’s) eternity, omnipotence, and immutability (see Hebrews 1:11–12).

Whatever difficulty faith is brought into, faith goes and deals directly with God. “God is the doer of what is done,” the believer says, and so he deals with God by prayer for relief. When it appears that we are going to perish, this should not hinder us from praying, but rather it should sharpen us in our duty. When God’s promises and God’s providences seem to disagree, we may appeal to and argue from the covenant, and not displease God by so doing.

The Lord’s constancy is the believer’s consolationThe eternity of Christ is the consolation of the believer in his mortality; and the eternity of Christ as God is the pledge that the believer will be preserved, and that all God’s promises will be performed.

The immutability of God is a notable comfort to His afflicted people because, since He is not changed, therefore they shall not be consumed. “Heaven and earth shall perish, but thou shalt endure” (verse 26); “thou art the same” (verse 27).

The prayer concludes with the prophet’s victory over the fear and temptation, expressed in a solid assurance of the perpetuity of the church from one generation to another, founded on those attributes of Christ (eternity, omnipotence, and immutability). So those who are sorry for the affliction of the church shall have consolation from God, and a gracious answer to their prayer, as the experience of the prophet teaches us.

The perpetuity of the church may be solidly concluded from the unchangeableness and eternity of God. Whatsoever change may befall the visible church before the world, yet before God she is fixed and stable, like a house built on a rock.

← How the Word of God gives us words for GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Breaking the cycle of intergenerational perversityA failing health service, the social care timebomb, disregard for the safety of women and children, economic stagnation, the aftermath of the pandemic, immigration woes, a crisis in law and order, the deficiencies of our energy policy – yet even the boldest politicians seem to offer little more than sticking plasters, if not proposals that will positively make things worse. Even secular commentators are talking in terms of Britain’s “fall from grace” and expressing frustration at how little yield there is for our efforts. We seem to have inherited problems from the previous decades and generations which we cannot solve, while inheriting opportunities which we fail to exploit to our advantage. At the national level it is as if something is preventing us from achieving what we could.Yet this is not a new experience. In the 1600s commentators such as William Guthrie were keen observers of national trends and their analysis moved beyond the political and economic to also take into consideration the spiritual dimension. In Guthrie’s view, national stagnation and failures were the price the nation paid for collectively forsaking the Lord and loosening their commitment to His ways. In the 1700s Thomas Boston, sharing essentially the same outlook as Guthrie, elaborated further on the perversity of his generation. It was a perversity which seemed to actively incite God to thwart their attempts to better themselves.The following pair of updated extracts from their writings show Guthrie’s self-accusation of the nation and Boston’s earnest exhortations to “save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Although politicians will always disappoint us with the limited solutions they can offer to the nation’s problems, it is not inevitable that we keep sinking into ever worsening decline. If we accept Guthrie’s and Boston’s analysis and advice, we can break out of the cycle of intergenerational perversity and thrive under God’s blessing.God is right to be angry with us when we refuse to be humbled by His chastisementsBy William Guthrie

We have responded with deep-rooted complacency, impenitence, obstinacy and incorrigibleness under all the dreadful chastisements of God.

Although God has visited us with dreadful chastisements, we have responded with complacency and incorrigibleness. God has also given us tokens of his indignation against us because of these attitudes, yet our attitudes do not change. So while he continues to smite, we are so far from humbling ourselves and turning to him that we grow worse and worse, and sin more and more.

This is surely undeniable. We only need to observe the condition of the land, and the present character and behaviour of the people. Virtually everyone is crying out for their afflictions, but almost no one is mourning for his sin.

What kind of generation is this?By Thomas Boston

“Save yourselves from this untoward generation” is part of Peter’s advice to his hearers in his sermon in Acts 2. What kind of generation was this?

A generation that has become impervious to the means of grace and the glorious gospel of Christ.

And is not this the case of the present generation? We have long enjoyed the gospel, and now we are like those who are made deaf by the continual sounding of many waters. To whom shall preachers now speak? Who now believes the report of the gospel? Some who once trembled at the Word, now sit like brazen walls against it. Some whose consciences were once touched, are now apparently seared with a hot iron. What can be expected, but that God will change his messengers, and try sharp rods after a slighted word?

A generation in which corruption of life and manners is become universal, having overspread all ranks of society

Alas! is not this our very case? Is not profaneness and wickedness like a flood gone over all its banks? If we look at the congregation, what profane swearing, drunkenness, biting and devouring one another, and uncleanness abound among us, even in the midst of gospel-light! Is this the fruit of plenty, fulness, and thriving in the world? If we look abroad through the nations, religion is truly fallen under contempt. Looseness and licentiousness are become fashionable, the flood-gates of debauchery are set open, and there is no stemming of the tide. The generation has not stopped at ordinary crimes, but they have proceeded to an open defiance of heaven by atheism and blasphemy. What prodigious blasphemies have been heard of, of late! The foundations of Christianity are sapped by damnable heresies. The principles of true religion are in hazard of being lost, not only among people, but pastors. What a dreadful conjuncture this is, when in England and Ireland the supreme Godhead of Christ, and His equality with the Father, is denied, while in Scotland legalism, by which the purity of gospel-doctrine is corrupted, prevails and is countenanced so much!

A generation deaf to the calls of providence, who are not drawn by mercies, and not driven to repentance by lesser strokes

Our generation has met with a great variety of providences. Uncertainty as to who the new monarch would be – but God gave us King George and not another Stuart monarch. Civil unrest in the Jacobite Rising of 1714 – but God stopped it from filling the whole land with blood. Impoverishment following the failure of the Darien Scheme. The threat of pestilence, which rages in France – but so far God has averted it from us. What is the fruit of all these mercies, strokes, deliverances, and long-suffering? Are we bettered by them? So far from it, that we are visibly growing worse and worse. We take one bad step after another, so that the reasons why God is angry are still multiplying.

A generation resistant to check, control, or reproof in their sinful courses, but determined to have their own way

People cannot endure reproof. Church discipline is despised. Personal interventions are apt to incense the reproved against the reprover. Ministers challenging people in the preaching of the Word, people are not able to bear, if they are too close to the bone. Everyone cares more about reputation than conscience.

How can we save ourselves from this generation?As a first step, we must open our eyes, and look.

Look around you, and observe the generation, and consider seriously the way they are going, and the perversity which this manifests. Otherwise you will never bestir yourself to save yourself from it.
Look above you, to God. Take notice how the course of the untoward generation is displeasing to Him, how it dishonours Him and robs Him of the glory that is due to his name. God is the governor of the world, and He is not an idle spectator of what people do on earth. Since He looks to us, let us look up to Him.
Look within you, and see what perversity exists within your own heart, and appears in your own life and way (Isaiah 6:5). Nobody saves themselves from an untoward generation without beginning here.

More particularly:

Return to God by Jesus Christ, in the way of the everlasting covenant held out to you in the gospel. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). Be stiff-necked no longer, but yield yourself to the Lord. Take salvation closely to heart now at last, and enter into the covenant, if you are still a stranger to Christ. And if you are the friend of Christ, renew your covenant, give a renewed consent to the marriage-covenant between Christ and your soul.
Endeavour to walk closely with God in your personal capacity, as Noah did (Genesis 6:9). Strive to be acquainted with the life and power of religion in your own souls. When the church is going through a dark and cloudy day, it is hard to keep fast to a religion you don’t feel. When the winds of error and delusion are left to blow, they will hurt anyone who doesn’t know God. In a time of general calamity, anyone who cannot live by faith will find it hard to live.
Beware of and stand at a distance from the sinful ways and courses of the untoward generation. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Let it not encourage you to sin, that you see others take liberty to themselves to do so, for that way you only enter into the conspiracy against God with the multitude. If you are ever to save yourselves from this untoward generation, you will be instructed of God (as Isaiah was), that he “should not walk in the way of this people” (Isaiah 8:11).
Mourn over the sins of the untoward generation, as well as over your own, otherwise you are not free of them (Ezekiel 9:4; Psalm 119:136). “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” said David, “because they (the wicked) keep not thy law.” God is dishonoured, His name is profaned, His ways, truths, and ordinances are trampled on by this untoward generation – and we stand by as unconcerned spectators, or else join in! What? is God our Father? is Christ our elder brother? are we on heaven’s side or are we not?
Make the welfare of Christ’s church a matter of your own personal concern. Take a personal interest in how it fares with the church of Christ in this untoward generation.

There has been much contending in Scotland, even unto blood, for all the parts of our covenanted reformation. Few of the Covenanting generation remain now, but in this current generation the work is at risk of going to wreck at our hands. It is much to be lamented that church members generally are very easy and complacent about the matter. They do not see the danger, they do not perceive the weight of it, and they are not inclined to take much interest in it. Hence no wonder they are not busy wrestling with God about it. But you are called to bestir yourself on Zion’s behalf. Our Lord takes notice how people behave in times when His interest is sinking. He will look after His own interests Himself in due time, but those who stand aloof from it are in a dangerous position, according to what Mordecai told Esther, “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed” (Esther 4:14).

Now is the time to save yourselves. God is still on a throne of grace. He is calling to you, however far you have gone on with the untoward generation, to save yourselves now from this generation.

← The wrong kind of fearFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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The wrong kind of fearAnxieties are rising as people are struggling to respond to a complex combination of problems. The cost of living crisis, fuel costs, the war in Ukraine, the discontent that has led to so much strike action, the weaknesses of the NHS and the social care system – there are plenty reasons for concern.Fear is an instinct which can sometimes helpfully prompt us to avoid danger, yet other times damagingly paralyses us. In spiritual terms, fear can get the better of us when we forget both how great and how good God is. According to Matthew 14, the disciples in the boat in the storm cried out for fear. In the following updated extract, William Guthrie discusses the debilitating effects of fear in the Lord’s people, before suggesting ways to avoid being wrongly fearful. The people of God are very prone to the wrong kind of fear, when new difficulties appear to them.

What is the wrong kind of fear?God’s people are troubled with a fear that is sometimes called “slavish fear.” It arises from various sources, including the misbelief of what God has said, and forgetting what He has said concerning them. It flows also from fixing on His providence [instead of His Word], and putting the worst possible construction on it.

Another source it flows from is despondency of spirit and heartlessness. That weakens their hands in the use of lawful means for bearing their own trial and working for their own deliverance. Their faith and hope and all goes to wrack and ruin. Then there often arises an inclination to follow some unlawful means for deliverance, and even if they do not actually follow it, still the heart is naturally laid open for such a temptation. Ordinarily, complaints are the fruits of slavish fear.

To summarise, slavish fear consists in an atheistical putting of created things in a channel of independency on God, as if the creature could come and go of its own accord without commission from Him. “It is God who comforteth: who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die, &c.?” (Isaiah 51:12). The truth is, the Lord’s people had forgotten the omnipotent power and sovereignty of God, and thought that mere humans could do with them what they pleased without God. When you are so minded, it is a hundred to one if you don’t attempt to get out from under the trial in some unlawful way.

Why do God’s people have this fear?First, there is the great ignorance of God’s care for His people.

That is the cause of all their slavish fear, and it is what He challenges His people for. “Thou hast feared every day, and hast forgotten me: who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die?” (Isaiah 51:12–13) We imagine ourselves as standing alone without God. “There feared they, where no fear was.”

The second reason is unbelief.

Thirdly, there is atheism, a growing sin, i.e., when His people think of God as like some creature, and created things like God, as if created things can work what they wish without Him. They put God above the creature in some things, and the creature above Him in some other things.

The fourth reason is, because his people yield to this fear too soon. You think that you never have a fear without reason. Yes, but you are obliged to shut out those things that look like reasons, when they come in on you. When slavish fear begins to mutter in our bosom for us to harbour it, it makes it prevail.

Why is this fear so damaging?This fear weakens the hands of God’s people in all duties. When they begin to fear out of measure, they lose all, and grow indifferent whether they do duty or not. No one will bide by their duty when their faith fails them; or if they do go about any duty, it will be just as if they are doing it by rote.

This fear also brings discouragement of soul. Nothing can comfort the people of God, where this fear prevails.

Also it brings discomposure of their countenance, which damages the reputation of their religion. Whenever slavish fear gets the upper hand, it makes people look as if they served a hard master, who makes his people undergo things that he will not allow them expenses for.

This fear also disobliges God to work for their deliverance from whatever it is they are afraid of. As it says, “He could do no mighty works, because of their unbelief.”

This fear makes them incapable of understanding their own mercy, when it begins to appear. This is what left the Israelites in Egypt unable to understand what Moses said about their deliverance. When people succumb to this fear, all duty is a burden to them.

Although God may do anything for His people in His sovereignty and mercy, there is no promise we can look to in the Bible that God will help someone who has yielded to slavish fear. James 1:6-7, “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, because he asketh not in faith.”

How can this fear be cured?The thing that cures the disciples’ fear in Matthew 14 is Christ approaching to them in favour. Behold, he is coming, but they mistake him. Only bring Christ and the believer together, and whoever they are, He will heal them of all their disputes and diseases. Christ approaches the disciples, and speaks friendly to them, until they heard the words, “It is I, be not afraid,” together with His approaching. What completely allays all their fear is Christ coming in to them, and nothing else does it.

What can we do to avoid this fear?All the people of the Lord should be aware that they have this kind of infirmity. Then, when difficulties are renewed against you, and slavish fear labours to take possession of you even though you have fled to Christ, guard against it, and know why it is so damaging, and encourage yourselves against it.

In a cloudy and dark day, when your fear grows, remember what a care God takes for His people. They are set as a seal upon His heart, and written upon the palms of His hands. He has said, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye.” Would we be afraid, if we believed that any who trouble the people of God, it is as bad as if they took on God?

Believe this also, that whatever the Lord does, or allows others to do, it shall work together for the good of His people. It is a common truth in everybody’s mouth, certainly, but I may say the least believed truth in all the Bible! You may not question the truth of the promise, but yet you stop short of applying it to yourselves. I offer you that promise, and you put it to yourselves, and solidly acquiesce with it in your heart, that all the distresses and afflictions His people are under in Britain and Ireland shall work together for their good. If it is so, why then do you not believe it, and find peace from fear?

Believe also that nothing befalls His people, except what comes by His providence. You say, “That’s true, but there are many things that we meet with, that God does not allow.” I say there is nothing you meet with, but it comes either by His active or permissive providence. There is no evil done in the city but what the Lord knows. That the ministers in Britain and Ireland are put out of their houses, kirks, and lands, and banished out of the country, is all His providence, and shall work together for their good. If so, then your fears can be quieted.

Know that there is nothing to be feared, except God and an evil conscience. As a man in Ireland said to a bishop, when he threatened to imprison him, he answered, “I know no prison worse than an evil conscience.” If you resolve to fear nothing but the God of heaven and an evil conscience, you need not fear people, for the fear of these will quiet all your other fears.

← The heavenly wisdom of a soft answerFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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The heavenly wisdom of a soft answerIn Prince Harry’s recent memoir we can see the effect of the insatiable voyeuristic appetite for celebrity gossip. We no doubt feel sympathy for those whose lives are picked over endlessly by commentators who seem to say what they like with little fear of contradiction. Perhaps we have all felt the impulse sometimes to tell our own side of the story, take control of the narrative, speak our own truth. There are more wise and less wise ways of doing this. Laying bare your heart does not necessarily lead to acceptance and respect, it can sometimes give more fodder for ridicule. Worse, telling your story may involve you in making accusations against other people. Now you have also shredded other people’s reputations. So the drama rolls on and the prospects of reconciliation fade further away. And it’s all words! The consequences of our words can sometimes be enormous, as the apostle James pointed out long ago. In the following updated extract, David Dickson explains James’s insistence on the need to bridle our tongues. It is impossible without God’s grace, yet the counterintuitive act of responding with meekness when we are provoked is the way of heavenly wisdom and it leads to peace and righteousness. Christians should strive by God’s grace to be people of integrity – like a fountain which sends out one consistent stream of water, not alternating between the pure and the defiled – and so show who really is in control in their hearts.James chapter 3 contains two pieces of advice. The first is for governing the tongue (verses 1–13), and the second is to do with the meek wisdom which assuages the evils of the tongue, and avoids strifes and contentions (verses 14–18).

Control your tongue and you control your whole selfJames tells us to bridle the tongue, that is, to hold back from invective, and rigid rehearsals of other people’s vices or infirmities. “Be not many masters,” he says (verse 1), i.e., do not arrogate to yourselves the authority of a master over others, and too much liberty to carp at things (as many do), but instead bridle your tongues.

One reason for this is because those who unjustly censure others will suffer heavier judgement from the God who avenges injuries (verse 1). Also, seeing we all have many failings (“in many things we offend all,” verse 2), it is better for us to deal more diligently with the infirmities of others, not to arrogate the authority of judging without a calling, or to be unjust in judging.

Anyone who knows how to govern their tongue shows the sign of being “perfect,” someone who can moderate all their actions (verse 2). Anyone who cannot moderately rule their tongue, but in all things carps at other people’s behaviour, has the sign of being a hypocrite.

If you are guiding the horse’s bridle, you have control of the horse; and if you have your hand on the rudder, you are steering the ship. Even so, if you have your tongue under control, you rein in your whole body, and keep your outward actions in check (verse 3–5).

Great care is needed in governing the tongue, because of how gloriously it can boast. It can on both sides perform much good – in speaking the truth, in constancy, in letting things slide, in courtesy, and so on – and it can do much evil, in lies, reproaches, calumnies and so on (verse 5).

Let fly with words and you stir up a world of evilAs a small fire can kindle and devour may things, so the tongue, unless it is appeased and bridled, can stir up a world of evils, and create infinite sins (verse 5–6). Although it is a small part, it is nevertheless a part of the body, which means it can involve all the other members of the body in what it does. It can defile the whole body with wickednesses, and with its wickedness set on fire the wheel of all our natural faculties.

When the tongue is ready to serve the devil in this way, there is some affinity between the evil tongue and hell (verse 6). From the devil the tongue can send out enough flames of lies, slanders and quarrellings to burn the whole world.

There is no kind of animals, but may be tamed by human reason or skill, and experience teaches that some of all kinds have been tamed (verse 7). But the tongue can be tamed by no human reason or art. It is an unquiet and an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, by which it is ready to bring, and does bring, deadly mischiefs to others (verse 8). Therefore you must by God’s supernatural grace diligently endeavour to bridle the tongue.

Be honest in your words and you show you have supernatural graceThe tongue is mutable, deceitful, crafty. One minute it makes itself out to be very good, blessing God, the next minute it openly shows its real nature, by cursing other people (and indirectly God, according to whose likeness people are made). This it does from the same mouth, sometimes sending forth blessing, sometimes cursing (verse 9). But this is absurd and monstrous, and must in no wise be tolerated by those who belong to Christ (verse 10).

James then uses four similes – a fountain, a fig-tree, a vine, and the sea (verse 11–12) – arguing from these natural impossibilities to expose this irrational incoherence in our practice. It is simply not natural that sweet and bitter water should flow from the same channel of the fountain, or that a fig-tree should bring forth grapes, and a vine figs, or that the same sea should yield both salt water and sweet. So reason will not allow us to think that it is the tongue of someone who is regenerated, which, although sometimes it blesses, yet being unbridled, it otherwise curses – for a bad tree does not bear good fruits.

This is why it is so important for the regenerate to follow the simplicity of holiness in speech, and to endeavour to bridle their tongues.

Wisdom consists in avoiding contentionIn the second part of the chapter, James gives another piece of advice. He exhorts us to wisdom joined with meekness, which is the remedy for the evils and jealousies of the tongue. If anyone is going to show themselves a prudent Christian, they ought to show it in innocence and meekness.

Laying aside meekness, and instead cherishing contradictory vices in the heart, such as jealousy and contention, is no matter of glorying, but rather of shame (verse 14). Indeed, it is effectively lying against the truth – falsely boasting yourself to be spiritually wise (or, Christians) but in fact showing yourself to be wicked. This is why we must make an effort to strive after the wisdom of meekness.

Wisdom does not lead to vengefulnessThe wisdom of contention, envying, revenging of personal attacks, is not the wisdom which descends from heaven, from God. Instead it is earthly, sensual and devilish (verse 15). Its origins are in fallen nature and the devil. Where there is not wisdom with meekness, but envy and contention, there tumults, seditions, and every wickedness reigns (verse 16). These are more reasons to pursue the wisdom of meekness.

Wisdom makes peace and is peaceableIn verse 17, James gives eight characteristics of heavenly wisdom, the wisdom which is joined with meekness. (1) It is pure and chaste, i.e., it holds fast truth and holiness, lest it be in any way polluted. (2) It is peaceable, avoiding contentions. (3) It endeavours after equity. (4) It easily gives place to right reason. (5) It is full of mercy towards those who err and sin. (6) It is full of good fruits, omitting nothing of those things which are fitting in those who are good and pious. (7) It does not enquire suspiciously into the blemishes of others. (8) It is without hypocrisy, with which chiefly carnal wisdom is delighted. All these are reasons why we ought to endeavour after wisdom joined with meekness.

Those who endeavour after this wisdom joined with meekness, simultaneously endeavour to make peace, or to be peaceable themselves (verse 18). They are in peace. They work righteousness, or increase their holiness. They sow to themselves for time to come, and for life eternal, so that they may reap the fruit of righteousness in due time.

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How to defy discouragementsMuch as we would like to start a new year with a sense of optimism, sometimes the outlook only seems forbidding. January blues may conspire with nagging feelings of being spiritually in a low place to make Christians discouraged. The Covenanting minister John Welwood (1649–1679) was aware of many reasons for pessimism, yet in the following updated letter he wrote of ways to turn every possible discouragement into a reason to take comfort.8 July 1675

Dear sister,

We have to live by faithIf I had things according to my own wishes, I would have the light of the Lord’s countenance shining over on me, and the upper hand over all my enemies. But when I was restless in this way and unsatisfied, I was taught to live by faith – a very profitable thing for us, and pleasing to God, but we are so backward to it, because we do not want to believe until we can see.

Yet the Lord is much displeased when we doubt His love, especially since we have so many evidences of it, since He has often manifested Himself to us, and worked in our souls. Unless He is actually smiling, we will not believe that He loves us! If He dandled us in His lap for twenty years, and then hide Himself from us, we would instantly be suspicious whether He had ever loved us at all. But it is much more pleasing to Him, and profitable and comforting to ourselves, to venture to believe that He does love us. He does not play tricks on His people. We may build on His Word and His work in our souls, for Christ is no dissembler.

I know nothing that should discourage a Christian. There is not one discouragement in all the Word of God, but many are His encouragements. But through our folly and unbelief we lose the comfort of them.

We don’t need to be discouraged by guiltShould guilt discourage us? God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God through him.” Christ says to the Father, “If the Christian owes thee anything, put that on my account.”

Or by God’s wrathShould wrath discourage us? “He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” and, “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

Or by our ignoranceShould our darkness and ignorance discourage us? He is continually with us, and leads us like a flock. Our safety lies not in our wisdom and leading, but His. Even if we are foolish, or pilot is skilful and careful.

Or by our sinfulnessShould a body of sin and death discourage us? We certainly have good reason to cry, “O wretched ones that we are!” It deadens and deceives us, and holds us back from duty. Yet His grace is sufficient for us. Not grace within us, but grace outside us is where our safety lies. He is the one that keeps us from temptations and delivers us from evil.

Or by our small progressShould our little growth in grace and in the knowledge of Christ discourage us? Indeed it is our great complaint, “Our leanness, our leanness!” It’s fitting that folk grow downwards in low thoughts of themselves, for He dwells with the humble. The more folk have of grace, the more they see of corruption, and the more they have of faith, the more they see of unbelief.

But perhaps we make an idol of grace, and prize it more than its author, the Lord Jesus. He may well say to us, “Am I not worth more to you than never so much grace?” The God of all grace is ours – the fountain is ours – we are complete in Him, and He is fit to hold the purse-strings for us. It is better that He should hold our treasure than we ourselves. We would want to have as much as would serve us for all our journey right now. This is always the aim of our hearts. We want to have a stock of grace inside us, so that we would not need to rely on Christ, or be beholden to Him, for continual supply. We think it a poor life to live like beggars, but that’s because we think that what’s in our hand is surer, and will more easily be effective, than what is in Christ’s hand! But Adam had his stock in his own hand, and see how quickly he went bankrupt.

If we had never so much grace, we would ruin ourselves if Christ’s grace were not daily and moment-by-moment keeping us. It is not our grace and worthiness that commends us to God, but the righteousness of Christ. We are obliged to God for the grace we get, not He to us. If He chooses to keep us with little in hand, we ought to be content, and not fall out with Him because He will not fill our purses with money – after all, we have access to the treasure house!

Or by a sense of distance from the LordDoes a sense of desertion discourage us? Sometimes there are many fogs and clouds in the air, but it is all bright above. Though to our senses His love changes, yet with Him there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. He loves us just as much when He hides His face as when He smiles, and He has many wise and holy purposes in all the afflictions we meet with. They are to ballast us. Also they purge out our sins and make us partakers of His holiness. They keep us waking and watching.

Our Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. We may be sure of victory. And what an inheritance we are predestined to! It sits all wrong to be unthankful and discontent when the Lord has showed us that mercy, to teach and instruct us that we should not walk in the way of the world. He could have left us to run to the same excess of riot with them, to forget God and our own soul altogether. Is not God our Father? Is not Christ our husband? Is not the Spirit our constant companion? Are not angels our attendants? Are not the devil, the wicked, sin, death, and hell all under our feet? Is not the creation all working together for our good? And heaven our home?

Satan and our folly combine together to make us pore over the things that will sadden us and keep us from seeing our privileges. Here is our duty: to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and continue instant in prayer.

AdviceNow as for your situation, cast all your care upon him, for He careth for you. To trust Him honours Him greatly. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and do nothing to offend Him. He is a shield to them that trust in Him. Remember also that afflictions are the gateway to heaven. Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind.

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Six things to pray for in the new yearAs a new year opens, what will the future hold? What are we justified to hope for, and what is realistic to work towards? In the prayer of Moses the man of God, we get an insight into what a bright and desirable prospect would look like for a believer and the church collectively, and what we can legitimately throw our energies into striving for with the Lord’s help and blessing. Time seems to be passing so quickly and there are so many things that cause grief even at times when we are conditioned to take an optimistic view. In this light David Dickson comments on the six things Moses prays for in Psalm 90 in the following updated extract.1. Wisdom for eternityIn the concluding part of Psalm 90, Moses prays for six things in response to the short and sorrowful life of the Lord’s people. The first petition is for wisdom to provide in time for the remedy of sin and everlasting misery, before this short and uncertain life ends. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (verse 12).

Although our life is both short and uncertain as to how soon it may end, yet our tendency is to look on its indefiniteness as if this meant its duration will be infinite and our years innumerable. When Moses prays, “Teach us to number our days,” it implies some acknowledgement of this.

It is easy for us to calculate how many of our days are already past, and easy to consider how few there are to come by the course of nature (or God’s ordinary providence), yet this lesson must be taught by God before we can make any profitable use of it. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”

The only remedy for sin, and the wrath of God, and the misery of mortal humans for sin, is the wisdom which is taught by God in the Scripture, i.e., that sinners should seek reconciliation with God through the sacrifice and obedience of Christ, and keep friendship with God by the power of His spirit.

The right use of the things we see manifested in our lives of sin and wrath and judgments is to deal with God by prayer, not only that He would inform us of our danger and duty, not only that He would reveal to our minds the mystery of grace and reconciliation, but also that He would effectually move our will, heart and affections by faith which worketh by love, so that we would make application of the remedy for ourselves. “So that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Comfort from GodThe second petition is that God would not only remove the evidences of His displeasure against His people, but that He would also now at length show Himself to be reconciled by changing His dealings with them in a course of comfort. “Return (O Lord), how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants” (verse 13).

Although the Lord does not go away from His people (He always remains with the in one or another gracious working) yet in terms of His comforting presence He may turn away until His people request Him to return.

When the Lord does withdraw His comforting presence from His people, however short a time it may be, it sems a long time to us in this short life. “Return, O Lord, how long?”

Although the Lord does not change His affections or repent like a man, yet He can change His dealings, like a father who commiserates his child’s affliction, and tries to cherish and comfort him after disciplining him.

“Let it repent thee concerning thy servants.” Although we are very slight servants, and sorely smitten for our disobedience, yet we should not cast away our calling, nor act as if our relationship with God has been dissolved. Instead we should cling to Him in any way we can. Here they still call themselves His servants.

Spiritual refreshmentThe third petition is for some spiritual comfort and refreshment to their souls, which would keep them in good heart and in hope of eternal salvation. “O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad in our days” (verse 14).

When a soul is conscious of God’s wrath, he or she has as great a hunger for spiritual comfort as a famished man has for food. “O satisfy us!” The renewed confirmation of God’s mercy, pardoning sin and giving us a clear sight of our reconciliation, is able to comfort us in our greatest sorrow. “O satisfy us with thy mercy!”

As physical hunger cannot tolerate delay, so neither can a sense of God’s wrath, or the desire for favourable acceptance long endure the absence of consolation. After a night of trouble they earnestly expect a morning of comfort. “Satisfy us early!”

A poor hungry soul, lying under a sense of wrath, knows it will be happy for ever if only it can find again what it felt before – one sweet fill of God’s mercy made known to it. “Then we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

However great our trouble, and however long it lasts, the renewed sense of God’s reconciliation to us seasons and sweetens all our trouble, recompenses all our losses, and makes our situation in this short and miserable life very comfortable. “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil” (verse 15).

God’s work to growThe fourth petition is that God would continue the work of building and enlarging His own church, and of glorifying Himself in their sight, and in the sight of their posterity from generation to generation. “Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children” (verse 16).

The building, purging, enlarging and propagating of the church, and the manifesting of God’s care for it, is the Lord’s own proper work. He will not give it up. Although He may hide His activity for a time, yet He is still at work, and His people should pray for and may expect the manifestation of it.

As it is the glory of the Lord to manifest His grace and mercy to His people, or the visible church, so correspondingly it is the desire of the Lord’s people to have Him glorified, no less than to have themselves preserved or comforted.

The church in every age should have a care that their posterity would participate in the same merciful work of God which they have themselves experienced, and that their children would profit by how their predecessors were corrected.

The beauty of the LordThe fifth petition is that God would beautify His people. He beautifies them with His holy ordinances, with order and unity and peace, with a holy lifestyle, and with the evidences that He is dwelling among them as His own covenanted people, proper subjects of His kingdom, and those who belong to His own family.

God is the glory of His people – their beauty and ornamentation is in Him. This is how they are made honourable in the sight of all nations, as the bride is made beautiful by her clothing and ornaments. This is how His people should think of Him, and value Him, and love Him. They should remember Him and seek their beauty in Him.

The time when the beauty of the Lord is on His people, and seen to be on them, is when they are behaving like His covenanted people – when they are walking in faith and obedience before Him, and is showing Himself to be their covenanted God, protecting and blessing them.

A blessing on what we do for GodThe sixth petition is that God would bless the endeavours of His people for promoting God’s work among them, and for transmitting His ordinances and truth to their posterity. “Establish thou the work of our hands” (verse 17).

If we pray for the Lord’s work to progress in His church, we must resolve not to be idle, but to commit ourselves to endeavour, in our places and callings, according to our ability, to promote His work, just as His servants and instruments should be doing.

When we do go about building the Lord’s church and promoting Christianity, we must acknowledge that the success of our labours depends only on God, who must be entreated for the blessing.

Our work is so mixed and defiled with imperfections and sins that God would only be just if He withdrew Himself from it. We must therefore all the more earnestly deal with Him to keep His own hand on His work, and keep our hands in it.

← Four comforts as time passesHow to defy discouragements →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Four comforts as time passesAs humans we are constrained by time. The passing of one year to the next is something entirely out of our control – all we can do is mark dates and recognise milestones. The only constant from one generation to the next is God. He is outside of time, because time is something that He created. The amazing thing is that as He stands outside of time and remains entirely unaffected by the passing of moments and millennia, He has chosen to make Himself a safe haven for sinful creatures vulnerable to change and decay. This thought was a tremendous comfort to Moses, the man of God, in his prayer to God in Psalm 90. David Dickson in this updated extract identifies the four sources of comfort that Moses draws from God’s unchangingness and unchangeableness for sinners who are reconciled to Him, especially when they may be wrestling with the swift passage of time and difficulties and sorrows in life.It is sin that has procured the shortness and the miseries of this life, as Moses lamentably sets out before the Lord, who is full of pity. But his prayer opens with a fourfold comfort for the church against temporal troubles and this world’s miseries.

The Lord’s kindness to His people in all agesThe first comfort is drawn from the Lord’s kindness to His people in all ages. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psalm 90:1)

When we pray therefore, we must lay hold on the offer of God’s kindness according to the covenant of grace, and look on God as gracious to us in Christ. Moses here, and others elsewhere, when they come as supplicants in prayer they begin with renewed acts and expressions of faith.

God’s people in any given place and age are one body with God’s people in all ages preceding and following. They may lay claim to all the privileges of God’s people before them. Here the church in Moses’ time joins itself with all the Lord’s people in former times, for the use of succeeding ages which were yet to come. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”

The Lord’s people are strangers in the earth, partly because they have no certain residence in this world, and partly because they have such a poor reception among the people of the world, but especially because at heart, in their affections, they are pilgrims in this world. However, this does not mean they lack a resting place. They have a dwelling in heaven, that is, God Himself, in whom they dwell by faith. They find in Him rest, and food, and protection, and comfort. In fact, in His heart they have had a lodging “in all generations.”

The troubles and miseries of this life make the godly to search out what participation they have in God, and another life. What pinches them on earth makes them seek their abundance in heaven.

The decree of the eternal covenantThe second comfort of the believer against the miseries of this short life is taken by Moses from the decree of their election and the eternal covenant of their redemption, settled in the purpose and counsel of the blessed Trinity for their advantage. In this covenant it was agreed before the world existed that the Word to be incarnate would be the Saviour of the elect. Moses says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (verse 2).

Here the asserting of the eternity of God is with reference to His own chosen people. To say, “Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, and Thou art God from everlasting to everlasting,” is effectively to say, “Thou art from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God in purpose and affection toward us Thy people, and so Thou art our God from everlasting in regard of Thy eternal purpose of love electing us, and in regard of appointing redemption for us by the Redeemer.”

When we discern God’s goodwill to us in time, we may arise to God’s goodwill to us before time. From the grace showed to us in time, we may conclude that grace and goodwill were purposed toward us and ordained for us before time. This is what the psalmist is teaching us. When he has said, “From generation to generation, thou hast been our dwelling place,” that is, “in all time past Thou hast been our God,” he subjoins, “Before the mountains were brought forth … Thou art God,” that is, “the same God unchangeably in Thy purpose and love toward us before time, from everlasting.”

Also, from special love shown to us in time, we may conclude not only that His love has been toward us not only before time from everlasting, but also that it shall continue towards us in time to come for ever. “Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,” he says, that is, “the same strong God, immutable in Thy purpose and love toward us first and last.” Indeed faith cannot fix itself till by the warrant of God’s Word and feeling of His gracious working in us in time, it joins God’s work of grace and His purpose of grace together.

This is why the apostle Paul leads the believer in Christ to election in Christ before the world was, and to predestination to adoption by Jesus Christ according to His good pleasure before the world was (Ephesians 1:1, 3, 4, 5). Similarly in 2 Timothy he leads us to a completed covenant before the world was made, between God the Father and God the Son, according to which all conditions required of the Redeemer are settled, and all the elect, all the redeemed, are delivered over to the Son, the Word to be incarnate, the intended Redeemer, and all saving grace is given over into Christ’s hand, for the sake of the elect, to be let out to them in due time: “Grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

The nature of God which is to be one and the same, unchangeable from everlasting to everlasting, is the solid ground for faith to reason things out in this manner.

The knowledge of God’s eternal goodwill to us is a sufficient cordial to soften and sweeten all our grief and affliction in this life. The very reason why this doctrine is prefixed to what follows in the psalm about temporal miseries, is to comfort the Lord’s people against all the troubles of this life.

The resurrection of the deadA third comfort Moses mentions is from the resurrection of the dead. “Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men” (verse 3).

Although God puts into effect the decree which has appointed all men once to die, yet He has also appointed a resurrection, by which He will powerfully recall and make to return from death all Adam’s posterity. “Thou turnest man to destruction,” and so all must die, “and sayest, Return, ye children of men,” and so all must rise again.

It costs the Lord but a word to make the dead rise again, or to make those that are destroyed to return again. “Thou sayest.” His word has already gone out about the resurrection, and it is altogether operative. It will prove fully effectual at length.

The shortness of time until the resurrectionThe fourth comfort is drawn from the shortness of the time between anyone’s death and their return from the dead in the resurrection. Perhaps someone might object that it is a long time since the resurrection was promise, till the time that it will be really accomplished.

But although it may seem a long time between a person’s death and their resurrection, yet before God it is only a short time. For that matter it is nothing in comparison with eternity. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (verse 4).

Unless we reckon time as God reckons it, we cannot but be weary and think it long, and wonder at the delay in the performing of His promises, and so fall into temptation and unbelief.

← Reasons why believers love Jesus more than anyone elseSix things to pray for in the new year →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Reasons why believers love Jesus more than anyone elseThe deeper we reflect on who our Lord Jesus Christ is and where He has come from, the more it serves to highlight the adorable beauty of what He has done for His sinful people. If by faith we accept His gifts of salvation – what He has done and what He gives – the only appropriate response is to love Him. The following updated extract gives Richard Cameron’s reflections on this theme as he expounds the love for Christ that animates the soul of a believer.Love is misplaced if is not bestowed on Jesus Christ Himself. David bestowed his love well when he said, “Whom have I in the heavens but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee” (Psalm 73). In Song 3:3 the spouse says, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” It is not a mouth or lip love, it is a soul’s love.

Think of where Christ came fromWhat is His birth? You know if a man comes to make suit to a woman, she will be sure to enquire what parents he is descended from. And is there any like our Lord? He is descended of honourable parentage. He is the Son of the Father. He is the Son of God, and as He is man He is the Son of David.

This is a wonderful thing, that the Son of God should offer marriage to the most insignificant man or woman in all the land. You would be very impressed if the king, having one lawfully begotten son, was to send him to you, and desire marriage with a low-ranking girl. But oh wonderful! God has sent His only begotten Son, who is God equal with Himself—He has sent Him down from heaven to earth, to discuss terms for marriage with the poorest believer there.

Think of the possessions He hasJesus Christ is heir of all things. All power in heaven and earth is given unto Him. Such is the believer’s Beloved! It is He that has power, ruling over heaven, earth, and hell, and the absolute disposal of all things. He has grace and glory, and every good thing to give unto them that wait on Him. Is it any wonder then that the spouse says, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” She could not endure the loss when He absented Himself. But many, because they cannot get the present things, think little of Christ. Some even say, “If you are faithful and honest, you get nothing! So much misery comes of following Christ; follow Christ and lose everything!” You think Christ is not a good husband, since His followers are so badly treated on earth.

But I will tell you—nay, I assure you—that the believer has as good a right to the world as anyone else, and the one who is cast out of house and hold for Christ has as good a right to it as anyone. Oh then, saw ye Him whom my soul loveth in this night of persecution on the Church—when the Lord’s people are meeting with such bitter things? They will however have much more than their persecutors have. Supposing you did not have twopence to rub together, you have more than all the persecutors have—you have Himself, and that is more than all other things.

Think of His precious personLet us consider what Jesus is, as to His person. You know when a young man makes suit to a young woman, she not only asks what is his birth and what he has, but has some desire to know what he is in himself. Is he a well-favoured man? So the spouse goes to the watchmen, and to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to professing Christians in general, and says, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that if ye find my well beloved, ye tell him, that I am sick of love.” She cannot go without Him any longer.

But they reply, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved? that thou makest so much noise about him.” There are many who say, “What do you mean, making so much ado about Christ?”

“Indeed,” says she, “my beloved is white and ruddy; fairer than the sons of men, and the chiefest of ten thousand.” And indeed so He is, and always will be to any who know the power of religion. He will be to them the pearl of great price. He is refreshing to them every way; He fills the desires of the hungry and longing soul. “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

Love Christ for taking our natureNow let us consider what Christ has done for the church and for believers. Our Lord has been at much pains, and cost too, for believers. Will this not give us reason to love him?

I tell you one thing He has done for us: He has taken on Him our nature.

This is a very familiar thing that you have heard of very often, but it is soon forgotten, and little thought of. He took upon Him our nature. He took not upon Him the nature of angels, but the nature of poor ruined man. Oh, this is a heart-engaging consideration!

Many think nothing of it, that Christ left His place in heaven, came out from the Father’s bosom, and took upon Him our nature. But is it not a great wonder? The eternal Son of God, the second person of the glorious Trinity, came down here on earth, and took on Him the nature of the seed of Abraham!

O wonderful condescension! Many think nothing of it, but let me tell you, poor sinners could never otherwise have gone up to heaven to Him. No; for if He had appeared like Himself, the second person of the ever-blessed Trinity, if He had appeared in His regal robes of glory and majesty, we could not have looked near Him. The Lord became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. And should not this engage us to love Him very much?

Love Christ for taking the form of a servantHe not only took on Him our nature, but He took on Him the form of a servant. He came not only like man, but like an insignificant, low-ranking man. Indeed, had He come like a rich or great man, poor folk would not have got to come near Him—not so much as to touch the hem of His garment. But our Lord has His own way of coming. He comes like a poor mean man into the world, and He goes ofttimes to poor men’s houses. And seeing He came in such a poor mean way, should not this make us look to Him?

Love Christ for taking all our infirmitiesI will tell you further what He has done. He has taken on Him all our infirmities and our diseases. “He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He was tempted in all things like unto us, that he might be able to succour them that are tempted.” Here there may be some that are hungry, thirsty, and cold, as were some after the affair at Pentland. Although it has not been exactly the same with those who were at Bothwell, at Pentland they were likely to perish in the woods. They were both cold and hungry and thirsty. You know what persecutions they suffered by enemies. But may not this be matter of comfort to all sufferers in affliction: “We have not an high priest that cannot be touched with our infirmities,” but one who was exercised with sad afflictions, and suffered, and was persecuted in His body, in our nature, and therefore knows well how to support and succour His people in all their afflictions. And should not this engage us to love Him, and to desire conformity to Him? For indeed He knows well how to see to us, and how to comfort us under all cases and conditions.

Love Christ for bearing the wrath of GodI tell you further yet, what He has done for us. He bore the wrath of God for believers, for all that come to God in and through Him. This is a strong reason for all the people of God to love Him with their whole heart and soul – that He has borne the wrath that would have crushed all the elect, yea, all the world, and kept them in the place of torment for ever and ever. He bore the wrath that made Him sweat great drops of blood, and cry out, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” What shall I say? He was so deserted of God as made Him cry out on the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabbachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I think the person that has soul’s love to Christ has good reason to and may well bear the wrath of man: for that wrath is far inferior to the wrath that Christ has borne for His people. Oh, how this ought to endear Christ to us!

Love Christ for dying for usI will tell you what else Christ has done for believers. Listen carefully. He has even died for them, even the cursed death of the cross. This is how He has taken away the sting of natural death, and He will keep us from eternal death if we believe in Him; for while “we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”

Love Christ for going into the grave for usChrist not only died for us, but went down and perfumed the grave for believers, so that they may say, “O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?” Take note. For, I think, if you are believers you will have love to Him on this account. Those who have gone to the scaffold for Christ did it cheerfully, as if their dying day was the best day that ever they saw in their life. They were sometimes so joyful that their souls, as it were, leaped out of their bodies, because our Lord has gone through death and the grave for them. That is why they have the victory and have overcome death and the grave.

Love Christ for rising again for usWhich leads us to something else that He has also done for believers, and that is, He rose again and overcame death. But oh, how few are buried with Him in baptism! How few have mortified every sin and corruption arising within them, that they may partake of His resurrection unto eternal life and salvation!

Love Christ for interceding for usLastly, I will tell you another thing that Christ does to make Himself loveable to us. He is interceding always at the Father’s right hand for you, if you are a believer. Christ’s praying refers to every believer in the Church of Scotland. He prays even for ministers and members who have largely given up praying for Him and His cause! And this is how He “is able to save all that come unto Him; because He ever lives to make intercession for us.”

I say, consider these things, and you will think it no wonder that the believer loves Him above anyone and everything else whatsoever!

← Are we born innocent?Four comforts as time passes →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Are we born innocent?Are we sinners because we do bad things, or do we do bad things because we are sinners? A recent survey in the US found that a clear majority of professing evangelicals would say that we are born innocent. This optimistic view of human nature may well chime with what many would like to think, yet the Bible paints a much bleaker picture of fallen human nature, with Paul going so far as to say that by nature we are “children of wrath.” Without a clear picture of the seriousness and urgency of the problem of our sinfulness, we are unlikely to put much effort into how we can be saved from it. The God whose grace rescues us from our sin will also seem less glorious than He really is. In the following updated extract James Fergusson opens up Paul’s words of Ephesians 2:1–3. Fergusson’s comments show clearly how what we need saving from is not something superficial, and the salvation God provides is not only radically transformative for us but on His part impressively rich and generous.Every one of us by nature, and before conversion, is dead, not to sin, but in sin. Paul addresses the Ephesians as, “You who were dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That means we are wholly deprived of all ability and power to convert ourselves (Rom. 9:16), or to do any thing which is spiritually good (Rom. 8:7). While Paul says that the Ephesians were dead in sins before God quickened them, he is speaking of a thing common to them with others, which is why he includes himself and the other believing Jews with them (verse 3).

The fountain-cause of this spiritual death was Adam’s sin (in him all have sinned, Romans 5:12), and through the merit of his sin imputed to us, we are deprived of original righteousness (Romans 7:18), and a perverse inclination to all evil has come in its place (Genesis 6:5). Additionally, every individual’s own particular actual sins lay him lower under this state of death, and make it all the more difficult for him to be delivered from it (Jeremiah 13:23).

The evidence of spiritual deadness is sinful activityThe evidence that they were dead in sins and trespasses is their walking in and making a daily trade of sin, without striving against it, and without any thorough remorse for it. “Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air …” (verse 2). Paul illustrates this woeful walk from the two guides which they followed, and which carried them on and encouraged them in their sinful course. The first was, the universal corrupt course and custom of “the world;” and the second guide was Satan, here called “the prince of the power of the air.”

Walking in sin is different from falling into sinAlthough the regenerate still have a body of sin and death dwelling in them (Romans 7:24), and do sometimes actually fall in sin (indeed, even very gross sins, 2 Samuel 11:4, 12:9), yet they do not walk in sin. That is, to the child of God, sin is not like the way of the traveller, so as they make it their daily trade and employment (Psalm 1:1), or sin without any reluctancy flowing from a spiritual principle against what they know to be sin (Galatians 5:17), or walk after sin by making sin, and suggestions to sin, their guide whom they willingly follow (Romans 8:1). Sin may conquer the regenerate, and carry them as an unwilling captive (Romans 7:14, etc.), but they no longer “walk” in sin; for Paul says that for them it was “in time past ye walked.”

Such is the power of converting grace, that it causes people to change their former way and course, however deeply they were rooted in it and habituated to it. There is a change from how they walked in “time past,” such that they do not so walk in the time present.

The Lord is not at all moved by the merit or worth of those whom He doth convert, to bestow converting grace on them rather than on others whom He leaves in their unconverted state. In fact, He makes this grace of His to fall on those who are in no respect better than those whom He passes by. These Ephesians, before conversion, were second to none in sin and wickedness, yet He converted them.

The general corrupt custom and example of those with whom we live, or those who lived in the former times, is a strong incitement in the minds of many – and sufficient excuse – to follow them in doing evil, without further inquiry. But it is clear evidence that someone is still in an unrenewed state, when they make the example of others the highest rule according to which they walk, and when they labour to conform themselves more to other people than to the will of God.

We are all sinful by naturePaul speaks in verse 3 of “the lusts of our flesh … the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Our obstinate rebellion comes out in the fact that we follow the “lusts,” that is, the impulses and motions and sudden flashes, of our inbred corruption (here called “flesh”), which, flowing from Adam’s first sin, has infected his whole posterity (Christ alone excepted, 2 Corinthians 5:21) and seats itself in all the powers and faculties of our souls and bodies, even including the understanding and will (Romans 8:7; Colossians 2:18). All corruption and sin, even that which is in the mind, is called “flesh,” because it is conveyed by fleshly generation (John 3:6), the fleshly members of the body are the instruments by which all sin is carried out (Romans 6:19), and every sin draws the person away from God to earthly and fleshly things.

This inbred corruption of their natures Paul subdivides into two, the “flesh” and the “mind.” When the term “flesh” is contrasted with the “mind,” it is distinguished from the “flesh” beforementioned. Here it must mean the corruption which is seated in the sensual appetites of the soul, while the “mind” means the more noble faculties of the soul, i.e., the will and understanding, in so far as they are also corrupted. Then the “desires” of the flesh are the deliberate and fixed resolution to follow those lusts and suggestions of corrupt flesh, which, accordingly, Paul says they “fulfilled” and accomplished to the utmost.

Paul then points out the root and fountain-cause of this their miserable slavery and subjection to sin, that is, their natural sin and misery. “Ye were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (verse 3). We were all, from nature, that is, from the very cradle, birth, and conception, “children of wrath,” i.e., by reason of our original sin, liable to God’s eternal wrath.

By nature all of us are wholly sinfulWhatever differences may be among the unregenerate as to circumstances in life, externals in religion, or the particular sins to which they are enslaved, yet all of them are alike vile in God’s sight. Paul pronounces of himself and all of them, Jew and Gentile alike, that they were children of disobedience, because one way or other they followed the lusts of the flesh.

Those who lead a blameless life before the world in their unconverted estate (and therefore thought their condition abundantly good, Philippians 3:7) will, when converting grace comes, see themselves to have been as vile and wretched as any. They will not only see that nothing they did was truly good and acceptable to God, for it was not done in faith (Hebrews 11:6), but also that the root of all sin was in them, budding out without any check or restraint, except from respect to self-interest, reputation, pleasure, or advantage (Matthew 14:5). The more blameless they were before the world, the more their spiritual pride abounded (Philippians 2:7), and so they were all the more loathsome to God (James 4:6).

The whole person, both soul and body, is infected with sin by nature, so that not only the sensual part, but even our will and understanding, are corrupted by it. In the understanding there is not only ignorance but also mistakes about God and good (1 Corinthians 1:23). In the will there is a crooked perverseness and averseness from what is spiritually good (Romans 8:7).

Every unregenerate person is a slave to sin in all these ways. Paul affirms of us all that before conversion, not only flesh was in us, which lusted after unlawful things, but those lusts came the length of fixed resolutions and desires – and not only so, but we fulfilled and accomplish them. Respectable people do not wholly fulfil the lusts of the fleshly appetite, yet they fulfil the desires of the mind by their pride, vanity of spirit, self-seeking, and such like.

All are guilty of original sin by nature, and from the first moment of conception (Psalm 51:5), and therefore, in the course of divine justice, liable to the stroke of God’s wrath and anger, and this by nature also. So the misery of the unregenerate is never sufficiently seen until it is traced back to this bitter root and fountain, the sin and misery in which they were born. When Paul says we were “children of wrath by nature,” he implies that we were also sinners by nature, seeing wrath always follows sin, and sin is the root, fountain, and headstone of all our misery.

Seeing our sinfulness helps us to appreciate holinessThe apostle Paul is intending to establish the Ephesians in the doctrine of salvation by free grace in Christ. In order to do this, he sets out the happiness of the state in which free grace had placed them, by showing the misery of their previous state, before conversion. “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That is, they had been dead – not naturally, but spiritually, for there was nothing in them of the spiritual life which consists in the union of the soul with God (John 5:40) – nothing of the power of the soul, flowing from this union, to do things which are spiritually good and acceptable to God (John 15:5). Natural life consists in the union of the soul with the body, whereby the person is enabled to move, speak, and do the actions which are competent to that life. Analogously, their spiritual deadness tells of their separation from God (Psalm 58:3), and their total inability to do any thing which is spiritually good (Romans 8:7).

Seeing our sinfulness helps us to appreciate God’s mercyGod is rich and overflowing in the exercise of His attribute of mercy. This is apparent when we consider that there is no creature towards which He does not exercise His mercy (Psalm 104:24), and that mercy is exercised, not only without, but also often contrary to, the deserving of those on whom it is exercised (Ezekiel 36:21–22). Yet there is nothing in which God does more to manifest the riches and abundance of His mercy, than in the work of bringing dead sinners to life, and of carrying on the work of grace in them until it is perfected in glory. Just think of the misery of the objects of His mercy (Ezekiel 16:3, etc.), and their bad deservings (Jeremiah 14:7), the greatness of the good things which He bestows on those miserable objects (Luke 12:32), the course He takes for satisfying divine justice, so that those good things can be given without wronging justice (John 3:16), and the multitude of sins which mercy covers in those objects, not only before their conversion (Isaiah 55:7), but also after it (Proverbs 24:16)! All these, and many considerations besides, manifest God to be rich in mercy in quickening dead sinners. “God, who is rich in mercy, hath quickened us.”

← Sensitivity to spiritual insensitivityReasons why believers love Jesus more than anyone else →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Sensitivity to spiritual insensitivityThe 2021 Census for England and Wales has shown that only 46% of the population now identify themselves as Christian, making Christianity now a minority religion in England and Wales. The most concerning thing about this is not so much that Christianity is losing political influence in the nation, as if all that matters is our voice and social prestige, or as if Christ’s church is only valid with popular approval and credibility. Instead, it gives us reason to mourn the emptiness and hopelessness that people consign themselves to when they don’t know Jesus Christ, as well as the disrespect and dishonour we collectively do to God when on the national level we are so rapidly turning our backs on Him and His ways. But do these concerns really register with us? Are we alive to the tragedy of these things? Perhaps at one time we cared about the eternal destiny of our fellow-sinners and God’s reputation and public glory, but now our eyes glide over the bad news and a malaise of apathy paralyses us from even turning to the Lord about the situation. In the following updated extract, William Guthrie meditates on the prayer in Isaiah 63 which confesses and laments hard-heartedness in the Lord’s people when confronted with societal and moral problems.These are very sad words, “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” (Isaiah 63:17) It is one of the heaviest and saddest troubles from the hands of God on men and women, to have their hearts hardened from His fear. And yet things are not desperate, or past remedy, so long as there is enough softness of heart as to perceive the hardness of our hearts, and to be capable of regretting it before God. Hard softness, as we may call it, is not the worst kind of hardness, or at least it is not the greatest degree of it. The Lord had graciously bounded their hardness so that it had not gone the full length that it could have done. This is how they notice it, and say, “Why hast thou suffered our hearts to be hardened from thy fear, and to be so hard that we should not fear thy name?”

Hardness of heart is something for us to confessWhenever it is said that the Lord hardens, it is not meant that He does so by infusing any sinful qualities into the heart (James 1:13). God is incomprehensibly holy, and infinitely removed from being accessory to anything that is sinful in the creature. But it is said that He hardens when He permits and leaves someone to the hardness of their own heart (which is natural to the offspring of fallen Adam), but also when He withholds or withdraws something of the grace given to the creature, on which hardness of heart follows. But seeing as the majesty of God is under no obligation to give grace to the creature, that hardness of heart cannot be charged on Him, nor can He be blamed for withholding abused grace from them.

You must therefore look on the complaint as not being spoken in a way of proud or ill-natured expostulation laying all the blame on God, and evading or shifting it off themselves. No, the words point to how the Lord was interacting with the church members who are speaking here. Nor are we to think that these words are spoken irreverently, in a way of complaining about God, but only in a way of expostulation with themselves. It is as if they said, “Lord, what have we done that has provoked Thee to deal with us in this way?” There is the hint of a desire to know what sin in them it was that had brought on this plague of hardness of heart, which was grievous to them beyond anything in their external condition and captivity.

It seems to be one of the evils of our time, that many, even good folk, are largely strangers to the condition of their own heart. More particularly, hardness of heart is an evil incident to the people of God. It is by the people of God that this complaint is made, “Why hast thou made us to err, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” We think it is made with much bashfulness, spoken by those who were ashamed that they could hardly claim that God was their Father. Yet they are necessitated to lay claim to God. They give Him much credit, as if merely the look of His eye could redress their condition.

Symptoms of hardness of heartHere are a few symptoms and evidences of this hardness.

When challenges for sin do not easily make impression on us. Though his own situation was particularly pointed out in the parable Nathan used, David took little notice of it in the way of applying it to himself.
When we acknowledge our sins, yet without being affected by this so as to be made better.
When the impression of a sin wears off easily. I think if we had spiritual dexterity in sinking challenges for sin in the blood of Christ, there would be no harm from that! But when the challenge is thrown off through deadness, or simply passes away somehow or another, or else is forgotten before we get any satisfying views of pardon, then our case is not right. This only hardens the heart still more.
When we have troubles in providence, yet our ability to pray is restrained.
When we become rash, heedless, precipitate, and fearless in worship and in walking, rushing forward without ever considering our own condition, walking as if there were no hazards in our walk and conversation, without fear of being indisposed for worship or any kind of duty.
When we cast off the reverential fear that we ought to have, as if we did not live in the midst of snares and manifold temptations, or as if we did not have hearts ready to comply with every snare and temptation. Walking in the fear of the Lord all the day long is become a rare thing among Christians nowadays.

The seriousness of having a hard heartThat felt hardness of heart is, in the account of God’s children, one of the heaviest and greatest of strokes that come upon them from the hand of God. It is picked out here as the worst of judgments. I think their hearts were at their mouths, and the tear in their eyes, when speaking out these words, “Why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” They do not complain about their outward calamity, though it was more than ordinary; the stroke that most affected them was hardness of heart. “And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.” And, “all this is come upon us; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.”

Now, the reasons why the people of God look upon this as a sad stroke are these.

Because, of all the things that God could send us, hardness of heart has most of God’s displeasure in it.
Because it borders very near to the condition of the reprobate.
Because it prevents us from tackling the things that keep us labouring under it. We know that we are in the wrong, yet we cannot mourn for it before God. We sin, and cannot repent.
Because it means we do not profit under any of God’s providences. However He smites us, our hearts do not grieve.
Put the question to yourselves:—What do think about the problem of hardness of heart, and how does it affect you? Do ye feel it one of the heaviest and saddest things that God could send you? Do you seriously think you would be content to take any other rebuke from Him, if only this hardness of heart was removed?

Things to beware of because they have a hardening effectIf hardness of heart is your burden, I recommend that you would take it as a favour from God that it is actually a burden to you. Perhaps the fact that it is so little your burden makes you question if there is anything at all promising in your case and condition. Therefore search into the causes of it.

Failing to take notice of conscience and convictions, and trying to quench the motions of the Spirit, gradually harden the heart. Where conscience tables a challenge, oh, then, let it speak out.
Taking no notice of God’s entreaties. Sometimes the Lord’s calls are very urgent and pressing on us to entertain grace, communion, and fellowship with God, yet the soul does not listen but lets them pass by. This is why people who live under an entreating gospel, yet do not get God’s grace, or evade the offer of it, are the most hardened of all people.
Allowing sin to sit on the conscience unrepented of. As every act of sin strengthens the habit of sin, and disposes unto more acts of sin, so it hardens exceedingly, thrusts out from God, and keeps the soul still under its dominion.
Formalism in worship, i.e., a continual custom of worshipping God formally, either in public, in the family, or in secret.
Acknowledging a problem but omitting to wrestle with God for pardon and victory over sin.

The Lord convince us more thoroughly of the evil of hardness of heart, and teach us to make use of the right remedy through Christ Jesus. Amen.

← Eight things love will do for JesusAre we born innocent? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Eight things love will do for JesusEverything about the way that Jesus was treated in His trial and death was calculated to bury Him in shame and disgrace and make His followers too frightened to keep up their association with Him. Confusion, fear and sorrow were prominent in His erstwhile followers. Yet as Mark 16 indicates, something burned in the hearts of the women – the two Marys and Salome. They couldn’t stay away from Jesus’ grave and nothing could stop them showing Him the highest respect even in these circumstances. Michael Bruce asks us how we behave towards Jesus Christ in times when He is largely treated with scorn and contempt and when His cause seems to have no prospects.Bruce (1635–1693) was familiar with such times. Ejected from his pastorate, he preached in fields and barns to those who dared to attend, then was wounded when captured and sentenced to banishment. The authorities had no respect for Christ or His church and any individual’s commitment to Him seemed certain to end in failure and embarrassment. But in the following updated extract from one of Bruce’s sermons, Bruce identifies a powerful burning love as the motive of the women who refused to turn their backs on Jesus at this time of His great humiliation.How pleasant is it for men and women to have love-warm exercise on their hearts to Christ at a time when He seems to be in a low condition, with His back to the wall. There is love-warm exercise here in these women’s hearts, dark and cold as the time was.

Love makes you miss Him when He isn’t thereThe first love-warm exercise on these women’s hearts is that Christ is missed, and when missed, there is much din made for Him. These poor women had had His company before, and now they lack it, and o the fuss and din that they make for it! Is there any life among you, friends? Or is the exercise of seeking Christ missing and away? O! it’s a dreadful business in many Christians and ministers, that Christ is away and He is not missed, Christ is away and there is no din made for Him.
Love makes you stop caring about anything apart from HimWhere love-warm exercise is on someone’s heart, it will disrupt their rest, it will break up their sleep, and they will be up before dawn to get at Him. Do you have anything of that love to Christ that keeps you awake when other folk sleep, fasting when others are feasting, weeping when others are laughing, still at it when others are at ease? Love will make you run over the mountains after your Beloved, and put you in pursuit after Christ before other folk have hardly rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. Tell me, friends, is there warmness in your pursuit after an absent Christ among you now, when He seems to be in His grave? There must be a warmness in the heart, when the pursuit of an absent Christ comes between poor bodies and their food, sleep and rest. It is heart-warming when, whatever be the poor body’s hardships, yet it will be after a buried Christ. This is the thing you must resolve on, if you follow Him.
Love makes you use every opportunity God gives to meet HimIt came naturally to these women to make a good use of the sabbath day. Wherever there is a love to Christ, there is a congenial respect for the sabbath. The women make the sabbath, as it were an usher to bring them to Christ. Many, when the sabbath is done, quit Christ till the next week, but where there is love-warm exercise in a someone’s heart, the sabbath will be an usher to conduct you to Christ.
Love makes you bring something useful with youWhen those who love Christ go to visit Him, they always prepare something to take with them, that they think will be needful. The women prepared spices to embalm Christ’s broken body (Luke 24). Always take something with you when you go to Him, even if it is nothing more than all the empty dishes in your house for Him to fill. If you want to be welcomed when you come in the day of trouble, bring with you to Christ’s grave emptiness and spices too.

There are four sorts of spices that Christians are now to bring to Christ’s grave.

One is a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51). Such he will not despise, for it has a pleasing smell to Him.

Another thing to bring is your soul and body a living sacrifice to Him. This, says the apostle, is your reasonable service, and nothing smells sweeter to Him, than when soul and body both are given up to God, and put at His disposal.

Thirdly bring the spices of fresh praises of His name. “Who offereth praise glorifieth me” (Psalm 50). Praises to Him in such a day as this, is a sweet relish to God. For a Christian to sit down on Christ’s grave, and sing over His praises and commendations, how acceptable it is!

Fourthly, bring lively mortification of sin and lively deniedness to the world and the flesh and the lusts thereof. It is something Christ relishes, when, for all that has come and gone, you keep thinking less of the world.

But I’ll tell you four sorts of spices that ought not to be brought to Christ’s grave. Rehashes of old arguments, long since resolved. Natural and carnal fears, which God’s Word puts paid to. Lame sacrifices, which we think good enough for Him now His back is to the wall. Ill guided complaints that cast reflections upon God.

Love engulfs all difficulties in the wayThese women set a meeting with Christ above all difficulties in their way.
They have no one to join with in what they do. There were very few of their friends to press for it and fewer to praise it. “Why are the disciples not going to visit Christ’s grave?” someone might query. “Is it really right for you to go before the disciples?”
There was a number of soldiers around the grave with their orders and commission. “What you are doing is rebellion,” might be one objection, “and besides, think of what the soldiers might do to you!” But they swallow up these difficulties in hope of meeting with Christ. “What are they but flesh? We want a meeting with Jesus!”
There was a great stone upon the grave. “Who will roll away the stone?” they said. But they face this down also. “So what if we get all our backs broken rolling away the stone, if we could only get a meeting with Jesus!”
It was not yet full day when they set out. “Wait till daytime,” someone might have said, “and then you will see to go: you don’t know what you may meet with, and you won’t manage to keep to the path.” But love is so bubbling up in their hearts that they cannot wait any longer till they get to Him. Christ and a meeting with Him swells larger in their hearts than all difficulties.

There is such love-warm exercise in their hearts that difficulties are so far from holding them back from visiting Christ’s grave that they make use of them all as stepping stones to walk on. “What matter if we are reproached as fanatics, if only we can get to Him! In any case, duty is ours and the outcome is the Lord’s.”

“We would like to go to Christ if we dared,” some say. “But if I am known to follow Christ the influential people in my community will go ballistic and my neighbours will all deride me.” Will they? “Yes, they will, and if I grow zealous in any way and become straight in my principles and practice I will be a marvel to all around and I don’t want to stand out.” Well, I cannot persuade you, but I’ll tell you news. Love in a Christian’s heart always produces these two things. It makes encouragements as broad and as wide as God has carved them out to be. Burning love will make nothing of a cold blast or a dark night for meeting with Christ. And love always looks at the bonny side of its object, its preciousness and all its beautiful colours. Love makes Christ so lovely that it engulfs all difficulties between Him and it, and makes them as it were die out and vanish.

When difficulties increase, love increases tooThe love-warm exercise in these women’s hearts is that as their difficulties grow, their ardency and diligence to find Him keeps growing too. In times of difficulty it is good to see Christians growing in diligence, and a foul shame to see them slacking because of difficulties. The two Marys, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, would put all Scotland to shame today if they were amongst us. They put to shame all the disciples in that time of difficulty. Worldly folk might have told them there was not much prudence in their undertaking. Sometimes indeed the undertaking of Christians is accompanied with prudence, yet I always love it when what is lacking in prudence is made up for by pure zeal, honesty and sincerity. Zeal and honesty in God’s people makes up for many defects and is preferable to the shirking kind of prudence that many these days lay much weight on.
Love risks everything to do Christ a good turnThese women venture themselves and all that they have for Christ. They lay life, name, fortune, credit and all at the stake for Christ. If they can just get the spices put on Christ’s body they will think all has gone well. For all these poor women knew, they might have got a gibbet or a prison cell from the higher powers and clergy for owning Christ’s grave. “Gibbet here, gibbet there, prison here, prison there, I need to see Him. Fines and penalties here, fines and penalties there, I must do this good turn for Christ. I will not be hindered, whatever it costs.” There is warmness indeed!
Love keeps looking for a rising ChristThe final piece of love-warm exercise among these women is that they keep seeking news of a rising Christ. Something in their hearts wants to have Him up again. That is why they march over all difficulties, to see what word there is of Him. Love is healthy where there is a warmness in it and where Christ keeps growing in the heart, and where this is there is always many visits to Christ’s grave and much enquiry made about when He will rise again.

← How to achieve authenticitySensitivity to spiritual insensitivity →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How to achieve authenticityAuthenticity is highly prized in our culture, both in society and in the church. Nobody wants to be fake, everyone wants to be true to themselves. The difficulty is discerning what our true inner selves are really like. We all want to be the best version of ourselves, but lurking inside the deepest core of our being is something unpleasant. We don’t want that to be expressed to the world. More than being true to our real selves as sinners, what we need is truth in our inner selves. Certainly what God desires is for us to have truth in the inward parts, in our innermost being. God Himself is true through and through. Correspondingly, the Bible, His Word is true and reliable, and He transforms His people so that they have real integrity in their deepest places of their hearts. In this updated extract, David Dickson shows that when our hearts are open to being searched and shaped by God’s Word, we become more and more true to Him. Then our renewed selves become really worth expressing honestly and consistently to others.The hidden intentions of our hearts matterThe writer of Hebrews has just reminded his readers of the warning that was given to the people of Israel, that unbelief would prevent them from obtaining the blessed rest that God promises His people. Now, lest any should shrug off this warning, as something that expired with those to whom it was first spoken (or else cloak their sins and their intention to defect from the faith when the time seems right), he lets them know the power of the Word, and the power of God who they are dealing with. “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

We must therefore carefully study the use, extent and nature of God’s Word, lest through misunderstanding it or being ignorant of it, we might misapply or misinterpret it.

God’s living Word strikes a chord deep in our hearts The first attribute of the Word is that it is “quick,” or living, alive. It does not die when those to whom it was first directed die, but it endures, speaking on with the same authority, to all who hear it, in all times after. The Word is not a dead letter, which expired in previous ages. It is the same to us as it was before to others – fit for working, and working the work for which it is sent, whether for convincing or converting the hearer, always.

God’s powerful Word makes changes deep in our hearts Again, the Word is “powerful.” It is not only fit to work, but active and operative in effect. It actually binds the conscience to obedience, or judgement, whatever opposition the sinner may make. If the hearer believes it, it sets working immediately to clear his mind, rectify his will, reform his life, and to bring about his good and safety. If a hearer does not believe it, again it sets to work, there and then binding him guilty to judgement, and augmenting his natural blindness, and his heart’s hardness, bringing on some degree of the deserved punishment on him (although of course it does not do this of its own nature, but rather by the disposition of the object on which it is working). So, the Word does not lack its own effect, whenever it is preached. Always it either helps or harms the hearer, according as the hearer yields to it or rejects or neglects it. We therefore do well to observe what sort of work it does on us personally (seeing it must have some effect), so that we may be framed to the better by it.

God’s Word reaches the deepest core of our beingAnother property of the Word is that “it is sharper than any two-edged sword.” It pierces speedily through a brow of brass, and a dissembling countenance, and a lying mouth. It thrusts itself, without any resistance, into the conscience of the most obstinate, with a secret blow, and makes that obstinate one guilty in his own heart.

Preachers should therefore not think their labour is lost, when they are engaging with obstinate sinners. The stroke is given at the hearing of the Word, and it will be found uncured after. On the other hand, dissemblers should not please themselves with good appearances, as if the Word did not touch them. Rather, they should give glory to God, at the time when they are pricked at the heart. For if they carry on ignoring the wound they have received from this sword, the wound shall prove deadly.

The Word also “pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit.” The most secret devices and plots of the mind or spirit, and the most hidden affections of the heart or soul towards any forbidden evil, this Word will find out. It can even divide asunder the soul and the spirit, the heart and the mind, and tell the man how his soul or heart cleaves to that sin, and how his mind plots pretences to hide the evil of it from himself and from others, even in those sins which have not broken out, but lie concealed in the mind, like the marrow in the bones. And it can put a difference betwixt the purposes of the heart and the thoughts, how to contrive the scheme, and how to disguise the behaviour. Or those ways how the sinner beguiles himself, and seeks to conceal things from the eyes of others, the Word deciphers, and distinguishes all the things which self-deceiving sophistry wants to keep tangled up.

Clearly then, secret purposes fall under the jurisdiction of the Word, as well as practices performed. And pretences and excuses will not put off the challenge of the Word. Nothing remains then except for us to give ourselves up to the governance of the Word, fleeing from what it forbids, and following what it commands.

God Himself sees who we really areFinally, to confirm the power of the Word, the writer brings in the nature of God whose Word it is. He sets up the sinner’s secret thoughts in the sight of the all-seeing God, with whom the sinner has to do. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

God is the one with whom the hearer of the Word has to do, the one with whom he has his reckoning to make – not the preacher. God himself joins with His Word, and gives it that searching, and discovering and piercing power.

God’s omniscience, and all-seeing sight, should make us look to our inward disposition. This is how this, and other similar exhortations and warnings, shall have better effect and fruit in us.

← Five things Jesus teaches us about prayerEight things love will do for Jesus →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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Five things Jesus teaches us about prayerThe transfiguration was a special event in the life of Jesus. Shortly before His crucifixion and death, He had this time of encouragement in a special display of His Father’s love and then the Father’s special announcement of His delight in Him and His redemptive work. But as Alexander Wedderburn points out in one of a series of sermons on the transfiguration, before this time of blessing, Jesus prayed. Why, Wedderburn asks, did He usher in the transfiguration with prayer? Whatever it meant for Him directly, there are certain things He wanted His disciples to learn from it. In the following updated extract, Wedderburn sets out five things Jesus teaches us about prayer.1. Whatever you do, begin with prayerWe find key figures in Scripture, such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and others doing this. Why?

For one thing, this is the way to keep all our actions regulated and warranted by the Word, when we dare attempt nothing but what we can recommend to God by prayer. Joshua’s worst failure was in the covenant he made with the Gibeonites, when he did it without asking counsel of the Lord. Many strive for the things of the world in a measure that they would blush to pray for.

Also, this is the way to attain the thing desired with a blessing. ‘In all thy ways acknowledge God and he shall bring it to pass.’ What excellent success Jacob got, when he had to do with his brother Esau! He prevailed with God and then prevailed with men.

But perhaps we do not receive the thing we ask for. Still prayer is a way of quieting us, for, like a supplicant at court, as long as he gets a sight of the king, his efforts have not been in vain. If Jacob had got nothing more than his new name ‘Israel’ for his wrestling, it would have been worth it.

From this we can see that although God has declared and promised things, yet He wants us to come to Him and ask. So our first concern should be the matter of our prayers (the things we pray for). Then we should be fervent in prayer. And we should be diligent in prayer, every family apart (Zechariah 12:9–10).

Special sights of God are to be expected chiefly when we are doing our ordinary dutiesAs Christ prayed, He was transfigured. Likewise Daniel had his special visions when he was praying. It was the apostles after the resurrection were keeping the sabbath, that Christ came in their midst.

We must not expect special manifestations of God when we are sleeping but when we are doing! Just as God commands us to do things above our power in order to make us pray, so one reason promising special acts of grace is likewise to make us pray.

This reproves those who complain that they don’t get enough experiences of God at the same time as being negligent about their duties. There is no spiritual condition where some duty cannot be done. If you cannot rejoice, still you may trust. If you cannot trust, you may still desire to trust. If you cannot desire it, at least you may complain of your lack of desire. So there is always some form of duty to be done – and when all of them are neglected, no wonder there is no sense of God’s grace.

Therefore, if you want to be rich in experiences, follow your duty.

Yet, do your duty with these directions.

(a) Do not limit God to blessing you in any one particular duty. David found God in meditation, the Ethiopian in reading, the disciples going to Emmaus in Christian conversation, Cornelius in prayer in his own house, and so on.

(b) Do not idolise any duty so as to rest on it or expect a visit from God because of it.

(c) Do not undervalue any duty, however small. The child that Jesse thought least of was the Lord’s anointed. It may be a duty where you have often sought the Lord and not found Him, yet do what Peter did with his net, ‘Nevertheless at thy command I cast it down again.’

Even the things we know God has resolved to do, we must pray for themChrist knew what God had decreed, yet here He prays for it. When Daniel understood by books the length of the captivity and what Jeremiah had prophesied, then he set himself to prayer (Daniel 9:1–3). When Christ tells the church, ‘Behold, I come quickly,’ they answer, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus!’

By prayer we submit to the order which God has appointed in His covenant, of making prayer a means of obtaining lawful things. The more faith we have of the thing we pray for – the nearer it comes to a well grounded assurance – the more acceptable is the prayer. ‘Believest thou that I am able to do this?’ is one of the things Christ searches for in the supplications of His people. ‘Let him ask in faith, nothing doubting.’

This is why we are wrong to think, ‘God will certainly do such and such things whether I pray or not, because He has promised.’ Yes, but you should take the promise and turn it over in a prayer. Even when your bread is in your cupboard, still pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ It is an acknowledgement of your dependence on God, and a ready way to engage your heart to prayer.

Humiliation is the way to exaltationChrist is a supplicant immediately before He is transfigured – first He is humbled and then He is exalted. Job 22:29 and 1 Peter 5:6 are clear proofs of the truth of this: ‘When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person;’ ‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.’

Though there is nothing meritorious in our humiliations to draw blessing after them, as the needle pulls the thread, yet in ordinary providences this holds true. The more humility, the more sincerity. The one whose heart is lifted up in him is not upright. God has a special delight in sincerity, ‘the upright man is his delight.’ This is the way He takes both in promises and providences, to ‘lift up the humble’ and ‘relieve the spirit of the humble.’ If we were humbled, who knows how near our deliverance would be. Many think of humility as the way to make us contemptible, but in the view of God it is not so. Never was Christ lower than the day before He arose again.

The Father and the Son mutually exalt one anotherThe Son by prayer first confesses His dependence, and confesses the omnipotence of His Father, that He was the only true God, that His deity is immutable, that He is faithful in promising, etc. And then the Father glorifies Him in the hearing of all on the Mount of Transfiguration, ‘This is my Beloved Son!’ No one ever lost anything by exalting God. Those that honour Him He will honour, just as He will forsake those who forsake Him.

← How grace takes us by surpriseHow to achieve authenticity →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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How grace takes us by surpriseOur thoughts are programmed to expect certain consequences from certain circumstances. But God’s thoughts are not like ours. Where we would expect doom and judgment, God’s way surprises us with forgiveness and mercy. Sometimes as we look at other Christians too, our prejudices too often come into play and we don’t leave space for the powerful grace of God to bring disproportionately good effects from sources we tend to dismiss and overlook. We don’t even understand the appearances that God gives of His work, like when Jesus seemed to actually ignore the woman of Canaan who petitioned Him to help her daughter. Defying our expectations, Jesus was in fact drawing her increasingly closer to Him and preparing to pour out His blessing on her at the point when it looked least likely. In the following updated extract from his sermon on Christ’s interactions with this woman in Matthew 15, William Guthrie develops this theme of the unexpectedness of grace.God’s grace often confounds our expectationsVariations in grace and gifts are not due to people’s natural characteristics. Often those who do not look very promising, and who are very young or weak in the faith, come through a time of testing just as well as those who are of a greater stature. Shrubs will sometimes stand, and even small plants in God’s garden, when the tallest cedars will split, fall, or break in pieces before the wind of temptation.

It is very consistent with the nature of grace that where least is expected most should come forth to the praise of God. Grace runs in that channel, “Not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty.” This is most congruous to what Christ said, “Many that are first, shall be last; and the last shall be first.”

In the experience of the people of God in all ages it has turned out that most good was found in the hands where little was expected.

What seems likely to us is often irrelevantWhat then are these things that make us expect little at some people’s hands?

Maybe they come from a bad background and are poorly taught, like the woman of Canaan would have seemed to the disciples. But it is a small matter with God to make someone like this profitable. The woman of Canaan was as wise as any in all that country.

Perhaps they live in unfruitful soil, and do not have access to better instruction. But that is no sure sign, for there is many an open-hearted Christian that no one can tell where he got his knowledge from, for you would think that in his spiritual pastures he could not get so much as one full meal.

Or this person does not make a very impressive claim to be a Christian. This makes us suspect them and we do not look for much good from them. Nothing much was ever heard of them. But this means nothing to God’s grace.

Perhaps they fell so easily into some temptation that you would never expect any more good to come of them. But what would you have thought of Peter, who was so shamefully put out by a simple girl? Well, Peter would be hanged for the same thing afterwards for all that. There may be many like Nicodemus, who do not dare make much public confession for Christ, and yet they are richly forthcoming afterwards.

The surprising effects of graceHowever, these unlikely cases will often bring forth much fruit.

In a time of difficulty, they may well make a solid acknowledgment and witness to the truth, when others who have greater knowledge and gifts slip up badly and disappear. Those who never knew a tenth of what they knew will stand out to the utmost.

When they encounter opposition, those we might least expect will cling to the faith and pure gospel ordinances. It is easy professing the truth as long as you are not called to account for it. But wait till trial comes, and then you will see someone who never dared to profess much unexpectedly cleave fast to pure gospel ordinances, when many who now profess much draw back and fall behind in the truth.

In terms of practical expressions of Christian love, much will be forthcoming where little was expected. There is much talking of religion, but how well do you evidence your religion by works of love to God’s people who are in straits for His sake? Many who make no great profession are liberal in love and kindness to the people of God. And I assure you that this is no small piece of religion. True love to Christ’s friends when they are in need for His sake is not one of the least parts of religion.

Finally, in terms of patient suffering for Christ, some of whom you expect little may yet be as free and frank as can be, and even go beyond others that more might have been expected of.

Some reasons why grace works this wayWhat makes our Lord Jesus Christ take that way?

God loves to take a way of His own with all His works. We see ordinarily that whenever we hit on the way that we think is most fit, suitable, and convenient for doing anything, it is a hundred to one if God ever takes that way!

Also, where there is much, people are ready to idolize the stock of grace they have and trust much to it. But where there is little to hand, we have to rely much more on God by faith in duty.

How can we use these facts?Avoid boastingIf you have made a great profession of Christianity, the more is expected of you. If you come short, there will be greater loss and disadvantage to the cause of God, and to yourselves also. Failure on your part will be more shameful than many others. Be careful too of how you anticipate a time of trial. People say they will do this and that and the other thing, and what not, when they are not put to it. Away with such foolish fantasies. Suffering for truth will be very different in reality from what you think. Some think they will do great things because of what they have received, and because of their former resolution and great gifts. But this is only trusting to their own strength. Truly if you expect to stand firm like that, it is a hundred to one if you do not fall, shamefully. You must never reckon on your steadfastness in even one trial, or your resolutions and engagements, or the fact that other folk think well of you. Ordinarily in the time of trial God stains the glory of all flesh. If others think much of you, think little of yourselves.

Keep close to GodIf you want to keep your feet in a time of trial, keep up a constant trade with heaven for fresh supplies from God, for that will do it. Be content to be amongst those who have the least respect from others, for we always hope that the Master will have the most praise from the faithfulness and honesty of those who have least help or hope in themselves.

Then pray for those of whom we have little expectation, for their standing will be greatly for the Master’s praise. For it has pleased the Father to reveal these things to babes and sucklings, and hide them from the wise and prudent.

Be willing to sacrifice social statusThose of you who are gentlemen, great folk and respected church members, I would like to engage you to bear testimony for the truth. Please do not think it foolishness to commit yourselves wholeheartedly to God. Don’t think that we expect little of you when it comes to faithfulness and being valiant for the truth. Do not be overly concerned to comply with people’s sinful wishes. Commend the truth, including the truths that are now under attack, to your families and to those you have any influence with. Keep yourselves free of sinful compliance. Say, “I have resolved to give up what I have, just like others, before I sin. I will be as self-denying as anyone, and maybe I shall go to prison like others, before I deny the work of God and break the Covenants.” Do not give way to despondency, but leave room for God’s promises when push comes to shove, for God will bear your costs and pay back your expenses.

Live up to the name of ChristianIf you have made a profession of faith, take care to do as much as you can to the Master’s praise, both in word and deed. Think carefully how you do in faith, in doctrine, in temperance, and in holy walking with God. His glory is closely connected with your being faithful. His glory and your standing are twined together, and that connection is of much value.

If you are to stand in these evil times, it is an accomplishment of the great gospel promise in the Word for your comfort. Further, you have the prayers of the people of God with you for your consolation. There is many a beautiful cloud of prayers going up on behalf of those who remain faithful to the truths of God. Even if you are not praying yourself at any given moment, yet there will be someone still praying for you.

Then behave yourselves honestly. Has God given you Christ? How much more will He give you with Him every good and perfect gift? So, have you got Christ? Truly, then, all other things will be very little beside that. Faith is the more precious for enduring temptations – faith that dares cleave to Him against all opposition. Faith and patience are no empty things. The woman of Canaan found this. She got no bare compliment from Jesus, but an effectual word. “Her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”

← What should a minister pray for?Five things Jesus teaches us about prayer →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

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REFORMING YOURSELF ARTICLES | Reformation Scotland: Recent Episodes

REFORMING YOURSELF ARTICLES | Reformation Scotland