Grace of the Christian Sabbath

Hail thou that art highly favoured of God, thou golden spot of the week, thou marker-day of souls, thou daybreak of eternal brightness, thou queen of days, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among days.… Oh how do men and woman flutter up and down on the weekdays, as the dove on the waters, and can find no rest for their souls, till they come to thee their ark, til thou put forth thy hand and take them in! Oh how they sit under thy shadow with great delight, and find thy faith sweet to their taste! Oh the mountings of mind, the ravishing happiness of heart, the solace of soul, which on thee they enjoy in the blessed Saviour! [George Swinnock]

Men and womens souls are equally just as noble

Soules have no sexes, as Ambrose saith. In the better part they [husband and wife] are both men. And if thy wives soule were freed from the frailty of her sexe, it were as manly, as noble, as understanding, and every way as excellent, as thine own.… Let the husband then be so farre from … contemning his wives worth … that out of consideration that her soule is naturally every as good as his own (sic); only the excellence of its native operations, something damped, as it were, and disabled by the frailty of that weaker body, with which God’s wise providence hath clothed it upon purpose, for a more convenient and comfortable … serviceableness to his good; that I say, hee labour the more to entertaine and intreat her with all tendernesse and honour, to recompence, as it were, her suffering in this kinde for his sake. [Robert Bolton]

Feeding the Flock

The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the Word. It is a promise relating to the New Testament, that God ‘would give unto his church pastors according to his own heart, which should feed them with knowledge and understanding’ (Jer. iii.15). This is by preaching or teaching the word, and no otherwise. This feeding is of the essence of the office of a pastor.… The care of preaching the gospel was committed to Peter, and in him to all true pastors of the church under the name of ‘feeding’ (Jn. xxi. 15, 16). According to the example of the apostles they are to free themselves from all encumbrances, that they may give themselves wholly unto to the word and prayer (Acts vi). Their work is to ‘labour in the word and doctrine’ (1 Tim. v. 17), and thereby to feed the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers (Acts xx).… This work and duty, therefore, as was said, is essential unto the office of a pastor.… Nor is it required only that he preach now and then at his leisure; but that he lay aside all other employments, though lawful, all other duties in the church, as unto such a constant attendance on them as would divert him from this work, that he give himself unto it.… Without this, no man will be able to give a comfortable account of his pastoral office at the last day. [John Owen]

A godly mans love for his wife

The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves, he dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at table, walks with her when he travels and parlies with her in each place where he comes.That the Husband tenders his Spouse with an indeared affection above al mortal creatures: This appeareth by the expressions of respect, that all he hath, is at her command, al he can do, is wholly improved for her content and comfort, she lies in his Bosom, and his heart trusts in her, which forceth al to confess, that the stream of his affection, like a mighty current, runs with full Tide and strength. [Thomas Hooker]

The Act of Worship

Worship is an act of the understanding, applying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thoughts of his majesty.… It is also an act of the will, whereby the soul adores and reverenceth his majesty, is ravished with his amiableness, embraceth his goodness, enters itself into an intimate communion with this most lovely object, and pitcheth all his affections upon him. [Stephen Charnock]

When we fall in love

Marriage love is ofttime a secret worke of God, pitching the heart of one party upon another for no known cause; and therefore when this strong lodestone attracts each to the other, no further questions need to be made but such a man and such a woman’s match were made in heaven, and God hath brought them together. [Daniel Rogers]

Profitting from hearing the Word

Come not to hear with a careless heart, as if you were to hear a matter that little concerned you, but come with a sense of the unspeakable weight, necessity, and consequence of the holy word which you are to hear; and when you understand how much you are concerned in it, it will greatly help your understanding of every particular truth.… Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it.… Cast not all upon the minister, as those that will go no further than they are carried as by force.… You have work to do as well as the preacher, and should all the time be as busy as he … you must open your mouths, and digest it, for another cannot digest it for you … therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing, as well as an idle minister. [Richard Baxter]

Note from Admin

It has been my habit to post no more than one short quote per day, (some times less) at this blog. But at weekends or national holidays I may post two on those days at times.  It will not only even out the days my health doesn’t allow me to post anything of this nature, it will also get more on the blog if given the state of my health I head Homewards, sooner than I expect.  So, I hope this won’t inconvience regular readers. If any of you object to perhaps having 9 posts some weeks rather than the standard 7 then please feel free to contact me via the contact link on this blog.

The same will be true of Reformers Corner too, for the same reasons.

Pardon for the interuption.

~Deejay AKA Crazy Calvinst AKA A Puritan at heart.

The affections of True Religion

As the affections not only necessarily belong to the human nature, but are a very great part of it, so (inasmuch as by regeneration persons are renewed in the whole man) holy affections not only necessarily belong to true religion, but are a very great part of such religion. And as true religion is practical, and God hath so constituted the human nature, that the affections are very much the springs of men’s actions, this also shows, that true religion must consist very much in the affections. [Johnathan Edwards]

What is Worship?

Worship comprehends all that respect which man oweth and giveth to his Maker.… It is the tribute which we pay to the King of Kings, whereby we acknowledge his sovereignty over us, and our dependence on him.… All that inward reverence and respect, and all that outward obedience and service to God, which the word [sc, godliness] enjoineth, is included in this one word worship. [George Swinnock]

On callings and vocations

This is to be noted for satisfaction of certaine weake consciences, who thinke that if they have no publike calling, they have no calling at all … a conscionable performance of household duties in regard to the end and fruit thereof, may be accounted a publike worke. Yea, if domesticall duties be well and thoroughly performed, they will bee even enough to take up a man’s whole time … So a wife likewise, if she also be a mother and a mistris, and faithfully endeavour to doe what by virtue of those callings shee is bound to do, shall find enough to doe. As for children under the government of their parents and servants in a family, their whole calling is to be obedient to their parents and masters, and to doe what they command them in the Lord. Wherefore if they who have no publike calling, bee so much the more diligent in the functions of their private callings, they shall be as well accepted by the Lord, as if they had publike offices. [William Gouge]

The husk and kernal of the Word

It is not the letter of the Word that ordinarily doth convert, but the spiritual meaning of it, as revealed and expounded.… There is the letter, the husk; and there is the spirit, the kernel, and when we by expounding the Word do open the husk, out drops the kernel. It is the meaning of the word which is the word indeed, it is the sense of it which is the soul.… Now, preaching in a more special manner reveals God’s word. When an ointment box is once opened, then it casts its saviour about; and when the juice of a medicinal herb is once strained out and applied, then it heals. And so it is the spiritual meaning of the Word let into the heart which converts it and turns it to God. [Thomas Goodwin]

On preaching

How few ministers do preach with all their might, or speak about everlasting joys and everlasting torments in such a manner as may make man believe that they are in good earnest! Alas, we speak so drowsily or gently, that sleepy sinners cannot hear. The blow falls so light that hard-hearted sinners cannot feel. The most of ministers will not so much as exert their voice, and stir up themselves to an earnest utterance. But if they do speak loud and earnestly,³how few do answer it with weight and earnestness of matter! And yet without this, the voice does little good; the people will esteem it but mere bawling, when the matter doth not correspond. It would grieve one to the heart to hear what excellent doctrine some ministers have in hand, while yet they let it die in their hands for want of close and lively application.… O sirs, how plainly, how closely, how earnestly, should we deliver a message of such moment as ours.… In the name of God, brethren, labour to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners. Remember they must be awakened or damned, and … a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken drowsy sinners. Though you give the holy things of God the highest praise in words, yet, if you do it coldly, you will seem by your manner to unsay what you said in the matter.… It is only here and there, even among good ministers, that we find one who has an earnest, persuasive, powerful way of speaking, that the people can feel him preach when they hear him.…

Though I move you not to constant loudness in your delivery (for that will make your fervency contemptible), yet see that you have a constant seriousness; and when the matter requireth it (as it should do, in the application at least), then lift up your voice, and spare not your spirits. Speak to your people as to men that must be awakened, either here or in hell. Look around upon them with the eye of faith, and with compassion, and think in what a state of joy or torment they must all be for ever; and then, methinks, it will make you earnest, and melt your heart to a sense of their condition. Oh, speak not one cold or careless word about so great a business as heaven or hell

I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my own soul. When I let my heart go cold, my preaching is cold; … and so I can oft observe also in the best of my hearers that when I have grown cold in preaching, they have grown cold too; and the next prayers which I have heard from them have been too like my preaching.… O brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts: keep out lusts and passions, and worldly inclinations; keep up the life of faith, and love, and zeal: be much at home, and much with God … a minister should take some special pains with his heart, before he is to go to the congregation: if it be then cold, how is he likely to warm the hearts of his hearers? Therefore, go then specially to God for life.  [Richard Baxter]

³ 3.Loudness marked a number of Puritan preachers: Thomas Hooker was once (at least) referred to as ‘bawling Hooker’, and William Whateley was known as ‘the Roaring Boy of Banbury’.

Sabbath keeping-a means of Grace

God hath made it our duty, by his institution, to set apart this day for a special seeking of his grace and blessing. From which we may argue, that he will be especially ready to confer his grace on those who thus seek it.… The sabbath day is an accepted time, a day of salvation, a time wherein God especially loves to be sought, and loves to be found.… [Johnathan Edwards]

 

Sabbath Duty

It is the duty and glory of a Christian to rejoice in the Lord every day, but especially on the Lord’s Day.… To fast on the Lord’s Day, saith Ignatius, is to kill Christ; but to rejoice in the Lord this day, and to rejoice in all the duties of the day … this is to crown Christ, this is to lift up Christ. [Johnathan Edwards]

The character of the Fourth Commandment.

The Sabath is a sacred and divine institution; but we must receive and embrace it as a privilege and a benefit, not as a task and a drudgery. First, God never designed it to be an imposition upon us, and therefore we must not make it so to ourselves.… Secondly, God did design it to be an advantage to us, and so we must make and improve it.… He had much more regard for our souls. The sabbath was made a day of rest, only in order to its being a day of holy work, a day of communion with God, a day of praise and thanksgiving; and the rest from worldly business is therefore necessary, that we may closely apply ourselves to this work, and spend the whole time in it, in public and private.… See here what a good master we serve, all whose institutions are for our own benefit. [Matthew Henry]

Receiving the Father's Love by Faith

It is true, there is not an immediate acting of faith upon the Father, but by the Son. He is ‘the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by’ him (Jn 14:6).… But this is that I say: When by and through Christ, we have an access unto the Father, we then … see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon. We are then, I say, to eye it, to believe it, to receive it, as in him; the issues and fruits thereof being made out unto us through Christ alone. Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may by the beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshments actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream, wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.… The soul being thus by faith through Christ … brought unto the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion, and spiritual perception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself. [John Owen]

Family Reformation

You are not likely to see any general reformation, till you procure a family reformation. Some little religion there may be, here and there; but while it is confined to single persons, and is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise much future increase.[Richard Baxter]

The Ministry of The Comforter

…his bringing the promises of Christ to remembrance, glorifying him in our hearts, shedding abroad the love of God in us, witnessing with us, as to our spiritual state and condition, sealing us to the day of redemption; being the earnest of our inheritance, anointing us with … consolation, confirming our adoption, and being present with us in our supplications. Here is the wisdom of faith,—to find out, and meet with the Comforter in all these things; not to lose their sweetness, by lying in the dark [as] to their author, nor coming short of the returns which are required of us. [John Owen]

The Witness of the Spirit

The Spirit … witnesses … by … whatsoever of Christ’s is applied to us by the Spirit. But, besides witnessing with these witnesses, the Spirit hath a distinct witness by way of enlarging the soul; which is joy in the apprehension of God’s fatherly love.… The Spirit doth not always witness … by force of argument from sanctification, but sometimes immediately by way of presence; as the sight of a friend comforts without help of discourse. [Richard Sibbes]

God's Gift of supernatural Joy

Of this joy there is no account to be given, but that the Spirit worketh it when and how he will; he secretly infuseth and distils it into the soul, prevailing against all fears and sorrows, filling it with gladness, exultations; and sometimes with unspeakable raptures of mind. [John Owen]

Fruit of assurance

In assurance … a man’s communion and converse is … somtimes with the Father, then with the Son, and then with the Holy Ghost; sometimes his heart is drawn out to consider the Father’s love in choosing, and then the love of Christ in redeeming, and so the love of the Holy Ghost, that searcheth the deep things of God, and revealeth them to us, and taketh all the pains with us.…  [Thomas Goodwin]

Heart Corruption

Whence came our carnality, covetousness, pride, sloth, and unbelief? Are they not all to be traced to the corruption of our hearts? When the hands of a clock move in an irregular manner, and when the bell strikes the wrong hour, be assured there is something wrong within. Oh, how needful that the mainspring of our motives be in proper order, and the wheels in a right condition. [Charles Spurgeon]

Dying words of John Bunyan

Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of his blessed Son, recieve me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall meet, to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world without end. [John Bunyan]

10 Points to Repentance

• Sit with care, constancy, and conscience under the word of truth, and gospel of grace
• Study the nature of God … acquaint yourself with his attributes,—his holiness, power, justice, mercy, and the like. Your souls will never be drawn from sin, or driven into a course of true repentance, until God becomes your dread.…
• Sit close to the work of self-scrutiny.… The worst of men, by a short conference with their own soul, would soon see a necessity of repentance.… Be serious in self-examination.
• Sit loose to the world … true penitentiaries [penitents] must be pilgrims in the earth.
• See the shortness of life.… Hopes of long life, and thoughts of repentance at pleasure, help many a soul to hell
• Seriously expect approaching judgment
• Seriously apprehend the possibility … pardon.… it is thing with certainty, if received with a prostrate soul, and sued out by serious repentance
•  Soak the heart in the blood of Jesus—Take every day a turn of meditation in Mount Calvary.… Be persuaded daily to contemplate the cross of Christ.
• Speed will much facilitate repentance.… Linger not in what you will be rid of; for the longer you linger, you will be more loath to part.
•  Sue for it [repentance] at the hands of God. [Zachary Crofton]