True Christianity: a treatise on sincere repentence, true faith, the holy walk of the true Christian, etc.

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A TREATISE

ON

SINCERE REPENTANCE, TRUE FAITH, THE HOLY
WALK OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN, ETC.

BY THE VENERABLE

JOHN ARNDT,

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS IN THE PRINCIPALITY OF LÜNEBURG.

ORIGINALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY REV. A. W. BOEHM,

GERMAN CHAPLAIN AT THE COURT OF ST. JAMES,

AND PUBLISHED IN LONDON, A.D. 1712.

% |Uu) ^mtrican GEftition,

REVISED, CORRECTED, AND FURNISHED WITH ADDITIONAL MATTER FROM
THE ORIGINAL GERMAN,

TOGETHER WITH A

GENERAL INTRODUCTION,

( By CHARLES F. SCHAEFFER, D.D.,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH,

AT PHILADELPHIA.

PHILADELPHIA:
THE LUTHERAN BOOK STORE,

No. 807 Vine Street.
SMITH, ENGLISH & CO., No. 23 N. Sixth Street.

186 8.

4-

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868,

By JOSEPH A. SEISS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

71- 3ö3

CAXTO;i PRESS OP 8IIERMAN & CO.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction. By the Editor, xi

Preface. By the Author, xxxix

BOOK I.

WHEREIN TRUE CHRISTIANITY, SINCERE SORROW FOR SIN, REPENTANCE, FAITH,
AND THE HOLY LIFE OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN, ARE CONSIDERED.

•I

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J

Chap. I. Showing what the image of God in man is, 1

Chap. II. Of the fall of Adam, 4

Chap. III. Showing how man is renewed in Christ unto eternal life, .... 7
Chap. IV. Of true repentance, and the true yoke and cross of Christ, .... 11

Chap. V. Wherein does true faith consist ? 14

Chap. VI. Showing how the vital power of the "Word of God should be manifested in

man through faith, 17

Chap. VII. The law of God, written in the hearts of all men, convinces them that in

the day of judgment they will be without excuse, 19

Chap. VIII. No one can find comfort in Christ and his merits who does not truly re-
pent, .... 22

Chap. IX. The unchristian walk of many persons in our day, is a cause of the rejection

of Christ and of the true faith, 26>

Chap. X. The children of the world are against Christ, and, consequently, their life

and their Christianity are both alike false, 27'

Chap. XI. Showing that he does not truly repent, is not a Christian, and not a child of
God, who does not, in his life and conduct, follow Christ; also, wherein the new

birth and the yoke of Christ consist, 29!

Chap. XII. The true Christian dies unto himself and the world, and lives in Christ, . 34,
Chap. XIII. The Christian ought willingly to die unto himself and the world-, for the
sake of the love of Christ, and for the sake of that future and eternal glory, for
which we were created and redeemed, .... .... 37"

Chap. XIV. The true Christian, who imitates Christ, hates his own life- in this world,

and forsakes the world, 41*

Chap. XV. Showing how the "old man" daily dies, and the "new man" is daily re-
newed, in a true Christian ; also, wherein self-denial consists, and what is meant

by the Christian's cross, ..45*

Chap. XVI. A conflict is constantly maintained in the Christian between the Spirit and

the flesh, 48

(iii)

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iv CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chap. XVII. The inheritance and possessions of Christians are not of this world ; they
should, therefore, regard themselves as strangers in it, while they make use of

earthly things, 50

Chap. XYIII. Showing how greatly G-od is offended, when man prefers things that are
temporal to those that are eternal ; and how great the evil is, when our affections

cleave to the creature and not to the Creator, 54

Chap. XIX. He who is most of all conscious of his misery, is most of all acceptable to
God ; and his Christian knowledge of his misery, urges him to seek the grace of

God, 57

Chap. XX. A truly Christian sorrow for sin promotes the daily amendment of the life
of man, makes him meet for the kingdom of God, and fits him, in an increasing
degree, for eternal life, ......... ... 61

Chap. XXI. Of the true worship of God, 66

; Chap. XXII. A true Christian is known primarily by love, and by a daily amendment

of life, 72

M Chap. XXIII. He who, in Christ, desires to grow in grace, is often compelled to with-
draw from worldly society, .74

Chap. XXIV. Of the love of God and our neighbor, 77

Chap. XXV. The love of our neighbor more particularly considered, .... 83

Chap. XXVI Wherefore our neighbor is to be loved, 85

Chap. XXVII. Wherefore our enemies are to be loved, ...... 89

Chap. XXVIII. Showing how the love of the Creator should be preferred to that of all

creatures ; and how our neighbor is to be loved in God, 91

Chap. XXIX. Of that reconciliation to our neighbor, without which God withdraws

his grace, 94

Chap. XXX. Of the fruits of love, *» 98

Chap. XXXI. Pride and self-love corrupt and destroy even the best and noblest gifts, . 103
Chap. XXXII. Great gifts do not demonstrate a man to be a Christian, but faith that

works by love, ............... 106

Chap. XXXIII. God has no respect to the works of any one ; but judges of works ac-
cording to the heart, ............. 108

Chap. XXXIV. Showing that God alone, without any human aid, is the author of our
salvation, and that we are to submit unreservedly to his grace ; also, that Christ's
merit is not imputed to the impenitent, 109

Chap. XXXV. All wisdom, arts, and sciences, yea, even the knowledge of the whole

Scripture, are vain, without a holy and Christian life, 113

Chap. XXXVI. He who does not live in Christ, but gives his heart to the world, has
only the outward letter of the Scriptures, but he does not experience their power,
or eat of the hidden manna, 116

Chap. XXXVII. He who does not follow Christ in faith, holiness, and continued re-
pentance, cannot be delivered from the blindness of his heart, but must abide in
eternal darkness; and he cannot have a true knowledge of Christ, or fellowship
with him, 122

Chap. XXXVIII. Showing that an unchristian life leads to false doctrine, hardness of

heart, and blindness ; also, treating of the eternal election of grace, . . . 129

Chap. XXXIX. Showing that the purity of the doctrine of the divine Word, is main-
tained not only by discussions and publications, but also by true repentance and
holiness of life, . 132

Chap. XL. Sundry rules for leading a holy life, 137

CONTENTS.

Chap. XLI. The whole of Christianity consists in the restoration of the image of God

in man, and the destruction of the image of Satan, 142

Chap. XLII. In this concluding Chapter the reasons for adopting the method observed
in Book I, are explained ; the duty of guarding against spiritual pride is described,
and the truth is set forth that true spiritual gifts cannot be obtained without
prayer, 153

4

Pkeface to the Second Book, . 157

BOOK II.

Chap. I. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is given to us by our Heavenly Father as our
help against the damnable and deadly poison of Original Sin, and the pernicious
fruits thereof, as well as a protector against all the calamities and evils both of the
body and the soul, ............. 159

Chap. II. The manner in which the Christian should apply and appropriate to himself

the consolation, noticed in Chapter I, 163

Chap. III. Our righteousness before God, consists solely in the perfect obedience and

merit of Christ Jesus, and in the remission of sin apprehended by faith, . . . 168

Chap. IV. Showing that saving faith in the true Christian, produces manifold fruits of
righteousness, and that these must proceed from the depth of the heart ; also, that
the character of our outward works, depends, in the judgment of God, upon the
state of the heart, _ 172

Chap. V. Showing that the evidence of true Christianity does not consist in the knowl-
edge and the hearing of God's word, but that he is a Christian, in whose life God's
word is manifested, and who beseeches God in sincerity that this word, as a divine
seed, may be quickened in him, and bear fruit, 177

Chap. VI. The perfection and salvation of men depend on union with Christ by faith ;
but to this they can contribute nothing, whereas they rather interfere with the grace
of God by their perverse will ; but Christ, and He alone, accomplishes the work in
us, 182

Chap. VII. Showing that, in order to understand the true nature of repentance, we
must necessarily know the distinction between the old and new man ; or, how in us
Adam must die, and Christ live ; or, how in us the old man must die, and the new
man live, ............... 184

Chap. VIII. Showing how graciously God invites us to repentance, and how necessary

it is that it should not be delayed, . . . . ... .188

Chap. IX. Showing what repentance is, and the manner in which the sinner truly re-
pents ; also, how the goodness of God leads us to repentance, ..... 193

Chap. X. The four properties of true repentance, 201

Chap. XI. Showing that the fruit of conversion is the new creature ; also, that the
Christian is, by faith, a lord over all, and, by love, a servant of all; and, that the
life of Christ is a mirror for us, 206

Chap. XII. Showing that Christ is the only way and end of true godliness; and that

man goes astray, when God does not guide and direct him, 207

Chap. XIII. Showing that Jesus Christ is the true Book of life, and that his poverty

teaches us to despise the glory of the world, 209

Chap. XIV. Showing how Christ, by the shame and contempt which he endured, and

by his self-denial, teaches us to despise the honor and glory of the world, . . 212

Chap. XV. Showing how we should, through Christ, bear and overcome the trials and

contempt of the world, ............ 214

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chap. XVI. Showing how Christians are to seek and obtain favor and glory through

Christ, in Heaven, . . . . . 218

Chap. XVII. Showing how we may through Christ, and after the example of all the

saints, overcome the calumnies of men, 220

Chap. XVIII. Showing how the sorrows and pains of Christ should teach us to subdue

the lusts of the flesh, 230

Chap. XIX. Showing how we should behold in the crucified Christ, as in the Book of

life, both our sins, and also the displeasure, the love, justice, and wisdom of God, . 232
Chap. XX. Of the power and necessity of prayer, in these holy contemplations, . . 234

Chap. XXI. Of the power of the noble virtue of humility, 238

Chap. XXII. All the works of a true Christian must be done in humility, or they will,

otherwise, become an abomination and idolatry, 241

Chap. XXIII. A man who does not perceive his own emptiness, and does not give all

the honor to God, commits the greatest of sins, and falls like Satan, . " . . 244

Chap. XXIV. Of the noble virtue of love, and of its power, soundness, and purity, . 245
Chap. XXV. Sundry signs by which we may ascertain whether we truly love Christ, . 249

Chap. XXVI. Five kinds of works of love, in which the grace and goodness of God

are especially revealed, 251

Chap. XXVII. Showing how the Lord Jesus manifests himself to the loving soul as

the highest love and the highest Good, 255

Chap. XXVIII. Showing how the highest Good is perceived and tasted in the soul, . 256

Chap. XXIX. Showing how the loving soul considers God in his benefits as the most

liberal bountifulness, 258

Chap. XXX. Showing how God manifests himself to the loving soul, as the supreme

beauty, 262

Chap. XXXI. Showing how God manifests himself to the loving soul as the infinite

omnipotence, 26

Chap. XXXII. Showing how the loving soul knows God as the highest righteousness

and holiness, 264

Chap. XXXIII. Showing how the loving soul considers God as the eternal wisdom, . 266

Chap. XXXIV. Showing how a man should seek the wisdom of God by prayer ; con-
taining also a useful Treatise on Prayer, wherein the reader is taught how the heart
is to be moved unto prayer, and brought into a quiet sabbath, so that prayer may
be wrought in us by the Lord ; the whole being set forth in Twelve Sections, . 269

Sect. I. All that we have lost in Adam, we recover fully and completely in Christ, . 269

Sect. II. The evils that follow the neglect of prayer, . 270

Sect. III. The benefits of continual prayer, 271

Sect. IV. The true Christian chooses the narrow way in Christ, rather than the

broad way in Adam, ............ 273

Sect. V. Considerations which should move the heart to commune with God in

prayer, 274

Sect. VI. The omniscient God knows what we stand in need of, before we ask him, 275

Sect. VII. That God invites and engages all men to the exercise of prayer, and

promises to hear their petitions, 276

Sect. VIII. God is no respecter of persons, but has an impartial love for all his crea-
tures, 277

Sect. IX. Showing that it is equally sinful to pray to God upon the presumption of

our own merit, and to forbear on account of our unworthiness, .... 279

CONTENTS. vii

PAOE

Sect. X. The true worshipper ought not to seek after God in any particular place ;

for he finds him everywhere in spirit and in truth, 280

Sect. XI. The worshipper is not restricted to certain times of prayer, but may at any

hour address God in prayer, provided that he does not hinder himself, . . 281
Sect. XII. The considerations stated above, not only dispose the heart to true prayer,

but also furnish various useful lessons, 284

Chap. XXXV. Prayer is the sign of a true Christian, that is, of one who is anointed

of the Lord, 285

Chap. XXXYI. On the benefits and power of prayer, and on its true ground or founda-
tion, 287

Chap. XXXVII. Eeasons why God certainly hears our prayers, 291

Chap. XXXVIII. Seven helps or aids for our infirmities in prayer, .... 298

Chap. XXXIX. The conversation of a believing soul with God, 301

Chap. XL. A conversation between faith and the mercy of God, 304

Chap. XLI. The great benefits, and the great efficacy of praise offered to God, . . 305

Chap. XLII. The reasons for which we ought daily to offer praises to God, . . . 309

Chap. XLIII. To praise God is the highest and most honorable employment of men, . 315
Chap. XLIV. Of patience, which triumphantly endures the cross, and waits for the

promised glory, 318

\JCkap. XLV. Divine consolation produces patience under afflictions, .... 322

Chap. XLVI. Motives to patience ; and, the benefits of the cross, . . . . 326

The benefits of the cross, 328

Chap. XLVII. Sentences, and examples of patience and consolation, .... 329
Chap. XLVIII. There is no affliction for which God has not provided appropriate
consolation. The consolation which he affords is always greater than our misery ;

this consideration should sustain and confirm our patience, . . . . . 332
Chap. XLIX. The truth of God and the certainty of his promises, ought to dispose us

to patience, 336

Chap. L. Showing how hope is tested in seasons of adversity ; it maketh not ashamed, 341

Chap. LI. Comfort for those that are weak in faith, 344

Chap. LII. Comforting instructions for those that are laboring under great tempta-
tions in spirit, 349

Chap. LIII. Consolations for those who labor under great spiritual temptations, . . 355

Chap. LIV. Comforts under secret and spiritual temptations of the devil, . . . 361

Chap. LV. The reasons for which God sometimes delays his comfort and assistance, . 365
Chap. LVI. Showing that in seasons of trial the consideration of the exalted patience
of Christ, and of the future and eternal glory, will alleviate the burden of the

cross, 367

Chap. LVII. Consolations against the fears of death, 368

Conclusion of the Second Book, 374

Preface to the Third Book, . . . .' . . . . 375

BOOK III

Chap. I. Of the great internal treasure of an enlightened believer, .... 378
Chap. II. True faith, and converse with the soul, the only means of attaining to this

inward treasure, • 381

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chap. III. The whole treasure of the inner man depends on faith, namely, God,

Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of God, . 384

Chap. IV. The believing soul seeks God internally, in itself; its beauty and blessed-
ness when it is united with God, .......... 388

Chap. V. Showing how a man may be drawn to God; also, wherein spiritual poverty

consists ; and, what the degrees of humility are, 389

Chap. VI. The seat of God in the soul, 390

Chap. VII. Of the dignity of the soul; of true repentance; and, of divine mercy, . 392

Chap. VIII. The calling of God is earnest and sincere, and directs us to come to him, 393

Chap. IX. The purifying influence of true faith, 395

Chap. X. Showing how the natural light in us must disappear, and the light of grace

shine forth, 397

Chap. XI. God, the light of the soul, directing us not to judge our neighbors, . . 399
Chap. XII. The Christian ought daily, once at least, wholly to abstract himself from

all external objects, and retire into his own soul ; the advantages of this course, . 401
Chap. XIII. Showing how the love of God enters into the soul, when it is empty of

the love of the creatures, "... 402

Chap. XIV. Of the exercise of patience and love, 404

Chap. XV. Showing how Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, perfects his work in

the hearts of the faithful, by love and humility, ....... 405

Chap. XVI. Showing how the Holy Spirit operates in our souls, ..... 408

Chap. XVII. Signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, . . . / . 409

Chap. XVIII. Showing how worldly pleasures drive away the Holy Spirit, V . . 410

Chap. XIX. Of inward prayer, and of the true use of the Lord's Prayer, . . . 412
Chap. XX. Showing that humility must first be laid as a foundation in the heart, and

all our works must rest on it ; its blessed influences} 414

Chap. XXI. Showing that a man ought to rest in God alone, and not in his gifts; and

that he must deny himself, 415

Chap. XXII. Showing how our works may be rendered acceptable to God, . . . 416

Chap. XXIII. Of the mystery of the Cross, by which we are drawn to God, . . 419

423

BOOK IV.

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P A E T I.

TREATING OF THE WORKS OF THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION, IN GENERAL.

Chap. I. Of light, the work of the First Day, - 425

Chap. II. Of heaven, the work of the Second Day, 429

Chap. III. Of the separation of the waters from the land, the work of the Third Day, 431

CONTENTS. ix

PAGE

Chap IV. Of the sun, moon, and stars, the work of the Fourth Day, .... 440
Chap. V. Of the waters, and their productions, the work of the Fifth Day, . . . 446
Chap. VI. Of the living creatures, the work of the Sixth Day, 450

PAKT II.
TREATING SPECIALLY OP MAN.

Chap. I. God, an infinite and eternal Being, . . . . 458

Chap. II. God, the Supreme Good, 459

Chap. III. Man, the most nohle of all creatures, and made for the service of God, . 460

Chap. IV. God made man in his own image, in order that he might delight in him, . 460

Chap. V. That God by his love bestows himself upon us, ..... 461

Chap. VI. Showing how much man is indebted to God for his everlasting love, . . 462

Chap. VII. Of the things that instruct and comfort the soul, 462

Chap. VIII. Of the obligations under which men lie to God, ..... 463

Chap. IX. Man even more indebted to God for inward, than for outward blessings, . 464

Chap. X. Of the wisdom which God has shown in the formation of man, . . . 465

Chap. XI. Of the obligations man lies under to God, 465

Chap. XII. Of answering the obligations which man lies under to God, . . . 466
Chap. XIII. Showing that God's love appears in all his works, even in his chastise-
ments, ................ 467

Chap. XIV. Showing how, and on what account, man is obliged to love God, . . 468
Chap. XV. Showing that all the creatures continually remind us of the love which we

owe to God, 469

Chap. XVI. A general rule teaching us how to answer our obligations to God, . . 469

Chap. XVII. Showing that the Christian who loves not God is without excuse, . . 470

Chap. XVIII. Showing that our duty to God tends to promote our own happiness, . 471
^ Chap. XIX. The service which the creatures render to man, compared with that which

man renders to God, 471

Chap. XX. All things are preserved by the hand of God, ...... 472

Chap. XXI. Showing that from the service of man and the creatures, a union takes

place between the visible world, man, and God, . . . . . ... 473

Chap. XXII. From the love which we owe to God, proceeds that which we owe to our

neighbor, 474

Chap. XXIII. Man is made in the image of God, 474

Chap. XXIV. That man is obliged to love his neighbor as himself, .... 475
Chap. XXV. All mankind are to be considered as one man, or as being many mem-
bers of one great body, 476

Chap. XXVI. Charity, the foundation of the greatest strength, 477

Chap. XXVII. Of the nature, properties, and fruits of love, 477

Chap. XXVIII. Love unites him who loves with the person loved, and transforms into

the same nature, 478

Chap. XXIX. Nothing is worthy of our love, but that which can make us more noble

and pure, 479

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chap. XXX. Our chief love is due to God, as the first and last, the beginning and the

end of all things, 479

Chap. XXXI. He who principally loves himself, actually sets up himself in God's

stead, 480

Chap. XXXII. Love to God, the source of all that is good ; self-love, the source of all

evil, 481

Chap. XXXIII. Of the love of God, and the love of self, 482

Chap. XXXIV. Love to God, the only source of peace and unity, .... 483

Chap. XXXY. Showing how we ought to love God, 483

Chap. XXXVI. Divine joy, the fruit of divine love, 484

Chap. XXXVII. Of the evil fruits of self-love, 485

Chap. XXXVIII. Everlasting sorrow and death, the end of self-love and carnal joy, . 486

Chap. XXXIX. All that we have must be offered and consecrated to God, . . . 487

Chap. XL. He can never praise and glorify God, who seeks his own glory, . . . 488

Conclusion, 488

Index, . ' 491

INTRODUCTION.

BY THE AMEKICAN EDITOR

"DOTH the general purpose of the venerable John Arndt in writing his
-L* " True Christianity," and also his own character and spirit, will be
best exhibited by submitting to the reader a statement referring to his per-
sonal history. He was born, December 27th, 1555, in Ballenstädt, a town
in the Duchy of Anhalt, where his father, Rev. Jacob Arndt, long labored
as the chaplain of Duke Wolfgang, and the pastor of one of the Evan-
gelical Lutheran congregations of the place. The latter was a devout and
faithful minister of the Gospel, and a wise and affectionate father. He
had, from the earliest period, devoted much attention to the religious
education of his son, in the performance of which holy duty he was faith-
fully sustained by his excellent wife. Their efforts were abundantly
blessed. The son, even in his early years, took great pleasure in reading
the writings of Luther, and also acquired a fondness for those of Thomas
ä Kempis, of Tauler, and of others who breathed the same spirit of devo-
tion. That this feature of his religious character did not undergo any
essential change in his riper years, appears from the circumstance that he
was one of the first who collected, arranged, and republished the religious
tracts of Stephen Praetorium, a Lutheran divine of an eminently devout
spirit. These were subsequently re-edited by Martin Statius, who pre-
fixed the title: Spiritual Treasury (Geistliche Schatzkammer), to the col-
lection. This book of devotion was highly prized by Spener, has often
been reprinted, is found in many German households, and well deserves
to be translated, and thus made accessible to the English religious public.
§ 2. In his tenth year Arndt lost his father, but the orphan soon found
friends who, in the good providence of God, enabled him to continue the
studies which he had commenced with distinguished success under the
guidance of his father. After completing his preparatory education in
the schools of Halberstadt and Magdeburg, he proceeded, in the year
1576, to the university of Helmstedt, which had recently been established.

(xi)

xii INTRODUCTION.

In the course of the following year, 1577, he went as a student to the
university of Wittenberg, soon after the official recognition of the princi-
ples embodied in the Formula of Concord (published in 1580), by which
that institution received a strictly Lutheran character, and every tendency
to any other doctrinal system was successfully arrested. It was here that
he formed a very close union, first as a student, and then as a personal
friend, with the eminent Polycarp Leyser, the elder of that name, whose
firmness and devotion in sustaining the distinctive features of Lutheran-
ism have assigned to him a high position in the history of his Church. —
After Arndt had, even at this early age, acquired distinction as an accom-
plished private lecturer on Natural Philosophy, etc., as well as on the
Epistle to the Romans, Leyser furnished him with an unusually favorable
recommendation to the professors in Strasburg. This city, the govern-
ment and population of which were exclusively Lutheran, had not yet
been subjected to that great calamity which afterwards befell it, when the
despot and bigot, Louis XIV., incorporated it with the French monarchy,
and by assigning undue privileges to papists, and adopting other tyranni-
cal measures, opened an avenue for the introduction, not merely of an
inferior Romanic language, but also of the errors and superstitions of the
Church of Rome.

§ 3. Arndt continued his theological studies in Strasburg, under the
direction of Prof. Pappus, who was also distiuguished for his devotion to
the genuine Lutheran faith. In the year 1579 he proceeded to Basel,
where, under the gentle sway of Sulcer, the Lutheran faith had acquired
influence and authority. In this city he was temporarily engaged as the
tutor of a young Polish nobleman ; the latter, on one of their excursions,
when Arndt had accidentally fallen into the Rhine, succeeded in seizing
his sinking preceptor by the hair of his head, and thus became the means,
in the hands of God, of saving a life of incalculable value, designed to
prove an ever-flowing source of blessings to the Church.

§ 4. During this whole period Arndt occupied himself with the study
of medicine, in connection with his strictly theological studies ; it is pos-
sible that he would have ultimately chosen the practice of medicine as the
business of his life, if a severe illness had not intervened. After his
recovery, he believed it to be his duty to renounce his personal tastes, and
he thenceforth consecrated himself entirely to the service of the Church.
His medical and chemical occupations, although not abandoned, were
afterwards regarded by him only as a recreation.

§ 5. He returned, in 1581 or 1582, to his native place, and labored for
some time as a teacher, until he was called by his prince, Joachim Ernest,
to be the pastor of the congregation in Badeborn, a village in the Duchy
of Anhalt ; he was, accordingly, ordained in the month of October of
the same year. It was here, too, that he was married, October 31, 1583,
to Anna Wagner, the daughter of an eminent jurist, with whom he passed

INTRODUCTION, xiii

the remaining thirty-eight years of his life in unclouded domestic happi-
ness. She was a devout Christian woman, who cheered and encouraged
Arndt amid his many cares, alleviated every burden to the extent of her
ability, and was always regarded by him with tenderness and gratitude.
They were childless ; but many an orphan found that their hearts could
overflow with love towards the young and destitute — a love as full of
warmth as beloved children have ever experienced parental love to be.

§ 6. In this first pastoral charge of Arndt, the unhappy state of affairs
subjected him, particularly during the latter part of the seven years
which he spent in it, to a " Lutheran martyrdom," as Tholuck expresses
himself (Herzog. Encyk. I., 536). The duke, John George, who now
reigned (a relative of the palsgrave, or count palatine, Casimir, a zealous
Calvinist), after various inward struggles, abandoned the Lutheran faith,
and, in the year 1596, publicly adopted the Reformed faith, a few years
after the transactions to which we now refer. Even Protestant rulers,
who had not yet learned the theory that a union of church and state can
operate only perniciously, perpetually interfered in the internal affairs of
the church. — At this period it was the custom of Lutheran pastors, when
they administered the rite of Baptism, to follow the liturgical form which
prescribed " exorcism." This feature of the whole baptismal form, which
was introduced as early as the third century, or even earlier (before the
days of Tertullian and Origen), consisted simply in a sentence adjuring
the evil spirit to depart from the subject of Baptism. The early practice
had, like others, been gradually associated, after the rise and develop-
ment of popery, with superstitious ideas, such as was also the case with
the Lord's Supper, until it assumed an absurd and even revolting form.
At the period of the Reformation, Zwingli and Calvin (Inst. IV., c. 15, 19;
c. 19, 24) rejected the whole form of exorcism. Luther and Melanchthon,
on the other hand, after discarding the popish excrescences, believed that
the scriptural doctrine which the early form involved or suggested, author-
ized the retention of the practice, when restricted to a very plain and
simple formula, expressive of a scriptural truth. — Now, at that period, as
it is well known, unfriendly feelings, engendered by various causes, ex-
isted to a certain extent, between the heads respectively of the Reformed
and the Lutheran churches, in consequence of which even harmless customs
which none would, under ordinary circumstances, either advocate or con-
demn with partisan feeling, assumed a confessional character. Such was
the case with the purified and simple Lutheran baptismal sentence con-
taining the " exorcism."

§ 7. Arndt's course in this matter has often been misunderstood; as it,
however, demonstrates him to have been alike a very firm and conscien-
tious man, and also an uncompromising supporter of the distinctive doc-
trines and usages of the Lutheran Church, the following details may be
appropriately furnished. — The language which Luther retained in his form

xiv INTRODUCTION.

for Baptism (Taufbüchlein), after omitting all popish and superstitious prac-
tices, was the following. Between the prayer and the reading of Mark
10 : 13-16, the pastor says : " I adjure thee, thou unclean spirit, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou
go out and depart from this servant of Jesus Christ, Amen." — Luther
understood the form to be a declaration or distinct confession of the doc-
trine of Original Sin, and a renunciation of Satan. Still, the Lutheran
Church, as such, never recognized the necessity of this ancient form, and
its confessional writings never allude to it. After the excitement of feel-
ing peculiar to Arndt's age, had been allayed by time, the Lutheran
Church regarded the whole as a mere adiaphoron, that is, a "thing indiffer-
ent," not essentially involving any principle whatever, inasmuch as the
doctrine of Original Sin had already been very explicitly set forth and
confessed in her Symbolical Books. Such was the opinion of the eminent
Lutheran dogmatical writers, Gerhard, Quenstedt, Hollaz, etc. ; and men
like Baier and Baumgarten even advocated the discontinuance of the
practice. It is no longer retained in any prominent manner in the
Lutheran Church. — But in the age in which Arndt lived, who was not a
man that would obstinately cling to a mere form, the rejection of the for-
mula of Exorcism did involve a principle; for, under the peculiar circum-
stances, that rejection might be understood to be, first, a rejection of the
doctrine of Original Sin, and, secondly, an affirmation that the children
of believing parents were in the kingdom of heaven, even before they
had received Baptism. But all this seemed to conflict with the Pauline
doctrine that all are " by nature the children of wrath." Eph. 2:3.
While, then, J. Ben. Carpzov, the distinguished interpreter of the Sym-
bolical Books, who died in 1557, decides that the "Exorcism" is in itself
a matter of indifference, and may without scruple be dropped, he never-
theless holds that if the omission of it should be understood as a denial
of the Scripture doctrine of the corruption of human nature (Original
Sin), it becomes, in such a case, a matter of principle to retain the for-
mula. (Isagoge, etc., p. 1122 ff. ; 1608.) Walch, the other eminent inter-
preter of the Symbolical Books (Introductio, etc.), does not refer to the
matter at all, as it is no essential part of the Lutheran Creed. But Arndt,
who was a calm, sagacious, and conscientious observer, and who may
justly be considered as claiming that, in forming a judgment respecting
him, we should not overlook the spirit of his times, apprehended that the
suppression of the "exorcism" was secretly designed to be the fore-
runner of the suppression of the entire Lutheran faith, which constituted
the life of his soul ; he could not, under such circumstances, consent to
endanger his most precious treasure.

§ 8. Now the duke, John George, after his virtual adoption of the Re-
formed faith and practice, issued a peremptory order that the formula of
Exorcism should no longer be employed in his dominions at the baptism

INTRODUCTION. xv

of any infant. Arndt, who was characterized by a childlike submission
to those in authority, as long as matters of principle were not involved,
could not renounce his faith in God's word, and, especially, his personal
conviction of the natural depravity of the human heart. He might have
consented to drop a mere form ; but he saw here an entering wedge, which
justly alarmed him. His apprehensions were subsequently proved to have
been only too well founded, when, soon afterwards, Luther's Catechism
was suppressed, and another substituted in its place. Hence, as he could
not renounce a prominent feature of the Lutheran creed, he firmly and
positively refused to obey the ducal command. He remarked, in the
written statement which embodied his reasons for refusing to obev, and
which was submitted to the civil authorities, that his conscience would
not allow him to comply with such a demand of the secular authority —
that the orthodox fathers, who had, during thirteen centuries, connected
" exorcism " with Baptism, understood it in accordance with the mind and
true sense of the Scriptures (ex mente et vero sensu Scriptures) — that it was,
therefore, by no means " an impious ceremony " (as the civil ruler, a lay-
man, had thought proper to designate it), — that he must necessarily abide
by the decision of his conscience — and, that he would humbly submit to
any sentence which his prince might pronounce in the case. The date
which he affixed to the document, is Sept. 10, 1590. That sentence, which
was soon afterwards proclaimed, deposed Arndt from his office, and ban-
ished him from the ducal territories. The reader of Book I. of the " True
Christianity," will now understand, after observing the earnestness with
which the author insists on the doctrine of Original Sin, or the depravity
of human nature, that he could not conscientiously take any step which
would, even indirectly, involve a denial of that sad truth of the Bible, — &
truth to which his knowledge of his own heart daily testified.

§ 9. But the Divine Head of the Church did not depose this faithful'
minister. At the very time when Arndt seemed to be homeless and
friendless, two important posts were offered to him — one in Mansfeld, the
other in Quedlinburg, an important city, which, after belonging to various
rulers, has at last been incorporated with the monarchy of Prussia. The
city adopted the Lutheran faith in 1539. Arndt decided to make this
place his home, and he labored here with eminent success, during a
period of seven years, as the pastor of the church of St. Nicholas. How-
ever, he also endured much affliction in this new charge, and his holy
zeal and devout spirit, while fully appreciated by intelligent and enlight-
ened believers, were misunderstood and even hated by others, so that he-
longed to be transferred to another field of labor.

§ 10. He wTas at length permitted to depart, and removed to the city of
Brunswick, situated in the territory of the duke of Brunswick; it aspired:
at that time to become a " free city/' subject directly to the German
emperor. The warfare between the duke and the city, during Arndt's

B

xvi INTKODUCTIOlSr.

residence in the latter, subjected him to many sore trials. His abode in
it, extending from 1590 to 1608, is specially interesting, as he then pre-
sented to the religious community Book I. of his " True Christianity."
Dr. A. Wildenhahn, who has, in recent times, furnished us with various
charming volumes, descriptive of the times, respectively, of Luther,
Spener, Paul Gerhardt, etc., in which he combines "fiction and truth,"
has selected this period of Arndt's history, as the one to which he dedi-
cates his two delightful volumes, entitled "Johannes Arndt" (Leipzig,
1861). This author complains that he found it a difficult task to collect
full and authentic accounts of Arndt's life. Still, he obtained access to
various documents in the archives of the city of Brunswick, and in the
royal library in Dresden, which had not been previously examined even
by Arndt's best biographer, the Rev. Frederick Arndt, of Berlin ; and
these materially assisted him in preparing his own work.*

§ 11. During the earlier years of Arndt's residence in Brunswick, as a
co-pastor of the church of St. Martin, his life was comparatively peaceful
and happy. The purity of his character, the soundness and power of his
doctrine, and the diligence and fidelity manifested in his pastoral labors,
could not fail to command the respect, and attract the love of all candid
persons. But he was at length subjected to trials of a new and painful
character, and became the victim of the hostile and persecuting spirit of
men from whom a very different course of conduct might have reasonably
been expected. The origin of these new difficulties has not always been
clearly understood ; while some have regarded Arndt as worthy of the
censures of those who assailed him, others are disposed to condemn those
assailants in unqualified terms. It is strange that, even at this compara-
tively remote period, such judgments are sometimes expressed in language
which betrays personal feeling rather than it announces the calm judg-
ment of a later and disinterested generation.

§ 12. It is here necessary to cast a glance at the history of the times
which preceded and followed the eventful year 1555, in which Arndt was
born, a year ever memorable as the one in which the signing of the arti-
cles of the Peace of Augsburg secured a temporary external repose for
the Lutheran Church. This " Peace " terminated at least the horrors
which had followed the introduction, in 1548, of the Augsburg Interim, by
which the newly-established Protestant doctrine was seriously endangered.
The provisions of this Interim were enforced with such merciless tyranny
by popish authorities, that in South Germany alone about four hundred

* A very accurate and interesting " Life of John Arndt," was published in English by
Rev. Dr. J. G. Morris, of Baltimore, in 1853, which presents the principal events that belong
to Arndt's history, and furnishes a faithful portraiture of his personal character. Wilden-
hahn's work, admirably translated by Rev. G. A. Wenzel, now of Pittsburg, Pa., was pub-
lished as a serial in the " Lutheran and Missionary," about three years ago. This work, in a
permanent form, would be a rich addition to our English religious literature.

INTRODUCTION". xvii

faithful Lutheran pastors, who could uot conscientiously accede to an
arrangement which might possibly restore the full authority of the errors
and superstitions of Rome, were driven, as exiles, with their families,
from their homes. The spirit of the Christian martyrs of the early ages
of the Church revived in these heroic men, and they clung with undying
tenacity to their holy faith.

§ 13. That faith now encountered new enemies, who did not resort to
fire and the swdfcl, hut who adopted more insidious means for corrupting
divine truth; and again, assaults like theirs, only increased the jealousy
with which the genuine Lutherans guarded the purity of their doctrinal
system. It was the only gift of heaven, which sin and Satan could not
touch, and which retained all its unsullied holiness. The soul of man had
become corrupt; the body was subject to disease and death; the world,
fair as it was, and rich in the gifts of God, had nevertheless been made
by sin to bring forth thorns and thistles. But the Gospel truth, which
conducted men to Christ and heaven, remained in all its purity and power.
These men were willing to suffer and die, but while they did live, they
could not relax the grasp with which they held fast to evangelical truth.
Now, amid the political and religious commotions of that stormy age,
could we expect that devout men should say, "Peace, peace;" when there
was no peace ? (Jerem. 6 : 14.)

§ 14. Let us illustrate this subject. Schwenkfeldt, for instance (born in
1490; died, 1561), an opponent of both the Lutherans and the Reformed,
as well as of the Papists, and, accordingly, constantly engaged in contro-
versies with all parties, declared that Luther's uncompromising determi-
nation to maintain the authority of the written word of revelation, the
Bible, was equivalent to a worship of the letter. He assigned, in his
fanaticism and morbid mysticism, a rank to an inner and direct word of
the Divine Spirit, which he asserted that he received, far above that of the
written word of God. He refused to make any distinction between the
divine act of the justification of the believer, on the one hand, and the
progressive sanctification of the believer, on the other. He taught that
the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human, wrere so fused
together, or, rather, that the flesh of Christ was so absolutely deified or
converted into God himself, that no distinction between them remained, —
that the regenerate could live without sin, etc. He succeeded, in spite of
the crucleness, one-sidedness, and unsoundness of his doctrines, in attract-
ing many disciples. His death, which occurred in 1561, a few years after
Arndt's birth, did not terminate the widespread confusion which he had
created in the Protestant Church ; the dread of that sickly form of mysti-
cism which he attempted to establish, long remained. The fear was natu-
rally entertained that it might lead many astray, who, while they did not
otherwise fraternize with Schwenkfeldt in his wild and absurd course,

n

xviii INTEODUCTION.

might be deluded by his claims to superior religious intelligence and
holiness.

§ 15. The disastrous influences of the demagogue Thomas Münzer
(born in 1490), and of his fanatical party, the Zwickau prophets, on sound
doctrine and sound morals, as well as the blood which they had shed,
were still vividly remembered. — Servetus, the Unitarian, had perished,
but he left a seed behind; the doctrine of Christ's deity still remained a
point of attack. And besides these false teachers, several others, who
were originally connected in various modes with the Lutheran Church,
promulgated at various times opinions which seemed to be subversive of
all Scripture doctrine. — Agricola, who had originally been an active
adherent of Luther, gradually departed from the faith. He unquestion-
ably betrayed the interests of Protestantism by sanctioning the Augsburg
Interim of 1548. He engaged in a controversy, at first with Melanchthon,
and then with Luther himself, on the subject of the proper "Use of the
law" — the Antinomistic controversy — maintaining that the law was no
longer of importance to the believer, and that the Gospel alone should be
preached. He died in 1566, when Arndt was about eleven years old.
The confusion in the church, which he created by his dangerous senti-
ments on several points, was long painfully felt. — The Osiandrian contro-
versy, respecting Justification, and its relation to Sanctification, began in
1549, and closed only when Arndt was already a student. — The Majoristic
controversy originated in the public declaration made by G. Major, that
" good works are necessary to salvation" The fears which such a doctrine,
that savored of popery, produced among orthodox and devout Lutherans,
were excessive. Those who opposed Major, were alarmed by his un-
guarded expressions, and apprehended that the Gospel doctrine of Justifi-
cation by faith in Christ alone, without human works or merit, w7ould be endan-
gered, unless they silenced him. The controversy, in its most energetic
form, terminated about seven years after Arndt's birth, but the indirect
effects of the misconceptions connected with the great topic of this con-
troversy, were deeply felt by him. — The Synergistic controversy, relating
to the question whether man could co-operate with the Holy Spirit in the
work of his conversion, began in the year in which Arndt was born, and
was maintained with great energy during several years. — The so-called
Cryptocalvinistic controversy, referring mainly to the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper, and involving certain important questions respecting the
Person of Christ, commenced about three years before Arndt's birth, and
agitated the church during many years. — These, and other subjects on
which also controversies had arisen, were, in the good providence of God,
at length calmly considered by learned and devout Lutheran theologians,
conscientiously examined in the light of the divine Word, impartially de-
cided, and set forth, in the year 1580, in the Formula of Concord, the last
of the special Lutheran creeds, all the doctrines of which Arndt cordially

INTRODUCTION, xix

received, as he repeatedly declared in an official manner on various occa-
sions, in his writings, in his last will and testament, and on his death-bed.
(See below §§ 24, 25.) The very great reverence with which he regarded
this noble creed, and his attachment to it, are to be ascribed not only to
the spotless purity of the doctrines which it sets forth, but also to the
good work which it performed in successfully and permanently deciding
several very important questions which had latterly arisen, and on which
the preceding creeds had not authoritatively and fully pronounced. It is,
however, obvious, that even after these storms subsided, the waves would
long remain in commotion, and it was precisely in these troublous times
that Arndt labored in the ministry.

§ 16. The catalogue of the difficulties which awaited him, is not yet
exhausted. We have to add, as a part of the history of the times, when
an extraordinary number of political and ecclesiastical contentions pre-
vailed, the excitement of feeling which certain differences of doctrine
between the Lutherans and the Reformed engendered, and which would
never have risen to the fearful height in which history now exhibits it to
us, if political power, controlled alternately by the two religious parties in
some of the German principalities, had not been invoked by them. The
awful death by fire, which terminated the career of Servetus (Oct. 27,
1553, two years before the birth of Arndt, and more than six years after
the death of Luther), was decreed by the civil authorities of Geneva, but
was sanctioned by Calvin and even the gentle Melanchthon — a sad example
of the clouded views of men at that time respecting religious liberty and
the right of civil rulers to punish men for their errors in the faith.

§ 17. In the Palatinate (the ancient Pfalz, the territories of which are
now distributed among Bavaria, Prussia, etc.) the Lutheran Church had
been established, and popery ceased to exist. But in 1560, a few years
after Arndt's birth, the Elector, Frederick III., withdrew from the church,
and adopted the Reformed faith and usages. His successor, Lewis VI.,
endeavored to restore the ascendency of Lutheranism; but after his brief
reign, the authorities which succeeded, established " Calvinism" (the term
employed in Church History) on a permanent basis. A similar ecclesiastico-
civil revolution occurred in Bremen in 1562; fourteen Lutheran pastors
and the Lutheran members of the City Council were expelled, and the
city became Reformed. Such changes occurred elsewhere. Both parties
were undoubtedly more or less honest in adhering to their doctrinal views;
and both claimed the right to depose and exile those of an opposite faith,
whenever the civil and political power was, in either case, directed by them.

§ 18. Let it now be remembered that these contending Protestants, Lu-
theran and Reformed or Calvmistic, were led by men respectively, who
were confessedly intelligent, learned, and endowed with great abilities,
many of whom were not only honest in expressing their convictions, but
also conscientious in their conduct, whether they were governed by an

xx INTRODUCTION.

erring or an enlightened conscience. That the latter is historically true,
is demonstrated by their readiness, when they lost power, to submit to
imprisonment or exile, rather than to renounce their respective creeds.
They were all too well acquainted with Bible truth to look with other
feelings than with horror on the popish creed. But while their own Prot-
estant creed was very precious to their souls, they could not tolerate any
departure from it, even if that departure was not in the direction " towards
Rome." That departure must, as they judged, necessarily be equivalent
to a denial of God's truth, as they believed that they had found it in the
Bible. Thus all were alike sensitive — all seemed to feel that if they toler-
ated any error, that error could not be trivial — it was, as far as it extended,
a denial of God's truth. Could they safely assume the shame and guilt
of such a sin ? We may add, that we are here speaking only of the honesi
leaders of the Lutherans and the Reformed, of whom each man judged
and acted for himself, as one who was accountable to God. No honest
Reformed theologian would have screened a Reformed heretic from con-
demnation; and no honest Lutheran would, for a moment, have tolerated
a nominal Lutheran, who rejected any part of the creed of the church.

§ 19. At the same time, all these men were fallible creatures, subject to
all the errors of judgmeut, and to all the passions and infirmities inci-
dent to fallen man. They often supposed that their intentions were pure,
when selfish motives governed them, and their jealous guardianship of
God's truth was combined with a jealous love for their personal opinions.
It was under these circumstances, when each party watched with extreme
jealousy over the purity of the faith, as adopted by it, and when, besides,
many private interests — personal, political, and pecuniary — ''exercised vast
influence, that Arndt entered on his labors. — We have introduced the
above details, in order to explain his declarations in the preface to Book
I. § 8, that he rejects the Synergistic, Majoristic^etc, errors, and enter-
tains no other views except those which are set forth in the Lutheran
Symbolical Books.

§ 20. When he commenced his labors in Brunswick, he was the
youngest member of the " ministerium" of the city, that is, of the college
composed of the pastors of the several city churches, all of which at that
time strictly adhered to the Lutheran creed. He had long lamented that,
in consequence of the infelicity of the times, which caused endless doc-
trinal controversies, the parties of which were many, Papists, Mystics,
Unitarians, Reformed, Lutherans, etc., the attention of many persons was
diverted from the practical duties of a Christian life, and directed exclu-
sively to controversies on points of doctrine; the result was, that the
understanding was actively exercised, but the heart was not properly
affected. Such considerations induced him to write Book I. of his " True
Christianity." It was his object to show that God demands a holy life,
proceeding from faith in Christ, and that no jealousy concerning the

INTEODUCTIOK

xxi

purity of the creed will atone for the absence of the fruits of the Spirit,
as exhibited in the life and conduct of the individual. Hence he insists
with a warmth unusual in that excited and controversial age, on repent-
ance, on faith in Christ, and on a holy life. Possibly, the apparently
sweeping assertions which occasionally occur in his writings, to the effect
that the majority of his contemporaries lacked a heavenly spirit, acquired
their sombre hue in consequence of the publicity given to human frailties,
and the retirement and shade in which vast numbers of holy men pre-
ferred to dwell. His Book L, which constitutes the principal part of the
work, was first published in Jena, in the year 1605; a second and improved
edition appeared in 1607.

§ 21. It consisted principally of the matter which he had introduced in
a course of practical sermons previously delivered by him on week-days.
It attracted great attention, and was rapidly circulated throughout Ger-
many. The modest and retiring author, without expecting such a result,
at once became a celebrity. Nevertheless, new trials now commenced.
An envious feeling seems to have been engendered in the hearts of several
of his colleagues in the " ministerium " of the city, when they noticed the
honor which the author had undesignedly gained. Perhaps, too, the con-
troversial spirit of the times, and the jealousy of good men respecting the
faith, which was assailed on all sides — by Papists, Calvinists, Unitarians,
fanatics, etc., — may have led them to scrutinize the book with too sus-
picious eyes. All held firmly to the Gospel doctrine of Justification by
faith alone, without works. Now, when they found that Arndt insisted
with such earnestness on the evidences of faith, as furnished by a holy
life, they were morbidly affected, and apprehended that the doctrine of
justification by faith alone, which their bitter enemies, the Papists, de-
nounced, had not been guarded with sufficient care by Arndt. Other
expressions, again, which they did not interpret impartially, led them to-
fear that he was introducing mysticism and other morbid religious systems-
into the Church. The reproaches which he was compelled to hear, deterred
him for some time from fulfilling his promise of adding three other
"Books" to Book I. The complete work may be regarded as consisting-
of Four Books, as published in 1609. At a considerably later period a
fifth, and then a sixth book, were added. The former was designed as-
an explanation and recapitulation of the Four Books, and the latter,,
consisting in part of letters addressed to various eminent theologians,,
besides having the same object in view, was intended also to defend the-
doctrinal and ethical positions assumed in the Four Books. As they
partake of the nature of an appendix, and refer, to some extent, to mis-
understandings belonging to an earlier age, the Latin versions omit them,,
and this example was followed by the English translator.

§ 22. Arndt was freed from the unpleasant relations in which he stood'
to his colleagues in Brunswick, in which city he had spent about ten years,,,

xxii INTRODUCTION.

by a call which he received in 1608 to enter a new field of labor in Eisleben.
This city, which, as in the clays of Luther (who was born and baptized, and
who also died there), still belonged to the territory of the Counts of Mans-
feld, is at present incorporated with the kingdom of Prussia (Province of
Saxony). It was here that Arndt ventured to publish the whole of the
Four Books of his " True Christianity." In this new position, his admirable
character and spirit were justly appreciated alike by his patrons, the
Counts of Mansfeld, by his colleagues, and by the people. The fidelity
with which he remained at his post during the prevalence of an epidemic
that carried off many of the inhabitants, his self-sacrificing spirit in the
discharge of his pastoral duties, and his judicious course as an assessor
of the local consistory, demonstrated the true nobility of his soul — the
spirit of the divine Eedeemer. However, even though his relations with
all who surrounded him were of the most friendly character, he did not
remain longer than about two years and a half in Eisleben. He had been
repeatedly invited to assume important charges, which he declined to
accept; for while he had often found opponents, his great personal merit,
his eminent services, both as a preacher of the Gospel and as an author
of devotional works, and his godly spirit, had secured for him the respect,
confidence, and love of the whole religious public. Duke George of
Brunswick-Lüneburg, who at that time resided in Celle (Zelle), invited
him, in the year 1611, to accept the two offices of court-preacher and of
General Superintendent of ecclesiastical affairs in the principalities of
Brunswick and Lüneburg. (Celle was subsequently attached to the king-
dom of Hanover, but has, in the most recent times, been absorbed, with
the contiguous territories, by Prussia.) The Count of Mansfeld very
reluctantly consented to Arndt's removal; the latter, however, believed
that it had become his duty to enter the wide and inviting field of labor
which Providence had opened to him. The reigning duke, who was
deeply interested in the welfare of the Lutheran Church, judiciously and
vigorously sustained his new court-preacher in all his labors. The latter,
in addition to his ordinary pastoral duties, visited the congregations of the
whole territory, introduced various ecclesiastical reforms, and continued
till his death, which occurred May 11, 1621, to enjoy the divine blessing
himself, and to be a blessing to all whom his influence reached. If he
was born during a stormy period, and lived in an age of controversies
which wounded his soul, he was, nevertheless, like Luther, very happy in
being permitted to terminate his labors precisely at the time when he was
■called away. For, as Luther closed his eyes in peace during the year
which preceded the disastrous battle of Mühlberg (April 24, 1547), so
Arndt fell asleep soon after the Thirty Years' War began, before the world
:saw those horrors which language fails to describe in their awful extent.
Lie had contracted a disease of the throat, which was subsequently aggra-
vated by a violent fever ; and his exhausted frame at length yielded to the

INTKODUCTIOK xxiii

assault of disease. He sent for his friend and brother, the Rev. William
Storch, early in the morning of May 9. After being placed on a chair,
he humbly made a general confession of his sins, declared once more that
he adhered as heretofore to the pure doctrine of God's word and rejected
every error, and then, with all the cheerfulness of Christian faith, received
the Lord's Supper. Dr. Morris, in the work referred to, in a note above,
quotes from his authorities the following: " Mr. Storch then addressed
him (in language similar to that which Dr. Jonas used in speaking to the
dying Luther) as follows: 'I do not doubt, that as you have never enter-
tained any doctrine contrary to God's word, but have always continued
firm and steadfast in the pure, unadulterated word, the Scriptures of the
prophets and apostles, the Augsburg Confession, and other Symbolical
Books of the Lutheran Church, and most heartily and sincerely despised
and rejected all contrary doctrines, so you will also by God's grace main-
tain to the end the same doctrines and faith which you have publicly
preached and professed.' Arndt replied several times, in a weak but
intelligible voice, most decisively, 'Yes, yes, that I will, even to the
end.' " On the 11th of May he began to sink rapidly, but was still able
to repeat many of his favorite texts, such as Ps. 143 : 2, and John 5 : 21.
After having slept a short time, he awoke, looked upward, and exclaimed
with a comparatively loud voice: " We beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1 : 14. His wife
asked him when he had seen that " glory." He replied: "I saw it just
now. 0 what a glory it is ! It is the glory which eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive of. This
is the glory which I saw." — When he heard the clock striking at eight in
the evening, he asked what the hour was. When it struck again, he re-
peated the question. On being told that it was striking nine, he said:
"Now I have overcome all." These were the last words of this "good
soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Tim. 2: 3. He lay perfectly still until after
midnight, when he breathed his last. God had given him a peaceful
death. The serenity of his soul in his last hours seemed to linger on his
features, even after the spirit had departed. #

§ 23. Two dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg followed him to the grave
(May 15th), as a testimony of their sense of the great worth of their revered
spiritual guide. The text of the funeral sermon, delivered by Eev. Mr.
Storch, consisted of the words, "I have fought a good fight," etc. 2 Tim.
4 : 7, 8. His remains were deposited in the church at Celle. The tomb
exhibits the following inscription :

Qui Jesum vidit, qui mundum et daemona vicit,
Arndius in scriptis vivit ovatque suis.

(That is: Arndt, who saw Jesus, and conquered the toorld and the devil, lives
and triumphs in his writings.)

xxiv INTEODTJCTIOK

§ 24. Nothing could be more unjust than any charge affecting the purity
of the faith of Arndt as a Lutheran Christian. His general orthodoxy
was always readily admitted; a few unreasonable and prejudiced men,
however, who suspected that mysticism and other errors were concealed
in the " True Christianity," although the existence of such matter could
not be established, nevertheless alleged, with a certain morbid feeling,
that Arndt did not adopt the entire creed of the Lutheran Church, as set
forth in " all her symbolical books." This circumstance accounts for the
frequency and earnestness with which he declares his unconditional accept-
ance of, and hearty belief in, all the details of the Lutheran faith. Thus
the reader will find, at the close of the Preface to Book L, an emphatic
declaration of his recognition of the doctrines of all the Symbolical Books,
the names of which he enumerates in full. See, also, the conclusion of
Book IL, and the conclusion of the Preface to Book IV., where similar
declarations occur. He repeats them in his Preface to Book VI., where
he employs the following language: " My dear reader, inasmuch as our
holy Christian faith, the pure evangelical doctrine, has, for about one
hundred years, been elucidated, purified, and sufficiently explained, in
accordance with the rule of the holy Word of God, and also been cleansed
from many errors through the means of two glorious and praiseworthy
confessions of faith, namely, the Augsburg Confession, and the Formula
of Concord, which have hitherto been, and still continue to be, my own
confession of faith ; and, inasmuch as some have, at the same time, uttered
complaints respecting the ungodly manner of life of the present world,
with which the Christian faith cannot coexist; therefore, I wrote, some
years ago, Four Books on True Christianity, in which I have depicted
the internal, and, also, the external Christian life. For although the pure
doctrine is the foremost point of true Christianity, I have, nevertheless, not
wished to treat of it in a special manner, as this has been copiously and
superabundantly done by others, and is still daily done; and I have taken
only the Christian life as my subject," This Book VI. appeared somewhat
less than a year before his death, and gives special prominence to the last
of the Lutheran confessions of faith — the Formula of Concord — in which
the doctrines concerning the Person of Christ, the Lord's Supper, etc., are
set forth in all their details; he thus repeats anew his cordial acceptance
of the doctrines contained therein. In a letter of thanks addressed to
Dr. Mentzer, of Giessen (Book VI., Part IL, Letter 7), he expressly rejects
the serious doctrinal errors of Schwenkfeldt respecting the Scriptures, the
Person of Christ, the two Sacraments, etc., and adds: "These errors have
been publicly condemned and rejected, partly in the Augsburg Confession,
and partly in the Formula of Concord, after the pure doctrine was firmly
established." He concurs, of course, in the condemnation of such errors. —
In Letter 8, of the same Book, addressed to Dr. Piscator, of Jena, he says:
" I call on the great God, the Searcher of hearts, as my witness, that it was

INTRODUCTION. xxv

not in my mind, in anything which I have written, to depart from the true
religion of the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord, and
that I had no intention to disseminate erroneous opinions, much less to
defend any which conflicted with the Symbolical Books of our Church."
§ 25. On his death-bed he repeated anew, as we have seen, that he con-
tinued, as heretofore, to adhere faithfully to the pure evangelical doctrine.
In the two copies of his last will and testament, of the years 1610 and
1616, he solemnly declares that he had always held with full consciousness
and understanding the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession and the
Formula of Concord, and never departed from their contents either in his
public teaching or his private views, that he never would adopt any other
faith, and that he prayed that the grace of God might sustain him in this
frame of mind until his last hour should come. The singularly emphatic
manner in which, on every appropriate occasion — and many of such
occurred — he declared his sincere belief in the peculiar and distinctive
doctrines of the Lutheran Church, in all their details, as set forth in her
Symbolical Books, by no means proceeded from a narrow-minded secta-
rian feeling. " Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3 : 11) — these apostolic words
indicate the spirit of Arndt's religion. He could not sympathize with the
Papist, who robs Christ of the glory which belongs exclusively to his
atoning work — not with the Unitarian, who attempts to dethrone Him —
not with the fanatic, who, even when honest, is misguided by passion and
spiritual pride — not with the unbeliever, who flees from the shame of the
cross — not even with his Reformed fellow-Christians, whose merits he
readily acknowledged, but whose rejection of the Lutheran doctrine re-
specting the Person of Christ and the Lord's Supper, as set forth especially
in the Formula of Concord, grieved his soul. He had found the precious
Gospel truth, which constituted his life, to be identical with the creed of
his Church, and with that creed alone, in all its glorious fulness. He could
not consent to sacrifice one jot or one tittle of the Augsburg Confession,
nor could he assign to it an isolated position, even though Zwingli and
his associates readily adopted it, with tbe single exception of Article X.
Nor did his heart or his conscience allow him to ignore the other Lutheran
Symbols. The Augsburg Confession undoubtedly contained the pure truth
of the Gospel, without any admixture of errors; but, owing to the circum-
stances and the times in which it originated, when it was the great object
of Luther and his associates to justify their course in withdrawing from
antichristian Rome, it confined itself to those principles which were then
specially debated. Hence Calvin, who differed so widely on some points
from the fully developed Lutheran creed, readily adopted and subscribed
it at Strasburg. — The Apology, or Vindication of the Augsburg Confession,
set forth, among others, the cardinal doctrine of the Lutheran faith, namely,
Justification by faith alone, with extraordinary power and purity. Its full,
lucid, and strictly scriptural character has never been successfully con-

xxvi INTRODUCTION.

troverted. For this very reason the Apology was rejected by Papists, as
it now is practically by Rationalists and others who depend on human
merit, and are unwilling to give all honor to the Saviour alone. — The
Smalcald Articles, which Luther prepared in order to set forth the points
on which no Protestant or Bible Christian could make any concession to
Popery, are also offensive to Papists, to Rationalists, and to the unbelieving
and impenitent generally, as they contain the pure evangelical truth, which
humbles man, while it exalts God. — The Two Catechisms (the Large and the
Small) furnish materials for popular instruction in revealed truth, which
have never been equalled by other manuals, in their adaptation to the
object, their fulness, and their purity. Hence, a friend of divine truth,
like Arndt, who took so deep an interest in the religious education of the
young, could not do otherwise than regard them as of inestimable value.
An enemy of the truth would naturally disavow them. — The Formula of
Concord — the last of the series of Lutheran Confessions of Faith, and the
one which Arndt appears to have prized most highly — was intended, as we
have shown above, to determine various important points involved in the
controversies which had arisen in the bosom of the Lutheran Church
before or at the time when he was born. The very circumstance that this
Symbol was demanded by the exigencies of the Church, demonstrates that
the Augsburg Confession was not originally designed to be a full and complete
confession of faith, but only a statement of points discussed during the
infancy of the Reformation. While it excludes every error which might
dishonor God, and confirm the impenitent sinner in his evil course, it
completes the previous Symbols, and forms with them an undivided and
harmonious whole, exhibiting with brilliancy, power, and spotless purity
the Person of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, and glorifies God alone. A
confession of faith which so unreservedly unveils the fearful character of
Original Sin, while it so fully explains and establishes the true doctrine of
the Lord's Supper, would naturally be unwelcome to an impenitent heart;
whereas, the devout Arndt found nothing in it but animating and heavenly
truth. Hence he desired to be regarded as simply an Evangelical Lutheran
Christian, — an adherent of the Formula of Concord.

§ 26. Religion assumed an unusually attractive and beautiful form in
Arndt, and is strikingly shadowed forth in his " True Christianity;" this
work is an admirable portraiture of his inner man. He was naturally of
a grave, but not by any means of an unsocial or gloomy disposition ; he
would not otherwise have been styled "the Fenelon of Protestantism."
Dr. Wildenhahn, whose charming work (entitled Johannes Arndt) embodies
strictly accurate historical notices, and derives only subordinate matter,
such as incidents in domestic life, conversations, etc., from analogy and a
fruitful imagination, exhibits him in the true light, as an affectionate hus-
band, a cheerful companion, a generous and self-sacrificing friend of the
sick and the poor — in short, as a model in all the relations of life. There

INTRODUCTION.

XXYll

is no exaggeration in this language. He possessed great firmness of char-
acter; indeed, a truly heroic spirit dwelt in him. He manifested this trait
on many trying occasions — not only when he preferred poverty and exile
to a denial of a single Gospel truth or Lutheran usage, but also in many
other scenes of conflict. The ravages of the pestilence could not alarm
his heroic soul; the open and violent denunciations of enemies he always
encountered in the spirit of Him who said : " If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" (John 18 : 23.)
There was a certain calmness or gentleness in his manner of treating his
enemies, which, combined with his earnestness and candor in repelling
their calumnies, invariably subdued them. Love — love, not to the amia-
ble and good, or to the poor and sorrowing alone, but also to his enemies
— was too often and too variously manifested, to leave the spectator in
doubt respecting its true source — a genuine faith in Christ, and deep,
ardent love to Him. In truth, it is here that the peculiar type of his
religion is seen ; he lived more in heaven than on earth. The sacerdotal
prayer of Christ (John, Chap. 17) was an unfailing source of light, of hope,
of peace and joy to his soul. Expressions like these : " As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" (ver. 21) — "I
in them, and thou in me, etc." (ver. 28), and language like that of Paul :
" Christ in you, etc." (Col. 1 : 27), furnished him virtually wTith the for-
mula : " Christ in me, and I in Christ." Such was his faith in Christ, and
such was his love to Him, that he was always calm and hopeful. Hence
features appeared in his religious character which his wTorldly-minded
contemporaries could not fully appreciate; they w7ere formed by two dif-
ferent series of Gospel doctrines, which cannot come in conflict, but whicb
relate to two entirely different objects — Christ, the Saviour, and fallen
man. No one more sincerely embraced the doctrine of Original Sin, as
held by the Lutheran Church, than Arndt did ; of this his writings furnish
the evidence. His own searching self-examination, constantly maintained
in the light of Scripture, revealed to him the utter corruption of his own \/
heart by nature; he found nothing in himself but sin. He was conscious
that he could do nothing without Christ, and deeply felt that grace —
nothing but grace — could renew his nature, and save him. These convic-
tions induced him to insist with such earnestness, in his Four Books, on
the true and genuine repentance of the sinner. At the same time, there
was nothing like sternness, gloom, or despondency connected with his
sincere and profound self-abasement. For he received with equal strength
of faith another series of truths — he believed with all his heart that " after
the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by
works of righteousness whicb we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost ; wThicb he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
that being justified by his grace, wTe should be made heirs according to

sxviii INTRODUCTION.

the hope of eternal life." Tit. 3 : 4-7. Here a new tide of emotions flowed
through his soul. Wonder, joy, gratitude, love, took possession of him.
His large heart was full of happiness that the lost could be found and
saved — that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Born.
5 : 20. And now, when these two distinct principles appear in him in
their practical union, the type of his religion is clearly developed. He
was grave and earnest, humble, and free from all confidence in himself,
for he was "by nature a child of wrath." Eph. 2 : 3. But, on the other
hand, God had, in pity and in love, given him a Saviour, engrafted him
in that Saviour through Holy Baptism, bestowed on him the fulness of
grace, and invited him, as a repentant, believing, pardoned child of Adam,
to enter heaven. If sin abounded through the first Adam, grace did,
through the second Adam (1 Cor. 15 : 45), much more abound. His
writings, therefore, now assume a very cheerful character — love is the
prevailing theme. Nothing morose appears in them — sorrow for sin and
repentance — faith in Christ and love to him, are his soul-inspiring themes,
and a cheerful spirit, a sense of fervent, joyful gratitude to God, a heav-
enly calm, pervade alike his heart and its language as uttered in the
"True Christianity."

§ 27. The essential features of vital godliness are always the same; yet
"there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit." 1 Cor. 12: 4. Paul
insists on faith ; John, on love. Luther's religion was, like that of Arndt,
earnest, and }7et cheerful. Both were enabled by their personal experience
to understand the nature of these Christian virtues, and also the distinc-
tion between them. "Luther dwells with wonderful power on faith. Arndt
delights to speak of God's love. There is something very beautiful in
these different developments of true godliness in the servants of Christ,
while the influences of the same divine Spirit controls them alike.

§ 28. It would be an error to suppose that the whole world had risen up
in arms against Arndt, after he had assumed his position as an humble
and devout Christian. Vast numbers received his First Book on True
Christianity with gratitude and joy. It enlightened their minds; it con-
trolled the conscience; it diffused the warmth of life through their souls;
and they thanked God that such a book, so full of love, had been given to
the world. A comparatively small number of men rose up against him.
Certain individuals, such as his colleague, Denecke, a co-pastor of the same
congregation in Brunswick, were, no doubt, influenced by envy and per-
sonal dislike. But others who opposed him, were by no means governed
solely by unworthy personal considerations. Some of them were so
much concerned about "questions and strifes of words" (1 Tim. 6:4),
that they overlooked and misconceived the heavenly-mincledness of Arndt.
Others, who did him injustice, were led astray by the infelicity of the times.
We have already referred to the disastrous influences of the mysticism
and fanaticism which, in addition to other corruptions of the true faith, had

INTKODUCTIOST. xxix

appeared about, and after, the period of the birth of Arndt. For instance,
the Swiss physician, Paracelsus (who died as a Roman Catholic in 1541),
had published various fantastic and mystical writings, in which he professed
that he understood both mundane and supermundane mysteries. Isow a
certain Lutheran pastor in Saxony , named Weigel, who died in 1588, and
who had been confessedly a man of an upright walk and conversation,
had yielded to a tendency to the mysticism and theosophy of Paracelsus.
He was thus led theoretically to undervalue the doctrines of the church,
and to represent them as merely allegorical forms, involving truths not
known to ordinary men. The natural results of his theory, if its folly had
not been exposed, would unquestionably have seriously affected the au-
thority of the written Word. Before his writings wrere published, a friend
had communicated to Arndt a short extract from them, which contained
none of his errors; the author's name had been withheld. Arndt, in his
innocence, inserted the passage in his book, and was thus burdened with
the odium of all the Weigelian errors ; but he was subsequently released
from all censure, and his freedom from anything like the mysticism of
Weigel was generally conceded.

§ 29. Another ground of the charge of mysticism which his opponents
advanced, wras found in his repeated references in the " True Chris-
tianity" to Tauler. Here, too, Arndt made a brilliant defence, by quot-
ing the great Luther as his authority. The latter had obtained possession
of a manuscript without a title or an author's name, which deeply in-
terested him. It dwelt entirely on the communion of the soul with God,
and on kindred topics. Luther, whose godliness was healthy and sound,
was so much charmed with the work, that he published a part of it at
Wittenberg in 1516, and prefixed the title: "A spiritual, noble little
work, explaining the distinction between the old and the new man;
showing, also, who are the children of Adam and the children of God,
and how Adam must die in us, and Christ live in us." During the course
of the next year he published the whole work, with an extended Preface
of his own, and adopted the title : " A German Theology " ; this general
title it has since retained. It was received with unbounded favor, and
circulated rapidly throughout Europe, for instance, in three Euglish, seven
Latin, four French, etc., translations, besides numerous editions of the
original German. It was supposed to have been written by Tauler, a
very devout man, who was born in the year 1290. His religious tenden-
cies led him, like Luther, to enter a monastery. The sermons and other
writings which he left behind, while their general character assign to him
a place among those who are denominated " Mystics," nevertheless
abound in holy and devout aspirations, and were dictated by a spirit that
sought and found peace in the grace of God alone. — Arndt entertained the
opinion that the " German Theology" was a production of his pen, and
so represents the case in his " True Christianity." It is now, however,

xxx INTRODUCTION.

generally conceded, in consequence of an allusion in the work itself to
Tauler as a religious teacher of an earlier day, that another person, be-
longing to a later period, was the writer; his name is still involved in
impenetrable darkness. — So, too, it is by no means certain that Thomas d
Kempis (born in 1380), was the author of the popular book "On the Imi-
tation of Christ," of which more than two thousand editions in the origi-
nal language, more than one thousand in French, besides innumerable
others in German, English, etc., have been published. The historical
arguments, adduced chiefly by French writers, intended to support the
claims of the eminent Gerson (born in 1363), as the author, although not
entirely conclusive, are still possessed of great weight. — Arndt incident-
ally remarks in a brief statement respecting the " German Theology,"
that his copy, printed at Wittenberg in 1520, contained simply the remark
that the book had been written by a devout priest of the city of Frank-
fort, for devotional purposes, but the author's name was withheld. If
Luther sanctioned the publication of the "German Theology," Arndt
could calmly listen to those who censured him for adopting a similar
course. Those extracts at least, which he furnishes in the " True Chris-
tianity," are, unquestionably, evangelical and truly edifying.

§ 30. It will, perhaps, gratify the reader to observe the skill with which
Wildenhahn, to whom we have already referred, illustrates the childlike
simplicity of Arndt's character, by combining fiction with truth. During
his Brunswick pastorate, the City Council of Halberstadt sent him an
urgent call to become the successor of the deceased Rev. D. Sachse, as
pastor of the church of St. Martin in that city. After he had consulted
with his intelligent wife, who, like himself, was anxious to withdraw to
any spot where peace could be found, he resolved to accept the call; and,
in accordance with custom and law, applied to the Brunswick City Coun-
cil for letters of honorable dismission. When the question was to be
decided, Arndt appeared in the presence of the burgomaster, Kale, the
syndic, Dr. Roerhand, and other members of the Council, and renewed
his request. These details are historically true. Wildenhahn now sub-
joins the following: "Tell me honestly," said the syndic to him, "have
you really, as you allege, taken no steps whatever, in order to obtain this
call from Halberstadt?" "ISTot a single step," said Arndt, in a solemn
manner, with his right hand on his heart, "the whole is altogether and
exclusively a work of God." But at the moment when he pronounced
this solemn declaration, it became evident to those who were present, that
a sudden thought had startled him; he changed color; he began to
tremble; he suddenly covered his eyes with his left hand. Then, with a
voice betraying deep emotion, he added: " Gentlemen, I have borne false
witness! I really did do something to obtain this call." "Ah!" said
Kale quickly, delighted, as it seemed, to find an opportunity for displaying
his official dignity, " You did? Pray, tell us what it was." "I prayed

INTRODUCTION. xxxi

to the blessed Lord with tears, that he would assign to me some other
spot in his vineyard, no matter how insignificant, if I could only there
preach his word in peace." "And was that all ?" inquired the burgo-
master, much surprised, and speaking in more gentle tones. " That was
all," replied Arndt, "and this is true, as God lives! But, doubtless, I
erred here, in impatiently attempting to dictate to God, etc." Such sim-
plicity of character, such perfect ingenuousness, such a wonderful freedom
from artifice and disguise, completely disarmed the members of the
Council. They now understood better than previously the artlessness
and spirituality of the man before them, and, after that scene, they ac-
corded to him entire esteem and confidence.

§ 31. The great work of Arndt — the " True Christianity," has probably
never had its equal as a popular book of devotion. Tholuck relates the
following anecdote as an illustration of the manner in which even Papists
could appreciate the merits of the work. When Prof. Anton, of Halle,
visited Madrid in 1687, he examined the library of the Jesuits, and inci-
dentally inquired of the librarian respecting the ascetic writer whom they
esteemed more than other authors of devotional works. The latter ex-
hibited a Latin book, the title-page and last leaves of which were wanting,
and declared that it was the most edifying work which they possessed.
When Anton examined it, he discovered that it was a translation of
Arndt's " True Christianity " \ It is only common justice to allow the
author to state the objects which he had in view, in preparing the work.
The following passage occurs in a letter which he addressed in the last
year of his life to Duke Augustus the Younger, of Brunswick : " In the
first place, I wished to withdraw the minds of students and preachers
from an inordinate controversial and polemic theology, which has well-
nigh assumed the form of an earlier scholastic theology. Secondly, I pur-
posed to conduct Christian believers from lifeless thoughts to such as
might bring forth fruit. Thirdly, I wished to guide them onward from
mere science and theory, to the actual practice of faith and godliness;
and, fourthly, to show them wherein a truly Christian life consists, which
accords with the true faith, as well as to explain the apostle's meaning
when he says : ' I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' etc." (Gal.
2 : 20.)

§ 32. The Rev. Dr. Seiss, the author of "Ecclesia Lutherana, etc.," to
whose endeavors the religious public is mainly indebted for the appear-
ance of the present edition, remarks in a recent notice of the work :
" This is one of the very greatest and most useful practical books pro-
duced by Protestantism. Though written more than two hundred and
fifty years ago, it is still unsurpassed in its department. It stands out
with marked and superior distinction in the modern ages. Next to the
Bible and Luther's Small Catechism, it has been more frequently printed,
more widely read, and more influential for good, than any other book,

C

xxxii INTKODUCTION.

perhaps, that has ever been written. Boehm has not exaggerated, when
he says that its effects, in the conversion of souls, has been such, that an
account of them would make a history in itself. Eor can any one can-
didly read it, without finding on every page, scintillations of the sunlike
splendors of a mind bathed in the purity, wisdom, and love of heaven."
Mr. Boehm, in the Preface to his translation (which is the basis both of
the revision of Mr. Jacques, and of the present edition), remarks, that
among the learned men in Great Britain, who had read the Latin transla-
tion, the distinguished Dr. Worthington had assigned the first rank among
devotional writers to Arndt, and quotes the enthusiastic terms in which
he extols that "faithful servant of God, John Arndt." And Mr. Jacques
closes the Preface to his revision with the following words : " Divines of
all communions and persuasions, have united in their admiration of this
delightful production. The late learned Dr. Edward Williams has in-
serted it in his valuable Appendix to the Christian Preacher : and the
Rev. John Wesley made a most copious extract from it, comprised in
Yol. I. and II. of his Christian Library."

§ 33. And truly God did not design this great work solely for the com-
fort and aid of the German nation during the Thirty Years' War (1618-
1648), but for all nations and all times. It has been translated into the
Latin, Danish, Swedish, Bohemian, Polish, Low Dutch, English, French,
Turkish, Russian, Malabar, Tamul, etc., languages. At least two edi-
tions of the work in a Latin translation were published in England; the
last appeared in 1708, with the following title : " Joannis Arndtii, Theolo-
gici, etc. : De vero Christianismo. Libri IY. Cura et studio A. W. Boemi.
Lond. 1708." 2 vols. 8vo. — Another Latin edition was published in Ger-
many in 1624. The Tamul translation had the following Latin title: "De
vero Christianismo, in Tamulicum convertit Benjamin Schulzius, Mis-
sionarius Evangelicus."*

§ 34. The work had made so deep an impression on learned British
Christians, who read it in Latin, that the wish was repeatedly and earn-
estly expressed that it might be made accessible to English readers. At
this period, that is, during the reign of Queen Anne of England (who
died in 1714), large numbers of German emigrants from the Palatinate
passed through England on their way to the provinces of New York and

* The first Latin translation, published at Leipsic in 1704, was prepared by the joint labors
of Dr. J. G. Dorscheus and Dr. J. G. Pritius. (The latter published about the same time his
Introductio in lectionem N. T., etc., which was highly valued, and passed through several edi-
tions ; our own copy is dated 1737.) An extended Preface was furnished by Pritius. The
whole is presented in a single and very clumsy volume. — The Latin translation published by
Mr. Boehm in London, 1708, and dedicated to his patron, Prince George, appeared in two
neat und convenient volumes, and is far superior to the continental edition. Copies of these
editions, which are now rarely to be found, were obtained by us from the very rich collection
of such works, belonging to Kev. Dr. C. P. Krauth, of West Philadelphia.

INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

Pennsylvania. The Rev. Anthony William Boehm, a German Lutheran
clergyman, had previously been appointed as the court chaplain of Prince
George of Denmark, the consort of Queen Anne. His enlightened zeal
and devout heart led him to take a deep interest, not only in the tem-
poral, but also in the spiritual welfare of these pilgrims, who were on
their way to the wilds of North America. He accordingly supplied them,
by the aid of certain like-minded friends, with German Bibles and Hymn
Books, and also with German copies of Arndt's " True Christianity," as
well as with other books of devotion. This interesting fact is men-
tioned in the letters of Dr. Muhlenberg, published in the well-known
Halle Reports (Hallische Nachrichten, pp. 665, 793). But Mr. Boehm also
resolved to furnish the people, in the midst of whom he lived, with the
great work of his favorite author, in their own language, and accordingly
prepared an English translation, which was first printed in London
in 1712.

§ 35. It would be unjust to the memory of this excellent man, if we
should fail to refer to his literary labors. His high office at the royal
court of England, is an evidence of his personal merit. He was not only
a devout and faithful preacher of the Gospel, but also an author who
acquired distinction. In 1734 he published a very valuable work in the
German language, entitled: "Eight Books, on the Reformation of the
Church in England, extending from the year 1526, under Henry VIII., to
the reign of Charles II." In a very beautiful eulogy, in manuscript,
found in the volume before us, the writer refers to the successful efforts
of Mr. Boehm to provide for the education of the children of the poor in
his vicinity. He died May 27, 1722, in his fiftieth year, after having faith-
fully labored in the service of Christ. He sustained, with eminent success,
the Danish Lutheran missionaries in Tranquebar, by sending pecuniary
aid obtained in London, as well as religious publications. Besides his
great German historical work, which is the complement of Burnet's "His-
tory of the Reformation of the Church of England," he also published
several English compositions, such as a " Sermon on the doctrine of Orig-
inal Sin, Eph. 4: 22," printed in London, 1711, and a "Sermon on the
Duty of the Reformation (Jubilee), Rev. 18 : 4," London, 1718, besides
various religious works in the German language.

§ 36. About the beginning of the present century, the Rev. Calvin
Chaddock, who resided in Hanover, Massachusetts, obtained a copy of
Mr. Boehm's translation, "accidentally," as he says, and found it to be so
valuable, that he resolved to issue an American edition, which accordingly
appeared in 1809, Boston. In his short Preface he remarks, with great
truth, that the language of the translation "appears to be somewhat an-
cient, and the sentiments in some few instances obscure." He adds, in
reference to his own agency : " The only alterations which have been made,
are such as respect redundant and obsolete words, orthography, the addi-

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

tion of some words, and the transposition of some sentences; that the ideas
of the translator might appear more conspicuous." He might have, with
great advantage, been even more liberal than he was, in correcting the
style; it still remained in numerous passages heavy and obscure. As the
style, even of the original German, is somewhat antiquated, and as, besides,
occasional obscurities and repetitions occur, a later successor in one of
Arndt's pastoral charges, the Rev. J. F. Fedderson, assumed the task of
revising and abridging the whole of the original German, improving or
modernizing the style, and occasionally adding new matter. The result
of his labors does not appear to have received the entire approbation of
the German religious world; the original and unaltered work continues
so popular, that no permanent place has been, secured for the substitute.
A portion of Fedderson's production was translated and published in
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1834, by the Rev. John N. Hoffman,
Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of that place. The
translation was never completed. The part which was given, consisting
mainly of Book I., has long since been out of print.

§ 37. In the year 1815, a new edition of Mr. Boehm's English transla-
tion was issued in London (evidently without any reference to Mr. Chad-
dock's American edition), by William Jacques, A.M., who had already
distinguished himself by his translation, from the Latin, of A. H. Francke's
"Guide to the Reading and Study of the Holy Scriptures," of which a re-
print, in a very unattractive form, and with omissions, appeared in Phila-
delphia, in 1823. He took Mr. Boehm's translation as the "ground-work,"
which, as he states in his Preface, he did not "edit either hastily or neg-
ligently. There is not a single page, nor a single paragraph," he contin-
ues, "which has not been subjected to scrutiny," etc. Nevertheless, Mr.
Jacques, who does not appear to have compared the translation with the
original German, made only verbal changes, which, as it is evident, ma-
terially improve the style. But he allowed all the additions of Mr. Boehm,
which are generally quite tautological, and various inaccuracies in thought
and expression to remain. So many antiquated expressions were retained,
that it would have been inexpedient to reprint the work precisely as Mr.
Jacques allowed the text to remain. Besides, he curtailed the full titles
of the several chapters, and, with very fev^ exceptions, omitted the impor-
tant and appropriate texts which Arndt had prefixed respectively to the
latter. These circumstances, in connection with others, such as numerous
typographical errors, especially in the Scripture references, plainly indi-
cated that a revision of the whole was necessary, before the present edition
could be presented to the public.

§ 38. The editor of the present American edition took that of Mr.
Jacques as the basis of the translation, but compared every sentence with
the original German. He found some cases in which valuable matter had
been omitted, and was occasionally required to supply sentences that had

INTRODUCTION.

XXXV

been mutilated or suppressed. But he erased all the verbal additions, and
the clauses, or sentences, inserted by Mr. Boehm, where it seemed to have
been the object of the latter only to explain remarks that were already
perfectly lucid, or to add emphasis by the insertion of adjectives, etc., or
else to impart beauty by the adoption of poetical terms or phrases, which
were inconsistent with the severe simplicity of Arndt's style. He even
represents the author, on one occasion, as quoting from the "Homilies"
of the Church of England, which Arndt undoubtedly never read, and cer-
tainly does not mention in the original. The American editor has, also,
at the request of several friends, who took an interest in securing the pub-
lication of the present edition, prepared a somewhat copious Ikdex. One
of the Latin editions (London, 1708) contains an index, adapted only to its
own pages. Another, in German, is found in some of the German editions,
for instance, in that of Nuremberg, 1762, also adapted to the pages of the
particular edition only. As the American editor found none in English,
and preferred to adapt the new Index, prepared by him, to the work itself
(specifying the Book, Chapter, and Section), he accordingly completed his
task on this plan, after a considerable expenditure of time and labor. It is
somewhat difficult to prepare an Index for a work which is so exclusively
devotional in its character as the present, and in which the author does
not intend to discuss subjects in a strictly scientific manner. Arndt, for
instance, employs terms which, when defined with precision, indicate dif-
ferent shades of thought, almost as if they were synonymous (e. g.,
the grace, mercy, goodness, love, etc., of God), and often repeats the same
thought in different language. For this we can easily account, when we
recollect that the materials of the work were taken from a series of popu-
lar sermons of the author, delivered at intervals. The editor allows him-
self to hope that the Index which he has prepared, may occasionally be of
service to the reader.

§ 39. But even after having made numerous changes on every page of the
old translation before him, the American editor is conscious that a critical
eye will discover many imperfections in the style. It is often antiquated
and heavy, and sometimes even quaint. Nevertheless, in all these in-
stances he allowed the English text to remain as he found it, content-
ing himself wüth the correction of orthographical and syntactical inaccu-
racies, the rectification of Scripture references, the errors in which he
found to be unusually numerous, the correction of quotations in accord-
ance with the authorized English version of the Bible, in the many cases
in which Mr. Boehm, or one of his assistants, translated from Luther's
German version, or quoted the English version from memory, etc., etc.

§ 40. It is eminently proper that a new edition of Arndt's "True Chris-
tianity" should appear during the present Jubilee year of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, and that it should be undertaken and conducted to a
successful issue by members of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Penn-

xxxvi INTRODUCTION.

sylvania. The deep spirituality of Arndt, and his active and pure faith,
can be fully understood and appreciated only when we reflect on the doc-
trinal system to which he had given his heart, and to which we have
referred above. This orthodox system found no favor, at a later period,
among the Rationalists; they rejected the doctrines of the Bible respect-
ing the depravity of human nature, the divinity of Christ, the efficacy of
the divinely appointed means of grace, and similar truths, and grievously
complained of the violence which, as they treacherously alleged, was of-
fered to their conscience, when the demand was made, that if they claimed
to belong to the Lutheran Church, to occupy its pulpits, and to receive
their support from it, they ought also to adopt its faith. Their influence
is happily decaying in Europe, and the restoration of the doctrines of the
Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church to authority, is
coincident with the new and healthy religious life of the Lutheran Church
in Germany, Hungary, Scandinavia, and Russia. The sincere Christian,
John Arndt, whom we heard protesting before God, with his last breath,
as described above, that he believed only the doctrines of the Symbolical
Books of the Lutheran Church, and all those doctrines, little thought that
more than two centuries afterwards, in the remote Western continent of
America, men would arise who would not only reject with scorn " all the
other Symbolical Books," which he revered, but also speak contemptu-
ously of the Augsburg Confession and its holy doctrines.

§ 41. The doctrinal system which Arndt so sincerely revered, was
brought to this country by the Lutheran pastors who visited our shores
at a very early period. Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, an eminently
enlightened and holy man, was enabled, by his well-disciplined mind and
great administrative powers, to create order among the scattered Luther-
ans whom he found in this country. He was exceedingly zealous in main-
taining the purity of the Lutheran faith, to which he owed all his peace
•and his hopes. He gave unusual prominence to the Symbolical Books —
to all of them, mentioned by name — in the various constitutions of con-
gregations organized or influenced by him, and very properly claimed
that none who rejected them could honestly bear the name of Lutherans.
We will give only one illustration, of many which might be adduced, to
show the fidelity with which he held to the Lutheran Symbolical Books, as
enumerated by Arndt in the last paragraph of his Preface to Book I., in
this volume. Dr. Muhlenberg states in an official Report for the year
1747, which he transmitted to Halle {Hall Nachr., pp. 234, 235), that he
had visited a congregation in Maryland, in which great dissensions pre-
vailed at the time, occasioned by efforts made by certain individuals to
alienate the Lutherans from their faith and church. He says, "Before we
commenced public worship, I asked for the Church Record, and wrote
certain propositions and articles in it in the English language, and among
other statements, made the following: That our German Lutherans held

INTRODUCTION. xxxvii

to the holy Word of God, in the prophetic and apostolical writings; fur-
ther, to the unaltered Augsburg Confession, and the other Symbolical
Books, etc.* I then read the same publicly to the congregation, and ex-
plained it to them in the German language, and added, that every one
who desired to be, and to remain, such a Lutheran, should subscribe his
name." He informs us that the genuine Lutherans readily subscribed;
the rest, who had unlutheran sympathies, withheld their names.

§ 42. An unhappy change occurred after Dr. Muhlenberg's day. The
Symbolical Books, which he and his contemporaries received, believed,
and sustained in their whole extent, with religious veneration, existed at
that time only in Latin and German. They gradually receded from the
view of many pastors of the church; individuals were received into the
ranks of the ministry, who had never studied them; doctrines and usages,
hitherto unknown to the church, were introduced into many Lutheran
congregations. At one period several of the most intelligent pastors
yielded, to a certain extent, to rationalistic influences; then, the opposite
extreme, of fanaticism, gained adherents; both rationalism and fanaticism
were alike hostile to "the unaltered Augsburg Confession and the other
Symbolical Books/' and a strange combination of elements, derived partly
from rationalism, and partly from fanaticism, temporarily held sway.
Dependence was now placed on human measures and inventions, de-
signed for the conversion of sinners and the edification of believers,
rather than on the divinely appointed means of grace, which men like
Arndt and Muhlenberg recognized as the only channels through which
the Divine Spirit exercises his influence. If they had lived among us
during the second, third, and fourth decades of this century, when their
doctrines, and their mode of preaching, were regarded by many as anti-
quated, or un suited to a supposed higher grade of religious development,
they would have readily predicted the results — fanaticism, latitudiuarian-
ism in doctrine, an evanescent emotional religion, and, by consequence,
the rejection, in whole or in part, of the Augsburg Confession and the
other Symbolical Books.

§ 43. God, in his mercy, has interposed. The doctrines which Arndt,
Muhlenberg, and men of the old faith, regarded as the life-blood of a
healthy, scriptural religion, are regaining their authority. Many still

* The term "871111)01" — a word derived from the Greek — was applied, at a very early
period of the Christian Church, by Greek-speaking Christians, to the "Apostles' Creed," in
the sense of a "token or mark of recognition." He who knew and adopted that Creed,
viewed thus as a symbol, was recognized as a Christian ; he who knew it not, or who rejected
it, was not a Christian, but a Jew or heathen. After diverse creeds had been formed and
adopted in the course of time, the word Symbol was retained, as applicable to a particular
creed or confession of faith. Hence the term "Symbols," or its equivalent, "Symbolical
Books," was gradually applied to the several Lutheran Creeds which Arndt mentions with
such reverence and love, as we have seen above.

xxxviii INTKODUCTION.

reject them ; the old faith of the church — Bible truth, is unwelcome to an
ignorant, rationalistic, and unconverted heart. But others have been
taught by observation and experience that mere human measures and in-
ventions cannot conduct to a healthy and permanent religion, and that
divine truth, as taught in the Scriptures, and set forth in our Symbolical
Books, and the other means of grace given to the Church by its divine
Head, are the only sources from which such a healthy religion can pro-
ceed. In this spirit Arndt wrote the "True Christianity," and by this
spirit the Synod of Pennsylvania is animated. This ecclesiastical body
desires to take away all glory from man, and to give it all to Christ.
One of the results of its attachment to our ancient and holy faith, is the
publication of the present volume, in which the author so eloquently and
affectionately urges all men to repent, to believe in Christ, and to lead a
holy life.

§ 44. The divine blessing has so remarkably attended the use of Arndt's
" True Christianity," in the original language, and in its various transla-
tions, that the present editor humbly entertains the hope that the time
and labor expended by him in preparing this new edition, may also be of
avail. And he prays that the " True Christianity" may continue the work
which it has already performed, and instruct, guide, and comfort anew
the souls of its readers, to the praise and glory of God.

C. F. S.

Philadelphia, August, 1868.

THE AUTHOR'S
PREFACE TO THE FIRST BOOK.

CHRISTIAN READER! That the
holy Gospel is subjected, in our
age, to a great and shameful abuse, is
fully proved by the ungodly and im-
penitent life of those who loudly boast
of Christ and of his word, while their
unchristian life resembles that of per-
sons who dwell in a land of heathens
and not of Christians. Such an un-
godly course of conduct furnished me
with an occasion for writing this Trea-
tise ; it was my object to show to plain
readers wherein true Christianity con-
sists, namely, in the exhibition of a
true, living, and active faith, which
manifests itself in genuine godliness
and the fruits of righteousness. I de-
sired to show that we bear the name
of Christians, not only because we
ought to believe in Christ, but also
because the name implies that we live
in Christ, and that He lives in us. I
further desired to show that true re-
pentance proceeds from the inmost
centre of the heart; that the heart,
mind, and affections must be changed ;
that we must be conformed to Christ
and his holy Gospel; and that we must
be renewed by the word of God, and
become new creatures. For even as
every seed produces fruit of a like
nature, so the word of God must daily
produce in us new spiritual fruits. If
we become new creatures by faith,
we must live in accordance with our
new birth. In a word, Adam must
die, and Christ must live, in us. It is
not sufficient to acquire a knowledge

of the word of God ; it is also our duty
to obey it practically, with life and
power.

2. There are many who suppose
that Theology is merely a science, or
an art of words, whereas it is a living
experience and practical exercise. —
Every one now aims at acquiring emi-
nence and distinction in the world;
but no one is willing to learn how to
be devout. Every one now seeks out
men of great learning, who can teach
arts, languages, and wisdom ; but no
one is willing to learn from our only
Teacher, Jesus Christ, how to become
meek and sincerely humble; and yet
His holy and living example is the
true rule for our life and conduct, and,
indeed, constitutes the highest wisdom
and knowledge; so that we can with
truth declare, " The pure life of Christ
opens all knowledge to us."

3. Every one is very willing to be a
servant of Christ; but no one will con-
sent to be his follower. And yet he
says: "If any man serve me, let him
follow me." John 12 : 26. Hence, he
who truly serves and loves Christ,
will also follow him ; and he who loves
Christ, will also love the example of
his holy life, his humility, meekness,
patience, as well as the cross, shame,
and contempt which he endured, al-
though the flesh may thereby suffer
pain. And although we cannot, in
our present weakness, perfectly imi-
tate the holy and exalted life of Christ
(which, indeed, is not intended in my

( xxxix )

xl

PEEFACE TO THE FIEST BOOK.

Book), nevertheless, we ought to love
it, and long to imitate it more fully;
for thus we live in Christ, and Christ
lives in us, according to the words of
St. John : " He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also so to walk,
even as he walked." 1 John 2:6. It
is now the disposition of the world to
acquire a knowledge of all things ; but
that which is better than all other
knowledge, namely, " to know the
love of Christ" (Eph. 3 : 19), no one
desires to acquire. But no man can
love Christ, who does not imitate his
holy life. There are many — a major-
ity, indeed, of men in this world — who
are ashamed of the holy example of
Christ, namely, of his humility and
lowly condition; that is, they are
ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ; of
them he says : " Whosoever shall be
ashamed of me and of my words, in
this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him also shall the Son of man be
ashamed," etc. Mark 8 : 38. Christians
now desire a Christ of imposing ap-
pearance, who is magnificent, rich,
and conformed to the world; but no
one desires to receive, to confess, and
to follow the poor, meek, despised,
and lowly Christ. He will, therefore,
hereafter say: "I never knew you"
(Matt. 7 : 23); ye were not willing to
know me in my humility, and there-
fore I do not know you in your pride.
4. Not only, however, is ungodli-
ness, in all its forms, at variance with
Christ and true Christianity, but it is
also the cause of the daily accumula-
tion of the displeasure of God, and of
the penalties which he inflicts; inso-
much that he fits all creatures to be
avengers, and that heaven and earth,
fire and water, are made to contend
against us; so that all nature is there-
by sorely distressed, and well-nigh
overwhelmed. Hence, a season of af-

fliction must be expected; war, fam-
ine, and pestilence; yea, the last
plagues are coming in with such vio-
lence, that we are exposed to the as-
saults of nearly every creature. For
even as the terrible plagues of the
Egyptians overtook them before the
redemption and departure of the chil-
dren of Israel from Egypt, so, too,
before the redemption of the children
of God occurs, dreadful and unheard-
of plagues will overtake the ungodly
and impenitent. It is therefore high
time to repent, to begin another course
of life, to turn from the world to Christ,
to believe truly in him, and to lead a
Christian life in him, so that we may
securely "dwell in the secret place of
the Most High, and abide under the
shadow of the Almighty." Ps. 91 : 1.
Such is also the exhortation of the
Lord: "Watch ye therefore, and pray
always, that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things."
Luke 21 : 36. The same is also testi-
fied in Ps. 112 : 7.

5. Now, to this end, my Christian
reader, this Book may, to a certain
extent, serve thee as a guide, show-
ing thee not only how thou mayest,
through faith in Christ, obtain the re-
mission of thy sins, but also how thou
mayest avail thyself of the grace of
God, in order to lead a holy life; and
how thou mayest demonstrate and
adorn thy faith by a Christian walk
and conversation. For true Christi-
anity consists, not in words, nor in
any external show, but in a living
faith, from which proceed fruits meet
for repentance, and all manner of
Christian virtues, as from Christ him-
self. For as faith is hidden from hu-
man view, and is invisible, it must be
manifested by its fruits; inasmuch as
faith derives from Christ all that is
good, righteous, and blessed.

PEEFACE TO THE FIEST BOOK.

xli

6. Now, when faith waits for the
blessings which are promised to it,
the offspring of this faith is hope. For
what else is hope but a constant and
persevering expectation, in faith, of
the blessings which are promised?
Bat when faith communicates to a
neighbor the blessings which it has it-
self received, love is the offspring of
such a faith, imparting to the neigh-
bor that which it has itself received
from God; and when faith endures
the trial of the cross, and submits to
the will of God, it brings forth pa-
tience. But when it sighs under the
burden of the cross, or offers thanks
to God for mercies which it has re-
ceived, it gives birth to prayer. When
it compares the power of God, on the
one hand, with the misery of man, on
the other, and submits unresistingly
to the will of God, humility is the fruit.
And when this faith diligently labors
that it may not lose the grace of God,
or, as St. Paul says: " worketh out
salvation with fear and trembling"
(Phil. 2 : 12), then the fear of God is
the result.

7. Thus thou seest that all the
Christian virtues are the offspring of
faith, proceed from faith, and cannot
be separated from faith, their common
source, if they are indeed genuine,
living, and Christian virtues, proceed-
ing ultimately from God, from Christ,
and from the Holy Spirit. Hence no
work can be acceptable to God with-
out faith in Christ. For how can true
hope, sincere love, persevering pa-
tience, earnest prayer, Christian hu-
mility, and a childlike fear of God,
exist without faith? All must be
drawn from Christ, the well of salva-
tion (Isa. 12 : 3), through faith, as
well righteousness, as all the fruits
of righteousness. But take great
care, my reader, that thou do not

connect thy works, the virtues which
thou hast commenced to practise, or
the gifts of the new life, with thy jus-
tification before God. For in this
matter, man's works, merit, gifts, and
virtue, however lovely these may ap-
pear to be, have no efficacy; our justi-
fication depends solely on the exalted
and perfect merit of Jesus Christ, ap-
prehended by faith, even as it is set
forth in Chap. V, XIX, XXXIV. and
XLI, of this Book, and in the first
three chapters of Book II. Take great
care, therefore, not to confound the
righteousness of faith, on the one
hand, and the righteousness of a
Christian life, on the other; but rather
to make a clear distinction between
them; for here the whole foundation
of our Christian religion is involved.
Still, thy repentance must be the great
concern of thy life, for otherwise thou
hast no true faith, such as daily puri-
fies, changes, and amends the heart.
Thou must, moreover, know that the
consolations of the Gospel cannot be
effectually applied, unless they have
been preceded by a genuine godly sor-
row, the result of which is a bruised
and contrite heart; for we read that
"to the poor the gospel is preached."
Luke 7 : 22. How, indeed, can faith
give life to the heart, unless that heart
has been previously put to death by
sincere sorrow and a thorough knowl-
edge of sin? Do not, therefore, im-
agine that repentance is a slight and
easy work. Eemember the solemn
and severe language of the Apostle
Paul, when he commands us to mortify
and crucify the flesh, with the affec-
tions and lusts, to offer the body as a
sacrifice, to die unto sin, to be cruci-
fied unto the world. Col. 3:5; Eom.
6:6; 12 : 1; 1 Pet. 2: 24; Gal. 5: 24;
6 : 14. Truly, none of these things
can result, when we gratify the flesh.

xlii

PEEFACE TO THE FIEST BOOK.

ÜSTor do the holy prophets employ
cheerful terms when they call for a
contrite and broken heart, and say:
"Bend your heart — weep and lament/'
Joel 2 : 13, 17; Jer. 4 : 8. But where
is such repentance now exhibited ?
The Lord Jesus Christ, when alluding
to if, demands that we should deny
ourselves, and renounce all that we
have, if we desire to be his disciples.
Luke 9 : 23; Matt. 16 : 24. Yerily, all
this can never proceed from a gay,
trifling, and light mind; of this the
evidence may be found in the seven
Penitential Psalms of David. The
Scriptures abound in illustrations of
the jealousy of God, who demands
both repentance and its fruits, with-
out which eternal salvation cannot be
obtained. But afterwards the conso-
lations of the Gospel manifest their
power. And both such repentance,
and such consolation, are solely the
work of the Spirit of God, through
the Word.

8. Now this Book which I have
written, specially treats of such sin-
cere and earnest repentance of the
heart, of the exhibition of faith in the
life and conduct, and of the spirit of
love which should animate all the acts
of the Christian; for that which pro-
ceeds from Christian love, is, at the
same time, the fruit of faith. It is
true that I have referred to some ear-
lier writers, such as Tauler, Thomas a
Kempis, and others, who may seem to
ascribe more than is due to human
ability and works; but my whole Book
is designed to counteract such an
error. I would, therefore, kindly re-
quest the Christian reader to remem-
ber the great object for which I wrote
this Book. He will find that its main
purpose is this: To teach the reader
how to perceive the hidden and con-
nate abomination of Original Sin; to

set forth distinctly our misery and
helplessness; to teach us to put no
trust in ourselves or our ability; to
take away everything from ourselves,
and to ascribe all to Christ, so that He
alone may dwell in us, work all things
in us, alone live in us, and create all
things in us, because he is the begin-
ning, middle, and end, of our conver-
sion and salvation. All this has been
plainly and abundantly explained in
many passages of this Book; and, at
the same time, the doctrines of the
Papists, Synergists, and Majorists,
have been expressly refuted and re-
jected. The doctrine, moreover, of
justification by faith, has been set
forth in this Book, and especially in
Book IL, in the most pointed and ex-
plicit manner. In order, however, to
obviate all misapprehensions, I have
subjected the present edition to a very
careful revision, and I beg the reader
to receive the editions which have ap-
peared in Frankfort and other places,
in the sense in which the present
Magdeburg edition is to be received.
I also affirm, that this Book, as well
in all other articles and points, as also
in the articles of Free Will, and of the
Justification of a poor sinner before
God, is not to be understood in any
other manner than in accordance with
the Symbolical Books of the churches
of the Augsburg Confession, namely,
the first Unaltered Augsburg Con-
fession, the Apology, the Smalcald
Articles, the Two Catechisms of Lu-
ther, and the Formula of Concord.

May God enlighten us all by his
Holy Spirit, so that we ma}^ be sin-
cere and without offence, both in our
faith and in our life, till the day of
Christ (which is near at hand), being
filled with the fruits of righteousness,
unto the glory and praise of God !
Amen.

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

BOOK L

WHEEEIN TEUE CHEISTIANITY, SINCEKE SOEEOW FOE SIN, EEPENT-

ANCE, FAITH, AND THE HOLY LIFE OF THE TEUE

CHEISTIAN, AEE CONSIDEEED.

CHAPTER I.

SHOWING WHAT THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN IS.

Be renewed in the sjririt of your mind ; and . . . put on the new man, which after God is created

in righteousness and true holiness. — Eph. 4

THE image of God in man, is the
conformity of the soul of man, of
his spirit and mind, of his understand-
ing and will, and of all his faculties
and powers, both bodily and mental,
to God and the Holy Trinity. For the
decree of the Holy Trinity was thus
expressed: "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness," etc. Gen.
1:26.

2. It is evident, therefore, that,
when man was created, the image of
the Trinity was impressed on him, in
order that the holiness, righteousness,
and goodness of God, might shine
forth in his soul; diffuse abundant
light through his understanding, will,
and affections; and visibly appear
even in his life and conversation:
that, consequently, all his actions,
both inward and outward, might
breathe nothing but divine love, pu-
rity, and power, and, in short, that
the life of man upon earth might re-

semble that of the angels in heaven,
who are always engaged in doing the
will of their Heavenly Father. In
thus impressing his image on man,
God designed to delight and rejoice in
him, just as a father rejoices in a child
born after his own image : for as a pa-
rent, beholding himself, or another self,
in' his offspring, cannot but feel the
greatest complacency and delight; so,
when God beheld the express charac-
ter of his own Person reflected in an
image of himself, his "delights were
with the sons of men." Prov. 8 : 31.
Thus it waa God's chief pleasure to
look on man, in whom he rejoiced,,
and rested, as it were, from all his;
labor; considering him as the great
masterpiece of his creation, and know-
ing that in the perfect innocence and.
beauty of man, the excellency of his.
own glory would be fully set forth..
And this blessed communion our first
parents and their posterity were al-

(1)

1

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

ways to have enjoyed, had they con-
tinued in the likeness of God, and
rested in him and in his will ; who, as
he was their author, was also to be
their end.

3. It undoubtedly is the essential
property of every image, that it be a
just representation of the object which
it is intended to express; and as the
reflection in a mirror is vivid in a de-
gree proportioned to the clearness of
the mirror itself, so the image of God
becomes more or less visible, accord-
ing to the purity of the soul in which
it is beheld.

4. Hence God originally created man
perfectly pure and undefiled; that so
the divine image might be beheld in
him, not as an empty, lifeless shadow
in a glass, but as a true and living
image of the invisible God, and as the
likeness of his inward, hidden, and
unutterable beauty. There was an
image of the wisdom of God, in the
understanding of man; of his goodness,
gentleness, and patience, in the spirit
of man; of his divine love and mercy,
in the affections of man's heart. There
was an image of the righteousness
and holiness, the justice and purity
of God, in the will of man; of his
kindness, clemency, and truth, in all
the words and actions of man; of his
almighty power, in man's dominion
over the earth, and inferior creatures;
and lastly, there was an image of God's
eternity, in the immortality of the hu-
man soul.

5. From the divine image thus im-
planted in him, man should have ac-
quired the knowledge both of God
and of himself. Hence he might have
learned, that God, his Creator, is all
in all, the Being of beings, and the
chief and only BEING, from whom
.all created beings derive their exist-
ence, and in whom, and by whom, all

things that are, subsist. Hence, also,
he might have known, that God, as
the Original of man's nature, is all
that essentially, of which he himself
was but the image and representation.
For since man was to bear the image
of the divine goodness, it follows that
God is the sovereign and universal
goodness essentially (Matt. 19 : 17);
and, consequently, that God is essen-
tial love, essential life, and essential
holiness, to whom alone (because he is
all this essentially), worship and praise,
honor and glory, might, majesty, do-
minion, and virtue, are to be ascribed:
whereas these do not appertain to the
creature, nor belong to anything but
God alone.

6. From this image of the Divine
Being, man should fürther have ac-
quired the knowledge of himself. He
should have considered what a vast
difference there was between God and
himself. Man is not God, but God's
image; and the image of God ought to
represent nothing but God. He is a
portraiture of the Divine Being; a
character, an image, in which God
alone should be seen and glorified.
Nothing therefore ought to live in
man, besides God. Nothing but the
Divinity should stir, will, love, think,
speak, act, or rejoice in him. For if
anything besides God live or work in
man, he ceases to be the image of God;
and becomes the image of that which
thus lives and acts within him. If
therefore a man would become, and
continue to be, the image of God, he
must wholly surrender himself to the
Divine Being, and submit entirely to
his will; he must suffer God to work
in him whatsoever he pleases; so that,
by denying his own will, he may do
the will of his Heavenly Father with-
out reserve, being entirely resigned to
God, and willing to become a holy in-

Chap. I.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

strument in his hands, to do his will
and his work. Such a man follows not
his own will, but the will of God ; he
loves not himself, but God ; seeks not
his own honor, but the honor of God.
He covets no estates nor affluence for
himself, but refers all to the Supreme
Good; and so being contented to pos-
sess him, rises above the lo\se of the
creature and the world. And thus
ought man to divest himself of all love
of himself and the world, that God
alone may be all in him, and work all
in him, by his Holy Spirit. Herein con-
sisted the perfect innocence, purity,
and holiness of man. For, what greater
innocence can there be, than that a
man should do, not his own will, but
the will of his Heavenly Father? Or
what greater purity, than that man
should suffer God to work in him, and
to do everything according to His
pleasure ? Or, what greater holiness,
than to become an instrument in the
hands of the Spirit of God ? To resem-
ble a child, in whose breast self-love
and self-honor do not yet prevail, is, in
truth, the highest simplicity.

7. Of this entire devotedness to the
Divine will, our Lord Jesus Christ,
while he sojourned in our world, was
a perfect example. He sacrificed his
own will to God his Father, in blame-
less obedience, humility, and meek-
ness; readily depriving himself of all
honor and esteem, of all self-interest
and self-love, of all pleasure and joy;
and leaving God alone, to think, speak,
and act, in him, and by him. In short,
he invariably made the will and pleas-
ure of God his own, as the Father
himself testified by a voice from Hea-
ven : " This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3 :
17. The Lord Jesus Christ, blessed
forever, is the true Image of God, in
whom nothing appears but God him-

self, and such manifestations as are
agreeable to his nature ; namely, love,
mercy, long-suffering, patience, meek-
ness, gentleness, righteousness, holi-
ness, consolation, life, and everlasting
blessedness : for by him, the invisible
God was willing to be discovered and
made known to man. He is indeed the
image of God in a more sublime sense ;
that is, according to his Divinity, by
virtue of which, he is himself very
God, the express and essential image
of his Father's glory, in the infinite
splendor of the uncreated light. Heb.
1 : 3. But of this point no more can
at present be said : our design being
to speak of him only as he lived and
conversed in his holy humanity, while
he tabernacled upon the earth.

8. It was in such a holy innocence
as this, that the image of God was, in
the beginning, conferred on Adam,
which he should have preserved in
true humility and obedience. Suffi-
cient it surely was for him, that he was
made capable of all the benefits of the
divine image; of sincere and unmixed
love and delight; of undisturbed and
solid tranquillity of mind ; of power,
fortitude, peace, light, and life. But
not duly reflecting that he himself
was not the chief good, but merely a
mirror of the Godhead, formed pur-
posely to receive the reflection of the
divine nature, he erected himself into
a God ; and thus choosing to be the
highest good to himself, he was pre-
cipitated into the greatest of all evils,
being deprived of this inestimable
image, and alienated from that com-
munion with God, which, by virtue of
it, he before enjoyed.

9. Had self-will, self-love, and self-
honor, been excluded, the image of
God could not have departed from
man ; but the Divine Being would
have continued to be his sole glory,

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

honor, and praise. As everything is
capable of its like and not of its con-
trary, and in its like acquiesces and
delights, so man, being in the simili-
tude of God, was thereby prepared to
receive God into himself, who was
also ready to communicate himself to
man, with all the treasures of his
goodness ; goodness being of all things
the most communicative of itself.

10. Finally, man ought to have
learned from the image of God, that

by means of it he is united to God;
and that in this union, his true and
everlasting tranquillity, his rest, peace,
joy, life, and happiness alone consist.
He should have learned that all rest-
lessness of mind and vexation of spirit,
arise from nothing but a breach of
this union, by which he ceases to be
the image of God ; for man no sooner
turns to the creature, than he is de-
prived of that eternal good which is
to be derived from God alone.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE FALL OF ADAM.

As by one mart's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many

be made righteous. — KoM. 5:19.

THE fall of Adam was disobedience
to God, by which man turned
away from the Divine Being to him-
self, and robbed God of the honor due
to him alone, in that he himself thought
to be as God. But while he thus
labored to advance himself, he was
stripped of that divine image, which
the Creator had so freely conferred on
him ; divested of hereditary righteous-
ness; and bereaved of that holiness
with which he was originally adorned ;
becoming, as it regards his understand-
ing, dark and blind; as to his will,
stubborn and perverse; and as to all
the powers and faculties of the soul,
entirely alienated from God. This
evil has infected the whole mass of
mankind, by means of a fleshly gener-
ation ; and has been inherited by all
men. The obvious consequence aris-
ing from this is, that man is become
spiritually dead and the child of wrath
and damnation, until redeemed from
this miserable state by Jesus Christ.

Let not then any who are called Chris-
tians deceive themselves with regard
to Adam's fall. Let them be cautious,
how they attempt to extenuate or
lessen the transgression of Adam, as
though it were a small sin, a thing of
little consequence, and, at the worst,
but the eating of an apple. Let them
rather be assured, that the guilt of
Adam was that of Lucifer, namely, he
would be as God : and that it was the
same most grievous, heinous, and hate-
ful sin in both.

2. This apostasy (for it was nothing
less), was, at first, generated in the
heart, and then made manifest by the
eating of the forbidden fruit. Though
man was numbered with the sons of
God ; though he came forth from the
hands of the Almighty spotless both
in body and in soul, and was the most
glorious object in the creation ; though,
to crown all, he was not only a son,
but the delight of God ; yet not know-
ing how to rest satisfied with these

Chap. IL]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

high privileges, he attempted to in-
vade Heaven, that he might be yet
higher; and nothing less would suffice
him, than to exalt himself like unto
God. Hence, he conceived in his heart
enmity and hatred against the Divine
Being, his Creator and Father, whom,
had it been in his power, he was dis-
posed utterly to undo. Who could
commit a sin more detestable than
this ? or what greater abomination is
there, that it was possible to meditate ?

3. Hence it was, that man became
inwardly like Satan himself, bearing
his likeness in the heart ; since both
had now committed the same sin, both
having rebelled against the majesty of
Heaven. Man no more exhibits an
image of God, but rather that of the
Devil ; he no longer is an instrument
in the hands of God, but is become an
organ of Satan, and is thereby ren-
dered capable of every species of dia-
bolical wickedness : so that, having
lost that image which was heavenly,
spiritual, and divine, he is altogether
earthly, sensual, and brutish. For the
devil, designing to imprint his own
image upon man, fascinated him so
entirely by a train of enticing and de-
ceitful words, that man permitted him
to sow that hateful seed in his soul,
which is hence termed the seed of the
serpent; and by which is chiefly
meant, self-love, self-will, and the am-
bition of being as God. On this ac-
count it is, that the Scriptures term
those who are intoxicated with self-
love, "a generation of vipers." Matt.
3 : 7. And all those who are of a
proud and devilish nature, " the seed
(progeny) of the serpent." So the
Almighty, addressing the serpent,
says, " I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed." Gen. 3 : 15.

4. From this seed of the serpent

nothing but deadly and horrible fruit
can possibly proceed ; namely, Satan's
image, the children of Belial, the chil-
dren of the devil. John 8 : 44. As in
every natural seed, how minute soever
it may be, are contained, in a most
wonderful and hidden manner, the
nature and properties of the future
plant, all its parts and proportions, its
branches, leaves, and flowers, in minia-
ture ; so in that seed of the serpent,
Adam's self-love and disobedience
(which has passed unto all his pos-
terity by a fleshly generation), there
lies, as it were in embryo, the tree of
death, with its branches, leaves, and
flowers, and those innumerable fruits
of unrighteousness which grow upon
it. In short, the whQle image of Satan
is secretly traced out there, with all
its marks, characters, and proper-
ties.

5. If we observe a little child with
attention, we shall see how this nat-
ural corruption displays itself from
its very birth ; aod how self-will and
disobedience especially discover them-
selves, and break forth into actions
that effectually witness to the hidden
root from which they spring. Let us
consider the child further, as it grows
up to maturer years. Observe the nat-
ural selfishness of the youth, his in-
bred ambition, his thirst after worldly
glory, his love of applause, his pursuit
of revenge, and his proneness to deceit
and falsehood. And now these evils
multiply. Soon may be discovered in
him vanity, arrogance, pride, blasphe-
my, vain oaths, awful curses, frauds,
skepticism, infidelity, contempt of God
and his holy Word, and disobedience
to parents and magistrates : wrath and
contentiousness; hatred and envy; re-
venge and murder, and all kinds of
cruelty; especially if outward occa-
sions offer themselves, and call forth

TEXTE CHBISTIAKLTY.

[Book. I.

into action this latent and deadly seed,
and the various evils of Adam's de-
praved nature. In proportion as such
occasions continue to present them-
selves, we shall observe the appear-
ance of other vices; wantonness, adul-
terous thoughts, lewd imaginations,
obscene discourses, lascivious gestures,
and all uthe works of the flesh:" we
shall behold drunkenness, rioting, and
every species of intemperance; fickle-
ness, excessive wantonness, and all
that can please the appetite, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life. And
besides these, there may soon be dis-
covered, covetousness, extortion, chi-
canery, sophistry, imposture, and every
description of sinister practice; to-
gether with knavery, overreaching
in trade, and, in short, the whole
troop, or rather army of sins, iniqui-
ties, and crimes, which are so various
and so many, that it is impossible to
recount or declare the number of
them; according to the words of the
prophet Jeremiah, "the heart is de-
ceitful above all things, and despe-
rately wicked; who can know it?"
Ch. 17 : 9. And if to those already
enumerated there be added, in the last
place, the seducing and false spirits;
then may be observed schisms in the
church, wicked and dangerous her-
esies, yea, the abjuring of God and
Christ, idolatry, the denial of the faith,
hatred and persecution of the truth,
the sin against the Holy Ghost, with
every kind of corruption in doctrine,
perversion of the Scriptures, and
strong delusion. Now, what are all
these but the image of Satan, and the
fruits of the serpent's seed sown in
man?

6. Who could ever have supposed
that such a depth of wickedness and
depravity could be found in such a
weak and helpless child ; that so ven-

omous a principle, so corrupt a heart,
lay hid in a babe apparently so harm-
less ? Who could possibly have be-
lieved this, had not man himself, by
his sinful and abominable life, by the
imaginations of his thoughts (being
"only evil continually," and despe-
rately bent on what is bad), of his own
will brought it to light, and expressed,
from his childhood, what was before
concealed as in a seed? Gen. 6:5;
8:21.

7. Oh ! most vile and most accursed
root! from which springs the poison-
ous tree that i§ so fruitful in the pro-
duction of every kind of plague. Oh,
seed of the serpent, most hateful, most
dreadful ! from which an image at once
so deformed and foul is generated; and
which continually enlarges itself, as it
is excited by outward temptations and
by the scandals of the world. Full
well might the blessed Jesus so sol-
emnly and strictly forbid, that any, by
bad example, should offend little chil-
dren; knowing that the seed of the
serpent lurks in them, as the deadly
poison in the venomous worm, ready
to break forth into open acts of sin,
whenever an occasion presents itself.

8. Learn, then, O man! to know the
fall of Adam, and the true nature of
Original Sin. Learn, if thou art wise,
to discern it in thyself. Examine it,
not slightly and carelessly, but deeply,
and as the importance of the matter
deserves; for this infection is greater,
this depravation deeper and more
deadly, than can possibly be expressed
by words, or even be conceived in idea.
"Know thyself!" and deeply consider
what thou art, O man ! since the fall
of thy first father; how thou, who
wast in the image of God, art become
the image of Satan, an epitome of all
his wicked tendencies, and art con-
formed to Satan in all malice and un-

Chap. III.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

godliness. For as in the image of God
all the divine virtues and properties
are contained, so in the image of the
Devil, which man, by turning himself
from God, has contracted, all the vices
and properties are to be found, and
the very nature of the Devil himself.
For, as man, before the fall, bore the
image of the heavenly Adam, that is,
was altogether heavenly, spiritual, and
divine; so, since the first apostasy,
he carries about with him the image
of the earthly Adam, being inwardly
earthly, carnal, and corrupt.

9. Lo ! he is become as one of the
beasts of the field. For what, O fallen
man ! is thy wrathfulness ? and to
whom does it more properly belong,
to the lion, or to man? And do not
thine envy and thy greediness betray
in thee the nature of the dog and of
the wolf? And with regard to thy
uncleanness and gluttony, are not
these evidences of a swinish nature?
Didst thou, indeed, but rightly ex-
amine thine own breast, thou wouldst
there discover a world of unclean and
noxious beasts. Even in the tongue,
that "little member," there may be
found, according to St. James, a lake
of pestilential and creeping things, a
hold of every foul spirit, the cage of
every filthy and hateful bird (Isaiah

13 : 21 ; Rev. 18 : 2), and, in a word, a
" world of iniquity." James 3:6. Of-
ten, alas ! do we make such progress in
wickedness as to surpass in wrath and
fury the beasts of prey ; in ravenous-
ness and violence, the wolf; in sub-
tilty and cunning, the fox; in malice
and virulence, the serpent; and in
filthiness and obscenity, the swine.
Hence it was, that our Lord termed
Herod a fox, and the unholy, in gen-
eral, dogs and swine ; to whom that
which is holy should not be given.
Luke 13:32; Matt. 7 : 6.

10. Whosoever, therefore, fails to
correct this corruption of nature, by
being truly converted and renewed in
Christ Jesus, but dies in the state
which has been described, must re-
tain, forever, this bestial and Satani-
cal nature. He must be arrogant,
haughty, proud, and devilish, through-
out eternity. And when he shall have
neglected the time of his purification
here, he shall bear about with him
the image of Satan in the blackness
of darkness forever ; as a testimony,
that while he was in the world, he did
not live in Christ, nor was renewed
after the image of God. " For with-
out are dogs and sorcerers, and who-

soever loveth and
Rev. 21:8; 22:15.

maketh a lie.

CHAPTER III.

SHOWING HOW MAN IS RENEWED IN CHRIST UNTO ETERNAL LIFE.

In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new crea-
ture.— Gal. 6 : 15.

THE New Birth is a work of the
Holy Ghost, by which man, of a
sinner, is made righteous ; and from
being a child of damnation and wrath,
is made a child of grace and salvation.

This change is effected through faith,.,
the word of God and the Sacraments y
and by it, the heart, and all the powers;
and faculties of the soul (more par-
ticularly the understanding, will, and

8

TEÜE CHEISTIAISTITY.

[Book I

affections), are renewed, enlightened,
and sanctified in Christ Jesus, and are
fashioned after his express likeness.
The new birth comprehends two chief
blessings, namely, justification, and
sanctification, or the renewal of man.
Tit. 3 : 5.

2. The birth of every real Christian
is twofold. The first is " after the
flesh," the second, " after the spirit;"
the first is from beneath, the second
from above; the first is earthly, but
the second heavenly. The one is car-
nal, sinful, and accursed, as descend-
ing from the first Adam by the seed
of the serpent, after the similitude
and image of the Devil; and by this,
the earthly and carnal nature is prop-
agated. The other, on the contrary,
is spiritual, holy, and blessed, as de-
rived from the second Adam; after
the likeness of the Son of God : and
by this is propagated the heavenly
and spiritual man, the seed and image
of God.

3. There is therefore in the Chris-
tian a twofold line of descent; and,
consequently, two men, as it were, ex-
ist in one and the same person. The
fleshly lineage is derived from Adam,
and the spiritual lineage from Christ,
through faith : for as the old birth of
Adam is in man by nature, even so
must the new birth of Christ be in
him by grace. This is the old and
new man, the old and new birth, the
old and new Adam, the earthly and
heavenly image, the flesh and the
Spirit, Adam and Christ in us, and
also, the outward and inward man.

4. Let us now proceed to notice how
we are regenerated by Christ. As the
old birth is propagated carnally from
Adam, so the new birth is spiritually
propagated from Christ, through the
word of God. This word is the seed
of the new creature : for we are " born

again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever."
1 Peter 1:23. And, again, "Of his
own will begat he us with the word
of truth, that we should be a kind of
first-fruits of his creatures." James
1 : 18. The word of God produces
faith ; and faith again apprehends the
word of God, and in that word em-
braces Jesus Christ and the Holy
Ghost, by whose spiritual efficacy and
virtue man is regenerated or born
anew. In other words, regeneration
is effected, in the first place, by the
Holy Ghost ; and this is what Christ
means by being " born of the Spirit "
(John 3:5); secondly, by faith;
whence it is said, — " whosoever be-
lieveth that Jesus is the Christ, is born
of God " (1 John 5:1); and thirdly, by
holy Baptism ; according to that pas-
sage of Scripture, " Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of
God." John 3: 5.

5. In Adam, man has inherited the
chief evils ; as sin, divine wrath, death,
Satan, hell, and damnation ; but in
Christ, he is restored to the possession
of the chief blessings, as righteous-
ness, grace, blessing, power, a heaven-
ly life, and eternal salvation. From
Adam, man inherits a carnal spirit,
and is subjected to the rule and ty-
ranny of the evil spirit; but from
Christ, he obtains the Holy Spirit,
with his gifts, together with his com-
forting guidance. From Adam, man
has derived an arrogant, proud, and
haughty spirit; but if he would be
born again and renewed in his mind,
he must receive from Christ, by faith,
an humble, meek, and upright spirit.
From Adam, man inherits an unbe-
lieving, blasphemous, and most un-
grateful spirit ; and it is his duty to

Chap. III.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

obtain from Christ a believing spirit,
that will prove faithful, acceptable,
and well-pleasing to God. From
Adam, a disobedient, violent and rash
spirit is inherited ; but from Christ,
we imbibe, through faith, the spirit of
obedience, gentleness, and modesty,
and the spirit of meekness and mod-
eration. From Adam, we, by nature,
inherit a spirit of wrath, enmity, re-
venge, and murder ; but from Christ,
we, by faith, acquire the spirit of long-
suffering, love, mercy, forgiveness,
and universal goodness and benignity.
From Adam, man, by nature, inherits
a covetous heart, a churlish, merci-
less spirit, that seeks only to profit
self, and grasp at that which is the
right of another ; but from Christ, is
obtained, by faith, the spirit of mercy,
compassion, generosity, and mildness.
From Adam proceeds an unchaste,
unclean, and intemperate spirit; but
from Christ, a spirit of chastity, pu-
rity, and temperance, may be obtained.
From Adam, there is communicated
to man a spirit full of calumny and
falsehood ; while on the other hand,
he acquires from Christ the spirit of
truth, of constancy, and of integrity.
Lastly, we receive from Adam a brutish
and earthly spirit j and from Christ, a
spirit from above, which is altogether
heavenly and divine.

6. Hence, it behooved Christ to
take upon himself our nature, and to be
conceived and anointed by the Holy
Ghost, in order that we might all re-
ceive of his fulness. It was requisite
that " the Spirit of the Lord should
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of coun-
sel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord " (Isa. 11 :
2), that so human nature might in him,
and by him, be restored and renewed,
and that we, in him, by him, and

through him, might become new crea-
tures. This is accomplished by re-
ceiving from Christ, the spirit of wis-
dom and understanding, for the spirit
of folly ; the spirit of counsel, for that
of madness ; the spirit of might, for
that of cowardice and fear; the spirit
of knowledge, instead of our natural
blindness; and the spirit of the fear
of the Lord, instead of the spirit of
impiety and infidelity.

7. It is in this heavenly change that
the new life and the new creation
within us consist. For as, in Adam
we are all spiritually dead, and in-
capable of performing any works, ex-
cept those of death and darkness ; so,
in Christ, we must be made alive (1
Cor. 15 : 22) and do the works of light
and life. As, by a carnal generation,
we have inherited sin from Adam ; so,
by faith, we must inherit righteous-
ness from Christ. As, by a fleshly
descent from Adam, pride, covetous-
ness, lust, and all kinds of impurity,
are entailed upon us; so by the spirit
of Christ, our nature ought to be re-
newed, and all pride, covetousness,
lust, and envy, be mortified within us.
And thus is it necessary that we
should, from Christ, derive a new
spirit, heart, and mind; even as we
derived from Adam our sinful flesh.

8. With reference to this great
work of regeneration, Christ is called
"the everlasting Father" (Isa. 9 : 6),
and we are renewed in him to life
eternal, being here regenerated into
his likeness, and made in him new
creatures. And if our works ever
prove acceptable in the sight of God,
they must spring from this principle
of the new birth; that is, from Christ,
his Spirit, and an unfeigned faith.

9. Henceforth we must live in the
new birth, and the new birth in us j
we must be in Christ, and Christ in

10

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

us : we must live in the spirit of Christ,
and the spirit of Christ in us. Gal.
2 : 20. This regeneration with its at-
tendant fruits, is described by St.
Paul, as the being "renewed in the
spirit of our mind," " putting off the
old man," and the being " transformed
into the image of God." He likewise
considers it as the being "renewed in
knowledge after the image of him
that created us," and " the renewing
of the Holy Ghost." Eph. 4 : 23 ; 2
Cor. 3: 18; Col. 3: 10; Tit. 3: 5. It is
termed by Ezekiel, " taking away the
stony heart, and giving a heart of
flesh." Ch. 11:19. Hence it appears
how the regeneration of man proceeds
from the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
As man, by ambition, pride, and dis-
obedience, turned himself from God;
so his apostasy could not be expiated
and removed, except by the extreme
humility, lowliness, and obedience of
the Son of God. And as Christ, when
upon earth, was most humble in his
conversation among men, so it is nec-
essary, O man I that he should be the
same in thee; that he should dwell in
thy soul, and restore the image of God
in thee.

10. And now, O man! contemplate
the perfectly amiable, lowly, obedient,
and patient Jesus, and learn of him;
live as he lived, yea, live in him, and
tread in his steps. For what was the
cause of his living upon earth? It
was that he might become thy exam-
ple, thy mirror, and the rule of thy
life. He, he only, is the rule of life,
and the pattern which every Christian
should strive to imitate. It is not the
rule of any man whatsoever. There
ig but one example, — Christ; and him
the Apostles have, with one consent,
set before us for our imitation. And
in the same manner are we called to
view his passion, death, and resurrec-

tion : even that thou, O man ! should-
est with him, die unto sin; and in
him, with him, and by him, spiritu-
ally rise again, and walk in newness
of life, "even as he also walked."
Eom. 6 : 4.

11. Thus may we see, how our re-
generation arises from the passion,
death, and resurrection, of our gra-
cious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Hence, St. Peter saith, " God hath be-
gotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead." 1 Pet. 1 : 3. And all the
apostles will everywhere be found to
lay the foundation of repentance and
of a new life, in the passion of Christ.
St. Peter, indeed, gives this express
charge: "Pass the time of your so-
journing here in fear; forasmuch as
ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and
gold; but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot " (1 Pet. 1 : 17-19) ;
in which we may observe, that the
ransom paid for our redemption is
urged as the motive to a holy conver-
sation. The same apostle tells us,
likewise, that " Christ his own self bare
our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness" (1 Peter 2: 24);
and Jesus himself has said : " Thus it
behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day : and
that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name."
Luke 24 : 46, 47.

12. It is evident, therefore, that
from the passion and death of Christ,
proceed both the satisfaction made for
our sins, and the renewing of our na-
ture by faith ; and that they both are
necessary to the restoration of fallen
man. The latter, as well as the former,
is the blessed effect of Christ's passion,

Chap. IV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

11

which worketh our renewal and sancti-
fication. 1 Cor. 1 : 30. Thus the new
birth in us proceeds from Christ. And
as a means to attain this end, holy Bap-
tism has been instituted, wherein we

are baptized into the death of Christ,
in order that we might die with bim
unto sin by the power of his death,
and rise again from sin by the power
of his resurrection.

CHAPTER IV.

OF TRUE REPENTANCE, AND THE TRUE YOKE AND CROSS OP CHRIST.
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. — Gal. 5 : 24.

REPENTANCE, or true conver-
sion, is the work of the Holy
Spirit, under the influence of which,
man, through the law, acknowledges
his sin, and the wrath of God provoked
against it; and earnestly mourns over
his offences; and then, understanding,
through the Gospel, the grace of God,
by faith in Christ Jesus, he obtains
the remission of his sins. By this re-
pentance, the mortification or crucify-
ing of the flesh, and of all carnal lusts
and pleasures, is carried on; together
with the quickening of the spirit, or
the resurrection of the new man in
Christ. Under the exercise of repent-
ance, therefore, the old Adam, with
his corruptions, dies within us; and
Christ lives in us, by faith (Gal. 2 :
20) ; for we must be aware that these
two are inseparably connected. The
resurrection of the spirit follows the
mortification of the flesh; and the
quickening of the new man, destroys
and annihilates the old man; the ruin
of the one, is the life and resurrection
of the other. "Though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day." 2 Cor. 4 : 16.
"We are, therefore, enjoined to "mor-
tify our members which are upon the
earth" (Col. 3:5); and to "reckon our-
selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but

alive unto God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord." Eom. 6 : 11.

2. Let us, however, inquire why the
flesh is thus to be mortified; and why
the whole body of sin is at last to
be destroyed. It has been remarked
(Chap. II) that, by the fall of Adam,
man became earthly, carnal, and devil-
ish ; without God, and without love:
for being without God, he was also
without love. Man was now turned
from the love of God to the love of
the world, and especially of himself;
so that in every situation, and under
all circumstances, he now studies, fa-
vors, flatters, counsels, and applauds
himself; and provides only for his
own interest, honor, and glory. All
this is the consequence of Adam's fall;
who, while meditating how he might
erect himself, as it were, into a God,
was involved, together with all his
posterity, in the same awful sin and
perdition. This depravation of human
nature must of necessity be entirely
removed; and this can be effected only
by serious repentance ; by godly sor-
row; by a faith that apprehends the
remission of sin ; by the mortification
of sensual pleasure; and by the cruci-
fixion of pride and self-love. For true
repentance consists not in putting
away gross and open sins only; but

12

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book I.

it requires that a man should enter
his heart, and search into its inmost
recesses. The secret parts, the wind-
ings and the turnings of iniquity are
to be laid open ; in order that the re-
turning sinner may be thoroughly re-
newed, and, at length, be converted
from the love of himself, to the love
of God ; from the love of the world,
to a life of spirituality; and from a
participation of earthly pomps and
pleasures, to a participation, through
faith, of the merits of Christ.

3. Hence it follows, that a man must
deny himself (Luke 9 : 23); that is, he
must mortify his own will, and suffer
himself to be entirely led by the will
of God. He must no longer love, seek,
and esteem himself; but he must ac-
count himself to be the unworthiest
and most miserable of all creatures.
He must renounce all he has for the
love of Christ; and trample on the
world, its pomps, and its vanities. He
must pass by his own wisdom and
natural endowments, as though he
beheld them not; he must confide in
no creature, but in God alone; yea,
he must "hate his own life ^ (Luke
14 : 26), that is, his carnal will and
pleasures; his pride, covetousness,
lust, wrath, and envy. He must not
please, but rather displease himself;
nor must he attribute anything to his
own strength or ability. In a word,
he must be crucified to the world (Gal.
6 : 14), to the lust of the eyes and the
flesh, and to the pride of life. This,
and this alone, is that true repentance
and mortification of the flesh, without
which no man can ever be a disciple
of Jesus Christ. This only is conver-
sion from self, the world, and the devil,
unto God (Acts 26 : 18) ; without which
no one can receive remission of sins,
nor be saved.

4. This is the true cross and yoke

of Christ; that of which the Saviour
spoke when he said, " Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am
meek and lowly in heart." Matt. 11 :
29. As if he had said, "Thy self-love
and ambition must be removed by
earnest and inward humility, of which
thou hast an example in me; and by
the example of my meekness, must
thy wrath and desire of revenge be
subdued." This, to the new man, is
an easy yoke and a light burden;
though, to the flesh, it may seem to
be a most bitter and afflictive cross.
This is to crucify our own flesh, with
the affections and lusts. Gal. 5 : 24.

5. They, therefore, who are ac-
quainted with no other cross than the
tribulations and afflictions of this life,
greatly err; being ignorant of that
true cross, which we ought to bear
after our Lord daily; namely, inward
repentance, and the mortification of
the flesh; submitting to our enemies
with great patience; and overcoming
the malice of slanderers by humility
and mildness, after the pattern which
the Lamb of God has left us. For it
becomes us to follow the example of
Christ, who renounced all worldly
splendor and glory, and everything
that is commonly esteemed great and
noble.

6. This yoke of Christ is the real
cross, which when a man bears he
truly dies to the world. It is not to
retire into monasteries and cloisters,
nor to adopt a set of rules and orders
for the regulation of life; for while the
heart remains disordered, and the love
corrupt; while the man is puffed up
with spiritual pride, and a pharisaical
contempt of others; while he is de-
voted to lust, envy, hypocrisy, secret
hatred and malice ; he does not die to
the world, but altogether lives to it.
This is not the Christian yoke nor is

Chap. IV.]

TEÜE CHBISTIANITY.

13

it the cross of Christ; for these con-
sist in mortifying the flesh, with its
sinful propensities; in turning away
from the world to God; *in an inward
and constant secret sorrow for our
sins; in a daily dying to the world,
and living to Christ by faith ; in fol-
lowing his steps with sincere lowli-
ness and humility; and in confiding
only in the grace of God in Christ
Jesus.

7. To this unfeigned repentance,
this true and inward conversion from
the world unto God, hath our blessed
Lord called us. The imputation of
his righteousness and obedience, to-
gether with the remission of all our
sins, apprehended by faith, is promised
to it alone. If we are destitute of re-
pentance, Christ profiteth us nothing;
that is, we cannot then become par-
takers of his grace and favor, nor
of the efficacy of his merits ; because
these can be applied only by a con-
trite, penitent, lowly, and believing
heart. And truly this is the fruit of
the passion of Christ in us, that we
die to sin by a sincere repentance ; as
the fruit of his resurrection is, that
Christ may live in us, and we in him.

8. All this is necessary to render
man that new creature in Christ Jesus,
without which nothing availeth in the
sight of God. 2 Cor. 5 : 17 ; Gal. 6 : 15.

9. Hence, therefore, let us be in-
structed in the nature of true repent-
ance; lest we be led away into that
common error, that the mere relin-
quishment of some gross enormity, as
theft, fornication, profaneness, blas-
phemy, is the genuine and only re-
pentance. It is certain, that this is a
kind of external repentance ; but it is
no less so, that all the Scriptures alike
inculcate the necessity of an inward
repentance, which takes possession of
the whole soul. A man under the in-

fluence of this repentance, not only
supports a fair conversation in the
world, but he also denies and hates
himself. Eenouncing the world and
all he calls his own, and crucifying
the flesh, he commits himself by faith
to God alone; and offers up to him a
broken and contrite heart, as the sac-
rifice most acceptable in his sight.
This character of inward repentance
is eminently set forth in the Psalms
of David, and particularly in those
termed Penitential.*

10. This is, therefore, the only true
repentance, when the heart of the sin-
ner is inwardly torn with grief, and
weighed down by heaviness ; and when,
on the other hand, it is healed by faith
and the remission of sin,' quickened by
the infusion of divine joy, provoked
to good works, and thoroughly trans-
formed and changed. Such a frame of
mind cannot fail to be attended also
with an external reformation of life and
manners.

11, But, on the other hand, though
a man be very serious in the perform-
ance of bodily penances, and, from a
dread of punishment, abstain from the
commission of notorious sins; yet if
he continue unreformed and unregen-
erate in his heart, and enter not upon
that new and inward life which it has
been our object to describe, he will
prove but a castaway (1 Cor. 9 : 27) at
last, notwithstanding the whole train
of his external acts. It will avail him
nothing to cry, " Lord, Lord !" He will
hear the tremendous declaration, "I
never knew you!" For most certain
it is, that not every one that saith,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king-
dom of heaven, but those only who
do the will of their Heavenly Father.

* [These are Psalms, 6 ; 32
130; 143.]

; 51; 102;

14

TETJE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

Matt. 7 : 21-23. And under this awful
sentence of divine majesty, all men are
comprised, of what rank or order so-
ever, who do not truly and inwardly

repent, and who are not new creatures
in Christ, for " if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Eom. 8:9.

CHAPTER V.

WHEREIN DOES TRUE FAITH CONSIST?
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. — 1 John 5: 1.

FAITH is a sincere confidence, and a
firm persuasion of the grace of God
promised to us in Christ Jesus, for the
remission of sin and eternal life; and
it is enkindled in the heart, by the
word of Cod and the Holy Spirit.
Through this faith we obtain the
forgiveness of our sins, without any
merits of our own, of mere grace (Eph.
2 : 8), and for the sake of the merits
of Christ alone; that so, our faith
misrht rest on a firm and solid founda-
tion, and remain unmoved by perplex-
ity and doubts. This forgiveness of
sin constitutes our justification before
God, which is true, solid, and eternal;
for this righteousness is purchased
neither by men nor angels, but by
the obedience, merit, and the blood
of the Son of God himself. We ap-
propriate and apply it to ourselves
by faith; and hence the imperfections
which still adhere to us cannot con-
demn us, since, for the sake of Christ,
who now lives and works within us,
they are covered with a veil of grace.
Ps. 32:1.

2. By this cordial and unshaken
faith, man wholly dedicates his heart
to the Almighty, in whom alone he
seeks his rest. To him only is he
now united, and with him alone he
enters into delightful fellowship. He
partakes of all things that are of God

and of Christ, and is made one spirit
with the Lord. From him he receives
divine power and strength; together
with a new life, attended with new
joys, new pleasures, new consolations,
in which are found peace, inward ease,
and durable satisfaction, together with
righteousness and holiness. And thus
man is born anew of God by faith.
For wherever there is true faith, there
Christ is verily present with all his
righteousness, holiness, and remission
of sin; with all his merits, justifica-
tion, grace, adoption, and inheritance
of eternal life. This is the new birth
and the new creature, springing from
faith in Christ. Hence, the apostle
calls faith a substance (Heb. 11 : 1); un-
derstanding by it, a sure, solid, and
unshaken confidence in "things hoped
for," and a lively conviction of " things
not seen." For the consolation con-
veyed by a vital faith is so powerful,
as to convince the heart of the divine
truth by inward experience, and by
the tasting of the heavenly goodness
in the soul, and of the peace of God,
that passes all understanding; yea, it
is so mighty as to enable its possess-
ors to die with a joyful heart. In
this consist that strength of the spirit,
that might of the inner man, that
vigor of faith, that holy boldness; this
is that confidence toward God, that

Chap. V.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

15

exceeding and abounding assurance,
which are so copiously set forth by
the holy apostles. 2 Tim. 2:1; Eph.
3 : 12, 16 ; Phil. 1 : 14 ; 1 John 3:21;
1 Thess. 1:5; 2:2.

3. That for which a man will dare
to die, must be rooted in the soul, and,
by the operation of the Spirit of God,
afford an inward assurance. It must
be a cordial, powerful, and eternal
comfort, infusing heavenly and super-
natural strength into the soul, by
which the fear of death and the love
of the world may both be subdued.
Now all this begets so solid a trust in
Christ, and so close a union with him,
as neither death nor life is able to dis-
solve. Eom. 8:38; 2 Tim. 1:12.
Hence St. John says : " Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world."
1 John 5 : 4.

4. To be born of God is in truth no
vain figure, no empty name ; it must
necessarily be a lively and powerful
change, worthy of the majesty of an
omnipotent God. To believe that the
living God could beget a dead off-
spring, that lifeless members and use-
less organs could proceed from him,
were very wickedness. It is sure and
undoubted that God, being a living
God, cannot but beget a living man,
even the new man in Christ Jesus.
And our faith is the victory which
overcomes the world. 1 John 5:4.
Who can question whether it be en-
dued with strength sufficient for the
conquest ? It is, it must be a lively,
vigorous, potent, divine, and victori-
ous principle; but all its power is
derived from him who is embraced by
it, even Christ. By means of faith,
we return into God again, and become
one with him; and from Adam, as
from an accursed vine, we are trans-
planted into Christ, the living and
blessed vine. John 15 : 4. In Christ,

we possess everything that is good,
and in him, are justified.

5. As a scion, when grafted on a
good tree, grows, flourishes, and bears
fruit, but, without it, withers away ;
so man, when out of Christ, is as an
accursed vine, whose grapes are bit-
terness and gall ; and all his works
are sin. Deut. 32 : 32, 33 ; Eom. 14 :
23. But when he is in Christ, he is
righteous and blessed ; because " he
was made to be sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor.
5:21.

6. It is most evident, from what
has been advanced, that works cannot
possibly justify a sinner; because, be-
fore we can perform any good work,
we must be engrafted into Christ by
faith: and it is equally clear, that
justification is entirely the gift of God,
freely conferred on man and preced-
ing all human merit. How shall a
dead man see, hear, stand, walk, or
do any good thing, unless he be first
raised from the dead, and endued with
a new principle of life ? So neither
canst thou, O man, who art dead in
sins, do any work that is good or ac-
ceptable, unless thou be first raised
unto life by Jesus Christ. Thus right-
eousness proceeds only from faith in

Christ. Faith is like a new-born
babe, weak and naked, poor and des-
titute, and laid before the eyes of
the Saviour; from whom, as from its
author, it receives righteousness and
sanctification, godliness, grace and the
Holy Ghost.

7. The naked child is thus clothed
with the mercy of God. He lifts up
his bands, receives all from God, and is
made a partaker of grace and health,
truth and holiness. It is, therefore,
this receiving of Christ in the heart,
that makes a man holy and happy.

16

TEÜE CHEISTIAOTTY.

[Book I.

8. Eighteousness proceeds therefore
solely from faith, and not from works.
Indeed, faith receives the whole
Christ, and accepts him, together
with all that he has. Then sin and
death, the devil and hell, must flee,
and are unable any longer to preserve
their ground. Nay, so effectually and
so powerfully do the merits of Christ
justify the sinner, that if the sins of
the whole world were charged on one
man, they would not avail to condemn
him, if he believed in Christ.

9. Inasmuch, therefore, as Christ
lives and dwells in thy heart by faith
(Eph. 3 : 17), never, O believer ! indulge
the .thought, that his indwelling in
thee, is a dead work unattended with
any vital power. Eather believe that
it is a quickening principle, a mighty
work, and an effectual transforming
of thy mind. Faith effects two things :
it first engrafts thee into Christ, and
gives him freely to thee, with all that
he has; and then, it renews thee in
Christ, that thou mayest grow, flour-
ish, and live in him. The wild graft
is introduced into the stock, for no
other end than that it may flourish
and bear fruit. As by the apostasy
of Adam and the temptation of the
devil, the seed of the serpent was
sown in man, growing up into a tree
and bearing the fruits of death • even
so by the divine word and the Holy
Spirit, is faith sown in man, as the
seed of God. See Chap. II. In this
seed all divine virtues and properties
are, in a most wonderful manner, com-
prehended; which gradually expand
themselves from day to day. This
tree is adorned with a profusion of
heavenly fruit ; as love, patience,
humility, meekness, peace, chastity,
righteousness. And thus the whole

kingdom of God descends into man.
For true and saving faith renews the
whole man, purifies the heart, sancti-
fies the soul, and delivers from the
love of the world. It unites with
God ; it hungers and thirsts after
righteousness; it works love; and it
brings peace, joy, patience, and com-
fort in adversity : it overcomes the
world ; it makes us sons of God, and
heirs of the treasures of heaven; and
it constitutes us joint-heirs with the
Lord Jesus Christ. But if any one
should not be conscious of that joyful-
ness which faith imparts and does not
experience its consoling influences,
let him not, on that account, despair ;
but rather let him trust in the grace
which is promised in Christ : for this
promise ever remains sure, immov-
able, and everlasting. And though,
through the infirmities incident to
human nature, he should stumble and
fall ; yet, if the sinner return by un-
feigned repentance, and more cau-
tiously watch against the sin which
so easily besets him, the grace of God
will not be withdrawn. For Christ is
and will ever be Christ and a Saviour,
whether the faith that embraces him
be strong or weak. A weak faith
has an equal share in Christ with a
strong faith, for faith, whether it be
weak or strong, possesses the whole
Christ. The grace which is promised
is common to all Christians, and is
eternal, and on this grace faith must
rely, whether it be weak or strong.
The Lord will revisit thy soul in his
own time, with a sense of his graci-
ous favor, and of his abundant con-
solations, although, at the present, he
may think fit to put a veil over it in
thy heart. Ps. 37:23, 24; 77:7-10.
Upon this subject, see Book II.

Chap. VI.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

17

CHAPTER VI.

SHOWING HOW THE VITAL POWER OP THE WORD OP GOD SHOULD BE
MANIFESTED IN MAN THROUGH PAITH.

Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. — John 17 : 21.

INASMUCH as man's whole welfare
depends on his regeneration and
renewal, it was the will of God that
all those changes which ought to take
place in man spiritually and by faith,
should be also outwardly set forth in
the words of Holy Scripture. Since
the Word is the seed of God (Luke 8 :
11) within us, it is necessary that it
should also spring up and spiritually
bear fruit. That must be accomplished
in us by faith, which is declared without
us in the letter of Scripture; and if
this effect be not produced, then the
Word is evidently to us but a dead
seed, destitute of life and energy.
Hence, we ought in faith and in spirit
to learn by our own happy experience
the truth of that which the Scriptures
have outwardly declared.

2. When God revealed his will in
his Word, he never designed that the
latter should be a dead letter, but that
it should grow up in us to a new and
inward man; otherwise the Word is
of no benefit to us. These truths may
be explained more clearly by a refer-
ence to some example, as that of Cain
and Abel. The nature, manners, and
actions of these two persons, as they
are recorded in Scripture, clearly ex-
plain the motions and workings of the
old and the new man in the breast of
the believer. Cain perpetually en-
deavors to oppress and destroy Abel.
What else is this but the daily strife
of the flesh and spirit, and the enmity
subsisting between the serpent and

the seed of the woman ? With Abra-
ham, the Christian is required to quit
his own country, leaving all that he
possesses, even life itself, in order that
he may walk before God with a per-
fect heart, obtain the victory, and enter
into the land of promise and kingdom
of heaven. Such is the meaning of
the Lord's words : " If any man come
to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple;"
that is, he must renounce all these
rather than renounce Christ. Luke
14 : 26. With Lot, he must depart
from Sodom and Gomorrah, forsaking
the wicked course of the world ; not
looking back with Lot's wife, but
obeying Christ's injunction (Luke 17 :
32), in order that his deliverance may
be completed. Hither are all the wars
and battles of Israel against the hea-
then and infidel nations to be referred;
for what is represented under this his-
tory but the continual strife between
the flesh and the spirit? Whatsoever
is recorded of the Mosaical priesthood,
the tabernacle, the ark of the cove-
nant, or the mercy-seat, with the sac-
rifices, etc., — all has relation to the
Christian believer. For unto him it
appertains to pray in spirit and in
truth; to burn spiritual incense; and
to slay the sin-offering by presenting
his body, through mortification, as a.
reasonable service and sacrifice, so that
Christ may truly dwell in him by faith*

2

18

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

3. And if we advert to the New
Testament itself, what is this but an
outward expression of those truths,
which are to be inwardly fulfilled by
faith, in the experience of the be-
liever? If I become a new creature
in Christ, it is incumbent on me to
live and walk in him ; in him and with
him, to flee into exile, and to be a
stranger upon the earth. The virtues
that resided in him I ought to prac-
tise; humility, contempt of the world,
meekness, and patience ; and I am
bound to be fervent in acts of benig-
nity, charity, and loving kindness. In
and with Christ I should exercise
mercy, and pardon and love my ene-
mies, and, with him, do the Father's
will. I must be tempted by Satan
with him ; and, with him, I must ob-
tain the victory. I am to be derided,
despised and vilified for the sake of
the truth that is in me ; and, if called
to it, I ought to die for and with him,
after the example of the saints, and in
testimony that he, by faith, hath lived
in me, and I in him.

4. This is to be conformed to the
image of Christ; this is to be born
with and in Christ ; to put on Christ ;
to grow up and be strong in Christ ;
to live with Christ iu banishment; to
be baptized with his baptism; to be
scoffed and crucified with him; to die
with him; to be buried with him; to
rise with him from the dead; and to
reign with him to all eternity.

5. If ever thou desirest to live in a
constant union and conformity with
thy Head and Saviour, thou art in this
manner to die daily with him, and to
crucify the flesh. Bom. 6 : 5, 6. Should
this divine harmony not exist, and an-
other way be devised more consonant
;to thy fancy, then Christ will not be
within but without thee ; far from thy
faith., thy heart, and thy spirit ; and,

in that case, he will profit thee noth-
ing. But if thou permit him to dwell
in thy heart by faith, he will be thy
strength, thy comfort, and thy salva-
tion.

6. All this, O man! doth faith in
Christ effect within the heart; and
thus the Word of God becomes a liv-
ing Word, and, as it were, a living wit-
ness in us of all those things which
are externally declared in the Scrip-
tures. Hence, faith is termed by the
apostle a substance and an evidence,
Heb. 11 : 1.

7. It is therefore evident, that all
the sermons, discourses, and epistles,
contained in the Word of God, whether
proceeding from Christ, or the proph-
ets, or the apostles; and, in a word,
that all the Scriptures, in general, as
it regards their complete fulfilment,
belong to man, and to every man in-
dividually. Not only do the plain
doctrines appertain to us ; but all the
parables and miracles with which the
history of Christ abounds, have their
final reference to man.

8. The purpose for which they were
written was, that they might be
spiritually fulfilled in our own experi-
ence. When, therefore, I read that
Christ healed others, I promise my-
self the same relief; for we live in
unity one with another, Christ with
me, and I with Christ. When I read
further, how he cured the blind, I am
encouraged to believe that he will
restore me to the enjoyment of spirit-
ual sight, who am blind by nature :
and so, with regard to all his other
miracles. Only own thyself to be
blind, lame, deaf, or leprous; to be
dead in trespasses and sins; and then,
he will surely heal thy maladies, and
quicken that which is dead, that so
thou mayest have part in the first
resurrection.

Chap. VII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

19

9. The substance of all that has
been advanced is this : the Holy Scrip-
ture bears outward testimony to those
things, which are to be inwardly ful-
filled in man, by faith. It points out
that image externally, which, by faith,
is to be formed within him. It de-
scribes the kingdom of God in the
letter, which is to be established in the

heart, by faith, after the spirit. It
exhibits Christ outwardly, who is, by
faith, to live within me; and it testi-
fies of the new birth and of the new
creature, which I must experience in
myself. All this I am to be made by
faith, or the Scripture will profit me
nothing.

CHAPTER VIL

THE LAW OF GOD, WRITTEN IN THE HEARTS OF ALL MEN, CONVINCES THEM THAT
ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT THEY WILL BE WITHOUT EXCUSE.

When the Gentiles . . . do the things contained in the law . . . they shew the work of the law
written in their hearts.— JZom. 2 : 14, 15.

"TT^HEN God created man in his
TT own image, in righteousness
and holiness, and endowed him with
exalted virtues and gifts, he impressed
three qualities on the human con-
science so deeply, that they can never
be effaced : First, the natural testi-
mony that there is a God. Secondly,
a testimony that a day of Judgment
will come. Rom. 2 : 15. Thirdly, the
law of nature, or natural righteous-
ness, by which man is enabled to dis-
tinguish between honor and shame,
and to experience joy and sorrow.

2. For no nation has ever been dis-
covered so wild and barbarous, as to
deny that a God exists, inasmuch as
nature furnishes internal and external
evidence of this fact. Indeed, men
have not only acknowledged the being
of a God, of which they were assured
by their consciences ; but they have
also been affected with a sense of his
justice, as an avenger of evil, and a
rewarder of good; and this persuasion

arose from the consciousness, that, on
some occasions, they were harassed
with fearful apprehensions ; while, on
others, they felt a certain measure of
peace and joy. By this knowledge,
they even proceeded farther, and dis-
covered the doctrine of the immor-
tality of the soul, as appears from
Plato, who most amply discussed this
subject. And, lastly, they gathered
from this inward law, that God was
the author and source of all that was
good in nature, and therefore ought to
be worshipped by an assiduous atten-
tion to virtue, and with a pure heart.
Hence, they defined virtue to be man's
chief good ; and schools of moral vir-
tue were accordingly instituted by
Socrates, and by other heathen phi-
losophers. This may be sufficient to
convince us, that God, even since the
fall, has allowed a spark of natural
light to remain in men, in order that
they might be admonished of their
heavenly origin, and be assured, that

20

TEÜE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I,

it was only by following these foot-
steps of divinity, that they could be
restored to their former perfection.
Some of the heathens themselves,
have not been unacquainted with this
truth; among whom is Aratus, the
poet, quoted by St. Paul, who de-
clares that "we are God's offspring."
Acts 17 : 28.

3. The Gentiles, however, stifling the
testimony of conscience, contemned
the light of nature, and " the work of
the law written in their hearts" (Eom.
2 : 15) j so that it cannot but be their
own fault, that they are condemned
and lost; and they are, as St. Paul
argues, left altogether without excuse.
Eom. 1 : 19, 20. And as the Gentiles
knew, by nature, the justice of God,
and that such as did evil were worthy
of death; and yet not only committed
evil but had pleasure in it; it follows,
that they thereby condemned them-
selves, whilst "their thoughts accus-
ing or excusing one another," con-
vinced them of the certainty of the
day of judgment. Eom. 1 : 32; 2 : 15.
But if the Gentiles shall be "inexcus-
able," because, though endued with
the natural knowledge of God, they
sought him not, as was their duty;
what shall they plead in their own be-
half, to whom God hath given his Holy
Word, and whom he hath so earnestly
invited to repentance, by Jesus Christ
his beloved Son ; in order that, forsak-
ing the corruptions of the world, they
might, by faith, apprehend the merits
of the Saviour, and obtain eternal life
and salvation ?

4. Therefore, every false Christian
shall, in the day of judgment, be con-
demned by two mighty witnesses : by
his own conscience or the law of nature,
and likewise by the revealed Word of
God, which will then judge him. In
that day, " it shall be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom," than for such
false pretenders to religion. Matt. 11 :
24.

5. Their anguish and torment shall
be without end; since God has made
the soul immortal and planted the con-
science in it, to be both a witness and
a judge. The conscience can never
throw off the recollection of God, and
yet cannot of itself approach him;
which must be attended with unutter-
able pain to the soul, and expose it to
the worm that dieth not, and to the
fire that cannot be quenched. And
the more the wicked have, through
impenitence of heart, treasured up to
themselves " wrath against the day of
wrath" (Eom. 2 : 5), the more severe
will this inward and eternal suffering
be. For as God, in the exercise of his
righteous judgment, gave up the Gen-
tiles to a reprobate mind, because they
sinned against their own consciences,
and " the work of the law written in
their hearts;" so that they became
blind in their understandings, and
rushed into every kind of filthy and
abominable pollution ; thus drawing
down upon themselves the wrath of
God, denounced against all crimes that
are committed against the light of
knowledge : so the same doom (yea,
and a far heavier one) will be inflicted
upon those who rest in the mere pro-
fession of the Christian faith, and deny
the life and the power of godliness.
The reason of this is obvious: such
persons have contemned the inward
as well as the outward word and testi-
mony of God, and have not only per-
severed in a state of impenitence, but
have resisted the Divine Spirit, and
blasphemed Him who favored them
with the light of his Gospel. On this
account, God gives them up to a rep-
robate mind, so that they become worse
than heathens and infidels. He sends

Chap. VII.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

21

them "strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie; that they all
might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous-
ness." 2 Thess. 2:11, 12.

6. This is the true reason why vices
of so detestable a nature universally
abound among Christians; many of
which were not so much as known
among the Pagan nations. "What sa-
tanical pride, what insatiable covet-
ousness, what unheard-of intemper-
ance, what bestial lust; in a word,
what inhuman wickedness, is not prac-
tised by those who call themselves
Christians ! And whence does all this
arise, but from that blindness and hard-
ness of heart, which they have con-
tracted by confirmed habits of iniquity.
"When those who are called Christians
disdain to imitate the meek and lowly
Jesus in their manners and their con-
versation; when they are scandalized
at him, and consider it disgraceful to
look to him whom God has appointed
to be the light of the world, and our
great example (John 8 : 12); then the
righteous God gives them up to follow
Satan; to take upon them the life of the
devil, his abominable impiety, wicked-
ness, and lies; that they may execute
with him all the works of darkness,
inasmuch as they refuse to walk in the
light. For thus saith the Lord, " Walk
while ye have the light, lest darkness
come upon you." John 12 : 35.

7. Finally, if God gave up the hea-
then to so terrible a blindness and so
reprobate a mind ; and this because
they proved disobedient to the glim-
mering light of nature; or, as St. Paul
expresses it, " because they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge/'
in order to be preserved by him (Eom.
1 : 28) ; how much more shall those be
banished from life and salvation, to
whom the truth of God has come not

only by natural light, but by means
of his revealed word, and the new cov-
enant, and who yet haughtily despise
these special tenders of divine mercy!
Of which new covenant, God thus
speaks: "I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their
hearts; and will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And they
shall teach no more every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord ; for they shall
all know me, from the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the
Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no
more." Jer. 31:33, 34; John 6:45.

8. And here, let us also attend to
that which the Apostle says, concern-
ing those who offend wilfully. " If,"
says he, " we sin wilfully, after that
we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacri-
fice for sins, but a certain fearful look-
ing for of judgment and fiery indigna-
tion, which shall devour the adver-
saries. He that despised Moses' law,"
continues the Apostle, " died without
mercy under two or three witnesses ;
of how much sorer punishment, sup-
pose ye, shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden under foot the Son
of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanc-
tified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the spirit of grace ? For
we know him that hath said, Ven-
geance beloDgeth unto me, I will re-
compense, saith the Lord. It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God." Heb. 10 : 26-31.
These words, however, are not pro-
nounced in reference to those who fall
through natural infirmity, but against
them who sin wilfully and against
knowledge, and who persevere to the
end in a state of impenitence.

22

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

CHAPTER VIII.

NO ONE CAN FIND COMFORT IN CHRIST AND HIS MERITS, WHO DOES NOT TRULY

REPENT.

No unclean person was permitted to eat of the passover. — Exod. 12 : 48.

IT was the declaration of the Lord
Jesus Christ, u They that be whole
need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Matt. 9 : 12, 13. By this declaration
the Lord teaches us, that he indeed
calls sinners, but that he calls them
to repentance; whence it is evident,
that no man can come to Christ with-
out true repentance and conversion
from sin, and without a true faith.

2. Now repentance consists in dying
unto sin through true sorrow for our
sins, and in obtaining the remission
of sins through faith and living unto
righteousness in Christ. There is no
real repentance unless a genuine godly
sorrow is first experienced, by which
the heart is broken and the flesh cru-
cified. Hence it is termed " repent-
ance from dead works " (Heb. 6:1);
or the renunciation of such works as
issue in death. To abstain from dead
works is, therefore, one of the princi-
pal parts of true repentance.

3. If we be not the subjects of this
repentance, the merit of Christ profits
us nothing ; nor can we lay the small-
est claim to the benefits which thence
accrue ; for Christ proffers his aid, as
the physician of souls, and his blood,
as the only effectual medicine for our
spiritual maladies.

4. But as not even the most precious
remedy can effect a cure of a disorder
unless the patient refrain from things
that are hurtful in their tendency, and

that resist the operation of the medi-
cine, so the blood and death of Christ
will be of no avail to him who does not
fully resolve to forsake his sins, and to
live up to the requirements of the gos-
pel; for St. Paul says: "They who do
such things (the works of the flesh),
shall not inherit the kingdom of God,"
and, of course, have not any part in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Gal. 5 : 21.

5. Again, if Christ, by his most
precious blood, is to become our med-
icine, it cannot be doubted that we
must be in a diseased state, and that
we must, for ourselves, feel that we
are so. The whole need not a phy-
sician, but the sick only (Matt. 9 : 12) ;
and none is spiritually sick (at least so
as to be conscious of it) who does not
experience unfeigned contrition for the
sins which he has committed, and who
has not a sense of the indignation of
God which is excited against them.
He is no proper patient for the phy-
sician of souls who avoids not worldly
lusts and vanities, honors and riches;
but goes on in a state of spiritual un-
concern, without any regard to his
past life or his final salvation. Upon
a man of this character, no cure can
possibly be wrought. He does not see
his distemper, and therefore needs no
physician. In short, Christ profits
him nothing, and his merits leave no
saving effect upon his soul.

6. Eemember, therefore, O man !
that Christ is come to call sinners to
repentance ; and that it is only such as

Chap. VIII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

23

are broken in heart and contrite in
spirit; only such as fervently desire
and thirst after this righteousness that
are in a condition to receive the saving
influence of the blood, death, and
merits of the Lord Jesus.

7. Happy is he who feels in his
heart, and still more happy he who
proves obedient to this holy calling,
that is, the "godly sorrow for sin,
which worketh repentance to salva-
tion not to be repented of," and which
is the work of the Holy Spirit him-
self. It arises, first, from the law, and
from serious meditation on the passion
of Christ, which abounds with loud
invitations to unfeigned repentance.
It exhibits, as in a mirror, both the
wrath of God against sin, and also his
infinite grace in saving the sinner.
To make an atonement for our sins,
Jesus shed his blood ; and love induced
him to die for us while we were yet
sinners. Eom. 5 : 8. Here the divine
justice and clemency combine for the
salvation of souls.

8. How is it possible that a man
who believes in Christ, should continue
in sins which the Lord expiated at no
less a price than his own most precious
blood ? When, therefore, O man ! thou
art tempted to pride and ambition, re-
flect upon the contempt and humilia-
tion to which Jesus submitted in order
to atone for thy pride and thy am-
bition. When thou art covetous after
this world, think of the poverty which
he underwent that he might make sat-
isfaction for thy cupidity; and, surely,
this will extinguish in thee the love of
money and of worldly estates. What
anguish and agony did Christ suffer
on account of thy lusts and sinful
pleasures; and art thou yet in pursuit
of these pleasures that will leave be-
hind them a mortal sting? Alas ! how
great must be the corruption of our

nature when we can delight in things
for which our Eedeemer and Lord was
sorrowful even unto death ! Christ
died to expiate thy wrath, hatred, and
enmity; to atone for thy bitterness
and rancor, for thy love of revenge,
and the implacableness of thy spirit.
This he effected by his extreme mild-
ness and patience, mercy and long-suf-
fering. And wilt thou be angry on
every trifling occasion, and esteem re-
venge to be sweet, when, to atone for
it, thy Eedeemer drank to the very
dregs the cup of bitterness and afflic-
tion?

9. Truly as many as assume to them-
selves the name of Christians, and yet
do not forsake the pleasures of sin,
" crucify Christ to themselves afresh,
and put him to an open shame" (Heb.
6:6); and it is, therefore, utterly im-
possible that they should partake of
that merit which they tread under
foot. They pollute the blood of the
everlasting covenant, and do not be-
lieve that their sins are expiated by
it. They do "despite unto the Spirit
of grace;" they despise and resist him ;
and, by their ungodly lives, scorn and
contemn the grace of God offered in
Christ Jesus. Heb. 10 : 29. Hence, the
blood of the Saviour, which was shed
for their sakes, cries aloud for ven-
geance against them ; and this it does
by the righteous judgment of God,
which they thus draw down upon
themselves, — a consideration that
ought to strike a terror into every one
that names the name of Christ. In-
deed, "it is a fearful thing to fall into>
the hands of the living God" (Heb».
10 : 31); for he is a living God, and not
a lifeless idol, incapable of punishing
so scornful a contempt of his grace
and mercy.

10. With this divine wrath and ven-
geance, even their own consciences»

24

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I,

threaten them, as inevitably following
those who (though they know that it
was to atone for sin that the Son of
God died so ignominious a death) are
yet not careful to put away their
sins.

11. It was for this reason that, soon
after the death of Christ, repentance
was preached over all the world ;
namely, both because he died " for
the sins of the whole world " (1 John
2:2); and because in all places of the
world men should repent. Acts 17 : 30.
Thus it is said, "God now commandeth
all men every where to repent," and to
receive with a contrite, penitent, and
believing heart the sovereign medicine
purchased by the death of Christ, in
order that the grace of God be not
frustrated, but answer the end de-
signed.

12. Bemission of sins immediately
follows true repentance; but how shall
a man have his sins remitted when he
does not repent of them, nay, when he
still rejoices in them ? Nothing surely
could be more preposterous than to
expect that sins should be pardoned
which a man has no design to re-
nounce; and nothing can be more ab-
surd than to seek consolation in the
sufferings of Christ, and yet continue
in the mire of sin which caused Christ's
death.

13. But certain and obvious as these
truths are in themselves, there are
many that call themselves Christians
who never repented, and who yet will
presume to lay claim to a share in the
merits of Christ, and in the remission
<of sins which he has purchased. They
bave not ceased to indulge their ac-
customed wrath, covetousness, pride,
malice, envy, hypocrisy, and unright-
eousness, but have rather become more
and more enslaved by them; and yet,
«alas ! they expect forgiveness of sin,

and presumptuously apply to them-
selves the merits of Christ as a defence
against the impending judgment of
Almighty God. And though this is
one of the grossest and most palpable
of errors, yet they do not hesitate to
bestow upon it the specious name of
faith, by which they hope for salva-
tion. These are they that natter them-
selves to their own destruction; fondly
supposing that *they are true Chris-
tians because they have a speculative
knowledge of the Gospel, and because
they believe that Jesus died for their
sins. This, alas ! is not faith, but fancy;
and thou art an unhappy, and most
awfully infatuated false Christian, if
thou canst suffer thyself to be deluded
in this manner ! Never did the Word
of God teach such a doctrine ; but the
unvarying language of the inspired
writers is: "If thou earnestly desirest
the pardon of thy sins, repent of them,
and firmly resolve to give up the prac-
tice of them ; and thus, grieving from
thy heart that thou hast so greatly
offended God, and determining to lead
a new life, believe on Jesus Christ, the
great propitiation for the sins of the
whole world."

14. But how should that man feel
sorrow for his sins, who will not be in-
duced to quit them ? and how should
he quit them, while he remains un-
concerned about committing them?
Christ, and all his apostles and proph-
ets, unite in teaching thee, O man !
that thou must die to the world and
to thy sins ; die to thy pride, thy cov-
etousness, thy lust, and thy wrath;
and that thou must return to the Lord
with all thy heart, and implore his
gracious pardon. And this being sin-
cerely done, thou art absolved, and
thy sins are forgiven. Then, the heav-
enly physician looks upon thee gra-
ciously ; for he is come to revive those

Chap. VIII.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY

25

that are of a contrite spirit, and to
bind up the broken in heart. Ps. 147 :
3. But if thou eeekest for some other
way to be saved, than that which is
here pointed out, then Christ will
profit thee nothing, and the boasting
of thy faith is altogether vain. For
true faith renews him who possesses
it; it mortifies sin, and raises the soul,
with Christ, into a new life ; for such
a man lives, by faith in Christ, in his
love, his humility, his meekness, and
his patience. It is thus, O man ! that
Jesus becomes unto thee the way of
life, and thus thou becomest in him a
"new creature." But if thou continu-
est to commit thy favorite sins, and re-
mainest unwilling to die to the corrupt
bent of '-'the old man" (Rom. 6:6;
Eph. 4 : 22), how wilt thou pretend to
be a new creature? How is it possible
for thee to belong to Christ, when
thou dost not " crucify the flesh, with
its affections and lusts?" Gal. 5 : 24.

15. Even if thou shouldst listen to
ten sermons in one day, shouldst con-
fess thy sins eveiy month, and receive
the Lord's Supper, thou wouldst de-
rive no benefit from such exercises,
nor obtain the remission of sins; the
reason is, that thou hast not a peni-
tent, contrite, and believing heart,
which can be reached by the healing
influences of the medicine. The Word
of God and the Sacraments are, indeed,
salutary remedies; but they are such
to those alone who unfeignedly repent
and believe. What would it profit, to
anoint a stone with costly ointment?
What harvest shalt thou reap, if thou
sowest among briers and thorns ? First
pull up the thorns and thistles that
choke the good seed, and, then, thou
may est reasonably expect the precious
fruit. Luke 8: 7. And, in fine, Christ
will never profit thee at all, if thou con-
tinuest to love sin rather than Him.

The birth of the Saviour is of no ad-
vantage to a man whose aim it is not
to be born with him ; nor shall his
death avail for any, who are not dis-
posed to die to sin, and to mortify the
deeds of the flesh. Rom. 6:11. So,
the resurrection of Christ will benefit
none who will not rise from sin, and
live unto righteousness; nor will his
ascension prove a blessing to any who
refuse to ascend with him, and to have
their conversation in heaven.

16. But when, on the contrary, a
man, like the Prodigal Son, truly re-
turns to his offended father, deplor-
ing, hating, and forsaking his sins;
when he earnestly seeks forgiveness,
and, with the eye of faith, beholds
Christ and his bleeding wounds, as
the Israelites beheld the serpent of
brass, and lived (Numb. 21:9); when,
at last, under a real sense of guilt, he
cries out with the penitent publican,
"God be merciful to me a sinner"
(Luke 18: 13); then, then, the pardon
is granted, the absolution is sealed,
however great and many the sins be
which he has committed against his
God.

17. Such is the efficacy of the re-
demption which the blood of Christ
has effected, and of so extensive a na-
ture is his merit, that it is fully im-
puted, through faith, to every peni-
tent soul. Thus is brought to pass the
scripture, "He giveth repentance and
forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5 : 31); that
is, he pardons the repentant sinner
freely and wholly, for Christ's sake.
For it is a pleasure with God to exer-
cise mercy, and to forgive a sinner.
"My bowels are troubled for him; I
will surely have mercy upon him, saith
the Lord." Jer. 31: 20; Hoseall: 8.
Then it is, that the death of Christ is
rendered truly effectual; and then it
is, that the angels of God rejoice in

26

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

heaven (Luke 15: 7), because the blood | poor sinner for whom He had died,
of Christ was not shed in vain for the I 1 Cor. 8: 11.

CHAPTER IX.

THE UNCHRISTIAN WALK OF MANY PERSONS IN OUR DAY, IS A CAUSE OE THE
REJECTION OF CHRIST AND OF THE TRUE FAITH.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. — 2 Tim. 3 : 5.

EYEEY one calls himself by the
Christian name, even though he
do not perform the least part of what
he thereby professes; and, by this
means, the Saviour is denied, con-
temned, blasphemed, scourged, cruci-
fied, and, as it were, cast out of the
sight of men, as dead. The Apostle
expressly declares, that some persons
"crucify the Son of God afresh."
Heb. 6 : 6.

2. Would to God that Christ were
not, even in our days, crucified again
and again among those who call them-
selves after his name, and honor him
with their lips j and yet, by their anti-
christian lives and actions, utterly re-
ject and deny him. His most holy,
humble, and exemplary life is, at this
day, to be found among but few ; and
wherever there is not the life of Christ,
there Christ is not himself, however
loudly the faith and the doctrine may
be commended. For the Christian
faith without a Christian life is a tree
without fruit. True faith works by
lovo (Gal. 5:6); and wherever it is
found, there Christ dwells, with all
his divine graces and virtues. Eph.
3:17.

3. But when these are not expressed
in the lives of those who profess his
doctrine, there Christ himself is rooted
up and denied; for it is only where
true faith exists that Christ dwells.

4. Now Christ hath said, "Whoso-
ever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father and
the angels." Matt. 10 : 33; Luke 12 : 9.
This denial of Christ is not only made
in words (as by those who renounce
Christ and Christianity), but it is also
done when, by our lives and actions,
we wilfully sin against the Saviour
and resist the Holy Ghost. St. Paul
speaks of some who " profess that they
know God, but in works deny Mm" (Tit.
1:16); and it is certain that Christ
is no less denied by a wicked and Sa-
tanic life, than he is by a verbal ab-
juration. It is with hypocrisy and
an empty profession of the faith as it
is with open wickedness ; and this is
strikingly illustrated by our Lord's
parable of the two sons, who were
commanded by their father to go and
work in his vineyard. The one {openly
denying) said, "I will not;" while the
other {professing obedience) said, " I
go, sir," and went not. Matt. 21 :
28-30.

5. This is a forcible representation
of those Christians who make religion
to consist in empty profession without
obedience. They will cry "Yea, yea,"
and "Lord, Lord!" (Matt. 7 : 21),. and
yet are worse than others, because
they pretend to be children of the

Father, and yet do
spect, obey his will.

not, m any re-
Their character

Chap. X.]

TKUE CHEISTIAXITY.

27

is thus given by St. Paul : " Having a
form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof." 2 Tim. 3 : 5. Now,
what is it to deny the power of godli-
ness but to deny Christ himself, and
to shake off allegiance to him, and
thus to act the part of a heathen
under the mask and name of a Chris-
tian? These are "the children of un-

belief or disobedience/' in whom the
spirit, not of Christ, but of this world,
worketh. Eph. 2 : 2. They, therefore,
who usurp a Christian's name, and yet
do not a Christian's work, shall be de-
nied, in their turn, by the Saviour
when he shall pronounce the sentence :
" I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7 : 23.

CHAPTER X.

THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD ARE AGAINST CHRIST, AND, CONSEQUENTLY,
THEIR LIFE AND THEIR CHRISTIANITY ARE BOTH ALIKE FALSE.

He that is not with me is against me. — Matt. 12 : 30.

IF the conduct of the generality of
men in the present age be exam-
ined by the standard of life and doc-
trine left us by Christ, we must soon
come to the conclusion that it is
wholly unchristian, and totally repug-
nant to his example. The lives of
men in our day are, in too many cases,
made up of insatiable avarice, sordid
and self-seeking manners, worldly-
mindedness, worldly cares, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life; disobedience, wrath,
strife, hatred, malice, contentions, and
a violent thirst after human applause,
pomps, and dignities. Add to these
the jealousies, the revenge, tho secret
feuds and envyings, the unforgiving
spirit, the injustice and hypocrisy, the
frauds and calumnies, the lies and per-
juries, together with all the impurity
and unrighteousness with which the
world so exceedingly abounds. In
short, the whole life of the children
of this generation consists of the love
of the world, self-love, self-honor, and
self-seeking.

2. To all this th.e life of Christ is
entirely opposed; it can have no sort
of communion with it. His life is
nothing else but pure and sincere love
to God and men. It is composed of
humanity and kindness, of meekness
and patience, of humility and obedi-
ence even unto death, of mercy and
righteousness, of truth and simplicity,
of purity and holiness, of contempt of
the world, its honors, wealth, and
pleasures; of self-denial ; of the cross,
tribulations, and afflictions; of fervent
desires after the kingdom of God, and
after the fulfilment of the divine will.
This is the life of Christ, to which the
false Christianity of the present age is
so greatly opposed.

3. If, then, it be the truth that he
who is not with Christ is accounted as
one that is against him ; and he that
standeth not in the will of God, as he
that withstandeth it (and we know that
this is the meaning of the language of
our Lord himself), it is most evident
that the generality of those who make
a public profession of the Christian

28

TKTJE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book L

faith, not being with Christ, must be
against him. They have no commu-
nion with him, but are contrary to
him; they are not led by a Christian,
but by an anti christian spirit. Scarcely
any, indeed, are to be found who are
of one soul, one will, one mind, and
one spirit with him; and yet only
these can be Christ's, or be accounted
his disciples. It is in reference to the
latter that the apostle speaks when he
says, they have " the mind of Christ"
(1 Cor. 2 : 16) ; and, in another place,
"Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus." Phil. 2 : 5. The
children of the world have not this
mind, and it is hence certain that they
are not with but against Christ. Now
whatever any man's profession and
doctrine be, he who is thus against
Christ in his life and actions, is most
undoubtedly an antichrist. 1 John
2:18.

4. "Where, alas ! shall we now find
true Christians, in the midst of so
many unchristian disorders that univer-
sally abound ? How justly may they be
termed " a little flock !" (Luke 12 : 32)
as they were called by our Lord him-
self. How justly has the prophet
Isaiah compared the church to a soli-
tary cottage in a vineyard, and to a
wasted city ! Isa. 1:8. " Woe is me !"
exclaims Micah, " I am as when they

have gathered the summer fruits, as
the grape-gleanings of the vintage :
there is no cluster to eat : my soul
desires the first ripe fruit. The good
man is perished out of the earth ; and
there is none upright among men."
Micah 7 : 1, 2. See also Ps. 74 : 19;
102 : 7.

5. God alone knows where and who
these are : but be they where and who
they may, assuredly Christ is with
them, yea, in them, " alway, even
unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:
20. Nor will he ever leave them with-
out sufficient succor ; tl I will not
leave you comfortless," he says ; " I
will come unto you." John 14 : 18.
For he knoweth them that are his,
and those whom he is said to know, he
watches over with never-ceasing and
distinguishing care. " The founda-
tion of God standeth sure, having this
seal, The Lord knoweth them that are
his." But who are his? The answer
is immediately annexed : " Let every
one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity." 2 Tim. 2 : 19.
But let those who are not disposed to
obey this injunction, assume some
other name that shall better accord
with their conduct; and let them not
name His name, until they conform
to His life by a living faith.

Chap. XL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

29

CHAPTER XL

SHOWING THAT HE DOES NOT TRULY REPENT, IS NOT A CHRISTIAN, AND NOT A
CHILD OF GOD, WHO DOES NOT, IN HIS LIFE AND CONDUCT, FOLLOW CHRIST J
ALSO, WHEREIN THE NEW BIRTH AND THE YOKE OF CHRIST CONSIST.

Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. — 1 Pet. 2 : 21.

GOD has appointed our Lord Jesus
Christ to be our prophet or
teacher ; and, by a voice from heaven,
has commanded us to hear him ; say-
ing, " This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased : hear ye
him." Matt. 17:5. This office was
most faithfully executed by the Son
of God, not only in words, but (as be-
came a teacher engaged in so sacred
a function) by a most holy and un-
blemished life. In allusion to this,
St. Luke thus prefaces his account
of the Acts of the Apostles: "The
former treatise have I made, O The-
ophilus, of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach, etc."; where, it is to
be remarked, that he places doing be-
fore teaching; intimating that these
ought never to be separated. It cer-
tainly is the duty of every true
teacher, first, to practise himself the
duties which he purposes to teach
others. Such a teacher was our Lord
Jesus ; and his conduct is the pattern
of teaching, and the book of life which
we ought to study.

2. It was for this cause, that the
Son of God became man, and con-
versed with men upon earth, that he
might give us a visible example of an
innocent, perfect, and divine life ; and
that we might follow him as a light
that shineth in darkness, to lead us
in the way in which we should go.

Hence he calls himself " the light of
the world;" and promises that "he
who followeth him shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of
life." John 8 : 12.

3. Hence it clearly appears, that
they who refuse to follow Christ in his
life, and to tread by faith in his steps,
remain in darkness, and are not in the
way to obtain " the light of life." But
what is this darkness? It is an impen-
itent and depraved life, called by the
apostle "works of darkness," which
are to be cast off, that so Ave may put
on " the armor of light " (Eom. 13 : 12) j
and in genuine repentance both these
duties are comprised.

4. It has been abundantly proved
above, that godly sorrow and true
faith thoroughly change a man ; that
they crucify the flesh, effect an entire
transformation in the soul, and beget,
through the Holy Ghost, a new life.
Lest, however, this should be a mere
theoretical knowledge, devoid of life
and practice, God has been pleased to
set before us his own Son, not only as
a ransom and a Mediator, but also as
a mirror of perfect godliness, and as a
most finished pattern of the new man,
who is regenerated after the image
of God. In him, the fleshly Adam,
the corrupt nature, never reigned; but
the blessed God alone. Him it hath
pleased God to set forth before our

30

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

eyes, that, contemplating him and his
righteous life, we might be daily more
and more renewed after his image.
Let us explain this point more fully.

5. Sad experience teaches us con-
tinually, that our whole nature, body
and soul, is polluted with every kind
of sin, vice, and corruption. These
are the works of the devil appearing
in the carnal man ; and it is principally
in the depraved and perverted will,
that these diabolical operations are
most visibly discerned. For the de-
praved will is the root of all sin : if
that were removed, there would be sin
no more. With regard to the power
and natural bias of this will, it consists
chiefly in turning man away from God
and from His will. Now, whatever de-
parts from that Being who is the sove-
reign and supreme Good, cannot but
be in itself evil; for it partakes of the
nature of the supreme evil, and is a
violation of the original constitution
of our nature, as derived from God
himself. It was this turning away from
God that produced the fall both of
Satan and of man ; whence sin entered
into the world, and has, by fleshly gen-
eration, passed upon all men.

6. The nature of man is then inoc-
ulated with the nature of the devil him-
self, and his will tainted with satan-
ical wickedness, as with deadly poison.
Hence Christ called the Pharisees
"children of the devil" (John 8:44);
and even to one of his own disciples
gave the name of Satan (John 6 :70);
intimating as though the covetousness,
lying, pride, and evil concupiscence,
by which the nature of all men is de-
filedj were Satan himself.

7. Hence it may, with all propriety,
be affirmed, that they who lead a life
void of repentance, a life of pride,
avarice, lust, and envy, live in the
devil, and partake of his nature. Such

persons may assume the garb of hon-
esty ; they may veil their real charac-
ters under a fair show of morality and
correct deportment; yet, inwardly, ac-
cording to the saying of Christ to the
Jews, they are, nevertheless, devils.
John 8 : 44. Such a declaration is
dreadful to be made ; but the truth of
it is confirmed, both by the Word of
God and by continual experience.

8. Our nature, as fallen creatures,
being thus miserably depraved, thus
desperately perverted, and vitiated in
all its springs; there is an absolute
necessity that it should be purified
and renewed. There must be a total
renovation of the soul; in all its powers
and all its faculties. But how shall
this be effected? .We answer: As the
chief evil has made a breach upon our
nature, and has infused poison into its
very springs; so must the chief Good
revisit and renew our nature, that it
may be assimilated to itself. That
which the supreme evil has so radi-
cally corrupted, can be corrected only
by a thorough and vital penetration of
the supreme Good, even of God him-
self; and, therefore, it was necessary
that the Word should be made flesh.

9. The Son of God truly became
man, not for his own sake, but for our
sakes ; that, by reconciling us to God
by himself, he might make us par-
takers of the sovereign good, having
cleansed and sanctified us, to that
end; for whatever is to be sanctified,
must be sanctified by God and with
God. And as God is in Christ, so
ought wc to be united to him by faith,
that we may live in God, and God in
us; we in Christ, and Christ in us
(2 Cor. 5: 19, 21); that the will of
God be in us, and we in the will of
God, being made the righteousness of
God in Christ. 2 Cor. 5: 21. This is
the only way in which Christ admin-

Chap. XL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

31

isters medicine to our corrupt nature;
and the more powerfully he influences
man, the more thoroughly will human
nature be purified.

10. Oh ! how blessed is the man in
whom Christ does all and is all ; whose
will, thoughts, mind, and words, are
the will, thoughts, mind, and words of
Christ ! It was thus the apostle said,
"We have the mind of Christ." 1 Cor.
2 : 16. And so indeed it must be with
the believer; because the life of Christ
is the new life, yea, the new man in
him; and whoever lives in Christ after
the Spirit, hath really put on the new
man, and all the graces with which he
is adorned. His meekness and obedi-
ence are the meekness and obedience
of Christ; his patience and humility
are the patience and humility of
Christ; and his life itself is the life
of Christ, by whom and in whom he
lives. This is the "new creature"
which is created after Cod (2 Cor. 5:
17); and that life of Christ in us, of
which St. Paul experimentally says,
"I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me." Gal. 2 : 20. This is to follow
Christ truly. This is to walk in the
light of his life, and to bring forth
"fruits meet for repentance;" for, by
this means, the "old man" is de-
stroyed, the carnal life gradually de-
clines, and the new and divine life is
established in the soul. He who has
this life is not a nominal, but a real
Christian; a Christian not in word
and in appearance only, but in deed
and in truth. He is a true child of
God, begotten of Him, and quickened
and renewed by faith after the image
of Jesus Christ.

11. Although we cannot attain to a
state of perfection, while encompassed
with so many infirmities that obstruct
our progress in the divine life, we
ought not, therefore, to be discouraged,

but rather to be inspired with more
fervor in seeking after a consumma-
tion so much to be desired. We ought
ardently to wish and pray, to endea\or
and study, that the kingdom of Christ
be established within us, and the king-
dom of Satan destroyed. 1 John 3:9;
Eph. 2:5. The object of our cares
and efforts, of our groans and prayers,
should be — how we may more and
more mortify the old man by daily
repentance. For, the more a man dies
to himself, the more Christ lives in
him; the more corruptions are removed
by the good Spirit of God, the more
divine grace possesses the heart. In
proportion as the flesh is crucified, the
spirit is quickened; as the works of
darkness are put off, the armor of* light
from above is put on; and in the same
degree as the outward man perisheth,
the inward man is strengthened and
renewed. 2 Cor. 4 : 16 ; Col. 3 : 5. The
decrease of the carnal life, is the in-
crease of that which is spiritual and
divine. As the affections of the former,
self-love, ambition, wrath, covetous-
ness, and voluptuousness, are weak-
ened and subdued, so are opposite
affections of the spiritual life invigo-
rated and raised. The farther a man
departs from the world, from "the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life " (1 John 2 : 16) ; the
more do God, Christ, and the Holy
Spirit enter into the heart and dwell
there. And, on the other hand, the
more nature, flesh, darkness, and the
world, reign in man; the less of grace,
light, the Holy Spirit, God, and Christ,
is there to be found in him.

12. This spiritual life is enmity to
the flesh, because the latter is hereby
restrained, subdued, and brought under
the yoke, and crucified with its "affec-
tions and lusts." In this, however,
consist the power, efficacy, and fruit

32

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

of true repentance. The nature of
flesh and blood is to lead a lawless,
dissolute, and voluptuous life, unshac-
kled by restraint, and entirely agree-
able to its own will and humor. It is
this which it nods sweet, and in which
it rejoices. To the flesh and the "old
man," the life of Christ is a most severe
cross, and an intolerable burden; but
to the new and spiritual man, "this
yoke is easy and this burden light"
(Matt. 11 : 30), and attended with di-
vine serenity and peace of mind. For
the true rest of the soul will be sought
for in vain, unless in faith in Christ ;
in his meekness and humility, patience
and love. Here he hath himself pro-
mised, "Ye shall find rest unto your
souls." Yea, he that really loves the
I Lord Jesus, will not deem it hard to
suffer even death for his sake, but ac-
count it a joy and a happiness. Such
is the yoke of the Saviour, which we
are invited to take upon us, that we
may find "rest unto our souls."

13. It is necessary, therefore, that
every one who is resolved to take upon
himself the yoke of Christ, and to im-
itate His holy example, should, in the
first place, shake off the yoke of Satan,
and repress the carnal, selfish, and un-
ruly propensities of his fallen nature,
in order that the flesh may vex the
spirit no more. All must be subju-
gated to the obedience of Christ, to
the wise and righteous discipline of
his law ; that is, the will, understand-
ing, reason, and appetites, together
with the sensual desires of the old
Adam, that before reigned in the mor-
tal body, must henceforth yield a free
obedience to the government of the
Lord. Eom. 6 : 12.

14. True it is that the flesh is highly
gratified when honored, courted, and
praised, and when abounding in the
riches and pleasures of this life ; but

the yoke of Christ, by which the flesh
is mortified and subdued, requires us
to prefer ignominy, contempt, and pov-
erty, to affluence and honor; to ac-
count ourselves unworthy of these
things, and freely to give up all that
is great in the estimation of the world.
It is here that the humility and life of
Christ are most striking and apparent.
This is the "yoke" and this the "bur-
den," which are easy and light to the
spirit; this is the law of love, the com-
mandments of which are not grievous
but delightful. 1 John 5 : 3. What was
the whole life of Christ but holy pov-
erty, extreme contempt, and severe
persecution? Is it not true that he
" came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give his life a ran-
som for many" ? Matt. 20 : 28.

15. It is the tendency of the natural
man to desire to excel others, and to
be thought of importance; but the
spiritual man loves the humility of
the Eedeemer, and desires to be re-
puted as nothing in this world. The
carnal man, that follows the propen-
sities of corrupt nature, and has never
learned of Christ humility, meekness,
and love, deems it folly to live as
Jesus lived, and thinks those only are
wise who indulge their appetites in
security, and satiate themselves with
every object which they desire; and
when such a one most lives in the
devil, he is so blinded by ignorance
and darkness as to esteem his own
life the happiest that can be desired,
and to applaud himself in his own
folly. And hence it is that these de-
luded wretches, following the false
light of carnal wisdom, are not only
deceived themselves, but are the means
of involving others in the same ruin.
They, on the contrary, whose minds
have been enlightened by the true
and eternal light, are struck with

Chap. XI.]

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

33

horror and surprise whenever they
cast their eyes upon the pomps and
vanities of this world, upon the am-
bition and pride, the wrath and re-
venge, the intemperance and voluptu-
ousness, and the other fruits of the
carnal life which universally abound.
Their language is: "Alas! how far re-
moved is all this from Christ ! How
far from true repentance and the
knowledge of Jesus is the man that
acts thus ! How far from the nature
and disposition of a child of God!
Alas I he is still dead in sins, and a
slave of the devil." That man, there-
fore, who does not imitate the life of
Christ, is an entire stranger to true
repentance; he is not a Christian, nor
a child of God; nay, he is wholly ig-
norant of Jesus Christ; for he who
desires to know Christ savingly, both
as the Saviour of the world and as the
great exemplar of life, must know him
to be pure meekness, gentleness, and
love, and to be wholly composed of
patience and humility. This living
ensample of goodness and piety which
the Lord hath set before him, he must
carry in his heart, and must labor to
be transformed into its image. The
virtues that resided in Christ he must
have within himself; and if he would
ever effectually know him, he must
love and admire them in his inward
soul. As a plant discovers its nature
by the fragrance which it diffuses
around, so the knowledge of Christ
discovers itself by the sweet and sa-
cred odors which proceed from it.
Then is acquired an experimental
knowledge of the life, power, rest, and
consolation which flow from the Sa-
viour; which circulate through all the
faculties of the soul, and quicken them
by a kind of spiritual sweetness. Thus
is man made to "taste how good the
Lord is" (Ps. 34: 8); thus is the truth

known, and the supreme and eternal
good apprehended and enjoyed. And
thus is it certainly ascertained that the
life of Christ is infinitely superior to
every other life in goodness and sweet-
ness, in dignity and in peace; yea, that
it resembles life eternal itself, being in-
deed the foretaste of such a life upon
earth.

16. As there is nothing more excel-
lent than the life of Christ, nothing
more delightful, more peaceful, or
more satisfying to the soul, it ought
to have no rival in our affections, but
to be endeared to us above all things
else. He who is destitute of Christ
and of his knowledge, can form no
conception of the rest and quiet of
eternal life; or of the sovereign good;
or of the everlasting truth ; or of the
imperishable word ; or of the joy of
the soul ; or of the true light of love ;
for all these centre in Christ, and he
who has him has them; because Christ
is all these to the man who truly be-
lieves in his holy name. " Every one
that loveth is born of God, and know-
eth God. He that loveth not, knoweth
not God; for God is love." 1 John 4 :
7,8.

17. It is, therefore, most evident
that the fruits and effect of the new
birth do not consist in words, however
sound, or in a form of godliness, how-
ever specious, but in an abiding sub-
stance, even in that love which is God
himself. A son bears the image of
him who begat him ; and whoever is
born of God should evidence it by love,
for God is love; and hence it is clear
that "he that dwelleth in love, dwell-
eth in God, and God in him." 1 John
4 : 16.

18. The knowledge of God, in like
manner, does not consist in words,
nor in merely speculative and super-
ficial knowledge, but in a vital, coa-

34

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

solatory, and divine feeling, in a pure
and unmixed pleasure, gently infusing
itself into the heart by faith, and pen-
etrating it with an unutterable and
heavenly sweetness. This is a true,
living, and efficacious knowledge of
God; such as that which the Psalmist
means when he says, " My heart and
my flesh cry out for the living God"
(Ps. 84:2); and again, "Thy loving
kindness (as experienced in the di-

vine sensations of my soul) is better
than life" (Ps. 63:3); that is, this
divine life infinitely transcends every
other life; in which it is evident that
he means that unutterable joy which
is produced by an experimental knowl-
edge of God, and which is infused into
a believing heart. Thus man liveth
in God, and God in man ; and thus
man knoweth God in truth, and is
known of God.

CHAPTER XII.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN DIES UNTO HIMSELF AND THE WORLD, AND LIVES IN CHRIST.

Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again. — 2 Cor. 5 : 15.

" /^HRIST," says the apostle, "died
\J for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto them-
selves, but unto him which died for
them, and rose again." Besides that
this sentence is replete with divine
consolation, declaring that Jesus died
for all, it inculcates a lesson of the
most salutary nature, namely, that we
should live not unto ourselves, but
unto him who died for us. To live to
him, however, before we are dead to
ourselves, is impossible. If, therefore,
thy resolution be to live to Christ,
thou must certainly die to the world
and to thyself; but if thou rather in-
clinest to live to the world and to
thyself, it follows that thou must re-
nounce thy communion with the Sa-
viour. For what communion hath
light with darkness, Christ with the
world, or the Spirit with the flesh?
2 Cor. 6 : 14, 15.

2. There are three kinds of death :
the one spiritual, the second natural,

and the third eternal. The first occurs
when a man dies daily to himself;
that is, to his own carnal desires, to
his avarice, pride, lust, and wrath,
and such other sins and passions as
have their rise in a corrupt nature.

3. It is of the second kind of death
that the apostle speaks, where he
says, "To me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain." Phil. 1 : 21. As if he
had said, Christ is the life and death,
the gain and advantage of the be-
liever, even when he passes through
natural death, for, by it, he exchanges
a short and miserable life for an eter-
nal and blessed one ; and earthly ob-
jects for possessions that are eternal
and divine: an exchange which can-
not but prove in the highest degree
gainful to himself.

4. If, however, any think that the
apostle's language is also to be under-
stood of the spiritual death of sin, they
will not commit an error. For thrice
happy is the soul to whom, in this

Chap. XII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

85

sense, " to live is Christ :" thrice
happy the soul in which Jesus lives
by faith, and that imitates the graces
which manifested themselves in him,
especially those of humility and meek-
ness. But alas ! by far the greater
part of men have put on the life of
the devil rather than the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ, by yielding to
avarice, pride, anger, and other un-
holy passions.

5. Awake, therefore, O man ! and
consider who it is that liveth in thee.
If thou canst truly affirm, " to me, to
live is Christ," happy art thou, as it
respects both this world and the world
to come. Here, even on earth, let
Christ be thy life, that he may be thy
life to all eternity: and in order to
this, account it the greatest of gain,
when thou art enabled to die to the
world and to thy own corruptions.
Then, in both senses, for thee, to live
is Christ, and to die, gain. What, in-
deed, can be more profitable or ad-
vantageous, than to die, in this re-
spect, to all thy sinful desires and af-
fections? Go on, then, in the Lord,
and never faint, allowing Christ to
live in thee now, that thou mayest
also live with him hereafter.

6. No man is capable of settled
peace and tranquillity, who is dis-
tracted and disturbed with earthly
desires and designs ; therefore, before
thou canst live unto Christ, thou must
die to the flesh and to the world.
This dying to self and living to Christ,
may be illustrated by a reference to
several types and histories in the
Old Testament.

7. Thus, as the promise relative to
Christ, and the seal of it by circum-
cision, were not given to Abraham,
until he had quitted his father's house
and relinquished his earthly inherit-
ance (Gen. 12 : 1, and 17 : 10), so man,

as long as his affections cleave to the
world, is unprepared to receive the
promise which is by the Saviour; and
as long as he refuses to die to it, and
deny himself, so long it is impossible
that he should enjoy Christ, or the
things which are His.

8. Jesus can never live in thy soul,
until thou art dead to the affections
of carnal nature. St. Paul was thus
dead ; and hence he could say, " I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"
(Gal. 2 : 20) ; and writing to the church
at Colosse, he says, "Ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God."
Col. 3:3.

9. A man may be considered as
dead to sin, when sin dies in him, and
he ceases from the commission of it.
The same apostle says, " If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit." Gal. 5 : 25. If we live in
Christ, we must walk even as he
walked ; for it is not sufficient to boast
of the Spirit in words, while our words
are not confirmed by our works; or
of faith, while this is not evidenced by
its fruits. Indeed it is said unto all, —
" If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die j
but if ye, through the Spirit, do mor-
tify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live." Eom. 8 : 13.

10. Multitudes, however, may be
compared to Saul, who, instead of
slaying Agag (1 Sam. 15 : 8), accord-
ing to the commandment of God, only
cast him into prison. They do not
destroy their lusts and sinful desires ;
but are contented to conceal, and as
it were imprison them, that at a fu-
ture opportunity, they may indulge
them with the greater secresy. Eut
let us carefully avoid this trifling ; and
instead of subjecting our corrupt pro-
pensities to a temporary restraint, let
us lay the axe of mortification to the
very root : for unless this be effected,

36

TEITE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

we shall, like Saul, be cast out from
the kingdom, and lose the crown of
everlasting life.

11. Some professed friends of reli-
gion resemble trees, the leaves of
which fall off when winter approaches,
but their foliage appears again when
the season becomes more favorable
and mild; for in the winter of adver-
sity, they conceal their lusts, and re-
strain their sinful propensities; but
when prosperity smiles upon them,
they break out again, as at the first,
and return to their evil ways. This
is an evidence of hypocrisy ; whereas
a true Christian is in all circum-
stances, and under every vicissitude,
whether public or private, always the
same, and remains unalterably fixed
in his God. He is the same both in
prosperity and adversity, in poverty
and in affluence, steadily cleaving to
God, and meeting with resignation
every affliction that Providence lays
upon him.

12. The history of Ahab (1 Kings
20 : 42) furnishes us with another in-
stance, not much unlike the case of
Saul; for, in opposition to the com-
mand of God, he spared the life of the
king of Syria; and, in consequence,
sentence went forth against him, and
his life was required for that of the
captive king. They who nourish in
their breasts those lusts which are
the enemies of God and of themselves,
and which are appointed to destruc-
tion, voluntarily draw upon them-

selves everlasting death and damna-
tion.

13. Neither prayer nor a devout
spirit can ever be perfected in man,
without the mortification of the flesh.
Thus God appointed that every beast
which approached the holy mount of
Sinai should be destroyed. Exod. 19 :
12, 13. How much more does it be-
hoove us to slay our unholy lusts and
affections, if we would ever ascend the
mountain of the Lord's house (Isaiah
2 : 2, 3 ; Mic. 4 : 2), offer up the incense
of prayer, or meditate upon the Word
of God! If we neglect to do this, we
are already judged, and shall be ban-
ished forever from the presence of the
Lord.

14. Jacob (Gen. ch. 29) served for his
beloved Eachel twice seven years; and
love so alleviated his toil, that the
years seemed but as so many days:
thus, for the salvation of our souls,
did Christ Jesus undergo thirty and
three years' service, and what Jacob
said of himself is, in an eminent de-
gree, applicable to Him: "In the day,
the drought consumed me, and the
frost by night; and my sleep departed
from mine eyes" (Gen. 31:40): "for
the Son of man came not to be min-
istered unto, but to minister, and to
give his life a ransom for many."
Matt. 20 : 28. Shall we, then, scruple
to love Christ again, and to fight under
his banner against his enemy, the
world ?

Chap. XIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

37

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CHRISTIAN OUGHT WILLINGLY TO DIE UNTO HIMSELF AND THE WORLD, FOR
THE SAKE OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST, AND FOR THE SAKE OF THAT FUTURE
AND ETERNAL GLORY, FOR WHICH WE WERE CREATED AND REDEEMED.

Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. — 2 Cor. 8 : 9.

THOU art required, O man! to die
to thyself, thy sin, and the world;
and to lead a holy, harmless life, ac-
cording to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This thou art to do, not with a view
to merit anything at the hands of
God, but from a principle of love to
him, who performed and merited all
for thee, and died to save thee.

2. Be not deceived: Jesus must be
loved by thee, not in word and in
tongue, but in deed and in truth. " If,"
says he (John 14:23), "a man lovC
me, he will keep my words ; " and so
St. John speaks: " This is the love
of God, that we keep his command-
ments : and his commandments are not
grievous." 1 John 5 : 3. And, again,
the Saviour says : " My yoke is easy,
and my burden is light." Matt. 11 : 30.
To him, indeed, who loves Christ with
all his heart, it cannot but be easy to
sacrifice the pleasure which earthly
vanities afford, and to do that which
is good, without constraint. Love ren-
ders every burden light that is laid
upon us by Jesus; whereas to him
that is devoid of this heavenly prin-
ciple, every act which duty requires
is grievous and oppressive. To such
a one, every religious exercise is pain-
ful and laborious; whereas the man
who sincerely loves the Lord Jesus
Christ, esteems death itself to be in
nowise terrible, when submitted to for
his sake. And, therefore, the Apostle

says: "Unto you it is given, in the
the behalf of Christ, not only to be-
lieve on him, but also to suffer for his
sake" (Phil. 1 : 29); nay, to lay down
life itself, whenever that sacrifice is
required of us.

3. In order to confirm thy faith,
consider the example of Moses, who,
" by faith, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pha-
raoh's daughter; choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God,
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season; esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treas-
ures in Egypt." Heb. 11 : 24-26.

4. Consider Daniel, who refused the
luxuries of a court, and desired to be
fed with pulse and water, resolving
" that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king's meat,
nor with the wine which he drank."
Dan. 1 : 8, 12. He contemned the
pleasures of Babylon, that he might
attain "the wisdom that is from
above " (James 3 : 17)y which dwells
only in a heart preserved pure from
the pollutions of an unholy world.
So, if thou desirest that Christ, the
eternal Wisdom, should enter into thy
soul, thou must abhor the pleasures of
sin. For as Daniel and his compan-
ions were made fairer by their sobri-
ety and abstemious life, so be thou
firmly assured, that thy soul will ap-
pear more beautiful and fair in the

38

TEÜE CHKISTIAN1TY.

[Book I.

sight of God, even as "partaking of
the divine nature," if thou escape
" the corruption that is in the world
through lust." 2 Pet. 1 : 4.

5. Consider, further, the example of
St. Paul, who says, "The world is cru-
cified unto me, and I unto the world"
(Gal. 6 : 14); that is, I am dead to the
world, and the world is dead to me.
Thus are all true Christians in the
world, yet not of it. Though they
live in it, they do not love it; for
they view it as a transient shadow;
and its pomps, dignities, and lusts, as
vanity and deceit, vexation and dis-
appointment. Hence, they are cruci-
fied to the world, though they remain
in it; and the world is crucified to
them; that is, they desire no mere
worldly honor, wealth or joy.

6. How happy is the man who is
dead to earthly vanities, and alive to
God; separated from the world, and
drawn into Christ! How blessed is
he into whose heart divine grace is so
infused, as wholly to wean it from in-
ferior objects, and exalt it to the fru-
ition of the light and glory of heaven.
Such a state is the effect of daily prayer
and supplication, without which a true
Christian cannot possibly exist.

7. Agur prayed to the Lord thus :
" Two things, have I required of thee;
deny me them not before I die. Give
me neither poverty nor riches; feed
me with food convenient for me."
Prov. 30 : 7, 8. So let the Christian
pray : " Two things I desire of thee,
O Lord, even these two : that I may
die to myself, and to the world."
For without this death, it is utterly
impossible to be a true Christian.
If thou, O Man ! thinkest otherwise,
thou certainly deceivest thyself, and
shalt at last hear from the mouth of
Christ that awful sentence, "I know
you not." Matt. 7:23; 25: 12.

8. Though to die thus to self and
to the world, is, to flesh and blood, a
grievous cross, yet will the spirit and
the love of Christ eventually triumph
over every difficulty. So powerful
indeed are these aids, that they ena-
ble the true Christian to bear all
things for the sake of the Beloved, as
a pleasant yoke and easy burden.
And although he who lives a life thus
mortified, will be hated by the world,
yet shall he be loved of God ; for the
enmity of the world is friendship with
him (James 4 : 4). And the Lord hath
himself declared, " If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own ;
but because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth
you." John 15 : 19.

9. Those who are dead to the world
for the testimony of Jesus, it casts
out ; but it honors and applauds them
who, living in the enjoyment of its
pomp and splendor, are its genuine
offspring; because they live in the
world, and the world liveth in them.

10. In short, that man is not re-
ceived and commended by the world,
but is, on the contrary, cast out of it,
in whose heart, pride, covetousness,
lust, wrath, revenge, and the other
corrupt passions of nature, are morti-
fied and restrained. Unto him the
world is dead; and he again is dead
to the world : he begins to live in
Christ, and Christ lives in him : and
he will be confessed by the Saviour,
as one of his peculiar people, in whom
the great design of redemption has
been effected. To others, on the con-
trary, it will be said, " I know you
not, as ye, in like manner, knew me
not." You have not confessed me be-
fore men, but have been ashamed of
my life, my meekness, humility, and
patience ; and I will not confess you :

Chap. XIII.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

39

you have despised the shame of my
cross; and you shall be with shame
disowned by me. Mark 8:38. For
whoever refuses to live with Christ
in time, cannot expect to live with
him in eternity: whoever has not the
life of Christ here, shall never have it
set forth in him hereafter : and who-
ever disdains to follow Jesus in the
present world, shall never be glorified
with him in the world to come.

11. Therefore, O Man! strictly
scrutinize thy life, and see whether
thou bearest a greater conformity to
the life of Christ, or to the life of the
devil : for thou must inevitably be
united to one or other of these
throughout all eternity.

12. If thou art dead to thyself and
to thy depraved desires within thee,
thou wilt find it no hard task to die
to the world and its vain allurements
which are without thee : and whoever
is thus dead to the world, will not
love it or the things which it con-
tains ; for, " if any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him."
1 John 2 : 15. Again, how shall his
desires any more go out after the
world without him, when he is dead
to it ? Great indeed would be the
loss sustained by a lover of the
blessed God, were he, in any degree,
to yield to the allurements of the
world, and allow it to obtain a share
in that affection which should be
fixed solely on the Supreme Good.
A soul so undecided would soon be
entirely vanquished by the blandish-
ments of sin, as was Samson by the
charms of Delilah (Judg. 16 : 6) ; and
would become subject to all that
misery and vexation of heart, which
invariably attend the love of this
world.

13. The love of the world apper-
tains not to the new creature, but to

the old: for the world has nothing
to bestow but honor and vainglory,
riches, pleasures, and carnal desires;
in these the "old man" delights. The
new man, on the other hand, has no
peace except in Christ, who is his
honor and glory, his riches and his
heaven.

14. And as nothing can be con-
ceived of that is greater or more ex-
alted than the image of God renewed
in Christ Jesus, so it should be our
only concern and care, to render our-
selves partakers of this exalted honor;
remembering the words of Tauler,
"What man, who is possessed of
reason, can doubt for a moment, that
God can infinitely more rejoice and
delight the heart, than the corrupt
and indigent creature is capable of
doing?"

15. In addition to this, the Scrip-
tures assure us that man was not cre-
ated for the world's sake, but the
world for man's. It was not to pam-
per his appetite, to heap up riches, or
to extend his empire without limits,
that man was formed; it was not that
he might acquire large estates and
possessions, erect palaces, or be gor-
geously attired, that he was endued
with a soul intelligent and immortal :
man was made to be lord of the earth,
and not its slave; to subdue, and not
to be subdued. He was not to seek:
his pleasure and enjoyment on earth,
however fair and fascinating it might
be to a depraved taste: he was not
destined to be an heir of this inferior
world, nor the possessor of terrestrial
treasures, nor to be actuated by any
worldly motive whatsoever. Man is.
to depart hence, as one that dwells on
earth as a tenant at will. He was not
made for it, and cannot remain in it;;
he entered it naked, and naked he
must quit it again. Many, indeed, are

40

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

born into the world at the same time;
but an equal number, on the other
hand, are daily taken out by death;
nor can any carry with them even an
atom of the treasures which they had
accumulated upon earth.

16. Man, then, is but a guest and a
pilgrim below; and most obvious it is,
that he was not created for this tem-
poral life, and that this world was
never designed to be the end of his
being. That end is God, and the
image of God in Christ Jesus, unto
which we are renewed by the Spirit;
and we are created for the kingdom
of God and for eternal life. These our
blessed Redeemer purchased for us,
when they had been forfeited by us;
and it is his Spirit that regenerates
men who had been without God in
the world.

17. How unreasonable, therefore, is
it in man to fix his affections on tem-
poral objects, when we are assured
that the soul is infinitely more noble
and more precious than the whole
world! How preposterous is it, that
he should lavish his time in the pur-
suit of earthly things, when he is
conscious that he was created to bear
the image of God in Christ, through
the Holy Spirit! Therefore, let us
now solemnly repeat what has been
before affirmed, namely, that man was
not made for the world, but the world
for man. The excellency of the image
of God in Christ Jesus, is inconceiva-

bly great and glorious: so that were
all mankind to unite their labor and
might, their wealth, their honors, and
their all, they could not succeed in re-
storing even one soul to the possession
of this image. It became requisite
that Christ himself should die, in
order that this divine image which
had been utterly defaced by sin,
might, through His Spirit, be revived ;
and that man might again become the
temple and house of God through all
eternity.

18. This being duly considered, as
certainly it ought to be, how is it that
man so thoroughly debases his soul as
to seek after the things of this world,
its honors, its pleasures, lusts, and
wealth? He should surely reason with

himself, and

say

Shall I, for the

sake of a little gold, or for this fading
world, or for all the honors and pleas-
ures it can afford me, — shall I, for
the sake of these, sacrifice my immortal
soul, which Christ has redeemed at so
infinite a price? God forbid." "What
is a man profited, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul ?" Matt. 16 : 26. Alas! the
" whole world," with all its power and
glory, could not avail to rescue one
soul from eternal destruction ; for the
soul is immortal, while the world
passeth away with all that it con-
tains. 1 Cor. 7 : 31 ; 1 John 2 : 17.

Chap. XIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

41

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN. WHO IMITATES CHRIST, HATES HIS OWN LIFE IN THIS
WORLD, AND FORSAKES THE WORLD.

If any man come to me, and hate not .... his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. — Luke
14 : 26. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall
keep it unto life eternal. — John 12 : 25.

IN order that a man may hate him-
self, he must, in the first place,
cease to love himself; secondly, he
must daily die to sin; and, thirdly,
maintain a continual warfare with his
corrupt nature, or the flesh.

2. There is nothing that more ob-
structs the everlasting salvation of
mankind than self-love. This is not to
be understood of that natural love
which excites to a due regard to self-
preservation, but of that carnal and
inordinate affection which influences
man to be wholly concerned about
himself, without any reference to the
Supreme Being, the great Author of
life. In this sense the term is used in
the present Book. Man was created
to love God alone; and since God only
is to be loved, it follows that he who
loves himself is an idolater, and makes
of himself a god. The heart of man
rejoices and rests in the object of his
affection ; and, whatever this be, he is
brought by it into bondage, and is de-
voted to it. Man, in this state, is be-
come a servant, and is deprived of that
genuine liberty in the enjoyment of
which he was originally created; and
in this lapsed and divided state he
must serve as many masters as there
are objects upon which his affections
are placed. But if thy love, O man !
be sincerely and simply fixed on God,
then thou art subject to no lord but
Him ; and thou preservest thy liberty

with all the privileges appertaining to
it. It becometh thee, therefore, to be
very circumspect in thy life and con-
duct, lest thou shouldst in any degree
obstruct the progress of divine love in
thy soul. If ever thou desirest to pos-
sess God alone, thou must make a sur-
render of thyself solely to him. If
thou lovest and pleasest thyself, in-
stead of loving and pleasing God, then
sorrow and fear, sadness and anxiety,
will inevitably attend thee; whereas,
if thou wholly yieldest thyself unto
God, cleaving to him and delighting
thyself in him alone, then he will
never leave thee nor forsake thee, but
remove by his gracious presence all
fear and anxiety from thy mind. He,
on the other hand, who seeks himself
in all situations and in every circum-
stance, and who incessantly pursues
after profit, praise, and lust, can never
attain to serenity and peace of mind ;
for some circumstance there always
wTill be to cross his desires and to dis-
turb his rest. Never, therefore, yield
to the belief that an accession of fame,
wealth, or honor in this world, is al-
ways good and profitable for thee;
when, on the contrary, a righteous
contempt of all such transient objects,
nay, an utter extirpation of our love
of them, would be attended with an
infinite blessing and advantage.

3. As then, on the one hand, the
things of this life, such as praise,

42

TEXTE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book 1.

riches, and pleasure, are frail, and
pass away with the world that sup-
plies them, while, on the other, the
love of God endureth forever, it is
\ evident that no satisfaction can be
durable that is founded upon the love
of self and of earthly objects. Such
peace would be interrupted by every
trivial circumstance that occurred ;
whereas, when the mind is firmly set
upon God and upon his love, it cannot
fail to be preserved in perfect peace
and perpetual serenity amid all the
changes of this life. Forsake thou,
therefore, all things, and thou shalt,
by faith, recover all things again; for
never can the lover of himself and of
the world nod the blessed God.

4. Inordinate self-love is begotten
of the world, and not of God ; it is
earthly, and the chief enemy to "the
wisdom which is from above." James
3 : 17. This wisdom does not seek the
praise and applause of men; and
though in itself " a pearl of great
price" (Matt. 13:46), yet appearing
with no other recommendation than
its own native simplicity, it is but
little valued in the world, and, with
but few exceptions, is entirely ne-
glected and forgotten ; and though
there are many who make a boast of
this wisdom, yet the gem conceals it-
self from all who do not desire to ap-
ply it in their practice. If, therefore,
thou desirest to be possessed of it, O
man ! lay aside all that human wisdom
which "puffeth up" (1 Cor. 8 : 1), to-
gether with thy self-love and self-ap-
plause, and then shalt thou exchange
thy earthly wisdom, which the world
admires, for that which is heavenly
and divine. Then, instead of the wis-
dom of this world, which in its nature
is elevated and seeks the applause of
men, thou shalt be put in possession
of a wisdom which, far from attract-

ing the notice of the world, is despised
and rejected by it, but which is, never-
theless, of a divine origin, and of ever-
lasting continuance.

5. It is impossible to love God, until
thou abhorrest thyself; that is, until
thou art heartily displeased with thy-
self and with thy sins; until thy own
carnal nature is crucified, together
with the evil propensities of thy self-
will. For the more a man strives to
love God, the more he labors to subdue
the lusts of the flesh and his sensual
appetites; and the more he departs
from self and from self-love, by the
power of the Spirit of God, the more
nearly he approaches, by faith, unto
God, and to his divine love. For as
inward peace depends on a freedom
from desires after the things of this
world; so when this peace is once set-
tled in the soul, and the heart has dis-
engaged itself from the ties which
bound it to the creature, it returns
freely into God, and rests in him
alone.

6. Now he who is sincerely disposed
to deny himself, must follow, not his
own will, but the will of Christ, who
has declared, " I am the way, and the
truth, and the life." John 14:6.' As
though he had said: "Without the
way, no man walketh ; without the
truth, nothing is known ; and without
life, no man liveth : therefore, look
upon me, who am the way in which it
is thy duty to walk, the truth in which
thou art called to believe, and the life
in which thou art bound to live. I
am the unerring way, the infallible
truth, and the everlasting life : the
way to immortality is through my
merit; the truth itself is in my word;
and life is through the efficacy of my
death ; and, therefore, if thou con-
tinuest in the way, the truth will guide
thee unto eternal life. If thou desirest

Ciiap. XIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

43

not to go astray, follow me j if thou
wilt know the truth, believe in me;
and if thou wouldst possess life ever-
lasting, put thy whole trust in me,
'who for thy sake have endured the
death of the cross."

7. What, indeed, is the safe way, the
infallible truth, and the endless life?
What, the way, truth, and life, that
are more excellent than every other ?
Surely there is no way, but the holy
and precious merits of Christ ; no truth,
but his eternal word; no life, but a
blissful immortality in heaven. If,
therefore, O Christian! thou desirest
to be raised up into heaven with Christ
Jesus, believe in him here, and tread
in the footsteps of his humility; this
is the safe Way to everlasting glory.
If thou wouldst escape the snares of
the world, take hold of his Word by
faith, and follow the example which
he has left for thy imitation; because
this is the infallible Truth. And if it
be thy wish to live with Christ, then
die thou with him and in him unto sin,
and become a new creature; for this is
Life. Thus Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life ; and he is so, both
by his example and by his merit.

8. " Be ye followers of God as dear
children." Eph. 5 : 1. Let us labor and
strive after this one thing; that our
lives may resemble the life of Christ.
Were there nothing else to confound
the false Christian, the example of
Christ might effectually and abund-
antly do it. When we consider that
Christ our Lord passed his life in grief
and pain, we ought to be ashamed to
spend our lives in ease and pleasures.
If the soldier forgets his own ease and
comfort when he beholds his captain
fighting unto death, shalt thou pursue
after worldly pleasures and honors,
when thy Prince was so ignominiously
treated, and, for thy sake, nailed to

the cross ? Is it not a sign that then
thou dost not, in fact, fight under his
banner?

9. It is true that, in our day, every
one desires to be considered a Chris-
tian; but how few are they who imi-
tate the life and deportment of Christ !
Had it been the character of a fol-
lower of Christ, to aim at the acqui-
sition of honors and possessions, our
Lord would never have taught that
these are not worthy to be compared
with heavenly treasures. Contemplate
the life and doctrine of the blessed
Jesus, and thou shalt own that no-
thing can be more opposed than he
and the world. Behold that manger
and that stable! do they not forci-
bly evidence a contempt of worldly
things? And will the example of
Christ lead thee to err from the right
way? No! he is the way, and he is
the truth; and his life, compared with
his doctrine, is the only means to pre-
serve thee from mistake, and to guard
thee from the delusions and errors of
the world. Since then the Lord hath
chosen to enter into his glory by the
way of suffering and reproach, why
shouldst thou labor to make thy way
to hell, through the pomps and vani-
ties of the world? Return, then, O
deluded soul! escape from the broad
way that leadeth unto death, and in
which thy only enjoyment is " the
pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb.
11 : 25); enter into this safe Way, in
which the wayfaring man shall not
stray: cordially embrace that Truth
which never can deceive : and live in
Him who is Life itself. This way is
the truth, and this truth is the way.
Awful blindness! a worm of the earth
would make himself great in the
world, when the Lord of glory abased
himself to the very dust. O faithful
soul! when thy bridegroom moves to

44

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

meet thee, clothed with humility, come
down from the elevation of thy pride
and ambition, and descend into the
vale of humiliation to meet him, and
he will embrace and receive thee with

joy-

10. As Abraham quitted his father's
house, to go into a land which the
Lord was to show him (Gen. 12 : 1),
so quit thou, as a true child of Abra-
ham, the pleasure-house of self-will
and self-love, that thou mayest obtain
the divine blessing. Self-love biases
the judgment, blinds the understand-
ing, disturbs the reason, seduces the
will, corrupts the conscience, closes
the gates of life, and acknowledges
neither God nor neighbor. It ban-
ishes virtue ; seeks after honors,
riches, and pleasures ; and, in a word,
prefers earth to heaven. He, there-
fore, who thus "loveth his life, shall
lose it; but he that hateth his life"
(that is, resists this principle of self-
love), "shall keep it unto life eternal."
John 12 : 25. Self-love is the root of
impenitence, and the cause of damna-
tion. They who are controlled by
self-love and self-honor are destitute
of humility and a knowledge of sin;
consequently, they never can obtain
the remission of sin, though they seek
it with tears; their tears not being
shed because they have offended God,
but merely on account of the personal
loss which they have sustained.

11. The kingdom of heaven is com-
pared in Scripture to " a pearl of great
price;" in order to obtain which, a
man sold all that he had. Matt. 13 : 45,
46. This pearl is God himself, and that
eternal life which he has promised,
and for the attainment of which every
other object must be forsaken. We
have an example of this in our Lord
Jesus Christ, who descended from
heaven not for his own sake, but for

thy sake ; not for his own profit and
advantage, but for thine. Luke 19 : 10.
And wilt thou yet delay to love him
who gave himself up unto death for
thee ?

12. It doubtless is the part of a
faithful spouse, to please her husband
alone : and art thou desirous of pleas-
ing the world, when thou mayest be
espoused unto Christ, the great lover
of souls ? Forsake therefore and sin-
cerely despise all that is in the world,
in order that thou mayest become
worthy of the eminent dignity of this
spiritual marriage : for if thy love
cleave not solely to Christ, it is a cor-
rupt and adulterous love, and not that
which a Christian should bear to the
Eedeemer. For the Christian's love
to the Eedeemer must possess virgin
purity.

13. The law of Moses required that
the' priest should marry a virgin
(Levit. 21 : 13, 14) ; and Christ, our
High Priest, will espouse only a vir-
gin-soul; one that is attached to no-
thing that the world can offer, but
solely to himself; nay, one that loves
not even herself, in comparison with
Christ. " If any man come to me,"
he says, " and hate not his own life, he
cannot be my disciple." Luke 14 : 26.

14. In order to understand what is
meant by hating ourselves, we are to
remember that we carry about with
us " the old man," and are indeed the
old man himself; whose nature is to
hasten from one sin to another, to
love himself, to pursue his own profit
and honor, and to indulge his own
will and carnal appetite. For the
flesh is at all times the same ; always
considering itself, easily grieved, envi-
ous, bitter, covetous, and revengeful.
This, O Man ! is what thou doest :
these sinful motions proceed from thy
heart ; this is thy very life, even the

Chap. XV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

45

life of the old man in thee : and there-
fore thou must of necessity hate thy-
self, and thine own natural life, if ever
thou desirest to be a disciple of Christ.
Whoever loves himself, must love his
own pride and avarice, his own wrath
and hatred, envy and lying, perfidi-
ousness and unrighteousness ; and, in

short, he must love all the progeny
of unholy desires, and a corrupt heart.
But if thou desirest to be a Christian
indeed, thou must not love, nor ex-
cuse, nor palliate thy sins, but thou
must hate them, forsake them, and
subdue them.

CHAPTER XV.

SHOWING HOW THE " OLD MAN " DAILY DIES, AND THE "NEW MAN" IS DAILY
RENEWED, IN A TRUE CHRISTIAN J ALSO, WHEREIN SELF-DENIAL CONSISTS, AND
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE CHRISTIAN'S CROSS.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me. — Luke 9 : 23.

IT is the charge of the apostle Paul,
" Put off the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts ; and be renewed in the spirit of
your mind ; and put on the new man,
which after God is created in right-
eousness and true holiness." Eph. 4 :
22-24. And in another of his Epistles,
he gives us a reason for doing so.:
" Ye are not your own ; for ye are
bought with a price ; therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's." 1 Cor. 6 : 19, 20.

2. "We have already noticed what is
meant by the old man; namely, pride,
covetousness, lasciviousness, unright-
eousness, wrath, enmity, hatred, 'etc. ;
all of which must die in the Christian,
if ever the new man arise in him again,
and is day by day renewed.

3. In proportion as the old man
dies, the new man is quickened. As
pride loses its influence, humility, by
the grace of God the Holy Spirit, suc-
ceeds ; as wrath yields, meekness ad-
vances j as covetousness is done away,

trust in God is increased ; and as the
love of the world is removed, the love
of God takes its place in the soul, and
becomes more and more vigorous and
ardent. In this consists the renova-
tion of the new man. This is the
fruit of the Spirit; this is practical
and living faith (Gal. 5 : 22) ; this is
Christ in us; this is the new command
of Christ and new obedience; this is
the result of the new birth in us, in
which thou must live if thou desirest
to be a child of God; for those only
who so live have a right to be so
called.

4. This is the reason why a man
ought now to deny himself; to re-
nounce his own honor and will, his
own love and pleasure, and all his
profit and interest in the world ; and
why he ought freely to give up his
own right and life, and consider him-
self unworthy of everything that Prov-
idence bestows upon him. A real Chris-
tian, who is endued with the humility
of Christ, readily owns that no man

46

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

can lay claim to even the least of those
benefits that descend from above, be-
cause they are all gifts, and freely pro-
ceed from the goodness of God. On
this account he uses all as being really
the property of God, with fear and
trembling ; not to promote his own
pleasure and satisfaction, his own
profit and praise, but from necessity
alone, and because he cannot other-
wise subsist.

5. Let a true Christian who denies
himself, and a false Christian who is
filled with inordinate self-love, be com-
pared together. If an affront be of-
fered to the latter, you may soon be-
hold his anger rising, and visible marks
of passion and discontent ; and these
are, not unfrequently, followed up by
reproachful language and actions, by
a spirit of revenge, and sometimes by
imprecations and curses. All this pro-
ceeds from the old man, whose proper
character it is to be angry and bitter,
and to exhibit rancor and asperity.
On the contrary, he that is a Chris-
tian indeed, and has sincerely begun
to practice self-denial, is gentle, pa-
tient, and ready to forgive ; free from
a revengeful spirit ; full of compassion
and tenderness; and esteems himself
worthy of all the sufferings which
Providence may be pleased to allot to
him. These qualities are all included
in self-denial.

6. In the exercise of this patience,
meekness, and lowliness of mind, our
Lord Jesus Christ has set us an ex-
ample by willingly denying himself.
"The Son of man," he says, "came
not to be ministered unto, but to min-
ister" (Matt. 20:28); and again, "I
am among you as he that serveth"
(Luke 22 : 27); and in another place,
"The Son of man hath not where to
lay his head." Luke 9 : 58. David,
when reviled by Shimei, practised the

duty of self-denial, for his words were :
" The Lord hath said unto him, Curse
David." 2 Sam. 16 : 10. As if he had
said : " I am a worm in the sight of
God, and deserve to suffer far worse
things." And thus have all the saints
and prophets of God freely denied
their own will, and esteemed them-
selves unworthy of every blessing.
They bore the burden of their day
with patience (Acts 5 : 40, 41) ; they
cursed not when they were cursed;
they blessed their persecutors, and
prayed for them by whom they were
slaughtered (Acts 7 : 60) ; and thus,
" through much tribulation, entered
into the kingdom of God." Acts 14 : 22.

7. This was true when they acknowl-
edged themselves unworthy of any
favor, but worthy of all the evils that
could befall them.

8. Now, this self-denial is the cross
of Christ, which he has encouraged us
to bear, saying : " If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily, and follow
me." Luke 9 : 23. This self-denying
life is a severe cross to the flesh ; the
natural man desires a life free from
restraint and contradiction, and would
follow the inclination of his own will,
and seek after his own ease and pleas-
ure, rather than the humility, patience,
and meekness of Christ, with the other
graces of his life and example.

9. But whatever opposition the old
man may raise for a time, he has re-
ceived the sentence of death, and if
thy soul be ever saved, he must surely
die. For never canst thou be clothed
with the humility of Christ unless thy
natural pride be first subdued; nor
canst thou feel a love of his poverty
unless thy avarice and thy love of
the world be first overcome. Thou
wilt not be able to follow Christ in
the contempt of vainglory, nor to en-

Chap. XV.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

47

dure the reproach of his cross, until
thine ambition be rooted out; nor wilt
thou ever express in thy life the meek-
ness and patience of Jesus until thy re-
vengeful spirit be inwardly mortified.

10. These are the spiritual exercises
which the Scriptures mean when they
speak of denying ourselves, of bearing the
cross of Christ, and of following him, —
exercises that are submitted to, not
with any expectation of profit, merit,
reward, interest, or praise, but from
pure love to the Saviour, and because
Christ hath passed through all this
before us, and "hath left us an exam-
ple that we should follow his steps."
Since the image of God is the greatest
dignity of man, we ought the more
earnestly to practise the duty of self-
denial, by which that image, effaced
by sin, is revived within us. And as
this is the highest honor of which our
nature is susceptible, so is it the strong-
est inducement that can possibly be
suggested to endear to us the practice
of self-denial.

11. Why, then, should man so eagerly
desire the fading honors of this world,
which, however they may raise him in
the estimation of his fellow-mortals,
render him in no degree more accept-
able in the sight of God. The great
and the wise have bodies composed of
flesh and blood as the meanest and the
most despised; so that, in this respect,
no man has the slightest superiority
over another. One is born even as the
other, and dies even as the other; for
the beginning and end of all men, as
to this world, is alike. What folly
then is it to covet worldly honors and
the praise of men ! Such desires spring
from the root of self-love, that bane
of the soul, that seed of all spiritual
diseases, by which the heart of man is

turned from God to the world, and
from Christ to self. How incapable
and how backward is the lover of
himself to obey the words of the
blessed Eedeemer, and to lose his life
for His sake that he may save it. This
is a paradox hostile to the inclinations
of the "old nature," and therefore but
little considered by the bulk of man-
kind.

12. Alas! how small is the number
of those who have a thorough knowl-
edge of the depraved life of the old
Adam, or who heartily strive against
it ! And yet, if ever we would rescue
our souls from perdition, we must die
to it and to all its restless workings.
Whatever corruptions have been en-
tailed on us by Adam, must be re-
moved in Christ. In his humility, our
pride and ambition must expire; in
beholding his poverty, our thirst after
earthly things must die away. The
contemplation of his bitter sufferings
should subdue our sensual lusts; the
reproaches which he endured, and the
entire resignation with which he sub-
mitted to the contempt of the world,
should restrain us from the pursuit of
worldly honors, and from the indulg-
ence of anger and passion.

13. He who is thus dead to himself,
will also readily die to the world, its
pomps, and wealth, and honors, and
pleasures, solacing himself with those
higher riches, dignities, and enjoy-
ments, to which he is admitted by
faith in Christ. He becomes, indeed,
" a stranger upon the earth " (Ps.
39 : 12), but he is the friend of Christ,
and Christ will comfort his heart with
the light of his countenance here, and
with joy everlasting and unutterable
in the world to come.

48

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

CHAPTER XVI.

A CONFLICT IS CONSTANTLY MAINTAINED IN THE CHRISTIAN BETWEEN THE SPIRIT

AND THE FLESH.

i" see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind. — Eom. 7 : 23.

THE two opposite principles in the
heart of the real Christian, are
spoken of by the apostle. under differ-
ent names, viz. : the inward and out-
ward man (2 Cor. 4 : 16), the law of
the mind and the law of the members
(Eom. 7 : 23), and the flesh and spirit.
"The flesh," says he,,"lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh." Gal. 5:17.

2. When the Spirit conquers the
flesh, then man lives in the new na-
ture, and is in God and in Christ: but
when the flesh vanquishes the Spirit,
and thus gains the ascendency, then
man lives in the devü and in the old
nature; he is under the dominion of
the world, and without the kingdom
of God, and, consequently, is called
carnal. And " to be carnally minded
is death." Eom. 8 : 6.

3. It is according to the predomi-
nance of either of these principles
(the flesh and the Spirit), that a man
obtains his name in Scripture, and is
called carnal or spiritual. When the
flesh and its sensual lusts are subdued,
it is an indication of the strength of
the spirit, and of a man's proficiency
in the inward life; but if a man be j
vanquished by the flesh, it betrays
the weakness both of his faith and
spirit.

4. Solomon says, "He that ruleth
his spirit (his mind), is better than he j
that taketh a city." Prov. 16 : 32. If,
then, thou desirest to be a valiant con-
queror, and to gain an immortal vic-

tory, conquer thyself; subdue thy pas-
sions, mortify thy pride, quell thine
ambition, and destroy every inordi-
nate lust with which thou art assailed ;
and thus shalt thou overthrow the king-
dorn of Satan, who, by means of such
sins, ruleth in the world. Many have
signalized themselves by the capture
of towns and cities; but, alas! how
few are they who, in a higher sense,
may be denominated conquerors of the
world /

5. If thou yieldest too far to the
flesh, thou destroyest thy soul. It is
surely better that the soul overcome,
and that the body also be preserved,
than that, the body overcoming, both
body and soul should be destroyed
together.

6. This contest, though attended
with various trials and difficulties, will,
however, issue in a glorious victory
and a heavenly crown : " Be thou faith-
ful unto death," saith the Captain of
our salvation, " and I will give thee a
crown of life." Eev. 2 : 10. And the
disciple that lay in his bosom tells us,
" This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith." 1 John 5 : 4.
Thou wilt say, What is it to overcome
the world? We answer, It is the world
within us, which is here principally
meant. Overcome thy self, and then
the victory over the world is thine.

7. Some may, perhaps, be here ready
to inquire, " What, if sin sometimes
closely beset me, and bear me away
against my will; must I be excluded

Chap. XVI.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

49

from the number of God's children,
according to that saying of St. John,
'He that committeth sin is of the
devil'?" 1 John 3: 8. To this it must
be replied: If thou feelest the con-
flict of the Spirit against the flesh,
and art grieved that thou sometimes
doest things which thou wouldst not,
it is an evidence that, amidst the in-
firmities which encompass thee, thy
faith and thy spirit struggle against
the flesh, and are opposed to it. St.
Paul himself teaches us that this war-
fare has place even in godly and be-
lieving souls, when he says, " I see an-
other law in my members warring
against the law of my mind (that is,
against the new, inward man), and
bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members " (Eom.
7 : 23); thus causing him sometimes to
do the things which he would not. To
will, was present with him; but to
perform the good which he would, he
was not always able; inasmuch as he
could not do of himself the good which
he would, while to do the evil which
he would not, was always easy to him.
Hence he exclaims, " O wretched man
that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ? " Kom. 7 : 24.
And to this agrees what Christ him-
self says : "The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak." Matt. 26:41;
Mark 14:38.

8. As long, therefore, as this conflict
is felt in man, sin cannot be said to
rule in him; for he who is continually
fighting against sin, resists its strug-
gles for dominion; and sin cannot de-
stroy the man who opposes the at-
tempts which it makes upon the soul.

9. It is the experience of 'all the
saints, that they alike have sin, ac-
cording to the word of St. John : " If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves." 1 John 1:8. It is not, how-

ever, the indwelling sin that condemns
a man, but the reigning sin. The sin
with which we contend, and to the
commission of which we do not con-
sent, is not imputed to us; as St. Paul
says : " There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit" (Eom. 8:
1); that is, who do not permit the
flesh to rule. But as for those who
are altogether strangers to this spirit-
ual strife, this combat of the flesh and
Spirit, they are not born again, but
are under the reigning influence of sin ;
they remain the servants of sin and
Satan, and are, consequently, damned;
for " the law of the Spirit of life " hath
not made them "free from the law of
sin and death " (Eom. 8 : 2), so long
as they thus suffer sin to rule over
them, and to " reign in their mortal
body."

10. All this is illustrated in Josh.
16 : 10. The remnant of the Canaan-
ites were permitted to dwell amongst
the children of Israel, but not to have
dominion over them; and thus the Is-
rael of God feel their remaining im-
perfections, but do not allow them to<
gain the pre-eminence. To preserve
this pre-eminence is the duty of the
new man in Christ, whose name is
Israel (that is, a prince of God) (Gen.
32 : 28); and who, as a prince, hath
power with God, and shall at last pre-
vail.

11. This daily strife with the old
man, is an encouraging evidence of
the existence of the new man; for it
plainly indicates that there are two»
contending principles in him wha is
the subject of it. The strength of the'
spirit and the victory succeeding i%
demonstrate the true Israelite; and
the warfare of the spirit indicates the-
real Christian. The land of Canaan

50

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

cannot indeed be gained without war :
but wlien the flesh, like the Canaanite
of old, invades the territories of the
spirit, it then becomes the part of the
spiritual and true Israel not to submit
to such a master; but, after true re-
pentance and remission of sin, to col-
lect new strength in Christ, and by
the grace of God to rise again from
his fall, and earnestly implore Jesus,
our true Joshua, to vanquish for him
and in him, the spiritual Canaanite,
the enemy of his soul. When this is
accomplished, the sinner is not only
forgiven and restored to favor, but he
is likewise refreshed and strengthened
in Christ, his great Captain in this
spiritual combat. With regard, there-
fore, to such as continue to feel many
infirmities in the flesh, and who can-
not do the things which they would,

I exhort them to cleave to Jesus as
sincere penitents, and to cover their
blemishes with his perfect obedience.
It is in this order, and in this order
alone, that the imputation of Christ's
merits becomes salutary and effect-
ual; that is, when a man forsakes his
sin, and by daily repentance strives
against it; repairs his former losses,
and guards against future tempta-
tions. But while the sinner remains
a stranger to brokenness of heart on
account of transgression; while he
continues to gratify the unholy pro-
pensities of the flesh, nothing can be
more absurd than for him to suppose
that the merits of Christ are imputed
to him; for how can the blood of
Christ benefit him who treads it under
foot? Heb. 10:29.

\f

CHAPTER XVII.

THE INHERITANCE AND POSSESSIONS OF CHRISTIANS ARE NOT OP THIS WORLD;
THEY SHOULD, THEREFORE, REGARD THEMSELVES AS STRANGERS IN IT, WHILE
THEY MAKE USE OF EARTHLY THINGS.

We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we tan carry nothing out. And having
food and raiment, let us be therewith content. — 1 Tim. 6 : 7, 8.

THE design of the blessed God in
creating temporal things, was
that they might supply man's bodily
wants ; and it is right that they should
be used for such a purpose, and be
received at the hands of God with
gratitude, attended with fear and
trembling. In regard to those things
which are not absolutely necessary,
whether gold and silver, food and
raiment, etc., they are left to man in
order to prove him; so that from the
■manner in which he employs these

objects, it may be discovered how he
stands affected towards God, while
possessed of the goods of this world :
whether, on the one hand, he will
still cleave to God, and in the midst
of earthly possessions, keep his eye
constantly fixed on those which are
to come; or whether, withdrawing
his love from God, he will attach him-
self to this fleeting world, and prefer
a fading earthly paradise, to that
which is permanent and heavenly.
2. Man is therefore left to his own

Chap. XVII.]

TKUE CHBISTIANITY.

51

liberty and choice, in order that he
may be judged hereafter according to
that which he has chosen here, and
thus be without excuse in that day.
Agreeably to this principle, it was the
solemn declaration of Moses to the
people of Israel : " I call heaven and
earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing : therefore
choose life, that both thou and thy
saed may live." Deut. 30 : 19.

3. The things of this world are then
designed, not to fill us with earthly
delight and pleasures, but to be tests
and trials of our fidelity. In these
trials the fall is very easy, when once
we begin to withdraw from God.
The pleasures of this world are the
fruits of a forbidden tree; of which we
are warned by God not to eat, lest
our minds going out after them should
eventually take delight in them, after
the manner of those who know no
other pleasures, but such as are de-
rived from earthly objects. These
persons, by indulging the flesh, con-
vert meat, drink, and apparel into
snares by which they are turned away
from God.

4. It certainly is the duty of every
true Christian, to esteem himself a
stranger and pilgrim in this world;
and as bound to use earthly blessings,
not as means of satiating lust or grati-
fying wantonness, but of supplying
his absolute wants and necessities.
We ought not to set our affections on
these inferior objects, but on Him
alone who is able to satisfy them.
To do otherwise, is to expose our-
selves to dangerous temptations, and
with Eve, to eat daily of the forbid-
den tree. The real Christian is not
intent upon worldly concerns, or de-
licious fare ; for his interior eye is di-
rected to that bread which endureth

unto eternal life. JSTor is he solicit-
ous about fine and fashionable ap-
parel; aspiring rather after robes of
divine light, and the raiment of glori-
fied bodies. In short, all things that
please the natural man in this world,
are, to a true Christian, only so many
crosses and temptations, allurements
of sin and snares of death, that con-
tinually exercise his virtue. What-
ever man uses without the fear of
God, whatever he applies to the mere
gratifying of his flesh, cannot fail to
operate as a poison to the soul, how-
ever pleasant and salutary it may ap-
pear to be to the body. Yet, so far
from laboring to know the forbidden
tree of worldly pleasures and its vari-
ous fruits, man gives himself up to a
careless and thoughtless state of life,
and yields to the lust of the flesh, not
considering that this lust is really the
forbidden tree.

5. The Christian, on the other hand,
uses all things in the fear of God, and
as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth ;
avoiding every kind of excess in meat,
drink, apparel, houses, and the other
things of this life, lest, by an impro-
per use of them, he should offend both
his Father in heaven, and his fellow-
Christians upon earth. He will not so
much as gaze on the forbidden tree, in
order that he may hot be ensnared ;
but with the eye of faith,, he stead-
fastly beholds the future felicity of
the soul, and for the sake of this
felicity, refuses to yield to the crav-
ings of corrupt natures What does
it profit the body that in this world
it swims in lusts and pleasures, when,
after a short period, it must be de-
voured by worms, and stripped of all
its enjoyments ! " Naked," says Job,
" came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither."
Job 1:21. We bring into the world

52

TßUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

a naked and infirm, a poor and indi-
gent body ; and even this is the spoil
of death ; for when we pass out of this
world we leave it behind us forever.

6. Whatever we enjoy from the time
of our birth to the period of our dis-
solution, is all the bread of mercy and
affliction, and designed to supply the
bare wants of this mortal life. At the
approach of death all is taken from us
again, and we depart out of the world
poorer than when we entered it.
When man enters the world, he brings
with him life and a body, and finds the
necessary shelter, meat, and drink pro-
vided for him ; bat, after existing a
short time, he is, in a moment, bereft
of all, and leaves behind him even his
body and his life. Consider then, O
man ! whether there can be anything
more wretched and poor, more naked
and miserable, than man when he dies,
if he be not clothed with Christ's right-
eousness, and enriched in his God.

7. As, therefore, we are confessedly
strangers and pilgrims here, and at
the hour of dissolution must leave be-
hind us every earthly enjoyment, let
us, at least, cease to encumber our
souls with things which we cannot
carry out of this world, and the use
of which is restricted to this life only.
Is it not a species of madness to heap
up riches for a frail body, for a body
which we must leave behind us, and
which cannot possibly enjoy wealth
hereafter? Luke 12 : 20, 21. Are we
ignorant that there is another and a
better world, another body and an-
other life, and that, whatever we may
appear in the sight of men, we are in
the eye of God only strangers and so-
journers on the earth? Ps. 39:12;
Lev. 25 : 23. "Ye are," saith the Lord,
" strangers and sojourners with me,"
that is, "before my eyes, although ye
may not remember it."

8. If, then, we are strangers and so-
journers, it follows that our country
and our home must be elsewhere. This
will be most evident to us, if we com-
pare time with eternity, the visible
with the invisible world, the earthly
tabernacle with the heavenly, and
things that are frail and perishing,
with/those that are lasting and eter-
nal. Such a comparison will afford us
a due insight into time and eternity,
and lead us to behold with the eye of
faith, such things as remain altogether
unknown to the unthinking multitude.
It is from the want of this considera-
tion, that so many become lax and
disorderly in their manners, wallow
in the mire of earthly pleasures, and
drown themselves in avarice and
worldly cares. It is from the want
of this reflection, that the major part
of mankind, however keen and shrewd
in the pursuits of this world, are blind
and insensible to the concerns of the
immortal soul. They addict them-
selves so much to this life, as to esteem
it to be the most delightful, the best
and noblest of all; while the true
Christian, on the contrary, accounts
it an exile, a vale of tears, a place of
misery, a deep and dark prison.

9. Hence it is that those who love
this world, and seek their happiness
in it, do not excel even the brute cre-
ation in wisdom or understanding;
and as they live, so they die like
beasts. Ps. 49 : 12, 20. They are to-
tally blind as it respects the inward
man; they do not even think of
heavenly and eternal things; they
never rejoice in God, but only in the
low and sordid pleasures afforded by
this world. It is in earthly things that
they seek their rest and their enjoy-
ment; and having obtained their ob-
ject after much labor and toil, they sit
quietly down and congratulate them-

Chap. XVII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

53

selves on their possessions. Wretched,
miserable men ! blind and insensible
to the tremendous concerns of their
eternal salvation ! here, they lie con-
tentedly in the darkness of ignorance,
soon to remove hence to that of death
and damnation. Luke 1 : 79.

10. In order to our better acquaint-
ance with the nature of our pilgrim-
age here, we should unceasingly con-
sider the example left us by the
Eedeemer, and earnestly follow him
both in his life and doctrine. He hath
set us an unerring pattern of universal
holiness. He is our captain and our
guide ; and to his life and manners,
our lives and our manners should be
conformed. Go thou, therefore, and
look unto him ; unto him who, when
the greatest of all men, voluntarily
chose that life in which nothing of
greatness appeared ; a life of mean-
ness, poverty, and contempt of honor,
wealth, and pleasure, the threefold
deity of this world. All these things,
to which the world offers sacrifice, the
Lord contemned ; for he himself said,
" He had not where to lay his head."
Matt. 8 : 20.

11. Such, likewise, was the char-
acter of David ; who, before his ex-
altation to the throne, was poor and
despised; and who, when created
king, accounted all his regal splendor
as nothing compared with eternal life,
and the kingdom of God, to which he
was called. "How amiable," says he,
" are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for
the courts of the Lord; my heart and
my flesh crieth out for the living God."
— " A day in thy courts is better than a
thousand." Ps. 84. As if he had said,
I possess indeed a kingdom, and have
people subject to my sway; I possess
kingly palaces, and the strong hold of
Zion; but what are all these in com-

parison of thy tabernacle, O Lord of
hosts ? So, too, Job found comfort in
his Eedeemer. Job. 19 : 25.

12. Neither Peter, nor Paul, nor any
of the apostles, sought the riches of
this life, but directed their attention
to those which were laid up in another
and better world. Hence they freely
espoused the despised life of Christ,
walking in his charity, lowliness^ and
patience; contemning the earth, and
triumphing over the world, its snares,
and its allurements. They prayed for
those who cursed them; they thanked
those who reproached them; they
blessed those who reviled them. 1
Cor. 4:12; Acts 5:41. When they
were persecuted, they glorified God ;
when scourged, they were immovably
patient, professing that " through much
tribulation they must enter into the
kingdom of God" (Acts 14 : 22) ; and
when slaughtered, they prayed (with
Christ their Head), "Father, forgive
them" (Luke 23:34); "lay not this
sin to their charge." Acts 7 : 60. Thus
were they, on the one hand, dead to
all wrath and revenge; to bitterness,
ambition, and pride; to the love of
the world, and of their own life also ;
while, on the other, they lived in
Christ and in his love, in his meek-
ness and humility, his patience and
his resignation. They are, indeed,
made alive in Christ by faith, who
thus live.

13. To a lover of the world, this
excellent way of life is unknown ; for
with regard to those who do not live
in Christ, nor know that the truth is
in him, these are still dead in their
sins; dead in wrath and hatred, in
envy and avarice, in pride and re-
venge; and as long as they so con-
tinue, they are in a state of impeni-
tence, and have not been quickened
by faith in Jesus, be their boasting

54

TBUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

what it may. But the genuine dis-
ciples of Christ know it to be a duty
to follow the steps of their divine
Master (1 Pet. 2:21), and to be con-
formed to his life, as the supreme and
original pattern of all virtue and good-
ness. In a word, the life of Christ is
their exemplar; he himself is their
book, whence they derive all solid and
substantial learning, as it respects both
life and doctrine. Such persons declare
with the apostle, "We look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are external."
2 Cor. 4 : 8. And with holy men of old
they unite in saying, "Here have we
no continuing city, but we seek one to
come." Heb. 13 : 14.

14. If, then, from a review of all

these considerations, it evidently ap-
pear, as it surely does, that in this
world we are strangers and have no
abiding place, it follows that we were
not created for the sake of earthly
things as the ultimate end of our
being; but that there remain for us
another country and other dwellings,
to gain which we ought not to hesitate
to sacrifice a hundred worlds, or even
life itself. These are subjects upon
which the true Christian continually
meditates with pleasure ; and it is his
joy that here he has no continuing
city, but is created for life eternal.
But how sad is the state of those who,
occupied wholly in pursuing the things
of this life, lade their souls with a
crushing weight of worldly vanities,
and thereby expose them to endless
perdition

V

CHAPTER XVIII.

SHOWING HOW GREATLY GOD IS OFFENDED, WHEN MAN PREFERS THINGS THAT ARE
TEMPORAL TO THOSE THAT ARE ETERNAL; AND HOW GREAT THE EVIL IS, WHEN
OUR AFFECTIONS CLEAVE TO THE CREATURE AND NOT TO THE CREATOR.

And the anger of the Lord vms kindled ; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them,
and consumed them, etc. — Numb. 11 : 1.

MANY there are, in our day, who,
under cover of religion, seek
after earthly and carnal things ; who
use more diligence to become great
and affluent by the gospel, than to be
good and happy. They love " the
praise of men, more than the praise
of God." John 12 : 43. They choose
rather to gratify the flesh in its sinful
propensities, than to bring it down
into true repentance and brokenness
of spirit. But the character of the

true Christian is of an opposite kind.
He is more concerned about eternal
than temporal things ; he seeks the
glory that endureth, more than that
which passeth away ; he thirsts after
heavenly and invisible riches, and not
after those that are earthly and visible.
In short, he mortifies and crucifies the
flesh, in order that the spirit may live.
2. The sum of Christianity is to fol-
low Christ. Hence, it should be our.
chief care to imitate the example

Chap. XVIII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

55

which he has left us. Our thoughts
and actions, our desires and labors,
should all terminate in the attain-
ment of this one thing needful, how we
may come to Christ ; how be saved by,
and united with him to all eternity.

3. Never should we cease to consider
that endless felicity to which we are
called; but cheerfully await the dis-
solution of our earthly bodies, and a
translation to that inheritance which
is reserved in heaven for us.

4. By these means, which habituate
the soul more and more to the pres-
ence of God, there is begotten in man
a holy thirst after eternal things j
while a desire after earthly objects,
which is insatiable in its nature, is at
the same time powerfully restrained.
This is taught by St. Paul in that
precious saying: "Whatsoever ye do
in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to Cod
and the Father by him." Col. 3 : 17.

5. The name of Cod, in which all
things are to be done, is the honor,
praise, and glory of Cod. Ps. 48 : 10.
To this great end of human life, all
our works should tend ; for then it is
that they are wrought in Cod (John
3 : 21), and will follow us into a
blessed eternity. Eev. 14 : 13.

6. In a word, Almighty Cod, our
chief and sovereign Good should be
the principle and end of all our designs,
if we would not fail of eternal salva-
tion. Hence St. Paul says, " But thou,
O man of Cod, flee these things " (1
Tim. 6 : 11) ; namely, covetousness and
the love of the world. He calls the
Christian, " a man of Cod," because
he is born of Cod, and lives in Cod,
and therefore is the son and heir of
Cod; as, on the other hand, a man of
the world, is one who lives in con-
formity to the world, who " has his
portion in this life, and whose belly

is filled with the hid treasure" of
the earth. Psal. 17 : 14. From these
snares the Christian is required care-
fully to flee, and to follow after right-
eousness, godliness, faith, love, pa-
tience, meekness ; and to lay hold on
eternal life, whereunto he is called.

7. When a man refuses to be guided
by these salutary maxims, he falls of
necessity into every kind of enormous
and presumptuous sin, and will at last
be punished with eternal fire. See, for
an illustration, Numb. 11:1.

8. Inundations and war, famine,
pestilence, and conflagrations, are, it
should be remembered, punishments
inflicted by God, on account of our
preferring things temporal to things
eternal; and because we are more care-
ful of a weak and perishing body, than
we are of an imperishable, immortal
soul. All this betrays the highest in-
gratitude, and an open contempt of
the blessed God, deserving to be visited
with punishments, both here and here-
after. For, does not man by such con-
duct set aside an almighty, eternal
Being, from whom he derives both his
body and his soul; and convert an im-
potent creature into an idol, to which
he surrenders his love and affection ?
He who loves the creature more than
the Creator, and things transitory
more than those which are eternal,
offers surely the highest possible af-
front to his Maker, and opposes the
great design of the Christian religion..

9. It is no doubt true, that all the
creatures of God are good in them-
selves; but when men begin to set
their affections on them, and by their-
irregular love to convert them, as it
were, into idols, they then become an.
abomination in the sight of Cod, and.
are justly ranked among the most.
odious images of gold and silver.

10. What else can result from a,

56

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book 1.

carnal love of the world but hell
and damnation ! Consider the case
of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19 : 24),
and the one in Numb. 11 : 1, already
mentioned. These are illustrations of
the eternal fire and damnation which
must follow a rejection of God.

11. The love and joy, the wealth
and honors of the true Christian, are
circumscribed only by eternity itself;
for, " where his treasure is, there will his
heart be also." Luke 12 : 34. From the
lust and love of the world, on the con-
trary, nothing can result but eternal
damnation. " The world passeth away
and the lust thereof; but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever" (1
John 2 : 17) : and hence, St. John calls
upon the faithful entirely to withdraw
their affections from the world; say-
ing, "Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world." 1 John
2 : 15. These and similar considera-
tions powerfully convince us, that God
will not permit us to fix our affections
on any creature whatsoever.

12. But this will more fully appear
from the following reflections:

I. Love is the very heart of a man,
and the noblest of all his affections;
hence, it is due to God only, as the
supreme object, and sovereign Good.

II. It is absolute folly to love tem-
poral things, which cannot love us;
whereas the infinitely blessed God de-
serves to be loved alone, since from a
pure principle of love, he created us
unto eternal life, and hath, to the same
purpose, redeemed and sanctified us.

III. Like things are naturally loved
by their like. Hence, God made us
after his own image, in order that we
might love Him; and that, next to
himself, we might love our neighbor,
»created after the same image.

IY. The human soul resembles a

mirror, representing every object in-
differently that is placed before it,
whether it be of heaven or of earth.
Therefore turn thy soul wholly and
only to God, that this image may be
fully expressed in it.

Y. The patriarch Jacob, when dwell-
ing in Mesopotamia, far removed from
his native soil, never abandoned his
purpose to return, and, at length, after
twenty years' service, demanded his
wives and wages; and, cheered by the
recollection of the place of his na-
tivity, returned thither. So should
thy soul, amidst the various engage-
ments of this life, and the hurry of
outward employments, long without
ceasing after thy heavenly fatherland.

VI. Man is made either better or
worse by that which he loves. He
that loves God, partakes freely of the
divine virtue and goodness that re-
side in Him ; but he that loves the
world, is defiled with all those sins
and evils which attend it.

VII. When King Nebuchadnezzar
(Dan. 4 : 33) was too much controlled
by the love of the world, he lost the
very form of a man, and degenerated
into that of a beast. So all men, blot-
ting from their hearts the image and
love of God, are transformed, as it re-
spects their inward man, into the na-
ture of brutes. For surely those who
wholly surrender themselves to the
love of this world, are no better.

VIII. Lastly, that which a man has
loved here, and carried about in his
heart, shall be manifested in him here-
after; and with this he shall associate
himself forever, whether it be God or
the world. If the world have been the
object of his love in this life, it will
never leave him hereafter, but will
prove his death and his tormentor to
all eternity.

Chap. XIX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

57

CHAPTER XIX.

HE WHO IS MOST OF ALL CONSCIOUS OP HIS MISERY, IS MOST OP ALL ACCEPTA-
BLE TO GOD; AND HIS CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE OF HIS MISERY, URGES HIM
TO SEEK THE GRACE OF GOD.

To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my

word. — Isaiah 66 : 2.

THEFE comfortable words, our gra-
cious and merciful God hath
spoken by the prophet, in order to
cheer our hearts, when they are most
oppressed with misery and sorrow.
Be not thou therefore ashamed to be
bruised in spirit, and abased in thine
own eyes. Humble thyself in the
dust, and deem thyself unworthy of
all grace and favor; so shalt thou be
raised out of thine own vileness, and
obtain, in Christ, acceptance with Al-
mighty God.

2. He who is still something in his
own estimation, is not duly humbled
and depressed in his heart; nor can
he expect to be regarded by that Be-
ing who looks upon the poor and con-
trite ones only. "If," says the apostle,
"a man think himself to be something,
when he is nothing, he deceiveth him-
self" (Gal. 6:3): and the reason of
this is, that God is all in all, alone;
and the creature must consequently
become a bare and empty nothing. So
great and so practical is this truth,
that man is not only to believe it in
his heart, but to express it in his life
and conduct.

3. If ever thou designest, then, to
give all glory and all honor to God,
that He may be all, alone, thou must
surely thyself become nothing in thine
own eyes; and entertain a very low
opinion of thyself, and of thy profiting
in spiritual things. For how is it pos-

sible that God should be all in all,
whilst thou thyself continuest to be
something? By this self-exaltation thou
invadest the sovereignty of God, and
appropriatest that to thyself, which is
his proper due and prerogative. " It
was before the Lord," said David to
Michal, who had reproached him, "and
I will yet be more vile than thus, and
will be base in mine own sight." 2
Sam. 6:21, 22.

4. A man that will be something, is
the matter out of which God is wont
to make nothing; but he, on the con-
trary, who loves to be reputed as noth-
ing, and who, in his own judgment, is
so, is the matter out of which the Al-
mighty maketh something. He that
will be wise in his own opinion, is the
matter out of which God maketh a
fool; and he who is truly sensible of
his own folly and nothingness, is that
of which God forms a wise and great
man. He who, before the Lord, sin-
cerely confesses himself to be the
greatest and most miserable of sin-
ners, is, in the sight of God, the first
and greatest of all men. He who be-
lieves himself to be the chief of sinners,
shall be honored 'by the Lord as the
chief of saints. Matt. 23: 12; Luke 1:52.

5. This is that humility which God
exalts ; that misery which he regards ;
that nothing from which he createth
something. And as, at the creation, the
glorious frame of heaven and earth was

58

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

brought forth out of nothing r, so must
man be reduced to a deep sense of his
vileness and nothingness, if ever he be
exalted to glory and to dignity.

6. Reflect upon the example of
David, whose misery God beheld, and
to whom he granted the richest gifts
of his grace. Consider, again, the ex-
ample of Jacob, who confessed, "I am
not worthy of the least of all thy mer-
cies." Gen. 32 : 10.

7. But above all, lay to heart the ex-
ample of Christ, the grand and blame-
less pattern of a Christian. He was
abased below the meanest of men ; was
made a worm and a curse for our sake
(Ps. 22 : 6), despised and rejected of
men. Isaiah 53 : 3. But the lower he
sunk, the higher did he afterwards
rise, when he received a name which
is above every name.

8. But who is that blessed and lowly
one who is nothing in his own eyes?
It is he who inwardly and in his heart
esteems himself worthy of no divine
benefit, whether bodily or spiritual.
For he that arrogates anything to
himself, esteems himself to be some-
thing ; and is, therefore, the farthest
removed from divine grace and from
this new creation. So destructive is
the spirit of self, that it renders even
grace of no effect, and shuts out that
which contains all things in it. For
if a man judge himself worthy of any-
thing, he then does not take all things
as a free gift from the hands of God.
Whatever we are, however, is of grace
and not merit; nor can we call any-
thing our own, except our sins, our
helplessness, and our misery. All else
belongs to God.

9. A man considered in himself, that
is, independently of God, by whom he
subsists, is no more than a shadow.
And as the shadow of a tree con-
stantly conforms to the tree on which

it depends, so should man conform
to the will of God from whom he
has his very life and being; as the
apostle says: "In him we live, and
move, and have our being." Acts 17 :
28. It is true, the fruit will some-
times appear in the shadow of the
tree; yet it does not therefore belong
to the shadow, but to the tree : so all
the good fruits that may appear in
thy life and conduct, are not the pro-
duce of thy own self and thy ability,
but of God alone, who is the original
source whence all good fruits proceed.
And as the apple grows not from that
gross substance the wood, which is
seen by the eye, but from the seminal
virtue which the tree contains, and
which is made active from above ; so
the new man, and the fruit he bears,
spring not up from anything that is
gross and visible to the eye, but from
a supernatural and invisible seed.

10. Now, man is by nature a dry
tree; but God is his strength, whereby
life is renewed in him, and he himself
is made fat and green in the house of
God. God is the "strength of our
life" (Psal. 27 : 1), says the Psalmist :
and hence we " shall bring forth much
fruit whilst we abide in Christ." John.
15 : 5.

11. When a man is thus wretched
and poor in his own eyes, and has
nothing in the world in which to
trust but the pure grace of God, mani-
fested in Christ Jesus, then God gra-
ciously "looks upon him." This di-
vine regard must be understood in a
divine sense. The look or counte-
nance of God, is not as the counte-
nance of men, destitute of life and
virtue : but it is accompanied with a
living power and influence that sup-
ports and revives the faint and peni-
tent sinner. And as none but the
humble and contrite are capable of

Chap. XIX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

59

this heavenly regard ; so the more
fully they receive the consolation
which God grants, the less do they
think themselves worthy of it. Such
a one deems himself unworthy of all
blessings divine and temporal. He
says with Jacob, "I am not worthy
of the least of all the mercies, and of
all the truth which thou hast shewed
unto thy servant:" for behold, since
thou gavest me thy Son Jesus Christ,
I come with two bands, wath the
blessings of grace and of glory. G-en.
32 : 10. And truly, if a man should
weep a sea of tears, it were by no
means sufficient to purchase or de-
serve the least part of heavenly com-
fort : the grace of God cannot be
merited by men, who deserve nothing
but wrath and eternal damnation.

12. "Whoever thus acquaints himself
in faith with his own misery, is truly
one of those poor and contrite men,
to whom the Lord graciously looks.
Without this previous brokenness of
heart, man cannot expect to enjoy
this blessed aspect of God, nor indeed
that grace and kindness which is
promised to the poor in spirit only.
In this weakness and poverty the
apostle glories, when he says : " If I
must needs glory, I will glory of the
things which concern mine infirmities"
(2 Cor. 11 : 30) : and he adds the reason :
" that the power of Christ may rest
upon me." 2 Cor. 12 : 9. For so great
indeed is the mercy of God, that he
will not see the work of his hands de-
stroyed : but the weaker the creature
is in itself, the more is it sustained by
the power of an Almighty Being.
For in the weakness of the creature,
the power of God- is exalted, as the
Lord declared unto Paul : " My grace
is sufficient for thee ; for my strength
is made perfect in weakness."

13. The more vile and miserable

therefore a Christian is in his own
opinion, the more freely God looks
upon him, to the greater manifesta-
tion of the riches of his glory. And
in bestowing this heavenly consola-
tion, he does not look at all on man's
merit, but barely on his want and
poverty. And this comfort can in no
degree be compared with any human
comfort, all which it infinitely ex-
ceeds. In such a sense, then, God
looks to the contrite man and com-
forts his spirit.

14. By " the poor and contrite
man," is not to be understood, a man
that is poor in the outward sense of
the word, or who is altogether desti-
tute of human help and relief; but he
is the poor man, who labors under the
load of his sins, and is grieved for
them. If sin were not in the world,
there could be no misery: but now so
much misery cannot befall a man, but
that he is still worthy of much more.
Ps. 103 : 10. Far be it therefore from us
to grieve, because we have not many
temporal benefits conferred upon us j
since we are not worthy even of the
least of them, no, not of life itself.
Our flesh and blood may think this a
hard saying; yet every penitent sin-
ner ought to be a severe judge in his
own case, and ought not to make the
least allowance to his carnal propensi-
ties. This is the order in which we
are to obtain God's favor and mercy.

15. And what has man now left to
boast of, or what language shall he
employ when he opens his mouth?
The best course he can take will be to
say simply, "Lord, I have sinned;
have thou mercy upon me!" And,
truly, God himself requires no more
from a man than that he humbly de-

i plore his sin, and in the unfeigned
language of repentance pray for par-
don. Whoever neglects this, may be

60

TEUE CHEISTLANITY.

[Book I

said to have slighted the best and
most needful part of his being, Weep
not therefore, O Man! on account of
thy body, that it is naked and sick,
pinched with hunger and cold, in-
sulted and persecuted; or because it
is confined by bonds and a prison:
but humble thyself before the Lord,
and bewail the woful condition of
thy soul, which is constrained to
dwell in so wretched a house as thy
body is, a house of sin and death.
"O wretched man," says the apostle,
" who shall deliver me from the body
of this death ?" Eom. 7 : 24. This
free and Christian acknowledgment
of thine own inward misery, this
godly sorrow, this thirst after divine
grace, this faith leaning on Christ
alone, open, in Christ, the door of
grace, by which God enters into thy
soul. " Be zealous, therefore, and re-
pent. Behold, I stand," saith the
Lord, "at the door and knock; if any
man hear my voice, and open the
door, I will come in to him, and sup
with him, and he with me " (Eev.
3 : 20) : which supper is nothing else
than the remission of sin, attended
with heavenly comfort, with life and
blessedness. This is the door of faith
(Acts 14 : 27), through which the
Lord, at the right time, enters into
the soul; and after the day of toil and
sorrow is over, refreshes her with the

light of his countenance. Then it is,
that " mercy and truth meet to-
gether; righteousness and peace kiss
each other ; that truth springs out of
the earth, and righteousness looks
down from heaven." Ps. 85 : 10, 11.
Then it is that the woman, that poor
sinner, but now a penitent, anoints
the feet of her Lord, washes them
with tears, and wipes them with the
hairs of her head, expressing thereby
all the marks of an unfeigned and
deep humility. Luke 7 : 37. Then it
is, that the spiritual priest (Eev. 1 : 6),
in the holy ornaments of faith, offers
up the true sacrifice, even a broken
and lowly spirit, with the incense of
true contrition and prayer. Ps. 51 : 19.
Then it is that the true sanctified
water of purifying (Numb. 8:7) is
applied, — the tears which grief for sin
caused to flow; and now, through
faith and by the power of the blood
of Christ, the spiritual Israelite is
washed and cleansed.

16. And thus, O Christian ! is seen
how by the sense of thy own misery,
and by faith in Christ attending it,
thou mayest attain the grace and
favor of God. To conclude, the more
wretched and miserable any one is in
his own judgment, the more dearly he
is beloved of God, and the more gra-
cious is the regard which the Lord
will bestow upon him.

Chap. XX.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

61

CHAPTER XX.

/

A TRULY CHRISTIAN SORROW FOR SIN PROMOTES THE DAILY AMENDMENT OP
THE LIFE OF MAN, MAKES HIM MEET FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND FITS
HIM, IN AN INCREASING DEGREE, FOR ETERNAL LIFE.

Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world

worketh death. — 2 Cor. 7 : 10.

TEUE Christianity consists solely
in pure faith, love, and a holy life.
This holiness of life springs from true
repentance, sorrow, and self-knowl-
edge; so that a man not only more
and more feels his failings and imper-
fections, but amends them also, and,
in this order, partakes of the right-
eousness and holiness of Christ by
faith. 1 Cor. 1 : 30.

2. But in order to regulate the
grand work of salvation with the bet-
ter order and care, thou oughtest now
to walk in a submissive and filial fear
of God, guarding against all that would
gratify the flesh. " All things are law-
ful," says the apostle, " but all things
are not expedient" (1 Cor. 6:12);
that is, " all things edify not." 1 Cor.
10 : 23. As a dutiful child, confined to
the father's house, does not so much
as attempt to follow his own humor
in everything; but, unwilling to of-
fend his parent, observes his will and
pleasure: so a true Christian and child
of God will behave himself in his
Father's house, in so careful a man-
ner, as not to allow his senses any un-
lawful liberty. He will neither do nor
speak anything without consulting
first his Father in heaven, under
whose eye he constantly lives, know-
ing that He is everywhere present.

3. Most men live without any fear
of God, freely indulging themselves
in worldly pleasures and satisfaction.

They will not consider that it is far
better to have a constant fear of God
fixed in the heart, than a constant joy
of the world. For as the fear of God
is the beginning of wisdom, and begets
a serious frame of mind; so the joy
of this world extinguishes all good im-
pressions, and banishes true wisdom
out of the heart, together with all
godly fear and devotion.

4. By daily repentance and mortifi-
cation of the flesh, man is daily re-
newed in God's image; for "though
our outward man perish, yet the in-
ward man is renewed day by day" (2
Cor. 4 : 16) ; and often, in the midst of
his sorrows, is he visited with a taste
of heavenly joy and sweetness. Where-
as, the pleasure and joy of the world
are always attended with heaviness
of heart, and an inward sting of a
wounded conscience. If the people
were but more sensible of the melan-
choly effects resulting from worldly
pleasure, and particularly of that
damp which it puts upon heavenly
comfort, they would certainly dread
all loose and worldly enjoyments:
since thereby the grace of devotion is
quenched, and the soul diverted from
those purer pleasures which the Gos-
pel of Christ affords.

5. There are two things which pre-
vent those who seriously consider
them from being influenced either by
worldly pleasures or outward calam-

62

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book 1

ities. The one is, the eternal pain of
the damned; whoever earnestly pon-
ders it, will almost find it impossible
to be thoroughly merry after the way
of the world. The other is, the eternal
joy of the blessed in heaven. "Whoever
has a sound apprehension of so happy
a state, will never be greatly moved
with the calamities of the present life;
and this arises from the consideration
of the eternity of those divine enjoy-
ments. But so great is the levity of
our hearts, that it hinders us from any
serious reflection on so important a
subject. And hence it is no wonder
that we are both without this whole-
some contrition and sorrow, and igno-
rant of all celestial joys and comforts.

6. It is the prerogative of a true
Christian to be, on the one hand, but
sparingly, if at all, moved with earthly
things, or temporal advantages; and,
on the other, to be the more deeply im-
pressed with the joys of God, and of
life eternal. Neither is he immoder-
ately dejected in the present advers-
ities that may befall him; but the loss
of the soul grieves him to his very
heart, and he counts it worthy of long
lamentation. As for the perishing
comfort of this life, he knows it can-
not be called a loss, since he shall re-
ceive a thousand-fold for it in the world
to come. But when a soul is once cast
away, it can never be restored.

7. Blessed is the man who is affected
with godly sorrow, and tastes that ce-
lestial consolation which succeeds it.
But, alas ! how much of our time do
we spend in worldly joy and merri-
ment, when we have greater reason
to bewail our own misery and that
of others ! There is no true liberty,
no solid delight, no substantial satis-
faction, but in the fear of God, and in
a quiet, serene conscience. But this
blessing can never exist without faith,

and without a holy life and conversa-
tion. This faith, attended with godly
sorrow, daily proceeds more and more
to correct our faults and imperfections.
Whoever neglects this daily reform of
his life and manners, wastes the most
precious part of his time, which he
should employ to secure the interest
of his immortal soul. He is an adver-
sary to the new life; he hinders the
kingdom of God in himself; and he
can never be cured of the blindness
and hardness of his heart, so long as
he remains in that state.

8. It follows, therefore, that he only
deserves the name of a prudent and
wise man, who carefully avoids what-
ever he understands to be an obstacle
to the reforming of his life, and to the
improving of himself in heavenly gifts
and graces. Happy is he who not
only avoids such things as are detri-
mental to his body and estate, but
also detests those which hinder the
soul in her spiritual progress.

9. Be therefore courageous, O Man,
and endure hardness as a good soldier
of Christ ! 2 Tim. 2:3. An evil habit
of mind must be overcome with a
good one. It is the apostle's exhor-
tation : " Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good." Eom. 12 :
21. The cure of thy soul is not im-
possible. View, in the first place, thy
own corruptions, and judge them se-
verely, before thou presumest to cen-
sure the faults of thy neighbor. Be
not too forward in admonishing and
correcting others ; but endeavor to
heal first thy evils at home, before
thou enterest upon the reforming of
those that are abroad, fir

10. Go on, therefore, O Christian,
and learn the lesson of daily repent-
ance, sorrow, and contrition of heart.
If the world despise thee upon that
account, and decry this wholesome

Chap. XX.]

TKTJE CHBISTIANITY.

C3

exercise as error and as melancholy,
be not concerned at such poor and
empty reflections. Grieve rather that
thou art called indeed a Christian,
but that thou hast not yet arrived at
that strictness of life and purity of
mauners, which the Gospel requires.
Bear the contempt of the world with
Christian constancy, and consider the
singular benefit which thence accrues
to the whole practice of true religion.
For, if thou be scorned by the world,
then God is ready to support thee by
fresh supplies of life and comfort, ac-
cording to his own declaration: "I
dwell in the high and holy place;
with him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite ones." Isa. 57 : 15.

11. It is impossible that divine and
worldly joy should, at one and the
same time, reside in the heart of man ;
so very contrary are they to each
other, and so inconsistent in their na-
tures, causes, and effects. The joy of
the world is begotten in prosperity;
but that which is from heaven, springs
up in the midst of crosses and adver-
sities.

12. It is true that it is against the
bent of nature to rejoice in the time
of adversity, as the apostle himself
seems to intimate : " As sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet
making many rich ; as having noth-
ing, and yet possessing all things."
2 Cor. 6 : 10. But then it is no less
true, that the grace of God cleanses
our nature, and qualifies it for such
spiritual exercises. And it was after
this change that the apostles rejoiced,
because they were "counted worthy
to suffer shame for the name of Christ."
Acts 5 : 41.

13. A Christian is become by the
grace of God, a new creature, and

hence the tribulations of this life are
made easy to him. The apostle de-
clared, that he even " gloried in trib-
ulations." Eom. 5:3. As affliction is
a grievous burden to the old man, so
it gives ease and joy .to the new man
in Christ. Again, that joy which is
from above, infinitely surpasses that
which is from below. Nay, the very
reproach and contempt which a Chris-
tian undergoes for the sake of Christ,
is attended with a secret satisfaction :
and the reason we are so little af-
fected with these heavenly visitations,
is on account of the joy of the world, to
which we are still too much addicted.

14. A truly humble man thinks
himself worthy of all manner of suffer-
ings, and unworthy of any divine com-
fort : but the more unworthy he thinks
himself in true brokenness of spirit,
the more is he visited with the good-
ness of God. And the more he weeps
over his sin, the more is he weaned
from worldly enjoyments; for the
whole world gradually becomes to
him a burden and a bitter affliction.

15. A man that seriously views him-
self and his inward condition, finds
more reason to mourn than to rejoice.
And when he takes a survey of the
lives of others, he will undoubtedly
meet with abundance of objects wor-
thy of pity or of compassion, rather
than of hatred and envy. Why did
Christ weep over Jerusalem, even
over that Jerusalem which persecuted
and slew hirn? Luke 19:41. Truly
their sin and blindness was the evi-
dent cause of it. And in this he has
also left us a pattern, and with deep
feeling taught us, that nothing in the
world should more powerfully melt
us into tears and compassion, than
our own sins, and the impenitence
and carnal security which everywhere
abound.

64

TKUE CHKXSTIANITY.

[Book I.

16. Did a man as often revolve in
his mind, that he must certainly die,
and appear before the judgment-seat
of God, as he thinks on the concerns
of this life, and how to provide for
them, surely he would be abundantly
more serious in his conversation,
more diligent in the reformation of
his life, and more fervent in all the
duties of repentance. Did he more-
over call td mind the unspeakable
and eternal torments of hell, succeed-
ing, as they do, a short enjoyment of
sin; this consideration would embitter
to him the sweets of this world, and
in comparison, render all the afflic-
tions of this life, pleasant and easy to
him. Bat alas ! the enticements of the
flesh are so strong and prevalent, and
our compliances in their favor, so for-
ward, that we seldom yield to such
serious reflections as these.

17. Upon the whole, this should be
a Christian's daily consideration : if
his body be pampered in lust and
luxury ; if the flesh be humored and
gratified in its inordinate cravings;
then the life of the spirit loses its
vigor, and if not seasonably supported,
will pine away into death and de-
struction. Whereas, if the flesh be
crucified with its lusts and desires,
the spirit lives and gathers strength.
One is the death of the other. If,
therefore, the spirit shall live in thee,
then thy body must be certainly made
a spiritual sacrifice (Eom. 12 : 1), and
must spiritually die to the world, and
to all conformity with it.

18. This has been the constant prac-
tice of all the saints, from the begin-
ning of the world until now. They
have with thanksgiving eaten and
drunk the bread and cup of tears, ac-
cording to that declaration of David:
"Thou feedest us with the bread of
tears, and thou givest us tears to

drink in great measure/' Ps. 80 : 5.
And in another Psalm: "My tears
have been my meat day and night."
Ps. 42 : 3. Again, "I have eaten ashes
like bread, and mingled my drink with
weeping." Ps. 102 : 9.

19. This has been the "daily bread"
of all the saints to this day; yet it has,
however, been sweetened to them,
faith being mixed with it. This is
that godly " sorrow which worketh
repentance to salvation, not to be re-
pented of." 2 Cor. 7 : 10.

20. But as this godly sorrow is at-
tended with life and happiness, so the
" sorrow of the world worketh death "
itself. 2 Cor. 7 : 10. This kind of sor-
row arises from the loss of honor, of
temporal goods and estates, and other
things of that nature. This sorrow
has proved so fatal to many, that
they have laid violent hands on them-
selves, and procured their own ruin
and death by various contrivances.
Of this there are not wanting many
examples in the history both of Pa-
gans and Christians: though, indeed,
the latter ought better to understand
the maxims and doctrines of Christ,
who has abundantly taught us, not to
set our hearts on objects so frail and
perishing. For what is the loss of a
handful of fading things, to the life of
a man, with which all the goods of
this world cannot be compared ?

21. Be not, therefore, cast down by
the loss of temporal goods, which, by
the very laws of nature, we can enjoy
but a little while: but lay the more to
heart those incorruptible riches, that
are laid up in the world to come ; and
do whatever thou canst to prevent the
loss of them. Death will strip thee at
last of all worldly possessions. Here
shall be an end of pomp and great-
ness. This law of death is equally
given to all, and the penalty of it at-

Chap. XX.]

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

65

taches to all alike. The greatest king
is seized on the throne, and the mean-
est beggar on the dunghill (1 Sam.
2 : 8; Ps. 113 : 7); for as the body of
the one is, so is also the body of the
other: both putrefy and turn alike to
corruption. Nevertheless, the Lord
will remove at length the veil of the
shadow of death, which is spread over
all nations, and will " swallow up
death in victory" (Isa. 25:8), and
" wipe away all tears from our eyes."
Rev. 7: 17; Isa. 25 : 8.

22. Let these and the like consider-
ations, induce thee patiently to bear
the loss of earthly things; remember-
ing that the whole world does not
come up to the price of one soul, for
which Christ vouchsafed to die. The
more thou withdrawest thy heart
from temporal goods and estates, the
less will it affect thee, when thou shalt
be obliged one way or other to -leave
them. Thy grief will undoubtedly be
the greater, the more thy love has
been wrapped up with them. Thus
does the "labor of the foolish weary
every one of them" (Eecl. 10: 15);
as the wise man expresseth it.

23. This is the unhappy state into
which the children of this world plunge
themselves. They hoard and amass
their goods with assiduous pain and
labor; they possess them with fear
and anxiety of mind; and quit them
at last with grief and groans, when
they can no longer enjoy them. This
is the "sorrow of this world," which
begets no less an evil than death itself.

24. We read, that such as adored
the beast " had no rest" (Rev. 14 : 11) :
so they that adore the great and toil-
some beast of sordid and earthly Mam-
mon, may be said to have no rest, day
nor night. This description of men,
most wretched and most unquiet as
they are, may be fitly compared to

camels, or mules. These animals, trav-
ersing rocks and hills, and carrying
gold and silver, silken garments and
pearls, spices and wines, draw many
attendants with them for their better
security : but at night, when they are
stabled, all their precious ornaments,
their embroidered garments and vest-
ments, are taken from them, and they,
being weary and stripped, appear to
be what indeed they are, poor and
miserable beasts of burden. Nothing
is now seen upon them but the prints
of their stripes, and the marks of the
blows which they received upon the
road. So, in like manner, that man
who in this world shone in gold and
silks, in "purple and fine linen" (Luke
16 : 19), when the day of his death is
come, has nothing left but the prints
and scars of a wounded conscience,
contracted by the abuse of such riches
as were committed to his trust.

25. Therefore, O man ! learn to re-
linquish this world, before it relin-
quishes thee. If thou break not with
the world, the world will break with
thee, and leave horror and anguish
behind it. He who withdraws his
soul from the world, before he quits
the world with his body, can joyfully
die: since he is loosed from the ties
which bound him to these inferior ob-
jects. As the Israelites, when they
were about to leave the land of Egypt,
were daily afflicted with greater bur-
dens by Pharaoh, who designed to de-
stroy them, and, if possible, utterly to
extirpate their progeny (Exod. 5:9);
so the infernal Pharaoh, who desires
to hinder our eternal salvation, when
we are now upon the very borders of
life everlasting, still attempts to load
us with more of the concerns of this
life, and thereby to obstruct our pas-
sage into a better world.

26. It is certain that we cannot

66

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

carry with us the least dust of all our
earthly possessions into the kingdom
of heaven. Nay, our very body must
be left behind us until the day of res-
urrection. If we know anything, we
know that the way leading to life is
so very strait, as to strip the soul en-
tirely of anything that will hinder her
passage. "Narrow is the way which
leadeth to life, and few there be that
find it." Matt. 7 : 14. As the hus-
bandman separates the wheat from

the chaff, so death frees the soul from
all the chaff and dross of this world,
from all riches, and greatness, and
worldly attire, which now, like the
chaff, are driven away.

27. Go therefore, O man, and seri-
ously ponder in thy mind what the
apostle declares: " Godly sorrow
worketh repentance to salvation, not
to be repented of : but the sorrow
of the world worketh death.7' 2 Cor.
7 : 10.

CHAPTER XXL

OF THE TRUE WORSHIP OF GOD.

The sons of Aaron offered strange fire before the Lord, and there went out fire from the Lord and

devoured them. — Lev. 10: 1, 2.

THIS fire is called strange, because
it was different from that which
continually burned upon the altar, and
with which, according to the command
of God, the burnt-offerings were con-
sumed. It is, therefore, a type of false
worship ; and the sons of Aaron were
destroyed with avenging flames, be-
cause they violated the divine precept.

2. This marked displeasure of the
jealous and righteous God, is in like
manner provoked by those who, from
the motion of their own unregenerate
mind, and from a singular presumption
of devotion or religious sanctity, in-
troduce a new and peculiar worship
of God; which, not being enjoined
by himself, provokes his indignation,
anger, and vengeance; because "God
is. a consuming fire." Deut. 4 : 24; Heb.
12:29.

3. In order that we may not incur

the wrath of the divine majesty, let us
consider wherein the true worship of
God consists; for the punishment of
temporal fire, inflicted on false wor-
ship under the Old Testament, is to us
a proof, that the Lord will also, under
theJSTew dispensation, take the severest
vengeance on all strange worship, not
only with everlasting, but also with
temporal fire, wars, desolations, and
effusion of blood.

4. Now, we can learn wherein the true
worship of God consists, when we com-
pare the Old Testament with the New.
The ceremonies which the former pre-
scribed, referred typically to the Mes-
siah. Devout Jews saw, as it were,
the Messiah from afar, believed on
him, and, according to the promise,
obtained deliverance from sin and
death through him. But our worship,
according to the New Testament, does

Chap. XXL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

67

not consist in external ceremonies; we
are taught to worship God in spirit
and in truth, that is, to believe in
Christ, who fulfilled the Law. Thus
he redeemed us from the curse of the
law (Gal. 3 : 13), and made us free from
all Jewish ceremonies (Gal. 5:1); so
that now, by the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, we serve God with a will-
ing heart and mind (Jerem. 31:33;
Eom. 8 : 14), and our conscience and
faith are not bound by human ordi-
nances.

5. To true, spiritual, internal Chris-
tian worship, three things belong. 1.
The true knowledge of God. 2. The
knowledge of sin, accompanied with
unfeigned repentance. And 3. The
knowledge of grace, attended with re-
mission of sin.

6. The knowledge of God consists in
faith, which apprehends Christ, and
in him, and through him, knows God,
his omnipotence, love, mercy, right-
eousness, truth, wisdom; all which are
God himself. For what is God? Surely
no other than pure omnipotence, pure
love and mercy, pure justice, truth,
and wisdom. And the same is to be
said of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit.

7. But whatever God is, he is not
to himself only, but also to me, by his
gracious will, made manifest in Christ
Jesus. Thus to me is God omnipotent ;
to me he is merciful; to me eternal
righteousness, through faith and re-
mission of sins. To me, also, he is
everlasting truth and wisdom. Thus
it is, also, with Christ. He is made to
me eternal omnipotence, the almighty
Head, and Prince of my life, my most

. merciful Saviour, everlasting love, un-
changeable righteousness, truth, and
wisdom; according to the words of the
apostle: "Christ is of God made unto
us, wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctifi cation, and redemption." 1 Cor.

1 : 30. All of which is also true of the
Holy Spirit, who is my eternal love,
righteousness, truth, and wisdom.

8. This is the true knowledge of
God, which consists in faith. It is
not some empty and speculative sci-
ence, as people imagine; but a cheer-
ful, lively, and effectual reliance on
God, in which I feel the rays and in-
fluences of the divine Omnipotence
really descending upon me, so that I
perceive how I am upheld and pre-
served by him; how "in him I live,
and move, and have my being." Acts
17 : 28. I must also taste the riches
of his goodness and mercy. Is not
that which the Father, Christ, and
the Holy Spirit, have done for thee,
for me, and for us all, the effect of
pure love ? "VYhat more perfect and
complete righteousness can there be
than that, by which he rescues us
from sin, hell, death, and the devil ?
And do not his truth and wisdom
most conspicuously appear in all that
he has accomplished for us ?

9. This, therefore, is the true and
substantial faith, which consists in a
living and effectual reliance on God,
and not in empty words. In this
knowledge of God, or faith, we must,
as becomes the children of God, make
daily advances, and abound more and
more. 1 Thess. 4 : 1. Hence the apos-
tle pours out most fervent prayers,
"that we may know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge."
Eph. 3 : 19. As if he had said, "Though
it were the sole care of our lives to
learn the depth of the love of Christ,
yet would there still remain continual
and never-failing matter for further
inquiry." Neither is it to be supposed,
that this knowledge consists in a bar-
ren acquaintance with the universal
love of Christ, extending itself over
the whole world; but we must also

68

TEUE CHEISTIAISTITY.

[Book I.

taste it in our own hearts; we must
experience the sweetness and delight,
the power and vital influx of this im-
mense kindness displayed in the Word,
and embraced by faith. Can he say
that he knows the love of Christ, who
never tasted its sweetness? Hence it
is said of some that were endued with
this experimental sense, that they had
"tasted of the heavenly gift, and the
good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come." Heb. 6 : 4. All
this is effected by faith through the
"Word. The same experience of the
divine love is also intimated by the
" shedding abroad of the love of God
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost."
Eom. 5:5. In this consist the fruit
and efficacy of the Word of God. And
this only is the true knowledge of
God, proceeding from experience, and
founded on a living faith. For this
reason the Epistle to the Hebrews
calls our faith a substance, and a cer-
tain and well-grounded evidence. Heb.
11 : 1. And this knowledge of God,
that arises from a living faith, is one
part of the inward and spiritual wor-
ship of God. In a word, faith is a
spiritual, living, and heavenly gift;
yea, the very light and power of God.
10. When, therefore, this true knowl-
edge of God is attained, by which God
offers himself, as it were, to be touched
and tasted by the soul, according to
that Psalm, " 0 taste and see that the
Lord is good " (Ps. 34 : 8) ; it is im-
possible that a sincere repentance
should not immediately ensue; that
is, a real renovation of the mind,' and
reformation of the life. For, from a
sense and knowledge of the divine
Omnipotence, proceeds humility; since
he must necessarily submit himself
unto the mighty hand of God, who
has perceived its irresistible power
and energy. From the experience of

the divine mercy arises charity to our
neighbor ; for no man can be unchari-
table who has ever been affected by a
sense of the divine compassion. Who
can refuse to lend to his neighbor,
that considers that God, from pure
mercy, has bestowed himself upon us?
From the long-suffering of God, pro-
ceeds great patience towards our neigh-
bor; so that were it possible that a
true Christian could be killed seven
times a day, and as many times be re-
stored to life again, yet would he al-
ways freely forgive his murderer, and
this on account of the boundless mercy
of God conferred upon himself. From
the divine justice flows the knowledge
of sin, as the prophet teaches us:
" Eighteousness belongeth unto thee,
O Lord, but unto us confusion of
faces." Dan. 9:7. " Enter not into
judgment with thy servant, for in thy
sight shall no man living be justified."
Ps. 143 : 2. " If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand?" Ps. 130 : 3. From the knowl-
edge of the truth of God, flow fidelity
and candor towards our neighbor; and
all fraud, deceit, lying, and other such
sinister practices, are, in consequence,
freely abandoned. The sincere Chris-
tian reasons thus with himself: "God
forbid that I should deal deceitfully
with my neighbor ; for then I should
offend the truth of God, which is God
himself; since he has dealt so faith-
fully with me, it would be the blackest
impiety were I to act otherwise by my
neighbor." The consideration of the
eternal divine wisdom produces the
fear of God. For whoever knows God
to be the Searcher of hearts, viewing
the most secret recesses, must neces-
sarily dread the eyes of the divine
majesty. " He that planted the ear,
shall he not hear? He that formed
the eye, shall he not see ?" Ps. 94 : 9.

Chap. XXI.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

69

Therefore, " Woe unto them that seek
deep to hide their counsel from the
Lord, and their works are in the dark,
and they say, "Who seeth us ? and who
knoweth us ? Surely your turning of
things upside down shall be esteemed
as the potter's clay : for shall the
work say of him that made it, He
made me not? Or shall the thing
framed, say of him that framed it, He
had no understanding?" Isa. 29:15,
16; see also Jer. 23 : 24, and 32 : 19.

11. From the true knowledge of God,
arise the knowledge of sin, and conse-
quent repentance. This repentance
brings renovation of mind, and reno-
vation of mind is accompanied with
amendment of life. And this knowl-
edge, together with those things that
attend it, makes up the other part of
the inward worship of God; and it is
that sacred fire which, by the appoint-
ment of God, is to be used with the
sacrifices, lest his wrath should be
kindled against us, and we be con-
sumed by the fire of his vengeance.

12. The injunction of God to the
priests, not to drink wine or strong
drink when they were about to enter
the tabernacle (Lev. 10 : 9), is an il-
lustration of this repentance; and in
a spiritual sense, it extends itself to
all Christians. For if we would enter
into the tabernacle of God, even into
life everlasting, it is necessary that
we should abstain from the lusts of
the world and of the flesh, and from
all that tends to bring the spirit in
bondage to the body. For the love of
the world, the love of pleasure, pride,
and other vices, are like palatable
wine, by which the power of the soul
and spirit is clouded, and at last
brought under subjection to the flesh.
Man, so subjected, is restrained from
entering into the tabernacle of God ;
that is, he cannot arrive at the knowl-

edge and the sanctuary of God ; con-
sequently he is deprived of that dis-
cerning faculty, which distinguishes
between things sacred and profane,
clean and unclean; so that he under-
stands nothing of divine and heavenly
operations, and therefore is unfit to
instruct those in sound doctrine who
are committed to his care. His under-
standing and thoughts are not en-
lightened from above ; but being over-
come with the wine of worldly lust,
are eventually involved in gross dark-
ness. This repentance, contrition, and
grief for sin, and this true faith in
Christ, are followed by the knowledge
of grace and remission of sin ; which,
as it proceeds from the merit of Christ
only, so the benefit of this merit can
be claimed by no man without repent-
ance. Repentance was therefore nec-
essary, even to the thief upon the
cross, that his sin being first remitted,
he might accompany Christ into para-
dise. And that his repentance pro-
ceeded from a heart affected with a
holy contrition, appears from the re-
proof which he gave his companion :
" Dost not thou fear God? WeVreceive
the due reward of our deeds ; but this
man hath done nothing amiss" (Luke
23 : 40), and from the request he ad-
dressed to Christ: "Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy king-
dom." Verse 24. These are most
undeniable proofs of a contrite heart,
embracing Christ and his merits by
faith.

13. This gracious absolution from
sin,* which is apprehended in faith by
a penitent heart, supplies all those de-
fects under which we labor : but it is
entirely the effect of the death and
blood of Christ. All our offences are
as completely annulled by his abund-
ant satisfaction, as if they had never
been committed. The merit of Christ

70

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

is of that extent and power, that
David exclaims : " Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash
me, and I shall be (not only as white,
but even) whiter than snow/' Psal.
51:7.

14. Hence also it is, that God is
said to mention the sin no more when
the sinner returns to his duty. Ezek.
18 : 22; 33 : 16. For whatever is fully
and completely paid for, yea, blotted
out too, must of necessity be buried in
eternal oblivion. Isa. 43 : 25. But
conversion must go before remission,
according to the order proposed by
the prophet himself: " Wash ye,
make you clean, put away the evil of
your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil. Come now and let
us reason together : Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as wThite
as snow." Isa. 1 : 16. As if he had
said : " Ye who require your sins to be
forgiven, according to my covenant
and promise, come forward and call
me to an account. I do not indeed
deny, that I promised you remission
of sins ; but it was on no other terms
than that you should first repent.
Where is your repentance ? where is
your true and living faith ? If you
have these, all is well ! It shall not
be my fault, if your sins (though as
crimson in grain, though so deeply
dyed, that neither heaven nor earth
can blot them out), be not wholly par-
doned and made whiter than snow."
Repentance, therefore, is the true con-
fession of sin ; and if you have this in
yourself, namely, sorrow for sin mixed
with faith, be assured, that Christ, by
virtue of his death and blood, will en-
tirely forgive you your sins. This
blood, as it is shed for us, so it cries to
God in heaven, and procures a full re-
mission of sin.

15. When a man is thoroughly af-

fected with this sense of sin, he has-
tens in spirit to those cities of refuge,
of which three, Bezer, Kamoth, and
Golan, were set apart on this side Jor-
dan, by Moses, being appointed by him,
in order that he who had inadver-
tently killed his neighbor, might flee
unto them and be preserved. Deut.
4:41-43.

16. And, alas! O Lord, how often
have we inadvertently slain our neigh-
bor with thoughts, words, hatred,
envy, anger, revenge, and unmerciful-
ness ! Let us, therefore, fly upon the
wings of faith and repentance, to the
sanctuary of the grace of God, and to
the merit and cross of Christ. No
sooner do we arrive there, but we are
safe ; nor will the avenger measure to
us again with that measure with which
we served our neighbor. For by those
cities of refuge, Christ Jesus is signi-
fied and represented. He is the true
Bezer, that is, a fenced tower, according
to that saying of Solomon: "The
name of the Lord is a strong tower:
the righteous runneth into it, and is
safe." Prov. 18 : 10. He also is the
true Ramoth, which signifies exalted:
for Christ is the Most High (Isa. 52:
13; 57:15), "And at the name of Jesus,
every knee shall bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth." Phil. 2 : 10. Nor
have we any other Golan besides him;
which, as the word imports, is a heap
or multitude, a storehouse of all man-
ner of celestial gifts. Hence, we read
in the Psalms : " With the Lord there
is mercy; and with him is plenteous
redemption." Psal. 130 : 7. And in the
epistle to the Romans : "The Lord is
rich unto all that call upon him."
Rom. 10 : 12.

17. And this is the third part of in-
ward, spiritual, and true worship, aris-
ing from the knowledge of God. This

Chap. XXI.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

71

knowledge is also the source of re-
pentance, as repentance is of remission
of sins, and each rests on an experi-
mental knowledge of God, as on a
proper foundation to sustain it.

18. Thus is the letter of the law of
Moses changed into spirit, or into an
inward, holy, and new life; and its
sacrifices are converted into unfeigned
repentance. Hereby we offer up unto
God our body and soul, together with
the sacrifices of praise and thanks-
giving. Hereby we ascribe unto him
alone, our knowledge, conversion, jus-
tification and remission of sin, that
God alone may be all in all, and his
grace be worthily acknowledged, and
celebrated with thankful hearts and
tongues unto all eternity. This, then,
as hath been already mentioned, is
the true worship of God, of which the
prophet says: "He hath shewed thee,
O man, what is good; and what doth
the Lord require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?" Mic.
6:8. O when, therefore, shall we
wretched mortals become truly peni-
tent, that we may obtain this gracious
pardon of sin ? Forjwithout penitence
it is impossible we should secure unto
ourselves so incomparable a mercy.
For how can sin be remitted, when
there is no sense of sin, no sorrow af-
fecting the mind, no hunger after di-
vine grace ? And how can he grieve
for sins, who utterly refuses to aban-
don them, and to change his life for a
better? May God, for Christ's sake,
turn us, that so we may be truly
turned ! Lam. 5 : 21.

19. From these considerations it
abundantly appears, that the true
worship of God is seated in the heart,
and consists in the knowledge of God,
and in true repentance, which morti-
fies the flesh; and, through grace,

renews man after the divine image.
In this order, man is made the holy
temple of the Lord, where, through
the good Spirit of God, internal wor-
ship is performed, in the exercise of
faith, charity, hope, humility, patience,
prayer, thanksgiving, and the praise
of God.

20. But though this worship ha*
regard to God himself, and is offered
to him alone; yet far be it from us to
believe, that God has any need of
our adoration or service, or that he
receives any advantage from it, or
any addition to his perfection. Let
us rather thiok, that such is the
mercy of God to miserable men, that
he is willing to impart himself wholly
to us with all his benefits, to live, to
operate, and to dwell in us, provided
we be but ready, by true knowledge,
by faith and repentance, to entertain
him in the heart, that as in the school
of the Spirit, he may teach us true
wisdom, and carry on the work which
he has so happily begun.

21. For there is no work approved
and accepted of God, but that of which
he himself is the author. Therefore
has he commanded us to repent and
to believe, to pray and to fast ; not
that the benefit in any way might
return to him, but belong to us alone.
For to God no man can give, and from
him no man can take away; him none
can profit, and none can injure. If
we be found devout and sincere in
his sight, we shall reap the advantage
of it ourselves ; but if we be found
false and corrupt, the evil will return,
upon our own heads. But what harm,,
O man, canst thou do to God, if evea
thou shouldst wilfully persist in im-
piety and a dissolute course of life ?

22. God, therefore, commands that
he should be served on thy account,,
not on his own. He being Love it-

72

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

self, it pleases him that many be found
in his service, to whom he may freely
impart the streams of his love, yea,
even himself too. For as a mother
cannot but love the infant that re-

poses on her breast, so God takes a
singular pleasure in a free and uncon-
fined communication of his love and
kindness.

CHAPTER XXII.

A TRUE CHRISTIAN IS KNOWN PRIMARILY BY LOVE, AND BY A DAILY
AMENDMENT OF LIFE.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those
that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall
still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing ; to shew that the Lord is
upright ; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. — Ps. 92 : 12-15.

"VTOT a Christian name, but a Chris-
-Li tian life, evidences a true Chris-
tian : let this therefore be the care of
the Christian, that in him Christ may
be seen: and visibly appear unto others,
in love, humility, and kindness ! for he
in whom Christ does not live, cannot
be a Christian. And this holy life,
having its roots within, in the spirit
and heart of a man, must of necessity
proceed from this inward principle —
just as the fruit proceeds from the
inherent virtue of the tree. For it is
necessary that our life should be in-
fluenced by the Spirit of Christ, and
fashioned after his example ; accord-
ing to that saying of the apostle :
" As many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God." Eom.
8 : 14. " Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his"
(Rom. 8:9): for all life proceeds from
spirit; and as is the spirit which in-
wardly acts, moves, and governs in a
man, so will the man outwardly ap-
pear. Whence it is evident, how nec-
essary the Spirit of God is to a truly
'Christian life; and, therefore, Christ

has not only commanded us to pray
for the Spirit, but has also promised
unto us this gift. Luke 11 : 13. This
Spirit is the Spirit of regeneration
(Tit. 3 : 5), by which we are quickened
in Christ, into a new, spiritual, and
heavenly life, and from the life and
never-dying power of this Spirit of
God, every Christian virtue must be
derived. It is then that " the right-
eous man flourisheth as the palm tree,
and groweth like a cedar in Lebanon."
Ps. 92 : 12.

2. Hence it follows, that a man must
be first internally renewed in the spirit
of his mind after the image of God;
and that his inward desires and affec-
tions must first be conformed to Christ
(which the Apostle terms "the new
man created after the image of God")
(Eph. 4 : 24), before a suitable life can
proceed from the heart. But as soon
as the heart is inwardly renewed, the
outward life proceeding from it is but
a constant expression of that vital
principle which prevails within the
mind. Yea, since " God trieth the
heart and the reins" (Ps. 7 : 9), it is

Chap. XXII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

73

reasonable that a man should possess,
in the more secret recesses of his heart,
even much more than outwardly ap-
pears in his life.

3. Though, in our inward part, we
attain not unto the purity of angels,
it is but just that we should fervently
sigh after it. And, indeed, God ap-
proves the desires of our spirit when
it thirsts after a further purification :
" The Spirit also helpeth our infirm-
ities, and maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be ut-
tered." Rom. 8:26. Yea, the blood
of Christ purifies us by faith (Acts
15 : 9), so that we are " without spot
or wrinkle" (Eph. 5 : 27); and in this
respect we possess, not the purity,
holiness, and righteousness of any
angel, but that of Christ; yea, and
Christ himself. 1 Cor. 1 : 30.

4. This undeserved righteousness,
freely applied to us, must renew our
body, soul, and sjurit, and produce a
true holiness of life and manners. And
this life, though it is at first like a
tender palm tree, must daily become
more and more vigorous in us, and
gather strength in Christ Jesus. And
our growth in Christ will be in pro-
portion as we advance in faith, in
virtue, and the practice of a Christian
life and holiness. This is to "flourish
like a palm tree."

5. As the palm tree, when depressed,
mounts the higher, so ought a Chris-
tian to be renewed continually in his
spiritual desires and exercises. Eph.
4:23; Col. 3: 10. He is to strengthen
himself every day with fresh purposes
to walk suitably to his new name, and
with unwearied endeavors to avoid the
danger of being a false Christian. He
is to proceed with vigor and earnest-
ness, as if he had but this day been
initiated into the principles of true re-
ligion. For as one that enters upon a

new office should have nothing more
at heart than worthily to acquit him-
self in his post; so also should we act,
who are called unto Christ, "with a
holy calling." 2 Tim. 1:9. If this holy
purpose be not firmly rooted within,
no amendment of life will ensue, no
vigor in piety, no increase in Christ;
yea, the very quickening Spirit of
Christ must be wanting. For such a
resolution and holy firmness of doing
good is the work of the Spirit of
God, and ofthat preventing or antici-
pating grace which allures, invites, and
moves all men. Happy is the man,
who with his ears and heart proves
obedient to it, and hearkens to that
heavenly wisdom which "utters her
voice in the streets." Prov. 1 : 20. In
a word, whatever a man views with
his eyes, is a manifestation of the Crea-
tor, by which he calls upon man, and
endeavors to draw him to the love of
himself.

6. Whenever, therefore, we feel this
heavenly call or impulse upon our
minds, we should immediately set our
hand to work, and take care that a
moment so invaluable do not slip away
in a light and careless manner. This
is an hour free from such obstacles as
at other times closely beset us. If this
be slothfully neglected, other days and
times may possibly succeed, in which
we cannot think, hear, speak, or do
any good. This being foreseen by eter-
nal Wisdom, she everywhere lifts up
her voice, and calls upon us, lest we
should neglect the opportunity which
is so freely offered.

7. As a tree planted in the open air
readily admits the light of the sun, and
the benign inflences of heaven; so the
grace of G-od, with other celestial in-
fluences, shines upon thee, O man, and
would revive and nourish thee by its
presence, if the affairs of this world

74

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

did not hinder thee from receiving the
benefit.

8. Call to mind the shortness of the
time appointed for life ! Seriously con-
sider how many opportunities of doing
good, and of reducing the Christian
virtues into practice, thou hast already
neglected. One half of thy life has
possibly been consumed in sleeping,
and the other in eating and drinking,
and in other natural actions; so that
when thou now comest to the grave,
thou hast but just begun to enter upon
a better life.

9. If thou art afraid to die in wick-
edness, O lead a holy life whilst thou
art in good health ! If thou desirest
to leave the world as a Christian, en-
deavor to be a good Christian whilst
thou art in it. Now, he only lives as a
Christian, who demeans himself as if

he were every day to die ; well know-
ing that a good servant will at all
times be ready at the call of his
master. And God, by death, as by his
messenger, summons us all before his
tribunal.

10. "Blessed," therefore, "is that
servant, whom the Lord, when he com-
eth, shall find watching. Of a truth,
I say unto thee, that he will make
him ruler over all that he hath." Luke
12 : 37, 44. And who is it that watches,
but he who does not suffer himself to
be carried away by the world, or its
unhappy votaries ? Let us, therefore,
flee from both; knowing that the man-
ners of this corrupt age are like bane-
ful excrescences, which consume the
vital sap of a tree, and, in a short time,
cause it to wither.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HE WHO, IN CHRIST, DESIRES TO GROW IN GRACE, IS OFTEN COMPELLED TO
WITHDRAW FROM WORLDLY SOCIETY.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! — My heart and my flesh crieth out for the

living God.—Ts. 84: 1, 2.

THOU actest wisely, if thou avoid-
est too frequent an intercourse
with worldly men. For as it is never
better for our bodies than when they
are at home ; so it is ever best with
the soul, when it is at rest in its own
habitation, which is God himself; from
whom it derives life and being. To
him, therefore, the soul must return
again, if ever she is to enjoy rest, and
find safety.

2. It is observed of all creatures,
that they nowhere thrive so well, as

where they drew their first life and
origin. Thus the sea to the fishes,
the air to the birds, the earth to the
plants, and God to the soul, is the
place of rest, according to the Psalm-
ist, " The sparrow hath found a house,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young." Ps.
84 : 2. As that man will bring trouble
upon himself, who gives young people
too much liberty to go abroad; so
shall he suffer much, who yields up
the reins of his tongue and thoughts,

Chap. XXIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

75

allowing them to wander through the
affairs of the world, as so many cir-
cles of vanity. Be assured, that you
will escape many faults, if you study
to confine your thoughts within the
limits of your heart.

3. " Those that are planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the
courts of our God." Ps. 92 : 13. What
are these courts? They are the in-
ternal and spiritual sabbaths of the
heart; which, as Lebanon in the des-
ert, flourish best in a retirement of
mind, and abstraction of spirit. La-
bor to attain this solitude of soul, and
thou shalt become fit to search thine
own heart, and to contemplate that
variety of wonders and mercies which
God has bestowed upon us.

4. Nor are we to imitate those
who admire subtle disputes and in-
ventions, who take pleasure in read-
ing fine, pleasant, and witty produc-
tions; which, if rightly considered,
deprave, rather than improve the
mind of the reader. Whatever does
not promote the repose of the heart,
and the continual renovation of the
mind, should neither be heard, spoken,
read, nor even be entertained in
thought, by a disciple of Jesus. True
Christians are like the trees of God,
which should daily grow stronger,
and take deeper root in Christ. St.
Paul testifies of himself, that besides
" Christ and him crucified," he de-
sired to know nothing. 1 Cor. 2 : 2.
And this has been the practice of all
the saints of God, who have endeav-
ored, to the utmost of their power, by
carefully cherishing this blessed tran-
quillity of heart, to approach nearer
and nearer to a life raised above the
world, and to emulate those elevated
minds that entirely rest in God, as the
centre of all their happiness. One of
them once said: "As often as I con-

verse with men, I return less a man
in some part or other." For since the
dignity of human nature principally
consists in the similitude of God, and
therefore God hath described man to
be the image and likeness of himself
(Gen. 1 : 26); it follows, that the more
unlike any man is to God, the less a
man he is : and the more closely he
unites himself to God, the more con-
formed to Him does he become. None
can, however, turn himself to God,
who does not first withdraw himself
from the world. It is the nature of
every seed, to bring forth a plant of
its own kind; so if the seed of God,
the Holy Spirit and Word, be in thee,
thou shalt become a "tree of right-
eousness, The planting of the Lord,
that he may be glorified." Isa. 61 : 3.

5. Nothing is more common, than
that some word or other is dropped
in the conversation of men, which
being idle and vain, grievously wounds
and pollutes the soul. No man, there-
fore, has more security and peace,
than he who keeps at home, in the
house of his heart, and restrains his
thoughts, his words, and his senses,
from straying beyond their bounds.

6. He that will speak well, must
first learn to be silent; for to talk
much is not eloquence, but prating.
He who desires to command well,
must first learn to obey; since it is
impossible that he should be a good
ruler over others, who knows not how
to be subject and obedient to God.
He that desires peace and serenity
of mind, must set a watch over his
tongue, and maintain a good con-
science; for an evil conscience is like
the troubled sea ; yet shall it find rest
if it return unto Christ in true re-
pentance. The dove which Noah sent
out of the ark, not finding any place
of rest, returned to it. Gen. 8 : 9.

76

TKUE CHKISTIASTITY.

[Book I.

This ark is Christ and the Church,
having only one door or window,
which is that of repentance, through
which we are to come to Christ. And
as the dove retired into the ark im-
mediately when she found no rest for
her foot; so when thou art floating in
a sea of worldly affairs, and art in
danger of suffering shipwreck, retire
immediately into thy heart to Christ ;
lest, being too much tossed on the
floods of the world, thy rest be broken,
and the tranquillity of thy mind en-
tirely destroyed.

7. While thou conversest with men,
and art engaged in the affairs of this
world, be careful to manage every-
thing with fear and humility. Avoid
all self-confidence and rashness in act-
ing. Eemember that thou art as a
tender shoot tied to a prop, in order
that it may grow up with the more
safety : so do thou constantly lean on
the staff of humility, and the fear of
God, lest a sudden tempest should
arise, and lay thee level with the
ground. Alas! how many a man is
deceived when he, too unadvisedly,
rushes into worldly affairs. Persuade
thyself, therefore, that it is as unsafe
to trust to the world, as to the sea.
The external joy of the world, though
for a time it soothe a man in his car-
nal security, and promise prosperous
things, yet may soon be disturbed by
an unexpected tempest, leaving noth-
ing behind but the sting of an evil
conscience.

8. If a man would, on the one hand,
seek no pleasure in what is frail or
perishing; and if, on the other, with
a mind freed from secular joys and
affairs, he would give himself up to
those more heavenly concerns that be-
come a true Christian, he would often
be visited with a fervent devotion, a
profound peace, a sweet tranquillity, a

serene conscience, and other divine
comforts. But, alas! we will not be
persuaded of these things; and hence
it follows, that our conversion, amend-
ment, and devotion are, by our too
free conversation with men, rather
hindered than improved. We may
find within us, what we easily lose in
an inconsiderate pursuit of things
without us. And as a tree nowhere
prospers better than in its natural
soil; so the inward man grows no-
where more happily, than in the in-
ward ground of the soul, where Christ
resides.

9. The conscience of man is pos-
sessed either with joy or sorrow. If
the conscience be conversant with
things internal and heavenly, it will
refresh us with inward delight and
comfort ; but if it be polluted with an
excessive cleaving to worldly con-
cerns, it will be of necessity attended
with inward sorrow and perplexity.
2 Cor. 7 : 10.

10. As often as the soul is affected
with hearty remorse for sin, she be-
wails herself, and sends up secret
groans to the throne of mercy. This
penitential exercise is a wholesome
fountain of tears, in which the soul,
night after night, cleanses and washes
herself by the Spirit and by faith,
through the name of Jesus (1 Cor.
6 : 11), that so she may be duly pre-
pared to enter into the inward sanc-
tuary, and holy of holies, and there
enjoy a secret intercourse with the
Lord.

11. And because the Lord is "a God
that hideth himself" (Isa. 45 : 15), the
soul must approach him in a way re-
mote from the noise of the world, that
she may the more freely partake of
his divine communications. Hence
the Psalmist says : " I will hear what
God the Lord will speak/' Ps. 85:8,

Chap. XXIV.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

77

And " I sought the Lord, and he
heard me, and delivered me from all
my fears. This poor man cried, and the
Lord heard him, and saved him out of
all his troubles." Psalm 34 : 4, 6. " Un-
to thee will I pray : my voice shalt
thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in
the morning will I direct my prayer
unto thee, and will look up." Psalm
5 : 2, 3. Thus the farther the soul re-

tires from the world, the more inti-
mately she converses with God; just
as the patriarch Jacob conversed most
familiarly with God and angels when
he was farthest removed from friends
and children. Gen. 32 : 24-29. It can-
not, indeed, be expressed in words,
how much a soul sequestered from the
friendship and fellowship of the world,
is loved by God and by angels.

CHAPTER XXI Y.

OP THE LOVE OP GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR.

Now the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned. — 1 Tim. 1 : 5.

IN this verse, the apostle sets before
us love, the highest and noblest
virtue ; and acquaints us at the same
time, with four particulars concerning
it. First, that Love is the summary
of all the commandments: for "love*"
says the apostle, "is the fulfilling of
the law" (Eom. 13 :10); in which all
the precepts are comprehended, and
without which, all gifts and virtues
are unprofitable and fruitless.

2. What he says in the second place,
namely, that Charity must arise from
a pure heart, relates to the love of
God, which requires a heart void of
worldly love and affection, according
to that saying of St. John : " Love not
the world, neither the things that are
in the world. For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the
lust thereof; but he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever." 1 John
2 : 15-17. Whosoever, therefore, has

a heart purified from all love to the
creature, so as to depend or acquiesce
in no transient good whatsoever, can
cleave most intimately to God, say-
ing with David, " Whom have I in
heaven but thee? and there is none
upon earth that I desire besides thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth ; but
God is the strength of my heart, and
my portion for ever." Psal. 73 : 25, 26.
The love of such a one, proceeds out
of a "pure heart." Of the same char-
acter also, is that love which is at-
tended with great delight, pleasure
and joy in God; of which we have an
illustration in David : " I will love
thee, O Lord, my strength. The
Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and
my deliverer; my God, my strength,
in whom I will trust; my buckler,
and the horn of my salvation, and my
high tower." Psal. 18 : 1, 2.

3. The apostle, in the third place,
teaches us, that love must be " out of
a good conscience." This properly
concerns the love of our neighbor, who

78

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

is to be loved, not for the sake of in-
terest or worldly advantage (which
would be a false love out of a bad con-
science) ; but for the sake of God only,
and of his commandments. JSTor ought
we to afflict our neighbor either by
word or deed, either secretly or open-
ly; nor on any account, bear envy,
wrath, hatred, malice or rancor against
him; that so our conscience may not
accuse us when we address ourselves
in prayer to God Almighty.

4. The fourth requisite of Love is, a
" faith unfeigned ;" so that nothing be
done that is contrary to the rule of
faith, and to our Christian profession,
and that God be not denied publicly or
privately, in prosperity or adversity.
This is the substance of what is con-
tained in that sentence of the apostle.
We shall now speak more particularly,
with respect to each of the several
parts.

5. In the first place, then, Love, ac-
cording to the apostle, " is the end of
the commandment;" for that love
which arises from a pure faith, is the
noblest among the fruits and effects
of faith ; than which a man can do
nothing better or more acceptable to
God. For God does not require at
our hands great and difficult enter-
prises, no high performances that ex-
ceed our capacities; but he has
changed the yoke of the Old Testa-
ment service, and its many command-
ments and ordinances into faith and
love, and has given us for this end the
Holy Ghost, who, " shedding abroad
in our hearts the love of God" (Eom.
5 : 5), renders everything sweet and
easy, and proves the original spring of
this heavenly virtue.

6. Love, therefore, is not a hard
work, a labor attended with toil and
difficulty; on the contrary, it makes
everything easy to a good man. " His

commandments are not grievous" (1
John 5 : 3), that is to say, they are not
so to an enlightened Christian; for
wherever the Spirit of God comes, he
creates a free, willing and ready heart
in the discharge of Christian virtues.
Nor does God require of his children
great skill or learning : it is only love
which he regards. If this be sincere
and fervent, free from disguise and
dissimulation, God takes more pleas-
ure and delight in it, than in all the
knowledge and wisdom, in all the art
and talent that any man upon earth,
in his best works, can possibly ex-
hibit. Wherever this divine love is
wanting, there all wisdom and knowl-
edge, all works and gifts, are alto-
gether unprofitable. They are ac-
counted vain and dead, as a mere
body without life. 1 Cor. 13 : 1, 2.

7. As for human learning and great
abilities, they are common to heathens
as well as to Christians ; and great
actions are performed as well by infi-
dels as by believers. It is love only
which proves the sure test of a sound
Christian, distinguishing between the
false and the true. For wherever
Charity is wanting, there can be no
good thing, however it may claim the
admiration of men by its specious ap-
pearances. The reason is, because God
is not there ; for " God is love, and he
that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God,
and God in him." 1 John 4 : 16.

8. Love is also pleasant, not only to
God who gives it, but also to man, who
exercises it : whereas, all arts and sci-
ences, all the knowledge and wisdom
which man grasps, are not attained
but with great labor and study, with
much care and application, and even
at the expense of bodily health. But
this heaven-born love cheers both the
body and the mind. It invigorates
the spirits, confers new strength, and

Chap. XXIY.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

79

wonderfully improves and exalts the
mind. Nor is it attended with any
loss whatever, but on the contrary,
produces many good and noble effects
in the soul. Love is itself the reward
of the lover, and virtue always carries
its own recompense with it : as, on
the contrary, the vicious man is pun-
ished by his own excesses, and vice is
the constant tormentor of him that
commits it.

9. Again, when the other faculties
of the body and mind are faint and
wearied, love faints not. Love is
never weary, never ceases. Prophecy
may pass away, tongues may cease,
and sciences may be destroyed ; arts
may be lost, the knowledge of mys-
teries may vanish ; yea, faith itself at
last may fail also: but yet "love
never faileth," nor can fail : for when
all that is imperfect is happily re-
moved, then love alone abides forever,
and attains its full perfection. 1 Cor.
13 : 8.

10. To render anything pleasing to
Almighty God, it is necessary that it
proceed from him ; since he approves
of nothing but what he himself works
in us. Now, G-od is love; it therefore
follows, that all that we do, ought to
proceed from a divine faith, in order
that it may be pleasing to God ; and
from pure love, that it may prove
profitable to men. This love must be
pure, without any regard to self-honor,
self-interest, and those mean designs
which sometimes intrude into a Chris-
tian's actions. In like manner our
prayers should spring from a principle
of love, that they may have the more
ready admittance to the God of love.
Consider, therefore, how that man's
prayer can be acceptable to God, who
is full of wrath and rancor, hatred
and malice ? Were such a one to re-
peat the whole Psalter every day, it

would be but an abomination before
the Lord. True worship consists in
spirit (John 4 : 23, 24), in faith, in
love, not in a long recital of words.
Remember the example of Christ,
who, from a merciful heart, cried,
"Father, forgive them." Luke 33 : 34.
A man that does not love God, is also
unwilling to pour out his heart in
prayer and supplication : but to him
who is affected with a sense of divine
love, the duty of prayer is easy and
delightful. A man that has a cordial
love to God, readily serves him ; but
he that is void of this love, does not
serve him at all, though he may sub-
mit to much toil and drudgery, and
even heap one mountain upon an-
other.

11. Upon the whole, then, nothing
is more agreeable to human nature,
nothing better and more profitable,
than this divine love, which, therefore,
should be stirred up in the heart of
man, and when once raised into a flame,
should be carefully preserved from
being ever quenched.

12. Faith should work all things in
a Christian through love; and love
should be the agent of faith, as the
body is the agent of the soul. The
soul sees and hears, speaks and acts,
through the body, to which she is
united; so, O man! should the love of
God, springing from faith, do all things
in and through thee. Whether thou
eat or drink, hear or speak, commend
or reprove, let all be done in love, after
the example of Christ, in whom re-
sided nothing but pure love. If thou
beholdest thy neighbor, behold him
with the eyes of a compassionate
friend; if thou hearest him, hear him
with love and tenderness; and if thou
speakest with him, let thy speech be
seasoned with love and Christian af-
fection.

80

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

13. Carefully preserve the root of
Christian love by faith, in order that
nothing but that which is good may
grow up in thy heart, and issue thence,
as from its genuine centre. 1 Cor. 16 :
14. Thou shalt then be enabled to
fulfil the commandments of God; since
they are all comprehended in love.
Hence, a holy man has expressed him-
self after this manner: " O love of God
in the Holy Ghost ! thou art the high-
est joy of souls, and the only divine
life of men. Whosoever enjoys not
thee, is dead even while he lives; and
whosoever possesses thee, never dies
in the sight of God. Where thou art
not, there the life of men is a continual
death ; but where thou art, there life
is made a foretaste of eternal happi-
ness." Whence it appears that this
divine love is the sum and fulfilling
of all the commandments of God.

14. We consider now, in the second
place, that our love to God ought to
proceed " out of a pure heart/' The
heart of a man who is desirous to love
God, ought first to be cleansed from
all worldly love and attachment to the
creature. It is then that God becomes
the chief and sovereign Good to the
soul. She can then say, " The Lord
is the portion of mine inheritance, and
of my cup: thou maintainest my lot."
Ps. 16 : 5. " The Lord knoweth the
days of the upright," that is, those that
love him out of a disinterested heart;
"and their inheritance shall be for-
ever." Ps. 37 : 18. " Delight thyself
in the Lord, and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart." Ps. 37 : 4.
In a word, God is the only fountain
whence all our joy ought constantly
to spring.

15. God, therefore, should be the
most beloved object of our souls, and
our hearts should rest in him alone,
because he is the highest good. He is

nothing else than mercy and goodness,
love and kindness, clemency and pa-
tience, truth, comfort, peace, joy, life,
and happiness. All this he has laid
up in Jesus Christ. Whoever, there-
fore, has Christ, is thereby put into
the possession of all these heavenly
virtues. And whoever loves God, must
also of necessity love God's truth and
mercy, his goodness and kindness, and
the whole train of divine virtues.

16. For, a true lover of God has a love
to all that God loves, and an aversion
to all that God hates. If any man
loves God, he must love truth, mercy,
and righteousness, because God is all
this himself. He must also delight in
humility and meekness, since thereby
he is rendered conformable to that
meekness and lowly-mi ndedness which
resided in Jesus. On the other hand,
a true lover of God cannot but abhor
all ungodliness, with all the works of
iniquity; because all manner of im-
piety is enmity against God, and is the
work of the devil himself. A lover
of God hates a lie, because the devil
is the father of lies, and was a liar
from the beginning. And this is the
reason that every one who loves lies,
injustice, and other vicious workings
of nature, must needs, in that sense,
be the offspring of the devil (see
John 8 : 44) ; and again, whoever loves
Christ, his Lord and Saviour, loves also
the example of his pure and holy life,
his humility and meekness, his pa-
tience, and the other heavenly vir-
tues that appeared in his conduct.
And such a one must of necessity be
adopted into the number of the chil-
dren of God.

17. This love, proceeding out of a
"pure heart," must be obtained from
God by prayer and supplication. And
truly, God is willing to enkindle in us
this heavenly flame through the love

Chap. XXIV.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

81

of Christ, if he be but earnestly so-
licited, and if the heart be every day
and every moment laid open to his
divine influence. If thy love should
grow cold and weak at any time,
arouse thy heart, faint not, but stir
up the grace of God within thee, and
be not too much discouraged at it. In
the name of God arise again, set to
work, and renew the acts of thy first
love. As thou art sensible of thy
coldness in love, thou mayest be as-
sured from that circumstance, that the
eternal light of divine love is not
wholly extinguished, although it be
eclipsed, and at present give but little
heat. Doubt not that thy Saviour will
enlighten thee again, and fire thy
heart with his love ; so that thou may-
est sit once more under his shadow,
and rejoice in the light of his counte-
nance. At the same time be earnest
in prayer and supplications, lest here-
after the flame of this heavenly love
should be again deadened in thy
heart. Such is love " out of a pure
heart," unmixed with love of the
world.

18. Let us now consider, in the third
place, Love, as arising from a "good
conscience," and as it respects our
neighbor. The love of God and the
love of our neighbor are so closely
united, that they can never be sepa-
rated. The true touchstone of our
love to God, is the love which we
bear to our neighbor. " If a man say,
I love God, and hateth his brother, he
is a liar : for he that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen ?
And this commandment have we from
him, That he who loveth God, love
his brother also." 1 John 4:20, 21.
For the love of God cannot dwell in a
man who is filled with hatred or mal-
ice, or divested of all bowels of love

and compassion. If thou hast no pity
on thy brother, who stands in need of
thy help, how canst thou love God,
who needs not anything that is thine,
and has commanded thee to express
thy love towards him, by bestowing
marks of it upon thy brother ?

19. As faith unites to God, so love
unites to our neighbor; and as a man
is made up of body and soul, so faith
and love (that is, the love both of God
and of our neighbor) make up a true
Christian. Thus he that " dwelleth
in love, dwelleth in God." 1 John 4:16.
And since God effectually desires the
good of all men, it follows, that he who
loves in like manner is of one heart
with God ; and that he who is other-
wise affected is against God, and has
not the mind of the Lord, but is the
enemy of God as well as of his neigh-
bor. He is, unquestionably, an adver-
sary to God who is an enemy to
men.

20. It is the property of this love to
bewail and compassionate the infirm-
ities of others. Gal. 6: 1. Indeed, the
failings and weaknesses of our fellow-
creatures represent to us, as in a mir-
ror, our own imperfections, and re-
mind us of the various defects that en-
cumber our nature. Therefore, when
thou seest another overtaken in a fault,
consider that thou also thyself art but a
man; and learn from thy own infirm-
ities, to bear those of others with pa-
tience, meekness, and humility. Eom.
15:7.

21. Such especially as sin, not from
malice or determined wickedness, but
who are surprised into a fault by weak-
ness and inadvertency; and who, com-
ing soon to themselves again, repent
of that which they have done, and
firmly resolve to watch the more
against the snares of Satan for the
future; such souls as- these are surely;

§2

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

to be pitied and assisted. He that does
otherwise, shows that he has nothing
in him of the merciful and forbearing
spirit of Christ. When a man hastily
condemns the faults of his neighbor,
without feeling any love or compas-
sion, it is an evident sign that he is
altogether void of God, and of his mer-
ciful spirit. On the contrary, a true
Christian, being anointed with the
spirit of Christ, treats all men as one
that has a fellow-feeling with them,
and bears with them in a sympathiz-
ing Christian love and tenderness, ac-
cording to the example of Christ, which
he has left us to follow. Therefore, if
any man, upon serious search into his
inward condition, finds that he has not
the love of his neighbor abiding in him,
let him know, assuredly, that the love
of God remains not in his soul, and
that he himself is without God. This
should strike him with horror and in-
dignation against himself; it should
influence him the more speedily (after
repenting of his sin from the bottom
of his heart) to reconcile himself to
his neighbor, that, in this order, the
love of God may also return to him
again. Then all his actions, while he
continues in this love and faith, are
good, holy, and divine ; and this love,
dwelling in his heart, will actuate him
freely and willingly to embrace all
men, and with great affection and joy
to do them all manner of kindnesses;
so that he will "rejoice over them to
do them good," even as God himself.
Jer. 32:41.

22. Without this love, whatever is
in man, is diabolical and altogether
evil. Nor is there, indeed, any other
cause why the devil can do no good,
but because he is utterly destitute of
love both towards God and man.
Hence, all which he does is radically
evil, and deprived of all intrinsic good-

ness. In all that he sets about, he
designs nothing but God's dishonor,
and man's destruction. He cunningly
contrives ways to vent his enmity both
upon God and man; and, therefore, he
seeks for such hearts as he can fill
with spite and envy, and then dis-
charges through them his malice and
wrath. "And hereby it is manifest
who are the children of God, and the
children of the devil." 1 John 3 : 10.

23. Lastly, Love must be "out of
faith unfeigned," that is, we must love
God equally in prosperity and ad-
versity. Whoever loves God sincerely,
accepts with joy all the dispensations
of his Providence, after the example
of Christ; who, with a cheerful and
ready mind, took up the cross, which
he knew that the will of his Father
imposed on him. " I have," says he,
"a baptism to be baptized with; and
how am I straitened (and in pain) till
it be accomplished!" Luke 12 : 50. In
the same manner have all the holy
martyrs carried with joy their cross
after him.

24. To those that unfeignedly love
God, the cross, which Christ enjoins
us to bear, does not prove grievous or
burdensome; and this for no other
reason, than because it is the yoke of
Christ. Matt. 11 : 29. If the magnet
attracts the heavy iron, why should
not that heavenly loadstone, the love
of God, attract the burden of our
cross, and render it light and agreea-
ble; especially after the heart is af-
fected with a touch of the divine
love? If the sugar sweeten such herbs
as are bitter by nature, why should
not the sweetness of the love of God
make that pleasant and easy, which
to the flesh is nothing but a cross and
affliction? And truly it was from the
fulness of this love, that the blessed
martyrs bore the most exquisite pain

Chap. XXV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

83

with patience and joy; being trans-
ported with it to such a degree, as to

be almost insensible of their very tor-
ments.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR, MORE PARTICULARLY CONSIDERED.

Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. — 2 Peter 2 : 19.

THEKE is do bondage more hard
and grievous, than to be under
the yoke of the passions : but of all
these, none is so cruel as hatred, which
so weakens and depresses all the pow-
ers both of body and mind, as not to
leave to the man one free thought. On
the contrary, he who lives in love is
free. He is no slave to anger, envy,
covetousness, pride, lying, or calumny ;
and being delivered from these by love,
he suffers not himself to be subdued
by evil desires, but continues Christ's
freeman (1 Cor. 7 : 22) in the liberty
of the Spirit: for "where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2
Cor. 3 : 17. Whosoever, therefore,
walks in the love of Christ, is no
longer a slave to sin, or a servant to
carnal affections; for the Spirit of
God's love has freed and purified him
from carnal concupiscence. And we
see that the love of G-od extends over
all men; of which we not only find
sufficient proofs in Scripture, but the
footsteps of his universal benignity
are also everywhere displayed in na-
ture. We are all equally covered with
the heavens, and have all the use of
the sun, the air, the earth, and the
water; as well they who are of high
degree, as they who are of the mean-
est condition. And the very same
mind that is in God towards us, ought
also to be in us towards men; God

himself having set us a pattern of
universal kindness for our imitation.
He regards not one more than an-
other, but loves all with an equal af-
fection. With him there is no respect
of persons, of dignity, or merit; but
he beholds all alike in Christ. This is
for our instruction. Now, as God acts
towards us, so ought we to act to-
wards our neighbor. And truly, after
the same manner as we deal with man,
so God will deal with us again. We
need not go far to inquire what favor
we have with God Almighty. If we
but enter into our own conscience, it
will impartially tell us, what mind
and affection we bear to our neigh-
bor; and as we have done to him, so
will God certainly do to us again, and
return our works into our own bosom.
And in this sense it is said of God,
that "with the pure he shews himself
pure; and with the froward, shews
himself froward" (Ps. 18 : 26); that
is, if thou bearest an evil mind to thy
neighbor, God will be thine adversary
also.

2. Since, therefore, God has no need
of our service, he has substituted our
neighbor in his place, to receive our
charity, and has commanded us to pay
it as to himself. He has made this
love of our neighbor the very touch-
stone by which we are to examine the
sincerity of our love to God.

84

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

3. And it is for this reason that he
has enjoined the love of our neighbor
with so great earnestness, requiring
us to show constantly the same love
to him which God shows to us. For
unless a man be fully reconciled to,
and be in perfect charity with his
neighbor, he cannot have the favor or
grace of God. And although all the
sins of the world are atoned for by
the death of Christ, and a full pardon
obtained, yet all mankind may in some
sense be said to be in the same cir-
cumstances with the servant in the
parable, who had not wherewithal to
pay; the king freely remitted him all
his debts : but when he afterwards
behaved himself cruelly towards his
fellow-servant, the king revoked his
pardon; and condemned the servant,
on account of the hard usage with
which he treated his neighbor. Matt.
18 : 23, etc. This parable Christ con-
cludes with the remarkable expres-
sion : "So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if ye from
your hearts forgive not every one his
brother, their trespasses." Yerse 35.
And, " With the same measure that
ye mete withal, it shall be measured
to you again." Luke 6 : 38.

4. Hence, it plainly appears, that
man was not created for himself alone,
but for his neighbor's sake also. So
strict is the commandment of loving
our neighbor, that when it is broken,
the very end of our creation is de-
stroyed, and the love of God is im-
mediately withdrawn from the soul.
Nothing is left but the severest justice,
judging and condemning all that are
void of this charity.

5. If we duly considered these
things, we should never be angry
with one another; neither would "the
sun ever go down upon our wrath."
Eph. 4 : 26. It is true, on the one

hand, that Christ by his death on the
. cross has offered a full and complete
atonement for all our trespasses, and
in this respect, has remitted all our
sins at once ; yet is it, on the other
hand, an awful consideration, that the
whole extent of the merits of Christ
will be of no avail at all to us, if we
continue to hate our brother, and will
neither pardon nor love him. We shall
be entirely cut oif from all the bene-
fits that flow from the atonement.

6. Hence it appears how important
the love of our neighbor must be in
the sight of God, binding us even to
such a degree, that God refuses to be
loved by us, unless we love our neigh-
bor also ; so that if we fail in our be-
nevolence toward the latter, we fall
at the same time from grace and di-
vine charity. And for this reason, we
were created all equal and of the
same nature, that we might not de-
spise one other; but, like children of
one common parent, live in peace and
love, and endeavor to maintain a good
and serene conscience.

7. Now, whoever hates and despises
his brother, hates and despises God
also, who has forbidden all such ani-
mosities in the severest terms. If
thou contemnest thy brother, God
also contemns thee; which hastens
thy judgment and condemnation, and
deprives thee of all interest in the
merit and redemption of Christ, by
which sin is forgiven.

8. For it cannot be possible that a
heart filled with wrath and bitterness,
should in any degree reap a saving
fruit from the blood of Christ, which
was shed from a motive of pure love.
Yea, the above parable (Matt. 18 : 35)
plainly convinces us, that God was
less offended at the debt of ten thou-
sand talents, than at the barbarous
cruelty of which the servant was

Chap. XXVI.]

TBUE CHEISTIANITY.

85

guilty; he can overlook the debt, but with which the Lord concludes the

he cannot overlook the want of love.
Let us, therefore, ponder the words

parable : " So likewise shall my heav-
enly Father do also unto you."

CHAPTER XXYI.

WHEREFORE OUR NEIGHBOR IS TO BE LOVED.

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another ; for he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law.— Horn. 13:8.

" TTTHEEEWITH shall I come
YV before the Lord? Shall I
come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves of a year old? Will the
Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers
of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for
my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul ? — He
hath shewed thee, O man, what is
good; and what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God." Micah 6 : 6-8.

2. By this question, and the answer
to it, the prophet teaches us, wherein
the true worship of God properly con-
sists ; not in ceremonies and sacrifices,
since we are notable to give anything
to God, because all is his own already;
not in offering up human sacrifices,
which he does not require at our
hands, but detests and abhors, because
they are injurious to Jesus Christ, the
great propitiatory oblation which God
appointed to takeaway the sins of the
world (John 1 : 29) : but the true wor-
ship of God consists in pure faith,
which, from the visible effect of it,
the prophet here describes, by " doing
justly," that is by the exercise of faith
in righteousness, in charity and mercy,

(which is more pleasing than all sac-
rifices); and in true humility and
contrition, as it is said : " The sacri-
fices of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise." Ps. 51 : 17.

3. To this divine worship, founded
within the heart, and proceeding from
faith, love, and humility, St. Paul pow-
erfully exhorts us in Eom. 13 : 8-10.
His admonition contains in it both
the praise of Christian love, and the
perpetual duty in which we stand en-
gaged to our neighbor, and without
which it is impossible to serve God
aright. For truly there is no other
way of serving God, except by that
which he himself works in our hearts:
so that to serve God, is nothing else
but to serve our neighbor, and to do
him all the offices of Christian love
and humanity which we are able to
perform.

4. The apostle calls love a summary
of all virtues, and the " fulfilling of
the law." Eom. 13 : 10. Not that we
are able by any acts of charity, to ful-
fil perfectly the divine law, or that
consequently we can merit eternal life
thereby; (which cannot possibly be,
except our love were complete in
every respect, and arrived to a con-

86

TEÜE CHEISTIAJSTITY.

[Book I.

eumraate perfection) : but the apostle
desires to suggest thereby the won-
derful excellency of this virtue, and to
incline us, at the same time, to an un-
feigned love. As to our righteousness,
it is not grounded on any work of
ours, but only on the merits of Christ
applied to us by faith.

5. From this righteousness of Christ,
apprehended by faith, springs love to
our neighbor, together with the whole
train of Christian virtues, called by
the apostle "fruits of righteousness,
which are to the glory and praise of
God." Phil. 1 : 11. But since the dig-
nity of this virtue is so very eminent,
it will be proper to set forth further
motives by which the practice of it
may be endeared to us.

6. The first and strongest of all mo-
tives, is that which St. John uses:
"God is love; and he that dwelleth in
love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him" (1 John 4 : 16). For who would
not wish to be in God, and to remain
in Him ; and that God should be and
remain in him ? And who, on the con-
trary, would not abhor to be in Satan,
and to have Satan dwelling in him ?
And yet this is the ordinary conse-
quence, as often as charity is repulsed,
and unnatural animosities are admitted
into the heart. For as God is a lover
of men, ready to save them from eter-
nal destruction, so the devil is a hater
of men. This is further explained by
St. John : "He that loveth, is born of
God, and knoweth God." 1 John 4 : 7.
And again : " In this the children of
God are manifest, and the children
of the devil : whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither
he that loveth not his brother." 1 John
3 : 10. Now, can there be anything
more desirable than to be ranked
among the children of God, to be be-
gotten of God, and to know God truly

and experimentally ? But whoever has
his heart void of this love, and has
never felt its force and energy, nor
tasted its goodness and gentleness,
long suffering and patience, this man
knows not God, who is pure love.
For the knowledge of God must pro-
ceed from enjoyment and experience.
And how is it possible that a man
should know Christ, whilst he is a
stranger to love, and to that loving
intercourse which subsists betwixt
Christ and the soul? Hence it fol-
lows, that he that is without love, is
without Christ also. But he who is
earnest in the exercise of love, shall
not be left barren in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ : "For if these
things be in you, and abound, they
make you that ye shall neither be
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. 1 : 8.
7. The second motive is found in
what our Lord himself says: "By
this shall all men know that ye are
my disciples, if ye have love one to
another." John 13 :35. Now, in order
to be a disciple of Christ, it is not
enough to be a Christian in name, or
by a mere verbal profession ; but to be
a disciple of Christ implies much more.
Such a one must believe in his name ;
must love him, imitate him, live in
him. He must, in a peculiar manner,
adhere to him ; must feel the love of
Christ infused into his soul, and freely
partake of all the gifts and benefits
purchased by him. Whoever has not
this love of Christ abiding in him, is
not Christ's disciple, nor can he pre-
tend to have any share in his merits.
For how is it possible that Christ
should know a man who has neither
faith in, nor any love to him? As a
flower is known by its fragrance, and
fruit by its flavor, so a true disciple of
Christ is known by his love.

Chap. XXVI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

87

8. Hence, St. Paul does not hesitate
to affirm, that " all gifts without char-
ity are nothing" (1 Cor. 13: 2); which
is a third motive why we should de-
sire this excellent gift. In truth, nei-
ther the knowledge of divers tongues,
nor the gift of miracles, nor the un-
derstanding of high and sublime mys-
teries, nor any extraordinary endow-
ments, are sufficient marks by which
to know a Christian; this preroga-
tive being entirely reserved to " faith,
which worketh by love." Gal. 5 : 6.
Nor does God require any hard things
at our hand (such as the working of
miracles), but to exercise love and hu-
mility; virtues that may be appre-
hended by the meanest capacity. Nor
will it be demanded of thee in the day
of judgment, whether thou hast been
versed in arts, tongues, and sciences,
or what great parts thou hast pos-
sessed in this world; but whether thou
hast exercised thyself in faith and love.
"I was a hungered," saith our Sav-
iour, " and ye gave me meat, etc." Matt.
25 : 35, etc. And St. Paul says to the
Galatians: "In Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision (no gifts, no parts, no
endowments, no respect of persons) ;
but faith which worketh by love."
Gal. 5 : 6.

9. Add to these, as a fourth motive,
that passage of St. John : "If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother,
he is a liar: for he that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen ?
And this commandment have we from
him, That he who loveth God, love his
brother also." 1 John 4 : 20, 21. This
all the inspired writers teach, that love
towards God cannot possibly exist in
the soul without love to our neighbor.
For he that hates his neighbor must
be an enemy to God; because God is a

lover of men, and requires us to be of
the same mind.

10. A fifth motive is, that love is the
great law of nature, and attended with
many things beneficial to mankind,
without which we would not be able
to live. When any good thing hap-
pens to man, it certainly proceeds
from divine love. Hence, St. Paul
calls love, the "bond of perfectness"
(Col. 3 : 14) ; and describes, in Bom.
12 : 9, 10, the excellent fruits that
grow upon this stock. And our Sa-
viour himself teaches to the same ef-
fect: "All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even
so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets/' Matt. 7 : 12. And this is
so universal a truth, that the heathens
themselves were, by the very law of
nature written in their hearts, con-
vinced of it. Hence they said: "That
which you would not should be done
to yourself, do not the same to an-
other." This excellent sentence, the
Emperor Severus, a prince adorned
with many virtues, had daily in his
mouth, and enacted it into a law for
the good of the country.

11. A sixth motive is, that love is a
beautiful image and a foretaste of
eternal life ; when the saints shall
love each other sincerely; when they
shall delight in one another, and con-
verse together with wonderful and
ineffable concord, in an inexpressible
sweetness, in unfeigned affection,
cheerfulness, and joy. Whoever,,
therefore, would conceive to himself
an image of that marvellous love and.
harmony, and obtain some foretaste'
of the exquisite pleasures of the eter-
nal beatitude, let him study this love,,
in which he will find a singular pleas-
ure, with much peace and tranquillity
of mind.

12. The more pure and fervent our-

88

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

charity is, the nearer it approaches to
the divine nature. This is a seventh
motive. In God, in Christ, and in the
Holy Ghost, there resides the most
pure, fervent, and transcendent love.
It is then that our love becomes pure,
when we love one another, not for the
sake of private interest, but for the
sake of the love of God. which is the
great and unerring pattern which we
ought carefully to follow. For God
loves us with a disinterested love: but
if any man loves his neighbor for his
own private profit and interest, his
love is not pure at all, nor does it, in
any degree, come up to that sublime
example which is set us by God Al-
mighty. This makes also the differ-
ence betwixt heathen and Christian
charity. A Christian loves his neigh-
bor in God and in Christ, disinterest-
edly and generously, without debasing
himself by any ignoble or selfish
design. Thus is his love preserved
pure and sincere, free from dissimula-
tion, falsehood, and any counterfeit.
Whereas the heathens polluted their
deeds with self-honor and interest,
and other sinister ends, which mingled
with the best of their actions. This
Christian love, when it becomes a
habit in the mind, produces a true
fervency of spirit, to perform still
greater acts of love and benignity.
And it is then that love is truly fer-
vent, when it inspires the lover with
great mercy and tenderness towards
his fellow-creatures, and prompts to
vigorous efforts to relieve their neces-
sity. When he has the affairs of his
neighbor as much at heart as his own,
then he is ready even to "lay down
his very life for the brethren " (1 John
3 : 16), if need be, or, after the exam-
ple of Moses and Paul, to be "ac-
cursed" for the brethren, and to be
"blotted out of the book of God," if

this possibly could be done. Exod.
32:32; Eom. 9:3.

13. Hence it follows (which is the
eighth motive), that we ought also to
love our enemies, according to the
Lord's precept: "Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you and
persecute you; that ye may be the
children of your Father which is in
heaven. For if ye love them which
love you, what reward have ye? do
not the publicans the same ?" Matt.
5:44; Luke 6 : 32, etc. Herein con-
sist the excellency and prerogative of
a true Christian; namely, to subject
nature to this divine principle, to tame
flesh and blood, and to overcome the
world, and the evil therein with good-
ness. Eom. 12:21. "If thine enemy
hunger, feed him." Kom. 12: 20. It is
not enough for a Christian not to hurt
his neighbor or enemy; but he is
commanded to do him good, and to
support him with such aids, as are
convenient for him (Exod. 23 : 4, etc.);
whoever refuses to comply with these
terms, cannot be a child of God, or a
disciple of Christ.

14. The ninth motive is, that who-
ever does not practise Christian love
and charity, separates himself from
the spiritual body of Christ, that is,
the Church ; and forfeits all the privi-
leges of this body, and even the mer-
its of Christ; there being but "one
Lord, one faith, one baptism." Eph.
4 : 5. For as the members when cut
off from the body, no longer partake
of the life and power of the head, but
are dead; so those that do not live in
the practice of love and charity, are
separate from Christ, the sole Head
of the Church, and can receive no
power and vital influence out of his
fulness. Therefore, St. John says,

Chap. XXVII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

89

"He that loveth not his brother,
abideth in death." 1 John 3 : 14.

15. Lastly, we ought to love one
another, because on the wiDgs of this
love the prayer of a Christian ascends
to heaven. By prayer, all good gifts
are to be obtained; and without
prayer, all helps and consolations are
expected in vain. But then our prayer
must spring from the evangelical prin-
ciple of love; since God gives ear to
no prayers, but to those that are
grounded on faith and Christian char-
ity : "If two of you agree on earth,

as touching anything that they shall
ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in heaven." Matt.
18 : 19.

16. Come then, O man ! let this
sweet agreement and harmony be es-
tablished among us upon earth. Let
us live in the spirit of love, that peace
and union may dwell among us; for
where peace is, there is the God of
peace (2 Cor. 13:11; Eom. 15:33);
and where He is, there "he hath also
commanded his blessing and life for
evermore." Ps. 133 : 3.

CHAPTER XXVII.

WHEREFORE OUR ENEMIES ARE TO BE LOVED.

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven. — Matt. 5 : 44, 45.

THE first cause why enemies ought
to be loved, is the express com-
mandment of God by his Son ; for
which he gives this reason, "that we
may be the children of our Father in
heaven," that is, "of him that loved
us when we were yet his enemies."
Eom. 5 : 10. As if he had said, "Un-
less you love your enemies, you can-
not be the children of the heavenly
Father : and he that is not God's son,
what father shall he have?" This
commandment of the Lord is little
practised ; alas ! how backward we
are in bringing forth such fruits as
become the children of God ! If we
be his children, truly we ought to
study the great lesson of loving our
enemies, that so, in some degree, we
may express the character of our
Father in heaven.

2. The Scripture says, " He that
loveth not his brother, abideth in
death." 1 John 3 : 14. And why does
he abide in death ? Because he has
not yet received that vital principle
which is to be derived from Christ.
The spiritual and heavenly life con-
sists in faith towards God, and in love
to our neighbor. Thus, St. John says,
"We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the
brethren." 1 John 3 : 14. Whence it
is manifest, that love is an undoubted
sign and effect of spiritual life or res-
toration to life in Christ; as hatred
to men is an infallible proof of spirit-
ual death and separation from God.

,And this spiritual death here, will end
in eternal death hereafter; of which
our Lord faithfully warns us.

3. Whoever, therefore, suffers his

90

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

heart to be filled with wrath and bit-
terness against his neighbor, ought to
know assuredly, that even his best
performances, his prayer and attend-
ance on divine worship, and other
works of that nature, are altogether
vain, and of no account before G-od.
St. Paul says, " Though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though
I give my body to be burned, and have
not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

1 Cor. 13 : 3.

4. It is, on the other hand, the
property of a noble and divine mind,
to pardon injuries. Behold how long-
suffering God is, and how easily he is
reconciled. Ps. 103 : 8. Consider the
example of Christ, the Son of God,
who, in the midst of his exquisite tor-
ments, like a patient lamb, did not so
much as " open his mouth." Isa. 53 : 7.
Contemplate the nature of the divine
Spirit, who appeared in the form of a
dove (Matt. 3 : 16), with a view that
by such a representation he might
teach us a dove-like meekness of mind,
and recommend to us that tender sim-
plicity of manners, which becomes a
true Christian. With what patience
did Moses bear the reproaches of the
people, thus deserving to be called
"very meek, above all the men which
were upon the face of the earth."
Numb. 12 : 3. Eemember also the con-
duct of David, and with what lenity
of mind he heard the curses of Shimei.

2 Sam. 16 : 10.

5. True love teaches us to be angry
with none but ourselves. True peace
consists not in having much wealth,
but in bearing patiently whatever goes
against our nature. Should a madman
rail at the sun, and curse it for being
nothing but darkness, the sun would
never be darkened by his reproachful
language, but continue his course, and
enlighten the world as before. So do

thou also, and remember that there is
no sweeter or better revenge than to
forgive. Such wise and excellent rules
were practised by many of the heathens
themselves. Pericles, the Grecian or-
ator, having patiently heard a man re-
vile him for the space of a whole day,
when night came on, kindly invited
him to his house, and entertained him
in a friendly manner, saying, "It is
easier to speak evil of virtue than to
possess it." Thus Phocion, general of
the Athenians, when he had deserved
well of his country, but through envy
was adjudged to death, and was now
about to undergo the sentence, being
asked if he had any commands for his
son, generously made answer : "None,
except that he never take measures to
revenge this injury, which I suffer of
my country." The Emperor Titus
being told that two brothers had con-
spired to cause his death, scrupled not
to invite them both to sup with him;
and in the morning went with them
to the theatre, and placed himself be-
twixt them, to behold the play. Thus
with marvellous clemency he over-
came, at last, their baseness. And
when Cato had committed suicide, J u-
lius Csesar said: "I have lost a glori-
ous victory ; for I had intended to for-
give Cato all the evil that he has done
to me."

6. But after all, as to the man who
cannot be influenced by the unspeak-
able patience and meekness of the Son
of God himself, to forgive and to love
his enemies, him neither the example
of the saints, nor of heathens, will ever
be able to melt into love and forbear-
ance. For what greater injustice and
barbarity can be conceived, than that
the Son of God should be so shame-
fully treated by the children of men,
be scourged with stripes, crowned with
thorns, spit upon, and loaded with all

Chap. XXVIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

91

the marks of scorn and derision; and
lastly, be nailed on the cross? Never-
theless, he was able to bear, with an
unshaken firmness, all the affronts and
indignities which the malice of men
was able to contrive ; nay, and freely
to pardon all this barbarous usage,
and to pray, " Father, forgive them !"
Luke 23 : 34.

7. And, truly, it was to this very
end that our blessed Eedeemer set his
example before our eyes, that it might
be an all-healing medicine for such
spiritual diseases as have seized upon
us; particularly, that it might abase
all pride and loftiness, strengthen what
is weak, supply what is defective, and
correct what is evil and out of order.
Can the distemper of pride be so vio-
lent, as not» to be healed by the pro-
found humility and lowliness of Christ?
Heb. 5 : 8. Can avarice and covetous-
ness prove so stubborn, as to baffle a
remedy derived from that sacred pov-
erty which appeared in Jesus Christ?
What wrath is so fierce and vehement,
that his meekness and lenity cannot
mollify it ? What desire of revenge so
bitter and barbarous, which his pa-
tience cannot assuage and compose?
What inhumanity so great and cruel,
which the love of Christ cannot warm

into a sweet and compassionate tem-
per? And what heart can be so hard
and obdurate, as not to be melted with
the tears of Jesus Christ himself?

8. Who would not heartily wish to
be made like God the Father, his Son,
and the Holy Ghost, and to carry
within him the excellent image of the
sacred Trinity, which chiefly consists
in love and forgiveness? For it is the
highest of all the divine properties, to
show compassion and mercy, to spare
and to pardon, to be kind and gra-
cious: and that must be undoubtedly
one of the sublimest virtues, which
makes us bear the nearest resemblance
to the Most High God, and to all such
persons as are the most conspicuous
for goodness and virtue.

9. Lastly, the highest degree 6f
virtue is, when a man, overcoming
himself, is ready at any time to forget
injuries, to pardon offences, and to
show acts of favor and clemency.
" He that is slow to anger," says Sol-
omon, " is better than the mighty : and
he that ruleth his spirit, than he that
taketh a city." Prov. 16 : 32. This is
the highest step of the soul's ascen-
sion in her spiritual exercise ; and
when she has attained it, she rests in
God, and is perfect in him.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SHOWING HOW THE LOVE OF THE CREATOR SHOULD BE PREFERRED TO THAT OF
ALL CREATURES; AND HOW OUR NEIGHBOR IS TO BE LOVED IN GOD.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. — 1 John 2 : 15.

THE heart of man is so constituted,
that it cannot exist without love ;
it must love God, or the world, or self.
If, therefore, man be under so strong

a compulsion to love, let him direct
his love to God, the supreme Good,
and give up that affection to Him,
who originally planted it in man, and

92

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

kindled it by his good Spirit ; and who
is still ready, at our fervent request,
to rekindle this flame in the soul. His
love to us is still the great principle
that produces our love to him : and
if his love to us meet with a suitable
return on our side, then his love will,
day by day, more ardently embrace
us. For love begets love, according
to the words of the Lord: "He that
loveth me shall be loved of my Fa-
ther." John 14 : 21.

2. Wherever the love of God re-
sides, it disposes the soul freely to
love all men, and not only to wish
them well, but to do them all proper
acts of love and beneficence ; this be-
ing the property of that love which is
grounded in God, and derived from
him. Such a lover of God and of his
neighbor, will never hurt or defraud
any man in word or deed.

3. But the generality of the people
are engrossed so much with the love
of the world, that they never even
admit the love of God into their
hearts. This is plain from that false
love with which they treat their
neighbor, and which, under a show of
friendship, seeks nothing but temporal
advantage. Nothing in the world
should be loved to such a degree, as
to injure the love of God, or to come
in competition with it; especially since
there is so great a vanity and vile-
ness in the world, and so great a
worth and majesty in God, as that no
comparison can ever be made betwixt
them. As God infinitely excels all his
creatures, so the love of God infinitely
excels in holiness and dignity all the
love we can bear to the creature, and
is in no wise to be compared with it.
No love to the creature ought to have
sufficient weight with us, to make us
offend the love of God, or to act in
opposition to the same.

4. St. Paul says: "Who planteth a
vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit
thereof?" 1 Cor. 9 : 7. These words
may not improperly be applied to this
case. Who is more worthy of our love,
than he that hath planted it in our
hearts, and to whose love we owe our
life and being? And as we all live by
the love of God in Christ, so we should
all adhere to this love, and make it
our constant support even in the time
of adversity. As a pilot in tempestu-
ous weather, does not leave the ship
to the mercy of the billows, but se-
cures it by the anchor as well as he
can, and stays its unruly motions; so
in like manner, when the ship of our
faith is tossed about in the sea of this
world, and beset on all sides with the
temptations of sin and vanity, of
wrath and pride, of lust and avarice,
we should hold to the love of Christ,
and not suffer our hearts to be re-
moved from that spiritual steadfast-
ness, which is to carry us safe through
all the tempests of this perverse and
boisterous world. Romans 8 : 38, 39.
Thus, when sin and death, the devil
and hell, tribulation and persecution,
and other miseries, threaten to over-
whelm us, we are then to hold fast
the love of God manifested in Christ
Jesus. This divine love is like that
mountain of salvation which was
showed to Lot when he went out of
Sodom, to escape the fire of that ac-
cursed place. Gen. 19 : 17.

5. The fire of lust, attended with
everlasting flames and torments, is
worse than that of Sodom. But the
love and fear of God are a sovereign
remedy against this profane love, and
against any motion contrary to its
pure and heavenly nature. It was
this divine fear and love which pre-
served Joseph from the enticements
of Potiphar's wife, and it still guards

Chap. XXVIII.]

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

93

us against the snares of an evil world.
Gen. 39 : 9.

6. No man can love the world, but
he who has never tasted the love of
God; nor can any man hate, defraud,
or circumvent his neighbor in any-
thing, but he that does not love God
from his heart. Whence arise all the
anxious cares of this life, that grief
and vexation of spirit with which poor
mortals are disturbed ? Surely, from
nothing but from a want of the love
of God. For the sweetness of divine
love is so strong and effectual, that it
mitigates the sense of all the miseries
that are incident to this life. This
love renders a man happy even in
death itself.

7. Again, such is the nature of love,
that it influences a man to lay aside all
thoughts about anything else, and to
fix his attention entirely on the be-
loved object, in order to possess and
enjoy that alone. Why then are the
children of men so much besotted with
the things of this world ? Why do
they not entirely forget all wealth and
honor, lust and riches, that they may
enjoy him alone, whom they profess
to love? This was in former times the
constant practice of the holy men of
God; whom the exquisite sweetness
of this divine love had so much over-
powered, as to make them forget the
whole world, and even themselves also.
Hence they were accounted fools in
the world, when at the same time they
were the wisest of all men ; and their
despisers most deserved the name of
fools and madmen, as preferring a
handful of frail and transient things,
to everlasting and never-fading pros-
perity. Those are the greatest fools,
who call the godly by that name, who,
setting their love on things above, are
deeply concerned to obtain and eter-
nally enjoy them. 1 Cor. 3 : 19; 4:10.

8. A true lover of God, loves God
as if there were nothing in the whole
universe to love but God alone. And
for this reason, he finds all that in
God, which he sought before in the
world. For God hath in himself all
things essentially, whatever we can de-
sire. He is true honor and joy ; he is
peace and pleasure ; he is wealth and
magnificence. With him are light and
life, glory and majesty, and all those
delights that the heart of man can de-
sire. All is found in a more substan-
tial and transcendent manner in God,
than it is in the world. If, therefore,
thou lovest any creature, for the sake
of beauty, transfer thy love to God,
who is the fountain of all beauty. If
thou wouldst love that which is good,
fix thy love upon God, who is the eter-
nal source of all goodness, nay, the es-
sential Good itself, and without whom
there is no goodness at all. Matt. 19 :
17. For whatever goodness the crea-
ture may seem to possess, it is but an
inconsiderable drop derived out of the
ocean of the infinite goodness of God,
and which is besides impaired by many
frailties and imperfections that adhere
to it.

9. To conclude — is it not far better
to set thy love and affections on God
alone, the unexhausted fountain and
well-spring of all perfection and good-
ness ? The less a thing has of earthly
gravity in it, the lighter it is, and the
more easily is it carried upwards. So
it is with the soul ; the more it cleaves
to earthly things, and is pressed down
by them to the ground, the less ability
has it to raise itself to God, and re-
joice in its Maker. In a word, the
less a man loves this world, the more
will the love of God and of his neigh-
bor prevail in the soul.

10. Hence it follows that he that

94

TBUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

loveth God, cannot but love his neigh-
bor also, and he that dares to offend

God, will not forbear to offend his
neighbor.

CHAPTER XXIX.

OF THAT RECONCILIATION TO OUR NEIGHBOR, WITHOUT WHICH GOD WITHDRAWS

HIS GRACE.
First be reconciled to thy brother. — Matt. 5 : 24.

EYEEY one who desires to be rec-
onciled to God, must of necessity
endeavor to reconcile himself to his
neighbor; because God takes the in-
jury which is offered to man, as of-
fered to himself, and the evil done to
man, as done to himself.

2. When, therefore, any one offends
both God and man, he cannot be re-
stored to the favor of God before he is
reconciled to man his neighbor; for
having offended them both, he must
also be reconciled to both, which is
expressly attested by Christ himself:
" If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother
hath aught against thee, leave there
thy gift before the altar, and go thy
way; first be reconciled to thy brother,
and then come and offer thy gift."
Matt. 5 : 23, 24.

3. It will be needful, therefore, to
say something further of the love of
God and of our neighbor, and to show
how impossible it is to separate the
one from the other: and again, that
this reconciliation, so joined together,
proves the true source of brotherly
love and affection.

4. This the beloved disciple has ex-
pressed as follows : " If a man say, I
love God, and hateth his brother, he
is a liar: for he that loveth not his
brother whom ho hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen ?

And this commandment have we from
him, that he that loveth God love his
brother also." 1 John 4 : 20, 21. So
utterly impossible is it, that the love
of God should subsist without the love
of our neighbor. Hence, also, it fol-
lows, that he who truly and unfeign-
edly loves God, will also embrace his
neighbor with the same sincere affec-
tion. And again, if the love which we
profess to bear to God be hypocritical
and false, then the love with which we
seem to love our neighbor, will rise no
higher than its principle, but prove
false likewise. Therefore, the love of
our neighbor is the test of our love of
God, by the right application of which,
the truth or falsehood of that love will
easily be discovered.

5. This consideration gives us a true
insight into the love of our neighbor,
and that brotherly reconciliation which
ought to attend it. There is a twofold
object given by God to man, to which
all the actions of his life are constantly
to tend; namely, the love of God, and
of our neighbor. Into this, all our en-
deavors ought finally to be resolved,
and we ought to make a daily progress
in this holy exercise; since we are to
this very end, created, redeemed, and
sanctified. In a word, Christ himself
is the one and only scope in which all
our actions ought to centre. Now, the
more we approach to love, the more

Chap. XXIX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

95

we approach to Christ, and the better
we imitate his unblamable life.

6. For this end God was made man,
or, the "Word was made flesh, that he
might set before our eyes a most lovely
and living image of his infinite love
and kindness, and that from hence it
might appear, that God was Love
itself; love in His own immense, in-
comprehensible, and unsearchable es-
sence; and that man, by viewing so
amiable an object of love as is dis-
played in Christ Jesus, might be trans-
formed into the same image day by
day.

7. Furthermore, as, in Christ, God
and man are united together by an in-
dissoluble tie, so the love of God is so
closely connected with the love of our
neighbor, that the former cannot exist
without the latter. Nay, the love of
God and of our neighbor can be no
more disjoined or put asunder, than the
divine and human natures in Christ.
And as he who injures the humanity
of Christ cannot bat affront his divin-
ity also; so he who offends man, is in
like manner guilty of offending the
infinite God himself. We cannot be
angry with our neighbor, without
being, at the same time, angry with
God!

8. We will illustrate what has been
said, by the following comparison.
When a circle is made, and from its
centre a number of lines are drawn
to the circumference, all these lines,
though ever so distant in the circum-
ference, meet together in the point,
which is in the middle. Here they
are all united in one, and all flow into
one, be they ever so wide asunder,
yea, even directly opposite one to the
other. Not one of all the lines, let
their number be ever so great, can be
broken from the rest, without losing
its communication with the centre it-

self, wherein they all meet. So God
is a point, or a centre, whose circum-
ference is everywhere, extending in a
manner, to all men upon earth. Who-
ever presumes to break off the lines
of his love from his neighbor, must,
in like manner, disjoin and break them
off from God at the same time. And
as all these lines cohere and concur in
the centre, and therein mutually af-
fect one another, so is there a sort of
central sympathy, and a fellow-feel-
ing, as it were, of the sufferings of our
neighbor, provided we be but all united
in God, the great centre of all good
Christians.

9. The truth of what has been said,
is forcibly illustrated in the history of
Job. When the tidings were brought
him, that his temporal goods were
destroyed, it appears that he quietly
bore the loss of them, without giving
any great sign of discontent at the
appointments of Providence. He still
continued to bless the Lord, and freely
to own, that he who had given him his
property, had also a right to take it
away whenever he pleased. But when
he was told, that he had also lost his
children, then indeed it went to his
heart: then he "arose, and rent his
mantle, and shaved his head, and fell
down upon the ground." Job. 1:20. So
let every true Christian act when he
hears of the calamity of his neighbor
(here represented by the children of
Job) ; knowing that he ought more to
be affected with the misery of his
neighbor, than with the loss of all his
worldly substance. For it is the prop-
erty of true love, to be moved with
the miseries of other men more than
with our own losses. O, happy men !
if they would live together in mutual
love and affection ! Then frauds would
cease; then injuries would be known
no more, nor would there be any com-

96

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

plaint of unjust ways, or of underhand
dealings.

10. In order that this might be the
more deeply impressed on the heart,
God was pleased to create but one man
in the beginning, together with Eve,
who was soon afterwards made. Gen.
2 : 21, 22. This was done, that all man-
kind, springing up from one original
stock, and, as it were, from one root,
might all unite in mutual kindness and
brotherly affection with one another.
This is the reason why God did not
create a multitude of men in the be-
ginning, but one only ; whereas he cre-
ated many beasts, trees and herbs at
once.

11. The love which God commands
us to pursue, is of that agreeable na-
ture, and of that incomparable sweet-
ness, that it does not in the least bur-
den either a man's soul or body. Nay,
it renders the mind easy under every
event, is most agreeable to our very
nature, and in every respect attended
with a quiet and blessed life. But if
the same God who has enjoined thee
to love thy neighbor, had commanded
thee to hate him, thou wouldest then
have had cause to complain of hard
usage, and of a far heavier burden than
that which love can possibly impose
upon thee. For the spirit of hatred
and revenge is a tormentor of the soul,
and a daily grief and vexation to those
that are enslaved by it. On the con-
trary, love refreshes the whole man;
and is so far from weakening or de-
stroying body or soul (which is the
common effect of hatred and envy),
that it is a great preserver of both,
and exhilarates them by the heal-
ing influence which it carries with it.
In a word, to those that love God, it
is a pleasure to love their neighbor
also; but those who do not love God
think it a hard and difficult task to

embrace their neighbor with brotherly
love.

12. But if thy depraved nature should
still find it a hard task to love thy
neighbor, then consider how much
harder it will be to be banished for-
ever from the presence of God, and to
endure the pangs of hell to all eternity.
Wretched is the man, who makes so
sad a choice as to prefer hell-torments
to a friendly reconciliation. Our own
experience would soon convince us, if
we made the trial, that as by faith we
enjoy solid peace with God (as the
apostle assures us, Rom. 5:1); so by
Christian love and reconciliation we
enjoy peace with men, together with
much ease and tranquillity of heart:
whereas, on the contrary, a mind full
of rancor and malice frets itself, and
has no other reward to expect than the
lashes of an unruly conscience.

13. The sum of all this is : Every
virtue rewards its followers with peace
of conscience ; and every vice punishes
those that commit it with the recom-
pense which they deserve. Every vir-
tue exalts those that practise it; and
every vice covers its slaves with
shame.

14. With regard to the order and
method by which we are to proceed
in working out a sound reconciliation
with our offended neighbor, the Scrip-
ture is explicit. The terms of recon-
ciliation are these: 1. The offender is
to confess his sin to his neighbor whom
he has offended. 2. He is faithfully to
restore that of which he has defrauded
his neighbor; that is, he ought to re-
turn not only the principal, but also
the fifth part over and above it. 3. If
there be none to receive it, he is then
to offer it unto the Lord himself.
Numb. 5 : 7, 8.

15. This restitution of things un-
lawfully taken away, is commanded

Chap. XXIX.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

97

in such strong and expressive words,
as to show that it is absolutely a nec-
essary part of unfeigned repentance.
St. Augustine has thus expressed his
mind on this subject : " The sin is not
remitted, unless the thing unlawfully
taken away be restored." — " When the
thing that is taken away may be re-
stored, and is not restored, there is no
true, but a feigned repentance."

16. And truly it is the property of
unfeigned repentance to contemn all
earthly things, and count them as loss
(Phil. 3 : 8), in respect of that abound-
ing grace which is bestowed upon a
penitent sinner. Of this we have a
glorious instance in Zaccheus, and in
his conversion to God (Luke 19:8);
who has had, however, comparatively
few followers in this age. Sound con-
version to God cleanses the heart, and
purifies the conscience, by faith in
Christ; it breaks the power of sin,
and by influencing a man to restore
such things as are wrongfully de-
tained, not only clears the heart be-
fore God, but also the outward conduct
in the eye of the world. For in the
heart and conscience a man is a thief
before God, as long as he keeps any
thing back that is taken away, how-
ever he may cease to steal hereafter.
Therefore, in order that repentance
may prove true, and the conscience be
freed from guilt, all possible restitu-
tion is to be made: or if a man be not
able to make full restitution, he ought
fervently to implore the Lord, that he
himself, in his stead, would restore the
things taken from his neighbor, and
thus do justice.

17. Since a sinner is thus bound in
a twofold respect to God and to his
neighbor, in order that his repentance
may be full and efficacious, it is re-
quired that both be satisfied. God
does not accept any man's repentance,

unless he be first reconciled to his
neighbor. Therefore, it is to no pur-
pose if thou shouldest say unto God:
"Merciful God, I confess that I have
offended and injured my neighbor; I
have damaged him by wicked usury
and fraud; and have dealt so with
him, as I would not that another
should deal with me : which iniquity
I humbly entreat thee, O Lord, to par-
don for thy dear Son's sake." Be not de-
ceived; God will not be mocked! He
repels thy prayer, and saith : " Bestore
first that which with fraud and. usury
thou hast taken from thy neighbor, and
then thy pardon shall be ready." Not
as if a man merited the pardon of God
by this restitution ; this is a debt due
to his neighbor, and how can he pre-
tend to merit any thing by that resti-
tution which he is so engaged to make,
and which the law of God expressly
enjoins ? For thus hath the Lord com-

manded : "All things whatsoever

ye

would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them." Matt. 7 : 12. " For
with the same measure that ye mete
withal, it shall be measured to you
again." Luke 6 : 38.

18. The same truth is confirmed by
the following Scriptures :. " Leave thy
gift (oblation or sacrifice) before the
altar and go thy way ; first be recon-
ciled to thy brother, and then come
and offer thy gift." Matt. 5 : 24. "Cease
to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judg-
ment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow. Come
now, and let us reason together, saith.
the Lord : though your sins be as scar-
let, they shall be as white as snow ;
though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." Isa. 1 : 16-18. And
again, by the same prophet the Lord
thus reasons: "Is not this the fast
that I have chosen ? to loose the bands-
of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur-

98

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

dens, and to let the oppressed go free,
and that ye break every yoke ? Is it
not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
and that thou bring the poor that are
cast out to thy house? when thou
seest the naked that thou cover him,
and that thou hide not thyself from
thine own flesh ? Then shall thy light
break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily ; and
thy righteousness shall go before thee;

the glory of the Lord shall be thy
rearward." Isa. 58 : 6-8.

19. All these Scriptures, with one
consent, proclaim this great truth, —
that God will not accept the repent-
ance of any man, or hear his prayer,
or regard his alms and oblations, un-
less he be first reconciled to his neigh-
bor, and make him all the restitution
that is in his power.

CHAPTER XXX.

OF THE FRUITS OF LOVE

Vharity suffer eth long, und is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. — 1 Cor. 13 : 4-7.

EVEN as the tree of life stood in
the midst of Paradise (Gen. 2 : 9);
so Jesus Christ stands in the Paradise
of the Christian Church, in order that
all believers might derive life and
strength from him. The whole sub-
stance of the Christian religion con-
sists in faith and love. As by faith in
Christ, the life of a Christian is ren-
dered acceptable to God (the life
which he lives being not so much his
own, as the life of Christ in him); so
Love proves the fruitful principle of
all such charitable acts as relate to his
neighbor. And so true is it, that all
virtues, how shining soever they may
be, are of no account without charity;
that even faith itself is counted dead
if it be without love. James 2 : 17.
For although faith, as it respects jus-
tification, has no regard to works,
either preceding, accompanying, or
following it, but to Jesus Christ only,

on whom it lays hold; yet is that faith
but mere show and pretence which is
not attended with love, though it
should even work miracles. For as a
body destitute of a soul is dead; so
the inward spiritual man, if he have
not love, is dead in all his members.
Therefore hath the apostle declared,
that faith should work by love. Gal.
5:6. It is true that faith justifies a
sinner without works (Rom. 4:6): yet
when it performs the functions of mu-
tual love among men, it will neces-
sarily be accompanied with a train of
good works; this being the true test
by which genuine faith can be dis-
tinguished from all counterfeits. This
is that faith which works by love;
this is the tree which bears abundance
of fruits, as from the following con-
siderations will farther appear.

2. The first of these fruits is long-
suffering. "Charity suffereth long."

Chap. XXX.]

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

99

The nature and constitution of this
virtue no one ever more fully ex-
pressed than Christ himself, the true
tree of life, whose goodly and salutary
fruits we ought to eat, and to convert
into our own substance and nature.
As he by bis wonderful long-suffering
bore the malice of the world, that
thereby sinners might be brought to
repentance (Eom. 2:4); so do thou
also, O man, order thy life and man-
ners, that it may appear evident, that
the meek and gentle Christ lives in
thee, and that thou mayest continue
in him, as a member firmly united to
its head.

3. The second fruit is kindness.
"Charity is kind." This virtue was
also most eminently seen in Christ
Jesus, and in that example which he
hath set us. David says: "Grace is
poured into thy lips." Ps. 45 : 2. And
the Evangelist tells us, that "they
wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth." Luke
4 : 22. To these words do thou give
attention, O man, and follow this
great pattern of love and benignity,
that so Christ may also speak by thy
mouth, and that thou mayest remain
united to him in perpetual charity.

4. The third fruit is, not to be envi-
ous and revengeful, but to be ready to
remit any offence whatsoever. "Char-
ity envieth not." Nothing is more
agreeable to the nature of God, than
to forgive. "The Lord is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous
in mercy. He will not always chide,
neither will he keep his anger forever.
He hath not dealt with us after our
sins, nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities." Ps. 103:8-10. "If the
wicked will turn from all his sins that
he committed, and keep all my stat-
utes, and do that which is lawful and
right, he shall surely live, he shall not

die. All his transgressions that he
hath committed, they shall not be men-
tioned unto him; in his righteousness
that he hath done, he shall live." Ezek.
18:21,22. "Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he a pleasant child ? For since I
spake against him, I do earnestly re-
member him still; therefore my bowels
are troubled for him; I will surely
have mercy upon him, saith the Lord."
Jer. 31 : 20. And lastly, this divine
goodness is most clearly expressed by
Isaiah, and represented as the very
character of God : " I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions,
for my own sake, and will not re-
member thy sins." Isa. 43 : 25. There-
fore be thou in this respect also like
unto the merciful God. Forgive, I
say, and forget the trespasses of thy
neighbor, that so, in like manner,
Christ may also forgive thine offences
and transgressions. It is then that
the same mind is in thee which was
also in Christ. And in this order
alone thou shalt obtain fellowship with
him.

5. The fourth fruit is candor. " Cha-
rity vaunteth not itself." A kind and
charitable man does not misjudge his
neighbor, vaunt it over him, rashly
censure him, or disingenuously de-
ride him before others. True love is
altogether averse to these unfair pro-
ceedings. Whoever sincerely loves
his neighbor, shows his heart in his
countenance, and does all things in-
genuously, and without guile. A visi-
ble example hereof Christ himself hath
left us, whose deportment was equal
both to friends and enemies, and who
from the bottom of his heart endeav-
ored most earnestly to promote the
salvation of mankind. Let this be an
example to thee, O man, and follow
in thy Master's footsteps, that so the
candor which was in Christ, may also

100

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[Book I.

shine forth in thy life and conduct.
As the Lord has most heartily es-
poused our good and interest, so ought
we in like manner, to do the same
among ourselves also; if we wish to
partake of the nature of Christ, and
to be united to him, as living mem-
bers to their Head and Saviour.

6. The fifth fruit is, not to be " puffed
up." Charity is not of a haughty and
supercilious temper. It is not swelled
with high conceit on account of its
own deeds and performances. Behold
again thy Lord Jesus ! When a wo-
man, in a great concourse of people,
lifted up her voice and said: "Blessed
is the womb that bare thee, and the
paps which thou hast sucked," "Yea,"
replied he, "rather blessed are they
that hear the word of God and keep
it " (Luke 11 : 27, 28) ; humbly remov-
ing from himself that praise which
was entirely due to him, and resigning
it to those that truly loved the Lord.
If thou also resolvest to do this, then
verily the humble Jesus lives in thee,
and thou livest in him ; it being the
constant character of true charity, to
transfer the praises of men to another
whom it esteems more worthy of
them.

7. The sixth effect of charity is, "not
to behave itself unseemly." A man en-
dued with love, is not easily soured
with discontent, or with any morose
humor. His conversation is easy,
obliging, and so concordant with all
the offices of love and humanity, that
the kindness residing within may even
be read in his countenance. Of this
sweetness of temper, the Lord Jesus
hath left us a most bright and holy
pattern. He did all with a spirit of
mildness; and when he conversed with
sinners, then pity and compassion vis-
ibly appeared in his very mien and
aspect. This sweet temper of Christ

ought also to be transfused into our
souls, so that our life may prove a
transcript of this most blessed origi-
nal.

8. The seventh fruit of true love is,
" not to seek her own." A true Christian
has by love obtained such enlargement
and liberty of soul, as to serve his fel-
low-creatures freely, without any view
to self-interest. Nothing is more pleas-
ing to him than to do good to all with-
out the least expectation of gain. This
pure and disinterested love originally
dwells in Cod Almighty. He gives all
things freely, without receiving any
profit at all. He commands us to fear
and worship him, for no other reason
than to make us proper objects of his
divine love and benignity. And, lo!
what a glorious pattern of disinter-
ested love Christ has set before us !
Matt. 20 : 28. As a tree, without re-
spect of persons, imparts its fruit to
all in the most ample and universal
manner; so has Christ, and God in
Christ, given himself unto us as the
greatest and most excellent Good. Go
now, O man ! and practise the same
virtue; that so Christ, the ever-living
vine, may bud in thee, and that thou
mayest become a fruitful plantation
of the Lord. Isaiah 61 : 3.

9. The eighth fruit of true love is,
" not to be easily provoked." A man
that has tasted of true love, is not apt
to entertain any bitterness, much less
to vent it by cursing and railing words.
Contemplate again the life of Jesus,
who did not so much as open his mouth
against his enemies, nor pour forth
any bitter and vehement speeches, but
gave blessing and life to those that
hated him. Isaiah 11:3; 42:2. And
though he, indeed, denounced wrath
against Chorazin, Capernaum, and
Bethsaida, and uttered many woes
against the Pharisees (Luke 10 : 13 ;

Chap. XXX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

101

11 :42); yet this did not proceed from
a bitter or revengeful temper ; but was
no more than a serious and earnest
exhortation to true and unfeigned re-
pentance, that so the offenders might
at last be saved. Therefore, let us be
cautious, lest any root of bitterness
should at any time spring up in us,
and so hinder our charity, and thus
many be offended. Heb. 12 : 15.

10. The ninth fruit of charity is, "to
think no evil." This is also the prop-
erty of God Almighty, as he himself
testifies: "For I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, saith the
Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of
evil, to give you an expected e^d.
And ye shall seek me, and find me,
when ye shall search for me with all
your heart." Jer. 29 : 11, 13. Whence
it follows that whosoever has thoughts
of peace towards his neighbor, has the
mind of Christ, and is animated and
influenced by his Spirit.

11. The tenth fruit is, "Loverejoic-
eth not in iniquity," nor has it pleas-
ure in the injury or oppression of good
men, as Shimei had when David fled
before Absalom. 2 Sam. 16 : 5, 6. On
the contrary, true love imitates Christ
Jesus, who, with a tender compassion,
beholding with a mournful counte-
nance, the fall of Peter (Luke 22 : 61),
raised and reclaimed him, and thereby
fulfilled the words of the Psalmist :
" God raises them that are bowed
down." Ps. 146 : 8. And how did he
deplore the evil which was hanging
over the men of Judea, and the de-
struction of their temple and city!
Luke 19 : 41 ; 15 : 4. With what fer-
vency, with what a hearty desire, did
he bring his wandering sheep into the
right way ; and with what a sweet
and gentle voice did he allure them
home ! Let us imitate so great a mas-
ter of love; and if any one be over-

taken in a fault, let us bewail his case,
instruct him in the spirit of meekness,
and bear his burden, that so we may
fulfil the law of Christ. Gal. 6:2.
For he did first bear himself the bur-
den of our sins, that we, being made
his living members, might be formed
to the same temper by him, who is the
Head of the Church.

12. The eleventh property of charity
is, that it " rejoiceth in the truth," and
is exceedingly pleased with a Chris-
tian order of things. Of this we have
an example in Christ Jesus, who, at
the return of the seventy disciples, re-
joiced in spirit and praised his Father
for the success which had attended
their function. Luke 10 : 21. Thus also
the angels in heaven rejoice (as Christ
himself teaches us), over the conver-
sion of a sinner. Luke 15 : 10. Who-
ever, therefore, seriously lays to heart
the practice of so Christian a virtue,
manifests thereby an angelical temper
of mind: nay, it is a proof that the
very mind of Christ, yea, of God him-
self, resides in that soul.

13. The twelfth fruit of charity is, to
" bear all things," in order to preserve
the bond of peace and of mutual friend-
ship. Love patiently bears the infirmi-
ties of others, after the example of St.
Paul, who was made weak with the
weak, that he might profit the weak :
nay, he was made all things, if by any
means he might be an instrument to
save some. 1 Cor. 9 : 22. The same
heavenly love believeth all things, and
suspects no evil of its neighbor ; hopeth
all things, praying and desiring that
peace and happiness may constantly
accompany our fellow-creatures. And,
lastly, true love endureth all things for
the sake of benefiting a neighbor; all
which our blessed Eedeemer, by his
own example, has most feelingly taught
us. He bore all manner of reproaches

102

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book I.

and injuries for our sins; he underwent
most inhuman scourgings and buffet-
ings, with extreme poverty, that in
him, and by him, we might obtain
everlasting joy and honor.

14. The thirteenth fruit of love is,
"not to faint or be weary," in doing
good. Herein it is like G-od, whose
mercy is from everlasting to everlast-
ing upon those that fear him. Ps.
103 : 17 ; Luke 1 : 50. God expects and
waits that he may be gracious unto
us. Isa. 30 : 18. In order that he might
have mercy on us, he rose up to spare
us, and he loves to be exalted in show-
ing mercy. His love is stronger than
death, which many waters are not
able to quench, and from which noth-
ing can ever separate us. Cant. 8 : 7.
He hath mercy on us with everlasting
mercies. And though he declares, on
a certain occasion, that he is "weary
with repenting" (J er. 15:6); yet is
this confined to those only who wil-
fully reject the tender of his mercy,
who despise his grace, and abuse his
goodness : and in no wise affects those
that heartily fear him. " The moun-
tains shall depart, and the hills be re-
moved; but my kindness shall not de-
part from thee, neither shall the cove-
nant of my peace be removed, saith
the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
Isa. 54 : 10. After this standard of di-
vine mercy, we ought also to regulate

the love we bear to our neighbor, so
that it may never fail or faint in acts
of humanity and kindness; no, not
even in those which we are bound to
bestow on our very enemies. As Christ
did, so ought we, from a compassion-
ate and never-failing love, to pray,
" Father, forgive them." Luke 23 : 34.
15. In a word, Love is the greatest,
the best, and the noblest of all virtues.
First, because God himself is love. 1
John 4 : 16. Secondly, because it is
the fulfilling and the summary or com-
prehension of the whole law. Eom.
13 : 10. Thirdly, because it is eternal
and never-failing, so that it is not like
faith and hope, which vanish away
wThen that happiness appears which is
the end of faith. 1 Cor. 13:8. Fourthly,
because all good works and services
done to our neighbor without it, are
vain and of no account before God.
And lastly, because love gives us an
assurance here, that by faith in Christ
we shall inherit life eternal hereafter.
Hence it follows, that Christian love
must excel all other gifts and
whatsoever
cern ought to centre in so divine a
virtue. Nothing, certainly, can be
greater than experimentally to know
that love of Christ which "passeth all
knowledge," that we may be filled
with all the fulness of God, and the
fruits of love. Eph. 3 : 19.

~ graces
and that our main con-

Chap. XXXI.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

103

CHAPTER XXXI.

PRIDE AND SELF-LOVE CORRUPT AND DESTROY EVEN THE BEST AND NOBLEST

GIFTS.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become a»
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, etc. — 1 Cor. 13 : 1, etc.

LEST any should wonder why St.
Paul sets forth the virtue of
charity with so many high and emi-
nent praises ; we are to consider that
Cod is love; and that, consequently,
the same praise belongs to both : nor
can there be a greater virtue in Cod
or man, than love.

2. But our love is twofold: the one
true, living, sincere, and undefiled;
the other false, polluted, hypocritical,
and selfish. The former of these St.
Paul has most amply described, and
exhibited all the fruits and properties j
that attend it, of which we have al- I
ready spoken. The latter kind, which
is false and polluted, may sometimes
seem, indeed, to promote the glory of
God, and the profit of mankind; yet
inwardly, and in the heart, it seeks
nothing either in word or deed, but
private honor and interest only. Now
whatever flows from this fountain of
false love, proceeds not from Cod, but
from the devil; for it is a poison in-
fecting the very best of works, and
the most excellent gifts conferred on
man.

3. As a flower, that in sight, taste,
and smell, is sweet and beautiful, is re-
jected with disgust, if it contain secret
venom, because it is hurtful to man ;
so, though a man be adorned with the :
most exquisite parts, and the very gifts
of angels themselves, if he be void of
charity, and full of avarice, pride, self-
love, and self-honor, then all those gifts
not only prove of no value, but be-

come pernicious to him that possesses
them. For whatever is really good,
always proceeds from Cod himself, so
as to begin and end in him. Whatever
deviates from this beginning and end,.
can never be really good, nor accept-
able to the Lord. That which this good
Cod works in thy heart, is truly good,
and only good : but it is quite other-
wise if self-love, self-honor, and self-
interest, bear the sway in thy soul,
and influence the actions of thy life.
All that springs from so depraved a
principle, must be of the same nature
with the principle whence it flows,
corrupt and defiled, since it does not
proceed from God as from its original
cause and moving principle; God alone
is good. Matt. 19 : 17.

4. It is said that it was the wish of
a certain saint of old, that he might
be of no other use to God, than his
own right hand was to himself; an in-
strument, ready to give and to receive
what was fit, and this in the manner-
directed by the soul ; arrogating nei~
ther honor nor profit to itself. And,,
indeed, it is right that we all should
be of the same temper. For as all
things come freely from God to us, so-
we should return all things freely to.
our neighbor, from a principle of pure-
love, and in true singleness of heart,,
without any desire of glory or self-in-
terest. For as God alone is the author-
of all that is good; so it is but just
that all honor and glory should be-
given to him alone. Man is but an in-

104

TBUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

ßtrument, made fit to receive and to
deliver what God bestows upon him.

5. Now if a man be without this
sincere and pure love, he is, notwith-
standing all his gifts and endowments,
a mere nothing, and of no account in
the sight of God. Though he speak
with the tongues of angels; though he
prophesy, and know all mysteries, and
have such faith as even to remove
mountains; and though he should
moreover bestow all that he has
among the poor, and give his body
to be burned ; all this will avail him
nothing at last, and stand him in no
stead when he is to have his trial. 1
Cor. 13 : 1-3.

6. The reason is plain. Self-love,
self-honor, and self-interest, are of the
devil, who thereby procured his own
downfall from heaven. For after God
had created Lucifer a most glorious
angel, and adorned him with the most
excellent gifts of wisdom, light, and
glory, he began to pride himself in his
gifts, and to love, honor, and exalt
himself. This self-complacency proved
the very first step to his ruin. He
turned his love from God to himself,
and was deservedly driven from his
principality, together with all such as
adhered to him, and whom he had in-
fected with the same pride and self-
love. Not contented with his estate
or principality, he aspired too high,
and lost all which the Creator had con-
ferred upon him, according to St.
Jude : " The angels kept not their first
estate." Jude 6. See also Col. 2 : 15.

7. By the same sin which had ef-
fected his own ruin, Satan attempted
the ruin of man, namely, by diverting
him from the love of God to the love
■of himself. Hereby self-love and self-
'honor began to act in man, and influ-
enced him to seek equality with God
Ihimself. Hence he was cast out of

Paradise, as Lucifer had been before
cast out of heaven, leaving to us all
the heritage of pride and self-love.
And this is the fall of Adam, which
all men in themselves repeat; and
which is transmitted through flesh and
blood, from one generation to another.

8. The remedy by which a thorough
cure may be wrought in fallen man, is
wholly to be sought in the precious
merit of Christ apprehended by faith.
By this we are renewed in Christ, and
the flesh is crucified, with its sinful
desires. Then we love ourselves no
more, but on the contrary, even hate
ourselves. Luke 14 : 26. We do not
honor or extol, but deny and mortify
ourselves. We no more seek our own
glory and interest ; but, denying all
we have, we withdraw our pleasure
and trust from everything whatsoever
it be (Luke 14 : 33), and manfully fight
with our own flesh and blood. Who-
soever refuses to comply with these
terms, can in no case be a disciple of
Christ; since this is the only means
by which the natural degeneracy of
our heart is to be subdued, and a sound
conversion is to be effected.

9. Since it was utterly impossible
that man, by his own natural strength,
should restore himself (for of himself,
he can do nothing but love himself,
boast of himself, and seek his own ends
and interest; or, to sum up all' in a
word, commit sin); God, in his infinite
mercy, was moved to commiserate
man's fallen condition, and to make
the very beginning of the work of
man's restoration. In order to this,
the Son of God took the form of a man
upon him, thereby to renew our nature,
that, being regenerated by him, in him,
and from him, we might become new
creatures. For as in Adam we are
dead both bodily and spiritually, so
w# ought to rise again in Christ, and

Chap. XXXI.J

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

105

be renewed both in spirit and body.
1 Cor. 15 : 22. And as by a carnal
descent from Adam, sin, self-love and
pride cleave to our nature; so in
Christ, by a spiritual birth, we must be
justified, and inherit by faith his right-
eousness. And, as by our carnal birth,
we draw our sin from Adam, especially
self-love, pride, and ambition ; so from
Christ, by faith, and by the Holy
Ghost, our nature is to be renewed,
cleansed, and sanctified. All self-love,
pride, and ambition, are to die in us, in
order that we may attain a new heart
and a new spirit from Christ, even as
we received our sinful flesh from Adam.
And with reference to this new birth
in us, Christ is called the everlasting
Father. Isaiah 9 : 6.

10. Hence it follows, that all the
works of a Christian, together with his
gifts and talents, ought to proceed
purely from the new birth, if ever they
be acceptable to God; and that they
ought to spring from faith, from Christ,
and from the Holy Ghost. Wherever
this principle is wanting, there the
most excellent parts, and even miracles
themselves, are of no account at all
before God. So with respect to our
neighbor, all things ought to be done
in Christian charity (1 Cor. 16 : 14),
without any view to private gain, or
honor ; as a pattern of which God has
set his Son before us (John 13 : 15),
in whom there was no spot of self-love

or arrogance j no desire of profit or
praise ; nay, in whom nothing resided
but pure and undefiled love and humil-
ity. He is inwardly to live in our
hearts by faith, and outwardly to be
expressed in our whole life and con-
duct. It is then, that all our works,
words, and knowledge, wholly proceed
from Christ, as from their original
source. Without this divine principle
settled within the mind, all our gifts
and works, be they ever so high and
angelical, are insignificant, and of no
worth. For wherever self-love sways
the soul, there must be a hatred of
God; where pride rules, it engenders a
contempt of God; and how can works
springing from so vitiated a principle,
ever be acceptable to the Lord?

11. Let us, therefore, most fervently
beseech the Lord, to give us true faith
and sincere love; a love not defiled
with any desire of vain honor, profit,
and glory. Whenever this divine tem-
per is obtained and established in the
heart, it is followed with this happy
effect, that thereby not only great and
illustrious endowments and works are
made acceptable to God, but also the
least and meanest of all, even the gift
of a cup of cold water. Matt. 10 : 42.
For a small work proceeding from sin-
cere love and humility, is far more ex-
cellent than all the splendid works
that are raised on no other foundation
than pride and self-love.

106

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THAT WORKS BY LOVE.

The kingdom of God is not in word, but in poioer. — 1 Cor. 4 : 20.

ST. PAUL, intending to describe a
Christian in a few words, says:
" The end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeign-
ed/' 1 Tim. 1 : 5. As if he had said:
To be a Christian, and to render our-
selves acceptable in the sight of God,
requires nothing hard and lofty; no
worldly wisdom, no human learning,
no great parts, no gift of prophesy-
ing, no eloquence, no knowledge of
tongues, no miracles: but only that a
man have faith in Christ; that he do
all things in love, and with a mind
wholly resigned to God; and that he
suffer himself to be led and governed
by the good Spirit of God.

2. We should not, therefore, regard
how many languages a man speaks, or
how eloquent he is in his delivery;
but how he shows forth his faith by
love, and by the mortification of the
flesh. " For they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts" (Gal. 5:24): under which
are included self-esteem, self-love, cov-
etousness, vain-boasting, ambition, self-
interest, and all else that is carnal. To
which purpose also St. Paul says, that
" the kingdom of God is not in word,"
or in great gifts and endowments,
"but in power" (ICor. 4: 20); that is,
in a living exercise of Christian vir-
tues, of faith, love, meekness, patience,
and humility.

3. Therefore, no man is in favor with
God, or is saved, because he is endued

with brighter gifts than others; but
because he is found in Christ Jesus by
faith, and lives in him as a new crea-
ture. 2 Cor. 5 : 17. Great gifts do not
make us happy. If a man had at-
tained to gifts so extraordinary and
marvellous as never any possessed
before, yet would he be certainly cast
away, unless he lived at the same
time in the exercise of daily repent-
ance in Christ, in a ready abnegation
of the world, and in a denial of him-
self, and of all his selfish desires. Nay,
if he did not hate and forsake him-
self, so as to place his whole confi-
dence in God alone, and to cleave to
his grace, as an infant to the breast
of the mother, he would be forever
banished from the presence of God,
notwithstanding all his gifts and all
his endowments.

4. It is certain that gifts and parts
are not bestowed upon us in order to
make us great here, and happy here-
after; but they are wholly dispensed
for the edification of the Church.
When the seventy disciples, at their
return, said with joy, "Lord, even the
devils are subject unto us through
thy name " (Luke 10 : 17, 20) ; our
Lord replied: "In this rejoice not (for
neither miracles nor gifts shall save
you), but rejoice rather because your
names are written in heaven." By
faith Moses was saved, not by his
miracles. Aaron's eloquence did not
the more endear him to God. And
Miriam, the sister of Moses, who was

Chap. XXXII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

107

endued with the gift of prophecy, and
by whom the Spirit of the Lord spoke,
was struck with the leprosy. Numb.
12 : 10.

5. The apostles themselves did not
enter into the kingdom of heaven be-
cause of the miracles which they per-
formed, nor on account of the gift of
tongues conferred upon them, but be-
cause they believed in Christ, the Sa-
viour of the world. Those of the first
rank, and those of the meanest con-
dition, must tread in the same way of
faith and humility, of repentance and
mortification, and become new crea-
tures in Christ through faith and love;
in whom Christ also may live again
by this faith. Whoever neglects this
order, cannot expect to be accounted
one of the family of Christ.

6. Christian love is that new vital
principle by which a man is actuated
to do good. This is attended with the
life of Christ, and the powerful in-
dwelling of the divine Sjririt. To this
purpose the apostle desires, that we
may be filled with all the fulness of
God (Eph. 3 : 19) : and St. John tells
us, that "God is love, and that he who
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and
God in him." 1 John 4 : 16. Whoever,
therefore, feels the love of God shed
abroad in his heart, feels no less than
God himself there. However, in order
that we might not deceive ourselves
with a false and hypocritical, instead

of a true and divine love, the apostle
has drawn up the character thereof,
and represented it as a tree adorned
with numerous branches : " Love,"
says he, "is patient, kind," etc. 1 Cor.
13. All which are the essential prop-
erties of Christians, and consequently
the life of the new man.

7. To sum up all in a few words,
God the Father is love, God the Son
is love, God the Holy Ghost is love.
The whole spiritual body of Christ,
which is the Church, is also knit to-
gether by the bond of love; so that
there is but one God, one Christ, one
Spirit, one baptism, one faith (Eph.
4:5, 6); and lastly, eternal life itself
shall be nothing else but eternal love.

8. Whoever, therefore, does not live
in love, is certainly a dead member of
the body of Christ. As a dead mem-
ber is not supported by that natural
heat which nourishes the body and
every living member thereof, nor is
sustained with proper food for its daily
growth and increase; so a man who
does not live in Christian love is des-
titute of spiritual life, and is dead to
God and to Christ. He is without
faith, a withered, lifeless branch; he
has no part in God, in Christ, and the
Holy Ghost, in the holy Christian
Church, and in life eternal; and will
be excluded from the presence ofthat
God, who has declared himself to be
Love.

108

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

GOD HAS NO RESPECT TO THE WORKS OE ANY ONE; BUT JUDGES OP WORKS
ACCORDING TO THE HEART.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but the Lord poyidereth the hearts. — Pro v. 21

WHEN the prophet Samuel, by the
commandment of God, went to
anoint David king, he entered the
house of Jesse, and offered to anoint
his first-born: but the Lord said to
him: "Look not on his countenance,
or on the height of his stature; because
I have refused him. For the Lord
seeth not as man seeth; for man look-
eth on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam.
16:7.

2. By this example God declares, on
the one hand, that he has no regard
to any man's person, be he ever so
great and eminent, when his heart is
destitute of piety, love, faith, and hu-
mility ; and on the other, that he es-
teems persons and works according to
the inward spirit and intention of the
mind, and thence allows or disallows
them, according to Prov. 21:2. More-
over, all gifts and endowments, how
considerable soever they be, and how
admirable,, great, and glorious they
may appear in the eyes of men, in no-
wise please the Lord, unless they be
accompanied with a pure heart, a heart
that has a steady respect to the honor
of God and the profit and edification
of our neighbor; and which, at the
same time, is freed from pride and
arrogance, from self-love, and self-in-
terest, and any of those sinister views
which are apt to mingle with the works
of a Christian.

3. Consider the example of Lucifer,
the fairest and most glorious angel

which heaven contained. No sooner
did he stain the gifts of God with self-
love and self-honor (not considering
that he was bound to advance thereby
the glory of God, who had conferred
them upon him), than he was trans-
formed into a devil, and, being cast
down from heaven, was shut out from
the glorious presence of God.

4. If ever, therefore, our works shall
be acceptable to God, they ought to
proceed from pure faith towards God,
and sincere love to our neighbor, being
cleared from the spots of self-love, self-
honor, and self-interest, as much as
possibly can be in this state of infirm-
ity. To this end St. Paul says,
" Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal" (1 Cor.
13 : 1) : that is, I am altogether vain
and unprofitable. In truth, God re-
gards not fluency of speech, but an
humble heart; not arts, learning, wit,
or ability, but he weighs the spirit of
a man, whether it be bent upon pro-
moting its own honor and interest, or
the glory of God and the profit of men.
Nor does God regard a faith by which
mountains might be removed, and the
eyes of the beholders be attracted
from all sides, if a man seek thereby
his own honor and glory. But the
Lord looks with the greater affection
upon him who " is poor, and of a con-
trite spirit, and trembles at his word."
Isaiah 66 : 2. In short, if a man dis-

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

109

tribute all that he has to the poor, or
give up his body to be burned, it will
be all to no purpose, if the act be sul-
lied with self-honor and self-compla-
cency. It is the heart only and the in-
ward intention of the mind, which the
Lord regards. This fully appears from
many instances recorded in Scripture.
5. Both David and Saul attended the
service of God, but with a different ef-
fect, 1 Sam. 15: 9; 2 Sam. 24:25. Da-
vid, Manasseh (2 Chron. 33: 13), Nebu-
chadnezzar, and Peter, after repent-
ance, obtained mercy ; Saul, Pharaoh,
and Judas, on the contrary, fell short of
it, on account of the different principle
which swayed their minds. Pharaoh
(Exod. 9:27) and Saul (1 Sam. 15 :
24), no less than Manasseh, used the
same prayer, "Lord, I have sinned!"
but they received different rewards.
The prayer of Hezekiah, Joshua, and
Gideon (Isa. 38: 7; Josh. 10:12; Judg.
6 : 37), by which they required a sign
from heaven, is approved and praised;
the Pharisees doing the same are re-
jected and reproved. Matt. 12:38;

16 : 4. The Publican and the Pharisee
prayed both in the temple; but both
are not approved. Luke 18 : 14. The
Ninevites fasted (Jonah 3 : 5, 10) ; the
Jews and Pharisees did the same
(Matt. 6 : 16) : but the former were re-
ceived, and the latter rejected. "Where-
fore (say they) have we fasted, and
thou seest not ?" Isa. 58 : 3. The poor
widow, who cast into the treasury but
two mites, is praised by Christ; where-
as, he that gave more is not. Luke
21 : 3. Herod and Zaccheus both re-
joice at the sight of Christ; but they
had most different rewards. Luke 19:6;
23:8.

6. All this proceeds from no other
cause than the heart, and that moving
principle by which it is swayed, and
which God chiefly regards. He accepts
those works only which flow from un-
feigned faith, sincere love, and true
humility ; for whatever our gifts or
works may be, if pride, self-love, and
the contagion of filthy lucre, infect
them, they are at once rejected by the
Lord.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SHOWING THAT GOD ALONE, WITHOUT ANY HUMAN AID, IS THE AUTHOR OF OUR
SALVATION, AND THAT WE ARE TO SUBMIT UNRESERVEDLY TO HIS GRACE;
ALSO, THAT CHRIST'S MERIT IS NOT IMPUTED TO THE IMPENITENT.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption. — 1 Cor. 1 : 30.

IN this impressive sentence, St. Paul
teaches us that all things necessary
for our salvation are merited by Christ
Jesus our Lord. When we were ignor-
ant of the way of life, he was made
wisdom unto us ; when we were sin-

ners, he was made our righteousness;
when we were an abomination before
God, he was made our sanctification ;
and when we were in a state of dam-
nation, he became our redemption.
2. It is therefore most certain, that

110

TKUE CHEISTIAlSriTT.

[Book 1

man does not contribute so much as
one jot to his salvation. Sin, indeed,
man could commit of himself, but he
was not able to justify himself again ;
he could lose, but not recover himself;
kill, but not restore to life; he could
submit himself to the devil, but could
not shake off his spiritual fetters. As
a dead body cannot quicken itself
again, so men "being dead in sins"
(Eph. 2 : 1, 5), as the Apostle declares,
cannot raise themselves again to life.

3. We did not contribute anything
towards our creation, neither do we
perform anything towards our redemp-
tion, regeneration, and sanctification,
which are far greater transactions than
the creation itself.

4. Hence it was necessary, that the
Son of God should take human nature
upon him, to recover all that was lost
in Adam, and to revive those that were
dead in sins and trespasses.

5. That this may be the better un-
derstood, we ought to represent to
ourselves the traveller in the Gospel,
who, falling among thieves, was cruelly
wounded and bruised by them, and at
last utterly disabled from helping him-
self again. Luke 10 : 30. Him, there-
fore, the good Samaritan receives into
his arms, binds up his wounds, sets
him on his beast, takes him to an inn,
and omits nothing that a faithful phy-
sician could administer to a sick and
wounded person. And as the traveller
showed himself obedient to his physi-
cian, and strictly followed the direc-
tions prescribed by him ; so we ought
to act if we desire to be healed of our
disease. "We ought to suffer the heal-
ing hand of the Lord, and not to resist,
when he attempts" the cleansing of our
wounds ; and when, after having
poured in wine and oil, he binds them
up. To obtain the blessed effect of
these spiritual operations, we must

wholly resign ourselves to him, who
alone is able to save us ; and then
we may trust to the goodness of God,
that on his side he will not fail to re-
store us to health and soundness.

6. No sooner does a sinner repent
than he begins his happy return to-
wards the Lord, grieving for his former
transgressions, and suffering that his
wounds be washed with the sharp
wine of the law, and the oil of consola-
tion. Whoever complies with these
terms, in him, Christ, by his grace,
works an unfeigned faith, attended
with all the fruits it produces, — right-
eousness, life, peace, joy, comfort, and
salvation, and thus "worketh in him
both to will and to do, of his good
pleasure." Phil. 2 : 13.

7. But it is not in the power of man
by nature to forsake sin. The Scrip-
ture calls the natural man a "servant
of sin" (John 8 : 34), and one. that is
"sold under sin" (Eom. 7 : 14), who
can do nothing but sin ; and the pro-
phet says, " Can the Ethiopian change
his skin, or the leopard his spots? then
may ye also do good that are accus-
tomed to do evil." Jer. 13 : 23. But
" the grace of God that bringeth salva-
tion, hath appeared to all men (by the
Gospel), teaching us that denying un-
godliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in
this present world." Tit. 2 : 11, 12.
This is offered us by the word of God ;
and it is this grace which excites,
teaches, and allures fallen man ; which
urges and influences him to renounce
sin, and to submit to the discipline of
grace. And these divine admonitions,
furnished, through the Word, fully
agree with the inward testimony of
the conscience; so that a man is con-
vinced both from without and from
within of his sinful life, and of the
necessity of quitting it, in order to

Chap. XXXI V.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

Ill

preserve his soul from everlasting de-
struction, for whoever lives in sin, lives
in opposition to God and his own con-
science.

8. When a man yields to the sugges-
tions and exhortations of divine grace,
and, proving obedient to the Word, be-
gins to withdraw from his vicious life,
then the grace of G-od endows him
with all those virtues which the Gos-
pel requires. It is then that faith
springs up in the soul, the original
principle of all other virtues. This is
followed by love, and all Christian
graces, which grow as so many fruits
on the tree of faith. It is then, also,
that light begins to shine in the midst
of darkness. But as it is impossible
that darkness should be able to en-
lighten itself; so it is also impossible
for fallen man to raise himself from
darkness to light. Hence the Psalm-
ist says, " For thou wilt light my
candle; the Lord my God will en-
lighten my darkness." Ps. 18:28. Let
a man open his eyes ever so much, he
will never be enlightened whilst the
light of the sun is withdrawn from his
sight. Thus the grace of God, that is,
of Christ himself, is that clear and
serene light, risen on all men "that
sit in darkness, and in the shadow of
death." Luke 1 : 79. " He enlighteneth
every man that cometh into the world "
(John 1 : 9): that is, he manifests himself
to all, and offers his grace to all. He is
the light of the whole world ; he shows
the way of life to all men ; and leaving
us his own example for imitation, he
goes before us like a good shepherd
(John 10 : 4), and guides his flock into
the path in which they are to walk.
He sought us out as his lost sheep,
and even now daily seeks and allures
us. Luke 15:4. Nay, more; he still
follows us closely, calls after us, and
wooes us to his love, in as endearing a

manner as a bridegroom does his bride.
O that men did not love sin and dark-
ness rather than light and grace !

9. Now, as a physician, addressing
his patient, says : " Beware of this, lest
you die; you hinder the workings of
the medicine by an irregular life, so
that you cannot be made whole;" so
Jesus Christ, the true physician of
souls, says: "My beloved, I beseech
thee, incline thy mind to true repent-
ance; utterly forsake all thy sins;
shake off thy pride, thy covetousness,
thy carnal propensities, thy wrath,
and thirst of revenge, with other sins.
If this change be not wrought in thee,
thou must surely die ; and the precious
medicine of my blood and merit can
profit thee nothing, whilst thy disor-
derly life hinders their healing effect."

10. It was for this cause that Christ
gave it in charge to his apostles, be-
fore all things, to preach repentance
(Luke 24:47); and he himself called
sinners to it while he conversed with
them upon earth ; because an impeni-
tent heart never can partake of his
merits.

11. Whoever hears that either sin
must be forsaken, or eternal condem-
nation be endured, must, of necessity,
be brought to some serious consider-
ation about the state of his soul. He
is struck with a double conviction ; the
truth of the Word of God, and the
power of his own conscience, leaving
so strong an impression upon him, as
to set him beyond all doubts about
the truth of this matter. It is true,
God hath freely promised remission
of sin to all men ; but it is on this con-
dition, that they repent, and turn them-
selves unfeignedly to the Lord. Thus
the prophet says, " If the wicked shall
turn from his wickedness, he shall live
thereby. None of his sins that he
hath committed shall be mentioned

112

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

unto bim " (Ezek. 33 : 14, 16) : where
we see that repentance and remission
of sin are linked together.

12. Christ, the Son of God, in no
other sense promises life eternal to
those that believe in his name. The
nature of faith must, however, be
more fully inquired into. This faith
is a very active principle in the soul.
It daily strives against the old man ;
it tames the flesh, and subjects it to
the Spirit; it converts the whole man;
it subdues and vanquishes sin; it puri-
fies the heart. He is a true believer
who turns from the world, from sin
and the devil, to God, and seeks rest
and comfort wholly and entirely in
the blood, death, and merit of Christ,
without the works of himself, or of
any other man whatsoever; the blood
of Christ being a perfect ransom for
all the debts which the soul has con-
tracted. Whoever, therefore, imag-
ines that his sins may be pardoned,
although he desist not from them, is
most miserably deluded. He deceives
himself with a false faith, which he
has assumed to himself, and the dread-
ful effects of which he must hereafter
feel. He can never be saved without
true repentance.

13. Consider the case of Zaccheus
the publican, who, having a sound ap-
prehension of the doctrine of faith
and conversion, freely acknowledged
that to be true faith by which a man
is turned from sin to God, and in this
order hopes to obtain a gracious par-
don from Christ, and an interest in his
merit, so as to rely upon it with a
filial trust and an unshaken firmness
of mind. In this manner did he un-
derstand the word of our Lord, "Re-
pent ye, and believe the Gospel"
(Mark 1 : 15) : that is, Desist from sin,
trust in my merits, and expect for-
giveness of sin from me alone. Hence

Zaccheus says to Christ, "Behold, the
half of my goods I give to the poor;
and if I have taken anything by false
accusation, I restore fourfold." Luke
19 : 8. In these words he does not
commend his own works at all, but
extols the grace of God, which had
taught him the way of true repent-
ance. As if he had said: "O Lord, 1
am so thoroughly grieved at the
fraudulent practices which I have
committed against my neighbor, that
I will not only restore fourfold unto
him, but will also bestow half of my
goods on the poor. Wherefore, Lord,
since I confess my sin, and fully re-
solve to leave it, I now embrace thy
promises with faith, and beseech thee
to receive me into thy grace and
favor." And no sooner is this resolu-
tion taken, than the Physician de-
clares, "This day is salvation come to
this house. For the Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which
was lost."

14. This is true repentance and
conversion, carried on by a faith
which is the work of God within us.
God himself will begin, advance, and
finish at last, the great work of our
salvation, if we only yield to his
Spirit, and do not resist him wilfully,
as did the refractory Jews of old; to
whom the apostle says : " It was ne-
cessary that the word of God should
first have been spoken to you : but see-
ing ye put it from you, and judge your-
selves unworthy of everlasting life, lo,
we turn to the Gentiles." Acts 13 : 46.
It is, therefore, our duty to take the
advice of the physician, after the
manner of the sick, and to obey his
precepts and prescriptions. As the
physician first explains the nature of
the disease, so the Lord lays open the
spiritual disease of the heart, and
then, as a faithful physician, warns us

Chap. XXXV.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

113

against hurtful things, lest the healing
virtue of the precious blood of Christ
be obstructed, and at last rendered in-
effectual.

15. No sooner does man, by the as-
sistance of the Holy Ghost, withdraw
from sin, than the grace of God be-
gins to operate in him, and to endue
him with new gifts. Without this, he
is not sufficient to think any good
thought of himself, much less to do
any good work. Whenever such a
person discovers any good motions

arising in his mind, he attributes
every good desire to divine grace, even
as St. Paul says, " By the grace of
God I am what I am." 1 Cor. 15 : 10.
Whoever, therefore, complies with this
order of salvation, to him the merit
of Christ and his perfect obedience,
are fully imputed, as if he himself had
made a complete atonement for all his
transgressions; but no wicked person,
and no contemner of this dispensation,
has a share in the imputation of the
merit of Christ.

16. God, when he works in us and

through us, crowns and commends
those things as our own, of which he
himself is the chief author. " With-
out me," saith Christ, uye can, do no-
thing " (John 15 : 5); that is, no good;
for by nature we are ready enough to
do evil without him. The doing of
evil is our own property; as the doing
of good is entirely the property of
God. Therefore let no flesh glory in
anything; all is of and through grace.
Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2 : 8, 9.

17. Happy is the man that refrains
from sin, and gives up his will to the
Lord. Christ uses all his endeavors
to gain our love and affections, and to
wean us more and more from the pro-
fane love of the world. He applies the
most endearing expressions, in his
word, and in his addresses, to our
hearts. He seeks and allures us; and
even before we remember him, he be-
stows upon us tokens of his love and
kindness; and this for no other end,
than that we might at last forsake our
beloved sin, and partake of the blessed
effect of his blood and merits

CHAPTER XXXV.

ALL WISDOM, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, YEA, EVEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WHOLE,
SCRIPTURE, ARE VAIN, WITHOUT A HOLY AND CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; hut he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. — Matth. 7 : 21.

SINCE in Love are contained all the
duties of a Christian, and since the
whole life of Christ was nothing but
the purest and most cordial love, there-
fore St. Paul, under the name of char-
ity or love, has comprehended the
whole life of a Christian. 1 Cor. 13 : 1.
2. It is the property of true love, to

respect God alone in everything, and
not self. It refers all to God ; it does
not love or honor self; it is not intent
upon personal glory or interest; but
it undertakes everything with a free
and disinterested regard to God and
man. He who is endued with Chris-
tian love, loves God and his neighbor

8

114

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

with pure affection, because God is the
sovereign Good, to which we ought to
adhere.

3. Whoever, therefore, is destitute
of this love, must of necessity prove a
hypocrite amidst all his pretences and
boasts. In whatever he undertakes,
he seeks himself, and not purely God,
as he ought to do. For this reason,
his love is false, be his boasts what
they may. If such a man had all the
Scriptures committed to memory, and
could speak of them with the tongue
of angels, yet would he still prove as
sounding brass, without life and mo-
tion. For as no natural food can
nourish the body, unless it be converted
into the juices and the blood; so also
the Word and the Sacraments are un-
availing, if they be not converted into
a man's life ; and if a new, spiritual,
and holy man, be not begotten thereby.

4. Hence St. Paul says, " Though I
have the gift of prophecy, and under-
stand all mysteries, and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing." 1 Cor. 13 : 2.
As if he had said, If I pursue mine own
honor by those gifts and attainments,
and seek anything besides the honor
of God, and the good of my neighbor,
then I am an abomination before the
Lord, and not at all acceptable in his,
sight.

5. This is intimated by that saying
of our Lord : " Many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and in thy
name have cast out devils, and in thy
name done many wonderful works ?
And then will I profess unto them, I
never knew you; depart from me, ye
that work iniquity " (Matt. 7 : 22, 23):
for you have not respected me alone
in what you have done, but rather
your own selves.

6. This is again attested by St. Paul :
" Though I bestow all my goods to
feed the poor, and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing." 2 Cor. 13 : 3.
But can it be possible (some may say),
to give all to the poor, and yet be des-
titute at the same time of love or
charity? Yes; there may be a love
which is not altogether single in what
it performs, but biassed by impure de-
signs, and by some temporal interest,
or the applause of men, or any such
selfish objects, whereby the best of ac-
tions are too often corrupted. Of this
nature was the charity of the Phar-
isees of old, who offered abundance
of sacrifices, and persuaded others to
adorn the temple with magnificent
gifts, and to bring sacrifices of great
price. But whilst they suffered them-
selves to be led away by pride and
ambition, which mingled with their
very worship, they forgot to show
mercy to the poor, and to practise
that " undefiled religion," whereby the
fatherless and the widows are to be
supported and visited. James 1 : 27.
For this preposterous charity, the Lord
reproved them, saying: " Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye devour widows' houses, and for
a pretence make long prayer : there-
fore ye shall receive the greater dam-
nation." Matt. 23:14. In this perverse
religion they have many followers,
even at this time. Such are those who
bequeath large legacies to temples and
monasteries, that priests and friars
who enjoy them, may make long
prayers for such as bestow them. This
truly is a false and deceitful love; for
those who perform these acts, do not
so much regard the honor of God as
their own.

7. He that is justified, shall live by
his faith (Habak. 2:4); and whoso-
ever is thus justified, lives in true re-

Chap. XXXV.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

115

pentance, and by daily mortification
of his flesh, becomes himself a sacri-
fice unto the Lord. Eom. 12 : 1. He
spends his time in continual acts of
love and charity; flowing from a dis-
interested principle, free from self-
honor and self-love, and entirely di-
rected to advancing the glory of God.
Therefore, O man, if thou even yield-
est thy body to be burnt, and yet art
void at the same time of this pure and
sincere love, thou doest nothing in all
such performances. And what do they
profit themselves, who torture their
bodies ? They generally are puffed up
with a conceit of their singular sanc-
tity, and, thus setting forth their own
pompous religion and will-worship,
they do not regard God in what they
do, so much as catch at the applause
of men. Isa. 58 : 3 ; Zech. 7:5,6. Nay,
some are blinded to such a degree by
the spirit of delusion and error, as to
suffer themselves to be burnt in de-
fence of conceits such as these. They
expect thereby to be enrolled in the
list of such martyrs as were slain for
the sake of Christ and the Gospel;
when in truth they seek not Christ,
but themselves, and rise not to defend
his honor, but their own erroneous
opinions. This is called by St. Paul, a
strong delusion, and a working of Satan.
2 Thess. 2 : 9, 11. It is not the punish-
ment, but the cause, which makes a
martyr.

8. Such martyrs as these the devil
has had even amongst the heathens
themselves ; many of whom were so
far blinded in their understandings, as
contentedly to die for the defence of
their idols, and false, heathenish re-
ligion. And is not the same done at

this day amongst those who call them-
selves Christians ? Even as the heath-
ens, to gain an immortal name, per-
suaded themselves that they did well
in what they endured, so self-love and
vainglory have so far besotted some
monks, and other persons even in our
age, as that they have murdered kings
and princes, to support the better their
church, or the Catholic cause, as they
call it, which they supposed to be in
danger. If such men are made to suf-
fer again, it is manifest that they do
not suffer for the sake of Christ, nor
are they to be accounted his martyrs.
They are martyrs to the pope of Eome,
to their own conceit, and to a thirst
after vainglory, with which they are
carried away. Thus much concerning
false love, to which man is seduced
by a false and deceitful light.

9. It remains, therefore, that with-
out a sincere love to God and our
neighbor, and a holy and Christian
life attending it, all arts and sciences,
gifts and attainments, profit nothing.
Wisdom, how great soever it may be,
yea, though it be as great, or greater
than that of Solomon, is nothing ; and
the knowledge of the whole Scripture,
if it be without love, must necessarily
degenerate into a poor, empty specu-
lation. All works whatsoever, and
martyrdom itself (if so it be called),
are to no purpose without this essen-
tial character of love. For to know
the will of God and his word, and not
to live up to them as a rule, only in-
creases our condemnation, as the Lord
plainly affirms : "If I had not come
and spoken unto them, they had not
had sin ; but now they have no cloak
for their sin." John 15 : 22.

116

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

CHAPTER XXXYI.

HE WHO DOES NOT LIVE IN CHRIST, BUT GIVES HIS HEART TO THE WORLD, HAS
ONLY THE OUTWARD LETTER OF THE SCRIPTURES, BUT HE DOES NOT EX-
PERIENCE THEIR POWER, OR EAT OF THE HIDDEN MANNA.

To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receivelh it. —
Key. 2 : 17.

BY this Scripture we are taught,
that no man can taste the inward
sweetness of heavenly joy and com-
fort hidden in the Word, who does not
first vanquish his own flesh and the
world, with all the pomps and lusts
thereof, and the devil himself. But
those that crucify their flesh daily,
with all its desires and lusts, by serious
contrition and repentance, who die
daily to themselves and to the world,
and to whom this life is a cross and
affliction ; these are divinely fed with
the heavenly manna, and drink the
wine of the joy of paradise. Those,
on the other hand, that love the pleas-
ures of this world rather than those
of heaven, render themselves alto-
gether unfit to taste the hidden manna,
preserved for him alone that over-
cometh. The reason is, because like
things (according to the proverb) re-
joice in their like; and things of a con-
trary nature do not unite one with
another. Since, therefore, the word
of God is spiritual, it is no wonder
that worldly minds take no pleasure
in it. For as the body receives no
strength from the food which the
stomach does not digest j so the soul
receives no strength from the divine
word, unless it be entirely converted
into itself, that is, into its own life and
nature.

2. Yea, as a man that is sick of a fever

acquires a distempered appetite, and
deems the coarsest trash more pleasant
than wholesome food; so those that
are sick of a spiritual fever, that is,
of the love of the world, of pride and
covetousness, loathe the good word of
God as bitter and insipid food. Those,
on the other hand, that have the Spirit
of God, find in it a hidden manna, and
a secret sweetness, which transcends
all other delights ; but then it is not to
be tasted by such as are carried away
with the pleasures of a profane world.
3. Many hear the glad tidings of the
Gospel repeatedly, and yet are but
little affected with what they hear.
They do not feel any fervency of spirit,
any sense of spiritual joy. The cause
is plain; they are not led by the good
Spirit of God, but by the corrupt spirit
of the world; nor have they heavenly,
but earthly minds, which cannot re-
ceive the things of God. Whoever,
therefore, wishes to obtain a sound
understanding in spiritual matters, to
feel the power of the word of God, and
to eat of the hidden manna, ought by
all means to conform his life to the
word which he reads, and to the life
of Christ which is set before him. It
is then that the Lord feeds the humble
with grace (1 Pet. 5 : 5), satisfies the
meek with his love, and supports the
patient with his comfort; rendering
his yoke pleasant, and his burden light

Chap. XXXVI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

117

unto them. For the sweetness of this
heavenly manna cannot be tasted ex-
cept under the yoke of Christ, accord-
ing to the promise of the Lord : " He
hath filled the hungry with good
things, and the rich he hath sent
empty away." Luke 1 : 53.

4. "The words that I speak unto
you," saith the Lord, "they are spirit
and they are life." John 6 : 63. Whence
it follows, that a carnal and voluptu-
ous man, who has no spiritual under-
standing or taste, cannot possibly per-
ceive or relish the words of Christ.
These must be apprehended in spirit,
and in an inward tranquillity of mind,
attended with great humility and fer-
vent desires after God. In this order,
the Word of God must be received and
digested, if ever it is to afford a vital
nourishment to the soul; which, if it
be neglected, then truly the Word is
no more than an empty sound, and an
external letter. As a man that hears
the sound of a harp, and understands
not its melody, receives no pleasure
from it; so no man can perceive the
virtue hidden in the Word, unless he
endeavor to express it in his life, and
thoroughly to conform himself to it in
his spirit.

5. For this reason, the Lord says:
" I will give him a white stone, and in
the stone a new name written, which
no man knoweth, saving he that re-
ceiveth it."

6. This is the testimony of the hid-
den Spirit, who witnesses to the di-
vine Word : and in like manner, the
Spirit of the Word gives testimony to
our spirit (Eom. 8 : 16), whence both
unite, and so become one spirit. 1 Cor.
6 : 17. This is that new name, which
no man knoweth but he that hath it.
As no man perceives the sweetness of
honey, but he that tastes it; so the
name of this divine testimony, written

in the hearts of good souls, no man
knoweth but he that possesses it. He
only understands the nature of heav-
enly comfort, and of divine visita-
tions, who really tastes them. This
name and testimony are called new,
because they are the blessed effect of
the new birth, and come from above.

7. Blessed is the man to whom God
thus gives himself to be tasted! Thus
were the prophets of old fed with
this heavenly bread, and sustained by
the eternal Word proceeding from
God, and communicating itself unto
them. This made their tongues so
free and so ready in the delivery of
the divine oracles. And from this in-
ward sense, with which they were so
powerfully affected, the Holy Scrip-
ture has been derived, and handed
down to us for our edification.

8. Even at this day, God does not
cease still to speak unto all men, and
inwardly to feed them with his Word:
but alas! most men have shut their
ears against his voice, and will rather
hear the world than God, and follow
their own lusts, than the motions of
the good Spirit of God. They cannot
eat of the hidden manna, because they
greedily adhere to their carnal pro-
pensities, and contemn the tree of life,
with the fruit thereof.

9. But surely such men are awfully
blinded, since they will not understand
that God can afford infinitely greater
pleasures than this world is capable
of imparting. He that has once tasted
the goodness of God, will esteem the
whole world, together with its most
exquisite pleasures, to be nothing but
gall and bitterness. Our first parents
were beguiled by the world; and by
eating of the forbidden tree, they
brought no less an evil upon them-
selves than death itself: and yet we
are so much besotted with the pleas-

118

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

ures of this world, as to follow freely
their steps, and to obey the forbidden
lusts of the flesh, which cause our
death. Rom. 8 : 13.

10. Christ says: "If any shall eat
of me," the true tree, and the true
bread of life, "he shall live for ever."
John 6 : 51. And what is it to eat of
him, but to believe in him, to rejoice
in him, to delight in him, and to rest
and to take pleasure in nothing but
him alone? The world bestows poor
and inconsiderable wages, and yet it
is served with great labor and earnest-
ness; whereas God grants an eternal
and never-fading reward; and yet
with what sluggishness, coldness, and
backwardness is his service per-
formed! How few there" are, who ad-
here to God with as much care and
faith, devotion and obedience, as pro-
fane worldlings do to mammon, and
the world ! We see them often take
long and tedious journeys for a little
money; but for the sake of heaven, it
grieves them to move even a foot.

11. In all classes men seek and love
the world more than they regard God.
Many a scholar studies day and night
to attain preferment and honor, who
will hardly take time to say the Lord's
Prayer for the good of his soul. The
men who avoid no labor to get the
bread that perishes, will undergo none
to procure that which is incorruptible.
There are many who fear no difficulty,
flee from no danger, and, in an earthly
warfare, stare even death in the face;
influenced by no other motive than to
gain a little fleeting fame, or at best,
to be ranked among nobles and heroes:
whereas there is hardly one to be found
that will enter into a combat with the
corrupt propensities of his flesh, al-
though this is the way to obtain a king-
dom in heaven. We see the victors
of many nations, and the subduers of

vast kingdoms, who little care to over-
come themselves. There are large
numbers who do not regard the loss
of their immortal souls, if they can but
gain the perishing goods of this world.
All these, certainly, have not tasted
the hidden manna of the divine Word;
for they do not overcome the world,
but are themselves overcome by it.
Whosoever will taste the sweetness
of this heavenly manna, must, for the
sake of the love of God, despise the
world, and overcome it. When he
complies with these terms, he is re-
freshed again with that comfort of the
Holy Ghost, which no man knows save
he that receives it.

12. This, therefore, must be done.
The tree of life must first be planted
in us, before we can eat of its fruit :
and the heart that wishes to be quick-
ened with heavenly comforts, ought
first to be truly converted from the
world to God. But we, being intoxi-
cated with worldly pleasures, do not
see that the joys of heaven are far
more excellent than all that this world
affords. That which God gives, is in-
finitely more true and more substantial
than all which the creature can bestow.
And that teaching which comes from
above, through the inspiration of the
divine Spirit, is far more noble and
solid than that which is conveyed to
us by man's understanding, and im-
printed on the mind with much toil
and labor. The flowers and fruits
which are the productions of nature
are nobler and better than those which
are fashioned of the finest gold by the
hand of art; even so, one drop of di-
vine consolation is more satisfactory,
and incomparably better, than a whole
ocean of worldly lust and pleasure.

13. Whenever, therefore, thou de-
sirest to taste any heavenly comfort,
withdraw thy heart from the joys of

Chap. XXXVT.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

119

this world. As if the Lord were to
say, " If any will understand me, let
him seriously attend to what I say ; if
any will see me, it surely behooves him
to fix his eye upon me alone." Who
can doubt but that our heart and
senses, and all the faculties of our
souls ought to be converted to God,
and fixed on him alone, if ever we
desire to see, hear, and understand
God; nay, to taste him and his good-
ness ? For thus he expresses himself
in the Prophet: "When ye shall
search for me with your whole heart,
ye shall find me." Jer. 29 : 13.

14. Many at this day are held in
great admiration on a very light ac-
count. Oh ! a learned man ! (they say),
a rich man ! a great man ! a wise man !
But scarcely any regard how meek,
how humble, how patient, or how de-
vout any man is. Of this perverse
judgment, there is no other cause, than
that the people of this world only ad-
mire the exterior of a man, and pass
by what is within the mind, which
alone is worthy to be esteemed and
valued. Let him that praises a man
because he is a great traveller, and has
seen many cities and countries, con-
sider whether it be not far better to
have seen God. Let him that admires
another, because he has served several
monarchs, and attended on emperors,
kings, and princes, tell us whether it
be not far more excellent to be the
servant of God, to wait on the King
of Heaven, to hear Him speak in the
heart, and to serve Him faithfully?
Many who enjoy nothing but the
things of this world, will say, "We
have abundance of learned men and
great scholars in this age; arts and
sciences are greatly advanced among
us." But such men as these, do not
know the art of arts, the science of
sciences, which is divine Love ; a ben-

efit preferable to all other knowledge
and learning, but which seems to be
almost wholly extinct in this degener-
ate age, together with faith itself, that
produces it. The number of those
that are in truth divinely " taught of
God," is apparently but small (Isa.
54 : 13) ; and so of those that care to
be instructed in the humble and meek
life of Christ. Matt. 11 : 29. Yea, to
speak plainly, there are among the
most learned at this day, some who
are, perhaps, the most alienated from
the life of God, and know but little of
that truth which is in Jesus. They
are those who confine knowledge to
words and terms artfully contrived;
when indeed solid erudition and learn-
ing consist not in words, but in things,
and in a real and eternal wisdom.
Upon the whole, whoever calls this
world a wicked world, is not mistaken
in his judgment.

15. Others will praise a man, be-
cause he keeps a rich and plentiful
table, and fares sumptuously every
day; but they do not consider that
the very crumbs dropping from God's
table, are transcendently better than
the choicest dishes of the wealthy and
greedy; and that the hidden manna,
and the incorruptible bread descend-
ing from heaven, and prepared by
the Lord himself, afford the most sa-
vory and most delicious food for nour-
ishing the soul. Ps. 23 : 5.

16. Whoever enjoys God and his
Word, is disgusted at nothing, and
nothing can displease him ; for he en-
joys God in all. But what can delight,
him, who does not taste the sweetness
of God, and the goodness of his Word ?
God alone is the joy of the soul. He
infinitely surpasses all earthly joy and
transient mirth. He is the eternal
Light, which incomparably exceeds alL
created lights. May he be pleased to-

120

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

influence our hearts with his hidden
pleasure ! May he purify our spirits,
and all the faculties of our souls ! May
he enlighten and quicken, correct and
revive all that is within us ! And, O !
when shall that glorious hour appear,
in which the Lord will satiate us with
his presence, and replenish us with all
that he himself is ! Isa. 55 : 12.

17. But as we are not yet prepared
for so transcendent a joy, so we cannot
partake of it, while we are confined to
this state of imperfection. Let us,
therefore, be content with the crumbs
of comfort which fall from the Lord's
table, and patiently wait for that time,
wherein we shall be refreshed with his
joy for evermore !

18. Hear the words of our blessed
Saviour : " Behold, I stand at the door,
and knock; if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to
him, and will sup with him, and he
with me/' Eev. 3 : 20. Is it not, then,
a foolish thing to slight so great a fa-
vor, and to treat contemptuously the
King of kings, who, like a heavenly
guest, comes to see thee ? Is it not dis-
graceful to let a friend stand knocking
without, and refuse to admit a man to
thy presence, who has nothing at heart
but thy welfare ? How unaccountable
then must it be to debar the great
God from thy heart, who stands in no
need of thy presents; but, after the
manner of princes, brings his own
royal dainties with him when he ap-
proaches the house of a poor subject !
He will feed thee with heavenly bread,
and with that hidden manna which is
preserved for those that overcome.

19. When the Lord says, " Hear
my voice, and open the door," he com-
pares, as it were, the heart of a man
to a house full of noise and clamor,
where music, though ever so sweet
iänd melodious, cannot be heard. So

the voice of the divine Yisitor cannot
enter a profane heart, whilst it is hur-
ried about with the cares and desires
of this world. Such a heart closes
the door against this Yisitor, and con-
sequently cannot taste the sweetness
of the celestial manna. But when this
noise and tumult cease, it is then that
4hese secret whispers are best per-
ceived in men. And O ! that thou,
with Samuel, couldest answer: " Speak
Lord, for thy servant heareth." 1 Sam.
3:10.

20. The truth of this internal, spir-
itual, and heavenly supper is also at-
tested elsewhere. The apostle speaks
of some, that " have been once en-
lightened, and tasted of the heavenly
gift, and have been made partakers of
the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come." Heb. 6:4. By
this we are taught, that in whomso-
ever the Holy Ghost freely resides,
there the virtues and powers of the
world to come are also tasted. It is
then that the soul feeds on that man-
na, which is hid in the gracious Word
proceeding out of the mouth of God,
and by which all the saints live.

21. The efficacy of this living Word
was also tasted by the royal prophet,
through the Holy Ghost, when he
burst forth into these words : " In thy
presence is fulness of joy j at thy right
hand there are pleasures for ever-
more." Ps. 16 : 11. From this lively
sense, he also invited others to an en-
joyment of the same sweetness, say-
ing, " O taste and see that the Lord
is good. There is no want to them
that fear him." Ps. 34 : 8, 9. Of the
plenty and dignity of this heavenly
banquet, he hath thus expressed him-
self: "Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies :
thou anointest my head with oil ; my

Chap. XXXVL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

121

cup runneth over." Ps. 23 : 5. " Thy
loving kindness is better than life." Ps.
63 : 3. " They shall be abundantly sat-
isfied with the fatness of thy house ;
and thou shalt make them drink of
the river of thy pleasures." Ps. 36 : 8.
And lastly, " Let all those that seek
thee, rejoice and be glad in thee j and
let such as love thy salvation, say con-
tinually, Let God be magnified. But I
am poor and needy; make haste unto
me, O God : thou art my help and my
deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying."
Ps. 70 : 4, 5.

22. From all these, and many other
places besides, it may abundantly be
known who those are that are in-
wardly fed with the good Word of
God, and with the hidden manna of
the world to come; even those that
are poor in spirit, who entirely rely on
divine comfort. These only are wor-
thy to taste of this heavenly manna,
and of the divine gift, of which David
speaks at large: "How amiable," says
he, "are thy tabernacles, O Lord of
hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even
fainteth for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh crieth out for
the living God." Ps. 84 : 1, 2. By this
ScrirHure we may understand, that the
least pleasure of the world to come,
infinitely exceeds all the joys of this
world ; and that one day passed there,
is far more excellent than a thousand
years here. Whoever has tasted these
exquisite pleasures, will discard the
things of this life, as empty and insipid.
The whole world becomes a burden, a
trouble and vexation of spirit, to such
a person. He is like one that is ac-
customed to delicious fare, and conse-
quently cannot partake of what is
coarse.

23. This is so sacred a hunger and
thirst, that none but God alone can
satisfy it, and he only, by his love.

This is that spiritual fulness with
which the saints are satiated, accord-
ing to the words : " Eat, O friends,
drink, yea, drink abundantly, O be-
loved." Song of Sol. 5 : 1. These spir-
itual enjoyments the Lord bestows on
his friends, in order to unite them the
more closely to himself, and to make
them the sooner forget the perishing
things of this world. A few crumbs
of this bread, a few drops pressed from
this heavenly vine, ought to excite our
desires after that plentiful and abound-
ing fountain, which shall flow for us
hereafter.

24. In order that the Lord might
excite in us so sacred a thirst, and that
he might make us long the more ear-
nestly after such heavenly objects as
these, it was expedient that he should
first himself thirst upon the cross for
our sakes. John 19 : 28. As he him-
self satisfies and quenches our hunger
and thirst, so ought we again to sati-
ate his thirst and ardent desire of
loving. He more fervently thirsts
after us, than we do after him ; accord-
ing to that which he hath himself de-
clared : " My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his
work " (John 4 : 34): and the will of
God was, to save men from everlasting
destruction. If we but thirsted after
him as he thirsts after us, we should
then drink so plentifully of his Spirit,
that even " rivers of living water
would flow from our bodies " (John
7 : 38) : that is, nothing should be seen
in us, but what is spiritual, lovely, and
consolatory. Nay, he would make us
overflow, as it were, with a torrent of
divine goodness and consolation, so
that soul and body, and all that is
within us, should triumphantly rejoice
in the living God. For nothing is of
so great and so divine an amplitude as
a man's soul, after it has gained true

122

TEXTE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

freedom and liberty. Such a soul com-
prehends God,
And aa'!

nothing

heaven, and earth,
is less than a

man's soul in its nothingness and
humiliation, when it humbles itself
under God and all his creatures.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HE WHO DOES NOT FOLLOW CHRIST IN FAITH, HOLINESS, AND CONTINUED RE-
PENTANCE, CANNOT BE DELIVERED FROM THE BLINDNESS OF HIS HEART, BUT
MUST ABIDE IN ETERNAL DARKNESS ; AND HE CANNOT HAVE A TRUE KNOWL-
EDGE OF CHRIST, OR FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM.

God is lig%t, and in him is no darkness at all : if we say we have fellowship with him, and walk
in darkness, vie lie, and do not the truth : bid if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship one with another. — 1 John 1 : 5-7.

THAT we may the better under-
stand the nature of light and
darkness, it is necessary first to give
heed to the description of the light,
as it is originally.

2. " God is light," saith St. John.
But what is God? God is a spiritual,
eternal, and infinite Being; God is al-
mighty, merciful, gracious, righteous,
holy, true, and the only wise God.
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
is unspeakable love and faithfulness;
He is one in three Persons; He is the
Sovereign Good, and good essentially.
And this is the true and everlasting

o

light. Whence every one that departs
from God, from his love, his mercy,
his righteousness, and his truth, de-
parts also from light itself, and must
consequently fall into darkness; for
without God there is nothing but ever-
lasting darkness. O how dark, there-
fore, is that soul in which God doth
not dwell ! Now if God be light, then
the devil must certainly be darkness;
and if God be love, then the devil must
be nothing but hatred and wrath, en-
mity and envy, malice and uncharit-
ableness, sin and wickedness. Who-

ever, therefore, turns himself to sin,
turns himself to darkness and to the
devil. Neither can he be delivered,
till he turn back again, from darkness
to light, from sin to righteousness,
from vice to virtue, from the devil to
God. Acts 26: 18. And this is the work
of a true and living faith which purifies
the heart. Acts 15 : 9. For he who
believes in Christ, daily repents and
turns from sin and the devil to Christ
Jesus. For even as Adam by sin turned
himself from God to the devil, so we
ought to withdraw again, by true re-
pentance and faith, from the devil to
God.

3. Hence it follows that man, with-
out being converted from sin to God,
can never be truly enlightened. " For
what communion hath light with dark-
ness ?" 2 Cor. 6 : 14. Impiety and im-
penitence are wholly darkness, and,
consequently, can have no fellowship
with the light of the knowledge of
Christ. So that it is absolutely im-
possible that those should be enlight-
ened by the Spirit, and the light of
eternal truth, who live in darkness
and impenitence. To this purpose,

Chap. XXXVII.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITT.

123

St. Paul says concerning the Jews:
"When they shall turn to the Lord,
the vail shall be taken away " (2 Cor.
3 : 16); that is, their darkness, blind-
ness, and ignorance shall be removed,
and Christ shall give them light.

4. The greatest blindness, or thick-
est darkness that covers the minds of
men, is the sin of unbelief, with the
fruits resulting from it; such as pride,
avarice, wrath, and the whole train of
sensual lusts and pleasures. Wherever
these take possession of a man, it is
impossible that he should know Christ,
the true Light of the world; much less
can he savingly believe in him, trust
in him, and obtain by him everlasting
life.

5. For how should that man know
the humility of the heart of Christ,
wrhose own heart abounds wTith pride
and high-mindedness? How should he
be acquainted with the meekness of
the heart of Christ, who is full of bit-
ter wrath and envy? How should he
understand his marvellous patience,
who delights in revenge, and is hur-
ried about with a multitude of unruly
passions? But he who does not un-
derstand the humility, meekness, and
patience of Christ, does not know
Christ himself, nor believe in his holy
name. For truly, if ever thou de-
sirest to attain a sound knowledge of
Christ, thou must obtain, by faith, the
same heart which is in Christ; thou
must experimentally perceive in thy
heart, his meekness, his patience, and
his humility. It is then that thy
knowledge becomes solid and substan-
tial. As a fruit is known by the taste,
so Christ, the tree of life, is known by
tasting. Whenever thou tastest by
faith the humility of Christ, his meek-
ness, and his patience, thou then eat-
est of his fruit, and shalt find rest for
thy soul. Thou enjoyest in Christ the

favor and consolation of God. This
is the only way to true rest and tran-
quillity of mind. For the grace and
comfort of God cannot enter into a
heart that is void of faith, and desti-
tute of the meekness and humility of
Christ. It is to the humble that God
gives grace. 1 Pet. 5 : 5.

6. But how is it possible that Christ
should profit a man who does not de-
sire to have the least fellowship with
him ? For, in truth, all those that
live in the darkness of sin, have no
fellowship with Christ, be their pre-
tences what they will. For thus says
St. John: "If we say that we have
fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship one
with another/' Uohnl:6, 7. And in
the following chapter he explains it
more fully: "The darkness is past,
and the true light now shineth. He
that s&ith he is in the light, and hateth
his brother, is in darkness even until
now. He that loveth his brother,
abideth in the light, and there is no
occasion of stumbling in him. But
he that hateth his brother, is in dark-
ness, and walketh in darkness, and
knoweth not whither he goeth, be-
cause that darkness hath blinded his
eyes." 1 John 2:8-11.

7. As long, then, as a man continues
in that dark and terrible cloud of sin,
it is impossible that he should be en-
lightened by Christ, the true Light of
the world, and be thereby brought to
a saving knowledge of God. Who-
ever will attain to a true knowledge
of God and Christ, must firmly be-
lieve that God is nothing but grace
and love. Now, no man can know
what love is, but he that has, and
practises it, the knowledge of a thing
being the result of a man's experi-

124

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

ence, of his feelings, and of the works
of truth which he performs. Who-
ever, therefore, does not exercise love
(whatever words he may use about it),
continues an utter stranger to the na-
ture of love; and what he is pleased
to call love, is nothing but show and
pretence. And as Christ himself is
nothing but love and humility, meek-
ness and patience, and every true vir-
tue, so a man that is not frequent in
the performance of these and the like
virtues, is altogether ignorant of
Christ and of the truth. He is but a
superficial pretender to, and a vain
usurper of, His holy name, let his
boasts be what they may. The Word
of God is nothing but spirit. Who-
ever, therefore, does not live and walk
in the Spirit, in no wise understands
what the Word of God is, though he
may dispute and argue copiously
about it. How shall a man tell us
what love is, who never performed
any act of love ? How shall a man
give an account of the nature of light,
who, having been constantly confined
to a dark dungeon, has never seen the
light himself? Now, the light in man
is faith and charity, according to the
saying of Christ : "Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven." Matt.
5 : 16.

8. In a word, the holy life of Christ
is nothing but love and charity. No
sooner do we, by faith, learn from him
true love and humility, meekness and
patience, as he himself has engaged
us to do, than we are transformed into
his image, and enlightened with that
true and eternal light, which he him-
self is; according to that exhortation
of St. Paul : " Awake thou that sleep-
est (namely, in sins and the lust of the
flesh), and arise from the dead, and

Christ shall give thee light." Eph.
5:14.

9. From all this it follows, that in
the case of as many as do not awake
from their spiritual lethargy, that is,
from the lust of the eyes, the lust
of the flesh, the pride of life, and
other pleasures that attend them,
their souls cannot be enlightened by
Christ, since they love darkness rather
than light, and thereby unfit them-
selves for a reception of the divine
light.

10. It also hence appears that those,
on the other hand, who truly embrace
the life of Christ, and follow him in
faith, are by him graciously enlight-
ened, according to his promise : " I am
the light of the world : he that fol-
loweth me (in faith and love, hope and
patience, meekness and humility, fear
of God, and in prayer, etc.) shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life." John 8 : 12. Therefore,
the true followers of Christ, and these
only, freely enjoy the light of life, and
are alone endued with true illumina-
tion and sound knowledge of Christ.
And it is on account of this Christian
faith and life, that true believers are
called by the Apostle, a light in the
Lord. " Ye were," saith he, " some-
time darkness, but now are ye light in
the Lord " (Eph. 5:8): here he means
the principle of faith, and those Chris-
tian virtues that attend it. And again,
" Ye are all the children of light, and
the children of the day: we are not
of the night, nor of darkness," — " put-
ting on the breast-plate of faith and
love, and for a helmet, the hope of
salvation." 1 Thess. 5 : 5, 8. Christ
denies that the world (that is, carnal
and unregenerate minds), can ever
"receive the Spirit of Truth." John
14 : 17.

11. That there might be a perfect

Chap. XXXVII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

125

and absolute example given to men,
and a complete idea of virtue and
goodness, the Son of God became also
Man, and by his unspotted and holy
life was made the public Light of the
■world, that so all men might follow
him, believe in him, and receive light
from him. Since, however, false Chris-
tians own with their lips that Christ
is the safe and great exemplar of
virtue, and yet do not follow bim in
their life and actions, it is manifest,
that the heathens who esteemed vir-
tue, put the Christians to shame. The
most eminent of them, such as Plato,
Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, have highly
recommended the study of virtue, and
freely confessed, that " if virttfe could
be seen with bodily eyes, it would ap-
pear fairer, and with a more glorious
lustre than even the morning star."
But, truly, none have had a fuller view
of the beauty of virtue, than those who
by faith have seen Jesus Christ, that
unerring pattern of righteousness.
These are those that have " handled
the Word of life" (1 John 1 : 1), as St.
John tells us. And, surely, if heathens
have been so much absorbed by the
love of virtue, how much more should
a Christian love the transcendent
beauty of Jesus Christ, who is virtue
itself, and composed of nothing but
pure love, and unspotted meekness;
nay, who is God himself?

12. It was not without cause, there-
fore, that St. Paul preferred the love
of Christ to all other knowledge or
science : and with him we ought to
pray that we may experimentally
" know this love of Christ which pass-
eth knowledge " (Eph. 3 : 19), that so
we may thereby be " filled with all the
fulness of God." Now there is no man
that has the love of Christ in him, but
he must necessarily also love the hu-
mility and meekness of Christ, and

from sincere love to him readily em-
brace them. By this means he is still
more and more enlightened, and day
by day transformed into the image of
Christ, "as from glory to glory." 2
Cor. 3 : 18. And the reason of this is
evident ; for God delights to give grace
to the humble (1 Peter 5 : 5), as the
Scripture tells us : agreeably to what
St. Bernard says, " The rivers of grace
flow downwards, not upwards." They
visit and refresh the valley, but will
not rest upon mountains, or upon any-
thing that is high and lifted up.
How should then the grace of the
light and knowledge of God come to
a man that walks not in the humble
and holy light of Christ, but in the
way of Lucifer ? For if there be any
faith in us, and if this be attended
with suitable fruits and practice, it
will not leave us " barren and unfruit-
ful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ." 2 Peter 1:8. In an humble
soul Christ lives, and then also his
Spirit rests upon it (the spirit of wis-
dom and of understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the
Lord), as truly as it rested upon Christ
himself. For in whomsoever the light
and the life of Christ dwTell, in him is
also Christ himself, who is the very
light and life of a Christian. And this
also is the reason that the gifts and
graces of the divine Spirit rest upon a
true Christian, as well as upon Christ
himself, according to the prophecy of
Isaiah. Ch. 11 : 1-3.

13. Hence St. Peter, speaking to the
Jews, exhorts them to repent (or to be
renewed in their minds) : " and ye
shall," says he, " receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost." Acts 2 : 38. Whence
it plainly appears, that those who are
in a state of faith and repentance, are
the only men duly prepared for re-

126

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

ceiving the divine Spirit, the true en-
lightener of hearts.

14. Whoever, therefore, desires to
be delivered from the blindness of his
heart, and from eternal darkness, yea,
from the devil himself, let him faith-
fully follow Christ in true faith, in un-
feigned conversion, and in a thorough
newness of life. The nearer we are to
Christ, the nearer we are to the eter-
nal light; the more closely we adhere
to unbelief, the more we adhere to
darkness and to the devil himself. For
even as Christ, faith, and all the vir-
tues, are nearly allied and belong to-
gether, so in like manner, are the devil,
unbelief, and all the vices, and works
of darkness, so nearly combined, as to
render it impossible to conceive of one
without the other.

15. Consider the apostles of the
Lord. They followed their Master in
faith, in contempt of the world, deny-
ing themselves, in renouncing their
possessions, and in living together in
unity of the Spirit. By this means
they were enlightened from above, and
filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts 2 :
1, etc. With these terms the rich
young man in the Gospel being un-
willing to comply, he continued shut
up in the darkness of the world, and
was not enlightened unto eternal life.
Luke 18 : 23. For "if any man love
the world, the love of the Father is
not in him." 1 John 2 : 15. And " he
that hateth his brother is in darkness,
and knoweth not whither he goeth :
because that darkness hath blinded
his eyes." 1 John 2 : 11.

16. All the sermons of Tauler refer
to this subject. He makes it appear,
that without the sincere exercise of
faith, without a serious course of mor-
tification, without self-denial, without
a narrow search into one's own heart,
and without the inward, calm sabbath

of the soul, no man can obtain or enjoy
the divine light.

17. In short, in proportion as the
works of darkness are destroyed in a
man by the Spirit of God, in that pro-
portion is he illuminated; and again,
in the same degree as the corrupt na-
ture, the flesh, and the world, pride,
and the lust of the eyes, domineer in
a man, in that degree darkness is left
in him, and the less of grace, of light,
of the Spirit of God and of Christ, is
he possessed of. Therefore it remains,
that without unfeigned repentance,
and a daily repentance, no man can be
truly enlightened from above.

18. Whoever yields too much to one
sin, undoubtedly opens a door to many
others. Sin never comes alone, but,
like a noxious weed, spreads itself on
every side, and gains more ground
every day. And as the darkness be-
comes greater accordingly as the sun
retires, so as the holy life of Christ de-
parts from us, the darkness and sin in-
crease, till at length the man is swal-
lowed up in eternal darkness. On the
contrary, if a man devote himself to
the practice of one virtue, he gains
thereby an opportunity of practising
all the rest in time, and cannot but
daily proceed from one to another.
This admirable connection is repre-
sented by St. Peter as a chain, in
which all the rings are linked together,
and none is suffered to separate from
another. "Add," he says, "to your
faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowl-
edge ; and to knowledge, temperance ;
and to temperance, patience; and to
patience, godliness; and to godliness,
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness, charity;" superadding one
virtue continually to another, and
crowning all at last with this promise :
" If these things be in you and abound,
they make you that ye shall neither

Chap. XXXVIL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

127

be barren nor unfruitful in the knowl-
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2
Peter 1 : 5-8. To sum up all in a few
words : Whoever is not earnestly bent
on the exercise of such heavenly vir-
tues as these, certainly knows not
Christ, and is void of all saving knowl-
edge : whereas, if a man by faith grow
in virtue, he also grows in Christ him-
self. On the contrary, the wrathful,
the covetous, the proud, the impatient,
do not grow in Christ, but in the
devil.

19. It is the apostle's command, that
we should grow up "unto a perfect
man." Eph. 4 : 13. As a child gradu-
ally grows up to the stature of a per-
fect man, so a Christian ought daily
to grow in the practice of faith and
virtue, till he become a perfect man in
Christ. But "he that lacketh these
things is blind, and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged
from his old sins." 2 Pet. 1:9. As
if the apostle had said: Christ by his
death has indeed taken away our sins,
and blotted them out; not that we
should continue in the service of sin,
but that, dying to sin, and living to
Christ, we should show forth the
fructifying power of the death of
Christ. Without this order practically
applied to the mind, it is manifest,
that the purging away of our old sins,
and the atonement made for them,
can profit us nothing. Our sin is
never forgiven until we entirely quit
it, repent of it, and embrace Christ
with an unfeigned belief. If we pre-
serve but one sin alive, the mortifying
of all the rest, if that were possible,
would avail nothing; but we should
be condemned to eternal death, with-
out any hope of expiation or forgive-
ness. Thus, a man may be damned
for the sin of wrath alone; whereas,
if he had seriously corrected and

quitted it, he would have obtained
pardon not only for that, but even for
other sins of which he stood guilty.
But neglecting to do this, he is one of
those that are "blind," and "he for-
gets that he was purged from his old
sins!" 2 Pet. 1 : 9.

20. By this we are given to under-
stand the necessity of repentance, and
a thorough change of life: for ai-
though Christ died for our sins, and
abolished them with the price of his
blood, yet can we never partake of
that merit, unless we repent. Without
repentance this precious blood profits
nothing. And though every man has
a promise of pardon for his sin through
the merit of Christ, yet that promise
belongs not to the unbeliever, nor to
the impenitent, but to those only who
truly repent and reform their lives.
Those sins shall not be remitted,
which a man will not leave ; but those
only which he is willing to quit, and
for which he heartily grieves. And
here the word of the Lord is verified,
" The poor have the Gospel preached
to them;" that is, remission of sin,
and life everlasting consequent upon
it. Matt. 11 : 5. Let us suppose a
man, who, for many years, has been
the servant of covetousness, after the
example of Zaccheus; or of lust, as
Mary Magdalene; or of wrath and
revenge, as Esau. Let us also sup-
pose that this man, as soon as he
heard that either these sins were to
be entirely left, or that the death and
blood of Christ would else profit him
nothing, becomes a true suppliant to
God, and cries out to him : " Oh God!
how am I grieved for this! O Lord,
be merciful, be merciful !" and then
forms a new resolution, desists from
his sin, craves pardon and grace, and
believes in Christ. Then all his former
offences are, of grace, freely remitted

128

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

to him. No merit of his own is re-
garded, but solely the death and the
blood of Christ shed for him. This is
the only way in which a returning
sinner is to obtain mercy. Whereas,
he that does not fully resolve to
abandon his former sins, his covetous-
ness, wrath, usury, pride, lust, etc.,
will hope forever in vain for a remis-
sion of sin, being condemned to ever-
lasting confusion and anguish. He
shall be obliged to satisfy ibr himself
the justice of God, and yet will never
be able to perform it. On earth he
was destitute ofthat faith which puri-
fies the heart (Acts 15 : 9) ; and so his
sin and lust, which have not been
mortified here, shall forever torment
him there. It is for this reason, that
St. Paul so earnestly inculcates, "that
they which do such things, shall not
inherit the kingdom of God." Gal.
5:21. And therefore either the loss
of this heavenly kingdom must cer-
tainly follow, or the narrow way of
self-denial must be heartily chosen.

21. Wherever this unfeigned con-
version to, and faith in, God, are
wrought in the soul, there pardon and
divine grace are freely bestowed. And
where these are, there is Christ also ;
without whom no grace can be ob-
tained. Where Christ is, there are
likewise his precious merit, and the
full ransom which he has paid for our
sins, and which is appropriated to the
penitent soul. Again, where these are,
there is righteousness; and with right-
eousness, is peace ; and with peace,
sweet serenity of conscience. It is
then, that righteousness and peace kiss

each other in the soul. Ps. 85 : 10.
This clearness of conscience is attended
with the Spirit of God himself; who
being a Spirit of joy, will surely pour
forth the "oil of gladness" (Heb. 1:
9), and quicken the soul with a fore-
taste of life eternal itself, which shall
be joy and glory without end.

22. This is that light of eternal life,
that eternally triumphant joy, with
which those only are crowned that
live in Christ, and exercise daily re-
pentance. This is the beginning of a
spiritual life, as the death of Christ is
the basis and foundation on which it
is raised. On the contrary, where
there is no repentance, there is no par-
don of sin ; where there is no inward
remorse or spiritual sorrow, there
grace cannot have a place. Where
these are wanting, there Christ him-
self is wanting, together with the whole
extent of his merits and satisfaction,
be the pretences of the false Christian
ever so fair and specious. Where this
satisfaction is not thoroughly applied
to the soul, there is no righteousness,
and consequently no peace, no good
conscience, no comfort. Where there
is no comfort of heart, there is no
Holy Ghost, no joy, no calmness of
mind, and no life eternal ; but death,
hell, condemnation, and everlasting
darkness.

23. Behold, O man ! how true it is,
that none of those who refuse to fol-
low Christ in their lives, by an un-
feigned repentance, can ever get rid
of the blindness of their hearts, and
of everlasting darkness.

Chap. XXXVIIL]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

129

CHAPTER XXXVIIL

SHOWING THAT AN UNCHRISTIAN LIFE LEADS TO FALSE DOCTRINE, HARDNESS OF
HEART, AND BLINDNESS ) ALSO, TREATING OF THE ETERNAL ELECTION OF
GRACE.

Yet a little ichile is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon
you: for he thatwalketh in darkness knowelh not whither he goeth. — John 12 : 35.

SINCE Christ, and faith in him are
denied, and almost wholly extir-
pated by an ungodly life, what shall
his doctrine profit us? For his doc-
triue, with the Word and Sacraments,
is delivered to us for no other end,
than that it be inwardly digested, and
converted, as it were, into our very
life and spirit. As from a good seed
springs up good fruit, so from the
Word and Sacraments should spring
up within us the noble life of regener-
ation, or the new birth; the new,
holy, and spiritual man ; or, to speak
all in one word, a true and real Chris-
tian. For he that is a Christian, must
needs be born again of the Spirit, the
Word, and the Sacraments, and be-
lieve and live in Christ, as in the pri-
mary principle of the life of grace. As
certainly as a child is begotten by his
father, so truly must the Christian be
begotten of God and of Christ, through
faith. James 1 : 18 ; 1 Peter 1 : 23 ;
John 3 : 3, 5 ; Titus 3 : 5.

2. When, therefore, we do not re-
solve to strive against the depraved
hent of our flesh, and to digest the
doctrine of Christ into our life and
nature ; nay, when we contradict the
Christian doctrine by an anti- Christian
life, by irreligion and profaneness ; is
it not plain that we are not begotten
of God, nor born of Christ ? What will
Christ's doctrine profit us, when we are
eure that our life does not correspond

with it at all ? Will our vain boasts of
the light of the Gospel do any good,
when we evidently wralk in darkness?
It is on this account that the light de-
servedly retires from us, and the world
begins to be overspread with darkness
and false doctrines, with errors and
with seducing spirits. And that we
might beware of these, our blessed
Saviour hath left us this warning:
" While ye have the light, walk in the
light, lest darkness come upon you"
(John 12: 35); that is, lest ye be led
away into all kinds of errors and de-
lusions, into blindness and hardness
of heart, into darkness and prejudices,
which indispose the mind for the very
reception of the light of the Gospel.
This was the case with Pharaoh, the
Jews, and also of Julian the Apostate ;.
who, being in the end convicted by
the reproaches of his own conscience,
exclaimed openly, and to his own con-
fusion, that Christ both lived and
reigned, and was both Lord and God;,
saying, " Thou hast overcome, O Gal-
ilean ; thou hast overcome." It would
have been better for him to have said,.
" Lord, have mercy upon me !" But,
alas ! this was entirely out of his reach,
in consequence of the hardness of his
heart, contracted by an uninterrupted
course of sinning, and by having
rejected and despised the mercy of
Christ.

3. This hardness of heart, is that

9

ISO

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

terrible darkness which, in the end,
overtakes all such as refuse to walk in
the light whilst they have it. It is
the just punishment inflicted on those
that blaspheme the truth, as Pharaoh
did, when he asked : " Who is the
Lord, that I should obey his voice, to
let Israel go ? I know not the Lord/'
Exodus 5: 2. Therefore it was but just
that he should the more grievously
feel the overruling power of God, by
being made an example to the whole
world, and a lasting monument of the
indignation of the Lord, and of the
weakness of men who vainly presume
to oppose him.

4. In like manner were the Jews of
old struck with blindness and hard-
ness of heart, when they refused to
hearken to the voice of the Lord,
having been warned by Moses long
before, that this would certainly come
to pass. " The Lord," says he, " shall
smite thee with madness, and blind-
ness, and astonishment of heart."
Deut. 28 : 28. This actually did befall
them, as may be seen, Isaiah, chap.
6 : 9-12. Whereby it is manifest, that
such hardness of heart is the most
righteous punishment of unbelief, of
contempt of God, and the heavenly
truth declared by him ; according to
the words of St. Paul : " With all de-
ceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish; because they re-
ceived not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this
cause, God shall send them strong de-
lusion, that they should believe a lie."
2 Thess. 2 : 10, 11. Whence it plainly
appears, why God is used to strike
men with such terrible blindness and
hardness of heart; namely, because
they "receive not the love of the
truth."

5. And, indeed, the man from whom
God takes .away his offered grace, is

surely most wretched and miserable ;
neither can he of himself at any time
return into the right way. As a proof
of this, we have the examples of Pha-
raoh and Julian. He from whom the
Lord removes his light, must of neces-
sity live in darkness. God removes it,
however, from those only who refuse
to walk in it ; neither does he take his
grace from any, but from those that
boldly reject it.

6. It is in this sense that the words
of St. Paul are to be taken: "'I will
have mercy (saith he) on whom I
will have mercy.' Therefore hath he
mercy on whom he will have mercy;
and whom he will he hardeneth."
Rom. 9 : 15, 18. But truly the Lord
hath pity on all them who freely re-
ceive his mercy ; as, on the contrary,
he hardeneth those that reject and
blaspheme the offer of his grace. And
it is this wilful resistance for which
St. Paul reproves the Jews : " It was
necessary," says he, "that the word
of God should first have been spoken
to you ; but seeing ye put it from you,
and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles." "And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad, and glori-
fied the word of the Lord: and as
many as were ordained to eternal life,
believed" (Acts 13 : 46, 48) : that is, as
many as did not resist and obstinately
cast away the word of grace, as the
means of faith. It was because the
Jews were guilty of this, that they
could not believe : for the Lord hath
not ordained any one to eternal sal-
vation, who disdainfully rejects his
word, and proves disobedient to the
offer of his grace.

7. The ordination to life eternal, or
the election of grace (Rom. 11 : 5), is
fully brought to pass in Jesus Christ,
with this promise annexed, that God

Chap. XXXVIII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

131

offers his grace to all by the Gospel ;
those who receive it are ordained to
eternal life; and whosoever reject it
thereby "judge themselves unworthy
of eternal life," as St. Paul expresses
it. That is, by their own fault they
make themselves unworthy of that
blessing, and debar themselves from
that universal grace which is dis-
played in the Gospel ; and so putting
their own names out of the book of
life, which is Christ, they resist the
good work of God by their own con-
tumacy, and, consequently, cannot ob-
tain that true saving faith, which the
"Word begets.

8. And here let us not deceive our-
selves, by vainly supposing that they
only reject the word of God, who do
not outwardly embrace the faith and
doctrine of Christ (such as Mahom-
etans and Jews); and that those who
profess the Christian faith, and adhere
to the doctrine of the Gospel, cannot
possibly be deemed wilful despisers of
the offer of mercy. Certain it is, that
all who will not follow the footsteps
of Christ, nor take his life upon them,
nor walk in the light, fall under this
heavy charge. And for this cause
God is moved to take from them the
light of his word, and of pure doc-
trine. " I," saith Christ, " am the light
of the world: he that followeth me,
shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life." John 8 : 12.

9. Hence we learn that whoever fol-
lows the example of Christ, and lives
his life, shall be in no danger of being
misled by any delusion and error. He
shall also escape that blindness and
hardness of heart, which an empty
confessor of the Christian faith draws
upon himself. Consider here, on the
one hand, the many proud, noble,
learned, ingenious, and mighty men
of this world ; and, on the other, the

errors, blindness, and delusions, into
which they are plunged. Truly, those
delusions arise from no other source,
than because men do not live in Christ,
but are averse to the imitation of his
holy life; and therefore cannot have
the light of life.

10. From the same source also pro-
ceed those " workings of Satan," and
those "strong delusions," together
with all the "lying wonders" men-
tioned by St. Paul (2 Thess. 2 : 9-11),
and which more and more increase
upon us, because the world is not wil-
ling to follow Christ, and by this
means, to be preserved from delusion
and error. " For what communion
hath light with darkness? and what
concord (therefore) hath Christ with
Belial ?" 2 Cor. 6 : 14, 15. That is to
say, Purity of doctrine, and divine
knowledge, cannot remain with those
that live in the devil, in darkness, in
pride, in covetousness, and filthy
pleasure. How should the pure doc-
trine dwell with those who exhibit im-
purity of life and manners ? Nothing,
certainly, can be more irreconcilable,
than purity of doctrine and an impure
life.

11. If, therefore, we would preserve
pure doctrine, we must be wholly
changed in our minds, and have no
part with the world, and with un-
christian actions. We must "awake"
(Eph. 5 : 14) from the lethargy of sin,
and shake off the works of darkness,
that so Christ may enlighten us again
with the light of true faith. Whence
it is plain, that whosoever does not
follow the footsteps of Christ, nor
imitate him in his love, humility,
meekness, patience, and obedience, he
must necessarily be deceived, and
stray from the knowledge of God ;
since he does not walk in the way
which leads to truth.

132

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

12. On the contrary, if we but lived
in Christ, if we walked in his love and
humility, and directed all our endeav-
ors and studies purely to this one ob-
ject, that the flesh be mortified, and
the life of Christ raised within us;
that through him we might overcome
ourselves, and triumph over the flesh,
the world, and the devil; if this were
but once effected, there would then
remain very little contention and
strife about the doctrine, and heresies
would of themselves fall to the ground.

13. We have an example of most
strange dejusion in Ahab, who, on ac-
count of his wicked and tyrannical
life, was seduced by four hundred
false prophets. 1 Kings 22. It was
by their encouragement that he un-
dertook that fatal expedition against
the Syrians, in contempt of the true
prophet Micaiah, who positively fore-
told his death in that battle. But be-
ing led by a false light, he rejected the
truth, and gave credit to lying proph-
ets, who prophesied nothing but peace
and prosperity to him. Hence the
justice of God met him, according to
the word of the true prophet, and by
due desert the dogs licked his blood.

14. In this is verified the word of
St. Paul : " The god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which be-
lieve not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto
them." 2 Cor. 4:4. And is not the
same judgment threatened against all
hypocrites, who boast of Christ and his
doctrine, but deny him in their life
and actions ? For thus saith the Lord
through the prophet : " Forasmuch as
this people draw near me with their
mouth, and with their lips do honor
me, but have removed their heart far
from me; therefore the wisdom of
their wise men shall perish, and the
understanding of their prudent men
shall be hid." Isa. 29 : 13, 14. Con-
cerning the prophets in particular, the
Lord has plainly declared, that he has
"covered the prophets, the rulers, and
seers." Hence the vision shall become
as a " sealed book," etc. Yerse 10, 11.
And as for the Jews themselves, the
apostle has told us, that there is a
"vail upon their heart," preventing
their eyes from beholding the true
Messiah; which, however, shall be
" taken away when they turn to the
Lord." 2 Cor. 3 : 15, 16.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SHOWING THAT THE PURITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE WORD IS MAIN-
TAINED NOT ONLY BY DISCUSSIONS AND PUBLICATIONS, BUT ALSO BY TRUE
REPENTANCE AND HOLINESS OF LIFE.

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in
Christ Jesus. That good^dng which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which
dwelleth in us. — 2 Tim. 1 : 13, 14.

IT is very necessary, that the purity
of doctrine, and the truth of the
holy Christian faith, should be main-
tained and defended against all false

teachers. For this we have the ex-
ample of the holy prophets, who, with
great zeal, preached against false and
idolatrous prophets under the old law;

Chap. XXXIX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

133

of the Son of God, who sharply dis-
puted against the Pharisees and scribes
at Jerusalem; of St. John, the Evan-
gelist, who wrote his Gospel against
the heretical Ebionites and Cerinthus,
and the Eevelation (chap. 2 : 6, 15),
against the false church of the Nico-
laitans and others.

2. Thus, too, St. Paul vigorously de-
fended the doctrine of justification by
faith (Eom. 3 : 20, etc.), of good works
(2 Cor. 9 : 8, etc.), of the resurrection
of the dead (1 Cor. 15 : 1, etc.), of
Christian liberty (1 Cor. 9 j 10— Gal.
5:1, etc.), etc., against certain false
apostles who had intruded into the
Church. We have, further, the exam-
ple of the holy bishops and fathers of
the primitive church, who, following
the example set them by the apostles,
strenuously opposed in their public
controversial writings, the Pagan su-
perstitions, and the heresies of those
times. Nay, for the same purpose
General Councils were gathered by the
Christian emperors, who condemned
the chief heretics that infested the
church at that time; such as the
Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, and
Eutychians ; not to mention the ex-
ample of Martin Luther, by whose po-
lemical books and writings, the papa-
cy, and other sects, have in these latter
days been successfully assailed.

3. It remains, therefore, that preach-
ing, writing, and disputation against
heretics, must be continued, to the
preserving of the purity of doctrine,
and of true religion. For this reason,
the apostle will also have " a bishop
to be able both to exhort and convince
the gainsayers." Titus 1 : 9. Though
this in itself is both lawful and com-
mendable, yet it has so fallen out by
the abuse of it, that disputations and
controversies are increased to such an
extent in these days, that the Chris-

tian life, true repentance, love, and god-
liness, are, as it were forgotten ; as if
the sum and substance of the Christian
religion consisted in arguing, and writ-
ing books of controversy, rather than
in that unfeigned holiness of life, and
purity of manners, which the Gospel
requires.

4. For consider the examples of the
holy Prophets and Apostles, as also
of the Son of God himself. They did
not barely dispute against false proph-
ets and apostles, and the superstitions
maintained by them; but also with
great zeal and vigor exhorted to true
repentance, and a holy life. Their ser-
mons were accompanied with power
and energy ; and they made it appear,
that by wickedness and impenitence,
true religion and worship were de-
stroyed, the Church laid waste, and
kingdoms and countries visited with
the plague, war, and famine. And all
this exactly came to pass even as they
said. Of this complexion is that dec-
laration of the Prophet, where he de-
nounces to the Jews, "that because
the vineyard of the Lord did not bring
forth grapes, but wild grapes, the Lord
had decreed to lay it waste." Isaiah
5:4, 6. Whence it appears, that im-
piety is the cause, why God takes
away his Word from us. And does
not the Lord speak to the same effect,
in the words recorded by St. John ?
" Walk while ye have the light, lest
darkness come upon you." John 12 : 35.
But what is it to walk in the lio;ht, ex-
cept it be to imitate Christ in his life,
and to have the same mind which was
in him? And what does the. Lord in-
timate by the " darkness coming upon
us," but the loss of the Gospel, and of
the purity of the Christian doctrine ?
All this may abundantly convince us,
that without repentance and holiness
of life, no soul can be illuminated

134

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

with the saving light of the Gospel.
For the Holy Ghost, who is the true
enlightener of hearts, flees from the
ungodly, and chooses holy souls only,
to make them friends of God. And
if the beginning of wisdom is the fear
of God (Ps. Ill : 1U), who can doubt
that impiety and carnal security are
the beginning of folly, ignorance, and
blindness?

5. The true knowledge of Christ,
and profession of his doctrine, consist
not in words only, but in deeds and a
holy life, as St Paul says: "They
profess that they know God; but in
works they deny him, being abomin-
able, and disobedient, and unto every
good work reprobate." Titus 1 : 16.
And again; "They have a form of
godliness, but deny the power thereof."
2 Tim. 3:5. By this we are taught,
that Christ and his Gospel are denied
by a wicked life, as well as by words ;
and that he has not the true knowl-
edge of Christ, who puts it not into
practice. A man who never tasted in
his heart the humility, meekness, pa-
tience, and love ot'Christ, cannot know
Christ himself; and, consequently, in
the time of trouble, cannot freely con-
fess him. Whoever confesses the doc-
trine of Christ, and rejects him in his
life, confesses him only in part; and
whoever preaches the doctrine of
Christ without his life, preaches Christ
only in part. The world abounds with
books of controversy, written in de-
fence of the doctrine, but very few liv-
ing books are extant concerning a
Christian life. Now what is doctrine
without life, but a tree without fruit ?
Or how should he follow the doctrine
of Christ, who refuses to follow him
in his life ? For the sum and substance
of the doctrine of Jesus Christ is " char-
ity, out of a pure heart, and of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

1 Tim. 1 : 5. But we live in an age,
wherein there is so vast a number of
disputants and reasoners in matters
of doctrine, that one would think
they had nothing more at heart than
the promotion of religion and piety:
whereas, upon a closer search, they
are found to be inwardly full of mal-
ice and pride, envy and avarice. For
this reason the apostle hath joined to-
gether faith and love, when he com-
mands us to " hold fast the form of
sound words." 2 Tim. 1 : 13. Life and
doctrine, as he intends to show, must
go hand in hand together, and never
be put asunder in the great work of
salvation.

6. Though we do not in the slightest
degree affirm, that by our own efforts
and piety, eternal life is obtained (for
"we are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation," 1 Pet.
1:5): yet it is certain, that by an un-
godly life, the Spirit of God, with all his
gifts, is banished; amongst which gifts,
faith, knowledge, understanding, and
wisdom, are not the least. Therefore
it follows again, that without a holy
life, purity of doctrine cannot be pre-
served; and that the wicked who will
not follow Christ in his life, cannot be
enlightened with the true light of the
Gospel. On the contrary, those that
walk in the light, that is, who perse-
vere in the blessed footsteps of Christ,
are illuminated by the true light (John
1 : 9), which is Christ, and are hereby
preserved from the danger of delu-
sions and errors. To this effect, that
holy and enlightened writer, Tauler,
has said: "As soon as a man dedi-
cates and yields himself up to God,
and denies his own will and flesh, then
immediately the good Spirit of God
begins to illuminate him, and to endue
him with solid and sound knowledge;
because this man truly keeps in his

Chap. XXXIX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

135

heart the true spiritual sabbath, and
rests from all sinful lusts, and from
his own will and works." This sen-
tence is to be understood of the state
after conversion, and of daily illumi-
nation and growth in divine gifts and
graces.

7. Not without cause, then, doth the
Lord say, " I am the way, and the
truth, and the life." John 14 : 6. He
calls himself the way, as showing the
way unto us. And how did he show
it? Truly, not in his doctrine only,
but also in his most holy life. This
life of our blessed Eedeemer consisted
in a true and unfeigned devotedness to
God, leading us in the way to truth
and to life, as the substance of our
whole religion, and the summary of
all the commandments of God. This
book of life contains in it many great
and arduous lessons, to learn which
were sufficient to take up our whole
time. Here is inculcated the exercise
of true repentance, and of that living
practical faith which attends it; here
the practice of love, hope, meekness,
patience, and humility, are to be
studied; here the duty of prayer, and
of the fear of God, is explained : all
which taken together, make up the
whole life of Christ, set us as a pat-
tern to follow. This is that " strait
gate," and that " narrow way," which
few can find. Matt. 7 : 14. This is the
book of life, which but few read,
though all things are comprised in it
which a Christian ought to know and
to practise ; so that we shall need no
other book in order to our eternal sal-
vation. Here is the reason why also
the Holy Scripture is contained in a
few books, that it might appear that
Christianity does not consist in a mul-
titude of volumes, but in a living faith,
and in a serious imitation of Christ.
For the wise man says : " Of mak-

ing many books there is no end ; and
much study is a weariness of the flesh."
Wherefore, let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter: " Fear God, and
keep his commandments." Eccles. 12:
12, 13.

8. We are told in the parable, that
the devil, when men are asleep, com-
eth and soweth tares among the wheat,
and goeth his way. Matt. 13 : 25. This
teaches us, that when men lay aside
the works of repentance, and indulge
themselves in the sleep of sin, of carnal
security, of love of the world, and of
temporal care and concerns ; then the
devil gradually scatters his seed of
false doctrine in the field of pride
(Gen. 3:5): whence arise various sects,
schisms, and heresies. For by the sin
of pride both angels and men lost the
true light with which they were at
first endued. Pride is the original
source of all delusions and errors,
which have been most unhappily
brought into the world. If Satan, and
Adam, the first man, had continued in
a state of humility, as did Christ when
he conversed among men, then never
had any error or temptation invaded
this world. But now there is no other
means for our recovery left, except
that which is taught by St. Paul :
" Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ
shall give thee light" (Bph. 5 : 14) : con-
vincing us thereby, that no man can
be divinely enlightened, who has not
shaken off his sinful lethargy; that
is, his carnal security, profaneness, and
impiety. The same is attested by St.
Peter: "Eepent, and ye shall receive-
the gift of the Holy Ghost " (Acts 2 ::
38) ; and by the Lord himself, in that-
saying : " The world cannot receive
the Spirit of truth, because it seeth,
him not, neither knoweth him." John
14 : 17. And what is the world, but a
life passed without God ?

136

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book I.

9. Again, when the Lord says : " By
their fruits ye shall know them " (Matt.
7 : 20) ; does he not signify the fruits
of a good and holy life, as the proper
marks whereby true and false Chris-
tians may be discerned ? A naked,
empty profession of the Christian faith,
will be no safe foundation upon which
to rely. Any false Christian may cover
himself with the sheep's clothing of a
verbal profession of the Christian faith;
when inwardly and in his heart he is
anything but a true Christian. How-
ever, be the lives of the professors of
Christianity ever so vain and wicked,
it does not follow hence, that the whole
doctrine is also false and corrupted,
as some would insinuate, vainly con-
demning our doctrine on account of
the wickedness of some of its pro-
fessed adherents. If this were true,
the doctrine of Christ and of his apos-
tles would not escape the charge of
error and falsehood; because even in
their days many impious characters
intruded into the church, and made a
fair profession of the Christian faith.
A profane life is no sufficient proof of
false doctrine in general, though it
may give us an insight into the indi-
vidual himself, whether he be a true
or a false Christian. Truly, he can-
not believe aright, who leads a life op-
posed to the nature and properties of
a divine faith. Such a man is no more
a believer, or a Christian, than a dead
body is a man. As many, therefore,
as are of the number of such corrupt
and unfruitful trees, are fit for nothing
but to be hewn down and cast into the
fire. Matt. 7 : 19.

10. In order to understand this the
better, we ought to inquire into the
.nature of a sound and saving faith,
.and the peculiar properties that at-
tend it. And in the first place, a true,
isaving faith, works by love. Gal. 5:6.

By faith man is made " a new crea-
ture " (Gal. 6 : 15) ; he is thereby born
again, and united with God. By faith,
" Christ dwells" and operates " in his
heart." Eph.3:17. By faith the whole
kingdom of God is established in the
soul, and the divine Spirit " purifies
and enlightens the heart." Acts 15:9.
And truly, the Scripture copiously
sets forth these and similar properties
that accompany true faith. Thus the
apostle says: " He that is joined unto
the Lord (by faith) is one spirit." 1
Cor. 6 : 17. And what is it to be one
spirit with Christ, but to have the
same mind, the same heart and will,
which are in him? And this oneness
of spirit must needs suppose that new,
holy, and heavenly life of Christ
which is to be raised within us. To
the same purpose it is said : " If any
man be in Christ, he is a new crea-
ture " (2 Cor. 5 : 17) ; where to be in
Christ, is not only to believe in him,
but also to live in him. Again, "I
will betroth thee unto me forever; I
will even betroth thee to me in faith-
fulness." Hos. 2 : 19, 20. This sentence
can signify no less, than that a man
by faith is wholly and spiritually
united to Christ : so that where faith
is, there Christ is ; where Christ is,
there a holy life abides in man ; where
the life of Christ is, there also is his
love; and where love is, there is God
himself, who " is love" (1 John 4 : 8),
and there is also the Holy Ghost. And
in this divine order all these heavenly
transactions combine ; even as the
head is one with the members, and as
the cause is linked with the effect.
And this connection of faith and life,
St. Peter admirably enforces, when he
bids us to "give all diligence to add
to faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowl-
edge; and to knowledge, temperance;
and to temperance, patience; and to

Chap. XL.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

137

patience, godliness; and to godliness,
brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly
kindness, charity." " For if these
things," says he, " be in you and
abound, they make you that ye shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But he that lacketh these
things is blind, and cannot see afar
off, and hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins." 2 Pet. 1 :

5-9. Here the apostle evidently de-
clares, that in whomsoever this union
of faith and of life is not to be found,
he is destitute of all saving knowledge
of Christ, and walks in darkness. For
it is the property of true faith to
change a man wholly, to renew, and
to quicken him in Christ; so that
henceforth man may live and dwell in
Christ, and Christ again may live and
dwell in man.

CHAPTER XL.

SUNDRY RULES FOR LEADING A HOLY LIFE.

Exercise thyself unto godliness. For godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come. — 1 TlM. 4:7, 8.

IN this apostolical sentence is con-
tained a brief description of a
Christian's life, and of the main study
about which he is employed, namely,
the study of godliness, or of Christian
piety, which comprehends in it the
whole train of Christian virtues. The
apostle makes use of two motives to
recommend this heavenly study, and
the constant practice of it. First, says
he, " Godliness is profitable unto all
things." Godliness is of most admir-
able service, as soon as our words and
actions are influenced by it. It ren-
ders the whole life acceptable to God,
and useful to our neighbor. The sec-
ond motive is, because godliness is ac-
companied with a gracious reward
both in this life, as appears from the
examples of Joseph, of Daniel, and of
others, as well as in that which is to
come ; where we shall reap without
ceasing, provided we do not faint while
we dwell here. Gal. 6 : 9. For our bet-
ter encouragement in the practice of

piety, let us endeavor to keep in re-
membrance the following rules and
considerations.

I. If thou even canst not live up to
that degree of holiness which the word
of God requires, and which thou thy-
self desirest, yet thou must never cease
ardently to wish for it ; for such holy
breathings are always acceptable to
God. God does not so much regard
the outward action of a man, as the
heart whence the action proceeds. But
after all, never neglect to crucify thy
flesh, and never permit it to rule over
thee.

II. In all that thou thinkest and
doest, be careful to preserve the purity
of thy heart. Set a watch over it, lest
thou be defiled with proud thoughts,
words, or actions ; with wrath, or
other such works of the flesh, and of
the devil. Sin opens the door to the
devil, and shuts the heart against God.

III. Study continually to maintain
the Christian liberty of thy soul, and

138

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

do not suffer thyself to be enslaved,
or brought into bondage, by any inor-
dinate love of the creature, or of the
things of this world, whose lord and
master thou oughtest to be. Consider
the value of thy soul, which certainly
is of a more uoble nature than this
present perishing world. Why should-
est thou degrade it so far, as to sub-
ject it to the frail, base, and frivolous
things of this life ?

IV. Beware of the care and sorrow
of this world, because it worketh death.
2 Cor. 7 : 10. As worldly sorrow be-
getteth death, so godly sorrow beget-
teth life, and lays up an eternal treas-
ure ! Worldly sorrow springs from
avarice and envy; from excessive
care; from unbelief and impatience;
and other temporal sources. Godly
sorrow proceeds from a knowledge of
thy sins, and those eternal punish-
ments which follow them. This sor-
row produces many salutary effects in
a penitent soul, and "worketh repent-
ance to salvation, not to be repented
of;" being attended with spiritual joy,
and solid peace or tranquillity of
mind. No loss of a temporal kind
ought to afflict thee so much as the
remembrance of thy sins, by which
thou hast offended the infinite good-
ness of God.

Y. If thou canst not bear thy cross
with joy and cheerfulness, yet take it
at least with patience and humility, and
acquiesce calmly in the divine will and
providence. For, truly, the will of
God is always good ; nor does it intend
anything but thy benefit and salva-
tion. Whatsoever, therefore, God shall
be pleased to appoint thee in his wis-
dom, do thou gratefully accept it, and
be either joyful or sorrowful, poor or
rich, high or low, vile or excellent, as
He orders thy lot. Let this saying
always be in thy mind: "Thus it

seeraeth good unto God, and so it must
needs be expedient and useful for me
also. His will, not mine, be done."
Let not that, therefore, which pleases
God, displease thee ; but rather rejoice
that all things are ordered according
to His pleasure and thy salvation.
Remember that "the Lord is right-
eous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works." Ps. 145 : 17. Hence it is but
just that the will of God should be
done, because it is always good and
profitable ; and that thy own will should
be subdued and unaccomplished, be-
cause it is always evil and hurtful.

YI. Whenever the Lord visits thy
soul with heavenly joy, accept the
same with gratitude and humility. But
when he is pleased to withdraw the
comfortable light of his presence, then
consider that the mortification of the
flesh must needs be of greater profit
to thee than exalted joy in the spirit.
Through overmuch spiritual joy, many
fall into spiritual pride. But what-
ever causes mortification and sorrow,
is far more useful in subduing the flesh,
than that which is delightful and pleas-
ing to nature. The Lord best knows
whom to lead in a pleasant and agree-
able path, and who are to be brought
through an unpleasant, stony, and
difficult way. Always esteem it best
to arrive at thy journey's end by that
way which divine Wisdom has chosen
for thee, however different it may be
from thine own choice, or from the
devices of thine own heart. Remem-
ber, that " sorrow is better than
laughter;" and that " by the sadness
of the countenance the heart is made
better." And if thou wilt be wise,
trust to the experience of the wise
man, who tells thee furthermore, that
" the heart of the wise is in the house
of mourning ; but the heart of fools
is in the house of mirth." Eccl. 7 : 3, 4.

Chap. XL.]

TKTJE CHRISTIANITY.

139

YII. Make an offering to God of all
that thou hast, and undertakest. If thou
canst not bring offerings of a high and
exalted devotion, of prayer, of thanks-
giving, and of other similar acts of
religion, offer at least what thou hast,
with a good will, and a fervent desire.
Wish, at least, that it may prove ac-
ceptable unto the Lord; for to have
such a desire, or to be willing to have
it, is no contemptible offering, but is
very agreeable to the kindness of God.
In what measure thou desirest to offer
up thy devotion, thy prayer, and
praise; in that measure God accepts
the same. He requires no more at
thy hands than he himself works in
thee by his grace : nor canst thou re-
turn him more than he has first con-
ferred on thee. In the meantime,
entreat the Lord Jesus, that he would
graciously please to supply what is
defective in thee, by his own more
perfect oblation and sacrifice : because
he, and he only, is the perfection of
our imperfect worship and service.
Say, therefore, in faith : " O my God,
and my Father, I beseech thee, let my
devotion, my prayer, and thanks-
giving, together with all the acts of
my faith and worship, be graciously
accepted by thee in thy beloved Son,
Jesus Christ. Esteem them, not ac-
cording to what they are in them-
selves, but according to what they are
made by the merit of the all-suf-
ficient sacrifice offered up by thy Son.
O look upon that, and upon all that
he has wrought for me in the flesh ;
and as his most perfect works must
needs be pleasing to thee, so let mine
also be acceptable to thee for his sake.
He, O my God, shall abundantly make
up whatsoever is defective in me." By
this means, our devotion, our prayer,
and thanksgiving, how imperfect,
weak, and obscure soever they may be

in themselves, acquire a certain lustre,
worth, and dignity derived from the
merit of Christ, whereby our works
are rendered acceptable to the Lord.
As a naked and unclean infant is
offensive to every one that sees it, but
becomes sweet and lovely when it is
thoroughly cleansed, and covered with
fine linen : in like manner, all the
works which thou doest in thy natural
state, are polluted with sin, and of no
account before God ; but no sooner
art thou covered with the perfection
of Christ (Isa. 61 : 10), than thy works
are acceptable to God. As fruit,
which is not valuable in itself, sur-
prises the spectator into a love of it,
when served up in vessels of precious
gold : so our prayers and acts of de-
votion, though of no account in them-
selves, are exalted in Jesus Christ, in
whom, as in the beloved, we are made ac-
cepted with God. Eph. 1 : 6.

VIII. If thy sins and manifold frail-
ties (as they should do), make thee
sad, jetlet them not lead thee to despair.
If they be many in number, remember
that there is yet more mercy with
Christ, and " plenteous redemption
with him." Ps. 130 : 7. If thy imper-
fections be ever so great, remember
that Christ's merits are yet greater,
and say with the royal penitent :
" Have mercy upon me, O Lord, ac-
cording to the multitude of thy tender
mercies!" Ps. 51:1. And when, by the
grace of God, thou truly repentest,
and beholdest Christ Jesus, that great
sacrifice for sin, then God himself re-
pents of the evil which was to be in-
flicted upon thee ; and absolution and
remission of sin instantly follow so
good and salutary a sorrow. Ezek.
18 : 23 ; 33 : 11. As the leper, upon
his application to Christ, was immedi-
ately delivered from his evil, so is also
the penitent sinner. JSTo sooner did he

140

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book I.

say, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean;" than Christ freely
replied: «"I will; be thou clean."
Matt, 8 : 2, 3. So also the merciful God,
inwardly and in the spirit, makes thee
clean, comforts thee, and says : " Be
of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven
thee." Matt. 9 : 2. This wonderful
mercy of the Lord in cleansing and
absolving thee of thy sins, as it is for-
cibly represented by the example of
that leper, so it ought by no means to
give thee an occasion to sin the more;
but to love G-od the more, and to say,
"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all
that is within me bless his holy name."
Ps. 103 : 1.

IX. Let not injuries, reproaches, and
revilings, provoke thee at any time to
wrath, indignation, or revenge; but
rather take them as so many trials of
thy heart, and of the inward state
of thy soul. Hereby God designs to
prove thee, that it may appear what is
hidden within thee, and whether meek-
ness and humility, or wrath and pride,
sway thy mind. For that which lies
concealed in a man, is stirred up and
made manifest by reproaches and pro-
vocations. If, therefore, thy heart be
endued with meekness and lowliness,
thou wilt easily bear contempt and in-
juries ; nay, thou wilt accept them as
so many paternal chastisements de-
signed for the good of thy soul. More-
over, thou must consider, that con-
tempt and reproaches are part of the
chastisements which the Almighty
sends, and thou shouldst patiently
bear whatever the Lord shall be
pleased to allot to thee. " Let us go
forth," says the apostle, «unto him,
bearing his reproach." Heb. 13 : 13.
Behold with what lowliness of heart
did he undergo the affronts of a pro-
fane world ! And should not we submit
to the same with meekness, and with

an unshaken evenness of mind ? Say
not then, " Should I suffer these things
from so contemptible a fellow as this?"
but rather submit, in consideration of
that patient and meek spirit which
was in Christ, and displayed itself in
his whole life and conduct. Lastly,
consider the kindness of God towards
those that suffer for his sake. So faith-
ful is he, and so kind to those that
bear any disgrace on his account, that
he confers the greater marks of honor
and favor upon them. Thus David,
when Shimei vented his malice upon
him, took it for a pledge that God
would bestow a token of great honor
upon him; and this accordingly came
to pass. " It may be," says he, "that
the Lord will look on mine affliction,
and that the Lord will requite me
good for his cursing this day," and
turn his curse into a blessing. 2 Sam.
16 : 12. Be not, therefore, at all dis-
turbed at the evil report that wicked
men may raise against thee ; but re-
joice rather, since the Spirit of glory
rests on those that are reproached for
the name of Christ. 1 Peter 4 : 14.

X. Study to overcome and to pacify
thine enemies, by bestowing upon
them tokens of love and kindness. No
man will ever be reconciled by wrath,
or revenge, or returning evil for evil,
for victory consists in virtue, not in
vice. And as one devil does not drive
out another, so it cannot be expected
that one evil should be subdued by an-
other; or that enmity against thee
should be extinguished by affronts and
provocations offered by thee. A man
that is full of sores and bruises, is not
likely to be healed by the addition of
more blows ; and if he be so mad as to
beat and to cut himself, he is to be
pitied, and to be treated with the
greater kindness and lenity. In like
manner, if a man be full of spiritual

Chap. XL.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

141

distemper, and of hatred, he is to be
handled with the more love and gen-
tleness; if, perhaps, by such lenient
means as these, he may be softened
into a better temper. Consider the
method which God himself uses for
overcoming our natural obstinacy.
Does he not conquer our malice with
his goodness, and our wrath with his
love? And does he not invite us to re-
pentance by many endearing marks of
love and benignity ? Rom. 2 : 4. This
method is prescribed by St. Paul: "Be
not/' says he, "overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good." Rom. 12 :
2L. This is victory indeed.

XI. When thou observest that God
has adorned thy neighbor with gifts
above thee, take heed not to envy him
on that account; but rather rejoice
and give thanks to God for the same.
Consider, that since all true believers
make up together but one body, it
must needs follow, that the beauty of
every member is communicated to the
whole body, and to every member
thereof. On the other hand, when
thou perceivest the misery of thy
neighbor, lament over it as if it were
thine own; considering that the con-
dition of all men is equally subject to
evil, and that misery and affliction are
the lot of mankind. Christ hath also
set thee here an example. And, truly,
whoever does not commiserate and
sympathize with the misery of his
neighbor, let him pretend to be what
he may, he is no living member of the
body of Christ. For did not Christ
look upon our misery as his own, and
by compassionating our deplorable
state, deliver us from all our miseries?
This mutual love and sympathy, are
inculcated by St. Paul : " Bear ye one
another's burdens/' says he, " and so
fulfil the law of Christ." Gal. 6 : 2.

XII. As for love and hatred in rela-

tion to thy neighbor, make the follow-
ing distinction. It is but fit that thou
shouldest hate his vices and crimes as
the very works of the devil; but then,
beware of hating the person 'whilst
thou abhorrest his sin. On the con-
trary, it is thy duty to bewail the case
of thy neighbor, who, being carried
away by so many irregular passions,
enjoys no solid rest in his soul. Offer
up his cause to God, and pray for him,
as Christ did for his enemies, when he
was nailed to the cross. Luke 23 : 34.
Do not, therefore, hate any man, but
hate his vices only ; for whosoever
hates a man, and seeks his ruin, can
in no wise be pleasing to God ; since
it is the very nature of God to be
kind, and to desire that " all men
should be saved, and come unto the
knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. 2 : 4.
This was also the end for which
Christ took our flesh upon him. He
came into the world, " not to destroy
men's lives, but to save them." Luke
9:56.

XIII. Consider all men as being
frail and imperfect, but none as more
frail and imperfect than thyself; for
before God, all men stand equally
guilty, and there is no difference. We
have all sinned, and have thereby
been deprived of the image of God,
and of all the glory which attended
it. Rom. 3 : 23. How great a sinner,
therefore, thy neighbor may be, never
fondly persuade thyself, that thou art
better before God. Remember this
warning of the apostle: "Let him
that thinketh he standeth, take heed
lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10 : 12. He that
makes himself the lowest of all men,
is in the fairest way of being pre-
served, by the grace of God, unto sal-
vation. And certain it is, that thou
standest no less in need of the grace
and mercy of God, than the greatest

142

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[Book I.

of sinners. Where there is a great
measure of humility, there is also a
great measure of grace. Wherefore
St. Paul accounted himself the " chief
of sinners" (1 Tim. 1 : 15); and it was
in this order he obtained mercy, and
had so much long-suffering bestowed
upon him. And in another place he
declares that he will glory in nothing
but in "his infirmities, that the power
of Christ might rest upon him." 2
Cor. 12 : 9.

XIV. True illumination is always
accompanied with a contempt of the
things of the world. As the children
of the world have their inheritance
here upon earth; so the children of
God have theirs laid up above in
heaven. The treasures which the
children of this world have chiefly at
heart, are temporal honors, perishing
riches, earthly splendor and glory.
But the treasures of the children of
God are poverty and contempt, per-
secution and reproach, the cross and
death, trouble and sorrow. Thus did
Moses prefer " the reproach of Christ
before the treasures in Egypt;" and
the affliction of the people of God,

before the pleasures of. sin. Heb. 11 :
25, 26.

XV. Eemember, that by the name
of a Christian written in heaven, is in-
timated that solid, practical knowledge
of Christ which is grounded in faith,
and by which we are transplanted into
Christ. From this knowledge flow
all the living virtues which the Lord
will praise in the great day of retri-
bution. Matt. 25 : 34, etc. He will
then also bring to light all those
treasures which we have laid up in
heaven (1 Tim. 6 : 19), together with
all such works as have been wrought
in God. John 3:21. Never has a saint
lived upon earth, but he has been par-
ticularly eminent in one virtue or
other; and this virtue shall never be
forgotten. Ps. 112 : 6. Whether it be
faith, love, mercy, patience, or any
other virtue in the practice of which
he has been so conspicuous, it shall
make up that eternal name which is
written in heaven. Eev. 2 : 17 ; 3 : 12.
This will be the note and character
of the saints, and their eternal me-
morial before God. But of this, more
shall be said in Book II.

CHAPTER XL I

THE WHOLE OF CHRISTIANITY CONSISTS IN THE RESTORATION OP THE IMAGE OF
GOD IN MAN, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE IMAGE OF SATAN.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. — 2 Cor. 3 : 18.

IN the true knowledge of Christ,
wherein is comprehended that of
his Person, offices, benefits, and heav-
enly and eternal gifts, consists life
everlasting. John 17 : 3. This knowl-
edge is kindled in our hearts by the

Divine Spirit, and is a new light
shining forth with increasing bright-
ness, and passing on from glory to
glory. It is like a metallic body,
which, by constant polishing, be-
comes every day more brilliant ; or

Chap. XLL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

143

like a tender infant, which, by a daily
supply of food, grows up in vigor and
strength. No sooner is the righteous-
ness of Christ, through, faith, con-
ferred upon a returning sinner, than
he is also really born again, and the
image of God is daily renewed within
him. His spiritual growth, or the
renovation of his mind, goes on, how-
ever, in a successive manner, from
one degree to another, for he has not
yet become a "perfect man in Christ."
Eph. 4 : 13. He is a child for some
time; but is continually nourished by
the Divine Spirit, and daily brought
to a greater conformity with the Lord
Jesus Christ.

2. For the whole life of a Christian
upon earth, is properly nothing else
than a continual renewing of the image
of God in his soul : so that he may
constantly live in the new birth, and
daily mortify that which is old and
corrupt, till the body of sin be event-
ually destroyed. Eom. 6 : 4. This life
must be begun in this world, that so it
may be perfected in that which is to
come. Whereas, in whomsoever the
renewal of this divine life shall not be
begun before his departure from this
world, in him it never shall be accom-
plished. Wherefore I have thought
it might be well briefly to repeat what
is here meant by the image of God,
which is to be revived; and what by
the image of the devil, which is to be
obliterated and destroyed in man's
soul: for in the right knowledge of
these two, the substance of our whole
religion consists. It is the main point
upon which all turns, and from which
many other articles (as that of Orig-
inal Sin, free-will, repentance, conver-
sion, faith, justification, prayer, the
new birth, sanctification, and lastly,
obedience, and the whole practice of
a religious life), borrow no small light.

Of this, the following remarks will
give an account.

3. The soul of man is an immortal
spirit, endowed of God with excellent
faculties ; as the understanding, will,
memory, and other powers and affec-
tions.

4. See that thou turn all these to-
wards thy God, in order to behold him
therein as in a mirror ; and, by behold-
ing him, to have his image gradually
formed in thy soul. In this sense the
apostle speaks of "the glory of the
Lord," which we behold " with an
open face," without vail and shadows.
2. Cor. 3 : 18.

5. As God is a truly good and holy
Being • so also were the substance of
the soul, and its true nature and es-
sence, originally good and holy. And
as in God there is nothing of evil;
even so was the soul of man, in the
beginning, free from all manner of
evil. As in God there is nothing but
what is right ; so in the soul there was
nothing at first but what was right
also. For He is the rock, whose " work
is perfect;" even "a God of truth, and
without iniquity, just and right is he."
Deut.32:4; Ps. 92:15. As God is
wise, so was also the human soul full
of divine and spiritual knowledge, of
heavenly and eternal wisdom. And
as the divine wisdom ordered all
things in number, weight, and meas-
ure, and knew the powers of all crea-
tures, as well in heaven as in earth :
so also was the mind of man possessed
of the same light and knowledge.

6. And as it was with the under-
standing, so it was with the will : for
as the one was the image and reflec-
tion of the divine understanding, so
was the other of the divine will, in
everything. It was holy as the pat-
tern was holy, and conformed to the
will of God. Hence, as God himself

144

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

is, so was the human soul; righteous,
loving, merciful, long-suffering, pa-
tient, meek, gentle, true, and pure.
Exod. 34:6; Ps. 103:8; Joel 2:13.
Yea, all the passions or affections, all
the appetites, and motions of the heart,
being made most perfectly conform-
able to the motions and affections of
the divine mind, partook of this con-
formity of the will of man to that of
God. As, therefore, God is love, so
all the affections and motions of man,
in his first state, breathed nothing but
pure love. As God, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one in
an unspeakable and eternal bond of
love ; so all the affections and desires
of man, burned with a most perfect
and ardent love, and he cleaved unto
God fully with all the powers and fac-
ulties which he had; "with all his
heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his might" (Deut. 6:5); so that man
verily loved God more than himself,
and preferred God and His honor, to
himself and his own.

7. But as the image of God shone
forth in the soul, so the image of the
soul again shone forth in and from the
body. This, therefore, was holy, chaste,
and pure throughout, not subject to
any unclean motion or lust. It was
undefiled and without blemish. It
was in every respect, beautiful, well
proportioned, and graceful; of vigor-
ous health, and possessed of a consti-
tution even out of the very danger of
sickness. It was such as death itself
had no power over, and it was per-
fectly free from pain, listlessness, pas-
sion, grief, and old age, now the com-
mon attendants and warnings of
man's mortality. In a word, the whole
man, both in soul and body, was pure,
holy, righteous, and every way ac-
ceptable to God. For, in order that
man might be the image of God, it

was necessary that his body should be
holy, and conformable to God, as well
as his soul. Accordingly, St. Paul
both exhorts and prays, that the body,
together with the spirit and soul, be
sanctified wholly ; and be preserved
holy and blameless unto the coming
of our Lord. 1 Thess. 5 : 23. For since
man is made up of soul and body, and
exercises both bodily and spiritual
functions, there was a necessity that
the instrument through which the soul
was to act, should be pliable and obe-
dient, adapted to the nature of the
soul, and holy as the soul was holy;
to the end that the holy and righteous
soul, might finish her work through
the body without any obstacle or re-
sistance. As, therefore, the soul burned
with the pure love of God : so did all
the powers of the body manifest and
exert themselves in the love of God
and man. As the soul was altogether
merciful ; so also the body was, with
its whole might, and all its faculties,
impelled to tenderness and compas-
sion. As chastity shone forth from
the soul, which was altogether pure;
so the whole body, in like manner,
with all the inward and outward
senses and powers thereof, visibly set
forth the most perfect purity and chas-
tity. To conclude, the virtues no less
gloriously shone in the body, than in
the soul itself; so that the body was
the holy instrument of the soul, in
everything suited to it, and worked
together with it. And hence man in
the state of innocency, was able to love
God with all his heart, with all his soul,
with all his strength, and with all his
mind, and to love his neighbor as himself:
which is the very substance both of
the old and new law given to man.
Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37,39; Luke
10 : 27. Hence, as often as God calls
for the heart of man, we are to under-

Chap. XLL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

145

stand the whole man, both as to body
and soul, and the powers, faculties,
and operations of both. In this sense,
the word " heart" is frequently taken
in Scripture ; so that under it are com-
prehended all the powers of the soul,
as the understanding, will, and mem-
ory, together with all the desires and
affections attendant on them. So when
God demands a man's soul, he, under
that name, requires not a part, but the
whole of a man. He must, in all his
powers, be conformed to God, and re-
newed in Christ Jesus: and thus man,
having put off the old nature, and
being renewed in the spirit of his
mind, must also walk in newness of
life, and in the spirit by which he
was begotten again. Gal. 5 : 16 ;. Eph.
4:23.

8. Moreover, there was a perfect joy
in God, which accompanied this perfec-
tion of holiness, righteousness, and
divine love, in man. By this, all the
faculties and springs, both of soul and
body, were most powerfully affected :
for wherever divine holiness resides,
there also divine joy must be present.
These two are knit together with an
everlasting bond, and make up the
very image of God. Yet, as in this
life, the divine righteousness and holi-
ness are but imperfect in us, so we but
taste, while here, only the first fruits
of that joy which shall be fully re-
vealed hereafter. However, as the
righteousness of Christ is verily begun
in sincere believers, so it follows that
they also enjoy a real beginning and
foretaste of divine joy and comfort;
as those Christians can abundantly
attest, that have learned religion by
experience. John 16:22; 2 Cor. 1:5;
Phil. 4 : 4. Whatever progress, there-
fore, any one makes in the love of
God, be it more or less, so much of
divine joy does he also perceive in his

soul. And this holy and divine love,
as it shall in the next life attain its
full perfection, so in that day the Chris-
tian's joy (arising from love) shall also
be full, as the Lord himself declares.
John 15:11; 16:22. For divine love
is the only true life, and the only true
joy: but where this love of God is
wanting, there is neither joy nor life ;
but death itself, and the everlasting,
portion of wicked men and devils.
Whence has a father joy? Is it not
from the love of his children ? Whence
has a bridegroom joy ? Is it not from
the love of the bride ? Isaiah 61 : 10 ;
62 : 5. Eut infinitely sweeter must
that joy be, which is derived from the
love of our Creator ! He not only em-
braces us as a father does his children,
but he rejoices over us as over his bride ;
nay, most tenderly kisses us " with
the kisses of his mouth" (Cant. 1 : 2.),
(that is, in Christ, who is his mouth
and word), and coming to us, through
Christ with the Holy Ghost, makes
his abode with us. John 14 : 23. Take
heed, however, concerning this image
of God, which consists in a conformity
with God, that you do not therefore
think, as if man were made equal with
God in holiness. Not by any means.
For God is infinite as to his essence,
virtues, and properties; he is incom-
prehensible, and without bounds; so
that nothing in the world can be com-
pared with him. Man therefore, even,
in his first state, could not properly be
said to bear God in him; being de-
signed only to bear his image, as it has
been already explained in Chapter L.
of this Book.

9. That which has now been stated,
concerning the image of God, is plain,,
true, and beyond all doubt. It cannot
be denied, that God created man, to.
be a bright mirror of himself: so that,
if man had been desirous to know tha

10

146

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

nature of God, he might, by looking
into himself, have beheld God there,
as in a glass, and clearly perceived the
image of the Deity within his own
breast.

10. This image was the life and
blessedness of man; but the devil,
looking with envious eyes upon this
image of God in man, exerted all his
art and cunning to efface it, by raising
in man a spirit of disobedience and
enmity against God. Gen. 3 : 1, etc.
This he accordingly effected with a
subtility and haste, that never were
since seen. He was not ignorant, that
if man had continued in that state, he
would have been the master : but that
if he could be induced to fall from it,
that the devil would thereby become
the lord (or rather the tyrant) of fallen
man. When, therefore, with all the
powers of his cunning and malice, he
could devise nothing more likely to ac-
complish his design than that by which
he himself lost his first state or prin-
cipality, he began, in a seductive man-
ner, to insinuate into the imagination
of the woman, no less than an affec-
tation of the Divine Majesty. What
can appear more divine, or what is
there more noble to be wished for,
than to "be as God" ? Gen. 3:5. By
this cunningly contrived method, man
being therefore circumvented, he lost
the divine image at once; and the im-
age of Satan, consisting in an affecta-
tion of the Divine Majesty, was im-
pressed upon him.

11. This aspiring thought, by which
man threw off all his dependence on
God, being thus begotten in the mind;
and this haughty arrogance having
once seized the imagination, there fol-
lowed immediately apostasy from God,
disobedience, and transgression of the
commandment concerning the forbid-
den tree. Hereupon the image of God

was extinguished, the Holy Spirit de-
parted from man, and the image of
Satan was imprinted instead of that
which was effaced. Hence now there
are so many men, so many slaves of
the devil. The devil having thus
gained his object in subjecting man to
his dominion, most cruelly tyrannized
over him; just as a giant may be sup-
posed to do over a little infant. Hence
the understanding in man is darkened
and blinded ; the will is, by a complete
disobedience, turned from God; and
all the springs and powers of the heart
are stirred up against God in utter
malice. In a word, the whole image
of God lieth now slain in man, and
the whole race of mankind, being
swayed by the satanical nature, have
a seed sown in them full of the deepest
malignity. Hence men became the
offspring of Satan, and his living like-
ness, being poisoned with all manner
of sin and enmity against God. Thus
died man ! Thus died he the death ev-
erlasting ! For as the image of God is
the life and salvation of man, so the
departure of this image is the death
of man, even death eternal, and his
damnation, which is also called a death
"in trespasses and sins." Eph. 2:1;
Col. 2 : 13.

12. They best understand this death,
who, having been cast into deep spir-
itual temptations, sensibly feel the de-
vil's rage and tyranny over them. By
this he torments the soul beyond what
it is in the ordinary power of sin to
effect. Now, unless the Holy Ghost
shine in upon the soul under this ter-
rible affliction, and by darting in some
ray of his light comfort it ; the devil
slays the man with this death, and
racks the soul with the very anguish
of hell itself. Hence all the natural
force of the body sinks, the strength
fails, the heart withers and pants, and

Chap. XLI.j

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

147

the very marrow in the bones con-
sumes away, so that there is no sound-
ness left in the body. This state is
described at large, in Psalms 6 and
38. The word of God itself, to such
a one, seems dead and lifeless : he finds
in it no manner of devotion, no savor
of spiritual life. This is the spiritual
death, into which the soul is fallen :
and while the soul remains thus spir-
itually dead, all human holiness, right-
eousness, excellency, might, power,
glory, honor, arts, and wisdom, can
avail nothing. And, truly, man would
undoubtedly perish in this grievous
condition, if he were not supported by
divine grace : for nothing but this is
able to succor him.

13. Learn, therefore, O man, duly
to look into, and rightly to consider
the abominable filthiness of Original
Sin, as the sink of all abomination.
For by this the hereditary righteous-
ness of God was lost, and the heredi-
tary unrighteousness of the devil
transplanted into men. Hence the
sinner was cast away from God, and
doomed to an eternal death : and this
he must certainly undergo, except he
obtain forgiveness of sin for Christ's
sake through faith.

14. But to set the state of fallen
man, both as to soul and body, in as
clear a light as possibly I can, I think
it well to give a fuller description
thereof in this place ; most earnestly
entreating every one, for the sake of
God and of his own eternal salvation,
to ponder again and again, and seri-
ously to revolve in his mind that orig-
inal depravity which has corrupted our
nature. The consequence of this will
be, that as a man beholds his bodily
face in a glass, and knows it, so he
may also behold in himself his own
wretchedness, and original sin. This
will daily influence him to lament his

own distressed condition, and to sigh
after Him, who alone is able to heal
us.

15. For the whole Christian life is
indeed nothing else, than a constant
wrestling with original sin, and a con-
tinual purging away of the same by
the aid of the Holy Ghost, and by
true repentance. For, in proportion
as any one mortifies his natural pro-
pensity to evil, in that degree is he re-
newed after the image of God, even
day by day; and they who are not in-
wardly mortified by the Holy Ghost,
are at best no more than hypocrites,
let them make ever so great a show
with an external profession of the
Christian faith. Neither can they ex-
pect to enter into the kingdom of God,
since they are not renewed into his
image : for whatsoever is not dead to
itself, nor renewed into the image of
God by his Spirit, is altogether unfit
for that glorious state.

16. From all this, there may evi-
dently be inferred the absolute neces-
sity of the new birth, and of the daily
renovation of our mind into the image
of God. This necessity will yet more
fully appear, when we consider the
image of the devil according as the
law describes it. For as the devil not
only does not love God, but rather
hates him with his whole heart; so he
has infected man's soul with the same
contagion, and transfused into it mal-
ice against God; so that now man by
nature neither loves, honors, believes,
calls upon, nor trusts in God ; but as
he is filled with enmity against him,
so he flees from him, and shuns him.
As the devil is hurried on with a blind
fury, and lives without God and his
will; so in like manner, the soul of
man being corrupted by him, leads a
godless life, unmindful of God and of
his will. This inward darkness of the

148

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

mind, is attended with a frightful de-
struction of the divine light and im-
age ; and brings forth that abomina-
ble sin, in which man, left to himself,
saith: "There is no God." Ps. 14:1.
And by reason of this blindness of
heart, all mankind are become an
abomination before God, in all their
ways.

17. But notwithstanding so dreadful
a night of apostasy, there still remains
a spark of natural light in man's un-
derstanding, by which he might come
to know that there is a God (Eom. 1 :
20); as also, that this God must be
just, according as all the heathen
philosophers teach : but as for the
spiritual life, which is after God and
his righteousness, it was wholly ex-
tinguished in man. For conscience,
which is the law of God written in
every man's heart when it was first
formed by him, teaches every one
what is good and right. Thus if you
look, for instance, upon a person that
is unchaste, there is not one that so
much wallows in the filth of the flesh,
but he now and then thinks with him-
self, " Surely there is a God, and this
God is most pure and undefiled; and
so not like to me by any means." He
cannot but reflect further: "This holy
and pure God, must abhor every sort
of pollution and uncleanness; and,
therefore, if I would be acceptable to
him, I ought to live chastely, and to
abstain from all impurity." But this
spark of light is soon put out by the
filthy lusts of the flesh which crowd
in upon the mind; these overwhelm
all good impressions, just as a spark
of fire is swallowed up by a flood of
water. The lust of the flesh is kept

^within the heart, and the conviction,
which began to reprove it, is soon
stifled.

18. From this it plainly appears,

that the spiritual life, consisting in
holy love and truth, is in the carnal
or natural man utterly abolished. And
thus the wiser sort of heathens, how-
ever they might sometimes by the
light of nature maintain both the be-
ing of a God, and his providence over
human affairs, were soon carried away
with the darkness of their own hearts,
and again called in question that prov-
idence which they had before asserted :
so that very little is to be made of
what they say on this head. This
their books sufficiently declare. From
this hereditary blindness of heart, and
this natural inbred darkness, spring-
unbelief and doubts. And because all
men are by nature in this degenerate
state, they are an abomination in the
sight of God; since there is no faith
in them, nor any filial reliance upon
the paternal goodness of God. To
this spiritual life, and to the various
operations that proceed from it, the
natural man is an utter stranger;
consequently he does not call upon
God, but trusts to his own wisdom,
power, and strength. This is the
greatest blindness and darkness of
mind possible.

19. From this blindness of heart,
further arise both a contempt of God,
and a state of carnal security. As the
devil does not humble himself before
God, but is hardened in pride; so has
he infected the soul of man with the
same vice, and poisoned it with con-
tempt of God, security, and presump-
tion. Hence he, like his father the
devil (John 8:44), will not humble
himself before God ; but is stout and
insolent, haughty and self-willed, and
would do everything after his own
will, without the least fear of the Lord
to keep him awe. As the devil relies
on his own strength and wisdom, and
thereby entirely governs himself; so

Chap. XLL]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

149

fallen man, being infected with the con-
tagion of Satan, acts in conformity with
him j and will always be his own coun-
sellor and master. Moreover, as the
devil seeks his own honor, so does the
natural man, who bears his image.
He is in pursuit of self-honor, without
any regard to his Maker, whose honor
he was designed to promote. As the
devil blasphemes the name of God, and
is ungrateful to his Creator; so it is
with man, transformed into his image.
As the devil is unmerciful, wrathful,
and revengeful, so is the soul of man,
which he has soured with the same
leaven of malice. As the devil delights
to lord it over men, and to please him-
self with vainglory, so man, tainted
with the same tyrannical ambition,
haughtily lifts himself up above others.
He laughs at his neighbor, and shuns
his company, as if he were a worthless,
pitiful person, and too great a sinner
to be conversed with. But, O man!
thou art to consider over and over
again, that in these, and all other
cases, the method of God is not to
charge or accuse the outward mem-
bers of a man, but the heart only. The
heart is the murderer and the liar, not
the hand nor the mouth. It is the
soul that is guilty; and this is there-
fore everywhere arraigned in Scrip-
ture. So when God commands men
to call upon him in the time of trouble
(Ps. 50 : 15), he gives this command to
the soul, not to the lips. And it is the
very same in every other case. Who-
soever does not observe this necessary
rule in reading the Scriptures, is blind
indeed. He can never have a right
apprehension of original sin, repent-
ance, or regeneration : nay, he cannot
attain to a sound knowledge of any
one article of the Christian religion.
20. We have daily before our eyes
the extreme wickedness of men, their

horrid pride, savage hatred, barbarous
enviousness, and other impious quali-
ties, with which they tear one another,
after the manner of wild beasts. Many
are transported to such a degree of
malice, as to be unconcerned about
their own lives, provided they can but
hurt or destroy another. Their neigh-
bor must submit to their pleasure, or
expect to have a snare laid for his
ruin. Thus, as the devil himself is a
" murderer from the beginning " (John
8 : 44) ; so he stirs up the soul of man
to thirst after the blood of others.
For all these inhuman qualities of the
heart, this envy and wrath, this bit-
terness of mind, this rancor and
malice, what are they but the seed of
the devil sown in man, and his express
image engraven upon the soul ? Alas !
how the devil has portrayed himself
in man !

21. God had implanted in man a
conjugal affection, that was pure and
honorable ; that thence children might
be begotten after the divine image.
Nor could there have been a love more
holy and heavenly, than that by which
man, in his blessed estate, would have
thus propagated the image of God
and mankind at the same time. All
would have been for the glory of his
Creator, and the salvation of man.
Nay, if man in the state of innocency
could have begotten a vast multitude
of children, and have thus propagated
the honor and image of God ; nothing,
certainly, could have been more grate-
ful to him than this ; nothing more
delightful, more full of holy joy and
satisfaction. For these acts would
then have proceeded from pure love
to God and to men, as so many images
of the Supreme Good. As God found
in the creation of man, a holy pleas-
ure, and delighted in him, as in his
image; so also man would, in like

150

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book I.

manner, have been sensible of a most
pure and exquisite joy in the procrea-
tion of his like, for it would have been
the propagation of God's image. But,
alas ! Satan has polluted this chaste
flame of conjugal love with all unclean-
ness. Men and women, actuated with
a blind transport of lust, beget chil-
dren in their own, not in God's like-
ness. Gen. 5 : 3. How is the holy bond
of matrimony trampled upon and pro-
faned ! How wholly defiled is it with
spots of the flesh, and what a multi-
tude of vices and impurities now shel-
ter themselves under the sacred name
of matrimony !

22. As God is just, the devil is un-
just. The devil is therefore a thief, a
plunderer; and being so in himself, has
instilled into man's soul the same un-
just disposition, the same ravenous
nature. The devil is a false accuser
(Eev. 12 : 10), a fallacious reasoner
(2 Cor. 11:3), and a treacherous in-
former (Job 1 : 9, 10), as well as a
scornful mocker of God and man.
Job 2 : 3, 4, 5. He misrepresents both
words and actions, and wrests them to
a wrong sense. Of this artful contriv-
ance he gave a striking instance when
he beguiled our first parents by his
craft and subtlety. Gen. 3 : 5-7. Thus
the soul of man, corrupted by Satan,
has received from him, as by inherit-
ance, a perverse and lying nature.
John 8 : 44. This poison, conveyed
into the soul, is so horrible and so
manifold, as to render it altogether
impossible to declare at large the sub-
tile contrivances, and the different
kinds of diabolical art and cunning
that proceed from it. Eph. 6: 11. Eead
Psalm 5 : 9, Eomans 3 : 13, and James
3:5,6; and thou shalt find described
therein in the most lively terms, that
world of wickedness, which by a de-
ceitful tongue is drawn forth from the

diabolical venom that lurks within,
and that thence spreads itself through
the whole man. For God does not
blame the tongue, or the hands alone,
but in his law, charges the fault upon
the whole man, yea, upon the heart,
as the chief cause of all the evils com-
mitted. See the Commandments, in
Exodus 20 : 16, 17. This ought to be
particularly observed in the whole
course of a religious life.

23. And this is that image of the
devil, which now, instead of the im-
age of God, is so deeply engraven on
the soul. Hereby man is made to de-
light in sinning, and in slandering an-
other, even as the devil's name im-
ports. Eev. 12 : 10. How many, alas I
are there, that reckon themselves very
good Christians, and yet will not hesi-
tate to slander their neighbor upon
any occasion that offers; and after
they have discharged their venom
against him, will applaud themselves
for what they have done. Such a man
will say: uThis is just what I have
sought for a long while; I am now
eased of a great burden; I seem to be
alive again, as I have so finely treated
such a one." Ah ! poor man, thou art
to be pitied! How great is thy blind-
ness, that thou dost not discern who
it is that has transformed thee into
such a devil and slanderer ; and whose
image it is thou carriest about thee!
Seest thou not that this is the very
nature of the devil, the unhappy seed
of Satan ? Discernest thou not this to
be his true temper, which he has im-
planted in the soul of man, that it
might there display itself, in all sorts
of vices, but more particularly in
pride, covetousness, lust, and slander;
even as daily experience abundantly
witnesses ? Alas, is this thy wit, and
cunning, and wisdom?

24. Behold, O man ! the foul, the

Chap. XLL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

151

horrible, the profound corruption of
Original Sin ! O how filthy, how un-
searchable it is ! Consider this again
and again ; and descending into thy-
self, learn there to know the image
and nature of Satan, which, like a
gangrene, is spread through thy whole
soul, together with all the dangerous
symptoms that attend it. And learn
how thy soul is hence become an
abomination before God, and is laid
waste in so dreadful a manner, that
no creature is able thoroughly to
search out the malignity of the heart
of man. Neither art thou thyself
able sufficiently to explore it, or to
explain in words, that detestable
venom which is as rottenness in thy
innermost parts. Wherefore, I earn-
estly beseech and entreat every one,
that he ponder with himself, and seri-
ously reflect on those things that have
been said concerning the depravity and
corruption of man's heart; even as if
they had been inculcated a thousand
and thousand times, over and over
again. For so great is this virulence,
so malignant and pestilential, as to
put it beyond the power of any crea-
ture, either angel or man, ever to root
it out, or to cleanse or free our nature
from it. All the powers of men come
short of so great a performance. For
how should any one be able to work
out his salvation with his own natural
powers, since they all without ex-
ception are utterly depraved, and dead
to spiritual things? Man, therefore,
must be forever miserable, and eter-
nally lost in this corruption, unless
there come to his help one that is able
to succor, and to apply a healing med-
icine to so dreadful a disease. This
must be a lord over sin and death,
able to subdue so obstinate an evil,
and by his divine virtue, to renew,
transform, and purify again the de-

filed nature of man. All this is a con-
vincing proof, that justification cannot
be the work of man, but is the work
of God only ; and likewise that re-
generation, or the being born again by
the Spirit, is indispensably needful to
the restoring of fallen nature. For in
conformity to the inward principle of
corruption, there is now a sort of ne-
cessity that the soul should live a per-
verse and impious life. Man does not
now hesitate openly to transgress all
the commandments of God ; and this
is enmity against God. The under-
standing and will are now so dead,
and so much enslaved by sin, that ac-
cording to their natural bent, they are
incapable of any love, fear, or rever-
ence for God. They cannot call upon
him, honor him, praise, or worship
him; they cannot put the least trust
in him, or turn themselves towards
him. Many of the heathens have, in-
deed, been illustrious for their good
and virtuous deeds, and gained no
small credit by their morality. But
it is utterly impossible for nature to
change the heart, to turn it to God, and
to cleanse it from those sinful affec-
tions that lurk within. This work is
to be accomplished only by a divine
power. For notwithstanding all this
glittering show of morality which,
some make, there still remains the in-
ward root of the tree of evil, whose-
fibres stick so fast in the soul, that no
human power can ever destroy them.
The utmost that a man can do in so,
sad a case, is to prevent the fire from;
breaking out into flames, so as to con-
sume all that comes near it ; but not-
withstanding this damp which is cast
upon it, the evil fire still keeps in, and.
secretly burns as much as ever.

25. Were not human life, and the-
management of civil and social affairs,
under some check, the whole race of

152

TEXTE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book I.

mankind would be destroyed at once,
and rooted up from off the face of the
earth. But though the devil has ex-
ercised an exceedingly great cruelty
over man, yet God has not suffered
him to pluck up all the natural powers
and affections from man's soul, or to
extinguish the spark of free will which
remains in the soul. There still re-
main the law of nature and the nat-
ural love subsisting betwixt husband
and wife, parents and children. With-
out this it would have been impossible
for mankind to have long subsisted
upon earth. For he who obeys the
unbridled lusts and desires of his cor-
rupt nature, must be looked upon as
the very bane of all society. He en-
tirely ruins, as much as in him lies, all
commerce and dealings betwixt men.
It is, therefore, an effect both of God's
mercy and wisdom, that he has pre-
served in fallen man this little flame
of natural love : the design of which
is, that by the sense of this love, we
might know in some degree the excel-
lency of that spiritual and divine love
which we have lost by the fall of man;
and that from feeling the one, we
might be brought to consider the
worth of the other, and to breathe af-
ter the recovery of the same. But as
to spiritual matters, and such things as
more immediately concern the happi-
ness of the soul, and the kingdom of
God, nothing can be more true than
that saying of the apostle, "The nat-
ural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God ; for they are fool-
ishness unto him : neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually dis-
cerned." 1 Cor. 2 : 14. That is, man
in his natural state, has not so much
.as one spark of spiritual and divine
iiight ; but is wholly blind in the things
tthat appertain to the heavenly life,
^nd that constitute the image of God

in the new creature. Man, neverthe-
less, was created for this only end,
that by means of this spiritual light,
he might, with the inward eye of the
soul, contemplate the gracious pres-
ence of God, and his sincere love to-
wards him; and, continually walking
with and before the Lord, absolutely
depend upon Him, and submit himself
to be governed by His will and pleas-
ure.

26. The natural man not having so
much as one spark left of this spirit-
ual light, it cannot but be that all men
must abide in their natural blindness,
unless they be enlightened by God
himself. This is that hereditary spir-
itual blindness, which utterly incapac-
itates us for the knowledge of such
concerns as relate to the kingdom of
God. But if it happen, as too often it
does, that a man besides this, indulge
in evil practices, then that spiritual
blindness is followed still by another,
even natural blindness, which pro-
duces mournful effects in the fallen
soul. For by so prevailing a wicked-
ness, that weak glimmering light
which yet sparkles in man, and would
reason him into outward honesty of
life, is at last totally extinguished ;
and the soul is struck with utter
blindness and darkness of heart, and
must forever continue so, unless Christ
enlightens it.

27. What art thou, then, O man,
unless Christ by his Spirit regenerate
thee, make thee a new creature, and
transform thee into the image of God ?
This new creation, necessary as it is,
is, however, only begun in this life,
and must struggle under the weight
of many infirmities. If thou dost but
look into thyself, even after thou art
become a new creature through the
Holy Ghost, it will plainly appear
that the image of God is but slightly

Chap. XLIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

153

delineated, and, as it were, shadowed
out in thee. Dost thou not see, that
faith, hope, charity, and the fear of the
Lord, are as yet but weak, and hardly
able to advance beyond the first prin-
ciples of the Christian life? Dost thou
not see how slender thy humility is,
and how deeply the sin of distrust,
pride, and impatience, is rooted in thy
breast ? Dost thou not find thy devo-
tion weak and languid ; and thy char-
ity towards thy neighbor compara-
tively cold ? How tender a spark of
pure chastity remains in the heart;
and how vast a fire of carnal desire
burns within ! How faint the one, how
violent the other! How great still are
thy self-love, self-honor, and interest,
sins that lurk within, and do not al-
ways outwardly appear ! And how
fierce is the tide of evil concupiscence
which flows in upon thee, and disturbs
thy inward repose ! Whence it follows,
that to the very last moment of our
lives, we must, by the Spirit of God,
continually wrestle with the old Adam,
and with the image of Satan. All
this urges us incessantly to pray, sigh,

and seek, till the Divine Spirit be be-
stowed upon us, in order to destroy
the image of Satan daily, and to re-
store the imao;e of God to us.

28. From all this, thou canst easily
understand, O man ! that thou art never
to rely on thine own strength ; but en-
tirely to cleave to the grace of God,
which alone is able to work all this in
thy soul. All things are to be sought
and obtained from and by Christ
through faith. From Him thou art to
receive divine knowledge and wisdom,
against thy own blindness ; his right-
eousness, against all thy unrighteous-
ness; his holiness against all thy im-
purity ; a full redemption, power, and
victory, against death, hell, and the
devil. From Christ thou must obtain
remission of all thy sins, against the
kingdom of sin and Satan, and against
all the combined powers thereof; and,
lastly, everlasting happiness, against
all spiritual and bodily adversities
and troubles. In this order, life eternal
is to be derived from Christ. But of
this, more shall be said in the Second
Book of this volume.

CHAPTER XLIL

IN THIS CONCLUDING CHAPTER THE REASONS FOR ADOPTING THE METHOD OB-
SERVED IN BOOK I. ARE EXPLAINED J THE DUTY OF GUARDING AGAINST
SPIRITUAL PRIDE IS DESCRIBED, AND THE TRUTH IS SET FORTH THAT TRUE
SPIRITUAL GIFTS CANNOT BE OBTAINED WITHOUT PRAYER.

What hast thou that thou didst not receive ? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as
if thou hadst not received it ? — 1 Cor. 4 : 7.

IEEGAED it as necessary, before
I conclude this Book, to call the
reader's attention to several points.

2. In this Book, repentance and its
fruits, have, for various reasons, been

explained at large, and in different
ways. Most of the Chapters in this
Book, accordingly, treat upon the
fruits of true repentance ; such as our
renovation in Christ, the daily morti-

154

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

fication of the flesh, the practice of
self-denial, contempt of the world, the
exercise of charity, etc. For therein
we find the beginning and foundation
of true Christianity, of a holy life,
and of salvation itself, through true
faith. So, too, no solid comfort can
ever be tasted in the heart of man,
unless he be thoroughly acquainted
with the nature of Original Sin, that
dreadful, mortal, and diabolical evil,
which is like an infernal poison (ah,
it is impossible sufficiently to describe
and deplore it!) and has proved the
seed of a multitude of fatal and per-
nicious fruits. All the books of com-
fort, and all the promises with which
the Gospel abounds, afford no substan-
tial consolation to a man, except he
be first thoroughly humbled by a
sense of his misery, and of that awful
evil, Original Sin. Man, in this fallen
state, is too apt to flatter himself, and
to look for comfort, before a thorough
search has been made into his own
sinful condition, degeneracy, and apos-
tasy from God. Nature is concerned
for comfort more than for a cure.

3. But this is very preposterous,
and altogether against the tenor of
Scripture, and the method of salvation
therein explained. Our Lord says,
" The whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick/' Matt. 9 : 12. No
cure can be expected, no medicine can
be prescribed, no comfort can be ap-
plied, nor can Christ himself, the great
Physician of souls, be of any benefit
at all, so long as a man, thinking him-
self well, is not sensible of those deep
distempers that rage in his soul.
Hence a true Christian's life consists
in a daily crucifixion of the flesh, and
of all its sinful propensities. O that
every one might lay this earnestly to
heart ! No man can belong to Christ,
or have a share in his merits, but he

that regulates his life according to
this rule. Now, such a soul shall not
be left comfortless in the end ; but,
shall be refreshed with divine consola-
tion. No sooner is a soul thoroughly
humbled by a lively sense of inbred
corruption, and the infectious influence
it hath on all the actions, than it is
raised again by those suitable grounds
of comfort which the Gospel affords.
In all this, the operation of the Divine
Spirit, and man's meditation on the
word of promise, concur, and bring
over the soul to Christ, who is both
willing and able to heal her, and to
turn her mourning into permanent
gladness. He who will enter upon
this course of true and sincere repent-
ance, must be careful, at the same time,
not to be shaken by the foolish judg-
ment which this impious world will
be apt to pass upon the whole design
of true Christianity. Let the profane
worldling think ever so much of his
own natural parts and wisdom, it is
certain that he is altogether blind in
the things of the Spirit of God, and
most ignorant. And though he may
exercise his reasoning faculty on
things that are far above his reach
and capacity, yet while he has no
knowledge of the wretchedness of his
own nature, and of those spiritual dis-
eases that spring from it, he continues
an utter stranger to spiritual con-
cerns. He does not understand what
Adam and Christ are, or how Adam is
to die, and Christ to live in us again.
And as he disdains to learn what he
knows not, he must forever remain
in darkness and ignorance. Nor will
he ever be able in that state to obtain
any insight into the grounds and
properties of true repentance, faith in
Christ, and the new birth, wherein true
Christianity consists, and whereby he
might be rescued from everlasting ruin.

Chap. XML]

TEUB CHRISTIANITY.

155

4. The next thing which I would
mention at the close of this Book, and
which thou art carefully to avoid, is
the sin of spiritual pride, after God has
begun to implant in thee, by his grace,
spiritual gifts, new virtues, new habits
of mind, and new knowledge. See
that thou ascribe these attainments
not to thy own power, wisdom, or in-
dustry, but to the grace of God. Care-
fully avoid taking up thy rest in those
virtues and good dispositions that are
formed within thee ; and never con-
fide in them as means of thy justifica-
tion before God. For as they are yet
marked by various defects and imper-
fections, so they can never pass for
the perfect righteousness of God.
Never seek thy own honor and glory
by the gifts which God has been
pleased to bestow upon thee. On the
contrary, use them with humility and
fear, divesting thyself of all selfish
designs, and returning all thou hast
unto Him, who is the true Disposer
and Author thereof. Do not say in
thy heart: "I have now a strong
faith, fervent charity, much knowl-
edge, many gifts;" for these sugges-
tions are the tares, which the enemy
of thy soul sows among the wheat
while thou sleepest.

For, (a) none of these gifts are
thine, but God's only, without whose
illumination and all-quickening power,
thou art but a lifeless lump of clay.
These gifts are no more thine, than
the light and heat of the sun are the
earth's, which is warmed and pen-
etrated by them. Thou art, at the
best, but the casket to hold the jew-
els ; and the glory of these no more
belongs to thee, than the lustre of a
precious stone belongs to the box in
which it is kept. Is it not, therefore,
great folly to boast of the goods of
another, which are laid up in thee ?

(b) Thou art to consider, that, as
the lord of a treasure may lodge his
treasure wherever he pleases, and re-
move it as he thinks fit; so God, in
like manner, may deposit his heavenly
treasure in thee, and take it away
again, as he sees proper. Him, there-
fore, thou oughtest to fear with holy
reverence, and at the same time care-
fully beware of spiritual pride and
presumption : for this would issue in
the inevitable loss of the celestial
jewel committed to thy trust. " Be
not high-minded, but fear." Bom.
11 : 20.

(c) Thou art, further, to consider,
that the righteous God will call thee
to an exact account of all he has in-
trusted to thy care. The more thou
hast received, the more will he re-
quire at thy hands.

(d) In the midst of all thy gifts, do
not think that thou hast received all
that the Lord has in store for his chil-
dren. Ah ! beloved Christian ! be thy
attainments ever so high and excel-
lent, they are hardly the beginning;
there is yet much which thou lackest.

(e) Seriously consider, that no good
aud perfect gifts are obtained or pre-
served except by prayer: for every
good and perfect gift descendeth from
God. James 1 : 17. Whatever thou
seemest to possess without this, is but
a lifeless shadow, a seed bearing no
fruit, but withering away. For with-
out prayer, no heavenly gift can de-
scend into the heart of man. The
reader is desired to peruse what is
said on the subject of Prayer in the
Second Book of this Work. There are
two things which thou must chiefly
regard in thy prayers and application
to the Lord : first, That the Image of
Satan be destroyed in thee; as unbelief,
pride, covetousness, lust, wrath, etc.;
secondly, That the Image of God be re-

156

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book I.

stored in thee; in which are contained
faith, love, hope, humility, patience,
meekness, and the fear of the Lord.
These two, that is, the destruction of
the satanic, and the restoration of the
divine image, are illustrated in the
Lord's Prayer. This prayer makes
both against thee, and for thee. If the
name of God alone is to be hallowed,
then thy name must be debased and
thy haughtiness be pulled down. If
the kingdom of God shall come, then
certainly the devil's kingdom must be
overthrown in thee. If thou desirest
that the will of God should be done,
then truly thine own must be re-
nounced.

These are the two parts into which
any useful prayer-book or method of
prayer may be fitly digested ; an or-
der which is clearly exhibited in the
prayer of our Lord, so far as it respects
those heavenly and eternal benefits
and gifts which we are directed to
seek. Nay, in the Lord's Prayer, all
the treasures both for soul and body,
and all the things which we need both
for this life and that which is to come,
are summed up. And there is no ques-
tion, but that the Father in heaven,
according to his paternal compassion,
will readily grant, what the Son of
his love has so strongly commanded
us to ask.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND BOOK

AS in nature, my dear Christian
reader, the destruction of one
thing is the production of another;
even so is it in a true Christian life.
The old, carnal man must be destroyed
and pass away, that so the new spir-
itual man may be produced in his
place. And as our carnal life is di-
rectly contrary to the holy life of
Christ (which in the preceding Book
is sufficiently declared) ; it is abso-
lutely needful that we renounce this
carnal life, before we can attain the
spiritual life of Christ, or follow him
in those steps which he has been
pleased to leave us. Thus, for in-
stance, thou must put an end to thy
pride, before thou canst be truly hum-
ble; thou must cease from wrath, be-
fore thou "canst possess the virtue of
meekness. And this is the reason
why the spiritual Christian's life ought
to proceed from true repentance. This
is also the design and substance of
the preceding Book, as plainly appears
both from the order in which the chap-
ters are arranged, and from the Con-
clusion appended to the whole Book.

2. Since, however, there will be oc-
casion to treat of the doctrine of re-
pentance in some chapters of this Sec-
ond Book, I shall now give some ac-
count of the whole method into which
this Book is digested. As the main
design of the First Book was to lay
open the nature of Original Sin, and
the deadly influence which it has upon
all our actions; so it is but fit that
the Second Book should begin with

Jesus Christ, that everlasting well-
spring of man's salvation, in whom
alone we find help and a remedy
against the destructive poison of Orig-
inal Sin, and against that flood of ca-
lamities and miseries which thence
proceeds. All this on man's side, is
effected by faith, apprehending that
salvation which is merited by Christ.
This matter is explained in the first
three chapters of this Book. As, how-
ever, that/azYA which leads the soul to
this fountain, and draws thence effects
so excellent and good, also brings
forth living and sound fruits; the next
three chapters (IY-VI), are spent in
describing the same more at large.
But, even as the fruits of righteous-
ness and of the Spirit are to grow up
in us and wax strong, so must the
fruits of the flesh, in proportion, decay
and decrease. And this is the daily,
effectual, and unfeigned repentance,
wherein a Christian ought constantly
to be employed, if ever the flesh be
mortified, and the Spirit be restored
to dominion. It was, therefore, judged
expedient, to give here a clear de-
scription of the difference betwixt the
flesh and the Spirit, and of the proper-
ties of a daily repentance. Here con-
sult Chapters YII-X. But inasmuch
as from this habitual repentance, and
the mortification of the old man (the
life of a true Christian being nothing
else but a constant crucifixion of the
flesh), the new man is daily to come
forth, it is impossible to find a more
perfect pattern, than that which our

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158

PEEFACE TO THE SECOND BOOK.

Lord Jesus Christ himself has left us.
And for this reason, the life of Christ
ought to be a mirror unto us, in which
to view ourselves and him ; and by be-
holding him, to embrace the more
freely his poverty and reproach, his
contempt and sorrow, his cross and
passion, his agony and death. And
this holy life of Christ is the death of
the flesh, and is accompanied with the
exercise of prayer, love, and humility.
This is set forth at large in Chapters
XI-XXY.

3. Thus are the humility and lowli-
ness of Christ a true ladder of ascen-
sion for a penitent soul ; by means of
which we ascend into the heart of
God, as of a loving Father, and calmly
repose in his paternal affection. It is
the human nature of Christ with which
we begin our spiritual life, and rising
up higher and higher, arrive at last at
his divine nature. It is then that we
contemplate in Christ the heart of our
Father in heaven. It is then that we
behold him as the sublime, the ever-
lasting, essential, and infinite Good;
we behold him as the immeasurable
omnipotence, as the unfathomable
mercy, the unsearchable wisdom, the
purest holiness, the unspotted and
endless righteousness, the most per-
fect goodness, the noblest beauty, the
most perfect graciousness, and, at last,

as the most joyful salvation. These
points, as they chiefly make up Chris-
tian contemplation, so they are ex-
plained in Chapters XXYI-XXXIII.
But because no one can ever arrive at
this state without prayer, hence the
ensuing ten Chapters (XXXIY-
XLIII), treat upon the nature of
prayer, and the exercise of divine
praise. And since this life, grounded
on maxims of sound and unfeigned
religion, will soon be attended with
crosses and tribulations, there follow fif-
teen Chapters (XLIY-LYIII), where-
in are considered the cross of Chris-
tians, and the virtue of patience, the
practice of which is thereby exceed-
ingly promoted. To all this, some-
thing is added of the nature and con-
quest of those deep spiritual tempta-
tions, with which Satan harasses those
that adhere to the Lord, and who en-
deavor to be faithful to the end.

God grant that we may all be true
followers of Christ, not ashamed of
his holy life; but follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth, and be led at
last to the living fountains of waters,
where the Lord will wipe away all
tears from our eyes ! Amen.

John Arndt,
General Superintendent in the Principality
of Lüneburg.

BOOK IL
CHAPTER I.

JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, IS GIVEN TO US BY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
AS OUR HELP AGAINST THE DAMNABLE AND DEADLY POISON OF ORIGINAL
SIN, AND THE PERNICIOUS FRUITS THEREOF, AS WELL AS A PROTECTOR
AGAINST ALL THE CALAMITIES AND EVILS BOTH OF THE BODY AND THE
SOUL.

With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. — Isa. 12 : 3.

AS our distemper is exceedingly
great, mortal, damnable, and out
of the power of any creature to re-
move ; therefore it is needful that we
should have a remedy proportioned to
the disease; a high, a divine, an ever-
lasting, remedy and help, entirely de-
rived from the pure mercy of God. As
our original disease was caused by
the wrath, hatred, and envy of the
devil (Gen. 3:1): so God, in tender
compassion, was moved to heal the
mortal wound of our sin by his infinite
mercy. And as Satan had used his
utmost endeavors and subtlety, in
order to infect, slay, and condemn us,
God was pleased, in his infinite wis-
dom, to give us his beloved Son, in
order to restore us to that life, happi-
ness, and salvation which we had lost.
Hence he has made the precious blood
of Christ to be the grand restorative
of our nature, and the cleanser from all
the contagion of sin. He hath given
us his quickening flesh, to be our
bread of life ; his holy wounds, as a
sovereign balsam to heal our wounded
condition ; and his precious death, to
be an abolition of our death, both
temporal and eternal. 1 John 1:7;
Acts 20 : 28 ; John 6 : 32, etc. ; Isa.
53 : 5 ; 25 : 8.

2. But so disabled, so weak, and un-
done, is fallen man, that he cannot so
much as apply this precious medicine
even when it is freely offered : so little
health, so much weakness is there in
him. Nay, we even, by nature, strive
against our cure, and reject the rem-
edy which should help us. — Where-
fore, O Lord, unless thou shouldst draw
me after thee (Cant. 1 : 4), and, as a
faithful physician, administer to me
what thou hast ordered, the best pre-
scriptions will avail me nothing. Take
me, therefore, entirely into thine own
hands, and trust me not to myself.
If I be left to myself, the eternal ruin
of my soul will be my lot. Therefore
"turn thou me, and I shall be turned
heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed
for thou art my praise." Jer. 31 : 18
17 : 14. As long as thou keepest back
thy mercy, and hidest thy face from my
sorrow, I shall remain in a diseased con-
dition. Ps. 30 : 3. Whilst thou forbear-
est to quicken me, I am tied down by
the chains of death. Therefore I cry
with David, "I am poor and needy;
make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help, and my deliverer; O Lord,
make no tarrying." Ps. 70 : 5.

3. O blessed Lord! shall not thy
mercy be strong enough to raise a

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160

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

sick soul from her languishing ill-
ness ? a soul that is not able to raise
herself? Wilt thou not condescend to
come to me, since it is not possible
that I should come to thee ? Didst
thou not love me, even before I had
so much as a thought of loving thee
again ? Thy mercy is so prevailing
and so strong, that it has even over-
come thyself. Was it not mercy that
nailed thee to the cross, and gave thee
up to death ? What is so strong as to
encounter and conquer thee, if it be
not the strength of thy own mercy?
What has might sufficient to appre-
hend thee, and to bind and conduct
thee to death, but thy love only,
wherewith thou hast loved and quick-
ened us, when we were dead in tres-
passes and sins ? Eph. 2 : 1. For thou
wouldst thyself undergo the pangs of
death, rather than suffer us to be for-
ever bound over to death and eternal
damnation !

4. Thy mercy, O Lord, has made
thee all our own, and put a title to all
thy merits into our hands. When
thou becamest a tender infant, it was
wholly for our sakes, unto whom thou
art " born a child." Isa. 9 : 6. When
thou wast made an offering for our
sins, and when thou wast slain as an
innocent lamb on the cross, it was to
give up thyself unto us, and freely to
impart unto us all things beside. O
excellent gift of God ! a good wholly
appropriated to us, even our own pe-
culiar good and treasure !

(«) Behold ! beloved Christian, the
wisdom of God ! God has by means
of this everlasting good made himself
our own property, that he might
thereby in return make us his own.
For having purchased us " with a
price," we are no longer our own, but
his who hath bought us. 1 Cor. 6 : 19,
20. For whosoever receives so excel-

lent a gift, receives also the Giver
himself, from whom it proceeds. And
again, whosoever possesses any good
as his own, he makes it his own to all
intents and purposes, and to the best
advantage he can. Thus, likewise, is
Christ become thy own and proper
good. Thou canst apply him in such
a manner, as to obtain by him ever-
lasting life and salvation.

(6) Christ is become the true medi-
cine of thy soul, to restore thee — thy
meat and thy drink, to refresh thee —
thy fountain of life, to quench thy thirst
— thy light, in darkness — thy joy, in
sadness — thine advocate, against thy
accusers — wisdom, against thy folly —
righteousness, against thy sin — sancti-
fication, against thy unworthiness —
redemption, against thy bondage — the
mercy-seat, against the judgment-seat
— the throne of grace, against thy con-
demnation— thy absolution, against
thy fearful sentence — thy peace and
rest, against an evil conscience — thy
victory, against all thine enemies —
thy champion, against all thy perse-
cutors— the bridegroom of thy soul,
against all rivals — thy mediator,
against the wrath of God — thy pro-
pitiation, against all thy trespasses —
thy strength, against thy weakness —
thy way, against thy wandering — thy
truth, against lying and vanity — thy
life, against death. He is thy counsel,
when thou hast none to advise thee —
thy power, in the midst of thine in-
firmities— thy Everlasting Father,
when thou art forsaken and father-
less— thy Prince of Peace, against the
adversary — thy ransom, against thy
debt — thy crown of glory, against thy
reproach — thy teacher, against thy ig-
norance— thy Judge, against thy op-
pressor— thy King, to destroy the
kingdom of Satan — thine everlasting
High Priest, to intercede for thee.

Chap. I.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

161

5. (a) Consider now, O Christian,
what an excellent gift the Lord Jesus
Christ is. Let it be thy daily prayer
and supplication to make a true sav-
ing use of all those heavenly benefits,
and to improve all the offices of Christ
to the end for which they are de-
signed. If he be thy Medicine (Matt.
9 : 12), fear not but thou shalt be
healed : since he is thy Bread (John
6 : 51), thy soul shall be filled. Is he
to thee a Fountain of Life (Isai. 12 :
3), then truly thou shalt thirst no
more. Is he to thee a Light (John 8 :
12), then thou shalt remain no longer
in darkness. Is he thy Joy (Luke 2 :
10), what then shall afflict thee ? Is he
the Advocate (1 John 2 : 1) that pleads
thy cause, what adversary shall cast
thee ? Is he thy Truth, who shall de-
ceive thee ? Is he thy Way, who shall
make thee to err? Is he thy Life
(John 14 : 6), who shall slay thee ? Is
he thy Wisdom, who shall seduce thee?
Is he thy Righteousness, who shall
condemn thee ? Is he thy Sanctifica-
tion, who shall reject thee ? Is he thy
Redemption, who shall imprison thee?

1 Cor. 1 : 30. Is he thy Peace (Eph.

2 : 14), who can disturb thee ? Is he
thy Mercy-Seat (Rom. 3 : 25), who can
arraign thee ? Is he thy Throne of
Grace (Heb. 4 : 16), who can give
sentence against thee ? Is he thy Dis-
charge and Absolution (Colos. 2 : 14),
who then dares impeach thee ? Is he
the Champion and the Captain of thy
Salvation (Heb. 2 : 10), who shall be
able to stand against thee ? Is he thy
Bridegroom (John 3 : 29), who then
shall snatch thee from him? Is he thy
Ransom (1 Tim. 2 : 6), who will arrest
thee ? Is he thy Crown of Glory (Heb.
2: 7), who then shall reproach thee?
Is he thy Master (John 13 : 13), and
Teacher, who then shall correct thee ?
If he be thy Judge (2 Thess. 1 : 9),

who shall oppress thee ? If he be thy
Propitiation (1 John 2 : 2), who shall
accuse thee ? If he be thy Mediator
(1 Tim. 2 : 5), who shall set God against
thee? If he be thy Advocate (1 John
2 : 1), who shall prosecute thee ? Is he
thy Immanuel (Isai. 7 : 14), who shall
be against thee? Is he thy King (John
12 : 15), who shall expel thee out of
his kingdom ? Is he thy High Priest
(Heb. 7 : 25), who can refuse his inter-
cession and sacrifice? Is he thy Sa-
viour (Matt. 1 : 21), who shall destroy
thee ?

(6) How canst thou have a more ex-
cellent, a more valuable present ? It
is a present of greater worth than thou
thyself, than all mankind, and all the
world besides. It is a present that
infinitely surpasses all the sins, miser-
ies, and calamities of the whole world.
Christ hereby is all our own, both as
to his divine and his human nature.
It was by sin we had forfeited the
richest of all treasures, the Sovereign
Good, even God himself: and it is by
Christ, that all is made up again, and
God himself given to us as our prop-
erty. And for this reason, Christ is
called Immanuel (Isai. 7 : 14), (which
being interpreted is, God with us), that
in him we might have both a God and
a Brother.

6. (a) Consider now, O Christian T
what an immense, what an infinite good
thou hast in Christ thy Redeemer, and
to what spiritual benefits thou art en-
titled by him. If people were but
better acquainted with the sources of
this heavenly comfort, then no cross,
no affliction, would seem any longer
insupportable to them ; because Christ
would be all in all, and by his pres-
ence alleviate the miseries of this life.
Christ himself is ours not only as a.
crucified Christ, but also as he is glo-
rified, together with all the majesty

11

162

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

that resides in him. " All things are
yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come;
all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ;
and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 3 : 21-23.
(b) Alas ! poor, miserable, accursed,
and condemned sinners, that we by
nature all are ! How came we to be
favored and honored with so high and
inestimable a gift ? For thou, O Lord
Jesus, art to us — Jehovah our Right-
eousness— a Mediator between God
and man — our everlasting Priest — the
Christ of God — a Lamb without spot
— our propitiatory oblation — the ful-
filment of the law — the Desire of the
patriarchs — the Inspirer of the proph-
ets— the Master of the apostles — the
teacher of the evangelists — the light
of the confessors — the crown of the
martyrs — the Praise of all the saints —
the resurrection of the dead — the first-
born from the dead — the glory of the
blessed — the consolation of the mourn-
ers— the righteousness of sinners —
the hope of the afflicted — the refuge
of the miserable — the entertainer of
strangers — the fellow-traveller of pil-
grims— the way of them that were
mistaken — the help to them who were
forsaken — the strength of the weak
— the health of the sick — the protector
of the simple — the reward of the just
— the flaming fire of charity — the Au-

thor of faith — the anchor of hope — the
flower of humility — the rose of meek-
ness — the root of all the virtues — the
exemplar of patience — the enkindler of
devotion — the incense of prayer — the
tree of health — the fountain of bless-
edness— the bread of life— the Head
of the church — the bridegroom of the
soul — the precious pearl — the rock of
salvation — the living stone — the heir
of all things — the redemption of the
world — the triumphant Conqueror of
Hell — the Prince of Peace — the mighty
lion of Judah — the father of the world
to come — the guide to our heavenly
country — the sun of righteousness —
the morning star — the inextinguish-
able light of the celestial Jerusalem —
the brightness of the everlasting glory
— the unspotted mirror — the splendor
of the divine majesty — the image of
the paternal goodness — the treasure
of wisdom — the abyss of eternity — the
beginning without beginning — the
word upholding all things — the life
quickening all things — the light en-
lightening all things — the truth judg-
ing all things — the counsel moder-
ating all things — the rule directing all
things — the love sustaining all things
— the whole comprehension of all that
is good.

(c) This is the great and infinite gift,
which God has so freely bestowed upon
mortal men.

Chap. II.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

163

CHAPTER II.

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD APPLY AND APPROPRIATE TO
HIMSELF THE CONSOLATION NOTICED IN CHAPTER I.

The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. — Luke 19 : 10.

THE first or chief foundation on
which the Christian depends,
when he derives consolation from the
doctrines of the remission of sin, and
of the merit of Christ, consists in the
universal extent of the divine promises;
of which that mentioned above is not
the least considerable. For if Christ
came to save those that are lost, who
can possibly doubt, that he will also
seek and save thee, since thou art of
the number of the lost. It is also
said, that God, "commandeth all men
everywhere to repent ; because he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness."
Acts 17 : 30, 31. This argument is
full of consolation. As if the apostle
had said, Christ will judge the world;
and therefore God commandeth all to
repent, that all may escape the dread-
ful sentence of eternal damnation.
This is confirmed by St. Peter, who
tells us, that God "is not willing that
any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. " 2 Peter 3 : 9.
All which passages plainly assert the
universal grace of God, extending it-
self to all men.

2. The second foundation is the di-
vine oath. In order that no room
might be left to doubts and scruples in
this grand article, God has confirmed
the universal promise of grace with
an oath. " As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that he turn from
his way and live: none of the sins

that he hath committed, shall be men-
tioned unto him." Ezek.33:ll, 16. As
if he had said, How can I delight in
the death of a sinner, who am Life it-
self? Let but the wicked be converted,
and he shall certainly live. — Behold !
God desires sinners to be converted !
And dost thou doubt, that thou, who
art a sinner, art by God solicited to
conversion ? When the apostle ex-
plains this oath, he says, "This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all ac-
ceptation, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1 :
15. But if Christ came into the
world with an intent to save sinners,
thou art undoubtedly one of the num-
ber of those whom he came to save.

3. In order to show that the Lord
will not retain the remembrance of
sin, he hath no less than three times
engaged his word. First, by the
prophet Isaiah, "I, even I," says he,
"am he that blotteth out thy trans-
gressions for my own sake, and will
not remember thy sins." Isa. 43 : 25.
Secondly, by Jeremiah he hath thus
expressed his mind: "This shall be
the covenant: I will forgive their in-
iquity, and I will remember their sin
no more." Jer. 31:33, 34. And, thirdly,
by the prophet Ezekiel, "If the wick-
ed," says he, "will turn from all his
sins that he hath committed, he shall
surely live, he shall not die. All his
transgressions that he hath commit-
ted, they shall not be mentioned unto
him." Ezek. 18 : 21, 22. This is the

164

TEUB CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II

divine act of oblivion, solemnly de-
clared in favor of all returning sin-
ners, without exception.

4. Now the cause or reason why
God promises that he will not re-
member sin any more, is no other
than the all-sufficient satisfaction and
reconciliation wrought by Christ. For
whatever is entirely paid, yea, over
and above paid, should be altogether
buried in an everlasting oblivion.
Now, God being once perfectly recon-
ciled and satisfied by the most holy
and most complete sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, he can no longer be angry,
nor perpetuate the remembrance of
our transgressions.

5. The same oath is repeated in the
prophet Isaiah, "Look unto me," says
the Lord, "and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth : I have sworn by
myself; the word is gone out of my
mouth in righteousness, and shall not
return." Isa. 45 : 22, 23. Which oath,
the Epistle to the Hebrews explains
in this manner: "Wherein God, wil-
ling more abundantly to shew unto
the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath :
that by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us: which
hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and steadfast." Heb.
6 : 17-19. That is, God, by his coun-
sel and promise, having confirmed
them with an oath, hath more than
sufficiently sealed and established his
gracious will ; that so none might be
discouraged.

6. The third foundation is the eter-
nal covenant of grace, which consists
in the pardon of sin: "This shall be
the covenant : I will forgive their in-
iquity, and I will remember their sin

no more." Jer. 31 : 33, 34. And this
covenant or testament, because con-
firmed by the death of Christ, is
therefore everlasting. To the same
purpose the Lord says by the proph-
et: " 1ST either shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord,
that hath mercy on thee." Isa. 54:10.
And again, " I will make an everlast-
ing covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David " (i. e., Christ). Isa.
55 : 3. And Moses declares the same:
" The Lord thy God is a merciful God:
he will not forsake thee, neither de-
stroy thee, nor forget the covenant
of thy fathers which he sware unto
them." Deut. 4 : 31. And again we
read : " He will ever be mindful of his
covenant." Ps. 111:5. On which eter-
nal covenant, that we might the more
firmly rely, he hath renewed and es-
tablished it with every one by Holy
Baptism, which therefore is called
" The answer (or covenant) of a good
conscience towards God." 1 Peter 3 :
21. For this end, Christ himself was
baptized in Jordan, and thereby
entered with us into this covenant.
Matt. 3 : 13.

7. The fourth foundation is the death
of Christ, by which the covenant or
testament of God was ratified. But
if any ask, For whom did he die? St.
Paul answers, that " he died for all."
2 Cor. 5 : 14, 15. And St. John says,
" He is the propitiation for the sins of
the whole world." 1 John 2:2. So
John the Baptist said: "Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world." John 1 : 29. This,
the apostle explains in the following
comforting manner: "As by the of-
fence of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation ; even so by the
righteousness of one, the free gift
came upon all men unto justification
of life" (Eom. 5 : 18) : where a compari-

Chap. II.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

165

son is made betwixt Christ and Adam.
As if he had said, 'Since the offence
of Adam hath been so strong, as to
make all men sinners; shall not the
righteousness of Christ be far more
powerful to make them righteous? If
sin hath abounded, shall not grace
much more abound ? ' The same apos-
tle, having occasion to show that the
merit of Christ is universal, and ex-
tends itself to all, thus reasons : " For
there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for
all." But if this be true, it also fol-
lows, "that God will have all men to
be saved, and to come unto the knowl-
edge of the truth." 1 Tim. 2 : 4-6. On
all this Paul remarks, that God, by
" Christ hath reconciled all things to
himself, whether they be things in
earth, or things in heaven." Col. 1 : 20.
And again : " God spared not his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all."
Eom. 8 : 32. In this number, reckon
also thyself, because " God is no re-
specter of persons." Acts 10 :34. Since,
therefore, Christ died for sinners, thou,
who acknowledgest thyself to be one,
must necessarily have an interest in
his death, and in all the benefits pur-
chased by it.

8. The fifth foundation is the uni-
versal call, grounded upon the univer-
sal merit of Christ. The latter was
exhibited for the sins of the whole
world, and it was proper that it should
be preached to all creatures. Matt.
9 : 13. Now since Christ declares : " I
came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance" (Mark 16 : 15),
it follows, that thou also, because thou
art a sinner, art called. But called to
what? To repentance. And why?
That thou mayest obtain remission
of sin, through faith. " It behooved,"
says the Lord, " that repentance and

remission of sins should be preached
in the name of Christ among all na-
tions." Luke 24 : 46, 47. And the
apostle affirms, that " the gospel was
preached to every creature which is
under heaven." Col. 1 : 23. But to
what end did God cause it to be
preached ? Surely for no other end
than that thereby faith might be
kindled and established among men,
according to that saying of the same
apostle : " How shall they call on him,
in whom they have not believed ? and
how shall they believe in him, of whom
they have not heard ?" Eom. 10 : 14.
Whenever, therefore, God calls us to
repentance, far be it from us to think
that God calls us in vain, or without
a real design to save us. Surely God
does not deceive us : but in this serious
affair he seriously calls upon us, that
we may embrace his mercy, and ac-
cept the offer of grace. Hence he is
also angry with those who make light
of his supper, and disdain to come to
his feast. Matt. 22 : 7. Whereas, to
those who obey his call, through faith,
he hath given his promise, full of hea-
venly comfort that " whosoever believ-
eth in him, shall not perish, but have
everlasting life." John 3 : 16. Nay, he
hath graciously promised to preserve
the same faith unto the end, even till
the salvation of the soul, which is the
end of faith, be secured. Phil. 1:6;
1 Pet. 1 : 9.

9. The sixth foundation is the in-
ward testimony of the divine Spirit in
us, who seeks after righteousness, and
seals us unto the day of redemption.
Eom. 8 : 16 ; Eph. 4 : 30. This Spirit
incessantly rouses and awakens the
conscience. He reproves without in-
termission, convinces of sins, and sets
them before thine eyes. He summons
thee to repentance, calls thee inwardly
in thy heart, strives with thee, and

166

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

leaves nothing untried, in order to
keep thee from every sin, and lead
to thy conversion. John 16 : 8. These
things thou canst not conceal, though
ever so desirous to do it. This wit-
ness of Christ in thee, is never silent :
and though thou shouldst stop thine
ears against him, yet shalt thou be
compelled to hear him inwardly. And
if thou shouldst desire to reject his
summons, yet must thou feel the in-
ternal energy of his correction. All
this is a convincing, strong, and un-
questionable proof, that " God would
have thee to be saved."

10. The seventh foundation consists
of the examples of sinners, whom
God, upon their conversion, hath re-
ceived into favor. Surely " there is
none righteous," of himself, " no, not
one." Eom. 3 : 10, 23. Not only Da-
vid, Manasseh (2 Chron. 33 : 11-13),
Peter, Paul, Mary Magdalene, and
Zaccheus; but "all of us are sinners,
and come short of the glory of God."
There is none innocent in his sight.
Whatever favor God shows to one, the
same he offers to all the rest ; since he
"is no respecter of persons/' Acts 10:
34. We all are saved by grace, with-
out any merit of our own, and all
stand in need of a gracious pardon of
sin : for, " if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand?" (Ps. 130:3), and if thou en-
terest into judgment, "in thy sight
shall no man living be justified." Ps.
143 : 2.

11. The eighth foundation is, that
the merit of Christ is not only suf-
ficient, but even more than sufficient
for the sins of all men, how numerous,
great and heinous soever they may be.
Why then shouldst thou exclude thy-
self, and refuse to share in the benefits
of the ransom which Christ paid ? Is
it not infinitely greater than the sins

of the whole world ? For as thou art
of the race of men, so thou canst ap-
ply to thyself that word of the Lord,
" The Son of man is not come to de-
stroy men's lives, but to save them "
(Luke 9 : 56) : and that of St. Paul,
" God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5 : 19) :
and again, that of St. John, " He is
the propitiation for the sins of the
whole world " (1 John 2:2); that is,
for all the sins of every man in par-
ticular.

12. A ninth foundation is this, that
the merit of Christ is an infinite satis-
faction, beyond all number, measure,
and end; and it is so on account of
the exalted Person that suffered, who
is both God and man. Why shouldst
thou then limit the extent, number,
measure, and bounds of merit so
ample, and exclude thyself from it?
So great, so high, and so extensive
are the power and efficacy of that
merit, that it would still prove a suffi-
cient ransom if every man were guilty
of the sins of the whole world. Nay,
if there were as many worlds drowned
in sin, as there are men that live
on this earth, yet would the merit of
Christ and his righteousness be large
enough to cover all their sins. Cast
not therefore away a mercy so uni-
versal, so full and every way abound-
ing. This surely is that " depth of the
sea, into which God hath cast all our
sins." Mic. 7 : 19. Hence the Psalmist
says: "As the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy to-
wards them that fear him. As far as
the east is from the west, so far hath
he removed our transgressions from
us." Ps. 103 : 11, 12. This is that
" eternal redemption which is obtain-
ed for us." Heb. 9 : 12. The benefit of
this complete redemption, is summed
up by St. Paul: "It is God that justi-

Chap. II.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

167

fieth. Who is he that condenmeth ?
It is Christ that died," etc. Bom. 8 :
33, 34.

13. The tenth foundation is this, that
the obedience of Christ is perfect: be-
cause he fulfilled the will and law of
his Father in all things, thereby to
give satisfaction for all the disobedi-
ence which all the men in the world
had committed against God's law.
For if the sin and transgression of
any one man were not expiated by
him, then surely, his obedience would
not prove perfect, and the disobedi-
ence of Adam would be more effectual
to condemnation, than the obedience
of Christ to justification. This can-
not be, since the apostle in plain
terms affirms the contrary, in Eom.
5 : 18. What reason is there then,
that any one should exclude himself
from this perfect obedience, or be
backward to assert his own interest
in it? Let us rather consider, that
Christ for this very end humbled him-
self, "and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:
8), "that he might redeem them that
were under the law." Gal. 4:5. In
the number of these, we all surely are
comprised. For, as our first parents
aspired after and affected the majesty
of God, so it behooved Christ, the re-
pairer of our breaches, by a most pro-
found humility, to atone for this hei-
nous offence, and to be -': made a curse
for us" (Gal. 3:13), in order that the
blessing might come upon all, who
were cursed in Adam.

14. The eleventh foundation is, that
since the royal victory and triumph
of Christ surpass all the multitude,
weight, and heinousness of sin, to-
gether with all the power of death,
hell, and Satan, what cause canst thou
assign, O sinner, why the same victo-
rious Christ should not triumph over

thy sin as well as over all the rest?
What ! canst thou believe that thy
transgressions alone are more power-
ful than Christ, the omnipotent king?
When he shalh make all his enemies
his footstool (Ps. 110 : 1), cannot he
subdue under him also thy sins ? Dost
thou think that thy crimes only shall
prove too hard for him ? God forbid,
therefore, that thou shouldest call in
question thy interest in so universal a
conquest, in so glorious a triumph.

15. The twelfth foundation is the
everlasting priesthood of Christ. Ps.
110 : 4 ; Heb. 4 : 14. He freely grants
pardon to all them that ask it ; and
gives the Holy Spirit to those that
earnestly pray for that gift. ^Nor will
he, or can he refuse to any what be-
longs to his ofiice (Heb. 5:6; 7 : 17) ;
for he is the Saviour of the world, and
the High Priest and Mediator between
God and man. 1 Tim. 2:5. If he re-
fuse his ofiice to any one that implores
it, he would verily cease to be a Me-
diator. But so far is he from this, that
he freely offers to sinners the benefit
of his mediatorial ofiice. " Come unto
me," saith he, "all ye that labor and
are heavy laden." Matt. 11 : 28. And
again : " Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters" (Isa. 55:1)
of life. And does he not by his
apostles and messengers, seriously in-
vite us to be reconciled to God (2 Cor.
5 : 20), and at the same time offer us
his help and assistance for that end?
He seeks the lost sheep (Ezek. 34: 16),
and receives into favor the Prodigal
son as soon as he returns. Luke 15 :;
20. Take heed, therefore, O man,,
that thou reject not the ofiice of Christ,
the Mediator, and that thou deprive:
not thyself of the benefit of a sacer-
dotal intercessor, every way full of
divine consolation and comfort.

168

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

CHAPTER III.

OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE GOD, CONSISTS SOLELY IN THE PERFECT OBEDIENCE
AND MERIT OF CHRIST JESUS, AND IN THE REMISSION OF SIN APPREHENDED
BY FAITH.

As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be

made righteous. — Rom. 5 : 19.

AS a skilful builder, when he is
about to raise a lofty structure,
takes care to lay first a deep and solid
foundation, so the merciful and com-
passionate God, when he was to erect
the high and everlasting palace of our
salvation and righteousness, thought
fit to lay the foundation thereof, in the
depth of his mercy, upon the Person
and office of his dear Son Christ Jesus,
as on the true rock of salvation. This
is the promise recorded by the prophet :
" Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cor-
ner-stone, a sure foundation : he that
believeth shall not make haste." Isa.
28 : 16. This stone was indicated by
Christ, when he declared to Peter,
that " thereon he would build his
church ;" a church so firmly and
surely sustained, that " the very gates
of hell should not prevail against it."
Matt. 16 : 18.

2. This was the rock and corner-
stone, which was preached by the apos-
tles Peter and Paul. 1 Pet. 2 : 4 ; 2 Tim.
2 : 19. This is that marvellous corner-
stone celebrated by the Psalmist, and
upon which the 118th Psalm is ground-
ed. Upon this foundation, God has been
pleased to raise the whole structure
of our righteousness, faith, and eternal
salvation. But as God, our merciful
Heavenly Father, has, on his side,
placed the groundwork of our sal-
ivation and righteousness in the un-

searchable depth of his mercy and
everlasting love ; nay, even in his be-
loved Son, and the paternal affection
of his own heart; so he wills that on
our side also the same be laid in the
depth of our heart, and in the centre
of our soul; in order that, through
the divine light and power of faith
alone (and even faith is solely the
work of the Divine Spirit), the right-
eousness of Christ may be appre-
hended, and without any respect of
our own works, whether antecedent
or consequent, be freely imputed and
appropriated to us. The reasons of
this way of proceeding are as follows.

3. In the first place, that God by this
means might cleanse and justify a
man from within, and in the inmost
centre of his soul : for as man is in-
wardly corrupted by Satan, and in-
fected in all the interior powers of his
soul, so it is but fit that his cure should
be wrought from within, and that all
the faculties of his soul should be re-
stored to their former integrity and
soundness.

4. Secondly, that our righteousness
proceeds from faith only. This faith
is wrought by God himself, and it
stands entirely in his iiower (1 Cor.
2 : 5), being supported by it, and not
by any human performance, or hypo-
critical action of men. Of this latter
sort was the righteousness of the
Pharisees (Matt. 5 : 20), who made in-

Chap. III.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

169

deed a show of outward performances,
but were little concerned about the
reformation of the heart, and the in-
ward recesses of the mind.

5. Thirdly, that our heart, soul, and
spirit, renouncing human power and
strength (upon which, through the
temptation of the Devil, and the snares
of self-love, ambition, and pride, they
too much rely), might wholly depend
upon Christ alone, and upon his pre-
cious merit and satisfaction. For from
him alone flow the gracious remission
of all our sins, and the whole train of
graces consequent on it; Jesus Christ
having abundantly satisfied for the
sins of the whole world, and reconciled
the Father to mankind.

6. Fourthly, that the righteousness
of Christ, by faith, might be made our
own. In order to the same end he
also by his Word and Spirit begets
this faith in our hearts, that thereby
we may become actually possessed of
this inestimable treasure. For this is
the highest, the unspeakable, and in-
conceivably great consolation, that
our righteousness is not the righteous-
ness of a man, nor even of a saint or
angel, but of Christ, and of God him-
self; " It is God that justifieth." Rom.
8 : 33. Therefore if the whole world
were overflowed with the sins of one
man, yet would the righteousness of
Christ be still more extensive and
overflowing. For verily, he is " the
Lord our Righteousness" (Jer. 33 : 16),
and how can sin be more powerful
than the Lord Jehovah? Would it be
an insufficient satisfaction, thinkest
thou, if instead of a penny which thou
owest thy creditor, thou shouldest re-
turn ten thousand pounds ? But such
a price, nay, one infinitely greater, is
paid with the blood of Christ, which
therefore is called by St. Paul, " God's
own blood." Acts 20 : 28. So great

and immense is the righteousness of
Christ, conferred on us by faith, that
thereby we are not only made right-
eous, but also righteousness itself. 2 Cor.
5 : 21. For, as it is not enough that
a defiled infant be washed from its
uncleanness, but it must also be wrap-
ped up in clean apparel (Ezek. 6 : 10),
so Christ not only cleanses us with his
blood, but clothes us also with the
garment of salvation, and covers us
with the robe of righteousness (Isa.
61 : 10) : which we have received from
the hand of the Lord. This garment is
called by the prophet, priestly or holy
apparel; by David, "the beauty of
holiness" . (Ps. 29: 2); by St. John,
"fine linen clean and white, which is
the righteousness of saints" (Rev. 19 :
8) ; by the prophet Amos, " rivers of
righteousness" (Amos 5:24); by St.
Paul, " superabounding grace" (Rom.
5 : 20) ; and " exceeding riches of
grace." Eph. 2 : 7. All these expres-
sions set forth that the righteousness
bestowed on a penitent soul, is as great
as God himself, and therefore beyond
all human comprehension. Though
in the state of innocency, our first
parents had a complete righteousness
in its kind, yet was it not so full and
exuberant as that which we have ob-
tained in Christ : for this righteous-
ness and holiness, which we apply to
ourselves by faith, is far more excel-
lent than that which Adam would
have left us, had he continued in his
original innocency. So, too, the hu-
mility and obedience of Christ, as it
was more perfect, so it was more ac-
ceptable to God, than the obedience
and innocency of Adam ; nay, a thou-
sand such persons as Adam, could not
have come up to the perfection of
Christ alone. Adam would have
transmitted to us indeed an hereditary
righteousness, and thereby united us

170

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

with God ; yet it cannot be denied,
that our union, established with G-od
in Christ, is much more noble and ex-
cellent than that which we should
have derived from Adam : for Christ
being made man, has in himself so
cleansed and exalted human nature,
that the primitive state of Adam is
not at all to be compared with it.
And as Christ retains his human
nature to all eternity ; so all believers
continue in the same united to God;
because Christ is wholly ours, and we
are wholly his. Whatever purity the
human nature hath obtained in gen-
eral in His Person, is also transferred
to the nature of each believer in par-
ticular. This will appear in the glori-
fication of our bodies at the last day,
when " they shall be fashioned like
unto the glorious body of Christ."
Phil. 3 : 21. Nay, even in this life, it
is said in faith : " Behold, thou art fair,
my love" (Cant. 1:15); " glorious,
not having spot or wrinkle" (Eph.
5:27): "the king's daughter is all
glorious within, her clothing is of
wrought gold." Ps. 45 : 13. In a
word, our righteousness in Christ is
no less immense than God himself;
and if his depth may be found out, so
will our righteousness. Whence all
creatures, finding nothing that can be
reproved in man,- must stand as it
were astonished, and cry out with ad-
miration : " Who is he that shall ac-
cuse or condemn man, whose right-
eousness is the Son of God himself?"
And this is that righteousness of faith
on which we rest, as on an eternal
rock, and which is a foundation that
cannot be shaken. Of this we glory,
in this we rejoice in time and in
eternity. By this we are conquerors,
and triumph over sin, death, the devil,
and hell. By this we tread upon the
lion and adder; and trample under

foot the young lion and the dragon.
Ps. 91 : 13.

7. Fifthly, an angel (who never died
for us) cannot be the foundation of
our righteousness, much less any man.
The righteousness of man is but weak
and inconstant; and if he should fall,
" all his righteousness that he hath
done shall not be mentioned" (Ezek.
18 :24; 33 : 13), and therefore what-
ever is built thereon falls soon to the
ground and comes to nothing. For
this reason, our righteousness must
have another foundation; a founda-
tion, namely, which is firm and con-
stant, and not liable to be shattered
to pieces, though the " mountains
should depart, and the hills be re-
moved." Isa. 54:10. "An everlast-
ing righteousness must be brought
in " (Dan. 9 : 24), so that "the salva-
tion of the Lord may be forever, and
his righteousness be not abolished."
Isa. 51:6. A most excellent, eternal,
and sovereign Person, must procure an
eternal and infinite good, by an im-
mense and infinite satisfaction offered
for us.

8. The sixth cause why God will
have our righteousness to be appre-
hended by faith, is found in his truth
and promise, on which our faith en-
tirely rests, and by which God de-
clared and promised righteousness to
Abraham, and to all his faithful seed.
Whence St. Paul argues, that " our
righteousness must be of faith, that it
might be by grace; to the end that
the promise might be sure." Eom. 4 :
16. Upon this promise of grace, ful-
filled in Christ, has God established
our righteousness and salvation, as
the same apostle in another place
more fully asserts : " Even as Abra-
ham," says he, "believed God, and it
was accounted to him for righteous-
ness. Know ye therefore that they

Chap. III.]

TKUE CHKISTIAtflTY.

171

which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham." And the Scrip-
ture, foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham :
saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed (Gen. 12:3). "So then they
which be of faith, are blessed with
faithful Abraham." Gal. 3 : 6-9. And
thus " grace and truth are come by
Jesus Christ." John 1 : 17.

9. Seventhly, God has made his grace,
and the merit of Christ, the founda-
tion of our righteousness, that Christ
alone may have the honor of it. Isa.
45 : 22-24 ; 53 : 11. " In him alone is
our help." Hos. 13 : 9. He is the be-
ginning, middle, and end of our right-
eousness and salvation, so that "every
mouth may be stopped." Eom. 3 : 19.
For we are " saved by grace through
faith ; not of works, lest any man
should boast." Eph. 2 : 8, 9. But if
our righteousness were founded on
our own works and merits, there
would then be no room for grace, nor
should we have occasion for mercy or
pardon of sin, "for which every one
that is godly doth pray." Ps. 32 : 6.
Moreover, there would be no place for
humility, nor for the fear of God;
neither would faith and prayer turn
to any great account; yea, we should
have no need of a Mediator, Eedeem-
er, and Saviour. Christ would have
then died in vain; and we should be
obliged, both by an external and an

internal obedience, perfectly to fulfil
the whole law. We should remain
under the curse, have fallen from
grace, and have lost Christ; as St.
Paul expressly testifies in Gal. 5 : 3, 4.
So that the doctrine of justification
by works, in the sight of God, is al-
together inconsistent with the whole
Scripture, both of the Old Testament
and the New, and with our holy Chris-
tian faith.

10. In short, our salvation and right-
eousness are founded entirely upon the
eternal grace of God, and the eternal
Person and office of Christ; and in
Christ alone we are made righteous,
holy, alive, blessed, sons and heirs of
God. The righteousness of Christ is
ours, his goodness ours, his holiness
ours ; his life ours, his happiness ours,
and lastly, the sonship and inheritance
of Christ are ours ; and so the whole
Christ, both according to his divine
and his human nature, is ours; (for
God gives us the whole Christ for a
Saviour, that he with his Person, of-
fice, grace, glory, and blessedness, may
be wholly appropriated to us). That
all this is our own, is our highest con-
solation, glory, praise, honor, love,
joy, and peace before God and all the
angels and elect; it is our sublimest
wisdom, strength, might, victory, and
triumph over sin and death, the devil
and hell, the world and all our ene-
mies. For which God be praised to
all eternity! Amen.

172

TEUE CHE1STIANITY.

[Book II

CHAPTER IV.

SHOWING THAT SAVING FAITH IN THE TRUE CHRISTIAN PRODUCES MANIFOLD

FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THAT THESE MUST PROCEED FROM THE

DEPTH OF THE HEART; ALSO, THAT THE CHARACTER OF OUR OUTWARD

' WORKS, DEPENDS, IN THE JUDGMENT OF GOD, UPON THE STATE OF THE

HEART.

And this 1 pray, that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ: being filled
with the fruits of righteousness , which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
—Phil. 1 : 9-11.

THE true Christian is not only jus-
tified by faith in Christ, but is
also made a temple and habitation of
Christ and of the Holy Spirit. To
this end the good Spirit of God puri-
fies his heart by faith : and it is fit
that Christ should live in his temple,
together with his love, humility and
meekness. 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 3:17;
Acts 15 : 9. To this end also thy Ee-
deemer has bestowed upon thee his
Holy Spirit, that he might create in
thee a new heart, and endue thee with
so cheerful and ready a mind, as to do
the will of God freely, without any
unwillingness or compulsion. Jer. 31 :
32,33; Heb. 10:16. This new and
holy obedience proceeds not from the
law, or any legal commandment ; but
from a lively faith. Hence, "the law
is not made for a righteous man " (1
Tim. 1 : 9), to compel him to do good;
though it is in other respects an ex-
cellent rule by which to regulate a
Christian's life and manners. For a
true and living faith does everything
freely and of its own accord : it re-
news the man, it purifies the heart, it
produces fervent love to our neighbor,
it hopes and considers such things
as are not yet seen. Faith prays,
praises, fears, and confesses God. It is

also patient, humble, merciful, loving,
meek, easy to be reconciled, compas-
sionate, and peaceful. Faith readily
forgives offences ; hungers and thirsts
after righteousness; embraces God
with all his grace, and Christ with all
his merit; and obtains a complete re-
mission of all sins. Now if any one
does not perceive in his heart these
fruits of the Spirit, and the indwell-
ing of Christ by faith, let him humbly
entreat the Lord, and that with tears
and groans, that he may obtain them.
I would not be understood, however,
as saying that a Christian in this life
could attain to perfect and absolute
holiness ; for even the greatest saints
are still sensible of their infirmities;
of which the book of Psalms and the
Lord's Prayer fully convince us. God
therefore requires that our righteous-
ness, by which we are to please him,
should be entirely apprehended by
faith; and lest we should act the hyp-
ocrite he wills that his righteousness
should be stamped on our very heart,
and on the inmost centre of our souls;
and likewise that all the fruits of
faith and righteousnes should proceed
from a living and sound principle
seated within the mind. According
to this inward and leading principle,

Chap. IV.]

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

173

God judges all our works, whether
they be true and genuine, or false and
hypocritical.

2. Here again, we do not assert that
perfection can be found in this present
world, but only require that a Chris-
tian should walk in newness of life,
and approve himself by such works
as are cleared from guile and hypoc-
risy. For it is by no means possible
that the fruits of the Spirit enumer-
ated by St. Paul, in Gal. 5 : 22, 23,
should not be found in that man in
whom the Spirit of God himself
dwells (Gal. 5:22); or that a good
tree should not be known by its fruits,
though they may not be altogether so
perfect and angelic as could be wished,
but be stained and often obscured by
various frailties and imperfections.
Nevertheless, all hypocrisy and insin-
cerity, are utterly to be banished from
a regenerate state ; nor are the fruits
of a Christian to proceed from an
empty profession, or a lifeless appear-
ance of things, but possess truth and
reality. I do not deny, on the one
hand, that the Christian Church may
be fitly compared to a hospital crowd-
ed with all manner of sick ; or to a
house inhabited by sinners as well as
by saints. I believe also that many,
like feeble children, have not yet at-
tained to the ability of walking alone;
but that they gradually learn to walk
steadily. Hence it is necessary to
"bear one another's burdens" (Gal.
6:2), and never rashly to judge or
condemn those who by reason of
their weakness halt behind. Eom. 14 :
1. We ought rather to restore in the
spirit of meekness those that stumble,
and with great tenderness to rectify
what is amiss in them. Thus we learn
to read our own imperfections in the
infirmities of our brother. But on the
other hand, Christians ought to labor

to make continual advances in the
spiritual life. They ought not to con-
tinue always in a state of infancy and
weakness, how difficult soever it be to
conquer the carnal mind that ob-
structs our growth. They ought to
be fervent in the practice of "charity,
out of a pure heart, and of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned " (1
Tim. 1:5); and bear this in perpetual
remembrance, that all outward per-
formances are valued by God accord-
ing to the inward disposition of the
heart. If the heart be good, thou
mayest then be assured, that what-
ever thou doest is also good before
God: but if the heart be evil, corrupt,
and envious, then all thy works are
evil and hateful. Such as thou art in-
wardly, and in thy heart, such art
thou accounted to be before God; and
such are thy prayers, thy public wor-
ship, thy giving of alms, thy receiv-
ing the Sacrament, and all thy other
performances.

3. Whosoever therefore is willing to
try his own faith and inward condition,
should set before his eyes the Ten Com-
mandments (as by Christ himself inter-
preted) (Matt. 5 and 6), and learn to
judge of his actions by his heart. By
such an impartial trial, he will clearly
perceive whether what he does be ac-
ceptable or unacceptable to God. and
whether he bring forth the genuine
fruits of that inward righteousness
which is by faith. Phil. 1:11. For
example, thou considerest that thou
dost not defile thyself with any ex-
ternal idolatry. Now, in keeping from
idols thou doest surely well; but I
would have thee farther inquire,
whether thou also abhorrest all man-
ner of internal idolatry ? Or whether
thou hast set up an inward idol in
some secret corner of the heart, to
which thou payest thy vows? Ezek.

174

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book IL

14 : 3, 4. Examine thyself whether
thou art within, what thou professest
to be without f See whether thy heart
be not set upon the world, upon ava-
rice, and pride? If so, then thou art
assuredly guilty of most dangerous
idolatry; for the creature has engross-
ed those noble affections which should
be entirely surrendered to the Creator,
and dedicated to him alone. Thou as-
surest us that thou art punctual in say-
ing thy prayers, and in praising God;
and that thou dost not neglect to offer
up thy thanks for benefits received at
his hands; but didst thou ever con-
sider, whether thou cursest in thy
heart, whilst thou prayest with thy
lij)s? Whether thou contradictest by
thy actions what thou expressest in
thy words? If so, thy prayer will
prove but a worthless performance,
and all thy thanks and praises will be
trifling and vain. Thou teilest us how
strictly thou keepest the sabbath-day.
In this truly thou doest well; but look
on the inward frame of thy soul. Dost
thou celebrate the true sabbath in thy
heart ? Dost thou rest from evil
thoughts and wicked desires? Is thy
heart devoted to God, and freed from
noise and clamor, that God himself
may work in it ? Thou attendest di-
vine service at church; it is well done ;
but see that thou carry not with thee
to church the canker-worm of pride
and vanity. This would convert thy
service into mere formality, and ail
thy performances into an empty show.
Thou yieldest external obedience to
God and to thy superiors; but does
that which passes within thy soul
agree with this exterior conduct ? Is
everything done with an upright and
willing mind? Dost thou act from a
principle of love, or of fear only ? If
it be fear that constrains thee to an
external compliance, then know as-

suredly that thy obedience is no more
than hypocrisy. Thou defilest not thy
hands with blood and slaughter, and
thinkest thyself free from the crime
of murder. But take a view of thy
heart: for when the heart burns with
wrath and anger, and when this, as a
flame, flashes out upon thy face;
when thy inward wrath breaks out
into reproaches and curses, saying to
thy brother, Baca, and Thou fool;
then surely thou art become guilty of
the judgment, of the council, and of
everlasting fire. Matt. 5 : 22. What
therefore will it avail thee that thy
hand is unpolluted with blood, whilst
thy heart accuses thee of hatred and
murder? 1 John 3:15. For within,
in the heart, the murderer, the adul-
terer, the thief, and the liar, are har-
bored. Here it is that thou must look
for the beast, the evil lust, and the
root of all malice and mischief: which,
if it be not destroyed by serious re-
pentance, by true contrition and con-
version, by faith and the blood of
Christ, it is impossible that thou
shouldest do so much as one work ac-
ceptable to God; who judges of all
thy actions by the inward temper and
disposition of the heart.

4. Of this Christ himself gives us
an example from the commandment
"Thou shalt not kill," saying, "If
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother
hath aught against thee ; leave there
thy gift before the altar, and go thy
way; first be reconciled to thy bro-
ther." Matt. 5 : 21-26. That is, it will
not at all avail thee to pray, to sacrifice,
to worship God, and to take the Sac-
rament; yea, all thy actions will be
converted into so many sins, because
God regards the heart only, and not
the outward performance. Hence St.
Paul commands us to " lift up holy

Chap. IV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

175

hands without wrath and doubting."
1 Tim. 2 : 8. And St. Peter enjoins
married persons to beware of anger,
and to dwell together in love and har-
mony, as heirs together of the grace
of life, "that their prayers be not
hindered." 1 Peter 3 : 7. Nay, the
Lord Jesus himself strongly exhorts
us to brotherly reconciliation, by the
three following arguments. Matt. 5 :
25, 26.

(a) The first is, " Agree with thine
adversary quickly, while thou art in
the way with him ;" that is, whilst
thou art on this side of eternity: for
our life indeed is nothing else but a
perpetual motion towards death and
the grave. If in this life thou art not
freed from the bonds of wrath, thou
shalt remain a captive to them, yea,
to the devil himself, throughout all
eternity.

(b) The second argument is, "lest
at any time the adversary deliver thee
to the judge." It is an awful thing to
be summoned to the tribunal of God,
and before so tremendous a judgment-
seat, to plead our cause against an ac-
cusing adversary. Whereas, whatever
is pardoned, settled, and forgiven in
this life, the same will also be forgiven
and eternally pardoned in the next.
Whence we may gather how much
God regards the love of our neighbor,
since he will have it by no means sep-
arated from the love of himself ; and
therefore refuses to admit of our love
to him, unless it be linked to that of
our neighbor. And why? Because
God is Love itself, and loveth man as
his own soul.

(c) The third argument is, "lest thou
be cast into prison, whence thou canst
not come out till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing." It is agreeable
to the divine justice, so to deal with us
there, as we have dealt with our neigh-

bor here; and "with that measure we
have meted withal, to measure to us
again." Luke 6: 38. Wherefore if thou
refusest to forgive any brother his
faults, the judgment of God is this:
That in like manner no sin shall be re-
mitted to thee. This will prove a
burden heavy indeed. For the man
that dies in this bitter, irreconcilable
temper, must, in hell, continue a debtor
to all eternity, and this without any
hope or prospect of ever lessening the
debts which he has here contracted.

5. Thus the Son of God, has by this
example, taught us that we must judge
of the worth of our outward works,
nay, of all our religion, by the inward
disposition or principle that sways the
heart. But perhaps thou still con-
tinuest to flatter thyself, and to say,
" I am baptized into Christ ; I have
the pure word of God; I hear it; I
receive the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper ; I also believe and confess all
the articles of the Christian faith:
wherefore it cannot be, but that my
life and actions must be pleasing to
God; I am a Christian in truth, and
in the right way to be saved." This,
alas ! is the general, but false reason-
ing of many in these days, who regard
their outward performances as consti-
tuting true righteousness. It might
do well enough, if the heart did but
agree with their profession : for with-
out this, all is mere trifling, and a dead,
hypocritical show. Look therefore
into this, and learn to judge of thyself
by the inward frame of thy soul. Thou
boastest indeed, that thou art a Chris-
tian ; and an excellent name it is; but
dost thou consider, whether thy heart
and thy actions agree with a name so
sacred? Hast thou received the unc-
tion from above, and art thou pos-
sessed of the fruits of the Spirit, that
demonstrate a Christian ? 1 John 2 :

176

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book IL

27. If these be wanting, thou wilt
prove in the end but a false and spu-
rious Christian. Thou assertest, fur-
ther, that thou art baptized; and so
indeed thou art ! But search the state
of thy heart, and inquire whether thou
livest in the new birth, in daily re-
pentance, and an unwearied mortifica-
tion of the old man. See whether
thou bringest forth fruit answerable to
the baptismal covenant, in which thou
art engaged ? Thou say est that thou
hast the oracles of God committed to
thee, and that thou hearest and read-
est them : but inspect thy heart, and
consider whether the Word be con-
Verted into thy life and spirit, as bodily
food passes into thy flesh and blood?
Whether thou hast lived up to its di-
rection, and expressed the effect of it
in thy conduct ? If thou contentest
thyself with the bare hearing thereof,
thou must know that this will never
yield eternal salvation, and that thou
deceivest thyself in a matter of in-
finite importance. For this reason has
the Lord compared the kingdom of
Heaven to leaven, which gradually
spreads itself through the whole lump,
and converts every part into its own
nature ; thereby to set forth that pow-
erful influence which the Word ought
to have upon our will and affections.
Truly, " not every one that saith, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
Heaven ; but he that doeth the will
of the Father which is in heaven."
Matt. 7 : 21. Thou thinkest that thou
dost a service when with zeal thou de-
fendest the purity of the doctrine:
and truly therein thou doest well.
Nevertheless, I would have thee in-
quire, whether by the purity of the
doctrine, and thy defence of it, thou
hast also attained a true purity of the
heart. Do we not find many rigid de-
fenders of the pure doctrine, who in

their lives are the most unclean of
men, full of pride, bitterness, and
covetousness? Alas, the name of G-od *
itself, is made a common shelter for
all manner of vices, which screen
themselves under the same, with im-
punity. Thou afiQrmest that thou
often receivest the Lord's Supper.
This is right ; but search thine own
heart. Thou hast often received the
flesh and blood of Christ in this Sac-
rament : why then do the flesh and
blood of Adam live and reign in thee?
Should not the life of Christ shine
forth in thy whole conduct? Should
not his love, his humility, and meek-
ness, diffuse themselves through all
thy manners? Where is the advan-
tage, if thou receivest Christ in the
Sacrament, and deniest him in thy life
and actions? Thou sayest, that thou
believest and confessest all the articles
of the Christian faith. It is well!
but have recourse to the touchstone
of the heart. That is only a true faith,
which unites man with God, and God
with man; by which God dwells, lives,
and operates in man. If these effects
be wanting in thee, thy faith is false,
and so far from uniting thee with God,
it sets thee at a greater distance from
him. This, however, is not to be un-
derstood of the faith of weak and
feeble Christians, which is often so
clouded, as to render it hard to per-
ceive its life and motion. For even a
weak faith, though it be like smoking
flax, has in it the properties of a strong
faith, though it cannot exert itself
with equal strength and energy. It
heartily cleaves to God, and brings
forth fruit amidst all those infirmities
with which it struggles. But I would
have it understood of faith in general,
and of the trial and fruits of it, that,
if thou believest in Christ, then Christ
must certainly live in thee by faith, or

Chap. V.]

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

177

thine will prove but an empty, naked
profession. If thou believest that
Christ suffered death for thy sins, thou
must aho die with him to the same
(Gal. 2 : 20), and renounce the world,
with all its pride and avarice. Eom.
6:2. If this effect do not follow, then
truly thou believest not in Christ. If
thou believest that Christ was cruci-
fied for the sins of the world, thou
must with him be crucified to the
same. If thou refusest to comply with
this, thou canst not be a living mem-
ber of Christ, nor be united with him
by faith. If thou believest that Christ
is risen from the dead, it is thy duty
to rise spiritually with him, and firmly
adhere to him, thy Head and Saviour.
In a word, the birth, cross, passion,
death, resurrection, and ascension of
Christ, must, after a spiritual manner,
be transacted in thee. And this is the
blessed effect of faith, and the influ-
ence it has on believing souls. Wher-
ever this effect is wanting, there is
nothing but a lifeless image of faith,
with which men miserably deceive
themselves. So if thou believest in
the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit in
whom thou believest, must of neces-

sity dwell and reign in thy heart, and
enlighten and sanctify it. For, " as
many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God." Eom.
8:14.

6. Therefore, dear Christian ! let not
your religion be confined to bare ex-
ternals, but see that it proceed from
the more inward recesses of a heart
endued with a true, living, and active
faith, and with an unfeigned, inward,
and daily repentance. If you put
away from you this inward life, this
faith, and this repentance, you strip
your religion of all essential goodness,
and, instead of a living principle,
which ought to be established in the
mind, you carry about an empty, in-
significant name, which will avail you
nothing in that day, wherein God will
judge all things according to the in-
ward frame of the heart. But if you
are truly affected with a sense of your
inward wants and impurities, then
flee without delay to the healing
fountain of grace ! Draw and drink,
pray and knock, seek and cry, "Lord,
have mercy upon me!" Then your
heart shall be cured, your sin covered,
and your transgression cancelled.

CHAPTER V.

SHOWING THAT THE EVIDENCE OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY DOES NOT CONSIST TN
THE KNOWLEDGE AND THE HEARING OF GOD'S WORD, BUT THAT HE IS A
CHRISTIAN, IN WHOSE LIFE GOD'S WORD IS MANIFESTED, AND WHO BE-
SEECHES GOD IN SINCERITY THAT THIS WORD, AS A DIVINE SEED, MAY BE.
QUICKENED IN HIM, AND BEAR FRUIT.

The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. — Eom. 1 : 16.

THE way by which we are to ar-
rive at true and substantial wis-
dom, and become friends of God, is to
submit ourselves to the discipline of

repentance, and to lead a life con-
formable to the Word of God. Such
a life as this cannot fail to be attended;
with true illumination of the mind,,

12

178

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

and an increase of all divine graces;
nay, with so close an alliance with
God himself, as to make us "partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world
through lust." 2 Peter 1 : 4. An ex-
ample of this we have in Enoch, who
having " walked with God, was not,
for God took him " to himself. Gen.
5 : 24. To such a holy life as this
David aspired with the utmost fervor
of spirit, proposing two means by
which to obtain it : the first, fervent
prayer; and the second, & diligent prac-
tice of the word of God. " I cried,"
says he, " with my whole heart ; hear
me, O Lord : I will keep thy statutes.
I cried unto thee; save me, and I
shall keep thy testimonies." Ps. 119 :
145, 146.

2. These words set forth the diffi-
culties which he encounters who seeks
to be a true Christian, and to keep the
word of God in holiness of life. For
nesh and blood naturally strive against
the word of God, and that holiness of
life which it requires: and are, besides,
inconstant and weak, and prone to
yield to the enticements of the world.
The devil on all occasions hinders our
progress, and opposes our endeavors
on every side. This is followed by a
multitude of evil examples, and the
^persecutions which wicked men raise
in opposition to those souls that enter
upon another course of life. Against
obstinate evils, such as these, all the
strength of the soul is to be opposed.
This we learn from the example of
David, who cried unto the Lord with
his whole heart, in order that he might
better digest the Word, and by lead-
ing such a life as that Word requires,
continue in the favor of God. This
ought also to be our main concern;
the favor of God being infinitely pref-
erable to all that the world affords.

Whoever pleases God, and is His friend,
most effectually secures himself there-
by from the malice of all his enemies.
Hence serious and fervent prayer is, as I
said before, the first step to a holy life.
The second means to obtain a holy life,
is expressed in the following words of
the same Psalm : " I prevented the
dawning of the morning, and cried: I
hoped in thy word. Mine eyes pre-
vent the night watches, that I might
meditate in thy word." Ps. 119:147,
148. Here the Psalmist declares the
earnest study, love, and affection,
which are due to the word of God;
as also the time best suited for medi-
tating in it, namely, the morning. The
faculties of the mind are then more
strong and vigorous than at other
times ; and are best disposed for
searching into divine subjects. The
truth of this is at that season most
feelingly perceived, when the soul,
afflicted by sadness and deep spiritual
temptations, " watches for the morn-
ing " (Ps. 130 : 6), and with " waking
eyes" (Ps. 77:4), expects help from
the Lord. She is then "as a sparrow
alone upon the house top," as a lonely
owl in the desert (Ps. 102 : 6, 7); and
" so weary with groaning " (Ps. 6 : 6),
as to be almost ready to expire.

3. This is that exercise of the cross,
or school of affliction, in which all
saints are most effectually trained for
a happy eternity. Whoever is not in-
ured to this sort of trials, can know
but little of God and of his word. In
this exercise, all the natural powers
of soul and life consume away, that
God alone may become our strength
and support. By such inward trials
as these, the carnal life is likewise
more and more weakened, and the
quickening power of God and of his
word, perceived with the greater ef-
fect and experience. And truly, all

Chap. V.]

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

179

our efforts ought to centre in this,
that the external hearing and reading
of the divine word be practically ap-
plied to the mind, and improved into
Christian experience.

4. This doctrine, therefore, I would
have firmly rooted in thy mind, name-
ly, that not the reading or hearing,
but the doing and practising of the
word, demonstrates the true Chris-
tian. James 1 : 22. Without this prac-
tical improvement, hearing and read-
ing will be of no great advantage.
For the word was not committed to
us, that it might be read and known
only, but that it might be reduced to
practice. As a medicine gives no
relief to the patient who hears of, or
looks upon it, but at the same time re-
fuses to take it ; so the word, though
a remedy for our diseased nature, can
yet cure no man, or restore him from
death to life, whilst he refuses to take
what the word prescribes. Therefore,
in order to this, fervent and constant
prayer (according to the example set
us by David), will be requisite in order
to enable us to conform our life and
actions to the divine word. "What ad-
vantage is it to an artist that he
knows an art, if he never practises it?
Will not his supine and careless neg-
lect reduce him at length to poverty ?
And what will it avail us to know the
word of God, and not do it? "That
servant/' says our Saviour, " which
knew his lord's will, and prepared
not himself, neither did according to
his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes." Luke 12 : 47. And St. Peter
affirms, that "it had been better for
such not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after they have
known it, to turn from the holy com-
mandment delivered unto them." 2
Peter 2 : 21. As a father does not
own him for a son, who in everything

acts in a manner contrary to his will,
so not words, but the life and actions,
are marks and indications of a child
of God, according to that saying of
our Saviour : " If ye were Abraham's
children, ye would do the works of
Abraham. But now ye seek to kill
me, — this did not Abraham. — Ye are
of your father the devil." John 8 : 39,
40, 44. Why should a barren and
fruitless tree take up any room in the
garden, when it only incumbers the
ground on which it grows? It is surely
fit for nothing, but to be cast into the
fire, as is represented in the parable
of the barren fig-tree. Luke 18 : 6, 7.
As it would be foolish to give to a raven
the name of a swan, to which it has
no resemblance ; so if the men of this
world should be called by the name
of true Christians, whilst so little of a
Christian temper appears in their life
and manners, I think it would be
justly counted egregious folly. It is
not by words, but by deeds and ac-
tions, that we are to judge of a Chris-
tian's state, according to that saying
of St. Paul : " The kingdom of God is
not in word, but in power." 1 Cor.
4 : 20. Such is the condition of most
men at this day, that those who make
the strongest pretences to the Chris-
tian name, do nothing but that which
is contrary to the Christian spirit.
They are like the people at Eome,
concerning whom Laurentius Valla
exclaimed when reading these words
of our Lord, "Blessed are the mer-
ciful, blessed are the peacemakers,"
etc. (Matt. 5 : 7-9), " Surely either these
words are not true, or we are no Chris-
tians." Man is corrupted to such a
degree, that even not a few brute
creatures visibly surpass him in some
good quality. The dove excels him in
harmlessness (Matt. 10:16); the ant
in industry (Prov. 6 : 6)-, the stork in

180

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

a careful provision for her young; the
dog in love and fidelity; the ox and
the ass in knowledge of their master
(Isa. 1:3); the sheep in meekness
(Isa. 53:7); the lion in generosity
and clemency towards weak animals;
the cock in watchfulness; and the ser-
pent in wisdom. On the contrary,
man in his natural state exceeds all
the beasts in mischief. He is more
fierce than a wolf; more crafty than
a fox ; more vain than a peacock ;
more voracious than a swine; more
pestilent than a viper; fiercer than a
bear. Indeed, the Lord Jesus himself
terms Herod a fox (Luke 13 : 32) ;
John the Baptist applies the name of
vipers to the Pharisees (Matt. 3:7);
and St. Paul that of lion to Nero. 2
Tim. 4 : 17. Truly, those vices and
mischiefs, which go single and unac-
companied in brutes, are oftentimes
crowded together in one natural man.
So that the human body is very sig-
nificantly called by the apostle, " the
body of sin " (Eom. 6 : 6), as being
full of sins, and infected with all man-
ner of defilements. Not to mention,
that there is no creature so bad and
pernicious, but that it may be still of
some use to men. The foxes and
wolves, for instance, with their skins,
secure men from the injuries of a rig-
qrous season. But, alas! what good
is there to be found in a man aban-
doned to the conduct of an unregen-
erate nature ? " Every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart is only
evil continually" (Gen. 6:5; 8:21);
as is more than once expressed in
Scripture. He exercises his reason to
practise fraud; he wastes his body
with pride and lewdness ; and is both
inwardly and outwardly corrupted, so
that all his members are justly called
the "instruments" or weapons "of
unrighteousness." Eom. 6:13. Hence

it is, that the Sacred Scriptures repre-
sent our nature in colors so dark and
odious, as may strike terror into every
man that reads them. " There is none
righteous, no, not one : there is none
that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone
out of the way, they are together be-
come unprofitable ; there is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Their throat
is an open sepulchre; with their
tongues they have used deceit; the
poison of asps is under their lips;
whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness ; their feet are swift to shed
blood ; destruction and misery are
in their ways; and the way of peace
have they not known ; there is no
fear of God before their eyes." Eom.

3 : 10-18 ; Ps. 14.

5. Behold here the deplorable image
of the natural man ! Behold the
abomination that is common to us
all ! And now tell me how a man can
see the kingdom of God, unless he be
born again from above, or, as St. Paul
expresses it, " unless he be renewed
in the spirit of his mind: putting on
the new man, which after God is cre-
ated in righteousness and true holi-
ness?" Eph. 4:23; Col. 3 : 10. And
the same apostle says, "But ye have
not so learned Christ; if so be that ye
have heard him, and have been taught
by him, as the truth is in Jesus." Eph.

4 : 20, 21. Yea, he says, " They that
are Christ's, have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts." Gal.

5 : 24. Alas ! if those belong not to
Christ, who do not mortify the mem-
bers of unrighteousness, but live in
the pollutions of sin, then they surely
must belong to the devil, and cannot
inherit the kingdom of heaven, since
they do not crucify the flesh. For
whosoever desires to please God, must
become " a new creature " in Christ

Chap. V.]

TEXTE CHEISTIANITY.

181

(2 Cor. 5 : 17); "in whom neither cir-
cumcision availeth any thing, nor un-
circumcision, but a new creature/'
Gal. 6 : 15. Now, since these are the
terms on which our eternal welfare
depends, let it be our main concern,
that we more and more vanquish sin
in our mortal bodies, and that we be
members, not of Satan, but of Jesus
Christ. Let us earnestly endeavor,
that the divine Word may gain
ground, and bear fruit in our souls.
Let us strive to render our lives ac-
ceptable to God, so that, being pre-
served by his grace to the end, we
may continue " vessels of mercy, and
not of wrath." Eom. 9 : 22, 23.

6. It is for this reason that David so
heartily wishes to lead a holy life,
conformably to the word of God : " I
cried/' says he, " with my whole heart;
hear me, O Lord; I will keep thy
statutes" (Ps. 119:145): for since our
conversion is entirely from above, it
follows, that a holy life must be ob-
tained by continual prayer and sup-
plication. " Heal me, O Lord," says
the prophet, " and I shall be healed ;
save me, and I shall be saved : for
thou art my praise." Jer. 17 : 14 ; 31 :
18. And David says again, " I cried
unto thee ; save me, and I shall keep
thy testimonies." Ps. 119 : 146. Sin
and the kingdom of Satan are, indeed,
so strong and powerful in man, that
it is in vain to attempt their conquest
without the divine aid and assistance.

7. Let us therefore shake off all
sloth and negligence, and let us ac-
quit ourselves diligently, in a matter
of so great importance. David him-
self further adds, "I prevented (that
is, I came before) the dawning of the
morning, and cried: I hoped in thy
word. Mine eyes prevent (or, antici-
pate) the night watches, that I might
meditate in thy word." Ps. 119 : 147,

148. And very appropriate are the
words of the prophet on this account:
" He wakeneth me morning by morn-
ing: he wakeneth mine ear to hear as
the learned." Isa. 50 : 4. "With which
those of Solomon agree: "I sleep, but
my heart waketh: it is the voice of
my beloved that knocketh." Song 5 : 2.
8. In these and the like sentences
of Scripture, we may view the fath-
erly care and condescending love of
our merciful God; since his delight is
to be conversant with the sons of men,
to speak with them and to instruct
them. Hence he appointed his Son to
be our heavenly Teacher and Master ;
of which the Lord Jesus himself gave
a visible image when he was found in
the temple in the midst of the doctors,
and astonished the hearers with " his
understanding and answers." Luke 2 :
47. This was done by our Saviour,
not merely on account of the Jewish
temple, which is now destroyed ; but
rather on account of the Christian
Church itself, which is the true and
heavenly Jerusalem, taught and in-
structed by his Word and Spirit. It
was also done with reference to the
temple of our heart, in which he will
teach, comfort, enlighten, and sanctify
us. Here he will pray, ask questions,
and answer them; and speak in holy
thoughts, and devout meditations.
And in this the prophetical office of
Christ consists. Hence also he re-
plied to his mother in these words :
"How is it that ye sought me? Wist
ye not that I must be about my fath-
er's business ?" (Luke 2 : 49), meaning
that office which was conferred upon
him by his Father. This office he now
performs at the right hand of God, as
our true and only High priest ; and
upon earth he discharges it by his
word; by means of which he also in-
wardly preaches in our hearts by his

182

TEUB CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IL

Holy Spirit and gracious illumination.
Without this, the outward preaching
must prove barren and unfruitful, ac-
cording to the words of the apostle :
"I have planted, Apollos watered; but

God gave the increase. So then nei-
ther is he that planteth any thing,
neither he that watereth ; but God
that giveth the increase." 1 Cor. 3 :
6,7.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PERFECTION AND SALVATION OF MEN DEPEND ON UNION WITH CHRIST BY
FAITH ; BUT TO THIS THEY CAN CONTRIBUTE NOTHING, WHEREAS THEY
RATHER INTERFERE WITH THE GRACE OF GOD BY THEIR PERVERSE WILL;
BUT CHRIST, AND HE ALONE, ACCOMPLISHES THE WORK IN US.

Without me ye can do nothing. — John 15:5.

AS man by his apostasy from God,
through ambition and self-love,
was separated from him, and fell from
the perfection in which he was cre-
ated, so he must of necessity return
to his original tranquillity and happi-
ness, by a union with God j in which
the whole of human perfection con-
sists. It was therefore necessary,
that the Son of God should become
man, in order that human nature, be-
ing again united to God, might there-
by be restored to its primitive integ-
rity and perfection. As the divine
and human natures are united in the
one Person of Christ, so must we all,
through grace, be united to him by
faith, as to our eternal and sovereign
Good. In this manner it pleased God
to rectify the exceeding corruption of
our nature by the abounding goodness
of his grace. This union is declared
by the Son of God himself: " I will
betroth thee," says he, "unto me for
ever, in loving kindness and in mer-
cies." Hos. 2 : 19. For since our na-
ture is infected and corrupted by sin,
which is the greatest of evils, it could
not be restored and healed but by God
himself, the sovereign Good.

2. Now as the union of the divine
and the human natures in Christ is
eternal, and is never to be dissolved,
insomuch that even death itself could
not break asunder so sacred a bond :
so Christ our Head is to be so firmly
united with his faithful members, that
neither life nor death may ever be
able to separate them from him. This
is also declared by the prophet Hosea,
in the Person of Christ : " I will,"
says he, "betroth thee unto me for
ever."

3. This union by faith, is of the
highest necessity, because " our iniqui-
ties have separated between us and our
God." Isa. 59 : 2. And this deplorable
state will continue to all eternity, un-
less Christ dwell in us here by faith.
Moreover, we are not able to do the
least good, unless Christ himself work
it in us. Hence, says the apostle,
"Not I, but the grace of God which
is with me." 1 Cor. 15 : 10. And the
Lord himself says : " Without me ye
can do nothing" (John 15:5); the
truth of which he illustrates by the
beautiful parable of the vine and the
branches. Whence it naturally fol-
lows, that if we are, or do, any good

Chap. VI.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

183

at all, it is altogether to be ascribed to
God alone; according to what is said
by the prophet : " Thou hast wrought
all our works in us" (Isa. 26:12);
and by another : " I am like a green
fir-tree. From me is thy fruit found."
Hos. 14:8.

4. O man ! consider therefore, what
thou art, and what thou canst do.
What hast thou been able to contrib-
ute to thy restoration and the renova-
tion of thy depraved nature? Surely
nothing. As thou couldst not afford
any help toward thy bodily birth, nor
create thyself; so neither canst thou
bring any assistance towards thy new
birth or regeneration. Thou canst
indeed lose, corrupt, and destroy thy-
self; but to renew, to restore, to heal,
to justify, and to quicken thyself, is a
work entirely beyond thy strength.
Couldest thou contribute anything
that God might become man ? No.
There is nothing therefore that thou
canst arrogate to thyself, or ascribe
to thy own ability. Indeed, the more
a man attributes to his own will,
strength, and ability, the more effec-
tually does he obstruct divine grace,
and the renewal of his corrupted
nature. Let us therefore wholly re-
nounce our own strength, our own
wisdom, our own will, and self-love,
that, being thus resigned to God alone,
we may suffer his power freely to work
in us, so that nothing may, in the
least, oppose the will and operations
of the Lord.

5. Until thou art brought to this,
O Christian, that thy mind becomes
merely passive, and that thou purely
suffer est the operation and will of God,
it is evident, that God is impeded by
thee, so that he cannot unite himself
with thy soul ; or by true renovation
of thy corrupt nature establish his

image there.

For our own will, self-

love, ambition, the opinion of our own
wisdom, and whatever we arrogantly
claim to ourselves, are so many im-
pediments, why God cannot freely
operate in us, and effect his good will.
For as a man's own will more and
more corrupts and depraves him ; so
the will of God more and more per-
fects and restores him.

6. Hence, it was said by Bonaven-
tura, that "the highest perfection of
religion, consists in renouncing our
own will." And by Augustine, " If
to love God is the greatest good to
man, to love himself must needs be his
greatest evil. And, if such is the nature
of good, that it diffuses and communi-
cates itself; of necessity self-love must
be a great evil, since it engrosses to
itself both its own and the goods of
others, and will not part with any of
them." Of this even the pagan Sene-
ca himself was not ignorant,, when he
said : " That only is an accession to
virtue, which is a denial of thy own
will." And again : " Unless thou de-
partest from thyself, thou canst not
approach God, who is above thee."

7. Our own will is nothing else but
a defection or apostasy from God.
Defection verily is easy, smooth, and
pleasant ; but the recovery from it is
bitter, troublesome, and difficult; yea,
even beyond all the power of the crea-
ture. For man, by his own strength,
can neither return, nor in any wise
help himself, whether in will or deed,
Man's will is captive, and his works^
are dead. Christ alone is able to help,,
in the beginning, the progress, and the.-
end. He lays before us two means,,
the law and the gospel ; or repentance'
and remission of sin. Through the
law, in the first place, thou must die
with Christ, and by true sorrow and.
brokenness of heart sacrifice thy own
will. Thou must become as nothing;

184

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book II.

in thine own eyes, and resign thyself
wholly to Christ. Then grace and for-
giveness of sin are conferred through
the gospel, and man, that was dead be-
fore, is made alive by faith. Whence
it appears, that no man can by his
own strength convert and quicken
himself. For it is absolutely neces-
sary that he hate, deny, and lose him-
self; that he be displeased with, and
die unto, himself; and that his hope
be placed entirely in God aloue, by
whose grace he expects to live.

8. But even this self-hatred, denial,
and mortification, are not the effect
of our own will and ability. " It is
not," says St. Paul, "of him that will-
eth, nor of him that runneth, but of
God that sheweth mercy." Eom. 9 : 16.
It is God therefore alone who operates
all this in us by his grace, and by the
power of his good Spirit : so that our
justification is not derived from any
creature whatsoever, but from God

alone, whose work and gift it is. For
the most dangerous enemy any man
has, is himself; insomuch that we have
great reason to implore the Lord to
deliver us from ourselves and all that
we have by nature, and then to bestow
that which flows from his grace. By
our own strength we are not able to
perform the least good, if God, him-
self, even after conversion, do not
graciously operate in us. Who is
there that can endue us with love and
mercy, but God, who is love itself,
and from whom all other graces pro-
ceed ? Therefore, Christ alone is our
help and support, when the help of
men cannot avail. But after all, be
the condition ever so low to which
man has been brought by the fall of
Adam, he is now raised again by
Christ, and even exalted to a higher
degree than he possessed before. But
of this more shall be said in Chapter
XI.

CHAPTER VII

SHOWING THAT IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUE NATURE OF REPENTANCE
WE MUST NECESSARILY KNOW THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE
NEW MAN; OR, HOW IN US ADAM MUST DIE, AND CHRIST LIVE; OR, HOW IN
US THE OLD MAN MUST DIE, AND THE NEW MAN LIVE.

We know this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. — Rom. 6 : 6.

IN every Christian there is found a
twofold man, opposed, like their
fruits, to one another. This will more
fully appear from the following state-
ment :

Adam,
Old man,
Outward man,
Old birth,

Flesh,
Nature,

Christ.
New man.
Inward man.
New birth.
Spirit.
Grace.

Eeason,

Darkness,

Tree of death,

Evil fruit,

Sin,

Damnation,

Death,

Old Jerusalem,

Kingdom of the devil,

Seed of the serpent,

Natural man,

Image of the earthly,

Faith.
Light.
Tree of life.
Good fruit.

Kighteousness.

Salvation.

Life.

New Jerusalem.

Kingdom of God.

Seed of God.

Spiritual man.

Image of the heavenly.

Chap. VII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

185

The truth of this statement, the
Scriptures, as well as experience, abun-
dantly confirm. The former speak
largely of the old man and the new,
of the inward and outward man. See
Eph. 4 : 24; Col. 3 : 9 ; 2 Cor. 4 : 16.
They teach also that the Spirit of
God is in us: Eom. 8: 11; 1 Cor. 3 :
16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1: 13.
And likewise Christ, Gal. 2 : 20 ; 2
Cor. 13 : 5. Experience, moreover, de-
monstrates the same. Hither may
also be referred that striving and
struggling of the flesh and Spirit,
from which even the saints are not
free. Eom. 7 : 23. Likewise there be-
long here the different fruits of the
flesh and Spirit reckoned up by St.
Paul. Gal. 5 : 19-23. This point is
therefore clearly stated in Scripture,
and too certain to be called in question
by any Christian. It is the hinge, as
it were, on which all the Scripture
moves, and the foundation on which
the true knowledge of man depends.
Out of the same fountain issue true
repentance, or the death of Adam,
and the life of Christ in us. For no
sooner does Adam die in us, but there
perishes with him all that is origi-
nally derived from him ; the old out-
ward man, the old birth, the flesh, na-
ture, corrupt reason, darkness, the
tree of death, evil fruits, sin, death,
damnation, the seed of the serpent,
the natural man, the earthly image,
the old Jerusalem, and the kingdom
of Satan. But as long as Adam lives,
there also live and reign with him the
old man, and the carnal birth, the
flesh, nature, corrupt reason, dark-
ness, and the whole train of evils be-
fore mentioned, being all comprised
under the kingdom of Satan, and sub-
ject to damnation, and to the curse
everlasting. But if, on the other hand,
Christ live in any one, then verily

there live and reign with him the new
and inward man, the new birth, the
Spirit, grace, faith, light, the tree of
life, good fruits, righteousness, life,
happiness, the seed of God, the spirit-
ual man, the heavenly image, the new
Jerusalem, and the kingdom of God.
All which proceed from the divine
blessing, and tend to eternal salva-
tion. Here is a matter of importance,
namely, so to order one's life and con-
duct, that Christ the new or second
Adam, and not the old Adam, may
live and reign in us.

2. Therefore it is necessary for a
man to watch, to fast, to pray, fight,
and strive; and, as St. Paul expresses
it, to examine himself if Christ be in
him. 2 Cor. 13 : 5. He is to work out
his salvation with fear and trembling.
Phil. 2 : 12. He is to enter through
the strait gate and the narrow way
in Christ. Matt. 7 : 13. That is, man
must now hate and deny himself, for-
sake all (Luke 14 : 26), and die unto
sin. Eom. 6 : 2. This surely is not to
be effected, as the delicate Christians
of this age imagine, by any careless
and slight application of mind, but
by an inward and profound sorrow,
contrition, and brokenness of heart,
together with groans and tears that
cannot be uttered. These inward ex-
ercises, and acts of devotion, are most
feelingly set forth by David in his
Penitential Psalms, which abound with
expressions of this nature. Ps. 6 ; 32 ;
38; 51; 102; 130; 143. The apostle
calls it a crucifying of the flesh with
the affections and lusts thereof. Gal.
5 : 24. Whoever attains to this state,
in him verily Christ lives, and he re-
ciprocally in Christ by faith. Then
Christ conquers and reigns in man,
whose faith is become " the victory
that overcometh the world." 1 John
5:4.

186

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II,

3. But since the world, which thou
art to strive against, is not without
thee, but within thee, it follows, that it
is also to be conquered not without,
but within thee. For what is the
world, but "the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life?" 1 John 2:16. As these are in
thee, so in thee they are to be sub-
dued, that thus thou mayest worthily
bear the name and character of a true
child of God. "For whatsoever is
born of God, overcometh the world "
(1 John 5:4); and if thou overcoraest,
and gainest the victory over thy great
enemy the world, thou art then a
child of light (Bph. 5:8), a member
of Christ (1 Cor. 12 : 27 ; Eph. 5 : 30),
and the temple of the Holy Ghost. 1
Cor. 6 : 19. Thou art now a good tree
(Matt. 12 : 33), that freely and with-
out constraint, yea, with joy, love, and
pleasure, bringe th forth fruit to the
glory of God. Matt. 5 : 16.

4. But if thou livest in Adam, and
Adam reigns in thee, then thou art
not a child of God, nor born again of
him. For since thou art overcome by
the world, and since the prince there-
of rules in thee by pride, ambition,
and self-love, thou art on this very ac-
count to be numbered amongst the
children of the devil. John 8 : 44. " For
as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God." Rom.
8 : 14. And, on the contrary, as many
as are led by Satan, they likewise are
his children; yea, they are the very
members of Satan, sons of darkness,
a habitation of unclean spirits, an ac-
cursed Babylon, full of impure and of
abominable beasts; as it is represented
by the ancient prophets (Isa. 13 : 21 ;
Rev. 18:2); but particularly by the
prophet Ezekiel. He being brought
in spirit into the temple at Jerusalem,
beheld two remarkable things : one

whereof was, "every form of creep-
ing things, and abominable beasts, and
all the idols of the house of Israel, por-
trayed upon the wall round about ;"
and secondly (which was still more de-
testable), " seventy men of the ancients
of the house of Israel, worshipping
these beasts and images, and offering
them incense." Ezek. 8 : 10, 11.

5. Behold, O man, a lively repre-
sentation here given of thy depraved,
brutish, and beastly heart ! If thou
wilt but enter into this temple of thy
heart, thou shalt surely find therein
vast numbers of foul, detestable crea-
tures, images, and idols, fashioned and
represented by all manner of corrupt
and impure thoughts in the carnal
mind, imagination, and memory. More-
over (and this is the greatest evil of
all), though these idols and horrid
abominations should be utterly ban-
ished from the heart, and this detest-
able evil, by which man is made the
habitation of unclean and pestilential
reptiles, should, by all means, be de-
stroyed by repentance, by mortifica-
tion of the flesh, and by penitential
tears and humiliation ; yet, instead of
doing that, thou lovest these serpents,
adorest these vile monsters, and serv-
est and caressest them. Alas ! thou
but little regardest that Christ is cast
out of thy soul by these abominations,
and is utterly banished from thy
heart; and that by this means thou
deprivest thyself of the supreme and
eternal Good, losing the Holy Spirit
with all his excellent gifts and graces.
O miserable man ! thou exceedingly
grievest when any outward trouble
befalls thee, or when thou losest any-
thing in the world that is dear to
thee; why then is it, that thou art not
at all concerned at the loss even of
Christ himself, and at the deplorable
state of thy soul and body, which are

Chap. TIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

187

both become a habitation of malignant
spirits !

6. If these things be seriously pon-
dered and laid to heart, we shall soon
understand what Adam and Christ
are; and how they live and act in
men. To this head we may also refer
the following observations. First, In
Adam we are all naturally equal, nor
is one better than another; since we
are all, both as to body and soul,
equally polluted and corrupted, so that
it is affirmed by St. Paul, not only of
Jews and Gentiles, but even of all
men in general, that "there is no dif-
ference." Eom. 3 : 22. Hence it is also
true, that in the sight of God, no man
is better than the most profligate crim-
inal. For though that perverse tem-
per which is natural to all, does not
equally in all break out into works,
yet God judges all men by the inward
state of the heart, that poisoned foun-
tain of all sin. Nor is there any sin so
heinous, which man by nature would
not freely commit, were he not strongly
restrained by divine grace. For by
the bent of our nature we are but too
much inclined to pollute ourselves with
all manner of wickedness (Jer. 13 :
23) ; and if the inclination be not al-
ways attended with the external effect
itself, it is wholly to be attributed to
the grace of God, and not to any
strength or prudence of our own. Gen.
20 : 6. This consideration should ex-
cite us to the practice of true humility,
and to an unfeigned fear of God ; and
at the same time restrain us from
rashly despising our fellow-creatures,
lest, by reflecting on others, we our-

selves split upon the dangerous rock
of carnal presumption. Secondly, It
is proper to observe, that as in Adam
we are all equally bad with regard to
the corruption of nature ; so by Christ
we are all made equallyjust and holy;
no man receiving for himself any pre-
rogative of a peculiar righteousness in
the siu-ht of God. For since Christ is
our perfection, our "wisdom, right-
eousness, sanctification, and redemp-
tion " (1 Cor. 1 : 30 ; 6 : 11), we, who
in Adam are alike, are also alike in
Christ. For as in Adam by nature
we are all one man and one body, in-
fected with the foul contagion of diso-
bedience and sin, so all true Christians
are as one man in Christ, and make
up one body, completely purified and
sanctified by faith, and the blood of
Christ.

7. This truth is a remedy against
spiritual pride, namely, that none
should account himself better before
God than others, though perhaps
adorned with greater gifts, and endow-
ments. For even these are no less be-
stowed on him of pure grace, than are
righteousness and salvation them-
selves. Upon this principle of pure
grace, be careful to keep thy mind
constantly fixed. If thou dost so,
then this grace shall protect thee
against the dangerous snares of pride
and arrogance ; and as, on the one
hand, it will convince thee of thy own
misery and poverty in spirit, so, on
the other, it will give thee a most
lively insight into Christ, and into the
exceeding riches of grace, offered
through him to all mankind.

188

TEXTE CHKIST1ANITY.

[Book II.

/

CHAPTER VIII.

SHOWING HOW GRACIOUSLY GOD INVITES US TO REPENTANCE, AND HOW NECES-
SARY IT IS THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE DELAYED.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that

repenteth. — Luke 15 : 10.

GOD, who is of infinite mercy, in
order that be might the better
soften our hard and stony hearts, and
turn them from the world, ourselves,
and the devil, unto himself (Acts
26 : 18), has, in his Word, variously
represented and set before our eyes
man's conversion and repentance.

2. Among other ways of impressing
it on our minds, the two parables of
the Lost Sheep and of the Prodigal Son
(Luke, chap. 15), are exceedingly af-
fecting, and are so abundant in divine
consolation, that it is scarcely possible
seriously to think upon them without
tears. Therein our Saviour describes
three different hearts. Of these the
first is, the impenitent heart of a sin-
ner; the second, the contrite heart of
a penitent; the third, the heart of
God, full of mercy and paternal affec-
tion.

3. The first he describes under the
similitude of a degenerate son, waste-
fully spending his substance and in-
heritance, and at last reduced to such
necessity, as to wish to fill his belly
with the husks which the swine did
eat. By this figure all mankind in
their natural state are shadowed forth;
who, as so many degenerate sons,
have squandered away the heavenly
inheritance by continual riot and
wickedness. That is, they have lost
their original righteousness, holiness,
innocency, and the beautiful image of
God, in which they were at first cre-

ated (Eph. 4 : 24), and are now by
their own fault become the bond-slaves
of sin, of the devil, and of death. And
to complete their ruin, finding no re-
lief, rest, or comfort, in any human per-
formances and laws (which answer
to the husks in the parable) they
must of necessity perish with endless
famine and misery, unless they speed-
ily have recourse unto the grace of
their Heavenly Father.

4. The second heart, which is that
of a repenting sinner, is set forth in
these words : " How many hired ser-
vants of my Father have bread enough,
and to spare, and I perish with hun-
ger ! I will arise, and go to my Father,
and will say unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and before
thee ; and am no more worthy to be
called thy son." In this account we
have a very moving description of
true repentance. By the Prodigal's
coming to himself, is signified sor-
row for sin ; that is, when a man, on
the one hand, reflects upon his own
misery, and considers how, from being
a child of God, he is become, as it were,
a brute beast (2 Pet. 2 : 12), an unclean
swine, a man void of reason, earthly
and sensual; and, on the other, mind-
ful of his divine origin, turns his
thoughts entirely upon his Father,
repents, acknowledges his offences,
and says, u Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and before thee;" and
have offended both God and man.

Chap. VIII.]

TEUE CHBISTIAKITY.

139

This he immediately confirms by a
sincere contempt of himself, expressed
in these words: "and am no more
worthy to be called thy son." More-
over, fa ith, which is the other part of
repentance, is exhibited to us in his
actual arising and returning to his
father's house. He assumed confi-
dence to repair to his home, and firmly
persuaded himself that his father
would receive him, if not as a son, at
least as one of his hired servants.
" For," says he, " I am no more worthy
to he called thy son; make me as one
of thy hired servants." This plainly
shows the sure hope he entertained,
that his father would yield to his en-
treaties, and receive him into his favor.
5. And now I come, thirdly, to draw
the character of the paternal heart of
God, set forth in the parable.

I. When the son was yet a great way
off, his father saw him. Behold the pre-
venient mercy of our Heavenly Father,
who graciously looks for his prodigal
children. Ps. 79:8; Isa. 30:18, 19; Ps.
32:8.

II. And was moved with compassion.
Hereby is represented his mercy wait-
ing to be gracious to us.

III. And ran and fell on his neck.
Here is mercy receiving into favor.

IV. And kissed him. This exhibits
mercy ready to administer consolation
to the returning sinner. Micah 7 : 19 ;
Isa. 66 : 13.

V. Bring forth, says he, the best robe,
and put it on him (Isa. 61 : 10). This
has relation to Christ, and points out
his righteousness, and justifying grace.
Eom. 8:33.

VI. And put a ring on his hand.
Hereby is signified the Holy Spirit,
the pledge of sonship (Gal. 4:6; Eph.
1 : 5), the seal of intimate favor and
union ; and it also represents to us the
espousing mercy of the Lord.

VII. And shoes on his feet. This de-
notes a new and holy walk in Christ,
resulting from the Divine power, and
the grace of the Holy Spirit; which
are the peculiar effects of preserving
mercy. 1 Peter 1:5; Ps. 81 : 11.

VIII. Bring hither the fatted calf. By
this feast is represented the joy of an-
gels, or rejoicing and crowning mercy,
described by the holy Psalmist, and
the prophet Isaiah. Ps. 63:5; 103:
5; Isa. 65: 13.

6. What strong and endearing ars;u-
ments are here offered by the goodness
of God inviting us to sincere repent-
ance ! Let us, then, seriously consider
some of the main inducements to true
repentance, of which seven shall be
proposed at present.

I. The boundless mercy of God.

II. The kindness of Christ, and his
inestimable merit.

III. The awful threatenings and
punishments that are laid before us.

IV. Death.

V. The last judgment,

VI. Hell. And

VII. Everlasting joy.

I. THE MERCY OF GOD.

7. " If thou shalt seek the Lord thy
God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek
him with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul. When thou art in tribula-
tion, and all these things are come
upon thee, even in the latter days, if
thou turn to the Lord thy God, and
shalt be obedient unto his voice ; (for
the Lord thy God is a merciful God;)
he will not forsake thee, neither de-
stroy thee, nor forget the covenant of
thy fathers, which he sware unto
them." Deut. 4 : 29-31. What tender
affection, as of the heart of a father,
have we here presented to us ! And
how just and reasonable is it, that it
should move us to repentance ! For
how numerous and great soever our

190

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

sins may be, the mercy of God is still
greater, according to the words of the
Psalmist: "With the Lord there is
mercy ; and with him is plenteous re-
demption. And he shall redeem Is-
rael from all his iniquities." Ps. 130 : 7,
8. And again : "According unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot
out my transgressions." Ps. 51 : 1. Nor
are our sins so filthy and abominable,
but God can make them white as
snow. "Though your sins," says the
prophet, "be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow." Isa. 1 : 18. And
the Psalmist says: "Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean ; wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow." Ps.
51 : 7. Neither are they so various
and manifold, but that they are sur-
passed by the riches of divine grace,
according to the apostle: "In Christ
we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to
the riches of his grace." Eph. 1 : 7.
And what we read in Exodus teaches
the same : " The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth;
forgiving iniquity, and transgression,
and sin." Exod. 34 : 6, 7. Nor are they
so strong and powerful, but God can
destroy them, and throw them into
the depth of the sea, as he did unto
Pharaoh and all his host. " He will
subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt
cast all their sins into the depths of
the sea." Micah 7 : 19. Nor, finally,
are they so mortal and pestilential,
but God can heal them, as the prophet
assures us : " The wicked shall not fall
by his wickedness in the day that he
turneth from it." Ezek. 33 : 12.

II. THE KINDNESS OF CHRIST.

8. How kindly and affectionately
Christ Jesus receives sinners, he him-
self abundantly declares in the Gospel:

"They that be whole," says he, "need
not a physician, but they that are sick.
I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance." Matt.
9 : 12, 13. " The Son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost."
Luke 19 : 10. Of this gracious bounty
of Christ towards returning sinners,
the prophets have left us many pre-
dictions. " Woe be to the shepherds
of Israel," saith Ezekiel, " who have
not sought that which was lost : but
with force and with cruelty have ye
ruled them. And they were scattered,
because there is no shepherd. Behold,
I, even I, will both search my sheep,
and seek them out. As a shepherd
seeketh out his flock, in the day that
he is among his sheep that are scat-
tered ; so will I seek that which was
lost, and bring again that which was
driven away, and will bind up that
which was broken, and will strengthen
that which was sick." Ezek. 34 : 2, 4, 12,
16. And the prophet Isaiah says, " He
shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he
shall gather the lambs with his arm,
and carry them in his bosom." Isai.
40 : 11. Nor should only the gracious ■
nature of Christ move thee to repent-
ance ; but more especially his extreme
sorrow, and most innocent blood shed
on thine account. For consider with-
in thyself:

(1.) That he laid down his life, not
for heaven or earth, but for thy soul.
And wilt thou, by sin and impenitence,
wantonly cast away so great and val-
uable a treasure ?

(2.) Remember, that thou couldest
not have been redeemed by any other
or less price than the precious blood
of Christ (1 Pet. 1 : 19). Why sbould-
est thou deprive thyself of a ransom
so inestimable as the Redeemer has
paid for thee?

(3.) Call to mind, that Christ has

Chap. VIII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

191

redeemed thee from the world, from
sin and the devil. And dost thou de-
sire to continue longer in the service
of so hard and cruel a master?

(4.) Be assured, that without un-
feigned repentance, the merit of Christ
will avail thee nothing ; yea, that thou
tramplest under foot his blood, and
dost " despite unto the Spirit of grace."
Heb. 10 : 29.

(5.) Lastly, consider how sharp and
cruel were the sufferings which thy
Saviour underwent on thy account !
How he wept and sorrowed, trembled
and feared ! Heb. 5 : 7. How griev-
ously he was wounded for thy trans-
gressions (Isa. 53 : 5), and, at last, as
a worm (Ps. 22 : 6), and cursed (Gal.
3 : 13), hung upon a tree ! How loudly
this mournful scene calls on thee to
repent !

III. THREATS OF TEMPORAL PUNISH-
MENT.

9. " God judgeth the righteous,"
saiththe Psalmist, "and God is angry
with the wicked every day. If he
turn not, he will whet his sword: he
hath bent his bow, and made it ready :
he hath also prepared for him the in-
struments of death : he ordaineth his
arrows against the persecutors." Ps.
7:11-13.

10. This wrath and revenge, no man
will ever be able to escape, as the
prophet Amos affirms: "He that es-
capeth of them shall not be delivered.
Though they climb up to heaven,
thence I will bring them down : and
though they be hid from my sight in
the bottom of the sea, thence will I
command the serpent, and he shall bite
them. Behold, the eyes of the Lord
God are upon the sinful kingdom, and
1 will destroy it from off the face of
the earth." Amos 9 : 1-3, 8. "Their
blood shall be poured out as dust," saith

Zephaniah, 1 : 17, 18, " and their flesh as
the dung. Neither their silver, nor
their gold, shall be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the
whole land shall be devoured by the
fire of his jealousy." Such terrible
threatenings as these should lead us
to unfeigned repentance; this being
the only means by which to prevent
impending desolation, and the total
destruction of nations and cities; as
evidently appears from the example
of Nineveh. Jonah 3:5, 10. "At
what instant I shall speak concerning
a nation, and concerning a kingdom,
to pluck up, and to pull down, and to
destroy it ; if that nation against
whom I have pronounced, turn from
their evil, I will repent of the evil
that I thought to do unto them."
Jer. 18 : 7, 8.

IV. DEATH.

11. God has concealed the time of
our death from us, that thereby we
may be kept in the daily and uninter-
rupted practice of true repentance, as
not knowing which hour may be our
last. " The whole life of a man is
given him for repentance," saith St.
Bernard. And this repentance is a
Christian's daily cross and tribula-
tion. Thus it is said in the Psalms :
"I am ready to halt, and my sorrow
is continually before me." Ps. 38 : 17 ;
73 : 14. God has promised grace to
the penitent, but he has not promised
to sinners another day in which to
repent. " It is appointed unto men
once to die • but after this the judg-
ment." Heb. 9 : 27. Such as God shall
find thee, as such will he judge thee :
wherefore, live in such a manner as
thou wouldest wish to have done,
when thou art dying. Consider seri-
ously in thy mind, where they now
are, who but a few years ago wasted

192

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[Book II

their lives with lust and vanity, and
freely enjoyed the "good things" of
this world? Luke 16 : 25. They are
all gone to their own place, where
they wait for the day of judgment.
Wherefore, " come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues." Eev. 18 : 4.

V. THE LAST JUDGMENT.

12. For after death, there is neither
place nor time for repentance. It is
in this world that eternal life is either
lost or obtained. Those that repent
betimes, shall not be condemned in
judgment; but the impenitent will
hear the awful sentence : " Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire." Matt. 25 : 41. " Behold, there-
fore, now is the accepted time; be-
hold, now is the day of salvation !"
(2 €or. 6 : 2), which will be followed
by the day of judgment in the other
world. " To-day, therefore, if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation; lest I swear in
my wrath, that ye shall not enter into
my rest." Ps. 95 : 7, 8, 11 ; Heb. 3 : 7,
8, 11. " For we must all appear be-
fore the judgment-seat of Christ, that
every one may receive the things done
in his body, whether it be good or
bad." 2 Cor. 5 : 10. Those, therefore,
who here repent, "shall have their
sins covered" (Ps. 32: 1), and "they
shall no more be mentioned unto
them," as the prophet declares. Ezek.
33 : 16. Lay hold, therefore, on the
offer of mercy betimes, know and con-
fess thy sins, O man, that they may
be remitted and forgotten.

VI. ETERNAL PAINS OF HELL.

13. With this present life, the sea-
son of the mercy of God closes. It
will then be said: "Son, remember

that thou in thy lifetime receivedst
thy good things." Luke 16 : 25. Thy
life is now over. Thou art now dead !
Dead to God forever, to whom thou
didst refuse to live in time ! There is
no redemption from hell. Ps. 49 : 14-
20. How can the damned enjoy the
goodness of God, to which they were
dead whilst they were alive, and to
which they will now continue dead to
all eternity ! Eemember, therefore,
that now is the only time for mercy,
and the hour of visitation to repent;
whereas, there the damned so die, as,
notwithstanding, always to live ; and
so. live, as yet to die eternally. All
the senses will there suffer torment.
The sight shall be punished with eter-
nal darkness; the ears shall be filled
with weeping and gnashing of teeth ;
the smell with stench of fire and
brimstone ; the taste with the bitter-
ness of eternal death ; and the feeling
with a sense of endless tortures and
miseries.

VII. THE JOY OP ETERNAL LIFE.

14. Is it not a very high degree of
folly, to prefer a short perishing pleas-
ure to an eternal joy ; and a worthless
trifle, to the glorious presence of God?
Now none shall enter into this, but he
who has thoroughly washed himself,
and " made white his robes in the
blood of the Lamb." Eev. 3 : 14. « For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and
idolaters, and whosoever loveth and
maketh a lie." Eev. 22:15. None of
those, who, having been here invited
to the feast of Christ, yet refused to
come, "shall taste of his supper."
Luke 14 : 24. The highest joy of eter-
nal life, will consist in " seeing God as
he is." 1 John 3:2. To see God, is all
in all, and an eternal reward. "Ye
shall see me," says our Lord, " and

Chap. IX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

193

your heart shall rejoice ; and your joy
no man taketh from you." John 16 :
19, 22. This sight of the face of God
is the joy of the angels; it is their
life, and the invisible food by which
they are sustained. Now as this

vision of God creates the most exalted
joy, so to be banished from it, is to
suffer the greatest, the most terrible,
and the most severe torment, and eter-
nal misery.

CHAPTER IX.

SHOWING WHAT REPENTANCE IS, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SINNER TRULY
REPENTS J ALSO, HOW THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADS US TO REPENTANCE.

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and
with weeping, and with mourning : and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto
the Lprd your God : for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and
repenteth him of the evil. — Joel 2 : 12, 13.

THE Lord, whose mercy is infinite,
by no means seeks our destruction,
but rather our life and happiness. He
best knows the wretched and deplora-
ble condition into which we are fallen
by sin j and he is also desirous to re-
claim us from that dangerous state,
and to preserve us from everlasting
ruin. It is for this reason, that he so
earnestly invites the soul to repent-
ance, and engages us to the same by
many strong and powerful motives.

2. Sometimes God is pleased to stir
us up by terrible threatenings. "Be-
hold," says he, " I will bring evil upon
this people; because they have not
hearkened unto my words, nor to my
law, but rejected it." Jer. 6 : 19.
Again, "And now, because ye have
done all these works, saith the Lord,
and I spake unto you, rising up early
and speaking, but ye heard not j there-
fore, will I cast you out of my sight."
Jer. 7 : 13, 15. This dreadful procla-
mation of both temporal and eternal
calamities, should strike fear and ter-
ror into us : for the threatening of God

is not an empty voice, nor a sound
that vanishes into nothing, but it is ac-
companied with many terrible effects,
and consuming wrath, as will in its
time more fully appear, and which we
even feel already by sad experience;
since miseries and calamities, like a
flood, seem to carry all before them.
Nay, they will undoubtedly multiply
upon us, and exert themselves with
the utmost fury and fierceness, except
we betimes prevent them by a sincere
repentance. Thus the wrath of God
shall be poured forth in wars, famines,,
pestilence, fire, and inundations, till
he has at length destroyed our very
foundations, as he did once to the*
city of Jerusalem. Lam. 4 : 11.

3. But if the proclamation of wrath
and judgment cannot prevail upon us,.
yet ought God's abounding goodness,
attended as it is with so many endear-
ing marks of love, to melt our hearts,
and to soften them into true and
earnest repentance. For thus hath
the Lord spoken by the prophet :
" Eeturn, thou backsliding Israel, and

13

194

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

I will not cause mine anger to fall
upon you : for I am merciful, saith
the Lord, and I will not keep anger
for ever. Only acknowledge thine
iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God." Jer. 3 :
12, 13. In these words, God makes a
free offer of his grace, entreats and
adjures us to return to him again, for
he is willing to accept our repentance.

4. The passages that have been
quoted, are a convincing proof that
God, by his grace, mercy, patience,
and clemency, strongly invites us to
true repentance. There are chiefly
three things in those scriptures, which
deserve a more particular observation :
namely, the nature of repentance, or
what it is to repent; that is, to turn
unto the Lord: — the manner in which
repentance is to be wrought out; that
is, by fasting, weeping, and mourn-
ing:— the motive to engage us in so
holy an exercise, which is the paternal
goodness of God ; "for 1 am merciful"

As to the first, we know that to
repent, is nothing else but to be led,
through the law of God, to acknowl-
edge the natural blindness of our
hearts, and that detestable impurity
which lurks within. Next, we ought
to regard this as the very source
whence all other sins proceed, and
whereby we depart from God, the
supreme and eternal Good, deserving
not only various punishments here,
but also his everlasting wrath in hell
hereafter. All this ought to awaken
in us sorrow and distress, not so much
by reason of the threatened punish-
ment, as rather on account of the
heinousness of the many provocations
offered to a merciful Father, who in
his very nature is love and kindness.
This being done, we may then raise
again our souls by virtue of the Gos-
pel, and with a well-grounded faith,

rely on the favor of God, and on the
sure remission of sin promised in
Christ Jesus. This must necessarily
be attended with a serious amendment
of life, with a constant purification of
the heart by faith, with a mortification
of all evil desires, and with a sincere
abnegation of our own will, so oppo-
site to that of God. In a word, it will
be accompanied with a new life accept-
able unto God in Christ, and with fruit
worthy of repentance ; suitably to what
God enjoins by the prophet: " Wash
ye, make you clean; put away the
evil of your doings from before mine
eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do
well. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow."
Isaiah 1 : 16, 18.

5. But alas ! here is the difficulty !
These things are much more easily
said, than reduced to practice. The
reason is, because hardly any will ear-
nestly engage in so weighty a work,
or search into the true original cause
of the many dreadful disorders that
appear in our lives and conduct. Man
flatters himself with a confident opin-
ion of his own goodness, and cherishes
the affection of the old man. There
are few who care to see their hearts
in their inward and native depravity ;
or to be made sensible of that vein
of evil nature which runs through all
their actions, even the best and most
shining. And thus Christ himself, and
the grace of God, manifested by him,
are wantonly disregarded.

6. And yet Joel (2 : 12) requires us
to " turn unto God with all our heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning." Hereby he intimates that
we are turned away from God ; have
forsaken the fountain of living waters
(Jer. 2 : 13) ; and are now unable to
attain life and happiness again, unless
we " search our ways," and "return"

Chap. IX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

195

unto him from whom we are gone
astray. Lam. 3 : 40. It is for this
purpose that the Prophet charges
" backsliding children" to return, with
the promise annexed, that the "Lord
will heal their backslidings." Jer.
3 : 22. For this verily is the will of
God, that we should see and confess
our misery, in order that he may com-
passionately heal it.

7. But since, by nature, we are so
blind as to be utterly unable of our-
selves sufficiently to discover our own
wretchedness ; God has been pleased
to afford means, with a view to bring-
ing us to a sound knowledge of our-
selves. This is done by his holy "Word
and the Sacraments, which are always
accompanied with his grace and Spirit.
By these the Father draws, allures,
and calls us to himself, as so many
lost and wandering sheep. John 6 : 44.
For as a straying sheep cannot of
itself return, but must of necessity be
sought and brought back to the fold
by the shepherd, so we would forever
go astray in the wilderness of sin and
error, did not God himself carefully
seek us; and this the examples of
Peter and Paul abundantly confirm.
Therefore the prophet says : " Turn
thou me, O Lord, and I shall be turned;
for thou art the Lord my God/' Jer.
31 : 18. " Heal me, O Lord, and I
shall be healed ; save me, and I shall
be saved: for thou art my praise."
Jer. 17 : 14. " For it is God," says
the apostle, "which worketh in us,
both to will and to do, of his good
pleasure." Phil. 2 : 13.

8. When, therefore, the Lord gra-
ciously awakens us by these means,
and invites us to repentance, it is our
part, not to withstand his grace and
Spirit ; (as it is said, " To-day if ye
will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts ") (Ps. 95 : 7, 8) ; but to confess

the sin which he thus reproves in us,
and by no means make light of the
grace offered to us in the G-ospel. Then
God will assuredly have mercy upon
us, as he himself declares : " Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the un-
righteous man his thoughts; and let
him return unto the Lord, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon."
Isa. 55 : 7.

9. Upon this account the work of
conversion, though it is entirely a
work of God's grace, is yet in one re-
spect ascribed to us; namely, as we
give up ourselves to the Lord, and to
his operations, and do not wantonly
resist his Spirit, despise his grace, and
cast it from us ; or, as the apostle ex-
presses it, do not put his "Word from
us, nor stop our ears against it, as did
the Jews of old. Acts 13 : 46; 7 : 57.
On the contrary, when the severity
of the law has laid open our spiritual
diseases, and we have felt the bitter-
ness thereof; let us avail ourselves of
the Gospel as a healing remedy, and
suffer our heavenly Physician to re-
store us to health.

10. An image of this we have in a
straying sheep. If it but hear at a
distance the voice of the shepherd, it
starts back immediately, and returns
to him. And how willingly would the
lost sinner follow the voice of his
Shepherd, if sin had not so perverted
him, as to reduce him lower than the
very beasts in stupidity and dulness !
Of this indeed the prophet complains:
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the
ass his master's crib : but Israel doth
not know, my people doth not con-
sider." Isa. 1:3. "Shall they fall,"
asks another prophet, "and not arise ?
Shall he turn away, and not return ?
The stork in the heaven knoweth her
appointed times, and the turtle, and

196

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

the crane, and the swallow, observe
the times of their coming : but my
people know not the judgment of the
Lord/' Jer. 8 : 4, 7.

11. "We ought, therefore, most fer-
vently to implore the Lord, not to
withdraw from us his gracious assist-
ance, without which we must certainly
go astray. For since sin and the old
Adam constantly abide in our corrupt
flesh and blood, we have need of daily,
yea, hourly supplies of grace, for re-
pressing the tyranny of sin, and for
nourishing the life of God within us.
The grace of God is the life of our
soul, as the soul is the life of the body.
And as the life of the body, without
the free enjoyment of the air, must
soon be extinct ; so the vital flame of
the inward life will speedily languish,
without a daily supply of grace to sup-
port it. For this reason Solomon
prayed : " The Lord our God be with
us; let him not leave us, nor forsake
us; that he may incline our hearts
unto him, to walk in all his ways." 1
Kings 8 : 57.

12. This is a lesson which ought not
to be learned in a light and general
manner, but by a close and practical
application be brought home to every
one in particular. Let, therefore, every
one look into his own heart and seek
its renewal, that so all may be re-
formed in time. Let us remember
that comfortable exhortation, and the
promise annexed thereto : " Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found ; call
ye upon him while he is near." Isa.
55 : 6. " And ye shall seek me, and
find me, when ye shall search for me
with all your heart, saith the Lord."
Jer. 29 : 13.

13. But in order to true repentance,
it is not enough to refrain only from
gross sins, and foul visible transgres-
sions; but the heart, whence all those

evils proceed, is to be changed and pu-
rified; that so inward pride, covetous-
ness, and lust, with all sinful affections,
may be mortified at last. For whilst
the heart is unchanged, unreformed,
and unrenewed; that is, whilst our
own corrupt temper, our inward mal-
ice, wrath, hatred, enmity, revenge,
lying, and deceit, are quietly suffered
within us; all our boasts of, and pre-
tences to, and formalities in, religion,
are but mere show and hypocrisy.
God requires no less than a new heart,
and " a new creature in Christ Jesus."
2 Cor. 5 : 17. No one is so holy, so
good, and so thoroughly cleansed, but
he will still find something in his own
heart to be thrown out, or to be
amended and rectified. " As a foun-
tain casteth out her waters, so Jeru-
salem casteth out her wickedness."
Jer. 6 : 7. This is the first head, re-
lating to the nature of repentance, of
which more has been said in Book I.

14. Let us now consider, in the
second place, the manner of our re-
turning to God: "with all the heart/'
says the prophet, "with fasting,
with weeping, and with mourning."
Wretched mortals can weep floods of
tears for empty and perishing goods,
whilst they stand unmoved at the
miserable state of their souls, and at
the loss of an eternal and incorrupti-
ble inheritance ! In this they are
altogether unlike David, who, by his
example, sets a most shining pattern
of sincere and unfeigned repentance
before us. See Ps. 6, and Ps. 38. " For
the Lord lboketh on the heart " (1
Sam. 16:7), and "trieth the heart and
reins." Ps. 7 : 9.

15. What the prophet says of fast-
ing, is to be understood of a general
fast enjoined by the prophet to all the
people. In such a fast the whole body
of a nation were wont to be concerned.

Chap. IX.]

TEXTE CHKISTIAJSTITY.

197

They publicly confessed their sins;
they deplored and bewailed them ;
and thus humbling themselves before
God, fasted both inwardly and out-
wardly. And in this order they begged
remission of sin, and deprecated the
judgments of God gathering over
them. Such a general fast and public
repentance as this, such sincere con-
version, prayer, faith, confession, and
supplication, are the most effectual
means to appease the wrath of an of-
fended God, and to avert his judgments
from whole kingdoms and nations.
This plainly appears from the history
of the defeat of the other tribes of
Israel, by that of Benjamin ; in which
the former having in two battles lost
forty thousand men, all went up and
came before the Lord, with weeping
and mourning, and there fasted the
whole day, from morning to night.
Judges 20 : 26. A similar illustrious
example is recorded of the fast of the
JSHnevites (Jonah 3 : 5, 10) : and of the
children of Israel, who, being beaten
by the Philistines, kept a fast for seven
days together, after Saul and Jonathan
were slain in the battle. 1 Chron.
10 : 12.

16. Such solemn penitential fasts
were also in use in the primitive
Church, when the Christians met to-
gether, and in any great public calam-
ity humbled themselves before the
Lord. Not, surely, to obtain remission
of sin by such performances, as so
many meritorious acts of devotion;
but by a contrite, sober, and humble
heart, to deprecate the judgments
that were ready to break in upon
them. And such fasts might with
propriety still be observed.

17. Fasts such as these, accompanied
with true repentance, would prove an
impregnable wall and fortification
against all our enemies; a sovereign

medicine in all pestilential diseases;
and a safeguard about all our estates
and possessions. An example of this
we have in Job, who, whenever his
children had spent any day in mirth
and feasting, "offered up unto God
prayers and sacrifices for them " (Job
1:4, 5); and thus, as it were, fortified
his house by prayer against the insults
of wicked men and devils.

18. In great public calamities the
Lord looks out for such men as may,
like a bulwark, oppose his wrath when
ready to make .a breach. " I sought
for a man among them, that should
make up the hedge, and stand in the
gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it: but I found
none. Therefore have I poured out
mine indignation upon them, I have
consumed them with the fire of my
wrath : their own way have I recom-
pensed upon their heads, saith the
Lord God." Ezek. 22 : 30, 31. We
may also remember, on this occasion,
the intercession of Abraham. Gen.
18 : 23.

19. Thus the prophet Daniel was a
wall of defence when he made con-
fession to God of the sins of all the
people. Dan. 9:4, 5, etc. And the
prophet Joel, in very moving terms,
describes such a penitential fast:
" Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify
a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather
the people; sanctify the congregation;
assemble the elders; gather the chil-
dren, and those that suck the breasts;
let the bridegroom go forth of his
chamber, and the bride out of her
closet. Let the priests, the ministers
of the Lord, say, Spare thy people, O
Lord, and give not thine heritage to
reproach." Joel 2 : 15-17.

20. Such public fasts ought to be
celebrated by the whole multitude,
without hypocrisy, with ardent zeal

198

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

and devotion ; for it is the will of God,
that every one readily confess his
sins. He requires true humility, sin-
cere repentance, and a turning to him
with our wThole heart. Hence the
prophet commands the "heart, and
not the garments," to be rent. The
Jews, at the hearing of any sad or
terrible evil, were accustomed to rend
their clothes, in order to evidence
thereby the inward sorrow with which
they were affected. This, however,
like their fasting, w*as often a mere
formality, and their grief was only
pretended. Wherefore, the prophet
reproves them, saying, "Is it such a
fast that I have chosen ? a day for a
man to afflict his soul ? Is it to bow
down his head as a bulrush, and to
spread sackcloth and ashes under
him ? Wilt thou call this a fast, and
an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is
not this the fast that I have chosen ?
to loose the bands of wickedness, to
undo the heavy burdens, and to let
the oppressed go free, and that ye
break every yoke ? Is *it not to deal
thy bread to the hungry, and that
thou bring the poor that are cast out
to thy house ? When thou seest the
naked, that thou cover him, and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh r Isa. 58 : 5-7.

21. These words explain the nature
of a true fast; which is then only kept,
when, on the one hand, we abstain
from sin, subdue the wanton lusts of
the flesh, and keep the old man, with
all his members, under constant re-
straint and subjection: and, on the
other, when we are fervent in works
of charity, in the practice of patience
and mercy, and of the other virtues
springing up from a contrite, sincere,
and penitent heart. And it is with re-
gard to these inward acts of humilia-
tion, that the prophet bids us rend our

hearts. For as the wounds of the
heart must necessarily be very pain-
ful; so the grief occasioned by our
sins should affect us, as if our very
hearts were bruised and crushed. And
this " broken spirit," this " contrite
heart," is that sacrifice which is so
highly acceptable to God. Ps. 51 : 17.
Such a heart has, by faith, obtained a
due fitness to receive the influence of
the grace of God, the consolations of
the Holy Spirit, and the merit and
blood of Jesus Christ. As a hard and
massive stone cannot be penetrated
by the oil or water poured upon it,
until it be broken to pieces ; so the
sovereign balm of God's grace and
consolation cannot comfort and quick-
en the heart, except it be first broken
and softened into humility, that so by
faith it may partake of the merit of
Christ. " Not the whole, but the sick,
have need of a physician." Matt. 9 :
12. Let no one think that he be-
longs to Christ, unless he has first
" crucified the flesh, with its affec-
tions and lusts." Gal. 5 : 24. The
blood of Christ will be of no profit to
any except to those who embrace it
with a contrite, afflicted, penitent,
humble and believing heart.

22. As for the motives to repentance,
which make up the third head, they
are thus expressed by the prophet :
" Turn unto the Lord, for he is gra-
cious and merciful, slow to anger, and
of great kindness, and repenteth hitn
of the evil." Joel 2 : 12, 13. He lays
down in these words, a gradual dis-
play of the manifold mercies offered
to returning sinners. As if he had
said, "If you think it a small thing
that I am gracious, then know that I
am merciful also: if this be not enough,
I am likewise patient and slow to anger;
if this will not yet suffice, then I am,
moreover, of great kindness. If, after

*

Chap. IX.]

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

199

all, you still require something more,
then understand, that I easily repent
of intended punishments ; yea, even
when my avenging hand is lifting up,
I am ready to let fall the rod, upon
your serious repentance."

23. First, then, the prophet calls
God gracious (Ps. 103 : 8) ; that is,
ready to be entreated and 'reconciled.
God is easy to be prevailed with, for-
gives offences, deals not in strict jus-
tice and the rigor of the law, accord-
ing to what we have deserved. And
all these marks of mercy should lead
us to repentance. There are many
admirable promises, all tending to the
same end. " If thou afflict them, they
will crj- unto me, and I will surely
hear; for I am gracious.,, Ex. 22 : 23,
27. " Therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you.
Thou shalt weep no more; he will be
very gracious unto thee, at the voice
of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he
will answer thee." Isa. 30 : 18. That
is, the Most High is so rich in grace,
that he waits for you. In him there
is expecting grace, by which he readily
receives those that truly return : pre-
venient grace, expressed by the Psalm-
ist— "Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent (that is, meet, or anticipate)
us" (Ps. 79 : 8): protecting grace, no-
ticed by the same prophet; "He that
trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall com-
pass him about " (Ps. 32 : 10) : pre-
serving grace; "Surely," says David,
" mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life." Ps. 23 : 6. Of this we
have given examples in the preceding
chapter. With this agree also the
words of Scripture: "With the Lord
there is mercy; and with him is plen-
teous redemption." Ps. 130:7. Where-
fore, let the divine clemency and
grace move thee to sincere and un-
feigned repentance.

24. Secondly, the prophet declares
that God is merciful. To be merciful,
is to be easily moved by the miseries
of another, and from the very heart
to compassionate his case. This is to
be seen in parents, who, not only with
unfeigned tenderness love their chil-
dren, but are at the same time so
deeply touched with their misery and
weakness, as to be willing even to die
for them, if that were possible. Thus
David, when he lamented the death
of his son Absalom, mournfully ex-
claimed: "O my son Absalom, my
son, my son Absalom! would God I
had died for thee, O Absalom, my son,
my son!" 2 Sam. 18:33. But these
bowels of mercy, this ardent, cordial,
and tender affection, are infinitely
more conspicuous in God himself, who,
from an abounding sense of love and
kindness, has given up his Son to
death, and thereby transcended all
the affections of earthly parents. This
is declared by the prophet : " Can a
woman forget her sucking child, that
she should not have compassion on
the son of her womb ? yea, they may
forget, yet will I not forget thee."
Isa. 49:15. And by another, "la
Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant
child? for since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still :
therefore my bowels are troubled for
him : I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord." Jer. 31 : 20.
And again by another, " The Lord thy
God is a merciful God ; he will not for-
get the covenant of thy fathers, which,
he sware unto them." Deut. 4 : 31.,
And David confirms it : " The Lord is,
merciful and gracious." Ps. 103 : 8..
And again, calling to mind this mercy,,
when of three punishments he had it,
in his power to choose which he.
pleased, he answered, "Let us fall
now into the hand of the Lord; for-

200

TEUF CHKISTIANTTY.

[Book II.

his mercies are great." 2 Sam. 24 : 14.
"Would to God that his paternal mercy
might also allure us to unfeigned re-
pentance! St. Paul himself refers to
this most powerful inducement, when
he beseeches us "by the mercies of
God, etc." Eom. 12 :1.

25. The third appellation given to
God by the prophet is, that he is
patient, or slow to anger. He is not
easily moved to wrath ; he suffers
many provocations offered him, and
gives time for repentance and conver-
sion. All which he has abundantly
evidenced by many real demonstra-
tions, powerful enough to convince us,
that even in God himself, " Love bear-
eth all things, endureth all things"
(1 Cor. 13 : 7), even as parents bear
with their children. To this purpose
says St. Peter, " The Lord is long suf-
fering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should
come to repentance." 2 Pet. 3 : 9. And
again, "Account that the long-suffer-
ing of our Lord is salvation." 2 Pet.
3:15. And Paul wishes, that "the
goodness of God may lead us to repent-
ance." Eom. 2:4. To this long-suf-
fering of God it was entirely due, that
he granted the old world a hundred
and twenty years in which to repent ;
bearing all that time with their pro vo-

cations, and waiting for

. repentance.
And O ! how much time

Gen. 6 : 3.
hath he given us to repent in, and to
work out our salvation ! But this
divine grace is abused by those who
only grow more wanton by mercies,
and "turn even the grace of God itself
into lasciviousness." Jude, ver. 4. But
by this they only hasten their ruin,
and render more grievous the punish-
•ment which they deserve. If one,
,and then another of these many and
provoking affronts, with which men
offend an omnipotent God, were daily

put upon a mere mortal, nothing cer-
tainly could be expected but the ut-
most severity of his resentment. Hoav
inconceivably great then must be the
patience of God, who not only pardons
offences so numerous and so heinous,
but also returns all manner of kind-
ness to the offender himself. O ! that
the inconceivable patience of the Lord
might inspire us with a hatred of sin,
and lead us all to repentance !

26. Fourthly, God is represented to
be of great kindness; so great indeed,
that no sin, how great soever, can
surpass it. For as God is essentially
and wholly good, so is he desirous to
communicate himself wholly to men,
provided they be willing to receive
and admit him. Yea, by his nature
he can be and do nothing but good.
He takes a pleasure therein, and "re-
joiceth over us to do us good." Jer.
32 : 41. His mercy is as great as him-
self, that is, infinite. It extends to
all mankind. " Thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens." Ps. 36 : 5. " As the
heaven is high above the earth, so
great is his mercy toward them that
fear him." Ps. 103 : 11. And we read
in the Lamentations: "It is of the
Lord's mercies that we are not con-
sumed, because his compassions fail
not: they are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness." Lam. 3 : 22.
See, therefore, O man! that a good-
ness so inexpressible be no longer
abused, but that it animate thee to
sincere repentance.

27. And lastly, the prophet says of
the Lord, " It repenteth him of the evil."
This is as if he would say : " It is the
nature of God, to punish with reluc-
tance; and when he is even con-
strained thereto, it is not for our de-
struction, but salvation, that we be
not "condemned with the world." 1
Cor. 11:32. He then doth "his strange

Chap. X]

TKUE CHKISTIANItTY.

201

work " (of punishment), that he may
bring to pass his own work (of mercy).
Isa. 28 : 21. Thus he repented of the
evil he had designed against Nineveh.
Jonah 3 : 10. And, therefore, " it is
good, that a man should both hope,
and quietly wait for the salvation of
the Lord. For the Lord will not cast
off for ever : but though he cause grief,
yet will he have compassion according
to the multitude of his mercies. For
he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve
the children of men." Lam. 3 : 26, 31-
33. Therefore, repent of thy sins.

28. For as soon as thou repentest of
sin, and supplicatest the Lord in true
faith, God will also repent of the pun-

ishment he intended to inflict. The
words of the Lord to Jonah are very
memorable : " Doest thou well to be
angry for the gourd? Thou hast had
pity on the gourd, for the which thou
hast not labored, neither madest it
grow, which came up in a night, and
perished in a night: and should not I
spare Nineveh, that great city, where-
in are more than six score thousand
persons?" Jonah 4:9-11. This bound-
less mercy is still the same even at
this day, and will continue so forever
to penitent and returning sinners. Go,
therefore, O man, and let this over-
flowing mercy of God lead thee to re-
pentance !

CHAPTER X.

THE FOUR PROPERTIES OF TRUE REPENTANCE.

1 have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, because of thine indignation
and thy wrath : for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. My days are like a shadow
that declineth; and lam withered like grass. But thou, 0 Lord, shalt endure for ever, and
thy remembrance unto all generations. — Ps. 102 : 9, etc.

IN these words four properties of true
repentance are enjoined on a sin-
ner. The first is, to account himself un-
worthy of all the mercies of God. This
is contained in these words: "I have
eaten ashes like bread, and mingled
my drink with weeping:" that is,
There is nothing I. can take any more
delight in, and I account myself un-
worthy of any good or delicious fare.
This, however pleasing it may be to
the palate of others, is not more
savory to me than mere ashes. — The
same regard to our own unworthiness
is thus inculcated by the Lord: "If
any man will come after me, let him

deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me." Luke 9 : 23.
And, "If any man come to me, and
hate not his own life, he cannot be
my disciple." Luke 14 : 26. Herein is
expressed a threefold reference which
a true Christian ought to have to his
own unworthiness.

2. (a) First then, he is commanded
to deny himself: that is, to die to self-
will, to self-love, and self-honor, es-
teeming himself utterly unworthy of
any of the benefits conferred by God
on other men ; or judging himself
not " worthy of the least of all the
mercies" of God (Gen. 32 : 10); and

202

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

reputing himself the most inconsider-
able, not only of all men, but even of
all other creatures; after the words
of the Psalm : " I am a worm, and no
man." Ps. 22 : 6. In this manner, for
a man to despise himself, is truly to
deny himself.

3. (b) He is commanded, secondly, to
hate himself; that is, to condemn in
himself whatever is pleasing and ac-
ceptable to the flesh; as honor, lux-
ury, revenge, anger, avarice,- and what-
ever else savors of the flesh. He is to
crucify the flesh with its affections
and lusts, and to abhor in himself its
whole offspring, as the work of the
devil himself, tending only to increase
and nourish the perverse seed of orig-
inal depravity. And such self-abhor-
rence in a sinner, will then of neces-
sity be followed by pleading guilty,
and by looking upon himself as one
worthy of eternal death.

4. (c) The third lesson enjoined in
these words, consists in taking up the
cross, and in following the Lord: that
is, that Ave, not with a morose and dis-
contented, but with a ready mind,
bear all manner of sufferings, and
deem ourselves worthy, not only of
these, but even of far more grievous
afflictions. Thus Christ himself, whose
example is set before us, "endured the
cross, and despised the shame " (Heb.
12 : 2), thereby teaching us, that in
"quietness and confidence shall be our
strength." Isa. 30: 15. And all that is
comprehended in the imitation of, or
following after, Christ.

5. Upon the whole, these things
make it appear, that a soul truly hum-
ble and penitent, thinks itself unwor-
thy of all divine benefits, and even of
daily food and refreshment. And this
accords with the example of Christ
himself, who, parched with thirst on
the cross, and having vinegar given

him mixed with gall, said no more,
than, "It is finished." John 19:3).
This was the reason also, that the
true penitents under the old law
judged themselves entirely unworthy
of any good thing. They put sack-
cloth on their bodies, and sat in ashes.
They satisfied their hunger with bread
taken from the ashes, and quenched
their thirst with water mingled with
tears ; as a testimony that they did
not deserve any cleaner or better food,
but merited rather to eat and to drink
with their food, the very tears that
trickled upon it.

6. Now the cause of this great self-
abasement, was that profound sense
with which they were affected, that,
on account of their sin, they deserved
an eternal curse and condemnation.
This consideration lays the returning
sinner very low. He deems himself
utterly unworthy even of the least of
the benefits of God. An illustration
of this we have in Mephibosheth, the
son of Jonathan. When David was
raised to the royal dignity, he called
to mind the kindness of his friend
Jonathan, who formerly had delivered
him out of the hand of his father
Saul ; and commanding search to be
made, whether there remained any of
Jonathan's family, to whom he might
make a suitable return of thanks; he
at last found Mephibosheth, a lame
and poor man, who, being ordered by
David to eat bread at the king's table,
bowed himself, and exclaimed : " What
is thy servant, that thou shouldest
look upon such a dead dog as I am V
2 Sam. 9 : 8. This is a pattern, in-
deed, of a soul truly contrite in spirit
and penitent in heart, and, therefore,
sensible of both its own unworthiness,
and of all the mercies bestowed on it
by the Lord. And truly we may,
with far greater reason, make use of

Chap. X.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

203

the same humble speech, whenever
the Lord our God vouchsafes to us, as
it were, the food of his own table, and
in the Holy Supper gives us his body
and blood to eat and drink.

7. In like manner does the Prodigal
Son, after his repentance, express his
sorrowful mind to his Father: "Fath-
er," says he, " I am no more worthy
to be called thy son ; make me as one
of thy hired servants." Luke 15 : 19.
The woman of Canaan was even con-
tent to be called a dog, if she were
but permitted to "eat of the crumbs
falling from the master's table." Matt.
15 : 27. Peter says to the Lord : " De-
part from me, for I am a sinful man !"
(Luke 5:8); that is, I am not worthy
that thou shouldest have any further
converse with me. And the centurion
of Capernaum was of the same mind:
" Lord," says he, " I am not worthy
that thou shouldest come under my
roof." Matt. 8:8. So also St. Paul
professes himself to be " not meet to
be called an apostle " (1 Cor. 15:9):
and declares, that he "counted not
his life dear unto him, so that he
might finish his course with joy."
Acts 20 : 24. This inward sense of
self-abasement David expresses when
he speaks of "eating ashes like bread,
and mingling his drink with weep-
ing." If the heart of a Christian be
brought to a sense of this vileness,
then it is truly contrite and humble,
and fit to be made a living sacrifice
unto the Lord. Ps. 51 : 19.

8. A second property of true re-
pentance, is, to grieve at nothing so
much as at the offences offered to God
himself. This is intimated in these
words : " Because of thine indigna-
tion and thy wrath, for thou hast
lifted me up, and cast me down."
That is, Of all my other miseries and
griefs, the greatest and most insup-

portable, is the sense I have of my
having so heinously offended the in-
finitely good, holy, and righteous God.
9. Since God is nothing but love,
grace, righteousness, goodness, and
mercy, yea, the original source of all
virtue, He must of necessity be of-
fended with every sin committed by
men ; since the nature of sin is directly
opposite to the nature of God. Thus
by injustice, the justice of God is of-
fended, he being justice itself. By ly-
ing, the truth of God is offended, he
being truth itself. By hatred the love
of God is offended, he being love itself.
In a word, since God is the perfection
of all virtue, goodness, and love, it can
be no other than diabolical malice to
offend such infinite goodness, such im-
mense love, nay, Love itself. Had he
at any time injured us, it might be no
such great wonder, if we hated him,
and offended him in our turn : but
now, that he gives us nothing but what
is good — soul, body, and life itself;
that he feeds and clothes us; that he
heals our body when it is sick ; yea,
pardons our sins when we pour out to
him our souls ; is ready to receive us
into favor, as often as we return ; now
that he has given us his only Son with
the Holy Spirit, yea, and Himself too,
and adopted us into the number of his
children : and having done all this for
men, to be yet offended, opposed, and
hated by them, is a madness, a malice
altogether unaccountable and mon-
strous. Would it not be most wicked
and impious to kill him who gave thee
life; to beat and wound him, who
kindly embraced and cherished thee
in his bosom; to insult and affront
him, who heaped honors and dignities
upon thee; and to disown and reject
him, who had chosen thee for his son ?
But all these, and far greater indigni-
ties, thou offerest to thy heavenly Fa-

204

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

ther, to the supreme, the righteous,
the holy God, whom angels adore and
fear, and whom seraphim worship with
the acclamations of "Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth
is fulfof his glory!" Isa. 6:3. And
thou, who art but dust and ashes, art
not afraid to offend him ! If a peni-
tent man earnestly calls to mind this
monstrous sin, it is impossible but he
must be affected with the keenest sor-
row of heart, and feel the smart of his
wounded conscience to equal and even
exceed that of a wounded body. And
there is all the reason in the world
why it should be so. For hence must
necessarily arise a dread and terror,
inwardly threatening the conscience
with wrath and judgment, and out-
wardly setting before it the approach
of temporal calamities : whence a man,
even as Job complains (ch. 6 : 1, etc.),
finds no rest, takes no delight in any-
thing, loathing even his meat and
drink. These terrible pangs of con-
science are described by David :
" Thine arrows," says he, " stick fast
in me : and thy hand presseth me
6ore." Ps. 38 : 2. For as a wound
grievously smarts and grows worse
whilst the arrow remains fixed in it;
so also it is with the conscience, whilst
the sting of sin and judgment is. not
taken away. And these lashes and
clamors proceed from nothing but the
sentence of divine justice proclaimed
in the conscience, and the terrors of
hell and death attending it. Therefore,
David exclaims, " Thou hast lifted me
up, and cast me down :" like one
thrown down from a lofty rock into a
low valley, who is so bruised and maim-
ed, that not one sound limb remains.

10. But how terrible soever the fear
of the judgments of God may prove to
an awakened conscience, yet is there
some ground of comfort; since the

prophet tells us, that these arrows,
these threats, these terrors, are the
arrows and terrors of God himself.
And it is God, who having thereby
wounded and broken the heart, heals
and restores it again. It is he that
killeth, and it is He that maketh
alive; He boweth down, and He rais-
eth again (Ps. 146 : 8) ; He bringeth
down to the grave, and He bringeth
up again. 1 Sam. 2 : 6.

11. Whosoever, therefore, accounts
and feels nothing to be more bitter
and grievous, than to have offended
God, the infinite Good, and Love it-
self; he only has experimentally learn-
ed the doctrine of contrition, and laid
a firm foundation for sound and gen-
uine godliness. This was one of Da-
vid's acts of repentance: "Against
thee," says he, " Thee only, have I
sinned." Ps. 51 : 4. As if he had said,
" This is my anguish and sorrow, that
I have offended thee."' And Daniel
thus expresses himself : " Lord, right-
eousness belongeth unto thee, but unto
us, confusion of face," because we have
offended so righteous a God. Dan.
9: 7.

12. The third property of repent-
ance is contained in these words :
"My days are like a shadow that
declineth; and I am withered like
grass." That is, a heart truly peni-
tent, is deeply sensible of its own
weakness. It entirely despairs of its
own strength and ability, knowing
itself to be as destitute of life and
power, as the very shadow; and as
empty of spirit and moisture, as the
grass that fadeth away. The same
is affirmed in another Psalm : " Be-
hold, thou hast made my days as a
handbreadth, and mine age is as noth-
ing before thee : verily, every man at
his best state is altogether vanity.''
Ps. 39 : 5.

Chap. X]

TßUE CHEISTIANITY.

205

13. 0! how noble a step would it
be toward the attainment of substan-
tial wisdom, were man but sensible of
his own nothingness! Man is noth-
ing, as a shadow is nothing. As a
shadow is without life, and without
substance of itself, and vanishes at
the departure of the sun ; so is the
condition of man, whenever the Lord
withdraws the light of life from him !
And it is worthy of observation that,
the nearer the sun is, the less are the
shadows observed to be; and on the
contrary, the farther the sun removes
from us, the larger the shadows appear.
The same happens to man : the more
of God and his gifts is present with a
good man, the less he esteems himself,
the less he boasts of himself, and of
what he calls his. On the contrary,
the farther a man is removed from
God, the greater he is in his own eyes ;
the more he is puffed up with his parts
and abilities, the more he extends the
bounds of his pride, and the less he
knows how to keep within proper
compass. Again, as shadows at the
setting of the sun are greatest, though
then just ready to disappear and van-
ish away ; their greatness being but a
forerunner of their approaching end;
so it is with the shadows of this world,
and the whole train of vain pomps and
pleasures. They pass away suddenly
when we are most lifted up by them.
As the shadows vanish upon the with-
drawing of the sun ; so when an empty
man becomes great in his own eyes,
the divine sun sets upon him unex-
pectedly, and he returns to be nothing,
even when he thought to be something.
Moreover, as the shadow has no life
of itself, but entirely moves with the
motion of the sun, upon which it de-
pends: so man of his own nature, is
nothing but a body destitute of life
and motion ; and it is God alone who

is able to put life and motion in it.
The shadow of a tall and goodly tree
moves not, except as the tree itself is
moved ; so man only liveth and moveth
in God (Acts IT : 28), of whom he is a
shadow and reflected image. The hour
of death will at length fully declare,
that man's " days on the earth are as
a shadow " (1 Chron. 29 : 15 ; Job 8 : 9),
as a vain shew or image (Ps. 39 : 5) ;
nay, as grass which grows up, but soon
withereth when it is mown down : so
fades our life away immediately, when
it is cut down by the fatal scythe of
death. Ps. 102: 3, 11; Ps. 103: 15. Lo!
thus are our days consumed like smoke,
and we are " gone like the shadow when
it declineth." Ps. 109 : 23.

11. Now when a man by true humil-
ity is thoroughly persuaded of all this,
and is convinced that he is nothing in
the sight of God but a lifeless shadow,
then, verily, his repentance is un-
feigned, and his heart right before the
Lord. And as it is appointed unto all
men once to undergo a natural death,
so ought all daily to die unto sin, that
they may live unto God, and depart
happily out of this mortal life, when
all the shadows disappear. This daily
dying to the world, as it is the best
exercise, so it is also the best prepara-
tion for the hour of death ; and if we
earnestly practise the former, we shall
then be fitted for undergoing the lat-
ter. That which we most frequently
practise, becomes most perfect to us.

15. The fourth property of true re-
pentance, is union with God, implied in
these words : But thou, O Lord, shalt
endure forever, and thy remembrance unto
all generations. As if the prophet had
said : " Though I am persuaded, that
I am a perishing shadow, and wither
like grass (Ps. 102 : 11), yet 1 am no
less certain, that in thee I shall abide
forever; for thou thyself art eternal."

206

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[Book II.

As by sin a man is divorced from God,
so by true conversion, he is again
united to him. Even as the Person
of Christ is indivisible, and as the
eternal Deity united the human nature
in Christ Jesus with itself in so firm
a bond, as is not to be dissolved by
death itself (the humanity of Christ
remaining in perpetual union with the
Divinity, and with the glory therein
residing) : so, in the work of true con-
version to God, penitent and believing
souls are so closely and intimately
united to God, that neither life nor
death can separate them from him
(Eom. 8 : 38) : for " he that is joined
to the Lord, is one spirit " (1 Cor. 6 :
17), God betrothing us unto himself
forever. Hosea 2: 19. In a word, Christ
himself is our only Witness; and he is

the Book of Life wherein we are
plainly taught, that as his human na-
ture abides eternally united with the
divine, so all believers shall be eter-
nally united with their Lord and
Head, being one spirit with him. Now,
as God is eternal, and Christ eternal;
so the promises of God in Christ are
also eternal and inviolable, he having
made with us a covenant of everlast-
ing grace. Ps. Ill : 5. Therefore,
though a true Christian be forsaken
of the world; be vexed and tormented
by sin, death, hell, and the devil him-
self;* nay, though even his own flesh
and heart fail at last, and be wholly
consumed, yet is God "the strength
of his heart, and his portion for ever."
Ps. 73 : 26.

CHAPTER XL

SHOWING THAT THE FRUIT OF CONVERSION IS THE NEW CREATURE; ALSO, THAT
THE CHRISTIAN IS, BY FAITH, A LORD OVER ALL, AND, BY LOVE, A SERVANT
OF ALL; AND, THAT THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS A MIRROR FOR US.

If any man be in Christy he is a new creature. — 2 Cor. 5:17.

ALL that are in Christ by faith,
are "new creatures;" that is,
they are the children of God, are
righteous before God, have forgive-
ness of sin, and the Holy Ghost ; they
are partakers of the divine nature (2
Peter 1 : 4), are heirs of everlasting
life, and are liberated in their con-
sciences from the law, the curse,
death, the devil, hell, and damnation.
All, whatever appertains to their sal-
vation, is in them begotten of Christ
by grace, and is conceived by them
through faith; hence, neither time

nor place, neither law, nor command-
ment, nor ceremonies, nor anything
whatsoever, can be any hindrance to
them. They are made perfect in
Christ, who is now become a vital
principle in them, and they have in
him the accomplishment of the law
through faith. Eom. 10 : 4.

2. Thence the name of a Christian
is a higher and more excellent name
than all the names in the world. It
is a greater name than is to be found
in palaces and courts, a name above
all posts of greatness, above the whole

Chap. XII.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

207

world, with all that it contains. But,
on the other hand, the name of a
Christian is also the lowest name of
all the names in the world, without
exception. Thus, in the same degree,
faith exalts a Christian above all ; love
brings down a Christian under all.
This thou wilt then best understand,
when thou seriously considerest the
holy life of Christ ; which is the bright-
est mirror both of love, and of all other
virtues. See Phil. 2 : 5-8.

3. Behold how Christ made himself
the servant of all ! how humble was
he in heart! how meek in spirit ! how
kind and gracious in words! how be-
nevolent in his behavior! how merci-
ful towards the poor! how compas-
sionate towards the distressed ! how
patient towards his slanderers! how
calm in his answers ! how merciful
towards sinners! Whom did he ever
despise? whom did he ever revile, be-
ing reviled? How condescending was
he to the very meanest ! how ready
to show acts of grace to all, without
distinction ! how heartily did he seek
the salvation of all men, praying
for his very enemies and murderers!
Luke 23 : 34. How did he bear our

sickness, sorrows, reproaches, stripes,
wounds, and punishments! And in-
deed, what else is the life of Christ,
but a most accomplished pattern of
love, humility, patience, and all other
virtues whatsoever ! This we ought
to look into, and to reflect upon it in
our hearts; but especially when we
are alone. This is better than all the
'high boasts of knowledge, and all the
art and wisdom of the world. This
life of Christ is like a seal (Cant. 8 : 6)
to be stamped upon our hearts, and
leave there the impression of his image,
life, love, humility, patience, cross, re-
proach, and death. This would prove
a true celestial light to our hearts, and
a powerful means both to renew us
in the inner man, and to transform us
more and more into the divine image.
Now as Christ was under all men, yea,
under all creatures, in his state of hu-
miliation in this world ; but is now in
his state of exaltation, a Lord over all :
so a Christian is, with reference to his
faith, a lord over all, nothing being
excepted but God ; but with regard to
his life and conduct, a servant of ser-
vants, being under all persons and.
things.

CHAPTER XII.

SHOWING THAT CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY AND END OP TRUE GODLINESS; AND
THAT MAN GOES ASTRAY, WHEN GOD DOES NOT GUIDE AND DIRECT HIM.

Teach me thy way, 0 Lord: I will ivalk in thy truth; unite my heart to fear thy name. — Ps. 86 : 11.

THIS way is Christ. He says, " I
am the way." John 14 : 6. But
thou wilt here ask, How am I to come
to him ? The answer is : By faith.
For faith unites us with Christ ; love

binds us fast; and hope upholds and
sustains us while we walk in this way ;
that is, in the life of Christ. Yet at
the same time, faith, hope, and love,
all proceed from Christ himself, and

208

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

are his work in us. All these graces
flow from him, and return to him.
This way goes out from him, and
leads back to him again.

2. Faith apprehends the Person of
Christ, and his office; Love follows
Christ in his life and conversation;
Hope seizes on the glory that is here-
after to be revealed in Christ. Faith
must have no other Christ, no other
Redeemer, no other Saviour, no other
Mediator and Way to life, but Jesus
Christ only. Love sets before itself
the one only life of Christ, as the most
perfect and shining pattern to which
to conform itself. Hope looks up
steadfastly to Christ, as the glorious
Captain of our salvation, keeping its
eye fixed upon his everlasting king
dorn above. This, this is the right
way ; this is the unerring truth, where-
in we are to walk ; and this is what
is meant by having the heart united, to
fear the Lord's name.

3. These three chief virtues are
allied again to three other virtues.
The alliance of faith, is with humility;
of love, with patience; and of hope,
with prayer. For he that believeth,
humbleth himself; he that loveth, is
patient; and he that hopeth, learns to
pray, and boldly to approach the
throne of grace. O how goodly and
beautiful is this way! This is the
way of God, the way of salvation, the
path to glory, even our great Master's
way ! And may He himself teach us
this way of truth, and inspire us with
courage to walk in it! Where this
frame of mind is, there the soul is
firmly united to the fear of the Lord;
and this is that one thing which David
desired. Ps. 27 : 4. Such a one is re-
solved heartily to follow Christ in his
humility and love, meekness and pa-

tience, expelling, through the lowli-
ness of Christ, the venom of pride that
lurks within. Consider how Christ
thy Lord was made for thee a despica-
ble worm (Ps. 22 : 6), and trampled
upon by the basest of men ! and by
looking to him, learn to restrain thy
haughty temper. In a word, let his
humility slay thy pride; and do thou
suppress the assaults of covetousness,
by meditating on the poverty of Christ.
Behold, he had not so much as even
where to lay his head (Matt. 8 : 20),
and how eager art thou to grasp in
possession whatever thy unbounded
desires fix themselves upon ! Let the
spirit of envy die, by the consideration
of the overflowing love of Christ. He
hath given thee life itself, and thou
grudgest thy neighbor even a morsel
of bread. Let the thirst for revenge be
overcome in thy breast by the meek-
ness of Christ. Behold 1 he prayed
for his enemies (Luke 23 : 34) ; and
thou dost not even pray for thy
friends. His face being buffeted and
spit upon by sinners, he quietly en-
dured it; and thou canst hardly en-
dure a severe »look, or an unkind word
from thy neighbor ! Let the entice-
ments to lust and voluptuousness be
beaten down, by the agony and pains
which thy Lord suffered in his holy
body. Behold, and see, whether the
sorrows of any man were ever like
unto his sorrows ! Lam. 1 : 12. This
consideration will prove a check to
the wanton lusts of thy flesh, and a
curb to thy thirst after worldly pleas-
ure. He wore a crown of thorns ; and
wouldest thou wear one of gold? He
wept for the sins of others; and refus-
est thou to weep for thine own ? He
was a man of sorrows; and shouldest
thou wish to be a man of pleasure?

Chap. XIII.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

209

CHAPTER XIII.

SHOWING THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE TRUE BOOK OF LIFE, AND THAT HIS
POVERTY TEACHES US TO DESPISE THE GLORY OF THE WORLD.

Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. — 2 Cor. 8 : 9.

ALL who believe in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, are written " in
the book of life " (Phil. 4 : 3), or as
the Lord expresses it, " in heaven."
Luke 10:20. This shall be made man-
ifest in that great day, when the Lord
will " confess their names before his
Father, and before his angels." Rev.
3:5. But besides this, the Lord Jesus
himself is a most complete Book of a
truly Christian life : he being, as the
word and wisdom of the Father, made
man, and come into the world to teach
us by his life and death; and by his
conduct and conversation, to set a
pattern before us for our imitation.

2. The whole of his life, from his
tender infancy to his death, was made
up of nothing but a continual series
of crosses and afflictions; insomuch
that he took hardly any step without
the inseparable attendance either of
a pressing poverty, or of great con-
tempt, or of most exquisite pains and
sufferings : and into these three heads
the entire extent of the life of Christ
may be fitly resolved.

3. The poverty which the Lord en-
dured, may be considered again under
a threefold aspect. In the first place,
he was poor in relation to outward
things. This he himself declared :
"The foxes," says he, "have holes, and
the birds of the air have nests; but
the Son of Man hath not where to
lay his head." Matt. 8 : 20.

4. This indigence in worldly goods
was attended by another, which was

a poverty of friends. Nothing was
more visible in his birth than mean-
ness and poverty. He was born at
Bethlehem, the least among the cities
of Judah, and of a mother that was
destitute of all wealth and worldly
greatness. Luke 2:4,7. Nor did he
ever court the favor and friendship of
the great and wealthy of this world.
It is true, that Lazarus of Bethany
was his friend, the Evangelist taking
particular notice, that the Lord loved
him, and thought him worthy of the
title of his friend (John 11 : 3, 5, 11, 36);
but this friendship was not founded
on any worldly advantage which the
Lord expected from him, but on that
faith, whereby he was induced to be-
lieve, that Jesus was really the true
Messiah.

5. The third degree of the Lord's
poverty, was the state of his humilia-
tion, whereby, laying aside the form
of God, he humbled himself, and made
himself of no reputation. Phil. 2 : 6, 7~
He thereby entered into the depth of
our misery. He was wearied in the
journeys he undertook, when he
" went about doing good " (Acts 10 :.
38); but particularly, when he healed
multitudes of sick and diseased, that
continually crowded to him from all
parts, and surrounded him often to
that degree, that he could not so
much as eat bread, and even his very
friends thought him beside himself.
Mark 3 : 20, 21. He fulfilled also
what was said by the prophet, and is

14

210

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

repeated in the Gospel : " Himself
took our infirmities, and bare our sick-
nesses " (Isa. 53 : 4; Matt. 8:17); never
withdrawing from any hardship or ap-
proaching calamity, never shrinking
under the burden of poverty, or cruel
mockings, or unjust reproaches, or
other evils, though they were sharp
and numerous. And whereas he
might have been served by all the
creatures of God, and waited on by
legions of angels, yet he dispensed
with all this glory, and did not exert
that sovereign power which he pos-
sessed. He suffered his head to be
torn by thorns, his hands to be bound,
his sacred body to be scourged, his
hands and feet to be nailed to the
cross, his side to be pierced with a
spear. All this he freely allowed,
though it was in his power to prevent
it, and with one word to restrain all
creatures from inflicting an injury on
him.

6. In a word, for our sakes, he made
himself subject to all creatures. He
took upon him the form of a servant,
that by his lowliness, he might repair
our losses, and reinstate us in that
sovereign dominion over all the crea-
tures, which we had lost. He rose
from the dead again, and gained a per-
fect conquest at last, thereby to pur-
chase for us an everlasting victory.
He suffered himself to be tempted by
the devil (Matt. 4:1, 8), hurried about
by his malice, tormented by his instru-
ments, the Jews, fastened to the cross
by their cruelty j and all this he un-
derwent, in order to rescue mankind
from the power of the devil and all
his subordinate tools and agents.

7. Thus the Strongest became weak;
the Almighty infirm ; the most Glori-
ous, became most despicable ; the most
Beautiful, most abhorred and hated;
the most Exalted, most exposed him-

self to temptations of all kinds, to suf-
ferings and difficulties, to pains and
hardships. Hereby he designed to
check and put to shame our sinful
tenderness and effeminacy. We are,
alas ! so tender and delicate that the
smallest cross is now complained of
as an insufferable burden, and a little
trouble and toil undergone for the
sake of God and our neighbor, seems
a sufficient plea why men should start
back into the smooth way, and forsake
the Lord; whereas he sends such
trials upon men for the purpose of
promoting thereby the recovery of
their own souls, and the glory of his
name.

8. Thus the Lord laid aside for a
while the form of God. But this was
not all. He did no less lay aside the
use of the divine wisdom which re-
sided in him. His conversation with
others was plain and easy; and he
behaved himself like a man who had
not learned letters, as the Jews ex-
pressed it. John 7 : 15. He did not
assume to himself the wonted formali-
ties of a great doctor, or of an acute
reasoner and disputer. Neither did he
act like men that value themselves on
account of their parts, skill, polite
learning, and high descent. Nothing
was more visible in his life and con-
duct than that quiet serenity of mind
which he enjoyed in the midst of ail
the storms of the world. This was
attended, however, by a divine power,
an unaffected holiness of manners, an
unfeigned charity, meekness, and hu-
mility. He made use of plain and
easy terms when he " taught the way
of God in truth " (Matt. 22 : 16) ; there-
fore he was despised by the proud
Jews as an unlearned man. Thus the
eternal wisdom of God, speaking
through the prophets of old, was cast
aside as folly, and the true light of

Chap. XIII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

211

souls rejected as deception : all which
may serve to instruct us not to over-
value ourselves upon our parts and
abilities ; but to consider that they are
not given us for the gratification of
pride; and to employ them solely for
advancing the glory of God, and the
good of our fellow-creatures.

9. This simplicity of our Lord was
manifested herein also, that he made
no display of his glory and majesty.
So great was his condescension, that
he freely conversed with sinners. He
did eat and drink with them ; and this
for no other reason, but to complete
thereby the great work for which he
was sent, which was, to " seek and to
save that which was lost." Luke 19 :
10. It was on this account that he
was so grievously defamed with a mul-
titude of odious names by his enemies,
who called him " a gluttonous man, a
wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners" (Luke 7:34) : and at another
time, they exclaimed against him as a
Samaritan, that had a devil. John 8 :
48. And, at last, he suffered them to
crucify him between two malefactors,
as if he were the greatest criminal,
whereas he then bore our transgres-
sions.

10. Now he might have gained a
greater repute than John himself,
who, according to the Lord's own tes-
timony, was a " burning and a shining
light." John 5 : 35. But he readily re-
nounced any such honor, thereby to
give a check to all superficial pretend-
ers to piety, who are too apt to value
themselves on account of an outward
show of religion : though those that
busy themselves so much about form
and appearance, may have but little
of the life and power of God within
them.

11. In short, the Lord forsook all
that is lofty and grand in the world.

He was a king, and yet would be sub-
ject to kings and magistrates, nay, to
Joseph and his mother, though they
were so mean and indigent. "He
went down with them to Nazareth,
and was subject unto them." Luke
2 : 51. He was Lord over all, and
yet when he came into the world,
" He came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister" (Matt. 20 : 28), cloth-
ing himself in the attire of poverty
and meanness. He was the great and
wise Prophet, and chose disciples
of the lowest rank, plain and simple
people. And when it was in his power
to behave himself as a Lord and Mas-
ter in the small company of his follow-
ers, yet did he even there divest him-
self of that right, being " among them
as one that serveth." Luke 22 : 27.
He assumed no lordlike air over them,
but chose rather to be a master in life
and doctrine, than to have any other
distinguishing character of grandeur
and pre-eminence. Thus when he
taught the duty of obedience, he
showed at the same time a pattern
of obedience in his own conduct.
When he endeavored to instil into
his disciples a sense of humility, of
patience, of subjection to their supe-
riors, and of other Christian virtues ;
he practised them first himself, that
so his own example might have the
greater influence upon the lives of
others. Being Head and Master, he
thought it becoming his character to
be chief also in bearing affronts, re-
proaches, injuries, poverty, misery,
and in performing the most humble
services, even such as that of washing
his disciples' feet. John 13 : 5. Thus
he proved a Master, Head, and Teacher,
not in doctrine only; but in life, in
example, and practice.

12. Alas! how great is our folly!
Our Head despised worldly honor,

212

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

and lo ! we are in pursuit of it. He
submitted to crosses and trials, and
we shrink back at the sight of them.
He became obedient unto death; and
we seek liberty, so that we may follow
our own will. But this does not agree
with the example which the Lord has
set before us, nor with the spiritual
maxims contained in the Book of Life,
which he has left us for imitation.
13. Consider, therefore, O man, whe-

ther the way wherein thou walkest
agrees with that excellent way where-
in thy Lord and Master walked him-
self. If thou despisest the narrow
way of Jesus, and followest the way
of the world, then know certainly that
thy way, though smooth and pleasing
for a while, will end in utter destruc-
tion at last ! And thus the first part
of Christ's life of sorrow and poverty
has been described.

CHAPTER XIV.

SHOWING HOW CHRIST, BY THE SHAME AND CONTEMPT WHICH HE ENDURED, AND
BY HIS SELF-DENIAL, TEACHES US TO DESPISE THE HONOR AND GLORY OP
THE WORLD.

He is

and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. — Isa. 53 : 3.

THE second head of the life of
poverty of Christ, is the con-
tempt which he endured from the
world. After thou hast read over
and seriously considered the lesson of
poverty exhibited by the Lord, take
also a view of the deep and unaffected
humility, which was so eminently seen
in his whole life and conduct. Never
did he catch at the applause of men;
never was ke actuated by ambition,
or any thirst after temporal honor
and greatness: on the contrary, when-
ever men offered to bestow honors
and praises upon him, he refused
them, both by word and by deed :
never did he accept of any honor
from men; nay, not even when "they
would take him by force to make him
a king." John 6 : 15. On the other
hand, with what inexpressible humil-
ity did he bear all the insults, the re-
proaches, and calumnies with which
his enemies loaded him ? He was ex-

ecrated as a Samaritan, and his mira-
cles were maliciously ascribed to the
power of Beelzebub. John 8:48; Matt.
12 : 24. The sound doctrine which he
brought down from heaven, was de-
nounced as blasphemy; and he who
taught it, was everywhere insulted by
foul and uncharitable censures, and
such base lies and slanders as the mal-
ice of men could contrive. He was
betrayed and sold; he was denied and
buffeted ; he was spit upon and
crowned with thorns; he was derided
and scourged; he was smitten, and
sentenced to death; he was rejected,
and condemned to undergo the igno-
minious " death of the cross." Phil.
2 : 8. He was forsaken by God and
men ; and, in fine, being stripped of
all, was executed in the midst of scan-
dalous malefactors, hanging on the
tree like one accursed. Gal. 3:13. He
was made the common gazing-stock
of all his enemies, and derided by all.

Chap. XIV.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

213

His prayers were turned into ridicule;
his garments were parted by lot; and
at the approach of the very pangs of
death, he had nothing wherewith to
refresh himself but vinegar mingled
with gall. Matt. 27 : 34. At last, when
all was finished, he expired on the
cross, amid the reproaches, hatred,
and indignation of the world; his
body was pierced with a spear, and
he made his grave with the wicked.
John 19 : 34 ; Isa. 53 : 9. Nay, his
enemies continued to fume with rage
and malice, even now when he had
given up the ghost; and called him a
deceiver. Matt. 27 : 63. Being risen
at last from the dead, and triumphing
over his enemies; they boldly denied
the truth of his resurrection. Thus
was the Lord, in the beginning, prog-
ress, and end of his ever-blessed life,
" despised and rejected, a man. of sor-
rows, and acquainted with grief."

2. In the course of our Lord's life,
there is not only displayed to us the
abounding treasure of redemption
gained by Christ ; but it is also most
clearly demonstrated, that in this
scene of suffering, he is our great
teacher and master, our prophet and
shepherd, our instructor, light, and
constant monitor; that also we, by
looking unto him, may learn to des-
pise earthly pomp and greatness; and

by closely adhering to him, like true
members to their head, " grow up
into him in all things " (Ephes. 4 : 15),
being rendered conformable unto his
life, " and rooted and grounded in his
love." Ephes. 3 : 17.

3. But when our lives are contraiy
to the life of him who is designed to
be our Head; when in our actions,
words, and endeavors, we do not en-
tirely aim at God's glory, but our own ;
it is more than evident, that Christ
does not live in us, but rather the
prince of this world. It is then plain,
that we have not yet learned to love
Christ, and that we are not yet loose
from the various ties of this world ;
for " whatsoever is born of God, over-
cometh the world " (1 John 5:4); and
so of course is not overcome by it.
Nor does such a one any longer love
the world ; for " if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not
in him" (1 John 2:15); and conse-
quently, that of Christ must be absent
likewise. For the whole life of Christ
teaches us how to die unto the world.
Consider then the beginning, together
with the progress and conclusion of
his life, and remember the profound
humility with which he bore the
contempt and reproaches of all those
that love the world.

214

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

CHAPTER XV.

SHOWING HOW WE SHOULD, THROUGH CHRIST, BEAR AND OVERCOME THE TRIALS
AND CONTEMPT OE THE WORLD.

Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds. — Heb. 12 : 3.

IT is a most moving complaint ut-
tered by the Messiah : " I became
a reproach unto them ; when they
looked upon me, they shaked their
heads. Help me, O Lord my God; O
save me according to thy mercy; that
they may know that this is thy hand;
that thou Lord hast done it. Let them
curse, but bless thou; when they arise,
let them be ashamed ; but let thy
servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries
be clothed with shame ; and let them
cover themselves with their own con-
fusion as with a mantle. I will greatly
praise the Lord with my mouth; yea,
I will praise him among the multi-
tude. For he shall stand at the right
hand of the poor, to save him from
those that condemn his soul." Ps.
109:25-31.

2. This pathetic complaint of the
Lord our Kedeemer, every Christian
ought to represent to himself as a
mirror, in which to behold the life of
Christ under the cross, together with
that of all the saints in general. This
way of the cross has been copiously
set forth in the Book of Psalms, in
order to render it the more familiar to
us, and to teach us betimes, that " we
must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God." Acts 14 :
22. Such a consideration gives present
ease and comfort under the contempt
and reproaches incident to the true
followers of Christ, and accustoms
them to a conformity to the image of

Christ (Bom. 8 : 29) : which as it is
one of the greatest honors our Master
bestows on his disciples ; so it is by
the world abhorred and loathed, just
as a healing medicine is by a dis-
tempered and delicate palate. This
conformity is, however, the grand
duty of a Christian, inuring him to
bear his Master's reproach (Heb. 13 :
13) and abject image in time, that he
may also hereafter bear his glorious
image in eternity. Phil. 3: 21.

3. Now, as the 109th Psalm above-
mentioned, contains a prayer of Christ
poured out in the midst of his suffer-
ings; so it mentions, in the latter
part, three kinds of trouble more par-
ticularly, with which the Lord found
himself oppressed.

4. In the first place, the Lord com-
plaineth of a vehement anxiety of
heart, declared in this manner: "I am
poor and needy, and my heart is
wounded within me." Yer. 22. Be-
hold, what complaints this holy, this
eminent Person is reduced to! And
what is the reason of them ? Surely,
to acquaint us in the most affectionate
terms, with all that he hath suffered
for our sake. He says, "I am poor;"
and lo ! thou toilest to get estates, to y
hoard up riches; and yet when thou
hast them, thou art still poor and dis-
contented in the possession of them.

He says, " I am needy ;" and thou, O
man, art entirely bent upon thy ease,
prosperity, and fulness of bread ! He

Chap. XV.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

215

complains, "my heart is wounded
within me ;" how unreasonable is it
then, O man ! that thou shouldest de-
sire to be humored and gratified in all
thy vain and carnal propensities!
Now, if nothing will awaken in thee
a love of the cross of Christ, let at
least the consideration of the sacred-
ness of the afflicted Person, infinitely
exalted above thee, work thee into a
ready compliance with his life. Such
a consideration will give thee ease and
patience under any grief that may at-
tend thee, and make thee relish better
those pure and untainted pleasures
which will succeed the cross. There-
fore, think with thyself in this man-
ner: "I am now put to trouble and
anxiety of heart ; but the same befell
also my Lord and Master, whose very
soul was surrounded with sorrows so
heavy and acute, with pains so great,
that nothing of what I shall ever un-
dergo can equal them." However,
the Lord, after his sufferings, entered
into everlasting joy ; after contempt,
into never-fading glory; through
death into life; and through hell into
heaven. And thus will it be with the
sincere followers of the Lord, to whom
their crosses will prove but as so many
advances to a more excellent glory,
and their affliction will be the avenue
to everlasting bliss and happiness.

5. The Lord continues his complaint
thus : " I am gone like the shadow
when it deelineth : I am tossed up and
down as the locust. My knees are
weak through fasting; and my flesh
faileth of fatness." Ps. 109 : 23, 24. A
most expressive description of the
common frailty of human nature !
What is a shadow, but a mere noth-
ing, an empty lifeless appearance ?
To such an abject lowliness, to such
an inconceivable degree of humilia-
tion, the Lord suffered himself to be

reduced whilst he dwelt among us !
He who is life and light itself, and the
bottomless fountain of life and happi-
ness, is exposed to labor and infirmi-
ties; and should not men hereby learn
so much humility at least, as to think
themselves far more emphatically as
shadows, or as nothing, than the Lord
of life himself? At the same time, it
is to be remembered that the Lord
here refers to his state of humiliation
alone, for, in his own glory he is our
Lord and our life. He says, " I am
tossed up and down as the locust.,r
The Lord had no settled habitation
upon earth, as men of the world have.
He was in a constant pilgrimage to-
wards that kingdom which cannot be
moved. For this reason he is said to
have only dwelt or tabernacled among
us (John 1 : 14), and is here compared
to a locust, which having no abiding-
place, is fearful, and tossed to and fro
with every wind. Nahum 3:17; Exod.
10:19. And even in this our blessed
Saviour has left us a pattern, to walk
as he walked; and since we have no
continuing city here, to seek one to
come, which " hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God." Heb. 11 : 10»..
What is farther added of the weakness-
of his knees, and the failing of his-
flesh, abundantly appeared about the*
time of his passion, when his "strength
was dried up like a potsherd " (Ps. 22 r.
15) ; and this may be a monitor to us.
under bodily diseases and infirmities..
Should we complain of a fit of sick-
ness, when the Lord of life pined away
into weakness, and languished in mis-
ery ? What matters it, how languid,,
weak, and neglected our body be, if
our soul and spiritual life be but vig-
orous and sound ? The soul ought to
" eat that which is good, and delight
itself in spiritual fatness" (Isa. 55:2),.
that so it may grow " strong in the;

216

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

Lord, and in the power of his might."
Ephes. 6 : 10.

6. Thirdly, the Lord complains of
the great contempt he underwent in
this world, in order to stop us in our
pursuit after vain honor, pride, and
self-esteem. "I became," says he, '-a
reproach unto them : when they looked
upon me they shaked their heads."
What indignity is there like unto this!
But the Anointed of the Lord en-
dured it all for no other end, than to
rescue mankind from eternal scorn and
infamy; for man having become a
scorner and hater of God, Christ was
designed to make atonement for so
heinous a sin, by the extreme con-
tempt which he willingly endured.
However, as the Lord by his humble
submission to the contempt of the
world, has laid a mighty obligation on
all Christians to be his followers there-
in ; so the considerations here annexed,
may be of use for supporting a man
under sufferings of that nature.

7. First consider, that in bearing the
contempt of the world, thou bearest
no less than the very image of Christ,
and followest him who is thy Head
and Master. Rom. 8 : 17.

8. (2) To be contemned and disre-
spectfully used by the world, is of
great efficacy for improving thyself in
true humility; a virtue which finds
favor with God. " For God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the
humble." 1 Peter 5 : 5.

9. (3) Thy suffering of reproaches
for the sake of truth, is an evidence
that thou art ranked with that cloud
■of witnesses, who in all ages have
been made " as the filth of the world,
;and the offscouring of all things/' and
;so continue to be esteemed " unto this
.day." 1 Cor. 4 : 13.

10. (4) Remember that those that
:are come out " of great tribulation,

shall be before the throne of God" at
last (Rev. 7 : 14), and be there " con-
fessed before the angels of God." Luke
12 : 8 ; 1 Cor. 4 : 5.

11. (5) Of what consequence is it
how contemptuously the world uses
thee, since thou art not to rise in the
last day (as many shall), "to shame
and everlasting contempt " (Dan. 12 :
2), (the Lord having redeemed thee
from that), but to honor and glory !

12. (6) Remember that God does
not withhold his grace from thee in
this world. When the wTorld frowns,
God favors. When men withdraw
their kindness, then God confers his
mercy. For this purpose the Psalmist
prays : ," Help me, O Lord my God :
O save me according to thy mercy;
that they may know that this is thy
hand, and that thou, Lord, hast done
it." Ps. 109: 26, 27. That is to say:
As the Lord removed at last his Son
from the cross, from all the labors of
his soul, from all the insults of his en-
emies, and crowned him with glory in
heaven ; so will he deal with thee also,
if thou continuest faithful in bearing
the cross, and all the injuries of a pro-
fane world. All shall see and shall
know, that it is the Lord's hand that
hath done it.

13. (7) It was God himself who suf-
fered his beloved Son to be thus con-
temned, reproached, and reviled, ac-
cording to the words of the Psalm:
" Because for thy sake I have borne
reproach ; shame hath covered my-
face." Ps. 69 : 7. Remember, there-
fore, that the same God, who gave a
bitter cup to his dear Son, hath also
allotted thee thy trials, to humble
thee, and to know what is in thy
heart.

14. (8) Be sure that the Lord will
change all the undeserved reproaches
thrown upon thee, into so many bless-

Chap. XV.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

217

ings, and in his own time pour shame
and confusion upon the scoffers. This
is expressed in the following verse :
" Let them curse, but bless thou :
when they arise, let them be ashamed;
but let thy servant rejoice." Ps. 109 :
28. Nay, if the wicked curse ever so
much, yet "shall the curse causeless
never come " (Prov. 26 : 2), as plainly
appears from Balaam's attempt, who
could not " curse, whom God had not
cursed." ISTumb. 23 : 8. Whereas, who-
soever feareth the Lord, it shall go
well with him at the last, and he shall
find favor in the day of his death.
The same blessing is bestowed on
Abraham, and on all those that walk
in the steps of his faith: " I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee." Gen. 12 : 3. And
in another place we have this en-
couragement: "Fear ye not the re-
proach of men, neither be ye afraid
of their revilings." Isa. 51:7. And
our Eedeemer himself hath declared :
" Blessed are ye, when men shall re-
vile you." Matt. 5 : 11. And his apos-
tle says: "If ye be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are ye; for the
spirit of glory and of God resteth
upon you." 1 Pet. 4 : 14.

15. (9) The Lord goes on in the
aforesaid Psalm : " I will greatly praise
the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will
praise him among the multitude." Ps.
109 : 30. Christ now returns thanks
to his heavenly Father for the very
crosses and reproaches that were al-
lotted him. This is the temper of
every sincere Christian. He is thank-
ful in the midst of afflictions and re-
proaches, particularly when he looks
on the hand of that kind Father who
entails all this upon him, but who also
delivers him. And truly, the Lord
never inflicts a judgment on any soul,
but he affords at the same time suffi-

cient reason for thanking and blessing
him for that affliction. Thus is grati-
tude the happy product of crosses and
trials. And this consideration is fit to
sweeten the duty of resignation to the
will of God. He that for the love of
Christ readily submits to the contempt
of a vain world, shall be honored by
God again, both in this world and in
the world to come. There is a time,
wherein the Lord " raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth the
needy out of the dunghill ; that he
may set him with princes, even with
the princes of his people." Ps. 113 : 7.
Surely, it argues an excellent spirit,
when a man for Christ's sake bears
the insults of the wicked, and main-
tains an unshaken calmness of mind,
in the midst of all the calumnies of
the world. This is " the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit, which in the
sight of God is of great price." 1 Pet.
3 :4.

16. (10) The Psalm concludes, "For
he shall stand at the right hand of the
poor, to save him from those that con-
demn his soul." Ps. 109 : 31. Here is
comfort sufficient to make a Christian
bear up against the hardships and re-
proaches he is exposed to in his war-
fare. It is never said that the Lord
will stand at the right hand of the
violent and great ones, of the oppres-
sors and persecutors ; but he will
stand at the right hand of the poor,
who being destitute of the arm or sup-
port of men, flee to the Lord alone for
help and refuge, as to the sole object
of their faith and trust. Those are
"remembered, when he maketh in-
quisition for blood " (Ps. 9 : 12) ; and
those are the afflicted, or the humble,
" whose cry the Lord doth not forget."
Tertullian tells us, "We are then ab-
solved by God, when the world con-
demns us." For though "the wicked

218

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

wateheth the righteous, and seeketh
to slay him ; yet will the Lord not
leave him in his hand, nor condemn
him when he is judged." Ps. 37 : 32, 33.
Thus will the Lord attend thee, O
man ! with a wonderful deliverance,
and afford thee reason enough to extol
his name among many, for his marvel-
lous kindness. David himself " had
fainted, unless he had believed to see
the goodness of the Lord in the land

of the living. Wait, therefore, on the

Lord; be of good

courage, and he

shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I
say, on the Lord." Ps. 27 : 13, 14.
" Therefore judge nothing before the
time, until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things
of darkness, and will make manifest
the counsels of the heart : and then
shall every man have praise of God."
1 Cor. 4 : 5.

CHAPTER XVI.

SHOWING HOW CHRISTIANS ARE TO SEEK AND OBTAIN FAVOR AND GLORY
THROUGH CHRIST, IN HEAVEN.

Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, etc. — Ps. 109 : 1, etc

THIS is a prayer of the eternal Son
of God. The purport or substance
of this prayer, may be more fully ex-
pressed in this manner :

" My Heavenly Father ! thou know-
est that in this world I have not
sought my own glory, but the glory
of thy holy name, and the salvation
of all men : and therefore am I so bit-
terly persecuted, blasphemed, con-
temned, and vilified. Nevertheless,
this is my comfort, that thou art my
Father, and that I am thy only begot-
ten Son : lo ! this is my glory, in
heaven with thee. And this my glory
wilt thou in due time manifest and
bring to light; that by thy glorifying
of me, the world may see who it is
whom they have blasphemed and per-
secuted." John 12 : 28.

2. Hence we are to learn, that such
have the greatest glory and praise in
heaven, who in this world are the
most persecuted for righteousness'
sake. This we may gather from the

example of our Lord himself. From
him, the true Book of Life, we may
learn true wisdom. But that we may
the better understand that his exam-
ple and holy life are our Book of Life,
let us carefully observe the follow-
ing considerations : (1) Christ never
sought upon earth his own glory in
anything, but accounted it sufficient
for him, that God alone was his glory.
So let us, in like manner, reject the
empty glory and praises of this world,
in whatever we do ; endeavoring only
that God be glorified in us, saying,
" Ah, Lord God ! give us also such a
heart, even the heart of Christ thy
Son, that we may have our glory in
Thee alone, and not in ourselves ; that
we may have our glory in heaven, and
not upon earth."

3. (2) It was the highest glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was the
only begotten Son of God. And for
this reason did the world persecute,
vilify, and blaspheme him. Here let

Chap. XVI.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

219

our prayer be like this : ': Grant us
also, Holy Father, that we may count
it our greatest glory and joy, that we
are thy children ; that so we may also
obtain the eternal enjoyment of thy
love and promise, and may, by virtue
of our adoption, come to possess in
thee an everlasting inheritance. Re-
mind us, also, that if the world hate,
envy, reproach, and persecute us, it
has done the same to thy dear and
holy child Jesus."

4. (3) It is the glory of the Lord
Jesus, that he wrought so many di-
vine works, that he went about con-
tinually doing the most wondrous acts
of grace and beneficence to mankind:
and that he did this from pure love
only, and from the highest compassion
for the miseries of fallen nature ; al-
though he received nothing but hatred
and most heinous ingratitude in re-
turn. " Grant us, blessed God, grate-
ful and faithful hearts, so that we may
be always ready to do good to as many
as we possibly can ; and that we may
never be deterred from acts of charity,
by the unthankfulness of the world,
ascribing not to ourselves, but to thy
name only, the glory of all that we
do."

5. (4) It is the highest glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that out of
pure love, he laid down his life for
us ; that he purchased us with his own
blood ; that he was obedient to the
Father, even unto death ; that with
the greatest meekness he endured the
vilest reproach ; and with the utmost
patience, bore the pains of the cross.
" O God, our glory, help us, that we
may also overcome our enemy with
love; that we may subdue our flesh
with godly obedience; bear the re-
proach of the world with the meek-
ness and long suffering of Christ; ob-
tain the victory through patience;

and being thus made strong in the
Lord, be more than conquerors
through him that loved us !"

6. (5) The highest glory of the
blessed Jesus, is his exaltation to the
right hand of God, and the name given
him, which is "above every name;
that, at the name of Jesus, every knee,
both in heaven and in earth, should
bow, and all tongues confess him to be
their Lord." Phil. 2 : 9-11. "Help, O
gracious God! that we may esteem it
our highest glory to be made conform-
able to our ever-blessed Head and Sa-
viour; that so when he shall hereafter
appear in power and majesty, we also
may appear with him in glory, after
we have here endured the contempt
of the world, and continued faithful to
the end, when every man shall have
praise of God." 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor.
4:17.

7. (6) The glory of Christ the
Lord is, that he is the only Head of
his Church in general, and of every
member thereof in particular; a glo-
rious King of his people ; and an ever-
lasting High priest, making interces-
sion for us. " Help us with thy grace,
O God most gracious, that we may ever-
more account it our greatest glory,
that we are members of thy Son, and
subjects of his kingdom, and that we
may enjoy all the privileges and bene-
fits purchased by his high-priestly in-
tercession, sacrifice, and benediction."

8. (7) Another branch of the glory
of Christ is, that God has most won-
derfully displayed and magnified his
name throughout the whole world :
and has (in opposition to all his ene-
mies, blasphemers, and persecutors,
who would not own him to be the Son
of God), in the most public and solemn
manner attested his cause, declared
him to be his Son by mighty signs
and wonders, and established faith in

220

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IT.

his name amongst many nations and
languages. Notwithstanding that God
held his peace for a while, and vailed
the glory of his Son under the mys-
tery of the cross; yet did it break
forth the more gloriously like the sun.
For, "out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Our God
shall come, and shall not keep silence."
For though God, who is our glory,
may seem now and then to be silent,
and to hold his peace when we are in-
sulted and persecuted; yet is there
nothing more certain, than that after
the short hour of probation, he will no
longer keep silence, but with a high
hand deliver us from the reproach
which we suffered, and "remove his

stroke away from us," that we may
rejoice in his salvation. Ps. 39 : 10.
However, "it doth not yet appear
what we shall then be." 1 John 3 : 2.

9. The conclusion of the whole is
this : It is God alone who is to be our
glory ; it is not the world, nor wealth,
nor honor, nor greatness, nor the arm
of flesh, that I may call my glory;
but God, and only God, is my glory !
Wherefore, "let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom " (as it is written),
" neither let the mighty man glory in
his might, nor let the rich man glory
in his riches : but let him that glo-
rieth, glory in this, that he under-
standeth and knoweth me, that I am
the Lord." Jer. 9 : 23, 24; 1 Cor. 1 : 31.

CHAPTER XVII.

SHOWING HOW WE MAY THROUGH CHRIST, AND AFTER THE EXAMPLE OP ALL

Mine enemies reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me are sworn

we.— Ps. 102 : 8.

AMONG the many crosses and
troubles of a Christian, a false
and slanderous tongue is none of the
least, as we may evidently see, from
the example of Christ himself, whom
the Pharisees, with their envenomed
tongues, both in his life and at his
death, did most maliciously sting.

2. Herein the Lord left a pattern
of patience to every Christian, who
must not think to escape, since the
great Master himself was wounded by
malicious tongues. The more con-
formable any one is to Christ, and
the more zealously he follows Christ's
steps, the more is he also insulted
by false and deceitful tongues. This

plainly appears from the example of
holy David, who was tormented by
slanderers, as he himself complains in
the following Psalms: 3, 4, 10, 12; 15,
31, 50, 52, 55, 58, 64, 69, 102, 120, and
140. Indeed, there is no one of the
prophets of old who did not have
these deadly arrows shot against him
by murderous tongues ; for " their
tongue is an arrow shot out : he
speaks peaceably to his neighbor with
his mouth, but in heart he layeth his
wait." Jer. 9 : 8. All honest hearts
ought, therefore, to beware of back-
biters. As he that toucheth a man
infected with leprosy, or any in-
fectious distemper, must expect to be

Chap. XVII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

221

so infected; so he that gives ear to
lying tongues, too often catches the
same distemper.

3. Now, since a Christian is forbid-
den to retort evil for evil (Rom. 12 :
17; Matt. 5 : 39), (this agreeing in no
wise with the Christian faith); there
is no other counsel left, but that by a
conscience void of offence, he derives
his comfort from those divine oracles
with which the Lord has furnished
him for that purpose.

4. (1) Let thy first comfort be the
example of Christ and of all the
saints. It fares no worse with us in
this respect, than with Christ our
Head, and with all that have ever
been most dear to him. Nothing of
this kind has befallen us, which has
not been before in all ages undergone
by his followers. And since the ex-
amples of others have generally a
strong influence on our lives, and
readily suggest themselves to our re-
membrance in time of trouble; we
ought, therefore, to improve all those
instances into an encouragement to
bear our treatment with patience, for
the sake of the joy that usually
springs up from the reproach of the
cross. Look then upon the Prince of
thy salvation, look upon the lives of
all the saints of old, those, who have
been the greatest lights in their gen-
eration. Consider the example of
Moses, who esteemed the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treas-
ures in Egypt (Heb. 11:26), and who,
by reason of the continual contradic-
tions he underwent, is said to have
been a man meek, or afflicted, above
all the men which were upon the face
of the earth. Numb. 12: 3. And what
shall we say of David ? He was
truly, in his time, the very mark, as it
were, at which all the false tongues
in the land shot their murderous ar-

rows. " Mine enemies," said he, " re-
vile me all the day long : and they
that are mad against me, are sworn
together against me." Ps. 102 : 8.
They affronted him daily with the
reproach of his misery, turning him,
as it were, into a proverb, and offer-
ing him the most heinous indignity
that can be offered to a man. What
shall we say of Job? How was he
upbraided by his friends, and grieved
with their tongues! And how fell
Daniel, that holy prophet, into an
open sepulchre, yea, into a den of
lions! Yet how powerfully did the
Lord rescue Moses, Job, and Daniel !
All these are gone before thee, and
their examples, if duly considered,
will excite in thee a spirit of holy
emulation, and draw thee into the
same way of the cross by which they
entered into the kingdom of God.
Acts 14 : 22. Behold, thy Lord Jesus
goeth before thee, pursued with the
curses and revilings of the Pharisees!
There goeth Moses before, and the
faction of Korah, Dathan, and Abi-
ram, following behind, with execra-
tions in their mouths, and stones in
their hands, to rid themselves of him !
Numb. 16. There is David in sore
trials, and Shimei behind, cursing his
king! 2 Sam. 16:5. And there are
the apostles of our Lord, and an un-
believing multitude behind, stopping
their ears, and running madly upon
them.

5. (2) It is not enough, however,
slightly and superficially to reflect on
the example of the saints; but we
must learn also to be followers of
them, when we are tried as they
were, and in every tribulation copy
after their meekness and patience.
How shall meekness appear, or how
shall patience be exercised, if thou be
not contradicted; or if there be none

222

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[Book II.

to deride, slander, or vilify thee ?
Thou must, therefore, patiently take
up thy cross with them, and meekly
follow the Lord Christ in his steps.
Thou art called to suffer with thy
Saviour, and not to avenge thyself,
not to return evil for evil, not to re-
vile again being reviled, not to threat-
en being slandered, but quietly to
commit thy cause " to him that judg-
eth righteously/' 1 Pet, 2 : 23. Evil
tongues must give an account in the
day of judgment of every idle word
which they have spoken. Matt. 12 :
36. And this will at the last day
prove a burden heavy enough. Leave
all, therefore, to the Lord, to do as he
pleaseth, who will not fail to do right.
Recompense and vengeance belong to
him alone. Deut. 32 : 35. Fix thine
eye on the Lord Jesus : " He was op-
pressed, and he was afflicted, yet he
opened not his mouth : he was brought
as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as
a sheep before his shearers is dumb,
so opened he not his mouth." Isa.
53:7.

6. (3) From the examples of the
saints, we are, in the next place, to
learn a sovereign remedy, which they
made use of against the venom of
evil tongues. This is prayer. They
prayed, and so they were healed and
comforted. When they were bitterly
cursed by their adversaries, they sent
up only their cry to God, saying:
" Let them curse ; but bless thou."
Ps. 109 : 28 ; Luke 6 : 28. Consider
the whole Book of Psalms through-
out. How did David defend himself
with prayer, as with a wall of iron,
against false tongues! They are all
foolish marksmen, who bend their bow
against the innocent; and draw the
sword to slay such as are of a right
conversation : for their lies and slan-
ders shall return at last upon their

own heads, and shall enter into their
own bowels; as it is written : "Their
sword shall enter into their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken." Ps.
37 : 15. All this can be obtained by
prayer. Whenever any one prays
earnestly against an evil speaker or a
liar, it is as if he wrestled and fought
with him; even as David wrestled
with Goliah (1 Sam. 17 :48, 49), or as
Moses contended with the Egyptian
sorcerers. Ex. 7 : 12. Here two spirits
fight with each other; that is, the
prayer of faith proceeding from the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth; and
the spirit of lies proceeding from the
devil, the father of lies. But all these
devilish serpents of the Egyptians
shall eventually be subdued, and, as it
were, swallowed up by the divine rod
of Moses; that is, by prayer.

7. (4) Another remedy against the
poison of a wicked tongue, is the fre-
quent reading and meditating upon the
Word of God. This is an excellent
means of consolation and refresh-
ment, whenever a soul is insulted and
pursued by enemies. An upright heart
hunted by men of falsehood and mal-
ice, is like a hart, whose thirst in-
creases by being hunted; and as this
pants after the water brooks (Ps. 42 :
1), so must a soul in affliction long
after the cooling streams of the di^
vine Word, and thirst for the living
waters of grace, thereby to be quick-
ened and refreshed. For by this word
of grace the Lord revives a drooping
soul, speaking to her in a kind and
gracious manner. " Blessed are ye,"
says our Master, " when men shall re-
vile you, and persecute you, and shall
say all manner of evil against you
falsely. Rejoice and be exceeding
glad; for great is your reward in
heaven ; for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you."

Chap. XVII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

223

Matt. 5 : 11, 12. In this saying of our
Lord, there is a threefold ground of
comfort. 1. Blessed are ye. 2. Ee-
joice. 3. Great is your reward. "Who
would not be willing, for the sake of
so great and endless a good, to endure
here reproach and persecution for a
short period ? Yea, who would not
even rejoice, since he is made by this
means a partaker of Christ's suffer-
ings, in order, "that when the glory
of Christ shall be revealed," he may
also partake with his Lord in that

j°y

If ye be reproached for the

name of Christ, happy are ye, for the
Spirit of glory and of God resteth
upon you." 1 Pet. 4 : 13, 14. Eemem-
ber also, that " it is good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth ;"
that he " sit alone and keep silence,"
when he hath anything laid upon him
to bear; yea, that he "put his mouth
in the dust," and wait in hope; and
that he "give his cheek to him that
smiteth him," when he is "filled full
with reproach. For the Lord will not
cast off for ever." Lam. 3 : 27-31.

8. (5) Thou art further to learn, that
such calumny is a hellish storm, which
soon rises, and soon blows over. As a
traveller is not disheartened at any
tempestuous weather he is liable to
meet with upon the road, but provides
himself the more against it : so let the
spiritual pilgrim never be cast down
by storms and tempests ; but let him
go on in hope, and continue faithful
to the end of his journey. This has
been uniformly the state of the true
church. "Othou afflicted," says the
prophet, "tossed with tempest, and
not comforted !" Isaiah 54 : 11. Is it
a " strange" thing that has happened
unto thee ? 1 Pet. 4 : 12. What is
more common to a traveller, than to
be overtaken by foul and stormy
weather? A persevering diligence

will, notwithstanding, bring him home
at last. The world makes every one
a gazing-stock, that looks with con-
cern upon the vain follies of men, and
drops a serious word in favor of virtue.
What is to-day the fate of one good
Christian, may to-morrow be the fate
of another, according as the humor of
the world works, which allows no one
to pass uncensured that is not in league
with it. The best method a Christian
can adopt in all these storms, is to be
quiet under them, and to keep his
mind free from anger and bitterness.
He that considers every hard word to
be a stain on his character, which
ought to be wiped off, will by so doing
only render things worse. Hence it
remains, that the most effectual way
to stop the fury of slanderous tongues,
is to yield to it for the present, and
patiently wait till time itself shall set
things in a better light. He that will
dispute every thing at the sword's
point, as it were, is like a man that is
stung by a bee, and being thereby put
in a passion, runs headlong upon the
whole hive in order to be revenged,
by turning it upside down. Had he
not better have borne it, than feel the
smart w^hich must attend an attempt
so rash ? The fire of malicious tongues
burns the more fiercely when we
seek to quench it by too hasty efforts.
An evil tongue is like that serpent
called the Hydra, which, as some tell
us, brought forth seven other heads
when, in order to destroy it, you cut
off one. Thus a wicked tongue is so
far from being restrained by contra-
diction, that it spreads the farther by
it, and broaches seven lies instead of
one. Whereas he that is deaf to popu-
lar rumors, and is not easily alarmed
at every little noise, will not only bet-
ter repel the darts of wicked tongues,
but enjoy also an unshaken tranquillity

224

TEUB CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IL

both of soul and body. This is a truly
noble method to overcome the worst
of our enemies. He that rejects this
heroic meekness of soul, sets himself
entirely out of God's protection, and
whilst he eagerly endeavors to save
his name and reputation, must be the
more harassed by the perpetual alarms
of malignant tongues.

9. (6) Besides this, there are some
other particular reasons, why the Lord
permits his children to be persecuted
by virulent tongues. When David in
his sore troubles was cursed by Shimei,
he said no more than, "Let him curse ;
for the Lord hath bidden him." 2 Sam.
16 : 11. And what other reason can be
assigned for this, but that the Lord
hereby seeks to preserve his children
from exalting themselves above meas-
ure, on account of such eminent gifts
as have been conferred upon them ; and
that they may at the same time improve
themselves in the practice of mutual
love, mildness, and humility ? What
is said by David of Shimei, namely,
that he was bidden to curse his king,
is expressed by Job in more general
terms : " He poureth contempt upon
princes." Job 12 : 21. Now, who is
able to fathom all the mysterious
depths of divine judgments ? The car-
nal mind by no means likes to be re-
viled, insulted, or undervalued. Pride
and self-love so naturally adhere to us,
that they taint all our works and
actions. Every one loves to be ex-
tolled, and to be made much of, to be
esteemed and admired. Alas ! it is this
natural self-love, which having once
led man astray, now propagates noth-
ing but error and folly in the world.
It was this self-love that ruined both
Lucifer and Adam, and stripped them
of the divine love and life with which
they were once adorned. In order
that we may obtain the victory over

this spirit of self-love, and with a view
to facilitate this conquest, the Lord
thinks, as it were, with himself: " I
will permit a lying tongue to assail
thee, as I formerly permitted Satan
to harass my servants Job and Paul,
for their greater humiliation. This
slandering tongue shall be thy devil,
thy scourge, thy plague, to buffet thee
(2 Cor. 12 : 7), and help to beat down
that proud heart, that haughty look,
that aspiring temper, which, without
this curb, would at last carry all before
it." Thus the Lord leaves nothing
untried to accustom the soul to that
excellent spirit of humility, and to re-
strain the spirit of self-love, by which
men become allies to Lucifer, who, en-
deavoring to have a will of his own,
opposite to that of his Maker, entirely
lost his principality, and that original
state in which he was at first created.
Jude, ver. 6.

10. (7) Therefore as the Lord is
faithful on his side, so he seeks to con-
vert the venom of impious tongues
thrown upon his children, into a pre-
cious medicine, by which to heal that
self-love which is fostered within, and
which engenders abundance of other
spiritual diseases in the mind. When
the world meditates evil against them,
then God brings good out of the evil.
As out of a certain poisonous serpent
an antidote is prepared against poison
itself, so God overrules the worst of
counsels, and makes them turn to the
greatest good to his children. Thus
" all things work together for good
to them that love God." Eom. 8 : 28
They are taught thereby to practise
one of the noblest of the works of char-
ity, which is, to " bless their enemies,
and to pray for them who despitefully
use them." Matt. 5 : 44. He that has
thus far gained the conquest over cor-
rupt nature, so as to pray heartily for

Chap. XYIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

22^

his enemies, is almost arrived at the
sublimest degree of true evangelical
charity, which alone is able to soften
our stubborn hearts into the mild and
compassiouate heart of Christ, who
has also set us a blessed pattern to
follow: " Father!" said he, "forgive
them ; for they know not what they
do." Luke 23 : 34. For wherever true
love is rooted in a soul, it will most
certainly produce a tender commiser-
ation towards enemies; who, as the
Christian knows, whilst they hate
men, render themselves entirely unfit
for any communion with God and
Christ, and give up their hearts to the
devil, that great hater of souls. And
this should influence every Christian
to commiserate such evil men, who. are
not of God, but of their father the
devil ; and lest they should forever sink
into the jaws of Satan, the Lord com-
mands his people to pray for them,
with this motive annexed to the com-
mand : " That ye may be the children
of your Father who is in heaven."
Matt. 5 : 45. What has been said of
the overruling power of God, where-
by he converts the venom of lying
tongues into a healing medicine, will
more fully appear from the following
instances. Joseph would never have
been exalted to the dignity of ruler
over the land of Egypt, had he not
fallen under the malicious lashes of a
wanton tongue, and thereby been con-
demned to prison. Gen. 39 : 17 ; 41 :
40. Had Moses not been persecuted
by the violent accusations of his ene-
mies, and obliged to flee from the face
of Pharaoh (Exod. 2 : 15), he had
never seen the Lord in the bush, after
having led Jethro's flock to Horeb.
Exod. 3 : 2. The spiteful tongue of
Doeg the Edomite, and of other ene-
mies of David (1 Sam. 22 : 9 j Ps. 52),
drew many a noble Psalm from the

latter. Thus Doeg's poisonous tongue
was David's medicine. The same
overruling wisdom of God appeared
for Daniel, when, by the virulence of
his accusers, he was cast into the den
of lions, but was most triumphantly
exalted again by divine Providence,
for many good and noble ends; his
enemies themselves being made to lay
the foundation of his greatness. Dan.
6. Mordecai had the same experience.
His ruin was devised by the murder-
ous tongue of Haman (Esther 3:6);
but the Lord returned his wickedness
upon his own head, and his bloody
machinations only hastened the de-
struction of their contriver. Esther 7;
10. Therefore, "commit thy way un-
to the Lord: trust also in him, and he
shall bring it to pass. And he shall
bring forth thy righteousness as the
light, and thy judgment as the noon-
day." Ps. 37 : 5, 6. Only endeavor to
be in constant union with the Lord
thy God, and to love him with all thy
heart, and then he will direct thy
steps. For " when a man's ways please
the Lord, he maketh even his enemies
to be at peace with him." Prov. 16:7.
If the world be permitted to stain thy
reputation here, and to detract from
thy honor, what matters it, provided
the Lord dignify thee with a crown
of glory hereafter ? It is he that will
deliver and honor thee at last (Ps. 91 :.
15); and it is he that will give thee-
both grace here, and glory hereafter.
Ps. 84 : 11.

11. (8) Another comfort in trials
of this nature, may be drawn from
the control which the Lord exercises
over the hearts of all men. It is he
that "looks upon all the inhabitants
of the earth, from the place of his
habitation." He "fashioneth their
hearts; he considereth all their
works" (Ps. 33 : 14, 15); and he "will

15

226

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

not deliver thee unto the will of thine
enemies.'' Ps. 41 : 2. A man is often
transported with rage and malice to
such a degree, that he would bear
down all that comes in his way; but
a little while after, you will find that
the man is altogether cooled; his heat
is allayed, and he is reduced to such a
moderation of temper, as if he were
become quite another man. Nay, how
often do we see that a bad man, de-
signing nothing but spite and malice,
is stopped in the midst of his passion-
ate pursuit, and, as it were, obliged
not only to drop his wicked design,
but also to bestow tokens of favor
upon the person whom he was about
to affront. This is an operation pe-
culiar to the wisdom of God, who, by
his secret power, often renders abor-
tive the most malicious projects con-
ceived against his children. Thus the
Lord came to Laban, when incensed
against Jacob, and commanded him to
" speak not to him, either good or bad/'
Gen. 31 : 24. And Esau, who bore his
brother no good will, when he came
within sight of him, must needs run
and meet him, embrace him, fall on
his neck, kiss him, and receive him
with the most endearing expressions
of love and kindness. Gen. 33 : 4.

12. (9) Lastly, it is the nature of a
malignant tongue, to swell high sud-
denly, and by rage and fury to gain
universal applause and admiration ;
but its downfall is as sudden as its
rise. Calumny is like a fire, the flame
of which mounts up to the very sky ;
but the want of fuel will soon make
it go down again. The reason is, be-
cause God, who is the everlastings
Truth, hates a spirit of lies, and can-
not endure it. And this is also the
reason, why those that have raised
their greatness on no other foundation
than lying and self-conceit, may in-

deed dazzle the eyes of others for a
season; but when they flatter them-
selves as fixed in an unshaken condi-
tion, then generally their ruin is ready
at hand, and the Lord's judgment de-
stroys all. Then " the lying lips are
put to silence, which spoke grievous
things proudly and contemptuously
against the righteous" (Ps. 31 : 18) ;
a text which plainly shows, that pride
and disdain of others, are wont to
accompany a slandering and lying
tongue. But " woe unto thee that
dealest treacherously; when thou shalt
make an end to deal treacherously,
they shall deal treacherously with
thee." Isa. 33 :1. "For the rod of the
wicked shall not rest upon the lot of
the righteous; lest the righteous put
forth their hands unto iniquity." Ps.
125 : 3. Though a treacherous man
may go on in quest of more honor and
greatness; yet shall "evil hunt the
violent man at last, and overthrow
him." Ps. 140 : 11.

Sundry consolatory passages, selected from the
Psalms, for those who are assailed by the re-
proaches of enemies.

13. Thou, O Lord, art a shield for
me; my glory, and the lifter up of
mine head. Arise, O Lord; save me,
O my God : for thou hast smitten all
mine enemies upon the cheek-bone;
thou hast broken the teeth of the un-
godly. Ps. 3 : 3, 7. — O ye sons of men,
how long will ye turn my glory into
shame? how long will ye love vanity,
and seek after leasing (lying) ? But
know that the Lord hath set apart
him that is godly for himself; the
Lord will hear when I call unto him.
Ps. 4 : 2, 3.

14. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing: the Lord will abhor
the bloody and deceitful man. — There
is no faithfulness in their mouth ; their

Chap. XVII.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

227

inward part is very wickedness ; their
throat is an open sepulchre; they flat-
ter with their tongue. Destroy thou
them, O God; let them fall by their
own counsels. — But let all those that
put their trust in thee rejoice : let them
also that love thy name be joyful in
thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bliss the
righteous ; with favor wilt thou com-
pass him as with a shield. Ps. 5 : 6,
9, 10, 11, 12.

15. Let all mine enemies be ashamed
and sore vexed : let them return and
be ashamed suddenly. Ps. 6 : 10.

16. O Lord, my God, in thee do I
put my trust : save me from all them
that persecute me, and deliver me:
lest he tear my soul like a lion, rend-
ing it in pieces, while there is none to
deliver. — Behold, he travaileth with
iniquity, and hath conceived mischief,
and brought forth falsehood. He made
a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into
the ditch which he made. His mis-
chief shall return upon his own head,
and his violent dealing shall come
down upon his own pate. Ps. 7 : 1, 2,
14, 15, 16.

17. Keep me as the apple of the
eye ; hide me under the shadow of thy
wings, from the wicked that oppress
me, from my deadly enemies, who
compass me about. Ps. 17 : 8, 9.

18. I will call upon the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised : so shall I be
saved from mine enemies. — In my dis-
tress I called upon the Lord, and cried
unto my God ; he heard my voice out
of his temple, and my cry came before
him, even unto his ears. Ps. 18 : 3, 6.

19. The Lord is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear? the
Lord is the strength of my life; of
whom shall I be afraid? When the
wicked, even mine enemies and my
foes, came upon me to eat up my
flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though

a host should encamp against me, my
heart shall not fear : though war should
rise against me, in this will I be confi-
dent.— For in the time of trouble he
shall hide me in his pavilion : in the
secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
me; he shall set me up upon a rock. —
Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead
me in a plain path, because of mine
enemies. — For false witnesses are risen
up against me, and such as breathe
out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I
had believed to see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord. Ps. 27 : 1, 2, 3, 5,
11, 12, 13, 14.

20. But I trusted in thee, O Lord :
I said, Thou art my God. My times
are in thy hand : deliver me from the
hand of mine enemies, and from them
that persecute me. — Let the lying lips
be put to silence; which speak grievous
things proudly and contemptuously
against the righteous. — Oh how great
is thy goodness, which thou hast laid
up for them that fear thee; which thou
hast wrought for them that trust in
thee before the sons of men ! Thou
shalt hide them in the secret of thy
presence from the pride of man : thou
shalt keep them secretly in a pavil-
ion from the strife of tongues. Ps.
31 : 14, 15, 18, 19, 20.

21. Let them be as chaff before the
wind : and let the angel of the Lord
chase them. Let their way be dark
and slippery : and let the angel of the
Lord persecute them. Ps. 35 : 5, 6.

22. Fret not thyself because of evil
doers, neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Forthey shall
soon be cut down like the grass, and
wither as the green herb. — The wicked
plotteth against the just, and gnasheth
upon him with his teeth. The Lord
shall laugh at him : for he seeth that
his day is coming. The wicked have

228

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

drawn out the sword, and have bent
their bow, to cast down the poor and
needy, and to slay such as be of up-
right conversation. Their sword shall
enter into their own heart, and their
bows shall be broken. — The wicked
watcheth the righteous, and seeketh
to slay him. The Lord will not leave
him in his hand, nor condemn him
when be is judged. — I have seen the
wicked in great power, and spreading
himself like a green bay tree. Yet he
passed away, and, lo, he was not : yea,
I sought him, but he could not be
found. Ps. 37 : 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 32,
33, 35, 36.

23. But I, as a deaf man, heard not ;
and I was as a dumb man that openeth
not his mouth. Then I was as a man
that heareth not, and in whose mouth
are no reproofs. — For I am ready to
halt, and my sorrow is continually
before me. Ps. 38 : 13, 14, 17.

24. I was dumb with silence, I held
my peace, even from good^ and my
sorrow was stirred. — I was dumb, I
opened not my mouth; because thou
didst it. — For I am a stranger with
thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers
were. Ps. 39 : 2, 9, 12.

25. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and he shall sustain thee : he shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved.
But thou, O God, shalt bring them
down into the pit of destruction :
bloody and deceitful men shall not
live out half their days; but I will
trust in thee. Ps. 55 : 22, 23.

26. Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me ; for my soul trusteth
in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy
wings will I make my refuge, until
these calamities be overpast. I will
cry unto God most high; unto God
that performeth all things for me. He
shall send from heaven, and save me
from the reproach of him that would

swallow me up. God shall send forth
his mercy and his truth. My soul is
among lions: and I lie even among
them that are set on fire, even the
sons of men, whose teeth are spears
and arrows, and their tongue a sharp
sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens; let thy glory be above
all the earth. They have prepared a
net for my steps; my soul is bowed
down : they have digged a pit before
me, into the midst whereof they are
fallen themselves. My heart is fixed,
O God, my heart is fixed : I will sing
and give praise. Awake up, my glory ;
awake, psaltery and harp: I myself
will awake early. I will praise thee,
O Lord, among the people: I will sing
unto thee among the nations. For thy
mercy is great unto the heavens, and
thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens:
let thy glory be above all the earth.
Ps. 57 : 1-11.

27. Preserve my life from fear of
the enemy; who whet their tongue
like a sword, and bend their bows to
shoot their arrows, even bitter words ;
that they may shoot in secret at the
perfect : suddenly do they shoot at
him, and fear not. — But God shall
shoot at them with an arrow; sud-
denly shall they be wounded. So
shall they make their own tongue to
fall upon themselves : all that see them
shall flee away. Ps. 64 : 1, 3, 4, 7, 8.

28. Mine enemies speak against me ;
and they that lay wait for my soul take
counsel together, saying, God hath for-
saken him; persecute and take him;
for there is none to deliver him. — I
will go in the strength of the Lord
God: I will make mention of thy
righteousness, even of thine only. 0
God, thou hast taught me from my
youth : and hitherto have I declared
thy wondrous works. Now also when

Chap. XVII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

229

I am old and gray-headed, 0 God, for-
sake me not ; until I have shewed thy
strength unto this generation, and thy
power to every one that is to come. —
Thou, which hast shewed me great
and sore troubles, shalt quicken me
again, and shalt bring me up again
from the depths of the earth. Thou
shalt increase my greatness, and com-
fort me on every side. Ps. 71 : 10, 11,
16,17,18,20,21.

29. I will lift up mine eyes unto the
hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which
made heaven and earth. He will not
suffer thy foot to be moved : he that
keepeth thee will not slumber. Be-
hold, he that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord
is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall
not smite thee by day, nor the moon
by night. The Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil : he shall preserve
thy soul. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from
this time forth, and even for evermore.
Ps. 121 : 1-8.

30. Deliver me, O Lord, from the
evil man : preserve me from the vio-
lent man j which imagine mischiefs in
their heart ; continually are they gath-
ered together for war. They have
sharpened their tongues like a ser-
pent: adders' poison is under their
lips. Keep me, O Lord, from the
hands of the wicked ; preserve me
from the violent man; who have pur-
posed to overthrow my goings. The
proud have hid a snare for me, and
cords; they have spread a net by the
way side ; they have set gins for me.
I said unto the Lord, Thou art my

God : hear the voice of my supplica-
tions, O Lord. O God, the Lord, the
strength of my salvation, thou hast
covered my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the
wicked: further not his wicked device ;
lest they exalt themselves. As for the
head of those that compass me about,
let the mischief of their own lips cover
them. Let burning coals fall upon
them; let them be cast into the fire;
into deep pits, that they rise not up
again. Let not an evil speaker be
established in the earth : evil shall
hunt the violent man to overthrow
him. I know that the Lord will
maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and the right of the poor. Surely
the righteous shall give thanks unto
thy name : the upright shall dwell in
thy presence. Ps. 140 : 1-13.

31. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice ; with my voice unto the Lord did
I make my supplication. I poured out
my complaint before him ; I shewed be-
fore him my trouble. When my spirit
was overwhelmed within me, then thou
knewest my path. In the way wherein
I walked have they privily laid a snare
for me. I looked on my right hand,
and beheld, but there was no man that
would know me : refuge failed me ; no
man cared for my soul. I cried unto
thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my
refuge and my portion in the land of
the living. Attend unto my cry; for
I am brought very low : deliver me
from my persecutors; for they are
stronger than I. Bring my soul out
of prison, that I may praise thy name :
the righteous shall compass me about :
for thou shalt deal bountifully with
me. Ps. 142:1-7.

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[Book II.

CHAPTER XVIII.

SHOWING HOW THE SORROWS AND PAINS OF CHRIST SHOULD TEACH US TO
SUBDUE THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH.

My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. — Matt. 26 : 38.

THE third branch of the cross of
Christ consists in the unspeakable
sorrow and sufferings which began at
his very birth. For as his most holy
human soul was filled with the light
of divine knowledge and wisdom, by
virtue of the personal union of his two
natures, he saw all that he should ex-
perience in the future, as if it were
already present; and thus his soul
was, from the beginning, filled with
the deepest sorrow, and suffered in-
ward pain. He foresaw his future in-
conceivable and inexpressible agony
of soul, and his unspeakable bodily
pains. For the more delicate, pure,
and innocent, the human nature in
Christ was, the greater were the pain
and anguish that affected him. Of
this those sorrows and spiritual tor-
ments, that are wont to work upon
the inmost soul, are a sufficient proof.
For inasmuch as the constitution of
the soul, by reason of its immortality,
exceeds that of the body in worth and
delicacy ; so also her pains exceed those
of the body in depth and acuteness.
For this reason the Lord never rejoiced
upon his own account, and with refer-
ence only to himself; but it was when
he saw that his Heavenly Father was
known and worshipped, and his divine
works manifested unto the world.
Hence "he rejoiced in spirit " at the
return of the seventy disciples. Luke
10:21.

2. Since all those things, which he
was to suffer, from his own people and

countrymen, were known to him, he
could not but be highly afflicted and
in constant sorrow ; and this was also
still more the case, the more nearly he
approached the time appointed for his
passion. This he himself testifies, say-
ing, "I have a baptism to be baptized
with, and how am I straitened till it
be accomplished !" Luke 12 : 50. And
the time of this baptism being come,
he says, "My soul is exceeding sor-
rowful, even unto death " (Matt. 26 :
38): intimating thereby the excessive
and unutterable grief and anguish of
spirit, that forced from him that
sweat, which " was as it were great
drops of blood. " Luke 22:44. And
what pains he suffered besides, in his
tender and sensible body, no tongue
can sufficiently declare. First, be-
cause sin is an infinite and inexpres-
sible evil. For, its full punishment
and atonement could not but cause
torment so exquisite, that to a mere
man it had been altogether insup-
portable.

3. The second reason of this exqui-
site grief was, because he bore the sins
of the world : not merely those sins
which from the beginning of the
world had been committed, but those
also which men should become guilty
of through all ages, down to the very
end of the world. And, therefore,
such as are the number and malignity
of all sins, of all men, through all gen-
erations ; such also were the pain and
sorrow endured by the Lord. For

Chap. XVIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

231

which cause he prayed in Gethsemane,
" O my Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me." Matt. 26 : 39.

4. Thirdly, the sufferings of Christ
were heightened by that perfect love
which he bore to his heavenly Father.
The greater our love is, the greater is
also the grief occasioned by what in-
terferes with it: as on the contrary,
the less it is, the less are we troubled
by that which thwarts it. Since,
therefore, Christ loved his heavenly
Father with most exalted and consum-
mate love, his affliction must needs
have been the more grievous, on ac-
count of the heinousness of sin, with
which fallen men so shamefully in-
sulted so beloved a Father. Hence
the sins of the whole world, with the
pains he endured for them, did not so
much affect him, as the sorrow he
felt on account of the indignity offered
to a God, who, in his very nature, is
love itself. And it was upon account
of this love of the Father (which de-
served all the returns of love the crea-
ture was able to make), that Christ
sustained most exquisite pains, and a
most ignominious death; in order that
by a satisfaction proportionable to the
offence, he might regain for wretched
mortals that love and favor of God
which they had forfeited by their of-
fences.

5. In the fourth place, the suffering
of Christ was endured on account of
his perfect love to mankind. For as
he died for all, and bore the sins of all,
so also was he exceedingly desirous to
see the object of his death accom-
plished, which is the salvation of all
men. Hence the unbelief and impeni-
tence of men, which hindered this love
from taking effect upon sinners, caused
him most grievous and bitter torments:
but especially was he pained that they
threw away their souls when he de-

sired to save them. Not to mention
the cruel hatred and envy, wrath and
blasphemy, by which some were hur-
ried on, even to trample on that blood
which was designed to redeem them.
He himself says, " Eeproach hath bro-
ken my heart" (Ps. 69 : 20) ; lament-
ing not so much his own, as the con-
dition of them who reproached him in
so heinous a manner,

6. Fifthly: another circumstance
which pierced the very heart of our
Lord, was his being forsaken of God,
notwithstanding he was the Son of
God himself. For though it is true
that God could not forsake him, who.
himself was God, and did not cease to
be God even when he hung on the
cross, when he expired, and when he
was buried ; yet does he complain of
being forsaken by him. Ps. 22 : 1 ;
Matt. 27 : 46. But this lamentable
complaint the Lord poured out, in
order to show that God withdrew
from him, as a man, the support of his
comfort, hiding. himself for a while in
this dark hour. He manifests also,
by this exclamation, the extreme mis-
ery in which he then was.

7. The sixth aggravation of the an-
guish of Christ, was on account of his
Person, for he was very God. Whence
it is plain, that all the reproaches and
blasphemies uttered against him were
an infinite evil, as being directed
against the entire Person of Christ,
who was true God and man ; and so
he endured, both as God and man, the
revilings of his enemies in his whole
Person. All this left a most exqui-
site impression of sorrow upon his.
soul.

8. And, in the seventh place, who is
able sufficiently to explain what pains-
the Lord suffered in his most innocent,
most holy, most tender, and delicate
body ? Or who can doubt that a body

252

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

most innocent, most delicate, most
noble, most pure, conceived by the
Holy Ghost, personally united with
the divine nature, filled with the Spirit
of God, and with all the fulness of the
Godhead ; I say, who can doubt that
such a body should not feel most griev-
ous and bitter pains, when smitten,
scourged, wounded, pierced, crucified,
and put to death ? No words are suf-
ficiently expressive to set forth the
pain and acuteness thereof. What is
-all our affliction, if compared with this
suffering of the Lord ? "We, as sin-
ners, have justly deserved eternal
death and damnation ; and yet even
the smallest cross is too heavy a
burden for tender Christians, who do
what they can to shake it off, though
it is designed as wholesome medicine,
to procure the health of the soul.
Surely, he who is a sincere lover of
Christ, can wish no other condition
of life, but such as comes up nearest
to the original of the blessed life of
Christ. 1 Peter 2 : 21. This conform-
ity of our lives to the life of Christ
we ought to account our greatest gain
and dignity in this world. Let the
true lover of Christ rejoice in this,
that he has been thought worthy to

suffer with Christ, his Head and Sav-
iour.

9. Since, then, affliction is to be the
companion of a Christian in his way
to heaven, or, to use the apostle's
phrase, since he must, "through much
tribulation, enter into the kingdom of
God" (Acts 14:22); what cause can
we assign why we should not wil-
lingly walk in the same path ? For
we know that the Son of God himself
travelled this way before us, and by
his holy example sanctified it, not
having " entered into his glory but by
sufferings." Luke 24 : 26. And since,
notwithstanding all the insults of the
enemy, he entered into glory at last;
we may also assure ourselves, that our
affliction, which is but for a moment,
shall be followed in the end by an
everlasting weight of glory and hap-
piness. 2 Cor. 4 : 17.

10. In fine, as the Lord did not
spare himself, but devoted himself en-
tirely to the service of others, under-
going all from no other impulse than
fervent love and charity ; so this love
of our Eedeemer should awaken love
in our souls, and never should we grow
faint and weary under any affliction
whatever.

CHAPTER XIX.

-SHOWING HOW WE SHOULD BEHOLD IN THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST, AS IN THE BOOK
OF LIFE, BOTH OUR SINS, AND ALSO THE DISPLEASURE, THE LOVE, JUSTICE,
AND WISDOM OF GOD.

.And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back

side. — Key. 5:1.

C HEIST crucified is set before our
eyes as a Book of Life, whence
*we may learn the sacred wisdom of
^God, which is in him eminently dis-

played. For the whole Scripture, the
Law and all the prophets, are com-
pletely fulfilled in him by his most
perfect obedience, wherein he was

Chap. XIX.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

233

faithful even unto death, and suffered
the most cruel torments for the sins
of the world. And this perfect inter-
nal and external obedience and suffer-
ing, is that Book of Life written with-
in and without. Eev. 5 : 1.

2. In the first place, the Crucified
Jesus presents us with a deplorable
sight of our sins, both as to their num-
ber and heinousness. By the lament-
able complaint into which he burst
forth, he manifested that inward an-
guish of soul, which he suffered for
the hidden and secret sins of our
hearts. In his wounded and mangled
body, bleeding on the cross, he leads
us to behold and read, as in a book,
the malignity of those sins which we
have committed by all our members,
in having yielded them up to the gov-
ernment of lust.

3. Besides this, the devout soul may
behold in Christ Crucified, the justice
of God in judging sinners. There was
no other means by which to remove
both our sin and the punishment at-
tending it, than this high atonement
made by the Lord himself. And
hence we may learn that God is so
far from letting any sin go unpunished,
that he will rather deliver up his most
beloved Son unto death than connive
at the transgression of a sinner. Eom.
4:25.

4. Hence the soul may, further, con-
template the infinite love and con-
descending mercy of the Heavenly
Father, most wonderfully displayed
in our Crucified Saviour. Eather than
that we should forever perish in our
wretched state, and be subject to eter-
nal death and damnation, he would
have his own Son make satisfaction
for us ; which we ourselves, yea, and
all the other creatures besides, had
never been able to perform.

5. The contemplation of Christ Cru-

cified will, in the next place, lead us
to a sight of the most gracious will,
providence and fatherly care of God,
as it respects the recovery of lost man-
kind. No opposition was so great, no
difficulty so stubborn and obstinate,
which he did not conquer by his be-
loved Son, the author of our salvation.
That we might inherit everlasting joy,
he left nothing untried, nor did he
spare even his own Son.

6. In the same Book of Life (the
Crucified Jesus), appears also the infi-
nite wisdom of God, namely, in finding
out a means of salvation, such as could
never have entered into the thoughts
of any creature whatever, and which,
at the same time, revealed both the jus-
tice and the mercy of God. For the
work of our salvation was so wisely or-
dered, that by manifesting the infinite
mercy of God, his justice was not at all
infringed ; as, on the other hand, Christ
by his death has so atoned for sin,
that in satisfying the claims of strict
justice, his infinite mercy is rendered
more bright and conspicuous. And as
by eating of the forbidden tree, the
first Adam (Gen. 3 : 1), brought us
under the curse ; so God in his marvel-
lous wisdom has, by the tree of the
cross, taken away the curse, and re-
stored his blessing. 1 Peter 2 : 24.
Yea, by the unsearchable counsel of
the divine wisdom, it is so brought
about, that through the death of Christ,
all things detained under the power
of death are restored to life, death it-
self being destroyed at last. 1 Cor. 15:
26. By his pains and torments is pur-
chased for us eternal pleasure in hea-
ven ', by his griefs and sorrows are
gained joys celestial without end. And
by this wonderful work of God, though
foolish in the eye of the world, he hath
confounded the wisdom of the wise;
and by the foolishness of God (1 Cor.

234

TKXJE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

1 : 25), he has manifested a wisdom al-
together unfathomable to men.

7. In Christ Crucified farther ap-
pears the brightest and fairest pattern
of patience and meekness that was
ever seen. So far was he from re-
venging the injuries done him, that he
made intercession to his Father for his
revilers, yea, even laid down his life
for the sins of those who put him to
death.

8. The believer discovers, moreover,
in Christ the most astonishing humil-
ity, wherein he was so eminent, that
he readily underwent the most igno-
minious death of the cross. Thus are
the death and passion of Christ be-
come to a faithful soul, redemption
from hell, an avenue into paradise, a
complete reconciliation with God, a
victory over the devil, that great en-

emy of souls ; a full satisfaction for
sins, and in one word, an entire recov-
ery of that original righteousness
which had been lost.

9. By all this, it sufficiently appears
to a Christian soul, that Christ Cruci-
fied is indeed a Book of Life, teaching
nothing but the eternal and infallible

truths of God. Let us then silent

y

sit down at the feet of our Crucified
Lord, who, as the great Teacher of
souls, and Book of Life, will not ne-
glect to instil into an humble heart,
the lesson of a living faith, and of a
holy life consequent on it ; provided
we desire to be not dead, but living
members of his body, and to be so
controlled and influenced both by his
life and his death, as to produce abun-
dant living fruits.

CHAPTER XX.

OF THE POWER AND NECESSITY OF PRAYER, IN THESE HOLY CONTEMPLATIONS.

I will seek him whom my soul loveth. — Song of Sol. 3 : 2.

SINCE the living knowledge of God
and of Christ crucified, is not to be
attained, unless we keep our eye con-
stantly fixed upon the innocent and
holy life of Jesus Christ our Lord; and
since we cannot arrive at this eleva-
tion of mind, but by devout, humble,
believing and earnest prayer; it is,
therefore, highly necessary to make
some further inquiry into the nature
of pra}rer. It consists not so much in
an utterance of words, as in a medita-
tion or intercourse of the believing
heart with God, and in a lifting up of
the soul, and of all her faculties and
powers, to our Heavenly Father. Ps.

19: 14; 25:1. As it is impossible to
find God without prayer, so prayer
is a means for seeking and finding
him. Matt. 7 : 7, 8.

2. And as it falls under a threefold
denomination, it being either oral, in-
ternal, or supernatural (according to
St. Paul: "I will pray with the spirit,
and I will pray with the understand-
ing also;" 1 Cor. 14: 15); so we shall
now consider each of these in order.

3. Oral prayer is an humble address
to God, and an external exercise,
which conducts the soul to the internal
duty of prayer, and leads man into
the interior recesses of his own heart;

Chap. XX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

235

especially if the words uttered be di-
gested in faith, and if, by attentive
application, they be well pondered
and considered. This often proves a
means of elevating the spirit and soul
so near unto God, as to enjoy with
faith a truly filial intercourse with
Him, our heavenly Father.

4. Internal prayer is offered up with-
out intermission, in faith, spirit, and
mind, according to the words of our
Saviour : " The true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in
truth" (John 4 : 23) ; also those of Da-
vid : " Let the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord."
Ps. 19 : 14. And again : "I commune
with mine own heart, and my spirit
made diligent search." Ps. 77 : 6.
Hereby, says St. Paul (speaking of
the Spirit of adoption), we cry, Abba,
Father. Eom. 8 : 15. By this internal
prayer, we are led on gradually to
that which is supernatural ; which, ac-
cording to Tauler, " consists in a true
union with God by faith ; when our
created spirit dissolves, as it were, and
sinks away in the uncreated Spirit of
God. It is then that all is transacted
in a moment, which in words or deeds
has been done by all the saints from
the beginning of the world." For this
reason this supernatural prayer is un-
speakably more excellent than that
which is chiefly external; for therein
the soul is by true faith so replenished
with the divine love, that it can think
of nothing else but of God only. Or if
another thought should enter inadvert-
ently into the heart, it proves but an
occasion of trouble and sorrow ; and
the soul cannot be at ease till the in-
truding thought has again vanished.
A soul that has once arrived at this
happy state gives but little or no em-
ployment to the tongue : it is silent
before the Lord : it panteth and thirst-

eth after God (Ps. 42 : 1, 2) : it long-
eth, yea, even fainteth for him (Ps.
63 : 1 ; 84 : 2). It loves him only ; it
rests in him alone, not at all mind-
ing the world, nor worldly affairs.
Whence it is still more and more filled
with an experimental knowledge of
God, and with such love and joy as no
tongue is able to utter. Whatever
the soul then perceives, is beyond all
possibility of being expressed in words.
If one should ask a soul under these
contemplations : What dost thou per-
ceive f the answer would be : A good
that is above all good. What seest
thou? A perfection of beauty, tran-
scending all other beauty. What feel-
est thou f A joy surpassing all joys.
What dost thou taste? The inexpres-
sible delight of love. Nay, such a one
would tell you that all the words that
possibly could be framed, were but a
shadow, and came infinitely short of
the inward delight which was ex-
perienced. This is the voice of the
eternal Word; this His speech to a
loving soul; according to that saying
of the Lord : "He that loveth me — I
will manifest myself unto him." John
14 : 21. Whatever is felt here, what-
ever is seen here, is above nature.
Here voices are heard, and words per-
ceived that are termed words of the
understanding and the mind.

5. This is the school in which the
soul learns to know God aright, and,
as it were, to taste him. Ps. 34 : 8.
Whilst she knows him, she loves him:
and whilst she loves him, she longs for
the full enjoyment of him. This is
the true sign of love, to desire wholly
to possess the beloved object, to be in-
timately united with, and altogether
transformed into it.

6. This the soul now and then per-
ceives in a glance, which lasts but for
a moment, and then vanishes again;

236

TBUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

but it pulp the soul upon fervent de-
sires, to recover, if possible, that beam
of heavenly joy which darted upon
her, and to regain this divine taste,
which so lovingly moved her. And
she desires all this, in order to be more
intimately united to her beloved.
From this affectionate desire spring
up both internal and oral prayer; the
soul being fully convinced that these
heavenly pleasures and visitations are
to be attained only by prayer. And in
all this, the wonderful wisdom of God
appears, by which everything is man-
aged in the most perfect order.

7. Thus none is permitted to attain
unto mental prayer, but he who be-
gins with that which is oral; and none
can have an access to the supernatural
prayer, or to a union with the highest
and most delightful Good, but by men-
tal prayer. But this highest can only
be known by an experimental percep-
tion, not expressible by words.

8. And this is the cause why God
so strictly, so frequently, and so earn-
estly enjoins prayer (Ps. 50 : 14) ; be-
cause it is a sacred pledge and bond,
by which God draws us up to himself;
and by elevating us into his immediate
presence, detains us there a while, and
unites us with himself, who is the
source of all that is good. And thus
we are always reminded of him ; with-
out this gracious order, we would think
less frequently on him, and would not
share in the gifts of his mercy.

9. If, therefore, thou desirest that
thy prayer be acceptable to God, see
that thou perform it not with a divided,
but with a whole and entire heart.
But this is not to be attained, except
by frequent exercise and continual
and unwearied application. Without
this, thou canst not reap the fruits of
prayer. On the contrary, as often as
thou givest attendance to any exter-

nal work, take care that thou set not
thy heart wholly upon it. If thou
eatest and drinkest, or attendest to
any other outward affair incident to
this life, see that thou bestow not
thyself, that is, thy whole heart, upon
it. For thy heart is to rest entirely
in God alone, and closely to adhere to
him by internal prayer. The more
thou offerest up thyself to God by this
prayer, the more will the divine light
display itself in thy mind. And again,
the more the knowledge of God is
enlarged, the more delightful will be
thy sense and perception of the high-
est good; the more ardent also and
affectionate will be thy love to the
Lord; and in fine, the more capable
wilt thou be of enjoying him. The
soul thus disposed will in a super-
natural manner taste of a happiness
so high and transcendent as infinitely
to exceed all the language and expres-
sions of men.

10. Of this threefold prayer, Jesus
Christ himself has furnished us with
a bright and perfect pattern, whence
we may learn the nature and method
of it, if we but attentively consider
his manner of praying. We find that
he often continued whole days and
nights in prayer to God. Luke 6 : 12.
He prayed with a fervency that made
him triumph in prayer, and rejoice in
spirit. Luke 10 : 21. He has, there-
fore, both by example and words,
taught us the method of praying;
and leaving us a pattern to follow,
has commanded us to watch and
pray, that we enter not into tempta-
tion. Matt. 6 : 9. He also most fre-
quently recommends to us the duty
of prayer (Matt. 26 : 41) ; thereby tes-
tifying that nothing was more pleasing,
nothing more acceptable to him than
our prayer; he having enjoined it
for no other reason than to show

Chap. XX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

237

us how entirely he loved us, and how
desirous he was that by prayer we
should partake of the highest and
most precious good.

11. Lest, however, we should allege
that so noble an effect as that which
results from a due performance of
prayer was not attainable by us, the
Lord did not think it enough to say:
" Ask," but he has encouraged us also
with a promise annexed : " And ye
shall receive, that your joy may be
full." John 16 : 24. He moreover ex-
cites us to pray by his own example,
for amid his sufferings he prayed for
us, as the Evangelist records : " For
being in an agony, he prayed more
earnestly, and his sweat was as it
were great drops of blood falling down
to the ground." Luke 22 : 44.

12. Set, therefore, this mirror of
prayer before thine eyes, and study
to persevere therein. Whenever thou
feelest thyself faint and weak in
prayer, then seriously advert to thy
Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed not for
himself, or upon his own account, but
for thee and upon thy account, and thus
sanctified thy prayer and blessed it,
and added life and efficacy to it. Him,
therefore, behold, who, though he was
true God, and consequently in actual
possession of all things, yet as man,
obtained for thee of his Heavenly
Father, all things by prayer. And
hence as his whole life was a continual
and uninterrupted prayer, and a per-
petual longing to do the will of God :
so he finished it with praying upon the
cross. Luke 23 : 46.

13. If then thy Lord and Saviour
prayed so fervently upon thy account,
and was heard ; surely he will not suf-
fer thy prayers to be poured forth in
vain. Did be procure all things for
thee by prayer ? And thinkest thou
that thou canst obtain the least bless-

ing without it? Thou knowest that
without divine grace, light, and knowl-
edge, and, in fine, without faith, not
one can be saved; but it is no less
plain that these and, all other graces
can be obtained by prayer alone. It
is the Lord whom thou must entreat
by fervent prayer, so as to obtain from
him faith, love, hope, humility, pa-
tience, the Holy Spirit, together with
the whole train of Christian virtues,
which he is both able and willing to
give, as well as to strengthen in thy
soul. It is He alone that createth
them in the heart. But as he that
hath them not, cannot give them, so
the Lord, whose gift they are, will
not give them without being asked.

14. If then thou art truly desirous
of pouring out thy soul before the
Lord in fervency of spirit, there is
not a more ready and effectual means
of doing this than with the eyes of
thy mind to behold the mirror of the
most meek and humble life of Christ:
to keep thy eyes attentively fixed up-
on the poverty, the reproach and con-
tempt, the griefs and sorrows, and the
most ignominious death of thy blessed
Redeemer. Into this Book of Prayer,
if thou diligently look, thy heart and
mind will become inflamed with most
affectionate and ardent desires. And
though the devil and the flesh will not
cease to assault thee with temptations
on all hands, yet, by means of prayer,
they shall be subdued at last.

15. Nor is the duty of prayer only
stirred up and revived by the contem-
plation of Christ crucified, but the
heart is also cleansed thereby. With-
out this purification of the heart by
faith (Acts 15 : 9), our prayers will
prove altogether ineffectual in the
sight of God : whereas, after a sincere
application to the Lord by prayer, the
Spirit of God is wont to visit the heart

238

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

with his gracious presence, as he de-
scended upon the apostles, even then,
when they were with one accord pray-
ing at Pentecost. Acts 2 : 1.

16. With reference to the tempta-
tions that are wont to attend the duty
of prayer, thou must behave thyself
under them as the Lord himself did.
In the midst of the agony which he
suffered on the mount of Olives, " he
prayed the more earnestly." Luke
22 : 44. Thus thy prayer shall prove
at last the victory over all thy ene-
mies. By prayer the Lord manifests
himself unto his people. By prayer
we learn to practise true humility;
for by prayer the highest is united to
the lowest ; the most High God to the
most humble heart. And this humil-
ity is the very channel through which
abundance of divine grace is infused
into the soul. The more this grace
humbles man, the more grace itself
gets rooted in the soul. And again,
the more a soul is enriched with grace,
the more she improves in humility.

17. The most considerable tempta-
tion and obstruction in prayer seems
to be when God withdraws the grace

of a fervent and lively devotion. And
yet it is in this case that we ought the
more to stir ourselves up to prayer and
supplication. It is true, a prayer
poured forth in a spirit of power and
fervency must needs be acceptable to
God ; yet that which climbs up to the
throne of grace in affliction, tempta-
tion, spiritual dryness, and brokenness
of soul, is still more pleasing in his
sight. For as the heart of a father is
sooner softened into paternal tender-
ness, by the trembling words of a sick
and languishing child, than by the
strong voice of one in perfect health ;
so is the secret affliction, and feeble
effort of a soul affected with a sense
of her weakness in faith, of her pov-
erty in spirit, and of her want of spir-
itual life and comfort, far more accept-
able to our infinitely good God than
the more vigorous petition of a soul
elevated by a sense of faith and divins
consolation. Only hold out patiently
in these spiritual straits, and be as-
sured that the Lord, in his own time,
will certainly " restore unto thee the
joy of his salvation." Ps. 51 : 12.

CHAPTEE XXL

OF THE POWER OF THE NOBLE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY.

Be clothed with humility ; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. — 1
Pet. 5 : 5, 6.

WITHOUT true humility all
prayer is in vain. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is the Book from which
this noble virtue is best learned; as
he is, indeed, a perfect mirror to us of
all the virtues and graces. Look on
his life, and thou wilt find it made up

of nothing but love and humility.
Look on his doctrine, and thou wilt
discern it to be absolute wisdom and
truth; a doctrine consisting not in
words, but in a living power; and in
very deed itself.

2. Now, in order that we might

Chap. XXL]

TBTJE CHKISTIANITY.

239

perfectly learn how to practise this
virtue of humility, he taught it not
only by words, but also by deeds and
by his holy example, forasmuch as he
humbled himself unto death, even the
death of the cross. Phil. 2 : 8. Be-
hold, then, O Christian, how this gra-
cious virtue has its foundation, and its
highest and most excellent ground,
not in any angel, not in any apostle or
eminent saint, but in Jesus Christ him-
self. And therefore he saith : " Learn
of me" (Matt. 11 : 29), which is as if
he had said : " Look ye upon me how
I abase myself under all, who yet am
above all. Behold, as much higher as
my majesty is, so much lower is my
humility : and so much dearer should
this virtue be to you, as I your Lord
and your God have described and de-
lineated it in my whole life." Observe,
he saith, " Learn of me." But what?
Not to do mighty wonders, not to work
signs and miracles, or show any great
work of creation, but to be meek and
lowly. "And if I did not teach you
this with mine own example," saith
the meek Lamb of God, "ye would
not believe that this virtue is so high
and so noble."

3. The humble Jesus chose to exem-
plify this as his concluding work : after
his last supper, he took a towel and
girded himself, and then " washed his
disciples' feet;" that so he might by
such example implant this virtue in
all that should be ever called by his
name, and might most sensibly im-
print it on the heart of every one to
whom this Gospel should come. Where-
fore he also saith : " Know ye what I
have done to you ?" John 13 : 4, 5, 12.
" Do ye indeed consider what it is that
I have done ? Will ye remember this
that I have now done to you ? Will
ye be ready to serve one another in
the same manner? And will ye hum-

ble yourselves one to the other, and
submit gladly even to the meanest
offices of charity ? O learn of me, by
what you have at this time seen me
do : for I have given you an example,
that ye should clo as I have done to
you. Whosoever then shall forget my
humility, the same shall forget a prin-
cipal part both of my doctrine and my
example, and shall never find rest unto
his soul. Therefore let this my exam-
ple be a rule for your whole lives, and
let my life evermore be set before
your eyes as a representation of hu-
mility."

4. And now let us show that with-
out humility all prayer to God is ut-
terly vain. Humility is a bright light
in the heart, in which there is at once
discovered to us our own nothingness,
and the high majesty and overflowing
goodness of God. Hence the more
any man knows himself, the more he
must needs come to the knowledge
of his own nothingness. For when
a man sees his own emptiness, and
learns that he is destitute in himself
of everything that is good, he begins
to pray the more earnestly for the
grace and mercy of God. He pants
after, and betakes himself to God, as
to the origin and fountain of all good
things; desiring to know him aright,
to praise him, and to honor him as he
should. This desire being thus be-
gotten in him, he pours out his heart
by himself, and says, " When shall I
come and appear before God?" In
this humility he looks at God's majesty
and greatness, as also at his supera-
bundant love and grace. And here-
upon the streams of grace flow down
into such a faithful, humble soul, by
prayer. And divine grace being thus
communicated to the thirsty soul,
there is hereby begotten in it a spirit
of prayer, which ceases not to ascend

240

TEXTE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

in holy aspirations, and to bring down
the blessings of peace and righteous-
ness. Through such grace of God
there is a descent of the Holy Spirit
into the soul, whose influences thereby
grow continually stronger and strong-
er : and the "love of God" is by this
means "shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost" (Kom. 5:5), which
is given to us through the prayer of
humility. For when the believing
soul, conscious of her own vileness,
reflects upon the humiliation of the
Son of God, and beholds him hum-
bling himself so as not only to put off
the form of God, that he might appear
in that of man, but even to suffer the
greatest of evils in this vile form, for
the vilest of his creatures; by this re-
flection and consideration, he is not
only made humble, but hence, also, in
this his humility, there springs up a
most noble flame of love to God,
which burns more and more day by
day. And in this divine flame of love,
the soul, being attracted by faith to
God, is hence made to love all men in
God, and in Christ; as calling to mind
the exceeding great love of the God-
head towards mankind ; and particu-
larly how her Heavenly Father has in
Christ loved her, and called her to the
participation of his goodness. When
thus the soul is drawn to God; and in-
cluded in his love, the consequence is
this, that as to all those who are be-
loved by God, the soul also cannot but
love in like manner as God loveth
them.

5. Hence it follows, that if any good
befall our neighbor, charity will re-
joice; but if any evil happen to him,
it will sorrow. And the humble and
the charitable person, behaving him-
self courteously and lovingly towards
his neighbor on all occasions, does not
rashly judge him, if he behold his

misery; much less does he behave
himself haughtily and superciliously
towards him, or treat him with con-
tempt. 1 Cor. 13 : 4. For the soul that
is truly humble, can never so put off
the sense of her own misery and vile-
ness, as to despise another, or to es-
teem herself better than any; for she
remembers the mire out of which she
herself has been delivered. And while
she stands, she knows well enough
that she does not stand by her own
strength, but solely by the help of di-
vine grace.

6. Humble charity judges itself in
the first place, examines itself before
all, and influences us to condemn our-
selves rather than others: and a
neighbor's calamity will cause the
soul to descend into herself, and de-
plore herself before God. In another's
fall, the lowly and loving soul reads
her own defaults, her own sins and
transgressions, her own calamity and
misery.

7. Moreover, by humility a man is
confirmed in the knowledge of God,
and established in hope. Having a
consciousness of his own ignorance,
blindness, and folly, in divine matters,
he gives thanks to God for the revela-
tion of his word, and imprints it more
diligently on his heart. But consider-
ing also, that as he has no knowledge
of God and divine things in himself,
so likewise all his own abilities are
nothing before God : he is hence es-
tablished in a godly hope, placing his
confidence in nothing but God only.

8. Another fruit of humility is, that
it renders a man acceptable to others,
even in the very outward course of his
life. For it avoids contentions and
quarrels, and composes the whole man
to gentleness and benignity. Yea, a
man is conformed by means of it even
to Christ himself, who says in one of

Chap. XXII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

241

the Psalms: " But I, as a deaf man,
heard not; and I was as a dumb man
that openeth not his mouth. Thus I
was as a man that heareth not, and in
whose mouth are no reproofs." Ps.
38 : 13, 14. Such a faithful and hum-
ble man as this is a living member of
Christ, in whom Christ liveth.

9. Besides, humility brings with it
true inward peace of the mind; so
that he who is the possessor of it can
by no miseries and calamities what-
ever be unduly distressed or disquiet-
ed, but may with St. Paul say : " Who
shall separate us from the love of
Christ?" Eomans 8:35. And he is
mindful always of that saying: "My
grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Cor.
12:9.

10. True humility also begets si-
lence. He who is endued therewith,
as he is sensible of his own ignorance
and foolishness, will beware of speak-
ing a great deal, or of being over-for-
ward to teach others.

11. In short, it is impossible to
enumerate how many spiritual bene-
fits and fruits, how many heavenly

treasures of virtues and graces, are
comprehended in, and flow from, this
most noble virtue; so that it may de-
servedly be regarded as a spi ritual
treasury. It is, therefore, not without
reason, that the Son of God, our light,
life, salvation, and treasure, would
have us to learn it even of himself. O
that this holy wish of our Lord might
be fulfilled by all Christians ; and that
they would with all diligence learn
from Him this most excellent virtue!
12. If it be asked, What-is the means
for acquiring this virtue, and by what
way may one arrive at so great a treas-
ure, which abounds so richly in the
gifts of celestial grace ? I answer, that
there are two : first, ardent and devout
prayer ; and secondly, constant medi-
tation on Christ crucified. Let us look
earnestly to the passion and death of
Christ, and let us meditate on it, aa
on a holy Book of life, till this root of
the Christian virtues, with all which
accompany it, grow up day by day in
our hearts, as in a fruitful and well-
cultivated soul.

CHAPTER XXII.

ALL THE WORKS OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN MUST BE DONE IN HUMILITY, OR THEY
WILL, OTHERWISE, BECOME AN ABOMINATION AND IDOLATRY.

That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. — Luke 16 : 15.

ALL works that are a well-pleasing
and acceptable sacrifice to God,
can proceed from true faith alone;
this will jiot fail to beget Christian
humility in the heart. The effect of
this will be meekly to acknowledge
that with regard to any good that
may be found in us, it is wholly and
solely to be ascribed to the grace of

God : " Not I, but the grace of God1
which was with me." 1 Cor. 15 : 10..
He who does not do this, commits two
sins : the first is, apostasy from God,
by turning himself from God towards
himself, that is, from the Supreme
Being, towards that which is in itself
nothing. The second is sacrilege, by
taking to himself that honor which is

16

242

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

due to none but G-od ; to whom, and
not to man, everything that may be
called good belongs. He, therefore,
that doeth not all things in humility,
steals from God the glory due to him.
For when God says : " I will not give
my glory to another, neither my praise
to graven images" (Isaiah 42 : 8); he
shows that all glory and praise are
due to him alone.

2. If, therefore, any man applaud
himself, either for knowing or doing
anything, verily that man takes to
himself the glory which is due to God
only, and is thereby an idolater of
himself. For this reason, ambition is
abominable idolatry : and self-love, and
self-esteem, are no less than having
another God before him whose name
is Jehovah. For this very reason also,
the devil seeks to be honored and wor-
shipped in the world.

3. Such a vainglorious devil, covet-
ous of honor and worship from the
world, every proud and arrogant per-
son, by thinking highly of himself,
cherishes in his heart. If thou be
wise, see that thou break down and
destroy this idol, which is set up in
thy heart. Many persons are so holy
that they will not even look upon any
outward images, lest they should hap-
pen to be defiled by them ; not observ-
ing, at the same time, that great idol
which they carry about with them in
their hearts, and by which they are
to such ,a degree defiled as to become
an abomination before God. For all
that is most highly esteemed by men
(through self-love and ambition) is an
abomination before God. Whence all
who seek only their own honor, or
power, or ascribe aught to themselves
as their own, are idolaters. Thus the

e whole world lieth in idolatry ; and
every house has its living idols.

4. That idolatry which defiles thee,

proceeds from within, even from the
heart. To whatsoever thy heart in-
clines, in whatsoever it acquiesces and
rests, and unto whatsoever it cleaves
by love and inclination, whether it be
good fortune, wealth, honor, power, or
long life; that very thing immediately
becomes an idol, and has seduced thee
into the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is
not any outward pollution ; but that
which is internal, spiritual, and spring
ing up within. It is so that G-od con-
siders it; He judges all things accord
ing to the heart ; and it is so only that
he looks, trying the hearts and reins
(Ps. 7: 9), and judging of all things
according to the faith or unbelief there
found by him. Whence Christ has
also plainly told thee, "Where thy
treasure is, there will thy heart be
also " (Matt. 6 : 21) ; that is, thy God,
thy rest, thy peace, thy trust will be
there ; and there will be thy paradise,
yea, there will heaven and all things
be to thee. Observe closely what that
object is on which thy heart loves to
dwell, for it is surely thy God, what-
ever its nature may be. If thy heart
cleave fast to God only, then is He
thy God, and blessed art thou : ac-
cording as it is written : " Happy are
the people whose God is the Lord."
Ps. 144 : 15. And again, " Delight thy-
self also in the Lord, and he shall give
thee the desire of thy heart." Ps. 37 :
4. But if thy mind cleave to the world,
then the world is thy God. And so
of the rest.

5. It hence appears that there are
really in the world no other idols but
such as the heart of man makes for
him. The devil himself is called "the
god of this world " (2 Cor. 4 : 4), be-
cause the ungodly follow him, do his
deeds, love darkness, and take pleas-
ure in the works of the devil. And
thus men make a god even of Satan.

Chap. XXII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

243

6. Idols of wood are easily avoided,
but take heed of the idols of gold.
See that thou be not ensnared by
these. It is no hard matter to keep
from dead idols; but take heed that
thou worship not living ones, and es-
pecially thyself. As soon as thou as-
cribest honor, skill, or power to thy-
self, thou settest up thyself in the
place of God. This idolatry is prop-
erly struck at by God, when he says
that he " will not give his glory to
another." Isa. 42 : 8. For whatsoever
is, or is called by the name of honor
and glory, is due to none but him, who
is the Most High, and the most Holy
One, and the sovereign and everlast-
ing Good. Whosoever, therefore, thou
art, that wouldest not make an idol
of thyself, nor pollute thy works with
the foulest of abominations before
God, learn hence, not to ascribe to thy-
self honor, or glory, or praise ; know-
ing, that it is true humility to shun
honor, and to account one's self un-
worthy of all glory. When thou shalt
do this, and shalt have mortified all
ambition and self-esteem, then thou
shalt be known to be dead to the
world indeed. From this springs up
the new man, in whom is found the
most noble life of Christ; which life,
he himself has described as being
meekness and lowliness of heart. Matt.
11 : 29. He, on the contrary, is still
carnal, and lives after the flesh, ac-
cording to the old birth, who would
be honored and greatly esteemed : be-
cause it is the nature of the carnal
man to endeavor to be, or to be ac-
counted above all others. But if any
man seek to be accounted nothing of,
he has a heart truly spiritual and
Christian. But alas ! where shall we
now find the true Christians, that is,
such as are willing to be slighted, and
to be reputed as nothing? For, as

hath been said before, it is the prop-
erty of the true followers of Christ,
to deny themselves, to hate them-
selves, to despise themselves, and to
renounce all that is theirs, for his
sake. Matt. 10 : 38 ; Luke 9 : 23. Such
are indeed genuine Christians.

7. If any one should here ask of me,
What then is a Christian to do, if it
please God so to honor him as to give
him grace and glory before the world
(Ps. 84 : 11), as in the case of Daniel:
and, since God has appointed certain
distinctions among men, several orders,
states, and offices ; and has for that
end variously distributed his gifts
among them, What is the duty of a
Christian, if he be advanced to some
post of dignity ? I answer, If this be
thy lot, then render all the honor
which is conferred upon thee to God
again; and ascribe nothing to thy-
self which is the right of another, or
take that to be thine which is God's
only.

8. As soon, therefore, as any honor
is given thee, see that, being mindful
of thy low estate, thou transfer it all
to God, and keep nothing thereof to
thyself. If thou neglectest to do this,
and shouldest be induced to attribute
anything to tl^self, it is certain that
thou must thereby lose divine grace,
while, with a sacrilegious impiety,
thou invadest that which of right be-
longs to God. So if thou excel others
in spiritual or natural gifts, in wisdom
or skill, wealth or dignity, be watchful
not to take this honor to thyself; yea,
let it be thy joy and delight to offer
all up to God again, from a most deep
and intimate devotion of thy heart.
This thou wilt not fail to do, and to
give that glory to Him which is due,
when thou shalt glory in nothing but
in Him only, according to the words
of the Prophet : " Let not the wise

244

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

man glory in his wisdom; neither let
the mighty man glory in his might;
let not the rich man glory in his
riches : but let him that glorieth, glory
in this, that he understandeth and

knoweth me, that I am the Lord
which exercise loving-kindness, judg-
ment, and righteousness in the earth;
for in these things I delight, saith the
Lord." Jer. 9 : 23, 24.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A MAN WHO DOES NOT PERCEIVE HIS OWN EMPTINESS, AND DOES NOT GIVE
ALL THE HONOR TO GOD, COMMITS THE GREATEST OF SINS, AND FALLS LIKE
SATAN.

Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. — Ps. 39 : 5.

TO the end that man may acknowl-
edge his own vanity, he is com-
pared by the Psalmist (Ps. 39 ; 144 : 4),
to a shadow; and again in another
place (Ps. 90 : 5), to a dream. Now
what is a shadow ? It is a lifeless re-
semblance of that thing on which it
depends; and has in itself neither
substance nor life, but is nothing.
In like manner, man of himself has
neither substance, life, strength, nor
indeed any ability whatsoever; but
depends on God, even as a shadow on
the body, or as light on the sun.

2. "Whosoever, therefore, so forgets
himself as not to depend on God, who
alone is all in all, " thinking himself
to be something when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself." Gal. 6 : 3. He
falls from the true eternal and Sov-
ereign Being into his own nothing-
ness; from the unchangeable Good
into vanity; from truth itself into a
lie.

3. This is not only the greatest of
sins, but of punishments also. For
the more man turns from God to him-
self, the more he approaches extreme
misery and calamity. And man by
this means, even by turning himself

away from God, towards his own fac-
ulties and powers, in truth punishes
thereby the very sin which he com-
mits. He is then accounted to turn
himself away from God, and to for-
sake " the rock of his salvation "
(Deut. 32 : 15), whenever he ascribes
to himself any degree of power or
strength, art or skill, wisdom, or
honor, or merit, so as to be willing
to be thought somebody, and to be
much accounted of; when, in very
deed, all these in no wise belong to
man, or to any creature, but to God
only. Every creature is but a mere
shadow, and of itself merely nothing;
even so as the life, substance, faculty,
wisdom, powers, and strength which
it seems to have, are not properly its
own, but are God's only.

4. Wherefore, as soon as a man as-
cribes all or any of these to himself,
he becomes guilty of apostasy from
God. Nor indeed was the devil's apos-
tasy aught else, but the not abiding
within the bounds, duties, and prop-
erties of a creature, which has all its
life, substance, and ability in God, and
ought to hold the same from him, as
the shadow does with respect to the

Chap. XXIV.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

245

body and the motion thereof. For
any one, therefore, to ascribe those
things to himself which are God's; or
to challenge to himself honor, glory,
wisdom, or esteem (forasmuch as none
of these suit a creature, but are all to
be transferred to God alone, to whom
they really appertain), is properly to
fall like Satan. Hence God permitted
him to fall, not sustaining him any
longer with his grace, which was by
him disowned. The same thing must
befall all men who, through pride and
ambition, presume to arrogate to them-
selves any of those things which are
God's. They are not upheld by the
grace of God, who arrogantly turn
themselves away from God, affecting
to be as God. God alone being All in
all, and moreover being the only Good,
or the one Good, and the all- Good es-
sentially; it would be most unreason-
able for any creature to claim to itself
aught of that which is good. Hence
our blessed Lord saith, "There is none
good but one, that is God" (Matt. 19 :
17); meaning, that he is the essential
Good, and he alone is all that is good.
This property of God, our Saviour was
not willing to take unto himself in his

state of humiliation, forasmuch as he
was then held to be no more than a
mere man ; that thus, by his most
bright example, he might instruct us
that man ought not to ascribe to him-
self the things which are God's.

5. When man docs otherwise, he
commits the greatest of all sins, and,
aiming at divinity, stains himself
thereby with a most nefarious sacri-
lege, being turned from God to him-
self. And as many as are in this con-
dition, seek help, counsel, and comfort,
not from God only, as they ought, but
from creatures, and sometimes even
from the devil himself. But what
greater madness, or what worse blind-
ness is there, than to expect good
from evil, life from death, blessedness
from the damned, help from the help-
less, blessedness from the accursed,
and light from darkness ? Whereas,
on the other hand, it is the highest
wisdom to look for good from the
source of all good, to seek life from
the fountain of life, to expect blessed-
ness from the spring of salvation, and
to go for help to him who can do all
things, and "with whom nothing is
impossible." Luke 1 : 37.

CHAPTER XXIV.

OF THE NOBLE VIRTUE OF LOVE, AND OF ITS POWER, SOUNDNESS, AND PURITY.
He that loveth not, Tinoweih not God; for God is love. — 1 John 4 : 8.

LOYE, says St. Paul, is the greatest
of all virtues, and without it all
gifts are unprofitable (1 Cor. 13 : 13) ;
therefore he admonishes us, saying,
"Let all your things be done with
charity." 1 Cor. 16 : 14. Accordingly
We are to pray with charity, as our

Lord says : " If thou bring thy gift to
the altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against thee;
go thy way; first be reconciled to thy
brother." Matt. 5 : 23, 24. And in the
Lord's Prayer; our forgiving our neigh-
bor's debts, or trespasses, is strictly

246

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II,

joined to God's forgiving ours. Matt.
6 : 12, 14, 15.

2. Love is, however, so singular a
virtue, that a man may mistake there-
in as easily as in anything else. There-
fore nothing ought to be looked upon
with a more suspicious eye than love ;
for there is nothing which can so power-
fully incline, force, or restrain, and so
thoroughly penetrate the mind, as love.
Therefore, if love be not ruled by the
true light, the Holy Ghost, it precipi-
tates the soul into a thousand calam-
ities.

3. And this I do not say with respect
to the love of evil ; for this, as a dia-
bolical thing, is by all Christians to be
avoided ; but I speak of that love which
is betwixt God, and man, and his neigh-
bor. Love, when not regulated by di-
vine wisdom, can easily be deceived,
misled, and thrust out of its due order,
so as not to reach the true end. Many
think they have the love of God in
their souls, and yet have the love of
the world, or their own love, nay, it
may be the love of Satan.

4. Take an instance of this fact :
any one that loves the Lord God only
for the sake of temporal things, that
he may be preserved by him from tem-
poral misfortunes, loves himself more
than God, and prefers his own welfare
before God. This is called inordinate
love. He ought to love God more than
himself, nay, love him above all things ;
and all things, both good and evil days,
he ought to love for the sake of God.

5. But wlien man prefers himself to
the love of God, he surely makes him-
self God, by loving himself more than
God; and whilst he loves not God as
God, for his sake, but merely for his
own private interest, he has a false
and deceitful love. He that has such a
love, loves all things for his own sake,
for the profit and honor which he reaps

from them. He loves also holy men,
nay, the very word of God, for this
reason only, that it may afford him a
show and name of holiness, but not
for the sake of that excellent Good
which lies hid therein.

6. And because such a love is impure,
it brings forth impure fruits, which are
self-interest, self-honor, self-lust ; all
which are carnal and earthly, not
heavenly and spiritual fruits. Thus
many love great skill and learning,
that they may be preferred to others,
and may rule over them; not from a
principle of love to God and their
neighbor, but from a love to them-
selves, thinking thereby to gain great
honors and preferments.

7. There are others also who love
God that he may spare them, and not
punish them for their sins in dreadful
severity; nay, that he may be bounti-
ful to them in this present time ; but
this, alas! is a very weak love. For
these love God for their own profit,
and not for his own sake, or not by
reason of his being the most excellent
and highest Good.

8. Others love God that he may be-
stow upon them many gifts in under-
standing and wisdom, whereby they
might gain a great reputation.

9. Some also love virtue, not for the
sake of virtue itself, but that they may
obtain a great name, and be looked
upon as brave, virtuous men, and men
famous for their honesty and piety.
All this is not true love, for it tends
not to the right end.

10. There is often also love betwixt
some persons uniting themselves by a
love of their own, which increases in
them so much that they are pleased
with everything done by him whom
they love. For love always follows
its beloved, and cleaves wholly unto
him. And thereby one is often in-

Chap. XXIV.]

TKUE CHKISTIAMTY.

247

volved and drawn aside into evil ; or
even the lover himself allures his be-
loved to it, because he knows that so
it pleases him ; and by this false and
deceitful love he is hindered from
prayer and all other Christian virtues.

11. Therefore it is highly necessary
that our love should be guided and
ruled by the Holy Spirit, and by our
meditations on the whole life of Christ
and his holy sufferings, out of which
nothing but pure love shines forth.
He loved God purely, above all things,
and not himself. He loved man with
a pure, un defiled love, and not him-
self. He did and spake nothing for
his own sake, but all for ours. What-
soever he did and spoke was for our
benefit; he was not profited by it, but
we were. All his pains and labors,
nay, his greatest torments and afflic-
tions, were not too hard or heavy for
him, that we might be benefited and
saved thereby; nay, his very cross
was joy unto him, that he might fulfil
the will of God his Father.

12. That is a pure, undefiled love for
which nothing is too difficult, which
complains of nothing, nay, which
spares not itself, but gives itself for
the beloved's sake, even unto death.
Whatsoever crosses and sufferings God
sends, this love regards as good. It
sees that it is the holy will of Gocl,
and therefore it would rather suffer
much more for the same, and is very
well contented with everything that
God willeth ; for it knows that God
orders all things right and well.

13. And as love unites itself to the
beloved, it learns also his manners,
follows him for his love's sake, and
does that which is well-pleasing unto
him : so he that loves Christ rightly
learns of him his manner of life and
his virtues, for he knows it is well-
pleasing unto him. He conforms him-

self to his image, and remains all his
life under the yoke and cross of Christ,
even as Christ, during his whole life,
bore the cross of poverty, contempt,
and pains. And although no man in
this frail state can attain unto perfect
love, yet every Christian is to labor,
that his love be not false, but as pure
as possible, according to what St. Paul
says, "Love out of a pure heart, and
of a good conscience, and of faith un-
feigned." 1 Tim. 1 : 5,

14. This pure love, derived from
Christ and the* Holy Ghost, works in
man every good thing, and is never
idle. It is its joy to do good, for it
can do nothing else ; even as the Lord
God says, " I will rejoice over them to
do them good/' Jer. 32:41. Why?
Because God is love itself, which can
do nothing else but that which it is in
its own being. And this is a sign of
pure and true love. For this love does
not say, " I am not obliged to do this
or that;" but where it has no law,
there it is a law unto itself, only that
it may do much good ; for otherwise
love would not continue to be love.

15. Hence it is plain why God Al-
mighty is never weary of doing good;
and why he is that infinite Good which
never ceases to be. He is everlasting
love, which cannot desist from doing.

or else he would cease to be^
love.. Therefore, evem when he pun^
ishes and chastises,, he draws all good,
out of evil, directing it to a good end,.
even to our salvation.

16. This pure love of God causes us.
to pray aright. For as a friend has.
his friend at his disposal in all things,,
so also such a lover of God is a friend
of God, and obtains from him that for-
which he prays. Therefore, because
Lazarus's sister knew the Lord Jesus
to be not only a friend, but also the
Son of God, she said, " I know that,

248

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II,

even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of
God, God will give it thee" (John
11 : 22) ; and because Mary loved Je-
sus, she was heard by the Lord, and
he restored her brother unto her. Of
such a love as obtains from God all
things, holy David saith, " Delight
thyself also in the Lord, and he shall
give thee the desires of thine heart."
Ps. 37 : 4.

17. But in order that thou may est
have a characteristic mark of this love,
observe these four properties of true
love. 1. Love submits itself to the
will of the beloved. 2. True love
abandons all friendship which is con-
trary to its beloved. 3. One friend
reveals his heart unto the other. 4.
A true lover endeavors to be made
conformable to his beloved, in his man-
ners, and in all his life. Is the be-
loved poor, the lover will be poor with
him. Is the beloved despised, the
lover also bears his contempt. Is he
sick, the lover is sick too. Thus love
makes an equality between them, so
that they have the same prosperity
and adversity. For there must be
such a communion between the lover
and the beloved, as that each of them
shall be made partaker of the other's
good as well as ill. This, then, is not
only a communion, but a union or
uniting of two minds like each other,
and of two hearts which are alike.

18. After such a manner our Lord
Jesus Christ is become our Friend.
For, 1. His love submitted itself to the

will of man, and was obedient unto
the cross : nay, for the sake of man
he submitted his will to every one,
even to his enemies. 2. He neglected
all other friendship that he could have
had in the world ; nay, he even forgot
himself, and spared not his own body
and life for our sakes. 3. He revealed
in his Gospel, his heart unto us; there-
fore he says, " Henceforth I call you
not servants; but I have called you
friends ; for all things that I have
heard of my Father, I have made
known unto you." John 15 : 15. 4. He
was made alike unto us in all things,
sin only excepted. Phil. 2 : 7. He be-
came poor as we are, and mortal even
as we.

19. If now we will be his true lov-
ers, we must also do all these things.
And seeing he was made like unto us
in all things, and in all our misery,
why would not we strive to be made
like unto Him? If we thus love him,
we shall obtain from him all things by
prayer, according to his saying, " Un-
to him that loveth me, I will manifest
myself." John 14: 21. O what a friend-
ly and delightful manifestation in the
heart is there, when we experience
heavenly joy, wisdom, and understand-
ing ! Here is the only right way to
acquire understanding and wisdom,
which are so highly praised by king
Solomon in the Proverbs.

20. We are, therefore, naturally led
to the conclusion, that genuine prayer
cannot be offered without love.

Chap. XXV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

249

CHAPTER XXV.

SUNDRY SIGNS BY WHICH WE MAY ASCERTAIN WHETHER WE TRULY LOVE

CHRIST.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in hi

•1 John 2 : 15.

THE first mark that the love of
Christ is in us, is the avoiding of
the love of the world. When thou
consiclerest Christ in his holy poverty,
how he was so entirely empty of love
to temporal things, his love will also
actuate thee to learn that thou art to
put off the love of the world and to
despise it ; so that thou wilt desire
nothing here but thy Lord Jesus
Christ, and wilt not put thy confidence
in any creature, or earthly assistance.

2. Secondly, thou wilt willingly bear
reproach and contempt from the
world, for the sake of Christ's holy re-
proach ; nay, with St. Paul, thou wilt
account it thy glory, and rejoice in it.
Eph. 3: 13. Nor wilt thou be much
troubled when the world makes no
great account of thee ; for such was
thy Lord's and Eedeemer's life in this
world. This shall be thy fall satisfac-
tion, that Christ is thy honor, renown,
glory, light, strength, power, and vic-
tory, wisdom, and skill. For to follow
Christ is the highest wisdom.

3. Thirdly, seeing that Christ in his
holy body and soul has suffered pain
and sorrow unto death, thou also, for
his love's sake, wilt not only with pa-
tience, but even with joy, suffer sor-
row, persecution, distress, and afflic-
tion, nay, torment and pain unto
death.

4. And, fourthly, as Christ had com-
fort and joy in no man nor in any
creature, but only in God, according
to what is said in Psalm 22, so thou
also wilt bear it patiently when all

worldly comfort leaves thee. For thou
knowest that at last God will make
thee joyful with his everlasting com-
fort, of which St. Paul gives us an ad-
mirable account (2 Cor. 6 : 4, etc.) :
" Let us approve ourselves as the min-
isters of God, in much patience, in
afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
in stripes, in imprisonments, in tu-
mults, in labors, in watchings, in fast-
ings; by pureness, by knowledge, by
long-suffering, by kindness, by the
Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the
word of truth, by the power of God,
by the armor of righteousness on the
right hand and on the left, by honor
and dishonor, by evil report and good
report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as
unknown, and yet well known ; as dy-
ing, and, behold, we live ; as chastened,
and not killed; as sorrowful, yet al-
ways rejoicing ; as poor, yet making
many rich; as having nothing, and
yet possessing all things."

5. Fifthly, thou shalt esteem the
cross of Christ as the highest good,
beyond all the treasures of the world.
If it were not so, Christ would not
have taught thee so, and put it be-
fore thine eyes with his own life
and example. Thou mayest easily
believe that the Son of God would
not mislead thee by his example, but
conduct thee to the highest wisdom,
and to the highest heavenly joys, al-
though the way is strait and narrow.
But thou seest that he himself walked
in this narrow path. And because
there are few that follow him, he

250

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book IT.

says, " Few there be that find it."
Matt 7 : 14. For it is not an easy
thing to conquer self, to deny self, to
die unto self, and to renounce the
world and all that we have. This is
the narrow way, and few there be
that find it.

6. The sixth mark of the love of
Christ is, never to have the beloved
Jesus out of our thoughts ; but to set
him always before us by faith, and to
consider the works of his love.

7. As for instance : I. His incarna-
tion, in which, as in a Book of Life,
we see chiefly a twofold benefit : 1.
That he thereby fills us with his love.
And, 2. That he makes us sure of our
eternal salvation and happiness. O
what inexpressible love is this, that
God was made man and like man,
that he might make men like unto
God ! O the greatness of love ! he
took upon him the form of a servant
(Phil. 2 : 6-8) that he might make us
kings, and adorn us with royal crowns.
O the greatness of love, that God, in-
comprehensible and invisible, should
be made palpable and visible! Who
is able to fathom the deep abyss of
this love ! O what great, unutterable
wisdom, that out of the great evil of
sin, thou, O Lord, hast brought forth
such an infinite good, discovering there-
by the deep abyss of thy love ! O the
great comfort it is to me to know that
thy human birth is my divine birth,
and a fountain of salvation against the
deep well of sin !

8. II. His holy doctrine, wherein are

found eternal wisdom, truth, light, life
and salvation ; and his holy life, where-
by he has shown us the manner, and
the way, how to live a truly Christian
and godly life. For the pattern of his
holy life is the most wonderful light,
which will not let us walk in darkness.

9. III. The mystery of the innocent
death of Christ, in which there are
seven particulars to be considered. 1.
The fulfilling of the justice of God, and
of the divine sentence. 2. The satis-
faction for all our sins. 3. Our recon-
ciliation with God ; for we were recon-
ciled to God by the death of his Son.
Bom. 5 : 10. 4. The manifestation of
the superabundant love of God through
the death of our Kedeemer. 5. The
eternal truth of God, that he has given
us his Son, and thereby testified him-
self to be truly our Father. 6. The
victory over all enemies. 7. The ac-
quiring and purchase of eternal salva-
tion and life.

10. IY. His resurrection, which gives
us a firm assurance of the resurrection
of our bodies, and also of that spiritual
resurrection, wherein, through the
grace of God, and the power of the
life of Christ, we, having been spirit-
ually dead, become spiritually alive in
Christ. Bom. 6 : 4.

11. Y. His ascension, which is a con-
summation of our eternal redemption,
righteousness, and salvation.

12. These five works of the love of
Christ are the true Christian school
wherein we are to study, never letting
them depart from our thoughts.

Chap. XXVI.]

TKTJE CHRISTIANITY.

251

CHAPTER XXVI.

FIVE KINDS OF WORKS OF LOVE, IN WHICH THE GRACE AND GOODNESS OF GOD

ARE ESPECIALLY REVEALED.

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. — Ps. 87 : 2.

THERE are chiefly five arguments
of the love of God. 1. Christ's
incarnation. 2. His suffering. 8. God's
indwelling in us. 4. God's love shining
forth out of the creatures. 5. His
amiableness in his own Being, therein
surpassing all created things.

2. I. Where love is, there is union ;
for it is the nature of love that it unites
itself with the beloved. Now, as God
loved man so mightily, it could not be
otherwise but that he must unite him-
self again unto man after his fall, and
out of pure love and mercy become a
man. Ah! "What is man that thou
art mindful of him ? and the son of
man that thou visitest him I" Psalm
8 : 4. The soul of man is so beloved
of God; that as Christ is God and man,
having united himself with human
nature; with our body and soul : so
also God loves our soul so much that
he desires to pour himself wholly into
the same, if it were perfectly puri-
fied, and man did not resist him. For
there is infinite love in God, which is
unutterable. This is, then, one of the
greatest demonstrations of the love of
God, that God is made man, and has
showed himself a true lover of men,
having taken upon him wThat is human
that he might give us what is divine.
He is become a Son of man, that he
may make us children of God. He
came down to us upon earth, that he
might lift us up into heaven. O what
a noble exchange I and all for this end,
that we in him misrht be loved of God.

It is as if God did call from heaven,
saying: "O ye men, behold my be-
loved Son ! Him I have suffered to
become man, that he might be a living
example and witness of my deep Jove
to you; that he might bring you all
with himself to me, and ye all might
be made my children and heirs!"
Therefore the Lord always calls him-
self in the Gospel the Son of Man, out
of an intimate love to us. We seldom
read that he calls himself the Son of
God, but always the Son of Man, from
an affectionate humility and love.

3. II. Although his holy incarnation
is a very great argument of his love
to us, yet his holy suffering and dying
for our sins are a still greater one.
For "greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends." John 15 : 13. " In this
was manifested the love of God tow-
ards us (saith St. John), that God
sent his Son to be the- propitiation
for our sins." 1 John 4 : 9, 10. This is
the highest love. Our God, accord-
ing to his incomprehensible omnipo-
tence, could have found out other
means by which to redeem us; as the
Lord Jesus Christ himself prayed for
it in his agony, saying : " Abba, Father,
all things are possible unto thee ; take
away this cup from me." Mark 14 : 36.
But then it would not have been the
highest love shown to us. In order
that God might bestow the highest
love upon us, and that we might not
be able to say, "God has something

252

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

which he loves too dearly to give it to
us ;" he has given us his dear Sou, and
not only given him, but given him also
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Therefore he could not have showed
us greater love. Therein God com-
mendeth his love towards us. Rom.
5:8. " He that spared not his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things ?" Rom. 8 : 32. Hath
he given us that which is the greatest,
he will surely give us that also which
is less. In the eternal life all that is
God's shall be ours. "Hethatover-
cometh shall inherit all things." Rev.
21 :7.

4. III. Further, God shows his love
to us, by his dwelling among us, and
in us. O what a great comfort is this,
that God has sanctified our heart, and
dedicated it to be his dwelling-place.
Formerly, in the Old Testament, when
the tabernacle and sanctuary were
finished, Moses was commanded to
consecrate, to sanctify, and to sprinkle
it with the blood of the sacrifice ; for
" almost all things were by the law
purged with blood." Heb. 9 : 22. And
thereupon the glory of God came
from heaven, and filled the tabernacle
(Exod. 40 : 34) ; so also, after Christ
died for our sins, and after we are sanc-
tified through his blood, God comes to
us and makes his abode with us.

5. Whom we love, with him we de-
light to be. God loves mankind ten-
derly ; therefore he delights to be
with them, and to have his habitation
among them. "I the Lord dwell in
the high and holy place; with him
also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the hum-
ble, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones." Isa. 57:15. And again,
with whom we delight to be, him we
tenderly love. God delights to be

with men j therefore he loves men ten-
derly, according to the Psalm : " In
the saints on earth, and in the excel-
lent, is all my delight." Ps. 16 : 3.
This assurance that God loves us and
is with us, ought to comfort us in all
our calamities, in poverty, in sickness,
in persecution, and in contempt.
What (sayest thou), doth he love
them whom he suffers to come under
so many crosses? I answer, Yes, that
he may through the cross make them
glorious. As their sufferings here
abound, so also shall their consola-
tions abound there. 2 Cor. 1 : 5. The
greater afflictions are on earth, the
greater joy and glory are in heaven. 2
Cor. 4 : 17.

6. And this is the reason why God
makes many people sorrowful; name-
ly, that he may dwell in their hearts;
for he delights to dwell nowhere more
than in a poor and contrite spirit.
Ps. 34 : 19 ; Isa. 66 : 2. God fills us
here with his grace, that he may fill
us hereafter with his glory, even as
he fills and illuminates the heavenly
Jerusalem. Rev. 21 : 23.

7. IV. The love of God shines forth
also out of the creatures. When St.
Paul would desire for his Ephesians
the best, the highest, and the most
glorious thing, he wishes that they
might know the love of God, and be
able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height of the same. Eph.
3 : 18. He means to say so much, that
the love of God is higher than hea-
ven, deeper than the sea, broader than
the earth, longer than it is from east
to west, according to Psalm 103 : 11,
12. In a word, heaven and earth are
full of the love of God : for all that
God hath created, be it visible or in-
visible, he hath created for this end,
that his inexpressible goodness and

Chap. XXVI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

253

love might therein be manifested.
And, therefore, he hath given to man
both inward and outward senses, that
thereby he might perceive the good-
ness and love of God. For all that
man can apprehend by his understand-
ing, thoughts, mind, and reason, as
well as what he apprehends with his
outward senses, altogether bears wit-
ness to the love of God. All that man
hath, is a testimony of the love of
God ; yea, all creatures, visible and in-
visible, are, as it were, so many mes-
sengers of God, declaring unto us his
love ; and he speaks to us through them,
saying, " Behold the heaven and earth,
and all creatures ! I have created all
out of love to man." And whenever
we perceive the pleasantness of the
creatures, we perceive the goodness
of God; so that both with our in-
ward and outward senses we can taste
and see that the Lord is good, accord-
ing to the words of the 34th Psalm,
ver. 8.

8. The sun speaks to us by its light
and warmth, as if it said: "Look
upon me, the greatest and the bright-
est creature among all visible things :
He must be great that made me." Ps.
19 : 1, etc. But not only through
beautiful creatures doth God speak to
us, but also through the most despica-
ble worm, as if God did say: " Lo,
thou art beholden to me thy Creator,
that I, who could have made thee a
worm, have, out of mercy, made thee
a man." Here remember him who
said: "I am a worm, and no man."
Ps. 22 : 6. Thus God speaks unto man
through all the creatures, declares his
love to him, and invites, leads, and
draws U3 unto himself. This is that
wisdom of God which in all places ut-
tereth " her voice in the streets,"
which " rejoiceth in the habitable part
of the earth, and whose delights are

with the sons of men." Prov. 1:20;
8:31.

9. Indeed, if we consider the matter
aright, we are encompassed by the
love of God, even as we are all in-
closed under heaven, seeing that " in
God we live, and move, and have our
being." Acts 17:28. Man can go no-
where, but the love and goodness of
God follow after him, and call him
through all the creatures, nay, through
his own heart and conscience, saying:
" Whither wilt thou go, beloved child?
Whither shalt thou flee from my pres-
ence ? If thou ascendest up into hea-
ven, I am there. If thou makest thy
bed in hell, behold I am there. If
thou takest the wings of the morning,
and dwellest in the uttermost parts of
the sea, even there shall my hand lead
thee, and my right hand shall hold
thee. Ps. 139 : 7, etc. Therefore, come
unto me, and acknowledge my love
and grace, with which I meet thee in
every creature. Hast thou sinned,
grace abounds with me ; hast thou left
me, my love and mercy have not yet
rejected thee, but are continually has-
tening after thee, have been calling to
thee, and, as a wandering sheep, have
sought after thee. And if thou be-
lievest not these many testimonies of
all the creatures, believe the testimony
of my dear Son, how I have loved the
world in him. John 3:16. Thou canst
nowhere find rest for thy soul except
here; turn which way thou wilt, thou
must and canst only rest in my love
and grace." O how blessed is the heart
which understands that heaven and
earth are full of the love of God, and
that he has as many witnesses of his
love as there are creatures ! But the
greatest and highest witness of all is
the Son of God.

10. Y. We know also the love of
God, from the amiableness of his own

254

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

being. From the visions of the proph-
ets, and the Eevelation of St. John, we
can observe that God Almighty is so
lovely and beautiful, as infinitely to
transcend all the beauty and loveli-
ness of the world. He is the beauty
of all things beautiful, and the loveli-
ness of all things lovely, the life of all
the living. He is all. An ancient
father has said: "God is so lovely
and beautiful, that if a man were in a
fiery furnace, and saw the beauty and
glory of Him but for a moment, the
greatest torment would be changed
into the greatest joy ;" as it happened
to St. Stephen, when he saw the glory
of God, and said : " Behold, I see the
heavens opened, and the Son of man
standing on the right hand of God."
Acts 7 : 56. God is so lovely and
beautiful, that if a man saw him for a
thousand years together, it would
seem to him but one hour. For in
beholding the loveliness and glory of
God, all time is swallowed up ; so that
the more any one sees God, the more
he desires to see him; the more he
loves God, the more he will love; and
the more he praises God, the more
will he praise him ; according to the
words of Xystus, an ancient teacher :
"Devout souls can never be satiated
with the love and praise of God."
Hence, although the holy angels have
seen God from the beginning of their
creation, they have not yet seen him
enough; and although they have
praised him from the beginning, they
have not yet praised him enough : for
" God is more to be praised, than all
praise can express ; and more lovely,
than the love of all the creatures can
reach." God is infinite in his beauty,
loveliness, and glory ; therefore no crea-
ture can love him enough. God is so
amiable, that the more one loves him,
the more one desires to love him. He

is so to be praised that the end of his
praises cannot be attained ; so lovely
to be looked upon, that looking upon
him never makes us weary ; so comfort-
able to be heard, that he never can be
heard enough. Tauler says, "If one
might taste but a drop of the perfect
love of God, all the joys and pleasures
of this world would be changed to us
into the greatest bitterness." The
saints have endured the greatest tor-
ments for the sake of the love of God,
and have given up their lives; and if
they had a thousand bodies, they
would hazard them all, that they
might keep the love of God ; as the
Psalmist says, " Thy loving kindness
is better than life; therefore my lips
shall praise thee." Ps. 63:3. God is
so high, so noble, and so pure a Good,
that the more any one knows him, the
more he loves him. He is so tender
and perfect a sweetness, that the more
one tastes of him, the sweeter he be-
comes ; and the more one loves him,
the more his loveliness increases.
Blessed is the soul which is filled with
the love of God. He will be conscious
in his soul of such amiableness as can-
not be found in time among creatures.
11. Behold now, ye children of men,
how deceived ye are by the love of the
world. What is it which any man can
obtain by the love of temporal things,
but sorrow^ trouble, loss of time, un-
profitable words (of which an account
must be given), wranglings, fightings,
and a burdened conscience? Surely
all the children of men shall one day
sorely repent that they have so much
loved the world, and the things there-
in : according to the warning given us
by St. John, saying, "Love not the
world, neither the things that are in
the world : if any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust

Chap. XXVII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

255

of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is riot of the
Father, but is of the world. And the
world passethaway, and the lust there-
of; but he that doeth the will of God
abicleth for ever." 1 John 2 : 15, etc.
Therefore every man ought to mourn

all the days of his life that he ever
loved anything more than God only.
If God pours into thy heart his love,
so that thou lovest him above all
things, then he has given thee the
best thing he hath, even Himself.

CHAPTER XXVII.

SHOWING HOW THE LORD JESUS MANIFESTS HIMSELF TO THE LOVING SOUL AS
THE HIGHEST LOVE AND THE HIGHEST GOOD.

To him that loveth me, I will manifest myself. — John 14 : 21.

IF thou duly considerest Christ cru-
cified thou wilt see nothing in him
but pure, perfect, and unutterable love,
and he will show thee his heart, and
say, " Behold, in this heart there is no
deceit and no lie (Isaiah 53 : 9), but
the highest faithfulness and truth are
there. Incline thy head unto me,
and rest upon my heart ; open thy
mouth, and drink out of my wounds
the sweetest love, which out of the
heart of my Father springs up and
flows through me."

2.. When thou shalt have tasted this
love, thou wilt forget and despise, for
its sake, all the world, and be desirous
of nothing else but of this love. Thou
wilt say to thy Lord, " O Lord, give
me nothing more than the sweetness
of thy love j nay, if thou wouldst
give me the whole world, I would
desire nothing else but thee and thy
love."

3. O happy is the soul which feels
this love ! for in that soul Christ is
truly known, and manifested to be
nothing else but pure love, and to be
the love of the souls of men. These
words state a most happy experi-

ence; for that Christ is the love of
our soul he clearly shows by his spirit-
ual coming and delightful refreshing
of the soul; and when the soul tastes
but a drop thereof it is filled with joys.
For infinite love is so great that our
hearts cannot comprehend it. This
the holy martyr Ignatius owned, who
always used to call the Lord Jesus,
his Love, and said : My Love is cru-
cified.

4. In this love of Christ all our
works ought to be done (1 Cor. 16 :
14); and then they proceed from
Christ out of true faith, and are well-
pleasing to God, whether we eat, or
drink, or sleep, or perform the duties
of our calling. All that comes forth
of a believing love is made pleasant
to God and men ; for it is done and
wrought in God. John 3:21.

5. Although this love of Christ is
the highest good in heaven and upon
earth (for all good things are contained
therein), yet is God so willing and
ready to bestow it upon us, that he
hath sent, even his dear Son, into this
misery, to make us partakers in him
of this inexpressible treasure, through

256

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

faith. And lie is much more ready to
give us this precious good than we are
to receive it.

6. This love, " shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 5 :
5), when felt in us, affords us more
joy than all the world can give. And
if all creatures were present, a believ-
ing and loving soul would part with
them, yea, not so much as look upon
them, because of the superabundant
sweetness of the love of God. And if
all creatures should begin to speak,
the voice of the love of God would be
stronger and more delightful than the
voice of all the creatures. For this
love binds and unites the mind unto
Christ, and replenishes it with all
good. This precious good is indeed
known, seen, and tasted in the spirit,
but no words can express it. All
words are much too weak to set forth
even the shadow thereof; and no man's
tongue can reach that precious and
lovely good of which the spirit of man

is sensible. Therefore also St. Paul
says, that he heard in paradise words
that were " unspeakable." 2 Cor. 12 : 4.

7. And when this precious good
withdraws from the soul, there is then
greater sorrow than if all the world
had been lost. Then the soul calls
and cries, "O thou delightful love, I
have scarcely tasted of thee ; why dost
thou forsake me ? My soul is as a
child that is weaned of his mother
Ps. 131 : 2. Oh, thy loving-kindness
is better than life ! (Ps. 63 : 3) ; let me
taste thereof. My soul thirsteth for
thee (Ps. 42 : 2) only, and nothing else
can satisfy me, or make me joyful."

This holy love causes also, that with-
out it the whole life is imbittered to a
believing and loving soul, and is ac-
counted as death and misery. Yea,
for the sake of this love, man desires
to die, to put off the earthly taberna-
cle, and to be at home, and present
with the Lord, according to the words
of St. Paul. 2 Cor. 5 : 8.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SHOWING HOW THE HIGHEST GOOD IS PERCEIVED AND TASTED IN THE SOUL.

O taste and see that the Lord is good. — Ps. 34 : 8.

GOD is an eternal, perfect, infinite,
substantial, communicative Good,
full of love and joy; and therefore he
desires to be known in living faith, in
spirit, and in truth. This cannot how-
ever be, except a man really taste and
feel in his heart the goodness, sweet-
ness, loving-kindness, and comfort of
God.

2. If this were to be performed there
must needs be in man something con-

formable to God, and capable of know-
ing him, that so we might be made
partakers of the highest good. Now
this is the soul of man : into the soul
God was willing to pour forth his
goodness, yea, to dwell there, and to
manifest and make known himself
more and more.

3. But since man has lost this sov-
ereign good by sin, and the devil has
obtained a habitation in, and posses-

Chap. XXVIIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

257

sion of, him ; working in man all his
own works, as pride, covetousness, lust,
anger, envy; man, therefore, " through
the faith of the operation of God" (Col.
2 : 12), must be turned again from the
world unto God, from Satan unto
Jesus Christ (Acts 26 : 18), and Satan
with his works must be driven out
and be utterly dispossessed. As long
as Satan works in man, God works
not in him; His works are hindered,
so that the soul cannot taste that God
is good. Indeed, the reason why there
are so few that know God aright is,
that in the greatest number of men
the works of darkness and of Satan
have the ascendency. The most part
adhere to the world, to the creatures,
and to themselves.

4. But they who will rightly know
and taste the Lord's goodness, must be
joined unto him, and be one spirit
with him. 1 Cor. 6 : 17. And the more
this is done the more does God mani-
fest himself in the believing, loving
soul; the more the heart is turned
from the world unto God, the more
God is united to the soul. All love to
the world and to the creature must be
turned out, if the love of God ever
enter in. " If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him."
1 John 2 : 15. Where God finds a soul
empty of the world, he fills it with
heaven, with himself, and with all his
goodness. The more the heart is emp-
tied of love to the world, the more
God fills it with his light and comfort.
" Therefore," as an ancient father says,
" in an empty, still, and quiet soul, it
can be better felt than expressed what
God is."

5. If then a man would really know
that God is good, even the highest
Good, he must taste his goodness in
his heart. The Scripture testifies there-
of outwardly, but the heart must feel

it inwardly, and must taste the living
word. It must " taste the good word
of God and the powers of the world
to come." Heb. 6 : 5. Thou canst
never better understand that God is
kind and loving, than when thou feel-
est his comfort. None can better
teach thee that God is a Being full
of joy than God himself, when he re-
joices in thee. And so it is also with
all other things of God. If he do not
perform, and himself work all in theey
thou wilt never come to a living knowl-
edge of him. " To know God without
God, is impossible," says St. Augustine,
Therefore, that man will never be able
to know rightly what God is, unto
whom God does not make known and
manifest himself. But when a heart
feels the living word of God, then it
knows and understands that God is
all, all-good, and the true, perfect, eter-
nal Good, and better than all for which
any heart can wish or desire.

6. When this is known and tasted
in the soul, according to the words of
Psalm 63: 3, "Lord, thy loving-kind-
ness is better than life;" then the soul
begins to scorn the world with its
joys and pleasures. She has in God
satisfaction, even full satisfaction, and,,
in short, all. For the world, with all
that is in it, is made up only of indi-
vidual things, which are imperfect and
inconstant ; but God is the true, per-
fect, universal, and eternal unchange-
able Good.

7. For this reason David says,
" Whom have I in heaven but thee,
O Lord ? and there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee." Ps. 73 : 25.
This is the language of a soul which
has tasted the perfect good, from which
all love to the world and creatures is
removed, and which has no pleasure
nor delight in the world and in earthly
things, but in God alone, the highest

17

258

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book TT.

Good. And this is the true, sensible,
and experimental knowledge of God,
nay, the true love of God above all
things, which is felt and tasted in the
heart; for when God is rightly known,
he is loved, praised, and honored above
all things.

8. Now, if we have the eternal, per-
fect good, wherein there is all good,
and which alone is all, why should
we love that which is imperfect ? For
where the true, perfect good is known,
there it is also beloved above all im-

perfect things, that is, above all crea-
tures whatsoever.

9. Thus the living knowledge of God
expels the love of the world ; and thus
man begins to despise the world, with
all the vanities thereof, saying, with
King Solomon, "Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity j" nay, all under the sun
" is vexation of spirit." Eccles. 1 : 2,
14. Thus love to the world is abol-
ished in the heart, and there remains
only love to God, and to the eternal
good which abideth for ever.

CHAPTER XXI X.

SHOWING HOW THE LOVING SOUL CONSIDERS GOD IN HIS BENEFITS AS THE MOST

LIBERAL BOUNTIFULNESS.

In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved usy and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. — 1 John 4 : 9, 10.

ALL that God does with reference
to man, be it benefits or punish-
ments, he does to this end, that man,
who is turned away from him, maybe
turned to him again.

2. But man is foolish and brutish,
like the beasts (Ps. 32 : 9), and does
not understand the reason for which
God bestows upon him so great bene-
fits, namely, that thereby he might be
invited and encouraged to love God :
nor does he, on the other hand, con-
sider why God punishes him, namely,
that he may turn himself unto God.

3. Let us consider, first, bodily and
temporal benefits, and then those that
are spiritual and eternal.

4. I. God has created nothing, either
visible or invisible, which may not be
serviceable to man. The invisible crea-

tures which minister to us, are the
holy angels (Heb. 1 : 14), whose wis-
dom, strength, diligence, and watchful-
ness over us, are declared and praised
in many places of Scripture; so that
even many angels wait upon one man :
witness the history of the patriarch
Jacob and the prophet Elisha. Gen.
32 : 1, 2 ; 2 Kings 6 : 17. Because many
evil spirits lie in wait for one man,
seeking to destroy him ; therefore also
many holy watchers are ordered by
God for his defence. That there is joy
also in the presence of the angels, over
our repentance and prayers, the Lord
teaches us. Luke 15 : 10. This bene-
fit, because it is bestowed upon us after
an invisible manner, many people little
consider ; but a wise man, who consid-
ers not only the visible world, but the

Chap. XXIX.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

259

invisible also, understands well, that
in the invisible world, wherein God
dwelleth, there is much greater glory,
and there are much greater numbers
or hosts, and greater principalities
and dominions (Col. 1 : 16) than in
this visible world. And as God makes
his own ministers and princes defend
and watch over us, it is plain that
this is an exceedingly great benefit ;
even as that is to be accounted an
honor and favor, when a prince ap-
points his own ministers to conduct
and defend one that is to travel
through a wilderness or through a
hostile country.

5. Look upon the firmament, and
consider how God has appointed it for
thy service. Behold the wondrous
course of the sun and moon. Why do
they run so incessantly, day and night,
and rest not so much as for one mo-
ment? Gen. 1:16; Ps. 19:6. Are they
not diligent and industrious servants
of man? For God hath no need of
their service ; he wants not their oper-
ations nor their light; it is for man
that they were created. The sun
serves thee as an unwearied servant,
which every morning rises early, and
carries before thee the beautiful light,
and puts thee in remembrance of the
eternal light, which is Christ, and his
divine word; this shall be the light
of thy soul, that thou mayest walk as
a child of the light. The moon and
the night cover thee with a shadow,
bringing rest unto thee, and teaching
thee to abide and to dwell under the
shadow of the Most High. Ps. 91 : 1.
The moon, like an unwearied hand-
maid, conducts water to fertilize the
earth. Nay, there is not a star which
does not shine, and has not received
some blessing for the benefit of man.

6. Behold the air and the winds,
how clear they make the firmament,

dispelling the clouds ; or they gather
them together and cause them to
pour forth afterwards upon the earth.
It is very wonderful that God "bind-
eth up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not rent under them."
Job 26 : 8. The air bears and sus-
tains the clouds, those moist vapors
which are afterwards resolved into
small drops of water. Job 36 : 27.
Thunder, lightnings, and hail (Job 37:
3), must lead us to acknowledge the
power of God, to pray to him, and to
thank him when he has preserved us
in a terrible tempest. Ps. 18 : 8, 13, 14.

7. Behold the various winds which
govern navigation; so that where a
wind blows, there the ship is driven,
and sails on her way as a bird flies
through the air. Thus all places of
the world can be found out, and all
the secrets thereof discovered, that
nothing may be kept hid of what God
hath created for the benefit of man.

8. Behold the various kinds of fish
in the sea. Gen. 1 : 20, 21 ; Ps. 104 :
25. They have their appointed times
and seasons, in which they, as it were,
rise out of the depths and present
themselves, crowded together as the
corn in the field, as if they would say,
Now we are in season, now is the time
of harvest for the sea ; gather there-
fore, O ye men ! And so it is with
the birds also ; when their time is
come, they fly together in great mul-
titudes, and show themselves to man-
kind.

9. Behold the earth, that great store-
house of food and treasury of God. It
furnishes forth meat aud drink, medi-
cine and clothing, houses and abodes,
and all the various metals. Each
month produces its flowers, which
present themselves to our notice, as if
they would say, Here we are; we
bring our gifts, and present them to

260

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

you, as good as we received them
from our Creator. Nay, even the
forest, which is the habitation of rov-
ing beasts, God hath put under man,
and made him to have dominion over
them. And were we to attempt to
enumerate all the temporal benefits
of God, we should find it impossible
to number only them that are in one
particular country. There is no fruit,
but it is a benefit of God ; and let man
enumerate them, one by one, if he be
able. Should not we learn from this
to know our good and bountiful God?
Ps. 65:10, 11. If a great potentate
were to subject to thee his whole king-
dom, and all his dominions, nobles,
and powerful men, nay, all his sub-
jects, and were to command them to
guard, defend, preserve, clothe, cure,
and feed thee, and to take care that
thou want nothing at all, wouldest
thou not love him and account him
a loving, bountiful lord ? How then
oughtest thou to love the Lord thy
God, who has reserved nothing for
himself, but appointed for thy service
all that is in heaven, or comes from
heaven, and all that is upon earth.
He needs no creatures for himself,
and has excepted nothing from thy
service, neither in all the hosts of holy
angels, nor in any of his creatures
under the stars. If we but desire it,
they are ready to serve us ; nay, hell
itself must serve us by bringing upon
us fear and terror, that we may not
sin; and by punishing and tormenting
our enemies and all the wicked, more
than man can desire.

10. II. Let us, upon this ladder of
the creatures, ascend unto God our
Creator, and consider his spiritual
benefits. Has not the Holy Trinity,
each Person in particular, bestowed
upon man great grace and benefi-
cence if The Father has given us his

own Son, and " how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things ?"
Eom. 8:32. Has not God the Son
given us himself, and all he is, and all
he has ? " God commendeth his love
toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us." Eom. 5 :
8. Is not the Holy Ghost within us,
illuminating, purifying, teaching, com-
forting, and adorning our souls with
his gifts ? He " beareth witness with
our spirit that we are the children of
God." Eom. 8 : 16.

11. In a word, God's mercy pours
forth itself entirely upon us, and omits
nothing whereby men could be moved
to love God. The benefits God be-
stows upon us, are so many messen-
gers which he sends for inviting us to
come and to enjoy his love. If thou
shouldest ask the Scriptures, the an-
gels, all the prophets and all the saints
of God, nay, all creatures besides,
" From whence come you ?" they
would answer, "We are the messen-
gers of the mercy of God ; we carry
fire and flames, that the heart of man,
which is cold and incrusted, as it were,
with ice, might be warmed again by
the love of God." Yet all these num-
bers of flaming messengers of God are
not able to warm the dead, cold, and
frozen heart. This, therefore, is the
greatest wonder the devil can effect,
that he makes a human heart so cold,
that warmth cannot be raised therein,
by so many flames of the love of God.

12. Therefore, hearken, thou human
heart, and consider where thy Creator
has placed thee : namely, in the middle
of so many fiery benefits, where the
glorious angels surround thee with
their flaming love, and where there
are so many creatures and messengers
of God, all proclaiming his love unto
thee. Wherein now has God Almighty
transgressed against thee ? "Whereby

Chap. XXIX.]

TBUE CHRISTIANITY.

261

has he deserved, that thou shouldst
not, or canst not, love and praise him ?
If what he has done for thee be too
little, behold, he offers to do still more.
He will create for thee a new heaven
and a new earth, and will build a new,
glorious, heavenly city, which his
glory will lighten; nay, he will illu-
minate thee with his own light and
glory. Eev. 21 : 10, etc. Could a young
woman be so cold, as not to love a
fair and youthful bridegroom, whose
beauty and goodness were praised day
and night, nay, who had delivered her
from death, and adorned her with the
fairest ornaments ? Therefore know,
thou human soul, how cold the devil
has made thee, since thou canst not
be at all warmed by the love of
God.

13. And since God has implanted
love in all human hearts, tell me, if
thy love could be bought of thee, to
whom wouldest thou sell it rather
than to the Lord thy God ? But
thinkest thou, that God has not bought
of thee thy love dear enough, and has
not paid for it a price sufficient ? Hath
He not given thee his dear Son for it,
and Heaven and Earth besides ? All
that thou expectest to gain for thy
love from the world, is as nothing, in
comparison with what God has given
thee, and what He farther has pre-
pared for them that love him. 1 Cor.
2:9; Isa. 64 : 4. The world, perhaps,
gives thee a handful of honor and
riches, accompanied with many trou-
bles, and yet thou lovest it! Why
dost thou not rather love God, the
everlasting Good ? But if thy love is
not to be bought or sold, but rather
will bestow itself freely upon that
which thou likest best, what can love
find that is to be esteemed more than
the supreme, eternal, and most glori-
ous Good ? Everything we love, is

our beauty and ornament: and if thou
lovest God, thou shalt make him
thereby thy beauty and thy ornament.
And since that is lovely which is
beautiful, nothing can ever make thee
more lovely and comely, than the love
of God in thy soul.

14. And lastly, it is but just and
reasonable, that we should love him
" who first loved us." 1 John 4 : 19.
Take account of all the benefits of
God, and sum them up ; so shalt thou
find that all creatures are full of the
love of God. This love follows and
surrounds thee everywhere, so that
thou canst not be rid of it, nor hide
thyself from it. It is too powerful
and overcometh thee ; thou must enjoy
it whether thou wilt or not, unless
thou wouldest live no more.

15. Now we know that brutes love
those by whom they are loved ;
wouldest thou be worse than a brute,
hating thy Benefactor, in whose love
thou livest and movest, standest and
walkest, sleepest and wakest ? But
as a thing that is to be kindled, must
be held to the fire till it take the
flame : so also art thou to expose thy
heart to the fire of the love of God,
till it be kindled and inflamed therein,
which is effected by continual contem-
plations of the benefits of God. As
formerly the priests were commanded
to kindle the sacrifices by the holy
fire (Lev. 6 : 12), so must the eternal
High Priest Jesus Christ, kindle the
sacrifice of thine heart, by the fire of
his Holy Spirit. And this holy fire of
his love was burning toward us from
eternity; for He loved us before the
foundation of the world. Since that,
it has gloriously shown forth itself in
the Lord's incarnation and birth ; and
chiefly in his sufferings and death,
whereby He has bestowed upon us
the highest love ; and this fire of his

262

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

flaming love to us will not be extin-
guished to all eternity. Near this fire
continue thou with thy cold heart,

that thou mayest be kindled with, and
united to, the love of Christ.

CHAPTER XXX.

BEAUTY.

O Lord my God, thou art very great : thou art clothed with honor and majesty ; who coverest
thyself with light as with a garment. — Ps. 104 : 1, 2.

AS nothing is more lovely to a
loving soul than Christ, and no
good higher or more precious than
God himself; so there is also nothing
more beautiful in the sight of such a
one than God. That soul looks upon
God as the highest beauty, with which
nothing: in heaven and earth is to be
compared ; so that all the holy angels
cannot sufficiently praise to all eter-
nity this beauty of God. If all the
holy angels in their lustre, and all the
elect in their glory, were put together,
it would nevertheless appear, that all
their beauty and splendor proceed
from God, who is the eternal glory and
beauty ; and that they are derived
from the everlasting, infinite light and
brightness. For as God is all good,
and the highest good, so He is also all
beauty, ornament, and glory.

2. And when a man beholds in spirit
the glory of God, he forgets all the
creatures, nay, the beauty of all the
angels also; and mourns over nothing
so much, as that he has offended this
great Good with his wickedness, and
this infinite eternal beauty and bright-
ness with his impurity.

3. But because the Son of God, the
brightness of his glory (Heb. 1 : 3),
is become man, He hath made men

partakers of his divine nature, and of
his comeliness (2 Pet. 1:4), so that
all who are in Christ by faith, are
comely and glorious before God. Ps.
16 : 3. He remembers our defects and
filthiness no more; for although his
eyes see, yet the brightness of his
glory, and the love of Christ cover
them. Eph. 5 : 27.

4. The wise heathen Plato, consid-
ering the beauty of the creatures, of
the luminaries, of the firmament, of
the flowers in the fields, of the metals
and animals, has by his reason drawn
the conclusion, that God must of ne-
cessity be an eternal Being, beautiful
above all things, because the beauty
of all the creatures must be compre-
hended or concentrated in Him. But
we say from the word of God, and the
holy Evangelist St. John : " It doth
not yet appear what we shall be : but
we know, that when He shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is" (1 John 3:2); that we
then, being perfectly renewed after
the likeness of God, shall really be an
image, like unto God, through which
his beauty, brightness, and glory will
shine ; but out of Jesus Christ our
Lord, in the highest brightness and
beauty of all. For in him is all ful-

Chap. XXXI.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

263

ness; and so it has pleased the Father
that " in him should all fulness dwell"
(Col. 1: 19); and that "in him should
be gathered together in one all things,
both which are in heaven, and which
are on earth" ( Eph. 1 : 10 ) ; which no
finite creature can comprehend.

5. Therefore angels and men shall
admire the brightness and beauty of
Christ, especially the chosen children
of God, " whose vile bodies shall be

fashioned like unto his glorious body."
Phil. 3 : 21. And this is what Daniel
says, " They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteous-
ness, as the stars for ever and ever."
Dan. 12 : 3. And as the 104th Psalm,
ver. 2, says of God, " Thou coverest
thyself with light/' so our covering or
garment will also be nothing else but
light and brightness.

CHAPTER XXXI.

SHOWING HOW GOD MANIFESTS HIMSELF TO THE LOVING SOUL AS THE INFINITE

OMNIPOTENCE.

O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee ? or to thy faithfulness round

about thee ?— Ps. 89 : 8.

THE love of God wills, that a loving
soul should do good to all men, and
be profitable both to foes and friends;
not for the sake of its own profit and
honor, but only for the sake of the
love of God, which, as it were, moves
his omnipotence to draw nigh unto
us; which also, from its infinite treas-
ure, gives us all we have, to the end
that we should give again from love
what the love of God has given us out
of the treasury of his omnipotence.

2. Therefore, O man, be careful that
thou appropriate nothing to thyself,
but restore all to the omnipotence of
God, who himself is all that thou hast
and art. JSTo creature can either give to,
or take away from, thee ; it is only the
omnipotence of God which can do it.
Nor can any creature comfort thee;
the love of God alone can do it.

3. In this love, the loving soul sees
the fulness of God's incomprehensible
omnipotence, which comprehends in
itself heaven and earth, the sea and

the dry land, but cannot be compre-
hended by any thing. For the whole
world is to the omnipotence of God
" as a drop of a bucket, and as the
small dust of the balance." Isa. 40 :
15.

4. And out of this fulness of God's,
omnipotence, all the powers of angels,,
men, and all other creatures, proceed.
It sustains the firmament of Heaven.
The motions of the sea and the pow-
ers of the earth proceed from it ; so
that heaven and earth are full of God,
full of the divine power and operation,
full of the Spirit of the Lord. The
power of God, which is the might of
his love, comprehends, incloses, andi
replenishes all things, but is compre-
hended by none. Ps. 139 : 2, etc.

5. As high as God is over all things,,
so deeply also is he in all things, and:
all things are in him, according to St..
Paul, who says, "Of him, and through,
him, and to him, are all things " (Bom..
11:36); and again, "Who is above;

264

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IL

all, and through all, and in you all."
Eph. 4 : 6.

6. Since God is so great and over
all things, nothing surely can be equal
to him ; and he that will be so, makes
himself a god, commits the greatest
sin, and falls into the pit of perdition.
And since God is all, all that is with-
out him must be as nothing. There-
fore from God's omnipotence, man
learns to know his own nothingness,
and to fear God, who delights in them
only that " humble themselves under
his mighty hand." 1 Peter 5 : 6.

7. Now as great and high as God is
in his omnipotence, even so low is he
made by his love. Behold our Lord
Jesus Christ, the living Son, the pow-
erful arm of God, by whom were all
things created, and by whom all
things consist (1 Col. 1 : 16, 17) ; how
deeply has he descended by his love,
and how lowly and humble has he
»made himself among all creatures !

8. Therefore, even as we cannot
fathom, much less express in words,
the omnipotence of God; so neither
can we fathom with our thoughts
the humility and lowliness of Christ.
Nevertheless, as deep as is his de-
scent, so high is also his ascent far
above all heavens. Eph. 4 : 10. Unto
him be honor and praise to all eternity.
Amen.

O God ! O Jesus ! O blessed Spirit !
Thou unchangeable mind! Thou in-
extinguishable light! Thou Peace
which cannot be disturbed! Thou in-
divisible unity ! Thou infallible truth !
Thou ineffable bounty ! Thou immea-
surable might ! Thou infinite wis-
dom ! Thou incomprehensible Good-
ness ! Thou omnipresent eternity !
Thou Life of all the living ! Do Thou
enlighten me, do Thou sanctify me, do
Thou quicken me!

CHAPTER XXXII.

SHOWING HOW THE LOVING SOUL KNOWS GOD AS THE HIGHEST RIGHTEOUSNESS

AND HOLINESS.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep. — Ps. 36 : 6.

ALL who love God acknowledge
him to >be the highest and most
holy righteousness, which pervades
.all, and is over all. This in God is
his most holy will ; in angels holy obe-
dience ; in man, the testimony of his
conscience ; in all creatures, it is the
order of nature, whereby God has or-
dered all things in number, weight,
;and measure. All that is done against
this order, is contrary to God and
:nature.

2. All sins, therefore, in the worldj
are committed against God's right-
eousness, and the sinner thereby of-
fends all creatures, even all the angels
in heaven, and his own conscience,
and sets them in hostility against
himself. For when God is offended
and provoked to anger, all creatures
are also offended and made angry; so,
too, when God is reconciled, all crea-
tures are reconciled also, and rejoice
over such a man. Hence St. Paul says,

Chap. XXXII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

265

that all things are reconciled by Christ,
whether they be " things in earth or
things in heaven " (Col. 1 : 20) : and
this, because God is reconciled through
him. Therefore the Lord says, " There
is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth."
Luke 15 : 10. The angels rejoice for
man's own 6ake.

3. But if God be not reconciled to
man, all creatures, angels, and nature
itself, execute vengeance upon him.
Hence come the dreadful judgments
of God : and it is impossible to avert
such vengeance and judgments. "Thou
art to be feared, O God ; and who may
stand in thy sight when once thou art
angry? Thou didst cause judgment
to be heard from heaven ; the earth
feared, and was still.7' Ps. 76 : 7, 8.
Thus may we see in the plagues of
Egypt how all creatures executed
vengeance upon the wicked.

4. From the most holy righteous-
ness of God, when offended, proceeds
also the curse ; as Moses, the man of
God, witnesses, when he speaks of the
transgression of the divine law. Deut.
27 : 15, etc.

5. It is a curse when the justice of
God executes such vengeance, that the
cursed cannot enjoy any good, either
from God or the creature, but is made
an "abhorring unto all flesh." Isa.
66 : 24. "A curse is a liableness and
condemnation unto eternal misery."
Therefore a curse is terrible and dread-
ful unto all creatures, so that they
cannot endure it. And this is the
highest vengeance of the justice of
God.

6. From the most holy righteous-
ness of God proceed also those won-
derful, unsearchable, secret, dreadful
judgments, whereof David says, " Thy
judgments are a great deep" (Ps. 36 :
7); and St. Paul, "How unsearchable

are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out!" Eom. 11 : 33.

7. When, therefore, we consider them,
we see therein the righteousness of God,
of which the man of God, Moses, says,
" To me belongeth vengeance, and rec-
ompense," saith the Lord. " If I whet
my glittering sword, and mine hand
take hold on judgment, I will render
vengeance to mine enemies, and will
reward them that hate me. Eejoice,
O ye nations, with his people ! for he
will avenge the blood of his servants,
and will render vengeance to his ad-
versaries, and will be merciful unto
his land and to his people." Deut. 32:
35, 41, 43.

8. In these words, Moses declares
the vengeance of God upon all the
wicked, who resist the righteousness
of God. Against them God will whet
his glittering sword ; that is, his dread-
ful sentence and judgment, at which
the earth feareth, and is still. Ps.
76 : 8. And him, upon whom God exe-
cutes his vengeance and judgment,
all the world cannot save; according
to the words of the Psalm : "O Lord
God, to whom vengeance belongeth ;
O God, to whom vengeance belongeth,
shew thyself. Lift up thyself, thou
Judge of the earth ; render a reward
to the proud." Ps. 94 : 1, 2. Here we
read that although the Lord God is a
gracious, loving, kind, merciful, long-
suffering God, to all them that fear
him, he is nevertheless a just judge,
according to his righteousness, of all
the wicked that transgress against his
righteousness.

9. He, therefore, sets before us in
his word, not only instances of his
grace and mercy, but also of his jus-
tice and vengeance ; such as those of
the deluge, Sodom and Gomorrah,
Pharaoh in Egypt, and in the Bed
Sea; Korah, Dathan, and Abiram;

266

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

Saul, Ahithophel, Ahab, Jezebel, Neb-
uchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Sennacherib;
and in the New Testament, Herod,
and many more; in every one of
whom, we may see the wonderful
judgment and vengeance of God.
Therefore he is called, a God of ven-
geance, " unto whom vengeance be-
longeth," because he is the most holy,
and the most righteous God; nay,
righteousness itself. Therefore, the
saints (Eev. 6 : 10) appeal to the jus-
tice of God with a loud voice, say-
ing: "How long, O Lord, holy and
true, dost thou not judge and avenge
our blood on them that dwell on the
earth ?"

10. Such judgments of God are ex-
ecuted daily, but are rightly under-
stood only by believing and holy souls,
according to the words of the Psalm :
" With thine eyes shalt thou behold
and see the reward of the wicked."
Ps. 91 : 8. This saying is not to be
understood according to carnal pas-
sions and aifections, but it is to be
considered spiritually; for it imports
that we are to give unto the Lord our

God, the praise of his righteousness ;
and to say, " Eighteous art thou, O
Lord, and upright are thy judgments"
(Ps. 119 : 137) ; and " The Lord is right-
eous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works." Ps. 145 : 17. Thus holy and
believing souls delight to see the won-
derful judgments of God; yet not ac-
cording to the flesh, so as to rejoice
over the destruction and perdition of
the wicked (which would proceed from
self-revenge); but, according to the
spirit, they take delight, that is, they
acknowledge and praise the righteous-
ness of God, who fulfilleth his word,
and is a righteous God. And a^ the
same time, they lament and weep over
the perdition of the wicked, even as
our Saviour wept over Jerusalem
(Luke 19 : 41) ; and as David wept
over Absalom. 2 Sam. 18 : 33.

11. So, then, we are here to have a
twofold respect, namely, to God and to
men. If we look upon the destruction
of men, we are justly to be sorrowful;
but if we look upon God, we are to
praise his justice, for he doeth wrong
unto none. Ps. 92 : 15.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SHOWING HOW THE LOVING SOUL CONSIDERS GOD AS THE ETERNAL WISDOM.

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. — Acts 15 : 18.

GOD ordains, governs, moves, and
regulates all things according to
his unsearchable wisdom, as it is writ-
ten (Isa. 45:4-12): "I have even
called thee by thy name ; I have sur-
named thee, though thou hast not
known me. I am the Lord, and there
is none else, there is no God besides
me. — 1 form the light, and create
darkness; I make peace, and create

evil; I the Lord do all these things.
— Woe unto him that striveth with his
Maker! Let the potsherd strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the
clay say to him that fashioneth it,
What makest thou ? or thy work, He
hath no hands? Woe unto him that
saith unto his father, What begettest
thou? or to the woman, What hast
thou brought forth? Thus saith the

Chap. XXXIII.]

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

267

Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his
Maker, Ask me of things to come con-
cerning my sons, and concerning the
work of my hands command ye me.
I have made the earth, and created
man upon it : I, even my hands, have
stretched out the heavens, and all their
host have I commanded."

2. This is a powerful testimony con-
cerning the eternal wisdom, and the
wondrous, incomprehensible govern-
ment of Almighty God, which may
he first observed in this, that he has
called every one of us by his name,
and has surnamed us, though we did
notwnow him, and were not yet in
being. This our name by which God
calleth us, is our faith, our outward
calling, and our whole course of life.
There we are inclosed in, or surround-
ed with, God's eternal wisdom and
providence, as it respects our whole
life, its beginning, middle, and end
(Ps. 139 : 16), or as to our going out
and coming in. Ps. 121:8. "Hetelleth
the number of the stars; he calleth
them all by their names " (Ps. 147 :
4) ; that is, he gives them their courses,
powers, and operations. How much
more doth he so in reference to men !
God forms the light and creates dark-
ness. He makes peace, and creates
evil ; that is, as to the evil of punish-
ment, the just reward of sin ; this he
creates and permits; nay, he calls the
sword, and causes an alarm of war to
be heard. Jer. 49 : 2.

3. In a word, he ordains all things
wisely. He sees and hears all things
before, according to the words of the
Psalmist: "Understand, ye brutish
among the people: and ye fools, when
will ye be wise ? He that planted the
ear, shall he not hear? He that
formed the eye, shall he not see ? He
that chastiseth the heathen, shall not
he correct? He that teacheih man

knowledge, shall not he know?" Ps.
94:8-10.

4. Here king David teaches us that
God has laid a mirror of his omnisci-
ence and eternal wisdom into man,
into the hearing ear, and seeing eye,
those twTo wonderful powers of the
human body.

5. It is extremely offensive to a man,
to hear and see anything unjust or un-
reasonable; how much more to God,
who has an all-seeing eye and an all-
hearing ear, must men's ingratitude
be offensive; he having ordained all
things by his wisdom, in order to be
serviceable unto men. He has made
the sun by his wisdom to give light,
not unto itself, but to us; the water
affords drink, not to itself, but unto
us ; the earth brings forth fruits, not
for itself, but for us ; the fire warms,
not for itself, but for us; the air gives
breath, not to itself, but to us; the
bread feeds, not itself, but us ; the
herbs do not heal themselves, but us.

6. The eternal wisdom of God has
planted so many powers in the crea-
tures, and has so wisely distributed
them, that they are, as it were, so
many hands through which the wis-
dom and goodness of God divide these
treasures among us, according to the
words of Job: " Who knoweth not in
all these, that the hand of the Lord
hath wrought this? In whose hand is
the soul of every living thing, and the
breath of all mankind." Job 12 : 9, 10.
And "Ask now the beasts, and they
shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the
air, and they shall tell thee " (ver.
7); that "with God is wisdom and
strength, he hath counsel and under-
standing. Behold, he breaketh down,
and it cannot be built again : he shut-
teth up a man, and there can be no
opening." Yer. 13, 14. " He stretcheth
out the north over the empty place,

268

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

and hangeth the earth upon* nothing.
He bindeth up the waters in his thick
clouds, and the cloud is not rent under
them." Job 26 : 7, 8.

7. Since then the Lord our God or-
daineth all things by his wisdom, he
ordaineth all our crosses; and there-
fore we are not to murmur, but to
praise his wisdom, and to learn pa-
tience; for things cannot proceed oth-
erwise than as they are ordained by
God. But not only the things that
befall us in particular, are the most
wise order of God; but also all great
national plagues, famine, pestilence,
wars, and revolutions of states. And
although we may think that these are
nothing but confusion, perdition, and
destruction, yet there reigns the wisest
order of God. This we may gather
from the histories of Holy Writ, where
famine, wars, pestilence, desolations
of the kingdoms of the world, the de-
struction of the Jewish kingdom, and
of empires, the Babylonian Captivity,
and many similar even ts, are described.
"I know," saith Solomon (Eccles. 3 :
14), " that whatsoever God doeth, it
shall be forever : nothing can be put
to it, nor anything taken from it : and
God doeth it, that men should fear be-
fore him."

8. And again, "Consider the work
of God; for who can make that
straight, which he hath made crook-
ed ?" Eccles. 7 : 13.

9. If we consider it aright, we must
own that God could not have ordered
things more wisely. So we may say
also, with reference to the persecu-
tions of the saints, both in the Old
and New Testament ; to our Lord
Jesus Christ; the holy Gospel; the
holy martyrs; and all other things.
In our sight, these all seem to be ab-
surd, and foolish, and yet they are the
highest wisdom of God.

10. As then we are to give unto
God the praise of righteousness, in all
his wonderful judgments; so we are
also to give unto him the praise of
wisdom, in all the wonderful changes
of the world, and in all our crosses
and sufferings; knowing that he can
direct all evils to a good end, and out
of evil derive good: so that in all
things, how confused soever they may
appear unto us, there shineth forth his
wisdom, even as his righteousness
doth in all his judgments.

11. But the loving soul sees the wis-
dom of God especially in the restora-
tion and redemption of the human%ce,
and in the renovation of the soul and
the faculties thereof. For so it pleased
the wisdom of God, that the corrupt
image of God in man, should be re-
newed by the divine substantial image
of God, that is, by Christ. After man
had lost by sin that blessed wisdom,
that glorious light of his intellect, by
which he knew God aright, and so
had fallen into the utmost blindness,
nay, into eternal darkness, wherein
he must have dwelt forever ; the Son
of God, who is the eternal wisdom of
the Father, became man, and a light
of life unto men (John 1: 4), that he
might bring back those that had gone
astray ; that he might teach the igno-
rant; call to himself the sinners; and
rekindle in them the light of the
knowledge of God by faith and the
Holy Ghost; nay, that he might unite
himself to the soul of man, and might
shine forth therein.

12. Secondly : after the will of man
was entirely turned away from God,
perverted, and wholly changed into
disobedience, striving against God in
all things; the Son of God was made
man, that he might be unto us a pat-
tern of perfect obedience; that he
might heal our evil will ; implant his

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

269

good will in our hearts ; renew our will
through the Holy Ghost; and make us
partakers of his holy obedience by
faith; according to those words of
Scripture (Gal. 3 : 14), "That we might
receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith ;" nay, that he might
unite himself to us, and live in us,
that so our will also might be made
conformable unto God.

13. Thirdly : because the affections
of our hearts, and all our faculties,
were in contrariety to God, and
" every imagination of the thoughts
of our hearts, was only evil contin-
ually " (Gen. 6:5); the Son of God,
who is love itself, became man, that
he might give us a heart wholly new;
that he might plant therein the love
of God, and sincere humility and
meekness ; that he might take from

us the old carnal heart, and unite him-
self with us, that so we might be made
of one heart, mind, and spirit with
him ; all which are the fruits of his
most holy incarnation wrought in us.

14. And this is the highest wisdom
of God, that by his dear Son, He thus
reneweth man. For as God has cre-
ated man by his wisdom, after his per-
fect image ; so He hath also, by his
dear Son, who is eternal wisdom, and
who was made man, created man anew,
and regenerated him to a new image
of God, wherein his wisdom, glory,
and righteousness should shine forth
forever. It is in this chiefly that the
image of God consists.

15. Thus the corrupt image of God
in man, is renewed by the substantial
image of God, which is Christ.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SHOWING HOW A MAN SHOULD SEEK THE WISDOM OF GOD BY PRAYER; CON-
TAINING ALSO A USEFUL TREATISE ON PRAYER, WHEREIN THE READER IS
TAUGHT HOW THE HEART IS TO BE MOVED UNTO PRAYER, AND BROUGHT
INTO A QUIET SABBATH, SO THAT PRAYER MAY BE WROUGHT IN US BY THE
LORD; THE WHOLE BEING SET FORTH IN TWELVE SECTIONS.

SECTION I.

ALL THAT WE HAVE LOST IN ADAM WE
RECOVER FULLY AND COMPLETELY IN
CHRIST.

In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. — Col. 2 : 3.

IN the beginning God formed man
out of the dust of the earth, and
breathed into him the breath of life,
and man became a living and immor-
tal soul, adorned with perfect wisdom,
righteousness, holiness, and blessed-
ness, after the image of his Creator.

For where there is divine wisdom,
there is blessedness ; and where there
is blessedness there is divine wisdom.
Man, therefore, wanted nothing in
Paradise to make him completely
happy. But when, being seduced by
the temptation of the serpent, he
turned away from God, and fell into
sin, then was this divine image in
man effaced, and he became subject
to the devil, to death, and to misery.
For as soon as this divine image was
defaced in him by sin, he could dis-

270

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

cover nothing in himself but misery,
blindness, and the curse.

2. But in order that Adam, that is,
all men in Adam, might not utterly
perish, God himself was made man ;
that is, he was pleased to send his
Son to take our nature upon him, and
to be born of a virgin. The Son of
God has, by his holy life and doctrine,
as by a pattern, shown us again the
way of wisdom and salvation in which
we are to walk. For he has not only
delivered us from our sins by his most
bitter death, but has moreover given
us a commandment, that "we should
walk, even as he also walked/' 1 John
2 :6.

3. We are, therefore, begotten again
by him, through faith, to be the sons
of God; nay, we are made sons of
God in and with his own Son. For
" as he is, so are we also in this
world." 1 John 4 : 17.

4. In this Son " all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge are hidden."
For whatsoever was lost in Adam, is
perfectly to be found in Christ. Eom.
5 : 18, 19.

5. If we would, in this life, have a
foretaste of these great and glorious
treasures, it must be obtained by
prayer, diligent searching, and feon-
tinual knocking. For no man can
have admission into the kingdom of
God, unless he walk in the new birth,
and seek it earnestly of God. No man
can be delivered from the power of
sin and the devil, unless he repent,
and offer up his prayers in the name
of Christ. For though Christ has
purchased for us all good things, yet
without faith no man can be partaker
of them ; in and by faith he must also
pray, seek, and knock. In a word, it
is by prayer only that we can obtain
those "good and perfect gifts which

come down from above, from the
Father of lights." James 1 : 17.

A PRAYER.

O Eternal God and Father, teach
me, I beseech thee, by thy Holy
Spirit, that even as I have lost all by
dying in Adam, so I may recover all
by being made alive again in Christ.
Grant that I may daily die to my-
self, by continual mortification and
repentance, and devote and give my-
self up entirely to thee; that so all
the good things which I have lost
may be restored to me, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

SECTION II.

THE EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE NEGLECT OF
PßAYER.

Ye have not, because ye ash not. — James 4 : 2.

1. The neglect of prayer is a viola-
tion of the commandments of Christ,
who commands us to "pray without
ceasing" (Matt. 7:7; Luke 18 : 1), not
for His sake, for he well knows what
we stand in need of (Matt. 6: 32); but
for our own, that we may have a por-
tion of the treasures and inheritance of
God. He that lives in the neglect of
prayer is a breaker of the first and
second commandments, even as to blas-
pheme God is to bring voluntary de-
struction upon himself.

2. He that neglects the duty of
prayer is a despiser of the promises
annexed to the performance of that
duty. "Call upon me, and I will de-
liver thee" (Ps. 50: 15); "Ask, and ye
shall receive" (John 16:24); for he
thereby represents God as unmindful
of his promises, or as not able to fulfil
them.

3. By the neglect of prayer, our
faith, which is the great treasure and
foundation of the inward man, by de-

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

271

grees decays and perishes. For not
by the arm or power of flesh, but by
faith in Christ, can we conquer sin,
death, and the devil. 1 John 5 : 4.
Prayer is the nourishment of faith;
and this is that wisdom and eternal
life which we must seek for by dili-
gent prayer.

4. The Lord Jesus departs from
them that despise prayer; so that
they are blinded and walk in dark-
ness, knowing neither themselver nor
God, but are strangers to his will.
They shut the kingdom of heaven
against themselves; and, being desti-
tute of light to know the will of God,
they fall into many dangers and
temptations, and sometimes into de-
spair: whereas, on the contrary, where
there are the Holy Spirit and faith,
there the world is overcome.

5. He that neglects prayer enters
into a state of carnal security, and
every kind of iniquity. Such a man
is not sensible how deeply he is en-
gaged in sin; but rushes into all the
avenues of destruction which lie open
to receive him. The good things of
this world which God has given him,
such as health and riches, he regards
as things that come by chance, or are
secured by his own labor; and upon
that account he has no gratitude to
his Creator and Benefactor.

6. As man, since his fall, is exposed
to continual dangers, both of body
and soul, so is he particularly in
danger from the devil, evil spirits,
and wicked men, who, like the devil,
are continually plotting the destruc-
tion of the righteous. Whosoever,
therefore, neglects prayer, will be, in
the midst of these temptations, like a
ship tost in a storm, without help or
hopes of escape.

7. Such a one also leads a most un-
happy life; he is in continual diffi-

culties and fears, being perplexed,
doubtful, and uneasy about the suc-
cess of his affairs. His head and
hands are full of business; yet he
sees but little fruit of his labors, and
even that little is in the end unblessed.
Therefore, though the Scripture says
.hat "the wicked may be seen in
great power," yet it adds, " they pass
away, and are not." Ps. 37 : 35, 36.
They are "like the chaff which the
wind driveth away." Ps. 1:4. On the
other hand, they that seek unto God
by prayer "shall flourish like a palm
tree, and grow like a cedar in Leba-
non." Ps. 92:12. And "though many
are the afflictions of the righteous"
(Ps. 34 : 19), yet the wicked undergo
more pain and trouble to go to hell
than the righteous do to obtain
heaven.

A PRAYER.

Most merciful and compassionate
Father, thou knowest that man ren-
ders himself miserable by his own neg-
ligence and sloth, whilst he trans-
gresses thy commands, and neglects
the duty of prayer, contemning and
slighting thy most certain and faith-
ful promises. But because thou lovest
thy creatures, and art not willing that
any should perish, therefore it is that
thou dost so earnestly invite us to the
exercise of prayer. Give me grace
to lay this continually to heart, that
I may be able to offer up my prayers
aright, through thy Son Jesus Christ,
and be delivered from the punish-
ments and miseries due to the des-
pisers of that holy duty. Amen.

SECTION III.

THE BENEFITS OF CONTINUAL PRAYER.

Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy

may be full. — John 16 : 24.

1. Man. since his fall, is become sloth-
ful and inactive in everything that is

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

good. He, therefore, that would escape
this unhappy state, and the destruction
that will certainly attend it, must stir
himself up by prayer; and by holy
meditation conquer his aversion to
divine things, and devoutly consider
with himself the advantages of prayer.
Let him reflect, that he thereby praises,
honors, and adores the eternal, living,
and true God ; that he does not worship
any strange God; but offers up his
most earnest supplications to the only
one and true God, whose commands,
like an obedient child, he ought to
obey, and show forth the praises of
his Creator, Father, and Saviour.

2. He that prays does not despise
the promises of God, but testifies by
his prayers that he sets a just value
upon them, acknowledging that God
is true, and that he neither can nor
will lie.

8. Prayer is the life of faith, causing
it to flourish and prosper like a tree
by the river side, and faith is the root
of all that is good in us. Faith is our
power, our spiritual consolation, our
strength against all our enemies and
temptations, yea, faith is our " victory
that overcometh the world" (1 John
5:4); and consequently everything
else that opposes and hinders us in
our spiritual warfare.

4. By prayer, we receive the Holy
Spirit. Luke 11 : 13 ; Zech. 12 : 10. By
prayer, we make room for the Holy
Spirit to work and exert his power in
us, and by this means to come and
make his abode with us. John 14 : 23.
By prayer, we obtain the true light
and knowledge of God, so as perfectly
to understand his will ; and, by prayer,
we abide in his kingdom, and are par-
takers of the blessings of heaven.

5. By prayer, we shake off carnal
security, resist sin, and, by vanquish-
ing flesh and blood, " fight the good

fight, and hold faith and a good con-
science." 1 Tim. 1 : 19 ; 6 : 12.

6. By prayer, we oppose tempta-
tions, dangers, afflictions, the devil,
and wicked men. For prayer is a
strong tower of defence against our
enemies, and the holy fortress to which
we must have recourse (Eph. 6 : 18 ;
Prov. 18 : 10; Ps. 31 : 3); and though
the devil and wicked men raise the
greatest opposition, yet " all things
work together for good to them that
love God." Eom. 8 : 28.

7. Lastly, he that continually watches
unto prayer may always thankfully re-
joice in the Holy Ghost; according to
the doctrine of St. Paul, " Eejoice ever-
more ; pray without ceasing; in every-
thing give thanks." 1 Thess. 5 : 16-18.
For the comfortable addresses made
to God, the eternal King, by prayer,
are an effectual remedy against sor-
row, trouble, misery, and affliction ;
and produce joy, peace, and tranquil-
lity in the hearts of the faithful; and
when our prayers are right, we are
assured that all our righteous designs
shall prosper in our hands "whilst
we cast our care upon God." 1 Pet.
5:7. " The Lord is at hand. Be care-
ful for nothing." Phil. 4 : 5, 6. " Com-
mit thy way unto the Lord ; trust
also in him, and he shall bring it
to pass." Ps. 37 : 5. For all solici-
tude arises from a distrust of God,
which naturally proceeds from the
neglect of prayer. On the contrary,
faith and prayer give us confidence
towards God, and are the proper anti-
dote against all anxiety and trouble
of mind.

A PRAYER.

Help me, O Lord my God, that I
may continually call to mind, that it
is for my own sake that thou invitest
and urgest me to the exercise of prayer.

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEÜE CHBISTIANITY.

273

Do thou rouse me, and I shall arise ;
awaken thou me, and I shall awake,
and follow Christ alone. Amen.

SECTION IV.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN" CHOOSES THE NAR-
ROW WAY IN CHRIST, RATHER THAN THE
BROAD WAY IN ADAM.

We glory in tribulations. — Rom. 5 : 3.

1. The Scripture teaches us that
when Adam was placed in Paradise,
God showed him the tree of the knowl-
edge of good and evil, and forbade him
to eat of it (Gen. 2:9, 17); so that
Adam was thus placed between time
and eternity. Life and death, light and
darkness (Deut. 30 : 15), were set be-
fore him, that he might qualify himself
for eternal glory in the narrow way.
Our case is just the same. For since
the fall of Adam, Christ comes to us,
and endeavors to draw us from the
broad way in Adam, to the narrow
way, which is himself; and this he
does gently and without violence, re-
solving to force no man either to his
salvation or his condemnation. He
shows us the way by his prevenient
grace, which is bestowed on all men
without exception. Christ now says,
" Enter ye in at the strait gate; for
wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction; and many
there be that go in thereat. Because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the
way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it." Matt. 7 : 13, 14.

2. Here we plainly see two paths
set before us : the one is the way of
the world, in which many walk, be-
cause they continue in Adam, and re-
fuse Christ ; the other is the way of
God, in which few walk, because they
prefer the broad way in Adam. Many
are the difficulties which attend both
these paths. If you conform yourself
to the world, you will meet with many

troubles and vexations ; and, not being
established in the truth of God, your
lot finally is eternal damnation. But if
you enter into the way of God through
Christ, and persevere in prayer, you
must expect to suffer with Christ, from
the opposition of this evil world : but,
at the same time, your heart shall be
constantly filled with the refreshing
consolations of the Spirit of truth, and
in the end, you shall obtain everlasting
life. 2 Tim. 2 : 11, 12 ; 3 : 12.

3. He that prays, fights against the
devil and his own corrupt nature -y
overcomes himself, the devil, and all
the enemies of his salvation ; and shall
at last with Christ, the Captain of his-
salvation (Heb. 2 : 10), enter into ever-
lasting rest.

4. But he that lives in the neglect
of prayer, makes no progress in the
conquest of his spiritual enemies; but
is a miserable slave of the world, and
shall at last, with the prince of dark-
ness, be condemned to everlasting
misery.

5. It is better to fight now, and to
enter triumphantly into everlasting
glory, than not to fight, and yet en-
dure many afflictions, and at last be
doomed to everlasting destruction.

A PRAYER.

Oh that men would but consider
these things ! They would then loathe
and despise this present world; would
hate and deny themselves, and would
follow Christ alone, in the narrow way
of the cross. That we may, there-
fore, seriously lay these things to
heart ; that we may renounce the old
Adam within us, and put on the new
man, Christ Jesus: and at last,
through the narrow way, enter into
everlasting life, may God of his in-
finite mercy grant, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

18

274

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[Book II.

SECTION V.

CONSIDERATIONS WHICH SHOULD MOVE THE
HEART TO COMMUNE WITH GOD IN
PRAYER.

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a
God afar off?— Jer. 23 : 23.

1. It is of great use to us, to have be-
fore us certain heads which may serve
as encouragements to the exercise of
earnest prayer, which is that worship
in spirit and in truth, which God re-
quires of all his servants.

2. I. First, then, we must consider
that "God knows what things we
have need of, before we ask him."
Matt. 6 : 8.

3. II. That God draws, invites, and
encourages us to the exercise of pray-
er, and assuredly promises that he
will hear our prayers. Ps. 50 : 15.

4. III. That God is no respecter of
persons, but has an equal regard for
all mankind. Acts 10 : 34.

5. IY. That he is as sinful who pre-
sumes to pray upon the opinion of his
own righteousness, merit, and holiness,
as he that is afraid to pray out of a
sense of his own sins and unworthi-
ness. Luke 18 : 11, 14.

6. V. That God is not confined to
any certain place, where only we
ought to worship him ; but that he is
everywhere to be found, and is always
"nigh to them that call upon him."
John 4 : 21, 22 ; Ps. 145 : 18.

7. VI. That God is, in his own
eternity, unchangeable, and not con-
fined to any certain time; but is al-
ways attentive to the prayers of his
servants. 1 Thess. 5 : 17.

8. VII. That God anticipates our
prayers, and gives us both natural and
supernatural blessings, which yet,
without prayer, nobody can truly
enjoy.

9. These considerations will renew
and awaken every soul that shall duly

attend to them (Eph. 5 : 14) : they will
cleanse them from darkness and error;
establish them on the foundation of
truth; elevate them towards God;
and inflame them with a lively devo-
tion. For from them flow the follow-
ing lessons :

10. I. That God commands and en-
courages us to pray, not for His own
sake, as if He were ignorant of our
wants, but for our sakes, that being
quickened by prayer we might know
and acknowledge them ourselves.

11. II. That God does not stand in
need of any minute declarations of
our necessities, but knows, even before
we ask him, what things we have
need of. Isa. 65 : 24 ; Ps. 139 : 2.

12. III. That God, who never slum-
bereth nor sleepeth, needs not to be
awakened by our cries, fastings, and
watchings ; but that these exercises
are profitable for man, to awaken and
rouse him from the sleep of sin. Ps.
33:18; 34:15.

13. IV. That God ' is a thousand
times more ready to give, than man is
to receive. Jer. 32 : 41.

14. V. That the goodness and mercy
of God towards mankind are infinite
(Ps. 103 : 12), but that the negligence
and sloth of men in praying, seeking,
and knocking, are excessive. Matt.
7 : 7.

15. VI. That God is impartial and
just in all his works, and is by no
means the cause of our blindness, in-
firmities, ignorance, or miseries ; but
that wretched man himself is in fault,
by neglecting to pray or to seek.
Dent. 32 : 4 ; Ps. 92 : 15.

16. VII. That the true worshipper
may at all times and in all places, of-
fer up his prayers in spirit and in
truth to God the Father, through
Christ, provided he do not hinder him-
self. John 4 : 21, 23 ; Luke 18 : 1, etc.

Chap. XXXIV.]

TKTJE CHRISTIANITY.

275

17. VIII. That whosoever neglects
prayer, deprives himself of the hlessed
opportunities of speaking to God. Ps.
19 : 14. Thus the sinner inflicts pun-
ishment on himself.

18. IX. That the diligent worship-
per doeth good to himself; not of him-
self, but by the prevenient grace of
God, which is freely given to all men
without exception.

19. Let him that is unacquainted
with the preceding heads of medita-
tion, know that he is still far from
Christ, and has tasted but little of the
truth. He who knows them, and be-
lieves them not, is guilty of a very
great sin; and, lastly, he that believes
them and yet is inactive, and does not
stir up himself to the practice of
them, but, on the other hand, lives on
from day to day, in a state of doubt
and indifference, is a great sinner, and
shall be beaten with many more stripes
than he who knew not his Lord's will,
and therefore did it not. Luke 12 : 47.
Let the one last mentioned look care-
fully to himself, that he may be seri-
ously converted, and not perish in his
sins.

A PRAYER.

O Lord, and merciful Father, awak-
en me by thy Holy Spirit, that I may
not only know these things, but may
practise them by a lively faith, and be-
come a true worshipper in spirit and
in truth. Amen.

SECTION VI.

THE OMNISCIENT GOD KNOWS WHAT WE

STAND IN NEED OF, BEFORE WE ASK HIM.

Thou tinderstandest my thought afar off. —

Ps. 139:2.

1. The truth of these words is con-
firmed by our blessed Saviour : " Your
Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him " (Matt. 6 :
8) ; and by David : " He that planted

the ear, shall he not hear?" (Ps. 94 : 9);
and by St. Paul : " He is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the
heart." Heb. 4 : 12. For our God is
not as man, who stands in need of a
long account of our necessities. All
the possible successions of time are in
his sight but as one single moment, in
which all things, both past and to
come, are beheld as actually present.
Therefore, he numbered the hairs of
our heads before we were born, and
understands all our thoughts before
we pray. In a word, all things are
naked and open in his sight. Heb. 4 :
13. These and similar meditations may
be of use, for the encouragement of
those who begin the exercise of prayer;
so that they may always have certain
sentences of Scripture ready at hand,
upon which they may meditate, and
which they may apply to themselves,
by comprising the sense of them in a
short prayer. This will be easily un-
derstood by those that are exercised
herein.

2. A man that walks abroad in an
open spacious field, and in a clear day,
finds himself encompassed with light;
which light, if it were spiritual, in-
stead of being natural, would even
penetrate the spirit itself. Just so are
all creatures, visible and invisible, in
the sight of God. He discerns and
comprehends all things, and nothing
can be hidden from him. " The dark-
ness hideth not from him ; but the
night shineth as the day." Ps. 139 : 12.
He himself is the all-seeing eye, to
whom all things are as clear as a mote
in transparent crystal would be to our
bodily eyes.

3. This consideration is of great use
to the inexperienced, in order to purge
their hearts from the thick clouds of
darkness and error, and to quicken
them in prayer ; by which, when truly

76

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

roused and awakened, we discover
many great and noble truths that had
hitherto been hidden from our eyes.
Many are apt to think, that God knows
and sees no more than they themselves
do ; which is the effect of egregious
blindness and ignorance, and will merit
a proportionable punishment. Ps. 7 : 9.

A PRAYER.

Almighty and everlasting God and
Father, the Searcher of hearts, and
the Judge of all our secret thoughts,
who seest, knowest, and hearest all
our designs and purposes before they
are brought to pass ! Behold, I appear
before thee, to confess my necessities,
not with any design to awaken thee
by my cries, as if thou wert ignorant
of me, or of my concerns ; but to stir
up myself to know and consider, that
thou knowest all my necessities, and
that the very hairs of my head are
numbered by thee. Assist me, Holy
Father, that I may truly know and
consider these things, that my soul
may joyfully submit to thy good
pleasure, and that I may wait upon
thee in true resignation and obedience.
Amen.

SECTION VII.

THAT GOD INVITES AND ENGAGES ALL MEN
TO THE EXERCISE OP PRAYER, AND PROM-
ISES TO HEAR THEIR PETITIONS.

Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be delivered.— 3 "oel 2 : 32.

1. These words ought to be carefully
considered; for it is not sufficient to
believe that God knows all things ;
we must also remember that God com-
mands us to pray, and promises to
hear us. Thus, " Whatsoever ye shall
ask the Father in my name, he will
give it you." John 16 : 23. " Every one
that asketh, receiveth; and he that
seeketh, findeth \ and to him that

knocketh, it shall be opened." Matt.
7:8. " Men ought always to pray, and
not to faint." Luke 18 : 1. " If any
one lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not, and it shall be given
him." James 1:5. " If we ask any
thing according to his will, he heareth
us." 1 John 5 : 14. " All things what-
soever ye shall ask in prayer, believ-
ing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21 : 22.
In all these places, both a command
and a promise are expressed; which
must needs make an impression upon
every man that has not a heart of
stone; and he that does not believe
them, is in a desperate state, and
deserves not the name of a man. But
if these things are true, and acknowl-
edged to be so, why do we not believe
them ? Why do we not pray ? Why
are not our prayers heard ? Why do
we not receive the gifts and graces of
the Holy Spirit ? Yerily, because we
do not pray with faith, nor wait upon
God with constancy and patience. For
the property of true faith is to submit
ourselves to God, in a quiet and peace-
ful resignation of mind ; but he that
wavers, is unfaithful and inconstant,
and makes his own prayers void.
Moreover, he denies the truth and
power of God, making him either
unable or unwilling to supply our
wants. Both these are signs of a per-
verse spirit.

2. On the other hand, faith gives
quietness to the soul, and makes it
capable of divine grace. God requires
nothing from man but that he should
be quiet, and rest from all his works,
and especially from himself. The
spirit and mind of man are like waters,
upon which the Spirit of God is per-
petually moving. Gen. 1:2. So soon
as our spirit is quiet, and at rest from
the impetuous motions of worldly

Chap. XXXIV.]

TBUE CHEISTIAISTITY.

277

thoughts, then God rests upon it, and
speaks forth the word of his power
into such quiet and still waters; and
the moment of this divine influx is
of more value than the whole world.
Still waters are easily warmed by the
sun, but violent and rapid streams
seldom or never. Unbelief sacrileg-
iously robs God of his honor, destroy-
ing the very names of faith and truth.
This changes the Christian into a
heathen and atheist, and, unless re-
pented of, will lead to his everlasting
destruction.

A PRAYER.

O Eternal, faithful, and righteous
God, who canst not lie ; I know that
thou dost graciously invite, encourage,
and impel all men, for their own infi-
nite advantage, to pray unto thee;
and dost offer thy grace and mercy
equally to them all, without distinction
or partiality. Grant, I beseech thee,
Holy Father, that I may seriously lay
these things to heart, and attain a
true, firm, and upright faith, and not
be deaf to the invitations of thy infi-
nite mercy ; but may constantly and
cheerfully submit myself to thee, and
expect with patience thy light within
my soul. Amen.

SECTION VIII.

GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS, BUT HAS
AN IMPARTIAL LOTE EOR ALL HIS CREA-
TURES.

The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies
are over all his works. — Ps. 145 : 9.

1. I am now indeed convinced (some
one may say), that God knows my
necessities better than I can discover
them to him; that he has commanded
prayer, and promised to hear it : but
I am not yet fully satisfied, whether I
in particular am not excluded from
the benefit of these promises ? — Come,

then, and let us now show that God is
no respecter of persons, in opposition
to those blind guides, who, by their
false interpretations of some places of
Holy Scripture, particularly Rom. 9 :
13, Mai. 1 : 2, and the like, have en-
deavored to prove that God has an
aversion to some particular persons,
and a partial fondness for others; con-
trary to the plain and indisputable
testimonies of Holy Scripture, which
we ought firmly to fix in our minds,
that we may not be perverted by the
false glosses of unreasonable men.
• " Of a truth I perceive that God is
no respecter of persons : but in every
nation, he that feareth him, and work-
eth righteousness, is accepted with
him." Acts 10: 34, 35.

" The Lord your God is God of gods,
and Lord of lords, a great God, a
mighty, and a terrible, which regard-
eth not persons, nor taketh reward.
He doth execute the judgment of the
fatherless and widow, and loveth the
stranger, in giving him food and rai-
ment." Deut. 10 : 17, 18.

" God accepteth* no man's person."
Gal. 2 : 6.

" There is no respect of persons with
God." Col. 3 : 25.

"As I live, saith the Lord God, I
have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn
from his way and live. — As for the
wickedness of the wicked, he shall not
fall thereby in the day that he turneth
from his wickedness. — None of his sins
that he hath committed shall be men-
tioned unto him." Ezek. 33 : 11, 12, 16.

" This is a faithful saying, and wor-
thy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save
sinners; of whom I am chief. How-
beit, for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ miffht
show forth all long-suffering, for a

278

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

pattern to them which should here-
after believe on him to life everlast-
ing." 1 Tim. 1 : 15, 16.

" God will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth." 1 Tim. 2: 4.

" God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to re-
pentance." 2 Pet. 3 : 9.

These and such testimonies of Scrip-
ture ought to be deeply imprinted on
our minds, that every one may know,
that all men are equally dear to God ;
that all men were created by him ac-
cording to his image, and redeemed
by Jesus Christ. Moreover, God has
sworn by himself, that he desires not
the death of a sinner. Hence God
assists us all by his prevenient grace,
not waiting till we are worthy to re-
ceive it. He comes to us, before we
come to him ; he knew us, before we
knew him ; he loveth us, before we
love him ; he loved us while we were
yet his enemies. Rom. 5 : 10. He,
therefore, is blind and impious, who
dares assert that God does not love
all men alike. Sucn a one scorns the
God of heaven, accuses him of in-
justice, and makes him a respecter of
persons.

2. But when it is said that God
loved Jacob, and hated Esau (Rom.
9 : 13), such language is not to be
understood of them personally, or as
indicating only hatred, but refers to
the exclusion from the inheritance in
the land of promise — not to a hatred
which refuses salvation, but to the
refusal of temporal blessings. And
though we are all sinners, yet God
has a greater regard for those that
love him than for those that continue
in their sins and blindness, neither ac-
knowledging God for their Father, nor
bringing forth the fruits of repentance.
God takes no pleasure in the wicked-

ness of these men ; but rather desires
that all should be saved. And whereas
it is said that ' ' he hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy ; and whom he will
he hardeneth" (Rom. 9 : 18); we must
know that he hardeneth none but those
who by their unbelief and impenitence
have hardened themselves. These, in-
deed, he does at length, with reluc-
tance, leave to themselves; and being
thus forsaken, they naturally fall
into a state of entire obduracy. And
whereas it is said, that "it is not of
him that runneth, but of God that
sheweth mercy " (Rom. 9 : 16) ; it is
plain that God doth elect and antici-
pate us by his grace, and not we our-
selves, and that he is the Author and
Giver of all our graces; so that what-
soever good we do, is owing to him,
and not to ourselves.

3. This is the true interpretation of
those places, which some perverse
minds have interpreted, as if God had
decreed to damn a great part of man-
kind (as the poets feigned of Saturn,
who hated and devoured his own chil-
dren). This is a doctrine that tends
directly to subvert our faith, and to
precipitate men into despair, or into
a rude, lawless and Epicurean mode of
life, as appears by woful experience.
From all which snares, and deceits of
the devil, may the Lord deliver us!
Amen.

#

A PRAYER.

O Eternal and most righteous God,
who acceptest not the persons of men ;
but art so just in thy dispensations to-
wards us all, as to anticipate us with
thy grace and favor, not waiting till
we are already worthy, but bestowing
thy prevenient grace to make us so;
teach me, by thy Holy Spirit, grate-
fully to acknowledge thy boundless
mercy towards us. Let thy light arise

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

279

in my heart, that I may not, with the
wicked world, disown that grace which
thou hast already bestowed upon me,
which is that treasure hidden in the
field, the earnest of the inheritance of
the saints ; but may diligently search
after it, find it, taste it, and enjoy it.
Amen.

SECTION IX.

SHOWING THAT IT IS EQUALLY SINFUL TO
PRAT TO GOD UPON THE PRESUMPTION OF
OUR OWN MERIT, AND TO FORBEAR ON
ACCOUNT OF OUR UNWORTHINESS.

Father ; I have sinned against heaven, and in thy
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son. — Luke 15 : 21.

1. He that prays upon the presump-
tion of his own holiness and piety,
walketh not in the direct and plain
path of the children of God ; but turns
to the right hand, outruns his Saviour,
and, like a sacrilegious robber, deprives
him of the honor due unto him (since
He alone is our righteousness, our holi-
ness, and our sanctification, 1 Cor. 1 :
30), and depends entirely upon his own
unprofitable works; not acknowledg-
ing the merit of Christ alone, but de-
pending upon human righteousness,
and believing that God hears our
prayers, not for the sake of Jesus
Christ, but for the sake of man's good
works. But this is directly contrary
to Scripture. " If thou, Lord, should-
est mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall
stand? — But with the Lord there is
mercy, and with him is plenteous re-
demption." Ps. 130 : 3, 7. A man may
as well say, that the operation of his
eyes causes the light of the sun, as
that his own righteousness is the cause
of his receiving the grace of God.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elias, &c, were
all saved by grace; all joining in that
petition, "Enter not into judgment
with thy servant, O Lord, &c." Ps.

2. He, on the other hand, that ne-
glects to pray from a sense of his
manifold transgressions, judging him-
self upon that account unworthy to
speak to God7 turns to the left hand,
and sinks in his own. misery and un^
worthiness, affronting the Son of God,
and (without repentance) running into
despair ; whilst he thinks that the pas-
sion and death, of Christ are not suffi-
cient to atone for the sins of the whole
world. Against this temptation, let
us call to mind, that "where sin
abounded, there grace did much more
abound/' Eom. 5 : 20. For our misery
appeals to the mercy of God, our weak-
ness to- his power, our unworthiness
to his majesty, our unrighteousness to
his righteousness.

"This is* a» faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sin-
ners; of whom I am chief/' 1 Tim.
1 :15.

"As I live, saith the Lord God, I
have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way and live." Ezek. 33 : 11.

"There is now no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus." Eom.
8 : 1.

"As for the wickedness of the
wicked, he shall not fall thereby in
the day that he turneth from hiss
wickedness." Ezek. 18 : 21; 33 : 12..

"For this (the remission of sins)-
shall every one that is godly pray."'
Ps. 32 : 6.

" Be not righteous overmuch, neither-
make thyself over wise." Eccles. 7 : 16.,

" If we confess our sins, he is faith-
ful and just to forgive us our sins, and.
to cleanse us from all unrighteous-
ness." 1 John 1 : 9.

" Eighteousness shall look dowm
from heaven." Ps. 85 : 11.

3. If I resolve not to pray till L

280

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

know myself to be worthy, I shall
certainly never do it at all. And if
I should not desire G-od to bestow
upon me his grace and favor, till by
my own strength I became just and
holy, I should never obtain anything.
Alas, poor man, what canst thou be-
stow upon him who standeth not in
need of thy gifts? Eom. 11 : 35. Or
what canst thou obtain by the work-
ings of thy corrupt nature, which,
however specious in thine own eyes,
are of no value in the sight of God?
Eom. 3 : 24. Yerily, nothing at all.
Away, then, with all those who glory
in their own righteousness, and pre-
tend to justify themselves; yea, let
all creatures keep silence before God.
Thine own worthiness will here avail
thee nothing, and thine unworthiness
shall do thee no harm; for the Lord
Jesus Christ, thy Saviour, is he that
"forgiveth thy unrighteousness, and
«covereth all thy sin." Ps. 32 : 1. But
rather conclude with thyself, that as
a drop of water is swallowed up in
the sea, so are all thy transgressions
in the boundless and incomprehensible
mercies of Jesus Christ.

A PRAYER.

O Merciful and compassionate Fa-
ther! who teachest me in thy holy
word how I ought, in thy Son Jesus
Christ, to walk in the narrow way,
turning neither to the right hand nor to
.the left ; that I may neither fall through
a vain presumption of my own piety,
nor be cast into despair by the gloomy
prospect of my guilt, and so die in my
sins; grant that I may seriously con-
sider that neither my good works can
merit, nor my sins hinder, the grace
»of Christ, my Eedeemer; that so I
•may continue firm and steadfast
amidst all my temptations; that I
:may neither be misled by the evil

spirit of presumption and spiritual
pride that walketh at noonday, nor
be afraid of the destroying angel of
despair that walketh in darkness; but
that, having conquered the weakness
of my nature, I may continue stead-
fast in the faith, filled with spiritual
joy and consolation. Let thy grace,
blessed Lord Jesus, begin, carry on,
and perfect this good work in me.
Amen.

SECTION X.

THE TRUE WORSHIPPER OUGHT NOT TO SEEK
AFTER GOD IN ANY PARTICULAR PLACE;
FOR HE FINDS HIM EVERYWHERE IN
SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.

The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
■Father. The true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth. — John 4 : 21, 23.

1. Where shall we find God ? Jer. 23 :
23. Must we look for him in conse-
crated temples? Must we seek him
in the ends of the earth ? Must we
search for him in the stars, or at Jeru-
salem, or upon the top of Mount Ta-
bor? No! but "in spirit and in truth"
(John 4 : 23) seek and find him. We
are, indeed, sometimes forced to the
fatigue of long journeys, in order to
make our complaints, and beg the
protection of the princes of this
world; but God is everywhere; "He
filleth heaven and earth " (Jer. 23 :
24), and is nearer to all creatures
than they are to themselves. " He is
above all, and through all, and in us
all." Eph. 4 : 6. The utmost dimen-
sions of space, and even the boundless
extent of eternity, appear to him as
but a single point. Ps. 139:7. As a
man that walks at noonday, in an
open field, is environed with light,
whether he discern it or be blind, so
are all creatures surrounded with the
presence of God. These are the waters

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

281

upon which the Spirit of God moves,
penetrating through all beings and all
spirits, though ever so pure and glori-
ous. God is always near to us, though
many are not so to him, having no
more perception of the communica-
tions of his presence than a blind man
has of the light, which he sees not,
though surrounded by it. God never
turns away from us; but we, being
turned away from him, fall into that
degree of blindness, as to say, that
God has withdrawn himself from us,
and is become unkind to us; whereas,
the change is only in ourselves, and
in our own hearts, by which we are
tempted to charge God foolishly.
Thus the sinner, by turning away
from God, becomes his own tor-
mentor; whilst God continues un-
changeably just and good in all his
works (Ps. 145 : 8); however often
man, being blinded and turned away
from God, may represent him as an
angry, unjust, and unmerciful being.

2. Hence, then, we may gather the
genuine sense of those passages of
Scripture, which say that "the king-
dom of God is within us," and not with-
out us (Luke 17 :21), and that we have
nothing to do with " them that are
without." 1 Cor. 5 : 12. These, with-
out all dispute, are not to be under-
stood of any external place, but of the
spirit or inward man, according to the
faith. To confine the kingdom of God
to any certain place, is antichristian,
even as our blessed Lord has told us
that men will say, " Lo, here is Christ,
or lo, there." Matt. 24 : 23. But if
any place could save or condemn a
man, then Lucifer himself could never
have become a devil in heaven ; nor
would Adam ever have sinned in par-
adise. So if any place would condemn
a man, then should no man living be
saved; since this whole world lieth in

darkness, and all the inhabitants
thereof are under the dominion of
the devil, who is the prince of it.
John 12 : 31. He therefore that has
faith, though with Jonah he were in
the depths of the sea, yet would be in
the kingdom of God; and he that has
it not, though he were in the church,
heard sermons, and would join in acts
of communion, yet in the sight of God
he is without, and has no part in, or
title to, the kingdom of God.

A PRAYER.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who art the
only way, light, and gate of heaven, I
praise thee from the bottom of my
heart, that by this meditation, thou
teachest me how I am in thee, and
thou in me, in whatsoever place I am;
how thou, my true and only High
Priest, art with me, and deliverest me
from my sins, whensoever I lift up my
heart to thee. Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Teach me, O Lord, always to acknowl-
edge this, and not after the manner of
this ungrateful world, to undervalue
or despise this hidden treasure ; but
that I may in true faith seek, find,
taste, and enjoy it. Amen.

SECTION XI.

THE WORSHIPPER IS NOT RESTRICTED TO
CERTAIN TIMES OF PRAYER, BUT MAY AT
ANY HOUR ADDRESS GOD IN PRAYER, PRO-
VIDED THAT HE DOES NOT HINDER HIM-
SELF.

In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a
day of salvation have I helped thee. — Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found, call ye upo?i him
while he is near. — Is A. 49:8; 55 : 6. Behold,
now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day
of salvation. — 2 Cor. 6 : 2.

1. From what has been already said
concerning the -place, and what we are
now observing further upon that head,

282

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

it is plain, that he is truly happy who
is in the kingdom of God. The reason
of this is, because he has the treasure
within him, wheresoever he is; and
that he, who, through unbelief, is not
in the kingdom of God, is truly a
stranger and foreigner, however he
may with other Christians, hear ser-
mons and receive the Sacrament. The
place will neither save us nor con-
demn us; that can be done by noth-
ing but faith or unbelief existing in the
heart and spirit of man. The true
Christian, in whatever place he lives,
as he has the Spirit of Christ within
him, so he has, by consequence, a prin-
ciple of grace, pardon, and remission
of sins; for Christ is in him. I speak
not this to discourage the external
exercise of preaching; but for the
comfort of all sincere souls under ne-
cessities, sickness, or in strange lands;
when they are assured that they are
truly in Christ, that Christ is in them,
and that they are not "without" but
" within." This should also alarm the
sinner, who, though living among
Christians, yet, in the sight of God is
excluded. For every unbeliever cuts
himself off from the body of Christ,
and from the most valuable privileges
of his communion ; so that a wicked
man, under the agonies of sickness,
would receive no benefit by having
the Holy Sacrament, though the
priest, or even the pope himself stood
by him ; or by being brought and laid
in the midst of the church. But if a
man has within him a true and living
faith, it could do him no harm, though
he should die in a heathen country, or
on the sea, without the comfort of the
Holy Sacrament, or a priest ; because
Jesus Christ, the true High Priest, is
in him, and even the kingdom of God,
as our blessed Lord abundantly testi-
fies John 4: 21; Luke 17:21; Matt.

24 : 23. How blind then and miser-
able are those men who seek for bles-
sedness from man, confining it to a
certain place, and look to external
things. This, however, is the case
with many thousands who thus lose
the internal treasure. Externals are
but means, which though not to be de-
spised, yet are not to be valued as the
end itself, to which they are intended
to lead. Christ is the great treasure
of man, who can bestow himself with-
out the use of means, where they can-
not be had. We come together in the
church, that with one accord we may
exhort and admonish one another in
the divine Presence, call upon God to
avert public evils and calamities, and
exercise one another in divine matters,
that so we, who are otherwise totally
blind in spiritual things, being excited
by these means, may at length under-
stand and see that God is not con-
tained "in the heaven of heavens"
(1 Kings 8 : 27), nor confined to any
place ; being, as Job witnesseth,
" high as heaven, deeper than hell,
longer than the earth, and broader
than the sea." Job 11 : 8, 9.

2. What we have observed of place,
may be also applied to time, to which
the eternal and unchangeable God is
by no means confined, so as not to be
always at liberty to hear our prayers.
Great men and princes of this world
are not always to be spoken with, and
frequently refuse admittance to their
petitioners; being engaged either by
the necessities or diversions of life.
But our God cannot be thus separated
from his creatures; at one view, He
sees, and hears, and considers all
things that are done upon the earth,
and "understandeth our thoughts afar
off." Ps. 139 : 2. He numbereth " the
very hairs of our heads" (Matt. 10:
30) ; and " a thousand years in his sight

Chap. XXXIV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

283

are but as one day." Ps. 90 : 4 ; 2 Pet.
3 : 8. God is not capable of alteration
or change ; is confined to no time,
limited by no place, always ready to
hear and to help us ; yea, he is contin-
ually " standing at the door, and
knocking, that we may open to him."
Rev. 3 : 20. So that he is always ready,
but we are not. Whereas if we would
constantly and without ceasing wait
for Him, we should never fail to re-
ceive a ready answer to all our prayers.
3. But alas! the concerns of this
lower world have so great an influ-
ence upon our minds, distracting our
thoughts, and withholding us from de-
vout retirement, that we must endeavor
to purify our minds from all thoughts
of the creature, according to a devout
writer, who advises us, " to lay aside
all thoughts of this or that thing,
time or place, and bring all the powers
of our souls into profound repose."
And in this sabbath or rest of the
soul, in this quiet cessation from the
cares and labors of corrupt nature,
when we pray, God descends with his
living word, and the soul of man per-
ceives and tastes the truth and love
of God \ of which, before this patient
preparation, it was wholly ignorant
and insensible. So that the soul cannot
forbear crying out in the words : " The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gra-
cious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth!" (Exod. 34: 6.)
"Now, I find thy prevenient grace help-
ing my infirmities, and assisting me to
pray as I ought." Then thou wilt be
amazed at the blindness of thy own
heart, which gave thee so imperfect a
notion of God, as to believe that God
was to be persuaded with external
ceremonies, and clamorous prayers,
and that he stood in need of a long
relation of thy wants and necessities ;

1 whereas He sees to the very bottom
of thy soul, and " understandeth all
thy thoughts afar off."

A PRAYER.

Almighty, eternal, and most merci-
ful God and Father ! Thy goodness
and truth are higher than the heavens,
deeper than the sea, wider than the
earth ; all places are to Thee the same,
and in thy sight all times are alike.
Thou art above all places and all
times, and yet dost penetrate and fill
all things. Thou art nearer to me
than I am to myself -, thou anticipatest
me with thy grace, and embracest me
with thy mercy, which, through my
blindness and misery, I could neither
know nor hope for. Grant, that by
thy Holy Spirit, I may seriously lay
these things to heart, and for the
future, look up to thee as my merciful
Father, who knowest all things, and
art present at all times, and in all
places, that I may no more presume
to judge of Thee by any natural
blindness, and no more persuade my-
self that Thou art to be awakened, or
prevailed upon by my crying ; that
thou needest any long discourses of
mine, or requirest any certain time for
prayer. But give me grace to con-
sider, that the true worshipper may
have access to Thee at all times, and
in all places, and that thy goodness is
always and everywhere present with
us ; but that no man can enjoy it, or
taste of thy sweetness, unless he be
first awakened and encouraged by
Thee to engage in devout prayer.
That I may worthily and effectually
perform this, give me thy Holy Spirit,
who may work in me to will and to
do according to thy good pleasure.
Amen.

284

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

SECTION XII.

THE CONSIDERATIONS STATED ABOVE, NOT
ONLY DISPOSE THE HEART TO TRUE PRATER,
BUT ALSO FURNISH VARIOUS USEFUL LES-
SONS.

It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will
answer ; and while they are yet speaking, I will
hear.— Isa. 65 : 24.

1. The first lesson which we learn
is, that God has not commanded us to
pray for his own sake, for he knoweth
all things; but that we, being excited
by these means, may be led to under-
stand that he does know all things.
God has so tender a concern for us,
that he seems not to know anything,
till we reflect within ourselves, that
he does indeed know it. Hence it
comes to pass, that when men do not
diligently pray, they seem to think
that God does not know. And, on
the contrary, when we exercise our-
selves in prayer, we soon learn that
God knoweth all our necessities, and
hath numbered the very hairs of our
heads before we were born. These
are thoughts that cannot enter into
the hearts of those who despise the
duty of prayer.

2. Secondly. We need not apply to
God, as we do to one another, with a
long account of our wants : all that
we have to do is, daily to exercise
ourselves in prayer, so that the inner
man may enter into the kingdom of
God.

3. Thirdly. God is (as Dr. Tauler
says) a thousand times more ready to
give, than we are to receive, through
prayer and hope.

4. Fourthly. God stands in no need
of any external ceremonies of ours,
our watchings, fastings, or cryings, to
awaken him, who " neither slumbereth
nor sleepeth." Ps. 121 : 4. He not only
foreknows our desires and prayers, but
even our existence (Jer. 1:5); yet, on
the other hand, the dulness and stupid-

ity of men may by these exercises be
excited, encouraged, and instructed to
consider and understand the tender
mercies of God towards all mankind.

5. Fifthly. Hence we discover the
goodness, truth, and loving-kindness
of God towards all men ; and, on the
other hand, the blindness and unbelief,
the stupidity and unspeakable dulness
of mankind towards God, who have
so great a contempt of the mercies of
God, and are so backward in their
prayers and endeavors to obtain his
grace.

6. Sixthly. God is righteous in all
his works; and so far from his being
the author of our miseries, blindness,
and ignorance, we are indeed the cause
of it ourselves; whilst, in contempt of
his commands, we neglect to implore
his mercies, and beg the blessings
which he has promised to bestow on all
that ask him. This is sufficient to vin-
dicate the justice and impartiality of
God in all his dealings towards us, and
to lay the blame of all our sins and
punishments upon ourselves, who are
indeed the authors of both.

7. Seventhly. God is not confined to
any certain time and place, but de-
sires to be worshipped at all times, and
in all places, in spirit and in truth.

8. These observations will rectify
many mistakes, and open a man's
eyes to discover things, of which he
would otherwise have been ignorant.
But though it is a shameful thing for
a Christian to be ignorant of these
matters, yet it is much more so to
know, and not to reduce them to
practice.

A PRAYER.

Awaken us, O God, that we may
watch ; draw us to Thee, and we will
run in the true way, which conducts
to the kingdom of God, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

Chap. XXXV.]

TEUE CHBISTIASTITY.

285

CHAPTER XXXV.

PRAYER IS THE SIGN OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN, THAT IS, OF ONE WHO IS ANOINTED

OF THE LORD.

Bow down thine ear, 0 Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy. — Ps. 86 : 1.

THESE words give us an admirable
account of the grounds and reasons
of prayer ; that it is quickened by afflic-
tion and a sense of misery, and is a
mark of a true Christian.

2. I. Eor, first, every Christian is
anointed and baptized with the Holy
Spirit (1 John 2 : 20), who, when he
is not resisted nor grieved, but obeyed,
is continually groaning (Rom. 8 : 26)
in the heart of man, raising and exalt-
ing the devout soul from earth to
heaven. For as spirituous liquor ex-
tracts the strength and virtue of the
herbs and flowers on which it is poured;
so man, who is the flower of God,
planted by the Lord himself, " a plant
in the house of Cod " (Isa. 61:8; Ps.
92 : 13), must receive the preparation
of the Holy Spirit, that his odor and
sweet smell may therewith ascend up
to God. Whosoever will faithfully at-
tend to the workings of the Holy
Spirit, and not resist his operations,
will soon be convinced of the truth of
these observations; he will perceive
a devout sigh springing up from his
heart, and breaking forth into these
or the like words : " Great God, Holy
Father, have mercy upon me !" As
myrrh, frankincense, or other sweet
perfumes, by being thrown upon burn-
ing coals, send forth a smoke and de-
licious fragrance, which they would
not do without the help of fire; so
whenever the fire of the Holy Spirit
touches our hearts, and He is not hin-
dered, there immediately arises a most

fragrant perfume of sighs and prayers.
And these are " golden vials full of
odors, which are the prayers of saints."
Eev. 5 : 8. Whence it appears, that
devout sighs and prayers are the truest
sign or indication of the Holy Spirit
in the heart of man.

3. II. The soul of man is also called
the temple or habitation of the Holy
Ghost; and what is more likely to be
heard there, than the prayers of its
divine Inhabitant, who is emphati-
cally called, " The Spirit of grace and
of supplication " ? Zech. 12 : 10. Hence
prayer, when it proceeds from the
very bottom of the heart, is a certain
sign of the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. I do not here refer to the
prayers of hypocrites, of whom God
speaketh by the mouth of his prophet,
saying: "This people draw near me
with their mouth, but have removed
their heart far from me " (Isa. 29 :
13) ; but the true prayer, which is of
the operation of the Holy Spirit, arises
from the depth of the soul; and is like
plentiful springs of water, for which
the more deeply you dig, the higher
you may raise them. Christ is the
pure and beautiful fountain of salva-
tion. Let every one, therefore, that
thirsteth, come and drink. Isa. 55 : 1.
His spring is very deep, namely, his
eternal Divinity. " He that believeth
on him, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water" (John 7 : 38);
that is, prayers and the gifts of the
Holy Ghost.

286

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

4. III. This is confirmed by the
office of the Holy Spirit, which is, "to
teach and to comfort" (John 16 : 7-13),
neither of which he can do, unless He
speaks ; and that He cannot do, unless
He have a church and a temple to speak
in. This temple is the heart of man ;
and his language consists of the devout
aspirations of the souls in which He
operates ; he has a secret and heav-
enly voice, which our heart hears, for
he beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God, —
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Eom.
8:15, 16. Man cannot receive com-
fort, unless his heart, by being broken
and contrite, be made capable of con-
solation. Ps. 51 : 17. This is a very
significant figure taken from human
bodies. For when the arm, or any
other part, is broken, or bruised by
some accident, what pleasure the
broken and bruised part feels when
soothed with some healing ointment !
How does it assuage the throbbing
pains of the limb, and, as it were, lull
it into soft repose ! So when the heart
is wounded with affliction and sorrow,
is broken and bruised with a lively
sense of its misery, then the Holy
Spirit shows himself truly a Comforter,
shedding forth the oil of heavenly
consolation into our afflicted breasts.
For " he healeth the broken in heart,
and bindeth up their wounds." Ps.
147:3. "Heal me, O Lord, and I
shall be healed; save me, and I shall
be saved : for thou art my praise."
Jer. 17 : 14.

5. IV. Hence then we may learn
the advantage of afflictions, and the
benefit of the cross. Our blessed
Lord has told us, " They that be whole
need not a physician, but they that
are sick." Matt. 9 : 12. Come, there-
fore, thou divine Physician of souls ;
for we all have need of thee ! " Bow

down thine ear, O Lord, hear me:
for Itam poor and needy" (Ps. 86 : 1),
— poor in righteousness and true holi-
ness. So great is the poverty of man,
that unless he be covered with the
mercy of God, and clothed with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ (Isa.
61 : 10), he must appear with shame
and nakedness before the judgment of
God and all his holy angels ; and in
this respect, man is by nature reduced
so very low, that there is not a more
indigent creature in the world. We
may here apply that which was
spoken to the church of Laodicea,
" Thou knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked." Rev. 3 : 17.

6. Moreover, the misery of which
the Psalmist complains, is the effect
of poverty. He that is poor, may
easily be conceived to be miserable.
He certainly is so, who is forsaken by
all, has none to help him, wanders
about, having neither house nor home,
nor a place where to lay his head.
And now, what state can we conceive
to be more wretched, than that of a
man by nature ? He has no place
where to rest himself, and knows not
whither to fly for refuge ! " If in
this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable."
1 Cor. 15 : 19. Let us then acknowl-
edge our poverty and spiritual misery
in this life ; we shall then receive the
instructions and consolations of the
Holy Spirit. He will teach us in our
poverty, to sigh earnestly after the
riches of divine grace and mercy; and
in our spiritual misery and banish-
ment, to lift up our eyes to God that
dwelleth in the heavens. For our
blessed Lord has assured us, that "in
his Father's house are many man-
sions" (John 14:2); and the Psalm-
ist, that "when our fathers and

Chap. XXXVL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

287

mothers forsake us, the Lord will
take us up." Ps. 27 : 10. Come then,
ye that are in want and banishment,
think upon your heavenly country.
Ye that are poor, naked, and desti-
tute, remember that the righteous-

ness of Christ is your clothing, and
the garment of salvation (Lsa. 61 :
10) j therefore, take ye care to pre-
serve this clothing, " lest ye walk
naked, and men see your shame."
Eev. 16 : 15.

CHAPTER XXXVL

ON THE BENEFITS AND POWER OF PRAYER, AND ON ITS TRUE GROUND OR

FOUNDATION.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need. — Heb. 4 : 16.

EAR my voice according to

"TT

XX thy lovingkindness, O Lord"
(Ps. 119: 149), saith David; pointing
out thereby the foundation of our
prayer, namely, the grace of God ;
and this is conveyed to us through
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is "full
of grace and truth," and of whose
fulness we ought all to receive. John
1 : 14, 16-. For this reason he is also
called the Throne of Grace (Heb. 4 :
16; Rom. 8 : 25), upon which the eye
of faith in prayer ought continually
to be fixed, according to the example
of the children of Israel, who always
offered up their prayers with their
faces towards the mercy-seat. For in
his name, and for his sake alone it is,
that God has promised to hear our
prayers (John 16 : 23) ; and thus even
the holy prophets of old prayed : " O
our God, hear the prayer of thy ser-
vant, for the Lord's sake." Dan. 9: 17.

2. I. First j the benefit of our pray-
ers is well expressed by holy David in
the latter part of the above-mentioned
verse (Ps. 119 : 149) : " Quicken me
according to thy judgments." For

life proceeds from the grace of God.
But what is our life without divine
grace ? Therefore says the holy Psalm-
ist, " Thy lovingkindness is better
than life." Ps. 63 : 4. This quickening
virtue is also derived to us through
Christ Jesus. It was for this purpose
that he took our flesh and blood, that
by the quickening virtue of his body,
we also might be quickened. And
this we receive only by the means of
prayer, which draws down a quicken-
ing power into our souls, to heal all
our spiritual infirmities ; like that
which flowed from His body whilst on
earth, to cure and heal the diseases
and distempers of all those that
touched him. Luke 6 : 19. Thus when
we are afflicted and sorrowful, andean
lay hold on Jesus Christ by the prayer
of faith, we immediately find, as it
were, new life and vigor flowing into
our souls from that inexhaustible foun-
tain of divine grace. This may be
attested by the experience of many
languishing and afflicted souls.

3. Whence we may learn: 1. That
an afflicted soul cannot be refreshed

238

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[Book II.

or comforted without prayer ; as ap-
pears from the example of Christ, in
the history of his passion (Matt. 26 :
39), who has himself also for that
reason given us a form of prayer.
Matt. 6:9, etc. And we have, indeed,
great reason to be thankful to God,
who has given us prayer to be as an
universal remedy to all afflicted souls.
2. Where the prophet says, "Hear me
according to thy lovingkindness" (Ps.
119 : 149), he shows us that prayer is
the proper means of obtaining mercy
and the graces of the Holy Spirit,
such as the increase of faith, charity,
patience, the knowledge of God, de-
votion, inward peace and joy. These
are such gifts, such graces, such heav-
enly treasures, as are better than
heaven and earth. Moreover, hence we
obtain strength and victory against
the world, the devil, and all our ene-
mies; which spiritual strength consists
only in prayer. That was the power
by which David and all the saints
conquered their enemies, as appears
by the example of Moses, Elias, Je-
hoshaphat, and others, who always
prevailed by faith and prayer. 8.
Every man has need of prayer in re-
spect to his office, condition, and em-
ployment, in which no man can act
either prudently or successfully with-
out prayer. We are, indeed, in this
miserable world, like people sailing
amidst rocks and quicksands, and ex-
posed to innumerable dangers; for
which reason we ought the more
fervently to implore the guidance
and protection of the Holy Spirit.

4. II. Therefore, holy David adds,
" They draw nigh that follow after
mischief; they are far from thy law."
Ps. 119 : 150. And this is a proper
season for prayer. For what the
devil cannot do himself, he leaves to
be accomplished by wicked men, who

are as so many executioners of his
malice, and who make it their con-
tinual employment to disturb and in-
jure good men. From these no man
is secure ; but here the most effectual
help is prayer. Thus, "I wifl call
upon the Lord who is worthy to be
praised ; so shall I be saved from
mine enemies." Ps. 18 : 2. " Unto
thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O
my God, I trust in thee; let me not
be ashamed ; let not mine enemies tri-
umph over me. Yea, let none that
wait on thee be ashamed; but let
them be ashamed which transgress
without cause." Ps. 25 : 1-3.

5. But it ought to be carefully no-
ticed that David says, his enemies are
far from the law of God. These are
all they that persecute others, for-
saking the word of God, and being far
from his fear ; whence it follows, that
as they are far from God, so God is
far from them, and nothing but de-
struction hangs over their heads. On
the other hand, the faithful, pious, and
devout soul approaches God through
prayer.

6. When, therefore, we are daily
lifting up our hearts to God, and learn
to converse with him, we approach
continually nearer and nearer to him,
and by degrees, forgetting this lower
world, from earthly we become heav-
enly and spiritual ; like Moses, whose
face, when he had conversed forty days
and forty nights with God, shone like
the sun. Exod. 34 : 29. For as we
easily learn the customs and manners
of those with whom we converse, and
are not so well pleased with any com-
pany as that to which we are accus-
tomed, so by continual and daily pray-
er, we grow daily more and more ac-
quainted with the manners and lan-
guage of our heavenly country, and
are more and more inflamed with di-

Chap. XXXVI.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

289

vine love. Moreover, prayer is a pre-
servative against sins, temptations,
and all kinds of evils; according to
that saying of Christ: "Watch and
pray, that ye enter not into tempta-
tion." Matt. 26 : 41. But if even then
anything befall ns, we know that it
is by the immediate permission of
God ; and from it with all due sub-
mission and resignation to his will,
we may lawfully pray to be delivered.

7. III. David proceeds : " Thou art
near, O Lord : and all thy command-
ments are truth." Ps. 119: 151. Here
he assures us, that the second and the
third foundation of prayer, are the
presence and the truth of God.

8. How great soever our calamities
may be, there is no one consideration
that gives us so much ease and com-
fort, as that of the presence of God
with us : according to that Scripture :
" Fear thou not, for I am with thee :
be not dismayed, for I am thy God."
Isa. 41 : 10. In consideration of his
presence, we may with assurance call
upon him in all places, and upon all
occasions. For though our Saviour
tells us, " Thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou
hast shut thy door, pray to thy Fath-
er which is in secret ; and thy Father
which seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly " (Matt. 6:6): yet we
are to consider, that these words were
spoken against the hypocrites of those
times, who, from a vain ostentation,
used to pray standing in the syna-
gogues, and in the corners of the
street; but they are by no means
binding on any man to pray in any
one particular place.

9. We read of the patriarch Isaac
(G-§d. 24: 63), that he went out at the
eventide into the field to meditate.
And it is plain (Luke 6 : 12), that our
blessed Lord went alone " into a moun-

tain to pray, and continued all night
in prayer to God." We may, there-
fore, in all places, and at any time,
pray to God; but more especially
when we are alone, and not disturbed
by the conversation of others. Let
us continually stir ourselves up to this
divine conversation with God, re-
membering the words of the Psalmist,
" Thou art near, O Lord." Now if
this be true, as it most certainly is, we
cannot do better than to be often con-
versing with him; according to that
Scripture, u Call ye upon him while
he is near." Isa. 55 : 6. " The Lord is
nigh unto all them that call upon
him." Ps. 145 : 18.

10. 1Y. So, too, the veracity of God
is a strong obligation upon us to pray,
because we know, 1. That he has com-
manded it; " Call upon me." Ps. 50:15.
2. That he has promised to hear us;
" Before they call, I will answer ; and
while they are yet speaking, I will
hear." Isa. 65:24. 3. That he has
not only promised to hear, but has
actually heard the prayers of the
faithful. This is plain, from the ex-
amples of Moses, David, Samuel,
Joshua, and of Cornelius in the Acts,
whose "prayers and alms ascended
up for a memorial before God." Acts-
10 : 4.

11. Many other examples are to be
found in the Holy Scriptures. And
that thou mayest not think that, be-
cause thou art not such a one as
Moses, David, Elias, or Joshua, there-
fore thou shalt not be heard as easily
as they were, thou art to consider
that they all were men "subject to
like passions as we are." James 5 : 17.

12. Who was Cornelius? Acts, ch.
10. He was a heathen. Who was
Manasseh ? 2 Chron. 33 : 12, 13. A
most grievous sinner. Yet God has
promised that he will hear the miser-

19

290

TBUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

able. Ps. 34 : 7. " This poor man
cried, and the Lord heard him." And
" He will regard the prayer of the des-
titute, and not despise their prayer."
Ps. 102 : 17. " The expectation of the
poor shall not perish for ever." Ps.
9 : 18. The cases just mentioned il-
lustrate these promises.

13. Y. But as the Psalmist adds:
u Concerning thy testimonies, I have
known of old, that thou hast founded
them for ever" (Ps. 119 : 152), this
consideration exceedingly encourages
our prayers and strengthens our faith,
and is another immovable foundation
of prayer. The word and promise of
G-od are built upon an eternal founda-
tion, being nothing else but G-od him-
self and his Son Jesus Christ; in him
the Word of God, and the salvation of
man were founded "before the founda-
tion of the world." Eph. 1:4. What-
soever is built upon an eternal basis,
no temporal thing can overturn. It
is this that St. Paul had in his eye
when he tells us that neither height,
nor depth, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor angels, nor princi-
palities shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. Eom. 8 : 38.

14. And what greater consolation
can we wish? Or who can refrain
from rejoicing, when he considers that
our faith and prayer are founded upon
that which is eternal? Hence it is
said, " Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a
precious corner stone, a sure founda-
tion: he that believeth shall not make
haste" (Isa. 28 : 16); or, as St. Peter
explains it, "shall not be confounded"
(1 Peter 2:6): and St. Paul, "Other
foundation can no man lay, than that
is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor.
3 : 11); and again, "The foundation

of God standeth sure, having this
seal, The Lord knoweth them that
are his." 2 Tim. 2 : 19.

15. Against this foundation even
the gates of hell shall not prevail.
Matt. 16 : 18. This, in short, is the
foundation of our salvation, our faith
and blessedness, which is more secure
than heaven and earth.

16. For prayer is a conversation
with God — a key of heaven — a free
access to God — a familiarity with God
— an opener of his mysteries — a spir-
itual banquet — a heavenly enjoyment
— a nurse of virtues — a conqueror of
vices — a medicine of the soul — a rem-
edy against infirmities — an antidote
against sin — a pillar of the world —
a seed of blessing — an increase of
faith — a support of hope — a parent of
charity — a path of righteousness — a
preserver of constancy — an ornament
of holiness — a fire of devotion — alight
of knowledge — a repository of wisdom
— the strength of the soul — a remedy
against faint-heartedness — a founda-
tion of peace — the joy of the heart —
a jubilee of the soul — a faithful com-
panion in this earthly pilgrimage — the
shield of a Christian soldier — a rule
of humility — a forerunner of honor —
a nurse of patience — a guardian of
obedience — a fountain of quietness —
the conquest of devils — a comfort of
the sorrowful — a triumph of the just
— the joy of the saints — a helper of
the oppressed — the ease of the afflicted
— the rest of the weary — an ornament
of the conscience — an advancement
of graces — an acceptable sacrifice — an
encourager of mutual goodwill — the
refreshment of this miserable life —
the sweetening of death — a foretaste
of the heavenly life — the earnest de-
sire of everlasting salvation.

Chap. XXXVII.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

291

CHAPTER XXXVII.

REASONS WHY GOD CERTAINLY HEARS OUR PRAYERS.

Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon
thee. Give ear, 0 Lord, unto my -prayer ; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the
day of my trouble 1 will call upon thee ; for thou wilt answer me. — Ps. 86 : 5-7.

THUS saith the prophet Jeremiah,
" It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his com-
passions fail not. They are new every
morning j great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my
soul; therefore will I hope in him."
Lam. 3:22-24.

2. In these words the Holy Spirit
gives us strong consolation in our af-
flictions, drawn from the goodness
and lovingkindness of God; without
which we should immediately be con-
sumed. As in the natural world light
and darkness, by the appointment of
God, alternately succeed each other,
so do light and darkness, joy and sor-
row, in the spiritual world. Hence
there is a necessity that the light
should spring up after darkness, and
joy after sorrow, in the souls of the
righteous. Ps. 97 : 11. For both our
life and our well-being depend entirely
upon the loving-kindness of God :
" For in him we live, and move, and
have our being." Acts 17 : 28. He is
the never-failing fountain and spring
of life and happiness. His works tes-
tify this, for by the effects we judge
of the cause. Since, therefore, God is
the Maker and Creator of all things
that have life, it follows that He is
Life itself; and as He is the original
of all that is good, it follows, that He
himself is the Supreme Good and
Love itself. For this reason He is
called the Living God, " Thou art the

Christ, the Son of the living God "
(Matt. 16 : 16) ; not only from his es-
sence, as being an original, necessary
Being, but also from the effects which
he produces; because he giveth and
preserveth breath, and life, and mo-
tion to all things. Acts 17:25; Ps.
104 : 27. " Thou (O Belshazzar), hast
praised the gods of silver and gold,
of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which
see not, nor hear, nor know : and the
God in whose hand thy breath is, and
whose are all thy ways, hast thou not
glorified." Dan. 5:23. "They have
forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no wa-
ter." Jer. 2 : 13. « The Lord is thy
life, and the length of thy days."
Deut. 30:20. "The Lord is the
strength of my life/' Ps. 27 : 1.
Whence it follows, that God is in ef-
fect the life of every living creature,
and produces and preserves life in all,
according to the words of St. Paul,
" Of him, and through him, and to him
are all things : to whom be glory for
ever." Amen. Eom. 11:36. "Christ
is all in all." Col. 3 : 11.

3. Now though all creatures derive
their life from God, yet man has- re-
ceived it from his Maker in a more
eminent degree ; for as he is endowed
with a rational soul, it follows that he
enjoys a more noble life than the rest
of the creatures. The life of angels
again is more noble and glorious than

292

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II

that of men, because the glory and
majesty of God manifest themselves
more illustriously in them. Hence
also, angels are described in 2 Thess.
1 : 7, as " mighty/' because they are not
subject to vanity and change like man.
But the most noble life is that of Je-
sus Christ our Lord, because he is God
and Life itself; according to St. John,
" This is the true God, and eternal
life" (1 John 5: 20); that is, He is
God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God. (Nicene Creed.)

4. And as God is the fountain and
principle of life, so he is also of all
good. For he is the supreme and
eternal Good, and whatsoever bears
the marks and characters of good, is
derived from this original. Thus,
every creature has received a small
portion of the divine goodness, by
which it bears witness of its Maker,
and in some manner calls upon man to
do the same. Thus the vine speaks to
us, " Consider, O man, that the sweet-
ness of my juice, with which I cheer
thy heart (Ps. 104 : 15), is the gift of
my Maker." And so the bread:
"That virtue, O man, by which I sat-
isfy thy hunger, is bestowed on me by
my Creator and thine." This is the
meaning of that saying of St. Augus-
tine : " That God has, as it were, shed
some drops of his divine goodness
upon all the creatures, that they
might thereby contribute to the hap-
piness of man." And the Psalmist
says : " Thou crownest the year with
thy goodness; and thy paths drop
fatness." Ps. 65 : 11.

5. That which, in nature, we call
the goodness of God, is, by the Scrip-
tures, called the grace of God; this
bearing relation to the soul, and that
to the body. And as God has, by a
thousand ways, discovered his good-
ness in the great Book of nature, so

he has, in innumerable instances, dis-
covered his grace and mercy in the
Book of his word, all which are com-
pleted in Christ, who is the great
centre of all the treasures of divine
goodness and love that are distributed
in heaven and earth.

6. Kow, as it is the nature of every
good being to be communicative, and
otherwise it ceases to be good (for
who can tell what is good, unless it
thus discover itself?); so no man could
know whether God were good and
gracious unless he had communicated
his grace and goodness to others.
Who could have known the inestima-
ble benefits of Christ as a Saviour, if
he had not so abundantly manifested
his love towards us ?

7. Bub why was God pleased to
manifest his goodness, grace, and
mercy to mankind? It was for this
reason : that we might believe in him,
love him above all things, and call
upon him in all our troubles; and he
was pleased to make this manifesta-
tion of himself, that it might be, as it
were, the first incentive to kindle the
flames of devotion in our hearts. For
how should we call on him of whom
we have not heard ? Eom. 10 : 14. As
Almighty God discovered himself to
Moses, when he passed by, and he,
upon the sense of his goodness, grace,
and mercy, immediately began to
pray (Exod. 34 : 8, 9), so has He, in
like manner, manifested himself to us,
and made all his goodness pass before
us, that we also might learn to praise
him.

8. But you will say, How has God
manifested himself to me? If he
would show himself to me, as he did
to Moses, why should I not praise him
as he did? To which I answer: This
is done in Christ Jesus, in whom he
manifested all his goodness after a

Chap. XXXVII.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

293

visible manner. " We beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 1 : 14. And did we but seriously
consider all that our blessed Saviour
has done for us, we should, doubtless,
exclaim: "The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and in
truth."

10. And thus we see in what sense
the type, which may be discerned in
this narrative of Moses, was fulfilled
by the incarnation of Christ. For
God, descending from heaven in him^
was pleased to make his glory pass
before us.

11. When Paul and Barnabas
wrought great miracles at Athens, the
heathens cried out, " The gods are
come down to us in the likeness of
men/' Acts 14 : 11. This was their
judgment of the matter ; but we may
in a very proper sense say, that all
the goodness and grace of God did,
by Christ, come down to us upon
earth, in order that we might thereby
be drawn to God, and that the spirit
of faith and prayer might be bestowed
on us. For by prayer only we obtain
the grace and favor of God.

12. Let us now produce some rea-
sons which may convince us, that God
hears our prayers.

13. And first, such is the power of
prayer and entreaty, that they often
pacify and prevail upon, not only the
compassionate and kind, but even
morose and harsh tempers ; of which
we have an instance in the case of the
widow, who by her continual prayers,
prevailed even upon that unjust judge,
who neither feared God, nor regarded
man. Luke 18 : 4, 5. For prayer, as it
proceeds from the spirit, and is, as it
were, the strength of the soul, has a
marvellous power and influence upon

the minds of others, so as to be able
to soften and mould them into any
form of benevolence. Now as God is
not a harsh Being, but merciful in the
highest degree, the most sincere love,
the most perfect patience, the most
generous compassion, the most ardent
love itself, and in a word, the most
absolute perfection ; so he cannot but
be tenderly moved by the ardent and
devout prayers of his servants. Were
it otherwise, it would follow, that God
is not supremely good, loving, and
merciful. Now, as true as it is that he
is all this ; so true it is that he is easy
to be entreated by devout and humble
prayer.

14. Tauler says : " God is moved
with so vehement a love towards us,
as if his divinity itself depended on us,
and his only aim and design were, to
discover to us the abyss of his divinity,
and the fulness of his essence and
nature ; so that all may belong to us,
even as it belongs to him." And
again, "We were created, and are
called and invited to things immeas-
urably great, and eternal ; wherefore
God is exceedingly displeased with us,
when we prefer the empty and trifling
vanities of the world before him, who
is ready, not only to bestow all things
else, but even Himself upon us."
Again, " So great is the love of God
towards us, that he will deny us noth-
ing : yea, he anticipates our prayers,
meets us (as it were) half-way, and
courts our friendship, being a thousand
times more ready to give, than we are
to receive."

15. The second argument is found in
the truth and promise of God. " Call
upon me in the day of trouble ; I will
deliver thee." Ps. 50 : 15. " Thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive; and
plenteous in mercy unto all them that
call upon thee." Ps. 86 : 5. The Lord,

294

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[Book II.

we see, is good ; and if this be not
sufficient, be is also ready to forgive ;
and if tbis do not satisfy us, be is also
plenteous in mercy. But to whom ?
Even to all those that call upon him.
Hence, it is said, " Tbe Lord is nigh
unto all tbem that call upon him, to
all that call upon him in truth. He
will fulfil the desire of them that fear
him ; he also will bear their cry, and
will save them." Ps. 145 : 18, 19 ; Isa
65 : 24 ; John 16 : 23 3 Matt. 7 : 7, 8
Ask, but rest not there ; seek also
neither think this sufficient, but knock
" For every one that asketh, receiv
eth j and he that seeketh, findeth
and to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened." " What things soever ye
desire, when you pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them."
Mark 11 : 24. Compare this with Luke
11 : 9. And that God will keep his
promise, is as certain, as that he really
is what he, in his holy word, has
declared himself to be. And that he
may hear us, and pour his abundant
goodness upon us, he has commanded
us to pray often, to pray earnestly,
and without ceasing. Luke 18 : 1 ; 1
Thess. 5 : 17.

16. A third argument for our prayer,
is God's paternal tenderness, which is
thus illustrated. " If a son shall ask
bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone ? — If ye, then,
being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children ; how much
more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?"
Luke 11 : 11, 13. And is not God this
Father, " of whom the whole family
in heaven and in earth is named " ?
(Eph. 3 : 15) whom St. Paul calls,
" The Father of mercies, and God of
all comfort ?" 2 Cor. 1 : 3. Shall man
then be merciful, and shall God, that
created that merciful heart, be unmer-

ciful ? Shall he that gave to parents
such tender affection, be without com-
passion himself? Why should God call
himself a Father, if he be not of a pa-
ternal disposition ? So that, in short,
we must conclude, either that God is
unjustly styled our Father, or else he
will hear the prayers of his children
that call upon him. Hence, it is said,
" Thou, O Lord, art our Father." Isa.
63 : 16. And, " I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn." Jer.
31 : 9. But if the affections of a mother
be so great, that she cannot but have
" compassion on the son of her womb"
(Isa. 49 : 15), why should we think God
so void of mercy? Why should we
question God's compassions toward
us, if we approach him with penitent
and contrite hearts ? How do the
mother's bowels yearn over her be-
loved son, when she sees him laboring
under any dangerous disease ? So the
Almighty God says of himself : " There-
fore, my bowels are troubled for him;
I will surely have mercy upon him,
saith the Lord." Jer. 31 : 20.

17. A fourth argument is, the inter-
cession of Christ. With what ardent
prayer did he, in the time of his hu-
miliation upon earth, recommend his
Church to his Father, and intercede
for all believers !

18. Thus, "Holy Father, keep
through thine own name, those whom
thou hast given me; that they may
be one, as we are. Sanctify them
through thy truth ; thy word is truth.
I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou
shouldest keep them from the evil.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me
through their word. Father, I will
that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me,

Chap. XXXVII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

295.

may be in them, and I in them." John
17 : 11, 17, 15, 20, 24, 26. Nor did he
pray so for us only upon earth ; for
even now he continues his interces-
sions for us at the right hand of God.
" Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God; — let us come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need." Heb. 4 : 14,
16; 7:26; 9:11; Eom. 8:34.

19. A fifth argument is, the testimony
of the Holy Spirit, who " beareth wit-
ness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God" (Eom. 8:16), and
this witness in our hearts cannot de-
ceive us. For if this testimony be in
us of a truth, we shall have a demon-
strative evidence that we are God's
children, and that he hears us in
Christ when we pray unto him.

20. Sixthly, because God and Christ
are with us, and dwell in us by faith,
how can we suppose that God will not
hear our sighs and groans ? " Thou
understandest my thought afar off.
There is not a word in my tongue,
but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it alto-
gether." Ps. 139 : 2, 4. Think not,
therefore, that God is separated from
thee by any distance of place, that
may hinder thy prayers from coming
to him, "for he is in thee, and thou in
him." Acts 17:28; John 17:23. Since,
therefore, he lives and works in thee,
why should he not hear thy prayers ?
"Lord, all my desire is before thee;
and my groaning is not hid from
thee?" Ps. 38:10. "Let the words
of my mouth, and the meditation of
my heart, be acceptable in thy sight."
Ps. 19 : 14.

21. Seventhly, because the Holy
Spirit, who is truly God, is also the
Spirit of prayer, and himself maketh
intercession in us with sighs and

groanings unutterable. Zech. 12:10;
Eom. 8:26. Why then shouldest thou
imagine that God will not see, hear,
and regard that which he himself
works in thee? Therefore it is im-
possible that even the feeblest sigh
proceeding from the Holy Spirit in us,,
and tending towards God, can be lost
or come to nought. For as it proceeds
from God, so it goes to him ; and
whatsoever is in him cannot perish.
The deeds are wrought in God, and
will be made manifest. John 3 : 21.

22. Eighthly, God is not forgetful
like men, as "a book of remembrance
is written before him, for them that
fear the Lord, and that think upon his
name " (Mai. 3 : 16) : so that he cannot
be forgetful of our prayers. God can-
not forget that which is good, nor will
he call the sins of the penitent to re>
membrance. So mighty and so abun-
dant is the grace of God; that he blots
out our sins, and calls not our trans-
gressions to mind. But the good
which he himself has wrought in us*,
he can never forget ; for then he must
forget himself and his own works. la
is therefore impossible that God should
disregard those prayers which his own
Holy Spirit works in us; any more
than he can forget his word, or be un-
mindful of his promise. "Since I
spake against him, I do earnestly re-
member him still," saith God by the
prophet. Jer. 31 : 20. And. again^
" Thou teilest my wanderings ; put
thou my tears into thy bottle." Ps.
56:8. So he assures us that "He will
ever be mindful of his covenant." Ps..
111:5. And what is this covenant?'
Nothing else but the remission of our-
sins, confirmed to us by the death of
Christ, and sealed by his Holy Spirit..
Eph. 1 : 13.

23. And now, perhaps, thou wilt
say, If these things are so, how conies*

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it to pass that God does not hear and
grant my petitions? I have often
prayed, and called, and sighed, and
all to no purpose.

24. Thus much, indeed, must be
granted, that many a man prays a
great while for that which he does
not obtain ; and thence we judge that
his prayers are not heard. What then
becomes of these our reasons for be-
lieving that prayer will assuredly be
heard ? This is a very great trial,
and has given much disturbance to
many sincere and well-disposed souls.

25. But here we must observe, that
the certainty of God's hearing our
prayers, is incontestably proved by
the arguments already produced,
which are built upon an immovable
foundation ; whence it appears, that
<God does as certainly hear our pray-
ers, as He is (1.) merciful, and a lover
of mankind. (2.) As he is true in all
.his promises, yea, eternal truth itself.
(3.) As he has a fatherly tenderness
for us. (4.) As Jesus Christ is our
mediator. (5.) As God and Christ
dwell in us ; which are all truths so
certain and evident, that no believing
heart ought to question them.

26. But we complain that God does
not presently give us what we ask for,
and, therefore, that our prayers are
not heard. For this two reasons may
be given: 1. That God hears our
prayers, regarding more our happi-
ness than our desires. 2. That he re-
serves to himself the liberty of be-
stowing the blessings which we ask,
either upon our bodies or our souls, as
he shall think most proper. Thus,
perhaps, we ask of God some temporal
blessings, who seeing them to be unfit
for us, gives us spiritual ones; by
-which means we not only receive
vwhat we prayed for, but so much the
imore, as the good of the soul is to be

preferred to that of the body. For as
the soul is much more noble than the
body, and spiritual blessings are more
excellent than earthly ; so much bet-
ter is it for us, that God should give
us his eternal and spiritual blessings
rather than those transitory and
fading enjoyments in which we are
generally most delighted. He hears
our prayers, not always with respect
to our bodies, but to our souls; which
is of far greater importance. If it
should please God to visit you with
some bodily disease, and you pray for
health, doubt not; your prayers will
be heard, and you shall certainly en-
joy, if not the health of your body,
yet the health of your soul, which is
much to be preferred. Every man in
his sound senses must think so. What
advantage would it be to have the
body in health, but a sinful, distem-
pered soul, liable to eternal death?
When it is well with the soul, a man
may say with David, " Whom have I
in heaven but thee ? and there is none
upon earth that I desire besides thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but
God is the strength of my heart, and
my portion forever." Ps. 73 : 25, 26.
And with the suffering Job, " I know
that my Redeemer liveth." Job 19 : 25.
And from Him the soul may derive
life. Therefore David, comparing
spiritual blessings with earthly, tells
us: "The law of thy mouth is better
unto me than thousands of gold and
silver." Ps. 119:72.

27. But, perhaps, you will say that
you pray for both ; the health of your
soul as well as of your body; and for
spiritual blessings, as well as tem-
poral. To this the Lord himself
answers thee, " My grace is sufficient
for thee" (2 Cor. 12: 9); which was
the reply given to St. Paul, though he
had desired to be answered in his own

Chap. XXXVIL]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

297

way. And thus it appears, that God
always hears our prayers, if not with
regard to our bodies, yet certainly to
our souls.

28. Besides, God has reserved to
himself the liberty of accomplishing
our desires either in this world, or the
next, as he shall deem most proper.
Wherefore if thou dost not receive the
blessings for which thou prayest, con-
sider that it is not good for thee to en-
joy them here, but that the answer to
thy prayers is reserved for the other
life, which is more noble and durable,
and more capable of pure enjoyments
than this. There the Lord will bestow
on thee a thousandfold, for all that He
seemed to deny thee here. As He can-
not forget our prayers, so He cannot
fail to answer them graciously; if not
in this life, yet certainly in that which
is to come. As many prayers as thou
offerest up here, so many blessings
shalt thou receive hereafter; for then
"we shall reap if we faint not/' Gal.
6 : 9. Then will the Lord say to the
believing soul, "Behold thy prayer
which thou offeredst to me. See, here
is that for which thou didst pray, and
a thousand times more than thou
didst desire." And for this time of
retribution we must patiently wait.

29. That man would be a very fool-
ish husbandman, who would expect to
reap as soon as he had sown; and who,
when he had done this, would cry out
with tears, that he had sown much
seed, but could see no sign of harvest.
Thou fool! wait till the season of har-
vest arrives, and then thou shalt re-
ceive the fruits of thy labor with a
blessed increase. These are the com-
plaints which many people make: "I

have prayed," says one, " so often j I
have so often sighed from the bottom
of my soul; but I see no prospect of
being heard, so that all my prayers,
and sighs, and tears, are in vain." Ah,
impatient soul! Thou hast scarcely
sowed, and dost thou already talk of
harvest? Wait for the precious har-
vest of eternal life, and thou shalt reap
an abundant crop of glory ! " For what-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap." Gal. 6 : 7. There thou shalt
gather with joy the fruit of the numer-
ous prayers, which, as so many pre-
cious seeds, thou hast sown in tears.
Psalm 126 : 5. This is the word
and promise of God, which shall cer-
tainly be fulfilled, either here or in the
other world. Thus, when thou art
taking thy last sad farewell of a
dying child, husband, wife, or friend,
thou must consider that this is the
season in which the bodies of thy
friends, and thine own also, are, as it
were, to be sown and committed to
the earth; but that the harvest of the
resurrection is at hand, when " the
angels, the reapers, shall gather the
sheaves, and put them into barns."
Matt. 13 : 30. 39. There we shall
find that our prayers, sighs, and tears
were not lost, but only sent before-
hand, to be received again with usury,
finding all things in God that ever our
souls could conceive or desire. So the
promises of God, and the arguments
produced to sustain them, shall stand
firm and unshaken in Christ Jesus, to
be eternally fulfilled to all believing
souls, to their everlasting joy and sal-
vation, for which we shall render
eternal thanks and praises to God.

298

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CHAPTER XXXVIII.

SEVEN HELPS OR AIDS FOR OUR INFIRMITIES IN PRAYER.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should pray for as we
ought : but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh
inter cession for the saints according to the will of God. — Eom. 8 : 26, 27.

SINCE our prayers are, alas ! very
weak and imperfect, let us see
what assistance God has given us in
his holy word, in order to help us in
that duty.

2. The first help is our only Media-
tor and Advocate, Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. 1 John 2 : 2. He is our
advocate, and pleads our cause before
God, when we are hardly able to ex-
press what we want. He is therefore
called the Logos, or the eternal Word of
the Father, because God by him has
discovered his will to us ; as He is also
called the Mediator, because He pleads
our cause before God. A type of Him
we have in Moses, the mediator of the
OM Testament; to whom the people,
flying from the face of God in Mount
Sinai, said, "Speak thou with us"
(Exod. 20 : 19). And when Moses com-
plained that he was slow of speech, and
of a slow tongue, when he was com-
manded to appear before Pharaoh;
God tells him, "Aaron, thy brother,
can speak well. He shall be to thee
instead of a mouth." Exod. 4 : 10, 14,
16. So we also, when we should pray,
are dull and slow of speech, and there-
fore we must fly to Christ, our heav-
enly Aaron, who is to us instead of a
mouth. The same thing is expressed
to us by the mercy-seat. Exod. 25 : 17,
21. Therefore Christ commands us to
pray in his name (John 16: 23), wTho
is our eternal High Priest, having an

everlasting priesthood (Heb. 7 : 16),
interceding for us (Eom. 8 : 34), " in
whom we have boldness, and access
with confidence by the faith of him."
Eph. 3 : 12.

3. The second help is God the Holy
Ghost. "I will pour upon the house
of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of
supplication." Zech. 12 : 10. This spirit
is given us as a testimony of the divine
grace, and of our adoption. Hence St.
John says, " Hereby know we that we
dwell in him, because he hath given us
of his Spirit." 1 John 4 : 13. And St.
Paul, " Ye have not received the spirit
of bondage, but the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God."
Eom. 8 : 15, 16. He was also typified
by the anointing of the priests under
the law. Exod. 28 : 41 ; 29 : 7. Thus
God has anointed us with the Spirit of
Christ (1 John 2 : 20) ; that we should
offer to him daily the fruit of our lips.
Ps. 69: 30, 31; Heb. 13 : 15. This Spirit
of God is the author of all those devout
aspirations which we meet with, such
as : " O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive ;
O Lord, hearken and do." Dan. 9 : 19.

4. The third help to strengthen us in
prayer, is found in the promises of God.
" Call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee." Ps. 50 : 15.
" He shall call upon me, and I will an-

Chap. XXXVIIL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

299

swer him." Ps. 91 : 15. See also Ps.
145 : 19 ; Luke 11 : 11, 13, and 18. " Be-
fore they call, I will bear." Isa. 60 : 24.
"The eyes of the Lord are over the
righteous, and his ears are open to
their prayers." Ps.34:16. "Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be delivered." Joel 2 : 32. "Ask, seek,
knock." Matt. 7: 7. " The Lord is rich
(in mercy, Eph. 2 : 4) to all that call
upon him/' Eom. 10 : 12. See also
Luke 11 : 11-13 ; 18:6, 7.

5. The fourth help in prayer, is the
remembrance of the saints, whose prayers
God has heard. Look at the examples
of the ancients, and be strengthened.
And, indeed, we must needs be so,
when we seasonably call to mind in-
stances of God's providence and divine
assistance. Upon this foundation all
the prophets of old built their prayers.
Thus, when God was angry with Is-
rael for the sin of the golden calf, and
said to Moses : " Let me alone, that my
wrath may wax hot against them, and
that I may consume them " (Ex. 32 :
10) ; " then Moses his chosen stood be-
fore him in the breach," as the Psalm-
ist expresses it (Ps. 106 : 23), putting
God in mind of his former mercies,
saying, "Lord, why doth thy wrath
wax hot against thy people, which
thou hast brought forth out of the
land of Egypt, with great power, and
with a mighty hand? Wherefore
should the Egyptians speak and say,
Eor mischief did he bring them out to
slay them in the mountains, and to
consume them from the face of the
earth ? Turn from tby fierce wrath,
and repent of this evil against thy
people, etc. And the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do
unto his people." Exod. 32 : 11-14.

6. David had recourse to the same
remedy in almost all his Psalms; put-
ting God in mind, as it were, of his

former mercies, goodness, and faith-
fulness. So Ps. 25:6, "Eemember
thy tender mercies." Ps. 77 : 5, etc.,
" I have considered the days of old, the
years of ancient times," etc. Ps. 85 :
1-6, "Lord, thou hast been favorable
unto thy land : thou hast brought back
the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast for-
given the iniquity of thy people; thou
hast covered all their sin. Thou hast
taken away all thy wrath ; thou hast
turned thyself from the fierceness of
thine anger. Turn us, O God of our
salvation, and cause thine anger to-
ward us to cease. Wilt thou be an-
gry with us forever? Wilt thou draw
out thine anger to all generations ?
Wilt thou not revive us again; that
thy people may rejoice in thee?"

7. How admirably does the prophet
Isaiah use the same form of supplica-
tion (chap. 63 : 10-16), putting God in
mind of his former mercies, and open-
ing, as it were, by this key, the im-
mense treasures of his compassion.
" Where is he that brought them up
out of the sea, with the shepherd of
his flock? where is he that put his
Holy Spirit within him? That led
them by the right hand of Moses,
with his glorious arm, dividing the
water before them, to make himself
an everlasting name ? That led them
through the deep, as a horse in the
wilderness, that they should not stum-
ble? As a beast goeth down into the
valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused
him to rest: so didst thou lead thy
people, to make thyself a glorious
name. Look down from heaven, and
behold from the habitation of thy holi-
ness and of thy glory; where is thy
zeal, and thy strength, the sounding
of thy bowels, and of thy mercies
towards me ? Are they restrained ?
Doubtless thou art our Father, though
Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel

300

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[Book II.

acknowledge us not : thou, O Lord, art
our Father, our Bedeemer; thy name
is from everlasting/'

8. This prayer of the prophet is
founded upon these arguments: (1.)
Because the love of God is eternal,
therefore it will not be withheld from
me. (2.) I acknowledge myself to be
a sinner, but, at the same time, I re-
member that thy grace has been ex-
tended to sinners who repented. " Re-
member not the sins of my youth."
Ps. 25 : 7. (3.) My sins have been
very great, but let thy mercy also be
great. (4.) Bemember that I am the
work of thine own hands. " Bemem-
ber, I beseech thee, that thou hast
made me as the clay ; and wilt thou
bring me into dust again ? Thy vis-
itation hath preserved my spirit."
Job 10 : 9, 12.

9. The fifth comfort in prayer is, the
tender love of God to mankind, and his
promises to help the afflicted. " Look
upon mine affliction and my pain; and
forgive all my sins." Ps. 25 : 18. Again,
" This poor man cried, and the Lord
heard him." Ps. 34 : 6. Thus we are
assured that God does not despise the
miseries of the distressed, although
proud men may do it. For God judges
not as corrupt man judges; he has
not eyes of flesh, nor doth he see as
man seeth. Job 10 : 4. And as it gen-
erally happens among us, that the
more need a man has of friends, the
fewer he finds; so, on the other hand,
God has a more tender and particular
regard for him that is destitute and
afflicted. " The Lord is nigh unto
them that are of a broken heart, and
saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."
Ps. 34: 18. "Thou hast seen it; for
thou beholdest mischief and spite, to
requite it with thy hand: the poor
committeth himself unto thee; thou
art the helper of the fatherless." Ps.

10: 14. And, indeed, such are the
proper objects of divine mercy. To
enhance the comfort and certainty of
these promises, the Psalmist mentions
various classes of the afflicted; so that
none who are in distress may despair :
"The Lord executeth judgment for
the oppressed ; which giveth food to
the hungry. The Lord looseth the
prisoners; the Lord openeth the eyes
of the blind ; the Lord raiseth them
that are bowed down; the Lord loveth
the righteous ; the Lord preserveth the
strangers; he relieveth the fatherless
and widows." Ps. 146 : 7-9. To this
may be referred what the prophet
Isaiah says, "To this man will I look,
even to him that is poor, and of a con-
trite spirit, and that trembleth at my
word." Isa. 66:2. And "The ex-
pectation of the poor shall not perish
forever." Ps. 9: 18. And "He will
regard the prayer of the destitute, and
not despise their prayer." Ps. 102 : 17.
10. The sixth help is, the considera-
tion of God's unspeakable compassion.
He puts a better construction upon
our prayers than we intended, and
understands our necessities more per-
fectly than we can express them. He
makes merciful allowance for our in-
firmities in prayer; according to the
words of Abraham, "Let not the
Lord be angry, and I will speak."
Gen. 18 : 30. Hence St. Paul saj^s,
" Blessed be God, even the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all comfort,
who comforteth us in all our tribula-
tion." 2 Cor. 1 : 3. Compare this with
Ps. 103 : 8. By virtue of this com-
passion of God, none of our prayers
are in vain. God keeps an exact ac-
count of all our sighs and tears (Ps.
56 : 8), for the sake of those tears
which Christ our blessed Saviour shed,
who, in the days of his flesh, offered

Chap. XXXIX.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

301

up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears. Heb. 5 : 7.

11. The seventh help in prayer, is
the remembrance of the covenant of
grace, which God has made with us.
" This shall be the covenant," etc. Jer.
31 : 33. And, " The covenant of my
peace shall not be removed, saith the
Lord, that hath mercy on thee." Isa.
54 : 10. " Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ! I will make an everlasting cove-
nant with you." Isa. 55 : 1, 3. In this
covenant of grace the assurance that
our prayers shall be heard is contained.
" Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found, call ye upon him while he is
near." Isa. 55 : 6.

12. What we have said upon this
head, is most happily exemplified in
the prayer of Daniel. " O Lord, the
great and dreadful God, keeping the
covenant and mercy to them that love
him, and to them that keep his com-
mandments.— And now, O Lord our
God, that hast brought thy people
forth out of the land of Egypt with a
mighty hand, and hast gotten thee re-
nown, as at this day." (Here is the

putting God in mind of his former
mercies.) "Hear, O our God, the
prayer of thy servant, and his suppli-
cations, and cause thy face to shine
upon thy sanctuary that is desolate,
for the Lord's sake." (This is plead-
ing the name and merits of Jesus the
Messiah.) "O Lord, hear; O Lord,
forgive ; O Lord, hearken and do."
(These are the groans of the Holy
Spirit.) " O my God, incline thine
ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and
behold our desolations" (in regard of
his promise) ; " because for our sins,
and the iniquities of our fathers, Jeru-
salem and thy people are become a
reproach to all that are about us."
(Here is a confession of sin, and an ac-
knowledgment of misery.) "For we
do not present our supplications be-
fore thee, for our righteousnesses, but
for thy great mercies " (this is an ac-
knowledgment of man's unworthiness,
and of God's mercy, which is followed
with a remembrance of the covenant) ;
"For thy city and thy people are
called by thy name." Dan. 9 : 4, 15,
17, 18, 19, 16.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE CONVERSATION OF A BELIEVING SOUL WITH GOD.

Wilt thou he angry with us forever ? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations ? Wilt
thou not revive us again : that thy people may rejoice in thee ? Shew us thy mercy, 0 Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. — Ps. 85 : 5-7.

THESE words contain the familiar
discourse of the devout and faith-
ful soul with God. Who would ven-
ture to talk so freely to an offended
prince ? But so indulgent is God to a
believing soul, that he gives liberty to

come freely and without restraint into
his presence. As soon as the believer
enters, God asks, " What is thy de-
sire ? come near, and be not afraid."
This is represented to us in the case
of Bathsheba (1 Kings 1 : 16), going

302

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[Book IL

into the presence-chamber of king Da-
vid, and making her petition. Upon
which, the king sware unto her with
an oath. So also in that of Esther,
whom, so soon as* she came into his
presence, the king touched with his
golden sceptre/ Est. 5:1.

2. It is held to be an act of singular
grace and favor, if a king vouchsafe to
talk familiarly with his subjects. It
was upon this account that the Eoman
emperor Titus was called The delight
of mankind, for his gracious treatment
of all who were near him, filled them
with joy. But how much greater fa-
vor and happiness is it, that God, the
Lord of lords, and King of kings
(whom the Psalmist calls, " The most
high and terrible Lord, a great King
over all the earth "), (Ps. 47 : 2), should
not only talk with miserable men,
who, as Abraham says, " are but dust
and ashes" (Gen. 18 : 27) ; but should
even converse kindly with rebellious
sinners, who are at enmity with him
through sin. Isa. 59 : 2. So that when
a Christian considers, on the one hand,
the greatness and majesty of God; and
the impurity, corruption, misery, and
vileness of human nature on the other
hand, he cannot but cry out with Da-
vid, " What is man that thou art
mindful of him ? and the son of man,
that thou visitest him ?" Ps. 8 : 4.
The most righteous man living must
acknowledge himself to be unworthy
to converse with God. This was the
sentiment of the devout Abraham,
who therefore excuses his presuming
to intercede with God for the Sodom-
ites, saying, " Let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak" (Gen. 18:
30, 32) : and yet every time that Abra-
ham speaks, God vouchsafes to an-
swer. And as he is the father of
"them which are of faith" (Gal. 3 :
7), he gives us a notable example of

the devout soul's conversation with
God.

3. It is therefore a most certain
and undoubted truth, that whensoever
the faithful soul calls upon God by
prayer, he never fails to answer by
the divine consolations of his Spirit.
An instance of this we have, where
the Psalmist calls upon God in these
words : " Lord, thou hast been favor-
able unto thy land. Tbou hast for-
given the iniquity of thy people ; thou
hast turned thyself from the fierceness
of thine anger. Wilt thou not revive
us again ? Shew us thy mercy, O
Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I
will hear what God the Lord will
speak." Ps. 85 : 1, etc. The answer he
received in his heart; therefore he
says : "His salvation is nigh them that
fear him." Yer. 9. And as he here
prays, that he may hear what the Lord
God will say concerning him ; God an-
swers him, "Hear, O my people, and
I will testify unto thee." Ps. 50 : 7.
The afflicted soul prays, " O Lord, re-
buke me not in thine anger." Ps. 6 : 1.
To which God answers, " The Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and plenteous in mercy." Ps. 103 : 8.
The soul says, " Whither shall I flee
from thy presence ?" Ps. 139 : 7. To
which the Lord answers, " Come unto
me, all ye that labor, and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." Matt.
11:28. The soul says, "I know, O
Lord, that the way of man is not in
himself; it is not in man that walketh,
to direct his steps." Jer. 10 : 23. To
which it is answered, " I will instruct
thee, and teach thee in the way in
which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee
with mine eye." Ps. 32 : 8. The be-
lieving soul prays, " Teach me thy way,
O Lord; I will walk in thy truth."
Ps. 86 : 11. To which the Lord an-
swers, " I am the way, the truth, and

Chap. XXXIX.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

303

the life" (John 14 : 6) ; the way, if thou
wouldest not wander; the truth, if thou
wouldest not be deceived ; the life, if
thou wouldest avoid eternal death.
The believing soul complains, "There
is no soundness in my flesh, because
of thine anger; neither is there any
rest in my bones, because of my sin.
My wounds stink and are corrupt, be-
cause of my foolishness." Ps. 38 : 3, 5.
To which it is answered, " The chas-
tisement of our peace was upon him ;
and with his stripes we are healed."
Isa. 53 : 5. The devout soul says, " Heal
me, O Lord, and I shall be healed :
save me, and I shall be saved." Jer.
17 : 14. It is answered, "Who forgiv-
eth all thine iniquities; who healeth
all thy diseases." Ps. 103 : 3. The soul
complains, and cries out : I have sin-
ned above the number of the sands of
the sea. To which God answers by
the prophet Isaiah, "I have blotted
out, as a thick cloud, thy transgres-
sions, and as a cloud thy sins." Isa.
43 : 25 ; 44 : 22. The soul cries out,
Alas ! I am a grievous sinner. And
Jesus Christ answers, " I am not come
to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance." Matt. 9 : 13. The soul
prays, " Remember not the sins of my
youth, nor my transgressions." Ps. 25 :
7. To which God answers, " If the
wicked will turn from all his sins that
he hath committed, and keep all my
statutes, and do that which is lawful
and right, he shall surely live, he shall
not die. All his transgressions that
he hath committed, they shall not be
mentioned unto him." Ezek. 18 : 21,
22. The soul cries out, "Wash me
thoroughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin." Ps. 51 : 3.
To which God answers, " Though your
sins be red like crimson, they shall be
as wool." Isa. 1:18. "Lord, enter not
into judgment with thy servant; for

in thy sight shall no man living be
justified." Ps. 143 : 2. To which it is
answered, "God sent not his Son into
the world, to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be
saved. He that believeth on him is
not condemned." John 3 : 17, 18. The
soul prays, "Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me." Ps. 51 : 10. To which it
is answered, "A new heart also,will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes." Ezek. 36 : 26, 27. The
soul says, " I am bowed down greatly;
I go mourning all the day long." Ps.
38 : 6. To which it is answered, " The
Lord hath sent me to comfort all that
mourn." Isa. 61 : 2. It is said, " Look
upon mine affliction and my pain." Ps.
25 : 18. And it is answered, " To him
will I look, that is poor, and of a con-
trite spirit." Isa. 66 : 2. " Thou teilest
my wanderings." Ps. 56 : 8. To which
the Lord answers, " The very hairs of
your head are all numbered." Matt.
10 : 30. The soul cries out, "When
shall I come and appear before God V
Ps. 42 : 2. To which is answered,
" Where I am, there shall also my
servant be." John 12 : 26. The soul
complains, "How long, O Lord, wilt
thou forget me ? forever ? How long
wilt thou hide thy face from me ? How
long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall mine enemy be exalted
over me?" Ps. 13:1, 2. To which is
answered, " For a small moment have
I forsaken thee; but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee."
Isa. 54 : 7, 8. Compare thy present
suffering with God's eternal grace.
Wait for the promise, which, though
late, will surely be fulfilled at last.
Hab. 2 : 3. The soul says, " Thou art
my God; be not far from me; for

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[Book II.

trouble is near; for there is none to
help." Ps. 22 : 10, 11. To which it is
answered, " I will be with him in trou-
ble ; I will deliver him, and honor
him." Ps. 91 : 15. The soul prays,
" Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the
sleep of death." Ps. 13 : 3. To which
it is answered, " I will ransom them
from the power of the grave; I will
redeem them from death." Hosea, 13 :
14. The soul says, " I have a desire to
depart, and to be with Christ." Phil.

1 : 23. To which Christ answers, " To-
day shalt thou be with me in para-
dise." Luke 23 : 43.

4. In a word, the Holy Scripture is
nothing else but a conversation of the
devout soul with God. Whenever
the soul raises itself to God, and
spreads its misery and complaints be-
fore him, then God answers it by some
internal comfort, or by the words and
promises of the Holy Scriptures.

CHAPTER XL.

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN FAITH AND THE MERCY OF GOD.

Mercy and truth are met together ; ri

THE goodness of God comes forth
to meet us, and gives merciful
answers to the prayers of faith ; " for
mercy shall compass us about." Ps.
32 : 10. It calls to us : " Return, saith
the Lord, and I will not cause mine
anger to fall upon you : for 1 am mer-
ciful, and I will not keep anger for-
ever. Only acknowledge thine in-
iquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God." Jer. 3 :
12, 13. To which faith answers,
" Have mercy upon me, O God, ac-
cording to thy lovingkindness; ac-
cording unto the multitude of thy
tender mercies, blot out my trans-
gressions." Ps. 51 : 1. Mercy calls,
'* Him that cometh to me, I will in no
wise cast out." John 6 : 37. Faith an-
swers, " Draw me ; we will run after
thee." Cant. 1 : 4. Mercy says, " The
Lord hath sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted, to comfort all that
mourn." Isa. 61 : 1, 2. Faith answers

and peace have kissed each other. — Ps. 85 : 10.

out of Psalm 51 : 12 : "Restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation j and up-
hold me with thy free Spirit." Mercy
says, out of Isaiah 43 : 25 and 44 : 22,
"I have blotted out as a thick cloud,
thy transgressions, and, as a cloud,
thy sins." Faith answers out of Psalm
25 : 18, " Look upon mine affliction
and my pain, and forgive all my sins."
Mercy comforts us and says, out of
Psalm 103 : 13, " Like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him." To
which faith answers, out of Isaiah
64 : 8, " But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father." Mercy says, " Come unto
me." Matt. 11 : 28. Faith answers,
" Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my
soul." Ps. 25: 1. Mercy says, "Thou
hast played the harlot with many
lovers ; yet return again to me, saith
the Lord." Jer. 3 : 1. Faith answers,
"I will arise and go to my Father,
and wiil say unto him : Father, I have

Chap. XLL]

TBUE CHKISTIANITY.

305

sinned against heaven, and before thee,
and am no more worthy to be called
thy son ; make me as one of thy hired
servants." Luke 15 : 18, 19. Mercy
says, " This my son was dead, and is
alive again; he was lost, and is found."
Luke 15 : 24. To which faith an-
swers, "I have trusted in thy mercy;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salva-
tion." Ps. 13 : 5. Mercy proclaims,
out of Isaiah 55 : 1, "Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."
To which faith answers, " As the hart
panteth after the water-brooks, so
panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the liv-
ing God ; when shall I come and ap-
pear before God ?" Ps. 42 : 1, 2. Mer-
cy says, " Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities; who healeth all thy dis-
eases." Ps. 103 : 3. Faith exclaims,
"Enter not into judgment with thy
servant." Ps. 143 : 2. Mercy says, " I
am the way, the truth, and the life."
John 14 : 6. Faith answers, " Shew
me thy way, O Lord ; teach me thy
paths. Lead me in thy truth, and
teach me." Ps. 25 : 4, 5. Mercy prom-

ises, " I will ransom them from the
power of the grave : I will redeem
them from death : O death, I will be
thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy
destruction." Hosea 13 : 14. Faith
answers, " He that is our God, is the
God of salvation; and unto God the
Lord belong the issues from death."
Ps. 68:20. Mercy says, "I am the
resurrection and the life ; he that be-
lieveth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live." John 11 : 25. To
which faith answers, " I know that
my Eedeemer liveth, and that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth :
and though after my skin worms de-
stroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God." Job 19 : 25, 26. Mercy
says, " Fear thou not ; behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of my
hands." Isa. 41 : 10; 49 : 16. " Thou
art mine; neither shall any man
pluck thee out of my hand." John
10 : 28. To which faith answers,
" Into thine hand I commit my spirit;
thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God
of truth." Ps. 31:5.

CHAPTER XLL

THE GREAT BENEFITS, AND THE GREAT EFFICACY OF PRAISE OFFERED TO GOD.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. I call to remembrance my song in the night;
I commune with mine own heart. — Ps. 77 : 2.

THIS passage is an excellent rule of
life, teaching every man how to
conduct himself under the cross. As
the word of God is the rule of our life
in prosperity, according to the Psalm-
ist : " I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go :
I will guide thee with mine eye " (Ps.

32 : 8) j and " Thou shalt guide me
with thy counsel, and afterward re-
ceive me to glory " (Ps. 73 : 24) : yea,
moreover, as the word of God ought
to be the rule of our faith, as the
Psalmist tells us, "Thy word is a
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto
my path " (Ps. 119 : 105) : and "Hold

20

306

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

tip my goings in thy paths, that my
footsteps slip not" (Ps. 17 : 5) — so also
ought it to be our rule and direction
in bearing the cross, as David teaches
us, saying, " In the day of my trouble
I sought the Lord;" that is, I will look
up to God, who has laid this cross
upon me, and beg of him comfort and
assistance in the day of my trouble.

2. Hence may every Christian learn,
when he is in affliction, not to fix his
thoughts too much upon the immedi-
ate causes or instruments of his suf-
ferings; but to lift up his heart to
God ; to apply to himself the divine
promises ; to pray and sing praises to
his God : and these are the true and
certain consolations of an afflicted
soul. David says, " In the day of my
trouble I sought the Lord." As a
mind oppressed with grief eases it-
self by communicating its troubles to
a faithful friend, so is our afflicted
spirit refreshed and comforted when
we offer prayer and thanksgiving to
God. Thus David " called to remem-
brance his song in the night, and com-
muned with his own heart" (Ps. 77 :
6); that is, when it was night he
longed earnestly for the morning, that
he might rise and comfort his weary
soul by prayers and thanksgiving unto
God his Comforter: in the mean time,
he communed with his own heart, and
poured out his soul in secret; and
God, who saw and heard in secret,
who understood even the most secret
sighs and breathings of his dejected
spirit, comforted, strengthened, and
refreshed him.

3. Amongst other things that may
be learned from this beautiful passage
of the Psalmist, this is one, that the
singing of holy hymns and praises to
God, proceeding from a truly devout
soul, are attended with great advan-
tages and spiritual blessings.

4. The truth of this appears, 1.
From nature itself. 2. From the effi-
cacy of prayer. 3. From the ex-
amples found in the Old Testament.
4. From the examples in the New. 5.
From the examples of holy men in
both, who were by this means filled
with the Holy Ghost. 6. From the
nature and properties of the Psalms.
7. From the frequent use of the blessed
Psalms among the ancients, whenever
they were under any adversity. All
these considerations prove that there
is a great virtue or efficacy in psalms
and hymns of praise. By this I
would not be understood to mean
nothing but bare words and empty
sounds, void of faith and devotion;
but rather such a vigorous faith, such
an ardent devotion, as may break
forth into holy hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in
the heart unto the Lord. Let us
briefly describe this subject.

5. As to the first, namely, the book
of the world, or nature, it is clear that
the praise of God is the great end of
the whole creation. That this is the
grand employment of the angelical
choirs, appears from many passages
in the Revelation of St. John, as also
from Isaiah 6 : 3 and the 148th Psalm ;
which, inviting all creatures to praise
God, for whose glory they were cre-
ated, begins with the angels (ver. 2),
" Praise ye him, all his angels; praise
ye him, all his hosts." From the an-
gelical he descends to the sidereal
world, saying, " Praise ye him, sun
and moon : praise him, all ye stars of
light." To which may be referred the
words of Job (chap. 38:7): " When
the morning stars sang together."
Thence he descends to the sea, calling
on the waters, and all the numerous
inhabitants of the waters, to praise
the God that made them. Thence

Chap. XLL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

307

looking up to the regions of the air,
he calls to "the fire and hail, snow
and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his
word." Thence he passes to the
earth : " mountains and all hills ; fruit-
ful trees, and all cedars/' Thence to
the living creatures: " beasts, and all
cattle; creeping things and flying
fowl." Thence to men, beginning
with the rulers of the world : " kings
of the earth, and all people; princes,
and all judges of the earth. Both
young men and maidens, old men and
children, praise the name of the Lord."
And lastly, to the church of God, " his
saints, a people near unto him — praise
ye the Lord."

6. The second argument was the
efficacy of the prayer of faith. This
is attested by the word of God, the
examples of holy men, and daily ex-
perience. For we are assured by all
the promises of God, that not one de-
vout prayer, not one sigh or tear,
comes from us in vain. " Put thou
my tears into thy bottle." Ps. 6:9;
56 : 8. " They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy." Ps. 126 : 5. " The Lord
is nigh unto all them that call upon
him, to all that call upon him in
truth." Ps. 145 :18. Nothing, indeed,
in this world can be successful with-
out prayer ; forasmuch as every good
and every perfect gift cometh down
from God, and must be asked of him.
Without constant prayer a man can
neither live nor die in peace. Now,
as the offering of praise to God is
nothing else but the prayer of a de-
vout soul overflowing with divine joy,
in which holy men of God have cele-
brated and conveyed to posterity the
mercies and wonders of God their
Creator; it is plain that the singing
of praises to God is an act of devo-
tion, full of spiritual comfort and ad-
vantage.

7. Thirdly, this is confirmed by
many examples found in the Old Tes-
tament. Exod. 15 ; Deut, 32 ; 1 Sam.
2; Isa. 12; 26; 38; 64; Jon. 2; Hab.
3; and the whole Book of Psalms.

8. Fourthly, this is confirmed by the
examples of the New Testament ; es-
pecially those two divine hymns of
Mary and Zacharias (Luke 1 : 46, 68),
of which the Christian Church has
appointed one to be sung in the morn-
ing, and the other in the evening, as a
morning and evening sacrifice unto
God; thereby instructing us, that
singing psalms and praises unto God
ought to begin and end the day. Such,
too, is the exhortation of the Psalmist,
" It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, and to sing praises
unto thy name, O Most High : to
shew forth thy lovingkindness in the
morning, and thy faithfulness every
night." Ps. 92 : 1, 2. But why such
lovingkindness "in the morning"?
Because "it is new every morning."
Lam. 3 : 23. And why such "faithful-
ness every night " ? Because " the
Lord, that neither slumbereth nor
sleepeth," is our guardian by night.
Ps. 121 : 3. To this we may add what
we are told by St. Matthew (chap. 26:
30), that Jesus Christ himself at his
last Supper, sung a hymn with his dis-
ciples. And St. Paul says to the
Ephesians (chap. 5 : 18, 19), " Be filled
with the Spirit; speaking to your-
selves in psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord;
giving thanks always, etc." And
again : " Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom; teach-
ing and admonishing one another in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord." Col. 3 : 16, 17.
And St. James says, " Is any among

308

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[Book II.

you afflicted? let him pray. Is any
merry ? let him sing psalms." James
5 : 13.

9. Fifthly, by the praises offered to
God by the holy men of the Old Tes-
tament and the New, who were filled
with the Holy Ghost. Of this we
have two instances. First, when
Samuel had anointed Saul to be
king, he gave him a sign, saying,
" Thou shalt meet a company of
prophets with a psaltery, and a tab-
ret, and a pipe, and a harp, before
them ; and they shall prophesy. And
the Spirit of the Lord will come upon
thee, and thou shalt prophesy with
them, and shalt be turned into another
man." 1 Sam. 10 : 5, 6. The second is,
when Saul had sent messengers to
take David, they met several compa-
nies of prophets, and both they and
Saul himself began to prophesy. 1
Sam. 19 : 19-24. Similar to this is
that which we read concerning Elisha
(2 Kings 3 : 15), that when the min-
strel began to play, that holy man
prophesied.

10. In the Old Testament there
were several kinds of divine music ;
some of trumpets, some of psalteries
and harps, some of cymbals, and other
kinds of musical instruments. From
this some imagine that the Songs of
Degrees, as some of the Psalms are
called, took their names. For they
did not sing all the Psalms to the
same instrument, but adapted their
instruments to their subject, whether
it were cheerful or sorrowful. All
these various kinds of music with
which, under the Old Testament, they
sang praises unto God, being a part of
the external ceremonial service, have
now ceased; and our spirit, soul, mind,
and mouth are become the trumpet,
psaltery, harp, and cymbal of God.
To which St. Paul alludes, when he

says, " Singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord." Col. 3 : 16. By
which expression we are by no means
forbidden, either in public or private,
to praise God with voices or instru-
ments of music ; but it requires that
all this be done with true devotion, in
the spirit, and from the heart, lest re-
ligion should be thought to consist in
empty sounds and the external pomp
of divine service. For the New Testa-
ment, see, for example, Acts 4 : 24-31.

11. Sixthly, the nature and proper-
ties of the Psalms prove the same
thing. Some of them are supplica-
tory, others consolatory; some peni-
tential, others doctrinal; and, lastly,
others prophetical: from which vari-
ety of style and intention the devout
soul may reap a correspondent variety
of comforts and benefits.

12. Seventhly, we are instructed by
the examples of Moses and David
that songs of praise were used upon
different occasions. As (1) Against ene-
mies. These may be called prayers
for protection. Such is Psalm 68,
which the man of God sang when he
was advancing against his enemies:
"Let God arise, let his enemies be
scattered." Some think that Psalm
91 was composed by David in the
time of that great pestilence, which,
in the space of three days, swept
away 70,000 men. 2 Sam. 24:15. And
I doubt not that many a man has
been protected in national calamities
by a proper use of this Psalm. (2)
In time of victory over enemies. These
we may call Psalms of victory. Thus
David, when he had gained six vic-
tories, composed the 18th Psalm, as
may be gathered from 2 Sam. 22 :
1. So Jehoshaphat marched against
the Moabites with singers going be-
fore him, who were to bless and
praise the Lord with a loud voice;

Chap. XLIL]

TKTJE CHRISTIANITY.

309

and he conquered. 2 Chron. 20 : 21,
etc. (3) In great calamities. Thus we
read (1 Sam. 21:13) that David, when
he changed his behavior before Ach-
ish, composed the 34th Psalm, as ap-
pears by the title. So he sang Psalm
3, when he fled from Absalom. So
when the apostles, in great diffi-
culties, prayed in the words of the 2d
Psalm, " the place was shaken where
they were assembled together." Acts
4 : 31. And these are Psalms of
mourning or lamentation. (4) There
are also eucharistical Psalms. So
David sung the 105th Psalm before
the ark of the covenant. 1 Chron. 17 :
16. (5) There are complaining Psalms,
as the 102d appears to be by the in-
scription; also some against calum-
niators, as the 4th, 7th, 52d; also
against diseases, as the 30th.

13. Thus much concerning the effi-
cacy and admirable benefits of divine
hymns and thanksgivings. Whence it
appears that it is the duty of a Chris-
tian to praise G-od as well as to pray
to him every day. For (1), it being
the constant employment of the holy
angels to bless and praise God, when
the Church on earth does the same,
there arises thence a divine and heav-
enly communion betwixt the Church

on earth and the Church in heaven;
fulfilling, in some measure, that peti-
tion of the Lord's prayer, " Thy will
be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Matt. 6 : 10. Come, then, ye devout
souls, and when ye retire into your
closets to pour out your souls before
God in secret, remember also to praise
him with a Psalm of thanksgiving.
(2) Moreover, it would be quite proper,
and becoming a Christian, to accustom
children, from their infancy, to sing
psalms and praises unto God, accord-
ing to the Psalmist, " Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings hast thou or-
dained strength, because of thine ene-
mies " (Ps. 8:2): the advantage of
which, is expressed in the following
words — athat thou mightest still the
enemy and the avenger." (3) We
are encouraged to this duty by God's
gracious acceptance of it, and delight
in it ; upon which account the Psalmist
calls upon him, saying, "Thou art
holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel." Ps. 22 : 3. (4) Experience
itself teaches us that by divine hymns
we kindle flames of devotion in our
souls, and receive rich returns of spir-
itual joy, lively comfort, solid peace,
and rest in God.

CHAPTER XL II.

THE REASONS FOR WHICH WE OUGHT DAILY TO OFFER PRAISES TO GOD.

Praise ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

Ps. 106: 1; 107:1; 118: 1.

THUS saith the devout David,
" Seven times a day do I praise
thee, because of thy righteous judg-
ments" (Ps. 119 : 164) ; that is, many
times in a day do I sing praises in

honor of thy holy name. By this he
teaches us, that a man cannot spend
his time better than by retiring at
least once a day into his closet, and
praising God in secret. Yea, though

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[Book II.

his bands be employed in labor and
business, yet may be, in the qui«t still-
ness of bis heart, offer up his praises
unto God wheresover be is. For the
prayer of a true Christian is not con-
fined to any certain time or place, since
he worships "in spirit and in truth "
(John 4 : 23) ; and the Spirit is not
circumscribed by any limits of time
or place. To which also relates tbe
admonition of St. Paul, when he com-
mands us " to sing with grace in our
hearts to the Lord" (Gol. 3 : 16) ; that
being, indeed, tbe fittest place wherein
God may be praised.

2. But as we are by nature dull and
inactive in the discharge of this duty,
therefore God has given us, in his
Word, certain helps to quicken us.

3. The first of these is his own com-
mand. He made us, bis servants and
creatures, for his own glory, as we
ourselves appoint servants to manage
business for us. He, therefore, who
does not daily praise God, was cre-
ated by him in vain, and cannot be
his servant. Hence we are com-
manded, over and over again, in Holy
Scripture, above all things, to praise
God. Thus, " Praise ye the Lord.
Praise him, O ye servants of the
Lord." Ps. 113 : 1. "O give thanks
unto tbe Lord." Ps. 118 : 1. " Thou
shalt glorify me." Ps. 50 : 15. This is
an argument to us, that the chief part
of our religious worship, our chief
service in this world, and our happi-
ness in the next, consist in the exer-
cise of praise and thanksgiving; upon
which account we ougbt to esteem it
our greatest happiness and most hon-
orable employment. So the holy
Psalmist says, "My soul shall be sat-
isfied as with marrow and fatness;
and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips." Ps. 63 : 4. And again,
" Delight thyself in the Lord, and he

shall give thee the desires of thine
heart." Ps. 37:4. O how truly happy,
then, and blessed is he who is come to
such perfection of divine worship as
to delight in the Lord, and to be con-
tinually offering praises and thanks !
" He shall be satisfied with the good-
ness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple." Ps. 65 : 5. If we think it an
honorable thing to be employed in
the service of any earthly prince,
how much more ougbt a man to re-
joice when he considers that he may
be admitted to the service of the
Lord of lords, and King of kings, be-
ing, in bis own nature, no better than
dust and ashes, and a poor sinner !
This single consideration ought to be
of sufficient weight to encourage him
to praise God daily.

4. Secondly, the advantages that a
man derives from this exercise, is an-
other argument. For since God has
no need of our praises, and is neither
the better nor the worse for our obe-
dience or neglect; and since the most
acceptable praise which we can offer
him is, at best, but the fruit of "un-
clean lips " (Isa. 6 : 5), as the prophet
Isaiah speaks, it follows that the ad-
vantage redounds only to ourselves,
as being the means of drawing down
upon us the favor and blessings of
heaven : a thankful heart being the
proper receptacle of divine grace.
This, in short, is that which brings
God down into our souls, and makes
us truly the living temples of the
Holy Ghost ; and where God is, there
is the fulness of divine blessing.
Moreover, by the daily exercise of
thanksgiving, we keep up communion
with the blessed choirs of triumphant
saints and angels in heaven. They
are incessantly singing the praises of
God above ; whilst we below, by the
same exercise, are conquering, by de-

Chap. XLIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

311

grees, the enemies of our salvation
(Ps. 18 : 29), till at length, by a con-
stant practice of this divine duty, we
are filled with an immovable assur-
ance that we are united to God, and
that we shall be for ever happy with
him in heaven, according to the prom-
ise of our blessed Lord, " Where I
am, there shall also my servant be."
John 12:26. And now, would to God
that wretched man would so lay these
considerations to heart, and so sin-
cerely endeavor to practise them, that
every soul might become, in truth, a
house of prayer !

5. Thirdly, we are encouraged to
the daily practice of thanksgiving,
from the consideration of the compas-
sion, the lovingkindness, and everlasting
goodness of God. This is an argument
continually inculcated in the Book of
Psalms, to teach us that the chief and
fundamental reason why we ought
continually to bless and praise God,
is, because he is good and gracious,
and " his mercy endureth for ever."
No heart of man can conceive, nor
tongue express, the height and depth
of that love which disposes the great
and mighty God to show himself thus
loving and merciful to wretched man-
kind, who are dust and ashes, laden
with iniquities, and ungrateful to God;
and that he not only continues his
wonted mercies to them, notwith-
standing their repeated provocations;
but is also perpetually dispensing
fresh showers of blessings upon the
whole rebellious race. And this is
what every man must needs experi-
ence in himself. Look into thine own
soul, whosoever thou art ; what canst
thou find there but misery and sin ?
Yet God continues merciful and long-
suffering, is slow to anger, and not
willing to punish thee as thy sins
have deserved. This is a degree of

mercy which, as thy own heart must
confess, no man living does or can ex-
ercise towards his brethren. We can-
not so long forbear to punish those
that have offended us ; and when we
punish, mercy seldom pleads for the
criminal, till we are satiated with ven-
geance; whereas the rod of God is
often lifted up, but his mercy averts
the impending stroke, and rescues the
sinner from punishment. So that
every man must confess that the
punishments of heaven are not only
less than we deserve, but are always
qualified with a double portion of
mercy. Whence it follows, that God
is essentially and truly love, which
every man daily experiences in him-
self.

6. Eead the Holy Scriptures and see
how tenderly, yea, how affectionately
God vouchsafes to deal with mankind,
so that no father or mother upon
earth can be more indulgent to their
darling child. Thus, "Is Ephraim
my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ?
For since I spake against him, I do
earnestly remember him still; there-
fore, my bowels are troubled for him ;
I will surely have mercy upon him,
saith the Lord/' Jer. 31 : 20.

7. God not only bestows his favors
plentifully both on our souls and bod-
ies, but also does it with so much ten-
derness and good will, that, as he him-
self says, " He rejoices over us to do
us good" (Jer. 32 : 41); as if he were
glad to find men willing to be happy
in the blessed manifestations of his.
love; which is, indeed, the truest,
demonstration that it is sincere..
Were not God thus merciful, our very
being would soon be at an end, which;
nothing but his infinite mercy can
sustain; yea, "His lovingkindness is.
better than life itself" (Ps. 63:3),.
which " compasseth us about" (Ps. 32 ::

312

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IL

10), as tender mothers embrace their
helpless infants.

8. The same goodness of God dis-
covers itself in all his creatures ; in
which, as in a glass, we may contem-
plate the wonderful riches of divine
mercy : " The earth is full of the
riches of God." Ps. 104 : 24. For
whose sake was all that is good, both
in heaven and earth, created? Not
for Him certainly, who is Himself all-
sufficient, and stands not in need of
any creature. The sun, moon, and
stars serve not to enlighten him ; the
fire, the air, the earth, and water do
him no service, but us. And when he
" fills our hearts with food and glad-
ness " (Acts 14 : 17), it is his goodness
that we taste, it is his bounty that
feeds and nourishes us. He it is that
gives us healthy and sound bodies,
which are more valuable to us than
an empire. If it should please God to
turn the water into blood, as he did in
Egypt (Exod. 7 : 20), we could not,
with all our boasted treasure, purchase
one single drop to relieve our greatest
necessities. Or should he, as he did
once (Exod. 10 : 22), cover the earth
with thick darkness, no prince upon
earth could, with all his riches, pur-
chase one single gleam of light. Or
what would all the world signify to
him that should but for one moment
be deprived of the benefit of the air?
All these are very great blessings of
God, but because they are common,
few are so sensible of them as to be
thankful for them. Eeflect, more-
over, on the mercies of redemption
and sanctification, in which the good-
ness and grace of God so transcend-
ently appear, that eternity itself
would be too short to praise and mag-
nify these blessings as we ought. To
:redeem a lost world is much more
glorious than to create it at first j and

to regenerate a man by a spiritual
new birth, more wondrous than at
first to produce him by a natural
birth. Lastly, whosoever will care-
fully consider the works and provi-
dence of God, may read the plain
characters of his mercy and love in
every part of the creation.

9. Dull, ungrateful creatures that
we are, how apt are we to forget our
benefactor, and despise the hand that
blesses us ! God is thus led in mere
mercy to use the rod of discipline, and
to take away our worldly comforts
from us, in order thereby to reduce us
to a. sober sense of ourselves, and of
our dependence on him, to whom all
our thanks are due. Thus God speaks
by the prophet Hosea, " She did not
know that I gave her corn, and wine,
and oil, and multiplied her silver and
her gold : therefore will I return, and
take them from her." Hosea 2:8. So
that the cross is, as it were, the light
by which we see and discover the true
value of divine blessings, and who it
is that bestows them. For ingratitude
is the greatest degree of blindness, and
the highest affront against God. And
since the whole world is full of the
glory of God, much more ought the
heart of man to be full of it.

10. Indeed the excellency of the
divine love discovers itself chiefly in
this, that he bestows his favors even
upon rebels and enemies. " For he
maketh his sun to rise, and sendeth
his rain on the just and on the unjust."
Matt. 5 : 45.

11. The goodness and mercy of God
herein appear still more illustrious,
that though we continue ungrateful,
and our hearts " cast forth wickedness
as a fountain casteth forth her waters "
(Jer. 6 : 7), yet he still strives to con-
quer our ingratitude by his goodness,
and does not take his mercy from us;

Chap. XLIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

313

as the Psalmist says, " His mercy en-
dureth forever." Ps. 136 : 1. So that
as the heart of man is, as it were, an
abyss of iniquity (Jer. 17 : 9), so God
is an abyss of mercy, an ever-flowing
fountain of goodness, so much superior
in kind, as well as in degree, to that
of any created being, that he doeth
nothing but good, and receives nothing
in return but evil; which the uncreated
and infinite Good alone could do or
suffer. And when, provoked by our
wickedness, he seems sometimes to lay
aside his mercy, and " in anger to shut
up his tender mercies" (Ps. 77 : 10);
yet even that is nothing but paternal
resentment, not tending to destruction,
but so tempered with compassion, that
mercy triumphs over judgment. So,
" If his children forsake my law, I will
visit their transgressions with the rod :
nevertheless my lovingkindness will I
not utterly take from him." Ps. 89 :
30-33. And, " In wrath remember
mercy." Hab. 3 : 2. So, too, we read,
11 He doth not afflict willingly the chil-
dren of men." Lam. 3 : 33. For pun-
ishment is, as it were, contrary to his
nature and essential goodness. For
though the Scriptures often speak of
God's being angry, yet such expressions
are used, after the manner of men, only
in compliance with the weakness of
human capacities. Yea, God is never
angry with his faithful servants; but
only with wicked and obstinate sin-
ners ; and when he corrects the former
in mercy, he punishes the latter in his
wrath ; for " the wrath of God abideth
on them." John 3 : 36. Hence David
prays, " O Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger." Ps. 6:1. As if he had said,
" Lord, chasten me with mercy, as a ten-
der father corrects his beloved child."
Wherefore, it is as impossible that the
mercy and goodness of God should fail
or cease towards mankind (though he

sometimes afflicts us), as that the sun
should actually be extinguished by a
cloud, or the vast ocean be absorbed
by a sponge. " For his mercy endureth
forever." Ps. 136 : 1. And this is the
reason of God's reconciliation and for-
giveness, not once or twice, but as
often as the sinner begins to repent
and sue for mercy. This mercy does
not last for a few hours, or a few days
only, but forever ; so that the entire
nature and essence of God, infinite as
it is, is nothing else but love. No
sooner does the sinner sincerely pray
for pardon, but the merciful God freely
bestows it, yea, he is more willing and
ready to pardon, than we to ask it.

12. Now if God pours his blessings
upon us so plentifully in this life, that
we taste and enjoy them by all our
senses ; how much more fully shall we
be convinced, in the other world, by
most blessed experience, that his mercy
endureth forever? If we receive so
many mercies from him now in this
vale of sin and misery, as that " in him
we live, and move, and have oar be-
ing" (Acts 17:28), how much more
glorious will his mercy appear here-
after, when we shall be cleansed from
all sin, and rendered capable of the
purest enjoyments ?

13. Fourthly, the praises of God
have been the special employment of
all holy men. Most of the prophets
of the Old Testament composed holy
hymns, to the praise and honor of
God. Thus did Moses (Exod. 15 ; Deut.
32), Hannah (1 Sam. 2), Jehoshaphat
(2 Chron. 20), Hezekiah (Isa. 38), and
Jeremiah (Lam. 3). David was, how-
ever, the most eminent, who is so fer-
vent in the praise of God, as to say,
that "His praise shall continually be
in his mouth." Ps. 34 : 1. In the New
Testament, the Virgin Mary (Luke 1 :
46-55), and Zacharias (Luke 1 : 68-

314

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[Book II.

79) j also St. Paul and St. Peter, in
many places of their Epistles. These
examples sufficiently show that they
believed acts of thanksgiving and
praise to be the most noble services
which we can possibly perform in this
valley of misery. And, therefore, if
we are desirous to be partakers with
the saints in glory, it is necessary that
we should imitate their examples in
praising and magnifying God.

14. Fifthly, all creatures invite us
to praise God. Thus David speaks
to them all, " Bless the Lord, all his
works, in all places of his dominion."
Ps. 103 : 22. And, indeed, every crea-
ture, in its way, gives glory to its Cre-
ator; for he has stamped such illus-
trious characters of his glory and
goodness on them all, that they can-
not conceal them. "The heavens de-
clare the glory of God ; and the firma-
ment sheweth his handywork." Ps.
19 : 1. And Job says, "Where wast
thou, when the morning stars sang
together ?"■ Chap. 38 : 4, 7. For even
the sun, the moon, and all the host of
heaven, when they give their light,
bear witness at the same time to the
majesty and goodness of Him that
made them. The earth praises God
when it is fruitful and flourishing.
The herbs and flowers, by their fra-
grance, beauty, and variety of colors,
show forth the might and wisdom of
their Maker. The birds with their
songs; the trees with their fruits; the
sea with its inhabitants (Ps. 104 : 25);
in short, all the creatures in their sev-
eral places, praise the God that made
them, whilst they fulfil his will, and
answer the end for which they were
created. Ps. 148 : 1, etc. And not only
so, but they call upon mankind, by the
virtues and powers which God has im-
planted in them, as witnesses of his
wisdom and goodness, to praise and

glorify God. Whatever way we turn
our eyes, we see so many marks of
divine goodness, that one would think
that nature was nothing but one great
history of the glory of its Maker. But
forasmuch as God has been more gra-
cious and bountiful unto man than to
any other of his creatures, mankind
are certainly obliged to furnish larger
and more frequent returns of gratitude
than they.

15. Sixthly, we must know, that
when we have done all that we can to
set forth the greatness and majesty of
God, the best and most devout of men
must fall short of the dignity of a sub-
ject, which no tongue, either of men
or angels, can worthily express. For
"Who can utter the mighty acts of
the Lord ? who can show forth all his
praise V Ps. 106 : 2. The most exalt-
ed praises of holy men are more prop-
erly acts of admiration and wonder,
than attempts to express to the full
the infinite love and majesty of God.
They have the will, but not the abil-
ity, to praise God in adequate terms.
Thus holy David in many Psalms stirs
up his soul, and all the powers there-
of, to praise his God with thanksgiv-
ing. So Moses, "The Lord is my
strength and song, and he is become
my salvation. He is my God, and I
will prepare him a habitation ; my
father's God, and I will exalt him."
Exod. 15 : 2. Observe, he calls God
his strength; and were not that strength
with us, in us, and above us, we should
quickly be turned into dust, and van-
ish like a shadow. Therefore it is
said: "Every man at his best state is
altogether vanity." Ps. 39 : 5. Moses
also calls God his salvation; for he is
our righteousness against sin; our
strength against infirmities; our ref-
uge in persecution; our joy in sad-
ness; and lastly our life in death.

Chap. XLIIL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

315

16. And now, what is there in
heaven or in earth that may be com-
pared unto our God, with whom is
such abundant salvation; who, by
his power, sustains the heaven and
the earth, and all that is therein (Isa.
40 : 12) ; who is so holy that all the
angels adore him (Isa. 6 : 3), so "fear-
ful in praises " (Exod. 15 : 11) that
the heaven, the earth, and all that is
under the earth, bow and tremble ?
He is so praiseworthy that all his
works ought to be had in honor, and
every creature ought to praise his
Maker : so wise, so powerful, as to
create all things out of nothing ; to
bring light out of darkness ; right-
eousness out of sin; and life out of
death. Should we now pass to the
great work of our redemption, who
can express it ? He suffers his only
Son to become man, that we might
become the children of God. He suf-
fers all pain as man, that we might
enjoy everlasting felicity; he took
upon him the form of a servant, that
we might be partakers of his heavenly
kingdom ; lastly, he underwent death
for us, that we, through him, might
have life eternal. Such works, such
love, who can worthily celebrate ?
Where is he that can explain how

the infinite God, "whom the heaven
of heavens cannot contain " (1 Kings
8 : 27), can yet dwell in us, and we in
him ? Or how he made our immortal
souls, and will receive them to him-
self after their separation from the
body? Or how he shall raise our
dead bodies from the dust of the
earth unto eternal life ? It is, indeed,
wonderful and strange, that that
which is "mortal should put on im-
mortality." 1 Cor. 15:53. Wherefore,
praise the Lord, O my soul.

17. If any man, then, desires to
answer the end of his creation, and
not to be thought the only in grate
among all the works of God ; if he
desires to walk worthy of his Chris-
tian calling, and after death to be
partaker with the saints of light and
everlasting glory, let his soul praise
the Lord, and let him beseech God
that He would never suffer his soul to
be unmindful or negligent of this
duty. And those things which we
cannot sufficiently praise in this world
shall be worthily celebrated in the
next, when " that which is in part
shall be done away. For now we see
through a glass darkly, but then face
to face." 1 Cor. 13 : 10, 12. Which may
God grant, for Jesus Christ's sake.

CHAPTER XL II I.

TO PRAISE GOD IS THE HIGHEST AND MOST HONORABLE EMPLOYMENT OF MEN.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord — upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the
psaltery ; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through
thy work ; I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 0 Lord, how great are thy works !
and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not ; neither doth a fool understand
this. Ps. 92 : 1-6.

THEEE are six Psalms which have
been distinguished by the name
of Golden Songs, namely, 16, 56, 57,

58, 59, 60, to show us that the praise
of God and prayer are the spiritual
and heavenly treasure of a believing

316

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

heart. And that this is the greatest
honor man is capable of, appears
hence. (1.) That a cheerful confidence
in God is that which procures the soul
the greatest liberty of access to him.
Hence it is said, " Honor and majesty
are before him ; strength and beauty
are in his sanctuary." Ps. 96 : 6. And
that this freedom of access is the
highest honor of man, the very angels
themselves confess, who glory in that
exalted privilege. "I am Gabriel, that
stand in the presence of God." Luke
1:19.

2. The giving praise to God is a
great honor and treasure of man, be-
cause (2) thereby we become like the
angels in heaven. Therefore our bless-
ed Saviour, pointing out the future
glory of men, says, " They shall be as
the angels of God." Matt. 22 : 30 ;
Luke 20 : 36. This, though it is ulti-
mately to be understood of the purity
and other perfections of their glori-
fied bodies in another life ; in which
respect we shall not only be like the
angels, but also be conformed to the
glorified body of our Lord Jesus
Christ (according to Phil. 3 : 21, and
1 John 3:2," It doth not yet appear
what we shall be ; but we know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like
him ; for we shall see him as he is")
— yet even as no man can be like him
in the other world, that has not been
conformed to him in this • that is to
say, that has not believed in him, imi-
tated his holy life, followed him in his
meekness and humility, and, in a
word, perfectly clothed himself with
the image of the patient, humble, af-
flicted and crucified Jesus, that he
may be like him in his glorious, ex-
alted, and perfect state in the other
world ; so also shall no man be like
the angels in heaven, that has not en-
deavored to conform himself to their

examples on earth. There is then no
instance in which we can better imi-
tate them here, than by offering up
devout and incessant prayers and
praises to God; for this is the em-
ployment of the holy angels. Isa. 6 :
3 ; Ps. 103 : 20. Whosoever then does
this, imitates those blessed spirits,
and maintains fellowship with them.
Hence it follows, that to be continu-
ally celebrating the praises of God is
the noblest and most honorable em-
ployment that man is capable of.
And this may be done at any time,
and in any place by a devout soul,
praising from the ground of the heart.
It is thence that the true praises of
God proceed, according to that ex-
pression, " singing with grace in your
hearts unto the Lord." Col. 3 : 16.

3. That singing praises to God is the
greatest glory and highest honor that
a man can receive, appears (3) hence;
that by this a man becomes, as it
were, the harp or instrument on which
the Holy Spirit is perpetually sound-
ing forth the praises of God. Of this
we have a very beautiful representa-
tion, where the Evangelist saw a great
multitude clothed in white, and fol-
lowing the Lamb of God; and "he
heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps." Eev. 14 : 2. This
was also indicated under the Old Tes-
tament by that admirable variety of
musical instruments mentioned by Da-
vid in Ps. 150. All these instruments
express nothing else but the various
gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which the
name, the praise, the honor,the wisdom,
the mercies, and wonderful works of
God were to be published to the world;
which instruments are now laid aside
to make room for the divine harmony
of spiritual music, even that of praise
and thanksgiving to God. For what
the musical instrument is to man, that

Chap. XLIIL]

TEUE CHEISTIAN1TY.

317

the soul of man is to the Spirit of
God, being attuned and rendered har-
monious by the hand that holds it.
Thus it is said, " Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings thou hast or-
dained strength." Ps. 8 : 2. But what
greater glory can the heart, mouth, or
soul of man desire and enjoy, than to
be as so many organs or musical in-
struments of the Spirit of God ? This
is what David means, " The Spirit of
the Lord spake by me, and his word
was in my tongue" (2 Sam. 23 : 2);
and the apostle, "Be ye filled with
the Spirit : speaking to yourselves in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord." Eph. 5 :
18, 19.

4. That the praising of God is a
man's greatest privilege, and most
valuable treasure, appears (4) hence :
because in that exercise is contained
the greatest spiritual joy. Hence it is
said, "Thou, Lord, hast made me glad
through thy work ; I will triumph in
the works of thy hands." Ps. 92 : 4.
And as in this divine joy consists the
greatest part of the happiness of eter-
nal life, and the kingdom of God with-
in us, which we are told, "is peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost" (Eom. 14 : 17) ;
so whoever desires a foretaste of the
happiness of that blessed state, may
obtain it by the daily exercise of
praise and thanksgiving. This, when
it proceeds from a sincere heart, gives
life and divine joy both to the soul
and body; as we are told in Ps. 63,
and Ps. 84. What is Paradise itself,
but pure joy and unmixed pleasures;
where "we taste and see that the
Lord is good" ? Ps. 34 : 8. And what
is eternal life, but the abundance of
this joy, " and pleasures at God's right
hand for evermore " ? Ps. 16 : 11.

5. The greatness and excellency of

this duty appears (5) hence : that by
it we are led to the contemplation of
all the wonderful works of God, whence
such rays of divine light and wisdom
dart upon the soul, as scatter and dis-
sipate the clouds of error and darkness
in which men are naturally involved.
Thus saith the Psalmist, "O Lord,
how great are thy works ! and thy
thoughts are very deep. A brutish
man knoweth not, neither doth a fool
understand this." Ps. 92 : 5, 6. And
St. Paul, "The Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God."
1 Cor. 2 : 10. Therefore, the more a
man knows of God, the more he
praises him; and the more he praises
him, the more he increases in the
knowledge of him. For the higher
any one rises in the praises of God, so
much the more deeply he descends
into the contemplation of his nature
and providence. I do not mean the
presumptuous inquiries of some curi-
ous searchers into forbidden myster-
ies, but those riches of the divine wis-
dom which God often discovers to the
soul that loves and praises him, and
which strike her dumb by the excess
of glory and sublime manifestations
of Himself. If the queen of Sheba
was so astonished at the riches and
magnificence of Solomon's court, as to
break out in these words, " Thy wis-
dom and prosperity exceedeth the
fame which I heard. Happy are thy
men, happy are these thy servants,
which stand continually before thee,
and that hear thy wisdom" (1 Kings
10 : 7, 8), how much more should the
devout soul be swallowed up in rap-
ture and astonishment, at those reve-
lations of divine light and glory which
God frequently vouchsafes to them
that love and praise him, causing
them to cry out with David, "O,
Lord, how great are thy works ! and

318

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

thy thoughts are very deep"! Ps.
92 : 5. And again, "The secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him;
and he will show them his covenant/'
Ps. 25 : 14. And again, "Thou shalt
make me to know wisdom in the hid-
den part." Ps. 51 : 6. Therefore, as
the queen of Sheba says, " Happy are
thy men, happy are these thy ser-
vants, which stand continually before
thee, and hear thy wisdom;" so those
that continually praise God, are the
servants of God, standing continually
about his table, believing in spirit the
divine wisdom, and hearkening to the
word of God. This is the never-fail-
ing fountain of true wisdom, which
one of the ancient fathers treats of,
calling it "the deep ocean of divine
wisdom." But sublime and glorious
as it is, "a brutish man knoweth not;
neither doth a fool understand this."
In a word, the more closely a man ap-

proaches God by praise and thanks-
giving, the clearer manifestations has
he of the riches and treasures of the
divine wisdom; which at the same
time are hidden, and as it were locked
up from those that are without under-
standing in the ways of God.

6. We may conclude that praising
God is the highest honor, the most
exalted privilege, and greatest benefit
to man; because (6) by this man gains
the victory over all his enemies, both
Satan and men. See Psalm 8 : 2 ; 18 :
3, etc.; 118 : 5-15. We have a plain
instance of this in the case of Jehosh-
aphat, who, with one divine hymn,
routed a vast army of his enemies
without loss of blood; as we find, 2
Chron. 20 : 21, 22. Such songs of vic-
tory are frequently to be met with in
the Psalms: as Psalms, 18; 46; 47;
76, etc.

CHAPTER XLIV.

OP PATIENCE, WHICH TRIUMPHANTLY ENDURES THE CROSS, AND WAITS FOR THE

PROMISED GLORY.

Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the
promise. — Heb. 10 : 36.

TRUE Christian patience is that vir-
tue by which, in all afflictions that
cannot, by ordinary means, be avoided,
we resign ourselves to the divine will,
and submit entirely to it; choosing
rather to suffer the greatest evils, than
murmur against God, or let go our de-
pendence on him.

2. The first reason or ground of this
virtue is, the counsel and gracious will
of God, by which we are appointed to
sufferings and afflictions; according to

Rom. 8 : 29: "Whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be con-
formed to the image of his Son." As,
therefore, God appointed his own be-
loved Son to the sufferings of the
cross, that thereby he might bring
him to glory; so also has he appoint-
ed all the true members of Christ to
bear the cross, without which they
cannot be his body. Eph. 5 : 30. To
each of these he has marked, meas-
ured, and, as it were, weighed out, his

Chap. XLIV.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

319

exact portion of affliction, which can-
not be escaped, much less shaken off
by impatience; but may be alleviated
by obedience and humble submission,
and overcome by the power of Jesus
Christ.

3. The second reason why we ought
to be patient is the approaching con-
summation of all things; at which
time, as our blessed Lord has told us,
" iniquity shall abound, and love shall
wax cold." Matt. 24 : 12. The conse-
quence of this must be that sincere
Christians will be exposed to various
afflictions, crosses, injuries, and sun-
dry kinds of death ; for " all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." 2 Tim. 3 : 12. Christ
assures us that the righteous must
expect tribulations and persecutions
for the testimony of a good con-
science. John 15 : 20; 16 : 1. And the
whole Eevelation of St. John testifies
that Antichrist shall persecute the
Church of God till the last coming of
the Lord; then the conflict will at
last end, and the dragon and false
prophets be cast into the lake of fire
and brimstone. Do not, therefore,
deceive thyself with golden dreams
of felicity, but possess thy soul in pa-
tience, and strengthen thyself against
the approaching calamities.

4. Thirdly, the hope of the restitu-
tion of all things, and the expectation
of everlasting happiness, is another ar-
gument to support our patience. For
as " the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath
long patience for it, until he receive
the early and latter rain " (James 5 :
7), comforting himself under all his
toils with the hopes of a plentiful
harvest, so should Christians also
learn to "possess their souls in pa-
tience " (Luke 21 : 19), and to per-
suade themselves that the great and

universal harvest of the long-expected
day of the Lord shall repair all our
losses, and give to every one of us
the fruit of our labors. For as the
husbandman by no means reckons
his seed lost, though it is for a while
buried in the earth, but only sows it
there in hopes of a harvest, so when
Providence is pleased to take from us
our lives, our friends, our estates, or
honor, we must not look upon them
as lost, but be assured that they are
sown in hope of the great day of
harvest, when we shall reap abun-
dantly, "if we faint not." Gal. 6:9.
So also afflictions are compared to.
seed-time: "They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him." Ps. 126 : 5, 6.

5. Fourthly, another support of pa-
tience is the coming of Jesus Christ;
when all our sorrows shall be done
away, yea, be turned into joy (John
16 : 20). and the just judgment of God
shall fall upon our enemies ; and then
" shall every man have praise of God."
1 Cor. 4 : 5. And this day is at hand :
"the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh." James 5:8. " Vengeance is
mine, saith the Lord." Eom. 12 : 19.
The time of the cross is short, but the
glory that follows it will be eternal.
And that day of deliverance cannot
be far off.

6. The fifth support of patience is
the truth and faithfulness of God; by
the consideration of which "we ought
to stablish our hearts," as St. James
says, so that they may not waver.
James 5 : 8. For as we tie a tender
tree to a post, that it may not be
broken by the winds ; and as we cast
anchor in a storm, to hold the ship,
that it may not be driven by the tern-

320

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

pest ; so ought we to apply our faint
arid weak hearts to the firm pillar of
God's word, and hold the ship of our
souls by the anchor of hope, that it
sink not. Heb. 6 : 19. For how many
and great promises of divine assist-
ance have we in the Holy Scriptures !
How many instances of strange de-
liverances have we daily before our
eyes ! And what variety of methods
has God to deliver us ! How many
has he preserved in pestilence and
famine (2 Kings 6 : 25; 7 : 16), and
delivered from the peril of the sword !
2 Chron. 20:22; 14:12. For God
can turn the hearts of enemies to
unity and peace, or disappoint the de-
signs of the adversary, as appears in
the history of the blessed Jesus: "for,"
says the angel, "they are dead which
sought the young child's life." Matt.
2 : 20. God can also convert an ad-
versary, as he did St. Paul. Acts 9 :
8, etc. How often does he disappoint
the bloody intentions of wicked men !
Saul had a design upon the life of
David, and thought he was so penned
in that he could not escape ; but God
recalls him by the message of a new
incursion of the Philistines into his
country. 1 Sam. 23 : 27. And the
chief priests having sent their officers
to lay hold on the blessed Jesus, the
latter were so affected by our Lord's
discourses, that they could not find in
their hearts to touch him. John 7 :44.
Sometimes God smites the enemies of
his servants with blindness, as in the
cases of Elisha (2 Kings 6 : 18) and of
Lot. Gen. 19 : 11. Consider, too, the
innumerable legions of angels that
guarded the Christians of old time,
and miraculously preserved them
from imminent dangers, as in the
case of St. Peter. Acts 5:19; 12 :
7-11. And how often was St. Paul
wonderfully preserved, and the de-

signs laid against his life discovered!
Acts 23 : 16. At length, by a tem-
poral death, God puts an end to the
miseries of his servants.

7. Sixthly, how glorious shall the
recompense of past afflictions be to the
faithful in the other world, which they
would not exchange for all the pleas-
ures and glories of this ! Eom. 8 : 18.
" Blessed are they that mourn ; for
they shall be comforted." Matt. 5 : 4.
And in Eev. 21 : 4 and Isa. 25 : 8, it is
said, that "God shall wipe away all
tears from the eyes of" his saints.
But how shall he wipe away the tears
of those that never sincerely wept ?

8. Seventhly, we must set before our
eyes the examples of holy men, as Abel,
Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph, David, Job, and especially the
man of God, Moses ; who, as the Holy
Scripture witnesses, was " very meek,
above all the men which were upon
the face of the earth." Num. 12 : 3.
The people were sometimes murmur-
ing against him, sometimes chiding
him, and sometimes threatening to
stone him; but he broke their stub-
born hearts by his meekness and pa-
tience, pacifying them with gentle
words, praying to God for them, and
entreating rather to be blotted out of
the book of life, than that they should
be cut off in His displeasure. Exod.
32 : 32. So also Elijah, having been
most cruelly persecuted, yet obtained
rain from God for his ungrateful coun-
try. 1 Kings 18 : 45. Micaiah, before
the kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat, was
struck by the false prophets, and cast
into prison, only for dealing sincerely
with the king, and giving him a salu-
tary warning. 1 Kings 22: 24; 2 Chron.
18 : 23. Why should I mention Isaiah,
sawn asunder as a reward for his faith-
ful services, or Jeremiah, bitterly per-
secuted by his countrymen (Jer. 15 :

Chap. XLIV.]

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

321

10), or Daniel, cast into the den of
lions (Dan. 6 : 6), or John the Baptist
beheaded (Matt. 14 : 10), or St. Paul,
and all the afflictions which he en-
dured (2 Cor. 11 : 23, etc.), or the suf-
ferings and trials of the rest of the
Apostles, and all the holy martyrs ?
See Heb. 11 : 35, etc. Should you in-
quire of all these, by what way they
entered into heaven, they will all with
one voice answer: By the way of the
cross and tribulation. Acts 14 : 22.
Neither did Christ himself enter by
any other way. So says St. Peter,
" Christ suffered for us, leaving us an
example, that ye should follow his
steps : who, when he was reviled, re-
viled not again ; when he suffered, he
threatened not; but committed him-
self to him that judgeth righteously."
1 Pet. 2 : 21, 23. So great was the pa-
tience of our blessed Bedeemer, that
though the sun hid its head at the
time of his passion, being unwilling to
witness indignities so great; though
the earth trembled, and the rocks rent
(Luke 23:44; Matt. 27:51); yet he,
still hanging upon the cross, mur-
mured not against his enemies, nor by
either word or gesture discovered the
least impatience ; but on the other
hand, prayed for his enemies, that
they might be saved by that blood
which they so unjustly shed. Now if
this be the lot of the children of God,
that he chasteneth every one whom
he loveth and receiveth, it follows that
we must either suffer, or quit our title
to be the sons of God. Heb. 12 : 6-8.
If our heavenly Bather spared not his
own Son, though he was without sin,
but chastened him with the rod of
affliction; canst thou, who art an
adopted son, and polluted with innu-
merable sins, expect to escape it?
Moreover, if God bear so patiently
with our provocations, how much

more patient ought we to be, when
we are punished for our good, with a
view to our amendment! "Let us
rather rejoice," as St. Peter exhorts
us (1 Epistle 4 : 13), "inasmuch as we
are partakers of Christ's sufferings;
that when his glory shall be revealed,
we may be glad also with exceeding

joy." '

9. Eighthly, we shall bear our af-
flictions patiently, when we consider
that Christ Jesus has sanctified and
blessed our crosses by his own, and has
taken away the sting of affliction, and
made it to us the instrument of bless-
ing, life, and glory. For as the suf-
ferings of Christ ended in glory, so
will the sufferings of every Christian
be turned into everlasting joy.

10. Ninthly, behold the glorious re-
ward of those that bore their cross
with patience. Though many of the
holy martyrs were most barbarously
treated, most inhumanly punished,
and cruelly put to death, some thrown
to wild beasts, some boiled in oil,
others in melted lead ; yet there is no
man so impious or foolish, as to say,
that he had not rather be in their con-
dition now, than that of their mur-
derers. Who would not now prefer
the condition of the poor Lazarus, to-
that of the rich man ? Luke 16 : 25*.
But if thou wouldest obtain the glory
of the saints, thou must also bear the-
same crosses, and bear them with the
same patience. To this we must refer
those words of our blessed Saviour::
" Blessed are ye when men shall revile
you, and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil of you falsely, for my
sake. Bejoice, and be exceeding glad ;
for great is your reward in heaven."
Matt. 5 : 11, 12. As also those in Bom.
8 : 17, 18, " If we suffer with Christ, we
shall also be glorified with him." And
again, " I reckon that the sufferings

21

322

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us."

11. Tenthly, let the deep compas-
sion of God be a support to our pa-
tience, who can no more forget us,
than a mother can forget her sucking
child. Isa. 49 : 15. He says, that " his
bowels are troubled for Ephraim, and
that he will have mercy upon him."
Jer. 31:20. Hence also he is said to
be " faithful, who will not suffer us to
be tempted above that we are able "
(1 Cor. 10 : 13) ; not chastening us for
our hurt, but that we may obtain ev-
erlasting life, "and not be condemned
with the world." 1 Cor. 11 : 32. For,
if the cross be nothing but a token of
God's favor, wouldest thou rather
choose the pleasures and dainties of
the rich man here, and have his pun-
ishment hereafter, than enter into
eternal life by the way of the cross,
and wear a crown of glory ?

12. All that has been said on this
head, is admirably explained in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 12 : 1-11)
as follows : " Let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith ; who, for the joy that was
set before him, endured the cross, de-
spising the shame, and is set down at

the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against him-
self, lest ye be wearied and faint in
your minds. Ye have not yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. And
ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint
when thou art rebuked of him. For
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he re-
ceiveth. If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons :
for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not ? But if ye be with-
out chastisement, whereof all are par-
takers, then are ye bastards, and not
sons. Furthermore, we have had
fathers of our flesh which corrected
us, and we gave them reverence : shall
we not much rather be in subjection
to the Father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chas-
tened us after their own pleasure ; but
he for our profit, that we might be
partakers of his holiness. Now no
chastening for the present seemeth to
be joyous, but grievous \ nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness, unto them
which are exercised thereby."

CHAPTER XLV.

DIVINE CONSOLATION PRODUCES PATIENCE UNDER AFFLICTIONS.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord has promised to them that love hifn. — Jambs 1 : 12.

EVEN as God has provided healing
remedies for the body in exter-
nal nature ; so has he also for the soul
in his holy Word. And as in this val-

ley of misery and tears, no man can
be perfectly free from crosses, afflic-
tions, and troubles; so nothing can be
more seasonable than to collect certain

Chap. XLV.]

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

323

heads out of the word of God, by a
proper application of which we may
find help and comfort in the hour of
temptation.

2. The first comfort is the considera-
tion of the divine providence, which
lays the burden upon us. " The Lord
killeth, and maketh alive : he bringeth
down to the grave, and bringeth up."
1 Sam. 2:6. " The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away." Job 1 :
21. "Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing ? and one of them shall not
fall to the ground without your Fa-
ther." Matt. 10 : 29. " I form the
light, and create darkness : I make
peace, and create evil." Isa. 45 : 7.
" Happy is the man whom God cor-
recteth ; therefore, despise not thou
the chastening of the Almighty : for
he maketh sore, and bindeth up ; he
woundeth, and his hands make whole."
Job 5 : 17, 18. It is, therefore, foolish
to be angry with those whom God
makes the instruments of our correc-
tion. " Wherefore doth a living man
complain, a man for the punishment
of his sins ? Let us search and try
our ways, and turn again to the
Lord." Lam. 3 : 39, 40. This is the
design of God, that we should repent
and turn from our sins, and not mur-
mur against him that afflicts us.

3. The second head of comfort is to
consider the end and design of our
cross, namely, that God sends it, not
out of wrath, but from pure love to
our souls. How dangerous it is to a
man's soul to be always prosperous
and at ease, we may learn not only
from the case of " the rich man "
(Luke 16 : 25), but also from the ex-
ample of our first parents, whose hap-
piness in paradise being greater than
they could bear, they were, by the
temptations of Satan, seduced from
their obedience and dependence upon

God. Gen. 3. And every day fur-
nishes us with fresh instances of the
danger of such a state. Now, though
God, in strict justice, might have con-
demned man to everlasting punish-
ment, yet he chose rather to have
pity on him, and devised means for
recovering his lost happiness; and
one of these is the cross, or affliction.
For this cause he drove him out of
paradise, that in the "sweat of his
face he should eat bread" (Gen. 3:
19), to the intent that, by sufferings,
he might be brought to repentance ;
and this is his constant method even
to this day. Though we offend him
by innumerable sins, yet, in his abun-
dant mercy, he leaves nothing un-
done, no means untried, that may
lead to our conversion and amend-
ment. And this is the reason why
Providence appoints every particular
man his cross, that we may all be
kept in true penitence and the fear
of God unto eternal life. Hence it is
that God is said to correct those
whom he loves, that they may not
be condemned with the world. Pro v.
3 : 11, 12; 13 : 24; Heb. 12 : 6; 1 Cor.
11 : 32.

4. The third argument is sin itself,
by considering whether thou hast
not deserved thy punishments. If
thou hast (which thou canst not
deny), then it is agreeable to the di-
vine justice that thou shouldest suf-
fer. Now, a temporal suffering, at-
tended with the divine mercy and
comfort, is certainly more desirable
than an eternal one, without hopes of
comfort or expectation of redemp-
tion. Call to mind the rich man, in
vain crying out : " Father Abraham,
have mercy on me" (Luke 16:24),
and assure thyself that it will be no
small comfort to consider that God
has changed the eternal punishment

324

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

threatened to our sins into a temporal
correction that can be endured.

5. Fourthly, when thou art afflicted,
consider how much Christ suffered for
thy sake ! Think upon his poverty,
" who had not where to lay his head!"
Matt. 8 : 20. Eemember the indigni-
ties which he underwent, such as no
man ever did or will endure: being
"despised and rejected of men" (Isa.
53 : 3, 4) ; yea, " a worm, and no man."
Ps. 22 : 6. Moreover, as he took upon
him the miseries, pains, and diseases
of all the world, hence it was that he
underwent such bitter sufferings, such
dreadful torments, that even the sun
and moon were darkened at the sights
the earth quaked, and the rocks rent;
all which, though for the sake of his
most cruel enemies, he bore with a
love so inexpressibly pure, with a
meekness and patience so sincere,
that "as a lamb, he opened not his
mouth." Moreover, though we pro-
voke him every day by innumerable
transgressions, yet he continues, and
will still continue faithful, and ready
to receive us to his favor upon our re-
pentance (Jer. 3:9); yea, and if the
ransom he has already paid were not
sufficient, he would lay down his life
again for our sakes. Therefore, he
bears patiently with us, and waits
day and night to be gracious. For so
strong, so ardent, is his love towards
us, that it cannot be quenched by any
sins, any ingratitude of ours, if we but
sincerely repent of them. His love is
higher than heaven, deeper than the
sea, and exceeding even our most ex-
alted thoughts and expressions. But
there is one thing necessary on our
part, and that is, repentance. There-
fore, he calls upon all without distinc-
tion, "Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest." Matt. 11 : 28. And, « O Je-

rusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I
have gathered thy children together!"
Matt. 23 : 37. " If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink." John
7 : 37. By these words of Holy Scrip-
ture, he continually invites every one
to come to him that stands in need of
mercy. How then canst thou imagine
that He will forsake thee in the time
of trouble, who endured so many and
great miseries for thy sake ! It is for
this that God calls himself our Father.
Now we know that a father is more
compassionate and tender than a mas-
ter: so that he would not have us
dread him, but love him as a dutiful
child does an indulgent father. When,
therefore, any affliction befalls thee,
receive it cheerfully, and remember
that thy Father sends it to thee for
good, and kiss the rod, and the hand
that holds it. Consider the compas-
sion of God as thy greatest security,
the firm foundation of all thy hopes ;
^firmly believing that thy heavenly
Father will lay no more upon thee
than he knows to be absolutely neces-
sary for the salvation of thy soul.

6. Fifthly, we must call to mind the
consolatory promise of our blessed
Saviour, "Verily, verily, I, say unto
you, that ye shall weep and lament,
but the world shall rejoice; and ye
shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow
shall be turned into joy." John 16 : 20.
As a little seed is multiplied into a
number of grains, so one affliction
shall produce a large increase of spir-
itual joy and glory. " They that sow
in tears, shall reap in joy. He that
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him." Ps. 126 : 5, 6. If
God should promise to convert every
pebble about thy house into a precious
stone, thou wouldest quickly make a

Chap. XLY.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

325

large collection, and highly value
them. The case of crosses and afflic-
tions is just the same. Learn to love
them, yea, court them, knowing that
God will assuredly convert them into
treasures of blessings, and spiritual
joys ; according to the words : " I
reckon that the sufferings of this pres-
ent time, are not worthy to be com-
pared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us." Rom. 8 : 18.

7. The sixth ground of comfort is
found in the examples of the saints,
none of whom were without their
cross. Ask them one by one, and they
will answer you, " Through much trib-
ulation we entered into the kingdom
of God." Acts 14 : 22. Ask the elders
in the Revelation, "Who are these?"
and they will tell you, " These are
they which came out of great tribula-
tion." Rev. 7 : 14. Inquire of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron,
David, Daniel, Elias, Job, and all the
Prophets and Apostles ; they will tell
you that they drank deep of the bit-
ter cup of affliction, which was to
them "the cup of salvation." Ps. 116 :
13. If we consider only the holy mar-
tyrs, whose tortures and sufferings
were terrible and affrighting, we shall
find that nothing could seduce them
from Christ. And what comparison is
there between their crosses and our
light afflictions, who " have not yet
resisted unto blood " ! Heb. 12 : 4. We
cannot bear a trivial injury, or an af-
fronting expression for Christ's sake,
for whom the blessed martyrs under-
went the most ignominious deaths.
One was beheaded, another roasted
alive, a third crucified; some were
drowned, some stoned, others hanged,
others struck through with darts,
others forced to walk barefooted upon
red-hot plates of iron ; the love of
Christ so swallowing up all sense of

pain, that they cried out that " they
were walking upon roses."

8. The seventh source of comfort is,
the presence of God with us under the
cross. God has nowhere declared that
he dwells with the merry, but rather
with the afflicted and sorrowful. " I
dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite ones." Isa. 57 : 15.
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee;
be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I
will strengthen thee; yea, I will help
thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the
right hand of my righteousness. —
When thou passest through the wa-
ters, I will be with thee j and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee; when thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee." Isa.
41 : 10 ; 43 : 2. " Because he hath set
his love upon me, therefore will I de-
liver him : I will set him on high, be-
cause he hath known my name." Ps.
91 : 14. " The Lord is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart, and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit." Ps.
34 : 18. It was the comforting pres-
ence of God that enabled the holy
martyrs to bear up so boldly under
the torments that were laid upon
them, and to disregard their tor-
mentors, as did particularly St. Lau-
rence and St. Yincent, the latter of
whom, walking upon burning coals,
told them, "he was walking upon
fragrant roses." Babylas, the mar-
tyr, desired that the chain with which
he was bound might be buried with
him, that he might not be deprived
of so great an ornament. Ignatius
wished to be a grain of wheat, and to
be ground with the teeth of wild
beasts, that he might become clean

326

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

bread unto his Saviour. These are
such instances of courage and joyful-
ness as utterly exceed the powers of
nature, and are only owing to the in-
fluences of that heavenly Comforter
who supported St. Stephen, and made

his face shine before the council as
it had been the face of an angel.
Acts 6 : 15. And in this sense is
that saying of the Psalmist verified,
" Thy comforts delight my soul." Ps.
94 : 19.

CHAPTER XLYI.

MOTIVES TO PATIENCE; AND, THE BENEFITS OF THE CROSS.

Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter
rain. — James 5 : 7.

PATIENCE is that virtue by which
we behave ourselves quietly be-
fore God under any cross or tribula-
tion, committing ourselves and all our
concerns, whether temporal or eter-
nal, without any reserve, to be gov-
erned and disposed of by the all-wise
providence of God, entirely resigning
all to his will : to the practice of which
the following arguments strongly per-
suade us.

2. First, because every cross and
calamity of life, as sword, famine,
pestilence, and other punishments,
proceed from God. Nothing happens
in this world at random or by chance,
though, by the permission of Provi-
dence, many evils are inflicted on us
by the devil and his instruments. For
thus saith the Lord: " I form the
light, and create darkness; I make
peace, and create evil; I the Lord do
all these things." Isa. 45 : 7. And
"The Lord killeth, and maketh alive;
he bringeth down to the grave, and
bringeth up." 1 Sam. 2 : 6. What
canst thou reply to all this? Wilt
thou be impatient, and fight against
God?

3. Secondly, we must remember that
our punishments are less than we de-
serve. Our sins are always greater
than our punishments, and our suffer-
ings less than our offences. Thou
canst not but own that the mercies
thou hast enjoyed, from thy youth up
unto this day, are more and greater
than the punishments thou hast suf-
fered. Why then shouldest thou not,
with profound submission, receive
cheerfully the corrections which he
inflicts for thy benefit, to save thee
from destruction ?

4. Thirdly, if we have in many ways
provoked God, and deserved punish-
ment, we must acknowledge with the
prophet Daniel, that he is righteous
in all that is brought upon us. Dan.
9:7. Is it unreasonable that God
should punish thy sins, either in this
world or the next? And if this be
allowed, why dost thou not submit to
the divine chastisements without mur-
muring or repining? For it is better
to be punished now than hereafter, as
St. Paul tells us : " When we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned

Chap. XLVL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

327

with the world." 1 Cor. 11 : 32. Who-
soever, therefore, is impatient, and
murmurs against God, accuses him of
injustice, and calls his righteousness
in question; and yet uthe Lord is
righteous in all his ways, and holy in
all his works/' Ps. 145 : 17. " Eight-
eous art thou, O Lord, and upright
are thy judgments." Ps. 119 : 137.

5. Fourthly, doth it not discover a
stubborn and untractable temper, to
fly in the face of God, who has so long
borne with, and still continues to bear
with thee patiently, as St. Paul says,
speaking of the goodness, patience, and
long-suffering of God, by which he en-
deavors to draw us to repentance ? See
Eom. 2:4; 9:23; 11:33.

6. Fifthly, set before thine eyes the
patience of thy Saviour. He who was
spotless innocence and purity itself,
though he could have destroyed his
enemies in a moment, yet bore ^heir
utmost cruelties with patience, and
prayed for his enemies. How much
more reason then have we to be pa-
tient, who have deserved the greatest
punishment, even eternal punishment.
As Jacob served seven years for Eachel
(Gen. 29 : 18), so Christ, for our sakes,
submitted to the greatest miseries of
life, for three and thirty years. And
should we refuse to suffer a short af-
fliction for his sake ? Consider the
patience of all the saints, as Joseph,
and Moses, who offered to lay down
his life for his people. Exod. 32 : 32.
So David says, "If I shall find favor
in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring
me again, and show me both it (the
ark) and his habitation ; but if he thus
say, I have no delight in thee ; behold
here am I, let him do to me as seemeth
good unto him." 2 Sam. 15 : 25. Con-
sider also the cases of Job, and the
holy Apostles and Martyrs.

7. Sixthly, the remembrance of God's

great mercies should move us to pa-
tience. For, first of all, thou art as-
sured, that by Christ thou art recon-
ciled unto God, and that therefore no
man can rob thee of this transcendent
mercy, though the whole world should
league together against thee : " for the
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear
him." Ps. 103 : 17. What then can
separate us from the love of God?
Eom. 8 : 38, 39. Moreover, thou art
redeemed by Christ unto everlasting
life ; a privilege which no creature can
take from thee. Now, if the case be
so, that the love of God and thy eter-
nal salvation are firmly secured to
thee ; it will surely be easy for thee to
despise the threats and assaults of ex-
ternal enemies and persecutors, and,
like the blessed martyrs of old, to be.
wholly regardless of what man can do
unto thee.

8. The seventh support of patience
is found in the truth and promise of
God. " Therefore will the Lord wait,
that he may be gracious unto you;
and therefore will he be exalted, that
he may have mercy on you : for the
Lord is a God of judgment: blessed
are all they that wait for him." Isa_
30 : 18. See also Ps. 25 : 3 ; Lam. 3 r
25. " Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation ; for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life." Jam.
1:12.

9. Eighthly, we ought to submit to*
anything for the sake of the glory of
God. Thus the three men in the fiery
furnace (Dan. 3 : 16, etc.) ; Daniel in
the lions' den ; Joseph in prison ; Da-
vid in banishment; all gave glory to >
God by their patient suffering.

10. Ninthly, for the sake of our owm
advantage. For, first, we learn many-
great and useful lessons under the dis-
cipline of the cross. "Patience work-

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[Book II.

eth experience " (Eom. 5 : 4), saith St.
Paul. Secondly, patience breaks the
violence of our sufferings ; upon which
account our blessed Lord promises rest
to those that bear his yoke. Matt. 11 :
29. On the other hand, impatience
disquiets the soul, adds grief to our
trouble, and a sting to our wounds,
and sometimes casts us into destruc-
tion both of body and soul; an in-
stance of which we have in the Israel-
ites, who, being impatient, and mur-
muring against God, were destroyed
by fiery serpents in the wilderness.
Num. 21 : 6.

11. Tenth, great is the reward of
patience. So Job, having been de-
spoiled of all his goods, was rewarded
with a double portion. Job 42 : 10. For,
"Blessed are the meek; for they shall
inherit the earth/' Matt. 5 : 5. And,
by consequence, cursed are the impa-
tient, for they shall be disinherited.

12. Eleventh, patience is a virtue of
unspeakable advantage to all orders
of men. In the Church it is a virtue
which enables men to bear the oppo-
sition, contempt, and persecution to
which they inay be exposed by the
conscientious discharge of their duty.
In the State it is a useful virtue, ena-
bling men to bear with patience the
odium and reproach that generally at-
tends public stations. For history in-
forms us, that impatience, and a desire
of revenge, have been the ruin of many
flourishing states and kingdoms. As
to the concerns of private families,
how necessary patience is there, may
be learned from everyone's experience,
particularly from those that have en-
tered into the marriage-state; in which
respect, these words of Solomon are
.applicable, "He that is slow to anger,
is better than the mighty." Prov. 16 :
;32.

13. Twelfth, consider that Christ has

taken out the sting of our afflictions,
so that they cannot hurt us with re-
gard to our eternal happiness; for by
his cross and passion he has made an
atonement for our sins, and has taken
away those punishments that were due
to them. If then our cross be sancti-
fied by the cross of Christ, and is to
us a remedy against all our spiritual
diseases, it follows that the cross itself
is a help to salvation; which made the
Apostle say, "All things work together
for good to them that love God." Eom.
8:28.

14. Lastly, consider how light thy
afflictions are when compared with
"the glory that shall be revealed in
us." Eom. 8 : 18. Upon which ac-
count the love of God is still more
illustrious, in that he is pleased to af-
flict us in this world. For the dura-
tion of a temporal affliction, if com-
pare^ to eternity, is but for a moment ;
on the other hand, the joy that it pro-
duces lasts to eternity. Hence we
ought to wish and pray for afflictions
in this world, that we may have rest
in the other. Therefore, St. Peter
says: "Though now for a season ye
are in heaviness; — yet ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory."
1 Pet. 1 : 6, 8.

THE BENEFITS OP THE CROSS.

15. The cross is the strait and nar-
row way leading to life, — a rod of di-
vine correction, to awaken us from
the sleep of sin and death, — the morn-
ing star that ushers in the sun of
consolation, — a token of divine favor,
like the rainbow. It brings us to a
conformity with Christ, — strips us of
the armor of darkness, and clothes us
with the armor of light. It is a plant
of life, — a cup of salvation, — a trial of
faith, — the edification of our neighbor
— the parent of love, — a companion of

Chap. XLVIL]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

329

hope, — a forerunner of grace, — a med-
icine of the soul, — a preservative
against sin, — a destroyer of the car-
nal life, — a cherisher of the spiritual
life, — a change of the earthly mind, —
a forsaking of the world, — an increase
of heavenly gifts, — a conqueror of
pride, — a nurse of humility, — a teacher
of patience, — a renewer of the spirit, —
a strengthener of virtue, — a discipline

of the

mind, -

body, — an
a parent

enlivener of
of wisdom.

the

teacher of meekness, — an encourager
of prayer, — a mistress of patience, — a
guardian of chastity, — the peace of the
conscience, — a source of inward joys
— a glittering jewel of the faithful, —
the crown of the martyrs, — the glory
of the elect.

CHAPTER XLVII.

SENTENCES, AND EXAMPLES OP PATIENCE AND CONSOLATION.

We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. — Acts 14 : 22.

AS the life of a Christian consists of
crosses and afflictions, through
which he must enter into the kingdom
of God; so he must arm himself with
patience, and beg it earnestly of God.
We must not think that we are born
for pastime and diversion, but for
many afflictions and trials of patience.
And here we will consider three sev-
eral arguments. The first shall con-
tain some select sentences and testi-
monies of Scripture. The second,
examples. And the third, encourage-
ments.

I. SOME SENTENCES AND TESTIMONIES
OP SCRIPTURE.

2. Patience submits itself with meek-
ness, quietness, and humility, to the
cross ; receiving all kinds of afflictions,
calamities, and persecutions, whether
bodily or spiritual, as the cross and
yoke of Christ. By this we follow
our blessed Saviour, not murmuring
against God, but acknowledging in
faith, that God is reconciled to us

through Christ, and comforting our-
selves under the severest trials, with
the hopes of deliverance. This is also
called meekness towards them that in-
jure and persecute us, leaving the
avenging of our quarrel to God ; not
upon a principle of reason or worldly
policy, but arising from the grace of
God, as the fruit and effect of true
faith.

3. The parts of this description are
— 1. Obedience. 2. Imitation. 3. Not
to murmur. 4. To consider God as re-
conciled to us through Christ. 5. To
lessen our afflictions by hope. 6. To
behave ourselves with meekness to-
wards our persecutors. 7. Not to ex-
ercise revenge. And so it contains in
it faith, hope, charity, humility, meek-
ness, and obedience.

4. These virtues are to be practised
and exercised by all the disciples of
Christ, who are purchased for heaven
and eternal life: for against such the
devil, that great dragon and old ser-
pent (Eev. 12 : 7-9), yea, and the

330

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

whole world, are fighting continually.
Hence it is said, u The dragon was
wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her
seed, which keep the commandments
of God, and have the testimony of Je-
sus Christ," Eev. 12 : 17. To this also
may be referred the following : " If
any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow me. For whosoever will
save his life, shall lose it; and whoso-
ever will lose his life for my sake, shall
find it" (Matt. 16:24, 25): that is,
Whosoever shall refuse to bear the
cross for Christ's sake, and shall flee
from it, shall lose his soul.

5. " Ye shall be hated of all men, for
my name's sake." Mark 13 : 13. This
is indeed a heavy cross, to be hated of
all men; but as it is for Christ's sake,
this affords great consolation.

6. Concerning religious persecutions,
our blessed Saviour prophesies, " They
shall lay their hands on you, and per-
secute you, delivering you up to the
synagogues, and into prisons, being
brought before kings and rulers for my
name's sake. — In your patience pos-
sess ye your souls." Luke 21 : 12, 19.

7. " If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world
would love his own; but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you." John 15 : 18, 19, 20.

8. " They shall put you out of the
synagogues; yea, the time cometh that
whosoever killeth you, will think that
he doeth God service." John 16:2.

9. When St. Paul had been stoned
at Lystra, but encouraged by the dis-
courses of the disciples, " he confirmed
the souls of the disciples, — exhorting
them to continue in the faith : and that
we must, through much tribulation,

enter into the kingdom of God." Acts
14 : 22.

10. " We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed ; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but
not forsaken; cast down, but not de-
stroyed ; always bearing about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body." 2 Cor. 4 : 8.

11. " Thou therefore endure hard-
ness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
If a man strive for masteries, yet is he
not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with
him." 2 Tim. 2:3, 5, 12. "All that will
live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer
persecution." 2 Tim. 3 : 12.

12. " Ye have need of patience, that
after ye have done the will of God, ye
might receive the promise." Heb. 10 :
36.

13. " Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith ; who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God. For,
consider him that endured such con-
tradiction of sinners against himself,
lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds." Heb. 12 : 1-3.

14. " Now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations; that the trial of your
faith might be found much more pre-
cious than of gold that perisheth." 1
Peter 1 : 6, 7.

15. " Because thou hast kept the
word of my patience, I also will keep
thee from the hour of temp cation,
which shall come upon all the world,
to try them that dwell upon the earth."
Eev. 3:10. "Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of
life." Eev. 2 : 10.

Chap. XL VII.]

TKUE CHBISTIANITY.

331

II. EXAMPLES OF PATIENCE.

16. Abraham suffered many things
from the Chaldeans, Canaanites, and
Egyptians. " Then came he out of the
land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in
Charran. And he gave him none in-
heritance in it, no, not so much as to
set his foot on. And God spake on
this wise, That his seed should sojourn
in a strange land ; and that they should
bring them into bondage, and entreat
them evil four hundred years." Acts
7 : 4-6. " By faith Abraham, when he
was called to go out into a place which
he should after receive for an inheri-
tance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing weither he went. By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise, as
in a strange country, dwelling in tab-
ernacles. For he looked for a city
which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God." Heb. 11:8, 9.
"He delivered just Lot, vexed with
the filthy conversation of the wicked.
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptation, and to re-
serve the unjust unto the day of judg-
ment to be punished." 2 Peter 2 : 7, 9.
Isaac refused not to be offered up for
a burnt sacrifice. Gen. 22 : 9. Jacob
also had a great share of suffering. He
fled from his brother Esau, passing
over Jordan with his staff. Gen. 32 :
10. "By his strength he had power
with God ; yea, he had power over the
angel, and prevailed ; he wept and
made supplication unto him." Hosea
12 : 3, 4. He saith unto Pharaoh,
" The days of the years of my pilgrim-
age are a hundred and thirty years;
few and evil." Gen. 47 : 9. " Ye have
heard of the patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the Lord." Jam. 5 : 11.
Moses was meek, and afflicted above
all the men that were upon the face of
the earth. Numb. 12 : 3. He " chose
rather to suffer affliction with the

people of God, than to enjoy the pleas-
ures of sin for a season." Heb. 11 : 25.
How many afflictions did David suffer,
who was a type of Christ ! " O Lord
my God, in thee do I put my trust;
save me from all them that persecute
me, and deliver me." Ps. 7:1. " Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the hum-
ble." Ps. 10:17. Solomon's motto was,
" The fear of the Lord is the instruc-
tion of wisdom ; and before (the)
honor (that is, of the next world) is
humility." Prov. 15 : 33. What pa-
tience had not the three men in the
fiery furnace (Dan. 3:21), and the
holy Apostles and Martyrs! The pa-
tience of Christ exceeds. all these ex-
amples. 1. Because he was most obe-
dient upon the cross. 2. Because he
murmured not against God. 3. Because
he held fast his confidence in God, and
called him his God, though forsaken
by him. Matt. 27 : 46. 4. Because he
heartily prayed for his enemies; and
revenged not himself when it was in
his power.

III. CONSOLATIONS.

17. " Blessed are they that mourn ;
for they shall be comforted." Matt. 5 :
4. " Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light." Matt. 11 :
28-30. In these words there is a five-
fold consolation. 1. That the afflicted
may come to Christ. 2. May be re-
freshed. 3. May take up his yoke.
4. May find rest unto their souls. 5.
That his yoke is easy. For when it
is borne for Christ's sake, it is not
burdensome, but refreshing. Hence
St. Paul saith, " We glory in tribula-
tions ; knowing that tribulation work-

332

TKUE CHKISTIAKETY.

[Book IL

eth patience, and patience, experience,
and experience, hope, and hope maketh
not ashamed: because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost." Eom. 5 : 3, 4, 5. "Bless-
ed is the man that endureth tempta-
tion ; for when he is tried, he shall re-
ceive the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him."

James 1 : 12. "Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?"— " All things
work together for good to them that
love God." Eom. 8 : 35, 28. "In the
world ye shall have tribulation; but
be of good cheer; I have overcome
the world." John 16 : 23. " I have
fought a good fight." 2 Tim. 4 : 7.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THERE IS NO AFFLICTION FOR WHICH GOD HAS NOT PROVIDED APPROPRIATE CON-
SOLATION. THE CONSOLATION WHICH HE AFFORDS IS ALWAYS GREATER THAN
OUR MISERY; THIS CONSIDERATION SHOULD SUSTAIN AND CONFIRM OUR PA-
TIENCE.

THE holy Apostle St. Paul, when
meditating upon the tender mer-
cies and compassions of our Heavenly
Father to all afflicted and contrite sin-
ners, breaks out into these words, full
of the praise of God: " Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and the God of all
comfort; who comforteth us in all our
tribulation, that we may be able to com-
fort them which are in any trouble, by
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are
comforted of God. For as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consola-
tion also aboundeth by Christ — knowing
that as ye are partakers of the sufferings,
so shall ye be also of the consolation"
2 Cor. 1 : 3-7.

2. In these words, so full of grace,
the holy Apostle gives thanks to God
for heavenly consolation ; which is in-
deed the only remedy against all the
troubles and adversities that oppress
us in this life; teaching, at the same
time, that no adversity befalls us, how
great soever, but God supports us un-

der it by his divine comfort, which is
more abundant than our sufferings.
This he confirms by seven weighty ar-
guments, which he repeats in regular
order.

3. The first is, because God is the
Father of mercies, which is the most
cheering appellation that can be con-
ceived : for he shows himself a Father,
not only in name, but in sincerity and
truth to all afflicted souls. Consider
what are the properties of a father ; for
they all belong to God our Heavenly
Father. It is the part of a father,
1. To love his children. 2. To take
care of them. 3. To feed them. 4.
To defend them. 5. To correct and
instruct them. 6. To pity their infirm-
ities. 7. To be tender of them. 8. To
give them an inheritance. If a man
will but thoroughly consider these
particulars, he must acknowledge that
the very name of a father carries in it
such a treasure of comfort, as abun-
dantly outweighs all the miseries of
human life. And to illustrate this

Chap. XLVIIL]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

333

yet more perfectly, St. Paul, by a
most significant epithet, calls him, the
Father of mercies; that is, the eternal
fountain of all that tenderness and af-
fection that is diffused through the
hearts of so many thousands of fa-
thers. Hence it follows, that no cross
can befall the children of God so great,
as is the comfort that arises from the
Father of mercies.

4. The second argument is contained
in this expression, the Godof all comfort ;
that is, he overflows with eternal and
infinite comforts. For as God is the
eternal, infinite, and chief Good; and
on the other hand, our crosses are
finite and temporal; what can proceed
from that eternal and chief Good, but
perpetual comfort, not only equal, but
superior to our greatest affliction ?
For as our miseries are finite, and the
consolations of God are infinite, it
clearly follows that the latter must be
superior to the former.

5. The third argument is, the ex-
ample of St. Paul, and all the saints.
" God," saith he, "comforteth us in all
our tribulation." If we but read the
histories of holy men of former times,
and compare their trials and afflictions
with the divine consolations where-
with they were supported under them,
we shall easily perceive that our afflic-
tions are but light in comparison with
their torments ; and that no cross can
befall us so great, as to exceed those
divine comforts and supports which
the holy martyrs enjoyed. Who will
presume to compare his crosses with
those of Job? Who can say he has
been afflicted like Jeremiah (Jer. 20 :
7, etc.)? or tried like David? Ps. 88.
And what is our cross compared with
that of Christ ? or are our sufferings,
compared with the torments of the
holy martyrs? Their examples, as
they were the children of God, our

Heavenly Father has set before our
eyes, to teach us, 1. That the cross is
the sanctuary of the true Christian.

2. His heavenly and spiritual glory.

3. His victory over the world and
the devil. 4. His preparation for the
kingdom of heaven. 5. That without
the cross no man can enter into the
kingdom of God. 6. That the cross
is the image of Christ. 7. That it is
an exalted and sublime mystery, in
which lies hid the highest wisdom of
God. But flesh and blood cannot
comprehend this, neither taste the
heavenly manna hidden in the word
of God, except by the cross. Hence,
the divine comforts are greater than
any human sufferings.

6. The fourth is expressed in these
words, " That we may be able to com-
fort them which are in any trouble,
by the comfort wherewith we our-
selves are comforted of God." Now,
how did God comfort the apostles ?
And how do they comfort us again ?
Certainly, by the gracious promises
in his holy Word. Hence it is said,
" Whatsoever things were written
aforetime, were written for our learn-
ing, that we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have
hope/' Eom. 15:4. Now, whosoever
reads the Word of God as he ought,
must needs observe how kindly God
vouchsafes to treat with us, what
abundance of grace, what spiritual
and eternal blessings he promises to
bestow upon us; so that we must
needs confess that such comfort out-
weighs all the sufferings of human
life. For though it is said of this
troublesome world, " that all the sons
of Adam, from the day of their birth,
find it full of trouble and unquietness,
fear, anger, and strife;" yet, if to this
state of trouble and misery we op-
pose the glories of the eternal king-

334

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IL

dorn (2 Cor. 4 : 17), it will appear that
the joys of the next life, promised in
the Word of God, are vastly superior
to the miseries of this. It is, indeed,
true, that sin is a very great and
dreadful evil, daily encompassing us
about, and involving us in innumera-
ble miseries. Yet, if we but call to
mind that Christ is our righteousness,
it will thence follow that the burden
of sin which lies upon us is much less
than our spiritual consolation which
is in Christ Jesus. For greater is the
righteousness which is in Christ than
the sin which is in us. In short, the
Word of God so abounds and over-
flows with heavenly consolations, that
the heart of man is too narrow to re-
ceive them. It is like the poor wid-
ow's pot of oil (2 Kings 4 : 6), which,
by the blessing of Elisha, produced
more oil than there were vessels to
receive. Yea, it often happens that a
word of Holy Scripture can comfort a
man more than the whole world, yea,
than the devil himself can distress
him. " The river of God is full of
water," saith David (Ps. 65 : 9), so
full that no man can empty it. There-
fore, God calls himself " The fountain
of living waters." Jer. 2 : 13. And so
in Ps. 36 : 9, " With thee is the foun-
tain of life; in thy light shall we see
light." Who, then, can think that
the fountain of sin and death more
abounds with affliction than the foun-
tain of life with comforts ?

7. The fifth ground of comfort is
that the apostle calls the cross of the
faithful, "the sufferings of Christ."
And that 1. Because all the faithful
are the spiritual members of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as the head
feels all the pains of every member
of the body, by a certain sympathy
arising from its union with them ; so
Christ, who is our Head, feels all the

crosses and sufferings of every mem-
ber. 2. Because Christ dwells in his
faithful servants, and is vitally united
to them ; therefore, also, he suffers in
his members, sharing in all their suf-
ferings, banishments, and persecu-
tions, as he witnessed by a voice from
heaven, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me ?" Acts 9:4. 3. Because
we are born anew of Christ, and he is
our " everlasting Father." Isa. 9 : 6.
Now we know, that the heart of a
father has a very tender sense of the
sufferings of his child. Therefore, the
sufferings of all believers are the suf-
ferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if it be so, canst thou think any afflic-
tion so great that it cannot be made
easy and tolerable by this considera-
tion, that Christ is thy Head, and thou
art his member; that he is united to
thee, dwells in thee, and suffers in thee,
regarding all thy sufferings as his own ;
that he is thy Father, and feels in him-
self all the crosses, pains, and afflic-
tions that are laid upon thee?

8. The sixth ground of consolation,
the Apostle deduces from Jesus Christ,
the spring and foundation of all com-
fort, in these words : " Our consolation
aboundeth by Christ." As sin is the
fountain of all misery; so is Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the spring and
fountain of all joy and comfort. Now
as the power of Christ is greater than
the power of sin ; so is the comfort that
proceedeth from him greater and more
powerful than any misery that can
arise from sin; according to the words
of St. Paul, "Where sin abounded
grace did much more abound." Eom.
5 : 20. " For it pleased the Father,
that in Christ should all fulness dwell."
Col. 1 : 19. Him, therefore, the prophet
Isaiah (Isa. 61 : 1) describes as sent
from God to comfort all that mourn.
Whence it follows, that the comforts

Chap. XLVIIL]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

335

flowing from Christ, are greater than
any crosses and sorrows which we
endure.

9. The seventh comfort which the
Apostle mentions, is the glory of
Christ : hence he says, " As ye are
partakers of his sufferings, so shall ye
be also of the consolation." This glory
we know to be so great, that he is
glorious, not only with respect to his
own Person, in a manner incommuni-
cable to his body, which is the Church;
but also that he, as the Head of the
Church, was exalted to glory for that
very end, that all the members of his
body might be partakers with him.
Hence St. Paul calls him, " The head
of the church which is his body, the
fulness of him that filleth all in all."
Ephes. 1 : 22, 23. And now, what ca-
lamity, what cross, what affliction can
be so bitter, as not to be sweetened by
the consolation arising from such fu-
ture glory ? Wherefore St. Paul does
not " reckon the sufferings of this pres-
ent time to be worthy to be com-
pared with the glory that shall be re-
vealed in us." Rom. 8 : 18.

10. It now remains that we speak
of the five means, by which we may
be partakers of these comforts.

11. The first is, true repentance and
knowledge of sin. Without this, the soul
is not capable of comfort; according
to that saying of Christ, " They that
be whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick." Matt, 9 : 12. On
the other hand, a soul that has a true
sense of sin, understands that sin has
cast it into so many miseries and ca-
lamities, and therefore murmurs not
against God, but abhors itself and its
own iniquities (Lam. 3 : 39) ; and con-
fesses that God is just in all that he
has brought upon it. For as sin, like
a general contagion, has infected the
whole mass of mankind; so also the

sentence of misery and affliction in
this moral state, has passed upon all,
for that all have sinned. And whoever,
like the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9 : 7, 16),
confesses his sin, shall find consola-
tion descending upon him from heaven
like an angel, as in the case of Daniel,
ch. 9:21.

12. The second means, is faith, which
hangs upon Jesus Christ, as the infant
upon the mother's bosom. It rests
entirely in the paternal affection of
the God of all consolation. It holds'
fast by Jesus Christ, as Jacob did by
the angel, saying, "I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me." Gen. 32 : 26.
It is faith which in Christ Jesus over-
cometh sin, death, the world, the devil,
and all misery. For " all things are
possible to him that believeth." Mark
9 : 23. And he that believeth shall see
the glory of God. John 11 : 40.

13. The third means, is prayer, which
is a conversation with God. As it is
a relief and a refreshment to an afflict-
ed soul, to communicate its sorrows
and troubles to a faithful friend : so
are our hearts refreshed and comfort-
ed, by conversing with God in prayer.
" When I cried, thou answeredst me,
and strength enedst me with strength
in my soul." Psalm 138 : 3. Prayer
offered up in the name of Jesus Christ,
is like Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28: 12),
on which the soul ascends from earth
to heaven ; as soon as the prayer as-
cends, an angel, that is, divine con-
solation, descends upon it. Thus it
was in the agony of our blessed Lord ;
for when he prayed more earnestly,
lo! an angel descended from heaven
to strengthen him. Luke 22 : 43. And
we may assure ourselves, that when-
soever we pray according to His will,
we shall be strengthened according to
His promise.

14. The fourth means of obtaining

336

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

divine consolation is, 'praising God,
which is always attended with com-
fort and spiritual joy. He that is daily
employed in the praises of God, lives
the life of an angel; for they, we
know, continually " behold the face of
the Father which is in heaven" (Matt.
18 : 10), and sing his praises. This is
their highest joy, this is the bread of
angels. Whence it appears, that prais-
ing and glorifying God must afford the
most exalted joy and comfort to a de-
vout soul. Hence David says, "I will
bless the Lord at all times: his praise
shall continually be in my mouth. My
soul shall make her boast in the Lord j
the humble shall hear thereof, and be
glad." Psalm 34 : 1, 2. In this place
David joins the praise of God and spir-
itual joy together; teaching us there-
by, that the one is the fruit of the

other, because they are most intimately
connected.

15. The last sure and certain means
of receiving divine consolation, is a
diligent reading, hearing, and meditat-
ing on the Word of God. " For what-
soever things were written, were writ-
ten for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope." Kom. 15 : 4.

16. From the Word of God as the

true fountain of consolation, are to be

drawn all the above-mentioned argu-
es

ments and grounds of comfort; namely,
joy and quiet of mind under all kinds
of crosses and afflictions. Hence also
we must learn how these comforts are
to be obtained, namely, by true re-
pentance, a living faith, ardent prayer,
and continually praising God.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE TRUTH OF GOD AND THE CERTAINTY OF HIS PROMISES, OUGHT TO DISPOSE

US TO PATIENCE.

J will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation ; my God will hear me. Rejoice
not against me, O tnine enemy, when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against
him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me : he will bring me forth to the light,
and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame
shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God ? — MlCAH 7 : 7-10.

WE read in the prophet Jere-
miah (chap. 9 : 4, etc.), that
before the Babylonish captivity and
the destruction of the temple, besides
the idolatry that brought that desola-
tion upon them, treachery, lying, false-
hood, hatred, and envy prevailed to a
high degree; and that charity was
quite cold and dead amongst them.
For wheresoever these abominations
prevail, there, it is plain, God is not ;

and that he has forsaken not only the
city or the kingdom, but also the
hearts of those that dwell there ; and
when God forsakes us, destruction
quickly finds us. So says the prophet
(Jer. 9 : 4-8) : " Take ye heed every
one of his neighbor, and trust ye not
in any brother : for every brother will
utterly supplant, and every neighbor
will walk with slanders. They weary
themselves to commit iniquity. Their

Chap. XLIX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

337

tongue is as an arrow shot out, it
speaketh deceit ; one speaketh peace-
ably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in heart he layeth his wait."

2. Here we may see the wretched
state of Jerusalem, and what flagrant
iniquities they were which hastened
its ruin. Treachery and iniquity did
so abound, that there was neither
truth nor honesty left among the peo-
ple. Their 'only aim was to cheat and
defraud one another ; and their hearts
being thus set upon iniquity, they
brought on themselves ruin and de-
struction.

3. Something similar to this, is the
complaint of the prophet Micah :
"Woe is me! for I am as when they
have gathered the summer fruits, as
the grape gleanings of the vintage ;
there is no cluster to eat ; my soul de-
sired the first ripe fruit. The good
man is perished out of the earth; and
there is none upright among men:
they all lie in wait for blood. They
do evil with both hands earnestly.
Trust ye not in a friend." Micah 7 :
1, 2, 3, 5. When a people or nation
are come to this pass, they are indus-
triously digging a pit, into which they
design to rush boldly, and with their
eyes open. Would to God this were
not the case in our own times ! We,
too, deeply share in their guilt, and
we must expect to share in their pun-
ishments. For our destruction is of
ourselves. O that we could at last
awake, renounce our past errors, put
off our carnal minds that are at enmity
against God, and love the truth and
peace. If we do not so, we are con-
demned already, and cannot receive
help.

4. But in order that upright and
good men may not be too much dis-
couraged in this sad and dangerous
state of things, we must consider by

what means the holy men of old sup-
ported themselves in such a state of
universal corruption. The prophet
Micah (Micah 7 : 7, etc.), pointing out,
as it were, with his finger the foun-
tain of true consolation, says, " There-
fore I will look unto the Lord : I will
wait for the God of my salvation !"
That is his first comfort. The second
is, "My God will hear me." The
third is, "Rejoice not against me, O
mine enemy. When I fall, I shall
arise." The fourth is, " When I sit
in darkness, the Lord shall be a light
unto me." The fifth is, " I will bear
the indignation of the Lord, because
I have sinned against him, until he
plead my cause, and execute judg-
ment for me." The sixth is, " He will
bring me forth to the light, and I shall
behold his righteousness." The sev-
enth is, " Then she that is mine enemy
shall see it, and shame shall cover
her."

5. First, he says, "I will look unto
the Lord : I will wait for the God of
my salvation." In these words is con-
tained the doctrine of faith and hope,
which are, as it were, the two watch-
ful, never-sleeping eyes of the soul, by
which it constantly looks towards God
in the greatest dangers and necessi-
ties; the greater the calamity, the
stronger ought to be our faith, the
more vigorous our hope. Then it is
that we should call to mind the words
which we repeat at the beginning of
the Apostles' Creed : " I believe in God
the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven
and earth;" that is, I believe that
there is no misery or calamity so great,,
but God can and will deliver me out
of it. Let us learn, therefore, to turn
away our eyes from temporal suffer-
ing, not regarding it, but God "who
worketh salvation in the midst of the
earth" (Ps. 74: 12), and who alone

22

338

TEXTE CHKISTIAKTTY.

[Book IL

can and will deliver us according to
Psalm 123: "Unto thee lift I up
mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the
heavens. Behold, as the eyes of ser-
vants look unto the hand of their
masters, and as the eyes of a maiden
unto the hand of her mistress; so our
eyes wait upon the Lord our God,
until that he have mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have
mercy upon us; for we are exceed-
ingly filled with contempt. Our soul
is exceedingly filled with the scorning
of those that are at ease, and with the
contempt of the proud."

6. Moreover, as it is the way of God
to help us, not at the time appointed
by us, but in his own due time ; so it
is not enough for us to say, " I will
look unto the Lord f but we must add,
" and wait for the God of my salva-
tion." For faith, hope, and patience,
have an entire relation to, and mutual
dependence upon each other; as we
may see in Psalm 27; in the beginning
of which, David, looking up to God,
says, " The Lord is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear? The
Lord is the strength of my life, of
whom shall I be afraid?" He con-
cludes his prayer with these words:
"I believed to see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living. "Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, and
he shall strengthen thine heart: wait,

1 say, on the Lord." Ps. 27: 1, 14.
So Psalm 130: 5, 6 : "I wait for the
Lord, my soul doth wait ; and in his
word do I hope. My soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch
for the morning." " For the vision is
yet for an appointed time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though
it tarry, wait for it; because it will
surely come, it will not tarry." Habak.

2 : 3. But if the sorrowing soul shall
say: "Alas, I have waited a great

while!" let her know that it is neces-
sary it should be so, in order that her
faith, hope, and patience, may be tried
and approved in the sight of God. We
never please God more, than when
with patience and humility we wait
for the accomplishment of his prom-
ises, and receive with submission all
his determinations concerning us. —
Everything has a certain beginning;
so has everything an appointed end ;
and whosoever does not wait for that,
labors in vain. As the grain is ex-
posed to all the vicissitudes of wind
and weather, before it comes to matu-
rity, and, whenever it becomes ripe, is
the sweeter and better upon that ac-
count : so is it with the cVoss. He
that bears it with patience, and waits
for the end of it, shall reap "the
peaceable fruit of righteousness." Heb.
12 : 11. For St-. Paul affirms, " that
hope maketh not ashamed" (Eom. 5 :
5); for when it is founded upon divine
grace, as upon a firm rock, it continues
immovable in adversity. Hence it is
said, "Let none that wait on thee be
ashamed." Psalm 25 : 3. " They look-
ed unto him and were lightened ; and
their faces were not ashamed." Ps. 34 :
5. "In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust; let me never be ashamed." Ps.
31: 1. "The expectation of the poor
shall not perish forever." Ps. 9 : 18.

7. The second consolation is, that God
will certainly hear our prayers: "The
Lord hath heard the voice of my weep-
ing. The Lord hath heard my sup-
plication; the Lord will receive my
prayer." Ps. 6 : 8, 9. " In my distress
I called upon the Lord, and cried unto
my God: he heard my voice out of his
temple, and my cry came before him,
even into his ears." Ps. 18 : 6. " This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard
him, and saved him out of all his
troubles. The eyes of the Lord are

Chap. XLIX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

339

upon the righteous, and his ears are
open unto their cry." Ps. 34 : 6, 15.
"Because he hath set his love upon
me, therefore will I deliver him : I will
set him on high, because he hath known
my name. He shall call upon me, and
I will answer him ; I will be with him
in trouble; I will deliver him, and
honor him." Ps. 91 : 14, 15. "O thou
that nearest prayer, unto thee shall
all flesh come. By terrible things in
righteousness wilt thou answer us, O
God of our salvation ; who art the
confidence of all the ends of the earth,
and of them that are afar off upon the
sea." Ps. G5 : 2, 5. But if thou shalt
say in thine heart, " All these were
men eminent for holiness, faith, and
dependence upon God; but as for me,
I am not worthy to be compared with
them," I answer, out of Eom. 3 : 23 —
" All have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God;" but are heard and
accepted through grace, by repent-
ance and faith. " The Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him, to
all that call upon him in truth. He
will fulfil the desire of them that fear
him; he also will hear their cry, and
will save them." Ps. 145 : 18, 19. "He
will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and not despise their prayer. This
shall be written for the generations
to come." Ps. 102 : 17, 18.

8. The third consolation is contained
in these words: "Eejoice not against
me, O mine enemy! when I fall, I
shall arise." Though the world, ac-
cording to the perverse spirit that
governs it, rejoice at the sufferings of
good men (John 16 : 20), yet shall
they at last be confounded, and the
righteous be comforted. Hence we
are told, " The Lord will not cast off
forever: but though he cause grief, yet
will he have compassion, according to
the multitude of his mercies. For he

doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve
the children of men." Lam. 3 : 31. 32,
33. " God is faithful, who will not suf-
fer you to be tempted above that ye
are able ; but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. 10 : 13.
The same God that laid the burden
on you, will in due time take it off,
comfort you, and deliver you from
death. "Thou hast turned for me
my mourning into dancing; thou hast
put off my sackcloth, and girded me
with gladness." Ps. 30 : 11. "The Lord
upholdeth all that fall; and raiseth up
all those that be bowed down." Psalm
145 : 14. " In a little wrath, I hid my
face from thee for a moment; but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy
on thee, saith the Lord thy Eedeem-
er." Isa. 54 : 8. "It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, be-
cause his compassions fail not. They
are new every morning." Lam. 3 : 22,
23.

9. The fourth consolation is con-
tained in these words : "When I sit in
darkness, the Lord shall be a light
unto me." By darkness, he means a
state of affliction; which is darkness,
indeed, wherein a man can neither see
nor be seen by his friends with the
least glimpse of worldly comfort. The
sufferer sits in the very region of shame
and sorrow, the valley of the shadow
of death, exposed to the violence and
assaults of evil spirits and wicked men.
But dark and dismal as it is, the Lord
himself will enlighten it; the light of
whose countenance shines most of all
in the dismal darkness of worldly af-
fliction. There he appears to comfort
the disconsolate, and cheer, with the
brightness of his presence, the deso-
late and desponding soul. Thus it is
said, "Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart."

340

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

Ps. 97 : 11. " Unto the upright there
ariseth light in the darkness; he is
gracious, and full of compassion, and
righteous." Ps. 112 : 4.

10. The fifth consolation is this: "I
will bear the indignation of the Lord,
because I have sinned against him,
until he plead my cause, and execute
judgment for me." Let the afilicted
person think on this, and remember
that though from those that afflict
him he may have deserved better
usage; yet from the hand of God, he
has deserved a great deal worse. What-
ever befalls us, is by the permission of
God. Upon this account, the evils that
we suffer from wicked men, are called
in this verse, "the indignation of the
Lord." Blessed is he that beareth
this affliction with patience, and re-
ceiveth it no otherwise than as com-
ing from God himself. " Blessed is the
man whom thou chastenest, O Lord,
and teachest him out of thy law; that
thou mayest give him rest from the
days of adversity, until the pit be
digged for the wicked." Ps. 94 : 12, 13.
"It is good for a man that he sit alone
and keep silence, because he hath
borne the yoke upon him. He put-
teth his mouth in the dust, if so be
there may be hope. He giveth his
cheek to him that smiteth him; he is
filled full with reproach." Lam. 3 : 27-
30. This was truly the case of David,
who might properly say, UI will bear
the anger of the Lord, because I have
sinned against him." For thus he
speaks, when he commanded Zadok
to carry back the ark of God. "If I
shall find favor in the eyes of the
Lord, he will bring me again, and
show me both it and his habitation.
But if he thus say, I have no delight
in thee; behold here am I, let him do
to me as seemeth good unto him."
2 Sam. 15 : 25, 26. And when Shimei

cursed him, he humbly acknowledges
the appointment and permission of
God, saying, "Let him alone, and let
him curse; for the Lord hath bidden
him." 2 Sam. 16 : 11. "Fret not
(therefore) thyself because of evil-
doers. Put thy trust in God." Psalm
37 : 1, 5.

11. The sixth consolation is, "He
will bring me forth to the light, and 1
shall behold his righteousness." This
is a figure of speech taken from the
condition of a man that has long lain
in darkness, and been as a dead man
out of mind; or of one taken out of a
dark and deep prison into the light
and open air. For as these, having
been long confined to darkness and
misery, are exceedingly refreshed
with the cheerful light of the sun and
the splendor of the heavens; so after
the patient bearing of the cross, the
light of God's countenance breaks
forth, and the beams of divine conso-
lation strike powerfully upon the soul,
filling it with glory and joy unspeak-
able. Ps. 50 : 2. Did not Joseph thus
break through the shades of darkness
and misery, like the bright sun out of
a cloud? Gen. 41 : 38. And did not
God bring king David out of the re-
gion of misery into a state of joy and
happiness? So also at the resurrec-
tion of the dead shall our bodies be
brought out of their dark prisons, and
we shall rejoice in the everlasting
light and glory of God.

12. The seventh consolation is,
"Then she that is mine enemy shall
see it, and shame shall cover her."
This is the proper punishment of
wicked men who rejoice at the afflic-
tion of others, that they shall be cov-
ered with confusion. The time will
certainly come, when the mockers
shall be struck with unavoidable
shame, and shall be convinced by

Chap. L.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

341

their own consciences, of the wrong
which they have done to others.
This was Shimei'scase, who could not
but blush and be confounded in the
presence of David and Solomon. 2
Sam. 19 : 19 ; 1 Kings 2 : 44. " It is a
righteous thing with .-God to recom-
pense tribulation to them that trouble
you : and to you who are troubled,
rest." 2 Thess. 1 : 6, 7. "I rejoiced
not at the destruction of him that
hated me, nor lifted up myself when
evil found him. Neither have I suf-

fered my mouth to sin, by wishing a
curse to his soul." Job 31 : 29, 30.
" Love your enemies; bless them that
curse you ; do good to them that hate
you ; and pray for them which de-
spitefully use you and persecute you :
that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven : for he
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain upon
the just and the unjust." Matt. 5 :
44, 45.

CHAPTER L.

SHOWING HOW HOPE IS TESTED IN SEASONS OF ADVERSITY; IT MAKETH NOT

ASHAMED.

Thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. —

Isa. 49 : 23.

AS faith is nothing else but a fixed
and steady assurance by which
the devout Christian depends perfectly
and entirely on the favor and mercy
of God promised in Christ Jesus (Heb.
11 : 1), so hope is a continued and pa-
tient waiting for the accomplishment
of that promise which is the object
of faith, and is nothing else but a pa-
tient, constant, and persevering faith.
2. Of this hope St. Paul says, that
it " maketh not ashamed" (Eom. 5 :
5) : being, as well as faith itself,
founded upon a firm, immovable, and
eternal basis. And this is God him-
self, who never faileth those that wait
for him ; and for the same reason, the
peace, joy, rest, glory, and confidence
imparted by hope are eternal. On
this foundation, he who hopes stands
fixed and secure amidst all the crosses
and calamities of life; and though the

rains descend, the floods come, and
the boisterous winds blow upon him,
he is fearless and unmoved, knowing
that " his house is built upon a rock."
Matt. 7 : 25.

3. And as hope is built upon an im-
movable foundation, and the things of
this world are fleeting and uncertain ;
therefore its rest, its joy, its entire de-
pendence, are in God alone, despising
the riches, pleasures, honors, and glo-
ries of the world. " They that trust
in the Lord, shall be as mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth
forever. As the mountains are round
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round
about his people." Ps. 125 : 1, 2.

4. On the other hand, they whose
hopes are founded on the transitory
riches, honors, and pleasures of this
world, are perpetually exposed to all
the fears, cares, and calamities of life ;

342

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IL

lie at the mercy of every blast of in-
constant fortune, by which they are
tossed to and fro; and depend upon
the uncertain will of the world for
every quiet moment they enjoy.

5. This can never be learned but
under the discipline of the cross. For
such is the nature of affliction, that it
searches and discovers the inmost re-
cesses of the soul; and shows us
whether the hope that is in us be true
or false. By this touchstone, we often
find that our hopes have not been so
much fixed upon God himself, as upon
the favors and blessings he bestows ;
that we have built upon the sand, and
idolized the creature, instead of wor-
shipping the Creator. For so great is
the blindness of our nature, that we
often rest in the creatures, instead of
raising our minds from them to the
Creator, as he designed. For with
this intent God bestows on man so
many and great blessings, that by the
gifts he may be drawn to the Giver;
and learn to know, love, fear, rever-
ence, and hope in God alone. But so
great is the corruption of our nature,
that we are not disposed to serve God
for nought; and we worship him not
for his own sake, but for the sake of
what he bestows.

6. Upon this account, it is necessary
that God should sometimes visit us
with crosses and afflictions, and de-
prive us of his good things which we
have abused ; that so we may learn to
praise, and glorify, and depend on him
alone. Nay, we sometimes proceed so
far, as to trust in ourselves, and en-
tirely depend on our own power and
abilities ; then it is that God in mere
mercy interposes; and, that we may
not grow too proud, breaks us in
pieces, humbles, and confounds us, and
so empties us of ourselves, that we
may be filled with all the fulness of

God. This we cannot be, without be-
ing first emptied of all that arrogance,
pride, and self-conceit, which stand in
perfect opposition to the grace of God.

7. Hence hope is a militant virtue,
fighting against all that confidence in
ourselves, all that self-exaltation upon
the score of our own gifts, merit, right-
eousness, prosperity, honors, and
riches, in which the natural man
places all his confidence. The business
of hope is to oppose and conquer all
these delusions of the devil, and to
seek rest and peace in God alone.

8. Hence it follows, that hope, like
faith and charity, has God only for its
object. Whosoever aims at any other
mark, or places his hope on any other
being, is destitute of any well-founded
hope. As all created beings when out
of God are nothing; it follows that
the hope reposed in them is also noth-
ing. So then, these three virtues,
faith, hope, and charity, are in the
highest sense spiritual, admitting of
no earthly mixture, but are fixed en-
tirely on God, who is their eternal
and invisible basis. To this refers that
passage of St. Paul, " Hope that is seen,
is not hope; for what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for ?" Kom. 8 :
24. Whosoever, therefore, places his
hope upon anything that is visible,
has not the invisible God for his sup-
port, but rests upon a shadow; and
when the visible world, which is his
basis, shall sink into nothing, by con-
sequence his hope, that was built upon
it, must sink and perish with it.

9. Consider this, O man, and by
carefully comparing time with eter-
nity, persuade thyself to entertain a
true and saving hope, and to be led
into a state of firm and lasting peace.
Eternity is unchangeable, ever con-
stant, always the same; but time is
nothing but change and revolution.

Chap. L.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

343

The brightest day declines and ends
in darkness, weeks are swallowed up
in months, and months in years ; the
opening spring and fruitful summer
sink, by degrees, into a desolate win-
ter; and not only so, but all the ele-
mentary bodies are in a state of change,
always shifting from one appearance
to another; not to mention the con-
tinual motions of the heavens. So
that this world cannot be the region
of rest. For whatsoever is subject to
time, is continually passing, and van-
ishing; in a word, "All is vanity"
(Eccles. 1 : 2), and we shall never rest
but in eternity. And though all men,
both good and bad, long for peace and
tranquillity; yet they, and they only,
shall find it, who have learned to lose
and resign themselves in Christ, the
eternal rest of the soul. And this is
not so much the work of labor and
study, as of quietness and hope. Isa.
30: 15.

10. Moreover, the Christian's hope
must be tried, not only by the loss of
temporal things, but also by the with-
holding of the communications of di-
vine grace and favor (as commonly
happens in great temptations); that
seeing ourselves deprived even of those
most excellent and spiritual blessings,
on which we depend, our hope may
arrive at the highest pitch of purity
and sincerity, and rest on God alone.
In such a case "we must hope, even
against hope " (Eom. 4 : 18), as we read
that Abraham did. Here a man must,
with his blessed Eedeemer, be deserted
and forsaken, not only by man, but by
God himself. And this is properly "to
be conformed to the image of the Son
of God." Eom. 8 : 29. This is the
truest test or probation of the Chris-
tian's hope.

11. For, whereas, in other afflictions,
our patience, humility, devotion, and

charity, are principally exercised ; in
these spiritual trials of the conscience,
our hope is eminently proved and tried,
whether it be sincere or not. In this
probation, though a man be perfectly
despoiled of all his grace, yet shall he
at last triumph in that "hope which
maketh not ashamed." And though,
the soul that is thus tried, be some-
times ready to fall into impatience,
murmuring, blasphemy, or the like;
yet there remains, as it were, some
gentle breath of hope, arising from
the ground of the heart, by the power
of the divine Spirit, which contradicts
and opposes those unholy suggestions.
When this combat is over, all his trans-
gressions are forgiven, and his sins
are covered and he himself is like "a
brand plucked out of the fire " (Zech.
3:2); " or like a piece of an ear taken
out of the mouth of the lion." Amos
3 : 12. Now this impatience being in-
voluntary, and being opposed with
sighs and groans unutterable, is by no
means to be called despair; consider-
ing withal, that this is the sharpest
conflict, the severest trial of the Chris-
tian's hope; and these are the " unut-
terable groanings" which St. Paul
mentions. Eom. 8 : 26.

12. They that undergo these trials,,
are the greatest saints, and are nearer
to God than those who repose all their
hope and confidence in themselves..
The pride of such men, in vainly arro-
gating any perfections to themselves,
makes them in the highest degree blas-
phemers against God; whereas the
disciples of the cross are his dearest,
children, as we may see in the exam-
ples of Job and David: for by being
thus stripped of themselves, they are
purified as gold in the refiner's fire;
and being thus cleansed from all their-
dross of pride and vainglory, they
shine in the glory of the divine image,.

344

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book II.

like a beautiful jewel set in the purest
gold; so that nothing remains of which
the proud man can boast.

13. By such trials as these, a man
is taught to put his trust in nothing
but in God alone. For when affliction
has taken everything else from us,
God alone cannot be taken from us.
Yea, affliction is so far from separat-
ing us from God, that it rather brings
us to God, restoring us to God, and
God to us. It is hope, therefore, that
preserves us in calamities, so that we
are not consumed, and, therefore, it
"maketh us not ashamed." Eom. 5:5.
But as the soul came out from God,
so must she return thither again, void
of all love of the creatures; and when
a man passes out of himself and all

the creatures, whither can he go, or
where can he rest, but in the hands
of his God, who comprehendeth and
upholdeth the world, and all that is
therein ? Isaiah 40 : 12. Whosoever,
therefore, bids farewell to the world,
and is divested of all love of himself
and the creatures, having his heart
fixed on no earthly thing, but being
perfectly free and at liberty, resigning
himself and all his concerns into the
hands of God, and being content under
every dispensation of providence — he
may be truly said to rest in God. But
those who are entangled in the love
of themselves and the creatures, being
slaves to their own wills, resting in
them, and not submitting to the will
of God, must perish in the end.

-

CHAPTER LI.

COMFORT FOR THOSE THAT ARE WEAK IN FAITH.

A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. — Isaiah 42 : 3.

IN this verse the holy prophet com-
forts those that are weak in faith
by two beautiful similitudes, excel-
lently adapted to the purpose. For as a
bruised reed (to which he first alludes)
must be handled very gently, lest it be
entirely broken to pieces; and as the
smoking flax, when once it has taken
fire, must be continually encouraged
by a gentle breath, for fear of blowing
it out; so our blessed Bedeemer, who
knows our infirmities, treats us with
great gentleness, reviving from time
to time the spark of faith within us,
with the soft and gentle breath of his
Spirit, that we may not be discour-
aged by our manifold infirmities, but
Ibe enlivened and strengthened under

them. Isaiah 57 : 15. And because this
weakness of faith is a very grievous
temptation, to which all Christians
are more or less exposed; therefore
has the Holy Spirit, in the Word of
God, furnished us with very strong
consolations against it, which ought
to be deeply rooted in our mind, that
we may have them in readiness, and
apply them with success in the sad
hour of temptation.

2. (1) We must carefully remem-
ber, that faith is not of ourselves, but
is the gift and work of God ; " This is
the work of God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent." "No man
can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me, draw him." John

Chap. LI.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

345

6 : 29, 44. " Who believe, according
to the working of his mighty power."
Ephes. 1:19. " By grace are ye saved
through faith ; and that not of your-
selves; it is the gift of God: not of
works, lest any man should boast."
Ephes. 2: 8. "Let us run with pa-
tience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith." Heb. 12: 1,2.
"The love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us." Eom. 5:5. " We
have the first fruits of the Spirit,
which helpeth our infirmities." Eom.
8: 23, 26. Now, since faith is the work
of God, and not our own, it follows,
that it is not in our power to have it
in such measures and proportions as
we please. And whereas he has prom-
ised to save us by faith, it follows, that
he knows how strong our faith ought
to be, for the obtaining that great end,
and will strengthen it accordingly.
Therefore this was the answer of God
to St. Paul : " My grace is sufficient
for thee." 2 Cor. 12 : 9. "A man can
receive nothing, except it be given him
from heaven." John 3 : 27.

3. (2) Whilst we are in this life, we
must not expect to arrive at the high-
est pitch of perfection. This God per-
mits, with a design to cure that natu-
ral pride and vanity of spirit to which
the best of us are subject, by the daily
sense of our great and manifold infir-
mities. To this we may refer the
words addressed by St. Paul to the
Philippians, "Not as though I had al-
ready attained, either were already
perfect; but I follow after, if that
I may apprehend that, for which
also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus." Phil. 3 : 12. As if he had said,
" Though I am not yet so strong in
faith, as to be ^'able to apprehend
him as I ought, yet I am apprehended

in him; that is, I am in Christ Jesus
by faith." Let us, considering these
things, bear patiently the infirmities
of our nature, till we can attain to
perfection.

4. (3) God does not despise or reject
our weak faith, but cherishes, strength-
ens, and improves it, and at last crowns
it with a blessed conclusion. In this
sense we are to understand and apply
those golden passages that follow:
"A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not
quench." Isaiah 43 : 3. " Thou hast
been a strength to the poor, a strength
to the needy in his distress, a refuge
from the storm, a shadow from the
heat." Isaiah 25: 4. "Strengthen ye
the weak hands, and confirm the fee-
ble knees. Say to them that are of a
fearful heart, Be strong, fear not;
behold,, your God will come and save
you." Isaiah 35 : 3, 4. " He giveth
power to the faint; and to them that
have no might, he increaseth strength."
Isaiah 40 : 29. " The Lord God hath
given me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak a
word in season to him that is weary."
Isaiah 50 : 4. "I revive the spirit of
the humble, and the heart of the con-
trite ones." Isaiah 57: 15. " The Lord
hath sent me to preach good tidings
unto the meek, to bind up the broken-
hearted," and to comfort all that
mourn. Isaiah 61: 1. In this sense
we may understand that passage in
Exod. 34 : 26. " Thou shalt not seethe
a kid in his mother's milk ;" that is,
thou shalt not grieve the tender, weak
faith of a babe in Christ. A strong
and vigorous faith can bear anything,
can pass through the flames of fire,
and the floods of water; but a young,
tender faith, must be softly and gently
treated, like a bruised reed, which is
in continual danger of being broken to

346

TEXTE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

pieces. " I have satiated the weary
soul, and I have replenished every sor-
rowful soul." Jer. 31: 25. They that
labor under the weakness of faith, are
the poor in spirit, to whom the bless-
ing is promised, "Blessed are the poor
in spirit." Matt. 5 : 3. They that feel
the weakness of their faith, are sick
in spirit: and to them must be applied
for their consolation, that passage in
St. Matthew, "They that be whole
need not a physician, but they that
are sick." Matt. 9 : 12. "Him that is
weak in the faith receive ye, but not
to doubtful disputations." Rom. 14: 1. .
" To the weak became I as weak, that
I might gain the weak." 1 Cor. 9 : 22.
" I will bind up that which was bro-
ken, and will strengthen that which
was sick." Ezek. 34: 16. "Him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out." John 6 : 37. On these promises,
full of divine consolation, let all who
are weak in faith entirely depend, and
satisfy themselves that God is faithful
and true (Psalm 33: 4), and will not
fail in his promises. To this head also
we refer the instances of those that
have been weak in faith. Such was
the man (Mark 9 : 23, 24), who, when
our Lord said, " If thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that be-
lieveth;" answered with tears, "Lord,
I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
The nobleman. John 4 : 47. The dis-
ciples in the ship. Matt. 8 : 24. St.
Peter sinking in the sea, when our
Lord stretched out his hand and sup-
ported him. Matt. 14:31. Therefore,
says St. Paul, "Comfort the feeble-
minded, support the weak, be patient
towards all men." 1 Thess. 5 : 14.

5. (4) God has, indeed, the greatest
concern for those that are weak in faith.
Our Lord himself tells us, " They that
be (strong and) whole need not a phy-
sician, but they that are sick (and

weak)." Matt. 9:12. The shepherd
leaves his ninety and nine sheep in
the wilderness, and goes seeking that
which was lost, until he find it (Luke
15 : 4) ; and as tender mothers show
the most attention to their weak and
sickly children; so does our Heavenly
Father to those that are weak in faith.

6. (5) But if thou say in thy heart
that thou perceivest scarcely a grain
of faith in thyself, then I would ask,
Dost thou sincerely desire to have
faith ? If thou dost, all is well ; fear
not. For since it is God that worketh
in us "to will," it follows, that whoso-
ever finds in himself that good will
and desire, finds in himself the work
of God. Hence let him be encour-
aged and assured that he who has
given us the will, will also give us the
power to do. Phil. 1:6; 2 : 13.

7. (6) God is so compassionate to
devout prayers and desires, that he
never disappoints the hopes of those
that trust in him. "Lord, thou hast
heard the desire of the humble : thou
wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt
cause thine ear to hear." Ps. 10 : 17;
9 : 18. Wherefore, thy faith is as great
as thy desire of obtaining it. " For
God tri et h the hearts and reins." Ps.
7:9. "Because he hath set his love
upon me, therefore will I deliver him."
Ps. 91 : 14.

8. (7) It is therefore better to glory
in the weakness, than in the strength
of our faith. For it is the will of God
concerning us, that we fall not into
spiritual pride. " My strength is made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my in-
firmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon me." 2 Cor. 12 : 9. Let
this be thy comfort when thou labor-
est under weakness of faith.

9. (8) Faith, though it be ever so
weak, is still faith. For our salva-

Chap. LI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

347

tion depends not upon the worthiness
of our faith, whether it be strong or
weak, but upon Jesus Christ, on whom
it lays hold. As, therefore, a precious
jewel may be held by the hands of a
little infant as well as of a strong
man, so a weak faith may as well lay
hold on the merits of Christ Jesus
(the true Christian's only hope and
treasure), as that which is much
stronger, and by consequence, both be
capable of the same righteousness
and blessedness. And as the apple of
the eye, small and delicate as it is, can
perceive not only the light and splen-
dor of the meridian sun, but even the
sun itself, though so many times
larger than the earth, so does the eye
of faith, though weak and infirm, per-
ceive and feel the Sun of righteous-
ness (Mai. 4 : 2), the Lord Jesus Christ,
with all the bright rays of his spirit-
ual gifts and graces.

10. (9) Such is the nature of faith,
that it is sometimes stronger and
sometimes weaker; and sometimes
the light thereof seems to be dark-
ness. This has been attested by the
examples of almost all the saints, par-
ticularly David, and Abraham, who is
called "the father of the faithful"
(Eom. 4:11; Gal. 3:7); and yet
(Gen. 12 : 11) he was afraid that the
Egyptians would put him to death on
account of Sarah, his wife, and this,
too, after he had received the promise.
Moses also, at the water of Aleribah,
betrayed a want of faith. ISTuinb. 20 :
10-13; Exod. 17:7. David's faith
was sometimes so strong as to raise
him, as it were, up to heaven ; and
then again so weak as to leave him to
sink, as it were, into hell, and make
him complain to God that " he was
cut off from before His eyes." Ps. 31 :
23. Whence it follows, that we must
not conclude because a man's faith is

weak, that therefore he has none at
all; or that they who are contending
against the weakness of faith, are
therefore forsaken by God. We know
that fire is often hidden under ashes,
though neither light nor heat appear;
we know that the trees are alive,
though in winter they are stripped of
their leaves : so we may in like man-
ner conclude, that those people may
have faith towards God, in whom we
do not at all times discern signs or
tokens of it. For the Spirit of the
Lord is like the wind, that bloweth
when and whither it pleases. John
3:8.

11. (10) He that complains of the
weakness of his faith, shows plainly,
that faith is striving and struggling
within him, and a striving faith is a
true faith; for there is a continual
struggle in every man between faith
and unbelief. He is perpetually as-
saulted by temptations to unbelief, so
that his life is one continued combat;
and he is obliged to be as watchful, as
though he were in the midst of drawn
swords, and expected every moment
to be cut in pieces. Here is the trial
of the Christian's faith ; here is the
exercise of his patience, to unite his
earthly heart with Christ ; to make the
barren soil of his soul fit to receive
the heavenly seed ; to make the dark-
ness of corrupt nature capable of the
divine light. The flesh is continually
inclining to the broad way of the
world, and endeavoring to tyrannize
over the spirit; the darkness is no
sooner scattered, than it endeavors to
recover its ground, and spread itself
again over the face of the soul. This
is what all the saints have confessed
and lamented, and it is a most certain
token of the presence of true faith.
On the other hand, where there is no
faith at all, there is no cause found for

348

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

striving. Here let the languishing
soul call to mind that comfortable as-
surance given us, that " God will not
suffer us to be tempted above that we
are able ; but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that we
may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. 10 : 13.
" God giveth power to the faint, and
to them that have no might he in-
creaseth strength." Isa. 40 : 29.

12. (11) Let us be assured, that
whensoever, in our greatest infirmi-
ties, we can but think upon Jesus
Christ, he will be with us, and dwell
in us by faith. Thus it is said, " In
all places where I record my name, I
will come unto thee, and I will bless
thee." Exod. 20 : 24. For we cannot
so much as think upon God, without
his special presence and assistance.
Moreover, being engrafted into Christ,
as branches into the living vine (John
15 : 1, etc.), we truly live in him, and
draw life and nourishment from him.
" Our life," and the strength of our
faith, are " hid with Christ in God "
(Col. 3:3); and the Holy Spirit wit-
uesseth the same in our hearts, by the
joy, peace, and comfort, which he pro-
duces there. Eom. 8 : 16. As in the
Old Testament^ there was no Prophet
who heard not God speaking in him ;
so under the Gospel, there is no Chris-
tian but hears Christ speaking in him,
and, from time to time tastes the unc-
tion of the Holy Spirit. And so strong
is this union of our faith with Christ,
that all the power of death and hell
cannot dissolve it ; because Christ, who
is the life and root of our faith, is im-
mortal. Though thou hast not always
so lively a perception of this in thy
heart, yet "greater is he that is in
thee, than he that is in the world." 1
John 4 : 4.

13. (12) "When we are weak in faith,
let us look up unto Christ Jesus our

Eedeemer, and merciful High Priest,
who offered up himself for us on the
cross, and is praying that our faith
may be strengthened; as he did for
St. Peter, " I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not" (Luke 22 : 32) ; to
whom also he stretched out his al-
mighty and saving hand, when he
thought himself sinking into the sea.
Matt. 14:31. And he saith, " Holy
Father, keep them through thine own
name; neither pray I for these alone,
(the Apostles), but for them also which
shall believe on me through their
word." John 17 : 11, 20. So also we
are told, " "We have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities ; but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin. "Who is at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." Heb. 2:17; 4:15; Eom. 8:
34. This intercession ought to be our
comfort when our faith is weak and
languishing; from whence we should,
by a lively and steadfast faith, expect
a blessing.

14. (13) Our next support is, the
divine mercy, which is inexpressibly
great, as infinite as God himself. Of
this let no man despair. This mercy
of his anticipates us, waits for us, sup-
ports us, and endures forever. And
this he never denies to any one. Come
then, ye that complain of the weak-
ness of your faith, cast yourselves into
the protecting arms of divine love,
which will never leave you nor forsake
you.

15. (14) God, who has wrought the
beginning of faith in us, has gra-
ciously promised, that he will "per-
form it until the day of Jesus Christ"
(Phil. 1:6); that he will " stablish,
strengthen, settle us" (1 Pet. 5: 10);
and that we shall be "kept by the
power of God through faith unto sal-

Chap. LH.]

TEUB CHEISTIAISTITY.

349

vation, receiving the end of our faith,
even the salvation of our souls." 1
Pet. 1 : 5, 9. This is the end that God
proposed to our faith, when he first
gave us the beginning of it. Faith
being, therefore, the operation and
work of God, must be perfected by its
divine Author. For this cause the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 12 : 2)
calls the blessed Jesus, not only the
Author, but also, the Finisher of our
faith. And Christ himself tells us:
" No man shall pluck my sheep out of
my hand." John 10 : 28.

16. (15) To this end he has given
us various means whereby our faith
may be strengthened and preserved,
namely, the Word, the Sacraments,
and prayer. " Lord, increase our faith "
(Luke 17 : 5), said the disciples. " Jjord,
help thou mine unbelief." Mark 9 : 24.
Moreover, God has promised " his Holy
Spirit to them that ask him." Luke
11 : 13. " The Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities." Eom. 5 : 5 ; 8 : 26. In a

word, this is the end and design of
Christianity, that we may grow and
be perfected in faith.

17. (16) Lastly. Our faith is found-
ed on God's eternal love to us, " Whom
he did predestinate, them he also jus-
tified." Eom. 8 : 30. But we are jus-
tified by faith alone in Christ Jesus.
Eom. 3 : 28. " God hath chosen us to
salvation, through sanctification of the
Spirit, and belief of the truth." 2 Thess.
2 : 13. Come then, comfort thyself
with these promises ; sink not under
the weakness of thy faith ! When thy
faith seems to be at its lowest ebb,
then is thy Saviour nearer to thee than
thou thinkest. This was the case with
the disciples; when they looked upon
themselves as lost in the tempest, then
Christ was at hand to save them. Matt.
8 : 24-26. Let us also be persuaded,
that our Eedeemer and Saviour is
never so near us, as when we think
ourselves in most danger.

CHAPTER LI I.

COMFORTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THOSE THAT ARE LABORING UNDER GREAT
TEMPTATIONS IN SPIRIT.

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. — Isa. 48 : 10

IT is an undoubted truth that all
spiritual sorrow proceeds from
God. For " the Lord killeth, and
maketh alive : he bringeth down to
the grave, and bringeth up." 1 Sam.
2:6, 7. By the " grave " in this place,
is meant such a state of spiritual af-
flictions as, like the grave, is void of
all light and comfort. The soul that
is thrust down into this prison, looks

upon itself as dying and pining away ;
as hated, despised, and persecuted by
every creature of God. In this dis-
consolate state, the poor man cries out
with holy David, " My soul refused to
be comforted." Ps. 77 : 2. And well
it might, when both the Scripture and
God himself were withholden from
him. This is that "grave " into which
God brings the soul. Here it finds no

350

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book II.

comfort but in silence and resigna-
tion, in those unutterable sighs and
groans which proceed from the ground
of the heart; for so great is its dis-
tress, that it cannot so much as think
upon God, or the promises contained
in his holy Word. Faith grows weak,
hope languishes, and the whole man
is feeble, withered like grass (Ps. 38 :
8, 9; 102 : 3), and ready to perish,
were he not inwardly supported by
the secret Word and power of God.

2. In this grave or shadow of death,
we find our Lord Jesus Christ, when
" his soul was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death ; and in his agony
his sweat was, as it were, great drops
of blood." Matt. 26 : 38; Luke 22 :44.
In this state a man undergoes greater
afflictions than in death itself. Yea,
here a man wishes for death, and
longs to find a grave where he may
rest from his unspeakable labors and
sufferings. Job. 7:15. Thus we find
Job repeatedly wishing for death.
And our blessed Lord himself, under
the agonies of death, cried out, " My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me!" Matt. 27:46. He complains
that he was forsaken of God, though
He was continually present with him,
and preserved him under all his
trouble. But now, what can be more
wonderful than that Christ himself
should complain for want of comfort,
considering his intimate union with
God ? For he was both God and man .
Yet God had so withdrawn his conso-
lations from him, that his human na-
ture was left desolate and comfortless.
Now if the blessed Jesus, who was
united to the eternal Godhead and
anointed with the heavenly oil of
gladness, endured a conflict so bitter,
surely sinful man has no reason to
wonder, when he is brought under the
same fiery trial, as if some strange

thing had happened unto him. 1 Pet.
4 : 12.

3. We suffer nothing but what our
blessed Master suffered before us ; and
certainly nothing is more reasonable
than that the members should suffer
with the Head.

4. This, therefore, is a kind of trial
whether thou art truly a member of
Christ, and a partaker of his suffer-
ings. Eev. 1 : 9. Such seems to have
been Hezekiah's case when he com-
plained— " Like a crane or a swallow,
so did I chatter: I did mourn as a
dove." Isa. 38 : 14. And Job's—" I
cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear
me : I stand up, and thou regardest
me not." Job 7 : 3; 30 : 20. And so
again, u If I had called, and he had
answered me ; yet would I not believe
that he had hearkened unto my voice."
Job 9 : 16. Such were the complaints
of holy David (Ps. 6; 13; 38; 88). In
these scriptures we may see how won-
derfully all the saints and servants of
God have been purified in this furnace
of affliction. This was the ground of
that warmth of feeling which we meet
with in the words of Job and the holy
Psalmist. Sometimes they are so
much bereft of hope, that they could
not think it possible that God should
ever show mercy to them ; at other
times, they are full of hope and confi-
dence, and believe that ': their Be-
deemer liveth" (Job 19:25), as Job
expresses it. Yet the carnal man has
no understanding of such sufferings,
or of the complaints arising from them.
This we find by the example of Job's
friends, who, not understanding what
was the true state of his distressed
and afflicted soul, reproved him as one
that had lost patience, and that
charged God foolishly. When a man
is come into this state, he falls into
such a degree of unbelief that he is

Chap. LTL]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

351

not conscious of the least trace of
faith remaining in his soul. All the
powers of faith being, as it were, col-
lected in the centre of the soul, seem
to the man to be lost; though they
•still operate in secret, and breathe in
sighs and groanings unutterable. This
absence of faith is a kind of torture
to the soul. Therefore the man can-
not believe that God will be merciful
to him, but cries out, " O how will-
ingly would I believe, if it would but
please God to give me the power !"
And in the height of this conflict, the
Scriptures themselves afford him no
comfort. This is that crisis of the
soul when God, by humbling us, shows
us how unworthy and vile we are in
ourselves; yea; that of ourselves we
are nothing, but that all our sufficiency
is of God; so that thence we may
learn not to trust in ourselves. Nev-
ertheless, the poor soul occasionally
perceives some distant gleams of light
breaking through the thick darkness,
which administer comfort and sup-
port, and preserve it from despera-
tion.

5. Now, though it may happen that
a man in the bitterness of his soul
grows impatient, and is tempted to
fret against God, yet let him remem-
ber that God is merciful. He knows
whereof we are made ; he sees the
struggle of our souls under the fiery
trial, when he sets his hand to cleanse
us from our impurities. In a word,
the most holy and best beloved chil-
dren of God, are they that have
passed through this furnace of afflic-
tion ; as we may see by the examples
of Job (Job 42 : 2, etc.), of David, and
Jeremiah. Jer. 20 : 12, etc. These
learned faith in the school, and under
the discipline of the cross ; whilst the
delicate Christian who flees from the
cross, and expects to learn it amidst

the enjoyments of the world, will find
himself miserably deceived in the end.
But further,

6. (2) Let us call to mind that noble
saying of Jeremiah, " The Lord will
not cast off forever; but though he
cause grief, yet will he have compas-
sion according to the multitude of his
mercies. For he doth not afflict will-
ingly, nor grieve the children of men."
Lam. 3 : 30, 31, 33. Whence thou may-
est learn, that though the Lord suffer
thee to be afflicted for a season, yet he
will not cast thee off forever. Per-
haps, however, thou wilt say, that the
evil thoughts with which thou art
troubled, are not from God, but from
Satan. Now, though it cannot be de-
nied that they are suggested to us by
Satan; yet it is also true, that Satan
can do nothing but by God's permis-
sion. In this case, look unto Jesus,
whom our heavenly Father suffered
to be tempted by the same adversary.
The fiery darts (Eph. 6. : 16) which the
Evil One cast at our blessed Saviour,
came indeed from him, and not from
God; but it was God that gave him
permission to assault as he did. And
though our blessed Lord bore all this,
yet he still continued to be the dearly
beloved Son of God, nor could the
tempter with all his art and power do
him the least harm. Matt. 4 : 1, etc.
Hear this, O afflicted soul, and believe
that thou also shalt be safe and un-
hurt amid alLthe fiery darts of the
wicked one. Remember the case of
Job, when, by God's permission, the
devil so afflicted him internally and
externally; that he cursed the day of
his birth; yet was God still with him,
and we find him thus expressing him-
self to God: "These things hast thou
hid in thine heart : I know that this is
with thee." Job 10 : 13.

7. Having thus discovered the origin

352

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

of this spiritual affliction, let us next
inquire into the reasons why God sends
it upon us.

8. First, then, it is certain that the
true inward taste of the Word of God,
is accompanied with unspeakable joy,
peace, and comfort, vastly surpassing
any enjoyments of this life. This is
the true joy of our souls, a foretaste
of eternal life, arising from the true
and living knowledge of Christ Jesus;
by which we discover the heart of God
full of the most tender compassions,
and an ardent and eternal love to-
wards lost mankind. Now, so corrupt
and perverse is human nature, that it
is too apt to be exalted above measure,
by the abundance of these divine mani-
festations, and to make them occasions
of spiritual pride; and the man who is
thus visited and comforted from above,
will be apt to think highly of himself,
to overvalue his sanctity, and to think
meanly of the rest of the world, who
are strangers to these consolations;
and thus, forsaking the fountain of
living waters, whence all the streams
of blessing flow, and to which, with all
humility, they ought to be ascribed;
the man grows vain and arrogant,
and sets himself up in the place of
God. This perverseness of soul, as it
is directly contrary to true penitence,
and to the appointed way of salvation,
so it is very hateful to God. This causes
him to withdraw his consolations from
us, and to hide himself in thick dark-
ness; so that though we call and
cry, and search ever so diligently, we
shall not be able to find Him. This is
a deplorable state, when we are hang-
ing, as it were, between heaven and
hell, oppressed and afflicted on every
side, not knowing whither to fly for
relief or comfort; having no certain
evidence whether we believe or not,
whether we hope or not, whether God

be angry with us or not, whether we
are in a state of life or of death. This
is that darkness and desolation which
we find described in Psalm 88; of
which the Psalmist speaks also in
Ps. 31 : 22. " I said in my haste, I am
cut off from before thine eyes. Never-
theless thou heardest the voice of my
supplications when I cried unto thee."

9. Now, although nothing is more
bitter to us than to be so long de-
prived of the comforts of the divine
presence; yet even this deprivation
itself is more profitable to the soul,
than all the enjoyments and glories
of the world. By this, as by a fiery
trial, we are taught humility, repent-
ance, contempt of the world, and the
true value of all its favors and enjoy-
ments; that these are dangerous, trans-
itory, and perishing, and can give no
solid comfort to the distressed soul.
And though the soul in this state is
encompassed with perplexities and
fears, so that it can hardly lift up
itself to God, yet there is left a kind
of deep and secret sorrow, venting
itself in holy sighs, and devout aspira-
tions towards God, and a longing for
his favor. Hence we may learn how
great a good God is to the soul, and
that no true, solid, or constant peace
can be found except in Him. This
cannot be learned any where but in
this school of temptation ; in which
alone the truest knowledge is to be
acquired. And whosoever is unac-
quainted with this, knows not God
and Christ as they ought to be
known.

10. And would to God, that for his
glory, and our own unspeakable ad-
vantage, we would readily submit to
this visitation, which is designed for
the trial of our faith, even as gold in
the furnace is tried ! Then we should
quickly reap the amazing benefits of

Chap. LH.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

353

such a cleansing. For the faithful
soul that can hold out, and not faint
under it, comes forth glorious as gold
out of the fire, cleansed from all its
dross; so that neither fire, nor water,
nor the cross, nor death, nor Satan,
can hurt it. Such a one will learn how
to behave himself ever afterwards with
patience and humility, both in prosper-
ity and adversity; not to sink under
the cross; not to be presumptuous in
prosperity; not to depend upon him-
self, or be puffed up with his own
fancied perfections; but to look up
steadfastly to God, the everlasting
fountain and giver of all goodness;
and to embrace every dispensation
of Providence, whether sweet or bit-
ter, as his only happiness; and, in
every state or condition of soul or
body, to rejoice in God alone.

11. Secondly, whensoever it shall
please God to cast any of us, his crea-
tures, into this trying furnace, it will
be much more consistent and profita-
ble for us to pray for patience under
it, than for deliverance from it. For
when once the fire of temptation has
purged away the dross of our iniqui-
ties, our pride, luxury, covetousness,
and envy, it will be much easier for us
to endure afterwards other fiery trials,
by having our own will swallowed up
in the will and good pleasure of God.
But when from an excessive indul-
gence of the infirmities of our corrupt
nature, we endeavor to avoid this fiery
trial, it often happens that before we
can receive any benefit from it, we are
contriving to make our escape. So
that if God did not often keep us
under the trial against our will, we
should fly from it, without consider-
ing whether we were sufficiently puri-
fied, according to the will of God and
the necessities of our corrupt nature :
like children, who, if their parents or

physicians did not prevent, would
throw away that bitter cup which
alone can cure their disorders. But
God knows our case, and what is
proper for us, better than we our-
selves; and therefore he has appoint-
ed certain measures of affliction, to
which he confines the soul, till he sees
it proper to release her. So that we
ought not so much to pray for deliver-
ance from temptations, as for patience
under them.

12. Thirdly, our deliverance is so cer-
tain, that we have not the least reason
to doubt of it ; for " though the Lord
cause grief, yet will he have compas-
sion, according to the multitude of his
mercies." Lam. 3 : 32. This is the
promise of God, who is truth itself,
and it therefore ought diligently to be
weighed and considered by us. It is
much better to know and digest some
few comfortable passages of Scripture,
or even only one of this kind, than to
burden our memory with a great
many without true spiritual relish.
For when a man has by a lively faith
digested one, he will easily understand
and digest all the rest; and he that
can derive comfort from one text, will
thereby learn to do the same by all
the rest. It will be very useful to re-
peat frequently, with lively affection,,
the 88th Psalm, where thou wilt see
the state of thy soul described. Ther©'
thou wilt find that there have been
others in the world before thee, who-
have been tried and afflicted as thou^
art, and yet have afterwards been de-
livered and comforted of God, as we
find in Psalm 89, where the holy man,
rejoicing in the divine comfort, begins,
as in a rapture, " I will sing of the
mercies of the Lord for ever." Be
thou confident, therefore, and believe
that God will also in due time com-
fort thee with the same consolation.

23

354

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

For the Evil spirit, who always de-
lights to afflict the souls of men, has,
from the beginning of the world,
made it his business to gall and wound
them with his fiery darts. As in a
tempestuous sea one wave is continu-
ally rolling upon another, so do the
various temptations of Satan pursue
the afflicted soul; sometimes oppress-
ing it with fearful and melancholy
thoughts; at others, with impatience,
unbelief, blasphemous and wicked
thoughts. The terrors and miseries
of such a soul are sometimes so great,
that no creature can give it comfort ;
yea, those very things which give joy
and delight to others, are to such a
man, not only joyless, but burden-
some. The whole world is to him but
one bitter cross; yea, even God him-
self appears dreadful to him. Thus
Job bitterly complains (chap. 7 : 13,
etc.) ; and the agony is increased by
the sting of his own conscience, which
terrifies him with this dreadful sen-
tence, " There is no help for thee in
thy God." Ps. 3 : 2.

13. Against these wiles of the devil
there is no better remedy than to en-
deavor to strengthen thyself after the
examples of Job, David, and other
holy men. (1) By bearing thy afflic-
tion as long as it shall please God;
and waiting patiently till the clouds
of darkness be driven away. Isa. 54 :
11. "I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, because I have sinned
against him, until he bring me forth
to the light, and I shall behold his
righteousness." Micah 7 : 9. Where
God afflicteth, it is in no man's power
to comfort. " The Lord killeth, and
maketh alive ; he bringeth down to
the grave, and bringeth up." 1 Sam.
2 : 6.

14. (2) We must, in this case, stop
our ears against the opinions of the

world, an*d, with Job, disregard the
accusations of our friends, the terrors
of the devil, who is the enemy of all
peace and comfort, the reflections of
our own hearts, the stings of our own
consciences, and all the objections of
flesh and blood. For, " if our heart
condemn us, God is greater than our
heart" (1 John 3 : 20), yea, than all
the world, or the devil himself. Bath-
er call to mind what God himself has
promised to such afflicted souls. "To
this man will I look, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit." Isa.
66 : 2. "'I have chosen thee in the
furnace of affliction." Isa. 48 : 10.

15. (3) Consider also the examples
of holy men. Did not they suffer as
thou dost, and were they not at last
delivered ? Does not David complain,
" How long wilt thou forget me, O
Lord ? for ever?" Ps. 13 ; 1. And did
God forsake him in his troubles? No;
for he adds, " I have trusted in thy
mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation !" Ver. 5. He complains,
" Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
Ps. 77 : 9. But did God leave him in
this extremity? No, certainly, for af-
ter his deliverance he adds, "I will
remember the years of the right hand
of the Most High." Yer. 10. Thus
when God discovered himself in ter-
rors to Jeremiah, he prays, " Be not
a terror unto me!" (J er. 17 : 17), but
immediately adds, " Thou art my hope
in the day of evil." Did not Jesus
Christ himself cry out, "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Ps. 22 : 1. But was he forsaken of
God? No; for he adds, " I will de-
clare thy name unto my brethren"
(Ps. 22 : 22) : and " I shall not die, but
live, and declare the works of the
Lord." Ps. 118 : 17.

16. Thou also, after this example of
thy Saviour, must be content to drink

Chap. LIIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

355

the wine mingled with gall and myrrh
(Matt. 27 : 34), that thou mayest here-
after sit down with him at his royal
supper in the kingdom of heaven. Isa.
65 : 13. Learn, therefore, to bear his
reproach (Heb. 13 : 13) ; and thou

shalt be a partaker of his glory.
Learn to be conformed to Christ cru-
cified, that thou mayest be conformed
to Christ glorified. Eom. 8 : 29 ; Phil.
3: 21.

CHAPTER LIIL

CONSOLATIONS FOR THOSE WHO LABOR UNDER GREAT SPIRITUAL TEMPTATIONS.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the
Lord will hear them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. — Isa. 41 : 17.

IN these words, the Holy Spirit com-
forts all those that are broken in
heart, miserable, tempted, and thirst-
ing after God; by whom they look upon
themselves as forsaken and rejected, so
that they cry out, " My «soul is full of
troubles ; and my life draweth nigh
unto the grave." Ps. 88 : 3. For the
sake of such as these, I shall touch upon
some few heads, by way of comfort
and advice under these spiritual temp-
tations.

2. (1) We are to remember, that no
kinds of spiritual temptations, melan-
choly thoughts, terrors of soul, and
stings of conscience, can happen to us
without the particular permission and
gracious will of God our heavenly Fa-
ther, notwithstanding all the malice
and fury of the Evil Spirit. For God
has expressly told us in his "Word, that
the devil has not the least power over
any creature ; nor can he hurt even a
hair of our heads. Matt. 10 : 30. All
creatures are in the hand of God, and
not in the power of the devil. Heb. 1 :
3. Much less has he any power over
man, unless by the permission of God,
for a certain season, as in the case of

the Gergesenes (Matt. 8 : 32), and Job.
Job 1 : 12.

3. Now, if he has no power of him-
self over a hair of our heads, or the
least part of our bodies ; much less can
he of himself afflict, disquiet, or tor-
ment our souls. Hence David says,
" The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and
delivereth them." Ps. 34 : 7. And Ze-
chariah, " I, the Lord, will be unto her
a wall of fire round about." Zech. 2 : 5.
So David prays, " Keep me as the ap-
ple of the eye." Ps. 17 : 8. And he
acknowledges God to be the author
of all the heavy trials of his spirit :
" Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,
in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath
lieth hard upon me, and thou hast af-
flicted me with all thy waves." Ps. 88 :
6, 7. So likewise, " Thou which hast
shewed me great and sore troubles,
shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring
me up again from the depths of the
earth." Ps. 71:20. Agreeable to which
is the song of Hannah, "The Lord
killeth, and maketh alive j he bringeth
down to the grave, and bringeth up."
1 Sam. 2 : 6. For as the Son of God

356

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

himself descended first into hell, be-
fore he ascended up into heaven ; so
likewise must the true members of his
body experience the same, in the fol-
lowing manner. When a man's con-
science is so awakened and enlightened
by the Lord, as to feel in himself the
strength of sin, the sting of death, the
curse of the law, and the fiery darts
of the devil ; then is his wretched soul
so oppressed with grief and horror,
that with David (Ps. 77 : 3), it refuses
to be comforted, and looks upon itself
as rejected and persecuted by every
creature of God. The man who is in
this state, does not enjoy the least
glimpse of comfort, believing that he
deserves it not ; he struggles with de-
spair, he contends with hell, and has
already a taste of its agony. This is
the sting of hell, yea, hell itself, full of
terror and amazement, darkness and
despair. He that suffers this, is not
indeed corporeally, but spiritually, and
in his soul, brought down into hell ;
so that with his blessed Saviour at the
mount of Olives, he is in an agony, is
very heavy and sorrowful, even unto
death. Luke 22 : 44.

4. But you will say, Is it not strange,
that God should suffer his believing
children, who have been baptized into
Christ, who through him obtained re-
mission of their sins, being justified
through faith, and redeemed to eternal
life — to be thus miserably tempted and
afflicted by the devil, oppressed with
dreadful thoughts, and to undergo this
spiritual martyrdom? In answer to
this, we must consider, that it is not
our business to inquire into the secret
reasons of God's ways, but to rest
satisfied with what he has told us,
namely, that all these kinds of afflic-
tion proceed from him. Now we may
rest assured, that whatsoever comes
from him, promotes our spiritual wel-

fare, according to what we are told,
that " all things work together for
good, to them that love God." Eom.
8 : 28. There are, however, some rea-
sons revealed, why God suffers his be-
loved children to fall into temptations
so bitter.

5. The first may be to bring us to a
true sense of the strength of sin, which
is the sting of death (1 Cor. 15 : 56) ;
of the curse of the law; of the wrath
and justice of God; and of the cruel
tyranny of Satan. These hang to-
gether, as it were, in a chain, as Heze-
kiah complains (Isaiah 38 : 14), when
he chattered as a crane or a swallow,
and mourned as a dove.

6. Secondly, That we may have
worthy conceptions of the value and
greatness of our blessed Saviour's pas-
sion, and of all the merits of our re-
demption ; and hence learn that by
the agony of his own soul, he has de-
livered us from the punishments of
hell. Ps. 22 : 2.

7. Thirdly, That we may be con-
formed to the image of Christ. Eom.
8 : 29.

8. Fourthly, That we may learn to
taste the efficacy of God's Holy Word,
and the comforts that flow from it.
Thus we are told, "by vexation (or
temptation) only we shall understand
the report" (or word). Isa. 28 : 19.

9. Fifthly, That we may learn to
exercise faith, hope, charity, humility,
and patience, that so "the trial of our
faith may be found much more pre-
cious than gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire." 1 Pet. 1 : 7.

10. Sixthly, That we may after-
wards have a more lively perception
of the divine comforts, even as St.
Paul says, "As the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ." 2 Cor. 1 : 5.

11. Seventhly, That we may obtain

Chap. LIIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

357

greater degrees of glory in the life to
come, according to Eom. 8 : 17 : "If
so be that we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together."

12. Though we even did not know
that God intended these particular
advantages by our sufferings; yet we
ought to be satisfied with this one
consideration, that our sufferings are
ordered by the will of God. For if
"the very hairs of our head are all
numbered" (Matt. 10 : 30), how much
more care, may we suppose, will God
take of our souls, that the devil may
not precipitate us into despair? Hence
we may further learn, not to expect
deliverance from any but God himself,
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has overcome the world and the devil.
John 12 : 31; 16 : 11. He, therefore,
that labors under temptation, must fly
unto Jesus Christ; and from him alone
expect that help, comfort, and peace,
which nothing in this world can give
him.

13. (2) These trials are not to be
looked upon as tokens of God's anger,
but rather of his infinite mercy, since
he is hereby fitting us to be partakers
with them who have through many
temptations entered into glory. Such
was David, who complains, " The sor-
rows of death compassed me." Psalm
18 : 4. And the whole 88th Psalm is
full of lamentations of the pains and
agony which he underwent in his soul.
This, too, was the prophet Jeremiah's
case, When he wished that his moth-
er's womb had been his grave (Jer.
20:17); that he had never seen the
light, that so he might have avoided
his many bitter sufferings. Thus it
was with Job, when he cried out:
" O that my grief were thoroughly
weighed, and my calamity laid in the
balances together. For now it would
be heavier than the sand of the sea."

Job 6 : 2, 3. And " My soul chooseth
strangling, and death, rather than my
life." Job 7 : 15. Thus St. Paul was
buffeted by "the messenger of Satan."
2 Cor. 12 : 7. Nor, lastly, did the Son
of God himself, escape severe trials,
when his holy body trembled, and his
soul was exceeding sorrowful (Matt.
26 : 38), and when he cried out, " My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" Matt. 27:46.

14. From these examples we may
learn that we are not the only persons
who have been so severely tempted ;
but that saints and servants of God
before us have been visited in the
same manner. And as God forsook
not them in their extreme agony, so
we may assure ourselves that he will
in his own time deliver us, as well as
them. This is an argument full of
consolation. As bodily diseases and
persecutions are marks of the divine
favor, since by them God endeavors
to make us conformable to his Son
(and on that account we ought to
bear them with patience), so it is a
much greater token of the divine fa-
vor, and of the glory that shall follow
it, when he sends affliction on our souls,
as well as on our bodies, and by a va-
riety of crosses brings us to an entire
conformity, both in body and soul, to
Christ our Head. For as the body of
the blessed Jesus, at the time of his
passion, was overwhelmed wTith all
kinds of pains, and sufferings, and his
soul was full of anguish, distress, and
sorrow: so must his spiritual body, in
all its true and living members, be
made partaker of the same sufferings,
whether internal or external, so that
the whole spiritual body, as well as
the Head, may contribute, each mem-
ber in its proportion, to fill up the
measure of sufferings. This is what
St. Paul means; " I fill up that which

358

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book II.

is behind of the afflictions of Christ in
my flesh" (Col. 1 : 24): so that every
living member of Christ must expect
to bear his share of Christ's cross, in
order to perfect that which is yet
lacking in such sufferings. It ought,
therefore, to make us rejoice in afflic-
tion, when we consider that "the suf-
ferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us." Bom.
8 : 18. We should, when these spirit-
ual storms blow hard upon us, bear
with patience the paternal chastise-
ment of God (Micah 7 : 9), expect his
help, not faint in prayer, but think
thus with ourselves : This is a season
of sufferings; bat when wrath has
passed away, it will end in joy un-
speakable and full of glory. Isa. 54 :
7,8.

15. (3) We must support ourselves
under this internal conflict, with the
comforting promises of Jesus Christ,
that in due time we shall conquer if
we hold out and faint not. Gal. 6 : 9.
Thus he tells us, " The prince of this
world cometh, and hath nothing in
me." John 14 : 30. And, " Be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33. For as all the host of
Israel triumphed in the persun of Da-
vid, when he slew Goliah, and routed
the Philistines (1 Sam. 17 : 51) ; so the
victory of our Lord is the victory of
all true believers. Hence we are told,
" Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the
power of his Christ : for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and
night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word
of their testimony." Bev. 12 : 10, 11.
Whenever, therefore, thou findest thy-
self assaulted by the fiery darts of the
Evil One, and thy soul is afflicted with

such suggestions as these : " Thou art
damned; — thou art undone; — God
hath forsaken thee; — thou art mine;
— it is in vain for thee to hope, believe,
or pray any longer," then take cour-
age, and answer boldly : " O thou en-
emy of mankind, thou hast no power
to condemn me. God hath not ap-
pointed thee to be my judge; but the
faithful shall judge the world, and
thee, at the last great day" (1 Cor. 6 :
3), yea, prince of this world, thou art
judged already by the Son of God.
John 16 : 11.

16. (4) As the nature of this spirit
of blasphemy is such, that a Christian
is forced to undergo it sorely against
his will, and does all that in him lies
to resist and oppose it; hence let him
comfort himself, when he is tempted
with the thought, that God will never
lay it to his charge; since it is not he
that acts, but the devil ; for the soul
is passive, and may, therefore, be as-
sured that such thoughts shall never
b*e imputed for sin. As people in a
besieged town, cannot hinder the ene-
my from throwing fire into the town,
though they may do what they can to
quench it, and prevent its spreading;
and as Hezekiah (Isa. 36 : 11) could
not hinder the blasphemy of Babsha-
keh; so we cannot hinder the devil
from shooting his envenomed arrows
at us. All that we have to do is, to
bear it with penitential sorrow, and to
take all the care we can, not to suffer
our thoughts to vent themselves in
blasphemous words; but, on the other
hand, having set a guard upon our
tongues, we should endeavor so to stifle
these murmurings, that they break
not out into a flame, as we read of
Jeremiah. (Lam. 3 : 28.) Moreover,
forasmuch as thou art assaulted against
thy will, it is plain, that thou hast yet
a living and struggling faith.

Chap. LIIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

359

17. (5) We ought to be comforted,
if we find but one single aspiration of
our hearts towards God, or any devout
affection springing up in our souls by
the reading of any text of Holy Scrip-
ture. For this is that spark of faith
and divine grace, which, like the
smoking of flax, God will not quench,
but preserve it in its weakest state,
when it seems to be almost dead. Isa.
42 : 3. One devout aspiration such as
this, is a certain sign that the Holy
Spirit is still present with us, though
in a manner almost undiscernible in
the deepest ground and centre of the
soul. For as the body is not looked
upon as dead, whilst there is the least
breath or pulse remaining; so we must
believe that the Spirit of God, and
faith, are not yet entirely gone, if only
a feeble prayer and a word of God re-
main; for then the soul retains a spir-
itual and internal life, and is not en-
tirely dead. And the soul ought to be
content with the smallest spark of this
inward light and life, till the Spirit of
joy and liberty return to him, and
comfort him with all the consolations
of God. Let us suppose a man in such
a case, that he can neither pray, nor
even think a good thought; and that
this inability is matter of the greatest
grief to him; the anguish of such a
soul, because it cannot pray, is in itself
a true and effectual prayer. These are
the unutterable sighs and groanings
which St. Paul mentions. Eom. 8 : 26.
And to this belongs what the prophet
says, " When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their
tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord
will hear them, I the God of Israel
will not forsake them/' Isa. 41 : 17.

18. (6) Be the temptations and af-
flictions of the heart ever so great,
yet the Scripture assures us that it is
the habitation of God, and not of the

devil. That Satan has no possession
of it, appears from the furious assaults
he makes upon the afflicted soul, by
which he endeavors to subdue it; but
" greater is he that is in us, than he
that is in the world." 1 John 4:4.
" Fear thou not, for I am with thee."
Isa. 41 : 10. Therefore, though this
trial of the soul is the greatest afflic-
tion that can possibly befall it in this
life, yet, forasmuch as we are assured
that God will look unto those that are
of contrite hearts, and will dwell with
them (Isa. 57 : 15), that he sent the
blessed Jesus from heaven to comfort
the afflicted, and to preach glad tidings
to the distressed (Isa. 61 : 2) ; and that
He himself invites weary souls to
come unto him (Matt. 11 : 28), there-
fore let no man despair whefi he finds
himself plunged into this furnace of
affliction. These are they whom God
commanded his prophet to comfort :
"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and
confirm the feeble knees. Say to them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong,
fear not." Isa. 35 : 3, 4. And God
tells us that "his strength is made
perfect in weakness ;" which induced
St. Paul to say, " When I am weak,
then am I strong." 2 Cor. 12 : 10.
Yea, the grace of God is so far from,
forsaking a man, even when he is buf-
feted (2 Cor. 12 : 7) by Satan :. that
it was at that time particularly,. that
God told Paul, " My grace is sufficient
for thee." 2 Cor. 12 : 7-9.

19. (7) There is not so much as one
instance to be produced, of any man
forsaken of God under this spiritual,
conflict; but, on the contrary, He has.
always restored his servants, " whom
he has thus chosen in the furnace of
affliction" (Isa. 48: 10), to the same
and to higher degrees of grace, than,
those whence they thought they had.
fallen. This ought to be matter of

360

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

great comfort to us, and persuade us
that when the hour of trial is ended,
the season of joy and redemption will
quickly follow. " Happy is the man
whom GocJ correcteth : therefore de-
spise not thou the chastening of the
Almighty. For he maketh sore, and
bindeth up : he woundeth, and his
hands make whole. He shall deliver
thee in six troubles; yea, in seven
there shall no evil touch thee/' Job
5 : 17-19 j Micah 7 : 9. Let no man,
therefore, faint under tribulation, but
bear " the indignation of the Lord"
for a little while (Ps. 112 : 4; 97 : 11),
till the Sun of righteousness (Mai. 4:
2) arise upon him again with healing
and consolation in his wings, for
" light is sown for the righteous, and
gladness for the upright in heart!"

20. (8) Tauler reckons these spirit-
ual afflictions and trials among the
singular gifts and favors of God,
speaking thus of them : " In these
great temptations, God deprives a man
of all that he has given him, forcing
him to descend into himself and see
Lis own poverty and weakness ; and
also trying him, to discover how he
will behave himself in this desolate
state. And this is done when a man
is forsaken ; so that he knows nothing
of God, his grace, his comforts, or the
gifts which he once bestowed upon
him; but which are now taken away,
and concealed from his eyes, so that
he knows not whither to fly or which
way to turn. When a man is once
brought into this state, there is noth-
ing better for him than cheerfully and
willingly to submit himself to the or-
der and decree of God. It was, in-
deed, a great thing in the holy mar-
tyrs to lay down their lives for God. ;
ibut they were so abundantly strength-
ened by the comforts of his Holy
'Spirit, that the most exquisite tor-

ments were to them but trifling and
contemptible, and death itself had lost
its terrors. But to have God hide his
face, and deprive us of his grace and
comfort, is a martyrdom much greater
than theirs. This occurs when all the
sins, all the infirmities and tempta-
tions, which a man has long ago con-
quered, assault him afresh, with greater
violence than when he was the servant
of sin. In this case, the best way
is to suffer with patience, and to be
entirely resigned to the all-wise prov-
idence of God." Such sufferers as
these, Tauler calls "spiritual mar-
tyrs," from the bitter trials they un-
dergo whilst deprived of the light of
God's countenance, and the comfort-
able influences of his Spirit, which
are so severe that they know not
which way to turn for relief; and
when they see and consider the gifts
and graces bestowed upon others,
they fall into bitter dejection of spirit,
reckoning that it is their own fault
that they are thus barren and desti-
tute of spiritual joy. And though
they take ever so much pains, they
still seem to labor in vain; for they
find their dryness and hardness of
heart still increasing upon them; so
that at last, being quite void of com-
fort, and having lost. all patience, they
fall into a secret distrust of God's
mercy, and believe that he is offended
with everything they do. At length
they submit in patience, until God
may make a change ; for they them-
selves are utterly helpless. This is
that which brings them toa'conform-
ity, not only with the saints, but with
Christ, whose whole life was nothing
but affliction. These spiritual mar-
tyrs, though in the sight of the world
they are of all men most miserable,
and seem to be forsaken and east off
by God; yet are, in truth, the richest

Chap. LIY.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

361

towards God. In their own opinion
they are, indeed, at the same time,
the most unfaithful to him ; though in
reality they have the firmest faith,
and most ardent zeal for his honor
and service, and upon that account
undergo these heavy sufferings. From
this faith and love towards God (of
which they themselves are ignorant),
it arises, that they are tormented
with divers temptations to which they
will not consent, so that even death
itself would not be so bitter to them,
as the anguish they feel upon that ac-
count. They labor with their utmost
strength to amend their lives, and
practise every Christian virtue ; and
when they find their labor to be in

vain, they relapse into the old sense
of their infirmities, attended with the
most exquisite pain of mind. All this,
they suffer from a principle of love
towards God; esteeming themselves
the worst of all men, though they are
most precious in the sight of God.

21. No wiser counsel can be given
to these than that, with humble pa-
tience and resignation they bear the
troubles which they cannot help, and
which are but aggravated by impa-
tience. After this dark night of un-
speakable affliction, the Sun of right-
eousness shall arise, refreshing and
filling their hearts with inexpressible
light and glory.

CHAPTEE LIY.

COMFORTS UNDER SECRET AND SPIRITUAL TEMPTATIONS OF THE DEVIL.

Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : hut I have pr ay ed for thee,
that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. — Luke 22:
31, 32.

HOW great and implacable the en-
mity of the devil is to all man-
kind, we are abundantly informed, not
only by Scripture (as 1 Pet. 5 : 8, "Be
sober, be vigilant ; because your adver-
sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour."
Eph. 6 : 12, and Rev. 12 : 12^, " Woe to
the earth, and to the sea, for the devil
Is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he
hath but a short time;" and from the
history of Job), but also more partic-
ularly by daily experience, and the
many grievous and dangerous tempta-
tions with which he assaults the souls
of good men in their spiritual warfare.
At one time he assaults our faith, at

another time our Christian calling,
and then interrupts and disturbs us
in the exercise of our devotions; all
which is clearly expressed in the his-
tory of our Lord's temptation. Matt.
4 : 3, etc. Hence we may learn that
no man is safe from his temptations.
For if he spared not Christ our Head,
how can sinful men expect to escape
him? For which reason our Lord
himself advises us, " Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation."
Matt. 26 : 41.

2. Among the various temptations
with which the devil afflicts the soul,
this is one, namely, the tormenting a
man with blasphemous, profane, im-
pure, and troublesome thoughts, so as

362

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book IT.

to sink him deep into melancholy and
wretchedness. And these abominable
suggestions are so crafty, sudden, and
violent, that they will not give a man
a moment's rest. Upon this account
St. Paul calls them, " the fiery darts
of the wicked one." Eph. 6 : 16. As a
public enemy is perpetually casting
fire into a besieged town; so the devil
is continually vexing such souls with
his hellish suggestions. And as the
wounds of an envenomed arrow are
most exquisitely painful ; so the wounds
caused by the fiery darts of Satan, are
far more sharp and intolerable than
the severest bodily sufferings. Where-
fore we shall here present some select
heads of comfort against these secret
and internal temptations, all drawn
from the Word of God. First, as to
the words prefixed to this chapter, it
is plain that they were uttered by our
blessed Saviour, with the utmost ten-
derness, and most ardent compassion.
Whence we may gather, that the
being afflicted with these temptations,
is no mark of God's displeasure, much
less that he designs to destroy us
thereby, and deliver us up into the
hands of the enemy. On the contrary,
such a temptation is nothing but a
chastising rod, whereby God intends
to humble a man, and to draw him to
Himself. This appears from the ex-
ample of St. Peter, whose confidence
and self-conceit opened a door to the
most grievous temptation, and to the
sin which followed. And St. Paul
tells us of himself, " Lest I should be
exalted (saith he) above measure
through the abundance of the revela-
tions, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to
buffet me. For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart
from me. And he said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Cor. 12 :

7-9. From which words we may learn
three things : 1. That St. Paul, and all
others that are exercised with these
trials, are humbled thereby. 2. That
all those sufferings come upon us by
the counsel of God. 3. That the ut-
most fury of the devil against a man
who is so tempted, cannot exclude
him from God's favor, which is ex-
pressed in these words, "My grace is
sufficient for thee."

3. The second ground of comfort is
contained in these words: "Satan
hath desired you." From these words
we may learn, that though the devil
is always desirous and ready to cast
his fiery darts at us, yet has he no
power without the particular leave
and permission of God; who never
gives him more than a limited per-
mission, beyond which he cannot go.
To this belongs that place of St. Paul,
" God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that ye are
able." 1 Cor. 10 : 13. To which we
may add the example of Job, against
whom the devil dared not attempt
anything, till he had first obtained
leave of God; and even that clogged
with a limitation. See chajE). 1 : 12.

4. The third consolation arises from
these words of our Lord : " I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not." In what manner, and with what
affection the blessed Jesus prayed for
us to his Heavenly Father, we are told
in John (chapter 17), namely, that lie
would be pleased to keep his faithful
servants from the evil of the world;
that he would dwell in them, and they
in him; and that of those whom he
had received of his Father, he might
lose none. This prayer, were it but
heartily applied to the distressed soul,,
would support it with a divine courage
so as to abide in Christ by faith, not
doubting but that Christ in her, by the

Chap. LIV.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

363

same faith, would conquer and triumph
over all her enemies.

5. Th e/owr^A comfort may be drawn
from John 17 : 21, where our blessed
Lord prays for us, and begs of his
heavenly Father, that we may abide
in Christ, and Christ in us. And St.
John tells us, that " greater is he that
is in us, than he that is in the world.''
1 John 4 : 4. Christ dwells in every
believing soul by faith ; and all the as-
saults of the devil cannot dispossess
this illustrious guest. And as Christ
himself, in whom God himself, that is,
all " the fulness of the Godhead dwelt
bodily" and personally (Col. 2 : 9),
was tempted by Satan, thou must not,
therefore, think that Christ is not in
thee, because thou thyself art likewise
tempted. And if Christ be in thee of
a truth, thou needest not fear what
the devil can do unto thee : for Christ
will certainly defend the place of his
own residence, against all opposers.
Moreover, thou hast within thee the
Holy Spirit, who " helpeth thine in-
firmities, and maketh intercession for
thee with groanings that cannot be
uttered." Eom. 8 : 26. Whensoever
thou findest these within thee, thou
mayest assure thyself, that the Holy
Spirit dwelleth in thee, and he will not
forsake thee, as our blessed Lord as-
sures us: " The Father shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide
with you forever." John 14:16. Last-
ly, God has promised, that he will
dwell in the humble and contrite
heart : " I dwell with him that is of a
contrite and humble spirit." Isa. 57 :
15; 66:2. And such, undoubtedly,
are all those who are tormented with
these temptations of Satan.

6. The fifth ground of comfort, is
contained in our Saviour's promise :
" I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not." O divine comfort I as if our

Lord had said : " Your infirmities shall
never be so great, but that there shall
be some sparks of faith left. Yea,
though you feel in yourselves no com-
fort, and, on that account, are apt to
think your faith quite extinct, yet will
I never suffer the smoking flax to be
entirely quenched." Isa. 42 : 3. But,
now, if you ask, How shall I know
this? I answer, 1. By the earnest
longing of your soul after faith. For,
to desire and pray for faith above all
other things, arises from a fiving spark
of remaining faith. 2. By your resist-
ance of temptation, which is a certain
token of the presence of faith; and
this resistance and opposition appear
plainly in this, that all these wicked
and blasphemous thoughts arise in
your soul sorely against your will, and
that you bear them with more pain,
than you would any external violence
offered to your body. JSTow whatso-
ever a man suffers of this kind against
his will, is resisted by faith, and shall
never be imputed to him as sin ; for
nothing but a voluntary violation of
the divine law, makes a man sinful in
the sight of God. If Adam had not
yielded to the suggestions of Satan, he
had not had sin; but as soon as he
submitted his will to that of the
tempter, he fell into the transgression.
Whence it follows, that it cannot be
sin, which is not attended with the
consent of the will. A besieged city
cannot hinder the enemy from throw-
ing fire into it, but the inhabitants
must endeavor to prevent it from
spreading, and burning the town to
ashes. So we cannot avoid the fiery
darts of the devil, with which he de-
lights to afflict the heart ; but as we
do not consent to them, but rather re-
sist, they must at last be quenched,
and can do us no harm. By such
tokens as these we may discover, that

364

TKUE CHKISTIAJSriTY.

[Book IL

our faith, however weak, is not ex-
tinct.

7. Being once assured of this, we
may likewise certainly depend upon
victory ; and this opens to us a sixth
fountain of comfort. To this, there-
fore, refers that comfortable saying of
our Saviour: "The prince of this
world cometh, and hath nothing in
me." John 14:30. "Be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world."
John 16 : 33. Whatsoever Christ did,
he did for our sakes; that he himself,
with all his benefits and merits, might
be entirely ours. Since, therefore, he
has conquered Satan, it follows that
he has conquered him not only for
himself, but for us also : his conquest
is ours. All this was prefigured in
the contest between David and Goli-
ath. 1 Sam. 17 : 8, 9, 50-53. The con-
ditions were, that if Goliath overcame
David, the people of Israel should be
the servants of the Philistines; but if
David overcame Goliath, the Philis-
tines should serve Israel. Now, even
as David's victory was counted as the
victory of all Israel, so the victory of
Christ avails as the victory of all be-
lievers. Hence St. Paul says: "Be
strong in the Lord, and in the power
of his might." Eph. 6 : 10. And,

" Thanks be to God, which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." 1 Cor. 15 : 57. *

8. Seventhly, we ought to be com-
forted by the examples of the saints,
who have also been cruelly tempted.
Of these our blessed Saviour speaks,
saying, "When thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren." By these
words, our Saviour plainly sends us
to be instructed by the examples of
our brethren, who have been tempted
and persecuted by the devil in like
manner with us. Hence St. Peter
says : " Knowing that the same afflic-
tions are accomplished in your breth-
ren that are in the world/' 1 Peter
5: 9.

9. Lastly, we ought to be comforted
by the example of Jesus Christ him-
self. Matt. 4: 1, etc. Over him, though
he was the beloved Son of God, the
devil had so much power, as to hurry
him from place to place, and use'him
with so much insolence, that it is
wonderful the Son of God should suf-
fer it from that rebellious, apostate
spirit. But this was the condition of
the humble Jesus, who emptied him-
self of all his glory and majesty, that
he might be tempted as man, and be
made like unto his brethren.

Chap. LV.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

365

CHAPTER LV.

THE REASONS FOR WHICH GOB SOMETIMES DELAYS HIS COMFORT AND

ASSISTANCE.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie ; though it
tarry, wait for it ; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is
lifted up, is not upright in him : but the just shall live by his faith. — Hab. 2 : 3, 4.

IN these words the Holy Spirit com-
forts ns, under the delays of Di-
vine assistance: for so we are apt to
call (1) those very methods by which
God hastens to help and save us. He
has, in his unsearchable wisdom, ap-
pointed to every man his cross in
weight and measure. He delivers it
out to him in meet proportions, send-
ing one affliction after another, till
the measure of his sufferings be ac-
complished,- that so, by a gradual
conquest, he may at last obtain a com-
plete victory. This dealing of God
with us, we are apt to call his delaying
to help us; not considering that this
is the quickest method of accomplish-
ing the measure of our sufferings, and
completing our victory. That which
to us seems to be delay, is in the sight
of God, making haste to help us.

2. Now he that is refractory and
impatient under the cross, has no
peace in his soul. For as patience
renders the soul easy and quiet, so im-
patience makes it restless and uneasy.
Thus our Lord tells us, "Learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart;
and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
Matt. 11 : 29. And, whereas, the pro-
phet adds, that " the just shall live
by his faith ;" this relates to the prom-
ises of divine grace and assistance,
which we lay hold on by faith. And
from this consolation the soul derives
life and joy; as Hezekiah says: "O

Lord, by these things men live, and
in all these things is the life of my
spirit." Isa. 38 : 16. On the other
hand, unbelief produces impatience;
impatience, disquiet; disquiet, despair;
and despair, everlasting death. So
that we may most truly say, that
"the just lives by faith;" that is, by
the grace of Göd, which he patiently
expects and waits for.

3. (2) Solomon tells us : "To every
thing there is a season, and a time to
every purpose under heaven." Eccles.
3:1. Whence we may learn, that
crosses and afflictions come not by
chance ; but that every season of af-
fliction is appointed to us by God.
Wherefore, in our troubles let us lift
up our eyes unto Him, in whose hand
are our happiness and misery, our
riches and poverty, our life and death;
yea, and every moment of our afflic-
tions. This is illustrated in the case
of Joseph, whom, for thirteen years
together, God visited with remarkable
afflictions (Gen. 37 : 36 ; 41 : 1) : " un-
til the time that his word came : the
word of the Lord tried him," as the
Psalmist tells us. Ps. 105 : 19. By
his example we may learn how useful
and necessary it is for us that God
should sometimes delay his help. For
when he was sold, he was seventeen
years old; and when, by the hand of
God he was brought out of prison, he
was thirty; and the bearing of his

366

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book II.

cross all that season, was the very-
thing that qualified him for the glori-
ous advancement that followed. In
that honorable post he continued
eighty years; whence we may ob-
serve, that his thirteen years of suffer-
ing, were recompensed with many
years of glory and honor : for he lived
a hundred and ten years. Therefore
let the devout Christian that suffers
imprisonment or any kind of persecu-
tion for the testimony of a good con-
science, or shame, or sickness, call to
mind the wonderful providence of God
to Joseph, and satisfy himself that the
all-wise God, who has appointed his
season of affliction, has likewise de-
termined the set time of his deliver-
ance. For as a skilful builder knows
well by what time his laborers will
have finished their task, so has God
measured out the weight and duration
of every man's cross, and appointed
the season of his deliverance. As
soon as that comes, the light of divine
grace will immediately break forth,
and will comfort the afflicted soul.

4. (3) As God has determined the
number of our crosses ; so He has been
pleased to conceal from us the time of
our deliverance, satisfying us with that
declaration of our blessed Lord, "It is
not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father hath put in
his own power." Acts 1 : 7. Agreea-
bly to this are the words of God, who
when he had threatened the children
of Israel with the Babylonish cap-
tivity, adds, "Is not this laid up in
store with me, and sealed up among
my treasures ?" Deut. 32 : 34. Thence
we may learn, with what great and
unsearchable wisdom God governs and
corrects the children of men. To this

also may be referred that saying of
St. Paul : " God hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and hath deter-
mined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation." Acts
17 : 26. In these words we are in-
structed, that not only the period of
every man's life, but even the place
and manner of it, are appointed by
God. And this general determination
of time and place, includes in it the
crosses and afflictions appointed to
every person.

5. (4) And as God has appointed the
period, time, and place, of the suffer-
ings of his servants; so has He also
of the persecutions and oppressions of
the wicked. When these have for a
season been breathing out oppressions
and slaughter, then that God to whom
vengeance belongeth, awaketh^and
riseth to judgment ; according to Deut.
32 : 35 : " To me belongeth vengeance
and recompense; their foot shall slide
in due time : for the day of their ca-
lamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them, make haste."
This is abundantly confirmed by the
examples of heretics and tyrants that
have most grievously persecuted the
church of God; and when the devil
has raged long enough, and his time is
expired, then has the divine vengeance
so confounded him and all his accom-
plices, that the whole world has been
amazed and astonished at the right-
eous judgments of God. " Be ye also
patient; stablish your hearts ; for the
coming ol the Lord draweth nigh.
Grudge not one against another, breth-
ren, lest ye be condemned : behold the
Judge standeth before the door." Jas.
5 : 8, 9.

Chap. LVL]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

367

CHAPTER LVL

SHOWING THAT IN SEASONS OF TRIAL THE CONSIDERATION OF THE EXALTED PATIENCE
OF CHRIST, AND OF THE FUTURE AND ETERNAL GLORY, WILL ALLEVIATE THE
BURDEN OF THE CROSS.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? — Luke 24 : 26.

THE eternal Son of Cod, by his most
holy incarnation, took upon him
all the miseries and calamities of man-
kind : and this not of compulsion and
necessity, but of pure love, that by
his example he might teach us pa-
tience, and enable us to bear the cross,
and overcome the calamities of this
mortal life. As he was to become
man, so he willingly subjected himself
to all those miseries to which man is
exposed ; and as he came down from
heaven for the sake of all, so he took
upon him the infirmities of all ; so that
from the moment of his birth, to the
hour of his death, he was, as the pro-
phet truly expresses it, "despised and
rejected of men j a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief." Isa. 53 :

3. There was no calamity incident to
human nature, which he did not suffer,
and, particularly, extreme poverty.
He says of himself, " The foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of man hath not
where to lay his head/' Matt. 8: 20.
In the discharge of his office, he un-
derwent the most bitter persecutions,
being exposed to hatred, calumnies,
and reproaches. In his last days he
submitted to the most ignominious
sufferings, so that, as the prophet ex-
presses it, "We did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted." Isa. 53 :

4. His transcendent love met with
the highest ingratitude, his illustrious
miracles were rewarded with revilings,
and his heavenly doctrines with calum-

nies and lies. And since our blessed
Lord suffered all this, why shall we
expect to be exempted from sufferings
and injuries ?

2. Thus the blessed Jesus, by his ex-
ample, has shown us the true and only
path to heaven. 1 Pet. 2: 21. Let us
therefore tread in his steps, and learn
to imitate him in all the different
scenes of his most holy and afflicted
life. He went before, that we might
in holy patience follow him. Whence
we may learn, how far they are from
the true and right way, who never re-
gard this blessed pattern, but refuse
to follow it. If men will still walk on
in darkness and shut their eyes against
this light, how great must their dark-
ness be ! The blessed Jesus himself
calls to them, saying, " I am the light
of the world; he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life." John 8 : 12.

3. All the sufferings of true Chris-
tians in this life, are not worthy to be
compared with the eternal glories re-
served for them in the world to come;
for their temporal afflictions are but
for a moment, but their glorious re-
ward shall endure forever. 2 Cor. 4:
17, 18. An everlasting possession is
well worth contending for. Couldest
thou but for a moment behold what
eternal glories they enjoy, who in this
life were exposed to all torments and
sufferings, thou wouldest cheerfully
submit to them all, and take up thy
cross with joy; thinking all things

368

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book II.

but as dross, that thou mightest win
Christ and be a partaker of his glory.
4. Lift up, therefore, the eyes of thy
mind to heaven, and view, with St.
John, that vast company clothed in
white garments, and following the
Lamb, concerning whom this account
is given to the inquiring Evangelist :
" These are they which came out of
great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are
they before the throne of God, and
serve him day and night in his temple."
Eev. 7 : 14, 15. Such are the proper
meditations for devout souls. Thus
we read of Moses, " By faith, Moses,
when he was come to years, refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter; choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season ; esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treas-
ures in Egypt; for he had respect to
the recompense of the reward." Heb.
11 : 24-26.

5. Hence we learn that the saints
in all ages have esteemed the reproach
of the cross of Christ as their greatest
treasure. And we may depend upon
it, that no man can be admitted to the
joys of the next world, who has not
fought manfully under the banner of
the cross in this world. How can we
imagine that those blessed spirits will
own us to be of their company in
heaven, if we did not bring with us
the sign of the cross ? They would not
know us, and we would be strangers
among them. "He that overcometh,"
saith the Lord, "the same shall be
clothed in white raiment; and I will
not blot out his name out of the book
of life." Eev. 3 : 5. And what does St.
Paul say? "I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept
the faith: henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing." 2 Tim. 4 : 7, 8.

CHAPTER L V 1 1.

CONSOLATIONS AGAINST THE FEARS OF DEATH.

Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the

gospel.— -2 Tim. 1 : 10.

THIS sentence is full of divine com-
fort against the fears of temporal
death. For if " Christ hath abolished
death," why should we fear it? And
if "life and immortality be brought to
light," why should we not rejoice to
pass through the gates of death, to
take possession of them? But since
there is no man so holy, but that at
some time or other he is afraid of

death, I shall here subjoin the chief
heads of consolation, which I shall
divide into two parts. The first con-
tains those consolations which arise
from Christ's sufferings and death, and
the fruits of them. The second, those
that arise from the consideration of
the vanity of the world. Each of these
parts shall comprehend seven argu-
ments of comfort.

Chap. LVIL]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

369

2. I. The first and most powerful
remedy against the fear of death, is
the most holy and innocent death of
Jesus Christ, by which he destroyed
the power of death. The power of
death consists in the continual dread,
anxiety, terror, and trembling that
arise from the thought of the severe
judgment that is to follow. With
this the soul is oftentimes so afflicted,
that it is. as it were, continually dying,
yet cannot die. This is the power of
death, yea, is even the second and
eternal death : and this terrible state
the devil makes yet more dreadful by
his suggestions. Upon this account
he is said "to have the power of
death" (Heb. 2 : 14); that is, to ter-
rify and torment the conscience with
hellish fears and terrors. This was
David's case, as he complains, " My
heart is sore pained within me; and
the terrors of death are fallen upon
me." Ps. 55 : 4. So again, "The sor-
rows of death compassed me, and the
floods of ungodly men made me afraid."
Ps. 18 : 3, 4. Now the blessed Jesus has
taken away this power of death, chang-
ing it into a calm sleep, a blessed rest
of soul and body. When the soul is
at rest, the body sleeps peacefully, so
that the peace of the soul gives peace
also to the body. Hence every true
and faithful Christian may be properly
said not to taste of death; according
to that promise of our blessed Lord,
" Yerily, verily, I say unto you, If a
man keep my sayings, he shall never
see death." John 8 : 51.

3. The second ground of comfort is,
the resurrection of our bodies. For
Christ has so far destroyed the power
of death, that it not only cannot tor-
ment our souls, but cannot even keep
our bodies perpetually. As the power
of Christ's death in us protects us from
tasting the bitterness of it ; so, by the

power of his resurrection, our mortar
bodies shall also be raised again to a
glorious immortality.

4. For (1), the foundation of our
resurrection is the resurrection of Je-
sus Christ, as he himself says, "Be-
cause I live, ye shall live also." John
14 : 19. " I am the resurrection and
the life; he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he
live." John 11 : 25. " I know that my
Eedeemer liveth, and that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth ;
and though after my skin worms de-
stroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God." Job 19 : 25. "For since
by man came death, by man came
also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15 :
21, 22.

5. (2) This is also founded upon
God's veracity. "Thy dead men shall
live." Isa. 26 : 19. "Thus saith the
Lord God unto these bones: Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you,
and ye shall live. Behold, I will open
your graves, and cause you to come up
out of your graves, O my people."
Ezek. 37 : 5, 12. "And many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting con-
tempt." Dan. 12 : 2. "Yerily, verily,
I say unto you, The hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God : and they
that hear shall live. The hour is com-
ing in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrec-
tion of damnation." John 5 : 25, 28, 29.
"And I saw the dead, both small and
great, stand before God." Eev. 20 : 12.

6. (3) It is also founded upon the

24

370

TKTJE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

omnipotence and glory of Jesus Christ.
As in the resurrection of Lazarus, he
was glorified, when he cried out, " Laz-
arus, come forth " (John 11 : 43) ; so
will he also, in the last great day,
manifest his power and glory, by show-
ing himself to be the Lord of the dead
and living. Eom. 14 : 9. "I will ran-
som them from the power of the grave ;
I will redeem them from death; O
death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave,
I will be thy destruction." Hosea 13 :
14.

7. (4) The divine justice is also en-
gaged for the confirmation of this
truth. As it has received fulfilment
in that sentence, "Thou shalt surely
die" (Gen. 2 : 17); so also must it be
fulfilled in our resurrection after a com-
plete satisfaction for sin. For when
sin itself is at an end, the wages of sin
ought to have an end likewise. This
is strictly agreeable to the justice of
God.

8. (5) This is also further confirmed to
us by the examples of those who have
been already raised from death unto
life. Such was the case of the widow's
son (1 Kings 17 : 22) ; the Shunammite's
son (2 Kings 4 : 35-37) ; the dead body
that was raised by touching the bones
of Elisha (2 Kings 13 : 21) ; the daugh-
ter of Jairus (Matt. 9 : 25) ; the wid-
ow's son at ]STain (Luke 7:15); Laz-
arus (John 11 : 43) ; and Tabitha (Acts
9:41).

9. (6) Christ hath redeemed both
soul and body to everlasting life.

10. (7) The beautiful parables de-
rived from nature, as the grain of
wheat, in John 12 : 24, claim attention.
The apostle says : " Thou fool, that
which thou sowest is not quickened
except it die," etc. 1 Cor. 15 : 36, etc.
Upon this account, burying-places are,
in the German tongue, called God's
fields (Gottesacker).

11. A third comfort against the fears
of death is, the fruit of Christ's resur-
rection; that is, that eternal, incor-
ruptible, and immortal state purchased
for us by Jesus Christ. For as by the
transgression of the first Adam, all his
posterity were made subject to death;
so by the obedience of the second, all
are restored to life and immortality.
Upon which account it is said, " Be-
hold, I make all things new." Eev. 21 :
5. This renovation consists in an en-
tire freedom from sin, misery, and
death, and is a state of righteousness,
joy, and eternal life. For this cause
it is also called Paradise : " In thy
presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right
hand there are pleasures for ever-
more." Ps. 16 : 11. If it be Paradise,
it follows, that no grief, pain, sorrow,
or sighing : no hunger, thirst, cold,
heat, or any other evil, can enter there.
These all belong to this transitory life,
but that eternal life is " an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away;" as we are told by
St. Peter. (1 Peter 1 : 4.) This is, in-
deed, the glorious fruit of Christ's res-
urrection : for by Christ all things are
renewed and restored ; corruption is
changed into incorruption.; that which
was transitory, into that which is eter-
nal ; our filthiness, into spotless purity ;
our grief, into joy ; our sorrows, into
triumphs; our sins, into righteousness;
the divine anger into mercy ; the curse
into blessings ; our poverty into riches ;
our diseases into health ; our contempt
into honor; our reproach into glory;
our disquiet into everlasting rest; our
miseries into pleasures; our death into
life. Now death is the entrance into
this blessed state : so that temporal
death is the gate to everlasting life,
and all these joys.

12. The fourth consolation against
the fear of death, is prayer. So we

Chap. LVIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

371

read of the Son of God, that " being
in an agony, he prayed more earn-
estly." Luke 22 : 44. And " in the
days of his flesh, he offered up prayers
and supplications, with strong crying
and tears, unto him that was able to
save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared." Heb. 5 : 7. Indeed,
the prayers of dying people are strong
and earnest ; they proceed from the
bottom of the heart, ascend through
the clouds, and reach the ears of the
Almighty. " The Lord is nigh unto
all them that call upon him, to all that
call upon him in truth." Ps. 145 : 18.
" I will be with him in trouble ; I will
deliver him, and honor him." Ps. 91 :
15. " Fear thou not, for I am with
thee ; I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will
help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness."
Isa. 41 : 10.

13. The fifth consolation is, the glo-
rification of our bodies. " Our conver-
sation is in heaven ; from whence also
we look for the Saviour, the Lord Je-
sus Christ ; who shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to
the working, whereby he is able to
subdue all things unto himself." Phil.
3 : 20, 21. What greater glory can we
conceive, than that our bodies shall be,
like the glorified body of Jesus Christ ?
He showed us his glorified body upon
Mount Tabor (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9 : 2,
3), that he might inflame us with a
desire of the same glory. Oh ! what
a glorious temple of G-od shall our body
then be ! Of this, the royal and priestly
garments under the law, were but a
faint shadow and resemblance.

14. The sixth is, the presence of the
holy angels, who carry our departing
souls into Abraham's bosom. Our soul
enters into the regions of eternal glory,
and joins the society of blessed spirits.

This is what is meant by "Abra-
ham's bosom." Luke 16 : 22. That rest
of the soul consists entirely in a free-
dom from the fears and terrors of
death. So " Eeturn unto thy rest, O
my soul. For the Lord hath dealt
bountifully with thee : for thou hast
delivered my soul from death, mine
eyes from tears, and my feet from fall-
ing. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living." Ps. 116 : 7-9.
For then the soul, being delivered from
the yoke of the flesh, will rejoice like
a prisoner rescued from long captivity.
15. The seventh comfort is, the
eternal duration of our future glory.
"They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more ; neither shall the sun
light on them, or any heat. For the
Lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters ;
and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." Eev. 7 : 16, 17. «My
people shall dwell in a peaceable habi-
tation, and in sure dwellings, and in
quiet resting-places." Isa. 32 : 18. And
" I will extend peace to her like a river.
And as one whom his mother com-
forteth, so will I comfort you." Isa.
66: 12, 13. "My servants shall eat,
and drink, and rejoice." Isa. 65 : 13.
Such eating and drinking, are to be
understood of their exalted pleasure,
arising from their vision of God, "Now
we see through a glass darkly; but
then face to face." 1 Cor. 13 : 12. " We
shall see him as he is." 1 John 3 : 2.
" As for me, I will behold thy face in
righteousness : I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness." Ps.
17 : 15. O happy day, when we shall
see God face to face I How ardently
did holy David long for it, saying,
"When shall I come and appear be-
fore God?" Ps. 42:2.

16. In short, the joy of eternal life

372

TEUB CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IL

will consist: 1. In the beatific vision
of the face of God. 2. In the presence
of Christ our Eedeemer, in all his
glory and majesty : " Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they
may behold my glory which thou hast
given me." John 17 : 24. 3. In the
most exalted enjoyments of all the
gifts, graces, and pleasures of the
Holy Ghost, "the fountain of life."
Ps. 36 : 9. 4. In the society of all the
Elect, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles,
and Martyrs. "And the ransomed of
the Lord shall return, and come to
Zion with songs, and everlasting joy
upon their heads; they shall obtain
joy and gladness, and sorrow and
sighing shall flee away." Isa. 35 : 10.

17. II. Thus much for those consola-
tions that arise from the nature, offices,
and promises of the blessed Jesus. I
come now to consider those that may
be drawn from the consideration of
the vanity of the world. Of these
there are also seven.

18. First, this life, how great and
glorious soever it may appear to some,
is made up of misery and sorrow. 1 Cor.
16 : 31. Every day steals away a part
of our life, and as our years increase,
our life decreases; so that every mo-
ment of our time is divided betwixt
life and death. How many and va-
rious diseases are there, which, like
slow poisons, waste and consume our
bodies! How are we tormented with
sorrow, broken with labors, and dis-
tracted with care ! So that the wise
man truly pronounced that "the day
of death is better than the day of
one's birth." Eccles. 7:1. " Is there
not an appointed time to man upon
earth ? Are not his days also like the
days of a hireling? As a servant earn-
estly desireth the shadow, and as a
hireling looketh for the reward of his

work: so am I made to possess months
of vanity, and wearisome nights are
appointed to me." Job 7 : 1-3. " Man
that is born of a woman, is of few days
and full of trouble." Job U : 1. But
a holy and happy death puts an end
to all these miseries.

19. Secondly, we are exposed to
many and very grievous sins, from
which nothing can deliver us but a
happy death. Thus St. Paul com-
plains, "I see another law in my
members, warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into cap-
tivity to the law of sin -which is in my
members. O wretched man that I
am ! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death V Eom. 7 : 23, 24.
What is life but a continued course of
sin ? So that it was a prayer of one
of the ancients, "Lord, let me die,
that I may cease from sin." And if
the whole creation is travailing in
pain, and waiting to be delivered
from the bondage of corruption, into
the glorious liberty of the children of
God (Eom. 8 : 21, 22), how much more
ought we to sigh after it ? How full
the world is of offences and stumbling-
blocks, which we are continually ob-
liged to see and suffer, whether we will
or not! And these offences will so in-
crease in the last days, that the souls
of the righteous shall be vexed like
righteous Lot's in Sodom. 2 Pet. 2 : 8.
"I returned, and considered all the
oppressions that are done under the
sun ; and behold, the tears of such as
were oppressed, and they had no com-
forter; and on the side of their op-
pressors there was power; but they had
no comforter. Wherefore, I praised
the dead which are already dead,
more than the living which are yet
alive." Eccles. 4:1, 2. How many
pestilent errors in matters of faith;
how many heresies, superstitions, false

Chap. LVIL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

373

prophets and false Christs there are,
so that, if it were possible, even the
elect might be deceived ! Matt. 24 : 24.
Upon this account God takes his faith-
ful people out of all these dangers and
troubles. How many dreadful mis-
chiefs, and mournful events, how
many wars, butcheries, plagues, and
famines occur! Such, and so great,
are they, that indeed no Christian
would wish to see or endure them.

20. Thirdly, all must die without
distinction. "Death hath passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned."
Bom. 5 : 12. Since so many holy and
excellent men, so many Patriarchs,
Prophets, and so many other right-
eous men are dead, who would not
willingly follow them? "Take away
my life, for I am not better than my
fathers" (1 Kings 19:4), said the
prophet Elijah. "It is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the
judgment." Heb. 9 : 27. "All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is
as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth ; because
the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it." Isa. 40 : 6, 7. " I am a stranger
with thee, and a sojourner, as all my
fathers were." Ps. 39 : 12.

21. Fourthly, no man dies by chance;
but God is the Lord of life, and he has
appointed the bounds of its duration.
"His days are determined, the num-
ber of his months are with thee." Job
14 : 5. " Thou turnest man to destruc-
tion ; and sayest, Eeturn, ye children
of men." Ps. 90 : 3. " In thy book all
my members were written." Ps. 139 :
16. " The very hairs of your head are
all numbered." Matt. 10 : 30. " God is
thy life, and the length of thy days."
Deut. 30 : 20.

22. Fifthly, " To die is gain." Phil.
1:21. We gain more than we lose by
dying; righteousness, instead of sin;

glory, for misery ; heavenly riches, for
earthly; instead of the short-lived
friendships and relations of this world,
we gain an eternal fellowship and
union with the saints in heaven ; in-
stead of this mortal, diseased, and
frail body, we gain a heavenly and
glorious one; we change banishment
for our own country; misery, for
peace; and this world for heaven. In
short, what is there in this world,
that we cannot have infinitely better
in the next ? If thou seekest riches,
honors, or glory; with friends, pleas-
ures, peace, or enjoyments, all these
thou shalt enjoy in a far higher degree
in the next world.

23. Sixthly, Man would be the most
miserable creature in the world, if he
were obliged to abide in it forever.
"If in this life only," saith St. Paul,
" we have hope in Christ, we are of
all men most miserable." 1 Cor. 15 : 19.
It follows, therefore, that we are de-
signed for a better world. So that,
in truth, it is a very affecting instance
of divine mercy to take us out of this
valley of tears, and translate us to a
better place. " The righteous is taken
away from the evil to come. He shall
enter into peace; they shall rest in
their beds, each one walking in his
uprightness." Isa. 57 : 1, 2. " Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord ;
yea, saith the Spirit, that they may
rest from their labors." Eev. 14 : 13.

24. Seventhly, since we cannot with
these bodily and sinful eyes behold
the glory of God, nor enter with these
mortal bodies into the "new heavens
and new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness " (2 Peter 3 : 13) ; let us
cheerfully put off this earthly taber-
nacle, that we may be clothed with a
heavenly and spiritual body. 1 Cor.
15; 44. "Flesh and blood cannot in-
herit the kingdom of God; neither

374

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book II.

doth corruption inherit incorruption."
1 Cor. 15 : 50. Great, therefore, is the
mercy of God, who exchanges these
filthy rags for a shining garment, in
which we may celebrate the eternal
marriage; a beautiful, festive gar-
ment, fit to be worn in the everlasting
rest ; a priestly robe, with which we
may enter into the very holy of holies.

CONCLUSION OP THE SECOND BOOK.

At the close of this Book, I desire
to submit one or two points to the
consideration of the Christian reader.

In writing these Books I have had
no other object in view than that, in
connection with our pure religion and
confession of faith, as set forth in the
Church of the Augsburg Confession,
and repeated in the Formula of Con-
cord (which I publicly and sincerely
adopt, and in accordance with which
I desire these writings of mine to be
understood), purity and holiness of
the life might be promoted. For pur-
ity of doctrine is of no benefit, when
it is not adorned by a holy life. We
ought to guard the purity of doctrine
with watchful eyes, bcit sustain holi-
ness of life with even greater earnest-

ness. Of what advantage are great
skill and learning without godliness ?
It is much better, in the eyes of God,
to train up a devout man, than to
make a learned man of him. There
are many who teach the doctrine of
Christ with great zeal, but there are
few who in their practice conform to
his life. As to this point the Chris-
tian reader is referred to the Preface
of the First Book, and to the Conclu-
sion of the Fourth Book.

2. If any one should allege that I
have treated too diffusely of the doc-
trine of Christian faith, I beg to give
the following answer : Our evil life is
also very extensive — the evils under
which we labor are very serious — our
redemption is a great work — and our
crosses are manifold. But let any one
who desires greater brevity, read the
several chapters in the First, Second,
and Third Books, which treat of Ee-
pentance, Faith, Love, Humility,
Meekness, Patience, and the Cross,
and he will find the whole Christian
life described without prolixity. Nev-
ertheless, if thou wilt read the whole
work, thou wilt be abundantly re-
warded for the time and labor which
thou hast thus expended.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD BOOK.

AS there are different degrees of
age and maturity in the natural
life; so are there also in the spiritual.
This life has its first foundation in sin-
cere repentance, by which a man sets
himself heartily to amend his life.
This is succeeded by an increase of
light, when by contemplation, prayer,
and bearing the cross, a man is daily
improving in grace, and growing up
to perfection. The last and most per-
fect state is that which consists in
firm union, which is founded in, and
cemented by, pure love. This is the
state which St. Paul calls the " per-
fect man," and " the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ."
Eph. 4 : 13.

2. To explain these three different
states, is the design of these three
books; so that I think that (with my
Eook of Prayer), the whole body of
Christianity is contained and ex-
plained in them, as far as is essen-
tially necessary; though, perhaps, not
so perfectly as might be wished. As
for the Fourth Book, I thought fit to
add it to the rest, to show how har-
moniously the Holy Scriptures, Jesus
Christ, human nature, and the whole
creation agree together; and how all
things centre in the one Eternal,
which is God !

3. That the reader may not mistake
the design of this Third Book, I would
remark that it proposes to instruct
him how to seek and find the king-
dom of heaven within himself (Luke
17 : 21); and that, in order to this, he

must devote and consecrate his whole
heart and soul to God; that is, not
only his understanding, but his will
and affections also. It is a notion too
prevalent at this day, that men are
very good Christians, if by reading
or discourse they have attained to
some kind of intellectual knowledge
of Jesus Christ. This is that which
generally passes under the name of
Divinity, which the generality take
to be nothing but a science, or a set
of doctrines or opinions to be learned
only in theory, not regarding the
other most noble powers of the soul,
namely, the will and the affections.
But all these must be consecrated to
God in Christ; and when thou hast
done this, thou mayest assure thyself
that thou art entirely dedicated to
him. For there is a wide difference
betwixt the understanding by which
we know, and the will or affections by
which we love the Lord Jesus. Our
love may be perfect, though our
knowledge be not so. To know Christ
with our understanding, and yet not
to love him, is nothing worth ; on the
other hand, it is infinitely better to
love him, than merely to be able to
dispute and discourse about him.
Eph. 3 : 19. Let us learn, therefore,
so to seek Christ with our under-
standing, that we may also love him
with the entire strength of our will.
By this we may be assured that we
know him truly, if our knowledge be
productive of love. Otherwise, we
may be said, indeed, to find him and

( 375 )

376

PEEFACE TO THE THIED BOOK.

know him, but it will be to our con-
demnation. So our blessed Lord tells
us, " Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven." Matt. 7 : 21.
Moreover, there are two ways of ob-
taining wisdom and knowledge. The
one consists in reading and discus-
sion ; the other in prayer and char-
ity. The one makes us learned, the
other holy. And between these there
is a great difference. If men be
learned, and not lovers of God, they
breathe nothing but pride and arro-
gance; but if holy, they are humble,
and think meanly of themselves. If
thou take the first method, thou wilt
never find thy internal treasure; if
thou take the latter, thou canst not
be disappointed. Such is the argu-
ment of the Third Book.

4. And now, how glorious, how no-
ble, and happy a thing is it, that our
chief and most valuable treasure, that
is, the kingdom of God, is not to be
sought without, but to be found within
us, that we continually carry it about
with us, hidden from the world, and
that neither the world nor the devil
can rob us of it; and that this is not
to be obtained by profound learning,
skill in languages, or variety of books,
but by a devout and humble spirit.
Here then let us exercise our great-
est care and diligence, and turn our
thoughts inward to that hidden, ce-
lestial, and eternal good, that divine,
that incomparable treasure. Why do
we spend our time and pains in the
pursuit of external comforts, whilst so
great a treasure as the kingdom of
God, with all its blessings, lies within
us ? For in our heart and soul is the
true school of the Holy Spirit, the
-true habitation of the Holy Trinity,
-<the very temple of God (1 Cor. 6 : 19),
vthe true house of prayer, wherein he

desires to be worshipped "in spirit
and in truth." John 4 : 23, 24. For
though God by his universal presence
is in all things, though not included in
them (Isa. 66: 1), but after an incom-
prehensible manner filling heaven and
earth; yet in a particular and proper
sense, he dwells in the soul of the en-
lightened Christian, taking up his seat
and habitation there, as it were in his
own image and similitude. Here he
operates in a way suitable to himself,
answering and aiding every groan and
sigh of the devout soul. For how is
it possible that He should deny any-
thing to him with whom, and in whom
he lives ? In a word, there, is nothing
more pleasant and agreeable to divine
love, than to communicate itself to all
that unfeignedly seek it.

5. In order to this, however, the
soul must be at rest, which it never
can be till disengaged from the world.
This even some heathens were sensible
of, and accordingly one of them tells
us, " that the soul is incapable of wis-
dom till it is composed and at rest/'
There is a fine passage in St. Cyprian
to this purpose. " This," says he, " is
the true rest and security of the soul,
when the man, being delivered from
the storms and tempests of the world,
raises his heart and eyes unto God,
and endeavors to be like him. By this
he comes to understand, that all which
the world calls beautiful and valuable,
is truly hidden in his own soul, so that
he neither expects nor desires any-
thing from without. O celestial treas-
ure, to be delivered from the chains
and fetters of this world ! O chief and
boundless good, not to be obtained by
any labor of ours, nor by our interest
with the great men of this world; in
short, not to be gained by our industry
and study; but solely and entirely, by
the grace and favor of God. For as

PEEFACE TO THE THIKD BOOK.

377

the light of the sun proceeds from it-
self, the day breaks from itself, the
fountain flows from itself, the rain falls
from itself, and waters the earth; so
the Holy Spirit descends freely into
that soul, which has raised itself from
the world unto God."

6. These words of St. Cyprian ex-
press a great truth, and are a sort of
epitome of this Book. In a word, this
turning inwards of the soul, very often
gives us a view of the inward treasure
of our souls, though but for a moment.
And one such moment is better than
heaven and earth, and all the crea-
tures. Hence St. Bernard truly ob.
served, " that he who has once learned
to descend into himself, to seek the
face of God, and taste the sweetness
of his presence in the inmost recesses
of the heart, will think it more tolera-
ble to suffer even the pains of hell for
a season, than, after having tasted the
sweetness of this divine exercise, to
return again to the pleasures, or rather,
to the lusts and wearisome gratifica-
tions of the world and the flesh, aris-
ing from the insatiable cravings of the
inferior appetites." In short, such a
soul not only feels the highest happi-
ness, by finding in 'itself the presence
of God ; but also the deepest misery,
in being deprived of it. By this the
true Christian is fully instructed, that
by dying to the world, he lives in God,
as the fountain of life; and, on the
other hand, that the more he lives to
the world, the more he dies unto God :
that the soul which is dead to the
world, truly lives unto God, and is his
joy, or, as the Song of Solomon ex-
presses it; is better than the taste of
wine, or the smell of all spices (Cant.
4 : 10) ; while on the other hand, the
hearts of worldly men are but sour
grapes, as the grapes of Sodom, which
are as gall, and their clusters are bit-

ter. Deut. 32 : 32. The soul that is
dead to the world, may be discovered
by these tokens. It resigns its own
will to the will of God in all things; it
suppresses self-love; it mortifies the
desires of the flesh ; it avoids worldly
pleasures; it esteems itself as the mean-
est of all, and is not apt to judge or
censure a neighbor. Such a one refers
all his injuries and wrongs to the God
of righteousness, to whom vengeance
belongeth; he is not puffed up with
the applause of men, nor grieved by
their revilings ; in a word, he bears
everything with patience and without
repining. A noble instance of this re-
signed temper we have in king David
(2 Sam. 23 : 15-17), when he poured out
before the Lord the water of the well
of Bethlehem, after which he had so
earnestly longed, and which three
mighty men of his host had brought
for him at the hazard of their lives.
This was an action of great self-denial;
for he would not gratify his desires by
tasting that for which three men had
ventured their lives.

7. Herein consists the true perfec-
tion of the Christian life. For perfec-
tion is not, as some suppose, a sublime,
spiritual kind of relish for heavenly
enjoyments; but it is the denying our
own will, the contempt of the pleas-
ures and profits of this life, the ac-
knowledging our own vileness, con-
stant resignation to the will of God,
and unwearied love and unfeigned com-
passion for our neighbor. In a word,
it is that degree of love, which, allow-
ing for human infirmities, thinks of
nothing, seeks nothing, desires noth-
ing but God. This is that true Chris-
tian virtue, true liberty, and true
peace, which consists in overcoming
the flesh and fleshly desires, as will ap-
pear in this Third Book, and as thou
wilt learn from thine own experience,

378

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book III.

if thou wilt apply the truth. For
which great end, I pray that divine
grace may descend both upon the
reader and writer, that it may please

God to begin, strengthen, and perfect
his good work in us, to the praise and
glory of himself. Amen.

BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.

OP THE GREAT INTERNAL TREASURE OP AN ENLIGHTENED BELIEVER.

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God :

1 Cor. 6 : 19.

THAT the hearts of believers are
the habitation of the Holy Trinity,
is largely attested in Scripture, as Lev.
26:11; Isa.44:3; 57:15; Joel2:27;
John 14 : 23 ; 17 : 23 ; Eom. 8 : 9-11; 1
Cor. 2:11,12; 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6 :
16 ; Gal. 2:20; Ephes. 3 : 17 ; 4 : 24 ;
Col. 3 : 10 ; 1 John 4 : 13. But who is
there among Christians that under-
stands, values, or inquires after this
immense and hidden treasure ? I
thought it desirable, therefore, to ex-
plain at large the spiritual and heav-
enly dignity of the true Christian, and
to show every one how to seek and
find this sublime treasure in himself.
The foundation of this doctrine has
been already laid down in Book I,
proving how the Word of God, through
faith, exerts its power in the heart of
man. And in Book II, it has been
shown how God discovers himself to
the devout soul, as the highest love,
goodness, beauty, holiness, and wis-
dom.

2. But as this high treasure cannot
be worthily perceived or understood,
except in the still and quiet sabbath

of the soul, in which the Holy Spirit
teaches us inwardly by meditation on
the Word, in which he enlightens us,
and "searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God" (1 Cor. 2: 10); upon
this account, we must first of all learn,
how to bring the soul to that quiet
state of internal rest. Something has
been said by way of foundation upon
this head, in the chapters treating of
Prayer, inserted in Book II; which
comes now more fully and perfectly to
be handled in this Third Book: name-
ly, how this hidden treasure, this pearl
in the field of our hearts (Matt. 13 : 44,
45), is to be sought for by entering into
ourselves, or rather into God. And
this is the inward sabbath of a heart
cleansed and purified by faith (Acts
15 : 9), and enlightened by the Holy
Ghost. From this treasure of the
Spirit and kingdom of God, hidden in
the believing soul, sprang the wisdom
of all the enlightened, Patriarchs,
Prophets, Apostles, and other men of
God that have ever existed. This pearl,
then, is worth looking after, this field
is worth tilling, and this gift of the

Chap. L]

TEUE CHBISTIANITY.

379

Spirit and divine grace must be stirred
up in us ; even as a spark of fire, which
by continual application of breath, is
blown up into a bright flame. 2 Tim.
1:6.

3. But that thou mayest more fully
and distinctly apprehend in the com-
mencement of this Third Book, which
relates entirely to the inward man,
how the children of God are to be
drawn from the exterior to the interior
man, or the ground of the heart; that
they may search, know, purify, and
change it, and keep their spiritual eyes
fixed upon God, and his kingdom in
the inmost recesses of the soul; that
the reader, I say, may more fully un-
derstand this, I shall first of all more
generally in this chapter, and then
more particularly, touch upon and ex-
plain the several heads of this doctrine,
referring occasionally to the Theology
of Dr. John Tauler, and quoting him
as often as possible in his own words.
And here I may remark, that as the
Holy Scripture, great and sacred as it is,
regards the heart of man ; so likewise,
the whole divinity of Tauler aims at
the inward man, the ground of the
heart, and deepest recesses of the soul.
Hence it is, that he again and again
inculcates, "that God and the king-
dom of God, are purely to be enjoyed,
sought for, and found in the ground
of the heart :" that is, whatsoever the
Holy Scripture and its true interpre-
tation, discover outwardly, all that
ought to be really, spiritually, and
truly felt and experienced in the
ground of the soul. This cannot be
without a frequent entering into the
centre of the heart; so that the more
deeply a man retires from the world,
so much the more closely he is united
to God; and the oftener the devout
Christian practises this exercise, the
more clearly will the kingdom of God,

and this hidden treasure, be manifested
in his soul. He that does not perceive
in himself these fruits of the Spirit, or
the new man, will never be one jot
more acceptable in the sight of God for
all his great knowledge and science ;
but shall be reckoned among those of
whom Christ says, that they shall say
in the last day, " Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name?" Matt.
7 : 21. For it is not the external ap-
pearance, but the internal reality, that
will avail in the sight of God ; not that
which consists in the letter, but that
which flows from the Spirit, and con-
sists in the Spirit. This is the true
ground of the distinction mentioned
in the Preface, betwixt one taught by
the world, and him that is taught of
God; that is, betwixt a learned man,
and a holy man. The learned man is
instructed outwardly by the letter;
but the holy man by God, inwardly by
the Holy Ghost, by the " anointing "
which teacheth all things. 1 John 2 :
27. The wisdom of the learned con-
sists in words ; the wisdom of the holy
man, in power. For " the kingdom of
God is not in words, but in power." 1
Cor. 4 : 20.

4. But as a general account of this
will not be sufficient» for the simple
and unlearned, to bring them to this
fundamental knowledge of themselves,
I shall therefore descend to a more
particular explication, asking them,
at the same time, to attend to the
" Five Parts" of their Catechism, and
to understand how these are not to
remain without them, but must be
within them. First, therefore, thou
believest that God delivered his law
upon Mount Sinai, written upon two
tables of stone ; and that this law is
the will of God, which thou art obliged
to obey. You do well to believe this.
But this faith profiteth not, unless

380

TETJE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

God himself write his law in your
heart (Jer. 31 : 33), and accomplish
his will in you. Now this can never
be effected, unless, having now be-
come a Christian, you dedicate your
whole heart to God, and offer up your
will to him, that His will may be ful-
filled in you. The royal prophet
David, who well knew the dignity
and necessity of this divine operation,
employs especially the whole 119th
Psalm in earnest prayers to God, that
he would vouchsafe to guide and gov-
ern him according to his law and tes-
timonies, that so this heavenly work
might not by any means be hindered
in him. Further, you believe that
Christ is your righteousness, your life
and salvation. 1 Cor. 1 : 30. You do
well to believe this, " for other founda-
tion can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ " (1 Cor. 3 : 11) :
"Neither is there salvation in any
other; for there is none other name
under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." Acts 4 :
12. Yet, remember that you "must
have Christ within you; that is, you
must lay hold on him inwardly by
faith, and make him, both as to his
Person and office, your own. For if
Christ be thin&, it follows that all
things which are God's are also yours;
and that if he had ten thousand worlds
and kingdoms full of righteousness and
blessedness, yet by faith all are thine.
For the righteousness of Christ is
greater than all these. So in like
manner, though the guilt of ten thou-
sand worlds lay upon thee, yet should
it not be able to hurt thee. This then
is the treasure which thou must have
within thee, as our Lord tells us, " The
kingdom of God is within you " (Luke
17:21): that is, "righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Eom. 14 : 17. — Thou believest that

Christ is the eternal "Word of the Fa-
ther; that he is the true life and light
of man. John 1 : 4. Thou believest
aright. But then, thou must take
care, that this Word speak in thee,
that this light shine in thee, that this
life live in thee. For unless thou hast
this inward treasure in thy soul, and
art united to Christ by a living faith,
everything else shall avail thee noth-
ing. Again, thou thihkest thyself ob-
liged by duty and interest, to pray to
God, to give him thanks, and to praise
his name (Psalm 92 : 1, 2), and in this
thou judgest right. But take care
that Christ himself pray within thee,
and the Holy Spirit groan within
thee (Eom. 8: 26); for as he is "the
Spirit of grace and of supplications"
(Zech. 12 : 10), so, in order to make
thy prayers effectual, it is necessary
that he also pray in thy heart, the
temple of spirit and truth. John 4 :
23. If this be not done, thy prayers
are all of little avail. — Thou believest
that in Baptism thou receivest remis-
sion of sins, the new birth, and adop-
tion as a child of God. Thou believest
aright. But unless thou find in thy-
self the fruit of baptism, the new birth,
the unction of the Spirit, and divine
illumination, thy baptism shall avail
thee nothing. — Thou believest, accord-
ing to the words of St. Matthew (Matt.
26 : 26), that in the external Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper, thou receivest
the true, essential body and the blood
of Christ. Thou believest aright. But
if thou dost not also eat it inwardly
and spiritually, thou wilt not only
lose all the benefits ofthat institution,
but dost also eat and drink condemna-
tion to thyself. 1 Cor. 11 : 29.— Thou
believest that Christ was the true
Lamb of God offered for us upon the
cross. John 1 : 29. Yet consider: What
good can this do thee, unless the same

Chap. II.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

381

Lamb of God become the daily food
and nourishment of thy inward man ?
1 Cor. 5:7. It appears, therefore,

that thy treasure ought to be within
thee, and that unless thou seek it there,
thou shalt never find it.

CHAPTER II.

TRUE FAITH, AND CONVERSE WITH THE SOUL, THE ONLY MEANS OF ATTAINING

TO THIS INWARD TREASURE.

Bring it again to mi?id, 0 ye transgressors. — Isa. 46 : 8

THE true way of attaining this di-
vine inward treasure is, by a true
and living faith. Though we have
already in Books I and II treated
largely of faith, with all its powers
and properties, how it cleaves unto
Christ, rests and depends upon him ;
yet we must here return to it, and
show of what use and advantage it is,
in the matter before us. The property
of a true and living faith is, to cleave
unto God with our whole heart; to
put our whole trust in him ; to depend
upon him ; to dedicate and resign
ourselves entirely to his mercy and
goodness ; to be united to God ; and
to enjoy him in the internal rest of
the soul. True faith prefers nothing
to God ; it makes him the true object
of all its desires, by unfeigned abstrac-
tion from all earthly comforts. In a
word, it places its chief, eternal, infi-
nite, and perfect good in Him alone,
who is the true fountain of all good,
whether in heaven or earth, in time
or eternity, and all through Jesus
Christ, who is " the author and fin-
isher of our faith." Heb. 12 : 2. This
is that faith which leads us to our in-
ward treasure, which is our chief
good. Of this the Psalmist was an
instance : he was full of this faith :
" Whom," says he, " have I in heaven

but thee ? and there is none upon
earth that I desire besides thee." Ps.
73 : 25. Such was the faith of Mary,
the sister of Lazarus, when she sat at
Jesus' feet, and heard his word with
eagerness. Luke 10 : 39. For faith,
as has been observed, brings the soul
into the true sabbath of the heart,
into a state of divine quiet and heav-
enly rest, in which God delights to
manifest himself. Therefore the Lord
said to Martha : " Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about
many things : but one thing is need-
ful: and Mary hath chosen that good
part, which shall not be taken away
from her." Luke 10 : 41, 42. What is
" that good part " but God in Jesus
Christ? For by this faith which
opens the heart, in order to receive
God alone is that better part chosen.
By this faith it is, that the ever-
blessed Trinity enters into the heart,
and takes possession of it. Eph. 3 :
17 ; John 14 : 23. This is " that good
part" which we ought all to choose;
namely, eternal life and blessedness.

2. In this one article is contained
the whole sum of the Christian re-
ligion ; it is the fountain of charity
and of all virtues. For faith produ-
ceth love ; love produceth hope ; hope,
patience; patience worketh meekness ;

382

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

meekness, humility; humility produ-
ceth the fear of God; and the fear of
God teacheth us to pray to him, to
" crucify the flesh" (Gal. 5:24), to
deny ourselves, to hate our own life,
and to despise the world. Matt. 16 :
24. Upon this account St. John
calls faith, " the victory that over-
cometh the world." 1 John 5:4. This
was that one thing to which our
Lord directed the attention of the
rich young man in the Gospel -(Luke
18:18), when he asked him, saying,
" Good Master, what shall I do to in-
herit eternal life?" When he had
commanded him to keep the com-
mandments of God, he answered, " All
these have I kept from my youth up."
Jesus, hearing him, said, "Yet lackest
thou one thing; sell all that thou hast,
and distribute unto the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven : and
come follow me." In these words
the Lord directs him to choose that
one thing, that better part, by faith;
and, by forsaking himself and his
worldly possessions, to turn to God,
the true fountain and centre of his
being and happiness. From this one
thing proceeds the whole Christian
life, and all the commandments, as a
stream from its fountain, not by com-
pulsion or law, but from love and free-
dom of the spirit. " For it is God
which worketh in us both to will and
to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2 :
13) ; neither will he own anything in
us as his, which he himself has not
wrought. Here, then, is no need of
laws, no need of commands or pro-
hibitions. For faith, by its free mo-
tion and spirit, does everything in us
which is necessary to be done : that
is, it surrenders itself freely and en-
tirely to God, and to the operations
of his grace. And this is what the
prophet Isaiah means, when he invites

us to come unto God, to " buy wine
and milk without money and without
price." Isa. 55 : 1.

3. Faith, then, is the means of at-
taining to this inward treasure, whilst
it keeps a sabbath of rest unto God in
every soul that is collected into itself.
For as the motion of the heavens is
therefore the most perfect, because it
terminates in itself, and returns to its
beginning; so the life of man may then
be accounted most excellent and per-
fect when it returns to its original,
which is God. And this a man does,
when he enters deeply into himself,
having collected all the powers of his
understanding, will, and memory, and
emptied them of the world, and all the
lusts of the flesh; offering up his soul,
with all its affections, to God, by the
Holy Ghost, and celebrating an eternal
sabbath in his presence. Then God
begins to operate in him. He waits
for such a frame of spirit, and rejoices
to finish his work within us. For so
great is the love of God towards us,
so ardent is his affection, that it is as
if his divinity itself could not consist
without us; as if he should himself
cease to be, unless he could discover
the abyss of his divinity in us, and
transfuse the overflowing fulness of
his essence into us. So that the most
acceptable service a man can do unto
God, is to keep his heart so quiet and
still that God may rest and manifest
himself in it. All that God requires,
in order to accomplish this work in
us, is an humble and quiet spirit.
Whenever he finds such a habitation,
he dwells there with a high manifes-
tation of his wisdom and power. The
eternal wisdom of God cannot unite
with the wisdom of man ; but when
the human soul is entirely submitted
to God, then God entirely rests in her.
But if thou wilt engage thy will, thy

Chap. II.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

!83

understanding, memory, and affections
in the service of thy own mind, then
they are no longer proper instruments
for the work of God. For in every
union of two beings as one, the one
must of necessity be active and the
other passive. But God is an infinite
and eternally active power, an essen-
tial pure motion ; perpetually operat-
ing in thee, unless hindered by thee.
This may be illustrated by the follow-
ing similitude: as the eye cannot fix
upon any object, nor receive any im-
pressions from it, unless it be free
from all other images (for otherwise
one will hinder the other); so the
soul, with all her powers, understand-
ing, will, and memory, can receive no
impressions or influences from God, if
it be not empty of, and disengaged
from, the world. The ear cannot re-
ceive or enjoy the sweetest music,
whilst employed and filled with other
sounds: so neither can the soul receive
the divine sweetness whilst it listens
to the voice of the world. The more,
therefore, a soul withdraws itself from
the world, the nearer it approaches to
God. The more it renounces the pleas-
ures of the flesh, the nearer it comes
to the participation of " the divine na-
ture." 2 Pet. 1 : 4.

4. Nature cannot admit a vacuum.
So if a man will empty himself of the
love of the world and himself, with all
his passions and affections for worldly
things, God will infallibly fill his soul
with divine grace, love, wisdom, and
knowledge. But if thou art full of
worldly things, thou canst not at the
same time be full of heavenly things.
When Abraham, at the command of
God, went from his own country and
kindred, then was he enlightened from
above. Gen. 12 : 1 ; 13 : 1. Our carnal
affections, self-love, self-will, and self-
conceit, with all our inclinations to the

profits and pleasures of the world, are
to us as so many near friends and re-
lations; and it is hard to flesh and
blood to part with them. But how
hard soever it be, this is the first step
that conducts to this hidden treasure,
this pearl of great price; of which our
Lord says, that the merchant having
"found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had, and bought
it." Matt. 13 : 46. This is what the
Lord says: "Verily, I say unto you,
There is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my sake, but shall receive a hun-
dredfold, and eternal life." J)Iark 10 :
29, 30. What are our brethren and
sisters but our carnal lusts and cor-
rupt inclinations, of which we must
be emptied, if we expect to be filled
with the fulness of God. As the Vir-
gin Mary was a pure, immaculate vir-
gin (so remaining eternally), when
she conceived our Lord Jesus Christ
(Luke 1 : 27) ; so must every soul be
like a pure, immaculate virgin; that
is, be unspotted, free from all the pol-
lutions of the world, in order to this
spiritual conception of him. A soul
thus pure and unspotted is, " as the
king's daughter, all glorious within"
(Psalm 45 : 13); enriched with hidden
treasure. But how can the soul be
betrothed to God, that is betrothed to
the world ? " I come," saith our blessed
Lord, "to send fire on the earth." Luke
12 : 49. Oh, that such a fire of divine
love would so burn in us as to consume
all our dross of worldly affections, that
nothing might live and move in us but
the pure and holy love of God! He
adds, " I came not to send peace, but
a sword." Luke 12 : 51; Matt. 10 : 34.
And would to God that the Holy Spirit
might so mortify and destroy all our
carnal concupiscence, that God alone

384

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

might move and operate in us ! But
if you will say, that you are so much
taken up with the business of the
world, that you cannot be so collected
as you ought, then set apart some cor-
ner of your house, and some little por-
tion of your time, either by day or
night, to retire into yourself, and to
pour out your soul to God, in the

words of St. Augustine: "Lord, my
God, be pleased to enter into covenant
with me, that I may die entirely to
myself, and that thou mayest live in
me; let me keep silence in myself, and
do thou speak within me; let me rest
from all things, that thou mayest
operate in me."

CHAPTER III.

THE WHOLE TREASURE OF THE INNER MAN DEPENDS ON FAITH, NAMELY, GOD,
CHRIST, THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

God grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in
the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, etc. — Eph. 3 : 16, 17.

A CHRISTIAN ought to employ
his greatest care and diligence,
in learning the true nature and prac-
tice of faith. It is faith that unites us
to Christ, and admits us into all the
blessedness of the kingdom of God.
Upon this account it is called, "a
substance; — the substance of things
hoped for." Heb. 11. For our whole
Christian life consists in a living and
operative faith, not in mere knowledge,
not in a shadow or pretext, but in a
living, active power. In a word, it is
faith alone that can deliver us from
our bondage of corruption and misery,
and bring us into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. Whence, at our
first admission into the Christian
Church by holy Baptism, through
which, as through a gate, we enter
into the fold of Christ's sheep, faith
stands at the head. " He that be-
lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved."
Mark 16: 16. And St. Paul says,
"This is the word of faith which we

preach, that if thou believe in thine
heart, etc., thou shalt be saved, etc."
Eom. 10 : 8-10. But as the nature of
faith may be better known by its prop-
erties, I shall briefly speak of eight of
them in this chapter.

2. The first of these is, spiritual
freedom or a release from sin and
death, from the devil, from hell, the
curse of the law, the Mosaic typical
ceremonies, and from all the com-
mands and traditions of men. For as
nothing can cause greater agony to
the soul, than to be compelled to bear
the fiery darts of Satan, and the tyr-
anny of Antichrist, by which the con-
science is fettered and entangled with
traditional precepts of men, as with
cords and chains : so nothing can give
it greater quiet, peace, and comfort,
than to be delivered from this servi-
tude of sin, Satan, and human tradi-
tions, into a true freedom and liberty
of conscience; which liberty is nothing
but a true and saving faith. For by

Chap. III.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

385

this faith we apprehend Jesus Christ,
and all the treasures of his grace, par-
ticularly reconciliation with God, re-
mission of sins, the Holy Spirit, and
eternal life. He that has this faith
cannot be hurt by sin, death, the devil,
or the world; for he has Christ dwell-
ing in him, who is his righteousness
against sin; his life against death; his
strength against the devil; his heaven
against hell; his victory over the
world; his blessing against the curse
of all the world; his blessedness against
all the miseries of this world ; his lib-
erty, from all the vain traditions of
men. This our blessed Lord has briefly
summed up in one sentence, "If the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed." John 8 : 36. Whence
Christ is all in all unto faith, and the
sum and completion of all our hopes
and all our blessedness. So that faith
gives quietness to the soul; peace and
plenty to the conscience; freeing it
from all fears and terrors, and causing
the heart to rest joyfully and quietly
in God.

3. Secondly, by faith the soul is united
to Christ, as a bride with her bride-
groom— " I will betroth thee unto me
forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness." Hosea 2 : 19.
The consequence of this espousal, is a
communication of all good things, yea,
and of the cross itself, so that all that
Christ has, belongs to the soul, and all
that the soul has, belongs to Christ.
Now as Christ has all heavenly and
eternal gifts, such as wisdom, right-
eousness, sanctification, redemption,
blessedness, and eternal life (1 Cor. 1 :
30) : yea, is himself all these; the soul
therefore receives them all. And, on
the other hand, as our soul has noth-
ing but sin, uncleanness, calamity,
misery, sin and death, Christ has taken
to him all these ; bestowing his good

things upon us, and taking our sins
and miseries upon himself. But as the
good things of Christ are eternal and
omnipotent, so they root out, swallow
up, and destroy all sin, death, and
misery that are in us. For the eternal
and invincible righteousness of Christ,,
is so superior to the power of sin in usr
that it utterly destroys it ; and by this
means, the soul is delivered from its
own sins, and clothed with the right-
eousness of Jesus Christ. Isa. 61 : 10,
And surely this is a blessed exchange,
when a man changes sin for righteous-
ness, death for life, a curse for a bless-
ing, and eternal misery for eternal
blessedness. " There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus" (Eom. 8:1); for their
sins are swallowed up in his righteous-
ness. For if, as St. Paul says, " death
is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor.
15 : 54), it follows that sin also must
be swallowed up.

4. Hence, thirdly, it follows, that by
faith our souls are assured of everlast-
ing happiness. " I am persuaded,"
saith St. Paul, " that no creature shall
be able to separate us from the love
of God." Eom. 8 : 38. " Behold, I lay
in Zion for a foundation a tried stone ;
he that believeth shall not make
haste." Isa. 28 : 16. And " I will make-
with you an everlasting covenant."
Isa. 55:3. "My kindness shall not
depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed,,
saith the Lord, that hath mercy on,
thee." Isa. 54 : 10.

5. Hence, fourthly, arises the vic-
tory of faith over sin, death, hell, and
the world. " Whatsoever is born of
God, overcometh the world: — who is
he that overcometh the world, but he
that believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God ?" 1 John 5, 4. In these words,
the original of faith is discovered ; that

25

386

TKUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book III.

it proceeds not from the powers of
man, but that it is the work and gift
of God (John 6 : 29) ; and that regen-
eration is a divine, and supernatural
work. And as this new birth is in all
respects superior to nature, therefore
it cannot be hurt by any assaults from
the world; for though a Christian be
ever so much despised and abused by
the world, yet is he in Christ a glori-
ous and triumphant conqueror. " In
all these things we are more than con-
querors, through him that loved us/'
Eom. 8:37.

6. Hence also arises, fifthly, the glo-
ry of faith, which is twofold: the one
spiritual and hidden ; the other, future,
visible, and glorious in the world to
come. Now faith makes us partakers
of both kinds of Christ's glory. So
then, as the majesty of Christ consists
in his kingdom and high-priesthood ;
so also he makes us kings and priests
unto God; an honor which, when St.
Peter speaks of, he can hardly find
words to express. " But ye/' says he,
"are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar
people." 1 Peter 2 : 9. Moreover, the
glory of Christ's kingdom consists in
this, that it is eternal, and all the bless-
ings and benefits of it are eternal:
eternal grace, everlasting righteous-
ness, unfading consolation, endless life,
joy, peace, and blessedness. What
good could we expect from a temporal
prince ? All the world itself, and all
its glories decay and perish ; and there
is no trust to be put in princes, nor in
any child of man. But Christ is our
Eternal King ; and all his favors and
blessings endure to eternity. The spir-
itual kingdom, then, of a Christian
consists in this, that by faith he is
spiritually exalted above all things;
that nothing can hurt or hinder him,
in the great affair of his salvation.

Yea, all things are subject to him, and
work together for his good, as we are
told (Bom. 8 : 28) : even life and death,
the world, hell, and the devil himself.
Hence it appears how glorious, how
extensive this spiritual dominion of a
Christian is, since all things, whether
good or evil, are forced to contribute
to his spiritual good, so soon as he is
possessed of Christ, and Christ of him.
For the whole treasure and hope of a
Christian is — Christ apprehended by
faith ; Christ is all-sufficient. O the
precious liberty of a Christian ! O the
mighty power of the inward man! As
the liberty, righteousness, and blessed-
ness of a Christian, as also his slavery,
sin and misery, are not external things;
so it follows, that no external thing,
nothing but the mere grace and com-
mand of God, can justify, sanctify, or
glorify a man. What though the body
enjoy liberty, health, and strength,
and eat and drink well, will the soul
be the better for this ? If the body be
imprisoned, sick, weak, hungry, and
thirsty, will the soul be the worse ?
Not at all. These things cannot make
the soul either happy or miserable,
whilst she preserves her inward treas-
ure, and is true to her spiritual liberty.
So also in respect of her spiritual
priesthood, the soul is out of danger
from anything that may happen with-
out. Its sacrifices, prayers, and devo-
tions, are spiritually performed by
faith, without any necessary depend-
ence upon external things; as time,
place, food, garments, or temples.
Again, the soul is not at all the better
for any external circumstance ; such as
images, saints' robes, churches, exter-
nal fasts, oral prayers, and other out-
ward works. These are not efficacious
enough to lead the soul into the paths
of righteousness and liberty. All these
things a hypocrite may do, without

Chap. III.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

387

any benefit to his soul. For there is
nothing either in heaven or earth in
which the soul can live, nothing that
can bestow upon her righteousness
and liberty, nothing in which she. can
rest with comfort, and joy, but Christ
alone, on whom by faith she comfort-
ably and joyfully depends. This is
what our Lord himself tells us, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life." John

14 : 6. And, " Come unto me, and ye
shall find rest unto your souls." Matt.
11:28. The soul that is by faith
united unto Christ, stands in need of
nothing (John 10 : 11) ; for in Christ
she possesses all things : food, joy,
peace, light, knowledge, righteousness,
truth, wisdom, liberty, comfort, bless-
edness, life, answers to prayer, and all
things. So that " Christ is all, and in
all" (Col. 3 :11), as the Apostle tells
us. And whatsoever external cere-
monies we may conform to for the
sake of peace, order, and uniformity,
we may be satisfied that " unto the
pure, all things are pure." Tit. 1 : 15.
" Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you." John

15 : 3. So that nothing can defile the
soul, but unbelief, and its fruits.

7. The sixth property of faith is,
that it renews the whole man. It kin-
dles in him the fire of divine love, and
furnishes him with all Christian graces
and works of mercy ; not as if he mer-
ited thereby anything from God, but
only as it renders the soul grateful to
Him. " Öfter unto God thanksgiving,
and pay thy vows unto the Most High."
Ps. 50 : 14. So that faith immediately
begins a new life in man, and quickens
him through the Word of God : for all
the Holy Scripture is contained in
faith. As therefore the Word of God
is holy, true, just, living, spiritual, free,
and full of all good; so also it makes
sail those who receive it in faith, holy,

just, true, the children of God, " thor-
oughly furnished unto all good works."
2 Tim. 3: 17.

8. Seventhly, though true and sav-
ing faith triumphs over the world and
the devil ; yet is it of such a nature,
that, in pure love, it makes itself ser-
vant unto all. He who has it, consid-
ers seriously with himself, that Jesus
Christ and all the heavenly graces are
freely given him by God, so that he
stands in need of no worldly thing in
the concern of salvation : and withal,
that " nothing can separate him from
the love of God" (Eom. 8 : 38), and that
nothing in this world can hurt him.
When a man, endued with a lively
faith, considers all this, he cannot but
acknowledge, that in mere gratitude
to God, he is obliged to do for his
neighbor, as Christ hath done for him.
He will say, " All my gifts and graces,
my wisdom, my understanding, my
riches, my comfort, are all my neigh-
bor's, as freely as Jesus Christ, by his
infinite mercy, has bestowed them on
me."

9. The eighth property of faith is,
that it conquers and triumphs over
every cross, yea, glories in the cross.
For we find more comforts in Christ
by faith, than we leave in forsaking
the world for his sake; more honor,
than the united malice of the world
can take from us. In him we meet
with so much love, that we shall not
regard the hatred and enmities of men ;
such blessings, that all the curses in
the world cannot impair them; so
much joy, that all the world cannot
make us sad. If it were possible for
us to be slain and murdered ten thou-
sand times over, yet Christ remains,
and will forever continue to be our
Lord, and our everlasting Life, infi-
nitely to be preferred before this short
and fleeting life.

388

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BELIEVING SOUL SEEKS GOD INTERNALLY, IN ITSELF; ITS BEAUTY AND
BLESSEDNESS WHEN IT IS UNITED WITH GOD.

/ have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it ; that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them. — John 17 : 26.

THEBE are two ways of seeking
after God, the one external, and
the other internal. The first is the
active way, when man seeks after
God ; the second is the passive, when
God seeks after man. In the outward
way, we seek God by various exer-
cises of a Christian life ; as fasting
prayer, retirement, meekness, accord-
ingly as we are moved by God, or led
by devout people. In the inward, we
enter into the ground of our hearts,
attending upon the revelation of the
kingdom of God which is within us.
Luke 17 : 21. For if the kingdom of
God be in us, then God himself is in
us, and more intimately united to the
soul than she is to herself: and such a
treasure as this within us, ought care-
fully to be attended to. The soul that
desires to enter into this inward way,
must entirely resign and submit itself
to all the dispensations of Providence,
both inward and outward; must per-
fectly rest in God, and be content to
be, as God shall appoint, poor or rich,
cheerful or sad, peaceful or joyless.
For thus the soul is cleansed from all
created images that may crowd into it
from without ; and when thus stripped
of all rational, sensible, and created
things, and everything which is not
God, she comes at last into her own
ground and centre, and there with a
pure eye discovers the essential light
and presence of God. But before this
treasure can be obtained, everything
else must be forsaken. Blessed and

truly happy are they that find it: for
being entirely divested of all worldly
affections, they live in a constant union
with God.

2. And now, if a man could with his
bodily eyes take a view of such a soul
as this, he would see the most beauti-
ful creature in the world, shining forth
in all the transcendent beauties of holi-
ness; for such a soul is united to God,
and by consequence is a partaker of
His glory, not by nature, but by grace.
It desires nothing either in time or
eternity but God alone, seeking noth-
ing for its own sake, either spiritually
or naturally. On the other hand, could
we but see with our bodily eyes a soul
sunk in the love of itself and the crea-
tures, wholly polluted with the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life; and all its corrupt
thoughts and imaginations externally
figured by visible characters and im-
pressions; neither earth nor hell could
furnish a more dreadful monster than
this. But in the last great day, when
the hearts and consciences of all men
shall be laid open (1 Cor. 4 : 5), and the
inward eye shall be unclosed, so that
every one shall have a full view of
himself, then shall such an impure
soul see its secret abominations, and
find in itself an eternal source of sor-
row, misery, and torment. On the
other hand, the pure and divine soul
shall forever contemplate in itself the
presence and kingdom of God, whom
it shall forever see as He is, and by

Chap. V.]

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

389

virtue of its union with him, possess
and enjoy him as its own forever. He
that rightly considers this union of
the soul with God, shall experiment-
ally understand that expression of St.
Paul, that " neither height nor depth
can separate us from the love of God."
Eom. 8 : 39. For if it were possible
that such a soul should be in hell, yet

could it not be separated from the
presence and kingdom of God, to
which it is most intimately united.
On the other hand, should a damned
spirit, or the devil himself, be admit-
ted into Paradise and heaven, yet
could they not be exempt from the
torments of hell, which they continu-
ally carry about in themselves.

CHAPTER Y.

SHOWING HOW A MAN MAY BE DRAWN TO GOD J ALSO, WHEREIN SPIRITUAL
POVERTY CONSISTS J AND, WHAT THE DEGREES OF HUMILITY ARE.

He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. — Luke 18 : 14.

MANY are the means which men
make use of to come to a union
with God; such as reading, and other
external exercises of religion. But in
truth, next to that true, living faith
which purifies the soul from the love
of the creatures (as has already been
shown, and will be further explained
below, chap, ix), there is no better or
easier method than that of true humil-
ity. This, however, does not consist
in words, or in any external behavior;
but is seated in the bottom of the soul,
so that the man upon all accounts,
both natural and spiritual, reckons and
esteems himself as nothing ; and being
thus truly poor in spirit (Matt. 5 : 3),
he values neither wealth nor honor,
body nor soul, peace nor joy, nor
anything in the world, in comparison
with his duty and the glory of God.
Yea, should it please God to inflict
even the agony of hell upon him, he
would acknowledge that he deserved
it; and he would most cheerfully and
contentedly submit, esteeming the will

of God as the only measure and stand-
ard of his duty and happiness, and con-
tinuing to offer praise. This is that
true poverty of spirit which disposes
a man cheerfully to part with, or sub-
mit to, anything, according to the will
of God ;. after the example of our bless-
ed Saviour, who not only did, but also
suffered the will of his Father (Matt.
26 : 39), and voluntarily chose the
accursed death of the cross, and there-
fore was highly exalted by God. Phil.
2 : 9. Whosoever has this humility,
is truly poor in spirit; and though he
possessed the greatest temporal riches,
yet would they be no hindrance to his

union with God. This is that

poor

man" of whom the Psalmist speaks:
"This poor man cried, and the Lord
heard him." Ps. 34 : 6. And if we could
suppose such a one to be at ever so
great a distance from God, yet would
the most merciful Father, out of his
abundant mercy and goodness, infal-
libly draw him to himself. For the
fulness of divine grace chooses to dis.

390

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

cover itself in the depth of human
misery, and can no more forsake it,
than a tender father could leave his
beloved son under the agonies of a
dangerous sickness. Of this we have
an instance in the woman of Canaan,
who, looking upon herself as no more
worthy than a dog, immediately ob-
tained help of Jesus. Matt. 15 : 27, 28.
For no man ever yet came to the
fountain of living truth, but by the
way of humility and poverty of spirit,
arising from a knowledge of his utter
unworthiness. He that understands
this, will never think contempt, re-
proaches, poverty, or the cross, either
bitter or irksome to him. Yea, rather
with the holy apostles, he rejoices that
God has thought him worthy to suffer
shame for His name (Acts 5 : 41), so
that God in his glory may enter into
his soul in his misery. Hence the
truest and safest way of coming to a
union with God, is that of deep humil-
ity and true poverty of spirit.

2. There are six steps or degrees of
humility, by which we may arrive at
the perfection of spiritual joy and
peace. The first step is, that a man
reckon himself as inferior to all men,
and have no desire for the honor and

esteem of men. The second is, to de-
spise and judge no man, but have a
constant eye upon himself. The third
is, to refuse and avoid honors that are
offered ; and if they cannot be avoided,
to receive them with regret. The
fourth, to bear reproaches with joy.
The fifth, to converse willingly with
men of inferior condition, and be so
far from thinking ourselves better
than they, as rather to think ourselves
the most miserable of all men, and the
chief of sinners. The sixth is, to sub-
mit readily and cheerfully, not only to
our superiors, but even to the least
and meanest. By these steps we
ascend to the last and highest of all,
where is the throne of peace. " The
way is humble," says Augustine, "but
the country to which it leadeth is on
high." King Solomon's throne had
six steps conducting to it (1 Kings 10 :
19); on the top Solomon (that is,
Peaceable, 1 Chron. 22 : 9) sat en-
throned. So when we have ascended
the six steps, we shall find the heavenly
Prince of Peace — true peace of heart.
There is no coming to the exalted fe-
licity of the kingdom of God, but by
the low valley of humility and self-
deniaL

CHAPTER VI.

THE SEAT OF GOD IN THE SOUL.

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women ? — Cant. 6 : 1.

THOUGH our " beloved" is always
with us, yet he never discovers
himself but when the heart is quiet
and composed, and all the senses are
collected in God. When nothing earth-

ly appears in the understanding, but
all its animal and worldly wisdom is
swallowed up in faith; then the divine
light arises, darting light and glory
through the benighted soul. This

13

Chap. VI.]

TEÜB CHKISTIANITY.

391

that darkness which is the habitation
of God; that night, in which the will
rests in union with the will of God;
and in which the memory forgets all
the impressions of the creatures. Then,
in a moment,. the divine light strikes
the understanding, heavenly desires
inflame the will, and eternal joys pos-
sess and fill the memory; yet neither
the understanding, the will, nor the
memory, can comprehend or retain
the transcendent joys with which they
are visited of God. For this percep-
tion is not lodged in the faculties of
the soul, but lies hid in the very centre
of it. Yea, it may sometimes be awa-
kened through the Word, and break
forth in words, so that we may cry
out with St. Augustine's mother Mo-
nica, " Let us fly away, let us fly away
to the eternal joy."

2. From this fountain spring all the
unutterable groanings of holy souls.
This was the sweetness that St. Paul
tasted, when he uttered these words,
" I am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of
God" (Eom. 8 : 38) : meaning that love
of God to us, which he had tasted in
his own soul. Thus St. Augustine
witnesses of himself, "that he some-
times felt such exalted joy in his in-
ward soul, that if it were but lasting,
it could be nothing else but eternal
life." This is that divine pleasure
which would fill our souls, and draw
them to itself: and by these foretastes
we know what eternal life is ; that it
is a state in which our souls shall be
fully satisfied with heavenly joy and
sweetness. Hence the devout soul
says, "I am sick of love." Cant. 5 : 8.
That is : " This is the height of my
wishes, this is what I long and sigh
after: that I may find my beloved,
and be satisfied with his love, and re-

cover my heavenly nobility, which
consists in union with Christ; that I
may nevermore delight in any worldly
or transitory things, much less in sins,
or sinful pleasures."

3. This nobility of the soul is but
little known to the men of this world,
even those that are accounted wise
and learned: and they that have writ-
ten volumes about the soul and its fac-
ulties, have never come to the funda-
mental point. For Christ is the true
strength of the soul, its understanding,
will, and memory; that is, light in its
understanding; pleasure in its will;
and joy in its memory. So Christ is
the true sanctification, glory, and or-
nament of the soul; so that a man, for
the love of Christ, which he experi-
ences in himself, does not desire to sin.
Thus we are told, "Whoso abideth in
him, sinneth not. Whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin; for his
seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin." 1 John 3 : 6, 9. Yea, from this
love of Christ arises often joy so great
as to make crosses and afflictions not
only tolerable, but even desirable for
Christ's sake (Acts 5 : 41) ; so that the
cross is turned into joy, which is con-
tinually springing up from its eternal
fountain in the centre of the soul.
There God has sanctified a place for
himself, and made it so peculiarly his
own, that neither angel, nor man, nor
any other creature, can enter there.
Here it is that God delights to dwell,
and he suffers no other being to dwell
with him. God's delight is to dwell
in a pure soul. So he tells us, "My-
delights are with the sons of men."'
Prov. 8 : 31. But what this happiness,
is, or how great this delight is, no man.
knows but he who has experienced it;;
nor can even he explain it fully in.
words.

392

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book III.

CHAPTER VII.

OP THE DIGNITY OF THE SOUL; OF TRUE REPENTANCE; AND, OF DIVINE MERCY.
My house is the house of prayer. — Luke 19 : 46 ; Matt. 21 : 13 ; Isa. 56 : 7.

THE dignity of the soul consists in
this, that it is the habitation and
temple of God, in which he takes more
delight than in the whole compass of
heaven and earth. So the believing
soul has more of the divine presence
than heaven, than all the temples
-made with hands, yea, than all the
creatures in the world. For God
communicates his whole treasures of
love to such a soul ; he rejoices and
delights in it ; yea, through all crea-
tures he seeks to make the soul of
man happy and glorious. Wherefore,
as God shows so much love, and takes
so much pleasure in the soul of man,
he may more properly be said to dAvell
in it than in any material buildings,
yea, than in heaven itself. Here he
displays all the wonders of his provi-
dence and love; yea, for this very end
has he created it with nobler faculties
than he has given to the rest of his
creatures, that it might be capable of
these »exalted communications of the
divine grace. And if God should be-
stow upon the soul anything less than
himself, she would reject it as being
too little. Now St. Paul tells us,
"God hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world." Eph. 1 :
4. Let this then be our labor, this
our highest endeavor, to be really
what we have been from the begin-
ning of the world. And as the soul
ought to be the spouse of the Son of
*God, it follows that it is beloved by
«God above other creatures. It was
Tfchis love that brought the blessed Je-

sus down from heaven to be united to
the beloved soul which the Father had
betrothed to him from all eternity, and
to bring it back to the great original
from which it at first proceeded.

2. Now as God has discovered this
transcendent love to the soul, it fol-
lows that the soul ought to rest in
<jWa alone, and not to waste its love
on any creature, at which it knows
that God will be offended. So great
is the loveliness, so great the beauty
that is in God, that if the soul could
take ever so remote, ever so obscure
a view of it, she would not be sepa-
rated from him to gain the whole
world. The soul, then, which is so be-
loved of God, should be ashamed to
fix its love upon any creature which
is offensive to God. She ought to be
heartily ashamed and afflicted if she
has not preferred God before all crea-
tures, proposed his glory in all things,
and loved him above all things; this is
the true contrition which is acceptable
to God. The whole creation naturally
loves God more than itself, and spends
itself in the execution of his commands;
but the miserable sinner loves himself
better than his God. If thy sorrow,
therefore, proceed merely from a sense
of thy own loss, and not of thy sins
and offences against God, thy contri-
tion is not true, thy sorrow is not ac-
ceptable before God. Though there
were no heaven to reward thee, nor
hell to punish thee, yet thou oughtest
to be grieved that thou hast offended
and provoked thy God. For the love

Chap. VIII.]

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY.

393

of God is very heaven, and his anger
is hell. But if thou hast in thy heart
that contrition which is here described,
and true faith in Christ, thy sins shall
freely be forgiven thee. For it is more
agreeable to him to forgive sins, than
to punish them: not to mention, that
as he is our Father, and we are his
children, he is obliged in justice to
show mercy to us. For if he be our
Father, it follows that he has a fa-
therly affection towards us, which
will upon all occasions rejoice and

triumph against the severity of his
justice. To this fatherly affection of
God, let us perfectly resign ourselves.
Whosoever rests in this, will be well
pleased both with the justice and the
mercy of God. For he that truly loves
God, will bear patiently all the deter-
minations of His will, either towards
himself or towards any other creature.
Let his will be thine; remember the
saying of one of old: "I would rather
be in hell with God, than in heaven
without him."

CHAPTER VIII

THE CALLING OF GOD IS EARNEST AND SINCERE, AND DIRECTS US TO COME TO HIM.

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. — Ps. 50 : 4.
He hath called us with a holy calling. — 2 Tim. 1 : 9.

GOD, our heavenly Father, by all
the methods and arguments of
love, is continually calling and draw-
ing us to himself. So great is his love
towards us, that it is as if his own
essence and blessedness were affected
by our wandering from him. Hence,
all his works of creation, both in heaven
and earth, all the wonders of his prov-
idence, tend to this one great end,
namely, to recall and bring back fallen
man to himself. All his words and all
his actions, call to the soul to return
to the love of God from which it fell,
by hearkening to the tempting insin-
uations of Satan.

2. God invites us to believe in his
Son, and to follow the steps of his
meekness and patience, and by this
means, to be reunited to himself, our
chief Good. For as when God called
to Elijah, and the fire passed by, and

the strong wind that rent the moun-
tains; yet God was not in them, but
came at last in the still small voice
(1 Kings 19 : 11, 12) ; so at this day he
descends and manifests himself in hum-
ble, quiet, and peaceable souls. And
as Ahasuerus sustained Esther when
she fell down at his feet, for fear of his
majesty (Esther 5:2; 8: 3, 4=); so God
comforts and supports the humble
man, who has a true sense of his own
nothingness, and trusts not in his own
strength. And were not God to sup-
port him with the everlasting arm of
his omnipotence, he would sink under
the apprehensions of his own unwor-
thiness. Such a man is so humbled in
his own eyes, that he would seem to
sink below the vilest of all creatures.
But no sooner does the mighty King
of heaven cast a look upon such an
humble soul, but it is strengthened and

394

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

refreshed with the divine consolation.
This is the consequence of true hu-
mility, when deeply rooted in the soul ;
the lower the soul sinks in its own
esteem, the higher it rises in the sight
of God. If to this there be added, ex-
ternal contempt and reproaches, they
sink the soul yet more deeply into self-
abasement, and by consequence bring
her so much the nearer to God. This
is the soil most fit to produce that
peace of spirit " which passeth all un-
derstanding." Phil. 4 : 7. This is the
fruit of trials, injuries, and afflictions.
By these God prepares and purines
thee for himself, that at length thou
may est return to him, and he return
to thee, and dwell in thee. And this
consummation is not to be obtained by
fine words and airy speculations, but
by manifold afflictions. It is not talk-
ing or thinking of humility, that makes
a man humble; but bearing the cross
with patience; without which thou
hast only the appearance, and not the
reality of virtue. Upon this account
the man that treats thee with reproach
and contempt, ought to be regarded
as in truth thy benefactor. For these
two virtues, meekness and patience,
are not to be gained except by various
conflicts and severe trials, which are
very great and grievous to human na-
ture. For how canst thou exercise these
virtues, unless in the time of suffering?
Meekness regards the ground of the
soul, which is best tried in the hour of
adversity. And patience respects the
inner man, who is to go out with Christ,
bearing his reproach. Heb. 13 : 13.
And thus the man is conformed to the
most holy and innocent life of Christ;
and Christ, with his death and pas-
sion, lives and governs in him.

3. There is also another, namely, an
inward calling of God : when he kin-
dles in the devout soul the fire of his

love. By this means he conveys him-
self to the soul, for he himself is love.
For it is as impossible to possess God
without a true perception of his love,
as for a man to live without a soul.
For that Christ doth "dwell in our
hearts by faith " (Ephes. 3 : 17), is only
to be discovered by love ruling in us.
1 John 4 : 16. And this divine love
cannot rest in our hearts, until they
are emptied of the love of the world
(1 John 2 : 15), and entirely and abso-
lutely fixed upon God. It will be,
therefore, a very useful exercise for a
man often to examine his own heart,
and see what is uppermost in his affec-
tions, God, or himself, or any creature :
whether he loves life or death : what it
is that principally engages his affec-
tions, and engrosses his thoughts. If
upon inquiry thou findest thy heart
set upon anything but God, that thou
hast any affection that does not ulti-
mately centre and terminate in him,
then God cannot enter into thy soul,
though thou shed as many tears as
there are drops in the ocean, and thou
must abide forever without him. Un-
happy mortals, what are you doing?
Why do you suffer a deceitful world
to impose upon you by the love of the
creatures, and insinuate itself into the
centre of your souls, which God re-
quires to be consecrated to his own
use ? It was for this end that we came
into the world, that by mortification
of our own will, and contempt of the
world and creatures, we should return
to God, and be reconciled to him; so
that as the body is to return to the
earth again, the spirit should also re-
turn to God that gave it. Eccl. 12 :
7. If thou returnest not in this life,
thou art undone to all eternity. By
that in which thou hast placed thy
joy and thy delight here, shalt thou
be judged hereafter. Let then this con-

Chap. IX.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

395

viction be deeply fixed in thy heart :
"Whensoever thy heart is emptied of
the world and the creatures, it shall
forthwith be filled with all the fulness
of God ; yea, assure thyself, that were
it necessary to leave heaven and earth,
God would certainly do it, in order to
take possession of a soul thus emptied
of the world, and prepared to receive

him. On the other

hand, if thou be

full of the world, God cannot enter.
The more delight any man takes in
the creatures, the farther is he re-
moved from God. How lamentable a
case this is, I need not stay to explain.
This then is a certain conclusion, that
not through worldly joys and pleas-
ures, but through many tribulations,
we must enter into the kingdom of
heaven.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PURIFYING INFLUENCE OF TRUE FAITH.

God purifies their hearts by faith. — Acts 15 :

THE property of true faith, is to
purify the heart from the world,
and all earthly, vain, and perishing
desires ; in a word, from all things in
which corrupt nature delights itself,
whether riches, honors, or pleasures.
Faith fixes its eye upon those things
only, that are invisible and eternal;
and when all impediments are re-
moved, a union quickly follows; and
there can be no union of things, except
they be alike. God is pure action, and
wheresoever he finds a soul empty of
the world, there he delights to oper-
ate, and manifest himself, as the spring
of life and comfort to the afflicted long-
ing soul. Therefore the usual lan-
guage of Christ in the Gospel to the
sick, whom he healed, was, " Thy faith
hath made thee whole." Matt. 9 : 22 ;
15 : 28. His meaning was not, that
this was the effect of the mere act of
faith; but that faith had so cleansed,
purified, and humbled the soul, that it
was now fit for the more exalted man-
ifestations of the divine power and
presence. Hence, when our blessed

Lord could find no souls so qualified
in Nazareth, he could do no mighty
works there. Mark 6 : 5. For where
the creature is, God cannot enter; one
hinders the other. No man can more
heartily desire the assistance of God,
than He desires to communicate it to
a devout and well-disposed soul. For
as God fills such a soul with his light,
consolation, and gracious presence; so
the longing soul rises as naturally to-
wards God, as the fire burns. When
God has once taken possession of such
a habitation, he operates in it all the
wonders of his grace, in which he
rejoices as once he did in our Lord
Jesus Christ; because in him he ac-
complished his own will, without any
impediment. For no work or action
can please him, which does not begin
and end in him. And as God delights
thus to operate in man, so he contin-
ually waits to see when we are fit to
receive him ; being more ready to give,
than we are either to ask or to receive.
Take heed, therefore, that
lect not the present opportunity.

thou neg-

For

396

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

after this life is over, we shall all re-
ceive according to our works, and ac-
cording to the principle of love that
ruled in our hearts, whether it be good
or bad, God or the creature. And this
is so certain, that should all the saints
of God intercede with tears of blood
for any one man, it would be lost la-
bor. For that which has possessed
thy heart, and engrossed thy affections
here, shall be thy lot and portion to
eternity.

2. And as true faith purines the
heart from worldly love; so it does
also from inordinate affections, as an-
ger and impatience ; planting meek-
ness and patience in respect to our
neighbor in their stead. For God
works nothing in the souls of believers,
but that which is agreeable to his own
nature. Now what is He, but mere
love, patience, and gentleness itself, as
he has manifested himself in our bless-
ed Lord Jesus Christ? As then the
love of God overflows towards all men,
having mercy upon all ; so it produces
the same love in every Christian soul,
a love free and universal ; making no
difference either of friend or foe, but
being equally united to God, and to
the whole race of mankind. Moreover,
this love rejoices in all the good things
that God bestows upon man, and is
pleased with that variety of gifts which
are bestowed upon the several mem-
bers of Christ's body ; to each of which
it pays a proper and proportionable
respect. For as there is a mutual
agreement between the several mem-
bers of the natural body, in which the
more ignoble parts, as the hands and
feet, serve the more noble, as the head,
the eyes, and the heart ; so ought there
to be the same agreement between
the members of the spiritual body of
Christ. Wherefore, if we meet with
any member of Christ, who is more

worthy than ourselves, we ought pro-
portionably to love and esteem him
more than ourselves. And the greater
the portion of divine grace and favor
which he has received from Jesus
Christ, our supreme Head, is, the
greater respect and love we ought to
pay him. For this good is common to
all, as being derived from our univer-
sal Head, Christ Jesus. But we can-
not enjoy it without charity, which
makes all our neighbor's blessing our
own ; and whatsoever we love in God,
and for his sake, considered as a uni-
versal good, is properly ours. And as
by charity, all our neighbor's blessings
are made our own, therefore, how
many, or how great favors soever God
bestows upon a good man, they are no
less mine than his, if I love them as
the gifts of God, and for His sake.
Yea, if any man receive the blessings
of God with fear and humility, not be-
ing exalted with pride and arrogance ;
and if I can behold them in him, and
love them for God's sake, and as pro-
ceeding from Him, they are as prop-
erly mine as his. This is the way by
which we become spiritually rich in
God, and are made partakers of all the
blessings of heaven and earth ; yea,
and of all the happiness that is laid up
in store for the children of God, by
the mediation of our spiritual Head,
Christ Jesus. So deep, so-close is this
union, that I am actually and properly
possessed of all the blessings which
our head Christ Jesus has diffused
through all his members, whether
men, or angels, in heaven and earth.
And the effect of this inward love is
patience, by which a man readi'ly and
willingly takes up his cross, as a prep-
aration for very exalted gifts of God.
For no cross comes without its special
grace. This made one of the holy men
of old exclaim : " Hail, bitter cross, full

Chap. X.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

397

of grace and glory." And St. Peter
says : " This is thankworthy, if a man
for conscience toward God endure
grief." 1 Pet. 2 : 19.

3. And they, who from love to the
cross of Christ, willingly bear their
own, are thereby made partakers of
an eminent pleasure and of peace of
mind. He, then, that labors under
any cross, external or internal, and
yet, although his heart may bleed,
without complaining bears it patiently,

for the sake of his suffering Redeemer,
may rest assured, that his sufferings
shall end in glory, and his sorrow shall
be turned into joy. The divine conso-
lations are ever at hand to the resigned
and patient soul ; which peace is that
inestimable pearl, the riches of the in-
ward man, which no man can explain
or comprehend but he that has it. In
a word, this is that "peace which
passeth all understanding," of which
St. Paul speaks in Phil. 4 : 7.

CHAPTER X.

SHOWING HOW THE NATURAL LIGHT IN US MUST DISAPPEAR, AND THE LIGHT

OF GRACE SHINE FORTH.

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. — 2 Cor. 4 :-6.

TT7HOSOEYEK would have a just
TT notion of the light of nature,
and the light of grace, must nicely
distinguish between the faculties of
the soul; that is to say, the reason,
the will, and the senses, and the pure
essence of the soul. (See below, Chap.
XXI.) The light of nature resides in
the reason, will, and senses. These
faculties, as long as they keep the
soul in subjection to them, hinder the
divine light of grace from displaying
itself in the pure essence of the soul;
so that before this can rise, the other
must set. For the light of grace is
above all sense and reason; yea, is
hindered by them. Thou seest, then,
how little the natural man can do in
divine things — even nothing at all.

2. Let us now consider how the
light of grace generally arises in the
soul. God has the word of grace, which
he has commanded to be preached, and
by which he operates; and this word

is spirit and life. John 6 : 63. And
though God by his power and provi-
dence is everywhere present, }Tet his
proper habitation, in which he pecu-
liarly operates and kindles his divine
light, is the soul of man. So that the
divine light in the soul proceeds not
from the senses, nor from reason, nor
any natural faculty; but merely and
entirely from the operation of divine
grace in the soul. And this is the
eternal fountain of comfort, peace,
truth, wisdom, and life, the chief and
everlasting happiness of the soul.
Thus the only happiness of the soul
is its union with God, and the opera-
tion of his grace: and of this, no crea-
ture that has not the image of God,
can partake. For nothing but God's
own image is capable of his light, his
grace, and his wisdom.

3. By this light the soul truly re-
covers its spiritual strength; that is,
understanding, wisdom, and knowl-

398

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

edge in the hidden mysteries of God.
Hereby also is produced in the soul
such a high relish of divine love, so
sweet and pleasant, that she has, as it
were, an aversion and dislike of every-
thing that is not divine. Hence arise
holy desires after goodness, flowing
from that inward spring in the soul,
without the concurrence of any crea-
ture. The creatures indeed can excite
in us admiration and joy, but all by
external images and impressions; so
that we ought carefully to distinguish
between these different motions. The
light of grace affects the very centre
of the soul, beyond the comprehension
of sense or reason. So then, the more
thou art purified from, and emptied
of, the creatures, the more frequently
and plenteously shalt thou be refreshed
wTith the visits of divine light and truth.
Now from this light arises the knowl-
edge of truth, from which, so soon as
a man turns himself, he falls into er-
ror. For the region of truth is not
without the soul, but within it; and
from this light, are darted sometimes
such flashes and streams of wisdom as
show a man more in an instant than
all the men in the world could teach
him. Yea, the perception of this light
but for a moment, will give the atten-
tive soul more joy, comfort, and hap-
piness than all the creatures in the
world can afford. And this is trans-
acted in the inmost recesses of the
soul. This is the fountain at which
the royal prophet David drank, as he
tells us: "Thou, through thy com-
mandments, hast made me wiser than
mine enemies; for they are ever with
me. I have more understanding than
all my teachers; for thy testimonies
are my meditation. I understand
more than the ancients, because I
keep thy precepts. I have refrained
my feet from every evil way, that I

might keep thy word." Ps. 119 : 98-101.
Thus speaks David, who, through that
whole Psalm, makes it his prayer and
request to God that he would let the
divine light shine, and the divine Word
speak, within him; that so, by the fear
of God, and the diligent keeping of
his commandments, he might securely
preserve this great internal treasure.
Upon which account he says that "the
law of God was better unto him than
thousands of gold and silver." Ps. 119 :
72. In short, the soul that is sensible of
the value and sweetness of this inward
and heavenly treasure, can have no
relish or esteem for the pomps and
pleasures of this world ; but will say
with Solomon, "Vanity of vanities;
all is vanity." Eccles. 1 : 2.

4. But as this light cannot shine in
a wicked soul (for " what communion
hath light with darkness V 2 Cor. 6 :
14), and yet is the greatest blessing
of the soul, therefore holy David prays
(so ardently (Ps. 119), so devoutly,
yea, he falls into eloquence so copious
as to astonish the reader), that it would
please God to protect him from the
darkness of sin, and keep him in his
fear. Indeed, so exceedingly plenti-
ful is this light, so wonderful is its
charity, that, like a flash of lightning,
it often strikes the hearts of wicked
men, warning them of approaching
ruin, and, as it were, snatching them
from the jaws of destruction ; which is
undoubtedly the effect of this illumi-
nation. And in this sense, " the light
shineth in darkness; and the darkness
comprehendeth it not." John 1 : 5.
Now this divine light is hindered
from displaying itself in the bottom
of the soul by the restless activity of
the external senses. For as the ear is
perpetually longing to hear, the eye
always employed in seeing, and the
heart constantly taken up with ex-

Chap. XL]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

399

ternal objects, this scatters and dis-
tracts the powers of the soul. Where-
as, the light of grace cannot shine
except in the most settled and com-
posed frame of spirit; so that from
this inward principle of light, the
senses, the reason, the understanding,
the will, and the memory, might be
replenished with light and wisdom.
For the enlightened soul neither sees,
nor hears, nor speaks as before. It
speaks no more the superficial lan-
guage of the natural man, but words
full of spirit and life. And now the
enlightened soul begins in spirit to
contemplate the glory of God, sigh-
ing after Him, and saying: "O God,
who art most beautiful to my eyes,

most sweet to my mouth, most charm-
ing to my ears, most dear to my heart !"
The works that such a soul performs,
are no longer her own, but the works
of God ; and so much the more noble
than her own, as God is more noble
than all creatures. Then also she
comes to understand, that blessedness
cannot be thew reward of her own
works, but is the gift of the grace of
God. So likewise she finds more con-
tentment when she suffers God to act
in her, than when she works and la-
bors herself; for by this means she
has joy and comfort in all her actions,
as knowing that they are all wrought
in God. John 3 : 21.

CHAPTER XL

GOD, THE LIGHT OF THE SOUL, DIRECTING US NOT TO JUDGE OUR NEIGHBORS.
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. — 1 John 1 : 5.

GOD is the supreme, most pure,
and beauteous light ; flaming
with an ardent desire of enlightening
the souls of men, and uniting himself
to them, if not hindered by the dark-
ness which men " love rather than
light." John 1:5; 3:19. But the
darkness of the soul is the love of it-
self, and the love of the world, which
obstruct the operations of God in us.
Wherefore, if the soul would be a par-
taker of this divine light, let her take
care not to be overcome by the love
of the creatures, by covetousness, an-
ger, self-love, ambition, and the lust
of the flesh; for all these are the
darkness of the world, in which the
god of this world ruleth. 2 Cor. 4 : 4.
A man must then forsake himself and

all creatures, yea, everything that is
not God ; this is called the forsaking
"all that he hath." Luke 14:33.
Such a soul is fixed entirely upon God,
and is enlightened by his truth; and
if by the will of Providence he be re-
quired to engage in worldly affairs,
he does it with humility and fear,
still keeping the centre of his soul
free from the creature and the world ;
so that the emanations of divine light
are not obstructed, but flow in per-
petual streams from their fountain,
which is God.

2. This inward light breaks forth
into external actions, so that whatso-
ever a man says, or does, or suffers,
is no longer an act of his own, but of
God, to whom he has surrendered and

400

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

dedicated himself. For how can he
act, who is merely passive ? So then,
whatsoever impression or impulse thou
findest in thyself, whether it be a de-
vout desire, a good intention, an in-
clination to prayer or thanksgiving,
all is from God, and not from thy-
self. Submit thyself, therefore, to the
mighty hand of God, and suffer him
to accomplish his will in thee ; for so
whatsoever thou doest, is in him, and
through him, and he worketh in thee.
For it is a necessary condition of all
good works that they ultimately re-
gard God, and be wrought in him.
John 3 : 21, Hence we should live in
him, pray in him, and do everything
in him. One such work wrought in
God, however insignificant it may be
in the eye of the world, is of more
value in the sight of God, than all the
actions wrought in human strength.
This is the spring of true virtue, the
essence of which is, that it should be-
gin and end in God. But in propor-
tion as the love of the world and the
creature prevails in thee, thou art
farther removed from God: whilst
the nearer God is to the ground of
thy heart, the more deeply and plen-
tifully will he shine forth, and mani-
fest himself by works of charity and
compassion towards thy neighbor.
For our blessed Saviour tells us, "I
am the light of the world." John 8 :
12. In him, therefore, let us act.
Let us cleave to the love of this our
Head, that we may be enlightened in
Christ,

3. For of all our actions those only
may be called " light," which proceed
from God and diffuse themselves
through the darkness and miseries of
our neighbors, in patience, in meek-
ness, in humility, in consolation, in
compassion, in gentle reproofs, and
charitable censures. Whereas from

an arrogant love of censuring others
arise self-esteem, a high mind, con-
tempt, and insolence toward our
neighbors. This is the root of innu-
merable sins. But as the light of
the Holy Spirit cannot enter into
such souls, so where he inhabits, these
vices have no place. The man of God
judges not his neighbor, unless com-
pelled by necessity; and even then he
does it with great gentleness, and in
the proper time and place; lest while
he attempt to cure one wound, he
should make ten, by an unseasonable
and improper application. One thing
ought carefully to be observed in re-
proving our neighbor, namely, that
we should not publish such uncharita-
ble reflections upon him, as may in any
way injure his reputation, either in
his spiritual or temporal concerns; but
on the contrary, every one should
keep himself within the bounds of
meekness and charity, lest he en-
danger his own humility and poverty
of spirit. They that delight in un-
charitable censures and railing accusa-
tions, are like the old serpent; their
very breath is infected with his poison,
whilst, like him, they delight in being
accusers of the brethren. Whilst they
know not themselves, they will dare
to censure and judge their neighbors.
Consider, O man, thy perverse heart,
and judge thyself, but no one else.
Luke 6 : 37. The false light of nature
misleads thee, and draws thee blindly
into pride, self-love, and rash censures
of others. But know that this is not
the light of God, but the very dark-
ness of Satan.

4. But the true and divine light al-
ways discovers itself in modesty and
humility. It hunts not after the
empty applause of men, but seeks
after God, from whom it proceeded,
and into whom it longs and labors to

Chap. XII.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

401

return. Such a man thinks himself
the weakest, vilest, and most ignorant
of all men ; being fully persuaded
that whatever good there is in him,
it is not his but God's. Above all
things, therefore, endeavor to know
thyself, and trouble not thyself about
thy neighbor, particularly his faults;
lest in the bitterness of thine heart
thou be tempted to condemn him; for
thereby thou canst do great harm to
thine own soul. Turn away, then,
thy eyes, for God's sake, from any
vices of thy neighbor, and turn into
thyself, and see whether thou art not,
or hast not been as deep in the mire

as he. And if this appear to be the
case, consider it in the order of Provi-
dence as an opportunity of reading
thy own defects in the life of thy
neighbor, and as a means of bringing
thee to the knowledge of thyself, to
true repentance and amendment of
life. Then turn thine eyes upon thy
neighbor, and pray to God for him,
that He would be pleased, of his fath-
erly compassion, to grant unto him
also the same knowledge and amend-
ment of life. The man that is thus
disposed, profits by his neighbor's
faults, and is preserved from the sin
of rashly judging or condemning him.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CHRISTIAN OUGHT DAILY, ONCE AT LEAST, WHOLLY TO ABSTRACT HIMSELF
FROM ALL EXTERNAL OBJECTS, AND RETIRE INTO HIS OWN SOUL; THE AD-
VANTAGES OF THIS COURSE.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. — Ps. 116 : 7.

THE soul of man, flowing out into
worldly things, and cleaving en-
tirely to the creatures, is like a wan-
dering sheep. Now, the great Shep-
herd of souls tries, by all the methods
of his mercy and wisdom, to bring him
back to the fold, by emptying him of
the creatures, and filling him with all
the fulness of God. Thus the royal
Psalmist concludes the 119th Psalm:
"I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
seek thy servant." This expression,
how oddly soever it may sound to car-
nal ears, discovers, nevertheless, to the
spiritual man, the whole work of illu-
mination and divine wisdom. For as
the soul of man is placed between time
and eternity, so soon as ever it turns
to time, it forgets eternity, and with-

draws every day further and further
from divine things. But if it returns
to eternity, then it forgets the crea-
tures, recovers its liberty, draws nearer
to God, and is thoroughly drawn unto
him. For there is nothing dearer to
God, than a soul abstracted from the
creatures, and resigned to him. Then,
and not till then, the soul enjoys true
peace, tastes the food of lifer and feels-
in herself the true fruits of that divine
anointing, which denominates us truly
Christians (the name "Christ" signify-
ing: " The Anointed One.")

2. And if these things are so, who
can doubt that it is the duty of every
true Christian, if not oftener, yet once
a day at least, to taste this divine food
of the soul, which is God himself, that

26

402

TEÜE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

thereby he may be refreshed with true
peace, and be replenished with the ful-
ness of divine life and grace ? Wouldest
thou, O man, but thoroughly consider
this, thou wouldest be much more in
love with heaven, than with earth!
Wert thou but thus disposed, though
the burden of a whole kingdom lay
upon thy shoulders, as it did upon Da-
vid's, yet it should be no hindrance
to thy holy exercises. For the crea-
tures are not in themselves hurtful,
but are only so to him whose soul is in
captivity to them; or, as it is said,
" who sets his heart upon them " (Ps.
62 : 10), which ought to be entirely
consecrated and devoted to God. Upon
this foundation stood the Psalmist,
when he cried out, "Lord, whom have
I in heaven but thee? and there is
none upon earth that I desire besides
thee." Ps. 73 : 25. For so great is the
sweetness of divine love, that the soul
that has once tasted it, despises suffer-
ings, and looks upon the love or hatred
of this world with indifference. They
that are admitted to these joys, have
perpetual peace in God with all crea-
tures, whether friends or enemies. To
these "the yoke of Christ is easy"
(Matt. 11 : 30) j for they are in Christ,
and Christ is in them ; and his pres-
ence makes their burden light, whilst
he bears it in them, and they bear it

in him. Therefore, such a believer
says with St. Paul, "I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth
me." Phil. 4 : 13.

3. From what has been said, it ap-
pears plainly, how necessary and profit-
able an exercise it is for every Chris-
tian, once a day at least, to retire into
his own heart, into God, and into
Christ, to draw thence true peace of
soul, and to learn there the true use of
temporal blessings. For God does not
forbid us the use of these, provided
we walk in humility, and in his fear,
and continue faithful in our attend-
ance upon him. Our misery requires
this of us, which in such a soul God
will not suffer to last long; and so
does, lastly, our daily cross, which
Christ by this means makes light and
easy to us. Not to say, that thou, O
Christian, art continually admonished
by the Spirit of God within thee, to
sigh and pray for the love of God, and
of God alone, and to grieve within
thyself, when any worldly impedi-
ments draw and separate thee from it.
This is the true and inward calling of
the Holy Ghost, this is the well-belov-
ed's knocking at the door of thy heart
(Cant. 1 : 13 ; Eev. 3 : 20), as a living
testimony that our hearts ought to be
the chamber of our heavenly bride-
groom.

CHAPTER XIII.

BHOWING HOW THE LOVE OP GOD ENTERS INTO THE SOUL, WHEN IT IS EMPTY
OP THE LOVE OP THE CREATURES.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. — 1 John 2:15.

H

E that desires to become the hab-
itation of God, must first divest
himself of the love of the world, and

then exercise himself in the love of
God. No man can receive the one,
without quitting the other; or be

Chap. XIII.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

403

filled with the Spirit of God, before he
be emptied of the spirit of the world.
As the magnet by a touch draws iron
to it; so God first touches, with his di-
vine love, the soul which he intends
to draw and unite to himself.

2. Now this divine love is so great,
that, like the sun, it shines upon all;
yea, it shines more universally than
the sun itself, displaying itself equally
upon all men. So that it is not the
fault of God, who is pure light, and
pure love, but of men, if they do not
perceive or enjoy it. For when God
approaches men with the highest love,
and most ardent affection, he gene-
rally finds their hearts full of the love
of the world, and all uncleanness, that
is, of covetousness, pride, lust, hatred,
envy, and evil thoughts, which force
him to retire and to withdraw his
graces from them. Whence it appears,
that since God is ready, like the sun
in the firmament, to communicate the
rays of his light freely to every puri-
fied soul, it is not His fault, but theirs,
if they are not enlightened by it. As,
therefore, we know these things, let
us keep ourselves from the love of the
world, and turn to the living God,
watching diligently unto prayer; let
us labor earnestly for the love of God
in Christ, by which we are united to
him. Let us knock at the door of his
holy wounds, and from thence expect
salvation. If we do this, God will
open to us, and give us admission into
that high state of uniting love, in
which we shall be refreshed with all
the treasures of God. And who can
doubt that the God of mercy, the
fountain of happiness, will fill the heart
of man with greater and more sub-
stantial joys, than any which this per-
ishing world can afford?

3. Whosoever, therefore, loves God,
shall be loved by all the saints and

holy angels. If I love God, then I
share in the love of all the inhabitants
of the city of God, a love that far
surpasses the highest degree of world-
ly affection. And as all the heavenly
host have the highest love of God,
and rejoice in his honor, so is their joy
proportionably great at every step of
our conversion, and their happiness is
enhanced by every advance which we
make in the love of God.

4. Now one evidence of divine love
is this, that we use the creatures with
fear and humility. He that is endued
with a habit of divine love, whether
he eat or drink, or whatever he doth,
doth everything like a dutiful son,
with reverence and fear, having his
eye constantly fixed upon the glory
of his Heavenly Father. 1 Cor. 10 : 31.
From this fear of God flow the many
deep sighs and passionate groans of
the devout soul, which, by degrees,
raise him from earth to heaven. For
he discovers so many corruptions and
impurities in himself, obstructing the
light and quenching the flames of the
Holy Spirit, that he is forced to cry
out with St. Paul, " O wretched man
that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death V Rom. 7 : 24.
And truly, these sighs and groanings
must frequently ascend to the mercy-
seat of God, that by the assistance of
divine grace we may bear up, and not
faint under the manifold miseries of
this wretched state, and the pressure
of a vile earthly body. Thus did all
the holjsnnen of old time when they
labored under the sense of spiritual
infirmities: they raised their broken
spirits unto God by devout sighs, peni-
tential tears, and humble acknowl-
edgments of their misery, which re-
verted into their own bosoms with a
large increase of grace and spiritual
strength. He that does not sincerely

404

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book III.

seek after God, but has bis soul intent
on something else besides him, shall
never find him. On the other hand,
he that seeks him alone, in the integ-
rity of his heart, shall surely find
him, and be admitted to all the bless-
ings and happiness that are to be
found in the presence of God. He
that seeks God in truth, finds God,

and all things that are God's; and
whosoever seeks for nothing else, and
looks for nothing else but God only,
unto him God manifests himself, and
confers upon him all whatsoever is
laid up in his divine heart, that the
same may as properly be said to be-
long to man, as to God.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE EXERCISE OF PATIENCE AND LOVE.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. — Isa. 53 : 7.

WHOSOEYEE would rightly pre-
pare his soul for union with
Jesus Christ, must, like him, be cloth-
ed with the meekness and patience of
the lamb. Yea, he must have the
very same mind that was in Christ,
and become a lamb even as he was.
Let this be thy rule and thy guide in
all thy actions. He tells us himself,
"Behold, I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves." Matt. 10:16.
This is truly thy case ; and whatever
way thou turnest thyself, remember
that thou art in the midst of wolves,
to whose violence thou art continually
exposed; and against this thou hast
no other remedy but patience, meek-
ness, and submission, according to the
example of the Lamb of *God, thy
Saviour, Jesus Christ. And as this
meekness of the blessed Jesus was ac-
ceptable to his Heavenly Father, so
also is thine, when by patience thou
dost triumph over persecution. So
that it is thy business to submit cheer-
fully to his will, whensoever he shall
be pleased to lay his afflicting hand

upon thee, either more immediately
from heaven, or by any suffering
which may fall upon thee by means
of any creature. It must all be borne
with patience, as coming from the
hand of God ; and assure thyself that
the faithful Shepherd is at hand to
seek and save the lost sheep, and
bring it home "upon his shoulders,
rejoicing." Luke 15 : 5. Thus the pa-
tient soul is, by every impetuous
wave of affliction, wafted nearer to
God. But if thy blind carnal reason
suggest to thee any excuses or objec-
tions against thy submission, hearken
not to them ; but fix thine eyes upon
the exemplary patience of thy Ee-
deemer; look steadfastly to thy cruci-
fied Saviour, who did* no evil, yet suf-
fered all injuries without thoughts of
revenge.

2. Endeavor to acquire more and
more the meekness of the Lamb, and,
above all things, preserve the love of
God, which cannot abide in a wrathful
soul. And here consider well with
thyself what that love is. Do not

Chap. XV.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

405

fancy it to be that inward joy, that
unspeakable pleasure, which some-
times elevates devout souls; that is
not the essence of love, but the
brightness of it, differing from its root
and cause as much as the light does
from the fire whence it proceeds.
But the true essence of love to God is,
to be resigned to the will of God, to
depend entirely upon him, and to sub-
mit to every affliction as coming im-
mediately from his hand. Thus did
Job, who, taking the loss of his chil-
dren, his goods, his health, and his
honor, as coming from the hand of
God, still " blessed the name of the
Lord." Job 1 : 21. So, too, David
humbly submitted to the curses of

Shimei, as being ordered by the Lord.
2 Sam. 16 : 10. By this means the es-
sence, the root, and spring of love, are
preserved pure and unshaken ; and
by love we rest in God, and rejoice in
all his dispensations. So that if it
should please God to sink such a man
with Christ to hell, he would not open
his mouth, but rest satisfied with the
will of God, in which only he finds
happiness and rest. In this love true
peace is to be found, when in God, and
for God's sake, we love everything,
crosses and tribulations not excepted.
True love unites us to God, and to all
the world : and the happiness of such
a state is inexpressibly great.

CHAPTER XV.

SHOWING HOW CHRIST, THE ETERNAL WORD OF THE FATHER, PERFECTS HIS WORK
IN THE HEARTS OF THE FAITHFUL, BY LOVE AND HUMILITY.

Examine yourselves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you ? —

2 Cor. 13 : 5.

AS the faithful soul is often ob-
liged to bear the temptations
and suggestions of the Evil Spirit; so,
on the other hand, it receives the di-
vine consolations from the mouth of
the eternal Word speaking in it. Of
this Tauler speaks : "We know," says
he, " that the eternal Word is so very
near the ground of the human soul,
that its own nature and being are not
more essential and familiar to it, than
that Word is. This eternal Word is
continually speaking in man, though
his perverse heart, deluded by the
devil, neither hearkens nor attends to
it. For the great adversary makes
him deaf by his wicked insinuations,

the love of the world, and carnal in-
clinations." For the devil to this day
tempts all men, as he did Eve (Gen.
3 : 4), by those things which he knows
to be most agreeable to our tempers
and inclinations, — by riches, honors,
friendships, our own nature, the love
of the creatures, and infinite other
ways, in which he influences and af-
fects our imaginations. For as he is
industriously busy about us for our
destruction, so he narrowly observes
the particular bias of our affections,
and knows all the secret arts of rais-
ing our passions; and when by thus
striking our imaginations, he has dis-
composed our spirits, we immediately

406

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

become deaf to the calls of the Holy
Spirit and the Word. These sugges-
tions of Satan we must oppose; for so
far as we attend to them, we are the
nearer to our ruin; but if thou stop
thine ears to his insinuations, and turn
thyself unto God in the centre of thy
soul, thou hast already conquered him.
And as true friends, united in affection,
are particularly delighted in mutual
conversation; so if thou sincerely love
God, thou shalt frequently hear his
voice within thee. " If a man love
me," saith Christ, "he will keep my
words " (John 14 : 23) : not only those
which he hears in the outward and
visible temple and congregation of the
faithful; but those also which are heard
in the true temple of the soul, without
which the outward hearing availeth
little. And this inward voice of God
thou canst not hear, unless the love of
God be in thee.

2. "The most certain token of love
to God," saith St. Gregory, "is this,
that we receive all the adversities
which God shall think fit to lay upon
us, without any impatience in thought,
word, or actions. If we do this, with-
out doubt we truly love God ; if not,
it is certain that we do not love him
sincerely, but prefer ourselves and our
own things to him; though nothing
can be properly said to be a man's
own but sin; everything else is God's."
Take heed, therefore, that thou prefer
not even the gifts of God before Him-
self; whom if thou love purely and
above all things, then thou shalt con-
tinually hear him speaking peace to
thy soul, according to that saying of
our blessed Lord, "He that loveth me,
to him will I manifest myself." John
14 : 21. This manifestation is made
by the opening of the understanding,
by the illumination of the heart, by
the spirit of wisdom, of understand-

ing, of might, and of fear (Isa. 11 : 2),
and especially by the purifying and
enlightening of the inward eyes (Eph.
1 : 18), to see and know Jesus Christ.
3. But as the devil is wont to stop
the inward ears of men by his sugges-
tions; so he also blinds their eyes by
self-love, by the love of the world and
the creatures, and by inward and out-
ward pride. For as by true and gen-
uine love, we hear Christ; so by faith
and profound humility, we must see
him; for that only can purify our
hearts from vain pride. For it is not
without reason that our blessed Lord
tells us, " Blessed are the pure in
heart ; for they shall see God." Matt.
5 : 8. And for this cause it is that
God sends us so many crosses and af-
flictions, that we may thereby be
brought into the depths of profound
humility, which is an exercise more
profitable to us than all the delights
and glories of this world. And now,
though heaven, and earth, and hell it-
self, should unite their forces against
thee, yet bear up with constancy and
patience, remembering that all shall
work together for thy good; as it
serves to produce in thee true humil-
ity, by which thou shalt see Christ.
Look at him, O man, and consider
how he that is God (John 1:1; Acts
20 : 28; Eom. 9 : 5), most high and
omnipotent, by whom were made the
heavens and the earth, and who could
easily again have reduced all things
into nothing; yet for the sake of this
wretched creature man, submitted him-
self to the most bitter sufferings. Phil.
2 : 5-8. Be thou, therefore, O sinful
and wretched creature, ashamed Of
that pride, vainglory, and self-love,
which have taken possession of thy
heart. Learn to submit thyself to
every cross that shall be laid upon
thee, of what sort soever it be, whether

Chap. XV.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

407

inward or outward; and so subject thy
proud, swelling spirit to the thorny
crown of Christ, that thou mayest
imitate thy humble and crucified Lord
by a true contempt of thyself; making
this the great end and design of all
thy actions, to be conformed to the
meek and suffering life of the blessed
Jesus, that so thou mayest come to an
experimental knowledge of him. For
what avail a few cold, formal reflec-
tions upon the sufferings of our Lord,
whilst we are destitute of that meek
and patient spirit with which he bore
them? Of what benefit is it to enter-
tain our fancies with a few dead specu-
lations about his passion, whilst our
hearts are full of pride, ambition, and
worldly love ? This, surely, is not the
way to the true vision and experimen-
tal knowledge of Jesus Christ. The
Spirit of Jesus operates most deeply
in the valley of humility. And in this
consists the essence of humility, that
a man look upon himself and all that
he ever has, or ever can do, as noth-
ing. For if there be any good in
thee, it is not of thyself; it is the gift
of God.

4. And this humility thou must
practise, if ever thou expect to see
Christ. For the hidden mysteries
and wisdom of God are revealed to
the meek and humble, but are hidden
from the wise men of this world. Ps.
51 : 6 ; Matt. 11 : 25; 1 Cor. 1 : 20, 26.
For in this humility alone consist the

knowledge and understanding of pure
and divine truth, in which is the es-
sence of eternal blessedness. In this
the greatness of the divine majesty
manifests itself, which the more clear-
ly we discern, the deeper root humil-
ity takes in our souls. And the most
certain sign of divine illumination is,
that a man grow daily more and more
humble, and be less fond of himself.
For self-love and pride are the foun-
tains of all the darkness, error, and
iniquity that are in us. On the other
hand, they that are truly enlightened
by God, glory in contempt and suffer-
ings, and rejoice to imitate their suf-
fering Eedeemer. This is the ground-
work and spirit of Psalm 119. The
royal prophet well knew that without
such a thirst after godliness, no divine
light and wisdom would enter the soul,
and no divine answer be given to it.
And this is the real purport of that
long Psalm.

5. In a word, this humble and re-
signed state of soul, is that in which
God particularly delights to operate.
And he that has this, carries in his
soul the comfortable presence, and in
his body the suffering marks of the
Lord Jesus ; and considering himself
as unworthy of the least of God's
mercies, he uses them all with rever-
ence and fear, having his eye, like a
good servant, fixed on his Master; and
therefore he is honored with His more,
immediate conversation, and grace.

408

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

CHAPTER XVI

SHOWING HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT OPERATES IN OUR SOULS.

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. — Isa. 44 : 3.

IF after a drought and dearth of three
years and a half (such as happened
in the time of Elijah, 1 Kings 17 : 1;
18 : 45), it should please God to send
rain upon all the earth, one man's field
only excepted; he would truly have
reason to think that God was angry
with him, and that his case was most
deplorably miserable. But how much
more miserable and unhappy is he,
who, though hungering and thirsting,
like a parched ground, after faith,
charity, and all Christian graces, yet
cannot receive one drop of spiritual
consolation in the inward ground of
his soul !

2. But if this ever happen, it is not
God's fault, for he is ready " to pour
out his Spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2 :
28), but man's, who prepareth not his
heart to receive it. The best prepara-
tion to receive this holy guest, is to
turn our hearts by faith and prayer
from the world unto God, as the Apos-
tles did at Pentecost (Acts 2:4); and
whensoever God shall find us thus
prepared, he will forthwith visit us
with all the fulness of spiritual bless-
ings. On the other hand, if the heart
be full of the world, there will be no
room for the Spirit of God to enter;
for where the one is, the other cannot
be. As in nature there is no vacuum,
so it is in the spiritual world. Let this
then be thy care, and this thy chief
concern, not to fix thy heart upon any
creature, either inwardly or outward-
ly, not on the love of thyself, nor upon
rthine own will, but upon God alone;
:assuring thyself, that this is the most

noble and useful exercise for thee. As
the finest work of the most skilful
workman may be broken and destroy-
ed by a heedless child ; so it often hap-
pens with the works and gifts of God,
which men destroy by their rash and
unadvised management. Thus they
break and deface the most noble de-
signs and operations of the Spirit of
God within them ; they attribute that
to themselves which is the work of
God, and patch their own vile rags
upon the fine linen of Christ's right-
eousness. For it is most certain that
we are "unprofitable servants" (Luke
17 : 10), and by consequence can do
nothing but what is unprofitable. And,
in the same degree, as God is more
noble than man, so the works of the
Divine Spirit are more noble and pre-
cious than those of the human spirit.
Hence it follows, that if thou wouldest
have God to operate more eminently
in thee, thou must surrender all the
passions, affections, and powers of thy
soul, to be possessed, governed, and
directed by Him. For unless the crea-
ture be entirely still, thou canst not
hear the voice of God. Think not then
that every inward motion which thou
perceivest, is the work of God ; whereas
some are merely the product of thy
own flesh and blood. Take heed there-
fore to thyself, and learn to distinguish
well, lest thou ascribe to God the very
operations of the devi4.

3. But in order to the more perfect
operation of the Holy Ghost in thee,
there are two rules proper to be ob-
served : first, that thou turn away

Chap. XVII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

409

thine heart from the world, the crea-
tures, thyself, and thine own will and
affections, that so this Holy Spirit may
have room to act freely ; secondly, to
receive all crosses and afflictions as
coming from the hand of God, without
any respect or reference to the crea-
tures, and to embrace them as prepa-
rations for receiving more plentiful
communications of divine grace and
blessing. Suppose, for instance, thou
wert engaged in some good work or
act of devotion, and some intimate
friend should break in upon thee with
abusive and reproachful language; if

thou couldest bear this with silence
and patience, thou mightest be as-
sured that that was the work of the
Holy Spirit, in order to prepare thee
for greater blessings. But if wicked
thoughts be suggested to thee, by the
devil, yet satisfy thyself that they do
thee no harm, because they are invol-
untary. Lastly, if thou art engaged
in any worldly calling or profession,
see that thou perform thy duty in it
with thine eye fixed upon the glory of
God, and the good of thy neighbor.
By this means all thy works shall be
wrought in God, and his Spirit.

CHAPTER XVII.

SIGNS OF THE PRESENCE OP THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US.

The Comforter will reprove the world. — John 16 : 8.

WHEN the Holy Spirit enters into
our soul; that is to say, man-
ifests his presence by his operations,
in the first place, he forthwith re-
proves in us everything that is not
divine, such as the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life (1 John 2 : 16), giving us a sort
of loathing and abhorrence of them.
Whosoever, therefore, lives a carnal
life, without such inward admonition
of the Holy Spirit, may assure himself
that that Spirit is not in him; inas-
much as it is peculiarly his office and
character, at all times, to persuade,
draw, and invite every one that will
give him room to act freely, to the
duties of a Christian life. Thus the
Holy Spirit reproves sin. But every-
thing is sin, that opposes our obe-
dience to the will of God. And every

such act of disobedience, or inclination
to it, the Holy Spirit reproves wher-
ever he enters.

2. Hence, in the second place, arise
spiritual sadness, grief, and inward
terrors of mind. Of this the children
of this world have little experience,
though it is one of the surest signs of
the presence of the Holy Spirit in the
soul. But they that are utter stran-
gers to this godly sorrow, who run on
with delight and satisfaction in the
way of the world, upon whom all
things smile, and who find here their
enjoyment, and never meet with any
cross ; these men, I say, are in a very
dangerous state, and, being destitute
of God's Spirit, are without God in
the world. On the contrary, they
that are afflicted of God, and are re-
proved in their consciences by the

410

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

Spirit of God for every act of diso-
bedience to his will; and are led in
the way of the cross, being brought
under the discipline and correction of
wisdom, are those in whom the Spirit
of God prepareth himself an habita-
tion. And this is the second sign of
the presence in us, of the Holy Spirit.
3. The third sign is, that the Divine
Spirit takes away from us all the
glory of our own merit and righteous-
ness, so that before the righteousness
of God it falls as a flower of the field,
and withers as grass, when the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Isa. 40 :
6, 7. For the Spirit of Christ shows
us that we have no other solid and
stable foundation upon which to rest,
but the merits and righteousness of
Jesus Christ. " Woe to our own
righteousness/' saith St. Augustine,
" if it were to be tried and judged
without mercy by God." For this
reason Isaiah compares it to "filthy
rags." Isa. 64: 6.

4. The fourth token of the presence
of God's Spirit, is when a man looks
upon his neighbor's faults with com-
passion, not rudely censuring or con-
demning him. For a haughty desire
to judge others is diabolical, proceed-
ing from nothing but pride, contempt
of our neighbor, and admiration of
ourselves. And where these reign
the Holy Spirit cannot abide; but
wheresoever He is, there a man is
careful — 1. Not to reprove his neigh-
bor but upon urgent necessity. 2. To
do it in the proper time and place,
after the example of our blessed Lord.
3. Not to do it in severe terms, but
with meekness and humanity. 4. Not
to despise his neighbor, nor expose
him to the scorn and contempt of
others, but to do all from a pure prin-
ciple of charity. Let these things
sink deeply into thy heart, that thou
mayest abide in humility, and in the
grace of the Holy Spirit, and that he
may dwell in thee.

CHAPTER XVIII.

SHOWING HOW WORLDLY PLEASURES DRIVE AWAY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. — 1 Peter 2 : 11.

THE children of this world earn-
estly follow the joys and pleas-
ures of it, which the children of God
avoid with all diligence, as so many-
snares and temptations of the devil,
designed to draw them from God,
their sovereign Good. If thou, O
Christian, resolve to preserve this
most valuable treasure, be careful to
avoid all occasions of losing it. Of
this sort are all so-called sports, pas-

times, and recreations, or those ac-
tions which do not in some way tend
to the glory of God, and the good of
our neighbor. And though thou art
sometimes forced to be present at
them, yet be then careful to turn thy
thoughts inward, by an elevation of
thy heart to God ; and so thou shalt
never lose the comfort and peace of
the divine presence wheresoever thou
art. And whilst thou art faithful in

Chap. XVIIL]

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

411

this exercise, the world and all its
vanities shall not hurt thee. This
was queen Esther's case, who, though
outwardly clothed with royal orna-
ments, yet was inwardly clothed with
profound humility. Thus David, in
the midst of his glory and riches, had,
nevertheless, humble thoughts of him-
self. 2 Sam. 6 : 22. And Joseph, in
his master's house, which was full of
luxury, yet preserved a chaste heart.
Gen. 39 : 9. And this is that true fear
of God which keeps his faithful ser-
vants from the world and all its vani-
ties, that they lose not their inward
joy and peace of conscience. This
"fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom." Ps. Ill : 10. He that is en-
dued with it will not turn himself to
the world, but from the world to God,
seeking contentment, joy, and peace
in Him. This, in short, is the fruit
of true contrition ; to turn us away
from all things which are not God, or
do not tend to him ; and to turn us to
that chief and true Good, which is
God. If we are inwardly conscious
that we have hitherto neglected this
useful exercise, and have been im-
mersed in the vanities of the world,
let the remainder of our lives be spent
in bewailing and lamenting our past
transgressions, and in forsaking and
guarding against every approach to-
wards them. If we do this, God will
not remember how great sinners we
have been, but will rejoice at our re-
pentance, not regarding our former
iniquities, but our present faith and
earnest desires of serving God more
faithfully than hitherto we have done.
But though God so earnestly desires
our salvation, yet too many, by turn-
ing from him to the world, resist his

grace and force him out of their
hearts, notwithstanding all his gra-
cious endeavors to continue there.

2. Therefore it is necessary that
every man should die to the world,
that would live to God; whence it ap-
pears that the major part of mankind
are at enmity with God. Alas ! how
many mortifications of the flesh must
we undergo before our corrupt na-
ture, both externally and internally,
is perfectly slain in us, and the life of
God succeed in its place. Now crosses
and trials are as so many remedies
applied to our corruption, in order to
drive out of us the poison of sin, and
restore us to the life of God. Whence
it appears, that the benefit of afflic-
tions is very great, and that we ought
to meet them with contentment and
joy, as the means of purifying our
corrupt nature, and bringing us to a
participation of the divine nature.
This it is which brings us to the no-
blest exercise of Christian duty,
namely, dying to the world, in pros-
perity and adversity, in silence and
hope, secretly and inwardly, without
the least murmur or complaint. They
who fret, repine, or complain, discover
plainly that they are unwilling to die
to the world, and that they have but
little of the divine light in their souls.
God cannot live in the soul which is
not dead to the world; for the more
we live after the lusts of corrupt na-
ture, the less we live unto God and
his holy will. On the other hand, the
less we live to the flesh, so much the
more we live unto God. Let this,
then, be our certain rule, that he that
would live to the Spirit, must die to
the flesh. Eom. 8 : 13.

412

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

CHAPTER XIX.

OP INWARD PRAYER, AND OP THE TRUE USE OF THE LORD S PRAYER.

Ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. — Kom. 8 : 15.

AS God operates eminently in hum-
ble souls ; so the Holy Spirit par-
ticularly works in them the gift of
filial prayer. Without the Spirit of
God there is no true prayer ; for he it
is that cries and groans in the soul,
being, as it were, its life. Eom. 8 : 26;
Gal. 4 : 6. For as the soul is the life
of our body, so is the Spirit of God
the life of the soul, being the source
of all its spiritual life and strength.
This Holy Spirit is also the witness of
our adoption and regeneration ; and he
who knows how to use these as he
ought, relying, by faith in Christ and
love of the Holy Spirit, upon the eter-
nal love of his heavenly Father, will
ask for, and receive great and heavenly
gifts. For so great is the love, so abun-
dant the goodness of God, that he can
deny nothing to his children, who ask
in faith. But as even faith and prayer
are the work and gift of God, so we
must daily apply ourselves to Him for
the same. Hence arises the true in-
ternal prayer of the heart, from a true
conversion and inclination of our souls
and affections to God. This inward
prayer pierces the heavens, whilst a
man walking in the steps of his Sa-
viour, freely and cheerfully takes up
his cross and follows him; not like
Simon the Cyrenian, who bore, in-
deed, the cross, but it was because he
was compelled to do it. Matt. 27 : 32.
So great is the love of God, that he
does not stay for our prayers; but
comes forth freely to meet us, and
courts our friendship, entreating us to

ask pardon for our sins, and to prac-
tise the same love towards our neigh-
bors which he shows towards us. Hap-
py is he, who truly knows, understands,
and meditates on this boundless love
of God in Jesus Christ. Such a man
prays more effectually in his heart,
than if he used the most perfect form
of words. One single meditation or
devout sigh offered up to God by Jesus
Christ, in faith, love, and devotion, is
more acceptable to God, than all the
parade of external worship.

2. The whole life of a Christian ought
to be spent in the exercise of love, and
in the imitation of his crucified Lord.
He properly is a Christian, who does
all things from a principle of divine
charity, and is transformed by it into
the nature of Christ. And can God
deny anything to so dutiful, loving,
and obedient a child when he prays ?
No, surely. But that we might know
how and for what we ought to ask,
Christ has taught us the Lord's Prayer,
a prayer full of petitions for the most
exalted blessings. Can there be a
greater good than the kingdom of
God ? For he himself is his own king-
dom, extending to all rational crea-
tures. So that when we pray, " Thy
kingdom come," we pray that God
would please to bestow Himself upon
us, with all the riches and blessings of
his presence. In this kingdom, there-
fore, God is our Father, manifesting
his paternal love and faithfulness to
his children, by erecting his kingdom
in us, that therein he may perfect his

Chap. XIX.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

413

most noble work in us, expressed in
thispetition, "Hallowed bethyname;"
which is done when the dignity and
excellency of the divine name and na-
ture are more deeply discovered in the
soul.

3. In this kingdom, which is within
us, he works his own will, without
any impediment. And so his " will is
done in earth, " namely, in us, "as it
is in heaven," that is, in God himself.
Hence we understand, that what God
desires to bestow, and has commanded
us to pray for, is nothing less than
Himself. This was the promise that
lie made to Abraham, " I am thy
shield, and thy exceeding great re-
ward." Gen. 15 : 1. Moreover, our
Heavenly Father gives us " our daily
bread;" that is, he appropriates all his
creatures to our use, testifying thereby
the greatness of his love towards us.
For the heart that is truly devoted to
God, and in which he freely executes
his own will, is capable of receiving
the fulness of his grace and blessings.
So great are the goodness, love, and
mercy of God, that he can deny us
nothing that is necessary either for the
body or the soul; and he best knows
our necessities. For this end he is
daily setting our sins and miseries be-
fore our eyes, teaching us to abase our-
selves before him, and to pray : " For-
give us our trespasses, as we forgive
them that trespass against us." For
so compassionate is God, that he freely
offers us forgiveness of sins, and teaches
us how to ask it from the heart; that

thereby we may be assured, that he is
more ready to forgive, than we are to
ask it ; and that we may thence learn
to exercise the same kindness towards
our neighbor, that He exercises to-
wards us. For they that are truly the
children of God, exclude no man from
their charity, or from the love of God.
They have nothing more at heart, than
the glory of God, the increase of his
kingdom, and the salvation of all men.
By this acknowledgment of sin, and
petition for pardon, the Christian is
taught, that in his natural state he is
without God and his kingdom; void
of comfort, poor and miserable. And,
therefore, he is taught to pray, "Lead
us not into temptation," by which the
devil endeavors to draw us from the
will and kingdom of God; but that he
would " deliver us from evil," that is,
from our own evil will and corrupt
nature, which hinder the accomplish-
ment of God's will, and the erecting
of his kingdom in us, and deprive him
of the honor due unto his name. " For
thine is the kingdom, the power and
the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."
Whilst we receive these as coming
from him alone, they still continue to
be his. But if we do not ascribe them
to Him alone, we exclude ourselves
from his kingdom, his power, and his
glory, not worthily sanctifying his
name, nor obeying his will. And
hence it follows, that we also are out
of his kingdom, and so have no title to
remission of sins and deliverance from
evil.

414

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Rook III.

CHAPTER XX.

SHOWING THAT HUMILITY MUST FIRST BE LAID AS A FOUNDATION IN THE HEART,
AND ALL OUR WORKS MUST REST ON IT; ITS BLESSED INFLUENCES.

Be clothed with humility. — 1 Peter 5 : 5.

IF thou wouldst build for eternity,
let thy foundation be humility;
for no man can of himself do any-
thing. Wherefore, in all thine under-
takings, humble thyself before God,
the overflowing fountain of grace and
mercy, and pray devoutly for his di-
rection and assistance, that all thy
labors may be entirely directed to the
praise, and honor, and glory of God ;
and remember this, that whatsoever
thou doest without the grace of God,
can tend to nothing but sin and de-
struction. He that carefully attends
to this, submitting himself entirely to
the divine will, silently and humbly
deploring his own weakness and vile-
ness, and by ardent love devoting
himself to God, shall experience in all
the powers of his soul the wonderful
works of God ; while, on the contrary,
pride is that vice which makes all our
works vile and abominable in the sight
of God.

2. And alas! why are dust and ashes
proud ? If we look into our original,
we were created out of nothing; of
ourselves we are nothing, more fleet-
ing than a vain shadow; so corrupt
that nothing but the grace of God re-
strains us from falling into the gross-
est sins, and sinking into the lowest
pit of destruction. We are perpetually
exposed to the assaults of the devil,
against whom we have no security but
in humility. For this evil spirit, puffed
up with pride, has all imaginable ad-
vantages over the proud man; but

flies from the meek and humble. Pride
has its root in Satan ; but so long as
thou canst preserve thy humility,
turning thyself to God from all thine
iniquities, so long he can have no
power over thee. How lamentable a
thing is it then, to see a Christian,
furnished with the Word and Spirit
of God, so tamely give himself up to
the devil. Such a one is like a cow-
ardly soldier, who, though armed from
head to foot, should suffer himself to
be stung to death by a wasp. So
powerful is the grace of God in hum-
ble souls, that if they will be true to
themselves the devil can have no
power over them. And if thou suffer
thyself to be thus shamefully foiled,
notwithstanding all the assistance of-
fered to thee, what canst thou expect
at the last day but the insults of those
very evil spirits to whom thou hast
given so cheap a victory. Consider
well, therefore, what a grace and bless-
ing humility is.

3. There is, moreover, in humble
souls, a perpetual hungering and
thirsting after the grace of God,
which God never fails to reward by
the fulness of his blessings, that is, of
Himself: for he alone can satisfy the
cravings of a thirsty soul. And on
this humility is founded true repent-
ance; for when a man sees the vast
impurity, the secret malice, the deep
corruption of his sinful heart, and be-
wails all this with sincere sorrow, he
gladly lays hold of the free grace of

Chap. XXI.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

415

Christ by faith, and entirely resigns
and devotes himself to the will of God.
Such a man's sins God freely pardons,
and, as it were, blots them out at once.
For when a man turns himself from
his sins unto God, God immediately
turns unto him and remembers his
transgressions no more.

4. Another property of humility is,
that it cheerfully receives every cross
sent from God as a preparation for
greater gifts; it regards not the im-
mediate agents by which the man is
afflicted, but looks up to God from
whom afflictions come. The humble
man rejoices in the cross, saying:
"Hail, blessed cross, unexpected in-
deed, but not unwelcome. I know

that it is the will of God by thee to
sanctify and consecrate me to Him-
self." And, lastly, humility keeps a
man in peace of mind, as well in ad-
versity as in prosperity, as well under
the want, as in the abundance of the
gifts and blessings of God. So that
the truly humble man is always easy,
whether it please God to give or
take away, and nothing can happen
to him, to exalt or deject him above
measure. In him the wonders of di-
vine grace manifest themselves. And
whereas he before lived and acted by
his own strength, he is now supported
by God, and in and through Him pro-
duces fruit abundantly.

CHAPTER XXL

SHOWING THAT A MAN OUGHT TO REST IN GOD ALONE, AND NOT IN HIS GIFTS;
AND THAT HE MUST DENY HIMSELF.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous. — Ps. 32 : 11.

THE genuine love of God proposes
God alone for its end. It de-
lights not in the creatures, but in that
supreme, eternal, and uncreated Good,
whence they proceeded; and this not
only outwardly, but even in the very
bottom of the soul. For the soul, be-
sides its natural powers, by which it
gives life and motion to the body, has
a deep and central essence, having no
relation to the creature. This is the
seat and city of God, abstracted from
all external and earthly things; here
the Holy Spirit pours out his gifts
through all the faculties of the soul,
in the different manifestations of wis-
dom, understanding, and knowledge.
But when corrupt nature begins to

delight itself inordinately with these
visitations, loving the gifts more than
the Giver, it immediately pollutes them
by corrupt mixtures of self-love. All
the love and joy which result thence,
are blind, vicious, and deceitful. For
as the gifts of God are not God him-
self, so we must not place the same
love upon both. Most men rest in the
gifts of God, and upon the least per-
ception of divine light in the under-
standing, or warmth in the affections,
imagine themselves at the summit of
perfection ; not considering that they
are yet far short of it. Man was made
for greater things, even to receive God
into the soul; and God is displeased if
we stop short of this. There is noth-

416

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

ing he so much desires as to bestow
himself upon us, and that after the
most exalted and glorious way; and
certainly the least we can do in re-
turn is thankfully to accept this di-
vine love, and to delight in God alone.
2. But so corrupt is human nature,
and so addicted to self-love, that it
catches greedily at everything that
may gratify its passions, placing its
happiness in those delights, which, like
Jonah's gourd, perish in the enjoy-
ment. This satisfaction, though in the
gifts of God, defiles them, and hinders
His operations in us. So great, and
so deep, is the corruption of our na-
ture, introduced by Original Sin, that
scarce one in a thousand can know his
secret faults. Ps. 19 : 12. Hence pro-
ceeds that inordinate love which men
have for themselves more than for

God. This abyss of corruption, the
most learned men could never fully
fathom nor explain : and yet much
more difficult is it to root it out of hu-
man nature. This rooting it out is the
denying of ourselves, required by our
blessed Lord, if we will be his disciples.
Matt. 16 : 24. And yet it is much
easier to forsake all earthly things,
gold, silver, houses, and estates, than
to forsake one's self: so deeply is this
poison rooted in our nature ! But as
this self-denial is absolutely necessary,
so God disposes and prepares us for it
by various tribulations. This is the
only end of all the crosses and afflic-
tions, inward or outward, spiritual or
bodily, with which he is pleased to
visit us; namely, to bring us to the
practice of self-denial.

CHAPTER XXII.

SHOWING HOW OUR WORKS MAY BE RENDERED ACCEPTABLE TO GOD.

Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. — Ps. 37 : 4.

AS man in his natural state is ob-
noxious to the wrath of God
(Eph. 2 : 3), it follows, that all his
natural works, how great and good
soever they may appear in the eye of
the world, are subject to it likewise.
For, without the grace of God, we can
do nothing that is acceptable in his
sight ; but if a man be in a state of
grace, then all his works are accept-
able to God; because it is the grace
of God which works them in him.

2. Whence it appears, that all man-
ner of gifts whatsoever, as St. Paul
assures us, are to be ascribed to the
grace of God, not to ourselves (1 Cor.

15 : 10), and that by our own works
we can never be justified or saved.
For though a man should suffer all the
pains of martyrdom; though he should
perform all the good actions that were
ever done by all the saints from the
beginning of the world, or that ever
shall be done ; though he should feed
upon nothing but thorns/ and suffer
death, not once, but every day; yet
could he not thereby, of himself, be
able to procure the least grace. De-
pend not then upon thine own works,
but upon the infinite mercies of God
in Jesu3 Christ, with a resigned and
humble spirit : and then be confident,

Chap. XXII.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

417

that the same Jesus will, of his free
love and mercy, give thee whatever
he shall see expedient for thee. This
is the meaning of the saying of our
Lord, "When ye shall have done all
those things which are commanded
you, say, We are unprofitable ser-
vants." Luke 17 : 10. O merciful God !
how poor, how worthless in thy sight
is our righteousness; it is no better
than " filthy rags." Isa. 64 : 6. For all
the works of good men would be of no
value for our justification. Enter then
into thy purchased inheritance by the
surest gate, even the meritorious work
of thy blessed Saviour. Offer up to
God his passion, for the punishments
which thou hast deserved; his holy
thoughts, for thy polluted imagina-
tions ; his many divine words, for thy
vain speeches ; in a word, all his works,
his poverty, his patience, his meekness
and charity, for all thy defects and
omissions. Keep thine eyes fixed on
the blessed Jesus, and thou shalt ob-
tain grace and favor with God. With
the Prodigal Son (Luke 15 : 20), re-
turn to thy offended Father, and he
will receive and embrace thee. His
mercies are unchangeably the same,
ready to be communicated to every
sincere penitent. This he freely offers
to all, and nothing is more agreeable
to him, than to show mercy to him
that asks it in faith. For " his hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save."
Isa. 59:1. And the more wretched
and miserable thou appearest in his
sight, the more welcome shalt thou be
to Him, who is desirous to enrich thee
out of his own treasures. The sins of
the whole world, bear no more pro-
portion to his infinite mercies, than a
single drop of water does to the vast
ocean. But as soon as thou art in a
state of grace, all thy works wrought
hence in thee, shall be made accept-

able to God, through his only begotten
Son, by whom alone we have access
to his mercies. In this faith, in this
union with the Son of God, thou shalt
live. He is that living fountain that
purifies all our uncleanness, and makes
all our works acceptable in his sight.
Zech. 13:1.

3. But still take heed to thyself, and
remember that thou rest not even in
thy spiritual privileges, which, as a
child of God, are bestowed upon thee,
but in God alone, the author and giver
of them. Hence we are commanded,
"to delight in the Lord" (Ps. 37:4);
not in his gifts, but in his glory ; that
his will may be perfected in us. We
must then refer all our gifts and graces
to their munificent donor, even God. In
order to use them aright, let this rule
be deeply fixed in our minds. If thou
hadst all the gifts and graces which
God has bestowed, either in heaven,
or on earth, with the good works of
all the saints that have ever lived ; as
soon as thou beginnest to take an in-
ordinate pleasure in them, and to de-
light in them as a property of thine
own, they are immediately defiled with
the stain and guilt of idolatry. For
there is nothing either in heaven or
earth, in which we ought to rest, but
God alone. And when we do this,,
then God himself is our joy, our de-
light, our rest, our fulness, our treas-
ure, and our refuge; and in this con-
sists the fulness of blessing; we then-
become proper vessels of divine grace..
For in proud spirits, which are the
organs of the devil, God cannot oper-
ate ; but " he giveth grace to the hum-
ble," as St. Peter tells us (1 Pet. 5 : 5),
and filleth their souls with his treas-
ures. Inward pride is the fruitful root
of all vices. By this the devil keeps
his strongholds in the soul, which God
alone has a right to inhabit. The vine,

27

418

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book III.

as to its outward form, seems to be but
a useless plant, fit for nothing but the
fire j and yet, under that mean outside,
conceals veins of most generous juice.
So it is with all those godly persons,
through whom the Spirit of God oper-
ates : they appear in the sight of men
as vile and contemptible persons ;
their appearance is humble, and void
of external grandeur ; but within, they
are full of invaluable treasures, even
living streams of blessing flowing in-
cessantly from the throne and presence
of God. But they who are puffed up
w.ith their gifts, who make a show of
their alms, who build altars in churches
at their own cost, adorning them with
their own names, arms, and titles of
honor; these, by displaying so indus-
triously their good deeds to the world,
have indeed received their reward.
In the same unhappy state also are
they, whose mouths are full of their
own wants and unworthiness, contin-
ually desiring others to pray for them ;
not considering that other alms, pro-
ceeding from an humble, sincere, and
devout heart, are a more effectual
prayer to God, than are all the inter-
cessions of persons who know that
these alms are given only for display.
4. If, then, thou wouldest have thy
works to be sincere and acceptable be-
fore God, observe carefully these four
general rules : 1. Think humbly of all
thine actions, not respecting thyself,
but God alone. 2. Let this humility
be deeply rooted in thy soul, humbling
thyself not only under the hand of
God, but under every man, whether
small or great, from a hearty sense of
thine own unworthiness. 3. Look
upon all that thou doest as unprofit-
able and worthless. 4. Have a pro-
found dread of the secret judgment
of God, not, indeed, as proceeding
from any doubts about the mercies of

God ; but, regarding him as thy best
friend, be careful to avoid everything
that may disoblige or offend him. He
that despises these four rules, renders
even his best actions impure in the
sight of God. But he that carefully
attends to them as the rules of action,
shall be like a green olive tree in the
house of his God, bearing good fruit
abundantly. Ps. 52 : 8.

5. And we must observe that even
the most inconsiderable thing thou
doest, if it promote the good of thy
neighbor, is acceptable to God; whilst
he that employs not his talent to that
end, shall have a serious account to
give at the last day. This is the only
use and end of God's gifts, that we
should readily and industriously em-
ploy them for the benefit of others.
Every action, art, employment, and
profession, were given by God for this
only end. And these are the works
which, as our Lord tells us, "are
wrought in God" (John 3:21); that
is, in faith and charity, directed solely
to the glory of God and the benefit of
our neighbor, without any prospect
of honor or advantage to ourselves,
of which every man's own conscience
is the proper judge. Consider then
carefully with thyself the spring and
motives of all thy actions, remember-
ing that if thou neglect or refuse to
employ the blessings of God for thy
neighbor's benefit, thou must have the
same punishment with the slothful
servant, who was deprived of his tal-
ent which he had hid in the ground,
and not employed, and saw it given
to another that better knew how to
use it. Matt. 25:26. Thus thou losest
both the gift and the grace. No less
foolish are they who pretend to
things above their strength, who talk
eloquently and fluently of what they
neither practise nor understand.

Chap. XXIII.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

419

Though these should confidently pre-
tend to speak by the authority of the
blessed Trinity, yet is all this nothing
but empty boasting, unless they de-
monstrate that they experimentally
know what they so magisterially in-
culcate.

6. Eemember also, that no actions,
how great and glorious soever in ap-
pearance, which proceed only from
ostentation and vainglory, can be
well pleasing to God. For as is the
principle of our actions, such are
also the actions proceeding from it.
"Whence it follows, that such as re-
gard themselves only, are no better
than impostors and hypocrites. Their
best works are no better than painted

sepulchres, which appear beautiful
without, but within are full of noth-
ing but corruption. There is in them
no pure love of God, no desire to pro-
mote his glory; but only a certain
carnal self-love and an insatiable
thirst of vainglory.

7. The sum of all is this, that all
our works, how specious soever they
may appear, if they be directed to
any other end but God, are nothing
but vanity and idolatry. For he is
truly an idolater, who proposes to
himself any other end or aim but God.
"Wherefore, if thou hast any gifts, use
them, but take heed that thy heart
rest not in them ; if it so rest, thou
art guilty of idolatry.

CHAPTER XXIII.

OP THE MYSTERY OP THE CROSS, BY WHICH WE ARE DRAWN TO GOD.

He that taketh not his cross, and follow eth after me, is not worthy of me. — Matt. 10 : 38.

LET all that desire to be the true
disciples and followers of Jesus
Christ, bear their cross in this world,
be it what it may; for if thou flee
from one, another will meet thee; and
do what thou wilt, thou must bear it.
But under every cross the hand of
God is with us, to lighten it and make
it easy, and by his assistance we may
bear it with pleasure. But when God
withdraws his hand, then, indeed, it
is a heavy burden. Now the Son of
God bore a very heavy burden, and
in the most afflicting circumstances;
of which, in their proportion, all his
true friends and followers have been
partakers. "Words cannot express the
many and great advantages that are

in the cross ; forasmuch as God lays
it upon us in mere love, that he may
thereby draw us to himself, and make
us " conformable to the image of his
Son " (Eom. 8 : 29), and partakers of
eternal happiness. The wounds in
Christ's sacred feet, should teach us
abstinence and patience : abstinence
from carnal lusts and fleshly pleas-
ures; and patien%e under all afflic-
tions and oppositions, whether from
within or without. The wounds in
his sacred hands, should teach us si-
lence and contempt of worldly things.
The wound in his side, should teach
us to deny ourselves, and seek for
rest and joy in Christ alone. His
naked body stretched on the cross,

420

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book III.

should continually put us in mind,
that we must be stripped and bare of
all created comforts. For as Christ
was fixed naked to the cross, and his
garments were parted by lot before
his blessed eyes (Ps. 22 : 18 ; Matt.
27 : 35), so, be assured, that if thou
art desirous of perfection, thou must
be stripped of everything which is
not of God. And as every cross, how-
ever small, is laid upon thee by the
particular order and direction of
Providence, so thou oughtest to re-
ceive it with thankfulness. For the
beloved friends of God have always
the greatest share of afflictions. The
devil always makes use of our pros-
perity, as the best season and occa-
sion of our ruin ; to prevent which, it
pleases God, in mere compassion, to
visit his children with a variety of
crosses and afflictions, thereby with-
drawing us from the love of the world,
and disappointing the malicious de-
signs of the tempter. Did we but
know how efficacious the cross is in
bringing us to God, driving away the
devil from us, and entitling us to fu-
ture glories, we should not only ex-
pect it with patience, but run out vig-
orously to meet it. For so great is
the dignity, so transcendent are the
benefits of the cross, that God has al-
lotted it as the inseparable companion
of all his chosen servants.

2. Did we thoroughly consider the
benefits and honor of the cross, we
should think ourselves unworthy of so
great a blessing; fo#great is the honor
of being made like unto the Son of
God ! He was never acceptable to the
world, but was its scorn and derision.
But now, scarcely one Christian in a
thousand is come to that perfection, as
not to desire to please the world. He
that pleaseth the world, cannot, how-
ever, please God : and he that is full

of the world, is empty of God. But
so far as a man dies to himself and the
world, so far is Christ, the true life,
advanced in him. No man can please
God better than by fully submitting to
his will. If my prince should like to
see me in one suit of clothes rather
than in any other, I should certainly
esteem it better than the most gaudy
dress. And since my God is better
pleased to see me under the cross, I
ought certainly to prefer it to all the
affluence and glories of the world.
But perhaps thou art in doubt with
thyself, whether the cross which thou
bearest, has come from God; if so, let
this be the test : Whatsoever thou
sufferest for thine own sake, will be
grievous and tedious, but if thou suffer
for God's sake, thy cross will be easy,
for God himself will lighten it. What
matters it then, whether thy load be of
the weight of a hundred or of a thou-
sand pounds, if He but lend a helping
hand, and make thy yoke easy and thy
burden light. Matt. 11 : 30. Where-
fore, O Lord, lay upon me what bur-
den thou pleasest; only assist me in
my weakness with the everlasting
arms of thy omnipotence ! — Observe,
in the next place, that the choicest
blessings of God are bestowed upon us
whilst we are under the cross; and
though they are sometimes bestowed
beforehand, yet it is the cross that
confirms them in the soul ; and as it
is so very useful and necessary to the
soul, God has given a large share of
it to his faithful friends and servants,
and particularly to his only begotten
Son Jesus Christ; the advantage it
brings with it, making it tolerable and
easy to be borne. Devout men submit
themselves entirely to God, keeping
their minds easy and cheerful under
all the vicissitudes of life. Particu-
larly, they take care to preserve hu-

Chap. XXIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

421

mility, as the best guard against the
assaults of their spiritual adversaries.
Though God sent his only Son into the
world, in order to suffer in his human
nature, yet we expect an exemption
from sufferings. But, be assured that
if you would walk in the same way,
and rest upon a firm foundation, you
must expect to suffer with Christ, and
in some degree at least, to have your
lives conformable to his. Every afflic-
tion, how small soever, is a token of
divine love, commissioned to visit us
for our good. And the united malice
of earth and hell cannot do the least
hurt to a devout man trained up in
sufferings, and in obedience to the dis-
cipline of the cross. The more his
enemies assault, the higher is he ex-
alted by God. And though he should
be thrust down into hell, yet even
there would he meet his God, and hell
itself should be a heaven and blessed-
ness to him.

3. When God sees a man too weak
for a temptation, he refreshes him a
little with his consolations, that he
may not entirely sink under it: but he
should know, that these intermissions
are only allowed him in order to re-
cover his strength, that he may the
better bear up against a fresh assault.
So it pleases the divine love to exercise
men, that by various trials and temp-
tations, they may be brought to de-
spise all worldly enjoyments, and, like
the panting hart (Ps. 42 : 1), may long
for the fountains of divine peace and
joy, the refreshing streams of life and
glory. There the weary soul may
drink and be satisfied, and quench its
thirst in those rivers of pleasure which
are ever flowing from the tender and
paternal love of God. This is what
the wise men of this world neither
know nor understand. For the natu-
ral man cannot discern the things of

the Spirit of God. If the children of
a family should plunder the wine-
cellar, and be intoxicated, whilst the
father is asleep in his bed, how would
he bear it when informed of the mat-
ter ? Would he not correct their ex-
travagance by wholesome severities?
Thus God deals with his children. He
allows them plentiful draughts of spir-
itual comfort, and refreshes them with
his mercies, as with new wine; but
when he sees that they are immoder-
ately fond of it, he withdraws it from
them, and corrects their extravagant
joy, by mixtures of gall and worm-
wood, bringing them thereby to a
sense of their fault, and of their ne-
cessary dependence upon him. They
then begin to think meanly of them-
selves, and to bewail their vain pre-
sumption, which made them fancy that
they could do and suffer anything for
God's sake, whereas now they are
ready to sink under a very small bur-
den. We know that Christ led the
way for us in misery, poverty, and
contempt, even unto death; and we
must follow him in the same way if
we desire to enter into heaven with
him. So great is our pride, that God
sometimes cannot break it, but by
some exemplary shame, which quickly
brings us to our senses, and shows us
our own unworthiness. This is the
only means of bringing us to a true
knowledge of ourselves. Many a man
has gone astray for want of these
wholesome trials. He that considers
this as he ought, will certainly rejoice
in shame and reproaches for God's
sake. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth in this manner, in order to
cure him of his arrogance and pride,
and bring him to humble thoughts of
himself.

4. Whosoever will follow the blessed
Jesus, must " deny himself, and take

422

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IIL

up his cross." Many would freely fol-
low him, if they could do it without
difficulties and sufferings; but these,
aiming chiefly at their own ease, whilst
they pretend to follow Christ, will find
themselves deceived at the last. For
it behooved Christ to die, and to suffer,
and to enter into his kingdom (Luke
24 : 26, 46) : and if we intend to share
with him in the glories of his king-
dom, we must also be content to share
in his sufferings; for unless we suffer
with him here, we shall never reign
with him hereafter. So, then, if we
intend to follow him, we must cheer-
fully and contentedly submit to every
cross, whether inward or outward, and
by this means we shall at length ar-
rive at the glories which he himself
attained by the cross. How many do
we see every day drudging in the ser-
vice of the world; they venture, body
and soul; go into foreign countries;
rush through fire and sword; and all
for the sake of a little uncertain honor;
and shall not we do as much to pur-
chase the everlasting glories of heaven,
as they do for the trifling riches and
glories of this world ? God manifests
himself to us under the cross, as much
as in the most cheerful spiritual visi-
tations; yea, we then receive greater
communications of heavenly joy, when
we are most empty of worldly com-
forts. For as salt preserves flesh from
putrefaction; so afflictions and temp-
tations keep the soul from falling into
sin and misery. And the deeper a
man sinks into the centre of humility
by the cross, the deeper does he pene-
trate into the heart of God, which is
always open to receive and embrace
the mortified and humble soul. This
is the great end proposed by God, in
all his various methods of humbling us;

that, being sensible of our own great
corruption, we may die to ourselves,
and live entirely unto him. The saints
of old, when under heavy tribulations,
could no otherwise possess their souls
in patience and liberty, than by a total
abandonment and denial of themselves,
being ready to submit to every cross
which God should lay upon them, even
though it should last during their
whole life. By this humility, obe-
dience, and self-denial, they were at
last delivered. For the end designed
by God in sending crosses upon them,
being answered, he was pleased imme-
diately to release them.

5. The last comfort under the cross
is, that thou canst not be hurt by it,
unless it be by thine own fault, by be-
ing fretful and impatient under it.
Thou art very much in the wrong, if
thou thinkest thyself injured by this
or that man ; they cannot hurt thee if
thou keep thy mind steady and even
under its burden. Be assured, that so
long as thou art master of thyself and
thy passions, the whole world can do
thee no harm. If thou wouldst be
safe, then, against the assaults of thine
enemy, answer not again ; be silent,
even as a dead man, in his grave.
Every calumny and reproach which
the world shall cast upon thee, shall
be as rays of light, encircling thy head
with a crown of glory. How glorious
are the three degrees of patience, in
which true victory consists ! The first
is, to suffer without murmuring. The
second is, not only to suffer patiently,
but even to wish for suffering for
Christ's sake, from a pure love of him.
The third is, to rejoice in suffering;
and this is the most powerful and the
greatest victory of all.

PEEFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK.

ALL CREATURES ARE MESSENGERS OF GOD, INTENDED TO LEAD US TO GOD.

By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and

whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. — Col.
1 : 16, 17.

THE eminent prophet Moses ex-
hibits to ns two powerful wit-
nesses of God, in the book of Crea-
tion. The first is the universe; the
second is the inferior world, that is,
Man. Both of them, the universe and
the heart of man, furnish glorious tes-
timony in the Scriptures, by which
the Creator and Preserver of all
things is revealed, and also formed in
our hearts.

2. We shall, therefore, introduce in
this Book the testimony of both, that
is, first, of the universe, and secondly,
of the inferior world. Thus we shall
learn that all creatures are, as it were,
the guides and messengers of God,
whereby we are to be brought to
Christian knowledge, and also to Cod
in Christ.

3. It is therefore unnecessary to at-
tempt to prove that this Book also be-
longs to True Christianity, although
there are some who might entertain a
different opinion. If they desire addi-
tional evidence, they may find it in the
passage quoted above (Col. 1 : 16, 17),
and also in the Introduction of the
Gospel according to St. John, and in
very many passages of the Old and
the New Testaments. Let them con-
sider specially Psalms 19; 104; 139;

and the words of St. Paul in Eom. 8 :
22, concerning the groaning of the
whole creation, and in 1 Cor. 15 :
42-52, concerning the resurrection of
the dead ; in that case they will judge
me with more gentleness and favor.
And they will also assent to the Sa-
viour's own method of teaching, who
used to explain and demonstrate to
his disciples and followers the mys-
teries of his kingdom and of true
Christianity, by beautiful illustrations
taken from the book of nature. But
if they oppose the very Sacraments
themselves, which are so many wit-
nesses and seals of divine grace taken
from the great book of nature, then
I refer them to St. Ambrose, Basils
Theodoret, and others, who have writ-
ten largely and learnedly upon the six
days' creation.

4. Thus much may suffice in de-
fence of my method and design; to
which I beg leave to subjoin only this
admonition, as the great argument of
the whole, namely, that it is the duty-
of a true Christian to use God's crea-
tures to his honor and glory, so that
God in all things may be glorified,,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

5. Observe the method by which
the creatures lead us unto God. An,

(423 )

424

PEEFACE TO THE FOUETH BOOK.

indulgent father invites his children
to come to him j and if they are back-
ward, offers them an apple or some
other engaging present. This he gives,
not that the child should be in love
with the present, but be induced by it
to be more fond of the giver. Just so
God deals with us ; he invites us by
all the engaging invitations and prom-
ises of the Gospel ; and not content
with that, he offers us many great
and noble gifts, " doing us good, and
giving us rain from heaven, and fruit-
ful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness." Acts 14 : 17. All
these blessings are so many messen-
gers sent from God to draw us to him-
self, and to instruct us how to taste
the goodness of the Giver and Creator
in that of the creature.

6. But so perverse is man, that his
heart is set upon his gold and silver,
his houses, estates, honors, and pleas-
ures, which, however good in their
kind, are yet in the sight of God of
no value ; they are only given us by
God, to draw us to himself. For this
reason it was, that God made man so
needy and helpless a creature, that
by the variety of his blessings and
multitude of his benefits, he might
draw him to himself, and teach him
by these various instances of his love

and goodness, that all the comfort and
sweetness which he tastes in the crea-
ture, really proceeds from the Cre-
ator; and that he alone is able to
comfort, relieve, and support us, when
these perishing worldly comforts for-
sake and leave us.

7. But the greatest of all God's
messengers, the most excellent of all
his gifts, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only begotten Son of God, in whom
are all the fulness and perfection of
divine love and goodness. His mercy
is over all his works, and " by him all
things were made." John 1 :3. "By
him all things consist." Col. 1 : 17.
" He upholdeth all things by the word
of his power." Heb. 1 : 3.

8. Having said thus much by way
of preface, I begin the First Part of
this Book, treating in general of the
six days of creation, to promote the
knowledge, glory, and praise of God.

9. Of man, we shall speak more
particularly in the Second Part ; and
I in treat my readers to read the Con-
clusion to my Second Book, before
they begin to judge me. For I again
protest and declare that I desire my
writings to be understood in accord-
ance with the Symbolical Books of
the Church of the Augsburg Confes-
sion, and in no other sense.

BOOK IV.

PAßT I.

TREATING OF THE WORKS OF THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION, IN GENERAL.

CHAPTER I.

OF LIGHT, THE WORK OF THE FIRST DAY.

God said, Let there be light; and there was light. — He covereth himself with light as with a gar-

ment. — God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
John 1 : 5.

-Gen. 1:3: Ps. 104

IN" those words in Job 38 : 19—
" Where is the way where light
dwelleth? and as for darkness, where
is the place thereof?" it is intimated
that the nature of light is very diffi-
cult to be explained, and that its
original is not to be compreheuded
by finite understandings. For though
we know something of it by means
of sight, yet it is but little; however,
let us employ that little to promote
the glory of God.

2. First, then, we say that light is
a noble, subtle, and pure principle,
separated from the darkness in the
morning of the creation, when God
" commanded the light to shine out of
darkness." 2 Cor. 4:6. By this the
world is enlightened and comforted,
and all its beautiful variety is dis-
tinctly known and apprehended. By
this, as some think, the light of life
was conveyed into the great world,
incorporating itself with every crea-
ture. From this pure brightness and
glorious splendor, light and beauty
flowed into the sun, constituting it

thereby the great luminary of the
day, which it governs and directs.
Jer. 31 : 35. Whence, also, the Cre-
ator himself calls the light day. Gen.
1 : 5, 14.

3. But as it is the duty of a Chris-
tian to contemplate the works of God
with spiritual eyes, so as therein to
see the Creator, and by the work be
led to praise the Maker; let us take a
nearer view of this subject, and see
how the light and the sun bear wit-
ness of God and Christ.

4. And the first conclusion that nat-
urally presents itself is this : If God
created so beautiful, refreshing, en-
livening, clear, and shining a light;
how much more lovely, comfortable,
and refreshing a light must He be
himself? Therefore, the commentator
upon St. Dionysius, to the questionf
<' Why God first of all created light ?"'
answers — Because from his own essen-
tial light, the visible light almost nat-
urally proceeds, as that which bears
the nearest resemblance to his own
nature ; and therefore he calls light, a

( 425 )

426

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IY. Part I.

little after, "the image of the good-
ness of God f adding, that the light
in God was transcendent and above
comprehension; in angels and men,
intelligible ; in the sun, visible.

5. And, whereas God made the light,
in order that the true external form
and beauty of the creatures might be
distinctly seen and apprehended, it
follows that there is also another se-
cret or concealed light, by which the
internal form of the creatures may
be likewise known, and from which
nothing can be hidden. And this
light is the eternal wisdom of God,
which, being compared with the nat-
ural and created light, has been fitly
called the brightness of the everlast-
ing light.

6. Of this St. Dionysius writes in
these words. "As the visible light
directs, governs, and fills the visible
world; so the incomprehensible and
heavenly light, fills and enlightens all
heavenly spirits. It also purifies the
soul from darkness and error, and
brings it into communion with the
light of God. It is at first no more
than a twilight, or faint glimmering
of light; but when it is tasted, loved,
and desired, then, in proportion to our
love, it increases more and more unto
the perfect day. Wherefore this tran-
scendent light exceeds all lights, being,
as it were, the centre and fountain of
them all. From its fulness it enlight-
ens all spirits; and, being the original
of all light, it comprehends under it
all the degrees of spiritual, angelical,
rational, and natural light. And as
ignorance separates deluded souls from
the light ; so the presence of this divine
light, collects, unites, perfects, and de-
livers from ignorance and error, all
that are enlightened by it : it converts
them to the truth, reducing their va-
rious imaginations to the standard of

pure and simple truth, and fills their
souls with pure and uniform light."
Thus far St. Dionysius.

7. In the light of the sun, also, shines
forth the pure, deep, and ardent love
of God. For whom did he create the
sun ? Certainly not for himself, for
he needeth not the sun, nor any other
created light, being himself a light
infinite and eternal. It was for our
sakes, therefore, that he created it ; so
that every ray of light proceeding
from the sun, is indeed a ray of divine
love towards mankind.

8. And as the eternal wisdom of
God is likewise a bright sun, clearly
discovering his mercy and beneficence;
therefore, according to the nature and
properties of the visible sun and light,
it may also be called, an image of the
divine goodness.

9. The created light determines the
order, figures, and distinctions of all
created things; for without it, the
whole world would be nothing but
darkness and confusion. So that upon
this account also, the light is an image
of the divine wisdom.

10. The created light, by its bright-
ness and splendor, causes everything
to turn to it; so the goodness of God
draws all things to itself, as the centre
and principle of all things.

11. The light of the sun is pure and
spotless ; so is the love of God towards
mankind. Hence also the divine wis-
dom, being a spotless light, is, agree-
ably to this property of the sun, the
spotless mirror of the divine majesty.

12. As the light flows plentifully
and freely from the sun ; so the love
of God descends plentifully upon us.
As the sun shines freely upon all, with-
out respect of persons; so the divine
love overflows upon all mankind. As
the light proceeds from the nature and
essence of the sun; so does the love

Chap. I.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

427

of God flow from his very nature and
essence.

13. Moreover, as God created the
external light for the world and visi-
ble bodies; so it is worth inquiring^
whether he did not at the same time
provide an inward and spiritual light
for the soul. For God took not less
care of the soul, than he did of the
body. Now this light of the soul is
God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Ghost, the ever blessed and un-
divided Trinity, by whom our under-
standings are enlightened through
faith. "Arise, shine; for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee." Isa. 60 : 1.

14. Now as the sun enlightens the
world, so does Christ enlighten the
soul. " That was the true Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into
the world" (John 1:9); and is, there-
fore, called by the prophet Malachi,
" The Sun of righteousness." Mai. 4 : 2.
St. James calls God, "the Father of
lights." James 1 : 17. The Holy Ghost
appeared upon the Apostles in the form
of fiery tongues (Acts 2:3); and from
this eternal light proceeds the light of
grace, the light of wisdom and divine
knowledge, the light of truth and life,
the light of joy and consolation, the
light of God's countenance, the light
of faith and all Christian virtues.

15. This light is the chief beauty
and glory of the creatures. God is said
to be clothed "with light ho with a
garment." Ps. 104 : 2. " The glory of
the Lord" (Luke 2:9), is also the
beauty of the blessed saints and holy
angels. The highest majesty and glory
of the elect in the other world, will
consist in light and splendor. "The
righteous shall shine forth as the sun
in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt.
13:43; Dan. 12:3); which is also
expressed in the appearance of the

woman clothed with the sun. Eev. 12 :
1. Lastly, as the light is the greatest
ornament of this visible world ; so the
everlasting light shall be the chief
glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. Eev.
21:11.

16. The more light any creature has,
the more noble it is. This appears
from the angels, the sun, moon, stars,
and precious stones. So virtue itself
is a most glorious light, and all the
redeemed in the next world, shall be
full of light and glory, and accordingly
shall be distinguished, as "one star
differeth from another star in glory."
1 Cor. 15 : 41.

17. Light is refreshing : and who can
doubt but, when the day of eternal light
arrives, the blessed saints shall be re-
freshed with joy unspeakable ? With-
out question, the light of the everlast-
ing Sun of righteousness shall give us
infinitely more delight and joy, than
this created sun, which only gives
light to a world of misery and sorrow.

18. The light awakens those that
sleep ; so Christ, our light, rouses us
from the sleep of sin. " Awake, thou
that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee
light." Eph. 5 : 14.

19. The light directs the traveller
in his way : so saith Christ — " I am
the light of the world ; he that follow-
eth me, shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life." John
8:12; 13 : 46.

20. Moreover, as light has a vital
power in it; so in Christ, our light,
" was life; and the life was the light of
men." John 1:4. " The Lord is my
light and my salvation; he is the
strength of my life." Ps. 27 : 1.

21. As the light cannot be seen but
by itself; so God cannot be known
but by Himself: "In thy light shall
we see light." Ps. 36 : 9.

22. As the external light chases

428

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IY. Part L

away the darkness, and the spirits of
darkness ; so Christ, who is the light
of God in us, chases away unbelief,
and all the works of darkness and
Satan. God must speak the word
in us, as he did at the first creation,
"Let there be light!" or we shall for
ever remain in darkness. This made
the Psalmist say, " Thou wilt light my
candle; the Lord will enlighten my
darkness." Ps. 18 : 28. " To give light
to them that sit in darkness, and in
the shadow of death." Luke 1 : 79.
"I saw an angel come down from
heaven; and the earth was lightened
with his glory." Eev. 18 : 1.

23. When the daylight is gone, the
moon, regent of the night, arises with
a pale lustre : so, without the light of
Christ, man is nothing but darkness ;
and the boasted light of reason is but
dim obscurity.

24. And as he would be called fool-
ish, who preferred being enlightened
by the moon, rather than by the sun ;
so are they much more foolish, who
prefer the wisdom of this world, to the
eternal wisdom of God in Christ Jesus.
And as none but a madman would
make use of the light of a candle in sun-
shine; so no man in his senses would
think himself more enlightened by
worldly wisdom, than by the divine
wisdom. Strange madness! that a
man should expect more light from
the creature, than from the Creator,
the Father of lights, God blessed for
ever ! Whosoever duly apprehends my
meaning, has in him the beginning of
the divine, eternal, and heavenly wis-
dom, which is the subject of the whole
119th Psalm.

25. As the sun is the ornament of
heaven, so Christ is the ornament of
his church, and of the new heaven,
and new earth in their future glory,
where it will be manifested to all the

elect, that he is " the brightness of his
Father's glory, and the express image
of his person." Heb. 1:3; Col. 1 : 15.

26. As dwellings are pleasant, in
proportion as they receive the light,
so " God dwelleth in light." 1 Tim. 6 :
16. And the heavenly Jerusalem is
described as full of sweet and refresh-
ing light. "It hath no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to shine in
it : for the glory of God enlightens it,
and the Lamb is the light thereof."
Eev. 21 : 23.

27. As the light makes all things
clear and plain ; so there is nothing in
heaven or in earth, no spirit, no being,
nor the very thoughts of the heart,
that can be hidden from the hVht of

o

divine wisdom. Heb. 4 : 12, 13. Hence
the Psalmist says, " Thou hast set our
iniquities before thee, our secret sins
in the light of thy countenance." Ps.
90 : 8. And " Thou understandest my
thought afar off." Ps. 139 : 2.

28. As the light communicates itself
to all creatures, and diffuses itself over
the world; so God communicates him-
self to all creatures, particularly to
men, delighting most of all in doing
them good.

29. Lastly, the light and sun are a
witness of the glorification of our souls
and bodies at the resurrection. The
glorification of our souls is, indeed, in
some degree accomplished in this life
by the Holy Spirit, according to the
words of St. Paul, " We all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3 : 18.
These, however, are but the imperfect
beginnings, and first glimpses of eter-
nal happiness; but hereafter both soul
and body shall be clothed with ever-
lasting light and glory. Hence St.
Paul says, "There is one glory of the

Chap. IL]

TEUE CIIKISTIANITY.

429

sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars : so
also is the resurrection of the dead."
1 Cor. 15 : 41, 42. "They that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many
to righteousness, as the stars forever
and ever." Dan. 12 : 13.

30. Of this we find an image in the
transfiguration of our Lord, when " his
face did shine as the sun, and his rai-
ment was white as the light." Matt.
17 : 2. This was the heavenly bright-
ness, the splendor of the everlasting
Sun. So the face of Moses shone like
the brightness of the sun, so that the
children of Israel could not look upon

him. Exod. 34 : 29 ; 2 Cor. 3 : 7. And
this was the consequence of only a
few days passed in the divine presence.
How great then must that glory be,
which will be the result of our eternal
union and converse with him ! The
lustre of the face of Moses was terrible
to look on, but the glory of Christ was
refreshing and comfortable.

31. Rev. 1 : 14, 16. The eyes of him
that had the seven stars in his hand,
were " as a flame of fire." And the
same Jesus Christ, who is the eternal
light, shall so glorify us at the last
day, that our whole bodies shall shine
like lightning. Matt. 6 : 22; Luke 11 :
36.

CHAPTER II.

OF HEAVEN, THE WORK OF THE SECOND DAY.
See Gen. 1:6-8; Ps. 104: 6; Ps. 19 : 1.

WHO can doubt that the admira-
ble and pure structure of heav-
en, with all its wonderful properties, is
a strong evidence and witness of God ?
" What are heaven and all the beauty
of nature " (says one of the ancients),
"but an illustrious mirror, in which
we view the wonders of their Maker."
For if God created all so pure, so glo-
rious, and so firm, that our weak un-
derstandings cannot comprehend or
explain it; how pure, how glorious,
eternal, spiritual, unutterable a Being
must that God be who created all ? An d
if He has made so glorious a heaven
over men, during their short abode
here; how much more illustrious a
mansion has he not reserved for us
hereafter in the region of life and im-
mortality? Hence St. Paul tells us,

" We know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heav-
ens. For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven." 2 Cor.
5: 1,2.

2. As to the stupendous height and
compass of heaven, to which the earth
is in comparison no more than a single
point ; how does it suggest to us the
immense and unsearchable power and
wisdom of God ? " For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts, than your thoughts, saith
the Lord." Isa. 55 : 8, 9. Does not its
circular roundness remind us of the
eternity of God? For of both there

430

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[Book IV. Part I.

is neither beginning nor end. Does
it not also tell us of his omnipresence?
For as the heaven surrounds and en-
compasses all things, so does the God
of heaven support and comprehend all
his creatures. "Who hath measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and meted out heaven with the span,
and comprehended the dustoftheearth
in a measure, and weighed the moun-
tains in scales, and the hills in a bal-
ance ?" Isa. 40 : 12.

3. And as, in a circle, no part can be
called upper and lower; so God fills
all things equally. Heaven and earth
are full of the majesty of his glory;
"He is not far from every one of us;
for in him we live, and move, and
have our being." Acts 17 : 27, 28. For
though there are antipodes and many
other creatures under us, as is demon-
strable from the figure of the earth;
yet by the wonderful power of God
the heaven is everywhere over our
heads, and we look up directly towards
it, by reason of its immensity.

4. Does not also the firmament of
heaven remind us of the constant,
eternal, and immutable truth of God
and his Word? For who is it that
supports the heaven ? Where are the
pillars that sustain it? Or how does
it hang, but upon the word of God?
"The pillars of heaven tremble," saith
Job, "and are astonished at his re-
proof. He holdeth back the face of
his throne, and spreadeth his cloud
upon it." Job 26 : 9, 11. And if by
his word he has so strongly fixed the
heavens, who can doubt that he will
keep his word and promise to us for-
ever and ever? If he support the
heavens by the word of his power,
doubt not but he will also support,
protect, and preserve thee forever.

5. But, from this created heaven,
learn to raise thy thoughts to the

spiritual heaven (1 Kings 8:27),
" where are fulness of joy and pleas-
ures forever more." Ps. 16 : 11. This
St. Paul calls "paradise, and the third
heaven" (2 Cor. 12:2,4); and "the
glory into which Jesus Christ was re-
ceived." 1 Tim. 3 : 16. This our Lord
himself calls "his Father's house,
where he prepares a place for us"
(John 14: 2); and lastly, it is called,
"the heaven of heavens." 1 Kings
8:27.

6. Moreover, by meditation upon
this external, transient heaven, thou
mayest learn to descend into thyself,
into thine own heart and soul; for
there also is heaven, and the habita-
tion of God. "For thus saith the
high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, I dwell with him that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones." Isaiah
57 : 15.

7. Let this external heaven lead
thee to the new heaven, of which St.
Peter speaks: "We, according to his
promise, look for new heavens, and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth right-
eousness." 2 Peter 3 : 13. For though
this visible heaven was created in
such purity, by God, as not to be
subject to corruption; yet "the heav-
ens are not clean in his sight." Job
15 : 15. Therefore, " they' shall pass
away," as St. Peter tells us. 2 Pet. 3 :
10. And "they shall perish, and wax
old like a garment, and as a vesture
shalt thou change them, and they shall
be changed." Ps. 102 : 27. "I saw a
new heaven and a new earth : for the
first heaven and the first earth were
passed away. And he that sat upon
the throne said, Behold, I make all
things new." Eev. 21 : 1, 5. "Behold,
I create new heavens, and a new
earth: and the former shall not be

Chap. III.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

431

remembered, nor come into mind."
Isa. 65 : 17. How beautiful, how il-
lustrious will be this city of God, this
heavenly Jerusalem, whose builder
and maker is God ! Or who can de-
clare the glory of that happy place?
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath

prepared for them that love him."
1 Cor. 2 : 9. Hence the Evangelist
St. John describes the new and heav-
enly city by all the precious and costly
things in nature. See Eev. 21 : 11, 18-
21. In a word, this is that heaven in
which " God will be all in all." 1 Cor.
15 : 28.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE SEPARATION OF THE WATERS FROM THE DRY LAND, THE WORK OF THE

THIRD DAY.

God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry
land appear. And God called the dry land, earth. — Gen. 1 : 9, 10. The earth is full of the
goodness of the Lord. — Ps. 33 : 5 ; 104 : 24.

THE earth is a heavy and gross
substance, separated from the
waters, and fixed by the power of
God to be the receptacle of all the
heavenly influences. This globe hangs
in the air by the power of the Al-
mighty, and is replenished with the
vital seeds of all trees, plants, and
vegetables.

2. The stupendous structure and
foundation of the earth is a most
wonderful witness of the power of
God. For by what pillars is the earth
supported? Or where are its founda-
tions?

3. Some have disputed whether the
dry land be founded in the waters; or
whether, as being the heavier sub-
stance, it sink to the lowest place so
as to be the foundation of the wafers.

4. The patrons of the first opinion
build upon these testimonies: "He
hath founded it upon the seas, and es-
tablished it upon the floods." Ps. 24 :

2. And, " He stretched out the earth
above the waters." Ps. 136 : 6. To
which may be added the testimony of
St. Chrysostom, that " God laid the
foundation of the earth upon the
water."

5. Others assert the contrary, 1.
Because the earth is heaviest, and
therefore sinks to the lowest place,
where it naturally remains fixed and
immovable \ for if the earth should
move out of its place, it must move
upwards, which is contrary to nature.
And for this they quote, " Who laid
the foundations of the earth, that it
should not be removed for ever."
Ps. 104:5. 2. They allege the ex-
perience of seamen, who sound the
bottom of the sea ; and explain those
passages of the Psalms which men-
tion the separation of the waters of
the dry land, as Moses describes it.
Gen. 1 : 9.

6. But on what does this vast ter-

432

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part I.

raqueons globe depend ? Who bears it
up ? VYhere are the pillars of it ?
" He hangeth the earth upon noth-
ing/' (Job 26 : 7), saith Job. For it
hangs in the midst of heaven, borne
up in the air, begirt with the waters,
" Thou coveredst it with the deep as
with a garment." Ps. 104 : 6. The
air and water support one another;
the clouds, though vast masses of wa-
ter, are yet supported by the air from
falling ; for the power of sustaining is
a property of the air. " He bindeth
up the waters in his thick clouds, and
the cloud is not rent under them."
Job 26 : 8.

7. The stability of the earth in the
waters, and in the centre of the vast
expanse of air, is a very clear argu-
ment of the divine omnipotence ;
" Where wast thou (saith the Lord, to
Job), when I laid the foundations of
the earth ? Who hath laid the meas-
ures thereof? Who laid the corner-
stone thereof?" Job 38 : 4-6. Thence,
we learn, that the foundation of the
earth could not be comprehended by
human understanding, but must be
counted among the infinite wonders
of Omnipotence. " Therefore," saith
the Psalmist, "will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, and
though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea; though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled;
though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof?" Ps. 46 : 2, 3. And
that this is an argument of the wis-
dom of God is plain from Prov. 8 :
29, 30 ; where wisdom says of herself,
" When he appointed the foundations
of the earth, I was with him, etc."

8. And this is the earth of which
the Psalmist says, " God hath given
it to the children of men." Ps. 115 :
16. But though, as to its external
form, it appear to be a hard, dead,

dry, and cold mass, yet is it in truth,
enriched by God with a wonderful
variety of blessings, fruitful energy,
and seminal virtues. These never
rest; but are always active to pro-
duce fruits, adorned with agreeable
forms, odors, tastes, and colors, with
external signatures of their inward
virtues and qualities.

9. So, then, from the earth proceed
all the varieties of plants and vegeta-
bles, having exchanged their old at-
tire for a new and delicate dress. The
tattered garments of the preceding
year being decayed and dead, they
come forth with exquisite beauty,
odor, and color, and, as it were, preach
to mankind in words such as these :
"Look upon us, ye unbelieving sons
of men ; we were dead, and are now
alive again. We have laid aside our
old garments and bodies, and are now
renewed. Do ye also imitate us;
' put off the old man, and put on the
new ' (Eph. 4 : 22-24) ; being renewed
in your eternal fountain and original,
which is God, your Creator, in whose
image ye were created. If ye do this,
then in the day of the righteous
judgment of God, when ye have lost
your old bodies, ye shall, like us,
come forth out of the earth (1 Cor.
15 : 42), with new bodies, clothed
with immortal glory, of which our
new-born beauty is but a faint re-
semblance. And whilst ye are in this
world, take not too much thought for
the body. Matt. 6 : 25, etc. Consider
us, whom the God of nature has an-
nually, for so many thousands of
years since the first creation to this
time, provided with beautiful clothing,
as an argument of his bounty and
goodness. Consider our virtues and
qualities, which are given not for our,
but for your benefit; we bloom and
blossom, not for our good, but yours;

Chap. III.]

TEUE CHEISTIAjSTITY.

433

yea, the blessing of God blossoms
through us."

10. Among the vegetables, also, a
man may discern many thousands of
witnesses of the goodness and omnipo-
tence of God. Here we have a per-
fect collection of drugs and simples,
an admirable and complete herbal ;
yea, a living one, not furnished with
faint draughts and dead pictures; but
graved with living characters and im-
pressions, to be read by every curious
spectator, but not to be fully under-
stood by any, except by Him that
made them. And till we come fully
to understand their divine signatures,
we cannot so perfectly know the won-
ders of Providence contained under
them.

11. Every herb and plant has its
proper signature, which is nothing
less than the inscription and hand-
writing of God, whereby he has most
wonderfully and beautifully distin-
guished them all according to their
virtues and qualities ; and in many of
them, the outward form is a token of
their inward virtues. The turf we
tread upon is furnished both with food
and medicine. Yea, in the smallest
grain or seed is manifested the un-
searchable wisdom of God. He has
created nothing in vain, and the
minutest part of the creation is not
to be overlooked or despised, since we
know not the thousandth part of its
virtues.

12. But if from their external forms
we descend to their internal, and ex-
tract their spirit by chemical pro-
cesses, separating that pure essence,
which being full of high medicinal vir-
tue, is lodged by God in the outward
body, as a diamond in a casket, then,
indeed, we shall truly taste the good-
ness of God in the virtues of his crea-
tures, and bless him with a grateful

heart, for the many comfortable medi-
cines which he has provided for miser-
able man.

13. Consider, moreover, how the
bountiful Creator has provided not
only for man, but also furnished
" food for all flesh." Ps. 136 : 25 ; 145 :
15. He causeth the grass to grow for
the cattle, and herb for the service of
men, "that he may bring forth food
out of the earth, and wine that mak-
eth glad the heart of man." Ps. 104:
14, 15. So that we may properly call
the earth the treasury or storehouse
of God, in which are laid up a variety
of blessings both for man and beast :
upon which account the Psalmist says,
" the earth is full of the goodness of
the Lord." Ps. 33 : 5.

14. A very wonderful effect of this
divine goodness is, that bread sustains
the whole body, so that in one single
morsel is contained the nourishment
of all the members of the body. And
because of this nutritive quality that
is in bread, therefore, the eternal Son
of God calls himself the " bread of
life" (John 6 : 35); denoting his pow-
er of nourishing and sustaining the
whole man, body, soul, and spirit.

15. It is no less wonderful, that the
greatest tree, with its root, trunk.,,
boughs, leaves, seed, flowers, and fruit,,
should be contained in a very small
seed ; and that every year the same
plants and trees, with their respective
fruits and seeds, should appear in their
proper order and season. All this must
be resolved into the principle of the
seed, containing in it all those powers,,
which successively display themselves
in so great a variety of size, thickness,
height, and breadth.

16. Notice also, how the grass, upon
which the cattle feed, becomes food
for man; being converted into the
milk and flesh of the creatures that

28

434

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IY, Part I.

eat them. Even our beds and clothes
grow out of the earth, since both sheep
and birds live upon the fruits of it.

17. I shall not in this place speak
particularly of trees and plants : other-
wise, perhaps, I should have taken no-
tice of the fig-tree which was accursed
by our blessed Saviour (Matt. 21 :
19) ; of the olive-tree, whose leaf the
dove brought into Noah's ark (Gen. 8 :
11); of the palm-tree, to which the
flourishing state of the righteous is
compared (Ps. 92 : 12) ; of the cedars,
and of the spices, of which Moses made
the holy ointment (Exod. 30 : 23); of
the generous spikenard, which is a
type of the Holy Spirit, and of the
resurrection of the dead, being used in
embalming bodies, in order to preserve
them from putrefaction ; of the vine,
and various vegetables; from which
the Holy Ghost draws beautiful simil-
itudes, designed to illustrate and ex-
plain to us the mysteries of the king-
dom of God.

18. Of the fruitfulness of the earth,
David speaks thus : " Thou visitest the
earth, and waterest it: thou greatly
enrichest it with the river of God
which is full of water : thou preparest
them corn, when thou hast so provided
for it. Thou waterest the ridges there-
of abundantly ; thou settlest the fur-
rows thereof: thou makest it soft with
showers: thou blessest the springing
thereof: thou crownest the year with
thy goodness, and thy paths drop fat-
ness." Ps. 65:9-11. That is, every
month produces its peculiar fruit out
of its treasury, the bosom of the earth.

19. This natural fertility of the
earth has been very much restrained
by the curse of the Almighty ; hence
the tares which choke the good corn.
" Cursed is the ground," saith God,
tl thorns and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee." Gen. 3 : 17, 18. Fruit-

fulness, therefore, must be regarded
and prayed for, as the gift and bless-
ing of God, without which, a man can
neither plough, sow, nor plant with
success : " for it is God that giveth the
increase." 1 Cor. 3 : 6. Thus we are
to understand the words, "A fruitful
land turneth he into barrenness, for
the wickedness of them that dwell
therein." Ps. 107 : 34.

20. Let our meditations on the fruit-
fulness of the earth, carry our thoughts
to that new earth which we expect,
"wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2
Pet. 3 : 13. There the curse, to which
the present earth is in bondage, shall
have no place; it shall be the region
of perfect blessedness and life eternal.
This is the new paradise, full of celes-
tial sweetness, joy, and pleasure : then
shall we truly sing this song, " the
flowers appear on the earth." Cant. 2 :
12.

21. I come next to the mountains,
which by their height and beauty are
no small ornament to the earth. The
mountains are, in a more particular
sense, the treasury of God, in which
all kinds of metals are prepared. They
are, as it were, so many chemical fur-
naces, in which the matter of all metals
and minerals is separated and ma-
tured. It has been observed, that the
best simples grow upon high moun-
tains ; and whensoever they are trans-
planted into gardens, they degenerate
and lose their virtue. Hence it was
said of Hippocrates that the herbs
which he used in the practice of med-
icine, were generally gathered from
hills and mountainous places.

22. The mountains ought to remind
us both of the protection of God (and
so the expression is used in Scripture
— " I will lift up mine eyes unto the
hills, from whence cometh my help ;"
Ps. 121 : 1) ; and also of the Church

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435

of God. " The mountains shall bring
peace, and the little hills by righteous-
ness." Ps. 72 : 3.

23. Under this head, also, we may
consider the springs and rivers of
waters that run through the valleys,
adorning, enriching, and beautifying
the earth. For though, in strict pro-
priety, the fountains belong to the
work of the fifth day ; yet the royal
Prophet couples the mountains and
springs together, because the rivers
arise from the hills. Ps. 104 : 10.

24. Solomon tells us, " All the rivers
run into the sea; yet the sea is not
full ; unto the place from whence the
rivers come, thither they return again."
Eccles. 1 : 7. Though the waters, pass-
ing out of the sea through the earth,
are sweetened by percolation ; yet they
do not everywhere break forth, nor
form springs in all places, but accord-
ing to the order and appointment of
God. So saith the Psalmist, "He
sendeth the springs into the valleys."
Ps. 104 : 10. And their continual
streams are not only a great blessing,
and a miracle of divine power, but are
also an apt representation of eternal
life.

25. If God take so much care of the
beasts of the earth, shall he not much
more take care of us? If " the beasts
of the field cry unto him, when the
rivers of waters are dried up" (Joel 1 :
20), how much more ought we to call
upon him in all our distresses? And,
whereas, those places are generally
most pleasant, where there is the
greatest plenty of springs and rivulets :
so thither the birds generally resort,
and " sing among the branches." Ps.
104 : 12. It is as if God had taken
care to fill even the forests with their
music, that so every place might re-
sound with his praises, and that man
might learn, even from the animals,

that not only himself, but all creatures
were made to praise and glorify God.

26. Natural fountains, of which some
are well known as possessing healing
virtues, should remind us of the foun-
tain of grace and salvation, the water
of life, even Jesus Christ. " With joy
shall ye draw water out of the wells of
salvation." Isa. 12 : 3. "With thee is
the fountain of life ; in thy light shall we
see light." Ps. 86 : 9. "Ho ! every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."
Isa. 55 : 1. " The Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and
shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters, and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes." Rev. 7 : 17.

27. The 104th Psalm, which gives
us a beautiful account of the work of
the third day, takes particular notice
of seven illustrious creatures of God,
all proceeding from the earth, and all
capable of a spiritual sense. First, he
speaks of the earth in general; that
God laid its foundations, divided it
from the waters, adorned it with
mountains, and watered it with
springs. Thence descending to par-
ticulars, he takes notice of its remark-
able productions. 1. The dew, where-
with He waters the mountains. 2. ¥he
grass. 3. Bread. 4. Wine. 5. Oil,
or balsam. 6. The fruits of trees.
7. Birds and beasts : all which are
plainly expressed in the 104th Psalm.

28. Thus he speaks: "He watereth
the hills from his chambers : the earth
is satisfied with the fruit of thy works."
Ps. 104 : 13. Thus we often see with
admiration, the clouds hovering upon
the mountains, and dropping showers
of plenty upon the hills, as " the bot-
tles of heaven " (Job 38 : 37) ; and
then God doth truly water the hills
from above. Sometimes, also, he
sends his dew, refreshing them with
great plenty. Thus were continually

436

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[Book IY, Part I.

watered little Hermon, in Judea, and
the mountains of Gilboa, where Saul
and Jonathan, his son, were slain.
Therefore David said, " Ye mountains
of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither
let there be rain upon you." 2 Sam.
1 : 21.

29. It is the property of dew to
make the ground rich and fruitful,
and to refresh the flowers scorched
with excessive heat ; whence, at last,
the bees by wonderful art draw their
honey. Sometimes we see a sort of
honey-dew lying upon the leaves, as
did the manna heretofore. Just so
the Gospel is like a spiritual honey,
the dew of the Holy Spirit.

30. It is not without reason that
peace is compared to dew. Ps. 133 :
1, 3. For as the dew is generated by
the morning, so peace proceeds from
Jesus Christ, who is himself the
morning star, and the Prince of peace.
Where Christ liveth, reigneth, and
worketb, there is perpetual peace.
"The kingdom of God is righteous-
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost." Eom. 14 : 17. " Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God." Matt. 5 :
9. Such are begotten of God, as the
dew is of the morning; and as the
dew makes all things lively, fresh, and
flourishing, so also does peace; which,
therefore, every good man ought to
beg of God, the Father of peace.

31. And whereas, in the last place,
it is said that "the earth is satisfied
with the fruit of God's works," it
suggests that the Word of God the
Creator, is still as powerful and effi-
cacious as formerly it was, when he
spake the word, saying, " Let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yield-
ing fruit." So that all things, from
the beginning of the would to this

day, spring from the Word of God,
as from an eternal root of divine
blessing.

32. Secondly, the Psalmist says,
" He causeth the grass to grow for
the cattle." Yerse 14. Nor is that
the least of God's blessings ; for how
could so many wild as well as tame
beasts, that minister to the necessi-
ties of man, subsist, were the grass to
fail? And it is wonderful that when,
in very dry weather, one would not
think there could be grass enough to
support the beasts that are to eat it,
yet they still live upon it. Thus it
seems to grow as much by night as it
is eaten by day.

33. Hence, we learn how merciful
God is to mankind, and how liberally
he provides for our necessities; and,
though the grass may seem to be the
least and meanest of all the blessings
of God, yet we cannot be sufficiently
thankful for it. So true is it that the
least of God's blessings exceeds our
highest gratitude.

34. The grass may also furnish us
with proofs of the Divine Providence.
1. He that considers that God takes
care of the grass of the ground, can-
not question, but that he takes much
more care of him and his affairs, ac-
cording to Matt. 6 : 30. 2. It may
put us in mind of our own vanity.
For " all flesh is grass, and all the good-
liness thereof is as the flower of the
field." Isa. 40 : 6. 3. It may also min-
ister comfort under afflictions and
persecutions, according to Psalm 37 :
1, 2. " Fret not thyself because of
evil-doers, neither be thou envious
against the workers of iniquity; for
they shall soon be cut down like the
grass, and wither as the green herb."

35. Thirdly, " Herb for the service
of man : that he may bring forth food
out of the earth : and bread, which

Chap. III.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

437

strengthened man's heart." Ps. 104 :
14, 15. Now the very notion of bread
implies in it a great variety of divine
blessings. First, it reminds us of
God's paternal affection towards us;
for a father naturally cares and pro-
vides for his children. So Matt. 7 : 9,
" What man is there of you, whom if
his son ask bread will he give him a
stone ?" Let us remember, then, that
God is our Father ; and that we are
needy and indigent creatures, subject
to infirmities and necessities. So
that our very hunger and thirst are
so many monitors to lead us unto
God; and every morsel of bread we
eat, should put us in mind of the pa-
ternal affection and goodness of God.

36. (2) Let us admire and rever-
ence the wise dispensation of Provi-
dence, which assigns to every man his
convenient portion of bread, so that
no man has reason to complain that
he is forgotten before God. Heb. 13:5.

37. (3) From bread we may learn
the wisdom of God. In Psalm 104 :
14, God is said " to bring forth herb
for the service of man, that he may
bring forth food (or bread) out of the
earth." The bread which we eat is,
at first, nothing but grass, which,
growing up into ears, and into the
perfect grain, supplies us with bread,
which at last is converted into our
body and blood. This miraculous
operation gives us an image of our
creation ; forasmuch as even to this
day he makes the flesh and blood of
man out of the earth ; so that we may
properly call it our mother, and say
that " in God we live, and move, and
have our being." Acts 17 : 28. The
nutritive virtue of bread is the Word
of God. If God should withdraw it,
then all flesh and blood would wither
and decay as a flower, or as the grass
of the field. Therefore, man doth not

live by bread alone. Matt. 4:4; Deut.

8:3.

38. The specific property of bread is
indicated in these words ; " Bread,
which strengthened man's heart." Ps.
104 : 17. Every other kind of food, by
being daily eaten, becomes unwelcome
to us ; but bread never does. So that
bread is a universal food, and seems to
contain in it all the nutritive qualities
of every other sort of food, all of which
borrow their virtues from it; as the
planets derive their light from the
universal luminary, the sun. And this
we may conceive to be the reason of
the great virtue there is in bread, that,
being the most common and ordinary
food, every man might find in it where-
withal to support life, though he should
have nothing else. In a word, what-
ever we eat or drink, ought to be
looked upon as a miracle of divine
wisdom and goodness.

39. Lastly, the strengthening faculty
of bread, puts us in mind of " the bread
of life," which is Christ. So we read
in John 6:35. "I am the bread of
life : he that cometh to me shall never
hunger; and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst." For in this bread
of life, all the power of God is con-
tained; because "it pleased God that
in him all fulness should dwell" (Col.
1 : 19) ; " and that of his fulness have all
we received, and grace for grace " (John
1:16); and by him, "we might be
filled with all the fulness of God." Eph.
3 : 19. Blessed is he that eateth this
bread ! Earthly bread cannot save us
from death, but he that eateth of
Christ, the bread of life, shall never die.

40. The fourth thing mentioned is
" wine, that maketh glad the heart of
man." Ps. 104 : 15. How wonderful is
the love of God towards us, who is so
far from desiring to have us oppressed
with sorrow, that he has provided even

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[Book IY. Part I.

natural means to refresh and comfort
us! And as for the dejected and
broken spirit, he refreshes that by the
generous wine of the Holy Spirit,
drawn from the living vine, the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the wine men-
tioned in the Song of Solomon, " He
brought me to the banqueting-house"
(Cant. 2:5); (or house of wine, as the
margin reads it.) This was the spiritual
wine the holy prophets drank of (Isa.
12:2; 61:10; and Ps. 34 : 1 j 63:11),
which made them break forth into
songs of joy and exultation.

41. Wine again was given by God
to strengthen the sick. For wine has
a spirit in it adapted to quicken the
vital motions of the heart. This is
another instance of the wonderful love
of God ; yet it serves to put us in mind
of a greater; namely, of that most
generous wine which was pressed from
the bloody wounds of the true vine,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and which is
the only sovereign remedy for the dis-
eased soul. " He washed his garments
in wine, and his clothes in the blood
of grapes." Gen. 49 : 11.

42. Lastly, it was also given that
the aged, whose lamp of life is almost
spent, might invigorate the languid
flame, and make it burn the brighter.
This may put us in mind of the spir-
itual old age of the Church. For as
the sight, hearing, and all the other
powers of nature, are broken by age ;
so now faith is extinguished, charity is
cold, hope languishes, and the whole
spiritual body of Christ decays every
day more and more. " When the Son
of man cometh, shall he find faith on
the earth ?" Luke 18 : 8. But God
promises the faithful, that he will
" renew their strength, that they may
mount up as eagles" (Isa. 40:31):
and he declares, that he will " carry
them even to old age." Isa. 46 : 4. To

which also belongs that promise,
" They shall still bring forth fruit in
old age ; they shall be fat and flourish-
ing." Ps. 92 : 14.

43. The fifth thing is, " Oil to make
his face to shine." Yerse 15. By this
we are to understand, the precious
ointment used among the Jews, and
other Eastern nations, when they were
more than commonly joyful, or in-
tended to treat their guests after the
best fashion ; and which diffused a
wonderful vigor through their whole
bodies. In this sense we are to under-
stand Psalm 23 : 5. " Thou anointest
my head with oil." So our blessed
Saviour, when he was entertained by
Simon, was anointed with oil. Matt.
26 : 7. He upbraids another of that
name, a Pharisee, that he had not
shown him the same respect. " My
head with oil (saith he) thou didst not
anoint ; but this woman hath anointed
my feet with ointment." Luke 7 : 46.

44. So great was the virtue of these
Eastern unguents, that they used them
in embalming the dead ; and by that
means preserved them many hundred
years from corruption ; as appeared in
the body of Alexander the Great, which
was found in the time of Augustus, as
fresh as if it had been interred but
yesterday, though it had lain above
three hundred years. And this balsam
is a proper representation of that oil,
with which the Son of God, according
to his human nature, was anointed
without measure. Hence the Psalmist
says, " Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows " (Ps. 45 : 7) : and
" Of his fulness have all we received"
(John 1:16); which is nothing else
but that unction by which he teacheth
us all things (1 John 2 : 20), and by
which our souls shall be presented be-
fore God wholly beautiful, and adorned

Chap. III.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

439

with the gifts of the Holy Spirit :
" when this corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put
on immortality." 1 Cor. 15 : 53.

45. The sixth thing mentioned is
this, " The trees of the Lord are full of
sap: the cedars of Lebanon which he
hath planted." Ps. 104 : 16. There are
many remarkable things to be consid-
ered in trees ; of which, two are more
particularly noticed in Holy Scripture.
The first is, that, whereas, they seem
to be dead all the winter, yet upon the
return of the spring, they are full of
sap, and produce, first, leaves, and
afterwards, fruit, in a manner truly
wonderful, and such as no art can
imitate. For where is the artist, who
from the juice of any vine, can form a
grape? The birch-trees so overflow
with sap in spring-time, that men can
tap them like a cask. In Ferro, one
of the Canary Islands, as it is said,
there is no spring, river, or rain ; but
there are certain trees, from the leaves
of which there drops so great a quan-
tity of water, as is sufficient for the
inhabitants.

46. And whereas it is said that " the
Lord hath planted them," we must
understand it of his creating word
(Gen. 1 : 12), by the power of which
new trees daily arise to supply the
place of those that die or are cut
down. This blessing will abide in the
earth as long as it lasts, because the
power of the Lord is the universal
source of all things that arise out of
the earth. Now the trees, with their
fruits, may remind us of that divine
charity which ought to be in us. For
as these freely bestow their several
fruits upon man; so ought we to be
affected towards God and towards one
another; "that we may be trees of
righteousness, the planting of the
Lord, that he may be glorified." Ps.

92 : 13. Lastly, they remind us of the
tree of life, with its fruits, even Jesus
Christ crucified; of which, whosoever
eateth, shall live forever. Eev. 22 : 2.

47. Seventhly, the birds are a very
great ornament of the earth. They
build upon the trees and help to fur-
nish our tables. " There the birds make
their nests j as for the stork, the fir-
trees are her house." Psalm 104 : 17.
And "Knowest thou the time when
the wild goats of the rock bring forth?
Who hath sent out the wild ass free ?
or who hath loosed the bands of the
wild ass? Gavest thou wings and
feathers unto the ostrich ? what time
she lifteth up herself on high, she
scorneth the horse and his rider. Doth
the hawk fly by thy wisdom? Doth
the eagle mount up at thy command,
and make her nest on high ?" Job 39 :
1, 5, 13, 18, 26, 27.

48. From all this we may learn that
God made not the earth to be desolate,
but has allotted its deserts and wilder-
nesses to be inhabited by birds and
wild beasts, that his bounty to man,
and his magnificence might be made
known by the multitude of his crea-
tures; his omnipotence, by his works;
and his wisdom, by that infinite variety
of distinct properties which he has be-
stowed upon the creatures. "Every
beast of the forest is mine, and the
cattle upon a thousand hills. I know
all the fowls of the mountains; and
the wild beasts of the field are mine..
If I were hungry I would not tell
thee; for the world is mine, and the
fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh,
of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?"'
Ps. 50 : 10-13. What then is the sac-
rifice that God expects? "Offer unto*
God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows,
unto the Most High ; and call upon me-
in th e day of trouble; I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me." Yer. 14, 15..

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[Book IY. Part I.

CHAPTER IY.

OP THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS, THE WORK OF THE FOURTH DAY.

See Gen. 1 : 14; Ps. 104: 19.

THE stars are bright heavenly bo-
dies, fixed in the firmament of
heaven by the word of the Most High.
They enlighten the earth, distinguish
the night from the day, and adorn the
heavens- and they are signs and tokens
of nature, of judgment, of mercy, of
seasons, days, and years. 1 Cor. 15 :
41; Gen. 1:14.

2. "Lift up your eyes on high," saith
God, "and behold who hath created
these things, that bringeth out their
host by number: he calleth them all
by names." Isa. 41 : 26. We ought,
therefore, according to his command,
to contemplate these glorious works
of his hands, and learn thence to ad-
mire and adore the power and wisdom
of him who made them. For "the
heavens declare the glory of God ; and
the firmament showeth his handy-
work." Ps. 19 : 1.

3. With regard to the magnitude of
the sun and moon, St. Basil thus
speaks in his sixth Homily upon the
works of the six days: "I conceive
that the sun and moon are styled by
Moses great lights, not only because
they exceed the lesser stars in magni-
tude; but because they are so exceed-
ingly large that they can fill not only
the whole heaven, but even the earth
and seas with their light. And as
they always appear equally large,
both in their rising and setting, it fol-
lows that they must be incredibly
large; because notwithstanding the
-whole breadth of the earth, they al-
ways appear of equal size."

4. If a man were to see a globe of
fire as large as a vast mountain, or a
large city in flames, moving to and
fro in the air, he would look upon it
with astonishment and terror. 'Now
it is demonstrable that the globe of
the sun is many times greater than
the earth; whence we may conjecture
how great and inconceivable a space
in the heavens the sun must take up.
Yea, the least of the stars in the firma-
ment of heaven are very vast in com-
pass, and are greater than the earth ;
and yet in the firmament there are
many thousands of these stars, which
by reason of their vast distance can-
not be discerned by us with the naked
eye.

5. Here human reason is at a stand ;
for no created mind can conceive of
the dimensions of heaven. Hence it
is that the Holy Scripture, speaking
of God's infinite compassion, compares
it to the greatness of heaven. " For
as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them
that fear him. As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us." Ps. 103 :
11, 12. For though "the earth" is full
of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps. 33 :
5), yet is the compass of it too small
to be compared with the infinite good-
ness of God. Hence the Holy Spirit
bids us look up to the height of heaven,
furnished with innumerable glorious
bodies, all full of the goodness of God,
and vastly larger than this lower
world.

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441

6. Moreover, the incomprehensible
greatness of the divine power is mani-
fested, not only in the bulk of the
heavenly bodies, but also in their con-
stant and regular revolutions; for who
can observe without wonder and ad-
miration, such prodigious bodies, not
only pendent in the air, but moving
up and down in it with constant regu-
larity? And how great and incom-
prehensible a space must they have to
perform their courses in, and at the
same time so determined and settled,
that they never exceed their appoint-
ed limits, nor interfere with each other
in their revolutions ? David truly
pronounces, that God " by wisdom
made the heavens." Ps. 136 : 5. How
excellent, how transcendently excel-
lent must that wisdom be, which can
guide and govern the infinite host of
heaven with such admirable order, and
call them all by their names ?

7. It is wonderful also, that these
vast shining bodies should have, as it
were, a motion in themselves, so that
they cannot for one moment, stand
still in their courses; for the whole
heavenly order would then be dis-
turbed, and the stars themselves, to-
gether with their motion, would lose
their vital power, even as men die,
when the motion of their lungs fails.
The least star never stands still, but
is perpetually in quick and inconceiv-
able motion.

8. If the motion of one planet only
be so stupendous, what shall we say
ofthat innumerable multitude of stars,
each of which has its particular course
and revolution ? And if any man could
but for an hour take a view of all their
distinct motions, he would be able to
unfold to us very surprising things.

9. The consideration of the motions
and multitude of these stars may re-
mind us of those bright and invisible

stars, the angels of God. This seems
to be hinted in the Eevelation of St.
John, where the Son of God appears
with seven stars in his hand (Eev.
1 : 16), which are the seven spirits or
angels sent forth into all the earth.
To this the Book of Job alludes,
"When the morning stars sang to-
gether, and all the sons of God shout-
ed for joy " (Job 38 : 7) : by which the
writer leads us from the natural stars
to the holy angels. For if God has
created so great a multitude of stars,
who can doubt that he has a much
greater multitude of celestial spirits,
who praise him without ceasing? —
" Praise ye him, sun and moon ; praise
him, all ye stars of light." Ps. 148 : 8.
10. The revolution of the heavens
is, by the all-wise Creator, appointed
as the measure of time ; in which ap-
pear the stupendous providence, econ-
omy, and wisdom of God. To this
head we are to refer the ages of the
world, and their distinct epochs, the
ending of monarchies, the seventy
years of the Babylonish captivity,
Daniel's seventy weeks, the periods of
kingdoms, and the times of Antichrist,
both in the book of Daniel and the
Eevelation, with other things of the
same nature, which wonderfully con-
firm and illustrate the providence and
wisdom of God. And whereas our
Saviour tells us, that "it is not for us
to know the times or the seasons which
the Father hath put in his own power "
(Acts 1:7); this is to be understood
of such a knowledge only as was for-
eign to the duty of an apostle, not
serving either to the edification of the
church, or the propagation of the Gos-
pel. The words also may mean that
no time or place ought to be prescribed
to our blessed Lord for the erecting
and establishing of his kingdom ; of
which he himself is the only proper

442

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[Book IV. Part I.

judge. Our business is only to be
witnesses of bis kingdom, and to do
our best to promote it, leaving tbe
times and seasons to God alone. More-
over, the disciples at that time, had
wrong views of the nature and design
of his kingdom, and those words may
be looked upon as a proper rebuke of
their erroneous opinions about a tem-
poral kingdom.

11. And as for the times and sea-
sons of our worldly affairs, even these
are under the disposal and direction
of God, whensoever we devoutly sub-
mit our concerns to him, begging his
direction and assistance; as plainly
appears in the case of Abraham's ser-
vant, who prayed to God, that he
would "send him good speed that
day." Gen. 24 : 12.

12. Our blessed Saviour argues with
the Jews from those signs in the heav-
ens, which the common experience of
the times had remarked (Matt. 16 : 2,
3; Luke 12 : 54-56), thereby leading
them to observations of a higher na-
ture, and putting them in mind of
those signs which were to usher in
and attend the appearance of the Mes-
siah. The words in St. Matthew are
these: "When it is evening, ye say,
It will be fair weather; for the sky is
red. And in the morning, It will be
foul weather to-day, for the sky is red
and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye
can discern the face of the sky; but
can ye not discern the signs of the
times ?" So that our Saviour's con-
clusion runs thus : If ye attend to the
natural signs, and by the face of the
sky can judge rightly of the weather,
why do ye not attend to the signs of
the present period, and conclude that
the times of the Messiah are come ?

13. The words in St. Luke run thus:
"When ye see a cloud rise out of
the west, straightway ye say, There

cometh a shower; and so it is. And
when ye see the south wind blow, ye
say, There will be heat; and it cometh
to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern
the face of the sky and of the earth ;
but how is it that ye do not discern
this time?" So that our Lord con-
cludes thus: As by the natural signs
of heaven, ye judge rightly of the
weather, because ye see the effect fol-
low; so by the signs and miracles
which ye see, ye ought to be con-
vinced, that the Messiah is really
come. But, hypocrites as ye are, ye
retain the one, and neglect the other,
though of the highest importance to
you.

14. As to the operations of heaven,
we must first observe, that they have
nothing in their own nature hurtful to
mankind, as some pretenders would
persuade us; but that our sins and
wickedness are the true cause why
God arms the creatures unto ven-
geance, and makes use of them to pun-
ish a rebellious world. Thus he pun-
ished the sins of the old world by a
rain of forty days, which caused the
flood. Gen. 7 : 12. And thus the sin
of Sodom drew down fire and brim-
stone from heaven. Gen. 19 : 24.

15. In the same manner we are pun-
ished even at this day; sometimes by
excessive heats; at other times by vio-
lent cold, rains, or drought; at other
times by thunder, hail, fire, insects, or
infected air, which like the fire that
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, fail
from heaven. But as the Egyptian
plagues had no power over the chil-
dren of Israel (Exod. 8 : 22), so these
punishments never hurt the children
of God, if they live in his faith and
fear. Thus it is said, " The Lord is
thy shade upon thy right hand; the
sun shall not smite thee by day, nor
the moon by night." Ps. 121 : 5, 6.

Chap. IV.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

443

The same Psalm advises us, to " lift
up our eyes uuto the hills, from whence
cometh our help," that by the grace
and favor of God we may escape these
evils.

16. And as God makes use of the
heavens and heavenly bodies, as in-
struments of vengeance against the
wicked, so he employs them some-
times as means of protection and
blessing to the righteous. Thus we
read, " They fought from heaven ; the
stars in their courses fought against
Sisera" (Judg. 5: 20): not unlike to
which, is the story of the Emperor
Theodosius, whose enemies were rout-
ed by a sudden tempest of wind and
rain.

17. The productions of heaven God
in his due time dispenses out of his
treasures, for the benefit and advan-
tage of this lower world ; God so dis-
posing and ordering things, that the
inferior creatures receive of the su-
perior, and all nature hangs together,
as it were, in one chain. And this con-
nection of nature and providence is
finely described by the prophet Ho-
sea, " It shall come to pass in that
day, saith the Lord, I will hear the
heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
and the earth shall hear the corn, and
the wine, and the oil, and they shall
hear Jezreel." Hosea 2 : 21, 22. In
this place the prophet presents us
with the entire order of nature, be-
ginning at the first cause, which is
God. " I (saith he) will hear the
heavens," namely, when, in the great
drought, the heaven shall scorch with
excessive heat, and the channel of the
heavenly influences shall, as it were,
be dried up, so that they cannot con-
vey fruitful seasons to the earth : then
I will hear the distress of the heavens,
I will cover them with clouds.

18. And whereas the prophet adds,

"The heavens shall hear the earth,"
that has relation to the secondary
causes. For as the earth depends on
the heavens, it follows, that when the
operations of the heavens are, as it
were, hindered, the earth can produce
nothing that is good. And when the
earth is broken or chapped by exces-
sive heat, it, as it were, opens its
mouth and entreats for rain. " And
the earth shall hear the corn, and
wine, and oil ;" that is, forasmuch as
the vegetables depend upon the earth
for their moisture ; therefore, whenso-
ever the earth is dry and cannot sup-
ply them with nourishment, the vege-
tables solicit moisture of it, as a
thirsty infant would appeal to its
mother.

19. I proceed, next, to the benefits
which God bestows upon us by the
light of the sun and moon. And
these we must consider in the fear of
God, and show how we may enjoy
and use them, both in a natural and
spiritual sense. " Tell me (saith God
to Job), where is the way where light
dwelleth? and as for darkness, where
is the place thereof? Canst thou bind
the sweet influences of Pleiades, or
loose the bands of Orion ? Canst
thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his
season, or canst thou guide Arcturus
with his sons? Knowestthou the or-
dinances of heaven ? Canst thou set
the dominion thereof in the earth ?
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the
clouds, that abundance of waters may
cover thee ?" Job 38 : 19, 31-34. In
these words God represents to us his
infinite power and wisdom, such as no
mortal can search out or account for,
much less imitate. For so unable is
the wisest man to form light or dark-
ness, that he cannot so much as pro-
duce a blade of grass. " Not unto us
(then), O Lord, not unto us, but unto

444

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part I.

thy Dame give glory" (Ps. 115:1);
for thou hast made all these things,
and thy hand hath formed them.
" He appointed the moon for seasons;
the sun knoweth his going down"
(Ps. 104 : 19) ; alluding to the work of
the fourth day, when God said, "Let
there be lights in the firmament of
heaven, to divide the day from the
night: and let them be for signs, and
for seasons, and for days, and for
years. And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the
day, and the lesser light to rule the
night ; he made the stars also." Gen.
1 : 14-16.

20. How wonderful is the increase
and decrease of the moon; sometimes
it seems to be shut up in darkness,
and again, in its season, to emerge by
degrees into a fulness of light. And
these varieties God hath appointed for
a regular distinction of the times and
seasons of the year, and of the affairs
and business of mankind. Without
this distinction of the months and
other divisions of time, there could
be no order in the church of God, or
in civil governments, or in the econo-
my of private families ; but all would
be disorder and confusion.

21. And how abundantly is the wis-
dom of God displayed, even in this
certain course of the moon, and dis-
tinction of seasons! In all states and
conditions, the chief part of prudence
is to preserve good order, and to ob-
serve the proper opportunities of act-
ing ; these are the distinguishing ac-
complishments of a wise ruler, and
of a prudent head of a family. This,
indeed, is the principal thing to be re-
garded in every action; he that acts
unseasonably, acts to little or no pur-
pose. God himself hath ordered all
things in measure, and number, and
weight; and every season has its

proper opportunities and blessings at-
tending it. " To every thing there is
a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven." Eccles. 3 : 1. And
as the choosing of the proper season
is truly a happiness, so it is also a
blessing from God, of whom, there-
fore, we ought to ask it by prayer.

22. By the words, " The sun know-
eth his going down" (Ps. 104:19);
the royal prophet suggests to us the
seasons of the year, spring, summer,
autumn, winter, and the distinguish-
ing of days, being some longer, and
some shorter; all which are of very
great use to mankind.

23. And who can consider these
amazing acts of divine power and
wisdom, without admiration and praise
to the Author of nature ? This aston-
ishing order of nature appeared so
glorious to the ancient heathens, that
they worshipped even the sun for
their God, as being the greatest and
most splendid of all objects, and as
enlightening all the world. This was
a conclusion for blind, corrupt reason
to draw, though every part of the
creation, to pure and right reason,
fully manifests and discovers the being
and excellencies of the Creator. A
certain Iudian king having heard of
Jesus Christ, and the necessity of be-
lieving in him, because he died for us,
gave this answer : " For my part, I
had rather believe in the sun that
never dies, than in a mortal God."
This was the effect of human blind-
ness, against the corrupt influences
and prejudices of which, God has taken
particular care to warn us : " Lest
thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven,
and when thou seest the sun, and the
moon, and the stars, even all the host
of heaven, shouldest be driven to wor-
ship them, and serve them, which the
Lord thy God hath divided unto all

Chap. IV.]

TKUE CHEISTIANITY.

445

nations under the whole heaven."
Deut. 4: 19.

24. As to the magnitude of the sun,
moon, and stars, it is an error to im-
agine that they are really no larger
than they appear to us. For though
the moon and some of the planets are
less than the earth, yet the sun may
be plainly and infallibly demonstrated
to be many times larger; and that it
appears so small to us, is owing to the
immensity of its distance. Ocular
demonstration convinces every man
of this, that the more remote any ob-
ject is, the less it appears. A nice
disquisition of these matters the un-
learned must leave to astronomers,
and be content religiously to admire
what they do not understand.

25. And, here, how ought we to
magnify and adore the omnipotence
ancl wisdom of God, who appointed
the sun to be the light and ornament
of the day, and the moon of the night.
For light is the highest beauty of all
things. If we highly admire a* well-built
house with a fair prospect, furnished
with good statues and pictures, and
painted with great variety of colors,
how much more ought we to look up
with gratitude and astonishment to
heaven, adorned with lights so many,
and so stupendous.

26. How profound is the wisdom of
God, who "telleth the number of the
stars, and calleth them all by their
names" (Ps. 147: 4, 5); to which is
immediately subjoined, " Great is our
Lord, and of great power ; his under-
standing is infinite." How ought we
then to depend upon this wisdom, and
be satisfied with all its determinations
concerning us, and not charge him
with folly, by pretending to be wiser
than He is ! " For the foolishness of
God is wiser than men." 1 Cor. 1 : 25.

27. The certain and regular course

of the sun and moon, reminds us of
the truth of God, and the certainty of
his promises: such are those of send-
ing the Messiah, of the revolutions of
certain states and kingdoms, and other
deliverances of mankind; all which ap-
peared in their time. Thus saith the
Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, " If
my covenant be not with day and
night, and if I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and earth; and
if ye can break my covenant, that
there should not be day and night in
their season ; then may also my cove-
nant be broken with David my ser-
vant." Jer. 33 : 20, 21, 25.

28. At our blessed Saviour's passion,
the darkness that overspread the world
did, as it were, represent the terrors
of his death, and all those barbarous
impieties that were acted against him
(Matt. 27 : 45); for the sun and moon
were then as mirrors, in which might
be read the sins and iniquities of
mankind; which, like the sin of Sod-
om, mounted up to heaven, and drew
down vengeance upon the world. Gen.
18 : 20. So every eclipse of the sun
points out to us that internal and
spiritual blindness of heart which
reigns in every one of us; and that as
plainly as if a voice should call to us,
saying, " Look upon me, for you your-
selves are in the same condition." And
when the heaven is red as blood, and
seems to be on fire, it appears to speak
to us in words like these: "Look up
to me, and think on that day when I
shall burn with real flames." So, in
short, we may consider all things as
upbraiding us with our iniquities, and
warning us to repent. What is the
thunder, but the terrible voice of
heaven, at which the earth trembles,
and by which God speaks to the im-
penitent world? What is an earth-
quake, but a lecture of repentance ?

446

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part I.

The same may be said of storms and
tempests at sea, and of all disorders
in the inanimate creation.

29. The sun, moon, and stars, are
witnesses of the divine goodness, and
ofthat eternal light which enlightens,
comforts, and refreshes every man that
cometh into the world. For as God is
in himself invisible and incomprehen-
sible, we should, by the direction of the
natural light, aspire to the knowledge
of Him that made it; and by the
beauty of the created, be drawn to
the love of the uncreated light. And
as we naturally take pleasure in the
outward light, as the most beautiful
object in the creation; so ought we,
with our whole hearts, to love Him
who is light eternal, and to walk and

rejoice in his light, by withdrawing
ourselves from the darkness of sin.
"For what fellowship hath righteous-
ness with unrighteousness ? and what
communion hath light with darkness ?
and what concord hath Christ with
Belial?" 2 Cor. 6:14, 15.

26. Lastly, the visible sun should
put us in mind of Jesus Christ, the
spiritual and eternal "Sun of right-
eousness." Mai. 4 : 2. For as that
shines equally upon all men ; so Christ
freely bestows himself, and the light
of his grace, upon all that will receive
him. Thus he saith, "I am the light
of the world; he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life." John 8 : 12.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE WATERS, AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS, THE WORK OF THE FIFTH DAY.

See Gen. 1 : 20-22; Ps. 104 : 25.

THAT is unquestionably the best
philosophy which gives the best
account of the works of God. And
this knowledge every true lover of
God ought to seek, that he may there-
by know how many glorious creatures
God has created for our use and bene-
fit. Let the pretenders to philosophy
look to it, that they spend not their
time in inquiries, which, instead of
teaching them true knowledge, lead
them into ignorance and forgetfulness
of God and his creatures.

2. The first thing to be observed
and admired, is the mutual relation
subsisting between the different parts
of created nature. Thus the heavens
generate rains, dews, winds, and cool-

ing breezes in the air; and then send
them down to us. So the earth pro-
duces its fruits in the air; and they
bud, blossom, and ripen, and are nour-
ished by the air, without which they
would quickly languish and die.

3. Among the productions of the
watery element, are the rivers. In
one place springs up the Rhine, in an-
other the Danube; here is the Elbe,
there the Nile. As from one bough
of a great and fruitful tree, spring
many little branches, and much fruit ;
so one great branch of the world of
waters, as the Ehine or the Danube,
is connected with rivulets, lakes, and
fountains, which all flow into it.

4. As for the living creatures that

Chap. V.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

447

arise from the sea, they are without
number, God having blessed it with so
great fruitfulness, both for its vast ex-
tent, and the use and benefit of man-
kind, that out of this vast repository
there arise, at certain seasons, prodig-
ious quantities offish, varying in their
kinds every month. For such is the
nature of sea-fish, that they are not to
be caught except at certain seasons.

5. And here it is observable, that
the sea and all its productions, have
their proper order, time, and motion,
appointed to them by God. So in the
heavens, the stars have their stated
times, regular order, motion, rising,
and setting. The earth at certain sea-
sons produces different fruits and vege-
tables; and, in that sense, is in perpet-
ual motion, and never rests until it
has brought forth all its fruits. So
likewise the sea has its laws of motion,
flux and reflux, and produces all its
fruits at such appointed seasons as
may best serve the use and benefit of
man.

6. Let us now take a survey of the
wonderful power and wisdom of God
in the sea, and inquire what spiritual
inferences may be drawn from it.
" Who hath shut up the sea with
doors," saith God to Job, "when it
brake forth, as if it had issued out of
the womb ? When I made the cloud
the garment thereof, and thick dark-
ness a swaddling band for it, and brake
up for it my decreed place, and set
bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt
thou come, and no further; and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Hast thou entered into the springs of
the sea ? or hast thou walked in the
search of the depth?" Job 38 : 8-11,
16. In these words, God points out
the great and dreadful ocean as an ob-
scure image and resemblance of his
unsearchable and incomprehensible

power. For it is a very surprising
miracle, that God should by his word
alone, as with bars and doors, inclose
the sea so strongly, that it should not
be able to overflow its bounds. No
less wonderful is its ebbing and flow-
ing ; so that the sea, being, as it were,
conscious and mindful of the divine
command, so soon as it touches the
earth, seems to fly back and retire in
a fright, as at the presence of God
himself, like Jordan and the Red Sea.
Josh. 3:16; Ps. 114 : 3. " He gather-
eth the waters of the sea together, as
a heap; he layeth up the deep in
storehouses." Ps. 33 : 7.

7. God tells Job, that he has " made
the clouds to be the garment thereof,
and thick darkness a swaddling band
for it" (Job 38 : 9) ; which plainly ap-
pears, when its waves roll and toss
themselves up to the clouds, that, as it
were, receive them into their embraces,
and cover them with darkness and
horror, so that they seem to be blended
with each other. Then appear the
mighty wonders of God, which a man
cannot behold without fear and aston-
ishment, as it is described in Psalm
107 : 25, etc.

8. To this work of the fifth day, be-
longs also that passage of the Psalmist :
" So is this great and wide sea, wherein
are things creeping innumerable, both
small and great beasts. There go the
ships ; there is that leviathan whom
thou hast made to play therein." Ps.
104 : 25, 26.

9. As for the greatness of the sea,
who can but admire the power of God,
which, notwithstanding that so much
water flows into the sea every day,
and has, from the beginning, yet suf-
fers not its waters to exceed their ap-
pointed quantity ? And though its
waves sometimes rage and swell, and
lift themselves like mountains ; yet are

448

TEUE CHEISTIAKITY.

[Book IV. Part I.

they quickly put at rest, and settled
within their proper bounds. These
are clear demonstrations of the mighty
power of God.

10. Here too we may not improperly
speak of the islands. Who can behold,
without wonder, several large and
populous countries, and entire king-
doms, lying in the midst of the sea, as
if they had been planted there ? Who
can tell on what foundations they are
built, and what it is that keeps them
immovable in the midst of violent
storms and tempests ? Some of them,
encompassed with vast rocks growing
out of the sea, seem to be built and
founded on them. Upon the whole,
their fruitfulness, tillage, and the oc-
casion and manner of their being peo-
pled, are what we may rather admire
than understand. So that the sea is
as populous as the earth. For as the
earth is much less than the sea, it is
probable that God would not suffer the
greatest part of the globe to be unin-
habited, and therefore he planted it
with islands : so that none of the
miracles and blessings which he works
in the sea, might escape the observa-
tion of mankind. Therefore, to these
islanders also did he send the Gospel
of truth, by his holy Apostles, "shak-
ing both the sea and the dry land, after
the Desire of all nations was come."
Hag. 2 : 6, 7.

11. No less wonderful is the vast
multitude of creatures that inhabit the
sea; for some affirm that there is as
great abundance and variety of them
in the sea, as on the land. Who can
behold without astonishment, prodig-
ious shoals of fish rising from the
depths of the sea, like a flock of sheep,
and offering themselves to the use and
necessities of mankind? So that the
sea is a great storehouse of God, out
of which he feeds the greatest part of

mankind, and out of which, too, he
produces many other excellent works,
such as pearls, amber, and coral.

12. I might here mention the many
bold voyages that have been perform-
ed within the memory of us and our
fathers, to the most distant parts of
the East and West ; and all this chiefly
by the assistance of the magnet, which
seems to have nothing in it either of
beauty or use, and yet the greatest
things are performed by it. By this
the pilot steers his ship, and keeps his
way in the pathless waters; and by
constantly pointing to the pole, it
guides the mariner to his intended
port. Of these voyages, and of the
islands, countries, people, and other
useful discoveries, there are many
volumes extant, to which I refer the
reader.

13. The huge whales, mentioned by
David (Ps. 104 : 26), give us a great
idea of the mighty power of God.
Of this God himself takes notice
when he talks with Job : " His bones
are as strong pieces of brass; his
bones are like bars of iron. He is the
chief of the ways of God. He drink-
eth up a river and hasteth not : he
trusteth that he can draw up Jordan
into his mouth. By his neesings a
light doth shine, and his eyes are like
the eyelids of the morning. Out of
his mouth go burning lamps, and
sparks of fire leap out. Out of his
nostrils goeth smoke, and a flame go-
eth out of his mouth. When he rais-
eth up himself, the mighty are afraid;
by reason of breakings they purify
themselves. He maketh the deep to
boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like
a pot of ointment." Job 40 : 18, 19,
23; 41:18-21,25,31.

14. Thus much for the greatness of
the sea; which is a very striking
illustration of the power of God.

Chap. V.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

449

" Who hath measured the waters in
the hollow of his hand?" saith Isaiah.
Isa. 40 : 12. To which the Psalmist
answers, " Whatsoever the Lord pleas-
ed, that did he in heaven and in the
earth, in the seas and all deep places."
Ps. 135 : 6. All that remains is, to
praise, honor, and glorify the wisdom
of God, which is so wonderfully man-
ifested in the deep; the riches of his
goodness in that vast variety of fishes,
and other productions of the sea, for
the use and benefit of man ; and in a
word, to adore and magnify him in all
his works.

15. Let us consider How this doc-
trine of the sea may bring to our
remembrance that twofold sea men-
tioned in Scripture : the sea of afflic-
tion and misery, and the sea of grace
and comfort; the depths of misery,
and the abyss of divine mercy. For
what is this life and world of ours but
a troublesome and tempestuous sea ?
As the sea is never at rest, but is per-
petually ruffled with winds and waves,
so is the life of man. Sometimes we
fancy ourselves safe and out of danger,
when suddenly a stormy wind arises,
and the floods swell, to the great dan-
ger both of body and soul. As the
sea has its ebb and flow, so has the
life of man. Hence we read that the
Lord dries the sea, the waters of the
great deep. Isa. 51:10; Jer. 31:35;
Ps. 107 : 25. Moreover, as the freshest
waters when they come into the sea
grow salt, so all the pleasures, glories,
honors, and riches of this mortal life,
however sweet and pleasant at first,
soon grow bitter and unsavory. And
all that cleave to them, thereby for-
feit the sweet consolations of heaven,
and are drowned and overwhelmed in
bitter fears and perplexing sorrows.

16. As the sea has many rocks and
quicksands, on which vessels split and

are lost, so in human life, many there
are who split upon the rocks of cov-
etousness, and run foul of the quick-
sands of worldly pleasures, and are
lost to all eternity. As the sea. after
some days, throws up the carcasses
that have been cast into it, so the
world vomits us out, after it has en-
tertained us a little while ; so that it
is our highest wisdom to look out be-
times for a haven of salvation in the
land of the living. As the mariner
sails at random without his compass,
and has no certain guide but his
needle, which is continually pointing
to the pole, so Jesus Christ is our
loadstone, continually drawing our
hearts towards him and heaven, that
we may not float up and down at
random, or be lost in the sea of this
world. As the depth of the sea is
unsearchable, according to Job, "Hast
thou entered into the springs of the
sea ? or hast thou walked in the search
of the depth ?" (Job 38 : 16) ; so is
our life an unsearchable abyss of mis-
ery and sorrow. Whence the Psalm-
ist says, "Out of the depths have I
cried unto thee, O Lord." Ps. 130 : 1.
And, " Deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy waterspouts ; all thy
waves and thy billows are gone over
me." Ps. 42:7. So that our life is
nothing but a vast sea of calamity
and sorrow.

17. To this abyss of misery and sin,
we must oppose the abyss of grace-
and consolation. And the first com-
fort is the boundless mercy of God,,
which is higher than the heavens, and
deeper than the sea. Of this the
prophet Micah speaks, "He will have-
compassion on us, and cast all our sins-
into the depths of the sea." Micah 7 :
19. As the Egyptians were drowned
in the Eed Sea (Exod. 14 : 28), so
must all our sins be drowned and

29

450

TEUE CHKISTIAKITY.

[Book IT. Part I.

washed away in the blood of Christ.
And though the abyss of our misery
be ever so great, yet the merits of Je-
sus Christ are greater.

18. A second comfort is, the consid-
eration of the many wonders that
God has wrought in the water; and
that the blessed Jesus assisted his dis-
ciples when they were in danger by
sea. Matt. 8 : 26. He stretched out
his hand to Peter when he was afraid
of sinking. Matt. 14 : 31. So, at this
day, he is never nearer to us, than
when we are sinking in the floods of
affliction ; and we never so fully ex-
perience his presence and assistance,
as when we are under the cross.
" When thou passest through the wa-
ters, I will be with thee ; and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee." Isa. 43 : 2.

19. A third consolation is contained
in these words of the prophet Zecha-
riah : " It shall be in that day, that
living waters shall go out from Jeru-
salem; half of them toward the for-
mer sea, and half of them toward
the hinder sea." Zech. 14 : 8. So also
the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47 : 8)

saw a stream of water flowing out of
the temple near the altar into the sea,
healing and quickening everything
that was touched by it. This signi-
fies the fountain of grace and consola-
tion opened by the Holy Spirit, by
the preaching of the Gospel, whereby
the bitter waters of affliction are to
be refreshed and sweetened; so that
the cross shall be no longer a Dead
Sea, but a water of life, and a well of
salvation. According as it is said,
"In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my
soul." Ps. 94 : 19.

20. A fourth consolation against the
stormy sea of this world, is contained
in Psalm 65 : 7. " God stilleth the
noise of the seas, the noise of their
waves, and the tumult of the people."
As if he had said, When all things
threaten ruin and destruction, when
wars rage, and desolation seems to be
at hand; then can God easily still the
waves. So did the blessed Jesus,
Matt. 8 : 26. " The Lord on high is
mightier than the noise of many wa-
ters." Ps. 93 ; 4.

CHAPTER VI.

OP THE LIVING CREATURES, THE WORK OF THE SIXTH DAY.

And cut of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and
brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the
fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. — Gen. 1 : 24 ; 2:19, 20.

HEEE Adam gave an illustrious
proof of the divine wisdom im-
planted in him by God, to the honor
and praise of Him that gave it. He
beheld His wisdom and goodness in

the variety of his creatures; he consid-
ered the distinct forms, figures, pro-
portions, and colors of them all; he
distinctly viewed, and understood the
nature of the living animals by the

Chap. VI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

451

light of divine wisdom ; and, upon a
full survey of the properties of every
creature, he gave them proper and
significant names, expressing their
several natures. From this natural
knowledge of all creatures, he called
her that was made out of his rib,
Woman, because she was taken out of
man j afterward, Eve, as being " the
mother of all living." Gen. 2 : 23 ;
3: 20.

2. So, even at this day, God shows
to us the natures and properties of all
creatures in his holy "Word, that we
may thereby be led to praise and mag-
nify the wisdom and goodness of Him
that made them. Thus Job says (12 :
7, 8), " Ask now the beasts, and they
shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the
air, and they shall tell thee ; or speak
to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
and the fishes of the sea shall declare
unto thee." See also Chap. 39. He
leads us, as it were, into every part of
the brute creation, putting us in mind
of the many wonders of divine power
and mercy manifested in every one of
them. So Jeremiah sends us "to the
stork and the crane, the turtle, and
the swallow, who know the appointed
time of their coming." Jer. 8:7. Isaiah
sends us "to the ox and the ass, who
know their master's crib " (Isa. 1:3);
David and Job, "to the young ravens
that call upon God " (Ps. 147 : 9 ; Job
38 : 41); David again, "to the deaf ad-
der that stoppeth her ear " (Ps. 58 : 4) ;
Isaiah, "'to the cockatrice' eggs and
vipers " (Isa. 59 : 5) ; Jeremiah, " to the
sea monsters, that draw out the breast,
and give suck to their young ones;"
adding, "the daughter of my people is
become cruel like the ostriches in the
wilderness." Lam. 4:3. So the Song
of Solomon speaks of the "young hart,
the dove, and the foxes" (Song of Sol-
omon 2 : 9, 14, 15); David, " of the hart

panting after the water-brooks " (Ps.
42 : 1); Solomon, "of the ant" (Prov.
6:6); David and Isaiah, "of the
eagles." Ps. 103 : 5. " They that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their
strength," like the eagles. Isa. 40 : 31.
Lastly, Habakkuk and Jeremiah speak
of the wolves, leopards, and lions, sent
to be executioners of divine vengeance.
Hab. 1:8; Jer. 5 : 6.

3. So also in the New Testament,
the blessed Jesus speaks of the spar-
rows, not one of which falleth to the
ground without the knowledge of our
heavenly Father. Matt. 10 : 29. Thus
he speaks " of the wisdom of serpents,
and the harmlessness of doves " (Matt.
10 : 16); of "the hen gathering her
chickens under her wings " (Matt. 23 :
37); of "the eagles' following the car-
cass" (Matt. 24 : 28); of "the dogs
that eat the crumbs that fall from
their masters' table." Matt. 15 : 27.
So he describes his own sheep, with
their several properties. John 10 : 27,
28. Lastly, he talks of the scorpion
and serpent, which no father would
give to his children when they ask for
an egg or a fish. Luke 11 : 11, 12.

4. Here it may be considered why
the blessed Jesus himself is compared
to a lamb (Isa. 53 : 7), to express his
exenrplary meekness and patience.
Why did the blessed Spirit light upon
the Son of God in the form of a dove
(Matt. 3 : 16), but because the mourn-
ing of a dove (Isa. 38 : 14) resembles
the mourning of the spirit in the
hearts of the faithful. Hence Heze-
kiah says of himself: "I did mourn as
a dove." Isa. 38 : 14. Why had "the
four living creatures the faces of a
man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle"?
Ezek. 1:10; Eev. 4 : 7. They express
to us the four mediatorial offices of
Christ: his incarnation, sacrifice, res-
urrection, and ascension.

452

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[Book IY. Part L

5. Here also we may consider the
wonderful providence of God, where-
by he protects, sustains, and nourishes
all his creatures. Thus in Psalm 65
David celebrates the paternal mercies
of God towards all creatures. Again,
uO Lord, thou preservest man and
beast." Ps. 36 : 6. This consideration
should strengthen our faith and secure
our perseverance in prayer, under all
the wants and necessities of soul and
body. And whereas David mentions
the word flesh, "to thee shall all flesh
come " (Ps. 65 : 2); this seems to have
a particular regard to our bodily
wants and sufferings (as we are flesh
and blood), such as hunger, cold, na-
kedness, etc.; and- should, at the same
time, put us in mind of our own vile-
ness and corruption, which is frequent-
ly in Scripture expressed by the word
flesh. Isa. 40 : 6. The prophet gives us
further comfort, by adding, that there
is no man so vile and contemptible as
to be despised or forgotten before God.
This is expressed to us in these words:
"Thou who art the confidence of all
the ends of the earth, and of them that
are afar off upon the sea." Ps. 65 : 5.
As if he had said : So great is the love
of God to mankind, that wheresoever
they are, whether by land or sea, he
still takes care to protect and defend
them. And whereas he adds, " Thou
makest the outgoings of the morning
and evening to rejoice" (ver. 8); his
meaning is, that, as God feeds and
nourishes all creatures, so he comforts
and refreshes them, too, according to
the words of St. Paul, "filling our
hearts with food and gladness." Acts
14 : 17. For it is no small blessing to
feed upon his creatures with a cheer-
ful mind, to begin the labors of the
day with devout prayers and praises,
and to conclude them with thanks-
giving. Lastly, he assigns the cause,

in these words : " The river of God is
full of water" (ver. 9); that is, the
fountain of divine bounty, mercy, and
goodness, overflows to all his crea-
tures, upon which our being and com-
forts entirely depend.

6. To this also may be referred that
passage of the Psalmist, "All wait
upon thee, that thou mayest give
them their meat in due season." Ps.
104 : 27. And not only so, but he rep-
resents also the brute creatures as
sensible of this dependence upon God,
"The young lions roar after their
prey, and seek their meat from God "
(Ps. 104: 21); intimating thereby, that
God, the Preserver of nature, is moved
to pity and to assist the distresses and
sufferings of every creature ; and that
the wants of every part of his crea-
tion, whether animate or inanimate,
are a sort of silent prayer to the great
author and preserver of their being.
And this is called by St. Paul, " the
earnest expectation of the creature."
Eom. 8 : 19. Here let us consider like-
wise what an infinite variety of crea-
tures there are contained in the air,
earth, and sea, and that God has mer-
cifully provided for the comfortable
subsistence of every one, in a way
suitable to their proper natures. And
if God takes such care of the meanest
of his creatures, it would be wrong to
imagine, that man, created in his own
image, should be neglected or forgotten
by him.

7. And since there are more crea-
tures in the earth, air, and sea, than
there are men in the whole world ; and
the providence of God is extended to
the meanest and smallest of his crea-
tures, how is it possible that man
should be forgotten, — man, that lives,
moves, and has his being in him ; " for
in him we live, and move, and have
our being," saith St. Paul (Acts 17 :

Chap. VI.]

TETJE CHKISTIANITY.

453

28), — man, that is sustained by his
power: for "he upholdeth all things
by the word of his power " (Heb. 1 :
3) — man, whom he has made with his
own hand ; according to Isaiah 64 : 8.
" O Lord, thou art our Father; we are
the clay, and thou art the potter, and
we all are the work of thy hand ;" —
man, whom he has redeemed by the
blood of his only begotten Son, and
sealed with his Holy Spirit? In a
word, God can no more forget man,
than he can forget Himself. So that
we have all the reason in the world to
depend upon him, that he will give us
meat in due season.

8. The Psalmist goes on: "That
thou givest them, they gather: thou
openest thy hand, they are filled with
good/' Ps. 104: 28. In these words is
expressed that power, whereby the
creatures are preserved. And this con-
sists in a certain natural sagacity or
instinct implanted in them by God,
by which every one of them is prompt-
ed to look out, and procure such things
as are proper for the support of life
and being. And the pleasure which
they receive in this exercise, is a sort
of gratitude and acknowledgment to
God whom they seem to look upon
and rejoice in, as their Maker, Pre-
server, and Benefactor.

9. Now if God takes so much care
for the comfortable subsistence of all
his creatures, we cannot think that he
made man for perpetual anguish and
sorrow, but must conclude that he is
pleased to see us innocently cheerful
in the fear of God. So, in Psalm 90 :
15, we are directed to pray, that God
would make us glad according to the
days wherein he afflicted us; and the
years in which we saw evil. He prom-
ises his servants that they shall eat,
drink, and rejoice (Isai. 65 : 13); and
from the words of David, it plainly

appears that he intends to feed his
servants, not sparingly, but plentifully
and bountifully; to which end, he ma-
keth his paths drop fatness. Ps. 65 :
11. Experience itself also teaches us,
that all creatures are so plentifully fed
by God, that, at proper seasons, the
birds of the air, the wild beasts of the
forest, the cattle in the fields, and the
fish of the sea, offer themselves, fat-
tened and prepared, for the use and
nourishment of man; and in that
sense also " his paths drop fatness."
So wonderful is the providence, so
transcendent is the wisdom, so great
is the concern of God, to provide for
all the necessities of his children.

10. And then the Psalmist adds,
"Thou hidest thy face, they are trou-
bled; thou takest away their breath,
they die, and return to their dust.
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are
created ; and thou renewest the face
of the earth." Ps. 104 : 29, 30. His
meaning is, that the life of all crea-
tures is nothing else but the breath
of God. This quickening virtue and
power of God, is that word by which
all things were made. " By the word
of the Lord were the heavens made ;
and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth." Ps. 33 : 6. And this
word was not an empty sound, but be-
came the life of all creatures, resting
upon them as a principle of life and
power; as St. Paul tells us, " the Lord
upholdeth all things by the word of
his power." Heb. 1:3. So that the
life and being of all things as much
depend on God, as the shadow of a
tree does upon the substance.

11. Thus when God withdraws this
word of life, or vital power, from the
creatures, they immediately sink into
their primitive nothingness. The whole
world is full of God, "of whom, and
through whom, and to whom are all

454

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part I.

things." Eom. 11 : 36. He is said to
be " above all, and through all, and
in us all " (Eph. 4:6): so that " the
Lord is the strength of our life." Ps.
27 : 1 ; Deut. 30 : 20. For as men of
sorrowful and distressed spirits per-
ceive a true and vital power in the
word of God ; so there is in all crea-
tures a sort of natural and vital power,
which is nothing else but the Word of
Creation. By virtue of this Word
also, all the creatures are blessed and
do multiply. By this, the face of the
earth is every year renewed by a suc-
cession of plants, fruits, and living
creatures, as if there were a new world
every year. " "While the earth re-
maineth," saith God to Noah, " seed-
time and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and
night, shall not cease." Gen. 8 : 22.
By the same blessing, the world is pre-
served to this day.

12. This wonderful and universal
Providence of God, consists chiefly in
three things. First, in his knowledge.
" Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world."
Acts 15: 18. By this infinite and in-
comprehensible wisdom, he knows,
sees, and hears all things; therefore he
is called in Scripture, "the God that
liveth and seeth." Gen. 16 : 14 (mar-
gin). No creature is hidden from him,
but all things are naked and open in
his sight. Heb. 4 : 13. And he is called
"the Living," not only because he
himself liveth forever, but also because
he is the life of all things.

13. The second head of divine Provi-
dence, is the fatherly goodness of God
(Matt. 6 : 26), by which He taketh
care of all things: "He maketh his
sun to rise on the evil, and on the
good." Matt. 5 : 45. So, then, if his
mercy be not only extended to the
least, but even to the undeserving

parts of his creation ; how ungrateful
are we, if we entertain any suspicions
of so indulgent a Father. And if
nothing be done upon earth but by
his appointment and direction, we may
hence learn to submit with patience
to everything that befalls us, without
repining or murmuring against God;
firmly believing that he careth for us,
and by his unsearchable wisdom or-
dereth all things for our good and his
own glory. On the other hand, if he
take from us our riches, honors, health,
and other worldly blessings, we must
resign them with cheerfulness, and
say with Job, " The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away." Job 1 :
21. That good man gave thanks to
God for his adversity, as well as for
his prosperity; and the former very
often proves the greater blessing of
the two.

14. The third head of God's univer-
sal providence over, all his creatures
is, his omnipotence. By this he is al-
ways present to his creatures, govern-
ing and preserving them; by this he
governs the hearts of all men, and
turneth them which way he pleases.
Ps. 33 : 15. Whence it follows, that
in all our thoughts, words, and actions,
we ought to have a lively and devout
sense of the divine omnipresence, and
dread to do anything that is hateful
in his sight. For as is the clay in
the hand of the potter, so are men in
the hand of God, even as we read in
Jeremiah, " Arise and go down to the
potter's house : and I went down, and
behold, he wrought a work on the
wheels. And the vessel that he made
of clay was marred in the hand of
the potter; so he made it again anoth-
er vessel, etc." Jer. 18:2. The prophet
intimates thereby that God, who af-
flicteth and breaketh us to pieces, can
also heal and restore us again.

Chap. TL]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

455

15. Moreover, as we are assured
that God is everywhere present, and
preserves and governs everything, it
follows that he is so careful of his own
servants, that not a hair of their heads
can fall to the ground (Matt. 10:30;
Luke 21:18; Acts 27:34) without
his permission j and that he preserv-
eth and keepeth us in the midst of
our enemies, as we have it frequently
expressed in the Psalms. Ps. 23:4;
27:1; 121:5. So when we are in
distress, and there are no apparent
hopes of relief, we should support
ourselves with this consideration :
that the Lord himself, " great in coun-
sel, and mighty in work " (J er. 32 :
19), who laid our cross upon us, can
easily lighten it, or strengthen us to
bear it. Let us " commit our way
unto the Lord " (Ps. 37 : 5), like Abra-
ham, who was ready to offer up his
only son, without questioning how
God could perform his promise to him,
but cast all his care upon God. Gen.
22:8; Eom. 4:18; Heb. 11:19.

16. And then, the consideration of
God's providence raises in us faith,
hope, and patience, of which we have
examples in Job, David, and Christ
himself. The blessed Jesus, knowing
that he was appointed by God to die,
preserved his meekness and patience
all the days of his life, yea, even in
the very agonies of death. Phil. 2 : 8.
Thus David patiently endured banish-
ment for years, attended with injuries,
reproaches, poverty, and contempt;
knowing assuredly that it was God
that laid it upon him. This makes him
cry out, " Thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me ; my glory, and the lifter up
of mine head." Ps. 3:3. To which
may be referred that passage, " The
Lord killeth, and maketh alive; he
bringeth down to the grave, and
bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor,

and maketh rich; he bringeth low,
and lifteth up." 1 Sam. 2 : 6, 7.

17. But before we conclude this sub-
ject, we must say something particu-
larly of man, the crown and master-
piece of the creation, of his excellence
and prerogatives, which must be very
great, forasmuch as God himself has
declared, that " his delights are with
the sons of men." Prov. 8 : 31. For
if all things were created for the use
of man, and he is the end of this visi-
ble creation, it follows that he is the
perfection of it. Eeason itself con-
vinces us, that whatsoever is the end
and perfection of all things, must be
more excellent than all others. So,
then, all the beauty of fountains, fields,
flowers, trees, fruits, and woods, yea,
and all the glittering brightness of
heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, are
not to be compared with the native
and original excellence of man, for
whose sake and benefit they were all
created. For as Solomon in all his
glory was not to be compared with
the flowers of the field (Matt. 6 : 29) ;
so the excellence of man, especially as
to his soul, far transcends not only the
external glory of Solomon, but all the
beauties of this lower world, yea, and
of the sun itself.

18. And as for the soul, we may
judge of its excellency and beauty by
the form and comeliness of the body
which God has prepared for its recep-
tion and residence. He provided a.
comely mansion for so excellent • a.
guest. So, if we should see the spot-
less beauty of the original human
body, we should easily judge of the^
beauty of its divine inhabitant. Even,
now, in this corrupt and depraved*
state of nature, we see what attractive'
charms there are in beauty. More-
over, we may judge yet farther of the=
beauty of human nature, by the glories,

456

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book TV. Part 1

of the place in which God at first
placed man ; which was Paradise itself,
a garden full of joy and celestial pleas-
ures, infinitely exceeding all the glory
and beauty of the present world. For
if the place were so glorious, what
must the owner of it be, for whose
sake it was created ?

19. Another great argument of the
dignity of human nature is, that the
angels themselves are appointed- to
minister unto us (Heb. 1 : 14) ; and
that we were created, as it were, by a
particular decree of the ever-blessed
Trinity. "Let us make man," saith
God, "in our image, after our like-
ness/' Gen. 1 : 26. So that how great
soever our dignity may be, by that
singular decree and counsel by which
we were made, yet that which arises
from the image of God, in which we
were created, is much greater. There-
fore, when he created the sun, moon,
and all the host of heaven, he but
spake the word, and they were made.
Eut when he was about to make man,
the greatest and noblest of all his
works, he ushers it in with a kind of
solemnity, saying, "Let us make man."
How wonderful is that counsel ! How
solemn is that decree ! How trans-
cendent is the dignity of human na-
ture!

20. For though the sun, moon, and
stars, and all the lower world, were
made with wonderful wisdom and
power; yet that deliberation does not
seem to have been used there as in the
creation of man ; forasmuch as in him,
the glory and majesty of God were'more
particularly and gloriously to be man-
ifested. All the other creatures bear
upon them certain marks and signa-
tures of divine goodness and power,
ibut man is the very image and like-
mess of God. For it is not said, Let
vus make man in the image of the sun,

or of the moon, or of the angels j but
" in our likeness/' that our own image
may be clearly represented in him.

21. Consider, therefore, the beauty
and dignity of thy soul, which is cre-
ated in the image and likeness of God,
so that the glories of the divine ma-
jesty are, in a certain proportion,
transferred to thee. How much rea-
son have we then to avoid all impurity
and uncleanness, that we defile not
the beauty of the divine image. For
if we are thereby exalted to the high-
est glory and honor that our nature
is capable of, how unworthy and un-
grateful would it be, to pollute it by
any uncleanness, and so forfeit that
glory which God has bestowed on us.

22. How highly is a picture or statue
prized, that is well executed by an
eminent hand ! Could such a picture
or statue be endued with understand-
ing, how would it esteem its maker,
and take all opportunities of showing
its own gratitude, and its maker's
glory ! How senseless then, how un-
grateful is man, to forget the hand that
formed him ! to despise that excellent
beauty with which his Maker endued
him! to pollute it with all kinds of
impurity ! Plato, himself, a pagan,
has told us, that " the beauty of the
soul consists in virtue and piety."
But did we only consider the union of
our souls with God and Christ, the
righteousness of Christ wherewith our
souls are clothed, as with a garment
of glory and immortality (Isa. 61 : 10),
we should more easily understand
what the true and inward beauty of
our souls is, which depends entirely
upon that of Jesus Christ. And if it
be so, who can question but that the
soul is most exquisitely beautiful, since
it derives its beauty from Him who is
beauty itself?

23. To this belongs that passage of

Chap. VI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

457

the prophet Ezekiel, «Thy renown
went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty; for it was perfect through
my comeliness which I had put upon
thee, saith the Lord God/' Ezek. 16 :
14. If children partake of the beauty
of their parents according to the flesh j
it is reasonable to believe, that our
souls, by spiritual regeneration, re-
ceive a spiritual beauty from God.
Moreover, it cannot be doubted that
they are the most beautiful of all crea-
tures, since the Son of God himself
does not disdain to betroth himself
unto them, and to adorn them with
his own light and beauty. Upon this
account, the faithful soul is called, " a
king's daughter, all glorious within,
whose clothing is of wrought gold."
Ps. 45 : 15. If a plebeian woman be
ennobled by marriage with a husband
of quality, can we doubt but that the
faithful soul, by being married to the
most noble and beautiful spouse, shall
also partake, in a high degree, of His
beauty and glory. Upon this Irenreus
has a fine thought. He says, that
" the glory of man is God, but the re-
ceptacle of all the operations of divine
wisdom and goodness, is man."

24. Lastly, as it is beyond all con-
troversy, that the most high God par-
ticularly delights to dwell in the soul
of man ; that he has sanctified it to be

the temple of the Holy Ghost, the
habitation of the Father, and the bride-
chamber of the most beautiful spouse,
the Lord Jesus Christ, we may there-
fore conclude that the soul is the most
beautiful of all creatures. And as Eze-
kiel tells us that " our soul is per-
fected by the comeliness of God"
(Ezek. 16 : 14) ; how great must that
beauty, how rich must that attire, how
transcendent must those ornaments
be, which so great and noble a spouse
can bestow upon the bride which he
has prepared for himself ? O how
wonderful is this grace ! How incred-
ible is the beauty which God bestows
upon human souls ! Could it but be
seen by mortal eyes, it must charm
the most stupid beholder. And this
beauty increases every day by our
prayers, and devout approaches to
God. So that " we are changed from
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the
Lord." 2 Cor. 3 : 18. For if the face
of Moses, after conversing a few days
with God, shone with the brightness
of divine glory (Exod. 34:35); how
much more shall our souls, by the
same conversation, be enlightened and
beautified with higher degrees of light
and glory? — Of this subject we shall
speak more fully in Part II, of this
Fourth Book, which refers to man in
particular.

458

TBUE CHEISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part IL

PART II.

TKEATING SPECIALLY OF MAN.

CHAPTER I.

GOD, AN INFINITE AND ETERNAL BEING.

Ah, Lord God ! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. — The Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of
hosts, is his name; great in counsel, and mighty in work. — Jer. 32 : 17-19.

GOD is the origin of the life and
being of all creatures: whence it
follows, that he was before all crea-
tures, both an eternal Being, and
eternal Life itself; otherwise he could
not have given life and being to his
creatures. But the infinity of God
yet more plainly appears from the
mind and thoughts of man. For as
the mind of man can in a moment run
through the whole circle of heaven,
and comprehend in imagination all
the creatures of the universe ; it fol-
lows, that God who made him, com-
prehends all these things in a more
perfect manner, and by consequence
must be infinite.

2. All the attributes of God are es-
sential to him. As therefore he is in-
finite, so are his essence and life also
infinite. For essence and life are in-
separable from him. Moreover, as he
has endued the soul of man with wis-
dom and understanding, it follows that
the understanding and wisdom of God
must be infinite. For whatsoever is
in God, is essentially and eternally in

him. And as the unity of the divine
nature is so perfect that his wisdom
cannot be separated from his essence
and life, it follows that both are alike
infinite and eternal.

3. But if the wisdom of God be
eternal and infinite, it will follow that
He knoweth all things from eternity.
Moreover, as his essence is unchange-
able, equally filling all places; so his
understanding does not proceed by
way of rational connection, or discur-
sive operation from one idea to an-
other. He knoweth and understand-
eth all things in an instant, and to
him there is nothing past or to come,
but the whole circle of eternity is
present to him. For as God stands in
need of no creature to add anything
to the perfection of his being, so neither
does he need any creature with respect
to his understanding. And as he is
God, independently of all creatures;
so he penetrates and comprehends all
things in himself. So that the sands
of the sea, and the drops of the rain,
and eternity, are alike known to him.

Chap. IL]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

459

And not so much as a bird of the air,
or a hair of our heads, can fall to the
ground without him. Matt. 10 : 29, 30.
He knoweth the days of the world,
every hour and moment of time, with
its several periods and revolutions;
nor is anything under the heavens
hidden from him. For as by his in-
finite power he created all things, so
by his infinite wisdom he understands
and comprehends all things : even the

most secret thoughts of man. Ps. 139 :
2, &c.

4. Moreover, as his essence, life,
and wisdom, so also his power is in-
finite, and all are equally incapable of
any addition or diminution. Lastly,
forasmuch as no creature can oppose
or set bounds to his power, therefore,
he is Almighty. All which must neces-
sarily be, forasmuch as his essence, life,
wisdom, and power, are inseparable.

CHAPTER II.

GOD, THE SUPREME GOOD.

For of him , and through him, and to him, are all things. — KoM. 11 : 36.

AS He must be the chief and only
good, in whom all good things
are contained; it follows that glory
and praise belong to God alone, be-
cause from him, and by him, and for
him, are all things.

2. All the goodness that is found
scattered up and down among the
creatures, is in a most perfect and ex-
cellent manner and degree contained
in him. So that whosoever turns him-
self to the creatures, and cleaves unto
them, will always find himself poor,
needy, and distressed: whilst he that
turneth unto God with his whole heart,

pursues the chief and most perfect
good, and shall be blessed in the en-
joyment of it: ever rich, ever at ease,
ever blessed in the fruition of his God.
By this it appears that perfect happi-
ness is not to be found in the enjoy-
ment of the creatures, and that they
who fix their hearts and desires on the
world, can expect nothing but an-
guish, disquiet, and disappointments,
both in life and in death; for they
have not that chief good, which alone
can satisfy and make happy the soul
of man.

!

460

TEUE CHKISTIASTITY. [Book IV. Part II.

CHAPTER III.

MAN, THE MOST NOBLE OF ALL CREATURES, AND MADE FOR THE SERVICE OF GOD«

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we
are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. — Ps. 100 : 3.

ALL the creatures, in their several
kinds and orders, were created
by God for the use and benefit of man.
Thus we see corn and pasture pro-
duced, these feeding the living crea-
tures, and all serving for food to man-
kind. One assists another, the higher
wheel setting the lower in motion,
and all in a wonderful harmony con-
curring to one great end, which is the
use and benefit of man.

2. Now, if all this be for his sake,
he is certainly more noble than they
all ; and hence he should learn what
dependence he has upon God, and
what duty and service he owes to
Him who has appointed all the crea-
tures, in their order, to minister to his
necessities.

3. And, as all the creatures seem to

aim at no other end than the use and
service of man, and seem to rest and
be satisfied in obtaining that end; so
ought man likewise to show the same
diligence and faithfulness in the ser-
vice of God, that the creatures show
to him. All his works and labors
ought to be directed to this one end,
namely, to accomplish the will of God,
and do nothing but that which is well-
pleasing in his sight. For as all things
are incessantly employed in serving
man, the noblest of all creatures, so
there is all the reason in the world
that he should be as constant and as-
siduous in the service of God, who is
perfection itself, and to whom alone
he is indebted for that superiority
which he has over the rest of the
creatures.

CHAPTER IV.

GOD MADE MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT DELIGHT IN

HIM.

My delights were with the sons of men. — Prov. 8 : 31. — The Lord shall rejoice in his

works.— Ps. 104 : 31.

EVEKY artist has a love for the
works of his own hands, and
that induces him to take so much
pains about them. " God saw every
thing that he had made, and, behold, it
was very good." Gen. 1 : 31. But if he

took so much delight in the general
survey of his works, how much great-
er pleasure must he take in man,
whom he created after his own image.
2. For the more anything resembles
ourselves, the more tenderly do we

Chap. V.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

461

love it. A father has a stronger af-
fection for his son, who partakes of
his own nature, than for a house
which he himself has builded, though
ever so exact and regular in itself.

3. Moreover, as God takes pleasure
in a creature made to resemble him-
self, therefore, it was necessary, that
after the other creatures were formed,
he should create man in his own im-
age, in whom he might rest and de-
light himself. And as similitude is the
foundation of friendship and society,
and everything naturally associates
with its like, it follows that God, in
making man after his own image, in-
tended to delight and rejoice Himself
in him ; so that man ought likewise
to cleave unto his God, and to delight
and take pleasure in conversing with
Him.

4. Further, as God is the most per-
fect love, he could not but desire to*
communicate himself, and all his
blessings, to some other being. That
could not be done, however, without
making some being like himself; and
as there was no such being then in
nature, capable or worthy of such di-
vine communications, therefore he
created man in his own image, which
consists chiefly in perfect love.

5. And, lastly, as there is naturally
a reciprocal love betwixt the giver and
the receiver of any benefit; hence it
follows, that it is the duty of man to
worship with the highest affection and
most ardent love, his heavenly Bene-
factor, who so affectionately desires
to communicate himself, and all the
riches of his goodness, to his un-
worthy creatures.

CHAPTER V.

THAT GOD BY HIS LOVE BESTOWS HIMSELF UPON US.

God is love.— I John 4 : 16.

AS man devotes himself entirely
unto God by love, so God be-
stows himself entirely upon man also
by love. And as that love of his is in
the highest degree of perfection, he
cannot but give us Himself: for the
highest instance of love is to bestow
one's self upon the person we love.
And as a consequence of this perfect
love, He bestowed himself upon us in
his only begotten Son.

2. This is the true spring of the in-
carnation, passion, and death of the.
Son of God. Thus our blessed Sa-

viour pronounces these words of com-
fort, " God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son " (John 3:
16) ; that is, God loved the world with
an entire and perfect love, and there-
fore gave us his Son. But as the
eternal love of God is the fountain of
eternal life to the world; and that
eternal love is manifested by Christ
Jesus, in and by whom we have ever-
lasting life, therefore, our Lord further
adds : " that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have ever-
lasting life."

462

TEXTE CHBISTIANITY. [Book IT. Part IL

CHAPTER VI.

SHOWING HOW MUCH MAN IS INDEBTED TO GOD FOR HIS EVERLASTING LOVE.

We love him, because he first loved us. — 1 John 4 : 19.

IN every benefit or gift there are
three things to be considered : the
giver, the receiver, and the gift itself.
As, then, there is a natural obligation
upon the receiver to the giver, it is
manifest, that since man has received
all that he has from God, so he owes
all to him, and is under the strictest
obligations of love and obedience to
his great benefactor.

2. And as man consists of body
and soul, so God has abundantly pro-
vided for the comfort and happiness
of both.

3. As for his body, it is sustained
and refreshed by the various produc-
tions of nature, so that the whole cre-
ation seems to call upon him, and put
him in mind of his Creator : " Con-
sider," it saith, " O man, the benefits
which thy Maker has bestowed upon

thee, and what returns of gratitude
and service thou owest him for the
same. I (saith the heaven), give thee
daylight to work in, and send dark-
ness in which thou mayest sleep and
take thy rest. I give thee the pleas-
ant spring, the warm summer, the
fruitful autumn, and the cold winter,
in their proper seasons. I (saith the
air), supply thee with breath, and
every kind of birds. By me (saith
the water), art thou washed, and thy
thirst is quenched; by me thou art
supplied with all kinds of fish. I bear
thee and sustain thee (saith the earth),
and satisfy thee with bread, wine, and
flesh ; by all which thou mayest know
how much thou art beloved by Him
who made thee, and me for thy use ;
all of whose favors are as so many
bonds and obligations upon thee."

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE THINGS THAT INSTRUCT AND COMFORT THE SOUL.

Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or
speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. — Job 12 : 7, 8.

LET us now see what provision
God has made for the comfort
and instruction of the soul of man.
Here we shall find every creature in
one way or another, subservient to
this end. And, first, I shall speak of

the pleasure which man receives from
the creatures.

2. Man alone has the privilege of
really enjoying what he possesses.
Other creatures, being void of under-
standing, have no relish of those bless-

Chap. VIII.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

463

ings from which man receives very
great comfort; gold, silver, and pre-
cious stones, have no intelligence.
But man, being endowed with an un-
derstanding mind, reflects with grati-
tude and pleasure upon the goodness
of God, who has provided so many
beautiful creatures for his use and ben-
efit. O the wonderful goodness of
God, who has made all the excellen-
cies of the creatures subservient to
the happiness of man ; so that they
are the channels of conveying that
happiness to us, which they them-
selves are not capable of enjoying!
Thus the sweetness and goodness of
the water, the fragrance and beauty
of flowers, the light and glory of the
sun, moon, and all the host of heaven,
yield no pleasure to themselves, but
all unite to promote the happiness of
man. Nay, without them, man would
have no enjoyment at all in this world;
nor could he have any notion of the
dignity and pre-eminence of his na-
ture above that of other creatures, but
by comparing his condition with theirs.
This shows him the transcendent good-
ness of God, manifested to him above
all the rest of the creation ; this teaches
him to be thankful for his beautiful
form and stature, his erect counte-
nance, but above all, for his rational

soul, created afffcr the image of God.
From all which it appears, that the
knowledge of a man's self is his high-
est wisdom, and the want of it, the
most deplorable folly.

3. Moreover, the creatures were
made, not only for the delight of man,
but also to be his monitors and in-
structors. For from them we may
learn, that our chief good consists not
in worldly and outward enjoyments;
such as eating, drinking, and the grat-
ifying the other bodily appetites, all
which are common to the beasts as
well as to us ; and this is a convincing
argument, that man, being of a more
noble frame and nature than they,
ought to look for other meat and
drink, and other pleasures suitable to
the higher nobility of his nature,
which the inferior creatures cannot
share with him. I need not here men-
tion, that the greatest part of human
wisdom arises from the contemplation
of the creatures. Thus our music came
from the sound of metals; our skill in
medicine, from other creatures; and
our astronomy, from the stars ; which
still farther illustrates my first obser-
vation, that the whole world was cre-
ated for the sake of man, for which he
owes never-ending thanks to his mu-
nificent Creator.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE OBLIGATIONS UNDER WHICH MEN LIE TO GOD.

0 Lord, how great are thy works ! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man Tcnoweth not ;
neither doth a fool understand this. — Ps. 92 : 5, 6.

THE obligations which man lies
under to God, are as many and
as great, as are the favors which he

has received from him, or the excel-
lencies which he has bestowed upon
all the creatures. For as every crea-

464

TEUE CHRISTIANITY. [Book IY. Part II.

ture was made for his use and benefit,
so ought his gratitude to rise in pro-
portion for them all. If a king should
bestow great estates and honors upon
a company of children in the same
family, and but one of the number
had age and sense enough to know
the greatness of the favor and honor
done to them, he alone is certainly
obliged to thank him in the name of

all the rest, and would be guilty of
ingratitude if he did not. So in this
world, the rest of the creatures are
like children, that know not the worth
and value of God's blessings, as man
does; he is, therefore, alone obliged to
adore and praise him in the name and
stead of all the rest, and is highly un-
grateful if he does not.

CHAPTER IX.

MAN EVEN MORE INDEBTED TO GOD TOR INWARD, THAN FOR OUTWARD BLESSINGS.
And the fear of you shall be upon every beast of the earth. — Gen. 9 : 2.

A

S man knows himself to be the
most excellent of all creatures,
so ought he to be more thankful to
God for the perfections of his own
being and nature, than for those of all
the rest of the world. For as all
things else were made for his sake, he
must of necessity be more perfect and
excellent than they. The sun, the
moon, and all the host of heaven,
those glorious bodies, all wait upon
man, and do him service. This they
do, not on account of his body, which,
considered in this corrupt state, is less
excellent than theirs; but on account
of his soul, as to which he is in every
respect superior to them. For the
very notion of servitude implies a
superiority in the person to whom
the service is paid : so that it would
be unnatural for those glorious bod-
ies to do that service to man, if he
had not an immortal soul, and by con-

sequence, a more excellent nature
than they.

2. And on account of the immor-
tality of the soul, it is an unworthy
thing for a man to fix it upon any-
thing that is mortal and perishing;
because it is incapable of uniting with
anything but what is immortal, and
particularly with God himself. The
body, indeed, is connected with cor-
poreal objects, and is capable of ter-
restrial enjoyments; but the soul
should be united solely with God ; so
that, as a king, he might be enthroned
and bear rule in her ; and in this con-
sists the excellency of man above all
other creatures, that his soul is the
throne, the image, and habitation of
God. Greater honor than this no crea-
ture is capable of receiving; therefore
man is the most excellent of all, and is
infinitely indebted to the Author and
Giver of such inestimable benefits.

Chap. XI.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

465

CHAPTER X.

OF THE WISDOM WHICH GOD HAS SHOWN IN THE FORMATION OF MAN.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom, hast thou made them all. — Ps. 104 : 24.

THEEE are three orders in the
natural body. The first is to the
body the same that the husbandmen
and laborers are to the state; being
employed in raising the appetite, di-
gesting and concocting the food, sepa-
rating the juices, and in all the other
inferior offices of the animal economy.
This lower faculty works night and
day, for the security and preservation
of the others. For such is the consti-
tution of human bodies, that if the
lower faculties be out of order, or
cease to operate, the superior, which
depend upon them, cannot subsist.

2. The next faculty is the sensi-
tive, diversified by the five percep-
tions of seeing, hearing, tasting,
smelling, and feeling, which are all
more or less noble, the one than the
other. The sight is more noble than
the hearing, because objects are seen
at a much greater distance than they
are heard. The hearing is more noble
than the taste, as being capable of ex-
erting itself at a greater distance.
And for the same reason, the taste

and smelling are more noble than the
feeling, which is the weakest and low-
est of all.

3. The third order, which is the
highest and most noble of all, answers
to the government in the state, and is
divided into the reason, the will, and
the memory. These govern and com-
mand the faculties, having each a
function distinct from the rest. These
are not corporeal, as the others, but
strictly mental faculties; and are,
therefore, more noble and excellent.
Besides which, they are also endued
with that perfect liberty, that they
cannot be compelled to anything.
For who can force the will to desire
that for which it has no mind; or to
hate that which it loves ? The will
is altogether free, and cannot be
forced. These are clothed with vir-
tues proper to each of them ; as the
will with righteousness; the under-
standing with wisdom; the memory
with eloquence, etc. This is th&
economy settled by God in human na-
ture.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE OBLIGATIONS MAN LIES UNDER TOWARDS GOD.

What hast thou that thou didst not receive ? — 1 Cor. 4 : 7.

THEEE are two very general and
comprehensive favors, for which
man is exceedingly obliged to God;
the one visible and corporeal, which

is this world ; the other spiritual and.
invisible, which is the love of God.

2. And though this latter is indeed
the first, as being the foundation of

30

466

TKUE CHKISTIANITY. [Book IT. Part II

all his other blessings, which are no
more than infinite rivulets flowing
from this universal fountain of divine
love; yet, because it is invisible, the
folly of man hardly considers it as
any mercy at all. So that man, being
delighted only with visible things,
does not regard or consider that the
love which is concealed under them,
is greater and better than the things
themselves. • In a word, as smoke is
a sign of fire, so are the blessings of
God a certain proof of his love to-
wards us.

3. Since, then, the gifts and bless-
ings of God are, as it were, certain
steps by which to mount up to God
himself, it follows, that his love is as
great as his gifts are ; antTas he made
the whole world for the sake of man,
and formed all creatures for his use,
and regards them only as they serve
and minister to his beloved creature,
man ; as he has exalted and loved
him above all creatures, and as this
love of God is the most sincere, pure,
safe, and in a word, the highest good,
which prompted him to form and love
man, not for any advantage which He

was to reap from him, but out of the
overflowings of his free grace and
boundless love j from all these consid-
erations, I say, it is plain that man is
more indebted to God for this love,
than for all the particular gifts and fa-
vors that God can bestow, and man
receive.

4. There are two things to be con-
sidered in every favor : the love that
precedes and influences the giver, and
the gift itself, which is the conse-
quence of that love. The former is
not only more noble and valuable
than the latter, but is in all respects
equal to the person that shows it.
Hence, it follows, that the love of God
is as infinitely good and great as God
himself. This confirms the position
first laid down, that man is more
obliged to God for his love, than for
any or all of his particular graces
and favors. And as man cannot sub-
sist a moment without the favor and
mercy of God (for on Him his breath
and life entirely depend), it is plain
that his obligations to God are greater
than those of all the creatures be-
sides.

CHAPTER XII.

OP ANSWERING THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH MAN LIES UNDER TO GOD.

I will love thee, 0 Lord, my strength. — Ps. 18 : 1.

AS God has freely and graciously
bestowed all his gifts and bless-
ings on man, he thereby obliges him
to make some satisfaction and return
for all these mercies. Now man can
offer and dedicate nothing unto God,
but what is entirely in his own pow-

er ; so that all his outward goods and
riches, are not a proper offering for
God.

2. But as God has bestowed on him
his greatest blessing, which is his love,
so he expects to be requited with love
again. And as the love of God to

Chap. XIII.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

467

man is in the highest degree of per-
fection, so the love that he requires
from us ought to be perfect, " with all
our heart, with all our soul, with all
our mind, and with all our strength."
Mark 12 : 30. And how just this re-
turn is, both nature and reason may
convince us. For nothing is more
natural and reasonable than to love
them that love us, and to proportion
our love to theirs; whosoever does
not this, is ungrateful and unworthy
of that love which he refuses to re-
quite. And when God does not meet
with this reciprocal love from man,
as he very seldom does, he has then
just reason to complain of injustice
and ingratitude; for he requires noth-
ing from man but love, in return for
all that infinite love and mercy which
he has shown to him.

3. Moreover, such is the nature of
love, so sweet, so pure, so free, and so
acceptable is it, that neither fear, nor
honor, nor any other thing, is good or
desirable, but as it is sweetened with

love. No man ever was so great, as
to despise the love of his inferiors ;
but the greater a man is, the more
does he court the love and esteem of
those below him. Yea, so true is this,
that God himself, the most mighty
and excellent of all beings, is so far
from despising the love of mankind,
that he earnestly courts and desires
it. This then being certain, that love
is the greatest treasure any man has,
he is obliged to offer it to God, who
has bestowed the fulness of his love
upon man.

4. By what I have here advanced I
would not be understood to mean that
this perfect love, since the fall, is
wholly in our own power, or that by
it we can make a perfct return to God
for all his benefits. My only design is
to show that we are convinced in our
own consciences, not only from the
Word of God, but also from the light
of nature, that we ought to love God
as he has loved us.

CHAPTER XIII.

SHOWING THAT GOD'S LOVE APPEARS IN ALL HIS WORKS, EVEN IN HIS

CHASTISEMENTS.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. — Ps. 103 : 10.

AS love is the root and principle of
all the divine acts and opera-
tions, it follows that even afflictions,
which are the work of God, proceed
from love, and ought to be received
by man as instances of God's favor.
For love is the root of all the opera-
tions of God.

2. Hence no man ought to murmur
against God wThen He corrects him, or

repine at His chastisements, or quarrel
with His judgments. Our sufferings
are not chargeable upon God, but upon
ourselves. It would become us much
better to bear his corrections without
remitting our love towards him; even
as he punishes us, and yet tenderly
loves us still. This would be a true
instance and proof of the sincerity of
our love to God.

468

TEÜB CHBISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part IL

3. And though there is no propor-
tion between the love of God towards
man, and the love which the most
perfect Christian bears to God, the
one being infinite and the other finite;
yet is it our duty continually to aim
at the highest degrees attainable by
us. We should endeavor that our love
may be holy, pure, sincere, and perse-
vering, even in the midst of sufferings

and afflictions ; as the love of God to-
wards us is ardent, pure, unchange-
able, and everlasting, even whilst he
punishes and afflicts us for our sins.
If we do not this, we are the most un-
grateful of all his creatures; every one
of which, in its order and capacity,
answers the transcendent love of God
with a pure love and obedience.

CHAPTER XIY.

SHOWING HOW, AND ON WHAT ACCOUNT, MAN IS OBLIGED TO LOVE GOD.

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. —

Cant. 8 : 7.

HITHEETO we have distinctly
considered the obligations that
man lies under to God; which is a doc-
trine founded upon that natural rela-
tion that is between the giver and the
receiver; and this is, a« it were, a per-
petual light of nature, to direct us to
the several branches of our duty to
God. For as God has bestowed freely
upon man everything that he pos-
sesses (whence the obligation arises),
it plainly follows that man is obliged
to offer up and restore unto God all
that he has received from him. On the
other hand, if God had given nothing,
and man received nothing, there would
have then been no obligation, nor any
rule or measure of duty.

2. But as the love of God is the first
and chief benefit which he has be-

stowed on man ; so it is but just and
reasonable that he who has so loved
us should be loved by us again. Man,
then, has nothing from himself, nor
from others originally, but all things
from God; and by consequence, is ob-
liged solely to God. And this obliga-
tion cannot otherwise be discharged
than by loving him entirely with all
our hearts and with all our strength.

3. Lastly, as man continually de-
pends upon God for his life and being;
as he continually enjoys His favors and
blessings, and, by His command and
order, the service and assistance of the
creatures; nothing less can be expected
from so dependent a being, than love
to Him who has so generously and
bountifully blessed him.

Chap. XVI.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

469

CHAPTER XV.

SHOWING THAT ALL THE CREATURES CONTINUALLY REMIND US OP THE LOVE

WHICH WE OWE TO GOD.

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice ? — Prov. 8 : 1.

AS God has loved man above all
the creatures, or, to speak more
properly, has loved him only, having
created them all for his sake; so this
perpetual love of God calls upon us,
and exhorts us to love him with all
our hearts; yea, all the creatures of
the universe, whilst by God's com-
mand they serve us, and minister to
our necessities, do, as it were, with
united voices call aloud, and put us in
mind of the natural obligations we are
under to magnify and adore, to serve
and love so gracious a Benefactor, and
that freely and willingly; even as they,
by God's command, freely and cheer-
fully assist and minister to us.

2. And as their love and service to
us are not false and hypocritical, but
sincere and faithful; so ought ours to
be to our Creator. As they employ
their whole strength night and day to

serve us ; so ought we night and day
to be diligent and earnest in the ser-
vice of God. As all the creatures, in
their order, serve and minister to man
alone; so ought all the powers of our
souls and bodies to be employed solely
in the service of God. And as the
greatest natural pleasure which man
has in this world, arises from the use
and enjoyment of the creatures; so
nothing is more acceptable to God
than the sincere services of a devout
soul ; nothing delights him more than
love, arising from a lively faith in
Christ, operating in a free and willing
spirit. From what has been said, it
is plain that the creatures exhort and
instruct mankind to love God: 1. With
all their strength ; 2. Freely and will-
ingly; 3. Heartily and sincerely; 4.
Solely and entirely.

CHAPTER XVI.

A GENERAL RULE, TEACHING US HOW TO ANSWER OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GOD.

Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. — Cant. 4 : 16.

AS the creatures are appointed by
God to obey man ; so man is ob-
liged to love God, and in this the crea-
tures are our monitors. Thus the
trees furnish us with ripe, sweet, per-
fect, and pleasant fruits; which, if

they were unripe, sour, or rotten, no-
body would taste or care for. So it is
not sufficient for man to offer his ser-
vice, his love, fear, and honor unto
God, unless they be genuine and per-
fect in their kind, being made accept-

470

TEUE CHEISTIANITY. [Book IY. Part II.

able unto God through Christ and in
Christ, by the Holy Ghost, who pro-
duces in us all true and perfect fruits.
This then is the great end for which
we must labor, by faith and prayer,
that we may bring forth fruits accept-
able to God : like the trees which spend
the whole twelve months of the year
in laboring to produce fruits whole-
some and pleasant to the eater; for
God will no more accept our unripe,
sour, or bitter works, than we our-
selves would relish sour and unripe
fruits.

2. Moreover, as the trees serve us,
and naturally provide for our pleasure
and benefit; so is it our duty to serve

God " out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeign-
ed" (1 Tim. 1 : 5), without hypocrisy
and sinister designs, that both we and
our works may be acceptable in his
sight. In a word, that universal rule
which holds in nature, must necessarily
be transferred to our love and duty to
God, namely, that a man ought never
to cease from laboring, till he has
brought forth fruits acceptable to God:
on the other hand, that all supersti-
tion, will-worship, and hypocrisy, are
as hateful and abominable in the sight
of God, as unripe or rotten fruits are
to us.

CHAPTER XVII.

SHOWING THAT THE CHRISTIAN WHO LOVES NOT GOD IS WITHOUT EXCUSE.

This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments : and his commandments are not

grievous. — 1 John 5:3.

A

S God has implanted in every
man a faculty of willing or de-
siring, which we call the will, which
is also the seat of love, both which
mutually depend on each other; and
as man knows that the chief Good is
to be loved by him, and that God is
that chief Good ; hence it follows, that
he alone has a natural knowledge both
that he ought to love God, and also of
the reasons that oblige him to it.

2. For as brute creatures are fond of
their benefactors ; so man is under the
highest obligations to love God, from
whom he has received all that he has ;
and if he do not, he is more stupid and
ungrateful than the beasts that perish.
Eom. 12:9; Isa. 1 : 3. Moreover, as

it is the nature of love to exclude all
weariness and sadness (which are the
effects of hatred and displeasure), and
to sweeten and soften all the labors
and difficulties that may attend the
service of the person beloved (1 Cor.
13 : 4, etc.) ; so we are obliged to ex-
press our love to God, by all possible
tokens of satisfaction and joy; since
love is the happiness and comfort of
our souls. And in this appear the
kindness and love of God towards man,
that he does not exact of us a hard,
severe, and painful service; but only
the sweet, the joyful, the comfortable
exercise of love. Love casts out fear,
anguish, and torment; otherwise it
ceases to be love. Love conquers all

Chap. XIX.]

TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

471

difficulties, and drives away all sor-
row, filling the soul with joy and glad-
ness ; so that if we love not God, we
are without excuse.

3. By this I do not mean, that man,
since the fall, can by his own strength
and power, perfectly love G-od as he

ought ; but to show that every man is
convinced in his own conscience, that
he ought to love him as well as he can;
that he who does not, is worse than
the beasts ; and that both nature and
religion oblige us thereto.

CHAPTER XVIII.

SHOWING THAT OUR DUTY TO GOD TENDS TO PROMOTE OUR OWN HAPPINESS.

By thy commandments is thy servant warned : and in keeping of them there is great

reward. — Ps. 19 : 11.

HAYING sufficiently proved, in the
first and second Chapters, that
God is an absolute, infinite, and super-
abundant Good, having all perfection
in and of himself, and receiving no
benefit from the service and worship
of the creature ; it follows, that all our
religious services, as they cannot be
enjoined without a purpose, so they
must tend directly to our benefit and
advantage. All the time and pains,
therefore, which we spend in the ser-
vice of God, are really and truly laid
out in the service of ourselves.

2. For so great are the kindness and
love of God towards men, that He has

pointed out to them the path of love,
that they might walk in it, and drink
plentifully of the waters of life. O the
boundless love of God, who has made
even our' duty to be our happiness !

3. But here we must not think that
we can merit anything by the services
which we pay to Him ; for, in truth,
all the blessings that we receive either
in this life or the next, are solely
owing to the free grace and favor of
God. The sense and meaning of this
Chapter then is this : that the virtues
or vices of men are neither profitable
nor hurtful unto God, but only unto
themselves.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SERVICE WHICH THE CREATURES RENDER TO MAN, COMPARED WITH THAT
WHICH MAN RENDERS TO GOD.

My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul. — Prov. 3:21, 22.

AS we have already shown that
there are two sorts of services ;
one which the creatures render to

man, and the other which men render'
to God, both tending to the sole hap-
piness of man; it remains now that

472

TETJE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part IL

we show the resemblance and relation
that subsists between them. As for
the service of the creatures, it is not
in the power of man to make any ret-
ribution for the good they do us (for
everything that we have is God's):
nor indeed is it fit to do this, because
all the goodness of the creatures is no
more than a little stream of divine
goodness, flowing to us through them ;
and to Him alone, the Author and
Fountain of all good, all our love and
gratitude are due. So then, though a
man cannot subsist one moment with-
out the assistance of the creatures, yet
are they not the proper objects of our
love, but God alone; who, by their
services, endeavors to oblige and draw
us to a reciprocal love and service to
himself. For what advantage is it to
us, to live by the help of the creatures,
unless we live unto God.

2. This then is the intention of God:
to instruct us, by the cheerful services
which the creatures pay to us, how
cheerfully we ought to love, to serve,
and obey him. For as man cannot
live without the help of the creatures,
such as the air and universal nature ;

so he spiritually dies unto God when-
ever he ceases to obey him and to live
in Christ. Moreover, as the life of
man is nothing worth, if it be not
godly and devout; so the service of
the creatures profits him nothing, if
he also be not active and cheerful in
the service of God. And as the natu-
ral life is nothing, when compared with
a life of godliness and devotion ; so the
service we pay to God, profits us much
more than all the service the creatures
pay to us.

3. Nay, he that serveth not God, is
not worthy of the service of the crea-
tures; for as they were made for the
service of man, so man was made for
the service of God ; and all the duty
they pay to us, is only to encourage
us in our duty to our Maker. When
this end is not answered, we may not
only be said to use the creatures in
vain, but to abuse them. The end of
all that has been said, is this : that as
God has commanded the creatures to
contribute to the support of our natu-
ral life, he thereby instructs us to de-
vote and dedicate that life entirely to
His honor and service.

CHAPTER XX.

ALL THINGS ARE PRESERVED BY THE HAND OF GOD.

The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him ; but his power and his wrath is
against all them that forsake him. — Ezra 8 : 22.

AS man, the noblest of the crea-
tures, cannot subsist one moment
without the help of those that are
much inferior to himself; it follows,
that their being, and the qualities by
which they help and assist us, are en-
tirely owing to God. Whosoever de-

nies this, must believe that they who
want not our help, must be more wor-
thy than we, who cannot subsist with-
out theirs.

2. But the more natural conclusion
would be, that if man cannot subsist
without their help, they who are so

Chap. XXI.]

TEUE CHRISTIANITY.

473

much more ignoble than he, must

ike-

wise depend on some superior being
for their support and preservation.
But as He that supports the creatures,
also supports mankind by their means,
it is plain, that he can be nothing less

than the Creator and Maker of all
things. For nothing can preserve our
being, but he that gave it, and that is
God, who ordained the creatures for
our sakes, and man for his own.

CHAPTER XXI.

SHOWING THAT FROM THE SERVICE OF MAN AND THE CREATURES, A UNION
TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE VISIBLE WORLD, MAN, AND GOD.

Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord ; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Who would not fear thee, O king of nations ? — Jerem. 10 : 6, 7. — If then I be a father, where
is mine honor ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? — Mal. 1 : 6.

LET us now consider and admire
the wonderful union of all the
creatures with God, by that double
service of which we have spoken. For
as all the creatures were made for the
use of man, thence arises a certain re-
lation or union between man and them ;
as there is by our duty and service to
God, between us and him. For as God
intended to draw man to himself by
the cords of love, so he commanded
all the creatures to do service unto
man, as being created for his use alone;
and this is a strong obligation upon us
to love, serve, and honor him,

2. Hence we may learn, that all the
duty they pay to us, or we to God,
tends solely to the good and benefit of
man. As for the other creatures, they
reap no benefit or advantage from
their several labors and services, but
only that every one is looked upon to
be more or less excellent, in proportion
to the service they respectively do to
man. So likewise God receives no ad-
vantage from our services to him; but
the greater love any man has for God,
the more noble he is, and the greater
benefit he receives. Whence it ap-

pears, how wonderfully this twofold
service unites the creatures to man,
and man to God,

3. And would to God that the bond
of union which is between God and
man, were as strong as that which is
between man and the creatures ! They
are incessantly employed in the ser-
vice of man, and never act in a man-
ner contrary to this design of their
creation ; but man, on the other hand,
bursts the yoke, and breaks the bonds
of duty which God has laid upon him,
debasing himself below the beasts,
though so much more noble than they.
Now if the laws of nature and reason
require the creatures to be obedient to
man, as their lord, how much more
just and reasonable is it, that man
should be obedient unto God ? For as
the soul is much more noble than the
body, so is the inward and spiritual
service of God much more excellent
than that external and bodily service
of the creatures. And thus by the
duty and service of man to his Maker,
are all the creatures united unto God,
and perfected in charity, that they
may not be created in vain.

474

TKUE CHRISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part II.

CHAPTER XXII.

FROM THE LOVE WHICH WE OWE TO GOD, PROCEEDS THAT WHICH WE OWE TO OUR

NEIGHBOR.

This commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. —

1 John 4 : 21.

AS we have already shown above,
that our love is entirely due to
God. and that this is the first and chief
obligation upon us; hence it follows,
that it would be highly unjust to alien-
ate that love from him, and fix it upon
any other object. As God has appro-
priated all his love to us, so ought we
entirely to consecrate ours to him.
For though the creatures indeed do us
good, yet they are only agents, and,
in truth, God does us good by their
means, forasmuch as he supports, ena-
bles, and commands them to minister
to our necessities. Whence it follows,
that man also, being a creature of God,

appointed to minister to his neighbor,
if he does him any service, ought not
to claim any honor or love for himself,
which are due to God alone.

2. But as man is obliged to love
God above all things, so he is thereby
bound to unite his will and love with
the will and love of God, and to love
all mankind as created in the image
of God, as freely and sincerely as God
himself loves them. And he that saith
he loves God, and loves not his brother,
created in the image of God, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him ; for every
one that truly loveth God, will love
his brother also.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MAN IS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. — Gen. 1 : 26.

ALL the creatures, in their differ-
ent orders and degrees of sub-
ordination, may be said to imitate
their Maker. Those beings that are
endued with life and sense come nearer
to him than the vegetable; the ration-
al, than the irrational. As, then, all
the creatures in their order seem re-
spectively to approach nearer and
nearer unto God, and man is the end
and perfection of them all, it follows,

that he must be in the highest degree
of conformity and likeness unto God.
2. For as the wax represents the
perfect impression of the seal, so God
has fixed a stamp or impression of
himself upon all creatures; but to
man, before his fall, he gave his own
image and the brightness of that
glory, which the rest of the creatures
partake of in lower degrees. Thus it
appears from the orders of created

Chap. XXIV.]

TEXTE CHETSTIANITY.

475

beings, that man was entirely created
after the image of God. And as God
is a pure spirit, a holy, just, and un-
derstanding mind, so there is in man

a spiritual and understanding soul, in
which the brightness and glory of the
divine image shone and manifested it-
self.

CHAPTER XXI Y.

THAT MAN IS OBLIGED TO LOVE HIS NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF.

He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love. — 1 John 4 : 8.

AS we were all originally created
in the image of God, and he is
endeavoring to restore in us this lost
image by the Holy Spirit, and to save
us in Jesus Christ, it follows, that we
ought to love our neighbors, and look
upon them not as aliens and strangers,
but as our kindred and brethren, hav-
ing all received from the same God
and Father, our life, and breath, and
all things. We ought to regard them
with the same affection that we do
ourselves, that so the image of God,
renewed in us by Christ, may not suf-
fer by our fault. Since, then, there is
but one image of God in us all, and
we have but one Eedeemer and one
Holy Spirit, how strong ought the
bond of love and unity to be betwixt
those who represent but one great
body, and where all are members one
of another ? For as our Maker justly
claims the first place in our love, so
the second is certainly due to them
that are created in his image. And
because this image resides more par-
ticularly in the soul, we are thereby
obliged to wish as well to the souls of
our neighbors as to our own; so then
every man is bound to love his neigh-
bor as to love his God, and that is a

necessary consequence of this. For
as God has loved man from all eter-
nity, and still continues to love us, by
providing plentifully for all the wants
of soul and body; he designs thereby,
as with the cords of love, to draw us
to himself, and to teach us that as he
loves us, so ought we also to love one
another.

2. Moreover, as religion or the wor-
ship of God regards chiefly the good
and benefit of the worshipper, it fol-
lows, that the love of our neighbor,
which arises from our love of God,
necessarily tends to the same end. Or
shall we say that the image of God in
man is profitable to the giver, and not
to the receiver ? Lastly, as the love
of God and of our neighbor is the
first and chief duty of man, it must
of necessity be also his chief and
greatest good; yea, the root and
fountain of all the blessings which he
can possibly enjoy; so that nothing
can strictly be called good to him, that
proceeds from any other principle.
The more, therefore, we increase and
improve in the love of God and of our
neighbor, the more do we improve in
blessedness and happiness.

476

TEUE CHRISTIANITY. [Book IY. Part II.

CHAPTER XXV.

ALL MANKIND ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AS ONE MAN, OR AS BEING MANY
MEMBERS OF ONE GREAT BODY.

Have we not all one father ? hath not one God created us ? why do we deal treacherously every
man against his brother ? — Mal. 2:10.

AS all the creatures, the fire, air,
earth, water, sun, moon, and
stars, equally and without any respect
of persons, serve and minister to man-
kind, doing the same service to the
poor as to the rich ; to the peasants as
to the citizens ; to him that labors for
his bread, as to him that sitteth on
the throne ; by this God teaches us to
look upon our neighbor as part of our-
selves, and all of us together as mak-
ing up but one man. And as he has
commanded all the creatures to pay
honor and obedience to man, he de-
signs thereby to instruct us that we
are the image of God, and ought to
live in a constant imitation of him.

2. If we do not this, and accept not
the service of the creatures with
thanksgiving, we are unworthy of the
least service from them. Now as the
creatures pay equal service to all men,
solely on account of the image of God
which they bear, how much more in-
cumbent is it upon us to love and
honor our neighbor, as bearing that
divine image. So that the creatures
themselves instruct us by their exam-
ple in the duties which we owe to one
another ; for as they regard all man-
kind but as one man, so ought we to
do likewise.

3. Lastly, forasmuch as all of us en-
joy the love and favor of the same
God ; are all equally created in the
same image; as the love of God is

universal to us all, and his blessings
equally bestowed on all; as we all la-
bor under the same necessities, and
stand in need of the same mercies,
and are obliged to pay him the same
duty and service ; as we are all par-
takers of the same nature, and bear
the same name (for the poorest and
meanest is as truly a man as the great-
est) ; as we all receive an equal tribute
of service from the creatures \ and, as
it is appointed for us all once to die ;
upon all these accounts we are, each
one, obliged to love our neighbors as
ourselves, and promote peace, unity,
and charity among ourselves.

4. From all that has been said, it ap-
pears, that there is a twofold brother-
hood among men : First, as we are all
the creatures of God, and owe to him
our being, and all the comforts and
supports of it, as well as the other
creatures; and secondly, as we are
distinguished from the rest of the crea-
tures, and have a closer and more
heavenly relation one to another, be-
ing all created in the image and like-
ness of God. But there is yet a much
more noble brotherhood discovered to
us in the Gospel, by which we are all
brethren of, and in, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and members of his spiritual
body under Him, our Head, of whose
fulness we all receive our different
measures and proportions of grace,
Ephes. 1 : 23.

Chap. XXVIL]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

477

CHAPTER XXYI.

CHARITY, THE FOUNDATION OF THE GREATEST STRENGTH.
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. — Eph. 4 : 3.

AS the greatest strength arises from
concord, and the greatest weak-
ness from discord ; it follows, that the
closer this concord is, the greater will
the strength be. But in order to be
united among ourselves, it is necessary
that we begin first with being united
unto God. The closer our union is with
God, the stronger will it be with our
neighbors. For it is impossible that
he who is sincerely and heartily united
to God by love, should hate his neigh-
bor, whom God so sincerely loves.
Yea, the more ardently any man loves
God, the more tenderly will he love
his neighbor; and the more he loves
him, the closer will he be united to
him.

2. Upon the diminution or increase
of our charity, therefore, depends the
decay or increase of our union ; and
when both are perfect, the strength
arising from them is invincible.
Whence it plainly appears, that when
men love God, they must of necessity
love one another, and are thereby

united in a perfect bond of union and
peace. But when once they come to
forget God, and to care for nobody
but themselves, then faction and dis-
cord arise, which end in ruin and con-
fusion. Here we see the advantages
of concord, and the many public and
private blessings that flow thence ;
and how all the miseries that attend
confusion and discord, rob us of those
blessings, which every single person
may enjoy in the safety and peace of
the public. In a word, so great are
the benefits of this universal love of
God and man, that so long as it is pre-
served, no power can destroy or hurt
us.

3. Hitherto we have been ascending
by gradual steps, from the lowest crea-
tures to God, our chief Good, being
taught and convinced by the creatures,
of the obligations under which we are
to love and worship God. Hence we
descend again from the Creator to the
creature ; that is, from the love of our
Creator, to the love of the creatures.

CHAPTER XXVIL

OF THE NATURE, PROPERTIES, AND FRUITS OF LOVE.

Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness. — Luke 11 : 35.

THAT nothing is properly our own
but our love, is too plain to need
any proof. Hence, if our love be good,

and rightly applied, our hearts and
the treasures that are in them, are
good likewise ; but if otherwise, then

478

TEÜE CHEISTIANITY.

[Book IV. Part II.

we ourselves and all that we have, are
evil. It is our love only that makes
us either good or bad. And as, when
our love is right and duly placed, there
can be nothing better; so, when it is
otherwise, there can be nothing worse.
2. And, since we can call nothing
our own but our love, it follows, that
on whatsoever being we place our love,
to that we dedicate ourselves and all
that we have. Whensoever we abuse
or misapply our love, we throw away

and lose all that we have. So then,
if all our goodness consist in the rec-
titude of our love, and all our evil in
the misapplying of it; it follows, that
virtue itself is nothing else but our
love, truly and properly placed; and
vice nothing else but a perverse and
irregular love. Whosoever considers
these properties of love, cannot be
ignorant wherein the greatest good,
and the greatest evil of man, consist.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

LOVE UNITES HIM WHO LOVES WITH THE PERSON LOVED, AND TRANSFORMS INTO

THE SAME NATURE.

God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. — 1 John 4 : 16.

LOVE unites itself to the beloved
object, because it is the nature of
love to communicate itself willingly
and freely to every person or being
that is disposed to receive it. For love
is a free gift, and cannot be obtained
by force. And as it is the nature of a
gift, to be entirely in the power of
him to whom the last owner gave it ;
so our love is entirely appropriated to
him on whom we have bestowed it, so
that we truly give up ourselves to that
thing on which we fix our love. Thus
the beloved is united with the lover,
and they two become one, not by con-
straint or force, but freely, willingly,
and joyfully : and so he who loves is
made one with the thing beloved, and
love takes its denomination from its
object. Hence we read of carnal love,
earthly love, and divine love, each tak-
ing its name and character from the
objects on which it is fixed. Thus
then every man has it in his power to

be changed with freedom and ease into
a being more noble than himself.

2. Moreover, as the will, without
controversy, undergoes a change in
love, and every change ought to be
from an ignoble to a more noble state
of being (as we see the elements are
changed into plants and herbs, and
these into the flesh of living creatures,
and they again into the substance of
human bodies), it would, therefore, be
unnatural to fix our love upon, and,
consequently, to be united and changed
into, anything that is meaner than
ourselves, but rather upon God, the
best and supreme Being; to whom,
according to the order of nature, our
love and will ought to be united. Thus
we hear, as it were, the whole crea-
tion calling to us, and putting us in
mind of the supreme excellency of
God ; upon which account He, and He
alone, is worthy of our love.

Chap. XXX.]

TEUE CHEISTIANITY.

479

CHAPTER XXIX.

NOTHING IS WORTHY OF OUR LOVE, BUT THAT WHICH CAN MAKE US MORE

NOBLE AND PURE.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. — 1 John 2:15.

AS our love is the most noble pres-
ent we can make, and has a
power of changing our will into the
nature of the thing beloved, so that
we are under the control of that
which we heartily love; it follows,
that we act meanly and unworthily,
when we give to anything that is vile
and earthly, the power of enslaving
our will, which is a spiritual faculty,
and, consequently," more noble than
anything corporeal : and that he is
very unhappy and foolish, who places
his love on his body, and the gratifi-
cations of sense, for instance, on his
furniture, equipage, houses, and es-
tates j all which debase the soul, and
can yield it no satisfaction in trouble,

no comfort in the hour of death, or in
the day of judgment. Nothing can
do this but God, who is the highest
and chief Good, and alone is worthy
of our love.

2. We must not, therefore, waste
our love on anything that is not sen-
sible of the honor we pay it, nor able
to make us a worthy return for it,
much less on things that corrupt and
debase it, making it earthly, sensual,
" and unprofitable. On the other hand,
as God loves us above all creatures,
he deserves a suitable love from us;
and that not only as he raises and en-
nobles our love, but as he requites us
with his own, which is infinite, uncre-
ated and eternal.

CHAPTER XXX.

OUR CHIEF LOVE IS DUE TO GOD, AS THE FIRST AND LAST, THE BEGINNING AND

THE END OF ALL THINGS.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect : for all his ways are judgment : a God of truth and without
iniquity, just and right is he. — Deut. 32 : 4.

"VTOT only the universal voice of
JLi nature, but our own consciences
also bear witness that our chief and
highest love is due to God. 1. Be-
cause he is our chief and eternal
Good. 2. Because not only man, but
all other creatures derive their being

from him. 3. Because the love and
goodness of God are conveyed unto
man by all the creatures. Whence it
follows, that God, who is the fountain
of goodness and love, deserves to be
loved by us more than any creature,
yea, than all the creatures put to-

480

TKUE CHEISTIAJNITY. [Book IY. Part IL

gether; they being no more than
means or instruments of conveying to
us the transcendent and eternal love
of God. So that our love is never
true, right, regular, or reasonable, but
when it is fixed upon God ; which
may be properly called the rectitude
of our will.

2. On the other hand, when self-love
predominates, and a man makes all
his love centre upon himself, that love

is unnatural, preposterous, unjust, and
irregular, a direct opposition to God,
and the root and seed of all sin and
iniquity. For what can be more un-
just and ungrateful than to withdraw
our love from God, who alone has a
right to it, and to fix it upon our-
selves or upon any creature? This, in
short, is the highest injustice, and the
highest violation of the laws of na-
ture, as well as of God.

CHAPTER XXXI.

HE WHO PRINCIPALLY LOVES HIMSELF, ACTUALLY SETS UP HIMSELF IN GOD'S

STEAD.

O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. — Dan. 9 : 7. — Not unto
us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. — Ps. 115 : 1.

AS God is the beginning and end
of all things, so the first and
chief love of man is due to him. And
whosoever transfers it to any other
object, really and truly makes that
his god ; which is the greatest affront
that can be offered to his divine Ma-
jesty. For as it is the nature of love
to unite the lover with the thing be-
loved, so the fixing of our love upon
any creature separates and alienates
us from the Creator. Whosoever
principally loves himself, certainly

loves everything else solely for his
own sake; which he ought to love
purely for the sake of God; and so all
his love is founded in and upon him-
self, which ought to be fixed entirely
upon God.

2. Hence he is employed in doing
his own will instead of God's; he
usurps God's right; attempts to in-
vade his kingdom ; sets up an author-
ity in opposition to God's kingdom;
and actually rebels against his Maker
and his God.

Chap. XXXII.]

TKUE CHKISTIANITY.

481

CHAPTER XXXII.

LOVE TO GOD, THE SOURCE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD; SELF-LOVE, THE SOURCE OF

ALL EVIL.

0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in me is thine help. — Hos. 13 : 9.

LOYE is the efficient cause of all
things; and as there are two
sorts of love, the love of God and the
love of ourselves, and as these are di-
rectly opposite to each other, it fol-
lows, that the one must be extremely
good, and the other extremely evil.
But forasmuch as it is plain that the
preference is to be given to divine
love, it follows, that this alone is good.
For the love of God is a divine seed
in us, from wxhich no evil, but all good
things proceed. This love unites it-
self to its object, which is God, its
chief, its only Good, in whom it rests,
triumphs, and rejoices, even as God
does in it. For joy and pleasure arise
from love, as we learn in Psalm 18 :
1, 2. This spreads itself over all the
world, and, like God, its author and
object, communicates and bestows it-
self upon every worthy receiver. And
truly, as love finds all things in God,
and is happy in the enjoyment of him,
it stands in need of no creature.

2. But as from divine love proceeds
nothing but good, so from self-love
proceeds nothing but evil. This is the
root of all the iniquity, sin, blindness,
ignorance, and misery, of which hu-
man nature is capable. By this a man
makes his own will his god; and, as
the true God is the fountain of all
good, so this false god, this vain idol,
our self-will, is the fountain of all evil.
Moreover, as the creatures which we
are so fond of, are made out of noth-

ing, and are so weak and uncertain
that they are always tending to their
original state, and, in the meantime,
are nothing but poverty, misery, and
sorrow; it follows, that as man is
changed into the nature of the thing
which he loves, he must likewise par-
take of their inconstancy, their pov-
erty, and misery, and can have no rest
in the enjoyment of them. If the
creature is vanity and sorrow, the
heart that cleaves to the creature en-
ters into its vanity, and must be par-
taker of its sorrow.

3. Thus self-love, when it rules and
is uppermost in men, makes them
enemies to God, fills them with all in-
iquity, and brings them into subjection
to the creatures. As the love of God
dilates and enlarges the soul, so the
love of ourselves contracts and strait-
ens it, making it unjust, corrupt,
proud, and covetous. As the love of
God makes us quiet, easy, peaceable,,
and benevolent; so the love of our^
selves makes us unquiet, turbulent,,
and ill-natured. As the love of God
reinstates us in the liberty of the sons
of God; so self-love makes us slaves
to the creatures. The one gives us
firmness and constancy of mind and.
will; the other makes us inconstant
and changeable. The one makes a
man courteous, courageous, generous,
and obliging; the other makes him
sour, timorous, mean, and an enemy
to everybody but himself.

31

482

TKUE CHRISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part II.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

OP THE LOVE OP GOD, AND THE LOVE OP SELF.

The carnal mind is enmity against God. — Rom. 8 : 7.

AS it is plain that by the love of
God, or the love of self, all the
motions and operations of our will are
governed and directed, and that all
other desires and inclinations have
their birth and bias from them ; it fol-
lows, that upon them depends all our
knowledge, either of good or evil.
For as the love of God is the principle
by which we know and judge of all
the good that is in man; so self-love
discovers to us all the evil. And who-
soever understands not what self-love
is, knows not what evils there are in
man; just as he that understands not
the love of God, cannot know the
good that is in Him. For no man
can judge of either good or evil who
knows not the springs and fountains
from which they flow. The love of
God is a shining light, discovering to
us not only itself, but its enemy, which
is self-love; on the contrary, self-love
is a thick darkness, blinding the eyes
of men, that they cannot see the good
or evil that is in them. These, then,
are the two roots of good and evil,
which, whosoever is ignorant of, can-
not rightly judge of either.

.2. For as man consists of two
parts, namely, soul and body; so in
respect of one, he sets his heart upon
honors, dignities, and preferments;
whilst the other tempts and draws

him to fleshly and sensual pleasures.
So that whosoever thus loves himself,
must be a slave either to honor or
pleasure, which he looks upon as his
greatest happiness, as gratifying that
inclination to himself, which is upper-
most in his heart. And from these
two kinds of self-love spring many
others, as various as are the means
and instruments of obtaining the hon-
ors, or fulfilling the lusts, which have
taken possession of our hearts. And
these are chiefly three : 1. Pride, or an
inclination to be eminent and popular
in the world. 2. Pleasure and luxury,
by which we indulge and gratify the
flesh. 3. Covetousness, or an inordi-
nate love of worldly things. Whoso-
ever eagerly seeks honor, cannot but
hate everything and every person
that stands in his way and hinders his
designs; whence proceed anger, re-
venge and envy of all those who are
possessed of any advantages which
we want, or which seem to eclipse or
lessen the figure which we desire to
niake in the world. Hence also pro-
ceed indolence and sloth, and a mean
fear of laboring or sufferings, both of
which are ungrateful to flesh and
blood. In a word, all sins and iniqui-
ties proceed from this fruitful fountain
of self-love.

Chap. XXXV.]

TKUE CHRISTIANITY.

483

CHAPTER XXXI Y.

LOVE TO GOD, THE ONLY SOURCE OP PEACE AND UNITY.
Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectncss. — Col. 3 : 14.

IF all men had an equal love for God,
the supreme Good, they would then
all be of one heart and of one mind,
and the sincerity and unanimity which
they would manifest in the love of
God, would cordially unite them to
each other.

2. But instead of this, every man
loves himself, and pursues the inclina-
tions of his own heart, so that hardly
two can agree together. For as he
whose heart is set upon honor, can-
not but hate and envy every one that
is preferred before him; so from these
different interests and inclinations,
nothing can proceed but emulation,

strife, and discord. Moreover, as he
that pursues his own will, and courts
the esteem of men, makes himself his
own god, there must by consequence
be as many of these idols and false
gods as there are proud, ambitious
men in the world. Hence arise envy,
hatred, wars, and fightings, whilst
every one is bent upon increasing and
defending his own grandeur, in oppo-
sition to that of his neighbors. Hence
it plainly appears that as the love of
God is the bond of peace and union;
so self-love is the root and cause of all
the discord and contention that is in
the world.

CHAPTER XXXV.

SHOWING HOW WE OUGHT TO LOVE GOD.

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of

faith unfeigned. — 1 Tim. 1 : 5.

THEEE is no better way of con-
vincing a man than by appealing
to his own conscience. There, as in a
glass, we may read our duty much
more plainly than ten thousand teach-
ers can instruct us. We have already
shown that it is a point of natural
equity to love God above all things,
and that he who does otherwise, sets
himself up as his own idol. And now,
if any man desire to know to what his
duty to God obliges him, let him look

into himself, and examine his own
heart, and conclude that whatsoever
he would have done for himself, that
he is obliged to do for God. There-
fore, as self-love is natural to us all,
we must reverse that, and offer to
God that which we unjustly arrogate
to ourselves, by loving him as we
have hitherto loved ourselves.

2. Wherefore, as thou now lovest
thine own will, and endeavorest to
gratify it in all things, so thou must,

484

TEÜE CHRISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part IL

for the future, prefer the will of God
to thine own will, and think it better
to submit to God's good pleasure than
to humor and gratify thyself. Thou
art in love with honor and esteem,
and wouldest have everybody bow to
thy superior merit and character; turn
now this inclination of thine, and ap-
ply it to promote the glory of God,
and praythat all men may unite to
do the same. As thou hast hitherto
been angry with every one that has
opposed thee in thy pursuits of glory,
so oughtest thou now to oppose those
that oppose the glory of God.

3. Whilst thy heart is full of self-
love, thou art greedy of praise, and

wouldest have everybody think and
speak well of thee ; do thou the same
for God ; labor and pray that God may
be glorified by all men, and that every
creature may praise and magnify His
name. As thou art very industrious
to be thought a man of truth and
honesty, and wouldest be very uneasy
to be counted a liar; so oughtest thou
also cheerfully and industriously to
propagate and vindicate the truth and
veracity of God. From all which it
appears that every man may read in
the book of his own conscience the
obligation he is under to love and
honor God rather than himself.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DIVINE JOY, THE FRUIT OF DIVINE LOVE.

Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. — Ps. 5 : 11.

THE end and perfection of every-
thing is the fruit it bears, or the
effects it produces, which are as vari-
ous as the seeds from whence they
spring. Therefore, as there are two
different seeds or roots in man, name-
ly, the love of God and the love of
ourselves, which are diametrically op-
posite to each other; so likewise are the
fruits which they produce. Now the
end and fruit of all human actions is
either joy or sorrow. Joy, as it is a
good fruit, must necessarily proceed
from a good root; and sorrow, being
evil, must proceed from an evil root;
that is, in short, all true joy must pro-
ceed from the love of God, and all sor-
row and anguish of mind from the
love of ourselves.

2. For as all joy arises from love,

and depends upon it, such as is the
love, such also must be the joy. If the
love be divine, the joy will be divine;
if earthly, the joy also will be earthly.
Now so long as our hearts are united
to God by true love, they cannot but
rejoice and be happy in him. This is
a foretaste of eternal life, in which
both our love and our joy shall be
completed and perfected together.
Therefore, as we shall there live eter-
nally unto God, so our love also shall
be eternal; and as our love shall be
perfected, so it shall be united with a
perfect, absolute, infinite, and eternal
good, being itself also perfect, un-
changeable, constant, and eternal.
And from a love so pure, immacu-
late, and heavenly, shall flow a river
of joy, divine, pure, precious, full of

Chap. XXXVIL]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

485

rapture, full of grace, glory, and im-
mortality.

3. For eternal life itself is nothing
but this eternal joy, with some drops
of which, faithful souls, even in this
life, have been often refreshed and
comforted. This is the meaning of
that passage in Canticles 2:4, "He
brought me to the banqueting-house:
stay me with flagons, comfort me with
apples/' And whosoever has tasted
of this joy, can have no relish for
worldly pleasures. But as that pro-
ceeds from the true love of God, aris-
ing from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
it follows, that if we desire to obtain
so great a good, and, by tasting some
drops of this sweetness, to enjoy this
earnest and foretaste of everlasting life,
it must be obtained by a lively faith,
operating by divine love. "Whence St.
Paul tells us that "the love of Christ
passeth knowledge." Eph. 3 : 19.

4. And as this divine love is not a
thing without us, but within us, it fol-
lows that this does not depend upon
our external goods or possessions,
such as riches, honors, learning, meat,
or drink, or any other outward bless-
ing; but that all these things are con-
tained in it. And as this love shall

attain its full perfection in the other
life, so the peace and joy that flow from
it, shall be perfect and everlasting.
This treasure a man shall have in him-
self, and no one shall take it from him;
he shall have a river of living pleasure
rising up in himself, independent of all
external blessings and comforts. And
as no man knoweth this treasure, but
he that has it; so he that has it, is in
perfect ease; he envies nobody, covets
nothing, thirsts after nothing but the
fulness and perfection of divine love.

5. The first fruits of this treasure
may be possessed by faithful souls
even in this life, without lessening
the reversion in the next life; yea, it
rather increases and spreads itself to
infinite degrees, so that though all
mankind should unite together in this
divine love, they would be no hinder-
ance to each other, but would rather
increase and improve their united
stock of love and joy. For the more
earnestly any man loves God, the
greater is his joy. And if it be so in
this world, how great shall our joy be
in the next, when God shall pour out
the fulness of his joy and love upon his
elect, and He himself shall be "all in
all." 1 Cor. 15 : 28.

CHAPTER XXXVII

OF THE EVIL FRUITS OF SELF-LOVE.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: and let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to

heaviness. — James 4 : 9.

A

S true and divine joy proceeds
from true and divine love, so
nothing can proceed from false love
but false joy. For as self-love aims at
nothing, delights in nothing but hon-

.aiYi-EiO -± . v.

ors, riches, and sensual and worldly
pleasures, all which are fading, per-
ishing, and subject to a thousand cas-
ualties; therefore the man whose heart
is set upon them, cannot but be

:>e always

486

TEUE CHEISTIANITY. [Book IV. Part II.

fearful, apprehensive, and jealous of
every accident that may deprive him
of his happiness; so that his joys are
never solid or lasting, but false and
perishing, mixed with fears and cares,
and ending in disappointment and sor-
row. For as the seed is, such is the fruit.

2. Now we have already shown, that
self-love is corrupt, impure, unjust,
abominable, and unnatural, the seed
and root of all evil, the parent of weak-
ness, blindness, error, and death. And
the fruit or joy arising from it is of the
same sort, unjust, impure, opposed to
God, to our neighbor, and to all right-
eousness; it rejoices in iniquity, and
contempt of God. And if it be a sin only
to love anything which God hateth,
how much more grievous a sin must it
be to delight and rejoice in it ? Such a
joy as this, which is opposite to the
nature of every creature, and contrary
to the nature and express will of God,
cannot but end in everlasting sorrow,
death, and darkness.

3. For as divine joy brings us nearer
and nearer to God; so carnal joy car-
ries us farther and farther from him.
Divine joy makes us the friends of

God; but worldly joy makes us his
enemies. The former confirms and
strengthens the will in the love of
God, makes the conscience easy, cheer-
ful, and happy; the latter disquiets
and torments the soul, making it tur-
bulent, restless, and uneasy. That
may be obtained without labor or
charge ; this requires both, and all too
little to support and secure it. The
one produces, improves, and preserves
love, peace, and friendship among
men ; the other creates discord, con-
tentions and quarrels, wars, violence,
and bloodshed. From the one all good,
from the other all evil things proceed.
The one is a lively, salutary, and sober
joy, full of virtue, full of pleasure, and
acceptable to God ; the other is fleshly,
vicious, dishonest, base, and hated of
God. The one increases our devout
longings after God and goodness; the
other inflames our corrupt desires.
That enlightens the understanding,
filling it with divine light and wisdom ;
this darkens and blinds it, and fills it
with ignorance and error. That is
true and substantial ; this treacherous,
deceitful, and false.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

EVERLASTING SORROW AND DEATH, THE END OF SELF-LOVE AND CARNAL JOY.

If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. — Kom. 8 : 13.

AS we have already shown ever-
lasting joy to be the genuine
fruit of divine love; it follows, that
without that love, we cannot be par-
takers of the joy, but must sit down
at the last in eternal anguish and dis-
tress. For when the condemned sin-

ner comes to reflect and consider, that
by his own fault, he has irrecoverably
lost all the blessings of a happy eter-
nity, how great must his sorrow, how
bitter must his grief be ! Annihila-
tion itself would be to him ablessing;
but alas ! he wishes for it in vain, he

Chap. XXXIX.]

TBUE CHBISTIANITY.

487

must bear his burden, and undergo his
punishment to all eternity.

2. This must raise in him an eternal
hatred and abhorrence of himself, and
all his adherent impurities and sin;

which, whether he will or not, will
forever stare him in the face, reveng-
ing, as it were, upon him the past
sacrilege of his self-love.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

ALL THAT WE HAVE MUST BE OFFERED AND CONSECRATED TO GOD.
0 come, let us worship and bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our maker. — Ps. 95 : 6.

AS we are assured that God is our
Creator, Preserver, and loving
Father, to whom can we more reason-
ably pay our honor, duty, and service,
than to him? Whom shall we rather
implore and pray to, whom shall we
rather praise and glorify, than him
that made us? Whom shall we rath-
er trust ? In whom shall we rather
hope? Whom shall we rather love?
In whom shall we rather rejoice and
be happy? Shall we not love him,
who hath created us in his own im-
age ? Shall we not honor him, who
has exalted us above all creatures?
Shall we not devote ourselves entirely
to him, who has given himself entirely
unto us? Who created us for the
end that we might live, abide, and
rejoice with him forever? Shall we
not love and honor him, who has
adopted us for his children ?

2. Think, therefore, and consider
with thyself, O man ! that as God has
given thee a rational soul, so thou
oughtest to consecrate all the powers
and faculties of it to his honor and
service. He has given thee the faculty
of loving : therefore love him ; he has
given thee understanding : endeavor
to know him ; he has given thee fear :

therefore fear him ; the power of
honoring: therefore honor him; the
gift of prayer : therefore pray to him ;
of praise and thanksgiving : therefore
praise his name. He has given thee
the power of believing, hoping, and
trusting : therefore depend, and trust,
and hope in him ; of rejoicing : there-
fore rejoice and be glad in him.
Lastly, as all things are in him, and
he has an infinite power of doing all
things, consider this with thyself, that
if thou rest and rejoice in him alone,
thou shalt in him possess all things.

3. And hence arises the true and
genuine worship of God. He that
loves him, honors him ; he that loves
him not, affronts him. So likewise he
that fears him, honors him; he that
fears not, despises him. And all the-
other vices and virtues are of the same
nature. By obedience, God is honored,
and he is dishonored by disobedience;,
the same may be said of faith, hope,,
charity, and gratitude.

4. From all this it appears, that,
there is nothing better, more hon-
orable, or more profitable for man,,
than to honor God; and nothing more
base and abominable than to dishonor
him.

488

TEUE CHEISTIAOTTY. [Book IY. Part II.

CHAPTER XL.

HE CAN NEVER PRAISE AND GLORIFY GOD, WHO SEEKS HIS OWN GLORY.
Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. — Ps. 115:1.

HE that in all things seeks not the
glory of God, and endeavors to
promote it, does not act like a creature
of God, but directly opposes his Maker,
and ait his designs, seeing he made all
things for his own glory. And he does
even worse, who measures all things
no otherwise than as they contribute
to the raising of his own glory and
honor. Such a one usurps the honor
due to God alone, and, like the rebel
Lucifer, sets himself in God's throne.

2. And this he does not only in his
own soul, but endeavors to lead others
into the same guilt, by filling their
hearts, which ought to be thrones and
temples of God, with the same notions
of love and honor to himself, as he
has entertained in his own mind ; en-
deavoring as much as in him lies, to
dispossess his Maker and settle him-
self in his room. xBut what greater
sin can there be than this ? Now as
the consequence of this irregular lov-
ing and honoring a man's self is, that
it makes him the enemy of God, and
casts him out of his presence into the
jrit of destruction, it follows, that he
who would be the friend of God, must
hate and deny himself.

3. Eeturn, therefore, and repent, O
man ! believe in Christ and live in him
.as a new creature, and he will receive
thee and comfort thee. But to oth-
ers, who persist in their rebellion and
•continue in their corruptions, he shall
say at the last day: " I never knew
you : depart from me, ye that work
iniquity !" Matt. 7 : 23. Moreover, as

the love of Christ is our chief good,
our highest wisdom, and the perfec-
tion of our knowledge, and self-love is
perfectly opposite to it : let us be per-
suaded to cast out the love of our-
selves and of the world, that the love
of Christ may enter into our hearts.
This is that love which perfects and
accomplishes our Christianity, and
with this do thou, O God, refresh and
satisfy our souls for ever and ever.
Amen.

CONCLUSION.

1. The title "True Christianity" is
prefixed to these Four Books for the
reason that true faith in. our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the righteousness
which proceeds from, faith, constitute
the fountain from which the whole
Christian life must flow. I have, ac-
cordingly, written, not for heathens,
but for Christians; who have, it is
true, adopted the Christian faith, but
whose life does not accord with it,
and who deny, or will not understand,
the power of faith. 2 Tim. 3:5. I
have written, not for unbelievers, but
for believers ; not for those who are
yet to be justified, but for those who
are already justified. Hence, this
whole work on daily repentance and
Christian love, ought to be understood
in no other sense, than that faith must
go before as a light in our path, and
that it is the foundation of all. Let
no one, by any means, suppose that
anything is here ascribed to our carnal

Chap. XL.]

TEUE CHKISTIANITY.

489

free will or to good works; our sole
object is to persuade you, as you are
a Christian, and are anointed with the
Spirit of God, to let Christ live in you,
and rule in you, and to let the Holy
Spirit govern you, in order that your
Christianity may not be hypocrisy.

2. Hence, too, Part II. of this
Fourth Book is not to be so under-
stood, as if we could love God from
our own carnal will ; for love is a fruit
of the Holy Spirit. This Part II. is,
on the contrary, only intended to show
that, besides the Word of God, the
Holy Scriptures, even our own heart
and conscience may teach us, from the
book of nature, and the light of na-
ture, that we are bound to love God
on account of his great love bestowed
upon us, and manifested through the
means of all his creatures. Such an
argument, derived from nature, ought
to convince every man, whether he be
a heathen or a Christian, a believer or

an unbeliever; and no one can refute
it. For, granting that God has be-
stowed so many mercies on us, who
can deny that we are in gratitude
obliged to so gracious a benefactor?
And as he calls and invites us to love
him, by all the creatures which are be-
stowed in common upon all mankind,
who can deny that the love of God is
discovered to us in the book of nature,
and that the heathens themselves may
be convinced by arguments drawn
thence ? "The works of the Lord are
great, sought out of all them that
have pleasure therein." Ps. Ill : 2.
And, " Thou Lord, hast made me glad
through thy work; I will triumph in
the works of thy hands." Ps. 92 : 4.
How can these works be more effect-
ualty praised, than in this manner ?
The Lord God give us understanding
and wisdom, that we may know him
and praise him for all his works, both
here and foreverraore. Amen.

INDEX.

The Roman Numerals indicate, respectively, the Four Books ; the first Arabic numeral which follows,
designates, in every case, the Chapter; the second, with any that may follow, refers to one or more
Sections of a chapter. The references to the Introduction, the Prefaces, the two Parts of Book IV.,
etc., will be readily understood.

A.

Abraham — an example of patience, II. 47. 16.

the time when the promise was given to

him, I. 12. 7.

Absolution from sin, I. 21. 13.

Agricola, Introd. § 15.

Adam— his fall, I. Chap. 2 ; II. 17. 9 ; II. 34.
Sect. 4. 1.

Adam and Christ, contrasted, II. 7. 1-6.

Affliction — its uses, II. 5. 3 ; II. 35. 5.

none for which God has not provided

consolation, II. Chap. 48.

Ahab — his delusion, I. 38. 13.

Anger of God — what is meant by the expres-
sion, II. 42. 11.

Antinomistic Controversy, Introd. § 15.

Apology of Augsburg Confession, Introd.
$25.

Apostasy — when man is guilty of it, II.
23. 4.

Arndt — account of his life, Introd. g 1, etc.

his motives in writing the " True Chris-
tianity," Pref. to Book 1. 1 ; Introd.
fä 20, 21, 24, 31.

his orthodoxy, Introd. §§ 22, 24, 25, 40.

his religious character, Introd. $ 26.

popularity of his " True Christianity,"

Introd. \ 31.

translations of it, Introd. g 33, and

Note.
his death, Introd. g 22.

Ascension of Christ (see Christ, etc.), II.
25. 11.

Aspirations of the believer, I 11. 11.
Augsburg, Confession of — Conclusion of
Book II., p. 374.

Introd. \\ 24, 25.

Pref. to Book I. 8.

Augsburg Interim, Introd. §§ 12, 15.
Augsburg, Peace of, Introd. § 12.
Augustine — quoted, III. 6. 2.

B.

Babylas, II. 45. 8.

Baptism — a means to attain the new birth,

1. 3. 12.

a renewal of the covenant with God, II.

2. 6.

what is received therein, III. 1. 4.

Believing Soul, a — its beauty, III. 4. 2.
Birth (see New Birth ; Begeneration) —

twofold, I. 3. 2, etc.
Blessedness of the true believer, I. 8. 7;

I. 11. 10 ; I. 12. 5 ; I. 13. 6 ; I. 22. 10;

I. 34. 17 ; I. 36. 7.
Boehm, Introd. \\ 32, 34, 35.
Bonaventura — a saying of his, II. 6. 6.
Book of life, I. 11. 1.
Bread, IV. Part I., Chap. 3. 14. 35-39.

Cesar, Julius, I. 27. 5.

Calling of God — inward, III. 8. 3.

outward, III. 8. 1.

(491)

492

INDEX.

Calumny — consolations, II. 17. 4, etc.
consolatory Scripture passages, II. 17.

13, etc.

how to be overcome, II. Ch. 17.

why the Lord permits it, II. 17. 9.

Catechism, Five Parts of Luther's, III. 1. 4.

Catechisms, Luther's Two, Introd. § 25.

Chaddock, Kev. C, Introd. § 36.

Charity (see Love, etc.) — the foundation of
strength, IV. Part 2, Ch. 26.

Christ (see Ascension; Death; Incarna-
tion; Merit; Kesurrection, etc.)
— all recovered in him, that was lost
in Adam, II. 34., Sect. I.

denied and crucified again, I. 9. 1, etc.

encouragements derived from his suffer-
ings, II. 18. 9 ; II. 45. 5.

furnishes a pattern of prayer, II. 20. 10.

his complaint, continued, II. 15. 1-6.

his humiliation, II. 13. 5, etc.; Ch. 14.

his humility, and its lessons, II. 12. 3.

his kindness, II. 8. 8 ; II. Ch. 26.

his life, a mirror for us, II. 11. 3; II.

14. 3.

his patience, the consideration of which

alleviates the burden of the cross, II.

Ch. 56.

his perfect obedience, II. 19. 1.

his Person is indivisible, II. 10. 15.

his poverty, II. 13. 2, etc. ; II. 14. 1, etc.

his righteousness, III. 1. 4.

his sufferings, foreknown to him, II. 18. 2.

his three kinds of trouble, II. 15. 3.

how he humbled himself, II. 13. 8, etc.

how he perfects his work in the hearts

of the faithful, III. Ch. 15.
how he manifests himself to the soul, II.

Ch. 27.
our example, 1.1.7; I. 3. 10 ; I. 11. 2 ;

I. 15. 6; I. 37.11; I. 39. 7; II. 13. 1;

II. 44. 8.

our help in prayer, II. 38. 2.

teaches us how to bear the cross, II. 15.

1, etc.

the image of God, I. 1. 7.

the only Head of the Church, II. 16. 7.

the only Saviour, I. 12. 2.

the true Book of Life, II. Ch. 13; II.

19. 1-9.

the two Natures of, in one Person, II.

6. 1 ; II. 52. 2.

the union of the two Natures of, indis-
soluble and eternal, II. 6. 2.

washing the feet of his disciples, II. 21. 3.

Christ, what an excellent gift he is, II. 1. 5,

(a)-(b).
what he is to the soul, II. 1. 4, (b) ; III.

6. 3.
wherein his highest glory consisted, II.

16. 3, etc.

why he took upon himself our nature, I.

3. 6; I. 11. 9.

why his sufferings were so severe, II.

18. 2-8.

Christ Crucified — benefits of the contem-
plation of, II. 20. 15.

what he teaches us, II. 19. 2, etc.

Christian, The — a stranger and pilgrim, I.

17. 4, 7.

demonstrated by practising the word of

God, II. 5. 4, 5.
his manner of using temporal things, I.

17. 5.
is anointed and baptized with the Holy

Spirit, II. 35. 2.

the false, condemned, I. 7. 4.

value of the name, II. 11. 2.

Christianity — wherein it consists, Pref. to

Book I. 5; I. 39. 7.
Cities oe Eeeuge, I. 21. 15, 16.
Comfort, Heavenly — how to taste it, I. 36.

13.
why God sometimes delays to afford it,

II. Ch. 55.
Commandments, Ten — a test, II. 4. 3.
Conclusion of Book II. page 374.

of Book IV. page 488.

Conscience — pangs of, II. 10. 9.

three qualities impressed on it, I.

7. 1.

see also I. 23. 9 ; IY. Part 2. 35. 1.

Consolation— in affliction, II. Ch. 48.

means of obtaining it, II. 48. 10, etc.

Contempt of the world — how to bear it, II.

15. 7-16.
Conversation of a believing soul with God,

II. Ch. 39; II. 48. 13.
Conversation between faith and the mercy

of God, II. Ch. 40.
Conversion (see Bepentance, etc.)— par-
don bestowed after it, I. 37. 21.

a work of divine grace, II. 9. 9.

Corruption of human nature (see Original
gIN) — early and later manifestations,

I. 2. 5, 6.

its ultimate result, I. 2. 10.

its greatness, I. 8. 8 ; I. 11. 5, etc.

the knowledge of the, I. 42. 3.

INDEX.

493

Covenant of grace — a source of consolation,

II. 2. 6.
the remembrance of the, a help in prayer,

II. 38. 11.
Covetousness — its folly, I. 17. 7.
Creation — work of the First Day of, IV.

Part I. Ch. 1.
work of the Second Day of, IV. Part I.

Ch. 2.
work of the Third Day of, IV. Part I.

Ch. 3.
work of the Fourth Day of, IV. Part I.

Ch. 4.
work of the Fifth Day of, IV. Part I.

Ch. 5.
work of the Sixth Day of, IV. Part I.

Ch. 6.
Creatures of God — how they furnish evi-
dence of divine love, II. 26. 7, etc. ;

II. 29. 5, etc.
how they invite us to praise God, II. 42.

14.

when converted into idols, I. 18. 9.

Creatures, The living — all remind us of the

love which we owe to God, IV. Part

II. Ch. 15.
the work of the Sixth Day, IV. Part I.

Ch. 6.
Cross, The — how to hear it, I. 40. V.

taking it up, II, 10. 4.

the benefits of it, II. 46, 15.

the mj^stery of it, III. Ch. 23.

Cross of Christ— I. 4. 4-6 ; I. 15. 8.

a branch of it, II. 18. 1.

Cryptocalvinistic Controversy, Introd.

§15.
Cyprian — quoted, Pref. to Book III. 5.

D.

Darkness, Spiritual, I. 11. 3.
David, King, I. 17. 11.

his example, II. 5. 2.

reason of his desire to lead a holy life,

II. 5. 6.
Death, II. 8. 11 ; II. 57. 20, etc.
consolations, and remedies against the

fear of, II. Ch. 57.

persons raised from, II. 57. 8.

Spiritual, I. 41. 11, 12.

— ■- three kinds of, I. 12. 2.

why the time of it is concealed from us,

II. 8. 11.
Death of Christ (see Christ), II. 2. 7 ; II. 25.

9; 11.26. 3; II. 57. 2.

Devil; see Satan.

Dependence on self — a grievous sin, II. 23.
2, etc.

Depravity, Human ; see Corruption; Orig-
inal Sin.

Despair, I. 40. VIII.

Devotions, Private, III. Ch. 12.

Dionysius, St. — quoted, IV. Part I. 1. 6.

Doctrine of Christ, II. 25. 8.

Doctrine, Purity of — declared by Arndt to
be u the foremost point of true Chris-
tianity," Introd. \ 24.

how preserved, I. 38. 11; I. 39. 1, etc.

its necessity, I. 39. 3.

maintained by Paul and others, I. 39. 2.

the example of Christ, of the prophets,

and of the apostles in this respect, I.
39. 4.

Duty to our neighbor (see Love), I. 31. 4.

Dying — daily, to the world, II. 10. 14.

to the flesh and sin, I. 12. 8, etc.

unto self, I. 13. 1, etc.

E.

Eating of Christ, The— what it is, I. 36, 10.
Eisleben, Introd. \ 22.
Election of grace, I. 38. 6, 7.
Enemies— how to be treated, I. 40. X.
Enlightened, To be, I. 37. 3.

when impossible, I. 37. 7-9.

Envy, I. 40. XI.

Eternity of future punishments, I. 7. 5; II.

8. 13.
Example of Christ (see Christ; Saints) — ■

advantage of following it, I. 38. 9.
Examples — of Moses and David, in praising

God, II. 41. 12.

of pardoned sinners, II. 2. 10.

of persons raised from death, II. 57. 8.

Existence of God — taught by the conscience,

I. 7. 2.
Exorcism, Introd. \\ 6-8.
Exposition of the consolation given in 1 Cor.

1 : 3-7— II. Ch. 48.

F.

Faith — as distinguished from hope, II. 50. 1.

a weak faith, I. 5. 9.

a weak faith is, nevertheless, faith, II.

51. 9, etc.
by it, the soul is united to Christ, III.

494

INDEX.

Faith, comfort for those who are weak in,

II. Ch. 51.

examples confirming it, I. 13. 3-5.

gives quietness to the soul, II. 34. Sect.

7. 2.

it renews the whole man, III. 3. 7.

its glory, III. 3. 6.

its influence, I. 5. 2; I. 5. 9; I. 6. 6; I.

11.4; 1.39.10; 1.5.9; II. 4. 1.

its purifying influence, III. Ch. 9.

its strength varies, II. 51. 10.

its victory, III. 8. 5, 9.

means for strengthening it, II. 51. 16.

the source of all the Christian virtues,

Pref. to Book I. 6. 7.

the true source of religion, II. 4. 6.

the true way of obtaining the believer's

inward treasure, III. 2. 1, etc.

the work of God, I. 34. 14; II. 51. 2, 15.

what it is, I. 5. 1 ; I. 21. 9 ; I. 34. 12.

working by love, I. 24. 12 ; I. 32. 1.

Fall of Adam — how it was occasioned, I. 2. 2.

its consequences, I. 2. 1, 3, 4.

Fasting, II. 9. 15, etc.

Fedderson, Introd. § 36.

Flesh — its conflict with the Spirit, I. 16. 2,

etc.
Flourishing like a palm tree — explained, I.

22. 4.
Following Christ — I. 37. 14.

the sum of Christianity, I. 18. 2.

Formula of Concord, Introd. \\ 15, 24, 25 ;

Fref. to Book I. 8; Conclusion of

Book II. p. 374.
Fruits — the marks of true and false Chris-
tians, I. 39. 9.
Future punishments, Eternity of, I. 7. 5.

G.

Glorification of our bodies, II. 57. 13.
Glory, Eternal — the consideration of it al-
leviates the burden of the' cross, II.

56. 3, etc.
God (see Love to) — all things preserved by

his hand, IV. Part II. Ch. 20.
as infinite Omnipotence, II. Ch. 31; IV.

Part I. Ch. 6. 14.
described by the prophet Joel, II. 9. 22-

27.
his calling is earnest and decisive, III.

Ch. 8.
his goodness or grace, II. 37. 5; IV. Part

I. Ch. 6. 13.

God, his incomparable glory, II. 42. 16.
his infinity and eternity, IV. Part. II.

Ch.l.

his knowledge, IV. Part I. Ch. 6. 13.

his love a help in prayer, II. 38. 9.

his love appears in all his works, IV.

Part II. Ch. 13.

his mercy, II. 8. 7.

his omnipresence, IV. Part I. Ch. 6. 15.

his omniscience, II. 34. Sect. 6; IV. Part

II. 1. 3.

his seat in the soul, III. Ch. 6.

his veracity, II. 57. 5.

his wisdom, shown in the formation of

man, IV. Part II. Ch. 10.

how illustrious, II. 42. 11.

how manifested, II. 37. 8.

— — invites all men to pray, II. 34. Sect. 8.

is love, II. Ch. 26.

manifestations of his wisdom, II. Ch. 33.

manifested as the Supreme Beauty, II.

Ch. 30.
must be distinguished from his creatures

and his gifts, III. Ch. 21 ; III. 22. 3.
not to be sought in any particular place,

for he is everywhere, II. 34. Sect. 8.
operations of his righteousness, II. 32.

3, etc.
reasons, convincing us that he hears our

prayers, II. 37. 12, etc.

the amiableness of his Being, II. 26. 10.

the eternal Wisdom, II. Ch. 33.

the folly of rejecting him, I. 36. 18.

the fountain of life and all good, II.

37. 4.
the highest righteousness and holiness,

II. Ch. 32.

the light of the soul, III. Ch. 11.

the Omniscient, knows what we need be-
fore we ask him, II. 34. Sect. 6.

the only source of true happiness, I. 36. 9.

the Supreme Good, II. Ch. 28; IV. Part

II. Ch. 2.
the temporal and spiritual benefits which

he has bestowed, considered, II. Ch.

29.

what he is, 1. 1. 6; I. 37. 2.

Godliness — two motives recommending the

study of it, I. 40. 1.
Godly Sorrow (see Sorrow for Sin), I. 8. 7;

I. 11. 4; I. 20. 20.
Grace — indispensable, I. 41. 28; II. 9. 11.
its influence and blessed results, I. 34.

7, etc.

INDEX.

495

Gregory, St. — quoted, III. 15. 2.
Growing in grace, I. 23. 4; L 37. 19.

Hardness of heart, I. 38. 3, etc.
Hatred— of self, I. 14. 1 ; I. 14. 14.

of vices, but not of men, I. 40. XII.

Heart, Paternal, of God, II. 8. 5.
Heart, Purity of — watching over it, I. 40. II.
Heart, Blindness of— its results, I. 41. 19.
Heart— its state, II. 4. 3 ; II. 7. 5.

must be changed, II. 9. 13.

regarded by God, II. 4. 4.

Hell, Eternal pains of, I. 7. 5 ; II. 8. 13.
Heaven, the work of the Second Day, IV.

Part I. Ch. 2.
Holy Spirit — how he is driven away by

worldly pleasures, III. Ch. 18.
how he operates in our souls, III. Ch.

16.

office of the, II. 35. 4.

our help in prayer, II. 38. 3.

signs of his presence in us, III. Ch. 17.

truly God, II. 37. 21.

Hope— Christ its object, II. 12. 2; II. 50. 8.
how tested in seasons of affliction, II.

Ch. 50.

what it is, II. 50. 1.

Honor, Worldly— how to be received, II. 22.

7, 8.
Human nature — one argument of its dignity,

IY. Part I. Ch. 6. 19.
Humility (see Pride) — a means of union

with God, III. 5. 1.

exemplified by Jesus, II. 21. 3.

explained; its happy influence, etc., I.

19. 1-16.
how we are taught to practise it, II.

21. 2.
it must be laid as a foundation in the

heart, III. Ch. 20.

its necessity, III. 15. 4, 5.

its power, II. Ch. 21.

six steps or degrees of it, III. 5. 2.

what constitutes it, III. 8. 2.

without it, all prayer is in vain, II. 21. 4.

Hypocrisy, 1. 12. 11.

I,

Idolatry, II. 22. 3-
Ignatius, II. 45. 8.
of God in m
8: I. 41. 11.

Image of God, — originally shone forth in

man's soul, I. 41. 7.
the different modes in which it appears

in man, I. 1. 4.

what it is, I. 1. 1 ; I. 41. 10.

what it was intended to teach, I. 1. 5, 9.

why it was impressed on man, I. 1. 2.

Image of Satan, I. 41. 23.

Imputation (see Merit) — of the merit of

Christ, I. 8. 17.

of the righteousness of Christ, I. 4. 7.

Inability of man, I. 34. 2, 7 ; II. 6. 4, 8.
Incarnation of Christ (see Christ, etc.), I.

11.9; I. 31. 9; I. 34. 4; I. 37.11; II.

25. 7 ; II. 26. 2 ; II. 34. 2; IV. Part II.

Ch. 5. 2.
Indwelling of Christ in man, I. 5. 9.
Inheritance from Adam, I. 3. 5.
Injuries — viewed as trials of the heart, I.

40. IX.
Interim, Augsburg, Introd. §§ 12, 15.

J.

Jacques, Introd. $\ 32, 37, 38.

Joy — divine and worldly, incompatible with

one another, I. 20. 11.
Divine, the fruit of divine love, IV.

Part II. Ch. 36.
— — Heavenly, how to be accepted, I. 40. VI.

in God, originally perfect, I. 41. 8.

of eternal life, II. 8. 14.

Judgment, Last, II. 8. 12.
Julian the Apostate, I. 38. 2.
Justification, I. 5. 1.
derived from God alone, II. 6. 8.

K.

Knowledge of Christ, etc. — its excellence,

1. 40. XV.

what is comprehended in it, I. 41. 1.

wherein it consists, I. 39. 5.

Knowledge of God — his knowledge, IV.

Part I. Ch. 6. 12.
wherein it consists, I. 11. 18 ; I. 21. 6,

etc.
Knowledge — of grace, I. 21. 5, 16, 17.

of sin, I. 21. 11.

of the Scriptures — vain, without a holy

life, I. 35. 1, etc.

Laurentius Valla— a saying of his, II. 6. 4.
Law, Inward — its lessons, I. 7. 1-3.

498

INDEX.

Lazarus, the friend of Christ, II. 13. 4.
Learning, Human — is distinct from godli-
ness, I. 36. 14.
Letser, P., Introd. \ 2.
Life, Holy — proceeds from a renewed heart,

1. 22. 2.

rules for leading it, I. 40. 1, etc.

Life of Christ (see Example), 1. 10. 2; 1. 11.

16; I. 14. 8, etc.; I. 37. 8.
Life of the Christian — a continual renewing

of the image of God, I. 41. 2.
Life, Spiritual, I. 11. 12.

abolished in the Carnal man, 1. 41. 18.

different degrees of, Pref. to Book I. 1.

Life, Unholy, I. 10. 1, 3.

its effects, I. 38. 1, etc. ; I. 39. 6.

Light — Natural, in the understanding, I. 41.

17,26; III. Ch. 10.

of grace, III. Ch. 10.

of nature, I. 7. 3.

of the sun and moon ; its benefits, IV.

Part I. Ch. 4. 19.
the work of the First Day, IV. Part I.

Ch. 1.
Living in Christ, I. 6. 2-5; I. 36. 1, etc.
Lord's Prayer — its true use, III. Ch. 19.
Lord's Supper— therein Christ's true body

and blood are received, III. 1. 4.
Love (see Self-love)— a bond of union, IV.

Part II. Ch. 28.
evils proceeding from the want of it, I.

31.5; 1.35.3.

four particulars concerning it, I. 24. 1.

four properties of it, II. 24. 17.

how it is to be guided, II. 24. 11.

in it are contained all the duties of a

Christian, I. 35. 1.
— — its distinguishing feature, I. 35. 2.
its fruits, I. 30. 1-14; I. 32. 6; II. 24.

12.
its nature, properties, and fruits, IV. Part

II. Ch. 27.

its necessity, I. 30. 1 ; I. 32. 7 ; I. 35. 7-9.

its noble character, II. Ch. 24.

its pleasantness, I. 24. 8 ; I. 29. 11, 12.

misguided, II. 24. 10.

mistakes made in reference to it, II. 24.

2, etc.

never faints, I. 24. 9.

the sure test of a Christian, I. 24. 7.

Love, Our — is not a hard work, I. 24. 6.

is the end of the Commandment, I. 24.

5; 1.26.4.
reasons why it is due to God alone, I. 18.

12 ; II. Ch. 24 ; II. 29. 13 ; IV. Part II.
Ch. 30.
Love, — what alone is worthy of it, IV. Part

II. Ch. 29.

Love of Christ — the blessedness which it con-
fers, II. Ch. 27.
Love to Christ, I. 14. 12.

signs of its existence, II. Ch. 25.

Love to God, I. 24. 2; I. 29. 3.

a remedy against profane love, I. 28. 5

III. 13. 4.

how it enters into the soul, III. Ch. 13

is due to him, I. 28. 1, 4.

its influence, I. 24. 16 ; I. 28. 2 ; I. 28. 7

II. 24. 12, etc.

its nature, I. 28. 8; IV. Part II. Ch. 35

no excuse for the want of it, IV. Part II

Ch. 17.

obtained by prayer, I. 24. 17.

out of a pure heart, I. 24. 14.

Pure, teaches how to pray, II. 24. 16.

the source of all that is good, IV. Part

II. Ch. 32.

unchanged, I. 24. 23.

Love of God to man, I. 25. 1-6.

how manifested. II. Ch. 26.

Love, False, I. 28. 3 ; I. 35. 6 ; II. 24. 4, etc.
Love to our enemies — why they should be

loved, I. 27. 1-9
Love to our neighbor, I. 24. 3 ; I. 24. 18-21 ;

I. 29. 3-10.

a duty, I. 25. 2; IV. Part II. Ch. 24.

its source, I. 26. 5 ; I. 28. 10.

motives to practise it, I. 26. 6-16.

proceeds from the love which we owe to

God, IV. Part II. Ch. 22.
Lovers of the world — how they are deceived,

II. 26. 11.

their conduct, I. 36. 11.

their punishment, I. 18. 10, 11.

their spiritual state, I. 17. 9 ; I. 36. 2.

Lusts of the flesh — how to be subdued, II.
Ch. 18.

Luther — his successful opposition to the pa-
pacy and other sects, I. 39. 2.

M.

Majoristic Controversy, Introd. §§ 15, 19.
Man — general rule on the subject, IV. Part

II. Ch. 16.

his liberty of choice, I. 17. 2.

his natural state, II. 5. K

how much he owes to God, IV. Part II.

Ch. 6 ; Ch. 8 ; Ch. 9 ; Ch. 11 ; Ch. 12.

INDEX.

497

Man, like a shadow, is nothing, II. 10. 13, 14.

only a pilgrim on earth, I. 13. 16.

the image of God, 1.1.6; IY. Part II.

Ch. 23.

what, and why made, I Y. Part II. Ch. 3.

why he should love God, IY. Part II.

Ch. 14.
why made in the image of God, IY. Part

II. Ch.4.
Man, The Inward — Outward, I. 16. 1.
Man, The Natural, II. 5. 5.
Man, The Old— New, 1. 15. 1, etc. ; I. 16. 11 ;

II. 7. 1.
Marks of love to Christ, II. Ch. 25.
Martyrs — false, I. 35. 7.

spiritual, II. 53. 20.

their fidelity, II. 45. 7.

Meekness, II. 47. 2.

Mephibosheth, II. 10. 6.

Merit of Christ (see Imputation), 1. 14. 7 ;

1.31. 8; I. 34. 1; II. 2. 8.

an infinite satisfaction, II. 2. 11, 12.

Micah, the prophet — pointing out the foun-
tain of consolation, II. 49. 4.
Muhlenberg, Introd. $% 34. 41.
Music— its origin, IY. Part II. Ch. 7. 3.
Music, Divine — several kinds, in the Old

Testament, II. 41. 10.
Muenzer, Thomas, Introd. \ 15.E

ST.

Name of God — doing all things in it, I. 18. 5.

Narrow way in Christ — chosen by the Chris-
tian, II. 34. Sect. 4.

Neighbors (see Love)— judging them, III.
Ch.ll.

New Birth (see Birth ; Kegeneration) —
how effected, I. 3. 1.

it alone renders our works acceptable to

God, I. 81. 10.

its fruits, I. 11. 17.

its necessity, I. 3. 8 ; I. 41. 16.

what it is, I. 5. 2, 4.

o.

Oath, Divine — a source of consolation, II. 2.

2-5.
Obedience of Christ, II. 2. 13.
Offerings brought to God, I. 40. VII.
Oil, IY. Part I. Ch. 3. 43, 44.
Old Man, The (see Man) — encouragement

derived from the strife with, I. 16. 11.
Omnipresence, Omnipotence, etc. ; see God.

Original Sin (see Corruption), I. 2. 8 ; I.

41. 13, etc.; 1.42.2.
its nature set forth in Book I. ; Prep, to

Book II. 2.
Osiandrian Controversy, Introd. \ 15.

P.

17.

Palatinate, The, Introd.
Paracelsus, Introd. g 28.
Patience, Christian — consolations, II. 47, 17.

examples of, II. 47. 16.

motives to, II. Ch. 46.

produced by divine consolations, II. Ch.

45.

reasons for exercising it, II. Ch. 44.

Scriptural sentences respecting it, II.

47. 4-15.
sustained by the truth and promises of

God, II. Ch. 49.
what it is, II. 44. 1 ; II. 45. 1 ; II. 47. 2,

3; III. Ch. 14.
Perfection, Absolute — not attainable, 1. 11.

11; II. 51.3.

not found in this world, II. 4. 2.

Perfection of the Christian life — wherein it

consists, Pref. to Book III. 7.
Pericles, I. 27. 5.
Peter and Paul — their religious character, I.

17. 12.
Phocion, I. 27. 5.

Pilgrimage, Our — its nature, I. 17. 10.
Plato, II. 30. 4.
Poor and contrite, The — acceptable to God,

I. 19. 11-16.
Poverty of spirit, III. 5. 1.
PruEtorius, Introd. \ 1.
Praise to God — benefits and efficacy of, II.

Ch. 41.

offered by holy men, II. 42. 13.

reasons for offering it daily, II. Ch. 42.

to offer it, man's greatest privilege, II.

43. 4.
to offer it, the most honorable employ-
ment of men, II. Ch. 43.
when offered, a source of consolation, II..

48. 14.
Pray, To — sinful, whether in dependence on

our own merit, or to forbear on ac-
count of our unworthiness, II. 34..

Sect. 9.
Prayer — a consolation against the fear of

death, II. 57. 12.
all men invited to it, by God, II. 34..

Sect. 7.

498

INDEX.

Prater — a means of obtaining consolation

in affliction, II. 48. 13.

a protection against calumny, II. 17. 6.

benefits of continual, II. 34. Sect. 3.

certainty that it will be heard, II. 49. 7.

conversation of a believing soul with

God, in, II. Ch. 39.

efficacy of the prayer of faith, II. 41. 6.

encouragements to, II. 20. 11, etc.

encouragements to, and lessons on, II.

34. Sect. 12.
evils which follow the neglect of, II. 34.

Sect. 2.
in Psalm 109: 1, etc., explained, II. 16.

1, etc.
its necessity, I. 42. 4 (e) ; II. 5. 4 ; II.

Ch. 20.

internal, II. 20. 4; III. Ch. 19.

its benefits, power, and ground, II. Ch.

36.
its numerous qualities, offices, etc., II.

36. 16.

mental, II. 20. 7.

oral, II. 20. 3.

pattern of. furnished by Christ, II. 20.

10.
reasons why God certainly hears it, II.

Ch. 37.
seven helps for our infirmities in, II. Ch.

38.

strengthens faith, II. 51. 16.

secret, II. 36. 9.

supernatural, II. 20. 4.

taught by love to God, II. 24. 16.

temptations, when we pray, II. 20. 16,

17.

the sign of a true Christian, II. Ch. 35.

the worshipper not restricted to any cer-
tain times of, II. 34. Sect. 11.

vain, without humility, II. 21. 4.

when acceptable to God, II. 20. 9.

when not heard, II. 37. 23, etc.

wherein it consists, II. 20. 1.

why it is enjoined, II. 20. 8.

why we should commune with God in

prayer, II. 34. Sect. 5.
Preface (Author's) to Book I. p. xxxix.

Book II. p. 157.

Book III. p. 375.

Book IV. p. 423.

Pride (see Humility), I. 31. 1, etc.; I. 39. 8;

III. 20. 2.

influence of, II. 22. 2, etc.

its properties, III. 20. 1-4.

Pride — remedy against spiritual, II. 7. 7.

spiritual, I. 42. 4.

Priesthood of Christ, II. 2. 15.

Prodigal Son, Parable of, II. 8. 2, etc. ; II.

10. 7.
Promises, Divine — the chief source of the

Christian's consolation, II. 2. 1; II.

45. 6.
Providence — a source of comfort, II. 45. 2;

IV. Part I. Ch. 6. 16.
of God; three things wherein it consists,

IV. Part I. Ch. 6. 12. etc.
Psalms— six, called Golden Songs, II, 43. 1.
suited to various circumstances, II. 41.

12.

the Penitential, I. 4. 9, note.

Punishments, Future — eternity of, I. 7. 5.
Punishments, Temporal, II. 8. 9; II. 8. 13.

E.

Rationalists, Introd. § 40.
Reconciliation to our neighbor, I. 29. 1, 2.
enforced by three arguments, II. 4. 4. a.

b. c.

the terms of, I. 29. 14.

Refuge, Cities of, I. 21. 15, 16.
Regeneration (see New Birth) — by divine

goodness, II. 9. 3.

how effected, I. 3. 4.

in what it consists, I. 3. 7; II. 9. 1, etc.

its necessity, I. 41. 27.

men invited to, II. 9. 4.

produced by divine threatenings, II. 9. 2.

whence it proceeds, I. 3. 11, 12.

Remission of Sins — follows repentance, I. 8.

12, 16.
is not granted without repentance, I. 34.

12.
Renewal in Christ, I. 3. 5.

continued, I. 22. 4, etc.

Repentance (see Conversion) — a quality of

it, 1.29. 16.

daily, I. 20. 10

founded on humility, III. 20. 3.

four properties of, II. 10. 1, etc.

illustrations of, I. 21. 12; II. 8. 1, etc.

its fruits, I. 42. 2 ; II. 9. 28.

its necessity, I. 8. 1-15; I. 37. 10; I. 37.

22, 23.

manner of, II. 9. 14.

motives to, II. 9. 22, etc.

the source of the Christian's life, Pref.

to Book I. 1.

INDEX.

499

Repentance — what it is, I. 4. 1-11; I. 8. 2;
I. 21. 10; II. 3.1, etc.

when it is unfeigned, II. 10. 14.

without reconciliation and restitution,

not acceptable to God, I. 29. 19.

Resurrection of Christ (see Christ), II. 25.
10; II. 57.4.

its fruit, II. 57. 11.

Resurrection of our bodies — a ground of
comfort, II. 57. 3.

Revelation — punishment of those who re-
ject it, I. 7. 7, 8.

Righteousness — by faith, II. 3. 8.

whence it proceeds, I. 5. 8 ; II. 3. 4.

Righteousness of Christ — made our own, II.
3.6.

Righteousness, Our — its foundation, I. 3. 9.

whence it proceeds, II. 3. 1, etc.

Saints — example given by them, II. 17. 4, 5;

II. 17. 10; 11.44. 8; II. 52. 15; II.

54. 8.

their constant practice, I. 20. 18.

their example, a help in prayer, II. 38.

5-8.
their example, a source of comfort, II.

45.8.

their temptations, II. 52. 2, etc.

Satan — his character, I. 41. 22.

his fall, I. 31. 7 ; II. 17. 9.

his fiery darts, II. 52. 6.

his image in man, I. 2. 3.

his want of power, II. 53. 2, 3.

SCHWENKEELDT, INTROD. |g 14, 24.

Scriptures (see "Word) — their purpose, I. 6.

8,9.
Sea, The — lessons taught by it, Ch. 5. 15.
Seeking after God — two ways, III. 4. 1.
Sele-denial, I, 4. 3 ; I. 14. 6 ; I. 15. 4, etc. ;

II. 7. 2; II. 10. 2; III. 23. 4.
Self-love, I. 31. 1, etc. ; IV. Part II. Ch. 33.

its actual result, IY. Part II. Ch. 31.

its dangers, I. 14. 2, etc. ; I. 31. 3 ; I. 31.

7; 1.14.10.
its evil fruits, IV. Part II. Ch. 37; Ch.

38 ; Ch. 40.

its remedy, I. 31. 8.

its source, I. 31. 6.

the source of all evil, IV. Part II. 32.

2,3.
Self — worship of, II. 23.
Servetus, Introd. W 15, 16.

Sin (see Original Sin; Remission)— never

comes alone, I. 37. 18.
Slander, see Calumny.
Sloth— to be shaken off, II. 5. 7.
Smalcald Articles, Introd. \ 25.
Solomon's throne, III. 5. 2.
Sorrow for Sin (see Godly sorrow)— its

happy influence, I. 20. 7.
Sorrow — worldly, and. godly, I. 40. IV.
Soul— its dignity, III. 7. 1 ; IV. Part I. 6.

18-24.
its image shining forth originally in the

body, I. 41. 7.

its original holy nature, I. 41. 5.

the habitation of the Holy Ghost, II.

35. 3.
the things that instruct and comfort it,

IV. Part II. Ch. 7.
Spirit and flesh (see Holy Spirit) — conflict

between them, I. 16. 2, etc.
Stars, The, IV. Part I. Ch. 4.
Strasburg, Introd. g 2.
Substance of the Christian religion — is faith

and love, I. 30. 1.
Supper, The Lord's — wherein Christ gives

us his body and blood, II. 10. 6; III.

1.4.
Symbol, what — Introd. \ 41, Note.
Symbolical Books, Introd. \\ 22, 24, 25, 40,

41, 42; Pref. to Book 1.8; Conclu-
sion of Book II.
Synergistic Controversy, Introd. \\ 15, 19.

T.

Talents— not they, but faith and love re-
quired, I. 32. l,etc.

why bestowed, I. 32. 4.

Tauler, — Pref. to Book I. 8 ; Introd. \ 29.

quotations from, II. 53. 20; III. 1. 3.

subject of his Sermons, I. 37. 16.

Temporal things — design of their creation,
1.17.1.

loss of, I. 20. 21, 22.

preference of, offensive to God, I. 18. 1,

etc.

Temptations, Spiritual — comforting instruc-
tions for those who labor under them,
II. Ch. 52; II. Ch. 53; II. Ch. 54.

God refreshes the weak in, III. 23. 3.

not tokens of God's anger, II. 53. 13.

origin of, II. 52. 4-7.

reasons why they are sent, II. 52. 7, etc. ;

II. 53. 4, etc.

500

INDEX.

Testimony of the Spirit, II. 2. 9.
Theology — what it is, Pref. to Book I. 2.
Thirst — ours, and Christ's, I. 36. 24.
Thirty Years' War, Introd. \ 22.
Thomas ä Kempis, Pree. to Book. 1. 8;

Introd. § 29.
Titus, the Eoman emperor, I. 27. 5.
Trinity, Holy — benefits conferred by, II.

29. 10.
dwelling in the hearts of believers, III.

1. 1.
Treasure, Internal — means of attaining it,

III. Ch. 1.

of the believer, III. Ch. 1.

what it is, and on what it depends, III.

Ch. 3.

u.

Unbelief — its fruits, I. 37. 4.

Union with Christ — of the highest necessity,

II. 6. 3.
Union with God, II. 6. 1.

a property of true repentance, II. 10. 15

its necessity, II. 28. 4.

V.

Vanity and emptiness of man, II. 23. 1.
Vengeance of God — set forth by Moses, II.

32. 7, 8.
Vice — abounding among Christians, I. 7. 6.
Vincent, St., II. 45. 8.
Virtue — false love of, II. 24. 9.

w.

"Warfare, Spiritual — an encouraging evi-
dence, I. 16. 11.

even in the godly, I. 16. 7.

Waters — separated from the land, the work
of the Third Day, IV. Part I. Ch. 3.

they, and their productions, IV. Part I.

Ch. 5.

Weigel, Introd. \ 28.
Wildenhahn, Introd. \\ 10, 26, 30.
Will of man — originally conformed to the

will of God, I. 41.6.

what it now is, II. 6. 7.

Wine, IV. Part I. Ch. 3. 40-42.
Wisdom — how to be acquired, II. 5. 1.
Woman of Canaan, The, III. 5. 1.
Word of God (see Scriptures) — its gracious-

ness and efficacy, I. 36. 20, 21.

not a dead letter, I. 6. 2.

reading, etc. , it, a protection against

calumny, II. 17. 7.

who reject it, I. 38. 8.

Word and Sacraments — means of grace, II.

9.7.

strengthen faith, II. 51. 16.

their design, I. 38. 1.

Works— how judged, I. 33. 1 ; II. 5. 6.
how they may be rendered acceptable to

God, III. Ch. 22.
their source must be faith, I. 33. 4: II.

22.1.

they cannot justify, I. 5. 6.

worth, their, how to be judged, II. 4. 5.

Works, Good — God alone the Author, I. 21.

21.
World — its vanity, II. 57. 17, etc.

necessity of withdrawing from it, I. 23. 2.

relinquishing it, I. 20. 25.

Worldly pleasures — drive away the Holy

Spirit, III. Ch. 18.
Worldly society, I. 23. 5, etc.
Worship, True — of God, I. 21. 3, etc.
required, on our own account, I. 21. 21,

22.

seated in the heart, I. 21. 19 ; I. 26. 3.

three things belonging to it, I. 21. 5.

wherein it consists, I. 26. 2.

Yoke of Christ, I. 4. 6; I. 11. 13.

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