Quotes: Francis Fuller

I was looking for something new to put up and ran across a brief treatise (Francis Fuller, A Treatise of Grace And Duty. London, 1688.), from which I took these quotes. Be warned: I have significantly altered the sentence structure. Fuller apparently had a fascination with the words "this" and "that", as well as the use (misuse, to my mind) of commas. It took me a while to figure out his paragraph on Wisdom, what for all the thises and thats (which I have diligently replaced, hopefully for a better understanding of the subject!)

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Handwritten on the back of the title page:

Remember thou poor mortal, thy time is drawing nigh.

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Grace, Duty, and Friendship with God

“There are two things that keep up friendship between God and us: the receipt of Grace from him and the return of duty to him. Both are an honor of ours, as well as an interest of ours; sin is a degradation, it proved so to the angels and to us (for we both lost our dignity as well as our purity by it), and to serve is a kind of diminution in its self, but Grace is an honor (the honor that comes from God only) and so is his service, too. -Francis Fuller

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Fuller on Wisdom:

“Solomon says Wisdom is the principle thing, that is, not humane Wisdom but divine. Wisdom excels among all virtues, and this kind of wisdom among all other kinds. Divine wisdom, when sanctified, beautifies. Divine wisdom sanctifies human wisdom, and exalts a saint above a man, just as human wisdom exalts a man above a beast. Human wisdom will wither, but divine wisdom will grow up to glory. Of other things we may have too much, of divine wisdom never enough. If we desire no more, we have none, and if we do not seek after it, we never desired it; if we have none, we shall lose our crown, and if we seek not after more, we shall lessen it. In having it consists our safety, in increasing in it, our comfort: the former in the truth of it, and the latter in the degree.

Happy are they who prize it enough to seek it, and so seek as to find it, and when found, endeavor after a perfection in it.”

-F. Fuller

Fearless Conservatism: the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a Sound Mind (from the Presbyterian Magazine), part 2

The Presbyterian Magazine.
January, 1860.
Edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Chestnut St, Philadelphia.
pages 8-11

“Fearless Conservatism, or the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a sound Mind.”

II. The gift of this “spirit of power” is accompanied by the gift of the “spirit of LOVE,” love to God and to the souls of men.

This love is reciprocal. “We love Him because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19.) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 16:3), and this “life” is the love of God shed abroad in the soul; “if any man love God the same is known of him.” This gracious affection, delighting in God, sweetly inclining 3ever to his will and word, and joyous in His favor and communion as the highest happiness, disposes its blessed subjects to do good to all. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.... If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 4^th.) “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” (John 13:35.) Our Lord said: “You have heard that is has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43.) In this love there is a conservative power; yea! And power of progress, which, springing from the heart of God, and animating the disciples of Christ, has “the whole family in heaven and earth” for its objects, and eternity only for its bounds. Its paean ever is, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.”

The tendency of this affection is to wither up and to root out all the sources of fearfulness. “The Lord delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4.) The love of country, and wife, and children, and home, makes the most timid bold, when they are assailed. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18.) Inspired with this holy courage of sacred love, we may boldly say, “the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Hebrews 13:4.) “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” (Psalm 46:2.) For grace in the heart makes the mind bold and constant. Nothing, indeed, will or can do more to endow the whole man with courage, to make him fearless of danger, or ready to endure privation and persecution, than this gracious principle of love, wrought in his soul by God’s spirit. Examine all the past, and you will find that the soul has been nerved to the greatest enterprises, and sustained in its deepest sorrows, by love for Christ and for a dying world.

S.F.C

Part 1.
Part 3.

Fearless Conservatism: the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a Sound Mind (from the Presbyterian Magazine), part 3

The Presbyterian Magazine.
January, 1860.
Edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Chestnut St, Philadelphia.
pages 8-11

“Fearless Conservatism, or the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a sound Mind.”

III. The power and love of this heavenly temper is joined to “A SOUND MIND.” The Greek word signifies “a sober mind;” one pervaded by prudence and discretion, well-balanced, and under right influences; in which it sees things in its just proportions and relations; and consequently, is not feverish and excited, but persistently holds everything in its proper place. It is not careless of the trifle or appalled by the momentous. Nor does it conceive the mountains to be a molehill; nor does it view gnats as giants. It involves self-control. “Is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly.” We find a parallel passage in Proverbs 18:27,--“A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit,” rendered in the marginal reading “of a cool spirit.” And there is peculiar force in our English expression, cool and coolness, as applied to temper, and it is equivalent to both the Hebrew and the Greek words for an “excellent spirit,” “a sound mind.” This coolness of feeling and thought, is not insensibility nor dullness, but it is the opposite of passion, irritability, impatience, restlessness, and the fuss and hurry, the flurry and the flutter of agitation. Coolness of temper bespeaks one collected and calm, and begotten of quiet sobriety is closely akin to meekness, mildness, and gentleness, and its result is fortitude. A sound mind is dispassionate; with the clear ideas of a cool head it is calm in the equilibrium of its judgments, and serene in its own true balance of feeling. In this happy adjustment and self-control there is power patiently to toil, and hopefully to wait long.

Serious difficulties now disturb the public mind, leaving the wisest and best uncertain as to what these things may grow. There is a pressure of existing agitation, and fear of still worse agitation to come. It is a frailty of human nature to run into extremes. Like the pendulum of a clock, we swing from side to side. It is important to find that mental equipoise which will prevent these too frequent changes which mark the torrid zone of thought and feeling. Here you find it. The religion of the Gospel, bringing life and immortality to light, inculcates and bestows this happy temperament.

Oh! What but the grace of God can deliver us from the storms which lower over the individual or national life? For God has not given us “the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

S.F.C.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Baxter's Directions to the Depressed: Cast your cares on God (part 2)

The Signs and Causes of Melancholy, with directions suited to the case of those who are afflicted with it. Collected out of the works of Mr. Richard Baxter, for the sake of those, who are wounded in Spirit. By Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel London, Bible and Three Crowns, 1716. pp51-66. [Edited and abridged by SML.]

Click here for an introduction to Baxter on Melancholy

Chapter 4: Directions to the Melancholy.

Direction 1: Take notice of worldly sorrows and discontents: do not put so much value in earthly things to that they can disquiet you: but learn to cast your cares upon God.

2. Set yourself more diligently than ever to overcome inordinate love of the World. It will be a happy and good use of your troubles if you can follow them up to the fountain, and find out what it is that you cannot bear the want or loss of, and consequently what it is that you love too much. God is very jealous, even when he loves, against every idol that is loved too much, and with any of the love which is due to him, and if he takes them all away, and tears them out of our hands and hearts, he is merciful as well as just. I speak this not to those who are troubled only for want of more faith and holiness and communion with God and assurance of Salvation: These troubles might give them much comfort if they understood aright from whence they came and what they signify. As impatient trouble under worldly crosses proves that a man loves the world too much, so impatient trouble for want of more holiness and communion with God, shows that such are lovers of holiness and God. Love goes before desire and grief. That which men love, they delight in if they have it, and mourn for want of it, and desire to obtain it. The Will is the love, and no man is troubled for the lack of something he doesn’t desire.

3. If you are not satisfied that God and Christ and Heaven are enough for you as a matter of happiness and contentedness, study the case better and you may be convinced. Learn better your catechism and principles of religion, and you will learn to lay up a treasure in Heaven and not on Earth, and that it’s best to be with Christ, and that death, which kills all the glory of the world and equals the rich and the poor is the common door to both Heaven and Hell... and conscience will ask you if you have lived for God or for the flesh, and what had preeminence in your hearts and your lives. Study more to live by faith and hope on the unseen promised glory with Christ, and you will patiently endure any sufferings in the way.

Part 3

Fearless Conservatism: the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a Sound Mind (from the Presbyterian Magazine), part 1

The Presbyterian Magazine.
January, 1860.
Edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Chestnut St, Philadelphia.
pages 8-11

“Fearless Conservatism, or the Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a sound Mind.”

In times of perplexity, we should endeavor to act upon the principle of fearless conservatism.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. “The spirit of fear,” which is not God’s gift, is, on the one hand, that unrestrained lust of power, which, riding on the whirlwind of passion, and spreading its bolts of destruction, presages woe to man; and on the other hand, “the spirit of fear” is that servile, timorous spirit which cringes before arrogance, trembles in the face of opposition, heartlessly yields principle, and ignominiously shrinks from all danger and struggle. These are both alike foreign to the Gospel temper, for “God has not given us the spirit of fear” either to produce dread in others, or to be the subjects of terror ourselves.

I. The Gospel and civilization were detained, tarrying at Jerusalem, until the disciples were “endued with POWER from on high.” (Luke 24:49.) From that baptism of power the hosts of God have gone forth under “the banner of love,” evangelizing and elevating the nations. Then and now, the temper of Christian progress has been “from on high,” a power to encounter foes and dangers; a power to bear up under trials; to triumph in persecutions. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle (6:10) exhorts children and parents, servants and masters: “My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” The nature of the Gospel is to inspire its possessors with holy courage.

This Christian boldness is the very opposite of that reckless audacity, whose frenzied zeal overrides all caution, tramples under foot principles of eternal truth, justice and mercy; and whose fell sport is “as a madman who casts firebrands, arrows, and death.” Blind to time and fitting season, and defiant of natural causes, relations, and results, this mad audacity inflames peaceful communities to fratricidal war, and claims, forsooth, to be doing service to God and humanity.

These tempers are as diverse as light and darkness. “And I turned myself to behold wisdom and madness and folly.... Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as far as light excels darkness.” (Ecclesiastes, 2:13.)

S.F.C.

Part 2.
Part 3.

Baxter's Directions for the Depressed: Cast your cares on God (part 1)

The Signs and Causes of Melancholy, with directions suited to the case of those who are afflicted with it. Collected out of the works of Mr. Richard Baxter, for the sake of those, who are wounded in Spirit. By Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel London, Bible and Three Crowns, 1716. pp51-66. [Edited and abridged by SML.]

Click here for an introduction to Baxter on Melancholy

Chapter 4: Directions to the Melancholy.

When the disease is gone very far, directions to the melancholy persons themselves are vain, because they have not reason and free will to practice them: at that point, it is their friends around them who must have the directions. But because with most of the melancholy people, and at the onset, there is still some power of reason left, I shall give the following directions for use of such ones.

Direction 1: Take notice of worldly sorrows and discontents: don’t put so much value in earthly things to that they can disquiet you: but learn to cast your cares upon God.

1. Do not give way to a habit of peevish impatience. Did you not reckon on sufferings and of bearing the cross when you first gave yourself up to Christ, and now you think it strange when afflictions come on you? Look for them, and make it your daily study to prepare for any trial God may bring upon you, and then it will not surprise and overwhelm you. It is your unpreparedness that makes it seem insufferable.

Especially make it a matter of conscience to keep yourself out of a settled state of discontent in your mind: do you not have much better than you deserve? Do you forget how many years you have enjoyed undeserved mercy? Discontent is a continued resistance to God’s disposing will, and some rebellion against it. It is like an Atheist to think that your sufferings are not by his providence; and dare you complain against God and continue in such complaining? To whom else does it belong to dispose of you and all the world? And when you feel distracting cares for your deliverance, remember that this is not trusting God. Take care of your own duty and obey His commands, but leave it to Him what you shall have. Tormenting care only adds to your afflictions. It is a great mercy of God that he forbids these cares and promises to care for you. Your Savior himself has largely, though gently, reprehended them (Matt 6), and told you how sinful and unprofitable they are, and that your Father knows what you need; and if he deny it you, it is for a just cause; and if it is to correct you, it is also for your benefit, and if you submit to him and accept his gift, he will give you much better than what he takes from you, even Christ and everlasting life.

Part 2.

Prayer: The Spirit's Intercessions

the
Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1854.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Philadelphia, C. Sherman, printer. pp95-96.
[mildly modernized - SML]

“The Spirit’s Intercessions”

“Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Rom. 8:26.

This passage contains a very important thought on prayer. We will inquire into the meaning of some of the words and phrases used here.

1. Helps. “Heaves with us,” or lifts with us. This is the idea expressed by this word. For instance, I have a burden to raise, and while I am lifting at one end or side, a friend takes hold of the other, and we raise it together.
2. Infirmities. This word embraces those weaknesses of our nature which are a hindrance to prayer—such as ignorance of the subjects and manner of prayer—lack of spiritual discernment and devotional fire. Left to himself, the most perfect Christian is dull, ignorant, weak, and altogether powerless in prayer. The universal prevalence of depravity is painfully felt in the infirmities which encompass the most devout through every period of life.
3. Intercession. We must distinguish between intercession and mediation. Christ is the Mediator, and there is but one mediator. The Spirit is not a mediator. But he enters into the Christian’s heart, and prays in the Christian’s prayer. He excites, illuminates, and stirs up deep fountains of feeling and desire, but he does not mediate.
4. "Groanings which cannot be uttered.” By this phrase we understand that the Spirit begets emotions and desires which cannot find expression in human language, and are only poured fourth into the ear of God.

The important thought in this passage is this: The Holy Spirit is an indispensable helper in acceptable and effectual prayer. He incites the spirit of prayer, awakens the slumbering energies of the soul, quickens the dormant graces, sharpens spiritual discernment, breaths fervour into zeal, ardor into love, strength into faith, and burdens the heart with petitions, some of which can find utterance only in the ear of God. The Spirit is an indispensable helper in prayer. His inward intercession makes prayer fervent and effectual—gives it power almost irresistible. Sinners tremble when they hear it, infidelity feels its force and turns pale. The mourner is carried by such prayer right into the presence of the bleeding Lamb.

He who is helped by the Spirit in prayer realizes that help. O how his heart is enlarged and drawn out for his fellow men in every direction; how numerous are the subjects of prayer—the world is on his heart—he rests, and yet he cannot rest; he is always praying. Prayer is his “vital breath,” his “native air.” Where the Spirit helps in prayer there must be revival. Nothing can withstand it. But the Spirit cannot help those who grieve him every day.—Religious Telescope.

The Christian's Daily Walk: Sinful Anger

Henry Scudder, The Christian’s Daily Walk in holy Security and Peace. Phila, Presbyterian Board, nd. [edited, abridged, and modernized by SML] 137-140.

Remedies against sinful anger, to help you, so that passion and heat of anger do not kindle, or at least do not break out beyond appropriate bounds.

1. Convince your judgment thoroughly that passion and rash anger is forbidden and hated by God, Matt 5:22; Eccl 7:9.

• It is a fruit of the flesh, Gal. 5:20
• A work of the Devil, James 3:14-15.
• Bred and nourished by pride, Prov 21:24, folly, Prov 24:29, and self-love, Jonah 4:1-3.
• It makes a man unfit to pray, I Tim 2:8
• to hear the Word, I Peter 2:1; James 1:19,
• to perform any worship to God; and unfit to hear reason, or give or receive good counsel.
• God forbids his children the company of the froward, Prov 22:24,
• who abound in transgressions, Prov 29:22;
• and there is more hope of a fool than of him, Prov 29:20.
• For these reasons, fix in your mind such an abhorrence of this vice that you may beware and shun it with all caution.
  

2. Watch carefully for when anger begins to stir in you, and before it breaks out into speech or behavior, set your reason at work to prevent or restrain it. Set faith at work, having pertinent scriptures ready in your mind, such as:

• Be angry, but sin not. Eph 4:26
• Anger rests in the bosom of fools, Eccl 7:9
• Should I sin against God? Should I play the fool?

3. If you can't keep anger from rising in you, still, be sure that you bind your tongue and hand to good behavior. Make a covenant with them, not to show it or partake with it any further than considerate reason and good conscience advise you, Ps 39:1. Set a law to yourself, Ps 149:3, that you will not chide or strike while you are in the heat of anger. If there be cause of either, defer it until you have more government over yourself. Conscience of duty should lead you to chiding and correcting when there is cause, not passion: in passion you serve and revenge yourself upon the party, but not God.

4. Both before and when you are angry, see God, by the eye of your faith, as present with you, in hearing and looking upon you, Ps 11:4-5. This will make you peaceable and quiet, causing you not only to hold your hands and tongue, but this also will calm and abate the inward heat and passion of your mind.

5. If you feel your corruption and weakness to be such, and the provocation to anger so great, that you fear you cannot contain yourself, then, if it be possible, avoid all occasions of anger, and remove yourself, in a peaceable and quiet manner, from the person, object, or occasion thereof. And at all times shun the company of an angry man, as much as your calling will give you leave, lest you learn his ways, Prov 22:24-25.

6. However it may happen that anger kindles in you and breaks you; be sure that you subdue it before it grow into hatred of him with whom you are angry. For this cause let not the sun go down upon your wrath, Eph 4:26; you know not what hatred it may grow into before morning. And the best means that I know to subdue it is if you find your heart to rise against any, pray heartily to God for him in particular, for his good, Matt 5:44; to this you are commanded. Be so far from seeking revenge, that you force yourself to be loving and kind, showing all good offices of love with wisdom, as you shall have occasion; overcoming evil with good, Rom 13:17-21. Pray also to God for yourself, that he would please to subdue this passion in you. This act of love to him with whom you are angry, performed before God, in whose sight you dare not dissemble, will excellently quench wrath, and prevent hatred against him, and will give proof between God and your conscience that you love him.

Do not say, "I am so crossed and provoked, never 'any the like';" for Christ was more injured and more provoked than you, and yet never was in a passion, 1 Peter 2:23, Heb 12:2,3. And you provoke God a thousand times more every day, yet he is patient with you.

Do not say, "it is such a headstrong passion, that it is impossible to bridle and subdue it;" for, I can assure you, that by using means, these prescribed, if you also do often and much abase yourself before God for your passion and folly, and daily repent of it, and watch over yourself, you may, even if most hasty and passionate, become most meek and patient before you die.

Rules to know when anger is sinful.

You sin in your anger,

1. When it is without cause;

• when neither God is dishonored, nor your neighbor or yourself is injured;
• when it is for little things, and only because you are crossed in your will and desire, and such;
• but chiefly when you are angry with any for well doing, 1 Kings 22:24-26.
  

2. Even though you have cause for anger, if it extinguish your love to the person with whom you are angry; so that you neglect the common and needful offices of that love.

3. When it goes beyond due measure, when it is too much and too long.

4. It is sinful when it results in evil and unseemly effects, such as neglect, or ill performance of any duty to God or man; also when it breaks out into loud, clamorous, or reviling speeches, or into churlish, sullen, or indecent behavior, or when it is accompanied by any injurious act.

The Christian's Daily Walk: Reading

Of Reading.

Besides your set times of reading the holy Scriptures, you will do well to take some of your free time to read God’s book and the good books of men.

How to read profitably.

When you read any part of the word of God, you must differentiate between it and the best writings of men, preferring it far before them.

Consider it in its properties and excellencies. No word is of like absolute authority, holiness, truth, wisdom, power, and eternity. Ps 19:7-11

Consider this word in its ends and good effects. No book aims at God’s glory, John 5:39, 2 Cor 3:18, and the salvation of man’s soul, Romans 15:4, James 1:21, like this; none concerns you like God’s book does.

• It discovers your misery by sin, together with the perfect remedy, Rom 3:23-24.
  
• It proposes perfect happiness to you, Isa 55:1-3, affording means to work it out in you, and for you, Rom 1:16, I Thess 2:13.
• It is mighty, through God to prepare you for grace, 2 Cor 10:4-5.
  
• It is the immortal seed to beget you unto Christ, 1 Peter 1:23.
  
• It is the milk and stronger meat to nourish you up in Christ, 1 Peter 2:2, Heb 5:13-14.
  
• It is the only soul-physic (through Christ) to recover you, 2 Tim 1:13, and to free you of all spiritual evils.
• By it Christ gives spiritual sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, strength to the weak, health to the sick: yes, by it he does cast out devils, and raise men from the death of sin (through faith) as certainly as he did all those things for the bodies of men by the word of his power, while he lived on the earth, John 5:25.
  
• This book of God does contain those many rich legacies bequeathed to you in that last will and testament of God, sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, Heb 9:15-18.
  
• It is the magna charta, and statute-book of the kingdom of heaven, Isa 8:20.
  
• It is the book of privileges and immunities of God’s children, Rom 6:14-22, 1 John 5:13.
  
• It is the word of grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified, Acts 20:32.
• It will make you wise to salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus, making you perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, 2 Tim 3:15-17.

Whenever therefore you hear this word preached, and when at any time you read it, you must receive it not as the word of man, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, then it will work effectually in you that believe, I Thess 2:13.

When you read this word, lift up the heart in prayer to God for the spirit of understanding and wisdom, Ps 119:18, that your mind may be more and more enlightened, and your heart more and more strengthened with grace by it. For this word is spiritual, containing the great counsels of God for man’s salvation, and which is as a book sealed up, Isa 29:11-12, in respect of discovery of the things of God in it, I Cor 2:10-11, to all that have not the help of God’s Spirit; so that none can know the inward and spiritual meaning thereof, powerfully, and savingly, but by the Spirit of God.

Read the word with a hunger and thirst after knowledge and growth in grace by it, 1 Peter 2:2, with a reverent, humble teachable, and honest heart, Luke 8:15; believing all that you read; trembling at the threatenings and judgments against sinners; rejoicing in the promises made unto, and the favor bestowed upon the penitent, and the godly; willing and resolving to obey all the commandments.

Thus if you read, blessed shall you be in your reading, Rev 1:3; and blessed shall you be in your deed, James 1:25.

Henry Scudder, The Christian’s Daily Walk in holy Security and Peace. Phila, Presbyterian Board, nd. pp98-99. [edited, abridged, and possibly linguistically modernized by SML]

Brooks: Why Christians must be mute and silent under afflictions in this world. (Part 6)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699.
[Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

Reason 5. A fifth reason why gracious souls should be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions and sharpest trials that do befall them is this, because a holy, a prudent silence, under afflictions, under miseries, does best capacitate and fit the afflicted for the receipt of miseries. When the rolling bottle lies still you may pour into it your sweetest, or your strongest waters; when the rolling, tumbling soul lies still, then God can best pour into it the sweet waters of mercy, and the strong waters of divine consolation. You read of the peaceable fruits of righteousness, Heb 12:11, James 3:18.

Reason 6. A Sixth Reason why gracious souls should be silent under the smarting Rod, is this, viz. because it is fruitless, it is bootless to strive, to contest or contend with God; no man has ever got anything by muttering or murmuring under the hand of God, except it has been more frowns, blows, and wounds.

Reason 7. A seventh reason why Christians should be mute and silent under their afflictions, is because hereby they shall cross, and frustrate Satan’s great design and expectation. In all the afflictions he brought upon Job, his design was not so much to make Job a Beggar, as it was to make him a Blasphemer: it was not so much to make Job outwardly miserable, as it was to make Job inwardly miserable, by occasioning him to mutter and murmur against the righteous hand of God: that so he might have some matter of accusation against him to the Lord. His is the unwearied accuser of the brethren, Rev 12:10.

Reason 8. The eighth reason why Christians should be silent and mute under their sorest trials, is this, that they may be conformable to those noble patterns that are set before them by other saints, who have been patient and silent under the smarting Rod. As Aaron, Ex. 10:3, Ely, 1 Sam 3:18, David, 2 Sam 16:7-13, Job, chap 1:21-22, Eliakim, Shebnah and Joab, Isa 36:11-12. So those, saints in that, Acts 21:12-15, and that could of witnesses, pointed at in Hebrews 12:1. Gracious examples are more awakening, more convincing, more quickening, more provoking, and more encouraging than Precepts, because in them we see that the exercise of grace and godliness is possible, though it be difficult.

Perseverance

from J. R. Macduff, Palms of Elim; or Rest and Refreshment in the Valleys. New York: Carter, 1879.

"And they came to Elim ['Valleys'], where were ... threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there." -- Exodus 15:27

"This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing"--

"He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." -- Phil 1:6

"We shall not die." -- Hab 1:12.

Perseverance.

In looking from underneath the shade of the palm-trees, on the long untrodden journey ere the true Canaan can be reached, the thought cannot fail to obtrude itself, Can we trust to be safeguarded through this great and terrible wilderness? Can we rely on the God of the Pillar-cloud conducting us to the brink of Jordan and thence to "the shining fields" beyond? Rather, is there no danger to be apprehended of spiritual drought and famine, or spiritual death, overtaking us? May it not be sadly fulfilled, with us, in a spiritual sense, as it was with the Pilgrim Hebrews in a literal, that through apostasy, unbelief, and backsliding, "we shall never enter into His rest"?

No. We have the sure word of promise of "a God who cannot lie," "Ye shall go over and possess that good land" (Deut. 4:22). "But now thus says the Lord that created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour" (Isa 43:1-3). All is guaranteed to us in what the old writers call "the charter-deed of the Everlasting Covenant." The immutability of the Divine counsel has been confirmed to us by oath. In the first of our motto-verses the great Apostle speaks with unhesitating assurance; --"being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." He does not, indeed, aver that "good work" is never to be impeded. God has never given promise in Scripture, with regard to spiritual experience, of an unclouded day--uninterrupted sunshine. "The morning without clouds" is a heavenly emblem. The earthly one is "a day in which the light shall neither be clear nor dark" (Zech 14:6). The analogy of the outer world of nature, at least under these our checkered and ever-varying skies, teaches us this. Spring comes smiling, and pours her blossoms into the lap of summer. But the skies lower, the rain and battering hail descend, the virgin blossoms droop their heads and almost die. Summer again smiles, and the meadows look gay; the flowers ring merry chimes with their leaves and petals and swing their fragrant censers. But all at once the drought comes with her fiery, merciless footsteps. Every blade and floweret, gasping for breath, lift their blanched eyelids to the brazen sky; or the night winds rock the laden branches and strew the ground. Thus, we see, it is not one unvarying, unchecked progression, from the opening bud to the matured fruit. But every succeeding month is more or less scarred by drought and moisture, wind and rain and storm. Yet, never once has Autumn failed to gather up her golden sheaves; aye, and if you ask her testimony, she will tell that the very storm, the blackened skies, and descending torrents you dreaded as foes, were the best auxiliaries in filling her garners. Do not be despondent now, because of present passing shadows, but "thank God, and take courage." "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with His hand" (Ps 37:24). It is written, that "at evening time it shall be light" (Zech 14:7). The sun may wade all day through murky clouds, but he will pillow his head at night on a couch of vermilion and amber. "Though you have lien among the pots, yet shall you be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold" (Ps 68:13).

The second of our motto-verses forms part of an impassioned appeal of the Prophet Habakkuk in the prospect of impending national calamity. The great military power of that era of the world was menacing the cities and homes of Palestine. "Terrible and dreadful"--their horses "swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves" (1:7-8). Overwhelmed at the thought of imminent judgment and desolation; the seer can discern no silver lining in the cloud. He turns from man to God. He takes refuge in that sublime truth--the Immutability of a covenant Jehovah; and breaks out in these beautiful words of calm confidence, "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die!" No: though the hosts of the Chaldeans should sweep the battle-plains; though they should leave behind them a track of blood and ashes and smoke; though the cry of suffering thousands should ascend apparently succoured to heaven, "We shall not die." The God of our Fathers will not be untrue to His oath, or unmindful of His covenant. He will not cast off forever, or root out our name and remembrance from the earth.

"I give unto them," is His own blessed word and guarantee to His true Israel still, "eternal life, and they shall never perish." "What God hath spoken, He is able also to perform." The good work begun, He will also finish. Let this ever be our rallying call when wounded in the fight, "This is mine infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High!"

"He will never fail us,
He will not forsake;
His eternal covenant,
He will never break.
.......................
Onward, then, and fear not,
Children of the Day!
For His Word shall never,
Never pass away!"

"It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God."

Brooks: Why Christians must be mute and silent under afflictions in this world. (Part 5)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition.London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

Why must Christians be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest providences, and sharpest trials that they meet with in this world?

Reason 1. That they may better hear and understand the voice of the Rod. As the word has a voice, the Spirit a voice, and Conscience a voice, so the Rod has a voice. Afflictions are the Rod of God's anger, the Rod of his displeasure, and the Rod of his revenge; he gives a commission to his Rod to awaken his people, to reform his people, or else to revenge the quarrel of his Covenant upon them, if they will not bear the Rod, and kiss the Rod, and sit mute and silent under the rod, Micah 6:9. The Lord's voice cries unto the City, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the Rod and who hath appointed it. God's rods are not mutes, they are all vocal, they are speaking as well as fruiting; every twig has a voice: .... ah soul! says a twig, was it not best with you, when you were high in your communion with God, and when you were humble and close in your walking with God? Ah Christian, says another twig, will you search your heart, and try your ways, and turn to the Lord thy God? Ah soul, says another twig, will you die to sin more than ever, and to the world more than ever, and to relations more than ever, and to thyself more than ever? Ah soul! says another twig, will you live more to Christ than ever, and cleave closer to Christ than ever, and prize Christ more than ever, and venture further for Christ than ever? Ah soul, says another twig, will you love Christ with a more inflamed love, and hope in Christ with a more raised hope, and depend upon Christ with a greater confidence, and wait upon Christ with more invisible patience, &tc. Now if the soul is not mute and silent under the Rod, how is it possible that it should ever hear the voice of the Rod, or that it should ever hearken to the voice of every twig of the rod?

Reason 2. Gracious souls should be mute and silent under their greatest afflictions, and sharpest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from the men of the world, who usually fret and fling, mutter or murmur, curse and swagger, when they are under the afflicting hand of God, Isa 8:21-22.

Reason 3. A third reason why gracious souls should be silent and mute under their sharpest trials, is that they may be conformable to Christ their head, who was dumb and silent under his sorest trials. Isa 53:7, I Pet. 2:21-23 Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again? When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. Christ upon the cross did not only read us a lecture of patience and silence, but also set us a copy or pattern of both, to be transcribed and imitated by us, when we are under the smarting rod.

Reason 4. A fourth reason why the people of God should be mute and silent under their afflictions, is this, because it is ten thousand times a greater judgment and affliction, to be given up to a fretful spirit, a froward spirit, a muttering or murmuring spirit, under an affliction, than it is to be afflicted.

Next: Why Christians must be mute and silent under afflictions in this world. (Part 6)

Physical Benefit of Sunday

The Presbyterian Magazine, October 1855.

Physical Benefit of Sunday.

The Sabbath is God's special present to the working man, and one of its chief objects is to prolong his life, and preserve efficient his working tone. In the vital system it acts like a compensation pool; it replenishes the spirits, the elasticity, and vigour, which the six have drained away, and supplies the force which is to fill the six days succeeding; and in the economy of existence, it answers the same purpose as, in the economy of income, is answered by a savings bank.

The prudent man who puts aside a pound today, and another pound next month, and who, in a quiet way, is always putting by his stated pound, from time to time, when he grows old and frail, gets not only the same pounds back again, but a good many more beside. And the conscientious man who husbands one day of existence every week, who, instead of allowing the Sabbath to be trampled on, and torn, in the hurry and scramble of life, treasures it devoutly up--the Lord of the Sabbath keeps it for him, and length of days and a hale old age give it back with usury. The Savings Bank of human existence is the weekly Sabbath.--- North British Review.

Seasons of Life

a 'Brevity' from
The Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1858.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Published in Philadelphia by Joseph M. Wilson.

"Trials"

It is not in the light and sunny places of the wilderness that the traveler most sweetly reposes. It is under the shadow of a great rock, or in the depth of a sequestered valley; and so it is with a Christian. The sun of prosperity withers our joys, and changes the green leaves into the sickly colors of autumn. Adversity is like the winter, which prepares the ground for the reception of the seed, and for the rich and glowing luxuriance of spring-time.

Brooks - What does a holy patience not exclude? (Part 4)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

What does holy patience not exclude? (continued)

Fifthly, a holy, a prudent silence does not exclude moderate mourning or weeping under the afflicting hand of God.

Sixthly, a gracious, a prudent silence does not exclude sighing, groaning, or roaring under affliction. A man may sigh, and groan, and roar under the hand of God, and yet be silent; it is not sighing, but muttering; it is not groaning, but grumbling, it is not roaring, but murmuring, that is opposite to a holy Silence, Exod. 2.23 And the Children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage. (You may see much of this by comparing the following Scriptures, Lam 1:4,11,21,22. Ps 31:10, Jer. 45:3, Ex 2:24, Job 23:3, Ps 66.) Sometimes the sighs and groans of a Saint, do in some sort tell that which his tongue can in no sort utter.

Seventhly, a holy, a prudent silence, does not exclude or shut out the use of any just or lawful means, whereby persons may be delivered out of their afflictions. God would not have his people so in love with their afflictions as not to use such righteous means as may deliver them out of their afflictions, Mat 10:23. But when they persecute you in this City, flee you into another, Acts 12. Afflictions are evil in themselves, and we may desire and endeavour to be delivered from them, James 5:14-15. Isa 38:18-21, both inward and outward means are to be used for our own preservation.

Eighthly, a holy, a prudent silence does not exclude a just and sober complaining against the authors, contrivers, abettors, or instruments of our afflictions, 2 Tim 4:14. Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works.

Christ himself (who was the most perfect pattern for dumbness and silence under sore trials) complains against Judas, Pilate, and the rest of his persecutors, Ps 69: 20,30,&tc.

Next: Why Christians must be mute and silent under afflictions in this world. (Part 5)

Brooks - What does a holy patience not exclude? (Part 3)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

What does holy patience not exclude?

First, a holy, prudent silence under affliction does not exclude and shut out a sense and feeling of our afflictions, Ps. 39, though he was dumb, and laid his hand upon his mouth, verse 9, yet he was very sensible of his affliction, verse 10 and 11. He is sensible of his pain, as well as of his sin; and having prayed off his sin in the former verses, he labors here to pray off his pain...

Secondly, a holy, prudent silence, does not shut out prayer for deliverance out of our afflictions. Ps. 62 verse 10-12, James 5:13, Ps 50:15.

Thirdly, a holy, a prudent silence does not exclude men being kindly affected and afflicted with their sins, as the meritorious cause of all their sorrows and sufferings, James 3:32,40. Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord, Job 40:4,5. Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer: yea, twice, but I proceed no further, Mich 7.9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned. In all our sorrows we should read our sins, and when God's hand is on our backs, our hands should be upon our sins.

Fourthly, a holy, a prudent silence, does not exclude the teaching and instructing of others when we are afflicted; the words of the afflicted stick close; they many times work strongly, powerfully, strangely, savingly on the souls and consciences of others. Many of Paul’s epistles were written to the churches when he was in bonds. ... The words of a wise man's mouth are never more gracious then when he is most afflicted and distressed.

Next: What does a holy patience not exclude? (Part 4)

Brooks - What does a prudent, gracious, holy silence include? (Part 2)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

What does a prudent, a gracious, a holy silence include? (continued)

Fifthly, a holy silence takes in gracious, blessed, soul-quieting conclusions about the issue and event of the afflictions that are on us, Lam 3.27-34. In this you may observe five soul-stilling conclusions.

• First, they work for their good.
• Second, they shall keep them humble and low.
• Thirdly, For the Lord will not cast off forever; the Rod shall not always lie on the back of the righteous.
• Fourth, In wrath God remembers Mercy, Hab 3.2, Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
• Fifthly, For he does not afflict willingly (or from his heart, as in the Hebrew) nor grieve the Children of men. God’s heart was not in their afflictions, though his hand was; he takes no delight to afflict his children...

Sixthly, a holy, a prudent silence includes and takes in a strict charge; a solemn command that conscience lays upon the soul to be quiet and still, Ps 37:7 Rest in the Lord (of as the Hebrew has it, be silent to the Lord) and wait patiently for him. I charge thee, oh my soul, not to mutter, nor to murmur, I command thee, oh my soul, to be dumb and silent under the afflicting hand of God.

Seventhly, a holy, a prudent silence, includes a surrendering, a resigning up of yourselves to God, while we are under his afflicting hand: the silent soul gives himself up to God: the secret language of the soul is this, Lord, here am I, do with me what you please, write upon me as you please, I give up myself to be at your disposal. There was a good woman, who when she was sick, being asked whether she were willing to live or die? Answered, Whatever God pleases, but said one that stood by, if God should refer it to you, which would you choose? Truly, said she, if God should refer it to me, I would even refer it to him again; this was a soul worth gold.

Eighthly, a holy, a prudent silence, takes in a patient waiting upon the Lord under our afflictions, until deliverance comes. Ps. 40:1-3, Ps 62:5, My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him, Lam 3.26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly (or silently) wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Next: What does holy patience not exclude? (Part 3)

Thomas Brooks - The Mute Christian - Introduction

My most recent find in wandering around the house is Thomas Brook's The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, not a title which makes me think of a nice relaxing evening by the fire. It's not a nice, relaxing book, either, but it's definitely worth reading. It's easy to skim over verses like Psalm 39:9 (I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because You did it), on which this book is based. It's easy not to think about what being silent before God means. This book has just opened my mind to the topic. It is based on the inevitability of trials in Christian life, with Psalm 39:9 as a biblical response to them. My intention is to post at least a portion of his biblically based description of what godly silence is and is not.

From the introduction:

The choicest saints are born to troubles as the sparks fly upwards. Many are the troubles of the righteous, if they were many, and not troubles, (then as it is in the Proverb,) the more the merrier, or if they were troubles, and not many, then the fewer the better cheer? But God, who is infinite in wisdom and matchless in goodness has ordered troubles, yes, many troubles to come trooping in upon us on every side. As our mercies, so our crosses seldom come in singles, they usually come treading one upon the heels of another; they are like April showers, no sooner is one over, but another comes: and yet, Christians, it is mercy, it is rich mercy, that every affliction is not an execution, that every correction is not a damnation. The higher the waters rise, the nearer Noah’s Ark was lifted up to Heaven; the more they afflictions are increased, the more your heart shall be raised heavenward...

Psalm 39:9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because You did it.

...There is prudent silence, a holy, a gracious silence, a silence that springs from prudent principles, from holy principles and from gracious causes and considerations, and this is the silence meant here.

What does a prudent, a gracious, a holy silence include?
Part 1
Part 2

What does holy patience not exclude?
Part 3
Part 4

Why must Christians be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest providences, and sharpest trials that they meet with in this world?
Part 5
Part 6

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

Brooks - What does a prudent, gracious, holy silence include? (Part 1)

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

Psalm 39:9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because You did it.

...There is prudent silence, a holy, a gracious silence, a silence that springs from prudent principles, from holy principles and from gracious causes and considerations, and this is the silence meant here.

What does a prudent, a gracious, a holy silence include?

First, it includes a sight of God, and an acknowledgment of God as the Author of all the affliction that comes upon us: this is plain in the text, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because You did it. The Psalmist looks through secondary causes to the first Cause, and so sits mute before the Lord. There is no sickness so little, but God has a finger in it. (In secondary causes many times a Christian may see much envy, hatred, malice, pride, &tc. But in the first cause he can see nothing but grace and mercy, sweetness and goodness.) ... If God’s hand is not seen in the affliction, the heart will do nothing but fret and rage under affliction.

Secondly, it includes and takes in some holy gracious apprehensions of the majesty, sovereignty, dignity, authority, and presence of that God, under whose afflicting hand we are, Hab 2.20, But the Lord is in his holy Temple, let all the Earth be silent, or as Hebrews reads, Be silent all the Earth before his face. ... Aaron had an eye to the sovereignty of God, and that silences him. Job had an eye upon the Majesty of God, and that stills him. Eli had an eye upon the authority and presence of God, and that quiets him. A man never comes to humble himself, nor to be silent under the hand of God, till he comes to see the Hand of God to be a mighty hand, 1 Pet. 5.6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty Hand of God. ... As a sight of his grace cheers the soul, so a sight of his greatness and glory silences the soul.

Third, a gracious, prudent silence, takes in a holy quietness and calmness of mind and spirit, under the afflicting hand of God: A gracious silence shuts out all inward heats, murmurings, frettings, quarrellings, wranglings, and boilings of the heart, Ps 62.1 Truly my soul keeps silence unto God, or is silent or still, that is, my soul is quiet and submissive: God, all murmurings and repinings, passions and turbulent affections being allayed, tamed, and subdued. This is clear in the text and in the former instances of Aaron, Eli, and Job, they saw that it was a Father that put those bitter cups in their hands, and love that laid those heavy crosses upon their shoulders, and grace that put those yokes about their necks, and this caused much quietness and calmness in their spirits.

Fourthly, a prudent, a holy Silence, takes in an humble, justifying, clearing and acquitting of God of all blame, rigor, and injustice, in all the afflictions he brings upon us, Ps. 51:4. That you may be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge, that is, when you correct. [I Cor 11.32 When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord., Ps 119:75, 137: I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me. Righteous are you, O Lord, and righteous are your Judgments.] God's judgments are always just: he never afflicts except in faithfulness.

Next: What does a prudent, gracious, holy silence include? (Part 2)

How to profit from reading a good book, by Thomas Brooks

Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, with Sovereign Antidotes... Seventh Edition. London, 1699. [Abridged, edited, and extracted by SML.]

The Epistle Dedicatory:

[To give a little good counsel as you read,] as that it may turn much to your soul's advantages; for, as many fish and catch nothing, so many read good books and get nothing, because they read them over cursorily, slightly, superficially; but he that would read to profit, must then,

1. Read, and look up for a blessing, Paul may plant, and Apollo may water, but all will be to no purpose except the Lord give the increase. [1 Cor 3:6-7] God must do the deed, when all is done, or else all that is done will do you no good; if you would have this work successful and effectual, you must look off from man, and look up to God, who alone can make it a blessing to you. [Mic 6.14]
2. To profit, read and meditate; mediation is the way by which spiritual truths are digested. A man shall as soon live without his heart, as he shall be able to get good by what he reads without meditation. Prayer (says Bernard) without meditation, is dry and formal, & reading without meditation is useless and unprofitable. Austin says, the more I meditate on thee, the sweeter thou art to me: so the more you shall meditate on what you read the sweeter it will be to you; they usually thrive best, who mediate most; meditation is a soul satisfying duty, it is a grace-strengthening duty, it is a duty-crowning duty.
3. Read, and try what you read, take nothing upon trust; but all upon trial. [As in Acts 17:10-11]
4. Read and do, read and practice what you read, or else all your reading will do you no good... Profession without practice will but make a man twice told a child of darkness, to speak well is to sound like a cymbal, but to do well is to act like an Angel...
5. Read and apply; reading is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the while; the choicest truths will no further profit you, then they are applied by you; you were as good not to read, as not to apply what you read.
6. Read and pray, he that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his Reading; no man makes such earnings of his reading, as he that prays over what he reads. Luther professes that he profited more in the knowledge of the Scriptures, by prayer in a short space, than by study in a longer... Ah Christians! Pray before you read, and pray after you read, that all may be blessed and sanctified to you.

Sleeping in Church

the
Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1854.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Philadelphia, C. Sherman, printer.

“On Sleeping in Church,” p62.

1. Do not sleep too long and late Sabbath mornings. Nothing is gained by it but additional drowsiness. The Scripture holds good emphatically here, as it respects extra sleep, “to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance,” even in church.
2. Spend a few moments, before going to church, in serious meditation on the case of Eutychus, mentioned in Acts 20.9, and remember if any accident should occur to you, you have not Paul for your minister to remedy it.
3. Bear in mind that if you fall asleep, the preacher may treat you merely as the furniture of the pew, much as an old minister in Norwich, Conn., did his sleeping hearers, many years ago. “I come now,” said he, “to the third head of my discourse, to which I ask the serious and candid attention of all who are not asleep,” giving a marked and peculiar emphasis to the last word.
4. Remember, if the sermon is peculiarly dull, that you meet with a double loss.
   “If all want sense,
   God takes a text and preaches patience.”
5. Bethink yourself that it may be the last time in this world that you will have the opportunity of struggling against drowsiness under a sermon.
6. Last of all, resolve that when you make your pew your lodgings, you will pay for the privilege of the nap, and put into the plate or into the Lord’s treasury its cash value at the best hotels.—N.Y. Evangelist.

**I can't say which of them I appreciate the most, but it's probably either comparing myself to Eutycus or paying to the church a rate set by an 1854 NY hotel!

Samuel Clifford's directions to Those who have suffered from Depression in the Past - Part 2

An edited and (quite) abridged excerpt from The Signs and Causes of Melancholy, with directions suited to the case of those who are afflicted with it. Collected out of the works of Mr. Richard Baxter, for the sake of those, who are wounded in Spirit. By Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel London, Bible and Three Crowns, 1716. Extracted from Pages xi-xlvi.

To the Reader, by Samuel Clifford

II. Look upon the Devil as your implacable Enemy and resist his Temptations. Because by his sin he forfeited and forever lost the happiness he once enjoyed, the Devil envies your happiness, and if he can find a way to make it happen, you will be as miserable as he is. Don’t be ignorant of his devices. Keep far enough out of harms way: while you pray to God not to lead you into temptations, don’t throw yourselves onto temptations. The devil will show you the Bait, and conceal the hook. If he can get you first to look at and then to play with the bait, before you know it, you may be taken with the hook. This was the method he used with Eve, first to question the truth of God, next to look upon the forbidden object, and then to take and eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. You have felt by sad experience the Devil’s attitude toward you, when you were continually assaulted with his horrid temptations, and it should make you know he is an enemy of your body and soul. As you fear God, or love yourselves, put on the whole armor of God. Stand to your spiritual arms, and stand your ground against this enemy of your salvation. Reflect on the malice and enmity shown towards you, when he throws his fiery darts with such hellish rage and fury into you; and let this teach you to proclaim and carry on, a perpetual war against him.

You say, "and You, who were dead and are alive and lives for evermore, the great Captain of my Salvation, who has led captivity captive, I make my application to You; in myself I have no might against this strongman, but I come to you for Help. I am Yours, save me. I have renounced the Devil in my profession of faith and stand by my covenant engagements: I hate the Devil and all his Works. Preserve me by your Grace from his Temptations, or if I must be tempted, let it not be above my strength. After you have rescued me out of the Paws of this devouring Lion, do not let me be swallowed up by him."

Chalmers on what Life is

the
Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1858.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Published in Philadelphia by Joseph M. Wilson.

Brevities.

“Life,” p94-95.

The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat, drink, and sleep; to be exposed to darkness and light; to pace around in the mill of habits, and turn the mill of wealth; to make reason our bookkeeper, and thought an implement of trade—this is not life. In all this but a poor fraction of the unconsciousness of humanity is awakened; and the sanctities still slumber which make it worth while to be. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, alone can give vitality to the mechanism of existence; the laugh of mirth which vibrates through the heart, the tear which freshens the dry wastes within, the music that brings childhood back, the prayer that calls the future near, the death which startles us with mystery, the hardship which forces us to struggle, the anxiety that ends in being.—Chalmers.

Samuel Clifford's directions to Those who have suffered from Depression in the Past - Part 1

An edited and (quite) abridged excerpt from The Signs and Causes of Melancholy, with directions suited to the case of those who are afflicted with it. Collected out of the works of Mr. Richard Baxter, for the sake of those, who are wounded in Spirit. By Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel London, Bible and Three Crowns, 1716. Extracted from Pages xi-xlvi.

from To the Reader, by Samuel Clifford

... [Those who have been afflicted by depression or have seen it in others] will readily acknowledge the case of persons under such circumstances to be sad and very affecting: theirs especially, who have no Friend at hand to give them suitable advice, by speaking a Word in Season to them. In compassion to such distressed Souls, who are weary and heavy laden, and ready to sink under their burden, I have drawn up the following collection...

...[Baxter] having no where in his works, (as I have observed) given any directions to those who were once oppressed with melancholy, but are now delivered from it, I shall take the liberty to add a few things by way of advice to such.

I. Keep your distance from sin. Sin is evil in itself, is contempt of the authority of God; and is so evil in its effects, that except for the merits of Christ, and the pardoning mercy of God, eternal death would be the unavoidable consequence of every sin. In your depression, when you thought of sin and death and hell, how evil did it seem? Even though time has changed your state of mind, it has made no change at all in the nature of sin: it is a transgression of the law of God, and therefore is evil in his sight, and should be as hateful to you as it ever was. You have the Word of God, to be a Lamp unto your Feet, and a light unto your paths; acquaint yourselves with it, so that you may know your duty towards God and Man. Although you will daily sin against God, do not allow yourselves to purposefully omit any duty which God requires, or to practice any known sin, which he forbids. To do that is inconsistent with the nature and sincerity of repentance, and altogether unbecoming those who have professed such sorrow for sin, as you have done.

Beware of being guilty of any thing that looks like rebellion against Him. Rightly fear the evil of sin by considering the majesty of God against whom it is committed and the nature of its punishment. Be aware where you have suffered most, and where your greatest danger lies from sin, and carefully guard against it in yourselves. Call upon heaven for help: double your watch and stand on your guard, as those who have an enemy always at hand. It is necessary to avoid the occasion of sin if you desire to be kept from sin itself. When you are familiar with the one, you cannot be safe from the other. The Apostle’s advice, I Thess. 5.22. Abstain from all appearance of Evil, is necessary for all times and for all persons; especially those who have had dreadful fear of the wrath of God for sin on their spirits, as you have had.

You say, may what I have felt of that nature be a warning to me for ever, to beware of Sin. I have been, as it were, within sight of the bottomless pit, and I have had a Hell of horror in my own conscience, sensing of the horrid evil of sin and God’s displeasure against me for it. Didn’t I confessed my sin to God with a broken heart and earnestly pray for mercy for myself and ask others to do likewise? I will not forget His mercy in answering my prayers. You who have been merciful to me beyond my expectations, do not leave me to the power of my corruptions. You who knows all things, know that sin is a burden to me, and if I must not be free from it, while I live in this world, help me daily to repent of my sins, and the Lord in Mercy forgive them; and let Your grace be sufficient for me, to enable me to carry on the conflict with my corruptions so effectually, that although sin has a being in me, it may not have dominion over me.