Bible Theology and Human Reason, part 2

From the Presbyterian Magazine, October 1858. Edited by Dr. Van Rensselaer. Pages 452-458.

"Bible Theology Consistent with Human Reason"

Part 2.

I. Man’s original creation in a state of purity and holiness.

It is a fact well known, that ancient philosophers had arrived at this truth without the revelation of the bible. Aristotle bases his system of ethics upon the assumption that all human passions are pure, and that error lays only in the excess. He carries the doctrine far beyond its legitimate results, but still it effects the purpose for which we use it, viz., to show that human reason discovers in human nature such relics of original purity as to authorize the belief of the existence of such a state. But without invoking the authority of any great name, we may arrive at this truth ourselves. Let us examine the human heart, analyze its passions, explore the deep regions of original motives, and we shall be forced to the same conclusion. As to the better feelings and affections—love, gratitude, pity, &tc.—argument is unnecessary. To the baser passions, then, let us appeal; for example, envy, revenge, hatred, avarice, covetousness. Is there a foundation of good, a corner-stone of purity, upon which such passions as these are reared? A few moments’ reflection will show that there is.

To admire the good, to seek to arrive at its attainments, is laudable. To remove real obstacles in the way is necessary to success. Real or imaginary thwart our purposes, and produce unpleasant reflections. A successful aspirant in the same race becomes in our eyes an obstacle to the attainment of the desired end, and hence Envy.

To love and protect those dependent upon and dear to us, is praiseworthy. To shield them from present harm and future injury, is pleasing and grateful to a generous heart. Every injury unprevented by us, grates harshly on these better feelings, reproaches our self-love for neglect, and demands a reparation, and hence, Revenge.

To love the right must necessarily produce a contrary feeling for the wrong. If both right and wrong make the same impression upon the heart and excite the same feeling, there could be no incitement to the one nor prevention of the other. The existence of real or imaginary wrong gives rise to this repulsive emotion of the heart, and hence, Hatred.

To provide not only for present wants, but to lay up for future necessities, is the prudent foresight of a reasonable being. So great and unexpected are the events which a day brings forth, that the teachings of experience prompt to the accumulation of more than actual necessity requires. This desire for accumulation becomes a master passion, and hence Avarice, and in its train, Covetousness.

The list might be extended until we had exhausted every passion. Sufficient illustration has been given for our purpose, viz.: to demonstrate the traces of a pure fountain for all the dark schemes flowing forth from the human heart.

While we have thus to dig deep into the foundations of the passions to seek for laudable motives, it requires but ordinary observation to arrive at the conclusion, that by some means the waters have become bitter and the streams turbid, and this brings us to our second proposition, viz.:

II. Man’s fall from this original state of purity and holiness, and the consequent corruption and depravity of his entire nature. (Part 3)

Bible Theology and Human Reason, part 1

From the Presbyterian Magazine, October 1858. Edited by Dr. Van Rensselaer. Pages 452-458.

“Bible Theology Consistent with Human Reason”
Part 1

The philosophy of the plan of salvation, as revealed and developed in the sacred Scriptures, has so often been considered, and the consistency of the revealed with the natural law so often shown, that one cannot expect to advance any new views of the one or proofs of the other. Yet so varied is the human mind that the presentation of the same idea clothed in different words, or from a different point of view, will sometimes make an impression, never before following a score of previous repetitions. With this view, we propose to consider the consistency of the theology of the Bible with human reason.

We will not stop with the atheist to argue that there is a God, a great creative, self-existent, omnipotent first cause. Nor will we repeat the conclusive and uncontradicted argument derived from history and observation, to show that man is a religious creature, acknowledging always his dependence upon a Supreme Being or Beings, and thereby evidencing, from the internal consciousness of the entire race, our relation as subjects of a higher power. We are tempted to enter upon the enticing field of god’s external providences, to show how mercy and goodness are exhibited in all his creation, thence to draw the conclusion that this mercy and goodness would not stop short at the provision for our carnal wants, and leave unsupplied that intense thirsting of the soul for the spiritual and eternal. And hence, that it is natural that we shall expect such light upon these great interests as would satisfy the craving of the spirit and make plain and sure the path of rectitude. This light is the true religion. It would be pleasant and easy to examine the many lights which have been exhibited to the world, each claiming to be the true emanation from the Deity, and to show that to the enlightened mind none can claim so high a regard from the intellect as that portrayed in the Christian Bible, and thus demand for it the meed [sic] of being the true light of the world—the true religion—until some purer, more spiritual, more reasonable system disputes with it the palm. All these points however have been so clearly, elaborately, conclusively exhibited and illustrated by others that we propose to take them as granted for our present purpose, and from this stand-point to apply to this best of religious systems the crucible of human reason, and independent of its pre-eminence thus established, to examine its claim to Divine authority and human obedience.

We confine ourselves to internal evidence. We leave out of our consideration all the usual external proof derived from human, and consequently fallible testimony. We propose to take the system as if offered now, for the first time, for our adoption, and without other evidence of its genuineness than its own consistency with our finite reason.

The cardinal fundamental truths taught in the religion of the Bible may be reduced to the following:

1. Man’s original creation in a state of purity and holiness.
2. Man’s fall from this state, and the consequent corruption and depravity of his entire nature.
3. God’s beneficent design to wish to restore man to his original purity, and the difficulty of reconciling the claims of his justice with the designs of his mercy.
4. The reconciliation of these conflicting attributes by the scheme devised, viz., the expiation of man’s sin by the vicarious sacrifice of a Being combining the infinity of the God with the mortality and finite nature of the man.
5. The terms upon which this atonement is made efficacious, viz., Faith in the heart and consistency in the life.

Are these truths consistent with the teachings of human reason?

[I will post this, Lord willing, in 6 parts, including this introduction.]

Samuel Clifford's directions to Those who have suffered from Depression in the Past - part 3

from To the Reader, by Samuel Clifford

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

IV. Magnify the mercy of God toward you, in bringing you out of your sad, dark, and disconsolate condition. ... What a condition were you in, when through the prevalency of your distemper, and the devils temptations, you made an absolute surrender of your selves to the Devil, and seemed satisfied in what you had done? You wished your selves in Hell, that you might know the worst of your condition? But a merciful God had more compassion on you, than to say it should be unto you according to your distempered desires. What a case were you in, when to think of the mercy of God, the merits of Christ, or the Happiness of heaven, did strike you like so many daggers to the heart, because you thought you had no part in either of these? But when you reflected upon the wrath of God incensed by sin, and the miseries of hell, which the Devil did frequently set before you; the renewed thoughts of this, caused your hearts as it were to die within you, and the more because you were to suffer in the one, and lie under the dreadful effects of the other, to all eternity. Can you think upon these things, and not magnify the mercy of God towards you?

Time was, (may you say) when I thought no person in the world was ever in the like deplorable case with myself, and that it would never be otherwise with me. I looked upon my self, as a cast away, as a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction. I looked upon my self, as an heir of hell, and felt an hell of horror in my conscience, and apprehended it to be some drops of that wrath, which was to be forever pouring down upon me. But God was merciful to me not only beyond my deserts, but altogether beyond my expectation too. When it was midnight with my soul and I verily thought that Blackness of Darkness was reserved for me: when I walked in darkness and saw no light, then did God shine into my soul. By reading such a passage of Scripture, and other books which God directed me to, by hearing such expressions in publick from ministers, or in private from friends; it pleased God at first to let some light into my dark soul, and to increase it more and more, till I who walked in darkness and saw no light, have now hopes to be one among the member of those, who shall dwell in the regions of glorious light, even in the presence of God, where there is fullness of Joy and Pleasure forevermore. Let the present age, and generations to come, magnify the mercy of God. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all within me, magnify His Holy name. Come you who have been in the like circumstances with me, let us speak of the great and wonderful things which God hath done for us, and excite one another with thankful hearts to exalt his name together. We who have tasted that the Lord is gracious in such a signal manner, must be some of the most ungrateful wretches in the world, to forget what God hath done for us, and to deny him his due Praises.”

(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 somewhere between pages xi-xlvi.)

Preparing Our Hearts - a life-encompassing task

I ask your pardon for breaking away from my practice and purpose hitherto of only posting unreprinted works, but as I was reading this today I felt a strong urge to post it despite the fact that I’m reading the (modern) Soli Deo Gloria edition, thus implying that it's been reprinted. I highly recommend this sermon.

[Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Worship. First published 1648, published by Soli Deo Gloria in 1990. pages 80-81, 86-87]

Gospel Worship
or
The Right Manner of Sanctifying the Name of God in General
And Particularly in these 3 Great Ordinances
1. Hearing the Word
2. Receiving the Lord’s Supper
3. Prayer

These portions are taken from Sermon III, on Leviticus 10:3, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me.”

The fourth thing for preparation is to watch and to pray.

We should watch over our hearts lest they be made unfit for duties. So we should prepare for prayer all day long in this sense. That is, we should watch over our hearts that they are not let out so far as will hinder us in prayer when we come to do it. I remember Tertullian said that the Christians supped as if they were about to pray. So when you are with company, you should watch unto prayer. Oh, that you did so. You cannot but be conscious of the fact that oftentimes when you have been with company your hearts have been out of tune and frame, that you have been in no way fit for prayer. When you come home, your house and family finds it so. You that take such delight in company and sitting up late, I appeal to your consciences whether you can come home and find yourselves fit either in your family or closet to go and open your hearts to God.

This is one note, by the way, whereby you may come to know whether you have been immoderate in company at any time. God does not give men liberty to be busy in any outward occasions in the world so as to make them unfit for His service. Preparation consists in that, in watching over your hearts that you may not be unfitted for any holy duty when God calls you to it, but that you may be ready even to every good work.

...

...We should always be prepared either for prayer, hearing the Word, or receiving the Sacraments. Now because Sacraments are so rare [at the time in England, Burroughs likely would have held communion at most twice a year – SML], those that have any enlightened consciences think that they dare not but prepare for Sacraments, but you should always be in preparation for the receiving of the Sacraments as the primitive Christians were. And those that have been acquainted with this point of preparing for duties have come to such a frame of spirit that there is not as much time required of them as others, for they are in a constant fitness so that there is not an instant of time in the whole day but, if God calls them to prayer, they could immediately fall down upon their knees and pray so as to sanctify God’s name in prayer.

That would be an excellent temper, indeed, if you could find it so that you walk so spiritually and holily before God that there could never be a quarter of an hour from morning to night, nor from the beginning of the week to the end, but if you were called to pray, or to receive the Sacrament, you had your heart fitted so that you could come into God’s presence with a prepared heart and would be able to sanctify God’s name in that duty. Acquaint yourselves with this work of preparation, and so you may have hearts fitted to come into God’s presence at any time.

An old dog CAN learn new tricks

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

From Household Thoughts: “A Woman’s Growth in Beauty,”

If women could only believe it, there is a wonderful beauty even in growing old. The charm of expression arising from softened temper or ripened intellect, often amply atones for the loss of form and colouring; and, consequently, to those who never could boast of either of these latter, years give much more than they take away. A sensitive person often requires half a lifetime to get thoroughly used to this corporeal machine, to attain a wholesome indifference, both to its defects and perfections, and to learn, at last, what nobody would acquire from any teacher but experience, that it is the mind alone which is of any consequence; that with a good temper, sincerity, and a moderate stock of brains—or even the two former only—any sort of body can, in time, be made useful, respectable, and agreeable, as a traveling-dress for the soul. Many a one who was absolutely plain in youth, thus grows pleasant and well-looking in declining years. You will hardly ever find anybody, not ugly in mind, who is repulsively ugly in person after middle life.
So with the character. If a woman is ever to be wise or sensible, the chances are that she will have become so somewhere between thirty and forty. Her natural good qualities will have developed; her evil ones have been either partly subdued, or have outgrown her, like rampant weeds; for however we may talk about people being “not a whit altered –just the same as ever”—not one of us is, or can be, for long together, exactly the same; no more than the body we carry with us is the identical body we were born with, or the one we supposed ours seven years ago. Therein, as in our spiritual self which inhabits it, goes on a perpetual change and renewal; if this ceased, the result would be, not permanence, but corruption. In moral and mental, as well as physical growth, it is impossible to remain stationary; if we do not advance, we retrograde. Talk of “too late to improve”—“too late to learn,” &c. Idle words! A human being should be improving with every day of a lifetime; and will probably have to go on learning through all the ages of immortality.

Little Children

the
Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1858.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Published in Philadelphia by Joseph M. Wilson, p87.

From Household Thoughts: “Little Children A Great Help”

I am fond of little children. I think them the poetry of the world; the fresh flowers of our hearths and homes – little conjurors, with their “natural magic,” evoking by their spells what delights and enriches all ranks, and equalizes the different classes of society. Often as they bring with them anxieties and cares, and live to occasion sorrow and grief, we should get on very badly without them. Only think, if there was never anything anywhere to be seen but great grown-up men and women! Every infant comes into the world like a delegated prophet, the harbinger and herald of good tidings, whose office it is “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,” and to draw “the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” A child softens and purifies the heart, warming and melting it by its gentle presence; it enriches the soul by new feelings and awakens within it what is favorable to virtue. It is a beam of light, a fountain of love, a teacher whose lessons few can resist. Infants recall us from much that engenders and encourages selfishness, that freezes the affections, roughens the manners, indurates the heart; they brighten the home, deepen love, invigorate exertion, infuse courage, and vivify and sustain the charities of life. It would be a terrible world, I do think, if it was not embellished by little children.—Binney.

Religious Education for the Young

the Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1858.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Published in Philadelphia by Joseph M. Wilson, p86.

From Household Thoughts: “Religious Education for the Young.”

“...The true idea of religious education may be stated in general terms as consisting in the proper cultivation and improvement of our moral powers; yet not independent of intellectual culture, but in connection with it. While the mental faculties are developed and improved by science and literature, the understanding and conscience must be enlightened with regard to our relations and duties to God, as our Creator, moral Governor, and Redeemer; and also with regard to our personal and social duties, such as sobriety, integrity, justice, and benevolence. And, inasmuch as all systems of religion are not entitled to equal credit, the true idea of religious education requires a careful discrimination between the genuine and the spurious, the divine and human, the true and false.

In religious education properly conducted, science becomes the handmaid of religion, by employing scientific facts and principles in vindicating and illustrating the claims of Christianity. Such an education is, therefore, not only compatible with a thorough literary course, but is greatly aided by such a course. It might easily be shown that (other things being equal) the most thorough and ripe scholars in secular learning, have been those who, while prosecuting their researches, devoted a portion of time daily to the study of the Bible; and further, that their attention to God’s word facilitated their progress in science and philosophy.

But though the true idea of religious education does not exclude or diminish literary or scientific attainments, its special object requires us, in opposition to Deistical sentiments, to hold and teach the divine origin of the Holy Scriptures; to explain the glorious mystery of redemption, which it is the grand object of the Scriptures to reveal; and to inculcate and to enforce those moral principles and precepts which constitute the essence and glory of practical Christianity.”

The Presbyterian Magazine: Individuality in the Church (Part 1)

The Presbyterian Magazine
January, 1850
Miscellaneous Articles.

Individuality in the Church

It was a custom of the Apostles to send their Christian salutations to individual believers in the churches to which their epistles were written, but in no other epistle is it done so largely as in that to the Church at Rome.

In the last chapter there are not fewer than twenty-eight persons mentioned by name, besides two families, the heads of which are named, and other little circles of friends, called “the Church that is in their house,” or, “the brethren which are with them,” or “all the saints which are with them.” Of the number distinctly designated, seventeen or eighteen were men and ten were women.

The epithets, or descriptive expressions, applied to many of the individuals, are not without interest, as well as meaning. One is called “out sister, who is a servant of the Church ... a succourer of many and of myself also.” Others are named “my helpers in Christ Jesus,” “my work-fellow,” “well-beloved,” “beloved in the Lord,” “approved in Christ,” “in Christ before me,” “who bestowed much labour on us,” “my fellow-prisoners,” “who labour in the Lord,” “salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”

It is further to be noticed that other Christians joined the Apostle in these particular messages. Eight persons, including the amanuensis, are named as taking the opportunity of sending their Christian greeting; most probably from their residence in Corinth to their friends in Rome.
The object of these apostolic messages was principally that of friendly remembrance of Christians, whom Paul had found to be distinguished by their piety and zeal in the little Church at Rome, who had given him their assistance in promoting his Gospel errand, or who were remembered from some other interesting association with his evangelical visits. Some of them had been ready to lay down their own necks to protect the Apostle from persecutors. Some were, in his mind, as “the first fruits of Achaia;” and one purpose was to commend to their attention a member of the Cenchrean Church, then about to go among them, probably the bearer of this introduction, on some concern of religious benevolence.

The chapter into which these paragraphs are thrown, furnishes traits of the early Church that may suggest some useful patterns for the imitation of our own day.

1. One of these traits is the social fellowship of these primitive believers. They were duly organized churches with their officers, ordinances, and discipline; they had ministers of apostolic dugnity to serve them, and to be over them in the Lord. But the community was more than that of a corporate body, or an ecclesiastical estate, or a hierarchy. The mode of address used by this Apostle is more like that of an absent member of a family writing home, than that of a dignitary issuing an authoritative document. Yet it was more than an ordinary domestic letter he had been dictating. It was as a postscript to one of the most important theological and church papers ever transmitted through the instrumentality of man, that these holy greetings were inserted. But when the doctrines had been fully recorded, when the messages of the Holy Ghost had been first reduced to manuscript, with what honest simplicity does the pen of the writer set forth, in the incidental forms of the last page of a letter, the brotherly intimacy and affection that subsisted between himself and his correspondents. He calls them by name. He knows their families. He does not forget what individual members of the Church had done, nor their several characteristics.
   
   This very mention of names shows that these disciples were on terms of intimate fellowship among themselves; otherwise, they could not comply with the writer’s request to communicate his messages one to another. And they were not only the twenty-eight individuals named that were thus known as one circle or class out of the whole Church; but such expressions are used as show the mutual acquaintance and fellowship to have been as wide as “all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.” Naming five persons, he adds, “and the brethren that are with them.” Naming five others, he adds, “and all the saints who are with them.” “Salute one another,” he says again. Paul himself must have felt this interest in them individually, and when he says, “without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers” (Rom. i), it is most probable that he prayed not only distinctly for the Church at Rome, as he did also for that at Corinth, and that at Galatia (1 Cor. I, Gal. i), and for others (Eph. I, Phil, i, Col. I, 1 Thess i, 2 Thess. i), but that he prayed for them by name as individuals. The frequent messages and references to particular persons indicate this specific knowledge and regard on the part of the Apostle. He would not only say “greet them that love us in the faith,” “grace be with you all,” “salute every saint in Christ Jesus,” but, as John did, “greet the friends by name.” It is likely, therefore, that he prayed for them by name, and the more so, as he so often wrote “pray for me.” He remembered that Marcus was sister’s son to Barnabas; that Andronicus and Junias were converts before himself; that he had baptized Crispus and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas. In Rome, he remmeber that Euodias and Syntyche, of Philippi, were not of the same mind in the Lord. He did not forget that Onesiphorus visited him in prison; he prescribed for the ailments of Timothy; he provided for the personal comforts of Zenas and Apollos on their journey; he exerted himself for the slave Onesimus. He knew that the churches felt an interest in him personally, and could refer to such as Tychicus “that ye may know my affairs and who I do.” He thought that the Church of Philippi would be pleased to hear that Epaphroditus was recovering from illness, and he was glad at the arrival of Stephanas, and Fortunatus, and Achaicus. What fervent fellowship must have prevailed in the Church.
   
   
2. Another fact is evident from this chapter, and others like it; it was common to see active co-operation in the whole body of believers.
   
   To be continued...
   

The Christian's Daily Walk: In the Company of Others (part 3)

Henry Scudder, The Christian’s Daily Walk in holy Security and Peace. Phila, Presbyterian Board, nd. Pages 109-115. [barely edited by SML]

Chapter 8: Of Company in General. Rules Concerning It. Part 3

Fourthly, your conversations amongst all must be loving: you should be kind and courteous towards all men, Tit. iii.2. Do good to all, according as you have ability and opportunity, Gal.vi.10. Give offence willingly to none, I Cor,x.32. Do wrong to no man, 1 Cor.vi.1-8, either in his name, life, chastity, or estate, or in any thing that is his; but be ready to forgive wrongs done to you, Col.iii.13, and to take wrong, rather than to revenge, or unchristianly to seek your own vindication. As you have calling and opportunity, do good to the souls of your neighbors; exhort and encourage unto well-doing, 1 Thess.v.14. If they show not themselves to be dogs and swine, Matt.vii.6; that is, obstinate scorners of good men, and contemnors of the pearl of good counsel, you must, so far as God gives you any interest in them, admonish and inform them with the spirit of meekness and wisdom, Lev.xix.17. With this cloak of love you should cover and cure a multitude of your companions; infirmities and offences, 1 Peter iv.8. In all your behavior towards him, seek not so much to please yourself as your companion, in that which is good to his edification, Rom.xv.2.

1. Speak evil of no man, Tit.iii.2; nor yet speak the evil you know of any man, except in these or the like cases.
   
   (1) When you are thereunto lawfully called by authority.
   (2) When it is those whom it concerns, to reform and reclaim him of whom you speak, and you do it to that end, 1 Cor.i.11.
   (3) When it is to prevent certain damage to the soul of estate of your neighbor, Acts xxiii.16, which would ensue, if it were not by you thus discovered.
   (4) When the concealment of his evil may make you guilty and accessory.
   (5) When some particular remarkable judgment of God is upon a notorious sinner for his sin, then, to the end that God may be acknowledged in his judgments, and that others may be warned, or brought to repent of the same or like sin, you may speak of the evils of another, Psa.lii.6,7. But this is not to speak evil, so long as you do it not in envy and malice to his person, nor with aggravation of the fault more than is cause, nor yet to the judging of him as concerning his final estate.
   
   
2. When you shall hear any in your company speak evil of your neighbor, by slandering, whispering, or tale-bearing, whereby he detracts from his good name; you must not only stop your ears at such reports, but must set your speech and countenance against him, like a north wind against rain, Prov.xxv.23.
   
   
3. When you hear another well reported of, let it not be grievous to you, as if it detracted from your credit; but rejoice at it, inasmuch as God has enabled him to be good, and to do good; all which makes for the advancement of the common cause of religious, wherein you are interested; envy him not therefore his due praise.
   
   
4. Detract not from any man’s credit, either by open backbiting, Psa.xv.3, or by secret whispering, Prov.xvi.28, or by any cunning means of casting evil aspersions, whether by way of pitying him, or otherwise: as, He is good or does well in such and such things; but, &tc. This but mars all.
   
   
5. And, in a word, in all speeches to men, and communications with them, your speech must be gracious, Col.iv.6, that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace, not vice, to the hearers. If must not be profane, nor any way corrupt, Eph.iv.29, as defiled with oaths, curses, or profane jests; it must not be flattering, Job xvii.5, nor yet detracting; not better, not railing, censorious, or injurious to any man, Eph.iv.31. It must not be wanton, lascivious, and filthy, Eph.v.3,4. Col.iii.8. It must not be false, Col.iii.9; no, nor yet foolish, idle, and fruitless; for all evil communication does corrupt good manners, I Cor.xv.33. And we must answer for every idle word which we speak, Matt.xii.36. Besides, a man may easily be discerned of what country he is, whether of heaven, or of the earth, by his language; his speech will betray him.
   
   
6. There is no wisdom, or power here below, can teach and enable you to do all, or any of the aforementioned duties. This wisdom and power must be had from above, James iii.13-18. Wherefore, if you would in all companies carry yourself worthy the gospel of Christ:
   
   First, Be sure that the law of God, and the power of grace be in your heart, else the law of grace and kindness cannot be in your life and speech, Psa.xxxvi.30,31. Prov.xxxi.26. You must be endued, therefore, with a spirit of holiness, humility, love, gentleness, long-suffering, meekness, and wisdom; else you can never converse with all men as you ought to do. For such as the heart is, such the conversation will be. Out of the evil heart come evil thoughts and actions, Matt.xv.19; but a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and according to the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, Matt.xii.34-35. A man must have the heart of the wise, before the tongue can be taught to speak wisely, Prov.xvi.23.
   
   Secondly, you must resolve beforehand, as David did, to take heed to your ways, that you sin not with your tongue; and that you will keep your mouth as with a bridle, Psa.xxxix.1. Before your speech and actions, be well advised; weigh and ponder in balance of reason, all your actions and words, before you vent them.
   
   Thirdly, let no passion of joy, grief, fear, anger, &tc. get the head, and exceed their limits. For wise and good men, as well as bad, when they have been in any of these passions, have spoken unadvisedly with their lips, Job iii.3,23. Psa.cvi.32,33. Mark ix.5,6. Jonah iv.8,9. Mark vi. 22,23. And experience will teach you, that your tongue never runs before your wit so soon, as when you are over-afraid, over-grieved, over-angry, or over-joyed.
   
   Fourthly, you must be much in prayer to God, before you come into company, that you may be able to order your conversation aright; let your heart also be lifted up often to God when you are in company, that he would set a watch before your mouth, and keep the door of your lips, and that your heart may not incline to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, Psa. cxli. 3,4; and that he would open your lips, that your mouth may show forth his praise, Psa. li. 15; and that you may speak as you ought to speak, knowing how to answer every man, Col.iv.6; for the tongue is such an unruly evil, that no man, but God only, can tame and govern it, James iii.8.

The Christian's Daily Walk: In the Company of Others (part 2)

Henry Scudder, The Christian’s Daily Walk in holy Security and Peace. Phila, Presbyterian Board, nd. Pages 109-115. [barely edited by SML]

Chapter 8: Of Company in General. Rules Concerning It. Part 2.

Thirdly, You must be wise and discreet in your carriage towards all, and that in divers particulars.

1. Be not too open, nor too reserved; not over suspicious, 1 Cor. Xiii.7, nor over credulous, John ii.24. Jer. xl.14-16. For the simple believes every word, but the prudent looks well to his going, Prov. xiv.15.
   
2. Apply yourself to the several conditions and dispositions of men in all indifferent things, so far as you may, without sin against God, or offence to your brother, becoming all things to all men, 1 Cor. ix. 19-23; suiting yourself to them in such a manner, that if it be possible, you may live in peace with them, Rom. xii.18, and may gain some interest in them, to do them good.
   But far be it from you to do as many, who under this pretence, are for all companies; seeming religious with those that are religious; but profane and licentious with those that are profane and licentious; for this is carnal policy, and damnable hypocrisy, and not true wisdom.
   
3. Intermeddle not with other men’s business, I Thess. iv.11, but upon due and necessary occasion.
   
4. Know when to speak, and when to be silent, I Tim. v.13. How excellent is a word spoken in season! Eccles. iii.7. As either speech or silence will make for the glory of God, and for the cause of religion, and good one of another, so speak, and so hold your peace, Prov. xv.23, xxv, 11.
   
5. Be not hasty to speak, Prov. xxix.11, nor be much in speaking, Prov. xvii. 27, Eccl. x.14, but only when just cause shall require; for as it is shame and folly to a man to answer a matter before he hears it, Prov.xviii.13, so is it for any to speak before his time and turn, Job xxxii.4-6. Likewise consider, that in the multitude of words there wants not sin; but he that refrains his lips is wise, Prov.x.19.
   
6. Be sparing to speak of yourself or actions, to your own praise, except in case of necessary apology, 2 Cor xii.11, and defense of God’s cause maintained by you, and in the clearing of your wronged innocency, or needful manifestation of God’s power and grace in you; but then it must be with all modesty, giving the praise unto God, Phil. iv.12, 13. Neither must you cunningly hunt for praise, by debasing or excusing yourself and actions, that you may give occasion to draw forth commendations of yourself from others. Thus seeking of applause, argues pride and folly. But do praiseworthy actions, seeking therein the praise of God, that God may be glorified in you, then you shall have praise of God, Rom. ii.29, whatever you have of man. However, follow Solomon’s rule: Let another praise thee, not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips, Prov. xxvii. 2.
   
7. As you must be wise in your carriage towards others, so you must be wise for yourself; which is to make a good use to yourself of all things that occur in company. Let the good you see, be matter of joy, and thankfulness to God, and improved for your own imitation, Rom. xii.9. Let the evil you see, be matter of grief and humiliation, and a warning to you, lest you commit the like, since you are made of the same mould that others are, and are liable to the same temptations. If men report good of you to your face, repress these speeches as soon and as wisely as you can, giving the praise of all things to God, Gen. xli. 15,16, Acts xi. 23; knowing this is be a temptation and a snare, Prov. xxvii. 14, and a means to breed self-love, pride, and vain-glory in you. If this good report be true, bless God that he has enabled you to deserve it, and study by virtuous living to continue it. If this good report be false, endeavor to make it good by being hereafter answerable to the report.
   
8. If men report evil of you to your face, be not so much inquisitive who raised it, or how to confute them, or clear your reputation amongst men; as to make a good use of it to your own heart before God.
   
   For you must know, this evil report does not rise without God’s providence, 2 Sam. xvi.11. If the report be true, then see God’s good providence; it is that you may see your error and failings, that you may repent. If the report be false, yet consider, if you have not run into the appearance and occasions of those evils. Then say, though this report be false, yet it comes justly upon me, because I did not shun the occasions and appearances. This should humble you, and cause you to be more circumspect in your ways. But if neither the thing reported be true, nor you have given occasion for it, yet see God’s wise and good providence; not only in discovering the folly and malice of evil men, who raise and take up an evil report against you without cause; but in giving you warning to look to yourself, lest you deserve thus to be spoken of. And how do you know, but that you should have fallen into the same, or the like evil, if by these reports you had not been forewarned? Make use therefore of the railings and revilings of an enemy, 2 Sam. xvi.10-12; though he be a bad judge, yet he may be a good remembrancer; for you shall hear from him those things, of which flatterers will not, and friends, being blinded, or over indulgent through love, do never admonish you.

The Christian's Daily Walk: In the Company of Others (part 1)

Henry Scudder, The Christian’s Daily Walk in holy Security and Peace. Phila, Presbyterian Board, nd. Pages 109-115. [barely edited by SML]

Of Company in General. Rules Concerning It.

When you are in company, of whatever sort, you must amongst them walk with God.

Directions relating to this are of two sorts:

• First, showing how you should behave towards all:
  
• Secondly, how you should behave towards good or bad company.

First, in whatsoever company you are, your conversation in word and deed must be such, as may procure

1. Glory to God, Matt, v.16
   
2. Credit to religion, 1 Tim. vi.1.
   
3. All mutual, lawful, content, help, and true benefit to each other, Gen. ii.18.

For these are the ends, first, of society, secondly, of the variety of the good gifts that God has given unto men to do good with, 1 Cor. xii. 7-25.

To attain these ends, your conversation must be, 1. Holy; 2. Humble; 3. Wise; 4. Loving.

First, It must be holy, 1 Peter i.15; you must, as much as in you is, prevent all evil speech and behavior, which might else break forth, being careful to break it off, if it be already begun in your company. Suffer not the name and religion of God, nor yet your brother’s name to be traduced, or evil spoken of; but in due place and manner vindicate each. Be diligent to watch, and improve all fit opportunities of introducing pious and useful conversations; even whatsoever may tend to the practice and increase of godliness and honesty.

Secondly, Your conversation must be humble. You must give all due respect to all men, according to their several places and gifts; reverencing your betters, submitting to all in authority over you, 1 Peter ii.17, Eph. v.21; esteeming others as better than yourselves, in honour preferring them before you, Phil ii.3; condescending unto, and behaving respectfully towards, those of meaner rank, Rom. Xii.16.

...Part 2.

A Hiatus, obviously

I've been in and out of town and time recently; I will try to begin putting up excerpts of what I perceive to be good reading on this site again more regularly.

I'm open to input as to what is more and less profitable or helpful. If you have feedback for what is worth your time and energy to read, please let me know so that I don't end up spending my time typing things up to no purpose.

Thanks for your patience and interest.

SML

Baxter's Directions to the Depressed: Think about God and Christ and Heaven

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. pp85-87. [Edited and abridged by SML.]

Chapter 4: Directions to the Melancholy.

Direction 9. When you do think of any holy things, let it be of the best things; of God and Grace and Christ and Heaven: of or your brethren or the church; and carry all your meditations outward; but be sure that you pour not on your selves, and spend not your thoughts upon your thoughts.

As we have need to call the thoughts of careless sinners inwards, and turn them from the creature and sin upon themselves; so we have need to call the thoughts of self-perplexing Melancholy persons outwards: for it is their disease to be still grinding upon themselves. Remember that it is a far higher, nobler and sweeter work to think of God and Christ and Heaven, than of such worms as we ourselves are. When we go up to the God, we go to Love and Light and Liberty: but when we look down into ourselves, we look into a dungeon, a prison, a wilderness, a place of darkness, horror, filthiness, misery and confusion.

Therefore such thoughts (tho’ needful so far as without them our repentance and due watchfulness cannot be maintained yet) are grievous ignoble, yes, and barren, in comparison of our thoughts of God. When you are pouring on your own hearts, to search whether the Love of God be there or no, it were wiser to be thinking of the infinite Amiableness of God, and that will cause it, whether it were there before or not.

So instead of pouring on your hearts, to know whether they are set on Heaven, lift up your thoughts to Heaven, and think of it’s Glory, and that will raise them thither, and give you and show you that which you were searching for. Spend that time in planting holy desires in the garden of your hearts, which you spend in puzzling yourselves in searching whether it be there already. We are such dark confused things, that the fight of our selves is enough to raise a loathing and horror in our minds, and make them melancholy: but in God and Glory, there is nothing to discourage our thoughts, but all to delight them, if Satan does not misrepresent him to us.

Baxter's Directions to the Depressed: Evil Thoughts

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. pp83-85. [Edited and abridged by SML.]

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 8: When blasphemous or disturbing thoughts intrude or fruitless musings; presently meet them and use that Authority of Reason which you still have to cast and command them out.

If you have not lost it, Reason and the Will have command over the Thoughts, as well as over the tongue, or hands or feet. And as you would be ashamed to run up and down, or fight with your hands and say, I cannot help it: so you should be ashamed to let your thoughts run at random or on hurtful things, and say I cannot help it. Do you do the best you can to help it? Can you not bid them be gone? Can you not turn your thoughts to something else? Or can you not rouse up your self and shake them off? Some by casting a little cold water in their own faces, or bidding another do it, can rouse them from melancholy musings as from sleep.

Or if you cannot otherwise command and turn away your thoughts, rise up and go into some company, or to some employment which will divert you and take them away. Tell me what you would do, if you heard a scold in the street reviling you, or heard an atheist talk against God, would you stand still to hear them, or would you talk it out again with them, or rather go from them, and disdain to hear them, debate the case with such as they. Do you the like in your case: when Satan casts in ugly or despairing or murmuring thoughts, go away from them to some other thoughts or business. If you cannot do this of your self, tell your friend when the temptation comes, and it is his duty who has the cure of you, to divert you with some other talk or works or force you into diverting company. Yet be not too much troubled at the temptation, for trouble of mind does keep the evil matter in your memory, and so increase it, as pain of a sore draws the blood and spirits to the place. And this is the design of Satan, to give you troubling thoughts, and then to cause more by being troubled at those, and so for one thought and trouble to cause another, and so as waves in the sea, do follow one another.

Baxter's Directions to the Depressed: Cast your cares on God (part 4) --- Assurance and Adoption

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.

[This objection is in light of being directed as Children of God to fully trust God, yet fearing that we do not have the necessary heart-attitude to be called His children.]

Objection: BUT how can I be a Child of God, and not have the Spirit of Adoption.

Answer: The spirit of adoption means:

1. That spirit, or those qualifications and workings in their souls, which by the Gospel God gives only to his children.

2. And which raise in us some such child-like affections to God, inclining us in all our wants to run to him in prayer as to a father, and to make our moan to him and open our griefs and cry for redress and look to him and depend on him as a child on the father.

This spirit of adoption you may have and yet not be certain of God’s special love to you. The knowledge only of his general goodness and mercy may be a means to raise in you true child-like affections. You may know God to have fatherly inclinations to you, and yet doubt whether he will use you as a child, for want of assurance of your own sincerity. And you may hope God is your father, when yet you may apprehend him to be a displeased angry father, and so he may be more you terror than your comfort. Are you not ready in most of your fears and doubts and troubles to go to God before all other for relief? And does not your heart sigh and groan to him when you can scarcely speak? Does not your troubled Spirit there find its first vent!

And say Lord kill me not: forsake me not: my life is in your hands: O soften this hard heart and make this carnal mind more spiritual! O be not such a stranger to my soul. Woe to me that I am so ignorant of you! So disaffected to you! So backward and disinclined to Holy Communion with you! Woe to me that I can take no more pleasure in you, and am so mindless and disregardful of you! O that you would stir up in me more lively desires and workings of my soul toward you! And suffer me not to be at such a distance from you. Are not such as these the breathings of the Spirit! Why these are child-like breathings after God: this is crying Abba, Father. This is the work of the Spirit of Adoption, even when you fear that God will cast you off.

Baxter's Directions to the Depressed: Cast your cares on God (part 3)

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.

4. And study how great a sin it is to set our wills and desires in discontented opposition to the wisdom, will, and providence of God, and to make our wills, instead of his, as gods to ourselves. Does not a murmuring heart secretly accuse God? All accusation of God has some degree of blasphemy in it: for the accuser supposes that somewhat of God is to be blamed. If you do not dare to open your mouth and accuse him, do not let the complaining in your heart accuse him. Know how much of religion and holiness consists in bringing this rebellious self-will to a full resignation, submission, and conformity to the Will of God. Till you can rest in God’s will, you will never have rest.

5. Study well how great a duty it is to wholly trust God, and our blessed Redeemer, both with Soul and Body and all we have. Is it not infinite power, wisdom, and goodness to be trusted? Does God support the Heavens and the Earth and the whole Creation? And yet you cannot rely upon Him? Is He not wise enough to be trusted with the conduct and disposal of you? Is he not good and gracious enough to be trusted with your Life, Estate, and Name and Welfare? Is He not great and powerful enough, to be trusted against the greatest danger or difficulties or opposition that can befall you? Is he not true and faithful enough to be trusted, whatever improbabilities may arise before you? Who ever trusted him in vain, or was ever deceived by Him? Are not his Son, and Spirit and Covenant and Oath, sufficient pledges of His love for your security? Whatever he will be to the Ungodly, I am sure he will not cast off the Soul that loves Him, and would fain be fully conformed to his Will. It cannot be that he should spurn at them that are humbled at His feet, and long and pray, and seek and mourn, after nothing more than His grace and love. ... It is the refuge of my soul, that quiets me in my fears that God my father and redeemer has commanded me to trust him with my body, my health, my liberty, my estate; and when Eternity seems strange and dreadful to me, that he bids me trust him with my departing soul. Heaven and Earth (as was said before) are upheld and maintained by him, and shall I distrust him?

Objection: BUT it is only his Children that He will save.

Answer: True: and all are his Children who are truly willing to obey and please him: if you are truly willing to be Holy, and to obey his commanding will, in a godly righteous and sober Life, you may boldly rest in His disposing Will, and rejoice in his rewarding and accepting will, for he will pardon all our infirmities, through the merits and intercession of Christ.

Part 4

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