Tag Archives: Puritan

Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Direction II.A

29 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in Exegeting the Heart, Mortification, Puritan, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Uncategorized

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(The prior post in this series may be found here.

In this section Marshall deals with the question of motivation, “we must have an inclination and propensity in our hearts” to do what God requires. There are two reasons for this. First, we will not act without the inclination. Second, the law of God itself requires love — and actual desire. It is not bare conduct which satisfies the will of God.

He begins by noting that this work of sanctification is too difficult to attain to without a satisfactory motivation:

And shall we dare to rush into the battle against all the powers of darkness, all worldly terrors and allurements, and our own inbred domineering corruptions, without considering whether we have sufficient spiritual furniture to stand in the evil day?

There are four “endowments” which Marshall lists as necessary. The first is “an inclination and propensity of the heart to the duties of the law”.  This first element is the primary category. The remaining three elements matter as these support the desire to act:

[The duty required is not bare instinctual conduct” but such a one as it meet for intelligent creatures, whereby they are, by the conduct of reason, prone and bent to approve and choose their duty, and averse to the practice of sin. And therefore, I have intimated that the three other endowments [a new natures, confidence in the eternal state, and confidence they we will persevere] are subservient to this as the chief of all, which is are sufficient to make a rationale propensity.

Marshall here sets out a theory of human motivation: A human being will not fulfill the law of God (love of God and love of neighbor) unless he has a new nature, a “hope of heaven” and certainty that the hope is real for him.

Hope functions like magnetic north for a compass needle: Hope draws the attention and orders the conduct. We must have some hope and reasonable assurance to undertake any task. One will promise to come to see another because he has hope that it will be possible to make the trek and has sufficient reason to undertake the work. But no one (who is sane) would promise to be around the world in 30 seconds, or to travel back in time. Therefore, we need hope and we need those supernatural helps (a new nature and faith to lay hold upon what is promised to the new nature) to increase in holiness.

Next we will look at Marshall’s discussion of “inclination and propensity”.

Edward Taylor, “What glory’s this my Lord?”

01 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Literature, Uncategorized

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What glory’s this my Lord? Should one small point
Of one small ray of’t touch my heart t’would spring
Such joy as would an adamant unjoint
If in’t, and tear it, to get out and sing.
T’run on heroic golden feet, and raise
Heart ravishing tunes, curl’d with celestial praise.

This poem is one of the four meditations upon Philippians 2:9, “God hath highly exalted him”, referring to the Ascension of Christ are his resurrection. For the previous poem in this group of poems look here.

This particular poem concerns the sight of Christ’s glorious throne and the effect upon the poet. Should I speak (and thus not rightly describe the beauty), or be silent (and thus not praise)? He finally settles upon praise, but seeks pardon in the praise because it is insufficient for the subject.

This first paragraph speaks to the subject effect of such beauty upon the poet. The first thing to realize is the glory is an objective fact: Glory is not first in the eye of the poet: the glory is overwhelmingly in the enthroned Christ. While not explicit in the biblical text, the power of this glory is implicit in the passage:

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9–11 (ESV)

The reference to every knee bowing may sound like angels go about breaking knees and every honors Christ because they have been bullied. But the text implies — and Taylor explicitly states — that the glory of Christ’s enthronement is such that bowed knees is the automatic response of even his enemies. The Father has been bestowed such surpassing glory upon Christ, which in turn honors the Father.

Taylor in this first stanza explains that this glory is of such power, that if the objective glory were to actually touch his heart it would tear it open “to get out and sin”. The joy would tear through his heart and run, singing praise.

The first three lines of the stanza proceed with a basically “normal” meter; however, at line four the rhythm changes

If IN’T, and TEAR it, to GET OUT and SING

The line also contains two pauses which force one to slow down significantly and consider this image: Glory proceeds from the throne, touches the heart, turns to joy and bursts out with extraordinary power.

This is a very interesting understanding of the Spirit’s work in the human heart. God affects the human so profoundly that the effect is the cause of God and a true spontaneously act of the human being.

Orthodox Paradoxes, Miscellaneous Part 5

24 Wednesday Aug 2016

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More from Ralph Venning’s Orthodox Paradoxes (1650):

He is careful in nothing, yet none so careful as he.
He believes that though he lie in the grave a thousand years, yet he shall be with God as soon as he dies.
He esteems his name a precious ointment, yet cares not who reviles him.
He importunate to prevail with God, yet he think not to prevail for his importunity.
he believes that none know the heart of God, and yet he meets with many saints who can tell him his heart.
He believes ’tis life eternal to know God, and yet he accounts it his happiness to be known of God.
He finds that grace never waxes old, though it be ever growing; but that elder ’tis, the new ’tis.
He believes that a man converted is the same man that he was before; and yet he believes that he is more man and more than man.
He does not know his own wants, and yet he makes them known to God.
He is no prophet and yet his prayers are prophecies.
He is afraid to think of God, least he wrong him; and yet he believes that he should wrong God should not think of him.
He knows that idiots are not fit for counsellors, and yet one of them God takes his sages.
he finds that love of God has height and depth without ends, length without points, breadth, yet no lines, that it is circular (emblem of eternity) and yet fills every angle.
He would be anything rather than nothing, yet he would be nothing if that would exalt his God.
He believes that man’s will does freely turn to God, and yet that man has not freewill to turn to God.
He gives no price for grace, and yet he values it above all price.
He loves the consolations of God; but the God of consolation is his love.
He fears God, and yet is not afraid of God.
He knows that similitude has some loveliness in it; yet he does account hypocrisy the more odious because of its similitude to Religion.
He believes that some have grace who cannot define it; and that some can define it who have it not.
He is always in pilgrimage, and yet he is never from home.
He believes that God tempts no man; and yet believes that God tempted Abraham.
He is very jealous lest God should leave him, and yet he believes God will never do it.
he believes that having made a promise, he ought to be as good as his word, and yet he thinks he may go from his word to go to truth.
He believes that a saint has a vocation on earth, but that earth is his advocation.
God has commanded him to love his neighbor, and yet God requires all his heart for himself.
He seems much folly in the world and much confusion, and yet he sees wisdom and order therein.

Orthodox Paradoxes, Miscellaneous Part 4

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

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You can find the previous section from Ralph Venning’s Orthodox Paradoxes (1650) here:

He believes that God saves men freely, and yet be believes that Christ bought salvation for them.
He believe that God will reward him for all he does for good; and yet whatsoever he does for God, God does it in him.
He believes that God is always giving out himself to the being of creates and faith of saints, and yet remains as full as he ever was.
There is nothing so clear to him as godliness, and yet there is nothing more mysterious.
There is no man denies himself but he, and yet there is no man who seeks himself so much as he.
He sometimes misses what he would have, and yet he think not his will to be therein crossed.
He knows he does not live by bread, and yet he eats to maintain his life.
He believes that his prayers do purchase nothing; and yet he could not expect to enjoy what he does if he did not pray.
He is by the Spirit led into duties, and led out of them by the same Spirit.
He cannot demonstrate what he knows in believing, and yet his knowledge by faith is as clear as any demonstration.
He believes that his qualification do not cause God’s love; and yet he might question whether God loved him if he were not qualified.
He prises righteousness at a high rate, and yet he counts his righteousness no better than dung.
He knows that he can never attain to the perfection of God; and yet he labors to be perfect as God is perfect.
He is all men most humble, yet none has a heart so lifted up as he.
He drinks gall and wormwood, yet accounts it sweeter than honey or the honey-comb.
There is no so vile among men as he; there is none among men so honorable.
He thinks highly of himself, though the world despise him; and yet despises himself though God should think highly of him
He is the meekest man upon all the earth, yet none so angry as he.
He would willing be the best of saints, yet is willing that everyone be better than himself.
He believes that God does always hear his prayers, and yet he often goes without that he prays for.
There are none so much in love peace as he, yet none maintain such a constant warfare.
He believes that he shall never be infinite; and yet he believes that he shall be filled with an infinite God.

Orthodox Paradoxes, Miscellaneous, Part 2

09 Thursday Jun 2016

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More from Ralph Venning’s Orthodox Paradoxes, 1650:

He knows that he is born of God, and yet he finds by experience that he sins.
He is ashamed that he is a sinner, and yet he is not ashamed to confess himself a sinner.
He would not sin against his God, because God loves him; and yet he does not that God loves him though he sin against him. Hosea 3:1
He believes that God lets no man’s sin go unpunished, and yet God winks at some men’s sins. Acts 17:30.
He often-times does weep for sorrow and yet he rejoices when he weeps.
He knows that he is not yet delivered from fears, and yet he believes that he delivered from what he fears.
He affects and strives to be the highest of saints, and yet is contented to be the lowest.
He oftentimes disappointed of his joys; and yet he always joys in his disappointments.
He is willing to die daily, and yet daily prays to live longer.
He accounts his life but as a bobble; and yet he prizes it above the whole world.
He cannot say he is dead, and yet he dies daily; and though he lives, yet he says that it is not he. Gal. 2:20
He believes that he shall die once, and yet he believes that shall live with God forever.
He dares not put himself to death, lest he sin; and yet thinks he sins if does not die daily.
He knows that though he die, death cannot take away his life.

Orthodox Paradoxes: Miscellaneous Paradoxes (Part 1)

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

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This isa  continuation of Ralph Venning’s Orthodox Paradoxes, 1650. The previous section of this book may be found here.

Miscellaneous Paradoxes

A Believer Clearing Truth by Experience, through seeming contradictions

He cries out, What must I do to be saved? And yet he never expects to be saved by doing.
He knows that he is so much indebted to God as any man, and yet he believes that God will never charge the debt upon him as he will upon other men. Rom. 8:3.
He admires God that he shows him mercy [he looks in wonder that God shows him mercy],and yet he believes that God could not be just if God should not do it. Rom. 3:26
He enjoys what he longs for, and yet his soul keeps longing.
He is every day pursing out the old leaven; and yet he believes he is unleavened. 1 Cor. 5:7
He is every day endeavoring in the strength of Christ to root sin out of him, and yet he is contented it will be within while God will suffer it to be there. (Not with the sin, but with the will of God which permits it to remain for a time. Rom. 7:24-25.)
He fears to cots sin more than any man, and when tis committed there is no man fears it less.
He grieves that ever he sins at all, and yet he blesses God that he was once a sinner.
It sads his soul that he has dishonored God by sinning, yet it glads his heart that God is glorified by his sin.
He looks on himself as the chief of sinners; and yet he believes that God accepts him as if he had not sin at all. 1 Tim. 1:13-15.
He is often led captive by sin, and yet he is always triumphing over it. Rom. 7:15, 8:1-3.
He confesses that he sins daily, and yet he says that it is not to be Rom. 7:17
He confesses himself to be a scarlet-sinner, and yet he looks upon himself as a milk white saint. Jeremiah 21:34.
He believes that God has forgotten his, and yet he believes that God sees sin in him.
He knows that he is born of God, and yet he finds by experience that he sins.
He is ashamed that he is a sinner, and yet he is not ashamed to confess himself a sinner.

Thomas Watson: 24 Helps Reading Scripture.2 (preparation)

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by in Puritan, Reading, Scripture, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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II. If you would profit, prepare your hearts to the reading of the word; the heart is an instrument needs putting in tune. 1 Sam. 7:3: “Prepare your hearts to the Lord.”

To do anything well, it takes some preparation. To work in the garden, one would set out enough time, get the necessary tools and wear appropriate clothes. To go to a restaurant or make a meal, one would prepare.

Reading Scripture, likewise, takes preparation. When a Christian comes to the words of Scripture, we are coming to meet God (for it is the Words of Scripture which the Spirit of God uses to transform the human heart).

Solomon in Ecclesiastes writes

 

Ecclesiastes 5:1–3 (ESV)

5  Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2  Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.

Watson gives two directions to prepare oneself for Scripture reading: preparation of the thoughts and preparation of the affections. First, thought: “In summoning our thoughts together to attend to that solemn work we are going about. The thoughts are stragglers, therefore rally them together.”

This would entail composing oneself for the work. First, find an appropriate place to read without unnecessary distraction. That does not mean a cubicle in a  library; one could read successfully in a sidewalk cafe among many other people — provided there were no one with you who was expecting your attention at that time. A lack of distractions probably entails putting away the electronics. Leaving your cellphone out while you are reading is likely an unwise decision.

Second, it requires some determination to engage in the action: There was must be a decision to direct one’s attention to this task.

The second preparation is of the affections: “In purging out those unclean affections which do indispose us to reading. Before we come to the water of life, let us cast away the poison of impure affections.”

The order here is appropriate: affections typically follow thoughts. Our affections may not be fully turned in our desire direction in a moment, but we have significantly more say over our affections than most people think. We tend to treat emotions (better, affections) as something which just happens to us. But our affections will be affected by what we think, and how we determine to direct our attention.

It may take some period of time to draw one’s attention in the right way. It will likely take a definite effort to clam oneself. There should be a pray to this affect. We may wish to first engage in some brief consideration on the importance of what we are about to do.

Failure to take such care explains why many gain so little in their reading, “Many come rashly to the reading of the word, and no wonder if they come without preparation, they go away without profit.”
Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit,” in The Bible and the Closet: Or How We May Read the Scriptures with the Most Spiritual Profit; and Secret Prayer Successfully Managed, ed. John Overton Choules (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1842), 19–20.

Thomas Watson: 24 Helps to Reading the Scripture.1

24 Thursday Mar 2016

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I. If you would profit by reading, remove those things that will hinder your profiting.

First, “remove the love of every sin.” Sin will make us unfit to profit from the Scripture. Sin makes us stupid and confused. Start with the extreme example, someone intoxicated by drugs or lust has no ability to concentrate or think straight: The Scripture prescribes excellent recipes, but sin lived in, poisons all. The body cannot thrive in a fever, nor can the soul under the feverish heat of lust.”

Watson’s proposition can be taken further. Even seemingly “lesser” sins will hurt our ability to profit from the Scripture. Sin, at heart, is irrational (what could be more irrational than to rebel against the Creator of the Universe and the one who judge my life). To engage in irrationality cannot but make one more irrational.

This does not mean that one will not be logical: “logic” in its most pared down form refers to following a set of rules for thinking (and I grant that logic should mean a great deal more than this). I have known many who can think with logical ability and yet be utterly irrational: their premises, their facts are simply wrong. Someone can be utterly delusional and be logical (to an extent).

But sin is more subtle, it does not always undermine logic, but it always attacks true reason.

Second, take heed of those thorns which will choke the word read.

If your heart is busy dwelling upon something other than the words of the Scripture, how will you be able to read with even the barest concentration? As Watson writes of such a one: “While his eye is upon the Bible, his heart is upon the world.”

The Scripture takes concentration to read, meditation to digest, pray to expound: all these will take attention. Without a heart devoted to Scripture, “You may as soon extract oil and syrup out of a flint, as he any real benefit out of Scripture.”

Third, Take heed of jesting with Scripture; this is playing with fire. Some cannot be merry unless they make bold with God.

The Scriptures are nothing to trifle with. Some will trifle by merely joking about sacred things. This sort of levity is apparent even in many pulpits. Sometimes it is for laughs, other times is to tie the Scripture to gimmicks and nonsense. When pastors treat the Scripture as frivolous, we should not be surprised when the congregation does not consider the Scripture

Quotations from Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit,” in The Bible and the Closet: Or How We May Read the Scriptures with the Most Spiritual Profit; and Secret Prayer Successfully Managed, ed. John Overton Choules (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1842), 18–19.

Orthodox Paradoxes: Concerning the Resurrection

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

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XV. Concerning the Resurrection

102. He knows that when he dies, his body may conduce to making up of many beings and yet at the resurrection, he shall have all his, and they want none of theirs.
103. He believes that the saints deceased want no happiness, and yet he believes that they shall not be made perfect till the resurrection.