Tag Archives: Repentance

Two Sermons by John Howe, Romans 6:13; A thoughtful assent

13 Wednesday Mar 2019

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Continued from this post

The second, third and fourth elements of such yielding concerning the degree of intellectual assent which must be given in any true yielding: deliberation, judgment and “fulness of consent”.

Deliberation: 

It must be done with great deliberation; not as the mere effect of a sudden fright. What is done in a rash haste, may be as soon undone. Leisurely consider, and take the whole compass of the case; weigh with yourselves the mentioned grounds upon which you are to yield yourselves, and the ends you are to do it for, that things may be set right between him and you, that you may return into your own natural place and station, that you may be again stated in that subordination to your sovereign Lord which fitly belongs to you; that he may have his right which he claims, and you the mercy which you need. Here is place for much consideration.

John Howe, The Works of the Reverend John Howe, vol. 1 (London: William Tegg and Co., 1848), 397.  A point noted previously, Howe’s call to repentance is not the purely emotional call of a “revivalist” or “evangelist”: you are pressed to come (and he will press); but you are not called without due consideration.  In speaking like this, Howe has the model of the Lord:

28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:28–33 (ESV).

Judgment: One must consider the case until he has reached a conclusion, a judgment. God calls you to yield; consider the matter carefully and do not come or depart until you have reached a judgment. Howe cites to:

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15(ESV). The word for concluded is the verb krinein, to pass judgment upon. The yielding there to the control of Christ is the result a judgment.

Fulness of consent: At this point Howe speaks of making a deliberate covenant with God. The idea here is taken from the law. A contract is formed by a “meeting of the minds”. One cannot accidentally form a contract (or at least that is the ideal!).  You know what you are doing and “hereby a covenant is struck between God and you.” It is not idle movement, it is not “thinking about it.” The yielding sought by Romans 6:13 is an understanding consent to the call of God.

In the next, we will come to the affections and attitudes which must characterize the one who yields to God. In the end, we will see that Howe is setting out the elements of true faith: head, heart, hands (if you will).

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation LX

29 Tuesday May 2018

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Upon the Nature Heat, and the Radical Moisture

There is a regiment of health in the soul, as well as in the body; in the inward man, as well as the outward man; they both being subjects incident to distempers, and that from a defect, or excess in those qualities which which when regulated are the principle and the basis of life and strength. [This paragraph relies upon an understanding of medicine going back to the Greeks.]

What preserves and maintains natural life but the just temperament of the radical moistures and the innate heat? And again endangers and destroys it, but the heart devouring moisture, or the moisture impairing the heat? When either of these prevail against each other, diseases do suddenly follow. 

And is it not thus in the soul and inward man? In it those two signature graces of faith and repentance do keep up and cherish the spiritual life of the Christian: faith being like the calor innatus, the natural heat; and repentance like humidum radicale, the radical moisture.  If then any by believing should exercise repentance less or in repenting should lessen their belief, they would soon fall into one of these most dangers extremes: either to be swallowed up in sorrow and despair; or else to puffed up in security and presumption.

Is it not then matter of complaint that these two evangelical duties (as some divines have called them), which in the practice of Christians should never be separated, should be looked upon by many to oppose — rather than to promote each other in their operations. Some out of weakness cannot apprehend what consistency there can be between faith and repentance, whose effects seem to be contrary: the one working peace and joy, the other trouble and sorrow; the one, confidence, the other fear; the one shame, the other boldness. 

Now such as these, when touched with a sense of their sin, judge it their duty rather to mourn than to believe; and to feel the bitterness of sin, than to taste the sweetness of the promise, and put away comfort from them, lest it should check and abate the overflowings of their sorrow. 

Others again, whether our of heedlessness or willfulness, I will not determine what they behold the fulness of grace, in the blotting out of sin, the freeness of grace in the healing of backsliding, they see so little necessity of repentance as they think it below (as they speak) a gospel spirit to be troubled for that which Christ has satisfied for). It is not repentance that they should now exercise, but rather; sorrow  seems interpretively to be a jealousy of the truth of God’s promise in forgiving and of the sufficiency of Christ’s discharge, who was the surety, who has  not left one single mite of debt for believers to pay. Sorrow therefore seems to them unseasonable, as it would be for a prisoner to mourn, when the prison door is opened and himself set free from debt and bondage.

Thus this pair of graces and duties, concerning which I may say, as God did of Adam, it is not good that either of them should be alone [Gen. 2:18, said of Adam needing a wife]; are yet divided often times in practice, though indissolubly linked together in the precept. Fain would I therefore evidence to the weak the concord that these two graces, in respect of comfort, and to willful necessity of them both, in order unto pardon.

Unto the weak therefore I say, that the agreement between faith and repentance does no lie in the immediate impressions which they make upon the soul, which are in some respects opposite to each other; but in the principle from which they arise, which is the same, the grace of Christ; and in the end, which is the same salvation of man, in habitude and subordination that they have one to another: for repentance’s never more kindly than when it disposes us to exercise and actings of faith: whose joy, peace and serenity of heart are as gold which is best laid upon sad and dark colors; or as the polished diamond that receives an addition of luster from the watering of it. God’s promise is that the believing Jes who look upon Christ by an eye of faith shall be also great mourners, They shall mourn for him as one mourenth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in the bitterness for his first-born.  [Zech. 12:10]

Unto the careless or willful I also say, that God never forgives sin but where also he gives a penitent and relenting heart; so that though faith has a peculiar nature in receiving of pardon, applying it by way of instrument which no other grace does; yet repentance is the express formal qualification that fits for pardon, not by way of causality or merit, but by way of means as well as command, which arises from a con decency both to God himself, who is a holy God; and to the nature of mercy, which is the taking and removing of sin away. 

Never dream then of such free grace or gospel-mercy as does supersede a broken and contrite heart, or take off the necessity of sorrowing for sin. For Christ did never undertake to satisfy God’s wrath in an absolute and illimited [unlimited] manner, but in a well ordered and meet [fitting] way, viz., [that is] the way of faith and repentance. How else should we ever come to taste the bitterness of sin or the sweetness of grace? How to prize and esteem the physician if not sensible of our disease? How to adore the love of Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us, if not burdened with the weight of our iniquities? 

Yea, how should we ever give God the glory of his justice in acknowledging ourselves worthy of death, if we do not in a way of repentance judge ourselves, as the apostle bids us? [1 Cor. 11:31] Was not this that David did in that solemn confusion of his in which he cries out, Against thee, thee only have I sinned, had done this evil in thy sight; that thou might be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest. [Ps. 51:4]

Can I therefore wish a better wish to such who are insensible to their sins, that Bernard did, to him whom he thought no heedful enough about the judgments of God, who writing to him, instead of the common salutation, much health, wrote, much fear: that so, their confidence may have an ally of trembling?

Sure I am that it is a mercy that I had need to pray for on my own behalf, and I do, 

Lord, make it my request

That my faith for the pardon of sin

May be accompanied with my sorrow for sin; 

And that I may have a weeping eye, as well as a believing heart,

That I may mourn for the evil that I have done against my Savior

As well as rejoice in the fulness of the mercy the he has showed to me

In a Glorious salvation.

“We want something inherent in ourselves to comfort and encourage us”

03 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Hosea, Repentance, Uncategorized

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These sermons on Hosea by Samuel Eyles Pierce, published in 1822 are remarkable for their encouragement gospel grace. Here is a bit from the first sermon on Hosea 14:1, “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” The sermon ends as follows:

It is very delightful to go over the Scriptures in a way of believing, and consider how they most exactly suit all our cases. You and I, men and brethren, need the grace and mercy recorded in them, in our own persons and cases. We are the subjects of sin, and each of us have our personal and particular plague sores and maladies.

We all need continual light and instruction, how to apply to the Lord Jesus Christ, immediately and particularly with our guilt, and that even whilst it is upon our consciences; yet we find an averseness so to act, thereby making more of sin than we do of Christ; and because it makes a great alteration within us, and upon our minds, we conceive it must also on Christ’s.

We cannot think it right to go with a fresh contraction of sin and guilt immediately to the Lord Jesus; but are for praying it away, and getting into a better frame.

We want something inherent in ourselves to comfort and encourage us, notwithstanding the apostle says, If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.

And the Lord in our text says to us, as truly as he did to his people of old, Return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. There are seasons, and cases, in which we never needed Christ more, and it may seem to us never so much: let us improve the same by going immediately and directly, in the exercise of faith on the blood and righteousness of Jesus, to Him, and that with all we are and all we have done.

This is the only way for us to be brought into an actual intercourse with Christ, when we are oppressed with our spiritual maladies. Let not the consideration of any thing we have done, or may feel, or be chargeable with, keep us one single moment from Christ. If we cannot say more than Lord save, or I perish, let us be thankful to be enabled thus to cry.

Samuel Eyles Pierce, An Exposition on the Fourteenth Chapter of the Prophet Hosea (London: L. Nichols, 1822), 19–20.

Let us keep our mouths shut

12 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in Job, John Calvin, Justification, Uncategorized

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let us realise that we must not come before God to plead our case, for we are all obliged to be condemned without his conducting a long trial against us, and all the more must our sins be compounded, since we think we have many defences and excuses to offer. So, there is no other remedy except acknowledging we are all indebted to him and asking for his pardon and mercy. This is how we must come to God: we must not claim to be righteous or be able to satisfy him; we must acknowledge the sins we have committed and ask him to receive us out of his pure kindness and mercy, and we must not open our mouths to plead our case, for that debate is not ours. That office is in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for us, let us keep our mouths shut and allow Jesus Christ to be our advocate and intercede for us so that our sins may be buried in this way and we may be absolved instead of condemned. That is the first thing we have to remember. And that is how we will be forever delivered by our Judge, as Paul says: ‘Who will lay anything to the charge of God’s children, since he justifies them?’ (Rom. 8: 33) Who will bring a suit against them, since Jesus Christ has taken their case in hand and wants to plead it? That, I say, is our only refuge, and without it we are lost and have no need to think about approaching God, for we will be struck down by his wrath, as we deserve.

John Calvin. Sermons on Job, Volume 2: Chapters 15-31 (Kindle Locations 7147-7151). The Banner of Truth Trust.

 

Edward Taylor: Mine eyes, Lord, shed no tears but ink

04 Tuesday Jul 2017

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The poet begins with a seemingly impossible scene: a King of unsurpassed glory who blazes like the sun (whose crown a bunch of sunbeams was). Even his throne is made of life (sat on a cushion all of sunshine clear). The palace itself is a mass of precious stones.

Was there a palace of pure gold, all ston’d
And paved with pearls, who gates rich jasper were,
And throne a carbuncle, who King enthroned
Sat on a cushion all of sunshine clear;
Whose crown a bunch of sunbeams was: I should
Prize such as in his favor shrine me would.

Now, if there were such a place, he would desire the honor and fellowship of that king (I should prize such as in his favor shrine me would).

Such a King does exist: Christ the king. The poem is headed with the note that it is a meditation on Ephesians 2:18: “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

Thy milk white hand, my glorious Lord, doth this:
It opes this gate and me conducts into
This golden palace whose rich pavement is
Of precious stones; and to this king also.
Thus throned and crowned: whose words are ‘bellished all
With brighter beams than e’re the sun let fall.

This stanza continues on with the imagery from the throne room of heaven in Revelation 4 & 5 and the depiction of heaven in chapters 21-22. The Lord gives us access unto this throne. It is interesting in this poem that it is the “words” in particular which are embellished and brighter than the sun.

The words of Christ — whose is the Word of God — are what grants access to this throne. In John 6:48, Peter says that Christ has the words of eternal life. In John 15:3, Jesus says that the disciples are clean because of the word he has spoken. The topic is too big for this discussion, but it is present here.

The poet having recognized the wonder of what has been granted him, turns on himself: He does not prize this honor as he should:

But oh! poor me, thy sluggish servant, I
More blockish than a block, as blockhead, stand.
Though mine affections quick as lightning fly
On toys, they snail-like move to kiss thy hand.
My coal-black doth thy milk-white hand avoid
That would above the Milky Way me guide.

Here he notes the common complaint of all who being to realize the astounding grant of God in Christ: What could be more wonderful than access to God? But, the things which most easily excite my affections are bauble, “toys”. What stupidity to treasure toys when endless beauty and glory can be had for the reception?

His despair now turns to God: Why should this even be? What is the aim of God in letting such a fool access to such wonder?

What aim’st at, Lord? [What do you aim at] that I should be so cross.
My mind is leaden in thy golden shine.
Though all o’re Spirit when this dirty dross
Doth touch it with it smutting leaden lines.
What shall an eagle t’catch a fly thus run?
Or angel dive after a mote inth’sun?

My presence, my words, my hand can only make things dirty (smutting). An eagle wouldn’t chase down a fly. An angel wouldn’t chance dust — why this with me?

And thus, he turns the fire of his poem upon himself: I should be wracked with sorrow and tears at my evil. I can see this is true of me, and yet the tears are missing. I have this knowledge: but not the affections. I should attack myself for this foolishness – but I can’t.

He then hits the point of the poem: All I have for sorrow is this poem (Mine eyes, Lord, shed no tears but ink):

What folly’s this? I fain would take, I think,
Vengeance upon myself. But I confess
I can’t. Mine eyes, Lord, shed no tears but ink.
My hand works, are words, and wordiness.
Earth’s toys wear knots of my affection, nay,
though from thy glorious self they’re stole away.

His heart is set upon the tokens and marks of the world — which are just, at best stolen glory.

Here he poem makes a turn: repentance.

The genius — if you will — of Christianity is that it both shows human beings our poverty and foolishness — our depravity and then it leads us to desire to be free: but we are not freed by our personal effort, but by the gracious work of God.

Conviction is not guilt: Conviction is a sight of sin and movement toward God. The true heart of Christianity is this constant turning away and toward: it is believing the God will receive me:

Oh! that my heart was made thy golden box
Full of affections, and of love divine
Knit all of tassles, and in true-love knots
To garnish o’re this worthy work of thine.
This box and all therein more rich than gold,
In sacred flames, I to thee offer would.

The human heart should be a box to treasure up affections toward God. As Richard Sibbes writes in the Faithful Covenanter:

Examine what affections we have to God: for it is affection that makes a Christian.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 10.

With thy rich tissue my poor soul array
And lead me to thy Father’s house above.
Thy grace’s storehouse make my soul I pray.
Thy praise shall then wear tassels of my love.
If thou conduct me in thy Father’s ways
I’ll be the golden trumpet of thy praise.

Make a man who can praise you; transform me (lead me) and dress me in love for you and I’ll praise you. The desire to praise Christ — who is worthy of such praise is the hope of the Christian. This is not a servile praise but honest joy. We praise many lesser things — and our greatest moments of joy are in those moments we praise.

 

John Newton: How to Preach the Doctrines of Grace.3

17 Friday Jun 2016

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III.  The Scriptural Testimony

Having considered the practical effects based upon his observation, Newton looked to the Scripture example:

But, not to insist on this, nor to rest the cause on the authority or examples of men, the best of whom are imperfect and fallible, let us consult the Scriptures, which, as they furnish us with the whole subject-matter of our ministry, so they afford us perfect precepts and patterns for its due and orderly dispensation.

John Newton, Richard Cecil, The Works of the John Newton, vol. 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 175.

A.  Jesus

Jesus is unquestionably the greatest example of how to properly present the “Gospel”.

  1.  Jesus did not “tickle ears”

The Lord Jesus was the great preacher of free grace, “who spake as never man spake;” and his ministry, while it provided relief for the weary and heavy laden, was eminently designed to stain the pride of all human glory. He knew what was in man, and declared, that “none could come unto him, unless drawn and taught of God;” John 6:44–46.

Ibid.

2.  Yet Jesus did call to repentance.

Newton gives three examples of Jesus preaching which some might consider “legalistic” as opposed to “grace”:

John 6:27 (ESV)27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

John 12:35 (ESV)35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.”

Luke 13:24–27 (ESV)24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

These passages show Jesus commanding people indiscriminately to obey the call of God. To these passages, one could easily append others:

Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This example is especially appropriate, because it calls all to repent in the direct context of proclaiming the “gospel”.

B.  The example of the Apostles

1.No one can fairly accuse the Apostles of having a Pelagian view of human ability

Consider their letters. For example, Paul writes:

Romans 9:16 (ESV) 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

John writes:

John 1:12–13 (ESV)12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

2.  The Apostles repeatedly called for repentance

There are numerous examples in Acts of an Apostle preaching repentance:

Acts 3:19 (ESV) 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

Newton relies primarily upon the case of Simon Magus. This is a particularly strong example, because Simon Magus was unquestionably an unbeliever at the time Peter calls him to repentance:

Peter’s advice to Simon Magus is very full and express to this point; for though he perceived him to be “in the very gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity,” he exhorted him “to repent, and to pray, if perhaps the thought of his heart might be forgiven.” It may be presumed, that we cannot have stronger evidence that any of our hearers are in a carnal and unconverted state, than Peter had in the case of Simon Magus; and therefore there seems no sufficient reason why we should hesitate to follow the Apostle’s example.

Id at p. 176.

The Paradox of Grace

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Forgiveness, Grace, Leviticus, Uncategorized

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It is absolutely true that a work of grace changes the human heart; that grace leads to holiness. Yet, such one in whom grace truly works never trusts that change as a basis for redemption. The more the heart and life are transformed, the more clearly one sees the need for Christ’s merit:

“Again, a trust in change of life is evidence of unchanged heart. The Spirit leads not to such rotten ground. He never prompts such arrogant conceits. The saintliest man increasingly sees evil cleaving, as the bark to trees—as feathers to the fowl. He knows no hope, but Jesus’ life, and Jesus’ death. This is the fire, which God prescribes. And this alone the child of God will bring”

Henry Law “Christ is all’.”

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XIX: Upon a Greek Accent

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Confession, Humility, Meditation, Repentance, William Spurstowe

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From William Spurstowe, The Spiritual Chymist, 1666. The prior post is this series is here.

Delphi (XIX)

Accents are by the Hebrews aptly called Sapores, tastes or savors that speech or [those] word without some observance of them are like Job’s white of an egg, without salt, insipid, and unpleasant. In the Greek they derive their name from the due tenor, or tuning of words, and in that tongue words are not pronounced according to the long or short vowels, but according to the accent set up on them, which directs the rise or fall, the length or brevity of their pronunciation.

Now, what accents are to Greek words, that methinks circumstances are to sins, which, as so many moral accents do fitly serve to show there just and certain dimensions, and teach us aright to discern how great or small they be. And he, that without respect had onto them, does judge of that bigness of sins, is like to error as much as a man that should take upon him, without mathematical instruments, to give it exactly the greatness of the heavenly bodies, and to pronounce of altitudes, distances, aspects, and other appearances, by the scanning of the eye.

Is this not the Scripture way to set out sin, by the place, time, continuance in it, and repetitions of it? They provoked him at the Red Sea, where they saw the mighty works of his power, and making the deep to be their path to Canaan, and the Egyptian’s grave. They tempted him in the wilderness, where their food, drink, clothes, were all made up by miracles. The clouds yielding them meat [their food], the dry rock water, and their garments not waxing old.

Does he not aggravate them, by the long space of their continuance in them, saying that they grieved him 40 years? Does he not number the times of their reiterated, murmurings and rebellions, and make it as a ground for his justice to destroy them?

Necessary therefore it is, that in the duty of self-examination, and reviews of the book of conscience, we do not only read over the naked facts which have been done by us, but that we look into those apices peccati, little dots and tittles which are set up on the head of many sins(the circumstances I mean with which they are committed) or else we shall never read that book aright, or learn to know what sins are great or what small. The fact and circumstances are both noted in the journals of conscience, though they be not equally legible. And he that is truly penitent will make it a chief part of his work to find out one as well as the other, as being the best means both to get the heart broken for and from sin.

What shame? What fear? What carefulness? What revenge will a serious sight of the several aggravations that meet in the interpretation of a sin move up and stir the heart of the sinner? Will he not say, what a beast am I to sin against so clear a light? To break so often my own vows, to defer so long my repentance and rising again? What revenge shall I now take of myself to witness my indignation? What carefulness shall I exercise to evidence the truth of my return? With diligence shall I use to redeem my lost time, who have joined the morning of the task and the evening of the day together? These, and such like thoughts, will sin, when it is read as it is written, and accented in the conscience produce.

But a general knowledge and sight of it, without such particularities, will neither make nor leave any impressions but what they are both slight and confused.

Do thou therefore, holy God,
teach me to understand the errors of my ways aright,
And by the light of thy Spirit
Make me to see that circumstances in sins are not motes, but beams,
and greatly intend their guilt — if not their bulk.
That so I may mourn for those sins which carnal men conceive to be but so many black nothings;
And abhor myself for those corruptions in which they indulge themselves.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XV

18 Tuesday Aug 2015

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Upon Spiritual and Bodily Sickness

The soul has it’s maladies as well as the body; and such that for their likeness to them, do often borrow their names from them.

Pride is a timpani; avarice, a dropsy; security, a lethargy; lust a calenture; apostasy an epilepsy. And yet though these names of bodily diseases to happily serve to point out and shadow the nature of the spiritual. How wide is the difference between the patients of one and of the other, in regard of those qualities which may dispose them for a cure and recovery out of them.

In the diseases of the body it matters not whether the patient know the name of his disease, or understand the virtue of the medicines which are prescribed, or be able to judge of the increase, height, and declination of his distemper by the beatings of his pulse. The whole businesses is managed by the care and wisdom of the physician, who oft times conceals the danger on purpose, lest fear and fancy should work than his physic, and hinder the benefit of what he applies.

But in the maladies of the soul is far otherwise. The first step onto spiritual health is the distinct and clear insight of sin: which makes men to understand the plague of their own hearts. Christ heals by light, as well as by influence. He first convinces them of sin, and then he gives the pardon. He discovers the disease to them, and then it ministers the medicine.

Ignorance is a bar to the welfare of the soul (though not of the body) and makes the divine remedies to have as little effect upon it, as purges or cordials have upon the glasses and to which they’re put.

It is Solomon’s peremptory conclusion, that a soul without knowledge is not good, nor indeed can be, because it lacks a principle, which is this necessary to goodness as vision is a power to the eye to enable it to discern its object.

How can he ever value holiness who understands not what sin is? Or desire Savior, who is no sense of his needs?

O therefore blessed Lord
Do thou daily or open my eyes
that I may see myself to be among the sinners,
—and not among the righteous
Among the sick,
— and not among the whole:
That I may be so healed by thee
—who came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance,
nor to save the whole, but the sick.
Be thou my physician, and let me be thy patient,
Until thou makest me to say,
I am not sick,
Because thou hast forgiven me of all my iniquities.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation 7

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in William Spurstowe

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Upon a Sight of a Lily and a Violet

These two flowers brought to my mind a saying of Jerome to this effect, that it is better and more honorable to be a lily than a violet. Which, when stripped of its metaphorical clothing comes to this much, that, to be always pure is more commendable than to bear the blush of sin. Spotless innocence does far exceed the greatest penitence.

It is a truth beyond all controversy that innocence is worth more than any penitence.

Innocence being the only the robe of glory, that covered man when first created. If he had never divested himself of innocence, he would never have experienced shame or sorrow. For shame and sorrow are both passions that had their entrance into the world with sin — and shall in the same moment with sin die and expire.

But next to pure virgin purity from sin, the most desirable thing is true and unfeigned penitence for sin. For even though penitence cannot restore a man to his state without sin — time lost and innocence being two irrevocable things — yet it will (through God’s ordination) abundantly give him the capacity for mercy and pardon.

When Ephraim was struck upon his thigh and was ashamed because he bore the reproach of youth [Jeremiah 31:18-19], how earnestly did God remember him? Is Ephraim my dear son? When the Prodigal returns as a penitent, how affectionately did his father embrace him, falling on his neck and kiss him? How the father cuts off the son’s confession by speedily calling for the ring, the robe, the shoes to adorn him — and the fatted calf to feast him! [When we repent, how willingly God comes to receive us.]

O, blessed Lord! How willingly would I (who has nothing of the unspotted purity of the lily) partake plentifully of the tincture of the violet. How fain would I, who have a forehead [stubbornness] to commit sin before you, have a face to blush for sin done against you. My sins are as the sands of the sea for number — O, that my tears were as the water of the sea for abundance.

But who — but you — Lord can change me — a proud and unhallowed sinner — into a real and broken convert? That grace, by which mine whole person must be molded into a penitential frame, is altogether yours: heart, hand, eyes, tongue, cannot move in the least without you. They are lifeless members till you quicken them; yea, rebellious until you subdue them.

Do you therefore, by a powerful energy, fit every part for its proper duty.

Let my hand smite my breast, as the fountain and root from which all my iniquities do spring.

Let my tongue confess them,

my eye mourn for them,

my face, blush for them,

and my heart bleed for them.

Then shall I unfeigningly say and acknowledge,

My ruin is from my self, but in you is my help, O Lord!

Photo courtesy of Bill Gracey