The Puritannical Blog

To his Reverend and Dear Father JOHN STAUPITZ, Professor of Sacred Theology, Vicar of the Augustinian Order, Brother Martin Luther, his pupil, sendeth greeting.

I remember, dear Father, that once, among those pleasant and wholesome talks of thine, with which the Lord Jesus ofttimes gives me wondrous consolation, the word poenitentia F86 was mentioned, We were moved with pity for many consciences, and for those tormentors who teach, with rules innumerable and unbearable, what they call a modus confitendi . F87 Then we heard thee say as with a voice from heaven, that there is no true penitence which does not begin with love of righteousness and of God, and that this love, which others think to be the end and the completion of penitence, is rather its beginning.

This word of thine stuck in me like a sharp arrow of the mighty, and from that time forth I began to compare it with the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began a joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than "penitence," though I was busy making pretences to God and trying to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no word which has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than "penitence." For God"s commands are sweet, when we find that they are to be read not in books alone, but: in the wounds of our sweet Savior.

After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this word is in Greek metanoia and is derived from meta and noun, i.e., post and mentem , F88 so that poenitentia or metanoia is a "coming to one"s senses," and is a knowledge of one"s own evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change in our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the theology of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can so aptly illustrate St. Paul.

Then I went on and saw that metanoia can be derived, though not without violence, not only from post and mentem , but also from trans and mentem , F89 so that metanoia signifies a changing F90 of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate not only a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it, i.e., the grace of God. For that "passing over of the mind, F91 which is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the Scriptures.

Christ has displayed the true significance of that old word "Passover"; and long before the Passover, Abraham was a type of it, when he was called a "pilgrim," i.e., a "Hebrew," F92 that is to say, one, who "passed over" into Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos F93 learnedly explains. With this accords, too, the title of the Psalm in which Jeduthun, i.e., "the pilgrim," F94 is introduced as the singer.

Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial satisfactions F95 and laborious confession, because, forsooth, they had derived their idea from the Latin words poenitentiam agere , F96 which indicate an action, rather than a change of heart, and are in no way an equivalent for the Greek metanoia .

While this thought was boiling in my mind, suddenly new trumpets of indulgences and bugles of remissions began to peal and to bray all about us; but they were not intended to arouse us to keen eagerness for battle. In a word, the doctrine of true penitence was passed by, and they presumed to praise not even that poorest part of penitence which is called "satisfaction," F97 but the remission of that poorest part of penitence; and they praised it so highly that such praise was never heard before. Then, too, they taught impious and false and heretical doctrines with such authority (I wished to say "with such assurance") that he who even muttered anything to the contrary under his breath, would straightway be consigned to the flames as a heretic, and condemned to eternal malediction.

Unable to meet their rage half-way, I determined to enter a modest dissent, and to call their teaching into question, relying on the opinion of all the doctors and of the whole Church, that to render satisfaction is better than to secure the remission of satisfaction, i.e., to buy indulgences. Nor is there anybody who ever taught otherwise. Therefore, I published my Disputation; F98 in other words, I brought upon my head all the curses, high, middle and low, which these lovers of money (I should say "of souls") are able to send or to have sent upon me. For these most courteous men, armed, as they are, with very dense acumen, since they cannot deny what I have said, now pretend that in my Disputation I have spoken against the power of the Supreme Pontiff. F99 That is the reason, Reverend Father, why I now regretfully come out in public. For I have ever been a lover of my corner, and prefer to look upon the beauteous passing show of the great minds of our age, rather than to be looked upon and laughed at. But I see that the bean must appear among the cabbages, F100 and the black must be put with the white, for the sake of seemliness and loveliness.

I ask, therefore, that thou wilt take this foolish work of mine and forward it, if possible, to the most Excellent Pontiff, Leo X, where it may plead my cause against the designs of those who hate me. Not that I wish thee to share my danger! Nay, I wish this to be done at my peril only. Christ will see whether what I have said is His or my own; and without His permission there is not a word in the Supreme Pontiff"s tongue, nor is the heart of the king in his own hand. He is the Judge whose verdict I await from the Roman See.

As for those threatening friends of mine, I have no answer for them but that word of Reuchlin"s " "He who is poor fears nothing; he has nothing to lose." Fortune I neither have nor desire; if I have had reputation and honor, he who destroys them is always at work; there remains only one poor body, weak and wearied with constant hardships, and if by force or wile they do away with that (as a service to God), they will but make me poorer by perhaps an hour or two of life. Enough for me is the most sweet Sayior and Redeemer, my Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom I shall always sing my song; if any one is unwilling to sing with me, what is that to me? Let him howl, if he likes, by himself.

The Lord Jesus keep thee eternally, my gracious Father! Wittenberg, Day of the Holy Trinity, MDXVIII.

Labels: Martin Luther

After that arch-persecutor, Gardiner, was dead, others followed, of whom Dr. Morgan, bishop of St. David's, who succeeded Bishop Farrar, is to be noticed. Not long after he was installed in his bishoipric, he was stricken by the visitation of God; his food passed through the throat, but rose again with great violence. In this manner, almost literally starved to death, he terminated his existence.

Bishop Thornton, suffragan of Dover, was an indefatigable persecutor of the true Church. One day after he had exercised his cruel tyranny upon a number of pious persons at Canterbury, he came from the chapter-house to Borne, where as he stood on a Sunday looking at his men playing at bowls, he fell down in a fit of the palsy, and did not long survive.

After the latter, succeeded another bishop or suffragen, ordained by Gardiner, who not long after he had been raised to the see of Dover, fell down a pair of stairs in the cardinal's chamber at Greenwich, and broke his neck. He had just received the cardinal's blessing-he could receive nothing worse.

John Cooper, of Watsam, Suffolk, suffered by perjury; he was from private pique persecuted by one Fenning, who suborned two others to swear that they heard Cooper say, 'If God did not take away Queen Mary, the devil would.' Cooper denied all such words, but Cooper was a Proestant and a heretic, and therefore he was hung, drawn and quartered, his property confiscated, and his wife and nine children reduced to beggary. The following harvest, however, Grimwood of Hitcham, one of the witnesses before mentioned, was visited for his villainy: while at work, stacking up corn, his bowels suddenly burst out, and before relief could be obtained, her died. Thus was deliberate perjury rewarded by sudden death!

In the case of the martyr Mr. Bradford, the severity of Mr. Sheriff Woodroffe has been noticed-he rejoiced at the death of the saints, and at Mr. Rogers' execution, he broke the carman's head, because he stopped the cart to let the martyr's children take a last farewell of him. Scarcely had Mr. Woodroffe's sheriffalty expired a week, when he was struck with a paralytic affection, and languished a few days in the most pitable and helpless condition, presenting a striking contrast to his former activity in the cause of blood.

Ralph Lardyn, who betrayed the martyr George Eagles, is believed to have been afterward arraigned and hanged in consequence of accusing himself. At the bar, he denounced himself in these words: "This has most justly fallen upon me, for betraying the innocent blood of that just and good man George Eagles, who was here condemned in the time of Queen Mary by my procurement, when I sold his blood for a little money."

As James Abbes was going to execution, and exhorting the pitying bystanders to adhere steadfastly to the truth, and like him to seal the cause of Christ with their blood, a servant of the sheriff's interrupted him, and blasphemously called his religion heresy, and the good man a lunatic. Scarcely however had the flames reached the martyr, before the fearful stroke of God fell upn the hardened wretch, in the presence of him he had so cruelly ridiculed. The man was suddenly seized with lunacy, cast off his clothes and shoes before the people, (as Abbes had done just before, to distribute among some poor persons,) at the same time exclaiming, "Thus did James Abbes, the true servant of God, who is saved by I am damned." Repeating this often, the sheriff had him secured, and made him put his clothes on, but no sooner was he alone, than he tore them off, and exclaimed as before. Being tied in a cart, he was conveyed to his master's house, and in about half a year he died; just before which a priest came to attend him, with the crucifix, etc., but the wretched man bade him take away such trumpery, and said that he and other priests had been the cause of his damnation, but that Abbes was saved. [Foxes Book of Martyrs]

Then the Interpreter took him, and led him up towards the door of the
palace; and behold, at the door stood a great company of men, as desirous to
go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at a little distance from the
door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the
names of them that should enter therein; he saw also that in the doorway
stood many men in armor to keep it, being resolved to do to the men that
would enter, what hurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat
in amaze. At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men,
Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat
there to write, saying, "Set down my name, sir;" the which when he had done,
he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet on his head, and rush
towards the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force;
but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most
fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those that
attempted to keep him out, Matt. 11:12; Acts 14:22; he cut his way through
them all, and pressed forward into the palace; at which there was a pleasant
voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the
top of the palace, saying,


"Come in, come in

Eternal glory thou shalt win." [John Bunyan]

WE ought not to set up our rest in low degrees of grace; or content ourselves to be like others in grace. We should labor (if it be possible) to go beyond all others in grace. It did not satisfy Job that he had gotten to such a degree, to such a frame and temper of heart, to such a course of holiness, as his neighbors or brethren that were good, had attainted unto, but he labored to go beyond them all; Not such a man upon the earth as Job. It is an holy ambition to labor to exceed all other in grace and goodness. We have a great many in the world that desire to be so rich, as none should be like them; to be so gay in their apparel, as none should be like them, so beautiful, as none should be like them; but where are they that desire and Endeavour to have such a portion or stock of grace, that none should be like them, to be above others in holiness, as Job was? True grace never rests in any degrees or measures of grace, but labors to increase; he that hath any grace would have more; do not think it enough when you like others, you ought to labor to be beyond others. [Joseph Caryl]

Labels: Joseph Caryl

IT will be so between man and man. If one has wronged you, and you have pardoned him, you expect that he should do what he can for you. It should be thus with you and God. You have wronged God, others have sinned as well as you, and other's sins have been furthered by you. This now should inflame your hearts. "I have sin enough in myself, and I have been the cause of it in thousands and thousands of sins in others. My sin strikes at God, yes, and I have caused others to sin and strike against God. Now, if I could draw some from sin, I should thin it the happiest thing in the world. I would creep upon my hands and knees to draw others from sin to God, to e in love with the ways of God and of religion.

Oh, you who have been forward in sin, don't think enough that you now are troubled for your sin and leave them. But know that you must do for God now as much as you have done against Him. He requires it of you. Oh, go to your friends, acquaintances, and relatives. Labor to drawer them off sin. Tell your kindred, friends, and acquaintances, "Oh brother, if you only knew what sin means. Oh, sister, if you only understood what it is to sin against God! God has showed me in some measure. Yes, I, who went on in such and such sins, now see how I struck at God what an evil this is. Oh, that God would enlighten your eyes. Come and hear the Word. I thought lightly of sin before, now I have gone and hard, and God has showed me what it was. Oh, that God would make you see."

Pray for them, and do not take any "nays," but go to them again and again, that so you may do something for God as you have done an abundance of wrong against God. [Jeremiah Burroughs]

The world, indeed, seems to be weary of the just, righteous, holy ways of God, and of that exactness in walking according to His institutions and commands which it will be one day known that He doth require. But the way to put a stop to this declension is not by accommodating the commands of God to the corrupt courses and ways of men. The truths of God and the holiness of His precepts must be pleaded and defended, though the world dislike them here and perish hereafter. His law must not be made to lackey after the wills of men, nor be dissolved by vain interpretations, because they complain they cannot — indeed, because they will not — comply with it. Our Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, and to supply men with spiritual strength to fulfill them also. [John Owen]

Labels: John Owen

My Dear and Worthy Sister- You are truly blessed in the Lord, however a sour world gloom and frown on you, if you continue in the faith settled and grounded, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel. It is good that there is a heaven, and it is not a night-dream and a fancy. It is a wonder that men deny not there is a heaven, as they deny there is any to it but of men's making. You have learned of Christ that there is a heaven; and contend for it and for Christ. Bear well and submissively the hard thrust of this stepmother world, which God will not have to be yours. I confess it is hard, and, would to God, I were able to lighten your burden; but believe me, this world which the Lord will not have to be yours, is but the dross, refuse, and scum of God's creation, the portion of the Lord's poor hired servants, the moveables not the heritage, a hard bone cast to the dogs holden out of the New Jerusalem, whereupon they rather break their teeth than satisfy their appetite. It is your father's blessing and Christ's birthright that our Lord is keeping for you; and persuade yourself also that (if it be good for them and you) your seed also shall inherit the earth, for that is promised to them, and God's bond is as good as if He would give very one of them a bond for thousand thousands.

Ere ye were born crosses in number, measure and weight, were written for you; and your Lord will lead you through them. Make Christ sure, and the world and the blessings of the earth shall be at Christ's back and beck. I see many professors for the fashion; professors of glass; I would make a little knock of persecution ding them in twenty pieces, and the world would laugh at the shreds. Therefore, make fast work; see that Christ be the ground-stone of your profession. The sore wind and rain will not wash away His building; His work hath no less date than to stand evermore. I should twenty times have perished in my affliction, if I had not laid my weak back and pressing burden, both, upon the Stone, the Corner-stone laid in Zion. I am not twice fain (as the proverb is), but once for ever, of this Stone. Now the God of peace establish you to the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ.

Yours,
S.R.[Samuel Rutherford]

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

Broken. Tyndale renders it a troubled heart; but I think that there is more in it. I take it therefore, to be a heart disabled, as to former actions even as a man whose bones are broken is disabled as to his ways of running, leaping, wrestling, or ought else, which vainly he was wont to do; wherefore that which was called a broken heart in the text, he calls his broken bones in verse the eighth: "Cause me," saith he, "to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." (Ps. 51:8) And why is the breaking of the heart compared to the breaking of the bones, but because,, as when the bones are broken the outward man is disabled as to what it was wont to do, so when the spirit is broken, the inward man is disabled as to what vanity and folly it before delighted in? Hence feebleness is joined with this brokenness of heart. "I am feeble" saith he, "and sore broken" (Psa 38:8). I have lost my strength and my former vigour as to vain and sinful courses.

This, then it is to have the heart broken; namely to have it lamed, disabled, and taken off by a sense of God's wrath due to sin from that course of life it formerly was conversant in; and to show this work is no fancy, nor done but with great trouble to the soul, it is compared to putting the bones out of joint, the breaking of the bones, the burning of the bones with fire, or as the taking of the natural moisture from the bones, the vexing of the bones etc. (Psa 22:14; Jer 20:9; Lam 1:13; Psa 6:2; Prov 17:22). All which are expressions adorned with such similitudes as do undeniably declare that to sense and feeling a broken heart is a grievous thing.
[John Bunyan]

Take example from him in doing evil, how to do good; we may take example thus far from Satan, to be as forward to do good, as he is to do hurt, to be as watchful against him as he is watchful against us. If this be his business to go to and fro through the earth, and his intent be to devour souls, then where ever we go in the world up and down, we ought to be careful to keep our own souls, and gain the souls of others. [Joseph Caryl]

Labels: Joseph Caryl

Amazed at sightless whirring of their wheels,

Confounded with the recklessness and strife,

Distract with fears of what may next ensue,

Some break rude exit from the house of life,

And plunge into a silence out of view--

Whence not a cry, no wafture once reveals

What door they have broke open with the knife.



Help me, my Father, in whatever dismay,

Whatever terror in whatever shape,

To hold the faster by thy garment's hem;

When my heart sinks, oh, lift it up, I pray;

Thy child should never fear though hell should gape,

Not blench though all the ills that men affray

Stood round him like the Roman round Jerusalem.



Too eager I must not be to understand.

How should the work the master goes about

Fit the vague sketch my compasses have planned?

I am his house--for him to go in and out.

He builds me now--and if I cannot see

At any time what he is doing with me,

'Tis that he makes the house for me too grand.



The house is not for me--it is for him.

His royal thoughts require many a stair,

Many a tower, many an outlook fair,

Of which I have no thought, and need no care.

Where I am most perplexed, it may be there

Thou mak'st a secret chamber, holy-dim,

Where thou wilt come to help my deepest prayer.



I cannot tell why this day I am ill;

But I am well because it is thy will--

Which is to make me pure and right like thee.

Not yet I need escape--'tis bearable

Because thou knowest. And when harder things

Shall rise and gather, and overshadow me,

I shall have comfort in thy strengthenings.





How do I live when thou art far away?--

When I am sunk, and lost, and dead in sleep,

Or in some dream with no sense in its play?

When weary-dull, or drowned in study deep?--

O Lord, I live so utterly on thee,

I live when I forget thee utterly--

Not that thou thinkest of, but thinkest me. [From Diary of an old Soul--George MacDonald]

At this day, the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God.[John Calvin]

Labels: John Calvin

"The foundation of the Christian's peace is everlasting; it is what no time, no change, can destroy. It will remain when the body dies; it will remain when the mountains depart and the hills shall be removed, and when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll. The fountain of his comfort shall never be diminished, and the stream shall never be dried. His comfort and joy is a living spring in the soul, a well of water springing up to everlasting life." [Johnathon Edwards]

Labels: Johnathan Edwards

Sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to thy bed-side, and draw aside the curtains and say, "Courage, I am thy salvation.” That to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited by God. Worthy and dear lady, in the strength of Christ, fight and overcome. You are now alone, but you may have, for the seeking, three always in your company, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I trust they are near you. You are now deprived of the comfort of a lively ministry; so were Israel in their captivity; yet hear God’s promise to them: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries where they shall come,"[Ezek 11.16]. Behold a sanctuary! For a sanctuary, God himself, in the place and room of the temple of Jerusalem: I trust in God, that carrying this temple about with you, you shall see Jehovah's beauty in his house [Samuel Rutherford]

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

Water in the glass looks clear, but set it on the fire, and the scum boils up. In prosperity, a man seems to be humble and thankful, the water looks clear; but set this man a little on the fire of affliction, and the scum boils up, much impatience and unbelief appear. [Thomas Watson]

Labels: Thomas Watson

Truly I think you are at no disadvantage to be in a retired condition as at this day; neither be troubled for want of work; for if you be spared to see the good that He shall do for his people, you shall have work enough. He, it may be, is preparing you for it; for you know in your experience it has been good for you that you have been afflicted, and if things had have gone as you and I would have had them going, we would never have done well. It is hard indeed to submit to His disposal, and to judge it fitter that He carve out our lot than that we ourselves do it; but He will order it, whether we choose or refuse. Now the Lord be with you, and work all his good pleasure in you. [John Welwood]

If men only knew God, it would be enough to keep them from sin, and there is a notable place in 1 John 2:4, He that saith I know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. If there is any man in the congregation who says he knows God and does not keep His commandments, he lies, says the Holy Ghost. What, do you know God, man or woman? Sinner, man or woman, do you know God, that infinite, glorious, eternal God with whom you have to do? And do you not keep His commandments, but go on in ways of sin? Certainly you are a liar.

It may be that many of you are apt to say, "We know God. Why do we need to have so much of God preached?"

If you say that you know God and do not keep His commandments, you are a liar. But now join these together: knowing what a glorious God this is, and how sin works against God.

Some know somewhat of God's attributes and can discourse of Him yet, perhaps, never knew before sin made against this God. This is what people fail in. Certainly both together has not been known by most people. I remember a speech I read of a German divine upon his sickbed. He cries out thus: "in this disease I have learned what sin is, and how great he majesty of God is." These two together will make men understand that they never considered before what their lives are and how people go on in a resolute, inconsiderate way. They do not know what they do, nor do they know what God is. Therefore, we pray as Christ in another case. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Poor creatures, they do not know what they do. They never imagined what the greatness of the glory of God is. [Jeremiah Burroughs--Evil of Evils]

I am now conflicting with my last adversary, though I believe the sting is taken out. Nature will struggle, but I humbly submit to the good pleasure of God, I hardly beg the pardon of my many sins, especially for the lack of hard work. Unfaithfulness in my public and private duties, hoping to be washed with Christ''s blood, and desiring to be translated out of this restless condition. I expect daily, yeah hourly, to be translated into that everlasting rest, which God has prepared for those who are in Christ, and So I pray that God would bless you and His entire ministry everywhere. [Thomas Gataker-divine]

"Here are three whites: the white of honor is good, the white of peace and joy is very good, the white of glory is best of all; that is the answer of all our prayers, and that is the issue of all our working; then we shall have as much as we can hold forever." [Joseph Caryl from his farewell sermon.]

Labels: Joseph Caryl

And is it well done, then, to repine and droop because your Father consults more the advantage of your souls than the pleasing of your humors? Because He will bring you a nearer way to heaven than you are willing to go? Is this a due requital of His love, who is pleased so much to concern Himself for your welfare? This is more than He will do for thousands in the world, upon whom He will not lay a rod or send an affliction for their good (Hosea 4:17; Matthew 15:14). But alas! We judge by sense, and reckon things good or evil according to what we, for the present, can taste and feel in them.[John Flavel]

Labels: John Flavel

Now then, my brethren, this is the close of this sermon for the present. I beseech you, while we are preaching over this large sermon of Jesus Christ, do you apprehend the eyes of Jesus Christ are upon you all. Why should we not apprehend it so now as well as then, when Christ saith, He that heareth you hears me? It is the sermon that Christ preached himself; and as he lift up his eyes upon his auditors at that time, so do you know that Jesus Christ lifts up his eyes upon you all, and his eyes will be upon every heart all the while his sermon shall be preached. Oh, Christ comes into the congregation to look upon this man and the other man, to see how they will entertain his word; and if you will but remember this one note all along as we go, it will be of very great use to you—remember the eyes of Jesus Christ will be upon you, and looks upon your behaviour all the while. [Jeremiah Burroughs]

What have you to do here? This world never looked like a friend upon you; you owe it little love; it looked ever so sour-like upon you: howbeit you should woo it, it will not match with you; and therefore, never seek warm fire under cold ice. This is not a field where your happiness growth; it is up above, where there are a great multitude which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds, and people and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothes with white robes, and palms in their hands. (Rev 7:9) What you could never get here you shall find there. And withal, consider how, in all these trials (and truly they have been many), your Lord hath been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God's sake, let him not miss his grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith. [ From the letters of Samuel Rutherford

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus. I am the wheat of Christ: I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread. " [[Ignatius-Martyr]

Put on courage in these sad times; brave times for the chosen soldiers of Jesus Christ to show their courage into; brave times, offering brave opportunities for showing forth the braveness of spirit in suffering; that love, that loyalty, that meekness, that patience, and every Christian virtue, that cannot be shown forth in not suffering times.[John Dick]

"Brother, I am glad, (and you may think it strange) that Satan and his instruments love you not; for it is a token that you are none of theirs. I am glad that the Lord is encouraging you, and that you have the love of His people; the Lord help you to walk humbly, watchfully and thankfully with God. As for that work, I wish that the Lord may continue it and increase it, and make you instrumental in your station therein. Be not high minded, but fear, for there maybe storms before you. The eyes of God, angels, Satan the wicked, the godly and of your own conscience are upon you; your soul and the honour of God are at stake; therefore be watchful. But if you be diffident of yourself, and your own strength, and trust in Him in who is everlasting strength, keeping near him by faith, he will carry you through." [John Welwood to Richard Cameron]

"When you and I become weak, and are depressed in spirit, and our soul passes through the valley of the shadow of death, it is often on account of others. One Sabbath morning, I preached from the text, ''My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?'' and though I did not say so, yet I preached my own experience. I heard my own chains clank while I tried to preach to my fellow-prisoners in the dark; but I could not tell why I was brought into such an awful horror of darkness, for which I condemned myself. On the following Monday evening, a man came to see me who bore all the marks of despair upon his countenance. His hair seemed to stand up right, and his eyes were ready to start from their sockets. He said to me, after a little parleying, ''I never before, in my life, heard any man speak who seemed to know my heart. Mine is a terrible case; but on Sunday morning you painted me to the life, and preached as if you had been inside my soul.'' By God''s grace I saved that man from suicide, and led him into gospel light and liberty; but I know I could not have done it if I had not myself been confined in the dungeon in which he lay. I tell you the story, brethren, because you sometimes may not understand your own experience, and the perfect people may condemn you for having it; but what know they of God''s servants? You and I have to suffer much for the sake of the people of our charge ... You may be in Egyptian darkness, and you may wonder why such a horror chills your marrow; but you may be altogether in the pursuit of your calling, and be led of the Spirit to a position of sympathy with desponding minds"[C.H. Spurgeon--All round ministry

December 13th, 1675 Brother, you have the honour to be persecuted for righteousness; have a care, be not lifted up; for there may be several trials before your hand. If you keep near him, all is well. You know, all that go heavenward are wrestlers, and through many tribulations we must enter. All things are ebbing and flowing, but God is ever the same, and he alters folks lot, and makes them to have changes, that they may build there hope and happiness on the Rock of Ages. Your heart will fail, and your flesh will fail but your God will never fail you. He will be with you, as long as you are with Him. [Letter of John Welwood to Richard Cameron]

Let others be wise to their own destruction; let them establish their own imaginations for the word of God, and rule of their faith; hold you fast what you have received, and contend earnestly for it; add nothing, and diminish nothing. Let this lamp shine till the day dawn, till the morning of the resurrection, and walk ye in the light of it, and do not kindle any other sparkles, else ye shall lie down in the grave in sorrow, and rise in sorrow [[Hugh Binning]

Man is made to be a friend, and apt for friendly offices. He that is not friendly is not worthy to have a friend, and he that hath a friend doth not show himself friendly, is not worthy to be accounted a man. Friendship is a kind of life, without which there is no comfort of a manslife. Christian friendship ties such a knot that great Alexander cannot cut. Summer friends I value not, but winter friends are worth their weight in gold; and who can deny such anything, especially in these days, wherein real, faithful, constant friends are so rare to be found. there are some that are real friends, faithful friends, active friends, winter friends, bosom friends, fast friends; and for their sakes, especially those among them that have been long, very long under the smarting rod, and in the fiery furnace, and that have been often poured from vessel to vessel, have. Thomas Brooks Eipistle dedicatory to the Mute Christian under the smarting rod.]

Labels: Thomas Brooks

I thank you for your letter. I cannot but show you that as I never expected anything from Christ but much good and kindness, so he hath made me to find it in the house of my pilgrimage. And believe me brother, I give it to you under mine own hand-writ, that whoso looketh to the white side of Christ's cross, and can take it up handsomely with faith and courage, shall find it such a burden as sails are to ships or wings to a bird. I find that my Lord hath over-gilded that black tree, and hath perfumed it, and oiled it with joy and consolation. Like a fool, once I would chide and plead with Christ and slander him to others, of unkindness. But I trust in God not o call his glooms unkind again; for he hath taken from me sackcloth; and I verily cannot tell you what a poor Joseph and prisoner doth now think of kind Christ.I will chide no more, providing he will quit me all bygones; for I am poor, I am taught in this ill weather to go to the lee-side of Christ, and to put in between me and the storm; and (I thank God) I will on the sunny side of the brae. I write it that ye may speak on my behalf the praises of my Lord to others, that my bonds may preach. O, if all Scotland knew the feats and love-blinks and visits that the prelates have sent unto me, I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I, like a fool, laid to his charge and beg him pardon, to the mends. God grant that in my temptations I will come not on his wrong side again and never again fall a raving against my physician in my fever.[Samuel Rutherford]

Labels: Samuel Rutherford