The Puritannical Blog

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth,
no one can see the kingdom of God unless
he is born again." John 3:3

The change which our Lord here declares
needful to salvation is evidently no slight
or superficial one. It is not merely . . .
reformation,
or amendment,
or moral change,
or outward alteration of life.

It is a thorough change of . . .
heart,
will, and
character.

It is a resurrection.

It is a new creation.

It is a passing from death to life.

It is the implanting in our dead hearts
of a new principle from above.

It is the calling into existence
of a new creature, with . . .
a new nature,
new habits of life,
new tastes,
new desires,
new appetites,
new judgments,
new opinions,
new hopes,
and new fears.

All this, and nothing less than this is
implied, when our Lord declares that
we all need a "new birth."

Let us solemnly ask ourselves whether
we know anything of this mighty change.

Have we been born again?

Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us?

Is the image and superscription of the
Spirit to be discerned in our lives?

Happy is the man who can give satisfactory
answers to these questions! A day will come
when those who are not born again will wish
that they had never been born at all. [J.C. Ryle]

Poverty of spirit should accompany us all our life long to let us see that we have no righteousness nor strength of our own for sanctification; that all the grace we have is out of ourselves, even for the performance of every holy duty; for though we have grace, yet we cannot bring that grace into act without new grace, even as there is a fitness in trees to bear fruit, but without the influence of heaven they cannot be fruitful. That which oftentimes makes us miscarry in the duties of our callings is this, we think we have strength and wisdom sufficient, and then what is begun in self-confidence is ended in shame. We set about duties in our own pride and strength of parts, and find no better success; therefore it is always a good sign that God will bless our endeavors, when out of a deep sense of our own weakness, we in prayers and supplications like our Lord also water our business with strong crying and tears: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared" (Heb. 5:7). [Richard Sibbes]

Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment: for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; no easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste if he could be tempted; but of all employments, bodily labour is the most useful, and of the greatest benefit for driving away the Devil.[Jeremy Taylor]

Q. 65.9. What are the sins of ministers against their people?

A. The sins of ministers against their people are—1. Want of sincere and tender love to their souls, seeking more to receive earthly gain from them, than to do any good unto them. "I seek not yours, but you."—2 Cor 12:14. "His watchmen are blind; they are greedy dogs which can never have enough; they look every one for his gain from his quarter."—Isa 56:10. 2. Negligence in their prayers and studies for them, and in their preaching the word to them. "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine: neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."—1 Tim 4:13-14. 3. Unwatchfulness over them, unprofitableness in their discourse among them, unsuitableness of conversation unto their doctrine and profession, unteaching that by their lives which they teach in their pulpits. 4. Corrupting the word they preach, and infecting the minds of their people with erroneous opinions. "We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God."—2 Cor 2:17. [Thomas Vincent]

Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand the will and mind of God though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentaries and exposition. Pray and read, read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place. There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why the Christians in this day are at such a loss as to some things is that they are contented with what comes from men's mouths, without searching and kneeling before God to know of Him the truth of things. Things we receive at God's hands come to us as truths from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come with the smell of Heaven upon them. [John Bunyan]

Now go to, reader, and according to the order of Paul's writing [in Romans], even so do thou. First behold thyself diligently in the law of God, and see there thy just damnation. Secondarily, turn thine eyes to Christ, and see there the exceeding mercy of thy most kind and loving Father. Thirdly, remember that Christ made not this atonement that thou shouldest anger God again; neither cleansed he thee, that thou shouldest return (as a swine) unto thine old puddle again: but that thou shouldest be a new creature and live a new life after the will of God and not of the flesh. And be diligent lest through thine own negligence and unthankfulness thou lose this favor and mercy again. [William Tyndale]

I am glad that you have been acquainted, from your youth, with the wrestlings of God, being cast from furnace to furnace; knowing, if you were not dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of him, he would not spend as much physic upon you. All the brethren and sisters of Christ must be conformed to his image in suffering, Rom. viii.17, and some do more fully resemble the copy than others. [Samuel Rutherford]

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of fagots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. [John Newton]

Let men say what they will, or pick holes where they may, they will never succeed in disproving these facts. To the Reformation, Englishmen owe an English Bible, and liberty for every man to read it. To the Reformation, they owe the knowledge of the way of peace with God, and of the right of every sinner to go straight to Christ by faith, without bishop, priest, or minister standing in his way. To the Reformation, they owe a Scriptural standard of morality and holiness such as our ancestors never dreamed of. For ever let us be thankful for these inestimable mercies. [J.C.Ryle]

Dreadful are those descriptions in which Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habbakuk, and others, deplore the disorders of the church of Jerusalem. There was such general and extreme corruption in the people, in the magistrates, and in the priests, that Isaiah does not hesitate to compare Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah. Religion was partly despised, partly corrupted. Their manners were generally disgraced by thefts, robberies, treacheries, murders, and similar crimes. Nevertheless, the prophets on this account neither raised themselves new churches, nor built new altars for the oblation of separate sacrifices; but whatever were the characters of the people, yet because they considered that God had deposited his word among that nation, and instituted the ceremonies in which he was there worshipped, they lifted up pure hands to him even in the congregation of the impious. If they had thought that they contracted any contagion from these services, surely they would have suffered a hundred deaths rather than have permitted themselves to be dragged to them. There was nothing therefore to prevent their departure from them, but the desire of preserving the unity of the church. But if the holy prophets were restrained by a sense of duty from forsaking the church on account of the numerous and enormous crimes which were practiced-- not by a few individuals but almost by the whole nation -- it is extreme arrogance in us, if we presume immediately to withdraw from the communion of a church where the conduct of all members is not compatible either with our judgment, or even with the Christian profession. [John Calvin]

Labels: John Calvin

"O Lord, what evil have we not done? Or if there is evil that we have not done, what evil is there that we have not spoken? If there is any that we have not spoken, what evil is there that we have not thought to do? But you, O Lord, are good. You are merciful. You saw how deep we were sunk in death, and it was your power that drained dry the well of corruption in the depths of our hearts. All that You have asked of us was to deny our own wills and accept yours. Forgive us for every failure to do so and help us to follow You in every way and always, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." [Prayer by Augustine]

Labels: John Owen

In your letter, you mentioned friends who have left me. I would not think the world to be worldly if friends did not leave me. Using God's wisdom, I hope to use the world as an intelligent employer uses an untrustworthy employee. He does not trust him with money or anything important that he might steal. I pray to God that I will not trust this world with my joys, comforts, or confidence. If I did, it would put Christ out of His proper place in my heart. Indeed, Madam, from my few experiences I counsel you to give Christ the authority over all the business of your life. Fasten all your burdens on the Peg fastened in David's house (Isa. 22:23). Woe to me, if ever the world should teach me anything about consolation. Away, away, with any such false teachers. Christ then would laugh at me and say, "Now you're warned. Be careful who you trust."[Samuel Rutherford]

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

What shall I say of Christ? The excelling glory of that object dazzles all apprehension, swallows up all expression. When we have borrowed metaphors from every creature that has any excellency or lovely property in it, till we have stript the whole creation bare of all its ornaments, and clothed Christ with all that glory; when we have even worn out our tongues, in ascribing praises to Him, alas! We have done nothing, when all is done.

Look often upon Christ in this glass; He is fairer than the children of men. View Him believingly, and you cannot but like and love Him. 'For love, when it sees, cannot but cast out its spirit and strength upon amiable objects and things loveworthy.' And what fairer things than Christ! O fair sun, and fair moon, and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair lilies, and fair creatures! But, O ten thousand, thousand times fairer Lord Jesus! Alas, I wronged Him in making the comparison this way. O black sun and moon; but O fair Lord Jesus! O black flowers, and black lilies and roses; but O fair fair, ever fair Lord Jesus! O all fair things, black, deformed, and without beauty, when ye are set beside the fairest Lord Jesus! O black heaven, but O fair Christ! O black angels, but O surpassingly fair Lord Jesus.[John Flavel]

Labels: John Flavel

A righteous man is devoted to holiness. The priests under the law were not only washed in the great laver but also adorned with glorious apparel, Exodus 28:2, the emblem of a righteous man who is not only washed from gross sin, but adorned with inward sanctity. He is what he seems. He does not have holiness painted on him but living in him. It is said of Zachariah and Elizabeth that "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," Luke 1:6. A good Christian is God's temple. His body is the outward court of the temple and his soul the holy of holies. He is pure in heart, Matthew 5:8. His work is to serve God and his end is to enjoy Him. Man, having a principle of reason, must not live as a beast, and, having a principle of righteousness, he must not live as a sinner. He is not metamorphosed; "he lives godly," Titus 2:12. Christ is not only his Priest, but his Pattern. As he makes use of Christ's death for his salvation, so of Christ's life for his imitation. [Thomas Watson]

Labels: Thomas Watson

There are in the world many of the poor who yet are exceeding proud, but God sanctifies outward poverty to His children so that it promotes true poverty of spirit. As they are poor, so they have a mean esteem of themselves; it makes them inwardly more humble and more tractable to God's government. Therefore when we are under any cross let us observe how it works, see whether we join with God or not. When He afflicts us outwardly, whether inwardly we be more humble. When He humbles us and makes us poor, whether we become also poor in spirit. When God designs to humble us we should labor through grace to abase ourselves and mortify pride. [Richard Sibbes]

Ignorance is the mother of mistake, the cause of trouble, error, and of terror; it is the highway to hell, and it makes a man both a prisoner and a slave to the devil at once. Ignorance unmans a man; it makes a man a beast, yea, makes him more miserable than the beast that perisheth. There are none so easily nor so frequently taken in Satan's snares as ignorant souls. They are easily drawn to dance with the devil all day, and to dream of supping with Christ at night. [Thomas Brooks]

Labels: Thomas Brooks

I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian,that I have overcome this or that lust so long,that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace,so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. As long as powder is wet, it resists the spark; but when it becomes dry, it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that, if lawfully called through temptation, I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this! [Robert Murray M'Cheyne]

Satan usually keeps his greatest strength and most violent temptations unto the last. When he thinks we are at the weakest, then he commeth with the strongest assaults. If Satan had sent Job word of the death of his children first, all the rest would have been as nothing to him; he would not have regarded the loss of his cattle when he heard that all his Children were crushed to death by the fall of the house. As one great evil falling upon us, takes the heart off from having any sense and feeling of a lesser evil; that great evil which fell upon the Wife of Phineas, when she heard that the Ark of God was taken, afflicted her so extremely, that she could not at all rejoice in the birth of her son she had no sense of that. Here was therfore the cunning of Satan, lest Job should have lost the smart of the lesser afflictions, least they should have all been swallowed up in the greater, he brings them out in order, the least first, the greatest reserved for the last. We observe in war that when once the great Ordinace are discharged, the soldiers are not afraid of the musket; so when a great battery is made by some thundering terrible judgement upon the soul, or upon the body or the estate of any man; the noise and fears of lesser evils are drowned and abated. Therfore Satan keeps his greatest shot to the last, that the small might be heard and felt, and that he last coming in greater strength might find the least strength to resist it.

To lose all our children is as greivous as to lose an only child; Now that is made a cause of the highest sorrows, Zach 12:10. They shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for his only son; that is, they shall mourn most bitterly. Now as the measure of mercies may be taken by the comforts which they produce, so we may take the measure of an affliction by the sorrow which it produceth, and that is the greatest affliction that causes the greatest sorrow. [Joseph Caryl]

Labels: Joseph Caryl

Admitting fully that the foundations of Christian character are always the same and that all God's children repent, believe, are holy, prayerful and Scripture-loving, we must make allowances for wide varieties in their temperaments and habits of mind. We must not undervalue others because they are not exactly like ourselves. The flowers in a garden may differ widely, and yet the gardener takes an interest in them all. The children of a family may be curiously unlike one another and yet the parents care for all. It is even so with the Church of Christ. There are degrees of grace and varieties of grace; but the least, the weakest, the feeblest disciples are all loved by the Lord Jesus. Then let no believer's heart fail because of his infirmities and, above all, let no believer dare to despise and undervalue a brother.[J.C. Ryle]

By God's all-wise appointment, our assemblies are the food and the nourishment of our souls. It is the main way whereby we publicly identify with Christ and His Gospel. We evidence our love for Christ by our loyalty and support of one another in opposition to all false worship. Many things will rise up in competition to the diligent attendance of our assemblies. We must recognize and refuse to give into anything that is opposed to what Christ commands. The total falling away of a graceless professor always begins with this neglect, this disassociation with God's people.

The saints are the walking pictures of God. If God be our Father we shall love to see His picture of holiness in believers, shall pity them for their infirmities, but love them for their graces.It may justly be suspected that God is not Father of those who love not His children. Though they retain the communion of saints in their creed, they banish the communion of saints out of their company.[Thomas Watson]

Labels: Thomas Watson

"Oh, better were it for you to die in a jail, in a ditch, in a dungeon, than to die in your sins. If death, as it will take away all your comforts, would take away all your sins too, it were some mitigation; but your sins will follow you when your friends leave you, and all your worldly enjoyments shake hands with you. Your sins will not die with you as a prisoner's other debts will; but they will got to judgement with you there to be your accusers; and they will go to hell with you there to be your tormentors." [Joseph Alleine]

Brethren, sin is committed quickly. You have a temptation come, and you fall upon the sin and act upon it. The sin, the act of it, is transient and quickly gone. The guilt is that which sticks with you.

When a man or woman has satisfied their lust in a sinful way, the guilt sticks behind. Perhaps the time is gone, as far as the pleasure of it. Perhaps it was yesterday or such a night or time when you had the pleasure of it, but now the sin is gone (the pleasure of it) but the guilt sticks and that abides upon your spirit for all eternity, if you do not tend to it.

No, certainly, it must stick upon the spirit. It is not in the power of any creature in heaven or in earth to deliver you from it. The guilt so remains that, though you do not feel it now for the present, it may stick terribly for many years afterwards. But affliction is terrible only for the present, not for afterwards. Guilt and sin lay a foundation for misery for many years after. No, many times it is grievously painful to them long after it is committed, as it was in the case of Joseph's brothers.

We read of them that they committed that great sin against their brother, and it did not trouble them for long. But twenty two years after, when they were in affliction, the guilt of their sin came to them afresh when they were in prison. Now it was twenty two years after from the time they committed that sin to the time they were in trouble there!

So you who have committed sin and think some slight sorrow may wash it away, know that guilt may abide upon your spirits perhaps twenty, perhaps forty years after. And you who are young, take heed and know that sin is more evil than any affliction, for the sin that you commit when you are young may abide upon you, and youthful sins may prove to be the ages of terror.

It may be with you as with a man who gets a bruise. When he is young, he does not feel it, but when he is old, it aches in his bones and puts him in terrible pain many times. So many young people do not feel sin when their blood is hot, but afterwards, the guilt of sin abides upon them, and it is the torment of their souls when their blood is cold.[Jeremiah Burroughs]

1 Corinthians 10: 24. Let no man seek his own: But every man another's wealth.

The occasion of these words of the Apostle Paul, was because of the abuses which were in the Church of Corinth. Which abuses arose chiefly through swelling pride, self-love and conceitedness, for although this Church was planted by Paul and watered by Apollo, and much increased by the Lord; yet the sower of tares was not wanting to stir up evil workers and fleshly minded hypocrites, under a show of godliness, and with Angel-like holiness in appearance, to creep in amongst them to disturb their peace, try their soundness, and prove their constancy. And this the Apostle complains of very often: as first, in their carnal divisions, Chap. 1. then in their extolling their eloquent teachers, and despising Paul, Chap. 4. Then in their offensive going to Law, before the heathen Judges, Chap. 6. Then in eating things offered to Idols, to the destroying of the tender consciences of their Bretheren, Chap. 8. Then in their insatiable love-feasts, in the time and place of their Church meetings, the rich which could together feed to fulness, despising and condemning the poor, that had not to lay on it as they had, Chap. 11. Finally in both the Epistles, he very often nippeth then for their pride, and self-love, straitness and censoriousness, so that in the last Chapter he willeth them again and again to prove, try and examine themselves, to see whether Christ were in them or not, for howsoever many of them seemed, as thousands do at this day to soar aloft and go with full sail to Heaven: yet as men that row in Boats, set their Faces one way, when yet their whole body goeth apace another way: so there are many which set such a face upon Religion, and have their Mouth full of great swelling words: as if they would even blow open the doors of heaven, despising all humble minded and broken-hearted people, as weak, simple, etc. when yet notwithstanding, these Blusterers, which seem to go so fast, and leave all others behind them, if like these glosing Corinthians they carry affectedly their own glory with them, and seem thus to stand for the glory of God. What do they else but join flesh to spirit, serving not God for nought, but for wages, and so serving their bellies, whose end will be damnation, except a speedy and sound remedy be thought of, which Remedy is even that which our Savior teacheth the rich young gallant, and which Paul here prescribeth, in willing them not to seek their own, but every man another's wealth, which Physick is as terrible to carnal professors, as abstinence from drink is to a man that hath the dropsy; and it is a sure note, that a man is sick of this disease of self-love, if this be grievous to him as appeareth in the man whom Christ bid sell that he had, and he went away very sorrowful, yet surely this vein must be pricked, and this humor let out, else it will spoil all, it will infect both soul and body, yea, and the contagion of it is such as will even hazard the welfare of that society where self-seekers and self-lovers are. [Robert Cushman]

I know of no surer way of a people's perishing than by being led by one who does not speak out straight and honestly denounce evil. If the minister halts between two opinions, do you wonder that the congregation is undecided? If the preacher trims and twists to please all parties, can you expect his people to be honest? If I wink at your inconsistencies will you not soon be hardened in them? Like priest, like people. A cowardly preacher suits hardened sinners. Those who are afraid to rebuke sin, or to probe the conscience, will have much to answer for. May God save you from being led into the ditch by a blind guide. [Charles Spurgeon]

Consider the majesty of God with whom we have to do. He sees how it is with us in prayer, whether we are deeply affected with those things we pray for. "The king came in to see the guests" (Matt. 22:11). So when we go to pray, the King of glory comes in to see in what frame we are. He has a window which looks into our breasts, and if He sees a dead heart, He may turn a deaf ear. Nothing will sooner make God's anger wax hot than a cold prayer. [Thomas Watson]

Labels: Thomas Watson

I shall leave every man to his Judge, and shall judge nothing before the
time; and I wish every man to consider sadly and seriously, by what spirit
and principles he is led, and whether he be seeking the things of Christ, or
his own things; whether he be pleasing Christ; whether sin be more
shamed and holiness more advanced, this way or that way; which way is
the most agreeable to the Word of God, to the example of the best
reformed churches, and so to the _Solemn League and Covenant_. The
controversy is now hot: every faithful servant of Christ will be careful to
deliver his own soul by his faithfulness, and let the Lord do what seemeth
him good. The cause is not ours, but Christ's; it stands him upon his honour,
his crown, his laws, his kingdom. Our eyes are towards the Lord, and we
will wait for a divine decision of the business: "For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he will save us" [George Gillepsie]

Knowledge is man's excellency above the beasts that perish (Ps. 32:9). The knowledge of Christ is the Christian's excellency above the Heathen (1 Cor. 1:23, 24). Practical and saving knowledge of Christ is the sincere Christian's excellency above the self-cozening hypocrite (Heb. 6:4, 6). But methodical and well-digested knowledge of Christ is the strong Christian's excellency above the weak (Heb. 5:12, 13, 14). A saving, though an immethodical knowledge of Christ, will bring us to heaven (John 17:2) but a regular and methodical, as well as a saving knowledge of him, will bring heaven to us (Col. 2:2, 3). For such is the excellency thereof, even above all other knowledge of Christ, that it renders the understanding judicious, the memory tenacious, and the heart highly and fixedly joyous (1:21).[John Flavel]

Labels: John Flavel