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And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness.Richard Baxter,A Christian Directoiy: or, Sum ofPractical7heology, and Cases of Conscience, 11.1 (7he Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter [London: James Duncan, 1830], IV, 30).
It is a palpable error in those ministers who make such a disproportion between their preaching and their living that they will study hard to preach accurately and study little or not at all to live accurately. They are loath to misplace a word in their sermons, but they make nothing of misplacing their affections, words, or actions in the course of their lives.
As Satan slanders Christ to us, so he slanders us to ourselves. If thou be not so much as smoking flax, then why dost thou not renounce thy interest in Christ and disclaim the covenant of grace? This thou darest not do. Why dost thou not give up thyself wholly to other enjoyments? This thy spirit will not suffer thee.
The devil is a great student in divinity and makes no other use of his Scripture knowledge than may serve his turn by sophistry to do the Christian a mischief, either by drawing him into sin or into despair for sinning, like some wrangling barrister who gets what skill he can in the law merely to make him the more able to put honest men to trouble by his vexatious suit.
The Christian wrestles not with his naked corruptions, but with Satan in them. Were there no devil, yet we should have our hands full in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts, but the access of this enemy makes the battle more terrible because he heads them, who is a captain so skillful and experienced. Our sin is the engine, Satan is the engineer; lust the bait, Satan the angler. When a soul is enticed by his own lusts, he is said to be tempted (James 1:14) because both Satan and our own lusts concur to the completing the sin.
Many have yielded to go a mile with Satan that never intended to go two, but when once on the way have been allured further and further, till at last they know not how to leave his company.
In handling this point of Satan's subtlety, we shall consider him in his two main designs and therein show you his wiles and policies. His first main design is to draw into sin. The second is to accuse, vex, and trouble the saint for sin.
Watchful and suspicious ought we to be in spiritual concernments. We should study and be acquainted with Satan's wiles and policy. The apostle takes it for granted that Christians are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor. 2:11). "The serpent's eye," as one saith, "would do well in the dove's head." The devil is a cunning pirate; he puts out false colors and ordinarily comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend.
God had but one Son without corruption, but He had none without temptation (Heb. 2:17–18). Pirates make the fiercest assaults upon those vessels that are most richly laden; so doth Satan upon those souls that are most richly laden with treasures of grace, with the riches of glory. Pirates let empty vessels pass and repass without assaulting them; so doth Satan let souls that are empty of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, of grace pass and repass without tempting or assaulting of them.
Satan's masterpiece is first to work Christians to blot and blur their evidences for glory by committing this or that heinous sin, and then his next work is to rob them of their evidences for glory that so, though at the long run they may get safe to heaven, that yet Jacob-like they may go halting and mourning to their graves. Satan knows that whilst a Christian's evidences are bright and shining, a Christian is temptation proof. Satan may tempt him, but he cannot conquer him; he may assault him, but he cannot vanquish him.
I know not how it is with other persons, but the most reverent preacher who speaks as if he saw the face of God does more affect my heart, though with common words, than an irreverent man with the most accurate preparations, though he bawl it out with ever so much seeming earnestness. If reverence be not equal to fervency, it has but little effect. Of all preaching in the world, I hate that most which tends to make the hearers laugh or to affect their minds with such levity as stage plays do instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.
Hear, if possible, that minister that first feels what he speaks and so speaks what he feels, as tends most to make you feel.
Conceive of this duty of praising God according to its superlative excellencies as being the highest service that the tongue of men or angels can perform. To bless or praise or magnify God is not to make Him greater or better or happier than He is, but to declare and extol His greatness, goodness, and felicity. Practical Works
Use sin, as it will use you. Spare it not, for it will not spare you. It is your murderer and the murderer of the world; use it therefore as a murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you, and then though it kill your bodies, it shall not be able to kill your souls. And though it bring you to the grave, as it did your head, it shall not be able to keep you there.
Engage thyself in the cheerful, constant use of the means and helps appointed by God for thy confirmation and salvation. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be persuaded to use the means. Of yourselves you can do nothing. God giveth His help by the means which He hath appointed and fitted to your help.
Love is the commander of the soul, and therefore God knows that if He has our hearts, He has all, for all the rest are at His command; for it is, as it were, the nature of the will, which is the commanding faculty, and its object is the ultimate end which is the commanding object. Love sets the mind on thinking, the tongue on speaking, the hands on working, the feet on going, and every faculty obeys its command.
Remember that as it is Christ's work to teach, it is yours to hear and read and study and pray and practice what you hear. Do your part, then, if you expect the benefit. You come not to the school of Christ to be idle. Knowledge drops not into the sleepy dreamer's mouth. Dig for it, as for silver, and search for it in the Scriptures as for a hidden treasure.
How often have I heard a common drunkard, with tears, cry out against himself for his sin and yet go on in it? And how many gracious persons have I known whose judgments and wills have been groundedly resolved for God and holiness, and their lives have been holy, fruitful, and obedient, and yet could not shed a tear for sin nor feel any great sorrows or joys? If you judge of a man by his earnestness in some good moods and not by the constant tenor of his life, you will think many a hypocrite to be better than most saints.
Heaven is a state of perfect holiness and of a continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love and praise and holiness which are here to be attained they have no mind of, much less of that which is so much greater. The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.
Friendship must be cemented by piety. A wicked man can be no true friend.
How often have I found that human friendship is a sweet addition to our woe, a beloved calamity, an affliction which nature will not be without! Not because nature loves evil nor is wholly deceived in its choice, for there is good in friendship and delight in holy love, but because the good which is here accompanied with so much evil is the beginning of a more high and durable friendship and points us to the blessed society and converse which we shall have with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Love God in His saints and delightfully converse with Christ in them while thou hast opportunity. But remember thou livest not upon them or on their love, but upon God. And therefore desire their company but for His; and if thou hast His, be content if thou hast not theirs. He wants not man that enjoys God.
A Christian in the holy assemblies and in his reading, learning, prayer, conference is laying up for everlasting, when the worldling in the market, in the field, or shop is making provision for a few days or hours. Thou gloriest in thy riches and preeminence now, but how long wilt thou do so?
Usually other causes go before this disease of melancholy (except in some bodies naturally prone to it), and therefore before I speak of the cure of it, I will briefly touch them. And one of the most common causes is sinful impatience, discontents and cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God, and trust in Him, and taking heaven for a satisfying portion. I must necessarily use all these words to show the true nature of this complicated disease of souls. The "ands" tell you that it is a conjunction of many sins, which in themselves are of no small malignity; and were they the predominant bent and habit of heart and life, they would be the signs of a graceless state. But while they are hated and overcome not grace, but our heavenly portion is more esteemed, chosen, and sought than earthly prosperity, the mercy of God through Christ doth pardon it and will at last deliver us from all.
Judge not of so great a cause in a time of melancholy, when fears and confusions make you unfit. But in such a case as that, as also whenever Satan would disturb your settled faith or tempt you at his pleasure to be still new questioning resolved cases and discerned truths, abhor his suggestions and give them no entertainment in your thoughts, but cast them back into the tempter's face. There is not one melancholy person of a multitude but is violently assaulted with temptations to blasphemy and unbelief when they have but half the use of reason and no composedness of mind to debate such controversies with the devil. It is not fit for them in this incapacity to hearken to any of those suggestions which draw them to dispute the foundations of their faith, but to cast them away with resolute abhorrence.
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1. Thomas Watson (190)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. Thomas Brooks (106)
6. J.I. Packer (93)
7. John Flavel (93)
8. William Gurnall (90)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. A.W. Pink (68)
13. Thomas Manton (67)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Matthew Henry (54)
20. Samuel Rutherford (53)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. Thomas Brooks (106)
6. J.I. Packer (93)
7. John Flavel (93)
8. William Gurnall (90)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. A.W. Pink (68)
13. Thomas Manton (67)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Matthew Henry (54)
20. Samuel Rutherford (53)
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1. Sin (230)2. Prayer (186)
3. Scripture (158)
4. Faith (134)
5. Preaching (129)
6. Gospel (112)
7. The Law (111)
8. Suffering (99)
9. Salvation (94)
10. Sabbath (91)
11. Church (85)
12. Christ (82)
13. Grace (74)
14. Justification (63)
15. Law (61)
16. Truth (53)
17. Death (52)
18. Love (51)
19. Holiness (48)
20. Sanctification (48)
21. Children (46)
22. Pride (46)
23. Heaven (45)
24. Obedience (45)
25. Creation (43)
26. Theology (43)