Jul
25
Baxter: Lord, it belongs not to my care
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Here’s some potent verse from English Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1615-1691), who is generally better know for his prose than his poetry:
Lord, it belongs not to my care,
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve thee is my share,
And this thy grace must give.If life be long, I will be glad
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than he went through before;
He that unto God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.Come, Lord, when grace has made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;
For if thy work on earth be sweet,
What will thy glory be?Then shall I end my sad complaints,
And weary, sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing Jehovah’s praise.My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.
Jul
16
A word from our namesake
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Puritans | Leave a Comment
The Sweet Dropper is named for English Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). Read our tribute to Sibbes. These words come from Sibbes’ The Soul’s Conflict, and Victory over Itself by Faith:
It were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties. But to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have.
The words speak of the depravity of the heart and the deceitfulness of sin. It’s no easy or pleasant task to think rightly about our lives. Many of us may enjoy analyzing our problems, but are we doing so in the light of God’s Word? Perhaps we are analyzing our lives in a self-serving, self-justifying way. We replay the mental DVD of wrongs committed against us. We sooth ourselves with arguments that hide the truth and shift the blame to others. None of us wants to acknowledge things about ourselves that we would rather deny. How do you learn to see straight when something inside is bending in the wrong direction? My old campus minister, Hal Farnsworth, is fond of asking people, “If you were deceiving yourself, would you know it?”
Join me in asking God to overthrow self-righteousness–yours and mine. Ask the Spirit to help you have “other thoughts of yourself” and to see clearly the grace of Christ Jesus coming to you in your sin and misery. Face up, and find mercy.
Feb
20
Bespangled with Gracious Promises
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“Blessed be God for the revelation of the covenant of grace, wherein life and salvation is freely provided and offered to fallen man through the obedience and satisfaction of the second Adam. Well may it be called a covenant of grace: for it came from the rich and free grace of God, as its true spring; it is all bespangled with gracious promises, as the heavens are with stars; and all the blessings contained in it are gratuitous and free, such as men cannot plead any right or title unto by any merit or works of their own.”
-Thomas Boston, The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Thomas Boston (1853; repr., Tentmaker Publications: Stokes-on-Trent, 2002), 1:241.
Nov
2
The Glorious Wisdom of God
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I was reading Thomas Boston this morning on the wisdom of God. Reflecting on the different ways that God’s wisdom is expressed, Boston pauses to point out the particular divine wisdom of the plan of redemption. He explains this wisdom by the wonder of apparent contradictions. I was awed again at the tremendous wisdom and love of God in sending the Lord Jesus Christ as mediator. I certainly would not have written a plan of redemption like the glorious one recorded in the pages of the Bible. Boston describes it this way:
“Thus eternal life springs from death, glory from ignominy, and blessedness from a curse. We are healed by stripes, quickened by death, purchased by blood, crowned by a cross, advanced to the highest honor by the lowest humility, comforted by sorrows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and made rich by poverty. Thus the wisdom of God shines with a radiant brightness in the work of redemption.” -Thomas Boston, Works: Vol 1, 88.
Mar
26
A word from our namesake
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With men it is confess and have execution, but with God confess and have mercy. We should never lay open our sins but for mercy. So it honors God; and when he is honored, he honors the soul with inward peace and tranquility. We can never have peace in our souls till we have dealt roundly with our sins, and favour them not a whit; till we have ripened our confession to be a thorough confession.
What is the difference between a Christian and another man? Another person slubbers [is careless] over his sins and he thinks if he comes to the congregation, and follows the minister, it will serve the turn [end].
But a Christian knows that religion is another manner of matter, another kind of work than so. He must deal thoroughly and seriously, and lay open his sin as the chief enemy in the world, and labor to raise all the hatred he can against it, and make it the object of his bitter displeasure, as being that that hath done him more hurt than all the world besides;
and so he confess it with all the aggravations of hatred and envy that he can…
That we in our confessions (in our fastings especially) ought to rank ourselves among the rest of sinners. Perhaps we are not guilty of some sins that they have been guilty of. God has been merciful to us and kept us in obedience in some things.
But, alas! There is none of us all but we have had a hand in the sins of the times.
Richard Sibbes, Works 6:188-189
Mar
22
Why you should read the Puritans
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Our blogging friend Tony Reinke at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook has posted the notes from Joel Beeke’s address, Why You Should Read the Puritans, given at last week’s Ligonier Conference in Orlando. Last year Dr. Beeke and Randall Peterson wrote an outstanding book called Meet the Puritans, loaded with information and biographies on more than 140 Puritan authors, overviews of over 700 Puritan volumes, a list of all the known reprints published beween 1956 and 2005, excellent articles ,and a helpful glossary. At 900 pages, it’s a deep well of information, and as a clothbound, will endure years of use. It also includes chapters which explain who the Puritans were in their theological and historical context and why we should read them today. Here is one quote from the section explaining why we should read the Puritans today:
“With the Spirit’s blessing, Puritan writings can enrich your life as a Christian in many ways as they open the Scriptures and apply them practically, probing your conscience, indicting your sins, leading you to repentance, shaping your faith, guiding your conduct, comforting you in Christ and conforming you to Him, and bringing you into full assurance of salvation and a lifestyle of gratitude to the triune God for His great salvation” (xix).