A Mass of Contradictions

The Christian is enabled to rejoice greatly, even when he is grieved by manifold trials. He rejoices and grieves at the same time. He is a mass of contradictions. He is weak, yet strong; has no righteousness, yet is divinely righteous; has no strength, yet is invincible; a worm, yet threshes mountains (Isaiah 41: 14-15); poor, yet making many rich; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Joy and grief fill his heart at the same time, so that it is possible that he may ‘receive the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Thess. 1:6).

~Robert Murray M’Cheyne

from a sermon entitled Rejoicing in Affliction

The Only True Source of Comfort

This is what we might call, trying to ride a bike without the bike…

Is it not enough that men should be contented with such a stupid blindness, as, being called Christians, to look no farther for their comfort and consolation than moral considerations common to heathens would lead them, when one infinitely holy and blessed person of the Trinity has taken this office upon him to be our comforter, but they must oppose and despise him also? Nothing more discovers how few there are in the world that have interest in that blessed name whereby we are all called.

~John Owen

Death, The Christian’s Friend

The life in heaven begins at death. Death is the birthday of that life of immortality, and that is the life which can only truly be called life. When Christ came by dying to purchase life, it was not this sorry life on earth, but the life in the world to come, that life of immortal glory; and death’s day is the birthday of this life. And for our bodies, they are but refined by death, and fitted, as vessels cast into the fire, to be molded, to be most glorious vessels after. 

Death is ours every way. It is our greatest friend under the mask of an enemy. So that, whatsoever Satan may suggest to the contrary, death is ours; our friend that was our enemy; a good thing that was an ill. Our fancy in a temptation may make us apprehend those things that are useful and good to be terrible and ill, and those things that are truly dangerous to us as if they were the only good. Satan abuseth our imagination, by amplifying the good of evil, and the evil of good. But, indeed, death, and all that makes way unto it, sickness, and misery, they are ours; they do us good, they fit us for heaven. Sickness, it fits us for death; it unlooseth the soul from the body. As for the profits, and pleasures, and honors of the world, what do they? They nail us faster to the world, and do us hurt.

Therefore, death is ours. It is a good messenger; it brings good tidings when it comes. Hereupon it is that the wise man saith, ‘The day of death is better than the day of birth,’ Eccles. 7:1. When we are born, we come into misery; when we die, we go out of misery to happiness. It is better to go out of misery than to come into it. If the day of death be better than the day of birth to a Christian, certainly then death is theirs. It makes a short end of all that is miserable, and it is a terminus from whence all good begins. There is nothing in the world that doth us so much good as death. It ends all that is ill both of body and soul, and it begins that happiness that never shall have an end. Therefore, ‘blessed are they that die in the Lord, saith the Spirit,’ Rev. 14:13, ‘A voice from heaven’ saith so, and therefore, ’Write,’ saith he. It may be written if the Spirit saith it: it is testimony and argument enough. ’Blessed are those that die in the Lord: they rest from their labors; and their reward follows them.’ For they rest from all that is evil, and from that only. All that is good, ’their works follow them.’ So that if all evil cease, and all good follows, I hope death may well be said to be ours, and for our good.

~Richard Sibbes

from A Christians Portion; volume 4 of Works, pages 11-12

Choosing Our Religion

A full and hearty choosing of this God for our God and portion, in opposition to all other persons and things : Psalm 16:2. ‘my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord.’ Psalm 119:57. ‘Thou art my portion, Lord.’ We are not at liberty to choose our God or our portion, what we will give our hearts to, love most, &c. God, as our great Lord and Master, has determined that for himself. And law vengeance will pursue the neglect of it.

-Thomas Boston, volume 2 of Works, page 93

God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment

Speaking of Jude St. John, here is a great quote he shares: 

The transformation the church needs is the kind that results from beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18-4:6). The glory of God is a saving and judging glory-an aroma of life to those being saved and death to those perishing (2 Cor. 2:15-16), and this saving and judging glory is at the center of biblical theology. If there is to be a renewal, it will be a renewal that grows out of the blazing center that is the glory of God in the face of Christ. This saving and judging glory, I contend, is the center of biblical theology.

Jim M. Hamilton Jr., God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment

Because They Are Dead

I was once asked, by Jude St. John from The Oak Log, which living theologians I liked since it was obvious enough that I liked the dead guys. Even the adults in my Sunday School class hear me quote more of the puritans than anyone else. The answer to the question is partly because they are dead. That may seem a little harsh, but it is in fact a compliment. The man who would be an example of godliness would be one who suffers and dies in faithfulness to Christ. Many would be teachers, but few will be pastors, examples, laborers over what God has given them. God did not simply tell us who he is, he showed us who he is. He did not simply tell us how to live, he gave us an example of how to live in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. The Pharisees would be the teachers and receive praise from men, but Christ came to reveal to us the honor of dying and suffering daily for the glory of God. What good is it if a man, who is a theologian of theologians, turns from the faith at the end of his life and recants on his profession of Christ, or even begins to live as if he had never known Christ? That man may have understood the mathematics of the faith, but never knew or beheld the glory of the Divine Mathematician. I look to the men whose dying words were of such sweet utterances of the beauty of God in Christ and met their deaths as final veil before entering the Holy of Holies. I want that kind of hero…

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Heb 3:14 ESV)

An Evidence Of Unbelief

But if any one cannot pacify his mind by disregarding death, let him know that he has made as yet but very little proficiency in the faith of Christ; for as extreme fear is owing to ignorance as to the grace of Christ, so it is a certain evidence of unbelief.

-John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews

Inattentive To Forgetful

“(1.) When we have received gospel truths into our minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and memories are like a leaky vessel, they do not without much care retain what is poured into them; this proceeds from the corruption of our natures, the enmity and subtlety of Satan (he steals away the word), from the entanglements and snares of the world, the thorns that choke the good seed. (2.) Those meet with an inconceivable loss who let gospel truths, which they had received, slip out of their minds; they have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and silver; the seed is lost, their time and pains in hearing lost, and their hopes of a good harvest lost; all is lost, if the gospel be lost. (3.) This consideration should be a strong motive both to our attention to the gospel and our retention of it; and indeed, if we do not well attend, we shall not long retain the word of God; inattentive hearers will soon be forgetful hearers.”

- Matthew Henry, commenting on Hebrews 2:1-4

Ryle PDF’s At Long Last!

Tags

J.C. Ryle, Pdf Books, PDF puritans

After many email requests for me to upload some J.C. Ryle pdf’s, well ok, actually that’s not true, there was only one comment request (thanks Interface!). But one was all it took!

There are now J.C. Ryle pdf downloadable books on the Free Puritan Works page. If you are unfamiliar with Ryle, you can get a taste of him at the J.C. Ryle Quotes site and then once you’re hooked, you can start, no you get to start downloading his books.

Remember, friends don’t let friends not read the dead guys! At least Christian friends anyway.

An “Essential” Update

The Essential Owen has a new look. It just seemed a little too cold, so I tried to warm it up a bit. Let me know what you think. Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated!

And now there is a Share A Quote page that will serve as a place to share any quotes (by John Owen, of course) that you have come across. So, if you have any Owen quotes, dust ‘em, share ‘em, and I promise, I’ll take good care of ‘em. OK, that was pretty corny.

Also, I have just started gleaning quotes from Owen’s book, Of Communion With God found in volume 2 of his Works. The full title is as follows. (Puritan titles were often never concise)

OF
COMMUNION
WITH
GOD THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST,
EACH PERSON DISTINCTLY,
IN LOVE, GRACE, AND CONSOLATION;
OR
THE SAINTS’ FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER, SON, AND
HOLY GHOST UNFOLDED.

This is taken from the preface to the “Christian Reader,”

The design of the whole treatise thou wilt find, Christian reader, in the first chapters of the first part; and I shall not detain thee here with the perusal of any thing which in its proper place will offer itself unto thee: know only, that the whole of it hath been recommended to the grace of God in many supplications, for its usefulness unto them that are interested in the good things mentioned therein.
J. 0.

Of Communion With God is a must read. If you would like to download or read a PDF version of this book click here. Volume 2 can be purchased here.