The Christian Life

Now what greater comfort is there than this, that there is one presides in the world who is so wise he cannot be mistaken, so faithful he cannot deceive, so pitiful he cannot neglect his people, and so powerful that he can make stones even to be turned into bread if he please!

As all good things, so all bad things are ordered by providence for the good of the church. That which in its own nature is an injury, by God's ordering puts on the nature of a mercy; and what is poison in itself, by the almighty art becomes a sovereign medicine. Are God's dispensations in their own nature destructive? That wise physician knows how to make poisons work the effect of purges. Are they sharp? It is to humble and purge the church. As shadows serve to set out the pictures, so the darkest passages of providence are made by God to commend the beauty of those glorious things he works for his church.

And what a comfort it is to believe this doctrine. If we are poor, or sick, or bereaved, or defamed, how delightful it is to know that it is the Lord, and not man; the Lord and not Satan; a friend and not an enemy; a most tender father and not a capricious master—who thus ordains. David was wise when he said, "Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, and not into the hand of man." Luther said, "Smite, Lord, for you love me." Every child of God may say as much.

How kind is God in wisely and mercifully deciding so many things for us! The man who fears God and loves his little daughter, would esteem it a greater affliction to be called on to say when his child should be sick—than he now finds it to nurse her through weeks of disease, close her eyes in death, and then carry her to the grave. God very mercifully bears the heaviest part of all our trials, by marking out our course for us. God is governor. We are servants. To us belong obedience, submission, acquiescence. It is not ours to guide, to decide what is best, to rule the world, to shape the course of events.

The truth is, the crook in the lot is the great engine of Providence for making men appear in their true colours, discovering both their ill and their good. And if the grace of God is in them, it will bring it out, and cause it to display itself. It so puts the Christian to his shifts, that however it makes him stagger for awhile, yet it will at length evidence both the reality and the strength of grace in him.

Furthermore, all who are disposed to betake themselves to God, under the crook in their lot may take comfort in this, let them know that there is no crook in their lot but they may be made straight; for God made it, surely then He can mend it. He himself can make straight what He has made crooked, though none other can.

We, indeed, look at things by pieces, we look at one detail and do not consider the relation that one thing has to another, but God looks at all things at once, and sees the relation that one thing has to another. When a child looks at a clock, it looks first at one wheel, and then at another wheel: he does not look at them all together or the dependence that one has upon another; but the workman has his eyes on them all together and sees the dependence of all, one upon another: so it is in God's providence. Now notice how this works to contentment: when a certain passage of providence befalls me, that is one wheel, and it may be that if this wheel were stopped, a thousand other things might come to be stopped by this. In a clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel, because they are dependant upon one another. So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be thus and thus, how do you know how many things depend upon this thing? God may have some work to do twenty years hence that depends on this passage of providence that falls out this day or this week.

A little before daybreak you will observe it is darker than it was any time before, so God will make our conditions a little darker before the mercy comes.

It is the discipline of wisdom. He who administers it is the "God only wise." What deep wisdom then must there be in all His dealings! He knows exactly what we need and how to supply it. He knows what evils are to be found in us, and how these may be best removed. His training is no random work. It is carried on with exquisite skill. The time and the way and the instrument are all according to the perfect wisdom of God. The fittest time is chosen, just the very moment when discipline is called for, and when it would be most profitable. The surest, most direct, and at the same time gentlest method is devised. The instrument which will be surest yet safest, most effectual yet least painful, is brought into operation. For all is wisdom in the discipline of God.

Affliction is the expression of paternal love. It is from the deepest recess of the fountain of love that sorrow flows down to us. And love cannot wrong us. It blesses, but cannot curse. Its utterances and actions are all of peace and gladness. It wants a larger vessel into which to empty itself, and a deeper channel through which to flow. That is all. It seeks to make us more susceptible of kindness, and then to pour that kindness in. Yes, love is the true, the one origin of the sharpest stroke that ever fell upon a bleeding heart. The truth is, there is no other way of accounting for affliction but this. Anger will not account for it, forgetfulness will not account for it, chance will not account for it. No. It is simply impossible to trace it to any cause but love. Admit this as its spring, and all is harmonious, comely, perfect. Deny it, and all is confusion, cruelty, and darkness.

But our God is not only infinite in power. He is infinite in wisdom and goodness too. And herein is the preciousness of this truth. God wills only that which is good and His will is irreversible and irresistible! God is too wise to err and too loving to cause His child a needless tear. Therefore if God be perfect wisdom and perfect goodness how blessed is the assurance that everything is in His hand and molded by His will according to His eternal purpose!

The Apostle himself in Rom. 6 & 7 shows quite openly that concupiscence is sin properly so called: for not only does he often call it sin, but not good, evil, to be held in hatred, fighting against the law of God, to be crucified, mortified, and destroyed, and rendering that man miserable in whom it resides.

Moral corruption fighting against the law, for the crucifying and mortifying of which Christ himself died on the cross, if it be not properly sin, then Scripture has not explained to us what the property of any habitual sin is.

Every spark of fire is fire, and will burn; so is every thing of the law of sin, the last, the least of it, -- it is enmity, it will poison, it will burn. … Mortification abates of its force, but doth not change its nature. Grace changeth the nature of man, but nothing can change the nature of sin. Whatever effect be wrought upon it, there is no effect wrought in it, but that it is enmity still, sin still.

This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated (1 John 1:8, 10; Rom. 7:14, 17–18, 23; James 3:2; Prov. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20); and although it be, through Christ, pardoned and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin (Rom. 7:5, 7–8, 25; Gal. 5:17).

The corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated (Rom. 7:18, 23; Eccl. 7:20; 1 John 1:8); and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and the first motions thereof, are truly and properly sin (Rom. 7:23–25; Gal. 5:17).

Q. 86. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment? A. The tenth commandment forbids all discontentment with our own estate (1 Kings 21:4; Est. 5:13; 1 Cor. 10:10), envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor (Gal. 5:26; James 3:14, 16), and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his (Rom. 7:7–8; 13:9; Deut. 5:21).

This phrase, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, doth not speak her the lady and queen of heaven, (as the papists style her), but it speaketh her humility and readiness to give up herself to the Lord's pleasure, her assent and consent unto God.

However, we cannot in any way acknowledge or accept what our opponents openly say, namely that Mary is to be invoked as a mediator between God and humans, or that she is our patron and advocate. We do not believe that this is either a tradition of Holy Scripture or a command from God. We believe that God, who alone grants all salvation for the present and future, is the one to be invoked alone. We believe that Christ alone [since He alone is true God and true man] is the true mediator between God and humans. We believe that He, who alone can satisfy all humans, is the patron and advocate with the Father.

Yes, they transform some of them into detestable idols, making them in truth mediators of redemption, especially the virgin Mary, whom they call "a Lady, a Goddess, a Queen, whom Christ her Son obeys in heaven, a mediatress: or life, hope, the medicine of the diseased."

It may be added also that the doctrine of the Papists that the saints or the Virgin Mary may act as mediators to procure blessings for us, is false. There is but "one Mediator;" and but one is necessary. Prayer offered to the "saints," or to the "Virgin," is idolatry, and at the same time removes the one great Mediator from the office which he alone holds, of making intercession with God.

But can she not furthermore be venerated as a mediator and intercessor between God and us with the honour of invocation? Answer: No, since no one should be invoked except God alone in Christ, our only Mediator, Saviour, and Intercessor

Giving divine honor to the holy Virgin, or worshipping her with adoration, as Protestants say, due to God alone; of ascribing all the titles of Christ unto her, turning Lord in the Psalms in most places into Lady; praying to her, not only to entreat, yea, to command her Son to help and save them, but to save them herself, as she to whom her Son hath committed the administration of mercy, keeping that of justice to himself; with many other the like horrid blasphemies

They worship the saints departed, especially the virgin Mary, in whose worship they are so profuse, that they may be called Marians rather than Christians. To the saints they pray, make vows, swear by them, consecrate altars and temples to them, and offer incense. All which are parts of religious worship due to God alone.

The Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints being sinners, could not satisfy so much as for them selves.

As Christ alone is our mediator and redeemer, none of the saints nor even the most blessed virgin Mary (even though we recognize her as the most blessed among women and praiseworthy above all others as the mother of God) may be called mediators between God and men. Nor is it to be assigned to Mary to be the queen of heaven with lordship over all creatures, which is the province of Christ alone.

He is nevertheless our sole mediator, redeemer, defender that sits at the right hand of God the Father (1 Peter 2; Rom. 8). The saints are not mediators, intercessors, nor is the virgin Mary a mediatrix

On the part of the saints, it is their free, willing consent to receive, embrace, and submit to the Lord Jesus, as their husband, Lord, and Saviour—to abide with him, subject their souls to him, and to be ruled by him for ever.

Let us oft think of this nearness between Christ and us, if we have once given our names to him, and not be discouraged for any sin or unworthiness in us. Who sues a wife for debt, when she is married? Uxori lis non intenditur. Therefore answer all accusations thus:—'Go to Christ.' If you have anything to say to me, go to my husband. God is just, but he will not have his justice twice satisfied, seeing whatsoever is due thereunto is satisfied by Christ our husband. What a comfort is this to a distressed conscience! If sin cannot dismay us, which is the ill of ills and cause of all evil, what other ill can dismay us?

Christ your Head is risen, therefore you cannot be lost: nay, he is not only risen from the dead himself, but is also "become the first-fruits of them that slept," 1 Cor. 15: 20. Believers are his members, his fulness, he cannot therefore be complete without you: a part of Christ cannot perish in the grave, much less burn in hell. Remember, when you feel the natural union dissolving, that this mystical union can never be dissolved: the pangs of death cannot break this tye.