Notes from Old Divines

I FIND the same conflict in my soul that Paul found in his soul after he was converted near upon fourteen years, after he was taken up into as clear and choice enjoyments of God as any soul that ever I read of. The conflict that is mentioned, Romans vii. 6, I find in my soul. Therefore I sometime hope that those sins that are now my burden shall never hereafter be my bane.

I find my soul carried forth to a secret resting, leaning, staying, and hanging upon Christ for life and happiness. . . . A man should never look upon his grace, but he should look upon it as a flower of paradise, as a gift that God hath cast into his bosom from heaven. 1 Cor. iv. 7, Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou hast not received? “Of thine own,” saith David, “have we given thee” (1 Chron. xxix. 14). Mr. Foxe used to say, “that as he got much good by his sins, so he got much hurt by his graces.” When you look upon the stream, remember the fountain, and when you look upon your graces, remember the fountain of grace. else Satan will be too hard for you. Satan is so artful, so subtle, so critical, that he may make your very graces to serve him against your graces. . . . “For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.” Christians know but little of that they desire to know. They know but little of that they shall know when they shall come to know “even as they are known.” And yet these weak and imperfect glimpses that they have of God and heaven here, are infallible pledges of that perfect knowledge and full prospect that they shall have of God and heaven hereafter. So that little spark of joy thou hast, is an earnest of those everlasting joys that shall rest upon thy head when all sorrow and mourning shall fly away (Isaiah xxxv. 10). And those sips of comfort thou hast now are an earnest of thy swimming in those everlasting pleasures that are at God’s right hand (Psalms xvi. 11). God will not despise the day of small things, He, His Son and Spirit, are all eminently and fully engaged to carry on the work of grace in His children’s souls.—T. Brooks.

THERE was a proportion between the sins of His people and the sufferings of Christ. Sin is an infinite evil, His sufferings were of infinite value. Upon the cross there were two crucified, the Son of God and the law of God. But the Son of God, by His becoming dead, bruised to death the law as a covenant of works in respect of believers. He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross (Col. ii. 14). The sinner sees pollution in himself, and holiness in God. When they behold the spotless purity of God, and themselves as an unclean thing, they are ready to say, O will God look on vile me! will these pure eyes cast a favourable glance on such a dunghill worm? Fear not, Christ was dead and is alive, He is made of God unto you sanctification. Thou hast some grace amidst a heap of corruptions, though Thou seest not

what a lustre this casts within Thee, yet God sees it, “The king’s daughter is all glorious within.” Though you are in respect of inherent grace but fair as the moon, yet your imputed righteousness is clear as the sun. To this, some may object, “I am guilty of gross sins, and that ever since the Lord began to deal with me.” Fear not, Christ died, and if so Christ died for your sins. If He was God who died, when He was pouring out His blood He knew all the sins you would be guilty of even after your conversion. Desertions are a cause of fears. Who would not be content to follow Christ even through the valley of the shadow of death?—Charnock.

EXTRACT FROM THOMAS BROOKS, PURITAN DIVINE.

As Christ shares with weak saints, so weak saints share with Christ. 1. Weak saints share with Christ in His divine nature. 2 Peter i. 4, “Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” Not of the substance of the godhead, as the Familiists say, for that is incommunicable; but by the divine nature we are to understand those divine qualities, called elsewhere, “the image of God,” “the life of God,” that whereby we are made like to God in wisdom and holiness, wherein the image of God, after which man was at first created, consists (Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10).

1. Weak saints share with Christ in His Spirit and grace. In Psalms xlv. 7, Christ is “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.” They have the anointings of the Spirit, as well as he, though not so richly as he. They have their measure, though not that measure and proportion of the Spirit as the Lord Jesus hath. So in John i. 16, “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” There is in Christ not only a fulness of abundance, but also a fulness of redundancy. There is an overflowing fulness in Christ, as a fountain overflows and yet still remains full.

2. Weak saints share with Christ in His manifestations and discoveries of His Father.

The Lord Jesus, that lies in the bosom of the Father, hath the clearest and the fullest manifestations of the Father that can be. and He comes and opens the love and heart of the Father, He unbosoms and unbowels God to the weakest saints, as in John xv. 15, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

1. Weak saints share with Christ in His honourable titles.

In the title of sons, 1 John iii. 1, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” And in that of heirs, Romans viii. 17. Yea, they

are priests, and prophets, and kings, as well as He (compare Rev. i. 5, 6, with i Peter ii. 9, etc.).

1. Weak saints share with Christ in His conquests.

Christ hath triumphed over sword, famine, death, and devils: and so have they through Him also. Over all these we are more than conquerors. O what a blessed thing is this! That weak saints should share with Christ in His conquests.

1. Lastly.—They share with Christ in His honour and glory.

And what would they have more? John xii. 26, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”

Doth thou remember, O weak Christian! that the least measure of grace is more worth than a thousand worlds? Doth free grace knock at thy door, when it passes by the doors of thousands? And doth it cast a pearl of price into thy bosom, when others are left to wallow in their blood for ever?