By ROBERT TRAILL (London, March, 1696.)
(Continued from page 270.)
III. What is it to come unto this throne of grace?
Though the prosecution of the exhortation in this text will open up the nature of this coming more fully, yet I would speak somewhat of it in this place.
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This coming implies a state of distance from this throne in them that are called to come. This is called being far off (Eph. ii. 13). And this state all men by nature are in. Men are in God’s eye and hand: He is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts xvii. 27, 28); as the Psalmist speaks excellently in Psalm cxxxix. of the nearness of men to God, and of his omnipresence and omniscience. But his gracious presence, as on a throne of grace, is far from all men by nature, and they far from it. This presence is far from man’s knowledge; there is no knowing of it but by revelation: far from men’s attainment; for no man can come, unless he be drawn of God (John vi. 44): far from their experience, and far from their love; for they are alienated from the life of God (Eph. iv. 18). And in his favour is life (Psal. xxx. 5) and in nothing else.
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It is also implied in this call to come, that there is a gracious provision made and revealed by God for the removal and making up of his distance, and getting of a gracious nearness to God. This is in the constitution and revelation of this throne of grace.
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That the improving of this provision is men’s duty, and should be their exercise, in order to possess and enjoy the privilege and advantage of this provision.
What then is this coming to the throne of grace?
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It is in believing on Jesus Christ. This is the first approach to the throne of grace. He is the propitiation, and mercy-seat, and throne of grace (I John iv. 10). Believing on him, is coming to him (John vi. 35). It is coming to the Father by him (John xiv. 6). It is believing on God by him (I Pet. i. 21). It is believing on him, and on him that sent him (John xii. 44). Believing on Jesus Christ, is an employing of Christ in way of trust, as to all his fullness of grace, and our utter indigence thereof. Whatever a man do, whatever exercises of religion he be taken up in, he never comes to the throne of grace, till his heart and soul go forth towards Jesus Christ for righteousness and life. The first right step heavenward, is saving faith in Christ. Nothing savingly good can precede it, and all saving good follows it: for faith unites the man to Christ, and all the fruits of holiness and righteousness spring from the virtue of the vine Christ; with whom the believer hath first union by grace, and then communion of Christ’s grace, by which he lives, and works, and grows.
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Coming to this throne, is acted in all acts of gospel-worship, and in the use of all gospel-ordinances. They all belong to the throne of grace, are the institutions of this throne, and appointed as means wherein we should approach to it; and which, when blessed by the appointer of them, do convey to us the blessings of this throne. Of them there are several. (1) Prayer. This is coming to the throne of grace, if rightly managed. Though asking is not expressed in this verse, yet it is strongly implied, both in the commanded coming, and
in the expressed obtaining of mercy, and finding of grace to help in time of need. All that make a fashion of prayer, do not come to the throne of grace; yet all that pray rightly, do come to it. And because this approaching to the throne of grace by and in prayer, is plainly hinted in the text, and is so commonly understood by Christians, I would have my eye principally upon it in handling this scripture. (2) There is the word read, preached, and meditated on, that is another principal means in which men should approach to the throne of grace. In prayer we pour out our heart before this throne, and express our desires to him that sitteth on it. In the word the King on this throne delivers his will and mind to us; and we should come to hear it, and receive the law from his mouth. Cornelius expressed an excellent frame for this ordinance (Acts x. 33). We are all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. This word is the word of grace (Acts xx. 32). It is the proclamation of his grace to men. (3) Praising of God, is a coming to the throne of grace. This is the sacrifice we should offer by our High Priest (Heb. xiii. 15). Who minds this as they ought? If we want, we ask; and so we should. But where is the Christian that can say, Though I had nothing to ask, I would yet go to the throne of grace, that I might praise him that sits on it? (4) Receiving of the Lord’s Supper, is a coming to the throne of grace; to feast on the king of grace; to feed on that body broken for us, and that blood shed for us, that is given to us in the word for food to our souls, and is given to us by his command, in bread and wine at his table; that in eating and drinking of them, we may remember him, and show forth his death till he come; glorying, and avowing, and boasting, that we have our salvation, and all our hopes of it, built and fixed on that man Jesus Christ, that was rejected by the builders in his time, and hath had little better entertainment since, because they knew him not.
(To be continued.)
Rev. David Brainerd’s Conversion.
By REV. J. P. MACQUEEN.
THE following account of his conversion, by the Rev. David Brainerd, the magnanimously self-denying and self-sacrificing missionary to the North American Indians, cannot be told better than in his own words: —“Having been thus endeavouring to pray—though as I thought very stupid and senseless—for near half an hour, then as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing, nor do I intend any imagination of any body of light somewhere in the third heavens or anything of that nature, but it was a new inward apprehension view that I had of God, such as I never had before, nor anything which had the least resemblance
of it. I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty, it was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God or things Divine. I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, but it appeared to be Divine glory. My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious Divine Being, and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that He should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him, at least to that degree that I had no thought that I remember at first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there was such a creature as myself.”
The foregoing vivid description by Rev. David Brainerd of the enduring and indelible impression made upon his soul by his first supernatural faith’s view of God, in Christ, may not be a generally applicable one, relative to the effect of Divine light and glory as many other believers experienced it, but we have read in the diaries and autobiographies of other outstanding believers and divines exactly similar descriptions to the foregoing. Those who have thus been highly favoured and unspeakably privileged from Heaven, in their personal experience of the fulfilment and supernatural application of the truth:—”For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. iv. 6) can easily follow Rev. David Brainerd when he writes of his soul rejoicing, and his being “inwardly pleased and satisfied,” his “soul captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God.” Where, however, some of them may not be able to follow him is when he says, “I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, but it appeared to be Divine glory.”
This at once shows how dangerous it would be to make the personal experience of one, regarding this blessedly glorious manifestation, and apprehension of it by supernatural faith, a universal standard for all. Many believers have an indelible vivid impression, regarding their first faith’s view, of Christ crucified for them and by them, as God manifest in the flesh, yet in all the transcendent excellency, glory, loveliness, and greatness of the Divine perfections, together with an experimental consciousness of the eternally harmonious unity and delight of the Trinity in this supernatural manifestation to the individual soul. Every true Christian is thus an experimental Trinitarian. Though his faith’s view or apprehension affected Rev. David Brainerd in that particular manner, yet God was in his case also, in Christ reconciling him to Himself—a Trinity of Persons in an eternal unity of essence—the Holy Spirit being equally, and simultaneously, gloriously employed applying the redemption purchased by Christ.
We have also read in the diaries and autobiographies of godly men and women that in their first faith’s view of Christ, they too were “so swallowed up in Him, at least to that degree that I had no thought that I remember at first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there was such a creature as myself.” Other believers, on the other hand, though thus swallowed up in Him, regarding Him “as among ten thousand altogether lovely,” nevertheless vividly retained a sense of their personal identity as members of His mystical body, and who would charge them with selfishness for being so? A joyful consciousness of one’s own personal eternal salvation in this blessedly solemn and transcendently glorious manifestation of God in Christ, to the individual soul, is surely a righteously legitimate cause of rejoicing, while still admiring those who lost sight of themselves, being absorbed in the glorious loveliness of the God-Man, Christ Jesus.
In conclusion, why should those thus unspeakably blessed and privileged, with a supernatural faith’s apprehension of God in Christ, ever afterwards allow themselves for a moment, to be dejected and depressed by the infidel criticisms of intellectually brilliant and scholarly men who attack, in the name of modern scholarships, the veracity, authenticity, inspiration, and authority of the eternal Word of God, as revealed in the Bible? “If the light that is in them, be darkness, how great is that darkness.” “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. ii. 14). On the other hand, “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant” (Psalm xxv. 14). I would especially warn divinity students and young ministers in evangelically-orthodox churches, never to put mere intellectual and academic attainments, in themselves, above sincere piety, consistent practical godliness of life, and uncompromising fidelity to Scriptural ordination vows, even when attached to slender educational attainments and intellectual mediocrity.
Solemn Death of Ruth Pierce.*
The death occurred in the Devizes Market Place, two hundred years ago, of a Potterne widow, Mrs. Ruth Pierce. The unusual circumstances surrounding her death, as recorded on the Market Cross, constitute the single common factor by which Devizes is known to strangers all over the world. While the story of Ruth Pierce, and the events of that Devizes market day on which she made her “awful wish,” has to some extent become entangled in myth, exaggeration and hypothetical conjecture, there are certain undisputed facts. These
* We herewith print an abridged account of this solemn event which appeared more fully in a local English paper in January last. The cutting was sent to us by Pastor H. E. Carr, Chippenham, Wilts.—Editor.
have been handed down, through two hundred years, principally from inscriptions in stone and contemporary records, although not all these are accurate.
Shortly, Ruth Pierce, a native of Potterne, with three other women, agreed to buy a sack of corn in Devizes Market, each to pay her share. One of the women who collected the quotas found a deficiency, and when asked to make up the amount Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her full share and “wished she might drop dead if she had not.” She repeated this wish and instantly died, the money being found in her hand.
A narrative of the event of that market day was originally recorded on a tablet by order of the authorities, and hung up in the market house—a row of sheds. The tablet, which was of stone, about four feet long, two feet six inches wide, and two inches thick, is now in the Devizes museum.
The inscription, which was regilded only last year, reads:—
“The MAYOR and CORPORATION of Devizes avail themselves of the Stability of this Building, to transmit to future times, the Record of an awful Event which occurred in this Market Place, in the year 1753, hoping that such Record may serve as a salutary Warning against the Danger of impiously invoking Divine Vengeance, or of calling on the Holy Name of GOD to conceal the Devices of Falsehood and Fraud.
“On Thursday, the 25th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of Potterne, in this County, agreed with three other Women to buy a sack of Wheat in the Market, each paying her due Proportion towards the same. One of these Women, in collecting the several Quotas of Money discovered a Deficiency, and demanded of Ruth Pierce the Sum which was wanting to make good the Amount. Ruth Pierce protested that She had paid her share, and said, ‘She wished she might drop down dead if She had not.’ She rashly repeated this awful Wish, when, to the Consternation and Terror of the surrounding Multitude, She instantly fell down and expired, having the Money concealed in her hand.”