A Bundle of Myrrh

or Rules for a Christian’s Daily Meditation and Practice

(Published by Religious Tract Society of Scotland—1863)

Rule I.

Endeavour, in the strength of Christ, to get a sense of the original corruption daily; how it inclines thee to evil, and indisposeth thee to good. Groan under it, and bewail it as Paul did, Rom. vii. 24. Also take special notice of your actual sins or daily infirmities, in thought, word, and deed. Endeavour, by looking to Jesus, to obtain a sense of peace with God for them; First, by repenting and confessing them to God, in his strength working your heart to grieve for them by some melting consideration, as of God’s goodness to you, the unreasonableness and unprofitableness of sin, the prejudice and damage thereof to the soul, Rom. vi. 21. Secondly, by believing or casting yourself wholly on Christ’s righteousness for remission thereof, and reconciliation with God, Rom. iii. 22, 24, 25. Cleaving to God’s promises of pardon and peace, Isaiah xliii. 26; Rom. v. 1: waiting till the Lord shall enable you to apply them to yourselves, Ps. lxxxv. 8.

Rule II.

Beg that your union with Christ and interest in Him may be cleared and confirmed to you daily more and more by the Spirit, that you are a branch in his vine, a member in his body, 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. This may be done three ways.

First, By daily renewal of your faith in Christ, especially of that act of faith whereby the soul knits or ties itself unto Christ, casts and rolls itself on Christ for salvation, Heb. x. 38. Cause your heart in a solemn manner, every day to act this part, or put forth this primitive act of faith in the view of the whole soul. The daily exercise hereof will increase and strengthen the Divine habit of faith in the soul, and make the soul sensible of the very act of it. By frequent believing you shall feel at your very heart that you do believe, so shall you have a witness to yourself that you are in Christ, 1 John v. 10.

Secondly, By examining your heart upon what grounds you take Christ to be yours: they are,

1. A sight and sense of your sins, of the guilt, power, and punishment of them, and of your misery by them, Matt. ix. 12, 13.
2. Your want of Christ seen and felt at your very heart to justify, sanctify, redeem, and save you, else you are utterly lost and undone everlastingly, Luke xix. 10; Matt. viii. 25.
3. God’s free and general offer of Christ to any that are willing, through grace, to take him by faith (John iii. 16). Manifold are the promises to this purpose, the ground of all God’s proclamations and gifts of Christ being free grace, rich mercy, undeserved love, Eph. ii. 5, 7; Tit. iii. 4-6.
4. Christ’s sweet and glorious invitation to such to come to him, as are weary of sin, Matt. xi. 28; to buy, as have no money, Isa. lv. 1; no worth nor desert in themselves.
5. As sinful, vile wretches as you are, have been sought of Christ, and found in Christ (as 1 Cor. vi. 9-11; 1 Tim. i. 13; Phil. iii. 7-9), why may not you? The more clearly you discern upon what grounds you take Christ, the more clear does your title to Christ become.

Thirdly, By surveying and observing in what manner you take Christ daily.

1. Whether you do wholly renounce all opinion and conceit of your own righteousness and desert (Mark viii. 34; Phil. iii. 7-9), so that you go to Christ empty of yourself, very vile, yea, nothing in your own eyes, unworthy to receive him.
2. Whether you lay hold on Christ alone with an empty hand of faith, joining nothing at all with Christ in the matter of salvation, Phil. iii. 9.
3. Whether you find the Father drawing your heart after Christ (John vi. 44), in hungering and panting desires that will never be satisfied without him, so that the stream both of your judgment (Phil. iii. 7, 8) and affections (1 Cor. ii. 2; Gal. vi. 14) run towards him.
4. Whether you take Christ as a Lord to rule you, as well as a Jesus to save you (Col. ii. 6). As one that is all;—to you your all, your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification and redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30; your spiritual food, John vi.; raiment, Rom. xiii. 14; strength, Phil. iv. 13; life, Gal. ii. 20; Col. iii. 3.
5. Whether you seek and wait for Christ (out of a sense of your spiritual penury) in every ordinance, public and private, word, sacraments, prayer, meditation, conference; not as they are your own works of sanctification, but as they are God’s ordinances, appointed of purpose for the manifestation and communication of Christ to the soul. Frequent perusal hereof will clear to you your manner of taking Christ, which will evidence to you your right in Christ. Hos. vi. 3.

Rule III.

Labour to draw and derive from Christ (by the pulling, attractive, force of faith), ability sufficient for the day.

1. To perform all the duties, Col. iii. 17.
2. To exercise all the graces, 2 Cor. v. 7.
3. To resist and overcome all the temptations and corruptions, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9.
4. To undergo all the trials and afflictions thereof. Phil. iv. 13; 2 Cor. iii. 5; John i. 16.

Begin every morning with looking up to Christ for grace and strength, and beg of him to give you so much as you shall have occasion to use all the day long; yea and upon all occasions that fall out on the day, go to Christ still for the wisdom that must direct you; for the holiness that must distinguish you; for the shoulder which must bear them if they be crosses; for the strength that must resist them if they be temptations; perform them if they be duties.

To this end act your faith daily in the promises of grace and strength, as John i. 16; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27; Isa. xlv. 3; Zech. x. 12, which are both security given you by God, that you shall receive grace, and conduit-pipes or instruments of conveying the same from Christ unto you. This is the means to do all in the strength of Christ, and to take forth a great deal of Christ into your soul that not you, but Christ may live in you, Gal. ii. 20.

Rule IV.

Perform daily duties both in family and closet—especially these three, prayer, meditation, reading — with serious intention, heat of affection, diligence and delight in the spirit. Jude 20; Jer. xlviii. 10; Mal. i. 14; 1 Chron. xxi. 24. To this end—

1. Watch to these duties — that is, in the strength of Christ keep thy heart in a good frame for them. Eph. vi. 18; undefiled with sin, untainted by the world. I Pet. ii. 1, 2.
2. Take the fittest time for performance of them all, when you are least dull and sluggish. Begin the day constantly with the thoughts of God, Ps. cxxxix. 18.

Be very real, serious, and substantial with God in them. Endeavour to feel all duties in your heart, enlivening, enlarging, inflaming your affections, Ps. xvi. 8; Mal. i. 8.

These be duties of most importance, and consequence, commodity, and comfort to the soul, because they properly aim at, and tend to the soul’s good and celestial happiness, to train up a soul for heaven, Isa. lxiv. 5.

Rule V.

Beg of Christ to fortify you every morning against your special lusts, to which you are by nature most prone or shall be most tempted, be it pride, passion, covetousness, or any other.

1. By arguments and holy reasonings within yourselves, drawn from the sad effects thereof; as disprofit, discomfort, disgrace, or the like; to discover the unreasonableness of your sin, and make your soul ashamed of it: for example, shall I be proud? then I am sure to fall, for pride goes before a fall, and God will account me for his enemy. For God resisteth the proud. Shall I be angry? If I let passion in, I cannot keep Satan out, Eph. iv. 26, 27. I shall grieve the Holy Spirit of God, Eph. iv. 30, 31. Shall I be covetous? I cannot but be very sinful, since the love of money is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. vi. 10.
2. By pondering in your mind some precept in God’s book against your sin, some judgment threatened or inflicted for it,—on proud Herod, voluptuous Dives, churlish Nabal.
3. By applying promises of mortification close to your hearts, as a plaster to the sore, for subduing your iniquity, Micah vii. 9; Rom. vi. 14.
4. By drawing virtue from Christ’s death into the soul, which hath in it a killing force of sin, Rom. vi. 4-6; Phil. iii. 10.

Rule VI.

Pray that your hearts may be strongly fixed on God, by trusting on him, Ps. cxii. 7; and submitting to him, 2 Sam. xv. 26; 1 Sam. iii. 18; against all the fears, cares, doubts, trials, afflictions of every day; for, Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, Matt. vi. 34. To this end—

1. Be prudent to foresee your personal trials and troubles whatsoever they are like to be, Prov. xxii. 3.
2. Make God your refuge and strength; run unto his name; for God is a rock of habitation to which a poor soul may continually resort: God will give commandment to save such, Ps. lxxi. 3; 1 Pet. iv. 19.
3. Especially commit that very thing to God; put into his hands whatsoever you desire to keep or fear to lose, 2 Tim. i. 12; be it life, liberty, name, friends, maintenance, or aught else. What you would have resolved, if it be a doubt, Ps. xvii. 5; or supplied, if it be a want; removed, if it be a cross, Ps. l. 15; and, together with the thing, cast all your care, fear, sorrow, and trouble of mind about it, wholly upon the Lord, Matt. vi. 31; 1 Pet. v. 7; Ps. lv. 22.
4. Renew your faith in these promises every day which most concern your present state: as in promises of supplies if you be in want, Ps. xxiv. 8, 9; xxxvii. 3; lxxxiv. 11; Matt. vi.; of protection, if you be in danger, Ps. xxxiv. 7; of direction, if in doubt; of deliverance, if in trouble; of a good end, and sanctified use of all. Deut. viii. 16; James v. 11; Rom. viii. 2; Heb. xii, 10.
5. Labour to see God’s hand, Ps. xxxiv. 9; believe his love, Heb. xii. 6; Rev. iii. 19; and with all meekness and patience to resign up yourself wholly to his will in every affliction, Matt. xxvi. 39.

Rule VII.

Seek and keep a savoury relish continually of your Christian privileges, wherewith you are invested as you are new creatures in Christ; to wit—

1. Of your dignity; that you are God’s sons, Christ’s brethren, heaven’s heirs, partakers of a high and heavenly calling, 1 John iii. 1.
2. Of your liberty; that you are the Lord’s freemen, delivered out of the hands of all enemies, John viii. 32, 36.
3. Of your victory; that you are through Christ more than conquerors over all the world of creatures, 1 John v. 4; of evil temptations, of persecutions, Rom. viii. 35, 37.
4. Of your safety; that you have Almighty God for your place of refuge, Ps. xviii. 2; a hedge of providence, Job i. 10; a guard of angels, Ps. xci. 11; an enclosure of mercy, Ps. xxxii. 10; and God’s promise as a writ of protection for defence, Heb. xiii. 5, 6.
5. Of your riches as durable substance in heaven, Heb. x. 34; and incorruptible inheritance, 1 Pet. i. 4; a kingdom of glory and crown of life; for you are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ.
6. Of your joy and pleasure, precious for kind, and plentiful for measure, Ps. xvi. 11; peace inconceivable, Phil. iv. 7; joy unspeakable, 1 Pet. i. 8.

Get your heart affected with all these, as being yours; chew and suck them by serious meditation; work and warm them on your hearts by close application, rubbing them into your affections; oppose these your spiritual privileges to all your temporal pressures, setting the one against the other: as your heavenly friends to your earthly foes; your high dignity in Christ to your meaner, in outward condition; your wealth above to your want below; your future joys and rest, to your present troubles and sorrows. This will make you not only patient under the afflictions of this life, Rom. xii. 12; but joyful in them, Rom. v. 3; and triumphant over them, 1 Cor. xv. 55. Thus did the apostle, Rom. viii. 18; 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18; vi. 8-10.

These will provoke to duty, 1 Pet. ii. 9, 11, 12; and preserve us from fainting, 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17; and from trouble of heart, John xiv. 1, 2.

Rule VIII.

Sanctify God in your heart daily, 1 Pet. iii. 15; make him your fear, Isa. viii. 13; your love and delight, Ps. xxxvii. 4. To this end—

1. Have often high and honourable thoughts of God, serious meditations of his glorious attributes, as his wisdom, power, truth, mercy, justice, etc., and work them upon your hearts, that they may echo to them with pure and melting affection: this will increase and nourish up the Divine nature fast in you.
2. Labour to be affected with all the works of God; as to behold and admire the wisdom of God in the creatures, Ps. cxxxvi. 5; to see and taste God’s goodness in every mercy, Ps. xxxiv. 8; xxv. 10; to take notice of, and tremble at the anger and displeasure of God in all his judgments, Ps. cxix. 120; Hab. iii. 16; that you may answer the dispensations of God’s providence with suitable dispositions, your hearts carrying a counter part in affection to all God’s actions.
3. Wrestle with God (by prayer and believing) for a heart of flesh, Ezek. xxxvi. 26; which will receive impressions from the very thoughts of God in the mind. Also apply promises of particular affection, as of love, Deut. xxx. 6; fear, Jer. xxxii. 40; delight, Ps. lviii. 14. There is heat and life in these promises sufficient to quicken and warm thy dead frozen affections.

Rule IX.

Endeavour, depending on the Spirit of grace, after a public spirit, to mind the things of Jesus Christ, as naturally as if they were your own things, Phil. ii. 20, 21; to look on the things of others, and prefer Jerusalem’s welfare before your chiefest joy, Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6; and the Gospel’s liberty before your own, as Paul did; to mourn for the sins of times, as the godly in Jerusalem did, Ezek. ix. 4. Especially lay to heart—1. The Church’s misery, when God’s ordinances go down and superstition goeth up; when God’s cause and side are put to the worse; when anything falls out which gives a blow to religion or proves an impediment to the Gospel. If the ark be taken, call your comforts Ichabods, 1 Sam. iv. 21. 2. The affliction of Joseph, Amos vi. 6; the sufferings of God’s servants, whether ministers or people. O sympathise with them, Heb. xiii. 3; Neh. i. 4; labour to feel their troubles and sorrows at your very hearts, and pray earnestly for them as the Church did for Peter, Acts xii. 5. 3. The signs of the times, which hypocrites cannot discern, though they be well versed in the face of the sky; to wit, the sad symptoms and presages of approaching judgment: as (1) The commonness of sin, for all sorts transgress in all kind of open sinfulness, with a high hand against light of nature and means of grace, Gen. xviii. 20; Ezek. xxii. 4. (2) Contempt of God’s ordinances, misusing of his ministers, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. (3) Departure of God’s glory from his house, Ezek. ix. 3. (4) Incorrigibleness after former and under present judgments, Lev. xxix. 23, 24. (5) The death of many righteous men, Isa. lvii. 1; the carrying away of others to hiding-places. (6) The vials of God’s wrath poured on the churches beyond the seas, Jer. vii. 12, 15. (7) An inundation of spiritual judgments, as a spirit of error, superstition, apostasy, etc., which do commonly end in temporal plagues, Isa. vi. 10, 11. Now the Holy Ghost is a public Spirit, breathing and acting in all the members of the body. Pray for it, Luke xi. 13; believe for it, Gal. iii. 14.

Rule X.

Beg and strive that your hearts may be weaned daily from the world, and from those creatures and comforts in it, which are dearest and sweetest to you, wife, children, friends, goods, liberty, house, life: this Christ requires of those that follow him, Luke xiv. 26, 27; Matt. x. 37, 38; this will prepare you either to suffer or to die—either of which may put you upon it to lose all. To this end consider seriously—1. That these things cannot satisfy your heart, when you have enjoyed them to the full, Eccles. iv. 8, and v. 10; you soon grow weary of them or are glutted with them, so that you desire some new delights, or more of the old, or some over again. 2. Nor can they sanctify you, but expose you oft to many lusts, 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10; temptations, distractions to a spirit of the world, and they hinder from following Christ, Matt. xix. 22. 3. Nor can they save from God’s wrath, from death, or judgment, Prov. xi. 4. 4. The wicked whose portion is only here, have often the greatest share of them, Ps. xvii. 14; Job xxi. 7-14. 5. They serve only for this life, whilst we are on this side the grave; they shall not be the least ingredient of our celestial happiness. When we do come to be happy in heaven, we shall stand in no need of food, raiment, physic, marriage, etc., Matt. xxii. 30; for we shall be like the angels of God in heaven—we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, Rev. vii. 16. We shall live by the all-sufficient Spirit of God which needs no refreshing, we shall be clothed with long white robes of immortality, Rev. vii. 9. In a word, when we come to heaven, the place of God’s habitation, we shall enjoy the face and beautiful presence of the most glorious Jehovah, blessed for ever, as an object wherein all the powers of our souls will be satisfied with ineffable delight and everlasting goodness; God will be unto us all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 28, 58.