Christ’s Continuing Presence

Among the last recorded words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke before He ascended to heaven were these: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). They were addressed to His disciples; yet not only to those who were with Him at that time, who before long were to be His representatives in establishing the Christian Church. This was a promise addressed to the Christian Church in every generation, even “unto the end of the world”. When the Saviour had suffered and died, He was no longer with them in His human nature, until on the third day He rose again. Then they could again recognise His presence with them.

Not only that, but He was promising to be with them always; He would never forsake them. When He would ascend to heaven, they would not be able to see Him in His human nature, but He was God as well as man. As God, He was present everywhere after His ascension; so He would always be with the 11 disciples, wherever they might be and whatever their difficulties. And He will be with His Church everywhere throughout the ages, until the end of the world, no matter the troubles she may have to face. He is with His Church today, and He is with all His individual disciples – and will be with them until time will be no longer.

Whatever the troubles believers may meet, the divine Saviour will be with them. Matthew Henry thinks of Him as saying, “I will be with you on Sabbath days and weekdays, fair days and foul days, winter days and summer days”. Henry speaks of God’s people: “Wherever we are, the word of Christ is nigh us, even in our mouths, and the Spirit of Christ nigh us, even in our hearts. The God of Israel, the Saviour, is sometimes a God that hideth Himself (Is 45:15), but never a God that absenteth Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.” Let us notice some of the troubles God’s children experience and the help that the Lord Jesus is able to give, for He is always with them.

1. Guilt. Every believer is a sinner, albeit a saved sinner. They have been forgiven all their sins, for the sake of Christ and because of what He has done for them. Sin is no longer on the throne of their hearts, yet sin is still there.

Believers deserve to be punished for every sin that they commit. Guilt is to be associated with every sin – a liability to punishment. Peter, for instance, was guilty when he denied his Master, but he was also guilty whenever, in any degree, he came short of God’s glory – not loving Him with all his heart. It is so with all God’s children: nothing that they do is free from sin. Accordingly, they always incur guilt, for they continually come short by not loving God with all their heart, and wholehearted obedience is the standard that He has set for them.

What then can believers do when they are conscious of sin? They are to go to Christ, remembering His promise never to leave them, His promise that He will always be with them. Christ is the great Prophet of His people; He is always near them to teach them by His Word and Spirit in relation to all kinds of spiritual matters, not least in connection with their guilt. He comes where they are in their need to teach them that His blood goes on cleansing them from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). So, because of His death in their place, their guilt is continually being removed. He teaches them also that God does not impute iniquity to them (Ps 32:2); their guilt is not put to their account.

2. Sinfulness. God’s people want to be pure, but they know that they are not. Paul, eminently godly though he was, had to confess, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not”. And he asked, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Yet he knew something of the answer to his own question, for he added, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:18,24,25). It was for the sake of Christ, who would always remain near to him – who would never forsake him – that Paul could be made perfect, as he now is.

The Lord would continue that good work of sanctification which the Holy Spirit had already begun, at the moment of Paul’s regeneration, on his way to Damascus, full of enmity against the Lord Jesus and His followers. Christ made intercession for Paul before the Father, expressing His will that the Holy Spirit would work in his soul. And Christ went on making intercession for Paul that the Spirit would continue His work of subduing sin in his heart and stimulating more and more every grace that had been planted in his soul. That work has long since been completed.

Other believers may feel that they are very far behind what Paul was in this world. But the same Christ is always with them; the same Holy Spirit continues the work of sanctification in their hearts and lives; and they will be brought to the same haven of rest, in God’s time, just as Paul and all the other Christians of the past have been brought to their heavenly home.

3. Satan and temptation. Satan is far stronger than the most steadfast of

believers and, if left to themselves, they could very easily be overwhelmed by temptation. But Christ is with them; He is their King. He comes where they are to defend them. If Satan is the “strong man armed”, Christ is the “stronger than he” (Lk 11:21,22); Christ has overcome him. If He sees it to be necessary, the Lord may leave His children to the extent that He allows them to succumb to temptation, so that they may recognise their weakness and vulnerability more than before, as happened with Peter, for instance. But Christ was near him to give him a look of rebuke, through which He delivered him from Satan’s snare. And although today’s believers do not have Christ physically near them, they have His spiritual presence, and He will most certainly protect them from the wiles of the evil one.

4. Ignorance. God’s children know that they are slow to learn. There is so much that they do not know, after all that they have read and heard of God’s Word. But, as we have noticed, Christ is near them as their Prophet. They need not only to know the facts revealed in Scripture, but also to make a practical use of what is revealed, so that they may trust in Christ more continuously and more readily than they have yet done.

The Psalmist prayed, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end” (Ps 119:33). He realised his need of divine teaching and he went in prayer to the One who was able to teach him. Only through that teaching could he walk more consistently in the paths of new obedience, the ways of God’s statutes. Let God’s children today, however ignorant they may feel, be thankful for the Prophet who is not only able to teach them the truths of Scripture, but also to apply these truths to their souls so that they grow in grace. He, remaining with them, will bring them, in spite of their ignorance, safely through this world and into a world where ignorance will no longer trouble them.

5. Troubles in providence. Christ warns His people – it is part of His teaching – that “in the world ye shall have tribulation”. They will have troubles of various kinds, such as ill-health, concern for relatives and friends, and difficulties in personal relationships. But their Saviour is always with them, and He goes on to encourage them: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). Because they do not have the strength to bear these troubles themselves, they are directed: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Ps 55:22). If the Lord will not remove the trouble, He is undertaking to draw near to His child and support him or her. Accordingly His children will never be totally overwhelmed by their circumstances. Therefore, as Christ, the sympathetic High Priest, is so near to His children always, let them “come boldly unto the throne of grace, [where He sits], that [they] may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).

Sin and God’s Woe¹

A Sermon by David Dickson

Zephaniah 3:1,2. Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.

To bring Jerusalem to repentance, the prophet is sent forth to denounce woe and wrath against it. He charges Jerusalem with seven iniquities: three of them against the law, four against the gospel or the offer of mercy.

Gluttony is the first sin against the law that he charges the city with, for he says, Woe to thee, filthy city; or rather (as the original has it) the gluttonous city; for the word that is here used is borrowed from the crop of a fowl, or the stomach of a fish. Thus he reproves all sorts of pleasure, including pampering the body with meat, drink, gorgeous apparel, unlawful lusts and intemperance. The next sin against the law is their profaning and abusing of religion, the handling of holy things with unhallowed hands; and therefore he calls them a polluted or profane city. The third sin he lays to their charge, is oppression – deceiving one another, greedy extorting, and taking advantage of one another; therefore he calls them the oppressing city.

Their sins against the gospel or the offer of mercy were these: First, not obeying the Lord’s voice, for they did not obey when the Lord sent His messengers to them, rising up early and sending His servants the prophets to them, and to tell them their faults. Their next sin was the not receiving correction, not amending their life by the Lord’s fatherly rods. Their third sin was that, when the Lord made gracious promises and they did not trust Him, they did not care for His promises. Their fourth sin was that, when the Lord drew near to them, they refused to have communion with Him; they would not draw near to Him. When such sins against the law and the offer of mercy are joined together, they are laid forth here as just reasons for the denouncing woe – a woe for gluttony, a woe for profaning God’s ordinances, a woe for injury to their neighbour, a woe for not obeying God’s voice, a woe for not amending their lives because of His corrections, a woe for not trusting in Him, and a woe for not drawing near Him.

Against what place or people is this woe denounced? It is against Jerusalem, the holy city, the joy of the whole earth, the place of God on earth, the place of His habitation, of which He said, “This is [the place of] My rest for ever” – the place where His laws and holy ordinances were taught and administered, the place where God was most glorified, where the most holy people were, and the means to make men holy. Yet this city is charged with these seven faults:

¹Taken with editing from The Select Practical Writings of David Dickson. The sermon was preached “at a humiliation before the communion” – on, presumably, the Thursday of a communion season in Irvine, Ayrshire, where Dickson (1583-1663) was minister.

1. Gluttony, for the prophet says, They drank their wine in bowls; they stretched themselves upon their beds of ivory; they sang unto viol and harp and did not remember the affliction of Joseph; they neighed after their neighbours’ wives as fed horses; their eyes were full of adultery; their eyes were as windows to draw in whorish objects, they did not deny themselves any unclean pleasures.

2. Their regard to God’s holy ordinances. They gathered daily to the temple, offered their sacrifices, feasted before the Lord, and came to all the solemnities of the Lords worship; they cried out, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we!” Yet here they are called polluted: their prayers, praises, sacrifices, hearing of the law, feasts, fasts, Sabbaths – whatever they meddled with was defiled.

3. Oppression in over-reaching their neighbours, either by scant measure, false weight, unrighteous dealing, or everyone seeking to take unfair advantage of his neighbour. Therefore the prophet says, “Trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant”. They wronged one another either in body, goods, or good name, and he who might have most power over his neighbour overthrew him.

Then these former sins are aggravated by adding four other sins:

1. Disobeying the admonitions of God’s Word, as if the Lord had said, I am not to blame for their faults – neither I nor My servants – for I told them their faults, directed them what they should do, and enjoined them to cease from wickedness.

2. And besides giving directions, I have not spared sufficient rods to make them know that I was angry at their faults; but for all My rods, they are never a whit the better. To what purpose then should I strike them any more? They will still revolt; even if I make them sick with smiting them, yet they will not return to Me.

3. Yet farther to allure them to repent and turn in, I have made them many a fair promise; but they have neither believed Me, nor judged Me faithful, but counted Me one who had said more than I was minded to perform.

4. And when I yet desired to cultivate their kindness, and warmly drew near to them, fluttered over them, and gathered them in, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, yet they would not. Therefore woe unto them! It is not like man’s woe, for when a man says, “Woe”, to himself, he acknowledges what he deserves, accepts his fault and the punishment that is due to him, that he may flee from it. But this is God’s woe, even the broad, terrifying curse of God, that Christ denounced against the scribes and Pharisees. This woe is the full vial of God’s wrath, the great curse of God, that cleaves to them because of their pollution, wickedness, oppression, and disobeying God’s voice. Let us make use of this.

Doctrine 1. This woe is denounced against Jerusalem, who thought no such thing was due to her, neither did she know herself to be in so miserable a case or accept it; therefore the prophet Zephaniah must be sent to them with this message, to tell them of their sin and misery and to charge them with it. They thought they used created things as they had liberty; as for God’s ordinances, they were diligent enough in the use of them; and as for their neighbours, they thought they only used them according to the law. From this we learn that they who profess to be the people of God may be lying in many gross sins and yet pleasing themselves with their own state; not afraid of woe, nor aware of it, when it lies very near to them.

The churches of Asia did not know their state till Christ caused epistles to be written to their ministers, to tell Ephesus that she had fallen from her first love; Sardis that she was a dead church although she had a name that she was living; Laodicea that she was lukewarm, while she thought she was rich, increased in all spiritual graces and had need of nothing – when she was poor, miserable, blind and naked. Thus the prophet was told to lift up his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel their transgression and Jacob their sins.

Since people may lie under a sevenfold curse and not know it, beware of thinking yourselves secure as if all is well, when the curse and judgement of God is at hand. “Agree with thine adversary quickly . . . lest he deliver thee to the judge . . . and thou be cast into prison”, there to lie till thou pay the uttermost farthing. Examine matters well, because the heart of man “is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” If men say their prayers morning and evening, attend church and solemn meetings, and can abide the inspection of their neighbours, they think all is well.

We may be very like such people; therefore search yourselves, O nation not worthy to be beloved, lest you be deceived and carried on into a fool’s paradise, believing all is right, when God shall throw you over the stair of presumption. See that you are not hoodwinked and led blindly on to hell. Know what your case is, for it is a sore matter to lie under wrath and be in a feud with God and not know it; to be dogged at the heels with heavy judgements and not be aware of it; and to have the flood of the Lord’s fury coming over a high hill, running towards that road you are walking in, to sweep you away before you perceive it. Examine yourself in time and be wise.

Doctrine 2. We see it is God who knows Jerusalem’s works, who censures them. This lets us see that it is not the estimation of others, or the opinion

that men have of themselves, that is the rule whereby God will have men tried. But He Himself will judge men according to their works. Therefore He says to Laodicea, “I know thy works;” and in all these epistles, He shows that His censure is according to the truth, He is the “Amen”, and the “Faithful Witness”; His eyes “are as flaming fire”. Therefore He sends out His reproofs as men’s dispositions require.

Seeing men’s state is not to be judged by their own estimation or by others’, but according to the Lord’s, let all try their way of life by what He says of them in His Word, and all the exercises of His worship. Ask about your prayer, What devotion is in you? And it will say that your prayers are so lacking in earnestness that they cannot pierce up to heaven. Ask about your way of life among men, what is your state? And it will tell you it is cold, stubborn, unyielding, peevish, unmerciful, and you have a heart that cannot repent. Ask what love you have to God, and it will be told you that you can bear His name to be dishonoured and care little for it, and you do not care much how your children and servants grow in knowledge or the fear of God. If your deeds speak thus, why are you so secure? Why do you bless yourself, when your conduct says that the world is more in your mind than heaven, when your account book is more perused than the Bible, when the debts that are owed to you are more in your mind than the debts that you owe to God!

Why can you accept this state of affairs. It is because Satan does not wish the bankrupt to read over his account book, or the sinner to examine his deeds. Men do not wish their deeds to be brought to the light; they hate the light because it reproveth them. Or if the minister points out their faults, they say, Someone has told him about me. But learn to examine yourselves as you shall answer to God, and as you would be set free on that day when He shall judge the secrets of all hearts. Let not the Lord complain of you, “I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” (Jer 8:6). Therefore let each of you ask yourself, On what is my fear, love, care, grief and pleasure most set? And if it is not on God, you have reason to suspect yourself.

Doctrine 3. We see it is Jerusalem, the holy city, that is threatened, even the city which the Lord had raised out from among all the nations under heaven, to place His name there, and give them privileges, above all others. It lets us see that no profession or external privilege will save a people from woe if they lie in any known sin. Do not say, “We have Abraham to our father; for God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham”. Do not say, “The temple of the Lord are we”. Do not say, We have the Bible, God’s oracles, the truth truly preached, for all these privileges are nought, unless you amend your manners. What is it worth that Christ has a church

here, a candlestick erected, a table daily covered with bread, a laver to wash in, if no use is made of them! Doubtless they shall draw deeper curses on you, unless you study to approve your hearts to God in secret, and order your life among men.

If you do not do this, God shall draw you out among hypocrites; He shall strip the mask off your faces and show your rottenness to man and angel. Are you dearer to God than Ephesus, Corinth, Laodicea, Jerusalem, whom He overthrew for the abuse of their privileges? If He has done so to the green tree, what will He do to the withered? If such fair towns and countries have been thrown down, let not the sandy hillock of Irvine think it will be spared; but that your frequent communions, preachings and solemn meetings shall draw on hotter wrath, unless you mend your conduct. Your fair profession, coming to hear, and all your outward discharge of the parts of God’s worship, will not save you from the judgements threatened from this place of Scripture, unless you labour to be inwardly what you make a show of openly. If you believed this, you would take no rest till you seek a new course.

Let us come to particulars in the text:

(1.) “Woe to the filthy city.” This challenge for gluttony lets us see that God requires sobriety and restraint from His people – that they would study to be masters over their lusts, obtain victory over their appetites, and that the love of their belly would not make them misbehave. “Take heed . . . lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,” lest Christ come on you like a thief in the night. Never give your appetites the reins; do not drink so much that your mental powers are made to totter, and even to be beastly; study to be sober. If you had to speak to some great man, you would be loath to drink much for fear of spoiling your powers. Far more, seeing you are called to be temples of the Holy Ghost, should you not possess your bodies in holiness and be moderate in meat, drink and clothing? As pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, for the Lord allows enough that is lawful. Why then should unlawful things be spared? Therefore be moderate, and more given to feed and clothe the soul than the body, to seek to do God’s will more than your own.

We see that sin in man may so prevail as to make him unclean, intemperate and immoderate; and where this uncleanness and intemperance is, woe is attached to it. Woe to the gluttonous person who greedily swallows everything! Woe to him who pleases himself and fulfills his lusts, whose appetites make him sin! The poor man will say, Where do I get an opportunity to waste or use things intemperately? I answer, You are not moderate in anything if you may get it; it is lack of money that makes you spare, and what you have, you use intemperately. You are immoderate who are discontented

with your state and would have more than God allows, and take in more than enough when you may spare it. Therefore woe unto you; woe to these appetites that draw the curse of God on soul and body! Woe to the unclean person, the fornicator and adulterer! Woe to you who are given to pampering your belly! Woe to the drunkard and tippler! Woe to you who are given to fleshly ease of body, to the hurt of the soul! Woe to you who are given to fleshly delights, contenting yourself with the sow’s happiness while despising the pearl hidden in the field!

(2.) “To the polluted.” This woe against those who misuse religion, and the exercises of God’s worship, lets us see that religion should be kept pure and clean, both for the matter and manner of it. It should be handled in a holy way, the heart within being as holy as the external conduct. This people thought that to take part in religious activities frequently was enough to mend all their faults, that the offering of incense and sacrifices appointed under the law cleansed all their faults – as those men who now glut themselves in all sorts of sin, and come to the communion thinking that it provides a reprieve for all that has been done in the past. But God calls such people profaners of religion.

So when men lead an evil life and do not amend their conduct; even if they meddle with the most holy of ordinances, they profane all. The unchaste, intemperate, malicious, greedy, or the man that is given to any known sin, whatever point of religion he puts his hand to, he pollutes it (Hag 2:14). He asks, What if the unholy touch a holy thing, will the holy make the unholy clean? No, the unholy defiles the holy. And so they who are lying in sin and come to preaching, prayers, fasts, or communions, they defile all; for everything is unclean to the unbelieving man; even his mind and his conscience are defiled. And a woe is pronounced against you who pollute all God’s ordinances: woe to you for coming to preaching, prayers, communions! If then your coming to God’s ordinances does not make you better, they make you worse. Therefore study to be cleansed from every known sin, lest you profane holy duties. And if you have profaned them, ask mercy; run to the fountain, lest you be cast out as an unclean thing.

(3.) “Woe to the oppressing city.” This denouncing of woe against oppression shows that God requires people to deal equitably and righteously with their neighbours; that they should not injure one another, but that men should live blamelessly and holy, under a holy Lawgiver. Here is forbidden not only open oppression, but all sorts of injury, even that which is done under a pretence of laws. And a woe is annexed where sin and temptation so prevail that mutual injuries are done. Therefore do not covet what belongs to your neighbour; do not deceive him in weight, measure, price, or bargain; do not take any unrighteous advantage; and do not wrong your neighbour in any way. Or else woe to you!

(4.) Now the sins against the mercies of God follow: “She obeyed not the voice” (v 2). This challenge for not obeying the Lord’s voice lets us see that God does not usually condemn a people or pronounce a woe against them, till He has first dealt with them by His Word, in the mouths of His ministers. He usually warns those outside the Church by the voice of His creation: the sun, the moon, summer, winter, fruitful seasons, and the works of creation; and if they are not made wise by these, He cuts them off. But when His Church fails, He warns them by servants; He will do nothing till He reveals it to His servants the prophets. God does not strike His people till He threatens them by His ministers and denounces woe against them, before He will bring on the judgement. Take heed when you hear your faults rebuked by the Word, for the Lord will next debate the matter with rods. Wrath has been denounced from this place against all your sins; therefore repent, read out the charge against yourself; indict yourselves before God; and reckon what you have done secretly and openly. Challenge yourselves in time, lest the threatened wrath overtake you.

We see here, although it is God’s practice to warn before He strikes, yet when His warning is refused, the sin is greater, and the woe is heavier. He that hears his sin reproved and does not hearken to the voice of the Lord to change his behaviour, his sin is greater and the woe is heavier. His sin and woe are bound on him by a double hand: once because he sinned, and again because he was warned and went on – therefore a double woe.

(5.) “Received not correction.” God usually joins His rod with His Word. Before He brings His great judgements, he uses His fatherly rod. But when rods and corrections are ignored, the sin is greater, and the woe is doubled.

Application to Irvine, which was visited with many rods. If, when you have been corrected in body, name, goods, souls, and have not obeyed, know that your sin is double, and your woe is double. As for you who are corrected and the tingling of the rod is yet in the flesh, and you are seeking to change, I will not say that woe abides thee. But if you have been corrected and are not likely to change, you have to fear that the axe is laid to the root of the tree and you will be cut down and cast into the fire. It is a sore matter for a sinner to be corrected, and yet to go on under it with levity. Let God strike as He pleases, He will have His pleasure! Woe to that sinner!

(6.) “She trusted not in the Lord.” This lets us see that God uses to try His people by fair means, promises, offers of mercy, goodness and bounty, so that they may put their trust in Him. But when promises of grace to the soul and benefits to the body do not prevail, the sin is greater, and the woe doubled.

How many promises have you heard, and yet are not drawn to trust in God and love Him? Know therefore that refused promises multiply woes.

(7.) “She drew not near to her God.” This lets us see that the Lord usually – besides sending His Word, rods and promises – offers Himself and His goodness, to handle them warmly by His benefits, comforts and good deeds of all sorts. But when people refuse this communion with God, and do not give him a welcome, their sin is doubled and so is the woe. God has drawn near you by His benefits and comforts of all sorts; look if you have drawn near to Him and sought His kindness or not, or if you have despised seeking fellowship with Him. If this is so, your sin and woe are doubled. Compare the two verses in the text; we see that the last four challenges are for the abuse of mercy, and only three challenges for breach of the law. This lets us see that the abuse of mercy deserves woe and heavier challenges than breach of the law. Filthiness, profanity, oppression, blasphemy are great sins; but not obeying the Lord, not receiving correction, not trusting, and not drawing near to God are greater sins, because the former are only breaches of the law, when the latter involve contempt of the remedy for breach of the law.

When God challenges for both the breach of the law and the abuse of mercy, we see these always go together. If a professing Christian sins against the one, he must also be sinning against the other. When your conscience challenges, it will challenge you for both. But especially it will challenge you for abuse of the gospel. It is said that God shall come in flaming fire, and take vengeance on them that do not obey the gospel (2 Th 1:8). The gospel commands us to believe and repent. When this is disobeyed, God is distrusted and His offer of mercy despised; therefore the sin of professing Christians is greater than the sin of Sodom.

Finally, if these seven sins are causes of woe, then to do the contrary is to flee from the woe. If woe abides the unrestrained glutton, there will be no woe to those who exercise restraint. If there is woe to the one who pollutes God’s worship, the reverent use of the Lord’s ordinances delivers from woe. If there is woe to the oppressor, there is no woe to the one who deals meekly, courteously and equitably. If there is woe to the one who does not obey God’s voice, then hearing the Lord’s voice, receiving correction, trusting in God and drawing near to Him deliver both from the sin and the woe.

To flee from this woe, listen to the voice of the preacher; hear the sound of the rod and Him that appointed it. Believe God’s goodness, receive His offers of mercy, and say with David, It is good for me to draw near to Thee. I will seek fellowship with Thee; I will seek that joy, peace and refreshment which are to be found in Thee; I will draw near Thee in the use of all the means, that I may be free of this woe.

Words of Warning¹

John Newton

I suppose you will receive many letters of congratulations on your recovery from your recent dangerous illness. Most of them may perhaps be more lively and better written than mine, but none, I persuade myself, more sincere and affectionate. I beg you to prepare yourself, by this good opinion of me, before you read further; and let the reality of my regard for you excuse what you may dislike in my manner of expressing it.

When a person has returned from a dangerous, distant voyage, we are naturally led to inquire into the incidents he has met, and the discoveries he has made. Indulge me in curiosity of this kind, especially as my affection gives me an interest and concern in the event. You have been, my friend, on the brink, the very edge, of an eternal state; but God has restored you to the world again. Did you meet with, or have you brought back, nothing new? Did nothing occur to stop or turn your usual train of thought?

Were your apprehensions of invisible things exactly the same in the height of your disorder, when you were cut off from the world and all its activities, as when you were in perfect health and in the highest enjoyment of your own inclinations? If you answer me, Yes, all things are just the same as formerly apart from the difference between sickness and health, I am at a loss how to reply. I can only sigh and wonder – sigh that it should be thus with anyone, that it should be thus with you whom I dearly love; and wonder, since this unhappy case, strange as it seems in one view, is yet so common. Why, was it not always thus with myself? Long and often it was just so.

Many a time, when sickness had brought me, as we say, to death’s door, I was as much at ease as the sailor who, in the height of a storm, should presume to sleep upon the top of the mast, quite regardless of the possibility that the next tossing wave might plunge him into the raging ocean, beyond all possibility of being rescued. But at length a day came which, though the most terrible day I ever saw, I can now look back on it with thankfulness and pleasure. I say, the time came when, in such a helpless extremity and under the expectation of immediate death, it pleased God to remove the veil from my eyes, and I saw things in some measure as they really were. Imagine a person trembling on the edge of a dreadful precipice, a powerful and inexorable enemy eager to push him down onto a pile of horrible materials at the bottom. Even this will give you only a faint representation of the state of my mind at that time.

¹A letter taken with editing from Newton’s Works, vol. 1. It was sent to a pleasure-loving friend who had recovered from an illness.

Believe me, it was not a whim or a dream which changed my sentiments and conduct, but a powerful conviction, which will not admit the least doubt. It was evidence, like that I have of my own existence, which I cannot call in question without contradicting all my senses. And though my case was in some respects uncommon, yet something like it is known by one and another every day. I have myself conversed with many who spent several years defending Deistical principles, or indulging immoral practices, when they have thought themselves confirmed in their schemes by the cool assent of what they then deemed impartial reason. Yet they have been, like me, brought to glory in the cross of Christ and to live by that faith which they had before slighted and opposed.

By these instances, I know that nothing is too hard for the Almighty. The same power which humbled me can undoubtedly bring down the most haughty rejecter of the Bible on earth. I likewise knew that He is often pleased to make use of weak instruments to show His power. And I am encouraged, notwithstanding the apparent difficulty of succeeding, to warn those, over whom friendship or affection gives me any influence, of the evil and the danger of a course of life formed upon the prevailing principles of the world. So far as I neglect this, I am unfaithful in my professions both to God and man.

I shall not at present trouble you in an argumentative way. If by dint of reasoning I could bring about some change in your ideas, my arguments would still leave your heart unchanged and untouched, unless they were applied by a superior power. A man may give his assent to the gospel and be able to defend it against others, and yet not have his own spirit truly influenced by it. This thought I shall leave with you, that if your scheme cannot be demonstrated to be true, it must necessarily be false; the issue is too important to make a doubt on the dangerous side tolerable. If the Christian could possibly be mistaken, he is still on equal terms with those who pronounce him to be wrong; but if the Deist is wrong (that is, if we are in the right), the consequence to him must be unavoidable and intolerable. This, you will say, is a trite argument: I accept that; but, often used as it has been, it will never be worn out or answered.

Permit me to remind you that the points in debate between us have already been settled in themselves, and that our talking cannot alter the nature of things; for they will be as they are, whatever we may think of them. Remember likewise that we must all, each one for himself, experience on which side the truth lies. I used a wrong word when I spoke of your recovery; my dear friend, look upon it only as a reprieve, for you carry the sentence of death about you still. Unless you should be cut off (may God in His mercy forbid it) by a sudden stroke, you will as surely lie on a deathbed as you have now been raised from a bed of sickness. Remember likewise (how can I bear to write it?) that, should you neglect my admonitions, they will have an effect upon you, though not such an effect as I could wish: they will leave you more inexcusable.

I have delivered my own soul by faithfully warning you, but if you will not examine the matter with that seriousness it calls for; if you will not look up to God, the former of your body, and the preserver of your spirit, for direction and assistance how to please Him; if you will have your reading and conversation only on one side of the question; if you decide to let afflictions and dangers, mercies and deliverances, all pass without reflecting on them and applying them; if you will spend your life as though you thought you were sent into the world only to eat, sleep and play and, after a number of years, be extinguished as a candle is snuffed; then you must endure the consequences. But assuredly, sooner or later, God will meet you. My hearty daily prayer is that it may be in a way of mercy, and that you may be added to the number of the trophies of His unconquerable grace.

Luther and the Reformation¹

23. Standing up to the Cardinal

J H Merle d’Aubigné

On Friday, October 14, Luther returned to the Cardinal, accompanied by the Elector’s counsellors, and presented his protest to the Cardinal. His courtiers regarded this paper with astonishment – a paper so presumptuous in their eyes. This is what Luther declared to their master:

“You attack me on two points. First, you oppose to me the constitution of Pope Clement VI, in which it is said that the treasure of indulgences is the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the saints – which I deny in my theses. Panormitanus² declares in his first book that, in whatever concerns the holy faith, not only a general council but . . . each believer is above the pope if he can bring forward the declarations of Scripture and allege better reasons than

¹This is a further abridged extract from d’Aubigné’s The History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, vol 1, continued from last month. That article told of Luther in Augsburg in 1518, where he had come to be examined by Cardinal Cajetan – a legate, or representative, of the Pope. Appearing before Cajetan, Luther refused to retract his scriptural opinions. It should be noted, however, that he had not yet broken with Rome.

²Author of a famous collection of ecclesiastical laws, a bishop of the eleventh century.

the pope. The voice of our Lord Jesus Christ is far above the voice of all men, whatever names they bear.

“My greatest cause of grief and of serious reflection is that this constitution contains doctrines entirely at variance with the truth. It declares that the merits of the saints are a treasure, while the whole of Scripture bears witness that God rewards us far more richly than we deserve. The prophet exclaims, ‘Enter not into judgement with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified’ (Ps 143:2). ‘Woe to men, however honourable and however praiseworthy their lives may have been,’ says Augustine, ‘if a judgement from which mercy was excluded should be pronounced on them!’

“Thus the saints are not saved by their merits, but solely by God’s mercy, as I have declared. I maintain this, and in it I stand fast. The words of Holy Scripture, which declare that the saints have not merit enough, must be set above the words of men, which affirm that they have an excess. For the pope is not above the Word of God, but below it.”

Luther did not stop here; he showed that, if indulgences cannot be the merits of the saints, they certainly cannot be the merits of Christ. He proved that indulgences are barren and fruitless, since their only effect was to exempt men from performing good works, such as prayer and almsgiving. “No,” he exclaimed, “the merits of Jesus Christ are not a treasure of indulgence exempting man from [performing] good works, but a treasure of grace which gives life. The merits of Christ are applied to the believer without indulgences, without the keys, by the Holy Ghost alone, and not by the pope. If anyone has an opinion better founded than mine,” he added, bringing to an end what referred to this first point, “let him make it known to me, and then I will retract.”

Coming to the second article, Luther said, “I affirm that no man can be justified before God if he does not have faith”. Luther proves his proposition by a multitude of declarations from Scripture. “Condescend, therefore, to intercede for me with our most holy father the Pope,” he added, “in order that he may not treat me with such harshness. My soul is seeking for the light of truth. I am not so proud or so vainglorious as to be ashamed of retracting if I have taught false doctrines. My greatest joy will be to witness the triumph of what is according to God’s Word. Only do not let men force me to do anything against the voice of my conscience.”

The legate took the declaration from Luther’s hands. After glancing over it, he said coldly: “You have indulged in useless verbiage; you have penned many idle words; you have replied in a foolish manner to the two articles, and have blackened your paper with a great number of passages from Scripture that have no connection with the subject”. Then, with an air of contempt, he flung Luther’s protest aside as if it was of no value, and began again in the

tone which had been so successful in the previous interview. He exclaimed with all his might that Luther ought to retract.

Luther was immovable. “Brother, brother,” Cajetan cried in Italian, “on the last occasion you were very tractable, but now you are very obstinate.” The Cardinal then began a long speech extracted from the writings of Thomas Aquinas; he again extolled the constitution of Clement VI, maintaining that this constitution showed that the very merits of Jesus Christ are dispensed to the believer by means of indulgences. He thought he had reduced Luther to silence, yet he sometimes interrupted; but Cajetan, without stopping, claimed the sole right of speaking as on the previous day.

This method had partially succeeded the first time, but Luther was not a man to submit to it again. His indignation burst out; it was his turn to astonish the spectators, who believed he had already been conquered by the prelate’s ready speech. He raised his voice, seized on the Cardinal’s favourite objection, and made him pay dearly for his rashness in venturing to enter into discussion with him. “Retract, retract!” repeated Cajetan, pointing to the papal constitution. “Well, if it can be proved by this constitution,” said Luther, “that the treasure of indulgences is the very merits of Jesus Christ, I consent to retract, according to your Eminence’s good will and pleasure.”

The Italians, who had expected nothing of the kind, opened their eyes in astonishment, and could not contain their joy at seeing their adversary caught in the net. As for the Cardinal, he was beside himself; he laughed aloud, but with an angry laugh he sprang forward, seized the book which contained this famous constitution, looked for it, found it and eagerly read the passage aloud, exulting in the victory he thought certain.

The Italians were elated; the Elector’s councillors were uneasy; Luther was waiting for his adversary. At last, when the Cardinal came to these words: “The Lord Jesus Christ has acquired this treasure by His sufferings”, Luther stopped him, saying, “Most worthy father, pray, meditate, and weigh these words carefully: ‘He has acquired’. Christ has acquired a treasure by His merits; the merits therefore are not the treasure; for, to speak philosophically, the cause and effect are very different matters. The merits of Jesus Christ have acquired for the pope the power of giving certain indulgences to the people; but it is not the very merits of our Lord that the hand of the pontiff distributes. Thus then my conclusion is the true one, and this constitution, which you invoke with so much noise, testifies with me to the truth I proclaim.”

Cajetan still held the book in his hands, his eyes resting on the fatal passage; he could make no reply. He was caught in the very snare he had laid, and Luther held him there with a strong hand, to the inexpressible astonish-

ment of the Italian courtiers around him. The legate would have eluded the difficulty, but did not have the means. He had long abandoned the testimony of Scripture and of the Fathers; he had taken refuge in this work of Clement VI and he was caught. Yet he was too cunning to betray his confusion. Trying to conceal his disgrace, he suddenly moved on from this subject and violently attacked other points. Luther perceived this skilful manoeuvre and did not let him escape; he tightened the net in which he had taken the Cardinal and made all escape impossible. “Most reverend Father,” he said, with an ironical, yet very respectful tone, “your eminence cannot, however, imagine that we Germans are ignorant of grammar: to be a treasure, and to acquire a treasure, are two very different things.”

“Retract, retract!” said Cajetan; “Or if you do not, I shall send you to Rome to appear before judges commissioned to take notice of your affair. I shall excommunicate you with all your supporters, with all who are or who may be favourable to you, and reject them from the Church. All power has been given me in this respect by the holy apostolic see. Do you think that your protectors will stop me? Do you imagine that the Pope cares anything for Germany? The Pope’s little finger is stronger than all the German princes put together.”

“Condescend,” replied Luther, “to forward to Pope Leo X . . . the answer which I have sent to you in writing.” At these words, the legate, highly pleased at finding a moment’s release, again assumed an an air of dignity, and said to Luther with pride and anger: “Retract, or return no more”. These words struck Luther. This time he replied in another way than by speeches: he bowed and left the hall, followed by the Elector’s counsellors. The Cardinal and the Italians, remaining alone, looked at one another in confusion at such a result.

Thus the Dominican system had haughtily dismissed its humble adversary. But Luther was conscious that there was a power – Christian doctrine, the truth – that no secular or spiritual authority could ever subdue. Of the two combatants, he who withdrew remained master of the field of battle. This was the first step by which the Church separated from the papacy.

Luther and Cajetan did not meet again, but the Reformer had made a deep impression on the legate, which was never effaced. What Luther had said about faith and what Cajetan read in Luther’s subsequent writings greatly modified his opinions. The theologians of Rome beheld with surprise and discontent the sentiments he advanced on justification in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. The Reformer did not recede, did not retract; but his judge, who had not ceased from crying, “Retract, retract,” changed his views and indirectly retracted his errors, in the face of the unshaken fidelity of the Reformer.

Luther returned to the monastery where he had been entertained. He had stood fast; he had given testimony to the truth; he had done his duty. God would perform the rest! His heart overflowed with peace and joy.

Preaching Christ¹

6. Feelingly and Rightly

Thomas Brooks

Ephesians 3:8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[8.] Ministers must preach feelingly, from experience as well as by example. They must speak from the heart to the heart; they must feel the worth, the weight, the sweetness of those things upon their own souls that they give out to others: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:1-3). The highest mystery, in preaching, is to feel what a man speaks and then speak what a man feels.

Ministers must so speak to the people as if they lived in their very hearts, as if they had been told all their needs and all their ways, all their sins and all their doubts. No preaching compares to this, no preachers to those who are in this position.

Ministers should not be like Caesar’s soldier who dug a fountain for Caesar and himself perished for lack of water. Yet there are many such in these days that dig and draw water out of the wells of salvation for others, and yet perish eternally themselves, by not drinking the waters of life. If they are monsters, not to be named among men, that feed and feast their servants but starve their wives, then what monsters are they that feed and feast other men’s souls with the dainties and delicacies of heaven but starve their own! No misery, no hell to this!

[9.] As ministers must preach the word feelingly and experimentally, so they must preach the word rightly. They must divide and distribute the word according to every one’s spiritual state and condition. They must give comfort to those who need comfort, counsel to those who need counsel, reproof to those who need reproof, and terror to those who need terror: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15); or word for word, rightly cutting into parts the word of truth (Is 40:1,2, 50:4; 2 Cor 5:10-12).

Some say the metaphor, “rightly dividing”, is taken from the priests of the Old Testament, who having slain the beasts that were to be sacrificed, divided them accurately. Others say that it is a metaphor taken from a man cutting leather, who cuts off what is superfluous, when he cuts out reins and thongs. So in handling the Word, questions that are superfluous and unprofitable ought to be cut off, and only what makes for the hearer’s instruction, edification and consolation is to be held forth. Others say the metaphor is taken from the cutting out and squaring streets and highways, and setting out the bounds of men’s lands and possessions. Others understand cutting the Word of truth aright as raising right instructions, by following the rule of the Word, as a ploughman that draws or cuts a right furrow in the ground.

To divide the word aright, say Calvin and others, is to cut out to everyone his portion, as a parent cuts out bread to his children, or a cook meat to his guests. A general doctrine not applied is as a sword without an edge, not in itself, but to the people, who because of their own singular senselessness and weakness, are not able to apply it to their own states; or as a whole loaf set before children, which will do them no good. A garment fit for all bodies is fit for nobody; and that which is spoken to all is taken as spoken to none. Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow; application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in general things, but vain in their practical inferences. Such preachers are more fit for Rome than England. Souls may go sleeping and dreaming to hell before such preaching, before such preachers will awaken them and show them their danger.

O that the people were therefore so wise that, when sin is reproved, judgments are threatened, miseries promised, and Christ freely and fully offered, they would apply all to their own souls! This is the misery of many in our days, who come to sermons as beggars come to banquets, carrying nothing but the scraps away with them.

Proper faith is a sinner’s dealing with the Saviour of sinners for salvation from sin. Till we obtain perfect salvation from sin, we must act faith for it, and while we act that faith, sin is mixed with that very believing, so as that we must pray as [the father] did, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief”.

Robert Traill