Robert Bolton - Heart-Surgery - Part 2

Third help. A sense of the unspeakable misery you are liable to by reason of sin for which purpose consider all your sins, with their circumstances, as of times past, present, and to come.
Look back upon all your sins past that you ever did commit, all you have been guilty of ever since you were born, original or actual, known or unknown, of thought, word, and deed. They are written with an iron pen, and with the point of a diamond, never to be erased! They are all upon record, and now lie as so many sleeping lions, gathering strength and vigor until such time as the Lord shall awake the conscience; and then they will appear, and rend your soul in pieces!
I say, let natural men consider this point, and they shall see themselves miserable; for there are some for a small sin put to such frights, that they could not be comforted
in a long space. If these for such small things, in men’s account, have come to such a pass that they took no delight in any earthly thing, but are put to their wit’s end, ready to make away themselves, wishing themselves annihilated, then what tearing of hair, what horror of conscience will seize upon you on your bed of death!
With what a ghastly countenance will you look upon that black and hellish catalogue of all your sins such as lies, oaths, railings, scoffing at God’s people, impure speeches, mad passions, goods ill gotten, time ill spent, and killing Christ at every sacrament as all natural men do! These shall be summoned before you and charged upon your conscience by the just God; then consider in proportion what horror will be in your heart! No heart can conceive it, nor tongue of men and angels utter it. Now then attend, and let none bless themselves and say, I never felt this misery, therefore it shall never hurt me! I tell you, it is the perfection of your misery that you are insensible of it: to be soul sick, and feel it not is the full completion of misery, and the reasons why you cannot see it, are these seven:
(1) The devil will not trouble you while you are his; he is a politician of almost six thousand years’ experience, and knows, if once you see your sins, he shall lose you! Therefore he blinds you!
(2) Your conscience is lulled asleep with carnal pleasure and worldly contentments.
(3) A bucket of water is heavy on earth; in its own place it is not so. When men are merely natural, sin is in its own place, and the weight is not felt.
(4) The conscience of a natural man is like a wolf in a man’s body; while it is fed with carnal friends, good times, some great business of the world, and so on, it is quiet; but take this away, and then it is felt.
(5) A natural man is spiritually dead, and a dead man feels no weight, you know.
(6) He looks on sin through false glasses, such as upon covetousness and usury, through the glass of good business; so prodigality, through the glass of liberality.
(7) For lack of consideration. If we would by ourselves consider when the minister presses any sin, and say, This is my case, but now by the mercy of God I will be humbled, this would much help us to see our misery.
Fourth help. A base esteem of yourself; consider,
If you had looked upon that man in Matthew chapter 8, possessed with a devil, who dwelt among the tombs, went naked, chains would not hold him, the devil was so powerful in him; you would have thought him a dreadful spectacle of extreme misery, to have a legion of devils, by computation six thousand six hundred sixty-six; but I tell you—you had better have a thousand legions of devils—than one unrepented sin!
All the devils in hell cannot do you the least hurt for the salvation of your soul; but one sin willfully unrepented of, and so unpardoned, will damn your soul eternally! So it would be better to be possessed with a thousand devils—than one sin unrepealed of and unpardoned!
Sin made the devil so ugly as he is, being otherwise of an angelic nature; only sin makes him odious! Therefore sin is worse than either the tongue of men and angels can express.
Fifth help. An inward sorrow of heart and bleeding of soul. Here take these aids:
1. Your heart has been the fountain, or rather sink, from which have issued many foul streams, where all evil has been forged—all evil words, raging passions, and wicked thoughts. Now then, by the rule of proportion, let your heart be a fountain of sorrow for sin. If Christ opens a fountain of mercy for mourners, let them not be excluded for lack of sorrow.
2. Consider the heart of Christ; He would not have taken upon Himself a heart of flesh, but for sin; which for your sake was filled with that singular depth of sorrow and grief, that if all the godly sorrow of all the Christian souls from the beginning of the world to the end thereof, in heaven or in earth, dead or alive, were collected into one heart—they could not counterbalance the depth of His anguish! Shall then His blessed soul be assaulted with all the wrath of God? Shall His soul be like a scorched
hearth, and so pressed with the flames of God’s revenging wrath, which wrung from Him those bloody drops and woeful cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” The wrath of God was so fierce on Him, that drops of blood fell from Him! And shall your heart be as a stone within your breast, and never be moved? Oh astonishing hardness, and worse than heathenish ingratitude!
3. If your heart is not wounded here in some measure truly, it shall hereafter be filled with such endless horror—which would grieve and break ten thousand hearts to think on it! Is it not better then to mourn a little here for sin—than to have our hearts enlarged, to endure unto all eternity the horror of hell? Is any man so senseless as to think he shall go to heaven as in a bed of down, and never be touched for his sin, which is as impossible as for you to reach heaven with your hand! When Hezekiah, a man perfect in all his ways, complained and chattered like a crane (Isaiah 38:14); David roared all the day long (Psalm 32:3); Job complained, “The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the venom whereof does drink up my spirit” (Job 6:4); nay, Christ Himself cried out in the agony of His spirit.
4. With this broken heart in your breast you shall bring down the glorious majesty of heaven: God Almighty
with His chair of state, to sit in your soul; for He has two habitations:
1) in heaven;
2) in a humble heart.

5. Get this and get all, if you have a true title and interest unto the death of Christ, and all the comforts in the book of God; the promises both of this life, and of that to come.
Sixth help. An outward bewailing with heart piercing confession, where,
1. Consider the practice of the saints of God. They poured out tears, as men water out of buckets. Mary washed Christ’s feet with her tears. The publican struck on his breast with a sorrowful acknowledgment of his sins.
2. Consider your hands, and eyes, and tongue, and heart—have been instruments of God’s dishonor; therefore, by the rule of proportion, you should have the works of your hands instrumental demonstrations of repentance; your eyes fountains of tears; your tongue should utter, and heart suffer, grief.
3. Consider, that for outward things men will weep tears: such as for losses, or crosses in wife or children; as David for Absalom, so it is with many. What wringing their hands, tearing their hair, bitter crying! Then the loss of
Christ, who is infinitely better than husband, wife, child, or anything in the world; this, this, how should it break your heart! If all Job’s troubles were on you, and could wring one tear from you; then one sin should wring blood from your heart.
Seventh help. A hatred and aversion in your will from sin.
1. Consider what sin is in itself.
2. Consider how God is provoked with it.
3. Consider how you are hurt by it.
1. What sin is. Sin in itself is fouler than any fiend in hell, because it made them so vile; as fire is hotter than water that is heated.
It is extremely evil, nothing comes near to its evil. I consider of sin here in the abstract: sin is a greater evil—than the damnation of a man’s soul; for when two evils fight together, that which conquers, must needs be the greater; now, when a man has lain in hell ten thousand years, he is as far from coming out as ever; for the eternal duration in hell cannot expiate sin.
It is most infectious. It is compared to a leprosy; for the first sin that entered into the world stained the beauty of it. No sooner was sin committed by Adam, than the stars seemed impure in God’s sight, the beasts were at
variance, the earth full of brambles, and all things cursed!
Sin soured all natural, religious, and civil actions.
If a man in authority is sinful, all under him will be infected.
Sin is most filthy, and compared to the most vile things that can be named. No dirt or filthy thing, can stain a sunbeam; but sin stains a more glorious creature—the soul of man!
Sin is of that hellish nature, that it draws out and takes in to itself the wrath of God.
Sin is full of cursed consequences: deprivative and positive.
Deprivative: sin brings the loss of God’s favor; the blood of Christ; peace of conscience, etc.
Positive: sin brings brings all misery— spiritual deadness, hardness of heart, blindness of mind, horror of conscience, despair, etc. with all temporal losses and crosses here, and hereafter eternal torments of soul and body!
2. God is provoked with sin. Sin is the only object of God’s infinite hatred. His love is diversified to Himself, His Son, the angels, the creatures; but His hatred is
confined only to sin. What infinite of infinities of hatred you have on your soul, with all your sins, when each sin has the infinite hatred of God upon it!
Each sin is against the majesty of that awesome Lord of heaven and earth, who can turn all things into hell; nay, He can turn heaven and hell into nothing, by His sheer word. Now, against this God you sin, and what are you but dust and ashes, and all that is nothing! And what is your life, but a span, a bubble, a dream, a shadow of a dream? And shall such a pitiable thing as yourself—offend such an awesome God?
Every sin strikes at the glory of God’s pure eye!
Sin is that which killed His Son! The least sin could not be pardoned, except by Christ’s carrying His heart blood to His Father, and offering it for sin.
Each sin is an offense to all His mercies. This aggravated the sin upon Eli (1 Sam. 2:29), and of David (2 Sam. 12:8, 9). Mercy is the most eminent attribute of God, and therefore the sin against it is the greater. What therefore are our sins in the time of the gospel?
3. Consider how you are hurt by it, for:
Each sin ruins your soul, which is better than the world.
Each sin, though it brings ever so much pleasure in the committing, leaves a threefold sting: 1. Natural; 2. Temporal; 3. Immortal.
1. A Natural sting. After worldly pleasure—comes melancholy; properly, either because it lasted no longer, or they had no more delight in it, and so on. Just as all waters end in the salty sea—so all worldly joys are swallowed up in sorrow’s bottomless gulf.
2. A Temporal sting. There is labor in getting, care in keeping, and sorrow in parting with worldly goods!
3. An Immortal sting. God will call you to judgment for it. Each sin robs you of abundance of comfort. What a vast difference do we see in conquering sin—and being conquered by sin. As, for instance, in Joseph and David: the one raised after his conquest to much honor; the other, scarcely enjoyed one good day after he was conquered—but walked heavily in the bitterness of his soul all his days.
Your own conscience will accuse you one day for every sin, though now it seems hidden to you; and your conscience is more than a thousand witnesses; therefore you will certainly be overthrown. For the sins which perhaps you live in now, and count but of no
consequence—many poor souls are at this instant burning in hell for! What misery and hurt then, awaits you for the same!
Eighth help. A strong reasoning in your mind against sin.
1. The horror of hell. Therefore Christians wrong themselves who will not use this as a motive: the unquenchable wrath of God shall feed upon your soul, if you commit this sin!
2. The joys of heaven. I shall dwell with God forever, if, believing, I make conscience of every sin as an evidence and fruit of saving faith.
3. And above all, the glory of God. If God’s glory and the damnation of our souls were in a balance—His glory should preponderate and prevail. So we should prefer God’s glory above our own salvation.
Likewise, from every line in God’s book: His attributes, as: His justice and His mercy; His justice to terrify sinners, His mercy to allure us to Him; His judgments; His promises etc.
Also, from examples in Scripture: “How shall I do this, and sin against God?” says Joseph. From your former estate: “You were darkness, but now you are light,” etc. From the end of all things: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar;
the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives?”
Also, from yourself. Your soul is immortal—all the devils in hell cannot kill it. Your body is frail—all human helps cannot uphold it for long.
Also, from Christ. Look upon Him weeping, nay, bleeding on the cross, and saying thus, “Sin brought Me from the bosom of My Father to die for it.”
Also, from the incomprehensible excellency of God, against whom you are sinning.
Ninth help. A sincere opposition in your life to sin. These are several aids:
1. When any bait of Satan, or old companions, would allure you to sin, take this dilemma: “If I commit this sin—then I must repent of it. Then this sin will give me more sorrow than pleasure. If I do not repent, then this sin will be the damnation of my soul.”
2. Consider your madness, which lays most desperately in one scale of the balance—heaven, the favor of God, the blood of Christ, and your own soul; in the other scale—a little dust, money, base lust, etc. Think—sin may bring rottenness to your bones, perhaps loss of your good name.
3. And that you may yet be further armed to withstand the assaults of your three grand enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, which daily seek the destruction of your soul; consider these twelve antidotes:
(a) Consider the shortness of the pleasure of sin—with the length of the punishment; the one for a moment—the other everlasting!
(b) Consider the companions of sin; for one sin never goes alone, but, being once entertained, it sets all the faculties of the soul on fire, and so procures a spiritual judgment, if not temporal, upon estate and person.
(c) Consider, your life is but a span, a breath, a blast soon gone! Now if we had all the pleasure in the world, yet being so soon to lose it—it is not worth esteeming.
(d) Consider, sin causes us to lose the greatest good than that can be—as the favor of God, interest in Christ, eternal glory, and so on.
(e) Consider the uncertainty of repentance: God may not grant you the ability to repent after you have sinned, and so you would be damned.
(f) Consider the nearness of death to you: some have not lived out above half their time, others die shortly after they are born; young and old often die suddenly.
(g) Consider, that one moment in hell will be worse than all the pleasure that sin could give, though it should have lasted a thousand years! So, on the contrary, one moment in heaven does more good than all the hardness and pains in godly duties, or persecution for them, did hurt.
(h) Consider the dignity of your soul; it is more worth than a world. Lose it not then, for any sin.
(i) Consider the preciousness of a good conscience, which is a continual feast. This you lose by sin.
(j) Consider, your sin against a world of mercies which God has sent to you, such as to soul, body, good name, estate, and others.
(k) Consider, nothing can wash away any sin—but the blood of Christ. And will you now pollute yourself again, as it were, to have Him killed afresh to wash away your sin?
(l) Consider, the ancient martyrs and worthies chose rather to burn at a stake—than they would sin; and will you so easily be drawn to it, or rather run to it? Anselm said, “If the flames of hell were on the one side, and sin on the other side, I would rather lie in those flames than sin!” We have as precious means as they and, if our hearts were as good, we would have the like affections.
Tenth help. A sincere grieving that you can do these things no better, considering,
1. Though you had a thousand eyes, and could weep them all out, and shed rivers of tears. And though you had a thousand hearts to burst, yet all were not sufficient for the least sin or vanity, either of the eye or heart! How much more when our hearts are barren and dry, had we need to labor for this sorrow!
2. Consider, that when you have made the best prayer, or watched most diligently over yourself, or spent a day in repentance and humiliation—that you had need to cry and burst your heart again, for the imperfections and failings thereof.
In this sorrow, that you can perform good duties no better, weave up the web, what’s lacking in any of the rest, here make it up. And to encourage you, you have this happiness joined with it: that though your grief is small, and if it causes you to sell all, that is, to part from every sin for Christ, and take Him as a husband and a Lord, both for protection and government, then it is certainly godly sorrow, and certainly accepted in Christ!

Robert Bolton - Heart-Surgery - Part 1

“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Acts 2:37
In these words, there is shown a thorough wounding of the hearts of these men when they had heard of the greatness of their sin. Therefore observe that contrition in a new-born soul, is ordinarily in proportion to his former vanity. To whom much is forgiven, they love much. This is a fountain of evangelical repentance. As a traitor condemned to die, receiving a pardon, would wonderfully break his heart to think he should be so villainous, to so gracious a prince: so it is with a Christian that beholds God’s mercy to him.
Christians after their conversion, desire to see their sins to the utmost, with all the circumstances that make them hateful, such as the object, nature, person, time, etc. in which, or how they were done—so that they may be more humbled for them.
If it is not so (it may be otherwise, for God is a free agent, and is not tied to any proportion of sorrow) then such troubles as these usually seize on them:
First. They are often afflicted with this—that their conversion is not thorough and sound, and so do not
perform the duties of godliness with such heartiness and cheerfulness.
Second. They are many times haunted with listlessness and coldness in their progress in Christianity.
Third. They are visited with some cross or other, which sticks by them—to make them lay a greater load upon sin.
Fourth. They are more subject to be overtaken with their besetting sin, because they have sorrowed for it no more; for the less it is sorrowed over—the more it ensnares men.
Fifth. Some of them have been assaulted upon their death-bed with sorrowful and strong temptations. Not that men should think this is always the reason of it, for God has aims in all His works known only to Himself; but I have known some have so been troubled, and this may be in great mercy to make a weak conversion more strong. Lest any Christian should be troubled at it, note that in true contrition, there must be sorrow of heart because of sin: there must be a dislike of it in the will; there must be a strong reasoning in the mind out of the Word of God against sin—this is the sinew of repentance; there must be a resolution, and striving and watching against sin, like Job who made a covenant with his eyes, Job 31:1; there must be a grieving that he is not excelling in all these, and here he must make up what he lacks in the former. These are in some measure—in all
Christians. Some are more eminent in one part, some in another; as Joseph had little sorrow, but a strong resolution, because he had so strong a temptation, and withstood it; he had strong reasons beyond nature to resist sin, and resolve against it. So that it is not so much the measure—as the truth of every part that is required. But if they are not excelling in great sinners, they are to mourn for the lack of them.
To help here, observe these ‘ten degrees of repentance’—or rather ‘helps to humiliation’.
First help. A sight and survey, and full apprehension of all your vileness, iniquities, transgressions, and sins, the number and nature of them. For this purpose, take these two points:
I. Be acquainted with all the ways by which you can possibly analyze your sin:
1. Be perfect in the law of God, and look at yourself in the pure crystal looking-glass there: be thoroughly catechized in the commandments.
2. Take a survey of all the wrongs which we have offered to all things in heaven and earth. All things are the worse for a wicked man, so far as sin can add hurt unto them.
3. Take a perusal of yourself, from top to toe. For example, the sins of your eyes: each thing you look on, not making a holy use of them, is a sin of omission!
Consider then how many sins you commit every day by only your eyes—and if one part has so many sins—what a vast amount are there in the whole body!
4. Consider all the commissions and omissions, as you stand in several relationships: as a creature—how you have behaved to your Creator; as a husband—how you have behaved to your wife; as a father—how you have behaved to your children; as a master—how you have behaved to your employees; as a neighbor—how you have behaved to them about you, or to God’s children; as a subject, and so on. Take notice of all the failings in all these, relationships and you will find sufficient matter for a whole day of humiliation.
5. Labor to get (as I am persuaded every Christian has) two catalogues of your sins, before conversion and since conversion; of God’s mercies, spiritual and temporal.
II. Take note of the guilt of original sin. Now because a Christian may have his heart locked up more at one time than at another, let him in case of barrenness, consider these six quickening points:
1. Look to the seed, and sink, and natural inclination of your heart to all sorts of wickedness. For suppose by the mercy of God, you were able to say that you could not possibly find any actual sin within you; yet look back to the corrupt fountain, and there you shall find that you, and the most holy Christian on earth, while you live in
this house of flesh and tabernacle of clay—you have it in your nature to commit the greatest sins—and nothing hinders but God’s free mercy! This then, thoroughly considered, is sufficient matter to humble you! Consider with yourself, What a wretch am I yet, that I have this evil inclination to sin, still within me!
2. Consider and thoroughly weigh the circumstances of all your sins before salvation: at what time, in what place, with what scandal, etc.
3. In case of barrenness consider, we had our hands in the sin of Adam, and so brought all the sorrow, sin, and damnation, upon all men that are or shall be damned; and we are guilty of all the horrors of conscience. If we had not hearts of adamant, hewn out of a rock—or had not sucked the breast of wolves or tigers—we would be moved at this, which is able to break a thousand adamants. I speak advisedly; it is able to open a wide gap of penitent tears in the most flinty soul of the most hardened sinner.
4. Cut off all sin, both original and actual that you have taken notice of; and do but consider the imperfections in your best actions, the innumerable distractions of the most holy prayer that ever you made; your deadness, fruitlessness, etc. in holy duties.
5. Beyond all personal sins: yet consider how many ways we have had our hands in other’s sins, which, it may be, they have carried to hell with them. We have a world of
matter from which to break our hearts—for we may be guilty of others’ sins in thirteen ways. There is none but are guilty of some of these ways.
(1) By encouraging them in sin: as those prophets which cried “Peace! peace!” when there is no peace, when they are only so-called formal or polished preachers, those who sow pillows under men’s elbows, who heal the wounds of the people with fair words; when there is no real love towards them, but tumbling garments in blood, and vengeance, and devouring with fire (Isaiah 9:5: Jer. 14:14: Ezekiel 13:10).
(2) By provoking them to sin: as Job’s wife said to him, “Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9). So, “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,” (Ephesians 6:4), for they then are guilty of their sins.
(3) By familiarity with sinners, with company keeping. If you go with ale-house haunters, ungodly persons, idolaters, and to God’s enemies; look for that sharp check which the prophet gave to Jehoshaphat for associating himself with wicked Ahab, saying, “Why should you help the wicked—and love those who hate the Lord! What you have done has brought the Lord’s wrath against you!” Or, as Psalm 50:18, “When you see a thief, you help him; and you spend your time with adulterers!” Therefore, as Moses said to the people, “Separate yourselves from the tents of Korah, lest you perish with them!” and, “Come out of Babylon, my people, have no communion with that whore, lest you
perish in her sins, and be destroyed with her plagues!” (Revelation 18:4). David says, “I have not dwelt with vain persons, nor will I have fellowship with the ungodly.” But for dealings in your own business calling, such as buying, selling, correspondence etc., we must have these—or we must out of this world (1 Corinthians 5:1, 11).
(4) By participation: “Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves” (Isaiah 1:2.3). Just so, magistrates who execute not their office with justice, are guilty of all the sins which the people commit within the compass of the term of their government, and they are all set down on their score.
(5) By silence: when you hear a holy man being slandered, and say nothing—you are dumb dogs. Their silence is the cause of all many iniquities—and all these things which others do amiss, whether by swearing, ale-house haunting, etc. all are set on their score. Just so are all those who are faint and cowardly for God’s glory and truth.
(6) By defending: “Woe to those who call darkness light, and light darkness!” (Isaiah 5:20. Therefore if any by quickness of wit will labor to maintain usury, bribery, etc. they are all guilty of those sins.
(7) By counseling: as Jezebel counseled her husband to kill Naboth, I Kings 21:7.
(8) By commanding: as David commanded Uriah to be set in the forefront of the battle, and was therefore guilty of his death (2 Sam. 11:15).
(9) By commending: as those who commended Herod for his oration, saying, “It is the voice of a god!” (Acts 12:22). They were guilty of his sin in taking honor from God.
(10) By connivance: as Eli winked at his sons (1 Sam. 3:13), for which you may see what a fearful judgment fell upon that house! If we had no other sins in a day of humiliation, it were able to break the hardest heart; but especially for parents, who wink at their children sins. If these are not guilty of the former sins, yet they are guilty in not praying with them, and bringing them to holy duties.
(11) By consenting: as Paul bewailed that he had carried the clothes of those who slew Stephen when he was stoned (Acts 22:20).
(12) By not sorrowing for them. David shows what Christians ought to do (Psalm 119:139, Mark 3:5).
(13) By not praying against them for the suppression of them.
6. Consider the sins of the times. David’s eyes gushed out with tears, to see men transgress the holy law of God! (Psalm 119:136). So Lot’s heart was vexed daily with the
sins of the people among whom he lived (2 Peter 2:8). And “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4). Observe these several branches well, and you shall find sins enough to mourn for.
Second help. A right apprehension of God’s wrath and fiery indignation, and the pure eye of God against sin! The Christian often complains that he cannot grasp God’s wrath sufficiently. Let him take these helps.
1. The severity of God’s judgments against sin, for which,
1. He threw down the angels from heaven to be devils forever, who might have done Him abundance of glory.
2. For but eating forbidden fruit, which some count a small fault, He cast Adam out of Paradise, and sent a world of misery upon him and his posterity.
3. He drowned the world (Genesis 7), which shows the infinite purity in God, not to abide sin.
4. He burnt Sodom for those very sins now reigning among us (Ezekiel 16:49, 50).
5. He rejected the Jews, who were His most dear people: for they so provoked God, and His wrath has so fiercely seized on them, that they have wandered as exiles in the earth for centuries.
6. He has created horror of conscience, which is a hell upon earth, for the punishment of sin.
7. But above all, consider the torments of hell, that woeful place and state prepared for the wicked, where the greater part of the world shall be howling forever.
2. Consider how hard a thing it is to get pardon for sin, in that the justice of God was hard to be satisfied. Imagine that all the world was turned into a mass or lump of gold, the stones of the streets into precious pearls, and the sea and rivers all flowing with liquid streams of most pure gold—they would not satisfy the wrath of God for the least sin (Mic. 6:7). If all the angels and creatures in heaven and earth had joined together, and made one fervent prayer for man’s sin; even if they had offered themselves to have been annihilated, it could never have been effected. Nay, if the Son of God Himself should have supplicated His Father with most earnest entreaties, He could not have been heard unless He had taken our flesh upon Him, and suffered all that devils and men could imagine to inflict upon Him. Which, well considered, is infinite cause to bring us to a sense of God’s wrath—that He should lay such infinite torments to be on Jesus, that He cried out unto God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” Though He loved Him infinitely as Himself, yet He would have His justice satisfied.
3. The irresistible coming of God against sinners, though He is wonderfully ready and easy to be entreated
while He grants a day of visitation; but if men will withstand the day, then He comes in devouring rage, and His wrath being once kindled shall burn to the bottom of hell, then “his arrows shall drink blood and eat flesh,” then will He meet them as a bear robbed of her whelps, and tear in pieces when there is none to help (Hos. 1.3:53; Psalm 72; and in Isaiah 66:15), is set down the manner of His coming, with chariots like a whirlwind.
4. God’s holiness, which opposes sin, and is contrary to it, so that He looks not on the least sin with the least allowance.

John Newton - Public Prayer

It is much to be desired, that our hearts might be so affected with a sense of divine things and so closely engaged when we are worshipping God, that it might not be in the power of little circumstances to interrupt and perplex us, and to make us think the service wearisome and the time which we employ in it tedious. But as our infirmities are many and great, and the enemy of our souls is watchful to discompose us, if care is not taken by those who lead in social prayer, the exercise which is approved by the judgment may become a burden and an occasion of sin . . .

Length of Prayers

The chief fault of some good prayers is, that they are too long; not that I think we should pray by the clock, and limit ourselves precisely to a certain number of minutes; but it is better of the two, that the hearers should wish the prayer had been longer, than spend half the time in wishing it was over. This is frequently owing to an unnecessary enlargement upon every circumstance that offers, as well as to the repetition of the same things. If we have been copious in pleading for spiritual blessings, it may be best to be brief and summary in the article of intercession for others, or if the frame of our spirits, or the circumstances of affairs, lead us to be more large and particular in laying the cases of others before the Lord respect should be had to this intention in the former part of the prayer.
There are, doubtless, seasons when the Lord is pleased to favour those who pray with a peculiar liberty: they speak because they feel; they have a wrestling spirit and hardly know how to leave off. When this is the case, those who join with them are seldom wearied, though the prayer should be protracted something beyond the usual limits. But I believe it sometimes happens, both in praying and in preaching, that we are apt to spin out our time to the greatest length, when we have in reality the least to say. Long prayers should in general be avoided, especially where several persons are to pray successively; or else even spiritual hearers will be unable to keep up their attention. And here I would just notice an impropriety we sometimes meet with, that when a person gives expectation that he is just going to conclude his prayer, something not thought of in its proper place occurring that instant to his mind, leads him as it were to begin again. But unless it is a matter of singular importance, it would be better omitted for that time.

Preaching in Prayers

The prayers of some good men are more like preaching than praying. They rather express the Lord's mind to the people, than the desires of the people to the Lord. Indeed this can hardly be called prayer. It might in another place stand for part of a good sermon, but will afford little help to those who desire to pray with their hearts. Prayer should be sententious, and made up of breathings to the Lord, either of confession, petition, or praise. It should be not only Scriptural and evangelical, but experimental, a simple and unstudied expression of the wants and feelings of the soul. It will be so if the heart is lively and affected in the duty, it must be so if the edification of others is the point in view.

Method in Prayer

Several books have been written to assist in the gift and exercise of prayer, and many useful hints may be borrowed from them. But a too close attention to the method therein recommended, gives an air of study and formality, and offends against that simplicity which is so essentially necessary to a good prayer, that no degree of acquired abilities can compensate for the want of it. It is possible to learn to pray mechanically, and by rule; but it is hardly possible to do so with acceptance and benefit to others. When the several parts of invocation, adoration, confession, petition, etc., follow each other in a stated order, the hearer's mind generally goes before the speaker's voice, and we can form a tolerable conjecture what is to come next. On this account we often find that unlettered people who have had little or no help from books, or rather have not been fettered by them, can pray with an unction and savour in an unpremeditated way, while the prayers of persons of much superior abilities, perhaps even of ministers themselves, are, though accurate and regular, so dry and starched, then they afford little either of pleasure or profit to spiritual mind. The spirit of prayer is the fruit and token of the Spirit of adoption.
The studied addresses with which some approach the throne of grace remind us of a stranger's coming to a great man's door; he knocks and waits, sends in his name, and goes through a course of ceremony, before he gains admittance, while a child of the family uses no ceremony at all, but enters freely when he pleases, because he knows he is at home. It is true, we ought always to draw near the Lord with great humiliation of spirit, and a sense of our unworthiness. But this spirit is not always best expressed or promoted by a pompous enumeration of the names and titles of the God with whom we have to do, or by fixing in our minds beforehand the exact order in which we propose to arrange the several parts of our prayer. Some attention to method may be proper, for the prevention of repetitions; and plain people may be a little defective in it sometimes; but this defect will not be half so tiresome and disagreeable as a studied and artificial exactness.

Peculiarities of Manner

Many -- perhaps most -- people who pray in public have some favourite word or expression which recurs too often in their prayers, and is frequently used as a mere expletive, having no necessary connection with the sense of what they are speaking. The most disagreeable of these is when the name of the blessed God, with the addition perhaps of one or more epithets, as Great, Glorious, Holy, Almighty, etc., is introduced so often and without necessity, as seems neither to indicate a due reverence in the person who uses It, nor suited to excite reverence in those who hear. I will not say that this is taking the Name of God in vain, in the usual sense of the phrase: it is, however, a great impropriety, and should be guarded against. It would be well if they who use redundant expressions had a friend to give them a caution so that they might with a little care be retrenched; and hardly any person can be sensible of the little peculiarities he may inadvertently adopt, unless he is told of them.
There are several things likewise respecting the voice and manner of prayer, which a person may with due care correct in himself, and which, if generally corrected, would make meetings for prayer more pleasant than sometimes they are. . . Very loud speaking is a fault, when the size of the place and the number of the hearers do not render it necessary. The end of speaking (in public) is to be heard: and when that end is attained a greater elevation of the voice is frequency hurtful to the speaker, and is more likely to confuse a hearer than fix his attention. I do not deny but allowance must be made for constitution, and the warmth of the passions, which dispose some persons to speak louder than others. Yet such will do well to restrain themselves as much as they can. It may seem indeed to indicate great earnestness, and that the heart is much affected; yet it is often but false fire. It may be thought speaking 'with power', but a person who is favoured with the Lord's presence may pray with power in a moderate voice; and there may be very little of the power of the Spirit, though the voice should be heard in the street and neighbourhood.
The other extreme of speaking too low is not so frequent; but, if we are not heard, we might as well altogether hold our peace. It exhausts the spirits and wearies the attention, to be listening for any length of time to a very low voice. Some words or sentences will be lost, which will render what is heard less intelligible and agreeable. If the speaker can be heard by the person furthest distant from him, the rest will hear of course.
The tone of the voice is likewise to be regarded. Some have a tone in prayer so very different from their usual way of speaking, that their nearest friends, if not accustomed to them, could hardly know them by their voice. Sometimes the tone is changed, perhaps more than once, so that if our eyes did not give us more certain information than our ears, we might think two or three persons had been speaking by turns. It is a pity that when we approve what is spoken we should be so easily disconcerted by an awkwardness of delivery: yet so it often is, and probably so it will be, in the present weak and imperfect state of human nature. It is more to be lamented than wondered at, that sincere Christians are sometimes forced to confess: 'He is a good man, and his prayers as to their substance are spiritual and judicious, but there is something so displeasing in his manner that I am always uneasy when I hear him'.

Informality in Prayer

Contrary to this, and still more offensive, is a custom that some have of talking to the Lord in prayer. It is their natural voice indeed, but it is that expression of it which they use upon the most familiar and trivial occasions. The human voice is capable of so many inflections and variations, that it can adapt itself to the different sensations of the mind, as joy, sorrow, fear, desire, etc. If a man was pleading for his life, or expressing his thanks to the king for a pardon, common sense and decency would teach him a suitableness of manner; and anyone who could not understand his language might know by the sound of his words that he was not making a bargain or telling a story. How much more, when we speak to the King of kings, should the consideration of his glory and our own vileness, and of the important concerns we are engaged in before him, impress us with an air of seriousness and reverence, and prevent us from speaking to him as if he was altogether such an one as ourselves! The liberty to which we are called by the gospel does not at all encourage such a pertness and familiarity as would be unbecoming to use towards a fellow-worm, who was a little advanced above us in worldly dignity.
I shall be glad if these hints may be of any service to those who desire to worship God in spirit and in truth, and who wish that whatever has a tendency to damp the spirit of devotion, either in themselves or in others, might be avoided.

John Piper - God's Sovereignty and Happiness

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY: THE FOUNDATION OF HIS HAPPINESS AND OURS
     “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). The implication of this text is that God has the right and power to do whatever makes Him happy. That is what it means to say that God is sovereign.
     Think about it for a moment: If God is sovereign and can do anything He pleases, then none of His purposes can be frustrated.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10–11) 

    
     And if none of His purposes can be frustrated, then He must be the happiest of all beings. This infinite, divine happiness is the fountain from which the Christian Hedonist drinks and longs to drink more deeply.
     Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression, like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected? Could we join David and say, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1)?
     I don’t think so. We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, or maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor.
     Therefore if God is not a happy God, Christian Hedonism has no foundation. For the aim of the Christian Hedonist is to be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy His fellowship and favor. But children cannot enjoy the fellowship of their Father if He is unhappy. Therefore the foundation of Christian Hedonism is the happiness of God.
      But the foundation of the happiness of God is the sovereignty of God: “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). If God were not sovereign, if the world He made were out of control, frustrating His design again and again, God would not be happy.
     Just as our joy is based on the promise that God is strong enough and wise enough to make all things work together for our good, so God’s joy is based on that same sovereign control: He makes all things work together for His glory.
     If so much hangs on God’s sovereignty, we should make sure the biblical basis for it is secure.

THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR GOD’S SOVEREIGN HAPPINESS(1)
     The sheer fact that God is God implies that His purposes cannot be thwarted—so says the prophet Isaiah:

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” (Isaiah 46:9–10)

     The purposes of God cannot be frustrated; there is none like God. If a purpose of God came to naught, it would imply that there is a power greater than God’s. It would imply that someone could stay His hand when He designs to do a thing. But “none can stay his hand,” as Nebuchadnezzar says:

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34–35)

HIS SOVEREIGNTY COVERS CALAMITIES
This was also Job’s final confession after God had spoken to him out of the whirlwind: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
     This raises the question whether the evil and calamitous events in the world are also part of God’s sovereign design. Jeremiah looks over the carnage of Jerusalem after its destruction and cries:

My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. (Lamentations 2:11)

     But when he looked to God, he could not deny the truth:
 

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (3:37–38)
 

“SHALL WE RECEIVE GOOD FROM GOD AND NOT EVIL?”
If God reigns as sovereign over the world, then the evil of the world is not outside His design: “Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?” (Amos 3:6).
     This was the reverent saying of God’s servant Job when he was afflicted with boils: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). He said this even though the text says plainly that “Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores” (Job 2:7). Was Job wrong to attribute to God what came from Satan? No, because the writer tells us immediately after Job’s words: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).
     The evil Satan causes is only by the permission of God. Therefore, Job is not wrong to see it as ultimately from the hand of God. It would be unbiblical and irreverent to attribute to Satan (or to sinful man) the power to frustrate the designs of God.

WHO PLANNED THE MURDER OF CHRIST?
The clearest example that even moral evil fits into the designs of God is the crucifixion of Christ. Who would deny that the betrayal of Jesus by Judas was a morally evil act?
     Yet in Acts 2:23, Peter says, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” The betrayal was sin, but it was part of God’s ordained plan. Sin did not thwart His plan or stay His hand.
     Or who would say that Herod’s contempt (Luke 23:11) or Pilate’s spineless expediency (Luke 23:24) or the Jews’ “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21) or the Gentile soldiers’ mockery (Luke 23:36)—who would say that these were not sin? Yet Luke, in Acts 4:27–28, records the prayer of the saints:

Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
 

     People lift their hand to rebel against the Most High only to find that their rebellion is unwitting service in the wonderful designs of God. Even sin cannot frustrate the purposes of the Almighty. He Himself does not commit sin, but He has decreed that there be acts that are sin,(2) for the acts of Pilate and Herod were predestined by God’s plan.

GOD TURNS IT WHEREVER HE WILL
     Similarly, when we come to the end of the New Testament and to the end of history in the Revelation of John, we find God in complete control of all the evil kings who wage war. In Revelation 17, John speaks of a harlot sitting on a beast with ten horns. The harlot is Rome, drunk with the blood of the saints; the beast is the Antichrist; and the ten horns are ten kings who “hand over their power and authority to the beast…[and] make war on the Lamb” (vv. 13–14).
     But are these evil kings outside God’s control? Are they frustrating God’s designs? Far from it. They are unwittingly doing His bidding: “For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17). No one on earth can escape the sovereign control of God: “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1; cf. Ezra 6:22).
     The evil intentions of men cannot frustrate the decrees of God. This is the point of the story of Joseph’s fall and rise in Egypt. His brothers sold him into slavery. Potiphar’s wife slandered him into the dungeon. Pharaoh’s butler forgot him in prison for two years. Where was God in all this sin and misery? Joseph answers in Genesis 50:20. He says to his guilty brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
     The hardened disobedience of men’s hearts leads not to the frustration of God’s plans, but to their fruition.
     Consider the hardness of heart in Romans 11:25–26: “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” Who is governing the coming and going of this hardness of heart so that it has a particular limit, and then gives way at the appointed time to the certain salvation of “all Israel”?
     Or consider the disobedience in Romans 11:31. Paul speaks to his Gentile readers about Israel’s disobedience in rejecting their Messiah: “So they [Israel] too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you [Gentiles] they also may now receive mercy.” When Paul says that Israel was disobedient in order that Gentiles might get the benefits of the gospel, whose purpose does He have in mind?
     It could only be God’s. For Israel certainly did not conceive of their disobedience as a way of blessing the Gentiles—or winning mercy for themselves in such a roundabout fashion! Is not then the point of Romans 11:31 that God rules over the disobedience of Israel and turns it precisely to the purposes He has planned?

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MERE COINCIDENCE
     God’s sovereignty over men’s affairs is not compromised even by the reality of sin and evil in the world. It is not limited to the good acts of men or the pleasant events of nature. The wind belongs to God whether it comforts or whether it kills.

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. (Psalm 135:5–7)
 

     In the end, one must finally come to see that if there is a God in heaven, there is no such thing as mere coincidence, not even in the smallest affairs of life: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33). Not one sparrow “will fall to the ground without your Father’s will” (Matthew 10:29, RSV).

(1) For a much fuller defense of God’s sovereignty in all that He does, see John Piper, The Pleasures of God:
Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 2000), 47–75, 121–55 and The
Justification of God: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1–23 (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Baker, 1993). See also Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan), 315–54; John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God, Theology of
Lordship Series (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2002), 47–79, 274–88, 313–39, and the
relevant chapters in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace,
ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2000).

(2) For an explanation and defense of this statement, see appendix 3, “Is God Less Glorious Because He
Ordained That Evil Be? Jonathan Edwards on the Divine Decrees.”


Taken from: http://www.desiringgod.org/books/desiring-god
By John Piper. ©2015 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Thomas Brooks - Love the Lord Jesus Christ!

Look that ye love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative love, with an overtopping love. There are none have suffered so much for you as Christ; there are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ. The least measure of that wrath that Christ hath sustained for you, would have broke the hearts, necks, and backs of all created beings.

O my friends! There is no love but a superlative love that is any ways suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love him above your lusts, love him above your relations, love him above the world, love him above all your outward contentments and enjoyments; yea, love him above your very lives; for thus the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive Christians, and the martyrs of old, have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love: Rev. xii. 11, 'They loved not their lives unto the death;' that is, they slighted, contemned, yea, despised their lives, exposing them to hazard and loss, out of love to the Lamb, 'who had washed them in his blood.' I have read of one Kilian, a Dutch schoolmaster, who being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, answered, Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands to dispose of, I would leave it at my enemies' feet to live with them in a prison; but my soul and my Saviour are dearer to me than all. If my father, saith Jerome, should stand before me, and my mother hang upon, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and tread underfoot my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ. Had I ten heads, said Henry Voes, they should all off for Christ. If every hair of my head, said John Ardley, martyr, were a man, they should all suffer for the faith of Christ. Let fire, racks, pulleys, said Ignatius, and all the torments of hell come upon me, so I may win Christ. Love made Jerome to say, O my Saviour, didst thou die for love of me?-a love sadder than death; but to me a death more lovely than love itself. I cannot live, love thee, and be longer from thee. George Carpenter, being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, which stood weeping before him, answered, My wife and children!- my wife and children! are dearer to me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know them not. That blessed virgin in Basil being condemned for Christianity to the fire, and having her estate and life offered her if she would worship idols, cried out, 'Let money perish, and life vanish, Christ is better than all.' Sufferings for Christ are the saints' greatest glory; they are those things wherein they have most gloried: Crudelitas vestra, gloria nostra, your cruelty is our glory, saith Tertullian. It is reported of Babylas, that when he was to die for Christ, he desired this favour, that his chains might be buried with him, as the ensigns of his honour. Thus you see with what a superlative love, with what an overtopping love, former saints have loved our Lord Jesus; and can you, Christians, who are cold and low in your love to Christ, read over these instances, and not blush?

 Certainly the more Christ hath suffered for us, the more dear Christ should be unto us; the more bitter his sufferings have been for us, the more sweet his love should be to us, and the more eminent should be our love to him. Oh, let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts; let him be your manna, your tree of life, your morning star. It is better to part with all than with this pearl of price. Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of salvation runs; and oh. how should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to Christ, and cry out with Ignatius, Christ my love is crucified? Cant. viii. 7,8. If a friend should die for us, how would our hearts be affected with his kindness! and shall the God of glory lay down his life for us, and shall we not be affected with his goodness i John x. 17, 18. Shall Saul be affected with David's kindness in sparing his life, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, and shall not we be affected with Christ's kindness, who, to save our life, lost his own? Oh, the infinite love of Christ, that he should leave his Father's bosom, John i. 18, and come down from heaven, that he might carry you up to heaven, John xiv. 1-4; that he that was a Son should take upon him the form of a servant, Phil. ii. 5-8; that you of slaves should be made sons, of enemies should be made friends, of heirs of wrath should be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 17; that to save us from everlasting ruin, Christ should stick at nothing, but be willing to be made flesh, to lie in a manger, to be tempted, deserted, persecuted, and to die upon a cross!

Oh what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ! Love is compared to fire; in heaping love upon our enemy, we heap coals of fire upon his head, Rom. xii. 19, 20; Prov. xxvi. 21. Now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature: fire maketh all things fire; the coal maketh burning coals; and is it not a wonder then that Christ, having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of his love upon our heads, we should yet be as cold as corpses in our love to him. Ah! what sad metal are we made of, that Christ's fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ! Moses wondered why the bush consumed not, when he sees it all on fire, Exod. iii. 3; but if you please but to look into your own hearts, you shall see a greater wonder; for you shall see that, though you walk like those three children in the fiery furnace, Dan. iii., even in the midst of Christ's fiery love flaming round about you; yet there is but little, very little, true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you. Oh, when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Saviour kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts, as shall still be a-breaking forth in our lips and lives, in our words and ways, to the praise and glory of free grace? Oh that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love! Cant. ii. v. Oh let him for ever lie betwixt our breasts, Cant. i. 13, who hath left his Father's bosom for a time, that he might be embosomed by us for ever.

Samuel Willard - The Nature of Christ's Resurrection

Question 28. Wherein consists Christ's Exaltation? Answer. Christ's Exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up to heaven, and in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.


[This is the second of a five sermon series on this question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.]


Leaving the general consideration of Christ's Exaltation, we will continue with a more detailed account. There are several steps to his Exaltation, which may be summarised under two heads: either those degrees of triumph, to which he is exalted already, or the manifestation of it which is reserved for the Day of Judgement. God has already highly lifted him up, but he will yet make his glory known more conspicuously at the end of the world. The saints in heaven see his face in glory and are happy in that sight. Believers on earth see him with an eye of faith and rejoice in it, 1 Pet. 1:8, "Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." At that time his enemies also will see him. They had seen him dead and buried, that was the last sight they had of him: but they must see him glorified to their eternal confusion, Rev. 1:7 "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen."
Let us consider the glorification which Christ has received already. It consists in two things: his resurrection from death, and his taking possession of the kingdom of glory. We will begin with his resurrection because it was the first step of his glorification, after he had humbled himself in death.
This article is a main pillar of the Christian faith, and we need to be well established on it. As the apostles were appointed to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ (Acts 1:22), so they preached it clearly in every place they came. We may take a brief account of it under several heads.

I. The precise nature of Christ's resurrection consists of two things: there is something internal, the reunion of his soul and body, and external, his coming out of the grave after that reunion. Both of these are implied by the words used in the New Testament to express resurrection. The word used in Matt. 28:6, egeirw [hegeiro], signifies both to wake out of sleep and to rise out of bed. When Christ's soul came into his body he awakened, and when he left his sepulchre, then he left his bed. Resurrection is also expressed by anastasiV [anastasis], which signifies rising from a fall and standing up again. Christ fell down into the dust when he died, and stood up again when he arose. The first of these was properly his resurrection, and the second the manifestation of it.

II. The subject of this resurrection may be considered in two categories.
1. The precise subject of the resurrection was the whole human nature of Christ. Christ is said to die and to rise again, 1 Cor. 15:14,15. It is attributed to his person in respect to his human nature because his divine nature is not in itself capable of either Humiliation or Exaltation. The resurrection may be attributed to his whole human nature in as much as both his soul and body were sharers in it. His entire humanity fell by death in some sense, and his soul therefore arose by a deliverance from the state of separation and its reunion, and his body arose by a restoration to life and being brought out of the grave.
2. The resurrection is ascribed to his body, his soul, and his person in various regards, as:
It was his body that was most strictly raised. That only fell down; while his soul went upward to paradise, Luke 23:43, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Only his body lay in the grave, his soul ascended to heaven. Only his body was completely deprived of its working, for his soul as it departed was actively happy in the presence of God.
1. Now, regarding his body:
a. It was the same body that fell, which was raised again. Matt. 28:5,6 "But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." He did not take upon himself another body to be exalted in, but the same in which he was humbled.
b. His rational soul came from heaven into the sepulchre, where his body lay, and was there reunited with it. Psa. 16:10 "For you will not leave my soul in Sheol." This must be understood as the state of separation.
c. His vital spirits, which had been dissipated by death, were again restored and helped to knit his soul and body together. For this reason he is said to be alive again, Rom. 14:9 "For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living."
d. His senses were also restored to his body. His organs of sensation had been deprived of their power by his death and had been useless, but now his eyes and ears and other organs of sensation received their power of operation. Thus they were prepared to serve his rational soul according to their natural use, and were evident proof of his being alive again, Acts 1:3.
e. The prison doors were opened and he came out of his grave. His body was raised a glorious body, Phil. 3:21, 1 Cor. 15:43. However, the glorious splendour of his body was veiled for a time as he thought it appropriate. This was for a few days while he abode with his disciples before his ascension, so that they might be able to have communion with him.
2. Regarding his soul, while it may not be quite correct to say that it arose, nevertheless a resurrection is connected with it.
a. It was reunited with his body after separation. Otherwise his body would not have arisen. Its death was effected by that separation, and therefore its resurrection required such a reunion.
b. In this way it was delivered from that separation which was contrary to its natural inclination and was made again to enjoy the desired company of the body. A separated soul, being only a part of the man, is not at rest until it is restored to the other part for which it was made, and so undergoes a sort of death while separate.
c. It came out of the sepulchre with and in his body, and so it joined with it in the second part of his resurrection. It was for this cause that his body was enabled to come forth, which before was lifeless.
d. It now enjoyed its previous freedom of exercising its operations upon and in his glorious body. It had again the use of all his senses and members, which had been for a while suspended.
e. Both together took possession of the glory which he had merited with both in his humiliation, Psa. 16:9-11. His mediatorial glory was not completed until he was thus raised.
3. Regarding his person, it is certain that he who arose was Christ, the second Person of the Trinity. As it was mentioned before, the divine nature of Christ, being unchangeable, could neither die nor rise. Nevertheless the declarative glory of his divine nature which was obscured in the days of his flesh began to radiate out and shine forth clearly in his resurrection. Therefore, Christ is "...declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead," Rom. 1:4. In this regard it was a declarative begetting of Christ, Acts 13:33, "God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten You.'" Christ as mediator was now glorified to fulfil the promise made to him in the Covenant of Redemption.

III. Christ really did rise again. The Scripture gives abundant testimony to this. Because it is a matter of historical fact, the historical witness alone should be a sufficient reason for faith to accept it; although there are also persuasive arguments to accept it, such as:
1. There is the testimony of the two glorious angels for the resurrection, Matt. 28:5,6 and Luke 24:45,46.
2. The testimony of the women that went to the sepulchre, where they saw him and spoke with him, Matt. 28:9.
3. The various appearances which he made to his disciples. Before his ascension he was seen by at least five hundred persons who had his resurrection confirmed by many tangible and convincing proofs, 1 Cor. 15:5-8.
4. In particular there is the testimony of the Apostles, who because they were to be bearers of this truth, and witnesses to the world, had frequent communion with him at times, for forty days after he had risen, Acts 1:3, during which time they "looked upon and handled" the "Word of life," 1 John 1:1,2. Therefore, Luke 24:39,40, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet." "Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing,'" John 20:27.
5. Indeed the very nature of the thing declares that he must be risen. If he was the Son of God and by his death satisfied for sin, and answered all the demands of justice in the place of his redeemed, it was impossible that the grave could hold him. Therefore when he had lain in it long enough to confirm the reality of his being dead, there was no reason for his lying there any longer. Thus the Scripture argues, "God raised [him] up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it," Acts 2:24.

IV. If it should be demanded, by what power did he arise, or who was the causative agent of his resurrection? It may be replied, that it was not any other outside power, but he himself was the author of his own rising from the dead. This he clearly prophesied beforehand, John 2:19 and 10:17,18. It is true that this work is ascribed to the Father, Acts 2:24. Being the Creditor, now fully satisfied in the discharge of the debt which his Son determined to pay, sent his angel as an officer to discharge him with glorious pomp and majesty. This work is also attributed to the Spirit, Rom. 8:11, because he was raised by a glorious and almighty power. This power did not manifest itself so much in the raising of his body from the grave (though nothing but omnipotent power could do that), as in releasing the chains of the second death which were upon him in his state of humiliation, and in discharging him from the sentence of the Law, by which he was condemned to die as our surety and representative. Indeed this work, being a divine work, belongs to the Deity and consequently to the Trinity. Yet Christ attributes this work to himself because his divine nature exerted itself mightily in his resurrection. As it was by a voluntary act that he laid down his life, and no one else could have taken it from him, so by an act of his mighty power he took it up again. Death himself could not stand against him, and he became a conqueror over it. In his own person Christ fulfilled the prophecy, Hosea 13:14 "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from my eyes." The angels who were present at the resurrection were not the instruments of it, but only waited on their Lord and honoured him in this phase of his Exaltation.

V. Christ's resurrection was on the third day after his death and burial, Luke 24:7. This was foretold by Christ himself, John 2:19. "And be raised the third day," Matt. 16:21. In this regard he claimed that Jonah was a type of himself, Matt. 12:39,40. He continued three days in a state of death, in order that there would be no question about his being truly dead. It was no longer in order that his disciples would not faint in their spirits and be discouraged by the corruption of his body, because it was foretold that it would not see corruption, Psa. 16:10. It is true, that he did not lay in the grave three whole days, but it was for some part of three successive days. He was buried on the sixth day (Friday) before sunset, and he lay in the grave the entire seventh day (Saturday) and the night of the first day (Sunday), considering the day to begin with the sunset.

VI. It was required that Christ should rise from the dead. Just as he had to die, he had to rise and live. This was necessary for several reasons:
1. He rose again to prove and declare that he was the Son of God, Rom. 1:4. During his Humiliation, and particularly in his death, Christ's divinity was obscured under a veil of the many infirmities of his humanity, but in his resurrection he proved his eternal power and Godhead. Indeed it is true that others were raised, and indeed shortly all shall rise; therefore merely to be raised from the dead is not proof of the divinity of the one raised. Yet, for someone to raise himself by his own power, that is sufficient proof of divinity. He gave evidence of divinity by raising others in his name, but he was required to raise himself by his own power to prove himself God.
There was a further proof of his divinity in the resurrection, in that he died according to the Law and justice of God, sentenced as our Surety to suffer the whole weight of the wrath of God. For him to be released from this sentence, after he had been born for that very purpose, and to live again having fulfilled all the demands of justice upon him, proves him to be God. The weight of wrath that he bore would have broken the whole of creation, and they would never have been released.
2. In this way he attested to his perfect victory over death and our spiritual enemies. It was not enough that Christ should die for us. In dying he must be a conqueror, otherwise his death would not profit us. Indeed, he suffered in order that he might overcome, Heb. 2:14, "That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." This was shown and proven by his resurrection. This is the reason why Paul, after he had demonstrated by many arguments that Christ was risen, and then shown what was the glorious cause of it, concluded the passage with a note of triumph, 1 Cor. 15:57, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It is true that Christ conquered all on his cross: there the battle was fought and there the victory was gained. But that victory was made into a triumph in his resurrection. Now his enemies fled, quitting the field. Psa. 68:1, "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those also who hate him flee before him." He made a conquest of death itself, and it lay dead at his feet. Christ would never be known as a conqueror, except for this. If death had held him as her captive, where would his victory be?
3. He rose for our justification. "Who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification," Rom. 4:25. As he died to pay our debt, so he rose again to acquit or absolve us from it. Christ's resurrection was both his and our discharge: his, when he stood as our surety bond for us, and ours, as those for whom he was Surety. As Christ by dying was made virtually, so by rising he becomes actually the object of our justifying faith.
He became a sufficient object of faith not merely by undertaking to appear in our place, but by actually making an end of the transgressions on our account and paying our whole debt. If he had not made satisfaction for us, we could not in justice have been pardoned. If he had not fully reconciled us to God and completely answered the Law's demands, we could not have been saved. Therefore if he had continued on in death, it would have shown the continuing need for payment; which would have revealed its imperfection, and consequently its invalidity. Christ could not rise until justice acquitted him. His bond was submitted for our cause, and it must be accepted by the Judge, and that only by a full payment of the bond. When he arose, this bond was returned to him, and cancelled. Our debt is paid, our bond is returned. Therefore his resurrection stands in opposition to all that could be laid to our charge, Rom. 8:34. Therefore this is one of the arguments that the Apostle uses to prove that Christ must be risen, "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" 1 Cor. 15:17.
4. It was to put Christ into a proper condition for the completing of the work remaining in the execution of his offices. We observed in a previous sermon that Christ executes his offices in both states of Humiliation and Exaltation. As our Priest he was to satisfy justice for us, and afterwards to intercede for us, Heb. 7:25. As our Prophet, here he taught with his mouth, but there he sent forth his Spirit, and therefore he had to go to the Father, John 16:17. As our King, here he commanded his disciples and gave them laws, but he must also govern them by his power and wield the sceptre over the world. This was accomplished by his resurrection, Psa. 2:6 and following, cf. Acts 13:33. Indeed, there was the glory of a mediator promised to him as a reward for his obedience, and it was necessary for him to rise in order to take possession of it, Luke 24:26, "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"
5. It was necessary for him to rise, so he would be the first fruits of our resurrection, both spiritually and bodily. See 1 Cor. 15:20-23. By first fruits we are not to understand first in order of time, but in order of causation. Those who rose at Christ's death, as described in the Gospel, Matt. 27:52,53, rose by the power and influence of his resurrection. Furthermore it is a sure pledge of the resurrection of his members. When the first fruits were offered to God under the Law, he accepted them and gave his people an assurance of the harvest. The Apostle makes the same point in 1 Cor. 15 using the order of the covenants. Just as Adam in the first covenant, standing for us, procured death for us, so Christ in the new covenant, being our Surety, has purchased a resurrection for us. His resurrection is the earnest of ours, 1 Cor. 15:20.
To summarise, Christ as God is the efficient cause: Christ as our substitute satisfying for our sins is the meritorious cause: Christ rising from the dead is the continuing cause of our resurrection. "A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also," John 14:19.

APPLICATION 1. Learn from this, that it is the concern of all those who desire a joyful, triumphant resurrection at last, to get and secure a claim to Christ's resurrection. There will be a general rising again of all who die, both just and unjust, but no one will rise in glory except those who are under the saving power of the resurrection of Christ.
Others shall rise only to receive an everlasting second fall into the bottomless pit of never-ending miseries. As long as men are out of Christ, thoughts of the resurrection may well be full of dread, for it is that which truly makes death to be a reason for terror. If death were to put an end to the being of men, it would not have such fearfulness in it, as it does when one considers that after death comes a dreadful judgement and then a resurrection to condemnation. To think that I must be restored to an incorruptible state for the purpose of being prepared to suffer eternal torments, and lie in everlasting burning, is a most confounding thought. Is it enough to cause us to seriously enquire how may we escape this doom, and be happy at the last day? The solution is, let us get the power of Christ's resurrection applied to us, first to raise us up from sin, which is done in this life, and then to raise us up to glory, which will be at the last day. The second depends upon the first. Let us make sure, then, that he rose for our justification by being in him by faith, and so we shall be both justified and glorified by him at that day.

APPLICATION 2. Let us labour to get our faith strengthened and established by rightly meditating on the resurrection of Christ. Let this satisfy us, that Christ has made a complete redemption, as the Apostle argues, Heb. 7:25. Justice had him in its hands, it put him to death, but it has released him. A risen Surety must be a sufficient Saviour: there can no longer be any reason to question whether the justice of God is satisfied. Let this encourage us to go to Christ to finish all that is lacking in our being prepared for eternal life. Remember, he is exalted for this very purpose, to complete what he began in his earthly life and death.
APPLICATION 3. Let the consideration of our interest in his resurrection help us to triumph over death and the grave. Christ is risen and gone to heaven: he is our forerunner to take possession in our name and make ready our accommodations. Let us cheerfully follow him, rejoicing in the hope of a happy rising, and being with him forever.

[Preached June 8,1697]

William Gouge - Preaching God's Word

How Preaching May be Called "The Word of God"

The subject matter to be preached is here called "the word of God." Although that which is spoken by ministers is only the sound of a man's voice, yet that which true ministers of God preach in exercising their ministerial function is the word of God. Thus it is said of the apostles, "They spoke the word of God," Acts 4:31, and it is said of the people of Antioch, that "almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God," Acts 13:44.

That which ministers do or ought to preach is called the word of God in four respects.

1. In regard to the primary author of it, which is God. God did immediately inspire extraordinary ministers, and thereby informed them in his will. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Peter 1:21. Therefore they would commonly use these introductory phrases, "The word of the Lord," Hosea 1:1; "Thus says the Lord," Isa 7:7; and an apostle says, "I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you," 1 Cor. 11:23. As for ordinary ministers, they have God's word written and left upon record for their use, "For all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 2 Tim. 3:16. They therefore that ground what they preach upon the Scripture, and deliver nothing but what is agreeable to it, preach the word of God.

2. In regard to the subject-matter which they preach, which is the will of God; as the apostle exhorts, to "understand what the will of the Lord is," Eph. 5:17, and to "prove what is that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of God," Rom. 12:2.

3. In regard to the purpose of preaching, which is the glory of God, and making known "the manifold wisdom of God," Eph. 3:10.

4. In regard to the mighty effect and power of it, for preaching God's word is "the power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1:16. Preaching the word of God is "mighty through God to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Cor. 10:4,5. For "the word of God is quick and powerful," etc., Heb. 4:12.

So close ought ministers to hold to God's word in their preaching, that they should not dare to swerve away from it in anything. The apostle pronounces a curse against him, whosoever he is, that shall preach any other word, Gal. 1:8,9.

Therefore we have just cause to avoid such teachers as preach contrary to this doctrine, Rom. 16:17, 2 John 10. The whole body of Roman Catholicism is to be rejected for this reason. So are the manifold errors and heresies which have been broached in former ages, and in this our age. The feigning of new light and immediate inspiration in these days is a mere pretence.

The Right Hearing of Preaching

by this subject matter of preaching the word of God, we may receive a good direction to observe two caveats enjoined by Christ concerning hearing:

The first is concerning the matter which we hear, "Take heed what you hear," Mark 4:24. We must hear nothing with approval except what we know to be the word of God. We must, therefore, be well acquainted with the Scriptures ourselves, and by them test the things which we hear, whether they are the word of God or not, as the men of Berea did, Acts 17:11.

The second caveat is concerning the manner of hearing, "Take heed how you hear," Luke 18:18. That which we know to be grounded upon the Scriptures we must receive, "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God," 1 Thess. 2:13. We must with reverence attend to it; we must in our hearts believe, and we must in our lives obey it.

Preach the Pure Word

It is God's word that does convert, quicken, comfort, and build up, or, on the other side, wound and beat down. What is the reason that there was so great an alteration made by the ministry of Christ and his disciples, by the apostles and others after them, indeed, by Luther, and other ministers of reformed churches? They did not preach traditions of elders like the scribes; nor men's inventions like the Roman Catholics do. They preached the pure word of God. The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works.