07.25.09
Infinite Beauty
One of the great weaknesses of modern Christianity is our low estimation of Christ (perhaps from it stems almost all our others). We like to talk sentimentally, but I suspect very few of us really have a deep sense of his intrinsic beauty in the way that the following author reveals with these comments:
“But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in him; it sees that till now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite excellency, such an one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind is used to it, the more excellent it appears. Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom. The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on this beauty, and it is never weary of it. The mind never has any satiety, but Christ’s excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight, after it has been seen a thousand or ten thousand years, as when it was seen the first moment.”
George Swinnock {Puritan}, Unknown
G.M.
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07.14.09
Obeying the Gospel
There is a difference between what God has decreed will come to pass and what he wills men to do. The first is his eternal purpose, the later what he commands men to do. This distinction is important for many reasons, but one of them relates to the free offer:
“It is a preposterous course, instead of obeying the gospel, and studying to be found in Christ, to be inquisitive whether we are elected from eternity or not. The last clause of the 17th article [of the 39 Articles of the Church of England] before mentioned, is very weighty to this purpose. The words are these: ‘We must receive God’s promise in such wise, as they be generally set forth unto us in holy Scripture; and in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God:’ and that will of God is, that we preach the gospel to every creature; and that every creature may come to Christ, and ‘drink of the water of life freely,’ and that ‘whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out.’” {William Lyford (1598-1653), The Instructed Christian, p.187}
I can not leave this author without quoting his comforting words on God’s mercy to his people that sin so repeatedly:
“When thou thinkest his mercy is at a stand, and will pardon no more, then will he multiply to pardon…” (p. 194)
G.M.
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07.04.09
The Imagination – A Noble Faculty
Often among modern evangelicals the importance of the God-given faculty of the imagination is downplayed. William Symington, for one, thought somewhat differently of it:
“Imagination is one of the noblest faculties with which man has been endowed; a faculty, indeed, the sound and proper use of which is not only necessary to the existence of sympathy and other social affections, but also intimately connected with those higher exercises of soul, by which men are enabled to realize the things that are not seen and eternal.” – William Symington {Covenanter}
G.M.
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07.03.09
‘To You and Your Children’
Gavin’s essay on infant baptism entitled To You and Your Children has just been published by Reformed Worldview Publications. The booklet provides a concise and robust defence of covenantal infant baptism, encouraging us to rejoice in the promises of God and treat our children as he has commanded.
G.M.
