Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life....Rev. ii. 10. THIS text has been seized by Arminian hands, dragged to their mint, the impress of man's faithfulness struck on their minds, as his title to a crown of life; and pressed into their service to militate against the electing love of God, and finished salvation by Christ ONLY; O christian, does not your heart rise with indignation against such a self-exalting notion! It is the very dregs of unfaithfulness to Christ; are you not ready to spurn it with a holy vehemence, saying, get to hell, from whence you sprung? What! my faithfulness on earth, the cause, the condition, the merit of my being crowned in heaven? O, my law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, sin-atoning JESUS; can I ever think so meanly of thy agony and bloody sweat ; thy cross and passion; thy precious death and burial; thy glorious resurrection and ascension! And of the coming of the Holy Ghost, as though all this obtained no more for me than to make way for my faithfulness, to entitle me to a crown of glory! O, Christ glorifying Spirit, never didst thou teach such a diminutive thought of Christ's finished salvation. Forbid that my soul should ever indulge such a self-exalting notion; enable me to attend my Lord's gracious words. What means he by our being faithful? To believe on him to death, to exercise our faith constantly on him as our dear Saviour, whose blood has, atoned for our sins; whose righteousness justifies our persons, has perfectly reconciled us to God, and ever lives to love, pray for, and save us to the uttermost; steadily to believe his word of truth which exalts his grace and love; sincerely to obey his precepts which adorn his gospel; to live upon him as our only title to glory, as our head of influence, and to receive out of his fulness grace upon grace, to ripen us for glory; thus faithfully to confess him to be our all in all and ourselves nothing at all in the work of salvation; to be faithful to his advice, "after ye have done all these things, say we are"....what? Perfect sinless creatures, who have our own faithfulness to plead at death for a crown of glory? O, no! This would be most arrogant unfaithfulness to such a precious Saviour, even if we were called to the stake for his truth; but even martyrs, in the midst of the flames, must say, we are unprofitable servants."....Luke xvii. 10. To be faithful unto death is to renounce the filthy rags of our own righteousness, all our own faithfulness, cleaving to Christ, saying, O that I may win Christ and be found in him, who gave me grace to be faithful, and graciously promises a crown of life of his free gift....Rom. vi. 23. Sin shall not bow my spirit down, Nor chase me from my Lord; His merey lifts my spirit up To hear, and trust his word. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen, let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation....Judges x. 14. A SEVERE sarcasm from the Lord to apostate professors; it causes a hell upon earth to a renewed soul to hear and feel just upbraidings from the Lord of heaven: this is one of his severest chastisings to his children; here is an awful charge and a severe reproof; the Lord keep us clear of the one that we fall not under the other. Consider, 1st. The charge; it is idolatry: they had gods of their own choosing; for the Lord's sake and for our souls sake, let us not think we are in no danger of falling into this sin: it is committed by professors every day; aged Paul wept over such; though they professed Christ, yet they were enemies to his cross; their belly was their God; their hearts were set upon earthly things."....Phil. iii. 19. Such are not content with Christ as their portion, to live in fellowship with him, to walk in self-denied love and obedience before him, and to derive all their comfort and happiness from him: the lusts of the flesh they gratify; earthly things have their hearts: thus they give up the Lord, and give into idolatry against him. O, what a most heinous crime is this! How much practised! How little thought of, deplored and deprecated! Christians, where are your hearts? Who has your affections, God, the flesh, or the world? If not God, depend on it, you will soon, very soon hear from him in such a way as will be awfully distressing. Consider, 2d. The reproof: a day of tribulation will come; when sorrow and distress seize on your minds, then God is a blessed refuge; but O, then to think, alas! I have forsaken the Lord, have preferred other lovers to him; chosen other gods beside him, the world has had my heart and my hope, I have lived to the flesh, I have minded earthly things, and indulged covetous desires. Well, but I read, notwithstanding all this," the children of Israel cried unto the Lord saying, we have forsaken our God and served idols."....Judges x. 10. Ah! but mind the Lord's cutting answer, 66 go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen, let them deliver you." A severer reproof is scarce to be found in the bible; O, lay it to heart: deeply consider its import: do not, I pray you, cast away this with contempt as very legal; for, consider, the Lord though as your Father may everlastingly love your persons in Christ, yet he hates your conduct, and will make you smart for it in your conscience: true it is said, "the Lord's soul was grieved fo rthe misery of his children."....Judges x.16. But, O, consider the great misery they must feel to grieve the soul of the Lord what a compassionate Saviour is our Christ, “in all our afflictions he is afflicted."....Isa. lxiii. 9. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus....Col. iii. 17. I HAVE Sometimes thought, how is it possible that a believer in Christ can ever wilfully and deliberately commit any one sin? It is hardly to be conceived that such can live and walk under the power of sin: I am sure all sin is as contrary to the nature of a new born soul, as heaven to hell: yet nothing is more plain from the word of God and the experience of his saints, than that sin dwells in them; but they are solemnly forbid, to "let sin reign in them, that they should obey it in the lusts thereof."....Rom. vi. 12. And if our souls are not striving against sin, and pressing after holiness, I know not where to find one text in the word of God, to encourage us to believe and hope that we are the children of God: I dread not the satanic grin of licentious Antinomians; does their infectious. breath pronounce this LEGAL? It only proclaims their unregenerate enmity against God's truth, his grace and his glory. Ye believers in, and lovers of the Lord Jesus, here is a short, but most blessed and comprehensive rule for your walk and conduct. Does satan tempt, the world allure, and the flesh lust? Gratify them if ye can, only see that you do it according to this apostolic rule: yea, get drunk, game, go to plays, routs, take your full swing in carnal pleasures and sensual delights, and mix with the wicked and profane, only see that you do all this as here commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus. Does your heart recoil? It must, if the name of the Lord Jesus is music to your ears, and the joy of your soul; you can no more take delight in these things, than in the music of hell. O, the matchless charms of that precious name! Lord, never, never suffer them to wear off our hearts; thy name charms away the power of sin, the love of the world, and the pleasures of sense: it charms our souls into the presence of God, fellowship with God, and into the joys of heaven; right welcome are we to God, fully reconciled to him, and perfectly accepted with him, in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. O my dear, dear Saviour, it is in thy precious name my heart would now indite; O for the pen of a ready writer to display the glories of thy precious name, my King and my Lord; may the readers of these meditations find the odour of thy name in them, "as ointment poured forth, that they may love thee."....Song i. 3. To us sinners, "the name of Jesus is above every name."....Phil. ii. 9. Thy words and deeds, thou matchless This wicked world with all its charms, 447 M. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord....Psalm civ. 34. SWEET meditation of the Lord causes gladness in the Lord, inspires us with the love of the Lord, and inclines us to ascribe the glory of all we enjoy to the Lord. It is said of Constantine the great, that after God had honored him with many victories, as the effigies of other emperors were set up in a triumphant manner with their victories engraven upon their loins, he desired that his might be set in a posture of prayer, kneeling, that he might manifest to the world that he attributed all his victories, more to his prayers than his sword; this was the result of sweet meditation. What great gain do souls reap by spiritual meditation? Strangers to this delightful exercise know not others' gain nor their own loss; a day spent without some meditation of the sinner's Redeemer and Saviour, is a day lost; for Jesus gets no glory from our hearts; we get no comfort from his love: Paul the aged, exhorts his son Timothy, MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS....1 Tim.iv.15. What things? The scriptures, which testify of Christ and the peace and salvation which are brought unto poor sinners by him: O, how sweet is this! Saints in all ages have one and the same delightful object to meditate upon: the soul under the sweet exercise of grace knows no end of it; nor how to leave off meditating on HIM, who hath loved us poor sinners with an everlasting love, and saved us with an everlasting salvation; his person is WONDERFUL, God and man in one Christ; the love of Christ passeth knowledge; the offices of Christ as King, Priest, Prophet, Mediator, Surety, Redeemer, Saviour, how glorious in their nature! How interesting to us sinners! The blood of Christ, how precious! His righteousness, how perfect! His death, how affecting! His resurrection, how joyful! The salvation of Christ, how comforting! His intercession, how prevailing! His grace in the heart, how sinsubduing, and soul-purifying! His almighty power in keeping us through faith unto eternal salvation, how animating! and the perfect sight and full enjoyment of Jesus in glory, how transporting! Contemplations on these blessed subjects will cause us to cry out with David, "my meditation of him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord." Now, do you complain for want of gladness in the Lord? It is because your heart is carried away after other things; you meditate too much on them, and too little on your God, who saith, “I will not forget thee."....Isa. xlix. 15. My soul is never well, but when Tho' in myself I'm nought but sin, My soul melleth for heaviness: strengthen thou me ac cording to thy word....Psalm cxix. 28. WHILE the wicked are gay, alert and merry, many of God's beloved children go bowed down from day to day, with heavi ness of soul; when they compare themselves with the men of the world under such seasons, they are tempted to write bitter things against themselves, and to pass a verdict in favor of others. Soul, in the heaviest season, and most dejected frame you ever experienced, say, could you find it in your heart to wish to change lots with them? what! quit your faith in Jesus and hope of eternal enjoyment of him? for what? The momentary gratifications and short-lived pleasures of time and sense. Alas! my soul is in such heaviness that I doubt whether I have either a spark of faith, or a ray of hope in Christ. My soul melteth! it bears no image nor impression of any grace, or of the power of any truth; faith fails; hope decays; my heart sinks; I am burdened with a sense of sin; oppressed with temptations; and what is heaviest of all, the Lord hides his face and deserts my soul David felt all this; Peter experienced the same; hence he says, “for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations."....1 Pet. i. 6. Mind those two words; there is support and relief in them....FOR A SEASON. Blessed be Jesus, heaviness lasts not always; he will deliver out of it; IF NEED BE; there is cause for it; good shall issue from it. What is the remedy when the soul is in heaviness! Prayer; pleading God's word of grace, and promises of love for strength under burdens, and deliverance from soul-heaviness; "strengthen thou me according to thy word;" says wisdom, "heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop;" the poor soul sinks under its burden; "but," says he, "a good word maketh it glad.”..... Prov. xii. 25. Where shall we find that good word? In the gospel of the grace of God; here is a good word, enough to make thy heavy heart leap for joy, and thy burdened soul sing for gladness. O, meditate upon it; pray over it; and may the Lord the Spirit give thee comfort from it; it is the work and office of thy blessed Saviour; in his own time, way and manner, he will most surely fulfil it; "to appoint unto them who mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that the Lord may be glorified."....Isa. lxi. S. In all my burden'd frames of heart, To thee alone for strength I'll cry, [thee, M. |