A Goodly Heritage

Some lay it to the charge of extemporary prayers , as it were a diminution of God's majesty to offer them unto Him , because thet cost nothing , but come without any pains or industry to provide them. A most false aspersion (2 Samuel 24:24)  Surely preparation of the heart 9 though not premeditation of every word ) is required thereunto . And grant the party , praying at that very instant , forestudies not every expression , yet surely he has formerly laboured with his heart and tongue too , before he attained that dexterity of utterance , properly and readily to express himself . Many hours in the night ,no doubt he is waking , and was , by himself , practicing Scripture and the language of Canaan , whilst such as censure him for his laziness were fast asleep in their beds .  Thomas Fuller

Eternal Maker and Ruler of the world , praise waiteth for Thee in Zion ; yet as Thou art infinitely greater than all hymns of praise , silence is praise to Thee in Sion . The angelic choirs can praise Thee better in their songs , but let us in silence and wonder fall down at the footstool of Thy throne , while they repeat that , their continual cry ; "Holy , Holy , Holy , God of hosts , who filleth heaven and earth with His glory !"But O that we had within us the faculty of setting forth that most holy NAME!That Name which according to their measure , all things of this visible world which surround us celebrate , the heavens and the stars , the winds and the rivers , the earth and the ocean , and every kind of living creatures . Surely Thou hast put within us souls and faculties suited for such employment , above all other creatures , whereby we are able to offer such praises with the light of the intellect , and animated with the fervour of our affections , and to express m

"Eat ,O friends ; drink , yea drink abundantly , beloved ones !" How gladly the bridegroom responds to the invitation of the bride . And may we not say Christ delights to be constrained by His willing people ? The Emmaus disciples "constrained Him saying , abide with us " and with what immediate grace the Lord responds , for we read , "He went in to tarry with them ." And having come into the garden, the King not only partakes of the fruit of the garden , but He spreads the feast , for He can say "Eat O friends ;drink , yea drink abundantly , beloved ones ." We may spread our little feast for the Lord as in the home in Bethany , but how rich a feast He spreads for us . If He found delight in the midst of His own , yet it was His presence that filled their hearts with gladness , for we read , " Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord ." Thus , again and again , as we journey on , He delights to come into His garden , set a

You know how it was with Moses , when he saw two men fighting , one an Egyptian , and another an Israelite , he killed the Egyptian ; but ,when he saw two Hebrews fighting , Now ,saith he , I will go and reconcile them , for they are brethren ; why so , but because he was a good man and gracious ? So also it is with a gracious heart ; when he sees the Scripture fighting with an Egyptian , an heathen author , or apocrypal , he comes and kills the heathen ........but when he sees two Scriptures at variance ( in view , though in truth not ),Oh saith he , these are brethren , and they may be reconciled , I will labour all I can to reconcile them ; But when a man shall take every advantage of difference in Scripture , to say , do you see what contradictions there are in this book , and not labour to reconcile them ; what doth this argue , but that the corruption of a man's nature , is boiled up to an unknown malice against the word of the Lord . Thomas Bridge

"Awake O north wind ,and come thou south; Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow forth . " The King calls for the the cold blast from the north , and the scorching wind from the south to blow upon his garden and thus make the spices flow forth . Thus it is the Lord often calls for the contrary winds of this world to blow upon His people to call forth from them the precious fruits of His own grace . The plants inHis garden have ever increased most and thrived best in times of hottest persecution . .

The heart of Christ's work for the world is deliverance from sin . That is what man needs most . There are plenty of other remedies offered for the world's ills - culture ,art , new political and social arrangements , progress of science and the like . God forbid that I should say a word to depreciate them , but I tell you , and let your conscience tell you , that the disease goes deeper than those things can cure . The Bible diagnosis the disease grimly and gravely , because it knows it can cure it . There is only one Man that pretended He could deal with that , and that is Jesus Christ . And it took Him all His power to deal with it , but He did it ! And there is only one way in which He could deal with it , and that was by dying for it , and He did it !So He has conquered . "Canst thou draw Leviathan with a hook ?" When you can lead a crocodile out of the Nile with a bit of silk thread round his neck , you will be able to overcome the plague of the world , and tha

The creation of the world is a shadow of the regeneration of a Christian . First , there was an earth without form , void , and a darkness upon the face of the deep . Predestination is this great deep , which cannot be discovered or discerned . There the light was separatedfrom the darkness ; here knowledge is separated from ignorance of the soul; there is calling . Then was the ssun created ; so here the bright beams of grace are diffused into our hearts which fill us with spiritual joy ; there is sanctification . Lastly , Adam was created after the image of God , and placed in Paradise ; so the new man is conformed to the image of Christ , and shall be reposed in the Paradise of everlasting glory . Thomas Adams

The Christian sustains a double relation , and has a double duty to perform ; he is a preacher to the world , and a pastor to the church ; and it is impossible he can fulfil , or be in earnest to fulfil , the obligations he is under to either , without a large measure of personal godliness. As regards the church that is committed to his care , and of which he is made by the Holy Ghost the spiritual overseer , he has to increase not their knowledge only , but also their holiness , love and spirituality; to ai8d them in performing all the branches of duty , and in cultivating all the graces of sanctification . And whaty is the present spiritual condition of the great bulk of the professors of religion ?Amidst much that is cheering , tyhere is on the other hand much that is discourageing and distressing to the pious observer . We behold a strange combination of zeal and worldly mindedness ; great activity for the extension of religion in the earth , united with lamentable indifference to

The fulness of the earth can never satisfy the soul . All satisfaction and contentment arise from the conjunction of a convenient with a convenient ; the conjunction of suitables . If a man have never so great an estate , if his heart be not suited to it , he hath no content . What suitableness is there between the fulness of the earth and the better part of man , the soul . !A thing is never said to be full till it is full of that for which it is made ; a chest or trunk is not said to be full of air , though it be full of air . So take one of these meeting houses , though the place be full of stools ,or full of air , yet we say that the church is empty ; because though it be full yet it is not full of that for which it was made , full of people . So now , take a man that hath all the fulness of the earth , because his soul was never made for the fulness of the earth , therefore he is said to be empty ; in the midst of all his fulness , the man is an empty man , because his heart is no

Let the people of God beware of yielding to unbelief , in any darkness they may be under . Let them not think that God has departed from them , although they meet with things at which they are made to wonder ; for God has not promised to bring them to heaven , in any other way but through a course of trial ; 1Peter 4 :12 ; " Beloved ,think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you , as though some strange thing happened unto you ." We may - all or many of us - be called to pass through such things as we have never imagined ; such trials as our fathers told us not of , and as they never knew ; for He with whom we have to do , may break forth upon us in unknown ways . But even then , let us not imagine that we are cast off , or forsaken of God . On the other hand , let not the people of God beware of turning aside into security , or of falling asleep .Let them make provision for what will try them to the bottom ; and let them not give way to the thought , th

A sin is not mortified when it is only diverted . Simon Magus for a season left his sorceries ; but his covetousness and ambition , that set him on work , remained still , and would be acting in another way . Therefore Peter tells him , " I believe thou art in the gall of bitterness " . Notwithstanding the profession that thou hast made ,notwithstanding thy relinguishment of thy sorceries , thy lust is as powerful as ever in thee ; the same lust , only the streams of it are diverted ; it now exerts and puts forth itself in another way , but it is the old gall of bitterness still. A man may be sensible of a lust , set himself against the eruptions of it , take care that it shall not break forth as it hath done ; but in the meantime may suffer the same corrupted habit to vent itself some other way ; as he who heals  and seals a running sore think himself cured , but in the meamtime his flesh festereth by the corruption of the same humour , and breaks out in another place . And

Men whose calling and work it is to study the Scripture , or the things revealed therein , and to preach them to others , cannot but have many thoughts about spiritual things, and yet may be and oftentimes are , most remote from being spiritually minded . They may be forced by their work and calling to think of them early and late , evening and morning , yet their minds be no way rendered or proved spiritual thereby ....... and the reasons for it are manifest . It requires as much if not more watchfulness , more care , more humility , for a minister to be spiritually minded in the discharge of his calling , than for any other sort of men in theirs ...... because the commonness of the exercise of such thoughts , with their design upon others in their expression , will take off their power and efficacy . And he will have little benefit by his own ministry who endeavours not in the first place an experience in his own heart of the power of the truths which he doth teach unto others .