A Goodly Heritage

The glory of the cross of Christ produces powerful effects whereever it shines . . They who behold this glory are transformed into the same image (2 Cor,  3:18) It melts cold and frozen hearts , it breaks stony hearts , it pierces adamants , it penetrates through thich darkness . How justly it is called marvellous light . It gives to the blind to look to itself , and not only to the blind but to the dead . It is the light of life , a powerful light ; its energy is beyond the force of thunder , and is more tender than the dew on the tender grass . But it is impossible fully to describe all its effects , unless we could fully reckon up all the spiritual and eternal evils it prevents , all the riches of grace and glory it purchases , and all the divine perfections it displays . It has this peculiar to it , that as it is full of glory itself , it communicates glory to all that behold it aright . It gives them a glorious robe of righteousness ; their God is their glory ; it calls them to g

Let us be instructed where to look for the cure and rectification of all the evils which afflict the church in our day ! - to the love of the Spirit . By our misimprovement and abuse of our privileges , by our unchristian temper and carriage , by our worldly spirit and untender conversation , we have provoked the Spirit to withdraw from us , and the consequence has been that the glory has departed from our Israel , and ordinances have become in a great measure inefficacious and unsuccessful . " Who hath believed our report , and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ?" Who is convinced of sin ? Who cries out , "What must I do to be saved ?"Who receives the word gladly ?  Who brings forth fruit to perfection ?  Where are the fruits of the gospel , even where it is purely preached ? " Woe is me ! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits , as the grape gleanings of the vintage ; there is no cluster to eat ; my soul desired the first ripe fru

The Psalms are often said to be deficient as a vehicle of evangelical truth and Christian feeling . Scarcely any charge could be more unfounded . The Psalms are full of Christ . When He himself first tasted the joy of His incarnation , and set His face upon the steep but pleasant path of obedience which ended in Joseph's tomb , He found the words which best described the willingness of His heart in the Book of Psalms . When He gave expression again to those awful sufferings which culminated in the agony of His dereliction , it was in the same portion of the sacred volume that He sought the fitting medium of utterance . And , on the other hand , when an inspired apostle seeks , in the Epistle to the Hebrews , to declare the glory and honour which the risen Saviour received from the hand of His Father as the reward of His redemptive service , it is to the Book of Psalms that He turns for the terms that most appropriately unfold the splendour of the Mediatorial Throne . Again , when

These words contain a promise of strength that will be continued to the end of life . It is strength according to our "days "- the use of the plural is significant . The word embraces the number of our days as well as their quality . In other words the Lord gives the assurance that He will sustain His people to the end . This is the crowning assurance of the Gospel , for it puts the seal of permenance on all other blessings of salvation . As the years pass away , the beleiver becomes conscious of failing powers . His eye becomes dim , and his natural force is abated . But although the outward man yields to the withering touch of time , the inward man is renewed day by day . The heart is sustained in hopeful;ness and courage , and the spirit triumphs over the infirmities of the flesh . The Lord will never forsake His peoplle , He will abide with them all their days , and at last , when the pilgrimage of life is ended , He will bring them safe home to be with Himself forever .

Let us contend against that unbelief whereby the glory of God is darkened , and his fulness , as it were annihilated. If we reflect on the inward workings of our minds , - if we apply ourselves to look into our minds , - we will find great darkness in them ; so that , when we attempt to meditate upon God , we have no right apprehensions of him ; and we do not realise , in Divine things , a weight sufficient to outweigh all the joys and fears of this world , and to cause them to vanish away . The reason of this is , that we do not enter into just views of the glory of God ; and while we continue under this darkness , we are in danger of being deceived by the misrepresentations of unbelief concerning him ;- and are ready to believe , that there is nothing more in him that what we see. This is the case with all those that are in an unconverted state . After they have applied themselves to such thoughts for some time , and cannot attain to any satisfaction ; they are ready just to let the

Those who are sincere in their profession of religion , are distinguished from hypocrites in this respect , that they entertain a particular solicitude and concern to have matters made sure between God and their souls ; whereas hypocrites , although they do not wish to appear to themselves or others under the character of the enemies of God , still they do not want to come near to him , or into close dealing with him . . They want to preserve a kind of half - religion , which will quiet their consciences and keep them at ease ; they do not truly desire to be brought under the bond of the covenant . For , although everything in the covenant of grace is highly sweetened and seasoned with the love of God ; yet this love is of so pure and exalted a nature , that the heart of the hypocrite cannot bear the splendour of its beams . It is a very important part of that dignity to which the children of God are exalted , and a part of their conformity to Jesus Christ , that they are permitted to

There are seasons when the soul is truly influenced and led by the Spirit of God . The deceitfulness of the heart is not to be understood of its actings under the influence of the Holy Ghost . The saints are taught in Scripture , to rest and depend upon those things which are truly wrought in them by the Spirit of God . So it is said , 1 John 2 :27 "  But the annointing , which ye have received of him , abideth in you ; and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as the same annointing teacheth you of all things , and is truth , and is no lie and even as it hath taught you , ye shall abide in him ."Here the soundness and sufficiency of those things which the renewed soul has experienced , under the influence of the Holy Ghost , are clearly asserted . Still the deceit of the heart is apt to mingle itself with these actings , although they are under the influence of the Spirit of God ; but the farther the people of God press into these things - the more clearly and distinctly

The true people of God love those things in Jesus Christ ,which are offensive to the natural corruption of the human heart ; such as his sovereignty and justice . To hypocritical professors , the sovereignty and justice  of God , in permitting his creatures to fall into sin , appear hateful ; because of any love they may have to Christ is wholly of an interested kind . They do not love him for what he is in himself ; and so,when his interest and theirs come into collision , they cannot endure that their own interest should give way to his . They think it unreasonable and cruel that creatures should be allowed to fall , and punished forever ; and that his glory should be displayed in their punishment .But those who have truly seen the glory of Christ , have a desire for the manifestation of it , even although it should be at the cost of the creature's happiness ; and in some cases the true people  of God will feel this so strongly , as that they will desire that his glory should be

"I know that , as night and shadows are good for flowers , and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun , so is Christ's absence of a special use , and it hath more nourishing virtue in it , and giveth sap to humility , and putteth an edge on hunger , and furnisheth a fair field to faith to put forth itself , and to exercise its fingers in gripping it seeth not what" . Samuel Rutherford

The makers and worshippers of images pretend to help us by pictures presented to the eye of the body . But it is not the eye of sense or force of imagination , but the eye of faith , that can give us true notions and right conceptions of this object (2 Cor .5:16 ) Men may paint Christ's outward sufferings , but not the inward excellency from whence their virtues flowed ,viz, his glory in himself , and his goodness to us . Men may paint one crucified ; but how can they distinguish the Saviour from the criminals ? On each side of him we may paint his hands and his feet fixed to the cross ; but who can paint how these hands used always to be stretched forth for relieving the afflicted and curing the diseased ; or hoe these feet always went about doing good , and how they cure more diseases and do more good now than ever ? We may paint the outward appearance of his sufferings , but not the inward bitterness or invisible causes of them . Men may paint the cursed tree , but not the curs

Strange Piety

The Christian and the carnal man are most wonderful to each other . The one wonders to see the other walk so strictly , and deny himself the carnal liberties that the most take .....And the Christian thinks it strange that man be so bewitched , and still remain children to the vanity of their turmoil , wearying and humouring themselves from morning till night , running after stories and fancies , and ever busy doing nothing ; wonders that the delights of earth and sin can so long entertain and please men , and persuade them to give Jesus Christ so many refusals  -  to turn from their life and happiness, and choose to be miserable , yea , and take much pains to make themselves miserable ..Robert Leighton

The precepts of the law are just and good . Now , what are the precepts of the divine law ? They are very numerous , for the law is "very broad ," and reaches to every part of man's nature  - regulating his opinions , his dispositions , his actions , in all the variety of relation and circumstances in which he can be placed . But numerous as are its requisitions , we have a complete summary of them in the following very comprehensive words ," Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and soul , and strength , and mind . This is the first and great commandment ; and the second is like unto it , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ."         Now , are not both these commandments right.? Would there not be an obvious violation of right if they were otherwise than they are ? Is it not right to love , to love supremely , Him who is supremely lovely , who is infinitely kind ; to fear supremely him who is supremely venerable , possessed as he is , of

We need to beware of a false peace , and of a religion that is easily attained ; a religion without a thorough conviction of the plagues of the heart ; without a conviction of the sovereignty of God , and of the freedom of grace ; and without a view of the Person and excellency of Jesus Christ . We may learn farther , the difference that there is between the common and saving convictions of the Spirit of God .Let us beware of resting in common convictions, or of mistaking them for such as are saving . The work of the Spirit is not all of a saving nature ; but there is a peculiar kind of conviction , which is a sure token of salvation , wherever it is wrought . The sinner is brought under the saving ,convincing work of the Spirit of God to the disposition where he is made to let go all his hopes through the law , and that , just when brought to the last step of preparation - just at the moment when Christ is about to break in upon his soul . fot his eternal salvation . John Love

Let an offender against the laws of the country be put to death ; the judge may be said to have occasioned his death , for he condemned him ; the jury , for they found him guilty ; the executioner , for he deprived him of his life ; and more properly , the man's own crimes , for he died the victim of his crimes . Now turn to the Lord Jesus Christ . Herod crucified him ; and who besides? The transgressions that He died for . And whose were they ? Not His own , for the judge who condemned Him found Him innocent . They were ours . " He was wounded for our transgressions ; He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ;" and we therefore have slain Him

Genesis 15:1. " Fear not Abram : I am thy shield , and thy exceeding great reward."    God is at once both a rewarder , and a reward to those whose hearts are towards him . He is rewarded by communicating himself , and by not giving rewards alien and diverse from himself . And it is necessary that we be assured , that he both is , and that he is in this sense a rewarder , as being in himself the highest excellency or the supreme or best Good .

The glory of the cross of Christ , which we are chiefly to esteem , is the glory of God's infinite perfections displayed in the workof redemption , as the apostle expresses it , the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor 4:6). Even of Christ crucified(1 Cor 2:2)It is this which makes any other object glorious ,according as it manifests more or less of the of the perfections of God . This is what makes the works of creation so glorious ; the heavens declare God's glory , and the firmament his handiwork .And we are inexcusable for not making more pains to contemplate God's perfections in them , his almighty power and incomprehensible wisdom , and particularly his infinite goodness . But the effects of Divine goodness , in the works of creation, are only temporal favours ; the favours purchased to us by the cross of Christ are eternal . . Besides , although the works of creation plainly show that God is in himself good , yet they show also that God is just , and that