A Goodly Heritage

There may be, perhaps, some here who are exercised (as, I believe, many of God's people are at times exercised) as to their hypocrisy; and sometimes they may think themselves the most consummate hypocrites that ever stood in a profession. They may even think themselves so crafty and subtle that they are deceiving those who have the keenest discernment. But if you are exercised with these painful surmises, these doubts and fears, just see (and the Lord enable you to bring it to the light of his countenance) these two features of a spiritual character. Do not talk about your hope; it may be "a spider's web." Do not boast of your gifts; they may be altogether in the flesh. Do not bring forward the good opinion of men; they may be deceived by you. But just see if, with the Lord's blessing, you can feel these two tests in your soul, as written there by his own hand. If so, you are not an hypocrite; God himself, by his servant Job, has acquitted you of the charge. ...

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her."  Hosea 2:14 It is in the margin "to her heart;" and God speaks to the heart; that is the special characteristic of his voice. Men may speak to the ear, and they can do no more; but God speaks to the heart, for it is there that his voice alone is heard. All true religion first and last lies in a man's heart. He may have his head well furnished with notions, yet a heart destitute of grace. But not so with the vessels of mercy, for they "believe with the heart unto righteousness;" and it is by the voice of God heard in the heart that a saving faith is raised up in the soul. There God must speak if there is to be any heart religion, any sound or saving experience, any knowledge of the truth so as to be blessed and saved thereby. But in the wilderness we learn the deep necessity there is that God should speak to our heart. We need the Lord himself...

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." John 4:10 We cannot know the  nature,  though we may know the  necessity,  of the gift of God, until we experience its power as revealed and shed abroad in our soul.  Then  we know some measure of the gift of God when we feel eternal life flowing through our spiritual veins. How do I know I live naturally? Is not my participation of natural life known to me by an internal consciousness that I possess it? I know I live, because I feel that I live. And so, if we have spiritual life, there will be, at times and seasons, an internal consciousness that we have it; we shall feel the spiritual heart beat, and the spiritual lungs breathe, and the spiritual eyes see, and the spiritual ears hear--in a word, we shall be internally conscious of those emotions and sensations which are peculiar to the life of God in ...

In our Meditations on the sacred humanity of the adorable Redeemer we must never, even in thought, separate his human nature from his divine. Even when his sacred body lay in the grave, and was thus for a small space of time severed from his pure and holy soul by death and the tomb, there was no separation of the two natures, for, as we have before shown, his human soul, after he had once become incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, never was parted from his Deity, but went into paradise in indissoluble union with it. It is a fundamental article of our most holy faith that the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ had no existence independent of his divine. In the Virgin's womb, in the lowly manger, in the lonely wilderness, on the holy mount of transfiguration, in the gloomy garden of Gethsemane, in Pilate's judgment hall, on the cross, and in the tomb—Jesus was still Immanuel, God with us. And so ineffably close and intimate is the conjunction of the human nature with ...

"Therefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."  Hebrews 2:17 God gave the persons of the elect into the hands of his dear Son, as Jacob committed Benjamin into the hands of Judah; and as Judah accepted Benjamin, so Christ accepted the Church and undertook to bring it unto God, or he himself would bear the blame forever. But how this faithfulness was tried! Men tried it; devils tried it; God tried it; but it came gloriously through all. Yet what loads were laid upon it! How the very knees of Jesus, so to speak, staggered beneath it! How, as Deer says, he had– "Strength enough, and none to spare!" How he had to sustain the curse of the law and the load of imputed sin! How he had to drink up a very hell of inward torment! How he had to be agonized in body, and more than agonized in soul! What bloody sw...

God delighteth in mercy. It is not drawn from Him unwillingly ; nor is it forced out of him by importunity ; it is not dragged out of his heart by the cries of his family ; but he delights in it as being his darling attribute , the very pleasure of God being in showing mercy to the miserable . How hard is for us to believe this untill mercy visits the soul and a sweet sense of it is felt in the conscience .  How we represent  to ourselves God in his anger , in his justice , in his terrible displeasure against sin and sinners ; how unable to believe that that there is mercy for us , and that he delights in manifesting mercy to poor , miserable . penitent sinners .  Who would ever have thought of mercy unless it had been first in the bosom of God ?Who could have ventured to entertain or suggest such a thought that " There is forgiveness with God " so he can "pardon iniquity ,and transgression , and sin ;" that he can cast all our sins behind his back , and blot them o...

The new man is put on when we put on the graces that belong to him . I observed , that the new man is called so as having the members of a man . These members are the various graces which he is enabled to exercise ; and the new man may be said to be put on when these graces act under a divine influence and power . When , for instance , we are enabled by the grace of God to believe in his dear Son , to receive the truth in the love of it , , to feel the power of his word upon our heart , - this is putting on the new man , for it is putting on a very essential member of the new man , which is faith . . Again , when in the exercise of a good hope through grace , we can look up and look out , and thus expect and wait for better days , if not now in the enjoyment of them , we may be said to put on the new man , for hope is a very conspicuous and active member of him . So , when we can feel a little going forth of love and affection toward the Lord , to his word , to his people , his ways , ...