A Goodly Heritage

I shall now address myself to you in a few lines, and so conclude. I know you have for many years been the Lord's prisoner. Great have been your trials, and many have been your trials, and long have been your trials; but to all these I have spoken at large in my treatise called ˜The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod', which you have in your hand, which you have read, and which God has greatly blessed to the support comfort, quiet, and refreshment of your soul under all your trials; and therefore I shall say no more as to those particulars. But knowing that the many weaknesses that hang upon you, and the decays of nature that daily do attend you, seem to point out an approaching dissolution, I shall at this time give you this one word of counsel, viz, that every day you would look upon death in a scripture glass, in a scripture dress or under a scripture notion: that is . . . BEST First, look upon death as that which is best for a believer:  Phil 1:23  "For I am i...

Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the angels. They were creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make us vessels of glory,-oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this! This is the envy of devils. and the admiration of angels and saints. The angels were more honourable and excellent creatures than we. They were celestial spirits; we earthly bodies, dust and ashes: they were immediate attendants upon God, they were, as I may say, of his privy chamber; we servants of his in the lower house of this world, farther remote from his glorious presence: their office was to sing hallelujahs, songs of praise to God in the heavenly paradise; ours to dress the garden of Eden, which was but an earthly paradise: they sinned but once, and but in thought, as is commonly thou...

Satan is a spirit of mighty abilities; and his abilities to lay snares before us are mightily increased by that long experience of his. He has had time enough to study all those ways and methods which tend most to ensnare an undo the souls of men. He has made it his whole study, his only study, his constant study to find out strategems to entangle and over throw the souls of men. When he was but a young serpent, he did easily deceive and outwit Eve; but now he is grown that ‘old serpent’ as John says in Rev. 12; he is as old as the world and is grown very cunning in experience. – If Satan has such a world of devices to ensnare the souls of men, then, instead of wondering that so few are saved, we might well marvel that any escape the snares of this cunning fowler. I intend to set before you some special helps against all his devices. Now, to prevent objections. I shall first lay down this proposition: Though Satan has his devices to draw souls to sin, yet we must be careful that ...

Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for  us , than for the  angels . They were creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God. Yet that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make  us  vessels of glory, Oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this! This is the envy of devils—and the admiration of angels and saints. The apostle, being in a holy admiration of Christ's love, affirms it to pass knowledge, Ephesians 3:18, 19; that God, who is the eternal Being, should love  man  when he had scarce a being, Proverbs 8:30, 31, that he should be enamored with deformity, that he should love us when in our  blood , Ezekiel 16, that he should pity us when no eye pitied us—no, not our own. Oh, such was Christ's transcendent love, that man's extreme misery could not abate it. The deploredness of man's c...

The first evil which mostly attends youth, is PRIDE. Pride of heart, pride of apparel, pride of parts, 1 Tim. 3:6. Young men are apt to be proud of health, strength, friends, relations, wit, wealth, wisdom. Two things are very rare: the one is, to see a young man humble and watchful; and the other is, to see an old man contented and cheerful. Bernard says, that pride is the  rich  man's delusion, and experience every day speaks out pride to be the  young  man's delusion.  God , said one,  had three sons—Lucifer, Adam, and Christ; the first aspired to be like God in power, and was therefore thrown down from heaven; the second to be like him in knowledge, and was therefore deservedly driven out of Eden when young; the third did altogether imitate and follow Him in his goodness, mercy, and humility, and by so doing obtained everlasting inheritance. Remember this, young men, and as you would get a paradise, and keep a paradise—get humble, and keep hu...

1.   First ,   That it is the greatest folly and madness in the world to put off God and the great things of eternity with may-bes.   What tradesman, what merchant, what mariner—so mad, so foolish, so blockish—as to put off a present season, a present opportunity of profit and advantage, upon the account of a may-be?   It may be—I have as good a season; it may be—I shall have as golden an opportunity to get, and to enrich myself as this is; and therefore farewell to this.   No men who are in their right minds will argue thus; and why then should you, especially in the things that are of an everlasting concernment to you? I have read of one monarch, a lunatic Italian, who thought that all the kings of the earth were his vassals; and as delirious are they who willfully neglect present seasons of grace, upon the account of a future may-be,   etc. 2.   Secondly , I answer,   It may be if you neglected this present season and opportunity of grace...