Little things do ofttimes prove us most; for we, through the pride
of our hearts, are apt to overlook little things, because, though
commanded, they are but little.
Sometimes God would have men exact to a word, sometimes even to a
tack or pin or loop, sometimes to a step. Be careful, then, in
little things, but yet leave not the other undone.
MOTIVES TO HOLT LIVING. When God shows a man the sin he has
committed, the hell he has deserved, the heaven he has lost--and yet
that Christ and grace and pardon may be had--this will make him
serious, this will make him melt, this will break his heart, this
will show him that there is more than air, than a noise, than an
empty sound in religion; and this is the man whose heart, whose
life, whose conversation and all will be engaged in the matter of
the eternal salvation of his precious and immortal soul.
Though there are many mercies that lay an obligation upon men to be
holy, yet he that shall want the obligation that is begotten by the
faith of redeeming mercy, wanteth the main principle of true
holiness; nor will any other be found sufficiently to sanctify the
heart to the causing of it to produce such a life; nor can such
holiness be accepted, because it comes not forth in the name of
Christ. That which constrained David was forgiving and redeeming
mercy, and that which constrained Paul was the love that Christ
showed to him in dying for his sins and in rising from the dead.
Paul also beseecheth the Romans by the redeeming, justifying,
preserving, and electing mercy of God, that they present their body
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which, saith he, is
your reasonable service. Hence all along, they that are exhorted to
holiness in the New Testament, are exhorted to it upon the
supposition of the benefit of redemption which they have received by
Jesus Christ. Walk in love, as Christ loved us.
Can you give me some motive to self-denial? Yes, the Lord Jesus
denied himself for thee: what sayest thou to that?
Oh, I have thought sometimes what bloody creatures hath sin made us.
The beasts of the field must be slain by thousands before Christ
came, to signify to us that we should have 'a Saviour; and after
that, he must come himself and die a worse death than died those
beasts, before the work of saving could be finished. O redemption,
redemption by blood, is the heart-endearing consideration! This is
that which will make the water stand in our eyes, that will break a
heart of flint, and that will make one do as they do that are in
bitterness for their firstborn.
Perhaps in the day of thy conversion thou wast more unruly than
many. Like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, hardly tamed, thou
wast brought home by strong hands. Thou wouldst not drive: the Lord
Jesus must take thee up, lay thee upon his shoulder, and carry thee
home to his Father's house. This should engage thy heart to study to
advance the grace of God.
It may do thee no harm but good to cast an eye over thy shoulder, at
those that now lie roaring under the vengeance of eternal fire; it
may put thee in mind of what thou wast once, and of what thou must
yet assuredly be, if grace by Christ preventeth not: keep then thy
conscience awake with wrath and grace, with heaven and hell; but let
grace and heaven bear sway.
Get thou thy soul possessed with the spirit of the Son, and believe
thou art perfectly set free by him from whatsoever thou by sin hast
deserved at the hand of revenging justice. This doctrine unlooseth
thy hands, takes off thy yoke, and lets thee go upright; this
doctrine puts spiritual and heavenly inclinations into thy soul, and
the faith of this truth doth show thee that God hath so surprised
thee and gone beyond thee with his blessed and everlasting love,
that thou canst not but reckon thyself his debtor for ever.
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh." Rom. 8: 12.
If thou wouldst be faithful to that work that God hath allotted thee
to do in this world for his name, then labor to see a beauty and
glory in holiness and in every good work; this tends much to the
engaging of thy heart. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
fear before him all the earth; and for thy help in this, think much
on this in general, that "thus saith the Lord" is the wind-up of
every command; for indeed much of the glory and beauty of duties
doth lie in the glory and excellency of the person that doth command
them; and hence it is, that "Be it enacted by the king's most
excellent majesty" is the head of every law, that that law should
therefore be reverenced by and be made glorious and beautiful to
all. And we see upon this very account, what power and place the
precepts of kings do take in the hearts of their subjects, every one
loving and reverencing the statute because there is the name of
their king. Will you rebel against the king? is a word that shakes
the world. Well then, turn these things about for an argument to the
matter in hand, and let the name of God, seeing he is wiser and
better and of more glory and beauty than kings, beget in thy heart a
beauty in all things that are commanded thee of God. And indeed, if
thou do not in this act thus, thou wilt stumble at some of thy duty
and work thou hast to do; for some of the commands of God are in
themselves so mean and low, that take away from them the name of God
and thou wilt do as Naaman the Syrian, despise instead of obeying.
What is there in the Lord's supper, in baptism, yea, in preaching
the word and prayer, were they not the appointments of God? His name
being entailed to them makes them every one glorious and beautiful.
Wherefore no marvel if he that looks upon them without their
title-page, goeth away in a rage like Naaman, preferring others
before them. "What is Jordan? Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters in Israel? May I not wash in
them and be clean?" saith he. This was because he remembered not
that the name of God was in the command. Israel's trumpets of
rams'-horns, and Isaiah's walking naked, and Ezekiel's wars against
a tile, would doubtless have been ignoble acts, but that the name of
God was that which gave them reverence, power, glory, and beauty.
Set therefore the name of God and "thus saith the Lord" against all
reasonings, defamings, and reproaches that either by the world or
thy own heart thou findest to arise against thy duty; and let his
name and authority alone be a sufficient argument with thee, to
hehold the beauty that he hath put upon all his ways, and to inquire
in his temple.
Christians should so manage their time and the work that God hath
appointed them to do for his name in this world, that they may not
have part thereof to do when they should be departing this world;
because, if they do not, dying will be a hard work with them,
especially if God awakeneth them about their neglect of their duty.
The way of God with his people is to visit their sins in this life;
and the worst time for thee to be visited by them is when thy life
is smitten down as it were to the dust of death, even when all
natural infirmities break in like a flood upon thee-sickness,
fainting, pains, wearisomeness, and the like: now, I say, to be
charged also with the neglect of duty when in no capacity to do
it-yea, when perhaps so feeble, as scarce able to abide to hear thy
dearest friend in this life speak to thee-will not this make dying
hard? yea, when thou shalt seem both in thine own eyes and also in
the eyes of others, to fall short of the kingdom of heaven for this
and the other transgressions; will not this make dying hard? David
found it hard when he cried, "O spare me a little, that I may
recover strength, before I go hence and be no more." David at this
time was chastened for some iniquity, yea, brought for his folly to
the doors of the shadow of death. But here he could not enter
without great distress of mind; wherefore he cries out for respite,
and time to do the will of God and the work allotted him. So again:
"The pains of hell caught hold upon me, the sorrows of death
compassed me about, and I found trouble and sorrow; then I cried
unto the Lord." Aye, this will make thee cry, though thou he as good
as David. Wherefore learn by his sorrow, as he himself also learned
at last to serve his own generation by the will of God, before he
fell asleep. God can tell how to pardon thy sins, and yet make them
such a bitter thing and so heavy a burden to thee that thou wouldst
not, if thou wast but once distressed with it, come there again for
all this world. Ah, it is easy with him to have this pardon in his
bosom, even when he is breaking all thy bones and pouring out thy
gall upon the ground--yea, to show himself then unto thee in so
dreadful a majesty, that heaven and earth shall seem to thee to
tremble at his presence. Let then the thoughts of this prevail with
thee as a reason of great weight, to provoke thee to study to manage
thy time and work in wisdom while thou art well.