YOU THINK TO LIMIT GOD--THOMAS HOOKER

                                   (1586-1647)
 "You think to limit the Holy One of Israel, but that will not be; for his covenant is a covenant of grace, and the Lord, who is free, will not stand bent to your bow or give you grace when you say so; for it is not for us to know the times and seasons... Therefore, hear today, wait tomorrow, and continue in so doing, because you know not when God may bless his own ordinances. Complain not of delays, but wait; for God has waited for you a long time... God gives what, when, and how he will; therefore wait for it." The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn To Christ

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

Charles Hodge (1797-1898)
If the righteousness be adequate, and if the imputation be made on adequate grounds and by competent authority, the person to whom the imputation is made has the right to be treated as righteous. And, therefore, in the forensic, although not in the moral or subjective sense, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ does make the sinner righteous. That is, it gives him a right to the full pardon of all his sins and a claim in justice to eternal life. 

That this is the simple and universally accepted view of the doctrine as held by all Protestants at the Reformation, and by them regarded as the cornerstone of the Gospel...has never been disputed by any candid or competent authority. This has continued to be the doctrine of both the great branches of the Protestant Church, so far as they pretend to adhere to their standards.

REAL EASY, WORRIED CHRISTIAN

                  William Gurnall (1617-1679)

Rest easy, worried Christian. The duel is not between the church and Satan, but between Christ and Satan. These are the champions of the two sides. Gather round and watch the all-wise God joust with His crafty opponent. You shall behold the Almighty smite off this Goliath's head with his own sword, and take this wicked knight in the trap of his own schemes. That faith which ascribes greatness and wisdom to God will shrink up Satan's challenge into a thing of nothing. Unbelief fears Satan as a lion; faith treads upon him as a worm.

COMENTS ON REVIVAL--JONATHON EDWARDS

                                           (1703-1758)

COMMENTS ON REVIVAL BY JONATHON

   EDWARDS IN DISTINGUISHING MARKS

It would not be correct to assert that Edwards here spoke with complete impartiality; he did champion the cause of the revival, earnestly pleading its validity and divinity. Yet even in these exciting days of 1741 a power of discrimination is evident in Edwards which later was given fuller and freer expression. In Distinguishing Marks, Edwards dismissed as irrelevant such things in the revival as its extraordinary intensity, its effects "on the bodies of men," its showy, noisy religiousness, its effects upon men's imaginations, and the ir­regularities, disorders, and errors of some who were associated with it.

These things may, we know from Scripture, accompany a divine work; on the other hand, Edwards stated, they have appeared in situations that were not of God's doing. They are then not trustworthy criteria by which one may judge the contemporary religious scene. Arguing closely from his text, I John 4, Edwards presented a positive statement of valid criteria. The "distinguishing marks" were five: a true revival (i) will cause a greater esteem for Jesus (I John 4:2), (2) will operate against the interest of Satan (4:4, 5), (3) will cause a greater regard for scripture (4:6), (4) will lead persons to truth, convincing them of those things that are true (4:6), and (5) "operates as a spirit of love to God and man" (4:7 f). From his "trial of the spirit" then rushing throughout New England, Edwards judged "that the extraordinary influence that has lately appeared causing an uncommon concern and engagedness of the mind about the things of religion is undoubtedly, in general, from the Spirit of God."⁸

Extended among so many places and over so many months, the revival cannot be a pretense or delusion. As far as the Northampton experiences are concerned, "we must throw by all talk of conversion and Christian experience; and not only so, but we must throw by our Bibles, and give up revealed religion; if this |be not in general the work of God."⁹ In view of this judgment, the commencement speaker warned all "by no means to oppose, or do any thing in the least to clog or hinder, the work; but, on the contrary, do our utmost to promote it." In the coldest, darkest corner of New England, by New Light standards, Edwards had defended the Great Awakening and had spoken harsh words to any that tried to thwart it. He was never invited back.

(From THE GREAT AWAKENING IN NEW ENGLAND BY
EDWIN SCOTT GAUSTAD, Quadrangle Books Edition 1968)

A MIGHTY REVIVAL NEEDED-ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917)

(Andrew Murray was a man greatly used of God in South Africa. He preached there for many years. One of his great burdens was for revival, and he did see one stirred. We find many good things in his work and messages. I decided to share this short excerpt with you).

"Yes, all will answer, nothing less than a mighty revival is needed to rouse and fit the Church for the work to which God calls her. And yet there may be a great difference in what we understand by revival. Many will think of the power of God as it has been manifested in the work of evangelists like Moody and Torrey, and they feel sure that what God has done in the past He can do again. They will perhaps hardly be able to understand us when we say that we need a different and a mightier revival than those were. In them the chief object was the conversion of sinners and, in connection with that, incidentally, the quickening of believers. But the revival that we need calls for a deeper and more entire upheaval of the Church. The great defect of those revivals was that the converts were received into a Church that was not living on a high level of consecration and holiness, and speedily they sank down to the average standard of ordinary religious life. Even the believers who had taken part in the work and had been roused by it, also gradually returned to their former life of clouded fellowship and lack of power to testify for Christ.

The revival we need is the revival of holiness, in which the consecration of the whole being to the service of Christ, and that for the whole life shall be counted possible. And for this there will be needed a new style of preaching, in which the promises of God to dwell in His people, and to sanctify them for Himself, will take a place which they do not now have."

From chapter 12 of “The State of the Church”

BETTER TO BE SICK

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661)

Sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to thy bed-side, and draw aside the curtains and say, “Courage, I am thy salvation.” That to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited by God. Worthy and dear lady, in the strength of Christ, fight and overcome. You are now alone, but you may have, for the seeking, three always in your company, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I trust they are near you. 

You are now deprived of the comfort of a lively ministry; so were Israel in their captivity; yet hear God’s promise to them: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries where they shall come,”[Ezek 11.16]. Behold a sanctuary! For a sanctuary, God himself, in the place and room of the temple of Jerusalem: I trust in God, that carrying this temple about with you, you shall see Jehovah’s beauty in his house

CARING FOR GOD'S WORD-RICHARD SIBBES

Those that care not for the Word of God reject their comfort; all comfort must be drawn out of the Scriptures, which are the breasts of consolation; many are bred up by education to know the truth and are able to discourse of it, but they lack the Spirit of truth, arid that is the reason why all their knowledge vanishes away in time of trial and temptation.