Dear friends, have you been brought to glory only in the
Cross of Christ?
(1.) Have you given over the old way of salvation by the
deeds of the law? Your natural heart is set upon that way. You
are always for making yourself better and better, till you can lay
God under obligation to pardon you. You are always for looking
in for righteousness. You are looking in at your convictions, and
sorrow for past sins, — your tears and anxious prayers; or you are
looking in at your amendment, — forsaking of wicked courses,
and struggles after a new life; or you are looking at your own
religious exercises, — your fervency and enlarged heart in prayer,
or in the house of God; or you are looking at the work of the
Holy Spirit in you, — the graces of the Spirit. Alas! alas! The bed
is shorter than that you can stretch yourself on it, the covering is
narrower than that you can wrap yourself in it. Despair of pardon
in that way. Give it up for ever. Your heart is desperately wicked.
Every righteousness in which your heart has anything to do is
vile and polluted, and cannot appear in his sight. Count it all loss,
filthy rags, dung, that you may win Christ.

(2.) Betake yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He delighteth in mercy; He is ready to
forgive; in Him compassions flow; He justifies the ungodly. Have
you seen the glory of the Cross of Jesus? Has it attracted your
heart? Do you feel unspeakably pleased with that way of
salvation? Do you see that God is glorified when you are saved?
that God is a God of majesty, truth, unsullied holiness, and
inflexible justice, and yet you are justified? Does the Cross of
Christ fill your heart? Does it make a great calm in your soul, — a
heavenly rest? Do you love that word: “the righteousness of
God,” “the righteousness which is by faith,” the righteousness
without works? Do you sit within sight of the Cross? Does your
soul rest there?

(3.) Glory only in the Cross of Christ. — Observe, there cannot
be a secret Christian. Grace is like ointment hid in the hand, it
bewrayeth itself. A lively Christian cannot keep silence. If you
truly feel the sweetness of the Cross of Christ, you will be
constrained to confess Christ before men. “It is like the best wine,
that goeth down sweetly, causing lips to speak.” Do you confess
Him in your family? Do you make it known there that you are
Christ’s? Remember, you must be decided in your own house. It
is the mark of a hypocrite to be a Christian everywhere except at
home. Among your companions, do you own Him a friend whom
you have found? In the shop and in the market, are you willing to
be known as a man washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you
long that all your dealings be under the sweet rules of the gospel?
Come, then, to the Lord’s table, and confess Him that has saved
your soul. Oh! grant that it may be a true, free, and full
confession. This is my sweet food, my lamb, my righteousness,
my Lord and my God, my all in all. “God forbid that I should
glory, save in the Cross.” Once you gloried in riches, friends,
fame, sin; now in a crucified Jesus.

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, Eph. iii. 18, 19; that God, who is the eternal Being, should love man when he had scarce a being, Prov. viii. 30, 31, that he should be enamored with deformity, that he should love us when in our blood, Ezek. xvi., 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 condition did but heighten the holy flame of Christ’s love. It is as high as heaven, who can reach it? It is as low as hell, who can understand it? Heaven, through its glory, could not contain him, man being miserable, nor hell’s torments make him refrain, such was his perfect matchless love to fallen man. That Christ’s love should extend to the ungodly, to sinners, to enemies that were in arms of rebellion against him, Rom. v. 6, 8, 10; yes, not only so, but that he should hug them in his arms, lodge them in his bosom, dandle them upon his knees, and lay them to his breasts, that they may suck and be satisfied, is the highest improvement of love, Isa lxvi. 11–13.

That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father, to a region of sorrow and death, John i. 18; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature, Isa. liii. 4; that he that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16; that he that filled heaven, should be cradled in a manger, John xvii. 5; that the God of Israel should fly into Egypt, Mat. ii. 14; that the God of strength should be weary; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to death, John xix. 41; that he that is one with his Father, should cry out of misery, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!’ Mat. xxvi. 39: that he that had the keys of hell and death, Rev. i. 18, should lie imprisoned in the sepulcher of another, having, in his lifetime, nowhere to lay his head; nor after death, to lay his body, John xix. 41, 42; and all this for man, for fallen man, for miserable man, for worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures. The sharp, the universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the cradle to the cross, does above all other things speak out the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners. That wrath, that great wrath, that fierce wrath, that pure wrath, that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God, that was so terribly impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent his natural strength, and turned his moisture into the drought of summer, Ps. xxxii. 4; and yet all this wrath he patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that ‘he might bring many sons unto glory,’ Heb. ii. 10.

Oh, wonder of love! Love enables Jesus to suffer. It was love that made our dear Lord Jesus lay down his life, to save us from hell and to bring us to heaven. As the pelican, out of her love to her young ones, when they are bitten with serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them again; so when we were bitten by the old serpent, and our wound incurable, and we in danger of eternal death, then did our dear Lord Jesus, that he might recover us and heal us, feed us with his own blood, Gen. iii. 15; John vi. 53–56. Oh love unspeakable! This made [Bernard] cry out, ‘Lord, you have loved me more than yourself; for you have laid down your life for me.’

It was only the golden link of love that fastened Christ to the cross, John x. 17, and that made him die freely for us, and that made him willing ‘to be numbered among transgressors,’ Isa. liii. 12, that we might be numbered among the ‘general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,’ Heb. xii. 23.

Christ’s love is like his name, and that is Wonderful, Isa. ix. 6; yes, it is so wonderful, that it is above all creatures, beyond all measure, contrary to all nature. It is above all creatures, for it is above the angels, and therefore above all others. It is beyond all measure, for time did not begin it, and time shall never end it; place does not bound it, sin does not exceed it, no estate, no age, no sex is denied it, tongues cannot express it, understandings cannot conceive it: and it is contrary to all nature; for what nature can love where it is hated? What nature can forgive where it is provoked? What nature can offer reconciliation where it receives wrong? What nature can heap up kindness upon contempt, favor upon ingratitude, mercy upon sin? And yet Christ’s love has led him to all this; so that well may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of this wonderful love, and be always ravished with the thoughts of it.

See that you love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative love, with an overtopping love. There are none have suffered so much for you as Christ; there are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ. The least measure of that wrath that Christ has sustained for you, would have broke the hearts, necks, and backs of all created beings.

O my friends! There is no love but a superlative love that is any ways suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love him above your lusts, love him above your relations, love him above the world, love him above all your outward contentments and enjoyments; yes, love him above your very lives; for thus the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive Christians, and the martyrs of old, have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love: Rev. xii. 11, ‘They loved not their lives unto the death;’ that is, they slighted, contemned, yes, despised their lives, exposing them to hazard and loss, out of love to the Lamb, ‘who had washed them in his blood.’ I have read of one Kilian, a Dutch schoolmaster, who being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, answered, Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands to dispose of, I would leave it at my enemies feet to live with them in a prison; but my soul and my Savior are dearer to me than all. If my father, says Jerome, should stand before me, and my mother hang upon, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and tread underfoot my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ.

Had I ten heads, said Henry Voes, they should all be cut off for Christ. If every hair of my head, said John Ardley, martyr, were a man, they should all suffer for the faith of Christ. Let fire, racks, pulleys, said Ignatius, and all the torments of hell come upon me, so I may win Christ. Love made Jerome to say, O my Savior, did you die for love of me?-a love sadder than death; but to me a death more lovely than love itself. I cannot live, love you, and be longer from you. George Carpenter, being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, which stood weeping before him, answered, My wife and children!- my wife and children! are dearer to me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know them not. That blessed virgin in Basil being condemned for Christianity to the fire, and having her estate and life offered her if she would worship idols, cried out, ‘Let money perish, and life vanish, Christ is better than all.’ Sufferings for Christ are the saints’ greatest glory; they are those things wherein they have most gloried Your cruelty is our glory, says Tertullian. It is reported of Babylas, that when he was to die for Christ, he desired this favor, that his chains might be buried with him, as the ensigns of his honor. Thus you see with what a superlative love, with what an overtopping love, former saints have loved our Lord Jesus; and can you, Christians, who are cold and low in your love to Christ, read over these instances, and not blush?

Certainly the more Christ has suffered for us, the more dear Christ should be unto us; the more bitter his sufferings have been for us, the more sweet his love should be to us, and the more eminent should be our love to him. Oh, let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts; let him be your manna, your tree of life, your morning star. It is better to part with all than with this pearl of price. Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of salvation runs; and oh. how should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to Christ, and cry out with Ignatius, Christ my love is crucified? Cant. viii. 7,8. If a friend should die for us, how would our hearts be affected with his kindness! and shall the God of glory lay down his life for us, and shall we not be affected with his goodness i John x. 17, 18. Shall Saul be affected with David’s kindness in sparing his life, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, and shall not we be affected with Christ’s kindness, who, to save our life, lost his own? Oh, the infinite love of Christ, that he should leave his Father’s bosom, John i. 18, and come down from heaven, that he might carry you up to heaven, John xiv. 1–4; that he that was a Son should take upon him the form of a servant, Phil. ii. 5–8; that you of slaves should be made sons, of enemies should be made friends, of heirs of wrath should be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 17; that to save us from everlasting ruin, Christ should stick at nothing, but be willing to be made flesh, to lie in a manger, to be tempted, deserted, persecuted, and to die upon a cross!

Oh, what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ! Love is compared to fire; in heaping love upon our enemy, we heap coals of fire upon his head, Rom. xii. 19, 20; Prov. xxvi. 21. Now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature: fire makes all things fire; the coal makes burning coals; and is it not a wonder then that Christ, having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of his love upon our heads, we should yet be as cold as corpses in our love to him. Ah! what sad metal are we made of, that Christ’s fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ! Moses wondered why the bush consumed not, when he sees it all on fire, Exod. iii. 3; but if you please but to look into your own hearts, you shall see a greater wonder; for you shall see that, though you walk like those three children in the fiery furnace, Dan. iii., even in the midst of Christ’s fiery love flaming round about you; yet there is but little, very little, true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you. Oh, when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Savior kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts, as shall still be a-breaking forth in our lips and lives, in our words and ways, to the praise and glory of free grace? Oh that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love! Cant. ii. v. Oh let him forever lie between our breasts, Cant. i. 13, who has left his Father’s bosom for a time, that he might be embosomed by us forever.

We must be violent for the truth. Here Pilate’s question will be cited, “What is truth?” Truth is either the blessed Word of God which is called the Word of truth; or those doctrines which are deduced from the Word, and agree with it as the dial with the sun or the transcript with the original; as the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the creation, the doctrine of free grace, justification by the blood of Christ, regeneration, resurrection of the dead, and the life of glory. These truths we must be violent for, which is either by being advocates for them or martyrs.

Truth is the most glorious thing; the least filing of this gold is precious: what shall we be violent for, if not for truth? Truth is ancient; its grey hairs may make it venerable; it comes from him who is the ancient of days. Truth is unerring, it is the Star which leads to Christ. Truth is pure, Psalm 119:140, It is compared to silver refined seven times, Psalm 12:6, There is not the least spot on truth’s face; it breathes nothing but sanctity.

Truth is triumphant; it is like a great conqueror; when all his enemies lie dead, it keeps the field and sets up its trophies of victory. Truth may be opposed but never quite deposed . . . When the water in the Thames is lowest, a high tide is ready to come in. God is on truth’s side and so long as there is no fear it will prevail: The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, 2 Peter 3:12, but not that truth which came from Heaven, 1 Peter 1:25.

Truth has noble effects. Truth is the seed of the new birth. God does not regenerate us by miracles or revelations, but by the word of truth, James 1:18. As truth is the breeder of grace, so it is the feeder of it, 1 Tim 4:6, Truth sanctifies: John 17:17, Sanctify them through Thy truth. Truth is the seal that leaves the print of its own holiness upon us; it is both speculum and lavacrum, a glass to show us our blemishes and a laver to wash them away.

Truth makes us free, John 18: 32, it bears off the fetters of sin and puts us into a state of Sonship, Rom 8:11, and Kingship, Rev 1:6.

Truth is comforting; this wine cheers. When David’s harp and viol could yield him no comfort, truth did, Psalm 119:50, ‘This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.’

Truth is an antidote against error. Error is the adultery of the mind; it stains the soul, as treason stains blood. Error damns as well as does vice. A man may as well die by poison as by pistol; and what can stave off error but truth? The reason so many have been tricked into error is because they either did not know, or did not love, the truth. I can never say enough in the honor of truth.

Truth is basis fidei, the ground of our faith; it gives us an exact model of religion; it shows us what we are to believe. Take away truth and our faith is fancy. — Truth is the best flower in the church’s crown; we have not a richer jewel to trust God with than our souls, nor He a richer jewel to trust us with than His truths.

Truth is insigne honoris, an ensign of honor; it distinguishes us from the false church, as chastity distinguisheth a virtuous woman from an harlot. In short, truth is ecclesiae praesidium, that is, the bulwark a nation: 2 Chron 11:17, it is said, the Levites (who were the antesignani, that is, the ensignbeaners of truth) strengthened the kingdom. Truth may be compared to the capitol of Rome, which was a place of the greatest strength; or the Tower of David, on which ‘there hang a thousand shields,’ Songs 4:4, Our forts and navies do not so much strengthen us as truth. Truth is the best militia of a kingdom; if once we part with truth and espouse popery, the lock is cut where our strength lies. What then should we be violent for, if not for truth? We are bid to contend as in an agony ‘for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,’ Jude verse 3. If truth once be gone, we may write this epitaph on England’s tomb-stone, Thy glory is departed.

In the package to Sir William, Mr. Edwards, in consequence of her own request, forwarded to Lady Pepperell, who was then in very deep affliction, the following letter; which will probably be regarded as one of the happiest specimens of christian sympathy and condolence, to be found in epistolary writing.

To Lady Pepperell.

Stockbridge, Nov. 28, 1751

Madam,

When I was at your house in Kittery, the last spring, among other instances of your kind and condescending treatment to me, was this, that, when I had some conversation with Sir William, concerning Stockbridge and the affairs of the Indians, and he generously offered me any assistance, in the business of my mission here, which his acquaintance and correspondence in London enabled him to afford me, and proposed my writing to him on our affairs; you were also pleased to invite me to write to you at the same time. If I should neglect to do as you then proposed, I should fail not only of discharging my duty, but of doing myself a great honour. But as I am well assured, even from the small acquaintance I had with you, that a letter of mere compliments would not be agreeable to a lady of your disposition and feelings, especially under your present melancholy circumstances; so the writing of such a letter is very far from my intention or inclination.

When I saw the evidences of your deep sorrow, under the awful frown of Heaven in the death of your only son, it made an impression on my mind not easily forgotten; and when you spoke of my writing to you, I soon determined what should be the subject of my letter. It was that which appeared to me to be the most proper subject of contemplation for one in your circumstances; that, which I thought, above all others, would furnish you a proper and sufficient source of consolation, under your heavy affliction; and this was the Lord Jesus Christ: — particularly the amiableness of his character, which renders him worthy that we should love him, and take him for our only portion, our rest, hope, and joy; and his great and unparalleled love towards us. — And I have been of the same mind ever since; being determined, if God favoured me with an opportunity to write to your Ladyship, that those things should be the subject of my letter. For what other subject is so well calculated to prove a balm to the wounded spirit.

Let us then, dear Madam, contemplate the loveliness of our blessed Redeemer, which entitles him to our highest love; and, when clearly seen, leads us to find a sweet complacency and satisfaction of soul in him, of whatever else we are deprived. The Scriptures assure us that He, who came into the world in our nature, and freely laid down his life for us, was truly possessed of all the fulness of the Godhead, of his infinite greatness, majesty, and glory, his infinite wisdom, purity, and holiness, his infinite righteousness and goodness. He is called ‘the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of his person.’ He is the Image, the Expression, of infinite beauty; in the contemplation of which, God the Father had all his unspeakable happiness from eternity. That eternal and unspeakable happiness of the Deity is represented as a kind of social happiness, in the society of the persons of the Trinity; Prov. viii. 30.. ‘Then I was by him, as one brought up with him; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.’ This glorious Person came down from heaven to be ‘the Light of the world,’ that by him the beauty of the Deity might shine forth, in the brightest and fullest manner, to the children of men.

Infinite Wisdom also has contrived that we should behold the glory of the Deity, in the face of Jesus Christ, to the greatest advantage, in such a manner as should be best adapted to the capacity of poor feeble man; in such a manner, too, as is best fitted to engage our attention, and allure our hearts, as well as to inspire us with the most perfect complacency and delight. For Christ having, by his incarnation, come down from his infinite exaltation above us, has become one of our kinsmen and brothers. And his glory shining upon us through his human nature, the manifestation is wonderfully adapted to the strength of the human vision; so that, though it appears in all its effulgence, it is yet attempered to our sight. He is indeed possessed of infinite majesty, to inspire us with reverence and adoration; yet that majesty need not terrify us, for we behold it blended with humility, meekness, and sweet condescension. We may feel the most profound reverence and self-abasement, and yet our hearts be drawn forth sweetly and powerfully into an intimacy the most free, confidential, and delightful. The dread, so naturally inspired by his greatness, is dispelled by the contemplation of his gentleness and humility; while the familiarity, which might otherwise arise from the view of the loveliness of his character merely, is ever prevented by the consciousness of his infinite majesty and glory; and the sight of all his perfections united fills us with sweet surprise and humble confidence, with reverential love and delightful adoration.

This glory of Christ is properly, and in the highest sense, divine. He shines in all the brightness of glory that is inherent in the Deity. Such is the exceeding brightness of this Sun of righteousness, that, in comparison of it, the light of the natural sun is as darkness; and hence, when he shall appear in his glory, the brightness of the sun shall disappear, as the brightness of the little stars do when the sun rises. So says the prophet Isaiah, ‘Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients gloriously.’ Isa. xxiv. 23.. But, although his light is thus bright, and his beams go forth with infinite strength; yet, as they proceed from the Lamb of God, and shine through his meek and lowly human nature, they are supremely soft and mild, and, instead of dazzling and overpowering our feeble sight, like a smooth ointment or a gentle eye-salve, are vivifying and healing. Thus on them, who fear God’s name, ‘the Sun of righteousness arises, with healing in his beams,’ Mal. iv. 2.. It is like the light of the morning, a morning without clouds, as the dew on the grass, under whose influence the souls of his people are as the tender grass cxlspringing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain. Thus are the beams of his beauty and brightness fitted for the support and reviving of the afflicted. He heals the broken in spirit, and bindeth up their wounds. When the spirits of his people are cut down by the scythe, he comes down upon them, in a sweet and heavenly influence, like rain on the mown grass, and like showers that water the earth. (Psal. lxxii. 6)

But especially are the beams of Christ’s glory infinitely softened and sweetened by his love to men, the love that passeth knowledge. The glory of his person consists, pre-eminently, in that infinite goodness and grace, of which he made so wonderful a manifestation, in his love to us. The apostle John tells us, that God is light; (1 John i. 5.) and again, that God is love; (1 John iv. 8. ) and the light of his glory is an infinitely sweet light, because it is the light of love. But especially does it appear so, in the person of our Redeemer, who was infinitely the most wonderful example of love that was ever witnessed. All the perfections of the Deity have their highest manifestation in the work of redemption, vastly more than in the work of creation. In other works, we see him indirectly; but here, we see the immediate glory of his face. (2 Cor. iii. 18.) In his other works, we behold him at a distance; but in this, we come near, and behold the infinite treasures of his heart. (Eph. iii. 8, 9, 10.) It is a work of love to us, and a work of which Christ is the author. His loveliness, and his love, have both their greatest and most affecting manifestation in those sufferings, which he endured for us at his death. Therein, above all, appeared his holiness, his love to God, and his hatred of sin, in that, when he desired to save sinners, rather than that a sensible testimony should not be seen against sin, and the justice of God be vindicated, he chose to become obedient unto death; even the death of the cross. Thus, in the same act, he manifests, in the highest conceivable degree, his infinite hatred of sin, and his infinite love to sinners. His holiness appeared like a fire, burning with infinite vehemence against sin; at the same time, that his love to sinners appeared like a sweet flame, burning with an infinite fervency of benevolence It is the glory and beauty of his love to us, polluted sinners, that it is an infinitely pure love; and it is the peculiar sweetness and endearment of his holiness, that it has its most glorious manifestation in such an act of love to us. All the excellencies of Christ, both divine and human, have their highest manifestation in this wonderful act of his love to men — his offering up himself a sacrifice for us, under these extreme sufferings. Herein have abounded toward us the riches of his grace, in all wisdom and prudence. (Eph. i. 8.) Herein appears his perfect justice. Herein, too, was the great display of his humility, in being willing to descend so low for us. In his last sufferings, appeared his obedience to God, his submission to his disposing will, his patience, and his meekness, when he went as a lamb to the slaughter, and opened not his mouth, but in a prayer that God would forgive his crucifiers. And how affecting this manifestation of his excellency and amiableness to our minds, when it chiefly shines forth in such an act of love to us.

The love of Christ to men, in another way, sweetens and endears all his excellencies and virtues; as it has brought him in to so near a relation to us, as our friend, our elder brother, and our redeemer; and has brought us into an union so strict with him, that we are his friends, yea, members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (Eph. v. 30.)

We see then, dear Madam, how rich and how adequate is the provision, which God has made for our consolation, in all our afflictions, in giving us a Redeemer of such glory, and such love; especially, when it is considered, what were the ends of this great manifestation of beauty and love in his death. He suffered, that we might be delivered. His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, to take away the sting of sorrow, and to impart everlasting consolation. He was oppressed and afflicted, that we might be supported. He was overwhelmed in the darkness of death, that we might have the light of life. He was cast into the furnace of God’s wrath, that we might drink of the rivers of his pleasures. His soul was overwhelmed with a flood of sorrow, that our hearts might be overwhelmed with a flood of eternal joy.

We may also well remember, in what circumstances our Redeemer now is. He was dead; but he is alive, and he lives for evermore. Death may deprive us of our friends here, but it cannot deprive us of this our best Friend. We have this best of friends, this mighty Redeemer, to go to, in all our afflictions; and he is not one who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He has suffered far greater sorrows than we have ever suffered; and if we are actually united to him, the union can never be broken, but will continue when we die, and when heaven and earth are dissolved.

Therefore, in this we may be confident, though the earth he removed, in him we shall triumph with everlasting joy. Now, when storms and tempests arise, we may resort to him, who is a hiding-place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest. When we thirst, we may come to him, who is as rivers of water in a dry place. When we are weary, we may go to him, who is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Having found him, who is as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, we may sit under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit will be sweet to our taste. Christ said to his disciples, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation; but in me ye shall have peace! If we are united to him, we shall be like a tree planted by, the waters, and that spreadeth out its roots by the river, that shall not see when heat cometh, but its leaf shall ever be green, and it shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall it cease from yielding fruit. He will now be our light in darkness; our morning-star, shining as the sure harbinger of approaching day. In a little time, he will arise on our souls, as the sun in his glory; and our sun shall no more go down, and there shall be no interposing cloud — no veil on his face, or on our hearts; but the Lord shall be our everlasting light, and our Redeemer our glory.

That this glorious Redeemer would manifest his glory and love to your mind, and apply what little I have said on this subject to your consolation, in all your afflictions, and abundantly reward your kindness and generosity to me while I was at Kittery, is the fervent prayer, Madam, of

Your Ladyship’s most obliged

and affectionate friend,

and most humble servant,

Jonathan Edwards.

The Necessity of Redemption

Mankind, by virtue of the fall, is sold in slavery to sin and can in no way gain a favourable standing with God by his own merits. He is so corrupt that He will not even seek after God by his own volition and can in no wise work faith in his own heart. He requires a mediator who shall redeem him from his estate of sin and misery.

The Plan of Redemption

God the Father, knowing that the entire race of men, having utterly ruined themselves, and headed for utter destruction, of His own free grace and according to the good pleasure of His will alone, chose out of this fallen lump to make some the recipients of His grace to the praise of His glory, and thus purposed in Christ to redeem some unto Himself to be His own peculiar people.

The Accomplishment of Redemption

The Son submitted Himself to the Father’s will and thus taking on human flesh became the mediator for God’s chosen people, coming to Earth to perfect righteousness, to pay for the sins of these elect, and to purchase a particular people for God’s own possession.

The Application of Redemption

The Spirit, through the hearing of the gospel, regenerates the hearts of sinful men and grants them faith in the son of God, effectually uniting them to Christ and applying His work of redemption to them.

The Result of Redemption

Those people who have been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit can never be snatched out of His hand and can never fully and finally fall away from this state of grace, for God’s purposes will stand and His redemption is secure unto all eternity.

The Reasons why love to God is so great, and high, and necessary a thing, and so much esteemed above other graces, are:

1. It is the motion of the soul that tends to the end; and the end is more excellent than all the means as such.
2. The love, or will, or heart is the man; where the heart or love is, there the man is: it is the fullest resignation of the whole man to God, to love him as God, or offer him the heart. God never hath his own fully till we love him. Love is the grand, significant, vital motion of the soul; such as the heart, or will, or love is, such you may boldly call the man.
3. The love of God is the perfection and highest improvement of all the faculties of the soul, and the end of all other graces, to which they tend, and to which they grow up, and in which they terminate their operations.
4. The love of God is that spirit or life of moral excellency in all other graces in which (though not their form, yet) their acceptableness doth consist, without which they are to God as a lifeless carrion is to us. And to prove any action sincere and acceptable to God, is to prove that it comes from a willing, loving mind, without which you can never prove it.
5. Love is the commander of the soul; and therefore God knows that if he have our hearts he hath all, for all the rest are at his command; for it is, as it were, the nature of the will, which is the commanding faculty, and its object is the ultimate end which is the commanding object. Love sets the mind on thinking, the tongue on speaking, the hands on working, the feet on going, and every faculty obeys its command.
6. The obedience which love commands participates of its nature, and is a ready, cheerful, sweet obedience, acceptable to God, and pleasant to ourselves.
7. Love is a pure, chaste, and cleansing grace; and most powerfully casteth out all creature pollution from the soul: the love of God doth quench all carnal, sinful love; and most effectually carries up the soul to such high delights, as causes it to contemn and forget the toys which it before admired.
8. The love of God is the true acknowledging and honouring him as good. That blessed attribute, his Goodness, is denied or despised by those who love him not. The light of the sun would not be valued, honoured, or used by the world, if there were no eyes in the world to see it: and the goodness of God is to them that love him not, as the light to them that have no eyes. If God would have had his goodness to be thus unknown or neglected, he would never have made the intellectual creatures. Those only give him the glory of his goodness, that truly love him.
9. Love (in its attainment) is the enjoying and delighting grace: it is the very content and felicity of the soul, both as it makes us capable to receive the most delightful communications of God’s love to us, and as it is the soul’s delightful closure with its most amiable, felicitating object.
10. Love is the everlasting grace, and the work which we must be doing in heaven forever. These are the reasons of love’s preeminence.

In your relationship with God, the essential acts of piety you must exercise upon Him are:

1. The clearest knowledge you can attain to.
2. The firmest belief.
3. The highest estimation.
4. The greatest admiration.
5. The heartiest and sweetest complacency or love.
6. The strongest desire.
7. A filial awfulness, reverence, and fear.
8. The boldest quieting trust and confidence in him.
9. The most fixed waiting, dependence, hope, and expectation.
10. The most absolute self-resignation to him.
11. The fullest and quietest submission to his disposals.
12. The humblest and most absolute subjection to his governing authority and will, and the exactest obedience to his laws.
13. The boldest courage and fortitude in his cause, and owning him before the world in the greatest sufferings.
14. The greatest thankfulness for his mercies.
15. The most faithful improvement of his talents, and use of his means, and performance of our trust.
16. A reverent and holy use of his name and word: with a reverence of his secrets; forbearing to intrude or meddle with them.
17. A wise and careful observance of his providences, public and
    private; neither neglecting them, nor misinterpreting them; neither
    running before them, nor striving discontentedly against them.
18. A discerning, loving, and honouring his image in his children,
    notwithstanding their infirmities and faults; without any friendship
    to their faults, or over-magnifying or imitating them in any evil.
19. A reverent, serious, spiritual adoration and worshipping him, in
    public and private, with soul and body, in the use of all his holy
    ordinances; but especially in the joyful celebration of his praise,
    for all his perfections and his mercies.
20. The highest delight and fullest content and comfort in God that we can attain: especially a delight in knowing him, and obeying and pleasing him, worshipping and praising him; loving him, and being beloved of him, through Jesus Christ; and in the hopes of the perfecting of all these in our
    everlasting fruition of him in heavenly glory.

All these are the acts of piety towards God; which I lay together for
your easier observation and memory.

In the last place, let me offer a few hints to all true Christians for the increase and promotion of their happiness.

I offer these hints with diffidence. I desire to apply them to my own conscience as well as to your’s. You have found Christ’s service happy. I have no doubt that you feel such sweetness in Christ’s peace that you would gladly know more of it. I am sure that these hints deserve attention.

1. Grow in Grace

Believers, if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ’s service, labor every year to grow in grace. Beware of standing still. The holiest men are always the happiest. Let your aim be every year to be more holy — to know more, to feel more, to see more of the fullness of Christ !do not rest upon old grace — do not be content with the degree of grace whereunto you have attained.

Search the Scriptures more earnestly;
pray more fervently;
hate sin more;
mortify self-will more;
become more humble;
seek more direct personal communion with the Lord Jesus;
strive to be more like Enoch — daily walking with God;
keep your conscience clear of little sins;
do not grieve the Spirit;
avoid wranglings and disputes about the lesser matters of religion; lay more firm hold upon those great truths, without which no man can be saved. Remember and practice these things — and you will be more happy!

2. Be More Thankful

Believers, if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ’s service — labor every year to be more thankful. Pray that you may know more and more what it is to “rejoice in the Lord.” (Philippians 3:1.) Learn to have a deeper sense of your own wretched sinfulness and corruption, and to be more deeply grateful, that by the grace of God you are what you are. Alas, there is too much complaining — and too little thanksgiving among the people of God! There is too much murmuring, and coveting things that we have not. There is too little praising and blessing for the many undeserved mercies that we have. Oh, that God would pour out upon us a great spirit of thankfulness and praise!

3. Do More Good

Believers, if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ’s service, labor every year to do more good. Look around the circle in which your lot is cast — and lay yourself out to be useful. Strive to be of the same character with God: He is not only good — but “does good.” (Psalm 119:68.) Alas, there is far too much selfishness among believers in the present day! There is far too much lazy sitting by the fire nursing our own spiritual diseases, and croaking over the state of our own hearts! Up, and be useful in your day and generation! Is there no one that you can speak to? Is there no one that you can write to? Is there literally nothing that you can do for the glory of God, and the benefit of your fellow-men? Oh I cannot think it! I cannot think it. There is much that you might do, if you had only the desire. For your own happiness’ sake — arise and do it, without delay. The bold, outspoken, working Christians — are always the happiest!

The compromising, lingering Christian must never expect to taste perfect peace. The most decided Christian — will always be the happiest man.

(Context: Ryle is listing points for self-examination to try ourselves whether we be in the faith)

Let me ask, in the ninth place, WHETHER WE KNOW ANYTHING OF LIVING THE LIFE OF HABITUAL COMMUNION WITH CHRIST?

By “communion,” I mean that habit of “abiding in Christ” which our Lord speaks of, in the fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, as essential to Christian fruitfulness (John 15:4–8). Let it be distinctly understood that union with Christ is one thing — and communion is another thing. There can be no communion with the Lord Jesus without union first; but unhappily there may be union with the Lord Jesus, and afterwards little or no communion at all. The difference between the two things is not the difference between two distinct steps — but the higher and lower ends of an inclined plane.

Union is the common privilege of all who feel their sins, and truly repent, and come to Christ by faith, and are accepted, forgiven, and justified in Him. Too many believers, it may be feared, never get beyond this stage!

Partly from ignorance,
partly from laziness,
partly from the fear of man,
partly from secret love of the world,
partly from some unmortified besetting sin
 — they are content with a little faith, and a little hope, and a little peace, and a little measure of holiness. And they live on all their lives in this condition — doubting, weak, hesitant, and bearing fruit only “thirty-fold” to the very end of their days!

Communion with Christ is the privilege of those who are continually striving to grow in grace, and faith, and knowledge, and conformity to the mind of Christ in all things — who “forget what is behind,” and “do not consider themselves yet to have taken hold of it — but “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13–14)

Union is the bud — but communion is the flower.
Union is the baby — but communion is the strong man.

He who has union with Christ does well; but he who enjoys communion with Him does far better. Both have one life, one hope, one heavenly seed in their hearts — one Lord, one Savior, one Holy Spirit, one eternal home: but union is not as good as communion!

The grand secret of communion with Christ is to be continually “living the life of faith in Him,” and drawing out of Him every hour, the supply that every hour requires. To me, said Paul, “to live is Christ.” “I live: yet not I — but Christ lives in me!” (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21). Communion like this, is the secret of the abiding “joy and peace in believing,” which eminent saints like Bradford and Rutherford notoriously possessed. None were ever more humble, or more deeply convinced of their own infirmities and corruption. They would have told you that the seventh chapter of Romans precisely described their own experience. They would have said continually, “The remembrance of our sins is grievous to us; the burden of them is intolerable.”

But they were ever looking unto Jesus, and in Him they were ever able to rejoice. Communion like this is the secret of the splendid victories which such men as these won over sin, the world, and the fear of death. They did not sit still idly, saying, “I leave it all to Christ to do for me,” but, strong in the Lord, they used the Divine nature He had implanted in them, boldly and confidently, and were “more than conquerors through Him who loved them.” (Romans 8:37). Like Paul, they would have said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13).

Is communion with Christ like this a common thing? Alas! It is very rare indeed! The greater part of believers seem content with the barest elementary knowledge of justification by faith, and half-a-dozen other doctrines — and go doubting, limping, halting, groaning along the way to Heaven, and experience little of the sense of victory or of joy.

The Churches of these latter days are full of weak, powerless, and uninfluential believers, saved at last, “but so as by fire,” but never shaking the world, and knowing nothing of an “abundant entrance.” (1 Corinthians 3:15; 2 Peter 1:11). Despondency and Feeble-mind and Much-afraid, in “Pilgrim’s Progress,” reached the celestial city as really and truly as Valiant-for-the-truth and Great-heart. But they certainly did not reach it with the same comfort, and did not do a tenth part of the same good in the world! I fear there are many like them in these days! When things are so in the Churches, no reader can wonder that I inquire how it is with our souls. Once more I ask — In the matter of communion with Christ, “How do we do?

We are to offer violence to ourselves in PRAYER.

Prayer is a duty which keeps the trade of piety flowing. When we either join in prayer with others, or pray alone, we must use holy violence. It is not eloquence in prayer — but violence carries it. Theodorus, speaking of Luther, “once (says he) I overheard Luther in prayer: with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were speaking to God — yet with so much confidence, as if he had been speaking to his friend.” There must be a stirring up of the heart, 1. To prayer. 2. In prayer.

There must be a stirring up of the heart TO prayer

Job 11:13. “If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward him.” This preparing of our heart by holy thoughts and ejaculations. The musician first tunes his instrument, before he plays.

There must be a stirring up of the heart IN prayer.

Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and soul to God, which cannot be done aright without offering violence to one-self. The names given to prayer imply violence. It is called wrestling, Gen 32:24. and a pouring out of the soul, 1 Sam 1:15; both of which imply vehemency. The affection is required as well as invention. The apostle speaks of an effectual fervent prayer, which is a parallel phrase to offering violence.

Alas, how far from offering violence to themselves in prayer — are those who give God a dead, heartless prayer. God would not have the blind offered, Mal. 1:8; as good offer the blind is as offering the dead. Some are half asleep when they pray, and will a sleepy prayer ever awaken God? Such as mind not their own prayers, how do they think that God should mind them? Those prayers God likes best, which come seething hot from the heart.

Alas, how far are they from offering violence — are those who give God distracted prayer? while they are praying, they are thinking of their shop and trade. How can he shoot right whose eye is quite off the mark? Ezek 33:31. “Their heart goes after their covetousness.” Many are casting up their accounts in prayer, as Hieram once complained of himself. How can God be pleased with this? Will a king tolerate that, while his subject is delivering a petition, and speaking to him, he should be playing with a feather? When we send our hearts on an errand to Heaven, how often do they loiter and play by the way? This is a matter of blushing. That we may offer violence to ourselves and by fervency feather the wing of prayer, let these things be duly weighed:

1. The majesty of God with whom we have to do. He sees how it is with us in prayer, whether we are deeply affected with those things we pray for. “The king came in to see the guests,” Matt 22:11. So when we go to pray, the King of glory comes in to see in what frame we are; he has a window which looks into our breasts, and if He sees a dead heart, he may turn a deaf ear. Nothing will sooner make God’s anger wax hot, than a cold prayer.

2. Prayer without fervency and violence is no prayer; it is speaking, not praying. Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. To say a prayer, is not to pray; Ashanius taught his parrot the Lord’s Prayer. It is the violence and wrestling of the affections that make it a prayer, else it is no prayer.

3. The zeal and violence of the affections in prayer best suits God’s nature. He is a spirit, John 4:24. and surely that prayer which is full of life and spirit is the savory food he loves, 1 Peter 2:5. “Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.” Spirituality and fervency in duty, is like the spirits of wine, which are the more refined part of the wine. Bodily exercise profits nothing. It is not the stretching of the lungs — but the vehemency of the desire, that makes music in God’s ears.

4. Consider the need we have of those things which we ask in prayer. We come to ask the favor of God; and if we have not his love, all that we enjoy is cursed to us. We pray that our souls may be washed in Christ’s blood, and if he washes us not, “we have no part in him.” Such are these mercies that if God denies us, we are forever undone. Therefore what violence we need to put forth in prayer. When will a man be earnest, if not when he is begging for his life?

5. Let it provoke violence in prayer, to consider, that those things which we ask, God has a mind to grant. If a son asks nothing but what his father is willing to bestow, he may be the more earnest in his suit. We go to God for pardon of sin, and no work is more pleasing to him than to seal pardons. Mercy is his delight, Micah 7:18. We pray to God for a holy heart, and this prayer is according to his will, 1 Thes 4:3. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification”. We pray that God would give us a heart to love him. How pleasing must this request must be to God! This, if anything, may excite prayer, and carry it in a fiery chariot up to Heaven, when we know we pray for nothing but that which God is more willing to grant than we are to ask.

6. No mercy can be bestowed on us but in a way of prayer. Mercy is purchased by Christ’s blood — but it is conveyed by prayer. All the promises are bonds made over to us — but prayer puts these bonds in suit. The Lord has told Israel with what rich mercy He would bespangle them; he would bring them to their native country, and that with new hearts, Ezek 36 Yet this tree of the promise would not drop its fruit, until shaken with the hand of prayer, verse 67. For “all this I will yet be inquired.” The breast of God’s mercy is full — but prayer must draw the breast. Surely, if all other ways are blocked up, there’s no good to be done without prayer; how then should we ply this oar, and by a holy violence stir up ourselves to take hold of God.

7. It is only violence and intenseness of spirit in prayer that has the promise of mercy affixed to it. Matt 7:7 “Knock, and it shall be opened.” Knocking is a violent motion. The Aediles among the Romans had their doors always standing open, so that all who had petitions might have free access to them. God’s heart is ever open to fervent prayer. Let us then be fired with zeal, and with Christ pray yet more earnestly. It is violence in prayer which makes Heaven-gates fly open, and fetches in whatever mercies we stand in need of.

8. Large returns God has given to violent prayer. The dove sent to Heaven has often brought an olive leaf in its mouth: Psalm 34:6. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Crying prayer prevails. Daniel in the den prayed and prevailed. Prayer shut the lion’s mouth and opened the lion’s den. Fervent prayer (says one) has a kind of omnipotency in it. Sozomen said of Apollonius, that he never asked anything of God in all his life, which he did not obtain. Sleidan reports of Luther, that perceiving the interest of piety to be low, he betook himself to prayer; at length rising off his knees, he came out of his closet triumphantly, saying to his friends, “We have overcome; we have overcome!” At which time it was observed that there came out a proclamation from Charles the Fifth, that none should be further molested for the profession of the gospel. How may this encourage us and make us hoist up the sails of prayer when others of the saints have had such good returns from the holy land.

That we may put forth this holy violence in prayer, it is requisite there be a renewed principle of grace. If the person is graceless, no wonder the prayer is heartless. The body while it is dead has no heat in it: while a man is dead in sin, he can have no heat in duty.

9. That we may be the more violent in prayer, it is good to pray with a sense of our needs. A beggar that is pinched with poverty, will be earnest in craving alms. Christian, review your needs; you need a humble, spiritual frame of heart; you need the light of God’s countenance; the sense of need will quicken prayer. That man can never pray fervently who does not pray feelingly. How earnest was Samson for water when he was ready to die, Judges xv. 18. “I die for thirst!”

10. If we would be violent in prayer, let us beg for a violent wind. The Spirit of God is resembled to a mighty rushing wind, Acts 2:2. Then we are violent, when this blessed wind fills our sails, Jude, verse 20, “Praying in the Holy Spirit.” If any fire be in our sacrifice, it comes down from heaven.