“Let us learn then to depend on the providence of God. Why? All our beings are from God; there is no one so able to fulfill our necessities and no one so willing to do us good; all issues do befall us according to the commands of His providence.”
- Obadiah Sedgwick, from his Providence Handled Practically,P.33
Depend on the Providence of God
Do You Relish the Holy Beauty of God?
“To have no relish for holy beauty, to have no heart to look upon holiness itself as a lovely thing, is equivalent to having no heart to love the Holy One of Israel, who is the God of glory.”
Ibid, p.135
Spiritual Blindness
“Spiritual blindness consists primarily in the want of spiritual sight; or in not be sensible of the loveliness, beauty, and glory of divine things, as they are in themselves.”
Ibid, p.134
A Self-Righteous Spirit
“In general, a self-righteous spirit consists in a disposition to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think; and so, it is pride. And it stands in opposition to humility, which is to think soberly of ourselves, and as we ought to think…and a self-righteous spirit arises from blindness to the divine glory, and ignorance of our true character and state, as they appear in the sight of God, and as they really are, compared with His holy law.
The spiritual knowledge of God and His law, and a view of ourselves in contrast with God and His law thus known, is the cure of a self-righteous spirit”.
Ibid, P. 120
Love to God
“It is a pleasure to imitate a character which charms our hearts, to honor a person we greatly esteem, and please one we greatly love. The duties of a Christian life are only practical expressions of love to God; they are nothing else than love to God, and reduced to practice. Love to God is the life and soul of every good work.”
- Joseph Bellamy, from his “Sin, the Law, and the Glory of the Gospel”. p.111
In Heaven…
“In heaven they enjoy God as the supreme good; They are ravished with the glories of His nature, charmed with the beauties of His character, exquisitely delighted in His exaltation, in His supremacy, perfect government, crying, ‘Holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory; and they are as flames of fire, all love, life, activity, in the delightful service of their glorious King”.
Better Than All the Universe
“So for us sinners to repent and be converted, to return to God through Jesus Christ, and to have Him for our God and Father, is better, yea, infinitely better, than to have all the universe put into our hands”.
Ibid, p.85
The Infinite Chasm Between God’s Character and Ours
“Therefore, for a sinner to love the true God, is, at the same time, to judge and condemn, to hate and abhor, his own character, as being infinitely odious. We can have not so much as one good thought of the divine character, without giving up our own as infinitely abominable. The moment we begin to think that God’s character is good, we begin to look upon our own as infinitely bad”.
Ibid, p.72
Sin is an Infinite Evil
“If sin is an infinite evil, if not to love the infinitley glorious God our Maker with all our hearts, so as from love to be perfectly obedient to His will in thought, word, and deed, is an infinite evil; then those who are wholly blind to the holy beauty of the divine nature, and consequently entirely destitute of true love and of true obedience, are, in the sight of God, infinitely to blame for every thought, word, and action. the plowing of the wicked is sin. The prayers of the wicked are sin.
- Joseph Bellamy, from his “Sin, the Law, and The Glory of the Gospel’, p.65
The Effect of Knowledge
“Certainly, the more you know of God and Christ, and the way of your salvation through an imputed righteousness, the more you will admire,, adore, and advance Divine love and wisdom, and the more humble and abase yourselves.”
Ibid, p.120
How to View the Trials of Life
“Indeed, were it God’s intent to satisfy His justice by the evils which He brings upon me, I might then tremble with horror and astonishment, and account every, the slightest suffering, a presage and pledge, of far greater and eternal to come; but if I have an interest in the righteousness of Christ, justice is already satisfied, and the curse removed; and all the sorrows and afflictions which I suffer, are but the corrections of a gracious Father, not the revenge of an angry God”.
Ibid, p.60
Personal or Imputed Obedience
“The covenant of works promises life, if we obey in our own persons: but the covenant of grace relaxes this and promises life, if we obey in our Surety. The condition of both is perfect obedience: in one, personal; in the other, imputed. And the way how we should obtain a title to this obedience of our Surety, is, by believing.”
-Ibid, P.41
Filthy Rags
“All are righteousnesses are but filthy rags” Isa.64:6. Rags they are; and, therefore, cannot cover our nakedness: filthy they are; and, therefore, need a covering for themselves. To think to cover filth by filth, is nothing else but to make both more odious in the sight of God”.
-Ezekiel Hopkins, from his The Doctrine of the Two Covenants”, p.26
Union with Adam and with Christ
“The believer is one with Christ as truly as he was one with Adam – he dies with Christ as truly as he died with Adam. Christ’s righteousness is his as truly as Adam’s sin was his…all Christ’s people are one with Him, and His obedience is as truly theirs as if they had yielded it, and His death as if they had suffered it”.
-Robert Haldane, from his Romans commentary, p.244
Blessed Assurance
“Believers are assured of both the propriety and greatness of their future intimacy and enjoyment of God by the greatness of the price given on their behalf”.
-Ibid, P.245
Not a Single Person
“If God were to allow a single person into heaven without perfect righteousness, the Day of Judgment could neither be a display of the glory of God’s righteous justice, nor a vindication of His righteous judgments”.
-Ibid, p.141
Adam’s Merit vs. Christ’s Merit
“Whereas Adam’s obedience was meritorious by virtue of God’s gracious terms alone, Christ’s obedience was infinitely meritorious of itself by virtue of Christ’s voluntarily undertaking the role of Mediator, as perfectly fulfilling all laws, as performed by one of infinite dignity and worth, as an infinite condescension to infinite suffering on behalf of infinitely unworthy sinners.”
-Craig Biehl, from his Infinite Merit of Christ, p.165
Degrees of Happiness
“The Holy Spirit within the believer on earth will produce the fruit of His own character for which the believer will be rewarded with greater degrees of happiness in heaven, though all are justified by the perfect righteousness of Christ alone and will be filled to capacity with the love and happiness of God in heaven by virtue of that justification.”
- Craig Biehl, From his “The Infinite Merit of Christ”., p194-195.
Our Peace May Be Clouded
“But the peace of God’s children is not uninterrupted. That tranquility which calmed the sin-burdened heart, may not become the abiding experience of the soul. The interval between your being justified by faith, and your being crowned with glory, may be clouded with dark dispensations, or disturbed by dark forebodings; your conscience may be torn with fierce conflicts, or blotted with wasting sins, so as to raise a tumult of misgivings and fears within the breast, and shake the peaceful sense of your acceptance in Christ.”
-Ibid, p.52
External/Internal Righteousness
“The justifying righteousness of Christ is external; the sanctifying righteousness of the Spirit is internal. The righteousness whereby we are justified is perfect, but not inherent; that whereby we are sanctified is inherent but not perfect; the righteousness in which we shall be clothed in the world to come is both perfect and inherent; in that righteousness every believer in Christ Jesus will shine as the stars for ever and ever”.
- W.B.Mackenzie, from his “The Justified Believer”, p.23
