Tag: Experimental Religion

A Meditation To Prepare For The Lord’s Supper

I was entered into covenant with God by baptism, and was then brought under strong engagements to be the Lord’s. But O! I have broken my covenant and backslidden from Christ. If I were under the law or a covenant of works, I would be utterly undone. But, blessed be God, I am under the tenders of a covenant of grace that admits of repentance and a surety for the guilty criminal, and graciously promises pardon to the penitent believer—nay, it promises repentance to the hard-hearted and faith to the unbelieving, and pressingly invites backsliding children to return to God through a Mediator.… Read More A Meditation To Prepare For The Lord’s Supper

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Genuine Repentance Requires Self-Examination

Do with your hearts as men do with their wheat; they will not suffer their corn to lie long in the chaff lest the chaff hurt it, but they commit it to the fan so that the wind may separate them. So, the graces of God in our hearts are but corn, our sins and corruptions are chaff. Look well, and you shall find in yourself much chaff, and but little corn. Let not then the chaff lie too long mingled with the corn, lest it corrupt the corn. Let not your sins lie mingled with the grace of God in you. If you do, they will choke it in the end, and so deprive you of all grace. Therefore, rip up your heart, and look into your life, and when you have sinned, enter into yourself, ask your conscience what you have done, and be not quiet till you have found out your sin and the foulness of it. And never think that you know anything in religion till you know what is in your own heart and what are in your special and priviest corruptions. And look into your own faults, not with a partial eye, but with a censorious and strait judgment. Spare sin in no man, but especially condemn it in yourself.… Read More Genuine Repentance Requires Self-Examination

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A Godly Man Is A Humble Man

Augustine calls humility the mother of the graces. A humble soul is emptied of all swelling thoughts of himself. A humble soul thinks better of others than of himself. A humble soul has a low esteem of his duties. A humble man is always giving bills of indictment against himself. A humble man will justify God in an afflicted condition. A humble soul is a Christ-magnifier (Phil. 1:20). He gives the glory of all his actions to Christ and free grace. A humble soul is willing to take a reproof for sin. A wicked man is too high to stoop to a reproof. A humble man is willing to have his name and gifts eclipsed, so that God’s glory may be increased. A humble saint is content with that condition which God sees is best for him. Test yourself: are you humble?… Read More A Godly Man Is A Humble Man

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A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

A godly man weeps for indwelling sin, the law in his members (Romans 7:23), the outbursts and first risings of sin [cf. WCF 6:5]. He weeps for clinging corruption. A child of God weeps that he is sometimes overcome by the prevalence of corruption. A godly heart grieves that he can be no more holy. A godly man sometimes weeps out of the sense of God’s love. A godly person weeps because the sins he commits are in some sense worse than the sins of other men. How far from being godly are those who scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! Let us strive for this divine characteristic. Be weepers!… Read More A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

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The Crucial Value of Experimental Religion

Robert Burns (1789–1869)The Works of the Rev. Thomas HalyburtonIntroductory Essay, pp. 9-21. There are two extremes into which professing Christians of the present day are very apt to fall. While one class adopts a system of doctrinal sentiments without any practical regard to their influence on the heart and on the life; others satisfy themselves… Read More The Crucial Value of Experimental Religion

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The Difference Between True and Counterfeit Repentance

John Colquhoun, Repentance, ch. 4. It is a truth clearly revealed and often inculcated in Scripture that without repentance a man cannot attain eternal life in heaven. The most of men, therefore, who read and hear the Gospel admit that repentance is necessary to their future safety and felicity. But while they believe that it… Read More The Difference Between True and Counterfeit Repentance

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