Psalm 24 Devotional.

Psalm 24: 1 Albeit the Lord God hath made, and governeth all the world, yet toward his chosen people, his gracious goodness doth most abundantly appear, in that among them he will have his dwelling place. Which thought it was appointed among the children of Abraham, yet only they do enter aright into this Sanctuary, which are the true worshippers of God, purged from the sinful filth of this world. 7 Finally he magnifieth God’s grace for the building of the Temple, to the end he might stir up all the faithful to the true service of God.

A Psalm of David.

1 The earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is; the world, and they that dwell in it.

2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?

4 Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Previously we saw the dominion and glory of God in his sovereign ownership of the world, and his watchful care over the sons of men. For even those who are rebellious against his laws, and are not subject to his doctrine in the church are watched over and looked upon as subjects of his supreme and divine governance. Doth not he feed the blind and senseless creatures? Doth He not give abundance of riches even to His enemies? Then may the Christian argue from this that He will give us abundantly more, both in this life and in the next. For the true believer is in no need of extravagant wealth to suit his fancy, but as the apostle saith, “with food and clothing, therewith we may be content”. And even those who are allowed a considerable stipend at the Lord’s hand, yet it is not so necessary as it is essential to their worship and love for God, as Job blessed the Lord even in his loss, and Paul saith very effectually to this point, “I have learned to be abased and I have learned how to abound. I can do all things through Him that gives me strength”. Therefore may the Christian argue thus, that as God reigns over all and gives what He will to whom He will, and has given immense portions of wealth to the rebellious and wicked, those who have no love for God, nor for His people, so we may be persuaded by the efficacy of the promise that His word will not be overturned by this, but the rather confirmed, that He will give His people abundantly more by their loss, and recompense all their sorrows with eternal joy, even as the wicked will suffer torments in hell for their abuse of the gifts of God. As it is written, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” and again, “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever” We ought to note carefully this passage and observe the manner of speech herein. For when the psalmist confidently declares that the workers of iniquity shall be destroyed, he does not do so without first reminding us of their current state of “springing as grass and flourishing” which is to say that they shall at some time have great success and appear to be in a happy state. But how dreadful shall the change be when God shall call then to account for their sins! Therefore doth the Psalm say, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” and again, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” showing forth evidently by the mouth of the Lord that the truly blessed man (the man in a happy and prosperous condition) is he that is forgiven by the Lord and follows after Him in purity and holiness. Thus much may we learn from, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is; the world, and they that dwell in it.”

Henry,

God’s absolute propriety in this part of the creation where our lot is cast, Psalms 24:1. We are not to think that the heavens, even the heavens only, are the Lord’s, and the numerous and bright inhabitants of the upper world, and that this earth, being so small and inconsiderable a part of the creation, and at such a distance from the royal palace above, is neglected, and that he claims no interest in it. No, even the earth is his, and this lower world; and, though he has prepared the throne of his glory in the heavens, yet his kingdom rules over all, and even the worms of this earth are not below his cognizance, nor from under his dominion. 1. When God gave the earth to the children of men he still reserved to himself the property, and only let it out to them as tenants, or usufructuaries: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. The mines that are lodged in the bowels of it, even the richest, the fruits it produces, all the beasts of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills, our lands and houses, and all the improvements that are made of this earth by the skill and industry of man, are all his. These indeed, in the kingdom of grace, are justly looked upon as emptiness; for they are vanity of vanities, nothing to a soul; but, in the kingdom of providence, they are fulness. The earth is full of God’s riches, so is the great and wide sea also. All the parts and regions of the earth are the Lord’s, all under his eye, all in his hand: so that, wherever a child of God goes, he may comfort himself with this, that he does not go off his Father’s ground. That which falls to our share of the earth and its productions is but lent to us; it is the Lord’s; what is our own against all the world is not so against his claims. That which is most remote from us, as that which passes through the paths of the sea, or is hidden in the bottom of it, is the Lord’s and he knows where to find it. 2. The habitable part of this earth (Proverbs 8:31) is his in a special manner–the world and those that dwell therein. We ourselves are not our own, our bodies, our souls, are not. All souls are mine, says God; for he is the former of our bodies and the Father of our spirits. Our tongues are not our own; they are to be at his service. Even those of the children of men that know him not, nor own their relation to him, are his. Now this comes in here to show that, though God is graciously pleased to accept the devotions and services of his peculiar chosen people (Psalms 24:3-5; Psalms 24:3-5), it is not because he needs them, or can be benefited by them, for the earth is his and all in it, Exodus 19:5; Psalms 50:12. It is likewise to be applied to the dominion Christ has, as Mediator, over the utmost parts of the earth, which are given him for his possession: the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand, power over all flesh. The apostle quotes this scripture twice together in his discourse about things offered to idols, 1 Corinthians 10:26; 1 Corinthians 10:28. “If it be sold in the shambles, eat it, and ask no questions; for the earth is the Lord’s; it is God’s good creature, and you have a right to it. But, if one tell you it was offered to an idol, forbear, for the earth is the Lord’s, and there is enough besides.” This is a good reason why we should be content with our allotment in this world, and not envy others theirs; the earth is the Lord’s, and may he not do what he will with his own, and give to some more of it, to others less, as it pleases him?

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Opening Prayer.

The Westminster Confession of Faith. Lesson 10. Introduction. [10] The history of the Westminster Confession and the defense of the faith of Jesus Christ.
Jude 3

Intro.

John Flavel’s epistle to the Christian Reader (Fountain of Life)
To the Christian Readers, Especially those in the Town and Corporation of Dartmouth, and Parts adjacent, who have either befriended, or attended these Lectures.

Honored and worthy Friends,
Knowledge is man’s excellency above the beasts that perish, Psalm 32:9.
The knowledge of Christ is the Christian’s excellency above the Heathen, 1 Cor. 1:23, 24.
Practical and saving knowledge of Christ is the sincere Christian’s excellency above the self-cozening hypocrite, Heb. 6:4, 6. But methodical and well-digested knowledge of Christ is the strong Christian’s excellency above the weak, Heb. 5:13, 14. A saving, though an imperfect knowledge of Christ, will bring us to heaven, John 17:2, but a regular and methodical, as well as a saving knowledge of him, will bring heaven into us, Col. 2:2, 3.
For such is the excellency thereof, even above all other knowledge of Christ, that it renders the understanding judicious, the memory tenacious, and the heart highly and fixedly joyous. How it serves to confirm and perfect the understanding, is excellently discovered by a worthy divine of our own, in these words: A young ungrounded Christian, when he sees all the fundamental truths, and sees good evidence and reasons of them, perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth. It is a rare thing to have young professors to understand the necessary truths methodically: and this is a very great defect: for a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consists in the respect they have to one another. This therefore will be a very considerable part of your confirmation, and growth in your understandings, to see the body of the Christian doctrine, as it were, at one view, as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame; and to know what aspect one point has upon another, and which are their due places.

There is a great difference between the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch, as they are disjointed and scattered abroad, and the seeing of them joined, and in use and motion. To see here a pin and there a wheel, and not know how to set them all together, nor ever see them in their due places, will give but little satisfaction. It is the frame and design of holy doctrine that must be known, and every part should be discerned as it has its particular use to that design, and as it is connected with the other parts. By this means only can the true nature of Theology, together with the harmony and perfection of truth, be clearly understood. And every single truth also will be much better perceived by him that sees its place and order, than by any other: for one truth exceedingly illustrates and leads another into the understanding.

Study therefore to grow in the more methodical knowledge of the same truths which you have received; and though you are not yet ripe enough to discern the whole body of theology in due method, yet see so much as you have attained to know, in the right order and placing of every part. As in anatomy, it is hard for the wisest physician to discern the course of every branch of the veins and arteries; but yet they may easily discern the place and order of the principal parts, and greater vessels, (and surely in the body of religion there are no branches of greater or more necessary truth than these) so it is in divinity, where no man has a perfect view of the whole, until he comes to the state of perfection with God; but every true Christian has the knowledge of all the essentials, and may know the orders and places of them all.

And as it serves to render the mind more judicious, so it causes the memory to be more tenacious, and retentive of truths. The chain of truth is easily held in the memory, when one truth links in another; but the loosing of a link endangers the scattering of the whole chain. We use to say, order is the mother of memory; I am sure it is a singular friend to it: hence it is observed, those that write of the art of memory, lay so great a stress upon place and number. The memory would not so soon be overcharged with a multitude of truths, if that multitude were but orderly disposed. It is the incoherence and confusion of truths, rather than their number, that distracts. Let but the understanding receive them regularly, and the memory will retain them with much more facility.

A bad memory is a common complaint among Christians: all the benefit that many of you have in hearing is from the present influence of truths upon your hearts; there is but little that sticks by you, to make a second and third impression upon them. I know it may be said of some of you, that if your affections were not better than your memories, you would need a very large charity to pass for Christians.

I confess it is better to have a well-ordered heart, than a methodical head; but surely both are better than either. And for you that have constantly attended these exercises, and followed us through the whole series and deduction of these truths, from text to text, and from point to point; who have begun one sabbath where you left another, it will be your inexcusable fault, if these things be not fixed in your understanding and memories, as nails fastened in a sure place: especially as providence has now brought to your eyes what has been so often sounded in your ears, which is no small help to fix these truths upon you, and prevent that great hazard of them, which commonly attends bare hearing; for now you may have recourse as often as you will to them, view and review them, until they become your own.

But though this be a great and singular advantage, yet it is not all you may have by a methodical understanding of the doctrines of Christ: it is more than a judicious understanding of them, or faithful remembering them, that you and I must design, even the warm, vital, animating influences of these truths upon our hearts, without which we shall be never the better; yes, much the worse for knowing and remembering them.

Truth is the sanctifying instrument, John 17:17. The mold into which our souls are cast, Rom. 6:17. According therefore to the stamps and impressions it makes upon our understandings, and the order in which truths lie there, will be the depth and lastingness of their impressions and influences upon the heart; as the more weight is laid upon the seal, the more fair and lasting impression is made upon the wax. He that sees the grounds and reasons of his peace and comfort most clearly is like to maintain it the more constantly.

*Great therefore is the advantage Christians have by such methodical systems. Surely they may be set down among the most desired things of Christians.*

Divers worthy modern pens have indeed undertaken this noble subject before me, some more succinctly, others more copiously: these have done worthily, and their praises are in the churches of Christ; yet such breadth there is in the knowledge of Christ, that not only those who have written on this subject before me, but a thousand authors more may employ their pens after us, and not interfere with, or straiten another.

And such is the deliciousness of this subject, that, were there ten thousand volumes written upon it, they would never cloy, or become nauseous to a gracious heart. We use to say, one thing tires, and it is true that it does so, except that one thing be virtually and eminently all things, as Christ is; and then one thing can never tire; for such is the variety of sweetness in Christ, who is the delight of the children of men, that every time he is opened to believers from pulpit or press, it is as if heaven had furnished them with a new Christ; and yet he is the same Christ still.

The treatise itself will satisfy you, that I have not boasted in another man’s line, of things made ready to my hand; which I speak not in the least to win any praise to myself from the undertaking, but to remove prejudice from it; for I see more defects in it than most of my readers will see, and can forethink more faults to be found in it, than I now shall stand to tell you of, or answer for. It was written in a time of great distractions; and did you but know how oft this work has died and revived under my hand, you would wonder that ever it came to yours.

I am sensible it may fall under some censorious (it may be, envious) eyes, and that far different judgments will pass upon it. And no wonder if a treatise of Christ be, when Christ himself was to some, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.” I expect not to please every reader, especially the envious. It is as hard for some to look upon other men’s gifts without envy, as it is to look upon their own without pride; nor will I be any further concerned with such readers, than to pity them; well knowing that every proud, contemptuous, and envious censure is a grenade that breaks in the hand of him that casts it.

But to the ingenuous and candid reader, I owe satisfaction for the obscurity of some part of this discourse, occasioned by the conciseness of the style; to which I have this only to say, that I was willing to crowd as much matter as I could into this number of sheets in your hand, that I might therein ease you both in your pains and your purse. I confess the sermons were preached in a more relaxed style, and most of these things were enlarged in the pulpit, which are designedly contracted in the press, that the volume might not swell above the ability of common readers.

And it was my purpose at first to have comprised the second part, viz., The application of the redemption that is with Christ unto sinners, in one volume, which occasioned the contraction of this; but that making a just volume itself, must await another season to see the light. If the reader will be but a little the more intent and considerate in reading, this conciseness will turn to his advantage.

This may suffice to show the usefulness of such composure, and prevent offence; but something yet remains with me, to say to the readers in general, to those of this town in special, and to the flock committed by Christ to my charge more especially.

1. To readers in general, according to their different states and conditions may be, there are six things earnestly to be requested of them.

(1.) If you be yet strangers to Christ, let these things begin and beget your first acquaintance with him. I assure you, reader, it was a principal part of the design thereof; and here you will find many directions, helps, and sweet encouragements, to assist a poor stranger as you are, in that great work. Say not, I am an enemy to Christ, and there is no hope of reconciliation; for here you will see, how “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” Say not, All this is nothing except God had told you so, and appointed some to treat with you about it; for “he has committed unto us the word of this reconciliation.” Say not, Yes, that may be from your own pity and compassion for us, and not from any commission you have for it; for “we are ambassadors for Christ,” 2 Cor. 5:20.

Say not, O but my sins are greater than can be forgiven: the difficulties of my salvation are too great to be overcome, especially by a poor creature as I am, that am able to do nothing, no, not to raise one penny towards the discharge of that great debt I owe to God. For here you will find, upon your union with Christ, that there is merit enough in his blood, and mercy enough in his affections, to justify and save such a one as you are. Yes, and I will add for your encouragement, that it is a righteous thing with God to justify and save you, that cannot pay him one penny of all the vast sums you owe him; when, by the same rule of justice, he condemns the most strict, self-righteous Pharisee, that thinks thereby to quit scores with him. It is righteous for a judge to cast him that has paid ninety-nine pounds of the hundred which he owed, because the payment was not full; and to acquit him, whose surety has paid all, though himself did not, and freely confess that he cannot pay one farthing of the whole debt.

(2.) If you be a self-deceiving soul, that easily take up your satisfaction about your interest in Christ, look to it, as you value your soul, reader, that a fond and groundless conceit of your interest in Christ do not effectually and finally obstruct a true and saving interest in him. This is the common and fatal error in which multitudes of souls are ensnared and ruined: for look as a conceit of great wisdom hinders many from the attaining of it, so a groundless conceit that Christ is already yours may prove the greatest obstacle between Christ and you; but here you will meet with many rules that will not deceive you, trials that will open your true condition to you.

You sometimes reflect upon the state of your soul, and enquire, Is Christ mine? May I depend upon it, that my condition is safe? Your heart returns you an answer of peace, it speaks as you would have it. But remember, friend, and mark this line, Your final sentence is not yet come from the mouth of your Judge; and what if, after all your self-flattering hopes and groundless confidence, a sentence should come from him quite cross to that of your own heart? Where are you then? What a confounded person will you be? Christless, speechless, and hopeless, all at once!

O therefore build sure for eternity; take heed lest the loss of your eternal happiness be at last imputed by you to the deceitfulness and laziness of your own heart: lest your heart say to you in hell, as the heart of Apollodorus seemed in his sufferings to say to him, I am the cause of all this misery to you.

(3.) If you be one whose heart is eagerly set upon this vain world, I beseech you take heed, lest it interpose itself between Christ and your soul, and so cut you off from him forever. O beware, lest the dust of the earth, getting into your eyes, so blind you, that you never see the beauty or necessity of Christ. The God of this world so blinds the eyes of them that believe not. And what are sparkling pleasures that dazzle the eyes of some, and the distracting cares that wholly divert the minds of others, but as a napkin drawn by Satan over the eyes of them that are to be turned off into hell? 1 Cor. 4:3, 4.

Some general aims, and faint wishes after Christ you may have; but alas! the world has centered your heart, entangled your affections, and will daily find new diversions for them from the great business of life; so that, if the Lord break not this snare, you will never be able to deliver your soul.

(4.) If you be a loose and careless professor of Christ, I beseech you, let the things you shall read in this treatise of Christ convince, shame, and reclaim you from your vain conversation. Here you will find how contrary your conversation is to the grand designs of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Oh, methinks as you are reading the deep humiliation, and unspeakable sorrows Christ underwent for the expiating of sin, you should thenceforth look upon sin as a tender child would look upon that knife that stabbed his father to the heart! You should never whet and sharpen it again to wound the Son of God afresh.

(5.) If you have been a profane and vain person, but now are pardoned, and do experience the superabounding riches of grace, my request to you is, that you love Jesus Christ with a more fervent love than ever yet you had for him. Here you will find many great incentives, many mighty arguments to such a love of Christ.

Poor soul, consider what you have been, what the morning of your life was, what treasures of guilt you laid up in those days; and then think, Can such a one as I receive mercy, and that mercy not break my heart?

(6.) Lastly, Are you one that have through mercy at last attained assurance, or good hope, through grace, of your interest in Christ?

Rejoice then in your present mercy, and long ardently to be with your own Christ in his glory. There be many things dispersed through this treatise, of Christ, to animate such joy, and excite such longings.

It was truly observed by a worthy author (whose words I have mentioned more freely than his name in this discourse): That it is in a manner as natural for us to leap when we see the new Jerusalem, as it is to laugh when we are tickled: Joy is not under the soul’s command when Christ kisses it.

And for your desires to be with Christ, what consideration can you find in this world strong enough to rein them in? O when you shall consider what he has done, suffered, and purchased for you, where he is now, and how much he longs for your coming, your very hearts should groan out those words, Phil. 1:23, “I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.”

The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for of Christ.

2. Having delivered my message to the reader in general, I have somewhat more particularly to say to you of this place.

You are a people that were born under, and bred up with, the gospel. It has been your singular privilege, above many towns and parishes in England, to enjoy more than sixty years together an able and fruitful ministry among you.

The dew of heaven lay upon you, as it did upon Gideon’s fleece, when the ground was dry in other places about you; you have been richly watered with gospel-showers; you, with Capernaum, have been exalted to heaven in the means of grace.

And it must be owned to your praise, that you testified more respect to the gospel than many other places have done, and treated Christ’s ambassadors with more civility, while they prophesied in sackcloth, than some other places did.

These things are praise-worthy in you. But all this, and much more than this, amounts not to that which Jesus Christ expects from you, and which in his name I would now persuade you to.

And O that I (the least and unworthiest of all the messengers of Christ to you) might indeed prevail with all that are Christless among you:

(1.) To answer the long-continued calls of God to you, by a thorough and sound conversion, that the longsuffering of God may be your salvation, and you may not receive all this grace of God in vain.

O that the damned might never be set a wondering, to see a people of your advantages for heaven, sinking as much below many of themselves in misery, as you now are above them in means and mercy.

Dear friends, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved. O that I knew how to engage this whole town to Jesus Christ, and make fast the marriage-knot between him and you, albeit after that I should presently go to the place of silence; and see men no more, with the inhabitants of the world.

Ah sirs! Methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hand of a holy violence upon you: methinks he calls to you, as the angel to Lot, saying, “Arise, lest you be consumed.”

And “while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, the Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him without the city, and said, Escape for your life, stay not in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed,” Gen. 19:15.

How often (to allude to this) has Jesus Christ in like manner laid hold upon you in the preaching of the gospel, and will you not flee for refuge to him? Will you rather be consumed, than to endeavor an escape?

A beast will not be driven into the fire, and will you not be kept out? The merciful Lord Jesus, by his admirable patience and bounty, has convinced you how loath he is to leave or lose you.

To this day his arms are stretched forth to gather you, and will you not be gathered? Alas for my poor neighbors! Must so many of them perish at last? What shall I do for the daughter of my people?

Lord, by what arguments shall they be persuaded to be happy? What will win them effectually to your Christ? They have many of them escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior.

They are a people that love your ordinances, they take delight in approaching to God; you have beautified many of them with lovely and obliging tempers and dispositions. Thus far they are come, there they stick; and beyond this no power but yours can move them.

O you, to whose hand this work is and must be left, put forth your saving power and reveal your arm for their salvation; You have glorified your name in many of them; Lord, glorify it again.

(2.) My next request is, that you will all be persuaded, whether converted or unconverted, to set up all the duties of religion in your families, and govern your children and servants as men that must give an account to God for them in the great day. O that there were not a prayerless family in this town! How little will their tables differ from the manger, where beasts feed together, if God be not owned and acknowledged there, in your eating and drinking?

And how can you expect blessings should dwell in your tabernacles, if God be not called on there? Say not, you want time for it, or that your necessities will not allow it; for, had you been more careful of these duties, it is likely you had not been exposed to such necessities: besides, you can find time to be idle, you can waste a part of every day vainly; why could not that time be redeemed for God?

Moreover, you will not deny but the success of all your affairs at home and abroad depends upon the blessing of God; and if so, think you it is not the right way, even to temporal prosperity, to engage his presence and blessing with you, in whose hands your all is? Say not, your children and servants are ignorant of God, and therefore you cannot comfortably join with them in those duties, for the neglect of those duties is the cause of their ignorance; and it is not likely they will be better, until you use God’s means to make them so.

Besides, prayer is a part of natural worship, and the vilest among men are bound to pray, else the neglect of it were none of their sin. O let not a duty, upon which so many and great blessings hang, fall to the ground, upon such silly (not to say wicked) pretenses to shift it off.

Remember, death will shortly break up all your families, and disband them; and who then, think you, will have most comfort in beholding their dead? The day of account also hastens, and then who will have the most comfortable appearing before the just and holy God? Set up, I beseech you, the ancient and comfortable duties of reading the scriptures, singing of psalms, and prayer, in all your dwelling-places.

And do all these conscientiously, as men that have to do with God; and try the Lord herewith, if he will not return in a way of mercy to you, and restore even your outward prosperity to you again. However, to be sure, far greater encouragements than that lie before you, to oblige you to your duties.

(3.) More especially, I have a few things to say to you that have attended on the ministry, or are under my oversight in a more particular manner, and then I have done.

1st, I cannot but observe to you the goodness of our God, yes, the riches of his goodness:

Who freely gave Jesus Christ out of his own bosom for us, and has not withheld his Spirit, ordinances, and ministers, to reveal and apply him to us. Here is love that wants an epithet to match it:

Who engaged my heart upon this transcendent subject in the course of my ministry among you: a subject which angels study and admire, as well as we:

Who so signally protected and overshadowed our assemblies in those days of trouble, wherein these truths were delivered to you. You then sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to your taste: his banner over you was love; your bread was then sure, and your waters failed not. Yes, such was his peculiar indulgence, and special tenderness to you, that he suffered no man to do you harm; and it can hardly be imagined any could attempt it that had but known this, and no worse than this, to be your only design and business:

Who made these meditations of Christ a strong support, and sweet relief to mine, now with Christ, and no less to me, under the greatest exercises and trials that ever befell me in this world; preserving me yet (though a broken vessel) for some farther use and service to your souls:

Who in the years that are past left not himself without witness among us, blessing my labors, to the conversion and edification of many; some of whom yet remain with us, but some are fallen asleep:

Who has made many of you that yet remain, a willing and obedient people, who have in some measure supported the reputation of religion by your stability and integrity in days of abounding iniquity: my joy and my crown; so stand you fast in the Lord!

Who after all the days of fears and troubles, through which we have passed, has at last given us and his churches rest; “that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness (which doing, this mercy may be extended to us) all the days of our life.”

In testimony of a thankful heart for these invaluable mercies, I humbly and cheerfully rear up this pillar of remembrance, inscribing it with EBENEZER, and JEHOVAH-JIREH!

2dly, As I could not but observe these things to you, so I have a few things to request of you, in neither of which I can bear denial, so deeply Christ’s, your own, and my interest lie in them.

(1.) Look to it, my dear friends, that none of you be found Christless at your appearance before him. Those that continue Christless now will be left speechless then. God forbid that you who have heard so much of Christ, and you who have professed so much of Christ, should at last fall into a worse condition than those that never heard the name of Christ.

(2.) See that you daily grow more Christ-like by conversing with him, as you do, in his precious ordinances. Let it be with your souls, as it is with a piece of cloth, which receives a deeper dye every time it is dipped into a vat. If not, you may not expect the continuance of your mercies much longer to you.

(3.) Get these great truths well digested both in your heads and hearts, and let the power of them be displayed in your lives, else the pen of the scribe, and the tongue of the preacher, are both in vain. These things, that so often warmed your hearts from the pulpit, return now to make a second impression upon them from the press. Hereby you will recover and fix those truths, which, it is likely, are in great part already vanished from you.

This is the fruit I promise myself from you: and whatever entertainment it meets with from others in this Christ-despising age, yet two things relieve me:

One is, that future times may produce more humble and hungry Christians than this glutted age enjoys, to whom it will be welcome.

The other is, that duty is discharged, and endeavors are used to bring men to Christ, and build them up in him: wherein he does and will rejoice, who is a well-wisher to the souls of men.

Lesson.

I. The relationship of the Reformation to Christian creeds.
•The public and political demand for a defense of Protestant doctrine.
•The two-sided sword of the enemy. Evil policy, evil doctrine.
• The occasion of the Reformation. (Papist corruption, doctrine and practice)
•Justification,
•Good works,
•Free will,
•Papal supremacy,
•The Mass, (transubstantiation and a re-sacrificing of Christ)
•The office of the priesthood.
(Christ is the only Mediator between God and man. The Catholic priest would be a mediator between man and Christ)

II. The History of the Westminster Confession.
i. As a Theological document.
a. To establish Reformed soteriology.
b. To establish covenant theology.
ii. As a Political document.
a. To establish Puritan influence in England.
b. To suppress heresy.
iii. As an Ecclesiastical document.
a. To provide the ministers of the church with a sufficient guide.
b. To establish Presbyterianism as the most viable form of church government.

III. The Westminster Confession of Faith as a Polemic against modern heresy.
i. Against secular atheism.
ii. Against the Papists.
iii. Against the Arminians.
iv. Against the dispensationalists.
v. Against the neo Calvinists.

Conclusion.

Closing Prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/eVQnp52o7Jg