“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.“
Matt 22:37-40
“I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.”
Gen. 17:1
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Subsections
Prayer Before Meals
Thankfulness
Spiritual Conferencing
Vain Disputings
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Order of Contents
Articles
Intellectual & Theological Errors
Weak Points of the Righteous
Distinguishing Charity from Naivete
Unreasonable Patience & Righteous Anger
Rutherford’s Assertions
Latin
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Articles
1600’s
Durham, Margaret – ‘On Communion with Christ’ 1669 11 paragraphs being an extract from her Epistle Dedicatory to her husband, James Durham’s, Commentary on the Song of Solomon.
Lady Durham’s letter is impressive, being much more spiritually full and edifying, savoring of a rich, experiential acquaintance with the deep truths of Christ’s Word, than even the preface to the reader by the justly renowned scholar, John Owen. In it you will find, sweetly and graphically described, Christ’s communion with His beloved people.
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1800’s
Alexander, Archibald
‘Love to an Unseen Savior’, 1863 12 pp.
‘The Nature of Vital Piety’ 1843 19 pp. being the introductory essay to Advice to a Young Christian, by J.B. Waterbury
An important work in its own right. It begins, “True religion not only enlightens the understanding, but rectifies the affections of the heart. All genuine feelings of piety are the effects of divine truth…”
Binnie, William – ‘Personal Religion in the Psalms’, p. 218 ff. 39 pp. being two chapters from his The Psalms: their History, Teachings and Use
Hodge, Charles
‘Let him who Boasts, Boast in the Lord’, from his Commentary on 1 Corinthians, 1:26-31
‘The Nature and Necessity of a Public Profession of Religion’ HTML Buy from his The Way of Life, 1841
All too often Christianity is thought to be a personal opinion that one can keep to themselves and requires nothing. Here is a Biblical corrective. Christ said, “whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Mt. 10:33
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2000’s
Beeke, Joel – Calvin on Piety, no date, 33 pages, including a two page bibliography
Fentiman, Travis – The Most Predominate Sin of Reformed Christians 2014 6 paragraphs
Gebbie, D. Douglas – ‘The Experiemental Religion of the Westminster Standards’ 2015 22 paragraphs
Rev. Gebbie has been a pastor in the Free Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Reformed Church.
Isbell, Sherman – Recovering Experimental Religion 2009 13 pp.
Young, William – What is Experimental Religion? 2015 6 paragraphs
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On Intellectual & Theological Errors
Quotes
George Gillespie
Treatise of Miscellany Questions, ch. 12, ‘Whether a Sound Heart and an Unsound Head can Consist Together? and Vice Versa; or, Whether Truth and Holiness be not Insepararable Companions?’ in Works, vol. 2
“It is one of the greatest objections against the suppressing… of… errors and schisms, ‘O,’ say they, ‘this is a persecuting of those that are godly; this is a wound to piety, and the power of godliness.’
I do not deny but there may be, and is, true piety in many who are somewhat infected with the leaven of false doctrine, and live in some erroneous opinion…
Those that are truly godly may in diverse things differ in opinion. Every error is not inconsistent with holiness, yet every error doth pro tanto [by so much], and proportionably retard, hinder, and prejudge holiness; and although the devil sow his tares among Christ’s wheat (I mean in the same persons as well as in the same church), yet who will say that a field of wheat is nothing the worse for the tares?…
And this I hold as a good rule in practical divinity… so error of judgment, if continued in, doth not only hinder growing, but makes a dangerous decreasing and falling short in true piety…
It is to be observed that sometimes the Scripture speaks of an error of the judgment concerning the faith as a fountain and cause of ungodliness, profaneness… 2 Tim. 2:16-19; Gal. 5:4; 2 Jn. 9; as contrariwise, there is a light and knowledge which preserves from sin and ungodliness, and leads the soul in ways of holiness and obedience, Ps. 9:10; 119:33-34; Jn. 17:17. If the knowledge of God, of his Christ, and of his Word, and will, and name and statutes, preserve us from sin, and lead us in the ways of obedience, then, by the rule of contraries, error of judgment in these things will ensnare us in sin and wickedness.”
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Francis Turretin
Institutes (P&R), vol. 3, 19th Topic, Q. 30, ‘The Adoration of the Eucharist’, section 21, p. 547
“Therefore, although the Romanists in their hypothesis [about Transubstantiation] do not intend to worship the bread, but Christ (whom they believe to be there in place of the bread), they are not on that account the less to be considered as really adoring the bread.
This false hypothesis and erroneous intention arises from an induced and voluntary ignorance, which so far from being worthy of excuse only increases the guilt. It is not occupied with a thing not revealed and which they are not bound to know, but about a thing which it is their duty to know and which is with sufficient clearness revealed to us in the word. Thus it can readily be perceived unless we are readily blind.
Nor can the crime be lessened from its seeming to be only a theoretical error of the intellect. A theoretical error necessarily draws after it a practical sin; otherwise every idolatry (even the most gross) would deserve an excuse because it arises always from a theoretical error of the intellect. For no one would worship an idol, who did not believe it to be God, unless he imagined him to be present.”
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Articles
Shedd, William G.T.
‘Sin in the Heart the Source of Error in the Head’ in Sermons to the Natural Man, pp. 101-122
‘Pride Vitiates Religious Knowledge’ in Sermons to the Spiritual Man, pp. 272-85 on 1 Cor. 8:2, “If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”
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On the Weak Points of the Righteous
Edmund Burke
Thoughts on the Prospect of a Regicide Peace: in a Series of Letters (London, 1796), Letter 1, p. 19
“…the desire of peace is essentially the weak side of that kind of men. All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities. There they are unguarded. Above all, good men do not suspect that their destruction is attempted through their virtues.
This their enemies are perfectly aware of: and accordingly, they, the most turbulent of mankind, who never made a scruple to shake the tranquility of their country to its center, raise a continual cry for peace…”
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On Distinguishing Charity from Naivete
“[Charity]… is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;”
1 Cor. 13:5-6
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Rev. Michael Spangler
“Charity vs. Naivete. Some important distinctions:
1. Charity inteprets evidence of good as proof of good, and lack of evidence as reason to withhold judgment. Naivete interprets evidence of evil, or lack of evidence, as proof of good.
2. Charity remembers all men lie, and so quietly verifies all things it hears. Naivete trusts certain men implicitly.
3. Charity remembers all men sin, and covers sin in love by forgiveness and meek dealing. Naivete assumes some men don’t sin, or don’t sin much, then struggles to forgive when that assumption is disproved.
4. Charity knows forgiveness does not itself bring restored trust. Naivete quickly puts its foot back in the snare.
5. Charity overlooks evil insofar as it would cause anxiety or unjust anger. Naivete overlooks evil insofar as it calls for exposure or rebuke.
6. Charity bears long with inconsistent godly men while still standing firm against their sins and errors. Naivete thinks orthodoxy in the basics excuses falsehood in other doctrines, or sins in life.
7. Charity waits to judge motives until they are revealed. Naivete assumes good motives when there is no evidence, or the evidence shows otherwise.
8. Charity knows great evils are often done with good intent. Naivete thinks well-meaning men will never cause much harm.
9. Charity knows baptism, church membership, profession, and even ordination vows exempt no one from error, evil, and apostasy. Naivete thinks outward signs suffice for proving character and orthodoxy, or at the least, assuming them.
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“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
Matthew 10:16″
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On Unreasonable Patience & Righteous Anger
John Chrysostom
“He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but the good to do wrong.”
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Rutherford’s Assertions
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself (London: 1647), pp. 164-66
“Question: What is a right and straight intention in serving God?
Assertion 1. When the deliberation of a bended will concurs with the intention, it’s right; as when there is a heart-conclusion for God, Ps. 39:1, ‘I said I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue.’ Ps. 31:14, ‘But I trusted in the Lord: I said, Thou art my God.’ Ps. 102:24, ‘I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.’ This was an intended prayer, Ps. 119:57, ‘I have said that I would keep thy words.’
Assertion 2. The saints are not so perfect in their intentions as God is their only end: 1. Because a piece of ourself is mixed with our end; there is some crook in our straightest line; an angle in our perfectest circle: when we run most swiftly, because of the indwelling of corruption we halt a little. 2. Self-denial is not perfect in this life.
Assertion 3. It’s good when God is so preconceived in the intention, as the principal actions and motions both have being and denomination from their predominant element. Honey is honey, though not pure from wax. A believer is not a simple element, nor all grace and all sincerity. Now in bodies carried with a predominant element, the predominant is affirmed, the subordinate denied. 1 Cor. 15:10, ‘Yet not I, but the grace of God with me.’ 2 Cor. 4:5, ‘For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Christ’s sake.’ Where Christ is the predominant element, He is of weight to sway the whole soul in its motion. And it’s right-down sincerity (whatever Crispe [an Antinomian], with Papists say on the contrary) though it require some grains of allowance to make it pass.
Assertion 4. Where self is the predominant, the intention is bastard and adulterate. Jehu says, ‘Come see my zeal for the Lord;’ but he only says it. He could have said, ‘Come see my zeal for myself.’ In the Jews’ zeal, Rom. 10:1, there’s a pound of self-righteousness for one-half grain of Christ and of free-grace; therefore it’s not the right zeal of God.
Assertion 5. There be two characters of an intended end, which are also here:
1. All that the agent does, he refers to his end; for his end is his God. The wretch does all in reference to gold: that is his end; and Joab did all for court and honor; for the chief end is the man’s master and uses a lordship over him. Christ is so mighty through God that He darkens the scribes’ and pharisees’ light, because their end lies in the fat womb of the world and it is gain and glory; all they do is to make Christ out of the way. So when the believer sails all winds, rolls every stone, presses all means for Christ as his end and his weight, then stirs he to the right port. Christ’s love has a dominion over lord-will: One adamant will cut another; the sinner is a rock, Christ’s love an adamant. Christ’s love setting on the will’s intention burns the soul to the bone. Mary Magdalen cannot sleep (and its a ticklesome game where the heart is at the stake) and Christ she must have; apostles, angels, Christ Himself shall hear of it ere she want [lack] Him. And the rougher and harder the means be, when undertaken for Christ, Christ must be a stronger and more love-working end. When torment and burning quick [alive] are chosen for Christ, it’s like He is the end; for love overcomes a rough and dangerous journey: A sweet and desirable home is above a dirty and thorny way. Christ’s love is stronger than Hell. Our affections often take fire from difficulties, as absence of the Beloved kindles a new fire; stolen bread, because stolen, is sweeter, and not our nature only; but longing after Christ, nititur in vetitum, ‘inclines to that which is forbidden.’ What if Christ be longed for and loved more when absent than present?
2. The other character is that when the end is obtained, all operation for or about the means ceases, and the soul has a complacency in the fruition of the end. When the wretch’s chests are full, he has a heart-quietness in gold; Lk. 12, ‘Soul, take thine ease;’ but if the soul have an aching and a disquieting motion after gold is obtained, it is not because gold was not his end, but because he has not obtained it in such a large measure as he would, or because it’s but a sick and lame end and cannot satiate, but rather sharpen soul-thirst after such corruptible things. When Christ is obtained, the soul has sweet peace; He that drinks of the water of life thirsts no more, appetitu desiderii, ‘as longing with anxiety’ for this, as we do for earthly things which we want [lack]; though he have appetitum complacentiae, ‘a desire of complacency’ and a sweet self-quietness that his heritage pleases him well and his lines are fallen in pleasant parts, and rests on his portion and would not change it with ten thousand worlds. Men by this, who are fishing and hunting after some other thing than Christ, may know what is their end: when Christ and reformation come to their doors, they will have neither but cast out their lines for another prey: Men now fish and angle for gain in lieu of godliness.”
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert
Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655 / 1667)
vol. 2, 33. ‘Of the Practice of Faith’, pp. 496-511
vol. 4, 50. ‘A Syllabus of Questions on the Decalogue’, ‘On the 1st Commandment’
‘Of adherence to God’, p. 775
‘On self-abnegation, resignation, mortification & hatred of oneself’, p. 777
Ecclesiastical Politics (Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1663), vol. 4, pt. 3, bk. 3, Of the Government of the Church with Respect to a State of Turbulence, Tract 1, Of the Dispersion and Regathering of the Church
7. Of Reformation about Piety in Practice and of Good Works 456
Leydekker, Melchior – ‘An Inaugural Oration on Eagerly Pursuing the Truth in Love’ appended at the end of The Power of Truth, or Disquisitions on Some Controversies which are now Greatly Moved in Belgium, on the Economy of the Covenants of God… (Utrecht, 1679)
Leydekker, a Dutch reformed theologian, wrote numerous volumes elucidating the theological controversies in the Netherlands, yet while arguing against the Cocceians at each point.
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