TRUEGODLINESS
DESCRIBED
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
(In the late 1600s Benjamin Keach wrote an allegory
entitled The Tr a v e l s
of True Godliness, which was similar in style to
Bunyan’s P i l g r i m ’s Progress.
In this article Keach portrays the Christian faith as
a male character named
True Godliness.)
TRUE GODLINESS being a great stranger to most men and indeed known
but by few, I shall in the first place, before
treating of his travels and of
the entertainment1
he meets with, give you a description of
him. Many
persons are subject to so great an error as to take Morality
for him; some
have mistaken Counterfeit Godliness for him;
and others, either through
ignorance or malice, rail and ignominiously2 call him Singularity,3 Stub -
bornness, Pride,
or Rebellion. These last declare him not fit to live, being a
seditious4 disturber of peace and order, wherever he comes. Yea,
such a factious5
and quarrelsome companion, that he is indeed the cause
of all those
unhappy differences, divisions, troubles, and miseries
with which the world
abounds. I conclude, therefore, that nothing is more
necessary than to take
off that mask which his implacable6 enemies have
put upon him and clear
him of all the slanders and reproaches of the sons of
Belial.7 When he is thus
made to appear in his own original and spotless
innocency, it will be seen that
none need be afraid of him, or be unwilling to
entertain him, or ashamed to
own him and make him their bosom companion.
K n o w, therefore, in the first place that Godliness
consists in the right
knowledge of divine truths or fundamental principles
of the Gospel,
which all men ought to know and be established in,
that would be saved.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory” (1Ti 3:16). Yo u
see from this text that the great truths of the
Christian religion are called
G o d l i n e s s .
1
entertainment –
treatment.
2
ignominiously –
shamefully; disgracefully.
3
S i n g u l a r i t y –
differing from others in matters of behavior or religion for the purpose of
drawing
attention to one’s self. Keach’s point is that the faithful Christian will be
accused
of acting peculiarly just to be noticed.
4
seditious –
guilty of engaging in or provoking rebellion against the authority of the
state.
5
factious –
characterized by causing dissension and division.
6
implacable –
cannot be satisfied or pacified; irreconcilable.
7
Sons of Belial –
Belial means “wicked, worthless, lawless,” and came to be used in
Hebrew
literature as a name for Satan. A Son of Belial then is a wicked and worthless
person.
e t e rnal happiness of all true believers and of
eternal torment and misery of all
unbelievers and ungodly persons, who live and die in
their sins.
Now, I say, in the true knowledge and belief of these
principles (which
comprehend the fundamentals of true religion or the
Christian faith) does
True Godliness consist
as to his essential part.
S e c o n d l y, G o d l i n e s s as to his
inward parts is a holy conformity to these
sacred and divine principles, which natural men
understand not. True God -
liness consists
in the light of supernatural truths and life of grace, God manifesting
Himself in the light of those glorious principles and
working the life
of supernatural grace in the soul by the Holy Ghost.
It consists in the saving
and experimental15
knowledge of God and Jesus Christ [and]
in having the
evil qualities of the soul removed and heavenly habits
infused1 6 in their room
or in a gracious conformity and affection1 7 of the heart
to God, cleaving to all
truths made known to us and finding the powerful
influences of the Gospel
and Spirit of Christ upon us, whereby our souls are
brought into the image
and likeness of His death and resurrection. This is True
Godliness. [It is] not
a bare living up to the natural principles of
morality; nor an historical,
notional, or dogmatical knowledge1 8 of the sacred
Gospel and its precepts; but
a faithful conformity to the principles of the Gospel,
discharging our duties
with as much readiness19 and faithfulness towards God as
towards man, so
that our conscience may be kept void of offence
towards both (Act 24:16).
It consists in forsaking sin and loathing it as the
greatest evil and in cleaving
to God in sincerity of heart, valuing Him above all;
being willingly subject
from a principle of divine love to all His laws and
appointments. Godliness
makes a man say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in
heaven but thee?” (Psa
73:25). St. Austin2
0 saith, “He loves not Christ at all,
that loves him not above
all.” He that entertains2 1 True Godliness is as zealous for the w o r k of religion
as for the wages of religion. Some there are
who serve God that they may
serve themselves upon God. But a true Christian
desires grace, not only that
God would glorify him in heaven, but that he may
glorify God on earth. He
True Godliness Described 3
N o w, should any demand to hear more particularly
what are those principles
of divine truth or fundamentals of the Christian
faith, which are the
essentials of True Godliness, I answer,
1. That there is one eternal, infinite, most holy,
most wise, just, good and
gracious God, or glorious Deity, subsisting8 in three
distinct Persons—the
F a t h e r, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—and these are
one, that is, one in essence.
2. That this God, out of His great love and goodness,
hath given us one
sure and infallible rule of faith and practice, viz.,9 the Holy
Scriptures, by
which we may know, not only that there is a God and
Creator, but the manner
of the creation of the world, together with the design
or reason wherefore He
made all things; and also how sin came into the world,
and what righteousness
it is which God requires to our justification (or
discharge from the guilt
of sin), viz., by a Redeemer—His own Son, whom He sent
into the world.
There is no other rule or way to know these things so
as for men to be saved
but by revelation or the sacred records of the Holy
Scriptures, the mystery of
salvation being far above human reason and [cannot] be
known by the natural
light in men.
3. That our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is
the Surety10 of the
New Covenant and only Mediator1 1 between God
and man, is truly God of the
essence of the Father and truly man of the substance
of the virgin Mary, consisting
of these two natures in one Person, and that
redemption, peace, and
reconciliation are by this Lord Jesus Christ alone.
4. That justification and pardon of sin are alone by
that full satisfaction
which Christ made to God’s justice and are apprehended
by faith alone
through the Holy Spirit.
5. That all men who are or can be saved must be
renewed, regenerated,12
and sanctified13 by the Holy Spirit.
6. That there will be a resurrection of the bodies of
all men at the Last Day.
7. That there will be an eternal judgment, that is,
all shall be brought to
the tribunal14 of Jesus Christ in the great Day and give an account
for all
things done in the body, and that there will be a
future state of glory and
2 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue 192
• Summer 2005
8
subsisting –
existing.
9
viz.
– from Latin videcilet: that
is to say; namely.
1
0 S u re t y –
one who enters into a bond to undertake the responsibilities or debt of
another.
11
M e d i a t o r –
a go-between; one who intervenes between two hostile parties for the purpose
of
restoring them to a relationship of harmony and unity.
1
2 re g e n e r a t e d –
born again; brought from spiritual death to spiritual life and union with
Jesus
Christ by the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
1
3 s a n c t i f i e d –
made holy by the divine grace of the Holy Spirit; set apart for God’s use.
14
tribunal –
judgment seat.
15
experimental –
having a personal experience of anything; experiential.
16
infused –
to put into, as if by pouring; imparted by divine influence.
17
affection –
the state of mind toward something; inclination.
18
historical, notional, or
dogmatical knowledge – historical
= being acquainted with
the
truth, but not believing it by the regenerating power of God’s Spirit; notional =
imaginary;
existing in ideal only; and dogmatical
= acknowledging something on
the
basis of theological tradition without personally trusting it by the
regenerating
power
of the Holy Spirit.
19
readiness –
willingness.
20
St. Austin or
considered
by many the father of orthodox theology. Born in Tagaste,
21
entertains –
to hold in the mind with favor; to experience.
g a r b s ,3 0 superstitious vestments,3 1 images, crossings, salt, oil,
holy water, and
other ceremonies, which are by many thought necessary
to his existence.
Therefore, take heed you do not mistake the
counterfeit form of Godliness for
the true one. It is only necessary to note one thing
more, viz., you must be
sure to receive the p o w e r of Godliness with
his form; for his form without his
inward life and power will do you no good: it is but
as the body without the
soul, or the shell without the kernel, or the cabinet
without the jewel. Neither
[should] any slight his form, for you may remember
what the Apostle speaks
of “the form of doctrine” (Rom 6:17) and of “the form
of sound words” (2Ti
1:13); for as the true faith must be held fast, so
must the profession of it also.
You may, it is true, meet with a shell without the
kernel; but it is rare to meet
the kernel without the shell!
From The
Travels of True Godliness.
True Godliness Described 5
cries, “Lord, rather let me have a good heart than a
great estate.” Though he
loves many things beside God, yet he loves nothing
above God. This man fears
sin more than suffering, and therefore he will suffer
rather than sin.
Thirdly, that you may have a complete and perfect
knowledge of him, it
may not be amiss if I describe his form (2Ti 1:13;
3:5) together with the
h a b i l i m e n t s2 2 he continually wears. The
external parts of True Godliness a r e
very beautiful. And no wonder that they are so, seeing
he was fashioned by the
wisdom of the only wise God our Savior, the works of
Whose hands are all
glorious. But this, viz., the formation of Godliness,
being one of the highest
and most admirable contrivances23 of His eternal
wisdom, must of necessity
excel in glory and amiableness.2 4 His form and
external beauty, therefore, are
such that he needs no human artific e2 5 to adorn him
or to illustrate or set off
his comeliness2 6
of countenance; for there is nothing
defective as to his evangelical
and apostolical form, as he came out of his great
Creator’s hands. And
as there is nothing from head to foot that is
superfluous,27 so every line and
lineament,28 vein, nerve, and sinew are in such an exact and
admirable order
placed, that to his beauty there can be no addition.
Everyone, therefore, that
adds to or alters anything touching the form of True
Godliness, mars and
d e files instead of beautifying. Besides, God hath
strictly forbidden anything of
this nature to be done. “Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar” (Pro 30:6), by ascribing2 9 that to God
which is none
of His. Do not the Papists call those superstitious
and vain ceremonies used in
their church by the name of God’s worship? And what is
this less than putting
a lie upon Him? Besides, it reflects upon the wisdom
of God, to attempt to
change or alter anything in the form of Godliness, as
if God did not know best
how He Himself would be worshipped, but must be
indebted to man for his
help, wisdom, and contrivances, touching many things
that are called decent
and necessary. And does it not reflect upon the care
and faithfulness of God,
to suppose that He should not Himself take care to lay
down in His blessed
Word things which are all necessary to the form of
Godliness, without weak
man’s care and wisdom to supply what He should omit?
All, therefore, may perceive that True Godliness never
changes his countenance.
He is not altered in the least from the aspect he bore
in primitive
times. Nay, there is indeed nothing more foreign to
him than those pompous
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22
habiliments –
the apparel or garments appropriate for any occasion.
23
contrivances –
ingeniously, skilfully planning or accomplishing something.
24
amiableness –
loveliness.
25
artifice –
trickery.
26
comeliness –
beauty.
27
superfluous –
beyond what is required; excessively abundant.
28
lineament –
contour of the body; distinctive feature.
29
ascribing –
to attribute credit to; to reckon or account.
30
pompous garbs –
characterized by an exaggerated display of self-importance; pretentious.
3
1 v e s t m e n t s –
any of the ritual robes worn by members of the clergy or assistants at services
or
rites.
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704):
important Particular Baptist preacher, author, and ardent
defender
of Baptist principles, even against Richard Baxter. Often in prison and
frequently
in
danger for preaching the Gospel, he was the first to introduce singing hymns in
the
worship of English congregations. Prolific author of Tro p o l o g i a (reprinted
as P re a c h -
ing from the Types and Metaphors of the Bible),
Gospel Mysteries Explained (reprinted
as
Exposition of the Parables),
and numerous other works. Born at Stokeham, Buckinghamshire,
God knows what godliness is, for He has created it, He
sustains it, He is
pledged to perfect it, and His delight is in it. What
matters it whether you are
understood by your fellow-men or not, so long as you are
understood by God?
If that secret prayer of yours is known to Him, seek not to
have it known to anyone
besides. If your conscientious motive be discerned in
heaven, mind not
though it be denounced on earth. If your designs—the great
principles that sway
you—are such as you dare plead in the great Day of Judgment,
you need not
stop to plead them before a jesting, jeering generation. Be
godly, and fear not.
And, if you be misrepresented, remember that should your
character be dead
and buried among men, there will be “a resurrection of
reputations” as well as
of bodies. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun
in the kingdom of
their Father” (Mat 13:43). Therefore be not afraid to
possess this peculiar character,
for though it is misunderstood on earth, it is well
understood in heaven.
—Charles Spurgeon
The Nature of an Upright Man 7
Are my services rightly done? Are my infirmities
consistent with integrity?”
An upright saint is like an apple with rotten specks,
but a hypocrite is like the
apple with a rotten core.
The sincere Christian has a speck of passion here,
there one of worldliness,
and there one of pride. But cut him up and anatomize
him, and he is
sound at heart; there Christ and Christianity live and
reign. A hypocrite is like
an apple that is smooth and lovely on the outside, but
rotten within. His
words may be exact, his duties devout, and his life
blameless; but look within,
and his heart is the sty of sin, the den of Satan.
3. AN UP R I G H T HE A R T IS PU R E W I T H O
U T MI
X T U R E. It is not absolutely pure,
for that happy condition is reserved for heaven; but
it is compared with the
pollution and base mixture that constitutes a
hypocrite. Though his hand
cannot do all that God bids, yet his heart is sincere
in all he does. His soul is
bent for perfect purity, and so he has his name from
that. “Blessed are the
pure in heart” (Mat 5:8). In his words he sometimes
fails and also in his
thoughts and deeds. But open his heart, and there is a
love, a desire, a design,
and an endeavor after real and absolute purity. He is
not legally pure, that is,
free from all sin; but he is evangelically pure, free
from the reign of all sin,
especially of hypocrisy, which is so flatly contrary
to the covenant of grace.
And in this sense the upright man is the Scripture
Puritan, and so is further
from hypocrisy than any other man. He is really glad
that God is the Searcher
of hearts, for then he knows that He will find His
name and nature in His own
[chosen people].
And yet the most upright man in the world has some
hypocrisy in him.
“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure
from my sin?” (Pro
20:9). But he detects, resists, and hates this hypocrisy;
and so it cannot
denominate him as a hypocrite in this world, nor damn
him as one in
a n o t h e r. His ends are generally purely for the
glory of God; his frame of heart
and thoughts are pure, and generally better than his
outside; the farther you
trace him, the better he is. He is pure from
dishonesty in his dealings, purer
yet in his family from all appearance of evil, purer
still in his closet, and most
pure in his heart. Though there is sin there, yet
there is also there an antipathy4
against it, so that it does not mingle with it.
The hypocrite chooses sin; the upright man would have
no sin if he could
choose. The traveler meets with dirt on his way, but
he keeps it off as well as
he can and does not mingle with it. And if he gets
soiled, he rubs it off as soon
as may be. But the swine delights in it and cannot be
well without it. It is just
so between the upright man and the hypocrite. The most
upright saint on
earth is mired with sin sometimes, but he did not
design it in the morning,
nor does he sleep with it at night. But a hypocrite
designs it and delights in it;
THENATURE OF
AN UPRIGHTMAN
Richard Steele (1629-1692)
“With an upright man, thou wilt shew thyself
upright”—Psalm 18:25.
AN UPRIGHT HEART IS SINGLE WITHOUT DIVISION. To a hypocrite, there
are many gods and many lords; and he must have a heart
for each. But
to the upright, there is but one God the Father and
one Lord Jesus
Christ, and one heart will serve them both. He who
fixes his heart upon the
creature, for every creature he must have a heart; and
the dividing of his
heart destroys him (Hos 10:2). Worldly profits knock
at the door, and he must
have a heart for them. Carnal pleasures present
themselves, and he must have
a heart for them also. Sinful preferments1 a p p e a r,
and they must have a heart
too. Of necessary objects, the number is few; of
needless vanities, the number
is endless. The upright man has made choice of God and
has enough.
A single Christ is enough for a single heart; hence
holy David prayed in
Psalm 86:11: “Unite my heart to fear thy name.” That
is, “Let me have but one
heart and mind, and let that be Thine.”
As there are thousands of beams and rays, yet they all
meet and center in the
sun. So an upright man, though he has a thousand
thoughts, yet they all (by his
good will) meet in God. He has many subordinate
ends—to procure a livelihood,
to preserve his credit, to provide for his
children—but he has no supreme end
but God alone. Hence he has that steadiness in his
resolutions, that undistractedness
in his holy duties, that consistency in his actions,
and that evenness in
the frame of his heart, which miserable hypocrites
cannot attain.
2. AN UPRIGHT HEART IS SOUND WITHOUT ROTTENNESS. “Let my heart be
sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed” (Psa
119:80). The more sincerity,
the less shame. Integrity is the great author of
confidence. Every frost
shakes an unsound body, and every trial shakes an
unsound soul. An upright
man does not always have so pure a color as a
hypocrite may have, but his
color is natural: it is his own; it is not painted;
his constitution is firm. The
hypocrite’s beauty is borrowed; the fire of trial will
melt it off.
An upright man has his infirmities, his diseases; but
his new nature works
them out, for he is sound within. Leprosy overspreads
the hypocrite, but he
hides it. “For he flattereth himself in his own eyes,
until his iniquity be found
to be hateful” (Psa 36:2). He endeavors to hide
himself from God, more from
men, but most from himself. He would fain2 be in with
himself howsoever,
and this trade he drives “till his iniquity be found
to be hateful.” But an
upright man is always sifting3 and trying
himself: “Am I sound? Am I right?
1 preferments –
preferences; desirable or favored choices.
2 fain – gladly;
willingly.
3 sifting – examining
and sorting carefully. 4 antipathy – a strong feeling of intense dislike;
hostile feelings toward.
The Nature of an Upright Man 9
hates, and leaves his sin.
When the upright man confesses his sin, his heart
aches, and he is deeply
troubled for it; he does not dissemble.8 The hypocrite
proclaims open war, but
maintains secret intelligence9 with his lusts.
When the upright man prays for
any grace, he earnestly desires it, and he takes pains
to compass it too; for he
is in good earnest and does not dissemble.
He who will dissemble with God will dissemble with any
man in the
world. See the wide difference between Saul and David.
Saul is charged with
a fault in 1 Samuel 15:14. He denies it, and the
charge is renewed in verse 17.
Still he minces10
the matter and looks for fig-leaves to
cover all. But plainhearted
David is another man: he is charged, and he yields;
one prick opens a
vein of sorrow in his heart. He tells all, he makes a
psalm of it, and therein
concludes this in Psalm 51:6: “Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward
parts.” The plain-hearted man says, “As for me, with
the upright man I will
show myself upright.”
From The
Character of the Upright Man reprinted
by Soli Deo Gloria. Used by permission.
he is never so well contented as in sin. In a word,
the hypocrite may avoid sin,
but no man can abhor sin save the upright man.
4. AN UP R I G H T MA N IS PE R F E C T A N
D EN
T I R E W I T H O U T RE S E RVAT I O N.
“ M a r k
the perfect man, and behold the upright” (Psa 37:37).
You may see them both
at once. His heart is entirely devoted to the will and
ways of God. The hypocrite
ever has some exceptions and reservations. “Such a sin
I must not
leave; such a grace I can not love; such a duty I will
not practice. Thus far I
will yield but no farther; thus far I will go. It is
consistent with my carnal
ends, but all the world shall not persuade me
farther.” The judgment of the
hypocrite will drive beyond his will, his conscience
beyond his affections; he
is not entire, his heart is parted, and so he is off
and on.
The upright man has but one happiness, and that is the
enjoyment of God;
he has but one rule, and that is His holy will; he has
but one work, and that is
to please his Maker. Thereupon he is entire and
certain in his choices, in his
desires, in his ways and contrivances.5 And though
there may be some
d e m u r s6 in his prosecution of his main business, yet there is
no hesitancy and
wavering between two objects; for he is entirely fixed
and resolved therein,
and so may be said to be “perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.”
There is in every hypocrite some one fort or
stronghold that has never
yielded to the sovereignty and empire of God’s will.
Some lust fortifies itself in
the will; but where integrity enters, it brings every
thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ. “Lord,” he says, “I am wholly
Thine; do what Thou
wilt with me. Say what Thou wilt to me. Write what
Thou wilt upon me. ‘O
LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had
dominion over us: but by
thee only will we make mention of thy name’” (Isa
26:13). Here is the upright
man.
5. AN UPRIGHT HEART IS PLAIN WITHOUT GUILE.7 “Blessed is the man unto
whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no guile”
(Psa 32:2). Here is a blessed word indeed. Alas! We
have great and many iniquities;
would it not be happy for us to be as if we had never
sinned? Why, nonimputation
will be as well for us as if there had been no
transgression; sins
remitted are as if they had not been committed; the
debt-book crossed as
good as if no entries had ever been made. But who is
this blessed man? “In
whose spirit there is no guile,” that is, no
fundamental guile. He is the man
who has not deceitfully covenanted with his God. He
has no approved guile,
to approve and yield to any way of wickedness. He does
not juggle with God or
men or with his own conscience. He does not hide his
idols under him when
God is searching his tent. Rather, as it follows in
verse five, he acknowledges,
8 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue 192
• Summer 2005
5 contrivances –
plans.
6 demurs – delays;
lingerings.
7 guile – cunning;
deceit; treachery.
Richard Steele (1629-1692): Puritan preacher and
author; ejected from his pulpit by
the Act of Uniformity in 1662 and later by The Five
Mile Act. But he never stopped
verbally proclaiming the riches of Christ. Remembered
as “a very valuable and useful
man, a good scholar, a hard student, and an excellent
preacher.” Born at Bartholmley,
8 dissemble –
disguise so as to conceal or deceive.
9 intelligence – communication;
a good understanding between.
10 minces – makes
little of; minimizes.
Can a man be like to God? Ah, me! What a wide discrepancy
there must
always be between God and the best of men! We are unlike God
even in our
likeness to Him. . . . Yet grace does make us like God in
righteousness and true
holiness and especially in love. Has the Holy Spirit taught
thee, my dear friend,
to love even those that hate thee? Hast thou a love that
leaps out, like the waters
from the smitten rock that every thirsty one may drink? . .
. Dost thou love even
those that render thee no love in return, as He did who gave
His life for His enemies?
And dost thou choose that which is good? Dost thou delight
thyself in
peace? Dost thou seek after that which is pure? Art thou
ever gladdened with
that which is kind and just? Then art thou like thy Father
Who is in heaven,
thou art a godly man, and this text is for you: “Know that
the Lord hath set
apart him that is godly for himself” (Psa 4:3). —Charles Spurgeon
Signs and Character of a Godly Man
11
A n w e r: He, who rightly applies Christ, puts
these two together: Jesus a n d
Lord (Phi 3:8). Christ Jesus my Lord: many take Christ
as a Jesus, but refuse
Him as a Lord. Do you join Prince and Savior? (Act
5:31). Would you as well
be ruled by Christ’s laws as saved by His blood?
Christ is “a priest upon his
throne” (Zec 6:13). He will never be a priest to
intercede, unless your heart be
the throne where He sways His sceptre. A true applying
of Christ is when we
so take Him for an husband that we give up ourselves
to Him as a Lord.
The knowledge of a godly man is transforming :
“We all with open face,
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same
image” (2Co 3:8). As a painter looking upon a face,
draws a face like it in the
picture; so looking upon Christ in the glass of the
Gospel, we are changed
into His similitude.4 We may look upon other objects
that are glorious yet not
be made glorious by them: a deformed face may look
upon beauty and yet not
be made beautiful. A wounded man may look upon a
surgeon and yet not be
healed. But this is the excellency of divine
knowledge: it gives us such a sight
of Christ as makes us partake of His nature. As Moses,
when he had seen
God’s back parts: his face shined, [for] some of the
rays and beams of God’s
glory fell upon him.
The knowledge of a godly man is g r o w i n g :
“Increasing in the knowledge
of God” (
increaseth in the horizon till it comes to the
meridian.5 So sweet is spiritual
knowledge, that the more a saint knows, the thirstier
he is of knowledge. It is
called the riches of knowledge (1Co 1:5). The more
riches a man hath, the
more still he desires. Though Paul knew Christ, yet he
would know him
more: “That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection” (Phi 3:10).
Question: But how shall we get this saving knowledge?
Answer: Not by the power of nature: some speak of
reason well-improved
how far it will go; but alas, the plumb-line of reason
is too short to fathom the
deep things of God; a man can no more by the power of
reason reach the saving
knowledge of God, than a pigmy can reach the pyramids;
the light of
nature will no more help us to see Christ, than the
light of a candle will help
us to understand. “The natural man receiveth not the
things of God, neither
can he know them” (1Co 2:14). What shall we do then to
know God in a soulsaving
manner? I answer, “Let us implore the help of God’s
Spirit.” Paul never
saw himself blind till a light shined from heaven (Act
9:3). God must anoint
our eyes ere6 we can see. What needed Christ to have bid
Him for eye-salve, if she could see before? (Rev 3:18)
O let us beg the Spirit,
which is a Spirit of revelation (Eph 1:17). Saving
knowledge is not by
SIGNS AND
CHARACTER
OF AGODLYMAN
Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686)
“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto
thee”—Psalm 32:6.
WHO is the godly man? For the full answer whereunto, I
shall lay down
several specific signs and character of a godly man.
The first fundamental sign is a godly man is a man
of knowledge : “The
prudent are crowned with knowledge” (Pro 14:18). The
saints are called “wise
virgins” (Mat 25:4). A natural man may have some
discursive1 knowledge of
God, but he knoweth nothing as he ought to know (1Co
8:2). He knows not
God savingly: he may have the eye of reason open, but
he discerns not the
things of God after a spiritual manner. Waters cannot
go beyond their springhead;
vapors cannot rise higher than the sun draws them. A
natural man cannot
act above his sphere. He is no more able to judge
aright of sacred things,
than a blind man is to judge of colors. 1. He sees
not the evil of his heart: if a
face be ever so black and deformed, yet it is not seen
under a veil. The heart of
a sinner is so black, that nothing but hell can
pattern it, yet the veil of ignorance
hides it. 2. He sees not the beauties of a Savior: Christ
is a pearl, but an
hidden pearl.
The knowledge of a godly man is quickening2: “I will never
forget thy
precepts, for with them thou hast quickened me” (Psa
119:93). Knowledge in
a natural man’s head is like a torch in a dead man’s
hand; true knowledge animates.
A godly man is like John Baptist, “a burning and a
shining lamp” (Joh
5:35). He doth not only shine by illumination, but
burn by affection. The
spouse’s knowledge made her “sick of love” (Song 2:5),
[or] “I am wounded
with love. I am like a deer that is struck with a
dart; my soul lies a bleeding
and nothing can cure me but a sight of Him whom my soul
loves.”
The knowledge of a godly man is appropriating :
“I know that my
Redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). A medicine is best when
it is applied; this
applicative knowledge is joyful. Christ is called a
Surety3 (Heb 7:22). O what
joy, when I am drowned in debt, to know that Christ is
my Surety! Christ is
called an Advocate (1Jo 2:1). The Greek word for advocate
signifies “a comforter.”
O what comfort is it, when I have a bad cause, to know
Christ is my
Advocate, Who never lost any cause He pleaded!
Q u e s t i o n: But how shall I know that I make a
right application of Christ?
An hypocrite may think he applies when he doth not.
1
discursive –
rambling; rapidly passing from one subject to another.
2
quickening –
animating; makes him alive spiritually.
3
Surety –
one who assures the fulfillment of something; a guarantor.
4
similitude –
likeness; resemblance.
5
meridian –
mid-day; noon; hence, the highest perfection.
6
ere –
before.
Signs and Character of a Godly Man
13
against all troubles. It is a godly man’s sheet-anchor12 that he casts
out into
the
Question: Wherein do the godly discover their
holiness?
A n s w e r : 1. In hating the garment spotted by
the fle s h (Jud 23). The godly
do set themselves against evil both in purpose and
practice. They are fearful of
that which looks like sin (1Th 5:22). The appearance
of evil may prejudice a
weak Christian: if it doth not defile a man’s own
conscience, it may offend his
b r o t h e r ’s conscience; and to sin against him is
to sin against Christ (1Co 8:12).
A godly man will not go as far as he may, lest he go
further than he should.
2. The godly discover their holiness in being
advocates for holiness: “I will
speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will
not be ashamed” (Psa
119:6). When piety is calumniated13 in the world,
the saints will stand up in
the defence of it. They will wipe off the dust of a
reproach from the face of
religion. Holiness defends the godly, and they will
defend holiness. It defends
them from danger, and they will defend it from
disgrace.
A godly man is very exact and curious about the
worship of God: the
Greek word for g o d l y s i g n i fies “a
right worshipper of God.” A godly man doth
reverence divine institutions and is more for the
purity of worship than the
p o m p .1 4. . . The Lord would have Moses make the tabernacle
according to the
pattern in the mount (Exo 25:40). If Moses had left
out anything in the pattern
or added anything to it, it would have been very
provoking. The Lord
hath always given testimonies of His displeasure
against such as have corrupted
His worship: Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire
before the LORD,
which he commanded them not. And there went out fire
from the LORD, and
devoured them, and they died before the LORD” (Lev
10:1, 2). Whatsoever is
not of God’s own appointment in His worship, He looks
upon as strange fire.
And no wonder He is so highly incensed at it: for as
if God were not wise
enough to appoint the manner how He will be served,
men will go to prescribe15
to Him, and as if the rules for His worship were
defective, they will
attempt to mend the copy and superadd16 their
inventions. . . . A godly man
dares not vary from the pattern which God hath shown
him in the Scripture;
and probably this might not be the least reason, why
David was called a man
after God’s own heart because he kept the springs of
God’s worship pure and
in matters sacred did not superinduce17 anything of
his own devising.
s p e c ulation, but by inspiration (Job 32:8). The
inspiration of the Almighty
giveth understanding.
We may have excellent notions in divinity,7 but the Holy
Ghost must
enable us to know them after a spiritual manner; a man
may see the figures
upon a dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes
unless the sun shine. We may
read many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them
savingly till God’s
Spirit doth shine upon us. “The Spirit searching all
things, yea, the deep
things of God” (1Co 2:10). The Scripture discovers
Christ t o us, but the Spirit
reveals Christ in us (Gal 1:16). The Spirit
makes known that which all the
world cannot do, namely, the sense of God’s love.
The godly man is a man acted by faith: as gold
is the most precious
among the metals, so is faith among the graces. Faith
cuts us off from the
wild olive of nature and innoculates8 us into Christ.
Faith is the vital artery of
the soul: “The just shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4).
Such as are destitute of faith
though they breathe, yet they [lack] life. Faith is
the quickener of the graces;
not a grace stirs, till faith sets it a-work. Faith is
to the soul, as the animal
s p i r i t s9 are to the body: they excite lively operations in the
body. Faith excites
repentance; it is like the fire to the still which
makes it drop. When I believe
G o d ’s love to me, this makes me weep that I should
sin against so good a God.
Faith is the mother of hope: first we believe the
promise, then we hope for it.
Faith is the oil which feeds the lamp of hope. Faith
and hope are two turtlegraces;
take away one and the other languisheth.10 If the sinews
be cut, the
body is lame. If the sinew of faith be cut, hope is
lame. Faith is the ground of
patience: he who believes God is his God and all
providences work for his
good, doth patiently yield up himself to the will of
God. Thus faith is a living
principle, and the life of a saint is nothing else but
a life of faith. His prayer is
the breathing of faith (Jam 5:15). His obedience is
the result of faith (Rom
16:26). A godly man by faith lives in Christ, as the
beam lives in the sun: “I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20).
A Christian by the power of
faith sees above reason, treads above the moon (2Co
4:18). By faith his heart
is finally quieted (Psa 12:7). He trusts himself and
all his affairs with God: as
in a time of war, men get into a garrison and trust
themselves and their treasure
there; so the name of the Lord is a strong tower (Pro
18:10). And a
believer trusts all that ever he is worth in this
garrison: “For I know whom I
have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day” (2Ti 1:12). God
trusted Paul with His
Gospel, and Paul trusted God with his soul. Faith is a
catholicon1 1 or remedy
1 2 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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7
divinity –
theology.
8
innoculates –
unites by insertion of a twig into a stock; engrafts.
9
animal spirits –
the supposed “spirit” or principle of sensation and voluntary motion,
answering
to nerve fluid, nerve force, nervous action; life, vigor, energy.
10
languisheth –
to become weak and feeble.
11
catholicon –
a universal remedy, which heals all diseases.
12
sheet-anchor –
an anchor, formerly always a ship’s largest anchor, used only in an
emergency;
hence, that on which one’s reliance rests when all else has failed.
13
calumniated –
falsely and maliciously accused; slandered.
14
pomp –
splendid display; magnificent show.
15
prescribe –
to lay down a rule.
16
superadd –
to add over and above.
17
superinduce –
to introduce an addition to something already in existence.
Signs and Character of a Godly Man
15
the Sun of Righteousness. “Give me children,” said
Rachel, “or I die” (Gen
30:1). So saith the soul, “Lord, give me Christ or I
die; one drop of the water
of life to quench my thirst!” . . . Do these prize
Christ, who can sit down content
without Him?
If we are prizers of Christ, then we shall not
grudge at any pains to get
H i m. He,
who prizeth gold, will dig for it in the mine: “My soul followeth hard
after God” (Psa 63:8). Plutarch2 0 reports of the
Gauls, an ancient people in
after the country and never rested till they had
arrived at it. He in whose eye
Christ is precious never rests till he hath gotten
Christ: “I sought him whom
my soul loveth, I held him, and would not let him go”
(Song 3:1, 2, 4).
If we are prizers of Christ, then we will part with
our dearest lusts for
H i m . Paul
saith of the Galatians, they did so esteem him, that they were ready
to have pulled out their own eyes and have given him
(Gal 4:15). He, who
esteems Christ, will pull out that lust which is his
right eye. A wise man will
throw away a poison for a cordial;2 1 he, who sets
an high value upon Christ, will
part with his pride, unjust gain, sinful passions. He
will set his feet upon the
neck of his sins (Jos 10:24). Try by this: how they
can be said to prize Christ,
who will not leave a vanity for Him? What a scorn and
contempt do they put
upon the Lord Jesus, who prefer a damning lust before a
saving Christ?
If we are prizers of Christ, we will be willing to
help others to a part in
H i m : that
which we esteem excellent, we are desirous our friend should have
a share in. If a man hath found a spring of water, he
will call others that they
may drink and satisfy their thirst. Do we commend
Christ to others? Do we
take them by the hand and lead them to Christ? This
shows how few prize
Christ because they strive not more that their
relations should have a part in
Him. They get land and riches for their posterity, but
have no care to leave
them the Pearl of Price for their portion. . . . O
then, let us have endearing
thoughts of Christ; let Him be accounted our chief
treasure and delight. This
is the reason why millions perish because they do not
prize Christ. Christ is
the Door by which men are to enter into heaven (Joh
10:9). If they do not
know this Door, or are so proud that they will not
stoop to go in at it, how can
they be saved?
A godly man is a lover of the W o rd. “O how
love I thy law!” (Psa 119:137).
1. A godly man loves the Wo rd written.
Chrysostom2 2 compares the Scripture
to a garden set with knots and flowers. A godly man
delights to walk in
A godly man is a Christ-prizer : To illustrate
this, I shall show that Jesus
Christ is in Himself precious: “Behold, I lay in
precious” (1Pe 2:6). Christ is compared to things most
precious.
He is precious in His P e r s o n . He is the
picture of His Father’s glory (Heb 1:3).
Christ is precious in His offices , which are
several rays of the Sun of
Righteousness (Mal 4:2): 1) Christ’s prophetical
office is precious: He is the
great oracle of heaven; He hath a preciousness above
all the prophets which
went before Him; He teacheth not only the ear, but the
heart; He who hath
the key of David in His hand opened the heart of
priestly office is precious: This is the solid basis of our comfort, “Now once
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself” (Heb 9:16). By
virtue of this sacrifice, the soul may go to God with
boldness: “Lord, give me
heaven; Christ hath purchased it for me. He hung upon
the cross, that I
might sit upon the throne.” Christ’s blood and incense
are the two hinges on
which our salvation turns. 3) C h r i s t ’s regal
office is precious: “And he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS, AND LORD OF
LORDS” (Rev 19:16). Christ hath preeminence1 8 above all
other kings for majesty.
He hath the highest throne, the richest crown, the
largest dominions,
and the longest possession: “Thy throne, O God, is for
ever and ever” (Heb
1:8). . . . Christ sets up His sceptre where no other
king doth. He rules the will
and affections; His power binds the conscience.
If we are prizers of Christ, then we prefer Him in
our judgments before
other things. We
value Christ above honor and riches, the pearl of price lies
nearest our heart; he who prizeth Christ esteems the
gleanings of Christ better
than the world’s vintage. He counts the worst things
of Christ better than
the best things of the world: “Esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches
than the treasures in
hear some say, they have honorable thoughts of Christ,
but they prize their
land and estate above Him. The young man in the Gospel
preferred his bags of
gold before Christ (Mar 10:17-22); Judas valued thirty
pieces of silver above
Him (Mat 26:15). May it not be feared, if an hour of
trial come, there are
many would rather renounce their baptism and throw off
Christ’s livery19
than hazard the loss of their earthly possessions for
Him.
If we are prizers of Christ, we cannot live without
Him. Things which
we value, we know not how to be without: a man may
live without music, but
not without food. A child of God can want2 0 health and
friends, but he cannot
want Christ. In the absence of Christ he saith as Job,
“I went mourning without
the sun” (Job 30:28). I have the starlight of creature
comforts, but I want
1 4 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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18
preeminence –
to have first place; to be above all else.
19
livery –
a distinctive uniform worn by the servants of a household.
20
want –
lack.
21
Plutarch (AD
46-120?) – Greek biographer and philosopher, who wrote Parallel
Lives, a collection
of biographies that Shakespeare used in his Roman plays.
22
cordial –
a tonic that is stimulating, comforting, or invigorating to the heart.
23
John Chrysostom (AD
347-407) – early theologian and expositor of the Greek
Church,
whose name means “golden mouthed.”
Signs and Character of a Godly Man
17
ble work: to teach us and to judge us.
They that will not be taught by the
Word shall be judged by the Word. Oh let us make the
Scripture familiar to
us! What if it should be as in the time of Diocletian,28 who commanded
by
proclamation the Bible to be burned; or as in Queen
Mary’s days, wherein it
was death to have a Bible in English? By diligent
conversing with Scripture,
we may carry a Bible in our head.
2. By frequent meditating: “It is my meditation
all the day” (Psa 119:97).
A pious soul meditates of the verity and sanctity of
the Word; he hath not only
a few transient thoughts, but lays his mind a-steeping30 in the
Scripture: by
meditation he sucks from this sweet flower and
concocts31 holy truth in his
mind.
3. By delighting in it: it is his recreation.
“Thy words were found, and I did
eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer
15:16). Never did a man take such delight in a dish
that he loved, as the
prophet did in the Word. And indeed, how can a saint
choose but take great
complacency in the Word because all that ever he hopes
to be worth is contained
in it? Doth not a son take pleasure in reading over
his father’s will and
testament, where he makes a conveyance of his estate
to him?
4. By hiding it: “Thy word have I hid in my
heart” (Psa 119:11), as one
hides a treasure that it should not be stolen away.
The Word is the jewel, the
heart is the cabinet where it must be locked up; many
hide the Word in their
memory but not in their heart. And why would David
enclose the Word in his
heart? “That I might not sin against thee.” As one
would carry an antidote
about him when he comes to an infected place, so a
godly man carries the
Word in his heart as a spiritual antidote to preserve
him from the infection of
sin: why have so many been poisoned with error, others
with moral vice, but
because they have not hid the Word as an holy antidote
in their heart?
5. By preferring it above things most precious: a.
Above food: “I have
esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary
food” (Job 23:12).
b. Above riches: “The law of thy mouth is
better unto me than thousands of
gold and silver” (Psa 119:72). c. Above worldly
honor: Memorable is the story
of King Edward VI, who upon the day of his coronation,
when they presented
before him three swords signifying to him that he was
monarch of three kingdoms,
the king said, “There is yet one sword wanting.” Being
asked what that
was, he answered, “The Holy Bible,” which is the sword
of the Spirit and is to
be preferred before these ensigns of royalty.
this garden and sweetly solace himself; he loves every
branch and parcel of
the Word.
a. He loves the counselling part of the Wo rd, as
it is a directory and a rule
of life: it
contains in it credenda et facienda, [meaning] “things to be believed
and practiced.” A godly man loves the aphorisms23 of the Word.
b. A godly man loves the minatory2 4 part of
the Wo rd . The Scripture, like
the Garden of Eden, as it hath a tree of life in it,
so it hath a flaming sword at
the gates of it. This is the threatening of the Word;
it flasheth fire in the face
of every person that goes on obstinately in
wickedness: “But God shall wound
the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such
an one as goeth on still in
his trespasses” (Psa 68:21). The Word gives no
indulgence to evil. It will not
let a man halt between sin and God: the true mother
would not let the child
be divided, and God will not have the heart divided.
c. A godly man loves the menaces of the Word.
He knows there is love in
every threatening; God would not have us perish,
therefore doth mercifully
threaten us, that He may scare us from sin. God’s
threatenings are as the sea
mark,25 which shows the rocks in the sea and threateneth death
to such as
come near. The threatening is a curbing bit to check
us that we may not run
in a full career to hell; there is a mercy in every
threatening.
d. A godly man loves the consolatory part of the
Word, the promises. He
goes feeding upon these, as Samson went on his way
eating the honeycomb.
The promises are all marrow and sweetness; they are
our bezoar stone2 6 w h e n
we are fainting; they are the conduits of the water of
life. “In the multitude of
my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul”
(Psa 94:19). The
promises were David’s harp to drive away sad thoughts;
they were the breasts
which milked out divine consolation to him.
A godly man shows his love to the Word written :
1. By diligent reading of it: the noble Bereans
did search the Scriptures
daily (Act 27:11). Apollos was mighty in the
Scriptures. The Word is our
Magna Charta27 for heaven; we should be daily reading over this
charter. The
Word shows what truth is and what error is. It is the
field where the Pearl of
price is hid: how should we dig for this Pearl! A
godly man’s heart is the
library to hold the Word of God; it dwells richly in
him. The Word hath a dou-
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24
aphorisms –
a brief and concise statement of truth or opinion.
25
minatory –
threatening; menacing.
26
sea mark –
a clearly visible object distinguishable at sea which serves as a guide or
warning
to sailors in navigation.
27
bezoarstone –
hard, indigestible mass of material found in the stomach or intestines
of
animals, formerly considered to be an antidote for poisons.
28
Magna Charta –
the charter of English political and civil liberties granted by King
John
at Runnymede in June 1215; hence, a document that guarantees basic rights.
29
Dioclesian or
Diocletian (A.D.
245-313) – Roman emperor, who initiated the last
great
persecution against Christians.
30
steeping –
to soak in water for the purpose of cleansing.
31
concocts –
digests in the mind; thinks over.
HUSBANDS,LOVEYOURWIVES
William Gouge (1575-1653)
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church,
and gave himself for it”—Ephesians 5:25.
As the wife is
to know her duty, so the husband much more his because
he is to be a guide and good example to his wife. He
is to dwell with
her according to knowledge (1Pe 3:7). The more eminent1 his place is,
the more knowledge he ought to have to walk worthy
thereof. Neglect of duty
in him is more dishonorable unto God because, by
virtue of his place, he is
the image and glory of God (1Co 11:7). [This is] more
pernicious2 not to his
wife only, but also to the whole family because of
that power and authority he
hath, which he may abuse to the maintenance of his
wickedness. [There is in
his] house no superior power to restrain his fury,
whereas the wife, though
never so wicked, may by the power of her husband be
kept under and
restrained from outrage.
Of that love which husbands owe their wives: this head
of all the rest—
Love—is expressly set down and alone mentioned in this
and in many other
places of Scripture, whereby it is evident that all
other duties are [included]
under it. To omit other places where this duty is
urged, Love in this place is
four times by name expressed. Beside that, it is
intimated under many other
terms and phrases (Eph 5:25, 28, 33).
Of an husband’s wife maintaining his authority: All
the branches which
grow out of this root of love, as they have respect to
husbands’ duties, may be
drawn to two heads: 1) a wife maintaining of his
authority; [and] 2) a right
managing of the same.
That these two are branches of an husband’s love is
evident by the place
wherein God hath set him, which is a place of
authority. For the best good
that any can do and the best fruits of love which he
can show forth to any are
such as are done in his own proper place and by virtue
thereof. If then an husband
r e l i n q u i s h his authority, he disableth himself from doing that good and
showing those fruits of love which otherwise he might.
If he abuse his
authority, he turneth the edge and point of his sword
amiss: instead of holding
it over his wife for her protection, he turneth it
into her [heart] to her
destruction and so manifesteth thereby more hatred
than love. Now then, to
handle these two severally and distinctly:
1. That an husband ought wisely to maintain his
authority is implied
under this Apostolical precept: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them
according to knowledge” (1Pe 3:7), that is, as such as
are well able to
6. By conforming to it: the Word is his sun
dial by which he sets his life;
the balance in which he weighs his actions. He copies
out the Word in his
daily walk.
A godly man loves the Word preached: which is a
commentary upon the
Word written. The Scriptures are the sovereign oils
and balsams;32 the
preaching of the Word is the pouring of them out. The
Scriptures are the precious
spices; the preaching of the Word is the beating of
these spices, which
causeth a wonderful fragrancy and delight. . . . The
preaching of the Word is
called, “the power of God to salvation” (1Co 1:24). By
this, Christ is said to
speak to us from heaven (Heb 12:25). A godly man loves
the Word preached
partly from the good he hath found by it: he hath felt
the dew fall with this
manna; and partly because of God’s institution: the
Lord hath appointed this
ordinance to save him.
A godly man is a praying man . This is in the
text, “Every one that is godly
shall pray unto thee” (Psa 32:6). As soon as grace is
poured in, prayer is
poured out: “But I give myself to prayer” (Psa 109:4).
In the Hebrew it is,
“But I prayer.” Prayer and I are all one. Prayer is
the soul’s traffic with heaven:
God comes down to us by His Spirit, and we go up to
Him by prayer. A godly
man cannot live without prayer: a man cannot live
unless he takes breath nor
can the soul unless it breathes forth its desires to
God. As soon as the babe of
grace is born, it cries; no sooner was Paul converted
but, “Behold, he prayeth”
(Act 9:11). No doubt he prayed before, [having been] a
Pharisee, but it was
either superficially or superstitiously; but when the
work of grace had passed
upon his soul, behold, now he prays. A godly man is
every day upon the
mount of prayer; he begins the day with prayer: before
he opens his shop, he
opens his heart to God. We used to burn sweet perfumes
in our houses; a
godly man’s house is an house of perfume: he airs it
with the incense of
prayer. He engageth in no business without seeking
God. A godly man consults
with God in everything.
From “The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture-Pencil”
in The Sermons
of Thomas Watson reprinted
by Soli Deo Gloria.
1 8 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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32
balsams –
healing or soothing medicinal preparations.
1
eminent –
exalted; dignified.
2
pernicious –
having the quality to destroy; tending to injure; ruinous.
Thomas Wa t s o n (c.
1620-1686): non-Conformist Puritan preacher. Beloved and prolific
author
of ABody of Divinity, The Lord ’s
Prayer, The Ten Commandments, Heaven Ta k e n
by Storm, and
numerous others. Actual place and date of birth unknown.
Husbands, Love Your Wives 21
Her place is indeed a place of inferiority6 and subjection,
yet the nearest to
equality that may be. [Hers is] a place of common
equity in many respects,
wherein man and wife are, after a sort, even fellows
and partners. Hence then
it followeth that the husband must account his wife a
yoke-fellow and companion
(1Pe 3:7). This is one point of giving honor to the
wife: and it is
implied under that phrase whereby the end of making a
wife is noted (Gen
2:18), which in our English is translated, “meet for
him,” word for word “as
before him,” that is, like himself, one in whom he
might see himself.
As a wife’s acknowledgement of her husband’s
superiority7 is the groundwork
of all her duties, so an husband’s acknowledgement of
that fellowship
which is between him and his wife will make him carry
himself much more
amiably,8 familiarly, lovingly, and every way as beseemeth a
good husband
towards her.
Of husbands’ too mean account of wives: Contrary is
the conceit of many
who think there is no difference between a wife and servant
but in familiarity,
9 and that wives
were made to be servants to their husbands because subjection,
fear, and obedience are required of them. Whence it
cometh to pass
that wives are oft used little better than servants.
[This is] conceit and practice
savoring too much of heathenish and sottish arrogance.
Did God at first
take the wife out of man’s side that man should tread
her under his feet? Or
rather than he should set her at his side next to him
above all children, servants,
or any other in the family, how near or dear unto him
soever? For none
can be nearer than a wife, and none ought to be
dearer.
Of husbands’ entire affection to their wives: an
husband’s affection to his
wife must be answerable to his opinion of her: he
ought therefore to delight
in his wife entirely, that is, so to delight in her as
wholly and only delighting
in her. In this respect the Prophet’s wife is called
“the desire [delight, pleasure]
of thine eyes” (Eze 24:16): that wherein he most of
all delighted and
therefore by a propriety,10 so called.
Such delight did Isaac take in his wife as
it drove out a contrary strong passion, namely the
grief which he took for the
departure of his mother. For it is noted that he loved
her and was comforted
after his mother’s death (Gen 24:67).
This kind of affection the wise-man doth elegantly set
forth in these
words, “Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be
as the loving hind and
pleasant roe . . . and be thou ravished always with
her love” (Pro 5:18, 19).
m a i ntain the honor of that place wherein God hath
set you, not as sots3 and
fools without understanding.
The honor and authority of God and of His Son Christ
Jesus is maintained
in and by the honor and authority of an husband, as
the King’s authority is
maintained by the authority of his Privy Council4 and other
Magistrates
under him, yea, as an husband’s authority is in the
family maintained by the
authority of his wife: “For as the man is the glory of
God, so the woman is the
glory of the man” (1Co 11:7).
The good of the wife herself is thus also much
promoted, even as the good
of the body is helped forward by the head’s abiding in
his place. Should the
head be put under any of the parts of the body, the
body and all the parts
thereof could not but receive much damage thereby. Even
so, the wife and
whole family would feel the damage of the husband’s
loss of his authority.
Question: How may an husband best maintain his
authority?
Answer: That direction which the Apostle had given to
Timothy to maintain
his authority may firstly be applied for this purpose
unto an husband: “Be
thou an example of the believers, in word, in
conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in faith, in purity” (1Ti 4:12). . . . Even
thus may husbands best maintain
their authority by being an ensample in love, gravity,
piety, honesty, etc.
The fruits of these and other like graces showed forth
by husbands before
their wives and family cannot but work a reverent and
dutiful respect in their
wives and whole house towards them; for by this means
they shall more
clearly discern the image of God shine forth in their
faces.
Of husbands losing their authority: Contrary is their
practice who by
their profaneness, riotousness, drunkenness, lewdness,
lightness, unthriftiness,
and other like base carriage5 make themselves
contemptible and so lose
their authority. Though a wife ought not to take these
occasions to despise
her husband, yet is it a just judgment on him to be
despised, seeing he
maketh himself contemptible.
Contrary also to the forenamed directions is the
stern, rough, and cruel
carriage of husbands, who by violence and tyranny go
about to maintain their
a u t h o r i t y. Force may indeed cause fear, but a
slavish fear, such a fear as
breedeth more hatred than love, more inward contempt
than outward respect.
Of husbands’ high account of wives: As authority must
be well maintained,
so must it be well managed: for which purpose two
things are needful:
1) that an husband tenderly respect his wife; [and] 2)
that providently he
care for her.
2 0 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
3
sots –
foolish, stupid persons; blockheads.
4
Privy Council –
the body of advisors and counselors for a king.
5
base carriage –
despicably mean behavior.
6
i n f e r i o r i t y –
inferiority here means “a role of submission.” It does not mean a woman
is
an inferior creature, but of a different rank in God’s order.
7
s u p e r i o r i t y –
again, superiority here refers to the husband’s ro l e, not his
created nature.
8
amiably –
a friendly, good-tempered disposition.
9
familiarity –
behavior due from a familiar friend or family member.
10
propriety –
fitness; appropriateness.
Husbands, Love Your Wives 23
2. Though she ought cheerfully to entertain what
guests he bringeth into
the house, yet ought not he to be grievous and
burdensome therein unto her:
the greatest care and pains for entertaining guests
lieth on the wife: she
ought therefore to be tendered therein.
If he observe her conscionable15 and wise, well
able to manage and order
matters about house, yet loath to do anything without
his consent, he ought
to be ready and free in yielding his consent, and
satisfying her desire, as Elkanah
(1Sa 1:23). And if she be bashful and backward in
asking consent, he
ought voluntarily of himself to offer it: yea and to
give her a general consent
to order and dispose matters as in her wisdom she
seeth meet, as the said
Elkanah did; and the husband of that good housewife
which Solomon describeth
(Pro 31:10-31).
A general consent is especially requisite for ordering
of household affairs;
for it is a charge laid upon wives to guide the house
(1Ti 5:14): whereby it
appeareth that the businesses of the house [pertain]
and are most proper to
the wife in which respect she is called the housewife.
So as therein husbands
ought to refer matters to their ordering, and not
restrain them in every particular
matter from doing anything without a special license
and direction. To
exemplify this in some particulars, it appertaineth in
peculiar to a wife, 1. to
order the decking and trimming16 of the house
(Pro 31:21, 22); 2. to dispose
the ordinary provision for the family (Pro 31:15); 3.
to rule and govern maid
servants (Gen 16:6); 4. to bring up children while
they are young with the like
( 1 Ti 5:10; Tit 2:4). These therefore ought he with a
general consent to refer to
her discretion (2Ki 4:19) with limitation only of
these two cautions: 1. That
she have in some measure sufficient discretion, wit,
and wisdom, and be not
too ignorant, foolish, simple, lavish, etc; 2. That he
have a general oversight
in all, and so interpose his authority as he suffer
nothing that is unlawful or
unseemly to be done by his wife about house, children,
servants, or other
things.
Of husbands’ too much strictness towards their wives:
Contrary is the
rigor and austerity of many husbands, who stand upon
the uttermost step of
their authority, and yield no more to a wife than to
any other inferior. Such
are they 1. Who are never contented or satisfied with
any duty the wife performeth,
but ever are exacting more and more.
2. Who care not how grievous and burdensome they are
to their wives:
grievous by bringing such guests into the house as
they know cannot be welcome
to them, burdensome by too frequent and unseasonable
inviting of
guests or imposing other like extraordinary businesses
over and above the
ordinary affairs of the house: too frequent imposing
of such things cannot but
Here note both the metaphors and also the hyperbole1 1 which are
used to set
forth an husband’s delight in his wife. In the
metaphors, again note both the
creatures whereunto a wife is resembled and also the
attributes given to
them. The creatures are two, an hind and a roe, which
are the females of an
hart and a roe-buck. Now it is noted of the hart and
roe-buck that of all other
beasts they are most [passionate] with their mates and
even mad again in
their heat and desire after them.
These comparisons applied to a wife do lively set
forth that delight which an
husband ought to take in her. . . . First so far to
exceed, as to make a man oversee
some such blemishes in his wife, as others would soon
espy and mislike, or
else to count them no blemishes, delighting in her
never a whit the less for
them. For example, if a man have a wife, not very
beautiful or proper, but having
some deformity in her body, some imperfection in her
speech, sight, gesture,
or any part of her body; yet so to affect1 2 her and
delight in her, as if she
were the fairest and every way most complete woman in
the world. Secondly, so
highly to esteem, so ardently to affect, so tenderly
to respect her as others may
think him even to dote1 3 on her. An husband’s affection
to his wife cannot be
too great if it is kept within the bonds of honesty,
sobriety, and [decency].
Of husbands’ forbearing to exact14 all that they
may: as a wife’s reverence,
so also her obedience must be answered with her
husband’s courtesy. In
testimony whereof, an husband must be ready to accept
that wherein his wife
showeth herself willing to obey him. He ought to be
sparing in exacting too
much of her. In this case, he ought so to frame his
carriage towards her, as
the obedience which she performeth, may rather come
from her own voluntary
disposition from a free conscience to God-wards, even
because God hath
placed her in a place of subjection, and from a
wife-like love than from any
exaction on her husband’s part, and as it were by
force.
Husbands . . . must observe what is lawful, needful,
convenient, expedient,
fit for their wives to do, yea, and what they are most
willing to do before they
be too [obstinate] in exacting it. For example,
1. Though the wife ought to go with her husband and
dwell where he
thinks meet, yet ought not he [unless by virtue of
some urgent calling he be
forced thereto] remove her from place to place, and
carry her from that place
where she is well settled without her good liking.
Jacob consulted with his
wives, and made trial of their willingness, before he
carried them from their
father’s house (Gen 31:4).
2 2 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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11
h y p e r b o l e –
figure of speech used consisting of exaggeration for the purpose of making
an
impression.
12
affect –
have an affection for; be fond of.
13
dote –
to bestow excessive fondness; to be foolishly in love.
14
exact –
to require by force or with authority the performance of some duty.
15
conscionable –
conscientious; principled.
16
decking and trimming –
decorating and remodeling.
Husbands, Love Your Wives 25
narily so fruitless, and withal so exasperateth a
woman’s spirit, as I think he
were better [to] clean omit the duty than do it after
such a manner.
Of an husband’s providing means of spiritual
edification for his wife: F o r
her soul, means of spiritual edification must be
provided, and those both private
and public. Private means are holy and religious
exercises in the house,
as reading the word, prayer, catechizing, and such
like; which being the spiritual
food of the soul are to be every day, as our bodily
food, provided and
used. An husband as a master of a family must provide
these for the good of
his whole house; but as an husband, in special for the
good of his wife: for to
his wife, as well as to the whole house he is a King,
a Priest, and a Prophet.
By himself therefore, for his wife’s good, ought he to
perform these things
or to provide that they may be done by some other. Cornelius
himself performed
those exercises (Act 10:2, 30). Micah hired a Levite
[though his idolatry
were evil, yet his care to have a Levite in his house
was commendable]
(Jdg 17:10). The Shunammite’s husband provided a
chamber for the Prophet
and that especially for his wife’s sake; for it was at
her request (2Ki 4:11).
Public means are the holy ordinances of God publicly
performed by God’s
Minister. The care of an husband for his wife in this
respect is to order his
habitation and provide other needful things, as his
wife may be made partaker
thereof. It is expressly noted of Elkanah that he so
provided for his wives, that
they went with him every year to the house of God (1Sa
1:7; 2:19): the like is
intimated of Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary (Luk
2:41). In those days
there was a public place and house of God, whither all
God’s people [how far
soever they dwelt from it] were to resort every year:
the places where Elkanah
and Joseph dwelt were far remote from the house of
God, yet they so provided,
as not only themselves, but their wives also went to
the public worship
of God. Now there are many houses of God, places for
the public worship of
God, but yet through the corruption of our times, the
ministry of the Word
[the most principal means of spiritual edification] is
not everywhere to be
enjoyed: therefore such ought an husband’s care for
his wife in this respect to
be, as to dwell where she may have the benefit of the
Word preached, or else
so to provide for her, as she may weekly go where it
may be had.
Of neglecting their wives’ edification: Contrary is
their practice, who having
their calling in places where the Word is plentiful,
yet upon outward
respects of pleasure, delight, ease, and profit,
remove their families into
remote places where preaching is scarce, if at all;
and there leave their wives
to govern the family, not regarding their want of the
Word, for as much as
they themselves oft coming to London or other like
places by reason of their
calling, enjoy the Word themselves. Many citizens,
lawyers, and others are
guilty of great neglect of their wives in this
respect. So also are they, who
abandon all religious exercise out of their houses,
making their houses rather
breed much wearisomeness, [and] unseasonable cannot
but much disquiet
her and give her great offence [as when the wife is
weak by sickness, childbearing,
nursing, or other like means, and so not able to give
that contentment
which otherwise she would].
3. Who hold their wives under as if they were children
or servants,
restraining them from doing anything without their
knowledge and particular
express consent.
Of husbands’ ungrateful discouraging their wives:
Contrary is an
ungrateful, if not envious disposition of such
husbands as passing by many
good things ordinarily and usually every day done by
their wives without any
[approval], commendation, or [reward] are ready to
dispraise the least slip or
neglect in them; and that in such general terms as if
they never did anything
well, so as their wives may well complain and say as
it is in the proverb, “Oft
did I well, and that hear I never: Once did I ill, and
that hear I ever.”
Of an husband’s manner of instructing his wife: To
instruction the
Apostle expressly annexeth meekness. Instruct [saith
he] with meekness
those that oppose themselves. If Ministers must use
meekness when they
instruct their people, much more husbands when they
instruct their wives:
if in case of opposition meekness must not be laid
aside, then in no case, at
no time.
In this case to manifest meekness, let these rules be
observed.
1. Note the understanding and capacity of thy wife,
and accordingly fit
thine instructions: if she be of mean capacity, give precept upon precept, line
upon line, here a little and there a little; a little
at once oft given [namely
every day something] will arise in time to a great
measure, and so arise, as,
together with knowledge of the thing taught, love of
the person that teacheth
will increase.
2. Instruct her in private between thyself and her,
that so her ignorance
may not be blazed forth: private actions passing between man and wife are
tokens of much kindness and familiarity.
3. In the family so instruct children and servants
when she is present, as
she may learn knowledge thereby: there can be no more meek and gentle
manner of instructing, than by one to instruct
another.
4. Together with thy precepts mix sweet and pithy
persuasions, which are
testimonies of great love.
Contrary is an harsh and rough manner of instructing,
when husbands go
about to thrust into their wives’ heads, as it were by
violence, deep mysteries
which they are not able to conceive, and yet if they
conceive not, they will be
angry with them, and in anger give them evil language,
and proclaim their
ignorance before children, servants, and strangers.
This harshness is ordi-
2 4 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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Husbands, Love Your Wives 27
Christ’s love cannot be expressed: for the measure of
it was above measure.
He gave Himself for His Church (Eph 5:25), and in that
respect He calleth
Himself that Good Shepherd that gave His life for His
sheep (Joh 10:11).
Greater love than this hath no man (Joh 15:13). What
will He not do for His
spouse , [Who] gave His life for her?
Of husbands’ unkindness: Contrary is their unkindness
that prefer every
trifle of their own before the good of their wives:
their profit, their pleasure,
their promotion, clean draw away their hearts and
affections from their wives.
If any extraordinary charge must be laid out or pains
taken for their wives’
good, little love will then appear.
Of husbands’ constancy in love: The continuance of
Christ’s love was
without date: “Having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them
to the end” (Joh 13:1). His love was constant [not by
fits, now loving, then hating]
and everlasting (Hos 2:19) [never repenting thereof,
never changing or
altering His mind]. No provocations, no transgressions
could ever make Him
forget to love and cease to do that good which He
intended for His Church.
Note what He said to her even when she revolted from
Him, “Thou hast
played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again
to me” (Jer 3:1): and
again, “My mercy shall not depart away” (2Sa 7:15). .
. . For His love resteth
not on the desert of His Church, but on the
unchangeableness of His own will.
As this manifested Christ’s love to be true, sound
love, so it made it profit a b l e
and beneficial to the Church, which, notwithstanding
her many frailties, by
virtue hereof is glorifie d .
Of husbands’ loving their wives as themselves: To the
example of Christ
the Apostle annexeth the pattern of one’s self in
these words: “So ought men to
love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph 5:28). . .
. Christ’s example is a full,
complete, perfect, and every way sufficient pattern,
far more excellent than this
of a man’s self. This is not annexed to add anything
to that or in regard of the
excellency hereof, but only in regard of our dullness
to make the point somewhat
more plain and perspicuous. For this pattern is more
sensible and better
discerned. Every one knoweth how he loveth his own
body, but few or none
know how Christ loveth His Church. Besides, that
example of Christ may seem
too high and excellent for any to attain unto, even
[out of reach]. Therefore to
show that he requireth no more than a man may perform,
if he will set himself
with care and conscience to do his duty, [the Apostle]
addeth the pattern of
o n e ’s self; that which one doth to his body, if he
will, he may do to his wife.
No other man will or can so tenderly handle a man’s
hand, arm, leg, or
any other part of his body as himself: he is very
sensible of his own smart. The
metaphors which the Apostle useth in these words, “He
nourisheth and cherisheth
it,” do lively set forth this tenderness (Eph 5:29):
for they are taken
from fowls and birds which very [carefully] and
tenderly hover over their
stews17 of the devil than churches of God. If for want of
means, either public
or private, a wife live and die in ignorance,
profaneness, infid e l i t y, and impeni
t e n c y, which cause eternal damnation, assuredly
her blood shall be required
at his hands: for an husband is God’s watchman to his
wife (Eze 3:18).
Of an husband’s care to provide for his wife so long
as she shall live: T h e
continuance of an husband’s provident care for his
wife must be so long as
she liveth, yea though she outlive him: not that he
can actually when he is
dead provide for her, but that he may before his death
so provide for her, as
she may have wherewithal to maintain herself, and to
live according to that
place whereunto by him she is advanced: at least that
he leave her not only so
much as he had with her, but something more also in
testimony of his love to
her, and care for her. Husbands have the example of
Christ to press this duty
upon them: for when He went away from His Church here
on earth, He left
His Spirit, which furnished [her] with gifts as
plentifully, as if Christ had still
remained with her, if not more abundantly (Eph 4:8).
At the time of a man’s
departure out of this world from his wife, will the
truest trial of his affection
to his wife be given: for many that bear their wives’
fare in hand while they
live with them, at their death show that there was no
soundness of affection
in their heart towards them: all was but a mere show
for some by-respects.18
Of the freeness of husbands’ love: The cause of
Christ’s love was His love,
as Moses noteth, He set His love on you because He
loved you (Deu 7:7, 8). His
love arose only and wholly from Himself and was every
way free: as there was
nothing in the Church, before Christ loved her, to
move Him to love her, so can
there be nothing that He could hope for afterwards,
but what Himself bestowed.
Indeed He delighteth in that righteousness wherewith
as with a glorious robe
she is clothed; and with those heavenly graces,
wherewith as with precious jewels
she is decked: but that righteousness and those graces
are His own and of
His free gift. He presents it to Himself a glorious
Church (Eph 5:27).
In imitation hereof husbands should love their wives,
though there were
nothing in wives to move them so to do, but only that
they are their wives:
yea though no future benefit could after be expected
from them. True love
hath respect to the object which is loved, and the
good it may do thereunto,
rather than to the subject which loveth, and the good
that it may receive. For
love seeketh not her own (1Co 13:5). . . . Christ’s
love in this branch thereof
should further move husbands to do what lieth in their
power to make their
wives worthy of love. Thus will it be in truth said that
they dwell with their
wives according to knowledge (1Pe 3:7), and thus will
their love appear to be
as Christ’s love—free.
Of husbands loving their wives more than themselves:
The quantity of
2 6 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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17
stews –
brothels; houses of prostitution.
18
by-respects –
regard to something other than the main object; a side aim.
THECONVERSION
OF FAMILYMEMBERS
Samuel Lee (1627-1691)
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
Israel is,
that they might be saved”—Romans 10:1.
QUESTION: “What course shall we take, what means shall we use,
what
method will you prescribe, that we may be able to
manage this important
and weighty duty, [and] that we may be helpful towards
the conversion
and salvation of our near relations that are in the
state of nature1?”
I shall draw up directions under [several] heads. Some
whereof, though
usual and obvious in such as treatment upon
[household] duties, yet being
further improved, may by no means be here passed by in
silence, since they
are exceeding useful and no less practical than
others. Most men under the
Gospel perish for want of practising known duties.
Wherefore let me beg of
thee, O Christian, that every prescription may be duly
weighed and conscientiously
improved; so shalt thou not doubt of admirable success
through
Divine assistance.
1. Preserve and uphold the honor and preeminence of
that station
wherein God hath set you by all wise and cautious
means. T h e P r o p h e t
bewails those times wherein “the child shall behave himself
proudly against
the ancient, and the base against the honourable” (Isa
3:5). Distance of years
calls for distance of behavior. . . . There is a great
deal of reverence to be manifested
by adults towards youth, if they would cherish and
preserve that due
reverence which ought to be in the hearts of young
ones towards themselves.
And yet notwithstanding, you must not carry yourselves
with any proud,
h a u g h t y, or pretentious behavior. Your
countenance, though grave, yet must
not be stern. As you need not indent your cheeks with
continual smiles, so neither
to plough your foreheads with rough and sour wrinkles.
Rigid severity in
words and actions will produce a slavish, disheartened
temper in children.
2. Be frequent, pithy,2 and clear in family instruction.
We are all like barren
wildernesses and stony deserts by nature: instruction
is the culture and
improvement of the soul. It is observed by
naturalists, that bees “do carry
small gravel in their feet” to poise their little
bodies through the stormy
winds. Such are instructions to the floating and
wavering minds of youth.
The keel of their weak judgments would soon capsize
without the ballast of
discipline. . . . But in all your instructions, have a
care of being tediously
young ones, covering them all over with their wings
and feathers, but so bearing
up their bodies as no weight lieth upon them. . . .
Thus ought husbands
with all tenderness and mildness to deal with their
wives, as we have before
noted in many particulars: only this example of a man’s
self I thought good to
set before husbands, as a lively pattern wherein they
might behold a precedent
without exception going before them, and whereby they
might receive
excellent direction for the better performing of the
particulars before noted.
Such affection ought husbands to have to their wives:
they ought more
willingly and cheerfully to do anything for their
wives than for parents, children,
friends, or any other. Though this cheerfulness be an
inward disposition
of the heart, yet may it be manifested by a man’s
forwardness and readiness to
do his wife good. When his wife shall no sooner desire
a kindness, than he will
be ready to grant it: as Boaz saith to Ruth, “I will
do to thee all that thou
requirest” (Rut 3:11).
Contrary is the disposition of those husbands who so
grudgingly, repiningly,
19 and
discontentedly do those things which they do in their wives’
behalf, as their wives had rather they were not done
at all. The manner of
doing them causeth more grief to tender-hearted wives,
than the things
themselves can do good.
Of Christ’s example, a motive to provoke husbands to
love their wives:
The forenamed examples of Christ and of ourselves as
they are patterns for
our direction, so general motives to provoke and stir
us up the more to perform
all the forenamed duties after the manner prescribed.
. . . A greater and
stronger motive cannot be yielded than the example of
Christ. Example in
itself is of great force to provoke us to do anything:
especially if it be the
example of some great one, a man of place and renown.
But who greater than
Christ? What more worthy pattern? If the example of
the Church be of great
force to move wives to be subject to their husbands,
the example of Christ
must needs be of much greater force to move husbands
to love their wives. A
great honor it is to be like unto Christ: His example
is a perfect pattern.
From Of
Domestical Duties reprinted by Still Waters Revival
Books.
2 8 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
William Gouge (1575-1653): minister for 46 years at
Blackfriars, London, which was
considered the number one preaching center of that day.
Many believe that thousands
were converted under Gouge’s heart-searching expository
preaching. Mighty in Scripture
and prayer, Gouge preached for thirty years on Hebrews,
the substance of which
became a famous commentary. Born in Stratford-Bow,
Middlesex County, England.
19
repiningly –
grumblingly.
1
state of nature –
this means “in an unconverted state; those who are not born of God’s
Spirit,
and therefore unrepentant and unbelieving.”
2
pithy –
containing much matter in a few words.
The Conversion of Family Members 31
4. Set a narrow guard upon the first sproutings of sin
in their behavior.
Crush vipers in the egg. Exercise your hazel-rods upon
the serpents’ heads,
when they first creep out of their holes, being chill
and feeble in the beginning
of the spring. “I will early destroy all the wicked of
the land,” says David
(Psa 101:8). You must set about this work early in
life [and] stop every evil
and disagreeable word at the first hearing. Watch the
beginnings, the first
bubblings of corruption in them. A man may pull off a
tender bud with ease;
but if he let it grow to a branch, it will cost him
some pains.
O that you would then begin to cast water upon the
first kindlings of sin
in your little ones! Cut off the occasions of sin by
prudent interference. It is
strange to see what excuses and disguises for sin,
what deceitfulness in speech
[that] little children will use! Before thou canst
teach them to speak plain
English, the devil and a corrupt heart will teach them
to speak plain lies.
While their tongues do yet falter much in
pronunciation, they will falter more
in double-speaking. What great need is there then to
put a curb and bridle
upon thy child’s tongue as well as thine own! (Psa
39:1).
Undermine their fallacies by discerning examinations
and shrewd questions.
If this work be not set to early in their lives,
possibly in process of years
they may prove too cunning to be caught, unless thou
inspire them quickly
with the awe of God’s judgments and the danger of sin.
Teach their conscience
to blush, as well as their cheeks, that they may from
an inwrought
principle avoid the evil and do the good. If thou
suffer a child to go on in sin
unregarded, untaught, unrebuked, and think it is too
little to give attention
to at first, that sinful folly will be thy scourge in
the end. God many times
whips an aged parent by that child which was unwhipped
at first.
5. Preserve them from evil society. David not only
hated sin in general,
but especially he detested having it become an inmate
in his house. “He that
worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he
that telleth lies shall not
tarry in my sight” (Psa 101:7); that so the evil
example and spiritually-darkened
companionship of wicked persons might not cleave to
and corrupt his
close relations. Imitation is natural to children:
associates and companions
are the patterns of their imitation. For, according to
the proverb, “He that
lives with a lame man will learn to limp.” [Solomon]
tells us that “with a furious
man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways” (Pro
22:24, 25). Children
especially may be dangerously infected by lewd and
corrupt company.
Many children of godly parents have had their manners
fouled and extremely
corrupted by frequent and familiar consorting with the
naughty children of
wicked neighbors.
6. Let well-timed and prudent rebukes be administered
according to the
nature and quality of their offences. Begin
gently. Use all persuasive motives
to draw and allure them, if possible, to the ways of
God. Tell them of the
l o n g -winded. Make up the shortness of your
discourse by frequency. Thou art
enjoined to talk of God’s precepts “when thou sittest
in thine house, and
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lest down,
and when thou risest
up” (Deu 6:7; 11:19), a little now and a little then.
Long orations burden
their small memories too much and through such
imprudence may occasion
the loathing of spiritual manna, considering their
being yet in the state of
nature. A young plant may quickly be overloaded with
manure and rotted
with too much watering. Weak eyes, newly opened from
sleep, cannot bear
the glaring windows: “Line upon line, and precept upon
precept; here a little,
and there a little” (Isa 28:10). You must drive the
little ones as Jacob did, very
gently towards Canaan (Gen 33:13).
Entertain their tender attentions with discourses of
God’s infinite greatness
and amiable goodness, of the glories of heaven, of the
torments of hell.
Things that affect the senses must be spiritualized to
them: catch their affections
by a holy cunning. Deal as much in allegories as thou
canst. If you be
together in a garden, draw some sweet and heavenly
discourse out of the
beautiful flowers; if by a riverside, treat of the
water of life and the rivers of
pleasure that are at God’s right hand; if in a field
of corn, speak of the nourishing
quality of the bread of life; if you see birds flying
in the air or hear
them singing in the woods, teach them the all-wise
providence of God that
gives them their meat in due season; if thou lookest
up to the sun, moon, and
stars, tell them they are but the shining spangles of
the outer rooms of
heaven. O then what glory is there within! If thou
seest a rainbow adorning
some waterish cloud, talk of the covenant of God.
These and many more may
be like so many golden links drawing divine things
into their memories. “I
have spoken by the prophets, and used similitudes,”
saith God (Hos 12:10).
Moreover, let young ones read and learn by heart some
portions of the historical
books of Holy Scripture. But, above all, the best way
of instruction,
especially as to the younger sort, may be performed by
catechisms—question
and answer in a short, concise method—whose terms,
being clear and distinct,
might be phrased out of Holy Scripture and fitted to
their capacities by
a plain, though solid style and to their memories by
brief expressions.
3. Add to thine instructions mandatory requirements. L
a y it as a charge
upon their souls in the name of God that they hearken
to and obey thine household
regulations and practices. An instance we have in the
case of Solomon,
who acquaints us that he was “my father’s son, tender
and only beloved in the
sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto
me, Let thine heart retain
my words: keep my commandments, and live” (Pro 4:3,
4). . . . For this matter,
Abraham was commended by God Himself as a pattern to
all posterity: “I know
him,” says God, “that he will c o m m a n d his
children and his household after
him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do
justice and judgment”
(Gen 18:19), and therefore God was pleased to reveal
secrets to him.
3 0 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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The Conversion of Family Members 33
Moses commanded the Israelites to go over the laws and
precepts which he
had given them from God in their own families in
private among their children
(Deu 6:7). The instructions and exhortations of God’s
ministers in public
should be repeated at home and whetted to and again
upon the little ones.
Samuel had a feast upon the sacrifice in his own house
(1Sa 9:12, 22). Job and
others had sacrifices in their own families. The
passover-lamb was to be eaten
in every particular house (Exo 12:3, 4). God says He
will “pour out his fury
upon the families that call not upon his name” (Jer
10:25).
The keeping up of family-duties makes every little
house become a sanctuary,
a Beth-el, a house of God. And here I would advise
that Christians be
not over-tedious in their duties of private worship.
Take heed of making the
ways of God burdensome and unpleasant. If God draw
forth thy heart sometimes,
do not reject and repress Divine breathings; but
usually labor for conciseness
and brevity. The spirit is willing many times, when
the flesh is weak.
And a person may better for a little time keep his
thoughts from wandering
and disarray, whenas the large expense of expressions
gives occasion for too
much diversion. “God is in heaven, and thou upon
earth: therefore let thy
words be few” (Ecc 5:2). It is of good use likewise to
vary the duties of religion:
sometimes sing and sometimes read, sometimes repeat,
sometimes catechise,
sometimes exhort. But in two things be principally
frequent: the
offering up the sacrifice of prayers and the keeping
of children to read daily
some portion of Holy Scriptures.
8. Endeavor by all good means to draw them to public
ordinances. F o r
there God is in a more special manner present. He
makes the place of His feet
to be glorious. Though it were God’s appointment that
the males only should
at the solemn feasts repair to Shiloh, yet Elkanah
carries up all his house to
the yearly sacrifice (1Sa 1:21). He would have his
wife, children, and servants
“to behold the beauty of the L O R D, and to inquire
in his temple” (Psa 27:4).
Cornelius also, when Peter came to preach at Caesarea
upon God’s immediate
command, calls together all his kindred and
acquaintants to hear the sermon
(Act 10:24). . . . As for such as can be present at
ordinances, remember to e x a mine
them of what they heard as our blessed Lord, the grand
pattern of our imitation,
dealt by His beloved disciples, when He had preached
that famous
sermon by the seaside. Jesus asks them, “Have ye
understood all those t h i n g s ? ”
(Mat 13:51). And when they were alone and apart from
the multitude, then H e
expounded and explained all things that He taught more
fully to them (Mar 4 : 3 4 ) .
9. If all these things forementioned will not prevail,
but inferiors will still
run on in a course of sin, then aughtest thou to
resort to paternal correction.
N o w chastisements must be suited to their age, the
temperament of their
natures, [their] dispositions, [and] the various
qualities and kinds of their
offences. Indulge a pardon sooner to lesser faults
upon repentance and sorrow.
rewards of glory, of the sweet society in heaven;
endeavor to satisfy their hearts
that God is able to fill their souls with such joys as
are not to be found in the
creatures. “Of some have compassion, making a
difference” (Jud 22). But if
this will not do, then begin to mix some more severe
expressions of thy holy
anger against sin. As there is a linking-together in
virtues, so in passions. Love
and anger are not altogether “incompatible
affections.” Nay, love may be the
principle and foundation of that anger, which shoots
its rebuking arrows
against the [target] of sin. . . . Thou mayest tell
thy child, and that with some
grains of severity, that if he continue in sinful
courses, God will be angry, and
thou wilt be angry. Then let him know what a “fearful
thing it is to fall into the
hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). This is the way
to “be ye angry, and sin
not” as the apostle commands (Eph 4:26). Let not your
passions, like unruly
torrents, overflow the banks that are limited by
Scripture and reason. There is
a grave and sober anger that will procure reverence
and advance reformation.
That which is mixed with horrid noise and shouting
floweth from the breasts
of fools. In vain shalt thou attempt to reclaim
others, who art so excessive and
frantic thyself. How shall that person in his rebukes
speak reason to another
that hath lost his own? He that is a slave to his
hot-tempered appetite can
never manage noble reproofs. A child can never
persuade himself that such
anger proceedeth from love, when he is made the sink
to receive the daily
vomitings of a fiery stomach, when the unhappy
necessity of his relation ties
him to be always in the way where an angry disposition
must vent and empty
itself. . . . Observe, therefore, a prudent
administration of thy rebukes. Gild
those bitter pills3
with the hopes of recovering thy favor
upon amendment.4
Consider, likewise, the station and place of thy
several relations. A wife
ought not to be rebuked before children and servants,
lest her subordinate
authority be diminished. Contempt cast upon the wife
will reflect upon the
husband at last. Yea, for smaller offences in children
and servants, if they be
not committed openly, rebuke them apart and in
private. But, above all, take
heed thou be not found more severe in reproving faults
against thyself, than
sins against the great God. If thou hast cause to be
angry, yet let not thy
storms run all upon the rocks, but endeavor speedily
to cool the inflammation,
to abate the fever, and slake the fire of anger.
Wink at infirmities: if not such as are immediately
sinful, chide them with
frowns and not with bitter assaults. Reserve thy
public and sharp reprehensions
for open and scandalous offences, for reiterated and
repeated transgressions
which bear a show of great neglect, if not of some
contempt and disdain.
7. Keep up a constant and vigorous practice of holy
duties in thy family.
“As for me and my house,” says Joshua, “we will serve
the Lord” (Jos 24:15).
3 2 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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3
gild those bitterpills –
to soften or tone down something unpleasant.
4
amendment – reforming;
changing for the better.
The Conversion of Family Members 35
be more proper. In some cases, these have proved great
spurs and incitations,
at least to the outward work of religion in younger
ones . . . you know the
father of the prodigal in the parable, when his son
returned home to lead a
new life—he killed a fatted calf for him, put the best
robe upon his back, a
ring upon his hand, and shoes upon his feet (Luk
15:22).
From “What Means May Be Used towards the Conversion of Our
Carnal
Relations?” in Puritan
Sermons 1659-1689, being the Morning Exercises at
Cripplegate, Vol 1, reprinted by Richard Owen
Roberts, Publishers.
You must consider whether their faults proceed from
imprudence and weakn e s s ,
upon what ground and occasion, [and] upon what
provocation or seduction.
Observe whether they appear to be deeply sorrowful and
truly humbled. . . . In
these and the like cases, you must apply great
diligence and prudence. Due
punishment is a part of family justice, and there must
be care taken, lest by
frequent exemption from punishment they and their
fellows be hardened in
the ways of sin and grow obstinate and rebellious
against the commandments
of God. “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but
he that loveth him chasteneth
him betimes. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and
shalt deliver his
soul from hell” (Pro 13:24; 23:14). This is an
ordinance and appointment of
God. “Our
fathers corrected us, and we gave them reverence” (Heb 12:9).
There be some cruel parents and masters that carry
themselves more like
raging brutes than men, that take pleasure in
tyrannical corrections. They
can let their children swear, and lie, and steal, and
commit any other sin, and
yet correct them not. But if they do not what they
would have them, then
they fall upon them and tear them like wild beasts.
Know that God will
require such vile acts at your hands in the great Day!
O rather let them see
that thou art angry for God’s sake and not for thine
own! There must be a
great deal of gracious pity to their souls and holy
love mixed with thine anger
against sin. . . . Be careful to use both your ears,
and hearken to both parties
in matters of complaint. But if upon deliberate and
mature conviction nothing
less will prevail, follow God’s command herein and
“thy son shall give rest
unto thy soul” (Pro 29:17). . . . But take heed of all
violent and passionate corrections.
He that smites when his passion boils, is too, too
subject to transcend
the limits of moderation . . . take heed lest thou
make thy child to
become vile in thine own eyes by too many stripes (Deu
25:3).
10. If the forementioned means through Divine blessing
prove effectual,
then praise and encourage them, when they come on,
though yet but a little.
As magistrates, so parents must be sometimes praisers
of them that do well
(Rom 13:3). Our Lord comes in sometimes with, “Well
done, good and faithful
servant” (Mat 25:21). So must you, when they show
promise and a sense of
duty, encourage them by showing your approval. . . .
Only take heed of
exceeding too much, for little vessels can bear no
great sails. Pride and arrogancy
are many times nursed up by overflowing and lavish
expressions, and
sometimes inappropriate haughtiness and familiarity
appear.
11. Do they flourish and thrive in duty and obedience
and begin to takein
precepts freely and kindly? Then win them on further
by rewards according
to their several capacities and the quality of thine
own estate. God is
pleased most graciously to draw and allure us on in
the ways of holiness by
the proposal of reward: “He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him”
(Heb 11:6). As to years of further growth, such
rewards as become them may
3 4 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
Samuel Lee (1627-1691):
Congregational Puritan minister of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate.
Persecution
drove him to New England for several years. But upon his attempted return
to
England, his ship was captured by French privateers, and he died in prison in
France.
Born
in London, England.
My brethren, let me say, be ye like Christ at all times,
imitate Him in public.
Most of us live in some sort of publicity; many of us are
called to work before
our fellow men every day.We are watched; our words are
caught; our lives are
examined—taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argue-eyed world
observes everything
we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life
of Christ in public.
Let us take care that we exhibit our Master and not
ourselves, so that we can
s a y, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth
in me.” Take heed that you
carry this into the church too, you who are church members.
Be like Christ in
the church. How many there are of you like Diotrephes,
seeking pre-eminence
(3Jo 1:9). How many are trying to have some dignity and
power over their fellow
Christians, instead of remembering that it is the
fundamental rule of all our
churches, that there all men are equal-alike brethren, alike
to be received as
such. Carry out the spirit of Christ then, in your churches,
wherever ye are: let
your fellow members say of you, “He has been with Jesus.” .
. . But most of all
take care to have religion in your houses. Areligious house
is the best proof of
true piety. It is not my chapel, it is my house—it is not my
minister, it is my
home companion who can best judge me. It is the servant, the
child, the wife,
the friend, that can discern most of my real character.
Agood man will improve
his household. Rowland Hill once said he would not believe a
man to be a true
Christian, if his wife, his children, his servants, and even
the dog and cat, were
not the better for it. . . . If your household is not the
better for your Christianity,
if men cannot say, “This is a better house than others,”
then be not deceived—
ye have nothing of the grace of God. . . . Carry out your
godliness in your fami
l y. Let every one say that you have practical religion. Let
it be known and read
in the house, as well as in the world. Take care of your
character there; for what
we are there, we really are—Charles
Spurgeon.
THREATS
TO GODLINESS
INYOUNGMEN
John Angell James (1785-1859)
It is well to
know what these are and where they lie, that you may know
how to avoid them. Ignorance on such a subject would
be itself one of the
chief dangers. In many cases, to know our perils is
itself one way of avoiding
them. Steadily, then, contemplate the following:
I. You are in danger of falling into evil from the
removal of parental
inspection, admonition, and restraint. It must be
admitted, that home itself
is sometimes a scene of peril to morals and religion.
In some homes, young
people see and hear very little but what is calculated
to do them harm:
parental example is on the side of sin, and almost
everything that is said or
done is of a nature likely to produce impressions
unfavorable to piety and
p e rhaps even to morality. Where this is the state of
things, removal is a bene
fit. . . . Many a young man, who at the time of
leaving home, wept over the
necessity which caused him to quit the scenes of his
childhood and to go
from beneath the wing of his parents, has lived to
consider it the brightest era
of his life, inasmuch as it took him away from scenes
of moral danger and led
him to the means of grace and the path of eternal
life. . . . This, however, is
not applicable to all families: if there are some
parents who take no care about
the religious or even moral character of their
children, who neither set them
good examples, nor deliver to them any instruction,
nor impose upon them
any restraint, but who allow them the unchecked
gratification1 of their passions
and the unreproved commission of sin,2 there are many
others who act
a wiser and a better part.
In [many] instances, parents are moral; in many they
are pious.3 And
while the former are anxious to keep their sons from
vice and train them to
virtue, the latter go further and endeavor to bring
them up in the fear of the
Lord. . . . You have been brought up in habits of
rigid morality. Your parents
have been solicitous4 to form your character on a
right basis. You have been
long familiar with the voice of instruction,
admonition, and warning. You
have been the constant subject of an anxiety which you
could neither be ignorant
of nor mistake. If you were seen in company with a
stranger or with a
youth of doubtful character, you were questioned and
warned. If you brought
home a book, it was examined. If you stayed out at
night later than usual, you
saw a mother’s anxious eye turned upon you and heard a
father’s voice saying,
A GODLY FATHER’SANGER
John Gill (1697-1771)
FIRST, negatively expressed: “Ye fathers, provoke not your
children to
wrath” (Eph 6:4) which may be done, (1.) By words: by
laying upon
them unjust and unreasonable commands, by frequent,
public, and
severe [scolding]; by indiscreet and passionate
expressions, and by [humiliating]
and [abusive] language; such as that of Saul to
Jonathan (1Sa 20:30).
(2.) By deeds: as by showing more love to one
than to another, as Jacob
did to Joseph, which so incensed his brethren that
they hated Joseph and
could not speak peaceably to him (Gen 37:8); by not
allowing them proper
food and a sufficiency of it (Mat 7:9, 10; 1Ti 5:8);
by not indulging them with
innocent recreation, which children should have (Zec
8:5); and when at a
proper age for marriage, of [giving] them to persons
not agreeable to their
inclinations; and by restraining them from those that
would be without any
just reason; [or] by squandering away their substance
in riotous living, when
they should have preserved it and laid it up for the
present use or future good
of their children; and especially by any cruel and
inhuman treatment as that
of Saul to Jonathan, when he made an attempt on his
life (1Sa 20:33, 34).
Such provocation should be carefully avoided, since it
renders all commands,
counsel, and corrections ineffectual, alienating the
affections of their children
from them. The reason to [avoid] it, given by the
apostle, is “lest they be discouraged”
(Col 3:21); [they may] be overwhelmed with grief and
sorrow and
thereby their spirits be broken [and] become
[cowardly], disheartened, and
dispirited. Despairing of pleasing their parents and
sharing in their affections,
[they may] become careless of duty and [lazy in]
business. Parents, no doubt
have a right to rebuke and reprove their children when
they do amiss: it was
Eli’s fault that he was too soft and lenient and his
reproofs too easy, when he
should have restrained his sons from acting the vile
part. [He] should have
frowned upon them, put on stern looks, laid his
commands on them, and
severely threatened them, and punished them if
[obstinate and disobedient]
(1Sa 2:23, 24; 3:13). And they may use the rod of
correction, which they
should do early, and while there is hope; but always
with moderation and in
love; and should take some pains with their children
to convince them that
they do love them; and that it is in love to them, and
for their good, that they
chastise them. “Fathers” are particularly mentioned
because they are apt to
be most severe, and mothers most indulgent.
From A Body
of Divinity, reprinted by The Baptist Standard
Bearer
1
unchecked gratification –
unrestrained self-satisfying.
2
unreproved commission of sin –
sins committed without disapproval or correction.
3
pious –
faithfully obedient and reverent to God; devout; godly.
4
solicitous –
careful; desirous.
John Gill (1697-1771):
Baptist minister, theologian, and biblical scholar. Author of A
Body of Divinity, The Cause of God and Truth,
and his nine-volume Expositions of the
Old and New Testaments.
Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England.
Threats to Godliness in Young Men 39
house and go out into the world. “Paternal rule is now
over; my parents are
not at hand to be consulted or obeyed; and if they
were, it is time for me to
think and act for myself. I am my own master now. I am
a young man, and no
longer a child. I am capable of judging,
discriminating, and determining
between right and wrong. I have the right, and will
exercise it, of forming my
own standard of morals, selecting my own models of
character, and laying
down my own plans of action. Who has authority to
interfere with me?”
Such probably are your thoughts, and they are
encouraged by many
around you, who suggest that you are not always to go
in leading strings,9 b u t
ought now to assert your liberty and act like a man.
Yes, and how many have
employed and abused this liberty to the most criminal
and fatal purposes: it
has been a liberty to destroy all the habits of virtue
formed at home, to subvert
all the principles implanted by their parents’
[anxious care] and to rush
into all the evil practices against which the voice of
warning had been raised
from their boyhood. Many young men have no sooner been
freed from
parental restraint and become their own masters, than
they have hurried to
every place of amusement, resorted to every species of
vicious diversion, initiated
themselves into all the mysteries of iniquity, and
with prurient10
curiosity to know what it is bliss to be ignorant of,
[and] have entered into fellowship
with all the unfruitful works of darkness. Happy, happy
had they
been, had they considered that an independence which
sets them free from
parental advice and control is the bane1 1 of piety,
morality, and happiness and
has proved, where it has been assumed, the ruin for
both worlds of multitudes
of once hopeful youths. Wise is that young man and
blessed in all probability
he will be, who though he has left his father’s house,
and it may be has arrived
at the age of maturity, feels it his privilege as well
as his duty to look up to his
parents as his counselors, his comforters, and, in
some respects, his rulers;
who allows the restraints of home to follow him
abroad; and who amidst the
dangerous intricacies of life is thankful to accept
the kind offices of a [wise]
father to be the guide of his youth.
III. The numerous incentives to vice with which every
place, but especially
the [cities] and large provincial towns, abounds, and
the opportunities
of concealment which are to be found there are a
source of great danger. A t
the head of all these must be placed the theater,
which is there to be found in
all its most powerful attractions and most destructive
fascinations. Nothing
can be said too strong or too bad of the injurious
tendency of the stage; nor
too earnest or impassioned in the way of warning young
men from venturing
“My son, why so late, where have you been?” In short,
you felt yourself within
the range of an ever-present inspection and under the
pressure of a neverrelaxing
restraint. The theater and other places of pollution
were strictly forbidden,
and indeed you felt little inclination to visit those
haunts of vice.
Morning and evening you heard the Scriptures read, and
the voice of prayer
ascend to God and ascend for you. With such examples,
under such instruction,
and amidst such scenes, you had no opportunity and
felt no disposition
to be vicious.5 Sometimes you thought, perhaps, that the restraint was
too
severe and the care too fastidious6 . . .
All this is now over: you have left or are leaving
home. The moment has
arrived or is past and will never be forgotten, when
those arms which sustained
your infant frame were thrown around your neck and
pressed you to the bosom
that nourished you, while a mother’s faltering voice
exclaimed, “Farewell, my
b o y.” And a father, always kind, but kinder then than
ever, prolonged the sad
[farewell] and said, “My son, I can watch over you no
longer. The God Whose
providence removes you from your father’s house be
your Protector and preserve
you from the evils of this sinful world. Remember,
that though my eye
cannot see you, His can and ever does. Fear Him.” And
there, young man, you
now are, where your parents’ hearts trembled to place
you, amidst the snares
and perils of this evil world, where your father’s
inspection cannot reach you or
your mother’s tearful eyes behold you. . . . Away from
home, a viciously inclined
youth will find opportunities for the gratification of
his evil [inclinations] in situations
the most friendly to virtue. His wicked heart,
rejoicing in the absence of
his parents, will make that absence [a motivation] to
sin. Ever and anon7 t h e
whisper will come from within, “My father is not here
to see it; my mother will
not know it; I am not under inspection now; restraint
is over. I can go where I
like, associate with whom I please and fear neither
rebuke nor reproach.” O
young man, think of the unutterable baseness8 of such conduct
as this. Ought
you not to despise yourself, if you can thus meanly,
as well as wickedly, take
advantage of a father’s absence to do that which you
know would excite his
strongest [disapproval] and afflict him with the
bitterest grief, if he were present?
Yet multitudes are thus base and wicked and have gone
from their parents
to ruin themselves for ever. Act, young man, act as
you would do, if you were
conscious that your father’s eye were upon you.
II. Your danger is increased by the spirit of
independence and self-confi-
dence (connected, as of course it must be, with much
ignorance and inexperience)
which young men are apt to assume, when they leave
their father’s
3 8 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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9
leading strings –
strings with which children used to be guided and supported when
learning
to walk; to be still a child; to be in a state of dependence.
10
prurient –
inordinate interest in lewd ideas; inordinate interest in sexual matters.
11
bane –
a cause of destruction or ruin; deadly poison.
5
vicious –
addicted to vice or immorality; wicked. Throughout this article the author
does
not use vicious in
the modern sense of “savage” or “malicious.”
6
fastidious –
exacting; difficult to please.
7
everand anon –
every now and then.
8
baseness –
contemptible meanness; shameful selfishness.
Threats to Godliness in Young Men 41
ous in vicious society . . . and they will never cease
till they have made you as
bad as themselves. The more agreeable, amiable, and
intelligent they are, the
more dangerous and ensnaring is their influence. A
youthful profligate15 of
elegant manners, lively humor, amiable temper, and
intelligent mind is
Satan’s most polished instrument for ruining immortal
souls.
Vicious women are
as much to be dreaded as bad men and far more so. . . .
Youthful reader, be upon your guard against this peril
to your health, your
morals, your soul. Go where you will, this snare is
spread for your feet. Wa t c h
and pray that you enter not into temptation. Set a
strict guard upon your
senses, your imagination, and your passions. Once
yield to temptation, and
you are undone. Purity is then lost; and sunk from
self-esteem,16 you may
give yourself up to commit all uncleanness with
greediness.
Drinking parties, though not so common as they were or as are some
other snares, are still sufficiently prevalent to be
pointed out as a source of
d a n g e r. . . . Still it is an object of ambition
with some misguided youths to be
able to drink the bumper1 7 and the toast with convivial1 8 grace as a
matter of
course. What a low and sensual aim! Young man, as you
would not lie down
in the grave of a drunkard, worn out by disease, and
closing your miserable
career in poverty and wretchedness, beware of the
filthy, degrading, and
destructive habit of drinking. Remember the words of
the wisest of men:
“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions?
who hath babbling?
who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that
tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed
wine” (Pro 23:29, 30). Study
this inimitable19
and graphic picture of drinking and its
consequences, and
begin life with a horror of drunkenness . . . I again
say and with all possible
emphasis,
begin life with a horror of drunkenness.
I V. I close this fearful list of perils by mentioning
the prevalence of infi-
d e l i t y2 0 and the zeal and wily arts of its [instigators] and
propagators, as forming
another source of danger to youth. There never was an
age when infid e l i t y
was busier than it is now . . . the efforts of
infidels to diffuse their principles
among the common people and middle classes are
peculiarly energetic just now
. . . the system [of s o c i a l i s m], if
system it may be called . . . announces as its
leading dogma that man is entirely the creature of
circumstances;2 1 is in no
within its precincts. It is emphatically and eminently
the broad road and wide
gate that leads to destruction.
The staple matter of which the ordinary run of
dramatic representations
are composed is altogether adapted to corrupt the
youthful mind by appealing
to the most inflammable, powerful, and dangerous of
its passions. Tragedy,
with whatever fine passages and occasional lofty
sentiment it may be adorned,
is usually calculated to produce pride, ambition, and
revenge; while comedy,
such as is most suited to the public taste, and
therefore most in demand, is
the school for intrigue, amours,12 and
licentiousness.13
It is not, however, the subject matter only of the
play itself that is corrupting,
but the representation of it upon the stage with all
the accompaniments
of the theater. . . . It is bad sentiment,1 4 borrowing
every possible aid to
render it still worse: it is vice recommended by the
charms of music, painting,
architecture, oratory, and eloquence with all that is
fascinating in female
beauty and dazzling in elegant costume. . . . It were
easy to enumerate the
evils, though they are many and great, to which
frequenting the theater will
expose you. . . . It raises the passions above their
proper tone and thus induces
a dislike for those grave and serious subjects of life
which have nothing but
their simplicity and importance to recommend them. It
kindles low and base
appetites and creates a constant [craving] after their
indulgence. It not only
hardens the heart against religion, so that a
theater-loving man never
becomes religious until he is persuaded to abandon
these amusements, but it
gradually [numbs] the conscience into an insensibility
to good morals.
Bad companions are
a source of danger. Perhaps more young men are
ruined by this than by any other means that could be
mentioned. Many who
have left home with a character unsullied and a mind
not only comparatively
pure, but really ignorant of the crooked ways of vice,
who, simple, [inexperienced],
and without guile, would have shuddered at the
temptation to any of
the grosser acts of sin, have at length fallen
sacrifices to the powerful influence
of evil associates. Man is a social being, and the
propensity for company
is peculiarly strong in youth, the season when it
requires to be watched with
greater care than at any other because of the greater
force which it exerts in
the formation of character. Now and then we meet with
a youth who is so
engrossed with business, so intent on cultivating his
mind, or so reserved in
disposition, as to have no desire for companions. But
by far the greater number
are fond of society and eager to enjoy it; and, if not
extremely careful in
the selection of their friends, are in imminent peril
of choosing such as will
do them harm. It is next to impossible, young man, for
you to remain virtu-
4 0 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
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15
profligate –
one recklessly given to lewd, sensual pleasures and extravagance.
16
self-esteem –
favorable opinion of one’s self.
17
bumper –
a glass of wine filled to the brim.
18
convivial –
sociable; fond of feasting, drinking, and good company.
19
inimitable –
without compare; defying imitation; having no match or equal.
20
infidelity –
the attitude of one who has no religious belief, especially of Christianity.
21
man . . . the creature of
circumstances – socialism teaches that human action
is
determined
by external forces acting upon man’s will; he is therefore not responsible
for
what he does.
12
intrigue, amours –
secret, illicit love affairs.
13
licentiousness –
lewdness; inclined to lust; preoccupied with lustful desires.
14
sentiment –
emotional thought conveyed in literature or art.
Threats to Godliness in Young Men 43
flesh and of the mind. All but yourself are anxious.
Pause and consider what
you may become—an ornament of the profession you have
chosen, a
respectable member of society, a holy professor of
religion, a useful citizen of
your country, a benefactor of your species, and a
light of the world. But
according to the height to which you may rise is the
depth to which you may
sink: for as the bottom of the ocean is supposed to be
proportioned in measurement
to the tops of the mountains, so the dark gulfs of sin
and [damnation]
into which you may plunge, sustain a similar relation
to the summits of
excellence and happiness to which you may ascend. . .
. Survey for a moment
the sphere which you may occupy and fill up with
misery, desolation, and
ruin. See what opportunities of destruction are within
your reach, and to
what suicidal and murderous havoc sin may lead you, if
you give yourself up
to its influence and government.
You can blast your r e p u t a t i o n. After
building up with great care your good
name for some years and acquiring respect and esteem
from those who knew
you, “in one single hour, by yielding to some powerful
temptation, you may
fix a dark stain upon your character, which no tears
can ever wash away or
repentance remove, but which will cause you to be read
and known of all
men, till the grave receives you out of their sight.
You may render yourself an
object of the universal disgust and abhorrence of the
good and be the taunt
and scorn of the wicked; so that wherever you turn
your eyes, you will find
none to bestow upon you a single smile of complacency.
How many in this
condition, bitterly realizing that, ‘without a friend,
the world is but a wilderness,’
have in a paroxysm24
of desperation, committed suicide.”
Your intellect, strong by nature and capable of
high cultivation, may, like
a fine flower, be suffered to run wild by neglect, be
trodden down by brute
lusts, or be broken by violence. Your affections,
given to be your delight by
virtuous exercise on right objects, may be all perverted
so as to become like so
many demons, possessing and tormenting your soul
because they are set on
things forbidden and indulged to excess. Your c o n
s c i e n c e, granted to be your
monitor, guide, and friend, may be wounded, benumbed,
seared till it is
insensible, silent, deaf, and of no use in warning you
against sin, in restraining
or reproving you for it. In short, you may destroy
your immortal soul; and
what ruin is like that of the soul, so immense, so
horrible, so irretrievable?
You may break the hearts of your parents; make your
brothers and sisters
ashamed to own you; be a nuisance and pest to society;
a bane to your country;
the corrupter of youthful morals; the seducer of
female virtue; the consumer
of the property of your friends; and to reach the
climax of your
mischief, you may be the Apollyon25 of the circle
of immortal souls in which
sense the author of his opinions and volitions; nor
the founder or supporter of
his own character. . . . As if it were not enough to
shock the public mind by a
system so monstrous, the public taste and all our
social feelings are outraged
by the unblushing avowal of its author,22 that it is
his design and wish to
abolish the institution of marriage and reconstruct society upon the basis of
the unlegalized association of the sexes and the
unrestricted freedom of
divorce. Absurd and demoralizing as such a system is,
it is popular with many.
The reason is obvious: its very immorality proves to
them its recommendation.
If they can believe it, they feel that, commit what
crimes they may,
accountability is gone and remorse is extinguished.
The blame rests not on
them, for any sin whatever, but on the circumstances
which led to it:2 3 a short
way to be very wicked and yet very easy.
It must be obvious that between immorality and
infidelity there is a close
connection and a constant reaction going on in some
minds. A young man
falls into temptation and commits sin: instead of
repenting, as is his duty and
his interest, he in many cases attempts to quiet his
conscience by persuading
himself that religion is all hypocrisy and the Bible
untrue. His infidelity now
prepares him to go greater lengths in sin: thus vice
calls in the aid of error,
and error strengthens vice, while both together lead
their victim to ruin and
m i s e r y. To guard yourselves against such dangers,
study well the evidences of
revelation . . . [Christ] in the heart is the only
thing to be relied upon as a
defense against the attacks of infidels and the
influence of their principles.
It has been a dark day in the annals of myriads of
families, when a son
bade adieu to his parents, and commenced his probation
and his struggles in
the great business of human life. The tears that fell
on that occasion were a
sad [prediction], though unknown at the time, of
others that were to flow in
long succession over the follies, vices, and miseries
of that unhappy youth.
The history of ten thousand prodigal sons, the
untimely graves of ten thousand
broken-hearted parents, and the deep and heavy woes of
ten thousand
dishonored families attest the fact of the dangers
that await a youth on leaving
home: and he is most in danger, who is ignorant of
what awaits him or
who on being informed treats the subject with
indifference, smiles at the fears
of his friends and feels no fear for himself. Young
man, there is hope of you if
this representation shall awaken alarm, produce
self-distrust, and excite vigilance
and caution. Inexperienced, [self-confident], and rash
with all your
appetites sharpening and all your passions strengthening;
with an imagination
lively, a curiosity prurient, and a heart susceptible;
eager to act for yourself,
panting to try your scarcely fledged wings on leaving
the nest, and
perhaps ambitious of distinction, you are in imminent
peril of the lusts of the
4 2 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
24
paroxysm –
a violent outburst of emotion.
25
Apollyon –
the destroyer, a name given to the devil.
22
Karl Marx (1818-1883) –
German atheist, revolutionary, founder of socialism.
23
blame rests . . . led to it –
this is highly visible in our modern courtrooms.
4 4 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005 HOWTRUEMANHOOD
ISRESTORED
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
TO help the seeker to a true faith in Jesus, I would
remind him of the
work of the Lord Jesus in the room and place and stead
of sinners.
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for
the ungodly (Rom 5:6). “Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on
the tree” (1Pe 2:24). “The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all” (Isa
53:6). “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God” (1Pe 3:18).
Upon one declaration of Scripture let the reader fix
his eye. “With his
stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5). God here treats sin
as a disease, and He sets
before us the costly remedy which He has provided.
I ask you very solemnly to accompany me in your
meditations for a few
minutes, while I bring before you the stripes of the
Lord Jesus. The Lord
resolved to restore us, and therefore He sent His only
begotten Son, “very
God of very God,”1
that He might descend into this world to
take upon Himself
our nature in order for our redemption. He lived as a
man among men. In
due time, after thirty years or more of obedience, the
time came when He
should do us the greatest service of all, namely,
stand in our stead and bear
“the chastisement of our peace” (Isa 53:5). He went to
Gethsemane; and there
at the first taste of our bitter cup, He sweat great
drops of blood. He went to
P i l a t e ’s hall and Herod’s judgment-seat, and
there He drank draughts of pain
and scorn in our room and place. Last of all, they
took Him to the cross and
nailed Him there to die—to die in our stead.
The word stripes is used to set forth His
sufferings, both of body and of
soul. The whole of Christ was made a sacrifice for us.
His whole manhood suffered.
As to His body, it shared with His mind in a grief
that never can be
described. In the beginning of His passion, when He
emphatically suffered
instead of us, He was in an agony; and from His bodily
frame a bloody sweat
distilled so copiously2 as to fall to the ground.
It is a very rare occurrence that a man sweats blood.
There have been one
or two instances of it, and they have been followed by
almost immediate
death. But our Savior lived—lived after an agony which
to anyone else would
have proved fatal. Before He could cleanse His face
from this dreadful
you move, sending some to perdition before you reach
it yourself and causing
others to follow you to the bottomless pit, where you
will never escape the
sight of their torments nor the sound of their
[curses]. How great the power,
how malignant the virulence26 of sin that
can spread its influence so widely
and exert its force with such deadly effect, not only
destroying the sinner
himself, but involving others in his ruin! No man goes
alone to perdition, no
one perishes alone in his iniquity; a consideration
which every transgressor
should regard: he sustains the character not only of a
suicide, but of a murderer,
and the worst of all murderers, for he is the
murderer of souls. What a
critical position you now occupy, between the
capability of rising to so much
excellence or sinking to ruin so deep and misery so
intense! Reflect. Oh that
you were wise; that you understood this; that you
would consider your end!
From Addresses
to Young Men: a Friend and Guide
reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria.
1
v e ry God of very God –
from the Nicene Creed, originally the theological confession
resulting
from the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. This confession reflects the teaching
that
the Son is of one substance with the Father.
2
copiously –
profusely; abundantly.
John Angell James (1785-1859):
a humble and unpretentious author of numerous practical
books,
he beautifully balanced his convictions with practical piety in his life and
his mini
s
t r y. He preached and wrote to the common man and woman of every age group and
station
in
life. He was the author of 17 titles, which include The Anxious Inquire r,
The Churc h
M e m b e r’s Guide, Female Piety, and The Christian Father’s Present to His Childre n.
26
virulence –
extreme bitterness of temper or speech; bitterly hostile and hateful.
The true Christian is to be such a husband as Christ was to
His church. The
love of a husband is special. The Lord Jesus cherishes for
the church a peculiar
affection, which is set upon her above the rest of mankind:
“I pray for them, I
pray not for the world” (Joh 17:9). The elect church is the
favorite of heaven,
the treasure of Christ, the crown of His head, the bracelet
of His arm, the breastplate
of His heart, the very center and core of His love. A
husband should love
his wife with a constant love, for thus Jesus loves His
church. He does not vary
in his affection. He may change in his display of affection,
but the affection
itself is still the same. Ahusband should love his wife with
an enduring love, for
nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39). A true husband loves his wife
with a hearty love,
fervent and intense. It is not mere lip-service. Ah!
Beloved, what more could
Christ have done in proof of His love than He has done?
Jesus has a delighted
love towards His spouse: He prizes her affection and
delights in her with sweet
complacence. Believer, you wonder at Jesus’love; you admire
it—are you imitating
it?—Charles
Spurgeon
How True Manhood Is Restored 47
Now were all manner of bodily pains centered in His
tortured frame. All
the while His enemies stood around, pointing at Him in
scorn, thrusting out
their tongues in mockery, jesting at His prayers, and
gloating over His sufferings.
He cried, “I thirst” (Joh 19:28), and then they gave
Him vinegar mingled
with gall. After a while He said, “It is finished”
(Joh 19:30). He had
endured the utmost of appointed grief and had made
full vindication to divine
justice. Then, and not until then, He gave up the
ghost.
Holy men of old have enlarged most lovingly upon the
bodily sufferings of
our Lord, and I have no hesitation in doing the same,
trusting that trembling
sinners may see salvation in these painful “stripes”
of the Redeemer. To describe
the outward sufferings of our Lord is not easy. I
acknowledge that I have failed.
C h r i s t ’s soul-sufferings, which were the soul of
His sufferings, who can even
conceive, much less express what they were? At the
very first I told you that He
sweat great drops of blood. That was His heart driving
out its life-floods to the
surface through the terrible depression of spirit
which was upon Him. He said,
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Mat
26:38). The betrayal by
Judas and the desertion of the twelve grieved our
Lord, but the weight of our
sin was the real pressure on His heart. Our guilt was
the olive-press which
forced from Him the moisture of His life. No language
can ever tell His agony
in prospect of His passion. How little then can we
conceive the passion itself?
When nailed to the cross, He endured what no martyr
ever suffered. Martyrs,
when they have died, have been so sustained of God
that they have
rejoiced amid their pain. But our Redeemer was
forsaken of His Father until
He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Mat 27:46). That
was the bitterest cry of all, the utmost depth of His
unfathomable grief.
Yet it was necessary that He should be deserted
because God must turn
His back on sin and consequently upon Him who was
“made to be sin for us”
(2Co 5:21). The soul of the great Substitute suffered
a horror of misery
instead of that horror of hell into which sinners
would have been plunged had
He not taken their sin upon Himself and been made a
curse for them. It is
written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”
(Gal 3:13). But who
knows what that curse means?
The remedy for your sins and mine is found in the
substitutionary sufferings
of the Lord Jesus and in these only. These “stripes”
of the Lord Jesus
Christ were on our behalf. Do you ask, “Is there
anything for us to do, to
remove the guilt of sin?” I answer: “There is nothing
whatever for you to do.
By the stripes of Jesus we are healed. All those
stripes He has endured and left
not one of them for us to bear.”
“But must we not believe on Him?” Yes, certainly. If I
say of a certain ointment
that it heals, I do not deny that you need a bandage
with which to apply
c r i mson, they hurried Him to the high priest’s
hall. In the dead of night they
bound Him and led Him away. Anon3 they took Him
to Pilate and to Herod.
These scourged4 Him, and their soldiers spat in His face and buffeted5 Him,
and put on His head a crown of thorns.
Scourging is one of the most awful tortures that can
be inflicted by malice.
It was formerly the disgrace of the British army that
the “cat”6 was used upon
the soldier—a brutal infliction of torture. But to the
Roman, cruelty was so
natural that he made his common punishments worse than
brutal. The Roman
scourge is said to have been made of the sinews of
oxen, twisted into knots, and
into these knots were inserted slivers of bone and
huckle-bones7 of sheep. Every
time the scourge fell upon the bare back, “the plowers
plowed upon my back:
they made long their furrows8” (Psa 129:3).
Our Savior was called upon to
endure the fierce pain of the Roman scourge; and this
not as the finish of His
punishment, but as a preface to crucifixion. To this
His persecutors added buffeting
and plucking out the hair. They spared Him no form of
pain.
In all His faintness, through bleeding and fasting,
they made Him carry
His cross until another was forced by the forethought
of their cruelty to bear
it, lest their victim should die on the road. They
stripped Him, threw Him
down, and nailed Him to the wood. They pierced His
hands and His feet. They
lifted up the tree with Him upon it and then dashed it
down into its place in
the ground, so that all His limbs were dislocated
according to the lament of
the psalmist, “I am poured out like water, and all my
bones are out of joint
(Psa 22:14a).
He hung on the cross in the burning sun until the
fever dissolved His
strength, and He said, “My heart is like wax; it is
melted in the midst of my
bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd;9 and my tongue
cleaveth to
my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of
death” (Psa 22:14b–15).
There He hung, a spectacle to God and men. The weight
of His body was fir s t
sustained by His feet, until the nails tore through
the tender nerves. Then the
painful load began to drag upon His hands and rend
those sensitive parts of
His frame. How small a wound in the hand has brought
on lockjaw! How
awful must have been the torment caused by that
dragging iron tearing
through the delicate parts of the hands and feet!
4 6 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
3
anon –
straightway; at once.
4
scourged –
beaten with a whip; severely flogged.
5
buffeted –
beaten repeatedly with the fist.
6
cat –
a whip used to inflict punishment or scourging.
7
huckle-bones –
small bones or knuckle-bones of a sheep.
8
f u r ro w s –
long, narrow, shallow trenches; used metaphorically of the cuts made by the
whips
on Christ’s body.
9
potsherd –
a fragment of broken pottery.
it to the wound. Faith is the linen which binds the
plaster of Christ’s reconciliation
to the sore of our sin. The linen does not heal; that
is the work of the
ointment. So faith does not heal; that is the work of
the atonement of Christ.
“But we must repent,” cries another. Assuredly we must
and shall, for
repentance is the first sign of healing. But the
stripes of Jesus heal us and not
our repentance. These stripes, when applied to the
heart, work repentance in
us. We hate sin because it made Jesus suffer.
When you intelligently trust in Jesus as having
suffered for you, then you
discover the fact that God will never punish you for
the same offense for
which Jesus died. His justice will not permit Him to
see the debt paid, first by
the Surety, and then again by the debtor. Justice
cannot twice demand a recompense.
If my bleeding Surety has borne my guilt, then I
cannot bear it.
Accepting Christ Jesus as suffering for me, I have
accepted a complete discharge
from judicial liability. I have been condemned in
Christ, and there is
therefore now no condemnation to me any more. This is
the groundwork of
the security of the sinner who believes in Jesus. He
lives because Jesus died in
his place and stead. He is acceptable before God
because Jesus is accepted.
The person for whom Jesus is an accepted Substitute
must go free. None can
touch him. He is clear.
O my hearer, will you have Jesus Christ to be your
Substitute? If so, you
are free. “He that believeth on him is not condemned
(Joh 3:18). Thus “with
his stripes we are healed (Isa 53:5).
From Around
the Wicket Gate.
4 8 F ree Grace Broadcaster Issue
192 • Summer 2005
All men are not godly. Alas! The ungodly are the great
majority of the human
race. When a man is beginning to be godly, this is the first
sign of the change that
is being wrought in him: “Behold, he prayeth.” Prayer is the
mark of godliness in
its infancy. Until he has come to pleading and petitioning,
we cannot be sure that
the divine life is in him at all. There may be desires; but if
they never turn to
prayers, we may fear that they are as the morning cloud and
as the early dew,
which soon pass away. But when the man comes to real
pleading terms with
God, when he cannot rest without pouring out his heart at
the mercy-seat, you
begin to hope that now he is indeed a godly man. Prayer is
the breath of life in
the newborn believer. Prayer is the first cry by which it is
known that the newborn
child truly lives. If he does not pray, you may suspect that
he has only a
name to live, and that he lacks true spiritual life.—Charles Spurg e o n
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892):
Influential Baptist minister in England. History’s
most
widely read preacher (apart from those found in Scripture). Today, there is
available
more
material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or
dead.
Born at Kelvedon, Essex.