The Sweetness of the Word...

The Sweetness of the Word in the School of Affliction

God often brings his people into great depths before deliverance comes so that his glorious attributes may be the more displayed and magnified. We can never know God as we ought without temptations. … In the school of affliction and temptation, there it is the Lord generally showeth the soul its own impotency and insufficiency to bear trials honourably without divine grace and assistance… In this school of affliction it is that the soul is taught to suck sweetness out of the Word of God. Now they are taught to know the Word more practically and feel it more powerfully. Now it can say with David, thy law is my delight; and had it not been so, I had perished in my affliction (see Psalm 119:92).
… We may preach and hear many a good sermon, and in those sermons many a gracious promise be mentioned, yet we may not have had those tastes and relishes of the sweetness of the Word and promises as in a time of temptation. So that what the soul hath often read, now he can feel and experience that it was good for them they have been afflicted.
… The design of God by all your temptations is to take you off from living a life of sense, which we are very prone to do, and live a life of faith.
… In deep afflictions we come to see the profit of prayer.

(Hercules Collins)

Words of Light

Hercules Collins (c. 1646-1702) is a name I've mentioned in this blog before, and I have two more little bits of his work that I'd like to share. Today's is about the Scriptures, and I thought it was wonderful to read as it was yet another reminder of the absolute timeless wonders of the Bible. :)

Words of Light

In the sacred Scriptures [there is] a salve for every sore and a remedy for every malady, and direction for every condition and consolation for every one under temptation, which should engage our love more and more to that Word which is a lantern to our feet that we stumble not upon the dark mountains, a compass to steer by for avoiding rocks and sands till we come to our eternal rest, and a cordial to comfort our drooping spirits, which unless his law be our delight, we shall perish in our affliction.

When a Word comes from God, it sets the soul at liberty, [and] fills it with comfort. It breaks all its fetters and irons, and brings the soul out of prison. Have not some been so discomposed under temptations that they could not tell how to pray, or hear, or mind any family-business, until the Word of God came and delivered them from all their fears? And now they can say with David, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” (Psalm 116:8).

Hold Fast What Thou Hast

Another entry from Hercules Collins' writing:

Hold Fast What Thou Hast

To depart from God in a trying day, reflects upon his being and attributes. “What iniquity,” said God to his people of old, “have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me? (Jeremiah 2:5) Am I not the same as ever? Are not my promises the same? Have I failed in any one thing? Testify against me. Is not heaven and happiness the same as ever? Why do you leave the fountain of living water, and hew out to yourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which will hold no water?”
Our Lord seems to speak mournfully in the sixth chapter of John, after many of his disciples had gone back, “Will you also go away, and walk no more with me, as the rest have done?” Simon Peter answered and said, “Lord, whither shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life…” (see John 6:60-69) We are for eternal life, and we know there is no life but in the Son. (see 1 John 4:9)
So Luther answered, when he had great offers made him to return to the Church of Rome. “Can you give me Christ,” said he, “and eternal life?”
As it was their great care not to lose the crown, so it should be ours, which if thou wouldest keep, take this advice: beg of God for a well-informed judgement, a good understanding, a spiritual enlightened mind, that thou mayest be found in God’s statutes. Cry with Holy David, “Lord, ‘open mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.’” (Psalm 119:18)
Whence is it, some call good evil, and evil good, darkness light, and light darkness, but from darkness in the understanding? (see Isaiah 5:20) As the Jews’ persecution and crucifixion of Christ was imputed to their ignorance of him, so the forsaking a good way in troublesome times argues great ignorance in the understanding, or else they would never prefer temporal before spiritual things and present pleasure before future glory.There must be divine light in the understanding, before there can be true obedience, and true grace in the will. For he that doth not know God as revealed, can never well-groundedly love him nor obey him.

The Christ-Finding Soul

A friend of mine recently reviewed a book called Devoted to the Service of the Temple: Piety, Persecution, and Ministry in the Writings of Hercules Collins. It is a book that is part of the "Profiles in Reformed Spirituality" series (also featuring books on the piety of Jonathan Edwards, Horatius Bonar, etc). I was so interested in reading this book, based on the review, and was curious to learn more about this man - Hercules Collins - whom I had never heard of. I got the book and have been enjoying it thoroughly. This whole series is a great one - each book has a brief biography of the man whom the book is about, and then features writings by that person. I have learned a lot about Hercules Collins and the impact he had in his time. Collins was born in 1646/7 and died in 1702... he was a pastor, an author of several works, and was persecuted for his faith. He was imprisoned in Newgate prison - the most notorious prison in seventeenth-century England (the novelist Henry Fielding sought to capture the horror of imprisonment in Newgate when he termed the English prison system a "prototype of hell"). He faced his imprisonment and persecution with such strength and never wavered in his faith, and he later became quite a leader in England. I have copied out a few sections of his writings that are found in this book that I want to share, that I found particularly inspiring and convicting. So the next few posts will be these selections. If you want to get a great overview of the book, please go on over to Michael Dewalt's blog and read his review. And I hope you enjoy these bits of Collins' writings!

The Christ-finding Soul

It is the Christ-finding soul which is the life-finding soul. Hold Christ, and thou holdest all good in him,… [for] “Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). He is all because all good is comprehended in him, he is all in all. All in the fullness of all, for if we have all earthly enjoyments, and have not him, we have nothing comparatively, nothing with a blessing, for “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked” (Proverbs 3:33). For one to say, “I have these goods, these houses, these ships, this gold and silver, these dainties, this rich attire, this earthly honour,” but, I cannot say, “I have Christ, grace, holiness,” this may damp (that is, check or restrain) all. For riches deliver not from death nor wrath (see Proverbs 11:4). For to have our portion in this life, is a poor portion. But a holy soul can say, “Thou art my portion, O Lord, and though I have but little earthly good, having Christ, I have all equivalently and comprehensively”…
If we have but poor clothing, a poor house, poor furniture, poor fare, poor friends, yet if we can say, “This I have, and Christ, grace, and content with this condition, peace in my conscience,” I lie down upon my bed in sweet peace and communion with God…
Yea, life and death is yours. If you live, it is to God, or die, it is to God (see Romans 14:7-8). You shall be happy living and happy dying… Things present and things to come, all is yours, for godliness hath the “promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). All things in this life, all losses and crosses, shall work for their good in this life (Romans 8:28), in order to a fitting them for life eternal.
Hold fast this Christ which hath so much good joined with him, hold him fast with the spouse (see Song of Solomon 3:4), and as Jacob held fast the Angel and would not let him go until he blest him, so part not thou with this blessed Object, until he blesses thee with the blessings of heaven and the everlasting hills. Part with all before ye part with him…The mariner in a storm will cast all over-board to lighten his ship and save his life. Oh this world will sink you in an hour of temptation, if it lieth too near your hearts. Cast away all, shake off all, rather than lose a Christ, and an immortal soul, which once lost is irrecoverable (see Matthew 16:26).