06/1/21

True Gospel Repentance

At the very beginning of her reflections, the anonymous female author of Evidence for Heaven asked, “How may I come to be truly and infallibly assured of my salvation?” After describing how clear knowledge of our union with Christ assures us of salvation, she noted how evidence that the Holy Spirit lives in us includes our sincere love for God and others for God’s sake. She went on to portray how true Gospel repentance demonstrated that the Holy Spirit of God savingly inhabited our soul. “Wheresoever the Holy Spirit of God dwelleth savingly, in what soul soever he resideth, as a sanctifier, there he worketh true faith and Repentance.”

She quoted Zechariah 12:10, which says: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and plead for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.” This verse points out two things. First, the Holy Spirit savingly indwells whomever he resides in as a sanctifier; he works true faith and Repentance. Secondly, the presence of these two graces is a true and real testimony of the Holy Spirit’s saving habitation of that soul.

There are four things to note here. Although the grace of Repentance is distinct from faith, it is inseparably bound to justifying faith. The person who lacks either one, has neither. Second, these graces, namely faith, love and Repentance, are coequal. They are so saturated with each other that when one is true, they are all true to some measure.

Thirdly, although every grace of the Spirit is coequal, they actually arrange themselves in the following way: faith precedes love; faith and love precede Repentance. In this way, Repentance is a fruit of faith and love. Fourthly, renewing grace and glory are inseparably linked together. “He that hath the one shall certainly have the other, for this grace is the earnest of our inheritance.”

Repentance is a Divine quality wrought by the Spirit of God in the soul, whereby a sinner, is so touched in heart for his sinnes that he truly turns from them all unto the Lord.

This Repentance consists of two parts: contrition and conversion; humiliation and reformation. The person who would make a genuine trial of their Repentance must have both. But what is Evangelical (gospel) contrition, and how can you know whether or not you have it? It is a godly sorrow of the soul for all sin, apprehended by a gracious God who is displeased by sin. You may discern it by finding evidence of the following fruit.

Evangelical sorrow springs from the Love of God and hatred of sin. It increases the Love of God and hatred of sin in the soul. The Love of Christ constrains the soul to hate sin, to mourn and grieve for sin. The bitterness of this sorrow and grief for sin, sweetens the Love of God in Christ to the soul while it embitters the sense of sin.

Evangelical sorrow is mixed with faith. The mourner bewails his sin and rests on the mercy of God in Christ, the promises which are in him for the pardon of his sin and the mortification of his corruptions, and the grace to change. While faithful adherence is an inseparable concomitant of Evangelical sorrow, faith of evidence is not so. “He that sorrows for his sinne and rests not on Christ for the pardon of his sinne, his sorrow is legal, and not Evangelical, desperation and not contrition.”

Evangelical sorrow is mixed with hope. The mourner has hope of obtaining mercy, even in the deepest of his sorrow for sin. He does not despair, but seeks God for mercy. His sorrow drives him to God, not away from God. The Prodigal Son is an example of this. In his deepest distress he did not despair, but goes to his father for mercy. If he had not had hope of obtaining mercy, “he would never have gone to his father to seek it.”

Evangelical sorrow is a heart-humbling sorrow. It makes your heart humble and lowly. The more this sorrow lies within a heart, the greater is that heart’s humility. The less there is of this sorrow in your heart, the prouder it is; and the more fearless and careless it is of sin. Along with the Prodigal Son, a humble and lowly heart contritely says “I am not worthy to be called a Son, make me as a Servant.”

So it is that the evangelically contrite soul admires free grace in every favor it receives, spiritual or temporal. And above all other souls it is thankful for the mercies it receives, saying: “What shall I render unto the Lord, for all his mercies?” I forfeited all right to Heaven and earth into the Lord’s hands, and he gave it back to me freely and put me in a better condition than I was in before. “O the deepnesse of the riches of the Justice and Mercy of God!”

Set a soul filled with this sorrow, to pray, and he will pray sweetly, and heavenly, fervently, and effectually (to wit) in faith, and so prevaile much with God. Set him to hear and he will hear humbly, and the whole Word of the Lord will be sweet unto him, every precept and every threatening of the Lord, every bitter thing will be sweet unto him, every crum that fals from his Table will he gather up, as precious food. Set a soul filled with this sorrow to Divine Meditation, and he will do it with great delight and freedome.

The Evangelically contrite soul sorrows not so much for suffering as for sinning; not so much for being displeased, as for displeasing and dishonoring God by sin. It is grieved for its sin because the holy Spirit of God is grieved by its sin and broken with its whorish heart, as the Prophet speaks. It is melted by the consideration of the incomparable goodness of God and his kindness and love in Christ towards itself. Rather than broken with horror, threatenings, punishments, or slavish fear, it says: “Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evill in thy sight.”

It counts sin as the worst evil and Christ as the best Good; as the only true Good. It is not satisfied with anything but Christ—Christ in his Blood, Christ in his Spirit, Christ in his Ordinances, Christ in his Ministers—Christ in whosoever his image is stamped is precious. The light of God’s countenance and the sense of his love in Christ is worth more than all the treasures and pleasures in the world. According to the contrite soul, it strengthens more, it comforts more, it puts gladness in my heart more than the choicest Creatures in the world.

Finally, evangelical sorrow is a reforming sorrow, it makes a man truly turn from all sin to the Lord. This is its great distinguishing characteristic and demonstrates the truth of it. Contrition without conversion is not Repentance unto life. Humiliation without Reformation is like a foundation without a building, and reformation without humiliation is but a building without a foundation; a building that will not stand.

Evangelical contrition and true Conversion are so coupled together, that they cannot be divided. Wherever sorrow for sin is found, it is attended with true turning from sin to the Lord. This is the second essential part of true Repentance; what the Scripture calls conversion. He that truly turns from sin, turns from all sin. The person who does not turn from all sin, does not truly turn from any sin.

God requires a sinner to turn from all their transgressions. The individual that truly turns from sin, does this. He does not permit himself to engage in any known sin. He loathes all sin and consciously endeavors to forsake all sin; to get every corruption mortified. He does not fake repentance as the Hypocrites do, but does it with his whole heart.

Wouldest thou then know, whether thy Repentance be Repentance unto Life, or no? whether it be such as truly demonstrates the holy Spirit’s saving habitation in thy soul, and the truth of thy faith, yea, or nay? Thou must then have recourse to both the parts of true Repentance fore-mentioned (to wit) contrition and conversion; and if by what hath been said, it appears to be truly such, know that it is a sure argument of thy eternal happinesse, bless God for it and labour to grow in it.

This is the sixth reflection I’ve done on excerpts from Evidence for Heaven, written by an anonymous Puritan female author. Edward Calamy was credited as the author, but he himself acknowledged it was actually written by a female member of his church.

06/4/19

Sincere Love to God and Man

An anonymous female Puritan said in Evidence for Heaven that love softens the heart in which it dwells. Nothing is as soothing as love; and love apprehended calms the heart. She made what seems at first a counter-intuitive statement—the way to increase sorrow for sin is to increase your love for God. Grief springs more naturally from love than any other emotion. There is not a grief so kindly, so piercing, so long lasting, as that which springs from pure love. This principle of love compelled her to question the truth of her love, for she found her heart to be hard, meaning: “I cannot grieve for sinne, as I should, or as I would.”

The answer to this dilemma is that softness of heart can be shown in other ways besides grief. It shows itself by walking in the statutes of the Lord; in keeping them and doing them. It is evident in a readiness to obey the known will of God, without resisting any part of it.

On the other hand, iniquity springs from the total decay of love, and is opposed to love. If love flourishes, iniquity cannot. In whatever way love abounds, sin decreases. “As love decayes, abates, and cools, iniquity abounds.” Consider the church at Ephesus. When it continued in her first and fervent love, we don’t read of any complaints. But when her loved waned, iniquity thrived.

The person whose judgment is unsound is in danger of being corrupted by flattery. However, the one whose love is unsound is in even greater danger of being corrupted. Knowledge of the truth without love of the truth does not lead to salvation. Mere knowledge of the truth is not able to uphold the profession and obedience of the truth. The person whose love is sound may fall and become guilty of a partial apostacy through fear of some earthly evil. “But he shall never fall away totally nor finally from the God of truth, not from the truth of God.”

Sincere love to God is not lessened by increased of knowledge of the truth; rather it is increased with it. The person who loves God sincerely does not lessen his love to God, nor to the Ordinances of God or to the ministers of God; he increases it. As his knowledge increases, so does his love. His love abounds more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (Philippians 1:9).

And sincere love to God always produces a sincere love towards others. As it says in 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” It is as if John were saying it is impossible for a man to love God sincerely if he does not love his brother. If an individual loves God, that love will constrain him to love his brother, as the next verse said: “whoever loves God must also love his brother.” By these properties of a sincere love of God, a Christian may rightly judge his love to God, and consequently know the condition of his soul. A sincere love of others demonstrates the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of your soul.

It is a love without measure. It is a freely given love. It is a condescending love, making the individual stoop to his brother who cannot come up to him, “by reason of his mean place, education, parts or gifts.” It is manifested in deeds, not just in words, according to ability. It is a uniting love, knitting together the hearts of Christians. It is a growing love; one that still increases. It is a covering grace, sheltering all infirmities.

I then love my brother in the truth, when the bond that links me and him together, in a Christian conjunction, is the true and constant profession of the truth.

Not without cause do Christians complain of a hardness of heart these days. But few of them realize that a lack of love is the cause. Disaffection weakens and cools love in a man. This it does towards God, and towards others. As love declines and disaffection grows, the heart progressively becomes harder.

Our great hardness of heart, and unprofitableness under the great meanes of grace in pub∣ick, I may truly say, hath in great part sprung from the gross neglect of the duties of Christian love; and the great strangeness that is grown amongst Christians, in these times.

Great is the liberty of Christian love, of love congruous to the rule of God. It means we are not to speak evil against one another in any matter; don’t bite and devour one another. Do not oppress, over-reach or defraud one another in any matter. Don’t render evil for evil to anyone. Don’t bear false witness.

Give no offence willingly to any, but endeavour, as much as lawfully they may, to live peaceably with all men; They put away all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evill speaking, with all malice; Love one another as God gave us Commandement; Love one another, as Christ hath loved us; Love as Brethren; Love without dissimulation, cordially, unfeignedly, out of a pure heart, fervently; Love not in word and in tongue only, but in deed, and in truth.

Scripture commands all these qualifications in my love towards my brother. Therefore, loving our neighbor must have the same qualifications. Here the soul is made aware of its own failings. “Who then can be saved?”, as the disciples asked when Christ told them how hard it was for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

He that truly wills, desires, and indeavours to do all this, that Christ may have the honour of it, doth it in a Gospel-sense, and in Gods acceptation, who accepts the will for the deed: where ability is wanting, this must be granted, otherwise no Child of Adam could conclude on the affirmative.Now for other appearances of Love, they are these; What a man Loves, he prizes accordingly; What a man loves, he delights in accordingly; What a man Loves, he desires to enjoy; what a man loves, he cannot hear reproached, reviled, and spoken against, but with grief of heart: This needs no proving, every ones experience, will testifie the truth of it.Wouldest thou know, whether thy Love to God and thy Love to man be sound, and such as demonstrates the holy Spirits saving habitation in thy soul or not? then go through what hath been said in this little Epitomie, touching Love to God, and Love to man; and consider, whether thy Love be truly such, yea or nay; and if thou findest it truly such, though but weakly, conclude thou maist safely to thy comfort, that thy Love is such, as really demonstrates thou art beloved of God and indued with the holy Spirit of God savingly: For Love indeed and in truth, argues that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him, as the Apostle affirms.

This is the fifth reflection I’ve done on excerpts from Evidence for Heaven, written by an anonymous Puritan female author. Edward Calamy was credited as the author, but he himself acknowledged it was actually written by a female member of his church.

12/27/16

Exceptional in Ordinary Things

When reading a devotional based upon the writings of Puritan authors, I was struck by a quote attributed to the Puritan minister, Edmund Calamy. I then discovered the quoted work, Evidence for Heaven, was actually written in 1657 by an anonymous ‘gentlewoman’ woman in his congregation. She was anonymous by request. But her work received the unreserved endorsement of Calamy, who said: “I hope no man will condemn this Book, because written by a Woman but rather admire the goodnesse, love, and power of God, who is able to do such great things, by such weak instruments.” Although it sounds sexist to a modern reader some 360 years after it was written, nevertheless, Calamy thought enough about this work to see that it was published.

This piqued my interest in Evidence for Heaven, so I wrote several articles reflecting what the anonymous author had said in it. Then I stumbled across another female Puritan author, Sarah Fiske. Her only literary work, A Confession of Faith: Or, a Summary of Divinity, was originally a confession of her faith, which she submitted upon her admission into full membership of the Church of Braintree, Massachusetts. A Confession was published posthumously, twelve years after her death on December 2, 1692.

Wendy Martin and Sharone Williams noted in The Routledge Introduction to American Women Writers that most spiritual autobiographies were intended only for the edification of a small group, such as a family or church community. The faithful were expected to be able to demonstrate their awareness of the basics of orthodox belief; and occasionally those texts were published in the hopes of both drawing readers to booksellers, and converts to Christ. A small number of these accounts were written by women. Forbidden to speak or teach in most churches of the time, mothers were considered the first instructors of their children in the faith, particularly in Puritan communities, according to Martin and Williams.

The ability to articulate principles of faith and to relate personal spiritual experiences was thus paradoxically entwined with motherhood, the most sacred of feminine responsibilities. Within a fairly rigid set of boundaries, then, both privately circulated and published religious writing was an arena in which seventh-century women were able to find their voices.

Reflecting on her Confession within the context of the time and culture she lived in, I see also how Sarah’s life speaks loudly about how we all are truly instruments in the hand of a Redeemer God who truly cares for us and guides us.

Sarah Symmes was born in 1652 to a respected justice of the peace in Charleston Massachusetts, William Symmes. Her mother, who was also named Sarah, died when baby Sarah was only a year old. Given the death of her mother when Sarah was one, perhaps she was an only child. Her grandfather, Zachariah Symmes, was a noted New England minister. At the age of nineteen she married the Harvard graduate, Moses Fiske. Remember this was Harvard of 1672, not 2016. Moses was himself the son of a clergyman who immigrated to the colonies from Suffolk, England. He was ten years older than Sarah. They had fourteen children together; only eight of which survived childhood. Three of her daughters married ministers and one son was himself a minister.

Sarah’s death at the age of 40 came at the end of a year that saw her give birth to two children: Ruth who lived about two and a half months (March 24, 1692 to June 6, 1692); and Edward, who only lived five days (October 20, 1692 to October 25, 1692). Moses remarried in January of 1701. He was the minister of the church at Braintree from 1672 until the time of his death in August of 1708. He was succeeded in the ministry at the church in Braintree, now known as Quincy, by the Reverend Joseph Marsh, who married Anne, the daughter of Moses and Sarah. This information appeared in The Symmes Memorial a Biograqphical Sketch of Rev. Zechariah Symmes, by J.A. Vinton.

When Sarah became a full member of her husband’s church and submitted what would become known as A Confession of Faith, she was a 25 year-old mother of two girls, Mary, aged 4 and Sarah aged 3. She had lost a third daughter, Martha at 3 days of age two years before. And she was either pregnant or caring for the newborn Anna, who would die at 10 months of age in June of 1678. The Encyclopedia of American Literature said A Confession moved logically and steadily though theological subjects not considered to be typical or even appropriate for a 17^th century woman’s spiritual biography. Her command of language, grammar and style suggested: “She received a solid education despite the rural environment, modest circumstances, and gender.”

Benjamin Elliot, who published Fiske’s A Confession, thought it would be helpful to children and young ones who could “gather the Fragrant Flowers of Divine Knowledge” of the main articles of their creed discussed therein. What seems to have been missed is how Elliot saw the echoes the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms in Sarah’s Confession. These would have been the Creed and Catechisms that she likely affirmed in her church membership; and seems to have studied before writing her personal Confession. The parallels affirm and do not detract from the above comment on her solid education. Here are a few examples. Sarah’s opening article is:

I Believe, That the Holy Scriptures, the Books of the Old & the New Testament, Penned by the Prophets & Apostles, are the Infallible Word of God, the Subject of true Divinity; That only Rule of Faith & Manners, teaching what man ought to Believe concerning God, and what Duty God requires of man.

The Westminster Confession of Faith affirms that the Old and New Testaments are the infallible truth and Word of God. Question 5 of the Larger Catechism asks what the Scriptures principally teach; then answers: “The scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”

Sarah affirms that God is pure, powerful, eternal, unchangeable being. He is independent, incomprehensible, invisible. The Westminster Confession and Larger Catechism agree that God is eternal, all-sufficient, unchangeable, incomprehensible, invisible. They affirm with Sarah that there is but one God in three Persons in the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Sarah said she believed the decrees of God were His determinate purpose in all things, according to the counsel of His will. And God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. The Larger Catechism said God’s decrees are “the free and holy acts of the counsel of his will, whereby, he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time.” And he executes his decrees “in the works of creation and providence.” The parallels move on through Jesus Christ as Redeemer, union with Christ, faith, repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, saving faith, baptism, communion and more.

Sarah’s life was unremarkable within the context of her time. Possibly raised as an only child, she was thoroughly educated in the teaching of “the Fragrant Flowers of Divine Knowledge” of the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechisms, the creeds of her faith. She was married at the age of nineteen to a popular minister, who would serve his congregation over 30 years. She had a clear talent as a writer, ably communicating the faith she had been taught and believed in with her whole heart. Along with her husband, Moses, she seems to have passed that faith on to her children.

As a twenty something mother of three girls under the age of 4, she was able to put together a coherent, logical expression of her faith—without computers to record and edit her thoughts or DVDs to distract her young daughters as she tried to write. Too soon, she died at the age of 40. This happened within three months of what seems to have been the premature birth of her 14^th child. No information is available on the cause of her death, but we can speculate that fourteen births in seventeen years was a contributing factor to whatever health’s problems led to her death. Yet in the midst of being a pastor’s wife and mother to eight children, she was able to write a Confession of her faith so clear and concise, that a publisher would print it twelve years after her death.

A Confession of Faith: Or, a Summary of Divinity may be an illustration of orthodoxy and radicalism in women’s religious writings of the 17^th century, as Martin and Williams state. But I think it is a more powerful example of how God inhabits the ordinary lives of believers. Sarah Fiske’s life was an example of being exceptional in ordinary things. Oswald Chambers said the following in his classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest:

We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

09/25/15

Tree of Life

photo credit: The British Museum

Besides its presence in the books of Genesis and Revelation in the Bible, the idea of a tree of life is present in various religions and mythologies. It existed in Persian mythology, as the Gaokerena world tree, which had healing properties when eaten and gave immortality to the resurrected bodies of the dead. To ancient Egyptians, the Tree of Life represented the chain of events that brought creation into existence. In Chinese mythology, a carved Tree of Life depicts a phoenix or a dragon—which represented immortality. In the Book of Mormon, the tree of life symbolizes the love of God. In the Norse religion the tree of life is Yggdrasil, the world tree.

There is a sacred tree motif in ancient Near East art, but no literature of the time that clearly links it with the tree of life. The Assyrian relief in the above photo was originally in the throne room of the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned from 883-859 BC. His reign over Assyria would have been concurrent to that of Ahab in Israel (873-853 BC) and Jehoshaphat in Judah (873-853 BC). Ashurnasirpal is pictured twice, on each side of a Sacred Tree. The figure of the king on the left is gesturing to the Sacred Tree, a symbol of fertility and abundance given by the gods. The figure of the king on the right gestures to a god within a winged disk above the Tree, possibly Shamash, the god of sun and justice or Ashur, the national god. For more information on this stone relief, try the link here to the British Museum.

So what makes the Bible’s use of the sacred tree, the tree of life unique? In Genesis, it was in the midst of Eden, the garden where humanity had fellowship with God (Genesis 3:8). Adam and Eve sinned by disregarding God’s command to not eat from another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil independent of His counsel and command. This rebellion ruptured their fellowship with God and He banished them from Eden. Banishment also prevented them from eating from the tree of life and becoming immortal (Genesis 3:22). So death and separation from God became consequences of their sin.

According to E. B. Smick in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the tree of life can symbolize Adam and Eve’s continued relationship with God. Access to it is contingent upon their maintaining obedience to God’s commands. “The most significant thing about the tree of life theologically is that when our first parents broke their relationship with God through disobedience they were driven from the Garden ‘lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’” (Genesis 3:22).

Adam and Eve were on probation in the Garden. They were not yet permanent (regenerated) spiritual children of God. The tree of life from this perspective is a type of Christ, through whom eternal life is possible. The uniqueness of how the tree of life is portrayed in Scripture signifies how the person and work of Christ restores access to it.

Partaking of the tree of life implies not only continued probation (negative obedience) but also a positive commitment analogous to what believers do in the Lord’s Supper and what the OT saints did at the sacrifices.

In his commentary on Genesis, Gordon Wenham noted how trees as a symbol of life corresponded to items in or near the center of Israelite worship throughout the Old Testament. Genesis 3:22 of course noted that this tree conferred life on those who ate it. Proverbs described wisdom (3:18), the fruit of the righteous (11:30), a desire fulfilled (13:12), and a gentle tongue as a tree of life. In other words, they gave fullness of life to their owners.

Trees, because they remain green throughout the summer drought, are seen as symbolic of the life of God (e.g., Psalm 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8). In Genesis 21:33 Abraham prayed by a tamarisk tree he planted. It seems likely that the golden candlestick in the tabernacle was a stylized tree of life (Exodus 25:31-40). The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery also affirmed this symbolism: “It is very likely that this lamp symbolized the tree of life in the garden of Eden.” Lamps in general also had a symbolic connection to the tree of life. The lamp in the shrine at Shiloh is called “the lamp of God” in 1 Samuel 3:3. In Psalm 119 the Word of God is exalted as “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

This imagery continues into the New Testament, where Jesus said in John 8:12 that he was the light of the world; that whoever followed him would not walk in darkness, but would have “the light of life”—eternal life. When the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven in Revelation 21, lamps are no longer needed, because “its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23).

The gift of life offered by the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden is now offered in the person of the Word incarnate. By believing in Jesus, humans partake of the eternal life he offers (John 3:16). Or, more vividly, by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, they gain eternal life and will be raised on the last day (John 6:54).

In Revelation, humanity is granted access once again to the tree of life and may freely eat of it (Revelation 2:7; 22:2). So Revelation depicts a reversal of the damage done at the beginning by the sin of Adam and Eve. Fellowship and relationship with God is restored. Revelation 22:2 also suggests the leaves of the tree of life have a sacramental role or purpose in that they are for “the healing of the nations.” The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery commented how “The Bible’s story of salvation history begins and ends with references to symbolic trees.”

The tree of life in Genesis then represents the relationship humanity initially had with God, but lost through their rebellion. This loss was not to be a permanent one, as it was also a type of Christ—a representation of the planned restoration of relationship with God through the finished work of Christ. It is not until this side of the completed of the work of Christ that we could see how he restored relationship with God, in effect becoming the lamp and light of life.

The biblical tree of life is then much more than a world tree that supports the heavens, upholds the world, and connects both with the underworld, as in the Yggdrasil of Germanic and Norse mythology. It is greater than just being a symbol of fertility and abundance given by the gods in Assyrian mythology; or a plant easily stolen from the King of Uruk by a snake at the end of his quest in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh learned that: “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands.” The Christian quest for the tree of life is one that has the promise of fulfillment one day in Christ. As an anonymous female Puritan wrote:

Faith is the grace, and the only grace, whereby we are justified before God, by it we eate of the Tree of Life, (Jesus Christ) and live forever: It is therefore the fittest grace of all, to satisfie Conscience in this weighty matter, and to make up conclusions from, about our eternall estate. This Satan knows full well, and therefore when he would flatter a man to Hell, he perswades him, that his faith is right good, when indeed there is no such matter; and when he would overthrow all hope of Heaven in a man, and drag him into despaire, he perswades him, that his faith, though never so good, is but a feigned and counterfeit thing, and the poore soul, is ready to say, Amen.

This is the fourth reflection I’ve done on excerpts from Evidence for Heaven, written by an anonymous Puritan female author. Edward Calamy was credited as the author, but he himself acknowledged it was actually written by a female member of his church.

07/24/15

Sincere Love to God

© elvinstar | stockfresh.com

Sincere Love to God is a constant growing love, and an everlasting love, it holds out in all times and seasons, and variety of conditions, prosperity and adversity, praise and persecution, health and sickness, plenty and poverty, liberty and bonds, yea, in death it self, and after death through all eternity; death doth not terminate this grace, but perfect it. (Anonymous)

One of the graces that demonstrate the sure, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in us is Love. Where God dwells by his Spirit, there is sincere love to God and sincere love to others, for God’s sake. As the apostle John said: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Because this love is a special work of the Holy Spirit, it works for good in all things—regardless of how bad these things may be in themselves. All things work together for good in those who love God (Romans 8:28). There is always a redemptive purpose to be found in what happens to God’s people.

The person who sincerely loves God has a sure argument that they are greatly loved by God: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). But someone might ask, isn’t that love in us a special work of the Spirit of God? Surely it is. “But sincere Love to God, strongly argues special Love in God towards him that hath it, therefore sincere Love to God must needs be a special work of the Spirit of God in whomsoever it is.” The following Scriptures clearly support the claim that sincere love for others, for God’s sake, is a real testimony of the person’s union with Christ.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. (1 John 3:23-24)

Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)

Without sincere love, all profession of faith in religion is but a gilded hypocrisy. Where love is, God dwells. But where it is not, the devil dwells. More love means a greater likeness to God; less of it means a greater likeness to the devil. Experience shows that those individuals who have great gifts and responsibilities and little or no love, will show more of the devil’s nature than God’s—and will act more like the devil than god when they have power.

Love is the sweetest flower in all the garden of God, but it is a flower which the Devil cannot endure the smell of, because he is not capable of it, and knows that where Love dwells, he must vanish; and therefore it is his main design to destroy Love, if possible, in all sorts and sects, and to root it up and banish it from the hearts of all men; The Devil is well content, that men should pray, preach, read, hear Sermons, and make a faire shew outwardly, provided this spring not from Love, nor tendeth not to the increase of Love, to God nor man; but if he see Love be the root and fruit of mens services, then he goes cunningly, and Serpent-like to work, to make breaches in this wall, that he may get in and destroy this flower, he deviseth wayes to divide men’s judgments, to the end he may destroy this affection of Love out of their hearts; if he prevaile not this way then he will raise up jealousies to destroy Love and Charity, yea sometimes render the best of graces, the worst of vices; and as in tempting a Carnal man, he sometimes stiles lust, Love, so in tempting a spiritual man, he sometimes stiles sincere Love, lust; and by these wiles makes a breach on Charity, to the end he may get into the garden of God, and root up this sweet grace of Love.

Someone might ask how he or she can know, one way or the other, whether his or her love of God is sound and sincere. The author said they must examine themselves to see if they find a true testimony of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in them. The properties of this sincere love to God are these:

Sincere love to God is seated in the heart. It carries the whole heart and soul to God—both the inner and the outer person. What God requires and commands is in His Word, namely that we should love God with our whole heart and soul. By the whole heart is meant every faculty of the soul; the whole inner person. So there cannot be a division between God and the world, between God and sin—as the hearts of all hypocrites are.

Sincere love is carried to God and fastened upon Him. There we cleave to Him in affection; more than anything else. From a due consideration of his perfection, we account Him to be our chief happiness. We rejoice in him above all things. We fear his displeasure more than all others. We depend upon him for all things, and aim for his glory in all things.

Sincere love to God is guided by faith, not by sight. As Peter said: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him” (1 Peter 1:8). We also see this in Job, who continued to love God and obey him, as we see in Job 23:8-11. This plainly shows that his love was guided by faith and not by sight.

Sincere love to God is a strong love. It will compel a person to obey even to the death. It will constrain the person to do or suffer anything that God sees fit to impose upon them without replying “in tongue or in heart” against God. “It will make a man serve God with all his might.” It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Sincere love to God is an endearing affection. It endears Christ to the person above all things; so that they will part willingly with all others things rather than Christ, even to laying down their lives. This is illustrated for us in the parables of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:44-46) and in all the trials of the saints in Hebrews 11.

This is now the third reflection I’ve done on excerpts from Evidence for Heaven, written by an anonymous Puritan female author. Edmund Calamy was credited as the author, but he himself acknowledged it was actually written by a female member of his church. After writing the first two reflections (Evidence for Heaven and More Evidence for Heaven), I planned to stop. But then in another meditation from Day by Day with the English Puritans, I read the above quoted passage on Love as the sweetest flower in the Garden of God and again believed her thoughts needed to reach a wider audience. I’m thinking there will be more reflections to come.

05/1/15

Evidence for Heaven

“Faith is the grace, and the only grace, whereby we are justified before God, by it we eat of the Tree of Life, (Jesus Christ) and live for ever.” (Edmund Calamy)

The above quote introduced “Evidence of Heaven,” the February 22nd daily meditation for Day by Day with the English Puritans. In typical Puritan fashion, the full title of the original work was: “Evidence for Heaven: Containing Infallible Signs and Real Demonstrations of our Union with Christ and Assurance of Salvation.” Day by Day listed Edmund Calamy as the author, and a Google search found a link to a digitized copy of the original work here. Evidence for Heaven was attributed to the Puritan preacher, but Calamy himself said its true author was an anonymous female member of his church.

While the author’s anonymity will seem odd to moderns, it was unusual for a ‘gentlewoman’ in 1657 to write and then publish something she wrote. As Clamay said in his introduction: “I hope no man will condemn this Book, because written by a Woman but rather admire the goodnesse, love, and power of God, who is able to do such great things, by such weak instruments.” He added that it was her “great desire” that her name be concealed. If anyone were to reap a spiritual advantage by reading it, “she hath obtained the height of her ambition.”

In the Preface, the author said it was her intention to “lay down some rules” by which a person that wants to have some assurance, or “Evidence for Heaven” can know that they have been chosen (predestined) to eternal life. They must seek it in Christ and in union with Christ, which is the only true touchstone we have to try ourselves. If they were to go to someone else or from person to person—like a bee goes from flower to flower—to find assurance of their salvation, the world would say: “We have heard of the fame thereof, but know not what it is.” Even God’s people would say, “We thirst after it, but know not where to find it.”

Her counsel was to go to Scripture: “it will tell thee in the Word.” She urged her readers to frequent the Word preached; to read the Word printed; to seek evidence in renewing grace; to seek it in the narrow way. “These are the paths wherein the flock of Christ have gone before us, and which they have trodden out unto us; follow their foot steps, if thou wouldest attain assurance.” And this search must be done diligently, orderly, humbly and perseveringly.

First is the need for diligence. As it says in 2 Peter 1:10, we are to be “all the more diligent” to confirm our calling and election. We should seek assurance as a treasure laid hidden deep in the bowels of Scripture. As Solomon taught us to strive for wisdom and understanding, we should: “seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). We should labor for it as those who work in the silver-mines.

Second is the need for the right order; we must follow the vein. We must begin with the branches of regeneration and justification for they issue out of predestination, which is the root of salvation. When Jesus instructed Nicodemus about his spiritual estate, he did not send him to Heaven “to read the records of the celestial court.” Rather, he sent him to search his own heart and life—to consider whether he was regenerate and born again. If someone wants good evidence of the love of God and their own salvation, they must begin with the workings of God in and upon themselves.

That he that would get assurance of his Election, must seek it in the workings of God, in, and upon himself; he must consider, how his justification is evidenced by his sanctification, and his election by both. Sanctification is Gods work in us, justification is Gods work upon us, both together are certain pledges of his good will towards us

Third, the person who seeks assurance should do it humbly; with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Although it is possible for a child of God to know their estate, it is very difficult. A seeker of assurance must seek it with a holy fear and jealousy—humbly on their knees.

Fourthly, they must seek it perseveringly; never giving over until they have received. Never giving over until they find what they seek. They must follow the example of the Bride searching for her beloved (Song of Solomon 5:6f). They should persist like the Canaanite woman, who did not rest until she got her answer (Matthew 15:22-28). The Scripture exhorts all Christians to labor for assurance; to be diligent to confirm their calling and election (2 Peter 1:10).

They should make every effort to supplement their faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-8).

Assurance is a thing of incomparable worth, a thing which no man knoweth, but he that hath is, a thing that no man prizeth so much, as he that wants it; in a word, it is a thing of such incomparable worth, that a man cannot buy it at too deare a rate: Could a man but know its goodnesse, and taste its sweetnesse, he would think no labour too much to attain it, no sinne too sweet to part with for it, no sufferings too much to preserve it, no care and industry too much to increase it; for it is (indeed) next grace, the most precious and delectable love token, that we can possible receive from Jesus Christ the Bridegroom of our souls, in his bodily absence. And if this will not persuade thee, Reader, to seek after it, I leave thee to him to persuade, who persuaded Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem; what God hath bin pleased to impart unto me on this Subject, I have committed to writing, more than this, I dare not do, for going out of my sphere, and lesse then this, I could not do, least I should be blamed of my Heavenly Father, for hiding my Talent in a napkin, and burying divine love in a dunghill; if ever this little draught of Evidence, which I penned for my own use, and hope to leave to my Children for theirs, should by any providence come abroad to publique view, my desire and hope is. That this little draught of Evidence may (through Gods Blessing) be helpful to some of Christ’s Lambs, to some poor souls, which thirst after assurance on Scriptures-grounds, and invite others of profounder judgments, and greater abilities, to search the Scriptures, by them to make discovery of the way to get this precious and invaluable Jewel of sound assurance.

There are still people today who struggle with doubt regarding their salvation. They would do well to spend time reading the thoughts of this anonymous gentlewoman, a member of the congregation of Alderman-bury. Our anonymous author suffered from an affliction for over thirty years that kept her, in great measure, from public and private spiritual helps which others enjoyed. And yet she could write of the assurance of salvation with confidence that speaks to us over 350 years after it was published.

Faith Seeking Understanding

Charles Sigler, D.Phil.

Tag Archives: Edmund Calamy