God Loves… Himself

That you are a member in Him, eternally united to Him, and are already clothed in the all-glorious garment of His everlasting obedience, and cleansed from all your sins in His most precious blood.

I hope the love of God’s heart towards you in Christ Jesus is a fountain of comfort and consolation to your mind, and that you are fully persuaded the love God, wherewith He loves you in the Son of His love, can never alter, change, nor vary. He has loved you with an everlasting love, and He will continue it to your person to everlasting. And though the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, yet His lovingkindness shall not depart from you, nor the covenant of His peace be removed, nor broken.

The Lord Himself hath spoken it, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them,” i.e. His people, “that I will never turn away from them from doing them good.” And this is our mercy, and our security. And until God’s word fail, you, who have been led to believe what the Lord hath spoken, cannot.

It will be your mercy to be refreshing your memory daily, with thinking and meditating upon the love of God the Father, and to be viewing the blessed revelation He hath made of Christ in the sacred Scriptures, and it will be truly blessed to be led by the Holy Spirit to mix faith with the word, and by believing to honor God’s record concerning His Son, and to be setting your seal to the truth of it.

Jesus Christ is most gloriously and highly exalted in the word. And it is the office of the Holy Spirit to exalt Christ and to honor Him in our hearts, but giving us to receive Him into our minds as our everlasting righteiousness, and our everlasting all.

To be considering what God the Father says concerning Christ, that His soul delighteth in Him, that He is everlastingly pleased with Him, and to be looking unto, and to be exercised in believing in Christ, viewing His righteousness to be that which makes us completely righteous before the throne; to behold Him as the Lamb of God, who hath abolished all our sin, and presents us before the Lord everlastingly cleansed from every spot and stain, this is blessed. Then we lose a sight of our guilty, sinful selves, and triumph over sin, Satan, death, and hell, in Christ.

Nothing can make us truly spiritual but sights of Christ, real discoveries of Him made by the Spirit unto us. Glory be rendered to God the Holy Ghost, it is His great and blessed work to take of the things of Christ, and to show them unto us. To glorify Christ in our understandings, hearts, and consciences, and to make Him inestimably and everlastingly precious unto us.

The eternal Three are engaged by covenant, promise, and oath to bring us to eternal glory. Therefore, when we are at any time dejected and cast down in our souls, let the cause be what it may, we may well rebuke ourselves, and say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God.” Al our objections, doubts, and fears arise from our own hearts, just as all the mist, and fogs, and vapors do from the earth. Blessed by the Lord, the bright rising and shining of Christ, the son of righteousness dispels them. Oh! How blessed is it to be warmed, quickened, healed, and comforted by the Lord Jesus Christ!

Letters of Samuel Eyles Pierce

Christ is all, and in all – the words are a Proposition. In which we have the Subject, Christ; But Christ; and the Predicate, He is all, and in all. He is all things that are necessary to salvation and that in all persons, who do believe in him, who are renewed and regenerated by his grace. – Christ is all by way of merit. Jesus Christ is meritoriously all in all to believers. Whatsoever they are, whatsoever they have, whatsoever they do, or can expect, is only upon the score and account of his purchase and merit. They enjoy no good thing upon any other terms, but only upon the consideration of Christ’s merits. Because he hath done and suffered for them, and in their stead, therefore do they partake of those blessings which make them happy to all eternity. The Patriarchs in the Old Testament, Christians in the New Testament, have pleaded with God for all blessings only upon the account of Christ. “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.” {Dan.9:17} Of this the Apostle speaks, when he saith, that Christ is made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. {I Cor.1:30} Christ doth bestow upon us, and God is pleased to accept for us the merit of Christ’s Passion, Death, Obedience, and Righteousness. 2. Christ is all in all to them by way of conveyance. As he hath merited all for them; so ’tis from him and through him that all good things are communicated to them. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” {Jn.14:6} As we have all propter Christum, so we receive all we have per Christum through Christ. He is not only the Fountain, but the Medium and Conduit through whom all a believer hath is conveyed to him. Jesus Christ is a believer’s Root. “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” {Jn.15:5} Now as all the sap which is in the branches is communicated through the root, so all the good which a believer hath is derived through Christ. God hath put all that good he intends to bestow upon his Elect into Christ’s hands as a Feoffee in trust, and from him as the great Lord-steward is all communicated unto them. Of this the Apostle speaks; from Christ the Head, the whole body by “joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” {Col.2:19} Jesus Christ is, as it were, the hand of God, through which all good things are sent in to us. He is the door; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.” {Jn.10:7} 3. Christ is all in all to them, by way of efficiency and causality. He it is that works all in all in his Saints; “there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” {I Cor.12:6} This our Saviour bears witness unto, when he tells us, that without him we can do nothing. {Jn.15:5} The soul is the principle of all action in man, Jesus Christ is the principle of all motion and spiritual action in his Saints, for he is the soul of their soul. Not a good desire, not a good thought but what is inspired by Jesus Christ. The Apostle doth freely acknowledge this. “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;” {Gal.2:20;} so “work out your own salvation, &c. for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” {Phil.2:12,13} 4. Christ is all in all to them virtually; he is instead of all things to them. Solomon saith that money answereth all things, for it is meat, drink, clothes, house, lands, &c., {Ecles.10:19,} all things that are vendible may be procured by money. Jesus Christ is virtually all things, for he makes up all things that are wanting. Hence it is that he is in Scripture compared to all things, to food, to clothing, to physick, to gold, to health, &c., because he stands for all these things unto the souls of his Saints. Hence is that promise; “he that overcometh shall inherit all things. {Rev.21:7} Jesus Christ is for all uses and purposes. This is in the text; he is Circumcision to the Gentile, wisdom to the Barbarian, &c. 5. Christ is all in all to them by way of benediction and sanctification. It is from him that any good they enjoy becomes a blessing to them. He makes everything effectual for those ends for which they are appointed. No good thing would be good to us without the benediction of Christ; yea were it not for his blessing, every good thing would prove a snare, a cross and a curse to us, as they do to them, who have no interest in Christ. This is that which Solomon saith, “the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich.” {PV.10:22} Thy health would be thy greatest sickness, thy wealth would be thy ruin, thy parts and abilities would be a snare to thee, did not Jesus Christ sanctify them by his blessing. All the good the Saints enjoy depends upon Christ’s blessings to make them good to them. The Application follows: Use 1. How injurious to Jesus Christ are they who mingle other things with Jesus Christ as the causes of their salvation. The Papists mingle their own merits, and righteousness, indulgences, the sufferings of other men, with the merits of Christ, as the causes of their justification and salvation. What else is this but to deny the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ? If he be all in all for justification and salvation, he needs not have his merits eked out with such kind of helps as these are. If Christ be all in all, then these are superfluous; yea, the addition of these doth derogate from, and destroy the fullness and all-sufficiency of Christ. Yea, Christ who is all in all to believers, will be nothing at all to them who are not contented with him alone. “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” {Gal.5:4} Consider this you that are self justifyers. Use 2. If Christ be all in all, then is nothing anything at all without Jesus Christ. All the world, the riches, pleasures, honors of the world is but emptiness without Christ. “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity;” {Ecles.1:2;} that man hath just nothing, that hath not Christ who is all things; the world is but complete loss without Christ. Thy wisdom, thy parts, thy children, thy offices, thy preferments, thy lands and revenues, all thou hast, if thou want him that is all things, can amount to nothing. They are but cyphers without a figure. O that men would consider this! Use 3. What rich inheritance have all those who are truly interested in Jesus Christ! My God and My All. They possess him that is all in all, and in possessing him they possess all. I have all things my brother, saith Jacob to Esau, {Gen.33:11,} for he that hath him that is all in all, cannot want anything. All things are yours, {saith the Apostle} whether things present, or things to come, and you are Christ’s. {I Cor.3:22,23} A true believer, let him be never so poor outwardly, is in truth the richest man in all the world; he hath all in all, and what can be added to all? Use 4. It shows the reason why the Saints are so fearful of losing Jesus Christ. They value all things at a low rate in comparison of him. They would rather lose all then Christ, they are contented to part with liberty, estate, life, rather than with Christ. Is there not cause for it? Christ is better than all things else. Riches are something, liberty is something, life is something, but Christ is all in all. There is nothing besides Jesus Christ that is good for all uses. Garments are good to cover, but not for food; meat is good to feed, but not to warm, &c., but Jesus Christ is good for every use, for all persons, for all times, for all sexes, for all conditions. They know if they lose Christ, they lose all things. If a man had all his estate in one jewel, you would not blame him to be very careful of keeping that. Jesus Christ is their all, they seek him when they are deprived of him, with greatest care; they keep him when they have him, with the greatest diligence. “I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and would not let him go;” {Cant.3:4;} do not wonder at it; for he is their all in all. Use 5. That no soul esteems Christ aright, that doth not esteem him all in all. To esteem anything equal to Christ is to disesteem Christ. Thou dost never truly account him anything, till thou do account him all things; yea, better than all things, and all things as nothing in respect of him. If thou canst not make up all things in Christ, thou makest him but a poor Christ. If thou canst not make him a friend in the want of a friend; an habitation in the want of an habitation; if thou canst not make him riches in poverty; if there be any condition in which Christ will not suffice thee; if Christ be too little to satisfy thee, thou dost but undervalue him; he is never truly accounted anything, till he be accounted all things. Use 6. Learn hence, the misery of those that want Christ. He that wants Christ, wants all things. “Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless,” saith Abraham. {Gen.15:2} Abraham had much, and yet because he wanted a child, he wanted everything. The soul that wants Jesus Christ hath indeed nothing. The Apostle possessed all things when he had nothing; “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things;” {II Cor.6:10;} having Christ he possessed all things. Those that want a saving interest in Christ possess nothing, though they seem to have all things; all they have is emptiness; yea, all they have is a curse, because they have not Christ. O that God would convince men of this truth!

Ralph Robinson (Christ All in All)

Letters of Anne Dutton

You thought right that I should pity you, when I knew the cause of the lameness of your hands. For who that loves can forbear the greatest pity to a worthy friend who was used most cruelly? Cruel treatment was this from the creature—but a love-stroke of God your Father! You have hereby seen the wonders of His infinite goodness which He has wrought for you in that support under and deliverance from those many and great distresses which at present are to your wonder, joy and praise, and shall be to the advance of your felicity in eternal glory and to God’s honor, unto endless ages!
I think my afflictions are nothing if compared with those which you have passed through. Afflicted in body, from head to foot severely—terrified in soul so exceedingly—brought to the very brink of death and the grave in the former, and, as it were, into the belly of hell in the latter; and yet, everlasting arms underneath you in all this, the consolations of God given to your heart, and great deliverance to your body from its sore distress as an answer to social prayer—how great, how wondrous was the grace! And when a little raised up yourself, to be so soon plunged into distress by the awful affliction of your dear sister, and ever since to be exercised with such various scenes of distresses through which you have been called to pass, and yet maintained in life—in the life of nature and in the life of grace, and favored with the use of your natural and spiritual senses, how bright towards you have been the displays of the Lord’s excellent loving-kindness! You may well say, “in deaths often; troubled on every side.”
But when you shall have come up at last out of all great tribulations—having washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and are presented faultless before the throne of God—how sweet, how ineffably sweet, will be your eternal glory-rest! Then you will reflect with the highest pleasure upon all your past sorrows, and in unknown transports of joy and praise forever adore that wise grace which conducted you safely and advantageously through all the terrors and dangers of the wilderness. Most surely, your joy and glory, and God’s joy and glory in yours, is to be exceeding great, or you would not have met with such great miseries and griefs in the present state.
I am glad that you long, dear Madam, to devote yourself and your all unto God, and to be of special service to His praise, who has shown towards you such wonders of grace. And let the Lord’s past appearances for you, in your great and sore troubles, encourage you to trust in Him for delivering grace, even to the last of your distresses. For He who said unto you, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God”—is still the same. And so He will be through all your earthly-necessities, and to an endless eternity. It is His covenant with you to “work marvels.”
And think, O woman of sorrows, think, and think again—Christ, the tree of life, is cast into all your deaths, and will not He well sweeten these bitter waters. Oh, what is Christ, your Christ? “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!” He is God in your nature, a Father, a Brother, a Husband, a Friend, that ever lives, and ever loves! For love, in all relations, His is immense and endless; for life, He is the Lord of it—an immensity, an eternity of life dwells in Him for you, to perpetuate and perfect your life of grace, and to ripen it into the life of glory! Yes, to maintain your unknown felicity to a boundless eternity. And having Him, who is love, who is life, your love and life with you in all your deaths—will not He make every bitter sweet, and swallow up all your deaths in the infinity of His love and life? Yes, verily, He will for you, both in soul and body, swallow up death in victory, instate and maintain you in a glorious immortality to a blessed eternity. And so wondrously will He work for you, that He will bring life, and an increase of it, out of every death that passes over you.
Is it not better, infinitely better to have Christ with you as your own Lord Jesus, amid ten thousand deaths, for this small moment of time, who will swallow them all up in perfect victory and eternal glory in the world to come—than to be surrounded with all the outward felicity of the present state, with all the splendors of a worldling’s honors and pleasures—those ‘glow-worm glories’ which will suddenly be no more—and sent away from Christ at last, with a “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire?” May you be enabled to rejoice then in your portion, your soul-sustaining, your soul-satisfying, your life-giving portion, and walk worthy of your portion, by a constant dependence on Him, and a joyful expectance from Him, until you are fully blessed with the complete possession of Him who fills all in all, and will fill you brimful of light and life, of joy and glory, endless and unknown!
Oh, dear Madam, you are straitened in me, a little babe, a little child, who cannot speak; but you are not straitened for immense and eternal bliss in your Jesus. The tongues of angels and archangels, in all their innumerable armies, can never, never tell a thousandth part of His infinite fullness, beauties, and glories! What then can an earth-worm, the least, think or speak of that infinitely glorious Lord? When all is said that can be uttered by the greatest of men, it may be fitly said of their most comprehensive speeches concerning Him, “There was the hiding of His glory!” Yes, when the Lord Himself is set forth in the bright display of His power, it is said, “And there was the hiding of His glory!” What, in the display of it? Yes, with regard to the infinity of it in His own immense and unsearchable essence!
But it is enough, Madam, to make you inconceivably blessed, that in Him, this infinite Him, you have an entire and eternal interest. God grant you the joy of this ineffable felicity. I mourn that I can say no more of this vast and endless storehouse of blessings. Confusion covers me that I have thus veiled Him, when I would gladly have given you a glimpse of His glory. God grant you “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” to your unspeakable joy!

The next item in order is, “the total depravity and just condemnation of fallen man.” The work before us is to prove that man in his fallen state, is totally depraved; and secondly, that he is justly condemned by law of God.
On this important subject mankind appears to be very generally in the dark; and from an ignorance of this subject many errors and extravagances have gained in the world as we shall notice in the conclusion of this article. We cannot expect that the proud heart of man will fall in love with the doctrine about to be presented, as it strikes a death blow at all personal righteousness or human excellence, as a ground for acceptance before the sovereign Judge of quick and dead. Painful as the awful truth may be, it should not be concealed that “Man in his best estate is altogether vanity.”

Of the numerous passages of divine truth, which prove that mankind are depraved, we give the following: “God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” – Eccl. vii 29. “Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” – Rom. v. 12. “Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known; their is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” – Rom. iii. 13-20 and 23. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores,” &c.-Isa. i. 5, 6. “What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” – Job xv. 14. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” – Job xiv. 4. “Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” – Psalms li 5. “Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” – Psalms liii. 1-3. What then? Are we any better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after. “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.” – Psalms lviii. 3-5.

The above are a few of the many passages of holy writ, which prove the total depravity of all mankind in their fallen condition. Here in this volume, according to which God will judge the world, the whole mass of mankind are presented on one general level; all have sinned; death has passed upon all; hence there is no class of our race exempt from this state of wretchedness and depravity, conceived in sin, estranged from the womb, going astray, and speaking lies, as soon as they are born.

But as we conceive the doctrine of total depravity involves as a consequence, total inability, i. e. not as natural creatures, to perform natural things, but as depraved beings to perform anything which is good and acceptable in the sight of God. Of man in his alienation from God, it is written, “The thoughts of his heart are evil, and that continually.” ” He cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John iii. 3. “He cannot discern the things of the Spirit.” 1 Cor. ii. 14. “He cannot receive the spirit of truth.” – John xiv. 17. “He cannot do good.” -Jeremiah viii. 23. “He cannot cease from sin.” – 2 Peter ii. 14. “He cannot repent.” -Acts v. 31. “Cannot believe (savingly) in Christ.” – John vi .29; -Acts xiii. 41.

Man is not only a depraved and helpless creature, as a fallen sinner, but lie is also a condemned criminal, having sinned and come short of the glory of God, as we have shown. And the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. He is not, as many suppose, (a probationer) in a state of trial, to see whether he will, or will not deserve eventually to be condemned; for the law has already uttered its thundering sentence: “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “For they are condemned already.” Math. iii. 18. Hence, “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” – Rom. ix. 16, 18. That the condemnation of fallen sinners is grounded on strict justice, but few will have the hardihood, in so many words, to deny.

Dead in sin, enmity against God, in love with sin, drinking down iniquity, as the ox drinketh water, raging and blaspheming, condemned and under the curse of a righteous, just and inflexible law, we find the human race.
Thus the polluted sinner goes,
Laden with guilt and heavy woes,
Down to the regions of the dead,
With endless curses on his head.

Anne Dutton’s Letters on Spiritual Subjects

Dear Madam,
Permit me to ask, my dear sister—who told you that you were miserable, wretched, blind, and naked, sin-ruined, and law-condemned, and must perish forever without a saving interest in precious Jesus? Who showed you the worth of your immortal soul, that if your soul was safe for eternity, it did not much matter how things were as to your body, during this momentary state of your little inch of time? Who gave you such a high esteem of Christ, the Friend of sinners?

Have you always had such a living sensation of these things? If not, how did you come by this? Who gave it to you? Who makes you differ from thousands, on your right hand and on your left, who, insensible of their own misery as sinners, and of the excellency of Christ as the Savior, seek no higher happiness than the empty enjoyments of this perishing life?

Oh, dear Madam, have not you cause to adore the rich, free, distinguishing grace of God to you—which opened your eyes, while numbers round about you are blinded by sin and Satan? You have seen your unspeakable misery without Christ, and His immense and eternal excellency to make you incomparably happy unto endless glory!

You have been drawn by His all-conquering love, and changed in some measure into His image, and have given yourself up to Him, to be entirely and forever His. The altogether lovely Jesus is your beloved, and He is your friend—and in Him you have, and shall have, a well of life, and ocean of inexhaustible and eternal bliss!

Letters of Anne Dutton

It is well the Lord loves you, for His love is unchangeable and infinite, and in it you have Himself, who has all things, yes, is all things, abundantly and eternally! Ten thousand changes may pass over you with respect to yourself, and the people and things you are concerned with. And how miserable would you be if your happiness lay in these changing, failing, dying things? But blessed with the Lord Jehovah for your portion, your bliss in Him is full, unchanging, and everlasting. Rejoice, brother, in your wondrous lot! Oh, how goodly is your heritage! It is enough that the Lord is your portion! What can you more desire? Can you desire any good that is not to be found in God? Can you desire any joy that He, even Himself alone, cannot afford you? Let your soul from henceforth embosom itself in infinite fullness. Say to creature-vanities and vexations, “Get away! Do not disturb my repose in God. I have a sweet, soft, full bosom to rest in, from which I will not be enticed, nor driven by you.”

Oh, how blessed would we be amid all changes, if we always delighted ourselves in our unchangeable God! It is our going out of the eternal I AM that occasions all our fears and griefs and heart-faintings. Our wretched hearts, deceived by the serpent, desire something else besides God to make up a ‘fancied happiness’ for them. And thence, after this and that creature and thing they go. And when ‘catching at shadows’ we find them no substance, and that pursuing them they flee from us—this gives us disquietude. And oh, how well is it for us that every creature and thing concerning soul-rest says, “It is not in me!”

This, as being fore-appointed by the Lord our Lover, is by Him sanctified—to teach our silly hearts at times a little wisdom—to turn the mouth of faith to the ‘breasts of divine consolations’—to God in Christ, the full fountain, the inexhaustible ocean of solid, endless bliss of all our life and joy!

And as our full and unchangeable God, in his great and glorious self, is our exceeding joy—and by ‘creature-emptiness’ and ‘changes’ is pleased at times to bring us to his blissful bosom, so this also may be the matter of our rejoicing—that all our time-changes respecting creatures and things are overruled by our eternal and unchangeable God, for his own endless praise, and for our everlasting salvation.

And if these great ends are, and shall be, the effects of all the changes which pass over us, why need we be much distressed by the most grieving changes? Yes, why should we not rejoice in tribulation, amid a thousand losses and crosses, griefs and disappointments, which attend us in this valley of tears? What ails our silly hearts to be so displeased or distressed, when things go not to our wish? What would we have? “Oh,” we say, “the Lord’s glory, and our advantage in this and that.” If this is our desire, this we have always, even by the greatest crosses and disappointments we meet with. “Aye,” replies our silly mind, “but I wanted the Lord’s glory in this or that which I desired.”

And must not God, then, glorify Himself in that way which He likes best? O proud worms! Can we teach the only wise God wisdom? Shall ‘creature-darkness and ignorance’ dictate to, dispute with, or reprove infinite understanding? Be astonished, O Heavens, at this! What—can we, foolish, blind, weak creatures—govern the world, or anything in it, better than the almighty, all-wise Creator, preserver, and disposer of all things? Shall we, who will not allow God His sovereign right of ruling His earth, and all the creatures and things of His forming and appointing, without a rebellious sigh when our desires are crossed—be thought capable of wielding the scepter of the world? Was ever such pride, such rebellion, as that is found in us, when we will not allow our Savior to glorify Himself, and save us by such ways and things that He, in His infinite wisdom, sees best?

Adoring, let us bow down; and loving, let us bless the Lord for everything He gives, or withholds, or takes from us, if we would behave as obedient children to the Lord our Father, as the God of love and peace, who, according to the exceeding riches of His grace, has abounded towards us in all things in all wisdom and prudence. To whom be dominion and glory forever. Amen.

“The heart is most like to the object of worship. The heart in the body is the spring of all vital actions. How can we imagine God can delight in the mere service of the body, any more than we can delight in converse with a carcass? Without the heart it is no worship; it is a stage-play; an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us. A hypocrite, in the notion of the word, is a stage-player. We may as well say a man may believe with his body, as worship God only with his body…A statue upon a tomb, with eyes and hands lifted up, offers as good and true a service; it lacks only a voice, the gestures and postures are the same; nay, the service is better; it is not a mockery. But to worship without our spirits, is a presenting God with a picture, an echo, voice, and nothing else; a compliment; a mere lie…Without the heart, the tongue is a liar.”

Stephen Charnock Spiritual Worship, pp 246-247