thy blindness make thee cry for light? And hath not God out of darkness
oftentimes brought light? Thou hast felt venom against Christ and thy
brother, and thou hast on that account loathed thyself the more. Thy
falls into sin make thee weary of it, watchful against it, long to be rid
of it. And thus He makes thy poison thy food, thy death thy life, thy
damnation thy salvation, and thy very greatest enemies thy very best
friends. And hence Mr. Fox said that he thanked God more for his sins
than for his good works. And the reason is, God will have His name."
And, last, but not least, listen to our old acquaintance, James Fraser of
Brea: "I find advantages by my sins: '_Peccare nocet, peccavisse vero
juvat_.' I may say, as Mr. Fox said, my sins have, in a manner, done me
more good than my graces. Grace and mercy have more abounded where sin
had much abounded. I am by my sins made much more humble, watchful,
revengeful against myself. I am made to see a greater need to depend
more upon Him and to love Him the more. I find that true which Shepard
says, 'sin loses strength by every new fall.'" Have you followed all
that, my brethren? Or have you stumbled at it? Do you not understand
it? Does your superficial gin-horse mind incline to shake its empty head
over all this? I know that great names, and especially the great names
of your own party, go much farther with you than the truth goes, and
therefore I have sheltered this deep truth under a shield of great names.
For their sakes let this sure truth of God's best saints lie in peace and
undisputed beside you till you arrive to understand it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account