LilyG
Puritan Board Freshman
Following, I know, in the footsteps of our grown-up believers, in the context of my young family life, I'm really feeling the weight and sorrow in increased glimpses of my own depravity, to which I've been profoundly blind.
John Newton's letters have been exceedingly comforting (and clarifying!), particularly on God's sovereignty in our sanctification, and the three major phases of the Christian life. Pfft! These are amazing! What a timely introduction from the Lord with warm, pastoral letters such as these:
"The gracious purposes to which the Lord makes the sense and feeling of our depravity subservient, are manifold. Hereby his own power, wisdom, faithfulness, and love, are more signally displayed: his power, in maintaining his own work in the midst of so much opposition, like a spark burning in the water, or a bush unconsumed in the flames; his wisdom, in defeating and controlling all the devices which Satan, from his knowledge of the evil of our nature, is encouraged to practise against us. He has overthrown many a fair professor, and, like Goliath, he challenges the whole army of Israel; yet he finds there are some against whom, though he thrusts sorely, he cannot prevail; notwithstanding any seeming advantage he gains at some seasons, they are still delivered, for the Lord is on their side. The unchangeableness of the Lord's love, and the riches of his mercy, are likewise more illustrated by the multiplied pardons he bestows upon his people, than if they needed no forgiveness at all. Hereby the Lord Jesus is more endeared to the soul; all boasting is effectually excluded, and the glory of a full free salvation is ascribed to him alone." -John Newton, "Advantages from Remaining Sin"
John Newton's letters have been exceedingly comforting (and clarifying!), particularly on God's sovereignty in our sanctification, and the three major phases of the Christian life. Pfft! These are amazing! What a timely introduction from the Lord with warm, pastoral letters such as these:
"The gracious purposes to which the Lord makes the sense and feeling of our depravity subservient, are manifold. Hereby his own power, wisdom, faithfulness, and love, are more signally displayed: his power, in maintaining his own work in the midst of so much opposition, like a spark burning in the water, or a bush unconsumed in the flames; his wisdom, in defeating and controlling all the devices which Satan, from his knowledge of the evil of our nature, is encouraged to practise against us. He has overthrown many a fair professor, and, like Goliath, he challenges the whole army of Israel; yet he finds there are some against whom, though he thrusts sorely, he cannot prevail; notwithstanding any seeming advantage he gains at some seasons, they are still delivered, for the Lord is on their side. The unchangeableness of the Lord's love, and the riches of his mercy, are likewise more illustrated by the multiplied pardons he bestows upon his people, than if they needed no forgiveness at all. Hereby the Lord Jesus is more endeared to the soul; all boasting is effectually excluded, and the glory of a full free salvation is ascribed to him alone." -John Newton, "Advantages from Remaining Sin"