by Henry Scudder
in ePub, mobi & .pdf formats
With an introductory essay by Thomas Chalmers, D. D.
To effect a transformation in the spirit of our services was one great design of the gospel of Jesus Christ—not to abolish service, we should remark, but to animate it with a new principle—not to set aside work, but to strike out a pure and copious fountain in the heart from which it might emanate—to strike off those fetters by which the moral and sentient nature of man was linked, as to all affection for the Godhead, in a kind of dull and heavy imprisonment—and bid those feelings which had long been pent and stifled in imprisonment there, go freely forth, both with trust and with tenderness, to the Father from whom we had been so sadly alienated. For this purpose a Mediator was appointed, and the account now taken up and discharged by him, is no longer against us—and for our sins, we are told, if we would only give credit to the saying, we shall no more be reckoned with—and the Deity reveals himself in a new aspect of invitation to his creatures, and just that he may awaken the new affections of confidence and love in their before fearful and suspicious bosoms. We cannot love God in the face of a debt uncancelled and of a sentence unrecalled, and of a threatening that is still in farce against us, and of mighty and majestic attributes all leagued for their own vindication to the object of destroying us. But we can love God when we are told, and we believe what is told of the ransom that is paid, and of the sentence and the threatening being all already spent on the agonies of another's endurance, and of his attributes aroused to vengeance because of sin, now pacified because of a sacrifice—so that mercy is free to send forth her beseeching calls, and, emancipated from the claims of truth and justice, can now abundantly rejoice over all the works and perfections of the Godhead. The cross of Jesus Christ is not merely the place of breaking forth into peace and reconciliation, but it is also the place of breaking forth into the love and new obedience of a regenerated nature. He who hath blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross—it is he who hath slain in our hearts their enmity against God—and now that we can love God because he first loved us, and sent his Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins—now, and now only, can we serve him in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
It should be our aim then to keep our hearts in the love of God—and this can only be done by keeping in memory the love that he hath borne unto us. With this affection all alive in our bosoms, and seeking how most to please and to gratify the Being whom it regards—let us never forget that this is his will, even our sanctification: that like as he rejoiced at the birth of nature when on the work being accomplished he looked upon every thing that he had made, and saw in the beauty, and luxuriance, and variety which had just emerged from his hands, that all was very good—in like manner, and much more, does he rejoice in that new creation, by which moral loveliness, and harmony, and order, are made to emerge out of the chaos of our present degeneracy. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and the spectacle of our worth and excellence is to him a pleasing spectacle—and what he wants is, to form and to multiply, by the regenerative power of his Spirit, the specimens of a beauty far higher in kind than all that can be exhibited on the face of visible nature: arid our truth, and our charity, and our deep repentance for sin, and our ceaseless aspirations after loftier degrees of purity and godliness—these imprint so many additional features of gracefulness on that spiritual creation over which the holiness of his character most inclines him to rejoice; and we knowing that this is the mind of the Deity, and loving to gratify the Being whom we love, are furnished with a principle of obedience, more generous, and far more productive of the fruits of righteousness, than the legal principle, which only seeks to be square with the Lawgiver and safe from the thunders of his violated authority. There is no limitation to such an obedience. The ever urging principle of love to God is sure at all times to stimulate and to extend it: and what with a sense of delight in the work itself, and with the sense that God whom we love delights in the work also and rejoices over it, is there a newness of spirit given to obedience under the economy of the Gospel, altogether, diverse from that oldness of the letter, which obtained under the economy of nature and of the law.
But, thirdly, there is nothing perhaps that will better illustrate the distinction between service rendered in the newness of the spirit, and service rendered in the oldness of the letter, than one simple reflection upon what that is which is the great object of the dispensation we sit under—to be made like unto God, like unto him in righteousness, and like unto him in true holiness. Now just think what the righteousness of God is like. Is it righteousness in submission to the authority of a law? Is it righteousness painfully and laboriously wrought out, with a view to reward? Is it righteousness in pursuit of any one pleasure or gratification that is at all distinct from the pleasure which the Divinity has in the very righteousness itself? Does not he desire righteousness simply because he loves it? Is not he holy, just because holiness is the native and kindred element of his Being? Do not all the worth and all the moral excellence of the Godhead, come direct from the original tendencies of his own moral nature? And would either the dread of punishment or the hope of remuneration be necessary to attach him more than he already is, by the spontaneous and unbidden propensities of his own character, to that virtue which has been his glory from everlasting, and to that ethereal purity in which he most delights to expatiate? It is not at the beck of a governor—it is not with a view to prepare himself for an appearance at some bar of jurisprudence—it is nothing else in fact but the preference he bears for what is right, and the hatred he holds for what is wrong—it is this, and this alone, which determines to absolute and unerring rectitude all the purposes and all the proceedings of the Deity. And to be like unto him, that which is a task when done under the oldness of the letter must be done in newness of spirit, and then will it be the very transport of our nature to be engaged in the doing of it. What is now felt we fear by many as a bondage, would, were we formed anew in the image of him who created us, become a blessedness. The burden of our existence would turn into its beatitude—and we, exempted from all those feelings of drudgery and dislike which ever accompany a mere literal obedience, would prosecute holiness with a sort of constitutional delight, and so evince that God was assimilating us to himself, that he was dwelling in us, and that he was walking in us.
And the Christian disciple who is thus aspiring after that obedience, which, while it fulfils the demands of the law in the letter, is also rendered in newness of spirit, will find in the following Treatise, "SCUDDER'S CHRISTIAN'S DAILY WALK IN HOLY SECURITY AND PEACE," a valuable companion and counsellor to guide him in every condition of life, and under all the vicissitudes to which life is subject—to instruct him how to prosecute his daily walk, so as to secure his peace, and to possess his soul in patience in his journey through life, and to render the circumstances of his lot, whether prosperous or adverse, subservient to the still higher purpose of promoting his holiness and his growth in the divine life, to fit him for the heavenly rest which awaits him at the close of his earthly pilgrimage. In this Treatise, the Christian disciple will learn to combine a service the most rigid in the letter, with those principles of the renewed heart which render it at the same time a delightful and an acceptable service. He will learn how to walk with God, while engaged in the service of man. It is the production of a man who had reached to great attainments in the spiritual life, and whose wise and experimental counsels are well fitted to guide him amidst the doubts and difficulties which may beset his path in the Christian warfare. It has received the approving testimony of two of the most eminent Divines of a former age, Dr. Owen, and Richard Baxter, and we know of no work which better merits the high commendation which these competent judges have bestowed on it.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
Dr. Owen & Dr. Baxter to the Reader
CHAPTER I: Of Walking with God
INTRODUCTION
I. Walking with God described
II. Reasons for this holy Practice
III. The Universal Obligations to it
CHAPTER II: Of beginning the Day with God
I. How to awake with God, by pious Meditation and Thanksgiving
II. By renewed Faith and Repentance, Self-examination and Prayer
III. Directions concerning Prayer, &c.
IV. Signs of Worldly-mindedness in holy Duties, and Remedies against it
CHAPTER III: Directions for Walking with God in the Progress of the Day
I. General Directions
II. Special Duties of Superiors and Inferiors
III. Of Bodily Refreshment and Recreations
(1.) Rules concerning Eating and Drinking
(2.) Rules concerning Recreations
CHAPTER IV: Of Religious Fasting
I. The Nature of, and Reasons for, religious Fasts
II. Special Directions concerning them
Helps to Self-examination
(1.) From God's Holy Law
(2.) From the Gospel of Christ
(3.) Of Humiliation and Self-judging for Sin
(4.) Directions for obtaining Pardon of Sin, and Power over it
(5.) The Benefits of religious Fasting, &c.
CHAPTER V: Of the Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath
(1.) The Divine Institution of the Lord's Day
(2.) Directions for the Religious Observance of it
(3.) The Nature and Design of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Directions relating thereunto
(4.) Motives to keep holy the Lord's Day
CHAPTER VI: Directions how to End the Day with God
Rules concerning Sleep
CHAPTER VII: Of Walking with God alone
I. Rules concerning Solitude
II. Of Reading the Word of God, and other good Books
III. Of Meditation
(1.) Directions concerning it
(2.) The Necessity Use of it
CHAPTER VIII: Of keeping Company
I. Rules concerning Company in general
II. Cautions and Directions as to evil Company
III. Directions with respect to good Company, or Christian Fellowship
CHAPTER IX: The Christian's Duty in Prosperity
I. Rules for our religious Conduct in Prosperity
(1.) In shunning those Sins to which we are most prone in Prosperity
(2.) In attending to those Duties which Prosperity especially calleth for
II. Professed Praise and Thanksgiving to god
(1.) and (2.) How and for what, Praise and Thanksgiving is to be offered
(3.) The Evil of Unthankfulness
(4.) Motives to the Duty of Thankfulness
(5.) Impediments to Thankfulness
(6.) Helps to Thankfulness
(7.) Signs to know when God giveth good things in Love
III. Real Proofs of Gratitude, by using it to his Glory
CHAPTER X: Directions for Walking with God in Adversity
(1.) Rules concerning light Crosses
(2.) Directions how to bear all Afflictions well
1st, Remedies against sinful Anger
2d, The Cure of Worldly Grief
(3.) The Nature of Christian Patience
(4.) Motives to it
(5.) Means to gain Christian Patience
(6.) Of bearing Afflictions thankfully and fruitfully
CHAPTER XI: Of Uprightness
I. The Necessity of Uprightness in Religion
II. The Description of it
III. Rules by which to judge of our Uprightness
IV. Particular Marks of Uprightness and Hypocrisy
V. Dissuasives from Hypocrisy, and Motives to Uprightness
VI. Means to subdue Hypocrisy and promote Uprightness
CHAPTER XII: Of lawful Care, and Freedom from anxious Care
I. The Description of lawful Care
II. Signs of immoderate Care
III. The Duty of quiet Trust in God
IV. Reasons against anxious Care, and for cheerful Trust in God
V. Means to attain quieting Confidence in God
CHAPTER XIII: Of the Peace of God
I. The Nature and Excellency of it
II. Farther Excellencies and Advantages of the Peace of God
CHAPTER XIV: Of the Impediments of Peace
I. False Hopes and false Fears described
II. The Causes of Presumption or false Peace
III. Several Grounds of false Peace discovered and removed
CHAPTER XV: Concerning false Fears
I. Of needful holy Fear
II. The Springs and Cure of Causeless Fears
(1.) Of those which arise from natural Distempers
(2.) From the Greatness of Sin
III. Of Fears concerning not being elected
IV. Of Fears concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost
V. Of Fears arising from an accusing Conscience
VI. Of Fears from late Repentance
VII. Fears of misusing the Means of Grace
VIII. Of Fears arising from Doubts of God's Love
(1.) Because of Affliction
(2.) From want of Affliction
(3.) From inward Horrors and Distresses
(4.) From the Greatness of Afflictions
(5.) Because Prayers are not answered
(6.) From the Want and Weakness of Faith
IX. Reasons why Christians think they have no Faith, considered
(1.) In what true Faith consists
(2.) The Difference between Faith and Assurance
(3.) The Nature and Properties of Saving Faith
(4.) True Faith discerned by its Effects
X. Fears concerning the Truth of Sanctification
(1.) Because not deeply humbled
(2.) From the Intrusion of evil and blasphemous Thoughts
(3.) From the Prevalence of some gross Sin
(4.) From Want of affectionate Sorrow for Sin
(5.) From Defects in Spiritual Duties
(6.) From Deadness of Affection after Duties
(7.) From the greater Improvement of others in Piety and Holiness
(8.) From remaining Hardness of Heart
XI. Of Fears of Apostacy
(1.) Who may apostatise
(2.) Who shall persevere
(3.) How for Christians may decline in Grace
(4.) The Difference between the Falls of the Sincere and the Insincere
(5.) Why the Faithful shall not finally apostatise
XII. Sundry Doubts removed, in particular, about falling from Grace
(1.) Fears of being Hypocrites only
(2.) Because of the Decay of Grace and Comfort
(3.) Because of the Apostacy of others
(4.) From not being able to endure Persecution
(5.) From the Deceitfulness of the Heart
(6.) From sensible Weakness and Despondencies
(7.) From not performing the Condition of the Promises
(8.) From the want of such Grace as God hath promised to his People
(9.) From the Power and Number of Temptations
XIII. The Christian's Ground of Hope against all Fears
CHAPTER XVI: Means to attain the Peace of God
I. Errors in misjudging of a Person's State removed
II. Rules for a right Judgment of ourselves
III. Directions for the troubled Conscience in application to Ministers and others
IV. Means to get and preserve true Peace
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