Code name E9

“Christ himself will not communicate himself to the proud and self-conceited. He is wisdom, but not to them that are wise in their own eyes already. He is righteousness, but not to them that justify themselves. He is sanctification, but not to those that never found their own uncleanness. He is redemption, but to none but those that feel themselves condemned. He hath the white raiment, and the treasures of grace and glory; but it is only for those that penitently feel that they are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Truly sirs, though I have no mind to trouble the well-grounded peace or comfort of any of your souls, yet I would advise you, if you have never so good thoughts of yourselves, suspect lest it should be the fruit of self-conceitedness; and if you should have never so much peace and joy, look well whether it come from God or self-conceit! And if it come not in against self, it is ten to one but it comes from self. If your peace and comfort be not won from Christ, in a way of self-denial, and as the spoils of the flesh, you have it not in the ordinary way of God. Did you come to your joy and peace by humility, and self-denial, and patience, and mortification, and by becoming little children, and the servants of all, and by learning of Christ to be meek and lowly? If not, take heed lest you nourish a changeling, an imp of hell, and a selfish brat, instead of the fruit of the Spirit, the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost” ~ Richard Baxter, Treatise on Self Denial, ch. XIV

“Imagine that all the world was turned into a mass or lump of gold, the stones of the streets into precious pearls, and the sea and rivers all flowing with liquid streams of most pure gold—they would not satisfy the wrath of God for the least sin (Mic. 6:7). If all the angels and creatures in heaven and earth had joined together, and made one fervent prayer for man’s sin; even if they had offered themselves to have been annihilated, it could never have been effected. Nay, if the Son of God Himself should have supplicated His Father with most earnest entreaties, He could not have been heard unless He had taken our flesh upon Him, and suffered all that devils and men could imagine to inflict upon Him. Which, well considered, is infinite cause to bring us to a sense of God’s wrath—that He should lay such infinite torments to be on Jesus, that He cried out unto God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” Though He loved Him infinitely as Himself, yet He would have His justice satisfied.” ~ Robert Bolton, Heart Surgery (Sermon on Acts 2:32)

“Christ offereth to help you out: he reacheth out his hand to you, and, if you perish, it is for refusing his help. "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man open to me, I will come in." What though you are poor, and wretched, and blind, and naked! Christ offereth a cure for your blindness, a covering for your nakedness, a remedy for thy poverty; he tenders you his righteousness, his grace. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed; anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Do you say, the condition is impossible; for I have not wherewith to buy? You must know that this buying is " without money and without price." This buying is by begging and seeking with diligence and constancy in the use of God's means. God commandeth thee to know him, and to fear him. Dost thou say, Yea, but my mind is blinded, and my heart is hardened, from his fear? I answer, God doth offer to enlighten thy mind, and to teach thee this fear, that is presented to thy choice. "For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." So, that now, if men live in ignorance and estrangement from the Lord, it is because they " will not understand and desire the knowledge of his ways." " If thou eriest after knowledge, if thou seekest her as silver, &c. then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." Is not here a fair offer? "Turn ye at my reproof; behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you." Though of yourselves you can do nothing, yet you may do all through his Spirit enabling you, and he doth offer assistance to you. God bids you " wash and make you clean." You say you are unable, as much as the leopard to wash out his spots. Yea, but the Lord doth offer to purge you; so that, if you be filthy still, it is through your own wilfulness.” ~ Joseph Alleine, Alarm to the Unconverted, ch. VII

“What good is much discussion of involved and obscure matters when our ignorance of them will not be held against us on Judgment Day? Neglect of things which are profitable and necessary and undue concern with those which are irrelevant and harmful, are great folly. [...] Every perfection in this life has some imperfection mixed with it and no learning of ours is without some darkness. Humble knowledge of self is a surer path to God than the ardent pursuit of learning. Not that learning is to be considered evil, or knowledge, which is good in itself and so ordained by God; but a clean conscience and virtuous life ought always to be preferred. Many often err and accomplish little or nothing because they try to become learned rather than to live well. If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived. ” ~ Thomas Kempis, Imitation of Christ, bk. 1. Ch. 3

“The art of theology, without the POWER, (consisting in holy life, and light, and love,) is the make of the hypocrite.” ~ Richard Baxter, Compassionate Counsel to all Young Men, ch. 9. §27

"The sins of the wicked pierce Christ’s side. The sins of the godly go to his heart." ~ Thomas Watson, Doctrine of Repentance, ch. 5

“For in every covenant there is ratio dati et accepti, -there is "something promised and given, and something required:" and usually the promise consists of somewhat which the party is willing of, and the duty or condition required of that to which he is more backward and loath to submit. So in the covenant of grace, in the promise God respects man's want, in the duty his own honour. Every man would have pardon, and be saved from hell; but God will have subjection. Even corrupt nature is not against desires of happiness; these God makes use of to gain us to holiness. All men readily catch at felicity, and would have impunity, peace, comfort, glory; but are unwilling to deny the flesh, to renounce the credit, profit, or pleasure of sin, or to grow dead to the world and worldly things. Now God promiseth what we desire, on condition that we will submit to those things that we are against. As we sweeten bitter pills to children, that they may swallow then the better; they love the sugar, though they loathe the aloes : so doth God invite us to our duty by our interest. Therefore, whosoever would enter into the gospel-state, must resolve to take the blessings and benefits oftered for his happiness, and the duties required for his work. Indeed, accepting of the benefits is a part of the condition, because we treat with an invisible God about a happiness that lieth in another world : but it is but part; there are other terms, and therefore we must "draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith." (Heb. x. 22.). With a true heart - Resolving upon the duties of the covenant. In full assurance of faith- Depending upon God's word, that he will give us the blessings.” ~ Thomas Manton, Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, vol. 2. Serm. X

“Since the words, “Take, eat, this is my body” etc. are the words of the Lord who gives –and not bread only, but also his body, which was handed over for us–and since Christ says these things through us, his ministers, he uses us as the stewards of his mysteries, so that we might believe and confess that the very body of the Lord is given in the sacred Supper together with the bread (that is, the exhibitive sign), just as regeneration is given together with the water of baptism, and in former times communion in the divine covenant was given through circumcision, the Holy Spirit was given together with the breath of the Lord, and the blessing of the Lord and various gifts were given together with the laying on of hands.” ~ Martin Bucer, Letter to Heinrich Bullinger (1535)

“An unsanctified soul, that hath lived here but to the flesh and the world, will be but fuel for the fire of hell, and the wrathful justice of the most holy God. And though in the course of undisturbed nature, young men may live longer than the old, yet nature hath so many disturbance and crosses, that our lives are still like a candle in a broken lantern, which a blast of wind may soon blow out. To tell you that you are not certain in an unsanctified state to be one day or hour more out of hell, I expect, will not move you so much as the weight of the case deserves, because mere possibility of the greatest hurt doth not affect men when they think there is no probability of it. You have long been well, and long you hope to be so: but did you think how many hundred veins, arteries, nerves, must be kept constantly in order, and all the blood and humors in due temper; and how the stopping of one vein, or distemper of the blood, may quickly end you; it would rather teach you to admire the merciful providence of God, that such a body should be kept alive one year.” ~ Richard Baxter, Counsel to all Young Men, ch. 2

“The distinction of the divine will into absolute and conditioned is not to be repudiated, nor that into antecedent and consequent, understood in a sound sense, provided nothing in God's will is posited as uncertain, nothing in it prior or posterior.” John Forbes of Corse, Historico Theologie, I. XXXIV. 29

“This sacrament [of Baptism] has many great uses and effects. For as many of us as have been baptized have taken on Christ (Gal 3:2T); we are baptized unto the forgiveness and washing-away of our sins (Acts 2:38 and 22:16). Baptism is the washing of regeneration, the pledge of a good conscience through Chris's resurrection (Titus 31:5] and 1 Pet 3[21). Through baptism the old man is crucified and buried, and the new one is more made alive (Rom 6:3). And finally, even the adoption itself, and salvation, are ascribed to it Mark 16:16 and elsewhere).” ~ Antonius Walaeus, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, Disp. 44. §33

“Death is paid for sin, as the wages of sin; eternal Life is given contrary to merit, as an undeserved gift. And so, when it is said that God as the Righteous Judge is going to recompense a reward of Righteousness on the last day, 2 Timothy 4:8, our men, against the Remonstrants, who are destitute of any genuine understanding of divine Grace in Christ, observe that here the Righteousness of divine Veracity and Faithfulness, whereby God has made Himself a debtor by promise, comes into consideration, rather than Distributive Righteousness properly so called, whereby one is held to render to each his due; lest the sight of divine Grace in the generosity of the reward of eternal life, worthy of eternal proclamation, vanish from our eyes. But meanwhile, although the Good works of Believers considered with respect to God or in relation to Him, deserve no reward that is owed to them by Divine Justice; yet the Faithful God, when He by a gracious Remuneration will crown His own gifts, will preserve that proportion in Remuneration, so that, if you regard the good works of believers comparatively among themselves, He is going to distribute a more eminent degree of gratuitous reward to those that were by divine gift eminent in this life for a greater degree of holiness: and so God is going to render to each according to his works, Romans 2:6, not only with respect to the Quality of the same, but also the Quantity:” ~ Bernardinus De Moor, Didacto Elenctic Theology, IV. §46

“In the First Cause alone does the human intellect find rest, when it perceives the effects. From fewer things more arise, and from one all things. A caused entity is from a most perfect causing Entity. A caused life is from a causing Life. A caused motion, together with its motive power or motive force, is from a most perfect Mover and from his moving Power. A caused intellect, together with its wisdom, is from a most perfect Intellect or causing Wisdom. A caused will, together with its Love, is from a most perfect Will or causing Love. Nothing has what it does not have, formally or eminently: no one, as total Cause, produces anything more excellent than itself. Were it otherwise, something would be through its Cause either greater or better than the thing itself - which, being greater and better, would really be without a Cause. But to be without a cause is to be God. Every caused thing thus bears witness to something most perfect, because it is from something more perfect. And what is most perfect is absolutely and in every mode perfect. A stone - eg. earth, water, air, or the human soul, etc. — is not absolutely and in every mode perfect; it therefore knows something more perfect than itself, and so has a Cause and is not uncaused — which is what is Most Perfect.” ~ Richard Baxter, Methodus Theologiæ Christianæ, PARS I. Cap. 2. §5

“20. The external cause of [the first sin] was not God's foreknowledge, nor his permission or impulse, but the instigation of the devil. 21. It was not God's foreknowledge, whether that knowledge is seen separately from the act of the deciding will, or jointly with it. 22. For the cause of things that are known beforehand cannot be a theoretical or indeterminate foreknowledge of God, since this knowledge does not act in anything other than itself, nor do events occur because God foreknew them with a bare cognition. Instead, He foreknew things that were going to happen precisely because He decreed them to happen or to permit them so that they would be done by others. 23. Moreover, practical foreknowledge, which has God's will joined with it, does not act externally from itself, but in its partnership with the act of the will. Nor does it have future events in view only for their existence and truth, but also in the aspect of being good and as the objects of its own very just will. 24. For this reason, since sin is not a good but a turning away from the good (the natural good God effects in all his creatures, the moral good He teaches in the law, and the final good He proposes to himself as He governs and directs everything most wisely), the cause of the sin committed by Adam and Eve in no way whatsoever can be attributed to Him without manifest blasphemy. 25. Nor can God's permission be stated as the cause of that sin, since by its intervention God did not bring about sin, but He let our parents, whose unlawful desire He was not bound to restrain, to commit the sin—in order that He might draw the highest good from it. 26. Nor can an impulse of God be the cause, for God cannot be tempted by any evil, nor can He tempt anyone else to evil Jas 1:13], as He declares in his explicit law that He hates it and will punish it with the penalty of death.” ~ Johannes Polyander, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, Disp. 14. §20-26

“God is the cause of every action, in so far as it is an action. But sin denotes a being and an action with a defect: and this defect is from the created cause, viz. the free-will, as falling away from the order of the First Agent, viz. God. Consequently this defect is not reduced to God as its cause, but to the free-will: even as the defect of limping is reduced to a crooked leg as its cause, but not to the motive power, which nevertheless causes whatever there is of movement in the limping. Accordingly God is the cause of the act of sin: and yet He is not the cause of sin, because He does not cause the act to have a defect.” ~ Thomas Aquinas, ST I-II. q. 79. a. 2.

“Children are not without faith and reason; although they do not have those things fully developed, yet they have them in seed and root; although not in the second act, yet in the first, although not with the evidence of external work, yet by the inner power [virtus] of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Johannes Wollebius, Compendium Theologiae Christianae, ch. XXIII

"Bucer uses Justification ambiguously. It means for him both to impute righteousness and to impart it. The two are distinguishable, and Bucer does distinguish them (at some points more clearly than at others); but he never separates them. It is not a question of one following chronologically upon the other, though this does happen, rather is the second necessarily involved in the first. God never imputes righteousness without also imparting it. He does not simply transform a man’s standing in his sight; he transforms a man’s life in his sight and in the sight of men [...] It is precisely his concern to hold these two ideas together that seems to lead Bucer to use them almost indiscriminately. One moment justification can mean to impute righteousness or to forgive, another moment it can mean to impart righteousness or to renew." ~ W. P. Stephens, The holy spirit in the theology of Martin Bucer, pt. 1. ch. 3