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From "Honey Out of the Rock" by Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) - I keep going back to this little book: there is so much there....
"To say in compliment, “I am a sinner,” is easy; but to pray with the publican indeed, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,” is the hardest prayer in the world. It is easy to say, “I believe in Christ”; but to see Christ full of grace and truth, of whose fullness you may receive grace for grace; that is faith indeed. It is easy to profess Christ with the mouth; but to confess Him with the heart, as Peter, to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, the alone Mediator, that is above flesh and blood. Many call Christ Saviour; a few know Him so. To see grace and salvation in Christ is the greatest sight in the world. None can do that but at the same time they shall see that glory and salvation to be theirs. Sights will cause applications. I may be ashamed to think in the midst of so much profession that I have known so little of the blood of Christ, which is the main thing of the gospel. A Christless, formal religion will be the blackest sight next to hell that can be. You may have many good things, and yet one thing may be wanting that may make you go away sorrowful from Christ. You have never sold all; you have never parted with all your own righteousness, and so on. You may be high in duty and yet a perfect enemy and adversary to Christ, in every prayer, in every ordinance. Labour after sanctification to your utmost; but make not a Christ of it to save yourself; if so, it must come down one way or other. Christ’s infinite satisfaction, not your sanctification, must be your justification before God. When the Lord shall appear terrible out of His holy place, fire shall consume that as hay and stubble.
This will be sound religion: to rest all upon the everlasting mountains of God’s love and grace in Christ, to live continually in the sight of Christ’s infinite righteousness and merits. These are sanctifying sights, and without them the heart is carnal. You will then see the full vileness of sin, and yet see all pardoned. You will see your polluted self, and all your weak performances accepted through the mediation of the holy Jesus. You will trample on all your own works, self-glory, righteousness, and privileges as of no value, and will be continually admiring the righteousness of Christ alone. Yes, you will rejoice in the ruin of all your own excellence, that the Lord Jesus alone as Mediator may be exalted on His throne of mercy. You will despise all your duties which you have not performed in the sight and sense of the love of Jesus Christ. Without the blood and merits of Christ on your conscience, all is dead service (Heb 9:14).
That opinion of free-will (so cried up), will be easily confuted, as it is by Scripture, in the heart which has had any spiritual dealing with Jesus Christ as to the application of His merits and subjection to His righteousness. Christ is every way too magnificent a person for poor nature to close with or to apprehend. Christ is so infinitely holy, nature never dare look at Him; so infinitely good, nature can never believe Him to be such, when it lies under a full sight of sin. Christ is too high and glorious for nature so much as to touch. There must be a divine nature first put into the soul, to make it lay hold on Him, He lies so infinitely beyond the sight or reach of nature.
That Christ which natural free-will can apprehend, is but a natural Christ of a man’s own making, not the Father’s Christ, nor Jesus the Son of the living God, to whom none can come without the Father’s drawing (Joh 6:44)."
"Sin will hinder from glorying in the cross of Christ. Omitting little truths against light may breed hell in the conscience, as well as committing the greatest sins against light. If you have been taken out of the belly of hell into Christ’s bosom, and made to sit among princes in the household of God, oh, how you should live a pattern of mercy!
Redeemed, restored soul! What infinite sums you owe Christ! With what singular feelings should you walk and do every duty! On Sabbaths, what praising days, singing of hallelujahs, should they be to you. Church fellowship, what a heaven, a being with Christ, and angels’ and saints’ communion! What a drowning the soul in eternal love as a burial with Christ, dying to all things beside Him; every time you think of Christ be astonished and wonder; and when you see sin, look at Christ’s grace that did pardon it; and when you are proud, look at Christ’s grace, that shall humble and strike you down in the dust.
Remember Christ’s time of love when you were naked (Eze 16:8-9), and then He chose you. Can you ever have a proud thought? Remember whose arms supported you from sinking and delivered you from the lowest hell (Psa 86:13), and shout in the ears of angels and men (Psa 148), and forever sing praise, praise; grace, grace. Daily repent and pray, and walk in the sight of grace, as one that has the anointing of grace upon you. Remember your sins, Christ’s pardoning; your deserving, Christ’s merits; your weakness, Christ’s strength; your pride, Christ’s humility; your many infirmities, Christ’s restoring; your guilts, Christ’s new applications of His blood; your failings, Christ’s raising up; your wants, Christ’s fullness; your temptations, Christ’s tenderness; your vileness, Christ’s righteousness.
Blessed soul! Whom Christ shall find not having on his own righteousness (Phi 3:9), but having his robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14)."
"To say in compliment, “I am a sinner,” is easy; but to pray with the publican indeed, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,” is the hardest prayer in the world. It is easy to say, “I believe in Christ”; but to see Christ full of grace and truth, of whose fullness you may receive grace for grace; that is faith indeed. It is easy to profess Christ with the mouth; but to confess Him with the heart, as Peter, to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, the alone Mediator, that is above flesh and blood. Many call Christ Saviour; a few know Him so. To see grace and salvation in Christ is the greatest sight in the world. None can do that but at the same time they shall see that glory and salvation to be theirs. Sights will cause applications. I may be ashamed to think in the midst of so much profession that I have known so little of the blood of Christ, which is the main thing of the gospel. A Christless, formal religion will be the blackest sight next to hell that can be. You may have many good things, and yet one thing may be wanting that may make you go away sorrowful from Christ. You have never sold all; you have never parted with all your own righteousness, and so on. You may be high in duty and yet a perfect enemy and adversary to Christ, in every prayer, in every ordinance. Labour after sanctification to your utmost; but make not a Christ of it to save yourself; if so, it must come down one way or other. Christ’s infinite satisfaction, not your sanctification, must be your justification before God. When the Lord shall appear terrible out of His holy place, fire shall consume that as hay and stubble.
This will be sound religion: to rest all upon the everlasting mountains of God’s love and grace in Christ, to live continually in the sight of Christ’s infinite righteousness and merits. These are sanctifying sights, and without them the heart is carnal. You will then see the full vileness of sin, and yet see all pardoned. You will see your polluted self, and all your weak performances accepted through the mediation of the holy Jesus. You will trample on all your own works, self-glory, righteousness, and privileges as of no value, and will be continually admiring the righteousness of Christ alone. Yes, you will rejoice in the ruin of all your own excellence, that the Lord Jesus alone as Mediator may be exalted on His throne of mercy. You will despise all your duties which you have not performed in the sight and sense of the love of Jesus Christ. Without the blood and merits of Christ on your conscience, all is dead service (Heb 9:14).
That opinion of free-will (so cried up), will be easily confuted, as it is by Scripture, in the heart which has had any spiritual dealing with Jesus Christ as to the application of His merits and subjection to His righteousness. Christ is every way too magnificent a person for poor nature to close with or to apprehend. Christ is so infinitely holy, nature never dare look at Him; so infinitely good, nature can never believe Him to be such, when it lies under a full sight of sin. Christ is too high and glorious for nature so much as to touch. There must be a divine nature first put into the soul, to make it lay hold on Him, He lies so infinitely beyond the sight or reach of nature.
That Christ which natural free-will can apprehend, is but a natural Christ of a man’s own making, not the Father’s Christ, nor Jesus the Son of the living God, to whom none can come without the Father’s drawing (Joh 6:44)."
"Sin will hinder from glorying in the cross of Christ. Omitting little truths against light may breed hell in the conscience, as well as committing the greatest sins against light. If you have been taken out of the belly of hell into Christ’s bosom, and made to sit among princes in the household of God, oh, how you should live a pattern of mercy!
Redeemed, restored soul! What infinite sums you owe Christ! With what singular feelings should you walk and do every duty! On Sabbaths, what praising days, singing of hallelujahs, should they be to you. Church fellowship, what a heaven, a being with Christ, and angels’ and saints’ communion! What a drowning the soul in eternal love as a burial with Christ, dying to all things beside Him; every time you think of Christ be astonished and wonder; and when you see sin, look at Christ’s grace that did pardon it; and when you are proud, look at Christ’s grace, that shall humble and strike you down in the dust.
Remember Christ’s time of love when you were naked (Eze 16:8-9), and then He chose you. Can you ever have a proud thought? Remember whose arms supported you from sinking and delivered you from the lowest hell (Psa 86:13), and shout in the ears of angels and men (Psa 148), and forever sing praise, praise; grace, grace. Daily repent and pray, and walk in the sight of grace, as one that has the anointing of grace upon you. Remember your sins, Christ’s pardoning; your deserving, Christ’s merits; your weakness, Christ’s strength; your pride, Christ’s humility; your many infirmities, Christ’s restoring; your guilts, Christ’s new applications of His blood; your failings, Christ’s raising up; your wants, Christ’s fullness; your temptations, Christ’s tenderness; your vileness, Christ’s righteousness.
Blessed soul! Whom Christ shall find not having on his own righteousness (Phi 3:9), but having his robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14)."
